Twenty22

Twenty22 stands for the year 2022 when India will be 75 years old.The story of a young and energetic nation on the move,having her foundation in an ancient civilisation.From a glorious past to a glorious future.Our flag's Orange colour symbolizes courage and sacrifice, White stands for peace and truth, Green is for faith and chivalry and Blue represents the color of the sky and the ocean. The central motif is a Chakra, or Buddhist spinning wheel. The 24 spokes of the wheel correspond with the 24 hours of the day, implying that there is life in movement and death in stagnation.


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
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton(Xinhuanet file photo)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday snatched a key victory in Nevada Democratic caucuses, days before the crucial "Super Tuesday" in 11 U.S. states' primaries on March 1.

With 79.2 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton led Bernie Sanders 52.1 percent to 47.8 percent.

Before the vote counting ended, Sanders conceded to Clinton but stressed that he remained a competitive candidate.

"I just spoke to Secretary Clinton and congratulated her on her victory here in Nevada. I am very proud of the campaign we ran," said Sanders in a statement. "Five weeks ago, we were 25 points behind and we ended up in a very close election."

The modest victory was crucial to Clinton after the former first lady suffered erosion of support nationwide in the wake of a near tie in Iowa and a stinging 22-point loss in New Hampshire.

Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada's more diverse population had long been expected to give Clinton an edge over Sanders.

However, as voters' frustration with Washington politics and big money in politics went wildly in this election cycle, Sanders' campaign gained tremendous momentum and at one point even threatened to surpass Clinton in Nevada.

[ Editor: Jiaming ]
MOSCOW, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The meeting on cessation of hostilities in Syria in the framework of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which was scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"We will announce a new date later," RIA Novosti news agency quoted the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. She added that the ISSG members continued consultations on the issue.

Also on Saturday, a senior Syrian opposition member said that intra-Syrian talks under the UN aegis would resume on Feb. 25 in the Swiss city of Montreux.

The visiting president of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society Randa Kassis said that she has received confirmation from the organizing committee on the meeting.

The peace process of the Syria crisis falters although last week's ISSG meeting in Germany's Munich reached agreement on nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria to be implemented soon and the delivering of humanitarian aid to besieged area of the war-battered country.

Although doubts are raised over the real ceasefire, international diplomatic efforts were paid off as the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Friday that consultations at the expert level between Russia and the United States were held in Geneva on the implementation of the ISSG agreement.

The results will be "submitted for the (broader international) group's approval," Zakharova said.

In addition, the UN Security Council met Friday afternoon to discuss a draft resolution broached by Russia over concerns about the deteriorating Syrian-Turkish border situation and Turkey's calls for sending ground forces to Syria, but Russia's proposal against the idea of dispatching ground forces to Syria was shelved.

With regard to this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday expressed regret that the draft resolution was not supported.

"The Kremlin is concerned about the growing tension on the Syrian-Turkish border ... In general, of course, Russia considers such cross-border shelling by the Turkish artillery against the Syrian territory inadmissible," Peskov said.

He stressed that Russia would continue "consistent, transparent and understandable" policy in order to fight terrorism and help maintain territorial integrity of countries in the Middle East region.

[ Editor: Jiaming ]
Sainty Marine Corp Ltd has become China's first listed company to apply for bankruptcy and reorganization, after it said it had been hit hard by the slowing global shipbuilding industry.

Nanjing Intermediate People's Court has accepted the Jiangsu province firm's application, the company said in a statement Wednesday, after making losses for two years.

Sainty Marine suspended trading in its stocks on Aug 6 last year.

Established in 2007, the firm is a subsidiary of Jiangsu Guoxin Investment Group Ltd, a State-owned company that manages government-authorized assets. It floated on Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011.

The company said it lost 4.9 billion yuan to 5.8 billion yuan ($751 million to $890 million) last year, up from 1.8 billion yuan in 2014, which it blamed on sluggish demand and low prices from the international market.

According to its earnings statement for the third quarter last year, its debts had risen to 8.3 billion yuan as of Sep 30. It has now cut its staff from 1,188 at the beginning of last year to just 114.

A number of shipbuilding companies applied for bankruptcy in China last year, including Dalian-based STX Shipbuilding, the country's biggest foreign-owned shipbuilder, and Zhejiang Zhenghe Shipbuilding Co Ltd.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of the world's dry and tanker shipping markets, hit a historical low on Jan 5 of 468, falling from an all-time high of 11,793 in 2008.

Shen Zhengyuan, a researcher at Beijing-based CI Consulting, said falling demand for bulk commodities, an oversupply in the global raw materials market, and low oil prices will keep the BDI depressed for a while yet.

"The shipping industry has been experiencing a slowdown since the 2008 financial crisis and shows no sign of recovery," said Shen.

"Shipping companies may get rid of ships that generate low profit or require high maintenance to lower their costs. Or they can weather the winter through cooperation and merger, to consolidate resources and increase their resilience to risk."

Statistics from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry show total new shipbuilding activity in 2015 increased by 7.1 percent to 41.84 million deadweight tons.

The domestic industry's global new orders, however, were 31.26 deadweight tons, down by 47.9 percent from 2014.

Shanghai International Shipping Institute has already predicted a rise in bankruptcy and reorganization this year, starting with companies involved in dry-bulk shipbuilding.

A report from the institute said more than 60 percent of dry-bulk shipbuilders have been making prolonged losses, and nearly 40 percent of those are in financial difficulties.
BEIJING, Feb. 19 -- China on Friday urged relevant parties to be cautious and show restraint to avoid complicating the situation as the United Statespassed a bill to impose more stringent sanctions on Pyongyang.

No hot issues could be fundamentally resolved through simple sanctions or pressure. Actions that may harm third-party's legitimate interests will not help solve the issues, but only result in a more complicated situation, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a regular press conference.

All parties concerned should stay calm and exercise restraint, sticking to the general direction of resolving issues through dialogue and consultations, said Hong.

Hong urged relevant parties to act in prudent way and not artificially stir up trouble.
South China Sea. (File photo)

BEIJING, Feb. 19 -- China said on Friday that it does not intend to pursue militarization of the Nansha Islands in the South China Seaand criticized U.S. air and naval patrols in the region.

China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, adding "China is serious about its commitment not to pursue militarization of the Nansha Islands."

Hong made the remarks after U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said commercial satellite imagery suggested "very recent" placement of missiles on Yongxing Island that goes against China's pledge not to militarize the South China Sea.

"We see no indication that ... this militarization effort, has stopped. And it's doing nothing ... to make the situation there more stable and more secure," Kirby said at a regular news briefing on Thursday.

Hong said that demilitarization in the region is not a matter for just a single country. "There should not be double standards or multi-standards for demilitarization in the South China Sea, and the process requires joint efforts from countries in the region and beyond."

He said the United Statesis strengthening military deployment in the South China Sea and frequently sends military vessels or planes to waters in the South China Sea to conduct close-in reconnaissance against China.

He also accused the United States of sending missile destroyer and strategic bombers into waters and airspace adjacent to the Nansha Islands and had its allies hold targeted joint military exercises or joint cruises in the region.

The U.S. actions have escalated tensions in the South China Sea and constitute the militarization of the South China Sea, said Hong.

Yongxing Island, the largest island in the Xisha Islands group in the South China Sea, is an inherent part of China's territory, he said.

In 1959, the Chinese government set up an administrative office and the ensuing government facilities on the Yongxing Island.

The deployment of defense facilities on Yongxing Island amounts to China exercising its sovereignty and it has been going on for decades, he said, urging the U.S. side to learn the basic facts regarding the South China Sea before commenting on the issue.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (Xinhuanet file photo)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintonon Saturday snatched a key victory in Nevada Democratic caucuses days before the crucial "Super Tuesday" round on March 1, according to projections by major U.S. TV networks.

With 79.2 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton led Bernie Sanders 52.1 percent to 47.8 percent, prompting almost all U.S. major TV networks to project that Clinton won in Nevada.

The modest victory was crucial to Clinton after the former first lady suffered erosion of supports nationwide in the wake of a near tie in Iowa and a stinging 22-point loss in New Hampshire.
The World Health Organization Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward speaks during a news conference at the European headquarters of the United Nationsin Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 19, 2016. Aylward said here Friday it could still take months to determine for certain that the Zika virus causes the serious birth defect microcephaly, but said evidence was growing. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- While the Zika virus is spreading explosively in the Americas, where an increasing number of microcephaly cases are being reported, rumors about the virus and microcephaly are also swirling.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday issued a statement, dispelling the four biggest rumors around the mosquito-borne virus and microcephaly.

Rumor Number One: Microcephaly in babies is caused by vaccines.

There is no evidence that vaccines cause microcephaly in babies, the WHO said.

The statement added that there is no evidence linking any vaccine to the increase in microcephaly cases that were observed first in French Polynesia during the 2013-2014 outbreak and more recently in northeastern Brazil.

Meanwhile, an extensive review of the literature published in 2014 found no evidence that any vaccine administered during pregnancy resulted in birth defects. The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety reached a similar conclusion in 2014.

Rumor Number Two: Pyriproxyfen insecticide causes microcephaly

A team of WHO scientists found no evidence that pyriproxyfen affects the course of pregnancy or the development of a fetus, after they recently reviewed data on the toxicology of pyriproxyfen.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and EU investigators reached a similar conclusion when they carried out a separate review of the product.

Pyriproxyfen, one of the 12 larvicides that WHO recommends to reduce the development of mosquitos, has been used since the late 1990s without being linked to microcephaly.

In places with no piped water, people tend to store drinking water in outdoor containers, which serve as ideal breeding grounds for mosquitos.

Larvicides are often used in those containers to kill the mosquito in its larval stage.

When people drink water from containers that have been treated with pyriproxyfen, they are exposed to the larvicide -- but in tiny amounts that do not harm their health.

Moreover, 90-95 percent of any larvicide ingested is excreted into the urine within 48 hours.

Rumor Number Three: The Zika outbreak and recently increasing microcephaly cases in Brazil are linked to the release of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in the country.

The WHO said there is no evidence that the Zika virus disease or microcephaly in Brazil is caused by GM mosquitoes. The transgenic practice is a new means to control mosquitoes, in which the genes of male mosquitoes are modified and their larval offspring cannot survive after they mate with female mosquitoes.

Currently, the WHO encouraged affected countries to boost the use of current mosquito control interventions and judiciously test the new approaches that could be applied in the future.

Rumor Number Four: Sterilized male mosquitoes contribute to the spread of Zika

The WHO noted that the sterilized mosquito is also a technique to control the spreading of diseases by mosquitoes. It uses low doses of radiation to sterilize male mosquitoes and the eggs laid by their female mating partners cannot survive.

The organization said that there is no evidence that the technique has been associated with increases in microcephaly cases or other human anomalies or defects.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd R, front) talks with a correspondent who is just back from a reporting in Zhengding County of Hebei Province, at the headquarters of Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, capital of China, on Feb. 19, 2016. Xi on Friday visited the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, the nation's three leading news providers. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- President Xi Jinping's inspection tour to three leading news providers on Friday was lauded by reporters, experts and students majoring in journalism.

During a tour to the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television and at a symposium afterwards, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged the news outlets to follow the Party's leadership and focus on "positive reporting."

Journalists supported the president's instruction that the media should work to guide public opinion in the right direction.

Zhang Tie, a senior editorial writer at the People's Daily, told Xinhua that it is the responsibility of all the media run by the CPC to uphold and spread the "mainstream voice" of society, especially as society becomes more diversified and opinions vary.

The Party's will and its propositions should be the strongest voice of the times, he said.

According to Xi, the mission of the Party's media work is to provide guidance for the public, serve the country's overall interests, unite the general public, instill confidence and pool strength, tell right from wrong and connect China to the world.

Lu Shaoyang, head of Peking University's School of Journalism &Communication, said guidance does not mean rigid lecturing.

"A firm political stance and fine-tuned professional skills are required for today's media to exercise their duty," Lu said.

Ma Xiaorong, a young editor working on the Beijing Youth Daily's WeChat news account, said sensationalism should be avoided when reporting, especially when publishing on social networks.

"The core of news reporting is the people. Positive reporting should also focus on them," said Long Min, a reporter with the China News Service southeast China's Fujian Province branch.

Long said that reporters should profile ordinary people and their "true and touching deeds."

Positive reporting does not mean avoiding problems, said Tang Ji, a senior reporter with Xinhua's Inner Mongolia branch. Tang covered the wrongful conviction of an 18-year-old man named Huugjilt who was found guilty of rape and murder and executed in 1996. His reports contributed to the conviction being quashed.

As the president noted, public supervision and positive publicity are two compatible functions of media outlets, reporters should be good at finding and exposing problems and pushing society to improve, Tang said.

Reporters were inspired and encouraged by Xi's visit to the media outlets and his acknowledgement of their diligence.

During the media tour, Xi also stressed that journalists should make more in-depth investigative reports in grass-roots communities.

At Xinhua News Agency, Xi talked with a correspondent reporting from a village in Lankao County, Henan Province via Xinhua's remote news reporting command system.

Xi asked the correspondent how local people saw the work style of cadres. Xi said that reporting work styles of grassroots cadres is quite meaningful as the information gathered could help the central authorities to prescribe tailored measures to improve work styles.

Xi also talked with Sun Tiexiang, a Xinhua reporter who recently made interviews in Tayuanzhuang village in Zhengding, Hebei province. Xi visited the village several times while working in Zhengding, and he learned from Sun details about current development in the village.

Xi said, "local officials must be down-to-earth and keep close ties with ordinary people, and the same is true with reporters."

At People's Daily, having learnt that many young copy editors work on the night shift, Xi asked whether they have time to make interviews and investigations at grassroots level. He told the newspaper's chiefs to create opportunities for their staff to interview or work in grass-roots communities.

At the symposium, Xinhua reporter Li Keyong, who had made 13 investigative reports since the 18th Party Congress in 2012, mentioned his report of high-end clubs as venues of corruption, Xi commented "I ordered a thorough investigation into the problem the moment I read this report." Xi called for more truthful, quality reports based on in-depth investigations.

Xi also inspected the three news providers' new media services.

While visiting the headquarters of the People's Daily, Xi extended Lantern Festival greetings to the public via the paper's new media broadcasting system.

The rate of clicking the audio entry featuring Xi's greeting soared immediately. Some Internet users posted comments, calling it "a phone call from the General Secretary."

At Xinhua News Agency, Xi watched presentations of the agency's robot news writing system, Xinhua Silk Road Database, and the agency's services on overseas social media.

Xi also visited an exhibition of the agency's cutting-edge devices for news reporting, including a maritime satellite and a drone, and tried out a hand-held video live broadcasting device.

Xi praised Xinhua's transition to a multimedia news service, saying Xinhua has achieved great progresses.

At the headquarters of CCTV, Xi visited the control room and made a video call to CCTV's Washington-based North America branch, which opened more than four years ago.

Xi asked them to introduce China's social economic development in an objective, truthful and all-around way, tell stories about China well, introduce Chinese culture and bridge friendship.
The wild fish restaurant is ordered to shut down in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. [Photo: zjol.com.cn]

The owner of a restaurant who has allegedly ripped off diners during the Lunar New Year holiday is to face a fine of 500,000 yuan (about $77,000) in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. The restaurant has also been ordered to shut down, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Chen Yan, a tourist from Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, complained online on February 12 that he was being overcharged 10,000 yuan (about $1,535) for three big fish at a local wild fish restaurant in Songbei District of Harbin.

Worse still, he alleged his family members were beaten and threatened by the restaurant staff when he questioned the bill.

Chen's complaint immediately went viral on China's social media.

The initial probe results by some local government departments showed that the restaurant had no fault, since they had already tagged the price, which raised doubt among netizens again.

Further investigation showed that one type of the fish served, huso, was not the real wild species, but a sort of farmed fish at a much lower price. Since the exorbitant prices of the fish do have violated the rights of consumers, the restaurant got its due punishment.

Meanwhile, relevant government departments that have stood by the side of the restaurant in the first place would also be investigated and punished.

Similar cases of fraudulent pricing at scenic spots have also been reported elsewhere in China. In October 2015, for instance, a tourist was overcharged 1,520 yuan for a course of shrimp in the coastal city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, when the restaurant claimed the quoted price of 38 yuan was not for the course of the dish, but for each shrimp.
San Francisco, Feb.20 --- Holding signs of "Justice for all", "No Scapegoat" and others, over 2,000 protesters marched on streets in San Francisco Saturday morning to ask for justice for a Chinese-American police officer Peter Liang, who was convicted by a New York jury on Feb. 11 of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting death of an unarmed man, Akai Gurley, 28, in a darkened Brooklyn public-housing stairwell.

San Francisco is among other over 40 cities in the United States to support Liang. Although Liang testified that the shooting was an accident, he could face up to 15 years in prison when he's sentenced April 14. Many of his supporters say they believe Liang is a scapegoat because of anger over other police shootings.
On the lawn in Cadman Plaza Park near the courthouse in Brooklyn where Peter Liang, a former New York City police officer, was convicted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man a week ago, a crowd of allegedly 50,000 people gathered on Saturday.

"Justice! Justice! We want equal rights for all races!" The crowd chanted, while carrying signs bearing similar messages. Most of the protesters are Chinese Americans who travelled as far as New Jersey and Connecticut to participate in the demonstration. Some said they've even taken a day off from work to show their support.

"We are all here to witness this historic moment. There has never been any time in the history when over 50,000 Chinese Americans gather together for such a vast rally," said one of the protest organizers Phil Gim, who is from the Coalition of Asian Americans for Civil Rights.

Despite the prosecutors had described Officer Liang's behavior as reckless when he fired his gun inside a public housing complex during a so-called vertical patrol, many people from Chinese American community believed that Liang was targeted for prosecution because of his race. "We are here because we want equal justice for all, every minority, including Chinese Americans," said Wang Xianmin, who travelled from Westfield, New Jersey, with group of his friends to the rally.

Ms. Wen, who also lives in New Jersey but declined to give her full name, agreed with Wang, "we just want to let people know that Chinese Americans are not going to stay silent any longer." The lady also signed up on Twitter at the rally scene only for this event, to tweet her first social media post to support Peter Liang.

Many in the Chinese American community have long been considered quiet, but the outcry of a strong voice was evoked by this incident. "Black people are facing discrimination, too, but they have a bigger voice than us," said Lester Chang, a Chinatown native, "so we have to make sure we have equal voices as well."

>>>Related:

Thousands in San Francisco protest conviction of police officer Peter Liang

Rallies Held Across US for NYPD Officer Peter Liang
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.21,

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Japanese journalists are delighted with the level of organization of the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics in Baku.

"Everything has been organized excellently. We are satisfied with the conditions created for our work," Hitomi Hisamoto, head of the sport department of the Japanese NTV channel, told Trend Feb.21.

She said the journalists liked the National Gymnastics Arena very much.

"The opening ceremony was impressive. We also enjoyed Baku," Hisamoto added.

Another journalist Shuntaro Suzuki representing the sport department of Japan's NHK TV channel said that the organization level of the event is wonderful.

"There is a beautiful modern Arena in Baku equipped with the latest technology," said the journalist. "The security level exceeded our expectations. In general, it is very comfortable to work here."

Further, Masashi Inoue, representative of Kyodo News, noted that the whole Japanese media delegation is delighted with the level of organization of the FIG World Challenge Cup.

"All necessary conditions have been created for our work here," said Inoue.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku Feb. 19 and is to end Feb. 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.

Edited by SI

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.21

Trend:

Azerbaijani gymnast Oleg Stepko has grabbed the gold medal in bars event at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics in Baku.

He scored 15.550 points.

The silver medal went to Turkish gymnast Ferhat Arican with 15.350 points, while Japanese gymnast Kazuma Kaya settled for the bronze with 15.250 points.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku Feb. 19 and is to end Feb. 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.21

Trend:

Horizontal bars events at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics wrapped up in Baku Feb. 21.

Tomomasa Hasegawa from Japan grabbed the gold medal in the event with 14.800 points.

The silver medal went to Turkish athlete Ahmet Onder (14.600 points), while Tin Srbic (14.500 points) from Croatia captured the bronze.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku Feb. 19 and is to end Feb. 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 21

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Charge d'Affaires of Croatia in Azerbaijan Refik Sabanovic told Trend that the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku is the best of those he has ever seen.

He noted that he visits gymnastics competitions in Baku for the first time.

Sabanovic went on to add that two days ago he attended the opening ceremony of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Baku and was very impressed by the beautiful hall, infrastructure created there. The ceremony itself was excellent, he said, adding that he especially liked the fact that young gymnasts took part in the ceremony.

He said that the National Gymnastics Arena is the best of those he had seen.

"I'm not a big fan of this kind of sport, but I think that Azerbaijani arena is ideal," Sabanovic said. "I have talked to my colleagues, and all of them in one voice say that the entire service here is at the highest level."

He said that five athletes from Croatia came to the competition.

"Two of them took the fifth place, another one won a bronze medal, and that's a great success for Croatia," said Sabanovic.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 21

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

UAE's Dragon Oil company has invested $5 billion in the development of the Cheleken contract area's offshore fields for more than 15 years of activity in Turkmenistan, the message of the Ministry of Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan said.

The Cheleken block's contract area in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian field includes Jeitun and Jigalybek fields, which are being developed by Dragon Oil on the basis of production sharing agreement (PSA) signed with the government of Turkmenistan in 1999.

Under the agreement, the operator has a license to develop and produce oil and gas on the contract area for 25 years.

The main investments of the operator were aimed at expanding production capacities and increasing liquid hydrocarbon production, according to the message.

In general, 118 new wells were commissioned since the beginning of the project's implementation. Of these, only in 2015, 12 new wells were drilled, which allowed to bring the average daily oil production to 96,000 barrels, or more than 12,300 tons.

In addition to the main part of work, reconstruction to improve coastal oil and gas infrastructure of the Cheleken contract area continues. Construction of eight new oil storage tanks with a total capacity of 160,000 tons is currently actively underway. It is scheduled to complete this project in the first half of 2016.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 21

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave a number of instructions to further strengthen production capacity of fuel and energy complex, introduce innovative technologies in the sector, as well as to attract foreign investments in large infrastructure projects, the message of the Turkmen government said Feb. 21.

This issue was raised at a meeting of the country's Cabinet of Ministers. Deputy prime minister, director of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the President of Turkmenistan Yagshygeldy Kakayev spoke with the report.

In particular, the state of affairs in the structural units of the fuel and energy complex, as well as the measures taken to implement "The development program of oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan for the period until 2030" was presented in the report.

The president of Turkmenistan said that along with the expansion of work on the development of hydrocarbon fields of the country, increase in oil and gas production, priority is given to modernization and technical upgrade of the oil and chemical complex, construction of modern gas processing plants, according to the message.
Isfahan, Iran, Feb. 20

By Mehdi Sepahvand- Trend:

Rotana Hotel Management, the Dubai-based hospitality group plans to open hotels in Iran. Omer Kaddouri, president and CEO of Rotana said that the company will open a hotel in Iran's eastern city of Mashhad next year. He made the remarks addressing the International Travel and Hospitality Conference in Iran's central city of Isfahan Feb. 20, Trend correspondent reported from the event venue. Kaddouri further said that the company has plans for three more hotels in Iran by 2018, one more in Mashhad and two in Tehran.

The four hotels will have 840 rooms in total, He noted. "We will be bringing our brand Rayhaan to Iran, but we are also looking into bringing Arjaan hotel apartments, which are much demanded," Kaddouri added. Rotana hosts six million guests and provides food and beverage services to nine million people per year in 33 hotels throughout the Middle East, he said, adding the company will open a global sales office in Tehran in the present year. Commenting on reasons why Iran is ripe for hotelling business, he said "We witnessed a 12-percent rise in visitors even before sanctions were lifted.

What rise will come later will be much greater." Kaddouri added that Iran hosted 4.8 million foreign tourists in 2014. He went on to say Iran has a wide range of attractions, including 19 UNESCO-registered sites, mountain ranges, carpet and other handicraft, religious and corporate government tourism programs, and an active exhibition business. But, Kaddouri said, Tehran has only 96 hotels, and when compared to 627 in Dubai or 2,380 in London, it's nothing.

He also noted that Iran aims to attract 20 million tourists per year by 2025. Rotana is a hotel management company in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe region, which has a portfolio of over 100 properties in 26 cities and operates five sub brands which include Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Centro Hotels, Rayhaan Hotels & Resorts, Arjaan Hotel Apartments and The Residences.

Local news agency Mehr earlier reported that Iran has 1,100 hotels - 130 of them have four and five stars. Iran plans to triple the number of hotels in the country before 2025. Experts believe that by 2025, the number of the tourists arriving in Iran will increase from five million to 20 million.
Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Sunday praise Iran for adopting what he described as a "constructive role" toward proposals by key producers to stabilize oil prices, Press TV reported.

Novak has been quoted by the media as saying that Iran has had a constructive approach toward a proposal that specifically calls for keeping the output at the current levels.

Iran's oil officials are yet to comment on this.

The Russian energy minister further added that negotiations between producers on ways to push up the prices are still ongoing, and that Venezuela's oil minister has informed him about the results.

"So far, a number of producers have voiced readiness to keep their output at the current levels," Novak has been quoted as saying. "The overall production of those countries makes up some 75 percent of the total global oil production. Therefore, we have been able to obtain the agreement of producers as much as needed," he added.

Last week, Iran said a quadripartite meeting that it hosted with the visiting oil ministers of Venezuela, Iraq and Qatar over measures to boost oil prices had ended with an agreement for OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to keep their current output ceiling to help stabilize the market and boost the prices.

"It was decided that OPEC and non-OPEC producers keep their current ceiling to help stabilize the market and improve the prices to the benefit of both the consumers and the producers," Zangeneh told reporters after the meeting.

Earlier, oil ministers from Venezuela, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia had met in Doha to discuss ways to stabilize the market. They had announced at the end of the meeting that they had agreed to freeze output in a bid to shore up prices after a 70 percent drop due to chronic oversupply.

On Saturday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said he was sending new proposals to key oil producers in an attempt which it says is meant to help stabilize the prices without providing any explanations.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu has arrived in Tehran to hold talks with senior Iranian officials on the latest regional developments and ways to promote defense and military cooperation, Press TV reported.

Shoigu, who arrived in Tehran on Sunday at the head of a delegation, is scheduled to sit down with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani later in the day.

The trip comes less than a week after Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan paid a visit to Moscow and discussed mutual relations as well as regional and international developments with President Vladimir Putin, Shoigu and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin among other senior Russian officials.

In the meeting between Dehqan and Putin, the Russian president expressed satisfaction with mutual defense and security cooperation, which he said is in line with common interests, and called for enhanced ties within the framework of implemented agreements.

Iran and Russia signed an agreement on the delivery of the S-300 missile system to Tehran, which was banned by Moscow back in 2010 under the pretext that the deal was covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions, which barred hi-tech weapons sales to the Islamic Republic.

In April 2015, the Russian president signed a presidential decree paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense system to Iran after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries - the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran's nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Russian presidential aide for military and technological cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said on Saturday that the technical procedures of the S-300 deal are currently underway.

"Due payments are made in accordance with it. We are strictly observing the procedure set forth in the contract. Iran is completing the work on its own details, and we on our own. The first consignment of the systems is ready to be shipped," Kozhin stated.
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 21



By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:



Oman is going to provide special facilities for Iranian tradesmen to ease their business in the country, Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi said in a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.



He attached high significance to Iran-Oman cooperation in the field of energy, adding the two countries are able to complement each other economically, Tasnim news agency reported February 21.



The Iranian president, for his part, said Iran is ready to facilitate the affairs of Omani businessmen in the Islamic Republic.



"The private sector can expand their work in the areas of aviation, ports, railroads, and banking," Rouhani said.



He added Tehran-Muscat cooperation in energy possesses strategic significance.



Alawi is leading a business delegation to Iran. The annual trade turnover between Iran and Oman in recent years has stood at about $400 million.



Oman played a key role in bringing Iran and the US together for nuclear talks, which ended in lifting economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu is to confer with Iranian Minister of Defense and Logistics of the Armed Forces Brigadier-General Hossein Dehqan on expansion of mutual cooperation, it was announced on Sunday.

The undeclared visit occurred following the recent visit of the Iranian defense minister to Russia last week.

Iranian defense minister in his visit to Moscow conferred with his Russian counterpart and President Vladimir Putin on issues of mutual interests along with regional developments.

Russian news agency Sputnik said that Russian defense minister is to confer with Iranian president as well as the country's high ranking officials on issues of mutual interests.

The Iranian and Russian defense ministers reached a deal to broaden military cooperation last January.

In his meeting with Russian president, the two sides exchanged views on issues of mutual interests, regional and international developments.

President Putin termed strategic cooperation with Iran vis-a-vis the regional crisis as very significant, saying that Iran and Russia would play major role to restore long-lasting security in the region.

The Iranian defense minister conveyed the warm greetings of the Supreme Leader and Iranian president and said that promising prospects are on the horizon for Iran-Russia relations.

Iran and Russia through collective contribution should eradicate terrorism in the region, said the Iranian defense minister.

Close cooperation between Iran and Russia would serve as an exemplary model for the countries in the region, said the Iranian defense minister.
A lock of John Lennon's hair that was snipped as he prepared for a film role has sold for $35,000, The Associated Press reported.



Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said Saturday that the 4-inch lock of hair was purchased by Paul Fraser, a United Kingdom-based memorabilia collector.



A German hairdresser kept a tuft of Lennon's hair after giving him a trim before the Beatle started filming "How I Won the War," a dark comedy released in 1967. The movie follows the World War II misadventures of British troops led by an inept commander.



The hair was one of several Beatles-related items on auction. A photograph of the iconic band signed by all four members went for $42,500. And a sealed copy of the band's "butcher" cover for the "Yesterday and Today" album went for $125,000.
The Pentagon can not confirm the death of Serb civilians during the US operation in Libya, spokesman for the US Department of Defense Peter Cook stated, according to Sputnik.



On Friday, US airstrikes killed at least 30 people in the Libyan city of Sabratha. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that he had received information that a lot of foreigners were the victims of this attack, among them two Serbian citizens, the embassy staff in Libya Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic, who were kidnapped on November 28 last year. The Serbian authorities expect the delivery of the bodies to Belgrade on Monday.



"We have seen reports that two Serb hostages were killed in Libya. At the moment we have no information indicating that their death was the result of the US strikes applied against a high-ranking leader of the ISIL and ISIL training camps in Libya."



"Our forces have been watching this training camp for weeks before the operation, and at the moment of operation, there was no information about the presence of civilians."



Pentagon spokesman expressed condolences to the Government of Serbia and victims' families.



"We will share any information with the Serbian government," - he added, assuring that the United States seeks to avoid civilian deaths during operations abroad.


President of the European Council, Donald Tusk has phoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express the EU's support for Ankara against terrorism, the Turkish Presidency announced late Saturday, according to Anadolu agency.



Tusk offered his condolences to Erdogan, condemning the recent terrorist attacks in capital Ankara and southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the presidency said.



On Friday, President Erdogan and his American counterpart Barack Obama spoke over the phone, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a phone call with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.



On Wednesday, Ankara was hit by a suicide bomb attack that left 28 people dead and 81 others injured.



The Turkish government revealed it was carried out jointly by a Syrian-national YPG member and PKK terrorists based in Turkey. The YPG is the military wing of the PYG, which is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK.



Turkey considers the PKK, PYD and YPG to be terrorist outfits.



A day after the Ankara attack, PKK members targeted an armored military vehicle in Diyarbakir province, martyring six servicemen.
Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" is a version of the Android mobile operating system. (Photo : Facebook / AndroidGeeks)

It's all but confirmed that Google's 2016 release date plans involve the Nexus 2016 project - expected to produce a new batch of tablets and smartphones that run on Pure Android - and the mobile operating system to replace Android 6.xx Marshmallow, which is labelled for now as Android N. So what could be cooking up?



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Both the Nexus 2016 and Android are anticipated as big jumps from their predecessors - the former rumored to be more premium from the 2015 versions and the latter improving from the great things that Google has delivered so far with Lollipop and Marshmallow. And this year could see Google further refining and polishing its hardware and software business.



Here are the minimum expectations:



Material Design 2.0



According to 9to5Google, Android Lollipop proved that Google's mobile OS is maturing and becoming gorgeous at the same time, thanks to the introduction of Material Design. With Marshmallow though, the tech giant had decided to keep its design template, which has been implemented across all Google services and products, largely untouched. But Android N is expected to tell a different story with fans holding their breath for Material Design 2.0 and other feature upgrades.



Improved Doze



If the Lollipop signature is Material Design, it will be Doze for Marshmallow, which is essentially Google empowering users to manage background apps in order to prolong battery life. The tool is seen to bring in significant improvements from version 1.0 come Android N that will be the delight of both casual and power users.



RAM management



For optimal RAM usage, Google could permit in Android N tweaks that would introduce Windows-like feature in which users are allowed to tinker not only with the applications that start with Android but also on killing them when not needed. Fewer numbers of apps that run in the background will certainly represent a huge RAM booster for the next Android version.



Tablet optimization



Following the Pixel C rollout in late 2015, talks emerged that Google will reinvigorate its tablet business with native support of features that tablet optimized in Android N. Among the most whispered about is Split Screen that Samsung has introduced years ago as Multi-Windows but is not yet a built-in feature of the stock Android.



As Split Screen will encourage multitasking, another possible productivity tool add-on for the seemingly maturing Android could be native support for stylus, which would be the Nexus 2016 tablet matching the same features that Apple and Microsoft have revived (and fast gaining traction) with the iPad Pro and Surface Pro tablets.



Unified messaging app



In Android, Google Hangouts and the Messenger app appear to compete with each other and the Android N arrival could finally fix the situation by unifying the two apps with similar features. But 9to5Google said that status quo could remain in effect even after Marshmallow is bumped off.



Finally, a killer camera



Google's Nexus devices and other Android flagships remain inferior when compared to the camera prowess of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus (and the recent versions of the Apple flagship phone). It is high time that Google remedy this with the Nexus 2016 family of devices and Android N.



A good start, 9to5Google said, is to give users power access to the stock Android camera app. Then the company's Nexus partners need to ensure that the upcoming vanilla Android flagships will at least match the hardware of the camera system that the competition will unleash this 2016.



Google is likely to introduce Android N or 7.0 via its annual I/O Developers Conference this coming May or June with the Nexus 2016 release date to happen in the following months. Rumors said that the Nexus smartphones and tablets will involve HTC, Huawei and LG as hardware suppliers.


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.

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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.
But have you heard anything lately of what Heikal thinks of the current situation? asked the European ambassador towards the end of January.

His question came second to a somber statement he had made: Things do not seem to be picking up right for Egypt; you know we do want Egypt to make it through and we were willing to understand that stability could take precedence over democracy for a while but we dont seem to see this happening.

This ambassador had wished to schedule a meeting with Heikal just to try and understand given that he seems to be the only man in town who does have inroads in the presidential palace these days.

No such luck; Mohamed Hassanein Heikal was already feeling unwell and his office was declining appointments.

On Wednesday, as Heikal was being laid to rest, this ambassador remarked, what a pity; now we are left with nobody to offer a coherent assessment of the situation in Egypt that goes beyond the pieces of information.

There is nothing particularly new about the assumption that Heikal, the most prominent political journalist and commentator on Egypt during the last century, had access to information about what has been going on behind the walls of the presidential palace.

This, as his books, TV talks and published material reveal, has always been the case  since his close association with Gamal Abdel-Nasser in the mid 1950s and until the death of Nasser in the autumn of 1970.

Close associates and some of the aides who had worked with Heikal throughout seven decades of exquisite journalism say that this has equally been the case during the rule of Nassers successor, Anwar Sadat, even after the fall out between the president and Heikal in the mid-1970s and also throughout the three-decade rule of president Hosni Mubarak with whom Heikal had no particular close association in the beginning and was directly critical of towards the end.

He had incredible sources going to him and meeting with him all over the world and they loved to answer his questions and at times they even volunteered stories just to impress him  being the man who has always had his hands on confidential documents and classified material, said a journalist who had worked closely with Heikal in the late 1990s and early years of the 2000s.

This, foreign diplomats and close associates insist, was the case after the Arab Spring just as it was before the eve of 25 January 2011.

Let me tell you this, when we were sending delegations to Egypt during the 18 days [of the January Revolution] we made sure that all the top delegates would schedule a meeting with Heikal; and it was worth the nagging on the phone with his office; and of course he asked more than they did but still it was always very informative, said a Western diplomat who had served in Cairo during the last year of Mubarak and beyond.

These and other foreign diplomats dont have any question in their minds about Heikals access to information  they knew he had them as they unfolded. What some of them seemed to be wondering about as the rule of Mubarak was hitting its end how influential would Heikal be in the writing of the next chapter of Egypts politics?

According to a former European ambassador in Egypt, We were not sure how much influence he would have because we were not very certain about the nature of his relations with the leaders of the SCAF.

For sure, not very many of the members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces had real chemistry with the guru of Egyptian journalism who had previously during very tumultuous points in Egyptian history assumed political capacity along the side with the legendary leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

However, as one informed journalist who has had a very close contact with Heikal said: they did not like him but they were still keen to know what he thinks and what he tells to the foreign diplomats and the officials from world capitals who pursued him.

He added, as the time was running out for Mubarak, some members of the SCAF were on the phone with Heikal explaining to him what was going on.

According to several testimonies, the time, Heikal who had clearly saluted the calls coming from Tahrir  with considerable admiration as some of his interlocutors at the time note  was not at all trying at all to influence developments in any direct because he knew that Mubaraks day in office were coming to an end.

The question on his mind at the time, however, was what next.

I went to see him, it must have been 7 or 8 February, and when I arrived he did not ask me what is going to happen to Mubarak, although he knew I was coming from a meeting with one of the SCAF members but rather what will happen next for Egypt, said an informed civil society figure.

He was not questioning whether or not Mubarak would go - one way or the other, as he put it  but about what comes after Mubarak, the same figure added.

He was asked what should be done after Mubarak stepped down by some around the SCAF and yes by a couple from within the SCAF  among others, the same source said.

The narratives differ about what Heikal prescribed as a post Mubarak path but one thing is reiterated: he told everyone that tomorrow is for the youth who made the revolution and that anyone who is over 70 should take a backseat and should only try to help without soliciting any official positioning.

During the weeks that followed, Heikal who had invariably kept a tightly disciplined work schedule was doing his rounds of calls and meetings  as becoming of the journalist he always was  and was trying to share a few reflections with some of those he thought would be directly or indirectly involved in setting the scene for the post Mubarak transformation.

According to the testimonies these rounds included military figures, judiciary figures and business figures. He also spoke to the journalist whose views he trusted and to members of the political parties.

And, he did receive some from the people who would be labeled as youth figures; they came with some public figures or alone because he wanted to listen to them.

What Heikal was suggesting in brief without putting it to his interlocutors in many words is that there should be a stable transition whereby collective efforts should be assembled to allow for the administration of the country pending the due preparations for presidential elections.

And, as the many journalists and intellectuals who met him at the time would say in almost identical wording, he was not really concerned about the positioning of the armed forces and he believed that when all is said and done it has bowed to the wish of the masses.

He also, according to the same journalists, favoured a wide political inclusion  and he was not inclined for trying to impose any pressure on the public space because he was worried, as he himself had often said, that the country was recovering from a rule that had left it with hardly any serious political mobility.

There are too many politicians without the politics required and they are just there by virtue of old illusions or renewed dreams, Heikal wrote in his remarks printed in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm practically hours before the announcement of the end of Mubaraks rule was made public.

Almost all the key presidential runners approached Heikal  for consultation and for support.

His doors were open for all  and he shared his views and asked and listened. At the end of the day, nobody could ever tell with any considerable degree of confidence who got Heikals vote in the first or second rounds of the contested elections  some argued it is the Nasserit candid Hamdine Sabbahi and others said it is for the leader of Strong Egypt AbdelMoneim AboulFottouh.

One of the closest people to Heikal said: do you want the truth; I really dont think he went voting; I think he felt it was not his thing anymore; he felt that it is the future and that he would not be there to live it and it should be decided by those who will live it; but I dont know because the thing is no matter how close you get to Heikal you dont get to have him share everything with you.

Whatever the preferences of Heikal, he had shown respect to all candidates, including Ahmed Shafik, Mubaraks last prime minister.



Shafik, who ultimately went to the second round face to face with Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, and to Omar Soulimane, Mubaraks long time intelligence chief and his assigned vice president during the January elections who ultimately  and for some conspicuous reason  did not run for a drop in his legal paper work.

Heikal had earlier proposed a longer transition based on participatory state-management to allow for a more constructed transition.



However, he bowed to the developments and showed respect to the final result and offered, through press interviews and some direct unannounced talks, his ideas to the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who had approached him repeatedly.

I think that he told them they needed to be inclusive and that given they had decided to contest the presidency at such an early stage they need to count on prominent bureaucratic faces for top jobs  and I think he proposed some names too, said a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood who had defected towards the second half of the Morsi presidency.

Clearly, he added, neither Morsi, nor the strong man of the group Khairat El-Shater acted upon his advice.

It was perfectly understandable that the Muslim Brotherhood leadership who legitimately associated Heikal with the era of Gamal Abdel Nasser when they went through what they had considered their worst ordeal and harshest times of torture.

As the public anger against the Muslim Brotherhood style of rule was increasing, Heikal started to warn of complications and to urge the rulers to reconsider their path.

At this point, Heikal, according some of the sources, was approached by some of the leading members of the National Salvation Front to join them but he firmly declined. He also declined any formal meeting with the NSF and welcomed, as always, direct chats with some of its members.

In retrospect, the same sources say, Heikal must have been aware of the direct channels that some from the NSF had with the state bodies that were encouraging their anti-MB mobilisaiton and he must have known that the MB time in office was running out but he still offered a candid advice  mostly indirectly at that point - and appealed for prompt reforms that lead to participatory rule.

Weeks before the 30 June demonstrations, a military source say, Heikal could have had a picture of how the days and weeks that followed would unfold. And, the source added, he did not object.

Some say it was in May and others suggest it was in April when Heikal received the first direct contact from Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, by then the minister of defense, who solicited his analysis and his advice  and it was becoming clear that Heikal had agreed to lend his intellectual support to the coming transition.

I think he saw it as inevitable or even necessary to spare the country from serious havoc because he saw that the Muslim Brotherhood had lost the support of the people  the details of this were not exactly relevant at that moment of how much was genuine contempt and how much was orchestrated from the security body; it was clear the country was going through its summer of furry, one of the confidents of Heikal stated.

Following the ouster of Morsi, some of his closest associates insist, Heikal called for caution and insisted that a harsh political confrontation should be averted as much as possible.

He also offered, according to his confident, a detailed theory for those in charge about what needs to be done and who could be of help.

He offered support to El-Sisis decision to run for president both privately and publicly because that seemed to be the only path at the time  the army was in charge and the country was at the brink and someone should have taken over; this is what he meant by the president of necessity, the same confident added.

During the early weeks for El-Sisi in office, Heikal was consulted at length  an exercise that took a lower profile with time because El-Sisi was getting heavily involved in his new routine and because Heikal, as several of his frequent interlocutors suggest, seemed to be in the wait-and-see phase.

According to one, Heikal would not at all reveal anything about these contacts  he felt it was unbecoming and that whatever he said he said in confidence and he also felt that he was bigger than referring to some talks with any new official with the kind of history that Heikal had both in journalism and in politics.

It was in the media, however, that Heikal made very brief references to those meetings  much later after they took place, I have to say, said the interlocutor.

This, he knew, might not have been to the liking of all concerned but he did it because he was getting some early signs that things are not picking up the right way.

Still, he wanted to encourage change; his statements on TV regarding this matter were always, at the earlier stage that is, a mix of stating the hard challenges ahead of the president and of carefully worded warnings of what should be averted, the same interlocutor said.

By the spring of 2015, Heikal was showing  not sharing still  frustration. And with the summer, he started to nod in agreement to criticism that was being subtly made about the presidential choices of policies and lack of choices of advisors. With the autumn of last year he was agreeing that things were not on the right track and his media statements included tones of skepticism.

He felt disappointed, his confident said. He felt things could not go on the way they were and he put his message across in his way  once and for all, he added.

When was the message last put? The confident answered: it was public in his last TV appearance when he said we need to find the compass  privately, I am not sure but I think it was a few weeks before.

Heikal never denied that he did support the transition of 3 July and he never denied his support for El-Sisi  neither publicly nor privately. However, he took exception to those who suggested that it was his doing because he genuinely convinced it was happening anyway and that his contribution was to make it orderly  a much as possible.

He also shrugged those who suggested his contribution was designed for a purpose of personal nature  either for himself or for his children especially the youngest Hassan, a financer, who contrary to the rumors was never freely acquitted of the charges of illicit financial management and who chose to come back to Egypt from his overseas stay days before the death of his father and who said he would be here for the relevant process of litigation.

I am not wishing by virtue of so many things, age and experience for any role; I am worried for a future that I shall not be here to see I am walking my last mile towards the end of the day and all I had hope for is to leave feeling that my country is on the right path, Heikal said over and again during the past few months.

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Related Egypt hosts African business forum to boost private sector engagement in continent

On Saturday in Sharm El-Sheikh, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to inaugurate a two-day conference on investment in Africa.

Several head of states and governments from the continent and a large number of business delegations are expected to take part in the event, which aims to promote trade and investment across the continent but especially in eastern and southern Africa.

This conference offers an excellent opportunity for all those interested to build new opportunities in Africa because it is not about the official presence but also about the presence of entrepreneurs and the mechanism that is there to match-make businessmen with similar interests, said Ambassador Mona Omar, formerly assistant to the foreign minister on African affairs.

Speaking to Ahram Online, Omar said that the fact that the president himself is taking the time to inaugurate this conference and to be there with other African leaders shows a genuine official wish to encourage closer relations and deeper cooperation with Africa.

Omar, however, added that it does take much more than good intentions for Egypt to consolidate its relations with Africa through business channels.

Listen, we have exceptionally good historic relations with Africa since the heydays of liberation movements on the continent that Egypt strongly supported in the 1950s and the 1960s, but unfortunately we never managed to build on those relations, Omar argued.



Africa drop

According to the ambassador, Egypt under Anwar Sadat during the 1970s all but fully dropped Africa  had it not been for the sincere efforts of Boutros Boutros Ghali, whose eyes were always on Africa.

Sadat was very consumed with the war to liberate Sinai and then with the peace talks and with the Middle East story; he also seemed to see no great strategic interest from investing in relations with Africa. This caused a drop, a serious drop, Omar said.

She suggested that the early years of the rule of Hosni Mubarak were also busy with Arab relations but then there was some attention given to relations with Africa.

This attention, she agreed, was intercepted with the attempt on the life of Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995 that forced security restrictions on the presidential visits.

This was not helpful to the attempts that the foreign ministry was conducting at the time to encourage Egyptian entrepreneurs to pursue Africa  not just for business interests but also to help reconsolidate relations through the creation of common interests.

The issue here is that the business interest in Africa was limited due to the unfortunate and very unfair stereotypes that many in the business community have about Africa, Omar said.

And while so many countries from across the world were going to seek business opportunities and closer ties with Africa we were losing out; today it takes a serious and sustainable determination from the business community to actually expand their presence in the many lucrative African markets that are being targeted by so many other non-African countries, she said.



Omar argues that there are some Egyptian entrepreneurs who already have a strong presence in several African countries, but the numbers are few.

She agreed that there is of course a role for the government in encouraging the members of the business community to go to Africa by proposing specific targeted markets for exports and specific targeted countries for investment  but the business community has to have the will and it has to bypass its old-fashioned ideas about Africa.



'Coordinate scheme'

There are bits and pieces of economic cooperation here and there across Africa but what we need is to have a more coordinated scheme to make sure that we are working systematically to expand in Africa, she argued.

Omar agreed that there might actually be a need for a certain official body to be created and be annexed directly to the presidency to make sure that a serious momentum of cooperation with Africa is kept on track.

Yes, I think this might be one of the ways of coordinating efforts and securing high-level support to this endeavour, she accepted.

Without a sustainable approach towards Africa, Omar warned, Egypts share of investment in and trade with Africa is bound to remain insignificant compared to the big shares going to other countries like China, Turkey, Iran and Israel.

We have to abandon the on-and-off efforts; we need to realise that our friends and brothers in Africa are skeptical about whether we seriously want to build strong ties of cooperation for the joint interests of everybody or if we are just showing interest now given that we are going through intense negotiations with Ethiopia over the issue of the Renaissance Dam, Omar said.

According to Omar, these two matters should not be made to overlap  because while the path of negotiations seems to be taking a tough curve, the avenues for economic cooperation seem endlessly open.

There are big markets in Africa and there are many financial institutions that are willing to join developmental projects in the continent  we should not let this go by confusing business deals with water negotiations that require hard work in explaining the Egyptian position to the world to garner support for a fair deal with Ethiopia, Omar stated.

The former assistant minister argued that while cooperation among the Nile Basin countries is certainly a priority, Egypt has been too focused on these countries at the expense of other parts of the continent, for example the Sahel and the Sahara which is crucial for Egypt because it is also concerned with the combat of the expansion of terror organisations in the continent.

However, Omar argued that going to Africa for economic reasons is not just a task for the entrepreneurs to assume  we have to take in mind the handicaps that face the keen businessmen in terms of regulations and the hard currency crunch.

I think a special attention and serious incentives should be accorded to those who are actually willing to do business in Africa, Omar said.

She mentioned several bilateral agreements that Egypt had signed for the promotion of trade and business with a number African countries and also of its membership of COMESA whose full capacity has never been fully explored.

Our cooperation with the countries of the COMESA has certainly increased over the years since we joined in the mid-1990s but what we could do is much more than what has been done, she argued.

Meanwhile, Omar said that Egypt should also invest more in expanding its diplomatic and cultural presence in Africa.

There have certainly been steps with the foreign service but much more surely needs to be done, she argued.

Omar also said that more needs to be done to better bring Africa to Egypt in the sense that we have so many volumes of African literature translated into Arabic but they are never brought to the attention of the public who are still held hostage to some really very old images about Africa  and of course the business community is not privy to a better understanding of the situation.

Africa is a matter of strategic national interest to us  all of Africa and not just the Nile Basin countries; and the Saturday conference is one window for us to look through and see what we could do about this very rich and promising continent  despite the problems and conflicts it faces, Omar argued.

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Military units from over 20 Arab and Islamic countries are participating in the exercises with the aim of increasing cooperation between members of the Arab Coalition

Egypt's army spokesperson said in a Facebook statement on Satuday that Thunder of the North, the largest military exercise witnessed in the region has started in Saudi Arabia.

The exercises include Egyptian and Saudi ground and air forces along with military units from over 20 Arab and Islamic countries.

The exercise is meant to increase coordination between Egyptian and Saudi Armed Forces and Arab Coalition countries by exchanging expertise and improving skills in order to achieve the highest level of combat efficiency.

The statement says that the exercise aims to "formulate the main characteristics of building joint Arab defensive security for coalition members by uniting visions of the region's security questions.

Egypt is the second largest contributor to Thunder of the North after Saudi Arabia in terms of forces and participating specialisations, Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said.

Since the troops arrived, they have attended theoretical and practical lectures on topics and exercises that will be covered in Thunder of the North.

Egyptian Armed Forces were deployed in March 2015 to the Gulf, the Red Sea, and Bab Al-Mandab strait as part of their participation in the Saudi-led coalition targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Egypts deployment was extended in January one more year or until the end of their mission.



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Sirri Siam was appointed as an MP by El-Sisi and is the former chairman of the Court of Cassation and the Higher Council for Judges

The majority of Egypts parliamentarians voted on Sunday to accept the resignation of MP Sirri Siam, making him the first House of Representatives member to resign in the newly convened parliament.

It is still unclear how many MPs voted to accept Siams resignation, but two-thirds of the 595 parliamentarians were needed to approve it.

Siam was one of 28 MPs appointed by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

He is the former chairman of the Court of Cassation and the Higher Council for Judges.

Siam handed in his resignation two weeks ago, explaining that, although he is a legal expert, he was not selected to be part of the committee drafting the parliaments by-laws.

He described the situation by saying that, there is an atmosphere trying to make me unable to fulfill the parliamentary role.

If I cant be used in the legislative field, how can I be beneficial [to the parliament]? Siam said to Ahram Arabic website at the time of submitting his resignation.

Now that Siams seat is empty, El-Sisi is expected to appoint his replacement.

Egypts parliament convened for the first time in early January, ending a four-year parliamentary hiatus where the legislative powers were held by the president.

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President El-Sisi said on Friday that 'legislative amendments' must be introduced to stop 'irresponsible acts by police officers'

Egypt's prosecution referred a low-ranking policeman to criminal court on Sunday on charges of deliberate murder after the policeman fatally shot a civilian following a fight in Cairo on Thursday.

A judicial source within the general prosecution told Ahram Online that both the police interrogations and the forensic authoritys report indicate that Mostafa Abdel Hassib, the low-ranking policeman, killed taxi driver Mohamed Ali Ismail.

The interior ministry arrested Abdel Hassib on Friday and released a statement saying that Ismail was killed when the policeman fired his gun in an attempt to disperse a crowd that had gathered following a financial dispute between the driver and the policeman.

The incident took place in Cairos working-class district of El-Darb El-Ahmar.

Meanwhile, dozens of police personnel in Sharqiya governorate gathered at the security directorate to protest the arrest of seven colleagues, who are charged with stirring public opinion against the interior ministry and speaking to the media without permission.

The seven arrested low-ranking policemen from Sharqiya were heading to the Media Production city in 6th of October late Saturday to discuss on a television program recent problems they have been facing in their profession.

Both incidents come amid public uproar against some practices by low-ranking policemen in the past few weeks, including an alleged assault last month by policemen on two doctors at a Cairo hospital.

President El-Sisi ordered on Friday that legislative amendments be presented to the parliament within the next 15 days to tackle "irresponsible acts by police officers."

The president said that irresponsible acts by some members of the police force should be dealt with on an individual basis and those responsible be held accountable, according to a statement issued by the presidency on Friday.

The statement did not give further details about what legal changes were being proposed, but said that amendments or new legislation may be necessary to ensure the regulation of security services' performance in Egyptian streets and guarantee that those who "violate citizens' rights be punished.

Interior ministry spokesperson Major General Abu-Bakr Abdel-Karim told state owned MENA news agency that "whoever mistreats citizens, contravenes the law, or works to obstruct the relationship between the security apparatus and the great Egyptian people does not have a place inside the ministry."

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The meeting held on Saturday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh between the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan only addressed cooperation measures

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's recent meeting with his Sudanese counterpart and the Ethiopian Prime Minister did not address any issues concerning the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Speaking to journalists in Sharm El-Sheikh on the sidelines of a two-day business investment forum, Shoukry said that the meeting between Egypt's El-Sisi, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn discussed means of investment, economic and trading cooperation in Africa.

Shoukry explained that El-Sisi, suggested during the meeting the establishment of a joint investment fund  in which the three countries contribute defined shares  that aims at financing projects agreed upon for common development.

The Egyptian FM highlighted that only the foreign and the irrigation ministries are the official authorities tasked with the issues of the Renaissance Dam, stressing that a tripartite meeting will convene by the end of February to evaluate the findings of the two consultancy firms tasked with conducting impact studies on the dam.

The meeting between the three leaders was planned following talks held during a security conference in Munich between Egypt's foreign minister Shoukry and his Ethiopian counterpart over Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam.

On Friday, Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Hossam Moghazi said the country's state council has approved a finalised draft of the contract to be signed with French consultancy firms responsible for studies related to the impact of the Ethiopian Dam on Egypt and Sudan.

Moghazi added that both Ethiopia and Sudan have been officially informed of Cairo's readiness to sign the contract in the upcoming days.

Consultations are under way between the water ministers of the three countries to set a date to sign the contract before the end of February, Moghazi said in a press release.

Although Egypt has repeatedly expressed concern over the dam's possible effect on the country, Ethiopia insists it will not negatively affect Egypt's share of Nile water.

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The parliament speaker closed the debate without adopting any of the recommendations proposed by MPs

The killing of a citizen in a working class district Cairo neighbourhood  Al-Darb Al-Ahmar  at the hands of a low-ranking policeman last week led Egypt's parliament to devote its  Sunday morning session to reviewing the performance of the interior ministry.

Although MPs agreed that the ministry should be reformed to allow greater respect for human rights and impose control on the alleged abuses of the security apparatus, they were divided into two camps on how to achieve these goals.

The liberal camp, led by MP Anwar El-Sadat, chairman of the Reform and Development Party, insisted that interior minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar should submit resignation.

"As the interior minister has become no longer able to bring the abuses of security personnel under control, he should submit his resignation," said Sadat. "This principle should apply to all cabinet ministers, and not just to the interior minister."

Sadat charged that "while we face tragedies and abuses of human rights in Sinai and outside Sinai every day, we do not see policemen responsible for these tragedies put to account."

Sadat insisted that interior minister Abdel-Ghaffar come to parliament to explain his strategy for reforming the interior ministry and the security apparatus.

"He has to come to explain what legislative amendments will be introduced to contain police abuses," said Sadat.



Samir Ghattas, a political researcher and MP for Cairo's Nasr City district, said that low-ranking policemen who were dismissed from the interior ministry after the 25 January revolution, and were allowed to re-join the ranks of the ministry, have formed a coalition entitled the Police Ultras.

"This coalition has become a big danger to the Egyptian state, because its members have gone out of control in the recent two years, giving themselves a free hand to perpetrate all kinds of abuses such as imposing fees on citizens and trading in banned goods without facing any kind of accountability," said Ghattas.



"In 2015 alone, it was reported that low-ranking policemen opened fire on citizens seven times. Shootings have become a phenomenon and we all should stand up to it," he added.



'Unruly group'

Ghattas stressed that the interior ministry move quickly to bring this "unruly" group of "Police Ultras" under control before they impose their say on the Egyptian state.

"They now aim to score political gains by compelling the state to turn a blind eye to their abuses all the time," said Ghattas.

He said that after the June 2013 mass protests which put an end to the Muslim Brotherhood rule citizens demanded that the interior ministry be back in full force to impose the rule of law on streets.

"But now we see that some members of the security apparatus have acquired huge powers and that they are using them to violate the law and abuse the rights of citizens," said Ghattas.

Mostafa El-Guindi, a liberal MP, argued that "the interior ministry was left without any supervision in the last five years because there was no strong parliament." 

"The Egyptians revolted against the interior ministry twice, but it has come back again in one year with greater powers than before," said El-Guindi.

Haytham El-Hariri, another leftist MP, said it was good that the interior ministry issued a statement after the killing of the Darb Al-Ahmar citizen, vowing to reform its ranks and impose control on its undisciplined elements.

"But it is bad that this statement has come only after the blood of any ordinary citizen flowed in the street, and after some tried to exploit this blood to step up their political campaign against the regime," said El-Hariri, also agreeing that "the interior ministry should institute a new system aimed at disciplining its low-ranking policemen and improving its image among citizens."



Legislative amendments

In a statement on Sunday, interior minister Abdel-Ghaffar vowed that legislative amendments will be introduced to prevent any police abuses and ensure that the security apparatus shows complete respect for human rights.

However, a conservative camp of MPs said that while respect for the human rights of citizens should be of utmost priority, they completely reject that some exploit individual abuses by low-ranking policemen to tarnish the image of the security apparatus as a whole.

"We see that the majority of police officers respect the law, but the problem lies with this limited sector of low-ranking personnel who serve as assistants to police officers," said businessman Mahmoud Khamis.

Khamis defended the interior ministry strongly, arguing that it played a pivotal role in countering the waves of terrorism that swept Egypt after the removal of  former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from office.

"Official statistics show that only eight low-ranking police personnel  out of a total 400,000  opened fire on citizens in 2015, this is not a phenomenon," said Khamis, adding that "in America dozens of policemen were convicted of gunning down citizens in the streets."

Outspoken independent MP Mortada Mansour said that "those who call for reforming the interior ministry are in fact trying their best to undermine the Egyptian state."

Mansour, in reference to MP Sadat, who asked interior minister Abdel-Ghaffar to resign, insisted that "some MPs are in fact trying to settle personal accounts with the interior minister, but this comes at the expense of the national interest of Egypt."

Mansour accused Sadat two weeks ago of obtaining "foreign money" to fund his election campaign, also threatening that he would soon sue him.

Mansour also targeted the private media, accusing it of making a "fuss" about the Darb Al-Ahmar incident and trying to use "these individual cases" to launch a smear campaign against the interior ministry. 

The chairman of Cairo's popular club Zamalek singled out talk show host Amr Adib, accusing him of exploiting the incident to "inflame the public opinion." 

"Adib has gone so far to the extent of describing Egyptians as people who bark like dogs all the time," said Mansour.

Journalist and independent MP Mostafa Bakri also indicated that while there should be complete respect for human rights, the Darb Al-Ahmar incident should not be exploited to undermine the security apparatus.

"We should not open fire on the interior ministry as a whole because the Darb Al-Ahmar incident was the result of a personal fight," said Bakri adding that "in spite of this fact, the president of the republic [Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi] sided with the killed citizen and ordered the interior ministry to discipline its members."

Bakri lamented that "some Egyptian and foreign media outlets exploited the incident, trying their best to reproduce the pre-25 January revolutions' anti-police rhetoric. 

"This kind of rhetoric could push the Egyptian state into collapse because some still insist on pouring oil on the fire," he said.

Mohamed Maher, an MP representing the Darb Al-Ahmar district, insisted that "violations of low-ranking police personnel have exceeded all acceptable limits and the Darb Al-Ahmar incident should ring alarm bells."

"I insist that the security apparatus as a whole should be restructured and reformed and that police personnel found guilty of committing abuses be brought to justice," Maher said.

Mohamed Abdel-Ghani, an independent MP, rejected the assumption that "police abuses are just individual cases."

"If you ask citizens, they will tell you that police abuses have become commonplace, and that the interior ministry should reform itself and give a quick apology to the Darb Al-Ahmar families," said Abdel-Ghani.

He did, however, say that he agrees with MPs who warn that the Darb Al-Ahmar incident should not be exploited to defame the interior ministry.

"This ministry has sacrificed a lot to defend this country and we just do not want it to lose its reputation," said Abdel-Ghani.

Female MP Amal Tarabiah agreed that most of the violations and abuses were committed by low-ranking policemen and that senior police officers do not get involved in personal fights with ordinary citizens.

"So the major demand now is that low-ranking policemen be disarmed and face harsh disciplinary measures," said Tarabiah, adding that "new graduates of security personnel who serve as assistants to police officers should study law and human rights and face hard psychological tests before they are allowed to join the security apparatus."

Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al decided to close the debate without adopting any of the recommendations proposed by MPs, such as forming an ad hoc parliamentary committee to take charge of overhauling the interior ministry.

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The seven low-ranking policemen were arrested on Saturday as they were on their way to participate in a TV show

Related Egypt refers policeman to criminal court over charges of killing civilian

Giza state security prosecutors ordered on Sunday the detention of seven low-ranking policemen for15 days pending investigations for incitement against the police and attempting to disturb public opinion, Ahram Arabic website reported.

The seven policemen were arrested at the Egyptian Media Production City on the outskirts of Cairo as they were on their way to participate in the TV talk show "10 PM" Saturday night on Dream TV.



They were due to to speak about the latest controversies involving alleged police violence in Egypt.

Among those arrested was policeman Mansour Abu-Gabel, the spokesperson for the coalition that led the sit-in of low-ranking policemen in the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya last summer, demanding financial and social benefits.

Earlier on Sunday, dozens of police personnel in Sharqiya gathered at the security directorate to protest the arrest of their seven colleagues.

The arrest comes at a time when low-ranking policemen are facing heavy public criticism following the killing of a driver at the hands of a policeman in Cairo, as well as the alleged assault of doctors at a Cairo hospital by nine low-ranking officers.

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Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison for publishing a 'sexually explicit' text

Related Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji stands trial over sexually explicit text

Egypt's Journalists Syndicate called on Sunday for the prosecutor-general to suspend the prison sentence of journalist and writer Ahmed Naji for publishing a sexually flagrant article in the state-owned cultural newspaper Akhbar Al-Adab last year.

Naji was sentenced to two years in prison on Saturday by a Cairo misdemeanor appeals court.

The court also issued a fine of EGP 10,000 for Tareq El-Taher, the editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Adab.

In its official request to prosecutor-general Nabil Sadik, the Journalists Syndicate said that the court verdict "violates constitutional articles banning imprisonment for publishing-related cases".

The syndicate called for the suspension of the sentence until the Court of Cassation issues a final verdict in the case.

The misdemeanor appeals court verdict came after the prosecution appealed the courts order on 2 January to clear the two defendants of all charges.

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Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi resigned on Sunday, blaming political rivals Hezbollah for the country's political deadlock and protesting over the release on bail of a former minister sentenced for smuggling explosives from Syria.

Lebanon's political crisis has left it without a president for 21 months with rival factions unable to agree on a candidate, and has paralysed state institutions, preventing the government from taking even basic decisions.

The release on bail of ex-information minister Michel Samaha last month after serving eight months of a 4 1/2 year jail sentence for smuggling explosives from neighbouring Syria and planning attacks drew anger and condemnation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's opponents in Lebanon.

In a new sign of regional tension spilling over into Lebanon, Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended a military aid package to the Lebanese security forces in what an official said was a response to Beirut's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Rifi said Hezbollah was to blame for the political paralysis, the Samaha case and the Saudi episode.

"Continuing (to be part of) this government has become an agreement to this deviation, or at least is a failure to confront it," Rifi said in a statement.

"So I present to you and to Prime Minister Tammam Salam my resignation," he said.

The cabinet was to hold an emergency session on Monday, the National News Agency said.

Rifi described the Samaha case as a "national crime which Hezbollah is responsible for," calling for the case to be referred to international courts.

The case captivated a Lebanese public accustomed to seeing political violence go unpunished. It was another example of how turmoil in Syria is rippling through a country where Damascus has played a major role for decades and whose future will be shaped by the outcome of the civil war next door.

Hezbollah is an ally of Assad and of Iran, and its fighters have provided crucial support for Damascus's efforts to turn battles in western Syria in its favour.

Saudi Arabia backs insurgents fighting against Assad.

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Three journalists from Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency were freed on Sunday after being kidnapped by members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) while on assignment in the mainly Kurdish southeast, the news agency said.

The journalists were abducted while in the southeastern province of Mardin and held for more than 48 hours, Anadolu said on its website.

The three - a correspondent, a photojournalist and a cameraman - were assigned last week to Mardin's Nusaybin district to cover stories in the region, Anadolu said. Southeast Turkey has been scorched by waves of violence since the July collapse of a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish state.

Security sources in the southeast told Reuters the three were believed to have been kidnapped after filming in a PKK-stronghold without permission from the militant group.

The PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for autonomy against the government in which more than 40,000 have been killed, is seen as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.

The government says the PKK, working together with Syrian Kurdish militants, was behind a car bomb in the capital Ankara on Wednesday that killed 28 people in the administrative heart of the city.

A splinter Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), has since claimed responsibility for the bombing.

This has been dismissed by the government, which says TAK is shielding the international reputation of the Syrian Kurdish fighters who Washington is backing in the fight against Islamic State group in Syria.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it "is not yet done." But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said. "In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... is possible over the course of these next hours."

The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry's announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

UN envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb. 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

"Peace is better than more war," Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. "A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more militants, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself."

However, he reiterated the long-time US position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. "Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad," Kerry said. "Let me make that clear."

He said Russia now has to talk with the Syrian government and Iran, which backs Assad, and the US has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. He said he knows that not every party will automatically agree to the agreement reached for a ceasefire.

"There is a stark choice for everybody here," Kerry said.

"I know how much work remains and I don't know if everyone is going to meet their commitments," Kerry said. "I can't vouch for that  the United States can't make certain of that."

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

"These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective," Kerry said.

Later, Kerry met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman and was scheduled to fly to Aqaba for an evening meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

On the ground in Syria, a pair of explosions ripped through the central city of Homs, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens, according to activists and Syrian state TV.

The Homs blasts came amid reports that Syrian government forces captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from the extremist Islamic State group. Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The television report said Sunday's blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa  a frequent target for similar explosions. The report quoted Homs governor Talal Barrazi as saying that 32 people were killed and dozens of others wounded.

Most of the bombing attacks in Homs over the past months have been claimed by IS, which controls parts of Homs province including the historic town of Palmyra.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists around Syria, said the blasts killed 46 and wounded more than 100. The explosions took place just after 6 a.m. local time, and both the Observatory and the TV report said they were caused by a pair of car bombs.

The television report aired footage of the destruction caused by the blasts. Debris and mangled cars filled the streets and the charred body of a man was seen being taken away on a stretcher.

The Zahra neighborhood is predominantly Alawite, the minority Muslim sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs.

Homs, once dubbed the capital of the Syrian revolution, has been hit with a wave of explosions in recent months, killing and wounding scores of people. The rebels controlled large parts of Homs after the uprising against Assad's government began in March 2011.

With time, the government gained control of most of Homs' neighborhoods and a deal was reached late last year for militants to evacuate the last rebel-held neighborhood of Waer.

Two blasts hit the Zahra neighborhood on Jan. 26, killing 20 and wounding more than 100 people.

To the north, the Syrian army captured 31 villages on Sunday that were controlled by IS, according to the pro-Syrian Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV and Hezbollah's Al-Manar station.

Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar often have reporters embedded with Syrian troops in northern Syria.

Syrian state media earlier reported that Syrian troops had captured some 10 villages in Aleppo province from IS.

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At least 30 people were killed Sunday in a series of attacks, including a car bombing, near a Shia shrine south of Syria's capital, state television and a monitor said.

The Syrian state broadcaster said a car bombing and two suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, killing 30 and wounding dozens.

"The attacks came as pupils were leaving school, and several of them were killed," the state broadcaster reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group gave a slightly higher death toll of 31 and said there were four attacks.

"There was a car bomb and two suicide bombers who blew themselves up. We don't know the cause of the fourth explosion," the Britain-based Observatory said.

At the end of January, the Islamic State group said it was behind bombings near the shrine that killed 71 people, among them five children.

The Sayyida Zeinab shrine contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shia Muslims.

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Germany is considering sending troops to Tunisia to help train soldiers in the fight against the Islamic State group, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

Bild am Sonntag said that representatives of the defence and foreign ministries would hold talks in Tunis on Thursday and Friday about how the German military could lend support in a training mission.

It said the engagement envisaged training Tunisian soldiers first and could eventually be extended to setting up a training camp in Tunisia for Libyan soldiers, run with other international partners.

"The IS group terror is threatening all of North Africa," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the newspaper.

She said it was thus crucial "to make every effort to support countries struggling with democracy such as Tunisia".

Von der Leyen told the newspaper that a training camp in Tunisia would be a contribution toward regional stability.

"And if its direct neighbour Libya manages to put in place a unity government one day, its security forces could also benefit from established training facilities in Tunisia," she said.

A defence ministry spokesman told AFP he had no further details beyond the minister's remarks.

A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the planned talks in Tunis "on further cooperation on security" but declined to provide more information.

German forces are currently engaged in the international alliance against the Islamic State group, including by arming and training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and flying reconnaissance missions over Syria with Tornado jets.

Since 2013, Germany has provided Tunisia with more than 100 million euros ($111 million) in programmes to improve its economy. It also provides its security forces with equipment and training.

However the country's defence commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels warned in a report last month that the German military was overstretched and underfunded and had reached "the limit of its capacity for interventions".

Tunisia suffered two devastating attacks targeting its vital tourist sector last year, in the beach resort of Sousse and on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, that together left 60 people dead. Both were claimed by IS.

IS group has also been gaining ground in Libya amid the unrest that has gripped the country since longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in 2011.

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Tunisia said Sunday it would extend by one month a nationwide state of emergency imposed after a November suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group killed 12 presidential guards.

The presidency, in a statement on its official Facebook page, said the state of emergency would be extended for a month from February 22.

It said the decision was taken after consultations between the president, the prime minister and the speaker of parliament.

The deadly November 24 bus bombing in Tunis was the third attack last year claimed by ISIS.

The militant group also said it was behind two bombings on the national museum and a beach resort that killed a total of 60 people, all but one foreign tourists.

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UN envoy Martin Kobler travelled to the seat of Libya's internationally recognised parliament Sunday to "help" with a vote of confidence on a national unity government for the crisis-torn country.

"The eyes of the people of Libya are on Tobruk. They expect a GNA. I am here in Tobruk today to help, not to interfere," Kobler tweeted in reference to the hard-fought formation of a government of national unity.

Kobler held a meeting with parliament speaker Aguila Salah, parliament's website reported.

On Saturday, Libya's prime minister-designate, Fayez al-Sarraj, presented the programme of his unity government before the parliament of the internationally recognised government.

"The members of parliament discussed with the Presidential Council the proposed unity government's programme as well as the names of ministers," said LANA news agency, which is close to the recognised authorities.

Debate, which has often been "heated", continued in parliament on Sunday ahead of a vote of confidence expected to take place on Tuesday.

The oil-rich North African country has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognised government fled Tripoli after a militia alliance including Islamists overran the capital.

That alliance has established its own administration and parliament called the General National Congress.

The United Nations has been pushing both sides to back a unity government.

A Presidential Council, born of an agreement in December under UN auspices between representatives of the rival parliaments, last Monday proposed the formation of a unity government of 18 members.

Before a confidence vote, the deputies in Tobruk had asked that Sarraj appear before them.

Libya has been torn by strife since Moamer Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011 following a rebellion supported by Western military intervention.

The chaos that has reigned since has allowed the militant Islamic State (ISIS) group to establish a foothold, and IS now controls the port city of Sirte and its surroundings.

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Military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government said on Sunday they had pushed back Islamist fighters in several areas of Benghazi, seizing the strategic port of Marisa.

The Libyan National Army said it had also taken control of the town of Ajdabiya, about 150 km (90 miles) south of Benghazi, another city where it has been battling Islamist groups.

Libya has been riven by conflict since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, as armed factions supporting rival governments in Tripoli and the east have fought for power and a share of the country's oil wealth.

Islamist fighters have used a security vacuum to expand their presence, and militants loyal to Islamic State goup's control of the city of Sirte, to the west of Ajdabiya.

Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, has seen some of the worst fighting, with violence escalating when military commander Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign in 2014 against Islamists and other armed groups.

Munthir al-Khartoush, a spokesman for the army's Battalion 309, said that as well as Marisa port, the army had taken control of the nearby neighbourhood of Al-Halis, and had advanced in the district of Boatni, which also saw heavy fighting on Saturday.

At least three soldiers and 15 Islamist fighters were killed in Sunday's clashes, the military said.

Marisa would be a significant gain for the army as the groups it has been fighting have been receiving weapons deliveries through the port.

"We have completely cut off the supplies coming to the front line for the Islamist groups in the west of Benghazi by capturing Marisa Port," Khartoush said.

In Ajdabiya, military spokesman Akram Bouhaliqa said the army had forced Islamist fighters from the area around Galouz Street and the industrial zone, the last positions they held.

A resident also confirmed to Reuters that the army was in control of the city.

Three soldiers were killed in Sunday's clashes, Bouhaliqa said. A hospital source in Ajdabiya said 65 people had been killed and 140 wounded in fighting there over the past two months.

The violence comes as a unity government nominated under a United Nations-backed plan is trying to win approval from Libya's internationally recognised parliament in the east.

It also comes two days after a US air strike targeting a suspected Islamic State training camp in the western city of Sabratha killed nearly 50 people, including two Serbian embassy staff abducted in Libya in November.

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A man arrested on suspicion of shooting dead six people in the northern US state of Michigan was an Uber driver who may have picked up fares during the killing spree, officials and media reported.

The suspect, 45-year-old Jason Brian Dalton, is set to appear in court Monday to face charges of murder, Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

Uber confirmed that Dalton was a driver for the ride-sharing company, adding he had passed a background check and had no criminal record.

"We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said in a statement.

Dalton was apprehended at 12:40 am local time Sunday (0540 GMT). Police are certain that he is the gunman who opened fire at three different locations in the city of Kalamazoo, killing six people and seriously wounding two others.

A woman was seriously wounded outside an apartment complex, two people were killed at a car dealership, and four more were shot dead at a restaurant, where a teenage girl was also seriously wounded.

Getting said Dalton surrendered without incident during a traffic stop.

There is "no reason to believe" more than one person was involved in the crime, Getting said.

Dalton picked up and dropped off passengers between shootings, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the investigation.

Investigators believe that Dalton was still looking for fares after the shooting rampage, the source said.

Local resident Matt Mellen said he was Dalton's passenger just a few of hours before the rampage began, and was taken on a hair-raising ride.

"We were driving through medians, driving through the lawn, speeding along and when we came to a stop, I jumped out the car and ran away," Mellen told CBS affiliate WWMT.

"He wouldn't stop. He just kind of kept looking at me like -- 'Don't you want to get to your friend's house' and I'm like, I want to get there alive."

Mellen said he jumped out of the car at 4:30 pm, and called the emergency phone number 911. He told his fiancee what had happened and she posted Dalton's picture on Facebook as a warning to others.

"We're looking into his connection to Uber and whether or not he was picking up fares in between the shootings," Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said, according to CNN.

The shootings began at 6:00 pm Saturday.

"What it looks like is we have somebody driving around, finding people and shooting them dead in their tracks," Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told local media.

"This is your worst nightmare, when you have somebody just driving around randomly killing people," he added.

The gunman's first victim was a woman who was with her three children outside an apartment complex when she was shot, he said.

She was seriously wounded but is expected to survive.

The gunman next struck at 10:00 pm, killing an 18-year-old boy and an adult male at a car dealership, according to Getting. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said the victims were father and son.

The last and deadliest shooting came 10 to 15 minutes later at the Cracker Barrel restaurant where four more people were killed, according to Getting.

Security video at the dealership and the restaurant helped police identify the shooter's car, and Dalton was arrested about two hours later when a sheriff's deputy saw his car leaving a local bar in downtown Kalamazoo.

"He followed the car. The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety was able to mobilize people as a backup. They pulled the car over without incident. They were able to make an arrest of the suspect without any significant incident," Getting said.

Police seized a semi-automatic handgun and "additional evidence" from the car, the prosecutor added.

Dalton is married and has two children, ages 15 and 10, neighbors told the Detroit Free Press newspaper. They described him as a "nice guy" who sold insurance policies and was a hobby mechanic.

Governor Snyder ordered flags lowered for six days starting Monday in honor of each of those killed, and met with relatives of hospitalized victims.

"Our hearts are broken for the victims' families and friends, and I join in mourning their loss," Snyder said.

The Kalamazoo killings were the latest in a string of US mass shootings that include the December 2 massacre in San Bernardino, California that left 14 people dead, and the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 26, including 20 children.

Gun violence claims the lives of about 30,000 Americans every year and mass shootings -- rare in most countries -- have been on the rise.

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A senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party is renewing a call for centers at borders from which refugees would be allowed into the country according to daily quotas.

Julia Kloeckner, a deputy leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats, hopes to oust a center-left governor in a March 13 election in Rhineland-Palatinate state. In neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg, fellow party member Guido Wolf hopes to return the party to power after a five-year hiatus.

In a joint statement Sunday, they pressed for daily quotas of an unspecified size, renewing a call Kloeckner made a month ago. The pair stressed their support for Merkel's efforts to achieve a European solution to the migrant crisis but added Germany can't depend solely on the goodwill of other unwilling nations.

Germany saw more than 1 million asylum-seekers enter the country last year. European nations have been deeply divided over the immigration crisis.

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Egypt's Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC) will be brought back under the supervision of the central bank (CBE), the governor said on Sunday.

The PBDAC, which is currently under the jurisdiction of the ministry of agriculture and not the CBE, will be restructured, Tarek Amer said in a televised interview.

"The President and the Prime Minister...and the Minister of Agriculture have agreed for the agricultural bank to return under the umbrella and the supervision of the Central Bank," said Amer.

Earlier on Sunday, a number of PBDAC employees gathered at its headquarters to demand the sacking of the bank's chairman and for it to be fully managed by the CBE, Egyptian news website Akhbar El-Youm reported.

The bank is owed EGP 4 billion by a quarter of a million farmers, PBDAC chairman Attia Salem told state news agency MENA last November.

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"Fire at Sea," a documentary about the Italian island of Lampedusa  many migrants' first destination on risky journeys toward safety and a better life in Europe  won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.



A jury headed by Meryl Streep chose director Gianfranco Rosi's movie from a field of 18 contenders at the first of the year's major European film festivals.



In "a year of thrillingly diverse films, the jury was swept away by the compassionate outrage of one in particular," Streep said.



"It's a daring hybrid of captured footage and deliberate storytelling that allows us to consider what documentary can do," she said. "It is urgent, imaginative and necessary filmmaking."



Rosi contrasts the native islanders' everyday life with the arrival of the many men, women and children making the dangerous trip from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea on decrepit smugglers' boats. Many of the migrants drown on the perilous passage to Europe, their dead bodies often pulled out of the water around Lampedusa.



"It's not acceptable that people die crossing the sea to escape from tragedies," Rosi said.



Danis Tanovic's "Death in Sarajevo" won the festival's grand jury prize, which comes with a Silver Bear statuette.



Mia Hansen-Loeve of France was named best director for "Things to Come."



Best actor was Majd Mastoura for his role in Tunisian director Mohamed Ben Attia's "Hedi," and Trine Dyrholm was honored as best actress for her part in Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's "The Commune."

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

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'The Gate to the Soul' is a new art project that illustrates the stage that lies between life and death

Bawabat Al-Rouh (The Gate to the Soul) is an art project located in Cairos City of the Dead, done in collaboration between two artists, Egyptian sculptor Houreya El Sayed and Hungarian sculptor Beata Rostas, and supported by Archinos firm for architectural and restoration solutions.

El Sayed told Ahram Online that the idea for the project was introduced by her friend, Hungarian artist Beata Rostas, whom she had met five years earlier at theAswan International Sculpture Symposium.

Rostas was interested in illustrating a tangible gate to the soul, namely depicting the stage that lies between life and death, which can also enable the visitor to communicate with the souls he loves, adds El Sayed.

El Sayed liked the idea because it goes hand in hand with my work philosophy, the idea of tugging at spiritual ideas in artwork.

We commenced a process of brainstorming, trying to imagine how the project could see the light, explains El Sayed.

Rostas pitched the idea to Archinos which was already carrying a conservation project in Sultan Qaitbeys 'Maqad', which, according to Archinos website, is one of the last eight surviving buildings of the original complex that are listed as historic monuments.

Located in Cairos City of The Dead, the building was initially constructed along the lines of the late-Mamluk architectural style. Archinos restoration project aims to first carry out architectural conservation of the maqad, a reception hall that is virtually the only surviving part of the palace built in 1474 within Sultan Qaitbey's funerary complex and to adapt the building for use as a cultural centre serving the local community, as is mentioned on Archinos' website.

Archinos' restoration project is funded by the European Union, under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

For its part, Archinos agreed to integrate this contemporary art project within its restoration work in the area, suggesting that the artists use simple building materials like brick in their illustration.

Archinos provided the artists with both the space; a wall within the maqad reception hall, and also the needed building materials.

El Sayed was also adamant to incorporate glass into the project, because glass allows a reflection of light and also has a spiritual underpinning.

Between 8 and 21 February, Archinos held a workshop for the artists, including El Sayed and Rostas, but also an American artist who received support for another art project executed within the same reception hall.

During the two-week workshop, El Sayed and Rostas brainstormed the sketch of this artistic work, and proceeded to create it.

Besides delivering the building materials, Archinos also helped to provide the artists with construction workers, and a sculptor to assist them with the installation.

As El Sayed explains, they first proceeded to build this gate, whose shape was inspired by the spirit of this areas buildings, using red brick. They left vacant areas in-between stones that would later be filled with glass units produced by the local glass manufacturing company, to add an aesthetic value to the gate but also to further enhance the spiritual meaning it suggests.

The project is in harmony with El Sayeds own artistic vocation, since most of her work employs stone and glass, or solely glass.

For me, glass, with its transparency and luminosity, is the only tangible material I can use to truly depict the soul, El Sayed explains.

I am also very much interested in historic Egyptian art that transmits peaceful energy. In my work, I try to preserve the symmetrical balance typical of the ancient Egyptian artists work, she adds.

The opening of The Gate to the Soul' is scheduled for today, 21 February, and can be visited by the public anytime.

I hope to see more of these workshops and collaborations between artists, El Sayed aspires.

Artists must play a role in beautifying Egypts different public spaces. Because beauty and art affect peoples behaviour, their feelings and their sense of belonging towards their country, she adds.

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

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The Ministry of Antiquities will compensate the families of guards who were killed and wounded Saturday at Deir Al-Barsha and Tel Al-Dafna archaeological sites

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty said on Sunday that EGP 10,000 (around $1300) will be provided as compensation to the families of guards killed Saturday in an apparent heist attempt at Deir Al-Barsh in Upper Egypt, and two others killed in an explosion at Tel Al-Dafna in Ismailia.

EGP 5000 ($640) will be given to the one guard wounded in each attack.

Minister of antiquities press attache Moushira Moussa announced Saturday that a gang snuck into the Deir Al-Barsha site in Al-Minya in an attempt to rob the tomb of the last ruler of the First Intermediate Period, Djehuti-Nakht.

The site's guards defended the tomb but two were killed and one was left wounded.

"The same compensation would be provided for the two workers killed and one wounded at Tel Al-Dafna site in Ismailia yesterday when a leftover landmine detonated during excavation," he added.

Eldamaty says he is mourning the guards and asks for God to bestow his mercy over them and give their families solace.

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Egypt's antiquities minister honoured a number of foreign and Egyptian archaeologists for their devotion to archaeological works in Egypt in 2015

Within the framework of the campaign launched by the Luxor Time Magazine entitled Luxor Times Egyptology Award 2016, Egypt's Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty honoured a number of foreign and Egyptian archaeologists for their "devotion and tremendous efforts in Egypt".

The campaign was launched on social media to determine the top ten discoveries, five best restoration projects, five ongoing achievements as well as five promising archaeological projects in Egypt in 2015.

Eldamaty honoured ten Egyptologists including the German archaeologist Horing Sourouzian who worked for more than a decade on the funerary temple of King Amenhotep III on Luxor's West Bank.

Sourouzian succeeded in discovering several elements of the temple and reconstructed it in an attempt to revive the temple to its hayday, or at least render an outline of its original design.

The temple of King Amenhotep III was completely destroyed in antiquity after a massive earthquake hit the county. All the temples were buried in sand except the two colossi of Memnons.

Elham Salah, the head of the Museums Department, said heads of the mummification museum in Luxor, the Atun Museum in Minya, the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza plateau and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization were also honoured.

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Japan's ambassador to Egypt and his wife paid their first visit to King Khufu's second solar boat

Japanese ambassador to Egypt Takehiro Kagawa and his wife paid their first visit to King Khufu's second solar boat, now under restoration at the laboratory of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza plateau.

Eissa Zidan, director of the restoration department at the GEM, guided them through their visit to check the restoration works being carried out by the Japanese-Egyptian team in an attempt to reconstruct King Khufu's second solar boat to its original look.

Takehiro was very happy with the works achieved so far, and wrote in the visiting book of the GEM that he wishes the team the best luck in achieving their goal.

Zidan told Ahram Online that the restoration team is now working on the third phase of the five-stage project to restore Khufu's second boat.

The first phase began over 20 years ago, when in 1992 a Japanese scientific and archaeological team from Waseda University, in collaboration with the Japanese government, offered a grant of $10 million to remove the boat from its original pit, restore and reassemble it, and put it on show to the public.

The team cleaned the pit of insects and the Japanese team inserted a camera through a hole in the chamber's limestone to assess the boat's condition inside the pit and the possibility of its restoration.

Images taken show layers of wooden beams and timbers of cedar and acacia, as well as ropes, mats and remains of limestone blocks and small pieces of white plaster.

Basel Yoshimura, the director of the Japanese team, told Ahram Online that during the teams inspection they found that the second boat was in a much better state of preservation than the first when it was discovered in 1954 by architect and archaeologist Kamal El-Malakh, together with Zaki Nour, during routine cleaning on the south side of the Great Pyramid.

The first boat was removed piece by piece under the supervision of master restorer Ahmed Youssef, who spent more than 20 years restoring and reassembling the boat.

The second boat remained sealed in its pit until 1987, when it was examined by the American National Geographic Society by remote camera. After the space inside the pit was photographed and air measurements were taken, the pit was resealed.

It was thought that the pit had been so well sealed that the air inside would be as it had been since ancient Egyptian times. Sadly though, Yoshimura pointed out that this was not the case. Air had leaked into the pit from outside and mixed with the air inside. This had allowed insects to thrive and negatively affect some wooden beams.

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While there are some women who have been appointed to various senior government posts, there are still many other women who deserve to fill similar positions

I met Maya Morsi, who was selected as the chairwoman of the National Council for Women this month, many years ago when she was working at UN Women. She is a young Egyptian mother, an expert on women's affairs and one of the best public policy experts on social gender in Egypt, and perhaps even in all of the Arab world.

She has campaigned for the burdens of Egyptian women for more than 20 years, not only through research and articles, but also went to villages and hamlets to research the status of Egyptian women and Egyptian children for a better future.

Morsi is the coordinator of the UN Development Fund for Women in Egypt. She earned her PhD in public policy in human security for women at the Regional Institute of Arab Studies and Research. She also has an MA in public administration and an MA in business administration from City University in Washington, USA, after earning a bachelor's degree in political science at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

She is an expert in research and several other fields, including international agreements and treaties, human rights charters, empowerment of women, gender equality, integration of social gender in planning and public budgets, as well as womens human rights and relevant treaties.

Morsi organised many workshops on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), womens human rights, the balance between gender and child, and advocacy, impact and coalition building, and contributed to a book titled Equality in Social Gender Creates Democracy.

Her research experience includes collaborating in a study titled Women and International Conferences and she was the coordinator of the Arab Women Progress report published in 2004 by the UNDP.

Other females in the cabinet include Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali who earned a BA from the Faculty of Language and Literature at Colorado State University, USA, and an MA in Arts and Humanities from the same university. Wali served in a variety of posts including assistant to the UNDP Resident Representative in Cairo, Director of CARE International in Egypt, senior staffer and team leader of small business loans at the Community Development Programme, the social grant for development, and is a board member of the non-profit Injaz Organisation.

The cabinet also includes Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr who earned a doctorate in economics from Cairo University and is a professor of economics at American University in Cairo (AUC). She is also an associate professor of economics at British University in Cairo. She served on the presidential advisory board for economic development in April, 2015, and she is a senior economics expert at the World Bank.

Nasr is also a regional pioneer for the World Bank on financial development and non-banking financial institutions, obtaining funding, and gender equality. She also established the first office for credit inquiries while she worked as chief finance economics expert at the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa.

There is also Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs, Nabila Makram Abdel-Shaheed Wassef, who earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Cairo University and joined the Foreign Ministry. She was appointed third secretary in the office of assistant foreign minister for European Affairs, then third secretary in Egypts embassy in Brazil. She also served as deputy Consul General in Dubai.

While there are still many other women who deserve recognition for being appointed to government posts, this shows there are no more concerns about empowering women in Egypt. It is apparent from these choices that the political leadership has chosen the correct path, by supporting successful female leaders and appointing them to effective and important positions in the state based on qualification and achievements. Yes, the state is moving in the right direction, which will no doubt take some time. What is important is taking steady steps forward.

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By the fifth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution, the conspiracy theory had become a mainstream way for many to understand the uprising as well as its causes and repercussions. In the beginning, talk of conspiracy was untenable and weak and sometimes merely a joke, but it gained momentum and more advocates have since developed mechanisms, channels, and stories to promote the theory. Today, it has become a version that competes with the events of the revolution that are still fresh in our minds.



Definition of conspiracy

Conspiracy is an intellectual construct that gives an abridged version of events relying on purposefulness, intention to do harm, and secrecy. Using conspiracy theories to explain events is based on a specific view of oneself and the world, and involves a certain way of thinking, logic, and rhetoric.

Conspiracies adopt a teleological interpretation justifying an outcome caused by an intentional action by a beneficiary of this event, whether this is a speculative interpretation or based on evidence. In reality, conspiracy theories are a natural and omnipresent social phenomenon with a variety of elements that may not even agree on the same goal.

Assuming perfect planning and absolute control of events is illogical and unrealistic, at least in light of diverging goals and behaviours of various actors who may not even agree on the same goal. It is more likely there are many disconnected conspiracies that can run parallel, cross or diverge, and controlling all elements in order for a conspiracy to unfold exactly as planned is an unreasonable assumption.



How did the conspiracy narrative of the 25 January revolution move to the foreground?

The conspiratorial explanations of the revolution began early on amid rumours of meals, food, and foreign currency per diems being handed out as pay for protesting. After Mubarak stepped down and the revolution was in full swing, conspiracy theories continued to circulate but in limited circles. No one really tried to refute them because they were seen as humorous folklore of the ridiculous that rarely appeared on the periphery of public debate by insignificant people or entities.

In time, however, belief in a conspiracy gradually gained ground until it became a mainstream view of the January revolution and the Arab Spring as a whole, out of the belief that revolutions are a premeditated conspiratorial act using domestic elements who were trained or incited or funded to overthrow or dismantle Arab states and empower their enemies. Many historical similarities were made and frequently referenced the Sykes-Picot agreement that divided the region along colonial lines.

There are two elements why the January conspiracy gained momentum over the past five years. First, the context; second, protagonists.

First: Context promoting the conspiracy theory

1- Psychologically. From the viewpoint of political psychology, people are predisposed to believe the revolution is premeditated or preplanned because of the psychological and social shock that jolts all values and social institutions that were stable before the eruption of the revolution. Thus, there is a "public" that is receptive to accumulative historical conspiracies against the country, and defines the act of revolution and its aftermath in this context, especially during times of uncertainty and crisis.

Accepting conspiracy theories is part of a natural psychological need for understanding. Conspiracy is a comfortable explanation of incoherent events and creates clear causality that views this confusion and chaos as coherent and planned events that can be easily understood and dealt with consciously and psychologically. It is also easy this way to directly blame someone for the crises and problems. Historically, the French Revolution is the focus of conspiracy literature whereby several conspiratorial explanations assert that it was triggered by the actions of several secret movements and societies at the time, such as the Freemasons, Jacobians, and Iluminati.

Fear is the main component of conspiracy theories and the fearful state of mind is linked to breaking with the familiar, uncertainty, growing personal and collective threats, changing routine, the disruption or threatening vital functions of society such as schooling, transportation, travel or services such as power and fuel. These phenomena give rise to conservatism in some sectors of society that have been harmed and want to restore a "normal" life pattern. They are also more prepared than others to accept the conspiracy theory either because it is easier to understand or more convincing, or in line with their desires or interests.

The atmosphere of crisis that followed the January revolution, especially in the economy, and failure of the revolution to achieve its ideas or the dignified life that it promised, compounded the psychological disposition of some social strata to accept and reference the conspiracy theory (especially sectors that were not directly involved in the revolution or unenthusiastic in the beginning, or those who were harmed the most).

2- Security narrative. The revolutionary condition by nature is linked to security instability and trends such as growing protests. The collapse of the police and opening of prisons at the beginning of the revolution also spread unusual forms of crimes that threaten personal and collective security such as armed robbery, kidnapping, and roadblocks that became common crimes soon after the revolution.

This sense of danger was compounded by rising terrorist threats at home and recurring attacks on army and police officers, as well as a growing terrorist threat in the region from the likes of Islamic State (IS) and its expansion at the expense of countries across the border. This looming and growing regional threat and the collapse of some regional countries after the eruption of revolutionary movements or were dismantled or saw extended civil wars, enforced the security narrative that enhances the sense of being targeted and conspiracy.

Thus, early on there was talk of a conspiracy theory targeting Egypt to carve it up. For example, media coverage in a national newspaper about funding of NGOs, raids and arrests connected to it, quoted judicial investigators as saying there is evidence of implicit plots to divide Egypt. Also, that some international societies are implicated in these plots. Security suspicions at all stages following the January revolution resulted in cases and incidents such as the "homing pigeons" who were reportedly carrying microfilm in January 2013, and investigating officials at a communications company because of a puppet commercial that was claimed to be coded with orders to harm Egypt.

3- Lack of information. Rumours are rampant in the absence of clear information. Scarcity of basic information about revolutionary events during those 18 days and critical events that followed, was a fertile environment to create conspiracy theories and embed them. A fact-finding committee was formed to investigate the events of the revolution, its findings were announced at a news conference two months after the revolution, and was published in some newspapers. The Muslim Brotherhood regime appointed another fact finding commission after it came to power in order to review new evidence in the prosecution of the previous regime. However, the full transcripts of these committees were of limited availability.

Despite an atmosphere of leaks and recording and broadcasting personal phone calls since the January revolution, no official recordings about the 25 January revolution were aired. Nor were signal recordings at police stations (which the committee requested but did not receive) or video footage of the Egyptian Museum, or any phone call between Mubarak, members of his regime, or prominent businessmen during his tenure.

More importantly, no fact-finding missions were formed  similar to many other international ones  that relied on truth and honesty as their gateway to transitional justice and national conciliation after revolutions or great transformational events.



Second: The sponsors of conspiracy theories

1- Official sponsorship. Although all consecutive regimes recognised the January revolution and honoured it in the constitution, there is a form of official sponsorship of the conspiracy theory or failure to counter it. This includes pages on social media in the name of security agencies  although unofficial and therefore security bodies are not responsible for their content. The pages manipulate conspiracy rhetoric, such as Egyptian Intelligence which has more than one million followers and Egyptian Police which has around 500,000 followers.

Another example, closer to the official realm, is Admin of the Official Page of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which was the first attempt of focused manipulation of conspiracy rhetoric during the events at Maspero. There were consecutive interpretations of events as a conspiracy to trigger sectarian strife in the country.

There were also some direct statements by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi that referred several times to what is known as "fourth and fifth generation warfare" using media and advertisement to sabotage societies at the hands of their own people. This gave momentum to rhetoric adopted by many political analysts and strategic experts, especially those with security backgrounds, who use the same interpretation of "new generation warfare" in conspiratorial explanations of trends that have nothing to do with conspiracy.

2- The role of the media in fuelling fear and embedding conspiracy outlooks. The media played a fundamental role in promoting and highlighting the conspiracy theory. Since the January revolution, the media, especially private satellite channels, have aired a heavy dose of politics through images, sounds, analyses and public opinion which is mostly new to politics. And thus, it was one of the main sources of influence on opinions. These direct and indirect media messages enhanced the sense of fear, gloom and conspiracy on one hand, and attributed it to the revolution on the other.

For example, one programme hosted people making confessions of an alleged conspiracy and training and incitement by foreign parties. Other content contributes to a sense of suspicion and fear in general, such as broadcasting an infomercial warning against speaking freely in public places and cafes because they are teeming with spies. There is also an entire programme dedicated to airing recorded conversations and communications between figures from the January revolution in order to sabotage them.

Those watching Egyptian talk shows will find a keen focus on conspiracy, and after so much repetition there is an assumption that it is a given truth. A most extreme form of conspiracy theorising was on a programme where a strategic expert said there is a Supreme World Council that manages conspiracies and controls natural disasters and comets, aiming them at specific countries, as well as masterminding universal conspiracies that move nature and people.

Since 30 June 2013, the media has promoted the conspiracy theory and abridged the revolution into single snapshots of opening prisons and foreign funding, while blurring or ignoring millions taking to the streets chanting the three demands of the revolution. Specific programmes specialised in airing telephone conversations by key figures in the revolution aim to slander them. The term fifth column also emerged to taint anyone who dissents and becomes brandished a traitor or tool in the hands of a foreign conspiracy.

Several factors played a role in promoting conspiracy rhetoric, combining context and the choices of actors to promote and disseminate the conspiracy theory in general, and linking it to the 25 January revolution especially. Domestic and foreign security crises and threats added more layers to interpretations of the conspiracy complex that already exists, as an easily convincing recipe and abridged vision of domestic and foreign polices to a public that is not accustomed to politics. Therefore, it was natural that it gained popularity, especially in an environment fraught with rapid change and much ambiguity, as well as real danger.

The writer is Chief Editor of Democracy Review Quarterly, a publication of Al-Ahram Foundation.

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The court will consider the matter again on October 31.
The businessmen who had a remarkable year in 2015

VietNamNet Bridge - For Vietnamese people in general and Vietnamese businessmen in particular, the Year of a Goat finished on February 7, 2016. And the businessmen born in the year of the goat now can sigh with relief as their critical year has finished.

Nguyen Thanh Nam and Do Huu Ha





The shares of automobile enterprises witnessed a strong rise in prices in 2015. HTL and TMT, for example, saw prices increasing by several times. However, this did not happen with HHS.On January 29, HHS price decreased by VND1,700 per share, or 14.4 percent if compared with February 13, 2015, to VND10,100 per share.While the owners of other car companies had hundreds of billions of dong worth of stock assets thanks to the share price increases, Do Huu Ha, chair of Hoang Huy Investment & Service JSC, lost VND88.77 billion, which made his stock assets drop to VND527 billion.With the HHS price decrease, Ha has fallen to 29th on the list of Vietnams richest stock millionaire.Hoang Huy was one of the businesses which met serious misfortune in 2015. False rumors which came repeatedly in 2015 prompted investors to bargain HHS away.Only when Hoang Huy announced that a Thai big conglomerate became its shareholder did HHS prices begin rising. However, the price increase could not last for a long time.Nguyen Hong Nam, deputy CEO and member of the board of directors of the Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI), also lost big assets last year.Nam holds SSI and PAN shares. While SSI price stays at VND20,500 per share and his SSI stock value remains at VND554 billion, Nam has met misfortune with PAN. The price of the share dropped by VND4,300 per share to VND30,000 per share. He has lost VND8.2 billion.Analysts noted that Ha Do JSC had good business performance in 2015, but HDG share price still decreased in the 2015 Year of a Goat. HDG prices dropped by VND4,200 per share to VND25,600 per share, causing Nguyen Van Tho, deputy chair of Ha Do, to lose VND22.89 billion.However, while many businessmen born in the years of goat lost big money in 2015, the others made their fortune.Dang Thu Thuy, a member of the board of directors of ACB Bank, was one. As ACB share price increased by VND2,900 per share to VND19,000 per share, Thuys stock asset value rose by VND31.84 billion to VND209 billion.As BCI shares saw prices increasing by VND5,700 per share, Mui Tran Ngoc Henri, deputy chair of the Binh Chanh Investment & Construction Company, has VND32.96 billion more in stock assets.VTC
Vietnam tries to export more workers

Nguyen Van Trong from Tam Binh district of Vinh Long province

Vietnam, which has exported PhDs, specialists and farmers, has begun sending fishermen to the US.



VIetNamNet Bridge - Vietnam, which has exported PhDs, specialists and farmers, has begun sending fishermen to the US.Nguyen Thiecs family members have had a good holiday on the occasion of the 2016 Lunar New Year of the Monkey.Thiec, the familys major breadwinner, works as a fisherman in the US and can support the family with his income which is much higher than the income of other Vietnamese families.Thiec and the other seven boatmen do tuna fishing with a boat in Hawaii, for which he can earn $1,000 a month, or VND22 million.In Vietnam, those who have monthly income of VND10 million are listed as high income earners.The fishing boat is chartered by Nguyen Thi Bong, who hires Thiec and the other fishermen is valued at $1.2 million.Each fishing trip lasts two weeks. The fishermen have to go to many places to catch fish, either in Hawaii or California waters.When working on such a boat with modern equipment, we dream we can work under such conditions in Vietnam, Thiec said.Pham Tuan, a fisherman from Ha Uc Hamlet, the famous traditional fishing village, has left Vietnam for the US after the Tet holiday.In the US, Tuan works as a captain of a fishing boat and earns $1,500 a month. Meanwhile, one must speak English, have good health and obtain work permits to become a helmsman.At first, Tuan was just a sailor. But after a period of working, he has improved his capability and become a captain who leads a team of fishermen.Its good that more Vietnamese go to the US fishing. They would have more experience which would help them a lot later when they return to Vietnam, Tuan said about the future.Nguyen Thiec and Pham Tuan have added themselves to the list of Vietnamese exported workers.In late 2014, local newspapers reported that 30 Vietnamese farmers in Mekong River Delta went to Laos, where they helped Lao farmers grow rice and demonstrate rice cultivation techniques.Vietnamese farmers undertook all the works of the rice cultivation, from tillage to harvesting. The rice created was sold to the Dutch at prices which were four times higher than in Vietnam. After the cultivation, we gave back the land to Lao farmers. We got paid for our work, said Nguyen Van Trong from Tam Binh district of Vinh Long province, the head of the team of 30 farmers.When asked about the income, Trong said skilled farmers who could drive tractors and harvesters could earn VND20 million a month, while others VND6 million.The daily income of VND200,000 is four times higher than in Vietnam, Trong said.

Dat Viet




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Christopher Nolan has consistently been one of the few filmmakers who opts for in-camera effects rather than relying on CGI.

Going all the way back to Batman Begins, Nolan has repeatedly used practical, real-world environments and locations for his films. The harsh ice-worlds in Interstellar were filmed in Iceland, Inception was filmed n location in Mombasa, Tokyo and Paris whilst The Prestige used Victorian-era buildings to lend more credibility to its fantastical story.

His upcoming World War II epic, Dunkirk, is taking it one step further. The film, starring Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh is based on the true story British evacuation from Dunkirk in World War II - codenamed Operation Dynamo. In keeping with his penchant for using real-world settings, Nolan plans to use actual naval destroyers for the battle sequences.

According to a report by French nautical magazine Presse Ocean, Nolan is looking to commandeer the French T-47 Class Destroyer, Maille-Breze for Dunkirk to serve as one of the main vessels for the production. The report states that the destroyer will be towed to Saint-Nazaire in Brittany where it will be fitted and transformed into a working vessel; when completed, it'll then sail to Dunkirk to begin filming around May or June.

The Maille-Breze, however, didn't see action in the Dunkirk evacuation. The destroyer was commissioned in 1957 and served in the French Navy for over thirty years before it was turned into a museum ship.

Dunkirk is set for a 2017 release.

Header image via Wikipedia
In July of last year, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson filed for bankruptcy protection, despite having assets of up to $25 million and a monthly income of $185,000.

According to his filings at the time, 50 Cent claims that he's up to $33 million in debt whilst owing over $1 million in child support payments. Not only that, his legal team claims that expensive lawsuits pending against the rapper are crushing his financial earnings.

Yet, for all his monetary woes, he still finds time to regularly posts pictures of stacks of cash on his Instagram along with constant product placement for Effen Vodka.

Gotta keep a cool little $tash and some Effen Vodka Happy Holidays. #EFFENVODKA #FRIGO #SMSAUDIO A photo posted by 50 Cent (@50cent) on Nov 26, 2015 at 12:00pm PST

Judge Ann Nevins, who's handling 50 Cent's case, said in court on Thursday that she was "concerned about allegations of nondisclosure and a lack of transparency in the case" after the images on Instagram were brought to her attention by a trio of parties owed money by 50 Cent. The trio included SunTrust Bank, Sleek Audio and Lastonia Leviston, who won a $5,000,000 lawsuit against 50 Cent after he posted a private sex-tape of her and rapper Rick Ross to his personal website in 2009.

Leviston has not been able to collect her settlement in the lawsuit due to 50 Cent's bankruptcy claims. 50 Cent filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 13, just a few days before jurors were set to determine whether he should pay additional damages in the sex-tape lawsuit filed in 2010 by Leviston.

For his part, 50 Cent believes that he is reporting all his income honestly and that he has "has been forthcoming and transparent with all creditors."

Via International Business Times
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Yael Weissman, the widow of Tuvia Yanai Weissman who was murdered on Thursday in a terror attack by two 14-year-old Arab terrorists at the Rami Levy supermarket in Sha'ar Binyamin, spoke with Arutz Sheva about her ordeal.

Yael described her long relationship with her late husband, He was my best friend since the ninth grade. We spend our youth together and grew up together. He always put others before him, he was generous through and through  right from the start, even from such a young age.

She added that others viewed Yanai with the same kind image, saying, "I always knew I could trust him no matter what, even now I hear people say how they miss him, how he always knew the right words to say in every situation. Just his presence and the look in his eyes was enough to encourage everyone around him he knew how to be silly and make others happy.

Describing his love for Israel and his devotion to helping others, the bereaved widow noted that The county was always so impwidow asks if armortant to him, he always knew he was meant to work in security and to help others.

Yael discussed her dedication to focus her energy on raising their four-month-old baby daughter, Neta. Even though I am a widow, I am first and foremost a mother.

It is because of Neta that I have the strength to wake up in the morning and get out of bed and continue. If it wasnt for her, I would not have the power like I do now, said Yael.

Yanai would not want this to break us, said Yael in regards to the ongoing terror. He always said that we will continue with our routine  if we go shopping, we go together. We go to town, we go together. We cannot lock ourselves in our homes, thats not a life worth living.

Yael emphasized that she is not authorized to discuss what the army does, but said that Yanai was very frustrated that he had to go on regular leave without his weapon.

He told me he did not feel complete without a weapon every time he left the house. I think that if a soldier requests to take his weapon with him on leave he should at least be allowed to protect himself and others. After all, soldiers protect us.
BEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China's food and drugs regulatory body said it had suspended its electronic drug monitoring system, a platform operated by Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd, while it drafts amendments to regulations monitoring pharmaceutical sales.

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said it will seek comments until March 23 on changes to the way pharmaceutical products are monitored, including online sales, according to statements posted on its website on Saturday.

The suspension comes after Ali Health's involvement in the platform - which allows consumers to check the authenticity of medical products online - was brought into the spotlight last month.

Hunan-based pharmacy chain Yontinhe Group said last month that it was suing the CFDA over the monitoring system, alleging the arrangement gave an unfair advantage to Ali Health, which has its own online drug sales business.

Shares in Ali Health, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, fell sharply in the aftermath of the announcement, fuelled by concerns that the company could lose the right to run the platform, formally known as the Product Identification, Authentication and Tracking System (PIATS).

The company has previously stated that the platform was operated by the firm, but actually owned by the CFDA.

A spokesman for Alibaba Group declined to immediately comment when contacted by Reuters on Sunday.

China is the world's second largest pharmaceutical market behind the United States, and is a magnet for drug makers, hospital operators and medical device firms targeting a wider healthcare bill estimated to hit $1.3 trillion by 2020.

Shares in Ali Health surged in April last year when Alibaba said it was injecting its online pharmacy operations into a Hong Kong-listed affiliate in a $2.5 billion deal.

Beijing hopes to boost retail drug sales at pharmacy chains and online, and wrestle some sales away from hospitals, which currently control around three-quarters of drug sales.

(Editing By Nicholas Heath and Meng Meng in BEIJING and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI, and Richard Balmforth)
cruz rubio carson

South Carolina Republicans headed to the polls Saturday to cast decisive votes that could reshape the Republican presidential primary race.

Donald Trump won the state early on, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) garnering almost exactly the same share of the vote.

After a disappointing likely fourth place finish, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) bowed out of the race.

"I've had an incredible life, and for me, public service has been the highlight of that life," Bush said in his concession speech. "But no matter what the future holds, here's the greatest ... landing you can imagine  tonight I'm going to sleep with the best friend I have and the love of my life."

The race in the state was particularly nasty, with accusations of foul-play flying between multiple campaigns.

The Rubio campaign, for instance, criticized Cruz's campaign for allegedly making robocalls suggesting Rubio may drop out of the race. But the Bush campaign shot back that it was skeptical of the Rubio campaign's claim  and that it had reason to believe the Rubio campaign was spreading rumors about the Bush and Kasich campaigns in the state.

Read updates from our South Carolina live blog below.

9:54 p.m. EST  With 99% of precincts reporting, it appeared Rubio may eke out a second place victory, capturing 22.5% support compared to Cruz's 22.3% support.

9:40 p.m. EST  In a speech at his primary night party, Cruz praised Bush as a candidate who "didn't go to the gutter and engage in insults and attacks."

"Governor Bush brought honor and dignity to this race," Cruz said.

8:52 p.m. EST  Trump took the stage, thanking his supporters and predicting a strong finish in Nevada's Republican primary on Tuesday.

"We won, we won," Trump said as the audience at his victory party cheered.

Trump congratulated Cruz and Rubio, saying that running for president is difficult.

"It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious, it's beautiful," Trump said, before pausing. "When you win, it's beautiful."

Story continues

8:48 p.m. EST  With 58% of precincts reporting, Cruz had less than a one-point lead over Rubio for second place.

donald trump

8:41 p.m. EST  Bush announced at his primary night party that he would exit the race.

"The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision" Bush said. "So tonight I'm suspending my campaign."

Bush had tears in his eyes as he thanked supporters. Told one friend now they'll be able to get a beer. "Sorry, brother," he told another  Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) February 21, 2016

8:39 p.m. EST  CNN reported Bush would suspend his campaign following a likely fourth or fifth place finish.

Jeb Bush

8:38 p.m. EST  The South Carolina Republican party chairman projected Saturday's primary would likely set a record.

60,000 absentee voters - more than double 2012. Currently estimating 710,000 total (new record). https://t.co/nXoAkpbvYR  Matt Moore (@MattMooreSC) February 21, 2016

8:37 p.m. EST  Despite a likely sixth place finish, Carson said he would not drop out of the race yet.

Carson says "I'm not going anywhere." Next stop, Nevada...  Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) February 21, 2016

8:26 p.m. EST  Trump appeared poised to secure at least 38 of the state's 50 delgates.

ABC estimates Trump will win at least 38 of SC's 50 delegates. And may yet win all 50 tonight.  Rick Klein (@rickklein) February 21, 2016

8:16 p.m. EST  Cruz and Rubio continued to run almost equally. Cruz has a very slight lead over Rubio with 26% of precincts reporting, while Bush bumped Kasich from fourth place.

marco rubio

8:08 p.m. EST  ABC's Candace Smith noted that Bush's party did not turn on the monitors to watch the election night results on television, an unusual move.

No tvs on at @JebBush election night party pic.twitter.com/02UEUhiNUS  Candace Smith (@CandaceSmith_) February 21, 2016

8:03 p.m. EST  With 13% of precincts reporting, Rubio jumped slightly ahead of Cruz. Bush's lead also declined, falling less than a point below Kasich.

7:56 p.m. EST  As more precinct results began trickling in, Cruz's lead has widened. With 7% of precincts reporting, the Texas senator captured 22.1% support to Rubio's 20.9% support.

7:54 p.m. EST  Cruz appeared to take a very slight lead over Rubio for second. With 5% of precincts reporting, Cruz secured 21.7% support compared to Rubio's 21.1% support.

7:36 p.m. EST  CNN noted with 3% of precincts reporting, Cruz and Rubio are locked in a dead heat for second place. Bush is far below with just under 10% support.

7:28 p.m. EST  With about 1% of precincts reporting, NBC, ABC, and the Associated Press projected Trump would win South Carolina.

NBC calls South Carolina for Trump  Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) February 21, 2016

NBC, Fox and now AP have all called SC for Trump.  Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) February 21, 2016

7:24 p.m. EST  With about 1% of precincts reporting, Trump captured a significant lead, with 33.6% support.

7:09 p.m. EST  Only a few minutes after the polls closed, Trump appeared to be lowering expectations, noting that some political pundits gave him "no chance" in the Palmetto State.

People (pundits) gave me no chance in South Carolina. Now it looks like a possible win. I would be happy with a one vote victory! (HOPE)  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2016

7:05 p.m. EST  As the polls closed, CBS reported exit polls showed a tight race between Trump and Cruz, with Rubio in third.

Other exit polls showed similar results.

FIRST South Carolina exit polls:



Trump 30, Cruz 25-26, Rubio 23, Bush/Kasich/Carson 7https://t.co/xBXPRdlxAv  Taniel (@Taniel) February 21, 2016

NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump





More From Business Insider


Charleston (United States) (AFP) - Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio mounted all-out efforts to topple Donald Trump in the war for the Republican presidential nomination, seeking to steal support from the billionaire frontrunner in South Carolina -- and each other.

The state holds its crucial Republican primary on Saturday, and Trump is seeking a comprehensive win that would boost his claim that he is pulling away from his rivals, notably the two first-term senators eager to rein him in.

It is the third state-wide contest in the race for the White House, with Republican hopefuls looking to be the party's candidate on November 8 in the general election.

"This race will be decided friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, pastor to pastor, South Carolinian to South Carolinian," Cruz told about 800 supporters and others at a theater in downtown Charleston, emphasizing the importance of the ground game.

Locked in a fierce battle for second place with Rubio, Cruz is arguing that Rubio has more to lose in South Carolina, given that popular Governor Nikki Haley, conservative Senator Tim Scott, and prominent congressman Trey Gowdy have all endorsed him.

Cruz advisor Alice Stewart, a veteran of several campaigns, told AFP that Rubio would be in "serious trouble" if he failed to pull out a victory in the Palmetto State given the backing from "those powerhouses."

"The heat is on Marco Rubio to win South Carolina," Stewart said.

Rubio, speaking at a rally with Haley and Scott at his side, urged voters to choose him because "I will win this election, (and) the Democrats would not want to run against me."

"They know... that we have the ability to unite this country," Rubio told several hundred people at a high school in North Charleston, one of five scheduled stops on the eve of the primary.

Delivering a stump speech in front of a huge American flag, Rubio called for a return to core conservative and Judeo-Christian values, as he lamented the wrong turn the country took seven years ago by electing Democrat Barack Obama.

Story continues

"You're seeing the American dream slipping away," he said.

- Trump in command -

For either Cruz or Rubio to snatch the state from Trump's grasp would be a dramatic upset, by all accounts.

Trump leads with 28 percent support, but the ultra-conservative Cruz is not far behind with 23 percent, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released Friday.

Rubio is in third at 15 percent.

Highlighting the fierce battle over second-place scraps, and the blood-sport politics that have become a hallmark of South Carolina, Rubio's team warned of potential "primary day tricks" by Cruz.

"We will not allow Ted Cruz to do to Marco in South Carolina what he did to Ben Carson in Iowa," Rubio communications director Alex Conant said Friday, referring to the Cruz team wrongly telling voters in Iowa that Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who like Cruz draws evangelical support, had dropped out of the race.

Critics say Cruz's dirty tactics in Iowa propelled him to a first-place finish in the caucuses, and Conant warned South Carolinians to be "suspicious" of political reports or emails Saturday.

"We fear the worst dirty tricks are yet to come" from Cruz's team, Conant said.

Cruz and Rubio supporters alike argued that lower-polling candidates -- Carson, Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush -- ought to drop out to give either Cruz or Rubio a shot of besting Trump.

"At some point, if Trump's going to be stopped, if people want to look at it that way, there has to be a consolidation of the other candidates," Dan Brisker, 69, told AFP as he waited to enter the Cruz rally.

"They've got to get out of the way."

Cruz took a veiled swipe at Trump and his slogan.

"It is easy to say Make America Great Again," he said. "But the question is, do you understand what it was that made America great in the first place?"
Donald Trump won the South Carolina GOP primary on Saturday, a victory that places him as the front runner for the Republican nomination.

There is nothing easy about running for president, Trump told supporters. Its tough, mean, nasty, vicious. And when you win, its beautiful.

The results shook out the race, as Jeb Bush told supporters announced that he would suspend his campaign after a disappointing finish. Having entered the race as the presumptive front runner, with more than $100 million initially raised for his SuperPAC backing his candidacy, Bush never gained traction.

I congratulate my competitors who are remaining on the island, Bush told supporters, a nod to the extent to which Trump, a reality TV star, shook up the race.

The Associated Press and a number of news networks called the race for Trump about a half hour after polls closed in the state.

Marco Rubio was leading Ted Cruz in the race for second place, hoping to claim the position as an alternative to Trump, whose position atop of the field was unthinkable when he entered the race last June.

After tonight, this has become a three-person race and we will win the nomination, Rubio said.

Another candidate, John Kasich, called it a four person race, although he failed to make the top three in South Carolina voting.

We are the only campaign that has beaten and can beat Donald Trump, Cruz told his supporters.

Early exit polls showed Trump winning moderate Republicans and evangelical voters in the state.

In his victory speech, Trump did not mention Bushs exit, but he countered the notion that his rivals will benefit as other candidates abandon their campaigns. As people drop out, Im gonna get a lot of those votes too, Trump insisted.

Trump has defied notions that some of his most outrageous comments would prove a turnoff to primary voters. Instead, he has capitalized on anger at the party establishment, seizing on issues like immigration and trade and a distrust of longtime politicians.

Story continues

Trumps campaign in recent days was marked by bizarre twists, such lashing out at Pope Francis when it appeared the Pontiff called him un-Christian for his stance over building a border wall. But Trump moderated his criticism, noting that what the Pope said was more equivocal. On Friday, Trump said he was boycotting Apple products over the companys decision not assist the FBI in unlocking the encryption an iPhone from one of the San Bernardino shooters. One early exit poll ran third with late deciders.

Trumps win came after an especially nasty campaign in that state, highlighted be a debate a week ago in with he clashed with Cruz and Bush.

Adopting what have been talking points from the left, Trump criticized Bushs brother, former President George W. Bush, over the decision to invade Iraq, going so far to say that the administration lied about the presence about weapons of mass destruction. He also said that the administration failed to respond to warning signs in advance of 9/11. Trumps criticism didnt seem to hurt him, even though the former president campaigned with his brother.

Trump at one point threatened to sue Cruz for defamation over an anti-abortion ad, while Cruz seemed to welcome the litigation, and indicated that hed like to depose his rival.

The attacks continued right up until the voting began. Remember that Marco Rubio is very weak on illegal immigration, Trump tweeted early Saturday. South Carolina needs strength as illegals and Syrians pour in. Dont allow it.

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SAO PAULO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - General Motors Co will reconsider plans for new investment in Brazil if the economic and political situation does not improve, the company's president Dan Ammann said in an interview published on Sunday.

Brazil was until recently one of the world's five biggest auto markets, but it has sunk into the worst recession in 25 years and business confidence has been undermined by political uncertainty and a bid to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

"I hope to see political and economic advances in the next six to 12 months, which would allow us to stick to our investment plan," Ammann told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

Otherwise, GM would "re-evaluate," he said.

GM announced last year that it plans to invest 6.5 billion reais ($1.62 billion) in new products and technology in Brazil through to 2019.

But recession has hit the auto sector badly. Production of cars and trucks dropped 29.3 percent in January from a year earlier, the lowest for the month since 2003, and sales fell 38.8 percent, the lowest monthly total in almost nine years, according to the national automakers association Anfavea.

Despite the severe downturn, Brazil remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co and GM.

Barry Engle, GM president for South America, said in the same interview that Brazil needs changes in fiscal policy and reforms to its tax, labor and regulatory laws because it is "terribly uncompetitive."

A third of the Brazilian auto industry's nearly 130,000 workers are on some kind of furlough, as automakers struggle to cut capacity without resorting to more costly layoffs.

Ammann said it was too early to say whether GM will close any of its five plants in Brazil, two of which make components for vehicles produced at the other three.

GM continues to view Brazil as a market with great potential in the long run, but "a big change" is needed to reach that potential, Ammann said.

Story continues

"The important question is to know when we will see the stability that allows us to continue investing. We are worried because the environment is unstable and the outlook is uncertain for the next few years," he said.

Ammann suggested Brazil follow the example of Argentina, where the election of President Mauricio Macri brought a shift to business-friendly policies that are restoring investor confidence in a country beset by heavy-handed trade and currency controls.

"Argentina showed how the situation can quickly change with the right leadership of the economy," he said.

($1 = 4.0199 Brazilian reais) (Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
General Motors President Dan Ammann addresses the media during a media event to introduce the Buick Avista concept vehicle before the start of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan January 10, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) will reconsider plans for new investment in Brazil if the economic and political situation does not improve, the company's president Dan Ammann said in an interview published on Sunday.

Brazil was until recently one of the world's five biggest auto markets, but it has sunk into the worst recession in 25 years and business confidence has been undermined by political uncertainty and a bid to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

"I hope to see political and economic advances in the next six to 12 months, which would allow us to stick to our investment plan," Ammann told the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

Otherwise, GM would "re-evaluate," he said.

GM announced last year that it plans to invest 6.5 billion reais ($1.62 billion) in new products and technology in Brazil through to 2019.

But recession has hit the auto sector badly. Production of cars and trucks dropped 29.3 percent in January from a year earlier, the lowest for the month since 2003, and sales fell 38.8 percent, the lowest monthly total in almost nine years, according to the national automakers association Anfavea.

Despite the severe downturn, Brazil remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and GM.

Barry Engle, GM president for South America, said in the same interview that Brazil needs changes in fiscal policy and reforms to its tax, labour and regulatory laws because it is "terribly uncompetitive."

A third of the Brazilian auto industry's nearly 130,000 workers are on some kind of furlough, as automakers struggle to cut capacity without resorting to more costly layoffs.

Ammann said it was too early to say whether GM will close any of its five plants in Brazil, two of which make components for vehicles produced at the other three.

GM continues to view Brazil as a market with great potential in the long run, but "a big change" is needed to reach that potential, Ammann said.

Story continues

"The important question is to know when we will see the stability that allows us to continue investing. We are worried because the environment is unstable and the outlook is uncertain for the next few years," he said.

Ammann suggested Brazil follow the example of Argentina, where the election of President Mauricio Macri brought a shift to business-friendly policies that are restoring investor confidence in a country beset by heavy-handed trade and currency controls.

"Argentina showed how the situation can quickly change with the right leadership of the economy," he said.

($1 = 4.0199 Brazilian reais)

(Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
HP Elite x3 with HP EliteBook Folio

At the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Monday, HP finally revealed its grand plan to take on the iPhone, making good on a promise Meg Whitman made way back in 2012 to get HP into the smartphone market.

The company is launching a new smartphone device in 10 markets by the end of summer, including the US and Canada. But it's not another Android phone.

It's based on Microsoft's Windows 10 and it's more like what we'd call a super smartphone, meaning a super high-end, and, likely. super high-priced device.

And it's not as crazy as it sounds.

HP's new HP Elite x3 is intended to be a new category of "all-in one" device for business user that can replaces their smartphone, tablet/notebook and a desktop PC.

On its own, it's a smartphone geared for office work, about the size of an iPhone 6 plus, with a powerful Snapdragon 820 processor and a huge, all-day battery, which is 30% larger than the battery in the iPhone, Michael Park, HP's VP of commercial mobility products tells Business Insider.

The device can also be used with two kinds of docking stations. One of the docking stations allows you to plug a large keyboard, monitor, Ethernet and so on into the phablet-sized smartphone.

HP Elite x3 Dock

The other is called the "mobile extender" and it includes a screen and keyboard and connects wirelessly with the smartphone and turns it into laptop.

HP Elite x3 mobile extender

On top of that, HP is offering some special software that creates a private app store where employees can access their PC apps over their networks if their companies are already set up to do that sort of app streaming.

And when you plug the phone into a docking station, it switches from the mobile version of any app, say Office 365, to the desktop version.

Plus, through HP's partnership with Salesforce, the device will be preinstalled with the Salesforce1 app. When docked, it will switch to the PC/cloud version of Salesforce as well.

This is an interesting take on the smartphone but its not the first time the smartphone+docking station idea was tried. Motorola had a device way back in 2011 called the Atrix that did much the same thing. Reviewers loved the idea, but it was buggy, expensive and never caught on and Motorola killed the device about a year later.

Story continues

Park wouldn't comment on how much the HP Elite x3 device will cost, except to say that it will be more affordable than buying a PC, a smartphone and tablet as separate devices.

NOW WATCH: Drinking coffee could reverse some of the damage caused by alcohol





More From Business Insider


By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Radioactive material that went missing in Iraq has been found dumped near a petrol station in the southern town of Zubair, officials said on Sunday, ending speculation it could be acquired by Islamic State and used as a weapon. The officials told Reuters the material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, was undamaged and there were no concerns about radiation. Reuters reported last week that Iraq had been searching for the material since it was stolen in November from a storage facility belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford near the southern city of Basra. It was not immediately clear how the device, owned by Swiss inspections group SGS , ended up in Zubair, around 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Basra. "A passer-by found the radioactive device dumped in Zubair and immediately informed security forces which went with a special radiation prevention team and retrieved the device," the chief of the security panel within Basra provincial council, Jabbar al-Saidi, told Reuters. "After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100 percent and there is absolutely no concern of radiation." A security official close to the investigation said it had been established soon after the material was stolen that it was being kept in Zubair and controls had been tightened to prevent it being taken out of the town. "After failing to take it out of the town, the perpetrators decided to dump it," the security official said. "I assure you it is only a matter of time before we arrest those who stole the radioactive device." The material, which uses gamma rays to test flaws in materials used for oil and gas pipelines in a process called industrial gamma radiography, is owned by Istanbul-based SGS Turkey, according to the document and officials. The material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive source by the IAEA, meaning that if not managed properly it could cause permanent injury to a person in close proximity to it for minutes or hours, and could be fatal to someone exposed for a period of hours to days. SGS and Weatherford have both denied responsibility for the disappearance of the material last year. (Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra; Writing by Isabel Coles; editing by Susan Thomas and Digby Lidstone)
A Lenovo ultrabook and a tablet are displayed during a news conference in Hong Kong, China May 21, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files

BARCELONA (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group Ltd will launch a global wireless service for its mobile devices to cut roaming costs for its users, it said on Sunday.

The service, called Lenovo Connect, allows users to travel to 50 countries and use their devices at local prices on mobile internet, without installing new SIM cards, Lenovo said in a statement on Sunday.

For years, roaming or extra charges for the use of telecoms services outside a person's home country have been a source of consumers' ire as many were confronted with high phone bills after returning from holiday.

The European Union has agreed to abolish mobile roaming charges across the 28-country bloc by June 2017, requiring telecom operators to treat all internet traffic equally.

Lenovo said it could offer the service through its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) activities, which currently has 11 million users globally.

MVNOs are operators who rent access on bigger rivals' networks and tend to sell cheaper mobile plans, often without a long-term contract.

The Lenovo service will be available in China on its LeMeng X3 smartphone and MIIX 700 tablet from this month. Some users of Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops in Europe, Middle-East and Africa can start using the service sometime during the first quarter.

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; editing by Susan Thomas)
Phillips Exeter Academy

For the second year in a row, Phillips Exeter Academy, located in Exeter, New Hampshire, topped our list of the 50 most elite boarding schools in America.

The school touts the highest endowment of any boarding school in the country with $1.15 billion and is one of the most selective schools out there, accepting a mere 19% of applicants per year.

Exeter's eliteness is bolstered by its impressive roster of notable alumni, which includes 19 US senators, two tech founders, and a US president.

Known for pioneering the Harkness teaching method, Exeter holds all of its classes seminar-style, with students gathered around circular tables. Through this strategy, pupils come to class prepared and ready to discuss, and engage with the material on a deeper level than could be achieved through traditional lectures, according to the school.

Here are a handful of Exeter's most notable alumni:

Mark Zuckerberg , founder of Facebook. Since dropping out of Harvard to work on Facebook full-time in 2004, Zuckerberg has grown the social network into a $300 billion company.

Franklin Pierce , the 14th president of the United States. In 1854, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which mandated that settlers themselves could decide if slavery was allowed or not within a territory's borders. The controversial bill overturned the Missouri Compromise and angered anti-slavery activists, helping to pave the way for the Civil War.

Gore Vidal , author and TV personality. A prolific writer, Vidal wrote 25 novels throughout his life, as well as memoirs, plays, TV shows, and a flood of essays.

Dan Brown , best-selling author of "The Da Vinci Code." Brown's also been recognized for his other novels, including "Angels and Demons" and "Inferno."

Win Butler , founder and lead singer of rock band Arcade Fire. Butler's younger brother, Will, is also a member of the band, as well as a fellow Exeter alum.

Roxane Gay , author of "An Untamed State" and "Bad Feminist." Gay's work has also appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and The Guardian, among others.

Tom Steyer , billionaire hedge fund manager who founded and ran Farallon Capital Management for 26 years. Steyer sold his stake in the company in 2012 and now focuses on politics and environmental issues.

John Irving , author and screenwriter, known for "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules." In 2000, Irving won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for "The Cider House Rules."

Adam D'Angelo, cofounder of Quora. Friends with Zuckerberg since their days at Exeter, D'Angelo served as Facebook's Chief Technology Officer until 2010, when he quit to build Quora.





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Hillary Clinton.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Nevada Democratic caucuses, media outlets reported Saturday evening.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton said.

During her victory speech, Clinton also appeared to take a subtle shot at Sanders.

"Americans are right to be angry, but we're also hungry for real solutions," Clinton said.

"We aren't a single issue country. We need more than a plan for the big banks," she continued, which elicited boos from Sanders supporters watching the speech at his Nevada caucus night party.

With 80% of precincts reporting, Clinton captured 52.1% support, while Sanders garnered 47.8% support.

Long seen as a key part of her "firewall" against a surge in support for Sanders, the state's notoriously unreliable polls showed a tightening race in recent weeks following Sanders landslide win in the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton took to Twitter to thank her supporters.

The feeling is mutual, Nevada. pic.twitter.com/Z32JkpNKAp  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 20, 2016

Though early exit polls showed Clinton winning among some minority groups, including Hispanic voters, observers noted many reports may have been false. Clinton campaign staffers pointed out the former secretary of state garnered a 84 to 4 delegate lead in the five majority-black precincts.

CNN reported Sanders called to congratulate Clinton on her win.

Sanders thanked his supporters, touting his significant gains despite the former secretary of state's formidable in-state team, which has been campaigning on the ground for months.

"I want to be completely clear with you about what this result means: Nevada was supposed to be a state 'tailor made' for the Clinton campaign, and a place she once led by almost 40 points," Sanders said in a statement to supporters. "But today, we sent a message that will stun the political and financial establishment of this country: our campaign can win anywhere."

Story continues

I want to thank the people of Nevada for the support they have given us and the boost that their support will give us as we go forward.  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 20, 2016

I am very proud of the campaign we ran. Five weeks ago we were 25 points behind and we ended up in a very close election.  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 20, 2016

NOW WATCH: Watch Trump's classy concession speech in Iowa: 'I think I might come here and buy a farm'





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A military parade is seen taking place at Kim Il-Sung square in Pyongyang, in October 2015 (AFP Photo/-)

Seoul (AFP) - North Korean state media on Sunday confirmed the country has a new military chief following earlier reports in Seoul that the former holder of the post had been executed.

Ri Myong-Su, former People's Security Minister, was referred to as "chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff" when the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on an army exercise guided by leader Kim Jong-Un.

Ri Myong-Su was again mentioned in a separate KCNA report on Kim's inspection of an air force exercise.

His predecessor Ri Yong-Gil was reportedly executed early this month in what would be the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials.

Ri Yong-Gil was accused of forming a political faction and corruption, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

In May last year South Korea's spy agency said Kim had his defence chief Hyon Yong-Chol executed -- reportedly with an anti-aircraft gun.

Hyon's fate was never confirmed by Pyongyang but he has never been seen or heard of since. Some analysts have suggested he was purged and imprisoned.

Reports -- some confirmed, some not -- of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Kim took power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.

A large number of senior officials, especially military cadres, were removed or demoted as the young leader sought to solidify his control over the powerful military.

In the most high-profile case, Kim had his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek executed in December 2013 for charges including treason and corruption.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the new military chief was one of Kim's top three aides and was known to be well-versed in missile technology.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket this month, sparking international outrage.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump (L) responds to criticism from former Governor Jeb Bush (R) as Senator Ted Cruz (C) looks on during the Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada December 15, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake . SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters' editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

The Republican candidates for president are heading into a big night, and the fight to win in South Carolina is getting messy.

Polls for the state's Republican primary close at 7 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, the candidates have spent the past 24 hours lighting into each other  and trading accusations of lying and using "dirty" campaign tricks.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the South Carolina polls, tweeted on Saturday morning: "Lying #Ted Cruz just (on election day) came out with a sneak and sleazy Robocall. He holds up the Bible but in fact is a true lowlife pol!"

Trump did not elaborate on what exactly he meant by "sneak and sleazy Robocall," but he's not the only candidate to accuse Cruz, the Texas senator, of such tactics.

Trump is leading all recent polls in South Carolina, with Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio fiercely battling for second place. And with South Carolina having the potential to "reshape the 2016 contest," the candidates have become increasingly snippy on the campaign trail over the past week.

On Saturday, Rubio's campaign accused the Cruz campaign of making "false calls" that allegedly suggested the Florida senator would drop out of the Republican race.

"At last night's Clemson rally, a gentleman in the crowd fell ill and Marco brought the event to a close so medical personnel could respond," Rubio campaign adviser Joe Pounder said in a statement Saturday afternoon.

"Unfortunately, while Marco was leading the crowd in prayer, some were writing scripts for anonymous phone calls using the incident to suggest Marco was leaving the race," he continued. "These calls are false, malicious, and beneath the dignity of all South Carolinians."

Pounder called on Cruz to repudiate the calls. The Rubio campaign has not released any evidence of these calls, but Pounder said Cruz and his supporters have "flooded South Carolina with false and outrageous lies."

Story continues

"In the past 24 hours, Senator Cruz and his allies have flooded South Carolina with false and outrageous lies," Pounder said in the statement. "Having realized he has run out of positions to flip flop on, Senator Cruz has settled on a strategy to steal elections through rumors and lies."

The Cruz campaign has been embroiled in a similar controversy before. During the Iowa caucuses, campaign workers called precinct captains in the state and implied that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was "suspending campaigning." The caller instructed precinct captains to tell Republicans to caucus for Cruz instead of Carson.

Meanwhile, the campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has accused Rubio's campaign of lying about those calls.

Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz tweeted on Saturday that Rubio should "launch a truth squad against his own campaign." That came in response to a tweet from Bush's communications director, Tim Miller, who said the campaign has "reports of Rubio campaign spreading lies about Jeb & [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich at precincts on the coast."

And as Trump looks poised to win the state, Politico noted that high-level Republicans seem eager for low-polling candidates to drop out so that establishment donors can consolidate behind an alternative to Trump.

NOW WATCH: John Kasich is surging in New Hampshire, according to a new poll





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Stanford University college graduation

If you want to be successful, you should work as hard as possible and suffer, right? Or so we're told.

But that notion is completely wrong, according to psychologist Emma Seppala, science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University.

As Seppala explains in her new book "The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success," being successful and being happy are not mutually exclusive.

"We have this misconception that in order to be successful, we have to postpone or sacrifice our happiness now," Seppala told Business Insider.

Seppala has scoured the research and identified six things that she says are key to being happy and successful:

1. Live in the moment

jumping

In today's working world, we're encouraged to work nonstop in order to stay on top of everything. We're also constantly checking things off our to-do lists. But research suggests that when we're focused on the present, we're much more productive and more charismatic.

The Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the experience of being intensely focused on something while enjoying what you're doing as the "flow" state. His research suggests that whether you're an Olympic athlete or a mathematician, you are at your best when you're in flow.

2. Be resilient

When we're constantly working ourselves to the bone and feeling stressed, it activates our sympathetic nervous system, also known as the "fight or flight" response. Studies show that while short-term stress can be good for you, long-term stress is terrible for your health.

But if we can train ourselves to be more resilient to the setbacks in our lives, we're more likely to bounce back from them, a 2004 study suggests. The study found that resilient people were able to recover faster (as measured by their heart rate and blood pressure) when they used positive emotions to respond to a stressful experience.

Story continues

3. Keep calm (and carry on)

don draper meditation mad men

When you're constantly in overdrive, it can lead to burnout, which as much as half of the American workforce experiences, Seppala said. But if you take time to be calm, it can help you manage your energy.

In 2014, Seppala and her colleagues conducted a small study of 21 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Half of them were assigned to do breathing meditation, and the other half received no intervention. The group that did the meditation reported lower PTSD symptoms and anxiety a month and even a year later.

Seppala told us that breathing exercises are an "absolutely critical" part of her own life, too.

4. Do more of nothing

In Western society, we have this ingrained notion that we need to constantly be doing something, or we're not being productive. But in fact, research suggests that we are most creative when we're not at our peak alertness.

In one 2011 study, researchers gave 428 students questionnaires to determine whether they were a morning person or an evening person, and then gave them logic problems in either the morning or late afternoon. Surprisingly, they found that morning people scored highest in the late afternoon, whereas evening people scored highest in the morning.

The findings suggest that we're at our mental best when we're not especially alert or focused. So if we want to be creative, we need to give ourselves more time off.

Even in our leisure time, we tend to go full bore. In surveys, when Americans are asked to define happiness, they often use words like excitement, elation, and thrill, whereas people in East Asian countries use words like peacefulness, serenity, and calm.

Seppala recommends building downtime into your workday by alternating high-intensity activities like preparing a presentation or attending a board meeting with low-intensity tasks like organizing your desk or files. And when possible, it's a good idea to "unplug" from work completely, she said.

5. Be good to yourself

hurdles fall

We tend to assume that because we're good at some things and bad at others, we should stick to our strengths. But that's a fallacy, Seppala said.

Research suggests that a fear of failure can lead you to choke up, make you more likely to give up, lead to poor decisions such as cheating on tests or making questionable investments. It may also make it harder to pursue the career you want.

Instead, Seppala said, you should be kind to yourself, remember that everyone makes mistakes, and observe your negative thoughts from a distance without letting yourself really dwell on them.

6. Be compassionate to others

Finally, we often assume that we should be looking out for ourselves first and foremost. But in fact, research suggests that you're better off nurturing supportive relationships with others. If you have good relationships with your boss, colleagues, or employees, you're more likely to inspire loyalty, which in turn makes everyone more productive, Seppala said.

And you can actually train yourself to be compassionate, Seppala and her colleagues have found. People who underwent a nine-session training program at Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education had lower stress, were more empathetic, were more likely to help others, and were more resilient to the suffering of others.

"If you have supportive relationships with others, you end up doing well in the long run," Seppala said.

NOW WATCH: 40 years ago, NASA sent a message to aliens  here's what it says





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superman wall crash broken heroes

With economies from Brazil to China to South Africa struggling, the US consumer has been touted as the main driver of global growth.

Unfortunately, American shoppers just can't cut it anymore.

"The US consumer alone does not have the ability to right the ship," Chief Market Strategist Joe Quinlan at Bank of America Merrill Lynch's US Trust division told Business Insider.

"That means the US consumer can't drag the rest of the world back to growth. The rest of the world is getting a free ride off of us right now, but they are going to have to help themselves."

'Just isn't the powerful global engine it once was'

In a report on Thursday, Quinlan laid out the case that the US consumer no longer makes up a big enough piece of the global economy to keep everything afloat.

For example, the US share of both total imports and personal-consumption expenditures has fallen. In trade, the US once represented 20% of the world's imports, now that is just 13%.

However, with economies and markets outside of the US struggling, American consumers are being asked to do more than they can, in Quinlan's view.

"Consumption-led growth will help the U.S. economy expand by 22.5% again this year," wrote Quinlan. "Thats good but not good enough for cyclical and structural reasons to prevent further downward pressure on global growth. The U.S. consumer just isnt the powerful global growth engine it once was."

Screen Shot 2016 02 19 at 2.26.18 PM

But it's not all bad, according to Quinlan. Right now consumers are dealing with issues such as paying down debt, rising healthcare costs, and slower wage growth. And in order to be as important to the global economy as they once were, Quinlan said consumers would have to go down a dangerous path.

Story continues

"I wouldn't want us to be the single driver anymore," he told us. "That would drive up debt tremendously and mean the US consumer would be less healthy in the future. That's dangerous."

'Serious changes'

To Quinlan, for the US to stay safe, developing economies will have to pick up a heavier amount of the global growth load.

"These economies need to make serious changes," Quinlan said. "They need tax reform, serious infrastructure investments and build outs, investments in growing local business."

"[The world economy] is too central-bank dependent, not just the US, but globally," he told Business Insider. "You can't debase your currency to growth."

sri lanka construction

The biggest threat if these economies don't begin to make changes, said Quinlan, is an economic hard landing in China. In that scenario the country could drag the entire world, including the US, into a global recession.

"China and the US are now the two big boys of the global economy in terms of imports, consumption, and growth," he said. "If China has a hard landing, there is a good chance that the world could end up in a recession. We can't take the place of or substitute for China if they go down."

Quinlan said that he expects that the Chinese government can stabilize its economy, noting that the government still has "a lot of financial firepower" including trade and current-account surpluses. But without changes from other emerging economies the risks are still high.

As for the near-term outlook in the US, Quinlan thinks the recession fears "are overdone," citing the strength of consumers.

So while American shoppers can certainly keep the US chugging along right now, they won't be enough to help the world regain a growth path in the future.

NOW WATCH: IAN BREMMER: These are all the reasons a Brexit probably won't happen





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reed hastings netflix

In January, NBC and Netflix had a public spat over who was better and more relevant to the future of television.

The fight centered on the data of one startup, SymphonyAM, which NBC claimed had figured out one of Netflixs big secrets: How many people were actually watching.

One of NBCs major points, expressed by its head of research, Alan Wurtzel, was that the so-called binge-watching revolution was mostly a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

He was wrong about this, primarily because he doesn't factor in the scale of Netflix's new content operations.

The theory

Wurtzel said that after a few weeks of binge-watching a Netflix show, viewers go back to "watching TV the way that God intended"  that is traditional, linear viewing  and the impact of the Netflix original goes away.

Wurtzel finished by declaring that Netflix was not a threat to traditional TV.

Was this what the data actually said?

Business Insider asked SymphonyAM CEO Charlie Buchwalter to clarify the data that led to Wurtzels comments.

When a streaming original goes live, for people that are drawn to it in the first week, its going to take a significant portion of their viewership, Buchwalter said. They go deep. They might have substituted 20-25% of time away from normal programming. Then when you get to week two, that number goes to the teens, 15-20%, then by week three, 8-9%. By the time the fourth week comes, it kind of runs its course, and they return to other programming.

This makes sense. Because Netflix releases all the episodes of a show at once, it isnt surprising that it makes a big initial splash, and then goes away.

But thats when NBCs reasoning starts to go sideways.

The problem is that Wurtzel inherently assumes that there will only be a few big splashes (Netflix hits) a year. But if Netflix starts to produce enough quality shows, then the next "binge bomb" will go off before the effect of the last one has dissipated. And if that happens, then TV is in trouble, because there is no way Netflix doesn't steal at least some of its audience.

Story continues

This seems like Netflixs plan. In January, Netflixs content chief, Ted Sarandos, announced Netflix would release 600 hours of original content this year, including over 30 original series.

Even if some of them flop, thats a lot of first months for traditional TV to contend with.

NOW WATCH: All the new Netflix shows youll be binge-watching this year





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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio smiles as he greets supporters following a campaign town hall at the Odell Weeks Activity Center in Aiken, South Carolina February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Keane

AIKEN, SOUTH CAROLINA

Aiken isnt big. The South Carolina county boasts only 164,000 people, give or take. But in the last four daysthe homestretch of the states crucial Feb. 20 primaryall but one Republican presidential candidate swept through the area, the kind of attention counties twice its size can expect.

Stranger still, though, is Aikens uncanny knack for getting big-government-hating GOP candidates to promise big government spending.

Take, for example, this scene from an Aiken gymnasium, where crowds hankering to see Marco Rubio swelled so big, they threatened to break the fire codes. Midway through, the Florida senator vowed to shrink the federal governments size, saying, today its involved in all kinds of things that really belong to states and local communities.

Seconds after the perfunctory-sounding applause that followed, Rubio abruptly about-faced:

Look what [the federal governments] doing to this community nowthe MOX facility. It refuses to fully fund it. It made a promise, people went out and spent money, and now they say were not going to give you the rest of the money. When Im president we will fully fund and complete that facility.

The crowd hooted its appreciation. This last bit was new material; the rest of Rubios speech differed little from the one he gave in Aiken in early January.

For the non-South Carolinians out there, MOX refers to mixed-oxide fuel fabrication, a way of turning weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors. The federal government long ago named Aikens huge nuclear reserve the USs sole MOX processor, and already has invested nearly $5 billion in its construction. After massive cost overruns and delays, the Obama administration now wants to shut down the project. Rubio opposes that reversal, as did rival candidates Jeb Bush and Ben Carson at an Aiken GOP forum on Feb. 16.

Story continues

The MOX controversy is far more politically, er, explosive than the tech-speak makes it sounda battle embroiling billions of dollars, oodles of Obama-hatred, interstate hostility, US-Russia relations, 34 tonnes of plutonium, and, ultimately, the fate of one of South Carolinas biggest economic success stories.

Oh, and after this last week, the oaths of at least a few men who aim be Americas next president.

A brief history of MOX

Construction underway at Savannah River Sites MOX facility in 2012. There are still years to go before the project will be completed. (Flickr user Savannah River Site (licensed under CC BY 2.0; image has been cropped))

When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, most of America cheered. For Aiken county, however, its passing was bittersweet. Making nuclear weapons had been a crucial part of its economy since the 1950s, when the US government chose the area as a special site for making Americas atomic arsenal, christening the project the Savannah River Site.

The feds miscalculated, big-time.

Then in a 2000 arms control deal, the US and Russia agreed to get rid of 34 tonnes (37.5 tons) of each countrys weapons-grade plutoniumabout 17,000 nuclear warheads worth of nuclear material. The US slated the Savannah River Site to process the nuclear material, choosing MOX as its method. When the government finally started building the project, in 2007, the plan was to have the MOX facility up and running by Sep. 2016. The final price tag was calculated at $4.8 billion.

The feds miscalculated, big-time. The project isnt close to being doneeven with $5 billion already invested, reports Derrek Asberry, who covers the Savannah River Site for the Aiken Standard. It will cost between $800 million and $1 billion a year alone to complete, says the energy department, not counting staffing and operations costs. It could be higher; one estimate by a federally funded research group puts the lifetime cost as high as $51 billion. On top of that, its not clear who would buy the converted nuclear fuel. The longer it takes, the more likely it is that technology improvements will lower costs of commercial nuclear fuel.

Obama breaks out the mothballs

Dressed in contamination suits, three workers are watched by a crane specialist on a video monitor in a control room at the Savannah River Site. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

After years of trying to freeze project funding, the Obama administration slashed funding (pdf, p.3) for the Savannah River Sites MOX project construction in the budget it released in early February. Instead, it opts to dilute the plutonium and ship it to storage facilities in New Mexico, a move the energy department says will be faster and less expensive.

That, of course, means halting the Aiken MOX projectwhich will put the majority of the 2,000 people now employed at it out of work. While that might not sound like a lot, for a small county, such a sudden loss of income threatens the entire economy.

Much ado about MOX

Many of South Carolinas leaders are no less outraged. Among the biggest MOX-proponents are its two senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham. Its probably no coincidence that the best-connected candidates also happen to be well versed in MOX. On Feb. 17, hours after Rubios anti-MOX tirade, Nikki Haleythe states well-liked Republican governorjoined Tim Scott in endorsing the Florida senator. After dropping out of the GOP presidential race, Graham backed Bush.

Aiken county has chosen the eventual nominee every year except 2012.

Still, with so many issues to keep track of, why go through all the trouble for a mid-sized county? This is in part because its relatively high proportion of highly informed GOP votersnamely, its sizable population of old money, government workers and retireessays K.T. Ruthven, president of Aikens Republican Party who is running for a seat in the statehouse this year. Since the primary began in 1980, Aiken county has chosen the eventual nominee every year except 2012, when Newt Gingrich beat Mitt Romney in the state primary, he says.

Aiken not only has picked the nominee but the nominee has done better in Aiken than in comparison to the rest of the state, Ruthven tells Quartz. Even in 2012 when Speaker Gingrich, fresh off a debate that made the nation take a second look at him, [he] won Aiken with 49% of the voteyet statewide he only received 40%.

With such an engaged base, its no wonder that another vehement MOX advocate is Joe Wilson, Aiken countys congressional representative. (Wilson is best known internationally for crying You lie! at Obama as he addressed Congress in 2009.) One reason to keep Savannah River Sites Mox facility going, argues Wilson, is that shuttering it would cost $500 million. Another is that Obamas plan would require renegotiating with Russiasomething that, with US-Russian relationships on the fritz, might be tricky.

However, the World Nuclear news reports that Russian leaders say such an agreement is not needed. Complicating matters even more is that Wilsons biggest donors include the two companies that own the MOX facilitys principal contractor, as the New York Times recently reported (paywall).

Haleys counterstrike

Savannah River Sites P Reactor, which was deactivated and decommissioned as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act plan to shrink the sites operational footprint. (Flickr user Savannah River Site (licensed under CC BY 2.0; image has been cropped))

The governor, however, was planning an attack of her own. Even as the Obama administration prepared to cut the Mox facilitys funding, Haley had asked Alan Wilson, South Carolinas attorney general (and son of Joe Wilson), to sue the energy department for failing to pay fines owed to the state for missing project milestones. The suit hinges on a 2003 agreement whereby the department was to have processed 1 tonne of plutonium by Jan. 1, 2016, or have shipped that amount out of state. The penalty is $1 million a day, capped at $100 million a year. As of today, the feds are almost halfway to that cap.

Its unclear where the lawsuit will lead. However, even if South Carolinian Republicans manage to foil the Obama administrations MOX-cutting, it may be a long time before Aiken residents are content with the federal governments nuclear policies.

The battle of Yucca Mountain

A container of highly enriched uranium from the cargo hold of a ship arrives in Charleston en route to the Savannah River Site. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

It gets worse, though. MOX isnt even the only nuclear controversy roiling anti-Obama sentiment in Aiken. In addition to the 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium thats still sitting around, theres also more than 36 million gallons of readioactive waste, the byproduct of the bombs once made there, sitting in aging tanks. One local government official recently called these the single largest environmental threat in South Carolina.

Its the single largest environmental threat in South Carolina.

This waste wasnt supposed to stay in South Carolina. Instead, it was to go deep in a tunnel that the energy department began boring into Nevadas Yucca Mountain in 1994. In fact, one-tenth of the $13 billion invested in the Yucca Mountain project came from South Carolina taxpayers, spent under the assumption that the Yucca would soon take its nuclear waste away.

That never happened, though. Citing safety fears, in his 2008 campaign, Obama said the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal efforts were an expensive failure and should be abandoned. The project was scrapped in 2010. Its widely suspected that the administration was responding to the political priorities of Harry Reid, the Democratic senator whose Nevada constituents didnt want to harbor other states nuclear waste.

Why Aiken loves George W. Bush

Of course, the Savannah River Site has benefited the community hugely, providing not just jobs, but also helping to fund educational institutes and train a workforce skilled enough to attract companies like Japans Bridgestone tires to the area. But Aikens relationship with the site is fraught with tension, straining between gratitude for the wellbeing it has created and the precarious state in which it leaves the community.

Its not just that Aikens economy is vulnerable to the whims of the feds. Imagine living next to a gargantuan cache of atomic gunk. Even though scientists deem the Savannah River Site safe, its presence is still unsettling. This is one element of why the area loves former president George W. Bush so much, says Jane Page Thompson, a Republican community activist in Aiken. When terrorists plane-bombed the World Trade Center and Pentagon, anxiety ran high. The locals concern is that a federal nuclear facility such as theirs would be an obvious target for any terrorists targeting the US.

When terrorists plane-bombed the World Trade Center and Pentagon, anxiety ran high.

Because of [Savannah River Site], we know were on that list, Thompson tells Quartz, adding that what Aiken residents saw as Bushs calm, decisive action made them feel safe.

If Obamas new plutonium-conversion plan isnt quite as swift and efficient as he thinksor if the bureaucratic dithering continuesthe nuclear material will stay at Savannah River indefinitely. And the longer it does, the longer Aiken residents must live with that nagging existential dread of a local reprise of the 9/11 attacks.

No nuclear exit strategy

Radioactive waste is sealed in large stainless steel canisters stored under five feet of concrete at the Savannah River Site. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

In a sense, Aiken has unfairly become the default storage facility for both sources of nuclear material, says Will Williams, president and CEO of the Economic Development Partnership, an industrial recruitment organization for Aiken and nearby communities.

Theres no exit strategy for the material.

Theres no exit strategy for the material. Meanwhile the Obama administration through no other reason besides politics came to cancel Yucca Mountain, Williams tells Quartz. Thats what this election is aboutwe want to see someone who will maintain the Department of Energy facility.

That priority helps explain the unusual consensus that gels among Aiken GOP primary votersthe one that K.T. Ruthven mentioned. This focus makes sense. The next US president could indeed help grant Aiken a glimpse at its post-nuclear future. Or the status quo may linger. After all, the commitments brokered in the Oval Office never come as easily as on the campaign trail.

Flickr images used above are courtesy of the Savannah River Site Flickr page (licensed under CC BY 2.0; images have been cropped).

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Premier Kathleen Wynne hails crusaders in gay rights struggleCanadas first openly gay premier paid tribute to Canadas gay-rights crusaders as she addressed a national conference Friday in London for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations.Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne spoke about how far a city like London has come since then-mayor Dianne Haskett refused to proclaim Gay Pride in 1995, and how far there is still to go.Over the last several decades, the change that all of you have helped create through Pride has been as inspirational as it has been transformational. I probably wouldnt be standing here today if not for the efforts of so many who came before, Wynne said.My partner, Jane, was one of those people in the trenches. She was one of those people who never used pronouns because she didnt know if it was safe.For me, I came out when I was 37. Id already lived all the privileges of a straight white woman, and I was indignant at being pushed aside. That was very different than coming out in 1965 as a teenager, so thank you to those who came before me. It is because of their work that I am here.Wynne addressed Fierte Canada Pride, an umbrella organization for gay pride groups across the country, which was holding its annual general meeting in London.Though as Ontarios first woman premier, shes championed issues previously mislabelled as social concerns or so-called womens issues, Wynne said her top priority is jobs and growth.I am often asked, Whats it like being the first woman or the first lesbian premier? The truth is, I dont know. Ive never been a male or straight premier, so I cant say what the difference might be. But one way I probably dont differ from some of my straight male predecessors is in that top priority, she said.Gay pride groups bring inclusivity to cities, and that helps those cities prosper, Wynne said.Wynne, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews of London and Education Minister Liz Sandals also announced a rebranding of four programs for children and families into one-stop-shops.Ontario Early Years Centres, Parenting and Family Literacy Centres, Child Care Resource Centres and Better Beginnings, Better Futures Centres will merge under the banner Ontario Early Years Child and Family Centres, where parents can get advice, attend workshops and get information and referrals to services.
With Boris Johnson and Michael Gove on its team, the momentum is now with the Brexit Army

By Norman Tebbit , Secretary of State for Employment 1981-83 and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1983-8522 Feb 2016The TelegraphWith four months of non-stop Europe all over the media to look forward to, the appointed Referendum Day will probably come as a profound relief  even to the political junkies. No doubt until then there will be endless arguments over whether Mr Cameron brought back fundamental changes in our relationship with the EU or mere words without substance.At present I suspect that the public is fairly evenly split three ways between supporters of each of the two sides of the argument and the don't knows. That was probably true within the Government too, but the pressures of perceived self interest and of loyalty to the Prime Minister are pushing many of those who see the arguments evenly balanced, or simply impossible to assess, into the pro-EU camp.Amongst Ministers that is certainly so. The failure of Home Secretary Theresa May to live up to her reputation as a critic of the EU came as little surprise to anyone, but the loss of Sajid Javid from the Brexit cause was another matter. "Sources close to" Mr. Javid have said that he took his decision with a heavy heart. No wonder, for if I am right in my belief that regardless of the outcome of the referendum, only a Brexit campaigner would be able to reunite the Conservative Party, Javid has lost the chance to be only its second ethnic minority leader almost 150 years after Benjamin Disraeli became the first.As for Boris Johnson, he can never resist teasing his audiences and he has done that supremely well . Boris is far from without weaknesses but he will be a formidable addition to the Brexit Army.Mr Cameron put himself at a great disadvantage in his negotiations with the government of the EU by leading everyone to conclude that he was absolutely committed to taking home a deal and recommending it to the British people. Even worse, the deal he has brought home is not yet quite nailed down. The Prime Minister is adamant that the he has an assurance that at some time in the future the Treaty will be amended to "make clear" that the references to ever closer union do not apply to Britain. However any amendment to the Treaty requires the consent of all member states and who knows what, say, the Greeks might demand for their consent. Even the "emergency brake" allowing the imposition of restrictions on the payment of welfare benefits to EU citizens required the agreement of the Commission and could be upset by objections from a large enough combination of other member states.Nor have we gained the right to make our own laws, decide on our own rate of VAT, make our own fishing regulations in our own territorial waters, or decide who should come across our borders.Whilst the Prime Minister hints darkly at the perils to our security of becoming a free self governing state once again, we would be free to agree to keep the machinery of a European arrest warrant and cooperate against terrorism with our friends on the mainland of Europe. The purpose of Brexit is freedom, not isolation, and those of us who seek to return to independence resent the way in which the zealots for rule from Brussels use the word "Europe" when they mean the European Union.Darkly they hint that should we opt for independence the EU might refuse to trade with us. Imagine Germans not trying to sell us the VW cars, or the French not accepting Sterling for their cheese. Come to that, how would an Airbus look without its Rolls-Royce engines, BAE wings, or Dowty landing gear? Self interest on both sides of the Channel would keep trade flowing both ways. But never willing to stop talking down our country the anti-independence brigade then play their master card. Well we would still have to manufacture to EU standards and would have no voice in setting them. Indeed, that is right. We would. Just as we have to meet American and Chinese standards to sell in those markets.As I did my weekly shopping yesterday in Waitrose I was encouraged at the number of people who told me that they would vote to win back our independence. And that's before the Brexit Army, led by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers, Lord Lawson, Labour's Kate Hooey and the Ukip irregulars under Neil Farage have really opened fire.
VANCOUVER  The British Columbia Crowns decision not to charge a man who created a revenge website to destroy his ex-wifes reputation reveals the limits of criminal harassment law in the digital age, experts say.The Crown said it could not conclude the woman had an objective basis to fear for her safety. The website includes private photos, her address and phone number and describes her as a white supremacist, child abuser and drug addict.I do think its worth having a conversation as a society to find out whether or not objective fear for your safety is in fact the right threshold, when more and more harassment is taking place online, said David Fraser, an Internet and privacy lawyer.I dont suggest dropping it so low that you just have to hurt somebodys feelings, but maybe that line is a little bit too high in order to deal with significant cases of purposeful harassment.The case involving a B.C. man. and an Arizona woman has prompted criticism of Canadian law enforcement. While experts said the high threshold set by criminal harassment law plays a role, they also urged the Crown and police to take another look at the case.Patrick Fox, whose birth name is Richard Riess, said in an interview that he created the site about his ex-wife Desiree Capuano to cause as much damage to her reputation and life as possible, but that he would never physically harm her.He said he would only take the site down if she reached a low point in her life that satisfied him or if she died. He said it would be great if she killed herself, but it isnt a goal of the site.I just dont believe that she really brings anything positive or good to the world at all, and I dont think the world is going to be worse off when she ceases to exist.The couple separated in 2001, when their son was a baby. Capuano alleged that Fox hid the child from her for years, while Fox said she abandoned the boy. He was later convicted of perjury and deported from the U.S. in 2013, but he blames Capuano for calling authorities.Capuano now has custody of their son and lives near Tucson, Ariz. She said she lives with constant stress and fear and has struggled to find work after being laid off months ago. At one point he sent her colleagues links to the website, she said.Fox has also sent her hundreds of threatening emails, some including photos of his gun licence and a spot where he said he could cross the border, she said.I dont understand how, just because hes not physically in front of me with a gun, that its not considered to be harassment, she said through tears. Just because hes not hitting me physically, doesnt mean that its not abuse.She vehemently denied Foxs allegations that shes a child abuser, white supremacist or drug addict. She said she has not launched a defamation suit because she cant afford the legal costs.Isabel Grant, a University of British Columbia law professor and criminal harassment expert, said courts have said reasonable fear for ones safety also includes psychological safety.She noted that a recent Twitter harassment trial in Ontario resulted in an acquittal because the judge could not conclude the fear of the two complainants was reasonable. She said the B.C. case appears more egregious and could fall within criminal harassment law.When this provision was drafted in the early 1990s, people werent thinking of cyber abuse. They were thinking of men who are physically following and threatening their former partners.Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for B.C.s Criminal Justice Branch, said RCMP arrested, interviewed and released Fox in July 2015. Investigators later recommended charges, but they were not approved.This assessment included the fact that the two parties involved lived in different countries and the perpetrator had been deported from the U.S.Legislation introduced last year that criminalized so-called revenge porn did not apply because photos of Capuano with a former partner on the website did not include nudity, he added.So is this straight up stalking, abuse and harassment and should there be a sole criminal law measure to deal with this? Should it be dealt entirely through civil courts through defamation lawsuits? Or is there some in between measure?I think it's clear the law needs a review to deal with the new digital age we are all living in but, as someone who thinks the internet should be as free as it possibly can be, I'd hate to see it overdone.
...The entire world knows this is all real. If you do not acknowledge reality to my face, you are a jack(expletive) I look forward to putting in prison for persecution...
American Cruise Lines lower prices on its Columbia and Snake Rivers itineraries aboard Queen of the West.

As the only company with two paddlewheelers on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, American Cruise Lines is now able to offer the greatest range of products for all guests looking to experience these unique destinations. Queen of the West debuted in 2011 as the pioneer riverboat in the Pacific Northwest and established river cruising on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. She is being joined this year by American Pride, the newest ship on the river at only 3 years old.

The new pricing, starting at $1975 per person, is the first of its kind for American Cruise Lines, as it broadens appeal to value-seeking cruise travelers looking to experience the same desirable destinations at the elevated level of comfort and care that the line is known for.

American Cruise Lines is the largest U.S. cruise company and operator of the newest fleet of riverboats and small cruise ships in the United States. It offers more than 35 itineraries ranging from four to 21 days in length around the country including the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New England, the Southeast and the entire Mississippi River system.
In response to high demand, Jet2CityBreaks has announced its New York breaks are back for winter 2016, with trips for Glasgow passengers all on sale.

Three trips are available this year direct from Glasgow Airport, plus all breaks to New York have been extended to four-nights with more iconic three, four and five star hotels to choose from.

Flight times are again scheduled to get the most from the city that never sleeps, but this time theres even more choice available; from family-friendly departures over October half term to squeezing in every last opportunity to shop, theres something for everyone.

Departures from Glasgow Airport to Newark are scheduled as follows:

16th October 2016  Half term trip

24th November 2016 - Shopping/ sightseeing

1st December 2016  Shopping/ sightseeing

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2CityBreaks said: New York really is something to shout about, which is why we are thrilled to be able to offer customers this experience direct from Glasgow Airport. This is our most ambitious programme yet with more choice of flights and hotels than ever before. Im sure these breaks, be it shopping, October half term and Thanksgiving, will be a real cause for celebration!

Francois Bourienne, commercial director at Glasgow Airport, said: "Jet2.coms seasonal flights to New York have always proved extremely popular with our passengers.

"The fact that Jet2 is continuing to run a third flight this year is very welcome, and it demonstrates the popularity of the airline with Glasgow customers. We look forward to more good news to come and to working in partnership with Jet2.com to ensure the success of this service. 
Tourism, which is one of the UK's fastest growing industries, attracted more international visitors to the UK in 2015. VisitBritain announced that 2015 set a new record with 35.8 million visits, four percent up on 2014 and the sixth consecutive year of growth.

Visitors spent 21.8 billion in the UK last year in line with 2014's record breaking figure. When considering spending for December only last year, a new record was set with overseas visitors spending 1.7bn, up 1% on December 2014.

VisitBritain Director Patricia Yates said, "This growth is really fantastic news for the UK economy and shows we're on track to realise our ambition to grow international visits by more than 20% to 42 million by 2020, which could see an additional 4.5 billion in visitor spend, as well as driving tourism across all our nations and region so its benefits are felt across the whole of Britain."

Visits from North America, which includes Canada and the USA, the latter the UK's most valuable tourism source market, showed growth of 8% last year compared to 2014, with 3.9m visits.

It was a record year for visits from the high volume EU15 markets, with a 2% increase on 2014 to 19.9m visits.

A record was also set for visits from the Rest of the World' with 5.6m, a 6% increase on 2014.

Regarding the types of journeys made, record results were seen in the number of holiday visits to the UK with 13.7m visits, 1% up on 2014, as well as those visiting friends and relatives, 10.5m, up 7% on 2014. Visits for business increased 6% on 2014 with 8.7m visits and people coming for other reasons, defined by the International Passenger Survey as miscellaneous journey purposes, was up 5% on 2014 with 2.9m visits.

Latest forecasts from VisitBritain show that the growth in visitor numbers is set to continue this year with 36.7million visits expected in 2016.

In spite of the strength of Sterling, spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach almost 23bn in 2016.

Tourism is Britain's seventh largest export industry and third largest service sector. The industry is also a major job creator, for example every 22 additional Chinese visitors that come to Britain create an additional job in the sector. Inbound tourism is worth more than 26 billion to the UK economy.
Conservative thoughts on the issues of today
A look at our culture from on high and from the gay perspective
Emily Aulicino



Welcome to My Genetic Genealogy Blog Genetic Genealogy is a wonderful resource for the family genealogist or historian and is growing daily!

From time to time I will post URLs and books that can be helpful. My blog is my personal venture and is selective in its contents. It is not a reflection of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.



You are welcome to email me at:



Best wishes and visit often,

Emily

is a wonderful resource for the family genealogist or historian and is growing daily!From time to time I will post URLs and books that can be helpful. My blog is my personal venture and is selective in its contents. It is not a reflection of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.You are welcome to email me at: aulicino@hevanet.com using the Blog's name in the subject line, if you have any comments or questions.Best wishes and visit often,Emily

2021 Southern California Genealogy Society's Jamboree



2021 Southern California Genealogy Society's Jamboree



To Order at DNA test kit from FTDNA through this blog ...1. Click on the FTDNA icon search button (above).

...2. Enter the _(your surname here)_ surname in the upper right where it says: SEARCH

...3. On the next page, click on the surname you chose in #2.

...4. Follow any instructions. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on JOIN.



NOTE: If you are not certain there is a DNA project for your surname or if you are only testing your mtDNA (female line), put the name of an area such as CAMPANIA in the search field or wait until you receive your results and locate your haplogroup. The Campania area project is not one of my projects, but I will find you an appropriate project when your results arrive.

..........You want to join through a project to get the cheapest rates.



...........Email me if you have questions before you order your test.



Family Tree DNA - Click Logo to order a test

Presentation Topics Introduction to Genetic Genealogy: DNA Your Paper Trail

Autosomal DNA and Chromosome Mapping

Becoming a DNA Project Manager

Care and Feeding of a DNA Project

Establishing a DNA Interest Group

Writing Your Childhood and Family Memories: A simple technique

NOTE: Custom Topics available upon request

Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond by Emily D. Aulicino



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.....Your group can photocopy the handouts or I will do so for $.05 per side. If speaking within the general area of Portland, Oregon I do not charge for mileage or travel expenses. Outside of the general Portland area, I do require the IRS amount of $.56 per mile. If I need to stay over night, a motel room or staying with a non-smoking female will be necessary.

.....Although, as a member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG), I cannot ask for a speaker's fee for the Genetic Genealogy presentations, but I can accept an honorarium. This is not the case with the writing classes. $75 is the standard.

Email: aulicino@hevanet.com

.....Presentations for both the Genetic Genealogy and for the writing sessions are normally two hours, but can be adapted. I prefer an computer projector for with a screen and a table for displaying my DNA book and/or writing booklet......Your group can photocopy the handouts or I will do so for $.05 per side. If speaking within the general area of Portland, Oregon I do not charge for mileage or travel expenses. Outside of the general Portland area, I do require the IRS amount of $.56 per mile. If I need to stay over night, a motel room or staying with a non-smoking female will be necessary......Although, as a member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG), I cannot ask for a speaker's fee for the Genetic Genealogy presentations, but I can accept an honorarium. This is not the case with the writing classes. $75 is the standard.

Recommendations and Compliments Genetic Genealogy



"Emily Aulicino is one of the most dynamic people I know. Her energy and enthusiasm has helped make Oregon the largest member per capita region in all of ISOGG. Emilys educator background is apparent and complimentary to her speaking engagements which create a presentation that is easy-to-understand for any novice. Her reputation has made her an immensely popular speaker throughout the Pacific Northwest which has resulted in nationwide requests. Emily is a proven leader who welcomes a challenge. She manages many people and projects with skill and ability that can only be innate. I have the utmost confidence that Emily will excel at any task presented to her and I look forward to many more years working with her."

-------Katherine Borges, Director of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG)



Unsolicited Comments:



Barbara in Washington wrote:

I just wanted to touch base with you and tell you how impressed I was with your lectures today. They were fun and up, and you were able to explain the DNA process to me in terms that I could understand.



"Memoing" My Memories



"Memoing" My Memories - Unsolicited Testimony Rhonda in Oregon writes:

The writing tip you gave us Thursday is great! I went right to my stash of journals (I have trouble journaling, but love the books!), and made a page for every year since my birth year.

Im very excited to start writing my memories down. Thanks again for a fantastic tip!!





Anne in Michigan writes:

"So many times I have sat down and tried to write out my life's story. I got so bored with myself that I never got more than a few pages done. This method has totally changed my outlook and has renewed my lifelong interest to write about my life so that my children will have something to remember me by.

I am psyched, pumped and ready to go now!



Beth in Texas writes:

I am finding the topics very helpful in writing about things I would have never thought about before. These topics give me an opportunity not to dwell on the unhappy times in my life, and remember some of the less important, but memorable topics that I'd like to pass on to my children. I'll still write about unhappy times, but they will be sprinkled in with other memories.



Jan in Kentucky writes:

Emily, you do so very much for so many, and it is so appreciated! You also have broken my writing block, and I appreciate that...if not for you, I don't know that I would have had the heart to return to it. You truly are doing a lot of good with that list of yours and the effects will be known for years and generations for so many. I think sometimes we just need to tell you that.



Bob in Sherwood, Oregon writes:

THANKS to you I started writing my "story" last Friday. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have started it. It's all your fault...You, You, "Inspirator", You! Telling us

to write in "pictures". If I started it prior to your presentation it would have begun... "I was born on October 29, 1944 in Jamestown, New York". Needless to say you had a GREAT impact on my writing.



Bill in New Jersey writes:

Just a short note to says thanks to you, Emily, for the prompts. I especially like the way in which you write the suggestions to go along with the prompts.





Books About Childhood Memories and Family Stories As most of you know I seldom read fiction, and as a result, I am interested in books that are historical in nature and/or tell the stories of people's lives. The following list is some books that I have read which are by people I know, people who are related to me, people I have met, and people with whom I've corresponded for a time. Proudly, I have each author's autograph, and I'm beginning to think of this as a new collection/hobby of mine! .



Each of these stories have great struggles and challenges. Some are of childhood while others occurred when the author was an adult. I hope that you will find them interesting as I have. They are truly a slice of our American Life!





Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder by Mary Pacios

Son of Scarface: A Memoir by the Grandson of Al Capone by Chris W. Knight

Run Jane Run: A True Story of Murder and Courage by Jane Wells

Somehow, We'll Survive: Life in Japan During World War II Through The Eyes of a Young Caucasian Boy by George Sidline

Code Name: Copperhead by Sergeant Mjr. Joe R. Garner, US Army (Ret.), with Avrum M. Fine

Writing Childhood Stories & Family Memories Presentations Aug 21, 2008 - PEO Mtg. Chpt A-Z, Portland OR. 10:00 am, Topic: Writing Your Childhood Memories and Family Stories. Open to PEO members only. Email for more info: aulicino@hevanet.com

About Me Genealem Northwest, United States Emily is available for Presentations regarding Writing Your Family Memories and Childhood Stories. ----- Learn to WRITE ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD AND FAMILY MEMORIES using a quick and simple technique. Learn various organizational ideas and writing tips. ------- BOOK FOR SALE on writing your memories at workshops or by mail (Spiral bound; 144 pages on heavy vellum; 130 topics with writing tips and organizational ideas). Emily is also available to give presentations on Genetic Genealogy. See the following blog for more information: http://genealem-geneticgenealogy.blogspot.com/ --------- EMAIL for further details on either topic: aulicino@hevanet.com View my complete profile




The Philippines (winter 2014)Western US (fall 2011/2012/2013/2014)Turkey (fall 2010)France/Germany/Denmark/Hollan (summer 2010)Uganda/Tanzania/Kenya (winter 2010)China (fall 2009)France/Italy (summer 2009)South Africa/Lesotho/Mozambique (winter 2009)Southern U.S. (fall 2008/fall 2010/spring 2011)Spain and the Camino de Compostela (summer of 2008)Israel (winter 2008)Eastern U.S. (fall 2007)Great Britain (summer 2007)Venezuela (winter 2007)Japan (fall 2006)Croatia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland (summer 2006)Western US (fall 2005)Ecuador (winter 2005)Italy (spring 2004/summer 2009)France (summer 2004/2005/2006/2007/2008/2009/2010/2011/2012/2013/2014/2015/2016/2017/2018/2019)Iceland (summer 2003)Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia (Fall 2002)Minneapolis to Chicago (summer 2002)Bolivia (spring 2002)Scandinavia--Finland, Norway, Sweden (summer 2001)Hes followed the Tour de France seventeen times beginning in 2004 , riding much of each year's route, fully loaded, before or after the peloton and sent out regular reports during the race, also posted here.He has a long-running email list that he sends updates to every few days when he's on tour.You can write him at: george6567@yahoo.com. If you like, he'll add you to his e-list.He spends the rest of the year also on a bike, working as a messenger in Chicago.He's also an independent film enthusiast, attending or working at several major film festivals annually, including Telluride and Cannes. His coverage of Cannes is also included here in May of 2004-2015.For a "Chicago Tribune" article on George see the January 17, 2002 entry of the blog. There is also a "Hollywood Reporter" article posted October 25, 2005, and a "Streetwise" cover story posted on April 17, 2010 and stories in French newspapers the past few summers.(I'm Jeff Potter and I helped George get his blog going. I run OutYourBackDoor.com , where I report on a wide range of everyday, affordable, healthy outdoor action. I also sell some hard-to-find indy culture media and other goodies. Lotsa bike stuff!)
Captails19 wrote:

My short-term goal is to transition into management consulting (ie. S&O second-tier consulting for a firm like Deloitte) from an automotive/transportation marketing analyst background. As I have been working in Chicago for 5 years, I would like to eventually return to the area or out west (California or Colorado) where my close friends and parents reside. I am hoping to hear back from others who have already been through this process or know of others who have attended either of these schools.

Chicago or bust

Captails19 wrote:

One major concern of mine is that Owen's relationships with consulting offices is primarily with Atlanta and Charlotte. The consulting trek takes place in Atlanta. I, personally, don't know how difficult it would be to network with consulting firms outside of this area. At this point of time in my life, I don't see myself living in the south for an extended period of time, however, my priorities may shift.

Current Owen student here. I think you are in a good spot. Congratulations on the admits. First off, if your goal was just...then Mendoza would be the easy answer. However, it doesn't sound like you're all in for Chicago. You just want it to be a pit stop on your way to the Wild West, right?Are you 100% sure you want to go into consulting? Have you considered any other functional roles? Owen places folks every year in Denver in DaVita's Redwoods Program and places plenty folks in California for marketing, tech, and finance roles. It may be worth exploring what kind of placement/networks both schools have West of the Mississippi if you are not entirely sure you're into consulting or are already planning on doing a "two and out" consulting gig.Owen is a core school for Deloitte's Atlanta office. There is definitely a pipeline to the consulting scene there (also for KPMG, PWC, Capgemini, etc.). So there is a large chance that if you go to Owen, and choose to do consulting, this will be the geography where you'll find the greatest opportunity. If you're not a fan of the South, this is something to think about. I will mention that many of the students who come from California and NY to Owen each year and plan to return afterward end up choosing to stay in the South. Nashville is booming economically. The cost of living in both Nashville and Atlanta is wayyyy lower than Chicago or either coast. The people are genuinely nice. The weather gets a little warm June-August...but is absolutely fantastic for about 8 months of the year. (We all know Chicago is not the world's most attractive destination November-February...) What I am getting at is that you may LOVE it here and then still be able to move West in a few years if that's what you choose.My visit to Owen is what sold me on the program. I think the four hours you experienced gave you a taste of what the Owen community is like. I have LOVED Vanderbilt. I have nothing disparaging to say about your other options though. Good luck with your decision!
A cancer surgeon was arrested this week after she allegedly ran over a cop's foot while trying to avoid getting issued a driving summons in Hell's Kitchen. Surgical oncologist Dr. Rachel Wellner, 40, was arrested Thursday after she allegedly struck a police officer on W. 55th Street and Eighth Avenue after the cop and his partner left a summons on her double-parked car around 11 a.m.

Before allegedly striking Officer Niguel Vega with her car, prosecutors said yesterday in court that Wellner told the cop, "I am a doctor. I have patients who are dying. Im the hero, the cops are not." She also said, I dont accept a summons. The police assaulted me." Wellner, a breast-cancer specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, has been charged with reckless endangerment, leaving the scene, resisting arrest and reckless driving.

"She was saying, 'I dont have time for this. I have to get to the hospital,'" a police source told the Post about the incident. "Officers were trying to reason with her about the summonses, but she wasnt having it. So she jumped in her car as the officer was trying to cuff her, and she sped off hitting the officer."

The Post has a quick video of the initial confrontation:

After she was arrested two blocks away, Wellner complained that her cuffs were too tight, something which the Post's police source sounded unsympathetic toward: "She wanted to sound smart, like she was above us all, and she made some comment that 'Its hurting the such-and-such nerve in my hand,'" the source said. "And everyone was like, 'Just shut up and sit down!'"

Witnesses told the Post that there was no merit to her assault claims: "All [the cops] were doing is giving her a ticket. And shes yelling, 'Help me, please! God, help me! Im being harassed.' And she was not being harassed," said George Williams. Another witness, David Kenefick, added, "They werent being overly aggressive. She got crazy. She didnt act like a doctor. She acted like a moron. Shes an idiot."

After being released on her own recognizance at her arraignment yesterday, her lawyer Alan Futerfas said, "Obviously, a misunderstanding occurred."
At least 10,000 people, many of them Chinese Americans, crammed into Cadman Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn yesterday afternoon to protest the treatment of former NYPD officer Peter Liang, who was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter two weeks ago.

Protesters piled into vans and subways beginning Saturday morning in Chinatowns across the city. Yonghon Tan, a Chinese American in her thirties, took the R train from Elmhurst after the van shed lined up for was too full to accommodate any more passengers.

When I heard the result, I started reading the newspaper and looking up what actually happened, Tan told Gothamist while on the subway platform. I think its unfair to put a rookie in the most unsafe place in the city. Then, after the shooting, the NYPD abandoned him. The NYPD should be held accountable just as much as he is for what happened.

Liang shot and killed 28-year-old Akai Gurley in the dark stairwell of East New Yorks Pink Houses in November of 2014.

Many in the crowd lashed out against a criminal justice system they perceive as biased against minorities. While Liang, a rookie sent to a housing project deemed one of the most dangerous in the city, was found guilty and is facing serious jail time, NYPD officers like Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death on a Staten Island sidewalk in 2014, never get indicted.

We understand the pain among our African-American brothers and sisters, who have witnessed the killing of one unarmed black man after another in continuous succession, with no prosecutions against the officers," former City Comptroller John Liu, told the raucous crowd. That is a great injustice.

Liu continued: So in an incident where an Asian-American officer shoots his gun, not aiming at anybody, shoots it by accident, we were all shocked last Thursday, when the guilty verdict came out. But were we really shocked?"

For 150 years, theres been a common phrase in America: Not a Chinamans chance, which means if youre Chinese in America, theres no hope for you.

Community Affairs officers at the rally put the number of protesters at "over 10,000," citing how they typically calculate the number based on square footage, but that this did not factor in the throngs of Liang supporters spilling out of the park onto the sidewalk and nearby streets.

Dr. David Li, 50, a licensed acupuncturist, came by van from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn arranged by the Taishan Association of America and stood with fellow volunteers who manned a small first aid station deep in the middle of the crowd.

"Everybody thought that this was just a procedure that he had to go through," Dr. Li said by way of explanation for the lesser turnouts at events following the indictment. "And now they are putting him in jail and we see it's not a procedure."

Referring to Liangs sentencing in April, Dr. Li added, "Hopefully the judge will see this, what, more than 50,000 people?"

In Flushing, Queens, Dr. Yan Sun, a professor of political science at Queens College, took notice of the swelling crowds unable to get seats on the 20 commuter vans shuttling supporters to the rally. She went to a nearby 99-cent store to draw up signs to better direct streams of supporters to the subways. She joined the rally "after the free vans ran out."

"We were all stunned by the guilty verdict," Dr. Sun said. "We thought it was a political show and that there would not be enough to convict himeven up to the last day of the trialso we didn't take it seriously enough earlier, we didn't get involved."

A man holding up one side of a long red banner for the Brooklyn Chinese Volleyball Association, said the 30 people representing the group at the rally would be playing volleyball later at Leif Erickson Park in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

We're just regular people, he said, but we all need to show support. Peter is a victim, too."



(Christian Hansen / Gothamist)

Away from the speakers at the northern end of the park, supporters of the verdict, including Hortencia Peterson, the aunt of Akai Gurley, stood in front of a large Black Lives Matter banner, and faced near-relentless aggression and derogatory language from those who had come to protest Liangs treatment.

After earlier scuffles, where Liang supporters had apparently ripped up a sign belonging to them, the supporters of the verdict were moved to a median in the middle of the street by the NYPD. There they were surrounded on all sides by the protesters.

Peter Liang shouldnt have been allowed to kill anybody, its wrong, Najieb Isaac, a supporter of the verdict and member of the group Why Accountability, which focuses on the prosecution of police misconduct, shouted across the street to the opposing protesters. And if youre standing for that, youre standing for the wrong thing. You should be standing against police brutality and murder.

Members of CAAAV, an advocacy group in New York allied against police violence that works with Asian immigrants, who have stood with the Gurley family since the immediate aftermath of the shooting, raised their arms and chanted which side are you on? in solidarity with Gurleys aunt. The group has had several threats made against them since the verdict.

Wally Wong, 30, who works as a day trader, wore a badge that identified him as security staff. He wore a headset and portable loudspeaker on his beltto save his voice, he said. He added that he was there to protest the verdict, but later in the rally, he worked to rein in some of the angrier protesters. He continued his patrol until the park was emptied.

"We are sad and sorry for what happened, Wong said. But we are trying to send out a message: we are silent, but we are not always silent."
Police are looking for the suspect in a violent Bronx encounter last week that resulted in a man being slashed in the head.

According to the NYPD, at around 2 a.m. on February 14th, a 24-year-old man was waiting on line for a food truck near Jerome Avenue and East 174th Street in the Bronx when "an unidentified male cut the line and an argument began.The male displayed an unidentified object and slashed the male victim in the head and fled."

The victim was taken to Bronx Lebanon Hospital for treatment.

Police released video of the suspect, who is described as being 25-30 years old and 5'10"- 6'0" tall with a slim build.



Food truck slashingby Gothamist

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.
We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today
My Journey to the Pyramids
News

Biden administration is considering a security review of Elon Musk's projects

Musk recently used Twitter to announce proposals to end Russia's war in Ukraine, and also said that SpaceX could not fund Starlink internet service in Ukraine indefinitely. He later backtracked and said he would continue to bear the costs of the service.
-- 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
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Names and faces

Silverman Law Office PLLC has announced that Monica Tranel has joined the firm. Tranel graduated from Gonzaga University and Rutgers University School of Law. She has worked at the Montana Public Service Commission and the Montana Consumer Counsel, focusing on regulatory matters including communications and energy issues. For more than a decade, Tranel has been in private practice specializing in regulatory work, water law, land use and property rights, general administrative law, general business matters and civil litigation. She can be reached at 449-4829 or mtranel@mttaxlaw.com.

***

CTA Architects Engineers announced its principal ownership team has expanded to include David Koel, AIA, NCARB. Koel, who joined the firm in 2005, is a registered architect in Montana and Minnesota. He is the designer of many commercial, educational and residential projects for CTA across a wide geography; and the team leader of the firms living (residential) market. Koel received a Bachelor of Architecture from North Dakota State University in 1993, with a minor in landscape architecture. For more information, visit ctagroup.com.

***

First Community Bank has announced that Ron Trout has joined the organization as marketing officer based in the Helena office. Trout is responsible for leading all strategic and operational aspects of marketing for First Community Banks diverse market, including product marketing, brand marketing, awareness, communications and customer experience.

Trout comes to First Community Bank with more than 25 of marketing experience. Prior to joining First Community Bank, Trout was communications and marketing director at the Montana Contractors Association. Previously, he served as the marketing officer for Mountain West Bank in Helena. His other experience includes senior marketing, brand management and art director roles at Qwest Communications, Dex Media and design firms and ad agencies in the Denver area.

Trout is located at 212 N. Rodney and can be reached at 449-9800 ext 116. For more information visit www.fcbank.net.

***

Helena native and Capital High School graduate Wilson Ilgenfritz has joined the James Brown Law Office, PLLC as its new administrative and association management assistant.

Ilgenfritz brings to the firm more than five years of administrative experience gained while working for the Montana Departments of Labor and Health and Health and Human Services. Wilson is also a veteran of the United States Air Force.

He attended the University of Montana majoring in music/sociology and holds an associates degree in munitions systems technology from the Community College of the Air Force. As part of his duties, Ilgenfritz will be assisting Member Relations Director Laura Welker with the Montana Funeral Directors Association and the Montana Independent Bankers Association. For more information, contact James Brown at 449-7444.

***

Elizabeth McCarthy, B.A., B.S.N., M.S.N., NP-C, will be opening a medical clinic at 3116 Saddle Drive - Ste. 3, called Opulence Health on March 1. McCarthy is a graduate of the University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins University and Washington State University. She earned her B.A. in psychology, B.S. in nursing and a master's of nursing to become a national board certified family nurse practitioner. She has worked in healthcare for more than 18 years, mostly in Seattle and Portland, Ore., and has worked for other organizations in Helena for the past five years.

Opulence Health will provide services ranging from women's health, primary care management and various FDA aesthetic treatments to decrease fine lines, wrinkles and age-related volume loss of facial features. She is also the first in Helena to introduce Kybella, an FDA approved, nonsurgical treatment to decrease the appearance of a double chin.

For more information, call the clinic at 437-8004 or visit www.opulencehealth.com.

***

News and notes

Ascent Bancorp, as it moves to complete the purchase of First Security Bank of Helena, has announced the following individuals were elected to the companys Board of Directors:

Loren Brown (Ascent Bancorp), Mark Esponda (Dick Anderson Construction), Dr. Andy Gilbert (St Peters Medical Group), Rick Hart (retired, Mountain West Bank), Karen Hicks (retired, Energy Partners, LP), Chuck Hunter (Chuck Hunter Consulting), Bill Shropshire (American Chemet Corporation), Kim Smith (Valley Excavating), Culver Varnado (Montana Avenue Storage), Kevin Wall (Power Townsend Co.) and Ron Zeiler (retired, Mountain West Bank).

First Security Bank of Helena will continue to serve as a hometown bank dedicated to convenient, flexible, and timely financial solutions for the benefit of our customers and community.

The transition of local ownership is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2016. For more information about Ascent please email info@ascentbancorp.com.

***

AWARE CEO Larry Noonan and AWARE Medical Director Dr. Thomas Hoffman accepted a grant from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation to assist AWAREs initiative, Moving Discussion to Action: The Time Is Now, to reduce the suicide rate in Montana.

The grant will assist AWAREs collaborative efforts with the Montana Suicide Review Panel and other stakeholders in developing and implanting specific strategies to reduce the rate of suicide in Montana. Montana has the highest rate of suicide per capita in the United States.

The announcement was made at AWAREs seventh annual Big Sky Psychiatry Conference held Jan. 28-29 in Big Sky. Adjunct to the conference, AWARE hosted the Montana Suicide Review panel that discussed its findings and begin the process of charting a statewide response and action plan.

For more information about the grant, please contact AWARE COO Jeff Folsom at 449-3120 jfolsom@aware-inc.org.

***

For your convenience, the Lewis & Clark Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch, has the following tax forms in the lobby:

State: Form 2 booklets (form and instructions together) and Form 2EZ booklets (form and instructions together).

Federal: 1040 forms and instructions, 1040A forms and instructions, 1040EZ forms and instructions, Publication 17, and Tax Guide for Individuals (reference copy only). Form 2M has been discontinued.

The Library staff cannot assist with tax help, but help is available through http://MontanaFreeFile.org or by calling 457-7301. You will be asked to leave a message and receive a call back to schedule an appointment.

Other resources include: the United Way of Lewis & Clark Area. The Library has Free Tax Help brochures compiled by the United Way to help direct people needing assistance. The Montana Department of Revenue at 340 N Last Chance Gulch also has state forms. Forms can be found online at https://revenue.mt.gov/home/forms or can be received by mail by calling 444-6900.

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.
Most citizens might be surprised that under current law, lobbyists are allowed to buy legislators dinners, drinks and other gifts. More alarming, however, is the volume of and inadequate disclosure for these gifts. Most days during the session, a legislator is eating or drinking something provided by privately funded groups interested in influencing the legislative process.

I often hear from voters that they dont believe politicians care about people like them. We must do everything we can to restore peoples faith our government is of, by and for the people. Pursuant to those ends, I plan to propose legislation in the next session to change the current $50 limit on gifts from lobbyists to a comprehensive and total ban on all gifts from lobbyists to legislators. States like Minnesota and Florida have enacted similar bans on gifts from lobbyists and such measures have enjoyed considerable support.

Though its unlikely that a legislator would change his or her vote on a bill for a free sandwich, it is obvious that lobbyist-funded receptions, dinners, and other events can crowd out the voice of regular citizens who cant provide similar gifts. Over the long run, the access that these gifts provide to lobbyists has a distorting influence.

To be sure, lobbyists play an important and legitimate role in the legislative process. Thanks to term limits, few legislators have more than two or three sessions under their belts. Were also citizen legislators. We have real jobs to tend to back home outside of the four months the Legislature meets every other year  and that means leaning on guidance from lobbyists, who have years of consistent experience and knowledge on their issues.

But the influence of lobbyists can cross the line when, in addition to their expertise, they open the door to after-hours dinners, drinks and other gifts. Time is a commodity in short supply during the session. A legislator must vote on hundreds of pieces of legislation in a few months. When a lobbyist can enjoy two hours with a legislator leading up to a critical committee vote, few other citizens get equal time.

The point here is not that legislators whove accepted dinners, drinks or other gifts from lobbyists are corrupt. A comprehensive gift ban isnt about accusing any individual of corruption. It's about creating a healthy framework in which a citizen-driven democracy can function. I have attended dinner events funded by private interest groups, and Ive been consistently impressed by the integrity of those who've stepped up to represent their legislative districts across Montana. It's a hard and largely thankless job.

Last session I was proud to support Republican Sen. Duane Ankneys DISCLOSE Act, championed and signed into law by Gov. Bullock. The bill closed loopholes that previously allowed out-of-state special interest groups to spend millions in Montana politics while keeping the source of the money secret. The pernicious Citizens United decision requires us to build on the success of the DISCLOSE Act, especially since a lobbyist may now be engaged in unlimited independent expenditures aimed at influencing legislative races.

A gift ban will challenge the way things work in Helena. Our state Legislature works better than the U.S. Congress because folks with different perspectives actually work together to solve problems. Medicaid expansion, the water compact and keeping the sage grouse off the endangered species list all required legislators to reach compromises with those across the aisle. Some of those relationships undoubtedly formed in the wee hours of a downtown dive. Banning privately funded events will require us to replace them with efforts by legislators to continue to get to know one another as people rather than political opponents after work hours have ended.

I have no doubt that introducing a bill to ban gifts from lobbyists will rankle special interests, but I welcome the debate. If you agree, I encourage you to contact your legislator. It will take a massive amount of public support to enact such a law, but helping average citizens have the access to their legislators that lobbyists do is worth it. Under a gift ban, legislators can continue to benefit from lobbyists experiences  without benefiting from a free steak, too.

Rep. Andrew Person, D-Missoula, serves in the Montana State Legislature representing House District 96.
This weeks series on Montanas school building crisis has all but confirmed that if members of the Helena community want adequate learning facilities, theyre probably going to have to pay for them.

The investigative reports by Lee Enterprises Montana newspapers noted Montana ranks near the bottom nationally for the states share of funding for school construction and repair.

The primary way the state helps school districts pay for facilities projects is through the Department of Commerces Quality Schools Grant Program.

From 2011 to date, the state has funded only about $33 million of the more than $169 million requested by school districts throughout the state. Just over $30 million of that gap came out of the 2015 Legislative session, where 53 projects were recommended for grants but none were funded.

And the state predicts income for its school facilities programs is expected to fall.

That doesnt bode well for Helena Public Schools, which is dealing with an estimated $60 million in deferred maintenance costs over the next 15 to 20 years. In addition, the district is due to spend $5.5 million replacing elementary school roofs in the next five years alone.

While we hope local education officials will continue doing everything possible to bring in infrastructure funding from the state and any other external sources, local taxpayers are clearly going to be on the hook for much of the work that needs to be done in our area.

And as the Helena school district works with the public on a new facilities bond request to replace the one that failed last summer, we as a community need to realign our priorities to focus on the education of local students above all else.

Like many Helenans, we take great pride in our citys historic heritage and buildings. But we recognize that the school districts No. 1 job is to educate the next generation, and we cannot let nostalgia for certain structures get in the way of doing whats best for local children.

The National Center for Educational Statistics says schools are typically considered functionally obsolete at age 60, and district officials say the average age of Helenas school buildings is 64.

Thats not to say that all of Helenas school buildings are worthless. But the discussion about local school facilities needs to focus less on the way people feel about certain buildings and more on how to provide the environment students need to gain a 21st century education.

We as a community need to be open to the possibility that our kids may not be able to go to the same schools we did. Our discussions should focus not on how to save certain buildings in certain parts of town, but on how to save our children from an inadequate learning environment.

We need to put aside petty squabbles over the political boundaries that divide our school district, and we need to make the discussion about all of the local students who depend on us to look out for their best interests.

Most importantly, we as a community need to find a solution to this problem. Because its pretty evident that nobody else is going to.
Last year, Gov. Steve Bullock's office quietly helped rewrite Montanas political rule book -- contributing edits, reviewing drafts and nixing proposed changes to controversial regulations meant to implement the state's divisive Disclose Act.

Hundreds of pages of correspondence obtained through a records request filed by the Independent Record detail two Bullock staffers' intimate involvement in the fraught rule-making process that followed the act's passage in April 2015.

Only one of those staffers, chief legal counsel Andy Huff, was named to a 10-member public rule-making committee formed by Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, the governor's appointee tasked with drawing up regulations to implement the act, which requires disclosure of dollars spent by anonymous dark money groups.

But emails show another staffer, Bullock senior policy adviser Jim Molloy, also helped Motl craft key administrative rules, including some governing what qualifies as a reportable election activity and how those activities must be disclosed.

Regulations the pair worked on went into effect Jan. 19, despite vocal opposition from critics -- both Republican and Democrat, inside and outside Motls office -- who feared elements of the provisions were "unconstitutionally broad" and could invite legal challenges from candidates and political committees.

Finalization of the rules also came amid growing criticism aimed at Motl, a former nonprofit lobbyist who critics have called a "partisan hack" engaged in a "witch hunt aimed at Republican office seekers.

Given the questions raised about Motls motives, multiple lobbyists and nonprofit political advocates contacted by the Independent Record said they were concerned by emails detailing Bullock staffers involvement in last year's protracted rule-making process, though none said they were surprised.

At least one suspects the collaboration between Bullock and Motls offices could, ironically enough, amount to a violation of their own campaign rules.

Incidentally, to the extent that some of these regulatory definitions are so preposterously open-ended and impact the definitions of coordination and political contributions, one could argue with a straight face that the commissioners coordination with Governor Bullock on these regulations results in a campaign contribution (that is potentially excessive, prohibited, and/or not lawfully disclosed) from Motl to Governor Bullock, attorney Eric Wang, a senior fellow at the right-leaning Center for Competitive Politics, wrote in an email Feb. 10.

An independent guy

Motl, who has been called the most important person in Montana politics, said there are no circumstances under which his coordination with Bullocks office would qualify as a reportable election activity.

He had a harder time explaining how and why Bullocks top policy adviser wound up helping to rewrite the states campaign finance rules.

Motl recalled Molloy was only looped into the drafting process after a bruising legislative committee review of the proposed regulations and only at the request of Al Smith, executive director of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association and a foremost critic of several draft rules.

That's not the way Smith remembers it.

He said he thought Molloy was involved in the rule-making process from the get-go.

I wish we had that kind of sway, where we could tell people who to talk to, Smith added.

Molloy said he was first "engaged" in the rule-making process "by the governor, on behalf of the governor," to figure out how to get the rules past an interim legislative committee granted oversight of the process.

He sidestepped questions about why that process required the direct involvement of another governor's office staffer not previously appointed to Motl's public rule-making committee.

"I think you're creating a hierarchy here that really doesn't reflect reality," Molloy told a reporter. "The commissioner's doing what he's doing. ... He's an independent guy."

Influence questioned

Motls team first drafted a new, highly controversial definition of what constitutes an electioneering communication in June.

Molloy made his first appearance in the rule-making process a month later, when Bullock attorney Huff asked him to review proposed changes to a pair of verbs included in that definition.

An explanatory paragraph from Huff addressed to Molloy notes: This approach is different from the reporting category we were thinking about, but I think it does the job and creates less bureaucracy.

Only an hour earlier, Huff copied Molloy on a forwarded email that contained several revisions to the definition proposed by Smith. Those recommendations were not incorporated into final rules adopted last month.

Molloy never sent a reply to the Smith email, nor to a note -- subject line: Rules hearing -- Motl sent a week later.

In August, just three months ahead of a hearing seeking legislative approval for the rules, Molloy was called upon to review another controversial rewrite of language defining what constitutes a campaign contribution.

Critics of the new definition have said it departs from the meaning of the term as laid out in the Disclose Act.

A terse note from Jaime MacNaughton, general legal counsel for the commissioner of political practices, accompanying the draft contribution rule sent to Molloy reads: Jon (Motl) asked that I send this to you.

Granted so much access to the draft regulations and those that made them, opponents of the new rules found it hard to believe that the governor, and his politics, didnt play an outsized role in the rule-making process.

It does not surprise me that Mr. Motl and Governor Bullock worked closely on these regulations, said Brent Mead, executive director of the Montana Policy Institute, a conservative think tank. It also does not surprise me that it has taken a while for this information to come out.

This administration has a habit of keeping the public in the dark.  Good governance should mean transparency for government and privacy for its citizens. Unfortunately, what this endeavor is really about is allowing those in power to 'out' individuals with whom they disagree.

Ripe for challenges

Commissioners office staffers expressed misgivings of their own over the draft rules.

A May email from program supervisor Mary Baker highlighted her constitutional concerns with provisions requiring all potential incidental and independent political committees to file additional reporting paperwork, noting the additional disclosures could be considered a burden and will be ripe for challenges.

MacNaughton, too, seemed to sympathize with critics wariness over Montanas broadened definition of coordinated campaign expenses, noting in a September email that she thought it was a good idea to delete language in the regulation that could run afoul of precedent set in a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Those warnings went largely unheeded by the rest of the rules committee, whose final regulations include a much expanded definition of coordination and tighter disclosure requirements on nonprofits and other membership groups who might engage in reportable election activity.

After countless revisions and months of public hearings, it took a legislative poll to answer the most persistent question dogging the draft regulations: Are they consistent with the spirit of the Disclose Act?

A majority of polled lawmakers said they were, tamping down objections from the Montana Republican Party and nearly a dozen other groups who feared the rules went well beyond the clarifications and administrative guidance sought by the act.

That poll, forced by Republican lawmakers who twice sought to block the rules, came only after opponents failed to defeat the regulations at a November meeting of the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee, which gave final approval to the rules.

Some critics, including Smith and Montana Democratic Party attorney Mike Meloy, said they're mostly satisfied with the provisions now on the books.

Motl said that's evidence the process worked.

He said the rules werent unduly influenced by the Democratic governor that appointed him and would not serve to favor candidates from one party or another.

In Motls view, Bullocks role in the rule-making process was precisely as large as it should have been, given that he sponsored the enabling legislation.

Not everyone seems convinced.

In many other jurisdictions, the authority to regulate political speech is vested in bipartisan agencies, so as to guard against this type of improper regulatory motivation, said attorney Wang, but Montanas laws make the Commissioner a virtual one-man Czar of political speech.

Editor's note -- This story has been updated to correct information about Jonathan Motl's work history.
WASHINGTON  Kansas abundant wind power was poised to help the Sunflower State and several surrounding neighbors comply with new federal requirements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, those federal rules are on hold. And the uncertainty following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has scrambled calculations on how the court would ultimately decide the case.

Kansas was at once suing the Obama administration over the rules and developing a plan to comply with them, and now some state lawmakers are pushing to freeze that work.

Meanwhile, utility companies and electric power grid operators serving the state continue to expand wind power, thanks to the extension of a federal tax credit, regardless of what happens to the rules.

Kansas has the second-biggest wind power potential in the country, behind Texas. It ranks sixth among states in wind-power capacity.

Wind energy remains quite strong, said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, an industry organization. It makes sense for states to move forward.

Kansas was among nearly 30 states that sued the Environmental Protection Agency to challenge the Clean Power Plan, which would require the states reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions one-third by 2030.

Although Kansas is one of only a few states to generate more than 20 percent of its electricity from wind, it remains a heavy user of coal, which generates about 60 percent of the states power. The state imports virtually all of that coal from Wyoming.

Kansas generates about a third of the wind power in the Southwest Power Pool, which oversees an electricity transmission grid that covers 14 states. And theres room for more.

Going forward, we expect to continue to see growth in wind resources, said Lanny Nickell, vice president of engineering at Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization.

With an expanded network of transmission lines in the region, other states, including Missouri, can plug into Kansas wind energy resources to meet their own needs as well.

We havent fully tapped into the potential that our region provides in terms of renewable energy, Nickell said.

Wind energy was the fastest-growing source of new power-generating capacity last year, surpassing solar and even natural gas.

The industry got a boost in December, when Congress passed a spending bill that renewed a tax credit for wind energy production through 2019.

In January, Westar Energy, the largest utility in Kansas, ordered 122 turbines for a 280-megawatt wind farm in western Kansas. Siemens, which has a 300,000-square-foot factory in Hutchinson, Kan., will build, supply and service the components of the wind turbines.

The same month, renewable energy appeared to get another lift when a federal appeals court declined to block the Clean Power Plan. Wind energy was expected to help the states comply.

However, the Supreme Court put the brakes on the plan in a 5-4 ruling Feb. 9. The death of Scalia a few days later created additional uncertainty, because the conservative stalwart had provided the decisive fifth vote.

The rules fate may hang on whether President Barack Obama names a successor to Scalia before the next president takes office.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is scheduled to hear the case in June, but the case may not be resolved until sometime next year.

I dont want to say its a lock, said Michael Goggin, senior director of research at the American Wind Energy Association, who gave a presentation to the Kansas Corporation Commission the day before the Supreme Court stayed the rules. Were optimistic.

While the legal challenges work their way through the federal courts, some state lawmakers in Kansas have pushed to freeze the states development of a compliance plan.

In a letter to the state corporation commission Feb. 11, Republican state Sen. Rob Olson of Olathe and Rep. Dennis Hedke of Wichita requested that the agency cease all activity related to the rule and its implementation.

The Kansas Senate passed a bill with that requirement the same day by 37-2. The state House has yet to vote on the measure.
The future of the way the federal government pays out for Medicare and Medicaid is landing in Decatur.

In a movement that began more than 20 years ago, the Affordable Care Act is further exploring alternative payment models.

It began with Diagnosis-related groups (DRG), a system in which a hospital is reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems (CMS), based on the cost per diagnosis

But much of what CMS does is still done case-by-case. That's about to change, with CMS looking more to release lump sums of money to health care institutions to pay for services. The hope on CMS's end is it will put the responsibility to keep medical costs down on the health care institutions.

But to make sure those institutions aren't short-changing patients just to come in under budget, CMS is also adding a quality standard.

CMS is experimenting with a variety of payment models. A year ago, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Matthews Burwell said by the end of 2016 her department wanted 85 percent to 90 percent of payments to hospitals to be based on alternative payment models.

Many hospitals -- including St. Mary's in Decatur and others in the Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) -- have taken the initiative to become Affordable Care Organizations (ACOs).

Last month, HSHS was selected as one of 100 new Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs (MSSP ACO), bringing the total to 434 nationwide.

But CMS isn't waiting for hospitals to get on board. In April, St. Mary's and Decatur Memorial Hospital will begin participating in Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CCJR). Participation is mandatory for five years.

CCJR

According to Dr. David Baumberger, DMH's chief medical officer, hip and knee replacements were chosen for the experiment because they're the most common Medicare surgery.

"The idea is that a knee is a knee and a hip is a hip, regardless of where you are, so you should be able to get the same experience, regardless of where you are," Baumberger said. "This is the government's attempt to standardize the cost of that care."

Macon County was one of 67 areas in the U.S. chosen, including about 800 hospitals. The only other Illinois facilities participating are in the Metro East area.

In both the MSSP ACO and CCJR models, CMS releases "bundle payments" for expected health care costs based on past experience, with standards of quality that have to be met.

But there are differences. In the CCJR model, which Central Illinois Orthopaedic Center Inpatient Unit Director Sharon Norris said she thinks will eventually spread to all hospital procedures, CMS looked at what the cost has been historically for hip and knee replacements, beginning the day the patient walked in the door and running the meter for 90 days. Then it took that number and reduced it by 3 percent, according to Baumberger and Norris. That's the amount CMS will release for each knee and hip replacement.

"It's the total cost from everyone involved in that care for 90 days, from the surgery and care in the hospital, then the aftercare, whether it's at a rehabilitation center or a nursing home," Baumberger said. "If your cost is below that number -- the historic average minus 3 percent -- they send you a check for the difference.

"If it's over that number, for the first year, there's no penalty. But after that -- years two through five -- if you're over that number, you have to refund CMS the difference."

For a hospital in the CCJR model to receive any surplus, it also has to meet a certain standard of quality.

"The quality metrics haven't been totally worked out yet, but infection rates and readmission rates will be in the mix," Baumberger said. "They'll also be looking at HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, which are government-mandated and designed surveys for patient satisfaction. Basically, patients will get a phone call after they get out of the hospital asking, 'How was your care? How was your pain control? How well did doctors and nurses communicate?' Then they give you a rating."

Baumberger said DMH is optimistic about its participation in the CCJR model, though there are plenty of pitfalls. Even if the hospital stays on budget, if the cost of the aftercare takes the number over budget, the hospital is on the hook.

"It makes us responsible for coordinating the care for 90 days, is what it amounts to," Norris said.

Even with that responsibility, hospitals can't make a patient choose where to have their aftercare.

"CMS has said patients will always have choice," Baumberger said. "If a patient wants a particular nursing home, then that's where they will get to go. We can give guidance and information, but it will be their choice.

"The goal for us will be to establish working relationships with people that will help provide you with that aftercare. The hospital becomes the driver of that and helps guide patients to the best places for aftercare. If we have patients who need to go to nursing homes, we want to make sure we're working with places that have low rates of infection, great rehab and get patients home sooner."

While the CCJR model is a five-year experiment, Norris said she doesn't think it will be five years before CMS adds diagnoses to the model.

"This is just the start," Norris said.

Baumberger agreed, saying eventually a price tag will be attached to every diagnosis.

"It will start to the most common diagnoses; you'll start seeing it with cardiac bypass surgery and aortic valve replacements," Baumberger said. "But eventually, it will even be things like pneumonia."

ACO

There are multiple types of ACOs medical institutions can choose to become, with varying levels of risk and reward.

HSHS, which is composed of 13 hospitals throughout Illinois and Wisconsin, is beginning in the lower-risk model, MSSP track one.

Like in the CCJR model, money is reimbursed by CMS in a lump sum and not on a case-by-case basis.

If an MSSP track-one hospital can provide the care under budget -- and a threshold of quality must be met -- it gets to keep a percentage the surplus. But if it goes over budget, it's not penalized.

"There's no downside for us in this model," said Dan Hoodin, HSHS vice president of managed care. "In the next generation model, you say how much risk you're willing to take and the percentage of the award goes up based on that. But we haven't progressed to that one yet."

CMS has been impressed with the early ACO numbers. According to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2014, the 333 MSSP ACOs and 20 Pioneer ACOs had a combined total net program savings of $411 million. Also, ACOs that reported in both 2013 and 2014 improved on 27 of the 33 quality measures, including patients ratings of clinicians communication, beneficiaries rating of their doctors, screening for tobacco use and cessation, screening for high blood pressure, and Electronic Health Record use. Shared Savings Program ACOs also outperformed group practices reporting quality on 18 out of 22 measures.

"This is where we think health care is going to go and should go, whether or not Uncle Sam makes it mandatory or not," Hoodin said. "It's a model that focuses on the population you serve and integrating coordinated care instead of independent physicians not coordinating well. We have a history of that in health care. This is going to improve that, reduce expenses and give patients better outcomes."

While DMH hasn't become an ACO yet, it's pursuing the option. But because DMH isn't part of a larger medical group, it would be on a smaller scale.

"Big ACOs are large organizations with multiple providers across multiple specialties," Baumberger said. "We're looking at the possibility of starting out by dipping our toes in the water; starting a small ACO that primarily involves our primary care physicians.

"We've completed a readiness study to see how ready our medical group is for an ACO. It's a different model than what people are used to, so if you start small and grow over time, it makes it a lot easier."
HOUSEL: A checklist for failure can point the way to disaster and despair
By Varty Keshishian

In Hadjin as in other Armenian populated areas, home-based trades were widely practiced from ancient times; some surviving until recent times. These trades were the primary way people made a living.



Hadjin had an Armenian population of some 20,000 and was known as an Armenian town. Local trades were mainly based on the traditions handed down by Armenian trades people. Naturally, the greater or lesser development of this or that trade was based on the natural resources of a town, the lifestyle of the of the people, and their customs.

Some trades, in the passage of time, were more widely practiced, assisting production growth and the economic prosperity of the people. If trades and craftsmanship previously developed within the confines of the home, mostly to satisfy the needs of the family, some trades broke free of these confines starting in the mid-19th century, and developed in trade shops and stores, competing with so-called market trades.



While true that trades in Hadjin had reached a certain level of development, nevertheless, taking a look at the entire picture, we can say that in comparison to other Armenian centers, trades in Hadjin didnt shine as bright in terms of its opulence or variety. The development of this or that trade, to whatever degree, is directly related to local demand and consumer data. Thus, we can say while Hadjin was a center of craftsmanship, trades in general were a means of work or livelihood, and never a manifestation of life or lifestyle. To verify this, one need only count the number of traditional trades plied in the town  ceramics, weaving, felt making, sock making, woodworking, leather-makers, etc.



In fact, until the mid-19th century, trades in Hadjin remained within the scope of satisfying the daily needs of the people. One of the main reasons for this was the out of the way location of Hadjin. It was far removed from major trade routes. It also suffered from a scarcity of raw materials and production resources. Thus, it had little potential for real development. Starting in the 1870s and 1880s, certain developments, especially in the trade and industrial sectors, were observed in Hadjin as in the rest of the territory. A number of production enterprises were founded and traditional trades were given a boost  leather-making and woodworking, handicrafts and weaving.



Here, I will present those trade stores that employed the most people and had the most impact on Hadjins economy.

Tanning

One of the oldest and most developed of all the trades in Hadjin was tanning (leather-making). [1] An abundance of raw material, coupled with local demand, spurred the development of this trade, but the ancient Armenian tradition of leather-making was a larger factor. It ensured a product of higher quality and profitability.



The Tagharanots (from the Armenian taghar (earthen vessel), in which animal hides were washed) was located on the eastern side of the town along the banks of the Krded River. This trade appears to have been the best organized. The entire tagharanots was made up of 25-30 smaller trade huts and earthen vessels, where the hides, after shearing, cleaning and currying, were turned into leather for a variety of applications. [2] The soft and delicate leather was used to make womens shoes, boots, slippers and galoshes. The rough leather was used for mens footwear (shoes, boots), for saddles and bridles, and to produce leather parts for horse riding and household items. After meeting local demand, Hadjin leather-makers sent some of the excess to adjacent towns.



From ancient times, all artisans were members of one esnaf (Turkish for guild/corporation) governed by a higher authority. The esnaf sponsored all the tradespeople. Looking at some information about this body, I can say it was a very well organized independent association that united all master leather-makers, their assistants and students.
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A U.S. flag flies at half-staff in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, after is was announced that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, had died. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
MAUSTON - Leo Raymond Steiner, a lifelong resident of Mauston, passed away peaceful at the age of 93 at Mile Bluff Medical Center, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016.

Born Nov. 16, 1922, to John and Minnie Steiner, Leo graduated from St. Patrick's Grade School and then Mauston High School in 1941. After graduating, he worked in Alaska with his Uncle Louis building an air base. When World War II broke out, he enlisted with his friends in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Basic training was at Atlantic City/Boardwalk.

His first assignment was Drew Field, Tampa, Fla. While on leave, he met the love of his life, Natalie Jeanne Wright. On Dec. 4, 1943, they were united in marriage in Tampa, Fla. He was then transferred to Walker Air Base, Hayes, Kan. Upon the end of World War II, he returned to Mauston and started his career in the Postal Service, as a city carrier and then a rural mail carrier. Leo retired on Jan. 1, 1985.

Leo is remembered as a kind, caring and loving husband, father, and grandfather who loved to travel and spend family time with his children, grandkids and special friends, Richard and Marcia Jakubik and family. As a family, many summers were spent travelling the West. His loves were Yellowstone and the Black Hills. He was an avid hunter and fisherman that he shared with his family and friends.

Leo was instrumental in the start of the Mauston Food Pantry. He was a champion of children and education, which he instilled in his own children. He quietly supported an Indian Mission School, Chamberlain, S.D., and orphanage for young girls in India and St. Jude Foundation.

Leo leaves behind his wife of 72 years, Natalie; four sons, Neil (Sue), Steve (Carol), Tony (Leo A.), James (Martha) and one daughter, Stephanie; four grandsons, Matthew, Timothy, Alexander, Jonathan and nine great-grandchildren, Adam, Isaac, Phoebe, Andrei, Ivan, Olek, Elliott, Penelope, and Clementine and many nephews and one niece.

He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Minnie; two brothers, John and Robert; and one sister, Jonetta Zukaukskis.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:30 a.m., on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, at ST. PATRICK CATHOLIC CHURCH, Mauston. Friends may call from 9:30 a.m. until the time of service at the church. Burial with full military honors provided by the Burton-Koppang American Legion Post 81 and Wisconsin Military Honors Program will be at the Mauston Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be given to UW-Madison Research Foundation, Mauston Food Pantry, Burton-Koppang American Legion Post 81 or St. Patrick Grade School.

The family wishes to thank Fair View Nursing Home Staff, especially Jill, Jan, Marianne and Jackie for the care of our father.

For online condolences, please go to www.crandallfuneral.com.
MADISON  A bit about a lot of things:

Growth spurt in tech jobs: Wisconsins information technology economy kept growing in 2015, according to a sneak preview of the latest Cyberstates report from CompTIA, the nations largest IT industry trade association.

The state added 3,885 tech industry jobs  defined by Cyberstates as IT, research and development, testing and engineering services  for a total of 97,600 direct tech jobs. Thats good for 20th among the 50 states. The total is higher (149,500) when tech occupation jobs are counted. That term loosely describes non-tech-based jobs within technology companies, of which Wisconsin has 5,970.

Wisconsins growth rate in tech jobs was 4.1 percent, somewhat faster than the U.S. average of 3 percent. Thats an encouraging sign as tech-based companies start, relocate or grow in Wisconsin. The report, based on federal labor statistics, also noted tech industry wages in Wisconsin ($77,600) are 76 percent above the states private-sector average ($44,200).

Wisconsins biggest tech sectors are IT services and computer systems design, engineering services, telecommunications, software publishing and Internet services. The leading occupations within those broad categories are computer systems analysts, software developers (apps), computer-controlled machine tool operators, computer user support specialists and mechanical engineers.

The Cyberstates report does not cover most tech jobs in Wisconsin life sciences, such as medical devices, medical imaging and biotechnology, which are separately estimated at nearly 30,000 jobs. Add it all up and Wisconsins tech sectors now represent about 7 percent of the overall economy.

Tech Summit open for applicants: Its not as racy as Tinder or other match-making sites, but the third-annual Wisconsin Tech Summit will be a speed dating event for companies large and small. To be held April 25 at the GE Healthcare Summit in Waukesha, the Tech Summit will match selected emerging companies with at least a dozen major companies that may be looking for strategic partners. Its all done in a series of 15-minute meetings that may be otherwise hard to get. Visit www.wistechsummit.com to learn more and apply.

Broadband gets bipartisan push: A recent column noted several tech economy initiatives in Congress that have pulled Republicans and Democrats together to get things done. Those include the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which will help keep big brother out of your old emails and texts, and a bill to permanently end the ability of state and local governments to impose a hodge-podge of taxes on Internet access.

Another bipartisan priority is broadband.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., was among four members of the House of Representatives this month to launch the Congressional Rural Broadband Caucus. Republicans and Democrats from Vermont, North Dakota and Ohio are among other members of the caucus, which will focus attention on the digital divide that separates broadband haves from have-nots in parts of the country.

During a recent meeting in Washington, Pocan said access to quality broadband service isnt a partisan issue and shouldnt be treated as such.

Broadband access isnt a luxury, its a necessity, he said.

The Federal Communications Commission recently updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second for downloads and 3 megabits per second for uploads.

Using that standard, the FCC estimates 17 percent of Americans dont have access to advanced broadband; more than half of them live in rural areas.

Einstein was right; UW-Milwaukee helped nail it: A century ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves but the technology available at the time wouldnt allow him or others to prove it. Today, an international team that included physicists from UW-Milwaukee has proven the legendary scientist right.

Einstein saw space and time as a continuum and gravity as a curvature of that space-time dimension. Like a bowling ball placed on a bed creates a deep indentation in an otherwise flat mattress, so massive objects like stars warp space-time. Their movement creates gravitational waves.

It was all theory until a 20-year project culminated with the detection of gravitational waves emanating from the ancient collision of black holes, places in space where gravity is so intense that even light cannot escape. A team from UW-Milwaukee was involved in building the detection infrastructure as well as resolving problems in how to accurately read the data. In fact, a UW-Milwaukee graduate student was first to note the wave Sept. 14 at a detector in Louisiana. The discovery wasnt announced until mid-February.

Whats it all mean to society? For starters, it will provide a new way to study the universe. One researcher likened the moment to the evolution of silent films to talkies, meaning theres a new dimension to space discovery. Not that he needed vindication, but Einstein was right  again.
Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal 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. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

In the wake of the shooting death of a Madison woman whose alleged killer says he bought his handgun only a day before he used it, some Republican leaders contend there isnt enough time this legislative session to consider a Democratic bill to reimpose a 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases.

Fewer than seven weeks remain before the Legislatures final general business floor period ends, according to the official 2015-16 legislative schedule. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he was hoping to cut the cord in his chamber by the end of this month.

Time constraints are by far the best excuse Republicans could have come up with for dodging the 48-hour waiting period bullet  even if they wouldnt necessarily admit to why.

It doesnt take long to suspect the sessions impending end isnt the real reason time is on the side of the party that controls state government.

It was only 14 days from introduction to enactment for Wisconsins right-to-work law last year, after all. It took a little more than two months to enact a law to dismantle the states nonpartisan elections and ethics agency, the Government Accountability Board. A bill that would bar county executives from simultaneously holding legislative seats has already been approved by the Legislature, only 13 days after introduction.

The wrap-up 2015-17 budget bill amendment, known as a 999 motion, was revealed just a few hours before the Legislatures budget committee voted to pass it, and 10 days before Gov. Scott Walker signed off on the 2015-17 budget.

It included a panoply of non-budget-related items, including an ultimately failed attempt to rewrite the states open records law to severely curtail public access to government records.

When a state is controlled by one political party, state government can make big, controversial changes at lightning speed if it has a mind to.

Besides, its not like the Legislature would need to start from scratch or do a lot of research on any bill to impose the waiting period. Before Republicans killed it last year, just such a waiting period was on the books for 39 years. All lawmakers need to do is pull it out of the trash and clean it up a bit.

No, the real reason time is on Republicans side is that time heals most wounds  or at least makes people forget them.

Take the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, for example.

After 20 first-graders and six adults were gunned down in December 2012, polls showed more people favoring gun control. It took only a few months for that support to erode.

Id be surprised if state Republicans arent aware of this dynamic. Wisconsinites who generally dont pay attention much to gun laws or dont have really strong feelings about them are going to be more sympathetic to reinstating the waiting period now, not next year.

People forget, emotions level out, NRA lobbyists are deployed and life goes on.

Nevertheless, I thought two lawmakers in particular might be amen-able to taking up the banner of reinstating Wisconsins waiting period after 24-year-old Caroline Nosal was shot and killed Feb. 2 in the parking lot of a Madison grocery store.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout was the only Democrat on record to consistently vote with Republicans to advance the bill that repealed the waiting period last year. The bill itself was passed on a voice vote, with no official tallies of ayes and nays.

Rep. Mary Czaja, a Republican who supported last years repeal, made a point of saying the repeal would allow women to more easily get the weapons they need to protect themselves against stalkers or domestic abusers. It appears in the Nosal tragedy that something like the exact opposite happened.

Who better to champion a waiting period than a bipartisan duo of female lawmakers who worked against the policy but might have since seen the light after coming face-to-face with the reality of a murdered young woman?

Alas, neither Vinehout nor Czaja responded to my requests for comment.

I wish GOP lawmakers would just dispense with the diplomatic excuses and be honest. Theres no guarantee Nosal would still be alive if the waiting period hadnt been repealed, they could say, and in the absence of such certainty, the theoretical possibility of a life saved is not a good enough reason to make people wait 48 hours for a gun.

For now, I almost feel sorry for them.

A telegenic young womans murder can plausibly be tied to a law they passed  as their political opponents and, worse, the victims parents are only too ready to point out. Its a public relations nightmare.

Of course, I dont feel nearly as bad for Republicans as I do for Caroline Nosals family and other loved ones, who will be feeling her loss for a lot longer than the next legislative session.
With many GED students exceeding the average abilities of high school seniors, the GED Testing Service is lowering the passing cut score from 150 to 145.

More than 500 Madison-area residents will be eligible for their high school equivalency diploma retroactively because of the change.

The change will go into effect in Wisconsin on a temporary basis March 1, coinciding with the effective date recommended by the GED Testing Service. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction will hold a public hearing on making the change permanent from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on March 9 at the DPIs headquarters, 125 South Webster St.

The new cut score comes alongside two additional measurements. One determines a students aptitude for college-level learning with a score of 165 and the other has the possibility for college credit with a score of 175, according to GED Testing Service spokeswoman Jessica Puchala.

This is going to be a really positive change, said Beth Lewis, who oversees the General Education Development program for the DPI.

Lewis said that the national average score of those who didnt pass the test is 145, so a lot of test-takers will benefit from the change.

Even with the more difficult GED exam implemented in 2014, Lewis said Wisconsins passing rate for the last two years has been 71 percent, higher than the 68 percent national average.

The new test requires students to pass all four sections  reasoning through language arts, mathematical reasoning, science and social studies, said GED Testing Service spokesman CT Turner. In the previous test, a student could score lower than the minimum in one section and but still pass overall.

Turner said that the cut score needed to be reduced because students in the GED program were exceeding the average abilities of high school seniors.

Teachers are really coming up to the challenge, and students are as well, said Turner. We have to make sure when they get the certificate, its on par with what the typical high school graduate can do.
A pair of controversial bills targeting illegal immigrants just cleared the state Assembly with lots of drama but little practical effect.

Senate Bill 533 would limit the ability of local governments to issue identification cards in Wisconsin. Republicans fear such cards could be used to illegally vote or get public benefits. But thats theoretical, not reality.

Milwaukee has considered issuing such IDs to help the homeless and illegal immigrants open bank accounts and get prescription drugs. But not many, if any, cities, towns, villages or counties provide the type of identification the bill refers to, according to the Department of Children and Families.

So despite all the debate and division the proposal has caused, it wont change much if Gov. Scott Walker signs it. Republicans will try to use the issue to motivate anti-immigrant voters, and Democrats will cite the bills in courting Wisconsins growing Latino population, thousands of whom rallied at the state Capitol Thursday.

The other bill, Assembly Bill 450, would withhold state funding from sanctuary cities that prohibit police from asking people charged with crimes about their citizenship status.

Madison is one of the few cities targeted by the proposal. But police here say they already cooperate with federal immigration officials when serious crimes occur.

So AB 450 wouldnt have much impact, either. Its a wedge issue to divide people.

Neither GOP proposal will help Wisconsins economy, which relies heavily on immigrants to keep farms and other businesses running. The bills are needless political distractions.
Pandora, Spotify And The Future Of Freemium

Although not long ago it was everyone's favorite business model, the growth of freemium based services like Pandora has slowed, causing its financial backers to lose faith, and call into question the viability of freemium in general.

___________________________________________

By Mark Mulligan of the Music Industry Blog

Earlier this week Soundclouds financials revealed that the company was hemorrhaging cash (even before it had to start worrying about content license fees). Now news comes that Pandora is working with Morgan Stanley to meet with potential buyers. Back in Q4 2014 free streaming got a stay of execution when the majors decided to put their weight behind freemium after a period of many executives seriously considering canning the model. In 2015 free streaming was the growth story, with YouTube out performing everyone. Now though free streaming looks to be in seriously troubled waters. So what gives?

Pandoras Problem Is Wall Street

Probably the biggest problem of all that Pandora has is the story it tells Wall Street. Every year Pandora accounts for a little bit more of total US radio listening, builds ad revenue and steadily strengthens its business. But thats not the sort of story Wall Street expects from a streaming media company. Investors expect dynamic growth. But Pandora is, along with Rhapsody, the granddaddy of streaming and had 10 million users before Spotify was even launched in Sweden, let alone the US. Pandora long since passed its dynamic growth stage in the US and is now a mature business that is going about sensibly building a sustainable business.

The standard thing to do at this stage for streaming companies is to roll out internationally and find new markets where you can start a new dynamic growth story. This is exactly what Netflix is doing now that US subscriber growth has slowed. The approach has also served Spotify well. But the unique compulsory licensing structure in the US that underpins Pandoras business model does not exist elsewhere. There is no global landscape of SoundExchanges for Pandora to plug into. With the exception of Australia and New Zealand Pandora has not been able to negotiate rates that it launch internationally with.

Actually, Slowing Growth Is A Problem Too

All of which explains why Pandora has gone down the acquisition route, buying Next Big Sound, Ticket Fly and Rdio in a bid to become a full stack music company. The problem is that Wall Street either does not buy it, or simply does not get it. In fact, Wall Street does not really make much of a distinction between semi-interactive radio or on-demand streaming. The pervasive view among the investor community is that Pandora is being out competed by Spotify, regardless of the fact that there is only partial competitive overlap in terms of value proposition, target audience and business model. The net result is that Pandoras market capitalization has fallen from $7bn to $1.8bn and to make matters worse it had to raise $500 million in debt, with revenue growth slowing.

Pandora Needs A New Wall Street Narrative

In just the same way Apple needs a new Wall Street narrative, so does Pandora. Even if just to maintain some market value while it finds a buyer. The full stack music strategy should be central to that narrative, even though the real story is that Pandora is the future of radio. Unfortunately that story will take a decade or more to play out and most investors do not have that kind of patience. (Spotify, these are the sorts of problems youll be having to worry about this time next year). And, to be precise, it is the Pandora model that is the future of radio, not necessarily Pandora itself. Though the odds are still on Pandora playing that role, in the US at least.

If Pandora really does not have the stomach for seeing out the long game it should not find it too difficult to find a buyer, if the price is right. Exactly because Pandora is the future of radio, some of those big radio incumbents are likely buyers. Hello iHeart Media.

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Entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim takes the stage

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, globally recognized entrepreneur.IFAD/Giulio Napolitano

Innovation is needed more than ever to help make marginal environments agriculturally productive, says Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture.IFAD/Giulio Napolitano

Innovation investments for rural transformation

A second panel discussion, facilitated by IFAD Associate Vice President Perin Saint Ange, focused on innovative agricultural solutions to many global challenges.IFAD/Giulio Napolitano

IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze told leaders that by working together to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  starting with zero poverty and zero hunger  we can break the chain of desperation that leads to emergencies and humanitarian disaster.IFAD/Giulio Napolitano





 After a whirlwind of dynamic speakers, panels and deliberations, IFAD's 39th Governing Council has officially come to a close.During the last two days development leaders, heads of state and government representatives from all over the world discussed critical issues relating to feed security, nutrition and small farming that hamper growth and prosperity for everyone.The United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were a major focus on day one, which continued into day two.Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, globally recognized entrepreneur and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation , was featured in the IFAD Lecture that opened the session.Through its Index of African Governance, Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships and other initiatives, the foundation promotes and cultivates good governance.A vibrant orator, Ibrahim did not mince words as he offered his analysis and opinions about the direction African countries need to take in the coming years.He noted that the continent is full of potential, and that "its richest resource is its people."However, according to Ibrahim, Africans themselves, and especially their leaders, need to take responsibility for the problems the continent faces and address them quickly. Africa faces poverty, hunger, food insecurity, and a growing population of young people that are leaving agriculture and rural areas behind.Ibrahim urged African governments to increase their investments in agriculture, noting that easy profits from oil or minerals caused African leaders to neglect the agricultural sector. However, this is not a sustainable practice since "people don't eat oil, they eat food," Ibrahim said.Ibrahim noted that 80 per cent of countries had not met targets made in the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security of 2003, and that it was crucial that they live up to commitments to invest in agriculture.Though Ibrahim said there was no "silver bullet" to solve these problems, he focused much of his speech on good governance.Good governance is crucial for businesses and other organizations to invest in Africa, Ibrahim said. Businesses would not invest in an area that does not obey the rule of law. He listed a range of governance problems from corruption to poor taxation regimes.Though he conceded that businesses can "misbehave" as well, Ibrahim said that when business is a force for good, it creates jobs, prosperity, and innovation, all of which would transform the African continent.Ibrahim's speech was followed by a one-on-one session with Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, the Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA). Elouafi started her speech with a warning: though climate change is now universally recognized, there will be grave consequences if we do not realize how widespread and damaging its impact is."We have huge challenges ahead, and we need to act, " said Elouafi.Elouafi spoke about a broad number of topics, including gender equality and education. Elouafi was optimistic about the future, saying that she believes the SDGs are within reach."I am confident that we can achieve the SDGs because the demand is there," said Elouafi. But to get there, much has to be changed.One of Elouafi's main critiques of how smallholder farming is approached concerned the flaw in research and development. Elouafi said that most research and development is carried out in the West and then applied elsewhere.She believes that, to produce the best results, development programmes must be devised where the problem is happening. "We need to have much more customized research and solutions for each region," she noted.Elouafi also spoke about how farmers are leaving agriculture because they are not being given the the opportunity to innovate or expand into new areas.According to Elouafi, in order to reach "the agriculture of tomorrow," we must continue to innovate.This message was underscored by the next panel, on Innovation Investments in Rural Development.Moderated by Perin Saint-Ange, Associate Vice-President of IFAD's Programme Management Department (PMD), the panel featured IFAD experts discussing innovative investments in four different regions.Elizabeth Ssendiwala, the Regional Gender Coordinator for the East and Southern Africa Division, described how IFAD is addressing gender equality by looking at the household as a whole. In response to a question posed from the audience, Ssendiwala said: "Gender equality is not about empowering women alone, but rather every member of the household."Glayson Ferrari Dos Santos, Country Director for El Salvador, Latin America and the Caribbean Division, spoke at length about the youth in Central America and the problems they face.He believes that rural youth in El Salvador want to help transform the areas they call home, but are not often given the opportunity to do so."Young people have to be part of the solution, and not seen as part of the problem," Dos Santos said. Concerning agriculture, Dos Santos said he found that the youth were willing to work in the industry, but they wanted to break away from traditional farming practices.Ronald Hartman, Country Director of Indonesia, Asia and the Pacific Division, agreed with this idea of doing things differently. He believed that, by incorporating new technologies, farming can be made more attractive, more efficient and less laborious.Hartman also spoke about working in Indonesia, and how changes in IFAD's structure allowed the conversation to shift from being all about finances to finding out ways to innovate and support the nations development strategy.Jacopo Monzini, the Senior Technical Specialist for the Environment and Climate Division, also discussed innovation, focusing on the ways IFAD is using GIS and earth observation to get a clearer picture of land use and environmental degradation, scaled down to the project area.After the Chairman read a summary of the discussion in the Governor's Round Table the previous day, IFAD President Kanayo Nwanze delivered his closing statement.Nwanze thanked the governors and delegates for their time and devotion, and summarized the preceding of the last two days.Nwanze told the room that by working together to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  starting with zero poverty and zero hunger  we can break the chain of desperation that leads to emergencies and humanitarian disaster.Nwanze reminded us all that there was much more work to be done and that we must continue to work together towards long-term solutions.Or, as Nwanze aptly put it: "Our world is one world."
The death toll from multiple bomb blasts in a southern district of Damacus, claimed by Islamic State on Sunday, reached at least 62, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Residents and soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad inspect damage after a suicide attack in Sayeda Zeinab, a district of southern Damascus, Syria January 31, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)

By Reuters: About 62 people were killed in four bomb attacks that hit a southern suburb of Damascus on Sunday, pro-government media outlets and a monitoring group said.

Syrian state TV put the toll at 30 people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was at least 31 with dozens more injured.

Al Manar TV, which is run by Damascus ally Lebanese Hezbollah, gave an initial count of 22 killed.

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The bomb blasts in a southern district of Damacus has been claimed by Islamic State.

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Obama phones Putin, asks him to stop Russian jets bombing Syria





--- ENDS ---
The ongoing war of words between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has taken a new twist with the Congress accusing the latter of receiving luxury cars and watches as gifts from Dubai based businessmen.

By Mail Today: The ongoing war of words between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has taken a new twist with the Congress accusing the latter of receiving luxury cars and watches as gifts from Dubai based businessmen.

"They call themselves as representatives of the humble farmer. Then why did Kumaraswamy receive high-end luxury cars and watches as gifts from Dubai based businessmen? Let him come out clean with the list of gifts that he received from people," said Congress spokesperson VS Ugrappa.

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The Congress released a list of gifts that Kumaraswamy allegedly received from his followers and said they had evidence to prove their claims. They include a Lamborghini car worth Rs 8 crore, Range Rover car worth Rs 3 crore, Infinity car worth Rs 1.2 crore, diamond-studded watch worth Rs 50 lakh and four more luxury watch brands worth Rs 49 lakh.

"Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil uses these cars and we have seen the former CM flaunting these expensive items. We have documentary evidences to prove that his family owns these highend cars. He should reveal the names of people who gifted them these cars and watches," Ugrappa added.

Ugrappa further alleged that Kumaraswamy received the luxury gifts in return for favours from businessmen. "We like to hear from Kumaraswamy the benefits he showered on people who gave them these gifts," he said.

Kumaraswamy, however, has not reacted to the latest allegations made against him by the Congress leaders.

Also Read:

Siddaramaiah should declare his gifts: BJP



How much does Karnataka CM's wrist watch cost? Just 70,00,000 rupees!

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Water supply hit, schools to remain closed in Delhi on Monday due to Haryana jat protests

All government and private schools will remain closed tomorrow in Delhi as the national capital is facing severe water crisis due to Jat protests in neighbouring Haryana.

Gunman opens fire in Michigan, 6 killed

As many as six people were reportedly shot and killed in Michigan on Saturday night in a series of apparently random shootings, according to media reports.



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India-Sri Lanka Ranchi T20I breaks 5-year viewership record

The second game of the recently concluded three-match T20 series between India and Sri Lanka was the most viewed T20 match in the past five years.

Zee Cine Awards 2016: Salman Khan to Deepika Padukone, here's the complete list of the winners

Zee Cine Awards, which was held on Saturday night (February 20), was a star-studded affair. From stars walking the red carpet to actors sweeping away the trophies, the award ceremony seemed to be fun-filled night for the B-Town celebs.

--- ENDS ---
Airlines are charging anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 55,000 for the one-hour flight between Delhi and Chandigarh.

By India Today Web Desk: Amid the Jat community's agitation for job quota, which led to the obstruction of the Delhi-Chandigarh highway, private airlines have hiked their fares 15-20 times.

Since Saturday, the airlines were charging anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 55,000 for the one-hour flight between Delhi and Chandigarh, as against the fare of Rs 2,500-Rs 3,000 on normal days.

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"Indeed, the air fare for travelling between Delhi and Chandigarh has soared to almost 15-20 times the actual rates. But, the demand is no less as there are only four airlines providing the service," said Amit Singh, assistant team leader of Flight Shop, a travel agency.

He named Air India, Jet Airways, Spice Jet and Indigo as those four airlines which service Chandigarh.

Singh said there is no cap on fares, allowing the airlines to go in for multi fold hikes in such crisis situations, unlike in normal times when the effort is to keep charges low to attract more and more passengers.

A statement from the aviation ministry said two extra flights were added by Air India between Chandigarh and Delhi. One extra flight by Indigo, three by Spice Jet, and one by Jet Airways will be added to ease the rush for air travel on this route.

Jitendra Guleria, director of Shagul Travels, said, "Even if the fares are high, people are buying the tickets at the available cost as there is no other option."

Noting that there has been 70 per cent rise in demand for the Delhi-Chandigarh air tickets, he said, "There are a lot of people who have to catch their international flights from Delhi, because of which they have to be in the national capital at any cost," IANS reported.

Guleria said air fares between Delhi and Chandigarh will continue to rise until the aviation ministry facilitates more flights.

The Jat community's agitation in Haryana has led to obstruction of railway tracks and arterial roads. The agitators have blocked the national highway between Delhi and Chandigarh at Jhajjar, Panipat and Sonipat. Trains and buses to and from Delhi and other places have been cancelled.

Piyush Rana of Sunshine Air and Train Ticketers, blamed the sky-rocketing air fares on a lack of regulation.

"The private companies operate according to their own will and market situations. Similar situation was witnessed during the Chennai floods and Nepal earthquake when the price of air travel between Chennai and other cities had soared 20-30 times," Rana said.

ALSO READ



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Delhi braces for major crisis as Jats intensify reservation protest Jat reservation stir Day 3: 5 killed, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar appeals for peace



--- ENDS ---
Modi recalled the contributions of Sri Chaitanya, Sri Shankar Dev and Thiruvalluvar in cleansing the society of evils.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Bhakti movement, with its inherent quality to stand up and fight against evil forces, had acted as the foundation for the country's freedom struggle.

"If we see India's freedom struggle, many great personalities who fought for the country's freedom come mind. No one can belittle their sacrifices. But we cannot forget that the Bhakti movement had formed the foundation of the freedom struggle of our country," Modi said after inaugurating the centenary celebration of Sri Gaudiya Math and Mission, PTI reported.

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Modi recalled the contributions of Sri Chaitanya, Sri Shankar Dev and Thiruvalluvar in cleansing the society of evils. In pics



"Bharat has faced several external attacks over centuries, but its spiritual basis could not be dented," the Prime Minister said, adding the Bhakti movement had kept the spiritual mind alive among the people to fight against evil forces.

Noting that even 400 years back there was the issue of corruption, he said people's representatives should first care for the masses and should not allow any kind of haughtiness to grow within them.

"Bad things come up within the society at times and forces also come up from within to fight against such forces," the Prime Minister said, while alluding to personalities like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar during the Bengal Renaissance period.

"It is our spirituality that binds the country together, not communities," Modi said.

"We are not people bound by communities. Communities come and go with time, but we are bound by an unbreakable bond of spirituality. This is what provides us strength," the Prime Minister said.

West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi, Tripura Governor Tathagatha Roy and West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim were present.

Modi later visited the Gaudiya Mission at Baghbazar area of the city and met the monks there.

Gaudiya Mission is an old missionary organisation that spreads the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

From there, the PM went to the airport where West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saw him off.

BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha, who was also present at the airport, told reporters that Modi and Banerjee exchanged pleasantries before he boarded the plane.

No formal meeting took place between the two, Sinha said.

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PM Modi declines to accept honorary doctorate from BHU



--- ENDS ---
The BJP and the Narendra Modi government are in no mood to relent on the nationalism debate sparked in the wake of the Afzal Guru commemoration row that erupted on JNU campus on February 9.

By Siddhartha Rai: The BJP has planned a sustained offensive in Parliament from Tuesday on the Afzal Guru show in JNU. Sensing a groundswell of public support, it is keen to have an aggressive debate in which even the Prime Minister may intervene, say party sources.

The BJP and the Narendra Modi government are in no mood to relent on the nationalism debate sparked in the wake of the Afzal Guru commemoration row that erupted on JNU campus on February 9 (MAIL TODAY was the first to report it). The controversy escalated after the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges and the violence that followed at the Patiala House Courts Complex on two occasions when Kanhaiya was produced.

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According to highly placed sources in the BJP, the party has decided to assume an aggressive approach both "within and without the Parliament" on the JNU row and the nationalism issue. Party functionaries who did not want to be named told MAIL TODAY that BJP MPs in both Houses had already placed their request for a discussion on the Afzal Guru-JNU incident and on the testimony of terrorist David Coleman Headley, especially pertaining to parts relating to Ishrat Jahan, the Mumbai girl who was allegedly part of an LeT cell and who was gunned down in a controversial encounter in 2004.

In another move that could see the aggressive stance of the government, BJP sources also hinted that PM Modi himself may step into the debate in Parliament. Though parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi parried a MAIL TODAY question in this regard, he said the PM could intervene in the debate if needed.

"Our primary concern in the coming Parliament session will be to get legislations passed, but we have also conveyed to the Opposition that we are ready for a debate on other issues if they want. The PM may intervene in the debate if needed and if he thinks so," said Naqvi.

The BJP is already running a three-day campaign, 'Jan Swabhiman Abhiyan'. As part of the campaign, from February 18-20, the party has planned to go to the people to educate them about "such antinational activities" as the celebration of terrorists Guru and Maqbool Bhat in JNU, a leader said.

The ruling party feels there is overwhelming support on the ground for its stance on nationalism, although a section of the liberal intelligentsia has severely criticised it.

Also, the government feels the nationalism will put the Opposition in a dilemma. They may not want to be seen arguing against nationalism and for those who raised anti-India slogans.

"We are telling the people of the country that we will not accept anti-nationalism and we cannot allow such activities to continue in future. We are running the campaign from such grassroots level as mandals, the smallest units of the party," said BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

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The party has made a video package to be shown to people. The package is made from the footage available of the February 9 incident on JNU campus as also of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's speech when he went visiting the varsity later.

"For long, the Opposition has tried to tarnish the image of our PM by spreading canards. The time has come to expose that all these elements who conspired against him. We will take the reality and the truth behind issues to the people by all means," Sharma said. "Past governments had misused state agencies and hoodwinked the truth from people for its own narrow and antinational politics."

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--- ENDS ---
The Budget session which starts on Tuesday will be quite a stormy one. Recent issues like the suicide of Rohith Vemula and the JNU crackdown will dominate proceedings of the house, after both the government and the opposition have agreed to debate the JNU row. Also, the Pathankot terror attack and the relationship with Pakistan will be discussed.

By India Today Web Desk: The Budget session which starts on Tuesday will be quite a stormy one. Recent issues like the suicide of Rohith Vemula and the JNU crackdown will dominate proceedings of the house, after both the government and the opposition have agreed to debate the JNU row. Also, the Pathankot terror attack and the relationship with Pakistan will be discussed.

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In a bid to ensure smooth proceddings during the session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will hold an all-party meeting tomorrow to reach out to political rivals for smooth functioning of Parliament, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's all-party meeting on February 16. Also Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will also also hold consultations with leaders of all parties in the House.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee has been convened by party chief Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the session. The deliberations at the meeting is expected to set the tone for the Budget session. At the Monday meeting, Congress will finalize its floor strategy for the session.

Chairing a meeting of leaders of all parties from Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari yesterday reminded them "time has come to assure the public that parliamentary democracy does work and is sensitive to the needs of the people."

The remarks come in the backdrop of last two sessions being a virtual washout with the opposition and government locking horns over a number of issues including the key reform measure of GST.

The government has already said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament or any other issue that the opposition wants to take up.

Naidu had also held a meeting of leaders of a number of opposition parties on February 4 where it was decided to have a full-length session and not to go for any curtailment of its duration despite assembly elections in five states.

The government has a heavy legislative agenda to push through in this session. A list of 74 items of business has been compiled by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on the basis of responses received from various ministries and departments which, according to sources, contain 62 legislative Items and 12 financial Items.

It was decided to give 26 items 'top priority' as the ministries wanted them to be introduced and passed in the Budget session itself.



--- ENDS ---
In their official statement, the civil aviation ministry on Sunday claimed that it has organised additional flights to deal with the road and rail blockades in Haryana.

Air India will operate on the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi route on Sunday evening

By India Today Web Desk: The civil aviation ministry on Sunday claimed that it has organised additional flights to deal with the road and rail blockades in Haryana.

In their official statement the ministry has said that national carrier Air India and other private carriers like Spicejet, Jet Airways and Indigo will run additional flights to Haryana.

Air India will operate on the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi route on Sunday evening. The flight will depart Delhi at 1730 hrs, Chandigarh at 1910 hrs and Amritsar at 2035 hrs.

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Budget carrier SpiceJet will operate three additional flights on Thursday: Delhi (17.55)--Jaipur (1915)--Delhi; Delhi (1740)--Amritsar--(1910) Delhi; and Delhi (2035)--Chandigarh (2200)--Delhi.

Jet Airways will operate an additional flight on the Delhi (1325)--Amritsar (1525)- Delhi route on Sunday.

Another low-cost carrier, IndiGo, will operate an additional flight on Monday on the Delhi (2125)--Chandigarh--Delhi and Delhi (2140)--Jaipur-- Delhi sectors.

Jat community has been protesting in Haryana for reservation in jobs and colleges under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota.



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Delhi braces for major crisis as Jats intensify reservation protest

Jat reservation stir Day 3: 5 killed, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar appeals for peace





--- ENDS ---
PM Narendra Modi alleged that disgruntled NGOs and black-marketeers were conspiring to destabilise his government and defame him.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today alleged that disgruntled NGOs and black-marketeers were conspiring to destabilise the government and "defame" him and asserted that he will not bow to any machinations.

He said "some people" were not able to digest the fact that a "chai wala" (tea seller) has become the prime minister and hence were conspiring all the time to bring him down.

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"You would have seen in the recent past, there is attack on me all the time. Some people are continuously at it. They are not able to digest how Modi became the prime minister, how a 'chai wala' became the prime minister, they cannot swallow it," a combative Modi said addressing a farmers' rally in Odisha, PTI reported.

Without naming anybody or any specific instance, he said he had taken some steps because of which "these people are facing problems".

He made the remarks while talking about the neem-coating of urea being done to avoid its pilferage and routing to chemical factories like in the past.

"Since we have done neem coating, will those chemical factories which were looting not be angry with Modi? If something is against Modi, will they not help it? Will they not shout against Modi," he asked the gathering.

The prime minister said that NGOs receive money from foreign countries and his government was seeking the account.

"We said let it come but give account of the funds received. The moment we started asking for accounts, they all got together and said 'Modi ko Maaro', 'Modi ko Maaro' (hit Modi), he is seeking accounts from us," he said and asserted that "the country needs to know where the money that comes in is being spent. It is in the law."

Modi said since the government started asking for accounts, "they all (NGOs) got together and have been conspiring all the time how to finish Modi, how to remove Modi government and how to defame Modi.

"But my dear brothers and sisters, you have elected me to cure the country of this disease and I am doing this.

"Whatever they may say against me, I am not going to deviate from the path of the work you have entrusted me. I am not going to stop, or get tired and there is no question of bowing to it."

The prime minister said he knows what is "irritating" and "pinching" his detractors but "we will not allow the country to be looted or destroyed."

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Modi launches Rurban Mission, says his government is for poor and Dalits



PM Modi declines to accept honorary doctorate from BHU

--- ENDS ---
Delhi government said acute water crisis may significantly arise in the next one or two days with 60 per cent of water supply affected due to the Jat stir in Haryana.

By Ajay Kumar: The National Capital braces up for a major crisis with the ongoing agitation for Jat reservation spreading to western Uttar Pradesh. While agitating Jats have disconnected Delhi from north Indian states like Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh; the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has also decided to block the highways connecting Uttar Pradesh to the Capital.

As Jats in Haryana blocked water supply to Delhi from Munak canal, all major water treatment plants in the city were shut down. Delhi government said acute water crisis may significantly arise in the next one or two days with 60 per cent of water supply affected due to the Jat stir in Haryana. This prompted the AAP government to rationalise water supply and approach the Supreme Court for help.

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Sources said the BKU may also disrupt train services between Delhi and UP that would only aggravate the situation.

Retaliation

As the agitation intensified, 5 persons were killed in firing by Army personnel in Jhajjar and Hisar districts of Haryana on Saturday. Four of them were killed in Jhajjar after they breached curfew orders in the region. Army personnels, who were pressed into action on Friday night, had to open fire at violent mob in retaliation around 2.30 pm. However, unconfirmed reports claimed that at least 12 people were killed in the firing.

Gurgaon too felt the heat of the ongoing agitation. While several parts of the city reeled under massive traffic snarls, country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation.

Reports of unruly activities arrived from Rohtak where the mob went berserk. Several private and public properties were vandalised and vehicles were set afire.

The mob also set ablaze the houses of Haryana Minister Om Prakash Dhankhar and MP Raj Kumar Saini in Rohtak. They held hostage a number of vehicles and personnel of Indian Army at Madanhedi village in Narnod. They were released following long hours of negotiations. As most of the roads are blocked, the security personnels were para-trooped by choppers. The road blockages also led to shortage of essential commodities in these districts.

The agitators also cut water supply line at Sonepat to disrupt national Capital Delhi and Gurgaon.



The heat of the agitation reached the Delhi University on Saturday as several students from the community showed solidarity to the agitation in Haryana and took out a protest rally from demanding quota in government educational institutions and jobs under OBC category.

Meanwhile, Indian Army flag marched in violence hit Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar districts to bring situation under control.

Curfew were imposed in these districts following Friday violence that has claimed three lives at separate places.



Also Read:

Jat reservation stir: Delhi govt moves Supreme Court as water crisis looms large

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Jat quota row: Veggies price soar, milk supply under stress in Delhi-NCR



--- ENDS ---
In four out of the six district courts, including Asia's biggest Tis Hazari, child and the accused occupy the same physical space in the courtroom. These courts don't even have audio-visual facilities to record evidence of the children.

By Sneha Agrawal: Even as the Centre has set up special courts under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which was enacted to prevent sexual abuse of children, most of the courts in Delhi lack the basic parameters prescribed.

In four out of the six district courts, including Asia's biggest Tis Hazari, child and the accused occupy the same physical space in the courtroom. These courts don't even have audio-visual facilities to record evidence of the children.

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A National Law School of India (NLSU) study says only the Karkardooma and Saket district courts have proper facilities as per the prescribed norms. The most interesting part of POCSO courts in Karkardooma and Saket is the dais. They are specially-designed dais that enables a child to make eye contact with the judges. The courts have waiting rooms for the children and their families. These rooms are stocked with toys, games and a computer. There is a rest room in the vicinity of the room in which the child's testimony is to be recorded. The victim's entrance is separate from that of the accused.

This has a greater significance given the fact that the children - victims and witnesses alike - are most vulnerable to the accused who share the same space in the courtroom during the hearing. The report says nearly 30 per cent of the accused in sexual crime against children are neighbours which underlines their vulnerability.

The study has been done keeping in view the guidelines issued by the Delhi High Court for recording evidences of the vulnerable witnesses in the criminal matter. The guidelines focus on facilities to make these special courts child-friendly like waiting area, tools and facilities to prevent the exposure of the child to the accused, permitting breaks during the trial, minimal appearances in the court.

In other courts, the child is brought into the courtroom through the regular entrance and do not have waiting rooms. As both accused and the child enter through the same door, it has an implication on the privacy of the victim.

In Karkardooma and Saket courts, the child approaches the building through judge's entrance. The two courts have audio-visual facility which makes it possible for the child to take part in the proceedings from a different room. The child is prevented from being confronted by the accused, the prosecutor or the defence lawyer. The child is accompanied into the witness room by a legal aid lawyer to serve as a support person. While the accused can see the child in the video, the child cannot see the accused.

Chandra Suman, a child Rights' advocate, told MAIL TODAY, "Even though the child cannot see the accused while sharing the same space, the conventional setting of the court room makes the child uncomfortable and scared. The exposure of child to the arguments during the trial, insensitive questions emotionally and psychologically impact a child," he said.

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The study also mentioned that the defence lawyers in most other special courts directly pose a question to the child instead of routing it through the judge. However, some judges try their best to make the child feel comfortable in the limited facilities.

Additional Sessions Judge and Member Secretary of DSLSA Dharmesh Sharma emphasised on the need of child-friendly courtrooms. "It is important to make a child comfortable so that he/she can express freely in the court. It is important to ensure that the child's dignity is maintained throughout the hearing," he said.

Also Read:

SC considers harsher punishment for child sex offenders



--- ENDS ---
Flying at about 9000 ft from Chennai on a routine mission, on the fairly well-lit evening of June 8 last year, the flight CG791 disappeared from the tracking radars at 9:24pm.

By Jugal R Purohit: The mystery surrounding Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Dornier plane (flight CG791) has only intensified. At the end of a prolonged inquiry, older questions pertaining to the sudden disappearance and later discovery of its wreckage at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal have only been replaced with newer ones.

Flying at about 9000 ft from Chennai on a routine mission, on the fairly well-lit evening of June 8 last year, the aircraft disappeared from the tracking radars at 9:24pm. The last recorded position of the plane was 32 miles north east of Karaikal, near Puducherry. The plane, CG DOR 791 was to return to Chennai at 10pm. The initial information furnished stated that the International Maritime Satellite (INMARSAT) terminal on board powered off.

Flight data recorder

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The ICG's Board of Inquiry (BOI) report, prepared by its Regional Headquarters (East), pins the cause of crash to a device known as Attitude and Heading Reference Unit (AHRU). The AHRU is said to be the single biggest aid to a crew flying at night over sea, which ranks among the toughest forms of flying given the absence of any reference points for the pilots. "As the name suggests, this unit tells the pilots how the plane is performing, if the controls are being fully followed or there is a lacunae," explained a source. A top officer of the force explained, "We found that the power supply to the AHRU stopped suddenly. When that happened, the crew lost control over the plane. Why the power went off in the first place is not something we have been able to ascertain." In reaching this conclusion, the ICG relied extensively on the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) which was retrieved. What complicated matters was that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) - where the sounds inside the cockpit could be identified and studied - was completely smashed.

Interestingly, while the ICG has been unable to attribute the cause, it is certain there was no sabotage involved in the episode. The BOI findings also do not apportion blame on any individual or organisation. "It would be immature to allege things in absence of any positive confirmation," said an officer aware of the investigation.

The wreckage and mortal remains of the three member crew of the CG791 were retrieved following an unprecedented 36 day search during which it remained deposited at a depth of 990m at sea. The salvage itself was said to be one of the most intense in India's maritime history.

One reason why the crash raised eyebrows was because of the plane involved. The Dornier, license-made in India by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is among the most stable platforms in military aviation. Their safety and reliability ensured that beyond the ICG, even the Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Air Force (IAF) inducted many of these planes and continues to use them.

Watch recovered during the search operation Watch recovered during the search operation

When asked to comment on the crash investigation, Gopal Sutar, Chief of Media Communications , HAL said, "We are not privy to the report and hence we cannot comment on the report. However, there have been no previous incidents or crashes that directly attribute to AHRU. In general, there is no safety issue in operating the Dornier aircraft and all the customers are continuing to fly the aircraft."

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What has further perplexed observers is the role of the standby systems. "The way any armed force works is that it builds multiple layers of redundancies. Simply put, if plan A fails, there is always B and even C. I am unable to digest this response of the ICG," said a senior officer who did not wish to be quoted. Former helicopter pilot, Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retd) said, "There is always a standby instrument. There is an emergency indicator which is not powered by AHRU. Unfortunately we do not know the answers." Empathising with the deceased, three member crew, he added, "Instances are there where people have failed to sense their plane is flying inverted."

The Defence Ministry's stand on the issue - whether it agrees with the findings and is comfortable closing it or wants a wider probe to learn more towards preventing a recurrence - is not clear. A response sought from the ministry went unanswered.

How CG791 was located? Twelve agencies were roped in for Operation Talash Submarine INS Sindhudhvaj picked up transmissions locating the wreckage Reliance's Multi Support Vessel helped retrieving it Data recorders, engines, watches, boots of crew were recovered Deputy Commandants Vidyasagar & Subhash Suresh were the pilots and Deputy Commandant MK Soni, the navigator

--- ENDS ---

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The government's decision came after Home Minister Rajnath Singh met leaders of Jat panchayat in Delhi.

Haryana has witnessed extreme violence since the last eight days as Jats pressed on their demand for reservation in government jobs and education. (PTI photo)

By India Today Web Desk: The government has agreed to grant OBC status to Jats, who have led violent protests across Haryana since the last eight days. The government's decision came after Home Minister Rajnath Singh met leaders of Jat panchayat in Delhi today evening.

The government has also set up a committee headed by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu to look into the demand of Jats for reservation in central government jobs.



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"I would like to make things clear regarding the ongoing protest. Just now, we have formed a committee which will be headed by our senior Cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu. The committee has been asked to file a comprehensive report to find the soluction of the issue as soon as possible," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

"I appeal to to the people of Haryana to help maintain clam and peace," Rajnath Singh said after a meeting he had with Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar to take stock of the situation in the state.



The Haryana government is also likely to table a bill concerning reservation to the community in the upcoming session of the state Assembly.

This may resolve the issue for now but the big question is whether the Haryana government's decision will pass the Supreme Court scrutiny.

Haryana has witnessed extreme violence since the last eight days as Jats pressed on their demand for reservation in government jobs and education.

10 people have been killed over 150 injured in police firing and other related incidents across the state. 7 districts of the state are under curfew after protesters resorted to arsoning and violence.

Industry body ASSOCHAM has said that the ongoing protests in Haryana has dealt an estimated loss of Rs 18,000 crore - Rs 20,000 crore to public and private property.

ALSO READ



Jat reservation stir: Delhi govt moves Supreme Court as water crisis looms large

Jat quota row: Veggies price soar, milk supply under stress in Delhi-NCR

Jat quota protests Live: Govt agrees to grant OBC status to Jats



--- ENDS ---
Vishwa Deepak, a Zee News reporter, today resigned from the channel stating that he should have taken this decision earlier, but if he doesn't take it now, he won't be able to forgive himself . Deepak accused the channel of 'biased coverage' of JNU protest against the sedition charges slapped on JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

By India Today Web Desk: Vishwa Deepak, a Zee News reporter, resigned today from the channel over its 'biased coverage' of the protest against the sedition charges slapped on the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

Deepak, a producer at Zee News, was upset with the way the channel had played up the JNU issue .

"Dear Zee News, after 1 year four months and four days, the time has come that I should part ways with you. I should have taken this decision earlier, but if I don't do it now, I won't be able to forgive myself," Deepak said in his four-paged resignation letter.

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In the letter, addressed to the Zee News anchor and editor Rohit Sardana, Deepak admitted that while there has been a "communalisation" of newsrooms since 2014, situation is more alarming in Zee News.

"Opposing the blind nationalism being promoted through the JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar case, I hereby submit my resignation from my post in the organisation," he said.

He also expressed his disappointment with the tag of 'chee news reporter' that he thinks he carries now. "After having passed out from one of India's top media institutes and after having worked for organisations like Aaj Tak, BBC, Deutsche Welle (Germany) now I am left with one identity that I should be called as chee news reporter. My integrity has been shattered," he stated in the letter.

The letter also challenged the newsroom practices at the Zee News, which are heavily bent in favour of the the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Why is it so that we are always forced to give a spin to every news, is that portray Modi's agenda in positive light?," the letter asked.

"Modi is the prime minister of our country, mine too. But as a journalist, I can't digest so much of Modi bhakti. My conscience is rebelling against me. It seems as if I've fallen ill now," he added in his letter.



ALSO READ:

Watch: Here's what eminent journalist P Sainath has to say about the JNU row

Noam Chomsky questions JNU crackdown

--- ENDS ---
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.

By Press Trust of India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.

Noting that the mission was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up because of migration.

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While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, Modi said a "huge country" like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and "good life" like education, healthcare and internet while retaining the "rural spirit".

"This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row," he said.

Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, Modi said these are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. "This is the only way that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path," he said.

Under the 'Rurban Mission', he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.

100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, the Prime Minister said at the event which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh among others.

"There will be big change in quality of life. Pressure on cities will reduce and new cities will be developed, which will be planned and have good economic activity. I am sure crores and crores of people will benefit from this," he said



ALSO READ:

Modi: Nepal's stability is linked to India's security

--- ENDS ---
An Indian diplomat likens ties with Pakistan to tackling an armed adversary shooting from behind a civilian hostage; an armed response puts the human shield at risk. This conundrum of India's Pakistan policy has got exacerbated post-2008 when two civilian governments have held office but not power-they are held hostage by the powerful Pakistan army which has retreated into the barracks but calls the shots on foreign policy. The army also holds the lever on what is the biggest bugbear between the two countries, what the government of India calls the "infrastructure of terror". This elaborate Islamist terror machinery recruits youth, arms, trains and brainwashes them before finally injecting them across the border to execute attacks on Indian soil. The terror apparatus has existed for over two decades but mostly to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir. When it spills into the hinterland, as it did during the Mumbai terror attack of November 2008, it derails talks between India and Pakistan; and, on one occasion, after the December 2001 attack on India's Parliament, have led to a near-war. This, even as the Pakistani military fights its own war against 'bad terrorists' in its backyard, the Pakistani Taliban that have since 2007 mounted savage attacks on the state, killing thousands of innocents.

The Modi government's Pakistan policy has followed a the trajectory of a sinusoidal wave. A high that began with Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif attending Narendra Modi's swearing in May 2014, plunged with the cross-border firing later that year and the impasse over the Pakistan high commission speaking to Hurriyat separatist leaders. A one-on-one outreach to Sharif at Ufa on July 10, 2015, defused tensions, but was followed a fortnight later by another setback-the attack on a police station in Dinanagar, Gurdaspur district, by heavily armed Pakistani terrorists, the first such strike in nearly seven years after the 26/11 attacks. This impasse was once again breached by Modi's surprise landing in Islamabad on December 25, 2015. Only for the Pathankot attacks to dissipate the euphoria. Foreign secretary talks between the two countries have now been postponed as India waits for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators to book.

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Sixty-nine per cent respondents in the MOTN poll believe that Pakistan poses the biggest threat to the country's internal security. (China, at 19 per cent, is a distant second.) But while 46 per cent believe India should not talk to Pakistan until cross-border terrorism stops, the government is not heeding this advice, judging by its frequent peace overtures to Pakistan.

It is these inconsistencies on the Pakistan policy that perhaps prompted former PM Manmohan Singh to say that the NDA's policy on Pakistan was "one step forward, two steps back" in an interview to India Today. Never mind that the BJP accused his government of the same inconsistency when it was in the opposition. Unfortunately, it has been unable to translate that same aggression to elicit compliance from Pakistan now that it is in power.

The country remains the weak link in PM Modi's otherwise robust foreign engagement and unprecedented number of overseas visits-37 in the 45 months he's been in power. Fifty-three per cent of respondents believe Modi's foreign tours have benefitted India.

There is small consolation for the Modi-led government which was criticised over its handling of the Pathankot attacks despite being forewarned. Thirty-nine per cent believe the government handled the attack well. Pakistan will clearly be the touchstone of Modi's foreign policy and he will have to learn to tackle the armed assailant without harming the hostage.

Follow the writer on Twitter @SandeepUnnithan





--- ENDS ---
Naom Chomsky, along with Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and 86 other academicians from renowned universities abroad, had last week condemned "the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated" and said those in power are replicating the dark times of the oppressive colonial period and of the Emergency of the 1970s.

By India Today Web Desk: Noam Chomsky, renowned thinker and academician questioned JNU vice chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar's decision of allowing police to enter the university's campus, through an email today.

"Many of us remain very concerned about the crisis in JNU, which was apparently created and precipitated by the government and university administration with no credible evidence of any seditious activities on campus. Why did you allow the police on campus when it is clear that this was not legally required?" Chomsky queried in the e-mail.

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Students and teachers, who are protesting against the alleged "mishandling" of the issue by the university administration, contended that the matter related to indiscipline and not sedition.

In his defence, Jagadesh denied calling police inside the campus.

"I never invited the police to enter the campus and pick up our students. We only provided whatever cooperation was needed as per the law of the land. We were bound to do so," Jagadesh said.

Academicians including Chomsky,Orhan Pamuk and 86 others had last week condemned "the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated. They compared the current situation with the oppressive colonial period and of the Emergency of the 1970s.

Together in a joint statement, all the academicians have flaked Indian government for their 'shameful act'.

"We have learnt of the shameful act of the Indian government which, invoking sedition laws formulated by India's colonial rulers, ordered the police to enter the JNU campus and unlawfully arrest a student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of inciting violence - without any proof whatever of such wrongdoing on his part," the joint statement said.

The JNU Students' Union president was arrested on February 12 in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy that was registered following an event on the varsity campus to protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

The university had set up a high-level committee to probe the issue. On the basis of its preliminary report, academically suspended Kanhaiya Kumar and seven other students.

The committee will come up with its final report by February 25.



ALSO READ:

JNU controversy: How it started and all that happened at the campus









--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Notwithstanding BJP's optimism, PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti today remained ambivalent on progress in talks on government formation, maintaining that she will be on board once she is convinced that she can "fulfill the dreams" of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for Jammu and Kashmir.

"That only time can tell," was the cryptic response of the PDP president to reporters when they asked her if there was any forward movement in talks with the BJP for government formation in the state.

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Just days earlier, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had flown to Srinagar and held talks with the PDP chief after which he had said that "both parties are positive" on continuing with the arrangement, PTI reported.

Mehbooba, who attended first public function today after Sayeed's death on January 7, said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.

"The parliament session is starting on Feb 23... I am going to attend it. I have asked questions... if the Parliament is allowed to function. There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we don't know what will happen in Parliament," she said.

Earlier, addressing the party workers, Mehbooba said coming to power was not her goal.

"If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then only it is worth it. If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me," she said.

The PDP president said her late father throughout his political career spanning over five decades struggled for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Only 12 years of his long political career, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in power. However, he remained alive (in politics) due to the support of the people.

"He wanted to keep the state united and resolve the issues they faced," she said.

Recalling the last few days of her father, Mehbooba said despite the advice of doctors, he continued to work and was concerned about the people of the state.

"Even in the hospital, he asked me if the money for flood victims has been released (by the Centre), whether the work on additional accommodation for Kashmiri Pandits at Sheikhpura had been started... when I told him that Prime Minister Modi had visited Pakistan," he just smiled.

"He did not sacrifice his life so that I can get the chair. He sacrificed his life for you," Mehbooba, choking on her words, said.

On Sayeed's decision to ally with BJP, the PDP president said her father was ready for electoral loss but wanted to take the people of the state out of this uncertainty.

"He was of the belief that Modiji with such a huge mandate can take the state out of its troubles if he is able to convince him about the need for India-Pakistan friendship and resolution of outstanding issues," she said.

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Mehbooba said Sayeed wanted Jammu and Kashmir to become a bridge between India and Pakistan.

ALSO READ



Mehbooba Mufti wants CBMs from Centre, prolongs J&K CM suspense

Two civilians killed in Kashmir, Mehbooba slams firing by security forces

Former J-K legislator doubts circumstances of Mufti's death, seeks probe

Mehbooba Mufti wants BJP to step up in re-alliance talks



--- ENDS ---
In January 2015, B-grade film producer Pahlaj Nihalani, better known as a self-appointed cheerleader for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, became head of the Central Board of Film Certification. It has been unhappily ever after since for the world's biggest film industry. Filmmakers increasingly find their freedom of expression curbed with a chairman who believes his position entitles him to be the moral custodian of the nation. From imposing his rigid diktats through the now purportedly banned list of objectionable/abusive English and Hindi words to his eagerness to come out and defend his arbitrary decisions and spar with filmmakers, Nihalani has become every filmmaker's favourite worst enemy.

Yet he should not think the overwhelmingly affirmative answer to the question, should CBFC disallow kissing in movies (52 per cent say yes), is an endorsement of his regressive world view. A sizeable 33 per cent believes intolerance has risen in Modi's India. What it indicates is a deep divide-between an inherent moral conservatism (33 per cent blame films and television for a rise in sexual offences) and progressive political views. Which points to the larger confusion in society today, about both morality and aspirations. Which may explain why we are rather more tolerant of icons with flaws. Whether it is the beloved Salman Khan's questionable ethics or the incandescent Deepika Padukone's admission of depression, urban Indians are more comfortable in their skin. A combination of self-confidence engendered by social media presence and access to greater choices has made urban Indians more vocal, often raucously so. They are less likely to depend on established sources for information, whether traditional media or government, and more likely to air their inner voice, even if it calls them out as sexist (14 per cent blame revealing clothes for rise in sex crimes) and worse as illiberal. It shows an incomplete modernity, or what sociologist Dipankar Gupta has called a mistaken modernity, perhaps the biggest paradox of contemporary India and of its "westoxicated" elitist middle class.

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--- ENDS ---
A second Army captain from the elite para commandos has been killed as security forces are locked in a fierce encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore. This has taken the death toll to 6.

Jawans carry the body of Captain Pawan Kumar, who lost his life in a gunbattle with militants, at the 15 Corps headquarters at Badami Bagh in Srinagar on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: A second Army captain from the elite para commandos has been killed as security forces are locked in a fierce encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore. This has taken the death toll to 6.



Early today morning, para commando Captain Pawan Kumar was killed during his elite unit's bid to storm the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute's building.



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The encounter between security forces and terrorists in South Kashmir's Pampore has been on for over 24 hours. Security forces are locked in an intense exchange of fire, barely 10 km from the Army's headquarters in Badamibagh, after terrorists ran into a government building on the highway. In pics



The encounter had started after terrorists ambushed a CRPF convoy on the strategic Jammu and Kashmir highway on Saturday evening.

Sources told India Today that the attack was carried out by the fidayeen unit of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The attackers had recently infiltrated into Kashmir from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Sources have also confirmed that all terrorists are of foreign origin.

Over 60 employees working in the building have been evacuated as a senior official told India Today - that there was no hostage like situation.

At least 120 people including employees and trainees were trapped in the building as militants have occupied it after attacking a Centre Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy Srinagar-Jammu highway, police sources said.

The militants attacked CRPF convoy on the highway at Sempora at around 3:30 p.m yesterday.

Proud of son's sacrifice: Father of Captain Pawan Kumar

The father of Captain Pawan Kumar, who laid down his life fighting militants holed up inside a government building in Pampore area on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, is proud of the sacrifice made by his only child.

"I had only one child and I gave him to the Army, to the nation. No father can be prouder," Rajbir Singh, the Captain Pawan's father, was quoted as saying by an Army spokesman.

The 22-year-old officer, hailing from Jind area in Harayana, had joined the Army only three years ago and had recently taken part in two successful operations where three militants were killed, the spokesman said.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:



--- ENDS ---
Hundreds of party supporters took out rallies, stopped trains and burnt tyres to enforce the shutdown in different parts of the state. Pappu led a motorcycle rally on the main thoroughfares of the state Capital before he was taken into custody.

By Giridhar Jha: There was a mixed response to the Bihar bandh called by Janadhikar Party chief Pappu Yadav over the rising crime graph in the state as well as the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

Hundreds of party supporters took out rallies, stopped trains and burnt tyres to enforce the shutdown in different parts of the state. Pappu led a motorcycle rally on the main thoroughfares of the state Capital before he was taken into custody.

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Claiming the bandh to be a big success, Pappu said more than 10,000 supporters of his party have been arrested across the state. However, they were all released later.

Announcing a phase-wise agitation against the Grand Alliance, he said the workers of the ruling alliance clashed with his party members to create disturbances during the bandh.

The Madhepura MP alleged that incidents of crime had risen in Bihar due to patronage of the state government to the criminals. "The law and order has collapsed in the state," he said. "The criminals are roaming about freely these days."

The party, which will decide its next course of action on February 28, demanded the immediate arrest and a speedy trial of Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav who has been absconding in a minor's rape case.

Pappu also hit out at the Centre for taking Kanhaiya into custody and for pressing sedition charges against him.

--- ENDS ---
Modi felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari for her efforts to make her village open defecation free.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today praised a 104-year-old woman from a village in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district who sold her goats for constructing toilet at her home.

Modi felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari for her efforts to make her village open defecation free, during the launch of 'Rurban Mission' at Kurrubhat village in the state's Naxal-hit Rajandgaon district.

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Two development blocks - Ambagarh Chowki and Chhuriya of Rajnandgaon were also declared open defecation free by the PM during the programme.

"An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her. She sold off her goats to build toilet at home and also encouraged others from the village to build," Modi said, PTI reported.

WATCH: Kurrubhat (C'garh)-PM Modi touches feet of 104-yr-old woman who sold her goats to build toilets,earlier todayhttps://t.co/8OA30NKfMH ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

Kunwar Bai had sold-off her 8-10 goats to build two toilets at her home.

Subsequently, she started showing other villagers the toilets at her home while informing them about its importance. Now every home in the village has toilets.

Calling it as a major change taking place at the roots of the country, Modi said, "The country is changing. It seems when a woman at a remote village makes efforts to fulfil dream of clean India mission, she is an inspiration for everyone, especially youths."

"I would like to tell media that you don't cover me but spread the story of this woman all over the country," the PM urged.

Modi also praised the residents of two Ambagarh Chowki and Chhuriya blocks for being open defecation free with toilets at all homes.

"Even a Prime Minister has to think before enforcing taxes (on public), but people in these blocks without hesitation decided to slap fine on those who defecated in open which is a good initiative for the welfare of society," he said.

"Making an area open defecation free is a biggest advantage and respect to our mother and sisters who have to go down to fields and forests (to relieve themselves). I bow my head in respect to them," Modi said.

"We would make sure that each and every home of the country should have toilets by October 2019 under 'Clean India Mission'," he added.

Modi also felicitated Phoolbasan Bai Yadav, a social worker for her efforts towards development of economically and socially backward women in the state. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2012 for her work.

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On the occasion, the PM also highlighted the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna.

ALSO READ

Modi launches Rurban Mission, says his government is for poor and Dalits



PM Modi declines to accept honorary doctorate from BHU



--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Rishi Kapoor never fails to voice his opinions and now wants that son Ranbir Kapoor should settle down. The Tamasha actor has been in headlines for his break-up rumours with Katrina Kaif and 2016 has started on a bitter note for Ranbir.

ALSO READ: Ranbir Kapoor to move back to parents Rishi and Neetu's bungalow?

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ALSO READ: It's too late to change my equation with Ranbir, says Rishi Kapoor



Talking to Times Of India, Rishi Kapoor said, "He should settle down now. He's 33 now. But having said that, it's entirely upto him who he chooses. I never asked my father who I should marry; I just went to him for his blessings. Ranbir, too, will not seek our approval; only our blessings. I would never do matchmaking for him."

Ranbir, who proved his acting skills in films like Barfi, Rockstar and Tamasha, is currently not in his best phase of life. Rishi also talked Ranbir's passion for films and told the leading daily, "Ranbir is passionate about movies, and I knew quite early on that his interest and love lay in films. If not an actor, he'd still have been connected with films in some way. While I am a spontaneous actor, Ranbir combines the best of both, method and spontaneous acting. And he has got his head firm on his shoulders. It's important for parents to not push their kids into a field they're not interested in."

On the work front, Rishi Kapoor will next be seen in Kapoor and Sons and Ranbir Kapoor is currently shooting for his upcoming project Jagga Jasoos.

--- ENDS ---
Hooda, who is himself a Jat, expressed his concern over the sporadic violence reported in many parts of Haryana. He appealed to the protesters not to play in the hands of anti-social elements and to remain calm.

Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda, who is currently shooting for Omung Kumar's Bollywood biopic-based on the life of Indian prisoner Sarbjit, has appealed to the protesting Jats to shun violence and return to mainstream life in the larger interest of state and nation.

Hooda - who is himself a Jat - expressed his concern over the sporadic violence reported in many parts of Haryana. He appealed to the protesters not to play in the hands of anti-social elements and to remain calm.

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"I belong to Haryana and I am proud to be a Haryana Jat. Sadly the Jats who once sacrificed their lives for others are destroying themselves. I appeal to my brothers to be peaceful as the violence is killing our brothers. Our property is being destroyed. The violence is not a solution. Only dialogue can solve the issue. Anti-social elements are indulging in violence. Youths are being misguided. I appeal to them to go back to their homes," Randeep Hooda said in Amritsar.

Also Read:

Jat reservation stir: Delhi govt moves Supreme Court as water crisis looms large

Jat reservation stir: Protesters torch shops, houses in Rohtak



--- ENDS ---
Umar Khalid, along with four other accused, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga, Anirban Bhattacharya, returned to the JNU campus late on Sunday night.

By India Today Web Desk: Five students, who were accused of sedition and who were named as absconders by the police, surfaced late Sunday night at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus.

A police team was rushed to the campus as soon as the information was received, but they were not allowed to enter.

Sources revealed that Umar Khalid, who along with Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash had gone missing from the campus since February 12, had addressed a huge gathering of students at the admin block.

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Khalid, who is accused of raising anti-national slogans at the JNU on February 9, said on Sunday he was "not a terrorist", and added that the BJP government "needed an excuse to target the campus".

"My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist. The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us," Khalid said.

"The media, all this while, presented a lot of things about me. The media trial, this propaganda... I know what my family is going through," he said.

All five of the students had gone missing after JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case lodged in connection with an event held on the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-naitonal slogans were allegedly raised.

While none of the students have surrendered to the police, varsity vice chancellor Jagdesh Kumar said that the entry for police as well as media persons has been barred for now and a call in this regard will be taken tomorrow morning.

Also Read:

Afzal Guru row: Cops alert airports on JNU absconders



--- ENDS ---
Police say the 50-year-old priest Jogeshwar Roy was attacked on Sunday as he came out after people threw stones at the temple in Deviganj area of Panchgarh district, on the border with India.

By AP: A temple priest in Bangladesh has been hacked to death and two devotees injured in an attack on a temple in the country's north.

Police say the 50-year-old priest Jogeshwar Roy was attacked on Sunday as he came out after people threw stones at the temple in Deviganj area of Panchgarh district, on the border with India.

Quoting local people and witnesses, police officer Kafil Uddin said the assailants on a motorbike fired guns at Roy and exploded crude bombs, injuring two devotees.

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There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Local Islamist radicals and the Islamic State group have in the past claimed responsibility for killing minorities and foreigners. The government denies that the Islamic State has presence in the country.

--- ENDS ---
Here's everything you need to know about the phone, and its set of companion accessories, which LG calls 'Friends'.

By Sahil Mohan Gupta : Mobile World Congress (MWC) has officially kicked off in Barcelona, Spain, and with that so have the deluge of smartphone launches. Among the several flagship smartphones that are expected to launch, on Sunday, LG took the wraps off its 2016 flagship; the G5.

The G5, which was leaked numerous times before its launch, becomes the world's first modular smartphone.

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It comes with a number of features that are likely to be unique. The phone will take on the likes of the Galaxy S7 and the HTC One (M10), both of which are scheduled to be launched later in the day.

The G5 is not only a top-of-the-line Android smartphone, but it also comes with an array of companion gadgets that work in tandem with it. Here's everything you need to know about the phone, and its set of companion accessories, which LG calls 'Friends'.



The World's First Modular Phone

While Google's Project Ara has been hard at work creating a modular Android phone for a couple of years, it is LG that has managed to come up with the world's first widely produced modular phone.

In the truest sense, the G5 isn't the type of modular phone as what Google's Project Ara has been attempting to create. Users can't add a different camera, processor, or display to it, however, the phone's functionality does get expanded with a set of accessories that LG calls 'Friends'.

The G5 has a full metal uni-body which is made out of anodised aluminium. At the same time, the phone also gets a removable 2,800mAh battery, which is facilitated by the modular design. It also has a micro-SD card slot. Users can swap out the bottom module of the phone, which slides-out the battery.

The LG Cam Plus is a module for the camera. It adds a secure camera grip, a jog dial for zooming in and dedicated shutter button. It also adds a 1,200mAh battery which increases the amount of time the camera can be used.

The LG Hi-Fi Plus is basically an audio enhancement module that LG has designed in collaboration with Danish audio brand Bang and Olufsen. It has a high-fidelity digital-to-audio-converter (DAC) and amplifier, which has been designed and tuned by the Danish company. It can up-sample audio to 32-bit quality, including YouTube videos and supports playback of high-definition audio.

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Overall the design of the G5 has changed a lot from that of the G4. The volume buttons now are more traditionally placed on the side railing of the phone. There's also a fingerprint scanner below the camera, which also doubles up as a power button.

It's also a slimmer and smaller phone with a slightly smaller display and thickness of 7.7mm.

Flagship Android smartphone

Apart from having a unique design language, one must not forget that the G5 has been designed to compete with the iPhone 6S and phones from Samsung and HTC, which are likely to be launched at Mobile World Congress.

It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, which is coupled with 4GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

Like most high-end phones, the G5 too comes with a QHD display. LG is using a 2,560 X 1,440 pixel 5.3-inch Quantum IPS screen. Interestingly, the phone also has an always-on display which keeps showing the date and only consumes 0.8 per cent of the battery's full capacity per hour to operate. The display has a unique daylight mode which automatically adjusts the level of brightness needed for good visibility.

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The phone also offers wireless charging, Qualcomm's fast charging technology and also the new USB Type-C port.



Twin cameras on the back

LG has added two cameras on the back of the G5. However, unlike other phones which have dual-camera systems in place, the cameras on the G5 aren't there to provide an exaggerated blurred background in photos.

It has a standard 16-megapixel camera with a f/1.8 aperture and a 75-degree field of view. The second 8-megapixel camera is unique because it has a wide-angle 135-degree lens, which is the widest lens ever installed on a smartphone. The idea is to ensure that users don't need to move away from the subject if it's too big. Users can also merge photos from both cameras using some of the software tools that are preloaded on the phone.

On the front too, the phone packs an 8-megapixel camera. The rear cameras also get a laser autofocus system with an LED flash.



Android Marshmallow and a new UI

On expected lines the phone is running Android Marshmallow, but it also comes with a new LG UI. The new LG user interface is simpler as it forgoes the Android app drawer and now has a user interface that's similar to iOS or Android overlays like MiUI.

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Other Friends

Besides the modular additions for the G5, LG has also launched a VR product called the 360 VR. LG claims it is more compact than existing VR goggles and weighs just 118 grams. It is also able to simulate a 130-inch TV view from a distance of just 2 meters and has a resolution of 639 pixels per inch. "The device is compatible with 360-degree images and videos captured with LG 360 CAM as well as all Google Cardboard content," says LG in the official press release.

There's also the 360 Cam with a dual-sided action camera much like HTC's Re Camera. It comes with twin 13-megapixel cameras that have 200-degree wide-angle lens systems. It can be paired with the G5 to create 360-degree content and also has the capability to record 2k video with 5.1 surround sound. Notably, images and videos taken from the 360 Cam can also be uploaded to Google's Street View and YouTube 360.

Last but not the least, is LG's Rolling Bot, which is a smart little internet connected sphere. It has an 8-megapixel camera for the sake of shooting images and video and can be used to remotely monitor one's house.

The LG G5 will be available in April across all the major markets, which should also include India. It will be available in four colours - silver, titan, gold and pink. Details about the pricing and country specific availability haven't been announced.

--- ENDS ---
Investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations This is the blogspot version InnerCityPress.com
Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin
To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
The AmeriKat covering here eyes, hoping for a

stay of proceedings when she wakes up so she can

tackle her to-do list in peace

In 2011, Lilly sought to revoke the parent patent, EP 1 994 937, and to obtain a declaration of non-infringement. Mr Justice Arnold held the parent patent to be invalid on the grounds of insufficiency (see [2013] EWHC 1737) and that Lilly's product would have infringed had the patent been valid. Janssen lodged, but withdrew, an appeal.

Janssen lodged, but withdrew, an appeal. In June 2013, the EPO Opposition Division held that the parent patent was invalid on the basis of sufficiency (it did not consider the other two grounds brought by Lilly - obviousness and lack of novelty). Janssen appealed in October 2013.

In July 2015, Lilly commenced revocation proceedings in France against the parent and divisional patents. Janssen applied to stay those proceedings. A decision is expected at the end of February.

In December 2015, Lilly commenced its revocation and DNI action in the English Patents Court with respect to Janssen's divisional patent.

On 12-13 May 2016, the Technical Board of Appeal will hear Janssen's appeal on the parent patent.

On 22-23 June 2016, the Opposition Division will hold its oral proceedings on the divisional patent. It's decision is expected to be given immediately.

In November 2018, the parent and divisional patents will expire.

Unlike the situation in Actavis where the EPO proceedings had just started, the advanced stage of the EPO proceedings in this case and the likelihood that any appeal would be accelerated pointed in favor of a stay. Mrs Justice Rose held that it was likely that the EPO decision on validity, even at the appellate level, would be delivered before the decision in the English proceedings (which had only just commenced). In reaching this conclusion, it was relevant that Eli Lilly could have commenced the English action earlier (on or after the divisional patent was granted in June 2013).

Lilly argued that because they were seeking a DNI, should they win on that point the matter would be over - irrespective of the fate of Janssen's divisional patent or the future grant of a SPC. Dealing with the DNI now would provide commercial certainty (especially in light of the potential grant of a SPC) and, because national courts exercise exclusive jurisdiction over infringement issues, this should almost be an overriding factor against the grant of a stay (see the fourth IPCom factor). Further, obtaining a decision on infringement is especially important given the timings of Lilly obtaining its marketing authorization (MA). If Lilly has a DNI from the English court, they can lodge their MA application in early 2017 in the knowledge that if it is granted before November 2018 (expiry of the patents), then Janssen could not use Lilly's MA to apply for a SPC. This is because, in these circumstances, Lilly's product would not fall within the scope of Janssen's patent claims so Janssen could not benefit from Lilly's MA for that product in seeking a SPC. If Lilly do not have a DNI by early 2017 (and the EPO upholds the divisional as valid), then they will not know whether they should lodge their MA application in early 2017, If they do lodge their MA application, Janssen could obtain a SPC on the back of their MA and Lilly is then potentially faced with another 5 years of royalty payments. This was considered to be significant commercial uncertainty by the court.

Janssen proposed undertakings similar to those in the Actavis case, namely that (i) any appeal to the Technical Board be accelerated; (ii) not to seek a preliminary or final injunction in the UK in respect of the patent and any SPC that may be granted for the lifetime of the patent; and (iii), if validity upheld, to seek damages on the basis of a reasonable royalty. Importantly, in contrast with the position in Actavis, Janssen had yet to decide the royalty rate.

Mrs Justice Rose considered that, in line with the eighth and ninth IPCom factors, there was considerable value for Lilly to know as soon as possible whether solanezumab would infringe and whether Janssen would be likely to rely on a solanezumab MA to apply for a SPC. She continued:

"Not knowing those things makes it difficult for Eli Lilly to decide when to start the process of obtaining an authorisation for solanezumab and makes the process of negotiating a cross-Europe settlement of the dispute between the two companies more difficult."

The undertakings were therefore insufficient to reduce Lilly's commercial uncertainty.

Mrs Justice Rose considered the exportability of an English judgment to be a neutral point on the question of a stay given that the EPO oppositions, if they hold the patent invalid, may deal with these points earlier than the English court.

On the 11th IPCom factor, that of the public interest in dispelling uncertainty, Mrs Justice Rose accepted that the factor is relevant in view of a therapy that is likely to be a blockbuster for the treatment of an intractable disease, such as Alzheimer's disease. It thus pointed against the grant of a stay. However, the court did not consider it to be a weighty factor as Janssen's undertakings ensured that Lilly's product could still enter the market.

On the 12th IPCom factor, that of avoiding wasted costs, the costs of the English proceedings (likely less than 5 million in total), were not significant sums given the money at stake for a likely blockbuster product. Lilly has already spent over $500 million in developing the product and Janssen's parent group spent about $700 million in developing bapineuzumab (before it was abandoned).

on the bombardment of emails into your inbox, or to stop your children getting too old too fast, or to just allow you a breath to figure out your next move. If there was a mechanism for applying for stays in real life, the AmeriKat is sure many would take the opportunity. But stays of proceedings in life are not possible and, it seems, are also difficult in the English Patents Court as Janssen found out last week in [2016] EWHC 313 where Mrs Justice Rose refused to stay Lilly's revocation and declaration of non-infringement (DNI) action brought against Janssen's divisional patent - EP (UK) 2 305 282 For five years, Lilly has sought to clear the path for its proposed product, solanezumab , which is intended to be used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Janssen's parent and divisional patents are blocking the way. The procedural history is as follows:With the Opposition Division's decision on the divisional patent expected on 22-23 June 2016 and the English proceedings unlikely to be resolved by September 2017, Janssen applied to stay the English proceedings brought by Lilly.The principles on whether to stay proceedings are set out in[2013] EWCA Civ 1496 . The earlier case,[2008] EWCA Civ 23 , was generally regarded as discouraging of stays, but the dicta was later questioned by the Supreme Court inrefreshed all of the guidance by setting out 13 factors to consider when deciding whether to grant or refuse a stay.These factors were then applied for the first time in [2014] EWHC 2265 (the history of which is recorded in Rose J's judgment). In that case, Pharmacia offered undertakings which, after the first decision of Mr Justice Arnold, amounted to not seeking an injunction against Actavis and seeking damages of 1% net sales in the UK during the lifetime of the patent should a stay be granted. These undertakings were held by Arnold J to eliminate the commercial uncertainty that Actavis said they would have been exposed to on the basis of the previous undertakings. The court had held that on the basis of the earlier undertakings, Actavis could be removed from the market by an injunction and have to pay ordinary damages or account for its profits after the EPO opposition. Such a prospect would "inevitably have a chilling effect on Actavis' investment decisions", especially given that the EPO opposition had just begun. However, on the basis of the updated undertakings which lasted for the lifetime of the patent, Mr Justice Arnold granted the stay.Stay refused. Although there is some risk that the EPO opposition will find the patents invalid and thus costs in the English proceedings potentially wasted between now and June, the EPO opposition will not be determinative of all issues - namely whether Lilly's product is infringing which is a question solely for the English court. Because neither party was attracted by the idea of splitting out the DNI and revocation claims, Janssen's application for a stay was dismissed Although at first blush it may seem like there is still quite a high hurdle to successfully stay English patent proceedings, as ever, it turns on the facts. Here, the fact that Janssen, unusually, did not itself have a MA which they could use to obtain a SPC created enough commercial uncertainty for Lilly and the timing of its MA application to point in favor of the English proceedings continuing. This also made Lilly's DNI that much more important. Indeed, it could be argued, that the inclusion of a DNI in a claim may be an important strategic consideration for parties faced with an application for a stay of proceedings.
What You Can't Discuss:

This is a partial list of taboo topics within progressive-left venues around the Arab-Israel conflict. You cannot discuss this material because it undermines the "Palestinian narrative" of perpetual victimhood. This narrative is a club used by the Arab and Muslim enemies of Israel, along with their western progressive allies, to delegitimize that country in preparation for its eventual dissolution.



1) The centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the boot of Islamic imperialism.



2) The recent construction of Palestinian identity, its connection to Soviet Cold War politics, and how this is an Arab people with a Roman name that refers to Greeks.



3) Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict.



4) The ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism.



5) The Palestinian theft and appropriation of Jewish history.



6) "Pallywood."



7) The historical connections between the Nazis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Palestinian national movement.



8) The perpetual refusal of the Palestinian-Arabs to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one.



9) The progressive portrayal of terrorists as those fighting a righteous war of "resistance."



10) The Arab-Palestinian indoctrination of children with Jew hatred.



11) Human rights violations against women, children, and Gay people in the Muslim Middle East.



12) The fact that violent Jihadis call themselves "Jihadis" and claim to love death above life.



This is only a partial list, so please let us know the many more that we are missing.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a ceasefire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a ceasefire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it "is not yet done." But he said he anticipated that President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and after that, implementation could begin.

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said. "In fact, we are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... is possible over the course of these next hours."

The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry's announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a ceasefire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, violence continued to rage in Syria on Sunday. Multiple bomb blasts in a southern district of Damascus killed at least 163 people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while twin car bombs killed at least 57 people in Homs, the monitoring group said, adding that they were among the deadliest in the city in five years of civil war.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb. 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

"Peace is better than more war," Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. "A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself."

However, he reiterated the longtime U.S. position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. "Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad," Kerry said. "Let me make that clear."

He said Russia now has to talk with the Syrian government and Iran, which backs Assad, and the U.S. has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. He said he knows that not every party will automatically agree to the agreement reached for a ceasefire.

"There is a stark choice for everybody here," Kerry said.

"I know how much work remains and I don't know if everyone is going to meet their commitments," Kerry said. "I can't vouch for that  the United States can't make certain of that."

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

"These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective," Kerry said.

Later, Kerry met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman and was scheduled to fly to Aqaba for an evening meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

On the ground in Syria, a pair of explosions ripped through the central city of Homs, killing at least 57 people and wounding dozens, according tothe Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

The Homs blasts came amid reports that Syrian government forces captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

A state television report said Sunday's blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa  a frequent target for similar explosions.

Most of the bombing attacks in Homs over the past months have been claimed by ISIL, which controls parts of Homs province including the historic town of Palmyra.

The explosions took place just after 6 a.m. local time, and both the Observatory and the TV report said they were caused by a pair of car bombs.

The television report aired footage of the destruction caused by the blasts. Debris and mangled cars filled the streets and the charred body of a man was seen being taken away on a stretcher.

The Zahra neighborhood is predominantly Alawite, the minority Muslim sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs.

Homs, once dubbed the capital of the Syrian revolution, has been hit with a wave of explosions in recent months, killing and wounding scores of people. The rebels controlled large parts of Homs after the uprising against Assad's government began in March 2011.

With time, the government gained control of most of Homs' neighborhoods and a deal was reached late last year for fighters to evacuate the last rebel-held neighborhood of Waer.

Two blasts hit the Zahra neighborhood on Jan. 26, killing 20 and wounding more than 100 people.

To the north, the Syrian army captured 31 villages on Sunday that were controlled by ISIL, according to the pro-Syrian Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV and Hezbollah's Al-Manar station.

Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar often have reporters embedded with Syrian troops in northern Syria.

Syrian state media earlier reported that Syrian troops had captured some 10 villages in Aleppo province from IS.

Wire services
[February 20, 2016] IDOL 4 Series Takes Everything Up a Notch With Augmented Multimedia Features and the Boom Key Experience

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ALCATEL announces its premium IDOL 4 series. Building on the success of its trend-setting IDOL 3, the uniquely designed IDOL 4 and IDOL 4S smartphones take everything up a notch with a new Boom Key and an augmented multimedia experience. "The IDOL 4 series marks another milestone in ALCATEL innovation," said Dan Dery, Chief Marketing Officer at ALCATEL. "The Boom Key boom-ifies everything, from the sound to photos to gaming. Something we're really excited about, and something I'm eager to show my friends is that we've augmented IDOL 4's multimedia experience. A screen that offers a stunning display from any angle, an all-in-one powerhouse audio eocsystem and a professional-caliber camera." BOOM ME UP! The Boom Key Delivers Augmented Experience

Boom my camera: Instantly takes photos on standby mode pressing and holding the button puts the camera into burst mode to take photos in quick succession.

Boom my gallery: Artistically shuffles the photos in the gallery for instant sharing as a photo collage or a short slideshow.

Boom my videos: Generates immediate, surprising effects in existing videos, such as replaying the previous one second of the video three times, or changing the playback speed. When a user is recording a video, pressing the Boom Key will immediately broadcast the video live.

Boom my music: Conceived by ALCATEL and creatively engineered by Waves, the audio experience is automatically optimized across all media with simply one touch. The bass, loudness and clarity of the sound is enhanced, enriching the whole user experience.

Boom my game: Asphalt fans will love how the Boom Key amps up their race by releasing the Nitro and boosting the car speed. It also boosts the audio experience by increasing the volume and adding spatial sound reproduction.

Boom my view: Creates a more intense 3D effect (parallax UI effect) for the launcher and a stunning, live weather display as part of the homescreen. Augumented Multimedia: Amped-Up Display, Camera and Sound

The IDOL 4, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, and the IDOL 4S, featuring the Snapdragon 652 processor, deliver advanced features and capabilities that allow consumers to experience console-quality 3D gaming, enhanced photography and videography, as well as home theater-qualit audio. These Qualcomm Technologies processors also features an X8 LTE modem and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity which supports very fast download speeds. Additionally users will be able to enjoy all-day battery life. Both smartphones sport displays that provide superb readability even in bright sunlight and clear viewing from any angle using Qualcomm Technologies' Assertive Display technology. The larger, 5.5-inch IDOL 4S offers a 2K AMOLED display, which is super-responsive and low in power consumption.



"Both Snapdragon 617 and 652 processors take processing and power efficiency to new heights and offer advanced features that will enable the great user experiences for ALCATEL consumers," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are pleased to have worked with ALCATEL on the development of their new IDOL 4 and IDOL 4S series, which will deliver exceptional features." IDOL 4 series comes with professional-quality cameras offering ultrafast auto-focus (0.1-0.3 seconds), as well as 360-degree photos and selfies. The smartphones also produce crystal-clear shots even in the dark.

For a superior and powerful audio experience, ALCATEL teamed up with two well-known audio brands, JBL and Waves. With these top leaders supporting the hardware and software, the end-user can rest assured that the audio quality of the IDOL 4 series is simply awesome! Other IDOL 4 series audio features include two powerful 3.6 watt speakers, Hi-Fi surround-sound for the headset, and optimization of audio presets both automatically and manually, giving users a powerhouse sound. The J22 JBL headphones employ high-performance drivers and a high quality microphone is included to enable the end-user to enjoy on-the-go phone conversations. The pre-loaded Onetouch Music app offers users an all-in-one music ecosystem, which lets them discover new music, mix online or local tracks, remix, as well as play and browse featured playlists. Augumented Reversibility: Up, Down and All Around

IDOL 4 and IDOL 4S are reversible in three ways. The interface rights itself no matter if the users picks it up right side up or upside down. In addition, it is reversible left to right: stereo sound is always on the correct side, even when the phone is flipped. And the strategically placed speaker grille ensures that sound is unobstructed, whether the phone is facing up or turned over. Augumented Reality: Part of the IDOL 4 Experience

Last but not least: The IDOL 4S's innovative packaging design transforms into a pair of virtual reality goggles which, when combined with the smartphone, becomes the portal for users to enter the world of immersive 360-degree viewing and gaming. Virtual reality content such as videos and games can be downloaded onto the device from the Onetouch VR Store, a built-in app to easily access saved virtual reality content or streamed in realtime via LittlStar. Finely Crafted Design

IDOL 4 and IDOL 4S will be offered with four different metal frames: Gold, Dark Gray, Rose Gold and Metal Silver. The front glass touch panel and glass back cover give the phones a premium look and feel. The IDOL 4 series' slimness (6.9 mm), metal frame and in-mold spin-effect texture add to its finely crafted, luxurious design. * VR-in-the-box is optional depends on the variants of IDOL 4 series Stop by our booth Hall 6, Stand 6C-30 at MWC. Visit ALCATEL PRESS ROOM Media Contacts Fran Tam - ALCATEL - GLOBAL

+852 3180 2831 - [email protected] Jason Gerdon - ALCATEL - NORTH AMERICA

+1 949 245 9913 - [email protected] About ALCATEL

ALCATEL is a member of TCL Communication, an international multicultural company which designs, develops and markets globally a growing range of mobile and Internet devices. TCL Communication is a public company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2618.HK) and part of TCL Corporation, one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. For more information, please visit ALCATEL's website. Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160219/335138LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idol-4-series-takes-everything-up-a-notch-with-augmented-multimedia-features-and-the-boom-key-experience-300222998.html SOURCE ALCATEL

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Today is Warren Siegel s birthday and as is usual to post private messages publicly on social media (Are blogs considered social media nowa...
These sermons have been preached by Pastor Joachim Rieck of the Eastside Baptist Church, Windhoek, Namibia over a number of years. They are published as an additional help or resource for our congregation and anybody who may profit from these.

These are obviously only manuscripts, and as such they cannot fully convey the preacher's passion for the Word of God. I preach on average 45 minute sermons, and therefore much of what I say and apply to the congregation with the help of the Holy Spirit is not found in these manuscripts.



I freely acknowledge my huge debt to commentators and other preachers who have helped me to think through the

Scriptures.



Any mistakes or errors are mine, and I am happy to be corrected wherever I may have erred in my exegesis or interpretation.




On Feb. 5, U.S. federal magistrate Kimberly Swank cleared the way for the extradition of Salvadoran former Col. Inocente Orlando Montano to Spain, where he faces criminal charges for helping plan the 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 16-year-old daughter during El Salvadors civil war.

Twenty-seven years after that brutal massacre, Montano and 16 other high-level Salvadoran military officials may finally face justice for their crimes. An amnesty law passed in the aftermath of the 1992 peace accords that ended the countrys bloody 12-year conflict has shielded the officers from domestic prosecution, through a blanket reprieve that runs afoul of international law.

The suit, filed by the U.S.-based advocacy group Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and the Spanish Association for Human Rights, has been winding through the Spanish National Court since 2008. Five of the priests killed were from Spain, providing a nexus to the Spanish courts.

Swanks ruling is a resounding victory for justice for a conflict in which impunity has reigned. Holding a senior military officer accountable for the Jesuit massacre is significant on so many levels, CJA lawyer Almudena Bernabeu said in a statement. First, we will be able to find the truth that the Jesuits and all Salvadorans have demanded for so long. Truth and accountability will give strength to all those who are trying to end the cycle of violence in El Salvador that has resurged to levels not seen since the civil war.

Montano, 73, has been in U.S. custody since 2013 on charges of immigration fraud and perjury. The State Department is expected to approve the extradition order. Swank found that he could be considered a terrorist because he collaborated to carry out murders in his official capacity. He was present at key meeting when commanders plotted the murder of Father Ignacio Ellacuria, the University of Central Americas rector, who had been serving as an intermediary in peace talks.

Ellacurias death was intended to sabotage peace, but the Jesuit killings horrified the international community, galvanizing pressure to end the conflict. Washington provided more than $4 billion in assistance to the Salvadoran military during the civil war as part of its Cold War strategy, despite its brutal record of human rights abuses.

The Jesuit massacre triggered a congressional investigation led by former Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., whose withering report found that 19 of the 26 Salvadoran officers culpable in in the killings underwent military training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas  including Montano and the elite Atlacatl Brigade, a rapid deployment counterinsurgency unit that was dispatched to silence Ellacuria and any witnesses to his execution. The brigade had already left a trail of blood, including El Mozote massacre in 1981, during which more than 800 people, including 450 children, were killed. The findings coincided with the waning of the regions strategic importance as the Cold War wound down and prompted Congress to begin withdrawing its support to San Salvador.
Armchair Traveling

I have published thousands of blogs from and about many beautiful locations or interesting events in our world. I hope you enjoy your visit. Try clicking on any of the locations in the Index listing farther down this side column.
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This blog is all about how I how used humor to remain sane while dealing with the insanity of a brain tumor the size of my wifes fist. Why blog? To help other folks cope with serious health issues/brain tumors/cancer and give anybody wading through the muck of rehabilitation some hope or at least a chuckle or two. It will include a vaguely chronological story, books reviews, presentations to rehab patients, etc.
Whenever a major building project is announced for downtown Lincoln, one immediate question asks what historic buildings will be lost.

Sometimes, as with the new mixed-use building proposed for the roughly quarter block on the southeast corner of Ninth and O streets, some of the buildings in question already have been lost. The City Hall Theatre/adult bookstore and adjacent Gourlay Piano & Appliance buildings were lost in a fire five years ago and are now empty lots. The buildings which still stand are lesser known.

If you peel back the map of Lincoln to 1865, you find the entire block is just outside the village of Lancaster. Its southern boundary was Locust Street, todays O Street. Three trails bordered the block. Locust/O Street was a cattle driving trail, one reason for its ending up 125 feet wide. Another trail led almost straight south, and the third came from the southeast, overlaying todays Nebraska 2 and the railroad's route to Nebraska City.

With statehood arriving in 1867 and Lancaster becoming Lincoln, the new plat described the land bordered by O, N, Ninth and 10th streets as Block 54, which was divided into lots for a September auction. The proceeds from the sale would finance the new state and its buildings until taxes could be collected and other state-owned land sold.

Along O Street were lots numbered from 1 to 12 starting on the northeast corner of the block -- todays Terminal Building -- to the west, with No. 12 the location of what was Knickerbockers. The southeast quarter of the block had only three lots, double the size of the properties along O Street. Because they faced Market Square, the smaller lots were felt to be the most desirable and hence most valuable.

At the auction, Jacob Dawson, Lincolns first postmaster, purchased lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, at an average of $58 each. Lots 9 and 11 sold to L.A. Goff, No. 10 to Rich & Oppenheimer for $151 and No. 12 to M.T. Johnson for $156.

In 1868, a map was drawn of the buildings along O Street, showing Cropseys land office at 10th and O, and to the west, Bohanans Meat Market, Molls Grocery, Rich & Oppenheimers Grocery and Mr. Moores barber shop at Ninth and O.

L.A. Scoggin had built a frame house on the east side of Ninth Street to the south of the barber shop, and Jacob Dawson inexplicable built his new house dead in the middle of the block. Dawsons previous house at about Seventh and O was sold to Judge Stephen Pound, who operated a grocery in one room and then partnered very briefly with Rich & Oppenheimer on O Street.

In the 1870s, L.A. Scoggin sold his house to a young lady, and it became Rose Kirkwoods brothel. At 917 O St., a double lot became City Hall (or Peoples Theatre), and by 1888, the corner of Ninth and O was Meagers Saloon. A succession of saloons would be the corner tenants until Prohibition in 1919, when it became the New York Bargain Store, Sidney Poskas Clothing Co. and later Dears Soft Drinks.

In the 1920s Gardner Moore, who owned Ideal Grocery, got the idea to open at Ninth and O Streets  going after the farmer business.

With the end of Prohibition, Gold Dust Tavern returned to the corner, followed by the Office Tavern, Maries Oasis and ultimately Knickerbockers.

In 1915, buildings on Lots 1 through 6 were razed, and in August 1916, nine months after construction began, the first tenants moved into the new Terminal Building.

Other familiar tenants on lots 7 through 11 through the years included Earl May, the Senate Cafe, Stephensons School Supply, Sidetrack Tap and Gourlay Piano & Appliances, which moved there from South 12th Street.

On Dec. 12, 2010, the adult bookstore, which occupied the old City Hall Theatre, burned and damaged the Gourlay Piano building to the west so badly that it was condemned. The new mixed-use proposal will replace everything on O Street west of the Terminal Building and south through the tattoo parlor.

The 1903 masonry brothel, later City Mission and currently Mission Arts Gallery, will remain.
Eric Zornes used part of his lottery winnings to buy 160 acres of deer-hunting, bass-fishing paradise near Cook.

He calls the land, valued at about $426,000, Easy Acres, according to a 2007 article at Lotterypost.com.

"This is paradise right here," Zornes said then.

The Lincoln East High graduate split a $365 million jackpot with seven Cook Family Foods co-workers 10 years ago.

Back then, Zornes was a hit with the media during his 15 minutes of fame. He had the comedic timing of guys on a blue-collar comedy tour and answered questions at the news conference introducing the winners in a country-boy drawl.

"I've been retired for about four days," he said then, bringing down the house.

Zornes had worked as a maintenance mechanic at the food-processing plant for about 10 years and said he put in 60 to 65 hours a week -- before his early retirement.

He didn't respond to interview requests this month, but court records show life hasn't been all Easy Acres since the big win.

A legal battle between Zornes, 50, and his ex-wife over money she loaned to her relatives continues to play out in Lancaster County District Court.

He sued in 2012, alleging he hadn't received his portion of a loan repayment made to her as required by a loan agreement, according to the lawsuit. She contended he was aware of the loan repayment and didn't object to it before they separated. They divorced in 2011.

The case was back in the news in December when the Nebraska Supreme Court revived it after it had been essentially dismissed by a lower court judge without a trial.
Brian Rockey was at a gala at a downtown bank when he got a call about 11 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2006.

He was the marketing director for the Nebraska Lottery back then, and the caller was an IT guy from the office. And he was talking way too fast for Rockey to understand him.

Rockey asked again why he was calling this Saturday night.

It was sold here.

That would be the winning ticket for the then-biggest Powerball jackpot ever, and it had been sold at a U-Stop on West O.

Were gonna have to go home, Rockey told his wife, Dawn.

Eight jackpot-winning tickets had been sold in Nebraska since the state joined the Multi-State Lottery Association in 1994, and Rockey had worked press conferences for six of them.

But he knew immediately this was going to be a wild ride.

Rockey, who now works in the private sector with International Gaming Technology, remembers well the flurry surrounding the Lucky Eight, right down to the 21 news cameras he counted in the Cornhusker Marriott ballroom when the winners were introduced by the governor at a Wednesday news conference.

He got home that first night to a perpetually ringing telephone -- local and national news reporters, TV networks, talk show booking agents, all calling in search of any shred of information about who won the $365 million jackpot.

Im on my cellphone and (Dawn's) on the land line talking to someone in New York, saying, Do you realize what time it is? I think I went to bed at 2-something, he said last week.

The gravity of the situation hit then-Nebraska Lottery Director Jim Haynes about the same time that night. So did the phone calls.

Haynes, now retired, got his own call from the IT guy that night, and then he got a call from a producer at a major TV network. He cant remember which one, since pretty much all of them called eventually.

Were rolling trucks from another state to Nebraska to this event, the producer told him. Trucks. I thought, Oh my.

He, Rockey and Tom Johnson, then public relations director for the Nebraska Lottery, met early the next morning at their office to figure out how to deal with the furor, all the while wondering themselves when a winner would come forward. Johnson, who couldnt be reached last week, went to the U-Stop to field questions from reporters gathering there, his former co-workers recalled. Everyone fielded phone calls.

That first day passed with no word from a winner.

Rockey headed home at 5 or 6 that evening and checked the messages -- plural, of course. One was from some guy saying he was a Lincoln attorney.

"I have a question about the Powerball," Rockey recalls Jim Hoppe saying on the message.

He figured his wife put the caller up to it, but he called back.

He said, Well, Im sitting here with some people that have the winning ticket, Rockey remembered. I said, OK "

He told Hoppe that, if he really did have the winners with him, he should advise them to hold off talking with anybody -- media included -- until they could meet with lottery officials.

That wouldn't be a problem. It turned out they werent in search of a spotlight to go along with their windfall.

Most of the winners holed up at the Embassy Suites starting that Sunday night to avoid cold calls at their homes. But that's where many of the media that whooshed in from out of town were staying. The future millionaires fled downtown and landed at the old Harvester Hotel, out by the state pen.

By Monday, rumor was spreading at Cook Family Foods that a group of plant workers had hit the jackpot.

"We have not heard anything from anybody that works anywhere that has a ticket or anything," Rockey told the Journal Star that day. "I know lots of stories are floating around. But we don't have anything that can be substantiated."

Score it a truth on a technicality. Theyd only talked with Hoppe at that point, and they still hadnt seen the ticket.

Meanwhile, the false reports accumulated, Haynes said. Most were prank calls, but one involved a professional hoaxer who had also snuck a fake ref onto the field for four plays in the middle of Super Bowl XVII. At the Village Inn at 66th and O, a guy dropped $2,000 on the counter, flashed what looked like a winning lottery ticket and said, Dinners on me. Reporters came running.

But, Rockey told reporters then, the man hadn't come forward to claim the prize. Read the back of a Lotto ticket -- and go ahead and sign it immediately if you ever buy one, Haynes advises -- and youll see that a prize over $20,000 must be claimed in person at the Nebraska Lottery office in Lincoln. Anyone can go around buying pie and saying they won the jackpot, but they dont get paid out until they go to the lottery headquarters or dare to mail it in.

Unless, it turns out, there's a record-setting jackpot.

The two sides agreed to meet Tuesday, but Hoppe didn't want it to go down at the Nebraska Lottery office, where cameras whirled around every time the elevator doors opened.

So the record-breaking jackpot blew up the back-of-ticket protocol, too. This time, the lottery office went to the winners. Haynes, Rockey, Johnson and more than a few certified law enforcement officers who work for the Nebraska Department of Revenue drove in a couple of unmarked cars over to Hoppes office in the Haymarket on Feb. 21, 2006.

There, they met the eight food production plant workers who would split a cash-option sum of $124,089,363.77.

They'd bought their $5 winning ticket Feb. 17, 2006, at 3:09 p.m., and it included a total of five shots at the jackpot. The four losing combinations were nearly complete duds.

But the first one listed was a bullseye -- 15-17-43-44-48-Powerball 29. A one-in-146-million shot.

And there it was on Hoppes conference table, signed, uncrinkled, in near-pristine condition.

It didnt look like the ticket had attended a party or anything, Haynes said.

It passed the eyeball test from state investigators too. They just needed to take it back to the office to verify it through a set of procedures that are slightly more cloak-and-dagger than driving over to a lawyers office. The winners asked for a signed statement documenting the transfer of the ticket to the officials, and then handed it over.

For the Nebraska Lottery employees, this marked the beginning of the end of their crazy week.

I think I went home (after the press conference) and had trouble sleeping because my phone wasnt ringing, Haynes said. As quickly as it started, it ended just as abruptly.

For the winners, Haynes said, a new reality seemed to be hitting them.

It might be like a nervous tension youd associate with a first date, he said. Here are state officials coming in to receive a ticket they know is worth $365 million. There was a little hesitancy and nervousness on their part because they were so excited of this. When they handed over the ticket, there was a realization what this meant: OK, this is for real.
In the countryside Sometimes I like to think about what aspects of the Mongolian lifestyle I would take home with me to the U.S. I don&...
As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) often sounds like he's running as much against me as he is the other candidates. I have never met the senator, but I know from listening to him that we disagree on plenty when it comes to public policy.

Even so, I see benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility during this overly negative campaign season. That's why, in spite of the fact that he often misrepresents where I stand on issues, the senator should know that we do agree on at least one - an issue that resonates with people who feel that hard work and making a contribution will no longer enable them to succeed.

The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.

I agree with him.

Democrats and Republicans have too often favored policies and regulations that pick winners and losers. This helps perpetuate a cycle of control, dependency, cronyism and poverty in the United States. These are complicated issues, but it's not enough to say that government alone is to blame. Large portions of the business community have actively pushed for these policies.

Consider the regulations, handouts, mandates, subsidies and other forms of largesse our elected officials dole out to the wealthy and well-connected. The tax code alone contains $1.5 trillion in exemptions and special-interest carve-outs. Anti-competitive regulations cost businesses an additional $1.9 trillion every year. Perversely, this regulatory burden falls hardest on small companies, innovators and the poor, while benefitting many large companies like ours. This unfairly benefits established firms and penalizes new entrants, contributing to a two-tiered society.

Whenever we allow government to pick winners and losers, we impede progress and move further away from a society of mutual benefit. This pits individuals and groups against each other and corrupts the business community, which inevitably becomes less focused on creating value for customers. That's why Koch Industries opposes all forms of corporate welfare - even those that benefit us. (The government's ethanol mandate is a good example. We oppose that mandate, even though we are the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the United States.)

It may surprise the senator to learn that our framework in deciding whether to support or oppose a policy is not determined by its effect on our bottom line (or by which party sponsors the legislation), but by whether it will make people's lives better or worse.

With this in mind, the United States' next president must be willing to rethink decades of misguided policies enacted by both parties that are creating a permanent underclass.

Our criminal justice system, which is in dire need of reform, is another issue where the senator shares some of my concerns. Families and entire communities are being ripped apart by laws that unjustly destroy the lives of low-level and nonviolent offenders.

Today, if you're poor and get caught possessing and selling pot, you could end up in jail. Your conviction will hold you back from many opportunities in life. However, if you are well-connected and have ample financial resources, the rules change dramatically. Where is the justice in that?

Arbitrary restrictions limit the ability of ex-offenders to get housing, student or business loans, credit cards, a meaningful job or even to vote. Public policy must change if people are to have the chance to succeed after making amends for their transgressions. At Koch Industries we're practicing our principles by "banning the box." We have voluntarily removed the question about prior criminal convictions from our job application.

At this point you may be asking yourself, "Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern?"

Hardly.

I applaud the senator for giving a voice to many Americans struggling to get ahead in a system too often stacked in favor of the haves, but I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government's control over peoples' lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place.

Consider America's War on Poverty. Since its launch under President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, we have spent roughly $22 trillion, yet our poverty rate remains at 14.5 percent. Instead of preventing, curing and relieving the causes and symptoms of poverty (the goals of the program when it began), too many communities have been torn apart and remain in peril while even more tax dollars pour into this broken system.

It is results, not intentions, that matter. History has proven that a bigger, more controlling, more complex and costlier federal government leaves the disadvantaged less likely to improve their lives.

When it comes to electing our next president, we should reward those candidates, Democrat or Republican, most committed to the principles of a free society. Those principles start with the right to live your life as you see fit as long as you don't infringe on the ability of others to do the same. They include equality before the law, free speech and free markets and treating people with dignity, respect and tolerance. In a society governed by such principles, people succeed by helping others improve their lives.

I don't expect to agree with every position a candidate holds, but all Americans deserve a president who, on balance, can demonstrate a commitment to a set of ideas and values that will lead to peace, civility and well-being rather than conflict, contempt and division. When such a candidate emerges, he or she will have my enthusiastic support.
Nearly 25 years after building his first home, Bob Benes still loves the chance to sit down in a conference room and talk with a young couple about their dream space.

Thats just fun, he said.

Benes, president of Aspen Builders in Lincoln, along with owners of Lincoln-based Kinning Design Build and Third Generation Builder, say they're having more of those fun conversations these days.

With inventory in Lincolns existing-home market at its lowest levels since the mid-1990s, more homebuyers are building new homes, they said.

People are looking for existing homes, and theres just nothing there, said Stephanie Ponce, who honored her family roots in the construction business, starting Third Generation Builder after graduating from Union College in 2009.

Ponce and her subcontractors put up 16 homes last year, when the local Realtors Association reported 600 sales of new homes in Lincoln.

That number is down significantly from levels seen before the so-called housing bubble burst, but officials say Lincoln has recovered well from the recession of the late 2000s, and growth is evident wherever you drive in and around the city.

Aspen Builders is active in Waverly and with its own developments in southeast Lincoln (Village Meadows) and northwest Lincoln (Charleston Heights).

In those areas, Benes said lots are gobbled up even before the streets are in. Buyers are attracted to new neighborhoods that feel like, well, neighborhoods, with homes that have a different look from one to the next, and nearby schools, green space and curved roads.

Im just like the buyers, I like character, said Benes, who says Aspen builds 80 to 90 new homes a year. Todays buyers, they want to be close to schools and have easy access to where they work.

The challenge is to find enough of those places. It seems like were running out of places to build.

Thats yet another sign of an active housing market. Local home sales set an all-time record in 2015, with the Realtors Association of Lincoln reporting 4,704 closed sales. That whipped the previous record of 4,581 set in 2004.

Existing home sales remain the biggest chunk of the total, with 4,104 sales in 2015 marking the fourth year in a row of record sales numbers.

The inventory of homes, however, is at an unprecedented low, with just 845 Lincoln homes on the market at the end of December.

As a result, prices are up. The average price for an existing home sold in 2015 reached an all-time high of $173,000.

Input costs obviously drive the price of new homes, but the cost of sought-after lots and a tight labor market are also factors.

Without enough available labor to meet the demand, Benes said new-home projects that once could be wrapped up in four months now take six.

Ive got a plumber with four jobs, Benes said.

Finding enough skilled labor is a challenge, just as finding a build-ready lot can be tricky, said Mike Kinning of Kinning Design Build.

But those are issues of a growing market, and the interest in building is strong among homebuyers -- young and old.

Ponce has advice for those thinking about building.

Dont be scared, she said. Go out and meet people, and look for that instance where you mesh with a builder.

Its all about the experience. Youre going to be spending the next five to six months together.

Here's more on the Lincoln builders who discussed the local market in our roundtable interview:

Scouting out Lincoln

From building his first new home for himself and his wife in South Sioux City in 1985, Mike Kinning has had a hand in 350 new homes or major remodeling projects in the Lincoln area.

We moved in in September and sold it in January, said Kinning, reflecting on leaving the Sioux City area to create Kinning Design Build in Lincoln.

We did our homework. We went to Phoenix and scouted that out, he recalled.

His wife, Mary, had attended college here, and with a months-old son, it seemed like a logical place to look.

Kinning recalled hearing that 270 new homes were constructed in Lincoln in 1985. In the Sioux City area, 37 new homes built went up that year.

That made the decision an easy one, but like everywhere, the Lincoln market has had its ups and downs.

Obviously in '08, those were some pretty tough times, Kinning said. The toughest part of the building business is every year you start over. You have to work hard.

Self-described custom builders, 90 percent of what we do is something weve never done before, he said. People may bring three or four plans that they like aspects of, and we try to tie those into the homes of their dreams.

Kinning Design Build is all in the family. Mary Kinning staffs the office, and son Matt is involved as well.

Their work takes them all over town. On a recent day, following Januarys big snow, Mike was checking out a home in the trim stages in The Bridges, a subdivision near Southwest 27th Street and West Denton Road touted for its picturesque views -- there are six ponds -- and energy-efficient homes.

It works best to have five to six homes in the mix at one time, he said. Weve got too many right now. Its a positive sign for the local market.

Lincolns got a lot of great things going for it, he said. When were creating more jobs than weve got people for, thats impressive. Plus, its a great place to raise a family.

Out on her own

Stephanie Ponce always thought she would take over Krueger Development, the family business, but her father had other ideas.

He said, 'Youre going to do your own thing,' said Ponce, who admitted that it was kind of scary at the time.

My early-on clients were amazing, she said. Im still amazed some of them picked someone 26 years old to build their home.

Yes, there are challenges as a female builder, but one of the strengths is being able to relate with women during the building process. Often, when couples are building a home, its the woman who is doing most of the research and has more questions, Ponce said.

Ponce focuses on mostly starter to middle-class homes. Homebuyers she works with typically start from one of her three floor plans and go from there.

The Andy is the most popular. The Valerie works for retired couples.

Her business got a boost a few years ago when Union Bank featured Ponce in a commercial. Even today, she says random people will recognize her walking the aisles of Home Depot.

A lot of her subcontractors are ones her father used, and theyve been more valuable than just doing the work. Ponce wanted to learn from them, in part so she could do a lot of the work herself.

"I could hire it out," she said, "but when I close on that house, I want to be able to say I did something."

Ponce lived in the first house she built for five years. She says it's helpful to live in the same neighborhood where she builds homes, in her case, The Woodlands at Yankee Hill.

Third Generation Builder has a dozen homes already underway this year, from south Lincoln to Ponce's first project on the north side of town.

"I'm excited to work in another part of the city."

Building a subdivision

A builder and developer for two decades, Bob Benes still considers himself a farmer.

His rural roots can be traced to west of Lincoln, where his dad was a farmer. His building background began as a remodeler -- buying, fixing up and flipping houses while in college.

He started building single-family homes in 1992, and by the late 1990s was active as a developer.

His business now involves building homes but also overseeing developments such as the 160-acre Village Meadows and the 60-acre Charleston Heights. Benes estimates Aspen Builders put in close to 200 lots last year.

In most cases, Benes will sell off a portion of the lots in his developments to other builders to guarantee a mix of homes and pay off the debt.

Village Meadows includes Wysong Elementary, which will open next year near 63rd Street and Yankee Hill Road. The development has a variety of lot sizes and some unique aspects, including a community of what Benes terms patio homes for seniors.

While building in southeast Lincoln has exploded, prompting new schools in the area, Benes projects more growth in west Lincoln over time. Charleston Heights is near Kooser Elementary on North 14th Street.

Inside Aspen's office, staff work with prospective clients from picking out a lot to designing the house, focusing on keeping the cost under budget.

"We see a lot of young people who want to build that first home," Benes said. "They have all these ideas from Pinterest and Houzz, so we're able to look at those and work with them to include some neat things.

"But we also see the move-up people coming in. They're very important in that as they build a new home, it opens up a house in Lincoln. We need that inventory."

Today's buyers, Benes said, are very educated about the process, and in a change from years past, many walk in with their down payment already secure in savings.

"That's nice to see," he said.
Courtney Dentlinger has been leading the state's economic development department only four weeks, but already has ideas for its direction.

"I think we could do a lot better job of marketing our state," she said. "We're a relatively unknown quantity outside of the borders of Nebraska. So we need to tell our story and explain why Nebraska's a great place to do business."

First though, she wants a more detailed understanding of the state's assets and challenges.

For that, the department has hired SRI International to gather information on what is driving Nebraska's economy, to look at target industries and ask for input from people across the state involved in business, government, education and economic development.

The research firm will analyze infrastructure, finances, taxes, regulations, permitting, incentives and other factors, and compare those to other states.

It will then make recommendations on how the state can better compete and highlight its strengths.

The SRI study would update the 2010 Battelle Institute study, a report that was meant to provide a road map for future economic development efforts, and show how the state has progressed in six years and what else needs to be done.

The state's primary industry sectors are agriculture and industry, but it's seeing an uptick in technology jobs, particularly in the metro areas, Dentlinger said.

Some of the tools that encouraged development of technology jobs came out of the Battelle study and the Business Innovation Act.

Agriculture-related industries are also increasing because of low commodity prices. Those include everything from food processing to ethanol to new bio-firms using agriculture products.

Dentlinger wants to look at the state's business incentive packages to ensure they are helping Nebraska achieve its goals in attracting the businesses, industry and jobs it needs.

Nebraska has potential infrastructure issues such as access to four-lane highways, electricity, natural gas supplies and water and wastewater capacity when recruiting businesses.

To compete with other states, sites need to be identified and the appropriate infrastructure developed, Dentlinger said.

When the infrastructure isn't in place, generally there's a way to get it there, she said. It's just a matter of cost and time.

Dentlinger spent the past 11 years in Norfolk, serving as director of the Norfolk Area Economic Development Council since 2012. One of her biggest accomplishments was working in collaboration with the community and Black Hills Energy to solve a natural gas shortage for Norfolk and surrounding communities.

Being at capacity for natural gas was a deal killer for any industry from an economic development perspective, she said. A number of businesses couldn't expand without access to natural gas.

Last month, the Norfolk City Council approved an amendment to an agreement between the city and Black Hills Energy, in which the city would provide as much as $3.6 million for construction of a 6-inch natural gas line stretching from Bancroft to Norfolk, News Channel Nebraska reported. The pipeline, which will increase natural gas capacity for Norfolk by at least 50 percent, will allow for future expansion of business and industry in the area.

Workforce is another issue, Dentlinger said. While it's great that fewer people in Nebraska are struggling with unemployment compared to other states, she said, at the same time there are a lot of open jobs in the state.

That means a lot of opportunities for businesses to fill positions and potentially expand, and to recruit businesses based on the quality of the workforce here, she said.

"They're very well-educated, hard-working people. We simply don't have enough of them right now," she said.

Dentlinger would like to get more young people who have left the state to return. That's what she did after a number of years in Washington, D.C., where she attended law school, and then worked in federal policy and government relations.

She came back, with the prospect of having a family, to be closer to family and have access to good schools, lower-cost housing and improved quality of life.

"I think with a concerted effort we can get the message out to folks: You can be very successful in the state of Nebraska," she said. "With technology these days, there's not much you can't do in the state of Nebraska."
During its 41-year history in Lincoln, Kawasaki has seen its ups and downs.

Its first motorcycle rolled off the assembly line in 1975, but motorcycle production was discontinued in 2007.

A recession in the early 1980s, combined with a couple of years of lower-than-average snowfall, killed the company's short-lived snowmobile experiment after just a few years.

But Kawasaki hit it out of the park with its rail car facility, which opened in 2001 and has made train cars for rail systems in New York and Washington, D.C.

And next spring, the company will embark on a new venture: making cargo doors for the Boeing 777X passenger plane.

Mike Boyle, vice president and Lincoln plant manager, said the diverse product mix in Lincoln helps keep the plant going through downturns.

"The flexibility of different products really helps us weather those tough times," Boyle said.

No time was tougher than the most recent recession, which caused the Lincoln plant to lay off hundreds of employees.

"That was kind of a low point for us, and from there we have been growing every year," said Boyle, who has worked at the plant for 31 years and became plant manager in 2007.

The consumer products business, which includes Jet Skis, utility vehicles and all-terrain vehicles, has been growing about 5 percent faster than the overall national gross domestic product for the past several years, he said.

Employment at the plant is up too -- about 25 percent since its low point in the recession -- and about 1,900 people work there now.

Several hundred of those employees work in the rail car plant, where Kawasaki has one project going and another one set to start later this year.

The current project, for the Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, continues until the second quarter of 2019. The new project, for New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority, is set to start in November, and will run at least through 2018, although options, if exercised, could add work through 2023.

Finding new rail car work is a priority, Boyle said, and the company is in the process of bidding on some future projects.

"We always look five to six years ahead in that part of the business," he said.

Much like the rail car work, the new aerospace manufacturing is expected to be more stable than the consumer products business, which can fluctuate monthly.

Kawasaki is part of a consortium of Japanese companies that in July finalized an agreement to supply about 21 percent of the parts for the Boeing 777X.

Although Kawasaki's deal includes many components of the 777X, including forward- and mid-fuselage panels, main landing gear wells and pressure bulkheads, it will manufacture only the cargo doors in Lincoln.

"It's kind of our testing and getting our feet wet," Boyle said.

Kawasaki is expecting sustained demand in the commercial aircraft market and is looking to establish a U.S. manufacturing base in Lincoln.

If the plant does well making cargo doors, it could be in line to get more and more varied work in the future, Boyle said.

Kawasaki plans to remodel an existing 30,000-square-foot space in the northeast part of its consumer products plant at 6600 N.W. 27th St. It plans to spend about $12.5 million and expects to add about 50 employees when production starts next year.

"I think this plant and the people in this plant have proven themselves over the 41 years we've been here that we can provide quality products at reasonable manufacturing costs," Boyle said.
State government is a key component of Lincoln's economy and a source of economic stability for the city, but it represents a gradually shrinking slice of the economic pie as Lincoln's private sector continues to expand.

Lincoln weathered the Great Recession in 2007-09 not only with the vitality of its newly diversified economy, but because of state government, which, in turn, relied on an infusion of hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars to help finance the state budget.

That financial stability staved off a potentially sharp decline in state government spending and employment along with deep cuts in aid to local schools.

But Lincoln increasingly benefits from "a diversified portfolio" in the private sector that includes job growth in manufacturing, health care, insurance and information technology, Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Birdsall said.

While state government itself is on a conservative glide path toward limited spending and a reduced rate of growth, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln -- a key component of the state government budget -- is aspiring to grow dramatically and that, in turn, would further energize Lincoln's economy.

The old description of Lincoln as a state government and university town is incomplete today as the city adds accelerated business growth and development to its economy and approaches a population of 275,000.

The most recent increase in employment in Lincoln over the previous year hit an all-time high of 4,500, Birdsall said.

Lincoln's number of jobs reached 192,000 at the end of 2015, she said.

UNL's goal of increasing enrollment from 25,000 to 30,000 students not only would spur accelerated economic growth, but provide Lincoln -- and the state -- with "the next level of a highly educated workforce," Birdsall said.

And that, in turn, would attract more private sector development and further fuel Lincoln's economy.

"That's music to our ears," Birdsall said.

But another factor for Lincoln to take into account as it maps its economic future is the increasing distribution of state government operations outside of the state capital.

While Lincoln will remain the epicenter of state government, the trend in recent years has been to distribute state services throughout Nebraska.

"We've seen state government expand more out of Lincoln into Omaha and greater Nebraska," Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha noted.

"Services are being distributed more and more on a regional basis," he said.

Mello is chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, which crafts the state budget.

"Agencies are building more of a statewide focus," he said, "and more taxpayers are expecting more regional services."

That, in turn, draws more senators into the state budget process, Mello said.

"The private sector needs to take the lead in Lincoln," Birdsall said. "That will be a majority of your growth."

However, without question, state government and its large university component will remain "a vital part of our economy," she said. "It creates stability."

State government employment in Lincoln is estimated at nearly 16,000 people, according to statistics provided by Luke Peltz, director of business development for the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development.

Total business sector employment is 10 times larger.

Mello counts as a state government employee himself, earning a modest $12,000 annually as a state senator.

With eight years in the Legislature capped by playing the lead role in crafting the state budget, Mello said he has seen state employees at their best.

"They want to see state government work better," he said.

"They come to us with ideas and suggestions. They have been an invaluable resource. They have helped me become a better legislator."

And, Mello said, "the (state) services I have experienced as a taxpayer have been good."

Looking ahead, Birdsall zeroes in on workforce development.

"We are at 2.5 percent unemployment," she said. "We need to recruit people."

It's clearly state government, university and private sector now.
Compiled by Sharon Knox The Journal Times welcomes news about promotions, appointments, professional organization elections, certifications, and professional honors. There is no charge for this service. Because of space constraints, we reserve the right to edit for length or clarity. The deadline for Names and Faces items is 3 p.m. Thursday of each week. Photos may accompany notices of new hires and promotions. Send your items to Sharon Knox at: sknox@journaltimes.com or by mail: Names and Faces, The Journal Times, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403.

Business anniversaries

Is your business celebrating an anniversary? The Journal Times publishes short news items of 10th, 25th, 50th and greater multiples of 25 years of Racine County-based companies. We ask you to provide us with the basic information: when the business started; the founder; its location then and now; the original name if different than todays; and what the business did in the beginning and now. We will include these in the Names and Faces column or use them as stand-alone news items in our Sunday Money section. Send your items to Michael Burke at: mburke@journaltimes.com, or to Sharon Knox at: sknox@journaltimes.com, or fax them to 262-631-1780. Please provide a contact name and phone number in case we have questions.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Zimmerman of Racine celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Jan. 31 during Mass at St. Edward Catholic Church and a short reception afterward, followed by a family lunch at the home of their daughter. They will continue to celebrate throughout the year with family and friends in Wisconsin and out of state.

Zimmerman and the former Susan Klaes were married on Jan. 29, 1966, in Notre Dame Parish Church in Chippewa Falls.

The couple moved to Racine in 1976.

Zimmerman was employed in computer systems for nine years at A.E. Stoley Co. in Decatur, Ill., followed by 27 years at CNH in Racine. He retired in February of 2003.

Zimmerman audits classes at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and enjoys amateur photography, reading and outdoor exercise.

Mrs. Zimmerman was employed as a registered nurse in Madison and in long-term care in Racine, retiring in 1999.

She has volunteered at her childrens schools over the years, and enjoys reading and spending time at the YMCA.

The Chippewa Falls natives are members of St. Edward Catholic Church and have volunteered in various capacities throughout the years. They enjoyed spending time at their home in Chippewa Falls.

The Zimmermans have three children: Lee (Tammy Gorman) of Sante Fe, N.M., and Laura (Kenny) Neibaur and Sean (Elizabeth) of Racine. The couple has seven grandchildren.
CALEDONIA  The village is feeling good right now.

Its about time it starts looking good, too, village officials said.

The village is running water and sewer lines to Interstate 94 to spur development. It also finished 2015 with a budget surplus of $830,000.

The village is moving in a very positive direction right now, said Village Board President Bob Bradley. I believe we need to move up the village in the same way.

Village officials believe a new village hall  a proposed $3.5 million, 12,000-square-foot facility  would be a big step in the right direction. The Village Board will discuss the proposal at a special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday.

A new hall would give the village a central government location, improve its image with potential business owners and developers, and allow Caledonia to keep up with surrounding municipalities that have constructed new facilities in the past 15 years, officials said.

The current Caledonia Village Hall, built in 1953, is in the Husher area, a sparsely populated corner of the village. The building also houses the police station and municipal court.

Village Board and many committee meetings are held at the small East Side Community Center, a 1950s-era building that has served as a town garage, fire station and parks department facility.

Neither of those buildings is in a prime location for visibility or access.

Creating a central location

Last April, Caledonia spent $186,677 to buy 23.6 acres of land near Crawford Park at 4 Mile Road and Douglas Avenue as a future spot for a new village hall.

I certainly think its important to have a focal point in the village, said Village Administrator Tom Christensen. I think businesses along Douglas Avenue are excited about us moving where we plan to go.

The current village buildings also have a long list of deficiencies including a bad septic system, undrinkable water, leaking roofs, mildew, and cramped space, officials said.

Plus, they simply dont look good.

Presenting a better image

Bradley said its almost embarrassing to have potential developers and business owners meet with village officials in cramped offices, sitting on folding chairs.

Were competing with the big dogs now for business and development, Bradley said. We need to carry our image in a certain way.

We hold developers who come into the village to certain standards, Christensen said. Im sure some of them come in and take a look at our facilities and wonder how we can have regulations for them.

Other municipalities

Right now Caledonias facilities are a far cry from the municipal facilities in some other communities in the county, some with much smaller populations.

Rochester christened a $1.12 million, 6,200-square-foot village hall in February 2013, which replaced a 70-year-old facility.

Mount Pleasant opened a large, modern municipal campus off 90th Street in 2011. That hall was built after developers acquired the former Village Hall site at highways 31 and 11 and donated $10.3 million to the village.

Between 2005 and 2007, Union Grove and Yorkville moved into renovated space in the former county special education building at highways 45 and 11.

In 2001, Waterford renovated and modernized its Village Hall after a new adjacent library was built at River Street and Highway 20.

Caledonia does not plan to build a palace, Bradley said. He said he understands the village has a history of being fiscally conservative.

We are aware of what other places are doing, but were not doing this to keep up with anyone else, Bradley said. At some point we needed to decide whether or not to keep putting money into the existing structures or do we cut our losses and move on.
UNION GROVE  Where freight trains once rumbled through the heart of the village, Larissa Gallagher envisions bicycles pedaling peacefully.

Gallagher, who moved to Union Grove four years ago, is working to turn the old Soo Line railroad tracks through the village into a recreational trail.

We arent that big of a village, but kids here still have to ride their bikes on the street, she said. It would be nice to have them be on a protected trail.

Gallagher is also a member of the villages Community Development Authority. This spring she will be working with Leadership Union Grove, part of the villages Chamber of Commerce, to spread the word about the proposal.

For the next four months, Leadership Union Grove will raise awareness of the rails to trail plan and gather support for the proposal.

These things have a tendency to end up on the back burner, she said. We want to keep it up front.

The concept started in December 2013, when the village was told that the Soo Line would abandon its track between Sturtevant and Kansasville.

The railroad has started to remove the rails, said Village President Mike Aimone. So far, the tracks from Vandenboom Road near Burlington to inside the Union Grove village limits have been pulled up, he said.

All the tracks should be removed by the end of June, Aimone said.

This is something that would definitely add a great deal to the village, Aimone said. This trail would serve as a link to two other trails, it would connect all of our parks in the village, and it would promote health and fitness here.

The trail also could help downtown businesses by attracting more visitors and customers, Aimone said.

A Union Grove trail would connect the Racine-Sturtevant Trail to the east and the White River State Trail near Burlington to the west, giving bicyclists a smooth and protected trail from Lake Michigan to Elkhorn.

The Racine-Sturtevant trail runs for 3.5 miles from the western side of Racine to near the eastern edge of Sturtevant. The White River State Trail is a 19-mile stretch from Elkhorn to Vandenboom Road in Dover.

Pulling up the abandoned rails is the first step in the process. The village is working with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) organization to develop the land into trails.

RTC helps transform former rail line into recreational trails. The nonprofit group has helped create 30,000 miles of rail-trails and multi-use trails across the nation. In Wisconsin, RTC has helped develop 90 rail trails covering 1,805 miles.
The prophecy is more than seeing into the future. For the prophecy sees without the element of time. For the prophecy sees things as they were, as they are, and as they always shall be.
This was a perfectly beautiful spring day! I was outside in the morning doing some cleanup after the winter snow. Almost all of the snow is...
I am feeling almost as smug as this doe looks, sitting in Charlotte airport with a belly full of cheezy grits. We both like corn, just take it in different forms. I'm headed to ten days in Costa Rica. If that's not good enough, TEN of the twelve travelers I'm accompanying are cherished friends from my prior Holbrook Travel trips or my festival work. Guess they're gluttons for the kind of Zick Overload Mario Cordoba and I love to dish out. Only two strangers in the group. And that won't last long. I kinda feel for the new couple, because there will be so many inside jokes flying back and forth and so much cackling they're going to think we're all daft.









I thought I'd better post some awesome snowdeer photos while I still can, because by all indications spring is racing toward Ohio. Yes, I know they're predicting another Snowmageddon. I plan to miss her clean. Ha. Ha. Hahaha. I've left the homefront in Bill and Liam's capable hands. Stoked up the seed and corn and suet, cleaned the fishtank, kissed them all goodbye six times and I'm off.





As for spring--I took a delightful birding excursion at Pickerington Ponds Metropark on the eve of my departure. There, a short jump from Port Columbus airport, I saw and heard and drank in sandhill cranes, ducks of seven species, and thrilled to singing red-winged blackbirds, killdeer and woodcock. Oh yes. Spring is on its way. Didn't hurt that it was nearly 70 degrees and I had to break out a sleeveless shirt. There's hope. It's coming.









Flight of green-winged teal. There were ring-necked ducks, northern shoveler, American wigeon, blacks and mallards, redheads, wood and hooded mergansers, too, for a total of 8 species. Pickerington Ponds is a beautiful gem, an oasis in urban sprawl. And floating from high overhead, the sonorous croaking bugle of cranes!! Overlain with the winnowing wings of ducks, and the happy conk-a-ree! of redwings. A-oh, way to go Ohio!





And the birds and animals find it. A pair of bald eagles, skeins of ducks and geese, four calling sandhill cranes, and chickarees! I hadn't seen one for years. Amazing what joy a little red squirrel can bring.













Deer roam our meadow, eating pine needles, which I read are high in Vitamin C. It's nice to know they can eat that. The tiny pine seedlings Bill mowed around in 1993 have become deer feeders.













Oh how I love grabbing those moments.





When the snow goes blue in the afternoon, taking all the color from the sky









and she pauses, seemingly lost in thought.









And why couldn't she be thinking about last October, and a buck she knew? And wishing she weren't already pregnant and growing bigger by the day. We don't know what deer think, but it's a mistake to assume they can't reminisce, ponder, mull or worry. Why shouldn't a deer have up days and down, miss last year's tryst or last spring's fawn? Why do we think humans are the only ones with emotional capacity? Oh wait. We know dogs and cats have emotions, because they're our open books. But do we think about the emotional capacity of deer, or cardinals? We must learn to connect all we learn from our pets to the rest of the natural world.





And Ellen--what of Ellen? Here she was in October 2015. And we didn't see her again for a couple of months. But that's her pattern. We felt very lucky to have an autumn sighting of our crooked little doe.









Where did she go? Well, she came back on December 9, 2015. And she looked great. Fat and clear-eyed.









The reason I take photos of these deer every time I see them is because each one has a story. And the story goes on...Ellen's been with us since 2009. More of Ellen's story is coming up.









Back to Indigo Hill...That's how they get snow on their faces.Grabbing these moments when a doe comes sneaking up from the orchard.The deer have learned my rhythms, know when I'm going to throw a scoop of corn out. They're gonna miss me when I'm gone. They listen for me and now even go so far as to stare me down when they visit and the corn is all gone.Boss Doe says HEY ZICK. What the hell? She studies me as I sit at the drawing board, a guilty grin on my face. Well, Boss Doe, you're late. Take that.
printable version

PDF version US-NATOs Moderate [Jihadi] Opposition: An Apocalyptic Vision For Syria

by Mnar Muhawesh via jess - Mint Press News Saturday, Feb 20 2016, 9:15pm

international / prose / post



In the first episode of Mint Press News Behind the Headline, MPN editor-in-chief and host Mnar Muhawesh starts by breaking down the supposedly moderate Syrian opposition slated to lead peace talks to put an end to the years-long Syrian crisis.

Aleppo

When peace talks were arranged to put an end to the years-long Syrian crisis, there were some questionable parties slated to sit at the negotiating table in Geneva.



Before those talks were postponed in February as fighting escalated in Syria, media buzzed, describing theSyrian opposition leading the talks as moderate. Yet there was little mention of who these groups really are, whos behind them, and their agenda beyond get rid of Assad.



So heres what you need to know about these so-called moderates:



The Syrian opposition leading the talks is known as the Syrian High Negotiations Committee  a carefully crafted, non-descript banner, for sure.



That coalition is more complex than its name indicates: It aims to unite the thousands of opposition fighters. But those following the situation in Syria know very well that the Syrian opposition is now mostly made up of armed jihadists vying for power and who have been acting as proxies to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar since 2011 to overthrow the Syrian government.



Many of these moderate rebels have ripped Syria apart through sectarianism and violence. And theyve done it all with weaponry and financial support from competing proxy nations. Further, intelligence officials from NATO member states like the US., Britain, France and Turkey were on the ground, training so-called moderate rebels months before the Syrian revolt erupted.



And to top it all off, this coalition to unite these foreign-supplied rebels is Saudi-backed and -sponsored. It wasnt born in Syria; it was assembled in Riyadh.



The chief negotiator and the spokesperson for the High Negotiations Committee and the groups they represent should raise even more concern:



Salem Muslet, who worked as deputy director for the Gulf Research Center in United Arab Emirates from 1998-2011 (the year the Syrian revolt started), is the vice president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which receives weapons and funding from a list of nations including U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.



Syrian opposition chief Riad Hijab, right, standing next to High Negotiations Committee (HNC) spokesman Salem al-Meslet, left, as they attend a press conference after Syrian peace talks, at the President Wilson hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)



The group was formed in Doha, Qatar, not Syria, to provide its international donors with a legitimate, unified channel for all aid to the rebellion by acting as a moderate umbrella group to govern Syria after Assad is ousted.



The groups first president, Sunni Cleric Moaz al-Khatib, described that as meaning they are beholden to their foreign backers.



Al-Khatib resigned in March 2013, lamenting that, foreign powers were placing too many conditions on aid to opposition and armed rebel groups, and were trying to manipulate events for their own interests.



Meanwhile, Mohammed Alloush ,the chief negotiator, represents Jaysh al-Islam. An open ally of al-Qaidas arm in Syria, the Nusra Front, Jaysh al-Islam is one of the most brutal Sunni Salafist rebel groups operating inside Syria. And it receives funding, arms and other support from Saudi Arabia.



Jaysh al-Islam, also known as the Islamic Front, is known for mass executions, use of starvation as a war tool (as seen in Madaya), kidnappings, pillaging and alleged rapings. Theyve publicly stated that once they oust Assad, theyll proceed to cleanse the nation of Shiites, Alawites, Kurds, Zoroastrians and Arab Christians as they establish a Salafist Islamic state. Its no wonder the group has been compared to ISIS.



With the talks postponed, it doesnt even matter whether they proceed as long as negotiators are working with violent armed groups and rebels like those under the umbrella of the High Negotiations Committee. Besides being counterproductive, its the same policy NATO members and the U.N. have adopted in Libya, Somalia, and Afghanistan, among others. And in each of those cases, those efforts sunk these nations further into civil war and chaos.



The High Negotiations Committee, and the groups it represents, work in the interests of foreign nations, not in the interests or the will of the Syrian people.



Dont misunderstand  Syria is in desperate need for peace talks.



The ongoing crisis has led to the deaths of over 250,000 people and 11 million refugees. Syrians are in the impossible position of having to choose between living in a warzone, being targeted by groups like ISIS and competing rebels groups and the Syrian governments brutal crackdown, or whether to fare dangerous waters to reach safety.



Smoke rises over a battle-scarred Saif Al Dawla district in Aleppo, Syria, on October 2, 2012. (AP Photo)



But anything resembling peace talks simply cannot proceed with jihadists and representatives of foreign nations with a blatantly genocidal, apocalyptic vision for the future of the country.



If our leaders truly care about ending terrorism maybe they should start by not participating in it.



And if our leaders truly care about democracy and freedom, then theyd allow the Syrian people choose their own fate without supplying weapons and meddling in their affairs. Maybe, for once, theyd even put people before profits.



Like most peace talks, the goal isnt ultimately peace. These talks represent little more than political theater to subdue the masses against the tragic situation that we  Western governments and the Gulf Arab nations  allowed to unfold.



This segment of the Behind the Headlines is part of the first episode of the show. The episode can be viewed in its entirety below:



Copyright applies.









http://www.mintpressnews.com/213702-2/213702/

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JURIST Guest Columnist Bryan H. Wildenthal of Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego discusses the history of Supreme Court vacancies and presidential nominations during presidential election years

Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most provocative judges in American history, was known for his brilliantly argued views on the plain text and original meaning of our Constitution. So perhaps it is fitting that his death has triggered an epic political and historical argument over when to appoint his successor on the Supreme Court.

Scalias body had not even begun its final journey home from remote West Texas when leading Republicans threw caution and decency to the winds, declaring they would block consideration of any nominee to fill the vacancy until after President Obama leaves office. Obama has almost a full year left in the term to which the American people reelected him. But Republican senators and presidential candidates closed ranks behind a hastily proclaimed precedent allegedly developed over the last 80 years not to confirm Supreme Court nominees during presidential election years. Suggestions have appeared in recent days that there might be some cracks in the Republican monolith, but it is still important to dissect this argument carefully.

It is, first of all, stunningly hypocritical. It is also factually wrong. But even if, as in the old song lyric, Republicans dont know much about history, they usually claim, like the late Justice Scalia himself, to care about the original meaning of the Constitution, including historical practices going back to the nations founding said to provide guidance. It is thus strange and highly suspect that they suddenly narrow their focus to only the last 80 years of the 227 our Constitution has been in effect.

Where does this 80-year talking point come from, anyway? Well, the last time the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election year, to fill a vacancy occurring that same year, was 1932 (84 years ago). President Hoover (a Republican, by the way) got his nominee confirmed to fill a vacancy that happened in January, only slightly earlier in the year than Scalias death, before being defeated that November by his Democratic successor, President Roosevelt. That precedent, of course, inconveniently contradicts the current Republican argument, which is apparently why they drew the line at 80 years to avoid it. But their argument is bogus anyway, falsely implying that such vacancies have happened since 1932 but with the opposite outcome (wait for the next president). But no outcomes like that exist.

Suppose for a moment that no comparable Supreme Court vacancies at all happened between 1932 and Scalias death. All that would show is that such vacancies are not very frequent. It would not provide any logical reason to ignore what was done the last time it happened (in 1932). In any event, unhappily for Republicans, 1932 was not the last relevant occasion.

Even if we play along and blinker ourselves to look only at the last 80 years, the Republican argument falls apart. There has in fact been one election-year vacancy since then, in 1956. And the outcome was exactly opposite to what they now argue. The 1956 vacancy occurred very late in the year, October, and yet President Eisenhower (another Republican) immediately installed a new justice by recess appointment, right before the election. That justice was then confirmed in March 1957, thus removing this case on a technicality from the category of election-year vacancy-plus-confirmation. True, confirmation became much easier and more likely once Eisenhower was reelected, but the relevant point is that he didnt wait to find out. He acted before the election and did not just leave the choice to whoever took office in January 1957.

It gets worse. Recall that the broader version of the Republican argument frantically blasted out the day Scalia died was no Supreme Court confirmations, period, during election years (in the last 80 years). Slight problem: In two more such years, 1940 and 1988, nominees by a Democratic President (Roosevelt) and a Republican President (Reagan) were confirmed, though it is true they filled vacancies that arose before the election year (but just barely in the first case, a death in mid-November 1939).

Then there is 1968, an example that might at first blush seem favorable to Republicans, since that was an election year in which Republican senators played a major role in blocking a Democratic presidents late effort to make a court appointment. But 1968, while a bit more complicated, also does not support the Republican talking points, and in fact further undermines them. Chief Justice Earl Warren waited until June that year to announce his intention to retire (four months later in the year than Justice Scalias death), while stating he would continue to serve until a successor was confirmed. President Johnson nonetheless went ahead and nominated a successor, defying the precedent now claimed. Conservative senators in both parties ultimately blocked Johnsons flawed nominee (he withdrew), but they held hearings and gave him ample consideration. There was much less time to act, and no urgency since no actual vacancy existed.

By contrast, blocking any consideration this year of any replacement for Scalia would guarantee a vacancy on the court lasting at least a full year, and more likely 16 months (around 500 days) until after the next court term ends in June 2017. That would seriously hamper its work and create numerous 4-4 splits. There has been no gap of that length in the courts full strength since the Civil War era.

Let us pause to be very clear: During the relevant time frame claimed by Republicans we have actual bipartisan precedent contradicting their bogus precedent. Republicans say President Obama should not even nominate Scalias replacement, but in four of the last twenty presidential election years, Supreme Court vacancies existed, occurred, or were announced, and in all four cases the incumbent presidents (two Republicans and two Democrats) went ahead and made a nomination (or even more pushy, a recess appointment), and in three out of four cases, the Senate confirmed the incumbents choice.

Now let us honor Justice Scalia by doing what he often did in his greatest opinions, and follow the history back to the founding era. The details are a bit complicated. (History buffs may consult a paper posted by the author of this essay containing supporting data and explanations.) But the big picture is clear: Not only is there nothing resembling the precedent Republicans claim, a strong contrary tradition dates back to the founding era. Here are the highlights:

In every single election-year vacancy in American history, the incumbent president did not follow the course Republicans now demand of President Obama. Instead, all those presidents, including some very unpopular lame ducks, nominated and made vigorous efforts to confirm the replacement justices of their choosing. And in a heavy majority of cases, those presidents got their way and the justices they nominated were confirmed and seated on the court. Three of those were Chief Justices of the United States, including Chief Justice John Marshall, by common consent the greatest in American history, who served 34 years (1801-35).

In the eight most relevant cases of election-year vacancies occurring by June (thus allowing reasonable time), the Senate gave full consideration and up-or-down votes to the nominees seven out of eight times and approved them six out of eight times, a 75 percent success rate. In the one case, in April 1844, when the vacancy did not result in a Senate vote, there was actually another pending vacancy from December 1843, for which the lame-duck incumbent did receive Senate votes and which he eventually succeeded in filling less than a month before his term expired. So incumbent presidents actually received full Senate consideration in 100 percent of the most relevant election years.

In nine cases, including the other 1844 case, nominees were confirmed during election years (or even later before the end of that presidential term) to fill vacancies that occurred the previous year (in five out of nine cases, in October or later right before the election year began). Incumbent presidents enjoyed a 100 percent success rate with those nine nominations.

We thus have a grand total of 17 relevant vacancies, from 1796 to 1988, which either occurred during the first half of an election year, or which occurred the year before but were not resolved until after the election year began. The Senate gave the nominees full consideration and up-or-down votes in 16 cases (in 100 percent of the 12 election years involved, five of which involved double vacancies), and approved the nominees 15 times out of 17, an 88 percent success rate.

Those Republicans who claim, with special ostentatiousness, that they honor the original understanding based on practices close to the time of the Constitutions adoption, should pay special heed to this fact: Two election-year vacancies, plus two additional vacancies filled by election-year confirmations, occurred within fifteen years of the Constitution taking effect in 1789. All four received full Senate consideration and approval.

When President George W. Bush was in the White House, Republicans argued that every presidential nominee was entitled to a fair up-or-down vote, and that any Senate filibuster or other refusal to grant such a vote violated the spirit and perhaps the letter of the Constitution they claim to revere. Some Democrats, including then-Senators Obama and Hillary Clinton, sought to filibuster the confirmation of Justice Alito in 2006. But no Senate Democrat ever suggested the Senate not hold hearings or consider his nomination, and a substantial number of Democrats joined the 72-25 vote to end the filibuster, ensuring Alitos confirmation and a major shift to the right in the ideological balance on the court. Senate Democrats later came to agree with Republicans on the filibuster, and limited its use.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and Republicans, quite simply, want to change the rules. No one disputes that senators, after fairly considering any nominee, have the right and power under the Constitution to withhold their consent. And everyone knows the current Senate has a Republican majority with the votes to do just that, though they would have to account to the American people for how fair and justified such a rejection might be.

But for senators to declare in advance that they will not even consider any nominee President Obama may propose, to keep a seat open for more than a year in the hope that a Republican president may fill it, is a truly shocking and extremist step. It would be a bizarre obstruction, unparalleled in American history. It would be an astonishingly uncalled-for insult to a duly elected President of the United States. It would surely invite Democratic retribution if a Republican president sought to fill the same vacancy later.

If Senate Republicans choose to ignore the facts, defy history and abuse their power in this way, they will dishonor both Justice Scalia and the Constitution he revered and spent his life defending. They should think again.

Bryan H. Wildenthal is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, where the late Justice Scalia spoke on several occasions and was scheduled to teach this June in the schools international and comparative law program in Nice, France.

Suggested Citation: Bryan H. Wildenthal, Republicans Play Hypocritical Politics With the Supreme Court, JURIST  Academic Commentary, February 21, 2016, http://jurist.org/forum/2016/02/bryan-wildenthal-republicans-court.php.
[JURIST] A former member of the Black Panthers was released from prison on Friday after having spent a record 43 years in solitary confinement. Albert Woodfox [Amnesty International backgrounder] had been detained [JURIST report] in solitary confinement since 1972 after being charged and convicted of fatally stabbing a prison guard. Authorities first moved Woodfox to isolation in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and later to closed-cell restriction at state jails. In June a federal judge ordered [The Advocate report] that Woodfox be unconditionally released, which included strong language barring any further trials on the original charges of murdering prison guard Brent Miller. He was able to be released after striking a deal in which he plead no contest to two lesser charges.

The legality of solitary confinement has been an ongoing debate in the US, with many calling for comprehensive prison reform [JURIST podcast]. Last month President Barack Obama announced a ban [JURIST report] on the federal prison systems use of solitary confinement for juveniles. In September the Association of State Correctional Administrators, in partnership with the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School released a report [text, PDF] estimating that between 80,000 to 100,000 prisoners were in what correctional officials call restrictive housing in 2014. Also in September California agreed [JURIST report] to restrict use of solitary confinement based on a class action lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights. In March the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that Virginia could continue to automatically house death row inmates in solitary confinement.
[JURIST] The Nigerian army on Saturday set up a human rights office at its headquarters in the capital city of Abuja in order to continue training officers about respecting rights of citizens. This comes in light of the countrys ongoing battle against the insurgent Islamic group Boko Haram [BBC backgrounder], as well as other terrorist groups. The announcement comes after [Voice of America report] high-ranking officials of the army, including army chief of staff Tukur Buratai, met with Amnesty International regarding their recent report [document, PDF] on the countrys human rights violations. The report accused the Nigerian army of gross human rights violations in the fight against Boko Haram. The report noted, Torture and other ill-treatment by the police and security forces was widespread. A law criminalizing marriage or civil union and public displays of affection between same-sex couples came into force. Freedom of expression was restricted. The death penalty continued to be applied.

The militant Islamic group Boko Haram, whose name means Western education is a sin, has been fighting to overthrow the Nigerian government in the interest of creating an Islamist state. Earlier this month UN human rights experts urged [JURIST report] the Nigerian government to guarantee the safety of areas liberated from Boko Haram. In November the UN Secretary-General condemned [JURIST report] yet another attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria that left 30 dead and approximately 80 injured. In April UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein reported [JURIST report] that Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have been murdering women and girls previously taken captive by the group. The group has been increasing the intensity and frequency of its attacks [JURIST report] ever since it lost most of the territory it overtook earlier this year to the Nigerian army. Most of these attacks have centered around markets, bus stations, places of worship and hit-and-run attacks on villages.




3rd Saturday of the month: This is our normal monthly KaCSFFS meeting date. Setup begins at 6:00 p.m. If there's a business meeting, it'll run 6:30-7:00 p.m. Programming starts at 7:00 p.m., followed by socializing, eating, and tabletop games as available. Meetings usually last till 9:30 or so.



4th Monday of the month: Our friends the SF&F Literati meet to discuss a book selection ten months out of the year (not in December or May), at the Oak Park Barnes & Nobles Booksellers, 11323 W 95th Street, Overland Park, KS 66214, at 7:00 p.m. on the 2nd floor.



Every Memorial Day Weekend (May): Don't miss ConQuesT, our annual SF Convention!







Please watch the blog for notices of changes to any of these!Our friends thenormally present a program on one of these two weekends (usually the 2nd Saturday), starting about 4:15 p.m. Watch the blog for program announcements, exact dates, and how to learn about the location!
Im happy to say that my art and technique has been included in this book by UK author/artist Gill Barron , the fairly famous Painter of Everything (shes well on her way to painting everything in the entire world, and doing a beautiful job of it, too).I have two step-by-step projects in the book, as well as several other finished paintings used as illustrations.The book is entitled Acrylic Secrets: 300 Tips and Techniques for Painting the Easy Way , and has been distributed worldwide by Readers Digest Books.Its now available on Amazon and you can order your copy here.
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.

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971 illegal migrants including Nepali nabbed in Malaysia

Malaysian authorities have nabbed 971 foreigners including Nepali in a nationwide crackdown that began on Friday midnight.
Bhimsens folly

The tower should be reconstructed with scientific plans, not with nationalistic fervour
Shah has worked as a consultant for the Single Window Component of the Nepal-India Regional Trade and Transport Project.
Free Wi-fi at Ratna Park from this week: KMC

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Kathmandu city

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KMC, DoR resume demolition drive

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Malaysia puts temporary ban on new migrant workers

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Modi, Oli vow to boost relations between India, Nepal

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Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Tree felling in Sunsari rampant

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US election 2016: Trump wins South Carolina, as Clinton takes Nevada

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As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
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.

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Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of the East London Museum in East London, South Africa, was informed that a pale mauve-blue fish, five feet long, had been netted by a trawler in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Unable to identify the fish, she contacted her friend J. L. B. Smith, a professor with interests in ichthyology and chemistry at Rhodes University. By the time Smith returned from leave, the fish had been stuffed, but he immediately identified it as a coelacanth, long-thought to be extinct for 65 million years. There were once ninety species of coelacanth, but there are now only two. Coelacanths are classified as being the most endangered order of animals in the world and are designated by the genus of Latimeria, in honor of the museum curator. In 1938,, the curator of thein East London, South Africa, was informed that a pale mauve-blue fish, five feet long, had been netted by a trawler in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Unable to identify the fish, she contacted her friend, a professor with interests in ichthyology and chemistry at Rhodes University. By the time Smith returned from leave, the fish had been stuffed, but he immediately identified it as a coelacanth, long-thought to be extinct for 65 million years. There were once ninety species of coelacanth, but there are now only two. Coelacanths are classified as being the most endangered order of animals in the world and are designated by the genus of, in honor of the museum curator.





The coelacanth is not just another old fish but rather a lobe-finned fish more closely related to lungfish, reptiles, and mammals than it is to common ray-finned fish so familiar to us. It is the link between fish and the tetrapods, the first land vertebrate to inhabit the earth, with the two groups diverging some 400 million years ago. The coelacanth is referred to as a living fossil, as it apparently has not evolved over the millions of years when it made its debut appearance.





A model of the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) is on display at the Tokyo Sea Life Park.




By Kim Jae-kyoung





Joydeep Sengupta

SINGAPORE  The Korean government should give banks more freedom in operations in order to shore up global competitiveness and help them prepare for the future, according to McKinsey & Company.

In an interview with The Korea Times, Joydeep Sengupta, director of McKinsey's Singapore Office, said that there are three areas which Korean financial policymakers must address with urgency  regulations, business models and workforce.

Sengupta leads the Asia-Pacific banking practices of the global consulting company.

"First, industry profitability must be restored and players must be allowed the operating freedom to do what it takes to prepare itself for future competitiveness. This will allow them to invest in the future," he said.

Korea's financial regulatory scheme is based on a positive system under which new services and businesses should be developed to meet all the requirements stipulated in regulations. This undercuts banks' efforts to create innovative products and services.

"Second, they must seize the technological advantage that players in other sectors in Korea have done successfully in order to build an innovative, customer-friendly and low-cost business model that can be competitive overseas," he said. "Finally they should strengthen the inflow of international talent and be flexible in how they participate."

Sengupta, who has served leading financial institutions across multiple markets in Asia and Europe, said that it is urgent for Korea to create a market-friendly environment through deregulations to ensure stability in the banking system.












No

Yes, a light case

Yes, two or more light cases

One serious case

Two or more serious bouts

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CLEARWATER, Minn. (AP)  While most of his classmates are thinking about science back in their sixth-grade room on a weekday morning at Clearview Elementary School, 12-year-old Jonathon Becker wears a hair net, apron and plastic gloves.

Hes among the first to conduct an experiment, though this has nothing to do with a chemistry lab. Becker is one of four students working under the guidance of head cook Judy Hommerding to prepare lunch  in this case about 370 turkey wraps that soon will be gobbled up by everyone from the littlest kindergartners to the biggest sixth-graders.

Becker came up with the idea for students to get the chance to explore roles in the lunchroom by learning how to prepare food and serve large quantities, the St. Cloud Times reported. The idea also was to know how the menu is made and assist with cleanup.

I like to cook at home and I thought it would be a cool thing to do, Becker said as he parceled out lettuce and tomatoes into small paper cups for each portion. I think its a good experience to help learn what goes into our lunch. Its a lot of hard work and, for some people, the things they think might be disgusting are really healthy for you to eat.

Becker wrote a letter to St. Cloud school district officials in November, seeking permission. He got it, with the help of Clearview Principal Sheri Rutar  who believes its the first time students have regularly helped kitchen staff in the district.

Judy was thrilled at the idea, said Rutar, a former sixth-grade teacher who has 29 years in the district, 16 as a principal  including the last six at Clearview. These are intermediate level kids and sometimes they can have the attitude toward staff like Its your job to do that (make lunch). To get them involved in the process so they understand why and how things are done, can be a real benefit. Some of these kids are to the point where they might do some cooking at home and maybe some of them might get interested in culinary arts.

Almost two dozen students signed up to participate. Usually two to four will help on a given day, as long as the menu doesnt include soup or items that have to be prepared and served from a steam table. On this day, three girls from Beckers Spanish immersion class taught by Josh Schmitz also help in the kitchen. They start at about 9:30 a.m. and the first hungry students will queue into line an hour later.

Ellie Oehrlein and Evelyn Eich prepare the cheese for the wraps while Grace Gilmore works with Becker on the lettuce. Nearby, tortilla wraps are slathered with dressing and slices of turkey. Oranges and baked potato slices help complete the meal.

That takeaway could be one of the more valuable lessons Hommerding can impart. Some kids take their food and wind up throwing most of it away, Gilmore said. When you work to put all this together, it makes you realize what a waste that can be.

This gives the children chances to see what we do, where the food for our lunches comes from and how its prepared, said Hommerding, who has worked on the kitchen staff at Clearview since 1982. They can be a big help. When theyre in here working, that can allow others to get our ordering and inventories done in shorter time. We had some staff call in sick the other day and we were really in a race. We didnt have the kids helping that day. We shouldve. We just hadnt thought of it yet. Now we realize what they can do.

Once the food is ready, the four sixth-graders take up their positions in the serving line, helping to fill up trays as younger children pass. Turkey wraps are popular, just not as much as hot dogs. When those are on the menu, they have to prepare about 425.

Weve got some kids who will try anything and others who dont like something just because of the color or texture, Rutar said.
DULUTH, Minn.  Mike Wolny doesnt look like a surgeon, and Fraser Shipyards bears no resemblance to a hospital. Wolny, though, does have a needy patient  the 56-year-old freighter Herbert C. Jackson  and not much time.

Deep in the giant ships bowels, Wolnys team carves up the original steam turbine and twin boilers so they can be removed with a crane. Later, two new 20-foot-tall diesel engines will be hoisted in, all designed to get the big laker back working on the water this spring.

Wolny, an inspector for Interlake Steamship Co., has worked on ships for 25 years. His uncle was a captain for Canada Steamship Lines, but he became an engineer and loves the gritty jobs below.

I find that more exciting than being a captain, he said as work buzzed around him on the Jackson. They take all the glory up there, but were the ones that work on the heart of the vessel  putting a new heart back in her.

Winter is the busiest season for the shipyards where the giant Great Lakes ships lay up for repairs. Ship owners will invest more than $100 million this winter to upgrade vessels. But finishing in time for the spring shipping season requires intense work and a ballet of cranes. A day spent at the yards and in the ships shows the challenges of transforming the old boats.

You think of a ship, its actually a floating city, said Mark Barker, president of Interlake Steamship, which owns the Herbert C. Jackson. We have to generate our own power. We have to treat our own wastewater. We have to generate our own drinking water. We have to do everything, because were not connected to shore in any way.

In the very bottom of the 690-foot-long Jackson, below the 40 cargo holds that carry almost 25,000 tons of taconite pellets, Wolny pointed out equipment that either needs fixing or will need fixing.

Down here there are giant conveyor belts, stretching farther than the eye can see, that are part of a self-unloading system that was added to the ship in 1975. The technology was invented on the Great Lakes and allows the crew to unload cargo without any shoreline workers or equipment.

But it needs to be maintained every year along with the ships engine, welding, piping, plumbing and electrical systems  basically anything that cant be done when the ship is running.

One of my members likes to say, When we lay up in the winter, you have to organize swat teams to get all this work done in six, seven, eight weeks, said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers Association, which represents the 15 companies that own the 56 U.S. flagged ships on the Great Lakes.

Those ships operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from mid-March to mid-January.

These winter months are the one chance we have to take them to the shipyard and maintain them and modernize them, he said.

The payoff for that hard work is visible on another ship docked at Fraser Shipyards in Superior, Wis., for winter layup. The Kaye Barker had a new 8,000 horsepower engine put in three years ago, very similar to what will be put inside the Jackson.

The Barker carries 26,000 tons loaded and runs 17 miles an hour. So it requires a lot of power. The engine is a lot more efficient than the old steam engine that burned fuel oil, said David Newell, the Barkers engineer.

This boat, in operating season, we can go about 30 days without refueling, he said. The steamer was every 10 days refueled.

Of the $110 million invested this winter in the Great Lakes fleet, a little over half will go toward routine maintenance; about $50 million will be spent to add pollution control technology and new, more efficient engines, including the ones headed for the Jackson.

Fraser Shipyards has repaired and built ships on the Great Lakes for 126 years, including more than 100 during World Wars I and II. But last year was a slow one on the water for the Great Lakes shipping industry. Six ships were taken out of service due to the ongoing struggles of the U.S. iron ore and steel industries. On top of that, the freshwater ships are pretty resilient.

Because theres no salt in the water to corrode the ships, they can last for a long time if theyre properly maintained. One sailed for over 100 years before recently being retired, Nekvasil noted. Thats one of the tremendous advantages of Great Lakes shipping. We can run ships for decades and decades and decades.

The Jackson is Frasers biggest job since the late 1980s when it lengthened several ships and added self-unloading equipment.

This is a jumpstart, a high voltage jumpstart for us, said vice president of engineering Tom Curelli. It demonstrates to everybody that were capable of doing this, and doing it well.

More than 70 employees are working on the project in two shifts. Fraser is one of only four shipyards across the Great Lakes capable of handling such a large project.

It will take about six months to repower the Herbert Jackson at a cost of around $20 million. This is the fourth steam-to-diesel conversion for the ship owner in the past decade. When its done, the Interlake Steamship Company will no longer operate any steamships.

The Jackson plans to be back on the water in June, making her regular run hauling iron ore between Marquette, Michigan, and Detroit, just a lot more efficiently.
ROCKVILLE, Minn. (AP)  When Jim Roush jumps through a hole in the ice and lands in the frigid waters of Pleasant Lake on Saturday afternoon, its going to be a shock.

He knows that. It was a shock when Roush did it last year, too.

Ill get in and out as quick as I can, said the 45-year-old Clear Lake resident, whos participating in the St. Cloud Polar Plunge to raise money for Special Olympics. You get tingly.

But Saturdays icy plunge also constitutes something of a celebration for Roush, the St. Cloud Times reported.

After the jarring news he received following the 2015 Polar Plunge, there were no guarantees he would even be around for this one.

Thatd definitely be it  celebrating life, making good memories for the rest of my family, showing people that even if you have a bad disease, its attitude (that matters), said Roush, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer shortly after last years plunge.

When we found out about it, his first comment was he wanted me and my sister to jump in (this year) because he wasnt going to be able to, said Tim Jackson, 42, Roushs brother. He kinda figured hed be gone by now.

Roush began coughing up blood eight hours after last years plunge, and was rushed to the hospital the following day.

His ensuing diagnosis  lung cancer that had spread to his liver and vertebrae  began a year-long, ongoing medical battle with a disease that has a grim prognosis.

And yet, Roush looks back positively on last years plunge. At the very least, jumping into those icy waters probably extended his life.

If I hadnt done it, he said, this thing would have snuck up on me and would have blindsided me.

It was the Polar Plunge that gave him the sign, said Angie Wilkerson, 48, Roushs sister. In Jims eyes, it saved his life.

Absolutely, Jackson added. If he hadnt jumped in, it wouldnt have caused the irritation. It wouldnt have caused him to go to the hospital. It probably would have been (noticed) when he started choking.

This year of quality of life is probably totally attributed to it.

Roushs life has been filled with challenges. He has cognitive disabilities, and hes legally blind in his left eye.

He has struggled with depression, and to find a career path.

Hes just a very cool person, and hes never had a moment to shine because of some of his handicaps, said Wilkerson, who commutes from her home in New Richmond, Wisconsin, to help with most of Roushs medical appointments. But hes never let it beat him.

I think people underestimate him, said Juli Sanner, Roushs cancer care coordinator at the Coborn Cancer Center. Hes very knowledgeable about things.

The biggest challenge surfaced Feb. 14, 2015, after Roush jumped into Pleasant Lake as part of an event that raised about $82,000 for Special Olympics.

I did it because its a good cause, said Roush, who took the plunge on a day when the thermometer barely made it above zero.

I took a deep breath ... jumped in ... blew it all out ... stood up, took an extra-deep breath in, and something popped, he said.

I knew there would be consequences, being out in the cold and stuff. I thought it was like a frost-bit lung.

The reality proved to be much worse.

The following day, Jackson drove Roush to St. Cloud Hospital. X-rays and a CAT scan revealed a mass on his lower left lung.

They said, You might have something going on,  Roush recalled. So they sent it to the Mayo (Clinic), and I had to wait around an extra two weeks.

The results came back on March 4. Roush  a lifelong nonsmoker  had lung cancer. He also had two spots on his liver, and one on his C-4 vertebrae.

When cancer spreads outside of the area where it originates, we call that an advanced-stage cancer, Sanner said. We know thats not curable, but it is treatable.

Not easily, though. Roushs lung tumor is large, roughly 2 inches by 4 inches by 5 inches.

Kinda like a piece of a 2-by-4 cut down, Jackson said.

It was the size of a softball, Wilkerson said, and hes just going along like its no big thing.

The tumor is also in a complicated location.

The biggest problem with Jims tumor in his lung is its behind his heart, and in front of his spine, Jackson said. If it had been over in his other lung, theres a lot more that could have been done.

Roush started radiation treatments almost immediately following the official diagnosis, and began chemotherapy not long after that.

I had my birthday March 22nd, Roush said. March 23rd, I got chemo for my birthday.

Hes been treated with a smorgasbord of chemotherapy medications  Taxol, Carboplatin, Avastin, Optivo  as doctors search for the combination with optimal results.

We certainly dont want people to give up hope, Sanner said. What we try to do is keep the cancer at a more minimal level, not let it get out of control.

All things considered, Roush has done amazingly well. He lost his hair, but it grew back. His nausea has been minimal, and his energy level has remained fairly steady.

When the doctors looked at it and heard about me biking in the summertime, they were amazed that I wasnt holding onto a cane with an air tank, said Roush, who recently went ice fishing with his brother. He moved from St. Cloud into Jacksons Clear Lake home in August.

Were trying to get him out to do some things hes never done before, Jackson said, while hes got time to do it.

There is no sugar-coating Roushs long-term prognosis.

It is a terminal cancer. Theres no coming back from it, Jackson said. I think the statistics are like 80 percent of Stage 4 lung cancers die within a year of diagnosis.

After one of our last chemo treatments before Christmas, Wilkerson said, we went and picked out his tombstone.

Jimmys going to die. Just not today.

Thats partly why Roush spent much of the past year talking about an encore dive at the Polar Plunge. The discussion started early.

Pretty much right afterward, Roush said. I figured it was a good way to show resiliency and such.

We really do want people to live their life, not sit around all day, said Sanner, who confirmed that Roushs oncologist (Dr. Girum Lemma) had approved Saturdays plunge. We really try to have them enjoy every day they have. Its a gift.

Its a good cause. Its also a celebration of life  even for somebody who is cognizant of death.

Hes dealt with the inevitable, Jackson said. Weve talked with every doctor, and theyve told us what it is and what the end result is going to be.

Roushs medical team is staving off that eventuality with the latest cocktail of cancer medications.

His radiation did a little bit, Jackson said. His chemo held it off  it really didnt gain any ground on it.

(Chemotherapy) never even touched the cancer, Wilkerson said. It just stagnated it.

But for now, thats good enough. Roush is entirely focused on something else.

When Roush jumps into Pleasant Lake again on Saturday afternoon, hell be taking a new nickname with him.

My sign-up name is going to be the Sick Polar Bear,  said Roush, who has convinced his brother and several friends from the Atlas Staffing Agency in St. Cloud to also take the plunge. My friends are going to be the Fan Club of the Sick Polar Bear. 

Hell be wearing a personally designed black T-shirt. The lettering on the front says, Keep Calm  And Kick Cancers Butt. The lettering on the back says, Saved by Polar Plunge.

It could be Roushs last one. But statistically, he wasnt even supposed to be at this one.

Hes going through it with a very upbeat attitude, Sanner said. Hes always looking at the world as the glass is half-full.

He gives us hugs now, Wilkerson said. He says, I love you. Thats huge.

In typical fashion, Roush is even talking about the 2017 Plunge.

If next year Im in remission, theres the idea of becoming a super-plunger, Roush said. That would be 24 plunges.

Specifically, one every hour, for 24 hours, into Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.

Thats a long way off. There are no guarantees.

But there werent last year, either, and Roush has no qualms about Saturdays plunge.

Nope, he said. Whatever happens, happens. Well just fix it afterward.

A typical response, from someone whos already dealt with a lot of adversity.

In a life filled with challenges, thats Jim Roushs enduring gift.

Thatd definitely be it  celebrating life, making good memories for the rest of my family, showing people that even if you have a bad disease, its attitude (that matters). Jim Roush
We live in a time where, thanks to the technology of satellites, we can pinpoint every square inch of land and even look at aerial photos online.

The farm dog Lucky was captured when Google sent its camera vehicle down our road a couple of years ago. Had the vehicle stopped, he would have surely given the technology wonder an old-fashioned farm-dog welcome by lifting his leg and dousing the tire.

My address today is N3684 Claire Road, Taylor, Wis. Were ione mile back from Jackson County Hwy. C. But we live 10 miles from the village of Taylor. We have an Ettrick phone number, a village thats also about 10 miles away. Same as Melrose, where we are part of the Melrose-Mindoro School District. And our local municipality is the town of Franklin, which is unincorporated but was once a thriving metropolis about a mile away as the crow flies with a grocery store, several gas stations, a saw mill and a repair shop.

When my great-grandparents moved to the farm in October 1923, there were several gates across the road that marked the various property lines. The road was a rutted path through sand burrs. The official address in those days was RFD 1, Taylor, Wis. The mailbox was at the end of the road. Finding where George Ray and Hilda Hardie lived if you werent a local required a plat book.

Their youngest daughter Sara married Leland Clair in 1943 and the young couple moved to the farm in 1944. Over the years the road went from sand to gravel and was paved with cold mix in 1978.

Im not certain what year our road was named. People speculate that someone added an extraneous e at the end of Clair and the result was a typo that lives in perpetuity. However, Aunt Sara once told me that the road was not named after her last name but was the first name of a neighbor. There was a Claire who lived nearby, but he didnt live on Claire Road.

But other roads in our town were named after local residents. Steine Road was named after my Uncle Vilas Steine. Busse Road was named after my Uncle Otto Busse. Aleckson Road, Beck Road, Wortman Road  they were all named after local families. It made sense to name the roads after those who lived there. It was one way before the days of 911 dispatching and when fire numbers were not part of your address to actually help locate people.

About 20 years ago nearby Monroe County decided as part of a move to enhanced 911 that it should rename all the roads. That didnt sit well with folks whose roads were renamed on an ordered alphabetical system, but the county went ahead and spent $58,000 for the remapping and renaming of the roads.

Just a few miles away from us is Trempealeau County, where the roads were also named after local families. Well, some of them anyway. Near Rogness Coulee Road and Lien Road is Trump Coulee Road. There could have been a Trump family who lived along the road. Or it could have named in honor of whist or euchre, popular card games that feature trump suits. Or perhaps the person who named the road felt it was the best road in the town and topped all the rest.

If the latter is the case, then it would fit the personality of the presidential candidate that shares the last name of their road. But knowing some of the good people who live there, I suspect they would not take kindly to being compared to the very verbose and outspoken politician. Many were Norwegian immigrants, hard-working farmers who minded their own business and were focused on building a life in the New World. Speaking their minds regardless of the consequences would have made them feel as uncomfortable as a fish out of water.

Speaking of fish, Trump Coulee is perhaps best known as the location of a Department of Natural Resources fish-rearing station, with a 14-acre pond used to raise fish for stocking waters. Its a quiet place on 424 acres and fits in perfectly with the forests and hills.

Of course Im really curious about how Trump Coulee was named. I need to ask some of the locals. Well refrain from talking about politics  its not polite in mixed company. Well stay on safe topics like the weather.
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TOMAH  Area entrepreneur Brian Buswell has been honored with a 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Buswell, owner of the All American Do it Center, won the award from LBM (Lumber & Building Materials) Journal. Buswell and his business were selected in the category of sales of $10 million to $50 million. The award honors all three of the chains locations in Tomah, Sparta and Richland Center.

Its not an individual award, its for the entire store, Buswell said. Ive known a few of the people that have won it in the past, but it was a nice thing for our All American family here to be recognized nationally and that some people think were doing things right.

All American began in 1980, when Buswell was 24, as a small, 600 square-foot store in Norwalk, a location that has since closed.

When Buswell and his wife started the store, Buswell said they didnt have any money.

Eventually his parents helped out by putting their farm up as collateral, Buswell said. It took 30 years to pay off.

That represented about 80 percent of their net worth, and they gambled it all on a 24-year-old, he said. At the time I didnt think anything could go wrong, but looking back Im thinking, Oh my gosh. I mean your life savings put at risk, your home, the farm ... everything put at risk for a 24-year-old.

With the family home and livelihood put at risk, Buswell said he and his wife, Deb, were careful and saved their money.

My wife had a real good job at the VA, so we lived off that salary and left all the money in the business, he said. I didnt take a salary out for seven years, so we were able to pay off the mortgage a lot of faster than you normally would. We wanted to get the farm released.

Then in 1980, three years after the business opened, Buswell said he made the best business decision in his life  he joined forces with high school friend and CPA Todd Page and made him a minority partner.

Soon after Buswell and Page opened a store in Black River Falls and then Tomah.

Eventually, we thought it was the best idea to move to Tomah, he said. Its larger, and we built the store here and closed Norwalk. That was in 1994, and in 2004 we built Sparta, then we closed the Black River yard, then in 2014 we built the Richland Center store.

One reason for expanding the business the way they did, Buswell said, was to fill gaps in communities that didnt have a home center  a business that combines everything a person needs to build and maintain a house such as hardware, lumber and shingles. He said its a one-stop-shop.

None of the communities had a home center, he said. They had a hardware store and might have had a lumber yard, but they didnt have a home center. So we try to fill that void, try to keep business local rather than going to the large population areas. That keeps the jobs here, keeps the money flowing in our own communities, and hopefully we do a good enough job that we earn peoples loyalty.

In the future Buswell hopes to turn the business over to his sons, Jacob and Matthew, and to see them take the business farther than he has.

Our industry is consolidating, he said. There are fewer and fewer players, and the players that remain are larger and larger, and its more competitive and more cutthroat. To play in that field youre going to have to be on top of your game. ... So theyre going to have to remain entrepreneurial, looking for opportunities. I think thats the legacy that theyre going to have to expand on, how theyre going to have to grow and provide the store, our communities, with the services that they need.
Tri-State Ambulance paramedic Eric Ellis encounters a drug user on every shift.

One could be an overdose; the next could be a negative reaction, usually to methamphetamine or heroin.

Heroin users are unconscious, or close to it. Meth users are the opposite: Theyre stimulated, unpredictable and combative.

Its really frustrating seeing the same people over and over again, Ellis said. It makes we wonder if we have enough resources.

Most users survive.

Others dont.

Hundreds of people in dozens of professions are fighting La Crosse Countys drug problem, but arrests are increasing, more users are hospitalized and one local clinic last year alone distributed hundreds of thousands of needles to addicts.

Some needles end up littered across the city, exposing the public to deadly infections.

The drug problem is a problem that isnt easily solved, Gundersen Health System Dr. Chris Eberlein said. Weve tried to arrest our way out of it and clearly thats a component. The others are prevention and treatment.

Methamphetamine is the most abused and available drug in La Crosse, although the market remains saturated with heroin thanks to an influx of out-of-town dealers preying on addicts, said La Crosse police Sgt. Andy Dittman, who heads the agencys narcotics unit.

Meth killed two men last year, ages 31 and 36, the first methamphetamine-related overdoses in La Crosse County since 2011, according to the medical examiners office. There were 24 fatal heroin overdoses from 2010-15 and one likely this year.

La Crosse police in 2014 and 2015 arrested more than three times as many adults for possessing and delivering meth than heroin, according to data provided by the agency. Officers arrested 191 people last year on meth charges, compared to 57 on heroin charges.

La Crosse County prosecutors charged 220 meth cases and 77 heroin cases last year, while the county ranks among the highest in the state for the number of homicide cases filed against drug dealers to hold them accountable for fatal overdoses.

Authorities in October disrupted a massive drug trafficking ring that police estimate was responsible for two-thirds of the meth distributed in the region.

Several of the 17 people connected to the case moved hundreds of pounds of crystal meth manufactured by Mexican drug cartels from the Twin Cities to La Crosse, where other players distributed it to surrounding counties during a four-year span.

The investigation lasted more than one year and more arrests are possible.

This was a major case when you consider that hundreds of pounds of meth were creating all these addictions and impacting all those lives, said Tom Johnson, who heads a regional drug task force.

Methamphetamine has reached a crisis level in Trempealeau County, where prosecutors charged 32 possession and delivery cases last year, up from just one case in 2012 and 2013, District Attorney Taavi McMahon said.

Burglary and theft cases are rising as desperate addicts turn to crime to support their habits, while four pregnant women addicted to meth were jailed or forced into treatment last year to protect their unborn children, he said.

The impact of meth on the community is terrible, McMahon said.

Heroin use, considered an epidemic in 2012, reached a plateau in early 2015 after a wave of fatal overdoses, Johnson said.

They saw their friends dropping dead, and it got their attention, he said.

Eberlein, who co-chairs the countys Heroin and Other Illicit Drug Task Force, earlier this month warned users that a potentially potent strand of heroin he suspects is cut with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, had hit the local drug market.

Police are investigating, but noted that doctors may be the first to see drug trends when users seek treatment for an overdose.

By the time its proven, often times there are multiple deaths, Eberlein said.

He cautions against using any form of heroin  You never know what youre getting, Eberlein noted  but those who do should reduce doses and use with a sober friend equipped with Narcan.

You need the antidote, he said. When these people overdose, the clock is ticking.

Heroin, a sedative, kills users by respiratory depression. Meth is the opposite, speeding a users heart rate until they suffer cardiac arrest, Eberlein said.

Hospitalizations for overdoses are increasing, while doctors also are treating addicts for dangerous side effects of drug use. Needles can break and become embedded in a users arm, which could lead to a fatal infection without treatment. In other cases, users who pass out in awkward positions face amputation if blood supply is severed from limbs, Eberlein said.

The AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin in La Crosse distributed 218,895 clean needles last year, most to heroin users, to prevent the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C, said Scott Stokes, the organizations director of prevention. The center handed out 138,959 needles in 2014 and just 31,000 in 2010.

Used needles littered across the city expose the public to diseases from an accidental prick. The citys firefighters are picking up needles daily from bus stops, alleys and parking ramps and lots, Assistant Chief Warren Thomas said.

Theyre everywhere, he said.

Enforcement, prevention, treatment

Police remain focused on enforcement, targeting dealers to sever supply lines in complex investigations that take patience and strategy through controlled buys, informants, surveillance and public tips.

But addiction is a public health problem and users need access to treatment centers, said McMahon, who argues that  even with treatment courts  the criminal justice system is not the best place to deal with addiction.

Treatment centers are, and I dont think there are enough of them, he said.

AMS of Wisconsin treats heroin addicts with medication to curb withdrawal symptoms and cravings, while meth users have to rely on willpower and coping skills.

There is no treatment with medication for meth at this time, said Pat Ruda, the agencys executive director. That drug is really just awful.

Expanded state and federal healthcare programs allowed more addicts to access treatment. The agency treats hundreds of patients annually, most between 20 and 35 years old.

About 90 percent of addicts relapse, said Eberlein, who advocates for better research into the science of addiction.

Every day they are struggling with sobriety because addiction is a disease that is not understood by many people in the community, said Cheryl Hancock, executive director of Coulee Council on Addictions.

The agency provides counseling to addicts in a clean setting where they can interact with others in recovery and prevention services.

Curbing the drug problem involves early and expanded access to treatment, especially for dealers peddling drugs to support their own habit, and focused awareness and prevention efforts, Hancock said.

Once theyve taken that first hit, if theyre an addict, she said, it doesnt matter anymore.
MILWAUKEE (AP)  There is a mystique to the motorcycle. This is captured in Hollywood movies like Easy Rider to Milwaukees Harley Fest. Americans are intrigued by motorcycles. For Bradley Tech High School students in its BUILD program, the motorcycle is a unique way to learn job skills for the modern economy.

Bradley Tech has a history of teaching the trades, WUWM-FM. Five years ago, the school implemented the BUILD program. The program teaches students skills to put together a fully functioning motorcycle.

Steve Hopkins, an adviser for the program, says, (BUILD) just fits into the whole scope of what Bradley Tech is about. The program is not your typical science, math or English class in which students sit in desks all day; he says, it requires a lot of hands-on engagement with motorcycle parts and mechanics.

Come on now, motorcycles, thats pretty cool, right? I mean, yeah, thats how I got interested in it, admits Alex Reyes, a Tech student. And they told me it was about building a motorcycle, so, I like the idea of that.

While the glamour of motorcycles may be what initially attracts the students, Hopkins explains its not all grease and busted knuckles. We discuss history, design, engineering, fabrication, welding, powder coating, fiberglass mold making, tool identification and how to use them, and, yes, we do use math.

For Angel Castro, another student in the program, this type of learning is working. I like that I get to learn more about the background history of the engineering of a motorcycle. We have fun. We work hard to get this done and try our best. Both Angel and Alex are interested in pursuing engineering after high school.

I enjoy seeing the students become exposed to the hands on, the tool usage, the questions that are asked and the pride that ultimately shows when we go from a 1972 rusty, greasy, cruddy looking motorcycle to a freshly painted, freshly done, gone through from stem to stern motorcycle. Its a real treat, Hopkins says.

Most importantly, Hopkins says, the skills learned in the BUILD program transcend motorcycles. That pride is something that were trying to build, a teamwork, pride in the end product. This happens to be a motorcycle, but it could be in any other discipline within that school, he says.

The finished bike will appear in two races this summer: Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan on June 3-5 and Road America in Elkhart Lake, June 10-12 . At Road America, the students will compete for the BUILD Cup in which organizers will throw a wrench into the bike and the students will have to identify and fix the problem.
I had a twinge of nostalgia watching George W. Bush campaign for his little brother in South Carolina last week.

He was earthy. He recalled a previous visit to a South Carolina breakfast spot, where an animal-rights demonstrator dressed as a pig interrupted Bushs meal by dumping a steaming pile of manure in the parking lot to block his exit.

Bush was corny. He spoke about how, in his presidential afterlife, he has become a tree farmer  gives me a chance to practice my stump speech.

He was also self-deprecating. Ive written two books, which has surprised a lot of people, particularly up east who didnt think I could read, much less write, he said.

But mostly, Ws cameo in the 2016 campaign served as a reminder that, not too long ago, conservative politics wasnt so beastly. Bush, wading into the manure pile that is the 2016 Republican primary fight, was pleasant, civil and decent.

If serving as president of the United States makes me a part of the so-called establishment, I proudly carry that label, he said, responding to the outsider fury fueled by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. There seems to be a lot of name-calling going on, but I want to remind you what our good dad told me one time. Labels are for soup cans. The presidency is a serious job that requires sound judgment and good ideas.

Without mentioning Trumps name, Bush belittled the bombastic billionaire. These are tough times, and I understand that Americans are angry and frustrated, but we do not need someone in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration, Bush said.

Then he made his best case for Jeb: Strength is not empty rhetoric. It is not bluster. It is not theatrics. Real strength, strength of purpose, comes from integrity and character. And in my experience, the strongest person usually isnt the loudest one in the room.

This isnt to idealize Bush, who did his share to coarsen political discourse: impugning his opponents patriotism, exaggerating intelligence to lead the country to war, and building the false case that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks. But even Karl Roves underhandedness seems almost quaint compared with todays brutality.

The party isnt necessarily more conservative; Trump is less a conservative than a purveyor of insults, nationalism and conspiracy theories. Trump and Cruz are making the Republican Party into a rage-filled movement, as the dueling demagogues chew up opponents and each other. Some excerpts from Saturday nights debate:

They lied!

He lies.

This guy lied.

Thats a lot of lies.

Why do you lie?

You are the single biggest liar.

Its a disgrace and an embarrassment.

Give me a break.

This country is dying.

I dont know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesnt speak Spanish.

He is so weak on illegal immigration its laughable.

You want to talk about weakness? Its weak to disparage women. Its weak to denigrate the disabled.

He said he would take his pants off and moon everybody.

He called him pathological and compared him to a child molester.

Nasty guy.

Trump took particular aim at the 43rd president, saying: They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none, and they knew there were none.

At a news conference on Monday  the same event where Trump repeatedly called Cruz unstable and said he would file a lawsuit to disqualify Cruz from the presidency because of his Canadian birth  Trump flirted with the truther accusation that Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. They knew some bad things were going to happen, Trump alleged. They could have stopped it.

Bush responded mildly to Trumps provocations, recalling the childs face he looked into when he first learned of the 9/11 attacks. The former president answered the Bible-bungling Trump with a passage on hypocrisy from Matthew about removing the speck from your brothers eye when there is a log in your own.

We need someone who can take a positive message across the entire country, someone who can inspire and appeal to people from all walks of life, not just one party or one class of people, he said. Jeb will rise above the petty name-calling.

Maybe, or maybe Ws appearance will serve only to remind voters of Jebs inferior political skills. Either way, the 43rd presidents re-emergence offered Republicans a chance to reflect on how Bushs party of conservatism so quickly became Trumps party of rage.
If the Statue of Liberty could cry, she would.

Democracy is under attack, not by the Soviet Union, China or Iran, but from within by our own politicians and special interests. Here's a partial list:

The government and supreme courts are for sale to the highest bidders.

The attack on voting rights.

Then you had a president and his staff lying to get us into a war. A vice president outing CIA spy Valerie Plame.

Ted Cruz insults the integrity of the Senate by reading "Green Eggs and Ham," and then shuts the government down at a cost of $25 billion.

Republicans refuse to make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. So they cut education, health care, food stamps, infrastructure and other funding for the common good.

Republicans wrap themselves in the flag, Bible in one hand, Constitution in the other, and continue doing the damage. The height of hypocrisy.

Now they don't want to replace a U.S. Supreme Court justice, then have the gall to accuse President Barack Obama of violating the Constitution.

To show compassion for their fellow citizens, they want to kill the Affordable Care Act and impeach Obama for passing it

Democracy is in a coffin with the cover being nailed on by politicians. In Madison, Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republicans are using a high-speed nail gun.

It's no wonder Lady Liberty cries.
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP)  Supporters of a sociology teacher suggest he was banned from a Twin Cities community college because of his union activism, but the colleges president said that is not the case.

Dave Berger said he was recently notified by Inver Hills Community College that he was being placed on indefinite investigatory leave.

Berger, who was told not to return to campus, has taught at Inver Hills since 1991. He told the Star Tribune he was not given a reason.

I have no idea what the reason is, and its just freaking me out, Berger said.

Berger is the grievance representative for the faculty union. Supporters suggest the action is retaliation against Berger for the unions no-confidence vote against college President Tim Wynes last month.

The union has criticized Wynes for his spending decisions and budget cuts.

But Wynes told The Associated Press on Saturday there was no retaliation. Wynes said he cannot give any details because its a personnel matter.

A spokeswoman for the Inver Grove Heights school also denied that the action was in response to Bergers union activism.

A complaint was brought forward and we are looking into it, said Erin Edlund, the schools director of advancement, marketing and public relations.

Officials at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system declined to talk about Bergers case, referring questions to Inver Hills.

But in a statement, MnSCU said: Employees being placed on investigatory leave may not be provided the details of a complaint for several reasons such as securing the integrity of the investigation and protecting the rights of both the accused as well as the complainant.

One of Bergers former students has created a Facebook page, Bring Berger Back, to try to pressure the college to lift the ban.

Faculty union president David Riggs said he could not comment on details of Bergers case. But he said the union has an active grievance against the administration in connection with a previous investigation of Bergers union activities.
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Planet Hugill - Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Planet Hugill

The Robert Farnon Society- Home of Light Music The Robert Farnon Society
The Beat is New Mexico!---Do we have to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel?--- Perspectives from Southern NM and the border region
Sunday, February 21, 2016

Throughout history people have chosen unusual vessels to contain their mortal remains ranging from the ornate to the simple. Recently the Italian Coffee magnate Renato Bialetti opted to spend eternity in the device that made his family their fortune, an espresso pot. His family has manufactured the Moka pot since 1933 and it was under his guidance that it went from being a minor seller among Italians to one of the most recognizable brands in the country. The unusual urn was present at the funeral mass and later interred at the family plot in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Let us raise our mugs this morning to the man whose creation helped breathe caffeine infused life into the tired hearts of so many.

See, Italian coffee king buried in giant espresso pot, Fox News, February 20, 2016.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2016/02/italian-magnate-buried-in-coffee-pot-that-made-him-famous.html


Chinese state media say work crews in Tibet are turning the Lhasa River into a series of artificial lakes.

The Chinese governments Lhasa River Project aims to build six dams along a 20-kilometer long stretch of the river.

Media reports say the man-made lakes are designed to help the travel industry, improve water quality, and prevent sandstorms. The project is aimed at creating what Chinese officials are calling a green environment.

But some critics disagree. Fan Xiao is a Chinese geologist with the Sichuan Geological Society. He told VOAs Tibetan Service that dams can slow down the river flow and damage the water quality. He calls the dams problematic, explaining that they will lead to sedimentation, which damages water quality.



He also said the water environment capacity, the amount of water kept in each lake, will decrease and be more easily polluted. He added that flowing w ater is much better than still water.

Agricultural Impact

Also known as Kyichu, the Lhasa River provides irrigation and drinking water for Tibetan farmers in nine counties. Work on two major hydropower dams has already affected many farmers. The dams are being built northeast of the city of Lhasa, in Lhundup and Maldro Gungkar counties. The two have an estimated cost of over $1 billion, according to the China Tibet News service.

Earthquake risk

Geologist Fan Xiao also says Chinese officials are ignoring the serious risk of the Lhasa River Project causing earthquakes. Some leading engineers and geologists have linked the 7.9-magnitude Sichuan quake of 2008 with work on Chinas huge Three Gorges Dam.

According to the China Daily, the Lhasa River Projects first working dam  named Dam No. 3 -- has already widened the river more than 300 meters. It has also created a water storage capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters.

If all six dams are of about the same size, they could hold about 9 million cubic meters of water in Lhasa Valley when finished.

Environmentalists are concerned about how the remaining construction work will impact Salmon migration.

A China Daily article quoted someone described as Dam No.3s project manager. It said the official promised that the project would not harm the movement of fish.

The dam gate will open for the fish to propagate in due time; therefore, it wont pose a threat to the ecology of river downstream, the project manager said.

Im Anne Ball.

Yeshi Dorje reported on this story for VOANews.com. Marsha James adapted the report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

What do you think of the Chinese damming the Lhasa River? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section below and on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

artificial - adj. not natural or real

sedimentation - n. the natural process in which stone is carried to the bottom of a body of water and forms a solid layer



capacity - n. the largest amount that can be held or contained



migrate - v. to move from one area to another at different times of the year



quote - v. to repeat something said or written by another person



propagate - v. to produce


On Saturday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Nevada Democratic caucuses.

Political experts say the clear win in Nevada was a big relief for Clinton and her supporters. They say Sanders must prove he can win more than the youth vote, and in states more diverse than New Hampshire.

Sanders said he believes that when Democrats hold their convention in Philadelphia in July, voters will see one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.

Republicans in South Carolina

Also on Saturday, Donald Trump won the Republican primary in South Carolina. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz tied for second.

Trump's victory in the New Hampshire primary last week and his win Saturday strengthen his place as Republican front-runner.

Trump repeated parts of his campaign speech, saying the United States will start winning again if he becomes president. He said he will make Mexico pay for a wall along the U.S. southern border. He said he will challenge China on its trade surplus.

Nevada holds its Republican primary on February 23. Many states will hold primaries on March 1, a day known as Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday usually shows who will likely win the party nomination and compete for president of the United States.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush told a crowd in South Carolina that he was ending his campaign for the presidency. At the beginning of the presidential race, many believed Bush would be the Republican nominee.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Cindy Saine reported this story for VOA News. Kathleen Struck adapted it for VOA Learning English.

Do you have thoughts about the campaign for president? Please share them in the Comments section and on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

diverse  adj. different from each other

convention  n. a large meeting of people who come to a place for usually several days to talk about their shared work or other interests or to make decisions as a group

upset  n. an occurrence in which a game, contest, etc., is won by a person or team that was expected to lose

challenge  v. to question the action or authority of (someone)


Despite a cease-fire, at least 60 people were killed in Syria in two attacks Sunday.

A double bombing in Homs early Sunday killed up to 60 people. Later, a series of attacks hit Sayeda Zeinab, south of Damascus.

Few details were available on the later blasts. The Syrian Observatory reported four explosions. Hezbollah's Al Manar TV said 22 people were killed.

Last month, explosions near a Shi'ite shrine in the same area killed at least 60 people.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that an agreement was made with Russia for a cease-fire in Syria's five-year civil war.

But with these attacks, violence continues.

The main rebel group in Syria said it is willing to accept a temporary truce if Russia halts airstrikes and the Damascus government ends its assault near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Russia has said it will not stop its airstrikes against what it calls terrorist targets in Syria. Diplomats call the truce a "cessation of hostilities."

The United States and others involved in trying to end the Syrian civil war said most Russian bombs are directed at rebels fighting the Syrian government, not at Islamic State terrorists.

I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOANews.com reported this story. Kathleen Struck adapted it for VOA Learning English.

Do you think peace is possible in Syria? Please leave a Comment and post on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

cease-fire - n. to stop fighting
A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die.

The term bucket list comes from an old English expression kick the bucket. This idiom is lighthearted way of talking about death.

The Bucket List is the title of a 2007 movie starring actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It tells the story of two aging men who want to have some crazy adventures before they die.

Visiting the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu should be high on anyones bucket list. Buried deep in the Peruvian Andes, Machu Picchu is an icon, or symbol, of Inca civilization.

Far away, tropical and mysterious, it is the ultimate exotic travel destination.

Lima  Perus lively capital

For many, a trip to Machu Picchu starts in Lima, the capital of Peru. Most tourists skip this dry coastal city of 10 million, but it is worth seeing for a few days. It is a foodie paradise with world-class restaurants.

Limas historic center is lively and easy to walk. A highlight is the 17th-century Monastery of San Francisco, with its famous library and catacombs. Before Limas cemetery opened in 1808, the bodies of the dead were left in a space under the church. Visitors can see the catacombs, where the bones of 25,000 people lie.

To the south of the historic center is Miraflores, a modern seaside district. Larcomar is a shopping center built into the side a cliff. Here is a great place to try Perus famous seafood dish called ceviche, which is fish cooked in vinegar or citrus juice. Then watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Cuzco  the ancient Incan capital

After a few days in Lima, it is time to fly deep into the Peruvian Andes to the city of Cuzco. This historic city of 300,000 was once the capital of the Inca Empire.

At 3,400 meters, Cuzco is one of the highest cities in the world. Visitors usually suffer from altitude sickness. A simple task like climbing a flight of stairs can leave you out of breath. The local people recommend chewing coca leaves to help fight altitude sickness.

Leave your map behind and wander Cuzcos narrow cobblestone streets. There are enough galleries, museums, churches, and archaeological sites to keep you busy for several days.

From Cuzco, you can take a five-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Most people, however, use a combination of train and bus to reach Machu Picchu.

Ollantaytambo

About two hours northwest of Cuzco is the small Inca village of Ollantaytambo. This historic stone village is home to about 700 people. Ancient Inca fortifications look down on the village from steep treeless mountains. It was here where the Inca leader Manco fought the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.

The train ride to the base of Machu Picchu is one of the most scenic in the world. The train winds alongside a muddy, roaring river. As the train descends into the tropical forest, the weather turns hot and humid. Machu Picchu is actually 450 meters below Cuzco. It is noticeably easier to breathe. From the final train stop at Aguas Calientes, visitors can hike or ride a bus up to Machu Picchu.

At last, Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is one of the great man-made wonders in the world. It was built around 1450 for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. A complex network of stone terraces line the steep mountainside. The terraces were used for agriculture. Temples made of stones weighing up to 20 tons are perfectly joined without the use of mortar. The complex was built with special attention to the position of the sun and the moon. Amazingly, the Incas built Machu Picchu without the use of wheels or horses.

The Incas left the site a few years after the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the 1500s. The Spanish robbed and destroyed numerous native holy sites throughout Peru. Fortunately, they never found Machu Picchu. For 461 years, Machu Picchu was unknown to Western civilization.

In 1911, American historian Hiram Bingham was traveling through Peru. A local farmer led Bingham to the ruins of Machu Picchu, which means old peak in the local Quechua language.

Bingham wrote a popular book that introduced Machu Picchu the Western world. He thought he had found the lost city of the Incas.

But most experts today think the site was a citadel and a summer vacation home for Inca emperors. Exactly how and why Machu Picchu was built remains a mystery.

Just the Beginning

Today, Machu Picchu is the top tourist attraction in Peru. It is so popular that the Peruvian government has limited access to the site to 2,500 visitors per day.

It can take several days to get to Machu Picchu, but visitors can only stay for a few hours. For many tourists, Machu Picchu is more of a journey than a destination. And the memories of the short visit can last a lifetime.

Maria Cecilia La Puente is an education administrator in Cuzco. She remembers visiting Machu Picchu for the first time as a teenager.

You feel different, you know, in a different way. Its like when you are at the top, (and) you can feel that you are the owner of the world. Going climbing and finally arriving at the top, its like fantastic.

Machu Picchu is just one of Perus many wonders. Peruvians take great pride in their nations rich cultural heritage and natural beauty. Machu Picchu might be the most famous place in Peru, but it is only the beginning.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

What on your bucket list? Leave a comment below and on our Facebook page.

Adam Brock wrote this story on a recent visit to Peru. Kathleen Struck was the editor.



_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Inca  n. a member of a South American native people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest

civilization  n. a particular well-organized and developed society

mysterious  adj. strange, unknown, or difficult to understand

foodie  n. someone who is interested in food and restaurants

monastery  n. a place where monks live and work together

catacombs  n. an underground place where people are buried

altitude sickness  n. illness caused by ascent to a high elevation and the resulting shortage of oxygen, characterized chiefly by difficulty breathing, nausea, tiredness

cobblestone  n. a round stone that is used in paving streets

archaeological  adj. related to the science that deals with past human life and activities by studying the bones, tools, etc., of ancient people

fortification  n. a structure (such as a wall or tower) that is built to protect a place

conqueror  n. someone who takes control of (a country, city, etc.) through the use of force

terrace  n. a flat area created on the side of a hill and used especially for growing crops

steep  adj. going up or down very quickly

mortar  n. a wet substance that is spread between bricks or stones and that holds them together when it hardens

citadel  n. a castle or fort that in past times was used to protect the people of a city if the city was attacked


After restoring diplomatic relations, the United States and Cuba are building stronger economic links.

President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro restored diplomatic ties between the two countries in late 2014. They reopened embassies in Havana and Washington. Now the two countries are working to improve business ties.

The U.S. still has a trade ban, or embargo, against Cuba. But President Obama has been making more and more exceptions to the embargo.

This week, the U.S. and Cuba have made two important trade agreements.

Airline Deal

The first agreement relates to commercial flights. Regular commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba ended 53 years ago. In recent years, charter flights have made it possible for a growing number of Americans to visit Cuba. But these flights are expensive and inconvenient to book. Another option is for U.S. citizens to fly to Cuba through other countries, like Mexico or Canada.

Several U.S. airlines say they plan to add flights to Cuba. Cuban airlines will still have to get their own licenses from U.S. authorities.

Under the airline agreement, U.S. visitors would still have to meet one of the 12 qualifying reasons to go to Cuba. For example, an American would have to travel for business, religious, family or educational purposes. However, the difference between legal travel and illegal tourism is not so clear these days.

Last year, about 160,000 Americans made the short trip to Cuba. The island nation is located 145 kilometers off the southeastern U.S. state of Florida. Florida is home to thousands of Cuban-born immigrants who left after Fidel Castro took control in 1959.

The agreement calls for 20 flights a day to the Cuban capital. That number is in addition to the current 10 to 15 charter flights that already connect the two countries. Additional flights connecting the U.S. to nine other Cuban cities could start later this year.

Anthony Foxx is the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. "Today is a historic day in the relationship between Cuba and the U.S. It represents a critically important milestone in the U.S. effort to engage with Cuba, he said.

Factory Deal

The airline deal comes a day after the U.S. approved the construction of an American factory on the island. The factory will produce farm tractors.

The Cleber company plans to hire Cuban workers to assemble as many as 1,000 small tractors a year. The tractors will be sold to private farmers in Cuba.

Cuban officials have agreed to the $5 million to $10 million project. It will be located in an economic zone near Havana.

It is the first major American business investment in the communist nation since 1959. In the early 1960s, Cubas communist government took over U.S. private property in Cuba. The owners did not receive payment.

American business partners Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal own the Cleber company. They plan to open the factory a year from now.

"Everybody wants to go to Cuba to sell something and that's not what we're trying to do," Clemmons said. "We're looking at the problem and how do we help Cuba solve the problems that they consider are the most important problems for them to solve. It's our belief that in the long run we both win if we do things that are beneficial to both countries."

In a dramatic development, the White House announced yesterday that President Obama will visit Cuba in March. He will be the first U.S. president to visit the island nation in almost 90 years.

Im Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOA's Ken Bredemeier reported on this story. It was adapted for Learning English by Adam Brock.

________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

embargo - n. a government order that limits trade in some way

inconvenient - adj. causing trouble or problems : not convenient

milestone - n. an important point in the progress or development of something

assemble - v. to connect or put together the parts of (something, such as a toy or machine)

restoring - v. re-establishing

commercial - adj. concerned with profit or earning money

charter - adj. employed for temporary use

expensive - adj. costly

option - n. possibility

located - v. putting in a place; finding the place or position of something

engage - v. to get and keep someone's attention or interest

construction - n. building

hire - v. to employ; to offer a job to

zone - n. area

beneficial - adj. producing good or helpful effects
Lexingtons venerable Macs Creek Winery will soon step into unfamiliar territory with the opening of Macs Creek Wine Bar in Kearney.

Barry McFarland with Macs Creek said the wine bar has been in the works for approximately a year.

Operating a wine bar wasnt something wed been considering, but we were approached by Paul Younes. We put some numbers to it and realized that it could work. We have very loyal customers in Kearney and the surrounding area, McFarland said.

Macs Creek Wine Bar will operate in south Kearney, right across from the Younes Conference Center.

We think this will be a great extension of our business, McFarland said. A new building was constructed to house the wine bar, along with a steakhouse and a second restaurant that specializes in hamburgers. McFarland said the contractor on the project has been great to work with and preparations have gone smoothly.

Macs Creek Wine Bar will serve all of the winerys offerings via dispensers. Customers will load money onto wine cards, McFarland said. The customers can then insert their cards into the dispensers and decide whether they want to pay for a sample, half-glass, or full-glass of that particular wine. Macs Creek will also offer some wine cocktails, like the Macs Creek Mule of the Blue Louie (named in honor of the UNK mascot, Louie the Loper). The winerys hard apple cider will be available, along with snacks and hors doeuvres.

McFarland is hoping for a mid-March opening. Laura Robbins was hired to manage the wine bar. Its an opportunity shes excited about. Ever since then I have always thought it would be a fun and exciting industry to be a part of, she said. The McFarland family is very progressive and forward thinking and I am looking forward to being a part of their new venture. Managing the wine bar will allow me to use my previous management and event planning experience. In addition, I will also be able to learn more about promoting and marketing a Nebraska made product.

McFarland said Robbins has impressive people skills and the kind of personality to make the wine bar a success.

By state law, wineries are allowed to only operate a single off-site (as in, separate from the winery) location. McFarland said thats something hed like to see change. Im not sure why that law was established. It happened when I was in grade school, he said. He added that Nebraska wineries are working to have legislation introduced in the next session or two that will change the law. I dont think the legislature envisioned what the Nebraska wine industry could become, McFarland said.
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New Delhi: The National Crisis Management Committee has asked the Haryana government to ensure that there is no disruption of water supply to Delhi.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday morning, called an emergency meeting to address the water supply situation in Delhi caused by the Jat quota agitations, said a Times of India report.

Kejriwal said that Delhi will have no water from Monday because agitators have blocked supply from the Munak canal in Haryana. The Delhi government has decided to close all schools and to ration out water to the residents of Delhi, barring the President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals and fire brigades.

Del facing unprecedented water crisis. Soon, water will have to be rationed. Shudn't scarcity be equally shared betn public n VIPs?  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

Barring Prez,PM,CJI,defence installations,hospis,fire brigades- water to be equally rationed amongst all. Pl save water. Schools closed tomo  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

The water shortage in Delhi; internet and mobile services' suspension in Haryana and cancellation of trains in the North, are all consequences of the Jat community's agitation in Haryana. The Jats are demanding reservation in educational institutions and government jobs under OBC.

With inputs from PTI
A host of Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday appealed for peace in Haryana which remained on the boil as the Jat quota stir unleashed fresh incidents of violence and arson.

"I appeal to people of Haryana to maintain peace and brotherhood. Mutual harmony and dialogue can alone resolve any issue," the Congress Vice President said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Speaking to reporters, Hooda spoke in similar vein but steered clear of questions as to who was responsible for the deteriorating situation.

Appealing to Haryana government to find an early resolution to the crisis, he said some forces were bent on damaging the social fabric. "I do not want to speak on politics. The need of the hour is to bring peace. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi are also keen for peace to return," he said.

Meanwhile, curfew was clamped in Jind, Hisar and Hansi districts.

The authorities clamped curfew in Jind in view of some violent incidents that included setting afire three Haryana Roadways buses int he district by agitating Jats.

Army, paramilitary and police conducted a flag march in Jind, where incidents of violence were reported from various places including Julana, Uchana and Pilukhera.

Curfew has been imposed from 8 PM to 6 AM in Hisar and Hansi as a precautionary measure.

Earlier today, the Sonipat district administration had clamped curfew in the city and Gohana town of the district.

Curfew has now been imposed in at least eight towns in Haryana in the wake of incidents of violence during agitation.

Curfew had already been clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns.

Haryana CLP leader Kiran Chaudhary also spoke in similar vein. She wanted the state government to open a dialogue with the agitators to calm down the situation.

Surjerwala also attacked the BJP and the RSS for the situation, saying "I am pained to say that while the BJP and RSS are conspiring to divide the nation through communalism and regionalism, they are also engaged in an obnoxious conspiracy of dividing Haryana on caste lines."

He said by making controversial and unnecessary statements everyday, the ministers, MPs and MLAs of BJP have created the current provocative situation. "The BJP government has totally failed to solve it after creating the problem," Surjewala alleged.

Asking the BJP government in Haryana and Modi government at the Centre "to refrain from divisive politics", Surjewala called for effective steps, advising the government to follow its 'rajdharma'.

As violence continued during Jat quota protests, the Centre on Saturday asked the Haryana government to provide security to people and property by ensuring law and order.

This was conveyed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to Haryana Chief Secretary DS Dhesi and DGP Yashpal Singhal at a meeting held through video conferencing.

"The Cabinet Secretary reviewed the prevailing situation in Haryana and took inputs from the Chief Secretary and DGP. He asked them to ensure protection to people and property by maintaining law and order," a senior government official said.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others senior officers were present in the meeting.

Western Railway (WR) today announced cancellation of eight trains that were scheduled to pass through the affected region.

Also, fifteen mail services were short-terminated and five other trains diverted today, a statement issued by WR said.

The trains that were cancelled are: 12926 Amritsar-Bandra Paschim Express, 22926 Kalka-Bandra Terminus Paschim Express, 12472 Shrimata Vaishnodevi Katra-Bandra Terminus Swaraj Express, 12217 Kochuveli-Chandigarh Sampark Kranthi Express, 12450 Chandigarh-Madgaon Goa Sampark Kranti Express, 12920 Jammu Tavi-Indore Malwa Express, 12215 Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Bandra Terminus Garib Rath Express, 12957 Ahmedabad- New Delhi Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani Express.

The trains that were short-terminated are: 12925 Bandra TerminusAmritsar Paschim Express, which had set off on February 19 terminated at Sonipat; 22451 Bandra Terminus-Chandigarh Superfast Express was terminated at Narela; 12449 Madgaon-Chandigarh Goa Sampark Kranti Express terminated at Hazrat Nizamuddin and 12471 Bandra Terminus-Jammu Tavi Swaraj Express terminated at New Delhi.

Those diverted include: 12216 Bandra TerminusDelhi was diverted via Alwar-Mathura junction, 14322 Bhuj-Bareili diverted via Alwar-Mathura Junction, 14321 Bareili-Bhuj diverted via Old Delhi-New Delhi-Hazrat Nizamuddin-Mathura Junction route, the WR said in the statement.

PTI
Manchester (US): Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden tells an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that he is willing to be extradited to the United States if the federal government could guarantee he would get a fair trial.

The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping programme and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Snowden spoke yesterday at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. He has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and even go to jail.

Yesterday he said he asked for a guarantee of a fair trial where he can make "a public interest defense" then have jurors

decide his case.

AP
New Delhi: A Hindu priest in Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been hacked to death and two devotees injured in an attack on a temple in the country's north.

Police say the 50-year-old priest Jogeshwar Roy was attacked on Sunday as he came out after people threw stones at the temple in Deviganj area of Panchgarh district, on the border with India.

Quoting local people and witnesses, police officer Kafil Uddin said the assailants on a motorbike fired guns at Roy and exploded crude bombs, injuring two devotees.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Local Islamist radicals and the Islamic State group have in the past claimed responsibility for killing minorities and foreigners. The government denies that the Islamic State has presence in the country.

AP
By Seema Guha

India and Nepal are both in the mood to make up. Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis state visit to India sends out a reassuring signal, as it is his first foreign trip since assuming power. Nepalese prime ministers down the years have always done so because of Kathmandus close ties with Delhi. But this time around, when relations between the two had almost reached a breaking point and there was much talk of Nepal's other giant neighbour China stepping in to fill Indias place, there were doubts. Those have been cleared.

Before the India trip, Prime Minister Oli also announced that a panel will look into redrawing the provincial boundaries, and that its work would be completed within three months. The terms of reference have not so far been clearly spelled out. But Oli can claim that he has begun the process and India needs to have some patience. Two Constitutional amendments are already placed in Parliament.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was there at the airport to receive him, when he arrived on Friday. Her being there signifies the importance New Delhi places on the visit and that India is really hopeful about getting its ties back on track with Nepal.

Talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Nepalese leader were held on Saturday after Oli was given a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The two leaders spoke at length about the political fallout in Nepal following the agitation against the new Constitution. At the end of the discussion, Prime Minister Oli said misunderstandings that persisted in the last few months no longer exist.

Prime Minister Modi said in his statement after talks that the new Republican Constitution was brought in after years of struggle by the people of Nepal and India appreciated the contribution of the political leadership and people of Nepal. But its success depends on consensus and dialogue. I am confident on the basis of these principles and through political dialogue and by taking all sections together, you (Oli) will be able to resolve all issues relating to the Constitution satisfactorily and take Nepal forward towards the path of development and stability.

Seven agreements were signed between India and Nepal on Saturday. The more significant is Indias decision to allow transit and use of the Vishakapatnam port for Nepal to send goods to Bangladesh. Both road and rail traffic would be allowed. This is a major step towards regional connectivity. India is also committed to building roads in the restive Terai area, which has recently been the scene of violent clashes between the India-origin people living here and the Nepalese security forces. The Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar transmission line for providing electricity to Nepal was inaugurated by the two prime ministers. The transmission supply will initially be 80 megawatts. It will be increased to 200 MW by October 2016 and hiked to 600 MW by December 2017.

However, the takeaway from the current visit is not the agreements signed; it is the effort by both countries to clear the air. "The primary purpose of the visit, according to Prime Minister Oli himself is to clear the recent misunderstandings that have cropped up," Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told reporters at a briefing after the talks at Hyderabad House. Prime Minister Modi in his turn assured the visitor that "India is there to assist Nepal and wishes the best for the neighbouring country," the foreign secretary added.

Jaishankar said that Oli briefed his counterpart on the political situation in Nepal centred round the new Republican Constitution. "The issues are still being addressed. Others to be addressed, but the effort is there to address all issues."

India is going all out to repair ties. Ahead of Olis visit, Modi had sent his special emissary Subramanian Swamy to Kathmandu, to smoothen ruffled features and set the tone for the visit. India is also aware that China is waiting in the wings. When Jaishankar was asked if China was discussed he said, "The word China did not come up."

From the public comments of both prime ministers it appears that the air has been cleared for now. But there are those who remain skeptical. "Truth is, not enough has been done to address the problems of the Madhesis, the Janjatia and others. It has been too little, too late. The Madhesis and others cannot remain second class citizens, permanently dominated by the pahari elite in Kathmandu," said Shiv Mukherjee a former ambassador to Nepal.

Both India and Nepal will make the right noises publicly. But much will depend on whether Nepal finally gives the Madhesis and other minorities full and equal citizenship as is their due. There are two schools of opinion in India over this issue. Some believe that India should not over reach and should stay away from Nepals domestic politics; after all the Madhesis can very well fight their own battle and get their rights. So long as Indias strategic interests are not affected, Delhi should turn a blind eye.

But this is not the majority view within the Modi administration. Most believe that unless the people living in the Terai areas are given their due the stability and security of the India-Nepal border will be affected. Indias security concerns are therefore linked with stability in the Terai. So unless people get their rights, their problems can spill over to the adjoining state of Bihar.

India publicly appears reassured, but much will depend on whether the Nepalese political leadership walks the talk.
New York: You dont want to miss this ! Shah Rukh Khan on Bollywood and Mukesh Ambani on oil prices and Reliance Jio headline by far the world's most respected global affairs show Sunday 10 am EST.

Fareed Zakaria, host of CNNs flagship foreign affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS interviews two Indian icons this Sunday, 21 February  Indias richest man and Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

'Fareed Zakaria GPS' airs on CNN at 10 am and 1 pm EST Sunday in the United States and five times globally on CNN International.

Zakaria, often described as the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation and certainly one of a kind from Indian roots, speaks to Ambani on his massive investment in Reliance Jio and the single biggest economic opportunity of the moment.

Ambani explains why he is betting big on Jio and why that is crucial for India which is on the threshold of a revolution never seen in a "100 years".

Barely a few weeks ago, it was Shah Rukh Khans selfie with Mukesh Ambani during the #CelebratingJio launch in Mumbai which smashed records for retweets on Twitter.

As we saw the year 2012-13, India is 150th in the world in mobile broadband penetration as well as quality. And Jio is really conceived to change this position, says Ambani in the exclusive interview that airs worldwide on CNN. Zakaria speaks at length with Mukesh Ambani on global oil prices too. Ambani said oil prices will remain "low for long, at least 3-5 years."

Zakaria travelled from New York to Mumbai to meet Ambani at his residence  Antilla, in Indias financial capital.

Both these marquee interviews on the GPS show have made it into the must watch buzz across American broadsheets.

Los Angeles Times lists the Mukesh Ambani interview in its television highlights for the weekend.

The LA Times also speaks of Shah Rukh Khan as perhaps the worlds biggest movie star.

Zakaria introduces Shah Rukh Khan to his audience this way: If you dont know him and his work, you should.

Shah Rukh Khan, sporting a beard, talks about how Hollywood is competing to make a mark in India while Bollywood movies stand shoulder to shoulder in the global marketplace.

If they dont have six songs, theyre not competing with us, Shah Rukh Khan begins before getting serious about strategy and stardom in the movies.

It will be quite a while before international cinema becomes real competition, Shah Rukh tells Zakaria.

Excerpts from the Mukesh Ambani interview:

Fareed Zakaria: Your company generates huge amounts of cash. You have been pouring all of of this into one huge venture which is to provide the internet to people essentially on cellphones. Why do you think this is worth that massive investment?

Mukesh Ambani: I believe that humanity is at the doorstep of massive change and we are just at the beginning of the information and digital age. And, in the next 20 years, in a networked society, we are going to have change much more than we have seen in the last 100 years. Its really digitisation and the digital world that is going to lead this. From an India point of viewIndia cannot be left behind in this revolution. As we saw the year 2012-13, India is 150th in the world in mobile broadband penetration as well as quality. And Jio is really concieved to change this position.

Zakaria: Your company runs the largest oil refinery in the world. What do you think is the trajectory for oil prices going forward?

Ambani: As we see the situation- its low for long. And its really the first time in the world that oil prices have gone down on incremental supply.

Zakaria: What does that mean? Could you explain?

Ambani: What it really means is that we have had oil price spikes but never has it been because of more supply than demand. Also because of innovation primarily in the US, we have large quantitues of oil. The US has gone from less than a million barrels per day to 9 million barrels a day and OPEC has lost control of supply.

Zakaria: How long is long?

Ambani: At least 3 to 5 years until we see a structural change, but ive always been wrong (smiles).

Zakaria: This is indeed a dramatic situation

Ambani: As we sit in India, consequence for India is very favourable as we are one of the largest importers of oil. It helps our forex bill, helps lower prices and in a certain sense it helps fiscal deficit of the government as they can mop up incremental revenue. For oil importing countries it is very good. On an overall economic basis, it is deflationary. All of us understand the dangers of deflation.

-- Fareed Zakaria GPS was aired at 5.30 pm IST on Sunday (21 February) on CNN International.
Four More Shots Please S3 Review: This Old Wine In New Bottle Doesn't Get You Drunk As Easily Anymore
The memo and its annotations were found in the National Archives by two researchers from Monash University, Sara Niner and Kim McGrath. The memo, said Dr Niner, was "vivid evidence of the lack of empathy and concern for human rights abuses in East Timor" in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). "The archives in Canberra reveal that this culture of cover up is closely tied to DFA's need to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor so as to commence negotiations over the petroleum in the Timor Sea." The boundary negotiated in the early 1970s with Indonesia was highly favourable to Australia but left a gap in the border  the so-called Timor Gap as East Timor was then a Portuguese colony. Before Indonesia's invasion in 1975, Australia's ambassador in Indonesia Richard Woolcott cabled Canberra to observe the gap in the sea border "could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia".

Australia has declined to negotiate a permanent boundary since East Timor's independence, with the fledgling state waiting to hear if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will begin talks. Fairfax Media contacted members of the Jakarta embassy staff at the time who received the document. Cavan Hogue  who later rose to become an ambassador in the Soviet Union and Thailand  said he had just arrived at the embassy but could have penned at least one of the annotations, notably the joke about Fretilin being "internally inconsistent". "It does look like my handwriting," he said. "If I made a comment like that, being the cynical bugger that I am, it would certainly have been in the spirit or irony and sarcasm. It's about the press release, not the Timorese. That's how I'd interpret it."

Peter Rodgers, who is named on the memo as a recipient, declined to clarify if he authored any annotations but did offer his views in two brief emails.. "Those in the embassy in 1976 had no more reason to believe Fretilin propaganda than they did to believe Indonesian, UDT [Fretilin's local conservative rivals], Apodeti [a party favouring Indonesian integration] propaganda over the situation in East Timor," he said. "The commentary was blunt but this was on claims made by one of the protagonists in a messy, propaganda-rich, conflict." However, the Fretilin "propaganda" was broadly accurate. The United Nations-sponsored 2500 page report into violence in East Timor during the occupation found thousands of instances of sexual violence, forced starvation, summary executions and torture. "Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters," the report said.

"It was common practice for members of the Indonesian security forces to keep East Timorese women in detention in military bases. "These women, who were sometimes detained for many months and sometimes years, were often raped on a daily basis or on demand by the officer who controlled them, and often also by other soldiers." As many as 180,000 people died between 1975 and 1999, about one-third of East TImor's pre-invasion population.The peak for death, torture and starvation was between 1975 and 1979. In 1979, Mr Rodgers  who left the embassy to become a Fairfax correspondent in Jakarta  defied Indonesia's military to publish photos of starving Timorese in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Mr Rodgers received the Australian journalist of the year award. But, while the photos galvanised outrage around the world, Mr Rodgers' reportage later received criticism for downplaying Indonesia's role.
New Orleans: Albert Woodfox, who has spent nearly all of the past four decades in solitary confinement and was facing his third trial for a 1972 murder, was set free Friday as part of a plea deal with Louisiana prosecutors.

Earlier in the day, Woodfox, who has long maintained his innocence in the murder of a prison guard, Brent Miller, pleaded no contest to lesser charges of manslaughter and aggravated burglary before a judge in West Feliciana Parish, which is north of Baton Rouge. George Kendall, Woodfox's lawyer, emphasised that this was not an admission of guilt.

Woodfox, who was released on time served for those charges, left the prison by car shortly before 2pm local time. As the car stopped in front of the prison, he rolled down the window and briefly answered a couple of questions from reporters.

He was asked whether he would do anything differently if he could go back to that day of the murder in April 1972. "There's forces beyond your control," he replied. "There's not a lot you can do."
Macedonia is turning away Afghan migrants but allowing other nationalities to enter from Greece, Greek police said Sunday, as European countries struggle to process more than 100,000 refugee and migrant arrivals since the beginning of the year.

A Macedonian police spokeswoman denied the border was closed to Afghans, and instead blamed Serbian restrictions, the Associated Press reported. Serbian officials in turn blamed Austria and Hungary.

Syrians and Iraqis were allowed to enter Macedonia Sunday, however.

The majority of migrants and refugees who arrive in Greece cross into Macedonia as they seek other destinations in Northern and Western Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration. U.N. data indicates that since January 1, migrants arriving by sea are overwhelmingly Syrian - 41 percent - with Afghanistan trailing at 27 percent, followed by Iraqis at 16 percent.

The current trail passes from Macedonia into Serbia, then onward to Hungary or Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.

With the reported restricted crossing on Sunday, about 1,000 migrants were stuck at Greece's Idomeni border crossing, with thousands more waiting on buses nearby, the AP reported.
Ugandas main opposition leader has called for an independent audit of the general election that saw President Yoweri Museveni remain in power.

In an interview with VOA, Kizza Besigye, leader of the Forum for Democratic Change, said he remains in illegal detention in his home and insists the results announced by the electoral commission were not credible.

Besigye said throughout the election process the government used state institutions, including the police and the army, to commit illegal acts, including intimidation and harassment of opposition supporters and opponents of President Museveni and his ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Vote totals

The electoral commission declared incumbent Museveni winner of the presidential vote with 60.07 percent of the total vote cast, while Besigye came in second with 35.37 percent.

Besigye alleged the government has thwarted efforts of the opposition party to collate evidence of voter irregularities the FDC plans to use to legally challenge the outcome of the elections.

We were detained at a police station, we were brought forcefully back home, and since that time I have not been allowed to move out of my home, and people are not allowed to come inside the home either, Besigye said.

What prompted our arrest was because we were preparing to address the media on the gross discrepancies between what the electoral commission was announcing and what the polling stations have announced at those stations. So the electoral commission was engaged in announcing some [fictitious] results and that is what we wanted to expose, when the police invaded our party headquarters, arrested us violently and took over our headquarters and removed the documents that we had at the headquarters," he added.

Police statement

The Ugandan police issued a statement accusing Besigye and his supporters of attacking a police station used to ensure a peaceful environment.

This came after Besigye and some reporters went to a police station that they said they suspected of being used to manipulate the election.

But the police said it was illegal for Besigye and the reporters to storm the police station. Besigye denied violating any laws.

Besigye called on his supporters to demonstrate as a way to put pressure on the administration to remove the police and other security operatives, who he says have restricted his movements.

WATCH: Election observer finds fault with election process

I want them to remain strong to remain focused on regaining our rights and the control of our country and to pause any attempt of turning us into subjects in our own country. And we are challenging what is going on. I am confident that if we do not cooperate with the regime that takes over power in this way, the regime will not survive, he said.

The European Union's election observer mission released a statement saying the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party's domination of the political landscape "distorted the fairness of the campaign and state actors created an intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates" on election day and the days following.

In a statement Saturday, U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said that while the elections had been peaceful, their conduct was "deeply inconsistent with international standards and expectations for any democratic process."
The latest push to bring at least a temporary halt to the fighting in Syria continues Monday with the United States and Russia trying to convince opposing sides of the conflict to accept a cease-fire proposal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday a "provisional agreement" had been reached with Russia and could begin within a few days.

Kerry spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose ministry said the two powers agreed on the parameters of the cease-fire. Neither diplomat released details of the plan.

But even as talk again focused on stopping the fighting, violence continued Sunday with massive bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State group in Damascus and Homs. The Damascus attacks killed at least 83 people, while another 59 died in Homs.

U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura strongly condemned the bombings. Earlier this month, he suspended peace talks between the government and opposition groups with the hope of resuming them this week, but on Friday said that was no longer realistic.

WATCH: US Secretary of State Kerry discusses Syria conflict



Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his government is ready for a cease-fire, but not if "terrorists" use it to bolster their positions. He has regularly referred to any opposition fighters as terrorists throughout the conflict that began in March 2011.

Kerry said Assad-ally Russia would be speaking with the Syrian government, as well as Iran, while the U.S. would be consulting with opposition groups in order to try to implement the cease-fire.

Rebel group 'willing'

The main rebel coalition in Syria has said it is willing to accept a temporary truce, but only if Russia calls a halt to its airstrikes and the Damascus government ends its offensive near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Russia has said it will not stop its airstrikes against what it calls terrorist targets in Syria, even if there is international agreement on a temporary truce, which diplomats have been calling a "cessation of hostilities."

The United States and others involved in trying to end the Syrian civil war say most Russian bombs are directed at rebels fighting the Syrian government, not at Islamic State terrorists.

U.S. officials have given a guarded account a conversation Kerry and Lavrov had Saturday, reviewing the work of two teams working in Geneva on the Syrian crisis  one on the urgent need to get humanitarian assistance to civilians trapped by the civil war in Syria, the other on a temporary truce intended to lead to a full and formal cease-fire.

Both sides agreed there has been some progress in delivering aid shipments to civilian neighborhoods under siege by Syrian government troops and their allies.

A U.S. statement added that humanitarian groups need immediate access to additional areas, and that future deliveries should be "sustained and unimpeded."

The Syrian rebel coalition known as the High Negotiations Committee met in Saudi Arabia Saturday and condemned Russia's military action supporting the Damascus government. The coalition said Russia has "shown disdain for the international community and disregard for the lives of Syrians."

Russia's airstrikes have been blamed for increasing the war's toll on Syrian civilians, prompting more of them to leave their homes as refugees and try to flee across the border into Turkey.

Russia's UN request rejected

Moscow has complained that Turkey is about to send ground forces into Syria, and it called for Security Council action to block that at an emergency meeting Friday.

Other Security Council members rejected Russia's draft resolution, and Turkey's U.N. ambassador said his country would only take such a direct role in Syria if it was backed by the United Nations.

Russia's proposal to the Security Council did not mention Turkey by name, but its intent was clear. It strongly condemned cross-border shelling into Syria and what Russia says is an unrestricted flow of "terrorist" fighters and illegal weapons shipments into the country.

Syria's main opposition group agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce Saturday while harshly criticizing Russia for failing to hold to a temporary agreed-upon cease-fire.

The High Negotiations Committee, a Saudi-backed coalition of Syrian opposition groups, issued a statement saying Russia had shown "disdain for the international community and disregard for the lives of Syrians." The groups agreed on the possibility of a deal if the United Nations could guarantee a cease-fire and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The statement followed Russia's call for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss its concerns that Turkey may be planning to send ground troops into Syria.

The Russian delegation presented a one-page draft resolution that would have condemned such a move. It also strongly condemned cross-border shelling, the flow of terrorist fighters and the illegal movement of weapons from Syrias neighbors.
Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday that a provisional agreement has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syrias five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it is not yet done. But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed, Kerry said. In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities is possible over the course of these next hours.

The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerrys announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone yesterday for a second day in a row and discussed the modality and conditions for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations. Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed.

Peace is better than more war, Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself.

However, he reiterated the long-time U.S. position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. 

On the ground in Syria, a pair of explosions ripped through the central city of Homs, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens, according to activists and Syrian state TV.

The Homs blasts came amid reports that Syrian government forces captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from the extremist Islamic State group. Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The television report said yesterdays blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa  a frequent target for similar explosions. The report quoted Homs governor Talal Barrazi as saying that 32 people were killed and dozens of others wounded. AP
Chinas top securities regulator will step down following months of turmoil in Chinese stock markets that have battered faith in Beijings economic management.

The departure of Xiao Gang, a legal expert with decades of experience in the finance industry, may help assuage public anger at the dramatic boom and bust, but doesnt address the markets underlying problems.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that Xiao would be replaced by Liu Shiyu, chairman of the Agricultural Bank of China and a former deputy governor of Chinas central bank.

Xiao Gang is worth no pity but he is destined to be a tragic figure, caught between pro-government and pro-market factions and left to take care of a mess from an unhealthy system, Beijing-based veteran financial commentator Shi Shusi said. His departure will not bring a clean era for Chinas capital, but at most a belated consolation for investors who have been hurt.

The capital market is where Chinas rivaling political forces have come into most intense clashes, Shi said. The unusual intervention by the Ministry of Public Security and investigations against securities firms following market meltdowns are proof that covert political forces within the Chinese government had made waves, Shi said.

As China transforms, the capital market is where political forces wrestle with each other and is where the conflicts play out, he said.

Fueled by cheerleading in the state press after officials said Chinese stocks should rise, the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets vaulted from late 2014, reaching a peak in June last year, then crumbled in several waves of panic selling that sent shockwaves around the world.

Officials prolonged the turmoil with draconian measures such as banning major shareholders in publicly traded companies from selling any shares and ordering state funds to buy. The bust hurt millions of neophyte Chinese investors who piled into the market when it was near its peak.

Analysts say Beijings moves on stocks, as well as its halting steps to ease currency controls, show the tension between the ruling Communist Partys desire for market-

oriented reform and its overriding objective of retaining absolute political control.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,860.02 on Friday, a decline of about 45 percent from its peak in June of about 5,178 and barely higher than late 2014, when the market started rising.

Liu, the new chief securities regulator, was trained in engineering at the prestigious Tsinghua University and started a career in the state banking industry in the late 1980s.

Xiao, who was appointed in March 2013, was particularly criticized for the mishandled introduction of a circuit breaker mechanism for the markets in January that halted trading when prices fall by a certain percentage.

It was meant to help stabilize Chinese stocks as authorities gradually withdrew their emergency support measures, but only added to the turmoil. Didi Tang, Beijing, AP
A Spanish judge has ruled that six executives of Chinas state-

owned ICBC bank in Madrid should be detained pending a judicial probe into suspected money laundering and tax fraud, a court statement said Saturday.

Three Industrial and Commercial Bank of China officials were sent to jail while investigations continue. Three others were given the option of paying 100,000 euros (USD111,300) bail, the statement said.

Five executives were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of money laundering, crimes against Spains tax authority and forgery. The sixth, who previously worked in ICBCs Madrid offices but now works in the Luxembourg branch, was nabbed Friday.

All court interviews were held with interpreters present and all six waived their right not to testify. The court statement said the bank continued to operate normally and Wednesdays search of its Madrid premises took place within the strict framework of pre-trial investigations.

The Chinese embassy in Madrid said in a statement that the Chinese government requires Chinese companies to maintain a strict compliance of the law. AP
A judge said that billionaire casino magnate and Las Vegas newspaper owner Sheldon Adelson can be questioned for up to 49 hours beginning this week by lawyers for a former Macau casino executive who claims he was wrongly fired in 2010.

A lawyer for former Sands China chief executive Steven Jacobs said in court that he expects an attempt by Adelson and his lawyers to disrupt the sworn deposition in an effort to scuttle plans to begin the long-awaited civil trial June 27. The questioning wont be in open court.

We will start with Mr. Adelson, and then there will be a blow-up in an attempt to obstruct this deposition so it cannot be done, Jacobs attorney, Todd Bice, told Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez.

Outside court, Bice said he believes its clear that Adelson and lawyers for Las Vegas Sands and Sands China Ltd. want a delay.

Jacobs has also been undergoing days of pretrial questioning by attorneys for Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Sands China Ltd.

Jacobs contends he was fired by Adelson and Las Vegas Sands in an attempt to cover up improper activities by the company in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

Adelson and Sands deny wrongdoing. Attorneys for Adelson and the companies declined to comment outside court. A spokesman for Las Vegas Sands didnt immediately respond to Bices claim about delaying tactics.

There was no talk in the courtroom about a ruling Wednesday by Chief Clark County District Court Judge David Barker keeping Gonzalez on the case. But a statement from Sands Las Vegas said the company will appeal Barkers ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court.

It would be the 12th pretrial issue taken to the state high court, and it also could delay trial if the justices order a halt to proceedings pending a decision.

The case has also spawned several related cases, including a defamation claim and a federal lawsuit filed last month by Jacobs.

Attorneys for Las Vegas Sands have argued in the state court case that Gonzalez should be disqualified for personal dealings with the press and for letting Jacobs lawyers make inquiries about the Adelson family buying the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper in December.

Gonzalez has issued statements denying bias. She filed a document last week declaring she will continue to be fair and impartial toward all parties in this case.

The purchase of the Review-Journal came weeks after several reporters were assigned by then-owners Gatehouse Media LLC to investigate Gonzalez and two other Las Vegas judges not involved in Adelson litigation.

No story appeared in the Review-Journal, but a small Connecticut newspaper headed by an executive affiliated with Gatehouse published a story about specialized business courts that criticized Gonzalez for inconsistent and contradictory rulings.

The judge has clashed numerous times with Adelson lawyers in the Jacobs case.

She sanctioned the legal team last year for misrepresentations and lack of candor and failing to turn over documents. They were ordered to pay USD250,000 to legal charities and cover court costs incurred by Jacobs in the document battle.

Gonzalez also admonished Adelson during his testimony in open court last year for not answering a routine question from Jacobs lawyers.

The judge told Adelson he didnt get to argue with her. Ken Ritter, Las Vegas, AP
Law enforcement agencies in Macau have reportedly used extrajudicial means to extradite at least three people to mainland authorities since 2007. The South China Morning Post reported yesterday that two of them are permanent residents of Hong Kong, citing court documents and sources.

The newspaper describes how on March 18, 2007, a woman took a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau and was intercepted by immigration officials to collaborate in an investigation, according to a court document. The following day, Macaus Prosecution Office agreed to turn over the woman (red-flagged by Interpol for tax evasion) to mainland authorities.

The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) ruled in 2007 that it was illegal to return fugitives to mainland Chinese authorities.

Another case unfolded on February 6, 2008, when a woman, also a permanent resident of Hong Kong, who allegedly committed a burglary on the mainland, was arrested while entering Macau.

TUI issued another similar ruling: This court having already decided [] in 2007 that it was illegal to return fugitives to mainland China

authorities [] it was insisted that the return would proceed, without a law or agreement, without an organized process, without allowing the defendants defense and without an order from a judge. These acts discredit the justice system, undermine the rule of law and do not confer prestige to the Macau SAR.

Yet another case caused controversy in Macau when a Chinese fugitive, Wu Quansheng, had his residency status in Macau revoked by the Secretary for Economy and Finances Office. Wu Quansheng was eventually expelled from Macau, although the SAR and mainland China are yet to sign an extradition treaty, as the Times reported.

Discussions to produce such a treaty have been in the works for around two-and-a-

half years and are expected to conclude this year.

A Macau-based lawyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the SCMP, The agreement is to legitimize what they [the agencies] have already been doing, because they know its illegal.

Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who initiated the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign in January 2013, said that there were reasons for grave concern. He added that the Hong Kong government could not guarantee that HKSAR residents handed over to Macau as part of an inter-SAR extradition agreement would not be illegally relocated to the mainland.

The jurisdictional integrity of Hong Kong and Macau as well as the rule of law in both jurisdictions are both seriously degraded by these extrajudicial kidnappings, Hong Kong lawyer Michael Vidler told the SCMP. Staff reporter
The Hotel Lisboa had received and handled complaints from women who were being asked to pay to access a working room in the hotel, says the former General Manager, Samuel Yeung. Mr Yeung also revealed that Alan Ho had requested for those complaints to be investigated.

These are two of the facts that have come to light after the latest session of the trial that involves six defendants accused of being part of a prostitution ring that operated in Hotel Lisboa. These defendants include its former executive director, Alan Ho.

Several witnesses related to the suspects Peter Lun and Alan Ho, who is Stanley Hos nephew, were heard during the court session that took place at the Court of First Instance (TJB) on Friday. The highlights of the day came with the examination of the former Hotel Lisboa General Manager, Samuel Yeung, who worked in the hotel for 18 years, prior to Peter Lun.

The former head manager, who is close to Alan Ho, and with whom he is said to have had daily meetings, explained to the court in more detail the functions and working duties of the several managerial positions at Hotel Lisboa, as well as his working relationship with the first defendant.

Yeung said that on several occasions the hotel received complaints accusing several people of extorting money from the prostitutes to enable them to work at the hotel, and said that those cases were always taken seriously by the administration and were investigated as much as possible. He added: In 2012 or 2013 we had several meetings about this topic with Mr Alan Ho in several instances.

Firstly there were complaints about the security, then about some of the managers. Mr Ho asked me to investigate all those accusations. I called the numbers to learn more about [the matter] and delivered the information to Mr Lun, he recalled, saying that he resorted on several occasions to reviewing recordings from CCTV in order to try to find relevant instances, but found nothing on those recordings that could sustain those accusations.

Yeung also mentioned that later there were other accusations of the same kind that arrived by email. Questioned by the judge Rui Ribeiro, the witness said that they replied to the emails and tried to request any evidence from those people, but nothing was received.

Similar to a previously examined witness (Lam Wa), Yeung portrayed Alan Ho as a hardworking, zealous and honest man, dedicated to work and to the large number of positions and working duties he has held in almost all the companies of the groups headed by the gaming tycoon Stanley Ho, both in Macau and abroad.

According to Yeung, the limitations applied to the use of rooms on Hotel Lisboas fifth and sixth floors came down to a management decision taken around 20042005 due to a large number of complaints from hotel guests regarding noise and continuous movement in the corridors. Until then, there were no limitations at all for the women dedicated to the prostitution business in the hotel, and they could occupy any room like any other hotel client. Those women were known at the hotel by the nickname Young Single Ladies (YSL).

The former manager also explained that those floors were not for exclusive use by the YSL; there was another area with around 20 to 30 other rooms available to any customer, which was usually used by agency tour groups.

Regarding the so-called Assistant Manager Desk (AM Desk), the counter indicated in previous sessions of the trial as being the special location for registration of the YSL, the former manager said that sometimes it was used and at other times it was not, depending on the needs of the hotel. He further explained that the counter was not exclusive to the YSL, but was also used for the checking in and out of large groups of people in order to avoid complications and the accumulation of people at the other counters throughout the hotel. The counter also served as a point for complaints to be reported.

Yeung said the use of that counter or the normal front-desk was based only on the number of people using the counters, and particularly the number of YSL who were searching for a room.

He said also that during the time he worked in the hotel, he never heard of any other means of determining suitability of guests besides the presence of their name, or lack thereof, on the hotel Black List, a list which included names of guests who had caused trouble or damage to the hotel.

Questioned by the lawyer Rui Sousa as to whether at any time the police authorities had made any recommendation to the hotel not to accept certain clients who would use the rooms for prostitution, Yeung said No, never! He added that every time the police conducted operations or searches of the hotel, they never explained why they were doing it or, subsequent to that, any outcomes of those operations.

As he explained to the court: They [the police] just invited the girls to go to the police station, after which some would return and others would not, or would return escorted by the police officers to do the check-out. We never understood why. We suspected that it had to do with a visa expiration or overstay, but we were never informed of that by anyone from the police, Sanuel Yeung said.

Another of the witnesses who provied evidence on Friday was the Chief Executive Officer of SJM Holdings, Ambrose So, who reaffirmed description of Alan Ho as a fair and honest person.

So said that he had heard Alan Ho saying that he wanted to give a cleaner image to the hotel and that the prostitutes were affecting that image.
CHINAs top securities regulator Xiao Gang will step down following months of turmoil in Chinese stock markets that battered faith in Beijings economic management.The departure of Xiao, a legal expert with decades of experience in the finance industry, may help assuage public anger at the dramatic boom and bust, but doesnt address the markets underlying problems.

UK British voters will choose whether to remain in the EU on June 23 after what is expected to be a feverish campaign. Most govt heavyweights back PM David Camerons call to stay in.

INDIA Hundreds of security forces imposed a curfew and were ordered to fire without warning in a bid to quell protests by members of an underprivileged community demanding government benefits in a northern state, where at least six people have died in clashes.

MALAYSIA Australia warned yesterday that terrorists may be plotting attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur. The Australian High Commission in Malaysia said in a travel advisory note that there was an ongoing terrorism threat in Malaysia, noting that authorities there have arrested a number of people allegedly involved in planning attacks.

FIJI Most of the country was without electricity yesterday and residents were told to stay inside for a second straight night as officials scrambled to restore services and assess damage in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that left at least six people dead and destroyed homes.

SYRIA The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a triple blast in a Damascus suburb that killed at least 22 people. The Aamaq news agency, which is affiliated with the group, said two IS fighters detonated a car bomb before blowing up their explosive belts in Sayyida Zeinab, a Shiite neighborhood.

UKRAINE About 1,000 nationalists rallied in central Kiev to demand the ouster of the government, which came to power two years ago following months of protests.

USA Protesters are preparing to assemble in more than 30 cities to lash out at the FBI for obtaining a court order that requires Apple to make it easier to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a gunman in Decembers mass shootings in Southern California.
Alex Vong, the former president of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureaus (IACM) administrative committee, has been appointed the new Customs Service (SA) Director in a decision announced by the Chief Executive (CE), Chui Sai On, on Saturday. He will be inaugurated today at a ceremony to be held at the governments headquarters.

In a speech to announce the appointment, Chui said that the process of picking Alex Vong had been concluded on Friday (February 19). He also highlighted that a well-run SA is of the upmost importance.

During the press conference held at the government headquarters, the CE mentioned that the decision to appoint Vong for this position was based on the requirements of the Basic Law, which stipulates that the person who is to be appointed to these duties must have appropriate qualities and skills for this role, in particular, political abilities, responsibility, ability for political decision-making, coordination skills, as well as experience and effective administrative management.

After weighing all these factors, Vong was chosen and the request was sent to the Central Government, which gave its green light.

The Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, who has been taking on these duties as acting Director of SA since the end of October last year, said at the same event that he was in complete agreement with the nomination and convinced that Alex Vong has the ability to lead SA and start working effectively.

The newly appointed director used the occasion to praise the professionalism of the SA team, whose work, Vong said, had important effects in the protection and security of the community and in economic development. He added that it would be a pleasure to be able to cooperate with this [customs] team.

Vong also noted the many challenges that the Customs Service faces currently with the allocation of a larger jurisdiction in Macaus maritime areas; he considers the prevention and surveillance of maritime areas to be a new mission.

Vong concluded by highlighting the need for full cooperation and dedication of all staff of the SA in order to achieve expected goals.

With this new appointment, the Customs Service may be able to return to normality. This comes after the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, was appointed as acting director on October 30 last year, prompted by the sudden death of the former director, Lai Man Wa, which was classified by the authorities as suicide by asphyxiation.

Aged 49, Alex Vong was born in Macau and has served in leading positions at the IACM and the Macau Sport Development Board. He joined the public administration in 1994. RM

vongs appointment brings changes in iacm and sport development board

With Alex Vong moving from the position of president at IACM to that of director at SA, other restructuring within government departments have become necessary. Therefore, to occupy the vacant position of IACM president, the executive have chosen Jose Tavares, who was previously President of the Macau Sport Development Board (ID), a post in turn previously held by Vong. In light of this change, the former vice-president of the ID, Pun Weng Kun, now assumes the presidency of the ID.
The government has no immediate plans to revise the legal framework governing the private real estate market, according to the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of an event last week, the secretary indicated that authorities do not plan to modify the rules governing the sale of units in buildings under construction, nor do they plan to alter any other regulations that applies to the private real estate sector. However, he added that the local authorities would continue to monitor the development of and changes to, the local property market.

Macau Post to issue one million CNY stamps

Starting from today at 9 a.m., Macau Post will issue 1 million stamps for the Lunar Year of the Monkey. The number of stamps issued is the highest in the four years since the postal services began issuing stamps designed in accordance with the Chinese zodiac sign. According to the regulations, interested parties are allowed to buy 20 sets of stamps, each set containing four stamps, and are allowed to buy another three label stamps. The Macau Post director, Lau Wai Meng, indicated that since the Chinese zodiac sign stamps have been a hit, they decided to issue double the number of stamps that they printed for last years themed design.

Expat employee wins lawsuit over labor dispute

The Court of Second Instance ruled that a company must pay more than MOP200,000 to one of its expat employees. TDM reported that the worker, a British passport holder, made a verbal agreement with the company when being recruited, in which the company pledged to offer him MOP40,000 per month in salary and housing allowance. However, the expatriate reported only receiving approximately MOP10,000 per month. The company had appealed to the Court of Second Instance, but the court upheld the original decision.
Apparently, the opening schedule of the bridge over the Pearl River Delta has been compromised by a set of defective pillars, thus delaying the long dreamed connectivity between the SARs of Macau and Hong Kong. This slowdown could be cast as metaphor of the drifting course Macau and its sister SAR seem to be on these days: a soft adjustment to the right margin and hard adjustment on the left bank.

In Macau, the adjustment process in the gaming sector is going further up  or down depending on the perspective  and the pace seems to be mandatory. Casino revenue declined during the golden week by an average of 20pct, despite the number of visitors increasing by 4.3pct, as highlighted by Nomuras gaming analyst, Richard Huang, quoted by Bloomberg: The growing number of tourists as well as high hotel occupancy rate dont directly lead to the improvement of gambling revenue, as the visitation growth is mainly driven by tourists with weaker spending power. Hong Kong registered a drop of 12pct in the same period.

This is the soft adjustment. Not only could Macau do without Central Government special support policy (should the MSAR register a fall in arrivals as was announced back in January by the head of the Liaison Office, Li Gang), but it also managed to keep the slump under the unofficial forecast. The numbers are going down as the drive of the anti-corruption mood goes up and Chinas GDP growth slows. Anything out of this frame, like the positive outlooks for the market based on wishful thinking, is voodoo economics. Doctor Pangloss would be viewed by the Macau prediction industry as an unrepentant pessimist.

So, again, this is soft adjustment. Government revenues from the casino industry will become less and less, such that spending will no longer be a matter of chance and will become a matter of choice. We do have to build a vanity fire and some window dressing to show the world a happy ville radieuse, dont we?

Now we travel east over the PRD to Hong Kong and its brand of adjustment the rough one. As the number of visitors from the mainland has been solidly decreasing since the Umbrella Movement, retail sales overall declined 3.7pct. From the hardest-hit jewelry and luxury gifts houses to the humblest of the food stalls in Mong Kok. It was in vibrant Mong Kok that officials trying to clear the area of CNY illegal traders clashed with fish ball hawkers. The clashes were upgraded to riots  some believe them to be the worst since the Star Ferry riots of the 60s  because of the fueling localist Hong Kong indigenous brought via social media to the battlefield around Langham Place. Ironically, this is the spot  555 Shanghai Street Mong Kong  where we can see the amazing statue of the Two Jiang, one holding a Red Book the other a Mobile Phone. The Madam Jiang Shuo piece is also known as Red Guards 

Going Forward! Making Money!

Forget that the riot at its zenith involved no more than a few hundred, lets just press forward to evaluate the follow up. Lau Siu-kai from the Chinese Association of HK and Macau Studies, a think-tank close to Beijing, suggested, in the wake of the Mong Kok civil unrest, that Article 23 should be invoked; Apple Daily says the Central Government classifies the localist groups as separatists; Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Chinese government Liaison Office, said that the incident contained terrorist tendencies.

However, minimal should be the detention of Scholarism and Occupy Centrals Derek Lam, albeit he says he was just an onlooker. In a bad dream, this could be a method to strike the Umbrella Movement nonviolent agenda by placing an activist in a scenario of violence. Not so sharp in its genes but effective, even though this narrative in the last instance calls for the intervention of enforcement, courts and media. Yes, media to write a mo(u)rning post.
MONDAY morning, the House State Affairs Committee voted not to print a bill that would have partially funded the proposed Primary Care Access Program, raising big questions as to the future of Gov. C.L. Butch Otters plan to give primary care coverage to the uninsured. As of the end of the week, PCAP was still in limbo, with no funding plan made public and no word as to what the next move is going to be.

Were reevaluating, was all House Speaker Scott Bedke would say Thursday, pretty much what he said on Monday. All of the options are on the table.

That afternoon, the House Business Committee advanced a bill to prevent cities and counties from setting their own minimum wages. The full House passed the bill Friday. Both the committee and full House votes were party line, GOP for and Democrats against.

TUESDAY Rep. Greg Chaney introduced a new version of his bill to require community college trustees to live in geographic zones, but this time the College of Southern Idaho and College of Western Idaho boards had voted to support it. The main difference is that the new version would allow incumbent trustees to finish their terms, rather than forcing some of them out in 2017 as the last version would have.

Twin Falls Sen. Jim Patricks bill to drop the requirement for a front license plate died on a tie vote in the Senate Transportation Committee.

WEDNESDAY House State Affairs printed a bill to require abortion providers to give women a list of places to get a free ultrasound a day before the procedure. Those places would likely include pregnancy crisis centers that try to dissuade women from getting an abortion, and all four Democrats voted against introducing the bill.

THURSDAY Sen. Steve Vick blocked a bill that would have banned talking on a cellphone while driving. The budget-setting Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee decided to include 3 percent merit raises for state workers in next years budgets. And Senate Transportation passed a bill to roll back the extra $75 fee on hybrid vehicles that was passed as part of last years session-ending road funding deal.

FRIDAY Senate State Affairs printed a second abortion-related bill, this one to ban the harvesting or use of tissue and organs from aborted fetuses. The full Senate passed a bill calling for a constitutional amendment whereby lawmakers could override a gubernatorial veto that comes after the end of the session. They cant now, so if the governor vetoes a bill after lawmakers adjourn, the veto stands  a legal quirk that exists only in a handful of other states. The Senate continued to put off a bill to release charter schools from having to use the teacher contracts that regular public schools use.

The House, as well as passing the minimum-wage bill, amended all but one of the bills that had been sent to general orders, including one banning powdered alcohol, which moves them back onto the regular calendar for an eventual vote by the full House. Reps. Vito Barbier and Kathy Sims tried and failed to kill the palcohol ban.

The bill the House left in general orders was the one creating an Orofino Maniacs license plate, which had been sent for amendment to remove the word maniacs from it. Orofino is the home of a state mental institution and the mascot, who arguably looks like a mental patient, has been criticized by some as insensitive to the mentally ill.

NEXT WEEK House State Affairs will hear the new college trustee zoning bill on Monday, House Transportation will hold a hearing on repealing Idahos ban on complying with the REAL ID Act, and Senate Education will take up two bills to replace the old school broadband system that fell apart after the contract was thrown out in court a year ago. House Resources and Conservation is taking up three resolutions related to implementing last years Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer water settlement on Tuesday. JFAC is done with its budget hearings and will get to work setting the budgets for next year.

Well see what happens with PCAP  if legislators come up with a funding mechanism or if the plan dies. Also, there are still two Medicaid expansion bills sitting in Senate Health and Welfare.
This appeared in Saturday's Washington Post.

In scheduling a visit to Cuba next month, President Obama broke his word about the conditions under which he would offer that gift to the Castro regime. Just two months ago, the president said that he would travel to Havana only "if, in fact, I with confidence can say that we're seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans." On Thursday, the White House acknowledged the obvious - that there has been no such progress. Obama is going anyway: "It'll be fun," he said.

This is not the first time the president has ditched a pledge to connect greater U.S. engagement with Cuba to political liberalization. When he renewed U.S. diplomatic relations with the Castros in 2014, he disregarded his promise that normalization would require "significant steps toward democracy," as well as a vow to consult with Cuban civil society before going forward. It's little wonder that since the opening, political detentions and beatings of Cubans have spiked, and imports of U.S. goods have fallen steeply: The regime perceives that Obama is so intent on what he regards as a major legacy that it need do nothing in exchange for his concessions.

Those have been abundant and lucrative for the Castros. U.S. visitor traffic to Cuba is up by more than half, and remittances to the island flow more freely, meaning the regime is collecting billions in precious hard currency. The regime is using the prospect of U.S. investment to attract business from other countries, such as China, while not actually allowing in American firms. Dissidents say Raul Castro is methodically using the fresh resources to fortify the communist regime for the long term.

The White House doesn't really dispute these facts. Instead it argues that the way to overcome the failures of its policy is to unilaterally offer still more "engagement." "A presidential visit is a forcing mechanism," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told the media. "I think it has the potential benefit of making our government and the Cuban government do as much as we can to make normalization move forward."

We'd like to believe that. It is certainly the case that Obama is enormously popular in Cuba, where many people fervently hope that his initiatives will bring change to a country stuck in a putrid Stalinism. Sometimes expectations stirred by charismatic outsiders can create uncontainable pressure on dictatorships - witness Pope John Paul II's 1979 visit to communist Poland.

If the president's visit is to serve that purpose, however, it must be designed with the Cuban people, not the Castros, in mind. Rhodes said the president's two-day schedule is still being roughed out and that he will meet with opponents of the regime as well as Raul Castro. But will Obama address Cubans directly, in places where thousands of ordinary people - not hand-picked party cadres - can see and hear him? Will he visit private businesses? Will he give an interview to Yoani Sanchez, the country's renowned independent journalist?

The regime will seek to prevent all such activity, which is why Obama should have negotiated it before committing to the trip. Asked if the administration had lost its leverage, Rhodes offered that "what [the president] says and how the trip goes will depend on whether we are demonstrating progress." Let's hope that at least that pledge is honored.
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
A blog about my travels, containing all my travel writing, thoughts on special places that I've been, people I've met whilst on the road and future trips that I intend to make. Explore the world with Uncle Travelling Matt!
Judo (black belt maybe). :) (First lesson - 9 Dec 2014)





Gain a bit more weight and grow a bit taller. I'm not sure why... but I can't gain weight wth (currently at 57kg, 1.72m updated on 27 March 2016)





Earn and save my first million before 30. I'm willing to live my life with just bread and instant noodles for 3 meals everyday just to save up that one million. But my previous goal cannot be achieved if that happens. (Bank account: More than 10k... 27 March 2016.. Hmmm still a long way to go...)





I need to buy a new Lego toy worth at least 100 dollars. This is not a joke because I love Lego. Don't judge me. :( (Darn it, have yet but any cos I'm reluctant to use my savings)












I am using a format similar to the email messages I send to about 1000 colleagues on my private email list serve that I have been managing since 1997. Each entry will include the title of the news article, the first few paragraphs and a link to the entire article. My comments will be in blue arial font and key excerpts/quotes from the article will be in the article's original format. As a good Soldier always strives to improve his fighting position, I will endeavor to improve this site.





Also follow on twitter at @davidmaxwell161

The purpose of this site is to share information on national security issues with anyone who has an interest in these topics. My focus is on National Security Issues of Policy and Strategy; Asia, with particular emphasis on Korea and China, as well as Special Warfare (Unconventional Warfare and Foreign Internal Defense) and Surgical Strike (Counterterrorism) and how they relate to US National Security.
The terrorist Islamic State group or Daech has radically changed its tactics, said Abdelhak Khiam, Director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) on the morrow of the dismantling of a ten-member terrorist cell in Morocco.

The weapons and substances seized as well as the militants training leave little doubt that Daech has changed its tactics completely, Khiam said explaining that the weapons seized came from Libya, a fact confirming that the terrorist organization is consolidating its positioning in the Maghreb. Another fact hinting to the change is that members of the terrorist cell have not been trained in camps in Syria or Iraq. These people were trained locally in coordination with Daech, which provided them with the necessary weapons, the BCIJ director said.

During the terrorists arrest on Thursday, BCIJ agents seized four automatic machine guns, four pistols, a rifle viewfinder and 13 tear gas grenades. Police officers also discovered hazardous chemicals that can be used for the making of explosives, Isis flags, handcuffs and military uniforms.

This dangerous terror group, including a French national, was operating in the cities of Essaouira, Meknes, Sidi Kacem and El Jadida, where the groups leader, a 35-year old real estate agent, had settled.

Sources following the CBIJ investigations said Saturday that the cell was planning to attack sensitive economic companies and institutions, including the Morocco Mall shopping center which attracts hundreds of visitors every day, the headquarters of the state-owned phosphate corporation (OCP,) and the headquarters of the Tobacco Company, all located in the countrys economic capital, Casablanca.

According to the source, the terrorists were also projecting to launch attacks against hotels in Essaouira and to assassinate foreign tourists in this city. The assassination of senior civilian and military officials, assaults against sensitive institutions and attacks against military barracks and units to seize firearms were also part of the terrorists designs.

The organization which continues to recruit radicalized individuals of all ages, from diverse backgrounds, as put by Khiam, had enrolled in the Moroccan cell a 16-year old minor and indoctrinated him to die as a martyr.

Sources close to the investigation revealed that the teenager pledged to commit a suicide car bomb attack against the Parliament and started getting driving lessons to carry out the plan.

The cell members had decided to set up a rear base and a training camp in a site near Tan Tan, southern Morocco.

 2016 Microsoft Conditions Confidentialite et cookies Developpeurs Francais
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For a period, 2001-2014, there were numerous visits to Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Hope you enjoy reading my emotional outpourings, written on the road.. from a lover of Cuban Mind and Affections inside the island and the innocence of the Indigenous peoples..







We live with great expectation that the new rapprochement with the Govt of President Obama, will bring more changes, intellectual and cross cultural contacts and a broadening of the minds on both sides of the Straits.





I highly recommend that you come to visit CUBA now..

Ever since I was a child, I have lived in two countries at a time and the countries changed: Brunei, Australia, Sweden, USA, England, Jamaica, various places in the USA..Now Cuba and USA with a definite commitment to the North American Indians (Los Indios)..
microSD cards and water resistivity is now back with the Galaxy S7

Samsung Galaxy S7 Key Specifications:

5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 sAMOLED display

64-bit octa core Exynos or Snapdragon 820 SoC

4GB RAM

32G/64GB expandable memory

12MP f1.7 Dual pixel rear camera with OIS

5MP f1.7 front camera

IP68 certification

3,000mAh battery with wireless charging

LTE

142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm (152g)

Fingerprint scanner with Samsung Pay

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Key Specifications:

5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 sAMOLED display

64-bit octa core Exynos or Snapdragon 820 SoC

4GB RAM

32/64GB expandable memory

12MP f1.7 Dual pixel rear camera with OIS

5MP f1.7 front camera

IP68 certification

3,600mAh battery with wireless charging

LTE

150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm (157g)

Fingerprint scanner with Samsung Pay





Samsung did not shake up the design of the Galaxy S7 but the device does come with some new tricks up it's sleeve. Most notably is it's always-on display which utilized the super AMOLED display to allow the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge to display information passively. Samsung says the Galaxy S7 is smart enough to know when the phone is in your pocket and when it's not so it doesn't bring up the always on display in your pocket.





Samsung didn't stop there and while the battery is still very much sealed in the glass and metal design, both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge received a big battery bump from just 2,600mAh on the Galaxy S6 and up to 3,600mAh with the Galaxy S7 edge. While the battery life will most likely be improved with this larger cell, the Galaxy S7 series is still relying on the microUSB port and Samsung says the USB Type C port is still not ready for prime time and the fact that Samsung is trying to get backwards compatibility with the existing Gear VR which still uses a microUSB port.









In the camera department, Samsung for the first time is dropping the megapixel count and going towards the direction that Apple is going fore that is a bigger sensor size. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge comes with 1.4m sensor that has a larger f1.7 aperture. Another thing that Samsung is implementing on the camera of the Galaxy S7 is a technology call Dual pixel which uses all the pixels to focus on a object.





The combination of a larger sensor and the Dual pixel technology enables the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge's camera to perform significantly better in low light and have fast and accurate autofocus. Learn more about the Galaxy S7's new 12MP camera here









As for the software, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge is still running TouchWiz atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The aesthetics of stock TouchWiz still looks pretty similar to TouchWiz on the Galaxy S6 but specifically for the Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung has updated the Apps Edge feature to take advantage of the bigger screen. Instead of just showing icons, the apps compatible with Samsung's Apps Edge will now be able to take up to 1/3 of the screen which vastly improves on the functionality of the feature.





Both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge will be available globally starting March 11 and the pricing for both devices will be similar to the one for the Galaxy S6 series. Particularly in Malaysia, Samsung Malaysia will begin opening up pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge starting March 7 and the device will officially go on sale in Malaysia on March 18. No official word on pricing yet but expect the Galaxy S7 to start at around RM 2,599. Both devices will come in either gold, black or silver.





Gear 360 camera

Oh yeah, before I forget. Samsung also showed off a 360 degree camera cleverly called the Gear 360. The camera the size of a tennis ball is designed to create immersive videos at 4k resolution. This is done by having two CMOS 15MP fisheye camera on the front fan back and the built in accelerometer and gyroscope make sure that your video is right when you upload it to services like Facebook, Youtube or even Samsung's own Milk VR service.





But the Gear 360 isn't only about taking 360 degree videos, you could also use it to take 2D pictures and even some wide angle selfies. Similar to the Galaxy S7, the Gear 360 is also built to withstand the elements with it's IP53 certification. However, unlike the Galaxy S7, the Gear 360 will only be available in select regions in the 2nd quarter of 2016 (Q2 2016).



UPDATE 21/2/2016 13:49: Update to reflect on Malaysia launch time frame

After this morning's announcement of the LG G5, Samsung is trailing behind a little with the unveiling of the Galaxy S7 series which like last year includes both a standard flat screen model and a second curved screened model. Say hello to the brand new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, unlike it's predecessor, Samsung's 2016 flagship offerings brings back the microSD slot and IP68 certification from the Galaxy S5.Unlike LG, Samsung has not radically changed the design of the Galaxy S7 series and in fact, it's actually hard to tell them apart when compared side by side. The Galaxy S7 in particular still comes with a 5.1-inch display but the Galaxy S7 edge is now armed with a larger 5.5-inch curved display. One notable change from the Galaxy S6 to the Galaxy S7 series is that Samsung has reduced the camera bump on the Galaxy S7 but there's still a slight bump on the back.
The Associated Press called the Nevada Democratic caucus for Hillary Clinton.

Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 52-47 percent with about 85 percent of the results in so far.

"The future that we want is within our grasp," the former Secretary of State told supporters.

Sanders said in a statement:

I just spoke to Secretary Clinton and congratulated her on her victory here in Nevada. I am very proud of the campaign we ran. Five weeks ago we were 25 points behind and we ended up in a very close election. And we probably will leave Nevada with a solid share of the delegates.

After her narrow win in Iowa and landslide loss in New Hampshire, the Clinton campaign is hoping her first significant win in a diverse state is a sign that she will carry other states with a high number of Democratic minority voters -- including South Carolina Feb. 27.

Although the Florida primary isn't until March 15, Floridians already started voting by absentee ballot this week. More than 250,000 absentee ballots have been mailed to voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties combined.

Bill Clinton will campaign on behalf of Hillary in South Florida on Feb. 28, the day before early voting starts in Miami-Dade. (Early voting starts in Broward March 5.) Bill Clinton will attend fundraisers in Coconut Grove and Boca Raton and a public event appears possible but has not been announced. He was in South Florida earlier this week appearing on behalf of Hillary after she cancelled her own appearance to focus on Nevada instead. No word on when she will appear next in Florida.

Sanders' campaign has not announced any appearances by or on behalf of the Vermont senator in Florida this month.

Check out PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter records for Clinton and Sanders.
@doug_hanks

The Donald Trump for President effort didn't let a massive Miami police gathering go to waste Sunday.

About two dozen supporters with Trump campaign placards set up along the main driveway at Tropical Park, site of an annual motorcycle rally organized by Miami-Dade's police union.

"I'm tired of the establishment," said Terri Luiz, a Cuba-born Republican from Kendall supporting Trump over Miami's own Cuban-American candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio. "They promise and promise, and nothing happens."

She joined two friends and fellow suburban Republicans holding placards that said: "the silent majority STANDS WITH TRUMP."

"He tells it like it is," said Elham Demery, one of her fellow placard holders and a Kendall resident of Palestinian descent. "And I am an outspoken person."

Maria Padron, also Cuban born and the third placard holder photographed by Naked Politics, joined the others in saying Trump's hard-line immigration stance was a plus.

"He's the finest one we have," Padron said, referring to the presidential candidates.

(In the photo below, Padron is on the left, followed by Demery and Luiz on the right.)

Juan Fiol, who identified himself as the vice chairman of Trump's Miami-Dade organization, said the group has already held about 10 of these events in the run-up to the March 15 Florida primary.

He displayed an attention to message control that veteran pols might admire.

"We've got to be careful with what we say to the media," he told the placard holders during their interview with Naked Politics.
Marco Rubio's campaign is pushing back against a Huffington Post article that Mitt Romney will endorse Marco Rubio.

"Well that report is false," Rubio said on CNN this morning. "I have no reason to believe that he is anywhere near endorsing. We'd love to have his endorsement.

Rubio strategist Todd Harris tweeted in reply to HuffPo article: "It would be quite a bizarre endorsement roll out strategy: Don't tell us, and break news in Huffington Post."

Harris did not directly respond to the Miami Herald this morning.

From HuffPo:

"Details of Romney's endorsement were still being worked out as of Sunday morning. The sources said that the former Massachusetts governor had been eager to provide his backing to Rubio for days but had hesitated, due to his respect for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who suspended his campaign on Saturday night following his dismal fourth-place showing in the South Carolina primary.

Romney spent the day in Utah on Saturday and could potentially be in position to bestow his blessing upon Rubio before Tuesday's Nevada Republican caucuses--a contest that Romney won easily in both 2008 and 2012."

Keep reading HuffPo here.
@PatriciaMazzei

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Jeb Bush's presidential ambitions ended tearfully Saturday in South Carolina, which prompted his rivals and supporters alike to praise him for how he carried out his campaign and brought it to a close when he no longer had a way forward. At least one of his longtime detractors was not so gracious.

Here's a compilation of what they had to say:

Presidential rival and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio

I also a few moments ago got to see on television -- I have not had a chance to speak to him yet -- Governor Bush and his announcement. I have an incredible affection and admiration not just for Governor Bush but for his family and for their service to our country.

Jeb Bush has many things to be proud of. He is an extraordinary husband. He's an extraordinary father. He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida.

And I believe, and I pray that his service to our country has not yet ended. And I thank Jeb Bush for everything he did for the state of Florida and for running a campaign based on ideas. And I pray for him and his family tonight as they move forward in other endeavors in their life.

Presidential rival and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz

Governor Jeb Bush was an extraordinary governor of Florida. His record of job creation and education innovation left a lasting legacy for millions of Floridians. And he brought skill, optimism, and passion to this race.

"Governor Bush focused on policy and ideas, and he brought candor, dignity, and honor to the race. I congratulate him on a hard-fought campaign and wish him and his wonderful family all the best.

Right to Rise USA, the super PAC backing Bush

We could not be more proud of Jeb Bush, the campaign he ran, and the hopeful and optimistic message of conservative reform that he communicated throughout this primary. Our team is grateful to the more than 11,000 Jeb Bush supporters who helped us in our efforts.

We are ceasing our activities in support of Governor Bush's nomination.

Former President George W. Bush

Tonight I talked to my brother and congratulated him on his campaign for the Presidency. I told Jeb how proud I am of him and his staff for running a campaign that looked to the future, presented serious policy proposals, and elevated the tone of the race. Jeb's decision to suspend his campaign reflects his selfless character and patriotism. I was moved by Jeb's concession speech. Laura and I are proud of Jeb and Columba for the character and class they brought to this important campaign.

U.s. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Proud to have supported my good friend @JebBush. He ran an honorable campaign focused on issues and our future. I'll always be #AllinforJeb  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinenCamp) February 21, 2016

Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli

Jeb Bush is an incredible leader in the Republican Party and served with tremendous distinction as Floridas Governor for eight years. In this time of great unrest in our country, Jeb Bush's record of success offered great hope for America's future. I was proud to support Governor Bush in his campaign for President of the United States because of his record of cutting taxes, creating jobs, reforming education, supporting our Second Amendment rights, and commitment to protecting the sanctity of life. While I am deeply saddened by the suspension of his campaign, I commend Governor Bush for his courage to stand as a candidate to be the Republican nominee for President and his service to our country.

Andy Ford, former president of the Florida Education Association teachers union
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
It's a tricky business, this social work. From the Sunday Times ():

Police and social services missed a number of chances over at least five years to intervene in the radicalisation of three brothers from Brighton who joined a terrorist group in Syria, a report reveals.

A review for Brighton & Hove city council, a draft of which has been seen by The Sunday Times, details how officials misinterpreted the behaviour of Amer, Abdullah and Jaffa Deghayes as antisocial rather than evidence of growing extremism...

The review describes how threats by Jaffa in 2012 to kill people in the name of Allah were attributed to drunkenness rather than radicalisation.

According to the review, the teenager screamed: I will kill you . . . Allah will seek his revenge for me, do what you want to me, see what happens when judgment day comes, you will all go to hell.

Well yes....you hear that sort of stuff all the time outside pubs at closing time.

Jaffa, Abdullah and Amer came to the attention of police in 2009 when there began to be reports of the boys being involved in ASB [antisocial behaviour] and crime, getting into fights.

In September 2013, after he continued to be involved in low-level offending, Abdullah refused an offer from Sussex polices anti-terrorism unit for voluntary engagement, the report says. By that time, Amer, who the report says was a father figure to his younger siblings after their parents divorce, was thought to have travelled to Libya or Turkey before crossing into Syria. Even so, a senior social worker deemed Abdullah to be neither a serious risk to himself or others.

In January 2014, Abdullah left the UK for Syria, breaching a youth rehabilitation order. Jaffa also fled Britain. The report says police were told by the Deghayes family that they had gone to Libya to visit relatives and it was several weeks before it was discovered they were in Syria.

Graham Bartlett, the LSCB chairman who commissioned the review, said the intention was to establish whether there are lessons that need to be learnt in order to help prevent these types of tragedy from being repeated...."
Got some ideas about economics, policy, science, art or whatever, and you can write? Let us know here , we're looking for contributors!
Sharing a wide range of experiences and perspectives relating to mineralogy as a hobby
With its blackand-white tile and rococo-like interior, For Heavens Cakes Bakery in Uptown Butte looks like something out of a childs storybook fantasy.

But bakery owners Kelley Klamp and Lauren Barnes will tell you that the journey of starting their business was anything but a fairytale  or a cakewalk, for that matter.

The bakery, at 33 N. Main St., specializes in custom birthday and wedding cakes in addition to brightly colored French macaron cookies and cupcakes. Klamp and Barnes said they will soon offer their own special blend of Cravens coffee in addition to a variety of cake slices and pastries.

Although the Butte bakery opened Jan. 1, Klamp said the idea for starting For Heavens Cakes began over a year ago.

Klamp was a stay-at-home mom at the time.

Shed made countless cakes for friends and family members, but never considered having her own bakery until she received a call from a stranger who said shed heard about Klamps cakes by word of mouth. The caller, Klamp said, wanted to pay her to make a cake.

Klamp said the call inspired her to start her own bakery, but the prospect of launching a business seemed risky.

I was nervous that I wouldnt be able to pull together my 15 years of (baking) experience with the business side, said Klamp, who has a degree in business management. It was going to be a big step and a lot of money.

Despite the risk involved, Klamp took money out of her husbands retirement and opened For Heavens Cakes first location in Boulder in January of 2015. Five months later, she decided to partner with Barnes, a graduate of Oregons Le Cordon Bleu culinary arts program.

We met and had coffee at the Boulder shop, said Klamp. We talked about her background at her culinary-arts school and her dreams and my dreams.

Barnes soon became For Heavens Cakes second owner, and the two entrepreneurs decided in October to move For Heavens Cakes to Butte.

Looking back on their partnership, the two female entrepreneurs said that theyve faced a lot of challenges in their quest to launch a bakery.

In July, Barnes crashed her car on her way home from Boulder.

She had a kamikaze deer that was not saying no for an answer, said Klamp. He put his head through her windshield.

Whats more, Klamps cousin and both of her grandmothers passed away last year.

The two entrepreneurs said renovating their new location in Butte was also a challenge. At one point, they thought their dream was out of reach when they couldnt afford to update the plumbing and wiring, which was eventually paid for by their landlord.

But perhaps the biggest challenge occurred when Barnes tipped over a two-tiered cake while making a sharp turn on her way to a wedding.

A half-mile away from the delivery point, Barnes rushed back to the bakery, where she and Klamp made an entirely new cake in less an hour  a record time for Buttes version of Two Broke Girls.

When asked what they enjoy about running a bakery, Klamp and Barnes said they like playing a role during special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and weddings.

Cake is served usually on the happiest and best days of peoples lives, said Barnes. And we get to be a part of that.

One of those special occasions was Renee Grimsruds gradation from the Advanced Academy of Highway Patrol. Grimsruds husband  whos a sheriffs deputy with Jefferson County  surprised her with a cake shaped like a troopers uniform.

Grimsrud said she was extremely surprised by the cake.

It was really special to me because of who gave it to me and what it meant to us, said trooper Grimsrud.

Klamp and Barnes said taking part in graduations and anniversaries is just one of the many perks of the bakery business.

But perhaps the most rewarding aspect for the two entrepreneurs has been the friendship theyve developed since meeting over their first cup of coffee.

When I started this business I never thought Id have such a good friend and partner, said Klamp.

I think that if we didnt have each other, we probably would have given up, added Barnes. When one of us is failing or struggling, the other one is there to step up.
In places like New York City and San Francisco, unique and healthy meal delivery options are a dime a dozen. Now, a group of entrepreneurs has found a way to bring that big city luxury to Missoula.

The result is Kayle, a locally owned startup that aims to provide affordable and healthy meals quickly to businesses and households in Missoula.

The whole reason this kind of went down is because I left Missoula in 2009 and moved to New York with a suitcase, explained Kayle president Harry Ward. I was able to experience online food ordering like Ive never experienced it before. Honestly, I lived off it. I moved to San Francisco. I was like, wow, this is awesome. Its great food, and its faster than most other companies. I studied them and ate it every day for about two months.

Ward then built an app and started figuring out how to make it work in a smaller market.

Its a longtime dream for me to bring something, a luxury that the big city gets to experience, to the smaller markets, he explained.

And thus, Kayle was born.

A team of delivery drivers has been delivering meals and smoothies all over town for the past few weeks, and business has been brisk.

We provide a different menu every day which consists of three meal options and, as of now, one smoothie per day along with a couple drink options, explained senior vice president of logistics RJ Wimett. The focus is on fast, fresh and healthy meal options for Missoula. We keep our menu rotating so its not the same day after day. Its always something new for the customer. Were trying to make it super simple to order for them from our website, Kayle.me. We created an app for it, and once youve created an account literally take you 30 seconds to order a meal. We make it so the customer can either plan out for the day ahead by pre-ordering, or they can order on the spot and we will be there in 30 minutes or less.

Ward and Wimett enlisted the help of Ben Sokoloski, the owner of Market on Front, to be Kayles vice president of kitchen operations.

One of the biggest food trends of 2016, and we dont see this ending anytime soon, is a hybrid and partnership between fresh, healthy, quick food and technology, Sokoloski said. And these two brought this tech side and on the food side weve developed an unbelievable team, and got this executive chef from California transplanted here who has been amazing. So its a sweet pairing of the two industries.

Ward said the company conducted a three-day menu sampling before they officially opened and the response they got was great.

It validated our concepts, he said. We sold out pretty much every day with very minimal marketing. So we (worked hard) to get open in February.

Ward said that it took him about three months to develop three different apps the company uses  one for customers, one for tracking orders and one for drivers to navigate Missoulas streets.

We have Missoula mapped out in zones, and we organize orders in a way to keep the meals fresh and tasting good, he said. We do it as efficiently as possible through our technology. We have smart geographical stuff built in that makes us efficient, and were constantly doing replenishment stops at the kitchen.

Sokoloski said that they determine the menu at the beginning of the week based on the analytics of the previous week.

We look at how many gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan or meat dishes were sold to certain demographics, he said. And then we build out next weeks menu. Everything is based on recent sales.

Customers are able to order items like a carnitas sandwich with cabbage slaw, a blackened salmon Caesar salad with cheesy garlic bread or a vegan cranberry kale tabouli wrap with sriracha cream. Their smoothies, like the Green Aloha with banana, spinach, pineapple, coconut powder and vanilla, are popular as well.

People have really loved our famous shrimp fettuccine Alfredo, Ward said. Were still in the recipe development and testing phase. Were throwing out new recipes and options and testing those.

On Monday, the company is starting to take orders for a hearty breakfast bowl.

I would almost consider us power food, Wimett said. Balanced power food. The reason I say that is youre not going to get a side of cheese fries, but this carnitas sandwich will power you through your day. We all personally started eating healthy and noticed that was the trend. Our goal is to fuel businesses and residents.

Sokoloski said that they are setting up meetings with local farmers, producers and vendors to try to get the freshest possible products.

The bottom line is we need to expand the availability of healthy quick meals to the Missoula valley, he said.

Ward said that Kayle will give people who havent lived in large urban areas a taste of the options available without the hassles of city life.

We are bringing big-city logistics to small towns, Ward said. You go to San Francisco and you can get alcohol delivered. You have Uber and Lyft. You can have someone show up and clean your room. Thats what we want to be, to bring these cool things to Missoula.
After my mother died, her best friend told me that they were so close that they could sit together in a room for an hour and neither felt she had to say a word. Here's a fine poem by Dorianne Laux about that kind of silence. Her most recent book is "The Book of Men" (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012) and she lives in North Carolina.

Enough Music

Sometimes, when we're on a long drive,

and we've talked enough and listened

to enough music and stopped twice,

once to eat, once to see the view,

we fall into this rhythm of silence.

It swings back and forth between us

like a rope over a lake.

Maybe it's what we don't say

that saves us.

***

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright  1994 by Dorianne Laux, Enough Music, (What We Carry, BOA Editions, 1994). Poem reprinted by permission of Dorianne Laux and the publisher. Introduction copyright  2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
The word "requiem" might bring to mind a solemn ceremony in Latin.

Listeners headed to hear Brahms' German Requiem, performed by the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and Chorale next weekend at the University of Montana's Dennison Theatre, should keep in mind the composer's preferred title.

"He apparently would've liked to have called it 'A Human Requiem,'" said Thomas Heuser, the performance's guest conductor.

And that hour-long requiem, considered one of the great masterworks, requires a congregation's worth of musicians. Between the symphony and chorale, there will be more than 200 musicians on stage to bring the piece to life.

Heuser, who was assistant conductor on the piece in college and sang in it as a vocalist, noted that the composition is intended to be sacred but non-liturgical.

"It's all about how we, the living, can comfort ourselves and comfort one another at the loss of death," he said.

Brahms derived the text from the Lutheran Bible, including Psalms and portions of the Old Testament, giving it a unique quality as a non-Latin requiem mass.

"It's a very uplifting and joyful work, actually," Heuser said, adding that it contrasts the sometimes downtrodden and tense tone of requiems. "This is much more about having an ethereal connection with God.

"It appeals to people of all faiths, all musical backgrounds. It's not a Christian work by any means, it's all about the human spirit, more than anything else," Heuser said.

***

Brahms, whom he described as very celibate and introverted, wanted to convey the "message that by living with an inner peace and an inner joy you can prepare yourself for the difficulties in life, and they won't be surprising to you," Heuser said.

Musically, Heuser said the composer creates "a hopeful and peaceful atmosphere" that's "subdued and reverent toward the sublime."

Those moments are juxtaposed with moments of great intensity, he said, such as the second movement's timpani-led funeral march.

He notes the composer does "quite a bit of word painting," in which the music matches the tone of the text.

"When he talks about the intensity of judgment in the afterlife, he creates a lot of musical intensity. That's unique to this piece. You do get the sense that the text is being painted by Brahms, in a way," he said.

Dean Peterson, conductor of the chorale, offered a few examples.

"He'll do a particular melody that is ascending as if to take you to heaven," he said. Or he'll employ the rhythmic pattern of triplets, which corresponds to the Christian concept of the trinity.

Another noteworthy feature Heuser pointed out is that it's a "Requiem for Chorus with Orchestra."

"The chorus is the main storyteller of this piece. They are the most central part of the work. It's a work for chorus, with orchestra, not the other way around," he said.

For those who don't speak German, next weekend's performance will have broadcast super-text so the audience can follow along. It's not a direct translation, he said, as Brahms used the Lutheran Bible, and English speakers rely on the King James version. They've tried to slightly adapt the King James to more contemporary English.

***

Peterson said he and Butorac have been discussing a performance of the Requiem for the past eight years.

Some members of the chorale performed it in 1974, when famed conductor Robert Shaw guest-conducted it here in Missoula, and still have Shaw's original score markings.

Heuser is filling in as guest conductor while MSO artistic director Darko Butorac is away on paternity leave.

Heuser acts as music director for the Idaho Falls Symphony. A few highlights of his resume include a Fulbright Scholarship for orchestral conducting in Germany and a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Heuser gave some background on the Requiem.

Brahms wrote the piece during the High Romantic period when Wagner was pushing harmony into new directions.

Brahms, while younger than Wagner, was more interested in Baroque and Classical styles of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

He said the Requiem has "moments of modern, forward-looking harmonies" but also has some techniques that were looked to his predecessors.

"It showcases a lot of counterpoint. A lot of fugues are used in the climax. To have a fugue in the climax in a work written in the 1860s was sort of old-fashioned in a way. I think he's trying to give a sense that there's a timelessness to the music. It's supposed to hark backwards and forwards and connect future and past in a way," he said.

Brahms was under considerable pressure, internally and externally. His friend and fellow composer Robert Schumann had dubbed him the second coming of the Classical era, and he spent a decade on the Requiem before conducting the premiere himself in his mid-30s.

"It was really an important concert for him, but the critics were mixed because there was this sense that he was not advancing music. He was being too conservative in his approach. ... It's ironic that today it's one of the most beloved and performed pieces of the Romantic period, but it doesn't have a lot of the Romantic elements," he said.

Despite the reservations of critics at the time, it remains unique in Brahms output and is one of the most popular choral orchestra pieces from the period, he said.

***

During the writing of the Requiem, Brahms lost both his mother and his friend and champion Schumann, which leads many to interpret the work as a consolation.

"He's experienced loss and he's trying to come up with a way to soothe himself and comfort himself in the face of that loss," he said.

One of the most famous sections was added after his mother's passing.

The fifth of its seven movements features a soprano soloist, who Heuser said isn't highlighted in the same fashion as the soloist in an aria.

"This is more about the soloists telling a different part of the text and creating a more personal narrative as one voice instead of a chorus," he said.

What's more, they have only 10 minutes in the spotlight.

"It's a very sparse use of the soloist, but absolutely sublime," he said.

The soloists are Christina Pier, who has traveled across the U.S. performing with symphonies, and baritone Charles Robert Stephens, who has performed with the New York City Opera and at Carnegie Hall.

The symphony is dedicating the piece to Jean Bowman, a longtime supporter of the MSO who died in January.

"She was such a wonderful support of the symphony and incredible supporter of the arts," said Peterson, who knew her for several decades.

This requiem is an anomaly in the fact that it honors life more than it mourns death  this seemed a fitting concert to dedicate to the vibrant and meaningful life of our friend Jean and the many people who miss her," MSO president John Driscoll noted in a press release.
ABERDEEN, Wash.  Duane Frojen passed away Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, after a long battle with sarcoidosis of the lungs and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Born Jan. 22, 1944, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he attended grade school in Broadus. His family then moved to Missoula, where he attended high school and college. He graduated from the University of Montana in 1965.

Duane delivered 200 newspapers every morning at 5 a.m. for seven years. He wanted to escape snow, and when the superintendent from Aberdeen, Washington, said they mainly had rain, he decided to move to Aberdeen. One of his favorite memories from his first year of teaching was when all of the kids ran to the windows at Hopkins Junior High. They were jubilant having noticed snowflakes coming down.

Duane taught for two years, and in 1967, he enlisted in the Army. He trained at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana at the time the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea. He was sent to Seoul, Korea for two years.

Duane saw how the draft impacted families and interrupted lives. He hoped when budget cuts came in the years ahead that those who never served would remember to protect the benefits of those who gave so much, and allow them to a life uninterrupted by any military obligation.

When Duanes military service was done, he returned to Missoula for graduate work. He was invited to return to teaching in Aberdeen. He did, and in 1975 he met Kay Dombroski, whom he considered the hardest working teacher he had ever known. They were married in 1976 and were big supporters of school activities.

Duane retired from Aberdeen in 1998. In 2000 he returned to teaching because Willapa Valley needed a Spanish teacher. He thought that Willapa was part of the Raymond School District. He only made that mistake once. Duane enjoyed the six years he spent in the small district and the dedication of their staff who filled many roles.

When he retired again, Duane volunteered for PAWS for four years. He was a fan of any card game, his favorites being Wizard and duplicate bridge, as well as cribbage in later years every morning with Kay. A trip to a casino, an event at the Bishop Center or Broadway at the Paramount were all things Duane enjoyed.

Duane was preceded in death by his parents Carolyn (Goodspeed) and Chester Frojen.

He is survived by his wife, Kay; his sister, Charlene of Missoula; his brother Wendell and his wife Dorothy, also of Missoula; a sister-in-law, Shary Frankfurter of Normandy Park, Washington, and a favorite cousin, Mary Barber of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, who kept him updated on his other cousins.

Kays care and hard work allowed Duane to remain in the comfort of his home. Thanks to Kay, his Missoula family, and many loving, loyal friends, there was quality of life when good health was gone. Duane gives a very special thanks to Dr. Philip Gibbs and his wife, Lesley, for being there when help was needed.

The world is a little emptier without him.

At his request, there will be no service. A private burial will be held at a later time at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington.

In lieu of flowers, Duane suggested memorials be made to his two life-long passions: education and animal welfare: Aberdeen High School Scholarship Fund, 410 North G Street, Aberdeen, WA 98520; Willapa Valley High School Scholarship Fund; 22 Viking Way, Menlo, WA 98562; or PAWS, PO Box 451, Aberdeen, WA 98520.
That guy could have killed someone, Missoula police officer Ethan Smith said.

Smith was driving slowly by a group of other law enforcement patrol cars that were gathered in the westbound lanes of Interstate 90 around midnight on Feb. 13, just west of the Reserve Street on-ramp. The mix of Montana Highway Patrol and Missoula sheriffs deputies laid out spike sticks to puncture the tires of a drunken driver who was coming the wrong way down I-90 from the Wye.

Smith had trailed a bit behind the other units that had stopped the car, and was there to help direct traffic if necessary.

There were a couple of reasons why Smith hadnt sped up to help stop the driver. The first was that it was really more of a Highway Patrol and Missoula County Sheriffs Office incident, and the other was that he wasnt alone in his cruiser. That Saturday evening, Smith had a newspaper reporter riding shotgun to show him what a night in the job of Missoula police officer was like.

The Feb. 13 ride-along, which lasted until around 1:30 a.m., wasnt all tense emergency situations like the wrong-way driver. What stood out wasnt Smiths attitude or response to a dangerous situation, but the demeanor he had during a series of other calls that night. Most of what the Missoula police officer was dispatched to handle didnt necessarily fall under the category of crimes.

Mediating a dispute over the custody of children between two parents. Talking with two women, each of whom accused the other of stalking them. Spending 15 minutes on the phone with a mentally ill woman who was having a bad night and had lost hold of reality. Going to the apartment of a man who had been sending messages to a friend that he intended to hurt himself. In all of them, officer Smith tried to find a solution to a situation where nobody had necessarily committed a crime worthy of an arrest or citation.

My job is completely dictated by other peoples actions, Smith said at the start of the ride-along, a phrase he would use several times during the course of the night.

***

Spending a night riding with a Missoula patrol officer was one of the components of the departments Citizens Law Enforcement Academy, an eight-week program designed to better familiarize members of the public with the different jobs and divisions of the citys police department.

Wednesday was the fourth class of the academy, focusing on the Missoula Police Departments detective division.

Detective Mitchell Lang said the divisions average workload at any given time is 12 cases per detective. On a constant basis, detectives are reevaluating the priority of the cases they are working on, largely based on the threat to the community and the possibility that letting it fall too deep in the stack could mean missing out on evidence.

As part of its agreement with the federal Department of Justice over the handling of sexual assault cases, the Missoula Police Department established a special victims unit, where sex crimes and related cases are assigned to detectives with special training.

One of those detectives, Jamie Merifield, typically takes cases involving domestic violence.

Were dealing with people at the worst times. We dont deal with them when theyve won the lottery or had a baby or gotten married. We talk to them when theyve been raped, she said.

Another aspect of her position is monitoring the Montana sex offender registry, a task Merifield referred to as The worlds worst babysitting job.

Detective Chris Shermer ended the night by showing helicopter-captured video of a 2013 sting operation that arrested seven people who had come to a Missoula home with the intent of meeting a 12-year-old for sex, only to find the police standing in the living room.

Shermer is the Missoula Police Departments representative in the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children task force, a position paid for through a grant from Whitefish philanthropist Mike Goguen.

Sex stings are a rare, expensive and time consuming process, Shermer said. His usual work includes using computer programs that search the Internet for child pornography or browsing sections of Craigslist to find people looking for sexual encounters with kids.

But even the act of teens sending lewd photos to each other is considered child pornography, the detective said.

About 20 percent of my day is dealing with kids who are sexting, Shermer said, talking about a recent case of a girl who was sending nude photos to her boyfriend, who was selling them at school.
Lisa Blank, a science education professor at the University of Montana, wanted to know how Lizzy Douglas was doing after the student got her master's in education from UM.

Douglas was teaching sixth-grade science at a small school in Kalispell, and Blank knew the graduate might quickly feel isolated.

The teacher, though, had tapped into a community rich with resources, and she told her professor she was getting great support from those people  educators on Twitter.

"I'm at this tiny school where there isn't another sixth-grade teacher, but I'm connecting with other teachers that are in the same boat as me," Douglas said.

In fact, she was connecting with all kinds of teachers with a range of experiences in all types of places, rural and urban, even in other countries.

Douglas taught at the school during the past couple school years. This year, she's raising a baby in Maine and teaching only after school.

The story she shared with Blank, though, inspired the professor in the College of Education and Human Sciences to tap the social media channel with other faculty as a means of sharing UM's resources with professionals in the field.

More often than not, Twitter users promote themselves. The College of Education is putting a twist on Twitter: It's not only creating a digital footprint; it's using the social-media tool in an attempt to lead professional development in the field.

"We want to be seen as being part of the policies and the discussions that are going on in terms of impacting teaching and learning, so we are a player and a thought partner in solving problems," Blank said.

***

Here's how the idea came about, and how it works.

The university has been in the midst of a budget struggle and an enrollment decline, and Blank said she was part of a group that was discussing how their department could change and grow.

Blank, who was on a communications committee, shared the experience Douglas had, and as a result, faculty decided to expand their reach using Twitter. The 22 faculty members are on a weekly rotation on the account, @umteachlearn, and they've been active since fall, she said.

As Blank sees it, teaching is a political act and a highly intellectual activity. Having UM faculty as part of a dialogue with a potentially global reach affects the way teaching and learning takes place in a classroom, and it also helps teachers themselves.

"When they have greater collegiality and collaboration, they have a greater impact on leading change and reform in the classrooms," Blank said.

She made a presentation as part of President Royce Engstrom's midyear update last month, and she mentioned the new approach in her talk. She said the president invited her to participate as part of his women's leadership initiative, and she shared her department's message to the campus in her talk.

"What we have decided to do is try and create a more engaged professional development and digital footprint," Blank said.

***

Douglas credits training from the Montana Office of Public Instruction and Montana Teacher of the Year Jessica Anderson with getting her connected to the education community on Twitter. She used it a couple of different ways in the classroom as a result, and she continues to be active on the site.

As a teacher in Kalispell, she tried to use Twitter as a way to communicate classroom activities to parents: "That was pretty much a flop. Twitter is not that popular in Kalispell right now."

But Douglas also used the online community to tap into a regular chat about education in Montana, one often moderated by Anderson. The experience was invaluable, she said, and it led her to seek other educational chats online.

Now, she's using them to stay abreast of developments in her field before she returns to work full time.

"It's a good way to still feel connected to the education world and still feel like I'm up to speed on what the information and the next trends are," Douglas said.

And when it comes to next trends, she may have started one.
Usifu Bangura is on his way to Sierra Leone this week.

Bangura's story about leaving Freetown as a child and eventually landing in Montana captured the hearts of people in Missoula and beyond last year. When the Hellgate High School graduate first decided he wanted to return home, he didn't even know if his mom was alive.

Now, he's headed to Africa to meet a brother he didn't know he had and to tell his mom that he understands she had to give him up for adoption so he could have a better life. Bangura also is working with professionals in international development here to collect as much information as he can abroad and return to make a plan to help Sierra Leoneans.

He leaves Missoula for Idaho Falls on Friday, and he flies out of Salt Lake City the following week. As planned, his baggage contains LifeStraws for residents to filter pathogens out of their drinking water, and a LifeStraw Community, which does the same for an entire village; if he raises more money with his GoFundMe account, he'll take more LifeStraws (see box).

The days leading up to his departure have stressed him out, but the 19-year-old man is thrilled to finally be on his way.

"I've been wanting to make this trip for a really long time," Bangura said. "The fact that it's here is just amazing. So I'm very excited, very excited to see family, excited to get some weather, some nice weather."

***

Bangura's story has inspired people near and far to lend a hand to his project.

David Litman, of Cleveland, knows Bangura because Litman's aunt and uncle adopted Bangura's two younger siblings. Litman is a lawyer who works on cases that have international elements, and Bangura's siblings are his cousins.

"I heard about Usifu several years ago when he first reunited with (his siblings)," Litman said. "It was such a cool story, and not too long ago, I started getting updates from my cousins about what Usifu was doing."

Now, he wants to help, and he's gathered together a couple former classmates who also received degrees in international studies and are working in the field in Washington, D.C. Litman sent his friends articles about Usifu, and they fell in love with his story, too.

"He's a very impressive, impressive person, especially for his age," Litman said.

The small group helped Bangura craft a plan to assess needs in Sierra Leone and create a strategy for contacting public officials and asking questions.

What are the greatest needs? Who are the leaders in the area? What kind of infrastructure do they have? What kind of security is there?

"Once Usifu returns, we want to take all that information and see if we can turn that into something where we can fill the biggest gap, or fill the biggest need," Litman said. "... It's setting up for something more long term."

Bangura and the group may launch a nonprofit to support Sierra Leone, but that'd be down the road.

Sooner, Bangura plans to give a special gift to his mom, who was widowed in the civil war and gave him up for adoption. He'll give her a picture album with photos of his life the past 12 years.
Last November, when timberland giants Weyerhaeuser Co. and Plum Creek Timber Co. announced their intention to merge in an $8.44 billion deal, Montanans rightly wondered what that would mean for hundreds of jobs, and hundreds of thousands of privately owned acres, in our state.

Last week, we got some answers. What we need now is to get those answers on the record.

As it stands, the only thing thats been made official is the merger itself, which shareholders of both real estate investment trusts approved last week. The vote puts more than 13 million acres of private land under the Weyerhaeuser name, making the company one of the largest private landowners in the nation.

That same week, Gov. Steve Bullock and Congressman Ryan Zinke issued individual statements saying the company had reassured them that it would maintain Plum Creeks longstanding policy of allowing public access to nearly all of its private lands in Montana.

Meanwhile, the company began the process of relocating a portion of its 765 positions in Montana. According to Bullocks office, Weyerhaeuser is moving some accounting, human resources, and IT jobs to the companys corporate headquarters in Washington state. The majority of the companys employees in Montana work in manufacturing.

Following their separate meetings with Weyerhaeuser, Bullock and Zinke came away thrilled and pleased, respectively, by the companys apparent commitment to maintaining Montanas tradition of public access.

I am thrilled that Weyerhaeuser honored my request to keep all of its Montana land holdings open to public access, Bullock said. I appreciate that Weyerhaeuser plans to share Montanas values around recreating in our outdoors.

I am pleased to confirm that Weyerhaeuser will not change public access policies in Montana, and will be maintaining the current manufacturing and timberlands operations in the state, Zinke wrote in a Feb. 12 Facebook post.

As much as we would love to join Bullock and Zinke in their apparent relief, we cant help but remain more than a little wary.

Weyerhaeuser now owns nearly 1 million acres of Montana. Incredibly, more than 600,000 acres of Plum Creeks land is committed to various conservation projects. And laudably, by and large, Plum Creek has allowed unfettered public access to nearly all of its acres.

At some point, Weyerhaeuser may seek to sell some of those acres to other owners. It may choose to continue in Plum Creeks footsteps by entering into deals to sell some of its land to conservation groups.

In the meantime, Montanans understandably would like to continue camping, hiking, hunting and otherwise enjoying the use of the places we have been able to access for decades. It would cost Weyerhaeuser nothing, and in fact would buy it a whole lot of goodwill.

On the other hand, if the company breaks that tradition and institutes the same permit-only policies it requires in other states, the backlash from Montanans will be severe.

Weyerhaeuser leases or charges fees to access many of its properties in Oregon and Washington, a policy it has said is necessary to clean up the damage done by careless recreationalists.

They should know, and government leaders like Bullock and Zinke have attempted to explain to them, that Montana is different. Montanans cherish our outdoors and work hard to leave them as we found them. We engage in passionate debate every day over how best to manage these special places.

Of course, Montanans also value the right of private property owners to determine who is allowed on their property, and we certainly dont begrudge them the opportunity to make some money through the use of that land. However, we also know that being a good steward of the land, and a good neighbor, is equally important. Plum Creek understood this. Hopefully, Weyerhaeuser understands it too.

Given its record of charging for land access, its little wonder if Montanans view a break from that record with skepticism. It wouldnt be asking too much to get something in writing.

The companys policies concerning permit fees in other states are available in writing on its website. It could easily make available a written policy that clearly explains how its practices differ in Montana from other states.

Even better, it could back up its words by changing its policy in other states to allow more public access. Now that would be the kind of reassurance Montanans could actually put stock in.
Draught Works Brewery will soon be able to stay open later into the evening following a vote by the Missoula City Council to approve a conditi
4. The funeral for Justice Antonin Scalia offered a counterpoint to overt politicking, though his Supreme Court seat is at the center of a partisan power struggle. One of the justices nine children, his son Paul, officiated at the Mass offered at the nations largest Roman Catholic Church, the National Shrine for the Immaculate Conception in Washington. He choked up just once in his 15-minute homily, briefly, as he mentioned his fathers love for his family.

_____
COLUMBIA, S.C.  Jeb Bush dropped out of the presidential race on Saturday, ending a quest for the White House that started with a war chest of $100 million, a famous name and a promise of political civility but concluded with a humbling recognition: In 2016, none of it mattered.

No single candidacy this year fell so short of its original expectations. It began with an aura of inevitability that masked deep problems, from Mr. Bush himself, a clunky candidate in a field of gifted performers, to the rightward drift of the Republican Party since Mr. Bushs time as a consensus conservative in Florida.

Im proud of the campaign that weve run to unify our country, Mr. Bush said, his eyes moist, in an emotional speech here Saturday night after his third straight disappointing finish in the early voting states. The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision.

Mr. Bushs campaign had rested on a set of assumptions that, one by one, turned out to be flatly incorrect: that the Republican primaries would turn on a record of accomplishment in government; that Mr. Bushs cerebral and reserved style would be an asset; and that a country wary of dynasties would evaluate this member of the Bush family on his own merits.
LA PAZ, Bolivia  A referendum that would allow the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, to run for a fourth term looked imperiled on Sunday, as early exit polls predicted that it would fail by a small margin and the presidents rivals declared victory.

Television exit polls showed that a slim majority of voters, in the single digits, had turned down Mr. Moraless bid to change the Constitution to allow him to run again and possibly serve as president until 2025.

Today we have buried the project of converting our country into a single party, of converting our country into an authoritarian state, said Samuel Doria Medina, an opposition legislator. This is a victory of the people over abuse.

However, Alvaro Garcia Linera, Mr. Moraless vice president, said the opposition had declared a premature victory. He said that the polls showed a technical tie and that the final result might vary from them.
Signs reading Buy Local Beer Here are showing up on the store fronts of Montana breweries, taverns and restaurants as part of a new campaign to promote Montana craft beer.

Montana brewers are excited to see more taverns and restaurants getting on board with Montana craft beer,'' said Josh Townsley, president of the Montana Brewers Association. "On a basic level its about responding to consumer demand, but its also about supporting local businesses and keeping more dollars in the local economy.''

The Montana Brewers Association, Montana Restaurant Association and Montana Tavern Association teamed up for the Buy Local Beer campaign.

Montana taverns are excited to partner with Montana brewers to provide consumers exciting new craft products," said Jim Johnson, president of the Montana Tavern Association.

With breweries now in over 30 cities and towns across Montana and demand for craft beer on the rise, more bars and restaurants are putting beer from local breweries on tap. What was once a niche market has now expanded into nearly every eatery and watering hole in the state.

Montanas restaurant owners are in the business of responding to consumer demand and Montanas craft brews are very popular. Thats why we are pleased to help promote the buy local campaign, said Brad Anderson, owner of Buffalo Wild Wings in Montana.

The Buy Local Beer campaign is also engaging the public and encouraging people to get involved on social media. Craft beer lovers can show their support for Montana craft beer with stickers that are available at taverns, restaurants and breweries participating in the campaign. Craft beer lovers are encouraged to post pictures of their Buy Local Beer stickers with the hashtags #BuyLocalBeer and #MTbeer.
Montanas second Pizza Ranch is set to open in Butte by mid-April, offering a buffet of pizza, chicken, salad and cactus bread dessert as well as an arcade with an e-ticket way of cashing in for prizes.

Construction on the restaurant, which also offers menu and takeout orders, is mostly finished outside but interior work continues. The long-vacant and boarded up Skookum Motel at 3541 Harrison Ave. had to be demolished and hauled away first, but a piece of its history could live on.

There are plans to hang the motels large neon sign, hopefully refurbished and glowing again, inside one of the rooms in the restaurant, said Tim Mazzaferro, director of operations for several franchise locations, including the one in Butte.

There are more than 190 locations in 13 states, most in the West and Midwest, including Iowa where the restaurant was founded in 1981. There are 78 locations there, but the only one in Montana so far is in Billings.

They are so popular in Iowa, they have become a staple campaign stop for presidential candidates preceding the Iowa caucuses, earning the tag Pizza Ranch circuit from media covering the races.

The Pizza Ranch mission is to glorify God by positively impacting the world, and its website includes a blog of its charity efforts, stories and Bible passages.

Butte will be the second location in Montana, with a third expected to open in Helena later this year. Mazzaferro is with a group that owns Pizza Ranchs in Minot and Grand Forks, North Dakota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Casper, Wyoming; and the one in Billings, which opened in 2013.

Pizza Ranch has had a Butte Facebook page for weeks, Mazzaferro said, in part to let the community know what the restaurant is all about.

When you open a Wendys or a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut, those are national brands that people know, Mazzaferro said of the Facebook presence. They dont know Pizza Ranch, and they assume its just another pizza place. We are far more than just a pizza place.

The chain gets more than 90 percent of its business from its buffets, which includes at least six types of pizza at any one time, its Countrys Best Chicken, vegetables, potato wedges and mashed potatoes, a full salad bar and two types of soup daily.

Buffet prices vary between lunch and dinner and weekdays and weekends. At the Billings location, for example, the lunch buffet is priced at $9.75 for adults from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and $11.50 for buffets on weekends and evenings.

Tuesdays will be kids nights in Butte, Mazzaferro said, when each paying adult can have a child 12 or under eat for free.

Many Pizza Ranchs are about 6,000 square feet, but the one in Butte will be about 9,000 square feet to include two large party rooms. They can be subdivided into five party rooms for smaller gatherings or team events, none carrying additional charges.

There will also be an arcade room with more than 20 games, many offering credits that will be stored on a single credit-like card and can be redeemed for prizes ranging from trinkets to electronics.

The restaurant also plans to be involved in the community, hosting fundraisers for worthy causes and individuals. The restaurant directs 20 percent of the tab at such events to the cause, and volunteers with the group can help clear tables, seek additional donations and steer their tips to the fundraiser.

Mazzaferro said initial plans were to open in Helena first, but they got a good deal on the land in Butte, which expedited the process. The Butte location will employ up to 110 people.

We plan on expanding to Missoula, Bozeman, Great Falls and Kalispell, Mazzaferro said.
KALISPELL  The owners of a Missoula outdoor film company and an associate have paid almost $6,000 in fines after receiving more than four dozen federal and state citations for illegal activities, the bulk involving multiple violations of bull trout fishing regulations.

Authorities say brothers Zack and Travis Boughton of Missoula, owners of Montana Wild, made more than 2,200 videos from a 2013 fishing trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness and South Fork of the Flathead plus more while they were intentionally fishing for bull trout on the Spotted Bear River and North Fork Blackfoot River.

"Numerous videos showed the Boughtons and Anthony Von Ruden intentionally fishing for bull trout in tributaries such as Youngs Creek, White River, Big Salmon and Little Salmon Creeks" according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman John Fraley.

All are closed to fishing for bull trout, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

FWP criminal investigator Brian Sommers said video evidence shows bull trout caught during the commercial filming were also over-handled, some for up to 12 minutes or longer after being netted.

In one case, according to Sommers, a bull trout was caught, netted, handled, and released with the hook and line still attached so the Boughtons could film the fish under water and being reeled in, netted, handled and released again.

"The over-handling of bull trout that took place by these individuals on this trip will no doubt have negative impacts on the bull trout fishery," Mark Deleray, FWP Region 1 fisheries manager, said.

The Boughtons did not respond Friday to requests for comment sent via email and Facebook.

Commercial filming not allowed

Montana Wild's website says "we capture the adventures that are found in our backyard here in Montana. Our goal is to create visually appealing and inspiring pieces about fly fishing and hunting. We specialize in outdoor marketing, social media, cinematography, photography, video editing and a new line of apparel."

Authorities seized five computers, 13 hard drives, two cellphones and other items while executing a search warrant at Montana Wild during the investigation.

Fraley said the investigation was launched early in 2014 after a U.S. Forest Service district ranger informed USFS law enforcement officer L. Kevin Arnold about the possible existence of a commercial film regarding fishing for bull trout in the Bob Marshall.

Commercial filming is not allowed in congressionally designated wilderness areas, and a permit is required to do so on National Forest System lands lying outside a wilderness area.

"Arnold conducted a preliminary investigation of the company's website and found substantial evidence that they did in fact commercially film on national forest lands in the Bob Marshall Wilderness," FWP said in a news release.

The USFS law enforcement officer then requested that Sommers and Game Warden Perry Brown assist in the investigation, and Sommers obtained the search warrant.

Arnold and Brown "knew the videos were from the South Fork Flathead River drainage and its tributaries based upon their experience and knowledge gained from patrolling the Bob Marshall Wilderness," Fraley said. "Footage on the website, specifically a teaser clip for an upcoming video to be introduced at the Fly Fishing Film Tour debuting in Missoula, showed individuals fishing for and catching bull trout in waters that can readily be identified as not being on the main stem of the South Fork Flathead River."

Active or intentional fishing for bull trout can only occur on the main stem of the South Fork Flathead and only by anglers in possession of a bull trout catch card, according to FWP regulations.

FWP Warden Capt. Lee Anderson said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets the rules and regulations that FWP must follow in order to allow anglers to fish for a threatened species.

"We have to show people we're abiding by the rules," said Anderson. "That's why those tributaries are closed, because they're spawning areas."

The privilege of fishing for bull trout "could go away" if people abuse it, Anderson said.

More than one offense

Fraley said the joint investigation revealed "numerous" other instances of hunting and fishing videos that were taken by and for Montana Wild on federal, state, tribal and private lands without commercial use permits.

The videos, he added, were done "in conjunction with sponsors who were endorsing Montana Wild in exchange for advertising in the videos," which would be sold or shown at film tours, film festivals and film rendezvous.

The Boughton brothers and Von Ruden received 38 state citations in Flathead and Powell counties for intentionally fishing for bull trout in closed waters, failing to immediately release bull trout, and failing to report a bull trout on the FWP Bull Trout Catch Card.

Portions of the wilderness area are located in both Flathead and Powell counties, and violations occurred in both, Anderson said.

The Boughtons were cited for 11 more federal violations for unlawful commercial filming activating without valid permits on U.S. Forest Service lands.

FWP says the three men entered into plea agreements with Powell County, which included the Flathead County charges, and the Boughtons forfeited collateral on the federal charges.

The three paid a total of $5,950 in fines. They could have lost their hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for a period of time as well, Anderson said, but avoided that in the plea agreement.

"While the regulation preventing someone from intentionally fishing for bull trout can be difficult to prove, it is extremely easy for the angler to follow," Anderson said. "Every angler out there knows if they are intentionally fishing for bull trout."
Talk about a good Samaritan.

Helen Carey had nothing to gain by exposing the six-figure statewide embezzlement scam she first stumbled upon five years ago.

Carey, now 77, was merely acting as executor of a deceased family friend's estate when she came across Bill Wise, the owner of a Bozeman-based financial consulting firm who has since pleaded guilty to the embezzlement of nearly $370,000 from almost three dozen disabled and elderly clients.

That total included some $87,000 taken from Audrey Reese, a former school teacher who died in April 2011. Weeks later, Carey, acting as Reese's representative, started running into trouble getting Reese's financial records from Wise.

So she went to Reese's bank, which handed over stacks of "inconsistent" checks written by Wise's company, Walking Cross, and taken out of Reese's account.

After seeing the bank records, she went straight to the cops.

It was later revealed Wise was using Reese's and other clients' cash to pay down personal expenses such as summer camp for his kids.

Carey won't share a dime from the thousands of dollars Wise has since agreed to pay back in restitution, but her contributions to Wise's conviction have not gone unnoticed or unrewarded by law enforcement authorities.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox has noted Carey could have let Reese's estate evaporate and simply walked away.

But she didn't.

"Because of Helen Carey's actions, Walking Cross was put out of business, dozens of elderly or disabled Montanans whose money was stolen between 2007 to 2011 now have the opportunity for restitution, and no additional victims suffered a loss from Mr. Wise's actions," Fox said in a statement released Feb. 10, the same day the Montana Department of Justice hosted an event to honor Carey's role in putting Wise behind bars.

He was far from the only one to remark on Carey's character.

"Helen might be small in stature, but she stood tall in this investigation and merits the recognition we're giving her today," said Bryan Lockerby, a Montana Department of Justice administrator whose division helped investigate the case. "It's important to recognize the efforts of our citizens who go above and beyond what the average person does to attempt to hold people accountable for their actions.

"In this case, it also served to protect a significant number of the most vulnerable of Montana's citizens."

Another investigator, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, echoed those sentiments.

"Her persistence was extraordinary, given she had nothing to gain personally," the investigator said of Carey. "I think it's just who she is.  She called me up almost every month for a year and a half just to see where the case was."

Carey, who lives in the Boulder Valley, said she was "extremely honored" to accept the justice department's award for her involvement in the case, though she doesn't think she deserved it.

"I was just doing my job," Carey said. "In the end, I would've had to answer to the court (about the estate). It was my responsibility to do it."

Wise was sentenced in August 2014 to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay the entire amount he embezzled from his victims.

Carey figures he got off easy, given that she "can't imagine how long it's going to take him" to pay that total back.

If and when he does, Carey said she'll be there, ready and willing to finally close out Reese's estate.
Hardly a month goes by without a new article about how domestic sheep will destroy Montanas wildlife population and quite possibly the entire Western U.S. ecosystem unless they are eliminated.

Over the past 40 years, domestic sheep have mostly disappeared from federal forest allotments in Montana, originally set up for multiple use. At the same time, demographic trends have seen a good portion of Montanas traditional winter ranges subdivided and paved over. Wildlife are now forced onto smaller areas of private land for their winter feed, increasing the tension between private landowners, sportsmen and women and FWP.

Mounting bureaucratic regulations brought on by lawsuits are forcing management decisions of our states wildlife into the hands of federal courts and away from local control. These regulations also make it difficult for ranchers to continue to graze their federal allotments. Good! some people will say. In the long term, the loss of grazing rights will exacerbate the subdivision of even more open rangeland as these family ranches become unsustainable.

The current disputes over bighorn sheep are case in point. Montana has a Bighorn Conservation Strategy agreed upon by the state and interested parties. The plan calls for five new herds to be established over a 10-year period. The main issue in finding new ground for bighorn herds is private landowners near potential release sites are intimidated by future regulations that may be imposed on them. Groups are finding ways around the arduous task of listing species through the Endangered Species Act by using the minimum viable population clause in Forest Service policies.

While bighorns are not a listed species and are still hunted across the west, lawsuits are driving single species management on federal lands. Ultimately the bighorn/domestic sheep conflict will be tame compared to the coming free ranging bison/cattle conflict.

Montana needs to make a decision on whether to manage bighorn herds as a group or as isolated herds. Managing bighorns as a group, allowing population flow, and contact with domestic livestock will ultimately evolve a robust, healthy gene pool across the bighorn population. We know from past sampling that current bighorn herds carry the Pasteurella bacteria. Even if all domestic sheep are removed from the state, Montana will continue to experience bighorn sheep die-offs.

With disease vectors already in the population, all thats needed is an extremely severe winter like 2010 to weaken the herds and make them susceptible. The Sun River herd experienced a die-off that winter which reduced numbers from over 900 to under 500. This herd is struggling to regain its footing. However, those remaining will have been exposed and develop resistance to the pathogens. It is important to note there have been no domestic sheep grazing anywhere near the Sun River herd for several generations. Instances like this are never widely reported.

The take home message here is coexist. Bighorn sheep and domestic sheep each play an important role in our Montana landscape. Bighorn sheep are part of our national heritage. They represent a time when the United States was truly wild. Ironically, it is domestic sheep providing a renewable, sustainable living for ranchers who will help preserve the open space necessary for bighorn sheep to survive.

-- Dave McEwen, of Galata, is president of the Montana Wool Growers Association.
In January, the MTGOP appealed its Open Primary Lawsuit to the Ninth Circuit in Seattle. Judge Brian Morris had planned a speedy trial, but that didn't suit attorney Matthew Monforton.

Seems Monforton scrapped most of his carefully prepared trial briefs. He's staking his reputation on a legal argument from a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling called National Democratic Party v. Wisconsin.

This is quite a gamble. The Supreme Court ruling failed to close Montana's open primary 35 years ago. The MTGOP evidently has forgotten. Republican legislators blocked every Democrat bill that would have closed the primary. The Independent Record reported on a confrontation in the 1985 House of Representatives.

"Primary bill is stuck in big House mudhole"

"A series of 50-50, party-line votes showed the House unable to pass it, kill it, or get rid of it in! any fashion in an hour of wrangling. It was the second time in two days and the third time in a week that Republicans and Democrats had dead-locked on the issue."

Democrats tried to find a compromise, but ecstatic Republicans blocked them every time. Ecstatic -- because the Republicans knew that defending the open primary would put their party back into the governor's office just like in 1920 and 1954. They were right. Voters elected Stan Stephens, Marc Racicot, and Judy Martz. Republicans who forget their history hand the governor's office to the Democrats.

Republicans should legislate rather than litigate. The Supreme Court never said an open primary violated a party's right of association. It said a party speaks through its rules in describing its right of association. The rules of both the MTGOP and MT Democrat Party say each party will abide by Montana law. If the law says the primary is open, than it's open.

-- Carole Mackin, Helena
HAMILTON  No one knew how many people would turn out Thursday to comment on a proposed letter from Ravalli County commissioners seeking to keep Syrian refugees from settling here.

I was guessing maybe 100, said Commissioner Jeff Burrows.

The meeting turned out to be the largest county commission meeting Burrows has ever seen.

When more than 500 people packed the commissioners meeting room, the stairway leading to it and the outside steps at the countys administrative building, the commission called the Hamilton School District for help.

In hindsight, we should have postponed the meeting, Burrows said.

The school district offered the auditorium at the middle school, but when that space wasnt large enough, the meeting moved into the schools gym.

We ended up putting them in a bad situation when all they were doing was trying to accommodate us, Burrows said.

The meeting was often loud, and some students went home and told their parents about what happened. There were also reports that some people carried guns.

Parents called the school district to complain Friday.

Hamilton Superintendent Tom Korst said the district was taken by surprise by the number of people at the meeting.

When we were called yesterday, the commission told us they had an overflow, Korst said. We were under the impression that the numbers were fewer. We thought we could accommodate them in the auditorium. It wasnt 100. It was more like 600.

In hindsight, Korst said that while the district wants to be a good neighbor, it also has to balance that wish against the need to run a school in a safe manner.

We ended up putting kids in a situation where they and their parents were uncomfortable, he said. I dont blame them. Were not going to have that happen again. I wont allow any spur-of-the-moment requests like that unless the board directs me to do otherwise.

Korst received reports of a number of violations of school rules, including people smoking on school grounds.

The tone of the meeting was pretty harsh, he said. I didnt see any guns myself. That would have been a clear violation of state and federal law, and we would have addressed it.

There could have been people carrying concealed weapons, Korst said. We dont have metal detectors. People did disperse OK once the meeting concluded. Nothing happened, but it did create a moment of tension. Were very aware that the situation wasnt ideal.

Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman said a commissioner had asked him to attend the meeting a couple of days before it occurred. When Hoffman saw the number of people, he asked the undersheriff and lieutenant to join him.

I think if I had been consulted, my suggestion would have been to postpone the meeting and wait for a more appropriate time, Hoffman said. That would have allowed for more time to arrange a better venue that, obviously, didnt coincide with school being in session.

Hoffman said he and the other law enforcement officers did not see any weapons at the meeting.

There were lots of empty holsters, he said. People were in compliance with the law.

Hoffman said he would have liked to have had the opportunity to offer input on the letter the commission wrote to the U.S. State Department opposing the settlement of Syrian refugees.

I wish they would have included the sheriffs office in the entire discussion, he said. There was the public safety aspect. ... I feel like the sheriffs office should have been involved. I wished they would have called and asked for our suggestions.
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 []
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is taking on the Gupta family, along with the SABC, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

The paper reported that Gordhan has cancelled the Gupta-owned New Age newspapers post-budget breakfast briefing, which was due to take place this week.

The report stated that the minister will also ask the National Treasury to scrutinise coal-supply contracts awarded by Eskom, including those held by the Guptas.

This bucks the trend of cabinet ministers meekly bowing to the Gupta familys demands, said the Sunday Times.

New Age briefings a money-spinner

According to the report, the New Age breakfasts are a regular money-spinner for the newspaper, and are often attended by government ministers, heads of state owned enterprises, and President Jacob Zuma.

The Sunday Times stated that Gordhans office told the SABC he would only appear at the breakfast briefing if the Gupta-owned newspaper was not involved.

The move is said to have angered SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has requested a meeting with Gordhan and Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile.

New Age breakfast briefings have made headlines in the past, with companies like Telkom and Transnet paying at least R1 million to sponsor the events.

In 2013, then Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane reportedly paid close to R700,000 to speak at one of the events.

Coal deals to be investigated

According to a source in the Treasury, an Eskom coal-supply probe will also soon take place  with the Guptas the main target.

We are going to look at every contract there, especially those where the parastatal did not follow proper procurement processes, the source told the Sunday Times.

Gupta-linked Tegeta Resources and Exploration is buying Optimum mine from Glencore. It provides coal to Eskoms Arnot power station, stated the Sunday Times.

Gordhans stance highlights a growing revolt within the ruling party against the perceived influence the Guptas have on Zuma and his cabinet.

The full report is in the Sunday Times of 21 February 2016.

More on the SABC and the government

Guptas ambitious TV plans in South Africa take a hit

SABC offering R100,000 reward to catch staff leaking secrets: report

South Africas capital should be Cape Town: Helen Zille
The City Press has reported that the Gupta familys plan to make ANN7 the main source of news in South Africa has suffered a setback after a legal opinion showed it would not be legal to award it a broadcast licence.

ANN7 was launched in August 2013, and is South Africas third dedicated 24-hour news channel. It is currently broadcast on MultiChoices DStv.

The company wants to expand the reach of its news service through a digital TV broadcast service, similar to the SABC and eTV.

According to the City Press, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa may not award Infinity Media Network, which owns ANN7, a free-to-air digital broadcast licence due to its ownership structure.

Infinity Media Network is owned by the Gupta family, President Jacob Zumas son Duduzane Zuma, and the Indian company Essel Media.

The main issue stopping it from getting a licence is that it is 37.5% foreign-owned, which contravenes the foreign ownership clause in the Electronic Communications Act.

Infinity Media Network told the City Press that it should still be awarded a licence, because it is committed to changing its shareholding after the licence has been awarded.

The full report is available in the City Press of 21 February 2016.

More on ANN7

ANN7 worst place to work in South Africa  Cosatu

ANN7 pro-ANC stance to be subtle: report
Cracks are forming in the Gupta familys perceived influence over state resources, with Treasurys decision not to take part in the post-budget New Age Breakfast this Thursday.

A Treasury official told Fin24 on Wednesday that the department will still hold a post-budget breakfast with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, but it wont be organised by the breakfast show on SABC, which is sponsored by the Gupta-owned New Age newspaper.

Cabinet ministers are regulars on the show and President Jacob Zuma has used the platform annually the morning after his State of the Nation address. This year was no exception.

The Sunday Times revealed that Treasury will partner e.tv and eNCA, after Treasury told SABC they did not want the Guptas sponsoring the breakfast, resulting in the SABC pulling out due to contractual obligations.

It felt like a good time to break with tradition and explore the other requests, Treasury spokesperson Phumza Macanda told the Sunday paper. SABC might not be broadcasting the event live, but their reporters will still be able to cover the event.

Treasury sources told the Sunday Times the main reason Gordhans breakfast briefing would not be shown on the SABC was the public broadcasters perceived link with the Guptas.

Tensions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) are growing over the Guptas growing influence of state resources, after allegations emerged that Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and former Finance Minister Des van Rooyen were Gupta appointees.

Questions have since emerged of Zwanes role in Glencores sale of Optimum mine to Tegeta Exploration and Resources, owned by the Guptas and their business partner Duduzane Zuma, the son of the president.

Van Rooyens appointment as finance minister in December lasted a few days, because Zuma was reportedly persuaded by senior ANC leaders and the countrys top business executives to backtrack on the decision to spare the countrys economic collapse.

Gordhan, who Zuma removed as Finance Minister in 2014 for attempting to curtail government spending, was asked to return to the post after Nhlanhla Nene was ousted and Van Rooyen dumped.

Analysts believe Gordhan can now exert more power than ever to pull South Africa back from the brink of a ratings downgrade to junk status, a scenario that would have untold economic repercussions.

However, it is unclear whether his budget address on Wednesday will be able to satisfy rating agencies Standard & Poors (S&P), Fitch and Moodys, all based in New York.

Nomura emerging markets economist Peter Attard Montalto believes the lack of microeconomic structural reforms is the real cause for long-run growth concerns and long-run fiscal and debt worries.

After the budget address, S&P will wait and judge what progress is made in the first half of the year, looking at growth numbers, the current account, wage round labour relations and other factors, said Montalto.

However, he believes S&P will eventually decide to downgrade South Africa to junk status in its December ratings review.

Fin24

More on the government

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan takes on the Guptas, SABC

Guptas ambitious TV plans in South Africa take a hit

SABC offering R100,000 reward to catch staff leaking secrets: report
On 16th February, Catalyst aired an episode on the ABC titled Wi-Fried, hosted by Dr Maryanne Demasi, claiming that radiation from mobile phones and Wi-Fi may constitute a brain cancer risk.

The Conversation Australia invited experts who have conducted research into this area to respond to the claims made in the programme.

Rodney Croft, University of Wollongong

Instead of science journalism, Catalyst aired a misleading program, which followed the views of a few individuals in arguing that radiofrequency emissions from wireless devices were harmful.

Although the program failed to disclose this, such views are not supported by science and should be taken merely as the personal views of some fringe scientists.

In fact, the scientific consensus is strong, and is that there is no substantiated evidence that the low levels of radiofrequency emissions encountered by mobile telecommunications can cause any harm.

For more details about the international scientific consensus on this issue you may find the website of the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) of interest, or closer to home, that of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research.

Professor Rodney Croft is Director of the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australias Centre for Research Excellence in Electromagnetic Energy, he is a current ICNIRP Commissioner, and Professor of Health Psychology at University of Wollongong.

Darren Saunders, University of NSW

Its really disappointing to see the bastion of TV science in Australia approach a story in this way.

Scaremongering and pseudoscience have plenty of other outlets on TV, and there are so many amazing science stories to be told locally and internationally.

There was very selective reporting of existing data and sensationalist headlines.

Catalyst has missed an opportunity to use this topic as a way to demonstrate scientific or critical thinking.

With so many scientists questioning the content and angle of stories like this, then its probably time for Catalyst to reflect on its approach.

The really frustrating aspect is that rebuttals and factchecks wont undo the damage. There are very real public health effects of scaremongering like this, creating anxiety and fear.

The two main flaws in the argument that stand out scientifically are:

The lack of any demonstrable increase in brain cancer incidence over time. We have been exposed to the same kind of non-ionising electromagnetic radiation long before mobile phones and Wi-Fi became commonplace, and The absence of a plausible biological mechanism for how this kind of radiation can cause cancer. There were very poor analogies made with microwave ovens and smoking, which are purely emotive and not based on actual science. Comparing a microwave to a mobile phone is like comparing a Saturn V rocket to your lawnmower.

Dr Darren Saunders is a cancer biologist at the University of NSW and visiting fellow at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Garvan Institute.

Sarah Loughran, University of Wollongong

The ABCs Catalyst programme Wi-Fried asked the question of whether Wi-Fi and radiation from wireless devices could be affecting our health.

Unfortunately a very disappointing and inaccurate story was presented, with the underlying suggestion throughout the episode that exposure to the radiofrequency fields emitted by these devices is not safe.

Many claims were made without providing any substantiated science to support what was essentially individual and selective opinions that were used to paint an incorrect picture of the current state of knowledge.

Indeed there is currently no scientific evidence that exposure to low level radiofrequency, such as emitted by mobile phones and Wi-Fi, has an impact on health.

By not providing a balanced view of the science, Catalyst has left viewers with misleading messages related to the use of such devices, which may serve to perpetuate fear related to a health risk that currently does not exist.

Dr Sarah Loughran is a researcher at the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australias Centre for Research Excellence in Electromagnetic Energy.

She is currently a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Environmental Health Criterion Evaluation Committee on Radiofrequency Fields, the scientific expert group of ICNIRP, and is on the board of directors for the Bioelectromagnetics Society.

Simon Chapman, University of Sydney

Dr Devra Davis, who was featured extensively in the Catalyst programme, asserted that it was too early to see any rise in brain cancer caused by mobile phones or Wi-Fi, and argued that brain cancers after the Japanese atomic bombs did not appear for 40 years.

This is simply incorrect.

There is no evidence of any increase in the rate per 100,000 population of brain cancer in any age group in Australia from 1982 to the present, other than for the very oldest age group where the increase started well before mobile phones were introduced in Australia and so cannot be explained by mobile phones.

All cancer in Australia is notifiable, and over 85% of brain cancer is histologically verified: it is not just a doctors opinion.

This paper also reports on central nervous system cancers (including brain cancers) in those exposed to atomic bomb radiation in Japan.

This table from the paper shows those diagnosed before 1985 (i.e. before 40 years). You can see that there were 110/187 cases diagnosed in the first 40 years, i.e. 58.8%.

And this quote from the methods shows that there were another 27 who died before 1958 from central nervous system cancers, i.e. within 13 years of the bombs.

We excluded 73 tumors in individuals who were not in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at the time of the bombings, 35 individuals who did not have available organ dose estimates, and 27 individuals who died or were diagnosed before January 1, 1958.

We have had mobiles in Australia since 1988. Some 90% of the population use them today and many of these have used them for a lot longer than 13 years, but we are seeing no rise in the incidence against the background rate.

Davis is arguing that we would see a sudden rise 40 years later. That is not what we see with cancer; we see gradual rises moving toward peak incidence, which can be as late as 30-40 years (as with lung cancer and smoking for example).

Simon Chapman is Emeritus Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

More on Wi-Fi and cancer

No link between mobile phone use and cancer

Industry disputes report on cell phone cancer
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!
As owner of this blog, I bear no responsibility to what other contributors/bloggers may post. I encourage all to speak freely without indulging in libel or defamatory content. Anyone who feels offended by any posting can email me and I will remove the offending article if appropriate. Contact me at redbeansg@yahoo.com redbean
RUTHERFORD  The St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School in Rutherford is approaching its 50th anniversary in its 128-year-old Rutherford schoolhouse. But what is really timeless is going on inside.

Imagine sending your kids to the same building where you spent your preschool days. Walking through those doors, how the memories would flow. Now imagine sending your grandchildren there, too.

Thats how central the St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School on Niebaum Lane in Rutherford has become to the Napa Valleys sense of community. The building itself was constructed in 1888, and has housed a number of schools over the years. But when a group of parents was looking for a site for their proposed cooperative day care center in the 1960s, the St. Helena Unified School District  which owns the property  gave them a lease. That was in October 1966, and the school has been running ever since.

For Lia Bettinelli, who attended the Co-op in the 1990s, the sensation of returning 30 years later has been both comforting and otherworldly. I remember very clearly when I came here as a child, she said, sitting in the schoolroom helping a child sew Valentine cards. And in many ways, nothing has changed.

Now, Bettinellis daughter, Isolina Goldberg, attends the day care center, and the generational cycle repeats.

Lucien and Oren Jambois heritage in the old school building stretches even further. Though their mother, Ashley Sears Jambois, also attended the Co-op in the 1990s, their grandmother, Joyce Sears, spent first, second and third grades in the building when it was still a two-room public school. Today, Ashley Jambois tells her boys stories about the special place in the schoolyard where she and her friends imagined fighting crocodiles. But for Joyce Sears, the memories of the older school are just as fresh in her mind.

I used to watch what they were teaching in the fourth-grade class in the next room, Sears said. It was very interesting to see what lay ahead of me. But when she was ready to go into the fourth grade, the St. Helena Unified School District shut down the Rutherford School. Sears had to travel to the big school in St. Helena to continue her education. It seemed very big and I was frightened.

Asked how she felt about her grandsons now attending the Co-op, Sears said, Its wonderful. My daughter, Ashley, went there, and now my grandsons. It feels like its all coming full circle.

The St. Helena Co-op is not a public school, but a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. It provides a certain number of scholarships every year to town residents. It is also an active participant in the Preschool for All initiative that underwrites some students with scholarships.

Christie Molinari came to teach at the school after her own kids had passed through the program more than 20 years ago. Now I watch the kids grow, she said as the children waved goodbye for the day. Every day its a positive experience. Its something they remember long after they are grown.

The school is a real cooperative in which the parents efforts are crucial to the day-to-day classes. Both parents of every student have specific work schedules and a commitment to physically participate in the classroom. They must each hold a parent job to help the school run smoothly, attend monthly meetings and complete an adult education parenting class taught by the schools parent adviser.

In this and many other ways, the parents learn to run the school as their children play. They work closely with the teachers to create and foster the curriculum of the preschool, all as a part of the schools efforts to build a vibrant, participating community. And, according to director Maureen Kelly, this community works hard for its school.

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 12, the parents are holding an Ol School Dance Party at the Native Sons Hall in St. Helena as a fundraiser. But unlike previous years fundraisers, which focused solely on the schools auction, this fundraiser is aimed at pulling together the valleys Co-op community of supporters for a fun time.

The dance party will host the Kickin Johnny Cash Cover Band with live music, dancing, food trucks and cold beer. Tickets for the party are $50 in advance at sthelenacoop.org/events with a $1.99 cover charge, or $75 at the door, but parents are already anticipating that the event will be a sellout.

And instead of the traditional live auction, the bidding will take place online at BiddingForGood.com from March 10-13.
There we were, on the couch, bathed in the glow of the TV screen. A placid domestic scene if ever there were one.

But Cheryl was in a playful mood. She began running her hand down the back of my head, fluffing as she went.

All very pleasant. Who knows where this might lead?

Then she abruptly stopped. Whats this? she said.

Whats what?

This bump. Youve got a bump on your head!

I paused. Her discovery required a crafted response. How do you tell your wife that youve had a secret bump for years?

No need to worry, I said. Its an old bump. Its been around forever.

My response only alarmed Cheryl further. She could understand swelling from a recent injury, but an ancient growth? What good has ever come from such a thing?

How long has it been there? Cheryl asked in the accusatory tone of someone inquiring about a suspected infidelity. If a husband can go around with a secret bump, what else might he be hiding?

Really, no need to worry. It popped up years ago, I said. Ive practically stopping noticing.

Which was true to a point. I think about my bump mostly when I get a haircut. Will my hidden feature confound the barber? Expecting a round noggin, will the barber unwittingly nip it with scissors?

Having been put on the hot seat, I now had trouble recalling the history of my squishy protuberance. I didnt bring it into our marriage. I was sure of that. It likely emerged five or six years ago, I said.

Cheryl was incredulous. This wasnt a wild hair we were talking about. This was something spongy atop my brain. And Id kept it a secret!

We need to get it looked at, she said.

Actually, I have had it looked at, I said. Im a responsible person. I tend to my body. Without mentioning it to you, Id brought it up at one of my annual physicals.

And the doctor said what?

He felt it and concluded it was nothing to worry about.

But what is it?

My response was lame. I dont know what it is, I said. All I remember is my doctor wasnt worried about it so I ceased to be worried about it. I dont know if he gave my bump a name or not.

Cheryl looked at me as if I were a child living in a dream world. My good-size bump doesnt have a diagnosis and Im OK with that?

Did the doctor do tests?

No, I dont believe he did, Cheryl. He palpated it. I assured him it wasnt growing like topsy. That was the end of the matter.

Discovering my bump was something of a PTSD moment for Cheryl. Shes always concerned about my health. Eight years ago, wed gone together to the urologist to learn I had prostate cancer.

Now this thing on my cranium. A squishy spot suggesting a melon going bad.

In an attempt to refocus the conversation, I gently chastised Cheryl for not finding my bump earlier. If she had caressed my head more often, this would have come to light years ago.

I recalled a drive from Berkeley to Napa during our dating days when the effect of Cheryls hand rustling through my locks jeopardized my ability to stay in my lane on I-80.

The next day at work I got an email from Cheryl, who had been doing some Internet research. The subject line: lipoma (NOT lymphoma).

According to her sources, my bump is a lipoma, a growth of fat cells found just below the skin. Lipomas arent cancers nor do they turn into cancers. Their cause is poorly understood. Usually, they are left untreated.

I appreciated having a partner who cared enough to get to the bottom of things. I was gratified that both Dr. Cheryl and my real doctor appeared to be in agreement: This bump may be freaky, but its not the thing that will kill me.
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

This months Chinese Lunar New Year marks the beginning of the Year of the Fire Monkey. According to various sources, those born in the Year of the Monkey are, in part, renowned tricksters and teasers, just like the Lyman familys pet monkey decades ago.

One long-ago Napan, Fred Hutchinson, wrote about his experiences with that monkey, circa the 1890s. He wrote, As we were about to leave Saint Helena, we (he, his siblings and parents) would begin to look for the monkey. He was always on the wall or in the trees on a very large estate that was on the left hand side going up(valley). I dont remember any cage or chain, but he always seemed to be there.

According to St. Helena resident John York, W.W. Jack Lyman had a pet monkey during his youth. York added, Jack told me that people would come from far and wide to see the monkey  a real sensation!

As for local Chinese New Year festivities, during the 1800s and early 1900s, authentic celebrations were held within Napa Countys Chinatowns. Over those years, there were some reports about these events in local newspapers. While the accounts were generally favorable, one frequent criticism made by the writers was how the dense, offensive sulfur odor smoke from all the firecrackers made it difficult to breathe and see.

There was much more to those auspicious celebrations than firecrackers, according to the fond memories told by Shuck Chan. He was a family member of the pioneer Chinese settlers of Napa.

He described these festivities to be like an old time picnic. His mother cooked traditional Chinese New Year delicacies, such as Tung Gwa Chung (steamed whole winter melon), Bok Chit Gai (steamed whole chicken), Fou Opp (roasted duck, Cantonese style) and Shucks favorite Jing Hom Yee (steamed pork with salted fish).

As the years passed, Mrs. Chan taught her dependable helper, Shuck, how to properly prepare the banquet cuisine. Eventually Shucks cooking abilities garnered him the honorable responsibility of roasting the ducks and pigs for celebratory meals and retail sales at the Lai Hing, the Chans Napa Chinatown general store.

Using ropes and pulleys, the large pig was lowered into an underground brick oven. The meat was slow-roasted in a secret mixture of herbs and spices for many hours. Shuck learned the art of roasting from a sze foo (master).

As a teenager, Shuck carried out this arduous task everyday and by himself. On weekends, Shuck prepared two pigs. One of his proudest accomplishments was his reputation as a master roaster.

In fact, his notable culinary mastery was so well known and highly regarded throughout the region that he became a teacher. One of his students was a man from Sacramento who traveled to Napa regularly to learn Shucks techniques.

However, according to the local historical newspapers, there was even more to the Napa Chinatowns New Year celebrations than Shucks renowned roasted meats, his mothers traditional holiday fare and endless firecrackers.

Napas riverfront Chinatown, composed of scrap-wood constructed buildings elevated on stilts, became cheery and festive with all of the brightly colored paper lanterns and floral garlands. Even the traditional coin-filled red paper envelopes and mandarin oranges with attached stems and leaves found their way to Napas Chinatown to complete the local Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

Although essentially a shantytown, Napas Chinatown was a thriving neighborhood that became a magical place during the Lunar New Year.

Wishing you a healthy, prosperous and, maybe, a little bit mischievous Year of the Fire Monkey!
Youve signed a lease on a downtown Napa storefront, decorated your dining room, installed the bar. But before your mixologist can stir up rum-and-Cokes, Moscow mules and $14 aviations  the backbone of many restaurants profits  you must first acquire a liquor license from the states Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).

Ah, theres the rub  and the pain in the wallet.

A scarce supply of licenses, their number set according to a countys population, leaves restaurateurs waiting for other restaurants to close shop and put their liquor-selling rights on sale. In Napa and around the Bay Area, those rights can cost upwards of $300,000  many times Californias original selling price.

If that price is too dear, or if licenses are unavailable at any price, what to do? The answer: Petition Californias lawmakers for more.

An Assembly bill from Bill Dodd, D-Napa, would add 25 so-called Type 47 licenses to the 94 already in circulation in Napa County. The licenses allow the operators of bona fide public eating places to offer distilled spirits along with beer and wine.

Under AB 1670, which Dodd, a former Napa County supervisor, introduced Jan. 15, the state ABC would issue five fresh licenses a year for five years, starting in 2017.

Applicants would pay the states face-value price of $13,800  a fraction of their value on the resale market  but could not transfer new licenses outside the county, a step intended to keep them out of speculators hands and prevent the bidding-up of prices. Restaurant owners with as few as 25 seats  rather than the normal 50  also would be eligible, a step Napa merchant groups have said should give smaller Upvalley eateries a better chance to gain liquor rights.

The license expansion bill was referred Thursday to the Committee on Governmental Organization, which reviews alcohol-related legislation, and a vote in support will move it to the appropriations committee, according to Dodds spokesman, John Moreno.

The push to widen alcohol-selling privileges in the county comes as a limited local supply leaves restaurateurs scrambling for the rights to offer spirits and mixed drinks, which offer much higher markups than wines, beer and food.

Increasingly, the solution in Napa has been to bypass the license logjam by pursuing another kind of permit  one that allows its holders to sell liquor so long as they brew beer on the side.

Created by the ABC about 20 years ago to foster small-scale brewing during the craft beer boom, Type 75 licenses grant their holders liquor-selling privileges in exchange for a commitment to produce between 100 and 5,000 barrels of beer (at 31 gallons a barrel) and offer it for sale at the restaurant where it is made.

Twenty-three businesses in the county sell spirits using Type 75 rights, according to ABC spokesman John Carr. Eateries in the city of Napa account for 16 such permit holders, the most of any California city and up from just two a decade ago, figures show.

The 134 Type 75 licenses statewide pale compared to the more than 15,000 restaurants with liquor-only privileges. But the supply of brewery-based licenses is not limited by a countys population, and thus can be bought anytime for the same $13,800 fee.

By contrast, restaurant-based liquor licenses typically are allotted at the rate of one for every 2,000 residents in a county, and the cap triggers fierce bidding for permits that re-enter the market when a restaurateur closes shop and sells his or her rights.

On Thursday, the online marketplace Liquor License Auctioneers listed a variety of Type 47 permits, with the costliest commanding six figures in various counties and the top price  $350,000  to be found in Napa County.

In 2008, the Legislature granted Napa County 15 new Type 47 licenses  five a year for three years, statistics show. When those permits ran out, demand continued to grow, inflating resale prices as fine restaurants proliferated.

You are paying money for the licenses. In some cases, you do it just so you can sell mixed drinks, not for the beer you brew, said Craig Smith, president of the Napa Downtown Association, a merchants group that began promoting Dodds license bill to city governments last fall.

As the intentions of such small-time brewers varies wildly, so, too, does the quality of their beer.

Napas longest-standing holder of a beer-and-booze permit is Downtown Joes, the Main Street brewpub that gained its Type 75 rights 15 years ago. But as such licenses have increasingly become a fast track to sell liquor, serious brewers have been joined by others doing the absolute minimum to stay eligible, according to Downtown Joes brewmaster, Colin Kaminski.

The filing fee is the same, but theres no restriction on (numbers); there can be a million 75s but theres always a limit on 47s, Kaminski said last week, describing restaurateurs who produce inferior brew with cheap equipment similar to store-bought ferment-your-own kits, not listing house-made beers on the menu, or even dumping the unsold product down the drain.

If we want more people to sell liquor, then dont make people produce worthless beer, he said. Im more worried about the (craft) brewing industry; all I want is to see people who actually want to make beer, have the ability to make beer.

Joe Peatman (the owner of Downtown Joes) was a legitimate beer seller, had been for years, and then he was able to add liquor to broaden the business, said Smith, of the Napa Downtown Association. But now thats being reversed; people are going into the brewery business just to get those Type 75 licenses. Its become extremely common; its become something different from what the ABC intended.

The lower price of brewery-based liquor licenses is not all gain for their holders, who must then pay for the upkeep, ingredients and staffing for their beermaking equipment. But the trade-off can be worth it for a restaurant owner hard put to survive without whiskey or cocktails to offer.

Its a lot harder to make the economics of a restaurant work without full alcohol rights, said Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. The real markup is in liquor  a bottle of vodka goes a lot further than a bottle of wine.

The expense of other food-service operations must be subsidized with distilled beverages, which produce the highest profit for the least manpower, according to Borden.

Its a high-labor and high-staff industry; you need busboys, servers, cooks, all different kinds of roles, whereas for a bar you only need a couple bartenders without other labor. Theres a big difference in managing the costs if you have a bar you can rely on.
A St. Helena man convicted of the murder of his wife in 1993 was denied parole this past week, according to the Napa County District Attorneys Office.

Robert Eugene Schippmann, 78, was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to the second- degree murder of his estranged wife, Juli Schippmann. He also admitted to the special allegation for personal use of a firearm.

Schippmann drove his wife to a remote location in the hills near Angwin and shot her three times  in the chest, back and the back of her head  with his .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle. His wifes car was left running in front of Schippmanns home in St. Helena, her purse still in the car.

The Parole Board issued a three year denial in 2014, but later advanced that time at the request of the prisoner.

At the latest hearing, Schippmanns parole was denied for three years, abiding by Marsys Law, during a hearing before the Board of Prison Terms at California Medical Facility in Vacaville on Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero argued against Schippmanns release based upon the heinousness of the murder, his continued lack of insight into the killing, his limited participation in self-help programs, and the unreasonable danger he presents to the community should he be paroled.

The Parole Board agreed and denied Schippmann a review date until 2019.
ST. HELENA  A group of Swiss wine enthusiasts paid $130,000 for one of the three top lots at Saturdays Premiere Napa Valley wine barrel auction. The event raised $5 million for the Napa Valley Vintners, the third-highest amount raised in the events 20-year history. Last year, the event raised $6 million and in 2014, it raised $5.9 million.

The group, calling themselves Napa Wine Ltd., bought 60 bottles of 2014 Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon, 100 percent cabernet sauvignon made from grapes grown in Beckstoffers Dr. Crane Vineyard and Las Piedras Vineyard, both in St. Helena. The opening bid started at $50,000 and as the bids went past $100,000, the crowd cheered and clapped.

Two other lots also sold for $130,000, one right after the other near the end of the auction, which contained 200 wine lots. An additional 26 wine lots were sold online. All were for delivery in a year or two as the wine remains in the wine barrels.

Andy Fehr, one of the members of Napa Wine Ltd., sought to buy the five-case lot of Nine Suns 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, made from grapes grown on Pritchard Hill, with a starting bid of $100,000. Auctioneer David Elswood announced the bid and said, Were going to sell it unless we get it up to $105. He received that bid and Fehr and another bidder fought for the lot. Fehr said he dropped out at $125,000, because we had our limits. They bought two other lots, the five cases of 2014 Howell Mountain cabernet sauvignon from Aloft Wine, for $22,000; and a special wine blend of 2004 and 2014 cabernet sauvignon from Seavey Vineyard. The group paid $20,000 for that lot. Fehr said the barrel lots they bought were wonderful, great wines and added, We will drink it, certainly.

The third wine lot that sold for $130,000 was again a five-case lot of 2014 cabernet sauvignon, this time from Italics Winegrowers made with grapes from Coombsville. There was heavy bidding on the lot and the price slowly crept up to $50,000. When the lot was doubled at $100,000, again the audience cheered and clapped and Elswood sold it at $105,000. Inexplicably, he reopened the bidding after selling two other wine lots and sold it for $130,000.

At $130,000 for the five-case lot, which is 60 bottles, the wine sold for roughly $2,160 a bottle.

During the 20 years of Premiere Napa Valley, the top lot was five cases of 2012 cabernet sauvignon from Scarecrow, which sold for $260,000. That lot was sold to Glen Knight from the Wine House in Los Angeles in 2014. It was made by winemaker Celia Welch and made from cabernet sauvignon vines planted in 1945. The wine was released last April.

The top 10 lots of Saturdays auction, which was held in the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, raised $860,000, and all but two were for 2014 cabernet sauvignon. Producers were Realm Cellars, Rombauer Vineyards, Shafer Vineyards, TOR Kenward Family, Duckhorn Vineyards, Silver Oak Cellars and ZD Wines.

Of the 226 lots sold, 199 were from the 2014 harvest. Emma Swain, chair of the Napa Valley Vintners board of directors and CEO of St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery, said, The collectibility of Napa Valleys rarest wines was on dramatic display today. We are grateful to our friends and colleagues in the wine trade who join us year after year, seeking out the excellence and endless possibilities of our winemaking.

Doug Shafer of Shafer Vineyards was chair of Premiere Napa Valley Steering Committee. At the end of the event, he said, Were thrilled with the results and we had a great day sharing our wines with our partners in the trade.

Shafer started out the afternoon at the podium and talked about the friendly competition between those who make wine in the Napa Valley. Over the past 20 years, Premiere has helped Napa Valleys vintners to really push the quality envelope. Because of this event, I believe were all making even better wines.

He also introduced two of the co-chairs of the first Premiere Napa Valley, held in 1997, Dan Duckhorn and Richard Walton. Duckhorn thanked everyone for coming and recognized David and Judy Breitstein, who bought the first PNV lot, from Duckhorn Vineyards in 1997. That year, the auction raised $412,000.

This year, the first lot, 20 cases of 2014 merlot from Duckhorn Vineyards, sold for $60,000.

The bidding throughout the afternoon was brisk, with auctioneer Fritz Hatton jacking up his voice and the crowd. As the bid stalled at $26,000 for a five-case lot of CADE Estate Winery, 2014 cabernet sauvignon from Howell Mountain, he asked one of the bidders to ante up. As Hatton said, Youve been here at every event, youre not out to pasture yet, the man roared with laughter. The lot sold for $28,000.

Another time, VJ Jazirvar, executive president of Oklahomas Petroleum Club and perennial bidder, yelled out a bid of $40,000 for the ZD Wines lot of its multi-vintage cabernet sauvignon. Hatton took the bid and responded, We havent heard from you all day. The lot sold for $60,000.

When the Davies Vineyards 10-case lot of 2014 cabernet sauvignon, made from Jamies Block grapes, went up for bidding, Hatton told the group to raise a glass to Jamie Davies, who with her husband, Jack, reinvigorated the winery in 1965 and turned to sparkling wines. For the following lot, a 1990 sparkling wine from J. Schram, Hatton got the bid up to $18,000, which he said was just 3 cents a bubble.

Before the bidding began for the Volker Eisele Family Estate lot of five cases of 2014 cabernet franc from Chiles Valley, Hatton told the crowd that one of the legends of Napa Valley (Volker Eisele) recently passed. We miss him, too. The lot sold for $8,000.

The future lots were sold in five-, 10- or 20-case lots, although most were lots of 60 bottles. During the event, Saintsbury was recognized as being the only winery to donate 20-case lots for each of the past 20 years.

The 1,000 wine professionals in attendance at the auction were from 32 states and seven countries. Of that group, 36 percent were retailers, 32 percent were from restaurants, hotels or private clubs, and 32 perent were wholesalers, distributors, brokers or importers.
To the public, Justice Antonin Scalia was best known for his hard-line conservatism and his originalist constitutional thought. But to judges and lawyers, not to mention law professors, Scalia was better known for his distinctive philosophy for interpreting statutes, known as textualism.

Scalia didnt invent originalism. But he did invent textualism, at least as practiced by many judges today, and it stands as his most important contribution to legal thought.

Scalias death at 79 is a good occasion to ask whether textualism is here to stay. My answer is a qualified yes. Although I think Scalias originalism is likely to fade, the basic textualist method of interpreting statutes according to the words while eschewing legislative history and purpose has a future  because it has a past.

To understand where textualism came from, go all the way back to Aristotle. The Greek philosopher understood that all interpreters of legal texts face a basic problem: Law is by definition abstract and general, yet human circumstances are concrete and varied. A good law is a rule that governs the majority of cases, but not every case will fit the aims of the law.

Aristotle favored the rule of law, which he has some claim to have invented. But that meant he had to explain what the law should do when its application would prove unjust in circumstances unanticipated by the legislator. His answer was that the law should be rectified to fit the circumstances, not applied blindly. The decision-maker must ask what a reasonable legislator would have intended the result to be in the particular case.

This isnt a question of actual legislative intent, because Aristotle was dealing with a situation the lawmaker didnt anticipate. Instead, Aristotle offered a theory of hypothetical legislative intent: Ask not what the legislature did; ask what a rational legislature wouldve done had it foreseen the problem.

Scalia was educated at Harvard Law School at the height of an intellectual movement known as legal process, associated with professors Henry Hart and Albert Sacks. They taught that the way to interpret statutes was in light of their purpose, revealed in part by examination of legislative history.

This philosophy reflected the modern world of enormous and enormously complicated statutes inaugurated by the New Deal. It had Progressive origins, like the legislation it was designed to interpret. Today, the most important and articulate exponent of this interpretive approach is Justice Stephen Breyer, who was educated at Harvard about the same time as Scalia and then joined its faculty.

Textualism is best understood as a reaction against the legal-process idea of focusing on statutory purpose. Scalia began with a harsh attack on the idea that legislative purpose can be identified. Its not only that legislative bodies are made up of many minds, as theorists of statutory interpretation had noticed since at least the 16th century. Scalia emphasized that a modern legislature reaches decisions by compromise and committee. To attribute purpose as a historical matter is, therefore, almost absurd: When it comes to legislative intent, he insisted convincingly, theres no there there.

With legislative intent ruled out, Scalia rejected the Aristotelian possibility of attributing rationality to the legislature and acting accordingly. A judge who did so, he argued, was simply substituting his own judgment for the legislatures. In a democracy, this move was particularly unjustifiable, because legislators are elected and subject to re-election while federal judges are appointed and serve for life.

That left Scalia with the challenge of saying how the law should, in fact, be interpreted. His answer was to rely on the text, and nothing but the text. Its been suggested that part of this idea can be traced to Scalias father, Salvatore Eugene Scalia, a Sicilian-immigrant-turned- professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College. The elder Scalia was a devotee of the school of literary thought known as the New Criticism, which sought to interpret poems as autonomous objects, without the historical or linguistic apparatus of earlier and later forms of criticism.

But Scalia couldve reached his views without the New Criticism or his father  because the idea of interpreting legal text as written, not as it shouldve been written, goes back at least to the Greeks and the problem Aristotle was facing. And Scalia had a good answer to the argument that textualism would produce unjust results: If Congress didnt like the results, it could change the law.

The reason this kind of textualism has legs is that its connected to the core ideal of law itself: applying abstract, general rules without concern for the results in the particular case. Contemporary textualists, most prominently my Harvard colleague John Manning, who clerked for Scalia, have refined the concept into what Manning calls second-generation textualism, epitomized in the more modest claim that judges in our system of government have a duty to enforce clearly worded statutes as written, even where the results may be mistaken or unjust.

Scalia, in other words, gave a rich and detailed modern context to an ancient idea about how laws should be interpreted. To be sure, Scalia was probably wrong about this, as by my lights he was about most other things. Congress is notoriously bad at drafting statutes, and theres no strong reason for U.S. judges to produce injustice when they could do otherwise.

But Scalias formulation is classic and enduring. This will be his intellectual legacy  and its a great one by any measure.

Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard.
Iranian Foreign Minister: Iran considers Armenia one of most important transit countries

Dollar, euro drop in Armenia

Iran consul general in Armenias Kapan: We do not accept any change of borders

Iranian Consul: Countries of region do not need presence of foreign armed forces

Armenia FM: Iran consulate general in Kapan will be important for regional security

Iranian Consul General advises Kapan residents not to worry anymore: Iran is here for Armenian people

FM reaffirms Armenia plan to open consulate general in Irans Tabriz

Turkey to open consulate in occupied Armenian Shushi city of Artsakh

Turkish Ministry of Finance: Ankara can buy Russian oil without Western funding

Armenia Security Council chief briefs European Parliament rapporteur on recent Azerbaijan military aggression

British bookmakers name favorite for post of prime minister

Erdogan: Armenia-Azerbaijan relations progress will contribute to Armenia-Turkey relations normalization

Iranian Consulate General opens in Kapan

Erdogan: Turkey is looking for alternative to American F-16 fighters

Iran consul general: We are here for Armenian people

Turkey FM slams OSCE decision to send needs assessment mission to Armenia

Peskov reacts to Erdogan's words about Putin's softening on Ukraine negotiations

European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia to legislature speaker: Attack was from Azerbaijan, naturally

Armenia President to EEU PMs: We will manage to take another confident step by respecting mutual interests

EUSR Toivo Klaars exclusive interview with NEWS.am on EU Monitoring mission,Nagorno Karabakh future and violence videos

Explosions rock Ukraines Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia

President meets with newly formed Artsakh Public Council members

Armenia PM: We need understanding in price horizon, at least in medium term

Lawyer: 20 of fallen solders parents detained from Yerevan military pantheon are recognized as injured party

PM: Armenia trade with other EEU countries increased by 74%

France region to provide 300,000 to Armenias Syunik Province affected by Azerbaijan military aggression

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council extended meeting underway in Yerevan

MOD: Armenia did not fire at Azerbaijan positions, vehicle

MPs in Strasbourg, present threatening dangers: Armenia has powerful support in European Parliament

Years first snow falls in Armenias Shirak Province

World oil prices on the rise

Newspaper: Russia dismisses Armenia PM's news on Karabakh

Russia PM in Yerevan, to discuss with EEU colleagues single oil, natural gas markets formation

Newspaper: Why is Iran in hurry to open consulate in Armenias Syunik Province?

France, Spain, Portugal agree to build Barcelona-Marseille natural gas pipeline

Admiral: U.S. should now prepare for Chinese 'invasion' of Taiwan

Harutyunyan: I cannot imagine Artsakh's future without presence of Russia

Harutyunyan: Without questioning path of our independence, we must meet with Baku

Prime Minister of Finland does not think that Hungary and Turkey will block country's application for NATO membership

Iranian FM: U.S. made hasty statements in connection with protests

Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim involved in car accident in Karabakh

Arayik Harutyunyan: Artsakh people's right to self-determination is non-negotiable

Iranian MFA calls it important to form platform with Armenia and India on North-South corridor

Details of EU monitoring mission in Armenia are known

Foreign Ministry: It seems Ankara is more interested in opening corridor through Armenia than Azerbaijan

Mirzoyan: Unexpected third countries support Azerbaijani interpretation of road to Nakhchivan

Foreign Ministry: Armenia, Iran and Bulgaria initial agreement on creation of Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor

Israeli Defense Minister to visit Ankara

Armenian Foreign Minister names main obstacle to solving problems with Azerbaijan

Erdogan once again raises issue of so-called 'Zangezur corridor'

Armenian and Iranian FMs to open Iranian Consulate General in Syunik province tomorrow

Abdollahian: Aliyev assured that he does not want border changes, Iran will prevent implementation of such idea

Iranian Foreign Minister in Yerevan supports '3+3' platform

Iranian Foreign Minister recalls Tehran's 'red lines' in regional issues

Mirzoyan: We highly appreciate Iran's principled position regarding territorial integrity of Armenia

UK imposes sanctions against Iran for alleged delivery of drones to Russia

Yerevan hosts meeting of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in narrow composition

Armenian and Iranian Foreign Ministers meet in Yerevan in extended format

Charles Michel: EU energy deal possible, but difficult

Erdogan says Baku should demand 'compensation' from Yerevan

Pashinyan: EEU mechanisms are of great help, trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus has doubled

Yair Lapid: Russia-Iran relations are serious problem for Ukraine, Europe, and whole world

Amir-Abdollahian: Iran is against presence of foreigners in this region, both in Azerbaijan and Armenia

Pashinyan at EAEU meeting: Fundamental principles of world economic system in question

Iranian Foreign Minister's official visit to Yerevan begins

Macron says Germany should not isolate itself in Europe

EU begins deployment of mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Trump's son made fun of Zelenskyy's ability to ask West for money

EU to provide emergency aid for Armenia residents affected by recent Azerbaijan military aggression

Azerbaijan army units fire at Armenia positions

Mikhail Mishustin arrives in Yerevan

EU approves new sanctions against Iran over alleged drone deliveries to Russia

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting begins in Yerevan

Baku calls OSCE mission to assess situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border 'private visit'

On fourth day of IRGC military exercises on border with Azerbaijan, artillery destroys planned targets

Liz Truss quits as UK Prime Minister

Turkey parliament to consider extending Turkish militarys mandate in Azerbaijan

Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia

Russias Putin ratifies agreement on simplification of payments for goods transit within EEU territory

Stoltenberg: Almost all NATO countries have agreed to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance

Ombudswoman of Armenia: Azerbaijan prevents removal of remains of fallen soldiers

Zakharova: Matter of holding CSTO Collective Security Council meeting being worked out

Ombudswoman of Armenia: I received video materials from EU special representative about Azerbaijanis

Armenia Security Council chief, UK army general discuss cooperation in security

Armenia and Kazakhstan discuss bilateral military cooperation

Iran says U.S. and Israel won't be able to split the republic

201 bodies are identified of Armenia soldiers who died as result of September military aggression by Azerbaijan

Iran FM to arrive in Armenia today

Turkey, Azerbaijan presidents officially open international airport in occupied Artsakh territory

Armenia President visits several leading Bulgaria IT companies

Ruben Vardanyan: I will assume Artsakh State Minister position at beginning of November

Armenia PM on making EU observation mission permanent: I'm not sure about that

US State Dept.: Our ultimate goal is peaceful resolution between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Armenia, Qatar to collaborate in tourism sector

Turkey president travels to Azerbaijan

Bandits in Russia cut off Armenian man's hands, shoot him in legs

President of Armenia, mayor of Bulgarias Plovdiv discuss avenues for deepening of cooperation

Armenia has new customs attache at Upper Lars checkpoint on Russia-Georgia border

Karabakh official: Baku goes for gradual escalation, provocation of situation
Prehistoric village links Old and New Stone Ages

Excavations of revealed buildings of a Natufian village

[Credit: Dr. Leore Grosman]

A bird's-eye view of excavation site NEG II in the Jordan Valley

[Credit: Dr. Leore Grosman]

TANN

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Newly-excavated village in the Jordan Valley sheds light on the historical shift from foraging to agriculture, say Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologists.Archaeologists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem revealed in Israel a prehistoric village, dated around 12,000 years ago, in excavations in the fertile Jordan Valley.The site, named NEG II, is located in Nahal (wadi) Ein-Gev, at the middle of the perennial stream that flows west to the Sea of Galilee.A series of excavations on site revealed an abundance of findings, including human burial remains, flint tools, art manifestations, faunal assemblage, ground stone and bone tools. The excavated area revealed an extensive habitation with deep cultural deposits (2.5 to 3 meters deep) and the site is estimated as covering roughly 1200 m2.Surprisingly, the village differs markedly from others of its period in Israel. The findings encapsulate cultural characteristics typical of both the Old Stone Age -- known as the Palaeolithic period, and the New Stone Age -- known as the Neolithic period."Although attributes of the lithic tool kit found at NEG II places the site chronologically in the Palaeolithic period, other characteristics -- such as its artistic tradition, size, thickness of archaeological deposits and investment in architecture -- are more typical of early agricultural communities in the Neolithic period," said Dr. Leore Grosman, from the Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who led the excavations."Characterizing this important period of potential overlap in the Jordan Valley is crucial for the understanding of the socioeconomic processes that marked the shift from Palaeolithic mobile societies of hunter-gatherers to Neolithic agricultural communities," added Dr. Grosman.The Palaeolithic period is the earliest and the longest period in the history of humankind. The end of this period is marked by the transition to settled villages and domestication of plants and animals as part of the agricultural life-ways in the Neolithic period.In a research, published in the journal PLOS ONE , the archeologists described the village as one of the latest settlements in the Levant region of the Late Natufian -- the last culture of the Palaeolithic period.The Natufian culture (about 15,000-11,500 years B.P.) is known from sites all over the Levant -- from the Negev and the Sinai in the south to Syria and Lebanon in the north.NEG II was occupied in the midst of the cold and dry global climatic event known as the Younger Dryas (12,900-11,600 years B.P.), where temperature declined sharply over most of the northern hemisphere. Affected by climatic changes, Late Natufian groups in the Mediterranean zone became increasingly mobile and potentially smaller in size.However, excavations at NEG II show that groups in the Jordan Valley became more sedentary and potentially larger in size."The buildings represent at least four occupational stages and the various aspects of the faunal assemblage provide good indications for site permanence. In addition, the thick archaeological deposits, the uniformity of the tool types and the flint knapping technology indicate intensive occupation of the site by the same cultural entity," said Dr. Grosman.Researchers say that this shift in settlement pattern could be related to greater climatic stability due to a lesser effect of the Younger Dryas in the region, higher cereal biomass productivity and better conditions for small-scale cultivation.These factors had provided the ingredients necessary to taking the final steps toward agriculture in the southern Levant, researchers say."It is not surprising that at the very end of the Natufian culture, at a suite of sites in the Jordan Valley, that we find a cultural entity that bridges the crossroads between Late Palaeolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers," said Dr. Grosman.




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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.

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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
21:24

Controversial Republican front-runner Donald Trump exuded confidence that he was on his way to win the party's presidential nomination, defying the projection of political pundits who have been "wrong forever".





"So far, I'm really on my way," Trump said after he netted back to back wins in South Carolina and New Hampshire following a close second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.





Trump's win gave him a critical burst of momentum heading into Nevada's Republican caucuses on Tuesday.





When asked if a strong opposition inside the party against him would result in a brokered convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July, Trump said he doesn't think "we're going to have a brokered convention. I think it is unlikely."





Trump said it was only the political pundits who were saying that he would not win the presidential nomination. "I think most of the smart people are saying there's not going to be a convention. Interestingly, the ones who say

there's going to be a convention, usually, they are the pundits that have been wrong forever, the ones that have been wrong about me," he said.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. According to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia (RA), on February 21 by 15.00 all state and interstate highways in the Republic are primarily passable.

'Armenpress' was informed from the Armenian MTAES that Vardenyats Pass is closed.

Sotq-Qarvajar highway is difficult to pass.

As the department of ES of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of The Republic of Georgia informs that Stepantsminda-Larsi highway is open for all types of vehicles in case of using tire chains.
According to the Express Tribune, a sessions court in Islamabad issued the warrant.

Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, the cleric of the federal capital's Lal Masjid, was killed during a confrontation between the militants and security forces in July 2007 - led by then president Musharaf.

Issuing the warrants, the Additional Sessions Judge ordered the authorities to produce the former president in the court on March 16 and the court also reportedly dismissed Musharraf's plea filed earlier in connection with his permanent exemption from the court. (ANI)
According to IAF sources, MI-17 helicopters have been conducting the sorties in which civilians including foreigners have also been evacuated, given the stranded state of transportation in the state due to the protests.

The sorties are expected to be carried out all night tonight.

13 army columns reached the site earlier today and assisted the administration in controlling the situation and10 more columns were airlifted to respective destinations.

10 companies of para-military forces reached the area and 23 more companies were on their way to Haryana.

Earlier, seven causalities were reported from Jhajjar and one casualty in Kalayat in Haryana after Army columns open fire.

Meanwhile, fresh shoot-at-sight orders were issued in areas of Hissar and Hansi in the state.

Shoot-at-sight orders were earlier issued in Rohtak and Bhiwani and curfew was imposed in both these districts as well as Jhajjar, as the army was called in and Section 144 was imposed in at least six districts of the state. (ANI)
Islamabad conveyed that it was 'unfortunate' that the MEA had still not given clearance for Pakistan diplomats Basit to call on the Governor and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Due to lack of knowledge about the status of the permission or clearance regarding his visit, Basit has called off his trip to Chennai.

"As this is high commissioner's first visit to Chennai he would not like to leave New Delhi amidst uncertainty. Pakistan High Commission is grateful to various organisations who were hosting us and looking forward to exchange of views with the High Commissioner," a statement by the Pakistan High Commission said. (ANI)
"Yes, there was a visit from excise department and IT Department. Since we are planning to achieve milestones under Make in India, Skill India and Startup India. They issued us some guidelines for future and extended full support and cooperation," Ringing Bells President Ashok Chadha said in a statement.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya on Friday levelled serious allegation against the company, saying it is a 'ponzi bogus company scam'.

"This is a huge scam, that is why I went through all the papers of the company. The government has informed Uttar Pradesh government to check the bonafide of the promoter. This is a Ponzi bogus company scam," Somaiya told ANI.

Noida-based company Ringing Bells on Thursday started booking for the phone for Rs 251 and has said that delivery of all handsets will be completed by June 30.

The smartphone was launched by BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi on February 17 at Delhi's Nehru Park. (ANI)
With violent protests by the Jat community demanding reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category disrupting rail and road traffic in Haryana, the Indian Railways have been forced to cancel more than 600 trains on the route. The Northern Railways and the North-Western Railways have been affected by the agitation of Jat protesters. Railway public relations officer Anil Saxena confirmed the news to ANI and said, "This agitation has affected two zones of the railways-Northern Railways and North-Western Railways. The train system originating from New Delhi to Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan have been badly affected by this agitation. At this point of time, we have cancelled more than 600 trains which include all passenger trains as well as mails and express trains." Meanwhile, at least three protesters were reportedly killed in the clashes that have entered its seventh day today. The agitating members of the Jat community are demanding their inclusion in the OBC category and thereby reservation in government jobs. (ANI)
The court had on January 11 allowed Swamy's plea seeking summoning of documents from the Ministries of Finance, Urban Development and Corporate Affairs, Income Tax Department and other agencies in the case.

Appearing for the Gandhis today, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, told Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen that complainant Swamy cannot have access to the documents of the National Herald case without proper reason.

Sibal said that Swamy will have to show as to how these documents summoned by the court on January 11 were relevant to the case.

Meanwhile, the court today granted exemption to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and three others, including Sam Pitroda, from personal appearance in the National Herald case. Pitroda was also granted bail by the court in this matter.

The court, had in December last year, granted bail to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey, who had appeared after summons were issued.

On June 26, last year, the trial court issued summons to them on Swamy's allegations of 'cheating' in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young India Ltd (YIL) -- a firm in which Sonia and Rahul own 38 percent stakes each.

The Delhi High Court had in December 2015 rejected their plea and directed them to appear before the trial court.

The case relates to the Indian National Congress granting an interest-free loan of Rs. 90.25 crore (USD 13 million) to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper which was established by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. (ANI)
Journalist Naved Siddiqui had asked a question of Imam Bukhari when the latter's guard came and started taking him out of the conference hall.

"The press conference of Ahmed Bukhari was going on when I asked him as to who was supporting him in Uttar Pradesh. I just asked Bukhari ji that how much support he enjoyed among clerics of UP, suddenly his guard came and tried to pull me away, saying that he wants to talk to me," Naved told the media.

Later on, Bukhari issued an apology on his guard's behalf.

"I will look into the matter and I apologise on behalf of anyone who did this," said Imam Bukhari.

Bukhari was addressing the press conference after a meeting with Muslim clerics. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday issued showcause notice to party MP Raj Kumar Saini for making comments 'opposing' Jat reservation. Saini had earlier expressed objection over giving reservation to Jats and even threatened to resign if there was 'any loss' to reservation quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC). "In relation with the Jat unrest, we have spoken to the Centre and briefed them about the current situation there. Regarding the recent statements made by few party leaders over the current issue, the party has distanced itself from any leaders who have made comments against Jats. Even after continuous warnings, Raj Kumar Saini kept making controversial statements and the party has issued show cause notice to him over that," BJP leader Anil Jain told the media here. He added that the BJP is not against any caste on in favour of any caste in particular and stated that Jats must be included in quotas. Union Minister Birender Singh appealed to all protestors to come ahead and discuss their issues with the state government, so that the agitation ends and all their demands can be heard. "I appeal to all the agitators to maintain calm and have a discussion with the leadership so that peace returns in Haryana. The BJP is strictly in favour of reservation for the Jat community," Singh said. Jat leaders from Uttar Pradesh will meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh at 8 pm today to discuss the current state of unrest by the community. Earlier, agitating members of Jat community demanding reservation pelted stones at the residence of Raj Kumar Saini in Kaithal yesterday. The police said that around 50 persons attacked Saini's residence damaging window panes. Meanwhile, curfew had already been clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns in the wake of incidents of violence during the Jat agitation. Violence escalated in different parts of the state after a mob in Rohtak district's Meham area set a police station, a petrol pump and a government building on fire. The army conducted a flag march in Rohtak, where three people were allegedly killed and 78 others injured in firing and clash between security personnel and Jats demanding reservation in jobs and education. However, the army could not enter Rohtak initially as protesters had put up blockades at several places, forcing the authorities to air drop the personnel using helicopters. (ANI)
The move comes in a bid to make sure that several people can use the messenger on the same smartphone without renouncing their privacy.

The redesigned app will be available only on devices running on Android.

"We don't comment on rumour or speculation. That said, our aim with Messenger is to create a high quality, engaging experience for 800 million people around the world, and that includes ensuring people do not experience unwanted messages of any type, the California based company told the TechCrunch.

The update announced is also expected to be available on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad later this year, however the company has not officially announced yet. (ANI)
In a major relief to technocrat Sam Pitroda, who is one of the accused in the National Herald case, the Patiala High Court on Saturday granted him bail. The court also granted Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and three others exemption from personal appearance in line with a Supreme Court directive. Pitroda, who had earlier moved the bail application, furnished security of Rs. 50,000. The court will pronounce the order at 4 p.m. today. The next hearing in this regard has been scheduled for March 21 at 2 p.m. The court also reserved its order on release of documents to BJP leader and petitioner in this case, Subramanian Swamy relating to transactions of Associated Journals Limited. Swamy had asked for these documents for scrutiny and to corroborate charges against Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and others. Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibbal, who appeared for the Gandhis, oppose the release of these documents to the BJP leader. Sibbal said that Swamy could have access to these documents without proper reasons and omnibus access to the documents is not permitted. The Gandhis had moved the apex court earlier this month, appealing against an order that asked them to appear in a Delhi trial court on February 20. On June 26, last year, the trial court issued summons to them on Swamy's allegations of 'cheating' in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young India Ltd (YIL) -- a firm in which Sonia and Rahul own 38 percent stakes each. The Delhi High Court had in December 2015 rejected their plea and directed them to appear before the trial court. The case relates to the Indian National Congress granting an interest-free loan of Rs. 90.25 crore (USD 13 million) to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper which was established by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. It was alleged that the loan was either not repaid or repaid in cash, which is in violation of Section 269T of the Income Tax Act, 1961. A closely held company, Young Indian, was incorporated in November 2010 with a capital of Rs.5 lakh (USD 7,400) and it acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties (alleged to be worth Rs.5000 crores (USD 740 million). The Congress leaders have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP Government of 'political vendetta' in the National Herald case. (ANI)
By Amritanj Indiwar Muzaffarpur, Feb. 20 (ANI) Lives of women in villages in Saraiya block, Muzaffarpur district, Bihar was no different from lives of women in rural communities across the country. Married young, they remained confined to household chores, to looking after children, husband and elders in their marital home -having no voice within their families, or significant roles within the community. An independent identity, in any sphere of life, social, economic or political was inconceivable. Societal norms were deeply etched preventing women from exploring any avenues for their growth in any area outside their home. It is in this scenario that Rajkumari Devi, 58 and a mother of three scripted her growth story moving out of the confines that have tied down women over generations to the choola- chaukhat ( home and hearth) and prevented them from taking a step into the wider world. Married in 1974 to Avdesh Kumar Choudhary from an agricultural family in Anandpur village, after finishing matriculation - Rajkumari too faced the unseen, unspoken familial and societal curbs on her very movements. Even a short trip to the market, with her head covered demurely in a 'pallu' would invite disapproval from people in the village. She was after all only a bahu. Yet a window of opportunity opened up for her and indeed the family. The common family land had been primarily cultivated for tobacco. After a division of this land between Avdesh Kumar Choudhary and his brothers, Rajkumari found that her family's share was only two and a half bighas. She decided to move beyond tobacco cultivation and diversify in order to optimise the produce from their reduced plot of land. She then planted a variety of vegetables, fruit trees and shrubs on the plot and was delighted to find that it flourished. In this bountiful produce, Rajkumari saw a brilliant opportunity - to convert these into products for the local market. Using her existing knowledge of making 'murabbas' ( jams and jellies) and pickles, she turned out a variety of these and supplying them. The work grew slowly and Rajkumari was glad to involve other women in the community who were drawn to her work. As sales picked up, profits grew, contributing substantially to the family income - it became obvious that an alternate source of earning had opened up, the lives of women were opening up and a quiet process of empowerment was taking root. Bracing in her new-found area of work, Rajkumari was lucky enough to ride a bicycle going round in the village, meeting people, talking animatedly about her work and motivating them. She earned the respect of all and began to be affectionately called "Kisan Chachi", an inspirational figure who through her labour of love had not only created a flourishing enterprise but had immense knowledge of diverse aspects of cultivation. What has been heartening are the changing perceptions and attitudes towards her work within her own family. Her husband Avdesh Kumar says candidly, "At first I did not like what my wife was doing as it went against social norms. But as I watched my appreciation grew... Today I am proud of my wife and believe that in every family, there should be a woman like her." Kisan Chachi has touched many lives. Geeta Devi, another rural housewife was emboldened to question and ultimately cross the limitations imposed by her family. A woman who had never experienced a world outside her home, Geeta is today well known as a producer of lemons and an intrepid entrepreneur herself. In fact she has involved her daughter, Preeti after she completed her graduation, in the work. Thus a family enterprise involving generations has taken root. Kisan Chachi today has an enviable range of products - 23 varieties of jams and pickles that find their way not only to local markets, but to other states as well including metros such as Delhi and Mumbai. Rajkumari, however, sees her journey not as a personal achievement but as an opportunity for the entire community. Under the Swarna Jayanti Rojgar Yojana, 300 women have formed SHGs under Kisan Chachi's guidance. She says with a quiet conviction "This is not only for me. I support all the women fully so that they can flourish, build their future and be recognized in society." Of course there have been accolades that have been hers alone. In 2006, Rajkumari was selected for the "Kisan Shri Award" by the state government that carried a cash prize of Rupees One Lakh. In 2010, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on a visit to interact with women groups in the region, met Kisan Chachi and applauded her role in empowering women. In 2013, during a handicraft and cottage industries fair in Ahmadabad, Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, visited her stall and greatly appreciated her work. The Charkha Development Communication Network feels that in a day and age of glitzy products backed by enormous outlays and marketing chains, Kisan Chachi's products make a quiet statement with their simplicity, purity and low production costs. The views expressed in the article are of Amritanj Indiwar. (ANI)
Speaking about security cooperation with Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said it is clear that Nepal's stability is linked to India's security and two countries will fight growing extremism and terrorism together. "Prime Minister (K.P) Oli and I agree that the two countries will fight growing extremism and terrorism together. We'll not allow terrorists and criminals to abuse our open borders. In this context, the security agencies of the two counties will intensify their cooperation," said Prime Minister Modi at a joint press conference with his Nepalese counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli here at Hyderabad House here. He said India and Nepal are working on hydro projects with combined cap of 7,000MW, and their quick and successful completion can be gateway to Nepal's eco prosperity. "Trade and investment are strong pillars of our relations. And early completion of ICPs and construction of road in the Terai region will boost trade infrastructure," he said. Highlighting the deep bonding between the two nations, Prime Minister Modi said the earthquake had hit Nepal, but its pain was felt by every Indian. "Our $1billon assistance package will take forward our cooperation in this area," he added. The Prime Minister said that he was confident that under able leadership of Prime Minister Oli, the Indo-Nepal ties would deepen. (ANI)
Four clusters of adjacent villages in Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Bastar and Kabirdham districts of the state will be developed in the first stage of the mission.

The National Rurban Mission intends to bridge the rural-urban divide by bringing civic and infrastructural amenities to clusters of villages across states evolving a new mantra for urbanization.

The mission would also help reduce migration of people towards the cities. The states would identify clusters of geographically adjacent Gram Panchayats with 25 to 50 thousand population in the plains and 5 to 15,000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas.

The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Jan Aushadhi Medical Store Scheme which includes setting up of 100 generic medicine stores in the state.

He will also lay the foundation stone for housing scheme and the electronic manufacturing cluster at Naya Raipur. Under the scheme, 40,000 houses would be constructed for families belonging to the economically weaker sections and lower income groups towards achieving the target of housing for all by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana.

Later, the Prime Minister will address a farmer's rally at Bargarh in Odisha. Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram will join the convention. The leaders will also interact with farmers highlighting the schemes initiated by the central government for their benefit.

In the evening, Prime Minister Modi will visit Kolkata where he will inaugurate the three-year-long centenary celebrations of the Gaudiya Math and Mission at a function which will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. (ANI)
"V painful. Whats happening everywhere? Hope she recovers fast. Chattisgarh govt shud nab culprits immediately," Kejriwal tweeted.

Sori was attacked by three unidentified men in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit Dantewada district yesterday night around 10:40 pm

Three youths on a motorcycle hurled the liquid at Sori's face following which the trio fled from the spot.

Even though the substance did not disfigure her face Sori suffered from a burning sensation.

A case has been registered in this connection and further investigation is underway. (ANI)
More than 250 troops have been deployed by the IAF and at least ten tons of load has been airlifted in IAF MI-17 helicopter.

More than 50 sorties were conducted by the Air Force MI-17 to deploy Army and Paramilitary columns in the state.

More columns of army and paramilitary may be deployed as per requirement in the state.

At least four persons were killed on Saturday while several others were injured as security personnel opened fire during violent protests for quota by jat community in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts, taking the toll to five. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders here have asked the police to take stern action against what they claimed was 'beef biryani' being allegedly served in the canteen of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College on the campus at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Local BJP leaders, led by the mayor of Aligarh, met the SP (City) yesterday to file a complaint and seek a probe into the allegations. The University has refused the allegations saying that the biryani contained only buffalo meat. "Beef has not been served in the canteen. It is the meat of buffalo which gets served. AMU officials also said that cow meat has been banned here since 1884 during the time AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He had even appealed to Muslims to shun cow slaughter during Bakrid, and when the Muslims of Bareilly followed his advice, he thanked them," a university official told ANI. Mayor Shakuntala Bharti, of the BJP, however, alleged that the biryani contained cow meat, and that the menu board had separate entries mentioning and beef biryani. "We have submitted a complaint to SP City, Aligarh, seeking probe and subsequent action into the matter. When cow meat and cow slaughter is banned, how can it be served in AMU?" Bharti asked. "We have served an ultimatum of 24 hours to either take action or we will take the matter ahead," she added. The police have said that a complaint has been registered in this regard and they would conduct an enquiry. "Few people came to the police station complaining that there was beef served in the canteen of the Aligarh Muslim University. A complain has been registered and enquiry would be done," a police official said. (ANI)
With the agitation by the Jats in Haryana showing no signs of subsiding, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to meet the leaders from the community yet again on Sunday. The Jat and Khap leaders from Haryana will meet Rajnath at his residence at 3 p.m. After the meeting yesterday, the delegation had said that they were waiting for the formation of a committee which would review the reservation demands of their community. "We had four demands; compensation for those who have died, return of complain, the reservation should be implemented and we demand action on the officers who have ordered firing," a Jat leader told the media after the meeting. "They have told us that they would be forming a committee by tomorrow which would review the reservation demand," he added. When asked about their course of action, the Jat leaders said they await the formation of the committee as assured by the government. The Jats leaders appealed to the people of Haryana to maintain peace in the region, saying violence would not lead to any solution. Meanwhile, former Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda is on a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi, as an appeal to the protesting Jat community to maintain law and order and call off the agitation. (ANI)
The stone and concrete Suva buildings are majestic examples of colonial architecture. In Konedobu, on the shores of the Port Moresby harbour, the Australian administration consisted of a collection of unimpressive wooden buildings, some quite ramshackle.

Indeed, the contrast between what the British had built in Suva during its colonial governance of Fiji and what Australia constructed in Port Moresby for its administration of Papua New Guinea is revealing.

AUSTRALIA never spent a great deal of money on Port Moresby when it was the headquarters of Australias colonial administration.

Australia, it seemed, was determined to pretend that it was not a colonial power.

I wouldnt say that any Australians thought we had a colony, Dame Rachel Cleland, the widow of Sir Donald Cleland, administrator from 1952 to 1967, told the ABCs Taim Bilong Masta social history radio series in the early 1980s.

That was not in any way the thinking. The first time I heard colony mentioned was about 1965, and it gave me a distinct shock.

Bertie Heath, a pioneer pilot in PNG, told the same program: We are not colonials. The Germans were colonials. The British were colonials ... Am I going to be called a bloody colonial in this country?

Australia was determined to pretend that it was not a colonial power

Of course, the truth is that Australians were colonials  but it is something that does not fit well with the view that the nation holds of itself. Australia is a nation that evolved from a convict settlement, names Ned Kelly as an iconic figure and its favourite national song is about somebody who stole sheep.

So it is probably no surprise that Australia does not celebrate that as a nation it ruled over another people.

The British readily acknowledge their imperial history and take pride in having had a British empire that is now the British commonwealth. Not Australians.

It is because of our seeming reluctance to fully address our history in PNG and look rigorously at the consequences that I have coined the term embarrassed colonialist.

Gough Whitlam travelled to Papua New Guinea as opposition leader in 1969 and made PNG an election issue in Australia  for perhaps the first and only time. He advocated that an early date be set for the end of Australian colonial rule. He proposed that self-government should be granted as early as 1972.

On two highly publicised follow-up trips in 1970 and 1971, Whitlam travelled to the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain where some of the Tolai people were agitating for greater control over their affairs.

There was also trouble brewing for the Australian administration on Bougainville over land matters relating to the opening of CRAs Bougainville copper mine. Whitlam won power in Australia in December 1972, and PNG became self-governing at the end of 1973 and independent in September 1975.

Australia could not have delayed giving PNG its independence for many more years without witnessing far more strife and consequently far greater post-independence problems. The debate is not Did PNG get independence too early? but Did the preparations start too late?

Michael Somare, Papua New Guineas first prime minister, is fairly blunt about it: Australia did not put in enough effort to prepare us.

Even a lot of people who became district commissioners, some of them have admitted, Yes, it was a mistake we made. We never prepared. The territory was never prepared for those changes. 

There was a lot to be done. The Highlands did not really get opened up until the 1950s, and in 1970 there was still an area of some 170,000ha classified as not being under administrative control. There is no doubt that many of the Australian kiaps, school teachers, health workers, missionaries and others performed some extraordinarily heroic work in often very challenging circumstances.

Will Muskens, who was a kiap from 1958 to 1975, says it has always struck him as a missed opportunity that Australia did not enter into a treaty with PNG so that more of those who had spent valuable years there could have stayed on working alongside their Papua New Guinean counterparts.

He believes that a treaty could have kept doctors, teachers, agricultural advisers, technical and trade specialists and kiaps in PNG for a few more years.

Such an agreement could have been subject to terms that could be reviewed every 12 months, with salaries paid for by the Australian government, Muskens says.

I envisaged a scheme that would transfer all of these Australian officers to a special unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs seconded to PNG, but under the direction and control of the relevant PNG departments.

But in our haste to leave after independence, we offered all these people golden handshakes.

While I, and a large number of my colleagues, opted to leave under the terms of the employment security scheme, Muskens says, which literally encouraged us to take the money and run, I feel certain that if the Australian government had been seriously committed to retaining our services I would have stayed on.

Inevitably, those thousands of Australians who did work in Papua New Guinea before independence are fast thinning out.

Fewer and fewer Australians have any real knowledge of this fascinating country to Australias north, which we were responsible for bringing to nationhood. This lack of understanding affects our dealings.

The Australian media generally ignores PNG. And too few of those advising on or deciding on policy seem to show any deep, abiding interest.

As one senior figure in Canberra told me in the corridors of Parliament House: The lowliest adviser and the backest of backbenchers can give you chapter and verse about the Middle East, but you could probably walk into a cabinet meeting and talk about PNG and everyone will stare at you and blink.

There are exceptions. The opposition immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, who travelled there as a 16-year-old says: We have on our doorstep the most exotic country in the world. Life is lived in Papua New Guinea in a way that it is lived nowhere else on the planet.

It is genuinely remarkable and I think we Australians are incredibly lucky to have PNG as a neighbour. But I dont think that sort of amazement and that wonder about PNG is at all understood in Australia.

But the level of ignorance is frustrating, he says.

We used to be the world experts on Papua New Guinea and now the level of study and literature in Australia has gone down dramatically.

We should turn that around.

An edited extract from Sean Dorneys The Embarrassed Colonialist, a Lowy Institute Paper, published by Penguin Australia
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here this morning to launch the NDA government's ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission, aimed at improving quality of life of people living in rural areas by creating smart villages with urban amenities. Mr Modi, who was received by Governor Balramji Das Tandon and Chief Minister Raman Singh at the Swami Vivekananda Airport, drove straight to Satya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital at Naya Raipur, the first Greenfield smart city.The Prime Minister is scheduled to unveil Chhattisgarh Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Policy and lay foundation stone for a Housing scheme under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana and an Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) at Naya Raipur before leaving for Rajnandgaon's pilgrim town Dongargarh to unveil the 'Rurban Mission' at Kurrubhata.After addressing a rally on the occasion at Kurrubhata, Mr Modi is scheduled to leave for Bargarh in Odisha in the afternoon.Elaborate security arrangements have been made both at Naya Raipur and Dongargarh because of the Naxal threat.This is the second visit of the Prime Minister to Chhattisgarh. He had visited the insurgency-hit Dantewada district on May 9 last year.UNI SS DS SB 1017 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-601005.Xml
Curfew-like restrictions have been imposed in Pampore and other adjoining areas in south Kashmir district of Pulwama, where an operation was continuing against militants holed up in a government building since yesterday.Restrictions under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed between Sempora-Galandhar-Pampore to prevent any violence, official sources said. An Army captain, two CRPF personnel and a civilian were killed and 13 paramilitary men, including an officer, injured in the encounter so far. The encounter ensued after militants attacked a CRPF convoy before storming into Entrepreneurship development Institute (EDI) building at Sempora.However, during the encounter, people, mostly youths, took to streets shouting 'pro-freedom' slogans. Security forces and state police burst teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the demonstrators at Fristbal, Pampore and other areas on the highway. Traffic on the highway between Pantha Chowk to Pampore was diverted through other alternate routes, including Sumarbugh. To prevent any more violence today, hundreds of security force and state police personnel have been deployed in entire civilian area, including Pampore. People are being directed to remain indoor. Locals said security forces are making repeated announcements that curfew has been imposed in these areas. ''We could not get milk and bread this morning,'' they said, adding that milkmen coming from different parts of Pulwama were also not allowed to enter these areas.However, situation elsewhere in the Pulwama district and other south Kashmir areas was normal.Jammu and Kashmir police has recently appealed to people to remain indoor during any encounter between militants and security forces in any part of the valley. District administration Pulwama has also said that restrictions under Section 144 CrPC will come into force in the areas where an encounter took place to avoid any civilian casualty.These measures were announced after Governor N N Vohra directed security forces to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any civilian casualty or damage property during encounter. Governors order came after two students Danish and Shaista were killed when security forces opened fire at Kakpora in Pulwama where a militant of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) was killed in an encounter on February 14, evoking massive protests across the valley. The Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the killing of two students.UNI BAS SB 1036 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-600988.Xml
"The situation in Haryana is deliberately being deteriorated by the ruling Modi government. The situation in the national capital has become so grim that the water may not be available from tomorrow," Congress leader Pramod Tiwary told ANI

"The BJP government in Haryana is provoking the conflict between the communities, I would like to ask the Prime Minister Modi to hand over the powers to others if he is not able to manage the situation," he added.

Five protesters were killed in firing by the security forces in Haryana on Saturday, taking the death toll in the Jat quota agitation to six.

The situation continued to remain tense in several parts of Haryana on Sunday. (ANI)
With Delhi heading for a water crisis due to the Jat agitation in Haryana, the Centre on Sunday asked the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government to ensure that the water supply to the national capital is not disrupted. Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha today again reviewed the situation in Haryana arising out of the Jat agitation. Sinha spoke to Chief Secretary, Haryana, in a video conference along with the concerned Central Government Ministries. "Cabinet Secretary said that water supply to Delhi should be the top priority and all measures should be taken to ensure that no disruption in water supply takes place. He directed the authorities to take stringent action against those indulging in violence and other anti-social activities," Government of India spokesperson Frank Noronha said. "It was informed that the situation is fast returning to normalcy. The Civil Administration is effectively strengthened by Paramilitary Forces and Army columns have restored law and order in affected districts," he added. Noronha further said that the blocked road between Rewari and Jhajjar has been opened, adding that other road blockades across the state are being cleared fast. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said there is no water left in Delhi and added that the crisis is expected to prolong for at least two days. Kejriwal said he is in talks with the Haryana Government to resume water supply from the Munak canal. Asserting that Delhi needs to gear up to battle the severe water crisis, he added that barring the President, Prime Minister, CJI, defence installations, hospitals and the fire brigade, the remaining water will be rationed equally across Delhi. (ANI)
The protest was organised under the banner "March For Unity To Save The Country".

"People from all walks of life have come here to join this protest against the anti-national sloganeering on the JNU campus. The protest has been organised by an apolitical group 'People for Nation' to support nation's spirit," said one of the protestors.

"They should support India because this is the country which feeds us," he added.

Another protestor said any sloganeering against the nation is condemnable.

"And that is why the people of Delhi have come out on the streets in large numbers," he added.

Major General (Retd.) Dhruv C. Katoch had yesterday said the rally has been organised by an apolitical group 'People for Nation'.

The march, which began at the Raj Ghat at 10.30 a.m., will culminate with a public meeting at the Parliament Street here. (ANI)
Faridabad, Feb.21 (ANI-NewsVoir): Manav Rachna International University (MRIU) held its 4th Convocation at the MRIU campus on Sunday. More than 1300 (graduate, post-graduate, PhD) meritorious students were awarded degrees by K. V. Chowdary, Central Vigilance Commissioner who was the chief guest on the occasion. 28 gold medals and merit certificates were also awarded to meritorious students by the chief guest. The convocation began with the ceremonial academic procession led by K. V. Chowdary; Satya Bhalla, Chief Patron, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions (MREI), Dr. Prashant Bhalla, President, MREI, Dr. Amit Bhalla, VP, MREI, Dr. N C Wadhwa, VC, MRIU and senior office functionaries of the University, Directors and Faculty Members. In his Convocation address, K. V. Chowdary praised Manav Rachna International University for changing the education landscape of the state and for its significant contribution in bringing many International and National Laurels, not just for the state of Haryana but also for the Country. Congratulating the students on this momentous occasion, he urged them to work towards the upliftment of the nation. "Once you seek out a purpose in life, nothing is impossible. For, with determination comes dedication, and equipped with discipline and dynamism, you are bound to achieve your desired goals," he said. "We need to rebuild the ethical standards of our country for a corruption free society," said K.V. Chowdary. Dr. Prashant Bhalla expressed his deep admiration for the students with the following words of wisdom: "Graduation is both a concept and a process. It is a concept because in real life you graduate every day. It has always been our endeavor at Manav Rachna to provide our students with the opportunities to evolve as dignified professionals and better human beings. Use your education to the best to serve humanity and come out with flying colours in life." (ANI-NewsVoir)
Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) supremo Mayawati has extended her party's support to the ongoing Jat reservation agitation in Haryana and condemned the police atrocities on the agitating people. " Both the Congress and the BJP governments in Haryana have not fulfilled the promises to provide OBC reservation to the Jats and now they are using the police to crush these agitators," said the BSP leader. In a statement here today, Ms Mayawati said the firing on the agitators and police atrocities should be condemned and called on the Haryana government to initiate dialogue for a peaceful negotiation with the agitators. However, the BSP president also appealed to the Jat agitators to be more discplined during their agitation and hold their agitation in a peaceful manner. Earlier during the Mayawati regime in 2011, the Jat agitation in Uttar Pradesh had disrupted the rail services on the Lucknow- Delhi rail route via Bareilly for 10 days demanding reservation to the community.UNI MB SB GC1210 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-601120.Xml
The temple city of Varanasi has turned into a fortress with security forces taking up their positions in view of the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's to the constituency starting tonight. Though the Prime Minister will attend the programme of Saint Ravi Das at Seer Gowardhanpur to offer prayer on the occasion of the 639th birth anniversary of the saint and the 98th convocation function of the BHU tomorrow, but he will be arriving in the city tonight from Kolkata. During his visit, Mr Modi is likely to Kashi Vishwanath Temple tomorrow morning after going for Ganga snan, a senior BJP leader hinted. The Varanasi authorities would be on their toes tomorrow, as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also expected to visit the city to attend a programme at the birthplace of Saint Ravidas. This will be the first visit of Mr Kejriwal to Varanasi after he lost to Mr Modi in the Lok Sabha polls while after 2014 polls , this would be the first time that both the leaders would be in the city on the same day. However, Mr Kejriwal will reach Varanasi just before Mr Modi leaves the city after noon. Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, Union Social Justice and Empowerment minister Thavar Chand Ghelot and his deputy Vijay Sampla would accompany the him at both the programmes. Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik would also be present while Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is also expected. Meanwhile, the authorities were extra alert as Congress have announced to stage protest against the PM on different issues to counter the BJP's agitation against their vice-president Rahul Gandhi throughout the country. District Magistrate Rajmani Yadav said here today that there has been change in the itinerary of PM's visit and now he will reach the city tonight. As per the fresh programme, instead of reaching Varanasi from Delhi tomorrow, Mr Modi will arrive LBS International Airport from Kolkata at 2210 hrs tonight. The DM the PM will reach DLW Guest House by road for night halt. He will depart for BHU helipad from DLW helipad by chopper next morning and from BHU helipad he will go to Ravidas temple in Seer Gowardhanpur area by road to offer prayer and take 'Prasad'. After 15 minutes stay at Ravidas temple Mr Modi will return to BHU campus to attend convocation at Amphi Theater ground. He will leave BHU for airport by chopper at 12.55 pm to board his flight back to New Delhi. This would be the second time that PM Mr Modi would have a night stay in his constitutency. Earlier he had stayed here on November 7,2014. According to Aam Admi Party(AAP), UP convenor Vaivhav Maheshwari, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will reach Varanasi airport at 1200 hrs tomorrow and will go straight to Ravidas temple at Seer Govardhan. During his travel to the Ravidas temple from airport, the AAP national convenor Mr Kejriwal will pass through Sigra, Rathyatra,Bhelupur, Durgakund, Manas mandir and Sankatmochan. Mr Maheshwari said that Mr Kejriwal is expected to return to New Delhi at 1700 hrs. Official sources here today said stringent security would be in place for the visit of both the PM and Delhi CM. " Commandoes and snipers of the Central forces besides large contingent of the state police and central para military forces would be deployed for the security of the VVIPs," sources said. Inspector General of Police(IG) S K Bhagat said here today that the intelligence network has been activated to gather all kind of information, along with sharp vigil on hotels, railway stations bus stands and other public places. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Akash Kulhari said here that the besides NSG and SPG commandos,over 8000 police personnel, 20 companies of PAC, 15 companies of Central para military forces have been deployed for the security of the PM.More UNI MB SB GC1230 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-601129.Xml
The nation paid tribute to the sacrifices of 10 Paramilitary Army Capt Pawan Kumar, Head Constable Bhola Prasad Singh and Constable R.K. Raina who were martyred during the ongoing encounter in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, as a wreath laying ceremony was held for the bravehearts here on Sunday. 'No father can be prouder', said 10 Para Army Captain Pawan Kumar's father Rajbir Singh. "I had one child, I gave him to the Army and to the nation. No father can be prouder," Singh said. "Captain Pawan was martyred while he was leading his troops from the front. Indian Army officers always lead from the front as is evident from the operations here in Kashmir in the recent past. Captain Pawan was a young officer, son of a school teacher. He was a dynamic officer and a true commando. In fact, just last month, he was injured in an encounter in Pulwama just five days after his 23rd birthday. He was advised to go on sick leave, but he declined," Lieutenant General Satish Kumar Dua told ANI. Twenty-two-year-old Kumar succumbed to his injuries today after he led a troop that stormed the EDI Complex last night, in which two to three militants are believed to be holed up. The captain, who hails from Jind, Haryana, is from 10 Parachute Regiment and has been part of two successful operations in which three terrorists were killed. Meanwhile, the encounter in Pampore is underway with the security forces making all attempts to neutralise the group of terrorists, who have taken refuge inside an Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building here. According to CRPF PRO Bhavesh Kumar, the attack seems to be pre-planned given the amount of ammunition being used by the terrorists. "We are trying to neutralise the militants right now and seeing the pattern of firing, it seems like there are two to four terrorists inside the building. It is a huge building with four floors and several rooms. Most of our injured are stable and out of danger but one of our boys lost his eye," Kumar told the media here. He added that the counter operations were being conducted in a manner to ensure that there was no collateral damage to life or property. (ANI)
His return comes two days after state ruling TrinamoolCongress snatched the Kandi municipality board from Congress in a voteof no-motion confidence.

Police said the councillor was found in a car, abandoned on road Barocha Majlishpur in the district at the wee hours today.

He was blind folded Police also recovered a motor-cycle along the red colourTata-Indica.Mr Roy, an independent councillor of ward No 12 supported by the Left Front,was allegedly abducted from a school on Wednesday on February 19.

His wife Santana Roy, also an independent councillor, alleged that her husband was abducted after information went viral that they would not vote for TMC in the no-motion confidence against then ruling board held by the Congress.

On February 19 in the vote Congress run board was defeated by a votein the house of 17. Whist TMC got nine votes, Congress supported by Left Front managed to get eight votes and subsequently defeated.UNI XC-PC KK SB GC1430

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In 2005 a Community Coalition Against Corruption (including NGOs like Transparency International PNG and the churches) helped scupper two parliamentary bills aimed at reducing the power of the Ombudsman Commission and increasing Members of Parliaments constituency funds.

In 1997, concerns about corruption fuelled protest towards the governments attempt to bring in mercenaries to fight the civil war in Bougainville, which became known as the Sandline Affair. This led to the resignation of the then prime minister Sir Julius Chan.

The churches, unions, landowner groups, students as well as local and international NGOs have all been involved in fighting abuses of power. And there has been some success.

WHILE organised civil society is relatively weak, Papua New Guinea has a long history of anti-corruption activism.

They collected tens of thousands of signatures, which were presented to parliament. (This only temporarily stopped the rise of discretionary funding as these funds have grown exponentially since 2013.)

The propensity for citizens to resist corruption should have increased since these success stories, as access to the internet has spread throughout the country. Citizens are now better informed about alleged corruption than ever before.

However, questions remain about the willingness of citizens to en masse protest the countrys many corruption scandals.

My research with anti-corruption activists in Port Moresby suggests this is because the PNG state is still central to shaping citizens responses to corruption.

The state of PNG sometimes expresses its growing power through threat and violence. Anti-corruption activists are threatened by the police, have had their protests forcibly broken up, and have been assaulted.

The renowned anti-corruption activist Noel Anjo Kolao has accused the then prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, of kidnapping and physically assaulting him in 2010. Fighting corruption is still a dangerous occupation.

Yet there are signs that it is the states soft power that is even more effective in quelling dissent. PNG has a history of activists running for political office, and getting into power can significantly disrupt their movements.

This occurred after the Sandline Affair when those associated with civil society organisations protesting against the government got into power. Civil society leaders helped the allegedly corrupt Bill Skate become prime minister and thus lost credibility with their supporters.

The once radical NGO, Melanesian Solidarity  who were at the forefront of the Sandline Affair  effectively folded once their leader, the current Governor of NCD, Powes Parkop, was elected in the 2007 election.

The ability of the states soft power to shape anti-corruption protest has changed little. In October 2015 anti-corruption activist Noel Anjo Kolao called for a public protest against corruption allegations involving prime minister Peter ONeill.

While Kolao said there was huge support for the campaign on social media, few turned up. This is likely because Kolao has been aligned to once opposition leader Belden Namah, and has himself run for political office  in 2012 for the seat of Moresby North West, which he lost.

Running for politics is common among PNG community leaders. Anthropologist Ivo Syndicus has suggested that students at the University of Goroka protested against corruption to help their political careers.

As described here, many development actors marginalise politically compromised activists.

Officially at least, numerous leading anti-corruption organisations, such as Transparency International, promote themselves as politically non-partisan. As a result, scholars and practitioners worry that politicised activism is a barrier to effective anti-corruption movements.

In the case of PNG, the connections that some civil society activists have with political elites has made many suspicious of their intentions. Yet, these seemingly politically compromised activists can challenge political power in ways that other more legitimate actors cannot.

Indeed, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, a group of anti-corruption activists known as the NGO and Civil Society Coalition, who were for a time led by Kolao, raised important concerns about political corruption.

While other anti-corruption agencies took care not to name names, the Coalition informed citizens of allegations of corruption associated with then prime minister Somare. By taking their message to the streets and getting bypassers to share their stories of corruption, they also gave voice to the grassroots in ways that other groups were unable or unwilling to.

Such politicised activists are important because they fill in for development actors who make claims about fighting corruption but are too timid to jump into the political fray.

For example, when prime minister Peter ONeill dodged an arrest warrant for corruption, and defunded Investigation Taskforce Sweep, Australia  despite its commitment to addressing corruption in PNG and elsewhere  was silent.

In comparison, Noel Anjo Kolao organised protests, and helped citizens voice their disapproval with the ONeill government.

PNGs anti-corruption activists are connected to the state in various ways, which reduces their legitimacy in the eyes of some. In turn, their perceived politicisation reduces the potential for broader protest movements. However, it is important to note that these activists play an important role in raising awareness about political corruption.

The key threat to these movements is not the states hard power, but its soft power, expressed through the lure of political office. This means that more radical anti-corruption movements are likely to continue in PNG, at least for as long as their leadership can withstand the states political inducements.

Grant Walton is a research fellow with the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University
The Punjab government has decided to construct police line at Pathankot and transfer 37.68 acres of land belonging to irrigation department to the Punjab police. ADGP (Prison) Rajpal Meena said here today the land in village Jugial in Pathankot district will be utilised for the construction of police line and also IRB headquarters including those of the other police department and intelligence wing. He said that the state government has also constituted special coordination committee headed by Punjab DGP to check the menace of illegal activities from the jail. The DGP is the chairman of this coordination committee. The ADGP also stated that there are 26 different types of jail in Punjab including the central jail, security jail, district jail and borstal jails. To counter overcrowding in jail, four new prisons are being constructed at Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Shri Mukatsar Sahiab. With the oprationalisation of these jails, the problem of overcrowding will be suitably resolved. To counter the problem of smuggling drugs into jails stringent steps have been taken including search by trained sniffer dogs and jail and district sessions judges and district police officer. Punjab is the first state in the country which introduced modernisation of jails infrastructure at such a largescale, according to ADGP prison. Replying to a question, the ADGP Prison claimed that de-addiction centers in the jail are doing commendable job according to the guidelines of PGI Chandigarh.UNI XC GS SV PR1416 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-601188.Xml
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the second green revolution can start from Odisha, which is blessed with natural resources necessary for agriculture Addressing the farmers in a rally here, Prime Minister Modi said, "After UP, if there is any state which has water resources, it is Odisha. I believe second green revolution can start from this state. There are so much of natural resources in Odisha that if it wants, it can be India's number one agricultural state. I think that our country needs improvement in agriculture sector." Lavishing praise on the youth, the Prime Minister said they want Odisha to progress like other states of the nation. "The Centre is of the view that positive changes should be brought in the agricultural sector. Can Centre, state and farmers together increase the income of farmers in India by two fold by 2022? I believe we can. Economic activity in eastern part of India must rise. Let's ensure that the income of farmers will double by 2022," he added. Prime Minister Modi had earlier in the day launched the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee National Rurban Mission at Kurrubhath in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh. In the evening, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Kolkata where he will inaugurate the three-year-long centenary celebrations of the Gaudiya Math and Mission at a function which will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. (ANI)
Action was taken against three people under the National Security Act (NSA) for carrying a meat-laden truck and the trio was sent to Bhopal Central Jail after issuing warrant against them. Collector MB Ojha today said that the police seized the truck, which was coming from Bhopal, on February 11 and Danish, Saleem and Irfan who were inside the truck were arrested and taken to custody. Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Choudhary had sent proposal to the authorities to apply RSA against the trio and after this, a warrant was issued against the accused under the RSA yesterday.UNI XC-BDG JW0305 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0044-601286.Xml
Army stormed into the EDI building at Pampore, where a group of militants are holed up since yesterday. An unidentified body was recovered from the building, official sources said. So far an army captain , two CRPF personnel and a civilian were killed and 13 CRPF men injured in the encounter which ensued yesterday. Official sources said army stormed into the building despite heavy firing from militants hiding inside. Heavy exchange of fire was going on, the sources said.UNI BAS ADG VN1503 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-601247.Xml
Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) national secretary Jugal Kishore today said the country faces severe "threat of conversion" and hence there is an urgent need of "Ghar Vapsi" (reconversion) to save the Hindu community. "There is an urgent need for unity of the Hindu community to fight against the conversion as now it is a war for their existence," he said. Mr Kishore, who was addressing the district office bearers of Barabanki, Faizabad and Ambedkarnagar at the Karsevekpuram here, said VHP is committed to the safeguard the Hindu community and would do whatever is required. "It was just secularism which has threatened the unity and intregrity of the country. The incident of JNU, the issue of intolerance and now the Jat agitation is an effort by the anti-national forces trying to destablise the country's peace and development," he added. Mr Kishore said country's history proves that ,"Jaichand like leaders are always active to break the country."UNI MB SV VN1510 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-601203.Xml
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu today said with the rapid urbanisation of cities, districts throughout the country in general and West Bengal in particular it is very necessary to strengthen the transport infrastructure to connect office goers and others to reach at their places of working on time. This is only possible when both Central Government and the State Government join together and improve the city transport system further, he said. Mr Prabhu inaugurated the New Approach Road from Belgachhia Road Overbridge to Kolkata terminal, dedicated the newly constructed Foot Overbridge at Naihati station to the nation and laid the foundation stone for construction of Foot Overbridge at Ranaghat station (all by remote) at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport premises here this morning. Addressing a large gathering on the occasion, Mr Prabhu said that Kolkata Terminal was commissioned in 2006 and connected with the Belgachhia Road by only one approach road. Over the years, the number of Mail/Express trains as well as Circular Railway trains and the passengers at this station has increased manifold. Keeping in view the demand of the passengers, a new approach road of 10-metre width with footpaths connecting to Kolkata station has been constructed. The length of the newly built approach road is only 400 metres, which will help passengers to reach quickly by using the new approach road, he said. He appealed to the demonstrators of Rail Roko at Cooochbehar and Jat agitators and those who are involved in Rail Roko to discuss with authorities peacefully and not to participate in Rail Roko any more. Mr Prabhu said that the Government will soon formulate an Integrated Transport Policy to help passengers. Technology is meant for making life simple and easy. It should come up and understand the problem & find out solutions to all problems faced by passengers and public, he said. Laying the foundation stone for a new Foot Overbridge at Ranaghat, Mr Prabhu said that Ranaghat is one of the most important junction station of Sealdah Division and it negotiates a large number of Mail/Express and suburban trains. There is huge congestion of passengers at Ranaght Junction during peak hours. Keeping in view the problem faced by our esteemed passengers, it has been decided to construct a new 6-meter wide Foot Overbridge at this station at a cost of Rs.1.45 crores. This is in addition to the three narrow Foot Overbridges existing at present, he said. Dedicating the newly constructed Foot Overbridge at Naihati station, Mr Prabhu said that Naihati is one of the most important station of Sealdah Division and remains busy day and night. For the benefit of the passengers, respecting their long standing demand, one new 6-metre wide Foot Overbridge has been constructed at Naihati station at a cost of Rs 3.96 crore. ''This is also in addition to the existing two Foot Overbridges available at this station. It was felt necessary as a huge number of passengers use this station day and night and the available foot overbridges are not adequate to cater to the needs of the passengers,'' the Minister said. Mr Prabhu said the new Broad gauge link line of 14.5 KMs between Sankrail and Santragachhi via Flyover will improve the existing line capacity for faster train movement and will help to deal traffic uninterruptedly from and to Shalimar and Santragachhi which are coming up as major terminals on the Howrah Kharaghpur section of South Eastern Railway. MPs, Prof. Saugata Roy and Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar also addressed the gathering. General Manager of Eastern and South Eastern Railways A K Goel and General Manager of Metro Railway Shri A K Kapoor also spoke on the occasion.UNI BM KK ADG AS1544 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-601264.Xml
Himachal Pradesh Road Transport, which more than 500 buses route to its neighbouring states Haryana, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan, today decided to withdraw its fleet passing through Haryana, a senior functionary of the Corporation informed here today. Transport Minister G S Bali said in view of Jat agitation, law and order problem in Haryana, HRTC routes passing through Haryana are being suspended till there is assurance of safety of buses and passengers from the Haryana government. In the wake of withdrawal of of HRTC fleet from the interstate roads all passengers are also advised to check status from concerned bus stands before arriving at the bus stand regarding plying of buses on the routes passing through Haryana area.UNI ML DB CJ AS1536 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-601344.Xml
The soldier belonged to Padehar village of Jogindernagar tehsil in Mandi district.

They have expressed deep sympathies with the bereaved family members and prayed for the peace of the departed soul.

The Governor said Mr Rana laid down his life for the cause of the Nation and the people of the country would always remain indebted to him for this supreme sacrifice.

In his condolence message, Mr Singh said Himachal Pradesh was a land of brave soldiers and Raj Kumar Rana sacrificed his life for the integrity of the country.

He said the last rites of the soldier would be performed with full state honour.UNI ML DB CJ VN1528

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Pawan Kumar, a 23-year-old officer from the 10 Paramilitary, laid down his life in the early hours yesterday during a fierce gun-battle with the militants.

The young officer, who belonged to Jind, Haryana, was an inspiring leader who in spite of being injured earlier in an anti-terrorist operation, went on to volunteer for more operations.

The mortal remains of the brave martyr will be brought by air to Jind on February 22 as the road traffic is disrupted due to the law and order situation in Haryana, which is presently facing the heat of the pro-reservation protest by the Jat community.

The last rites, with full military honours, are being planned by the army and state administration at his village tomorrow.

At least four defence personnel lost their lives while fighting the militants in the ongoing encounter at Entrepreneurs Development Institute at Pampore.

A civilian also lost his life in the encounter. (ANI)
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said she would not hesitate to go against the tide if it suited the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. At a membership drive for the Peoples Democratic Party in Srinagar, Mehbooba Mufti said her father, late chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was not the one to follow the beaten track and would not hesitate to go against the tide if it was in people's interest. She said she would do the same if the situation so demanded. "You should understand why he (Sayeed) created the PDP. He never used to tread the easy path, but would create (new) ways, however difficult, and when he used to step on that road, he would not look back. "He would never make a U-turn. He would never say something was right one day and then say it was wrong the next day," she said. Mehbooba Mufti said she has been hearing since the last one-and-half months, since her father died, that the chief ministerial chair was her father's inheritance for her and she should take it. "The inheritance of my father is not the chair. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's inheritance is so large than it cannot fit in the chair. "His inheritance is courage, strength and the love for the people here which he always had in his heart. His inheritance is to tread those roads which nobody dared tread," she said. The PDP president said gun was not a solution to the issues of Kashmir which can be addressed through dialogue. She said she was happy that the BJP understood that there was no option other than what Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to say regarding dialogue with Pakistan. "America is a big power, but it has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is Syria and Libya, are they not independent nations? "But once the gun entered these countries, everything was lost. Gun does not benefit anyone. "I can feel what parents must be going thorough whose sons were lost yesterday or any youth who takes to the gun and is killed in an encounter," she said. Jammu and Kashmir was put under Governor's Rule after Sayeed passed away in New Delhi on January 7 after a brief illness. The PDP and the BJP are still not close to any understanding on government formation in the state. --Indo-Asian News Service sq/pm/dg ( 408 Words) 2016-02-21-16:55:32 (IANS)
A day after Congress Legislative Party Leader of Tripura and leader of the opposition Sudip Roy Barmans note to Congress President Sonia Gandhi opposing alliance with CPI-M in West Bengal, former chief minister and AICC member Samir Ranjan Barman wrote to party high command today against the move. Talking to media here today, Mr Barman alleged that "CPI-M had opposed nationalist movement in the country during British rule and they openly supported Britishers in freedom struggle." "The leftists shifted their allegiance to China during 1962 aggression and still Indian communists are supporting Chinese stand against India but how congress could make any alliance of seat adjustment with this party in West Bengal," Mr Barman stated. He, however, pointed out that communists have been the biggest enemy of Congress and all nationalist parties, which never can be the partner of Congress in election. He also believed that any alliance with CPI-M would not be accepted by common supporters of Congress party. Mr Barman known to be close to Gandhi family since Indira Gandhis regime requested Ms Sonia Gandhi to rethink over the move for future prospect of congress in the country and stated that leftists had betrayed UPA government on a false premise just to achieve some mileage. Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee at the beginning objected the move of alliance with CPI-M. Partys state president Birajit Sinha and CLP leader Sudip Roy Barman had sent separate letters to Ms Sonia Gandhi opposing the alliance. Mr Roy Barman in the letter mentioned that "CPI-M in its statement never singled out Congress for the alliance as part of their larger game plan to insist congress to step forward for the alliance with them. And party leaders of West Bengal are favouring it for their personal gain."UNI BB KK ADG VN1713 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-601466.Xml
Is security to Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah is lacking? This question arised as a youth throwed a plastic cover on thedias where dignatories including former Supreme Court Judge JusticeVenkatachalaiah, Union Minister H N Ananth Kumar besidesSiddaramaiah and others were present. As Mr Siddaramaiah, attending in a private function, began tospeak, the person, who was sitting in the public galary, threw aplastic cover shouting "first reply what you have done to ourSociety, do you want to completely destroy our Society.? Mr Siddaramaiah questioned to which community you belonged to andwhat is the problem and what has to be done. But the person continued to shout against him before police tookhim out of hall and arrested. The plastic cover, however, turned out to be a wrapper ofchakolet and Police are questioning him. Maintaining his coolness, Mr Siddaramaiah continued his speechand later talking to newsmen he played down about failure ofsecurity. "He is one of the citizen and each and every one cannotbe expected how one behaves." "Somebody might have provoked him. My government is addressingthe problems of those depressed and uppressed. In a democracy it iscommon. I dont know to which community he belonged and if there isany problem I am ready to solve it," he added. Reacting to the incident, former Deputy Chief Minister and seniorBJP leader R Ashok termed it as frustration expressed by a citizenagainst the functioning of the Siddaramaiah Government."About 1200 farmers have committed suicide in the State, manyIndustries are shifting to other States due to lack of facilities.This all shows that the ruling Congress has totally failed indischarging its duties. Atleast now the Chief Minister should wakeup and work to fulfill the aspirations of the people. However, Ipersonally condemn the incident." The arrested has revealed his name as Prasad belonging to SavitaCommunity. Further questioning is in progress.UNI MSP VV FDB1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-601260.Xml
Meanwhile, the state government has rushed paramilitary and technical team of the Irrigation Department to Akbarpur-Barota point in Sonepat district to restore the water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

Due to the agitation one thousand trains have been diverted.

The important rail routes to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and J & K have been affected.

The agitating public also wreaked large scale damage to Railway property and installations. 10 railway stations were burnt, 2 railway engines damaged and two track machines wrecked by agitating public, while track uprooted at several locations, a Northern Railway release stated today.

In view of the ongoing road blockades the Ministry of Civil Aviation has pressed additional flight service to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jaipur.MORE UNI NC/DB ADG VN1600

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One more army officer has been injured in the ongoing encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore District. At least five people have been killed and 10 others injured in the gun-battle that started yesterday evening at the Entrepreneurs Development Institute at Pampore on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. Out of the five deceased, four were defence personnel who have lost their lives while fighting the militants and the fifth one was a civilian who was killed in the encounter. (ANI)
Former PMK legislator Anantharaman along with his supporters today joined the Congress party in the presence of PCC President A Namasivayam. Earlier, they took out a procession from Thavalakuppam village to PCC office in the town. Talking to newspersons after admitting ,them into the party he said people of the Union Territory are looking to Congress for bringing in a change of government.Stating that todays function was only a beginning, Namassivayam said many functionaries and workers are readying themselves to join Congress to save the Union Territory, and its people, who lost faith in the ruling government. "People have faith in the Congress and only Indian National Congress can bring in the change they desire, he said and added that his party had proved this in the past. We have fulfilled the promises and implemented welfare schemes when we were in rule and it was done at the right time and for the right beneficiaries", he observed. Asked whether he would meet DMK President M Karunanidhi, Mr Namassivayam said he would certainly meet him at the right time. The alliance is on and I will meet him. On the seat sharing talks, the PCC chief said the Congress high command, including party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi will take a decision on it. Pointed out about C Djeacoumar, who was yet to submit the application expressing desire to contest, Namassivayam said the deadline for submission will be over by 7 pm today. The PCC chief, however, added that the Congress high command have the powers to give ticket to a person, who did not submit such an application. The ruling AINRC party functionaries S Mohan, Pachaiyappan (from Indira Nagar) and Ratnavel (Dharmpuri) also joined the Congress in the function. It may be noted that RKR Aanatharaman, a close relative of PMK chief Dr Ramadoss, had unsuccessfully contested last Lok Sabha elections on a PMK ticket in Puducherry. Following his alleged involvement in a murder case, Anantharaman was removed from the post of party secretary. Former union Minister, V Narayanasamy, Leader of opposition and former Chief Minister V Vaithilingam, legislator K Lakshminarayanan, party leaders among others attended the function. UNI PAB VV ADB1932 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-601789.Xml
BJP national observer Sunil Deodhar alleged that CPI-M workers at the instigation of local leaders attacked their street corner in an ADC village of Dhanpur where he was addressing the gathering.

The meeting was part of BJPs election campaign ahead of scheduled poll of ADC slated on February 24 next.

The leaders were criticising the misrule of left front and Chief Minister Sarkar in the meeting for which CPI-M leaders attacked them, Deodhar alleged.

He said though he had managed to save himself from the attack, BJP local leaders including the partys local president were assaulted severely. The supporters later rescued eight BJP supporters from the spot and shifted them to AGMC at late night.

In the country CPI-M is raising voice against BJP for intolerance but in the state where they are in the government, the party cadres are physically attacking the BJP workers just for voicing against their misrule, Deodhar stated.UNI BB KK CJ VN1731

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Tribal activist and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Soni Sori, who was yesterday attacked in Chhattisgarh, has said she thinks there is a danger to her as well as her children. The AAP leader, who was attacked by some unknown assailants in Dantewada District of South Chhattisgarh on Saturday evening, is being brought to New Delhi for her treatment. "Whatever is happening to me is not right. I think there is a danger for me as well as for my children. I am not disclosing the identity of the people whom I fear because I received a call at 6:15 p.m. where I was told that some people are planning to attack me. I was planning to meet him today. I had never thought that such thing would happen to me," Sori told the reporters. "I have been receiving the usual threats wherein I was told that I would be killed. But I never paid head to it," she added. Three men had attacked Sori and smeared black chemical on her face, on a day a well-known human rights lawyers group was allegedly forced to leave Jagdalpur after threats. (ANI)
Chief of the Naval Admiral R K Dhowan on Sunday hosted a reception at the Naval officer's mess, Varuna for the Naval veterans residing in and around Delhi-NCR. Admiral and his wife, Minu Dhowan interacted with the retired naval officers and their spouses. Being an important activity of the Navy Week celebrated every year, the event affords an excellent opportunity for interaction between the serving and retired naval fraternity. Over the years this event has provided a platform which facilitates not only exchange of ideas but also helps in obtaining feedback on the various initiatives implemented by the service for its retired community. The gathering comprising those in uniform and those who have re-attired into different outfits post retirement from active-service represented a vast pool of knowledge, experience and wisdom that is collectively leveraged for the benefit of the Navy in particular and for the country at large. During the event, CNS apprised the veterans on the various naval activities including the recently conducted mega event 'International Fleet Review' at Visakhapatnam, future plans of the Navy and other initiatives taken towards developing various facilities in the NCR for the serving and retired naval fraternity. In addition, the veterans also got an opportunity to interact with the professional teams from IHQ MoD (Navy) on issues related to pension, welfare and medical facilities etc. The event also witnessed the release of 'Quarterdeck' - an annual magazine published by the Navy Foundation. The magazine has over the years established itself as a conduit between the veterans and the serving communities and Senriches with the memoirs of our veterans. It facilitates a virtual walk down the memory lane. (ANI)
Strategic affairs expert Brigadier (Retd) AG Krishnaiah called for evolving a strategic culture and a formidable security policy for India. Addressing a seminar on Indias Security imparatives and Siachen organized under the aegis of awareness in action at Osmania Univarsity here today, Mr Krishnaiah said India must be prepared to foil attack from both the eastern as well as western flanks. He said India was currently facing a two-and-a-half front war, which involved challeges from both Pakistan and China as also internal battles involving low intensity warfare and Left terrorism. He said holding Siachen was strategically and tactically very important. He said the soldiers were braving both bullets as well as weather vagaries to hold on the glacial battle field, which, he said, has offered India a strategic depth. "Siachen is offering India a rare tactical advantage at a time when China is expanding its footprint in Pak occupied Gilgit Baltistan and the China-Pak linkages through Karakorum heights," he said and added that Pakistan-China linkup through Siachen would expose India's dfences in Ladakh. He said it was important to hold Siachen despite the super high altitude and treacherous climatic conditions. He complemented Narendra Modi Government for its strategic vision and bold decisions. Strategic affairs expert Mayank Singh said the the forbidding glacial heights, which is also the highest, coldest and the costliest battlefield in the world, has great geo-strategic advantage for India and said India should not withdraw from Siachen. He called for developing a strategic culture in the civil society and called for greater civilian engagement in matters of defence and strategy. Nehru Yuvak Kendra vice president Perala Sekhar Rao lambasted Rahul Gandhi for his short-sighted approach on security and said while his grand mother Indira Gandhi had ordered Operation Meghdoot to occupie Siachen heights, Rahul Gandhi was backing those who support terrorists like Afzal Guru. Col (retd) Mohan Kumar, senior journalist Raka Sudhakar Rao, Anti-Terrorism Forum founder Ravinuthala Sasidhar also spoke. Earlier, the meeting paid rich tributes to the Siachen martyrs.UNI VV VV ADB1946 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-601834.Xml
Lashing out at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that their sole motive was to plunder the resources of the state. Addressing a public gathering after laying foundation stone of Baba Moti Ram Memorial here , Mr Badal said that this party has got support in mimickers and entertainers in the state as no other person relies on them. "This bunch of opportunists and fugitives aim at ruining the state, which will not be allowed at any cost", he added. Lashing out at the state Congress leadership, the Chief Minister said that they believe in aristocratic lifestyle and were hardly bothered about concerns of people. Mr Badal said that the top Congress leaders love to play Polo but on the contrary he was always worried about the people and their problems. "I owe every single drop of my blood to Punjabis, so I have fully dedicated my every breath for safeguarding their interests," he added. Earlier interacting with media people, Mr Badal said that it was a well known fact that the Sikh carnage of 1984 was a pre-planned conspiracy by the then Congress government at Centre. He said that every perpetrator of this heinous crime must be punished in an exemplary manner for meting out justice to the victims. He said that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) would continue its relentless efforts to ensure that the executors of Sikh carnage were brought to the book. The Chief Minister said that in dearth of any issue against the state government the Congress leaders were making false statements to score brownie points before media. Mr Badal said that rather than indulging in criticism for the sake of criticism, the Congress leaders must cooperate with the state government for ensuring holistic development of the state. He further said that in order to bail out the farmers from the current crisis the state government was providing free power to them worth Rs 5000 crore every year, also that it was on record that state government has helped families of the hapless farmers committing suicide. He said that the state government has shared the grief of such families by giving compensation to them. Mr Badal said that due to the concerted efforts of the state government, Punjab had today emerged as the only power surplus state in the country. He said that the alliance government has ensured regular power supply to all the deras and dhanis across the state, round the clock. Replying to another query, Mr Badal said that under the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme free pilgrimage was provide to devotees to sacred cities of Sri Nande Sahib, Varanasi, Katra (Mata Vaishno Devi) and Ajmer Sharif under which state government organises free trains to these cities for the people from Punjab and also provide other logistic facilities to pilgrims. Listing some other major initiatives of thestate government, he said that the alliance government has decided to double the pensions given to people under the social security schemes. Similarly, he said that the SAD-BJP alliance government was the only one in the country to start pro-people schemes like Atta-Dal, shagun and others for the well being of underprivileged sections.UNI XC DB CJ AJ BL2105 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-601890.Xml
To voters outside of Washington, partisan gridlock in Congress appears to be tough to overcome.

U.S. Rep. John Katko knows about that perception. It's the reason he ran for Congress in 2014.

But since being sworn in last year as the 24th Congressional District's representative, he said there are some "glimmers of hope" that both parties are trying to break through the dysfunction.

In an interview with The Citizen's editorial board this week, Katko, R-Camillus, touted some of his major legislative accomplishments, including passage of a long-term highway bill and legislation that made Common Core learning standards optional.

As a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security, he's been a leading voice on airport security issues.

Nearly 13 months into his first term, he's had seven bills passed by the House, including two airport security measures that President Barack Obama signed into law.

A vast majority of the bills he's introduced have Democratic cosponsors.

"All of them are of substance," he said.

Katko also highlighted his work leading a foreign fighter task force. The panel released a report on terrorist travel and recommended ways to prevent ISIS and other extremists from entering the U.S.

The report was released in September, but didn't get a lot of attention until after the Paris attacks in November.

"All of a sudden, I was getting calls from all the leadership in Washington about 'What's going on with your report?' and wanted to see it," he recalled.

He added, "Now it's become the blueprint of how we're going to fight this ISIS threat, which is quite serious."

Aside from his work on homeland security issues, Katko said his office has addressed topics of local importance, including the formation of a mental health task force and efforts to combat the rise in heroin and synthetic drug use.

Katko is planning to hold a listening session on the heroin epidemic next month in Auburn.

"I think we've been productive," he said. "I think we can do a lot more. I think Congress, as a whole, can do a lot more.

"But I've got to be honest with you, if someone told me we could accomplish this at the end of the first year both on the macro and micro level, I'd be pretty happy. It's a start in the right direction."

That doesn't mean he hasn't experienced frustration in Washington.

He recalled working on a border security bill during his first few weeks in Congress. After reviewing the legislation, he discovered that the House Homeland Security Committee membership was mainly focused on the southern border with Mexico.

The northern border with Canada was ignored in the process.

Katko, a former federal prosecutor, said he spoke out and mentioned that only 2 percent of the northern border is secure. He explained the security threats at the northern border and the importance of boosting security.

The committee made revisions and a measure Katko introduced  legislation requiring the federal government to conduct a U.S.-Canadian border threat assessment  was included in the larger bill.

Once the changes were made, the bill passed out of committee and was nearing approval in the House. But the process was halted in the House, Katko said, because those who were saying a border security bill was needed before immigration reform changed their stance and said both needed to be done together.

It didn't help that House leaders were reluctant to address immigration reform during this term.

"We're not going to try and secure the borders and we're not going to do immigration reform because strategically, it's not the right thing to do," he said. "It makes no sense to me."

While there are challenges, Katko is pleased with what he's been able to accomplish in his first year.

"I've learned a lot," he said. "There's a lot more I have to learn, a lot more I want to do. But I'm not jumping up and down saying everything's great. I think we have some reason to be hopeful."
With the death of another protester in Hansi today, the death toll in the ongoing Jat reservation agitation in Haryana rose to twelve so far, the state government said. Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Home, P K Das while addressing media persons here, said efforts were being made to disperse the protesters at Akbarpur-Barota so as to release water for Delhi, but all in vain. He said as they were in huge number, not much force was used to avoid casualties. However, according to reports reaching here, one person was killed in the firing in authorities' efforts to release water. The operation has been temporarily postponed. He also appealed the protesters to let the administration release water for Delhi as it would not be fair on their part to resort to such tactics.In reply to a question, Mr Das said Army and para military forces have been deployed in eight district headquarters, but these are also being deployed in small towns like Gohana, Kalanaur, Meham and Hansi.He said blockades were still at National Highway No. 1 and reports of damage caused to some Dhabas on this highway have been received. Two sections of railway tracks including Ambala-Delhi and Delhi-Rohtak were still closed.When asked to comment about estimated loss caused to the property in the agitation, he said that it would be known after the curfew is lifted and people assess their losses.Mr Das said as a part of the strategy to control the ongoing agitation in the state, the state government was studying the footprints of those indulged in spreading hatred on social websites and those found guilty would invite stern action against themselves. He said the government could also consider blocking such websites.The strategy of night dominance continued the way it did during the day and it was observed that the situation has improved during the day, except in Kaithal town where curfew was clamped. Eds : Pick up suitably from related series.UNI DB AJ 2113 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-601929.Xml
Both the accident occurred on Kolhapur-Ratnagiri National Highway this afternoon.

According to Karvir police, the woman identified as Radhabai Krushnrao Katvare was a resident of Gangavesh area of the district.

As she was crossing the road at Ambewadi village in Karvir tehsil, a speedy unknown vehicle knocked over her and killed on the spot.

In another incident, a private tourist bus was coming from Panhala Fort to Mahalaxmi Temple in Mumbai and at Bambarwadi village the bus driver lost his control on the vehicle, following which a passenger sat in the driver cabin, tipped over the bus steering and due to which the bus plunged in to a roadside field, injuring 29passengers, including 13 women and 4 children. They were immediately admitted at Chhatrapati Pramila Raje hospital.

All passengers were from Bhandup and Ghatkoper areas in Mumbai.

Further probe was going on in both the accidents repectively, police aaded.UNI SSS RB JW AJ AN2101

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Senior BJP leader and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today came out heavily on the Virbhadra Singh government for having brought the economy of the hill state on the brink of bankruptcy. Addressing a news conference here, he accused the Chief Minister of indulging in extravagance and wasting his time in laying foundation stones and doing inaugurations of works started by the BJP government and about 80 to 90 per cent completed when Congress came to power. Virbhadra Singh was claiming credit for the development done during the tenure of BJP. All development had come to a grinding halt or confined to a few powerful ministers. Prof Dhumal regretted that the outbreak of jaundice has assumed alarming proportions in many parts of the state. It was a matter of great shame for the Congress government which had miserably failed to provide clean potable water even to the residents of the capital of the state which was reeling under the worst time since independence. Many people had died of this epidemic. Jaundice was spreading to other parts of the state which seemed to be helpless, he said and demanded immediate resignation of the Chief Minister. He lamented that the condition of the roads had been worsening and hundreds of people had died in accidents due to bad roads during the Congress misrule in the state. An army of retired officials faithful to the Chief Minister and defeated politicians have been rehabilitated with cabinet ranks to run the government. To cover up his dismal failures Virbhadra Singh was spreading canards to mislead the people by saying that adequate funds were not being provided by the Centre, the BJP leader said. Prof Dhumal said during the 2012-17 BJP tenure the Centre provided Rs 21000 crore for the development of the state while during the current tenure of Congress government Modi government has given Rs 43000 crore. Similarly the share of Central taxes has also been enhanced from 32 per cent to 42 per cent, he added. He said the Congress government has not even thanked Modi government for restoring the special economic package to Himachal Pradesh which former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had granted to the poor hill state and the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh had withdrawn it. The Niti Ayog, substitute of Planning Commission, had further granted additional package of Rs 650 crore to Himachal on the request of Himachal MPS and state leaders. Prof Dhumal charged the Congress government for promoting various mafias including forests, mines and sand. A large scale illicit felling has been reported during the recent months in the constituencies of powerful ministers including the forest minister. Forests have been destroyed even in the outskirts of Shimla and nefarious attempts were being made to protect the offenders, he regretted.UNI XC DB JW AJ 2241 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-601479.Xml
A report from Hisar said violence continued in Hansi town despite curfew restriction imposed there yesterday.

Residence of a BJP MP, Dharambir Singh was attacked by the protesters in fresh incidents of violence at Tosham in Bhiwani district today.

The agitators also burnt shops, and police posts in Bhiwani and Hisar districts.

A report from Bhiwani said the situation in the city is under control today, but it is critical in adjoining towns and villages.

The protesters burnt a police chowki and thrashed policemen in Mundal. They also tried to destroy and burn an ATM at Loharu in the district A liquor shop was ransacked by agitators in Bhiwani city.

The protesters set ablaze a dozen state owned buses in Tosham bus stand. They also burnt bikes and shops in the town.

The agitators also demanded registration of sedition case against BJP, MP Rajkumar Saini. MORE UNI NC/DB AJ AN2201

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Addressing party workers at Sanguem, Mr Faleiro said 50 per cent of the candidates to be fielded by the party would be new.

Claiming that there was approximately Rs one lakh loan on every Goan, Mr Faleiro said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state had destroyed mining, caused unemployment, promises like providing unemployment allowance and creating 50,000 jobs remained unfulfilled.

Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat alleged that BJP was inaugurating projects sanctioned and started by the Congress Government.

Road in Amdai Sanguem which was built by Congress Government was used by BJP to establish distillery by destroying coconut plantation, he alleged.

MLA Babu Kavlekar said yesterday's BJP MP Narendra Savaikars statement that Congress was limited in Quepem stoond defeated with successful Congress meeting at Sanguem which had seen presence ofhuge number of people.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Girish Chodankar alleged that BJP had not only fooled Goans but Gods too as they were offering "Garane" ( Vow) at temples on Medium of Instruction (MOI) issue before assembly elections of 2012 and now they have forgotten it.UNI AKM PY AJ BL2339

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Fiji was assessing the damage today after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the Pacific island nation, flattening remote villages and killing at least five people.Reports of damage are still flowing in from remote spots across the archipelago of about 300 islands devastated late yesterday by tropical cyclone Winston, which packed winds of 230 kph that gusted up to 325 kph.Several hours of harsh winds and torrential rains tore up homes and cut power, water and communications links across the nation of about 900,000 people, but the capital, Suva, escaped the brunt, after a last minute change in direction of the storm.Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama confirmed the death toll, saying officials were working urgently to "assess and address the damage in our maritime regions".Past cyclones had not caused so much damage, said businessman Jay Dayal, who lives near Rakiraki, on the north coast of Fiji's main island, where the cyclone hit land."I wouldn't be surprised if people are now starting to go without food," Dayal told Reuters. "It looks like a different country, it doesn't look like Fiji."Police and armed forces have fanned out for rescue efforts amid concerns of flash flooding and mudslides, despite being hampered by trees and power lines blocking roads.Fiji has declared a 30-day state of emergency, with schools ordered to shut. A nationwide curfew will continue until tomorrow morning with electricity supply to some areas deliberately cut, to avert further damage or injury.An elderly man died on Koro Island when a roof fell on him, authorities said earlier. In a nearby village, 50 homes were reported to have been destroyed."Some villages have reported that all homes have been destroyed," Jone Tuiipelehaki of the United Nations Development Program tweeted late yesterday.Alice Clements, an official with UNICEF based in Suva, told Reuters she was concerned for hundreds of people who live in low-lying river areas in tin sheds, cultivating backyard crops for subsistence and sale in markets."The images that we're starting to see roll in are terrifying," she said by telephone, describing visuals of a car on a building roof and a small plane nose down in debris.Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had offered to send a P-3 Orion aircraft to carry out aerial surveillance of the outer-lying islands."At this stage, I believe, the Fijian Government is coming to terms with the damage," Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.About 1,200 Australians are registered as being in Fiji, although there could be many more, she added. Australians are frequent travellers to the archipelago, thronged by around 340,000 tourists each year.People had flocked to 758 evacuation centres yesterday, while tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and conference rooms in coastal areas."We had a pretty hairy night here with the wind and the rain and we weren't even in the direct pathway of the cyclone," said Anna Cowley, a CARE Australia official based in Suva.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had an emergency response team on standby, but Bainimarama had not yet asked for help.Airlines Virgin and Jetstar yesterday suspended flights at Fiji's international airport, and the national carrier suspended all flights. REUTERS DS PR1027 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-601015.Xml
As the presidential field winnows after Donald Trump's commanding victory in South Carolina's nominating contest, US Republican voters face a choice that grows starker by the day.Do they back the rage-infused, turn-back-the-clock tone of Trump, or perhaps his conservative, evangelical rival, Ted Cruz? Or do they favor the sunnier, more inclusive appeals of emerging establishment favorite Marco Rubio or Ohio Governor John Kasich.Not only will the answer decide the Republican nominee, it may well change what it means to be a Republican. The party is enduring a schism between those who want to work within the system and those want to tear it down."The GOP is broken may not be salvageable," said Juleanna Glover, a Republican consultant in Washington who had supported Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the race yesterday after a poor showing in South Carolina. Trump's support, she said, shows that one-third of the party's voters "want out."Bush, the former Florida governor, had been part of that camp of Republican establishment optimists. Ben Carson, the right-wing retired neurosurgeon, was never a factor in South Carolina and could be the next to exit.That leaves a Final Four, of sorts, as the campaign maintains a southern focus for a string of contests on March 1 that include Georgia, Texas, and Virginia. Trump and Cruz will be the favorites in many of them, with Rubio, a senator from Florida, and Kasich seen struggling until the primary schedule shifts to more hospitable regions, including their home states.Rubio finished in a near tie for second in South Carolina with Cruz, rebounding strongly from his stumble in New Hampshire, where he finished fifth and was criticized for being overly scripted. He stands to benefit the most from Bush's departure as the perceived establishment standard-bearer.Kasich trailed well behind, managing fewer votes than Bush.GOING TO EXTREMESBillionaire real estate developer Trump has racked up wins in two of the three early-voting states by channeling the disillusionment many Americans, especially the white working-class, feel with stagnant wages, globalization, the influence of corporate money in politics, and a gridlocked government.Cruz, a senator from Texas, has courted libertarian and religious voters who believe their values are under assault.Both strike a tone of alarm, largely about the porous US southwest border and the threat of Islamic State. And both often offer a paean to the past, asking voters to envision a time when the country appeared to be more prosperous and homogenous.Some Republicans fear that the appeal of either candidate will simply be too narrow."It's a dangerous direction for us to go in," said Chip Felkel, a Republican strategist in Greenville, South Carolina."I'll argue with anyone that a Cruz nominee or Trump nominee is someone who can expand this party and help us beat the Democrats."Alternatively, Rubio and Kasich bill themselves as healers of America's fractured politics. On the stump, Rubio speaks of uniting the quarrelsome factions of the Republican Party, and has embraced diversity in a way that his competitors have not.After the South Carolina results rolled in, Rubio, a Cuban-American, stood with South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants, and Tim Scott, an African-American Republican senator from the state."This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to lead us into the 21st century," Rubio said.Rubio has vowed to grow and unite the party and broaden its appeal among younger Americans.At a rally on Friday in North Charleston, Adam Mandel, 57, was approving of Rubio. "He seems to be a little bit more willing not to go to extremes," Mandel said.The contrast between Rubio's events Friday and those of Trump and Cruz was vivid. Trump, just a day after getting into public spat with Pope Francis, told an apocryphal story about a general who executed Muslims using bullets dipped in pig blood. Cruz's rally featured Phil Robertson, star of the reality show "Duck Dynasty" who has condemned homosexuality as sinful.But some Republican voters worry that Rubio, who, like Cruz, is a first-term senator, and Kasich, who has labeled himself "the prince of light and hope", aren't tough of enough to usher in the radical change they crave."I think Rubio is too easily influenced by the establishment," James Vinson, 70, a Cruz supporter from Charleston said. "I think he'll be their guy."REUTERS DS PR1108 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-601059.Xml
Tens of thousands of people rallied in more than 30 US cities to protest the conviction of Peter Liang, a former New York police officer of Chinese descent. In an effort to show solidarity, a large number of protestors, mostly Chinese Americans, on Saturday joined demonstrations in cities around the nation from Washington DC and New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Xinhua reported. In New York, 10,000 protestors from all over the metropolitan area converged with placards and banners in hands, chanting slogans like "tragedy, not crime", "equal justice for all" and "accident is not a felony". The organiser of the New York protest -- the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights -- said what actually happened was a tragic accident that claimed two victims, Peter Liang and African American Akai Gurley, but Liang was unfairly made a sacrifice to ease the ever-intensifying friction between the police force and the black communities in the US. A ricocheted bullet from Liang's weapon accidentally killed Gurley, an unarmed civilian, when the former New York police officer was patrolling in a housing project in the borough of Brooklyn in late November 2014. Liang was found guilty of killing Gurley and convicted of second-degree manslaughter by a jury on February 11. The conviction has sparked an uproar within the Chinese-American community, not only in New York city but also many other major US cities with substantial Chinese-American population. In Washington DC, hundreds of protestors on Saturday rallied to support Liang. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco also saw similar protests. Calling Liang's conviction "wrongful and selective prosecution", Yuanfan Sun, one of the volunteers who helped to organise the rally in the DC area, said the conviction was the latest case of making the ethnic minority American a scapegoat to pay for the police brutality that has troubled US society for a long time. "Liang is not a criminal. Sacrificing Liang is not the correct way to solve the systematic problems. Justice is not served by finding a scapegoat," said John Chen, president of the New York-based Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights. On November 20, 2014, Liang, a 27-year-old "rookie" officer with only a year-and-half on the job, was patrolling on the eighth floor of the Pink Houses with his partner, Shaun Landau, who was also new to the job. Liang had his gun drawn. In the court hearing, Liang testified that in the pitch-dark stairway, he was startled by a noise. "And the gun just went off after I tensed up." The bullet hit the wall before ricocheting and hitting Akai Gurley on a lower level, piercing his heart and liver. It was minutes later that Liang came to know Gurley was struck and killed. "I was shocked. I was in disbelief that someone was actually hit," Liang recalled. Liang is the first policeman from the New York Police Department to be convicted of homicide in the shooting of a civilian since 2005. Many believe that the manslaughter conviction has been influenced by the enormous pressure on the country's law enforcement as white police officials have often walked scot-free in similar incidents wherein innocent black civilians were killed, which have triggered massive protests and riots from African-American communities nationwide. Outside the Cadman Plaza Park, a dozen of "black lives matter" activists also held an opposing protest. They demanded that "killer cops" be jailed, and called for stricter police accountability. "In New York and all over this country, for a long time, we can point to many even worse instances of police abuse and police murder where the police have gotten off. But that does not make Peter Liang any more innocent," said protestor Richard Kossally. Still, supporters of Peter Liang believe that the death of Gurley was purely an accident. "There should be no conviction," said President of the New York Veteran Police Association Lou Telano. "We hope that the law enforcement realise that this was just a tragic incident, which doesn't warrant manslaughter, and doesn't warrant a crime. There's no intent." "My feeling is that (the guilty verdict of) Peter Liang is just pacifying certain political groups." Lou said. Attorney Hugh H. Mo, who served as deputy police commissioner of New York and assistant district attorney in Manhattan, believes that the guilty conviction was affected by the current political climate. "I think you have to examine Peter Liang's case in the context of wrong time, wrong place. Within the last year and half, or two years, there has been such a great number of police shootings of the innocent black man. That certainly created a whole issue of police accountability." "As we all know after (Eric) Garner and (Michael) Brown, these cases that have galvanized African American community as well as the white community, many African American feel that police had to be held accountable." Many others held similar opinion. Chief Information Officer at Coalition of Asian American Don B. Lee, said: "I believe that Peter Liang was convicted in the court of public opinion before he is even convicted in the court of law." Liang and his partner were fired from the police department right after the conviction. His sentencing is set for April 14. Although a guilty conviction by a jury is very difficult to overturn, supporters has voiced hope for leniency in Liang's sentencing. "What happened on November 20 was a tragedy for both families," Councilwoman Margaret Chin in Manhattan said in a statement. "I ask that Judge Chun give the many factors that made that tragedy happen due consideration in the sentencing of Peter Liang." "I hope that District Attorney Thompson will say to the sentencing judges that Peter Liang did not intend to kill Akai Gurley to get things right. This is an accident, not a crime," said Don Lee. --Indo-Asian News Service py/dg ( 979 Words) 2016-02-21-12:09:32 (IANS)
Zahid, who is also home minister, said on Saturday that the police are working with Interpol to ensure these militants do not come back to Malaysia, Xinhua reported.

"The decision to bar them from returning home is to safeguard the country's peace and stability," he said.

The deputy prime minister said there were 132 Malaysians in total who have been identified to be fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.

"Malaysia belongs to all ethnic groups and we want to maintain peace and stability in the country. The prime minister has given his commitment that peace and harmony will be given priority," he said.

--Indo-Asian News Service py/dg

( 151 Words)

2016-02-21-12:21:33 (IANS)
Suspected Islamist militants stabbed and killed a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh today, and shot and injured a devotee who went to his aid, police said.Bangladesh has suffered a wave of Islamist militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.Some of the attacks have been claimed by Islamic State, which has also said it is behind the killings of a Japanese citizen, an Italian aid worker and a policeman.In today's attack, five or six motorcycle-borne attackers cut the throat of the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, 55, as he was organising prayers at the Deviganj temple near Panchagar, 494 km north of the capital, Dhaka, police said."We suspect that they might be members of the banned Islamist militant group Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB)," police official Humayun Kabir told Reuters.The Islamist militant group could not be reached for comment. No group has so far claimed responsibility.The motive for the killing was probably to create an unstable situation in the country and ultimately establish a caliphate, Kabir, the deputy director general of police in the area, added.One devotee who tried to stop the priest's attackers was shot in the leg before the group fled, he said. Police have not yet made any arrests.The government denies that Islamic State has a presence in the country of 160 million people. Police have blamed earlier attacks on home-grown Islamist militants.REUTERS DS AS1429 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-601280.Xml
February is Black History Month. This month was chosen because of the birthdays of two great figures central to the freedom and liberation of African-Americans in the United States: Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and Frederick Douglas (Feb. 14). The goal of the month was to expand the imagination of people everywhere and grew out of fervent vision of liberating a beleaguered people whose identity had been burdened by so many misrepresentations.

When we think of black history in the United States, the role of the Catholic Church doesnt immediately come to mind. Thats understandable, because the Catholic church in the early days of our nation was a minority religion, and later on made up mostly of immigrants who often times were oppressed themselves. That having been said, there are Catholic black americans who have contributed to a greater appreciation of African-American culture in our country. Here are three such individuals:

 When one thinks of the history of black Catholics, the name of Father Cyprian Davis (1930-2015), a Benedictine monk, comes to the fore. A preeminent scholar, Cyprian was a professor of church history at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana. He received his doctorate in history from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, the same university from which Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen received his doctorate in philosophy.

Cyprians seminal work, "The History of Black Catholics in the United States," begins with the time of early Spanish exploration and extends through the year 1970. He traces the history of blacks and black Catholics through their first permanent settlement northeast of St. Augustine, Florida. He explores black Catholic influence from California to Maryland. He gives biographical glimpses of Blessed Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) and Bishop James Augustine Healy, the first Catholic black bishop (ordained 1875, Portland, Maine). Cyprian left a giant legacy for the church, and especially for its black membership.

 Father Clarence Rufus Joseph Rivers (1931-2004), a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, was a musical game-changer in the Roman Catholic Church. Rivers had a vast academic background in English, theology, liturgy and the theater arts. The Most Rev. Wilton D. Gregory, the current African-American archbishop of the Atlanta Archdiocese, said, Father Rivers was a musical and cultural genius who provided great pride for African-American Catholics by composing music for the Catholic liturgy that clearly and proudly reflected the cultural gifts of black people in our country.

Rivers sought to wed the improvisational components of the quintessentially American music  jazz  with the substantial music and liturgical tradition of the Roman Catholic Mass. An American Mass Program (1968) blended Gregorian chant with the melodic and rhythmic patterns of the old Negro spirituals. Rivers music spoke the language of his people and helped them sing to their God proudly in a church now becoming more familiar with their lived experiences.

Father Rivers was a founding member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, the first director of the National Office of Black Catholics and editor of its journal, Freeing the Spirit.

 The third individual to be mentioned is Franciscan Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990), born Bertha Bowman in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Though she presented the humble face of a religious woman, Sister Theo was a powerhouse of academic achievement: Viterbo University, Wisconsin (1965: English, speech and drama), The Catholic University of America (M.A. 1969: English; Ph.D. 1972: English language, literature and linguistics), Boston College (1989: Ph.D. in theology; she was the first black woman to receive this degree). She was the co-founder of the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, the only black Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States.

Sister Thea was a charismatic speaker and leader. She used her book learning to call black Catholics to their rightful place. She told wonderful stories; she carried her spirit in her hands as she shared with others the immediacy of God and the warmth of the Holy Spirit.

Historian, composer, spiritual guide: Father Cyprian Davis, Father Clarence Rivers and Sister Thea Bowman all sought to unleash the fetters that bound the American black community so they could take pride in their accomplishments.

I am indebted to an article entitled Pearls of Great Price by Rawn Harbor, from which much of the above information was taken.
Lebanon's Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi today announced his resignation, blaming political rivals Hezbollah and their allies for the country's political crisis, which has seen it without a president for 21 months and paralysed state institutions."Continuing (to be part of) this government has become an agreement to this deviation, or at least is a failure to confront it," Rifi said in a statement."So I present to you and to Prime Minister Tammam Salam my resignation."REUTERS JW VN1626 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-601470.Xml
Auburn High School senior Jeffrey Stechuchak credits his family, along with school and community opportunities, with piquing his interest in making the community a better place.

Jeffrey said his parents, John and Diane, have always been active in their community. Further, they have encouraged him, along with his younger brothers, Kevin and Ryan, in doing the same. He said their example and encouragement are keys to his success.

His involvement with the Blueprint II program in seventh grade developed his leadership abilities and awareness of community needs. Blueprint II was a program lead by the Stardust Foundation that invited students from junior high to ninth grade to come together in teams. Once together, the teams researched community improvement projects, pitched their ideas and, in the end, the foundation funded some of them. Jeffrey said his experience introduced him to people he didnt know, helped build his self-confidence and made him aware that though the idea may seem easy, implementation isnt always so. He said hes proud of his teams successful work, as it resulted in two downtown mosaics: the one by Auburn Public Theater and the other on the Boyle Center.

The National Honor Society student is involved with a variety of other volunteer projects, as well. The NHS recognizes academic excellence in addition to encouraging students to use their time and talents to better both themselves and their communities through volunteering and mentorship. Jeffrey is ranked 10th in his class of approximately 350 students.

Hes a member of the National Music Honor Society, and has played the violin since fourth grade. This is a relatively new group and recognizes students for both their academic and musical achievements. They are involved with concerts and other musical programs. They venture out in the community to such places as nursing homes. In the future, Jeffrey said they hope to mentor younger students interested in music.

Other school activities include the Model U.N. and Spanish Club. Jeffrey has had perfect school attendance dating back to kindergarten. He doesnt know why, but said he never gets sick.

Jeffrey is a eucharist minister at Sacred Heart Church and assists with its nursery program. He assists at church events and fundraisers, whenever he can. Once a month he baby-sits for the Genesee Elementary PTO. This gives parents an opportunity to be involved in their childrens school. He tries to find time to volunteer at the Ward W. OHara Agricultural & Country Living Museum and Dr. Joseph F. Karpinski Sr. Educational Center.

In addition, the 18-year-old works at Wegmans. For fun, he likes to read and engage in small construction projects.

Jeffrey stated that managing home, school, work and volunteering can certainly be challenging. Its very much a balancing act, and he said hes developed great time management skills. I dont like waiting and want to get it done, he said.

Volunteers make the community a better place and make a better life for others, Jeffrey said. He thinks that its important to give back in order to keep the community strong. Its a great way to meet others and learn new ideas. The community has always been there, but its more than services or institutions  its really about people caring for other people.

For himself, volunteering has helped him build his people skills. He said hes much more open now to talking to people he didnt know before. He thinks hes more social and open. And his experiences have certainly opened his eyes to the needs of others.

While he knows that he is going to college next fall, a college selection has yet to be made. Hes looking at a variety of options as to where to go and what to study. He has interests in both criminal justice and history. No matter what, Jeffrey said, community engagement will always be a part of the future.
Feb. 21, 1936

Locke basketball players have organized a town team. On the squad are: Hector Stewart, principal of Locke Union School and former athlete at the University of Rochester; Clifford Baker, Moravia High School player; Ralph Rhom, Harold Page, Harold Meisner, Gordon Youngs, Lyle Bruce, Kenneth Meisner, Leondard Mott and Stanley Palmer.

Feb. 21, 1961

OFFICERS OF UNC  Newly elected officers of the Ukrainian National Club held their first meeting of the year at the club Saturday. Left to right seated are William Perron, president; Eugene Pesarchick, vice president; Joseph Fallat, recording secretary; Theodore Tarby, treasurer; In back are Joseph Hulick, Peter Androsko, Michael Lepak, William Chekansky and William Tarby, trustees, and Stephen Gonza, financial secretary.

Feb. 21, 2006

Like the old saying goes, it isn't whether you win or lose it is how you play the game and as far as team Sister Act is concerned, it is also how much fun you can have doing it. The team comprised of Janie Mack, Sharon Cardinale, Maryanne Gleason, Nancy Mazzeo and Dorothy Donato, all sisters, are an instantly noticeable, boisterous group every Tuesday at Starlite in the Bea Carpenter Memorial League.

According to Cardinale, the oldest sister, while they are a bowling family, it began with the children. Over the years, all of the sisters have competed in various leagues on their own or in mixed competition, but they said there is nothing like the five of them together.

Feb. 21, 2011

Kobe Haight, 9, of Union Springs, played marbles for the first time at the Frontenac Museum's Olde Time Fun and Games in Union Springs on Sunday. Kobe and his brother, sister, and mother attended the event because his mother encourages the children to be a part of their community.

Jodie Jenkin, 8, of Union Springs, demonstrated throwing her airplane during the paper airplane contest at the Frontenac Museum's Olde Time Fun and Games Day Sunday. Three gift certificates for cookies from The Lake House Sweetery, a bakery in Union Springs, were given to the children who made the best airplanes.
AUBURN  It was 1990 or 1991. Stanley Ten Eyck doesn't remember which.

Regardless, it was a few years after the Auburn native retired from International Union Operating Engineers Local 545. And on every one of his newly free days, Ten Eyck had been coming to the Auburn YMCA-WEIU and swimming laps in its pool. His wife talked him into it, he said.

One of those days, about a quarter-century ago, Ten Eyck was swimming in that pool with a few others when a YMCA employee stopped them.

"They wanted to know if we would take the lifeguard test," he said. "Right then and there in the water."

That's how Ten Eyck, now 89, began an autumn career that came to an end Friday.

About 20 YMCA staff and swimmers gathered outside the Auburn facility's pool locker rooms that morning to congratulate Ten Eyck as he clocked out of his last shift as a lifeguard there. Aquatic Director Erin Johnson, tearily presenting him with a plaque for his service, said that Ten Eyck leaves his chair the second-oldest lifeguard in the country.

"All the members love him," she said. "He was always looking out for everyone."

Johnson said Ten Eyck got to know all his swimmers well, and would have whatever they needed  kickboards, flippers  laid out before their programs began. They and Johnson take comfort in the fact Ten Eyck will continue swimming at the YMCA and volunteering with its pool programs, she said.

That means Ten Eyck will continue making the 30-minute drive he's made from his Jack's Reef home Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for 25 years. Further, he's made it well before sunrise: His lifeguard shifts ran from 5 to 9:30 a.m.

"Unless nobody showed up to relieve me," he said. "Then I worked longer."

Ten Eyck said he's hanging up his buoy because he can no longer swim without stopping to catch his breath. As a result, he can no longer pass the biennial lifeguard test.

However, he's only had to use his life-saving skills twice: once in the water, and once out. It was the same man both times.

Ten Eyck first helped him when, in the YMCA shower, the man asked the lifeguard, "Where am I?" Ten Eyck alerted the front desk, which called 911. The man was having a stroke.

Then, some time later, the man was back in the pool. He had to stick to the shallow end due to his condition, Ten Eyck said, but once, he wandered into the deep water. Struggling to stay afloat, he was pulled back to the shallow end by Ten Eyck.

Asked to tell more about the rescue, as well as his fondest memories as a YMCA lifeguard, Ten Eyck instead gave another reason he's retiring  again.

"That's my problem, too: My memory's gone!" he laughed.
GEDDES  Warmer climates made this year's Central New York Boat Show one of the best in a long time, according to several participating dealers.

The New York State Fairgrounds in Geddes hosted boat enthusiasts from across the state for the four-day annual showcase between Thursday and Sunday. Crowds perused displays from more than 70 exhibitors spread between the Center of Progress, Horticulture and Exhibit Center buildings.

Several sellers from the Cayuga County area also participated, including Frontenac Harbor out of Union Springs, The Sailboat Shop in Skaneateles and Owasco Marine. Also featured was The Raptor Project, a showcase of several birds of prey led by founder Jonathan Wood.

Frontenac Harbor brought around 22 vessels to this year's CNY Boat Show from mostly their pontoon and sport boat product lines. By Sunday, several of those had been sold after a very busy showcase, said owner Bernie DeGraw.

The harbor has participated in the CNY Boat Show for the last five years, spreading their wares this year across about 7,000-square-feet of space in the Exhibit Center, according to DeGraw.

"The last two years, it's been snowing like crazy. Last year today, I think it was minus 12 degrees without the wind chill," he said. "(Saturday), we had sunshine and it made people think summertime, I think, and brought them out in droves. That was nice."

The Union Springs dealership recently settled into the former Circuit City at the Fingerlakes Crossing plaza in Aurelius to serve as a large-scale wintertime boat display. The showroom will remain open until April.

DeGraw said it is likely Frontenac Harbor will return to the space next winter, while he is also looking forward to how a slate of future renovations to the fairgrounds  a $50-million endeavor with plans for a new 110,000-square-foot expo center  will affect future boat showcases.

"I think that, for the most part, the marina owners throughout the show are very pleased with having nice weather," he said.

The Sailboat Shop, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and hosted several festivities during the CNY Boat Show to celebrate the occasion, according to owner John Jablonski.

Jablonski echoed many of DeGraw's sentiments about the effects of the fortunate weather on this year's show. He said The Sailbot Shop saw many interested buyers and consistently good foot traffic perhaps also due to an improving local economy.

"It's probably one of the best shows we've had in 10 years," he said.
As county leaders continue to stand behind their respective lines in the sand in a disagreement over a state grant for the DA's office, we offer what should not strike anyone as a novel idea  have everybody take a step back and see if they can find some middle ground.

The dispute revolves around a program that assists local district attorneys in prosecuting things like welfare fraud, and Cayuga County is in line for grants of more than $100,000 per year for the next three years.

District Attorney Jon Budelmann has been petitioning the county Legislature to accept the grants, even though the amount for 2016 would fund the program only through the middle of the year.

County Administrator Suzanne Sinclair has taken the position that the program doesn't return enough revenue to the county to make it worth pursuing.

In the past two weeks, one Legislature committee passed a motion to accept the grant and then another voted to reject it  this after Budelmann took the unusual step of trying to rally public support for the plan. Sinclair, meanwhile, was drafting layoff notices for employees of the DA's office who would be affected by the loss of funding, even before the second vote had been taken.

But the discussion doesn't have to end here. And it shouldn't. The Legislature is perfectly free to revisit this subject, and we urge it to do so.

At a time when revenues are precious, the idea of rejecting $300,000 in funding from state seems misguided. Perhaps there is a way for the county to use these funds in a way that is more efficient  and the county administrator and the district attorney should be working together to figure that out. Instead, we get the impression that both sides have dug their heels in to their stances.

There must be other counties that are getting these funds and using them in a way that fully benefits taxpayers. Cayuga County officials should talk with those counties and with state officials about how these funds can be best used  and then put a plan into action.
I recently got back from a 10-day trip to Cuba. And during those days I gained some insight into what thousands of Americans are going to find when they leave their luxury hotels and lavish supermarkets and spend significant amounts of money to travel to an island hobbled by embargo and food shortages. In a nutshell, it's going to be a huge, huge mess. But (probably!) worth it, particularly for the adventurous and culinarily unambitious.

The trip I went on was a "people-to-people" educational group voyage, in compliance with U.S. State Department guidelines. I like to think of it as the last government trip to Cuba, before normalized tourism takes hold. The group spent most of its time in Havana, but we also visited Vi?ales in the west and Trinidad on the Caribbean coast. Cuba is a fascinating and outrageously photogenic place. Here's what I saw.

The food is bad, but the plumbing is worse

Part of traveling is pretending that the food everywhere you go is some of the best in the world. But not everywhere can be above average on the culinary front. Mince pie and fermented shark are indigenous to somewhere, after all.

Cuban cuisine is based on imported rice, black beans, government issue cheese product #1 and enough sugar to give you diabetes in a week. It tastes about as good as it sounds.

I'm not blaming Cuba for this. The country is desperately poor, the embargo means nothing is quite fresh, and restaurants have only been legal since 2013. That's hardly enough time to make a proper sauce, let alone develop a restaurant scene.

But that doesn't stop travel writers from pretending the food is good. The most recent example of this was The New York Times' 36 Hours in Havana piece, which fawned over all of the "hot" new restaurants in city. The article came out while I was there, so I made a point of going to as many restaurants as I could in search of a decent meal. They were perfectly lovely restaurants with attentive service, hip decor and food that would make a Red Lobster manager blush.

Story continues

The one upshot to Cuban food is you don't find yourself overeating, which is good since properly functioning flush toilets are almost unheard of.

Labor is free and capital is dear

Eighty percent of Cuba's workforce is employed directly by the state. For them, the official wage is 500 Cuban pesos per month -- or about $20. Professionals in sectors facing an acute labor shortage make a bit more: doctors earn three times the standard wage. But however you slice it, the average salary is extremely low relative other countries in the hemisphere.

Sure, there's a big safety net: the government provides free housing, healthcare, and education. The ration book provides for about 15 days of food per month, as well as staples like soap and cooking oil. (beyond that, food is subsidized.) So we're not exactly talking about World Bank $1.25 a day levels of poverty, but buying power in the country is limited. And to make matters worse, anything that can't be produced on the island needs to be imported, often via the black market thanks to the embargo, leading to higher than average prices for clothes, electronics, building materials, and the vast majority of consumer goods. Internet access is $2 per hour, texts 5 cents per message.

The high cost of goods and low cost of work lead to labor practices that would seem insane anywhere else. Jobs like plowing fields and weaving textiles that have been mechanized for decades in the rest of the world are done by hand in Cuba -- sometimes by people with college degrees. Productivity is handicapped because employers (read: the state) are also short on cash. Cuba imports all its energy and most of its food, leaving very little to put towards machines that might improve efficiency. Cuba's "modern" infrastructure and equipment dates from the end of the Soviet Era, and much of it from before the revolution (see: classic cars).

The result is a country where a full-time employee might cost $100 a month in the embryonic private sector, but a five-year old Kia runs $100,000.

Old cars were kind of terrible

The reason we don't drive 55 Chevys around America anymore is that they were terrible cars. On every measure aside from sheer bulk, classic cars were drastically worse than what we drive today. They were slow; got terrible fuel economy, and were almost-certain-deathtraps in any sort of accident. Perhaps worst of all: they lack catalytic converters. Only 5% of Cubans own private cars, and a not all of those are 55' Chevrolets. But even the small number of old cars tooling around Havana's empty highways spew so much particulate that the air in New Yorks Times Square seems fresh and clean by comparison.

Cuban agriculture is 100% organic and a total catastrophe

In college, I took a course about Cuban agricultural systems that in retrospect was nothing more than an excuse to get around hyper-strict Bush-era travel bans. I didn't go on the Cuba trip then (it involved mandatory farm work), but I remember the thesis quite clearly: It was that Cuba shows how a whole country can be not only GMO free, but also free of pesticides and fertilizer. Michael Pollan's wet dream.

If Cuba is the example, we're all going to starve.

While it's true that all the food produced in Cuba is totally organic, the agricultural system is a complete shambles. Nobody can afford a tractor, let alone fertilizer or pesticides. The revolution capped farms at 40 acres making them too small to effectively mechanize even if you could afford machines. People pick insects off tobacco leaves by hand and plow fields with donkeys. Some 14% of the country is stuck working in agriculture, which contributes just 4% of GDP and doesn't produce nearly enough to feed everyone. More than 80% of food has to be imported.

All of the buildings are falling down

One of the most striking things about Communist Cuba is how little communist architecture there is. There is the revolutionary square -- a vast parking lot with a scattering of dumpy post war buildings around it. But aside from that, most of the built environment dates from a several decade timespan around the turn of the 19th century. There are very few of the concrete apartment blocks that blanket Eastern Europe.

It makes for a lovely old-world feel on the surface, but the problem with a building stock that's over 100 years old and hasn't seen a drop of paint since 1989 is that buildings are starting to fall apart -- everywhere, and at the same time.

According to one government architect, Havana sees four buildings collapse per-day. Apartments are privately owned (sales are restricted and only became legal at all in the past few years), but ownership of the buildings is ambiguous. A gallon of paint costs a month's salary. Don't even think about new appliances. The parts of the old city that haven't already fallen down look as though they soon might.

One sliver of hope is the recent relaxation of remittance rules by the Obama administration. Some buildings are being renovated -- which could suggest the owners have relatives in Miami.

Cuba seems to realize it's time to increase income inequality

When nearly every job pays 500 Cuban pesos ($20) a month, it's really hard to get people to fill jobs that are grueling or require years of training. The result is labor shortages and weird labor distribution, a problem exacerbated by two factors:

1: The United State's policy of open immigration from Cuba siphons off some of the wealthiest, ablest, and most educated workers to the U.S.

2: Extraordinarily low state wages and the premium on foreign currency makes tourism-related jobs, where you can earn a tip, the most desireable in the country. The result is that cab drivers have Ph D.s and are some of the richest people around.We met an economist from a university in the country who explained some of the recent reforms aimed at addressing this crisis. Farmers are now allowed to sell 10% of their harvest to private parties (the remaining 90% is sold to central government). Wages for doctors were tripled, and requirements to become a teacher have been drastically lowered (Cuba's great educational system is talked about exclusively in the past tense).

There's no racism and Cuba's a democracy, technically

I'm not sure if it's the repressive government or the lack of Internet access, but a lot of Cubans come across as a particularly by-the-book, party-line lot. We were told by several different people that despite a history of slave plantations, racism wasn't an issue at all in Cuba. The Revolution technically abolished it in 1959! How glorious. Why didn't we try that, comrade?

We heard similar double speak about elections and press freedom. If there's an election commission, the elections must be free and fair. The law says so!

Everyone in Cuba desperately wants the embargo lifted

As a tool of regime change, the American trade embargo has been a complete failure. The Castro government is now the longest serving in the world. But as an exercise in immiserating a small country, it has been a smashing success. Turns out that locking 11.5 million people out of the world economy does, in fact, result in radically higher prices, crumbling infrastructure and widespread human suffering.

Let's not pretend the embargo is some great principled position. We count the Saudis among our closest allies and we resumed trade with China -- an opening that has helped lift 500 million people out of poverty (while benefiting western consumers too!). The difference between China and Cuba is the Guomindang fled to Taiwan when they lost the revolution. Batista supporters went to Miami, where they have been enormously successful at advancing grudge politics against the revolutionaries ever since.

Cuba relations are something of a historical curiosity for most Americans, but for Cubans they are the only thing that matters. Almost everyone you encountered -- save for the employees at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, who set the global standard for surly hotel staff -- were genuinely excited to find out we were Americans. People would assume we were Canadian, we'd correct them, and their face would light up with joy. Cab drivers would give us a high five. Street merchants would beam and ask how we liked Cuba. Its not just that Americans tip better than our neighbors to the north, but that our presence means the embargo might end soon.

Unfortunately, I doubt it will.

And they think your concern about McDonald's is patronizing nonsense

The Cuban culture that we romanticize today developed during a period when the country was utterly and completely dominated by American companies. The idea that the arrival of McDonald's will somehow suffocate a culture that survived United Fruit, the Batista regime, the mafia, and a communist command economy strains credulity, to say the least. Some of the state officials we talked to found the idea patronizing.

Cuba has more than enough crumbling commercial real estate to go around and the Cuban people seem to desperately want access to the same goods and services everyone else in the world enjoys. I personally find dilapidated buildings and ration centers photogenic, but pretty much everyone would be better off with a McDonald's there instead. Plus, Cuban breakfast could really benefit from the introduction of the McMuffin.

Most of the embargo is rigorously enforced, but some aspects are total bullshit

Thanks to Cuban Expat Lobby, the U.S. embargo of Cuba has been more ruthlessly enforced than any other trade sanctions we've imposed, but even so, the part about air travel seems to be kind of bullshit. American air carriers aren't allowed to fly to Cuba -- you have to take a special charter from one of a handful of approved cities.

The thing is, my charter was an American Airlines plane with an American Airlines Crew that offered American Airlines frequent flier miles for a trip to a country American Airlines is ostensibly not allowed to fly to.

Take that, Castro.

Wally Nowinski is the director of e-commerce at custom photo printing company, Collage.com.



See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
After being locked in a deep freeze for more than 30 years, two microscopic creatures called tardigrades have been resuscitated, with one of the adults getting busy with reproduction "immediately" and "repeatedly," scientists reported.

Scientists were even able to revive a tardigrade egg after it spent the past three decades cooling its jets alongside the mature duo in a researcher's freezer.

Their findings shattered the previous preservation and revival record for tardigrades and their eggs, which had been eight years for frozen tardigrades and nine years for dried eggs stored at room temperature. [Video: Watch the Frozen Tardigrades Come Back to Life]

It's alive!

Scientists retrieved the two microscopic Acutuncus antarcticus hitchhikers and one egg from a piece of frozen moss that had been collected in Antarctica in 1983. For years, the moss was kept frozen at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius.) During that time, the tardigrades maintained a state known as "cryptobiosis," showing no visible signs of life and with their metabolic processes at a standstill.

But after more than 30 years in this suspended state, they were brought back to life.

Scientists rehydrated them and video-recorded the results, observing that after just one day, a revived tardigrade was tentatively stretching a pair of its stubby legs. Six days after rehydration, the tardigrade was moving its body, as though it were trying to lift itself, the researchers noted. After 13 days had passed, the animal was eating algae, its first meal in decades, And after 22 days, eggs were visible inside the tardigrade's chubby body.

It eventually laid 19 eggs. A. antarcticus reproduce through parthenogenesis, which means that their embryos grow and develop without fertilization, and in this instance, a total of 14 hatchlings emerged.

The other tardigrade survived for just 20 days after rehydration, and died without reproducing. But the frozen egg hatched and produced a larva that went on to lay 15 eggs, of which seven hatched successfully.

Story continues

Hard to kill

Tardigrades, which also go by the endearing names "water bears" and "moss piglets," measure about 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) long. They have eight limbs tipped with clawlike structures that propel their plump, segmented bodies through a variety of watery, algae-rich environments all over the world.

But they have a hidden superpower  surviving adverse conditions such as extreme heat or cold that would kill just about any other form of life. Tardigrades were even sent into low-Earth orbit in 2007, where they weathered exposure to space's vacuum, cosmic rays and solar ultraviolet radiation. Their secret lies in an ability to expel all the water in their cells and generate a protective coating, suspending them in a deathlike but still-living state that they can maintain until conditions improve.

Other tiny creatures are known for similar long-term preservation capabilities. The researchers described prior studies that revived refrigerated adult and larval nematodes, microscopic worms, after as long as 39 years.

But reviving a tardigrade after 30 years is unprecedented, and their ability to reproduce after a brief recovery period is a testament to their durability. It also raises questions about their preservation mechanisms, and how they and other organisms can survive a deep-freeze recover, and how they repair cellular and DNA damage when they're restored to life, Megumu Tsujimto, the lead researcher at National Institute of Polar Research, said in a statement.

Looks like the cold never bothered them anyway.

The study was published online Feb. 16 in the journal Cryobiology,

Follow Mindy Weisberger on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Beirut (AFP) - At least 50 Islamic State group fighters have been killed in the last 24 hours in an advance by Syrian government forces east of Aleppo city, a monitor said Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters were killed in clashes as well as strikes by Russian forces that are waging an aerial campaign in support of government troops.

Since Saturday morning, Syrian government forces have taken more than a dozen villages from IS jihadists around a stretch of highway that runs east from the northern city of Aleppo to the Kweyris military base.

The advances have consolidated government control over the stretch of highway leading to Kweyris, which they seized in November.

"The army has encircled IS in 16 villages south of the road. The regime wants to take these villages to consolidate its position in the east and southeast of the province," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

The advances follow a major regime operation in northern Aleppo against rebel forces that has allowed them to virtually surround the opposition-held east of Aleppo city.
Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - A two-day African economic summit in Egypt ended Sunday amid calls for investment as organisers said several business proposals were negotiated to help boost growth.

More than 1,200 delegates including some heads of states attended the conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, aimed at attracting private sector investment.

Organisers of "Africa 2016" did not reveal the overall investment figure agreed, but said several memorandums of understanding were signed for projects in sectors including infrastructure, health and information technology.

"What is needed is mega African projects to attract investments," said Egypt's Investment Minister Ashraf Salman in remarks translated into English as he closed the summit.

Salman said Egypt, an organiser of the summit along with the African Union, already has investments worth $8 billion in Africa, and more projects were planned.

"Egypt is part and parcel of Africa. We share a common destiny," he said.

Analysts say that despite an economic growth rate of more than four percent, Africa still accounts for about only two percent of global trade.

On Saturday, leading bankers said that despite several challenges including those emerging from "terrorism", Africa remained an investment destination.

Africa Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said the bank plans to invest $12 billion in the continent's energy sector over the next five years.

Africa's economy is projected to grow by 4.4 percent this year and five percent in 2017 as against three percent growth expected in developed countries, he said.
London (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Iconic fashion label Alexander McQueen returned to the London Fashion Week catwalk on Sunday for the first time in 14 years with a collection by British designer Sarah Burton.

Models on a labyrinthine catwalk presented flowing embroidered dresses with vivid butterfly motifs, glittery hairpieces and striking winter jackets.

The event at Lawrence Hall, a 1920s exhibition venue in central London, attracted some of the biggest names in fashion, including Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of US Vogue.

The label's founder McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010, was honoured last year with a retrospective at London's Victoria & Albert Museum which became its most visited exhibition.

Burton joined his company in 1996 and was made head of womenswear design in 2000.

Burton worked alongside McQueen for more than 14 years and was appointed creative cirector of the brand in May 2010.

The label, which usually shows in Paris, broadcast its one-off return to London on Sunday evening live on Twitter.

Once a relatively small event on the international fashion circuit, London has built a reputation for invention and creativity, buoyed by Britain's growing fashion industry which now supports almost 800,000 jobs.

Many of this year's shows have been streamed live across Britain on 60 outdoor screens, including a giant one in London's Piccadilly Circus. Organisers say they could reach a potential audience of 35 million, according to organisers.

Sales of womenswear in Britain hit 27 billion ($38.5 billion, 34.5 billion euros) in 2015.

The event follows on the heels of the New York version, with the fashion world shifting to Milan and then Paris next month.
By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government said on Sunday they had pushed back Islamist fighters in several areas of Benghazi, seizing the strategic port of Marisa. The Libyan National Army said it had also taken control of the town of Ajdabiya, about 150 km (90 miles) south of Benghazi, another city where it has been battling Islamist groups. Libya has been riven by conflict since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, as armed factions supporting rival governments in Tripoli and the east have fought for power and a share of the country's oil wealth. Islamist fighters have used the resulting security vacuum to expand their presence, and militants loyal to Islamic State have gained control of the city of Sirte, to the west of Ajdabiya. Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, has seen some of the worst fighting, with violence escalating when military commander Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign in 2014 against Islamists and other armed groups. Munthir al-Khartoush, a spokesman for the army's Battalion 309, said that besides Marisa port, the army had taken control of the nearby neighborhood of Al-Halis and had advanced in the district of Boatni, which also saw heavy fighting on Saturday. At least three soldiers and 15 Islamist fighters were killed in Sunday's clashes, the military said. Marisa would be a significant gain for the army. The groups it has been fighting have been receiving deliveries of weapons through the port. "We have completely cut off the supplies coming to the front line for the Islamist groups in the west of Benghazi by capturing Marisa Port," Khartoush said. Later, military sources said the army had also captured Al-Hawari hospital in northern Benghazi. Health care has been badly affected by the violence, and a medical source said that if the hospital could be protected from further fighting it would make a major difference to medical services in the city. In Ajdabiya, military spokesman Akram Bouhaliqa said the army had forced Islamist fighters from the area around Galouz Street and the industrial zone, the last positions they held. A resident also confirmed to Reuters that the army was in control of the city. Three soldiers were killed in Sunday's clashes, Bouhaliqa said. A hospital source in Ajdabiya said 65 people had been killed and 140 wounded in fighting there over the past two months. The violence comes as a unity government nominated under a United Nations-backed plan is trying to win approval from Libya's internationally recognized parliament in the east. It also comes two days after a U.S. air strike targeting a suspected Islamic State training camp in the western city of Sabratha killed nearly 50 people, including two Serbian embassy staff abducted in Libya in November. (Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Andrew Roche, Larry King)
Madrid (AFP) - President Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Saturday.

Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syria's bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then.

And he said he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

"In 10 years, if I can save Syria as president - but that doesn't mean I'm still going to be president in 10 years, I'm just talking about my vision of the 10 years," he said in an interview published on the newspaper's website.

"If Syria is safe and sound, and I'm the one who saved his country - that's my job now, that's my duty.

"If the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they don't want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away."

World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities in Syria to pave the way for renewed peace negotiations, but the truce has faltered as fighting on the ground has intensified.

In an interview with AFP on February 12, before the deal was announced, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country.

Speaking to El Pais, he said he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but warned that it should not be exploited by "the terrorists" to improve their positions, using the regime's term for all rebel groups.

"It's about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists."

Syria's regime has been pressing an offensive in the northern Aleppo region backed by Russian air strikes and troops from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Story continues

Assad said the support of his Russian and Iranian allies had been "essential" in the recent major advances made by regime forces.

"We definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways," he told El Pais.

Some backers helped "directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums," he told the daily.
57994b09f15141c2b36681577e47a8b5

A space rock mystery may finally be solved.

Scientists have long-thought that asteroids end their lives in the solar system by making a final death-dive into the sun, but a new study suggests that at least some space rocks appear to disintegrate before ever coming close to the star.

The study may bring us closer to understanding how to protect the Earth from an asteroid strike.

The new study, published in the journal Nature this week, details theoretical modeling done with 100,000 images of about 9,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs)  asteroids and comets that can come near the planet  seen over the course of eight years by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.

SEE ALSO: The Hunt for Killer Asteroids

The researchers produced a model of the NEO population in the solar system based on the Catalina data, and found something strange.

The model showed that there should be about 10 times more NEOs coming within about 8.6 million miles of the sun than are actually observed.

After about one year spent verifying their data, the scientists think they may have an answer for why some asteroids are missing from the solar system's cosmic pool: The space rocks appear to be breaking apart.

"The discovery that asteroids must be breaking up when they approach too close to the Sun was surprising and that's why we spent so much time verifying our calculations," study co-author Robert Jedicke said in a statement.

Image: Karen Teramura, UH IfA

The study's authors still aren't exactly sure what could be causing the asteroids to disintegrate, but they have some ideas.

It looks like darker asteroids are more likely to break up before reaching the sun than bright ones, so those dark space rocks may have a different composition than others in the solar system.

"What's great about this result is that it tells us that the near-Earth objects are a changing population being actively reshaped in dramatic fashion by the sun," NASA scientist Amy Mainzer, who is not an author of the study, told Mashable via email.

Story continues

"Not only are the NEOs getting flung all around by gravitational interactions with the planets, but the sun seems to do a pretty good job of shredding some unlucky ones!"

The next steps in planetary protection

Scientists haven't actually seen an asteroid break up in this manner, and new studies will be necessary to confirm the statistical findings, but this could be a good starting point for explaining the odd asteroid mystery.

This new analysis may also help to explain why there appear to be a fair number of meteor streams that don't actually have a parent object leaving bits of material in its wake.

It's possible that the parent bodies could have been destroyed by the sun after leaving behind that debris for the Earth to run into along its orbit.

By learning more about the composition of these asteroids, scientists may be able to develop new ways to deflect harmful objects that might be on a collision-course with the planet.

"If we could figure out the mechanism that's breaking these things up, that may tell us about the internal structure of asteroids, and that's paramount to understanding and to practical applications of planetary protection," said Peter Brown, an astronomy and physics professor at the University of Western Ontario. Brown was not affiliated with the new study.

"We have to understand how an asteroid is put together  is it a gravel pile; is it a rubble pile; is it a monolithic rock, etc.  if we're going to deflect or worry about trying to move an asteroid around."
Its one of the greatest frustrations of pay TV, the dreaded cable box. Yes, in order to watch cable or satellite TV, we have to go through the provider to install one of their boxes, and then pay to rent them. Its one of the reasons why so many Americans have decided cut the cord, get rid of the extra cost of cable and look for other methods to watch television.

Well last week, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to approve new rules that would open the cable box to competition, to allow third parties to offer boxes that would be compatible with those offered by the cable and satellite providers. This isnt final yet, but its a first step to getting rid of those annoying receivers which can be slow or be just plain outdated in this day and age of fast bandwidth.

It would be like the breakup of AT&T back in the 1980s which had a nationwide landline monopoly forcing consumers to take phones the company provided. Until the courts stepped in and broke up AT&T into smaller regional companies, people could not own their own landline phone. Now its hard to believe that something like that ever took place, but now we can buy our own landline phones or not even have one and depend on mobiles.

This decision would not break up the cable monopolies, but would offer some relief to consumers who hate having to pay for multiple boxes and receivers. Consider how much Americans are paying to rent the boxes that sit on top or below your TV set:

According to a US senate study, subscribers spend an average of $231 a yearor $19.25 a monthjust to rent these boxes from their cable companies. That amounts to roughly $20 billion spent on boxes every year.

This is not a cottage industry, but a huge industry that consumers are subsidizing for the cable and satellite providers. They force us to take the box and then make us pay for it. But by allowing other companies to offer their version of the cable box, it could lead to better technology and getting rid of the rental prices.

Last weeks vote will lead to a comment period and then eventually a final vote. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler assured the cable and satellite providers that third parties would not infringe on their programming agreements and their ads:

There is nothing in here that allows third parties to disaggregate cable content or sell advertising around it, he said. It takes the same system that goes to the cable box today with the same structures and moves it through a different box.

So, if the FCC approves the proposal, it will still take months for the plan to be implemented, but should the plan go through, it would lift a frustration that has plagued many a pay TV customer experience especially when the box lags. Lets hope that we can buy our own boxes sooner than later.

[Quartz]
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian leaders have invited Balkan states to a meeting on migration in Vienna on Wednesday following the country's move to limit asylum applicants to 80 per day. Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz sent invitations to Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, Mikl-Leiter's office said in a statement on Sunday. The meeting, to include Defence Minister Peter Doskozil, is planned in advance of a separate European Union conference of interior ministers, planned for Thursday, she said. From Friday, Austria began limiting the number of migrants it lets in daily at 3,200. Though Austria's move has angered European Union leaders in Brussels, Mikl-Leitner is pledging her country will introduce even stricter controls. The EU's migration chief has said the cap on asylum claims would break EU as well as international law. The pace of migrant arrivals in Austria has slowed since 15,700 arrived from Hungary on a single day at the height of the migration crisis in September, but it is expected to accelerate this spring when weather improves and more people fleeing war, violence and poverty in Syria and the Middle East head northwards. (Reporting by John Miller in Zurich and Francois Murphy in Vienna; editing by Susan Thomas)
Udi Aloni's Israeli musical drama Junction 48 won the 18th Panorama Audience Award, the top prize of the Berlin International Film Festival voted on by ordinary moviegoers, it was announced Saturday.

The feature, Aloni's sixth film to screen in Berlin, is a feel-good drama set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. In it, young Palestinians use hip-hop as a medium of protest against the Israeli occupation.

Read More: 'Junction 48': Berlin Review

Second place went to Fukushima, mon Amour from veteran German director Doris Dorrie, while Oliver Schmitz's South African-set tale Shepherds and Butchers took third.

Read More: Berlin Hidden Gem: 'Shepherds and Butchers'

Another Israeli film, Who's Gonna Love Me Now?, about a gay, HIV-positive Orthodox man caught between his tradition and the new family he has found in London, took the audience prize in the Panorama Dokumente section. Tomer and Barak Heymann directed the pic.

Second place in the documentary category went to Strike a Pose, a surprisingly touching Dutch film that follows the fate of six dancers who toured with Madonna on her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. Third place went to Korean documentary Weekends from director Lee Dong-ha.

See More: The Scene at Berlin Film Festival
By Daniel Ramos and Monica Machicao LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivians voted on Sunday in a referendum that will decide if President Evo Morales can stay in power for a fourth term, with the result looking uncertain as support for the once popular leader has ebbed. Morales, currently on his third term, is seeking to change the constitution so he can run for re-election in 2019, potentially allowing the onetime coca grower to remain president until 2025. While voters across Latin America have largely turned against the populist leftists that once dominated the region, Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has remained standing. But that may be about to change. Polls in recent weeks have shown Morales with a slight but weakening lead, and a survey by Equipos Mori last week put the 'yes' and 'no' votes in a dead tie, with some 11 percent undecided. [nL2N15R0PX] Morales has been credited with slashing poverty in one of South America's poorest countries by spending a natural gas windfall on welfare programs and new infrastructure. In 2014 he won re-election with 61 percent of the vote. If he wins the referendum, he says he will continue his '2025 Agenda' that includes eradicating extreme poverty. His core supporters are voters like widowed mother-of-ten Lourdes Alarcon, who says in recent years she has seen new schools, improved sanitation and paved roads in Achocalla, a rural area on the outskirts of the capital La Paz. "There are good to reasons to support (the 'yes') because I think instability is damaging for a country. We want more good years and good projects," she said. But a growing body of critics charge Morales' administration with corruption, waste and authoritarianism. Recent allegations about an ex-girlfriend whose company has won lucrative government contracts have weighed heavily on his popularity. In a middle-class neighborhood in a southern district of La Paz, 37-year-old Susana Macias said she was voting 'no' as a form of "rebellion". "We feel we have been tricked. The people who are leading us are not who we thought they were," she said. With feelings running high, six people were killed in protests this week, apparently after Morales supporters set fire to an opposition local government office. But observers said people were voting peacefully on Sunday with no sign of trouble. [nL8N15W5FK] "It looks like being a much closer-run contest than anything Evo Morales has had to fight since he became president in 2006," said John Crabtree, a Latin American political analyst based at Oxford University. Provisional results are expected soon after polls close at around 2000 local time (0000 GMT). (Additional reporting and writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by W Simon and Mary Milliken)
La Paz (AFP) - Bolivians voted Sunday on whether to allow Evo Morales, a leftist who is under fire over corruption allegations, to seek a fourth term and potentially extend his presidency until 2025.

Already the country's longest serving leader, the 56-year-old Morales cast his ballot in the coca-growing region of Chapare where he first emerged as a political force to become Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006.

Monitors from UNASUR, a regional political union, said polls opened "in a climate of absolute calm" in Bolivia, a major gas and mineral producer but one of South America's poorest countries.

But angry voters set fire to ballots and ballot boxes at a polling station in the city of Santa Cruz after they learned there were no election registries, a spokesperson for the regional election tribunal said.

A lack of election materials delayed the start of voting at other places.

Polling station began to close at the scheduled 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) deadline, but election authorities extended voting in some places.

Local television stations are expected to air exit polls a few hours after the voting ends, with official results to follow.

Urging supporters to turn out in record numbers, Morales -- an Aymara Indian -- exhorted them to "let us know if they love me or not" by endorsing changes in the country's constitution to allow him to run for a fourth term.

A late breaking corruption scandal involving an ex-lover of Morales appears to have hurt the campaign for a "Yes" vote, however.

Polls had shown voters to be evenly divided over the constitutional changes, but sentiment has swung sharply in the past week, with the "No" vote vastly favored in the most recent pre-election poll by a 47 to 27 percent margin.

- Another term? -

Since taking office the first time in 2006, Morales has been re-elected twice, most recently in 2014 to a five-year term that ends in 2020.

Under the current constitution adopted in 2009, sitting presidents can only seek re-election once.

Story continues

But Bolivia's Supreme Court ruled that Morales's first term was exempt from the rule, allowing him to run again in 2014.

Last month, he became the longest serving president since Bolivia's independence from Spain in 1825 -- a rare accomplishment in a country known for military coups and shaky, short-lived governments.

The campaign formally ended on Thursday but continued furiously on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the weekend.

Voting is mandatory, and some 6.5 million Bolivians are eligible to cast ballots.

- Ex-girlfriend trouble -

Morales's most recent, and perhaps most damaging, scandal relates to charges of favoritism shown to CAMC, a Chinese engineering company that won the bid for a major railroad expansion project.

One of the top managers at CAMC's La Paz office is Gabriela Zapata, 28 -- Morales's former girlfriend.

Morales is single and has recruited his older sister to perform the functions of first lady.

However, he recently admitted to having a child with Zapata during a two-year relationship that began in 2005 when she was 18. Morales said the child later died.

The president rejected corruption allegations as "a hoax by the US embassy" to discredit him, and insists that he has "nothing to hide."

In an attempt to clear his name, Morales has asked state accounting authorities to investigate the process by which the government signed contracts worth $576 million with CAMC.

Congress has also opened a probe into the allegations.

Morales has overseen robust economic growth in Bolivia, but opponents accuse him of presiding over corruption and investing in flashy infrastructure projects at the expense of health and education.

If the constitutional amendment he supports is rejected by voters, it would be Morales's first election defeat.

A close ally of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Morales is testing his fortune at a time of disenchantment elsewhere in Latin American with longtime leftist leaders.
London (AFP) - London Mayor Boris Johnson has long been both ally and nemesis to Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron but dealt his old friend the heaviest blow yet Sunday by backing the campaign to leave the EU.

The leave campaign had lacked a unifying figurehead but Johnson's support is a major boost for them -- and a significant blow for Cameron, who he could eventually succeed as Conservative leader.

Commentators say Johnson's desire for the top job is likely to have played a major part in his decision to back Brexit.

With his shock of blond hair and frequent gaffes, Johnson, 51, is one of Britain's most recognisable politicians, known to millions simply as Boris.

His witty quips and shambolic appearance make him popular even with voters who do not share his political views.

Johnson once said his chances of being prime minister were on a par with "my being reincarnated as an olive" and urged men to vote Conservative because it will "cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3".

Born in New York in 1964, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's family was competitive and high-achieving.

His father was a Conservative member of the European Parliament, one brother, Jo, is a minister in Cameron's government and his sister Rachel is a journalist and writer.

She told his biographer that, as a child, he wanted to be "king of the world" when he grew up.

Johnson won a scholarship to Eton, one of Britain's most prestigious schools, which Cameron also attended two years below him.

The pair were then contemporaries at Oxford University and both members of the Bullingdon Club, an elite, all-male dining society known for its rowdy behaviour.

Biographers say Johnson was touted as a future prime minister at Oxford while Cameron kept a lower profile, sowing the seeds of their rivalry in government.

- 'Win-win' decision -

After graduating, Johnson became a journalist, working at newspapers The Times and The Daily Telegraph -- including as Brussels correspondent -- and editing right-wing political magazine The Spectator.

Story continues

He became a lawmaker for the then opposition Conservatives in 2001 and was later appointed as a shadow arts minister before being sacked from the role over accusations of lying about an alleged extra-marital affair.

In 2008, he became London Mayor and stepped down from the House of Commons.

Johnson's proudest achievements at City Hall include overseeing the 2012 Olympics -- during which he was pictured dangling, stuck, from a zip wire -- and major transport works like Crossrail, a A15 billion (19 billion euro, $21 billion) rail project which when finished will connect areas east and west of the city.

The city's cycle rental scheme also bears his name -- "Boris Bikes" are now a highly popular method of getting around the congested city.

While broadly seen as an ally of Cameron, Johnson -- who is married with four children -- has not always been seen as helpful to his old rival.

In the run-up to last year's general election, Cameron reportedly used the f-word in a text message to Johnson telling him to "shut up" after the mayor wrote about how many Old Etonian prime ministers there had been.

Johnson will step down as mayor at elections in May and is among the favourites to succeed Cameron, who will not stay on beyond the next general election in 2020.

Commentators say Johnson is likely to have decided to come out in favour of Brexit based on what was most likely to win him the Conservative leadership.

George Eaton, political editor of the New Statesman magazine, wrote Sunday that Johnson had calculated that backing out was a "win-win".

"Should the UK vote to leave, David Cameron will almost certainly resign as prime minister and the mayor will be best placed to succeed him," he wrote.

And if Britain votes to stay, Johnson will have "earned the affection" of grassroots Conservative members, many of whom are eurosceptics, which would also boost his leadership hopes, Eaton added.
LONDON (Reuters) - The odds of Britain leaving the European Union shortened on Sunday after reports that influential London mayor Boris Johnson would back the 'leave' campaign, bookmaker Ladbrokes said. The bookmaker said the odds of a British exit had improved to 2/1 from their previous price of 12/5. Johnson had also become favorite to be the next leader of the Conservative Party when Cameron decides to step down, they said. The BBC reported Johnson's decision to back a British exit from the bloc at a June 23 referendum without citing sources ahead of an official announcement expected around 1700 GMT (1200 ET). One source with knowledge of the decision confirmed to Reuters that he would back the 'out' campaign. (Reporting by William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
By William James and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson threw his weight on Sunday behind the campaign to leave the European Union, dealing a blow to David Cameron by increasing the chance British voters will ditch membership in a June referendum. In a move that electrified the referendum campaign by pitting one of Britain's most charismatic politicians against the prime minister, Johnson said Cameron had failed to deliver fundamental reform with an EU deal struck on Friday. Johnson, a political showman whose buffoonish and eccentric exterior is thought to mask a fierce ambition to succeed Cameron, said he loved European culture, civilization and food but that the European project was in danger of getting out of democratic control. "The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the government, but after a great deal of heartache I dont think theres anything else I can do. I will be advocating Vote Leave," Johnson told reporters outside his north London home 20 minutes after texting the prime minister his decision. "I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control," said Johnson, mayor since 2008 and a member of parliament for Cameron's Conservative Party. Sterling fell in Asia as concern grew that Britain would quit the EU. The pound fell around 1 percent against the dollar, euro and yen. Johnson, 51, said he would not take part in debates against members of his own party. But his decision gives the "out" campaign a de facto leader who is one of Britain's most high-profile politicians. Betting odds of a British exit rose to a 33 percent chance from about 29 percent, according to bookmakers. Johnson dismissed questions from reporters about whether joining the campaign to leave the EU was the first step toward a bid to succeed Cameron. On the contrary, he said with a smile, Cameron should stay no matter who won the June 23 referendum. PARTY DIVIDE By challenging Cameron less than 48 hours after the prime minister hailed a deal struck with other EU leaders as giving Britain a special status, Johnson deepened a divide in the ruling Conservative Party, split over Europe for three decades. Cast as Britain's biggest strategic decision in at least a generation, voters will be asked on June 23: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" A British exit from the EU would rock the Union - already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone - by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial center. Pro-Europeans, including former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major, have warned that an exit could also trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote. A poll published before Johnson's move showed the "in" campaign with a lead of 15 percentage points. Polls suggest about a fifth of voters are undecided. BIG BATTALIONS Johnson, instantly recognizable by his thatch of platinum-blond hair, had repeatedly avoided staking out a clear position on Britain's EU membership. But on Sunday, he said the EU was "in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control" and national sovereignty had been eroded. "Theres too much judicial activism, theres too much legislation coming from the EU," said Johnson. Cameron's backing for EU membership has the support of the City of London, major companies, much of the Labour Party, major trade unions, international allies and Scottish nationalists. Opposed are several bickering "out" campaign groups. Cameron's most senior Cabinet colleagues have stuck with him, although one close ally, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, did rebel with five other Cabinet colleagues. "The big battalions of the argument are unquestionably ranged against people like me: We are portrayed as crazy cranks and all the rest of it. I don't mind, I happen to think that I'm right," Johnson said. By throwing his influence behind the out campaign, Boris has shifted the balance of the campaign and thus made a British exit more likely, said some analysts. "Boris Johnsons decision to campaign for 'out' is a huge boost for the Leave campaign," said Hugo Dixon, a Reuters columnist and author of "The In/Out Question", a book in support of Britain's membership. "He is a popular figure who crosses traditional political lines. The chance of Brexit has risen," said Dixon, who is also editor of the pro-EU InFacts group. A third of voters said Johnson would be important in helping them decide which way to vote, an Ipsos MORI poll showed. Cameron has said he will step down as prime minister before 2020. If Britain remains in the EU, Johnson's chances of getting the top job could be tarnished by having openly opposed him. But if Britain opts to leave, Johnson would be a leading candidate to succeed Cameron. (Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
By Rupam Jain and Douglas Busvine BAHADURGARH, India/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India deployed thousands of troops in a northern state on Sunday to quell protests that have severely hit water supplies to Delhi, a metropolis of more than 20 million, forced factories to close and killed 10 people. Rioting and looting in Haryana by the Jats, a rural caste, is symptomatic of increasingly fierce competition for government jobs and educational openings in India, whose growing population is set to overtake China's within a decade. The latest unrest threatens to undermine Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of better days to come for Indians who elected him in 2014 with the largest majority in three decades. As before, the 65-year-old leader ignored the protests - instead giving a speech on rural and urban development in the eastern state of Chattisgarh, unveiling a statue to a late Indian guru and praising a 104-year-old woman for backing his campaign for a Clean India. The federal government deployed 4,000 troops and 5,000 paramilitaries in a massive show of force, and ordered an end to the protests by Sunday night. Home Minister Rajnath Singh met Jat leaders and offered to meet their demands. In Bahadurgarh, on the road west from Delhi, around 2,000 protesters occupied a highway intersection and stopped truck traffic. Shops in the town were closed. "We are here to die," said Rajendra Ahlavat, a 59-year-old farmer and protest leader. "We will keep going until the government bows to our pressure. There is no way we will take back our demands." TV reports from Jhajjar, further west, showed troops fanning out on the streets against a backdrop of burning and damaged buildings - evidence of the fury of Jats who make up a quarter of Haryana's population and number more than 80 million in all. Haryana's police chief said the death toll had risen to 10 and 150 more had been injured. "We are trying to identify the conspirators and take action," Director General of Police Yash Pal Singal told a televised news conference. An official from Singh's nationalist party - which also rules Haryana - said after talks at his residence that it would bring a bill in the state assembly to grant "reservation", or a guaranteed quota of government jobs, to Jats. WATER STATION ATTACKED Protesters have attacked the homes of regional ministers, torched railway stations and staged sit-ins on tracks, blocking hundreds of trains. They sabotaged pumping equipment at a water treatment plant that provides most of Delhi's water. "No water available now. Still no hope to get it," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet on Sunday. The Delhi government ordered schools to shut on Monday and rationed water supply to residents to ensure that hospitals and emergency services have enough. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's biggest carmaker by sales, suspended operations at its plants in the state after the protests disrupted the supply of some components. Modi wants to attract foreign investment to back his 'Make in India' drive to create 100 million manufacturing jobs by 2022. At the current rate India may only create 8 million jobs in that period, by one independent estimate. (Additional reporting Suvashree Choudhury in Mumbai; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Digby Lidstone)
By Larry Fine NEW YORK (Reuters) - Matthew Centrowitz surged to victory with a final-lap burst to repeat as Wanamaker Mile winner, while elite sprinters Allyson Felix and Andre De Grasse powered to wins at the 109th Millrose Games on Saturday. Centrowitz, feeling sub-par due to congestion, laid back behind New Zealand rival Nick Willis before charging past at the gun for the final lap to win in a meet record 3:50.63 for a 2016 indoor best. "Caught a little something this week, but still wanted to defend my title." Centrowitz said. "I couldn't attack it like I wish I could've until I had to." Willis, the 2008 Olympic 1500 meters silver medallist, repeated his runner-up finish to Centrowitz from last year in 3:51.06 for his third second to go with a pair of thirds in Wanamaker bids. Shannon Rowbury won the women's mile by nearly two seconds, clocking 4:24.39. Felix and DeGrasse, sprinters with high Olympic expectations, were unhappy with their starts in the 60-metre dashes yet emerged victorious on the fast Armory track. Four-times Olympic champion and nine-times world champion Felix was taking a break from arduous training in her quest for a rare 200-400m double at the Rio Olympics. "This was about working on my start which still needs more work," said Felix, who won in 7.15 seconds, five-hundredths of a second ahead of world champion long jumper Tianna Bartoletta. "My start will be huge for my 200 this year. I know it wasn't great (on Saturday) but I was in the race at least. "My start has always been an issue and for the 200 it's key. The majority of the girls running the 200 are coming from the 100 and I need to be able to compete." De Grasse, appearing as a professional for the first time in his 2016 debut, won his 60m race in 6.61 seconds, barely edging China's Bingtian Su by one-hundredth of a second. The fast rising Canadian, who left the University of Southern California to sign with Puma, was last year's world 100m bronze medallist and winner of a 100-200 double at the Pan Am Games. "Felt like I didn't have a great start but somehow I ended up finishing the race well," said De Grasse, 21. "I found myself in the back (out of the blocks) and had to go to my next gear." In other strong performances, American Ryan Hill won the 3,000 meters in a 2016 indoor best of 7:38.82, just three-hundredths of a second ahead of American-Somali Hassan Mead. Betsy Saina of Kenya took nearly 12 seconds off the year's indoor best in the 5,000m when she edged American Molly Huddle in 14:57.18. (Editing by Andrew Both)
By Paul Sandle BARCELONA (Reuters) - China's Huawei [HWT.UL] said it backed Apple's chief executive Tim Cook in his stand-off with the United States government over breaking into an iPhone, but stopped short of saying explicitly it would adopt the same stance. "It is very important, we agree with that," Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei's consumer business group, told reporters in Barcelona gathered for the Mobile World Congress. "Privacy protection is very important for Huawei, we put a lot of investment into privacy, and security protection is key, it is very important for the consumer." Apple is resisting U.S. government demands that it unlock an iPhone used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party in San Bernardino in December. "Tim Cook spoke up for that (privacy) ... for us it is really very important," Yu said. "I think it's good letting the government understand why we cannot do some things. There are some things we can do, but there are some things we cannot do." Asked directly if Huawei would take the same approach in similar circumstances, Yu said Huawei would "insist on the important things for consumers". "Some things the government requires from vendors we cannot do," he said, citing an example of unlocking an encrypted Android device. "These are important things for the consumer, for privacy protection." Yu was speaking after Huawei unveiled its Huawei Matebook, a two-in-one tablet and detachable keyboard aimed at the business market, and pitting the company against rivals Apple, Samsung and Lenovo. The new product featured an Intel Core m-series processor and runs Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system, he said. Huawei, the leader in the Chinese market and third ranking worldwide according to Gartner, uses Google's Android operating system on the more than 100 million phones it shipped last year. Yu said the company was confident growth would continue. In January, traditionally a quiet month for sales of electronic goods, the company shipped more than 12 million devices, he said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
Baghdad (AFP) - Clashes between Iraqi tribesmen and the Islamic State group in Fallujah have halted after the jihadists detained dozens of residents of the city west of Baghdad, officials said Sunday.

The fighting between the Sunni Arab tribesmen and IS in Fallujah, one of two cities it still holds in Iraq, challenges the jihadists' ability to maintain control.

But officials said tribesmen were running short of supplies on Saturday, and IS, which is known for its extreme violence, has already executed a large number of opponents elsewhere in Anbar province.

Tribesmen in three areas of Fallujah "withdrew from the clashes (with IS), fearing for the fate of the detainees", an army lieutenant colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The clashes stopped because of the imbalance of power and fear that the detainees would be executed," said Issa Sayir who was appointed by the Anbar governor to administer the Fallujah area.

Sayir said IS was likely to execute Fallujah residents for their alleged "cooperation with the security forces".

Raja Barakat, a member of the provincial council in Anbar, where Fallujah is located, said: "We now fear that the (IS) organisation will carry out a massacre in the city."

Sayir estimated the number of detainees at around 60, while the lieutenant colonel said the figure was over 110 and a tribal leader said more than 100.

Sheikh Majeed al-Juraisi, a leader in one of the tribes fighting the jihadists in Fallujah, said IS had seized the residents over the previous two days.

- Civilians trapped in city -

"We hold the prime minister responsible for any massacre carried out against the people of Fallujah," Barakat said, calling for the launch of a military operation to retake the city.

Both Sayir and the army officer said a military operation would be launched in the Fallujah area in coming days, but it may come too late for the detainees in the city.

Officials said the clashes began Friday as a fight between tribesmen and Al-Hisba, IS members charged with enforcing the religious strictures of the Sunni extremist group in the city.

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The fighting escalated into gunbattles involving members of several tribes.

IS launched a sweeping offensive that overran swathes of Iraq in June 2014, but security forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with US-led air support.

Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is the only Iraqi city apart from IS's main hub, Mosul in the north, still under jihadist control.

The militants also hold other areas, including large towns such as Tal Afar and Hawijah.

Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 during unrest that broke out after security forces demolished a protest camp in western Iraq, and it later became an IS stronghold.

The tens of thousands of civilians in Fallujah are facing increasingly dire living conditions, and officials say IS is preventing people from leaving the city, which has largely been cut off by security forces.

There are an estimated 300 to 400 IS fighters inside Fallujah, but the jihadists have repeatedly seized areas and defended others for extended periods despite being heavily outnumbered.
By Luciana Lopez and Steve Holland LAS VEGAS/COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rolled to victory on Saturday in South Carolina in a contest that saw former Florida Governor Jeb Bush drop out, while Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton beat back a strong challenge from Bernie Sanders in Nevada. The victories by Trump, who is running as an anti-establishment outsider, and Clinton, a preeminent political insider, solidified their positions as the front-runners to win their parties' respective nominations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. The night's most prominent casualty, Bush suffered a distant fourth place finish in the Republican contest and announced he had suspended his campaign, ending his dream of becoming a third Bush president after his father and brother. "The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision," an emotional Bush said in Columbia. He finished far out of the running in each of the first three states. By winning both South Carolina and New Hampshire and holding leads in 13 states that hold Republican contests on March 1, Trump was arguably on track to win the nomination, an outcome that seemed astounding to contemplate when he entered the race last summer. "It's going to be very difficult for him to be derailed at this point," said Hogan Gidley, who was a senior adviser to former Republican candidate Mike Huckabee. The 69-year-old real estate billionaire and reality TV star was declared the winner in South Carolina about an hour after polls closed, and launched into a feisty victory speech. "Let's put this thing away," Trump told cheering supporters in Spartanburg. He denounced TV pundits for saying there could be enough anti-Trump votes to beat him when the race thins further. "These geniuses," he said. "They don't understand that as people drop out, I'm going to get a lot of those votes also. You dont just add them together." Trump easily defeated Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who were in a close fight for second place and the right to declare themselves the anti-Trump alternative. With 99 percent of South Carolina precincts reporting, Trump had 32.5 percent, followed by Rubio with 22.5 percent and Cruz with 22.3 percent. Cruz's inability to distinguish himself from Rubio in the state was a blow to his campaign, which had invested heavily there to rally support among South Carolina's large population of evangelical voters. Trump's victory won him at least 44 of the state's 50 delegates, bringing his delegate count to 61, compared to 11 for Cruz and 10 for Rubio, according to a tally by Real Clear Politics. Republicans need 1,237 delegates to win the party nomination. SANDERS SETBACK It was Trump's second victory in a row, an outcome that frightens establishment Republicans but thrills the "throw-the-bums-out" conservative base of the party that has long been fed up with Washington. The bellicose New York billionaire had created some last-minute drama in South Carolina after Pope Francis said on Thursday his views on U.S. immigration were "not Christian." Trump, who has also advocated a ban on Muslim immigrants to counter domestic terror threats, stirred fresh controversy on Friday when he told a crowd about a U.S. general who was said to have dipped bullets in pigs' blood to kill Muslim prisoners a century ago. Former Secretary of State Clinton's victory in the Nevada Democratic caucuses, meanwhile, could help calm worries among the Democratic establishment about the strength of her campaign. Her result denied Sanders the breakthrough win he had sought in a state with a heavy minority population, but his ability to close a one-time double-digit polling lead for Clinton suggests the Democratic nominating race will be long and hard fought. With 90 percent of precincts reporting, the former first lady was leading with 52.6 percent of the vote to Sanders' 47.4 percent. Clinton's victory gave her fresh momentum as she heads into the next contest in South Carolina on Feb. 27, where polls show her with a double-digit lead largely as a result of heavy support from black voters. "Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," she told cheering supporters at a victory rally in Las Vegas. "This is your campaign." Sanders vowed to fight on and set his sights on the 11 states that vote on "Super Tuesday," March 1. He predicted that when Democrats gather for their nominating convention in Philadelphia in July, "We are going to see the results of one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States." "The wind is at our backs," the Vermont senator said. "We have the momentum." After routing Clinton in New Hampshire and finishing a strong second in Iowa, states with nearly all-white populations, Sanders had hoped to prove in Nevada that he could win over black and Hispanic voters and compete nationally as the race moves to states with more diverse populations. But entrance polling in Nevada showed he badly lost among black voters, by 76 percent to 22 percent, a bad omen for South Carolina and other southern states with big black populations. He did win among Hispanics by 53 percent to 45 percent. Clinton's campaign has argued she would assert control of the Democratic race once it moved to more diverse states with black and Hispanic populations who have traditionally backed Clinton and have been slow to warm to Sanders. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez and Steve Holland; Writing by John Whitesides, Steve Holland and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Hay and Mary Milliken)
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Rio state officials have insisted that the city's metro system -- crucial to moving huge crowds during the Olympics this August -- willbe done on time, after its mayor voiced doubts.

"We are working carefully and on schedule. The expansion work is moving forward and progress is made every day. We will be in a position to deliver the project in July," Rio de Janeiro state Transportation director Carlos Osorio said in a statement Saturday.

There are still 200 meters of rock to be excavated on Metro Line 4, "the biggest urban infrastructure project now under way in Brazil, it added.

Earlier, daily O Globo published what it said was an email sent Friday from Mayor Eduardo Paes to the International Olympic Committee in which he described "a high level risk" that the vital infrastructure project will not make the deadline.

With less than six months until Rio hosts South America's first Summer Olympics, the metro line 4, which would link the Olympic Park and Village in the western Barra district to the city center, is the biggest challenge facing the authorities.

In what Globo said was Paes' email, the mayor calls for an "emergency meeting" and says that an alternative transport plan needs immediate thought.

"I really think we should start studying now and put it to the IOC's consideration," Paes is quoted as saying in the email.

The alternative would be a system of dedicated lanes for express buses, O Globo said.

Currently, travel between the principal Olympic hub in Barra and the rest of the city requires nightmarish road journeys of up to two hours. The metro line would reduce that trip to as little as 13 minutes.

With the project also touted as one of the city's main lasting Olympic legacies, any change in plan would not just risk travel chaos, but be a huge embarrassment.

A spokeswoman for the mayor refused to confirm the contents of the published email, but did not deny that it was genuine. "No one will comment on those internal communications," Claudia Lopes told AFP.

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She said Paes "has confidence in the state. The work is going on."

Lopes also denied that there was anything unusual in discussing alternative plans.

"Everything that's being done in terms of works in the city has a contingency plan. That's what you do when you have an Olympics," she said, adding that a plan B for the metro had been drawn up last year.

The Rio 2016 organizing committee did not respond to a request for comment.

- Tight money, tight schedule -

The hitch, O Globo, reported is a delay by the BNDES national development bank in releasing 1.3 billion reais for the completion of a project budgeted at 10.3 billion reais ($2.56 billion).

Paes reportedly met Saturday with local government and business leaders. According to his apparently leaked email, Phillip Bovy, the IOC chief on transport issues, is also due in Rio on Monday.

In January, the consortium building the metro told AFP that construction was 83 percent complete and publicly officials have repeatedly said the job will get done.

But even if all goes well, the 10 miles (16 kilometers) of new metro line are due to open only on July 1, the city government says.

That's just five weeks before the August 5 Olympics opening ceremony in the Maracana stadium, which is right on the other side of the city from Barra district -- as are numerous other important Olympic venues, including the field and track stadium.

The new metro should carry some 300,000 people a day, helping to remove 2,000 cars an hour from the roads, and shortening journey times to 13 minutes from Barra to the tourist area of Ipanema and 34 minutes to the central district.
PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic is ready to send around 100 soldiers to the eastern flank of NATO to help reinforce the Baltics and Poland and deter Russia, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said on Sunday. The move is in line with a NATO plan, announced on Feb. 10, to deter Russia from aggression by rapidly deploying air, naval and ground forces without resorting to Cold War-era military bases. "There is a talk of a platoon, roughly 100 people, who would take part in the alliance's contingent," Stropnicky said on Czech Television. "If the preparation of the (NATO) brigade goes according to plan, and I believe it will, then it is very likely in the second half (of this year)," he said. In an effort to deter Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO defense ministers will rely on a network of new alliance outposts, forces on rotation, warehoused equipment and regular war games, all backed by a rapid-reaction force. (Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Comic book antihero Deadpool has made it official that he wont be hosting Saturday Night Live.

Actor Ryan Reynolds, in character as Deadpool, spoofed Kanye West's recent backstage rant on SNL in a profanity-laced video Friday explaining why he wont host the comedy sketch program. The hilarious clip is in response to a Change.org petition urging the "powers that be" at SNL to consider him.

Listen up, Lorne Michaels, Deadpool begins, referencing SNLs creator. SNL took my fing Life of Pablo album without asking. Now Im bummed. That and Rip Taylor  fake ass! Imma break the motherfing Internet."

Read More: Deadpool Fans Petition 'SNL' for Superhero to Host

During West's SNL appearance on Feb. 13, the rapper had an outburst backstage, where he was recorded saying, "Don't f with me. Look at that shit, they took my fin' stage off of SNL without asking me. Now I'm bummed. That and Taylor Swift fake ass."

Following the massive box-office success of the new Deadpool film, a petition was posted on Change.org for the fictional character to host SNL. As of press time, nearly 69,000 had signed the petition.

"I've got the biggest opening rated-R movie of all time, Deadpool continues in the video. Are they fing crazy? I'm 50 percent more influential than MC Hammer, Apostle Judas Iscariot, the Kia Sorento, 10 percent more influential than Barbara Bush, the Muppets, Bob Newhart. 60 percent more influential than the iPhone 5, shredded cheese and Dr. Ruth, 7 percent less influential than the Urban Dictionary."

Actually DEADPOOL was going to host back in the 90s, but then this happened. Thank god Tom Hanks was available.https://t.co/7pyPEMysdY

Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) February 20, 2016

This article first appeared on Billboard.com.
Sayyida Zeinab (Syria) (AFP) - A string of suicide bombings near a Shiite shrine outside Syria's capital and in Homs claimed by jihadists killed more than 150 people, as Washington and Moscow worked to secure a ceasefire.

The Islamic State group said it was behind the carnage.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce in Syria's brutal five-year conflict, only for the bloodshed to intensify on the ground.

Near Damascus, a car bombing followed by two consecutive suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and killed 96 people according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's official news agency SANA, quoting a police source, said 178 people, including children, were among the wounded.

An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 metres (yards) from the revered Shiite shrine containing the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed.

A January attack in the same area -- also claimed by IS -- killed 70 people.

The Observatory also reported that two car bombs killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens in the pro-regime district of Al-Zahraa in the central city of Homs.

IS said online that two suicide bombers struck in Sayyida Zeinab and two others drove explosive-packed cars into crowds in Homs.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura "strongly condemns" the attacks, his spokesperson said in a statement.

State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted.

- 'Provisional' ceasefire deal -

World powers, which have been pushing for a halt in Syria's nearly five-year war, had hoped to see a truce take effect on Friday but have struggled to agree on the terms.

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On Sunday, Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at least three times to try to nail down a truce.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman after one round of talks.

The Russian foreign ministry later said Lavrov and Kerry held two more telephone conversations and finalised the ceasefire terms to be submitted to their respective presidents.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for peace talks to resume.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, had been scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN's Syria envoy has already acknowledged that date is no longer realistic.

Key opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee said at the weekend it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.

HNC chief Riad Hijab said any ceasefire must be reached "with international mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, told Spain's El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but that it should not be exploited by "terrorists".

- Turkey defends shelling Kurds -

Moscow is a key architect of the proposed ceasefire, but has shown little sign so far that it plans to rein in the air campaign it began in September in support of Assad's government.

Regime forces backed by Russian strikes were advancing on Sunday east of Aleppo city against IS, consolidating their control over a stretch of highway from the city to the Kweyris military base.

The Observatory said at least 50 IS fighters had been killed in clashes and Russian strikes since Saturday morning.

Tensions have been rising between Moscow and opposition-backer Ankara, alarmed by both the regime's Russian-backed advances and a major operation by Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo province.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab partners have seized key territory from rebel forces in Aleppo province, prompting Turkey to shell their positions.

Ankara considers the YPG to be an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

It fears the Kurdish advances are intended to link areas in north and northeast Syria to create a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone along the Syrian-Turkish border.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his country's fight against the YPG as "legitimate defence" after international calls for Ankara to halt its military action in Syria.
By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - An outbreak of norovirus has caused dozens of students living on the University of Michigan's main campus in Ann Arbor to fall ill with symptoms of the highly contagious disease, the school said.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the norovirus outbreak after more than 100 students living in university housing complained of vomiting and diarrhea over the last several days, the school said in a statement.

"We believe that this number does not reflect the actual extent of the illness, as students are generally following our advice to self-isolate in their rooms," said Robert Winfield, the university's chief health officer.

Norovirus is the most common cause of food-borne disease outbreaks in the United States. Infections usually occur in places such as hospitals, cruise ships and universities, where people eat and live in close quarters.

During the last several months, outbreaks of norovirus have been reported at a Kansas City dinner theater, a Buffalo Wild Wings Inc restaurant in Kansas and several Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc restaurants in the United States.

Health officials have not determined the cause of the outbreak at the University of Michigan, where a virus-killing cleaning procedure is being used in all dining facilities and residence halls, the school said.

University officials have urged students to wash their hands and to not share food in order to avoid contracting the virus.

About 19 million to 21 million norovirus cases, with 570 to 800 related deaths, are reported in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)
The spectrum of human existence is indubitably vast, intrepid. Quiara Algeria Hudes takes audiences on an emotional journey in her Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, Water by the Spoonful, which the diligent young talents of NAU Theatre will explore for themselves and audiences alike.

The latest installment in the semester-long theme, Great Stories Told by Great Storytellers, Water by the Spoonful premieres Friday, Feb. 26 and runs through Sunday, March 6 in NAUs Studio Theater. Pre-show panels March 2, 3 and 4 convene at 7:15, prior to curtain, to discuss the shows themes. Veterans receive $3 off admission on March 2. Learn more at nau.edu/cal/theatre.

With the huge back-of-the-house crew tying ends in costume and set design, Kathleen McGeever directs her small cast of seven as they portray people in search of connection despite broken familial ties, drug addiction, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder along the road to enlightenment.

Eddie Pinson portrays Elliot, a veteran and aspiring actor whos making ends meet clocking in at a sandwich shop. Elliots cousin Yazmin (Caitlin Mae Shepherd) offers emotional support as his war-inflicted PTSD returns as the ghost of an Iraqi civilian whispering a single sentence in Arabic in his dreams.

Sophomore Zamar Massey reprises three roles as a professor of Arabic who translates Elliots nightmares, the ghost and a Japanese police officer.

A lot of plays are very linear, he explained. Theres just so much going on in this play; there are so many sides to it from so many peoples perspectives. That was really interesting to me that it didnt follow any certain cookie-cutter mold of a play.

Told in a sequence of in-the-moment action and scenes taking place between computer screens, the story also envelops Odessa, known as Haikumom, a forum moderator guiding her followers through drug recovery. Leticia Carrasco will punctuate her NAU undergrad career as Odessa.

Three of Odessas followers go by the online handles Orangutan, Chutes&Ladders (Jemaya Hereford) and Fountainhead (Kaleb Lightfoot). Orangutan, played by Freshman Uyen Hoang, is a Japanese-American adopted by a Jewish family at only 9 months old. Isolated and alone, Orangutan has always struggled to fit in with the people in her tiny Maine town.

Hoang explained her character was heavily into crack cocaine for three years before Haikumom and the other group members stepped in and became her family who encourages her to stay clean and move to Japan to teach English.

Though young, these college students arent immune to heavy themes like drug addiction and isolation touching their lives.

Carrasco said shes steered clear of addiction and wartime PTSD, but her character research allowed her to relate these experiences with real-life people as McGeever brought in military veterans and an NAU professor of Arabic Studies to lend their own insight.

From there, their stories were like jigsaw puzzle pieces to me, and I just put them together to create my character Odessa, Carrasco said. I came to perhaps not fully understand how heavy this is for them  the addiction and the trauma  but I was able to comprehend to some level. Now I just want to be as honest as I can on stage to not only make the people I was able to interview proud, for them to say thats exactly how I feel, but for everybody to come to at least to open their minds that this is happening to other people.

Hoang related that she and her character share a desire for love and acceptance.

When I was younger I had very bad social anxiety, Hoang shared. I was very shy and I couldnt make any friends, and I was always by myself because my parents were always working. I was an only child until I was 15 and my mother gave birth to my little brother. Whenever I play my character, Orangutan, I try to channel that inner part of me from a long time ago that felt isolated and abandoned and couldnt fit in. That really helps me.

For these players, Water by the Spoonful relates a deep-seated bravery on behalf of Hudes and her characters representing the struggle all too many face. Defining the encompassing theme of water as both a means to dilute drugs and a sign of rebirth, each actor on stage returns to one concept: hope.

The way Ive always seen it is its kind of like a hurricane, Massey added. The heart of the hurricane is going to be the worst, but everything passesThere really are a lot of horrible circumstances in this show, and for the characters it seems like its going to be life or death. But throughout, it shows that anything can be accomplished as long as you find that one outlet  or multiple outlets  theres a way to get help for everything.
PARIS (Reuters) - The European Commission has no plan "B" in place if Britain votes to leave the European Union, and the executive body will stay on the sidelines of the referendum campaign, European Union Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Sunday. Britons will vote June 23 on whether to remain a member of the EU. Asked in an interview on France 5 television whether the EU was planning what to do if they vote to leave, Moscovici said, "No, no and no, there is no plan 'B'. It doesn't help us in any way to envisage disaster scenarios." "The day we start talking about a plan `B' is the day we no longer believe in our plan 'A'. I have just one plan. The United Kingdom in a united Europe," Moscovici said. Moscovici said the EU's executive will not take part in the referendum campaign, saying any involvement could backfire. "For me, it is prudent not to go campaign and try to impose a choice on a sovereign people. Referendums are dangerous, especially for Europe," he said. Asked about the campaign that has kicked off with London Mayor Boris Johnson joining the call for Britain to quit the EU, Moscovici said the move could hurt Johnson's image. "It will not be easy for Mr. Johnson to end up next to Nigel Farage and some other clowns and populists," Moscovici said. He said Europe was facing existential challenges, such as the Greek debt crisis and the current refugee crisis, but that the solutions should be at the European level. "It is a lot of crises, but these are European problems, but they are also international. The idea that you could find national solutions to these problems which are international is a lie," he said. "If there was a vote for Great Britain to leave the EU, it will be an inversion of the historic dynamic of the past years which has seen more countries join the bloc." Moscovici said. (Reporting by Bate Felix, editing by Larry King)
Brazzaville (AFP) - The European Union has decided not to send observers to the Republic of Congo to monitor a controversial presidential election set for March 20, according to a statement seen by AFP Sunday.

The EU decision came as it dismissed recent electoral reforms in the country, including the introduction of an independent electoral commission, as insufficient to guarantee a transparent vote.

"The current context does not allow ... the EU to envisage setting up an electoral observers' mission for the March 20 vote," a spokesman for the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in the statement dated February 19.

The European Union considers that "the reforms to the electoral law that were introduced in January 23 appear limited" and do not fulfil the recommendations made by an EU mission to the country.

The legal reform came after a new constitution removed barriers to President Denis Sassou Nguesso extending his rule.

The controversial new charter removed a 70-year age limit and a ban on presidents serving more than two terms.

It was approved by a public vote, but the opposition has dismissed it as "a constitutional coup".

The 72-year-old Nguesso, who was president from 1979 to 1992 and has since served two consecutive seven-year mandates, has said he wanted to bring the election forward to usher in a "new dynamic" after the referendum.

The EU statement said that the electoral law changes lack transparency and may bring "judicial insecurity and therefore do not appear to (guarantee) a democratic, inclusive and transparent presidential election".

It added that the bloc is concerned over the fate of opposition party members and sympathisers languishing in detention, awaiting judgement.

The Congolese government hit back at the decision, with Information Minister Thierry Moungalla saying: "I think the EU is free not to send observers. But this decision will prohibit them from judging the process when it comes to an end."

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"Whoever does not observe cannot judge," he added.

Presidential hopefuls had until Saturday to register their candidacies with the election commission. Some 12 candidates are now waiting for their files to be accepted by the constitutional court.

On February 15, the electoral roll was revised to add some 70,000 new voters, Moungalla said.
Paris (AFP) - France remembered the horror of the Battle of Verdun on Sunday, exactly 100 years on from the first shots fired in World War I's longest battle, which became a symbol of resistance and suffering.

Gathering at dawn in the forest of Caures, near Verdun, around 300 people in WWI military uniform marched down the narrow lane where the fighting started on February 21, 1916.

"It was here, 100 years ago, that the first shells fell," one man said to the sound of explosions.

"Some 1,400 guns and mortars threw up almost a million shells. Nearly 400 guns were focused on the forest of Caures."

The last veteran of Verdun died in 2008 so this year's commemorations have put the emphasis on educating the young, with thousands of French and German children attending the re-enactment.

"Time has done its work. Today, Verdun is no longer a memory, it is history," said Thierry Hubscher, director of the Verdun Memorial, which has been renovated for the centenary.

A strong point on the long frontline dividing the French and German armies, Verdun in northeastern France was the target of a German offensive whose aim -- according to commander-in-chief Erich von Falkenhayn -- was to "bleed France dry".

The battle was waged over a tiny stretch of land and ended with neither side making any significant headway.

Around 300,000 French and German soldiers died in the 10-month battle in which some 30 million shells are estimated to have been fired.

With some three-quarters of France's soldiers having experienced the "hell of Verdun", the battle quickly embedded itself in the country's traumatised psyche, viewed by the French in much the same way as the British saw the Battle of Somme.

"It's important to be here to honour those who lost their lives, but also to confirm the friendship of France and Germany at a moment when nationalism is growing," said French secretary of state for veterans Jean-Marc Todeschini, after a mass at the Douaumont memorial where the bones of 130,000 unidentified soldiers are kept.

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- 'They shall not pass' -

French General Robert Nivelle's stirring phrase, "On ne passe pas" ("They shall not pass") came to symbolise the essence of national resistance and was appropriated by military leaders across the world in later years.

For Germans, the soldier of Verdun, striving forward under heavy mortar fire became a mythical hero, praised in Nazi propaganda as the forerunner to the regime's own SS soldiers, said German historian Gerd Krumeich, who has co-written a new book about the battle with a French colleague, Antoine Prost.

But behind that mythologising about courage and sacrifice lay horrific carnage.

Such was the trauma of the battle that it took decades before the governments of France and Germany could contemplate joint commemorations.

In 1966, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer hoped to commemorate the battle of Verdun alongside France's President Charles De Gaulle, but it was deemed too soon, said Prost.

Germany had to wait until 1984 for an official invite, leading to the iconic image of Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand standing hand-in-hand at a memorial ceremony that came to symbolise the new era of peace in the heart of Europe.

Such a moment did not come easily. It was just a few months since Germany had been left out of the 40th anniversary ceremony of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, said Prost.

In all, the First World War killed some 10 million military men and left 20 million injured, many of them disfigured by explosives or poison gas, or reduced to human wrecks by what became known as "shell shock".

Between 1914 and 1918, among the major belligerents, Germany lost 1.9 million troops, Russia 1.7 million, France 1.4 million, the Austro-Hungarian empire a million and Britain 760,000.
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Saturday pledged greater military assistance to the former French colony of Burkina Faso and other countries in the Sahel region in the face of a growing Islamist insurgency. French troops stepped in to help Burkina Faso during an attack by militants from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on a hotel in its capital, Ouagadougou, last month that killed 30 people. The West African country is only just emerging from a rocky one-year transition to democratic rule that was marked by a short-lived military coup in September. Its long-time president and French ally, Blaise Compaore, was ousted by protesters in late 2014 as he sought to extend his rule. "We must strengthen our cooperation on intelligence and the training of security and other armed forces," Valls told reporters in Ouagadougou after a meeting with President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office in December after winning the presidential election in November. Valls said assistance would come in the form of help for a two-year-old development and security body known as the G5 Sahel comprising Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, as well as support for the United Nations peace keeping force in Mali. The French prime minister was in Burkina Faso as part of a three-day tour with Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian that incorporated a visit to Mali, which experienced a similar hotel attack in November. France is the largest Western power involved in fighting insurgents in the Sahel with around 3,500 troops based in the arid region that stretches across northern Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east. Its forces drove Islamist militants out of urban centres in northern Mali in 2013, but did not eradicate their networks. (Reporting by Mathieu Bonkoungou; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Nerys Avery)
Fresh rioting and arson erupted in a north Indian state Sunday in caste protests that have left at least 12 people dead, and New Delhi faced a water crisis after mobs shut down a key supply.

Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders were deployed on Saturday in Haryana state after week-long protests turned violent, with rioters setting fire to homes and railway stations and blocking highways.

At least 12 people have been killed and about 150 injured in the state since Friday, up from an earlier toll of 10, Haryana additional chief secretary P.K Das told reporters.

One person was killed in firing on Sunday and another died in a clash between two protesting groups, he said, without giving details.

The Jat rural caste is leading the protests, demanding quotas be set for Jats for highly sought-after government jobs and for university places. Caste members say they are struggling to find places despite India's strong economic growth.

Talks were held in Delhi between Jat leaders, national Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Haryana government run by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Haryana BJP leader Anil Jain said the state government had now agreed to the community's demands. "We have decided in the meeting that Jats will be given reservation through a law in the next assembly session," Jain told reporters after the talks.

Jat leader Jaipal Singh Sangwan told AFP that they would only decide on Monday whether to call off the protests.

India reserves places for lower castes to try to bring victims of the country's worst discrimination into the mainstream. But the policy causes resentment among other communities, who say it freezes them out.

Shops were again torched on Sunday and protesters carrying weapons rampaged in the streets despite the extra troops, many of whom were airlifted into the state to try to quell the violence.

"A mob attacked the police post in Kalanaur town and set it on fire. Twenty shops adjacent to the post and a school were also gutted," local police officer Hari Om said in Kalanaur in Haryana's Rohtak district, the epicentre of the violence.

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"The clashes are ongoing and we had to use firearms to break up the protesters," the officer told AFP.

An AFP photographer said he saw mobs, some armed with swords and sickles, running through the streets in Rohtak and trying to stop the media taking pictures.

Earlier he saw at least a dozen gutted buildings including a school in the town of Sampla five kilometres (three miles) from Rohtak city.

- Water crisis -

The Indian capital's water supplies were hit after media reports said mobs forced the shutting of a canal in Haryana which takes water to the neighbouring capital's treatment plants.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced water rationing throughout the city, and said all schools would be closed on Monday to conserve supplies.

"Water to be equally rationed amongst all. Pl save water. Schools closed tomo," Kejriwal said on Twitter.

Protesters maintained blockades of roads into Haryana, television footage showed. Hundreds armed with sticks halted vehicles along one key route which was also blocked with fallen trees.

One of India's largest carmakers, Maruti Suzuki, suspended operations at its two Haryana plants after the protests disrupted supplies of components, a spokesman said.

Jats are the single largest community in Haryana, with nearly eight million members, and are traditionally a farming community. They have been angered by comments in recent weeks by a BJP leader who opposed reservations for them.

Hundreds of trains in the state have been cancelled or diverted since Friday, an official said. "Ten small and big railway stations have been burnt. The mobs set fire to rail engines and bogies," railways spokesman Neeraj Sharma told AFP.

The latest protests echo caste violence that swept the western state of Gujarat in August last year, leaving several dead.

That state saw weeks of protests by the Patidar or Patel caste, who demanded the same treatment afforded to lower castes.
It's fairly common to discover dinosaur remains scratched with ancient claw or bite marks, but finding fossils with signs of tumors is rare.

And now scientists have found not one but two different types of tumor on the same bone  the vertebra of a titanosaur, a gigantic long-necked, long-tailed paleo beast, a new study finds.

"Finding any disease in fossils is rare," said the study's lead researcher, Fernando Barbosa, a doctoral student of geology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. "Cancer still is most rare because the majority of them do not leave signals in bones." [Gory Guts: Photos of a T. Rex Autopsy]

The finding is the first known case of a tumor in a dinosaur that isn't a duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaur, the researchers said.

The 7-inch-long (17 centimeters) fossilized vertebra, discovered in 2012 in Brazil's southern Sao Paulo state, belongs to a species in the Titanosauridae family, "the most abundant Cretaceous dinosaur family of South America," the researchers wrote in the study.

However, the 90-million-year-old bone had an unusual appearance  a "small bony button-shaped protuberance," the researchers wrote in the study. Curious, Barbosa and his colleagues decided to investigate the weird bump, which measured just 0.3 by 0.3 inches (8.6 by 7.5 millimeters).

They found evidence of two tumors, both benign, Barbosa said. One is an osteoma, a bone overgrowth, which the researchers confirmed with a computer tomography (CT) scan and an examination of the fossil's structure.

The other, a hemangioma, is a harmless vascular tumor.

"We were very lucky finding this because we didn't have any evidence of the hemangioma," Barbosa told Live Science in an email. "It was diagnosed by [the CT scan], which was only possible because we were investigating the radiological appearance of the osteoma."

The tumors, though examples of abnormal cell growth, should not be called cancer, he said. Usually, only harmful tumors are called cancer, and these tumors were benign, Barbosa said. Furthermore, because of the tumors' location and likely small sizes, the dinosaur probably didn't notice them, the researchers said.

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It's not the first ancient animal to have an osteoma, the researchers said. The oldest known case of osteoma dates to the early Carboniferous (a period spanning 359.2 million to 299 million years ago) in the North American fish Phanerosteon mirabile. The mosasaur Platecarpus, a marine reptile, also had an osteoma, as did a crocodile, Leidyosuchus formidabilis, which lived during the Paleocene, a period spanning between 65 million and 56 million years ago.

The new finding shows that dinosaurs other than hadrosaurs developed tumors, Barbosa said. For instance, Brachylophosaurus, Gilmoreosaurus, Bactrosaurus and Edmontosaurus, all duck-billed dinosaurs, show evidence of hemangiomas, just like the titanosaur does. Various individuals from the genus Edmontosaurus also showed evidence of a desmoplastic fibroma (a rare bone tumor), an osteoblastoma (bone cancer) and a metastatic cancer (cancer that spreads throughout the body).

"We still need to find several other diseases in dinosaurs [and] other extinct animals, and understand why they were affected by them," Barbosa said.

The study will be published in the July issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Elliott Gould, star of M*A*S*H (1970), The Long Goodbye (1973), the Oceans Eleven trilogy, and Showtimes Ray Donovan, will be honored Saturday at the 22nd Annual Sedona International Film Festival with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award. I had a chance to chat with him on the phone the other day to ask about his colorful career.

After M*A*S*H and several other films, Gould became the first English-speaking actor to star in an Ingmar Bergman film, 1971s The Touch. That same year he produced and starred in A Glimpse of Tiger, based on the novel by Herman Raucher. The production was halted after only four days of shooting, after which Gould didnt work for almost two years before Altman cast him in 1973s Long Goodbye. Since then, Gould has film and television credits that number in the dozens and span six decades.

Film critic and author Jeffrey Lyons will honor Gould Saturday, February 27 at 6 p.m. at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. Lyons and Gould are reportedly long-time friends, and the audience will enjoy their fun and interactive question-and-answer session. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www. sedonafilmfestival.org

Dan Stoffel: Your work in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) earned you a Best Supporting Actor nomination, right out of the gate for your first big feature.

EG: Well I tell you, I was thinking, What am I going to talk to you about? I really appreciate the attention at this stage. A few years back the Brooklyn Academy of Music had a retrospective of a whole bunch of my work, and in the Sunday New York Times, they had a thing where they said, Celebrating the unlikely career of Elliott Gould. Its very meaningful for me. Anytime I can meet people who are interested in meeting me, its positive, so long as its not too pretentious and I dont take myself too seriously.

DS: M*A*S*H is one of the great war comedies of all time. There were reports of tension between you and Donald Sutherland, and the director Robert Altman. But you look like youre having so much fun!

EG: Well it was great on set. Donald was cast before me, and then I was asked to meet Bob, and he asked me if I would consider playing the role of Duke, Tom Skerritts role. And I said, Ive never questioned an offer, cause all I want to do is work  but this character of Trapper John, if you havent cast it, Ive got what that character wants  Ive got the juice, Ive got the spirit for it. And Bob let me cast myself for it! Then there was this scene neither Donald or I  though I dont talk for Donald  were aware of or understanding or had worked the way Altman works, and so we were a bit taken aback. We talked to our agents about it  never to replace Bob, never that, but we were both used to a more traditional, or academic, kind of work. So then Bob reshot the scene, which exhibited to me that he was respectful of what Donald and I didnt understand, because I thought the two of us were just two pretentious actors  but its all been history since then. Bob was more like my father. I then did so much work with him, he gave me so much opportunity, and Donald and I became great friends, and we did a couple of more pictures. It was a great, great experience.

DS: I watched The Long Goodbye twice just in the last year.

EG: At the time, as happens in this industry, I had a problem finding work after working with Ingmar Bergman, and after embarking on my second attempt to produce a picture, which didnt get made because of me and my behavior and my lack of perspective and judgement. There was no employment for me. I went to United Artists, and met with my friend David Picker who was running it, and he gave me the script to The Long Goodbye. It was a pastiche, it was like an old-fashioned picture, and we thought Peter Bogdanovich was going to direct it, but Peter didnt see me in it. As a matter of fact, Picker said that Peter was interested in someone like Lee Marvin or Robert Mitchum to play the part, and I said, I couldnt argue with them, theyre like my uncles, but youve seen them, you havent seen me. And then suddenly Robert Altman was in the picture, and he called me and said, What do you think? And I said, Ive always wanted to play this guy. And Bob said, You are this guy. And that was the beginning of the picture.

DS: I just love your work as Ezra Goodman in Ray Donovan (Goulds character was killed off in the first episode of Season 3). Can you share a little about your experience working on that show and in particular with Jon Voight?

EG: Well Jon and I know one another from all the way back. He was an assistant stage manager, and an understudy, in the original stage production of The Sound of Music with Mary Martin, and a very young woman had worked with me in 1958 prior to The Sound of Music, her name is Lauri Peters (Liesl), and she became Jons first wife, so Jon and I really know one another.

What happened is, I went in to meet [creator and showrunner] Ann Biderman, and she created Ezra Goodman, and created Ray Donovan and everything, but she was dismissed by the studio because she wasnt adhering to budgetary constraints. Once they fired her, that was the end of Ezra. We had some really interesting ideas for development, and then the person who took over, he supposedly thought that they wanted only one father figure. But I felt that Ezra was more than just a father figure, that he represented something else. Now I know better, I have some perspective and I have some judgment, so now I take the high road wherever possible. Im grateful for the two-plus seasons that I had, and it honestly (and humbly) gives me a little bit of hope and confidence to feel that I perhaps can still act.

DS: Next Saturday, youre being honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Sedona International Film Festival. How comfortable are you with being honored?

EG: Thats such a nice question. I served in Israel for the 25th Annual Haifa International Film Festival, I served on the jury, and I accepted an award from them, and I said  and I may even say it again [in Sedona]  that Im so grateful to the Festival, to the president, to everyone there, for your generosity in validating my work. We cant always expect that; there are so many of us, and everybody wants something. All Ive ever really wanted, from the very inception of my existence, is peace and harmony.

DS: And have you gotten that?

EG: I have  Im committed to a family, and theres a lot of work to be done, and, you know, we all have our problems.
Hillary Clinton beat out rival Bernie Sanders to win the Nevada caucuses after a frenetic final blitz of campaigning, denying Sanders a golden opportunity to capitalize on his early momentum and raising questions about where else he can win in the weeks ahead.



Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other, Clinton said at her victory party in the Caesars Palace casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Clinton went on to outline the problems facing the country, from crumbling classes in South Carolina to the toxic water in Flint, Mich. Americans are right to be angry, she said. But were also hungry for real solutions.

Sanders outspent Clinton 2 to 1 on TV ads in the state, and managed to build up his campaign operation to rival hers in size. But Team Clinton, which had been in the state since April under the direction of Barack Obama campaign alum Emmy Ruiz, was better organized. Clintons female-focused outreach strategy in Nevada paid off, with exit polls showing Clinton winning among women by 16 percentage points, reversing the embarrassing New Hampshire trend of women choosing Sanders. Clinton once led the state by large margins, but a poll last week showed she and Sanders in a dead heat. The former secretary of state canceled a campaign rally in Florida this week and spent an extra day campaigning in Nevada.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada, where she campaigned actively to secure a victory. (Photo: John Locher/AP)

Her high-profile surrogates, including actress Eva Longoria and Cabinet member Tom Perez, flooded the state and held multiple events every day, out-campaigning Sanders team.

We knew that the race was going to be tight, and we wanted to make sure that we left nothing on the field, said Jorge Neri, Clintons Nevada field organizer.

Female voters who flocked to a casino caucus site Saturday morning said they liked Sanders but ultimately sided with Clinton, in part because they believed she would understand their issues better than Sanders.

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First of all, shes a woman; she will understand a womans needs, said Fernanda Breciado, 55, a housekeeping supervisor at Caesars Palace who was voting during her lunch break. She has the support of the greatest president, she added, referring to Bill Clinton.

Slideshow: Winners and losers in S.C. and Nevada >>>

Jennifer Palmieri, a Clinton spokeswoman, said Hillarys performance with women was good news. Its one state, its one race, but thats pretty good, she said. We understand we have work to do with white men.

The state brought out tension between the two candidates. On Thursday, an exhausted-looking Sanders and Clinton crossed paths at a town hall focused on immigration issues in Las Vegas. Clinton took a poke at Sanders earlier criticism of Obama and her husband. Maybe its that Sen. Sanders wasnt really a Democrat until he decided to run for president. He doesnt know what the last two Democratic presidents did, she said as the crowd booed. In an interview with BET later, Sanders suggested Clinton was heaping praise on Obama merely to pander to black voters.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, gesture in front of supporters after she was projected to be the winner in the Democratic caucuses in Las Vegas on Saturday. (Photo: David Becker/Reuters)

Eleven miles away from Clintons victory party on the Las Vegas Strip, Sanders supporters reassembled at the Henderson Pavilion, site of the Vermont senators final pre-caucus rally the night before, to cheer on their candidate. Campaign officials originally planned to start the program at 5 p.m. local time, suggesting that they believed the caucuses would be close and the votes would take a long time to count. But Clinton was declared the winner at about 2:30 p.m., and Sanders wound up speaking earlier than expected. About 400 supporters, who were still streaming in when Sanders took the stage, clustered near the front of the 2,444-seat amphitheater waving A Future to Believe In signs.

You know, five weeks ago we were 25 points behind in the polls, Sanders said. Weve made some real progress.

Sanders accepted his defeat, but it was hard to ignore the notes of defiance and even defensiveness in his remarks. He applaud[ed] Clintons campaign for being very aggressive  not exactly a compliment. He warned that Clintons very wealthy and powerful super-PAC  a super-PAC that receives lots of money from Wall Street and special interests would be coming after him in the weeks ahead. And he repeatedly argued that momentum was more important than victory.

What this entire campaign has been about is the issue of momentum, Sanders said. Taking on the establishment is not easy.  It is clear to me and to many observers that the wind is at our backs.

If Sanders could have pulled out a victory in Nevada, it would have gone a long way toward silencing critics who say he can only win among white voters, and lacks the broad appeal to be the partys nominee. Entrance polls found that black voters went for Clinton 3 to 1, and while the same polls showed Sanders outpacing Clinton among Latinos, its likely those results were misleading.

In an email to backers, Sanders argued that even in losing Nevada, he had proven he could do well among a diverse pool of voters. Nevada was supposed to be a state tailor-made for the Clinton campaign, and a place she once led by almost 40 points, he said. But today we sent a message that will stun the political and financial establishment of this country: Our campaign can win anywhere.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters at a rally in Henderson, Nev., after rival candidate Hillary Clinton was projected to be the winner in the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday. (Photo: Jim Young/Reuters)

That claim will be put to the test in the coming weeks as the Democratic nominating contest first moves on to South Carolina  where black voters typically play a decisive role and where Clinton leads Sanders by an average of 24 percentage points  before heading into a rapid succession of March primaries and caucuses widely thought to favor the former secretary of state.

Ive always believed March was going to be Hillary Clintons month, David Plouffe, Barack Obamas 2008 campaign manager and a current Clinton supporter, said this week. The Texases of the world, the Georgias of the world  they become very important. Michigan becomes very important on March 8. And then March 15 is, I think, the most important day on the calendar  those large Midwestern and Southern states (Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio), where I think she will do very well.

As the results came rolling in, top Clinton backers began to tout Nevada as a game-changer. This victory had to overcome the momentum Sanders got in New Hampshire and the spin from the pundits, said Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton fundraiser and Democratic National Committee member. It really speaks to Hillary Clintons message and also the strength of their campaign organization.

But in an interview with Yahoo News after Sanders speech, senior adviser Tad Devine disagreed, pointing to Massachusetts, Vermont, Colorado, Minnesota and the Midwest as contests Sanders could win going forward.

I think [Nevada] proves that they are not in total meltdown, Devine added, referring to the Clinton campaign. And it proves that we can begin to coalesce a winning campaign coalition in America. This is just the beginning.
By Fiona Ortiz CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois judge on Friday said she would decide next month whether she had jurisdiction over a voter's complaint that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz should not be on the state's primary ballot because he was born in Canada. Lawrence Joyce, a lawyer and pharmacist, filed a complaint in January with the Illinois State Board of Elections saying that under the U.S. Constitution, the Texas senator cannot run for president since he is not a "natural born" citizen. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta of a Cuban father and an American mother. The Board rejected Joyce's complaint - saying Cruz became a natural-born citizen at the moment of his birth because of his mother's citizenship - so he petitioned the Cook County Circuit Court to review that decision. Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby said she was not sure she had jurisdiction, and set a March 1 hearing for arguments on whether to dismiss the complaint. The complaint comes in the wake of repeated attacks on Cruz about his eligibility by New York businessman and presidential rival Donald Trump. Children born abroad to American citizens can immediately be registered as U.S. citizens through a consular report of birth abroad, but Joyce said that process is a form of naturalization. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in January found that one quarter of Republicans did not think Cruz was qualified to be president because of his birthplace. Cruz and Trump are locked in a battle to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Cruz won the first nominating contest in Iowa while Trump prevailed in New Hampshire. "A potential nightmare scenario may be developing if Ted Cruz becomes the nominee and is then forced to resign the nomination," Joyce told reporters. He backs Republican candidate Ben Carson but said no candidate was involved in his lawsuit. Voters in New York and in Alabama have also filed legal challenges to Cruz's eligibility. "It is widely assumed and believed that no court is going to invalidate a presidential candidate on this issue," said Gerald Rosenberg, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Lawyers for both Cruz and the Illinois State Board of Elections said they would present motions to dismiss the case based on jurisdiction and because they said Lawrence did not properly serve notice of his complaint. The Illinois primary is March 15 but early voting has already begun. (Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski)
Alwar (India) (AFP) - With his rickety bicycle and sackcloth mail bag, 62-year-old Indian postman Chet Ram does not look like a worker at the vanguard of an e-commerce revolution delivering everything from mobile phones to cow manure.

He pedals miles each day in rural Rajasthan state, ferrying packages to villages and takes payments in cash because most of his customers do not have bank accounts, let alone credit cards.

While in the United States online giant Amazon and its ilk experiment with futuristic drones and one-hour deliveries, in rural India e-commerce retains a distinctly old-fashioned feel.

Yet the dawn of online shopping is changing the lives of people in rural areas -- and is breathing new life into India Post, the ailing state-run postal network, which has struggled with a huge deficit for years.

In the past two years the 160-year-old postal giant has tied up with 400 e-commerce companies including Amazon and Indian giant Flipkart to deliver a diverse range of goods.

It deploys its vast network of about 460,000 employees across 155,000 post offices to take goods to customers in remote areas, often hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the nearest town.

Government clerk Surinder Singh Yadav from rural Ula Hedi village in Neemrana district says the dawn of e-commerce has transformed shopping for his family, who now nudge him to order products they see advertised on television.

"These companies give us a variety we don't get in our local markets, quality at competitive rates and a doorstep delivery," said Yadav, as he accepted a delivery of a spray paint machine.

- Online commerce -

The absence of reliable private delivery companies outside the big cities led India Post to step in to fill the gap.

"Until recently, people in these rural areas had aspirations but no means to access the market," Kavery Banerjee, secretary of India Post, told AFP.

"Now we are delivering women's clothes and latest electronic gadgets even in the remote regions of country like Leh and Ladakh," she added.

Story continues

It has been a huge success, with parcel deliveries increasing 15-fold to 75,000 daily deliveries in the past two years.

But India's vast areas of rural terrain, where roads can be poor and infrastructure patchy, pose challenges to the digital revolution.

Most small post offices, like the one in Neemrana, depend on unreliable public transport to collect parcels from region's bigger post offices.

Postal workers use bicycles and old cloth mail bags which make it difficult to transport bigger or multiple parcels.

Many rural Indians are still new to the Internet -- up to a billion people are not yet online in the country -- and are wary of e-commerce sites, preferring to hand over money only after receiving the goods.

Part of the firms' success has been driven by giving customers the chance to pay cash on delivery -- although it takes up to two days to find out if a parcel was accepted by a distant recipient.

"It has given a sense of empowerment to customers who are not confident about e-commerce shopping," said K.C Verma, an assistant superintendent at a post office in Behror, a town close to Neemrana.

One such customer is Sudesh Yadav, a farmer's wife in Daulat Singh Pura village in Neemrana who refused to accept her parcel of a car cleaning kit.

"The company has sent the order almost a week late," she told the postman who had cycled to her home on a cold January morning to deliver the goods.

"We have already purchased it from a nearby town. Take it back," she said.

- Financial woes -

India Post, which was founded under colonial rule in 1854, hopes the huge growth of e-commerce will enable it to reverse its ailing financial situation.

The value of cash-on-delivery parcels handled by the postal department is expected to register a 300 percent increase by the end of financial 2015 compared with last year, India Post said.

It hopes to slash its $800 million average annual deficit and improve profitability at its 140,000 rural post offices.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters last month that the Indian postal department had the potential to become the "world's leading e-commerce delivery platform".

The department has upgraded or added around 70 modern parcel handling centres with existing post offices in the last two years and plans to add to its standing fleet of around 900 mail vans across India.

It also plans to address the issue of tracking deliveries, including by giving handheld devices to postal workers.

For rural India's postmen, the flood of parcel deliveries recalls the days of the 1980s or 1990s when sending letters and postcards was much more common.

"These parcel deliveries in the last couple of years are once again making us busier," Ratan Lal, a postman with Neemrana post office told AFP.
By Jane Wardell and Peter Gosnell SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia said on Sunday a baby girl facing repatriation to an offshore immigration detention camp would go to an onshore facility instead, easing tension that peaked in a blockade outside a hospital where she is a patient. Doctors at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane had refused to release the one-year-old girl after completion of her treatment for serious burns, adding to pressure on the government over its tough asylum seeker policy. The number of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia is small in comparison with those arriving in Europe, but border security is a hot-button political issue in Australia, which is scheduled to hold a national election later in the year. Federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the infant, known only as Baby Asha, would shortly be released into community detention, which allows free movement, in Brisbane. However, Dutton stressed that the family could still be returned to a camp on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) northeast of Australia, if they were not deemed to be genuine refugees. Asha was flown last month from the Nauru center, which houses more than 500 people, to Brisbane for hospital treatment. The facility has been widely criticized for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. "The advice I've received is that the doctors from the hospital have said they would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention," Dutton told reporters. "But at some point, if people have (asylum claim) matters finalised in Australia, then they will be returning to Nauru - that's exactly the same treatment that we've applied equally." The High Court this month rejected a legal test case that challenged Australia's right to deport 267 refugee children and their families who had been brought to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment. Hundreds of Australians held an overnight vigil at the hospital, blocking exits and stopping cars in a bid to halt Asha's removal. The protest drew wide attention and support in Australia, with the Twitter hashtag #BabyAsha trending worldwide. "Together we did it!" tweeted Kon Karapanagiotidis, chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, after Dutton's announcement. Australia maintains a policy of sending asylum seekers who attempt to reach the country by boat to camps on Nauru or on Manus island in Papua New Guinea. They are not offered resettlement in Australia. The government says the policies are necessary to stop the drowning of asylum seekers as people smugglers use unseaworthy vessels to ship them from Indonesia to Australia. (Reporting by Jane Wardell; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for bomb attacks that killed at least 30 people on Sunday in a southern district of Damascus where a Shi'ite shrine is located, the Amaq news agency, which supports the militant Sunni group, reported. It said two Islamic State suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Sayeda Zeinab district after detonating a car bomb. Witnesses and a monitoring group reported four bomb blasts. (Reporting by John Davison and Omar Fahmy; editing by Andrew Roche)
By Valentina Za MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's government must seek an accord within the ruling coalition over legislation offering same-sex couples legal recognition and be ready to stand a confidence vote on it, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Sunday. Renzi, who had promised to enact the law last year, has faced strong opposition both within parliament and from the Roman Catholic Church, which wields great influence in Italy. In the latest setback, the government last week postponed voting on the bill after it lost the support of the populist Five Star Movement on a key amendment. The most contentious aspect of the legislation is a clause allowing same-sex couples to adopt the biological child of the other partner - a compromise deal may require ditching it. Critics say the stepchild adoption would encourage surrogacy parenting, which is illegal in Italy and fiercely opposed by Renzi's main coalition ally the New Centre Right party headed by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. Italy is the only major Western country that has not yet recognized civil unions for same-sex or heterosexual couples, continuing to withhold from them legal protections such as inheritance rights. Italy's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex movement said in a note it looked with great concern at the prospect of an accord because of the views some governing parties held on homosexual families. "The stepchild adoption is ... the heart of the law, any solution that excludes it cannot be acceptable," it said. Renzi told the assembly of his center-left Democratic Party (PD) party that relying further on the Five Star Movement remained one possibility but there was a risk that approval of the bill were delayed for another year. "The issue of civil rights is the biggest challenge currently for us ... we have two alternatives," Renzi said. "My proposal ... is for governing parties to try to reach an accord and put forward an amendment on which I believe we must be ready to call a confidence vote." In his speech, Renzi also reiterated a call for Egypt to help uncover the truth over the death of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian student found tortured by a roadside in Cairo. "Italy is friends with Egypt and we demand the truth from our friends," Renzi said. "The truth is not optional despite what business, diplomacy or realpolitik reasons may suggest. We owe it to Giulio's mother and father." (Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Adelaide (Australia) (AFP) - Japan's Haru Nomura fired a closing seven-under par 65 to deny defending champion and world number one Lydia Ko and win the LPGA-sanctioned Australian Open at The Grange in Adelaide on Sunday.

Nomura, 23, holed eight birdies in the final round having started the day in a three-way share of the lead at nine-under.

The Japanese player closed the door on Ko's chances with a monster 15-metre birdie putt at the 17th when she was three shots ahead of the New Zealand ace.

It allowed Nomura the luxury of her only bogey at the par-four 18th when she found the front-right sand trap and failed to get up and down.

It was the 67th-ranked Nomura's first LPGA win after five seasons on the tour in America without drawing much attention.

"There was no pressure," Nomura said. "Golf is the fight of my own.

"It's not against someone else, even though someone else plays well. If I hit my goals, then I win."

Nomura clinched victory with a run of three consecutive birdies at the 15th, 16th and 17th holes that the top-ranked Ko could not match.

Ko finished alone in second place at 13-under par after finishing with a five-under par 67.

"I played really well but Haru just played even better," Ko said.

"By the roars I could hear, it seems like she was holing a lot of putts. When another player does that, it's really out of my hands."

Australia's five-time Australian Open winner Karrie Webb was third at nine-under, having joined the lead early in the round with three birdies before faltering.

Nomura had just 26 putts. "The putter... Wow... Unbelievable," she said.

Nomura is the first Japanese winner of the tournament since 1974, when Chako Higuchi won at the Victoria course.

American Danielle Kang and South Korean Jenny Shin had shared the overnight lead with Nomura but fell away on the final day. Kang's closing 73 saw her finish in a tie for fourth on eight-under 280, while Shin was joint ninth a stroke further back after a 74.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Sharp Corp <6753.T> plans to choose between rival rescue offers as soon as Thursday, as a favoured bid from Taiwan's Foxconn continues to be challenged by a Japanese state-backed investment fund, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The board of the ailing electronics maker met on Saturday to discuss the two takeover proposals, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The company's 13-member board holds a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, and aims to vote on the competing offers at an extraordinary meeting the next day, the sources said. Sharp declined to comment while INCJ officials could not immediately be reached. Foxconn said it had no comment, citing previous remarks by its chairman, Terry Gou, that it was in a silent period during its negotiations with Sharp. Sharp said earlier this month that it was devoting more resources to studying a deal with Foxconn, an Apple Inc supplier known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co <2317.TW>. The Taiwanese firm, the world's largest electronics assembler, has offered to invest 659 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in Sharp, far more than the 300 billion yen investment proposed by state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ). Gou was in Japan late in the week following a visit to Taiwan by Sharp executives. Their report formed part of Saturday's board discussions, one source said. Foxconn said this month it had agreed with Sharp on most points of a deal, but the sources said the situation remained fluid with both bids still on the table. The Taiwanese firm has offered to pay 100 billion yen as a cancellation fee if it does not go through with the deal, one source said. Another source said Sharp's main lenders oppose the INCJ proposal, which calls for them to cancel the preferred shares they own. An INCJ official who declined to be named because the discussions remained confidential told Reuters on Sunday the fund believes it could reach an agreement with the lenders if its offer is accepted. A deal with Foxconn would give Sharp much-needed resources to develop advanced organic light-emitting diode panels, which Apple is said to be adopting in its iPhone within a couple of years. INCJ, on the other hand, plans to combine Sharp's loss-making display business with rival Japan Display Inc <6740.T>. (Reporting by Taro Fuse and Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by JR Wu in Taipei and Yoshiyasu Shida in Tokyo; Writing by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Neys Avery)
By Steve Bittenbender

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (Reuters) - The leader of a group that successfully sued Kentucky to get tax incentives for a Noah's Ark-themed attraction said on Saturday that the religious organization may hire individuals who do not completely share his religious beliefs.

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, said during a tour of the 510-foot (155 meters) boat that officials are still working on the employment criteria for its Ark Encounter attraction located in the northern Kentucky city of Williamstown.

Answers in Genesis employees must sign a faith statement that includes believing in creationism, a requirement that led state officials to pull an $18 million offer in tax incentives in December 2014 and prompted a court battle.

Ark Encounter on the other hand will have a separate statement of faith that may not have the same religious requirement, Ham said.

The statement has not been finalized and will likely be made public within months ahead of its July opening, he said. He said the attraction will hire up to 40 full-time workers and 400 seasonal workers.

"It's a separate facility," Ham said. "But we are not giving up our right to hire people with religious preferences."

Last month, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction saying the group could hire based on religious practices and receive incentives. The state has said it will not appeal.

Ham said he sees the park as a major economic development project for the surrounding area, creating thousands of jobs that may not need such requirements.

Construction crews must add the bow and stern to the mammoth wooden ship, which is supported on the inside by dozens of 55-foot (17 meter) wooden poles. Eventually the ark will include more than 130 displays, including Noah's living quarters and models of animals.

Elsewhere, the site will include a petting zoo, a large restaurant and a zipline.

The incentives would go toward future attractions at the 800-acre (324 hectare) site, such as a Tower of Babel or a first-century Middle Eastern village. Developers must wait for the injunction to become permanent before seeking final approval, Ham said.

Answers in Genesis co-founder Mark Looy said more than 4,000 people have made reservations for the July 7 opening, and developers expect more than 1.4 million to tour the park in its first year.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
PHOENIX  Dreamers are here legally and entitled to the same lower tuition as other Arizona residents, an attorney for the states largest community college system is arguing.

Mary OGrady is asking the state Court of Appeals to dismiss a claim by Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the Maricopa Community College District is violating a voter-approved last which says only legal residents get in-state tuition. She told the judges that the decision by the Obama administration to allow them to say  and even to work  means they qualify.

While this case involves only the Maricopa system, what the courts ultimately decide will affect the policies of community colleges statewide. And it also will determine the legality of what the Board of Regents has done in offering in-state tuition to dreamers.

Central to the fight is a 2006 ballot measure that limits in-state tuition to citizens and legal residents. It also denies waivers of tuition or fees, grants, scholarships, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies to those who are in the country without lawful immigration status.

Despite that, the Maricopa system board decided to grant resident tuition at its 10 colleges, two skill centers and several education centers to those accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

That allows people who arrived in this country illegally as children to remain without fear of deportation if they meet other conditions, a process that gets reviewed and renewed every two years. They also are issued Employment Authorization Documents allowing them to work legally in this country.

In 2014 Tom Horne, then the state attorney general, filed suit to have the colleges policy voided. He said that DACA, which is simply a policy decision of the administration, does not mean that the students are lawfully present as the 2006 law requires.

A trial judge ruled against the state. And now Mark Brnovich, Hornes successor, is attempting to get the appellate court to rule otherwise. But OGrady, in new filings, said the attorney generals arguments miss several crucial points.

One, she said, is that after the 2006 ballot measure was approved there was some uncertainty about how state and local agencies and governments should determine who is in the country legally. The result, OGrady said, was a new law which said an agency may rely on a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services employment authorization document as sufficient for demonstrating lawful presence in the United States.

DACA recipients get such documents.

OGrady conceded that DACA does not provide a particular immigration status for those in the program. Nor does it create a path to citizenship. But she quoted federal documents which say that a DACA recipient is not considered to be unlawfully present and that such a person is authorized ... to be present in the United States.

As a matter of federal law, a DACA recipient is lawfully present, she told the judges. And as a matter of Arizona law, MCCCD may rely on an employment authorization document to verify lawful presence.

And she said that means Arizona did not need to pass a special law to allow DACA recipients to pay the lower rate.

OGrady already has won the first round.

In a ruling last year, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson rejected the states argument that DACA recipients are ineligible for in-state tuition.

Anderson said the federal Department of Homeland Security considers DACA recipients to be here legally. And he specifically cited the Employment Authorization Documents permitting them to work, pointing out that state law says these are a form of permissible identification for certain benefits.

The state cannot establish subcategories of lawful presence, picking and choosing when it will consider DACA recipients lawfully present and when it will not, the judge wrote.

Anderson also pointed out that the 2006 law failed to define the terms citizen, legal resident and lawful immigration status.

But the judge said the way he reads federal law as well as the voter-approved measure, the exclusion from in-state status applies only to those who are not lawfully present.

Thats not up to the state to determine, he wrote. Federal law, not state law, determines who is lawfully present in the U.S.

The amount of money at issue is significant, at least for the individuals involved.

In the Maricopa college system, a student seeking an associates degree would save about $13,800 by being granted in-state status.

The Pima college system has adopted the same policy of recognizing DACA recipients as residents for purpose of tuition.

What that means is DACA recipients pay the in-state rate of $75.50 per credit hour for basic courses  there are higher fees for some programs  which translates to $4,530 for someone seeking an associates degree.

Non-resident students are charged the basic rate of $352 per credit hour, or $21,120 for the same degree.
Amman (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Sunday and discussed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the US State Department said.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have taken the lives of 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.

"The secretary continued to urge for calm and a decrease in violence, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

Kerry was in Jordan where he also met King Abdullah II, a key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State group, in the southern port of Aqaba.

A palace statement said the king stressed "the need for the international community and the United States first, to end the stalemate in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis and to move towards a two-state solution".

American diplomats said Kerry and Abdullah also discussed the Syrian conflict.

Kirby said Kerry had stressed to Abbas Washington's commitment to seeking a sustainable two-state solution "and to working with all parties to that end".

"He also reiterated our policy on the illegitimacy of Israeli settlements," Kirby said.

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

On Thursday, the Palestinians welcomed an initiative put forward by France for an international Middle East peace conference, a proposal which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed.
Dhaka (AFP) - A top Hindu priest was decapitated by attackers in northern Bangladesh Sunday and two worshippers wounded, police said, in the latest assault targeting minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.

Two assailants armed with pistols and cleavers attacked Jogeswar Roy, 45, the head priest of Sri Sri Sant Gourio Math, at his home in the temple on Sunday morning, officials said.

"The priest was preparing for morning prayers when they pounced on him and slit his head from the body at the verandah of his home inside the temple," said Shafiqul Islam, a government administrator in the sub-district Debiganj where the temple is located.

"We recovered a blood-stained cleaver from the spot," he said.

Two devotees were wounded in the attack including one who was shot as he tried to save the priest, he added.

The motive for the murder was not clear but police said Islamist militants were among those suspected as being behind the killing.

District police chief Gias Uddin Ahmed said police had launched a hunt for the attackers and security checkposts had been set up across the district.

"The Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is also in our list of suspects," Ahmed told AFP.

The banned group is believed to have been behind an attack on an Italian Catholic priest in the neighbouring district of Dinajpur late last year.

Bangladesh has seen an upsurge in attacks on minorities including Shiites, Sufis, Christians and Ahmadis by Islamist militant groups.

The government rejects the Islamic State's claims of responsibility for several recent attacks, including the shootings of two foreigners.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government instead accuses the JMB, other local militant groups as well as the Islamist-allied political opposition of trying to destabilise the country.

Hindus, the country's largest minority, make up nearly 10 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people.
WASHINGTON  The campaign to re-elect Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, is calling on Latino voters this year  literally and figuratively.

McCain, who has always done Hispanic outreach, visited his campaigns first-ever Spanish-speaking phone bank Thursday at the Unidos con McCain office in Phoenix, more evidence of the increasing importance of Latino voters this year.

Ive always enjoyed good support from the Hispanic community in Arizona, but like any other group (of voters), I have to work hard to gain their support and their votes, McCain said in an interview in Washington earlier this month.

Hes not the only one. The leading Democratic challenger for his seat, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, said of the states growing Latino electorate that she plans to fight to earn their vote every step of the way.

I think Arizona is almost a 50 percent minority state now. That includes Native Americans, the Latino community, and Asian-Americans and African-Americans, she said. Its exciting. Its very exciting for Arizonas future.

Analysts and Hispanic groups say that trend is likely to be the new normal for politics in Arizona and beyond.

I think what is happening in Arizona is symptomatic of what is happening in the rest of the country, said Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino.

It was one of nine groups that gathered in Washington this week for a summit on energizing the growing Hispanic electorate nationwide.

Kumar said the average age for Latinos in the U.S. is 27  well within the millennial age bracket, which is variously described as between age 18 and 30 or 35.

The Pew Hispanic Center said 22 percent of Arizona voters in 2014 were Latinos. That was a larger share of eligible voters than in all but three states.

The Latino population is growing quickly, and more quickly than any other vote, said Jens Manuel Krogstad, a writer and editor for Pew Hispanic. That growth is really being driven by young people.

Arizona is no exception. Pew statistics said 43.3 percent of Latino voters in the state are millennials.

McCain said he thinks millennial Hispanic voters are frankly much more politically engaged than perhaps their predecessors were.

I would argue that most young Hispanics today are willing to listen to the message of both sides and, like all millennials, theyre going to make up their own minds, said McCain.

But a recent poll shows that Hispanic voters in the state may be leaning Democratic.

The January poll by the Behavior Research Center said McCain would get 32 percent of the likely Hispanic vote to 49 percent for Kirkpatrick in a head-to-head contest between the two. That was a sharp change from a November poll, which Kirkpatrick got just 32 percent of Latino vote to McCains 31 percent.

While he questioned the poll numbers, McCain said there is no doubt that the Hispanic vote is a very, very important sector of those who will be determining winners or losers in these election campaigns.

He said he has an advantage in his long-standing relationship with the Hispanic community, which gives him a certain element of credibility among voters.

His campaign is working to make sure that message is heard, with outreach like the phone bank, whose volunteers called more than 6,000 Spanish-speaking voters in Arizona Thursday, according to campaign officials.

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, said McCain has done good work for Hispanics, but that the Republican Party doesnt allow him to do what the community needs.

Monterroso, who was at the event with Kumar, said that McCain needs to figure out how he can balance his performance with Arizona Latinos.

Kumar agreed, saying that McCain did right by the Latino community by leading the fight in 2013 for comprehensive immigration reform, then adding that he also basically said that we needed to build a darn fence.

Kirkpatrick said she thinks Hispanic voters are more likely to vote for someone supports DREAMers, immigration reform and good-paying jobs.

And thats what I do, she said. Put Arizona first.

I hear from working families who really value education, but theyre struggling to put their children through school, Kirkpatrick said, and are fighting so they, too, can have a stake at the American dream.

She said voters are frustrated with politics as usual, adding that McCain is the prime example of out-of-touch, Washington establishment.

They (Hispanic voters) are very engaged, theyre interested in new leadership, Kirkpatrick said. They want somebody whos fighting for those ideas and those issues and pushing for comprehensive immigration reform.

But Krogstad said that, when asked which issues are most important, Latino voters ranked the economy and education as their most important issues. After that is healthcare, and coming in at number four is immigration.

Whatever the issue, both McCain and Kirkpatrick express confidence they can win Hispanic votes.

Kirkpatrick points to her diverse congressional district and said she has always been engaged in heavily Hispanic Pinal County  a county that McCain won handily in 2010, his last re-election bid.

There is no doubt that in a certain number of years the Hispanic population will be in the majority in Arizona, McCain said. Thats a political reality.

He said he has confidence in his Hispanic outreach, and believes it will pay dividends in the upcoming Senate election. But he cautions that if the Republican Party wants to survive in many parts of America, were going to have to do a better job with the Hispanic community.

That Hispanics are even being talked about is evidence of the change, Monterroso said.

Any other time, there would have been no need to talk about it (Hispanic voters) because McCain would be a sure winner, he said.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi resigned on Sunday, blaming political rivals Hezbollah for the country's political deadlock and protesting over the release on bail of a former minister sentenced for smuggling explosives from Syria. Lebanon's political crisis has left it without a president for 21 months with rival factions unable to agree on a candidate, and has paralyzed state institutions, preventing the government from taking even basic decisions. The release on bail of ex-information minister Michel Samaha last month after serving eight months of a 4 1/2 year jail sentence for smuggling explosives from neighboring Syria and planning attacks drew anger and condemnation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's opponents in Lebanon. In a new sign of regional tension spilling over into Lebanon, Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended a military aid package to the Lebanese security forces in what an official said was a response to Beirut's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. Rifi said Hezbollah was to blame for the political paralysis, the Samaha case and the Saudi episode. "Continuing (to be part of) this government has become an agreement to this deviation, or at least is a failure to confront it," Rifi said in a statement. "So I present to you and to Prime Minister Tammam Salam my resignation," he said. The cabinet was to hold an emergency session on Monday, the National News Agency said. Rifi described the Samaha case as a "national crime which Hezbollah is responsible for," calling for the case to be referred to international courts. The case captivated a Lebanese public accustomed to seeing political violence go unpunished. It was another example of how turmoil in Syria is rippling through a country where Damascus has played a major role for decades and whose future will be shaped by the outcome of the civil war next door. Hezbollah is an ally of Assad and of Iran, and its fighters have provided crucial support for Damascus's efforts to turn battles in western Syria in its favor. Saudi Arabia backs insurgents fighting against Assad. (Reporting by John Davison and Laila Bassam; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Beirut (AFP) - Lebanon's Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, a fierce opponent of the country's powerful Hezbollah movement, said Sunday he was resigning over the group's "domination" of the government.

Rifi's decision comes two days after Saudi Arabia announced it was suspending $3 billion in aid to Lebanon's army in protest over "hostile" positions it said were inspired by Hezbollah.

"There is an armed part that is dominating the government's decision," Rifi said in a statement, referring to Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah has used this government to consolidate its project of a mini-state. It wanted to use it as a tool to extend its control over the state and its decisions," he added.

"I will not accept becoming false witness and covering for those trying to dominate the state and its institutions... that is why I am presenting my resignation."

Rifi accused Hezbollah of being responsible for the political crisis in Lebanon that has left the country without a president for the last 21 months.

And he said the Iranian-backed party was "destroying Lebanon's relations with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

Lebanon's political scene is deeply divided, with the government split roughly between a bloc led by Hezbollah and another headed by former prime minister Saad Hariri, to which Rifi belongs.

Hezbollah is a close ally of the Syrian regime, and is backed by Tehran, while Hariri's bloc is close to Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, and is supported by Western powers including Washington.

The schism has been exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Syria, with Hezbollah sending fighters to bolster President Bashar al-Assad against an uprising that is supported by Saudi Arabia and Hariri's political bloc.

Rifi's resignation statement also cited alleged Hezbollah interference in the case of Lebanon's former information minister Michel Samaha, who is facing charges of having planned "terrorist" acts.

Rifi accused Hezbollah of blocking his efforts to transfer the case against Samaha, a former close confidante of Damascus, to Lebanon's highest court.

Samaha is currently free on bail as he faces retrial on charges of plotting attcks with Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk.
LGs big Mobile World Congress press conference is finally over, and the South Korean company announced exactly what we thought it would: a phone that was featured in countless leaks ahead of the big reveal. A phone like no other. A phone that promises to be the most original flagship smartphone of the year, as the company is ready to embrace the concept of a modular smartphone, which no big company has really toyed with so far. Not even Google knows how to do it yet.

But the gamble might not pay off. Dont get me wrong, I love how the LG G5 feels in the hand and how responsive it is  wow, its fast  but its all the Play gimmicks that are rather underwhelming.

DONT MISS: The 5 most exciting things about the revolutionary new LG G5

The metal device has nice smooth edges, feels comfortable in the hand and has a gorgeous display. The phone is definitely the best LG has ever made, and you wont be sorry if you buy one later this year. It might not be a Nexus handset, but it might be the next best thing.

mwc-2016-lg-g5-event-hands-on-100

Smartphone enthusiasts looking to tinker with the handset will love the whole modular concept, though theyll discover that it isnt perfect.

Walking from table to table, I tested all the modules LG has on display. I tried to see how easy it is to switch the battery and discovered that its not as simple as it could be.

Youll want to pull the bottom side out, but that wont happen  and Im glad that it doesnt. Instead, you have to press a button on the left hand side towards the bottom of the handset. You then hear a click, and you can pull out the dying battery to replace it with a fresh one.

I have no idea whats inside the G5, but I can already see some problems that might with this mechanism in the future. Lets just hope Im wrong.

mwc-2016-lg-g5-event-hands-on-91

The LG Cam Plus adds some welcomed physical buttons that photographers will appreciate, and you can definitely grip the camera better than before. But the module itself is bulky and sort of ruins the great metal design of the handset. The bulk doesnt go very well with the thin profile of the handset either, though you need it for that enhanced grip.

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The Hi-Fi Plus module with B&O Play delivers amazing sound. Ironically, while the iPhone 7 is rumored to lack a headphone jack, once you apply this Hi-Fi Plus module on the LG G5, youll get two headphone jacks, one on the bottom, and one on the top side.

Just like with the Cam Plus module, theres a big but here. The module sounds great  the difference is immediately evident, even with a pair of cheap headphones  but its made of plastic that doesnt look or feel as good as the phone. Most unsettling is the fact that the plastic device doesnt seamlessly follow the metal, and youll feel the difference.

Im not referring to the obvious difference in texture either, but the fact that you feel the edge of the metal slightly protruding beyond the plastic since they dont line up well.

mwc-2016-lg-g5-event-hands-on-74

Itll be interesting to see how many people buy these extra modules, and whether others will be released in the future. But one advantage these modules have seems to be that they all come with a built-in battery.

mwc-2016-lg-g5-event-hands-on-75

Finally, there are new gadgets to play with alongside the LG G5, including the 360 CAM, the 360 VR, the H3 headphones, the Rolling Bot, the Smart Controller and Tone Platinum, all manageable from a specialized Friends Manager app.

So far Ive played with the 360 devices, which seem to be well-made and affordable options for VR content creation and consumption. Theyre pretty intuitive, but these arent the high-end VR devices some users are looking for.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
Its Sunday, which means its game on for Android fans. Its time to play! And Im not saying that just because February 21st brings us a massive duel between two major Android handsets set to hit stores in the coming months. Yes, the LG G5 will go head to head against Samsungs Galaxy S7 today. But LGs event is focused on a play theme, as the company is expected to unveil a wide variety of toys that might just make the LG G5 the most original flagship smartphone of the year.

In a few short minutes, the LG G5 event will get underway in Barcelona, Spain, so youll definitely want to tune in for this one. In this post, youll be able to watch live streaming video as LG shows off its brand new devices.

DONT MISS: MWC 2016 preview: Will the Galaxy S7 and LG G5 eclipse everything else?

The LG G5 was one of the undisputed stars of this years pre-MWC leak war. From design to specs to its unique Magic Slot port that turns it into a modular phone, everything was leaked well ahead of the phones announcement.

LG built up the hype as well, releasing revealing teasers and announcing an accessory that doesnt even fit any existing LG smartphone.

In addition to the LG G5, the South Korean titan will likely launch a slew of devices and gadgets that you should check out, particularly if youre a fan of LG smartphones. These include the LG Cam Plus battery and camera grip combo, the LG Hi-Fi Plus with Bang & Olufsen sound tech, the (already official) Quick Cover, the LG 360 VR headset and even a product called the Rolling Bot drone.

Follow allow live as LG makes all of its announcements by watching the video embedded below, and youll fund our auto-refreshing live blog at the bottom of this post. LGs big G5 event is set to kick off at 8:00 a.m. EST / 5:00 a.m. PST.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
London (AFP) - London's mayor Boris Johnson has thrown his weight behind the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, in a blow for his old friend and rival Prime Minister David Cameron who had appealed for his backing.

"After a great deal of heartache... I will be advocating vote 'Leave'," Johnson said, making his long-awaited announcement to a large crowd gathered outside his home in north London.

Johnson, a popular politician from Cameron's Conservative Party who is seen as a potential successor to the British premier, said he wanted ties with Europe based on "trade and cooperation" and not "a political project".

He said Cameron had done "fantastically well" in negotiating concessions from European Union leaders at a summit last week that paves the way for a membership referendum on June 23.

But he added: "I don't think anybody could realistically claim that this is fundamental reform of the EU or of Britain's relationship with the EU".

The declaration will be seen as a key victory for supporters of a British departure from the EU -- or "Brexit".

In a column for the Daily Telegraph on Sunday, Johnson wrote that the European Union project had "morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable" and that there was nothing xenophobic in wanting to quit.

"We are seeing a slow and invisible process of legal colonisation, as the EU infiltrates just about every area of public policy," he said, adding that the vote was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change Britain's relations with Europe.

"There is only one way to get the change we need, and that is to vote to go, because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says No," he wrote.

- 'Better off inside the EU' -

Compared to other anti-EU politicians, the mayor of London is popular even with those who do not share his political views, thanks to his witty soundbites and shambolic appearance.

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"I'm really disappointed that he's backing leave because I think we should stay," said Andy Burton, 36, a director at a healthcare company who watched Johnson make his statement alongside around 70 other passers-by.

"He's just got a real presence, he's very popular, he will sway Londoners".

The Leave.EU campaign, one of the groups advocating Brexit, welcomed Johnson's endorsement.

But Will Straw, executive director of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, said Johnson and other pro-Brexit politicians had "no consistency or clarity on what leaving Europe means for Britain".

Cameron had made a last-ditch appeal to the charismatic Johnson in a BBC interview earlier on Sunday.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else which is we'll be safer, we'll be stronger, we'll be better off inside the EU," Cameron said.

Cameron also made clear his battle lines for the vote, warning that Britain would still have to negotiate trade ties with the EU if it left and that a departure would give an "illusion of sovereignty" and was "a leap into the dark".

- New Scottish independence vote? -

After securing a deal in Brussels late Friday aimed at preventing Britain from becoming the first country to leave the EU, Cameron flew back to London to meet his cabinet.

Six cabinet ministers have come out in favour of leaving the bloc so far, including Justice Secretary Michael Gove, one of Cameron's closest friends and allies.

The premier now faces a battle to keep his centre-right Conservatives together while convincing voters he has secured a good enough deal from Brussels for them to support continuing membership.

Cameron is due to redouble those efforts on Monday when he addresses the House of Commons.

In a move which highlighted the provisional nature of some of the Brussels deal, Cameron admitted details of an "emergency brake" limiting how much in benefits EU migrants can claim in Britain for their first four years here had yet to be worked out.

Eurosceptic cabinet ministers have already started speaking out against the deal.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith questioned how much impact the "emergency brake" would have on limiting new arrivals while suggesting that EU membership made Britain more vulnerable to the kind of jihadist attacks seen in Paris last November.

The Conservative candidate to succeed Johnson as mayor, Zac Goldsmith, has also said he will campaign for Brexit.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed Sunday that she would back EU membership and told the BBC that any vote to leave would "almost certainly" trigger a fresh independence referendum.

Scotland backed remaining part of Britain in a referendum in 2014, despite Sturgeon's ruling Scottish National Party supporting independence.

A Survation/Mail on Sunday opinion poll, the first since the Brussels deal, indicated that 48 percent of Britons did not want to leave the EU, 33 percent did and 19 percent were still undecided.
LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson said on Sunday he would back Britain's exit from the European Union in a June 23 referendum, ending intense speculation over the position of one of British politics' most influential figures. Speaking to a crowd of reporters on the steps of his London home, Johnson said Prime Minister David Cameron had not achieved fundamental reform of the European Union. "I will be advocating Vote Leave .... because I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control," Johnson said. The decision comes a day after Cameron called the June 23 poll and declared his own intention to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU after clinching concessions from other member states that he said would give Britain a special status in the world's biggest trading bloc. Johnson said the decision to oppose Cameron had been "agonisingly difficult" and praised his renegotiation effort, but that ultimately the reforms agreed in Brussels had fallen far short of meaningful change on issues like sovereignty. "I don't see how, having worried about this issue for quite so long and having fulminated for quite so long about the lack of democracy in the EU, I can then pass up what I think will be the only chance any of us have in our lifetimes to put an alternative point of view," he said. (Reporting by William James and Guy Faulconbridge)
Las Vegas (AFP) - In the state of Nevada, where gambling is king, there could be no more fitting tiebreaker -- especially in the high stakes game of politics -- than picking a caucus winner from a deck of playing cards.

That's the solution used by Democrats during caucus voting across the state on Saturday, where party members weighed in on their choice of nominee for November's presidential election.

"In the rare circumstances where two or more presidential preference groups are tied for the loss or gain of a precinct-level delegate and have the same lowest or highest decimal, groups must draw a single card from a deck of cards to break the tie. High card determines the winner," according to Democratic party rules in the Silver State.

That indeed, is exactly what happened in the small town of Pahrump, Nevada.

In this instance, the card drawn determined the winner in one precinct's tie-vote between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

The caucus contest between the two would-be Democratic nominees ended in a 51-all tie.

The stalemate did not last long, however.

US media broadcast -- and then social media widely disseminated -- a photo of precinct chair Peggy Rhoads holding two playing cards, a six of hearts and an ace of clubs.

Clinton, who got the winning card, triumphed in Pahrump, and as it turns out, defeated Sanders in the state-wide contest, 52.5 percent to 47.4 percent, with more than 87 percent of precincts reporting.
An employee at Good Earth Power AZs sawmill in Williams nearly lost his arm in a work-related accident on Wednesday.

According to a report from the Williams Police Department, 19-year-old Marshall Ciampi was working near the milling machine, clearing the area of wood chip debris while the machine was operating.

The report states that mill manager Jeremy Johnson said he assumed Ciampi was brushing chips off a conveyor table near the milling machine when he got his sleeve or glove caught in the chain, pulling his arm into the sprocket of the running machine.

The sprocket rolled his right arm around breaking it several times and nearly severing it from his body, the report said.

When they heard Ciampi screaming, mill employees immediately shut down power to the machine to halt the gears and chains, then cut the chain in two places to remove it from around Ciampis arm.

Johnson stated that Ciampi had been working at the mill for approximately three months and had gone through all required safety training when hired, the report said.

An investigator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be assigned to the case, the report said.

Good Earth Power AZ holds the largest contract on northern Arizonas Four Forest Restoration Initiative.

According to a statement from the company, Ciampi was rushed to Flagstaff Medical Center for surgery.

The surgery appears to have been very successful. Thanks to the brilliant work of the Flagstaff Medical team, the operator is recovering well in the presence of his family, the statement said. Operations continue at the mill. GEPAZ has safety policies and procedures in place, which all of our employees are aware of. They are reviewed regularly.
Skopje (AFP) - Macedonia's preparations for planned snap elections in April have not progressed enough to hold a "credible" vote by then, the US and EU ambassadors to the country said Sunday.

The early parliamentary polls, slated for April 24, are part of a European Union-backed deal reached last year between the government and the opposition to end months of political turmoil in the former Yugoslav republic of about 2.1 million people.

The main opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) party has already threatened to boycott the elections, complaining that the conditions are not in place for them to be free and fair.

In a joint letter to interim Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev, who formed a technical government in January to prepare the polls, EU ambassador Aivo Orav and US ambassador Jess Baily agreed with the opposition's assessment.

"We note that the work of the State Electoral Commission to date and the findings of all relevant experts indicate that at this stage the necessary conditions for organising credible elections on 24 April are currently not in place," they wrote.

They said they were particularly concerned at "reports of pressure and intimidation of voters and others", and about the lack of an agreement "on media reforms, to ensure a more level playing field".

"If elections cannot be held at the foreseen date, political parties are expected to work to take the necessary measures to allow holding credible elections at the earliest possible date," said Baily, who read out the letter to reporters in Skopje.

The ambassadors said they had taken note of the fact that some party leaders had suggested June 5 as a possible alternative date for the elections.

The country's parliament dissolved itself last month after prime minister Nikola Gruevski stepped down in accordance with the agreed deal, paving the way for an interim government to run Macedonia until new elections are held.

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After the country's last polls in 2014, won by Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party, the SDSM boycotted parliament saying the polls had been marred by fraud.

The crisis deepened last year when the opposition accused Gruevski of wire-tapping and high-level corruption. The government denied the allegations and accused the main opposition leader of spying and of trying to destabilise the country.

The row triggered rival protests on the streets of Skopje and eventually prompted the European Union to step in and mediate.

Macedonia has been an EU candidate nation since 2005 but has yet to open membership negotiations.
Vienna (AFP) - Austria said Sunday it is beefing up the army at its borders to deal with the inflow of migrants, with 450 more troops from Monday and military police on standby in case of trouble.

The increase to 1,450 soldiers and reservists comes after Austria drew criticism last week for saying it would only accept 80 asylum seekers and let 3,200 migrants pass through the country per day.

The troops will assist police carrying out checks on people and vehicles entering the country, patrol the "green border" and carry out surveillance work, the defence ministry said.

Also a company of military police based in Salzburg "will be held back to be able to handle violent persons or groups of persons and prevent them crossing the border," the ministry said.

"These forces will be able to deploy all over the country and be brought into action using army helicopters at short notice as the interior ministry requires," it said in a statement.

There will also be two armoured personnel carriers and three military transport vehicles ready to "close gaps in the border at short notice," as well as a company of military engineers on standby.

In September the government approved the deployment of up to 2,200 miliary personnel "to help ensure a controlled and ordered handling of the movement of migrants, and to maintain security and order in the country," the statement added.

Austria last year took in 90,000 asylum seekers, making it one of the highest recipients in Europe on a per-capita basis, while almost 10 times as many passed through, mostly heading to Germany and Sweden.

Faced with public unease and an increasingly popular far-right opposition, Chancellor Werner Faymann's centrist government last week imposed the new cap in an attempt to slash the number of asylum seekers this year to 37,500.

- Faymann 'surprised' -

On Sunday, Faymann was quoted as saying that he was "surprised" at the resulting criticism which saw the EU's migration commissioner call the limit "plainly incompatible" with EU and international law.

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"We know already now that (without the cap) we would be well above the number of migrants that we can cope with by the middle of the year at the latest," Faymann told the Kleine Zeitung daily in an interview.

"It would be politically negligent not to do something against that in good time," he said.

He stressed that his unilateral "Plan B" steps were necessary because common efforts by the European Union to deal with the crisis "are not having the effect that they should be".

Austria's measures have also raised worries of a dangerous backlog of migrants through the western Balkans from Greece when the flow rises as expected again in the coming months as spring arrives.

The government has invited interior and foreign ministers from these countries to Vienna on Wednesday for a meeting under the motto "Managing Migration Together", the Austria Press Agency reported on Sunday.

Around 400 migrants entered Austria on Saturday, the day after the new cap entered into force.

Only a dozen applied for asylum, the others electing to travel onwards. Several hundred new arrivals were expected on Sunday, police said.
LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's Sun on Sunday newspaper said Prime Minister David Cameron had failed to get a proper deal for Britain from other European Union leaders and was now on the wrong side of history by supporting membership. The open opposition of Britain's most popular newspaper is a blow for Cameron who has said he will fight for membership in a referendum he has called for June 23. "Whatever we think of David Camerons deal and the case for remaining in the EU, we dont doubt his sincerity. We just think hes wrong," the Sun on Sunday said in an editorial. "His failure to get a worthwhile deal means that hes now on the wrong side of history," the newspaper said in an edition which also ran an article by Cameron arguing for membership. Cameron said that Sun on Sunday readers would be "key voters in one of the biggest decisions of our lifetimes". Murdoch opened up the possibility that some of his newspapers could oppose membership on Saturday when he congratulated one of Cameron's closest political allies, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, for opposing Cameron on the EU. "If we vote to stay after making such a fuss about leaving, the rest of the EU will conclude that although we moan a lot, when push comes to shove weve not got the fight to actually do anything," the newspaper said. "Yes, the Leave campaign may be chaotic, with petty arguments between the different groups ... But that doesnt mean the fundamental argument is wrong." (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by William James and Alison Williams)
Thousands of anti-drug vigilantes are locked in a showdown with police and soldiers in northern Myanmar after they were stopped from destroying poppy fields, witnesses said Sunday.

About 3,000 members of Pat Jasan, a hardline Christian anti-drug organisation whose members often don military-style uniforms and are known to flog drug users, are currently camped outside the town of Waingmaw in Kachin state.

They have vowed to eradicate local poppy fields used to cultivate opium and heroin but have been halted by authorities who fear clashes may erupt with farmers.

"Local army and police told us that they are still blocking the way for security reasons. We have asked the state government to get access," Hpala Lum Hkawng, a senior member of Pat Jasan in Waingmaw, told AFP.

Myanmar's border regions have long been notorious drug manufacturing hotspots with both ethnic rebel forces and the military or its allied militias implicated in the lucrative trade.

The country is now the world's second largest opium producer after Afghanistan.

Mountainous and impoverished Kachin, a long restless rebel region which was plunged back into conflict in 2011, produces significant quantities of opium and methamphetamine.

As a result it has a huge addiction problem, something Pat Jasan -- founded two years ago by the powerful Kachin Baptist Church -- has vowed to end, by force if necessary.

While their hardline stance has won support, their rise has created fears of a new layer of community tension in a state already battered by ethnic conflict.

Impoverished farmers in northern Myanmar have few viable alternatives to growing opium.

A local resident in Waingmaw told AFP that authorities were caught in the middle between between Pat Jasan members and local farmers who had been preparing to fight back if their fields were attacked.

"They asked Pat Jasan to forgive them for this year because they have invested much money in their planting poppies," the resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

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"They have nothing else to do but to fight back because it's their living," he added.

Local police and military could not be reached for comment.

However a senior police official from the anti-drugs unit in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw confirmed the vigilantes had been halted.

"They are blocked for security reasons," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity said.

"They might spark conflict with some local farmers there so they are blocked for a while," he added.

Tuu Yaw, chairman of Pat Jasan group in Kachin's capital Myitkyina, said authorities had vowed to eradicate the poppy fields themselves.

But he cast doubt on those promises, adding that the estimated 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of poppy fields their group was targeting lay in regions controlled by the military or loyal militias.

"People do not believe in them (the local authorities)," he told AFP.

"But people are not going to give up this time. Almost every family in Kachin state has been suffering from drug problems for the last three or four decades."
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his army chief on Sunday after his comments on the use of force against young Palestinian attackers drew rightwing fire.

Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot on Wednesday told high school seniors heading for compulsory military service that troops should not use excessive firepower in combating a wave of Palestinian violence in which many youthful assailants have died.

Hardliners, including senior members of Netanyahu's own Likud party, responded angrily to his comments.

Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz called them "mistaken and unfortunate" and liable "to cause soldiers to hesitate to open justified fire against terrorists in future."

"This is a meaningless debate," Netanyahu told journalists at the start of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.

"What the chief of staff said is self-evident," he added. "Everything that was said afterwards was said either from lack of understanding or a desire to score political points. Both are unacceptable."

Questions have been raised in the Israeli media in recent days over whether Netanyahu would publicly support Eisenkot, with the prime minister under political pressure over his government's failure to halt the wave of violence.

Eisenkot's remarks were in response to a question from a student about the use of deadly fire.

"When there's a 13-year-old girl holding scissors or a knife and there is some distance between her and the soldiers, I don't want to see a soldier open fire and empty his magazine at a girl like that, even if she is committing a very serious act," he said.

"Rather he should use the force necessary to fulfil the objective."

He was thought to be alluding to a November attack by two Palestinian girls aged 14 and 16, who stabbed with scissors and lightly wounded an elderly man in Jerusalem.

Police opened fire, killing the 16-year-old and seriously wounding the 14-year-old.

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Jerusalem police chiefs reportedly took the remarks as a direct attack on the force and the officer who fired the fatal shots.

The justice ministry has opened an investigation on suspicion he used excessive force, continuing to shoot the girl when she no longer constituted a threat.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have taken the lives of 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.
By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bernie Sanders' high-flying Democratic presidential campaign fell back to Earth on Saturday in Nevada. If the Vermont senator cannot quickly find a way to broaden his appeal to minorities and union members, last week's 22-point rout of Clinton in New Hampshire could prove to be his campaign highlight. The race moves next week to South Carolina, where blacks make up more than half of the Democratic electorate, and on March 1 to a string of southern states with big blocs of African-Americans, who strongly support Clinton and have been slow to warm to Sanders. The rush of March contests in big, diverse states -- Democrats in nearly two dozen states will vote between March 1 and March 15 -- could leave Sanders grasping for political life. "This was a bad day for Sanders," said David Woodard, a political scientist at Clemson University in South Carolina. "He needs to find a way to cut into Clinton's base, and I don't think he is going to find it here." Although Clinton's 5-point win was relatively narrow, it was enough to blunt Sanders' momentum. Recent voter surveys had shown a tight race in Nevada, raising the prospect of another damaging setback for Clinton. Entrance polls in Nevada showed Clinton trounced Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, by 3-to-1 among black voters, and also beat him in union households by 11 percentage points. The enthusiasm of younger and liberal voters who rallied around Sanders' calls for reining in Wall Street and reducing income equality was not enough in Nevada to counter Clinton's union and organizational clout, allowing her to reclaim front-runner status as the race shifts to more friendly turf. After the New Hampshire setback, Clinton's campaign was banking that Sanders would be unable to breach a so-called "firewall" of Hispanic and African-American support for the former Secretary of State in southern and western states. Nevada's result appeared to support that view. "He's running a strong campaign, but being close is overrated if you can't make the sale," said Mo Elleithee, a Clinton aide in her 2008 campaign and now the executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service. VICTIM OF SUCCESS The Sanders campaign said it was heartened in Nevada by entrance polls showing he beat Clinton among Hispanics by about eight points. "What we learned today is Hillary Clinton's firewall with Latino voters is a myth," Arturo Carmona, deputy political director for Bernie 2016, said in a statement. But the Clinton campaign questioned those numbers, saying that at one point she had won 60 percent of the delegates in 22 Latino-majority precincts. Clinton's convincing showing in Nevada could reduce the chances of a late run by an independent candidate such as former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who would likely scoop up moderate voters turned off by a socialist nominee. In a sense, Sanders was a victim in Nevada of his own success. His ability to close the gap on Clinton in Iowa and rout her in New Hampshire, nearly all-white states, raised expectations that he could ride to another upset in Nevada. "Nevada put out the Bern," said Ken Tietjen, a Clinton supporter who stood outside her Las Vegas victory rally at Caesar's Palace. "Hillary has all the momentum going forward." But Sanders' strong showings in the first three contests, along with his formidable fundraising, suggest staying power. That could help extend the Democratic race beyond the cluster of early March contests and into April and May, when a string of contests in whiter and more liberal states could help him. Sanders has money for the long haul, although Clinton had more on hand at the end of January. Federal election reports filed as the Nevada results were announced showed Sanders had raised $21.3 million in January and had $14.7 million on hand. In January, Hillary raised $13.2 million from individual donors and had $32.9 million on hand. Some black voters said on Saturday they did not see a reason to switch their loyalty away from Clinton, a fondness that dates back to her husband Bill Clinton's presidency but which was strained by her bitter primary battle with Barack Obama in 2008. Asked who he was backing, Thomas Anderson, an African-American in Columbia, South Carolina, said on Saturday: "Hillary, of course." "She's got more experience. She knows what the country needs," he said, adding "Bernie's a cool guy. I'm down with Bernie too." Clinton's embrace of Obama's presidential legacy, and her argument that Sanders would begin to unravel some of Obama's policies on healthcare and other issues, also has made an impression. Darien Gambrell, 23, said she heard Clinton planned to continue a number of Obama's policies. "I think that's a good thing. I liked some of his ideas, even the ones that didn't seem to work at first," she said, adding she would not want a candidate who would reverse Obama's work. (Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez and Jane Ross in Nevada, Emily Flitter and Steve Holland in South Carolina, Michelle Conlin in New York, Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
By Abdoulaye Massalaki NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger closed its land borders and ramped up security on Sunday for an election in which President Mahamadou Issoufou is running for a second term promising to crush Islamist militants and reduce the country's deep poverty. Security forces patrolled cities and villages in case of unrest or militant attacks. Some voters said they had never experienced such a tense election. Unidentified armed men attacked two electoral commission vehicles in a rural area about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital, according to security sources, but there were few other reports of trouble. "Niger needs strong democratic institutions. I hope that the presidential and legislative elections will permit us to reinforce our institutions," Issoufou said when he cast his ballot at city hall in the capital Niamey. He faces 14 candidates including Seyni Oumaru, leader of an opposition coalition. Critics say Issoufou has used political repression in the run-up to the vote, arresting opposition supporters and jailing opposition leader Hama Amadou over charges related to a baby-trafficking ring. "These are not free and fair elections. We have one presidential candidate in prison who has not been able to campaign. ... The president has manipulated the electorate and used repression," said Amadou Saidou, a voter in Niamey. The government says it respects the law and calls such criticisms politically motivated. Voting ended at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) after a day of steady turnout and it will continue in three provinces on Monday, authorities said. Results are not expected before Tuesday. Opposition spokesman Ousseini Salatou said on a private television station, Tenere, that the election had been badly organized and he had witnessed cases of voting card fraud. There was no immediate word from election observers. Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the U.N.'s Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates. The country ranks 114 out of 142 in the 2015 prosperity index run by the UK-based Legatum Institute. Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in neighboring Nigeria, has staged a series of attacks in Niger in recent months, forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa. But Niger prides itself on being peaceful relative to its neighbors Nigeria, Libya and Mali. Issoufou, born in 1951, won an election in 2011, a year after a coup. Under election rules, a run-off will be held if no candidate secures an outright victory on Sunday. His challengers include Amadou, 2011 second-place finisher Oumaru and ex-president Mahamane Ousmane. Around 5,200 candidates also vie for 171 legislative seats on Sunday. (Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Andrew Roche)
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will fly to Saudi Arabia to discuss with King Salman ways to stabilise crude oil prices, the presidency said in a statement on Sunday.

Buhari will also fly to Doha after his visit to the kingdom to discuss oil price stability with Qatar's ruler, the statement said.

"Ongoing efforts by Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to achieve greater stability in the price of crude oil exports are expected to be high on the agenda of discussions," the presidency said before the trip later this week.

Nigeria's oil minister, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, met his Qatari counterpart Mohammed al-Sada on Sunday, the Qatari Oil Ministry said in a statement. Qatar holds the current OPEC presidency.

Nigeria has been suffering from a slump in oil prices eroding vital oil revenues and whacking its currency.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela said last week after talks in Doha that they were ready to freeze production at January levels if other producers do the same. Iran welcomed the deal but stopped short of saying it would itself freeze production at January levels and its deputy oil minister said on Saturday it would increase production soon.

Buhari would also meet businessmen from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to invest in Africa's top oil producer, the statement said.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Felix Onuah and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Alison Williams)
Niamey (AFP) - Counting began in Niger's presidential poll Sunday in an election that has seen incumbent Mahamadou Issoufou promise a first-round "knockout" blow to his opponents, who are already crying foul after a tense campaign.

A vast nation endowed with an abundance of uranium, gold, coal and oil but among the poorest on the planet, Niger is electing a head of state, as well as a new parliament, with Issoufou hoping for a second five-year term.

"Everything has gone well in an atmosphere of calm and serenity. There are some shortcomings but Ceni (the electoral commission) is taking measures to allow voters to exercise their right to vote," commission president Ibrahim Boube said, adding that voting in some areas had been pushed back to Monday after electoral material did not arrive in time.

A total of 7.5 million people were eligible to vote at 25,000 polling stations across the country on the edge of the Sahara desert, where security is a growing concern after attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, Mali and Libya.

The election results are expected within five days.

Security was tight with forces on patrol across the country, including the capital Niamey, where voting got off to a delayed start in many parts of the city due to the late delivery of ballot papers and other materials.

Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou said earlier Sunday that the vote was going smoothly "especially in Diffa, where voting material arrived on time", referring to a border region that has been hit by frequent Boko Haram Islamist violence, and where some 200,000 displaced people were eligible to vote.

After voting in Niamey, Issoufou said "there will be only one winner, and that will be Niger", saying he hoped the election would reinforce the country's democratic structures.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, the 63-year-old said he was "absolutely" confident of victory.

Issoufou said he had met his pledges on boosting growth and infrastructure, while shoring up security in the face of jihadist attacks.

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Defence remains a top budget priority in Niger, with the remote north threatened by jihadists operating out of Mali and Libya while the southeast tries to fend off attacks by Nigeria-based Boko Haram.

In December, the government said it had foiled an attempted military coup.

Known as the "Zaki" or "Lion" in Hausa, the majority language in Niger, the former mathematician and mining engineer faces 14 competitors, including an ex-president.

Should he fail to win a first-round victory, his rivals, who have accused him of planning to rig the result, have agreed to unite behind whoever scores highest among them for the second round.

- 'Grossly unfair' -

Niger's opposition denounced the election late Sunday as "grossly unfair", saying there had been vote rigging and a problem with duplicate voter cards.

"In many places the opposition ballots were missing," said Moussa Harouna, a representative of Seyni Oumarou, a runner-up in the 2011 presidential race.

"We discovered voter card duplicates with prefabricated family books for these cards," he said, adding that in some places voting did not start until the end of the day.

"The system is going very badly," he said.

Aside from Oumarou, there are several others challenging the incumbent for the top position.

Heading the opposition pack is 66-year-old Hama Amadou, who campaigned from behind bars after being arrested in November over his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal.

Amadou, a former premier and parliament speaker, heads the Nigerien Democratic Movement (NDM) whose members were tear-gassed by police in a protest earlier this month.

Niger's first-ever democratically-elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, 66, is also running. The threat of unrest hangs over the vote.

"If Issoufou wins in the first round, it's because he has cheated. If this happens we will go on strike and there will be clashes," an Amadou activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tensions edged higher after Niger's top court approved a controversial plan to allow voters to cast their ballots without identity papers, sparking an opposition outcry.

"This could pave the way for fraud," Moussa Tchangari, a leading civil society and opposition figure, said ahead of the vote.

Niger, which has a history of military coups, has only had multi-party democracy since 1990.

"It's been a long time since we've seen such interest (in the election). It reminds me of the early days of democracy," said one voter, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this month, ranchers, federal forest and wildlife officials and local government representatives crowded into a Forest Service conference room in Heber. They were there to discuss a topic many locals have long opposed: the expansion of Mexican gray wolf releases into a much larger area of Arizona and New Mexico.

The meeting was an effort to get feedback from the ranchers, who have grazing leases on the land, about sites the Service is considering for future wolf releases in the Tonto and Apache Sitgreaves national forests.

The preliminary maps they were looking at, which are still under consideration, show that of nine proposed locations across the Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests, six are near the southeastern corner of Coconino County. The proposed spots appear to be just west of the Navajo-Coconino County line, approximately five to 10 miles east of State Highway 87.

While necessary for the threatened animals survival, the expanded releases bring the wolves closer to ranches, roads and communities that so far have only viewed the issue from far away.

Many of these folks have not had to deal with the (Mexican wolf recovery) program, so were starting from square one, said Patrick Bray, executive vice president of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association.

Location scouting

Federal officials have been working for months to search for and vet new locations for future releases of Mexican wolf packs that have been raised in captivity. Their work is tied to a revision last year in the regulations dictating how Mexican wolves are managed. The new rule provides a nearly tenfold expansion in the area where the wolves can be released across New Mexico and Arizona.

The change was necessary because no space remains in the original release area for more wolves to establish territory, hindering efforts to introduce more captive wolves into the wild, said Sherry Barrett, the Mexican wolf recovery coordinator at the Fish and Wildlife Service.

If you release wolves and they establish there, you cant continually put wolves on top of wolves, Barrett said. It was really constricting us on where we could put new wolves so we could get the genetics of the wild population more diverse.

The threat of genetic inbreeding among the animals is well known  on average the degree of relatedness among the wolves in the wild is equivalent to that of siblings, according to wolf recovery team scientists.

With the rule change, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also said it would expect to release 28 to 40 packs, each with an adult pair and several pups, into the wild over the next 20 years. Considering past survival rates, the Service estimated seven to 10 of those transplanted wolves will end up surviving, breeding and producing pups.

Releases cant happen soon enough when it comes to the populations long term sustainability, said Carlos Carroll, a biologist with the Klamath Center for Conservation Research who was on the Fish and Wildlife Services most recent Mexican Wolf Recovery Team.

We are starting off at a low amount of genetic diversity and each generation that we dont see wild population increasing it means were further eroding that genetic diversity, Carroll said.

Ranchers skeptical

Bray, of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, said local ranchers do appreciate the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service meeting with permittees to discuss potential release locations, but remain skeptical about how much ground truthing has been done in regards to the viability of the sites. His organization is pressing for final location selection to be done through an analysis process that includes a public comment requirement.

The site selections for wolf releases are already guided by certain requirements. Locations, for example, must be five miles from a town and three miles from a year-round occupied dwelling, a boundary of a tribal reservation and the boundary of the area where the animals are allowed to occupy. All releases also must occur on federal land unless there is an agreement with a private landowner or tribe.

The meeting in Heber did result in some positive feedback about how release locations could be moved slightly to reduce the risk of livestock killings, said Pascal Berlioux, executive director of the Eastern Arizona Counties Organization and one of the attendees.

Others said the meetings intent was overshadowed by the overwhelming opposition to the wolves. Ranchers feel as though the Fish and Wildlife Service is forcing them to lose their livelihoods and take government welfare, said Carolyn Eppler, a retired Forest Service employee and Payson resident who now assists rural ranchers with livestock permit processes.

Economics loom large in the debate, Berlioux agreed.

The crux of the issue is if society at large supports the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf in New Mexico and Arizona, it cannot be managed as an economic liability to just one tiny proportion of society, Berlioux said.

Navajo County supervisor Jason Whiting agreed that while few locals appear to be in favor of wolf releases in the county, a better managed, better funded program to compensate ranchers whose livestock are killed by wolves would be a step in the right direction.

Coconino County supervisors so far havent participated in discussions about the proposed wolf release locations, said Art Babbott, board chair.

Speaking for himself, Babbott emphasized that public support for a healthy and sustaining Mexican gray wolf population remains very strong.

I encourage federal and state partners to support adult releases to achieve a healthy genetically diverse and stable population, Babbott said. Their recovery is fragile, yet their importance in healthy ecosystems is critical.

Action needed

To conservationists, the Fish and Wildlife Services progress on wolf releases has been frustratingly slow.

If (federal officials) want to have meetings thats great but they need to fulfill their primary responsibility of not letting the Mexican wolf go extinct and they are failing at the moment, said Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The most recent annual count of the wild wolf population, which showed a decline in the estimated population from 110 animals at the end of 2014 to 97 animals at the end of 2015, underscores the urgency of the need to introduce more captive wolves into the wild, Robinson said.

Robinson was one of 43 signatories on an October letter asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expeditiously release five or more family packs into New Mexicos Gila Wilderness and Gila National Forest.

The letter also criticized the Services estimates of how many wolves it will actually need to release into the wild over the next two decades to ensure recovery progresses.

Carroll said the scientists on the Wolf Recovery Team found that number needs to be about double what the Service estimated to produce the needed increase in the populations genetic diversity.

Ideally, release sites would be more remote areas than some places on the Mogollon Rim, Carroll said.

In the interim though, it is better to release into these somewhat less secure landscapes than to not release wolves at all, he said.
Nablus (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A 16-year-old Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and was shot dead, Israel's army said, the latest incident in a nearly five-month wave of violence.

The attack occurred at the Bitot Junction south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

"A Palestinian attacker attempted to stab an (Israeli) soldier at the Bitot Junction," the army said. "The force responded to the imminent danger, thwarting the attack and firing towards the assailant, resulting in his death."

Palestinian security sources identified the Palestinian as Qusay Abu al-Rub, 16 and from the town of Qabatiya.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have killed 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Many of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, while others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.

Ten of the Palestinians left dead in the current wave of violence have come from Qabatiya, including three behind a gun and knife attack in early February that killed a border policewoman.

Israeli forces imposed a four-day lockdown on the village following the February 3 attack outside Jerusalem's Old City.

Qabatiya has a long history of what Palestinians call resistance against Israeli forces.

Separately on Sunday, a Palestinian was arrested while allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier east of the West Bank city of Hebron, near the village of Bani Naim.

Palestinian security sources confirmed a 15-year-old was arrested in the area.
By William James and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson threw his weight on Sunday behind the campaign to leave the European Union, dealing a blow to David Cameron by increasing the chance British voters will ditch membership in a June referendum. In a move that electrified the referendum campaign by pitting one of Britain's most charismatic politicians against the prime minister, Johnson said Cameron had failed to deliver fundamental reform with an EU deal struck on Friday. Johnson, a political showman whose buffoonish and eccentric exterior is thought to mask a fierce ambition to succeed Cameron, said he loved European culture, civilisation and food but that the European project was in danger of getting out of democratic control. "The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the government, but after a great deal of heartache I dont think theres anything else I can do. I will be advocating Vote Leave," Johnson told reporters outside his north London home 20 minutes after texting the prime minister his decision. "I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control," said Johnson, mayor since 2008 and a member of parliament for Cameron's Conservative Party. Sterling fell in Asia as concern grew that Britain would quit the EU. The pound fell around 1 percent against the dollar, euro and yen. Johnson, 51, said he would not take part in debates against members of his own party. But his decision gives the "out" campaign a de facto leader who is one of Britain's most high-profile politicians. Betting odds of a British exit rose to a 33 percent chance from about 29 percent, according to bookmakers. Johnson dismissed questions from reporters about whether joining the campaign to leave the EU was the first step towards a bid to succeed Cameron. On the contrary, he said with a smile, Cameron should stay no matter who won the June 23 referendum. PARTY DIVIDE By challenging Cameron less than 48 hours after the prime minister hailed a deal struck with other EU leaders as giving Britain a special status, Johnson deepened a divide in the ruling Conservative Party, split over Europe for three decades. Cast as Britain's biggest strategic decision in at least a generation, voters will be asked on June 23: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" A British exit from the EU would rock the Union - already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone - by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial centre. Pro-Europeans, including former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major, have warned that an exit could also trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote. A poll published before Johnson's move showed the "in" campaign with a lead of 15 percentage points. Polls suggest about a fifth of voters are undecided. BIG BATTALIONS Johnson, instantly recognisable by his thatch of platinum-blond hair, had repeatedly avoided staking out a clear position on Britain's EU membership. But on Sunday, he said the EU was "in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control" and national sovereignty had been eroded. "Theres too much judicial activism, theres too much legislation coming from the EU," said Johnson. Cameron's backing for EU membership has the support of the City of London, major companies, much of the Labour Party, major trade unions, international allies and Scottish nationalists. Opposed are several bickering "out" campaign groups. Cameron's most senior Cabinet colleagues have stuck with him, although one close ally, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, did rebel with five other Cabinet colleagues. "The big battalions of the argument are unquestionably ranged against people like me: We are portrayed as crazy cranks and all the rest of it. I don't mind, I happen to think that I'm right," Johnson said. By throwing his influence behind the out campaign, Boris has shifted the balance of the campaign and thus made a British exit more likely, said some analysts. "Boris Johnsons decision to campaign for 'out' is a huge boost for the Leave campaign," said Hugo Dixon, a Reuters columnist and author of "The In/Out Question", a book in support of Britain's membership. "He is a popular figure who crosses traditional political lines. The chance of Brexit has risen," said Dixon, who is also editor of the pro-EU InFacts group. A third of voters said Johnson would be important in helping them decide which way to vote, an Ipsos MORI poll showed. Cameron has said he will step down as prime minister before 2020. If Britain remains in the EU, Johnson's chances of getting the top job could be tarnished by having openly opposed him. But if Britain opts to leave, Johnson would be a leading candidate to succeed Cameron. (Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent. Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy Year, which ends in November. "I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square. "The commandment "You shall not kill," has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty," he told the crowd. The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005. The pope added that there was now "a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defense of society" because modern means existed to "efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves." Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting Monday in Rome and organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group. Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly three years ago - the latest in Mexico last week - also called for better prison conditions. "All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom," he said. In the past, the pope also denounced life imprisonment, calling it "a hidden death penalty" and saying that more should be done to try to rehabilitate even the most hardened of criminals. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
(Reuters) - Thousands of people protested around the country on Saturday in support of a New York City police officer who was convicted of manslaughter this month for fatally shooting an unarmed black man, according to media reports.

The New York Times reported that several thousand gathered in Brooklyn to rally behind Peter Liang, who was found guilty in connection with the death of 28-yaer-old Akai Gurley.

Gurley, who was black, was killed by a bullet fired from the gun of Liang, who is Chinese American. The bullet ricocheted off a wall in a public housing stairwell on Nov. 20, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times said hundreds of demonstrators, many of Chinese-American descent, took to the street there on Saturday while the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that some 2,000 people rallied in that city.

About 150 gathered in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan in solidarity, carrying signs reading "Condolences to Akai Gurley. Justice for Peter Liang" and "No scapegoat. No silence," according to the Ann Arbor News. The Arizona Republic reported a similar number of demonstrators gathered in Phoenix.

Gurley's killing added to nationwide protests in cities like Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, over the use of police force against people of color following a spate of high-profile police killings of unarmed black people since mid-2014.

The rookie officer Liang was on patrol inside a Brooklyn public housing project with his partner and drew his gun upon entering a pitch-black stairwell.

He fired a single bullet that glanced off a wall and into the chest of Gurley, who was walking one floor below. Liang said he pulled the trigger because he was startled by a noise.

Prosecutors argued in court that Liang fired toward the sound deliberately and that he must have known only another person could have caused the noise that surprised him.

He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.

Liang's indictment last year came weeks after a grand jury declined to charge a white New York officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, sparking citywide protests.

Liang's partner, Shaun Landau, was fired by the New York Police Department shortly after Liang was found guilty.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco)
COLUMBIA, S.C.  Donald Trump may have won the Palmetto State, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio fought the real civil war in this Republican presidential primary.

Rubio overcame Cruz in a battle royale for the second-place finish each man badly needed to frame himself as the GOP's best hope of a Trump takedown. The unofficial results showed Rubio taking 22.5% of the vote over Cruz' 22.3%, a narrow margin that sets up a three-man race between Rubio, Cruz and Trump as the campaign turns to the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday and Super Tuesday on March 1. Rubio and Cruz are likely to continue splitting the anti-Trump vote, which has so far allowed the real estate magnate to solidify his support and emerge victorious in two of the first three nominating contests.

The remarkable senatorial showdown between Cruz and Rubio went down to the wire amid accusations of lying about their pasts and plans, a flurry of gut-punch ads and eleventh-hour rollouts of A-list endorsements.

Something to prove: Rubio limped into South Carolina after a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary.

He took a beating after short-circuiting in a debate the Saturday before the Granite State vote, robotically repeating an attack on President Barack Obama until then-rival Chris Christie savaged him for it.

"The longer both Rubio and Cruz remain in the race, the longer the anti-Trump vote remains divided."

Rubio compounded the mess, and the mockery, by malfunctioning again in eerily similar fashion while speaking on the stump two days later.

The Florida lawmaker blamed his debate debacle for the lousy showing and vowed to campaign with renewed resolve, promising supporters in a primary-night mea culpa, "That will never happen again."

Rubio seemed to hit his stride again in the Palmetto State, navigating his next debate turn more deftly and stumping with high-profile backers Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy before capping off his "dream team" with a late-game endorsement from ultra-popular South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

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Conservative crusade: Cruz hit the South Carolina trail with a win under his belt  but lugging heavy baggage.

His victory over Trump in the Iowa caucuses spoke to a savvy get-out-the-vote operation and the ability to connect with evangelical voters, but his campaign also earned a reputation for fighting dirty.

Cruz came under fire for sending Iowans an official-looking mailer that implied they could get in trouble with the state for skipping the caucus. On top of that, he ended up apologizing after Team Cruz got outed as trying to drum up support by incorrectly spreading word that rival Ben Carson planned to drop out of the race.

Buffeted by accusations of low-blow campaigning and facing a very different electoral landscape, Cruz finished third in New Hampshire's GOP contest, outstripped not only by Trump but by Ohio Gov. John Kasich as well.

Cruz stepped it up with a heavy play for South Carolina's evangelical voters, touting his conservative credentials in the final pre-primary debate, campaigning with Bible-toting "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson and scoring the backing of Rep. Mark Sanford, the state's ex-governor, who got right to work pushing back at Cruz's detractors.

Big picture: Ultimately, "The outcome of the Cruz-Rubio battle is really critical because it will decide who emerges as the main alternative to Trump," strategist Eric Ferhnstrom, who served as a top advisor to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, told Mic.

"Neither one can make a serious run at Trump unless they get rid of the other person first. The problem is, will that question get settled too late in the primary for it to make a difference?" he asked.

"The longer both Rubio and Cruz remain in the race, the longer the anti-Trump vote remains divided. Trump is weakest when he's forced to go one-on-one against an opponent."

The Donald's shadow: If either man had hopes of overwhelming Trump among primary voters here, a battery of polls suggested that would be a very heavy lift.

Just before Saturday's vote, a RealClearPolitics average of the latest polls showed Trump pushing 32% support with South Carolina Republicans and Cruz and Rubio locked in a dead heat at 18.4% and 17.8% respectively.

Embracing a classic tactic  jacking up expectations for a rival's performance  Team Cruz argued ahead of the vote that with Haley and other GOP stars on Rubio's side, anything short of an outright Palmetto State win would be an epic fail.

On the flip side, after a skirmish over an obviously doctored photo Cruz used, the Rubio operation vigorously fanned the flames of doubt about Cruz's ethics and urged voters to be on the lookout for last-minute chicanery.

Cruz will have home-court advantage when delegate-laden Texas holds its GOP primary on Super Tuesday, March 1. Rubio's Republican constituents in the Sunshine State go to the polls March 15.
After his solid, broadly based victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Donald Trump now holds a commanding position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

But Trump still faces two known unknowns, to borrow the memorable phrase from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq War that Trump now excoriates. One is whether Trump has a ceiling of support. The second is whether, even if he does, any of his remaining rivals can unify enough of the voters resistant to him to beat him.

So far the evidence suggests the answers are: maybe, and not yet. Indeed over the first three contests, Trumps two principal remaining opponents have shown mirror-image weaknesses. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has assembled a coalition of support that is too narrow; Florida Senator Marco Rubio is building a coalition that is too shallow.

As in his New Hampshire win earlier this month, Trumps support in South Carolina transcended many of the usual fissures in Republican politics, according to exit poll results posted by CNN. The one big exception remained education: In each of the first three contests, including the Iowa caucus, Trump has not run as well among voters with a college degree as with those lacking advanced education. But because those white-collar voters have fragmented among many choices, none of Trumps rivals is consolidating enough of them to overcome the New Yorkers dominant position among voters without a college degree. The simple equation that Trump has consolidated blue-collar Republicans while the partys white collar wing remains divided remains the most powerful dynamic in the race, even as Trump has failed to exceed 35 percent of the vote in any of the initial contests.

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On most fronts, the big story in South Carolina was the breadth of Trumps appeal. Repeating the New Hampshire pattern, Trump in South Carolina ran slightly better among men (36 percent) than women (29 percent). He carried 29 percent of voters who identified as very conservative; 35 percent of somewhat conservative voters; and 34 percent of moderates. That also followed the New Hampshire precedent of little ideological variation in Trumps support.

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In South Carolina, Trump won 33 percent of independents and 32 percent of self-identified Republicans; in New Hampshire he had carried exactly 36 percent of both groups. Trump ran somewhat better last night among voters older than 45 (35 percent) than those younger (26 percent). In New Hampshire, by contrast, Trumps support varied little by age, though he also performed somewhat better with older voters in Iowa.

Perhaps most encouraging for Trump in South Carolina was his performance among evangelical Christians, who the exit poll said comprised nearly three-fourths of all voters, an unprecedented number. Cruz had spent the past week ardently courting evangelical voters, particularly in the Upstate around Greenville and Spartanburg, while insisting that he was the most reliable conservative and the best bet to appoint a proper successor to the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Yet Trump on Saturday carried a plurality of voters who identified as evangelicals (33 percent) as well as a plurality of those who did not (30 percent). That matched Trumps feat in New Hampshire when he topped his rivals with both groups (27 percent with voters who were evangelicals and 38 percent with those who were not). In Iowa, Trump also ran first among voters who were not evangelicals, but Cruz beat him by a solid double-digit margin among voters who were.

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Trumps evangelical performance was even more impressive in South Carolina than New Hampshire, partly because born-again voters comprised so much more of the vote in the former (72 percent) than the latter (25 percent.) And Trump won those religiously conservative voters in the Palmetto State even though Cruz had built a much stronger organization among them than he had in New Hampshire.

But, despite all these other indications of strength, in South Carolina Trumps core assetand the key to his performance among evangelicalsremained his extraordinary hold on working-class Republicans. In South Carolina, Trump won fully 42 percent of white GOP primary voters without a college degree-exactly the same imposing percentage he carried in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, Trump won almost exactly as many non-college whites as Cruz (24 percent) and Rubio (17 percent) combined. In New Hampshire, Trump carried more non-college whites than his next three closest competitor combined. Only in Iowa did Cruz narrowly edge Trump among working-class whites.

All week in South Carolina, Trump courted those working-class white voters by sharply raising the volume on his criticism of free trade and his warnings about the threat from Islamic terrorism. Both of those issues somewhat overshadowed his usual promises to both build a massive wall at the Mexican border and to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. And, in fact, as in New Hampshire, only a minority of primary voters said in the exit poll that they supported deporting undocumented immigrants: In both states, most said they should be allowed to obtain legal status (though not necessarily citizenship.) Again, as in New Hampshire, Trumps proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. scored better, with about three-fourths of GOP primary voters backing it. Trump won 47 percent of the voters who backed deportation (double his closest rival) and 41 percent of those who supported the Muslim ban (almost equal to Cruz and Rubio combined).

Recommended: Is Bernie Sanders Writing Off South Carolina?

Critically, Trumps success with blue-collar voters crossed the religious boundary. In South Carolina, according to figures provided by CNNs polling director, Jennifer Agiesta, Trump carried a stunning 44 percent of evangelical voters without a college degree, as much as the combined vote for Cruz (29 percent) and Rubio (15 percent). Among blue-collar voters who were not evangelicals, Trump (at 38 percent) also buried Cruz (16 percent) and Rubio (13 percent), with Ohio Governor John Kasich actually leading both (at 17 percent).

That largely followed the pattern from New Hampshire where Trump beat Cruz by 13 percentage points among blue-collar voters who were evangelicals, and by a crushing 36 points among those who were not. In Iowa, Trump had also comfortably carried the working-class voters who were not evangelicals, but Cruz had amassed a solid double-digit lead among blue-collar Republicans who were.

Trump, in other words, has now carried in all three states voters who fit the historic description of Reagan Democrats: blue-collar voters who are not evangelicals. If Trump can also maintain the advantage among the non-college evangelicals hes established in the past two contests, that will make him very tough to beat in upcoming Southern (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi), border (Oklahoma) and even Midwest states (Ohio and Missouri) that contain large numbers of both working-class and born-again voters.

In all these ways, Trump in South Carolina loomed large. But he continued to display one weak link. Among voters with at least a four-year college degree, Trump carried only 25 percent. That placed him slightly behind Rubio, who won 27 percent of those Republicans with a four-year degree or more; Cruz came in third at 19 percent. Drilling down even more precisely, Trump beat Rubio by five percentage points among South Carolina voters with a four-year college degree, while Rubio outpaced Trump by more than double that among those with graduate degrees.

Trumps showing among all college-educated South Carolina voters fell between his performance in Iowa (22 percent) and New Hampshire (where he carried a 30 percent plurality). Comparing his showing among college- to non-college voters, Trump has now run five points weaker in Iowa, 12 in New Hampshire and fully 17 in South Carolina. And though the margins have been thin, Rubio has now carried the most college-educated Republicans in two of the first three contests.

If Trump does face a ceiling in the race, it is likely constructed from the relatively greater resistance he is confronting among these white-collar largely suburban and often professional Republicanswho provided critical support for the past two nominees, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. In polls these voters have been somewhat less likely to support Trumps signature proposals to deport undocumented immigrants and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S.; perhaps more significant, those white-collar Republicans have also been more likely to question whether Trump has the personality, skills and above all temperament to succeed as president. As Jane Kizer, a computer programmer, told me while waiting to enter a conservative rally in Greenville last week: He says what needs to be said, and what a lot of people are thinking. Now a lot of people are saying, Its been said, and we need a leader.

But after the first three contests, its an open question whether any of Trumps remaining rivals can consolidate enough of the voters still skeptical of him to overtake him, particularly given his dominant position with the partys blue-collar wing.

So far, Cruzs coalition has been too narrow to threaten Trump. Throughout the first three contests, Cruz has been lopsidedly dependent on evangelical Christian votersand even that foundation cracked on him in South Carolina.

In Iowa, Cruz won 34 percent of voters who identified as evangelicals but only 18 percent of those who did not. In New Hampshire, Cruz won 23 percent of evangelicals, but just eight percent of those who did not identify with that faith tradition. In South Carolina, Cruz carried 27 percent of those who identified as evangelicals and only 13 percent of those who did not.

Across all three states, Cruz performance among voters who were not evangelicals varied little from the meager showings by Rick Santorum (in 2012) and Mike Huckabee (in 2008), two previous evangelical favorites who failed to expand from that faction sufficiently. Relative to Santorum and Huckabee, Cruz was supposed to be better positioned to add economic and national-security conservatives to his evangelical base. But so far, Cruz hasnt broadened more effectively than they did.

Viewed through the ideological lens, Cruz support is just as narrow: Although last night he carried a 35-percent plurality of voters who identified as very conservative, he attracted just 17 percent of somewhat conservative voters and 7 percent of moderates. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Cruz also won at least twice as much support from very as somewhat conservative voters; his support among moderates has not cracked double-digits in any of the three states.

And even as Cruz is relying excessively on evangelical voters, he saw that strength eroded in a two-front squeeze in South Carolina. On the one hand, as noted above, Trump crushed Cruz among evangelicals who lacked a college degree. Almost as striking, Rubio (at 28 percent) narrowly bested Cruz (at 24 percent) and Trump (22 percent) among college-educated evangelicals, according to the figures from the CNN polling unit. Cruz had comfortably carried those better-educated, born-again voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

If Cruzs support is too narrow, Rubios backing so far has been too shallow. Recovering from his New Hampshire tailspin, Rubio in South Carolina won a little bit of everything. But even with the support of Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, and Representative Trey Gowdy, the Florida senator didnt crack 30 percent with any key group.

Rubio in South Carolina won 22 percent of men and 23 percent of women; 23 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of independents; exactly the same 22 percent among voters who were evangelical and those who were not. Measured by ideology his support varied only between 19 percent (very conservative) 23 percent (moderate) and 25 percent (somewhat conservative.) Despite his message of generational change, Rubio ran about as well among voters older than 45 (22 percent) as those who were younger (25 percent). Education marked the most important gap in Rubios support: reversing Trump, Rubio ran better among Republicans with at least a four-year degree (27 percent) than those without one (17 percent). That almost exactly matched his split within the two groups in Iowa; in New Hampshire, Rubio plummeted among both.

Rubios relatively better performance with the college-educated Republicans more skeptical of Trump points toward the path most open to the Florida senator as the race proceeds. With Jeb Bush joining Chris Christie in ending his campaign, Rubio seems best positioned of the remaining contenders to consolidate more support from white-collar, mainstream conservative voters. Victor Poole, a retired quality engineer from Anderson, South Carolina, who attended a Rubio rally this week, personified his opportunity. Poole is uncertain about Cruzs honesty and Trumps volatility, and he finds Rubio simultaneously fresh and reassuring. I feel like he would be our best choice, Poole said. I just really like all of his values. I look into his eyes and I trust him.

But although Rubio can effectively appeal to better-educated voters with his promise of electability rooted in generational and demographic change, he continues to face competition for them from John Kasich. While Kasich so far looks like the moderate version of Cruzrelying too heavily on centrist votersthe Ohio governor can still pull away support Rubio desperately needs, particularly in the Midwest where Kasich is concentrating. Even more important, Rubio continues to target his message, with its strong religious conservative tone and sharp partisan attacks on President Obama, somewhat to the right of the voters who appear most available to himon the theory that those in the center will ultimately prefer him over Trump and Cruz anyway.

The intersection of this electoral demography with the races geography points toward sequential showdowns for Trump. The cascade of contests through mid-March are dominated by Southern, border and Midwestern states where both evangelicals and blue-collar voters represent a major component of the electorate. That frames those states as likely the decisive face-offs between the front-runner and Cruz. The job for Rubio and (less plausibly) Kasich is to hold out by winning enough support to survive, particularly in the relatively more white-collar states voting over that period, including Massachusetts, Vermont, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Illinois.

After March 15, the calendar bends more toward more affluent, better-educated (and Democratic-leaning) states, especially along the coasts, where Trump might be more vulnerable. But if Rubio cant deepen his coalition before then, and if Cruz and Kasich cant broaden theirs, the only unknown in the race will be when Trump, the improbable front-runner, declares his victory.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
So much news and so little space.

At least that used to be the excuse in the exclusively print days when council gadflies or backyard inventors would ask why their news wasnt in the paper.

Now, though, we in the news business have unlimited space on the Web  although never enough journalists to fill it. Social media and blogs of all kinds have rushed to fill the gaps, but not necessarily in fair, accurate and balanced ways.

Its that last attribute  balance  that has gotten journalism in trouble lately as readers want to move on from he said, she said accounts to context and even judgments about what is most important for them to know.

Some in the profession call it weight of evidence journalism: Rather than give equal time to the tiny minority of scientists who challenge climate change, for example, reporters have moved on to how to mitigate it or at least adapt to it. As a story in the New York Times about a psychology experiment demonstrated, experts still carry weight with readers even when they are far outside the mainstream, so avoiding false balance can be just as important in some cases as trying to get a range of opinions and voices.

We were faulted by some readers on the latter in our brief survey of students and community leaders on allowing guns on NAUs Mountain Campus. Officials on campus and in Flagstaff have put up a solid front in calling the proposal a bad idea, especially with the Steven Jones shooting fresh in their minds. But there are, no doubt, some students and citizens who disagree, and their positions should have been more fully explored in the story, some said.

Had this been the first time we covered guns on campus, I might agree. But this is at least the third session in which lawmakers have introduced a guns on campus bill, so we have gone into the pros and cons before. The story was more a snapshot of what people are saying today, including online comments. So far, its safe to say opinion in Flagstaff is solidly against guns on campus, and our story reflected that.

Not all stories, however, should simply reflect what the majority of a newspapers community is saying. Journalists have long questioned the status quo and defended the underdog against entrenched interests. But when a politician is just plain wrong about the majority of Mexican immigrants being criminals or that the measles vaccine causes autism or that voter fraud is rampant, they need to be called on it without wasting a lot of time on whatever faux expert they are relying on as cover.

On the other hand, there are many public policies that are not reducible to easily proven answers. Balancing privacy vs. national security, affordable health care vs. individual rights and public safety vs. the Second Amendment call for some in-depth reporting of the options and their tradeoffs. But its the simplistic, polarizing approaches at either end of those issues that seem to be gaining traction on the presidential campaign trail, and thats where weight-of-evidence reporting needs to come down the hardest. Candidates are entitled to their opinions, but not their own set of facts. Until most everyone (with the help of journalists) can agree on the latter, voters risk being swayed by politicians telling them what they think they want to hearnot what they should be hearing.

New Year, New Design

Alert readers of the print edition have noticed the Daily Sun has a slightly different look, with newer typefaces and larger headlines and photos. Graphic design and layout are somewhat subjective, but every publication can stand an occasional retooling, if only to give readers a different look to what we hope is still compelling content. There have been the usual first-week glitches (we heard you on highlighting the calendar entries), but the rollout in general has been about what we expected. What about you?
London (AFP) - Every night Andrew, Cristian and Shafiqul visit a church in the wealthy central London district of Westminster to share a meal and get a place for the night sleeping off the cold and wet streets.

Currently homeless, the three are among 15 people given places to sleep by six churches and a synagogue, alternating on a daily schedule, as part of the "Westminster Winter Night Shelter" programme.

The network has grown to encompass more than 90 such shelters across Britain, including 24 in London, compared to just a handful in the early 2000s.

"There's 50 percent more people sleeping rough now than there were five years ago in London," said Jon Kuhrt, executive director of social work at the West London Mission, a Methodist group that helps the homeless in central London.

There were 7,581 homeless people in the British capital in 2014-2015, compared to 3,673 in 2009-2010, according to official estimates.

"In the last 10 years, we've seen more and more ordinary people on the street," said Peter Mwaniki, a coordinator at the Mission

"That's been the biggest shock to the system. The churches have stepped in where the government was not able or not willing to do it," he said.

Kuhrt added: "Rents are ridiculously high in London and we have a real problem with affordable housing".

"When that's combined with relationship breakdown, with refugees, with people coming from Eastern Europe for work, it puts a huge amount of pressure on all the systems and more and more people end up sleeping rough."

Poverty rates have remained broadly stable during years of budget austerity under Prime Minister David Cameron's governments, even though economic growth and employment levels have recovered.

The use of food banks has risen sharply, with one of the main charity providers, the Trussell Trust, reporting a 19 percent increase between 2014 and 2015.

- Community atmosphere -

Story continues

The shelters are particularly suitable for people who find themselves unexpectedly homeless, without suffering from problems like addiction, and just need temporary support to allow them to find housing and, for those without employment already, a job.

Shafiqul, 37, lived in Westminster for 15 years before he found himself on the streets just before Christmas, following an argument with his wife.

A British citizen originally from Bangladesh, Shafiqul was able to join the shelter in mid-January.

"Everyone is friendly and helping. It helps quite a lot," Shafiqul said. He hopes to be able to be placed in social housing so that he can resume his work as a taxi driver.

Each evening, volunteers greet "guests" with a hot drink and cake, chat and play board games, before preparing a meal and eating together.

The next morning, a new team organises breakfast.

"The volunteers are trying to create an atmosphere of community, of hospitality of non-professional nature.

"It gives people encouragement, friendship, support. That is their strength," said Alastair Murray, director of projects at Housing Justice, the charity that oversees most of the shelters organised by churches in Britain.

"These are angels, only they don't have wings," said Cristian, 31, a Romanian-Hungarian who arrived in London in November 2015 in the hopes of changing his life. For now, he has taught himself English and aspires to open a home for the elderly.

"It's very well organised," said Andrew, 26, who was thrown out of the family home by his sister after his father died. He then stayed with his brother but was kicked out again after six months.

Andrew is now being trained at the giant Crossrail project -- a high-speed railway that will link London east to west.

Between December 2014 and March 2015 the Westminster Winter Night Shelter helped 35 people off the street.

This year, seven new churches including Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral joined the programme to extend it to run from October to May.
Washington (AFP) - Here's another use for the smartphone as it invades daily life: in place of your debit card at your bank cash machine.

The "cardless" automatic teller machine (ATM) is gaining ground in the US and around the world, with smartphone technology allowing for speedier and more secure transactions.

Dozens of US banks are installing new ATMs or updating existing ones to allow customers to order cash on a mobile application and then scan a code to get their money without having to insert a bank card.

US banking giants Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase are in the process of deploying the new ATMs, as are a number of regional banks and financial groups around the world. Makers of ATMs and financial software groups are ramping up to meet this demand.

"We think our model (using smartphones) reduces a lot of vulnerabilities," said Doug Brown, who leads mobile technology for FIS Global, a major provider of software and technology for ATMs.

Brown said the FIS cardless system is being used at some 2,000 ATMs operated by at least 28 banks in the United States "and we're looking to rapidly expand that."

He said the system should be operational at some 80,000 machines in North America over the coming 18 months. And similar changes are coming in other countries, according to Brown.

- Reducing 'skimming,' fraud -

In addition to speeding the transaction time, the smartphone-based system aims to curb the growing problem of "skimming" in which criminals steal the data on a card, often by inserting devices into the ATM card slot.

By some estimates, skimming cost the global banking industry some $2 billion in 2015 and can lead to other kinds of fraud when card data is stolen.

"Consumers are aware of this, they really understand and welcome this," Brown said.

Another security benefit, Brown said, is that authenticating on the handset reduces the time spent at the ATM to around 10 seconds instead of the typical 30 to 40 seconds

Story continues

"The performance is kind shocking to some people, they almost jump back at the instantaneous response," Brown said. "But it provides more physical security because they can make the transaction faster."

Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said the group is "currently developing a new cardless ATM solution" based on NFC or near field communication technology to allow customers to authenticate without the use of a card.

"We'll roll out this capability in late February to associates in select ATMs in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Charlotte, New York and Boston." Riess said. "It will be followed by a broader customer launch mid-year."

Chase said it is planning a similar rollout sometime this year.

"When we first roll this out, customers will be able to request an access code through the Chase mobile app and enter it at the ATM to do their transactions," said Chase spokesman Michael Fusco.

"Later on, they will be able to use their digital mobile wallet to complete the transaction at the ATM."

Wells Fargo is also on board, developing ATMs that will allow customers to use their smartphones to obtain an eight-digit token to authorize a cash withdrawal.

The Wells Fargo system will support Android Pay, "and we'll continue to evaluate additional wallets," said spokesman Kristopher Dahl.

Chicago-based BMO Harris, an affiliate of Bank of Montreal, began using smartphone technology at its 750 ATMs last March.

- 'Headless' ATMs -

Some of the new technologies will require only a software update to the ATM, while others will need new hardware.

ATM manufacturer Diebold is testing a "headless" teller machine, without a screen or keypad, which dispenses cash from interaction on the smartphone.

"What we are saying with this is forget the card reader, forget the PIN pad, we all have these devices in our pockets," said Dave Kuchenski, Diebold's senior business development manager for new technology.

Customers need only verify their identity, which can be done with the device's fingerprint reader, or possibly with an iris scanner on the ATM.

While some existing Diebold ATMs can work with mobile applications, Kuchenski said the new concept, in testing with Citibank and others, could provide "a better user experience."

"We don't have to walk through the same process which we have had since the ATM has existed," he said.

"If we're using a mobile phone, we no longer have the need for a card, we no longer have a need for a receipt printer, we've dematerialized a lot of the devices. Banks like this, because it has fewer moving parts, so it reduces the total cost of ownership."
News by PTI:

Image posted by Tariq Thachil on Facebook

Image posted by Tariq Thachil on Facebook

Coming out in support of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiyas seditious speech.

Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the societys collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting, Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiyas speech.

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley say in joint video, We challenge the RSSs definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights.

Asserting if Kanhaiyas speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiyas speech.

Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill?

They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism, she says.

Story continues

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.

The post Students In California, Yale Translate Kanhaiyas Speech To English, Upload Online appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.
Spartanburg (United States) (AFP) - It will be hard to slow down the Trump train. Just ask retired railroad conductor Tommy Redden.

Redden and hundreds of other Trump supporters packed into a hotel ballroom in Spartanburg to celebrate his South Carolina primary win Saturday, expressing confidence the billionaire can roll on to the Republican presidential nomination.

"He's not a politician. He's a man that'll be more honest than Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush -- or Hillary or Bernie," an ecstatic Redden, 67, told AFP as he awaited the arrival of Trump at the watch party.

"Super Tuesday's going to tell the story with Donald Trump," he said of the critical upcoming March 1 votes in about a dozen US states. "If he does great that day, I think he'll get the nomination."

A roar swelled up the moment supporters saw TV networks calling the South Carolina contest for Trump -- further evidence the anti-establishment movement of the 2016 cycle was gaining momentum.

An outsider as frontrunner in the Republican race is the new normal, obliterating the conventional wisdom that a caustic real estate tycoon who insults immigrants and his fellow Republicans with equal gusto had no business being the party's standard-bearer.

The early favorite was Bush, who was relentlessly savaged by Trump.

Jeb's poor showing in South Carolina was strike three, after dismal results in Iowa and New Hampshire, and the son and brother of two presidents suspended his campaign on Saturday.

"I wasn't surprised by it," Derrick Foster, who owns a landscaping company in Spartanburg, said of Bush's departure at the Trump event.

"I think he's a good person, I think he's got a lot of knowledge. I'm just not sure he was ready for the presidency."

With Trump cementing his status as the likely nominee with victories in two of the first three contests, his supporters' message was clear: This movement is for real, and it's time to dispense with the notion that Trump can't win.

Story continues

- 'Like an Energizer bunny' -

"Trump's on fire!" 29-year-old Dwight Kelly declared, with an unlit celebratory cigar between his teeth.

While Kelly, a health care worker, claimed sweet victory for his candidate, he insisted the supporters were not doing any boasting.

"It's not an 'I told you so'" moment, he said.

Gail Barrow, 64, said she envisioned Trump going all the way.

"Oh, Mr Trump. He's amazing," said Barrow, from Goose Creek, a three-hour drive away.

"He's like an Energizer bunny," she said, referring to the battery advertisement character that never stopped.

Trump may indeed be unstoppable. Slamming Mexicans as "rapists" and other criminals did not derail him. Neither did upbraiding president George W. Bush, Jeb's older brother, about the 9/11 attacks of 2001.

Nor did calling Pope Francis's comments "disgraceful" when the Holy Father questioned Trump's Christianity.

"I think he's going to be the presidential nominee, and I think he can win" the general election against Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, said Johnny Gibson, a paint contractor who was first in line at the Trump party -- more than seven hours before the 69-year-old Trump appeared.

For Gibson, voters see Trump's presidential bid as a good-faith commitment to civil service rather than self-promotion.

"The man could be on an island laying out in the sand, spending his money, and yet he's trying to run for office and better America," he said.

Trump, in his victory speech here with his family at his side, made no mention of Bush, with whom he clashed bitterly on the trail.

But he conceded that running for the highest office in the land took a toll.

"It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious," Trump observed. "It's beautiful. When you win, it's beautiful."
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish riot police fired tear gas and used sticks Sunday to disperse around 2,000 protesters in a town near the Black Sea who were trying to prevent a mine from being built in their ecologically pristine area, Turkish television reported.

The clashes over the controversial plans to build the gold and copper mine left 26 people hurt, among them one seriously injured, the reports said.

According to CNN Turk, some 2,000 protesters turned out for a demonstration called by a local environmental group.

Clashes erupted when protesters, among them many women, tried to break through a barricade leading to the Cerattepe hill some 12 kilometres (seven miles) away from the town, where the mining project is located, NTV channel said.

Throughout the past week, thousands of Artvin residents have held protests against the project, which would see an ancient forest razed to the ground.

The conglomerate behind the project is the Cengiz Holding company. Its chief executive is the tycoon Mehmet Cengiz, who is seen as a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the plans did not pose any danger to the environment, and warned against "all provocation" by protesters.

Environmental organisations have branded the planned mine "illegal".

The plan for the mine had initially been blocked by the Turkish judiciary, but it was finally approved after environmental impact reports gave the go-ahead to the project.

The area close to the border with Georgia is seen as one of the most environmentally important in the country with its wet climate creating a lush landscape of extraordinary beauty.

Erdogan and the Turkish government are very wary of environmentally-motivated protests after grassroots demonstrations in 2013 against the redevelopment of Gezi Park in Istanbul's Taksim Square snowballed into an uprising against his rule.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Twin car bomb blasts killed at least 57 people in Syria's Homs on Sunday, a monitoring group said, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. At least 100 others were injured in the attack in the central Zahra district of the western city, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Footage from pro-Damascus television channels showed charred corpses buried by rubble, damage to shop fronts and debris littering a wide area. Plumes of smoke rose from burning cars and wounded people walked around dazed. State television said at least 32 people had been killed. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the two car bombs through Amaq, a news agency that supports the militant group. A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State last month in Homs killed at least 24 people as government forces took back some Islamic State-held villages in Aleppo province in the north. Sunday's attacks also came a day after government advances against Islamic State. A bomb attack killed 32 people in Homs in December after a ceasefire deal paved the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of the city, which was a center of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Violence rages on unabated across the country as world powers and the United Nations push to end the five-year-old conflict, meeting in Geneva to try to broker a ceasefire. Peace talks were suspended almost immediately earlier this month as Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russian air strikes, intensified assaults against insurgents in Aleppo province. The latest fighting in the north of the country has displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom headed for the Turkish border. The exodus added to more than 11 million already displaced by the conflict, which has claimed 250,000 lives. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Andrew Roche)
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KABUL (Reuters) - An unmanned American aircraft crashed at an airfield in southern Afghanistan less than three months after an identical drone went down in November, a U.S. Air Force spokesman said on Sunday. After ending its combat mission in 2014, the U.S. military still uses air strikes by drones and other aircraft in Afghanistan to target suspected members of al-Qaeda and Islamic State and back up Afghan forces battling a Taliban insurgency. There were no injuries or civilian damage in the crash of the state-of-the-art $14-million MQ-9 Reaper late on Saturday night, Captain Bryan Bouchard of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing said in a statement. "The crash was contained on Kandahar airfield," he added. "U.S. Air Force authorities will investigate the cause of the crash but hostile fire was not a factor." Usually guided remotely by pilots outside Afghanistan, unmanned aircraft have played a major, and sometimes controversial, role in the American war, acting as spy planes and launching missiles at suspected militants. In November, another Reaper operating out of Kandahar and armed with missiles was totally destroyed when it went down more than 483 km (300 miles) to the northeast of the base in a mountainous area. The cause of that crash was not made public but the military also ruled out ground fire as a suspected factor. Reapers were the U.S. Air Force's first specifically designed "hunter-killer" unmanned aircraft, and are larger and more powerful than the older MQ-1 Predator drones. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Elias Biryabarema and Ben Makori KAMPALA (Reuters) - President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday dismissed European Union and U.S. criticism of Uganda's presidential election, telling foreign observers not to lecture him. Museveni, in power since 1986, was declared the winner on Saturday but Kizza Besigye, his main challenger, who was under house arrest on Sunday, called the election a sham. Another candidate, Amama Mbabazi, said it was "fundamentally flawed". The EU observer mission said Thursday's vote had been conducted in an "intimidating" atmosphere. Chief observer Eduard Kukan said it had been undermined by a "lack of transparency and independence" at the electoral commission. But Museveni, 71, dismissed the idea that the commission had favored him and his National Resistance Movement (NRM). "They are wrong, they are not serious," Museveni told reporters in his country home in Kiruhura, southwestern Uganda. "I told those Europeans ... I don't need lectures from anybody." Museveni has presided over strong economic growth but is accused at home and abroad of repression of dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption. Critics also say he wants to rule the nation of 37 million people for life, emulating other African leaders who refuse to give up power. Museveni last clashed with Western donors in 2014, when Uganda passed a law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality. Several EU countries cut aid, as did the United States, which also imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise. In total, more than $100 million in aid was halted or re-directed - a significant blow for a country that depends on foreign aid for about 20 percent of its budget. However, Museveni has also won favor with the West by sending troops to Somalia to battle Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda. Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who led a group of Commonwealth observers, said the poll "fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks". The United States also criticized the handling of the vote and raised concerns about the house arrest of Besigye, who was in detention for the fourth time in a week and alleged that his electronic communication had been blocked. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Museveni on Friday to voice concern over the harassment of opposition figures and the shutdown of social media in Uganda, where Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have faced outages since election day. "Mr John Kerry rang me and I told him: 'Don't worry, we're experts in managing all those things (elections)'," said Museveni. Besigye on Sunday urged his backers to demonstrate for his release. Besigye's supporters clashed with police on Friday when officers stormed the headquarters of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). Last Monday, police fired bullets and tear gas towards protesters, who responded by hurling rocks and erecting street barricades. (Additional reporting by Edith Honan in Nairobi; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Edith Honan and Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni extended his 30-year rule on Saturday, winning an election that international observers said lacked transparency and his main opponent, under house arrest, denounced as a sham. One of Africa's longest-serving leaders, Museveni won 60.8 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Kizza Besigye secured 35.4 percent, according to the electoral commission. "We have just witnessed what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda," Besigye said in a statement, calling for an independent audit of the results. Besigye, who had been detained three times this week, said he had been placed under house arrest. A Reuters reporter saw his home encircled by police in riot gear and media were barred from approaching it. The United States on Friday urged Museveni to stop the security services harassing his opponents. Another of Museveni's rivals, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, had also been put under house arrest but was later released, his spokeswoman said. "This election was fundamentally flawed and ... results were not a reflection of the will of the Ugandan people," Mbabazi said in a statement. Museveni, 71, has presided over strong economic growth but is accused at home and abroad of repression of dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the nation of 37 million people. Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement party said the veteran leader's victory showed that "opponents failed to offer any alternative apart from empty promises". European and Commonwealth observers criticised the handling of Thursday's vote. The EU observer mission said it had been conducted in an intimidating atmosphere, while Commonwealth observers said the poll "fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks". Eduard Kukan, chief observer for the EU mission, told reporters in Kampala the poll had been undermined by a "lack of transparency and independence" at the Ugandan electoral commission. "State actors created an intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates," he added. Besigye urged the international community to denounce the poll win by Museveni, who has won favour with the West by sending Ugandan troops to Somalia to battle Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda. "Please reject the temptation to ratify this sham election," said Besigye, who was Museveni's personal doctor in the 1980s. FACEBOOK, TWITTER BLOCKED U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Museveni on Friday to voice concern over Besigye's detention, the harassment of opposition figures and the shutdown of social media such as Facebook and Twitter on election day. "(Kerry) urged President Museveni to rein in the police and security forces, noting that such action calls into question Uganda's commitment to a transparent and credible election process free from intimidation," the U.S. State Department said on Friday. Museveni replied to Kerry that Besigye had tried to assault a police officer and had not been arrested but rather escorted home by police, according to Ugandan media. "I told Kerry not to worry a lot about the internal affairs of Uganda because we know how to handle the issues," the Daily Monitor newspaper quoted the president as saying. Besigye's detention on Friday contributed to a day of chaos in some parts of Kampala, with opposition supporters hurling rocks at police and erecting street barricades. Police officers set off stun grenades and fired tear gas at crowds outside the headquarters of Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change, where senior members of the party accused organisers of rigging the vote. Museveni brought calm and stability to Uganda after decades of chaos under leaders Idi Amin and Milton Obote, but many opposition voters accuse the former guerrilla fighter of becoming increasingly autocratic and wanting to rule for life. The opposition had tried to tap into mounting anger among young voters, especially in urban areas, where unemployment is high and many are frustrated by the poor state of schools and hospitals. "We are disappointed, the election has been rigged," said 23-year-old Brenda in Kampala, who declined to give her second name out of concern for her security. "I have never seen another president and it seems it will be like that until he dies." (Additional reporting by Ben Makori; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Andrew Roche and Digby Lidstone)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday praised the peaceful conduct of presidential elections in the Central African Republic, calling on the war-torn country's leaders to maintain a "constructive atmosphere."

Ban congratulated Faustin-Archange Touadera on his victory according to preliminary results of the vote, which many hope marks a step toward reconciliation in the country after years of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians.

Ban also called on the transitional authorities to complete the electoral process with the "timely" holding of a second round of parliamentary elections and "ensure the completion of the political transition process by March 31."

"The Secretary-General commends the peaceful holding of the elections in the Central African Republic," said a statement from Ban's office.

"The Secretary-General calls on all political leaders and national stakeholders to continue to maintain the constructive atmosphere and for all actors to maintain their commitments in line with the electoral code of conduct."

Touadera -- a former math professor and onetime prime minister -- was declared the winner Saturday after sweeping to victory with more than 60 percent of the vote in last weekend's runoff.

Ban expressed "appreciation" for Touadera's rival, Anicet-Georges Dologuele -- another former prime minister -- saying his concession speech showed "the spirit of statesmanship."

The Constitutional Court must certify the election's results within a week for them to become final.

Touadera said Sunday he felt the "full measure" of the Central African Republic's problems and would hurry to restore unity.

That is a huge challenge in a country where fighting has forced nearly half a million people to flee to neighboring nations and left half the population with limited or no access to food.

Story continues

Rebel groups still control much of the country's territory.

France is set to withdraw 900 remaining troops from the Central African Republic after it sent peacekeepers there during the height of the violence in 2013.

A UN peacekeeping mission numbering 11,000 troops will remain in place after the new government takes office.
Chicago (AFP) - An Uber driver has been charged with six counts of murder after he allegedly went on a weekend killing spree in the US state of Michigan, amid reports he admitted to taking people's lives.

Jason Brian Dalton, 45, sat stony-faced in an orange prison jumpsuit, thick glasses shielding his downcast eyes, as a judge read the charges against him in a Kalamazoo court.

"I wish to remain silent," Dalton said via videoconference from the jail when asked if he had anything to tell the court.

At another court hearing, officials said Dalton told investigators that "he took people's lives" after he was read his rights, ABC News and CNN reported.

Prosecutors said they were still trying to determine why Dalton began firing -- seemingly at random -- as he drove through Kalamazoo Saturday night.

"That is probably the million dollar question: 'Why would this individual do this?'" Kalamazoo's public security chief, Jeffrey Hadley, told CNN.

The first victim was a young woman who was with her three children outside an apartment complex when she was shot at 6:00 pm. She was seriously wounded but is expected to survive.

Four hours later, the gunman opened fire at a car dealership, killing a father and his 18-year-old son.

The last and deadliest shooting came 10 to 15 minutes later at a restaurant, where four more people were killed and a 14-year-old girl was critically wounded, officials said.

Dalton was also charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder and eight weapons offenses.

Hadley described Dalton, a former insurance adjuster, as "an average Joe" who had no criminal record and had not come to the attention of law enforcement before the murders.

The New York Times said neighbors described him as quiet and polite, but that he occasionally fired a gun outside the back door of the house he shared with his wife and two children, ages 10 and 15.

His family released a statement offering their "deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims" and vowed to "cooperate in every way that we can to help determine why and how this occurred."

Story continues

"There are no words which can express our shock and disbelief," read the statement.

"While it seems woefully inadequate, we are deeply sorry and are praying for everyone affected."

- Uber assists police -

Police are looking into reports Dalton picked up fares between shootings.

A man who declined to be identified told CNN that he got a short ride from Dalton in the midst of the rampage.

"I said, 'You're not the shooter, are you?' He said no. I said, are you sure? He kind of just said, 'No, I'm just tired, I've been driving for seven hours.'"

Uber's tracking system is expected to help police trace Dalton's vehicle during the series of shootings.

The ride-sharing company said Dalton had passed a background check and had no criminal record prior to joining the company.

Uber officials told reporters Monday that they were devastated by what had happened but had no plans to change their background check methods.

"As it stands right now, the system that Uber has is extremely safe," said Uber safety advisory board member Ed Davis.

But "a background check is just that; it does not foresee the future. After an incident like this, we all struggle for answers," he added.

- Obama decries violence -

The Kalamazoo killings were the latest in a string of US mass shootings that include the December 2 massacre in San Bernardino, California that left 14 people dead, and the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 26, including 20 children.

Gun violence claims the lives of about 30,000 Americans every year and mass shootings -- rare in most countries -- have been on the rise.

In what has become a grim tradition, President Barack Obama on Monday decried the nation's epidemic of gun-related deaths and said more needs to be done to keep guns away from "dangerous people."

"Their local officials and first responders did an outstanding job in apprehending the individual very quickly, but you've got families who are shattered today," Obama told a White House gathering of US governors.

"Clearly we're going to need to do more if we're going to keep innocent Americans safe."

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder ordered flags lowered for six days in honor of each of those killed and met with relatives of hospitalized victims.

"What a tough situation," he told reporters as he described watching the wounded girl's mother react as her critically injured daughter squeezed her hand. "Such senseless violence."

Dalton was ordered held without bail ahead of a preliminary hearing set for March 3.
Madrid (AFP) - Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde claimed his fourth Tour of Andalusia victory by winning Sunday's fifth and final stage to edge out American Tejay van Garderen.

Valverde was too strong on the category one climb to the end of the 171km stage from San Roque to Alto Penas Blancas to finish 36 seconds clear of Dutchman Bauke Mollema, with the Poland's Rafael Majka a further six seconds back in third.

Van Garderen was fourth, 48 seconds back, to surrender the 22-second lead he had over Valverde after winning the individual time trial on Saturday, but did enough for second overall.

Mollema's surge was enough to earn him third place in the overall standings.

"This is the best of my four victories here," Valverde told the Team Movistar website.

"The other three were great, but this was the most difficult.

"We knew we had to force the pace and we took advantage of the fact there were plenty of teams who wanted a quick race to try and dislodge Van Garderen."
Madrid (AFP) - Greece's far-left former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis called Sunday on the next leader of Spain to defy the European Union, speaking to hundreds of cheering onlookers during an anti-austerity gathering in Madrid.

The so-called "Plan B" weekend event near the grounds of Madrid's former abattoirs -- now converted into a sprawling cultural centre -- saw activists, actors and left-wing politicians from Spain, France, Britain and other countries get together as a pan-European movement against EU-imposed austerity gathers pace.

It comes at a time of uncertainty for Spain where December elections produced a hung parliament, as voters fed up with years of crisis-sparked austerity snubbed the traditional conservative and socialist parties and flocked to two new groupings -- centre-right Ciudadanos and far-left Podemos.

"A little bit more than a year ago... the Troika tried to convince the Greek people that the Spanish austerity programme was a success story," Varoufakis told the crowd, referring to the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

"We did not buy that lie," he said, pointing to the Greek elections in January 2015 that swept the radical left-wing Syriza party to power.

"In December, the Spanish people were told that if you do as we did, you will be crushed.... The Spanish people did not buy that lie," he said.

"This is why we are at now at a crucial juncture in Spain."

Socialist party chief Pedro Sanchez has been tasked by the king with forming a government after acting conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy failed to get enough support from other parties.

He is currently trying to garner the backing of other groupings that won parliamentary seats, including Syriza ally Podemos, before a crux vote of confidence at the beginning of March.

"I don't care who is in government. What I care about... is that the next government respects the demands of the Spanish people for change and goes to Brussels and says 'no pasaran'," Varoufakis said.

Story continues

Rajoy's tough spending cuts and tax rises during his four-year term helped Spain emerge from a severe economic crisis, but critics say he left glaring inequalities in his wake.

Madrid's "Plan B" anti-austerity gathering follows a similar gathering held in Paris last month.

Varoufakis himself launched a pan-European grassroots political movement to "democratise" the EU earlier this month.
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
By Michelle Conlin and Grant Smith NEW YORK (Reuters) - Within minutes of Jeb Bush dropping out of the presidential race Saturday night, some of his donors were preparing to throw their financial support behind Marco Rubio, who has emerged as the strongest candidate among the establishment wing of the party. "Jeb's network is already naturally migrating to Marco," said Gaylord Hughey, a top Bush fundraiser from Texas, echoing what four other top donors told Reuters. "It's the clear path." "It's a stampede," added another donor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wanted to give Bush some time after dropping out before he went public with his support of Rubio, the U.S. senator from Florida. Three other Bush donors, who declined to be named, also said they now planned to support Rubio. Although he has failed to win any of the first three nominating contests, Rubio is considered by many political strategists as the best positioned to challenge frontrunner Donald Trump, a billionaire political outsider, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has campaigned on an anti-Washington message. The likelihood that some of Bush's deep-pocketed donors will back Rubio comes at an opportune time for his candidacy, as he heads into a series of contests in March that will be crucial for building momentum. Brian Ballard, who raised money for Bush last year but switched allegiances last summer to Rubio, said: "It's flooding tonight. Ninety-five percent of Jeb's money is going to end up with Marco." Rubio had only $5 million in cash on hand at the end of January, federal campaign finance reports released Saturday night show, a slim buffer by modern campaign standards. Conservative Solutions, a political spending group that supports his campaign, had $5.6 million on hand at the end of January, but spent an additional $9.3 million on advertising in the first 19 days of February. By contrast, Right to Rise, Bush's political spending group, had $24.5 million on hand at the end of January but spent $6.6 million of that in February on ads. And his network of donors have proven their financial might, helping Bush at one point to amass a war chest of $150 million. Even before Bush dropped out, some donors privately complained about the missteps of the campaign, expressing concern about the strength of Trump's candidacy and Bush's lackluster debate performances. In January, a dozen top Bush donors interviewed by Reuters said they were angry that Bush was using their money to lob attack ads at Rubio, damaging the candidate they thought had the best chance to win. They also said they had privately signaled to the Rubio campaign that they would support him once Bush dropped out. But they wouldn't go public at the time because they feared displeasing the Bush dynasty. In addition to the Bush money, Rubio is expected to reap the support of the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers and their donor network, which is expected to spend $400 million in the presidential race, according to several network donors and Koch political organization officials. The Koch brothers are also in the midst of planning efforts to undercut Trump's candidacy, network officials and members said at a recent private retreat in California. Their focus group research has shown that when voters learn more about how Trump's past business behavior has hurt ordinary people, they sour on him, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. (Reporting By Michelle Conlin; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Mary Milliken)
Harare (AFP) - The world's oldest leader, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe turned 92 on Sunday, with no plans to step down as feuding over his successors threatens to tear his ruling ZANU-PF apart.

The veteran leader will mark the day with a public celebration on Saturday.

Last year's party was a massive feast with several elephants slaughtered and seven gigantic birthday cakes, one weighing 91 kilogrammes.

On Sunday, state media lauded Mugabe for his leadership since independence from Britain in 1980, while the opposition urged him to consider stepping down.

In its 16-page special birthday supplement, the Sunday Mail described Mugabe as a "doyen of pan-Africanism".

"Thank You Bob, We now have a voice, since 1980," said the paper on its front cover.

"Long live comrade Mugabe" read another message, adding: "We pride ourselves in your visionary, bold, insightful and fearless leadership."

But the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said Mugabe should think about whether his country, which is in the grips of an economic crisis, would not be better served by his bowing out.

"Robert Mugabe should take time to reflect and say isn't it time for me to pass on the baton," MDC spokesman Obert Gutu told AFP.

Mugabe once quipped that he would rule until he turns 100.

Despite his advanced age and recent speculation over his health, Mugabe has avoided naming a successor, prompting perennial infighting among rival factions in his ruling ZANU-PF party jostling for his post.

Despite his age, he continues to give lengthy speeches in public, but his frailty was laid bare last year when he tripped and fell down steps at a televised ceremony.

He also courted ridicule in September by reading a speech to parliament, apparently unaware that he had delivered the same address a month earlier.

His government is accused of systematic human rights abuses and tipping the country into a severe crisis through a campaign of violent land seizures.

Born on February 21, 1924, Mugabe trained as a teacher and taught in what was then Rhodesia and Ghana before returning home to join the guerrilla war against white minority rule.

He became prime minister on Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980 and then president in 1987.
The Folsom Chamber of Commerce, in a collaborative effort with Folsom Lake College brought its leadership development program back to life. Taking shape in the form of a new Folsom Leadership Academy, the program emerges stronger than ever before. The new program features a brand new look and a comprehensive mission-driven curriculum aimed at developing and fostering diverse leaders from the citys business, government and community sectors.

The kickoff event at Procissi Cellars and Fike Gallery on Sutter Street in the Historic District brought together students, faculty and administrators.

Rich Fiutko, Chairman of the Board, opened with introductions and thanks to sponsors, which include Intel, The City of Folsom, Mercy and Folsom Lake Bank. Maureen Gagliardi, Academy Administrator gave a humorous rundown on the leadership course, noting that the class teaches history and builds leaders who contribute to the community.

Rosemary Younts thanked Rich Fiutko for his opening welcome and for his effort to restart the academy. Rosemary reminded all the participants to learn the college blackboard system because it is the key to all the classes.

The Academy offers a full lineup of interactive educational sessions. Participants explore leadership concepts and engage in an in-depth examination of the many facets of the Folsom community and surrounding region.

The Academy course is held over nine months, with participants meeting bi-monthly for half-day classes. Interactive presentations, discussions, simulations and on-site visits expose the students to a wide range of information and issues.

Featured topics include

a colorful portrayal of Folsoms history,

economic development,

city services and administration,

the process of public education,

healthcare and the nonprofit community,

justice and public safety,
Nepal is experiencing a tourist boom this fall, despite political unrest, for many reasons besides the great Himalayas.

Find Kathmandu on a map or globe  just north of India and south of Tibet. Its probably a long way from you: 7,500 miles from New York, 4,500 miles from London, and 6,000 miles from Sydney.

Kathmandu is actually farther away than that. It is separated from the Western world by a vast gulf of time. Kathmandu is as old as the great cities of Europe and far older than those of the New World, but the gap isnt the citys chronological age. Time runs slower here, or at least it doesnt pass in the frenetic, linear way that most visitors consider normal. Past and present are close in Kathmandu; history, legends, and the present are all equally real. Time is a circle, a cycle of seasons, lives, and eras.

Stuck in a traffic jam on Kathmandus main street, called New Road by everyone here, you might not think so. Everything seems all too western. But get out of your taxi at where the road ends and walk a hundred paces to the stone lions that guard the entrance to the palace complex, and you are in a different world.

Stretching out ahead of you to the right is the old palace, built over the course of six hundred years. The first two stories of the brick and wood building closest may date to the 16th century; the low, white-plastered building farther ahead is from the 17th century; the ornate towers above you were built in the 18th century; and the massively columned white building far ahead was built in 1908. One of the foundation stones of the oldest wing of the palace was reused from a 7th century palace. The 7th century inscription says that that palace was built on the site of the ancient palace.

Basantapur Square, the open area ahead and to your left, is one of the three loosely connected squares that make up the Kathmandu Durbar Square area. It is named for the tallest of the four towers standing above the brick and wood building to your right. The lower building and the towers are beautiful examples of Newar architecture. This style dominated the architecture of the valley throughout the medieval period and is consistent with two millennia of tradition.

Plain red brick and elaborately carved wood are the hallmarks of the Newar style. Seventh-century Chinese accounts of Kathmandu describe multi-roofed buildings of brick with beautifully carved woodwork. In this earthquake-prone city, most ancient architecture no longer remains, but written records that survive the buildings that stood here over a millennium ago indicate that those structures must have borne a strong resemblance to the ones here today.

Cross the square to a large, three-storey wooden building with an open-air ground level. The building is partially whitewashed, and sometimes red cloth streamers are hung under the roofs eaves. This is Kasthamandap, the old wooden pavilion.

Kasthamandaps age is uncertain, but there is a plaque inside it dated 1048, and this alone is enough to make the building one of the oldest known structures in Nepal. It is almost certain that Kathmandu was named for Kasthamandap, located as the pavilion was between the two ancient hamlets that merged to form the old city. Perhaps this structure or one much like it stood here that long ago. We know the current building was here in 1048, but we dont know how old it was then.

Where historians must be cautious, legend offers a ready account for the origins of this pavilion. Once upon a time, it is said, the god of wood came to Kathmandu in the form of a handsome young man in order to watch one of the citys colourful festivals. A tantric priest recognized him and bound him to the spot by means of a magical spell. A negotiation ensued between the trapped god and the priest. Ask for a boon, said the god, And I will grant it in return for my release.

The priest asked for wood to build a temple, and his wish was granted under one condition  that the temple would not be consecrated until the prices of rice and salt became equal. The deal was struck, the god vanished, and the next morning at the spot on which the god had been bound there stood a gigantic celestial tree. The tree was so large that both the Kasthamandap and the Silyan Sattal  the building to the far left with the gilded lions at its corners  are said to have been constructed from its wood.

Next to the two buildings is one of the smallest temples in Nepal, but one of the most important. The temple sits at the corner of the Kasthamandap, where a gilded shrew on a pole faces the shrine reverently.

The shrew is the attendant and mount of the important and popular deity Ganesh, who is always pictured with the head of an elephant and a large, round stomach. The temple has no finial on its pagoda roof so as facilitate Ganeshs ascent to heaven, reportedly made on a flash of blue light. This shrine is the only place the kings of Nepal must visit on foot. For more than 500 years, each monarch has walked to the temple after his coronation to ask for a good beginning to his reign.

Then turn and walk back to find the beautiful carved-wood and brick house, the home of a child goddess, the Kumari.

There are several Kumaris in the valley, but this is the one of state importance. She is a young girl, selected by way of a vigourous screening system to ensure that she comes from the proper background and possesses the 32 virtues, including specified physical attributes and a horoscope that matches that of the kings. (The latter is vital, for since the Kumari is an incarnation of the royal goddess, her annual blessing of the king is considered critical for his rule. This year King Gyanendra was denied the official opportunity for that blessing, but later went unannounced to the house for the ceremony, much to the annoyance of the prime minister.)

After candidates for the Kumaris position are screened, a chosen few are subject to further trials including tests for the 32nd virtue, courage. The candidate children spend a night in the cellars of a temple amid bloody buffalo heads, while men in masks try to scare them. If a girl is a goddess, she should show no sign of fright under such circumstances, even if she is only four or five years old.

Once chosen, the Kumari leaves her family to come to this house, where a family of hereditary attendants cares for her. She will remain the Kumari until an accident or the onset of puberty causes her to bleed. At that moment, the goddess leaves her, and the girl becomes an ordinary mortal. Another child is selected to replace her. Former Kumaris tend to have considerable adjustment problems upon returning to life as ordinary mortals. It is only recently that tutors have been allowed into the Kumari Ghar; the struggle between traditionalists and reformers with respect to this institution has only just begun.

The institution of the Kumari is very old, but this house and the veneration of a state Kumari date to the time of King Jayaprakash Malla, who was overthrown in 1769. Jayaprakash played dice with the royal goddess at times, to discuss affairs of state, but the goddesss ground rules were clear: he could not touch her or think lustful thoughts of her. For many years, Jayaprakash followed the rules, but one evening he was overwhelmed by her radiance and reached out to touch her. Quick as a flash she disappeared and only her voice remained, berating the king for his indiscretion.

The crestfallen monarch begged and pleaded until finally the goddess agreed to return in another form. You will find a Kumari among the Shakya caste, she said, And you will worship her as me.

Jayaprakash was chastened. As per the goddesss bidding, he built this house and established the state Kumari here. He also established the Kumaris annual chariot procession, in which the young goddess must bless the king, a part of the ancient Indra Jatra festival. Thus in typically Nepali fashion, the new is grafted on to the old even as the old holds strong; Hindus, like Jayaprakash, and Buddhists, like the Shakya child who becomes the Kumari, together establish religious tradition; and the incredible capacity of its people for assimilation and synthesis makes Kathmandu rich.

John Child is The Newsblaze Nepal Correspondent, a journalist in Kathmandu who writes about goings-on in and around Nepal and her neighbors.
Cop injured in accident

A police report stated Cherry, who is posted at the Penal Police Station, was driving a van along the M1 Ring Road ( Phase 2) Debe on Friday night when he veered off the roadway and crashed into the grass median. At the time Cherry, of Penal Rock Road, Penal, was with a female companion. Both sustained multiple injuries and were rushed to the hospital, where up to last evening they remained warded in a stable condition.
Benz driver nabbed after crash

As such, police of the Highway Patrol Unit (based at the Debe Police Post) arrested the man and acting Cpl Baptiste was expected to charge the man with the offence.

A police report stated that at about 11 pm on Friday, acting Cpl Baptiste and PC Paul responded to a report of a vehicular accident along the north bond lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway, in the vicinity of the Brian Lara Stadium at Tarouba. On arrival, the policemen observed a white Mercedes Benz had crashed into the barriers.

The driver, was not present.

Police later received information from an eyewitness who indicated the driver hitched a ride from a motorist and left.

Police went to the KFC outlet at Gasparillo Junction where they found him eating chicken and chips. After telling him about the report they were investigating, the policemen requested he take a breathalyser test. The businessman refused and instead complained about having body pains.

Police transported him to the San Fernando General Hospital where a doctor, after examining him, said the businessman was well enough to take the test. He refused and again subsequently began to complain about feeling unwell.

Doctors again examined him and gave the green light for him to take the breathalyser test. The police report stated the businessman refused and so acting Cpl Baptiste was expected to lay the charge
Businesswoman chopped to death

The victims are Angeline Ali, Jamal George and Mikel Waljobe .

Homicide detectives were yesterday viewing CCTV (closed-circuit television) footage with the hope of solving the murder of Ali, a 56-year-old contractor, who was chopped and stabbed to death at her home in Barrackpore .

Ali of Shaliza General Contractors Limited was attacked at her home on Papourie Road, Lower Barrackpore, at about 2 pm last Friday .

A police report stated her husband, Raffick, found her body on the floor of the living room. Raffick told police had left their home at about an hour earlier to conduct a business transaction and on his return, he found his wifes body with multiple wounds .

Police investigators said an estimated $20,000 has been reported missing from the house .

A party of officers from the Barrackpore Police Station and Homicide Bureau (San Fernando) visited the scene and conducted investigations .

Police recovered a bloodstained cutlass which they believe was the weapon used to commit the crime .

A District Medical Officer ordered the removal of the body to the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital, for transfer to the Forensic Science Centre, St James for an autopsy tomorrow .

A party of detectives returned to the scene yesterday and viewed video footage obtained from Alis premises and the surrounding area with the hope of identifying the killers .

When Newsday visited the house yesterday, relatives were too distraught to speak .

The killings continued hours later, when, at about 9.40 pm, Jamal George, 29, was shot dead in Belmont .

According to reports, George had dropped his girlfriend home at Joseph Trace, Upper Belmont Valley Road, when gunman approached and shot him as he walked past a bar. He died at the scene .

And yesterday, at about 7.20 am, the body of 30-year-old Mikel Waljobe was noticed in Arima by a passer-by who reported the matter to the police .

Officers from the Arima CID responded and Waljobe of Jonestown, Arima was found 60 feet inside a footpath running along the cemetery on King Street .

He was dressed in a short pants, jersey and slippers, and had a bloody wound to the back of his head. A spent shell was found nearby .

Inquiries are continuing .
YTC, religious groups to help ex-offenders

He was speaking with the media yesterday at the Pastors & Leaders After-care Follow-Up Meeting: Communities Caring for Juvenile Offenders held yesterday at YTC, Arouca.

Scanterbury explained the objective of the meeting, hosted by the Caring for Ex-Offenders (CFEO) committee in collaboration with the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Service, was to partner with the church and community leaders to adopt a youth when they come out of prison.

He noted religious groups and other stakeholders have come together to collaborate on the exercise.

He said before this new programme the YTC welfare department would look at boys who left YTC but their effort was very limited. He stressed there needed to be someone there with the boys to help them get themselves together.

He explained the programme is about bridging a gap and noted that boys who have left YTC without a proper support system do not have a link for employment or a place to stay. And what about their families? Scanterbury said the lads would have come in as little boys and leave as young men and some parents are unable to relate to them and put them out. He said the focus is on follow-up for the ex-offenders and through the programme they will pair them with different personnel in their geographical area. He explained that prior to being discharged they will be working with the youths and their families. The programme will also feature the Ministry of Community of Development which will provide training.

On a needs breakdown of 47 youths, skills training was the highest at 53.2 per cent, then drug rehabilitation, then anger management and then job preparation training.

On the status of the programme, Scanterbury said they are in the process of pairing the youths and initially they are looking 15 to 20 boys who are on different charges and from different areas in the country.

The external after-care will run for at least two years and will involve mentors who meet the youths at the gate and support them with the challenges of reintegration into free society after two years.

YTC houses boys between 16 and 18 and they currently have 96, Scanterbury reported. He said the YTC is looking at the number of boys who have left in the last three years to determine how many of them have been incarcerated at an adult institution.

He noted they will be constantly evaluating to get the best results. He also spoke about conditions at YTC noting they have a lot of mosquitoes and while there were a few boys with fever, he said, it was not a major issue.

He explained that YTC was sprayed last week as a preventative initiative and they fall under the same system as schools. His disclosure comes the country responds to the spread of Zika, a mosquito-borne virus.
SXSW team still needs $1M

ASK Promotions CEO, Stephen Howard said Government and other corporate entities needed to look at its allocations toward the arts, particularly in the countrys recessionary economy.

Howard said, at a conference held last week to announce the attendees, that through events such as SXSW, MIDEM and others, the countrys indigenous music has been gaining appreciation on the global scale.

We need to invest, he said, while adding top level executives from the music festival said the country should be a leader in the creative fields in the region since we possessed all genres of music.

The organisation is seeking to get approximately $1 million to take the contingent.

Last year, Machel Montano, Shurwayne Winchester, the Codrington Pan Family, Mungal Patasar and sons, The Mighty Sparrow, orator Dennis Morgan, Los Alumnos de San Juan and Trinidad James composed the Trinidad and Tobago contingent.

Rock group Inzey and the Dopeskis- DaBand expressed reservations about raising the necessary finances to get them to SXSW.

Three acts, at the time of writing, opted out since funding would have been an issue for them. Pannist Deron Ellis manger Megan Sylvester said, He was actually part of the AMMBCON showcase and chosen to be part of the SXSW contingent.

Interestingly, we received letters like all of the other bands stating that we all had to come up with $115,000.

The thing about it is, he was going as an individual artiste and needed a band. We did assemble a band of four musicians and were supposed to attend.

But the challenge is as a pannist in TT and as an individual pannist that was a lot to come up with that money.

There are others bands with larger numbers who would be able to put on gigs and attract larger numbers. We came to a decision it would not be feasible to attend.

When we did have the meeting we discussed sponsorship and alternative sources of funding we could have tapped into but we realised it would have been a challenge. Deron Ellis and the other band members are seasoned musicians and know the lay of the land. You have to face reality. It made us feel downtrodden, and that there maybe a challenge with the term music industry in TT and we really need strong impetus from the Government and lending agencies and alternative sources to fund the arts. Garcia said for her attending the annual music festival was part of a wider national cause since she had already performed at international music festivals.

For me because I have already done a lot of festivals and stuff...this is for me trying to be a part of something national.

I feel good that I can go out there, represent and be a woman and show people that Trinidad and Tobago has crazy talent. She added that she felt it for the younger artistes and understood having been on stage since she was 10 years old.

She added there were times she had to sleep in the studio to get work done.

The music, film and interactive festival runs from March 11 to the 20, with the music component running from the March 15 to 20. T he showcase is expected to take place on March 19 from 8 pm to 2 am.
Sherons wife: My children and I okay so far

Its ironic how in the blink of an eye, family becomes strangers and strangers become family, said Sukhdeo on her page while telling persons that she was unable to accept anymore friend requests as she had reached the limit of 5,000.

I know everyone is mostly concerned about the safety of my children and I, so just letting you all know that we are okay so far. The woman noted that the matter in which she is involved is now before the court) and that she will no longer be making public comment.

She however said she never thought her story of her abuse could have changed so many lives - she also revealed via her page that she is being congratulated at every turn for her courage and bravery. In apologizing to those whom she may have offended because of her actions on Facebook, Sukhdeo went on to advise women who find themselves in abusive situations to find the strength and courage to walk away.

For Sukhdeo, she reported that she had reached her breaking point and took the decision to walk away without a care of what could have or might have happened to me or my family. And while the reputation of some officers at the Chaguanas Police Station have been brought into question, Sukhdeo singled out WPC Joseph for praise, saying that her main concern was my safety and my justice. Last Wednesday, Sukhdeos husband, Sheron Sukhdeo, an auto and real estate businessman of Xavier Street, Chaguanas appeared before a magistrate to answer charges of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and malicious wounding committed against her.

He was granted bail in the sum of $85,000. Sukhdeo has since been granted a restraining order by the court which prevents the millionaire businessman from entering the familys mansion and coming within a certain distance of his wife.

Police meanwhile are also said to be investigating the photograph of a firearm which purportedly appeared on an account in the name of Sheron Auto Instagram Account
Mayor Valentine: Taking things one day at a time

This is cause for serious concern because I feel passionately about the youths, he told Sunday Newsday during an interview on Friday.

Saying that young people could be led astray if they were not given proper guidance and taught meaningful values, Valentine, 31, observed that social media has also played a role in influencing delinquent behavioural patterns among the youth.

Valentines concern about the growing incidence of youth misconduct came as soldiers prevented a potential clash among rival gang members within the Chaguanas North Secondary School on Friday.

Reports are that gang members, some dressed in the schools uniform, had planned to storm the institution to shoot a teacher and students believed to be linked to a rival gang.

The plan was shut down, though, when a student, said to be a gang member, informed a teacher of the looming threat. Investigations are continuing. Intent on reducing such negative trends, Valentine said within the coming weeks, he will be visiting his alma maters - St Agnes Anglican Primary School, Mucurapo Secondary and Fatima College - to give motivational addresses to the students.

The mayor said he also planned to visit every school within Port-of- Spain and its environs.

That would be a joy for me. If I could change the mindset of one student, then I know one life would be saved, he said.

Thrust into the mayors chair following last weeks resignation of Raymond Tim Kee over his controversial statements about the death of Japanese national Asami Nagakiya, on February 10 (Ash Wednesday), Valentine said he was humbled by his new position but aware that the oath he has taken was a huge one filled with responsibility. Having served as the Deputy Mayor and councillor for the electoral district of Port-of-Spain North since 2010, Valentine said he was no stranger to hard work but felt he now had a significant role to play, particularly among his young burgesses. I am hoping to be that catalyst for young people to look up to and I am gratified to know that I am that ambassador for them to emulate. They must know that one can aspire to any position at any age, he said. I may be the youngest Port-of-Spain mayor to hold office but I am not a rookie. Valentine declined to comment, personally, on the murder of the Japanese national in the capital city, but acknowledged that the developments which led to his elevation to the mayorship were less than ideal.

I see it as bitter-sweet, with a bit of an uncomfortable feeling, he told Sunday Newsday.

But I have come to realise that in politics you have to expect anything.

Things like these do happen and you just have to adjust accordingly.

The minute I took the oath, I simply kicked into gear as the Mayor of the city. He has been invited to meet with the group, Womantra, though, to discuss gender issues in the wake of the furore triggered by Tim Kees controversial statements about Nagakiyas death. Raised on Benares Street, St James, Valentine enjoyed a wholesome upbringing in the lively community.

At an early age, he became involved in the steelband movement - an association which allowed him to receive a Pan Trinbago scholarship to the University of Akron, Ohio, United States where he studied International Business and Marketing.

He also holds a Management Certificate in Diplomatic Negotiations from the China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing, China, and a Certificate in Music Literacy from the Creative Arts Centre of the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.

Saying he has always had a passion to serve, Valentine felt that the steelpan could be a useful tool in taking young people away from a life of criminal activity.

The mayor described as mind-boggling, the increase in the number of young people playing pan.

There has to be a greater emphasis on the steelband outside of Panorama for true and meaningful change to take place, he said.

An avid sportsman and community worker,Valentine listed the fitness zone and childrens play area at Mandela Park (a partnership between the Digicel and the Port-of- Spain City Corporation) and the Newtown Playboys Steel Symphony Pan Theatre on Tragarete Road, Port-of-Spain, as two of his gratifying achievements in office.

He also has represented the corporation at various international fora, in Senegal, Africa, China and South Korea.

Since being appointed mayor, Valentine said he has been kept quite busy with briefings on matters pending before the council and public engagements, including the opening of the St Christophers Taxi cab Co-Operative Service Station on Wrightson Road, Port-of- Spain, last Thursday.

I am used to all of this but the only difference is that I am now in the drivers seat so I have to be more focussed, he said.

In the meantime, Valentine said he had already conceptualised a plan to reduce homelessness and illegal vending, long the bane of the capital city.

Regarding homelessness, he said the plan involves working closely with the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services to first get the persons off the streets and in a specific location in which they can be assessed individually and, where possible, be reintegrated into the society. Admitting that getting the plan off the ground might be easier said than done, Valentine said he was up to the challenge.

I will really have to push to get that situation with homelessness under control, he said.

As for his future in politics, Valentine said the skys the limit.

That is my mantra, he said.

I am cognisant of the fact that no position is tied to one person and that is the reason I am open to serve the people of Trinidad and Tobago. For now, I am just taking things one day at a time.
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As an attack on Ankara threatens to deepen Turkeys fight with Kurdish militants in Syria, Ankaras inability to swiftly deliver a decisive blow to rebels at home is fueling fears that it is in for a protracted and destabilizing fight with Kurdish insurgents.

All these tactics are more or less indiscriminate. And this is what we need to be afraid of with the Taliban pressing into cities, as it is urban centers where rural populations flee to in order to escape the Taliban. If there is no assistance or protection in cities, Afghans will seek security in neighboring countries or abroad. If Europe is opening doors to Syrians, why not to Afghans?

The increasing intensity of ground combat, combined with a further 38 percent civilian casualties attributed to IEDs and suicide attacks, also explains why the toll has been so high on women and children.

In the past, improvised explosive devises were the highest killer of civilians. Without international air power backing up ANSF, the Taliban is free to move in bigger groups, engage into close combat, and terrorize urban centers such as Kunduz and Kabul. Kate Clark from the Afghanistan Analysts Network points out the obvious: the war has flipped. It is now the Taliban driving the conflict, with the ANSF largely trying to defend territory.

Fourth, the departure of foreign military forces did not appease the Taliban (which had made this one of its conditions), but gave it greater ability to fight ANSF in ground engagements, which have accounted for 37 percent of all civilian casualties.

Third, ISAF/NATO clearly did not complete its mission, defined as creating the conditions whereby the Afghan government would be able to exercise its authority throughout the country, including the development of professional and capable Afghan security forces. The UNAMA reportand of course what happened in Kunduzshows clearly that the ANSF is outgunned and unable to halt an ever-expanding and ever-fragmenting insurgency. So perhaps withdrawal was premature and the international military should have heeded the lessons of Iraq.

Second, as it has numerous times before, the Taliban slammed the UN report as biased propaganda by foreign invaders and an Afghan puppet government. Of course the Taliban's rather narrow definition of civilians makes it easy for them to claim the moral high ground on not killing the innocent. For the Taliban, anybody associated with or working for the Afghan Government in any form or fashion is a legitimate target, whether they carry weapons or not. Increasingly, however, the Afghan population no longer buys this convenient excuse and views the Taliban as what it is: a brutal insurgent force.

First, wars kill, and as a war intensifies (as it did in Afghanistan), the toll on civilians increases, especially when the rules of war mean little to the fighting parties. Though Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was quick to point a finger at the Taliban for violating international law, arguing that his security forces underwent regular training to ensure the protection of civilians and were liable to investigate if any breaches occurred, the UN report shows there are violations on both sides, even if the Taliban might be the biggest perpetrator.

Things in the UN Report That Should not Surprise Us

Things in the UN Report That Should not Surprise Us

But lets return to the UN report. What does it tells us and, more importantly, what does it not?

Ignoring wars does not make them go away. Nor does simply drawing down international military forces. This is what NATO did in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, when the UN -mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) closed its doors, and with that most international military forces left. Not all foreign soldiers left. Australia and the United States are still contributing nations as NATO launched its Resolute Support Mission (RSM), which focuses on providing training, advice and assistance activities at the security ministries and national institutional levels and the higher levels of army and police command across the country. Planned initially for a year, it was quietly extended after the Taliban insurgency managed to briefly conquer the Northern city of Kunduz late last year.

Similarly, even if there is currently no Afghan mass exodus as there is from Syria, Afghans still rank second-highest among asylum seekers and refugees in the world, and the war is in its fourth decade.

The 11,002 documented civilian casualties (3,545 deaths and 7,457 injured) might be a record high for Afghanistan since 2009 (when the UN started its documentation), but the total is dwarfed by the 20,000 killed in the Syrian war. Then again, there is little bombing in Afghanistan, where air operations account for only 3 percent of all dead and wounded, meaning that nearly all civilian casualties are caused by up-close-and personal brute force.

Overshadowed by the violence in Syria, news from Afghanistan rarely makes headlines unless it is a reminder of the dire situation there.

) in cooperation with the UN Human Rights Office on the "Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict."

Those of us watching Afghanistan were not surprised at the findings of the

Further losses elsewhere are possible.

 Afghan troops pull out of strategic Helmand district



mikenova shared this story from World. Further losses elsewhere are possible.

 US drone crashes in southern Afghanistan; no injuries



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 7 people killed in random Michigan... - The Latest



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 michigan gunman - Google Search



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mikenova shared this story from     Google. .RU         .RU ,   ,        ...

 Why is Facebook shutting down legal marijuana pages in the US?



mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. Why Facebook is shutting down legal marijuana pages in the US

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mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Jerusalem Post Israel News Russia's people diplomacy in the Middle East Jerusalem Post Israel News The latest Zogby Research Services survey highlighted that the majority of Arabs hol...

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mikenova shared this story from     Google.                 ,           . ...

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mikenova shared this story from cia - Google News. WND.com CIA diversity program targets transgender candidates WND.com (Fox News) The CIA's latest diversity program includes an effort to recruit transgender individuals into the ranks of...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. EFF Apple, Americans, and Security vs. FBI EFF While the FBI has framed its demand as addressing a single phone, it has failed to address concerns that the implementation of the orderwh...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Los Angeles Times Protests Planned Across US to Back Apple in Battle With FBI ABC News Protesters are preparing to assemble in more than 30 cities to lash out at the FBI for obtaining a ...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Gizmodo San Bernardino County Calls the FBI Liars Over Terrorist's iCloud Account Gizmodo Late last night a Twitter account associated with San Bernardino County said that it worked unde...

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mikenova shared this story from Cyber Warfare - Google News. RT Putin: Russian military potential increasing every year RT The development of the armed forces will always be among the most important tasks for the Russian state, Vladimir ...

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mikenova shared this story from US national security | The Guardian. Local government move made taking Apple to court inevitable Tech giant contends enabling access would violate user trust Apple: FBI is making demands even China hasnt ...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. International Business Times Apple vs FBI Protest: Apple Store Rallies Planned In More Than 30 Cities To Protest FBI's Demands International Business Times Privacy advocates are standing...

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mikenova shared this story from Washington Free Beacon. Hillary Clinton was projected the winner of the Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday. Fox News and NBC called the race in favor of Clinton at about 2:15 P.M. local time. Clinton was...

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mikenova shared this story from Stars and Stripes News. The unexpected Supreme Court vacancy, a historic trip to Cuba and a deeply unsettled presidential primary campaign all promise to keep the president at the center of Washington poli...

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mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. CNN International CNN How The Iran-Russia-Syria Alliance Is The Middle East's 'Number One Problem' Daily Caller James Jeffrey, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, made a provocative assert...

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 7:33 p.m. EST. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was remembered Saturday as a man of faith, family and the law in a funeral marked by church ritual and pageantry for th...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Turkey's prime minister on Saturday called on the United States to give his government unconditional support in the fight against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia without ifs and buts. Sp...

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mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. Syria Democratic Forces fighters carry their weapons in a village on the outskirts of al-Shadadi town, Hasaka countryside

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mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Six-hour long standoff ends with Mississippi officer dead Herald & Review JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  One law enforcement officer was killed and three were wounded early Saturday after...

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mikenova shared this story from World news. Washington puts aside political differences at Scalia funeral, but Obama set for clash with Republicans over his successor

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mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. FOX 29 Corruption-Ridden Texas City's New Woe: Undrinkable Water ABC News After weeks of turmoil and the arrests of all but one top city official, residents of Crystal City have ...

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 7:33 p.m. EST. LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Hillary Clinton wins the Nevada Democratic caucuses, rebounding after a second-place finish to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire....

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, US media report.

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mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets employees during a campaign stop on caucus day at Harrah's Las Vegas in Las V...

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. Syrian journalist Rami Jarrah, who was arrested on Wednesday in Turkey, has announced his own release without charge.

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. How IS has been making enemies in Afghanistan

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mikenova shared this story from World. With enemies on its borders and its cities under attack, the country faces an unprecedented array of challenges.

 Drugs Officer Killed In Stand-Off At House



mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. James Lee Tartt died and three state troopers were also shot as a SWAT team stormed the property where a man had been holed up.

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Newsweek FBI's Fight With Apple Over Encryption May Erode European Trust in US Newsweek With Apple openly fighting court orders backed by the FBI and the Department of Justice this week,...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The U.S. and Russia have launched talks on brokering a cease-fire in Syria after failing to make Friday's Syria, but it appears unlikely that negotiators will meet next week's scheduled d...

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mikenova shared this story from Cyber Warfare - Google News. MarketWatch Is America the No. 1 military in the world, or not? MarketWatch The U.S. spent over $600 billion on its military in 2014, outspending its closest rival, China , by ...

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mikenova shared this story from Defense News - Home. Make no mistake, the Air Force doesnt want to use Russian-made rocket engines, a top general said Friday.

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mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. Chron.com The Latest: Saudi FM backs anti-aircraft missiles for rebels Chron.com DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): 2:30 p.m.. Saudi Arabia's...

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mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. New York Daily News Two NYPD cops shot in Brooklyn after suspect leads them on chase New York Daily News Two Brooklyn cops were wounded early Saturday in a wild car chase and gun...

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mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said.

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mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Washington Post 1 Officer Dead, 3 Wounded in Mississippi Shooting ABC News One law enforcement officer was killed and three were injured early Saturday after an hourslong standof...

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mikenova shared this story from World. Turkeys prime minister has dismissed a Turkey-based Kurdish militant groups claim of responsibility for an attack in Ankara that killed 28 people, insisting it was carried out by a U.S.-backed Syr...

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 3:00 p.m. EST. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Chuck Grassley - farmer, onetime sheet metal shearer, six-term senator and Judiciary Committee chairman - has a major say in whether President Barack O...

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 3:00 p.m. EST. IUKA, Mississippi (AP) -- Law enforcement authorities say one officer is dead and three are hospitalized with gunshot wounds after a standoff in northeastern Mississippi....

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 3:00 p.m. EST. NEW YORK (AP) -- Two New York City Police officers were injured early Saturday in a shootout with a suspect who crashed his car into a police vehicle, police said....

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 3:00 p.m. EST. JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- One law enforcement officer was killed and three were wounded early Saturday after a six-hour long standoff at a rural Mississippi house ended when auth...

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mikenova shared this story from The Daily Caller. 4868468 Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister would neither confirm nor deny the potential purchase of a nuclear weapon from Pakistan recently, leaving one of the Middle Easts grea...

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mikenova shared this story from Alexander Mercouris feed. The US investigative journalist Robert Parry has made an astonishing claim - and one that has gone completely unnoticed. He is reporting that the Russian government has warned Erd...

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mikenova shared this story from NDTV News - Top Stories. Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said most countries are concerned over Iran getting billions of dollars as a result of the nuclear deal. (File Photo) Washington: ...

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mikenova shared this story . Saudi Arabia acceded to the as a in 1988 and since 1999 has expressed its support for the establishment of a -free zone in the Middle East. While the last decade has witnessed growing speculation about how Sa...

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mikenova shared this story . In a shocking development, Saudi Arabia has now publicly admitted they possess NUCLEAR BOMBS. The bombs will protect the ground invasion of Syria by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. . . which puts the Russians ...

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mikenova shared this story from Finance. Ahmad Masood/REUTERS Members of Saudi security forces in a military parade. When British Aerospace Engineering, better known as BAE Systems, announced a bumper set of annual results this week, muc...

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mikenova shared this story from Military & Defense. Saudi Arabia just launched what it describes as the largest war game in the country's history . On February 14, the "Northern Thunder" military exercise began, involving troops from...

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mikenova shared this story from MintPress News. In addition to blowing the cover on Israels secret dealings with the Gulf states to target Iran, the defense minister expressed Israels hope that Syria might be divided up int...

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mikenova shared this story from Breitbart News. by Aaron Klein 14 Feb 2016 55 We see signs that countries in the Arab world are preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, that they are not willing to sit quietly with Iran on the brink ...

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mikenova shared this story from Hot Air  Top Picks. posted at 8:41 pm on February 15, 2016 by Ed Morrissey Who could have predicted that the deal John Kerry and Barack Obama cut with Iran would lead to a nuclear-arms race in the region?...

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mikenova shared this story from Israel news, all the latest and breaking Israel news. Advocates of the nuclear deal, including President Barack Obama, argue that the agreement heads off a Middle East arms race as Iran's nuclear capabilit...

 Russia and Saudi Arabia agree to cooperate in nuclear energy



mikenova shared this story from World Nuclear News. Russia and Saudi Arabia yesterday signed an agreement to cooperate in the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The document was signed by Rosatom director general Sergey...

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mikenova shared this story from Russia Beyond the Headlines. Some countries are thinking about creating nuclear bombs after what has happened in North Africa and the Middle East, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. "I rememb...

 The Saudis are ready to go nuclear



mikenova shared this story from Saudi Arabia news, all the latest and breaking Saudi Arabia news. Now the Saudis have raised the alarming prospect of the Middle East becoming embroiled in a nuclear arms race after the countrys blu...

 Potential Saudi Nuke Purchase From...



mikenova shared this story from saudi nukes - Google News. Potential Saudi Nuke Purchase From Pakistan Remains A Mystery Daily Caller - Jan 23, 2016 A picture taken in 1971 shows a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. ...

 saudi nukes - Google Search



mikenova shared this story . Potential Saudi Nuke Purchase From Pakistan Remains A Mystery Daily Caller - Jan 23, 2016 A picture taken in 1971 shows a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. France said on March 24, 2009 it will compensate 1...

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mikenova shared this story . Saudi Arabia is not known to have a nuclear weapons program . From an official and public standpoint, Saudi Arabia has been an opponent of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, having signed the Nuclear Non-Pro...

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mikenova shared this story from james b. comey - Google News. Patently Apple The DOJ's War with Apple Escalates with a New Court Filing Patently Apple The Justice Department (DOJ) is pushing forward with its legal fight against Apple, ur...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. CNBC John McAfee: FBI should let me hack iPhone CNBC Cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee wants authorities to stay away from Apple's encryption, so much that he has offered to personally c...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. BGR The DOJ just escalated the federal government's fight with Apple BGR Apple has been taking criticism from several lawmakers over the past couple of days who have expressed outrage th...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Congress Seeks Apple Testimony Amid FBI Row Over Encryption Bloomberg At least two congressional committees are planning hearings after Apple Inc.'s refusal to help the FBI unlock a phon...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Slate Magazine How Apple's Stand Against the FBI Could Backfire Slate Magazine The skirmish between Apple and the FBI is quickly escalating to a battle royal, a fight to the finish over ...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. USA TODAY Public support for Apple in FBI standoff isn't strong USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO  It's a split decision on the Apple- FBI standoff. As tech companies line up behind the device ma...

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mikenova shared this story from ThereAreNoSunglasses. Saudi Arabia Admits it Has NUCLEAR BOMBS; Will Test Within Weeks! In a shocking development, Saudi Arabia has now publicly admitted they possess NUCLEAR BOMBS. The bombs will protect...

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mikenova shared this story from Pictures of the day latest photographs from around the world. &amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://b.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&amp;amp;amp;amp;c2=6035736&amp;amp;amp;amp;cv=2.0&am...

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mikenova shared this story from Lawfare - Hard National Security Choices. At 3:30 am this morning, American F-15s once again screamed across Libyan skies and delivered their payload to an ISIS camp located outside of Sabratha, just 50 mi...

 tak group - Google Search



mikenova shared this story . Turkey bombing: Kurdish TAK group says it attacked Ankara BBC News - 16 hours ago The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks ( TAK ) group said on its website that the attack was retaliation against the policies of Presiden...

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mikenova shared this story . BAGHDAD  An obscure Kurdish militant group that is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has long waged an insurgency inside Turkey, claimed responsibility on Friday for a car bombin...

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - Home. A Turkey-based Kurdish militant group has said it carried out Wednesday's bomb attack in Ankara that killed 28 people. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) group said on its website that the ...

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mikenova shared this story . Was Hillary Clinton smart to press the reset button with Russia? Can Donald Trumps business-negotiation experience carry over to international relations ? Questions about diplomacy loom l...

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mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. While the evidence is strong that the virus is behind Brazils surge of birth defects, experts are waiting for pregnant women in a clinical trial to start giving birth in June.

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The off-duty Israeli soldier stabbed to death by two Palestinian teens in a West Bank supermarket has been identified as Tuvya Weisman, an American citizen. He was the second American to ...

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. Militants from the Islamic State group killed in a US air strike in Libya posed a threat to US and Western interests, the Pentagon says.

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mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU leaders told Russia to stop bombing Western-backed opposition fighters in Syria and accused Moscow and Iran of threatening peace efforts, as well as helping Isl...

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mikenova shared this story from World  TIME. British Prime Minister David Cameron says a new agreement with European Union partners gives Britain enough reassurances about its sovereignty that he will recommend that his country stay in ...

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mikenova shared this story from World. France immediately rejected Russias proposed U.N. resolution Friday demanding an immediate halt to cross-border shelling and foreign ground intervention in Syria, warning that a dangerous military...

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mikenova shared this story from World  TIME. More British Prime Minister Reaches Deal on E.U. Membership United Nations Group to Announce Julian Assange Being Arbitrarily Held U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced a deal late Frid...

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mikenova shared this story from Cyber Warfare - Google News. Official: No Evidence of Shots Fired at Military Base ABC News A military official says a Virginia base was locked down after contractors working on a roof thought they heard g...

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. USA TODAY Apple, FBI to head to court March 22 USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO - Apple and the FBI are currently duking it out in the court of public opinion, but their fight will come to a head...

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mikenova shared this story from Stars and Stripes News. France immediately rejected Russia's proposed United Nations resolution demanding an immediate halt to cross-border shelling and foreign ground intervention in Syria.

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mikenova shared this story from AP Top News at 3:35 p.m. EST. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bidding farewell to their longtime colleague, the eight remaining Supreme Court justices joined family members, former law clerks and members of the public ...

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mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. Telegraph.co.uk Vatican's number three furiously denies claims he sexually abused boys in Australia Telegraph.co.uk The Vatican's economy minister is reportedly being investigated on s...

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mikenova shared this story from World. Turkish authorities detained the citizen journalist while he applied for residence in the border city of Gaziantep.

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mikenova shared this story from World  TIME. More E.U. to Hold Emergency Migration Summit With Turkey in Early March The Syrian Refugees Trapped Between an Angry Turkey and a Vengeful Assad Syrian With Kurdish Links Behind Deadly Ankara...

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mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. Boston Herald Austria, Hungary Moves Highlight EU Disarray Over Migrants New York Times BERLIN  Austria raised the prospect of even tighter limits on the number of asylum seekers ente...

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mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. While the price, about 10 cents per liter, is still far below world rates, for drivers here it is an essential shift from paying basically nothing.

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mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadians remain divided about the resettlement of Syrian refugees, with some saying Canada should accept more despite a series of racist incidents that have marred...

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mikenova shared this story from World news. Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) vowed to destroy tourism in Turkey as it claimed responsibility for the attack this week which killed 28

 Warning Of 'Up To 5,000 Jihadists In Europe'



mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. The Europol boss says Europe faces its biggest terror threat in over 10 years and warns of large-scale attacks by IS and others.

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mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. The US Supreme Court's remaining eight justices are among those on hand to say farewell to their former colleague.

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mikenova shared this story from BBC News - World. Presidential candidate Donald Trump calls for a boycott of Apple until the tech giant helps unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino killers.

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mikenova shared this story from World news + Video | The Guardian. Donald Trump calls for the boycott of Apple products on Friday, until the company agrees to help the US government and unlock the mobile phone of one of the San Bernardin...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Thousands of people paid their last respects Friday to Justice Antonin Scalia, whose body lay in repose in the U.S. Supreme Court's Great Hall. After the casket's arrival at the building...

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mikenova shared this story from All Stories. Auto broker who used salvage vehicles as taxicabs receives federal prison term.

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mikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. ThinkProgress 'Black Sludge' Pours Out Of Texas Town's Faucets Days After FBI Arrests Nearly Every City Official ThinkProgress Oily black liquid is coming out of residential faucets in t...

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mikenova shared this story from www.washingtontimes.com stories: Security. JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. (AP) - A military official says shots were fired at a base in Virginia, but no injuries have been reported. Senior Airman Brittany ...

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mikenova shared this story from Stars and Stripes. The government in Warsaw has spent its less than four months in power on a collision course with adversaries in the European Union, the nation's banks and even credit rating agencies. As...

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mikenova shared this story from cia - Google News. The Mac Observer Former Director of CIA and NSA Says FBI is Wrong about Apple's Encryption The Mac Observer General Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA (2006 to 2009) and the...

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mikenova shared this story from Eurasia Daily Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently appointed Vladislav Surkov and Boris Gryzlov to negotiatein two separate formatsan outcome to Russias war ...

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mikenova shared this story from Eurasia Daily Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation. Two years ago, the then-leader of the Caucasus Emirate (CE), Ali Abu Muhammad (Aliashab Kebekov), surprised many observers when he condemned suicide bomber...

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mikenova shared this story from Stars and Stripes. Stars and Stripes has a new ombudsman to defend the newspapers editorial independence  and he comes from a close competitor.

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mikenova shared this story from Eurasia Daily Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation. In this years State of the State address, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili warned about the increasing influence of Russian soft power on his co...

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mikenova shared this story from NYT > Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prosecutors offered a sharp rejoinder to this weeks public statement by Timothy Cook, Apples chief executive, who said refusing to help the government was a matt...

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mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says talks between U.S. diplomats and their Russian counterparts for a cease-fire in Syria have been "serious and so far constructive."...

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mikenova shared this story from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Latest Publications. Media Feature February 19, 2016 Belfer Center Programs or Projects : US-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Russia in R...

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mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. UN Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, says it up to Americans and Russians to agree concrete plan for cessation of hostilities A deadline to secure a cessation of hostilities in Syria ...

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mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. The Guardian All eyes on US and Russia as Syria deadline passes The Guardian US and Russian military officials were holding talks in Geneva in advance of a wider meeting of the Intern...

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mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Is Russia 'Weaponizing Refugees' To Advance Its Geopolitical Goals? RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Is Russia trying to "weaponize" refugees from S...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. President Barack Obama says a pivot of U.S. foreign, military, and economic policy toward Asia is paying off and will continue. But critics say the trade deal that is the most important e...

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mikenova shared this story from SvobodaRadio's YouTube Videos. From: SvobodaRadio Duration: 54:17     "" -           ...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Two members of an Iranian heavy metal band have been arrested on charges of blasphemy, an online music magazine reported this month. The band members of Confess were reportedly arrested...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. In the Oscar-nominated documentary Winter on Fire, filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky chronicles the massive 2014 mobilization of one million Ukrainians against what they saw as a corrupt politi...

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mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. A Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for this week's bombing in the Turkish capital, Ankara, that killed 28 people, according to a statement issued on its ...

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mikenova shared this story from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - US-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism. February 19, 2016 Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent N...

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mikenova shared this story from SvobodaRadio's YouTube Videos. From: SvobodaRadio Duration: 54:01      "    -"     .  ...

 Obama Discusses Syrian Security Issues With Turkey's Erdogan



mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. President Barack Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday to offer condolences for the terrorist bombing that killed 28 people in Ankara this week. The White House sa...

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mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Turkey to immediately release a Syrian journalist who, according to the group, was detained earlier this week after t...

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mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Russia presses UN Security Council on Syria's sovereignty Reuters Russia circulated a short draft resolution to the 15-member council over concerns about ...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. A look at the best news photos from around the world.

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mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Is Russia losing the battle against online piracy? BBC News The Kremlin admits that Russia has a serious problem with online piracy. It says that it is taking steps to combat it. But ...

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mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. The terror and purges of Stalins Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from putting pen to paper, let alone keeping personal diaries. Directions: Directions...

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mikenova shared this story . Russia and the U.S. held intensive talks in Geneva on implementing a limited truce in Syria, with the Russian side insisting it wont stop a bombing campaign thats bolstering Presid...

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mikenova shared this story . In the coming days and weeks many people will weep for the fate of Aleppo . Many of these people will also continue to support the nuclear deal, which has facilitated this US-Iran detente and suppli...

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Paul Goble





Staunton, February 21  Elena Kublitskaya, a senior specialist on religion at the Moscow Institute for Social-Political Research, says that one must treat polls on the religious identification of Russians with skepticism because in Soviet times, people were afraid to say they were religious while now they are often afraid to say that they arent.





In an interview in Moskovsky komsomolets, she says that she found but was unable to publish that the level of religious faith among Soviet citizens was significantly higher than the authorities believed  about 35 percent in Moscow and approximately 70-80 percent in Central Asia ( ). mk.ru/social/2016/02/10/sociologi-rasshifrovali-religioznyy-kod-rossiyanina.html ).





Soviet officials were often upset by her findings. The Tajikistan leadership, for example, wanted to know why she had found that among communists in that Central Asian republic, 40 percent were believers, and among Komsomol members, 70 percent were. But Soviet officials were even more angry when she reported that the most educated were often the most religious.





The situation today, she says, is precisely the opposite. Russians routinely claim to be religious because they are afraid not to. Many atheists [in fact] try not to advertise their convictions and often hide their position by telling sociologists that they find it difficult to answer questions about religion.





After rising rapidly in the 1990s, the growth in genuine religiosity has levelled off, at least in Moscow. Today, the ratio of the religious and non-religious segments of the population is six to one in the Russian capital, three to one in Russia as a whole, four to one in the Southern and Volga Federal districts, and one to one in the Far East.





But if more people are saying they are religious, Kublitskaya says, they are not taking part in religious activities. Instead, the number doing so is falling. In Moscow, 45 percent of those identifying as religious attended some religious services; but as of last year, the share of those doing so did not exceed 30 percent.





Asked to describe the typical believer in the capital, the scholar says that this is a woman aged 50 to 59, a non-indigenous Muscovite, with middle specialized education, an employee or pensioner with a middle level of material well-being.





The typical Orthodox Muscovite, Kublitskaya says, is likely to be a native Muscovite, an ethnic Russian over the age of 30 with incomplete middle, middle specialized or professional education and to be an employee or member of the intelligentsia or a pensioner.





The typical Muslim Muscovite, she continues, is likely to be a young man aged 25 to 29 with middle specialized or incomplete higher education, a worker or entrepreneur, and to have an average income and to be non-indigenous to the city.





And the typical non-believing Muscovite is likely to be an indigenous Muscovite, an ethnic Russian aged 18 to 29, with incomplete higher or higher education, from engineering and technical workers and students, with an average level of material income. This group as almost doubled in number over the last five years, from 10 to 17 percent of the total.





Many atheists and unbelievers nonetheless identify as Orthodox because they view that as a political identity, and as ever more do so, that has the effect of pushing up the number who declare themselves to be believers in Orthodoxy or Islam as ever more people view religion as a marker of nationality, Kublitskaya points out.





Russians continue to have a high regard for the Orthodox church, but the share of them who believe that the church and religious institutions generally are playing a positive role has been falling, from 43 percent in 2010 to only 32 percent last year, a trend that seems likely to continue.





And Kublitskaya points out that however strange it may seem and despite the fact that trust in the Church as a social institution continues to remain high, nevertheless the orientation of the population toward religion as an all-national idea capable of uniting Russians does not find significant support.




KABUL, Afghanistan  For all the conflicts in the world in which Washington is at odds with Moscow, the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan has been one area where the Obama administrations interests and Russia s concerns coincide

Disputes over the wars in Ukraine and Syria had not stopped the governments from cooperating on counternarcotics and securing military supply lines. But after initial success on those fronts, Russia now seems to be disengaging with both the United States and the American-backed Afghan government.

On an old Cold War battlefield where Russia fought a nearly decade-long war against United States-supplied fighters, Moscow has a new strategy: the cold shoulder.

We wont join the useless events, and weve already told the Americans, President Vladimir V. Putin s envoy to Afghanistan , Zamir N. Kabulov, told Russian state news media this month. Russia, he said, would sit out any talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Kabul, backed by the United States, Pakistan and China.

Honestly speaking, were already tired of joining anything Washington starts, Mr. Kabulov said. The Kremlin, he added, has no desire to participate in what the Americans organize on the fly just for their own pre-election interests and where they give us the role of extras on the set.

The government of Mr. Putin has instead decided to address on its own what it sees as the immediate security threat from the chaos in Afghanistan and the emergence there of militants other than the Taliban , especially those from the Islamic State.

Russia has reinforced its largest foreign military base in Tajikistan, along the border with Afghanistan, and the Russian military has held regular exercises with Tajik soldiers. The Kremlin has committed $1.2 billion to train and equip the Tajik Army, forming a new bulwark in Central Asia north of Afghanistan.

Mr. Kabulov also recently disclosed that Russia had opened direct channels to the Taliban to exchange information about militants in northern Afghanistan allied with the Islamic State. (The Taliban have denied being in touch with Moscow.)

Afghan officials worry that a breakdown of consensus among the international powers with an interest in Afghanistan, and the establishment of direct contacts with those governments and the insurgent Taliban, would undermine the government in Kabul.

They are also concerned that the Russian governments recent moves are motivated by forces outside their control, such as a lack of a clear American strategy and Mr. Putins tense relationship with the United States.

Bilaterally, we have struggled to convince the Russians on certain issues because they increasingly see us only as part of this larger game with the United States, said one senior Afghan official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear his comments would further stoke the mistrust in Moscow.

The Kremlins recent moves are seen as a shift from the role Russia played during 14 years of NATO presence in Afghanistan  one of guarded cooperation marked by frequent contradictions.

Even as Moscow was alarmed by the presence of nearly 140,000 Western troops in its backyard, often deriding the mission as a failure, Mr. Putins government was happy to let the American-led coalition contain the common threats posed by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and by drugs, of which Afghanistan produced plenty that are trafficked and consumed in Russia.

In a little more than a year since the end of the NATO combat mission in Afghanistan, the fighting here has intensified, shifting to the north along the 1,250-mile border with three Central Asian states Russia still considers as its underbelly. The Taliban briefly overran the city of Kunduz last fall.

The top American general here offered contradictory statements about the insurgent group. In a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee this month, the commander of United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said, Our country has made a decision that we are not at war with the Taliban. Just days later in Kabul, he said the Taliban were the enemy.

The Russian government does not fear a direct threat from the Taliban as much as it is worried about Central Asian fighters who could use Afghanistan as a staging ground to penetrate Russias borders. One group of particular concern is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, some factions of which have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Afghan officials have also reported the presence of militants from Tajikistan, Chechnya and Chinese Uighurs , many who relocated to Afghanistan from Pakistans tribal areas.

Fighting drug trafficking rings that partially fund the Afghan insurgency had been an area of common interest for the Russians and the Americans, said Yuri V. Krupnov, an adviser to the head of Russias antidrug agency, Viktor P. Ivanov. But that stopped when the United States Treasury Department in 2014 imposed sanctions on Mr. Ivanov, a close associate of Mr. Putins.

Washington had no dialogue with us, and just asserted its interests and sovereignty, and was uninterested in the views of Russia or anybody else, Mr. Krupnov said, adding, The Obama administration buried this promising line of cooperation. All room for cooperation is exhausted.

The alliance between the foreign militants in Afghanistan may not be as threatening as Russia fears. In Badakhshan Province, the number of foreign fighters is estimated to be about 500, some traveling with their families, Taliban commanders there say. The largest group is Tajik fighters, followed by Uzbeks from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Chechens and Uighurs have a smaller presence.

The militants from Central Asia have been problematic to their Afghan Taliban guests, the local commanders say, because they use harsher methods, and, somewhat scandalously, are more relaxed in how they observe Islam. On top of all of that, the local Taliban have grown furious that some of their guests have recently warmed toward the Islamic State, which they see as intruding on their turf.

The Quetta Shura insisted that we treat them nicely, that they need our cooperation, but they have a lot of shortcomings, said Malawi Amanuddin, the Talibans shadow governor in Badakhshan. They say they are waging jihad, but their women here walk around not covering themselves according to Islamic hijab.

It is these internal rifts, perhaps, that have encouraged Russian officials to explore their channels directly with the Taliban and drive a wedge deeper between the militants who threaten Russia and their Afghan hosts.

The official position, and this is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is that Russia is risking a lot and has nothing to gain from cooperating with the United States, Aleksei V. Malashenko, a researcher at the Carnegie center in Moscow, said in a telephone interview. We couldnt agree on Georgia, on Ukraine and on Syria; why get involved in another conflict where we cannot agree? he said, describing the Russian position as let the Americans boil.
Donations can be sent to BNC at Max Obuszewski, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212 . Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast [dot] net.
Her death was announced on Twitter in a statement from the family written by Vinnie Medugno.

Raiola's friend added that she was surrounded by love from her immediate family and closest friends.

Her rep released a statement saying Ang passed at 3:01 a.m. "I think whoever smokes should quit, and if they didn't start, don't start".

She was first diagnosed with throat cancer last April (15), at which point doctors removed a tumour in her throat.

States Join Massive Military Exercise in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has now deployed warplanes to a Turkish airbase in order to "intensify" its operations against ISIS in Syria. The terrorist groups IS and Al Nusra Front are not part of the talks.

Riaola was also honest about the cause of her cancer - smoking. Although she quit, the damage had already been done.

Raiola was diagnosed with throat cancer in March, 2015, which later spread to her brain and lung as well.

The VH1 series began in 2011 and features women on Staten Island connected to men alleged to have mob ties.

The Mob Wives matriarch's passing was confirmed earlier today after loved ones initially denied rumours. In her bio she had mentioned that she always tried to be popular with the mob.

Sanders vows to protect Obama court nominee

On his last visit to Vermont in October, Kasich received a warm reception at a joint appearance in Burlington with Lt. Cruz announced the endorsements on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina, two days before the state's primary.

Before she passed her family set up a Go Fund Me page to help bring in money for her medical bills which raised more than $45,000 with an initial goal of $25,000.

Raiola, known as a peacemaker when other cast members clashed, proved a standout. It showed her attempt to open a new bar in Miami Beach, but Big Ang appeared drunk during several episodes. Neither version was on the air very long. Big Ang Angela Raiola was 55 years old. "Coming here last night after leaving the hospital, I was sad, but when I woke up this morning and seen how many people...I was like how many people did she actually take pictures with?"

May God give her eternal rest. "Prayers for her &her family".
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was leading with 52.5 percent of the vote to Sanders' 47.4 percent. Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders in Nevada...where NBC news is projecting Clinton is the victor in an unexpectedly close race. But for the first time ever, Nevada Democrats set up a dial-in caucus for Nevada Democrats living overseas.

Clinton will take a win, any win, at this stage of the proceedings. Clinton won big among voters who valued electability and experience.

Yet Clinton still has a stronger organization here, and although polling in Nevada is notoriously unreliable, she's seen has having a narrow lead. But when super delegates - which include all Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate as well as sitting Democratic governors - Clinton leads 483-55, including two new super delegate endorsements she picked up late Friday, according to the AP. Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other. "This one is for you". Despite being a small proportion of voters, those who wanted a candidate who "tells it like it is" were important to Trump - he was supported by three-quarters of them. If you think back to any presidential primary election, there's (almost) always a moment - or moments - in which the outcome looks in doubt, in which the frontrunner falters. During her remarks Saturday, she promised not only to make college education more affordable, but to work on student debt. "I am very proud of the campaign we ran", said Sanders in a statement. Bernie sanders threatening to win again.

Death toll in Jat unrest reaches 12: Haryana Govt.

However, as per unofficial figures, five people were killed in Army firing in Jhajjhar on Saturday alone. Curfew continued in Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns on Saturday but the violence did not stop.

Sanders, in his remarks to supporters, noted that just five weeks ago, he was 25 points behind Clinton and wound up close, after getting a late start.

"What this entire campaign has been about is the issue of momentum, is the issue of bringing more and more people into the political process", he said.

We tend to forget those moments - George W. Bush losing New Hampshire by 19 points to John McCain in 2000, Barack Obama losing to Clinton in New Hampshire - in the broader sweep of history.

People are leaving applesauce and broccoli at Antonin Scalia's memorial - here's why

Members of the public take cell phone photographs as they walk through the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. At the time the court opened to the public, the line stretched down the block.

MARTIN: OK, very briefly - we have about 30 seconds - let's talk about the Republicans voting today in SC.

Sanders went on to discussing campaign finance reform and wage inequality.

Trump's performance could unnerve the Republican establishment, since SC has sided with the eventual nominee in every GOP presidential race since 1980, apart from 2012.
Norfolk has grown, but some of the needs and wants havent kept up with the growth. A proposed half-percent sales tax would get the city caught up with many of those needs and wants with safety, streets, sports and recreation.
Stories of our northeastern North Carolina ancestorsfrom earliest days to recent times. The stories are from the counties north and east of Raleigh, NC: Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Johnston, Martin, Nash, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, Vance, Wake Warren, Washington, and Wilson. Each story is a unique slice of history.
Confira o preco do seguro para o Chevrolet Onix

Saiba quando voce gastaria com o seguro do carro mais vendido do Brasil
October 2022 We are planning on flying to Rome on October 3 and spend a few nights there before a 12 Night Israel & Mediterranean Cruise on the Celebrity Apex going to the following ports ROME (CIVITAVECCHIA), ITALY OLYMPIA (KATAKOLON), GREECE ATHENS (PIRAEUS), GREECE EPHESUS (KUSADASI), TURKEY HAIFA, ISRAEL - From Haifa, we will travel by car to JERUSALEM (ASHDOD), ISRAEL and stay overnight right outside the entrance to the Old City. LIMASSOL, CYPRUS. and finally depart the ship in Rome. We will spend 2 days in Rome before taking the train to Venice for 5 days and then fly to Prague for 4 days before coming home.

New Years 2023 We have booked a 8 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Apex beginning on December 30, 2022 going to San Juan, St. Thomas, St Martins, Tortola and Nassau

March 2023 We have booked the newest ship in the fleet, the Celebrity Beyond for a 8 night Eastern Caribbean & Bahamas Holiday cruise visiting San Juan, St. Thomas, St Martin, Tortola and Nassau.

July 2023 with the immediate family

We postponted the January, 2022 trip and in July 23, our 3 kids and their spouces will fly to Miami to board the Carnival Horizon for an 6 night curise in the Westerm Caribbean. This is our family trip that was posponed from January of 2021. We are looking forward to taking our family on this cruise and the Horizon is the last ship we were on before COVID closed down cruising. We have taken the kids and their spouces on a cruise about every 10 years and 2022 whould have been our 3rd cruise with the family.

Past trips Following are brief summaries of past trips



July 2022 On July 19 we will fly to Seattle for overnight before flying to Fairbanks for 2 days. Then we will travel by Dome car train to Denali for 2 days. After Danali, we will again take the train to Anchorage for 2 more days. Then the train again to Seward for 2 days until we board the Celebrity Milennium on and have a tour until boarding the Celebrity on July 29 for a 7 night Alaska Southbound cruise. We will cruise to the Huybbarb Glacier, Jueneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan the Inside Passage ands arrive in Vancouver to 2 days before before flying home on August 7.

Spring - 2022 We have schedule a Spring cruise for March 7 - 18 when we will board the Celebrity Silhouette for an 11 night Southern Caribbean cruise to Bonaire, Curacao, overnight in Aruba, Colombia and Grand Cayman. We will arrive in Fort Lauderdale on March 18 and fly home that day. Of course we hope to vist the Hospital in Aruba who saved Barb's life in 2020!

New Years - 2022 We are booked on the Celebrity Apex departing Ft. Lauderdale on an Key West, Belize & Grand Cayman New Years Cruise from Dec 27 - Jan 3, 2020.

October - 2021 -



As that cruise has been moved to October of 2022, instead on Oct 15 we will fly to Ft. Lauderdale, stay at the Residence Sunny Isle beach for a few days and then board the Celebrity Equinox for a 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise taking us to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Grand Cayman.



We will return home on October 29 We had planned to travel to Venice for a couple of days and then take the Celebrity Constellation on a Venice to Rome 9 night cruise that begins Oct 14. After the cruise we will spend a few more days in Rome before heading to Prague for a few days before flying to Lisbon for one day before flying home. We would have been gone from Oct 9 - Oct 30.

Spring 2021 Instead on April 5, we will fly to Fort Lauderdale and stay at the Residence Inn in Sunny Isle Beach, which is north of Miami Beach until April 12 when we will fly home after spending a week on the beach. After having our July 4th Alaskan cruise, our Oct, 2020 Venice to Barcelona cruise and our New Years 2021 cruise cancelled, we hope this will be our first cruise of 2021; however it is not to be as the April cruise was also cancelled.

New Years - 2020 We are spending New Years on the Celebrity Reflection sailing from Ft. Lauderdale. We will be in Miami Beach from Dec 30 - Jan 3 when we will board the Celebrity Reflection for a 7 day cruise. We return to Miami on Friday, Jan 10 and stay again on Miami Beach for a couple of days. Then we will board the Carnival Horizon in Miami on Jan 11 and return to Miami on Jan 19 and return home on Jan 21.



Miami/Cuba - Spring 2019 After that tour, we drove on Saturday, March 2 to Tampa and board the Carnival Paradise for a 5 night cruise to overnight in Havana, Cuba.

We boarded the Celebrity Equinox on Feb 24 - March 2, 2019 for a 7 night Western Caribbean Cruse and a $15k Blackjack Tournament.

New Years - 2019 We stayed in Ft Lauderdale for a couple of days and then boarded the amazing new Celebrity Edge ship for a great cruise with wonderful friends over New Years



October - 2018 We have booked the Celebrity Equinox on a 10 night Southern Caribbean Cruise from October 26, 2018 through November 5.

We will leave from Miami and visit, Grand Cayman, Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire and Key West.



February 2018 On Wednesday, Feb 7, we will fly to Fort Lauderdale and spend a few days there before boarding the Celebrity Silhouette for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise. We will go to San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. We will return home on Sunday, Feb 18.

New Years - 2018 For New Years 2018 we will travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico and board the Celebrity Summit for a 7 night Southern Caribbean Holiday. We will travel to St. Thomas, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica and St. Maarten's before returning to San Juan.

We will first travel to San Juan on Thursday, December 28 before boarding the Summit on Saturday, December 30.

We will return home on January 6, 2018



October - 2017 In October of 2017, we will fly to London for a few days and them to Southampton to board the Celebrity Eclipse on October 18. We will then cruise for 10 nights to Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands, returning to Southampton on October 28 and fly home.

New Years - 2017 We flew to Dubai, United Arab Emirates and boarded the Celebrity C0nstellation on Jan 12. We will travel to Bombay, India, Goa, India, New Mangalore, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and finish at Singapore on Jan 26, a 15 night cruise.



Oct - Nov 2016 Our second trip to the Far East begins with a flight to Hong Kong, China in late October and we will board the Celebrity Millennium in Hong Kong on Oct 30. We will then travel to Hanoi, Vietnam for two days, Da Nang, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Bangkok, Thailand and finally finishing the cruise in Singapore on November 12 where we will spend a few days before flying home.



July 4 - 2016 For the first time in many years, we will not be visiting a city for the 4th of July fireworks.

Instead, we will drive to Bayonne, NJ in two days and they we will be leaving on July 3 from Bayonne which is just across the river from New York City for a 7 day cruise to Bermuda.

We sail on July 3 and are at sea until arriving at Kings Warf, Bermuda on July 6. We will spend the 6th, 7th and leave in the afternoon of the 8th in Bermuda and then arrive back in New Jersey on July 10 when we will drive home.



Feb - March - 2016 This is our annual Black Jack cruise and we hope to have a good group going with us. We leave on February 20 and go to Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of days before boarding the Celebrity Equinox on Feb 22. We will travel to:

George Town, Grand Cayman Cartagena,Colombia, Colon, Panama, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, Belize, Belize, Cozumel, Mexico and arriving back at Ft. Lauderdale on March 4 when we will fly home that day.





New Years - 2016 We will celebrate New Years Eve by boarding a plane on Dec 31 and arriving on Jan 1 in Buenos Aries, where it will be summer time! We will stay in Buenos Aries until Jan 3 when we will board the Celebrity Infinity and travel to:

Montevideo, Uruguay, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Puerto Madryn Argentina, Cape Horn, Chile, Ushuais, Argentina, Punta Arenas, Chile, the Strait of Magellan,the Chilean Fjords, Puerto Montt, Chile and arriving at Valpariso, Chile on Jan 17 when we will go to Santiago for a couple of days before flying home on Jan 19, arriving on Jan 20 at 10:46am







Greece, Turkey and Croatia Cruise - Oct, 2015 On Oct 8 we will fly from Chicago to London and then board another plane to fly to Istanbul, Turkey, arriving on Oct 9 in the morning. We will stay at the Marriott Istanbul Hotel Sisli until we board the Celebrity Constellation on Oct 12. During the cruise we will visit:

Katakolon, Greece

Corfu, Greece

Slit, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Athens, Greece

Ephesus, Turkey



and arrive in Istanbul and leave on October 23 flying back the same way from Istanbul to London to Chicago on October 24 after we stay the final night in Istanbul.



Feb - March 2015 Cruise As we did in January, we will fly to San Juan and stay at the Courtyard Isle Verde on Feb 25 and stay there until we board, once again, the Celebrity. On this trip, we will travel to St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada and St. Thomas before arriving at San Juan and flying home on Feb 6.



Jan 2015 Cruise We will fly to San Juan, PR on January 8 and stay at the Courtyard Isle Verde until boarding the Celebrity Summit on January 12. We will travel to:

Barbadoes, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Martins and St. Thomas before arriving back in San Juan on January 17 when we will fly home.



Asia - 2014 On October 8 we will fly to Shanghai for our first ever trip to the Far East and what a trip it will be.



We will travel by the ship the Celebrity Millennium from Shanghai, China to Beijing, China, Soul, Korea, Jeju Island, Korea, Kobe, Japan, Mt. Fuji, Japan and finish up in Tokyo for 4 days before returning home on October 28



We will spend days in Shanghai, 3 days in Beijing, 2 days in Kobe and 4 days in Tokyo.



New Years - 2015 Our annual New Years trip will begin on January 8 when we will fly to San Juan for two days at the Marriott Courtyard Isla Verde and then board the Celebrity Summit for a 7 day cruise to Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Johns, St. Martin, St. Thomas and then back to San Juan. We will return home on January 17.



March 2015 Our annual March trip will begin on February 26 when we will fly to San Juan and stay again at the Marriott Courtyard, Isle Verde and them board the Celebrity Summit on February 28. This trip we will go to St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Thomas before arriving back at San Juan and March 7 and fly home that day.



July 4 Philadelphia is the destination for New Years Eve for 2014.

We will travel to Philadelphia on July 3 and then go to New York on July 6 to spend time with our friends from Long Island, Jeff and Vera. We will leave on Wednesday, July 9.



Spring 2014 On March 8, we fly to Ft. Lauderdale and stay overnight before boarding the Celebrity Silhouette for a 7 night cruise. We will travel to Cozumel, Mexico, George Town, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti, returning home on March 16.



November 2013 in the Caribean On November 29, 2013 we will fly to Miami, stay overnight at a Marriott and then board the Celebrity Reflection for an 8-day cruise.

The destinations are:

San Juan

St. Thomas

St. Martin

We will return on December 7







October - Europe - 2013

We will leave from Bloomington, fly to Chicago and then fly directly to Rome on October 7, 2013.

We will cruise on the Celebrity Reflection and return home on October 21.





This year our fall trip will be to Europe in October.

Spring 2013 Celebrity Reflection - March 2 - March 9 Miami Beach - February 27 - March 2

Christmas with our family

This is our family and we are soo proud of them!!





Celebrating Christmas with our family on the Celebrity Constellation cruise - Dec. 24 - 29, 2012.

2012 Trips



Miami, FL



December 28 - 31





Celebrity Eclipse December 31 - January 7









Miami, FL



March 1 - 3



Celebrity Solstice



March 4 - March 11








Clinton after her big win. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The HUGE UPSET hype machine thats on standby every time election returns come in was being cranked up noisily when the initial entrance polls from todays Nevada Caucuses were released, showing a dead-even race and Bernie Sanders leading Hillary Clinton among Latinos, an important voting demographic in the Silver State and part of Clintons nonwhite voter firewall. And had the returns stood up to the initial impressions, you might have seen political reporters parachuting into South Carolina this very night to look eagerly for signs that young African-Americans and blue-collar rednecks were feeling the Bern and making the next stop on the nominating contest trail another dicey proposition for the former Secretary of State.

But alas for the dramatics, it looks like Hillary Clintons going to win the popular vote by roughly 6 percent and the national delegates awarded by more than that. And while Sanders probably did better among Nevada Latinos than Barack Obama did eight years ago, multiple analysts are suggesting the entrance poll numbers for this demographic showing Clinton losing big may be off, which has certainly happened in the past.

Turnout seems to have been robust, though not as high as in 2008, when the Culinary Workers endorsement of Obama (and Clinton counter-measures) boosted participation in Clark County (Las Vegas); this time that pivotal union was neutral. And putting aside Latinos, the demographic splits in the returns look very, very familiar (again, relying on entrance polls that seem to have underestimated Clintons vote): Sanders winning under-30 voters 82/18; Clinton winning over-65 voters 74/24. The noncollege educated electorate that seemed to be trending towards Sanders in New Hampshire was dead even here. And however well Sanders ultimately did with Latinos, its clear the cavalcade of African-American rappers and writers in his corner isnt making a lot of progress just yet, with HRC winning that demographic (an estimated 12 percent of the vote here) about three to one.

And thats what may matter most in terms of the road just ahead, with South Carolina (where a solid majority of primary voters will likely be African-American) and 12 primaries coming up on March 1 where (with the exception of Texas and Colorado) black voters have more weight than Latinos. If the New Hampshire blow-out shifted the pressure from Sanders to Clinton to show her campaign (not to mention her firewall) wasnt melting down, now the pressure shifts back to Sanders to show he can win in states without big white liberal voting populations.

The best news for Sanders may be, as Nate Silver pointed out today, that later Caucuses are mostly in heavily white states (Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington, and Wyoming  only Hawaii is very diverse) where he could, like Obama in 2008, win some serious delegate totals. And if he can duplicate todays Latino performance  pretty good even if it falls short of a majority  it will eventually help him in states down the road, including Illinois and Florida on March 15. It should be noted that Nevadas Latino voting population is reportedly youth-heavy, in part because many of their parents arent citizens or just arent registered or live somewhere else. That may be a dynamic to watch down the road, particularly in states with older Latino voting populations.

All in all, Robby Mook and company can exhale a bit and look forward some relatively good news the next couple of weeks. The idea that Bernie would burn out after New Hampshire went out the window in the gusher of contributions he harvested after Iowa and then New Hampshire. But it might be a while before eager journalists write too many more headlines about panic in Hillaryland.
Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic caucus in Nevada, according to both NBC and the Associated Press. With 73 percent of the vote in, she leads Bernie Sanders by a margin of 52 to 48 percent, with much of Clinton-friendly Clark County left to report.

That result is a boon for Clinton, a blow to Sanders and a drag for pundits who want to see an extended horse race. To be sure, the Vermont senator still has plenty of funding and support. And entrance polls suggest that he was at least competitive among Hispanic voters. But those same polls show that Sanders has made zero headway in his quest to win over African-Americans.





With polls showing the democratic socialist down by huge margins among black voters in next weeks South Carolina primary and in the Super Tuesday states that will cast ballots three days later, it should be a very difficult week and a half for the Sanders campaign.

What happened in Vegas probably wont stay in Vegas.

All our models converging toward the same spot, with Hillary up around 5-6 points.https://t.co/l3MA5zrnea pic.twitter.com/HjZXb8HLIQ  Josh Katz (@jshkatz) February 20, 2016
Romney 1.0 and Rubio 0.5, in 2012 Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Huffington Post is reporting that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney will endorse South Carolina second-place victor Marco Rubio for the GOP nomination, according to two sources. However, speaking on State of the Union Sunday morning, Rubio himself denied the report, noting that I have no reason to believe hes anywhere near endorsing anyone, but adding that he would love to have his endorsement.

Others are disputing the report as well:

Another source just described claims Romney is about to endorse Rubio as "totally wrong."  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 21, 2016

On Rubio endorsement news, I was just told by a person familiar with Romney's current thinking that nothing has changed, no endorsement yet.  Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) February 21, 2016

According to HuffPo, Romney had wanted to endorse earlier, but had held off out of respect for the now-departed Jeb Bush. While details surrounding the endorsement are apparently still being worked out, it would best come before Tuesdays Nevada caucuses, which the Utah native won in both 2008 and 2012. In addition, Politico put a big story up on Sunday morning calling Rubio Romney 2.0, which should make the Rubio-loving GOP establishment really happy, since Romney 1.0 worked out so well. In addition, with Rubio still being ridiculed for his recent robotic line-repetition problems, being associated with any type of version number is probably a step in the wrong direction.

But as the article points out, several people who worked on Team Romney in 2012 do now work for Rubio, including his deputy campaign manager and political director. Politico also makes the case that Rubio will succeed where Romney failed because he has the less impeachable rags-to-political-riches story that Romney, a bona fide detached rich person, lacked. In other words, the similar messaging can still win over voters now that the GOP establishment has a new messenger who has a personal background that doesnt involve Bain Capital.

Then again, according to Politico, Rubio senior adviser Todd Harris rejects the Romney comparison, though his basis for that opinion is that Rubio has campaigned about family leave, student loans, and vocational education. Nonetheless, whatever the messaging or messenger, the connection could also be a kiss of death when facing a GOP electorate that seems hell-bent on anti-establishment outsiders and unvarnished truth-bombs.

Put another way:
Living the Orthodox Catholic Faith in the Anglican Tradition
I used to keep up with movies like this, but I've been slipping for a couple of years. Some of my favorite foreign films are the Three Colors trilogy, Amores Perros, I'm Not Scared and Bad Education.

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Wanna see 'Hedi'.

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Happy for Mia Hansen-Love. Was expecting Huppert to win something.



Edited at 2016-02-21 02:15 am (UTC)

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I think Meryl & co wanted to spread the love. It would have been cool to see Huppert win tho.

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Hey, I recognise Trine (from The Legacy?), brownie points for me!

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The Dreamers (French)

Lust, Caution (Chinese)

Audition (Japanese)

Metropolis (German)

The Raid (Indonesia)

Martyrs (French)

Moonlight Whispers (Japanese)

Funny Games (German)

Run Lola Run (German)



Edited at 2016-02-21 02:22 am (UTC)

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OMG your icon!

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i know alba bc she did the solitude of prime numbers movie (disappointing, read the book!)

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My favorite foreign films are La dolce vita, Volver, The 400 Blows and Blue is the Warmest Color



Edited at 2016-02-21 02:32 am (UTC)

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I love this movie



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The winning movie is about refugees and Lampedusa. It was practically tailored to win this particular prize.

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Favorite foreign films

The Fifth Element (is technically foreign to my country)

The Orphanage

Pan's Labyrinth

Let the Right One In

Nearly every movie by Stephen Chow (God of Cookery, Fight Back to School, Love On Delivery, Royal Tramp)

My Father the Hero

Attack the Gas Station

Ringu

Hot Fuzz (still technically foreign)

Jodhaa Akbar

Kohra

Attack on the Pin-Up Boys

Malena



There are way more...

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Attack on the Pin-Up Boys was simuntaneously fun & terrible...



Is Let the Right One In good/super scary? There's a free showing this week & I'm not sure if I can handle it

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It's not that scary that it could be classified as purely a horror film. There is some gore, a good deal of which is off camera. Please do go and see it.

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I didn't find it scary, but I'm a horror movie buff. I would classify it as creepy more than anything else. It was pretty awesome. The movie focuses more on the subject of bullying and friendship. Which is closer to the theme of the book imo. I think you may enjoy it if you like vampire movies.

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Yaaaaaassss Lav Diaz

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Fave foreign films:

Rashomon

Run Lola Run

The Bicycle Thief

Cinema Paradiso



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I love Meryl's dress!

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I'm happy for Mia Hansen-Love. I hadn't heard of Hedi, but the premise kind of reminds me of the Israeli film Late Marriage, which I love.



Favorite foreign films... idk, since a lot of what I watch is foreign, I'd have a hard time picking favorites. My favorite period in film history is probably the 1930s/40s poetic realist movement in France...Marcel Carne's Les enfants du paradis and Le quai de brumes, anything by Jean Renoir or Jean Gremillon. I also love 1940s/50/60s Japanese films, especially Mizoguchi and Naruse (classical melodrama without the camp you can find in equivalent Hollywood films of the era).



Favorite film last year was Christian Petzold's Phoenix (Germany).



Edited at 2016-02-21 05:29 am (UTC)

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excited for the mia hansen-love and lav diaz films!

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ot but I want to go to Berlin this year. I have a friend that lives in Germany and is willing to meet up but she's not from that city exactly. just a few things: how is the city? I'm a south east asian woman living in the US and am a US citizen now. any problems with race to encounter? I only know a few words in German so do I need to learn more? any suggestions on places to go? :D

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well yeah, I was preparing my phone with google translate and other apps.

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Cool

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American/British films are foreign from my point of view but I guess you mean non-English speaking ones. So I'm gonna go with:



Der Himmel uber Berlin (Germany, 1987)

Good Bye, Lenin! (Germany, 2003)

A Royal Affair (Denmark, 2012)

Kolya (Czech Republic, 1996)

Waltz with Bashir (Israel, 2008)





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sacro gra was weak af

surprised by this

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I can't believe how uninvested I am in politics this go round. I need to do some research.

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man I was LIT for Obama's presidential race. I honestly could not give two fucks at this point, which is really sad

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The 2008 election is the main reason I majored in Poli Sci- that and a lot of reading about RFK. And my mom pressuring me into not majoring in dramatic lit.

Now I'm not registered with a party in a closed primary state and I'm looking at film studies or marketing programs because I'm just done with politics, at least as a potential career.



Edited at 2016-02-21 06:44 am (UTC)

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I thought it was just me. 2008 makes this look like elementary playground scuffling. I literally don't care. Whoever the dem nominee is is fine with me. I could be reading a book right now.

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Please find a half a fuck to show up in november. Other members of scotus will die/retire and i, for one, have concerns about anyone in the clown car Republican camp might pick.

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Don't. The more you learn about all the candidates, the more depressed you will get.

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Same. I'm just voting for whoever the dem is. I couldn't care less if it's Hillary or Bernie. Both their supporters are super fucking annoying. I miss Obama.

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Same. I usually pay attention, but now I have no motivation to.

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this one is actually pretty interesting so you should look into it, i don't think there will be anything similar to it soon.

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same.

also idc because i feel like im screwed either way.

i wish i could keep my problematic fave Obama for another 4 years sigh

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lmao bye



I look forward to president pantsuits taking the oval office

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OMG President PantSuits! Yass haha #MyPresidentHasAPussy2016

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omg this hashtag

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someone supporting for the illegal invasion of iraq and illegal sanctions/regime changes of countrie along with violent policies that kill hundreds upon thousands of brown people to fulfill her defense contracts is not a war criminal?

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Wait shes supporting another invasion in iraq?

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most people just ignore that cause they're WITH HER

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thank you.

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preach

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bernie is getting a lot of independent voters and some republicans too so if he doesn't get the democratic nom then these voters wouldn't feel the obligated to vote democrat anyway.

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mte

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Mte



Why would a respected Latina civil rights activist lie about something like this

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http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/11/bill-clintons-2-am-phone-call-to-jim-clyburn Because the Clinton's have a history of getting people to do their bidding. Just like they got James Clyburn to endorse Hillary even though Bill basically treated him like shit in '08 because Obama was beating Hillary.

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why would a respected senator lie about the smallest things and then continue to deny it debate after debate tho?

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I mean, I'm sure all Clinton supporters aren't angels. The hard cold truth is that there are plenty of shitty people in the world, regardless of politics. I've known a lot of white ~liberals~ who have made racist jokes, didn't care about POC, etc.



Edited at 2016-02-21 06:03 am (UTC)

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i'm a bernie fan but i wouldn't be surprised considering there's overlap with people who would vote for trump



plus, anything masses of white people support in this country is going to be tainted with their inherent racism

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uhhh there is a fucking video of the whole event, it was livestreamed. it didn't happen.

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There's a video and countless people who were there confirming it didn't happen. Mess.

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I support Bernie's policies, but a lot of his supoorters are so aggressive? If you want to win over Hillary supoorters, calling them "idiots," etc. just isn't the way. (Don't say they don't do that - there are examples in this post)

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you dont even go here lol shut uppp

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I keep debating if I should make an account called "Bernie Bros Don't Exist" and put up all of the group texts I have of my friends calling her a cunt and a bitch in their arguments about supporting Bernie/not wanting her to be pres. I cannot wait til she wins, I feel like any complaint people make in support of her is immediately shutdown, so i never know what to believe. #Hillary2016 #MyPresidentHasAPussy . I'm high right now guys, and maybe what I just posted doesnt make sense. leave me alone.

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You need help!

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It didn't matter who the other candidate was because as long as it was a man there were going to be sexist pigs lining up to support them.

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Do it. Then I can send you the harassing tweets from Hillary supporters I've gotten calling me misogynist and other nasty things for not supporting her. Hell, I was called a misogynist here for saying I wasn't going to vote for her early on. There are shitty supporters on both sides so the superiority complex is hilarious.

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as you get shouted down by the bernie bros of ontd and they pretend their male counterparts don't exist

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Why are you friends with ppl like that? O_o I support Bernie and I wouldn't put up with friends that vile...

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Yeah, that's what I checked ONTD for tbh.

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sanders is pro-gun.

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Holy shit! I had no clue what was happening and just went to Twitter. They're floating around a picture of the suspect with Trump flare. JFC!

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holy shit D: how is this not on the news yet

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I miss the days when Donald Trump becoming president was a joke.

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Tell me about it.

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Same.

Still not fully convinced it's not an elaborate attempt at trolling tbh.

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ditto

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I wouldn't be surprised at this point if he were a Clinton plant meant to hand the election to her. This whole election cycle has been so fucking bizarre.

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ughhh I don't want Hillary at all, but if she's the democratic nominee... then I will have to vote for her tbh



Even though there's conflicting reports, there are still a lot of shitty Bernie supporters

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oh yeah, i know. of course tbh

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if you're not in a swing state consider voting for a third party. if they receive a certain threshold it makes them eligible to get some federal funding. i'm in ca so since it's definitely blue i'm hoping my vote can help other voices be able to enter the mix if bernie doesn't get the nom.

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this post should be fun

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not as fun as that icon!

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:(



Why Betty?

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Idk what my eyes are reading tbh

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Bill Clinton has been accused of raping/sexually assaulting 14 women, and some of the victims have accused Hillary of silencing them, so we can add that to the list.

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omg what?? I'm not american I had no ideaa.



Edited at 2016-02-21 06:11 am (UTC)

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YES and when asked about it she can't give a straight answer

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I find it so weird that Bill Clinton is beloved. He was a decent president sure, especially when you compare him to his successor. But part of me thinks the reason he's loved is because everyone associates his presidency to the pre-9/11 world and everyone just chooses to forget everything else.

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I legit had someone here tell me that it was never proven so it wasn't true. Like, wtf?!

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America probably just believed Huerta... I'm not going to blame her for that. It's not hard to imagine that some of the white dude-bros who seem to have latched on to Bernie might also be racist...

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IA, i do not understand why a latin american will support her, it does not make sense, not with her history.

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no one ever wants to help undocumented immigrants, they say they want to and then completely forget all about it.



they will say anything to get the latino vote

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I NEVER understood that. Never. I would understand if they're not working or trying to work but immigrants do all the jobs Americans are too lazy to effing do. They're usually the hardest working people ever and try to make a better life for their families. I always call out people who say America needs to get rid of 'illegals' because they're taking away all our jobs. Like WHAT amazing jobs are 'illegals' taking from American citizens? How often do we hear about immigrants "snatching" away CEO positions? Um never. Like have a seat.

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not even obama whos supporting horribly invasive ICE raids atm.

like nobody in this country gives a flying shit about immigrants and its hilarious watching both parties thinking latinos only care about immigrant issues and both parties mishandling the issue entirely.

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thank you!

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bernie talked about immigrants depressing wages and stealing jobs from ~real americans lol so

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Published by an old curmudgeon who came to America in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany and proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is a former law enforcement officer and a retired professor of criminal justice who, in 1970, founded the Texas Narcotic Officers Association. BarkGrowlBite refuses to be politically correct. (Copyrighted articles are reproduced in accordance with the copyright laws of the U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 107.)
I love how many people are not staying silent about this ordeal. I wish more people would speak up. It's truly disgusting what Kesha is having to go through.

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kelly didnt shock me tbh she's never been here for industry bullshit. she went toe to toe with clive freaking davis after all lmao

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I get the feeling Kelly gives no fucks anymore. I think she's over the whole industry after her own problems within it.

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Have any male celebs said anything yet?

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Props to her for having the guts to speak out about this so young, especially while having to work with Sony and Dr.Luke (potentially in the future too). Yes, many other women have said this before, but it's so important for young woman like her, with super young and influential fanbases, to tweet this and hopefully get their followers to realize what's going on/become more educated.



I just hope it doesn't come back to hurt her, because like I said she's young, and 5H are still not all that big, so something like this could be controversial for their labels/whoever they work for.

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This is good, but where's the HeForShe club? I know why this is viewed as a woman problem situation but where's men at least tutting about this.

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they've worn the infamous "this is what a feminist looks like" shirt, that's it.

I think that's as far as they will go and as much as is expected of them.

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Oh yeah, my bad. We *know* they're feminists.

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do we care about what men think tho.





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People are only holding the female pop stars accountable for speaking out against Dr. Luke so idk.

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This is very brave of her because she actually has a lot to lose, but I wish the women in the industry would realize the more of then that speak out the less backlash they can face, you can punish a few women but you can't punish a big group of them without people seeing it

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mhm. i remember when the movie industry made that petition supporting polanski.. if they only do that but flip it to support kesha/boycott sony, it could do a lot.

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that takes guts

good on you lady

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Is Kesha's career still being held hostage? I feel like we need to collectively decide to stan hard for her whenever she makes her return

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yes

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i think we will stan hard.

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I always thought she had a good voice and I think she's a great songwriter (she's written lots of hits too), I believe in her! I just hope she can shed the "drunk slut" persona Sony/Luke forced on her.

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Yes. Agreed 100%!!

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ia, I'm going to buy the shit out of her next Dr Luke-free album. from what i've already seen of her interviews and that MTV mini reality show she had, I already think she seems like a really cool person.

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I watched that singing show she did, Rising Star, because this indie chick Dana Williams I like was on it, and as a judge Kesha was just so sweet and encouraging. By all accounts she's a really nice person.

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I'm in

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I only know a few of her songs but I will 100% be buying whatever she puts out. All 6 damn albums if I have to.

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Definitely

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I never liked Kesha but I'll buy anything she puts out if it'll help her.

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I will be buying whatever she releases next

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It's great that she's keeping the conversation going.

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I'm very proud of this woman :)

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remember when billboard made that poll asking music executives if they believe kesha? what ever came of that

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Normani and Dinah are really, really huge fans of Chris Brown. Like they would always freak out over him together, he was one of their phone lock screens, Dinah said she wanted Chris to play her in a lifetime movie, when a fan asked Normani when she'll get over CB, she was like this was never a phase, I recognize TALENT! Lauren also was a fan (she posted about his album Royalty and mashed it up boom with Normani and Dinah), so I was kind of surprised she reblogged the post. And Normani also RT'd a lot of people supporting Kesha, including Lauren's tweets, and tweeted right after about the legal system, so she supports Kesha too. So it's really great both of them support Kesha despite 5H being with Dr. Luke and Sony.

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good for her. i hope dr. luke gets blacklisted. but he probably won't.

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that's brave of her, especially considering she might have to work with him in the future. i hope other people (looking at you too, men) keep speaking out so this conversation doesn't die and amount to nothing.

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She's got guts.

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When His Majesty Mohammed VI of Morocco commissioned the worlds largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant on February 4, 2016, long-term advocates for clean energy in Morocco and Africa celebrated a breakthrough.

The $3.9 billion plant, Noor 1, which provides 160 MW of power, is the first phase of a four-part 580 MW facility that will be the worlds largest solar plant when completed. The project is a public-private partnership between Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) and a consortium led by the Saudi International Company for Water and Power (ACWA Power).

Once completed in 2018, Noor complex will supply power to 1.1 million people. The facility doesnt come cheap. The whopping $9 billion required to finance 580 MW Noor is provided by a whos who of development finance organizations including: German investment bank KfW ($1 billion), World Bank ($400 million), European Investment Bank ($596 million), Climate Investment Funds ($435 million), Clean Technology Fund ($97 million), African Development Bank (EUR 168 million).

Morocco and Noors financiers hope that this showcase project, which is anticipated to reduce carbon emissions by 760,000 tonnes annually, is a signal of what is possible in clean energy. Environmentalists arent rejoicing yet. They voice concern about the water required to cool a plant in the midst of a desert, particularly during an ongoing drought. The projects advocates brush off these concerns. Moroccos minister for Environment Hakima El Haite, who characterized Noor as the most important solar project in the world, is quoted as saying "This project allows a number of countries to see there's hope for countries who are not rich in petroleum." Related: Why Is Well Decommissioning So Slow In Canada?

There is certainly an upsurge in large scale solar plants across Africa. The impetus is the same as Moroccos. Dependence on imported fossil fuels, subsidized energy costs and rapidly growing power demand are combining to form an unsustainable situation for governments across Africa. The collapse of oil prices provides some relief for government budgets, but internal pressure from citizens and businesses demanding electricity for socio-economic progress gives ruling parties little political relief.

Opposition parties are pounding sitting governments about brown outs, blackouts and their failure to bring development. So politicians who can lay claim to delivering electricity protect a vulnerable flank. Governments are more sharply focused than ever before on lighting up their states.

Early solar adopters include Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa. Rwanda lays claim to the continents fastest built solar facility. The $23.7 million 8.5 MW facility went from contract to commissioning in a year; an impressive feat considering getting projects from intention to fruition is still notoriously hard across Africa. The projects success has spurred Rwanda to pursue more renewable projects. Related: Oil Rally Stalls After Iran Declines to Commit to Freeze

But most of the money to-date has flowed to South Africa. Under its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPP), South Africa plans to procure 3,725 MW of renewable energy including 200 MW of CSP and 1,450MW of solar PV by 2030. To-date South Africa has secured $14 billion in new investments for 64 projects totaling 3,500 MW of renewable energy. Amongst the 64 projects is the 96 MW Jasper Power Project, in which Google invested $12 million.

Kenya is East Africas most vibrant solar and renewable energy market, attracting domestic and international entrepreneurs. Financial innovations in mobile payments merged with solar home kits and mini grids eliminated once prohibitive capital costs making solar power accessible to poor populations once excluded from the grid.

M-kOPA Solar, which has connected 300,000 rural homes to solar kits, has essentially created one of the hottest (no pun intended) energy markets in Africa. In its most recent financing round it raised $19 million from backers including Al Gores Generation Investment Management that will go towards reaching 1 million customers in East Africa by 2017. While private sector focuses on the neglected rural customers, the Kenyan government is focused on increasing the renewables mix in grid-supplied power. In 2015, the Government of Kenya signed a $2.2 billion deal with SkyPower to develop a series 1 GW solar projects over five years. Related: Activist Investors Crushed By Oil Crash

West Africa has lagged behind in solar power development compared to other parts of Africa. After years of work, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) is finally reporting flickers of progress. The current project pipeline consists of PV systems in Cape Verde (5MW); Sierra Leone (6 MW), Ghana (two 20 MW facilities), Mali (20MW), Burkina Faso (20 MW), Senegal (forty 20 MW mini grids). In a more ambitious initiative, ECOWAS is proposing a 2GW solar corridor across the Sahara from Senegal to Niger. Seeking financing and attracting private sector investors for all these initiatives are the next challenges.

Across Africa, entrepreneurs have joined the development crowd to prove that solar power on a large scale is technically-viable. The success across the first mover countries debunks historical skepticism in other governments. With the demand for electricity soaring, and the dependence on fuel imports seeming like an increasing liability, the attractiveness of expanding the fuel mix to include solar is increasing. Competition for financing will determine which solar projects are built.

By Ronke Luke Of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
If development in Eagle Ford from 2008 to 2014 felt like a drag racer flying down the track, then 2015 must have felt like skidding to a halt. This year will be like hitting a brick wallor a shale wall, but its a wall that will eventually be torn down.

For now, though, the bad news keeps piling up.

Baker Hughes12 February rig count for the Eagle Ford is grim. Currently, there are only 58 rigs active in the region. Thats a staggering drop from 164 during the same period in 2015, and 216 in 2014.

Pioneer Natural Resources announced earlier this month that it would be pulling all drilling rigs out of Eagle Ford. Pioneer had six rigs operating as of December 2015. This cut is fresh on the heels of a $27 million fourth-quarter loss for the Irving-based producer.

Pioneer is also moving two pressure pumping fleets from the Eagle Ford to the Permian Basin. Related: Why Is Well Decommissioning So Slow In Canada?

Oilfield workers in the Eagle Ford are also feeling the pinch. According to the University of Houston, each rig equals 224 jobs on and off the drilling pad, which translates into 35,000 jobs lost since 2014 from Baker Hughes alone.

On a wider scale, fewer rig workers in the area has hit local business hard. Cotulla, dubbed the hotel capital of the Eagle Ford, has been one of those communities, with brand new hotels shutting down operations. This is a difficult change for a community that saw 20 new hotels erected during the oil boom prior to 2015.

But comparing this downward trend to North Dakotas Bakken play shows that the Eagle Ford isnt the only play in jeopardy.

In December 2015, the average production from the Eagle Ford Shale was 1.5 million barrels per day, down 7% from December 2014. The North Dakota section of the Bakken play produced 1.2 million barrels per day in November 2015down a similar 6% from November 2014.

The average price per barrel in both regions dipped 35% in 2015 over the previous year, and both lost their fair share of active rigs as producers stopped production on all but the fastest, most efficient rigs. The total rig count in the Eagle Ford dropped from 200 to 70 in Eagle Ford, and from 150 to 50 in Bakken. Related: Oil Rally Stalls After Iran Declines to Commit to Freeze

Analysts predict the decline is not over for either shale play.

In late January, Sami Yahya, Platts Bentek energy analyst, commented on the outlook for both plays: If prices remain sub-$40 per barrel and producers are unable to further bring down completion costs, then they might defer completions until the pricing market makes a comeback.

When that might be is anyones guess.

Texas Permian Basin is likewise faring poorly.

This time last year, the Permian Basin had 454 rigs operating. Now it has 182. The most recent figures for this month from Baker Hughes show the Permian rig count falling by 17 rigs. Four weeks into this year, there has been a 12.92% decline in rigs.

But when it comes to the Permian, Chevron, for one, views this as the most cost efficient play in the US. With that in mind, the company spent much of last year switching over to horizontal drilling in this play, insisting that the economics in some of the best areas at strip type prices work. But it would still take $50 oil to make it work, and were not close to $50 oil. Related: Activist Investors Crushed By Oil Crash

About 10% of the 40,000 wells drilled in 2014 sit uncompleted, and most of them are in Eagle Ford, Bakken and the Permian Basinbut no ones turning off the taps.

There is, however, a bigger picture that could be the saving grace for these three major US shale plays. Under the surface of grim rig counts there is a shifting focus in the works, with operators honing in more narrowly on the real sweet spots. This shift, say some analysts, could see a move away from the Williston Basin toward more concentrated efforts in the Eagle Ford and Permian.

At the end of the day, grim or not, its certainly not game over for the three big boys. Producers are making progress in reducing high break-even costs, and particularly the Eagle Ford and Permian could end up benefitting from shifting sweet-spot sentiments.

By Dex Dunford for Oilprice.com

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Senator Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz of Texas appears to be "shocked-shocked!" when his political opponents call him a liar.

Of course, "liar" is harsh on anybody's ego, but the facts don't lie when Curz fumbles with his rhetorical political positions.

Ted Cruz was "born near the USA", but it doesn't qualify him to be President of the nation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSNY_VnysmM

Indeed, chronic hypocrisy and lying are parellel behaviors. There's no doubt about the "birther" Senator's unlimited capacity for hypocritical rhetoric. For example, it's downright hypocritical for Senator Cruz to have wasted time leading a national debate about Barack Obama's birth right, claiming he wasn't qualified to be the President of the United States, because he was supposedly and erroneously born in Kenya. Incredulously, Rafael "Ted" Cruz, himself, was born in Canada! Now, Cruz is running for the same office he accused President Obama of being unqualified to hold, yet, proof exists of Cruz's Canadian birth. There was never any proof of President Obama having been born in Kenya, as the "birthers" wrongly asserted. In fact, there was plenty of proof about President Obama being born in Hawaii.

In other words, the birthers lied about the location of President Obama's birth place. Therefore, Cruz lied.





Honestly, Cruz only tells the truth when he's defending the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms or any kind of bullet shooting weapons. Nevertheless, the lies show up when Cruz tries to discredit the intention of other political positions made by humanitarian people who are trying prevent gun violence, by regulating the sale of assault weapons. Abolutely no one is going to erase the Second Amendment out of the Constitution! It's a lie to assume the intent of people who want to save lives by regulating the sale of assault weapons are really trying to eliminate the Second Amendment in the Constitution. Therefore, Cruz lied.





Cruz is opposed to immigration reform, humanely providing a path to citizenship for immigrants who meet certain requirements. Unbelievably, Senator Cruz is himself an immigrant, because he was born in Canada! Although Cruz's mother was an American citizen, she went to Canada to be with her husband at the time Cruz was born. Therefore, it's highly questionable about whether or not Cruz is a natural born citizen of the United States.

Natural born, in my mind, means born as a US Citizens in an American state or terrirtory or when both parents are citizens but living outside the country, due to special work or circumstances. I'm certainly no authority on this issue, but it's virtually impossible for Cruz to unequivically claim he's a "natural born citizen". Moreover, Cruz refuses to clarify this important Constitutional issue. Therefore, Cruz lied.





Here are other reasons why Senator "Cruz to loose" should never be given an opportunity to become our nation's leader:

Even political colleague Sarah Palin didn't endorse Cruz. Rather, she overtly endorsed Donald Trump "the chump".

Senator Cruz puts his two young daughters into political advertisements. This is unethical practice, in my opinion, and exploitaton of his innocent children for a purely political purpose. In fact, Cruz's two precious daughters are seen in paid political ads more often than his pretty wife. It's not right.

Senator Cruz often called his colleagues in the US Senate "a cartel", like they were dealing in clandestine goods, like illegal drugs. This accusation, and the ugly label were unpatriotic and a downright lie. If Senator Cruz believed a "cartel" was running the Congress, he should've reported the activity to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), rather than lie about the "august body" of law makers, of which he is a member.

Cruz said he'll block any nominee President Obama puts forth to suceed Justice Antonin Scalia, who died (1936-2016). This is contrary to the US Constitution, where the direction is clearly that it's the responsibility of Cruz to join the Senate to "advise and consent" with the President, about the nomination for Supreme Court justice. To overtly block or filibuser any attempt to vote on President Obama's nominee to succeed Justice Scalia is seditious behavior, in my opinion, and therefore, disqualfies Cruz from running for President. In fact, sedition is a federal crime.

Being pro-life, as Cruz claims to be, he's, also, hypocritically:

pro-death penalty



against any Second Amendment changes, whereby lives could be saved from preventable gun violence by assault weapons



against immigration reform, regardless of how distressed innocent families are about re-uniting with loved ones, who are unfairly deported



against the Affordable Care Act - ACA, (aka "Obamacare") whereby millions of people pay for and receive health insurance coverage

It's likely I've exceeded the 10 reasons Senator Cruz should never be considered as a candidate for U.S. President. Frankly, any of these reasons should be enough to disqualify the Cruz candidacy. Let's face it, by being born "close by" in Canada, doesn't make the Constitutional qualification cut. In fact, "Cruz to loose" is wasting our time by trying to compete with those who are fundamentally better qualified to be President than he is, because, even the worst of them, at the very least, are not "liars". Born near the USA should be enough of a reason to disqualify "Cruz to loose".

Labels: birther, Canada, immigraation reform, Kenya, pro-life, Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, Second Amendment, Texas
Darkness dawns at the break of noon, sirens blare, red alerts convulse -- and it feels like we're 30 seconds from the 9th circle of hell. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of demented intensity.

Is this the end, beautiful friend?

Well, not really. It's a bluff. So let's invoke Dada -- the original internet -- to put this hellhole in perspective. Dada was born a century ago at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich -- smack in the middle of WWI. *Dada was not only a revolution in art; it's a revolution still in progress.

Dada is a state of mind -- pretty much the ideal antidote to manifestations of Cold War 2.0; it is all about destabilizing pomposity; search and destroy symbols; dislocation of language. So with multiple intimations of doom shaping the onset of (fake) WWIII, what's best than to keep on truckin' fueled by impertinence and fantasy? After all, "Life is a Cabaret"(Voltaire). Come to the cabaret.

Cut to a gaggle of rollicking Wahhabis making a cabaret entrance, complete with jets overflying Incirlik. They seem to be getting ready for "boo hoo! Ground operations in Syria!" They desire it. Utterly. But, alas, there's no plan. Listen to ringmaster Adel al-Jubeir in all his transgender glory; they may eventually add a "ground component"! But it all depends on "His Master's Voice" issuing his permission. And the permission is not forthcoming.





"The timing is not up to us,"moan the Wahhabis. So, thirsty for the limelight, and adding to the suspense, enter... the Turks! "The best time to enter Syria is now," howl the pro-AKP hordes from Ankara to Antalya. How can we possibly allow those seedy YPG Kurds to concoct a buffer state along our border and, moreover, one that is controlled by the Yankees and the Russkies?



Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) Terrorists! Off with their heads -- like the Red Queen said, inspiring Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Our destiny is to set up a "secure" refugee enclave 10 kilometers inside Syria. And forbid these refugees -- by all means necessary -- to cross into Turkey.

Onwards to the Jarablus pocket, north of the Azaz-Munbij line! It's Kurd-shelling time!

Oops! They did it again. The neo-Ottomans forgot to register that "His Master's Voice" does not regard the PYD and the YPG as "terrorists." After all, they are gallantly battling ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. And they are not connected to "moderate rebel" Jabhat Al-Nusra, a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in Syria, while all the favorite Wahhabi/neo-Ottoman-linked goons are excited Nusra lovers. How Dada is that? And the Dada-o-meter spectacularly explodes into interstellar space as we add the serious possibility that no less than US Special Forces may be giving a little help to their Kurdish friends.

While all hell is (moderately) breaking loose, everyone seems to have forgotten that Russia has (discreetly) imposed a de facto no-fly zone over virtually all of northern Syria. Not even squalid crows fly along the border, not to mention Turkish F-16s and copters. Turkish planes know that if they enter Syrian airspace, it's an Ashes to Ashes scenario (Bowie dubbed in Cyrillic). So what is Washington to do? Provide "air support" to the neo-Ottomans and risk WWIII? Obviously not.

The Kremlin totally gets Dada but plays constructivism. The secret: to win against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and assorted Salafi-jihadi terror gangs is impossible without sealing the same Syria-Turkish border the neo-Ottomans are itching to trespass. After all, that's the highway from where the Jihadi/Weaponizing flows in and smuggled oil flows out. Russia, constructively, is willing to strike deals with anyone who's not Salafi-jihadi. But there's the rub. The Russian guest list does not match the American guest list.



So how do you get into the club? And once inside, whose tune will you be dancing to? Israel, Egypt, Jordan and even the Emirates -- that profitable marriage between Abu Dhabi oil and Dubai smuggling rackets -- are in close touch with the Russian game in Syria. They want closure. Not exactly the Wahhabi/neo-Ottoman game. But even if the double down desperadoes might be "supported"by Qatar and Bahrain in that notoriously elusive "ground operation," the notion they would dare to confront both Russia and the US head to head is nothing but prime Dada.

So no wonder selected neo-Ottoman heads are doing more spinning than dervishes in Konya. We hate everybody! But we can't declare war against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, the PYD and that regime-unchanged ingrate Bashar Assad all at the same time!

To mollify their unspeakable chagrin, the neo-Ottomans dutifully persist in their offensive against" more Kurds -- those of the PKK in Anatolia. But should they strike harder on the PYD in Syria, expect the PKK in Turkey to mastermind a lethal counterpunch.

And then, amidst such mayhem, whose head is held high as a portrait of moderation? The TSK (Turkish Armed Forces)! Picture proud Turkish generals resisting to play the (fake) prologue for a possible WWIII. How Dada is that?



Common sense though has not prevailed -- yet; that would have been so un-Dada. Re-enter "Northern Thunder!" Wahhabi General Ahmed Asseri continues to insist the notorious ground operation is "irreversible." Sorry, eventually reversible if the green light from "The Masters" never shines.

Still, never underestimate a frantically fearful Wahhabi for superior Dada effect. Jubeir, at the Munich Security Conference, said with a straight face that Assad is the "single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists" in the whole Middle East. So it's regime change or what, self-beheading en masse? Now that would be some performance art worthy of the Dadaist Manifesto.

Russia, meanwhile, behaves as placidly as Malevich's White on White. Moscow certainly does not want to wallow into a Syrian swamp. And yet Russia is already firmly placed in Syria -- and is not going anywhere apart from expanding its geopolitical footprint even further. That's called Mediterranean projection. Everyone else, live with it.

We keep ragin', ragin' against the dying of the (Southwest Asian) light... And then, in a flash, we might even glimpse the possibility of the big powers, Russia and the US, reaching an ersatz of symbiosis in Syria, which may eventually translate into that "peace process" Kerry and Lavrov are so fond of. Who wants WWIII if not the mentally disabled? Oops, we Dada-it again. Tell it to "Sultan" Erdogan and warrior Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

*Dada was an art movement that surfaced during World War I in Zurich in negative reaction to the war. The art, poetry and performances of the Dada artists is often nonsensical in order to convey their message.
Reprinted from Consortium News

How little Official Washington's neocon-dominated foreign policy elite has learned from the past couple of decades can be measured by reading the last line of Friday's Washington Post op-ed by David Ignatius, supposedly one of the deeper thinkers from the American pundit class.

Ignatius writes, regarding the Syrian mess, "It's never too late for the United States to do the right thing -- which is to build, carefully, the political and military framework for a new Syria."

Reading Ignatius and other neocon-oriented policy prescribers, it's as if Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya -- not to mention other failed states following U.S. interventions -- never happened. Just like Iraq was a cakewalk, Syria will be one of those child puzzles with only 24 pieces, easy to assemble and reassemble.



Though Ignatius doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of his nation-building scheme, it should be obvious that for President Barack Obama to "do the right thing" in Ignatius's way of thinking, the U.S. military would first have to invade and occupy Syria, killing any Syrians, Iranians, Russians and others who might get in the way. Then there would be the tricky process of "carefully" putting Syria back together again amid the predictable IEDs, suicide bombings and sectarian strife.

One is tempted to simply dismiss Ignatius as not a serious person, but he is considered part of the creme de la creme of Official Washington's current foreign-policy establishment. He's sought after to moderate foreign policy conferences and he pontificates regularly from the well-read pages of The Washington Post.

But he is really just another example of how dangerous it was for the American people to exact no accountability from the hubristic neoconservatives and their "liberal interventionist" sidekicks for their many disastrous miscalculations and war crimes.

If Americans still had pitchforks, they should have chased down this arrogant elite for inflicting so much pain and bloodshed on both the people of these tragic countries and on the U.S. soldiers who were dispatched so casually to make the benighted policies work. There's also the little issue of the trillions of dollars in taxpayers' money wasted.

But the neocons are impervious to criticism from the "little people." Within the neocon "bubble," the Syrian crisis is just the result of President Obama not intervening earlier and bigger by shipping even more weapons to Syria's mythical "moderate" rebels.

No one ever wants to admit that these "moderates" were always dominated by Sunni jihadists and -- by 2012 -- had become essentially their front men for receiving sophisticated U.S. weapons before passing the hardware on, willingly or not, to Al Qaeda's Nusra Front, Islamic State and other extremist groups.

Read, for instance, a remarkable account from veteran foreign affairs writer Stephen Kinzer, who describes in a Boston Globe op-ed the reign of terror that the Syrian rebels have inflicted on the people of Aleppo, while the mainstream U.S. news media painted pretty pictures about these noble insurrectionists.

Kinzer scolds his media colleagues for their malfeasance in reporting on the Syrian crisis, writing: "Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press. Reporting about carnage in the ancient city of Aleppo is the latest reason why."

Another inconvenient truth is that the "moderate" rebels of Aleppo operate hand in glove with Al Qaeda's Nusra Front. So much so that a proposal for a partial Syrian cease-fire failed because U.S. diplomats wanted to extend its protections to Al Qaeda's forces, also known inside Syria as Jabhat al-Nusra.

As The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung nonchalantly mentioned deep inside a story on Saturday, "Jabhat al-Nusra, whose forces are intermingled with moderate rebel groups in the northwest near the Turkish border, is particularly problematic. Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra off-limits to bombing as part of the cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out."

In other words, the cease-fire plan is being delayed -- and possibly killed -- because the Obama administration doesn't want the Syrian army and the Russian air force attacking Al Qaeda.

This strange reality underscores reporting by Mideast expert Gareth Porter who wrote that "Information from a wide range of sources, including some of those the United States has been explicitly supporting, makes it clear that every armed anti-Assad organization unit in those provinces [around Aleppo] is engaged in a military structure controlled by Nusra militants. All of these rebel groups fight alongside the Nusra Front and coordinate their military activities with it." [See Consortiumnews.com's "Risking Nuclear War for Al Qaeda."]

Believing in Unicorns
Reprinted from Tom Dispatch

Introduction by Tom Engelhardt

The time scale should stagger you. Just imagine for a moment that what we humans do on this planet will last at least 10,000 more years, and no, I'm not talking about those statues on Easter Island or the pyramids or the Great Wall of China or the Empire State Building. I'm not talking about any of our monumental architectural-cum-artistic achievements. Ten thousand years from now all the monuments to our history may be forgotten ruins or simply obliterated, while what we're doing at this very moment that's truly ruinous may outlast us all. I'm thinking, of course, about the burning of fossil fuels and the sending of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere. It's becoming clearer by the month that, if not brought under control relatively quickly, this process will alter the global environment in ways that will affect humanity and everything else living on this planet for what, from a human point of view, is eternity.

In essence, there's no backsies when it comes to climate change. Once you've begun the full-scale destabilization and melting of the Greenland ice sheet and of the vast ice sheets in the Antarctic, for instance, the future inundation of coastal areas, including many of humanity's major cities, is a foregone conclusion somewhere down the line. In fact, a recent study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change by 22 climate scientists, suggests that when it comes to the melting of ice sheets and the rise of seas and oceans, we're not just talking about how life will be changed on Planet Earth in 2100 or even 2200. We're potentially talking about what it will be like in 12,200, an expanse of time twice as long as human history to date. So many thousands of years are hard even to fathom, but as the study points out, "A considerable fraction of the carbon emitted to date and in the next 100 years will remain in the atmosphere for tens to hundreds of thousands of years." The essence of the report, as Chris Mooney wrote in the Washington Post, is this: "In 10,000 years, if we totally let it rip, the planet could ultimately be an astonishing 7 degrees Celsius warmer on average and feature seas 52 meters (170 feet) higher than they are now."

Even far more modest temperature changes like the two degree Celsius rise discussed at the recent Paris meeting, where 196 nations signed onto a climate change agreement, would transform the face of the planet for thousands of years and result in the drowning of a range of iconic global cities "including New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Calcutta, Jakarta, and Shanghai."

This, in other words, is what the hunt for yet more fossil fuels and more profits by the planet's giant energy companies actually means -- not tomorrow, but on a scale we don't usually consider. This is why those who continue to insist on pursuing such a treasure hunt (for a few companies and their shareholders), despite knowing its grim future results, will truly be in the running with some of the monsters of our past to become the ultimate criminals of history. In this light, consider what Bill McKibben, TomDispatch regular, founder of 350.org, and author most recently of Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist, has to say about one of those companies, ExxonMobil, and its pivotal role in our warming world. Tom

Exxon's Never-Ending Big Dig

Flooding the Earth With Fossil Fuels

By Bill McKibben Here's the story so far. We have the chief legal representatives of the eighth and 16th largest economies on Earth (California and New York) probing the biggest fossil fuel company on Earth (ExxonMobil), while both Democratic presidential candidates are demanding that the federal Department of Justice join the investigation of what may prove to be one of the biggest corporate scandals in American history. And that's just the beginning. As bad as Exxon has been in the past, what it's doing now -- entirely legally -- is helping push the planet over the edge and into the biggest crisis in the entire span of the human story. Back in the fall, you might have heard something about how Exxon had covered up what it knew early on about climate change. Maybe you even thought to yourself: that doesn't surprise me. But it should have. Even as someone who has spent his life engaged in the bottomless pit of greed that is global warming, the news and its meaning came as a shock: we could have avoided, it turns out, the last quarter century of pointless climate debate.
Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website

This morning [Feb 19] I was stuck in front of a Fox "News" broadcast for a short period and then with a NPR news program. It was enough to convince me that Nazi propaganda during Hitler's Third Reich was very mild compared to the constant stream of dangerous lies that are pumped out constantly by the American media.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and a couple of think-tank types were represented on NPR. They delivered the most crude propaganda imaginable and questioned no US government statement.

Did you know that all the trouble in Syria is due to the Russians and Assad? The US has no blame whatsoever. The US is trying to fight ISIS (which the US created, aids and abets), but the evil Russians and Assad are fighting the innocent "democratic rebels" who are trying to bring democracy to Syria as a replacement for a "brutal dictator" (elected by a large majority vote). The Russians are also bombing schools and hospitals, "collateral damage" when the US does it but war crimes when the Russians are accused of doing it.

The accusers had no evidence for their accusations against Russia beyond the unverified claims of the US government. Despite nonexistent Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction," nonexistent Iranian nukes, and nonexistent use of chemical weapons by Assad "against his own people," the talking heads continue to accept without question whatever the US government says. I was especially disappointed in Karen DeYoung. As a young reporter she aggressively covered the neoconservatives' misadventures in Nicaragua. However, to become the Washington Post's senior foreign affairs reporter she had to give up and join the presstitutes.

Did you know that China was militarizing the South China Sea by building up atolls to accommodate runways and by placing weapons on the site? It is not militarization when the "exceptional country" allocates 60% of its large fleet to the Pacific, declares the South China Sea, which is thousands of miles from America, to be an area of "American national interest," and sends warships to patrol the sea. That's simply "countering the Chinese threat."

Did you know that the clamor by the British people for UK exit from the European Union has nothing to do with preserving UK national sovereignty and the legal protections of British civil liberty? It is all to do with rejecting refugees, a sign of racism.

Fox "News" informed us that due to his great service to our nation, Justice Antonin Scalia was lying in state in the Supreme Court to be paid homage by both the government representatives and public victims of the police state of which he was an architect. Under Republican leadership the Supreme Court has helped the executive branch elevate its authority above that of the US Constitution, refusing to even hear challenges to indefinite detention. Among Scalia's accomplishments are:

-- Stopping the Florida vote recount in order to install George W. Bush as President

-- Kentucky v. King: police should have greater leeway to break into homes without a warrant

-- Florence v. Burlington: allowing jail officials freedom of action is more important than protecting American citizens from debasing strip searches.

Like the Supreme Court, the presstitutes have aligned themselves with the rich and powerful. Fox "News" reported that Marco Rubio, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, declared that to make the poor rich requires making the rich poor and we shouldn't make the rich poor. Apparently, Fox "News" believes that aligning Rubio with the One Percent is helpful to his political career. Fox showed Rubio's audience cheering and applauding his defense of the One Percent.

This is "democratic America" where the people have no representation.
WELCOME TO THE ORDER

Purely frivolous and perfectly harmless snark and admiration for all things stylish and royal.



Have any requests? Email me at orderofsplendor at hotmail dot com.


A forum for critical analysis of international issues and developments of particular relevance to the sustainable political and socio-economic development of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
IS claimed responsibility for the killing of three police personnel in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the killing of three police personnel in Faisalabad, police said on Saturday.



On Friday, two men riding a motorcycle opened fire on three personnel, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), of the Punjab Highway Patrol near Merawala Bangla. As a result, three policemen were killed. A police investigator said they had seized 40 pamphlets of the IS from the crime scene, claiming responsibility for the attack. He said the militant group also threatened more attacks on the law enforcement agencies. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan reiterated on February 13 that IS had no presence in Pakistan. He said that some terrorist organisations functioning in the country were using ISs name. Besides police, other law enforcement agencies have also initiated investigations to find clues to ISs involvement in the recent terrorist attacks. Another investigator said that security officials were trying to find out if IS or some local religious group was involved in the recent terrorist attacks.
NAB should remain confined to its objectives: Shahbaz Sharif

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif Saturday said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should remain confined to its objectives as a responsible anti-corruption watchdog.



In a statement, the chief minister urged the accountability bureau to function responsibly. He said that the government wants an effective accountability mechanism in place in the country, however it would not allow any department to influence the projects of national importance.



The statement has come days after Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif criticised NAB activities, accusing the institution of raiding homes of innocent people. Addressing a gathering of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers in Bahawalpur, the prime minister had said that the bureau should improve its working and act responsibly. He had also instructed the NA|B chairman to take notice of the issue.



In the days that followed, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah held a couple of press conferences in the provincial capital to clarify the ruling partys stance after prime ministers criticism opened a debate on the issue. Sanaullah said that prime ministers statement should be taken as a recommendation and not criticism. The premier has the mandate to instruct NAB if the need arises, he said, and added that he is liable to offer a valid justification if corruption worth a single penny is proven against him. He urged different sections of society to draw positive conclusion from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs statement regarding bureaus working. He also said that Punjab government would welcome bureaus action against corrupt officials in the province.
Sindh govt to request centre to constitute JC

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to request the centre to constitute a judicial commission to examine the actions taken by the Federal Investigation Agency in the province.



The provincial government deems the actions of FIA and NAB (National Accountability Bureau) in Sindh as a strode over move (sic) of their limits and jurisdiction, said a statement issued by the Chief Ministers House on Saturday.



It said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had informed PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari that he was ready to constitute a judicial commission to look into the raids and seizures carried out by FIA in Sindh if the latter (Zardari) desired so.



The Sindh government would appreciate if Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, in order to keep the record straight, takes a bold initiative to constitute a judicial commission to look into the FIA raids in Sindh, the statement said.



According to the provincial government, the FIA had taken away more than 15,000 files of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. Sindh feels that the FIA had no authority and jurisdiction to conduct raids on its offices.



The provincial government has its own mechanism to take action against corruption in its departments. The FIA, under a self-proclaimed authority, has taken over the role of an anti-corruption agency in the jurisdiction of the provincial government. This is unconstitutional, especially against the spirit of the 18th Amendment.



The statement said the findings of the judicial commission would help remove misunderstandings developed on the issue of jurisdiction or actions of FIA and NAB in Sindh.



This is a very good, pragmatic and bold offer on the part of minister for interior, it said.



Reiterating his offer to constitute a judicial commission to look into allegations that the FIA was exceeding its mandate, Chaudhry Nisar said on Saturday that the federal government could move an application in this regard next week if the PPP leadership agreed to it.



In a statement, he asked the PPP-led Sindh government to go to court if it had any reservations over the FIAs role in the KMC case.



The minister clarified that he had offered for scrutiny of all cases being pursued by the FIA during the present governments tenure and not about any specific case.



He alleged that the PPP leaders through their statements had been making the FIAs investigation into corruption cases controversial.



Chaudhry Nisar had offered on Wednesday to form a judicial commission to look into the role and performance of the FIA over the past two and a half years in a rejoinder to PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardaris claim that the FIA was following in the footprints of NAB in exceeding its mandate.



The minister had assured that the FIA would not be used against political opponents or innocent people as long as he held office. He, however, said the FIA would act with full force against the corrupt and not show any leniency.



Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah has said nobody should be worried about actions of the National Accountability Bureau in Punjab.



Talking to the media at his residence on Saturday, he said if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had expressed his outrage over NAB actions in parliament, his credibility would have increased enormously.



He said the NAB had been taking action for some time in Sindh and Balochistan and if it did the same in Punjab nobody should fear. Instead, the system of NABs working should be corrected.



In reply to a question, the opposition leader said he was not aware that the NAB chairman had refused to meet the prime minister.



He said it was wrong to first arrest the accused, take his remand for 90 days and send him to prison and after two years he was declared an innocent. The NAB should first complete the investigation and then give the accused an opportunity to record his statement, he added. Action must be taken against a corrupt person.



He said Mr Sharif had opposed a proposal to close the NAB and set up an accountability commission, but now he himself was talking against the bureau.



The PPP leader said the government had claimed that the signing of an agreement for import of LNG with Qatar was its achievement, but gas would be costly.



He urged the government to take parliament into confidence on the issue of a terrorist attack on an airbase in the Indian city of Pathankot and the recent registration of an FIR in Gujranwala.
USA to support meeting between Pakistani and Indian prime ministers

WASHINGTON: The United States has said that it would support any decision to hold a meeting between Pakistani and Indian prime ministers in the US capital next month.



Were supportive of any decisions that could be made for this to take place, said a State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, when asked if the United States was involved in efforts to arrange a meeting between the two South Asian leaders.



Diplomatic observers in Washington say that the United States, India and Pakistan are quietly exploring the possibility of a meeting between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi when the two leaders visit Washington next month.



Both leaders have accepted US President Barack Obamas invitation to attend a nuclear summit the White House is hosting on March 31 and April 1.



Mr Toner said that while he did not have anything specific to point to, he could confirm that the US remained engaged with both Pakistani and Indian governments.



Certainly, we remain engaged with the Indian government. We want to see this entire effort move forward, he said.



The Pakistani and Indian prime ministers have had three meetings so far: the first in May, 2014, when Mr Sharif attended Mr Modis swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi.



They met again on the sidelines of a regional summit in Ufa, Russia, in July last year, and on Dec 25 Mr Modi had a surprise stopover in Lahore while returning home from Afghanistan.



At the State Department briefing, Mr Toner also noted Pakistans efforts to fight terrorists, noting that no country was more affected by terrorism than Pakistan.



I cant speak specifically to ISILs presence or non-presence in Pakistan, said the US official while responding to a question about the presence of militant Islamic State group in the country.



I can say that weve seen elements of ISIL or ISIL-affiliated groups spring up in Afghanistan. I mean, they look for ungoverned spaces. There are parts of Pakistan that are havens for some of these terrorist organisations, he added.



He said the United States fully recognised the Pakistani governments commitment to pushing back and fighting these terrorists.



No ones more affected by terrorism than the people of Pakistan, and were going to continue to support them, whether its ISIL or other terrorist groups operating on their soil, said the US official
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
February 21, 1965

On Friday

next Saturday

Sunday

March temperature anomaly credit

Image credit

Cyclone Winston, near peak strength, as it made landfall in Fiji on Saturday." NOAA.

Photo credit

Scientists declared that 2015 was Earths hottest year on record . In a database of 3,116 cities provided by AccuWeather, about 90 percent of them were warmer than normal. Enter your city in the field below to see how much warmer it was last year.

Graphic credit

Photo credit

Photo credit

Americans May Think They'll Never, Ever Buy Electric SUVs or Pickups - But They Will. It's coming, and sooner than you might think. Here's an excerpt from . It's coming, and sooner than you might think. Here's an excerpt from Quartz : "...Such motorists may be surprised to hear that, when they go to replace their current vehicles in a few years, theyll probably drive away in electrified SUVs and trucks. Its not because they necessarily want them, nor even that automakers want to make themafter all, major car companies earned more than $50 billion in collective profit last year, a significant share of it from gas guzzlers. Perversely, the reason is the oppositeAmericans love their big cars so much, theyll have no choice but to go electric, experts say..."

Photo credit above: "Texas in the 2020s." (Mitsubishi).

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Knock in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after a snowstorm." (Clif Reeder for The Washington Post)

TODAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Image credit

January 2016 was Earth's hottest month yet, with the most unusually warm temperatures concentrated in the Arctic." NASA.

Results from the worlds top monitoring agencies vary slightly, but

,

, and the

all agree that January was unprecedented.



Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article61387222.html#storylink=cpy

Zika Outbreak Could Be an Omen of the Global Warming Threat. Another coincidence? Is there a possible link? Here's an excerpt from Another coincidence? Is there a possible link? Here's an excerpt from The New York Times : "The global public health emergency involving deformed babies emerged in 2015, the hottest year in the historical record, with an outbreak in Brazil of a disease transmitted by heat-loving mosquitoes. Can that be a coincidence? Scientists say it will take them years to figure that out, and pointed to other factors that may have played a larger role in starting the crisis. But these same experts added that the Zika epidemic, as well as the related spread of a disease called dengue that is sickening as many as 100 million people a year and killing thousands, should be interpreted as warnings..."

Photo credit

The Isle de Jean Charles after Hurricane Gustav in 2008." (Photo: Flickr/Karen Apricot ).

. high temperature yesterday in St. Cloud.. average high on February 20.. high on February 25, 2015.on the ground at KSTC.: Strong winds occur, reaching speeds of up to 45 mph in the Twin Cities.snow cover at MSP International Airport shrank to a trace. 45 degrees and a third of an inch of rain had something to do with that. According to the National Weather Service that was the end of 56 straight days with at least an inch of snow on the ground. During an average winter an inch or more of snow is on the ground for 90.3 days, based on NOAA data from 1981-2010.No, it wasn't a "tough winter".30 inches so far this winter at MSP - we'll see more snow in March, but a higher sun angle and thawing temperatures mean a wetter, sloppier snow with rapid melting.Wave at the big, moisture-laden storms passing well south of Minnesota this week; more echoes of El Nino. Daytime highs climb to near freezing all week; 40Fbefore aclipper drops an inch or two of slush. We could see 1-2 days in the teens early next week before another rapid thaw. The model solutions for early March look like something I'd expect to see in mid-April. Expect a mild bias to continue.Meanwhile the strongest cyclone on record in the southern hemisphere just hit Fiji.. 90 days a year with at least 1" or more on the ground? Here's an excerpt from Current Results : "For nearly all of winter along with some of early spring and late fall, Minneapolis has at least an inch of snow on the ground. A snowpack that gets to ten or more inches deep can cover the city anytime from November to April. The snow accumulates most during December, January and February. Typically, on six or seven days in January and in February plus another five days in December, the snow depth in Minneapolis tops ten inches..."Flurries are possible today; maybe an inch or two of flurries Tuesday as an upper air disturbance passes overhead. It may be just mild enough for a rain-snow mix; with temperatures in the 30s roads should be mainly wet. 84-hour snowfall forecast from NOAA's NAM model: AerisWeather.. I'm starting to sound like a broken record (skipping CD?) Grandpa, what's a CD? OK, my streaming audio is wonky. Temperatures run well above average this week, European guidance hinting at mid-40s one week from today. Any blows of arctic air will be of the glancing variety.. If the 2-week 500 mb wind forecast (GFS) comes close to verifying spring may come extra-early; long range models hinting at 40s, even a shot at 50F the first week of March. Now that we've lost most of our snow cover more of the sun's energy can go into heating up the air. More spasms of winter are likely, but at the rate we're going Minnesotans may be feverish sooner than they thought possible.. Yes, Minnesota is warming, especially during the winter months, in fact no other state is warming faster. Here's an excerpt from Climate Central : "...If you look at all four seasons across all of the Lower 48 states  for a grand total of 192 state-season combinations  there are only three instances of cooling. The Dakotas and Iowa are cooling ever so slightly in summer. Otherwise, theres only one direction temperatures have gone: up. Snow cover in particular plays a role in why winters are heating up so fast from Montana to North Carolina. Or more specifically, its a lack thereof. As temperatures rise, snow is decreasing  and in many cases being replaced by rain . Replacing light snow with dark ground means more of the suns energy is absorbed leading to a faster increase in warming...". Map above courtesy of WXshift So says NOAA CPC; Dr. Mark Seeley has more perspective in this week's installment of Minnesota WeatherTalk : "The NOAA Climate Prediction Center released new seasonal outlooks on Thursday of this week (Feb 18). The ensemble forecast of monthly anomalies favors a warmer than normal spring for Minnesota, March through May. The confidence or probability for this forecast is close to 70 percent. An early spring seems relatively assured. The outlook for precipitation anomalies over March through May is less certain for Minnesota with equal chances of above or below normal values for much of the state, and slightly favoring drier than normal conditions this spring in northern counties...": NOAA CFSv2 and WeatherBell.Less snow cover, less frost in the ground - the potential for (river) flooding now hinges on the risk of heavy rain and snow in March and April. Here's an excerpt from The Chaska Herald : "...The NWS report notes that the area had a wet November and December followed by a drier January and February, with a below-normal snow pack and frost depth. With spring flooding, the "main driver" will be heavy rain fall in areas with high soil moisture. In the Minnesota River valley, that means a "slightly above normal" chance for spring flooding. "Especially from the Redwood River downstream," notes the NWS report...". Eric Holthaus at Slate has perspective; here's an excerpt: "One of the strongest storms ever measured on Earth just made a direct landfall in the South Pacific. Cyclone Winston made landfall on Fijis main island, Viti Levu, late Saturday local time. The Fiji Meteorological Service estimated wind gusts near Winstons center at around 200 mph strong enough for Winston to be considered the strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the Southern Hemisphere . Just prior to landfall, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii estimated Winstons sustained winds at around 185 mph, based on satellite..."above: "Here's an excerpt of an interesting weather phenomenon at Forbes , courtesy of Dr. Marshall Shepherd: "Did you hear about the 148 mph record wind gust at Monarch Pass in Colorado this week? The Monarch Pass wind record is likely associated with a combination of strong winds, convective activity and the unique aerodynamics of the mountainside. At this link NOAA discusses the background on this event and the validity of the measurement . While this wind extreme somewhat associated with convection. Another interesting wind event was playing out in Chicago, and it is an opportunity to discuss the really fascinating Venturi Effect...". The pendulum may be about to swing in the opposite direction. Here's an excerpt from KQED Science : "Federal climate scientists say the near-record El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean have peaked and are slowly waning. Forecasters now say conditions are likely to flip to their opposite phase, known as La Nina by late summer or early fall, which could set the stage for another drier-than-normal winter and prolonged drought in California. We are reasonably confident that there will be a La Nina, says Huug van den Dool, seasonal forecaster at NOAAs Climate Prediction Center, but we plead ignorance as to whether this is going to be a small, moderate, or strong La Nina... (Image above: NOAA NCEP ).. Here's an excerpt from The Guardian : "...Severe droughts and floods triggered by one of the strongest El Nino weather events ever recorded have left nearly 100 million people in southern Africa , Asia and Latin America facing food and water shortages and vulnerable to diseases including Zika, UN bodies, international aid agencies and governments have said. New figures from the UNs World Food Programme say 40 million people in rural areas and 9 million in urban centres who live in the drought-affected parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland will need food assistance in the next year..."above: "A farmer surveys her maize fields in Dowa, near the Malawi capital of Lilongwe, earlier this month. The country is experiencing its first maize shortage in a decade, causing prices to soar." Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters.The New York Times has a terrific interactive page that allows you to find out; here's an excerpt: "..". As much as 10-13F warmer than average. Probably just another cosmic coincidence. Here's an excerpt from Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis : "...January 2016 was a remarkably warm month. Air temperatures at the 925 hPa level were more than 6 degrees Celsius (13 degrees Fahrenheit) above average across most of the Arctic Ocean. These unusually high air temperatures are likely related to the behavior of the AO. While the AO was in a positive phase for most of the autumn and early winter, it turned strongly negative beginning in January. By mid-January, the index reached nearly -5 sigma or five standard deviations below average. The AO then shifted back to positive during the last week of January. (See the graph at the NOAA Climate Prediction Web site .)...": "The graph above shows Arctic sea ice extent as of February 3, 2016, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years. 2015 to 2016 is shown in blue, 2014 to 2015 in green, 2013 to 2014 in orange, 2012 to 2011 in brown, and 2011 to 2012 in purple. The 1981 to 2010 average is in dark gray. The gray area around the average line shows the two standard deviation range of the data. Sea Ice Index data." Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center.. Some staggering statistics from The Washington Post ; we've gone from second-hand smoke to second-hand CO2; here's an excerpt: "About 5.5 million people around the world die prematurely every year from breathing polluted air, and the majority of those deaths are occurring in China and India, where factories and coal-fired power plants are fueling economic growth, according to a report released Friday. The authors said the findings show that disease from air and household pollution ranks as the number two cause of death worldwide. It comes in right behind smoking, which the World Health Organization says kills 6 million people annually...". Water, not oil or natural gas, will be the most precious natural resource of the 21st century. Here's an excerpt at The Guardian : "At least two-thirds of the global population, over 4 billion people, live with severe water scarcity for at least one month every year, according to a major new analysis. The revelation shows water shortages, one of the most dangerous challenges the world faces, is far worse previously than thought. The new research also reveals that 500m people live in places where water consumption is double the amount replenished by rain for the entire year, leaving them extremely vulnerable as underground aquifers run down...". Rising sea level? No problem - if your home floats. Here's an excerpt from a story at Business Insider : "Dry land might be the go-to spot to build a home, but that doesn't mean it's the only option. From the stilt-supported shacks in Lagos, Nigeria, to the luxurious underwater palaces bobbing in Dubai, floating homes are the answer when solid ground is out of the question. Many use a combination of concrete and styrofoam to prevent sinking but also to stay safely in place when water levels rise. Here are some of the most mind-blowing..."above:Yes, it would solve a global energy challenge and help us decarbonize much faster. Is it close, a panacea or technological inevitability? Here's an excerpf from How We Get To Next at Medium: "...I think there are three options. One is solar  theyve made marvelous progress with solar, and solar would work if it comes down in cost and we solve the energy storage problem. The second technology that could do it would be advanced forms of fission, fast breeder reactors, etc., but those come with a new set of risks and concerns that at the moment we dont want to address. And the third technology that can do it and provide millions of years of sustainable, carbon-free, safe energy is fusion. Of the three, fusion is probably the most attractive, in that fusion doesnt take up much space, its safe, it doesnt produce any waste that is significant, and weve got tens of millions of years of the simplest of fusion reactions...": "Interior of the nuclear fusion reactor JET." Photo: EFDA. . Here's an excerpt from Forbes : "...Set aside all the motivations with climate change, oil dependenceits just a better way to do a car. Its simple. Electric vehicle sales have been tepid and may remain tepid in the short term. Internal combustion engines will continue to dominate until 2025, Burns predicted, as the nations automotive fleet slowly turns over. Its just arithmetic. But as automakers strive to meet the 2025 fuel economy standard54.5 miles per gallonthey will come to realize that reengineering traditional vehicles is more expensive and difficult than adopting an electric drive train that emits no carbon..." The Wall Street Journal reports; here's the intro: "One of the few assets performing worse than oil is a set of products used to bet on it. The $3.86 billion United States Oil Fund LP, an exchange-traded fund that goes by the ticker USO, is down 22% so far this year, while the $575 million iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index exchange-traded note, known as OIL, is down 26% in that period. In comparison, U.S. crude-oil futures for March delivery settled at $29.64 a barrel on Friday, down 20% this year...". Why are Bezos, Musk and Branson so obsessed with The Great Beyond? WIRED has a revealing story; here's the intro: "Space. Its a funny thing. Kubrick knew that. Because if you start a story with apes, how can it not be funny? Then again, doesnt everything thats about humans start with apes? Heres the funny thing about space: Ask people what they think about it and youll get every kind of answer. We should colonize Mars! We should stay home! We should look for life! Space, really, is a giant Rorschach. Into it we send rockets and satellites and space stations. But more than that, we send beliefs. About what is meaningful. About what is possible. About what is inescapable...". Ken Doctor has a long and intriguing essay at NiemanLab about the struggle to develop new platforms and business models to support a digital-first strategy; here's an excerpt: "...Theres no easily assembled formula yet, but the parts of it have become clearer over the past several years. It is those national/global players that have begun to master new disciplines in this new age of AMP Arc and analytics . Why? Certainly, its easier for them to take advantage of digitals natural opportunities for scale. They also increasingly put data science (which leads to audience knowledge and development) at or near the centers of their business. That leads them to intelligent experimentation with the platforms of the moment (Facebook, Apple, Google, Snapchat) while local media hardly play ( As giant platforms rise, local news is getting crushed )...". 5G is coming. Can you hear me now? Here's an excerpt of what we might expect from The Economist : "...The advent of 5G is likely to bring another splurge of investment, just as orders for 4G equipment are peaking. The goal is to be able to offer users no less than the perception of infinite capacity, says Rahim Tafazolli, director of the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey. Rare will be the device that is not wirelessly connected, from self-driving cars and drones to the sensors, industrial machines and household appliances that together constitute the internet of things (IoT)...". Ideology trumps cognition, reasoning and basic math? I have to admit I'm shocked. Here's an excert from Salon : "...Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on peoples ability to think clearly. His conclusion, in Mooneys words: partisanship can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs. In other words, say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions...". Here's an excerpt of an interesting and vaguely terrifying tale at The Washington Post : "...The scariest moment on the trail was not, as many people often guess, bear-related. Rather, it was the weather. Team Pie, with the temporary addition of a real-life friend named Gary, was headed over Kinsman Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The August weather was stunning  just a bit chilly, bright with sunshine. The weather report had said that there was a chance of rain later..."above: "A restaurant in France is taking the art of fine dining to the next level. Not with fine food but with a projection system that keeps you entertained and enthused while you're waiting for the food to arrive. Click on the YouTube link for one of the more amazing videos you'll ever see.: Cooler, few flurries. Winds: NW 8-13. High: 36: Patchy clouds. Low: 24: Mostly cloudy, above average temperatures. Winds: S 8-13. High: 35: Overcast, light mix possible. Wake-up: 27. High: 37: Partly sunny, seasonably cool. Wake-up: 24. High: 34: Colder wind, few flakes in the air. Winds: NW 15-25. Wake-up: 27. High: 31: More clouds than sun, brisk. Winds: W 8-13. Wake-up: 19. High: near 30: Some sun, another taste of March. Winds: NW 8-13. Wake-up: 28. High: 41Symptoms of El Nino, and background warming which continues to accelerate. Here's an excerpt from Newsweek : "The global temperature anomaly for January 2016 was 1.13 Celsius. That makes it the hottest January on record (the previous record was 0.95 C in 2007). But theres more: 1.13 is the largest anomaly for any month since records began in 1880. There have only been monthly anomalies greater than 1C three times before in recorded history, and those three were all from last year. The farther back in the past you go, the lower the anomalies are on average. Yes, the world is getting hotter..."This is more than El Nino. El Nino is standing on your tip-toes at the top of a flight of steps. Many are forgetting about the flight of stairs we're going up. Here's an excerpt at Slate : "It would be hard to top 2015a year unlike any other in human history but 2016 seems to be giving it a shot. According to the latest data from NASA , issued over the weekend, January was the planet's most unusually warm month since we started measuring temperature in 1880. No other month in the preceding 1,633 months has deviated this far from what was once considered normal. Data independently produced by Japans Meteorological Agency confirmed that last month was the hottest January on record globally. Last month broke the all-time January record by the widest margin of any month on record , a full one-third of a degree ahead of last years record pace. That means the planet is already on track for an unprecedented third straight year of record-setting temperatures..."above: "January warmth was extraordinary, as documented at Bloomberg Business : "...The El Nino weather pattern that started last year produced some of the hottest temperatures ever witnessed across great swaths of the equatorial Pacific. By some measures , this may now be considered the most extreme El Nino on record. It has triggered powerful typhoons, spoiled harvests in Africa, and contributed to vast fires in Indonesia...". Here's the intro to a story at The Miami Herald : "Florida politicians have a duty to address the perils of climate change even if they dont believe humans are hastening its grave consequences, Pope Francis chief advisor on climate change said Friday. In an interview with the Herald before addressing a conference on climate, nature and society at St. Thomas University law school, Cardinal Peter Turkson said, Anybody running for public office who sees the life of the people affected by climate-related disasters needs to act. That, he said, includes the states two Republican presidential contenders who remain skeptical of the science tying climate change to increased carbon emissions..." (File photo of Miami: Wikipedia).. People have already been dislocated from coastal sections of Alaska, now it's showing up in Louisiana. Next up, Florida? Here's an excerpt from Atlas Obscura : "A slow-motion disaster is unfolding on the Isle de Jean Charles, deep in the Louisiana bayou, where a group of residents just received $48 million in federal funding to relocate. These are the first official climate refugees in the lower 48 states. The Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians have lived in southern Louisiana for centuries, and, since 1880, a band of them inhabited the Isle. But several factors, including climate change, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and a series of destructive hurricanes have meant that the Isle de Jean Charles has lost 98 percent of its land since 1955 ..."above: "


Under the patronage of

Blessed John Henry

Cardinal Newman

"What is the first business of philosophy? To part with self-conceit. ...It is impossible for anyone to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows." -- Epictetus (c. 100 A.D.)
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.
Take a closer look into the eye of a patient, and optometrists can see all kinds of things. Much more than just declining or 20/20 vision.

They can also spot signs of other heath issues that might not otherwise be detected, according to Julie Jochum, optometrist at Optical Gallery in north Beatrice.

We are also able to look for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and occasionally can find cancer that can be in other parts of the body, Jochum said.

Jochum is one of two optometrists at the Optical Gallery, which employs a total of four workers.

Optical Gallery offers complete eye coverage, including exams for glasses and contact lens fittings, while also detecting ocular diseases, such as glaucoma.

Jochum said eye exams are given to patients of all ages, though its recommended kids get their first exam at 3 years old.

For the most part, she said working with children is issue-free.

Some of the kids are a little bit more concerned, she said. Theyve maybe been to their family practice doctor and things were a little scary. A lot of its just reassuring them that we try to make it fun. We look at pictures and we can use different instruments with lights to hold their interests.

Beyond age 3, eye exams are recommended annually. Jochum said blurred vision, headaches, eye strain, double vision, loss of vision, flashes or floaters could indicate an issue and should be disclosed to an optometrist.

She added the most common diagnosis remains near- or far-sightedness, while those over 45 can see the need for bifocals or reading glasses.

Jochum has been an optometrist in Nebraska for six years and the last three at the Beatrice office.

A Beatrice native, she said her interest in the eye dates back to her middle school days.

I grew up here in Beatrice and I always enjoyed science, she said. We dissected a cows eye in seventh grade, and the eye has just always fascinated me. It can show so many other things going on in the body and just makes such a big difference for peoples daily lives if they can see correctly.

In her time as an optometrist, Jochum said technology has advanced, and modern retinal cameras allow for earlier problem detection.

Were able to take digital pictures without using any eye drops to dilate the eye, she explained. Were able to have those on the computer and refer to them each year and refer to any changes. Thats especially useful in ocular disease, like glaucoma.

Above all else, Jochum said the Optical Gallery focuses on providing patients with a personalized experience.

Having a small staff, we really get to know the patients and families and so when were working with them on finding the right pair of glasses or contacts, she said, I feel like were able to do that well.
5000 Booths Expected At Intl Internet of Things and Smart China Exhibition

Shenzhen, China  Since its establishment in 2009, Shenzhen International Internet of Things and Smart China Exhibition ( IoTE China ) has witnessed the evolution of Chinas and the worlds IoT/RFID industry. The show makes it a vital link in Chinas complete IoT/RFID supply chain, as well as a professional platform for companies from all over the world to release new products and technologies.

Registration for the 2016 IoTE China is now open! The organizer adds a new exhibiting hall this year due to the number of exhibitors is soaring this year. Confirmed exhibitors include Chinas major IoT/RFID companies: Huawei,Qihoo360, Tongfang Microelectronics, CLS, Broadlink, Invengo, Hyan Microelectronics, etc, as well as early overseas registrations like Impinj, Alien, NXP, Zebra, UPM, Omni-ID,Smartec, etc. The combined scale of the show is expected to exceed 5000 booths to make it the worlds largest and most comprehensive IoT/RFID event.

View the exhibitor list: http://eng.iotexpo.com.cn/IOTCoList.aspx?page=1

2016 Shenzhen International Internet of Things and Smart China Exhibition which will be held on Aug 18-20,2016, at Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, Hall 2,3,4. 30,000sqm exhibiting floor makes it the world largest and most comprehensive IoT/RFID/Smart card event.

This year, Hall2 will focus on the latest technologies and products of RFID, and its applications in various industries, such as factory automation, retail, warehousing, logistics, security, transportation, healthcare, electricity, agriculture, ect. Hall 3 will feature all sorts of smart devices, such as wearables, smart hardware, smart medical system, NFC Hall 4 will feature smart home, all sorts of devices involved with personal smart living and future.

Along with three-day exhibition, IoTE China will also conduct a series of conference with all topics related to the development and application of Internet of Things and RFID. Companies interested in sponsoring the conferences can register online http://eng.iotexpo.com.cn/IOTConferenceApply.aspx.

Company representatives interested in attending 2016 IoT and Smart China can register online http://eng.iotexpo.com.cn/IOTCApply.aspx.



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Vietnam Veterans of America Thank Jones

News Release:



Over the past three years, Jones has cosponsored more bills to help veterans than any member of Congress



Washington, D.C. This week the Vietnam Veterans of America thanked Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) for cosponsoring H.R. 1769 - the Toxic Exposure Research Act. The bill would support research on the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions faced by descendants of veterans who were exposed to toxins during their military service. These include Agent Orange in Vietnam, Gulf War neurotoxins, Iraq and Afghanistan chemical weapons and burn pits as well as other chemicals and toxins. It would establish a national center at a VA medical facility to study and treat the effects of toxic exposure, as well as declassify documents about incidents where service members were exposed to toxic substances since the 1960's. Those who have been exposed to toxic substances often see the effects of that exposure in their children and grandchildren, usually through birth defects or higher rates of cancer than the general population.



"The government owes veterans the truth about the toxins they might have been exposed to, and what effect that exposure might have on their children and grandchildren," said Congressman Jones. "It's our duty to care for those have served our great nation by putting their lives on the line. I am honored to do all I can to help those who've worn the uniform."



In a letter to Congressman Jones sent this week, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America, John Rowan said: "On behalf of our National Board of Directors, our membership and their families, I would like to thank you for cosponsoring H.R. 1769."



Last Congress, Congressman Jones cosponsored a career record 86 bills to help veterans by providing better access to more transparent healthcare, access to educational opportunities, affordable housing, and job opportunities. In fact, over the past three years, Congressman Jones has cosponsored more bills to help veterans than any member of Congress.



Contact: Maria Jeffrey

Communications Director



Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3)



2333 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515



Maria.Jeffrey@mail.house.gov  (202) 225-3415


Bobby Tony's Poll - From the pages of the universal policy of today's Socialist /Democrat party: Should the United States government provide free post high school education and free health care as if it was every American's right? 9.52% Yes, The government should provide free college education and healthcare for all citizens, and I trust the Government to take as much of my money as needed. 85.71% No, I am responsible for my own education and health care but I think the system could be improved with a private sector solution and charity organizations. 4.76% This is an unfair poll that requires me to make a decision. 21 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!

This election is too important to be left to the political class.I am beginning to pick up a trend here. I have noticed the terminology of this election is a carefully worded legalistic approach. So far no one has quit the campaign. They have merelytheir campaign. I assume that means that they can still accept donations and spend money.With that in mind, I announce that I have suspended smoking (34 years), suspended drinking alcohol (4 years), suspended working (15 years), and so far quit nothing (70 years) which should prove that I am not a quitter.With all the donation emails I have been getting from the candidates, I think that I am right in the middle of the road. Please consider this desperate plea for funds to continue my campaign to continue to campaign. With your support,, I can and willin my bank account. I will not wander, I will not waiver, I will not quit. I am here until the end, anxiously awaiting your support and attention, as well as your dollars.With you by my side, I know thatin this quest to improve my standard of living. I have set a goal of $200,000 to defray the cost of my upcoming trip to Hawaii to address Waikiki, Diamond Head, and Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho's memorial society. While in Hawaii, I intend to visit Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children and personally search for the records of President Barrack H. Obama's birth records. I will not be satisfied until I have personally investigated this burning question.As the proud son of immigrants (aren't we all), I will not rest until I can find the secret to the American Dream. That will require me to visit my mother's mother's homeland in Italy to find the foundation of their quest for a better life in America. I will also make a stop in Ireland to research my dad's heritage. That may require a longer stay as his ancestors immigrated to the Colonies in 1700's.Please open up your heart and pocket books as I finish this quest in your name because American is still the best hope for the world and I for one will not rest until I have looked under every stone and crevice in search of the American Dream.Please rush your donation to me no later than midnight tonight, or tomorrow or any other day. Togetherin my bank account. I know that I can count on your support,Thank you for your support. I will remember all the little people who helped me in this campaign.
Chancellor Ballard accepts award for ECU's community engagement

Nido Qubein, High Point University president, presents the Leo M. Lambert Engaged Leader Award to ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard.

Support of the Lucille Gorham Intergenerational Community Center, a campus-community partnership started in 2007 to support children and families in west Greenville, and nationally recognized in 2012 with the C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award;

Development of a new School of Dental Medicine and its eight Community Service Learning Centers bringing care to rural, underserved communities across the state;

And a university partnership with the Wounded Warrior Project to assist soldiers returning to civilian life.



Watch video coverage of the Leo M. Lambert Engaged Leader Award presentation and Chancellor Ballard's reflections on the importance of community engagement.



Chancellor Steve Ballard accepts the Leo M. Lambert Engaged Leader Award from the North Carolina Campus Compact at its 16th annual conference held at High Point University. (Photos by Jay Clark)

Universities play a leading role in changing communities, and East Carolina University has been recognized as a leader among North Carolina institutions.Chancellor Steve Ballard today received the Leo M. Lambert Engaged Leader Award from the North Carolina Campus Compact at its 16th annual conference held at High Point University.The award recognizes North Carolina chancellors or presidents who are committed to meaningful engagement in their communities, highlighting the role leaders play in setting priorities at their institutions.Ballard said after the ceremony.Ballard arrived at ECU in 2004,said Nido Qubein, president of High Point University and chair of the NC Campus Compact Executive Board. ECU has become an economic engine in the region and has been nationally recognized for its community engagement efforts, Qubein said as he introduced Ballard.The University of North Carolina system's longest-serving chancellor, Ballard was recognized for his efforts to make ECU known as a leadership university, focusing on student success, service to the state and regional transformation in eastern North Carolina.During his tenure, community engagement accomplishments on campus include:The chancellor has also created programs to prepare engaged faculty, staff and students. He established leadership academies to provide intensive leadership training for faculty, staff and students, and he started the Engaged Outreach Scholars Academy to support faculty and students who work with community partners on mutually beneficial research projects. To date, hundreds of faculty, staff, and students have participated in these programs.On average, 45 percent of North Carolina students are active in civic and community engagement, well above the national average of 39 percent, according to Leslie Garvin, executive director of the compact.Garvin said.The compact's conference, Pathways to Achieving Civic Engagement, offers college and university faculty, administrators and community partners a place to share research, model programs and best practices related to service-learning, civic engagement and community partnerships.North Carolina Campus Compact is a collaborative network of colleges and universities with a shared commitment to educating engaged citizens and strengthening communities. Presidents and chancellors from more than 48 public, private and community colleges and universities have joined since the Compact was founded in 2002 at Elon University. ECU joined as a charter member the same year.After the awards ceremony, Ballard joined other higher education leaders at a special Presidents Forum. The forum convened about 50 higher education leaders, including 30 college presidents and chancellors, to discuss issues related to higher education's role in strengthening civic learning, economic development and service. Ballard joined Wake Technical Community College President Stephen Scott and Warren Wilson College President Steven Solnick as a featured presenter during the session.
LAKE GEORGE  The village will continue its free Fridays at the Lake concerts this year in Shepard Park.

The series, which provides free lakeside live music in the style of Albanys Thursday night Alive at Five summer series, started last year in an effort to draw more visitors to the village on Fridays.

This year the series will include nine Fridays  from June 24 to Sept. 2. In its inaugural season, it started later in July.

The concerts, provided in a family- and dog-friendly environment, were lauded by Mayor Robert Blais as our most successful new event in a news release.

The concerts included an opening act at 4 p.m. and a headliner at 6 p.m. every Friday in the village outdoor amphitheater.

The series also featured the first wine and beer service in Shepard Park, hosted by rotating local bars or restaurants each week. Officials werent sure how that would go over, but Blais said it went well.

We were able to secure the area with our peace officers so people couldnt bring coolers or beer into and out of the area. There were no problems, no arrests, no violations  nothing but a tremendous number of compliments and people sending us emails and encouraging us to continue the event, Blais said.

He said the beer and wine tent will return and this year theyll have a caterer serving light food. The bounce house will return again and they will add a face painter and air brush artist, he said.

He said the village found several people stayed overnight after the concert and many had weekend plans in Lake George and decided to come up a day early.

The event also helped groups with fundraisers, such as the Lake George Skate Park Committee, which raised about $2,000, selling non-alcoholic beverages, toward the second phase of the skate park at Charles R. Wood Park. The first phase of the skate plaza was completed and opened in the fall.

Blais said theyll return and this year Adirondack Folk School in Lake Luzerne will also raise money at the event.

Overall, it was a very successful event that brought a lot of people to the village in the afternoons, Blais said. We didnt make any money, nor did we cover our costs.

The village received a percentage of revenue from vendors, which covered about half the total costs, Blais said.

Even though it didnt generate direct revenue for the village from that arrangement, Blais said the main goal is to get visitors to Lake George a day early.

Were not doing it to make money. Were doing it to put a really good event in the park that people will enjoy, and hopefully it will get them to come here a day early, Blais said.

The joint village and town occupancy tax committee awarded the event $5,000 for this year.

The booking is done by WillJam Productions, which is Albanys Alive at Five booker, and Improv Records, according to a news release from the village.

Along with the Lake George Arts Project Wednesday band series, Blais said in a news release, they brought first-class, top-notch music to Lake George village all summer long.
Every Wednesday morning at 10:30, the editorial board for The Post-Star huddles in the publishers office to solve the worlds problems.

That is the goal, although we probably concentrate more on our own little corner of the world than anywhere else.

Most newspapers have an editorial board. Each implements it in a different way. I like to think of our editorial board as the conscience of the community. The goal is to review the pressing issues in our world, point out the problems were facing and suggest solutions.

One of the ways that our editorial board is unique is that we have a citizen representative. Weve been doing that for about 10 years, and it has been a great experience for our readers and other members of the board.

Once a year, we reach out to the community  through this column  and ask for volunteers to serve on the editorial board.

We usually get about a dozen volunteers from which we choose three to serve a four-month term each. The first will start in the middle of March.

The editorial board currently consists of Publisher Terry Coomes, Controller/Operations Director Brian Corcoran, Project Editor Will Doolittle, me and the citizen representative.

To serve, you have to be available to meet once a week at the newspaper for about a half-hour and have enough flexibility in your schedule to review editorials during the afternoon before they go to publication. We do that by email.

We are looking for candidates who are interested in their community and read the newspaper religiously.

Each Wednesday, we meet and talk about local issues. We almost always focus on local and state issues. While we occasionally weigh in on national issues, that is not our primary focus.

From that meeting, we will come up with anywhere from two to seven editorials that we write each week. We average four or five most weeks.

Once the editorial is written, we email it to the board members for review. Each member has the opportunity to suggest changes before it is published.

The editorial board occasionally meets with members of the community, government officials and political candidates. The citizen representative is encouraged to attend and ask questions. Each citizen representative is a full-fledged voting member of our editorial board.

In recent weeks, we have met with Kevin Geraghty, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors; congressional candidate Mike Derrick; Bob Henke, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors; and the coalition that is now running the Glens Falls Civic Center.

Our busiest time for meetings is during election season when we interview candidates for the local races and make endorsements.

If you are interested in serving on the editorial board, I urge you to send me a short 100-word introduction that tells me about yourself and why you want to serve on the editorial board. Send it to me at tingley@poststar.com.

From that initial introduction, the editorial board will invite four to six people in to meet and chat before choosing the final three members. Each person will serve a four-month term.

What has always surprised me is how much the editorial board agrees once we have talked out the issue. It has also been gratifying to hear that most of our members have a positive experience and come away feeling good about how their hometown newspaper does its work.

We hope to hear from you soon.
Regularly ahead of the curve, the Review has opposed federal drug policy for nearly 50 years, was a lonely media voice against the massive freeways planned for Washington, was an early advocate of bikeways and light rail, and helped spur the creation of the DC Statehood Party and the national Green Party,

In November 1990 it devoted an entire issue to the ecologically sound city and how to develop it. The article was republished widely.

Even before Clinton's nomination we exposed Arkansas political scandals that would later become major issues. .

We reported on NSA monitoring of U.S. phone calls in the 1990s, years before it became a major media story.

In 2003 editor Sam Smith wrote an article for Harper's comprised entirely of falsehoods about Iraq by Bush administration officials.

The Review started a web edition in 1995 when there were only 27,000 web sites worldwide. Today there are over 170 million active sites.

In 1987 we ran an article on AIDS. It was the first year that more than 1,000 men died of the disease.

In the 1980s, Thomas S Martin predicted in the Review that "Yugoslavia will eventually break up" and that "a challenge to the centralized soviet state" would occur as a result of devolutionary trends. Both happened.

In the 1970s we published a first person account of a then illegal abortion.

In 1971 we published our first article in support of single payer universal health care

In 1970, we ran a two part series on gay liberation.

i

n 1965 we called for the end of the draft.

In the 1960s we proposed community policing
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.''    
According to him, Pastor Mensah Otabils utterances about the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the years are indicative that he is anti-NDC, anti-Mahama, and anti-anything which is not NPP.

Pastor Otabil has come under attack from some members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) after he asked Ghanaians to demand better things from government.

Some NDC members have described him as a threat to national security and have also accused him of doing the bidding of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold, Mr. Pratt Jnr stated that over the years, it has been obvious that over the past so many years, Mensah Otabil has deliberately taken a political stance.

He remarked that the submissions of Pastor Otabil are not different from what Mike Ocquaye Jnr says and therefore, we all have a responsibility to examine what these so called men of God say.

All of them are self-acclaimed! They all claim that they are men of God; a claim which all of us can make. My goodness! We should be careful.

Mr. Pratt Jnr said it is the duty of governments to provide potable water, improve access to education and improve national infrastructure and thus challenged Mensah Otabil to enumerate things the government should do for the people of Ghana if what they have already done are minimal.

What are those things? Mensah Otabil should tell us! he fumed.
Nana Akufo-Addo is urging Ghanaians not to despair in the face of hardships and difficulties, assuring that there is hope for a brighter Ghana. What we need is that, with the help of the Almighty, our nation remains stable, united and at peace.

The NPP flagbearer made this known when he worshipped at the St. Cyprians Anglican Church, the Grace Baptist Church, and the Calvary Charismatic Church, all in Kumasi, on Sunday February 21, 2016.

At the Grace Baptist Church, Nana Akufo-Addo explained that he was in Kumasi, on Saturday, February 20, for the funeral of the late wife of Mr. Antwi Adjei, the Director of Protocol of the NPP, and a veteran activist of the party. It being Sunday, he, therefore, decided to fellowship with several Christian communities in Kumasi.

He congratulated Rev. Dr. Osei-Wusu, who preached the sermon at the Grace Baptist Church, Amakom, Kumasi, for his inspiring and well-delivered sermon.

According to Nana Akufo-Addo, who was given the opportunity to address the congregation by the head pastor of the Church, Rev. Robert Asante, the heart of Rev. Dr. Osei-Wusus sermon is mirrored by the words of Jesus Christ as contained in Matthew 7:21 of the Holy Bible, which states that Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, except he who does the will of my Father which is in heaven.

What he is saying is that it is not the screaming, it is not the shouting. It is the faith and being obedient to His word. That is what truly binds all of us as Christians, and I am happy I was in church when Rev. Dr. Osei-Wusu preached this word, he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo urged the head pastor of the Church to document Rev. Dr. Osei-Wusus sermon and send it round the country, as he spoke to the heart of the Christian faith.

Difficult year for Ghana

Describing 2016 as a difficult year for us in Ghana, which will lead to the choosing of a new government for the people, Nana Akufo-Addo asked for prayers for Ghana, for the NPP, and for himself.

We pray that, in this difficult year, summed up by insecurity, fear, inexplicable deaths, joblessness, and economic hardships for our people, the Lord protects us, protects Ghana, and ensures that the peace and security of our nation remain intact, even though we are going to have an election. (We pray) that the election, itself, will be conducted in a satisfactory manner whose outcome will bring us together, and not tear us apart, he asked.

Nana Akufo-Addo also asked for prayers for the NPP, so that the Lord extends His hands over us, gives us fellowship and solidarity, and, at the end of the day, give us victory in the 2016 election, so we can give Ghana the good governance she deserves to the glory of the Almighty, and to the benefit of the Ghanaian people.

And for your servant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, pray that God gives me strength, courage, wisdom and a good heart so I can be the servant-leader the people of Ghana so ardently require.

Nana Akufo-Addo, earlier on Sunday, went to his traditional place of worship, the St. Cyprians Anglican Church, at Fante Newtown, Kumasi, where the congregation also prayed for Gods strength and wisdom for the NPP leader in the run-up to the November elections.

The NPP flagbearer further attended the morning service at the Calvary Charismatic Church, at Ayigya, where the Founder and Senior Pastor of the Church, Pastor Ransford Obeng, in his sermon, bemoaned the emergence of election year Christians, who plague the people with suffering once they secure power.

He stressed that the things you do to the people of Ghana when you are in power will prove whether you are a Christian or not.

Nana Akufo-Addo, in his remarks to the congregation, thanked Pastor Obeng for the opportunity to interact with the congregation, and reiterated, to the amusement of the congregation, that I am not an election year Christian, but a well-established Christian who worships regularly at the Ridge Church in Accra, and, if I find myself in Kumasi, at the St. Cyprians Anglican Church.
Alhaji Sulemana was addressing government officials and district chief executives of the municipal and district assemblies, district coordinating directors and a cross section of the public at a regional dialogue on National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) , in Wa.

The forum was to introduce the NACAP to all stakeholders involved in Local Governance in the region, including the Media, and to provide a platform to discuss the Presidents directives on the implementation of NACAP to help achieve a corruption free society.

Alhaji Sulemana said there was so much public concern about corruption in Ghana and how it affected total development of the Ghana, noting: Whether it is a perception or reality, we need to sit up and make it unattractive.

He said Ghanaians had come to agree that corruption was a cancer that needed to be eradicated to pave way for the better use of national resources to the benefit of the people.

The negative effects of corruption had long been recognised and several nations were tackling the menace with all the seriousness it deserved and Ghana was no exception, he said.

The Regional Minister said governments over the years had strengthened and continued to strengthen the legislative framework, undertaken various public sector reforms and other strategies to fight corruption.

That is why, he said, Parliament unanimously adopted the 10-year NACAP as a non-partisan document to become a blueprint for fighting corruption.

It contains specified and concrete actions to deal with corruption in a more holistic and coordinated manner.

Alhaji Sulemana suggested that preventive measures, public education and awareness creation programmes with the enforcement of laws be utilised towards the fight against corrupt practices.

Those approaches, he noted, would ensure that systems were put in place to seal the loopholes that made corruption attractive and tolerable.

Alhaji Sulemana urged faith-based organisations, civil society organisations and the media to publicly speak against corruption and condemn it outright to curb the menace.

Not only should we name and shame all those who are found to be corrupt in society but we should also make them face the full rigours of the law.

Mr. Daniel Batidam, an Adviser on Governance , at the Office of the President, said if Ghana was to succeed in the fight against be corruption, all must be involved, while the targets should not be politicians and political appointees alone.

Some people think that corruption is centralised in Ghana and it is only the heads who are corrupt , forgetting that there are others who play a role in promoting corrupt practices other than the heads, he explained.

Mr. Batidam said it was a backward approach to start chasing political opponents for corrupt actions, saying that that exposing corrupt practices irrespective of who the offenders were was the best way for fighting corruption.

The Governance Adviser said President John Dramani Mahama had vowed that he would not protect any appointee found to be involved corruption, especially in this year, which was an election year.
Last week, Parliament published a notice soliciting for input for the draft legislation.

The bill is to enact legislation for the lawful interception of postal packets and telecommunication messages for the purpose of fighting crime and suppressing organised crime.

If Parliament passes the bill, it will empower Ghanas security agencies to intercept messages related to or linked to money laundering, terrorism, narcotic trafficking, identity theft and generally for the protection of national security.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Accra-based Citi FM, Mr. Cudjoe stated that no civilized nation should actually be allowed to even think about this. This is like the communist era. This is not even fine spying.

He was of the view that such sensitive matters cannot be discussed within a week and expressed satisfaction that the committee of Parliament which is tasked to study the bill has asked for an extension.

The IMANI boss however, remarked that the essence of security and the essence of doing some of these things must be predicated on the basis of the economy of the wherewithal of the people.

The seeds for disruption and the seeds for discontent blossom when there is economic inequality. If it reaches certain levels that people will find it difficult or when people find it very easy to accept dangerous theology, dangerous propaganda in order to go and cause mayhem so for me that is where my worry is.

He added that if national security is determined to listen in on peoples conversations, it should rather be more interested in the economic security of the individual because that is what ultimately would lead to seeds of discontent.

In a related development, the editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kwaku Baako in a panel discussion on Accra-based Joy FM said: Essentially, we have allowed a situation where there is already a legal regimewhat is means is that we are already at risk. Substantively, we are already at risk.
"The successful elections in some African countries last year have sent a clear message to the world that Africa is ready and forging ahead in democratic dispensation, he said.

President Mahama, who was addressing members of the Diplomatic Corps as part of his Annual Get-Together with them, said the Government was committed to maintaining the peace that had united Ghanaians over the years.

The programme brought together Diplomats, Government officials and representatives of international organisations, who had the opportunity to interact with the President, the Vice President, the First Lady and some Ministers of State.

President Mahama said as an icon of democracy and successful elections, Ghana would continue to blaze the political trail by ensuring that only the best and positive political practices were implemented to further deepen its democratic credentials.

On good neighborliness on the continent, President Mahama called for unity among all African countries to solve their common challenges without attracting international interventions.

He said West Africa demonstrated maximum unity during the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, explaining that it would be expedient to exhibit the same level of unity and cooperation to tackle other nagging issues on the continent.

Apart from diseases, which he said had no borders, President Mahama appealed to African countries to brace up against the insurgent terrorists attacks in the world.

He said:"Ghana considers an attack on one as an attack on all ...and this is the time for the world to unite against terrorists attacks."

President Mahama said the recent attacks in France, Mali, Kenya, Burkina Faso and the activities of the Boko Haram in Nigeria, were clear signs of insecurity, therefore, every country had to brace up against their practices.

On economic cooperation in the West African Sub-region, President Mahama indicated the readiness of Ghana to ensure that the implementation of common tariffs were successful.

He said Ghana would fast track the movement of people and goods at its borders with her neighbours as part of the steps to enhance integration and cooperation in the region.

Mrs Pavilin Tendai Musoka, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, commended Ghana for spearheading the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease in the recent outbreak when President Mahama was the chairman of Economic Community for West African States.

"Ghana played a significant role in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa... and the appointment of President Mahama as the co-Chair of the Sustainable Development Goals cannot go without recognition," she said.

Mrs Musoka, who is also the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Ghana, commended other African countries for successfully organising their general election last year.
The company on Thursday said its profit for 2015 fell by 20% due to poor performance in Nigeria.

Nigeria accounts for about 38% of MTN's revenue.

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) imposed a fine of $5.2 billion on MTN last year for missing a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards, citing security concerns.

However, the fine was reduced by 25% following weeks of lobbying.

READ MORE

But MTN said the profit warning did not include the penalty.

There remains some uncertainty as to the final amount of the Nigerian fine, should an out of court settlement be reached, the company said

MTN is currently in talks with the NCC to lift the fine.

MTN was here last week to discuss these sanctions and how they could be bridged, NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo said. MTN has agreed to comply and we have some people in the field now to make sure that MTN is indeed doing what they promised. We will accordingly lift the sanctions if the company is compliant.
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!
Alhaji Kamal'ddin Akintunde, the National President of NACOMYO, made the call on Sunday at a one-day awareness campaign on Lassa fever organised by the Nasarawa state chapter of the organisation in Karu.

``First and foremost, I want to commend the state chapter of NACOMYO in organising this awareness campaign in Kube, Beti, Kare and Kugwaru, among other communities of Karu.

``The awareness was aimed at complementing government efforts in bettering the health needs of the people of the state and Nigerians at large.

``We heard reported cases of death and we even have seen how some people contacted and died of Lassa fever not only in Nasarawa state but also in some parts of the country.

``That is why I said that the Lassa fever awareness campaign in rural communities is timely.

``That Lassa fever can be transmitted to human through contamination of broken skin via direct or indirect contact with infected rat excreta or urine on floors, home surfaces, in food or water.

``And transmission is also possible where rats are caught and consumed as food.

``It is in view of that I want to appeal to the people of Nasarawa state and other Nigerians to stay away from rats, stop eating or avoid direct contact with rats.

``Keep food in rat proof containers in the interest of our health and the health of our nation.

``Nigerians should improve on their environment sanitation and personal hygiene so as to avoid spreading of diseases, he said.

Akintunde also used the occasion to call on wealthy individuals and organisations to assist the government through initiating people oriented programmes, adding that government alone cannot do everything for its citizens.

Earlier, the Nasarawa state Coordinator of NACOMYO, Mr Salisu Musa-Akaki, said the organisation deemed it necessary to scale up its awareness campaign to educate rural dwellers on Lassa fever, its transmission, prevention and treatment.

He advised the residents to promptly report to the nearest hospital any suspected case of Lassa fever for timely professional care in their interest and the interest of the health of the country.

Responding, the Uehra-Sheh of Kube Chiefdom in Nasarawa state, Mr Christopher Jatau, commended the organisation for organising the programme.

The traditional ruler noted that the aimed of the programme was to enlighten residents on the prevalence of diseases in the state and called for its sustenance.
According to a report by The Punch, the sums of N180m, N101m and N100m, were recovered from three different bank accounts of a company which has Mrs. Omolara Amosu as a director and signatory.

Amosu, who has been detained by the anti-graft agency and quizzed over the procurement of two second-hand Mi-24V Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at a cost of $136.9m, would be charged to court once EFCC rounds up its investigation at the end of February 2016.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President spoke made this revelation at the Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the World at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on Saturday, February 20, 2016.

While contributing to the Presidential Panel Roundtable on Investment and Growth Opportunities at the opening of the event, President Buhari said, Developed countries are competing among themselves and when they devalue they compete better and manufacture and export more. But we are not competing and exporting but importing everything including toothpicks."

Continuing, 'So, why should we devalue our currency? We want to be more productive and self-sufficient in food and other basic things such as clothing. For our government, we like to encourage local production and efficiency.'
Some of them, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Sunday, said they were satisfied with the arrangement made by their countrys electoral body.

They were particularly pleased with the opportunity given to Nigeriens in diaspora, to exercise their franchise.

One of them, Abubakar Mohammed, said six vehicles were provided in Bauchi for them to travel to Kano, the nearest voting centre, as such only few of them could make it.

Abdullahi Mohammed, a tea and bread seller of Nigerien origin seen busy attending to his customers on the Election Day, told NAN that he could not afford to use his meagre resources to travel to Kano just to cast.

After all, there is no guarantee that my vote will matter at the end of the day, he said when reminded that his vote was paramount in deciding a credible leader for his country.

Another Nigerien, Lawalli Ahmadu, a butcher, who was also seen selling beef at a time others were casting their votes, said Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Sokoto and Katsine were the designated voting centres in Nigeria.

I could not travel to cast my vote but instead, resolved to pray for a hitch-free election. I think my prayers for God to help us choose a credible leader is more important than my single vote, he said.

Ahmadus son son, Mubarak Lawalli, who had just clock 18, said he would have been glad to vote for the first time, but had to stay back in Bauchi to assist his father in preparing and selling meat to customers.
The IDPs made the appeal while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday during a visit to the camp by the UNHRC.

According to them, some of the challenges they face included inconsistent and poor feeding, poor sanitary conditions, lack of proper medical attention, deplorable sanitary condition and poor security.

The IDPs said although the government was trying, they needed improved welfare, urging the government and NGOs to take their welfare as a priority because they are Nigerian citizens who are just victims of circumstance.

Malam Abatcha Ali, the Mens Leader of the camp, said in spite of the best efforts of government, displaced persons continue to suffer hunger and other deprivations in the camps.

``Our major problem after food is where to sleep as there are inadequate bed spaces in the camps.

``Because of the poor sanitary condition, we are also exposed to mosquitoes, especially women and children, and we also have inadequate mosquito nets.

``Even when few mosquito nets are provided, there are no places to tie them because we sleep on the floor, he said.

Ali also complained of lack of drugs at the camps clinics, disclosing that the only drug they get was paracetamol.

``No matter the complaints, all you get is paracetamol and when we go to hospitals in the town, they ask for money, which we dont have, he explained.

On her part, Mrs Hussina Usman, the Womens Leader of the camp, said sometimes they eat their first meal of the day around 6 p.m. and even so the food is hardly enough.

``Those small sized buckets you see there are used in serving food and 12 people share a half full bucket.

``We eat once a day and it is always rice, sometimes mixed with beans, like today, we haven't eaten because there's nothing to cook, she said.

Usman said it is very challenging to prepare food in the camp because it is difficult to have everything required in place at the same time.

She explained that it is either there is no firewood or there is no water and when one is available, the other will be missing which is why there is always delay in preparing the food.

Fish and meat, she said, were luxuries they could only dream of.

Mr Haliru Yusuf, a youth in the camp, appreciated government for its success in the war against insurgency but said a lot still has to be done in increasing the security in the camps.

Yusuf explained that cases of suicide bombers attacking camps poses great fear and insecurity to them as they can hardly tell what would happen to them next.

``Recently, there was an attack in Dikwa Camp and so many of our brothers and sisters were killed.

``If there was tight security, that would not have happened, Yusuf said.

He said that what is most important is for the government to totally defeat the insurgents so that the whole nightmare would be over and they can return to their homes and live in peace.

NAN also gathered that more than 51 per cent of the IDPs in the Dalori Camp II comprises of women who are either pregnant or nursing mothers since its establishment.
``When we were told that elections will hold in about seven centres in Nigeria, we were thinking that Borno will be one of them.

``But we later discovered that the officials have decided to avoid the state due to Boko Haram activities,''he said.

He however said that he has hope of a peaceful election in all the seven centres.Dari said however that the association was hopeful that it will take part in the next election after the restoration of peace in the state
Chief Samuel Okoronkwo, the State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The machines were procured through the collaborative efforts of the 13 Local Government Areas Caretaker Committee chairmen in the state,  he said.

According to him, the chairmen were in tune with the governments aggressive infrastructural development and agricultural policies, especially in the area of rice production.

The bulldozers would be used for agricultural purposes, especially rice production in the rural areas, as we are expecting 13 graders by next week to complement the operations of the dozers.

The caretaker chairmen after a unanimous resolution embarked on the project with each dozer costing N34million.

We have through prudent fund management paid 40 per cent of the total cost as the remaining 60 per cent would be paid from source for-a six months instalmental period, he said.

He thanked the governor for his guidance and policy direction, noting that the equipment would immediately be deployed to the various local councils to commence operations.

We have engaged engineers from the state Ministry of Works to effectively operate the equipment, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Gov. Dave Umahi had earlier said that the equipment would also be used for rural road construction projects across the state.

NAN reports that part of the agreement with the Chinese manufacturers was that they would maintain the equipment for one year and supply the gas needed to operate them free within the period of the agreement.
Speaking with a Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Gombe, they said that the progress of Niger Republic, Nigeria and other neighboring countries depended on restoration of peace to the region.

They also admonished losers in Sundays general elections in the country, to exhibit spirit of good sportsmanship in defeat, while urging winners to be magnanimous in victory.

A Nigerien, Bala Buzu, said whoever would be elected president, should join hands with Nigeria and other countries in the fight against insurgent.

He also called on the elected president to appreciate the contributions of Nigeriens in diaspora, particularly those in Nigeria

Malam Muhammadu Hassan also said that there was the need to intensify the fight against insurgents

He called on successful candidates to carry everybody along, irrespective of political differences for the progress of the country.

We are praying for peaceful and success election in our country Niger and we are urging the elected president to lead with the fear of God, he said.

He advised the people in the country to also support who ever emerged winner to enable him implement government policies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, the voting which started at 8.30 am, witnessed large turnout and was generally peaceful.In an interview with the Secretary-General, Nigeriens Resident in Nigeria, Mr Sidi Algabide who is also the Coordinator of the election centre, commended the election process and the INEC officials

He said voting started in an orderly and peaceful manner and expected to be concluded by 7 pm which is the official closing time.

Algabide said he was happy about the peaceful atmosphere without any problem.

He said the turnout was very positive, "all the voters came out to cast their vote, there was no rancour in anyway,he said.

Also speaking, one of the voters, Micko Souley, commended the process, describing it as impressive and peaceful.
The West African country is only just emerging from a rocky one-year transition to democratic rule that was marked by a short-lived military coup in September. Its long-time president and French ally, Blaise Compaore, was ousted by protesters in late 2014 as he sought to extend his rule.

"We must strengthen our cooperation on intelligence and the training of security and other armed forces," Valls told reporters in Ouagadougou after a meeting with President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office in December after winning the presidential election in November.

Valls said assistance would come in the form of help for a two-year-old development and security body known as the G5 Sahel comprising Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, as well as support for the United Nations peace keeping force in Mali.

The French prime minister was in Burkina Faso as part of a three-day tour with Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian that incorporated a visit to Mali, which experienced a similar hotel attack in November.

France is the largest Western power involved in fighting insurgents in the Sahel with around 3,500 troops based in the arid region that stretches across northern Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east.
Alhaji Aboubakar Kalidu, the President of Nigeriens community in Abuja, told NAN on Sunday in Abuja that the Nigeriens in Diaspora were already mobilised for todays election.

``The election is starting by 8.30 a.m. at the residence of the Nigerien Ambassador to Nigeria in Abuja.

``There is only one polling station at the residence and only 950 registered voters are eligible to vote from Abuja.

``There are many Nigeriens in Abuja but only 950 were able to register.

``When the voter registration exercise was on, many people were not around because the exercise was not announced on time.

``When it was announced, it was not widely publicised; radio and newspapers were not used to announce and sensitise people about the voter exercise, Kalidu said.

The Nigerien community leader explained that only the registered voters were eligible to vote in the election, which would end by 3.30 p.m.

NAN recalls that the Secretary General, Niger Republic Community in Nigeria, Sidilghabit Tarwaq, had on Feb. 8 in Kaduna, said a total of 11,000 Nigeriens resident in Nigeria would vote during the countrys election.

Tarwaq said it will be the first time most Nigeriens living outside their country would vote in the countrys general election without necessarily having to go back home.

He urged Nigeriens in diaspora to participate fully in the election and vote for candidates of their choice.
Tari made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Sunday.

We took time to enlighten our women in Kano, but they refuse to come out. This is very disturbing considering the importance of this election, she said.

According to her, the association had dispatched about 10 vehicles to various local government areas of the state with a view to conveying the women to the election venues.

We are also making effort to contact them through their mobile phones as part of effort to ensure that they come and cast their votes.

We also paid registration fees for over 1, 700 of our members, all in an effort to ensure that women participate in the election process, she said.

According to her, the reduction in the number of days for the registration of voters has also contributed to this problem.

The registration period was reduced to four days instead of 10 days and this had affected the registration of women,she said.

Also speaking, Hajiya Maryam Mussa-Illela, Woman Leader in Nasarawa Local Government, attributed the low turnout of women to lack of information and education.

She said no fewer than 800 women registered in the area but very few were able to come out as at the time of filling this report around 12:50pm.
Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
*Plaything Of The Right? Just how decisively the Right is shaping our politics will become clear in the run-up to the Hamilton West by-election. Though Na...

15 hours ago
DES MOINES  Iowa Republicans and their biggest donors are serious about grabbing full control of the Statehouse in this falls election, if last years campaign fundraising is any indication.

GOP legislative leaders Bill Dix and Linda Upmeyer tallied record-setting fundraising hauls in 2015, setting the pace for the 2016 campaign.

Their efforts  Dixs in particular  were aided significantly by big-money individual donors.

Campaign donations to legislative leaders are critical because leaders share those resources to help their partys Statehouse candidates get elected.

At the Iowa Capitol, Republicans occupy the governors office and control the House of Representatives. The only obstacle to an unfettered GOP agenda in Iowa is Democrats razor-thin advantage in the Senate: There are 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the chamber.

Democrats have held that slim edge since the 2010 elections, and Republicans tried unsuccessfully to flip control in the 2012 and 2014 elections.

With another opportunity coming this fall, Dixs 2015 fundraising appears to indicate Senate Republicans and their donors are putting forth their strongest effort yet to seize control from the Democrats.

I think that the biggest thing that signals is that Iowans are ready for a change, Dix, the Republicans Senate minority leader, said of his fundraising. The leadership the Senate Democrats have been providing is one of stalling and overspending of Iowa taxpayer money, and we need to look at the opportunities we have and how we can move forward with an agenda that provides new career opportunities for Iowans.

Dix raised almost $530,000 in 2015, which was a Senate fundraising record, according to the Republican Party of Iowa.

Its more than triple what Dix raised in 2013, the most recent pre-election year, when he raised $156,000.

A couple dozen big-money donors greatly aided Dixs 2015 fundraising. He received 20 donations of $10,000 or more, plus 10 more $5,000 donations.

Only four of those 30 large donations came from political organizations; the rest came from individuals.

Those big donations were key to Dixs 2015 fundraising success; they account for more than three-fourths of his total haul.

In 2013, Dix had only six donations of $5,000 or more.

I think its a product of those leaders in business and industry around our state recognizing over the last couple of years the kind of leadership we have provided in the minority and seeing the potential that means for Iowa looking to the future, Dix said.

The biggest contributor to Dix was James Cownie. The Des Moines businessman cut a $50,000 check to Dix in 2015.

Cownie co-founded Heritage Communications, which was sold in 1987 for nearly $900 million, and later, he owned the real estate company SJC Properties. His son Peter is a state legislator, and his wife, Patricia, serves on the state board that governs Iowas three public universities.

Dixs list of large donors is comprised mostly of Iowa business leaders, including the owners of Kum & Go and Caseys gas stations and convenience stores, and business owners in concrete, agriculture, guns, real estate and publishing.

Upmeyer, who is in her first session as the newly minted House speaker, raised nearly $435,000 in 2015, which the state Republican Party said was a House fundraising record.

Upmeyer also benefited from big-money donors, with 19 donations of $5,000 or more.

Democratic Statehouse leaders lagged behind their Republican counterparts in 2015 fundraising.

Mike Gronstal, the Democrats Senate majority leader, raised $218,000 last year.

Thats slightly more than Gronstal raised in 2013, when Senate Democrats took their 26-24 advantage into the 2014 general election and held on, despite a nationwide wave for Republican candidates.

When asked about Democratic leaders starting 2016 from behind on the fundraising front, Gronstal said that he thinks Democrats resources are growing well and that elections are about candidates, not money.

Gronstal noted only one Senate Democrat is not seeking re-election, and the lone retiring senator is in a safely Democratic district. He thinks each Democratic incumbent will win re-election.

He also thinks the presidential election will provide a boost; Democratic voters historically turn out better during presidential elections.

We have recruited great candidates. That is 90 percent of every election cycle, is having great candidates, Gronstal said. Everybody always gets nervous about the money, but it isnt about the money. Its about the issues. Its about whos standing up for working families in the state of Iowa.

I am confident our message will sell well.

Mark Smith, the Democrats House minority leader, raised $119,000 last year.

Republicans hold a 57-43 advantage in the House. Democrats would like to flip that control, and their hopes for 2016 are buoyed by several retiring House Republicans.

Smith also stressed House Democrats candidate recruitment.

Weve worked very well to do great candidate recruitment, to select people to run for public office who are people who reflect the values of Iowans, Smith said. Were very confident as we go into this election.

Christopher Larimer, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa, said he is not surprised Republicans fared well on the fundraising trail in 2015. He said Statehouse candidates likely tapped into the excitement surrounding Iowas presidential caucuses and the partys desire to elect a Republican president after two terms under Democratic President Barack Obama.

Larimer also cautioned that fundraising advantages alone will not yield electoral success for Republicans.

Its still hard to know. With state legislative elections, so much of its about the candidates and the competition and the turnout, Larimer said. There was an enormous difference in turnout between 2012 and 2014, yet we still did not see any movement in the Iowa Senate. 

That really suggests its about the candidates and who (Republicans) can field to run against these incumbents.
Residents and their cat were unharmed after a house fire late Saturday in Moline.

The fire started shortly before 11:15 p.m. in a home at 3622 75th St., where firefighters arrived to find moderate smoke and some fire coming from the roof on the back side of the house, according to Moline Battalion Chief Kevin Irby.

When firefighters entered the building, they found the fire contained in the rear wall and attic.

The residents, who were home at the time, escaped unharmed, and no firefighters were injured, Irby said. The cat was found unharmed in the home and was reunited with its owners.

The 21 firefighters on the scene had the fire under control in about 20 minutes. The blaze resulted in heavy damage to the attic and the roof on the back side of the structure. The living room below the fire area in the attic was damaged from efforts to control the blaze.

Estimated damage to the home is $40,000, with an addition $20,000 to its contents. The fire started high in the chimney of the fireplace, Irby said.

East Moline, Moline, Mid-American Energy and Moline Second Alarmers crews assisted at the scene, where the American Red Cross arrived to assist the residents.
Jim Devries, a retired Teamster from Carbon Cliff, says he stands to lose 50 percent of his monthly pension check, or about $1,500.

Devries was among about 80 retired members of Teamsters Local 371 who attended an informational meeting Saturday in Rock Island to discuss the problem that stretches far beyond the Quad-Cities. In all, there are 400,000 participants in 38 states in the Central States Pension Fund, 220,000 of them retirees. The fund covers workers and retirees at many different companies, including some no longer in business.

A controversial 2014 law would allow Central States managers to make massive cuts they say are necessary to save the fund and its billions of dollars.



Read more here: Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article60760061.html#storylink =cpy

The U.S. Treasury has selected mediator Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the distribution of compensation to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to review the Central States proposal and decide by May whether it qualifies under the 2014 law.

Central States has told its retirees that without reduced benefits, the fund will run out of money in 2026 and be unable to pay any benefits.

If the plan is accepted, pension checks will be reduced July 1. Central States proposal would allow retirees to work and still collect reduced benefits.

Claude Rains, a retired truck driver from Davenport, is on the local committee to fight the proposal.

We are getting all the information we can, he said. We are trying to get all the senators and congressmen on board.

Mary Packett of Omaha, was the main speaker. Her father, Fred Lowery, is a retired Teamster. She got involved after hearing of the potential cut in her father's benefits and even has been to Washington, D.C., for hearings on the matter.

We have to use the grassroots approach, Packett told the crowd. There are 56 committees in these states that are working to get support to fix this. This will not be fixed right away. The fund lost $2 billion in the last quarter. But that does not mean your fund is dead. It is not dead. There are plenty of funds.

She said the shortfall in the results of poor investments by fund managers coupled with the recession that began in 2008.

You are the victims of what happened in 2008, Packett said. Those (investors) should have been in jail. The government owes you restitution. You guys have done nothing wrong. You are not asking for a bailout, just asking for restitution.

She said opponents have received support and promises from some politicians, among them Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to get to the bottom of the situation.

Pat Feliksiak of Moline, a retired trucker driver, said he stands to lose half of his monthly $1,400 pension. But he remains somewhat optimistic.

People are starting to step up to go after these guys, he said. But they want to cut $700 a month. I still have a house payment and I have to buy groceries and pay taxes.

He said the proposed benefits reduction would affect 29,000 retirees in Illinois and 25,000 in Iowa. He said the loss of such income will be difficult on individuals and the overall economy. This is going to kill the economy, he said.

The problem is not quite as bad for William Paxton of Silvis. He gets some of his pension from Local 710 in Chicago. But of his Local 371 funds, he is set to lose about $500 a month.

That is a lot of money, he said. Central States gives millions to lobby. They use our money to lobby and somebody is not taking care of our money.

Devries has much to lose and he is still paying on a mortgage for his home. He hopes they get all of their funds restored. But it may end up being a compromise.

My thoughts are we will take a cut but maybe half of what they are proposing, he said. I just hope we can get something done.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois public schools have been largely unscathed in the budget battle that has been roiling the state for the past year, and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner would like to keep it that way.

In his budget address last week, Rauner called for increased funding for early childhood, elementary and secondary education and for it to be dealt with separately from any other issue. The first-term governor exempted schools from the current budget impasse, now in its eighth month, by signing an education funding bill last summer while vetoing the rest.

We must make the education of our children our top priority, Rauner said Wednesday in his speech. The one thing I wont back down on  the one thing thats nonnegotiable for me  is increasing education funding.

But the Democrats who control the state Senate say pumping more money into a system thats created the widest gap in funding between high-poverty and low-poverty districts of any state would perpetuate the inequalities that have plagued Illinois schools for decades. They want to overhaul the way money is distributed to school districts to get more help to poorer students.

Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill, the Senate Democrats point man on education funding, said the current setup, which was created in 1997 and relies heavily on local property taxes, needs to be addressed before spending more money.

Throwing another log on the burning fire isnt going to put the fire out, Manar said. The governors proposing spending millions more on schools in a broken system. That doesnt fix inequity, and it never will.

Rauner proposes spending an additional $55.3 million to fully fund general state aid to public schools for the first time in seven years. That money is supposed to ensure that each district has enough funding to provide every student with an adequate education. But Democrats say that because of the way the system is set up, some districts would still receive less state support than this year.

Rauner also would spend an additional $75 million on early childhood education, which would keep more than 85,000 kids in preschool and create 2,900 more full-day preschool slots, the governor said.

But his proposal would eliminate grants for expenses such as agricultural education, arts and foreign language courses and the After School Matters program.

Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, who like Manar is interested in overhauling the way schools are funded, said he supports the governors budget plan.

Im all for rewriting the formula, but we also need to do that which we can do in the short term, Barickman said. Until we get that fixed, we should work within the system that exists and fund it fully.

Hes sponsoring a bill that would create a panel to craft an evidence-based adequacy and equity formula for the funding of all school districts. It hasnt gotten a hearing.

Manar, meanwhile, is preparing to introduce a new version of his overhaul bill, which is designed to funnel more money to poorer districts.

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said any change to the formula should include Chicago Public Schools, which the current system treats separately.

There should be one formula for the whole state, Cullerton said after Rauners budget speech. And the goal of that change in the formula would be to focus education dollars where theres a concentration of poverty.

The financially troubled district  the largest in the state and third-largest in the country  is a complicating factor in funding discussions. The Rauner administration late last week announced a probe of the districts finances, and the governor has proposed bankruptcy and a state takeover as options, options Democrats flatly reject.

Another complicating factor is that House Democrats havent indicated whether theyll support plans their Senate colleagues are putting forward.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has reconvened a task force to study the issue, which last week held its first hearing of the year.

After the budget address, Madigan reiterated his support for a tax on income above $1 million to provide additional funding for education. The measure, which would require an amendment to the state Constitution, received overwhelming support in an advisory referendum on the November 2014 ballot.

School administrators and teachers agree that new revenue is needed to fund schools and that the current formula is flawed.

This really comes down to revenue and the need to put more money into education and other areas of the budget, said Jim Reed, director of government relations for the Illinois Education Association, the states largest teachers union.

Mike Chamness, spokesman for the Illinois Association of School Administrators, also said more revenue is needed to adequately fund the states schools.

The organizations likewise agree that changes to the formula need to be done in a way that prevents any district from losing state funding.

The school administrators think there is room for compromise between Manars ideas and the Barickman bill, which was based on the groups recommendations, Chamness said.

We do believe that there is room there to help hold harmless districts in Illinois and to provide new revenue for the poorer districts, he said.

But Manar cautions that that kind of thinking could block the necessary changes.

If the reform effort is predicated on  the position that we cant have any losers, then the price tag is going to be so high it may not even be achievable, he said.
A militant INDEPENDENT democratic socialist's attempt to expose the truth of our culture  in all its rich irony and absurdity.
Q: Before my husband and I got married, we pulled our credit reports and reviewed them. We were open with each other and thought we were prepared to merge our finances. However, since weve been married, sharing our finances has been more challenging than we anticipated. We didnt realize how much we didnt know about each other. Right now, we are just muddling through when we want to be doing better. Can you help us?

A: Before you were married, each of you had your own way of handling your money. You were both used to earning and spending money without consulting anyone. This doesnt magically change for couples once they get married. It takes a lot of hard work and a willingness to listen to reach a mutual understanding.

Its easy to focus on the big picture of your finances, but if you want to find common ground you need to talk about the big issues, as well as the seemingly small ones. In fact, when you fail to address the small issues, they often become big ones.

Ive compiled a list of seven issues for you to discuss. This discussion can help you clarify how you might want to proceed in the future.

1) Establish general guidelines for how youll handle bills. Will you put all of your money in one account and pay bills jointly, or will each of you be responsible for paying different expenses? If you decide to do it one way, and it doesnt work well, you can always try something different.

2) Make a plan to ensure you can meet your monthly expenses. Knowing what bills you have isnt enough. You need a mutual understanding so that one person doesnt spend money designated for paying bills. How will you come to this understanding?

3) Determine how much money each of you can spend without checking with the other person first. This will vary based on your income and your bills. If your budget is tight, you may need to set the amount low, at $20 or so. If you have more flexibility with your finances, you may choose to set the amount higher, at $50 or $75.

4) Determine how you will deal with a bill that his higher than normal. Where will that money come from?

5) Agree that you will not take on debt without discussing it with each other first. Borrowing money without consulting each other can harm your relationship and create future financial problems.

6) Plan for the future. Develop a savings plan that includes money allotted for emergencies, goals and retirement. If you were to ask most people, married or not, what they would have done differently with their finances, they often say: save more and spend less on things they really didnt need.

7) Decide ahead of time how you will spend extra money. Windfalls are wonderful, but without joint goals, you might not agree how to spend the extra cash. Regardless of how much each of you makes, you should each have an equal voice. Compromise will serve you well.

Even when you can confidently handle all of the issues I address here, others will crop up. Regardless of your circumstances, open communication and a commitment to working together will be essential to making progress with your family finances  now and long into the future.
RAPID CITY | George T. Locke, 89, died Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, at Clarkson Health Care.

George Theodore Locke was born on Sept. 19, 1926, in Topeka, KS, to George Aubrey and Clara E. (Boehmer) Locke. He grew up in Topeka and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1944. He was accepted in the Navys V-5 Program that was looking for educated pilots. That program was later abolished and he switched to the Deck Officers V-12 Program. During his training, George attended Milsaps College in Jackson, MS, and the University of South Carolina 1944-46.

After his Navy service, George attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence from 1946-1949. He attained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and was active in the ROTC Program. After graduation, he began employment with the U.S. Geological Survey. In October 1951, he returned to the service in the Navy as an officer and was assigned Secret status in 1952. He served 18 months aboard the cruiser USS Helena CA-75 in the Korean Theatre. He left the Navy in September 1953 as a Lieutenant Junior Grade.

On Sept. 2, 1951, he was united in marriage to Beverly Joan Emerson in Topeka, KS. To this union three children were born, Corby Joan, Clay Ashley and Scot David. After his second Navy service, George returned to the U.S. Geological Survey until 1953. He then worked for the Kansas State Corporation Commission from 1955-59. In October 1959, the family moved to Rapid City, where he began work at Black Hills Power and Light, which later became Black Hills Corporation. During his time there, he served as Corporate Secretary, Treasurer and retired in 1989 as Senior Vice President of Finance.

George was a member of the American Legion, Sertoma Club and Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society, where he was instrumental in raising money for the big 1990s expansion. He enjoyed golf and tennis at Arrowhead Country Club, where he served as president and as a board member.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife, Beverly of Rapid City; a daughter, Corby Locke (Gary Shaffer) of Coeur d Alene, ID; two sons, Clay Locke of Rapid City and Scot (Patricia) Locke of Englewood, CO; a brother, Don W. Locke of Berryton, KS; and four grandchildren, Ashley Locke (Eric Lee), Christopher Locke, Grant Shaffer and Cole Shaffer.

Funeral services will be at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the First United Methodist Church, with Rev. Greg Kroger officiating. Burial will follow at Mountain View Cemetery.

Memorial gifts may be directed to Rapid City Regional Auxiliary Hospice House, 224 Elk St., Rapid City, SD 57701.

Arrangements are under the direction of Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home. Friends may leave condolence wishes in his online guestbook at osheimschmidt.com.
When a heart attack happens, every minute counts.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer from a type known as an ST-elevated myocardial infarction or STEMI, in which the blood flow is completely blocked to a portion of the heart.

Without immediate care, a patient is at risk of death or serious health complications.

In 2012, 1,799 Montanans were hospitalized for acute heart attacks. Of those, 777 were STEMIs.

A generous gift to the American Health Association is helping to save lives through the use of technology that connects emergency crews with hospitals throughout the state, including Ravalli County.

The $4.6 million gift from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust is being used to implement an initiative called Mission:Lifeline that includes providing equipment to emergency services crews capable of transmitting real time information from an ambulance to the hospital.

Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital ambulances in Hamilton, Darby and Stevensville, as well as EMS crews with the Victor Volunteer Fire Department, can now transmit EKG information directly to physicians in Hamilton and Missoula.

Willy Torres, Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital EMS Department head, said the hospital was able to secure two monitors and several modems through the grant funding.

Having the ability to transmit updated EKG information from the scene allows physicians to make time-saving decisions while the patient is en route to the hospital, Torres said.

Its a great asset to have, he said. It has saved lives in the Bitterroot.

Amanda Cahill, of the American Heart Association, said the goal of the grant was to create a statewide system to improve care for heart attack patients.

To create the Mission:Lifeline program, a 60-person task force was formed to take a hard look at the issue from all points of view.

You cant put a project like this together without getting the input of people working at the ground level, Cahill said.

At its heart, the grant monies have provided EMS crews across the state with the 12-lead EKG equipment that can diagnose a STEMI heart attack, along with the training and protocols that make the use of that equipment a lifesaver.

Before that equipment was available, emergency crews would take patients to the nearest hospital, where they would be given an EKG. If the machine found that the patient was having a STEMI heart attack, they may have been transported again to a medical facility equipped to address the issue.

Every single minute is important when it comes to saving heart muscle, Cahill said. We are having way better outcomes. People are living because of this equipment.

A 12-lead EKG essentially takes a picture of the blood flowing from the heart and shows where the blockages are located.

It tells physicians and emergency crews what type of heart attack is occurring, she said. And then it seamlessly and instantly transmits that information to the emergency department at Marcus Daly and Missoula hospitals.

Before the Mission:Lifeline program began about three years ago, there were only eight ambulances in the state capable of transmitting EKG information seamlessly to hospitals.

Today, Cahill said there are 102 agencies statewide that have the equipment and transmission capabilities that cover 98 percent of the state.
Revenue declines, the pandemic, and rising competition create new realities in higher education.
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Thomas Lifson

Now that Libya has become a base for ISIS and a source of refugees overwhelming Europe, Hillary Clinton is attempting to pretend that she had little to do with it, even though she was secretary of state. And the deaths of four Americans including our ambassador are a topic that reveals you to be a conspiracy theorist if you dare mention it.

But the latest batch of emails released by the State Department on Friday tell a tale far different from what Hillary would prefer. Sarah Westwood reports at the Washington Examiner:

in one exchange from October 2011, Clinton's aides discussed an upcoming article titled "Clinton's key role in Libya conflict" that indicated Clinton personally persuaded President Obama to approve the use of military force to overthrow Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The conversation between Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton spokesman, and aides Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills was partially redacted by the State Department.

"Clinton, ignoring the advice of the State Department's lawyers, convinced Obama to grant full diplomatic recognition to the rebels," read an excerpt from the unpublished Washington Post story Reines sent to Clinton in 2011.

The story indicated Clinton actively sought to "secure crucial backing from Arab countries" before stepping into the civil conflict.

This is totally at odds with the storyn Clinton is telling now:

when pressed on the issue in the first Democratic debate last year, Clinton defended the intervention by arguing European allies were "blowing up the phone lines begging us to help them" and that the U.S. "had the Arabs standing by our side saying, 'we want you to help us deal with Gadhafi.' "

So she was an architect of the disaster and now is lying about her role in it.

 emails made public over the course of the past nine months have painted a picture of a secretary of state eager to take credit for her "leadership" and "ownership" of the Libyan engagement.

Hillary's sole selling point is her "experience," but we seem to experience disaster when she is calling the shots.
Independent Commentary on Environmental and Natural Resource News

By Kurt Cobb
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.
Sagarmatha Network Pvt. Ltd. is the organization dedicated in the field of printing, publishing service since 2001. As part of media, we've been publishing Review Nepal, an English medium weekly registered at District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu with registration number 130-162-163 and reviewnepal.com as an online digital newspaper, with registration number 849-075-076 at Department of Informational and Broadcasting (DIB) from Kathmandu, Nepal since 2003.
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.
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Prague is a medieval city that dazzles at every turn. There are so many historic landmarks crammed into a small area, from Prague Castle to the Astronomical Clock but my favorite is Charles Bridge. Named for Emperor Charles IV and constructed in 1357, a stroll across this bridge offers stunning views day or night. The bridge spans 1,700 feet and connects the banks of the Vltava River. It also boasts 16 arches and 30 baroque statues, which makes Charles Bridge sort of like an outdoor art gallery. Not that you'll be able to view a lot of the pieces. The bridge is always packed with people, vendors and performers so the sight lines aren't always great but I was lucky to get close to a few of the statues. The one above is often called "The Turk" and depicts St. John of Matha, St. Felix of Valois and St. Ivan. These saints specialized in buying Christian slaves imprisoned by Turks and setting them free. I thought this was the most interesting statue on the bridge, I wasn't familiar with any of the saints but the story is really compelling.This monument shows Saint Anthony of Padua with baby Jesus. When I snapped the photo, I had no idea who the man was and it looked like a cherub was hanging on him. Apparently, Anthony of Portuguese origin, is the patron saint of bakers and travelers, which means he is personally significant and very special indeed.I thought these created a dramatic image against the blue sky. They are of Saint Norbert, patron saint of the Czech Republic, Saint Wenceslas, a martyred Czech prince and Saint Sigismund, a martyr and king.It's a hectic experience walking through the crowds on Charles Bridge but I think that the art and scenery make it totally worth it.
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Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

PRESS STATEMENT

21st February 2015

Human Rights Defenders under Police Attack in Chhattisgarh

Soni Sori, local adivasi leader and the Aam Aadmi Party coordinator for Bastar Division, was attacked by three goons on her way home on the 20th of February in Geedam. Soni Sori has communicated that the attackers threw a chemical substance on her face and threatened her saying "stop complaining against the IG, stop raising the issue of Mardum. If you dont behave yourself, we will do this to your daughter as well." She was also warned against attempting to file an FIR against the IG of police again.

The attack on Soni Sori is part of a larger campaign of State violence in Bastar; Under the guise of anti-Naxal operations, the security forces are indulging in rape and plunder. Teams of women activists have documented three cases of mass sexual violence in the past three months, where security forces have entered villages in Sukma ad Bijapur- stripping women, indulging in gangrape, looting their food supplies, and destroying their homes and granaries. The number of "encounters" is increasing, people are "disappearing" from villages, only to show up in the list of "surrendered" or "arrested" Naxalites several days later as press clippings and testimonies recount. The local police and administration are talking in one voice of "clearing" the area within one year.

Most recently, Soni attempted to file an FIR against the IG (Bastar) SRP Kalluri for instigating people to boycott and physically harm her. She had also raised the incident of the fake encounter of Hidme in the Mardum thana in Bastar District. Soni had organised a press conference in Raipur with the villagers and was trying to file a FIR regarding the case. While the police claim that Hidma was a high-ranking Naxalite ("1 lakh ka inami naxali") killed after a fierce encounter in the jungles, the villagers claim that Hidma was an ordinary villager, picked up by the police at night from his house. His wife and elder daughter are eyewitnesses and the wife recalls the name of the police officer who had come to the house.

Soni has been working with fellow adivasis in responding to human rights violations by state athourities in the form of random arrests and unlawful detention, fake encounters, assaults on women etc. But peopleas rallies and meetings have been stopped, villagers have not been allowed to register complaints and regular threats have been made against Soni Sori. In a recent incident, the Nagar Panchayat of Geedam reached Sonis house and questioned her with regard to the title of her house and indirectly threatened to break it down as an encroachment. About ten days earlier, parchas were thrown into her house calling her a randi and a Maoist. She has been warned against entering Bijapur, where a spate of sexual violence by security forces has taken place.

The attack and threats on Soni have taken place along with the hounding of other women journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders in Chhattisgarh. These inlude,

Malini Subramanium, an independent journalist, reporting on issues in Chhattisgarh including the closing down of schools, women and children, brutal violence by security forces against the adivasis, fake encounters and surrenders in the Bastar. The domestic worker in Malinias house was called and kept in the police station till late at night to terrorize her into implicating the journalist of being Naxalite. Her landlord was similarly threatened by the police into asking her to vacate the house. Malini, fearing for the safety of those who have always stood by her, left Jagdalpur on 19th February.

The Jagdalpur Legal Aid group (Jaglag), currently consisting of lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal were also hounded out of Jagdalpur on the 20th night, an hour before Soni Sori was attacked. Their landlord was picked up and detained in the police station and under threat asked them to vacate their house and office. Jaglag has been providing legal aid to adivasi prisoners under trial in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh since 2013. For the past year and a half, both lawyers were being hounded by the local police. They have been faced with thinly veiled threats at press conferences insinuating that the police are closely monitoring NGOs providing "legal aid to Naxalites". Their clients have been informed that the police are about to arrest them for Naxalite activities. Visiting journalists and researchers have been told that they are a "Naxalite front. The local Bar Association, clearly prompted by the police, took out a resolution on October 3rd 2015 prohibiting them from practicing in the local courts. On their complaint, the State Bar Council of Chhattisgarh passed an interim order allowing them to practice again.

Bela Bhatia, an independent researcher, living in Bastar has similarly been working with Soni Sori and Jaglag on documenting and filing cases of human rights violations and peopleas livelihoods. She has also been collecting information on the systematic use of violence by armed personnel and security forces. Bela Bhatia has also been threatened and her landlord is being found for questioning. Ex-Salwa Judum members, under the banner of Naxal Peedit Sangharsh Samiti and more recently the Samajik Ekta Manch have threatened her along with Jaglag and Soni Sori.

The series of events are clearly manipulated by the IG (Bastar) SRP Kalluri, who in 2006, as the Sarguja SP, was accused of raping a tribal woman and ordering his juniors to continue doing so for ten days. Kalluri was posted out of Bastar after 300 homes in Tadmetla and neighbouring villagers were burnt, people killed, and women raped by security forces in 2011.

We call attention to the fact that the hounding of the women human rights defenders is related to their work and the questions they have been raising in regards to state repression and violence against the tribal people in Chhattisgarh uner the guise of aLWE effected areasa . This is an attempt to ensure that the state of affairs in Chhattisgarh remain hidden from the public. It is clear that the Government wants to continue to use its tools of repression in a war against the adivasis; closing all channels of protest, dissent and justice.

For more information contact

Shivani Taneja (9425600382) ; Bittu (8179542651) ; Ishita Sharma (8527325400)
The Sahih Al Islam Blog is a platform to share in an easily available format the sermons and writings of Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius, the Holy Founder of Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International.

Bestowed with sublime spiritual titles such as Muhyi-ud-Din, Mujaddid and Khalifatullah, Imam Azim (aba) is Divinely-ordained with the task of inviting all people to the wisdom of Islamic teachings in every day life. Most certainly, Islam promises Mercy, Grace and Blessings for those who follow the Divine Light in their midst.

Apart from being a depository record of the Jamaat events and social engagements of its members, the Blog also publishes a variety of other writings on issues of spiritual and social concern.
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Another car wash company is coming to Salina

The growth of car wash services have been increasing in Salina the past few years, with another coming after approval by the city.
Looking for ways to utilize your time the right way? Seriously... Instead of wasting your precious time on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and etc - why can't you do a survey a day? I just discovered this online survey by Harris Poll Online and how I wish someone has introduced this to me before then I should have been making tons of money from it. This Harris Poll Online survey gives you generous amount of points that accumulate faster compared to some other surveys online. Plus, you can select different choices of rewards from digital gift cards to real stuff. You should give it a try and experience for yourself. Happy money making and Cheers!!!
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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.
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The EasySleeper Pillow seems to be the product of countless hours of R&D. And the price, what a bargain at 29.95 instead of the usual 48! Too good to b...

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This blog chronicles class seminars in South Dakota, out of state, or out of the country, as well as alumni travel trips.
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February 21, 2016

Should (and will) Prez Obama submit his SCOTUS nominee to the Senate this coming week?

In this post last week just hours after the news of Justice Scalia's death, I suggested Prez Obama should waste no time in naming his replacement. But, in retrospect, I can understand why it might have been disrespectful an unproductive to make a nomination even before proper respects were paid to Justice Scalia and without the Senate even being in session. But now, Justice Scalia has been rightly honored at the Court (where Prez Obama paid his respects), and the Senate goes back to work this week. Ergo the question in the title of this post.

Notably, though, the news from inside the Beltway is that Prez Obama may not name a nominee until mid or late March. This FoxNews piece, headlined "Reid believes Obama to name replacement for Scalia in 'a little over' 3 weeks," suggests that the President has indicated to his top ally in the Senate that a quick pick is not going to be coming. That suggested timing has me now wondering if Prez Obama is inclined to hold back his pick in order to seek some more significant developments in the race to replace him.

Especially given last night's primary and caucus election results, I suspect that after Super Tuesday voting on March 1, we may realistically be down to only two candidates on the GOP side and only one candidate on the other side of the aisle. Moreover, by March 15, a whole bunch of critical swing states will have voted  Colorado and Virginia vote on March 1, Michigan on March 8, and Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carlona and Ohio all go on March 15  and exit polls from all those key states should indicate which candidates are doing better or worse with key voting demographics. Because it seems inevitable that Obama's nominee and the Senate's response thereto will become a big political issue in general election, I cannot help but speculate that Prez Obama may be eager to take ample time to discover and observe more about the still-emerging shape of these politics before throwing a nominee into it.

Prior related posts on new SCOTUS nominee possibilities:

February 21, 2016 at 11:55 AM | Permalink

Comments

Perhaps Doug you are giving too much weight to Obama the political animal. He is not up for reelection and frankly its not obvious that he genuinely has a preference for any of the candidates on either side of the aisle. It is equally plausible that he is taking his time to sound out the entire Senate to see which of his choices has a genuine chance to get through the Senate this year.

My own view is that he'll pick someone very liberal to motivate the base if he concludes that there is no realistic chance of getting any nominee through Congress this year, but he'll pick someone moderate if the inverse is true.

Posted by: Daniel | Feb 21, 2016 12:44:23 PM

My expectation is that President Obama will at least try to sound out Senators like Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, Mark Kirk, Rob Portman, Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander, Orrin Hatch, and Susan Collins to see if there are any potential appointees that they could possibly support. Right now, my hunch is that there are three sub-lists of nominees: 1) Moderates whom might get named if there is some sign that the Republicans are willing to confirm; 2)Very well-qualified liberals whom might get named if the Republicans seem to be holding firm on rejecting any nominee (giving the opportunity to both fire up the base and to make the Republicans look like obstructionists); and 3) liberal "dream" candidates (if the White House just wants to fire up the base).

After finding out the room temperature of the more "establishment" Republican Senators who know that what they do now may impact how a Democratic Senate treats future Republican nominees, President Obama will then decide which of the short lists to consider further. So nothing this week, but maybe a decision by March 4. Of course, if Donald Trump does well on March 1, the Republican majority may decide that a compromise is a good idea.

Posted by: tmm | Feb 21, 2016 2:35:47 PM

tmm...you and I are saying the same thing except for the fact I don't understand how a Trump victory on March 1 makes it MORE likely that the Republicans will compromise. If you think that because you think Hillary will handle Trump easily in the general let me pause while I let my laughter die down. Trump will crush Hillary. So I think a Trump victory will make the Republicans more likely to obstruct. Trump is not as conservative as he paints himself but he is no Obama.

Posted by: Daniel | Feb 21, 2016 3:09:28 PM

Quit the cast to choose from. I think we would be better off without a Prez this time around.

I base this on trust, experience, for the good of the country. None if the candidates have these qualities. So its just going to be more if the same. Oh well.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Feb 21, 2016 9:37:35 PM

Daniel, two things in response.

First, I think most folks in Washington think that Donald Trump has no chance at winning in November. While the "beltway" perception may not be reality of what is happening in the rest of the country, the perception of folks in D.C. will color how they act over the next eight months. Trump doing well on March 1 by getting 35-40% of the Republican vote would probably make Trump the most likely candidate (particularly if Marco Rubio finishes third in most of the states and districts behind Ted Cruz). But the poll numbers that people in D.C. are looking at show that Trump would have serious problems in the general election that could lead to a Clinton presidency and a Democratic Senate.

Second, the Republicans in D.C. have no idea what Trump would do as president on things like the Supreme Court. If you saw the most recent South Carolina debate, Trump sounded like a Democrat on a lot of issues.

For both reasons, if they can get a moderate nominee from President Obama, enough Republican Senators might decide that the odds are that the alternative nominee named next February will be more liberal. They might be kicking themselves two years down the line if a President Trump starts naming conservative judges to the lower courts, but right now a compromise might look good.

Posted by: tmm | Feb 22, 2016 10:04:51 AM

For all intents of purposes, Obama is not going to put out a moderate nominee. He will wait until the most opportune time in the political cycle to nominate a progressive, making sure that the down-ticket democrat challengers to current GOP senators, can use in their campaigns, and Obama is hoping that enough of those seats flip to give the Democrats the majority in the Senate, which will guarantee at least a center-left justice (like David Souter was), and if Clinton is the president with a Democrat senate, they will get another Kagen/Sotomayor.

Posted by: Eric Knight | Feb 22, 2016 4:20:10 PM

I think the Republicans' over the top response (NO!) is bothersome since it seems gratutious. On some level, it might not matter, if the end result is the same. Still, Republicans have the votes to simply vote anyone down, so saying before anyone is nominated that no one will be satisfactory makes them look to me a bit silly.

The fact is that a realistic honest accounting is that Obama could have to put forth a fairly conservative candidate (think Kennedy -- he helps the liberals in key ways, but not in others ... some net might find him okay especially given the alternative) to have Republican senators confirm. Some liberals might think, if they are optimistic about Clinton winning, "eh. let us worry about it next year."

I think a Trump candidacy might affect the reasoning of Republicans, since he's a wild card & some probably honestly in their hearts don't think he would win. We won't see if that will happen at least to mid-March & maybe much later. As to flipping the Senate, the thing there is it will happen in November. The nominee would have to be on the table already & be as noted "center-left" at the most for Republicans to think it worth it to confirm. Republicans might even have the filibuster after losing the Senate, since Democrats might be wary of changing the rules in the middle of the game here. That might seem naive but really even before it took some doing to get the final few votes from Democrats to end the filibuster for other executive nominees.

Posted by: Joe | Feb 22, 2016 8:29:30 PM

Today is good. Why is it taking so long? The funeral is over. I vote for the 8th Circuit Judge whom Grassley likes. She was a public defender. That would be odd to have a lawyer who tried at least one jury trial make it to the Supreme Court bench. I don't know if she is from Harvard or Yale though. I know that the Harvard Yale thing is required. It is in the Constitution, right?

Posted by: HaroldRectum | Feb 23, 2016 10:30:22 AM

"who tried at least one jury trial"

Sotomayor did that too ... on the other side.

Posted by: Joe | Feb 23, 2016 11:48:07 AM

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This blog is about the political struggle I am engaging in Singapore. The title "Singapore Alternatives" is chosen because my only political dream is to build a true alternative in Singapore. Alternative to PAP government, of course. As the Alternative, the political party must be able to have the visions and policy insights to lead Singapore. I will write on various policy views and personal beliefs that I think is crucial in building up the Alternative. All constructive comments are welcome.
BISMARCK, N.D. | The North Dakota Dairy Coalition is seeking state funding to research the possibility of a new milk processing plant in the region.

"In order for North Dakota to increase and expand its milk production, its milk processing capacity will also need to increase and diversify," the coalition said in its application to the state Agricultural Products Utilization Commission, which funds developers of farm products.

If approved for $82,000 in grant funding, the study would consider the combined power of South Dakota's success in growing its dairy industry and North Dakota's dairy herd growth potential in recruiting milk-processing capacity.

The proposed plant would be accessible to both North Dakota and South Dakota dairy producers.

Jennifer Holle, whose family has a dairy farm south of Mandan, said the North Dakota Dairy Coalition, of which she is a director, hasn't conducted a feasibility study in about 10 years.

"South Dakota (dairy industry) is growing at such a ridiculous rate that we're actually partnering with them," said Holle, adding that she hopes a strategically placed processing plant could benefit both states.

Holle also said that, while the number of dairies in North Dakota is decreasing, existing operations are growing. The Holles' Northern Lights Dairy milks about 600 cows and their numbers keep climbing. They are shipping directly to Dean Food's Land O' Lakes facility in Bismarck but are worried, if they keep increasing production, where they will be able to send excess milk.

Holle said knowing where potential new processing could locate may affect where any dairy operations moving into North Dakota choose to place their facilities.

The study would identify advantages and disadvantages of the region, where the processor should be located and what type of plant would make the most sense. It would also identify what steps need to be taken to attract such a plant.

Blaine and Kathy Goetz started Bessy's Best, processing their own dairy products near Sterling, in 2008.

"The price of milk was so low," said Kathy Goetz, adding that they were getting only about $8 per hundredweight.

The Goetzes started by cutting things from their operation that they didn't absolutely need, using home remedies instead of medicines on the cattle.

"We were down to 75 cows, and it was either get out or," Kathy Goetz said, gesturing to the Bessy's Best processing facility.

"We'd be out of the dairy business (if not for Bessy's Best)," Blaine Goetz said.

Another processing facility in the region might help dairies if the price is good, he said.
125 years ago

ROOF SAGS: The weight of the accumulated snow has caused the roof at city hall to sag. The result is that the tin roof has separated in several places and with the thaw, the water is pouring down into the building. The plastering in the council chambers and on the second and third floors has been considerably damaged.

POLITICAL NEWS: Le Mars, Iowa -- John Adams, who was defeated in the republican city convention, was nominated by the democratic city convention for city solicitor. ...A Journal reporter spotted A.C. Strong in the wrong crowd. He is a republican, all right, and said he only went to the democratic city convention in Sioux City to see the sport.

MORNING SIDE MINISTERS: Out east in Morning Side there is a larger percentage of ministers than in other parts of the city. This has led to the adoption of some picturesque scriptural names: Zion's hill, where several pastors reside; the Slough Despond down at the "Valley of the Shadow" and the Dead sea is a pond on which certain unregenerates skate on Sundays.

100 years ago

WYOMING BOUND: A delegation of Sioux City stockmen left for Casper, Wyoming to attend the annual convention of the Wyoming Wool Growers' association. The goal is to interest the sheepmen of that territory in using the Sioux City market for their goods.

GEORGE HONORED: The Washington birthday program at the Webster grade school was given by the school orchestra. ...The Sioux City high school orchestra gave a Washington's birthday program in the school auditorium. The Civics quartet sang a number of patriotic songs in his honor.

MAKING NEWS: More than 200 persons attended a "rural" party given by the Knights of Columbus at their hall, Fifth and Pierce streets. The attendees dressed in costumes suggestive of country life. ...Dynamite was used to blast a large ice jam near the Floyd river bridge at the Sioux City Terminal Railway company at the foot of Dace street. ...In South Sioux City, the matter of the enforcement of the dog ordinance and the holding of dogs without licenses three days before being killed was considered at the council meeting.

50 years ago

SAFECRACKERS STRIKE: Safecrackers made off with between $2,000 and $3,000 Friday from the Boulevard Food Store, 1021 Nebraska St., owner Dave Hurwitz said. The grocery store had not been burglarized in 35 years. The burglary was the 18th successful safe job in Sioux City since last May.

JOINT BUILDING: A tentative proposal to erect a building west of the Municipal Auditorium to house the Community Theater and Art Center was presented to the City Council. Robert Howe, president of the Art Center Association, said the building would be financed by private donations and asked the city to provide the site. The Sioux City Symphony Association is interested in building a concert hall nearby. The council made no decision

IN THE NEWS: Pfc. Vernon Chase, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben D. Chase, Sioux City, was killed in Viet Nam Monday. He has been serving in Viet Nam since August. No details have been released. ...Gilbert Downing, of Oto, Iowa, trapped or shot 19 foxes in timberland in Woodbury County and received a $2 bounty for each animal from the county auditor. ...The three home delivery routes and trucks of Roe Dairy Co. of Sioux City have been sold to Roberts Dairy Co. of Omaha. Roe will continue to operate its nine cash and carry stores and wholesale business here.

25 years ago

FAMILY HOTLINE: With about 300 Siouxland families directly affected by Operation Desert Storm, a number of agencies have created a 24-hour hotline to help those who need information concerning soldiers serving in the Persian Gulf. The hotline is a project of the United Way, in cooperation with the A.I.D. Center, American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Home/Family Services, Army National Guard and Iowa Public Service Co.

IN THE NEWS: Sister Margaret Wick, president of Briar Cliff College, has been appointed to serve a term on the board of directors of the Council of Independent Colleges. ...Carter Dennis has been installed as president of the Boys Club. ...Bruce Kalin of Kalin Indoor Comfort of Sioux City, has earned the top North American dealer marketing award from Lennox Industries, Inc.

ICE FISHING: In the Iowa Great Lakes the ice is still two-feet deep and the ice fisherman keep trying their luck for panfish, such as perch, bluegill and crappie. Others try for game fish, such as northern pike, walleye and muskie. Bob Van Ampting of Spencer, Iowa, has fished the lakes for 25 years and said fishing this season has been excellent for perch. Catches have been good on West Okoboji and Spirit Lake.

These items were published in The Journal Feb. 21-27, 1891, 1916, 1966 and 1991.
ORANGE CITY, Iowa | Kristin Rucks has joined Northwestern Colleges staff as director of advancement.

She is responsible for meeting with current and prospective donors and offering leadership to help NWC achieve its annual fund, campaign and planned giving goals.

A Northwestern graduate, Rucks served her alma mater for three years as an admissions counselor before accepting the role of director of admissions and marketing for Presbyterian Homes and Services in Arden Hills, Minnesota. She then served as a marketing director for the food service provider Sodexo at St. Cloud State University.

For the past five years she worked as the community relations director for Heritage of Foley in Foley, Minnesota., a healthcare campus serving central Minnesota that offers a nursing center, adult day service program, senior apartments, assisted living, home care and rehabilitation.
DES MOINES | For more than three years, lawyers have traveled a long and winding road in a high-stakes dispute over a state regulatory commission's decision that led to the closure of Sioux City's riverboat casino.

The year-old legal case takes what could be one of the final turns on Tuesday, when the Iowa Court of Appeals hears an appeal brought by the Belle of Sioux City, a Penn National Gaming Co. subsidiary that operated the Argosy Sioux City.

The Belle is challenging the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission's actions when granting a state gaming license in 2013 to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City and its local nonprofit partner, Missouri River Historical Development, as well as subsequent judicial rulings that upheld those actions.

The case will be the last of three to be heard in a session that begins at 2:30 p.m. in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building in Des Moines. It will be heard by the three-judge panel of Chief Judge David Danilson, Gayle Nelson Vogel and Amanda Potterfield.

Mark Monson, board president for Missouri River Historical Development, a state-licensed nonprofit gaming group for Woodbury County, said he's hoping Tuesday's hearing is one of the last steps toward ending the legal battle.

"We would look forward to a resolution to this as soon as possible," Monson said. "I'm fairly confident that it will be ruled in favor of the IRGC."

Belle of Sioux City initially appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, which transferred the case to the Court of Appeals in December. The company had filed its notice of appeal in December 2014, challenging District Judge Eliza Ovrum's Nov. 7, 2014, ruling in Polk County District Court that the IRGC had acted within its authority when it granted the gaming license to the Hard Rock and MRHD.

That case was a result of a lengthy contract dispute between Argosy and MRHD that led to the IRGC's decision in April 2013 to accept bids for Woodbury County's first land-based casino.

Belle claims the IRGC's actions were "unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious" and violated state law and the company's rights of due process.

The IRGC ordered the casino to close in July 2014 because it was in violation of a state law that requires casinos to partner with licensed nonprofit groups. The Argosy's license lapsed after MRHD, its then-nonprofit sponsor, refused to sign off on a license renewal application.

Ovrum upheld that IRGC decision, and the floating casino was closed July 30, 2014, two days before the $128 million Hard Rock opened in downtown Sioux City.

The closure of the riverboat casino and opening of the Hard Rock didn't deter Belle from proceeding with its appeal.

"It has been a long, drawn-out process. The commission still feels it acted in accordance with state law," said Brian Ohorilko, IRGC administrator. "We are anxious to see some resolution."

The Argosy riverboat and accompanying structures on shore have since been removed from the Missouri riverfront. The riverboat was sold to an Illinois shipyard.
A retired trucker who still works in farming, Ingram, 62, said he will invest some of his winnings and pay off his house. He and Ford, who enjoy traveling and take several trips a year, will likely take an additional trip.
Editor's note: Every other Sunday through the conclusion of this year's session of the Iowa Legislature, our local lawmakers will share their Statehouse views.

Sen. Bill Anderson, R-Pierson

Last week was the first legislative funnel, a self-imposed deadline in the Legislature that helps keep the process moving. If a policy bill did not pass out of a House or Senate committee last week, the issue is likely dead for the year.

I would like to touch on two important pieces of legislation which survived the funnel.

The first is the renewable chemical production tax credit. Iowa is already a leader in the biofuels industry. It ranks first in corn production and second in soybean production. Our state produces the nations second largest supply of biomass, harvesting 14.4 million tons annually. With that, Iowa is well-positioned to move the renewable chemical industry to the next level.

There are several facilities around the state which produce co-products that can be processed into higher value compounds. Through further processing the compounds can be used for consumer products such as plastics, textiles, paints or pharmaceuticals. It is clear biochemical production will provide another opportunity for Iowa to be on the cutting edge.

The second piece of legislation deals with insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorders. This issue hits close to home because I have a nephew, Nick, who was diagnosed with autism. I have witnessed the positive effects of applied behavorial analysis (ABA) on those living with autism. The legislation provides the same services to all Iowans which were granted to state employees in 2011. The premium impact since the implementation of the state employee benefit has been 29 cents per member per month. It is time to get this done.

Rep. David Dawson, D-Sioux City

The governors proposed Medicaid privatization is ill-prepared to move forward on March 1. One in six Iowans participate in Medicaid services, and 70 percent of all payments are for the disabled and elderly. Legislators, including myself, in the House and the Senate requested the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services deny the governors application to shift $4.2 billion of Medicaid funding to three for-profit managed care corporations or, alternatively, delay implementation until the governor demonstrates adequate provider networks across Iowa.

I have heard from families and providers regarding problems with implementation of the governors plan. Issues include how information was inaccessible to individuals with disabilities, local providers being unable to finalize contracts with managed care organizations (MCOs), and not all hospitals or physicians have signed contracts with the MCOs to ensure patient access to appropriate care. Also, Medicaid members originally assigned to WellCare, whose contract with the state was terminated, have only begun to be reassigned to another MCO.

Iowans continue to be confused, misinformed and unclear whether they can continue with their current doctor, access their local hospital, or even maintain the same level of services. If the MCO to which they were assigned has their doctor signed up but not their hospital, Iowans are forced to choose one provider at the risk of losing another. This chaotic, hasty implementation by the governor should never have happened. Instead, the governor should reverse course to ensure Iowans receive the medical care they deserve.

Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City

On Wednesday, the Legislature recognized the 50th anniversary of Iowa's community college system. Established in 1966, community colleges were created as an open access point for education. They would emphasize training and technical skills at an affordable price. Importantly, they would provide education without entry requirements. This open-access philosophy was critical then and remains so today. It allows for students of any background to further their education.

Since 1966, the footprint of community colleges has grown. They now play a critical role in job creation efforts and economic development. If you need to be convinced of their impact, look first to our state's workforce. Iowa workers claim nearly 25 million credit hours of community college training, past and present.

Since 2013, the Legislature has invested millions of new dollars into career pathway, job training and tuition assistance programs for jobs in high demand. We feel those dollars have translated into success. In the last year alone, Western Iowa Tech conferred 31 percent of all certificates issued in the state of Iowa. This large share is worth noting. Certificates correspond with programs like carpentry and home health. There are 15 community colleges in Iowa, and WITCC leads several categories among them.

The bottom line is that community colleges provide Iowans with the skills employers are demanding. For 50 years, community colleges have given us the gift of lifelong learning and self-investment. Legislators of both parties marked the occasion. Let's hope the community college system remains strong for many years to come.

Rep. Ron Jorgensen, R-Sioux City

This past week House Republicans released their budget targets for 2017. With a projected increase of ongoing revenues of $153 million, the budget calls for spending to increase $146 million. This is in line with the budgeting principles we have followed over the last six years, which states that ongoing costs will not exceed ongoing revenue sources. While standing by this principle for the last five years Republicans have found common ground with the governor and Senate Democrats. We expect that to continue again this year. We must continue to live within our means.

In line with continuing to prioritize education funding the budget calls for an increase of $134 million for K-12 education. This assumes a 2 percent growth rate and amounts to 92 percent of total increased spending. At this level of spending many other state budgets will need to take significant budget cuts. The Senate passed a 4 percent growth rate for education, which amounts to an extra $85 million over the House number. A major concern involves the Medicaid managed care savings built into the budget projections. Every month of delay in program implementation costs the state $8 million. Also, if the March REC revenue projections are lower than earlier projected we must use the lower number in budgeting, which would mean more cuts.

In light of this, current negotiations in setting a school funding increase rate have stalled. Discussions will continue, but I don't see how the number could be much over 2 percent, if at all.
My last column addressed the 25th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm. Next week will mark the culmination of that operation. With this commemoration in mind, I wanted to share some lessons learned that bear some relation to the present. My caveat is that these observations are not shared by all. Really, the only difference between my observations and the guy on the barstool is my having served in the conflict, along with 25 years of practical experience and the finest education the United States armed forces can provide.

It is hard to recall now, but there was not sizable support for the conflict before it began. The first Bush administration believed it needed the support of Congress, which was not a sure thing. Administration officials floundered seeking to explain the need for military action. Secretary of State James Baker at one point boiled down the need for action to one word: jobs.

The resolution authorizing force was narrowly approved 52-47 in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. Harry Reid and Al Gore voted for the resolution, Chuck Grassley and then-Rep. Bernie Sanders voted against. Commitment to send Americans to fight and die was not placed on one person, Congress took some of the responsibility.

The military campaign started with defined, attainable missions applied to a military problem. The objective was to protect Saudi Arabia, evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait and degrade Iraqs ability to threaten its neighbors. To accomplish this, the U.S. made a significant commitment of 540,000 service members.

The first Bush administration understood the political ramifications of the environment and the challenges of occupying Iraq. As bad as Saddam Hussein was, the uncertainty of taking over the country was more troublesome. As the secretary of defense at the time, Dick Cheney, said, We were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq. Cheney would later prove those words prescient.

Using the military to achieve destructive ends is one thing, bringing order afterwards is something entirely different. There is a slogan attributed to the Marines, that they are employed when it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight. Building a civil society, especially where repression has been the modus operandi, takes longer and requires willing participants.

Occurring at the same time as an economic recession, there was dispute about how to address paying the costs. As a contemporaneous story put it, Congress and President Bush are treating the war as an added cost to be covered by borrowing, without affecting domestic or regular defense programs. Military engagements since then have been put on the collective credit card.

The operation demonstrated how coalitions can provide strength. The involvement of 34 countries, including nine Arab countries, added political and military power against Hussein. Arab forces operated only in Kuwait, enabling Kuwaiti forces to liberate Kuwait City. The coalition remained strong even after Hussein began launching SCUD missiles into Israel. America had sufficient influence with Israel at the time to prevent them from retaliating and undermining American foreign policy initiatives.

Iraqi morale was low, as demonstrated by the high desertion rates. Napoleon is said to have remarked that in battle, the morale is to the physical as three to one. The Iraqi army was wearied by years of war, then overwhelmed by experiencing weeks of attacks on supply lines and direct bombardment in a cause having no benefit to the population. The level of commitment of those we are fighting today is significantly different.

Commitment requires some degree of sacrifice. What level of sacrifice are we prepared to make?

Next week: Charese Yanney

A Sioux City resident, Steve Warnstadt is government affairs coordinator for Western Iowa Tech Community College and a former Democratic state senator. He and his wife, Mary, are the parents of one son and one daughter.
Iowans are reaping the benefits of low energy costs. Lower costs have been especially beneficial to those with lengthy work commutes and those in the agricultural sector. Likewise, lower fuel costs are particularly beneficial to those with fixed and low incomes. Every dollar saved eases the strain families face when balancing their budget.

Unfortunately, President Obama is seeking to end the benefits resulting from low energy costs. The president recently proposed a $10 per barrel tax hike on crude oil. This translates to a $5 increase every time we fill our gas tanks. While the tax will affect all Americans, the lower and working classes will bear the biggest burden. Moreover, agricultural and manufacturing communities will also be hit hard. In Iowa, farm and manufacturing vehicles require a great deal of fuel, and tax surges such as the one being proposed by the White House unfairly target core sectors of the Iowa economy.

We need to reform the tax code. However, pitting critical industries against one another is dangerous to national economic health and damaging to hard-working Americans. Lawmakers must recognize the counterproductive nature of efforts to increase taxes exclusively on the oil and gas sector. We must work together to create a tax code that treats all sectors fairly. - Lisa Wagner, Spirit Lake, Iowa
As the official Soldiers' Angels organization in Germany, since 2003 our mission has been to support patients medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center from Iraq and Afghanistan.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
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
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
DAHLGREN, Va. - Capt. Brian Durant, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) commander, presents the Dahlgren history book, "The Sound of Freedom," to Dr. William Bundy, Gravely Naval Warfare Research Group director, at the 2016 Black History Month Observance, Feb. 11. "The research and development progress that was shared with me on the railgun and directed energy systems was very reassuring," said Bundy, a U.S. Naval War College professor who toured NSWCDD electromagnetic railgun and directed energy facilities after inspiring a military and civilian audience with his keynote speech at the observance. "Those capabilities will certainly deliver advantages for our maritime forces. It was absolutely encouraging to witness first-hand the remarkable effort and work that is continuing today at Dahlgren." (U.S. Navy photo by Barbara Wagner/Released)

DAHLGREN, Va.

DAHLGREN, Va. - Dr. William Bundy, Gravely Naval Warfare Research Group director, and Michael Hobson, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) Black Employment Program manager (right), meet after Bundy's keynote speech at the NSWCDD 2016 Black History Month Observance, Feb. 11. In his speech, Bundy - a retired Navy Captain who began his Navy career as a sonar technician - reflected on the lives and service of African-Americans, especially those who died in combat, making the land and seas from Pearl Harbor to the skies over Korea hallow. (U.S. Navy photo by Barbara Wagner/Released)

(Feb. 20, 2016)Dr. William Bundy recalled the day he missed the bus for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C.It was Aug. 28, 1963 and he would have had the chance to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak."I had to go home and get permission from my Mom and when I got back to Bethel AME Church the bus was gone," the 2016 Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) Black History Celebration keynote speaker told the audience at the base theater, Feb. 11.Eventually he met the civil rights leader."Inspirational" is how Bundy described his 10-minute conversation with King at Penn Station in New York City."I just arrived from England. My ship was deployed and I was leaving the ship. I was in uniform and he was standing there all by himself," said Bundy. "I walked over and talked to him. The civil rights struggle that he represented is very important to all of us, but from the Navy perspective I want you to understand that we've been there. We're still there and as a race, our heritage is strong."Throughout the month of February, the Navy joins our nation in celebrating the history and culture of African-American and Black Sailors during African-American/Black History Month.Established in 1926, President Gerald Ford expanded the celebration in 1976 to include the entire month of February. This year, Navy commands are encouraged to celebrate and reflect on the theme "Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African-American Memories."Bundya retired Navy Captain who began his Navy career as a sonar technicianreflected on the lives and service of African-Americans, especially those who died in combat, making the land and seas from Pearl Harbor to the skies over Korea hallowed.He spoke about Doris "Dorie" Miller who enlisted as a Navy Mess Attendant 3rd Class in September 1939. Miller distinguished himself by courageous conduct and devotion to duty during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, while serving aboard USS West Virginia (BB-48). He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on this occasion. Miller then served aboard USS Indianapolis (CA-35) from December 1941 to May 1943. He was next assigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay (CVE-56). He was lost with that ship when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on Nov. 24, 1943, during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. On Nov. 25, 1944, Miller was presumed dead by the Secretary of the Navy a year and a day after being carried as missing in action since the Nov. 24, 1943 attack on the Liscome Bay. USS Miller (DE-1091) was named in honor of Cook Third Class Doris Miller.Bundy also recounted Ens. Jesse LeRoy Brown, the Navy's first black aviator, who wanted not only to fly, but to be of service to mankind. On Dec. 4, 1950, Brown's aircraft was hit while making a strafing run against the enemy during the Korean War. With tremendous skill, he managed to crash land on a rough, boulder-strewn slope. He survived the crash, only to remain stuck in the cockpit as smoke began to billow from the wreckage. He risked his life to help a Marine regiment without any race considerations, knowing only that Americans were in trouble. Although his career was met from start to tragic finish with immeasurable odds, his courage and devotion live on throughout our Navy's history."Jessie L. Brown consecrated that land, making it hallow," said Bundy, emphasizing that the naval aviator left behind a legacy. "Based on his story, Marine Corps general Frank Petersenwho was a seaman apprentice in the Navydecided to really pick himself up by the bootstraps and become a pilot."Petersen, the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general, served during the Korean War in 1953 and Vietnam in 1968. During his career, he flew more than 350 combat missions and more than 4,000 hours in various military aircraft.Winston Scottformer NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captainamong others also followed Brown's example."It all started with Jesse L. Brown," said Bundy, director of the Gravely Naval Warfare Research Group and a U.S. Naval War College professor. "It has to start somewhere, and these are the foundations on which I hope to leave an impression on you. That junior engineer or junior administrator under your supervision needs more than just supervision. They need sponsorshipsomebody that is going to get me that next difficult job. Somebody that is going to make sure that when I complete that job, it's communicated to senior leadership so that when promotions and opportunities arise, people are prepared. As you see these heroic Sailors, we'll start with that discussion. They are not black Sailors, they are courageous Navy fighting men."Scott's journey to the stars started in Miami. His largely segregated education provided little access to resources, but his own determination combined with the dedication of his teachers, set him on an inspiring path of achievement. Scott entered Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1973 and was designated a naval aviator in 1974. As a naval aviator, Scott piloted the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, and the A-7 Corsair. All together he has flown more than 5,000 flight hours on 20 different aircraft. He was selected by NASA for the astronaut program and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He served as a mission specialist on STS-72 in 1996, and STS-87 in 1997, and has logged a total of 24 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes in space, including three spacewalks totaling 19 hours and 26 minutes."I really believe that diversity and inclusion is about leadership from the top," said Bundy, one of the Centennial Seven African-American submarine skippers who served during the first one-hundred years of the Navy's submarine service. "It is about accountability throughout the chain of command. It's about human development. We need everybody. We are in the fight for our lives. There are countries out there that are able to produce faster than us. They know what we do. They are trying to push us out and we need every one of you, and others who are still playing Xbox at home to come join us in this fight."China produces 100,000 engineers a year and we're nowhere close. So when you have those STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programsbe inclusive. When you have the opportunity to bring someone alongbring them along. We are one Navy, and I believe this observance is about recognizing who we are, what we're up against, and for us to come together individually, and as an organization, so we can continue to enjoy the liberty, freedom, and access we have today."After the observance, Bundy toured the NSWCDD electromagnetic railgun and directed energy facilities."My tour reinforced my belief that Dahlgren remains a center for innovation and development of credible combat capabilities," said Bundy. "The research and development progress that was shared with me on the railgun and directed energy systems was very reassuring. Those capabilities will certainly deliver advantages for our maritime forces. It was absolutely encouraging to witness first-hand the remarkable effort and work that is continuing today at Dahlgren."
WASHINGTON

(Feb. 20, 2016)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awarded anmodification to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00174-14-D-0005 for engineering and technical support services for Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Technology Division (IHEODTD). The location of work performed will be determined by individual task order and is expected to be completed by February 2017. No contract funds are being obligated at time of award. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded anmodification to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00174-14-D-0004 for engineering and technical support services for Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Technology Division (IHEODTD). The location of work performed will be determined by individual task order and is expected to be completed by February 2017. No contract funds are being obligated at the time of award. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor delivery order 0018 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026). This order is to procure mitigation requirements to address diminishing manufacturing sources/material shortages issues and obsolescence to support planned low-rate initial production activities for the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (49 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (43 percent); Salt Lake City, Utah (7 percent); and Indianapolis, Indiana (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in October 2017. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $15,205,897 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded amodification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-12-C-0007) to exercise an option to procure 50 AE1107C engines and associated spares in support of the MV-22 aircraft for the Marine Corps (38) and the government of Japan (12). Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is expected to be completed in November 2017. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy); and foreign military sales funds in the amount of $117,748,728 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This order combines purchases for the Navy ($89,642,076; 76 percent) and the government of Japan ($28,106,652; 24 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales program. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor cost-plus- fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price delivery order 0113 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-12-G-0006) in support of the MV-22. This order is for the non-recurring engineering efforts to retrofit the MV-22 with the Traffic Collision Avoidance System. Work will be performed at Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (54 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (30 percent); Phoenix, Arizona (9 percent); St. Louis, Missouri (5 percent); and Seattle, Washington (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2018. Fiscal 2015 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,332,880 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded ancost-plus-fixed-fee contract for requirements decomposition and development of Block 4 modernization program capabilities in support of the F-35A/B/C aircraft. This contract includes new and upgraded capabilities to provide enhancements and continuous improvements to maintain viability against evolving threats, reduce life cycle costs, and improve operational suitability. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in May 2017. Fiscal 2015 research, development, testing and evaluation (Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force) and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participant funds in the amount of $55,705,494 are being obligated on this award, $35,990,124 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Marine Corps ($4,164,539; 5.12%); Navy ($6,611,354; 8.12%); Air Force ($25,214,231; 30.98%); and non-U.S. DoD participants ($19,715,370; 24.22%). This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The, is the contracting authority (N00019-16-C-0008)., is being awarded not-to-exceedfor undefinitized delivery order 0026 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-14-G-0020). This order provides for non-recurring effort and integration tasks required to operate a hardware-in-the-loop laboratory used to build, modify, verify and validate, and distribute mission data file sets for the F-35. This contract will deliver modification kits to upgrade the RC West Block 3i Verification Validation Station to the Block 3F, 3F+, and 3F Digital Channelized Receiver/Technique Generator and Tuner Insertion Program configurations, and provide engineering support during the installation and integration of the modification kits, verification and validation test venue support in support of the F-35A aircraft for the governments of Japan and Israel, under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (53 percent); Orlando, Florida (25 percent); Nashua, New Hampshire (18 percent); El Segundo, California (2 percent); and San Diego, California (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2021. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $12,000,000 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded amodification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee-cost contract (N00421-14-C-0021) for additional systems engineering and technical services. This modification includes systems integration and software development, platform simulation, integration and laboratory engineering, and software engineering. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (84 percent); China Lake, California (5 percent); Point Mugu, California (5 percent); Jacksonville, Florida (2.5 percent); Orlando, Florida ( 2.5 percent); various locations within the continental U.S. (0.5 percent); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (0.5 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2016. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy), and working capital (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,388,030 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded amodification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-14-C-0026) to exercise an option for engineering change proposals for the low-rate initial production Lot 8 propulsion system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. Work will be performed in Hartford, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed in December 2018. Fiscal 2014 aircraft procurement (Air Force/Navy/Marine Corps); fiscal 2015 aircraft procurement (Air Force); and international partner funds in the amount of $33,104,748 will be obligated at time of award, $32,637,910 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Marine Corps ($27,005,927; 81.58 percent); Air Force ($4,089,780; 12.35 percent); Navy ($1,605,704; 4.85 percent); and international partners ($403,337; 1.22 percent). The, is the contracting activity.
In a continuing effort to provide support to parents in the community, the St. Mary's County Department of Aging & Human Services is offering the Guiding Good Choices Program on five Thursdays beginning in March.The program is a family competency training program for parents of children in middle school. The program is based on the social development model and its primary objectives are to enhance protective parent-child interactions and to reduce child risk for early substance use initiation.The free, five week program will be held on March 31, April 7, 14, 21, and 28 at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown Campus, 22950 Hollywood Road, Building B, Room 116. Each session, led by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), will run from 6-8 p.m. Light dinner fare will be provided for those who attend.For more information or to register, call the Department of Aging & Human Services at 301-475-4200, ext. *1681 or contact Maryellen Kraese, Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention Coordinator, at Maryellen.kraese@stmarysmd.comSt. Mary's County is involved in a little known partnership with Calvert County, called the Calvert-St. Mary's Metropolitan Planning Organization (C-SMMPO). A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a federally mandated, federally funded transportation policy-making organization. The Calvert-St. Mary'sMPO is one of approximately 420 MPOs across the United States.Why an MPO? With over 50,000 people, as per the 2010 Census, the Lexington ParkCaliforniaChesapeake Ranch Estates region met the criteria for designation as an Urbanized Area (UZA). Therefore, an MPO is required to be established for handling transportation planning coordination for the area. In accordance with the U.S. Department of Transportation requirements, an MPO was designated by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley on December 31, 2013. Currently the population within the UZA is approximately 58,000 and growing.For citizens an MPO means quite a bit. It provides a channel of communication with the State. An important aspect of Metropolitan Planning is public involvement and citizen feedback on how transportation can be improved within the MPO boundaries is encouraged. Specific parts of the UZA which citizens feel should be a focus area, or would want to see more sidewalks/pedestrian paths, should be communicated to Ashley Renshaw, Calvert-St. Mary's Metropolitan Planning Organization Administrator, at 301-475-4200, ext. *1505 or via email to ashley.renshaw@stmarysmd.com.To view the MPO website go to http://www.calvert-stmarysmpo.com/ To take a short survey go to http://www.calvert-stmarysmpo.com/FormCenter/Survey-Forms-5/Let-Us-Know-44 The Town of Leonardtown will hold the Ethics Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 5:00 p.m.
Kelly Soo Park, in custody, 2015

I drove into downtown today, parking in an affordable lot in Chinatown. I feel Im needing the exercise of an extra block walk to court. Besides, all the parking close to court, costs about $20.00 per day. I'm starting to feel a little more like myself since my graceful trip and fall four weeks ago.On my walk towards the criminal court building, I see Lonce LaMon from adjuster.com and I wait for her to finish parking to walk in with her. On the Temple Street Plaza one of Park's defense attorneys, Mark Kassabian enters the courthouse right when I do.In the elevator up to 9, I saw Michael Gargiulos new counsel Dale Rubin. Ariel Newman, who is co-representing Paul Turley is already here. The court clerk unlocks the door for counsel to enter but the general public and press are not allowed in yet.Also on the floor is DDA Amy Ashvanian who is prosecuting the " Little Armenian " murders. Albert Harutyunyan [aka Alberd Tersargyan]is charged with four counts of first degree murder. It looks like there will be a hearing in that case also this morning.More defense counsel for the Park case arrive and try the door. Its still locked. A set of prosecutors Ive never seen before arrives and tries the door. There may be a slew of cases this morning.Thereseveral cases being heard this morning.Two of the prosecutors on the Uwaydah et. all /Park Fraud case are here. DDAs Catherine Chon and Karen Nishita. I see the bailiff is letting defense attorneys [on another case] back into the custody area to speak to their client[s].The first case is called. No resolution has been made between the parties. A return date is picked and the hearing is over very quickly.Lonnie Franklin, Jr.'s co-counsel Dale Atherton arrives with a scanner to scan the peoples Franklin exhibits in the jury room.I see Harutyunyan's two defense counsel in the courtroom, Pete Warmin and Greg Apt with the Alternate Public Defender's Office.DDA Dynan Mathai, [who I believe is lead prosecutor on the Uwaydah/Park] case arrives.On the record in the second case. The interpreter is sworn in to translate English to Eastern and Western Armenian for the defendant.The court asks about reports being prepared. They are not back in from the medical doctors.The court states that the proceedings are going to remain suspended. When I hear that, I'm thinking California Penal Code section 1368 . This section of the code has to do with mental competency of the defendant. Section 1368(c) states that court proceedings are suspended until the defendant's competency to stand trial can be determined. There may be some other reason the proceedings are suspended, but in my mind, this is the most likely cause.The court asks the parties if they have a date [to return]. Judge Kennedy tells the parties, "I do need it to be on a Friday." March 18 for court and counsel. Further proceedings for March 18. And thats it.I remember seeing these two defendants last Friday. One of the defendants in a two defendant case is going to plead. When Judge Kennedy hears that she asks the bailiff, Can we get [defendants name] out right away? Then the court says to counsel, When I hear those magic words, I want to get it done right away.The defendant will plead to voluntary manslaughter. The court is asking for the specific counts and what would the defendant get on those counts. The high term of 11 years for the gang allegation and an additional 10 consecutively for the gun. The defendant was arrested in 2010.The judge reads through all the specific language of the individuals rights, that the defendant must say on the record that he is giving up. The court makes sure that the defendant understands each and every right he has that he is giving up. The defendant pleads no contest to the charges. 2,320 days credit. So, about six and a half years credit on a 21 year sentence.There is a probation violation case. The DDA from the prior case is asked by the court to stand in for the people. It's over pretty quick.Second defendant in the third case. This defendant is also taking advantage of the peoples offer. The court asks the people to outline the amended charges. Amended count two for voluntary manslaughter. Gang allegation and firearms allegation. This defendant would also get 21 years.We have a repeat of the first defendant giving up each and every right before the court will accept the plea agreement. The defendant waives time for sentencing. They are about to conclude when the court realizes they don't have the original date the defendant was arrested. That needs to be tracked down before the court can rule on the number of days credited in custody. The court interrupts this case to hear the Uwaydah et. al / Park case.The court starts calling out the names of the many defendants. Matter of people vs. Paul Turley and Peter Nelson, Marisa Nelson and David Johnson....DDA Chon informs the court that the hearing is only for defendants Forgar, Park and Arnold.Defense attorney Ellyn Garofalo for defendant Tatiana Arnold [the attorney]. Defense atttorneys Jeffrey Isaacs and Akili Nickson for defendant Tony Folgar. Defense attorney Mark Kassabian for defendant Park, and standing in for counsel [named] for defendants Case and Maria Turley. Defense counsel Ariel Newman for defendant Paul Turley. The people state their appearances. There's also a counsel here for a Mark Engle [an uncharged, alleged co-conspirator].The court asks, "What are we doing today?"DDA Chon replies the [parties filed] two proposals. There are some issues that the defense and people do not agree on.I believe Chon states there is a 1050 filing for the peoples [response to defense] 995. The people have heard from all but one defense attorney.Judge Kennedy asks, "Can we take up the order first and what the parties can't agree on?"DDA Dayan Mathai updates the court. [First] the deadline set for defense mid March for privileged docs to be produced, people [still say it will be] 10-15 weeks for them to be produced. Seems they should be ordered to produce it.Second, the defense proposal as is, paragraph 9 in it, meant to include understood agreement by DAs office, is any party has waived privilege as described in the order.Other than that the two orders are essentially identical. There's one issue about cell phones. Those are the two main issues.The timeline [for turning over discovery and privilege discovery] when proposed in Jan, we said it would take 12-15 weeks. Its still going to take us 12 to 15 weeks.The court asks, "Why would you not do anything between Jan and now?" DDA Mathai replies, "Your honor, we have been." Its not fair. ... Weve said 12 to 15 weeks. The people have to process this. DDA Mathai continues, "They [the defense] want the court to put on paper a deadline for us. We are putting a deadline. Its going to take 12 to 15 weeks. ... Were telling you up front. The people who are doing the work, they started within the last week. Because we [had? didn't have?] a written email from the defense to start. ... The difference that we're talking about is about two weeks. "All were asking is that the court says, not be put on paper. ... To give us a hard deadline, its impossible. Its binding our hands just seems unnecessary to include that deadline.""Second issue. ... When we were here originally the [order the] court is now signing is very different. The original protocol, Both Ms. Garofalo and Mr. Gluck's firm getting all the discovery, whether it pertains to Ms. Arnold or Mr. Turley ... In that structure we were talking about .... look, Mr. Gluck may see items that relate to Ms. Arnold that he doesn't represent. ... If the people are going to be asked to produce that, two separate lawyers, that may violate privilege. ... that [they?] acknowledge that [they're] going to be seeing some other counsel's stuff."There is further explanation from the people. On this point of privilege, Ms. Arnold may represent privilege, her clients hold the privilege. The court asks, "Wasnt that the whole point of this thing?"Ms. Garofalo will only receive items from the search of Ms. Arnold. Mr. Gluck will only receive things related to Paul Turley.The people continue to argue, "Now theres not an overlap, were not asking for that issue on the record. Now they want to have the court say, on the record, to limit the people from ever arguing in the future about this privilege. ... [I] dont think the court should give a written order that Im prevented from an argument."The court asks, "What paragraph?" Mr. Newman answers, "Paragraph 9." After looking over the defense's proposal for the court order, Judge Kennedy rules, "In terms of paragraph 9, I dont like the language the DA should not argue. I think that I like better, following the protocol outlined in this order does not constitute a waiver of privilege."DDA Mathai replies, "Thats fine your honor. ... Thats more acceptable to us. Implicit in this idea, if they see their things theyre not waving." DDA Chon, tells the court there is another attached protective order. The court replies, "Im not signing any [other?] order today."I believe DDA Mathai continues, "With location 13, we did have extensive arguments as to what that will mean. Our position [still is?] ... has not established as a threshold issue, whose items are in there. ... That we still have our arguments that other people's privilege that knowingly .. that havent asserted at this point. ... And [they?] have argued that the court should turn them over to them."The court decides. "What Im going to order in the revised order that complying with this protocol does not constitute a waiver of privilege. If you have other arguments then your going to make those arguments."There is a bit more back and forth between the court and DDA Mathai about removing specific language. Since the date to come back in two weeks doesn't work for Newman's firm, they are asking to come back in three weeks, on March 11.The next issue is for defendants on the smaller indictment [Arnold et. al BA435339].Attorney Issacs on Folgar. [The court] gave us permission to file [995?] motion just to the tax charges in the Arnold indictment. Would [like to put up?] a briefing schedule in the morning. We will come to an agreement, so I hope we will come to an agreement.The court asks, "Ms. Garofalo youve filed something? "Its about the mayhem charge only for Arnold." The court informs Garofalo that she has now read all of the transcripts on the smaller indictment.The court asks about the 995 scheduling. There's back and forth about when the replies will be filed and when they will argue. It appears argument for 995 will be set for March 25.Mark Kassabian brings up a housekeeping matter having to do with the February 26 date. Kassabian wants that date vacated for his client to come to court because now there's no appearance set. The new date for defendant's to appear is March 25.DDA Chon believes there might be other clients that still need to waive. She requests the court that, before they waive that date, the people will check and inform the court. If they need anyone on the 26th, they will let the court know.Ariel Newman tells the court the 1050 issue is just about the defense reply. Judge Kennedy tells the parties, "I think we are finished."Attorney for Mr. Engle approaches on the motion to squash the people's subpoena on his client, Mark Engle.The court states, "I have no idea who Mark Ingle or who he is to the case. ... I dont have [a] copy to the subpoena."Mr. Engle is a third party. DDA's Mathai and Chon for the people.Counsel for Mr. Engle speaks. Mr. Engle had invested in a Venture Business bank. There was a lawsuit against the bank for, one, cooking the books and [two?] the investment for all those people. I dont know if hes involved in the case at all, so thats why were moving to quash the bank records for that period.I believe DDA Mathai explains to the court. "He is essentially an unindicted co-conspirator. ... Part of our conspiracy [theory] and several overt acts. And essentially the overt acts are alleged to have been part of an overall scheme for Uwaydah and Associates to get a controlling interest in this bank. ... What we plan to prove at trial, not only the charged conspiracies, but other[s] joining in [on] that scheme, include Mr. Engle, an associate of Mr. Uwaydah, to get a controlling share of the bank and make it easier to move money. ... That's the background of Mr. Engles. ... The court has heard his name. ... He supplied a letter to the court of behalf of Ron Case, to reduce his bail and give consideration. ... He is connected to the group and not formally charged."The court considers, "I wasnt there so I dont know. Defense?"Mr. Engle's counsel: "I dont know if he asked for an indictment against Mr. Engle or not. But in any event, all I've heard so far is speculation on the peoples part that there may be something in these [bank] records that may tie him to the group. That [does? doesn't?] get him past the search warrant. ... If they want to drag him in as a defendant ... they just dont subpoena third party records. ... Hey if you bank with that bank, they are trying ..." [I miss the last of counsel's argument. It's something about if individuals bank at the same bank, then there must be a conspiracy.DDA Mathai counters. "The SDT is very limited. ... Its only covering the time of 2009 and 2010. I have it laid out in court [documents]. ... I have told the court that he is considered part of the scheme. He does have a connection to the conspirators and the court has gotten notice of that. ... Unsolicited from any of us. He volunteered a letter, of his relationship to Mr. Case. ... He said in a letter, [he was a] very close friend of Ron case for, I think, he said for 19 years. [They] spent a lot of time together. ... All of that is in sharp contrast to statements he provided to state regulators that he doesnt have any relationship to all the other defendants. ... [We] also have his statement to investigators about Ron Case that are in sharp contrast to his letter to the court."There's a bit more back and forth about who has a copy of what and if DDA Mathai got a copy of the motion to squash the subpoena.Judge Kennedy states, "I think hes has read it."Engles's counsel continues to argue to squash the subpoena. "Mr. Engles is not in the indictment. He's not in either one thats of the charged defendants. ... [This has]nothing to do with Mr. Engle. ... When a family member comes to Dept. 30 [arraignment court] for ten years ..." The court interrupts his soliloquy and asks, "Are you saying hes a family member?"Counsel continues, "No. When someone is vouching to set bail ... now Mr. Mathai says he can now look at their bank records. ... Its different if they filed under penalty of perjury that they didnt know each other. ...Thats fine if they plan on prosecuting. ..."I believe the court asks, "How does subpoenaing these records advance the prosecution of this case?"DDA Mathai tells the court, "As I said, we have a very large conspiracy. I put in every brief that I field in this court, the defendants charged are just a portion of the conspirators." Judge Kennedy counters, "That doesn't answer my question."DDA Mathai continues his argument to deny squashing the subpoena. "There are connections between other non-indicted conspirators that its still continuing. By showing the pattern of investment and the relation of these other unindicted co-conspirators. The actions of Mr. Engle ... If Mr. Case is in trial, and one of the charge is, he [Engle?] doesnt know anyone."What he [Engle] said to the FDIC [was] how much he invested and [the people would ask?] where did he get his funds, Im going to prove all of that to the jury . Its very narrow [the subpoena]. Its a distinct portion of time. Its one group of individuals ... about half of them are before this court."The court rules. "I think that the people have articulated a reasonable [argument] for action for the subpoena so the motion to quash is denied."Mr. Engle's counsel makes a request of the court. "When documents are delivered to the court, what Id like is to come back with the people and go through those documents with the court. There's nothing in those documents. ... When were here and the court has a chance to see it, that what [was] just presented in court is not what actually the reality is. ... Were not going to keep subpoena records from Mr. Engle from eight years ago."The court doesn't appear to agree with that. "Ive made my ruling so I dont intend to go through those records."And that's it for the Uwaydah et. al /Park Fraud Case hearing. They return on March 11 for more pretrial.Lonce LaMon has graciously agreed to share some of the motions filed by the defense that she's purchased from the court. Most interesting are the letters of support that were written for Park and other defendants to get their bail reduced. As soon as I receive copies, I will upload to T&T's SCRIBD account and post links.
Not even three months after the opening of their Division Street cafe, the second location of Portlands newest multi-roaster coffee company, the nearly-unGooglable Good Coffee, officially opened Monday.

Centrally located on the corner of 12th Avenue and Salmon Street in inner Southeast Portland, the cafes bustling atmosphere contrasts nicely to the relaxed, neighborhood-y, sit-and-read-the-Sunday-paper feel of Good Coffees Division location.

The new shop features the same squeaky-clean white hexagonal tiles, all-white La Marzocco Linea Classic espresso machine and custom white powder-coated Mahlkonig EK-43 grinder, sleek marble countertops, and Schoolhouse Electric lights seen in its sister cafe. Rich walnut wood shelving and an abundance of plants warm the place up, and a massive Oregon State flag drapes down the east wall. At 575 square feet, the space is on the smaller side, but the 20 foot-high ceilings and south- and west-facing windows lend it a bright and airy feel.

Coffees from Grand Rapids, Michigans MadCap Coffee and Portland, Oregons Roseline Coffee are served on bar, and bags of Heart Roasters and Coava Coffee Roasters will soon be available for sale. (The set-up is flipped around at the Division location, which brews Heart and Coava but offers Roseline and MadCap beans for purchase.) Top-notch teas from San Franciscos Song Tea and Ceramics, tasty treats from Frice Pastry, and delicious spicy chai from Tanglewood Chai (made by the ladies behind Portlands Either/Or Cafe) are also on the menu.

The coffee is excellent, and the interior design is spot-on, but what really stands out at both of Good Coffees locations is the exceptional customer service. The baristas seem genuinely kind-hearted and clearly love what they do, and everyone who steps through the door is made to feel welcome.

Joanna Han is a contributing editor at Kinfolk Magazine, and a Sprudge contributor based in Portland, Oregon. Read more Joanna Han on Sprudge.
China currently exports consumer goods to Middle Eastern countries, and is developing nuclear energy cooperation with Jordan. However, its attempts to inject itself into the Middle Eastern policy debate have not brought many results.

Sunni Shift?

Because China has thus far avoided making a principled position in the Middle East, increased confrontation in the region has meant taking increasingly shaky diplomatic steps.

China recently attempted to host its own Syrian peace talks, abandoning its unequivocal support of Bashar Assad. It supported Saudi Arabia's position on Yemen in the UN Security Council, while at the same time cancelling a visit to Riyadh to avoid tensions with Iran.

According to Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, the moves could be a reaction to the reduced role of the United States in the region and Russia's moves in Syria.

"China has for several months harbored a suspicion that the United States, entering an election year while drowning in domestic oil and gas supply, is not as interested in the Middle East as it has been for the past half century," Luft wrote in Foreign Policy.
"Everyone in the neighborhood knows us, we are always walking together. Theres no other dog around here as big and friendly as Jan," Davydov said.

According to Davydov, Yan ended up in his care purely by chance.

"Originally his owners wanted to get rid of him, but then offered me the opportunity to take him in, and I agreed. Jan literally grew up on the playground. Some of the kids who played with him now have kids of their own, and still they come to visit him," the old man reminisced.

It all came to an end on February 8 when Yan went missing.

Davydov's neighbors, however, refused to sit idly and watch the man deal with his plight alone. Scores of volunteers swept the surroundings, checked animal shelters and called for help via social networks, eventually attracting the attention of several prominent media outlets.

And as long as people refuse to ignore such cases, as long as human compassion does not go extinct, hope still remains. And perhaps one day, perhaps very soon, Vladimir Davydov will be able to welcome back his friend and companion.
Naumov drew attention to some of the complaints about people being held in inhumane conditions. In particular, a letter from 600 detainees at the Manus facility gained media attention after it was published online by human rights lawyer Julian Burnside on November 30 last year, who called it 'A Christmas letter from Manus.'

The letter was addressed to Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia and Peter Dutton MP, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, and asked the authorities for "something different this time," after previously having requested to be freed from detention without success.

"We realized that there are no differences between us and rubbish but a bunch of slaves that helped to stop the boats by living in hellish condition. The only difference is that we are very costly for the Australian tax payers and the Politicians as our job to 'stop the boats' is done," they wrote.

They gave the politicians three suggestions for ways to put them out of their misery: a navy ship to dump them in the ocean, a gas chamber, or an injection of poison.

"This is not a joke or a satire and please take it serious. We are dying in Manus gradually, every single day we are literally tortured and traumatized and there is no safe country to offer us protection as DIBP says," they wrote, wishing "Merry Christmas in advance," and signed "Manus refugees and asylum seekers."

The men on #manus island have sent a proposal to the Australian government. Please read as they wish to die pic.twitter.com/U5CMDNKkmm  Emily Louise (@drobwlldiad) 29  2015

Australia's "Pacific Solution" was formed in August 2001 when the Norwegian freighter Tampa reached Australia's Christmas Island carrying more than 400 mainly Afghan asylum seekers it had rescued at sea.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to let them enter Australia, and offshore processing centers were set up on Manus Island and in Nauru.

The two countries received millions of dollars in aid in exchange, and a total of 1,637 unauthorized arrivals were detained at the two facilities after the Australian navy ships diverted their boats there between 2001 and 2008.

In February 2008 the incoming Labor Party ended the Pacific Solution policy, winning the approval of human right organizations. However, in 2012 the same government reinstated the policy in order to deter further migration by boat.

"Prime Minister, in 2007 many people who voted for Labor voted to get rid of Nauru, get rid of Manus Island, get rid of the Pacific Solution. What's changed?" then-Prime Minister Julie Gillard was asked about the U-turn.

"I would say to those people who were motivated by humanitarian concerns, now very, very squarely in front of us we've got another humanitarian concern. And that humanitarian concern is more people are trying to reach Australia by boat and more people are drowning as they do it. That's the humanitarian concern," Gillard replied.

In September 2013 the new Coalition government led by Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the launch of "Operation Sovereign Borders," described as a "military-led response to combat people smuggling and to protect our borders."

No Way. You will not make Australia home  English https://t.co/faJnNKn1MK via @YouTube  Rita (@MissOginy) 2  2016

The Australian government produced a video which was translated into several languages, in which Operation Sovereign Borders commander Angus Campbell warned prospective migrants that "the message is simple: if you come to Australia illegally by boat, there is no way you will make Australia home."

"The facts speak for themselves," the incoming government said.

"Since Kevin Rudd dismantled the Coalitions border protection policies in 2008, more than 1,000 people have perished at sea, and over 48,000 people have arrived on almost 800 illegal boats."

According to Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection, between September 2013 and October 2014 OSB intercepted 23 illegal vessels which arrived in Australian waters, and transferred their passengers to detention centers in Australia.

ABC Australia reported on the first six months of Operation Sovereign Borders, noting on a drop in the number of asylum seeker boats, and that "one area where the Coalition differs from the previous government is in its willingness to tow boats back, a strategy that has been met with anger from Indonesia."

It reported that in 2013-14 the Department of Immigration allocated AUS $3.3 billion (US$2.4 billion) for offshore asylum seeker management, and AUS $342 million (US$245 million) was allocated by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service for a Civil Maritime Surveillance and Response Program.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko conveyed an official message to Syrian leader Bashar Assad with the words of support to the country's leadership and the people of Syria in the fight against terrorism, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus Igor Karpenko said Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Assad in Damascus received an official delegation from Minsk, headed by Karpenko. During the meeting the sides discussed the prospects for settlement of the Syrian conflict and bilateral ties between the two countries.

"The message conveyed words of encouragement to the Syrian people and the president, in particular. It expresses hope that the friendly relations between Belarus and Syria in all areas of cooperation will continue to develop," Karpenko told RIA Novosti.
"They intend to create Russian-language media outlets in order to oppose this 'propaganda', along with European media which would openly denounce journalists working for certain media agencies  for example, RT and Sputnik were mentioned by name  and accuse them of spreading disinformation," the MEP added.

Couso surmised that NATOs goal appears to be preventing the EU from maintaining friendly relations with Russia.

"The thing is, NATO has made a strategic decision not only to encircle Russia, but to exclude it from Europes collective security system. Therefore, all of NATOs actions  and, unfortunately, those of the EU countries which support the alliance  are aimed at preventing us from enjoying good relations with Russia, all for the US benefit," Couso concluded.

Earlier this month, the European External Action Service (EEAS) has already announced the creation of its Russian-language news website. According to the EEAS, the site will present visitors with a wide assortment of publications on the anti-Russian sanctions, life in Ukraine, and EU efforts in the Middle East, along with the so called 'Disinformation Reviews' compiled by a "mythbusting network" comprised of "over 300 experts, journalists, officials, NGOs and Think Tanks in over 30 countries."
Though EU sanctions against Russia and Russian counter-sanctions have resulted in a significant decline in trade, participants at a Russian-German trade conference in Berlin showed their enthusiasm for a renewing of economic relations, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Friday.

German exports to Russia declined by 25 percent in 2015 and have halved from 21 billion euros ($23 billion) two years ago, "but yet the crowd at the conference, organized by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) and the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce called 'Market, Modernizing, Enterprise' could hardly have been bigger," DW wrote.

The conference was attended by figures from the Russian and German governments, including Russian Economic Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev and German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Matthias Machnig.
PRAGUE (Sputnik)  Europe has faced an enormous influx of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. Many refugees use transit routes through the Balkans to reach more prosperous countries in Western Europe.

EU border agency Frontex recorded over 1.83 million illegal border crossings into the European Union in 2015.

"The size of criminal business involving the transport of illegal migrants to Europe is enormous, it exceeds the turnover from the sale of drugs and weapons, making  without exaggeration  billions of dollars," Stropnicky said in a televised address.

The Czech minister expressed skepticism toward Turkeys and Greeces ability to limit the number of new arrivals.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The Western sanctions against Syria were a contributing factor in the difficult situation with refugees in the country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.

In an interview with El Pais newspaper, Assad outlined two reasons behind the crisis.

"The first is terrorism, because not only do the terrorists threaten civilians, but also deprive them of basic livelihood. The second reason is the embargo which the West, primarily the United States, had imposed on Syria, this is what created even greater difficulties for peoples lives here, mainly in the healthcare sector," Assad said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)If Saudi Arabia and Turkey send their troops to Syria, the Damascus authorities will treat them as terrorists, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.

"If this happens, we shall treat them as terrorists. We defend our country. Nobody has the right to interfere in Syria  neither from a political, nor from a military point of view. This would be a violation of international law, and for us, as well as for citizens of Syria, the only possibility is to defend our motherland," Assad told El Pais newspaper.

Assad stressed that Turkey had been involved in events of Syria from the very beginning and sent terrorists to the country.
Pugh joined the Air Force in 1986, after being trained to install and maintain aircraft engines as well as navigation and weapons systems. He left the Air Force in 1990 when he began working as an aviation specialist and mechanic for companies throughout the Middle East.

Court papers indicate that in a letter to his wife, Pugh wrote: I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States.

There is only two possible outcomes for me: Victory or martyr, the letter continues.

In 2001, one of Pughs associates tipped the FBI that Pugh had expressed sympathy for Osama Bin Laden. In 2002, the same associate warned the FBI that Pugh had been plotting to wage Jihad in Chechnya.

Pugh pleaded not guilty to his charges.

According to the Fordham School of Laws National Security Center, the US government has charged 78 people in connection with the group. Of those, two dozen have pleaded guilty.
"The support of Russia and Iran has been, without any doubt, a key to our army's success [in its advance]," Assad said in an interview with Spains El Pais daily published Saturday.

According to the Syrian president, his country needs this support due to the fact that "there are 80 countries that back terrorism by different means."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry in a telephone conversation continued to discuss the modalities for the cessation of hostilities in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

"The foreign ministers as co-chairs of the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG) and in accordance with its February 12 decisions continued coordination of modalities and conditions for the cessation of hostilities in Syria except operations against organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council," the statement issued by the ministry following the Sunday phone conversation of the two top diplomats reads.

At the same time, Secretary of State John Kerry noted that he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, indicating there are still unresolved issues.
At the same time, IBT said, "the Russian decision to allow the Kurdish office is also likely to anger Ankara amid an increasingly bitter Russian-Turkish standoff sparked by the downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border last year. Moscow and Ankara back different sides in Syria's civil war, with Ankara seeking Assad's ouster and accusing Russia of bombing the moderate anti-Damascus rebel groups it supports."

Moreover, "Turkey has been enraged by the gradual Kurdish expansion in northern Syria, fearing it will stoke separatist ambitions among its own Kurdish population. Amid advances by Assad's troops under the cover of Russian airstrikes, the Kurdish YPG militia seized ground near the Turkish border in recent weeks, including the strategically important Menagh airbase. Turkey responded to Kurdish gains last week with artillery attacks on Kurdish fighters."

"The worsening of relations with Turkey has made Russia more daring in its relations with the Kurds," Elena Suponina, a senior analyst specializing in the Middle East at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told IBT.

Ultimately, the newspaper warns, "the Kurds will have to tread a fine line. Kurdish fighters have received military backing from the United States, and echoing the Russian line too closely could alienate their Western backers."

John Kirby: PYD is our strong partner!



Yes Mr State Dep. Spox, your "strong partner" opens an office in #Moscow! pic.twitter.com/oTQUChwP64  Mehmet Sait Sahinalp (@MSHNLP) 10  2016

At the same time however, the paper reports, citing Osman's words, that "similar offices to the one in Moscow will be opened in Germany, Sweden and Denmark within a month."

"If Russia accepts the opening of a representative office for Western Kurdistan it means Russia is prepared to accept a multi-confessional federation in Syria," the PYD official added, effectively debunking suggestions by some analysts that the Kurds want 'independence' from Syria.
Even the threat to send anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria is not an original idea, with Riyadh making the same threat at least twice before, in February 2014 , and October 2015

Moreover, even if the latest once-a-year attempt to intimidate Damascus is not just a bluff this time, the situation on the ground in Syria makes it unclear just how the rebels are going to get the weapons, given that the Syrian Army, supported by Kurdish forces in the north, is rapidly moving to restore control over both the north and south of the country, liberating major population centers and moving to close off the once-porous borders with Turkey and Jordan, through which terrorist fighters, funds, and weapons once freely flowed.

In fact, Minister al-Jubeir's own comments to Spiegel gave away Riyadh's self-doubt with the whole idea.

"This has to be studied very carefullybecause you don't want such weapons to fall into the wrong hands," al-Jubeir noted.

With his interviewer countering by asking whether he meant that the weapons might fall "into the hands of Islamic State [Daesh]," the minister deferred to Washington, saying that "this is a decision that the international coalition will have to make. This is not Saudi Arabia's decision."

A decision for the international coalitionIf this is the case, it means that the Saudis will not be sending portable anti-air systems to Syria after all. Because unless Washington has totally lost its mind, it will not look too kindly on Riyadh sending weapons to jihadists which could shoot down Western commercial passenger jets or US-led coalition planes bombing Daesh in Iraq and eastern Syria.
On Thursday, an unidentified man checked himself into a hospital with a gunshot wound. Later that day, officers fatally shot two of four suspects in a burglary including Jose Manuel Quintanilla.

Violent crime in Santa Ana climbed by 29 percent with much of it driven by a 39 percent rise in aggravated assault, according to local police and the FBI.

Forty-one shootings occurred in January 2015, up from 24 in January 2014.

Chief Carlos Rojas cited Proposition 47 as a potential factor in the rise of crime. The measure passed in 2012 reclassifies some non-violent felonies as misdemeanors potentially leading to shortened jail sentences.

Were seeing more gang activity now, and I think a lot of that has to do with gang members being released into the community and more of a soft-on-crime approach, Rojas said.

Police are also facing a shortage in man power due to a budget crisis in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

In 2013, the local SWAT team was disbanded.

The chief has openings in the department for 67 more officers.

The chief says the 13-member gang unit is sufficient in facing the 100 documented gangs in the city and their 4,500 members.
Carolyn Caines family scrapbook reads more like an abridged history of the Kelso-Longview areas early years.

Black-and-white photos feature Caines grandparents at their Columbia Heights home in 1906, when the hill was still nicknamed Puolanga Hills  named after the village in central Finland they emigrated from. Copies of her grandparents marriage certificate from 1908 and a postcard, mailed to Catlin, Wash., (now west Kelso) are pasted beside Caines commentary on her familys story.

I think they would think their story wasnt all that much, but I just admire them so much, said Caines, a third-generation Cowlitz County resident who lives in Lexington.

Caines grandparents, Thomas and Reeta Juntunen, immigrated to the Pacific Northwest in 1906 from Puolanka. Reeta, who was unmarried upon arriving, traveled by herself from Ellis Island to Astoria, and Thomas came later.

You see how much determination they had to have, said Caines, who has written extensively about her Finnish roots. My grandmother left her landowning family to come to America. She was put on a boat and a train to Astoria and didnt speak a word of English. She couldve turned around and gone back to Finland.

Just the determination to face all this newness and know that youd never go back and see your family again, I cant even imagine, said Caines, 68.

Settling a new land was arduous, Caines wrote in her book, Coming to America: A Finnish Family Story. While Thomas spent time away from home at logging camps, Reeta and her eldest son tended to the familys farm and small herd of cattle. When Reeta fell ill, doctors operated on her on the familys kitchen table, because their home was eight miles away by horse and buggy from town.

The Finnish community was clustered for decades on Columbia Heights. Children went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, where many of the students, including Caines mother, first learned to speak English. Families worshiped at the Finnish Mission Congregational Church, a modest building that Caines also visited growing up until it was torn down in the 1960s/70s.

By the time Caines became a teen in the 1950s, the Finns had spread out, but Longview maintained its small-town, community spirit. It had the innocence of a bygone era, Caines said.

There would be hobos hopping off the train behind our house. They would come to our back door, and my mom would hand out food. I cant imagine doing that now, she said. You didnt have the concerns you do nowadays about break-ins. You just didnt worry about things like that.

She left briefly to attend Seattle-Pacific University. When Caines returned to the area in the 1970s to begin her 30-year teaching career, the city still had an idyllic charm. She remembers living in her Commerce Avenue apartment, playing her piano that she rented for $4 a month as customers in the drugstore below her apartment purchased buttons and combs.

I didnt feel bad coming back. It was thrilling and exciting living downtown, she said. And I met my husband there. He lived down the hall. We got engaged too soon, in three months. We were married in six months. It worked out. She and Michael Caines have been married 45 years.

Caines still loves downtown Longview.

I go downtown every day. There are the new lamp posts and benches and the art work on the street. Its a small-town feeling. I love that, she said.

Though Caines said she thinks the city is doing well, she acknowledges the citys current hardships. For those that feel pessimistic, Caines said the answers are in the past.

We have to look behind to see our future. Delving into the history and finding about their faith, I think their faith in God gave them the determination to keep going, Caines said. I think Longview people have to go back to their roots and be determined again.

Theres hope. The future is bright, even though were going through hard times right now.
Until a few weeks ago, it looked like Addy Jo Clifftons medical ordeal was over.

The little girl with the beautific face and curly brown hair had finished four rounds of hospital-based chemotherapy, each about a month long. She was able to celebrate with her family in December by swimming with dolphins in Hawaii, thanks to the Make a Wish Foundation.

But a lingering fever Addy Jo developed during the vacation troubled her parents, Aaron and Melissa Cliffton of Longview. When the family returned home, tests confirmed that Addy Jos acute myloid leukemia had returned.

It definitely was like a punch in the stomach, Melissa said. Not only having the cancer come back, but we had just transitioned into being back home and together again.

Now Addy Jo will need a bone marrow transplant as soon as her blood test results are satisfactory.

A bone marrow donor match event Saturday will be held in her honor. If no match is found for Addy Jo, potential donors might be paired with someone who needs a transplant elsewhere in the country  or the world.

Addy Jo was diagnosed with AML, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, when she was 2. The pediatric oncology ward at Doernbecher Childrens Hospital in Portland became a home-away-from-home for Melissa and Addy Jo during the childs rounds of chemo.

The Daily News first wrote about Addy Jo when proceeds from the 2014 Toy Soldier Bazaar went to her family.

With the relapsed AML diagnosis, Addy Jo, who will be 4 in April, will return to Doernbecher next week for the first of two more rounds of chemo, each lasting about a week. Shell need a new Hickman port in her shoulder, through which the drugs will be dripped.

The Clifftons said doctors told them that there is no protocol for treating such a case for children. Its basically, Take what we do for adults and tone it down to her size of body, Aaron said.

When its time for the transplant, Addys old bone marrow will be killed with either chemo or total body irradiation, Melissa said. Its kind of cool but kind of anti-climactic, she said. They hang (the donor marrow) like a bag of blood and the cells figure out where they need to go.

Addy Jo will stay in the hospital 40 to 50 days after the transplant. She will likely need dialysis while her body adapts to her new bone marrow.

Then the family will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland for up to 100 days.

They want you to be a 45-minute drive away from the hospital in case anything happens, and the familys home in West Longview is too far away, Melissa said. The goal is to get to day 100 and get her immune system where it should be so she can go back to being a normal kid again."

While staying at the hospital, Melissa hopes to keep up her studies at Breckinridge School of Nursing in Portland, from which she hopes to graduate in June of 2017. She has also been working part-time at St. John Medical Center.

Aaron said hes mostly been able to mesh his work schedule in the wood room at Kapstone with the family routine.

This last month has been kind of a bummer, Melissa said.

But the Clifftons are thankful for help from friends, their church and their neighbors, who help watch son Jerry, whos in 2nd grade.

The future looks better for the little girl, who snoozed contentedly during an interview with her parents.

They consider a transplant the cure for cancer, Melissa said.

In more cases than not, thats the end of it, Aaron added.
A small group of Woodland philanthropists has launched an effort to fight the brain drain of young people from rural communities.

Theyve established a $5,000 annual college scholarship for Woodland graduates who attend Lower Columbia College. The scholarship would not compel anyone to stay in the area, but the sponsors hope that attending college close to home will encourage graduates to stay close to home.

This spring, the LCC Foundation expects to award five $1,000 scholarships to Woodland graduates.

Its really important for local kids to see the opportunities that we have, said Sheila Burgin, assistant director of the Lower Columbia College Foundation. I truly believe that this can drive change in our community for the best.

Tim and Lee Welch and bulb farmers Benno and Klazina Dobbe are the main drivers behind the effort, which is called Woodland Friends of LCC. But other donors are involved, too, Burgin said.

For now, the scholarship will need to be renewed annually. Theres no talk of endowing the scholarship  giving it a pot of money large enough to sustain itself just off investment interest.

Dobbe said he is a strong supporter of LCC and wants to encourage more collaboration between Woodland and Longview. He and his wife donated $1,500 to the scholarship.

Rural communities all over America, including those in Cowlitz County, have struggled to retain young people for decades. Census Bureau statistics show that more than 700 rural counties lost 10 percent or more of their population between 1990 and 2009. Nationally, there are more deaths than births in one out of every two rural counties. Cowlitz Countys population has continued to grow slowly, but it is aging, and only about 15 percent of adults here have four-year college degrees, well below the state average.

Younger populations leave for more urban areas in search of better opportunities, making local economies suffer, according to a 2011 Washington State University study.

Mary Ann Sturdivan, career specialist at Woodland High, said more of her seniors show an interest in attending a local college than a four-year institution.

We have some that want to get out of a small town and we have others that have very strong family ties that like to stay in the area, she said. The high cost of a four-year university education, Sturdivan said, is part of the motivation for students to pursue an education nearby.

Now, however, Woodland High students have been under-represented at LCC compared with other high schools in the surrounding area, Burgin said. She said shes hoping the scholarship will expand LCCs reach to Woodland, where high school graduates are close to four-year schools in Vancouver and Portland.

Its one more vehicle to gain more interest from Woodland students, Burgin said.

Of the 140 graduates projected from Woodland High, at least 19 are interested in attending LCC or Clark College, Sturdivan said.

The students who apply for (the Woodland Friends of LCC) scholarships have a good chance of getting them, and they know that, she said.

The LCC Foundation dished out scholarships worth $275,000 to 150 students for the 2015-16 academic year. It will grant less this year because stock market declines have reduced investment income in the colleges endowed scholarships, Burgin said.

Still, the college keeps adding new scholarships every year, adding 11 last year alone, she said.

We are very blessed to have the support in the community that we have, Burgin said.

Applications for all LCC scholarships, including the new one for Woodland students, can be filed between March 29 and April 29. Students file online and the computer software will try to match the student to scholarship.
On the last day of the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese armed forces were in disarray. Duc Huynh, a South Vietnamese helicopter pilot, flew to the capitol city of Saigon, but most of the higher up people, theyre not there, he recalled recently.

The tanks come close to Saigon already, he said. I didnt know what I was supposed to do.

Huynh, who still speaks with a heavy accent, wanted to stay and fight the communists, whom he hated. But then he heard from another pilot that the South Vietnamese president, Duong Van Minh, had surrendered to the North Vietnamese.

That is survival, he said of his next steps. I have to do something with my family, which was about 125 miles away.

I didnt have any plan. I just a lucky guy, said Huynh, the owner of Pacific Auto Store in North Kelso.

Huynhs escape to an American aircraft carrier with most of his family on April 30, 1975, is etched in his mind as if it happened last week. He still marvels that his family escaped as easily as it did, and that he ended up settling in Kelso rather than spending years in re-education camps, which were actually prison camps where some inmates were tortured.

A customer of Huynhs store suggested he tell his story for last falls Daily News series on Vietnam veterans, but Huynh didnt want to be featured in a series about those who served in the United States military  a group he honors.

Shot down three times

In 1975, Huynh (his full name is pronounced Duke Hwin) was a captain in the South Vietnamese Air Force, piloting a UH-1 Huey gunship. He had spent 18 months in the United States completing flight and language training.

Asked if his chopper was ever shot down in Vietnam, he replied only three times with a grin. It tended to be a dangerous job, he said. You had to get in first and (be) the last one to get out. But because he flew in groups of five to nine helicopters, there was always another one to pick him up when his chopper went down.

Huynh categorizes the last years of the Vietnam War by how much funding the U.S. Congress provided. We got cut off by (President) Nixon, he said. Thats why the communists can win. They got support from Russia and China. We didnt run away from the enemy. We ran out of supply and ammunition.

In the last days of the war, Huynh was stationed at the Can Tho base in the southern part of South Vietnam but wasnt flying regularly. We dont have enough fuel and rockets and bullets, he said. We had to save.

After finding Saigon in chaos on the wars final day, he found his family, which had been stayng there. They didnt know he was coming, and his wife, Glau Tran, wasnt there.

Huynhs co-pilot flew away to get his family of five and then returned. While he was gone, Huynh went to get his cousin and sister. The timing proved to be just right. By then, Tran and their three children  then 9, 5 and 4  were all there.

Something happened to my life, he said. God set up just like that. I didnt plan to pick up my family. One thing happened after another thing.

Between the two families, about 20 people climbed on board the helicopter. He flew to Con Son, an island off the coast. Huynh landed there and tried to contact the American 7th Fleet, which he knew had ships in the area. On the island, Huynh couldnt turn down another five or six Vietnamese people who wanted to escape, bringing the total on the chopper to around 25.

He thought about returning to the mainland to rescue his brother, Bau, who was an Army officer, but didnt know where he was. So he had to go to re-education camp for eight years, Huynh said. Bau eventually was allowed to leave Vietnam and now lives in Seattle.

They say you can have 12 American people in a Huey, Huynh said. But he figured that Vietnamese are smaller than Americans, and he didnt have the weight of rockets and bullets.

Huynh flew across the water to the aircraft USS Midway, which along with other American ships was involved in ferrying thousands of Vietnamese from the mainland.

Once he landed on the carrier, the Americans wouldnt let him back near the chopper. He doesnt know if it, like some, was pushed off the carriers deck to make room for more to land.

The people I pick up, they save my life, he said. If he had stayed and fought, he might have been killed or imprisoned.

Warm welcome in Longview

From the Midway (which is now a floating museum in San Diego), his family was transferred to a civilian ship, then to the Subic Bay base in the Philippines, and eventually to Arkansas.

Then another life-changing chance occurred. Another brother, Phuc Huu Huynh, had been able to get out of Saigon because his wife worked for the American Consulate. Phuc (pronounced Fook) had been sponsored by Jim and Melody Parker of Longview  who welcomed Duc Huynhs extended family even though they had three children of their own. That brought the population in the Parkers two-bedroom house near 32nd and Fir Street to 19, which rose to 20 when Huynhs sister-in-law, Ngoc-Tuyet Van Huynh, had a baby named Lily.

Word of the birth spread quickly after a Daily News article, and donations started arriving. I still remember one old lady came over with some materials and gave her $20, he said. Its still unbelievable.

The next few years were an economic struggle for the Huynh family.

My first job was picking cucumbers at Tsugawas, Huynh said. He got a mill job, then worked at International Paper Co. until it closed in 1979. Huynh studied auto mechanics at LCC but said he couldnt get a job repairing cars. When what was then a gas station on North Pacific Avenue came up for sale in 1981, he bought it. Today, its a repair business and parts store.

Huynhs three children  Thanh, Hai and Thahn Van  graduated from Kelso High School. Nearing 70, hes behind the counter of his parts store every day.

He wears a patch for the Vietnam Helicopter Association on his work clothes, and a grainy photo of him and his Huey crew in Vietnam is framed behind the counter, near racks of clutch and suspension parts. Hes been back to Vietnam twice.

What would Huynhs life be like if he hadnt been able to gather his family up that dangerous day and fly out of his homeland? I will come to America later after I graduate from relocation camp  if Im still alive, he said.

Huynh agrees with many of those who fought in the U.S. military interviewed recently by The Daily News who said they wish this country had pursued the war longer. If we stay maybe more people die but more people have freedom, he said.

He said history since then has shown the evils of communism. If the communists so good how come only five countries left with that form of government, he said.

After they took over the whole country, the Vietnamese people know what the communists is, he said. Up to 1975, Vietnam one of the best countries in Southeast Asia. Now Vietnam looks like the worst one.
"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844
Nash David

The past week witnessed the most popular telecom story of our times in India. A little known company called Ringing Bells announced it was launching a new smartphone christened 'Freedom 251.' By naming it Freedom 251, it also revealed its price  Rs 251. Or about $4.

Spec for spec, a device in the range of the Freedom 251 should ideally be priced at about 10 times the price. Somewhere in the range of Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. And being the value conscious market that India is, demand surpassed all expectations. We were soon receiving emails and queries from potential customers on how they could order the Freedom 251.

After several rounds of controversy, including hints of the whole project being a scam, the owners of Ringing Bells finally announced that prebookings were being closed. In a notice posted on its website 'freedom251.com' the company said:

Dear Respected Customer,

We are humble and extremely grateful for your overwhelming response and trust.

Respectfully this is to advice that the response far exceeds the number that we had expected and therefore we are now closing the invitation to bookings in this phase 1.

We appreciate and acknowledge that we may not have been able to meet the needs of all but will definitely look forward to serving you again in the next phase.

Many thanks once again and pranam.

Jai Hind!!

The overenthusiastic users didn't seem to take this too well, and a few of the 6 crore users showed up at the Ringing Bells office in Noida to meet the management.

According to a report in the Times of India, the guard at the office said (translated from Hindi), 'the bosses are inside, but no one's allowed to go inside. I guess there's some meeting going on right now. Besides, there are other office in this building. Everyone would be disturbed."

According to the report, a few of the protesters felt it was unfair that the only means to place an order was online. And even that mode has been disabled. The report further adds that a few of the protesters tried defacing the company board unsuccessfully. However, a few onlookers commented that these were an attempt to gain attention since there were television crews at the venue. It's unlikely any of them would have booked a phone.
Anirudh Regidi

The Freedom 251, the Rs.251 smartphone from Ringing Bells is certainly turning a lot of heads. That said, the amount of controversy and mystery surrounding the phone is also staggering. Yesterday, Akash Chadha, President of Ringing Bells, went on air with NDTV in an attempt to lay the controversies to rest and lay their cards on the table. The interview however, raised more questions than it answered. We got in touch with an industry expert in an attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery.

It's all about numbers

Considering the specs of the phone and the early "prototype" that was handed out to journalists in Delhi, Ringing Bells readily acknowledges that the phone costs around Rs.2000 to manufacture and that it was made by Adcom. How is he bringing the price down to a 10th of that? Akash Chadha states that four factors are responsible for this:

1. 'Economies of scale' bring down the price by Rs.400 (they're claiming to sell 50 lakh units by June, online and offline).

2. "Manufacturing" in India and the subsequent benefits of that bring down the cost by another Rs.400. This is an intriguing statement considering that the phone is not yet being manufactured in India.

3. Selling the device via their own portal and online slashes another Rs.400. Manufacturing cost: Rs.800

4. "Other partners" will make up the deficit. By our calculations, that amounts to at least Rs.551 (though the figure might be closer to Rs.1000). The nature of these partners is unknown because Ringing Bells insists that they're operating under a non disclosure agreement and can't reveal details.

While the first three factors do make sense, the fourth one raises a very big question. Where's all that money coming from?

Back of the hand calculations suggest that if Ringing Bells is going to be selling 50 lakh phones by June this year, their "other partners" have to give them Rs.200 crore just to bring the manufacturing costs below Rs.251. To put that number in perspective, Facebook is estimated to have invested around Rs.170 crores ($25 million) in India to promote their FreeBasics project. Who are these other partners and why are they willing to invest so heavily in this project?

If all goes to plan, Ringing Bells hopes to sell 1 crore units a month. This means that they're going to be expecting almost Rs.500 crores a month from their "other partners". No matter how you look at it, that number is staggering.

Where is all that money coming from? The company has relatively little experience in this field, don't even have a production ready model and claim that they will import, assemble and ship 50 lakh units by June this year. We're already getting reports that the device isn't certified, that their company has no license and a host of other issues.

Too surreal

When asked for comment, Vijay R. K., GM - Technology, Operations, Pre-sales at Sakri Group, said, "I did some analysis on the smartphone domain through my contacts in the industry here in India and from China. A bill of materials(BOM) of $5 might be possible later when Digital India initiative is really implemented but at this moment it is too surreal. Typical phones with Intel Sofia, Qualcomm, MTK chipsets range between $26 to $30."

Here's what Vijay had to say on the Freedom 251 and Ringing Bells:

Supposing we wanted to build a smartphone for Rs.250. Would that be possible?

In my opinion, this is a far cry if legitimate chipsets, and other BOM (Bill of Materials) validated by OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Intel, Qualcomm, MTK are to be considered. Given the fact, that these are imported in SKD (Semi-knocked Down) or CKD (Completely Knocked Down) as the company claims, in the initial run up, these have to be imported as a final product so it looks dicey to me.

What would a bill of materials for such a phone [the Freedom 251] normally look like?

Considering the BOM of any average performing smart phone it ranges in between $26 to $30 (Rs.1,800-2,100) and this does not even include shipping, customs costing.

What sort of life expectancy can we expect from such a phone?

It's good for as long as it goes. Just as they typically say for Chinese imports. It can run for years or die without warning. You definitely can't expect the same quality as you'd find on an iPhone or Samsung device.

If we can't build a phone for Rs.251, how's Ringing Bells doing it? Especially as they claim that they're selling a phone that would normally cost Rs.2500 to manufacture.

Now their claim of Rs.2500 is legit and given the above figures, it roughly falls in that ball park figure adding customs, logistics etc. Now how are they doing it? I am clueless and hopefully these are not low end or refurbished dumps.

Overall, he concludes saying that it's "definitely a volume game" and that their [Ringing Bells'] estimates as far as tax exemptions are correct. He goes on to add that, "In all fairness, their bold idea to launch [the Freedom 251] at a throw away price is a challenge for both the manufacturers and the customers as durability, performance parameters are to be judged in the long run."

Vijay R. K., GM - Technology, Operations, Pre-sales at Sakri Group, is responsible for defining the Technology and Engineering aspects of various products across AV (Anti-Virus), Electronics, Network Security and IT&ITES.
hidden

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that there was brand marketing strategy behind the refusal by Apple, a technology company in Silicon Valley, to help access the phone of a terrorist killer.

The DOJ on Friday filed a motion at a court in the US where Judge Sheri Pym on Tuesday ordered Apple to provide specialised software to hack into the phone of Syed Farook, Xinhua reported.

Farook, with his wife Tashfeen Malik, was responsible for killing 14 people on December 2 last year in San Bernardino, California.

In the 35-page document, the DOJ included as an "exhibit" the three-page statement by Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, which was posted on Wednesday to argue against Judge Pym's order.

Cook called the order, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), "an unprecedented step" threatening the security of Apple customers.

In its response, however, the DOJ said Apple's current refusal to comply with the court's order "appears to be based on its concerns for its business model and public brand marketing strategy."

It went to the length to say Apple "appears to object based on a combination of: a perceived negative impact on its reputation and marketing strategy were it to provide the ordered assistance to the government, numerous mischaracterizations of the requirements of the (court) order, and an incorrect understanding of the All Writs Act."

Under the US law, the All Writs Act, the law Judge Pym applied in issuing her order to Apple, authorizes the US federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principal of law."

FBI investigators, already accessible to call logs and other information from a mobile phone service carrier, told Pym earlier that without passcode they were unable to look into an iPhone 5c used by Farook.

It was a work phone owned by San Bernardino county, where Farook worked at the public health department.

The FBI therefore requested Apple's help to bypass a security feature that erases data in the smartphone after 10 unsuccessful unlocking attempts.

Cook acknowledged that the FBI asked for help from Apple in the days following the San Bernardino attack and his company has provided data in its possession.

Noting that Apple's assistance was necessary, the DOJ said technicians from both Apple and the FBI agreed that they were unable to identify any other methods feasible for gaining access to the "currently inaccessible data" on the phone.

It listed in footnotes four suggestions discussed between Apple and the FBI, including attempting an auto-backup of the phone with the related cloud service account at Apple and obtaining previous back-ups of the device.

Despite one senior Apple executive's defence on Friday that the company's refusal was about principles, rather than marketing, the DOJ pointed out that Apple "has consistently complied with a significant number of (court) orders."

The company reportedly unlocked at least 70 iPhones at federal investigators' requests between 2008 and 2015.

At a court hearing last year, Assistant US Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said Apple "had an established procedure to routinely take any of these requests, comply with them, processing them."

While trying to compel Apple to comply with the latest court order and provide the software needed, the DOJ said it would allow Apple "to retain custody of its software at all times" and "the software never has to come into the government custody."

A hearing on the case at the US District Court in Central California has been scheduled for March 22.

IANS
hidden

Protesters are preparing to assemble in more than 30 cities to lash out at the FBI for obtaining a court order that requires Apple to make it easier to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a gunman in December's mass shootings in Southern California.

The protests organized by the Internet rights group Fight for the Future are scheduled to occur Tuesday outside Apple stores in the US, the U.K., Hong Kong and Germany.

The US protests will be in cities scattered across more than 20 states, including in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, where protesters plan to express their discontent outside the FBI's headquarters.

The gatherings will come a week after the FBI went to court to force Apple to weaken the security built into most iPhones to help a terrorism investigation in San Bernardino, California. The FBI wants Apple to remove a feature that erases the information stored on an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to enter a password, preventing unauthorized users from accessing the device.

The iPhone that the FBI is trying to examine was used by Syed Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people in December.

Apple is fighting the court order issued in the case, arguing that the special software sought by the FBI could be used to break into millions of other iPhones. The FBI contends Apple is exaggerating the security risks of complying with the court order in a marketing ploy aimed at selling more iPhones.

Fight for the Future believes Apple's concerns are warranted and is hoping the protests will persuade the Obama administration to take a stand against the way the FBI is trying to break into Farook's iPhone, said Evan Greer, the group's campaign director.

The White House so far has stood behind the FBI in its battle with Apple Inc.

AP
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...
Hindu priest killed, another shot in Panchagarh temple

A Hindu temple priest was hacked to death and a devotee shot in an attack by some miscreants in Deviganj upazila on Sunday morning. Police and witnesses said some miscreants who came in a motorbike set off several crude bombs at Sonto Gourir Moth on the western side of the Karatoa River in the upazila headquarters around 7 am. As priest Jogeshwar Roy, 50, came out of the temple, the miscreants swooped on him and hacked him to death with a sharp weapon. They also fired gunshots on Gopal Chnadra Roy,35, a devotee, when he tried to flee, leaving him injured. Another devotee, Netai Pod Das,40, suffered injuries as the assailants hurled crude bombs at him when he came forward in aid of the priest. Gopal's mother Chirta Rani,60, fell sick following the attack. Gopal was whisked off to Rangpur Medical College Hospital while Netai and Chirta Rani were admitted to the Upazila Health Complex. Meanwhile, police arrested a suspect, Khalilur Rahman of Debidura village, in connection with the incident, said officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Deviganj Police Station Ayub Ali. He also said a case was filed with around 9pm. Victims brother Rabindra Chandra Roy filed the case. -Panchagarh, Feb 21 (UNB)
Twin bombings claimed by Islamic State kill dozens in Syria`s Homs

People inspect the site of a two bomb blasts in the government-controlled city of Homs, Syria, in this handout picture provided by SANA on February 21, 2016. Reuters/SANA/Handout via Reuters

Reuters: Twin car bomb blasts killed at least 57 people in Syria's Homs on Sunday, a monitoring group said, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. At least 100 others were injured in the attack in the central Zahra district of the western city, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Footage from pro-Damascus television channels showed charred corpses buried by rubble, damage to shop fronts and debris littering a wide area. Plumes of smoke rose from burning cars and wounded people walked around dazed. State television said at least 32 people had been killed. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the two car bombs through Amaq, a news agency that supports the militant group. A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State last month in Homs killed at least 24 people as government forces took back some Islamic State-held villages in Aleppo province in the north. Sunday's attacks also came a day after government advances against Islamic State. A bomb attack killed 32 people in Homs in December after a ceasefire deal paved the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of the city, which was a center of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Violence rages on unabated across the country as world powers and the United Nations push to end the five-year-old conflict, meeting in Geneva to try to broker a ceasefire. Peace talks were suspended almost immediately earlier this month as Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russian air strikes, intensified assaults against insurgents in Aleppo province. The latest fighting in the north of the country has displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom headed for the Turkish border. The exodus added to more than 11 million already displaced by the conflict, which has claimed 250,000 lives.
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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


"There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bou...
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. -Jesus



-John 14:6
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

You voted:
Parece que todos los dias la tecnologia se hace cargo de otro trabajo, y estas ocupaciones obsoletas no son una excepcion. Y es que los tiempos cambian, y debido a
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.
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Taylor will be presenting a luncheon program at Marshall Browning Hospital at noon Thursday, March 10, to discuss the latest information about colon cancer, the risk factors for colon cancer development, the symptoms of colon cancer and how and why you should get screened. There is no charge to attend the program and a complimentary lunch will be provided. Seating is limited and registration is required by calling Pam Logan at 618-542-1033.
Let's understand something about the fight to fill the Supreme Court seat of Antonin ("Nino") Scalia. This is about nothing but raw power. Any appeal you hear to high principle is phony -- brazenly, embarrassingly so.

In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. ("Except in extraordinary circumstances." None such arose. Surprise!) Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack Obama.

Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the president deference. Elections have consequences and Obama won re-election in 2012.

Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014 -- if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.

It's hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered Obama's serial constitutional depredations: His rewriting the immigration laws by executive order (stayed by the courts); his reordering the energy economy by regulation (stayed by the courts); his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate (by declaring it an executive agreement).

Minority Leader Harry Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to Obamacare.

On Tuesday, Obama loftily called upon Congress to rise above ideology and partisanship in approving his nominee. When asked how he could square that with his 2006 support of a filibuster to stop the appointment of Samuel Alito, Obama replied with a four-minute word salad signifying nothing. There is no answer. It was situational constitutional principle, i.e., transparent hypocrisy.

As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing president to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?

Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from "anti-establishment" candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc.

What was the 2014 election about, they say? We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the "Washington cartel."

As it happens, under our Madisonian Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the president, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have.

But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The president proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McConnell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here -- a radical generation-long reversal of direction of the Supreme Court -- are the highest this Senate will ever face.

If McConnell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the "what did we get for 2014?" question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalia's seat and to the court's conservative majority.

But only for now. Blocking an Obama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McConnell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution.

In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial president in the White House. "I would not like to be replaced," he explained, "by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I've tried to do for 25 years."

Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McConnell do his thing. Then in November it's for us to win one for Nino.
"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."

- St. Augustine





"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James





"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." -- Ronald Reagan



A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

-- Edward Abbey





"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANONA nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,Congressman Steve King (R-IA),Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be cured against ones will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis
The January report shows the state real estate market is off to a good start, according to South Carolina Realtors.

In year-to-year comparison, new listings were down slightly to 8,735 and pending sales decreased by 8 percent to 4,850. Inventory shrank 7 percent to 34,411 units.

Prices moved higher as median sales price was up almost 10 percent to $170,000. The amount of days that homes stayed on market also decreased by 10 percent to 107 days.

And inventory shrank with almost 18 percent less homes to choose from compared to the same time in 2015.

The market seems to be moving steadily into the new year as we predict slightly more sales with slightly higher prices in 2016, said SCR CEO Nick Kremydas.

In the Southern Midlands Region, which includes Orangeburg, Calhoun and Bamberg counties:

Sales for January were down 16.7 percent from the same month in 2015.

The median price for homes sold was down 5.2 percent in January from a year ago.

Average days on the market for January were up 11.6 percent at 278.
NORTH  The small town of North will hit the big screen in a Christian-based film to be released in theaters at the beginning of 2017.

Faiths Song is the story of a young girls faith being put to the test when her parents suddenly lose their lives in a traffic accident and she is forced to live with family members who are non-believers.

The film is written and directed by Frankie Hutto of Northface Christian Films in Lexington. The company started the production in January and will finish in May. Northface Christian Films assists Christian organizations in the state.

Hutto says the company has two other films that are ready to shoot after filming of Faiths Song wraps up. Those productions are titled Gospel According to Luke and Revelations 11.

Approximately 15 firefighters of the North Fire Department are heavily involved in Faiths Song. Their scenes were filmed in North on Saturday, Feb. 13.

Personnel with the North Police Department and Pendarvis Ambulance Service also extended a helping hand in the filming process.

Firefighter Billy Robinson of North takes on the role of fire chief in the movie. All of the members participated well and took the filming seriously and professionally, he said.

This was the real deal here. You do it and you do it again from different angles. Its a really dramatic movie  a lot of feelings and emotions are shown, Robinson said.

During a scene inside the North Fire Department, Robinson instructed the firefighters in rope rescue and CPR techniques.

We were doing stuff that we would normally be doing, he said. We tried to be as authentic as possible. Everything we did was also learning and training.

Robinson added, We even cracked a few jokes. Everyones laughing and having a good time. All of a sudden, a call comes in about a car wreck, and everything gets serious after that.

When it got dark outside, the firefighters moved to a road behind the fire station to shoot the wreck scene.

We actually used the Jaws of Life to open the car to get the lady out. We were out there until almost 12 oclock at night, Robinson said.

Religion wasnt forced on anyone during the filming, he said, noting, Everyone volunteered to do this. It was an honor and privilege for us to be a part of it. It was a really warm and good atmosphere. Everyone fed off each other and helped each other.

The day may have been extremely long and slightly demanding because of the time frame, but Robinson said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I know itll be interesting to see when it does come out. I know the town people in North are excited. This was the talk of the town, Robinson said, chuckling.

Robinson will also appear in a funeral scene, which was to be filmed Feb. 20 at the Lexington Church of God.

We also see this as an opportunity to contribute to ministry, he said.

Temeria Rivers, a sophomore at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, also appears in the film as Mean Girl 2, an antagonist to Faith, the main character.

Im rude to Faith. Were just there to give snide, mean comments and looks. We just disliked her, she said.

Rivers, who aspires to be an actress, said she enjoyed her experience in the film.

It was really nice. It was something that I always wanted to do. Ive always wanted to be an actress, she said. I would also love to be a director, producer and possibly a writer.

While on set, Rivers said everything was very natural to her.

Being on set, having to redo takes and different angles and hearing them say cut and action, that was really amazing to me, she said.

Christopher Livingston, assistant fire chief in North, is a firefighter in the film. He was filmed in a training session and responding to the accident scene, and he also has a small speaking role.

It was educational  seeing how a feature film is produced and directed, Livingston said.

He said he didnt realize how much time goes into one small scene.

It takes hours and hours and takes and retakes, he said. It was a little nerve-wracking for someone that had never been in a film before.

Livingston said the production crew and everyone involved was very professional.

We kept doing it until we got it right, he said.
NORTH CHARLESTON  Hundreds of students across the state will launch rockets, filter contaminated water and build support structures as part of a Clemson University program aimed at inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

EMAG!NE will hold 14 events in nine cities, including Orangeburg. EMAG!NE is a program that delivers engineering and science activities to K-12 students across the state.

The idea behind EMAG!NE is to use attention-grabbing activities to show students as early as kindergarten how the math and science they learn in the classroom are used in the real world, helping keep them on track for jobs of the future.

Several types of engineers are in high demand in the job market and are commanding some of the highest average salaries.

Brad Putman, the director of EMAG!NE and associate professor of civil engineering, said the Clemson team wanted EMAG!NEs fifth year to be its biggest yet.

EMAG!NE has been a huge hit at the schools weve visited, he said. Parents and teachers love it. Most importantly, so do the students. They are devoting their Saturday mornings and afternoons to a school activity. That speaks volumes.

Showing students the connection between the classroom and real world helps keep them engaged as they progress through elementary, middle and high schools, Putman said. Then they will be better prepared for the challenging engineering and science majors they face in college, he said.

The EMAG!NE Design Challenge Tour, one of the programs under the EMAG!NE umbrella, will go to North Charleston, Orangeburg and Greenville and will follow the programs traditional format. Faculty members and Clemson students will lead middle- and high-school students through a series of 45-minute design challenges.

As part of this years activities, teams will design and build soda straw rockets and compete to see whose rocket goes the farthest, is most accurate and is most durable.

Science as Art blends disciplines to make science, technology, engineering and math less intimidating.

Students will also design and build a device that filters water tainted with clay and other safe materials to simulate contamination. In another activity, students will use available materials to design and build a structure to support an object.

Anand Gramopadhye, dean of the College of Engineering and Science, said EMAG!NE helps provide a foundation for careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Students who understand the real-world applications of math and science are more likely to stay on the path to STEM professions, he said. The activities in EMAG!NE are designed to inspire and engage students. They are an extension of the colleges effort to keep the pipeline from academia to industry filled with talent.

Those who stay on course are headed for a job market that handsomely rewards qualified applicants with engineering and science degrees.

For example, the human resources and staffing firm Randstad U.S. recently predicted that manufacturing, mechanical and electrical engineers will remain hot in 2016.

The national average starting pay for a manufacturing engineer with three to 10 years experience is $79,814, according to the firm. Its $84,714 for mechanical engineers and $90,295 for electrical engineers, the firm found.

EMAG!NE started with just a few activities a year but has evolved into a network encompassing several K-12 outreach programs across the College of Engineering and Science.

We are a resource for schools, festivals and parents across South Carolina, Putman said. We can provide activities that teachers can take back to their classrooms or parents can bring home to their children. In some cases, EMAG!NE can provide faculty, students and staff to lead activities.

Putman said that anyone interested in more details can call him at 864-650-7400 or email him at putman@clemson.edu.

The EMAG!NE activities scheduled for spring semester will vary depending on location and the ages of students involved. Students who want to participate in the Design Tour Challenge events should register at clemson.edu/ces/emagine.

The general public will have at least three opportunities to participate in free EMAG!NE events. The program will have a station at iMAGINE Upstate on April 2 and at Artisphere May 13-15. Both festivals are on Main Street in downtown Greenville.

Another activity free to the public is Science as Art. Participants create visual art based on their work in STEM. The idea is to bridge the gap between science and art to make STEM fields less intimidating.

Clemson researchers, students and employees and K-12 students in South Carolina can submit work until March 11. The work will be on display for all to see on April 1 at the Science as Art Festival in the Hendrix Student Center atrium on Clemsons main campus. For more information, go to scienceasart.org or email Diana Chen at dachen@clemson.edu.
Donald Trump carried The T&D Region, along with South Carolina, in Saturdays Republican presidential primary.

The New York businessman took 40 percent of the vote in Bamberg County, 38 percent in Orangeburg County and 35 percent in Calhoun County.

Many voters said they didnt make a decision until the very last minute.

I didnt know who I was going to vote for until I got in the voting booth, Norma Hilliard said around midday on Saturday.

But once she stepped in front of the machine at the Prince of Orange Mall, I voted for Trump.

He scares me a little bit, but he says so much of what I stand for, she said.

Tom Hilliard, her husband, voted for Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.

Hes the best of all of them, he said.

Nearly 12 percent of Orangeburg Countys registered voters participated in Saturdays primary. In the 2012 primary, only 7 percent of the countys voters made it to the polls in the Republican primary.

Orangeburg County Board of Voter Registration and Elections Director Aurora Smalls said, There were some places that had lower turnouts before, but saw an increased turnout on Saturday.

In Bamberg County, 12.5 percent of registered voters turned out for the primary, while 21 percent of Calhoun County voters participated.

Another couple voting at the mall, Randy and Sharon Benzon, cast votes for two candidates who have been vying for second-place wins in the Republican primaries and caucuses.

Randy Benzon voted for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Sharon Benzon added, I voted for (Marco) Rubio, a Florida senator.

At Sheridan Elementary School, Jean Schwartz said she cast a vote for Rubio.

If you asked me last night, I wouldve given you a different answer, Schwartz said, noting that she didnt decide on a candidate until she was at the voting booth.

Schwartz said she didnt like the selection of Republican candidates in this primary.

I dont like any of them, she said.

Also voting at Sheridan was Susan Berry.

I voted for Dr. Ben Carson, she said.

Berry said she selected Carson because he is an exceptional man.

Hes just a brilliant man, a classy guy and doesnt sling any mud, she said.

She said that other Republican contenders continue to have their share of mudslinging and accusations of one another, but Carson is the exception, she said.

Hes a Christian man and he stands by his beliefs, she added.

Berry said shes pleased with his proposed plan to help others lift themselves out of poverty.

She also said shes impressed with his ability to put together surgical teams, as he did before retiring as a neurosurgeon, stating that he excels at working with groups of people.

Overall, the election on Saturday ran smoothly, with a bit of confusion at the Eutawville 1 precinct, which is the Eutawville Community Center.

These buildings are not ours, Smalls said. Were there under their generosity.

While the Eutawville Community Center is typically used as the voting location for Eutawville 1, it was booked several months ago for an event.

As a result, voters were directed to a storage closet at the rear of the building that held about three voting terminals.

We knew wed be in a smaller room, Smalls said.

In Orangeburg County, Trump received 2,536 of the votes. Rubio received 1,305, Cruz, 1,303; Bush 779; Carson, 404; John Kasich, 353; Chris Christie, 6; Rand Paul, 5; Carly Fiorina, 4; Mike Huckabee, 4 and Rick Santorum, 3.

In Bamberg County, Trump won 480 votes. Rubio received 333; Cruz, 193; Carson, 78; Bush 58; Kasich, 57; Huckabee, 3; Fiorina, 2. Other, former Republican candidates did not receive votes.

In Calhoun County, Trump received 805 votes, with Cruz taking 564; Rubio, 421; Bush, 250; Carson, 139; Kasich, 110; Huckabee, 3; Paul, 3; Christie, 2; Fiorina, 1. Other candidates received no votes.

Provisional ballots will be counted on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Orangeburg County Council chambers in the Orangeburg County Administrative Centre on Amelia Street.

The S.C. Democratic Primary will be held on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
COLUMBIA  The popular wisdom that opposites attract is true in both romance and politics.

But rarely do adages prove so profoundly  and absurdly  true as during the recent, media-created dialogue between Pope Francis and Donald Trump.

Set aside for a moment that this mini-uproar, spawned by a reporters question and poached by scandalmongers, has largely been put to rest.

The episode was a stellar (celestial?) example of the pitfalls of todays culture-media-politics complex  a constellation of supernovas exploding in an accelerating universe in which a repulsive force counteracts the attractive force. Guess whos who?

Much distilled and slightly paraphrased, heres how the conversation between Trump and Francis went for a news cycle or two:

Pope: Anyone who wants to build walls instead of bridges is not a Christian.

Trump: Questioning someones Christianity is disgraceful.

Pope: If thats what Trump really said.

Trump: If ISIS gets the pope, which is the groups ultimate goal, hell wish I had been president because it wouldnt have happened. ISIS would have been destroyed.

Pope: It wasnt a personal attack but the Gospel.

Trump: I think he said something much softer than was originally reported by the media.

Heaven forbid, I think Trump may be right.

At first, the exchange, all of which took place through stories ricocheting and pinging around the vast media-verse, seemed a bit nasty. But as the conversation continued and messages began bubbling up in the Magic 8 Ball, things seemed less hostile  and even more ridiculous.

Meanwhile, South Carolinians, whose Republican primary was just a couple of days away when the cycle started, wondered why the pope was getting in their business. The simple answer is that Reuters reporter Phil Pullella specifically asked the pontiff about Trumps position on immigration as well as insults aimed at the papal leader:

Republican Donald Trump, in an interview recently said that you are a political man and he even said that you are a pawn, an instrument of the Mexican government for migration politics. Trump said that if hes elected, he wants to build 2,500 kilometers of wall along the border. He wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, separating families, etcetera. ... What do you think of these accusations against you and if a North American Catholic can vote for a person like this?

To which Francis replied:

Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as animal politicus. At least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I dont know. Ill leave that up to your judgment and that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.

You can see why quotes get trimmed. But important to note, Francis didnt say Trump isnt a Christian; he did reaffirm that the church doesnt get involved in elections. Most important, he said the immigration problem cant be solved by ONLY building walls.

Thus, it was hardly an indictment but an observation related to the Gospel. Otherwise, the flurry that followed focused on Trumps own inferences based on what he was told. Many in the media, knowing full well the extent of Trumps several disgraceful remarks about a variety of issues and people, rationally drew their own inferences. Thats context, too.

Invariably in such matters, we reach a consensus that one shouldnt judge anothers religious beliefs. We cant know anothers heart, we dutifully say at the end of such superficial purges. While this isnt precisely true  Jeb Bush and John Kasich talk incessantly about their hearts  it is a fine, guiding principle.

Given this, why is it that Republican candidates speak so tirelessly of religion? What an excellent question for the Magic 8 Ball. Wait, here comes the answer: Morality is a continuum of ethical actions, not a proclamation of beliefs and intentions. I made that up, but its brilliant, dont you think?

Herewith a moral for the story: Let the pope be popey, let Trump be Trumpy, and let the rest of the bunch follow their faiths without fanfare.
The city-owned Department of Public Utilities continues to be a primary asset for Greater Orangeburg, with its rates for all services among the lowest anywhere.

That wont make customers any happier about a rate increase for water and wastewater services approved this past week by Orangeburg City Council. But the citys elected leaders, who serve as the board of directors for the municipal utility, made the right decision.

Even Councilman Richard Stroman, who voted against the increase, stated previously his opposition was not based on opposition to meeting DPUs needs. I have no problem with the rate increase, but people complain to me all the time about being on a fixed income. I really feel for these people.

Nonetheless, to maintain the level of services expected and to continue to position itself as a utility capable of meeting present and future demands, DPU must make necessary improvements and upgrades.

DPU Manager Tommy Miller asked council to approve the rate increases to recover increasing costs of water and wastewater treatment resulting from more regulations, plus the cost of capital improvements that have been and are being made for both the water and wastewater systems.

Water rates are going up 9 percent and wastewater rates will rise by 15 percent effective April 1. Even with the increases, DPU services are a bargain.

According to information provided by Miller to City Council, a typical in-city residential water customer will see the monthly bill increase from about $13 to $14. Compare that to $26 as the average residential water rate for in-city customers around the state.

A typical residential water customer outside of the city will notice an average increase from about $25 to $27 monthly. Statewide, the average residential water rate is about $40 monthly for people who live outside city limits.

For rural residential water customers, the rate will increase from $31 monthly to $34, which according to Miller is still well below the state average for outside-city customers. These are people who receive service but live outside DPUs core service area.

The wastewater increase will mean the typical in-city residential customer will notice a monthly bill increase from about $17.50 to about $20 monthly. The average in-city residential wastewater rate in South Carolina is about $39 monthly.

For residential wastewater customers outside of the city limits, the average monthly bill will rise from about $32 a month to $37 a month. Statewide, the average outside-city residential rate is about $59 monthly.

With both water and wastewater, the increases will leave DPU customers still paying about half of what residents of other locales pay for monthly service. And not to be forgotten is the utility made two reductions in a year in the cost of electric power, reflecting lower costs in that aspect of its business.

By way of perspective, we offer words from a commentary sent to The Times and Democrat as City Council was considering the DPU request:

I read the article online today regarding the rate increases that DPU says they are needing. What struck me more than the rate increase was that there would even be any discussion about an increase at all. Coming from a larger city, I had to put up with rate increases almost every year, and didnt receive even close to the level of service I have gotten from DPU.

But because I am a skeptic, I decided to look for myself at the rates for water and sewer in S.C. Out of 215 towns in S.C., DPU is the fourth LOWEST. In fact, if you look at the numbers, youll see that some companies are charging over four times as much as DPU. How can anyone complain about that?

My previous company charges nearly double what DPU does. While I have made many friends in Orangeburg over the last several years, I am still amazed at some of the people who live here. It is almost like they would prefer to forget that there is a world outside of Orangeburg where prices go up, things change and businesses need to make money to survive.

Even as a retired person living on a fixed income, I for one am very happy to pay a bit more to keep getting the high level of service from DPU that I have enjoyed over the last several years.
South Carolina weathered many events in 2015. From the senseless murders of Walter Scott and the brothers and sisters of the Emanuel 9, to the devastating floods that crippled our entire state in the latter half of 2015, through it all we showed our resolve, came together as a state and have commenced the healing process. While it was during extraordinary times that we united as a state, it is also a pity that tragedies had to strike before we came together as South Carolinians to confront issues.

Now 2016 places before us a slew of issues that need to be confronted  issues that should have been confronted a long time ago but thanks in large part to our Republican-dominated Legislature have failed to be discussed. These problems are not foreign to South Carolinians: Our weathered roads need fixing, our health care system that shuts out thousands needs expanding, and our children need adequate education funding.

The October flooding wreaked unimaginable havoc on our state, and the General Assembly must act to aid our constituents. We must work to offer grants to individuals and families, small businesses and those in the agricultural community. We must offer financial assistance to the cities and counties impacted, including fully funding the Local Government Fund. Most importantly, all of this should be done in a bipartisan fashion.

Just as a flood relief bill should face zero partisan politics, a roads bill deserves the same treatment. South Carolina roads are some of the worst in the Southeast. Due to neglect on the part of the Legislature as well as the impact of increased business activity, our roads have approached the point to where they cannot remain unaddressed.

Instead of focusing on divisive issues such as restricting the reproductive rights of our women, the General Assembly should switch its focus to an issue that unites us: repairing our roads so that we all are not burdened by the associated vehicle repairs, or worse, struck with the pain associated with the loss of a loved one due to roadway conditions.

Economic growth would be another result from these investments, as outside investors are hesitant to invest in a state that does not provide enough attention to its infrastructure. Last years floods only worsened road conditions and it is past time for the Legislature to ensure South Carolina has adequate infrastructure to meet the needs of our businesses and citizens.

Speaking of adequacy, I must mention the historic decision that the state Supreme Court recently handed down concerning South Carolinas education system. The state has for years ranked near the very bottom of comparative education reports. This is shameful and our children do not deserve such.

The House Democratic Caucus will work to ensure that Gov. Nikki Haley and her Republican allies who oppose addressing education in the Corridor of Shame are forced to follow through with the courts mandate and all of our children are afforded the education that they deserve.

Finally, no discussion regarding rights would be complete without mentioning the health of our citizens. Health care is a human right, and whether someone lives or dies should not be contingent on his or her bank account. It is sad that in a nation as affluent as the United States, states still debate whether to expand health care coverage to their citizens.

In South Carolina, there are some 200,000 who lack the health care coverage they need. The Affordable Care Acts health care expansion in our state would absolutely not cripple the budget as opponents may suggest. For the first three years, the expansion would be covered 100 percent, and subsequently thereafter 90 percent by the federal government.

It is past time for Gov. Haley and Republicans in both legislative bodies to allow for our citizens to receive the health care they deserve, and Democrats are here to see that they stop playing politics with lives and give our people what they are entitled to. For us, the problem is vividly illustrated at home, where we see our rural hospitals closing, and citizens wondering whether they will have access to a hospital in times of dire need.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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If the shoe fits, wear it: "... in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell



"There's no firewall for stupidity." -- Mike Hamilton



"I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said." -- William F. Buckley, Jr.



"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." -- Sren Kierkegaard
At the SAPInsider #HANA2016 #BI2016 conference this week, Chandrakumar Magalingam of Coca-Cola East Japan explained how the company uses a modern analytics platform to provide powerful analytics and support new business models.

The new platform combines SAP HANA, Hadoop, and Spark with traditional reporting and data discovery tools to provide an integrated view of data, an agile approach to analytics development, and forward-looking predictive analysis.

The $5.9Bn company is the fifth largest Coca Cola bottler in the world, a merger of five existing bottling companies with very different business models and IT configurations.

Single view of the truth with integrated, cleansed data

The company is currently in the second phase of deploying a new SAP ECC system to provide an integrated view of the data across the different systems, but found that the existing SAP BW template for bottlers was not a complete fit for their needs  notably because of the high proportion of revenue that comes from over 530,000 vending machines across the region. Better management of this internet of things data is essential to the companys future business models.

To cover all their needs, the company chose a combination of Hadoop, BW on HANA using a SAP Layered Scalable Architecture++ approach and an agile, operational data mart on SAP HANA, using the HANA Enterprise Cloud. SAP Data Services and SLT are used to cleanse, integrate, and move data in real-time from SAP and non-SAP systems, with Sqoop and NiFi to feed data into Hadoop and Spark.

The new system brings big benefits in terms of simplification, speed, and agility, because it requires fewer layers of data transformation and integration. This has reduced the cycle time and work effort for both enhancements and production support activities and considerably reduced the total cost of ownership.

Real-time reporting combined with business agility

Business users access data using a combination of WebIntelligence for corporate reporting and annual statements; Design Studio for KPI dashboards; Lumira for ad-hoc query, discovery, and analysis; and Rstudio/Knime for predictive analytics. The existing manual report creation process that took several weeks has now been replaced an automated system that provides near real-time access to consistent metrics.

The company also made organizational and process changes to get the most out of the new technology. BI is now integrated into business operations, and business and analytics experts have been co-located to facilitate more agile, iterative development. With standardized business definitions across the enterprise, businesses can now more easily support operational effectiveness and business decisions.

Hadoop & Spark to complement SAP HANA

Hortonworks Hadoop and Spark are used to complement SAP HANA and currently support four main activities:

Analytics. The lower cost of storage allows more data, including the detailed information from vending machines, to be loaded into Hadoop in for deep analysis, predictive analytics, machine learning. Data staging. Because Hadoop is not particularly well adapted to iterative analysis, aggregated vending machine data is staged from the Hadoop system to HANA for business user analysis. Cold storage. As old systems are sunsetted, their detailed transactional and master data are being moved to Hadoop, where they are still accessible for analysis such as long-term time trends. Master data. Because all the detailed data can be affordably stored, the Hadoop system is used to store and keep track of the lineage and changes made to master data over time.

The company is evaluating the new SAP Vora technology that brings OLAP-style analysis to Hadoop and Spark, and aims to increase the use of predictive technology. For example, it currently typically takes two trips to maintain the vending machines  a first trip to ascertain how many bottles are needed, and a second to actually stock the machines. By using predictive analytics to get more accurate estimates of the required stocks, the company believes it will be able to reduce the number of trips, cut costs by several hundred million dollars, and ensure higher availability and customer satisfaction.

The company also hopes to get much deeper insight into the profitability of individual vending machines, clustering them by different characteristics (location, beverage types, etc.). This should allow optimal sales by for example moving the least profitable profitable machines to new locations, or by changing the proportions of hot and cold beverages.

A modern BI platform

Modern BI platforms require self-service agility and flexibility for business users, but this flexibility is worth nothing if essential business data is fragmented and inconsistent across multiple systems.

Using SAP technology, Coca-Cola East Japan has implemented a managed, integrated hybrid-cloud system that addresses flexibility and agility for trusted enterprise data while also allowing business users the flexibility to do true self-service analysis across data from any source.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry noted the need for military coordination between their countries to help ensure a truce in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The two politicians held a phone talk earlier in the day, discussing humanitarian aid issues and the planned cessation of hostilities in Syria, "with the exception of fighting terrorist groups," the ministry said in a statement,

reported.

"It was confirmed that the establishment of mechanisms to reach set goals requires military coordination," the statement reads.

Lavrov and Kerry also noted progress when it comes to delivering humanitarian aid to besieged areas in Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted during a phone talk with US Secretary of State John Kerry the importance of not allowing Turkey to violate Syria's territorial integrity.

"Lavrov also noted that provocative Turkish acts that violate the Syrian Arab Republic's territorial integrity are inadmissible," the ministry said in a statement.
Patriotic activists of the Republic of Serbia gathered in front of the Russian Embassy in Belgrade to express peaceful opposition to their countrys cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Saturday,

reported.

Up to 2,000 people carrying Serbian and Russian flags gathered outside the Russian mission in the Serbian capital, according to unofficial estimates. Many expressed indignation over the death of two Serbian diplomats kidnapped last November who were killed in US airstrikes on Libya on Friday.

That day, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic signed a confirmation of his countrys cooperation plan with the Western alliance. Serbian lawmakers ratified a diplomatic immunity agreement and logistical support for NATO representatives on February 12.

Serbia was among the former Yugoslav republics to be invited to join NATOs Partnership for Peace program  the alliances pre-membership program  in 2006.

It agreed to deepen cooperation with NATO through the Individual Partnership Action Plan in January 2015, which took effect in March 2015, shaping educational and technical cooperation, joint exercises and efforts to form a positive image of the alliance among Serbian society.

NATO carried out a 1999 bombing campaign over Serbia in support of the Kosovo Albanian population.

Serbia is also an observer state in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and an associate member in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2007, Serbian lawmakers adopted a resolution upholding the republics neutral status toward military alliances.

Russia views NATOs eastward expansion as a threat to its national security and a breach of the military blocs post-Soviet pledge not to encroach on Russian borders.
The Iranian minister of transportation, Abbas Akhoundi, has discussed the issues of abolishing visa for drivers, North-South Corridor as well as civil aviation with visiting Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev at a meeting in Tehran.

Saying that Iran has already removed the visa requirement for drivers from Azerbaijan, Akhoundi called on Baku to mutually abolish visa requirements for Iranian drivers, IRNA news agency reported.

Abbas Akhoundi touched upon the plans for connecting the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan saying Tehran has taken measures to speed up the process for connecting the railways.

Speaking about plans to construct a new terminal along Iran and Azerbaijan border in Astara, he said the new terminal will create the opportunity to travel to Turkey by train through Astara.

He pointed to the North-South Corridor, and said Iran, Azerbaijan, as well as Georgia share common interests in connecting the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf.

Akhundi also called for increasing the number of weekly flights between Iran and Azerbaijan which currently stands at 10 flights per week.

North-South transport corridor is intended to connect Northern Europe to Southeastern Asia. It will serve as a link to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.

It is planned to transport six million tons of cargo per year via the North-South corridor in the first phase, and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.

/By Trend/
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave a number of instructions to further strengthen production capacity of fuel and energy complex, introduce innovative technologies in the sector, as well as to attract foreign investments in large infrastructure projects, the message of the Turkmen government said Feb. 21.

This issue was raised at a meeting of the countrys Cabinet of Ministers. Deputy prime minister, director of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the President of Turkmenistan Yagshygeldy Kakayev spoke with the report.

In particular, the state of affairs in the structural units of the fuel and energy complex, as well as the measures taken to implement The development program of oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan for the period until 2030 was presented in the report.

The president of Turkmenistan said that along with the expansion of work on the development of hydrocarbon fields of the country, increase in oil and gas production, priority is given to modernization and technical upgrade of the oil and chemical complex, construction of modern gas processing plants, according to the message.

/By Trend/
Oman is going to provide special facilities for Iranian tradesmen to ease their business in the country, Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi said in a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.

He attached high significance to Iran-Oman cooperation in the field of energy, adding the two countries are able to complement each other economically, Tasnim news agency reported February 21.

The Iranian president, for his part, said Iran is ready to facilitate the affairs of Omani businessmen in the Islamic Republic.

The private sector can expand their work in the areas of aviation, ports, railroads, and banking, Rouhani said.

He added Tehran-Muscat cooperation in energy possesses strategic significance.

Alawi is leading a business delegation to Iran. The annual trade turnover between Iran and Oman in recent years has stood at about $400 million.

Oman played a key role in bringing Iran and the US together for nuclear talks, which ended in lifting economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.




Why Politics Matter

Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything  high and low and, most especially, high  lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933.  Charles Krauthammer
Join me as I break down the days in Northeastern Indiana - days full of walks outdoors and waterskis; parks, lakes and rivers. We'll also look for some spontaneous fun. We're going to talk, take in the scenery, and go on lots of adventures!
Banks must wake up to the way technology affects the daily lives of their customers or risk being left behind in the smart phone revolution, according to a digital banking expert .



Chris Skinner, Chair and founder of the European networking forum, the Financial Services Club, said there is an urgent need for an "Uber" of the banking world to shake up antiquated technologies and poor customer experience.



He will drive home that message at MEFTECH 2016, the combined financial services conference and exhibition taking place at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from March22-23.



Technology is changing every aspect of our daily lives and its march is getting louder, faster and stronger as each day goes by, said Skinner, one of the keynote speakers at the conference.



The smartphone revolution has radically restructured every industry from booking a trip (TripAdvisor), a room (Airbnb) or a taxi (Uber), but wheres the Uber of banking?



There isnt one yet, and consumers will soon defect to new players unless high street banks wake up. You only have to look at the total immersion of people in their smartphone screens on the train or street to see the impact of consumer technologies.



That is what disruptive innovators have achieved in travel and related markets, but what is happening in banking? Not a lot. Most large banks have just taken their internet services to a mobile screen or, as I like to think of it, theyve taken a big-screen banking system and converted it to a small screen.



Re-launched this year the new-look MEFTECH exhibition and conference is the largest event in the Mena region that connects the regions the entire financial technology community.



Vimal Sethi, Middle East managing director, Synechron said, MEFTECH 2016s theme of discovering why the future is digital is exactly what Synechron is all about.



As the worlds largest, independent technology services and consulting firm to the financial industry, we want to bring an international presence to this reputable local event. This year, we are MEFTECHs official Digital Innovation Partner, and will be giving attendees the chance to experience digital banking through our showcase at the event.



A tightly focused trade exhibition showcasing a wide range of FinTech solutions will feature live demos from some of the industrys most exciting start-ups.



This is aimed at promoting collaboration between regional banks and FinTech companies, leading eventually to the emergence of new FinTech hubs in the Mena region.



"MEFTECH 2016 is the go-to event for all involved in shaping the future of financial services in the region, said Chris Fountain, managing director, Turret Media, the event organisers. Weve set out to attract the industrys best and brightest minds and create a platform for innovative ideas and thinking.  TradeArabia News Service
With the government slashing its project spending amid the oil slump, the private sector will dominate the real estate sector in Dubai accounting for over 70 per cent of total supply of the emirate's housing units over the next few years, said a report.



Historically, government-sponsored developments act as a flight to safety, as witnessed in Dubai Marina, stated Reidin, a leading real estate information company focusing on emerging markets.

During the global financial crisis, government-sponsored developers' units contributed nearly half of all transactions, which otherwise on average accounted for 20 per cent, it said.



A dissection of Dubai current supply reveals that the housing stock is split nearly evenly between private sector developers and government sponsored developers, according to the report.



However, as Dubai undergoes its second construction frenzy, the topography of housing units will be highly skewed towards private sector, it added.



According to Reidin, this structural change in the roll out of Dubai's housing stock highlights the pivotal role of the private sector in coming years.



"In the current real estate dip, we witnessed that the ratio remained the same, signaling a paradigm shift of confidence towards private sector developers," the property expert stated in the report.



"Moreover, a price analysis between government sponsored developers and private sector developers reveals that in three out of four communities, private sector developers have outperformed, highlighting the shift in the structure of the market," it observed.



In real estate, the liquidity premium phenomena between government-sponsored developments and private sector developments in Dubai has greatly reduced.



This trend is likely to continue as quality improvements and future supply is likely to be dominated by private sector developers, said Reidin in the report.



With a likely compression in expected developer margins, there are indications that prices in premium areas will drift lower, both in the off plan and the ready spaces, it stated.



Relative price performance between the assets of government sponsored developers and private sector developers is likely to skew towards the latter, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Construction companies that operate in the Middle East face a range of challenges that grow more complex every year. Low oil prices and geopolitical issues have caught them by surprise.



To get through this more complex business environment, they must have leaner operations and improve their management capabilities, according to a recent study by management consultancy Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), part of the PwC network.



In particular, they should take a structured approach to dealing with their two largest spending areas - manpower and procurement - and develop more flexible organisational models, stated the study.



"Local companies have benefited from significant investment by national governments," remarked Alessandro Borgogna, a partner with Strategy& in Dubai, co-author of the study, and a member of the engineered products and services practice in the Middle East.



Today, that spending has declined, in part due to low oil prices. In addition, companies are required to hire more nationals, which increases labour costs. These factors, along with geopolitical developments, have forced GCC contractors to suddenly cut costs and tighten their operations, explained Borgogna.



According to Strategy&, companies can take several measures to reduce costs with regard to manpower. These include:

Effective manpower management: including a clear manpower plan that will help companies accurately forecast their labour needs and identify looming shortfalls in specific areas, so they can recruit accordingly.

A specialised team should be in place to enforce the manpower plan and ensure co-ordination across the HR (human resources), planning, and operations functions.

Improving the span of control - or the ratio of employees in adjacent levels of the company, such as the number of foremen compared to the number of tradesmen - could will help companies reduce the size of their workforce and have more productive operations



Collectively, these measures can help companies reduce staff by 10 to 20 per cent, while maintaining the same quality standards and timelines, said Fadi Majdalani, a partner with Strategy& in Beirut, co-author of the study, and the leader of the engineered products and services practice in the Middle East.



According to him, procurement is another area of potential savings, given that the purchase of materials and services typically takes up 60 per cent of a construction companys total spending.



Reducing procurement costs starts with a complete analysis of what the company is buying, who it is buying from, where the biggest opportunities lie, and how companies might negotiate better terms from their suppliers, he added.



With a clear picture of procurement in hand, companies can implement several key cost-reduction measures including:

Planning and aggregating purchases for the entire portfolio of projects, rather than on an individual project basis, can lead to volume discounts and strategic partnerships with key suppliers.

Co-ordinating purchases with the finance department can lead to better payment terms, more predictable cash flow, and fewer missed payments.

Technology such as an enterprise resource management system can make procurement faster, more efficient, and more accurate.



All these measures can lead to savings of five to 10 per cent on procurement costs, said the Strategy& report.



Finally, GCC construction companies need to create more flexible organisations. For example, they can centralise their manpower and procurement functions, to maximise the benefits of scale.



Companies can also improve their core project-management capabilities - such as project management; cost control; planning; contracts; quality; and health, safety, security, and the environment - which are consistently below those of international competitors.



Moreover, they can create a performance-based culture in which employees at all levels of the organisation take on a sense of ownership and accountability, rather than simply meeting baseline expectations.



These are bold measures, but the current construction market in the GCC requires nothing less, remarked Marwan Bejjani, a principal with Strategy& in Dubai, co-author of the study, and a member of the engineered products and services practice.



By reducing costs and becoming lean, construction companies in the region can position themselves to win regardless of what the future holds, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The Vienna-based Peace Promotion Association granted Bahrains HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa the Flame of Peace Award, making him the first Arab Premier to receive the prestigious honour, a report said.



The prize was conferred on HRH the Prime Minister in tribute for his outstanding humanitarian role to promote global peace and boost relations between people, reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA).



The Peace Promotion Association, which is presided by Archduchess Herta Margarete Habsburg, decided to bestow the award on HRH the Premier in recognition of his pivotal role in fostering regional and global peace and security as well as his commitment to carrying out the millennium development goals which earned him the UN Millennium Development Goals Award for 2010.



HRH the Prime Minister was also honoured for his policies advocating religious coexistence and the use of art to boost rapprochement between people and promote the culture of peace and coexistence, the BNA report said.
What is the cure for peaceful, relaxed travel? Short-term vacation rental. Those four words can literally save your trip.

Barcelona, Spain is a city that needs to be explored for more than four days. If possible a week.

Did you know that Barcelona is absolutely humongous? There are at least six different neighborhoods that are central. Probably more. Each looks better than the other, and all are scattered all over the place. Thats how I felt when I started my search on where to stay in Barcelona:

Scattered, confused, in complete disarray.

I contacted several different vacation rental places that specialize in Barcelona, but at the end SH Barcelona turned out to be the best choice.

Why SH Barcelona Was My Top Choice for Where to Stay in Barcelona

Service.

That really separated Sh Barcelona from the other places. I sent emails to the larger vacation rental databases but the only people that give you personal responses were the owners of the apartments.

And, of course, they will rave about their spot and the location.

I wanted someone to help me with the overall best location, without having a biased intention.

Delphine, from SH Barcelona, was amazing. She fully understood what I was searching for. She answered hundreds of my questions, sent me links with fun things to do with kids in Barcelona. And in the end helped me find the perfect apartment for us.

Our Two Bedroom Apartment in Barcelona

Plaza Espana, after touring the whole city, was my absolute favorite place to visit over and over again. With the magic fountain show, the majestic statue and surrounding area of stores and restaurants.

It was a good thing, because our apartment in Sants Montjuic, was literally five minute walk from it all. But in the residential area with tons of supermarkets and fruit stands. One block from the metro station. And in the quiet Plaza Madrona where my kids played safely.

Sh Barcelona works with a check in company that sends over a representative to help you with the full check in. The woman that we worked with spoke perfect English and was super helpful in showing us everything. Setting up the TV and internet.

Virtual Tour of the Apartment

Our new home for the week had a large, newly remodeled, kitchen. It was open to the living room area and also the dining room area. This way I could do some cooking while hanging out with my family.

It was two bedrooms and the couch in the living room pulls out to become a really comfortable bed.

The washer area was separate with all that you needed for washing your clothes.

The same area had all the cleaning supplies, including a vacuum cleaner (I was laughing when I was shown this, because I never touch vacuums at home  yet there were several times that we needed it  my husband and youngest son did the work, though). I would like to have a vacuum for pet hair at home though.

And we had a small balcony that we can get some fresh air as well.

Video Fun
It was the early 1980s, and Wyoming was booming. The price of crude had skyrocketed. Hourly flights from Casper to Denver served Champagne and caviar.

And then it went bust.

First-grade teacher Mary Lou Smart remembers 1986 as the year things changed, a grim time in her nearly four decades of teaching for the Campbell County School District. She was newly married, recently tenured. And seemingly overnight, teachers jobs were being cut in droves.

Now, she worries, the circumstances of those difficult years may be returning.

As Wyoming schools brace for what some say could be a severe bust, many remember the last time this happened  when enrollment took a nose dive as families looked for livelihoods outside the state.

Fewer families means fewer students, and ultimately fewer students translates into less money because school funding is based on enrollment. Its a self-correcting system that officials say bends to the boom and bust nature the states economy. When enrollment goes up, there is more money for schools the next year. When enrollment goes down, the money gradually decreases, a soft landing that gives schools time to adjust, said Donna Little-Kaumo, superintendent of Sweetwater County School District No. 2.

But now teachers and principals are are facing additional cuts from lawmakers in Cheyenne.

When you apply a static cut like what the (Joint Appropriations Committee) approved there is no time to adjust, she said. Our model is already designed to address the ebbs and flows of the economy. If they watch the enrollment they will probably get more back than the $45 million they are trying to cut.

Looking back to

look forward

In October, there were more students enrolled in Wyoming schools than the year before, despite declines in oil, natural gas and coal.

Thats not unusual. While it often seems like the economy and enrollment dive together, seemingly overnight, the data is more nuanced, showing a seesaw effect.

In 1983, the state lost 700 kids in grades K-12. But the next year 200 came in.

It wasnt until 1986, when the price of oil fell below $10 a barrel, that losses were extreme. More than 1,800 students left that year. The following year, 2,500 moved. Numbers climbed up slightly and then tanked again in 1990. For the next decade the state saw a yearly decrease in students.

As of today, many districts are losing kids, like sand dripping from an hourglass. Its only a matter of time, officials say, before the money that pays for education declines significantly.

For lawmakers trying to save money, thats a good thing, said Little-Kaumo.

Fifty-one students have left her district since January, she said.

Lincoln County School District No. 1 lost 41, said Superintendent Theresa Chaulk. Thats significant as Lincoln is one of the smaller districts in the state, with around 590 students. Thirteen districts in total lost students in the last year, despite a modest increase statewide.

Don Dihle, business manager for the Campbell County School District, is projecting that enrollment will be down significantly as early as next year.

He ran statewide numbers comparing the current situation with what happened in the mid-80s.

I projected the same percent of enrollment drop that happened 30 years ago to our current enrollment numbers. Basically I came up with a drop of 3,954 students over the next two years, he said.

The first year, the enrollment decrease wont hit as hard. School districts are guaranteed a certain level of funding per student. The state determines how many kids were in each district at the end of the year, using the larger of two numbers. One is the average attendance from the previous year. The second number is the average of the last three years. But if a bust continues, and enrollment continues to dwindle, the three-year average decreases every year.

And that means job losses, because teachers are costly.

Eighty percent of school district budgets are caught up in staff and programs, Little-Kaumo said. I fear what is going to happen is people are going to lose jobs, and it is going to be hard to replace them.

No middle ground

Planning on replacing teachers and programs when the economy bounces back is part of the boom and bust mentality of Wyoming. Its always an extreme, and it always changes.

Unfortunately in state history, we havent had a lot of cases where a boom smooths out to general prosperity, or a bust rises up to being just OK, said Phil Roberts, a professor at the University of Wyoming, specializing in the history of the state, the West and natural resources.

There are statewide busts and localized busts, both impacting education, he said.

I have identified 13 booms and 13 busts in Wyoming history, he said. There are certainly localized busts too, that happen in towns like Jeffrey City. The whole town of 2,000 people dried up. The school is a classic example of what happens in really serious busts.

That is why school officials are asking lawmakers to wait and see before they make cuts.

When enrollment numbers are in next year, the state may already be saving the money on education, said Dihle, with Campbell County.

He and others have asked that lawmakers trust the system that funds education.

But lawmakers believe it is a mischaracterization to say the cuts undermine the system. Last year, lawmakers added a 2 percent increase to the traditional method of school funding to account for increases in personnel, cost of living and cost of materials. The cuts will come out of that addition, said Rep. Steve Harshman, a chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

Well, I think we were very intentional to not touch the funding model. In fact, I argued against a cut to the model twice this week, he said.

The House of Representatives voted in favor of an amendment to reduce the potential cuts Friday, but needs agreement from the Senate for the amendment to stand.

Harshman, a Republican from Casper who teaches and coaches at Natrona County High School, said the committee trusts the funding model. He acknowledged that the reduction and enrollment declines may result in a double cut for some school districts.

Theres a few districts that will, Harshman said. Theres a few, no doubt. But again, this is a reduction to the increase given last year. I still think its more money than they had two years ago.

Adding money one year and having to take it out the next is in line with how Roberts describes peoples response to the volatile economy.

A lot of times people underestimate the possibility of a bust and then underestimate the possibility of getting out of one, he said. We say, Oh no, I didnt know this was going to happen. Sure enough, its just like the ones that preceded it.

For the first-grade teacher nearing retirement in the Campbell School District, specific memories of 30 years ago are vague: larger classes, lots of work, lots of worry.

I remember the sadness I felt when many people around me were scared about not having a job. It was just so, so many people, Smart said.

This time, shes worried about all the additional programs being cut with less money, things like teachers who are paid to spend extra time with struggling students before and after school. She also worries about her daughter, a young teacher in the district, in the same position as her mother was 30 years ago.

Political reporter Laura Hancock contributed to this report.
A group of well-heeled conservatives will meet Monday at the exclusive Racquet Club in Chicago for an evening in honor of Liz Cheney, a Wilson resident who is running for Congress to represent Wyoming.

The cost to attend the event, which includes a reception and dinner, ranges between $1,000 and $5,400, depending on the level of access to the Cheneys.

The Chicago fundraisers ticket price shows Liz Cheney can raise money  and a lot of it, given her strong ties to the last Republican administration. Not only will Cheney likely outraise the other 10 candidates vying for the open U.S. House seat, no other candidate has the ability to tap wealthy donors outside Wyoming in the same way.

Some voters may be concerned that interests across state lines are interfering in the campaign. Others will maintain that running for federal office is expensive, and perhaps one of Cheneys strengths is a political network largely situated outside Wyoming.

Outside fundraising

The day before launching her campaign, Cheney told the Casper Star-Tribune that her father would be staying out of the race.

He has been extremely supportive and hes obviously a man of tremendous and wise counsel, but this is my race, she said on Jan. 31. And Im going to run it as my race.

Its unclear whether her fathers involvement in the Chicago fundraiser constitutes his staying out of the race, given Cheneys campaign declined to answer questions. Cheneys campaign manager, Bill Novotny, did not return four phone calls and two emails requesting an interview for this story.

Cheney is a self-described fourth-generation Wyomingite. She also has ties to the Windy City, having graduated from the University of Chicagos law school in 1996. The Ricketts patriarch, former Ameritrade Holding Corp. CEO Joe Ricketts, lives in the Jackson area, according to his website. Hes also the founder of the super PAC Ending Spending, whose CEO is his son, Todd.

Cheney said at the beginning of her campaign she is not taking money from political action committees. PACs have the ability to give more money than individual donors in an election cycle. PACs pool contributions of people with similar business or ideological interests.

Cheney has experienced success raising money outside Wyoming before. During her six-month race against U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi in 2013 and 2014, she raised $1.8 million. Of that, $231,292 came from Wyomingites and $856,689 came from outside the state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contribution data from the Federal Election Commission. The center doesnt track by geography contributions under $200 or those from political action committees.

Wyomings outgoing congresswoman, Republican U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, collected nearly half of her campaign war chest from Wyomingites in 2014, according to center data.

Campaign finance figures for the 2016 House races arent yet available.

The competition

Cheneys biggest competition comes from two established state Republican lawmakers: Sen. Leland Christensen of Alta and Rep. Tim Stubson of Casper.

Each lawmaker is trying to distinguish himself from Cheney by emphasizing his years of living inside the state and serving Wyoming residents. Cheney lived most of her life outside Wyoming before she and her husband purchased a house in Wilson in 2012. The couple also owns a house in the Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, tax records.

Christensen, who is chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would gladly accept donations from outside Wyoming. He has no out-of-state fundraising events planned right now.

Christensen said he hasnt been offered any PAC money but that hes had incredible support  both in the number of people who have pledged to vote for him and in contributions made to his campaign.

Its generally agreed were going up against a money machine, he said. We appreciate anyone who wants to contribute.

Stubson, the third-ranking Republican in the state House, said he expects to receive some checks from people outside Wyoming. For instance, his sister lives outside the state. But he wont board a plane to ask nonresidents for money.

Our fundraising is going to be in the state of Wyoming with people who are our neighbors and family and friends and leaders of the state, he said.

The Casper lawyer said hes encouraged by the support hes received thus far, although hes not had much time to campaign.

Stubson serves on the Legislatures Joint Appropriations Committee, which met in Cheyenne for much of December and January. He and Christensen will spend the remainder of February and the beginning of March at the Legislature.

Stubson said hes not going to reject a contribution from a PAC if it shares the same political views. But since PACs dont typically choose candidates during the primary, Cheneys rejection of their money is not much of a sacrifice, he said.

I think well do OK, he said. Well never match her fundraising. Well do enough so we can get our message out.

Differing constituencies

The news that Cheney is traveling outside Wyoming to raise money is no surprise to Gale Geringer, a Cheyenne lobbyist who has managed Republican campaigns since 1990.

Every candidate has his or her own constituency, said Geringer, who said she will not commit to any candidate in the race until after the state legislative session is over. You go to that constituency to help you raise money. I think in the same way youd find Leland Christensen going to ranchers or law enforcement people, or Tim Stubson going to fellow members of the bar. Youll see Liz Cheney going to her cohorts or her fathers cohorts around the country. Theres no question this will be an expensive campaign. All of the candidates will be reaching out to their supporters to help.

Its easier for a candidate to travel to Texas, for instance, to talk to a group of supporters than it is for supporters to travel from Texas to Wyoming, she said.

The other frontrunners in the race  Christensen and Stubson  are savvy and knew Cheney would have contacts nationwide, Geringer said.

She expects that other candidates may travel to out-of-state events to raise money for the race.

The key, as always, is reporting and transparency so the voters know who is supporting you and can make the judgments based on that, she said.

Cheneys fundraising numbers from her 2014 Senate race made sense to Charlie Tyrell, another candidate seeking to fill Lummis seat in Congress.

She has a good network, the Republican said of Cheney.

The Casper pizzeria owner doesnt see out-of-state fundraising being a major issue in the races. Hed prefer the race to focus on candidates and people in the state.

The majority of a candidates fundraising should come from Wyoming, Tyrell said.
The Wyoming Legislature is facing many significant and complex issues this session, but leaders have solved one that is as straightforward as they come: finding a place from which to govern.

The Legislature, which relocated to allow for a major renovation project at the Capitol, will spend this session and the next two at the Jonah Business Center in Cheyenne. State leaders have mostly preserved the physical structure of state government, with designated rooms for the Senate, House, public galleries, committee meetings and more. It is an impressive solution given transporting the whole operation is nothing short of a logistical feat.

No matter where the Legislature meets, the one thing that should not change is the opportunity for the publics comment and interaction with lawmakers. Wyoming residents may have fewer chances to lobby their lawmakers at the temporary capitol over these next few years. A new policy mostly restricts public gatherings of more than 10 people to a sidewalk area next to the building or a meeting room near the buildings atrium (provided that lawmakers arent already using the space for committee meetings).

Gov. Matt Mead and other state leaders were right when they acknowledge thats not a perfect arrangement for the public, or for the lawmakers. But its believable when they say its the best they can do in a temporary space. We also appreciated the words of the state attorney general, Peter Michael, who said that if the new rules turn out to be problematic during the session, leaders will review them.

No matter the location of the debate, there is no shortage of big conversations to be had this session. This budget session is all about priorities and spending in a time of limited resources. The discussion surrounding Medicaid expansion has been extensive and has spilled from the legislative chambers across the whole state. Questions on how well actually fund health care, K-12 and secondary education, local governments, transportation, agriculture, senior centers, tourism and more have been deliberated. Were also broaching an overdue debate on a savings strategy and when its appropriate to tap into reserve accounts.

Most Wyomingites probably dont drive to Cheyenne when they wish to express an opinion to their legislators; they will more likely call, email, text or even write a letter to the editor. What matters is that our representatives take the call or respond to the email or other message. This week a citizen who is educated and informed described sending two messages to their legislator; in one they said thank you for your vote, and in the other they expressed a difference of opinion over public lands issues. The legislator responded immediately to the thank you but not at all to the other.

That is not the kind of transparency this newspaper advocates. In fact, that behavior is more like a thumb in the eye than a demonstration of representative government. No matter where the Legislature is convened or where an individual sits on the issues, legislators cannot truly solve any problem if they respond only to people with whom they agree. Communication with constituents will always be the key to good governance.
Editor:

A recent letter to the Star-Tribune called Republicans opposition to taking up a Supreme Court nominee until next year as blatant defiance, obstruction, and unnecessary divisiveness.

Asked about his position in the Senate to filibuster judge Samuel Alito back in 2006, President Obama said that times have changed since 2006. Ill say! Now hes being hoisted on his own petard and he doesnt like it.

Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer said the following in 2007, 19 months before a new president was sworn it: We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances, adding that there are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee I disagree with this view. Schumers recent attempts at walking back those comments notwithstanding, what he said in 2007 remains absolutely clear. As trial lawyers often ask of witnesses in court, Were you lying then, or are you lying now?

Obamas statement about what the Constitution requires him to do vis-a-vis filling Supreme Court vacancies borders on the comical. This sudden concern for Constitutional requirements rings quite hollow from a man who has exceeded his Article II authority on numerous occasions by issuing executive orders and actions on important issues such as immigration. Is it simply a coincidence that Obama wants to rush another justice onto the Supreme Court while that body will soon rule on the decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals barring his executive order on immigration? I think not!

The American electorate voted for numerous Republican senatorial candidates who pledged in 2014 to oppose this president and his arbitrary actions. This gave the Republicans their current majority in the Senate. Now its time for those Senate Republicans to stand fast and fulfill their campaign pledges. Too many vital issues of liberty hang in the balance for them to capitulate yet again.
In my view, the recent dustup between candidate Donald Trump and the Pope needs to be examined by the roles each is playing. The Pope is right to encourage us not to build bridges between us but to love one another. Candidate Trump wants to build a wall/fence across the southern US border to enhance national security. Both are right within the context of their respective roles. In Mathew 22: 15-22, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus by trying to get him to say that the Jews werent obligated to support the Romans and their taxes. He asked for a coin which had a picture of Caesar on it and said. Give to Caesar which is Caesar and to God which is Gods! Enough said.
A mobile-home park that began as a citrus grove in the 1920s has been sold to developers who plan to create a multifamily community with replanted citrus trees reminiscent of its beginnings.

Rancho Los Amigos mobile-home park, 600 W. Orange Grove Road, was bought by Alta Vista Communities for $4.8 million, records from the Pima County Recorders Office show.

Owners plan to begin construction of a 232-unit rental community with two-story, eight-plex buildings ranging from one to three bedrooms by years end.

Every one will be a corner unit, said Roger Karber, manager of Alta Vista Communities.

The units will have 10-foot ceilings and oversized patios and balconies, he said.

For now, the company has contracted with a management firm to help transition residents to different mobile-home parks.

About 70 residents of the park have been notified that they need to vacate by Aug. 1, said manager Neal Haney, of NTH Property Management.

He said one meeting has been held to explain the next steps, and a second meeting is scheduled for later this month to bring in other park operators to discuss their amenities.

Fund will pay to move

or buy mobile homes

Under state law, owners of mobile-home parks are required to give 180-day notice when a park is sold to be redeveloped, said Debra Blake, interim director of the Arizona Department of Fire Building and Life Safety.

She said the state will pay to relocate the mobile homes to other parks, to private property or to purchase them.

A fund established in the 1970s is financed by a personal property tax assessment that mobile-home owners pay in case of a parks redevelopment.

The fund pays up to $5,000 for the movement and installation of a single-wide and $10,000 for a double-wide, Blake said.

Only tenants with proof of ownership of the mobile home are eligible for assistance. People renting the mobile homes are not.

Blake said homeowners run into problems when they get installers that exceed those limits, which are set by state law.

What we tell tenants is, negotiate it, she said. You are the one in control here and there are installers that will do it for $5,000.

That reimbursement covers only the cost of moving the mobile home, not additional structures that may have been added or items such as aboveground pools or sheds. Those are all a la carte, Blake said.

Both the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners and Manufactured Housing Communities of Arizona receive notice from the state when a park is about to close and they work with the property managers to set up informational meetings for residents.

Residents can also chose to abandon the property. If they want to do something different, they can give up the title, sign the home over to the new park owners and walk away, Blake said. A payment of $1,250 would be made for a single-wide and $2,500 for a double-wide.

Everybody understands this is a stressful time, she said. The state is here, not only with money, but to answer your questions. We want to make this as smooth a transition as possible. Residents can call 602-364-1032 for more information or for a list of licensed installers in their area.

While working on this article, a reporter and photographer were asked to leave the property, as some residents requested privacy during their transition.

part of local lore

The long driveway onto the property, just west of Oracle Road, will be kept in place, as will much of the lush vegetation, Karber said.

Definitely want to keep those amazing palm trees, maybe have them lining that long entry drive, he said. We want to keep that country/rural feel.

If all goes as planned, units will be available for move-in by late spring or summer 2017.

Karber said it has not been decided what to name the new complex.

I like the name and the history, he said. And, we want to put some of the citrus back and replicate the grove atmosphere.

Records show that Maurice Reid bought a 1,500-acre ranch bounded by what is now Oracle and La Cholla roads and Orange Grove and Ina Roads to create a citrus farm.

He moved his wife, Beulah, and sons Gene and Robert from Oakland, California, in 1924, after a years stay at a sanitarium in Tucson after he contracted tuberculosis.

Reid cultivated more than 200 acres of citrus trees and date palms. Over the years, most of the land was developed or sold as parcels for homes, and in 1950, the remaining property was sold to a group of doctors who developed it into a trailer court in 1955.

The 18-acre Rancho Los Amigos is part of the original farm.
Kidney specialist Ojo joins UA Health Sciences

Dr. Akinlolu O. Ojo, a leader in research and clinical care of chronic kidney disease and kidney transplantation, has been named associate vice president for clinical research and global health initiatives at University of Arizona Health Sciences.

Ojo also will serve as professor of medicine in the UA College of Medicine-Tucson and as professor of health promotion sciences in the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

He was the Florence E. Bingham research professor in nephrology at the University of Michigan, among other posts there.

He has a particular clinical interest in kidney disease in African Americans and blacks in developing nations.

Adkins to lead Miraval program development

Miraval Group has appointed Sue Adkins, a 17-year veteran of its flagship resort in the Tucson area, as vice president to lead program development companywide, notably in support of the companys initiative to add full-service Miraval resorts in key destination markets and Miraval Life in Balance Spas in submarkets.

Adkins previously was director of programs and assistant program director at Miraval Tucson Resort & Spa, after previous roles for several other Tucson hotels.

Kravec named associate

at Farhang& Medcoff

Laura M. Kravec has joined Farhang & Medcoff as an associate attorney practicing in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and trusts and estates. She received her bachelor of science in economics, cum laude, from Miami University and her juris doctor from University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law.

Sundt names Kwapich senior project manager

Tucson-based Sundt Construction has named Jeremy Kwapich as senior project manager.

Kwapich, who has worked in the industry more than 15 years, immediately joins the team constructing the Banner-University Medical Center Tucson hospital, a joint venture with DPR Construction.

He holds a bachelors degree in construction management from Northern Arizona University.

In other Sundt promotions: Eric Hedlund, a longtime executive of the company, has been named to lead its expansion in Texas, a state the company says accounts for 25 percent of its new work.

John Carlson, who previously held the Texas post, takes the new role of corporate strategic business officer.

Pediatrician Moher joins Assurance Health

Dr. Jennifer Moher has joined Assurance Health & Wellness Center Child and Adolescent Services  Tucson.
Fancy Nancy fans will have the chance to don their most elegant pajamas and have breakfast with the writer behind the beloved fashionista at an event hosted by UA BookStores.

The Fancy Nancy Posh Pajama Party will take place at 8:30 a.m. on March 13 at the Student Union Memorial Center South Ballroom, 1303 E. University Blvd.

Jane OConnor, author of the Fancy Nancy books, will meet fans and sign copies of her newest book, Fancy Nancy: Saturday Night Sleepover.

A light continental breakfast will be served at the event.

Tickets are $21.50 per person. Childrens tickets come with a copy of the new book.
A movie scheduled to be shot in May at Old Tucson Studios held auditions Saturday at the University of Arizona.

Tombstone Rashomon, the next film by director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy), will examine the gunfight at the OK Corral from a variety of viewpoints, similar to the Akira Kurosawa classic Rashomon.

For the first time, a film about this subject shows the perspectives of not only the supposedly heroic Earps, but men and women from various viewpoints of the conflict, the filmmakers said in a news release.

The low-budget independent production was looking for actors of all races and ethnicities to fill the roles of Colonel Roderick Hafford, Kate Horoney, Johnny Behan, Wyatt Earp, Ike Clanton and Doc Holliday, said casting director Travis Mills, Arizona-based director and CEO of Running Wild Films.

Students from the University of Arizona and graduates of the Colorado University Boulder Film Program will fill out the crew of the film.
Some Pima County officials who use social media to communicate with constituents are blocking users, deleting comments and failing to adequately maintain the exchanges as required by the states public records law, a review shows.

For example, Supervisor Ally Miller did not provide documents that show critical comments were deleted from her official Facebook account, which is funded by taxpayers.

When asked at a recent meeting why those records were not included among the information provided to the Star under a public records request to the county, Miller was dismissive and denied knowledge of any deleted comments. Im so glad we have such big issues, Miller said.

The Star requested social media records from the county after Administrator Chuck Huckelberry in January told county elected officials that state records laws apply to social media communications. The Star requested the records in an effort to identify deleted comments and the identities of blocked or restricted users.

Any Facebook or social media communication is a public record, just like an email, said Phoenix-based attorney Dan Barr, who has worked for the Star and handles First Amendment and public records issues across Arizona.

He said the type of communication, whether its written or electronic, doesnt change its status as a public record.

Failure to provide public documents opens a governmental body to lawsuits and potential civil penalties.

For elected officials, general correspondence with the public typically have to be retained for two calendar years. That includes written or digital communications.

What the content is determines the retention schedule, said Jerry Lucente-Kirkpatrick, a records analyst with the Arizona Secretary of States Library, Archives and Public Records Division.

COUNTY DATA

When county officials fulfilled the Arizona Daily Stars request, the documents included lists of blocked Facebook and Twitter accounts from the sheriffs, library, animal care, communications and one comment that was deleted on the recorders Facebook page.

The Sheriffs Department provided a list of the accounts it had blocked from commenting on its social media pages.

We do not delete comments from our Facebook account, Deputy Courtney Rodriguez said in a follow-up interview. Persons banned from our account were found to have been in violation of our Terms of Use. Each instance of these violations can be located and are maintained directly on the platform.

Rodriguez said the department uses Facebooks hide function to prevent comments made in violation of their terms of use invisible to the public.

Typically, violations include off-topic comments, offensive or threatening language or advertising.

Pima Animal Care Center also provided a list of numerous blocked users. PACC was unable to provide the users deleted comments, however. I dont believe they were retained, Pima County Communications Manager Mark Evans said.

In November, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a policy governing official county social accounts.

The policy largely mirrors existing state laws, outlining reasons for using social media and requirements and processes for retaining records.

Evans said many of the deleted comments from the PACC Facebook account were removed prior to implementing the policy.

County elected officials, were exempted from the policy but are required to conduct their social media accounts in accordance with state laws regarding production and retention of public records.

In response to the Arizona Daily Stars request, Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguezs office provided a print out of a single comment deleted from the offices Facebook page.

Except for Miller, each supervisors office said they had not deleted or blocked content from their social media accounts.

Miller provided a single record, which was a cell phone photo of a computer monitor in her office showing a post a staffer made to Millers Facebook account in error that later was removed.

While Miller maintains she is unaware of deleted comments or blocked users, the Pima County Administrators Office provided printouts showing numerous comments that were either deleted or removed from Millers official Facebook page. The records also showed an additional post the supervisor made and later deleted.

Asked about the deleted comments at a Feb. 16 board meeting, Miller denied any knowledge.

I havent seen any of those, Miller said.

The Arizona Daily Star provided copies of the documents to Miller and requested comment. She did not respond.

Miller also suggested that members of her staff could bear the responsibility for any deleted Facebook content.

My whole office has access to that Facebook page, Miller said.

Millers former chief of staff, Jeannie Davis, who was abruptly fired in December, said it was disappointing that the supervisor would attempt to blame employees.

Supervisor Miller was the only one to delete comments and block individuals, Davis said.

RECORDS RESPONSIBILITY

Modern social media platforms create challenges in retaining public records.

Facebook has no records management capability, said Lucente-Kirkpatrick, the state records analyst.

In that case, the responsibility for maintaining the records ultimately lies with those who create them.

In May, Lucente-Kirkpatrick led a training session at Pima County on social media records retention policies.

Attendees included representative from area governments, school districts and elected offices. A representative from Supervisor Millers office also attended, a check-in sheet shows.

Some elected officials use software that sends an email of all their social media postings and comments, Lucente-Kirkpatrick said. The emails then can be included on a governments servers and archived.

No Pima County officials or departments currently use this type of software.

Despite the challenges in capturing the records, Barr said governments have a legal obligation to retain social media records.

They cant just say Facebook doesnt do it, Barr said.
The Arizona Department of Transportation brought its roads show to Tucson last week, gathering input about long-term transportation plans.

The ideas could find a place in ADOTs upcoming Long-Range Transportation Plan, which sets goals, provides direction and establishes benchmarks in transportation planning.

Asking the people who fund government activities how they expect their money to be spent is a good idea, especially on a vital function like transportation.

But there are also some drawbacks to involving the public in planning and policy-making.

For last weeks meeting, ADOT officials divided participants into four groups. Each group was tasked with discussing various scenarios, including momentum, global chaos, technology and leaving a gentle footprint.

Each of these groups was to discuss five overarching topic areas as they relate to the four scenarios: the economy, technology, politics, society and the environment.

Similar to events held across the state, the object was to establish some goals  high-altitude stuff rather than specific projects.

Some productive comments came from these discussions.

A few that stand out were the need to recognize the importance of transportation networks in terms of economic development.

As one workshop participant said, transportation is the lifeblood of the economy.

You dont have to look too far to see this in action.

Just take a drive down Tucsons interstates and start counting the semis carrying goods across the country. Theres so many youll quickly lose count.

Pima Countys effort to gain federal funding to build the Sonoran Corridor connection between Interstates 10 and 19 speaks to the same issue of transportations role in the economy.

County officials have made expansion of the transportation network the key aspect of an economic-development plan. Thats because some county leaders see the proposed highway south of the airport as a prime location for import, logistics, manufacturing and defense-industry development.

Another point made at the meeting was about funding.

A participant observed that it wont matter what the vision and goals for the states transportation network become if there isnt money to pay for them.

The Legislature hasnt increased the gas tax since the early 1990s. On top of that, transportation-funding programs such as the states Local Transportation Assistance Fund, which was funded through lottery sales, have been cut or eliminated.

Other hits to transportation funding have come over the years as gas taxes through the Highway User Revenue Fund got diverted to other state departments and to balance the states general fund.

Some of the discussions wandered into the area of walkable communities.

A participant noted many Northeastern cities have developed close, urban cores that make life easy for pedestrians.

Walkable communities are important, for sure. But Im uncertain what exactly ADOT can do about that.

Creating urban cores is more of a local zoning issue, not a state highway planning matter. Other discussions focused on water usage and shortages.

Exercises like the one last week expose the need to find the balance between public involvement and allowing the experts weve tasked with running government agencies to do their jobs.

If we cede all the power to bureaucrats, conflict and controversy will plague every decision.

Excessive public process, however, empowers the single-issue activists, NIMBYs and interest groups of all stripes.

Theres an adage that says a camel is a horse designed by committee. Lets hope ADOT isnt forced to make a camel out of this long-range plan.

For more information and to comment go to http://azdot.gov/planning/CurrentStudies/state-long-range-transportation-plan/overview

Down the road

Beginning Monday, city contractors plan to begin improvements to the Tanque Verde Road-Wilmot Road-Pima Street intersection. Work hours will be Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Work includes addition of a second left-turn lane on northbound Wilmot to westbound Pima. Additionally, the two triangular islands on the west side of the intersection will be removed and Pima will be reconfigured to accommodate the two lanes of traffic.

Pima eastbound will have two designated left-turn lanes and one right-turn lane. Surface improvements also will be made.

Two lanes will remain open in each direction on Wilmot and Tanque Verde during construction. Just one lane in each direction will remain open on Pima. The project is scheduled to be complete in about 60 days.

Reader question

A reader asked about east-side work on the loop along the Pantano Wash between Speedway and Broadway.

The reader wants to know when a connection on the east side will be completed.

Pima County officials told Road Runner that construction is underway and a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge is in place. The work is expected to wrap up sometime in March.
A man who thought his dog had been killed in a vehicle crash last week was reunited with his buddy on Friday afternoon.

Wayne Schreder was separated from Radar when he was taken to the hospital following the Feb. 11 wreck on Interstate 10, said Marcia Zamorano, a Pima County spokeswoman.

The only thing I remember was that I woke up in a ditch and a helicopter took me away, Schreder said. I was so out of it that I forgot he had been with us until I got home from the hospital Sunday and he wasnt there.

Schreder and his friend encountered high winds on the freeway, causing the hood of the Jeep to lift, blocking the windshield. His friend, who was driving, crashed into the median, Schreder said.

The driver suffered several broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken clavicle.

I wasnt hurt too badly, but I cant walk great yet, Schreder said.

He thought that Radar, the rescue dog who hed taken in a little over a year ago, was dead.

Radar was found near the median, snuggled next to a Bible and a hat, while two Arizona Department of Transportation workers were cleaning up the accident scene, Zamorano said.

The dog was taken to Pima Animal Care Center, where staff and the Arizona Department of Public Safety confirmed that Radar was Schreders dog, Zamorano said.

Schreder said he was so happy to get his buddy back, and Radar was neutered, vaccinated and microchipped before leaving PACC.
Ten months after getting preliminary approval, developers of a 28,000-home subdivision in Benson are still hammering out a final master plan to send to the citys Planning and Zoning Commission.

Two versions of the community master plan for Villages at Vigneto have been reviewed by Benson and Cochise County staffers and three outside consultants since Phoenix-based developer El Dorado Holdings Inc. introduced the project in April 2015. The reviews highlighted vague descriptions, unrealistic timetables and the inclusion of invasive, non-native plants in El Dorados plans.

The developer hoped to have already broken ground on the project, and may be further delayed if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services calls for consultation on Vignetos potential impacts to endangered species.

In reviews of the latest Vigneto plan, submitted to the city Dec. 11, planning staff in Cochise County objected to unrealistically tight time frames for city approval of details that will arise as the project is implemented, such as plat sizes and drainage plans. Those timelines should be set by the city, not the developer, they said.

Another county reviewer said all water-conservation measures described in the Vigneto plan are encouraged or requested, which county planner Peter Gardner said seems unlikely to maximize water conservation.

In a Jan. 27 letter to a Benson planner, Cochise County Planning Director Paul Esparza said Vigneto should include more affordable-housing options. Vignetos thousands of employees, and most Benson residents, would likely be unable to afford the high-end housing in the development. He emphasized the need for improved back-road access to the subdivision from downtown Benson.

We want to make sure that new development is integrated into the existing community, Esparza said in an interview.

In their reviews, consultants Psomas and Rick Engineering Co. highlighted 32 repeated comments between them  issues theyd raised in earlier reviews that werent addressed by El Dorado in its revision.

The consultants also noted in a number of places that plan descriptions were too conceptual or did not contain enough detail to determine compliance with zoning regulations and open-space standards.

SLOWING DOWN

Developers hoped to break ground in late 2015 or early this year. But the projects progression has slowed noticeably in recent months, said Michelle Johnson, planning tech in Bensons planning department.

It was a little rushed before, she said. Now its going down to more of a traditional time frame.

It could be a matter of weeks or months before the developer resubmits plans, she said.

Benson City Councilman Jeff Cook said local officials felt pressured by the developer.

They were trying to put pressure on us to approve the plan before we had a good look at it. They were saying, We need to break ground, youre costing us money, he said. Meanwhile, El Dorado had not responded to 20 pages of concerns that the city and our engineering consultants had given us and then we had passed on to them.

The companys attitude seems to have shifted since December, Cook said.

I think they have comes to grips with reality and theyre willing to let us take the time ... to give everyone a fair chance to look at it, he said.

El Dorado partner Mike Reinbold said he did not have time for an interview late last week. But he said via email that El Dorado still plans to break ground this year.

We are working diligently with the city of Benson to answer questions, provide information and to move the plan forward in 2016, he said.

THE PROJECT

Vigneto, which supporters say would invigorate Bensons lagging economy, could bring 70,000 more people to a town that has a population of 5,000.

But the proposal has prompted an outcry from environmentalists, including the Cascabel Conservation Association, the Sierra Club and the Tucson Audubon Society, which say the developments potential to dry up the San Pedro Valley and damage critical habitats and threatened species hasnt been adequately studied.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have also voiced concerns about the project and its predecessor, Whetstone Ranch, a project that was canceled in the wake of the housing crisis. In 2014, El Dorado acquired Whetstones land and its Clean Water Act permit, awarded in 2006 by the Army Corps.

Whetstone Ranch called for 20,000 homes on about 8,212 acres, compared with Vignetos 28,000 homes on 12,167 acres.

Last summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a draft letter to the Corps requesting consultation about Vignetos potential to impact newly listed threatened species and their critical habitats, as well as downstream portions of the San Pedro River.

Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to consult with the Wildlife Service before issuing a permit for a private construction project that could affect an endangered species. The Wildlife Service says the Corps must also consider indirect impacts on species, such as a lowered water table due to groundwater pumping.

The Western yellow- billed cuckoo and northern Mexican garter snake have been listed as threatened species since the 2006 permit was issued. The expanded footprint of the Vigneto project, compared with its predecessor, means it could affect the endangered jaguar and the lesser long-nosed bat, too, the Wildlife Service said.

The Army Corps hasnt made a decision on whether to consult with the Wildlife Service and reconsider the 2006 permit. Spokesman Dave Palmer said in an email that the Corps has all the information it requested from the developer to continue its evaluation, but may request more information.

Environmentalists are eager for that decision because in the meantime, the developer is proceeding with its plans.

El Dorado has maintained it can break ground on the permitted 8,000 acres and seek an additional permit for 4,000 more acres later.

That argument ignores the responsibility of the Army Corps, the city of Benson and all other government entities to consider the impact of the project in its entirety, the Sierra Club wrote in a Jan. 24 letter to the Benson Planning and Zoning Commission.

The permitting process must begin anew and not rely on previously issued permits, which are dated to the point of irrelevance, the letter said.

Without consultations with environmental oversight agencies and a fair permitting process, the Vigneto development will likely prompt litigation from opponents, leaders of the Tucson Audubon Society wrote in a Jan. 29 letter to Benson officials.

We urge that the Benson Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council make the completion of agency consultations and required federal permitting processes a stipulation of approval for a final community master plan, the letter said.

WATER LEGISLATION

Meanwhile, a state Senate committee has approved two bills that environmentalists say chip away at crucial protections for Arizonas strained water supply  SB 1268 and SB 1400, both sponsored by Sen. Gail Griffin, a Republican who represents Cochise County.

Griffins office did not respond to requests for comment.

SB 1268 could take away some hurdles for Vignetos developer by allowing municipalities like Benson to opt out of a county mandate that any new development demonstrate an adequate water supply for 100 years.

The city already has a certificate of adequate water supply from 2008, which green-lighted the proposed water use for Vignetos predecessor.

But if Benson opts out of the mandate, that could limit opponents ability to hold El Dorado to the water-use limits under that certificate or to use the argument that the certificate itself isnt valid, based on how the adequate water supply was determined, said Tricia Gerrodette, president of the Huachuca Audubon Society.

The legislation could also help push through approval of a 7,000-home development in Sierra Vista, which the Bureau of Land Management and environmentalist are fighting in court out of concern over its water use.

SB 1400 would require that the previously permanent adequate-water supply mandate be renewed every five years, with a unanimous vote of county boards of supervisors. Cochise and Yuma counties  the two that have adopted the mandate  would have to renew for the first time two years from now. Thats a big hurdle, especially when special interests are pushing for the right to use more water, opponents say.

Without protections, the San Pedro River is likely to become another victim of short-sighted development that doesnt respect the fragile ecosystem of the region, said Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club.

We dont know exactly what will end up killing the river, but we know that its under enormous stress, she said.

Loss of the river and riparian habitats around it have economic consequences, too, as a massive tourism industry is tied to the San Pedro Valley, she said.
This months record-breaking heat poses dangers for hikers who venture out without sufficient water, sun protection or common sense, safety experts warn.

Tucsons temperature soared to 90 degrees Wednesday with spring still a month away, and daily highs are expected to remain in the 80s into this week.

The unprecedented heat that were having can catch people off guard, said Richard Kunz, a longtime member of the Southern Arizona Rescue Association. Most of our trails are on sunny slopes. It can be fairly cool in the morning and be 90 degrees later in the day  putting unprepared hikers and other outdoor recreationists at risk.

Brian Keeley, a spokesman for the Northwest Fire District, which often takes part in searches and rescues, noted that the recent hot weather is not typical for February. It can be a good thing, but only if youre prepared for it.

SAFETY ADVICE

Kunz and Keeley offered tips for staying safe on trails as heat dominates in this normally mild-weather season.

Hydration:

Take more water than you think youll need, said Kunz. We drink less water when its cool. But as soon as it warms up, were sucking that water down like crazy. When youre half out of water, turn around and go back the way you came.

Sun protection:

Wearing sunscreen can protect your skin, but wearing light-colored clothing is the ideal thing, Kunz said. Definitely wear a hat with a tail on it to shade the back of your neck.

Planning:

If youre going on a hike, make sure you let someone know where you plan on going, when you plan on departing, and when you expect to return, Keeley said. And try to avoid going alone.

Energy food:

Try to have some energy bars or light snacks with you on the hike, Keeley said.

Technology:

Carry a cellphone and make sure its charged, Keeley said, but keep in mind that you might not have cell coverage in some mountains and canyons.

Snakes and bees:

Keep an eye out for rattlesnakes and bees, Kunz said. Theyre out there during the uncommonly warm weather.

Common sense:

The important thing with common sense, Kunz said, is to use it. Passing up a shady spot where you could take a rest or neglecting to drink water regularly on a hike are examples of lapses in common sense.
You may be reading this newspaper outside on a pleasant patio or porch after sleeping under a light blanket or two.

Today is forecast to be our 14th consecutive day with a high temperature above 80 degrees. Meteorologists say the unprecedented February warmth should continue all week.

Its hard not to enjoy this beautiful weather, but the balmy days also should serve as a reminder that the climate is warming and drying. As a result we have to change our way of dealing with water.

We do need the reminder. Arizona, you see, is in a bit of a self-satisfied mood when it comes to discussing water management.

Its often misreported that there is a Western Water Crisis, but the facts show, wed be more accurate to call it a California Water Crisis, Gov. Doug Ducey said in his state of the state speech last month. If theres one thing Arizona is best in the nation at, its water.

On Friday morning in Phoenix, members of his new Governors Water Augmentation Council met for the first time. Their opening remarks reflected some self-satisfaction over how well each industry and water utility is doing at conservation.

You can only conserve so much, member Mark Smith, president of the Yuma Irrigation District, told the council.

Indeed, farmers in that county have adopted numerous technologies to make the most efficient and productive use of water, Smith explained to me later. They have lasers to level their fields, packed furrows, sprinklers for germinating crops and gated pipes for irrigating them.

Yet its also clear that, as the climate warms, existing conservation measures are not going to be enough. Not only do we have to improve on what weve already done, but we have to avoid the persistent temptation  present in the Legislature right now  to backslide on the measures weve already taken.

A study came out last week, co-authored by UA hydrologist Thomas Meixner, analyzing the effects of the warming climate on aquifers in the western U.S., as my colleague Tony Davis reported Saturday. Its complicated science, but as Meixner explained, a key lesson of the study is simple: The wet get wetter and the dry get drier.

North of a line from about Denver to San Francisco, the warming climate is likely to be wetter and is unlikely to lower groundwater levels, Meixner said. South of that line, though, were in trouble. The warmer, drier climate will mean less water flowing back into the aquifers.

The aquifers in the southern half of the West covered by the study  the vulnerable ones  were Death Valley, Californias Central Valley, the Southern High Plains and Southern Arizonas San Pedro.

These are all areas where theres significantly more groundwater pumping than recharge, Meixner said. Climate change is likely to exacerbate the problems associated with increased groundwater pumping.

Yet there is no broad effort to reduce groundwater pumping outside of the states five active management areas  Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal, Tucson and Santa Cruz. In four of those five  all but Pinal  the goal is to reach or maintain a safe yield condition, in which no more water is being pumped out than is also pumped in.

Outside of those management areas, generally speaking, landowners can pump groundwater to their hearts content. They are limited mainly by the cost of digging wells deep enough to reach the water as it sinks.

Even though we think we dont have much water, compared to California and other parts of the world, Arizona has water thats there for the asking, said Robert Glennon, a UA law school professor and expert on water law. Theres virtually no regulation of water in rural Arizona.

Thats drawn many out-of-state investors into Cochise County, as Arizona Public Media showed in a four-part series last month about the countys land rush. Theyre rushing in to grow crops and plant orchards of pecans and pistachios, or just to buy up water rights as an investment or hedge. The tree crops do suggest a long-term commitment, but of course the investors can bail out as soon as the water level retreats too deep into the earth.

Residents of Bowie, in northern Cochise County, got a taste of that scary future last summer when the local water wells ran dry. Overpumping of groundwater had driven it too deep. Now the small water service is faced with making huge investments in order to drill deep enough to have dependable service again.

As these experiences spread in rural Arizona, minds seem to be changing about the need for more controls of groundwater pumping, said Grady Gammage Jr., an expert in water law who has worked in development and also is a member of the governors new council.

They see declines in their own well levels, and say maybe there is a need for more regulation, Gammage told me Friday.

Despite that increasingly evident need, a big push for relaxing Arizona water regulations is coming  from Cochise County, ironically. Sen. Gail Griffin, a Sierra Vista-area Republican, has introduced two bills, SB 1268 and SB 1400, that would weaken the ability of counties outside the states Active Management Areas to require that new subdivisions show proof of adequate water supplies.

Two counties, Cochise and Yuma, have passed requirements that new developments prove they have a 100-year supply, similar to the requirements in Arizonas urban areas. But Griffins proposals would allow cities in those counties to opt out of the requirement. The bills would also require counties to vote again on these requirements every five years  and pass them unanimously, likely an insurmountable threshold in most counties.

Griffin did not return my call or email seeking an explanation, but everyone with knowledge of the situation says Griffins main aim is to help a huge proposed development called Tribute in Sierra Vista. It would have almost 7,000 homes at full build-out but has been held up by a lawsuit over its water supply.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources certified that the developers had proved they have an adequate supply, but the federal government, which owns surface water rights in the San Pedro, and environmental groups sued. A court overturned the certification.

Griffins bills would void the requirement that is stopping the development and undermine the lawsuit. They could also help Villages at Vigneto, a gigantic planned development in Benson  also in Cochise County  that could have up to 28,000 homes.

Of course, while easing the progress of these specific developments, Griffins bills would remove increasingly necessary protections for farmers, homeowners and homebuyers in Cochise County and around rural Arizona, who need real assurances of future water supplies.

This is the exact opposite direction that Arizona needs to go.

The dropping groundwater levels, the land-and-water rushes, and the warming climate show we need to move toward stronger conservation measures and greater protections of groundwater. These beautiful, warm February days are no time for self-satisfaction.
OPINION: "Pima Community College belongs to the entire Tucson community. The governing board is the communitys way to hold the college accountable and to steer the institution toward best serving the greatest number of people. Help secure the brightest future for our community college and join us in supporting Theresa Riel for the District 2 seat on the PCC Governing Board," writes Makyla Hays, president of the Pima Community College Education Association.
In an Amish farm community in Indiana, the childhood asthma rate is 5 percent.

In a community of genetically similar farmers in North Dakota, the rate is 15 percent.

That has University of Arizona researchers hopeful that they can create drugs that will prevent and treat the disease by studying the dust that collects in the homes and barns of those farms.

I am very convinced that this area of research is going to produce significant results in asthma prevention and treatment. In the next 10-to-20 years, I can see some spectacular developments out of this, said Dr. Fernando Martinez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center.

Martinez, along with biologist Dr. Donata Vercelli and chemist and toxicologist Shane Snyder, head a team at the UAs Bio5 Institute that is working to identify the substances that may afford protection from asthma for those Amish children.

They are collaborating with Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Products and Janssen Biotech Inc. to turn that research into methods of treating or preventing asthma.

About 8 percent of Americans suffer from some form of asthma, with higher rates among children. There is treatment but no cure.

Vercelli, a professor of cellular and molecular medicine and associate director of the Arizona Respiratory Center, said she has already seen enough results with laboratory mice in this study to convince her she is on the right track.

Im a biologist and a mechanism seeker. For over a decade, I have been distrustful, intellectually, of studies that showed products from farms were protective against asthma.

Now we have a control and we are actually delivering results already. The impression we all have is one of extreme robustness.

Scientists are always concerned with reproducing results. This works every time, she said.

The results are from mice who aspirate a cocktail of substances in that Amish farm dust that has proven protective.

The control is the dust gathered from a Hutterite farm community in North Dakota. It doesnt produce a beneficial effect.

The Hutterites are genetically similar to the Amish group. Both migrated from Alpine Europe and live in closed communities where they intermarry and preserve their genetic similarities.

Unlike the Amish, however, the Hutterites use modern mechanized farming techniques that keep mothers and children out of the barns and in their more sanitary homes. They dont live and work in proximity to their farm animals as the Amish do. Childhood asthma rates are three times higher among the Hutterites.

The Hutterites are obsessively clean, said Vercelli. They wash their walls once a month. During pregnancy the women dont go close to the animals. The Amish do; the women work until a couple days before childbirth.

Health researchers have debated the hygiene hypothesis for years. It posits that a modern uptick in asthma and allergies is related to the increasingly sterile environment into which children are born and in which they develop.

Early exposure to bacteria and other organic substances in the environment, it is thought, help children build immunity to disease.

That hypothesis was bolstered in the 1990s when scientists in Europe found widely divergent rates of asthma in genetically similar groups in Switzerland. Urban children were far more likely to develop asthma than their country cousins.

Dr. Mark Holbreich, an Indianapolis allergist who downplays his role in the current study as its Amish dust collector, had observed the same phenomenon 25 years ago when he volunteered his services to Amish farm communities about 150 miles north of Indianapolis.

When the farm families came to his free clinics to find out which allergens were causing their sniffles and rashes, he found them nearly allergy free.

The basic scratch tests used to discover allergy triggers usually yield positive results for 45 percent of the tested triggers, he said. Among the Amish, it was 7 percent.

Holbreich suspended his clinics. He wasnt needed. This population, for all intents and purposes, didnt have allergies.

He continued to accompany his wife, Dr. Amy Shapiro, a pediatric hematologist who worked within the community to treat a genetic disposition toward hemophilia.

The couple cultivated friendships that enable Holbreich to visit and collect dust.

Holbreich said the Amish have as little contact as possible with the outside world, but told him: If there is something within our community that can better the world in some way, were happy to do it.

The dust samples, gathered from homes and barns in both communities, are analyzed in a lab run by Snyder at the UAs Keating Bio5 Research Building.

Snyder is a professor in the UA Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.

He devotes much of his research time to finding emerging contaminants in wastewater  remnants of prescription and over-the-counter drugs that enter the wastewater stream undetected.

He said the dust study is a nice twist for his team, which is usually looking for negative things.

The students are excited. Theyre working on a remedy for asthma, he said.

Snyder has a personal interest in the research. His own asthma improved when he moved West, but he still packs an inhaler when he returns to his childhood home in Pennsylvania.

Snyder describes his lab as the funnel for Vercellis work. He concentrates the farm dust and provides her lab with blindly labeled samples for testing with mice.

He can also selectively remove substances, using an array of sophisticated and customized mass spectrometers to separate molecules by mass. That allows the team to narrow in on the protective elements in the farm dust, said Snyder.

Fernandez said Vercelli is looking for a pin in a very big haystack  there are thousands of different substances in the dust and tens of thousands of protein-coding genes in the human genome.

But the task is not as huge as it otherwise would be. Having a genetically similar control group narrows the search, Vercelli said.

The answers, when they come, will not be simple, said Vercelli and Fernandez.

In decades of study, following asthma sufferers through their lives since 1980, Martinez has come to think of asthma as a variety of diseases, not a single malady. The causes, he said, are a mix of genetic disposition and environmental influences.
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By Asghar Ali Engineer

Maulana Abul Kalam Azads Tarjuman- al-Quran is considered an important milestone in modern commentaries on Quran. Maulanas approach to Quran was quite unique though modern yet not devoid of traditionalism. It is so difficult to achieve and this is Maulanas achievement. Even most traditionalist would find it difficult to find fault with Maulanas tafsir (commentary) and even most modern will find it difficult to disagree with his approach.

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It is well known that the Maulana could not complete the commentary due to his political preoccupations but the portion he could complete (up to 22nd chapter) covers almost all important and relevant issues like approach of Quran to other religions, question of womens rights, certain references to Biblical issues about which there has been great controversies, story of Ashab al-Kahaf and so on. Maulanas approach to these issues, one can say with full confidence, most modern in as much as latest research on these issues is concerned. Maulanas writing on Dhul Qarnain is really a model of modern research on the subject and on this question Maulana has left nothing which modern scholars had not written until his time. In fact his research on Dhul Qarnain is a model to be followed by the commentators of the Quran.

However, we are not concerned here with these aspects of Maulanas work on tafsir (commentary) but his approach to other religions as per Qurans verses. Based on Quranic injunctions Maulana comes to form the concept of Wahdat-e-din i.e. unity of religion. Not that this was unknown before as Shah Waliyullah too refers to the concept of unity of religion in his Hujjat-u-Allah al-Balighah. Many sufi saints like Nizamuddin Awliya and Mazhar Jan-i-Janan also refer to truth of other religions like Hinduism, particularly in Indian context.

However, Maulanas work on this is much more significant for number of reasons. His arguments are based not only on the verses of the Quran but also on his extensive knowledge of other religions like Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and even Zorashtrianism. He very systematically argues both from Quranic perspective as well as on the basis of teachings of these religions and tries to validate the concept of Wahdat-i-din.

Maulanas contribution also becomes more important in view of the modern world and its problems. He was writing colonial India which was rocked by communal violence and in that background Maulanas concept became much more important. Those talking of two nations both from amongst Hindus as well as Muslims were emphasizing irreconcilability of two religions i.e. Hinduism and Islam. And Maulana refers to basic teachings of Islam and Hinduism and contradicts the approach of those who found two religions non-reconcilable. It was really great contribution for the cause of unity of Hindus and Muslims and common nationhood.

It is also important to note that the post-modern world is religiously plural and there is no country in the world which is not multi-cultural and religiously prelist. Earlier during medieval ages and even during modern period Europe and America were almost, if not entirely, mono-religious, mono-cultural and mono-lingual. But the entire scene changed in the period of post-modernity. Today entire world is multi-religious and multi cultural. The western social scientists in the west began to talk about pluralism and multi-culturalism only after migrations began to western countries from former colonies and west became multi-religious and multi-cultural.

Maulana had, as if foreseen the needs of the post-modern world and emphasized the significance of unity of religion. Maulanas further contribution is that while referring to unity of religion he does not ignore the differences between practices of various religions. Here Maulana assumes the role of what I call socio-theologian and maintains that though essence of all religions is same there are significant differences in Shariah of all religions.

He thus distinguishes between din and shariah. He defines din as belief in doctrine of one God, in angles, in day of judgment, in prophets and in revealed scriptures brought by the messengers of Allah. And he quotes from teachings of various religions to prove his point. Thus in the concept of Wahdat-e-din his emphasis is on metaphysical doctrines on one hand, and, on value-structures of religions, on the other. He finds similarities in these metaphysical doctrines as well as in value-structures.

But these religions were revealed or came into existence into different societies with different historical and socio-cultural backgrounds and hence the laws given by these religions could not be the same. Laws (shariah) very much based on customs, traditions and cultural practices though the basis will be justice. However, justice finds different expressions in different cultures. Laws of marriage, divorce, inheritance, properties and so on will very much be culture-specific. They cannot be universal, like values and certain metaphysical doctrines.

I think Maulanas insight into societies, their cultures and differing laws, is quite unique among commentators of Quran. Not many had this insight and that is why I tend to call him socio-theologian, rather than simply theologian. If one accepts this proposition that din and shariah are different many differences between followers of different religions can be eliminated.

I would also like to emphasize here that Quran also maintains that Allah has sent His prophets to different nations (qaums) with different shariahs. Thus while making this formulation Maulana is certainly not deviating from Quranic approach but is providing to his readers proper explanation based on understanding of different societies. Most of the commentators could not explain the causes of differences of shariah as they had not much understanding of societies. However, I must say Shah Waliyullah before Azad had remarkable understanding of Indian society of his time.

In todays conflict torn world many powerful vested interests are misusing religious differences for promoting conflict among followers of different religions. Such vested interests are found among all religious communities. They invoke certain doctrines of religion to emphasize differences and then based on these differences they promote conflict and even religious wars to serve their own political interests. It is therefore, all the more necessary to promote Maulanas understanding of unity of religion and causes of differences of shariah to wean away people from evil influence of such vested interests.

Apart from Maulanas concept of wahdat-i-din his contribution to the concept of rububiyyah (sustenance) is also very important and this concept, like the one of wahdat-i-din is also a great unifying concept. In fact the first volume of Maulana Azad is devoted to these two concepts  rububiyyah and Wahdat-i-din and both these concepts are based on universal aspects of religions.

Maulana finds the concept of rububiyyah in the first chapter of the Quran i.e. surah Fatihah in which Quran describes Allah as Rabb-al-Alamin i.e. sustainer of this universe and universe includes everything and everyone. Maulanas tafsir is most suitable for modern times and his concept of rububiyyah is no less. This concept also forges unity between followers of different religions and is most suitable for our post-modern society.

Maulana also maintains that every period has its own thought system (fikri nizam) and this nizam influences the mind of the commentator.[1] No commentator can escape these influences and hence no commentary of the Quran could be treated as final and universal. Maulanas own tafsir has been greatly influenced by the period he lived in and hence his great emphasis on these two seminal concepts.

Maulana was also deeply involved in Indias freedom struggle and for freedom movement to succeed and for India to become free Hindu-Muslim unity was very fundamental. He was repeatedly imprisoned by the British imperialists and his tafsir was also once completely destroyed. Thus Maulana knew importance of freedom for India and necessity for Hindu-Muslim unity.

In his Presidential Address at Ramgarh session of Indian National Congress 1923 Maulana said that Today, if an angel were to descend from the heaven and declare from the top of the Qutab Minar, that India will get Swaraj within twenty-four hours, provided she relinquishes Hindu-Muslim unity, I will relinquish Swaraj rather than give up Hindu-Muslim unity. Delay in the attainment of Swaraj will be a loss to India, but if our unity is lost, it will be a loss for entire mankind.

Thus for Maulana universal brotherhood was very very fundamental and hence he gives so much importance to concepts of wahdat-e-din and rububiyyah (universal sustenance). Maulana rises above sectarian approach and adopts universal one as it was both his political need and also his philosophical outlook. But what is important is that Maulana does not base his arguments on extra-Quranic sources but purely on Quranic sources. He is not emphasizing this as his own outlook but develops his outlook from Quran itself. No one can fault Maulanas approach and call it his own and not Quranic.

For example this argument that each qaum (nation has its own shariah he quoted the Quranic verse For every one of you We appointed a law and a way(5:48). This very verse also refers to diversity of religions. Thus it says, If Allah had pleased He would have made you a single people, but that He might try you in what He gave you. So vie one with the other in virtuous deeds. This verse also reflects Quranic position on several religions co-existing.

When Maulana argues about unity of religion, for some theologians there can be one problem. Maulana goes strictly by what Quran says about validity of all religions, and not what theologians of different religions maintain about teachings of their respective religions. The Quranic position is that all religions are one since Allah revealed them but the religious leaders of these religions corrupted original teachings and hence differences arose. Had they followed original teachings, these differences would not have been there. However, religious leaders of other communities would not agree with this view and maintain that their teachings as they are, are original teachings and they have not undergone any change.

Thus we find in the Quran  and Maulana quotes this verse, Say: O People of the Book, you follow no good till you observe the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed to you from your Lord. And surely that which has been revealed to thee from thy Lord will make many of them increase in inordinacy (tughyanan) and disbelief: so grieve not for the disbelieving people.

Thus Maulana discusses this in his Tarjuman al-Quran under the title Quran ka perwan-e- mazahib se mutalibah (Qurans demand from followers of religions) and goes on to say that Quran did not demand from followers of any religion to accept this new religion (i.e. Islam) but demands from every group (following any other religion) that they follow their respective religion in its original shape which has been distorted by them. If you did that (i.e. followed your religion in its original shape you will find that it is Islam to which I am calling you.[2]

But the Quran also maintains that there are few in every religious group who follow their religion in its original spirit and thus are closer to teachings of the Quran. Thus Quran says in the next verse Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and Sabeans and the Christians  whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good  they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. (5:69)

Commenting on this verse (5:69) Maulana says that for this reason Quran has heartily welcomed the faith and actions of these virtuous people who were present in different faith traditions and who had not wasted the real spirit of their respective faiths. However, such people are indeed very few and most of them belong to overwhelming majority who have distorted the original spirit of their faiths.[3]

Some religious scholars like Douglas have objected to Maulanas approach that existing religions have distorted original teachings. But we can say in defence of Maulana that what he is saying is what Quran says and it is not his own. He is writing commentary and explaining Qurans position. But what Maulana is emphasizing by way of his concept of unity of religion is highly helpful to the cause of human unity.

Also, one should fully comprehend Maulanas as well as Quranic position fully. Quran treats an issue at different levels and does not simply accept or reject something as things are highly complex. Thus Quran treats this matter yet at a different level when it states, They (People of the Book) are not all alike. Of the people of the Book there is an upright party who recite Allahs messages in the night-time and they adore (Him). They believe in Allah and the Last Day, and they enjoin good and forbid evil and vie one with another in good deeds. And those are among the righteous. And whatever good they do, they will not be denied it. And Allah knows those who keep their duty. (3:112-114)

Thus essentially Quran is concerned with good deeds (enjoining good and forbidding evil) and Quran praises those who adhere to this course of goodness and maintaining ethical conduct without developing any vested interests. Since world is today multi-religious everywhere our main concern should be moral and ethical conduct and maintaining original spirit of our respective faiths.

Maulana emphasizes precisely this aspect in the first volume of his Tarjuman al-Quran. He takes the Quranic words maruf and munkar and explains their meaning. He says maruf means what is known and acceptable and hence it represents good and munkar means what is denied by the society i.e. evil and Quran, according to Maulana maintains that there may be so many differences in matters of beliefs and doctrines (aoqid) but there are certain things on which there is complete unanimity of their being good and there are certain things about which there is compete unanimity for their being evil.[4]

Then giving example he says all agree that one should speak truth and that one should not resort to lies. There is also agreement that honesty and integrity is good and dishonesty bad. All of us also agree that we should serve our parents, be helpful to our neighbors, that we should take care of the poor and needy, to be helpful to the oppressed are among the good deeds for all human beings and to oppress and bad behavior are most undesirable. And all the religions in the world, all the parties and groups, whatever their differences on matters of faith and doctrines, are unanimous on this.[5]

Thus Azad ultimately advises his readers to avoid doctrinal differences and insist on ethical and moral behavior. Our world would be very different if we did not fight on differences about our doctrines and instead concentrate on matters moral and ethical. In fact this is Quranic message also.

Thus Quran says, And abuse not those whom they call upon besides Allah (i.e. worship others besides Allah) lest, exceeding the limits, they abuse Allah through ignorance. Thus to every people have We made their deeds fair-seeming; to their Lord is their return so He will inform them of what they did. (6:109)

This is very clear statement by Quran that do not abuse each other or try to prove each others beliefs and doctrines wrong as Allah has made for each people their deeds fair-seeming to them i.e. every people think their doctrines and their deeds are best and hence do not quarrel about them and leave it to Allah who will decide on the Day of Judgment about their beliefs and deeds.

Thus Quran prefers coexistence to disputes about beliefs and rituals according to those beliefs and invites people to live in coexistence and leave their disputes to Allah. If human beings try to settle these doctrinal disputes their ego, their interests will come in their way and they will not be able to decide as every people would maintain only their doctrines are best.

Thus we see that at one level Quran says that Allah had sent only one truth through His messengers to different people but they distorted the truth and differences arose and hence if they follow original message there will exist no differences and by following their own original faith all differences will be resolved as truth is one and that is Islam (surrendering to the will of Allah).

Though this is the truth it can be contentious since all people would maintain we are following true religion and not distorted one and naturally would lead to serious differences and disputes. So at another level the Quran says that do not indulge in such disputations as it will result only in reviling each other and nothing else. So it says We have made each people their own deeds fair-seeming or luring so best thing is to live in peace and harmony and leave it to Allah to decide about their deeds on the Day of Judgment.

This is what Maulana Azad also pleads for as in multi-religious societies this is the best solution. Let us cooperate with each other on what is good and jointly fight against what is evil. Maulana emphasized this approach in early 20th century when Hindus and Muslims were fighting and communal violence was breaking out everywhere. No one was ready to let people believe what they thought to be true doctrine and emphasized their religions superiority.

Maulana Azad understood the real message of Quran during very difficult period and tried to explain it to Muslims this message of the Quran in simple Urdu. It is also Maulanas great contribution that he tried to translate in very simple Urdu so that common Muslims and even others (as Urdu was widely spoken and understood in entire north India during his time) so that mutual hatred could be reduced, if not completely eliminated.

Even today Muslim can greatly benefit from this message if they care to read it and take it to non-Muslim sisters and brothers.



[1]  Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Tarjuman al-Quran (Sahitya Academy, Delhi, 1980) Vol.I, p-42.

[2]  See Tarjuman al-Quran ibid pp-416-17

[3]  op.cit p-418

[4]  Tarjuman al-Quran ibid. p-420-21

[5]  op.cit. p-421
Help India!

Kolkata: A Trinamool Congress legislator, who had sparked a controversy by making disparaging comments about judges a day back, publicly apologised on Saturday after being censured by his party.

Monirul Islam, the legislator from Labhpur in Birbhum district, on Friday  without naming anybody  accused a number of judges of singing paens to the Leftists as they had got property worth crores of rupees at throwaway prices during their rule.

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Mamata Banerjee is the only chief minister who has not taken any piece of land from minorities, tribals or Scheduled Castes to dole out to others. She has not given away property worth crores to judges by charging only one rupee.

A number of judges, are preaching sermons. But in reality, these judges are enjoying property worth Rs.15 crore, Rs.20 crore, Rs.10 crore, Rs.5 crore by forking out only Re.1. Then how can they not but sing paens to the Leftists, rather than to Mamata Banerjee?

Moniruls comments led to a furore, with opposition parties and the civil society condemning him unequivocally.

Sensing the damage that the remarks could cause to the party, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee directed him to apologise publicly.

Trinamool does not endorse the comments of Labhpur MLA regarding judiciary. The party has asked him to apologise publicly, said Chatteree.

Under pressure from his party, Monirul told the media that he was respectful to the judges and the judicial system, but claimed he only had one particular retired judge in mind while making the comments.

I or my party respect the honourable judges and the judicial system. I wanted to comment on a former judge who has retired and wants to join politics.

I did not want to show disrespect to any judge or the judicial system. But despite that, if anybody has felt humiliated or pained by my comments, I feel sorry and apologise.

Infamous for his hate speeches, Monirul, a murder accused, was issued a show-cause notice by the Election Commission ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 after he asked Trinamool workers to prevent people from voting for other parties.

Monirul had publicly threatened to decapitate a Congress leader during the rural polls in the state in 2013.

It would not take me even a minute to behead you, he had said at a rally in July 2013 as he went on to claim how he had squashed three people under his feet for committing atrocities against women.


If you wish to make a comment, share data on the subjects in my blog or donate archives to AFU, you can reach me at email hakan1952@gmail.com
The world we live in is full of violence, misery and suffering, or that's the way it appears. The news is awash with horrendous stories about people who've beenmurdered, tortured, driven from their homes or subjected to devastating poverty and illness. And these stories are coming at us 24/7 via our TVs, computers and mobile phones. It can be hard to get away from them.

Complete distortion

Of course the way things are presented to us is a complete distortion. Lots of good things happen too, but studies have shown that bad news stories outnumber good news stories by as much as seventeen to one.

The problem is the bad news stories seem to be getting increasingly alarming and worrying for many of us. In extreme cases they can stop us living normal lives; knowing that terrorists could strike anywhere at any time has left some too scared to fly or even attend public gatherings. I have read articlesby people who have stopped reading or watching the news altogether, seeing it as an obstacle to their happiness.

Negativity bias

So why is there such emphasis on the bad things that happen? Well its all down to the negativity bias apparently. Whether we realise it or not, we pay more attention to news stories of a negative or threatening nature; not only that, these stories have a more lasting effect on us than positive stories do.

Being alert to the threats and dangers around us (so we can take action should we need to) is an aspect of our early evolutionary conditioning that is still with us. No wonder the media feeds us news that is for the most part grim and depressing.

A more optimistic view

The question is, if our usual sources of news are overloaded with negative reporting, where do wego for stories that willlift our spirits, that will give us a more optimisticview of the world?

If you don't already know them, let metell you abouttwo publications that will deliver just that.

Positive News was launched 22 years ago as a newspaper dedicated to quality journalism that focuses on progress and possibility. It has recentlyrelaunched in magazine format following a crowdfunding campaign that raised 263,000 with contributions from people across 33 countries.

The magazinewill carry on giving usa range of inspiring lifestyle articles which, said re-launch editor Danielle Batist will investigate solutions critically, moving beyond the hero tale or happy story, to uncover socially relevant insights into whats going well in the world.

Three years agoHuffington Postfounder Arianna Huffington launchedHuffPost Good News. Her reason for introducing thisnew section to the online newspaper, she said, was to shine a much-needed spotlight on whats inspiring, whats positive, whats working  and whats missing from what most of the media chooses to cover.

Stories that inspire

A recent HuffPost story told of Lottie, a homeless woman who, with her dog, stopped a burglar making off one night with goods he had stolen from the Oxford shop she regularly slept outside.

So grateful were the shop's staff when Lottie returned the stolen itemsnext day that they set up a fundraising page, for her and the other homeless people of Oxford, which has raised thousands of pounds.On top of that, they used the media attention to speak out against cuts to local support and services for the homeless.

This is a story of courage, gratitude and generosity, the one in seventeen story that gets tagged on to the end of news programmes. Just like in Oxford, there are people all over the world working together in different ways to make our world a better and safer place. Theirs are the stories we need to hear about more often. They inspire us and help us forget the bad things that happen.
Fridays impromptu U.S. airstrikes on a western Libya Islamic state camp killed dozens of people among them two Serbian embassy staff members that had been held hostage since November last year.

According to Serbia Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, an officer in charge of communications; Sladjana Stankovic and a driver; Jovica Stepic, were among those killed in the attack. The two were held hostage in November after their convoy of diplomats, including the Serbian ambassador in Libya was attacked near the city of Sabratha, one of Libyas coastal cities.

Vucic clarified that apparently the Americans werent aware of the presence of foreign citizens that were being kept thereby.

Elsewhere while addressing a press conference in Belgrade earlier, Serbias minister of Foreign affairs Ivica Dacic said information about the deaths of the two Serbians was availed to Serbia by some foreign officials but was since to be confirmed by the Government of Libya.

Yes, we were availed the information, including pictorial proof that this most probably happened, Dacic stated.

The American F-15E bomberson Friday struck the Islamic training camp on the outskirts of Libya its border with Tunisia, killing many people, most probably including a targeted IS operative suspected to be responsible for the deadly terrorist attacks in Tunisia last year, according to a statement by America and local officials.

In his statement to the media, Dacic said that his nation, Serbia was aware of where the hostages were and had been working around the clock to get them back, adding that Libyan officials were seriously considering an operation to set them free.

In November last year, armed men attacked a convoy of vehicles that were escorting Serbias ambassador to neighboring Tunisia and kidnapped the two embassy staff members.

During the attack, Oliver Potezica the Serbian ambassador, his wife, together with their two sons escaped unhurt.

Since the 2011overthrow of Libya'slongtime President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has fractured into several camps hostile to one another supported by former rebels and tribal groupings.

The ongoing chaos has provided a super fertile ground for Islamic terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and the al-Shabaab.
Polish Phenom Dzmitry Urbanovich Wins 2016 EPT Dublin Main Event for 561,900

February 21 2016 Marty Derbyshire

Last season's European Poker Tour Player of the Year, Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich, won the 2016 PokerStars EPT Season 12 Dublin Main Event at the Royal Dublin Society Saturday night.

Urbanovich, who cleaned up in the high roller events in Season 11, won his first EPT main event title and the 561,900 first-place prize that came along with it, ultimately finishing atop a field of 605 players in Ireland's capital.

Gilles Bernies, the man Urbanovich defeated in heads-up play, is a part-time poker player, student, and DJ from Germany. He went through the event breathing heavily and taking his time throughout all the hands he played. The 27-year-old Bernies took a massive lead into heads-up play, but could not deny the young Polish phenom the title.

Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Dzmitry Urbanovich Poland 561,900 2 Gilles Bernies Germany 349,800 3 Kully Sidhu United Kingdom 250,300 4 Patrick Clarke Ireland 193,650 5 Ilios Kamatakis Greece 152,600 6 Rhys Jones United Kingdom 119,450 7 Alexandre Meylan Switzerland 88,300 8 Ivan Banic Croatia 60,750

Six players returned Saturday afternoon to battle for the EPT Dublin crown, eight years after the last time the tour stopped in the city. Within the first few hands of six-handed play, the United Kingdom's Rhys Jones shoved short and was eliminated by the chip-leading Urbanovich in sixth place.

Some 34 hands later, Greek player and Twitch streamer Ilios Kamatakis ran second pair into Bernies' top pair, top kicker to say goodbye in fifth place.

Bernies then took a big chip lead by winning a massive flip against Urbanovich a few hands later, and only increased that lead as four-handed play continued.

Eventually, Bernies picked up queens and picked off the event's final Irishman, Patrick Clarke, with a weak ace. Exactly one hand after Clarke busted in fourth, Kully Sidhu took a race for all his chips with ace-six versus Bernies fives and missed, finishing third.

Bernies took a massive 4-1 lead into heads-up play with Urbanovich, but Urbanovich doubled through early on, flopping a straight and getting paid off with a river shove to jump right back into contention.

Then, Urbanovich took a big lead of his own when he flopped a pair and a flush draw and Bernies got out of line shoving with four-high. Bernies defied domination to double back through, but Urbanovich continued to lead.

It wasn't long before Bernies grinded back to about even and the two took a 30-minute dinner break. When they came back, it went back and forth for a good while before Urbanovich took the lead for the final time. Bernies shoved a flush draw into Urbanovich's trip aces and hit the flush on the river, but that card also gave Urbanovich a full house.

Urbanovich, having won four side events at EPT Malta in Season 11, finished runner-up in the 100,000 Super High Roller at the Grand Final, and having started off Season 12 with another super high roller runner-up finish at EPT Barcelona, finished off Bernies rather quickly. He first extended his lead and then found pocket kings when Bernies shoved queen-high to book his first EPT main event win and end the EPT Season 12 Dublin poker festival in style.

With that, PokerNews' coverage from EPT Dublin has come to a close, but there is still one more big, bad stop left on the European Poker Tour for Season 12. That's the Grand Final in Monaco to take place April 25 through May 6. Coming hard with 79 tournaments, it's going to be an exciting affair and one PokerStars deems the "biggest and best yet" for an EPT stop. PokerNews will be there, and we hope to see you there, too!

Qualify for the Next EPT Event

Think you've got what it takes to go deep in an EPT event? Qualify through PokerStars today and it could be your name PokerNews is writing about next! Check out the PokerStars review page on PokerNews to get started today.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

Sharelines Dzmitry Urbanovich wins 2016 European Poker Tour Dublin Main Event for 561,900.
Samuel Panzica Wins EPT Dublin 10,300 High Roller for 375,770

February 21 2016 Christian Zetzsche

The third and final day of the 2016 PokerStars European Poker Tour 10,300 High Roller saw 13 hopefuls from a 185-entry field return to the tables at the Royal Dublin Society. With the top 27 spots reaching the money, the remaining field was well into the money with Sergey Lebedev in the lead, but the Russian wasn't the man walking away with the title. That accomplishment was fulfilled by American Samuel Panzica to the tune of 375,770.

Lebedev ultimately settled for third place after having already finished 10th in the 10,200 Single-Day High Roller a few days ago.

Panzica and Akin Tuna cut a deal before heads-up play started and left 65,770 and the trophy up for grabs. In the end it was Panzica who emerged victorious and shattered his previous biggest cash of $109,326.

Tuna finished second for 290,000 and more than quadrupled his live earnings to date.

EPT Dublin 10,300 High Roller Final Results

Place Winner Country Prize 1 Samuel Panzica USA 375,770 2 Akin Tuna Germany 290,000 3 Sergey Lebedev Russia 184,650 4 Emil Patel Finland 150,550 5 Davidi Kitai Belgium 120,050 6 Ryan Riess USA 92,240 7 Timothy Adams Canada 67,120 8 William Arruda Brazil 48,630

Diego Ventura was the shortest stack coming back for Day 3, and the Peruvian first doubled up with pocket aces against the pocket sevens of Ryan Riess before he saw his pocket queens getting cracked one hand later by the ace-ten of Lebedev when an ace appeared on the river.

EPT regular Sam Chartier finished 12th after defending his big blind with jack-six suited. The French Canadian found middle pair on a queen-high flop and check-raised all in. Tuna called with the superior pocket tens and held up to bust Chartier.

Christoph Vogelsang also fell victim to the early run of Tuna, who jumped into the lead by sending his fellow German to the rail in 11th place. Vogelsang defended his big blind with eight-five suited and found a five-high flop that prompted him to check-raise all in. Tuna had an overpair with pocket sixes, called, and won the hand.

The unofficial final table was set with the elimination of Jerry Odeen in 10th, and, wouldn't you know, he also sent his stack over to Tuna. The story was exactly the same with Odeen defending the queen-jack suited from the big blind and finding top pair on a jack-high flop, only to check-shove right into the pocket kings of his opponent.

Panzica then scored a huge double up after flopping a set of fours in a four-way pot. Lebedev paid off his check-shove with pocket tens and didn't get there. It was this pot that really helped propel Panzica forward, and he gained plenty of momentum.

It was then Rocco Palumbo who fell in ninth place when his three-bet shove with ace-king was snap-called by Panzica, who held pocket aces to jump into the top spot.

Then it was William Arruda who exited in eighth place, Timothy Adams who finished in seventh, and Riess who took sixth.

For Riess, the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, he recorded his second high roller cash during the Dublin festival after finishing 13th in the 10,200 Single-Day High Roller. He was eliminated when his pocket sevens ran into the pocket eights of Davidi Kitai.

Despite scoring that knockout of Riess, Kitati was the next to go. He got his stack into the middle of the table by three-bet shoving with ace-seven. Tuna called with ace-six and made a straight on the river.

Emil Patel's run came to an end in fourth place. The American, now based in Finland, was at risk with ace-ten and had hopes of a comeback when Panzica turned over the ace-eight in the all-in showdown. However, an eight hit on the turn, and that was all she wrote.

Down to the last three, Lebedev was the shortest stack. After a passive start, the Russian then open-shoved for 24 big blinds from the button with pocket threes. Panzica called with pocket nines in the small blind, and no miracle happened for Lebedev.

After a quick discussion, the two remaining title contenders agreed to a deal that saw Panzica lock up 310,000 and Tuna 290,000. Tuna got off to an early lead, but then surrendered two bigger pots to become a 2-1 underdog.

On the final hand between the two, a board with three kings on the flop saw Tuna fire all three streets with jack-ten. A ten appeared on the river, and Panzica shoved over the third barrel from Tuna, who called it off with a full house only to get shown quads by Panzica holding king-five.

That's it from the PokerNews Live Reporting team reporting on the Dublin 10,300 High Roller, but there will be plenty more high-stakes poker action from the next stop of the European Poker Tour, the EPT Grand Final in Monaco starting at the end of April.

Qualify for the Next EPT Event

Think you've got what it takes to go deep in an EPT event? Qualify through PokerStars today and it could be your name PokerNews is writing about next! Check out the PokerStars review page on PokerNews to get started today.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

Sharelines Samuel Panzica won the European Poker Tour Dublin 10,300 High Roller for 375,770.




Travel is back in fall, 2022, and you can find me in Virginia and NYC in mid-October; at the Museums Association UK conference in Edinburgh, Scotland in early November, followed by a visit to Newcastle University. Reach out if you'd like to meet up! You can also find me on Twitter or Instagram. And if you're really interested in what I'm up to, I keep an updated Google map of my museum visits.

I'm Linda Norris, currently Senior Specialist, Methodology and Practice, for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Before joining the Coalition in 2017, I was an independent professional focusing on creativity and community engagement with museums and cultural organizations. I'm the co-author, with Rainey Tisdale, of Creativity in Museum Practice and blog here as a way of sharing my questions, my learning, and approaches worth considering.
The gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor antagonist degarelix has several unique characteristics compared to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogs used in the management of prostate cancer.

Notable differences of GnRH receptor antagonists include no flare reaction, and a more rapid suppression of testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) compared to LHRH analogs. Despite emerging evidence supporting the use of GnRH receptor antagonists over the more widely used LHRH analogs in the management of prostate cancer, physicians may be reluctant to prescribe degarelix. They may be concerned about patient complaints about injection-site reactions (ISRs). The subcutaneous injection of degarelix has been associated with a higher rate of ISRs compared with the intramuscular injections of LHRH analogs. This "How I Do It" article describes techniques and strategies that have been developed by physicians and nurses to reduce the discomfort associated with the subcutaneous delivery of degarelix.

The Canadian journal of urology. 2016 Feb [Epub]

Jack Barkin, Shelley Burton, Carole Lambert

Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PubMed
5 myths about China's missile deployment on Yongxing Island Updated: 2016-02-21 09:23 (chinadaily.com.cn)

The South China Sea issue is back in the headlines again, this time thanks to the reports from Western media that China has deployed a missile system on Yongxing Island in the Xisha. The reaction from the United States has revealed a number of oddities and inconsistencies. Overall, there have been numerous claims, discords, critiques, and myths about the South China Sea. But this particular story has exposed at least five obvious confusions in the US strategy and stance in this region.

First, a confusion of the Xisha and Nansha. In the past, the international community has mostly focused on disputes involving the Nansha in the South China Sea, with China, Vietnam, and the Philippines as the claimants receiving the most attention. Concerns over the so-called "militarization" of the South China Sea are usually raised with regards to the Nansha. As a matter of fact, China has deployed limited defense measures in the Xisha for decades. Chinese defense capabilities on the Xisha have "nothing to do with militarization," as China's Foreign Ministry has clearly stated. Therefore, the missile deployment is not an intentional change to China's defense posture. The United States seems to intentionally be confusing the Nansha and the Xisha so as to better denounce China.

Second, a confusion of "right to self-defense" and "militarization." Article 51 of the UN Charter entitles UN members to the "inherent right" to self-defense. For decades, China's self-defense measures in the Xisha have not been regarded as a major issue, as currently pictured in the West. In fact, China's defenses in the Xisha have not been openly brought up by highest officials of the U.S. and its close allies until recently. How could this alleged deployment, on an island that has hosted Chinese defense facilities for decades, suddenly turn into a reckless step by China to intensify militarization in this region? Apparently China is not allowed to deploy defense capabilities on its own territory while the United States can deploy 60 percent of its Navy and Air Force in the Asia-Pacific region; continuously send spy planes and battleships for close-in reconnaissance of China's territory; and hold more and more frequent joint military drills in the region while selling large amount of military equipment. That's an odd definition of "militarization."

Third, a confusion of "intention" and "capability." According to U.S. media, the missiles deployed on Yongxing Island have a range of 125 miles and pose "a threat to all forms of civilian and military aircraft." This is another misunderstanding. First, China's self-defense measures obviously do not necessarily pose a threat to major sea lanes and air passages in this region, unless some incidental "innocent passages" evolve into seriously provocative threats to China's sovereignty. It is ridiculous to imagine China shooting missiles, unprovoked, at a civilian aircraft. Second, and more broadly, in this situation intention is just as important as capability. The United States maintains the most sophisticated weaponry system, defensive and offensive, ranging across the whole world, while it has constantly claimed to be a force for defending democracy, peace, and order. Why could not the same logic be applied to China? Simply put, capability does not directly pose a threat, but the "wrong" intentions do. As for China's intentions, the country has put forward a three-point initiative to uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is determined to firmly uphold both "peace and stability" and its sovereign rights, now and in the future.

Forth, a confusion of the standards of militarization. The Philippines and Vietnam both "militarized" the islands they occupy long ago, and the U.S. continues to lead joint military exercises and make military sales. In this context, why are China's self-defense measures labelled as a direct military provocation? This is an obvious double-standard which the United States uses to try to monopolize international discourse. Such a stance seems to tell the world that it is only China's behaviors in this region that automatically should be linked to militarization.

Fifth, confusion about the "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea. U.S. officials constantly claim their right to protect "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea. For the past decades, civilian and commercial freedom of navigation in the South China Sea has never been sabotaged by China's military forces. Instead, it is the U.S. military "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea that could be limited by China, if it is perceived as a threat to China's sovereignty. Thus, it is quite convenient for the United States to blame China for this somewhat imaginary "threat" to "freedom of navigation" to gain international support for its military operations in the South China Sea.

These generalizations about the South China Sea issue and particularly the intentional simplification of China's policies and behaviors may win the United States a certain amount of support in this region, but divergences and differences are emerging. For example, ASEAN leaders avoided criticizing China in the joint statement of the US-ASEAN special leaders' summit. This detail, and what it symbolizes about ASEAN's stance, is probably of more lasting significance that the media outcry over alleged Chinese missile deployment in the South China Sea.
Panorama China will premiere 20 Chinese films in US Updated: 2016-02-22 06:35 By MAY ZHOU in Houston(China Daily USA)

Hunter Todd (second from left), CEO and founder of WorldFest Houston, introduces the upcoming Panorama China program on Feb 19 in Houston along with Chinas Consul of Culture Yang Song (right), Panorama China Chairman Ray Jiang (left) and WorldFest Director Kathleen Haney. MAY ZHOU / CHINA DAILY

Panorama China will make up part of the 49th WorldFest Houston  the international independent film festival where famous directors such as Ang Lee, the Cohen Brothers and Steven Spielberg were first honored prior to their wide recognition  the organizers announced on Feb 19.

"Last year we had our first introductory Panorama China," said Hunter Todd, founder and president of WorldFest. "This year we expanded it to be a major spotlight of Chinese cinema for all of North America. We will premiere 20 new films from China, which will open a window to the world of the incredible capabilities of China filmmaking.

"I love to tell people that, if you see a film from China and see 10,000 horsemen in costumes and spears, it's not CGI (computer-generated images), it's 10,000 real horsemen on horses. The Chinese make amazing movies," Todd said.

Todd said that after premiering 20 films in the US this fall, he will bring 20 of the finest films with their directors from the world to China.

Last year, five Chinese films were presented at the WorldFest. China's Walking to School was well received and won the top prize.

According to China's Consul of Culture Yang Song, Todd was invited to attend the Shanghai Film Festival and had extensive contact with the Chinese film industry after last year's Panorama China. That led to the expansion of the Panorama China program for this year.

"I believe that people can get to know about a country, its people and culture through film-watching. This will help foster mutual understanding. We are hoping that Panorama China will become a regular program and the largest platform for Chinese films to be premiered in North America," Yang said.

Ray Jiang, chairman of Panorama China, said that more than 100 Chinese filmmakers will attend the WorldFest. "We will help to promote the Chinese art and culture through a film lens to the world. The WorldFest has discovered a few star directors in the past. We hope the next Chinese star director will be born here," Jiang said.

This year, more than 100 films from China were submitted to the program. According to Qi Dan from Dream River Studio, so far 11 films have been selected, and the committee is continuing to screen the submissions.

The Compact Density of Stone, a film about China's former leader Deng Xiaoping, will be the opening film for Panorama China.

Chinese actress Lily Chen Foster said that she was there when Ang Lee's Pushing Hands was showcased at WorldFest in 1992.

"Over the years, China has changed socially and economically. I have seen more and better films from China. This also provides a platform for our next generation to get to know China better. So, people, buy tickets, watch films," Foster said.

According to Todd, the WorldFest, scheduled for April, will present a total of 60 films from around the world. One screening theater will be dedicated to Panorama China at the AMC 30 Studio on Dunvale.
After winning EU deal, Britain's Cameron faces harder battle Updated: 2016-02-21 07:29 (Agencies)

LONDON - When Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a deal designed to keep Britain in the European Union after two days of talks in Brussels, his relief was short-lived.

Within hours of Friday's agreement, one of Cameron's closest allies, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, and five other ministers declared they would campaign against him in a June 23 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the bloc.

It was the first blow in what could be a new "civil war" in Cameron's Conservative Party over Europe. Divisions over Britain's place in Europe contributed to the downfall of two of his predecessors, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

It is a war Cameron tried hard to avoid when he came to power in 2010. The following year he ordered his party in the strictest terms to vote down a bill suggesting a referendum on membership of the EU, saying it was the "wrong answer for Britain".

But within two years, he had changed his mind, paving the way to a membership referendum, by declaring: "I believe in confronting this issue - shaping it, leading the debate. Not simply hoping a difficult situation will go away."

Cameron, 49, now finds himself fighting a referendum which will determine Britain's future in world affairs and shape the future EU - Britain is the bloc's second-largest economy and one of its two main military powers.

In a quirk of the British political system, the prime minister is in the unusual position of being more sure of the backing of the opposition Labour Party than of his own party.

"He didn't want a referendum, he was bounced into doing it," las Carswell, a Conservative Party member until he defected to the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2014. "He's been the actor in this production, he is not writing the script, or directing it, or producing it."

As a eurosceptic, Carswell has an axe to grind, but his view that Cameron has almost slept walk into such a crucial referendum is shared by some of the prime minister's allies and supporters as well as other critics.

"I think it's pretty clear ... there was no plan," said Jonathan Portes, principal research fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research who specialises in immigration issues.

SUSPICION

The deal reached on Friday followed weeks of negotiations across Europe in which Cameron tried to win better terms for Britain if it remains in the EU, hoping to win over sceptical voters including many in his own party.

He said he had won his country a "special status" from the agreement, which excludes Britain from the founding goal of "ever closer union" and hands the government welfare curbs to try to tackle concerns over high levels of migration.

A spokesman for Cameron said the prime minister had always focused on winning "the best deal for the British people" and denied the negotiations had been about "party management".

But Cameron's path to the referendum shows he is clearly sensitive to the opinions in his party.

He initially steered clear of discussing the EU with party eurosceptics after coming to power and avoided meetings with them and, to reduce their hold, portrayed them "as a crackpot minority banging on about Europe", one Conservative lawmaker said.

Allies say Cameron knew he had to counter the threat of rebellion and took a calculated risk by calling a referendum he expects to win.

But as the prime minister tried to ignore the issue, Britain's largely eurosceptic press kept the issue alive.

Over decades Britain's press has fuelled suspicion of a bloc praised by many Europeans for ensuring peace after World War Two, but derided in Britain for wanting to ban curved bananas and rename sausages.

A natural, if not passionate, europhile, Cameron increasingly seemed out of step with many in his party as they opposed moves towards further integration in Europe and saw a referendum as the logical next step.

In 2011, when Cameron ordered Conservative members of parliament to vote down a bill suggesting a membership referendum, about 80 rebelled.

John Baron was one of them. Immediately afterwards, Baron said he and at least eight rallied more than 100 lawmakers to force Cameron to abandon his no-referendum policy and, after they wrote letters and lobbied fiercely, more than a year later he relented. He then made holding a referendum a central policy.

Baron told Reuters that Cameron was "ultimately confronted with logic but also a realisation that one, we weren't going to go away, and two, we were much more sizeable than the spin operation portrayed".

Baron is keen to take credit for his role in forcing the prime minister into holding the referendum.

But bullied into the vote, Cameron hastily had to come up with policy on the hoof, sources said.

Portes, who as a civil servant helped negotiate Britain's opt-out from the Maastricht treaty which set up the euro currency in 1989-90, said Cameron's decision to focus on winning concessions over "in-work benefits" - social payments for low-paid workers - had underlined the lack of strategy.

The focus on a specific, and otherwise little-known, element of Britain's welfare system maddened some EU officials, who saw it as a direct attack on the EU's fundamental principles and discriminatory. It almost derailed the negotiations.

Pat McFadden, Labour's former Europe minister, says this was down to Cameron's poor understanding of the EU.

"He doesn't always do his homework on a European level," McFadden told Reuters.

Cameron aides say the prime minister has plenty of experience of EU affairs, visiting 20 member states for talks on the bloc since he was re-elected last year.

Cameron was forced to focus on in-work benefits after concerns over immigration grew among voters over an influx of migrants from eastern European member states. His move was also partly meant to counter a growth in the popularity of UKIP.

In 2014, he said he would "not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement I will get what Britain needs". But EU officials swiftly made clear they would not allow this, saying it would undermine one of the EU's founding principles.

Struggling to find a way to include immigration in the renegotiation, Cameron's eye fell on a report by the Open Europe think tank which suggested that curbing the benefits to EU workers would reduce migration and would avoid troublesome change to the bloc's founding treaties.

"And they just lifted it, without testing it, without doing any serious analysis at all, either legal or economic," said Portes.

Open Europe's co-director, Stephen Booth, said that his study was quickly taken up by the government and advisers did not ask legal questions. Cameron's officials say the prime minister has formed policy in response to public concerns over high immigration.

Although agreement was reached on Friday, the decision to include gestures for Britain on welfare reform still rankles in EU capitals.

One diplomat involved in the talks said Britain's EU partners were "rather irritated ... that here we are dealing with some rather obscure issues... while we have ... major issues we should really be on instead of this".

STUMBLES

For eurosceptics, the curbs on in-work benefits and restrictions to payments to EU migrants with an annual income below a certain level for their children who remain abroad do not go far enough and accuse Cameron of buckling under pressure from the EU.

"Britain banged the table and aggressively demanded the status quo," Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter. "The EU, after some mandatory faux-agonising, agreed."

"He's tinkering because he knows he cannot question one of the founding principles of the EU which is freedom of movement," said Baron.

Baron said the result of the referendum would be close and "lance the boil" in the party for good.

But others disagree, seeing little chance of 'the Europe issue' ever going away - something that may come to hurt Cameron whichever way Britain votes.

"The European issue has split it from top to bottom, ever since we went in," said Jeffrey Archer, a former conservative lawmaker and an author.

"It's a divisive issue and if we do come out, it will be divisive. If we do stay in, it will be divisive."
'Electric superhighway' taking shape in Brazil Updated: 2016-02-22 05:54 By MAO PENGFEI in Mexico City(China Daily Latin America)

For the Chinese, the annual Spring Festival is a time to make the trek home for family reunions, no matter where in the world they happen to be.

This year, however, many Chinese workers and technicians missed the holiday to stay on in Brazil's Amazon basin to keep working on a large-scale project expected to revolutionize the country's electric grid.

Deep in the Amazonian rain forests of northern Brazil's Para State, the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam  Belo Monte  is under construction. Expected to be completed by January 2019, it will deliver electricity to Brazil's most densely populated southern region.

It's an ambitious plan, given the thousands of kilometers between the dam and the communities it is set to supply. But it's feasible, thanks to China's ultra-high-voltage (UHV) direct current (DC) transmission technology.

In February 2014, a consortium formed by China's State Grid Brazil Holding and two Brazilian companies won a bid to build and operate a 2,084-km transmission line connecting the Belo Monte hydropower plant to the southern state of Minas Gerais, near Sao Paulo, and converter stations.

In July 2015, State Grid Brazil Holding won a second bid to build a 2,250-km transmission line linking the power plant to the town of Nova Iguacu, near Rio de Janeiro.

The first UHV line, which is under construction, will be the first "electricity superhighway" in Brazil and all of Latin America.

If completed, the dam and UHV transmission projects will power the development of Brazil's energy-hungry southern areas, said Xu Chang, State Grid's local executive officer on the project.

Brazil's hydropower potential ranks third in the world, after Russia and China. Almost 80 percent of the energy consumed in the country originates from hydroelectric plants. And like China, Brazil is a country with a vast territory whose energy consumption centers are far from where the resources are located.

The insufficiency and uneven distribution of electricity has put new pressures on economic development. Statistics show the price of electricity for home use increased by 50 percent last year.

The mammoth "electricity superhighway" presents numerous obstacles and challenges.

According to Brazilian law, to start construction, the project had to first undergo a series of rigorous tests, including environmental and archaeological impact studies, to get the needed permits from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the Environment Ministry, and other agencies.

Construction started during Brazil's rainy season, with heavy rain almost every afternoon often creating delays.

Since entering the Brazilian market, State Grid has established a platform for other Chinese companies, including electric equipment producers and builders.

"By cooperating with us on those projects, other Chinese companies can save up to 10 years in entering the Brazilian market," said Qu Yang, deputy general manager of State Grid Brazil Holding.

In addition to the revolutionary change that UHV transmission projects will bring to Brazil's energy matrix, local residents are directly benefitting from the construction projects.

The two transmission lines, with a total investment of 15 billion reais (US$4.7 billion), are expected to create around 34,800 jobs in Brazil, according to government estimates.

"My hometown in the State of Para is not a very developed area," said Sara Barker, who works in human resources at State Grid Brazil. "But this electricity transmission project will make a difference. The first phase of the project will provide 15,000 jobs."

Construction of the dam and transmission lines has attracted tens of thousands of people living in nearby areas, generating a new consumer market.

The second phase of the project will bring more Chinese equipment and investment to Brazil, and provide more jobs for local communities, said Xu.

"This new 800kV project is State Grid's first overseas UHV DC transmission project. It will be a model for China to help establish a new global energy network, and has strategic meaning for China to promote its UHV technology and equipment worldwide," said Cai Hongxian, general manager of State Grid Brazil Holdings.

Bilateral energy cooperation has yielded great results in recent years, according to Xie Wenze, a visiting scholar in Brazil from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Infrastructure cooperation between China and Brazil is mutually beneficial and should be further strengthened, Xie added.

"The Brazilian government can count on infrastructure investment as a way to overcome the current economic recession, and promote economic and social development," Xie said.
Let me provide what might seem to be an extreme example as a starting point. Assume that I am teaching a class on Chinese politics, my field. One day I ask a question about the assigned reading and a student responds, Fuck you.

Clearly such a speech act would be out of line. I would be shocked if it happened, and I would ask the student what he meant. Suppose he repeated it. Suppose further that this behavior persisted for weeks, that he was in his right mind and was determined to say what he wanted regardless of any external constraint. Obviously, I would talk to the student, tell him to desist or a penalty would be imposed: he would get a zero on the participation portion of his final grade. I would also tell him that his behavior is disrupting the learning environment for other students.

Although highly unlikely, this example brings to light two criteria that might be used in a college classroom to limit speech: irrelevance and disruption.

In the abstract world of free speech absolutists, the student has a right to say fuck you if he wants. Indeed, the First Amendment guarantees that the power of the state cannot be invoked against him. Yet in the particular context of a college classroom more specific criteria are used to judge what is intellectually meaningful speech, and it is the duty of the teacher to engender such speech, even if that means limiting other speech acts that he or she deems irrelevant or disruptive of the learning process of other students.

We can see those criteria at work in a somewhat more likely scenario. When I teach about the horrendous violence of the Rape of Nanjing, I give my students readings from a variety of perspectives. We talk about historical details and the politics of interpretation. I tell them that, just like Holocaust deniers, there is a fringe group of writers who argue that no violence at all was perpetrated by the Japanese military against the people of Nanjing. I inform them of the existence of these arguments but I do not give them the book I have on my shelf that runs down the rabbit hole of denial (were a student doing an independent project on holocaust denial, I would certainly provide all relevant sources to her). The reason for my not spending more time and attention on those arguments in class is, simply, they are empirically wrong. To dwell on them at length would be to slip into irrelevance and dissoluteness.

Furthermore, if a student were to write a paper that argued, as a matter of fact and without providing some hitherto unknown evidence, no violence at all ever occurred in Nanjing in 1937, I would, at first, be bewildered. After speaking with the student and urging revision in light of clear historical error, should the student persist, I would give the paper a very low grade, perhaps a failing grade. I would, in this sense, punish speech that was irrelevant. And if that student decided to stand up in class and repeat these erroneous arguments, I would limit him on grounds of disruption.

Again, this example may seem far-fetched (though something rather close to this has happened in my experience), it illustrates something essential about teaching, an endeavor that involves the daily judgment of countless speech acts and the occasional limitation of some of them.

Notice: occasional limitation. Our jobs involve encouragement of a very wide range of speech. Students are free to challenge the arguments we put forth and the texts they confront. Many times inaccurate or morally dubious statements can be pedagogically useful. But though the latitude is very wide, it is not unlimited. All teachers must occasionally reject some speech acts as irrelevant or disruptive to learning. That is what teaching entails.

The crux of the matter is: who decides what might be irrelevant or disruptive? Academic freedom, the freedom of the teacher to define his or her pedagogical goals and to decide what texts will be read and how the classroom will be managed, is the foundation of American higher education. I, the teacher, decide. Not the politician or the hedge fund manager or the newspaper editor, who have no experience of actually teaching and no obligation to the specific students in my classroom. And that tradition of academic freedom has produced the world standard in college and university education. We know what we are doing when we occasionally limit speech in the service of our intellectual purposes.

We can scale-up this dynamic to think about invited speakers. Here, again, we take into account how such events relate to our broader educational mission. We are very much attuned to the extraordinarily wide variety of intellectual trends and specialties not commonly found in general American discourse, ranging across many disciplines and fields: French literature, contemporary performing arts, neuro-biology, ancient Chinese philosophy, ethnomusicology, and on and on. Our purpose, as a liberal arts college that creates and preserves knowledge of myriad sorts, is not to proportionally represent current political debates, most of which are amply available to our students through various media. Most of our invited speakers, beyond the odd celebrity appearance, are academics doing what might appear to be obscure intellectual work. That is the goal: to present something new, something seemingly obscure, and learn from it.

When we make decisions about who might fulfill these criteria we do so collectively because we are a community of learning. If I have an idea for a speaker, I consult with my colleagues. If funding is needed, I ask the Chair of my department or other departments for support. A wide variety of student groups engage in collective decision-making to come up with proposals for speakers. When those discussions involve faculty, we encourage outcomes that will be intellectually valuable.

Attendance at such events is not compulsory, so disruption is not the same as in a classroom. If a person doesnt like a particular talk, he or she can just walk out. But disruption of a different sort might still be a factor. It depends on the context and expectations of the event.

Lets return to the person who repeatedly says fuck you. Perhaps if, as a staged event, this were framed as some sort of performance art, it might have a certain intellectual value. If, however, it were a famous anthropologist expected to expound on his recent fieldwork, we would all look askance, and wonder what happened to the poor fellow. Some might take offense. If the anthropologist took off his clothes and engaged in a sex act while repeating the expletive, more would likely take offense. At some point the scale of offense would disrupt the community. If a sufficient number of colleagues and students were outraged, legitimate questions would be raised about the intellectual value of the event. And, knowing this, should a student group suggest a return visit by the anthropologist, a rejection of this proposal, on the grounds of disruption and irrelevance  irrelevant because lacking in intellectual value  could be acceptable.

Of course, such a situation is very rare. Most decisions about speakers on campus fit comfortably within community expectations of intellectual relevance and civility. Sometimes lines are crossed, and offense is taken by some. We tolerate most such instances because others, maybe many others, might find value over and above offense. Although we generally err on the side of including potentially offensive speech,there may be rare moments where offense lapses into harassment. Balancing relevance versus disruption is a tricky business, one that we confront every day in the classroom. We are, at times, criticized by activists and commentators outside our campus for getting that balance wrong. That is their right. And it is our right, exercised through our academic freedom, to be the final arbiters of when racist speech of minimal intellectual value can be prohibited on our campus.

In the unusual case of the invited racist, President Falk decided that insufficient intellectual value would be gained against the great deal of disruption and harassment it would cause.

To appreciate this very rare occurrence (in my twenty six years as a faculty member at Williams I cannot recall an analogous case), it is necessary to understand its particulars.

The decision to invite the racist was not taken by the usual processes of community deliberation. The group involved is not a duly recognized student group at the college and thus it does not stand for or represent Williams College. It is a small but unknown number of students in league with a coterie of anonymous alumni who operate outside of the standard organizational and financial procedures of the College that other student and faculty groups follow. A key alumni organizer is well known for his conservative ideology, and that appears to animate the actions of the group. Their access to tens of thousands of dollars of funding, unavailable to any other members of the Williams community, has led me to characterize them elsewhere as representing a certain conservative privilege. They have chosen to establish themselves outside of customary practices of the community and it was that from vantage that they extended this invitation.

So this group decided that it would be a good thing to hear a racist speak, a racist whose writings are readily available. No context was provided for the talk. No public framing that might suggest why it might be good to hear a racist speak or what the specific educational goal might be. The working assumption seems to have been that any speech at any time will have intellectual value above and beyond its possible irrelevance to the Colleges educational mission or the disruption it might cause to the community, an assumption invalidated by the daily classroom experience on campus.

As it turns out, the Colleges educational mission does not require that we hear the racist speak. Racist speech is not novel or intriguing, it is, unfortunately, common and abusive. With so much intellectual material out in the world, so much of it of greater value than a run-of-the-mill racist, and so much more of it not present in our current academic life, we can do our jobs very well without the racist.

Then there is the matter of disruption. In this case, it really is like the person saying fuck you. That is what statements like African Americans are genetically inferior to White Americans and thus should be avoided by Whites "John Derbyshire's execrable article "The Talk: Nonblack Version" are. They are a fuck you. They are intellectual disruptions on several levels. They roil the community at large in intellectually unproductive ways.

We might be able to think of some carefully constructed contexts where confrontations with racist statements could be made intellectually meaningful: an artistic performance with a particular purpose or a reading in a class designed specifically to engage with such speech acts. But care must be taken in such instances to ensure that the disruption does not overwhelm the intended intellectual value. None of that was happening with the invitation extended to the racist.

Williams College has no obligation to support racist speech that falls outside of, and might undermine, its educational endeavors. We limit speech in many ways, in the classroom and in events on campus, because we are focused on a particular academic mission: to encourage our students to explore widely and deeply, think critically, reason empirically, express clearly, and connect ideas creatively. As teachers we are daily engaged in decisions about what particular kinds of speech acts best promote those goals in a wide range of disciplines with a diverse set of students. There is much excellent material to draw upon in the pursuit of this objective. Random acts of uncontextualized and unmediated racism do not serve our mission.

President Falk was thus right to take the decision he did. Faculty will legitimately question the abrupt use of executive power in this regard, something we have not seen before. He is not the single teacher of a campus-wide classroom, but one member of a community of learning who happens to have certain administrative duties and authority. He was confronted with a highly unusual case, where the distinction between offensive speech, which might be acceptable, and harassment, which might reasonably be prohibited, had to be adjudicated very rapidly. Given the unusual circumstances of this case, the lack of prior community consideration of the invitation and the short time frames involved, his choice was reasonable.

Some will disagree with his decision, as is their right. But we will continue to exercise our academic freedom, as a community of learning, to make the many decisions required to maximize intellectually meaningful education for our students.

And now, with that discordant note out of the way, its time to get back to Coltranes My Favorite Things.


What to do on Jeju Island





It was a very cold, windy morning when I crossed the empty street of Seoul with white smoke coming out of my mouth. I hurriedly walk my way to the MRT Station to seek refuge from the weather. My original plan didn't involve visiting a nearby Island of Seoul named Jeju Island. It was formerly known as Cheju Island and is located off the southern coast of South Korea. A doctor I know convinced me of visiting this wonderful paradise, he said "If you're not going to Jeju Island might as well miss your flight." It got me thinking so decided to take a domestic flight to Jeju besides when I check the airfare it was surprisingly cheap. No regrets, It was the best part of my trip to Korea. Let's go!





Seoul to Jeju Island





Hongik University Station to Gimpo Airport

How to get there: Take AREX(Airport Express train) Light Blue Line to Gimpo International Airport (2 stations, 4 minutes).

Jeju Air Flight: Seoul-Jeju(07:00 - 08:10)

Ticket price: 51,200 won/66 SGD





I brought along a piece of luggage with me as it was hard to carry my winter clothes in a backpack. I'm not used to it, it was bulky and inconvenient. The MRT station in Korea is massive, you will need to navigate your way carefully and be ready to carry your luggage on a flight of stairs. Thou it was a great way to exercise my muscles as I'm doing a lot of trekking for the following days. Most of the ladies walking around wore heels top with thin leggings, it simply struck me how they manage to survive the cold plus the endless walks in the station. I on the other hand was not even close to being fashionable, I laughed at the thought of that. What matters most to me is that I'm comfortable with what I wear and I smell. I'm more concerned with my luggage which I carry in all my transfers, it's such a pain in my head especially when there's always a mob in the MRT stations. I simply want to get away from the city crowd and be on Jeju Island right away.





The moment I arrived on the Island there were only a few people in the airport, even in the bus terminal. I love the countryside feeling, nowadays I'm more withdrawn from society and I prefer to be with nature. I'm becoming a hermit, I might as well leave in a Hobbit hole in New Zealand. Hopefully, someday I can link this post to my New Zealand trip.









Gimpo Airport to Yeha Guesthouse





How to get there:

By Bus (about 10-15mins)

Total Fare : 1,200KRW

Take the number 100 bus at gate no.2 of the 1st floor, Jeju airport, and get off at Hankook hospital (next to Jeju bus terminal). From there, it is a 1-minute walk.

Or By Taxi (about 5-10mins)

Fare : 4,500KRW-5,000KRW

Take a short distance taxi and show the printout of detailed directions to the guesthouse on the website or let him know the phone number.









Address: 9, Samo-gil, Jeju-si Jeju Special Self-Governing Province South Korea, 690-812 Tel. 070-4012-0084/064-724-5506

3 days 2 nights for 38,000 won

Deposit: 8,000 won

Balance pay on arrival 30,000 won

(Toiletries Small towel, hair drier, tissue Shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper and Breakfast provided).





Yeha Guesthouse is 3 minutes away from Jeju Intercity Bus Terminal by foot. Getting around Jeju was not a problem, all the tourist routes were posted on a board below the bus numbers. When you hop inside the bus there's a small TV screen which tells everyone each bus stop name in English and Hangul. It was a piece of cake! Upon arriving in the guesthouse I've deposited my luggage at the counter and immediately walked back to the Jeju bus terminal. is 3 minutes away from Jeju Intercity Bus Terminal by foot. Getting around Jeju was not a problem, all the tourist routes were posted on a board below the bus numbers. When you hop inside the bus there's a small TV screen which tells everyone each bus stop name in English and Hangul. It was a piece of cake! Upon arriving in the guesthouse I've deposited my luggage at the counter and immediately walked back to the Jeju bus terminal.













Explore Jeju Island: Manjanggul Cave and Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak









Jeju Bus Terminal to Manjanggul Cave





How to get there:

From Jeju-si Jeju Bus Terminal proceed to platform or post number 4 and take Bus 701. Take the Donghoe Line Intercity Bus to get off at the parking lot near Manjanggul Cave Entrance. Travel time: 1 hour and 30 minutes. At the parking lot, take a town bus bound for Manjanggul or a taxi for 2,000 won-4,000 won or take 20 minutes to walk to Manjanggul Cave Entrance.





My planned route for that day is to check out the East Course of Jeju, specifically Manjanggul Cave and Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak. I prefer to see the cave before going to the peak, light after dark, it was more of the distance actually and the bus availability at that time. Heading to the peak first is possible too, it's farther than the cave and you can avoid the long travel back to the Jeju Bus terminal. The bus drop-off is a bit farther away from the cave entrance, you can either walk or take a cab/taxi, I was lucky to be there when two tourists were bargaining with a taxi driver, the driver asked me to come along to pay at a minimal fee. All three of us paid 2,000 won for the ride to the Manjanggul Cave Entrance.



Manjanggul Cave

Address: 182 Manjanggul-gil, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea

Phone:+82 64-710-7903

Opening hours: Summer season 09:00-18:00 / Winter season 09:00-17:30

Entrance fee: Adults  2,000 won / Youth  1,000 won / Children  1,000 won





The cave was beautiful, cold, and massive. I stand fascinated with the expansive space that sits still below the ground. Manjanggul Cave is considered the longest lava tube in the world. It stands 5 meters wide, between 5 to 10 meters high, and is over 13 kilometers long. I spent an hour walking back and forth inside the cave, I wanted to see everything that's down there. There was a point where I was walking by myself, that creeps me out a little bit yet I continued walking. Every time I see another tourist explorer I would wave and smile at them, though they're really not that friendly. I sang a song when no one is around, the echo simply ticks me off which really makes me laugh like a lunatic. Here I am still entertaining myself. When you're traveling alone you simply do silly things to keep yourself amused by your surroundings.





At the end of my trail I've met a few 'Ajumma' or old ladies in Korea, they were kind enough to take my picture and in return, I took their group picture as well. I've totally forgotten to take a picture with them. I love taking pictures with strangers every time I travel to be with a group or on my own, I like to see them on my camera roll to remind myself who showed me the right way, gave a kind gesture, and just a reminder of who I've met in my travels. Afterward, I made my way back to the outside world, drop by at the nearest convenience store, bought a drink, and made my way back to the bus stop where I alighted.











Manjanggul Cave to Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak





How to get there:

Take the same Bus 701. Alight at a nearby bus stop near the Inchulbong Entrance, it's a few meters walk away. In front of the bus stop look for Dosirak Guesthouse, a bit on your left side. Once you see it cross the street and follow that road beside the guesthouse, continue walking straight, and turn right. Right away the stairway to heaven appears right before your very eyes.











Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak

Address: Ilchul-ro, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, South Korea

Phone:+82 64-783-0959

Open daily: 5 a.m.-9 p.m. in winter, 4 a.m.-10 p.m. in summer, except in bad weather

Admission: Age 24-64: 2,000 won

Age 7-23: 1,000 won / 65 and over

Age 6 and under: Free









As a solo traveler, I love the convenient Bus Ride to Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak.



Bird's eye view of Jeju Island







I didn't exactly know where the Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, people passing by were even confused when I asked for directions. I'm glad I was equipped with a GPS DNA, ahahaa. By instinct I crossed the street I figured that a crater would not be standing nearby a road. An old couple meets my gaze and I shouted out with a smile powering up all my linguistic genes to ask for directions. Guess what they were just at the peak, they pointed the way with a big flash of white teeth on their faces.













Before heading straight to the peak entrance I went to a nearby restaurant for a traditional Korean meal. It was the best mackerel fish I've ever tried, it's soft, fragrant, and flavorful. It was served with rice, delicious soup, and different kinds of side dishes. I've always loved Korean food and I respected it, even more, when I got to try the authentic taste. Time and effort are much needed to create the meal. I salute the people's patience and dedication in maintaining the taste of Korean food.





Top of Seongsan ilchulbong

Merry and glee I made my way up to the peak. The stair was a challenge and I loved it because the following day I've planned to climb Mt. Hallasan Hike the Highest Mountain in Jeju Island). Don't focus on the flight of stairs as it well gets more tiring, look at the view, with every step I make I had a grandeur view of Jeju Is land. I try to avoid booking tour packages, I'm the kind of person where I don't want people leading me and giving me orders especially not on my vacation. Travel not just for the tourist spot, enjoy and experience a different side of the world you're used to. Everyone was trying to get there as fast as they can, I on other hand took my own sweet time, taking it all in and smiling in delight. I find myself weird sometimes, I can be at a place for a long time staring at the same view and be still. Even my friends find my one-song playlist for a 10 km run bizarre. Let's embrace our weirdness, appreciate our strange ideas and be happy about it.









Ajumma Divers





Going down was a breeze, the wind came through and the clouds shaded the way. I walked around the coast just on the other side of the peak, caught a glimpse of the Ajumma divers, and made my way back to the bus stop. Ajumma Divers also called the Mermaids of Jeju, are old female ladies aged 60-70 years old dress in simple black suits to fight the cold water and holds their breath underwater to catch seafood using netted nylon baskets.









Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak back to Jeju Bus Terminal





How to get there:

Go back to the Bus stop area where you alighted but this time take the Bus from the Other side of the street. The bus that runs back to Jeju Bus Terminal is just a few steps away from the opposite road.





The Winter season has longer nights so I intend to be back early in the guesthouse before it gets dark and when the temperature drops.





(Nearby: Bijarim Forest, Jeju Stone Park, Sangumburi Crater, Jeolmul Natural Recreation Forest, Eco Land Theme Park, Saryeoni Forest Path, Gyorae Natural Recreation Forest).





While I was waiting at the bus stop I've noticed the cutest thing, there's a box of mandarin oranges on sale, an honesty box where you leave the money inside the box and you purchased the oranges and go. It really put a smile on my face, I was about to buy one for myself but then the bus came, a simple thing that really made me smile all the way back to the terminal. Another good thing when I arrived back in the city was that my guesthouse offers happy hour where everyone can get a bottle of beer or juice drink for free.





Timeline: 9:30 am Jeju terminal to Mangangul Cave arrived around 11 am, explore and out at the cave by 12:30 noon, bus to Seongsan Peak arrived 1 pm, 1:30 after lunch,2-4 pm hike up and down, bus back to Jeju terminal 4 pm, arrived in terminal around 6:30 pm.
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Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday visited the Tehri dam in Garhwal region in Uttarakhand, igniting new hope for the construction of the mega 6,600 megawatt (Mw) Pancheshwar multi-purpose hydel project on river Kali, a joint venture between New Delhi and Kathmandu.

A day after holding talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi, Oli flew to Tehri region this morning and visited the dam site. Oli was accompanied by Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal and his Cabinet colleagues.

Oli told the top Indian officials that Nepal was keen to develop Pancheshwar dam. He was briefed about the rehabilitation and other technical aspects related to the dam by senior officials of the THDC India Ltd.

"The Nepalese premier tried to find out how the Indian government carried out the tough rehabilitation process related to Tehri dam," said K D P Dubey, spokesman, THDC.

The Uttarakhand government in 2012 had given its approval to the proposed project, following a meeting of the state Cabinet. Uttarakhand will get 13 percent of free power from the project.

Nearly a decade ago, the Centre had decided to set up the Pancheswar Development Authority for the implementation of the multi-purpose project. Since then, no significant progress was made. In 2008, the then Nepalese Prime Minister Pushp Kamal Dahal Prachand had also visited the Tehri dam site.

The Uttarakhand Cabinet's approval for the Pancheshwar dam had come at a time when a need was being felt to increase the hydropower potential in the state after the suspension of scores of hydroelectric projects on the Ganga and its tributaries.

The Pancheshwar dam is being proposed on Kali river which divides Nepal and India at Pithoragarh and Champawat districts. The project is being proposed in two parts - 5,600 Mw Pacheshwar dam and 1,060 Mw Purnagiri re-regulating irrigation project.

A vast submergence area comprising 76 sq km is falling toward the India side. A total of 61 villages will be submerged in the reservoir, said a government official, privy to the development.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat had also asked the Centre to prepare a separate Pancheshwar dam rehabilitation policy also.
The scope of nationalism is beyond "we the people" and "unity in diversity" and the country will be full of alleged anti-nationals until we start celebrating diversity more than unity, according to JNU professor G Arunima.

"Nationalism is not about tricolours, about boasting of we the people and unity in diversity. We need to understand that the scope of the feeling of being a nationalist should be more about celebrating diversity than unity," she said while addressing students at JNU on nationalism.

Arunima, a faculty at JNU's Centre for Women Studies, was the fourth in the series of the "nationalism" open-air lectures which are being organised at the varsity in protest against the branding of the university as "anti-national" in wake of an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

"The story of the nation is about differentiated rhythms coming from different parts of the country. Once I walked into canteen of Lady Sri Ram college where I saw two boards saying 'Indian and South-Indian food served here', and then we talk of diversity? Hasn't this attack on JNU forced us to rethink of these definitions?," she said.
Coroners tragic conclusion on mystery disappearance of teen backpacker A coroner has handed down her findings on the Belgian backpacker who disappeared almost without trace in an idyllic New South Wales tourist town more than three years ago.

Jim Chalmers warns disaster floods will weigh on GDP growth Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed the "initial estimate" the recent flooding would have on the economy but warns costs associated could be "even more significant" ahead of his first federal budget on Tuesday.

Limited value: Liberal Senator against royal commission into COVID Liberal Senator Jane Hume acknowledged the long-term effects of lockdowns and school shutdowns but said Australia fared well compared to other countries.

Heavy rain, hail and more flood warnings for four states this weekend Millions of residents along the east coast have been told to brace for more wet weather this weekend, with warnings of large hailstones for Friday and severe thunderstorms bringing heavy rain to already flooded river systems.
Some Gave All is one of a series of our blogs which are basically photographic in nature. The main blog, the "hub", is Holscher's Hub , which is a general photo site. The general blog that we have that receives the most viewing attention is Lex Anteinternet , which started off, and which also remains, a blog for the study of historical topics of the 1890-1920 time frame, but which also deals with about everything else. Our daily Wyoming history blog is Today In Wyoming's History We also have four specific photograph blogs with dedicated topics, those being Churches of the West Railhead and Painted Bricks . Those blogs are dedicated to photographs of the topics their title indicates (more or less). This blog, while a history minded one, fits into the latter category. It depicts monuments, mostly war memorials, that we've run across in our travels.Many of these photos, indeed probably all of them, were taken as the opportunity arose. It'd be rare here to find a photo in which we had gone out specifically to photograph the memorial. Because of that, they will not have a professional quality, as we have to take the monument, including the light, weather, and other conditions, as we find them. Still, that serves the purpose, which is to record monuments and memorials that otherwise would likely be missed by most people.
Here I will share my feelings about America and her Future.



Let it be known to all the World, I love all Humankind, however the poor actions of the few that take away the Freedom's of the many wear on my soul. I don't hate them I feel sad for their foolishness before God and humankind.

Those leaders who seek to 'Keep their Oaths of office' and those who seek only self glory, power, tyranny and the destruction of America as it was founded, hoping to turn it into a Dictatorship, Marxist or other state of Tyranny.



For a long while I was unsure of putting a blog together with my thoughts on this, however Truth must be shared, if not to Awake American's to their dangerous situation then to record the folly of the ways of the wicked who do exist in the leadership of our Nation, States, Counties, Towns. Sad that I must add this page.

"We often search for things in life, yet seldom do we find.

Those things in life that really matter, until we make the time." S.T.Huls



God Bless the Republic of America!
Businesses dont like election years.

Thats because campaign cycles create uncertainty, and that intuitively makes it difficult to steer a company into the future. How can a business owner balance hiring needs against regulatory realities? What kind of tax structure can he or she expect? Will mandatory health coverage for companies employing 50 or more full-time workers withstand the whims and preferences of a new Congress and chief executive? What new costs will filter into the annual revenue statement? Will the prevailing business climate create opportunities for expansion or force contraction?

All of the above figure into planning for every business, whether its a global company like John Deere or an upstart shop with one or two employees.

The business world loathes uncertainty. Hence, it detests election cycles. They abhor, particularly, the so-called open election, in which there is no incumbent competing for office. This years presidential race is an example.

Now, with a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, after the death Feb. 13 of Justice Antonin Scalia, theres a new layer of mystery to heap on top of businesses established concerns about the unknown. Consternation of this sort only deepens in a litigious landscape, such as exists today.

Elliott Smith, executive director of the Iowa Business Council, said he had not yet spoken with his membership  which consists of some of Iowas largest employers  about the upped stakes in this years presidential race. But he seemed certain that his membership was thinking about it.

I suspect theres some level of anxiety in the philosophical spectrum shifting a little more against maybe the norms of free enterprise more toward the more stringent regulatory side of things, Smith said Thursday. I saw some reference that certain ag and business interests in the state could be affected.

Scalia, appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan, was considered an originalist or someone to whom the Constitution was written for all time and not subject to the caprices of pop culture.

Hobby Lobby, for one, likely was gladdened to have Scalia on the court, which upheld the companys religious tenets with regard to the Affordable Care Act. His vote also made a difference when the High Court recently voted 5-4, to halt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Clean Power Plan, which some saw as a back-door entry to a cap-and-trade system.

That fifth vote now is gone, and, conceivably, the EPA plan could come back for further review.

Firearms dealers also recently have voiced concern about what a decisive fifth vote could do to Second Amendment rights.

I dont think any executives are fraught with concern, but Im sure theres interest in whats gonna happen here, the IBCs Smith said. If the more liberal side of the philosophical spectrum prevails and someone not of the Scalia mold wins the day, sure, there will be even more pressure on business to react and conform and more pressure on an already-over pressurized system.

There are other aspects to consider in who might be considered to be a business-friendly Supreme Court nominee, including, perhaps, some level of familiarity with Iowa or Midwest matters.

I think that makes a difference, as well, he said. If the person has some grounding here in the Midwest, particularly Iowa, youd hope that person has an understanding of the business climate, the agriculture scene and what works and doesnt work and what is considered overreaching in the realm of business law. If that person is not acclimated to this area of the world, gosh, who know what happens?

A short course in recent history shows that businesses have a lot riding on the next High Court nominee, said Karen Kerrigan president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council in Washington, D.C.

During the past few years, weve seen cases go 5-4 that were of importance to the business community, where the executive overstepped its regulatory authority, Kerrigan said.

She cited the Clean Power Plan as an example, "and there are other legal challenges in the pipeline with regard to executive branch overreach  or where agencies have not followed their legal responsibilities during the rulemaking process. The Waters of the U.S. rule is a clear example of this, where the EPA ignored its own findings regarding the impact on small business. EPA moved forward with the regulation, anyway, without doing what it was supposed to do to hear from small businesses."

That rule is now on stay, but it could work its way up to the Supreme Court," Kerrigan said.

"A more liberal court could totally switch this legal finding and others on the issue of executive branch overreach," she said.

Kerrigan listed several cases that are before the court now, such as a union dues case and placing new limitations on class-action lawsuits. She said the prevailing consensus held that those cases would go 5-4 and now may now result in a 4-4 decision.

That means the lower court rule would stand, she noted.

In general, it could be more difficult to get favorable outcomes from a more liberal court on the issue of executive branch overreach, Kerrigan said.

Again, there are many legal challenges currently in the pipeline and others yet to come in the last year of the administration, as a record-breaking number of new regulations are expected," she said. "In the end, this means more power, control and regulation from Washington and more costs and, red tape for businesses.
Serbia: 2 hostages die in U.S. strikes

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Fridays U.S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday, questioning why the Americans did not appear to know that foreign captives were at the site.

A U.S. official said American forces had no information indicating that their deaths were a result of the airstrikes.

American F-15E fighter-bombers on Friday struck an Islamic State group training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing at least 49 people, probably including an IS operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, U.S. and local officials said.

Michigan boy, 3, shoots mom in head

KENTWOOD, Mich. (AP)  Police say a 3-year-old Michigan boy accidentally shot his mother in the head but she is expected to survive.

Kentwood, Mich., police said the woman was shot in the back of the head. She was conscious and talking with first responders at the scene.

Lock of

Lennons hair fetches $35,000

DALLAS (AP)  A lock of John Lennons hair that was snipped as he prepared for a film role has sold for $35,000.

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said Saturday the 4-inch lock of hair was purchased by Paul Fraser, a United Kingdom-based memorabilia collector.

A German hairdresser kept a tuft of Lennons hair after giving him a trim before the Beatle started filming How I Won the War, a dark comedy released in 1967.

The hair was one of several Beatles-related items on auction. A photograph of the iconic band signed by all four members went for $42,500. And a sealed copy of the bands butcher cover for the Yesterday and Today album went for $125,000.

Fiji begins cleanup after

ferocious

cyclone

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Residents of Fiji were beginning to clean up and assess the damage today after a ferocious cyclone tore through the Pacific island chain overnight and killed at least one person.

Officials said they were trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and wouldnt know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.

Cyclone Winston hit Fiji with wind speeds estimated at up to 177 miles per hour. It destroyed hundreds of homes and shredded crops.

Ugandas Museveni wins disputed vote

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)  Long-time Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni was on Saturday declared the winner of the countrys disputed presidential election, but his main rival rejected the results as fraudulent and called for an independent audit of the count.

Museveni got more than 60 percent of the votes, and his nearest rival Kizza Besigye got 35 percent, according to final results announced by the election commission.

Besigye was under house arrest as Museveni was declared the winner, with heavily armed police standing guard near his residence on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala. Besigye said he rejects the results and urged the international community to reject the official tally.

The capital was calm following the announcement of results amid a heavy security presence.

The election was marked by an intimidating atmosphere, which was mainly created by state actors, said the European Union observer mission.
NOVA SCOTIA, Canada  When my wife and I told people we were going to Nova Scotia to hike, many seemed mystified. The province is not very big, and their mental picture was of a placid landscape on a peninsula better known for high tides than high hills.

Nova Scotia turned out to offer us a a stunning variety of walks, featuring huge, sweeping views. These meanders came with an unexpected bonus  surprisingly personal conversations with complete strangers. Besides being beautiful, it seems, this was the kind of place where paying for strawberries could get you 20 minutes of other peoples family histories, favorite cheeses (homemade stinging-nettle gouda!) and personal habits.

Arriving in the village of Fox River, we settled into our vacation rental, a converted old schoolhouse.

We got many of our walking destinations from conversations with local folk. The two young nature guides at the nature interpretation center near the town of Economy had recommended a waterfall hike inland toward Economy Falls. The blueberry farmer we met on our morning walk to the bay suggested a little-trod path near the Age of Sail Heritage Museum down the road.

But two of the most satisfying hikes we found came from simply looking at the map: They combined striking vistas of the sweeping coastline with up-and-down bluffs and hills that stretched inland.

For our first hike, our friend Dave picked out Cape Chignecto, at the islands western tip, where we could do part of a 31-mile loop trail. The walk led us high up, deep into shaded groves of fir and down across wooden bridges over streams, with occasional openings where sunlight burst through, and we could get a long view west to the Bay of Fundy, site of those famous 50-foot tides.

Where the trail branched north, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a spectacular overlook. To the west, we could see the cape pointing like an outstretched finger to the Bay of Fundy, its ridge looking hairy with conifers and sloping down to gray rock at the waters edge.

Toward the end of our three hours on the Cape Chignecto loop, the trail took us down to the beach. Two of us ventured into the frigid water until numbness jolted us back to shore. Water temperatures in Nova Scotia, even in July, barely inch above 46 F.

The second hike chosen from the map lay east of Parrsboro, a larger town east of Fox River, in Five Islands Provincial Park. On a map, the little islands fan out from the shore into the bay, erupting like tectonic fireworks. Our walk to Red Head (the name refers to the orange headland rising over the water) was an easy downward one-hour lope through woods

Later that day, we drove from Port Greville to the rocky cliffs of Cape dOr and its lighthouse. The road ended on a bluff, and from there we walked down the cliffside path  steep but a reasonable distance.

The next morning, it was time for our last stroll to the bay. The ritual of walking and water and stories had become as gravitational as the Fundy tide that swept the buoys in a vast arc of churning water off Cape dOr. And now that tide was taking us back to the world.
WATERLOO  John Perkins sees a city divided when he looks at Waterloo.

The Mississippi civil rights activist and speaker brought his message to Waterloo this weekend. He called for unity in a message that was as much for church leaders as it was for the community.

People are divided in their own identities and culture, not united in doing whats right for the community, he said in a talk at the Jubilee United Methodist Church resource center Friday.

We have to join together in cities, said Perkins, president of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation of Jackson, Miss.

Churches should share in their goals to help people in need and denounce hatred, Perkins said, speaking to a crowd of about 30 people over lunch at the church center. He also held two sessions at the Waterloo Center for the Arts Saturday.

You got to give up your denominations, he said. Dont get caught up in your own culture. The people with the problem know more than you do, Perkins said. You need to learn their culture and behavior, and then you need to learn their deepest longing.

Finding what motivates people is key to cooperating with them, he added.

People will work for their deepest longing, Perkins said.

Perkins was brought to Waterloo by local ministries affiliated with the Christian Community Development Association which Perkins founded.

His message resonated with Laura Hoy, a member of Orchard Hill Church and CCDA member.

I think we have a natural tendency to group with people who are just like us, Hoy said.

Perkins was born in Mississippi. The son of a sharecropper, he left to find work but later returned to the state to help people living where he was from. There He was jailed and beaten but continued his work and became a leading evangelical voice during the American civil rights movement.

An internationally known speaker, Perkins has devoted much of his life to desegregation, cross-cultural ministry, and a commitment to the poor.

Perkins said the problems that plagued people in the South resulted from exploitation and enslavement. Long after the Civil War, African-Americans lived without rights white Southerners enjoyed both politically and economically, he said.

That problem has evolved and spread to areas that once offered opportunities for African-Americans such as Waterloo, Perkins said.

Now its all over the nation in the ghettos, he said.

Mayor Quentin Hart, who attended the Friday lunch, said Perkins message  that we all share the same humanity and are created equal  was inspiring. He was encourage by groups at the event taking on grassroots roles. Hart said his role as mayor is to provide information and resources to such groups when asked and let them work.

I like being around people and hearing them discuss what they can do and what theyre doing, Hart said. It isnt about government telling them what to do.
WATERLOO  The Board of Education Monday is expected to approve contracts for Internet services and anti-virus software.

The board meets at 6 p.m. in the Education Service Center, 1516 Washington St.

Officials recommend a three-year contract with UPN to provide 1 gigabyte per second Internet bandwidth services at an annual cost of $35,940, starting July 1. It would replace the expiring contract with Mediacom, which provides service at 300 megabytes per second and has an annual cost of $48,000. Mediacom also put in a bid for the new contract, but it was higher than UPN.

Waterloo Community Schools will file for discounts through the Universal Service Administrations taxpayer-funded e-rate program, which would cover approximately 80 percent of the cost. After the discounts, the district would pay $7,188 per year. Thats a reduction from the $9,600 the district now pays Mediacom.

The district currently also has a contract with Century Link for 1 gbps Internet service.

Officials recommend a five-year $42,266 contract with Kaspersky Endpoint Security for anti-virus software on 6,100 computer devices running Microsoft Windows. That would replace a four-year $65,450 contract with Sophos on 7,000 computer devices. The cost per device per year would drop from $2.34 to $1.39 under the contract.

The number of devices licensed in the district has increased, but fewer use Microsoft Windows. The district also has more than 3,700 Chromebooks and other devices.

In other business, the board is expected to:

Set a March 7 public hearing for asbestos removal at the old Orange and Edison elementary schools. The material must be removed under Iowa law before demolition can begin on the former schools.

Approve 2016-17 school calendars with a start date of Aug. 23 for Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence and Aug. 25 for other district schools. Classes would end June 8, 2017.

Approve the retirement of Steve Gillen, East High assistant principal, at the end of this school year.
TAMA  A handful of Teamsters union retirees brought a message to U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, at her Friday town hall: Time is running out.

Hit with the news last fall their pension checks could be cut by as much as half, in part due to a federal law passed in 2014, several Teamsters have been reaching out to federal officials to ensure there is a full accounting of their money. They dont see their retirement benefits slashed.

The U.S. Department of Treasury is expected to weigh in by May 7 on whether Central States Pension Fund can reduce pension benefits for several Teamster locals and other unions in several Midwest states including Iowa. Should the plan proceed, the cuts would go into effect in July.

We didnt exactly come here to ask for a government bailout. Were looking for some justice on this. Were on a timeline, said Craig Duncan, a Davenport resident who traveled to the Tama Civic Center on Friday to lobby Ernst to delay or stop the pension cuts. That was our money that was put there, and were just asking for justice to try to stop it.

Duncan was one of about 10 Teamsters retirees, all of them military veterans, most from Local 371 based in the Quad Cities, to seek Ernsts input on the impending cuts.

Ernst assured them she is studying the issue to find out why Central States Pension Fund is proposing such large cuts. A 2014 law passed before Ernst was a senator, the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act, allowed pension funds to apply to reduce benefits if the plan is projected to run out of money.

Don Hazen, a retired Teamster living in Moline, Ill., said many retirees understand cuts may be necessary, but they dont believe a 50 to 60 percent cut in benefits is warranted. Theyve asked for a full accounting of what happened to funds they and their employers have paid into their pension fund over the years.

Ernst signed onto a letter with U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office to explain whats happening.

But Ernst was hesitant to say shed do anything more until the facts are in.

Believe me, this is a big issue and I understand that, so dont think that Im making light of this, because there are a lot of families that are being impacted by this, Ernst said. Bottom line, whos responsible? I need to figure that out and see where this went wrong.

Ernst said the first step is to see the GAO report.

She said the definition of justice may be different for ordinary taxpayers compared with individual Teamsters. When she explained her reluctance to approve a bailout, Teamsters retirees objected to that framing of the issue.

We dont want a bailout. Stop saying that every sentence. Every time somebody asked, we dont want a bailout, retired Teamster Steve Scranton said after the town hall. We want a public audit. The last public audit was 1985.

Hazen, too, noted Teamsters  whether retired or still working  put money into the pension fund and expect it would be there when they retire, like Social Security.

This is so important, because the conversation turned the wrong way. Were not after a bailout. We dont want the government to bail us out. We dont even discuss that. Thats not on the table at all. But we want answers. We want justice, and we  think that somehow, some way, we should be getting what we have been promised, Hazen said.

He said he appreciated Ernsts sincerity on the issue. But he doesnt believe she understands the importance of the looming deadlines retirees are facing.

Its not just about retired Teamsters. Its not even working Teamsters now. Were talking about the future of unions. Were talking about if this went through, it would set a precedent, Hazen said. Its the attitude and the apathy that people are going to have, not only about the union, about their jobs, about their future. So, this is is the tip of the iceberg. But we have to do something. Were under the gun.
WATERLOO | City leaders hoping to avoid a property tax hike have been slapped with sobering news.

A preliminary budget presented to City Council members and the public late Thursday calls for a 3.8 percent tax increase to maintain current city service levels.

That doesnt even include an additional tax levy voters approved in November to support the Grout Museum District. When included, the levy boosts the overall projected tax increase over 5.3 percent.

Weve got a lot more work to do, said first-term Mayor Quentin Hart.

While the City Council is expected Monday to publish a proposed budget raising the citys property tax rate from $17.76 to $18.43 per $1,000 of taxable value  including the new 27-cent Grout levy  members have until a March 10 public hearing to find cuts.

That is not the final rate, Hart said. It better not be.

Last month, Hart said he hoped Waterloo, which has the highest city tax rate among the states 10 largest cities, could gain some ground on its peers in next years budget.

But following a series of departmental budget presentations, the newly unveiled figures show it may be difficult to reach the goal without cutting staff or finding new sources of nonproperty tax revenue.

About $608,000 of the projected $2.1 million in new property taxes for the fiscal year starting July 1 is for the Grout tax levy, which is essentially set in stone.

Nearly half of the remaining $1.5 million in additional taxes is tied to personnel costs, including 2.4 percent pay raises, additional retiree health insurance expense and more police and fire overtime. Cuts in public safety pension costs offset a portion of those increases.

Chief Financial Officer Michelle Weidner said several other factors contribute to the potential tax increase, including a projected $247,000 hike in the citys tort liability insurance, a $200,000 reduction in expected utility franchise fee revenue and a $140,000 in parking management costs.

The budget also anticipates making up for the $500,000 in cash reserves used last year to balance the budget. Only $163,000 in general fund reserves are currently projected to be used in the proposed budget.

The typical Waterloo homeowner would see the citys share of the property tax bill jump about 6.5 percent if the published tax rate is actually adopted. The city collects about 42 percent of the overall tax bill in Waterloo, with most of the rest going to schools, Black Hawk County government and Hawkeye Community College.

Weidner said the typical residential property saw a nearly 2.9 percent increase in assessed value this year through a revaluation process by the Black Hawk County Assessors office. But some homes saw larger value growth while others were lowered.

Residential property is taxed based on 55 percent of its assessed value.

Therefore, the owner of an average home with an assessed value of $100,000 would see the citys share of its property tax bill grow from $990 to $1,055. About $15.45 of that $65 overall increase is from the Grout levy.

Commercial and industrial properties, which are taxed based on 90 percent of their value, would see the citys share of their tax bills grow roughly 3.7 percent under the preliminary budget.

During the department budget presentations, the city was not projecting any increases in sewer, garbage or storm water fees in the coming year.

Weve got a lot more work to do. Mayor Quentin Hart
DES MOINES (AP)  If you plan on carrying a stun gun in Iowa, youd better have a permit for it, even if it doesnt work.

The state Supreme Court on Friday restored the conviction of a woman who was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, even though the weapon was a non-working stun gun police found in her purse during a 2013 arrest for shoplifting at a Waterloo Wal-Mart.

According to court records, Taquala Howse, now 25, was handcuffed and taken to a police officers vehicle after she was identified as a theft suspect at the store. Waterloo officer Kyle Jurgensen searched her purse and found a small hand-held stun gun, which Howse said she carried for her own security when she went to nightclubs. She did not have a gun permit and was charged with going armed with a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor under Iowa law.

Howse waived her right to a jury trial and a judge heard the case. He concluded the state had proven the stun gun was a dangerous weapon as defined by Iowa law and convicted her.

As part of Howses defense, her attorney presented testimony from an officer who said when he tried to test the device, it didnt work. The defense said the state presented insufficient evidence the stun gun was a dangerous weapon because it didnt work.

The Iowa Appeals Court agreed and last year reversed her conviction, leading prosecutors to appeal.

The state Supreme Courts opinion, written by Justice Bruce Zager and filed Friday, concludes the Legislature amended state law in 2008 to include as a dangerous weapon any portable device or weapon directing an electric current, impulse, wave, or beam that produces a high-voltage pulse designed to immobilize a person.

The court concluded stun guns fit that definition and therefore are considered dangerous weapons.

It said it has ruled in previous cases its not necessary to demonstrate a weapon is operable to prove it is dangerous.

A gun in the hands of a robber and pointed at the victim causes fear of death or injury and is so intended. The law does not contemplate that a victim under such circumstances must inquire if the gun is loaded. Neither does the law contemplate that there was no use of a dangerous weapon if it should be subsequently determined that the gun was in fact unloaded, the court concluded in a 1966 case.

For Howse, the ruling means her conviction on the weapon charge stands. She also pleaded guilty to fifth-degree theft for the shoplifting, was given credit for the two days spent in jail and was ordered to repay the store.

No one answered a phone number listed in her name and her attorney did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

New Hampton crash injures 1

NEW HAMPTON  A person was hurt in a crash on U.S. Highway 63 Thursday, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

Few details were available on the crash, reported about 12:15 p.m. at Highway 63 between 110th and 130th streets.

A semi being driven by Christopher Steinke, 28, of Winona, Minn., was northbound on Highway 63 when a vehicle driven by Vicente Nunez, 51, of Perry, lost control in the opposite lane.

Nunez crossed the center line and struck the semi.
CEDAR FALLS  There was once a certain kind of blues music.

It had its roots in New Orleans, surrounded by the energy of people and jazz and Louis Armstrong, but tempered by heat and that slow steadiness of southern country living.

Into this environment came Eddie Bowles, taught to be useful in every endeavor and work hard. But he loved playing blues and jazz on homemade instruments with his siblings until his parents caved and got them proper instruments.

Bowles, who died in 1984 at the age of 100 in Cedar Falls, taught several musicians in this area along the way, but led a simple life in North Cedar, working odd jobs and staying largely out of the limelight.

This history has been reconstructed thanks to archival information from The Courier, the now-defunct Cedar Falls Record, the Cedar Falls Historical Society and various acquaintances and friends of the late musician.

Born in Lafayette, La., in 1884, Bowles eventually studied under the greats  including playing in a couple orchestras and with the great Armstrong at the turn of the century  and married in Louisiana in 1911. He might have stayed in that environment forever, becoming one of the greats himself.

But he wasnt making enough money to support himself and his wife. In 1914 or thereabouts, lured by the prospect of work, he found himself in Cedar Falls. The city needed people knowledgeable about paving to put in the first brick streets, and Bowles had that knowledge.

He was paid $7.50 per day for the work.

"'Take you out of the mud and put you on pavement' -- I remember him saying that," said Phil Nusbaum, a musician who played often with Bowles in Cedar Falls.

Once the streets were done, Bowles did any other kind of work there was to do: Hes been a cook, a railroad foreman, a barrelmaker, a fruit peddler, a tree trimmer and an auto mechanic. He worked at John Deere for 22 years.

He told The Courier in a 1984 article celebrating his 100th birthday he got his work ethic from his father, who he said told him: Dont be a one-armed man.

Rosemary Beach, the former executive director of the Cedar Falls Historical Society, also recalls Bowles saying that when she interviewed him.

What it meant was (Bowles parents) didnt want anybody who didnt know how to do lots of stuff, she said.

Bowles told the Record in 1978 he was taught to be humble.

My mother raised us to learn to respect other people, so we would be respected, he told the Record.

Beach recalled respect helped Bowles, a black man, get a foothold in the overwhelmingly white, mostly Danish community of Cedar Falls more than 100 years ago. To Beach, who said she barely saw any black people back then, that spoke volumes.

The businessmen of Cedar Falls liked Eddie so much that they paid for his wifes ticket from the South, Beach said. Thats one of those stories that resonates with you.

His wife, Sarah Blanche Bowles, and he lived in a small, one-room house on the north side of the Cedar River in Cedar Falls nearly all of their lives. When Bowles wasnt working, he was taking care of Sarah, who was frequently ill, by many accounts, though she lived to be 95. There is no record of them having children.

Most in the Cedar Valley who remember Bowles, however, are musicians who remember the man who could pick out blues songs on his guitar, all from memory, all night long.

I can play until midnight tomorrow and never play all the things I know, he told the Record in 1978.

Rick Chase, a musician who also took several photographs of Bowles for The Courier decades ago, remembers Bowles playing style: old-style blues, finger-picking blues, kind of like youd hear from any of the old Southern masters.

Nusbaum said Bowles was a "two-finger picker," which was a different style than many musicians were used to hearing or seeing.

"His repertoire was the popular dance-hall music of the day," Nusbaum said.

Bob Long, also a musician, said Bowles was fond of wearing bib overalls and remembers Bowles playing blues at the Cedar Falls Folk Festivals in the early 1970s and on various stages in the area, playing solo or with musicians like Rush Cleveland, Steve Turner and Jim Price.

The few audio and video recordings that exist of Bowles playing depict a slow, swaying, finger-picking 12-bar blues style.

In the Eddies Blues or Bowles Blues recording  Bowles never got around to naming it officially  Bowles chews on the lyrics in that way that comes with being nine decades old, but his melody stays in perfect pitch, high and clear like other Mississippi Delta blues recordings from the early part of the 20th century.

He played a kind of Ragtime finger-picking style on some numbers, and more of a blues finger-picking on others, historian Art Rosenbaum, who interviewed Bowles in the 1970s, said in an interview with a blues blogger.

Musicians came to appreciate what they called his unique style, though Bowles didnt think he was so different.

That used to be how they all would sit down on the stage and sing the blues, he told an interviewer in an early 1980s audio recording. Youd sing a piece and say something, and somebody else would say something and put something else in there  thats the way the blues was compilated.

Youd go to say something, Yeah, so and so and so, and then you stop over here, Yeah, so and so and so and so, Bowles said, singing it. Thats the way that went, all the time.
Like many others, I was saddened and troubled by the unexpected death on Feb. 13 of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scalia actually believed the Constitution demanded power should be held by the people. He believed the government should do as the Constitution says, and the government should be operated and restricted by what it says.

The Constitution can be changed, but there is a procedure outlined for this change. It does not include a president like Franklin Roosevelt simply putting enough justices on the court who will say the Constitution doesnt matter because the presidents policies are more important.

That is the problem Scalias death has forced upon us. Advocates for big government will insist a new justice be selected who will say the Constitution is anything the current government says it is. Conservatives will insist on another Scalia. The court is balanced between these two points of view. Scalias replacement will determine whether we will continue to have a constitutional government or step back into the darkness of history.

The Constitution is essentially a contract the government has with its people. To say this contract is a living document that can be changed almost at will by the most powerful partner in the relationship is to say there is no contract at all.

We are so accustomed to the language of this debate we need to take a fresh look.

Suppose you produce a product and want to sell it to a large, powerful and rich company. You demand a contract. Otherwise, the company could do almost anything it wanted, and you would not have the resources or ability to fight it. The company could say a contract is not needed because it would only be a negative document restricting it from treating you even better than it does now.

Even if you believe them, what would happen if the company came under the control of another group?

You finally get your contract, but the company insists it is a living document and can be changed by the company whenever it wants, or whenever the companys lawyers think it is to their advantage to do so.

Unless you essentially have no choice, you would never voluntarily agree to this arrangement.

This example is not unwarranted. President Obama characterized the Constitution as a charter of negative liberties because it did not allow the feds unrestrained power to redistribute wealth and to establish, as he put it, political and economic justice in society.

I have never been able to understand this myopic point of view. It is almost as if people such as Obama and other critics of Constitutional originalism think once they have gained power they will never lose it. People who say they want a living and breathing document are essentially saying they want no Constitution at all. That may sound very open and intellectual and it may feel good to say as long as your people are in power. However, how many would be of the same opinion if Donald Trump was elected president with a strong mandate?

I suspect those calling for a living Constitution would then be equally emphatic in claiming the Constitution, as written, should save them from Trump.

I also suspect if Trump was to say he had a pen and a phone and didnt need the Congress and courts approval to do what he wants, current advocates for a liberal court would have an almost instantaneous change of heart.

We live in interesting times.
Its been a quick year since the Des Moines Water Works sued the boards of supervisors of three, ag-based Iowa counties over alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. It has not, however, been a quiet year.

The lawsuit against 10 drainage districts in Sac, Buena Vista and Calhoun counties, explains the DMWW, is over the discharge of nitrate pollutants into the Raccoon River, the utilitys chief source of water, and the counties failure to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Permit in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In the intervening year, claims the DMWW, the river water has gotten worse. On Jan. 4, DMWW reported it had spent $1.5 million to operate its nitrate removal equipment a record 177 days in 2015 so the water sold to its 500,000 customers would meet federal drinking water standards.

The other side of the fight has been equally active. Iowas farm-centered politicians continue to condemn the DMWW as overwrought and its lawsuit as legal overreach.

Last July, Gov. Terry Branstad again blasted the lawsuit and the DMWW (which delivers water to his Des Moines home). He suggested the utility start working with others rather than continue to sue and attack other people. In an October visit, former governor and current secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack also encouraged cooperation and cautioned, You do not want a federal judge deciding this.

Jawboning aside, the lawsuit continues. In January, the federal judge mentioned by Vilsack, Mark Bennett, asked the Iowa Supreme Court to rule on several legal questions before, he said, he could proceed because of the suits importance to the states key industry and its legal novelty.

That novelty is, in fact, why most Iowa politicians and farmers alike are trembling at the idea of the suit going forward. Heres how Neil Hamilton, director of the Agriculture Law Center at Drake University in Des Moines, explained it in a lengthy, jargon-free blog post last March:

The key legal claim is the [three Iowa counties] drainage districts built, manage and maintain the system of drainage ditches which artificially collect, convey and discharge polluted groundwater into Iowas rivers and streams imposing costs on the DMWW and others who use the water. This makes the districts point sources under the [Clean Water Act]  need permits to discharge.

On Feb. 16, Hamilton, an ag law expert, explained to Kristina Johnson of the Food & Environmental Reporting Network that if the suits key claim is proven  that underground farm tiles in artificially created and maintained drainage districts constitute traceable source points of alleged pollution  then long-exempt normal farming activities may fall under the Clean Water Act.

Moreover, in the long run, Hamilton suggested, it isnt necessarily important whether DMWW wins or loses the suit because it already has changed the discussion around water quality and agriculture.

An eye-popping Feb. 7 report titled Fooling Ourselves only adds to that evolving discussion.

Researched and written by Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit most U.S. farmers love to hate, the report found while USDA has spent $3 billion in Iowa alone since 2005 on programs to help farmers farm in more environmentally friendly ways, theres little to none conservation benefit to show for all the dough.

In fact, EWG claims, We are fooling ourselves by clinging to the hope that voluntary conservation measures will clean up Iowas water.

In his FERN interview, lawyer Hamilton agreed. Theres no question that Iowa has a water-quality issue, and that its getting worse.

The dirtier water, however, is an indication of a dirtier secret we in agriculture would like to keep: Yesterdays rules cover an agriculture that no longer exists in either Iowa or the rest of the country. The rules covered traditional agriculture; todays agriculture is industrial.

Therein lies the rub; more nonfarmers than farmers  water customers in Des Moines and Akron, federal judges, members of Congress, your state legislators  are working to bring the old rules up to the publics new needs.
Most gamblers would not frequent a casino if they knew they would win only 30 percent of the time, permitting the house to rack in 70 percent of their bets. Iowas Economic Development Authority is like a casino thats gone amok and is purposely giving money to companies that arent accountable to the taxpayers.

Iowas taxpayers are being hoodwinked by the EDA.

Iowas EDA has handed out more than $51 million to 265 corporations in a program called the Research Activities Tax Credit. Fifty-five peer-reviewed studies have addressed the impact of targeted tax incentives. The results are not encouraging. More than 70 percent of the studies found incentives either did not substantially contribute to economic performance or the handout produced mixed results.

Corporate incentives have a lousy record of boosting economic growth.

Eighty-two percent ($41 million) of the $51 million Iowa passes out goes to large companies. Knowing that 97 percent of Iowa employers are classified as small business, does those large-company giveaway make sense and match our values?

Sixty percent ($31 million) of the $51 million goes to companies that pay no Iowa income tax. Arent you thrilled to know you are supporting companies that pay no Iowa income tax and make a profit on your dime?

The RATC welfare program is to be used by companies to conduct research. My 50 years of studying and practicing marketing says companies have no choice but to do research to stay competitive. So, if Iowa did not give away $51 million, would Rockwell Collins (receives $11.7 million), Deere & Co. ($9.4 million), DuPont ($6.8 million), John Deere Construction & Forestry ($3 million), Monsanto ($1.4 million), Bridgestone ($1.4 million), CNH ($1.2 million), HNI ($1.2 million), Vermeer ($1.1 million), etc., cease their research endeavors? No.

Do you think if Iowa shut down the RATC entitlement program Rockwell Collins, John Deere, DuPont and the remaining 262 companies would move to another state? No.

Companies that receive the research endowment do not have to establish the research they supposedly conduct benefits the people of Iowa. There is little to no accountability. State, county and city employees are held accountable. Why arent RATC recipients? Something is wrong here.

Two years ago our legislators and governor agreed to slash the state budget by $260 million and cut commercial property taxable assessments, reduce apartment building taxes, limit the amount residential and agricultural property values can grow and provide a property tax credit for business owners.

Add to this the recent $46 million manufacturing tax reduction decision made by the Department of Revenue and Gov. Terry Branstad. Taxpayers will be the ones who will see an increase in property taxes, lets say by about $306 million. Enough is enough.

The Legislature must re-examine tax breaks this session and resolve this waste of the taxpayers money. Contact your senator, representative and Branstad and request they revamp Iowas giveaway programs. If the legislators dont address this debacle, we need to hold them accountable and replace all of them, regardless of party affiliation, in November.

Maybe the taxpayers would be better off sending Iowas Economic Development Authority personnel to a casino with our hard-earned $51 million and play the roulette wheel. Put it on black. It might have a higher return than Iowa being in the red.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 17, 2016 | 01:52 AM | PADUCAH, KY

At Tuesday's Paducah City Commission meeting, Planning Director Steve Ervin made a presentation to commissioners about food trucks.

Currently, mobile food trucks are allowed in Paducah only in the Highway Business District zones which are along a section of Hinkleville Road and a section of Lone Oak Road. Ervin said in the past couple of years he has had a handful of inquiries regarding the possibility of expanding the areas that could be served by the trucks. He said that nationally the growth of mobile food trucks is expected to soar, generating up to $2.7 billion in revenue by 2017.

Ervin said, Food trucks can be a great tool to energize a space, provide food options where they are limited, encourage entrepreneurship and business growth, and engage residents and visitors in a community.

Commissioner Richard Abraham said, I see it as an opportunity for individuals to take initiative to go into business for themselves. There are a lot of different ways to put this together. Our challenge is to put it together in a way thats fair.
As the late Samuel Johnson once wrote, When a man is tired of conspiracy theories, he is tired of life. Ok, maybe thats not strictly what he said, but it could have been, were he around today to observe the wacky and wonderful conspiracy theories that circulate. From the multilayered to the mundane, from the frivolous to the fantastic, theres seemingly a conspiracy theory out there to explain anything and everything. Even our favourite writers cant escape the paranoid musings of those most ardent of conspiracy theorists. For example, did you know that JK Rowling in fact does not exist? Or that Stephen King assassinated John Lennon? Both true, or at least according to some. But what about when the conspiracy theorists are proved right? Watergate was a conspiracy, after all. And Operation Mockingbird turned out to be very much real. Then again we can probably discount the theory that the British royal family belong to a race of intergalactic, devil-worshipping aliens. Because the issue with conspiracy theories is knowing what to believe and what to discount as the deluded ramblings of the perpetually paranoid. So while some of the following may sound far-fetched, bizarre, downright crazy in fact, that doesnt necessarily make them wrong. As a wise man once said, just because youre paranoid, doesnt mean they arent after you... So let us sit back, relax, and regale ourselves with some of those most bizarre literary conspiracy theories out there.
As Sen. Ward-Engleking helpfully pointed out, Sen. Nuxolls bill could well be interpreted as allowing other religious texts into Idahos public school. Showing her true colors, Sen. Nuxoll demurred, claiming the Bible to be embedded in American culture. What she may not realize (or refuses to acknowledge) is that by using tax dollars to promote her religion to the exclusion of others, her bill stands in direction violation of the 1st Amendments Establishment Clause .

Evidently blissfully ignorant of the separation of Church and State, Sen. Nuxolls insistence that the Bible is embedded in American culture justifies breaching the Church/State firewall in the service of educating indoctrinating children.

It never ceases to amaze me; those whod likely otherwise insist on a strict interpretation of the Constitution have no problem circumventing it in ways designed to buttress their pet agenda or religious faith. Legislators whove sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution suddenly seem to forget that oath when presented with an opportunity to weave their faith into the fabric of governance and education.

Idaho Republicans are pushing a bill that would allow teachers to cite the Bible as a reference book in science classes. The Senate Education Committee has given preliminary approval to a measure introduced by state Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll (R-Cottonwood) that would permit teachers to use the religious document for reference purposes in classes such as astronomy, biology and geology. A Democratic senator questioned why the bill was necessary, because teachers are already permitted to highlight biblical allusions in history and literature, but Nuxoll said a statute was needed to highlight the Bibles importance. Its to clarify and make sure teachers know their rights, Nuxoll said. A lot of teachers are scared to use the Bible.. State Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking (D-Boise) reminded Nuxoll that her measure might allow other religious texts to be used in schools, but the GOP lawmaker insisted the Bible was embedded in American culture.

The bill is a transparent attempt by conservative Christian Republicans to promote Christianity in the public schools. The legislation would allow unethical teachers to indoctrinate innocent children by substituting the promotion of Christian superstition for legitimate academic study. One need only imagine the reaction by these Republican theocrats if instead of the Bible, teachers were to use the Quran in the classroom, to realize the rank hypocrisy of the Idaho GOP for supporting this legislation. To be sure, the legislation is in part an attempt to smuggle Creationism into the public school science classroom. Yet perhaps more sinister, the legislation is another sign of a creeping theocracy promoted by religious conservatives, a theocracy that threatens the secular values upon which this nation was founded. Bottom line: When conservative Christians win, children always lose. Imagine the poor kid in some Idaho public school forced to listen to some pompous ass masquerading as a teacher preach Christianity instead of teaching science. It is, in a word, heartbreaking.

Its not at all uncommon for public schools in some states to use tax dollars to teach creationism or other aspects of Christianity. There are those, some in positions of power in state legislatures, who believe public schools to be wholly-owned subsidiaries of Christian churches and that every day should be Sunday School.

Left conveniently unaddressed by theocrats who dont believe in the separation of Church and State is the Exclusion Clause, which prevents government from favoring the interests of one religion over others. Sen. Nuxoll undoubtedly has NO intention of being down with the introduction of religious texts used by other faiths into Idahos public schools. Her insistence that the Bible is embedded in American culture is code for allowing the Bible to be preached in public school classrooms even as other holy books are excluded.

[Sen. Nuxoll] is perhaps best known for comparing the Affordable Care Act to the Holocaust in 2013. The insurance companies are creating their own tombs, Nuxoll said. Much like the Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps, private insurers are used by the feds to put the system in place because the federal government has no way to set up the exchange.

Not only is this sort of rampant, brain-dead hyper-religiosity heartbreaking, it makes for a damned poor education when science teachers are allowed to treat the Bible as an authoritative text. Religious faith shouldnt be synonymous with ignorance and blind obedience, yet that seems to be exactly whats happening in so many states these days. When faith and unquestioning obedience to an unseen concept trumps the empirical and the provable, were in big trouble.

Richard Feynman once said that hed rather have questions without answers than answers which cant be questioned. Id hazard a guess that hes spinning in his grave right about now over the dumbing down of America.

We deserve better. Our children most certainly do.
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If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino

 Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first.

 Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well.

 What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that.

The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players.

 How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long!

 Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package  which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up.

 Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home.

Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice

It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices

 Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves.

 Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino.

 Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information.

 Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead.

With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks

Betway:

Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway.

Coral Casino:

Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account.

Ladbrokes Casino:

Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

Paddy Power Casino:

Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

William Hill Casino:

William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival.

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If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit.
Feb 21, 2016 | By Benedict

British pest control company Insect Research Systems Ltd. has developed a 3D printed detection monitor able to detect bodily gas emissions from bed bugs. The 3D printed device, developed at the Campus Technology Hub (CTH) in Cheshire, UK, utilizes technology developed for ESAs Rosetta spacecraft.

Despite their relative harmlessness, bed bugs remain one of the most notorious and unpleasant household pests. Once the tiny creatures decide to put up camp in your home, it can take weeks or even months to get rid of themand theres always a good chance theyll return. According to recent reports, the pesky parasites are increasing in number throughout the UK, which has prompted pest control companies to develop new and innovative ways to catch them.

One of those companies, Insect Research Systems, has found its pest-hunting inspiration in an unlikely place: The Rosetta spacecraft, built and launched by the European Space Agency in 2014. Contrary to what you were thinking, the British pest control firm hasnt decided to launch all bed bugs into outer space, but has instead repurposed an important component of the Rosetta to help detect the unpleasant creatures.

Rosetta, the first spacecraft to successfully land on a comet, was equipped with a shoebox-sized gas analyzer known as Ptolemy. Developed by Philae, a UK-based mini laboratory, Ptolemy was deployed to investigate comet surface and subsurface using gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GCMS) techniques. Technology within the device has now been used by Insect Research Systems to detect gases of a different kindthose given off by bed bugs during intercourse.

The handheld bed-dug detector, named APOLLO, uses the Ptolemy technology to detect gases secreted by the parasites during sex and communication, and was built using 3D printing technology at the Campus Technology Hub (CTH) at Sci-Tech Daresbury. The APOLLO detector will enable the hospitality industry to monitor for the presence of bed bug infestations in near real-time. The CTH, where the device was developed, provides startups and small businesses with access to over 2ms worth of engineering equipment, including additive manufacturing technology.

Thanks to the latest 3D printing capabilities, excellent design input, and technical support available at the Campus Technology Hub, we have been able to optimize the design of our prototype and now have a product that we can demonstrate to future investors, said Taff Morgan, Insect Research Systems chief technical officer and co-founder. This is extremely valuable to us in that we are developing our prototype significantly quicker and more cost effectively than through traditional routes.

Michael Norris, head of business incubation at the Science And Technology Facilities Council (STFC), added: The Campus Technology Hub has one purpose, to provide companies with affordable access to the best skills and facilities in engineering research and development so that they can solve their technology challenges to better compete on a national and international level.

Helping entrepreneurs, SMEs and more established businesses turn their brilliant ideas into reality is a key driver for STFC, and as part of this well also provide the necessary upskilling for staff and researchers who come to the CTH, joining the thriving innovation community we have here at Daresbury.

3D printing vs. bedbugs: Who will come out victorious? As always, our money is on 3D printing. Should the APOLLO device prove successful, the hospitality industry could soon have an essential piece of kit on its hands.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Zoe Carpenter in The Nation:

For a poor woman born in the Roaring Twenties, getting to age 50 was something of an accomplishment. She had to contend with diphtheria and tuberculosis, hookworm and polio, not to mention childbirth, which killedabout 800 women for every 100,000 births at the beginning of the decade. Widespread use of penicillin to treat infections was still 20 years away; Medicaid, four decades. If she did make it to 50, on average she would live to be 80 years old. That sounds pretty good, until you consider that the richest women born at the same time lived about four years longer.

Americans have become much healthier since then, generally speaking, thanks to scientific advances, higher living standards, better education, and social programs. Life expectancy hit a record high in 2012. But as with economic prosperity, gains in physical health havent been spread equally. Instead, theyve been increasingly skewed towards the wealthyand a new analysis from the Brookings Institution indicates gaps in lifespan between the rich and the poor are getting worse, not better.

More here.
Bruce Fleming in the Washington Free Beacon:

The immediate subject of Joanna Williamss depressing but compellingly written chronicle of the threats to Anglo-American academia over the last several decades is the concerted attack, first by the professors themselves and now by students, against the academic freedom of the title. Academic freedom is the ability of the professorate to express, explore, and teach even those ideas that dont happen to be cut to this decades fashions.

Thus academic freedom and its enemies may seem initially to be a narrow issue, of interest to few outside the now dwindling number of tenured professors who thought they were free to follow truth, and who discover instead that they can be shouted down by colleagues or students who feel that what the professor is saying supports oppression. Even worse, in Williamss view, are those who self-censor to get their writing published and gain advancement while avoiding disapproval.

However, the issues Williams addresses are of far wider importance than the professional interests of academics.

More here.
Brandon K. Thorp in The New York Times:

When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, revealing that not one black actor was in the running, the resulting furor touched on the performances that critics said should have been considered: What about Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation? Michael B. Jordan in Creed? Will Smith in Concussion, or one of the stars of Straight Outta Compton? The uproar over #OscarsSoWhite made me curious. What does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences value in black performance? Black artists have been nominated for best actress or actor on 30 occasions, for work spanning 28 films. Over the last few weeks, I watched all of them. These movies have a lot in common, not least that most were directed by white men. Only three were directed by black men and none by women. Perhaps these numbers arent surprising, given the well-known demographics of the film industry. Other numbers are more eye-opening. Consider: In the history of the Oscars, 10 black women have been nominated for best actress, and nine of them played characters who are homeless or might soon become so.

What theyre not full of is characters who resemble ordinary people. And when such people do make an appearance, the camera tends to linger on the parts of their lives most likely to interest white Americans struggling to reckon with their countrys racist past. We learn all about Miss Daisy  her son, her childhood, her politics. But we hear only a sentence or two about the family of her driver (Morgan Freeman). Similarly, theres a lot of information about Billy Bob Thorntons Hank in Monsters Ball. But watching Halle Berry as the bereft Leticia Musgrove, we see only her wretchedness, and her eventual rescue by a white man.

More here. (Note: At least one post will be dedicated to honor Black History Month throughout February)
Vijay Prasad in CounterPunch:

Indian political culture sits atop a fine edged blade. Pushing down on it is the Extreme Right, whose political wing  the BJP  is currently in power. Intolerance is the order of the day. Indias celebrated Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen recently said, India is being turned intolerant. We have been too tolerant with the intolerance. This has to end.

In the marrow of the Extreme Right is a demand for discipline enforced by violence. Anyone who strays from the authority of its world-view  Hindutva  is either anti-national or a terrorist. Political murders of well-regarded intellectuals and activists, such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and MM Kalburgi, put the nation on alert.

The death of a young student  Rohit Vemula  of the University of Hyderabad sent all kinds of people onto the streets. Rohit had been hit hard by social discrimination, which manifests itself as a political assault on socially oppressed communities. From shadows to the stars, wrote this young man who was fascinated by astronomy. It was an indictment of the social disorder. Mother India lost a son, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I felt the pain. He had waited five days to react, and reacted only after mass demonstrations of great feeling across the country. Rohit Vemulas family rejected the Prime Ministers remorse. They want to know why their son died. The answers lie firmly in the tentacles of the Extreme Right. It is where blame will eventually rest.

When Richa Singh, the new student leader at Allahabad University, invited senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan to campus to talk about free speech, the Extreme Rightss students group (the ABVP) blocked him. They called Varadarajan, who had been the editor of The Hindu, a Naxalite (Maoist) and anti-national. This is the chosen vocabulary. Singh later said, There is a surge in intolerance in this country. The ABVP leaders are not willing to listen to anyone who contradicts their ideology.

More here.
A roundup of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Chicago: A federal court has ordered the tax prep firm Servicios Latinos Inc. to close its nationwide business.

The order comes after the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the business and its owners, Georgina Lopez, Pamela Miranda and Jorge A. Miranda, alleging that the defendants falsely understated their clients tax liabilities or overstated clients entitlement to a refund. The injunction also prohibits Lopez, Pamela Miranda and Jorge Miranda from acting as federal tax preparers, owning or operating tax-preparation businesses and employing tax preparers.

The defendants agreed to entry of the injunction, but did not admit the allegations in the complaint.

According to the complaint, Servicios Latinos operated out of approximately 84 stores in as many as 30 states. The complaint alleged that the defendants employees prepared income tax returns that falsely claimed child tax credits and the EITC, claim incorrect filing statuses, and report incorrect income and expense figures.

The complaint alleges that Servicios Latinos has prepared more than 42,000 federal income tax returns since 2012. The IRS estimates that the loss to the U.S. Treasury from the defendants conduct exceeds $4.7 million for 2014 alone, according to the complaint.

Scottsdale, Ariz.: Preparer Demetrio Gregory has pleaded guilty to preparing and filing false and fraudulent returns.

Gregory, who did business as Fulcrum Tax Group, admitted that between December 2011 and April 2014 he would, for example, create one or more fake entities, businesses and partnerships for a client and fabricate the expenses, deductions, and losses to understate or eliminate a clients taxable income and tax liability. A fake entity was generally merely a hobby or interest of a client, according to case documents, and the entity never actually existed or incurred real expenses in the past. Instead, Gregory admitted, the entity was deceptively made to look like it was created several years prior to his association with the client and that current and prior returns needed to be amended or adjusted to claim these tax losses.

Gregory admitted that he fabricated these expenses either using a general resource manual such as the Farmer's Almanac, or by just making up whatever numbers fit the false scenario created, according to case documents. Gregorys fees depended on how much a clients taxes were fraudulently reduced. Many clients also got large, fraudulent refunds.

Sentencing is May 9.

Baltimore: Preparer Charles Imariagbe has been convicted of 15 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns.

According to court documents and testimony at trial, between 2008 and 2012 Imariagbe operated the tax prep business JC Tax Service and during that time prepared false individual income tax returns for at least seven clients for submission to the IRS. The returns claimed false and fraudulent income and expenses from Schedule C businesses and grossly inflated or wholly fictitious mileage expenses, inflating refunds.

Sentencing is May 12. Imariagbe faces a maximum of three years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count of conviction.

St, Petersburg, Fla.: Preparer Henry Swinton, a.k.a. Anthony Henry, 45, faces charges related to identity theft after he allegedly forged a refund then filed for a refund anticipation loan, according to published reports.

News outlets said Swinton worked for Liberty Tax, and had done so for six years with no problems. According to the police, Swinton forged a tax refund then filed for a tax refund loan to be placed on a debit card.

The total amount was slightly more than $500. In this case, the customer wanted his refund sent to him as a check and quickly realized that a withdrawal was taking place in a manner he did not authorize, police told news outlets, adding that the victim immediately notified Liberty Tax and police.

Liberty has reportedly issued a full refund and filed with the IRS to make sure Swinton isn't allowed to work in the tax field again.
Gap enters the fashion capital with two stores launching today at Oberoi Mall, Goregaon and Infinity Mall, Malad. Bollywood heartthrob Ranveer Singh gave the citys fashion landscape a makeover as he launches the citys first Gap store at Oberoi Mall. He was joined by J. Suresh, MD and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands and Oliver Kaye, Business Head, Gap India, as he opened the store to excited Mumbaikars.

The two Mumbai stores follow closely on the heels of four store openings in 2015 Select CITYWALK, Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon and Orion Mall at Brigade Gateway, Bengaluru, marking Gap as one of the fastest growing international retailers in the country. With the new stores, Gap takes its presence to three markets in India, and is poised to increase its presence further by the end of the financial year.

The new stores in Mumbai at Oberoi Mall, and Infiniti Mall are spread over 6000 sq.ft. and 8000 sq. ft. respectively and will offer a wide range for men & women, GapKids, and babyGap with the latest Spring 2016 collection. The collections are a modern interpretation of Gaps denim roots and signature pieces that are a staple for every wardrobe.

J. Suresh, MD and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands said We are extremely happy to finally bring Gap to Mumbai, the fashion capital of the country. The vibe and energy of this fast paced city is infectious and we are thrilled to launch with not just one but two stores for Mumbaikars today! 

Known for his quirky fashion style, Ranveer Singh was seen wearing Gaps trademark denims. Following the opening, an excited Ranveer Singh said, I have been a huge fan of Gap since I was a kid and its amazing to be a part of this launch. Seasons may change, but our wardrobes will always feature certain staples like tees, denims, hoodies and jackets, which Gap is synonymous with. Mumbai is known to be fashion forward and its exciting to see one of the biggest and most renowned fashion brands in the world finally making their foray into our beloved mega city.

Since opening its doors in 1969, Gap has been known for offering consumers cool, modern American designs fit for every occasion. Customers worldwide have looked to the iconic international brand for on-trend, casual clothing and accessories that help them express their personal sense of style.

Gap has been introduced to India through Arvind Lifestyle Brands through a franchise agreement and the first store opened in Delhi in May 2015. This store is the second in the list of stores slated to open later this year.
A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen from the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, and the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, aboard the Airborne Launch Control System, launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:34 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Feb. 20, from Vandenberg AFB, California.

The ICBM's reentry vehicle, which contained a telemetry package used for operational testing, traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Test launches verify the accuracy and reliability of the ICBM weapon system, providing valuable data to ensure a continued safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent. All MMIII test launches are supported by a team from the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg AFB.

"The flight test program demonstrates one part of the operational capability if the ICBM weapon system, said Col. Craig Ramsey, 576th FLTS commander. When coupled with the other facets of our test program, we get a complete picture of the weapon system's reliability. But perhaps most importantly, this visible message of national security serves to assure our partners and dissuade potential aggressors."

Minot AFB is one of three missile bases with crew members standing alert 24 hours a day, year-round, overseeing the nations ICBM alert forces.

"It has been an amazing experience for the operations and maintenance members of Team Minot to partner with the professionals from the 576th FLTS, 30th SW and 625th STOS, said Maj. Keith Schneider, 91st MW Task Force Director of Operations. Everyone involved has worked hard and dedicated themselves to the mission.

The ICBM community, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and U.S. Strategic Command uses data collected from test launches for continuing force development evaluation. The ICBM test launch program demonstrates the operational credibility of the Minuteman III and ensures the United States ability to maintain a strong, credible nuclear deterrent as a key element of U.S. national security and the security of U.S. allies and partners.
A British university once attended by Islamic State (IS) terrorist Jihadi John has installed CCTV cameras in its prayer rooms, sparking protests by students who say the move has fuelled fear that they are being monitored.

The University of Westminster in London has tightened security since Jihadi John  whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi  was in 2015 revealed as a former student. An internal report has said the varsitys Islamic society had become a breeding ground for very ultraconservative views.

The universitys student union has complained about the cameras and claims that key cards used to enter the rooms are being monitored, The Sunday Times reported. The lack of understanding leads to a lack of trust, some anger and frankly a degree of fear, said Jim Hirschmann, the unions president.

Salsabil Sila, one of the unions Muslim officers, said some students now prayed off campus. It has limited us from being able to perform our prayers in an environment where we can feel completely at ease. What would normally be a safe space where we could take off our scarves has now been taken away from us, she said.

Father Stephen Wang, chaplain at the University of London, said: It is certainly not the norm to have CCTV cameras in prayer rooms and chapels. I would want to know what the reasons were and whether it had been agreed with the chaplains, the interfaith team and the students concerned.

The University of Westminster said: It was not the universitys intention to cause alarm or offence. As these rooms are quiet, reflective and often solitary spaces, it is important to make sure people feel secure and not vulnerable  The university has a clear and transparent CCTV policy.

Emwazi, who graduated with a degree in information systems, became IS masked executioner, responsible for the deaths of at least five British and American hostages. At the time the worlds most wanted man, he was killed by a targeted US airstrike last year.
Bharatiya Janta Partys (BJP) student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) resigned, the journalist for Zee News resigned as they think that whatever happening to JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar is not right and he was arrested because of some conspiracy. They also feel that injustice has been done to him. We have seen hundreds of videos around, but can we see any of Kanhaiyas speeches include those lines on which he can be declared anti-national? If not then why so much chaos is being created on his name?

There are many students groups and colleges that came forward in support of Kanhaiya Kumar. Students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online. Students from more than 70 colleges, notably Yale University and the University of Missouri, spoke up for racial equality and an inclusive environment. In the US, the Million Student March protested rising student debt caused by soaring college costs. In the UK, tens of thousands of students protested the Tory governments education spending cuts. Be it UK or Rohit Vemula or Anna andolan to heavy campaigning for Modi, its students who played the vital role and messing with this power is like playing with the fire. In Bangladesh, students at private colleges fought the governments tax on tuition fees. In Spain, tens of thousands of students protested the redesign of their degree programmes.

Foreign students dont know anything about JNU; they even dont know who Kanhaiya is? However, they are still supporting him. Some people are saying JNU runs on the taxpayers money. Yes, it does. Nevertheless, I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are critical analysis of the societys collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duties then there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting, Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiyas speech. People across the globe are watching us carefully, they are keeping eye on each incidence that is occurring in India. We, Indians need to be much more sensible, as we are damaging our image on the global platform. Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley say in joint video, We challenge the RSSs definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights. Asserting if Kanhaiyas speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta La Fleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiyas speech. Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

The BJP and the Narendra Modi government are in no mood to relent on the nationalism debate sparked in the wake of the Afzal Guru Commemoration row that erupted in JNU campus on February 9. The saffron party has planned a sustained offensive in Parliament from the Afzal Guru show in JNU. Sensing a groundswell of public support, it is keen to have an aggressive debate in which even the Prime Minister may intervene. BJP has decided to assume an aggressive approach both within and without the Parliament on the JNU row and the nationalism issue.

Also, the government feels the nationalism will put the Opposition in a dilemma. They may not want to be seen arguing against nationalism and for those who raised anti-India slogans. The party has made a video package to be shown to people. The package is made from the footage available of the February 9 incident on JNU campus as also of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis speech when he went visiting the varsity later. BJP has shifted its focus from Hindu-Muslim to nationalist and anti-national, but that has badly boomeranged. Meanwhile reservation agitation is gone beyond control. There is restlessness in the people of India. I never witnessed so much anger, hate and violence before.

Anyways, Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya, they have condemned raising of anti-national slogans. They claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later. Lets see how judiciary deals with the matter in future.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Donald Trump widened his lead over the Republican partys presidential field claiming a big victory as the contest moved into the South. Out West, Hillary Clinton beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for a crucial win in Nevadas Democratic caucuses.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who had done poorly in the first three early Republican contests, suspended his campaign after a disappointing fourth place finish in South Carolina.

Clinton and Trumps victories put them in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election barreled toward the March 1 Super Tuesday  the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

Theres nothing easy about running for president, Trump said at his victory rally. Its tough, its nasty, its mean, its vicious. Its beautiful  when you win its beautiful.

Clintons roughly 5-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Sanders.

Trumps strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the party nomination. No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, a pair of freshman senators, were locked in a race for second place in South Carolina. Bush and other candidates lagged far behind.

This has become a three-person race, Rubio said of his strong finish, which with Bush leaving the race, bolsters his case that he is the candidate of mainstream Republicans.

Cruz, who has run as a political outsider, harked back to his win in the leadoff Iowa caucuses as a sign he was best positioned to take down Trump. He urged conservatives to rally around his campaign, saying pointedly, We are the only candidate who has beaten and can beat Donald Trump.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order. That gave Sanders, who put up a stiff challenge to Clinton in Nevada, and Trump openings over many more mainstream candidates.
According to him, it would be a better tribute to Shivaji if forts constructed by him are upgraded.

MNS Chief Raj Thackeray criticised the state governments proposal to construct Chhatra-pati Shivaji memorials statue in the Arabian Sea and said that instead the administration could focus on conservation of the Maratha warriors forts which are in dire straits. According to him it would be a better tribute to Shivaji if forts constructed by him are upgraded and tourism increased there which will help poor farmers to adopt alternate jobs. Thackeray said that what is the need to spend huge amount for the statue at a time when the state is witnessing severe drought and farmers are committing suicides? The govern-ment plans to develop the memorial on seven acres of island. The entire island will look like a fort reminiscent of medieval times.

Raj Thackeray had felicitated historian Babasaheb Purandare and M.K Mahajan on the occasion of the first anniversary of Guardian Giripremi Institute of Mountain-eering at Pune. He opposed the construction of the Shivaji memorial on this occasion.

He said, Often statues are constructed by flouting norms and thereby cause damage to the environment. Instead the state government should conserve the forts of Shivaji Maharaj which will be a better tribute for him.

The Sena-BJP is keenly pushing for the project but Raj Thackeray has termed it as a political move to appease voters. Earlier even Sena founder Bal Thackeray had slammed the plan and termed it as a poll-driven excercise. Raj Thackeray who had earlier visited Gujarat had praised Narendra Modi (former CM of Gujarat) for the states development. However, ever since Modi had become the Prime Minister, Raj Thackeray has started criticising him and the policies of the central government and state government.

There was no demand in the state to construct statue in the memory of Shivaji Maharaj. Already there are several memorials in the name of Shivaji whose name also adorns the states biggest airport and railway station complex.

The project first found mention in the 2004 poll manifesto of the Congress-NCP. It was tabled in the assembly in 2008 and reiterated just before the 2009 state assembly elections. The state at that time was in the midst of dealing with drought and farmer suicides. The idea was to construct the 300-foot statue on an artificially-created island off the coast of ChowpattyMarine Drive and make it taller than the Statue of Liberty. The project envisaged the construction of an amphitheatre, museum, library, art galleries, revolving restaurant and the works. Now the Sena-BJP has come forward with the proposal of constructing the memorial of Shivaji for garnering political mileage. On the other hand, citizens want the government to improve infrastructure, create more job opportunities, increase spend on healthcare and education and end malnutrition in the state.
At least 10 people have been killed and 150 injured as protests by the Jat community in Haryana demanding Other Backward Classes (OBC) status entered the seventh day on Sunday.

Fresh incidents of violence were reported with protesters in Bhiwani and Sonipat districts setting a fire two police chowkies, shops and an ATM, even as authorities mounted aerial surveillance in the worst-hit areas and the Army staged flag marches.

The states Director General of Police YP Singhal has said the violence in the worst-affected districts of Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar has been contained since Saturday night.

As per reports, 10 people have been killed and nearly 150 are injured. No death has been reported since Saturday night, either in police action or in rioting, he said.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing the closure of schools on Monday as part of a water rationing measure after supply from Haryana was hit.

The Centre has asked the Manohar Lal Khattar government to ensure that the water supply to the national capital is not disrupted. Cabinet secretary PK Sinha reviewed the situation in Haryana arising out of the Jat agitation.

Singhal said the top priority of the security forces and the government was to restore water supply to Delhi.

As violent protests by Jats demanding quota continued, Haryana minister Anil Vij made it clear that talks cannot be held with a mob and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

Road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighbouring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

While the Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 1000 trains, air fares from Chandigarh and Amritsar, both cut off from the national capital by road and rail, have skyrocketed.

The fare for Chandigarh-Delhi, which normally varies between Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4000, was being quoted between Rs. 20,000-Rs. 60,000 by various airlines for direct and one-stop flights via other cities.

As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana state, the Centre sent additional 1,700 paramilitary personnel to Haryana, taking the total number of central armed police deployed in the trouble state to 5,000.
TALES OF THE JUNGLE BOOKHAVE BEEN AN INTRINSIC PART OF MOST OF OUR GROWING UP YEARS. WE ARE THRILLED TO CONFIRM THAT DISNEYS ALL-NEW LIVE-ACTION EPIC, THE JUNGLE BOOK, WILL BE OUT IN INDIAN THEATRES A WEEK PRIOR TO THE US RELEASE, SAID THE VICE PRESIDENT OF DISNEY INDIA.

Disneys The Jungle Book, featuring Indian child star Neel Sethi as Mowgli, will hit the Indian theatres on April 8, a week before its release in the US.

The live-action movie has an impressive list of voice-over stars with Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Christopher Walken.

Based on Rudyard Kiplings adventure stories and inspired by Disneys animated adaptation of the same name, the popular story revolves around Mowgli, a man-cub raised in the jungle by a family of wolves, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery when hes forced to abandon the only home hes ever known.

Tales of The Jungle Book have been an intrinsic part of most of our growing up years. Adventurous stories of Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Khan are so beloved by the Indian audience. We are thrilled to confirm that Disneys all-new live-action epic, The Jungle Book, will be out in Indian theatres a week prior to the US release. We have a few more surprises in store for The Jungle Book fans in India, Amrita Pandey, Vice President, Studios, Disney India, said.

Director Jon Favreau has seamlessly blended live-action with photorealistic CGI animals and environments, using up-to-the-minute technology and storytelling techniques to immerse audiences in an enchanting and lush world.
February 21, 2016

Nasrallah maintains deterrence with Israel

Hassan Nasrallah appeared to signal a possibly pragmatic turn in Hezbollahs approach to Israel in a speech Feb. 16.

If there is now a consensus in Israel on this characterization of the resistance in Lebanon, does it mean that Hezbollah is opening a front and wants to eliminate Israel from existence? the Hezbollah chief asked. The reality now is not so.

The speech, not surprisingly, was otherwise laced with anti-Israeli rhetoric and threats; nothing new there. But Nasrallah this time drew the line at both establishing a new front with Israel and threatening Israels existence. In practical terms, his remarks implied that Hezbollah would keep the Lebanese and Syrian borders quiet.

Nasrallahs approach could be understood as both deeply pragmatic, given the toll of the Syrian war on Hezbollahs forces, and reflective of a more moderate trend in Iranian foreign policy. It is no exaggeration to suggest that what Nasrallah says in Beirut is approved in Tehran. Al-Monitor columns have traced a mostly steady deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah over the past two years. Ben Caspit wrote in December that the assessment in Jerusalem was that war with Israel is the last thing that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needs right now.

Two years ago this week, this column suggested that US-Iran engagement on Syria, which is now happening in the International Syria Support Group, could, over time, eventually lead to a broader discussion about Hezbollah and its role in the region. A year later, in January 2015, we wrote, We could, and probably should, imagine a more expansive conversation, somewhere, between the United States and its allies and Iran to defuse the crisis on Israels borders. All parties should have an interest in averting a confrontation involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria, which would threaten the hard-fought progress to date in the nuclear talks and the increasing alignment of US, coalition and Iranian actions in battling IS and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria and Iraq. Since that column, the nuclear talks are a done deal, and US Secretary of State John Kerry said just last month that Irans plan for Syria needs to be explored and is very close to what Geneva has been trying to achieve.

Iran will be subject to sanctions as a state of sponsor of terrorism under US law until there are conversations about Hezbollahs role in the region. Israel, Lebanon and post-war Syria will all benefit from secure and peaceful borders. The trend in that direction may be fragile and precarious, but it is a trend nonetheless, and it depends, ultimately, on Israel and Iran. And it all begins with Syria.

Relief worker: Jabhat al-Nusra can cross Turkish border "anytime"

Fehim Tastekin reported that while speculation continues about whether Turkey and Saudi Arabia will march into the Syrian war, Turkey is already fighting on two fronts without even entering Syria.

In the first [front], Turkey is launching heavy artillery fire at Syrian Democratic Forces advancing toward Azaz in northwestern Syria, while declaring that the objective is to stop the advances of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). On the second front, Turkey is allowing militants to cross into Syria, since the Syrian army cut off the Aleppo-Kilis corridor, Tastekin wrote.

Tastekin went on to explain how Jabhat al-Nusra is embedded among many of the Salafi groups operating in these regions: As for claims that Jabhat al-Nusra is not present at Azaz, we have to realize that since Jabhat al-Nusra was added to the UN terror list, it has not been flying its flag in areas close to the Turkish border. In addition to its concentration in rural Idlib, Jabhat al-Nusra also has a presence north of Aleppo, in the Turkmen regions of Latakia and Azaz. Jabhat al-Nusra has significant mobilization capacity in these areas. Everyone following the developments in the region knows that the group is active not only on the Syrian side of the border but also in Turkeys Kilis and Hatay. According to a relief worker at Yayladag, Nusra people are considered local residents. They can cross the border anytime. Jabhat al-Nusra generally operates with Ahrar al-Sham in these areas.

Aleppo: Syrian armed groups in "all-out defense"

Mohammed al-Khatieb reported from Aleppo that the battles for control of Aleppo are unlike any others. They are the fiercest and bloodiest yet, for regime forces are attacking rebels at the heart of their areas of control, spurring them into all-out defense.

Russian fighter jets never leave Aleppo's airspace, Khatieb wrote. The importance of this advance lies in the fact that rebel forces have lost a strategic passage linking the northern Aleppo countryside with the rest of their zones of control. As a result, FSA fighters in the northern countryside are now isolated and surrounded by IS in the east, the regime forces and their allies in the south, and the Syrian Democratic Forces in the west.

Mustafa al-Haj reported from Syria that the Syrian regime and its allies have taken control over the entire area between the cities of Moadamiyet al-Sham and Daraya in Rif Dimashq governorate, following an extensive military campaign and heavy aerial bombardment that began in December 2015. The campaign aims to isolate the city of Daraya, which has already been besieged for three years, cutting off the only humanitarian supply line and weakening the opposition and civilians in preparation to storm the city.  It is noteworthy that in 2010, Daraya was home to 250,000 citizens, and today that number has dropped to 12,000, including both civilians and military forces. As the road to Moadamiyet al-Sham has been cut off, these people will face worsening conditions as the regime continues the heavy bombardment that prompted people to seek refuge underground.

Saudi Northern Thunder

Bruce Riedel suggested that a high-profile military exercise may be a distraction for Saudi Arabias many domestic and regional challenges.

Iran is no longer under damaging UN sanctions and is poised to pump more oil into an already glutted world market. IS [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda are operating inside the kingdom and have bases to the north and south of it. The Yemeni war has no end in sight. Rumors about infighting in the royal family are persistent. Northern Thunder [large-scale military training maneuvers] is helping project strength and international support, but the king really needs a face-saving answer to his Yemen conundrums, wrote Riedel.
February 19, 2016

QOM, Iran  From the look on his face, the security officer at Imam Khomeini International Airport seemed surprised that most arrivals werent Iranian. A long queue stretched to the one passport control counter reserved for foreigners, while the other five counters dedicated to Iranians were largely deserted. Eventually, one of the five counters was opened to foreigners. Iran appears to be opening up more quickly than the government anticipated.

From the airport, Al-Monitors columnist got a cab straight to the holy city of Qom, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of Tehran. Halfway there, a vast military area suddenly appeared. It was surrounded by barbed wire that extended over several kilometers and was punctuated by security checkpoints. The driver explained that it was the Fordo nuclear facility. Iran has managed to keep this facility in operation. This is a symbol of Tehrans victory in the tough international tug of war with the West, ongoing for years now, he told Al-Monitor.

At first glance, Qom appears to be the Vatican City of Shiites to the first-time visitor. There are countless mosques, and various sermons simultaneously echo from different pulpits. In the main street, leading to Lady Fatima Masuma Shrine  one of the largest Shiite shrines in Iran  it seemed as if clerics were holding a massive protest. Hundreds of clerics wearing black and white turbans paced the streets and sidewalks while carrying their laptops, books and files. When asked about the crowd, Al-Monitors guide and translator explained that we were approaching the Shiite seminary  the most prominent in the world, besides that in Najaf in Iraq. The guide, a seminary student himself, told Al-Monitor that this seminary hosts around 45,000 clerics, including students, teachers and senior clerics.

At an office near the seminary, Al-Monitor met with a group of university lecturers who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that their full names, and the names of their universities, not be disclosed.

Mohammad, a political science and international relations professor, was not really interested in Al-Monitors questions about Shiism, religious authorities and traditions. Instead, as soon as the subject of Iran after the nuclear deal arose, he immediately said that his country took too long to sign that deal. It could have done so 10 years ago at least. But former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prevented this, which cost the country and pushed it to pay a useless price. His colleague, Mostafa, a professor of Islamic studies, told Al-Monitor, Iran gained nothing from those strict policies. Instead, it suffered an economic blockade that made it regress for long years. He added, When Iranians visit Turkey, they realize the vast difference in prosperity and development. Iran is currently trying to recover from the losses it suffered.

Indeed, the burden appears heavy. Hassan, an economics professor, told Al-Monitor, There are around 8 million unemployed people in Iran  which means that 10% of the population has no source of income. This is not a negligible figure, especially as 65,000 of the unemployed hold doctorates in various disciplines. Hassan added, People paid the price for an ideological stance and wrong political priorities. For years, we have been asking our officials to reach an understanding with Washington to solve the local and regional problems. We would tell them how unreasonable it is to support parties outside Iran with money and supplies, while some Iranian regions have not been reconstructed following the damage caused by the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

When asked about whether they support the Reformist movement, all agreed that the overwhelming majority of Iranians want reform. Ali, a researcher at a private institute for public policy research based in Qom, explained why this support is not reflected at the ballot box. He told Al-Monitor, "Each time Iranians were given the chance to express their opinion, they showed that they want reform. This is why they elected Mohammad Khatami as president in 1997. This is why they took to the streets in 2009, and this is why they elected current president Hassan Rouhani.

Will this support for reform appear in the Feb. 26 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections? Ahmed, a history lecturer specializing in the history of Islamist groups in Russia and the former Soviet Union, told Al-Monitor, It is unlikely this time. The leaders of the Reformist movement are either intentionally or forcibly absent. Hard-liners are trying to prevent Reformists from benefiting from Irans openness to the West. We do not expect any result from the [upcoming] elections. There are no more Reformist candidates. The overwhelming majority of Reformist candidates in the parliamentary elections were disqualified. Only 50 Reformist candidates were approved out of over 3,000. This means that the election will be a mock election. Even if all of the approved Reformist candidates win, they will not have any weight in the 290-seat parliament.

Does this mean that the Reformists have lost any hope for change? Al-Monitors interlocutors quickly rebutted this assumption. They said they believe change is bound to happen, even if it currently appears unlikely.

One of the university lecturers told Al-Monitor, All Iranian state television channels are commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. For 10 consecutive days, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 10, all programs are replaced by songs and documentaries about the revolution. But who is watching? No one. Even former President [Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani publicly said that he does not watch state television channels, just like the majority of Iranians. We have been celebrating the revolution for 37 years; now the time has come to build a state. Inevitably, this must be done peacefully and through elections. If this does not happen in these elections, then it is bound to happen in the next ones.

As Iran marks the 37th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution, it is evident to the foreign observer that a significant portion of Iranians have had enough with talk about the revolution. These people are longing to build a modern and democratic state, but are realistic and pragmatic enough to realize that the change they seek cannot happen through a counter-revolution. Instead, it appears that there is belief that change has to happen gradually  and that it might take time. If anything, Iranians appear torn between their inclination to progress and their discomfort with change. This struggle is left to be settled on account of the maneuverings of a wide country with a large society, situated in a region ravaged by war.
February 20, 2016

Secretary of State John Kerry will be making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to sell the president's foreign aid budget for fiscal year 2017.

Kerry kicks things off on Feb. 23, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where lawmakers have pledged to take a close look to see if the $50.1 billion request for international affairs adequately addresses the threats from the Islamic State (IS), Iran and other US foes. The extensive use of budget-busting wartime funding, which the Obama administration wants to use for everything from confronting IS in Syria and Iraq to aid to Tunisia this year, has been a key point of contention.

Kerry then follows up with visits to House and Senate check writers on Feb. 24, before wrapping things up on Feb. 25, in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Pentagon officials will be following a similar route throughout the week, with hearings on their $582.7 billion request scheduled before the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 25-26. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will testify before the House appropriators on Feb. 25.

Meanwhile, the House is scheduled to vote on Feb. 23 on legislation from Homeland Security panel member John Katko, R-N.Y., calling on the president to develop a national strategy to combat terrorist travel. That same day, the House will vote on a bill from fellow panel member Will Hurd, R-Texas, that would require the administration to launch a review of known instances since 2011 in which a person has traveled or attempted to travel from the United States to Iraq or Syria to join or provide material support or resources to a terrorist organization.

Iran also remains a key concern despite its apparent compliance with the nuclear-related requirements of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Senate Armed Services emerging threats panel holds a closed briefing with top Pentagon officials about Iran's intelligence and unconventional military capabilities on Feb. 24, while the House Homeland Security Committee examines cyberthreats from Iran and other countries on Feb. 25.

And the House Foreign Affairs panel holds a hearing on Feb. 24 on the World Intellectual Property Organization, which Middle East panel chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., has long accused of transferring US technology to Iran and North Korea.

The committee on Feb. 24 will also be marking up resolutions calling on Iran to do more to help find missing American Robert Levinson, encouraging the federal government to improve its technology for tracking travelers who are believed to pose a terrorism risk and pressing the Obama administration to explore new agreements with Israel, including in the fields of energy, water, agriculture, medicine, neurotechnology and cybersecurity. That same day, the committee's terrorism panel holds a hearing on Boko Haram, which pledged its allegiance to IS last year.

Finally, on Feb. 25, it is the House intelligence panel's turn to hear from CIA chief John Brennan and other top intelligence officials on worldwide threats.
February 18, 2016

The Palestinian leadership is concerned with Israeli discourse, both by the government and the opposition, about future unilateral steps by Israel. On the one hand, it refers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement Feb. 9 about building a fence on Israels borders, including along the Jordan River, to defend Israel against the infiltration of wild beasts. On the other hand, it refers to Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzogs proposal for a unilateral disengagement from East Jerusalem neighborhoods.

A senior official in the direct entourage of President Mahmoud Abbas told Al-Monitor, on the condition of anonymity, that the leadership in Ramallah rejects all of Israels unilateral acts and proposals. There are currently on the table some Israeli unilateral acts motivated by devastating intentions and others with better intentions. But both are dangerous and bound to fail, he said.

The official spoke at length about the failure of the Gaza disengagement in the summer of 2005. He claimed that the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should have concluded an agreement with Abbas on the withdrawal from Gaza prior to acting. The unilateral disengagement actually strengthened the position of Hamas. It helped bring it to power in Gaza in 2007, given the security turmoil that was left behind. The official said, with great anger, that Netanyahus policies and actions are all unilateral, The prime ministers policy is very clear to us  to unilaterally prevent us from establishing a state. He recited a long list of unilateral acts by the Netanyahu government and by the Israeli army, including settlement expansion, land appropriation, demolition of houses, Israeli economic development of settlements' industrial zones in West Bank Area C (under Israeli control), the army entering Palestinian cities in Area A (under Palestinian control) and expanding Israeli control in East Jerusalem, etc. The official added that Netanyahus policies can be summed up as a de facto gradual annexation of the West Bank to Israel.

At the same time, the official also criticized opposition leader Herzogs new plan on unilateral disengagement from East Jerusalem neighborhoods and villages. He was especially frustrated with Herzog blaming Abbas for the lack of a two-state solution process. Israel will not find a more moderate leader than Abbas. Herzog should learn from one of his predecessors, [the late Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin, that Israel can create a partnership with the pragmatic Fatah leadership, he noted. The source criticized the idea of isolating Jerusalems Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the rest of East Jerusalem, stating, We would fight such a proposition if it were made by an acting prime minister.

The official concluded with a note of bitter criticism, Apparently, Israel is not able to make agreements based on compromises  agreements which can be reached only out of a position of equality between the negotiating sides. Due to the occupation, Israelis from right and left suffer from a superiority complex.

The Palestinian official said that the Palestinian Authority would be open to an agreement with Israel, orchestrated by the international community, in which both sides would refrain from unilateral acts and agree to join an international peace conference leading to a two-state solution. The Israeli side would refrain from any unilateral policies, including the expansion of settlements and security measures that contradict the existing agreements between the parties. The Palestinian side would, in return, refrain from any unilateral diplomatic acts, including at the UN and at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It would also halt any encouragement of violence and enhance security and anti-terror cooperation with Israel. In parallel, the two sides would have to agree to take part in an international conference convened by the Quartet and based on the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, taking Israels security interests into consideration.

According to the official, these are policy ideas that are explored at very high levels, but not yet formed into policy initiatives. They are intended to counter Israels unilateral moves, as well as Palestinians who seek an immediate armed intifada.

Al-Monitor asked a close confidant of Prime Minister Netanyahu about these Palestinian ideas. He rejected them outright, saying that they constitute an alibi as to why not to negotiate with Israel bilaterally and unconditionally.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian official has a good point. Unilateral policies and conflict resolution are contradictory. By definition, a conflict can only be resolved by the parties together. A compromise is necessary; one that takes into consideration the longer-term interests of both sides. Unilateral acts are a form of dictate, while negotiations must and can lead to mutual benefit. What the Palestinian official overlooks is that the Palestinian leadership also has a preference for unilateral policies.

Given the total mistrust between the two parties, one can predict that in the foreseeable future, unilateralism from both sides will be the law of the land.
The news that author

Harper Lee

died on Friday saddened many across the world touched by her timeless work, none more so than fellow Alabamians and authors who mourn her passing but will forever cherish the lingering impact her legacy will leave forever.

Nelle Harper Lee, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 for her book, "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

, her family has confirmed.

Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, the youngest of four children of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.

The Associated Press reports that

, in a private ceremony attended by only the closest of friends and family.

The author was eulogized at a church in the small Alabama town of Monroeville, which the author used as a model for the imaginary town of Maycomb, the setting of Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Shortly after learning about Lee's death, fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Alabama native

Rick Bragg

reflected on Lee's death, her timeless work and her legacy that will endure thanks to the "sermon" delivered in "To Kill a Mockingbird." Bragg also talked about meeting Lee in Monroeville.

In 2009, Bragg won the Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year. The annual award, established in 1998, recognizes the lifetime achievement of a writer who was born in Alabama or who spent his or her formative years living and writing in the state, according to the

.

Listen to Rick Bragg reflect on the passing of Harper Lee, or read an abbreviated version of his comments below.

On Harper Lee's death:

"I guess I'm like every other writer and reader whoever touched that book or had it touch them. I'm greatly saddened. In a lot of ways, if we're going to be realistic, Harper Lee passed into spirit a long time ago. By that I mean, she has been more than a flesh and blood writer to a lot of us for 50 years. The book that she wrote that changed so many feelings and opinions -- not just about race, but about tolerance and kindness and kind of became a sermon in a good way for change -- that has been out there in the spirit of that book and this writer, for so long. So while I am very sad that Ms. Lee has left us and that we won't be able to look on her face, the fact is, the spirit of that great work, that great book, that great story has long since been something more than of this earth."

On meeting Harper Lee:

"I only met Ms. Lee one time. I had had some correspondence with her. One of the greatest little pieces of correspondence was one of the people who worked with her brought to a book signing, brought me a signed book by her. That's obviously one of my prized possessions. I won the Harper Lee Award, and people had told me 'You need to go see her.' But I never wanted to be one of those folks that went to touch the hem of her garment. I never wanted to be one of those southern writers who went to her doorstep and asked for an audience. I just didn't want to do that. I almost waited too late. A few years ago, I was encouraged by some really smart people to go see her in her retirement community there in Monroeville. I walked in the room, and there's this little woman, who could have been my mom or one of my aunts, sitting on the edge of the bed. The room was real, real, real warm, which is how I understand how us older folks like it. Wayne Flynt and his wife were there. They walked out as we were walking in, and Ms. Lee leaned in real close to me and motioned me over and said, 'There go the only two people from Auburn I could ever stand.' I'm not star-struck much, but this is a woman whose work means more than most. I was kind of tongue-tied. I think I sounded like Jethro there in her presence. I'm so glad that I got to see her."

On Harper Lee's ongoing place in the literary conversation:

"I guarantee you that somewhere in the the state of Alabama and the United States of America and the world, some 10th grader is pouring over a dog-eared paperback of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' right now, and some English teacher is grading a stack of term papers two feet high. At Alabama, we have the Harper Lee essay contest, so she never left the conversation."

On Harper Lee's legacy:

"Here at Alabama, she obviously was very kind to the University over the years. She is as much of a part of the place as the bricks and mortar, especially in the creative side of the university. She left a hand print on this place just as clear as the hand prints of the team captains of the Crimson Tide did out around Denny Chimes. She has left a legacy in the place that is warm and thoughtful but at the same time, as far as the writing world goes, everlasting. As far as the wider world, I think it is very much the same. Books are pretty fragile things. I mean, let's face it, they're made out of paper and cardboard and glue, and every now and then, if it's fancy enough, a little bit of leather. And yet they stand up forever. The story in 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' the morality play in itself would stand up. The reason that book has endured is not just because it had a message of tolerance and a sermon against close-mindedness and cruelty -- which we need today as much as ever -- but it wasn't that. It was the fact that all of that was wrapped into one of the great stories and tales. And if it's not written pretty and with power, then it will not endure. People won't choke down a sermon. Harper Lee gave us a sermon with such beauty, grace, elegance and such southernness, it will endure after she's gone, it will endure after I'm gone, and it will endure after the tiniest baby in the stroller going through the Walmart is gone. It will endure forever. As long as people like a good story that means something, then Harper Lee's going to be with us."
Michelle Mattews | MMatthews@AL.com

F

"Dinosaurs! A Family Adventure" comes to Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center for two days, Saturday, Feb. 27, and Sunday, Feb. 28. This walk-through exhibit showcases lifelike animatronic dinosaurs set in realistic environments with scenes organized chronologically. Experience up-close encounters with a lifelike Stegosaurus, Velociraptor and the king T-Rex. Kids become junior paleontologists as they dig for fossils in the Valley of the Bones. Visit the Kid's Adventure Zone filled with themed bouncy houses, crafts and more. Tickets are $16 for adults, $20 for children and $13 for seniors. T-Rex tickets are $51 for ages 2 to 12 and include one child admission ticket, face painting, fossil find bag, make-and-take T-shirt and green screen photo print. Purchase tickets online by Feb. 25 and receive $5 off using the promotion code RAPTOR.

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Michelle Matthews | MMatthews@AL.com

For the love of chocolate

Celebrate the deliciousness that is chocolate at the 8th Annual Mobile Chocolate Festival. Travel down Chocolate Bliss Lane, visit vendors, enjoy a chocolate martini tasting, get creative with Alabama Art Supply, enter your own signature concoctions in the Chocolate Challenge, watch chefs prepare recipes with chocolate at the Mobile Fixture demonstration area, and much more. The festival takes place Saturday, Feb. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Abba Shrine Center, 7701 Hitt Road in west Mobile. Tickets are $3 for adults, $2 for seniors ages 65 and over. Admission is free for children 13 and under, and parking is free. All proceeds benefit Penelope House.

http://www.mobilechocolatefestival.com/, https://www.facebook.com/events/1707786599439329/

Shown: Danielle Behr of Simply Sweet Cupcake Boutique offers samples of chocolate cake during the seventh annual Mobile Chocolate Festival at Abba Shrine Temple on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015, in Mobile, Ala. (Mike Kittrell/Press-Register file)

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Michelle Matthews | MMatthews@AL.com

Play right

Its a busy time for community theatre in the Mobile area, with at least three shows on offer.

Chickasaw Civic Theatre: "Moon Over Buffalo" wraps up with one remaining show at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21. Advance online prices, $15.75 adult, $12.60 senior/student. www.cctshows.com, 251-457-8887. 801 Iroquois St, Chickasaw.

Theatre 98: "Plaza Suite," Feb. 19-21, Feb. 26-28 and March 4-6, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. $18, $12 for students. Call 251-928-4366 or visit www.theatre98.org. 350 Morphy Ave., Fairhope.

Mobile Theatre Guild: "The Colored Museum," Feb. 19-21, Feb. 26-28, March 4-6, with Friday-Saturday shows at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. $20 general admission, $15 students/military/seniors. www.mobiletheatreguild.org, 251-433-7513. 14 N. Lafayette St., Mobile.

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Michelle Matthews | MMatthews@AL.com

Four Lads from Liverpool

The Mersey Beatles is an all-Liverpool-born Beatles tribute band and the house band for 10 years at the world-famous Cavern Club, where the Beatles perfected their act. John Lennons sister, Julia Baird, an author and the director of the Cavern Club, will be in attendance, selling and signing copies of her book, Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother, John Lennon, at the general merchandise table before, during and after the show. Mersey Beatles at the Mobile Civic Center Theater, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26. Tickets start at $30.

www.mobilecivicctr.com, www.themerseybeatles.com, www.facebook.com/themerseybeatles1

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Michelle Matthews | MMatthews@AL.com

Contemporary Christian

Also coming up at the Civic Center: Contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin, with special guest, pastor and author Louie Giglio, on Friday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $27.50, $39.50 and $59.50 through Tickemaster.com or at the Mobile Civic Center box office. To charge by phone, call 800-745-3000.

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Michelle Matthews | MMatthews@AL.com

Throw some shade

More than 1,000 tree seedlings will be given away at Fairhopes Arbor Day celebration, including longleaf pine, shumard oak, bald cypress, Western mayhaw, blackgum, sassafras, Southern magnolia and fringetree. The event takes place at Faulkners campus in downtown Fairhope on Saturday, Feb. 27, starting at 10 a.m. For more information, call 251-929-1466.

https://www.facebook.com/events/180341192330315/
On the morning of Saturday, March 8, 2014, one of Gary Stokes' neighbors looked out her window and noticed the Gadsden man lying on his own front porch.

To hear Stokes' sister Renay tell the story, the neighbor got up to take her dogs out when she saw Stokes outside his front door, legs splayed out, his white Maltese licking his face.

Stokes, 52, was well known in his neighborhood. He had lived in the home that had once been his mother's on Hartford Street near the old Republic Steel plant for almost four decades. At first, neighbors thought Stokes had passed out there. He was prone to grand mal seizures.

Police, though, found something else. Stokes was dead, the victim of multiple stab wounds and internal bleeding.

It has been nearly two years, and investigators are still looking for the person responsible for Stokes' death.

"Somebody knows something," said Investigator Mark Henderson with Gadsden police.

The home where Stokes was killed looks a little different now, with a fence enclosing the yard and a sign outside with Stokes' picture and the words "Justice for Gary." There is also a displayed copy of the story in The Gadsden Times detailing his death.

Investigators believe Stokes' body had been lying for as long as eight hours on the small porch before it was discovered around first light that morning. The body was slightly obscured from the street but had lain on the porch all night.

There was no sign of a struggle. Inside the house, police found indications that Stokes had just settled in for the night and might have been expecting someone when he was killed. Chicken was washed and salted in the kitchen sink, ready for a meal. Stokes had just gotten something to drink. Nothing was taken from inside the house.

The murder was unusual for that part of town, said Capt. Paul Cody. Sometimes referred to as the Flatwoods area, the neighborhood is diverse with old working class homes and neighbors ranging in ages from the elderly to the newly married. Most are familiar to each other from many years and tend to watch out for each other.

"But there have been very few leads, very little information," Cody said. "We do not have a person of interest. We haven't ruled anybody out as potential suspects."

Stokes' sister, who lives there now, said her brother was a "kind, loving, fun" person who was generally well-liked. He had continued living in the home just two years after their mother had died. In the weeks before his death, Stokes had just gotten a disability settlement, which he had told several people about. However, he didn't have any money lying around the house, she said.

"I don't understand why no one won't tell us anything," she said, her voice at times angry. "We hurt over what happened to Gary. That was our brother. He didn't deserve to die. He invited you into his home! Why'd you have to kill him?"

Renay Stokes said she is planning a community vigil for victims of violence at the home, 2913 Hartford St., for March 5 from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, call her at (256) 393-1786.

Anyone with information is asked to call Henderson at (256) 549-4531 or the police tip-line at (256) 543-2244.
Teenager.png

Raven Ikia Halima Salimu (JCSO)

Raven Ikia Halima Salimu (JCSO)

Authorities are searching for a Jefferson County 16-year-old who didn't return home from school on Thursday.

Raven Ikia Halima Salimu was last seen at McAdory High School in McCalla, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

Salimu is described as being a black female with black hair and brown eyes. She stands 5-foot 3 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds.

No other details have been released.

Anyone with information on Salimu's whereabouts is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 205-323-5900.
Alabama congresswoman Terri Sewell, along with leaders of several national groups, this weekend urged the state's two Republican senators to change their minds and support the nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon to a federal appeals court vacancy.

"The selection of this nation's federal judges should not be a partisan issue. But rather we all benefit when candidates are considered because of their qualifications, their abilities, and their character," said Sewell, the state's lone Democrat in Congress.

Sewell made the statements during a press conference and panel discussion Saturday on "Serving Justice Through Diversity" sponsored by the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the National Bar Association. The event was held at the Birmingham law office of Baker Donelson.

U.S. Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby had supported Kallon for the U.S. District Court bench seat in 2009. But in statement issued hours after President Barack Obama announced Feb. 11 he was nominating Kallon for a vacancy on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals the two senators said they would oppose it.

"Throughout the process of meeting with the White House on filling judicial vacancies, we negotiated in good faith to find nominees that will serve our state well," according to the statement. "While we thought progress had been made, apparently the White House was never interested in good faith negotiations, and it is too late now," according to Sessions and Shelby's statement.

Without support of a state's two senators, a federal court nominee is unlikely to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate or get a hearing.

Others expressing support for Kallon's confirmation at Saturday's event were: U.W. Clemon, former Chief U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Alabama; Leonard Murray, Associate Judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois; Benjamin Crump, President of the National Bar Association; Bishop Calvin Woods, President of the Birmingham Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Benard Simelton, President of the NAACP Alabama State Conference; and Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge John England, who also formerly served on the Alabama Supreme Court.

"We gather together today to express our outrage of the lack of racial diversity on the federal bench in Alabama," Sewell said.

History and statistics on diversity

Sewell and others pointed to statistics on the lack of black judges on the federal bench - particularly in Alabama.

African Americans make up 26 percent of the population in Alabama but hold 7 percent of the total active federal judgeships in the state, Sewell said. Of 14 federal judges in the state, Kallon is the only active federal judge and U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson is now on senior status.

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter nominated Clemon and Myron Thompson. Clemon became the first African American to hold a federal judgeship in Alabama after his confirmation in June 1980 and three months later Thompson became the second.

Since those confirmations 26 federal judgeships have been vacated in Alabama and Kallon is the only African American to fill one of those seats, Sewell said.

Alabama has five current vacancies on the federal court - the seats of U.S. District Court judges Sharon Blackburn, Lynwood Smith and Thompson, who are now on senior status, and that of Mark Fuller, who resigned amid questions of domestic violence. There is also the 11th Circuit seat left vacant by Circuit Judge Joel Dubina, who also took senior status.

Taking senior status means the judges go into a kind of semi-retirement, taking fewer percent of cases. But the caseloads for the senior judges have been higher because of the vacancies and has created a judicial emergency, Sewelll said.

Crump said that since 1891 only white males have represented Alabama on the 12-member circuit court of appeals, Crump said. That includes when Alabama was part of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and after Alabama was put into the 11th Circuit with Georgia and Florida.

Currently only one of the 11th Circuit's 12 judges, Charles Wilson of Florida, is African American, Crump said. "This circuit has the highest percentage of African American residents, 25 percent in fact, which is more than any other circuit," he said.

"All of our federal judiciaries should be reflective of American and not just one segment of America," Crump said.

Crump said that more than six other nominations of African Americans to the federal bench by Obama have been held up by the Republican majority Senate. He said senators should at least give them confirmation hearings and vote them up or down. "That's the very least they should do, not have them to continue to wait in limbo," he said.

Crump is a Florida lawyer whose clients have included the family of Trayvon Martin, the black teen who was shot to death in 2012 by George Zimmerman. He also represents the family of Michael Brown, who was shot to death by police in Ferguson, Mo., and Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old shot to death by an officer in 2014.

England said that when he started as a lawyer 50 years ago he knew all of the black lawyers in Alabama because there were so few. Now, he said, he doesn't because of the number of lawyers practicing in the state.

The state's law schools have been able to "put into our communities an excellent crop of lawyers including African American lawyers who can make a difference on the bench," England said.

Kallon is well-qualified for the job, England said. "He's the best of the best," he said.

"I'm not suggesting that he be appointed because he is black," England said. "I'm suggesting that he be appointed because he is qualified and he adds a life experience that will make a difference on the bench."
Wanted couple Florida.jpg

Christopher David Powell and Tiffany M. Powell (BCSO)

Updated at 5:16 p.m. -- Two suspects wanted for murder and attempted murder in Bay County, Fla. were apprehended without incident in Houston County on Saturday afternoon, RickeyStokesNews.com reported.

Christopher and Tiffany Powell were found fishing with their children at Highway 231 South at Big Creek, the report stated.

--

Bay County, Fla. authorities are searching for two suspects in the fatal shooting of one woman and the brutal beating of another in Fountain on Saturday.

Arrest warrants were issued for Christopher David Powell, 31, and Tiffany M. Powell, 28, both of Callaway, Fla., the Bay County Sheriff's Office released.

The Powells were able to evade police on Saturday and were last seen driving a dark green passenger car. The couple may have their four young children with them.

It's unclear where the Powells may be traveling.

A woman was found dead of a gunshot wound in a home on Owenwood Road in Fountain. Another woman was found badly beaten and is now being treated at an unspecified hospital.

The motive behind the attack hasn't been released.

The suspects are considered armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call the Bay County Sheriff's Office at 850-747-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 850-785-TIPS.
Kalamazoo, Michigan -- Six people were dead Saturday night after multiple shootings around Kalamazoo County, and authorities say the person responsible seemed to be shooting "at random."

Police announced early Sunday they had a suspect in custody. The man, whose name was not immediately released, was arrested at Ransom and Porter streets in downtown Kalamazoo at 12:40 a.m., said First Lt. Dale Hinz of the Michigan State Police.

The man, who police have said is a white man in his 50s, was driving a black Chevrolet HHR.

"Suffice it to say there was other evidence that led us to believe he is our suspect," Hinz said.

Police in a press conference said the suspect went quietly with police, and no officers were injured.

Four people were shot in vehicles outside the Cracker Barrel on 9th Street in Oshtemo Township. Police said that shooting is tied to another at a Seelye car dealership in Kalamazoo, and another shooting at the Meadows Townhomes complex in Richland Township.

"It appears we have someone driving around and doing nothing but shooting to death innocent people at random," Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said from the scene at Cracker Barrel.

Matyas said the first shooting occurred at the townhomes complex, 5066 Meadows Blvd. around 6 p.m. There, a woman was shot in the parking lot. Matyas said she is in serious condition.

A second shooting occurred at Seelye Ford, 4102 Stadium Drive, shortly before 10:30 p.m., where two people were shot and killed in the parking lot.

Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley told WWMT that the two killed at the dealership were both male, and are believed to be a father and son who were looking at a vehicle.

Around 10:30 p.m., four people were shot and killed in vehicles in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, 5581 Cracker Barrel Blvd., off of 9th Street in Oshtemo Township. Matyas said he didn't have any more specifics on the victims' genders and ages.

Another victim at that location -- a 15-year-old boy -- was shot and critically injured, police said.
A Miami woman is in a coma after reportedly being beaten by a roommate she found on Craigslist more than a week ago.

Byron Mitchell confessed to the attack on Danielle Jones. He was arrested on Feb. 15 and charged with attempted murder domestic violence, Local 10 News in Miami reported. He is being held in jail without bond.

According to the report, Mitchell, who claims to be a health and fitness business owner, said he acted in self-defense.

The incident occurred a week after Mitchell moved into Jones' downtown Miami apartment.

A Gofundme account set up to raise funds for Jones' medical care states Jones was bludgeoned, strangled and had her face mutilated on Valentine's Day. If she wakes up, Jones will need extensive care and rehabilitation.

"(Mitchell) beat her to a coma and ventilator support with various face and skull fractures, multiple injuries to include multiple cuts on her face ... She was celebrating her 23rd birthday," Jones' mother, Aimee Cabo Nikolov, told Local 10 News.
The author of the America classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" was laid to rest Saturday, in a private ceremony attended by only the closest of friends and family, a reflection of how she had lived.

Harper Lee, who died Friday at age 89, was eulogized at a church in the small Alabama town of Monroeville, which the author used as a model for the imaginary town of Maycomb, the setting of Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

A few dozen people who comprised Lee's intimate circle gathered at the First United Methodist Church to hear a eulogy Saturday by her longtime friend and history professor, Wayne Flynt. Afterward, her casket was taken by silver hearse to an adjacent cemetery where her father, A.C. Lee and sister, Alice Lee, are buried.

Flynt, a longtime friend of Lee, said he delivered a eulogy that Lee specifically requested years ago. Entitled, "Atticus inside ourselves," the eulogy was written by Flint for a speech that he gave in 2006 as a tribute to Lee when she won the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for racial justice.

Flynt said Lee liked the speech so much that she wanted him to give it as her eulogy.

"I want you to say exactly that," Flynt quoted Lee as saying at the time. "Not one thing more, and not one thing less."

"If I deviated one degree, I would hear this great booming voice from heaven, and it wouldn't be God," Flynt said in an earlier interview.

Details of the service were fiercely guarded. Lee had wanted a quick and quiet funeral without pomp or fanfare, family members said.

"We obeyed her wishes," said Jackie Stovall, Lee's second cousin.

The Lee family cemetery plot is seen Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Monroeville, Ala. Lee, the elusive author of best-seller "To Kill a Mockingbird," died Friday, Feb. 19, according to her publisher Harper Collins. She was 89. A private funeral service was held for Lee on Saturday.

The town was appropriately somber a day after their native daughter's death.

Ann Mote, owner of the Ol' Curiosities & Book Shoppe in Monroeville, said she thinks the town will always be linked to Lee.

Jared Anton, of Hollywood, Florida, sat outside the old courthouse in Monroeville during part of planned vacation through the South that coincided with Lee's death.

Anton said reading the book -- in which attorney Atticus Finch defends a wrongly accused African-American man -- was one reason he decided become to a lawyer.

"It had an impact on me when I was younger. I wanted to do the right thing, to stand up to people, to defend the innocent if you will," Anton said. "It is the greatest American novel. Name one that really has had more of an impact on Americans than that book."

Mockingbirds chirped and frolicked among blooming camellia bushes outside the courthouse on a warm Alabama morning that teased the early arrival of spring.

The courthouse was where Lee as a child, like her creation Scout Finch, would peer down from the balcony as her father tried his cases in the courtroom. The southern town was home to childhood friends Truman Capote and Lee, giving rise to its self-given nickname of the literary capital of the South.

"She's a part of it and always will be," said Mote.

Tributes to Lee's novel dot the town. The courthouse is a museum that pays homage to her creation. There's the Mockingbird Inn on the edge of town and a statute of children reading, "Mockingbird" in the courthouse square.

Tickets for the city's annual "Mockingbird" play go on sale in a week, Mote said. A black mourning bow donned the top of the sign at the bookstore, where a stack of hardcopy "Mockingbird" books sat on the counter along with a DVD of the movie.

The town this summer had a celebration for the release of "Go Set a Watchman" -- Lee's initial draft of the story that would become "Mockingbird" -- even though many residents had ambivalent feelings about its release.

Lee was largely unseen in her hometown in recent years, as she first sought privacy and then was secluded at an assisted living home. Security guards would shoo away the inevitable mix of reporters, curious onlookers and old acquaintances who were not on her list of approved visitors.

"You would see her around, but still we would honor her wishes of being a very private person. The impact from now forward, I think for the next few weeks we'll have an influx of people in here just looking around and at some point -- like when anybody passes away -- at some point it just returns back to normal," said Tim McKenzie, chairman of the museum's board of directors who also acts in the play.

McKenzie said the best way fans can honor the author's memory is by applying the values in Mockingbird to the way they treat others.

"That story, I'm glad it's in just about all the schools now because it's a story that everybody needs to hear," he said. "If you adhere to the values she put in that book, if everybody did, we'd be living in a much better world."
Once the favourite for the Republican presidential nomination, former Florida governor bows out of the 2016 race.

Jeb Bush was convinced his presidential campaign would ignite in South Carolina.

He thought he would do well in New Hampshire  but the move to the South would be where it would all happen.

He even, bravely, told reporters back in September Im going to win South Carolina. Take that to the bank.

This was Bush country.





He brought his mother to campaign for him, a women America adores.

He brought in his brother, the last Republican President George W Bush who actually won in South Carolina, beating an insurgent outsider John McCain, back in 2000.

He courted senior figures in the party establishment in the state. He won the endorsement of Senator Lindsey Graham, a former presidential contender himself.

He had campaigned for the very popular governor, Nikki Haley, and helped her draw up her education plan.

But there were signs not all was well.

A Bush-supporting Political Action Committee announced during the week it was pulling advertising it had pre-booked on television for Super Tuesday on March 1; the day when several states hold their nomination contest.

And then Governor Haley spurned the overtures from his team and threw her backing behind Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Bush continued to campaign with dignity, pushing his ideas, convinced he could still win.

But the former Florida governor found that popularity was not transferable. And as the results began to trickle in on Saturday night, he knew his race was run.

He went in front of the camera and outlined again why he thought he would make a good president. But he added he knew the voters didnt agree.

READ MORE: Trump wins in South Carolina as Clinton takes Nevada

And so he said he was suspending his campaign.

A few people cried No. Bush could only reply Yeah, Yeah. And for a moment, it looked as if he realised he would not be following his father and brother into the Oval Office. That brought a pause, a deep breath and almost a tear.

As an exit, it was dignified, said many.

But if there was one big loser in South Carolina, there were two winners. First there is, almost inevitably in this election cycle, Donald Trump.





The billionaire businessman added the state to his victory in New Hampshire, in the knowledge the last three Republicans to win both went on to secure the nomination.

In the last week, he has argued with Pope Francis over religion, called George W Bush a liar and praised Planned Parenthood, a womens health organisation which is despised by many Republicans because it offers abortion advice. It did nothing to hit his poll numbers.

From a campaign that was regarded as a joke, even a publicity stunt when it launched, the New Yorker is now the frontrunner.

He moves on from here, strengthened, emboldened and more bullish than ever. His campaign believes if he can win here, there is nowhere in this country where his brash brand of populism wont play and win.

And if there is to be a challenge from the establishment, it now seems Marco Rubio will be its standard bearer.

From major disappointment in New Hampshire, sealed with a dreadful debate performance, the Florida senator took a surprising second place here, pipping Ted Cruz who must has thought he had a lock on that position.

While others remained in the race, the anti-Trump vote was split. Now Rubio will be the firewall against the businessman securing the nomination, although Ohio Governor John Kasich will still hope it can be him.

The problem Rubio faces is he cant keep coming in third or second. At some point he has to start winning states, and at the moment there is no clear route for that to happen.

But he will be hoping the Republican establishment will help him narrow the field, propelling him past Cruz and Trump.

Twenty four hours or so ago I wrote how South Carolina was an important stopping point; that it would narrow the field and focus the race.

Not so long ago there were 17 Republicans who wanted to be president. Realistically, now there are four. And Jeb Bush isnt one of them.
Meeting of leaders ended with stronger-than-expected statement, but how much of an effect will the summit have?

It was supposed to highlight the United States so-called rebalance to Asia. It was the first time a US president would be hosting a summit with ASEAN  the bloc of 10 Southeast Asian countries that Barack Obama sees as the cornerstone of US engagement with the Asia Pacific.

As National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, the US is solidifying ties with Asia Pacific as it becomes the worlds political and economic centre of gravity.

US officials repeatedly stressed how historic this summit would be.

But from the get-go, the spotlight was not exactly where President Obama may have wanted it.

With election campaigns for Obamas successor under way, there were fewer US journalists than expected at the summit.

As such, the Obama administrations rhetoric about how important the Asia-Pacific region is fell mostly on an audience of visitors from across the Pacificwhich some will argue were the intended recipients of that message.

China concerns

A number of US allies have, after all, been a tad worried that the US would not be able to sustain its commitment to the diverse ASEAN region, what with everything else it had going on both domestically and internationally.

The Philippines, particularly, is counting on US support to help to strengthen its military amid tensions with neighbouring China.

China, a growing power player with an arsenal of cash and weapons, is ASEANs largest trading partner but its also embroiled in territorial disputes with four ASEAN nations over portions of the South China Sea.

And to strengthen its claim, China has constructed islands in disputed waters.

Meanwhile, despite all attempts by claimant members such as the Philippines, ASEAN has failed to issue a collective statement on maritime concerns. Each ASEAN country has its own, separate relationship with China and the US, and they dont necessarily concur. A sticking point in the consensus-driven body.

Regardless of internal divisions, Obama stressed that this summit was about ASEAN as a whole and not individual nations.

Human rights

He said this again as he was criticised for including ASEAN leaders with poor human rights records who might not otherwise have been invited to the US.

Leaders such as Cambodias long-ruling Hun Sen, and Thailands military coup-leader, now Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha.

By the end of the summit in Sunnylands, there was a joint declaration.

Strong words on freedom of navigation and commerce (seen as aimed at China), and even a mention of the importance of good governance and human rights (seen as aimed at some ASEAN members themselves).

This was more than some of the ASEAN watchers were expecting.

At the close, Obama faced a room full of journalists to speak about the summits success. As soon as the floor was opened to questions, the self-styled first American Pacific president only called on US reporters (by name).

All of them only asked about US politics and US involvement in the Middle East. Each question was answered at length. The relaxed leader was at his casual best.

But it left many visiting journalists at a loss. Were they not going to be able to ask their own questions to do with the actual just-concluded summit for which they came?

Was the conversation, at the very least, not going to be re-directed to the region that was meant to be highlighted? And they thought this was their chance to ask Obama himself for answers.

They were wrong. At the end of the day, even the news lines to come out of Sunnylands had little to do with Asia.

But within hours, the spotlight was again redirected: reports came out that China had set up missiles on one of the disputed islands.

It wasnt exactly the way US officials wanted the world to refocus its attention.
For Australians, the decision of whether to try to save their house during a bushfire can be a matter of life or death.

Wye River, Australia  First came the smoke. Dark, menacing, ominous. Then the sky turned orange.

I just knew it was going to hit us, says Peter Jacobs, who lives near the Australian coastal town of Wye River, three hours southwest of Melbourne.

It is Christmas Day, and for the Jacobs family that usually means a celebration and feasting on a sumptuous seafood lunch.

But not last year. Scorching flames were tearing through the rugged bush surrounding their home, fanned by hot winds that left little time for life and death decisions.

My heart started to race and I knew it; I said to myself, Peter, this is it.'

Like many Australians who find themselves in the path of one of the hundreds of fires that ravage this dry country every summer, the Jacobs faced an unenviable choice.

Stay and fight the flames or flee. Choose the first option and you may save your home. Get it wrong and the results can be deadly.

In Australia, authorities cant force residents to evacuate when a fire is approaching, unlike in many other countries.

For decades, many people have tried to defend their homes. Now the official advice is that people should leave, and leave early.

Authorities credit that advice with saving lives in the Wye River fire. While 116 homes were destroyed, every resident survived.

To not lose lives was the most important thing, Roy Moriarty, the captain of Wye Rivers volunteer fire brigade, told Al Jazeera.

It wouldnt have worried me if every house had gone in Wye River if it meant we didnt lose somebodys life.

Not losing lives

Craig Lapsley, Victorias emergency management commissioner, attributed the fact that no lives were lost to a community plan that asked people to leave as the fire was coming.

We didnt lose a life; we didnt see anyone injured. Weve lost infrastructure that can be replaced, and will be replaced, he says.

But weve walked out of there because there was a plan, there was a community commitment and a community approach to achieve an outcome  thats a great outcome.

The same could not be said for another fire that ravaged the state of Victoria in February 2009, on what is now known as Black Saturday.

Scorching temperatures of 47 degrees Celsius combined with fierce winds to produce a raging inferno that wiped out whole towns not far from Melbourne.

In Australias worst ever bushfire disaster, 173 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed.

Many of those who lost their lives died while trying to protect their properties. Others were caught as they desperately tried to outrun the flames, having left their escape too late.

Many of Jim Barutas neighbours in St Andrews, northeast of Melbourne, perished. He survived by sheltering in a homemade bunker.

The scene he encountered when he emerged still haunts him. Burned cars lay on the side of the road. Baruta knew that there must be bodies inside.

I thought  You will never get this picture out of your mind,' he says.

Firefights

Homeowners can spend many hours and thousands of dollars planning for a fire, from installing water pumps to building underground bunkers, but those tasked with putting out the flames still maintain that fire fighting should be left to the people trained to do so.

Peter Marshall is the national secretary of the United Firefighters Union, which represents 13,000 firefighters across Australia. He says the previous advice that residents could engage in active firefighting activities to defend their property was ill-conceived and wrong.

It takes an enormous amount of training to condition firefighters to deal with  the psychological effects as well as the physical effects of engaging in a firefight. You cant have a fire plan that conditions people to do that, he says.

But the emotional bond to the family home can be strong. During the Christmas Day fire in Wye River, authorities repeatedly urged residents to leave.

But Jacobs was confident that he and his family could protect their home. They started their water pumps and got their hoses ready.

Then, as the flames approached, Jacobs realised his family could be in grave danger. He decided he would stay, while his family would drive to safety.

But when his daughter Molly refused to leave without him, Jacobs knew the only option was for them all to leave together. It was a tough call under great duress.

That night, Jacobs, a former volunteer firefighter, stayed with a friend in the Surf Life Saving volunteer club as the whole town was engulfed in flames.

We watched all the houses burn, he says. I think it was about 3 oclock in the morning [when] we watched [the friends] house burn. It was devastating.

Jacobs home survived the fire. But a spot beneath a small bridge that would have served as a refuge of last resort was scorched.

Despite his narrow escape on Christmas Day, Jacobs remains committed to defending his home in the event of another fire.

My heart is here. I refuse to leave my heart, he says. I cant think of anywhere else in the world I would like to live.

From the 101 East documentary In the Line of Fire. Watch the full film here.

Follow Trevor Bormann on Twitter: @TrevorBormann

Follow Liz Gooch on Twitter: @liz_gooch
Has Trumps South Carolina win cast a shadow over attempts to portray the state as a beacon of the new South?

Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary even after challenging the standard 9/11 narrative and Pope Francis. Whats more, pundits note, his victory is likely to provide enough electoral momentum to power the real estate mogul to the Republican nomination.

Trumps peculiar iteration of American nationalism took the nation by storm and pundits by surprise, generating a political scenario once deemed improbable. Since 1980, with just one exception, the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary has won the nomination.

READ MORE: How important are the South Carolina primaries?

In the South Carolina Democratic primary, which takes place next week, Hillary Clinton seems to be a lock as Bernie Sanders so far has failed to connect with enough of the states African Americans to dent her Southern firewall.

Sanders was expected to fare much better in the caucus state of Nevada, which also voted yesterday, but Clinton won that by roughly five points. Now, much of the attention is on the Republican party as hostilities between the candidates continue to heat up.

Trump, the pope and 9/11

Many analysts predicted that Trump would stumble in a political environment heavy with evangelicals and strict social conservatives. Those predictions seemed prescient after he erupted in anger during a Republican debate and blamed former President George W Bush for allowing the 9/11 attack and later, after a small war of words with the beloved Pope Francis.

Candidates such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz or even retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson were considered a better fit for the states demographic profile than the reality TV star with his pugnacious campaign style.

Marco Rubio was cast as the candidate most likely to gain. The Florida senator had cast himself as an intermediary between the hard right of Cruz and Carson and the so-called establishment candidates, a list that had dwindled to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has since dropped out of the race after his poor showing in South Carolina, and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Bush was considered the stronger of those two in a state heavy with military veterans and famously enamoured with a family that has already produced two presidents. However, Bush had proven to be an uneven campaigner, particularly unsuited for the rough-and-tumble turn the race took following Trumps entry.

Despite pulling his well-liked mother, Barbara, and ex-president brother into the state to campaign for him, his poll numbers still dragged. His moderate lane has also been claimed by Kasich, whose stronger-than-expected finish in New Hampshire made him an unexpected contender.

South Carolina, with its old South traditions and rowdy reputation, was never considered an establishment-friendly state, despite recent upgrades.

One of those upgrades was on display earlier this week at a Rubio rally in Greenville following South Carolina Governor Nikki Haleys important endorsement of the Florida senator. Sharing the stage with Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, was Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the states first black senator since the Reconstruction, the post-Civil War era from 1863 to 1877.

This multicultural expression of political heft is something many thought would never come to the Palmetto State and is indeed an upgrade from its history of racial division.

A history of racial division

The first shots fired in the US Civil War targeted the Union outpost of Fort Sumter, and South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. Many residents still consider that history a cause for celebration despite a national consensus that feels differently. Differing views of that heritage have sparked occasionally rancorous battles between the states white and black communities.

For much of its history, South Carolinas black population has exceeded its white population (due largely to the remnants of the states vast number of slaves), but in the 1930s, the state began an aggressive effort to attract white residents. Today, according to the latest census data, African Americans comprise about 30 percent of the states population.

Much of the racial rancour in the state has focused on the Confederate battle flag that has flown from the state capital of Columbia since 1962 as a sign of defiance towards the Civil Rights Movements call for integration. The flag is disparaged by African Americans as a symbol of racism but cherished by many whites as the totem of a noble heritage and Southern pride.

READ MORE: Confederate monuments and a divided South

That racial impasse was dislodged by a shocking crime that occurred last June when a white supremacist walked into a historic black church in Charleston during a prayer meeting and shot 10 people, killing nine.

An earlier photo of the killer, Dylann Roof, featured him posing proudly with the flag, and the gruesome murder accelerated an ongoing but stalled effort to stop that flag  a longtime symbol of racial division  from flying in Columbia. Haley joined the effort, the flag came down and South Carolina began earning a new image.

A shadow over the new South?

The outpouring of sympathy for the victims of the Charleston massacre and the gestures of forgiveness offered by the victims families aided that effort and elevated the tragedy into a narrative of redemption.

READ MORE: A fight against Cultural Genocide in South Carolina

Haleys support for Rubio, rather than the more caustically conservative Cruz or the stunningly outrageous Trump, seems to be yet another effort to pull the state away from its reputation as an enclave of boot-stomping rednecks.

Trumps victory tarnishes that image a bit. His platform  from his anti-immigrant proposals to his promises to commit torture the first chance he gets  can be boiled down to basic us versus them nationalism, including sentiments easily characterised as xenophobic.

These positions are not compatible with attempts to portray the state as a beacon of the new South and Trumps big win has cast a shadow on that image.

Vying for the black vote in South Carolina

The South Carolina Democratic electorate is voting for one of two candidates on February 27, and that campaign seems to be taking place in a different state altogether.

Both Clinton and Sanders are vying for the black vote, which is understandable in a state where the black electorate comprises the majority of the Democratic primary vote.

READ MORE: Can Bernie Sanders win the African American vote?

Clinton seems to have tightly embraced President Barack Obama as her primary tactic, perhaps trying to hitchhike on his enormous popularity among the states black population. In the process, she has sought to characterise her opponent as a foe of the president.

Meanwhile, Sanders has focused on the youth and labour vote, trying to imbue his economic populism with the fervour of a movement.

Stay tuned.

Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor of In These Times and the host of The Salim Muwakkil show on WVON, Chicagos historic black radio station.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Asia, the new centre of global economic gravity, seems to be sleepwalking into an all-out conflict.

The South China Sea disputes are rapidly descending into a quagmire, with potentially explosive ramifications. Shortly after United States President Barack Obama concluded a high-profile summit with Southeast Asian leaders, China reportedly deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to the Paracel chain of islands, which is also claimed by Vietnam.

In response, Hanoi immediately lodged a formal complaint at the United Nations, accusing its giant neighbour of serious infringements of Vietnams sovereignty over the Paracels, threatening peace and stability in the region as well as security, safety and freedom of navigation and flight.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was emphatic, declaring that there is every evidence, every day that there has been an increase of militarisation [by China] of one kind or another. He vowed to hold a very serious conversation with his Chinese counterparts.



One Minute South China Sea

The US also accused China of reneging on its earlier promise, delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to the White House last year, to not militarise the disputes.

Regional powers such as Japan, which heavily relies on the South China Sea for the shipment of its energy imports, have also pitched in. Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani condemned the alleged unilateral move by China to change the status quo, adding that it cannot be overlooked.

Chinese officials, however, downplayed the whole affair. Foreign Minister Wang Yi tried to justify the deployment of the advanced military platforms as limited and necessary self-defence facilities, while the Chinese defence ministry dismissed criticisms over the issue as a Western hype.

Yet, there is growing fear that Beijing is determined to fully dominate its adjacent waters at the expense of freedom of navigation and overflight in arguably the worlds most important waterway.

Failure of engagement

Back in 2013, Obama invited his Chinese counterpart Xi for an intimate, informal summit in Sunnylands resort in California. It was a controversial decision since such short sleeve meetings were usually reserved for leaders of the US dearest allies, such as Japan (as in former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi) and the UK (as in Prime Minister David Cameron).

US efforts at constraining China's behaviour has prompted the latter to become even more determined to dominate adjacent waters, undermining freedom of overflight and navigation in a waterway that is pivotal to global commerce and energy transport. by

Under his much-touted Pivot to Asia doctrine, the Obama administration was determined to explore a more cooperative relationship with China. In fact, Washington explicitly framed its ties with Beijing as the most important bilateral relationship in the world, reiterating the necessity for robust engagement with the rising superpower.

Xi, however, had other ideas. He interpreted the whole event as an implicit US recognition of China as its new peer in the Asia-Pacific theatre, calling for a new type of great power relations. In light of Chinas insistence that the US should respect its core interests (PDF), including its territorial claims in adjacent waters, the statement was interpreted as a thinly-veiled demand for US non-interference in the South China Sea disputes.

In the following months, China pressed ahead with massive reclamation activities across disputed waters, transforming rocks and atolls into artificial islands and building a sprawling network of dual-purpose facilities and airstrips in both the Paracel and the Spratly island chains. It made Obamas engagement policy seem like an unequivocal failure.

Tit-for-tat showdown

Astounded by the sheer scale and speed of Chinas revanchist activities in disputed waters, the Obama administration switched to a more muscular approach. On one hand, it began conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the vicinity of Chinese-occupied land features in the South China Sea. The US began to deploy destroyers and advanced aircraft to challenge Chinas sovereignty claims.

INTERACTIVE: Islands row around China

Admiral Harry B Harris Jr, the commander of the US Pacific Command, effectively warned China by stating that you will see more of them [FONOPs], and you will see them increasing in complexity and scope in areas of challenge. The latest operation was conducted in the Paracel chain of islands, which most likely prompted China to (once again) deploy the surface-to-air missile platform to the area.

The Obama administration, however, is primarily interested in mobilising a multilateral coalition against China. It has called upon major allies and partners such as Japan, Australia and India to contribute to freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea, with Japans Maritime Self-Defense Force contemplating the prospects of joint-patrols close to Chinese-occupied land features.

OPINION: A Sino-American naval showdown in the South China Sea

To underscore the comprehensive nature of his engagement with Asia, Obama recently also hosted leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at Sunnylands, where he managed to garner the support of regional states, including staunch Chinese allies like Cambodia and Laos, to sign a joint statement that implicitly criticised Chinas activities in disputed waters.

Together with the European Union, the US has also called on China to respect the (likely unfavourable) outcome of the Philippines arbitration case against China vis-a-vis the maritime disputes. The US and its allies are optimistic that the Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague will rule against Chinas sweeping claims as well as increasingly aggressive posturing in the area.

The real fear, however, is that China will slowly move towards establishing an Air Defense Identification Zone across the whole South China Sea by deploying surface-to-air missiles and advanced military platforms to airstrips and facilities in the Paracels and the Spratlys.

Ironically, though, US efforts at constraining Chinas behaviour has prompted the latter to become even more determined to dominate adjacent waters, undermining freedom of overflight and navigation in a waterway that is pivotal to global commerce and energy transport.

Asia, the new centre of global economic gravity, seems to be sleepwalking into an all-out conflict.

Richard Javad Heydarian is a specialist in Asian geopolitical/economic affairs and author of Asias New Battlefield: US, China, and the Struggle for Western Pacific.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
John Bell is Director of the Middle East Programme at the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid. He is a former UN and Canadian diplomat, and served as Political Adviser to the Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General for southern Lebanon and adviser to the Canadian government.

While Syria burns and great powers run towards collision there, the French government has formally put forward a new initiative for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The three-step process (consult with both sides, convene an international support group, and convene an international summit to restart talks) is the brainchild of now former French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Despite Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, the French government feels that this ageing conflict is central to the problems of the region and needs to be resolved. In this view, disenfranchised and occupied Palestinians remain at the heart of Arab grievance.

The proposed initiative follows a familiar pattern, and indeed some would say it is outdated. So far, there is no reason to believe it will go anywhere because the political stars are not aligned today in its favour.





There is no real interest in it on the Israeli side, and Palestinian demands have not changed. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has said that Palestinians will never return to direct talks with Israel; they naturally seek the multilateralism that France is proposing.

US wont give up primacy

The Americans are also not likely to give up their primacy in this process to the French. Instead, Washington promises future re-engagement, possibly, a la Clinton 2000, in the narrow and tricky window between the November elections and the January presidential inauguration.

ALSO READ: Israel-Palestine: Is it even relevant anymore?

Indeed, like the refrain from the Talking Heads song, the Israel-Palestine conflict remains same as it ever was. The Obama Administration is busy elsewhere: the expanding troubles in Syria and a region upending itself in new troubles every day are rather all-consuming.

The French have added a twist to their proposal: if Israel rejects it, they may recognise a Palestinian state adding to a growing international climate against occupation marked by the BDS movement. by

The French have added a twist to their proposal: If Israel rejects it, they may recognise a Palestinian state adding to a growing international climate against occupation marked by the BDS movement.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the option of engaging France sufficiently, if only to buy time, until a new US president comes to office.

The Israeli prime minister may try to walk the tightrope between his right-wing base and international pressure until a president closer to his liking and inclinations enters the scene.

The deeper problem with this initiative is the gap between the salons and the situation on the ground. In Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, the situation remains perilous.

Lack of political horizon

The lack of political horizon is a breeding ground for violence, and despite illusions, the Israeli PM cannot keep the situation fully contained. This is why some Israeli officials, including some in the defence and security sectors, are encouraging a more serious engagement with the French.

The same gap between reality on the ground and talk tragically applies in Syria where the Geneva talks were abruptly interrupted by air strikes by one of its sponsors, alongside a bold military move by one of the protagonists.

Such interruptions are sadly reminiscent of destructive actions in Israel and Palestine in the 1990s that regularly upset the apple cart of negotiations and ultimately cast them into the dustbin.

Under such conditions, why would the French put it forward at this time? Some point to the ego of a departing foreign minister who wished to leave a legacy behind, or the vestigial legacy of a waning power pining to play a role.

Less cynically, it may simply be a real belief by the French government that the question of Israel and Palestine needs to be resolved.

However, if this wish cannot be translated into results or influence the grander scheme, it will deteriorate into yet another endless and fruitless process  and therein lies the rub.

The lessons from Syria abound. On that file, some have already stated that diplomacy that perpetually, and falsely holds out the prospect of imminent progress can end up providing cover and an excuse for inaction.

ALSO READ: Israel and Palestine: Two states and the extra step

This may not be the French intention, but there may be plenty of diplomatic room for an Israeli prime minister to have yet another excuse for inaction towards a permanent solution.

Diplomacy can be a very attractive process. It has the virtue of being jaw jaw rather than war war, and it is often seductive to those involved because if feels as if something exciting and high level is going on, even when nothing is. It can also always be excused by the compelling argument that it is always better to try rather than not.

Diplomacy is handmaiden of policy

However, the gap between the lakesides in Geneva and the hells of Homs or the darkness in Hebron can be vast. A process that neither reflects realities nor connects to them risks consequential failure: After Camp David 2000, an Intifada broke out; after US Secretary of State John Kerrys recent attempt on Israel-Palestine, violence broke out, including in Jerusalem and Gaza.

After expectations are raised and unmet, even subtly, there are reactions; diplomacy is not without its consequences.

Traditional diplomacy ... works when the situation on the ground is ripe enough for the sides to put aside war for politics... by

The reality is also that diplomacy is inevitably the handmaiden of policy. If there is no policy, as in the case of the US over Syria, then the implication is clear: Diplomacy is only a process that can be used or abused by those with clearer policies, for better or worse.

Traditional diplomacy (not the preventive variety) works when the situation on the ground is ripe enough for the sides to put aside war for politics, or when there is enough goodwill or political will in the highest circles to make the crucial difference.

Otherwise, diplomacy is often part and parcel of a larger strategy that includes changing conditions on the ground.

It is Russia and Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and the Israeli government in the West Bank and Jerusalem that have cynically but effectively used this approach. Settlements grow, Assad gains ground, while diplomats talk  even sometimes because diplomats talk instead of their countries taking action.

Whether the French have a clear and sustainable policy in this case remains to be seen. It may well be that the French are serious about recognition of a Palestinian state should their initiative be rejected by Israel.

That, at least would be a policy with some teeth. It may also be that the French initiative may coopt the Israeli prime minister into a process where he has to make concessions that he was previously unwilling to consider. Or, more grandly, it is a step on the march towards summoning sufficient international pressure to resolve the problem.

The jury is out and the initiative may be worth a try. As some great and many trite philosophers have promised, process is a natural part of life. However, in a conflict that has gone on for over four generations, what Israelis and Palestinians need are results  and a sense of clear responsibility (and policy) by those pursuing diplomatic action.

John Bell is director of the Middle East Programme at the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid. He is a former UN and Canadian diplomat, and served as a political adviser to the Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General for southern Lebanon and adviser to the Canadian government.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Devastating attacks hit Syrian cities after US says provisional agreement reached with Russia on ceasefire.

A series of suicide bombs near a Shia shrine in Damascus and in Homs have killed at least 129 people on a day the United States and Russia claimed progress in securing a ceasefire to end the Syrian conflict.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, which has seized territory in Syria and Iraq, claimed that it was behind Sundays attacks, which killed at least 63 in Damascus and 46 in Homs.

Some sources put the death toll higher.

SANA, the official government news agency, said a car bomb followed by two suicide attacks in the area of Sayyida Zeinab shrine killed 83 people and left 178 others, including children, wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a lower toll of 63 dead but said many of those wounded were in critical condition.

At least 60 shops were damaged and cars were totally destroyed, the AFP news agency reported.

At the end of January, bombings claimed by ISIL killed at least 70 people near the same shrine.

Sayyida Zeinab is believed to contain the grave of a granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shia faithful.

Homs double bombing

The blasts in Damascus came only hours after dozens of civilians were killed in a double car bombing in the central city of Homs.

SANA said the attack happened near the entrance to al-Arman neighbourhood, with the Syrian foreign ministry saying that at least 46 people died and dozens were wounded.

The Syrian Observatory reported that two car bombs killed at least 57 people and wounded dozens in Homs pro-government district of Al-Zahraa.





Residents of the area are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syrias ruling clan.

Homs is largely under government control and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks.

The violence on the ground in Syria came on a day the US secretary of state said that a provisional agreement had been reached on a ceasefire to end the ongoing war.

John Kerry, speaking in Amman alongside Nasser Judeh, Jordans foreign minister, said he had spoken earlier that morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about the agreement.

Now, he said, both the US and Russia planned to reach out to the various sides of the conflict.

Kerry said he hoped that President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and implementation could begin after that.

He said the details such as enforcement still needed to be resolved and that the international community was closer to a ceasefire today than we have been.

The Russian foreign ministry confirmed that Lavrov and Kerry had spoken about conditions for a ceasefire in Syria on the telephone on Sunday.

It said the discussions were on ceasefire conditions, which would exclude operations against organisations recognised as terrorist by UN Security Council.

On Saturday, a number of Syrian opposition groups said that they agreed to the possibility of a temporary truce if President Bashar al-Assads government and its allies respect several conditions, including a ceasefire.

The groups said that they would agree provided there were guarantees that government forces and its allies would respect a ceasefire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries permitted across the country.

The declaration came as fighting continued on the ground despite a Friday deadline for cessation of hostilities.

The opposition factions expressed agreement on the possibility of reaching a temporary truce deal, to be reached through international mediation, a statement from the High Negotiations Committee said.

IN DEPTH: The politics of war crimes in Syria

It said that the UN must guarantee holding Russia and Iran and sectarian militias  to a halt to fighting.

All sides should cease firing simultaneously and the government should release prisoners, the statement said.

For his part, Assad said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais on Saturday that he was ready to implement a ceasefire but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

The fighting in Syria started as an unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but has since expanded into a full-on conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, according to UN estimates.

Millions more have been displaced, having fled to neighbouring countries and Europe.
Amid protests, immigration minister says one-year-old girl being treated in hospital will not be immediately deported.

A refugee baby being treated at an Australian hospital will not immediately be sent to an offshore prison on the remote island of Nauru, the Australian government says.

However, the one-year-old girl, known by the pseudonym Asha, could later be deported along with her Nepalese parents should they be found not to be genuine refugees.

Australias immigration minister Peter Dutton, speaking in the city of Brisbane on Sunday, said Asha would join other people living in community detention in Australia.

The advice I have received is the doctors from the hospital have said the babys treatment has concluded and they would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention, Dutton told the state broadcaster ABC.





Thats what we have proposed all along, but at some point, if people have matters finalised in Australia, they will be returning to Nauru.

Dutton said the Asha case had been hijacked by refugee advocates and that the governments position was unchanged.

Im not sure if they are interested in the best interests of the child. I am. I want to look at each case, people can go into community detention  I have said to you before I want to get the number of children in detention down to zero.

Doctors and activists had fought hard to prevent the forced return of Asha and her parents to a prison for asylum seekers on Nauru.

Asha was being treated at Brisbanes Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital for serious burns after she was scalded with hot water on the island of Nauru in January.

Staff at the hospital a week ago refused to release Asha, who was born in Australia to Nepalese parents who arrived by boat, until a suitable home environment is identified, according to a statement. Protests have been held outside the hospital for more than a week.

Australian human rights lawyer Brynn OBrien told Al Jazeera that the fact Asha would not be imminently deported was the result of a hugely successful campaign by the people of Brisbane.

My reading is that this is a concession for the moment and that the parents still form part of the cohort that could be returned to Nauru, OBrien said.

Activist group Getup, which launched a national #LetThemStay movement to allow Asha and another 266 people set to be returned to offshore detention centres to remain in Australia, and applauded medical staff and protesters for forcing the government into an historic backdown.

The governments decision today is a watershed moment. Duttons decision essentially concedes that Nauru is completely unsuitable for any human being, and the position of doctors on this subject is the final word, Shen Narayanasamy, Human Rights Director at Getup, said.

Natasha Blucher, the familys advocate from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network, said that baby Ashas mother would be very relieved by Sundays development.

This last week has been incredibly stressful and all she has sought is to be able to live in the community like everyone else, Blucher said.

I know that Ashas mother will be overwhelmingly grateful to all of the incredible people who have stood outside the hospital for over a week.

The Human Rights Law Centres Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, said Sundays announcement was a significant change in position.

A week ago we had to file an urgent case in the highest court in the country to stop the government from secretively deporting this baby to Nauru. Now the family is being released into the community. Its a massive turnaround, said Webb.




Pacific island nation tries to pick up the pieces after deadliest storm to hit the country leaves trail of destruction.

Fiji has launched a clean-up after the most powerful cyclone in the Pacific island-nations history left a trail of destruction, killing at least 21 people, destroying homes and damaging infrastructure.

The storm struck the popular tourist destination overnight on Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325km an hour, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

Fijis National Disaster Management Office said that 21 people had been confirmed dead on Monday.

Missing at sea

No immediate breakdown of the deaths was available but the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reported many of the dead were from the hard-hit west of the country. Seven fishermen were also missing at sea.

Al Jazeeraa Andrew Thomas, reporting from Nadi, said that the countrys major cities of Suva and Nadi appeared to have escaped the brunt of the storm.

But until proper information comes in from other areas, it is still hard to say that Fiji has dodged a bullet, our correspondent said.

Winston was the first storm system to hit Fiji measuring a maximum Category Five.

Homes have been destroyed, many low-lying areas have flooded, Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister, said in a statement.

In the aftermath of this great tragedy, many are without power and full access to water, and are cut off from communication.

The cyclone, the strongest ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, flattened scores of homes, crippled infrastructure and forced terrified residents to shelter in evacuation centres.

Photographs taken from a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane showed the devastation wrought on remote villages that bore the brunt.

Many homes were reduced to piles of kindling, with roofing and furniture strewn about by winds that were strong enough to strip leaves and branches from trees.

Raijeli Nicole, Oxfams Pacific regional director, said that the scale of the disaster would only become apparent when communications were restored with remote communities.

The Fijians are desperately trying to repair severed lines of communication, but they hold grave fears that the news waiting for them will be dire, she said.

Given the intensity of the storm and the images we have seen so far, there are strong concerns that the death toll wont stop climbing today and that hundreds of people will have seen their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed.

Aid agencies admitted that they had no idea about the full extent of the destruction, as Fijians shared pictures on social media of roofless houses, flooded streets and metal signposts bent over by the wild winds.

Assault on Fiji

The capital Suva escaped the full fury of the storm but Iris Low-McKenzie, Save the Children Fiji chief, said it was still a terrifying experience.

Ive never experienced anything like this, she said. The noise was frightening as roofs were blown off homes and trees were ripped out by their roots.

Bainimarama said that the storm amounted to an assault on Fiji, an impoverished nation of about 900,000 heavily reliant on its tourism industry.

It is being described as one of the most powerful [storms] in recorded history  as a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind, he said in a national address.

Bainimarama declared a state of natural disaster to remain in place for one month.

International tourists caught up in the disaster began to leave on Monday as flights resumed at Nadi airport after a two-day suspension.
Residents of makeshift jungle camp have until Tuesday night to leave or French officials say they will force them out.

France has given refugees living in part of a Calais refugee camp until Tuesday evening to leave or face forcible removal.

Residents of the southern part of the camp, known as The Jungle, were told to take their possessions and leave the area on Saturday evening, so that authorities can demolish the tented settlement that has formed in the area.

The order issued by the state authority for Calais said police would forcibly remove anyone who refuses to comply with the order, the Associated Press news agency reported.





Authorities have not yet said when they will move in to raze the area.

The expulsion order came a week after Prefect Fabienne Buccio announced that the southern sector of the 18-hectare camp on the edge of Calais would be razed.

Progressive evacuation

Humanitarian groups say the number of people living in the affected area exceeds 1,000.

Eight associations working in the camp, including Doctors of the World, sent a protest letter on Thursday to the French interior minister contending that alternatives proposed by the state are very far from answering the needs of the problems encountered.

The letter predicted refugees who refuse them could scatter along the coast.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve countered in a written reply that the evacuation would go ahead progressively.

The order cited a series of problems, from violence to growing anti-refugee tensions among extreme-right elements and a lack of hygiene and human dignity.

The camp is home to refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as those trying to escape poverty and political repression in other Asian and African countries.
Accusing Shia group of trying to extend control over state and its decisions, Ashraf Rifi resigns as justice minister.

Lebanons justice minister says he is resigning over what he calls Hezbollahs domination of the countrys government.

Ashraf Rifis announcement on Sunday came two days after Saudi Arabia announced it was suspending $3bn in aid to Lebanons army in protest against hostile positions it said were inspired by Hezbollah.

There is an armed party that is dominating the governments decision, Rifi, a fierce opponent of Hezbollah, said in a statement, referring to the Shia group, which is represented in Lebanons parliament but also maintains a powerful military wing.

Hezbollah has used this government to consolidate its project of a mini-state. It wanted to use it as a tool to extend its control over the state and its decisions, AFP news agency reported Rifi as saying.

I will not accept becoming false witness and covering for those trying to dominate the state and its institutions  that is why I am presenting my resignation.

Without president

Hezbollahs media channel Al Manar reported that Judge Alisse Shebtini was assigned the post of acting justice minister.

Rifi accused Hezbollah of being responsible for the political crisis in Lebanon that has left the country without a president for the past 21 months.

He also said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was destroying Lebanons relations with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Lebanons political scene is deeply divided, with the government split roughly between a bloc led by Hezbollah and another, the March 14 alliance, headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, to which Rifi belongs.

The March 14 alliance held a meeting later on Sunday and issued a statement warning that Hezbollahs stand would affect thousands of Lebanese families who live and work in the Arab Gulf countries.

We refuse to turn Lebanon into a base to be used for animosity of Arab states or to interfere in their internal affairs, said the statement read by Fouad Siniora, former prime minister.

March 14 also called on Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria, where it has sent fighters to back the government against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and al-Nusra Front.

Hezbollah is a close ally of the Syrian government, and is backed by Iran, while Hariris bloc is close to Saudi Arabia, Irans regional rival, and is supported by Western powers including the US.

Syria war fallout

The tensions have been heightened by the war in neighbouring Syria, with Hezbollah sending fighters to back President Bashar al-Assad against an uprising that is supported by Saudi Arabia and Hariris political bloc.

Rifis resignation statement also cited alleged Hezbollah interference in the case of Lebanons former information minister, Michel Samaha, who is facing charges of having planned terrorist acts.

The release on bail of Samaha last month after serving eight months of a four-and-a-half year jail sentence drew anger and condemnation from Assads opponents in Lebanon.

Rifi accused Hezbollah of blocking his efforts to transfer the case against Samaha, a former close ally of the Syrian government, to Lebanons highest civilian court.

Samaha is currently free on bail as he faces retrial on charges of plotting attacks with Ali Mamluk, Syrias security services chief.
Uber driver Jason Dalton, who has no known criminal history, suspected of killing at least six people.

US police have publicly identified a man suspected of driving around the Michigan city of Kalamazoo and randomly shooting people, leaving at least six dead.

Jeff Hadley, Kalamazoo department of public safety chief, named the suspect as Jason Dalton, 45, of Kalamazoo county, the AP news agency reported.

Dalton, an Uber driver, reportedly has no known criminal history. The transport company confirmed that the suspect was one of its employees.

It said in a statement it was horrified and heartbroken, adding that it offered help in the investigation.

Jeff Getting, Kalamazoo county prosecutor, said authorities were investigating a Facebook post saying the suspect was an Uber driver driving erratically around the time of the shootings.

READ MORE: Why Obamas gun control efforts will fail

Michigan police earlier launched a manhunt after six people were killed and several others injured in seemingly random shootings near a Kalamazoo car dealership and restaurant late on Saturday night.

Michigan police earlier arrested a man whose car matched a description of the suspects.

Paul Matyas, Kalamazoo county undersheriff, described a rampage that began at about 6pm on Saturday on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo county, where a woman was shot several times and seriously wounded.





A little more than four hours later, a father and his 18-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the dealership.

Fifteen minutes after that, five people  including the teenage girl who police originally said had been killed, based on a pronouncement by medical officials  were shot in the car park of a Cracker Barrel restaurant along Interstate 94, Matyas said.

Matyas later told the WWMT TV network at the time of Daltons arrest that the suspect voluntarily gave himself up after he was approached by police.

The threat to the public is over. This is your worst nightmare when you have someone driving around killing people, Matyas said.

Kalamazoo, with a population of about 75,000, is west of Detroit.

It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bells Brewery.

The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise programme, which for more than a decade has paid for college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools.
Official says no concern of radiation as five-month search for device ends in southern town of Zubair.

Radioactive material that went missing in Iraq has been found dumped near a petrol station in the southern town of Zubair, ending speculation that it could be acquired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and used as a weapon.

Officials told Reuters news agency on Sunday that the material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, was undamaged and there were no concerns about radiation.

Reuters reported last week that Iraq had been searching for the material since it was stolen in November from a storage facility belonging to US oilfield-services company Weatherford, near the southern city of Basra.

It was not immediately clear how the device, owned by Swiss inspections group SGS, ended up in Zubair, 15km southwest of Basra.

Jabbar al-Saidi, chief of the security panel within Basra provincial council, said: A passer-by found the radioactive device dumped in Zubair and immediately informed security forces, which went with a special radiation prevention team and retrieved the device.

After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100 percent and there is absolutely no concern of radiation.

Iraqi forces and ISIL are engaged in battles across the western province of Anbar, especially around the urban centres of Ramadi  which is now largely controlled by government forces  and Fallujah, which is still held by the fighters.

Since being pushed from the centre of the provincial capital, Ramadi, in late December, ISIL has launched near-daily attacks on Iraqi forces, especially on the outskirts of the city.

Controls tightened

An Iraqi security official close to the investigation said it had been established soon after the radioactive material was stolen that it was being kept in Zubair and controls had been tightened to prevent it being taken out of the town.

After failing to take it out of the town, the perpetrators decided to dump it, the security official said.

I assure you it is only a matter of time before we arrest those who stole the radioactive device.

The material, which uses gamma rays to test flaws in materials used for oil and gas pipelines in a process called industrial gamma radiography, is owned by Istanbul-based SGS Turkey, according to the officials.

The material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive source by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meaning that if not managed properly it could cause permanent injury to a person in close proximity to it for minutes or hours, and could be fatal to someone exposed for a period of hours to days.

SGS and Weatherford have both denied responsibility for the disappearance of the material last year.
Jailed candidate among top contenders to challenge President Issoufou, as voters also choose new parliament.

A jailed candidate facing baby-trafficking charges was among the top contenders to challenge Nigers President Mahamadou Issoufou for the countrys top job, as voters headed to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Niger is electing a head of state on Sunday, as well as a new parliament, with President Issoufou hoping to secure a second five-year term. A total of 7.5 million people are eligible to vote, with results due within five days.

Known as the Zaki or lion in Hausa, the majority language in Niger, Issoufou, a 63-year-old mathematician and mining engineer-turned-politician, faces a total of 14 rivals including a particularly tough challenge from two former prime ministers and an ex-president.

Should he fail to snatch a first-round victory, his main rivals have struck a deal to back whoever scores highest among them in the hope of ditching the president.

READ MORE: Niger arrests military officers over coup plot

One of the contenders heading the opposition pack is 66-year-old Hama Amadou, who is campaigning from behind bars after being arrested in November on his return from exile in France over his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal.

Amadou, a former premier and parliament speaker, heads the Nigerien Democratic Movement (NDM) whose members were tear-gassed by police earlier this month after gathering in their thousands to support the prisoner-candidate, known as the Phoenix for his ability to rise from the ashes.





Amadous supporters tell you that he has gained more popularity just because he is behind bars. They say he was already popular, but now more so, said Al Jazeeras Mohamed Vall, reporting from the capital Niamey.

But if you talk to the government side they say he was given a lot of publicity and that he is wanted for a crime that here in Niger is punishable by many years in prison, he added.

Vall said President Issoufou believes he will win the elections in the first round.

The problem in this election is that since the beginning of the democratic process in Niger in 1993there have been many disruptions because of coups, Vall said.

There has been no election that has been decided in the first round, but now President Issoufou says he bets he will win in the first round.

WATCH: Nigers economy suffers effects of Boko Haram

Vall said another leading contender was opposition leader Seini Oumarou, who is described as more popular and more charismatic and the main challenger now for the president

He is not behind bars. He is free and spent the past few weeks campaigning for this election across Niger and he has a pedigree according to people here, Vall said.

Oumarou served as premier to charismatic president Mamadou Tandja, who was overthrown by the army in 2010 after 10 years at the helm.

Also among the favourites is Nigers first democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, 66, who is making his fourth bid to step back into the job since his 1993 election.

Defence remains a top budget priority in the impoverished nation, amid the threat of raids by armed groups in the remote north and attacks by Nigerias Boko Haram group on the southeast border.
With a deal still elusive in Mohammed al-Qeeqs case, observers fear Israel is clamping down on hunger strikers.

Closer to death than life, Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq has been refusing food for nearly three months to protest against his ill treatment by Israeli authorities while in administrative detention.

Many Palestinian prisoners have adopted the tactic of hunger strikes; last summer, Khader Adnan was released from jail after refusing food for 56 days. But many observers fear that the Israelis are trying to put an end to this strategy, which is typically used as a last resort by Palestinian prisoners.

My husband is dying in an Afula hospital, Fayha Shalash, Qeeqs wife, told Al Jazeera.

No charges have been put forward in Qeeqs case, although the 33-year-olds lawyers told Al Jazeera they believed he was suspected of incitement.

Q&A: Jailed Palestinian man to be either free or dead

On February 4, Israels Supreme Court temporarily suspended Qeeqs administrative detention on medical grounds, but he rejected the decision and vowed to continue his protest until he is released, refusing supplements and medical tests. His health has become dire.

Palestinian prisoners affairs minister Issa Qaraqe speculated that Israeli authorities were trying to send a message that hunger strikes are not an automatic ticket to freedom.

The by Issa

it would be a message delivered.]

The Israelis apparently decided to put an end to this wave of strikes, Qaraqe told Al Jazeera. A prisoner may pay his life for it, but for [the Israelis] it would be a message delivered.

Hundreds of Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails without charges, raising broader questions about the efficacy of individual hunger strikes as a tool to end the policy of administrative detention.

If youre hitting, better hit hard, said Salem Badi, a former Palestinian prisoner who spent more than 12 years in Israeli jails and participated in a mass hunger strike in 2014. Israel can manage few hunger strikers, but a mass hunger strike would confuse the prison services. They cant transfer hundreds to hospitals.

Nearly 100 Palestinian prisoners have gone on individual hunger strikes over the past five years, with varying demands, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. Some have gone on strike to request medical treatment or an end to solitary confinement, but most have done so to challenge the Israeli policy of administrative detention, which can be handed down in renewable six-month periods. Most of those cases ended with a court order to not renew the prisoners period of detention.

Individual strikes are achieving individual solutions, Qaraqe said. Those strikes did shed light on certain issues, mainly the plight of administrative detainees  but the struggle should be collective, aimed at ending the policy.

Adnan, who has been on hunger strike twice to protest administrative detention, said a mass hunger strike would be ideal, but it is not always possible or fair to push thousands of prisoners to embark on the exhausting measure.

INTERACTIVE: Palestine Remix

There is a consensus among former prisoners that individual hunger strikes are largely taking place because of the fragmentation of the Palestinian prisoner movement. The Fatah-Hamas divide has cast its shadow inside prisons, just as it has outside, fuelling an atmosphere of negativity and mistrust. But some say there has also been a decline in solidarity with hunger strikers  through measures such as returning meals  by other prisoners of the same political alliance.

This division and lack of solidarity has given the Israeli authorities more room to assault prisoners, Qaraqe said, noting that with less pressure upon them, the Israelis are less inclined to respond to hunger strikes.

Adnan says the onus is on the individual hunger striker to achieve victory: If the Israelis sense a striker has a breaking point, they would leave him to fail by his own devices.

Although many Palestinians support prisoners on hunger strikes inside Israeli jails, there is a common perception that it is Israels security assessment, as opposed to the stamina of strikers, that ultimately determines how a strike will end. A 2014 strike by prisoners in administrative detention ended without any tangible accomplishments after the Gaza war broke out.

Behind closed doors, some have cast the blame on individual hunger strikers, saying they are wearing out the streets amid a wave of unrest that has killed more than 180 Palestinians.

Adnan, however, insists that if anyone is to blame, it is those who blame prisoners who [try to find] a window of freedom.
Twin car bombing leaves at least 46 dead and more than 100 wounded, even as US says a ceasefire is closer than ever.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs despite announcements suggesting that a temporary ceasefire is closer than ever.

Syrias state news agency SANA said Sundays twin car bombing happened near the entrance to the citys al-Arman neighbourhood.

The attack killed 46 people and wounded 110 more, Syrian officials said.

Homs is largely under government control and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks.





The violence on the ground came on a day the US secretary of state said a provisional agreement had been reached on a ceasefire to end the Syrian conflict.

John Kerry, speaking in Amman alongside Nasser Judeh, Jordans foreign minister, said he had spoken earlier that morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about the agreement.

Now, he said, both the US and Russia planned to reach out to the various sides of the conflict.

Kerry said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and implementation could begin after that.

He said the details such as enforcement still needed to be resolved, and that the international community was closer to a ceasefire today than we have been.

The Russian foreign ministry confirmed that Lavrov and Kerry had spoken about conditions for a ceasefire in Syria on the telephone on Sunday.

It said discussions were on ceasefire conditions, which would exclude operations against organisations recognised as terrorist by UN Security Council.

On Saturday, a number of Syrian opposition groups declared that they agreed to the possibility of a temporary truce if President Bashar al-Assads government and its allies respect several conditions, including halting fire.

The groups said they would agree provided there were guarantees that government forces and its allies would respect a ceasefire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries permitted across the country.

The declaration came as fighting continued on the ground despite a Friday deadline for cessation of hostilities.

IN DEPTH: The politics of war crimes in Syria

The opposition factions expressed agreement on the possibility of reaching a temporary truce deal, to be reached through international mediation, a statement from the High Negotiations Committee said.

It said the UN must guarantee holding Russia and Iran and sectarian militias  to a halt to fighting.

All sides should cease fire simultaneously and the government should release prisoners, the statement said.

For his part, Assad said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais on Saturday that he was ready to implement a ceasefire but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

The fighting in Syria started as an unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but has since expanded into a full-on conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, according to UN estimates.

Millions more have been displaced, having fled to neighbouring countries and Europe.
Macedonian officials say hundreds stuck in their country as Serbia only accepting people coming from Syria and Iraq.

Hundreds of Afghan refugees have been stuck in Macedonia since Serbian authorities started denying them entry three days ago, according to Macedonias interior ministry.

Serbia, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia and Macedonia signed on Thursday a joint statement announcing new tightened restrictions on refugees and migrants passing through those countries.

Though the statement did not address whether Afghan refugees would be allowed to continue, it did note that longer residence in a safe third country could be grounds for rejecting asylum seekers, citing as an example Afghan national[s] who for a longer time stayed in Turkey or Iran.

Dejana Nedeljkovic, Macedonian interior ministry spokesperson, said: Since February 19, Serbia has only accepted those coming from Syria and Iraq.



Hundreds of refugees cross Greek border into Macedonia

On Friday, 367 Afghan refugees were blocked from entering Serbia from Macedonia, Nedeljkovic told Al Jazeera, adding that, by contrast, Macedonian authorities have not differentiated between Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.

In November, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov announced that only refugees who could prove citizenship in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan would be allowed passage through the country.

The clampdown on other nationalities resulted in a massive build-up of refugees and migrants on the Greek side of the Idomeni crossing into Macedonia.

Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia quickly implemented similar entry restrictions for refugees and migrants.

Nedeljkovic said that, for Macedonias part, there are 617 people from Afghanistan in Macedonia who are not allowed to enter Serbia, who are now at a refugee transit centre in Macedonias Tabanovce.

We still dont have an official statement from the Serbian government about why this is the case, she said, adding that it was unclear if the entry denials indicated a change in Serbian policy.

At the time of publication, Serbias interior ministry had not replied to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

READ MORE: Afghan refugees arent fleeing by choice

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than a million refugees and migrants reached European shores by boat last year.

Since the beginning of 2016, more than 101,000 have made the trek across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Of this total, at least 27 percent are from Afghanistan, according to UNHCR.

Tajana Zadravec, operations assistant and volunteer manager at Refugee Aid Serbia, explained that there has been an increase in refugees from Afghanistan since the beginning of February at the Miksaliste refugee transit centre in Belgrade.

The border turnbacks raise concerns for Afghan refugees in Serbia, including unaccompanied youth, who are waiting for relatives to arrive from other countries, she told Al Jazeera.

Complete despair

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Constance Theisen, the Greece-based humanitarian affairs director for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), confirmed that Afghans were denied passage from Macedonia into Serbia on Friday and Saturday.

Humanitarian organisations and activist groups have expressed concern about the apparent border restrictions.

The Macedonian spokeswoman denied rumours that Afghan refugees have been denied entry at the Idomeni crossing on the border with Greece.

READ MORE: Macedonia border closures leave refugees with no hope

Yet, Are You Syrious?, a group of activists who provide information to refugees on the trail, said there were reports of Afghan refugees being turned away by Macedonian authorities in Idomeni.

According to the group, more than 4,000 refugees and migrants who were unable to cross into Macedonia are camping at a petrol station near the border. Hundreds more are in nearby impromptu camps.

There is a complete state of despair over there, Milena Zajovic Milka of Are You Serious? told Al Jazeera. Many refugees are calling us for help, but theres nothing we can do.





Milka said that on Saturday: There were a lot of rumours in Idomeni about Afghans not being allowed to pass, but Macedonian police actually did let some of them in the country.

Today, they have stopped accepting Afghan people completely, allegedly as a response to the Serbian decision to stop accepting Afghan refugees.

Milka said that, if permanent, the restrictions for Afghans would result in a large increase to an already immense build-up of asylum seekers in Greece.

That would certainly lead to a humanitarian crisis, but it would also mean more people resorting to extremely dangerous [and] illegal ways to proceed towards Germany, she said, adding that smuggler networks in Hungary and across the Balkans are already very strong.

MSFs Theisen said that the apparent closures could result in a worsening humanitarian situation in Idomeni and elsewhere.

There are days when 5,000 people arrive on the [Greek] islands, and that means that two or three days later there are a lot of people in Idomeni.

A lot of patients

Thiesen said that the humanitarian situation in Idomeni was already bad, adding: There are already a lot of people with medical needs.

Referring to people who have entered Macedonia illegally, she said: We have a lot of patients who have been severely beaten by the Macedonian police and many cases of people having bite wounds from police dogs.

In a statement published in January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that sealed borders across the Balkans had turned Greece into a warehouse for asylum seekers and migrants, few of whom intend to stay in that country.

Its deeply troubling to hear EU leaders discuss plans to trap people in Greece by sealing the countrys northern border while people continue to risk their lives to reach Europe, and thousands more are suffering in Greece, said Eva Cosse, Greece specialist at HRW.

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_
At least 42 killed in attacks in central Syrian city, as government forces seize at least 18 villages in Aleppo.

At least 42 people have been in killed in two car bomb blasts in the Syrian city of Homs.

Syrian state news agency SANA said on Sunday that the attack took place near the entrance to the al-Arman neighbourhood in Homs city. Dozens more were wounded in the attacks, local officials said.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Homs said the death toll was 42. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 46, adding that among those killed were 28 civilians.





Homs city is largely under government control and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, including a deadly double bombing last month that killed at least 22 people and was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Aleppo offensive

The bombings came as Syrian government forces continued to tighten their grip around Aleppo province, as they push for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants (ISIL) stronghold in Raqqa.

The Observatory said on Sunday that government forces backed by Russian air strikes have captured 18 villages in Aleppos eastern suburbs  giving them access to 40km of the highway between Aleppo and Raqqa.

The stretch of highway passes by the Kweires military airport that government forces recaptured in November.

The latest government advance in Aleppo comes after days of deadly clashes against ISIL fighters who control parts of northern Syria, including Raqqa province.

SANA said on Saturday evening that the Syrian army restored security and stability to a number of villages in Aleppos northeastern suburbs.





Full control was established over the Thermal Power Station and a number of surrounding villages in the eastern countryside of Aleppo.

Army units defeated the remaining remnants of ISIL terrorist organisation from the Thermal Power Station and the surrounding areas 30km to the east of Aleppo, SANA reported on their website.

The Syrian government launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo and captured several strategically important towns earlier this month.

The offensive has led to the displacement of more than 50,000 civilians from Aleppo, tens of thousands of whom have amassed in camps at the Turkish border.

Elsewhere, in the southern suburbs of Hasakah province, the Syrian Democratic Forces clashed with ISIL fighters on Saturday evening.

The Observatory said the SDF have captured several villages around ISIL-controlled Shadadi city in Hasakah province. The group launched an offensive against ISIL last week and said they cut several supply lines for the group in the area.

The SDF was founded in Syrias mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015, and is made up of at least 15 armed factions  mostly fighters from the YPG and the Free Syrian Army.
Monitoring group says Syrian forces advance as unrest continues elsewhere with twin bombings killing 25 in Homs.

Syrian government forces have continued to tighten their grip around Aleppo province, as they push for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants (ISIL) stronghold in Raqqa, a monitoring group and state media have said.

The push for more territory came amid continued violence elsewhere in the country, with twin car bombings killing at least 25 people in the central city of Homs.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that government forces backed by Russian air strikes have captured 18 villages in Aleppos eastern suburbs  giving them access to 40km of the highway between Aleppo and Raqqa.

The stretch of highway passes by the Kweires military airport that government forces recaptured in November.





The latest government advance in Aleppo comes after days of deadly clashes against ISIL fighters who control parts of northern Syria, including Raqqa province.

Syrian state news SANA said on Saturday evening that the Syrian army restored security and stability to a number of villages in Aleppos northeastern suburbs.

Full control was established over the thermal power station and a number of surrounding villages in the eastern countryside of Aleppo.

Army units defeated the remaining remnants of ISIL terrorist organisation from the thermal power station and the surrounding areas 30km to the east of Aleppo, SANA reported on their website.

The Syrian government launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo and captured several strategically important towns earlier this month.

The offensive has led to the displacement of more than 50,000 civilians from Aleppo, tens of thousands of whom have amassed in camps at the Turkish border.

Homs bombings

Meanwhile, in Homs, state media reported that at least 25 people were killed in twin car bombings early on Sunday morning.

Dozens more were wounded in the attacks, local officials said.

Homs city is largely under government control and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, including a deadly double bombing last month that killed at least 22 people and was claimed by ISIL.

Elsewhere, in the southern suburbs of Hasakah province, the Syrian Democratic Forces clashed with ISIL fighters on Saturday evening.





The Observatory said the SDF have captured several villages around ISIL-controlled Shadadi city in Hasakah province. The group launched an offensive against ISIL last week and said they cut several supply lines for the group in the area.

The SDF was founded in Syrias mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015, and is made up of at least 15 armed factions  mostly fighters from the YPG and the Free Syrian Army.

Ceasefire talks

On Saturday, a number of Syrian opposition groups declared that they agree to the possibility of a temporary truce if President Bashar al-Assads government and its allies respect several conditions, including halting fire.

The groups said they would agree provided there were guarantees that the Syrian government forces and its allies would respect a ceasefire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries permitted across the country.

Assad said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais on Saturday that he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

Separately, the Observatory also released a report on Saturday saying that at least 7,842 civilians had been killed in Syrian and Russian air strikes across the country.

The death toll includes 1,668 children below the age of 18. The air strikes have also left at least 40,000 civilians injured, the Observatory said.

Since November 2014, the Syrian government conducted at least 49,307 air strikes. Included in that figure, the government has dropped at least 27,735 barrel bombs, the report said.
Government-owned Anadolu news agency has accused the PKK of abducting and holding its staff for 48 hours.

Three journalists who work for the Turkish governments Anadolu news agency have been released after they were reportedly abducted by members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group.

The Anadolu Agency confirmed the release of the journalists on Sunday, more than 48 hours after they disappeared in Turkeys southeastern Mardin province.

Anadolu named the journalists as correspondent Rauf Maltas, 31, photojournalist Onur Coban, 36, and cameraman Kenan Yesilyurt, 26.

[They] were released to Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) MP Ali Atalan and the partys town chairman Ferhat Kut, the agency said.

They were taken to the local police station to brief the officials. Their confiscated items [cameras] were not handed over.

The agency said the journalists were assigned to work in Mardins Nusaybin district only last week.

Pro-PKK media had reported earlier that the three were held after being accused of gathering intelligence on the group.
State of natural disaster declared after powerful cyclone tears through Pacific nation, killing at least five.

Residents of Fiji have started cleaning up and assessing the damage after the most powerful cyclone to hit the Pacific nation tore through its islands and killed at least six people.

Officials on Sunday said they were trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and would not know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.

A 30-day state of natural disaster was declared on Sunday, a curfew was extended and police were empowered to make arrests without a warrant.





Cyclone Winston hit Fiji on Saturday with wind speeds estimated at up to 285km/h. It destroyed hundreds of homes and shredded crops.

The worst-affected areas were along the northern coast of the main island, Viti Levu.

Al Jazeeras senior meteorologist Richard Angwin said around 6.30GMT on Sunday that Winston was headed away from land.

Its forecast track cannot be relied on 100 percent, but it should keep away from land from now on, Angwin said.

Deaths could increase

An elderly man in the village of Nabasovi on Koro Island was killed after the roof of the house he was in collapsed.

The Red Cross said there were unconfirmed reports of three more deaths, while the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation put the death toll so far at five.

In another village on Koro Island, 50 homes were reportedly destroyed.

Many, however, fear that casualty numbers will increase once reports come in from outlying islands and from so-called squatter areas where shanty-standard housing was unlikely to have withstood the category 5 storm.

Alice Clements from UNICEF Pacific was in the capital Suva when the cyclone hit.

We certainly felt the impact ofWinston in Suva with destructive, howling winds and the sound of rivets lifting from roofs a constant throughout the night, she said.

It is likely that smaller villages across Fiji will have suffered the most, given their infrastructures would be too weak to withstand the power of a category 5 cyclone.

Power, water and communication services are yet to be restored across this nation of almost 900,000.

Near total devastation

Winston made landfall around 7pm (local time) on Saturday near Rakiraki on the north coast of Fijis main island.

In the nearby district of Ba, local businessman Jay Dayal said for three hours Winston pounded the area with very heavy winds and constant, torrential rain.

After inspecting the district today he described scenes of near total devastation.

We havent seen so much damage in any of the past cyclones, not in my lifetime, he told Reuters via telephone. The three and a half hours of wind that we had, it just literally destroyed buildings.

Looking at all of the smaller houses and the squatter areas, they are almost flat, he said.

I wouldnt be surprised if people are now starting to go without food. It looks like a different country, it doesnt look like Fiji, he said.

He said relief efforts were being hampered by trees and power lines blocking roads and by a power failure but that the police and the army were doing a good job in the initial phase of the clean-up.

The government also declared a 30-day state of natural disaster, giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant in the interest of public safety.

As a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama wrote on social media. We must stick together as a people and look after each other.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had an emergency response team on standby, but that Bainimarama had not yet asked for help.

The airlines Virgin and Jetstar on Saturday suspended flights into and out of Fijis international airport, while the national carrier suspended all flights.
At least 10 people killed as protesters from Jat community cut off water to New Delhi treatment plant, causing shortage.

At least 10 people have been killed and 150 injured in protests by Indias agricultural Jat community in support of caste-based quota systems, according to police.

The violence in the north Indian state of Haryana on Saturday and Sunday affected water supplies in the capital New Delhi as protesters cut off canal gates feeding its treatment plants.

Until the government reaches a decision in our favour, were going to stop water supplies, block roads and disrupt railways to New Delhi, Satayawan Mor, a protester, told Al Jazeera.

Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhis chief minister, announced water rations across the city and said schools would be closed throughout the city to help preserve supplies.

On his Twitter account, Kejriwal said officials were seeking help from the army to open up the canals, which supply the area.

Since yest, v r pursuing wid Har n Central govts to seek army help to open Munak canal,which supplies Del water. Pray something happens soon  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

Yash Pal Singal, Haryana state police chief, said on Sunday that 10 people had been killed and 150 people injured in the week-long riots.





Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders have been deployed to Haryana to quell the violence by Jat protesters who want an expansion of Indias caste-based quota system to include them.

Indias constitution has a system of affirmative action to help people from castes that are traditionally discriminated against.

The week-long demonstrations turned violent on Friday with protesters setting fire to homes, shops and government buildings, as well as blocking motorways.

We are not in control. The situation is very tense as thousands of protesters are on roads encircling the main administrative area in the town, Rajiv Kumar, Jhajjar police chief, told AFP news agency.

Jhajjar and the surrounding Rohtak district are the focus of the protests.
Government under pressure following violent protests by Jat farming community complaining of discrimination.

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to Haryana state in northern India where protesters have been killed in riots.

Jats  a traditionally rural community of farmers  are demanding more government jobs and places in state-run universities.

They complain of discrimination because of Indias caste system, not because they are from a lower caste but from a higher one.

The Jats say they are being shut out because of a quota system that gives more opportunities to Indians from lower castes.

Why are they demanding more opportunities? And what are the roots of the caste system?

Presenter: Mike Hanna

Guests:

Jaspal Singh  professor of political science at Indira Gandhi National Open University

Dipankar Gupta  sociologist and author of Interrogating Caste: Understanding Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society

Diego Maiorano  specialist on poverty and inequality in India and Fellow at the University of Nottingham in the UK
Anger over police abuse in Egypt is rising, with the president saying that abuse should stop.

Once again the Egyptian police are in the spotlight, as people take to the streets saying enough is enough.

In a series of incidents, police officers appear to have used bullying tactics or even violence. As well as political opponents, civil society activists, journalists and ordinary citizens have reported abusive behaviour by the police.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi suggests that new legislation could make police officers more accountable. But is that all that is needed?

And how will this new momentum of protest play out in a very changed Egypt?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Khalil Al-Anani  Associate professor, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Wafik Moustafa  Founder and chairman, the British-Arab Network.

Ahmed Badawi  Senior researcher, Department of Political Science, The Free University, Berlin.
I Bought:

$200 of V

$200 of DEO

$200 of CAT

I used $600 in new capital and added $20.16/year to my dividend income. This is an average yield of 3.36%.

Notes:

I love V, what a cash machine with no debt! Ill slowly add to this one until its at full weight (2.5% of portfolio). They are more of a total return play but eventually that yield on cost will shoot up with the really high dividend increases I continue to expect out of them.

I still really liking DEO here. They have a giant portfolio of alcoholic beverages with great international exposure. Even during a recession, there will be plenty of people still buying alcohol. I plan to continue averaging into more shares while slowly building up my position. My plans to open a bar also increased my interest in them since Ill be seeing their brands a lot.

Adding a little more to CAT here while its well below my cost basis. I loveaveraging down and only plan on a half position of CAT complimented with another half position of DE for diversification in farming and mining. This cyclical company will be back, its just a matter of time. I want to build up the position to equal that of DE before adding more to DE.

In Recent News:

Im back from my trip to Tokyo and Thailand. Im still on a strange sleeping schedule. However, Im reinvigorated and ready to get the bar open. Ive done everything TABC has asked and Im hoping I get licensed really soon.

Im still way behind on taxes for 2015 and will continue making small purchases every two weeks until I get them paid. Ive received my new POS system and will be getting it set up next Tuesday. Im also trying to finish the menu so I can get it on the online system. Everything will be running from an app on the IPAD. I still havent finished a 10-hour food management course but will soon.

Im due to finish up my goals post for the year and a monthly review for January. Those posts are late but Im going to start working on them this week now that Im back.

The picture is of a really cool bar in the Tokyo Golden Gai district. Ill continue posting pictures from my recent trip to Tokyo and Thailand.
Here's a surprise. Bassistis probably best known for his two recent ECM Records dates, Rub and Spare Change (2010) and Small Places, a couple of modernistic quartet sessions featuring saxophonist, pianistand drummer. These are tight and intense sets, architecturally solid, free-like outings that may have helped bring Taborn and Berne into the ECM fold for their own leader slots on the label. With a modestin terms of numbersdiscography as a leader, and a huge one as a sideman, including a handful of excellent Steeplechase Records teamings with pianistin the early 2000s, there is nothing in Formanek's discography to suggest a magnificent acumen as a writer/arranger in the big band format.But here it is: The Distance by Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus.Formanek is not, though, a stranger to writing for larger ensembles. An Educator at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music, he has penned The Open Book, for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Soloists, premiered by the Peabody Concert Orchestra in 2007. For The Distance Formanek employes an eighteen piece big band, and the results are about as different from his ECM small ensemble sets as they could be.Opening with the six minute title tune, the sound is somber and portentous, closer to modern classical than jazz, a sacred music tone poem of sorts, with a reverent, soft-edged, less-than-one G unison from the ensemble cushioning a pensive tenor sax solo byThen onto the meat of the music beneath the chitinous plastic of the CD's jewel case: "Exoskeleton," a suiteor maybe a symphonythat takes up the reminder of the disc's generous 71-plus minutes."Exoskeleton Prelude" begins with a ringing and succinct bass solo from the leader that settles into a searching ensemble groove, airy and slightly atonal, with an oddly spooky gracefulness that gathers momentum in a trio segment (drummer, pianistand Formanek) that, with the return of the ensemble, blossoms into a strident argument."Exoskeleton Parts 1 through 3," is a twenty-one and a half minute suite-within-a-suite that sways from brash to delicately intricate, from dense to diaphanous, from Mingus-onian intensity to Ellington-ian harmony and swing, toweirdness, with too many adept, captivating and concise solos sneaking into the mix to count. And that's only about half the set. The remaining thirty-five minutes is more of the same unique and complex-yet approachable arrangements, vehemently vivacious soloing and a surprising arraythrough instrumental interplayof new ideas on how a jazz orchestra ought to sound.A stunning achievement.
By Laurence Bertone

Before I started my business, I spent a number of years drifting about in the entrepreneurial ocean with only a vague idea of what I wanted to do floating around in my head. The idea was I want to sell things on the internet.

If you are in the same boat, so to speak, then I have some basic, down-to-earth, real-world advice that I hope will help you get your little vessel underway and on course.

There are a number of things you may need to do before starting an internet-based retail business. For example, you should seriously consider writing a complete business plan; you may also want to create a legal entity to contain the business. There are lots of things you may need to do before starting your own e-commerce business that are well beyond the scope of this article.

However, in terms of actually selling on the internet, I can tell you from experience, there are at least four things that you are absolutely going to need:

1. Things to sell

At the risk of sounding obvious, you will need to have Things to sell. Also, be aware that certain Things are better suited to selling on the internet than others. Many articles have been written on this topic, but in general you should be looking for products that are either uniquely available from you or are not widely available from other brick and mortar or internet-based retailers.

Also keep in mind that your success is going to depend on people being able to find your website by searching for your Things on the major search engines like Google and Bing. So before you pick your product you need to do some keyword researchyou can do this using the Keyword Planner function on Google AdWords.

Ideally you want to find a product that can be described very precisely using a multi-word (long tail) keyword phrase that a significant number of people actually search for every month. Its easier to rank high on the search engine results pages for a product like this. For example, its easier to rank high for french tablecloths or provence tablecloths than for just tablecloths.

2. High-quality images

Internet retail is the art of selling your Things to people who are sitting (or standing, or walking) in front of screens, looking at digital images. So the quality of your images is extremely importantif you dont have great pictures of your Things, youre going to be dead in the water.

If youre really lucky, your Things may come with beautiful, high quality, high-resolution images. If not, youll need to make the images yourself (assuming you have the necessary photography equipment and skills) or hire a professional photographer to do it.

3. An e-commerce website

An e-commerce website is a site where you actually sell your Things, and its more than just a regular website. In addition to providing you with a nice front end for displaying your Things, it has a whole back end infrastructure for you to manage your Things, take orders, accept credit cards, and much more.

If you want to have your own shopping site, youll need to sign up for a hosted e-commerce service like Shopify, Bigcommerce, or Volusion. Luckily all these services make it really easy to get startedthey have beautiful, mobile-friendly website templates, free trial periods, and inexpensive monthly subscription plans designed for budding e-commerce businesses.

4. An internet marketing plan

If you want to sell your Things on the internet, people have to be able to find your Things on the internet. There are bazillions of pages of information out there about how to use tools like organic search, paid search, social media, email marketing, blogging, and the like to market your Things on the internetand you should definitely be prepared to spend some time learning about them. But in the end you will most likely end up doing two things:

Fighting for organic (unpaid) search results, and Using some mix of paid advertising from services such as Google AdWords, Google Merchant, Bing Ads, Facebook, Pinterest, and others.

Youll also have to learn how to monitor the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts using tools like Google Analytics.

Other than that, the best advice I can give you is: get started. Pick one of the hosted e-commerce platform services and sign up for a free trial. Take some glamour shots of your Things. Put the two together andboom!youre in the internet retail business.

Stop drifting around, start rowing the boat, and before you know it youll be selling your Things on the internet!
Robert Frost wrote in Mending Walls that good fences make good neighbors, and this week it appears that people in this country and the UK are chock full of citizens who agree. As I explain, the immigration crises both here and in Europe have underscored growing anger at the arrogance and incompetence of unelected bureaucrats and their rules.

The big election kerfuffle of the week was the Popes ill-considered attack on those who want to limit illegal immigration from Mexico by building a wall at the border. To many it seemed an attack on Donald Trump whose campaign against illegal immigration struck a receptive chord with voters. Many noted the hypocrisy of such a statement coming from the head of the Vatican state which is itself surrounded by a wall erected in the ninth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries to protect against pirates and invaders.

In a rare defense of the Church, the New York Times argued that the charge of hypocrisy was unwarranted.

Tom Maguire was having none of it:

Those Ever-So-Clever Progressive Apologists Those walls around the Vatican City aren't really walls, don'tcha know? If the Times employed this sort of sophistry in defense of the Pope's anti-abortion stand their readers would burn the place down but since this nonsense is part of a Trump-basher it will be Hosannas all around. I will cull this as the most offensive bit: Today, the public can freely enter some parts of Vatican City, including St. Peters Basilica, St. Peters Square and the Vatican Museum (which charges for the price of a ticket). Those areas receive millions of visitors each year who are able to enter and exit the tiny city-state as they wish. Areas of the Vatican that are involved in the day-to-day governance of the church or that house officials, like the pope himself, are more difficult to gain access to, said Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, also a Catholic studies professor at Georgetown. Thats the same as any government structure in the world, she said. You cant just walk into the White House.  "Any government structure in the world"? Wait'll she learns about these things called "Post Offices" or "Department of Motor Vehicles". Or "courthouses", subject to a metal detector check. You can't just walk into the White House because it is against the law and the law is enforced, effectively or otherwise. It is also against the law to enter the southwestern US from Mexico without passing through a border control checkpoint, but if one of our undocumented friends from the South wants to break that law, well, Obama sees an undocumented Democrat (the Chamber of Commerce Republicans see cheap labor) so hey, hey, whatever. No coverage here about the number of migrant camps in Vatican City. Because there aren't any.

The truth is, you cannot have a nation that fails to defend its borders, and though nationalism is often blamed for the past world wars in certain internationalist circles, the charge is largely overblown. In Europe, fear of a resurgent, militant Germany led to the creation of the European Union and it and other international organizations set up to deal with these fears

are prey to the same power grabbing and lawlessness that characterized the worst of the heads of European nations which led to those wars.

The return to nationalist sentiment is not a solely American one. In the United Kingdom, efforts to withdraw from the European Union are mounting, inspired in large measure by the flooding into Europe of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East -- migrants who cannot truly be assimilated, affordably supported, or expected to share the nations ethos on things like religious tolerance, civil liberties, womens rights, and even the rule of law. Just another example of how softhearted empathy for others clashes with reality.

Scrambling to preserve the UK role in the European Union, David Cameron finds himself at odds with the growing support for Brexit -- the movement to exit the EU. This week he announced that there would be a referendum on June 23 to determine wither the UK remains in the union or leaves it.

Six of his own cabinet ministers -- Michael Gove, John Whittingdale, Priti Patel, Theresa Villiers, Chris Grayling, and Iain Duncan Smith -- support Brexit. Opposing Brexit is the Britain Stronger in Europe group which claims that Cameron has negotiated a deal which is responsive to Brexits concerns,

Justice Minister Michael Gove, supporting Brexit, issued a strong rebuttal. I feel I cannot cut much of it, for I am in agreement with his full-throated cry against centralized government by unelected bureaucrats and his sharp disagreement with EU policies across the board:

I cannot duck the choice which the Prime Minister has given every one of us. In a few months time we will all have the opportunity to decide whether Britain should stay in the European Union or leave. I believe our country would be freer, fairer and better off outside the EU. [cut] My starting point is simple. I believe that the decisions which govern all our lives, the laws we must all obey and the taxes we must all pay should be decided by people we choose and who we can throw out if we want change. If power is to be used wisely, if we are to avoid corruption and complacency in high office, then the public must have the right to change laws and Governments at election time. But our membership of the European Union prevents us being able to change huge swathes of law and stops us being able to choose who makes critical decisions which affect all our lives. Laws which govern citizens in this country are decided by politicians from other nations who we never elected and cant throw out. We can take out our anger on elected representatives in Westminster but whoever is in Government in London cannot remove or reduce VAT, cannot support a steel plant through troubled times, cannot build the houses we need where theyre needed and cannot deport all the individuals who shouldnt be in this country. I believe that needs to change. And I believe that both the lessons of our past and the shape of the future make the case for change compelling. The ability to choose who governs us, and the freedom to change laws we do not like, were secured for us in the past by radicals and liberals who took power from unaccountable elites and placed it in the hands of the people. As a result of their efforts we developed, and exported to nations like the US, India, Canada and Australia a system of democratic self-government which has brought prosperity and peace to millions. Our democracy stood the test of time. We showed the world what a free people could achieve if they were allowed to govern themselves. In Britain we established trial by jury in the modern world, we set up the first free parliament, we ensured no-one could be arbitrarily detained at the behest of the Government, we forced our rulers to recognise they ruled by consent not by right, we led the world in abolishing slavery, we established free education for all, national insurance, the National Health Service and a national broadcaster respected across the world. By way of contrast, the European Union, despite the undoubted idealism of its founders and the good intentions of so many leaders, has proved a failure on so many fronts. The euro has created economic misery for Europes poorest people. European Union regulation has entrenched mass unemployment. EU immigration policies have encouraged people traffickers and brought desperate refugee camps to our borders. Far from providing security in an uncertain world, the EUs policies have become a source of instability and insecurity. Razor wire once more criss-crosses the continent, historic tensions between nations such as Greece and Germany have resurfaced in ugly ways and the EU is proving incapable of dealing with the current crises in Libya and Syria. The former head of Interpol says the EUs internal borders policy is like hanging a sign welcoming terrorists to Europe and Scandinavian nations which once prided themselves on their openness are now turning in on themselves. All of these factors, combined with popular anger at the lack of political accountability, has encouraged extremism, to the extent that far-right parties are stronger across the continent than at any time since the 1930s. The EU is an institution rooted in the past and is proving incapable of reforming to meet the big technological, demographic and economic challenges of our time. It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s and like other institutions which seemed modern then, from tower blocks to telexes, it is now hopelessly out of date. The EU tries to standardise and regulate rather than encourage diversity and innovation. It is an analogue union in a digital age. The EU is built to keep power and control with the elites rather than the people. Even though we are outside the euro we are still subject to an unelected EU commission which is generating new laws every day and an unaccountable European Court in Luxembourg which is extending its reach every week, increasingly using the Charter of Fundamental Rights which in many ways gives the EU more power and reach than ever before. This growing EU bureaucracy holds us back in every area. EU rules dictate everything from the maximum size of containers in which olive oil may be sold (five litres) to the distance houses have to be from heathland to prevent cats chasing birds (five kilometres). Individually these rules may be comical. Collectively, and there are tens of thousands of them, they are inimical to creativity, growth and progress. Rules like the EU clinical trials directive have slowed down the creation of new drugs to cure terrible diseases and ECJ judgements on data protection issues hobble the growth of internet companies. As a minister Ive seen hundreds of new EU rules cross my desk, none of which were requested by the UK Parliament, none of which I or any other British politician could alter in any way and none of which made us freer, richer or fairer. It is hard to overstate the degree to which the EU is a constraint on ministers' ability to do the things they were elected to do, or to use their judgment about the right course of action for the people of this country. I have long had concerns about our membership of the EU but the experience of Government has only deepened my conviction that we need change. Every single day, every single minister is told: 'Yes Minister, I understand, but I'm afraid that's against EU rules'. I know it. My colleagues in government know it. And the British people ought to know it too: your government is not, ultimately, in control in hundreds of areas that matter. But by leaving the EU we can take control. Indeed we can show the rest of Europe the way to flourish. Instead of grumbling and complaining about the things we cant change and growing resentful and bitter, we can shape an optimistic, forward-looking and genuinely internationalist alternative to the path the EU is going down. We can show leadership. Like the Americans who declared their independence and never looked back, we can become an exemplar of what an inclusive, open and innovative democracy can achieve. We can take back the billions we give to the EU, the money which is squandered on grand parliamentary buildings and bureaucratic follies, and invest it in science and technology, schools and apprenticeships. We can get rid of the regulations which big business uses to crush competition and instead support new start-up businesses and creative talent. We can forge trade deals and partnerships with nations across the globe, helping developing countries to grow and benefiting from faster and better access to new markets. We are the worlds fifth largest economy, with the best armed forces of any nation, more Nobel Prizes than any European country and more world-leading universities than any European country. Our economy is more dynamic than the Eurozone, we have the most attractive capital city on the globe, the greatest soft power and global influence of any state and a leadership role in NATO and the UN. Are we really too small, too weak and too powerless to make a success of self-rule? On the contrary, the reason the EUs bureaucrats oppose us leaving is they fear that our success outside will only underline the scale of their failure. This chance may never come again in our lifetimes, which is why I will be true to my principles and take the opportunity this referendum provides to leave an EU mired in the past and embrace a better future."

With few changes, Goves passionate protest against the EU echoes the plaints of American conservatives and libertarians against the increasing power and arrogance of our own federal government. While the immigrant crisis makes the Brexit move more popular now than it has been, it is only a catalyst for a rising tide in the West against centralized government by unelected bureaucrats.

It is unclear how the referendum will come out.

As for the steady expansion of the EUs powers, there is a history suggesting it has grown increasingly unpopular.

On his part, in support of the referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron announced he had won certain concessions from the EU. Reading them, the argument seems unpersuasive.

Over at the blog EU Referendum, Richard North shares my skeptical view of the claim that Cameron successfully negotiated a special status for the UK:

He has cobbled together a pretend treaty combining a mish-mash of aspirations and political declarations, with no legal force whatsoever. Those parts which promise substantive change are dependent on treaty change at some unspecified point in the future, with no guarantees that they can be delivered. [snip] Britain is still in just as much danger of being dragged along in the slipstream of the Continent's headlong rush to the formation of a new state that will crush what is left of our freedom and democracy. Having offered a new treaty in his 2013 Bloomberg speech, in which he first promised a referendum, and then promised a "full-on" treaty change, Mr Cameron has come back from Brussels with a pretend treaty which amounts to a fraud on the British people. [snip] Yet, all the time, Mr Cameron's efforts have been a sideshow besides the main event -- the real renegotiation under way to transform the 19 members of the Eurozone into a single state. That is the EU real agenda not the stage-managed drama of the Prime Minister emerging blinking into the light and announcing he has secured our future for a generation. Nor should we assume that the Brussels barons will treat us kindly if we vote to remain in the EU. They will brush aside future British protests, telling us that we have had our chance to do things our way and rejected it. Our prospects sitting uneasily on the margins of the emerging superstate will not be promising. Unloved, ignored and marginalised, we face an uncertain, even risky future, on the outskirts of the new European empire. This is why, on 23 June, we have to vote to leave the EU. To buy into Mr Cameron's pretence is to give him and successive politicians a license to lie. If as a people, we accept this garbage, we will take anything  and deserve what we get.

At The Washington Post, Griffe Witte and Karla Adam agree with this assessment:

The deal, which followed two days of round-the-clock negotiations in Brussels, paves the way for a June referendum in Britain on the countrys long-ambivalent membership. If the country leaves the E.U., it would become the first country to do so, and its departure could trigger a broader unraveling at a time when the union faces greater challenges than at any point in decades. Cameron had demanded far-reaching concessions from his E.U. counterparts, saying that he needed to prove to increasingly populist voters that an institution often seen in Britain as an overbearing infringement on national sovereignty could loosen its grip. But continental leaders, who support keeping Britain in the club, drove a tough bargain, and some bridled at what they regarded as a British attempt to blackmail the bloc into giving the country a special deal. In the end, Cameron received significantly less than what he had initially sought. But he still claimed victory Friday night and immediately pivoted to what is certain to be an emotional and bitterly fought campaign over the countrys future in the body that has defined Europes postwar order.

Whatever happens on June 23, the thought that one of the EUs major players might exit has to be creating fearful tremors in Brussels and throughout the EU. And to think that the lack of walls triggered a long overdue resurgence of nationalism is surely ironic.
From Charles Dickens's Bleak House we learned that some litigation can continue forever, enriching only the lawyers on both sides. In a case still pending in federal court in California  Jewel v. NSA  we now are learning that even highly meritorious litigation against the government can be dragged out by government lawyers until the plaintiffs' lawyers run out of money.

The Jewel case was filed in 2008. It was sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as a challenge to the NSA's dragnet surveillance of internet communications. The twists and turns of this case demonstrate how difficult it can be to force federal judges to confront the unconstitutionality of illegal actions by federal agencies  when the agency's defense is "national security."

In 2010, then-district judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because the rights of too many persons were violated to allow any one person to have the type of "concrete and particularized injury" constituting a basis for standing. (This is the same federal district judge who came out of the closet only after ruling against marriage in Hollingsworth v. Perry.)

On appeal in 2011, the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Walker's ruling, holding that the plaintiffs' complaint clearly met the test for standing, since it properly had alleged that the NSA seized their communications when it intercepted internet traffic. The test devised by Judge Walker was rejected out of hand for the commonsense reason that "the fact that a harm is widely shared does not necessarily render it a generalized grievance."

The case was then remanded to the district court. By February 2015, Judge Walker had resigned, but another district judge again dismissed the case. This judge claimed that the plaintiffs had failed to prove standing with evidence, because they could not show exactly what the NSA did with the internet traffic that it unconstitutionally intercepted.

However, the court of appeals previously had determined the plaintiffs had standing because they alleged that the government seized their communications. Thus, it was of no significance that plaintiffs had not proved when and how the government actually searched their communications after it seized them.

On August 17, 2015, our law firm filed one of only two amicus curiae briefs in the Ninth Circuit supporting the second appeal. (The other brief was filed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.)

Our brief argued that the NSA's mass surveillance state is per se an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. As the Supreme Court recently re-recognized in U.S. v. Jones, 565 U.S. ___ (2012) and Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1 (2013), the Fourth Amendment foremost protects property and property interests  not just some amorphous expectation of privacy.

In our brief, we argued that a digital dragnet of internet communications violates the senders' and recipients' property rights by trespassing on the communications that they have contracted with their internet providers to transmit. It does not matter whether the government physically intruded on plaintiffs' physical property, as the Supreme Court has recognized that trespasses can occur even when they are not visible to the naked eye.

Further, we argued that NSA mass surveillance is nothing more than a general warrant to rummage around in the private affairs of Americans, looking for evidence of anything at all and nothing in particular  all of which is prohibited by the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment.

Finally, our brief countered the district court's position that the government could hide behind the "state secrets doctrine" to cover up grave, unprecedented, and ongoing constitutional violations. The government has all but admitted that it violated the Fourth Amendment, and this cannot be excused on the theory that divulging the scope of its crimes would harm national security. Indeed, our amicus brief noted, protection of the Constitution is our country's foremost national security interest.

During briefing, in an attempt to prevent the Ninth Circuit from addressing the merits of the case, the government filed a motion to dismiss the appeal. Remarkably, on December 18, 2015, the Ninth Circuit granted the government's motion on the ground that the Fourth Amendment issues in the case that we addressed were intertwined with other issues not on appeal. The court decided that issuing a ruling on the Fourth Amendment issues "would only prolong final resolution of the case."

With the case back in the district court, the district judge has not yet agreed to lift the stay on discovery, making it extremely difficult for the plaintiffs to obtain evidence in an effort to prove their case. Our view is that the Jewel case clearly would lead to an injunction against NSA dragnet surveillance of Americans  if the court were ever willing to consider the merits of the case. (See Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying.)

Sadly, this case is demonstrating that, in the hands of the modern federal judiciary, the U.S. Constitution is proving to be a mere "parchment barrier" against government crimes, so long as the government claims "national security."

Our brief was filed on behalf of the U.S. Justice Foundation; Gun Owners of America, Inc.; Gun Owners Foundation; Arizona State Chapter of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; Free Speech Coalition; Free Speech Defense and Education Fund; The Lincoln Institute for Research and Education; Downsize DC Foundation; The Abraham Lincoln Foundation for Public Policy Research, Inc.; Institute on the Constitution; Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Policy Analysis Center.

Robert J. Olson obtained his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary and his law degree from George Mason Law School. William J. Olson obtained his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his law degree from the University of Richmond. Together they practice law defending against government excess, at William J. Olson, P.C. They can be reached at wjo@mindspring.com or twitter.com/OlsonLaw.
Tax policy is an interesting lens through which to assess the present fracas we are all calling a presidential primary. On the plus side, while tax policy can be complex, detailed, and boring, some accurate and interesting elements pop off the page. First, a common point among the candidates: they all want to change the way Americans and businesses are taxed. Some, like Cruz, want Reagan-like tax cuts. Others, like Sanders and Clinton want radical tax increases.

In general, Republicans want lower tax rates on personal income, as well as capital and private investment, dropping as much double taxation as possible, such as by eliminating the estate tax. Their common belief seems to be that lower taxes will increase consumption by average Americans, when their disposable income rises. Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy both did that, to good effect.

At the same time, they all seem to believe that lower corporate income taxes, in one form or another, will spur elevated investment by Americas small businesses especially, creating new and higher quality jobs. Since roughly 80 percent of all jobs are created by small businesses, this makes sense.

Among the Republican candidates, differences pop off the page. While all want lower taxes and adhere to federal spending cuts, they slice the pie differently. Trump, for example, aims to create four brackets out of seven for average Americans, with a $25,000 bottom level that pays zero tax and a top of 25 percent, leaving the standard deduction. Over 10 years, the plan generates a 10 trillion dollar rise in U.S. debt, according to non-partisan reviewers -- if you discount new collections and possible cuts. With added specifics, the plan would be an improvement.

Cruz, more closely following the example of Ronald Reagan, is more focused on tax cuts as an engine of growth. His plan would collapse all seven individual brackets into one, just 10 percent. He would increase the personal standard deduction, causing a jump in disposable income for working Americans, and likely spike in consumer spending -- which many economists see as the prime engine for economic recovery.

Cruz would also end the corporate income tax, allowing smaller businesses to invest in increased employment. He would end payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, again encouraging corporate investment in capital and labor. To help pay for the drop in federal revenues, he proposes cuts in wasteful federal discretionary spending, and a 16 percent broad-based consumption tax. Generally, economists applaud the plan, although some reject any consumption tax.

Rubio would also lean heavily on a consumption tax, but create tax credits for those at different income levels, effectively lowering their rates with highest credits at highest income levels. He would add a $2,500 child tax credit and eliminate the estate and gifts taxes, as both Cruz and Trump would do. He would generate a ten-year burden of roughly seven trillion dollars, on par with Cruz (absent compensating cuts) and substantially below Trump.

Kasich, less ambitiously but with the express aim of balancing the budget in eight years, would lower the top income tax rate from 39.6 to 28 percent, reduce capital gains to 15 percent, and lower top business taxes from to 25 percent, while offering a tax credit to smaller businesses doing research and development, and eliminating the estate tax. He would raise by ten percent the so-called earned income tax credit for low-income taxpayers.

Ironically, the Jeb Bush tax plan is similar in some ways to the (less well defined) Trump plan, or vice versa. Bush would drop to three brackets, 10, 25 and 28 percent by ascending income level. He would boost the standard deduction, capping corporate and investment income taxes at 20 percent. He would double the earned income tax credit for some. Finally, he would -- like other Republicans -- eliminate the estate tax. He would have to compensate with federal spending cuts.

On the Democrat side, the math is much simpler  individual and corporate taxes would rise. Federal spending would balloon  again. Consumers and businesses would be left with less to invest, as the economy continued to fight for growth. Regulations would grow. How any of this would work under Clinton is largely undefined. How it would work under Sanders, if the economy were reshaped to allow free college, free health care, and an end of banks as we know them, is like trying to follow Argentina, Brazil, and Russia into their world, a morass.

Specifically, Clinton would tax those who invest at a markedly higher rate, what she calls a 4% surtax on those who otherwise spend, hire, and invest with higher disposable income. That money would go straight to Uncle Sam. She would require individuals or small businesses run by individuals to pay at least a 30 percent tax rate. To ice the cake, she would tax IRAs and ramp up the estate tax, so the federal government would take more of what people earn in hopes of passing it to children. In sum, while Clinton does not think ending the banking system is wise, she would tax those who use it most, as highly as possible to pay for more federal spending.

So, where do these varied choices leave us? In a nutshell, the deepest cuts to all personal and corporate income taxes are clearly made by Senator Cruz. He seems most intent on returning to taxpayers -- or leaving with them -- their own dollars, allowing those who earned the money to keep it. This is compensated for by a manageable, simpler consumption tax. Trump and Bush want lower rates, but still high and variegated tax levels -- certainly higher than Cruz. Kasich is modest in his goals but finds savings in cutting federal spending and freezing discretionary spending. Finally, Rubio has a complex tax credit system that, in some ways, mirrors the Bush, Kasich, and Trump levels of taxation, although its workability is unclear. If you prefer to end the American banking system as we know it, get everything for free -- from someone, possibly yourself -- then Sanders is your man. If you just want to tax everyone more, especially those you can convince others to hate, Clinton is the one.

In the end, I like to put the field on grid  and think of it this way. Roughly in rank order, Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Trump, and Kasich want to cut taxes, restarting the economy with more consumption and growth by smaller businesses, creating new incentives to invest, hire, and boost individual consumption, vectoring to less federal spending. In that order, they seem intent on growth. And in rank order, Sanders and Clinton, want to do the reverse -- raise taxes, add economic drag through elevated federal spending (from somewhere), boost regulation, and cut private sector incentives to invest, hire and consume.

One could argue that only three issues really matter this year: national security, which includes cogent policy for rebuilding the American military and foreign policy, the Supreme Court appointments and all they entail, and the economy -- how taxing (or not taxing) and spending (or not spending) will happen ahead. Net-net, one candidate wants to tax individuals and small businesses the least, and that is Cruz. All Republicans want to restructure the system, to varying degrees -- and return more earned money to average Americans. Two candidates -- Sanders and Clinton -- think those paying the most taxes are not paying enough, and that the federal government should spend more. Make your choice. I think I have made mine.

Robert Charles is a former commercial litigator, former US House committee counsel, and former Assistant Secretary of State under GHW Bush. He taught law and congressional oversight at the Harvard University extension school, and writes widely on both domestic and international policy.
Go figure: sitting through a course given by infidels failed to change the worldview of a Muslim boy raised to believe the Koran was the word of Allah, transcribed literally. Its almost enough to make Europeans think twice about importing massive numbers of young male Muslims. The UK Daily Mail reports:

A teenage Afghan immigrant has been charged with raping a female worker at an asylum seekers' centre in Belgium, authorities said, prompting outrage from anti-immigrant politicians. The 16-year-old Afghan asylum seeker followed a worker from a catering firm into the basement and raped her at the centre in Menen, near the French border, prosecutors said.

The judge ordered him detained in youth custody until his next hearing.

How much do you want to bet that he will be sentenced to more training? Just how harsh would his punishment be? At most, he would be sent to a juvenile facility, full of other Muslim males who are probably going to be even harder line than he was about the need to teach infidels that Islam requires submission. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit puts it very well:
Jeb Bush gracefully bowed out of the race for the Republican nomination last night after finishing a distant fourth behind Cruz, Rubio, and the winner, Donald Trump.

A year ago, no one in the Bush camp could have imagined this outcome. Jeb Bush had every possible advantage; money, organization, and a name that was instantly recognizable to millions of Republicans. He had a long resume, political and financial contacts in every state, and was the consensus choice of the core money men in the Republican party.

What happened? This Politico autopsy of the Bush campaign shows that the candidate and his advisors ran a race as if it were still 2000. They were so out of touch with the majority of the party that they failed to detect the rise of the anti-establishmentarians. Ultimately, they were unable to adopt to the changing political landscape and were crushed by their own hubris and incompetence.

The playbook, hatched by Sally Bradshaw, Mike Murphy and a handful of other Bush confidants in dozens of meetings during the first half of 2015 and described to POLITICO by some of Bushs closest and most influential supporters, appealed to the Bush family penchant for shock-and-awe strategy. The campaign would commence with six months of fundraising for the Right to Rise super PAC and enough muscle to push aside Mitt Romney. There would be a massive, broad-based organizational effort to plant roots in March states at a time when other campaigns were mired in Iowa and New Hampshire. The plan outlined Bushs positive, future-focused message with an emphasis on his decade-old record of accomplishment as Florida governor. And it included several pages about the former Florida governors case to prosecute against top rivals  dire political threats such as Wisconsins Scott Walker. The plan roundly underestimated threats: Bradshaw, his closest advisor and long-time defender, for example, told at least one campaign aide that Marco Rubio wouldnt challenge Bush. Besides, Bradshaw and other top advisers believed, it would be next to impossible for someone with so little experience to beat him. They thought there was going to be much more reverence and respect for the fact that Jeb Bush, a Bush, was getting into the race, said one Florida-based supporter, an alumnus of Jeb Bushs gubernatorial campaigns and former staffer. When they got Romney to step aside, they figured everyone else would too. Most critically, the playbook, people who have read it tell POLITICO, contained nothing about Donald Trump, who would spend the next excruciating year turning Bush into his personal patrician pinata. The rules all changed this year. It was all about taking on the establishment, said a Republican operative close to the Bush family. When youre the son and brother of former presidents, the grandson of a U.S. senator, how do you run in a year like this? It is just a year of personality, not message. All of a sudden, there was no path for him. They just kept falling back on his record as governor, which is all he hasand no one gives a s**t.

Jeb Bush has no one to blame but himself. He spent $150 million, ultimately wasting a good portion of his resources in states that won't vote for another month or more. He created a national campaign, but it was formed in a vacuum. He lacked a message, focus, and energy for much of the campaign, finding his voice only after it was too late.

This isn't the end of the Bush brand in politics. George P. Bush, Texas Land Commissioner, is seen as a rising star in Texas politics. But having a famous name only gets you so far. The problem for George P. and other Bush's down the line is that the family was never associated with a political movement. Like the Kennedy's it was all about wealth, power, and influence, the presidency being seen as something of an inheritance.

Jeb Bush discovered, to his chagrin, that the American people disowned him.




In a perfect world, the search to replace Justice Scalia would not be controversial at all. We'd go out and find some respected judge with good temperament and character, and that is it. It was that way for a long time.

The Founding Fathers understood that the country needed a branch to settle constitutional issues. It's clear from their writings that they did not want unelected justices with lifetime jobs legislating from the bench.

Unfortunately, the Justices in the Supreme Court are doing too much legislating, from abortion to figuring the meaning of rules written by bureaucrats to rewriting Obamacare to same-sex marriage. And this is why replacing justices is so controversial, and why some members of the Court hold on forever, waiting for a different president to nominate their replacement.

I agree with Phillip Klein:

In modern Washington, appointed bureaucrats can issue sweeping regulations imposing billions of dollars in costs on industry, small businesses, and consumers; they can determine what type of health coverage every citizen must buy; and can make individuals pay more for electricity. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Originally, the federal government was to be one of limited powers. Whatever power wasn't explicitly granted to Washington, or ruled out, was to reside with the states and their people. When that's the case, it allows citizens to debate divisive issues amongst themselves, giving them a voice in the process, and allowing for regional differences to exist on particularly contentious issues. As for the judiciary, it was conceived as the "weakest" branch of government, as described by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78. Hamilton explained that the judiciary "has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment" Over the decades, liberals have sought to control more and more aspects of people's lives from Washington. When they've been stymied at the legislative level, they've try to implement changes through executive fiat or by appointing judges they're confident will impose their ideological agenda by inserting new meaning into the Constitution.

Wonder what Hamilton would say of a Supreme Court that invented rights to an abortion or same-sex marriage! Or an agency like the EPA acting by going around Congress!

As I told a liberal friend, my opposition to the Roe and marriage decisions is not rooted on my personal opinions. Yes, I think that abortion is the taking of a life and that marriage is between a man and a woman. My opposition comes from an understanding of our constitution and the role of the people and the states. In other words, I would reluctantly accept legal abortion and same-sex marriage if the voters of Texas made it happen or it resulted from amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Yes, President Obama is right that these nominations have gotten worse over the years. Yes, they have, and participating in Sam Alito's filibuster didn't help.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The administration's policy in Syria has now become a parody of incompetence and failure as "moderate" rebel forces backed by the CIA are at war with Kurdish rebel forces backed by the Pentagon.

And to make matters even more ridiculous, Turkey is now shelling Kurdish positions across the border, putting the US at odds with a member of NATO.

Yes, really.

BuzzFeed:

Officials with Syrian rebel battalions that receive covert backing from one arm of the U.S. government told BuzzFeed News that they recently began fighting rival rebels supported by another arm of the U.S. government. The infighting between American proxies is the latest setback for the Obama administrations Syria policy and lays bare its contradictions as violence in the country gets worse. The confusion is playing out on the battlefield  with the U.S. effectively engaged in a proxy war with itself. Its very strange, and I cannot understand it, said Ahmed Othman, the commander of the U.S.-backed rebel battalion Furqa al-Sultan Murad, who said he had come under attack from U.S.-backed Kurdish militants in Aleppo this week. Furqa al-Sultan Murad receives weapons from the U.S. and its allies as part of a covert program, overseen by the CIA, that aids rebel groups struggling to overthrow the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, according to rebel officials and analysts tracking the conflict. The Kurdish militants, on the other hand, receive weapons and support from the Pentagon as part of U.S. efforts to fight ISIS. Known as the Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, they are the centerpiece of the Obama administrations strategy against the extremists in Syria and coordinate regularly with U.S. airstrikes. Yet as Assad and his Russian allies have routed rebels around Aleppo in recent weeks  rolling back Islamist factions and moderate U.S. allies alike, as aid groups warn of a humanitarian catastrophe  the YPG has seized the opportunity to take ground from these groups, too. In the face of public objections from U.S. officials and reportedly backed by Russian airstrikes, the YPG has overrun key villages in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. It now threatens the town of Azaz, on the border with Turkey, through which rebel groups have long received crucial supplies. Over the weekend, Turkey began shelling YPG positions around Azaz in response, raising another difficult scenario for the U.S. in which its proxy is under assault from its NATO ally.

It may not seem possible, but it gets worse:

Yet as America has looked on while Russia and Syria target its moderate rebel partners, it has failed to stop the YPG from attacking them too. That is a major problem, said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Its not just that its a nonsense policy. Its that were losing influence so rapidly to the Russians that people just arent listening to us anymore.

Secretary of State John Kerry announceed a "provisional agreement" on a cease fire that is supposed to start in the next few days. But President Assad has made it clear there will only be a cease fire if the rebels stop fighting and the rebels have said that they will only stop fighting if Russia stops bombing them.

But Kerry continues to act as if the US is still the big boy in the room:

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said. "In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... is possible over the course of these next hours." The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry's announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N.Security Council considers terrorist organizations. Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva. U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb. 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children. "Peace is better than more war," Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. "A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself."

This is a fantasy cease fire, as the Russians have made clear. They are not listening to us, and neither is anyone else. The United States of America has become a footnote in a region of the world where we used to dominate. But Obama and Kerry, besotted with the notion of "soft power" and that losing our dominant position will clear the path to peace, have entered an alternate reality where it is painful to watch their naive ideas crumble into nothing.

The world is laughing at us and Obama and Kerry can't hear it.
Its no secret that I want the Democrats to engage in steel cage death match between the Clinton and Sanders factions, damaging the eventual nominee at least a badly as the GOP fracas (and thats pretty badly, I admit). The results from the Nevada Caucuses are therefore good news.

After pouring a massive amount of money into organizing turnout among union members and minorities, Hillary was able to eke out a narrow 5 point victory that was entirely due to a massive edge (78  22% according to entrance polls) among black voters, who comprised 13% of the Democrats electorate in Nevada. She will walk away with a fairly narrow delegate edge in Nevada. She lost virtually every other demographic group to Sanders, besides blacks, even Hispanics.

This reveals that among most of the party, aside from the black voters, she is unpopular. Blacks comprise 13% of the national electorate and 25% of the Democrats vote.

This means that Clintons edge among blacks, if it remains large, will help her win the nomination, which is a good thing for the GOP, it now seems to me. She is a truly horrible candidate, not trusted by voters, old news in a historical moment that demands change, with a voice, when emphatic, like chalk dragged across a slate board the wrong way, and facing a possible criminal referral from the FBI.

It seems highly unlikely that Clinton will be able to muster anything approaching the turnout among blacks that Barack Obama was able to accomplish. She is not only white, she is privileged by virtue of her marriage. She may have been a civil rights activist when young, and she may pander as hard as she can, but she wont be able to inspire African-Americans to get out and vote and cajole their friends and neighbors to do so the way Obama could.

To the shock of nearly everyone, money is turning out to be a problem for Hillary. Not only is Bernie Sanders outraising her, thanks to numerous small donations received almost costlessly online, she has maxed out on campaign donations from her base of wealthy Hollywood and New York liberals, and is forced to leave the campaign trail to go to fundraisers, which are expensive and time consuming.

Then there is the matter of (ahem) possible fraud. Just as with the Iowa caucuses, there are indications of hanky-panky. The biggest vulnerability Hillary faces is the perception among the Sanders faction  the younger, educated, and enthusiastic parts of the party  that she is being forced on them by the party establishment. This is the kind of treatment that encourages people staying home in November.

Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, is quite possibly able to speak to at least some of the Sanders faction as the voice of an alienated rebel. Rush Limbaugh among others is hypothesizing that Trump is indeed aiming at drawing alienated Democrat voters, which explains his blaming of G.W. Bush for invading Iraq on false pretenses.

The best possible outcome for the GOP, no matter who is the nominee, is an angry Sanders faction anxious to punish the party for forcing Hillary down their throats. Nevada plays into that scenario vey well.
This year there wasnt just one South Korean smartphone manufacturer the world was looking forward to seeing, but two. LG have bought the fight to their staunch rival Samsung during this years Mobile World Congress and have announced the G5 just hours before Samsung. Weve been covering all things LG today, and have the full announcement to read and a closer look at whats on the inside here. For now though, weve been able to take a look at what LGs latest flagship Android smartphone looks and feels like, with a raft of images and remarks below.

The LG G4 was more of the same in terms of design from LG, but this year LG have thrown out the rulebook and started again from scratch. The modular-type G5 features a more modern design, one thats reminiscent of last years Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P to some, but also distinctly-LG to others. One notable difference is that the display has shrunk from the 5.5-inch size weve come to know and love to a more manageable 5.3-inch display. On the whole, it feels like a step forward for the firm, but those hoping for more of last years leather-looks might come away disappointed this time around. Instead, the G5 is a fully-metal unibody design, save for the party-trick that is LGs Magic Slot found at the bottom of the device. Despite the 5.5-inch display, LG have once again outdone themselves with their screen-to-body ratio, creating a compact device that belies its large display.

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This year, LG wanted to introduce a smartphone that could offer extra features to different types of users on demand, and theyve done that through the Magic Slot. The bottom of the G5 comes away to allow for accessories to be interchanged into the phone itself. These include the CAM Plus extension to offer more physical controls and better battery life, an external audio DAC developed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen and the removal battery option. This is perhaps the best way LG could stick it to Samsung regarding expandable storage and removable batteries, while also taking it to a whole new level.

In the hand, the G5 will feel noticeably different to those familiar with either the G3 or G4, but is thin enough and light enough to be held comfortably for long periods of use and can even be used in one hand with little to no fuss. Its got the distinctive LG plate at the bottom of the phone, as well as the curve at the top of the phone, but for the majority of users this will feel like a big departure from LGs previous designs. Regardless, people can take a closer look in the gallery below.
Samsung often makes a big deal out of Mobile World Congress, and 2016 has been no different for the South Korean giant. Earlier today, Samsung announced both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, this time further catering for those with subtly-different tastes as each phone is a different size this year. Last year, Samsungs Galaxy S6 was a radical change in terms of device design for the company, and rather than undo all of that work, Samsung have simply built upon it. Weve been covering all of the Samsung news today, but for those looking to find out more about whats under the hood can take a look at our specs post here.

For now though, were going to take a closer look at what Samsung has done with their flagship offering for 2016. The overall look and feel of the Galaxy S7 will be familiar to anyone thats handled a Galaxy S6, but there are subtle differences. For instance, the Galaxy S7 now features a sort of curvature around the back of the device to each side and the camera hump is noticeably smaller here, too. While the Galaxy S7 Edge is a little larger than last years Galaxy S6 Edge, the standard Galaxy S7 retains its 5.1-inch footprint that so many will know and love, however the South Korean firm have made a slightly thicker Galaxy S6 at 7.9mm to incorporate a larger 3,000 mAh battery.

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From our quick time with the Galaxy S7 at Samsungs event Its clear that Samsung hasnt strayed too far from their original formula from last year, but rather refined and improved upon it. The Super AMOLED display looks as good as ever here, and Samsung has clearly learnt something from producing smartphones from glass and metal, as this is one of the most solid smartphones weve spent time with, especially considering its 7.9mm thickness. We have a gallery of images for those anxious to learn more about the Galaxy S7 to peruse through down below, and well have a lot more on both the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge over the coming week.
Amidst all the flagship smartphones that are being unveiled officially at MWC, HTC decided that it would rather announce a bunch of affordable handsets this Sunday. While its upcoming One M10 flagship is expected to come later in the year, the Taiwanese tech company had earlier unveiled the upper mid-range One X9 smartphone and also announced that its Vive virtual reality headset will be priced at $799. Now, the company has officially taken the wraps off of three brand new entry-level and mid-ranged smartphones as part of the companys ever-expanding Desire portfolio. The Desire 530, Desire 630 and Desire 825 are standard fare at the entry and lower mid-range in hardware terms, but HTC has managed to bring in a splash of color to the entire lineup that the company claims is inspired by streetwear fashion.

According to the company, the splatter effect on the polycarbonate rear covers of the handsets are completely unique to each device and are created by a micro splash process. HTC is also putting emphasis on the sound and according to the company, all three handsets come with HTCs proprietary BoomSound profile for their headsets, while both the Desire 630 and the Desire 825 feature Dolby Audio. As for the phones themselves, all three seem destined for the prepaid market for the most part, going by the hardware specs released by the company officially. On the software front, they all come with Android Marshmallow pre-installed and the two more premium handsets apparently also come with the Live Make-Up feature as part of their camera software, which allows users to touch-up their images on the go.

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Coming to the hardware specs of the just-announced devices, the Desire 825 seems to be the most premium of the lot, with a 5.5-inch 720p screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. The cameras come with 5-megapixel and 13-megapixel sensors on the front and the back respectively, while the battery capacity is 2,700 mAh. The Desire 630 comes with a smaller 5-inch, 720p screen, and is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, whist packing 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. The device rocks a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, and carries a 2,200 mAh battery.

As for the Desire 530, its likely to be the most affordable of the lot, seeing as the device comes with a Qualcomm MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 processor under the hood. The handset still features 5-inch 720p display alright, but has only 1.5 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, 8 and 5-megapixel primary and secondary cameras respectively and a removable 2,200 mAh Li-Ion battery. While the spec-sheet of the device looks suspiciously like the so-called HTC A16 that was leaked over the last few days, theres no confirmation from HTC regarding the matter. Either way, theres still no word regarding the pricing or the ETA, but well keep you in touch as and when we come across any such info.
LG just announced their newest flagship in the LG G5. The device has been leaked and rumored for months and months. Now its finally real and official. LG announced it in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress  making it unprecedented as no other LG G series smartphone was announced at the show in previous years. We already know that its coming to the US and hitting all four of the major carriers, which if you havent already checked out the US availability, we urge you to do so. Lets talk about the rest of the world.

LG didnt say much in terms of where the LG G5 was going to launch and when. LG did say that they would be launching in key markets simultaneously. So it appears that LG wont be launching in South Korea, which is what they usually do with their flagships in recent years. As far as pricing goes, itll likely be around $600 USD or the equivalent in other countries when it is released. LG hasnt yet announced the pricing for the LG G5. Also pretty much the norm when it comes to product launches  only Google announces prices at announcements for the Nexus devices.

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The LG G5 is the fifth-generation LG G series smartphone which actually started out as the Optimus G then dropped the Optimus prior to the G2. Its also the first LG flagship to not have back buttons (the volume rocker and power button) since the original Optimus G back in late 2012. LG decided to go with a full aluminum body here on the LG G5 as well as adding the magic slot which we had heard so much about prior to launch. The magic slot is almost like having a modular smartphone here. Allowing you to add all sorts of accessories to the LG G5. Its a pretty nifty idea and still allows you to go ahead and add all sorts of accessories including an extended battery. LG also included a smaller display this time around, going down to a 5.3-inch display and the device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor  the second device to be announced with the processor, but likely the first to actually be widely available.
LG and Samsung have been long-term rivals at home in South Korea for years, but more recently the two have been battling it out on the International stage. Ever since the LG G3, the South Korean firm has been taking the fight to Samsung and this year theyre announcing their latest device on the very same day as Samsung. If this isnt a sign that LG want to compete on the same footing as Samsung, then we dont know what is. Weve been hearing a hell of a lot about the G5 over the past few weeks, and now that the device is finally official, we can see that LG has been very busy, indeed.

Where last years LG G4 was more of an evolutionary improvement on the G3, the G5 is a revolutionary step forward for the companys mobile offerings. Starting with the overall look and feel of the device, the G5 might remind people of a cross between the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P from last Fall, and its definitely a departure from last years LG G4. The South Korean firm is saying that they created the G5 with a modular, fluid-metal design and did so to offer a more durable look and feel without compromising on features or expandability. This comes in the form of LGs new Magic Slot addition, which allows the bottom part of the device to be pulled away and replaced with either a fresh battery or even a better audio module from Bang & Olufsen or a better camera grip developed by LG themselves. Durability meanwhile comes from the advanced microdizing process that LG have used to create the smooth metallic finish of the G5, which will be available in a number of different colors at launch.

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The camera has been the source of much speculation over the past few weeks, and we now know that the G5 does indeed have two cameras at its disposal. One of which has a 78-degree angle lens, and the other a much-wider 135-degree angle, which LG says is 1.7 times the usual angle lenses supplied with most smartphones on the market today. The standard camera features a 16-megapixel sensor, while the wider angle camera has an 8-megapixel sensor inside of it. The two cameras come together in software to offer some innovative shooting modes that allow users to be creative with picture-in-picture and make creative videos without ever taking the footage off of the phone. Well have more on the camera for people to read about here.

Front and center is the familiar Quad HD display weve become familiar with from LG, but this time around theyve gone with a smaller 5.3-inch display to make the device easier to handle day-to-day. Theyve made a number of new improvements and despite the display size, the device itself feels nice and compact in the hand coming in at just 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7mm. 3D Arc glass runs around the display, which LG says creates a gentle curve. One thing LG is keen to remind people of is that the G5 features an always-on display, something that was inspired by the V10s second-screen. This uses driver IC memory to only illuminate certain parts of the display when in use, which boils down to just 0.8% of battery drain when the always-on display is enabled. Joining this is Daylight Mode, something LG says will instantly boost the brightness when the phone detects strong sunlight up to a maximum of 850 nits of brightness.

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On the inside, LG have stuck with Qualcomm and have become one of the first manufacturers to launch a device with the quad-core Snapdragon 820, which is said to be a massive improvement over last years Snapdragon 810. Theres 4GB of RAM joining the new Snapdragon 820, as well as 32GB of expandable storage. Elsewhere, we see a new USB Type-C connector, which brings the hot new connector to LGs flagship smartphone. Running the show is a 2,800 mAh battery that LG have said should be able to make it through the day, and theyre more than keen to let people know they can just take the battery out and replace it should they need to. Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0 is here, which can charge the G5 27% faster than Quick Charge 2.0 in the G4.

The LG G5 will be available in Gold, Pink, Silver and Titan later this year. Well have more information regarding pricing and availability as soon as we have it.
The worlds biggest mobile tech giants seem to have gained a lot of interest in the automotive industry over the past several years, which makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it. With the help of smartphone and chipset manufacturers (including NVIDIA), cars are getting smarter with each generation and, in fact, they may become so smart that soon enough, they might no longer require a driver. But before self-driving cars become an ordinary thing, companies like Samsung aim at smartening our current vehicles with new products designed to enrich the experience of driving and owning a car  even an older one at that. Samsungs latest such product is called Samsung Connect Auto and brings fast cellular connectivity to just about any vehicle.

Samsung Connect Auto was announced yesterday  one day before the company lifts the veil on the Samsung Galaxy S7 at MWC  and consists of a device that connects with, and brings 4G connectivity to any car equipped with an on-board diagnostic port, or OBD for short. Technically, this means that Samsung Connect Auto should be compatible with just about any vehicle manufactured in the past two decades. The product is similar to Verizons Hum service, in that it monitors the vehicle, provides relevant data to the user, and can offer roadside assistance. Its also interesting to note that Samsungs dongle works on Tizen OS as opposed to Android. Tizen is the companys proprietary operating system for mobile devices, which can be found on a handful of Samsung smartphones as well as the companys smartwatch line-up.

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Although Samsung Connect Auto is not yet ready for the market, the Korean tech giant is working closely with AT&T to bring the service to US shores sometime in the second quarter of the year. Aside from AT&T, Samsung already partnered up with quite a few other companies including China Unicom, Europcar, Ericsson, IBM, Orange, HERE, AXA, Oberthur Technologies, Orange, Openbay, and Willis Towers Watson. Samsung wasnt able to reveal any details regarding the products price, but its safe to assume that it should be able to compete with Verizons Hum which is available along with a $15 monthly subscription.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow introduced many improvements and refinements to Android, including significant improvements in power management through App Standby and Doze, changes to the application permission setup, which allow customers much more granular control over what permissions individual applications are granted. There are many changes under the skin of the updated software and it has taken device manufacturers some time to update their devices. We have seen some headline devices receive their updates after a long period of testing, including a number of Samsung Galaxy devices  the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge received the software, followed more recently by the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Samsungs late 2015 flagship device. Customers in Cambodia were amongst the first to receive the update on the SM-N920C device, but unfortunately it appears that despite the extensive testing period, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is a far from perfect experience on the Note 5.

The source website has reported that many readers are experiencing battery drain issues following the update to Android Marshmallow. This is especially disconcerting given that battery life is not only an area of focus for Google with the update to Marshmallow, but also it is something that is obvious to customers after the update so may not have been showing in the test devices. Or worse, it was ignored by Samsungs product managers but more on this later. Another issue thats been reported is the Samsung Gear VR has stopped working on Android 6.0.1; again, surely Samsung would have tested their own products with the software update? There are an undisclosed number of other minor bugs being reported with the update too.

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At the time of writing, the software rollout has not been stopped, so there is another theory as to what is happening with the update: it is possible that Samsung are aware of the issues with the Note 5 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and are treating Cambodia market as a testing market. Perhaps Samsungs software engineers need more data and are so releasing the update to this market in order to gather data? So far, weve no word from Samsung as to their immediate plans for the software update; there may be a patch about to be released in the next few days, so if you have already updated your device, be sure to install any new software updates as they arrive.
Microsoft are a changed business in 2016 compared with just a couple of years ago. The business finally reached the conclusion that pushing the Windows Phone operating system onto customers was not working, although as a cruel paradox when Microsoft took the commercial decision to stop promoting Windows Mobile 8, Windows 10 Mobile was showing much promise! Indeed, Microsoft appears to have changed tact when it comes to the Windows operating system, having offered it free of charge to many customers already using Windows 7 and Windows 8.x on their computers. Instead, the company has reinvigorated its efforts to promote and develop its software products and services, such as Office 365, OneDrive and similar. Microsoft recently blogged on the subject, showing the world that it has made great progress in having its applications pre-installed onto several manufacturers devices  including Samsung, which supplied the 2015 flagship device, the Galaxy S6, with several preinstalled Microsoft applications. As a point of reference, some carriers removed these pre-installed applications before customers received the devices.

Samsungs relationship with Microsoft has not always been great. In the past, the two companies have clashed concerning Samsungs payment of royalties to Microsoft. Samsung argued that Microsoft buying Nokias mobile division meant that its licensing arrangement with certain Android technologies was null and void. Microsoft sued Samsung for the missing royalties and the argument was settled in February 2015 with a sealed and undisclosed agreement between the two companies. Although we do not know for certain, various Microsoft applications were preloaded onto the Galaxy S6, which might have been a part of the settlement between Microsoft and Samsung. Weve also seen several Samsung tablets carrying Microsoft applications. This relationship between Microsoft and Samsung has continued into the Galaxy S7 and the new flagship also comes with several core Microsoft offerings: the device will come with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive and Skype. Theres no word on if Microsoft will use a similar strategy of offering customers free cloud storage as it did with last years Galaxy S6 flagship, although we would be surprised if a similar deal was not on the cards for the new Galaxy.

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However and whatever the reasons for the inclusion of Microsoft applications on the Galaxy S7, it means that customers will have a choice of productivity software on their new flagship handset as the software is also sure to include Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. It is not clear if the Microsoft applications will be baked into the software or simply pre-installed, so should customers not wish to use these applications, how easy it will be to remove them.
Finally, after the last few days of rumors, leaked images and speculation, Samsung finally made the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge official. There ended up being no real surprises  back is the expandable internal memory and water resistance was added, but still no removable battery  kind of tough to do with a sealed back. The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are confirmed to launch March 11 in Canada and pre-orders will start tomorrow, February 22 and will include the free VR incentive. Samsung did not give us any indication of pricing for either device, although T-Mobile in the States has the Galaxy S7 at $669.99 and the Galaxy S7 Edge at $779.99.

The new Samsung Galaxy S7 will come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, of course, and a lighter version of TouchWiz over top. This time around it will come with an IP68 water and dust rating  a nice feature since they sealed the back. It will sport a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and 577 pixels-per-inch (PPI). The processor will either be their own Exynos 8890 or the Snapdragon 820 with Canada most likely getting the Exynos model  curiously, Samsung will actually be manufacturing the Snapdragon 820 for Qualcomm. You will get 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 32GB of faster UFS 2.0 internal memory that will once again, be expandable.

The camera will take an interesting twist this year by going from 16MP down to 12MP of what they are calling Dual Pixels. A physically larger sensor powers the 12MP resolution and each pixel can take-in more information  whether the public will buy into that or not remains to be seen. We cannot wait to get one in our hands for testing in this area. The aperture increased from f/1.9 to f/1.7 and will allow more light to enter the sensor  it is the largest aperture Samsung has ever used. The Dual Pixels will allow the Galaxy S7 to focus with 100-percent of its pixels. Samsung also increased the speed of the autofocus and included Smart OIS.

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The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge increases the display size to 5.5-inches with 534 PPI and offers up its dual-curved edge. The battery jumps from the 3000mAh found in the Galaxy S7 to 3600mAh and both remain non-removable. Samsung made an effort here to win back some of its upset customers with the larger battery and expandable storage. Now we will have to see how they react to the new camera not being 20+ megapixels.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge have been leaking for months at this point, and Samsung has finally unveiled both of these phones. The company has announced the devices during their press conference in Barcelona, as part of the Mobile World Congress (MWC). That being said, weve already covered the Galaxy S7 announcement already, in case youd like to check that out, and are here to take a closer look at its spec sheet, lets get started, shall we.

First and foremost, it is worth saying that the device is made out of metal and glass, much like its predecessor. The metallic chassis is stuck between two sheets of glass, which makes the Galaxy S7 look quite sleek. The device features a 5.1-inch QHD (2560 x 1440, 577ppi) Super AMOLED display, along with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of expandable internal storage (up to 200GB via a microSD card). Samsung went back to two variants of their flagship this year. One with a Qualcomm chip and the other with their own Exynos chip. The Snapdragon 820 SoC ships with the Adreno 530 GPU for graphics, four of its cores are clocked at 2.15GHz, while the other four are running at 1.6GHz. Depending on the market, it may be running on Samsungs own Exynos 8890 processor which is a 64-bit SoC with a quad-core 2.3GHz and a quad-core 1.6GHz processor inside. Paired with the Mali T880 GPU.

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The 12-megapixel OIS Dual Pixel camera (f/1.7 aperture), which is flanked by a dual-LED, dual tone flash. The 5-megapixel shooter (f/1.7 aperture) is available up front, and a 3,000mAh battery can be found on the inside of the Galaxy S7. Speaking of battery, you do get both fast charging and wireless fast charging with the Galaxy S7. On the bottom of this phone, youll notice the micro USB port Samsung opted for, so theres not Type-C port available here, as some rumors suggested. The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the bottom of the device, while the power / lock button is on its right side. The volume rocker keys are placed on the left side of the Galaxy S7, and as you can see, the physical home button made a comeback here. The button is similar to the one weve seen in the Galaxy Note 5, its somewhat bigger than the one you can find in the Galaxy S6. The overview (multitasking) and back buttons flank the physical home button, and the fingerprint scanner is implemented on the inside of the home key. As far as software goes, Android 6 Marshmallow comes pre-installed on the Galaxy S7, and on top of it, youll find Samsungs TouchWiz custom UI, as always.

On top of all this, it is worth mentioning that the Galaxy S7 also packs a heart rate sensor on the back of the device, while the phone is also IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. The Galaxy S7 features an always-on display, as some of the leaks suggested prior to launch. This smartphone measures 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm, while it weighs 152 grams. The device comes in Black Onyx and Gold Platinum color variants.
Over the past year weve seen a pretty fundamental shift to a brand new connection standard on Android phones; USB Type-C. Weve seen plenty of revisions to the USB standard over the years, from the old school USB Type A port, USB 3.0 speeds and most recently the USB Type-C standard. Many big name phones went USB Type-C this past fall and this year in general, including the recently announced LG G5. But just because lots of big players like Google and LG are jumping on the boat doesnt mean that everyone will, and thus we have Samsungs dismissal of the standard with the announcement of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Surprisingly enough Samsung completely shunned the USB Type-C standard, not even referencing it on stage. Instead Samsung went on to highlight how much theyve worked on the microUSB standard, even to the point where the port itself is completely water resistant. That means no annoying flaps to keep open or closed, and no worries about water getting into your device via an open port. Whats both a problem and a blessing though is that this new port is still microUSB, which means its not reversible and incapable of the fastest data transfer or charging rates possible. Samsung still cites that this is QuickCharge 3.0 compatible though, and USB 3.0 speed compatible, so youre not exactly going to be wanting more anyway, but not being able to easily plug the cable in in a reversible fashion sure is annoying.

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One reason this is a positive thing though is that all of your existing peripherals will still work without requiring new connectors or adapters. This includes popular peripherals like the Gear VR and the boatloads of docks and adapters out there too. The fact that Samsung is including a free Gear VR with all Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge pre-orders only solidifies this action on their part, as changing the USB port would mean switching out important parts that make it incompatible with any older phones. Progress will happen eventually on the USB Type-C front as far as Samsung devices are concerned, but the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge wont be where it begins.
Samsung is currently the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and consumers are eagerly awaiting the companys press event later today. Samsung will introduce their new flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge, at their Unpacked event in Barcelona today. Weve seen plenty of leaked content when it comes to these two smartphones, and we even managed to get our hands-on some exclusive content quite recently.

That being said, Samsung dabbles in pretty much everything tech related, and it seems like the company is very interesting in the growing car tech industry. Samsung has already assembled a team which is in charge of developing self-driving technologies, and the company has teamed up with BMW already as well. The company has just announced that theyre teaming up with SEAT and SAP as well, in order to develop future projects for connected cars. This Korea-based tech giant has announced that the three companies will show off concepts with the cutting-edge tech at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. What concepts is Samsung talking about? Well, the concepts which include the ability to pay without leaving your car, the use of a digital key, seamless user experience, etc. Samsungs partnership with SEAT and SAP signals our commitment to developing innovative solutions for the next level of the connected car, said Injong Rhee, Executive VP and Head of R&D, Software and Services at Samsung.

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More and more companies are getting involved in the car business lately, it seems. Googles Android Auto and Apples CarPlay platforms are getting more and more popular, and Samsung is slowly, but surely, getting involved in the whole business as well. It will certainly going to be interesting to see what will Samsung have to offer during MWC, this is, after all, one of the biggest tech companies in the world. That is pretty much it though, well just have to wait and see what happens during MWC, and in case youre interested in what Samsung has to say later today during their MWC keynote, tune in at 7 PM CET.
Samsung is having their big day in the sun across the pond in Barcelona, Spain right now and during the same event that Samsung announced the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, they also had some Samsung Pay news to share. The service was launched with last years Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 line of devices, but was only available in the US at the time. Just before Mobile World Congress, we were hearing lots of news that Samsung would be preparing a launch of Samsung Pay in China as well as Spain. Now, during their event earlier today, Samsung have confirmed that 2016 will see the service launch in a further 7 countries throughout the world.

China, Australia and Brazil appear to be the first in line  if the order of countries name by Samsung in a recent Tweet is anything to go by, that is  and joining them will be Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore. These 7 will of course join the United States and South Korea, where Samsung originally launched the service. Over the past year or so, mobile payments systems have become big business, and were sure that Samsung will want to keep the ball moving regarding their own payments system. Competing with Apple is never easy, but when Apple Pay is already fully-featured across much of the globe, Samsung is certainly playing catch up, but with this move Samsung should help close the gap.

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One thing thats worth noting about Samsung Pay is that the service will allow Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 devices to pay for items at stores using older, card swipe machines. This is because down the sides of a Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S7 device is the mag-stripe technology used on the back of credit and debit cards out there. Samsung didnt give any concrete information on just when these new countries would get Samsung Pay, just that its on its way to these countries. Either way, this is an important step for any mobile payments system, and well likely hear more from Samsung closer to the global rollout of the Galaxy S7, which appears to be a lot sooner than we first thought.
Following Verizon, and AT&T, now Sprint has announced that they will be carrying the LG G5. Again, like Verizon and AT&T, Sprint has not announced when itll be available, nor the price for the new device. We will get that information as we move closer to the release date, which appears to be around April. The LG G5 is a completely redesigned smartphone from LG, weve got a 5.3-inch 25601440 resolution display here along with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor inside. Not to mention the 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, microSD card slot, and removable 2800mAh battery which does support Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0 technology. LG has packed the best specs available, into the LG G5 and it definitely shows. They also went with an aluminum unibody here on the LG G5, which makes it look fantastic. As well as offering it in silver, gold, pink and titan.

Along with the LG G5, the company announced a slew of other accessories that work with the LG G5. In particular, modular accessories. Sprint has announced that they will carry some of these including the LG 360 Cam and the LG Tone Platinum headphones. The LG 360 Cam is LGs virtual reality camera. It has a 360-angle camera which has two 13-megapixel wide angle cameras as well as a 1,200mAh battery inside and 4GB of internal storage. The LG Tone Platinum, on the other hand, is their latest set of Bluetooth headphones, which have earned the Harman Kardon Platinum grade for the audio quality coming out of this pair. Pricing has not been announced on these either.

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In the press release, Sprint also took a minute to state that the Sprint LTE Plus network is faster than their competition  AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. They also noted that their prices are amongst the lowest in the wireless industry right now. Making it a great choice to pick up the LG G5. Especially with Unlimited data  which Verizon is the only one without unlimited data right now. Sprint is still offering 50% off for those that switch, however that promotion may not be around when the LG G5 is available on Sprints network.
After all the rumors, leaks and speculations, LG Electronics has finally made its latest flagship smartphone official. The LG G5 was unveiled by the South Korean consumer electronics major earlier this Sunday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The device is now the first ever mainstream modular smartphone, which is admittedly quite a feat for the company seeing as multiple modular smartphone projects have fallen by the wayside over the years for one reason or another. With interest surrounding the G5 reaching fever pitch, multiple wireless carriers around the world are rushing to offer the device on their networks, and leading telecom companies in the UK are apparently no exception either.

No sooner had LG announced their latest and greatest smartphone, than three of the largest UK-based telecom service providers, namely  Vodafone, EE and O2  all announced that they are going to start offering the device on their networks at some stage in the coming weeks and months. None of the companies, however gave any details as to when they expect stocks to arrive at their warehouses. In keeping with the times, all three companies announced their decision on Twitter, and while Vodafone tweeted that the device will be coming soon to Vodafone UK, EE actually tweeted about setting up a webpage for users to register their interest in the upcoming device from the South Korean OEM.

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While the concept of modular smartphones is nothing new, multiple attempts at launching one commercially have met with little success over the years. In fact, past concepts like Dave Hakkens PhoneBloks, the one that started it all, along with crowdsourced projects like Fonekraft and PuzzlePhone are all yet to see the light of day, as is Googles own Project Ara, which started life under Motorola and was supposed to have its pilot launch in Puerto Rico last year itself. Either way, the G5 is unquestionably the very first commercially launched mainstream modular smartphone, which should address often mentioned concerns regarding the alleged lack of innovation in the smartphone sector over the past few years or so. It now remains to be seen if the novelty factor of a customizable smartphone can help LG knock Samsung and Apple off of their perch, but the company that has often lived in the shadow of fellow South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, will sure hope so.
The Lego Bandit wants his Mr Froggy returned or else

This story gets better the more you read. An inmate at DuPage County, Illinois, wants to be released within 14 days. He says that unless his the personal effects taken from him during his July 2015 arrest are retuned within that period, he will leave prison in a huff and moan a lot.

Ignatius Michael Pollara, 50, of Tamarac, Florida, wants returned his three pairs of underwear, a Mr. Froggy plush animal and concert tickets.

Mr Pollara is being held on $125,000 bail on a burglary charge, accused of stealing several paintbrushes and a box of pencils from a Lombard Hobby Lobby store. Pollara argued in court on Thursday, against the advice of Assistant Public Defender Mark Lyon, that the Oak Brook Police Departments negligence and carelessness in failing to safely store his items has deprived him of his due process. In a written motion, Pollara also demanded to be discharged from jail within 14 days if the items are not returned. DuPage Judge Brian Telander warned Pollara that his antics frequently come close to trying his patience. But he also asked prosecutors to try to find Pollaras missing property not considered to be evidence. Oak Brook police Sgt. Ben Kadolph said on Thursday afternoon his department has a lot of property taken during Pollaras arrest, including a stuffed animal. We have several boxes of stuff that was taken as evidence in this and possibly other cases, Kadolph said. And we have a box of his personal property. In the motion filed on Feb. 10, Pollara identified the missing items he wants returned. Included in his list were a backpack and a suitcase, a laptop computer, several clothing items, one Hearst Castle plush blanket, tickets to U2 and Grateful Dead concerts and one stuffed Mr. Froggy plush animal with tag I think Ive been here long enough for two paint brushes and a bag of pencils, he said, before being warned by a deputy to calm down and lower his voice.

Two paint brushes and pencils warrants jail and needs $125,000 bail to talk free until his court date? Wow! America has lost the plot.

And then this

In Florida, Pollara is known as the Toys R Us Kid and the Lego Bandit after he was convicted in a 2012 burglary spree in which he stole more than $2 million in Lego sets and toys from the Toys R Us chain.

Although given the prize of Lego, that haul amounts pretty much one Millennium Falcon and a Lego encounter group.

Anorak

Posted: 21st, February 2016 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink


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Al Udeid shop operates most productive AF wheel, tire repair facility

The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron operates the only wheel and tire repair facility in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and the most productive facility in the Air Force.



In the past year, the squadrons wheel and tire maintenance team produced 3,000 serviceable tires, more than any other Air Force wheel and tire shop.



We average between eight and 10 tires a day, said Staff Sgt. James Mercatell, a 379th EMXS aerospace maintenance craftsman from Sebastian, Florida. There are days when weve received 25 tires, and we have the capability to turn 30 wheels and tires in a single day.



Unserviceable wheels are pulled off aircraft and delivered to the shop. Once received, each wheel is broken down and inspected.



A couple days ago we received 30 wheels and we had stuff everywhere, but we got every wheel and tire out, with 15 being completed in one shift, Mercatell said. We inspect everything to ensure each wheel is serviceable, and it can be reassembled safely and properly.



Nearly 10 Airmen work in the wheel and tire repair facility. These Airmen look for anything that would make a wheel unserviceable such as cracks or signs of corrosion. The inspection is a thorough process and includes hand cleaning of every wheel, as well as an inspection by the 379th EMXS nondestructive inspection team to detect potential micro fractures, which are invisible to the human eye.



As the only wheel and tire repair facility in the AOR, we disassemble, inspect and reassemble wheels and tires for any aircraft in the AOR, said Senior Airman Michael Dalleo, a 379th EMXS aerospace maintenance apprentice from Enfield, Connecticut.



Dalleo said the work he does has an impact every day.



I get to work on seven different aircraft, and I see the direct effect of what we do and how it supports operations, Dalleo said. I take great pride in knowing what we do enables missions across the AOR. Planes cant take off or land without tires.



The 379th EMXS has enabled more than 20,000 sorties and more than 683 million pounds of fuel to be off-loaded in 2015. Because of the units dedicated mechanics, Al Udeid Air Bases KC-135 Stratotanker fleet was able to take-off from the base and fly more than 100,000 combat hours and perform more than 54,000 aerial fuel transfers.



Having a hand in those accomplishments has special meaning for every one of his Airmen, Mercatell said.



We provide a lot to the fight and we all understand the magnitude of what we do every day, Mercatell said. Thats why we carefully inspect each item. We want to make sure we support the fight so our planes can fly; if theyre not flying, then theyre not able to support our brothers and sisters in arms who need us.



The best part of the job is knowing we support the fight, he added. We make a difference. The wheels we work on go on aircraft across the AOR and those aircraft fly missions to take out bad guys.



Senior Master Sgt. Adam Otto, the 379th EMXS maintenance flight chief from Hastings, Michigan, said the dedication the Airmen in the wheel and tire section display is impressive.



Most of the Airmen here have never worked together before and many have never worked in a wheel and tire shop, Otto said. They get trained, they come here and they come together to support the mission. We rely on them to become a cohesive team in a minimal amount of time.



Theyre turning more tires than any other shop in the Air Force and they have the capability to produce up to 30 tires in a day, he continued. The work this team does is very important because without our aircraft flying, more people would be in harms way.
Uber Driver Arrested After Killing Rampage In Kalamazoo Leaves 6 Dead

Trending News: An Uber Driver Has Been Arrested For Killing 6 People In The Michigan City Of Kalamazoo

Why Is This Important?

Because the suspect reportedly drove passengers on the night of the killing rampage.

Long Story Short

The man suspected of murdering six people and injuring two others in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is a registered Uber driver.

Long Story

Jason Dalton, the man suspected of killing six people on Saturday night in Kalamazoo, took fares as an Uber driver in between opening fire on several locations, according to police who spoke to 24 Hours News 8.

Dalton was arrested around 12:30 a.m. after the Saturday night killing spree and has been confirmed as an driver who passed one of the company's background checks.

BREAKING: Uber confirms Kalamazoo shooting suspect drove for them. He had passed background check. https://t.co/DMBNLBO1qB  Luke Stier (@LukeStier) February 21, 2016

"We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo, Michigan," said Uber in an official statement. "Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims of this devastating crime and those recovering from injuries. We are reaching out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can."

In the morning thaw after the rampage, the motive behind the shocking rampage is still stumping investigators.

"We just can't figure out the motive," said Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley to CNN. "There's nothing that gives us any indication as to why he would do this or what would have triggered this. The victims did not know him, he did not know the victims."

A couple who lives across the street from Dalton who spoke to The New York Times and CNN said Dalton has a wife and two kids. The neighbors described the family as "a typical American family" and Dalton as "a nice guy." However, they did say he periodically shot his gun out his backdoor.

Jail mugshot of Kalamazoo shootings suspect Jason Brian Dalton, 45 pic.twitter.com/XLlHNGKOZl  Kalamazoo Gazette (@Kzoo_Gazette) February 21, 2016

A Facebook post describing a terrifying situation where Dalton was allegedly the Uber driver has also been circulating.

BREAKING: We've talked to woman who posted about bad Uber driver before shooting. Doesn't want to comment right now. pic.twitter.com/XLyF9cPCrW  Luke Stier (@LukeStier) February 21, 2016

The rampage first started before 6 p.m. on Saturday night after a woman was shot four times in an apartment complex parking lot, said Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting in a statement. The woman, who was reportedly there with her three children, is in critical condition but expected to survive.

Then, two men were shot and killed at a Kia dealership four hours later. Ten minutes after that, Dalton allegedly opened fire at two vehicles in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant killing four adult women and severely injuring a 14-year-old girl.

Four of the victims have been identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62; Mary Jo Nye, 60; Dorothy Brown, 74; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, who were from Baroda or Battle Creek, Michigan. The two men and the critically injured teen have yet to be identified at the time of writing.

Roughly two hours after the Cracker Barrel shooting, police arrested Dalton who was in possession of a semiautomatic handgun, ending the 6-hour nightmare.

What is there to say about this other then to cry out in frustration, uggghhhhhh! America, you can't go on like this  something needs to change, and quick.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Does this beg more questions about gun control or about Uber?

Disrupt Your Feed

Why are people allowed semiautomatic handguns again?

Drop This Fact

The Kalamazoo shooting was the 42nd mass shooting of the year, reports The Washington Post. There's only been 52 days in the year so far.
The Kwid hatchback will first be exported to Sri Lanka via the CBU route; Brazil, Latin America and Africa markets to get the model later as CKD units.

Renault India will commence exports of its Kwid hatchback in March 2016, with the first market to be Sri Lanka. This will be followed by other SAARC markets including Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Speaking to our sister publication Autocar Professional at the sidelines of the Make in India Week in Mumbai, Sumit Sawhney, managing director, Renault India, said: "After receiving a great response for the Kwid here, we are now planning to aggressively export the car to other international markets. We will export to the SAARC markets first, starting with Sri Lanka."

Commenting on the huge potential that Renault sees in this region, Sawhney said that though initial volumes would be low given the current duty structures, these markets would emerge as big volume drivers in the future.

Apart from these markets, Renault will also export the Kwid to Brazil and other parts of Latin America. The other market which would get the Kwid this year is Africa, added Sawhney. Based on the CMF-A platform and developed by the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the hatchback will be a perfect example of 'Make in India' for the world, with localisation levels of over 98 percent. The Kwid will be shipped as CBUs to the SAARC region, while Latin American and African market are set to receive the model via the CKD route.

"With such high levels of localisation, the decision to export the Kwid provides a lot of opportunities for our suppliers as well, as spares and kits come in the picture," Sawhney said. Reiterating the company's plan to ramp up the Kwid's production, Sawhney said that Renault India plans to increase production to 10,000 units by March 2016 and bring down the current waiting period by almost 35-40 percent. The current average waiting period for the Kwid in the domestic market is around 4 to 5 months depending on the variants.



Shourya Harwani
Designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone fame, the Lamborghini Miura is the grandfather of the supercar thanks to its mid-engine layout. When it was launched in 1966, the Miura was the fastest road-legal car available. Two years later, the recipe was improved by the P400S, arguably the most beautiful version of the Miura. Needless to say, the P400S makes car collectors go weak at the knees.Frank Sinatra used to own one. Miles Davis liked his Miura so much that he crashed his P400S in 1972 under the influence of cocaine. Now that's as rock'n'roll as Miura ownership gets. Of the 338 units built between 1968 and 1971, the one listed on Mobile for 3 million ($3.33 million according to current exchange rates) is a real cherry.Manufactured in January 1969 and sold to an Italian businessman, this white-painted example was acquired by the current owner in 1973. With 29,500 kilometers (18,330 miles) on the odometer, this is one of the least used Miuras known to exist. For those in the market for such a rare breed in tip-top condition, the $3.33 million price shouldnt be a problem considering the originality of this P400S.For that mountain of money, the seller will throw in a brochure of the Lamborghini Miura P400S, the maintenance and service manual, the original bill of sale from 1969, and the original tool kit that came with the car.With all due respect, these details pale in comparison to the 3,929 cc V12 engine that motivates the Lamborghini Miura P400S with 370 PS at 7,700 rpm. Now cue Matt Monros On Days Like These and imagine yourself driving this thing through the Alps. And no, the pretty lady in the picture above doesn't come with the car.
21 February 2016 10:30 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan Britain Students Network has organized a march in London to commemorate the 24th anniversary of Khojaly genocide.

The march started on Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery, and continued on Old Palace Yard, opposite the Houses of Parliament. The event involved Azerbaijani and foreign students studying at British universities.

Aimed at ensuring that Azerbaijan's voice of protest resonate throughout the Parliament Square, the UK and the rest of the world, the annual London Khojaly March has seen great success over the years.

Khojaly, the second largest town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, came under intense fire from the towns of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by the Armenian armed forces in 1992.

613 civilians mostly women and children were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 February 2016 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

The last day of the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 21.

The tournament is being held at the National Gymnastics Arena, and will feature mens vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse, rings, as well as floor finals. Female gymnasts will compete in floor, balance beam, vault and uneven bars exercise.

Azerbaijan will be represented in nine finals out of ten. Azerbaijani gymnast Oleg Stepko will perform in the finals of rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar exercise. Another Azerbaijani athlete, Petro Pakhnyuk, will perform in the floor exercise finals.

Among Azerbaijani female gymnasts, Marina Nekrasova will perform in the floor exercise finals. She will also represent Azerbaijan in balance beam exercise finals. Azerbaijani female gymnast Maria Smirnova will perform vault exercise, and Yulia Inshina will perform in uneven bars exercise finals.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku on February 19 and is to end on February 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.

In general, athletes from 19 countries are participating in the event.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 February 2016 15:20 (UTC+04:00)

Japanese journalists are delighted with the level of organization of the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics in Baku.

Everything has been organized excellently. We are satisfied with the conditions created for our work, Hitomi Hisamoto, head of the sport department of the Japanese NTV channel, told Trend on February 21.

She said the journalists liked the National Gymnastics Arena very much.

The opening ceremony was impressive. We also enjoyed Baku, Hisamoto added.

Another journalist Shuntaro Suzuki representing the sport department of Japans NHK TV channel said that the organization level of the event is wonderful.

There is a beautiful modern Arena in Baku equipped with the latest technology, said the journalist. The security level exceeded our expectations. In general, it is very comfortable to work here.

Further, Masashi Inoue, representative of Kyodo News, noted that the whole Japanese media delegation is delighted with the level of organization of the FIG World Challenge Cup.

All necessary conditions have been created for our work here, said Inoue.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku Feb. 19 and is to end Feb. 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 February 2016 16:50 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani diaspora activists have held a rally outside Armenia's Embassy in Stockholm to commemorate the 24th anniversary of Khojaly genocide, when the Armenian armed forced killed innocent Azerbaijani civilians.

The rally aimed to condemn the genocide and increase the Swedish society's awareness of it.

The diaspora activists urged the international community to recognize the genocide and make the perpetrators face the full force of the law.

Khojaly, the second largest town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, came under intense fire from the towns of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by the Armenian armed forces in 1992.

613 civilians mostly women and children were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 February 2016 12:30 (UTC+04:00)

The Iranian Minister of Transportation, Abbas Akhoundi, has met Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev to discuss the issues of abolishing visa for drivers, North-South Corridor, as well as civil aviation.

Saying that Iran has already removed the visa requirement for drivers from Azerbaijan, Akhoundi called on Baku to abolish visa requirements for Iranian drivers, IRNA news agency reported.

Abbas Akhoundi touched upon the plans for connecting the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan saying Tehran has taken measures to speed up the process for connecting the railways.

Speaking about plans to construct a new terminal along Iran and Azerbaijan border in Astara, he said the new terminal will create the opportunity to travel to Turkey by train through Astara.

He pointed to the North-South Corridor, and said Iran, Azerbaijan, as well as Georgia share common interests in connecting the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf.

Akhundi also called for increasing the number of weekly flights between Iran and Azerbaijan which currently stands at 10 flights per week.

North-South transport corridor is intended to connect Northern Europe to Southeastern Asia. It will serve as a link to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.

It is planned to transport six million tons of cargo per year via the North-South corridor in the first phase, and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Related Info

BONUS INFO



Bakersfield, Bakerspatch, Bakersburg.



Weve heard it all, and worse, about the town we call home.



But here is actual evidence that the town was called something else back in the day  Bakerville.



Bakersfield High School history teacher Ken Hooper sent me a 1942 article from The Bakersfield Californian in which historian Frank Latta confirms that, yes, Bakersfield was once unofficially known as Bakerville.



Latta based his information on a letter written to Henry Miller (who would become one of the largest landowners around town) in 1870.



The letter writer addresses it to Miller in Bakerville.



Latta took the letter to Charlotte Jameson, daughter of Col. Thomas Baker, and she confirmed Bakerville was in the offing as a town name.



Colonel Thomas Baker had not been enthusiastic at having the new town named for him, Latta wrote of what Jameson told him.



He said, But, if you insist on naming the place for me, I would much prefer the name of Bakersfield. Travelers use that name because they have pastured their stock in my field and there is some reason for that name. I would not care to see it changed to Bakerville.



And here we are.
Were hoping readers will help us tell the history of Kern County. Send us, in up to 350 words, the story of how your family came here. Please include a photo of yourself and if you have one, a historical photo of family members who first came here. Email your submissions to Christine Bedell at cbedell@bakersfield.com or mail them to her at P.O. Bin 440, Bakersfield, CA, 93302. Questions? 395-7417.
There were so many yikes moments in Sundays story about the unqualified Lamont School District official its hard to know where to start.
Two people were shot after a hotel party late Saturday night.

The shooting happened at the Holiday Inn Express located at 2171 54th Avenue North.

According to police, a birthday party was being held at the hotel. An argument broke out and someone pulled out a gun.

"I heard four pops," said hotel guest Mike Vandermeulen. "At first I thought it was firecrackkers but they weren't space like firecrackers would be spaced and I was pretty sure it was a shooting."

Octavius Brown, 19, and Demetrius Crawford, 17, were shot, according to police.



Brown was shot in the upper part of his body. Crawford was shot in the hand.

Brown was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in critical condition. Crawford is being treated at Northside Hospital for his injury.

According to the authorities, the hotel was full of children at the time of the shooting. Gymnastics teams from across the world were staying at the Holiday Inn Saturday night.

"It's a little scary, a little shocking coming from a foriegn country and not getting used to this, this type of gun violence in the U.S.," Joann Lee said. Lee and her six-year-old son traveled from Bermuda for the gymnastics competition at Tropicana Field.

Lee said she heard all the chaos after the shooting.

"There was lots of noise," Lee said. "You could hear kids running across the hallway and up and down the stairwell."

She thought it was just kids playing a prank, but realized it was more serious when the police knocked on her hotel room door.

The hotel offered guests a free night, but Lee said the gymnastics teams checked out and found a new place to stay.
A heartwarming reunion happened in Manatee County between a mother and her 8-year old daughter Friday.

Kristen Gryzik, who is in the National Guard, made a surprise visit to let her daughter know she was finally home.

Gryzik has been in Afghanistan for almost a year now.

Recently, she found out she could come home earlier than expected.

But instead of letting her daughter know ahead of time, she showed up at her school, at Sea Breeze Elementary, in Bradenton, to surprise her.

On Friday afternoon, when Serenity, 8, went to the library with her classmates, she was expecting a special reader. Little did she know the special would be her mother.

While the class came in, Gryzikr, who was hiding in a room, came out and gave Serenity a big hug.

There was a barely a dry eye in the room.

When asked how she felt about seeing her daughter after almost a year, Kristen said, "Amazing. This isn't my first deployment, so we're kind of used to it, but she's definitely grown more this time around. She was up to my hip when I left."

"And, my hair has grown too," said Serenity.

"Yep, considering her hair was to her ears when I left," said Gryzikr. Her hair has grown a lot."

To make sure the students were not disappointed, Gryzikr read a book to the class, fulfilling her role as a special reader.

Gryzikr said she thinks she'll be able to stay home for two years before possibly being deployed again.
Scientists Declare Blob Off Oregon Coast Dead, Wettest Winter Ever

Published 02/20/2016 at 5:01 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast)  It's been a weird year for weather in Portland and along the Oregon coast, and the beaches have seem plenty of strange sights. As parts of Oregon clock in with the wettest winter on record, scientists are saying a big element in all this  the Blob - may have finally packed up and gone. (Photo above by Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium: the blob may have helped chase the food source for Humpback whales close to Cannon Beach this year, resulting in numberous close-in sightings).

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland released some startling stats for Oregon's winter, saying Portland has had the wettest winter ever. Astoria rainfall amounts (40 inches) apparently came in as 20th highest since records have been kept, although residents of other parts of the north coast might disagree with that. Tillamook County received some of the worst flooding in decades in December.

The NWS counted December, January and February as the winter, so not all of winter's stats are in yet.

Portland also had the hottest summer on record, and much of the Oregon coast came close to that record as well  much of it blamed on The Blob.

Scientists at NASA and NOAA believe the infamous Blob in the Pacific Ocean may have met its end. The somewhat mysterious area of warmer water  which often lingered off the Oregon and Washington coasts  is thought to have been a part of all sorts of anomalies, including weather changes and what kinds of creatures washed up along this coastline.

The end of the Blob was heralded in mid-December by Clifford Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist. Since then, this declaration has been backed up by data from U.S. Navys WindSAT instrument on the Coriolis satellite and the AMSR2 instrument on Japans GCOM-W satellite. The maps created from these two show significant differences in the the Pacific ocean's temps between July of 2015 and then January of this year.

The Blob, along with the effects of El Nino, seemed to affect marine life throughout the food chain in a wide area of the Earth, from Russia to Alaska to the western U.S.

Microscopic phytoplankton do better in colder waters, and these populations were chased out of various areas by a lack of upwelling because the Blob brought higher surface temperatures. As phytoplankton were moved or died off, other populations of fish and invertebrates were affected.

More sea lion strandings in California are attributed to this.

2015 was a banner year for head-scratching anomalies along Oregon beaches, including a highly unusual number of sea cucumber sightings  still happening today. Many beach experts in Oregon said they normally see just a handful of these a year, even though they live just under the sand. But there have been lots of them, according to Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium.

Hordes of Humpback whales made startling appearances along much of the north Oregon coast, much higher than usual, as they chased baitfish around Cannon Beach and up the Columbia River. The larger-than-usual numbers of baitfish are attributed to the Blob chasing their food sources this direction.

Another big puzzler was a relative of the jellyfish-like creature that showed up in mid summer that made the waves purple, in various areas and at different times. Scientists along the Oregon coast had never seen this before and it took some time to figure out what it was. They still don't know why these Doliolids (as they're called) were so purple.

NASA said some remnants of this warm patch are still present, with some high temperatures still present in a few areas, going down as much as 300 meters. The agency believes this could continue to affect marine life periodically. .Oregon Coast Lodgings for this - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours.

More Oregon Coast Weather.

Above: mysterious purple waves found this summer















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Beaumont ISD could lose its state accreditation for failing to address lingering financial problems for several consecutive years unless "they get their act together," a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman said Friday.

The state has placed BISD on "accredited-warned" status for ranking substandard on the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, which measures the quality of a district's financial management practices, according to information posted Friday on the TEA's website.

BISD has until Feb. 29 to request that TEA review the status.

If the district fails to finish fixing its finances by next year, it will be placed on accredited probation again.

BISD was on accreditation probation in 2013-14 because of the agency's pending investigations into the district's governance.

"They're already under a board of managers," TEA's DeEtta Culbertson said Friday. "The ultimate sanction would be to close the district."

The district failed the financial rating because an external auditing firm hired for annually to review school district's finances found deficiencies in BISD's internal control over financial reporting and compliance for local, state or federal funds, according to TEA's website.

Many of the issues haunting BISD's finances are still tied to the previous administration, Culbertson said. With all that cleanup to do, time is against the district, she said.

"They are trying to turn around a battleship," she said. "It's taking a lot of time to get that cleaned up because they're having to deal with a lot."

For the 2014-2015 school year, 20 school districts and 14 charter schools of Texas' 1,205 received an accredited-warned status.

School districts are rated based on their financial and academic performances. BISD met TEA's standard for its academic rating.

BISD held a public hearing to address its financial status in December, said Nakisha Burns, assistant to the superintendent.

"We're putting measures in place to clean up some of the concerns regarding the FIRST rating. It just takes time," Burns said.

MLibardi@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/ManuellaLibardi
The death of 79-year-old Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Saturday could muddle several important healthcare cases in the high court.

Here are seven things to know about how Justice Scalia's death could alter healthcare.

1. Without the sharp-tongued, conservative Justice Scalia, the court is lopsided in favor of the liberal opinion. Eight justices remain, with four acting as liberal members, and three remaining in its conservative wing. Justice Anthony Kennedy is typically the swing vote, according to The New York Times. In his absence, the liberal justices need only to win the vote of Justice Kennedy to secure a win. The conservatives would have to attract Justice Kennedy and a liberal leaning justice.

2. In the instance of a 4-to-4 tie vote, no affirmative action can be taken. A deadlock vote defaults to the lower court's decision and only impacts the parties involved, according to The New York Times. The court does not issue a national decision, and the outcome is as if the Court had never reviewed the case. In the case of a tie, the Supreme Court can also elect to re-argue the case later, when it may have another judge appointed.

3. President Barack Obama said he will select a nominee in the next few weeks. The New York Times highlighted six likely contenders for President Obama's nominee, which could be solidified by the Senate, though Republicans have said they would not act on any of his nominations. This would make President Obama's nomination at best a top contender after the election.

4. In the months until a new justice is selected, it could alter several cases directly and indirectly related to healthcare. These cases include an abortion decision in Whole Women's Health v. Cole, a contraceptive requirement under the ACA in Zubik v. Burwell, and a case concerning public unions in Friedrichs v. California Teacher's Association.

5. In Whole Women's Health v. Cole, the court would hear its first major abortion case in nine years.The case challenges a Texas law that would reduce the number of abortion clinics to 10 statewide, down from about 40. If the court votes 4-to-4 and does not decide to re-argue the case, it would uphold the lower court ruling, leaving just 10 abortion clinics in the state.

6. Zubik v. Burwell challenges a contraception mandate under the ACA for those who have religious objections. The case looks at whether religiously-affiliated organizations should have to fill out exemption forms for objecting to the contraception mandate. A Third Circuit ruling in April found no substantial burden from having to file an exemption form, though this decision was temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court. If the votes tied in this case, it would affirm several appeals court decisions, according to The New York Times.

7. Friedrichs v. California Teacher's Association would decide if non-union public employees should have to pay "agency" or "fair share" fees for collective bargaining costs of public unions. The current appeals court decision favors the unions. With one less conservative judge, this decision will likely be upheld. If the justices deadlock 4-to-4, the unions win by default, unless the case is re-argued, according to The New York Times.

More articles on leadership and management:

CHI St. Luke's CEO appointed to Texas Health Association board

Who in healthcare is most likely to marry whom?

Whole Foods' CEO won't hire anyone who exhibits this trait
London Olympics architect Dame Zaha Hadid does not feel "part of the establishment" despite the honours she has received.

The designer of the London Aquatics Centre, one of the main venues of the summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, was named a dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to architecture in the same year.

Ten years prior to her damehood, she was awarded a CBE.

Recently, the Royal Institute Of British Architects (Riba) announced Dame Zaha as the recipient of its prestigious Royal Gold Medal, approved personally by The Queen.

She is the first woman to be awarded the honour in her own right.

Speaking to presenter Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, the 65-year-old said: "I don't really feel I'm part of the establishment.

"I'm not outside, I'm on the kind of edge, I'm dangling there. I quite like it."

She added: "I'm not against the establishment per se. I just do what I do and that's it."

Dame Zaha grew up in Baghdad. She displayed her individualism at an early age by designing her bedroom when she was nine.

"My parents allowed me to be very independent at a very young age and develop my own taste and my own way of working. I'm very grateful to them," she said.

Her father was politician Mohammed Hadid. Dame Zaha's mother, Wajeeha Sabonji, was a housewife.

Born in Baghdad to a Sunni Muslim family, Dame Zaha was taught by Roman Catholic nuns.

"I didn't even know I was Muslim until I was six," she said. "Honestly, there was absolutely no difference - Sunni, Shiite - they were all the same. That's the Iraq I loved and I know."

When asked what was expected of women in 1950s Iraq, Dame Zaha replied: "To become architects, doctors.

"There's a misconception about that society, actually. Women were very liberated," she said.

Dame Zaha moved to the UK in 1972 to train as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. She recalled the "buzz" about the place.

Seven years later, Dame Zaha established her own practice in London.

The list of buildings she has designed in various countries include the Maxxi Museum in Italy, the Guangzhou Opera House in China and the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Azerbaijan.

The multi award-winner told Young it is "very important" to "contribute culturally in a positive way" to countries that have commissioned her "because there will be no change anywhere if there isn't that element".

Dame Zaha's eclectic selection of music on Desert Island Discs included Hotline Bling by Canadian rapper Drake and Everybody's Talkin' from the Oscar-winning movie Midnight Cowboy, performed by Harry Nilsson.

She also chose Adele's Someone Like You.

"I think she has a great voice and when I was listening to it four years ago, it was the summer of the Olympics. I sat down to listen to her music over and over again. That summer was Adele," she told Young.

Dame Zaha opted for Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto For Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas as her book for the island.

Family photographs from her childhood days in Baghdad would be her luxury choice.

:: Desert Island Discs is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11.15am on February 21.
Actor Jude Law and singer Tom Odell were among a number of famous faces to take to the stage at the Jungle camp in Calais in a bid to raise the plight of refugees.

The stars travelled to the site in France two days before it is due to be dismantled on the order of the the country's authorities.

More than 100 celebrities have already signed an open letter urging David Cameron to step in and ensure children based in the sprawling camp are saved.

An estimated 4,000 migrants and refugees from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iraq are currently based within the Jungle.

Many of them are unaccompanied children, aid charities have said.

On Sunday Law and Odell joined actress Juliet Stevenson and comedian Shappi Khorsandi, all of whom had already signed the letter to the Prime Minister, to reinforce their message that something must be done to help.

Speaking after the Letters Live event at the Jungle's makeshift Good Chance Theatre Law said: " It's our responsibility as humans to look after our children. The children in the camp at Calais need us. It isn't a big ask. It is simply the right thing to do."

Odell, who played alongside other musicians in the camp, described it as "one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life".

A number of displaced refugees also performed at the event, which was held in support of aid organisation Help Refugees.

Afghan refugee Taj said: " We are ordinary people who want to live a peaceful life. Please open your hearts and borders to us, and help to end the war."

Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart has said the dismantling of the camp would keep migrants and refugees away from activists bent on causing disruption.
Viewers who watch TV for escapism should steer clear of Game Of Thrones, the show's star Natalie Dormer said.

The 34-year-old was responding to suggestions the programme had gone too far with its negative treatment of women.

In the last series one of the female characters was raped, and another was burnt alive.

Dormer told Sunday Times' Culture magazine: "All I know is that I turn on the news, and it's covering a boy drowning off a coast, or children being shown beheading videos.

"The horror of human nature is prevalent in our world, and I appreciate that some people want to turn on the telly for escapism - but if that's what you want, don't watch Game Of Thrones.

"I choose fantasy to vent, to process complex political, sexual and social politics at the safe distance of fiction.

"For me that's what art should be."

She added that while parts of the show were difficult to watch, she did not think sheltering young people was doing them any favours.

Game Of Thrones, in which Dormer plays Margaery Tyrell, is back for its sixth series in April.
Ross Kemp was one of a number of visitors to the helicopter in Afghanistan in 2008

A visit from Ross Kemp was a "contributory factor" to the focus of a British crew of an Apache that crashed almost eight years ago in Afghanistan, according to a report.

The former EastEnders actor was one of a number of visitors to the helicopter on September 4 2008, the report says.

The Ministry of Defence board of inquiry found that a major cause of the accident was "disorientation" experienced by the pilot when "he entered a dust cloud during a transition".

It added: "In summary, it is clear to the Board that this accident was caused by the disorientation of the HP when conducting a poorly executed transition downwind, with inadequate aircraft performance and engulfed in heavy recirculation.

"The Board believes that the crew lacked sufficient experience for the complex, high end, unsupervised operation, had become fatigued and were distracted at a critical juncture."

However, referring to Kemp's visit, it added: "Whilst not a distraction at the time of the accident the Board believes it was a contributory factor to the overall focus of the crew."

Both crew members - including the pilot - escaped the crash which saw the helicopter lose its tail and suffer severe damage to its rotor blades, with minor injuries.

Following the release of the report, an MoD spokesman said: "Our highly skilled pilots are trained to deal with all kinds of emergency situations and incidents like this are extremely rare.

"To suggest that this was caused by the filming of a documentary would be disingenuous."
Graham Linehan and his wife Helen say their activism over abortion is a result of their own traumatic experience

Graham Linehan, the screenwriter behind Father Ted, and his wife Helen have vowed to campaign to change the abortion law in Northern Ireland.

In 2003, the couple of 14 years themselves experienced the heartbreaking experience of an abortion after their unborn baby was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality (FFA).

But speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, they said despite the recent political setback they strongly believe there is the "will among the people" for change.

After the emotive issue made headlines as MLAs voted against a change in the law to permit abortion in the case of FFA, Graham, a Bafta-winning comedy writer originally from Dublin, said: "It was one of those times when we were just stunned."

The proposal to allow abortion in such cases was defeated in the Assembly by 59 votes to 40 with the DUP and SDLP voting against any change. Graham said: "How can you look at people going through this situation and say yes, they are criminals, criminals for wanting to terminate a pregnancy that is going to be fatal?"

The couple said they felt "huge disappointment" with the SDLP for not supporting the motion.

Helen said: "I think the SDLP pride themselves on being a civil rights group and they voted against it. It made me so angry - I was shaking."

Last year, in support of an Amnesty International campaign for a change in the law, Helen disclosed that she herself had an abortion for FFA in England. The baby had a condition called acrania, which means the skull fails to form properly over the brain, meaning her child wouldn't survive for longer than a few hours outside the womb. Helen chose to have a termination in England.

"It was a terrible time but I was treated with such compassion," she said.

Unlike other parts of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland, where abortions are banned except where the life or mental health of the mother is in danger. Anyone who performs an illegal termination could be jailed for life.

And it was their discovery of a similar situation in the Republic - that had they been living in the Republic of Ireland during her pregnancy, Helen would have been forced to carry the pregnancy to term, or face a 14-year prison sentence for procuring an illegal abortion - which encouraged them to speak out.

Christian campaigners said the existing rules provide vital protection for women and welcomed the outcome of the debate. However, the situation has proved controversial. The proposed law change has been the subject of a legal battle and landmark ruling. Sarah Ewart, who had a termination in England after learning her baby had no chance of survival and went public about her ordeal, was branded a murderer and inundated with abusive messages and graphic pictures of dead babies via social media.

Graham, the writer behind successful comedy series such as Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd, said although receiving some upsetting messages via Twitter, his wife is a strong woman.

"I'm upset more for Helen but she is very strong. She recognises these people for what they are."

Graham said he doesn't know how long change in the law would take but believes strongly there is a will there. "I genuinely think people in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland cannot look at a story like mine and Helen or Sarah Ewart and feel nothing but concern and empathy."

However, he added: "For the politicians after a while it is going to become very obvious that when you don't do anything your sympathy is worth nothing. Eventually I'm hoping that these people will be shamed into doing the right thing."

He described it as "frightening" the thought that people would only change their mind on the matter if they are faced with the situation. "People only changing their mind if they experience it? That is a terrifying thought because I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy," he said.
The burglaries took place in the Millhouse Court, Glencraig and Kintyre areas.

PSNI detectives are appealing for witnesses following a number of burglaries at residential properties in the Antrim area on Friday.

It was reported that sometime between 8am and 7pm entry was forced to a property in the Millhouse Court area. A number of rooms were searched but nothing was stolen during the incident.

Then it was reported that sometime between 5.30pm and 8pm a house in the Glencraig area had been entered and a number of rooms searched. It is not believed that anything was stolen during the incident.

Meanwhile shortly before 7.50pm the occupant of a house in the Kintyre area returned home and disturbed three men in his property. The males made off when challenged by the homeowner. A watch was stolen during the incident.

The men are described as being aged in their late teens or early 20s and had scarves covering their faces.

Detective Sergeant Peter Crothers is appealing for anyone who witnessed the incidents or anyone who saw three males in the area of Kintyre between 7.30pm and 8pm to contact Detectives in Antrim Police Station on 101.

Information can also be passed anonymously via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The Ukip leader has insisted Galloway is one of six people who can shift public opinion to a no vote in the EU referendum

Nigel Farage said a "big team effort" will be required from Leave campaigners, with "controversial" Respect Party leader Mr Galloway capable of speaking to people who want to stay in the EU and large parts of Britain's Muslim community.

Mr Farage said he believes far-right groups including the English Defence League would not be allowed to join Grassroots Out although he initially appeared less certain about the British National Party, before adding: "I'm sure we would have said no."

He also spoke in support of Boris Johnson joining those seeking Brexit, joking he would love to see headlines of "BoGo" in Monday's newspapers.

Asked if he accepted he is a divisive or "Marmite" politician, Mr Farage told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show: "That, of course, is the talk in Westminster and it's the talk amongst the Tories.

"The truth is if you look at the research and polling into this, those people that believe in the European project, that believe in free movement of people, the more I appear on programmes like this the more upset they get and the more they dislike me.

"Amongst the undecided voters, I have a potentially positive effect.

"There are people out there who are undecided who will listen to what I have to say in this referendum campaign, and the truth of it is this - there are only half a dozen people involved in this referendum campaign who could really shift public opinion, and I'm one of them.

"But it's not about one person, Andrew, it's not about that."

Questioned about his appearance with former MP Mr Galloway at a Brexit rally, Mr Farage denied it had echoes of Labour's Tony Benn and Conservative Enoch Powell teaming up in the 1970s.

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He said: "Back in the 70s there were very few political figures or public figures that appeared on No platforms.

"On that night, yes, the Respect Party was on the platform, so was the Conservative Party, so was Ruth Lea the economist, so was a London taxi driver, so was (Tory MP) Sir William Cash, so was (Labour former minister) Kate Hoey.

"The point about Grassroots Out is, we're bringing people together from across the spectrum.

"I don't suspect there's a single domestic policy, in many cases foreign policy, of which George Galloway and I would agree.

"He said some very disobliging things about me but, look, sometimes in life an issue comes along which is bigger than traditional differences, and this question of getting back control of our country, living in a democracy, means that what we've done in Grassroots Out is said we cast aside previous quarrels and differences and we will work together."

Asked if he would allow the English Defence League or Britain First to join GO, Mr Farage said: "No. I don't think we would for one moment and if the British National Party still existed that would have given us a problem but I think we would have said no.

"I'm sure we would have said no."

He noted the campaign needs to reach out to large parts of the country, adding: "However controversial George Galloway is, he does actually speak to a large Muslim community in Britain, he speaks to people who at the moment are on the Remain side.

"It's going to be a big team effort from lots of us.

On whether he hopes London mayor Mr Johnson joins his side, Mr Farage replied: "Absolutely, absolutely.

"He's one of those half a dozen people that reaches out to a large number of voters, and we'd love to see 'BoGo' as the headline tomorrow, it would be just great."
A Labour minister has urged voters to keep trust in his party despite some dire forecasts in pre-election opinion polls.

If the pollsters are correct, the junior coalition partner is heading for a battering in Friday's vote. One of the latest surveys placed support for the party at just 4%.

Communications Minister Alex White insisted his party could benefit from a late surge in support, with many undecided voters opting for Labour in the final days of campaigning.

"There's a lot of people and I meet them on the doors where they say 'look we'd like to vote Labour, we've always voted Labour' (but) they see it through the prism of their own lives - the last five years, the last eight years - and they are disappointed and, in some cases, they are angry and I understand that," he said.

"But I say to people like that 'keep trust with the Labour party'. We did a huge amount to ensure that this country recovered, we can now have a much different five years ahead. I think a lot of people will come to us in the last few days."

The Behaviour & Attitudes poll for the Sunday Times, the results of which were leaked prior to publication on Sunday, rated support for Fine Gael at 30%, Fianna Fail at 22% and Sinn Fein at 15%.

Labour was relegated to sixth place, lagging behind the 5% attributed to the two main independent groupings - the Independent Alliance and Anti-Austerity Alliance/ People Before Profit. In other recent polls Labour support has been rated at around 8 to 9%.

Mr White criticised the stance of rival left wing candidates who were advocating a radical change in government direction.

He told RTE: "I hear some parties on the left, or the so-called left, saying they will never compromise on any of their policies - they will, unless they decide never to be in government, because government is about compromise."

His remarks came as party leader Joan Burton outlined proposals she said would increase the take home pay of low or middle income working people, including eliminating Universal Social Charge (USC) on the first 72,000 euro of individual income.

Asked at the weekend to respond to the disappointing poll results, Ms Burton said: "I'm a fighter and I'm up for a fight. I've never stood back from a fight."

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was forced to defend his use of language after he branded some critics in his hometown of Castlebar as "whingers".

Mr Kenny was referring to those he said refused to acknowledge the recovery was having a positive impact on the town.

The Fine Gael leader stood by his remarks, despite facing calls for an apology.

"Some of them wouldn't know sunshine if they saw it," said Mr Kenny.

Fianna Fail candidate in Mayo Lisa Chambers criticised the Taoiseach, accusing him of being "out of touch".

"The arrogance that has been the hallmark of Fine Gael in government and their national campaign is now emerging locally and is a sign of the pressure the Taoiseach is beginning to feel," she said.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he was not interested in poll results, insisting his focus was on the views of voters on the doorsteps.

Sinn Fein's Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness joined the campaign trail in Dublin on Sunday, urging the electorate to "seize the moment".

He accused Fine Gael of resorting to the "politics of fear".

"Sinn Fein are for the politics of hope," he said.

"Next Friday, the people will have the opportunity to change things for the better, and Sinn Fein want to be part of that change.

"For the first time, in all our lifetimes, we have the opportunity to have Sinn Fein in government north and south.

"Governments that will stand up for equality. Governments that will deliver a fair recovery. Governments with a plan for unity and reconciliation. Governments with a plan to sustain the peace process. Governments that will act in the national interest."
There is no available time scale for when supplies will be restored

Thousands of residents left without water after a large underground main collapsed and caused a sinkhole should have supplies reconnected by tonight.

Severn Trent Water said repairs were due to be completed at about 7pm, after up to 20,000 are thought to have been affected by low pressure or no water at all.

The provider said if work to fit a replacement pipe was completed on time then supplies should be back to normal by 9pm, following a day of disruption.

Problems were reported in homes to the north and east of Nottingham after a huge main burst in the village of Epperstone creating a sinkhole.

A spokesman said that a car had driven into the flooded hole caused by the high-pressure burst, which had initially "complicated" any repair. He added that it had since been removed.

The woman driving the car was unhurt, according to the company.

Severn Trent Water said: "We are looking at getting the pipe fixed at 7pm tonight and that should mean everybody should get water back at 9pm, all being well."

Affected areas have included Radcliffe on Trent, Bingham, East Bridgford, Upper Saxondale and Flintham, with the company offering an apology for the widespread disruption.

The company said that it was looking at other ways to get water out to residents, particularly what it described as "our most vulnerable customers".

Severn Trent's spokesman added: "We've a register of the most vulnerable people and places, like hospitals - although I don't believe any hospitals are affected - where we can get bottled water, or bowsers or tankers if it's appropriate, out to them."

He went on: "Engineers are working as quickly as they can to restore supply."

The broken pipe set off a low-pressure alarm monitored by Severn Trent at about 4.50am and engineers quickly discovered the exact location due to the localised flooding.

The main is a large 24-inch (60cm) diameter pipe, which Severn Trent was able to isolate in order to initially put a few thousand homes back on supply.

Repairs were complicated after the driver of a Honda CRV found themselves in the gaping sinkhole which had opened up and flooded the road.

The driver managed to escape, and after the 4x4 was winched out, engineers were able to start repairs.

It is not yet clear what caused the burst.

Severn Trent said residents could contact the company on 0800 783 4444 or tweet @stwater.
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway provided an emotional surprise for viewers as the show returned to ITV with a marriage proposal.

The first episode went off with a bang after Daniel Garnham proposed to girlfriend Victoria Haynes, live on national TV, having flown over from New York to pop the question.

The grand romantic gesture has left Ms Haynes "on cloud nine", she said.

"This is incredible," she said. "I don't feel like it's real. I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow with 100 messages on my phone and it'll start sinking in but at the moment I'm just living the dream."

She added: "It's the best day of my life, absolutely no question."

Ms Haynes's parents were on stage with them as she tearfully said yes.

Mr Garnham, who is from Eastbourne but lives in New York and works with the Blue Man group perform ance show, said he had asked his bride-to-be's father for his blessing last October.

Speaking shortly after the proposal he said: " It's just starting to sink in a little bit. It was a weird experience. It was an out of body experience but it was one that I've been wanting to do for a very, very long time so it was great."

Ant and Dec had already shocked Ms Haynes, an office temp from Northampton, with hidden-camera footage of her parents following her and Mr Garnham on their travels abroad last summer.

The Geordie duo surprised the family further by revealing they would send all four of them to Ibiza on a celebratory holiday.

Asked after the show about the kind of wedding she might like to have Ms Haynes said: "One with all the important people there. Something with everybody that I love there, that's the most important thing."

Ms Haynes, who is currently living in the UK and has been with Mr Garnham for two-and-a-half-years, said she would love to move to the US in the future.

Social media users described the proposal as "amazing".

One, named Gem, tweeted: "That was the most sweetest (and elaborate) marriage proposal I think I've ever seen Great start to the show! #SaturdayNightTakeaway".

Another Twitter user, Emily, said: "OMG that engagement was amazing! I was fangirling - that's proposal goals to get engaged on #SaturdayNightTakeaway".
Boris Johnson has galvanised the EU referendum campaign with a declaration that he is to join the campaign for Britain to leave.

A day after David Cameron appealed on the steps of Downing Street for voters to back his EU re-negotiation deal, the London mayor said it had failed to deliver fundamental change in Britain's relationship with Brussels.

"I don't think that anybody can claim that this is fundamental reform of the EU or of Britain's relationship with the EU," he said.

His announcement - putting and end to months of speculation - is a huge boost for the Brexit campaign potentially giving them a popular figurehead able to connect with voters in a way few other Westminster politicians can manage.

At the same time, it comes as a bitter blow for David Cameron who had long believed that his old rival from their days at Eton and Oxford would ultimately fall in behind his EU re-negotiation package.

Amid chaotic scenes outside his north London home, Mr Johnson said that he had agonised over the decision.

"The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the Government but after a great deal of heartache I don't think there is anything else I can do," he said.

Writing in his weekly column in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said the EU was fuelling political alienation and the rise of extremism as voters witnessed the "impotence" of national elected politicians to deal with issues such as immigration.

"That enrages them; not so much the numbers as the lack of control. That is what we mean by loss of sovereignty - the inability of people to kick out, at elections, the men and women who control their lives," he said.

"We are seeing an alienation of the people from the power they should hold, and I am sure this is contributing to the sense of disengagement, the apathy, the view that politicians are 'all the same' and can change nothing, and to the rise of extremist parties."

His announcement drew a furious response from the Conservative former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine who warned that a vote to leave the EU would be devastating for the City of London.

"If he were to be successful in his ambition to cut us off from Europe, the flags would fly in Frankfurt and Paris in his honour," he said.

"At a stroke, he would have blown away the safeguards for our financial services industry that the Prime Minister has just secured."

Critics were swift to claim that the real reason for Mr Johnson's announcement was to position himself for a potential challenge for the Tory leadership, saying that he had no track record as an "outer".

Earlier, Mr Cameron - who was reportedly only notified of Mr Johnson's decision in a text sent a few minutes before he made the announcement - had issued a last ditch appeal for him not to align himself with the "out" campaign.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country," he told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show.

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done."

The Prime Minister dismissed claims that Brexit would restore sovereignty to the UK, saying in practice Britain was able to exercise far greater leverage internationally from within the EU.

"If Britain were to leave the EU that might give you a feeling of sovereignty but you have got to ask yourself 'is it real?'," he said.

"You have an illusion of sovereignty but you don't have power, you don't have control, you can't get things done."

Opposition parties said Mr Johnson was putting personal ambition ahead of the national interest. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the mayor had had "more positions on Europe than the Kama Sutra".

"This is a deeply cynical move from a deeply ambitious politician who is using an in-out referendum as a back door to Number 10," he said.

Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said: "Boris Johnson in the past has written a lot about the importance of staying in the European Union and if he is actually thinking about putting his personal leadership ambitions above the national interest I don't think it's going to do him any good."
An investigation will be carried out into the incident

A driver has been killed and two women were injured in a crash after a police car chase through a city centre.

The 24-year-old man died at the scene after a "short pursuit" with officers in Old Trafford, Manchester.

Police say the Mercedes S320 he was driving "made off from the patrol car at speed".

It collided with a Mini at the junction of Chester Road and Warwick Road South before striking a barrier.

Two women travelling in the Mini were taken to hospital with multiple injuries.

Superintendent Jen Williams from Greater Manchester Police's Professional Standards Branch, which is investigating the incident, said: "In the early hours of this morning, following a short police pursuit, a man has sadly died after his car collided with another vehicle.

"GMP's Professional Standards Branch is investigating this incident to establish the full circumstances surrounding the collision and we are in the process of informing the man's family, to whom we will be providing support from specially trained officers.

"Officers from our Serious Collision Investigation Unit are currently conducting inquiries at the scene and the road will remain shut while this happens."

The collision, which took place at around 3.30am on Sunday, has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Anyone with information can call the IPCC on 0300 020 0096.

The injuries suffered by the two female passengers in the Mini are not thought to be life-threatening.
Jay Rutland and Tamara Ecclestone pictured at the premiere of The Expendables 3 in London

The husband of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone has been charged with assisting an offender.

Jay Rutland, who is son-in-law to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, is accused of committing the offence that dates back 2010.

The couple married in 2013 and have a young daughter.

Rutland, 34, of Kensington, west London, was arrested and charged with assisting an offender on Wednesday.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said he was bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on in 16 March.
The petition aims to give every child the vaccine

The man behind the most signed online petition in parliamentary history is "speechless and overwhelmed" by the response to the campaign to give all children the meningitis B vaccine.

More than 640,000 people have now signed the petition set up by Lee Booth, beating the one organised to ban US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from the UK.

Father-of-two Mr Booth, 44, said it would now be difficult for the Government to ignore the groundswell of support to vaccinate all children up to at least the age of 11.

Mr Booth launched the petition last September after one of his two young daughters was deemed too old to have the vaccine on the NHS.

The campaign attracted around 900 signatures until two-year-old Faye Burdett, from Maidstone, Kent, caught the infection and died on Valentine's Day after an 11-day battle.

A flood of support followed after a harrowing picture of Faye covered in a rash and lying in a hospital bed just before she died was shared by her family.

Now the petition has gained more than 100,000 signatures, a debate is guaranteed to be held in Parliament.

British Gas worker Mr Booth, who lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said: "I'm speechless and overwhelmed by the response. It has been phenomenal.

"I have spent quite a lot of time responding to tweets and Facebook messages. The number of signatures has just sky-rocketed. The Government cannot now ignore the biggest petition ever."

Faye's parents, Jenny and Neil, have said the response to the petition since their toddler contracted meningitis B and died has been "overwhelming".

The plight of meningitis sufferers was raised further when ex-England rugby captain Matt Dawson told how his two-year-old son Sam battled meningitis C.

Although his son is now well and back home with his family, Dawson said he felt "absolutely helpless" as Sam lay hooked up to machines in hospital.

A vaccine to protect against meningitis B is available on the NHS for babies aged two months, followed by a second dose at four months and a booster at 12 months.

But parents who wish to have older children vaccinated must pay privately, although a worldwide shortage of the vaccine Bexsero means stocks are very low.

Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) hopes to have increased stocks in the UK by the summer. The NHS programme is unaffected.
Millie Mackintosh and Professor Green have announced they are splitting up

Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh and rapper Professor Green have announced they are splitting up.

In a joint statement they said: "It is with sadness and regret that we confirm our separation.

"It is a mutual decision, we still care deeply about each other and would like it to be known it is on amicable terms and we wish each other well."

The couple married in 2013 at Babington House, Somerset, in a celebration attended by Lily Allen and other Made In Chelsea stars.

The musician, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, posted on Instagram three weeks ago that they had only spent one day together "all year".

He said a trip to Florence, Italy, in January was the first time they had spent quality time together in weeks and told The Sun they were "like ships in the night".

Neither has filed for divorce yet.
Two boys have died in a house fire in Huddersfield

A desperate mother shouted "Help me! Help me" after fire broke out in her house killing two of her sons aged two and three, neighbours said.

One would-be rescuer was beaten back by the smoke and flames at the semi-detached home in Alder Street, Huddersfield, and the toddlers were recovered by firefighters.

The boys, named on floral tributes as Jake and Logan, were rushed to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on Saturday afternoon but could not be saved.

Their mother and an older brother had managed to flee the house before firefighters arrived.

The fire was believed to have started in the front bedroom and a rescuer, thought to be a neighbour, tried to get in by climbing on a veranda at the back of the house.

The boys' father also dashed to the house to try to help, neighbours said.

It is not known if smoke alarms were fitted to the privately rented house, the family moving into the property around six months ago according to neighbours.

The family's next door neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the mother was shouting, "Help me! Help me!", crying and screaming for help.

"We saw the smoke everywhere, a man tried to climb up to help but there was too much smoke, you could not see anything," she said.

"I asked the man he said two children were still inside.

"Then the police and fire brigade came and they went inside."

The neighbour said she then saw one of the children brought out from the property and laid on the ground.

She added: "They tried to make him breathe, really trying. He was all black from the smoke.

"It's really shocking, everyone is in shock. My children were upset."

Next door neighbour Shaveta Sharma rushed home from work after a friend rang to say her neighbour's house was on fire.

She arrived as the fire service got there as did the children's father.

Ms Sharma said: "Within four or five minutes, one of the children, they brought him out. They were giving him first aid, CPR, they were really trying hard.

"I was just trying to reassure mum, she was proper panicking to see her child in that state.

"We were just praying to God at that time, the child should be safe.

"Within a couple of minutes they have controlled the fire. The other child, emergency services they treated that child in the cot. That's what mum told me, one child was in the cot.

"They said they were treating him inside. They took 35, to 40 minutes in the house.

"It's very, very tragic. You can think, a mum and dad lost their two children suddenly, it's really awful.

"We were telling mum to calm down, she was stressed, crying, shouting. She came out of the house and she was screaming in the road."

She added: "Everybody is really sad today, everybody is just quiet, not saying anything at all. We don't know what to say to (the) parents."

Family members have returned to the scene of the tragedy to leave flowers.

West Yorkshire Police said the cause of the fire was not thought to be suspicious.

Chris Kirby, group manager at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said firefighters with breathing apparatus brought the boys out.

He said: "(It's) an absolutely tragic event and our thoughts are with the family affected, clearly it's going to be devastating for them, the local community and there's also an impact on the crews who attended.

"I was speaking to some of them yesterday, they had got tears in their eyes, they were very upset about the scenes that they had witnessed."

Local Labour councillor Amanda Pinnock, who was leafleting in the area on Saturday, said the community was in shock.

"It's a tragedy," she said. "It's a very close-knit area in Fartown."

She urged people to get a smoke alarm and to check them regularly.

"The fire service will come and fit them for free," she said. "It's crucial people get them."
Tim Newton and Rachel Slater have been missing on Ben Nevis for a week (Police Scotland/PA)

Mountain rescuers looking for two climbers missing for a week on Ben Nevis have said they will aim to have search parties out on the peak "most days" this week as the weather picture improves slightly.

Rachel Slater, 24, and 27-year-old Tim Newton, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, failed to return from an outing on Britain's highest mountain last weekend.

A 26-strong search team braved severe sub-zero temperatures, high winds, falling snow and limited visibility on Saturday in a renewed bid to trace the couple.

But they ruled out any searching on Sunday due to "increasingly hazardous weather" and a risk of avalanches.

However, Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT) said the weather is looking slightly better for the days ahead.

In a message posted on Sunday evening on their Facebook page, they said: "The weather next week is looking a little bit better than last.

"The winds look like they will be moderating a bit as temperatures drop. Snow is forecast every day with periods of heavy snow adding to the existing snow pack.

"The team will try and get parties on the hill most days."

And they called for other climbers to share information with them to help the search.

"We would ask anyone who plans to climb on the Ben this week to post on our Facebook page the areas they were climbing and the routes done. This will help us eliminate parts of the mountain," the team said.

In their most recent statement, issued on Saturday night, Police Scotland said: "Reviews continue to be ongoing and it is hoped that there will be an improvement to the conditions on Monday or Tuesday.

"Both Rachel and Tim's family continue to be appraised of these circumstances."

Police have asked anyone with information, no matter how insignificant they think it is, to contact them on 101.

Mr Newton was a member of Hinckley Mountaineering Club in Leicestershire before moving away to university.

Ms Slater is a graduate of Manchester University and is employed as an environmental consultant near Bradford. She spent some time living and climbing in Canada, where her parents are still based.

Their families have praised the overwhelming response from members of the public and the climbing community.

Meanwhile, two hillwalkers were found "cold and desolate" on the same peak over the weekend.

LMRT sent a small team to look for the hillwalkers, who reported that they were lost on Ben Nevis on Saturday night and then made no further contact.

The pair were eventually found in the summit shelter and were walked to safety.
Fijians have been told to stay inside for a second night after a cyclone left at least six people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Winds from Cyclone Winston, which tore through the Pacific Island chain over the weekend, reached 177mph, making it the strongest storm in the Southern Hemisphere since records began, according to the Weather Underground website.

Although the weather had calmed on Sunday, a curfew was extended through to early on Monday, with police empowered to make arrests without a warrant to ensure order.

Authorities are now clearing vital roads and trying to restore electricity.

George Dregaso of Fiji's national disaster management office said two people died on Ovalau Island when the house they were sheltering in collapsed on them. Another man was killed on Koro Island, although the circumstances are not yet clear.

Three people were killed in the storm on the main island of Viti Levu.

Tourism minister Faiyaz Siddiq Koya said that all tourists in Fiji were safe and that there was no significant damage to the majority of hotels on the main island.

Fiji is a popular tourist destination, known for its beach resorts and scuba diving.

Officials are trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and said they would not know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.

Cyclone Winston hit Fiji on Saturday and moved westward overnight along the northern coast of Viti Levu. Fiji's capital, Suva, located in the southern part of the main island, was not directly in the cyclone's path and avoided the worst of it.

"Truth be told, we've gotten off pretty lightly here in the capital," said Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for Unicef.

"It was still a pretty awful night. You could hear crashing trees and power lines, and popping rivets as roofs got lifted and ripped out."

About 80% of the nation's 900,000 people were without regular power, although about one-third of them were able to get some power from generators. Landlines throughout Fiji were down, but most mobile networks were working.

Mr Dregaso said there were 483 people who had evacuated from their homes and were staying in 32 emergency shelters. He said he expected the number of evacuees to rise.

Authorities are urging people to remain indoors as they cleared fallen trees and power lines. They said that all schools would be closed for a week to allow time for the clean-up, and that three universities would be closed until further notice.

The government declared a 30-day state of natural disaster, giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

The government said the curfew would end at 5.30am on Monday.

Ms Clements, the Unicef spokeswoman, said there was particular concern for people on the northern part of the main island and on smaller islands.

She said that many would have lost their homes and livelihoods, and that some tourist resorts on the outer islands may have been damaged.

The airport reopened on Sunday to allow emergency flights, Mr Dregaso said, after many flights had been cancelled the day before.

Prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama wrote on social media: "As a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We must stick together as a people and look after each other."
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton secured vital wins in the race for the White House, as Jeb Bush quit after a disappointing result.

Billionaire tycoon Mr Trump widened his lead over the Republican party's presidential field claiming a big victory in South Carolina as the contest moved into the south.

Mr Bush ended his quest to follow his father and brother to the White House, suspending his campaign after a fourth place finish.

Meanwhile, out west, Mrs Clinton beat Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for a crucial win in Nevada's Democratic caucuses.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump's victories put them in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election heads towards Super Tuesday - the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

"There's nothing easy about running for president," Mr Trump said at his victory rally. "It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful - when you win it's beautiful."

Mrs Clinton's roughly five-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Mr Sanders.

Mr Trump's strong showing in South Carolina marked his second successive victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the party nomination.

No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were locked in a race for second place in South Carolina. Mr Bush and other candidates lagged far behind.

"This has become a three-person race," Mr Rubio said of his strong finish, which with Mr Bush quitting bolsters his case that he is the candidate of mainstream Republicans.

Mr Cruz, who has run as a political outsider, harked back to his win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses as a sign he was best positioned to take down Mr Trump.

He urged conservatives to rally around his campaign, saying pointedly: "We are the only candidate who has beaten and can beat Donald Trump."

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system.

The public mood has upended the usual political order. That gave Mr Sanders, who put up a stiff challenge to Mrs Clinton in Nevada, and Mr Trump openings over many more mainstream candidates.

In Nevada, Mrs Clinton won the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Mr Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

She capitalised on a more diverse Democratic electorate who helped her rebound after a second-place finish to Mr Sanders in the New Hampshire primary.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Mrs Clinton told her cheering supporters during a victory rally in Las Vegas. "This one is for you."

She said Americans are "right to be angry," but are also hungry for "real solutions".

Mr Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, congratulated Mrs Clinton on her victory, but then declared his campaign has "the wind at our backs as we head toward Super Tuesday".

Mrs Clinton now leads in delegates pledged to her at the Democratic Party's national convention in July, but only has a fraction of the number needed to secure the nomination.

Her win means she will pick up at least 18 of Nevada's 35 delegates, while Mr Trump is also accumulating a delegate lead among Republicans.

No candidate has shaken the establishment more than Mr Trump. He spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former president George W Bush of lying and even rowing with Pope Francis on immigration.

The Trump win drove Mr Bush, once the frontrunner, who was counting on his family's broad popularity in South Carolina, out of the race. Mr Bush is the son and brother of former presidents.

Now, the Trump victory foreshadows a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1.

Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which decides the nomination at the party's national convention in July.
Two explosions in the central Syrian city of Homs have killed at least 32 people and wounded dozens more

Four explosions went off in a predominantly Shiite suburb of the capital Damascus, Syrian state TV reported.

The TV had no immediate details but the pro-government Ad-Dunya TV station said the blasts on Sunday in Sayyida Zeinab killed and wounded a "large number" of people.

The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV says the blasts occurred near a Shiite hospital in the suburb just south of Damascus. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reports two blasts near al-Sadr hospital, saying they inflicted casualties.

Sayyida Zeinab is home to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.

The blasts came hours after two explosions in the central city of Homs killed and wounded scores of people.

A triple explosion in Sayyida Zeinab killed 45 people last month.
Jeb Bush ended his White House race after failing to make a breakthrough in South Carolina (AP)

Jeb Bush ended his campaign for the presidency after a disappointing finish in South Carolina, acknowledging his failure to harness the hopes of Republican voters angry at the political establishment.

The former Florida governor told supporters that he had tried to stay true to what he believes.

Still, he was lagging far behind in the primary in South Carolina, where his well-organised campaign was outmatched by insurgent billionaire Donald Trump, and senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

"I'm proud of the campaign that we've run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions," a visibly emotional Mr Bush said.

"The presidency is bigger than any one person. It's certainly bigger than any one candidate.

"I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant not the master."

The son of George HW Bush and brother of George W Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fuelled them with fundraising.

Working with a outside funding group that has supported his candidacy, Mr Bush and allies raised more than 150 million dollars (104 million) by the end of 2015 - far more than any of his Republican rivals.

However, Mr Bush's presence in the race and fundraising potential was not enough to dissuade more than a dozen other Republicans from entering the race, including fellow Floridian, Mr Rubio.

Mr Bush's failure to ignite was not simply a factor of the size of the Republican field. He, like others, was caught off-guard by the durable popularity of political outsiders - particularly Mr Trump.

The final stage of Mr Bush's campaign became an all-out fight with the outspoken real estate mogul - the two frequently referring to each other as a "loser".

Mr Bush attacked Mr Trump's lack of experience, and the billionaire focused on the Bush family legacy, particularly the unpopular Iraq war waged by his brother.

Mr Bush offered himself as an experienced public executive and potential world statesman informed in part by his father's and brother's wartime presidencies.

But it was not a case strong enough to translate into votes.

There were other problems as well. The policy-oriented Mr Bush was overshadowed in early debates by Mr Trump and Mr Rubio, which dramatically slowed his early autumn fundraising.

Mr Bush went on to finish sixth in the Iowa caucuses, and barely squeezed ahead of Mr Rubio in New Hampshire for a fourth place finish.

South Carolina was viewed as a last chance for Mr Bush to make a mark.

Having previously kept his family ties at arm's length, he brought them to the forefront ahead of South Carolina.

His father and brother both won the South Carolina primary when they were seeking the presidency, and he had set his hopes high there for a campaign revival.

Despite support for the Bush family among a segment of devoted South Carolina Republicans, Mr Bush himself had a halting final week of campaigning.

At a Wednesday town hall meeting in Summerville he was offered more advice than policy questions, the same day he learned South Carolina governor Nikki Haley had endorsed Mr Rubio.
Hillary Clinton has thanked her supporters after she won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, defeating Bernie Sanders.

She said: "To all my supporters out there - some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other. This one's for you."

After the victory, which came after the Vermont senator's victory in New Hampshire, Mrs Clinton told her supporters: "T his is your campaign. It is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back.

" Americans are right to be angry. But we're also hungry for real solutions."

The victory for the former secretary of state gives her two wins to one in the race for the Democratic nomination, as she also eked out a victory in the Iowa caucuses.

The competition heads next to South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary next Saturday.

Mrs Clinton's win in Nevada means she will pick up most of the state's delegates.

With 35 at stake, she will gain at least 18. Mr Sanders will pick up at least 14. Three delegates remain to be allocated, based on votes in the congressional districts.

The results of the caucus are the first step in determining delegates who are expected to support candidates at the national convention.

To date, Mrs Clinton remains far ahead in the overall delegate count due to early endorsements from superdelegates, or party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter whom voters back in primaries and caucuses.

Including superdelegates, she now has at least 501 delegates and Mr Sanders at least 69.

It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

The contest in Nevada was the first of two presidential primary contests being held.

Republicans were fighting in South Carolina, a state seen as billionaire Donald Trump's to lose and one that could start to clarify who, if any, of the more mainstream candidates might emerge to challenge him

Mr Sanders conceded in a phone call to Mrs Clinton.

The Vermont senator said he congratulated her on her victory, and that he is proud of his campaign and expects to leave Nevada with a "solid share of the delegates".

Mr Sanders highlighted his campaign's work to bring working people and young voters into the process, and said he believes his campaign has "the wind at our backs" heading to the Super Tuesday contests on March 1.
Police use water cannons to disperse protesters from the Jat agricultural community in New Delhi (AP)

More than 16 million people in India's capital are facing a water crisis as a result of violent demonstrations in northern India over government benefits, which have left at least 10 dead.

Protesters have damaged equipment that brings water from Munak canal in Haryana state to New Delhi, depleting the capital's water supply.

New Delhi gets about 60% of its water from the neighbouring state.

Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi's chief minister, announced schools in the capital would be closed on Monday, and also ordered the rationing of water to people's homes.

At least 10 people have been killed after Indian security forces fired on protesters since the week-long protests turned violent on Friday, according to Yashpal Singhal, the state's top police officer.

Another 150 protesters have been injured in clashes in various parts of Haryana.

Sporadic violence was reported in Haryana on Sunday, with protesters setting a bank ATM and bank records on fire. Mr Singhal said no major incidents of violence were reported in the state.

He also said paramilitary forces and irrigation engineers are trying to restore the water flow from Munak canal to New Delhi.

The protesters, members of the lower-caste Jat agricultural community, are demanding benefits both at federal and state levels, including guaranteed government jobs or university places.

Talks on Friday between community leaders and state government representatives failed to lead to an agreement.

The protesters are demanding 27% government job quotas or university spots for their community.

India's constitution includes a system of affirmative action for people in the lowest castes to help them overcome discrimination. The government has expanded the number of groups, including the Jat, qualifying for quotas.
Six million Jews are thought to have died in the Holocaust

Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of Treblinka, the Nazi death camp where 875,000 people were systematically murdered, has died in Israel at the age of 93.

Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a revolt shortly before it was destroyed.

Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as perhaps the most vivid example of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to exterminate Europe's Jews.

Unlike at other camps, where some Jews were assigned to forced labour before being killed, nearly all Jews brought to Treblinka were immediately gassed to death.

Only a select few - mostly young, strong men like Mr Willenberg, who was 20 at the time- were spared from immediate death and assigned to maintenance work instead.

On August 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the woods.

Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed by Nazi troops in the surrounding mine fields or captured by Polish villagers who returned them to Treblinka.

"The world cannot forget Treblinka," Mr Willenberg said.

He described how he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence and catapulted over.

He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path.

He said his blue eyes and "non-Jewish" look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.

After the war Mr Willenberg moved to Israel and became a surveyor for the Housing Ministry.

Later in life, he took up sculpting to describe his experiences.

His bronze statues depicted Jews standing on a train platform, a father removing his son's shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved, and prisoners removing bodies.

"I live two lives, one is here and now and the other is what happened there," Mr Willenberg said. "It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always."

His two sisters were killed at Treblinka. He described his survival as "chance, sheer chance".

The Nazis and their collaborators killed about six million Jews during the Holocaust. The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz - a prison camp where more than a million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labour.

His daughter said he died on Friday. He is survived by a daughter and grandchildren.
Refugees from Afghanistan wait for a permission to cross the border from Macedonia at a checkpoint near the Tabanovce transit centre (AP)

Greek police say Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians.

Macedonian authorities reportedly said that Serbia has done the same on its southern border with Macedonia.

Macedonian police started restricting the flow of migrants across the Greek-Macedonian border on Saturday, conducting body searches and demanding passports.

Earlier, they had accepted Greek police's official documents attesting that an individual had been processed.

The moves have led to a build-up of migrants waiting at the Greek side of the border. Greek police said 800 were stranded at the border Sunday and another 2,750 were waiting in 55 buses nearby.

In the 24 hours to 6am local time, only 310 migrants had been allowed into Macedonia.
The shootings happened in the US state of Michigan

A gunman who seemed to choose his victims at random opened fire outside an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant in Michigan, killing at least six people during a rampage that lasted nearly seven hours, police said.

Authorities identified the shooter as 45-year-old Jason Dalton, an Uber driver who police said had no criminal record. They could not say what motivated him on Saturday night to target victims with no apparent connection to him or to each other.

"How do you go and tell the families of these victims that they weren't targeted for any reason other than they were there to be a target?" Kalamazoo county prosecutor Jeff Getting said on Sunday at a news conference.

Dalton was arrested early Sunday in Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt. He was expected to be arraigned on Monday on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas described a terrifying series of attacks that began about 6pm on Saturday outside the Meadows apartment complex on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times. She was expected to survive.

A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and his 18-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the dealership.

Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant along Interstate 94, Mr Matyas said. Four of them died.

A 14-year-old girl had earlier been reported among the fatalities, based on a pronouncement by medical officials. But police later said that she was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst-case scenario," Mr Matyas said.

"These are random murders," he said.

Dalton was arrested without incident about 12:40am after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through Kalamazoo after leaving a bar parking lot, authorities said.

Mr Matyas declined to disclose anything found in the vehicle except for a semi-automatic handgun.

"In this particular case, we're just thankful it ended the way it did - before he could really kill anybody else," Mr Matyas said.

By midday, authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated the suspect was driving for Uber during the manhunt and had taken at least one fare, Mr Getting said.

A spokeswoman for Uber confirmed that Dalton had driven for the company in the past, but she declined to say whether he was driving on Saturday night.

Uber prohibits both passengers and drivers from possessing guns of any kind in a vehicle. Anyone found to be in violation of the policy may be prohibited from using or driving for the service.

Dalton was in contact with more than one person during the rampage, authorities said, but they would not elaborate. Prosecutors said they do not expect to charge anyone else.

"There's no common denominator with any of these," Mr Matyas said. "This person was just waiting in the parking lot of the apartment complex. The one at ... the dealership, they were looking at cars. The ones at Cracker Barrel, they were just sitting in their cars. There is absolutely no common denominator ... through race, age, anything."

Authorities were interviewing Dalton and reviewing his phone. They did not know if the handgun belonged to him, Mr Getting said.

"This is every community's nightmare - when you have someone going around just randomly killing people, no rhyme, no reason," Mr Getting said.

Tammy George said the woman who was shot outside the apartment building is her next-door neighbour. She and her family heard the gunfire, ran outside and saw the woman on the ground.

Four bullets went into a closet of Ms George's home, she said. Her son, James, was playing video games with two friends a few feet away from where the bullets pierced the wall.

"I checked out the back window and saw a car speeding off," said James George, 17.

On Sunday morning, Tammy George came outside to clean the parking lot.

"I was worried about the kids coming out and seeing their mom's blood," she said. "I cleaned it up. No kid should have to come out and see their parent's blood on the ground."

During a Sunday morning news conference, some law enforcement officials wiped eyes or got choked up. When the news conference ended, Kalamazoo mayor Bobby Hopewell and Department of Public Safety chief Jeff Hadley embraced.

"It's hard to put into words the impact something like this has," Mr Getting said. "How do we put an end to the fear this is causing? There's this sense of loss, there's anger, there's fear."

The four people killed outside the restaurant were identified as 62-year-old Mary Lou Nye of Baroda and 60-year-old Mary Jo Nye, 68-year-old Barbara Hawthorne and 74-year-old Dorothy Brown, all of Battle Creek.

With a population of about 75,000, Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise programme, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.
A fire has damaged a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home in Germany

A fire has damaged a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home in Saxony, eastern Germany, as bystanders celebrated, police said.

The incident comes days after a mob in the same state blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers.

The blaze in the roof of the building in Bautzen broke out overnight. Police said no-one was injured, but that a group of people gathered outside, some of them "commenting with derogatory remarks or unashamed joy" on the fire.

Police ordered three people to leave the scene because they were hampering firefighters' work, detaining two of them, whom they described as intoxicated 20-year-old locals.

Authorities believe the fire was caused by arson, but they are investigating every possibility, senior regional police official Bernd Merbitz said.

While the majority of Germans have been welcoming toward refugees, a vocal minority has staged protests in front of refugee homes, especially in the east, and the country last year saw a surge in violence against such lodgings.

Saxony is home to the anti-Islam and anti-immigration group Pegida.

Across the state in Clausnitz, a mob screaming "We are the people" and "Go home" blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers outside a new refugee home on Thursday.

Police drew criticism in that case for roughly hauling some migrants off the bus into the building, which they insist was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating.

Saxony governor Stanislaw Tillich described the two incidents as "appalling and shocking" and described the perpetrators as "criminals".

"This is abhorrent and disgusting," Mr Tillich said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group. He pledged that authorities will investigate and "bring everyone responsible to account".

Germany's justice minister, Heiko Maas, wrote on Twitter that anyone who applauds as buildings burn or who intimidates refugees "acts abominably and abhorrently".
Similar explosions have hit the city before

The death toll from three blasts in a Shiite suburb of Damascus has reached 50, with more than 200 wounded, Syrian state TV reported.

It says the bombings on Sunday targeted a vegetable market in the afternoon during rush hour.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts.

Residents said the attack was about half a mile from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines and did not damage it.

A triple explosion in Sayyida Zeinab killed 45 people last month.

The blasts came hours after two explosions in the central city of Homs killed and wounded scores of people.

The day of violence follows diplomatic moves aimed at organising a truce.

Earlier, US secretary of state John Kerry said a ''provisional agreement'' has been reached on a ceasefire in Syria's five-year civil war.

Mr Kerry, who spoke alongside Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, Jordan, revealed he had spoken earlier this morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about the agreement.

Now, he said, both the US and Russia plan to reach out to the various sides of the conflict.
A vehicle is parked at Seelye car dealership, the scene of a random shooting on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 in Kalamazoo.

Police the area in the parking lot of a car dealership, after a random shooting on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 in Kalamazoo.

An officer with the Kalamazoo Crime Lab leaves the scene of a random shooting on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 in Kalamazoo.

A man has been arrested after a gunman reportedly drove around the Michigan city of Kalamazoo randomly shooting people.

A manhunt was launched after six people were killed and several others were injured in the shootings late on Saturday night.

One of the victims, a nine-year-old child, was in critical condition early on Sunday morning.

It was initially reported that seven people had been killed, but Mr Getting said a 14-year-old girl who was shot at a Cracker Barrel restaurant was not killed, but "gravely injured."

In all, eight people were shot in three locations Saturday, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told CNN.

He said all three shooting incidents appear to be related.

"What it looks like is we have someone just driving around, finding people and shooting them dead in their tracks," Matyas told CNN affiliate WOOD-TV.

"This is your worst nightmare, when you have somebody just driving around randomly killing people."

Michigan state policeman Lieutenant Dale Hinz told WWMT TV said police believe "the situation is contained" after arresting a man driving a car matching a description of the gunman's.

They have taken him into custody - a man matching the description," Hinz said, adding that the man was aged 45.

Expand Close Jeff Getting, prosecuting attorney, speaks during a news conference Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 regarding the mass shooting in Kalamazoo, Mich. AP / Facebook

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At this point this is all we know. He is being questioned right now."

Sheriff Paul Matches later told the network that the suspect "voluntarily" gave himself up after he was approached by police.

"The threat to the public is over. This is your worst nightmare when you have someone driving around killing people. There is usually a reason for this and hopefully after questioning the suspect we will know why."

The man arrested has been named as Jason Brian Dalton.

Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said he expects charges to be brought against Dalton on Monday.

Dalton is accused of shooting eight people -- six of them fatally -- in three separate incidents Saturday evening. A motive has not yet been determined.
New research shows pre-teens are ignoring the age limits imposed by social media sites, while older teens are 'impressed' by cybercrime. So what can be done to protect our children online, asks Katie Wright.

How would you react if you discovered a friend had hacked into a bank's website and pasted a cartoon over the homepage? Would you feel shocked? Appalled? Disapproving?

A new study reveals that among 16 to 19-year-olds, more than a third (35%) said they would actually be impressed if they found out a pal had committed this kind of cybercrime.

Commissioned by security firm Kaspersky Lab, following the National Crime Agency (NCA) revelation that the average cybercrime suspect is just 17 years old, the survey also found that 12% of the 1,500 teens questioned know someone who has been involved in an online activity that could be deemed illegal.

Commenting on the research, psychologist Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos of University College London says this is an example of classic teenage rebellion moving into the digital sphere. "Cybercrimes represent an attack on the 'system' and allow individuals to express their teenage angst ... and to achieve the kind of social validation and attention that many teenagers seek," he says.

Meanwhile, a pair of surveys to mark the annual Safer Internet Day (SID) have found that three-quarters of 10 to 12-year-olds have at least one social media account, despite being below the age limit of 13, and a third have witnessed their friends writing offensive, mean or threatening posts online.

Experts agree that communication is key. The NCA's #CyberChoices campaign, launched at the end of last year, recommends that parents talk to their kids regularly about their online activities and watch out for signs - such as children spending all of their time online, becoming socially isolated or evasive when asked what they're doing - that might indicate an involvement in criminal activities. The UK Safer Internet Centre encourages children of all ages to report abuse online - whether it's directed at them or not - to an adult.

The SID study found that, encouragingly, 68% of those who had witnessed hate speech online knew how to report it to a social network, but in reality, only 20% actually reported an incident.

"It is a wake-up call for all of us to play our part in helping create a better internet for all," said Will Gardner, director of the UK Safer Internet Centre and CEO of Childnet.

See www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk and www.saferinternet.org.uk
The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone.

Details from the new LG G5 were announced on Sunday at the Mobile World Congress technology show in Barcelona.

LG has announced a modular smartphone that enables users to attach additional features such as a better camera lens to the device.

The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone.

The Korean firm's president Juno Cho described the new device as "an adventurous theme park in your pocket".

Google is also working on a modular smartphone where users can add and remove features, though it is thought to be far from completion. A small second battery inside the phone keeps it running while any swap is made.

LG made the announcement at a press conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress technology show in Barcelona.

The G5 will also have an "always-on" screen, though LG added this will only highlight part of the screen and use less than 1% of the battery every hour.

The phone's rear camera also comes with a wide angle lens, which can be used to take photos in a 135 degree range - wider than the viewing range of the human eye.

LG also announced their own virtual reality headset, following in the footsteps of a host of companies to create such a device.

The LG 360 VR connects to the G5 smartphone, and has a dedicated screen for each eye, which LG says makes images shown 20% sharper than other headsets. It is being powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon processor, one of the most powerful available.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone. PA The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone. PA The new LG G5. PA The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone. PA The new LG G5 comes with a removable battery slot and additional features such as a camera and a speaker that can be slotted into this area with the battery at the base of the phone. PA / Facebook

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Facebook-owned Oculus, PlayStation and HTC are all due to release VR headsets in the coming months.

The technology giant also unveiled a 360-degree camera that can be used to take photos and video, as well as post to Google Street View.

A spherical robot called the Rolling Bot was also revealed. It can be controlled remotely over a Wi-Fi network, and the firm says could be used as a home security product.

It also comes with a Pet Care mode so users can monitor and even talk to their pets when they're not home, as well as beam a small laser onto the floor for them to play with.
One more mention of Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of one of Hitlers concentration camps.

As a missionary, she eventually returned to Germany to speak about God. In the audience sat a man, a former guard at the camp where Ten Boom was sent to starve. He was a cruel guard, but he didnt remember or recognize Ten Boom as she spoke.

After the talk, the guard walked up to Ten Boom and said, You mentioned Ravensbruck in you talk. I was a guard there, but since that time, I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein.

Corrie Ten Boom admitted that she struggled. She wrote, And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion, I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

After praying silently, she lifted her hand to embrace the hand of the guard. She wrote, As I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into tour joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. She told the guard she forgave him.
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Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
Fiachra O Cionnaith, Irish Examiner

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald has accused the "concerned citizen" who challenged her over the party's tax policies at a media event last Friday as having "some brass neck" after it emerged he is a senior hedge fund manager.

The Dublin Central TD hit out at Fergus Crawford, the CEO of the Irish branch of Swiss investment firm Sarasin during a public strategy meeting by the party in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Crawford had heavily criticised the opposition party over its tax policies and the risk it is posing to jobs in the country over the coming years.

However, responding to the details at the Sinn Fein event in Wynn's Hotel, Ms McDonald said Mr Crawford has "some brass neck" to make the claims.

"When the conversation happened I wasn't aware of who the concerned citizen was and in the manner of these things you take people as you find them and you have the debate.

"The bankers, developers, all of the crew who wrecked this place have now regrouped, and they are now sufficiently emboldened to challenge people like me on the streets of Dublin on the basis of, ironically, our ability to protect ordinary people.

"There's a big irony in that and I know it isn't lost on anyone. The man is of course entitled to his view.

"But I think it took brass neck, pure hard brass neck on the part of somebody associated with ACC bank [who Mr Crawford worked for before joining Sarasin] to come and attempt to claim their concern was for working people," she said.

Note: A previous version of this story said Fergus Crawford was a brother of ex-Fine Gael TD Seymour Crawford. This is not correct.
Rory McIlroy is two shots off the lead going into the final round of the Northern Trust Open in California and the Northern Irishman knew he had to rely on some hustle to stay in contention.

The world number three fired five birdies in a four-under-par 67 in his third round to join five other players on 10 under, two shots behind leader Bubba Watson.

After a second-round 70 was blighted by some indifferent putting, McIlroy regained his form with birdies at the second, sixth, 10th, 15th and 17th holes, with his bogey five at the par-four third his only blemish.

That was due to some impressive up-and-down play, which saw him scramble unlikely pars at holes seven, eight and 18.

He told pgatour.com: "I didn't play particularly well, I didn't hit my first fairway until the eighth but my scrambling was good, my putting for pars was good, I stayed patient and let the opportunities present themselves.

"It added up to a great 67 and I am right in there going into the final day.

"There were a lot of up and downs today that didn't look like they were going to be up and downs. You need to do that especially if you are a little scrappy with your long game as I was today."

There are plenty of other players standing in the way of McIlroy and glory in his maiden outing at the tournament, not least two-times Masters champion Watson.

Watson also carded five birdies in his 67, let down by a solitary bogey at the eighth, as he forged a one-shot lead at 12 under.

Second-round leader Jason Kokrak, Chez Reavie and Dustin Johnson are in the chasing pack at 11 under, though Kokrak squandered a one-shot overnight lead with his round of 70.

McIlory is joined on 10 under by K.J Choi, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman and Kevin Chappell, who hit the best round of the day with 66.
David Cameron has issued a last-ditch appeal to Boris Johnson not to join the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.

With the London mayor set to end months of speculation over which side he will back, Mr Cameron said it would be a "wrong step" for Mr Johnson to link up with Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Respect's George Galloway in the "out" camp.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU," the Prime Minister told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country.

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done."

Speculation that Mr Johnson is leaning towards the Leave campaign was heightened with the disclosure that he hosted a private dinner with Justice Secretary Michael Gove just days before he declared for out.

It raised the hopes of Leave campaigners that Mr Johnson will now provide the figurehead they have been looking for who can cut through to voters in a way that few other Westminster politicians can.

However Mr Cameron warned that while leaving the EU could create the impression that Britain was reclaiming its own sovereignty, in practice it would be an "illusion".

"If Britain were to leave the EU that might give you a feeling of sovereignty but you have got to ask yourself 'is it real?'," he said.

"Would you have the power to help businesses and make sure they weren't discriminated against in Europe? No you wouldn't. Would you have the power to insist that European countries share with us their border information so we know what terrorists and criminals are doing in Europe? No you wouldn't.

"If suddenly a ban was put on for some bogus health reasons on one of our industries, would you be able to insist that that ban was unpicked? No you wouldn't.

"You have an illusion of sovereignty but you don't have power, you don't have control, you can't get things done."

While Mr Cameron acknowledged that it was possible that Britain could have a trade deal with the EU if it left, he pointed to the example of Canada, which had been negotiating for seven years and still did not have full access to European markets.

"If we leave: seven years, potentially, of uncertainty, and at the end of that process you still can't be certain that our businesses will have full access to the market. So it could cost jobs, it could mean overseas businesses not investing in Britain. It would be a step into the dark," he said.

"The weakness of the Leave campaign is, I think, they forget that even if you leave the EU still exists, it is still on your doorstep."

At a time of great international uncertainty - with the threats of Russian expansionism and Islamic State terrorism - Mr Cameron said there was "strength in numbers".

"In the end this is a hard-headed calculation about what is best for Britain," he said.

"In a world where you have got Putin to the east and Isil-Daesh to the south, how do you stay strong? By sticking with your neighbouring countries, your partners and your friends."

For Labour, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said that it could backfire on Mr Johnson if he chose to declare for the "out" side.

"I'm surprised really because Boris Johnson in the past has written a lot about the importance of staying in the European Union and if he is actually thinking about putting his personal leadership ambitions above the national interest I don't think it's going to do him any good," he told Sky News's Murnaghan programme.

Conservative former minister Liam Fox said he would be surprised if Mr Johnson did not join the Leave campaign.

Asked if it would be a big surprise if the London mayor did not support Brexit, Mr Fox told Murnaghan on Sky News: "Yes I'd be surprised, because I think it is all about this point of sovereignty and the Prime Minister says Britain is now free from ever-closer union."

Eurosceptic Mr Fox said he does not believe Mr Cameron's claim "stands up to legal scrutiny" as there has been no treaty change.

Mr Fox added: "People say: 'Oh, how could you be in the same campaign as George Galloway and others', but the Prime Minister is going to have to link arms with Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn on that side of the argument - not a pretty picture, I have to say."

Mr Farage said he expects Mr Johnson to join the Leave campaign, telling Sky News' Murnaghan show: "I think he will, and 'hurrah' is all I can say to that.

"What again I think a lot of the commentariat in Westminster don't understand is there are literally only five or six people in this referendum whose campaigning, whose presence, can sway the undecideds, and he is one of those half a dozen."
Seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, have died after a gunman opened fire at random in a western Michigan city, US police said.

A 45-year-old man was arrested in Kalamazoo after shots were fired in the car parks of an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant.

The teenage girl was among five people fatally shot outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant, according to Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas, while a father and son were killed at the car dealership.

A woman who was shot multiple times at an apartment complex is in a serious condition, Mr Matyas said.

He had said earlier that authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst case scenario".

He added: "These are random murders."

The rampage began at about 6pm local time in the car park lot of the apartment complex in Richland Township on the eastern edge of the Kalamazoo County, where the woman was shot and seriously wounded.

About four hours later and 15 miles away, the father and son were fatally shot while looking at cars. Fifteen minutes after that, five people were shot in the car park of the Cracker Barrel along Interstate 94, including the teenager.

The suspect was arrested after midnight, authorities said.

Mr Matyas told WWMT-TV that the man did not resist when approached by officers, and that weapons were found in his vehicle.

"The threat to the public is over," Mr Matyas said.

Kalamazoo, with a population of about 75,000, is about 160 miles west of Detroit.

It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery.

The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.
A fire has damaged a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home in Saxony, eastern Germany, as bystanders celebrated, police said.

The incident comes days after a mob in the same state blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers.

The blaze in the roof of the building in Bautzen broke out overnight. Police said no-one was injured, but that a group of people gathered outside, some of them "commenting with derogatory remarks or unashamed joy" on the fire.

Police ordered three people to leave the scene because they were hampering firefighters' work, detaining two of them, whom they described as intoxicated 20-year-old locals.

Authorities believe the fire was caused by arson, but they are investigating every possibility, senior regional police official Bernd Merbitz said.

While the majority of Germans have been welcoming toward refugees, a vocal minority has staged protests in front of refugee homes, especially in the east, and the country last year saw a surge in violence against such lodgings.

Saxony is home to the anti-Islam and anti-immigration group Pegida.

Across the state in Clausnitz, a mob screaming "We are the people" and "Go home" blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers outside a new refugee home on Thursday.

Police drew criticism in that case for roughly hauling some migrants off the bus into the building, which they insist was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating.

Saxony governor Stanislaw Tillich described the two incidents as "appalling and shocking" and described the perpetrators as "criminals".

"This is abhorrent and disgusting," Mr Tillich said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group. He pledged that authorities will investigate and "bring everyone responsible to account".

Germany's justice minister, Heiko Maas, wrote on Twitter that anyone who applauds as buildings burn or who intimidates refugees "acts abominably and abhorrently".
US secretary of state John Kerry said a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a ceasefire in Syria's five-year civil war.

Mr Kerry, who spoke alongside Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, Jordan, revealed he had spoken earlier this morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about the agreement.

Now, he said, both the US and Russia plan to reach out to the various sides of the conflict.

Mr Kerry said he hoped US president Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that hopefully, after that, implementation of the ceasefire could begin.

The US secretary of state said details, such as enforcement, still need to be resolved.

Mr Kerry added not every party will necessarily agree to the deal automatically, but declared: "There is a stark choice for everybody here."

The Russian foreign ministry said Mr Lavrov and Mr Kerry spoke on the phone on Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the UN Security Council considers terrorist organisations.

Mr Kerry said Russia has to talk with Iran and the Syrian government, and the US has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group.

He said: "What we are trying to achieve is a process with precision and commitment, and if we get that, that's the best opportunity for the people of Syria to see the violence reduced.

"Will every single party agree automatically? Not necessarily.

"The opposition is tough. The opposition is not about to stop. And the opposition has made clear their determination to continue to fight back."

Mr Kerry said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breaches will be addressed.

He said: "These are details that have to be determined if it is going to be effective."
ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan will take all possible steps locally and globally to create awareness about...
LONDON: Civilians should evacuate the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson as fast as possible because...
Doctors had held baby Asha in the hospital until "a suitable home environment" could be identified. Family advocate Natasha Blucher, GetUp! campaigner Ellen Roberts and Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Ros McLennan speaks to media outside the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital about the campaign to keep baby Asha from being sent back to Nauru. Credit:Jorge Branco Mr Dutton said the girl and her family would still be subject to normal refugee processing and a spokesman confirmed they would not be settled in Australia. The immigration minister said community detention had been the plan for Asha from the start, despite apparent statement to the contrary to 4BC on Thursday. Scotia Monkivitch was one of about 50 protesters still at the vigil for baby Asha at Brisbane's Lady Cilento Hospital on Sunday morning. Credit:Cameron Atfield

"If people have received medical assistance and the assistance is no longer required, if they've recovered from their medical condition, then they'll be returned to Nauru," he told the station, when asked about baby Asha. "We'll have a look at each case and go through the individual circumstances and we'll have a look compassionately at individual cases." President of the Australian Medical Association, Brian Owler, addresses the media on Sunday. Credit:Deborah Snow But GetUp! campaigner Ellen Roberts said the protests, which saw several hundred people flock to the hospital on Saturday as deportation fears grew, had changed the national conversation on refugees. Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Ros McLennan celebrated a "backflip of Olympic proportions".

Baby Asha's case captured attention from around Australia and overseas. Natasha Blucher, who had been advocating for the family, promised to continue the fight for the same outcome for the remaining 266 asylum seekers in Australia for medical treatment. Mr Dutton had earlier accused activists of "hijacking" the debate for their own purposes. On Sunday afternoon, Children's Health Queensland confirmed Asha would be moved to a community dwelling "within the next 24 hours". "The Department further advised that there is no imminent plan for the family to return to Nauru and the family's case is under consideration," a spokesman said in a statement.

EARLIER An Asylum seeker baby at the centre of a national protest will be moved to community detention in Australia rather than sent to Nauru, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed speculation on Sunday that the 12-month-old, who has been receiving medical attention for a month at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane, would be released into community detention but did not rule out an eventual return to Nauru. Doctors at the hospital were refusing to release the girl, known as "Asha", until "a suitable home environment is identified". Protesters have been camped outside around the clock since last Friday.

Mr Dutton said on Sunday doctors had agreed to release the baby and her mother into community detention but their asylum claims would still be subject to the normal processing. They would not be allowed to settle in Australia, a spokesman confirmed. President of the Australian Medical Association, Professor Brian Owler, welcomed the decision on Baby Asha but said it did not go nearly far enough. 'It's just extraordinary that the minister has to be dragged kicking and screaming to a point to allow a baby to stay in Australia, to not be taken out of a hospital. You can blame everyone else, the AMA and other people for raising the issues but clearly anyone can see that that was the right thing to do in the first place" he told Fairfax Media. "It's welcome, obviously we did not want Baby Asha to go to Nauru, but the issue is the other children that are still on Nauru and the 80 children that are here in Australia that are still left up in the air." Mr Dutton on Sunday said Baby Asha would leave Lady Cilento and go into community detention, along with 83 others who were already living in the community.

"So it will be a continuation of that policy," he said. "The government's position is perfectly clear and that is at some point, if they don't have a protection claim, then they will be returned to their country of origin or back to Nauru and we're not going to renege on that position. "We've been very firm in relation to it and it's been part of the reason that we've been able to stop boats." Mr Dutton said a move to community detention had been the plan all along and accused activists of "hijacking" the debate for their own purposes. He was not able to point to a time when the department had said they intended to move the one-year-old to community detention.

"Doctors from the hospital said the baby's treatment has now concluded and that they would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention," he said. "As I say, that's what we've proposed all along but at some point, if people have matters finalised in Australia, then they will be returning to Nauru." When asked what had caused the doctors to change their minds, Mr Dutton said: "I understand there are some pressures at the hospital in terms bed space". He did not provide a timeline for when Asha and her family would be moved or where she would be moved to. Mr Dutton's announcement came after AMA president Brian Owler issued a passionate call to the medical profession to resist government plans to return asylum-seeker children to Nauru.

"There are times, in any nation, where the medical profession must act in the interests not only of our patients ... but act in the national interest," he said addressing around 350 senior doctors and health workers in Sydney. He said there should be an immediate release of all children from both offshore and onshore detention centres and a moratorium on such children being sent back to the centres. He also wants an independent authority set up to monitor the health status and treatment of refugees. Professor Owler said he was unsure of what had transpired between Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull but that "I would hope that the Prime Minister of the country would realise the importance and significance if a situation were to develop where they would allow the Department of Immigration and Border Security to have private security guards come into a hospital against the advice of doctors and nurses and forcibly remove a patient." "Obviously that didn't happen, I'm glad it didn't .. but I want to make sure it doesn't happen in the future as well.' Professor Owler said that forcibly removing patients from hospital is a "line that cannot not be crossed."

Protesters remained outside the LCCH on Sunday, although in much smaller numbers than seen on Saturday night when fears spread the baby's deportation could be imminent. Mr Dutton accused some activists of running their own agenda rather than having the baby's best interests at heart. In a statement released Sunday, Children's Health Queensland chief executive Fionnagh Dougan said baby Asha would be discharged within 24 hours after the Department of Immigration and Border Protection advised the child and her family would be moved to a community dwelling. "The Department further advised that there is no imminent plan for the family to return to Nauru and the family's case is under consideration," the statement says. "The child was treated for burns sustained in the Nauru Detention Centre and has recovered well.
For a Republican establishment desperate to end the insurgency that has seen Donald Trump take over the party, the results of Saturday's primary in South Carolina could not have been much worse.

Not only did Trump secure another thumping victory, but the establishment's most significant hope for a unifying figure, Marco Rubio, practically tied for second place with another insurgent, Ted Cruz.

Indeed the only good news for the party's ruling class was the end of the race of its humbled favoured son, Jeb Bush.

Pressure will now mount on other candidates, like John Kasich and Ben Carson, to leave the race to clear the way for Rubio. But both confirmed on Saturday night that they would do no such thing.
Those of you old-fashioned enough to love dear, old, actual books and to have them strewn about on bookshelves will love and appreciate our picture of a new superhero bookend.

There's seldom anything very exciting about bookends but Artori Design has put some fun-filled thought into this one that (making a smart use of a magnet) has a silhouetted superhero hurtling along in the nick of time to prevent the catastrophe of a collapse of books.

Artori Design has put some fun-filled thought into this bookend.

This columnist has absolutely no pecuniary interest (trust me, for I am a journalist) in the sales of this clever new product. It is just that this is an ideas column and wants to praise Artori Design for this lovely idea.

But with a little Googling readers can find how to buy this bookend and its equally witty companion, a superhero shelf that has the superhero holding a heap of books aloft with superhumanly brute strength.
Two-thirds of recent alleged murders in the ACT have been family violence-related, with women accounting for all but two of the eight victims.

The alleged murder of eight-year-old Bradyn Dillon by his father Graham Dillon, 37, last week reignited debate about family violence and issues of child protection in the ACT.

Tara Costigan's uncle, Michael Costigan, and her son Drew Costigan-Wittman, 10. Credit:Jay Cronan

Many of those who knew the young boy have taken to social media, calling for more to be done to prevent family violence.

Their cries echo those made after a spate of four family violence-related deaths last year.
The government will need to start from first principles. The law for the plebiscite should be based upon the normal rules that govern elections and referendums. This should entail a system of compulsory voting based upon the current electoral roll. Voting should occur at the ballot box, rather than solely by post. Without these, the plebiscite, especially in the event of a close result, may be undermined by criticism that it did not properly express the will of the people.

Special government funding should not be provided to organisations agitating for or against change. Instead, public money should support a credible, independent set of neutral information. This should inform Australians of the current state of the law and what changes would be made if the vote succeeds.

I can see merit in only one departure from existing practices. In like ballots held overseas, such as the recent plebiscite on Scottish independence, the vote has been extended to 16 and 17-year-olds. This should also occur for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage. The federal marriage act permits 16 and 17-year-olds to marry where they have the permission of a judge or magistrate. This age group thereby has a stake in the debate, and will be affected by any change. They should accordingly be given a say.

The federal government should also draft the bill to overcome the greatest defect in holding a plebiscite, namely, that it is not binding and can be ignored by parliamentarians. The law cannot compel parliamentarians to vote one way or the other. However, clever drafting can ensure, to use the Turnbull's words, that "when the Australian people make their decision, that decision will stick".

The plebiscite bill should contain sections setting out how same-sex marriage could be recognised. The law should state that these sections commence operation if a plebiscite is supported by a majority of voters. Or, if the plebiscite fails, the law should state that the provisions are of no effect. Either way, the plebiscite would trigger automatically an outcome consistent with popular will.
It was the Insiders couch re-match that politicos were waiting for.

And it didn't disappoint.

On Sunday morning, conservative warrior Gerard Henderson and progressive flag flyer David Marr went head-to-head on the ABC's weekly panel discussion.

Previous stoushes between the Sydney Institute executive director and Guardian Australia writer have been immortalised on Twitter (remember Henderson mimicking Marr's finger waggling over the merits of the ICAC's work?) and this was their first outing for 2016.
Asylum seeker baby Asha and her family will be returned to Nauru once medical and legal processes are complete, the Turnbull government has vowed.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has also ruled out taking up New Zealand's offer to resettle some refugees, saying it would offer a "back door" into Australia.

The one-year-old known as Asha came to Australia with her family last month after suffering burns on Nauru.
In October 2014, Kylie Hargreaves, the deputy secretary of the resources division in the department of Industry, wrote to her team that a new acquisitions policy was urgent. "With the news this morning about China considering tariffs on imports of coal types, I suspect it is even more important we have a speedy position/solution regarding the undesired outcome (by all sides) of the current recommendation for large scale compulsory acquisition of black soils agricultural land. "I'll be needing to brief ministers on implications of the policy more broadly and on the potential impact on the China relationship which will no doubt be the topic of discussion when the President visits on November 22  so I would be most grateful for an update on what options we will be presenting for the Shenhua case," she said. In August 2014, the independent Planning Assessment Commission recommended that 25 properties should be offered the opportunity of being acquired by Shenhua because of the likely effects from dust. During the first week of November 2014, as the acquisition policy was being finalised, the mining companies engaged in an intense lobbying effort in Macquarie Street.

Public records of ministerial diaries reveal Shenhua Australia met with the Minister for Trade and Investment Troy Grant  Ms Hargreaves' boss  on November 3, 2014. They also met with the Minister for Natural Resources and Western NSW on the same day. The policy was formally approved on November 5, by the land use standing sub-committee of cabinet. On November 7, the NSW Minerals Council and 13 mining companies, including Watermark, met the Premier Mike Baird and the Resources Minister Anthony Roberts to discuss "government policies relating to the mining industry". Around the time of this meeting there was another flurry of activity within the resources and planning departments, which resulted in the two-day-old draft of the policy being withdrawn from the Planning Assessment Commission and a new one being substituted. It was this policy that was put on public exhibition. There was a small but very important change: instead of overall dust impacts being considered (the cumulative impact of all mines in the area), it required the impact to come only from that new mine project (the incremental impact).

In its final determination on January 28. the Planning Assessment Commission noted: "Some properties that were initially included have now been removed following the implementation of the new policy". The number qualifying for acquisition was reduced to 11. As emails within the resources division noted, the effect of the new policy was to save Shenhua the expense of buying back 12,000 hectares of black soil plains. It also reduced the political headache for the government, which was grappling with a campaign by broadcaster Alan Jones over the loss of valuable farming land. But the losers were farmers close to the mine who will no longer have the option of selling out. The change of policy has appalled the Lock the Gate Alliance. "If the Minerals Council used its influence over the NSW government to change this policy so that people are stranded living with air pollution that damages their health, then the policy must be scrapped and amends made to the people suffering its effects," campaign co-ordinator Georgina Woods said.

"No one wants to see large areas of our best farmland bought up and left neglected in the hands of coal companies. The NSW government has to reverse its priorities: set pollution standards that protect people's health and wellbeing and make the coal companies adhere to them." A spokesman for the department of Trade and Industry said the voluntary land acquisition policy had been drawn up in response to the PAC recommending that a formal policy be developed on air quality, noise and blasting be developed.



Time line August 2014: the Planning Assessment Commission recommends 25 properties be resumed around Shenhua mine due to dust and noise. October 10, 2014: Resources division deputy secretary, Kylie Hargreaves tells her team they need to fast-track a new mining land acquisition policy in the interests of China-Australia relations. Late October 2014: Resources division argues with EPA over dust standards, prevails.

November 3: Meeting between Shenhua and Trade and Investment MInister Troy Grant. November 5: Land use subcommittee of cabinet approves the acquisition policy. PAC sent a draft, which is later withdrawn. November 7: Meeting between NSW Minerals Council and Premier, Resources MInister. November 17: Acquisition policy "updated", with effect of further weakening the test for acquisition due to dust pollution. November 18: Updated policy put on exhibition.
"I often talk about those bikini Instagram accounts and wonder how many followers are male versus female and how much engagement is based on looking at a hot photo of a girl as opposed to not caring. For us, it's more about real people. Felicity Grey, of Nuffnang, says using influencers is not out of the reach of small business. "Big numbers are great, but if there's no engagement it's not in our interest." Bellabox, which has built up to a yearly turnover of $7.2 million since launching in 2011, spends anything between $50 and $5000 for an influencer to write a post about its products. Bellabox's first campaign using influencers focused on They All Hate Us bloggers Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson.

"Like any marketing campaign, we pay based on the return we think we're going to get," Hamilton says. "Influencers run the gamut  we work with a lot of influencers who just want the product and we're not paying them. Detch Singh is the co-founder of Hypetap, which represents 1200 influencers with a combined following of more than 120 million people. For small businesses there's heaps of influencers out there who will speak directly to their niche that aren't going to charge premium rates because they're building their following. Felicity Grey "If influencers have a proven track record and we know we can get a lot of acquisition from their posts, then we look into compensating them."

The influence of social recommendations Social recommendations had previously been estimated to influence about 15 per cent of all purchases, but a 2015 study by US research firm McKinsey found they account for 26 per cent. And that figure is steadily growing. Reliable metrics are problematic when it comes to influencer marketing with little data on the return on investment from influencers. One of the few reports into the subject found companies receive $13.50 in earned media value for every $1.40 spent on influencer marketing. Earned media value includes publicity, social sharing and endorsement, according to the report by US media technology firm RhythmOne. Baking, playing and smiling all the way to the bank Victorian baking blogger Lucy Mathieson boasts more than 50,000 Facebook followers and has courted big brands such as Mission Foods, Old El Paso and Breville.

The success of her three-year-old blog, Bake Play Smile, has meant she quit her job as a primary school teacher and while her earnings are less than $100,000 a year Mathieson says they continue to increase and should hit six figures next year. "I didn't start it to make money and it was only after 12 months that I realised it was taking off," Mathieson says. "Brands trust me to know what my audience wants. But at the same time, it's important I maintain the integrity of my blog so I do one campaign a month and no more than that." Mathieson says she occasionally turns down offers from businesses looking for her promotional help. Recently she accepted an offer from McDonald's despite not being "a huge fan". She says she wrote an honest review of the fast-food giant's new Create Your Taste menu. How small businesses can use influencers

Brands looking for appropriate influencers can now find them at platforms such as Hypetap, which represents 1200 influencers with a combined following of more than 120 million people. Co-founder Detch Singh says genuine engagement with followers is the top priority for brands searching for effective influencers. "We care about engagement  likes and comments, sentiment around their posts and also the quality of original content that they produce," he says. "We need to be confident that an influencer can produce their own content when they work with a brand." Influencer marketing is becoming popular for big business, but isn't out of reach for small businesses, Felicity Grey, managing director at mega blogging network Nuffnang, says.
Criminals would be banned from gaining licences to run rooming houses in a push to stamp out exploitative operators who prey on vulnerable people.

Applicants for licences would be refused if they have been convicted of serious crimes relating to violence, sexual or child pornography, dishonesty or drug trafficking in the past 10 years.

Consumer Affairs Minister Jane Garrett is hoping new laws will remove dodgy operators from the rooming house business. Credit:Josh Robenstone

The new provisions, if passed through Parliament, will also extend to associates of criminals who want to operate rooming houses. Rooming house operators will have to pass a "fit and proper persons test".

Consumer Affairs Minister Jane Garrett said for too long there had been "tales of exploitation" in rooming houses. "There is a small but core group of rooming house operators that have been found to have exploited vulnerable people and who have had unsavoury connections," she said.
New York: Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden has told an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that he is willing to be extradited to the US if the federal government guarantees he would get a fair trial.

The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping program and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Edward Snowden appears on a live video feed broadcast from Moscow at an event in Hawaii in February 2015. Credit:Marco Garcia

Mr Snowden spoke Saturday US time at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. WMUR reported that forum organisers did not allow the media to video record his remarks.

"I've told the government I would return if they would guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public interest defence of why this was done and allow a jury to decide," Snowden told his audience.
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One day after President Obama signed legislation that will brand the passports of sex offenders last week, a federal court challenge was filed against it.

The International Megans Law is supposedly a way to alert foreign countries to sex offenders who may be traveling there for sex tourism or trafficking purposes. Of course, who isnt against sex trafficking? We all are! But branding peoples passports isnt going to do any good. The U.S. State Department itself found that the laws rationale is very misleading. And after conducting a study, the General Accounting Office found no evidence that the offenders used their passports to commit sex offenses abroad.

Got that? No. Evidence.

But heck  whats a complete lack of evidence compared to political grandstanding? The bill was sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (RNJ) and passed both houses with only a single, brave lawmaker, Rep. Bobby Scott (DVA), speaking out against it. He said that he endorsed the bills provisions to notify foreign countries about sex offenders travel plans, but was repulsed by the idea of the unique passport identifier  government-speak for passport branding.

It is simply bad policy to single out one category of offenses for this type of treatment, Scott told the House. We do not subject those who murder, who defraud the government or our fellow citizens of millions and billions, or who commit acts of terrorism to these restrictions.

Terrorists? Pffft. It is only sex offenders who must declare their past deeds this way. And that is what the court challenge is hinged upon.

We dont want those identifiers on anybodys passport, says lawyer Janice Bellucci, president of the group California Reform Sex Offender Laws, who is filing the federal challenge on behalf of four sex offenders. Our strongest argument is that it violates the First Amendment, because that unique identifier is compelled speech.

In other words, The government is making you say something you dont want to say.

Bellucci has been down this legal road before. Twice she argued against California towns forcing sex offenders to put No trick-or-treating signs on their doors, and twice she won. A third time she sued the California Department of Corrections for the same thing. The department had told registrants they had to put that sign on their doors on Halloween. And if they didnt have a home and lived in a tent, well by golly, they had to put a No trick-or-treating sign on their tent flap. And if they were living in a sleeping bag at the side of the road, they had to put a No trick-or-treating sign on their sleeping bag, too.

Presumably this would help fend off the hordes of children seeking bite-size Snickers from the homeless. Bellucci won that case, too.

Like candy-doling, Halloween-activated predators in sleeping bags, the problem of registrants traveling abroad for sex tourism is also not a common one. Chris Smith has written that, currently tens of thousands of offenders could be traveling abroad as child sex tourists.

But they arent.

The U.S. Justice Department itself says that about 10 Americans a year are convicted of sex crimes against minors in other countries. Meantime, there are more than 800,000 people on the Sex Offender Registry  about a quarter of them minors. This means that the vast majority of registrants  at least 790,990 one of them  are not sex tourists. And yet we wont give them the basic right of traveling this great earth.

The United States has never branded anyones passport until now. Somehow we have survived 200-plus years of giving all citizens the right to serve their time and then go on with their lives. Former drug dealers can travel south of the border. The Oceans 11, 12 and 13 crews can hop on a plane to Monaco. But sex offenders, including teens who sexted and former flashers now in their 80s, will be branded with the scarlet S and kept in internal exile. It is for the sake of the children, of course.

It always is.

Read Lenore Skenazys column every Sunday morning on Brook lynPa per.com
La periode de Noel est un moment a partager en famille ou entre amis. Le temps est au partage et a la creation de...
Looking for the big games to watch in Week 9? We have them right here.
1st Congressional District race sees Norcross, Gustafson rematch

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1, is looking to repeat his win two years ago over Republican Claire Gustafson when voters turn out this November.
Parking charges in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge will rise by 10 per cent from April after Sedgemoor District Council approved the hike this week.

In a bid to gain an extra 90,000 in revenue funding, Sedgemoors Executive has this week voted through a package of measures which will raise car parking charges across the district by 10%, standardizing the daily charges across the district to 5.

The Executive also agreed to consult with relevant disability user groups about the possibility of introducing car parking charges for disabled customers before making a final decision on blue badge charges.

They also opted to support further development of the cashless and ticketless transaction method.

Council Leader Duncan McGinty said: We havent raised charges for four years and compared to other districts in Somerset we are woefully below in comparison.

Weve undertaken a consultation and whilst youd expect raising charges to be unpopular nevertheless some people were in favour. As unpopular a measure as this may seem I am reasonably comfortable with it.

Burnham-On-Sea Chamber of Trade attacked the proposed increase in costs earlier this week, calling it an unwelcome barrier to business, but the council has approved the hike.

A Chamber spokesman said: Whilst understanding Sedgemoors budget issues and the ongoing capping of Council Tax increases, across the board increases in parking charges are detrimental when there is little attempt by Sedgemoor to attract extra shoppers into the town.

The Chamber recognises that out-of-town supermarkets and shopping centres offer free parking and there are no parking charges for shoppers who sit at home on their computer or tablet to shop online.

Parking charges are an unwelcome barrier to business in a town that has reducing public transport, an elderly population and a seasonal influx of visitors.

It comes in the same week that Sedgemoors Chief Executive has had his salary of 132,282 per year scrutinised, as we reported here.
With the Harsh Lodha-led Birla Corp buying the five million tonnes a year (mtpa) Reliance Cement, consolidation in the sector gained momentum. An additional 42 mtpa capacity on the block big and small companies is in the fray, and private equity (PE) entities are also looking for opportunities, either for a purchase or a tie-up.

A little over a third of the 375-mtpa industry capacity is with two entities, Lafarge-Holcim and UltraTech. They have 36 per cent of industry capapcity between themselves, with respective capacities of 70 mt and 65 mt.

Debt-laden Jaypee Group, the third largest with 31 mt capacity, needs to sell under lenders' pressure, after defaulting on repayment of a non-convertible bond last year. Beside Lafarge-Holcim, created after the global merger of French and Swiss giants, needs to sell 11 mt capacity of Lafarge India, to overcome local anti-trust laws.

"This is a unique situation. I do not imagine such a large capacity coming on the block again in the foreseeable future. The buyer would eventually become quite a dominant force," says Nitin Gupta, partner at consultancy entity EY. (CEMENT M&A TABLE)



The Competition Commission of India (CCI) looks at the sectoral market on a regional basis, as transportation is an important part of pricing. This has given an opportunity to Kumar Mangalam Birla's UltraTech to become a more forceful player. It has bid for 20 mt capacity of Jaypee, whose assets are complementary, on a regional distribution basis.

UltraTech also bagged Jaypee's five mt capacity in Madhya Pradesh in December 2014. It has since got stuck in regulatory hurdles, after the government changed regulations to prohibit transfer of mining rights in case of an asset sale. On lenders' request, the government has proposed to amend these, in the coming Parliament session, to facilitate such deals.

Once these two deals are complete, it will bring KM Birla very close to his stated goal of having 100 mt cement capacity for UltraTech.

Smaller players are also jumping on this opportunity. Dalmia Bharat, fourth largest in the market with 24 mt capacity, has also bid for Jaypee's 20-mt capacity.

"For a new player to come and acquire 20 mt capacity is not likely to recur. Barring the sellers, the top five players would be open to evaluating this opportunity. Given the size of the deals, we expect PEs to tag along with strategic buyers," says a source from EY.

Global PE giant KKR, an investor in Dalmia Bharat, has also bid for this 20 mt asset.

"PE firms can help situations with appropriate capital structure and management infusion where necessary to either grow or turn around these assets," says Sanjay Nayar, chief executive officer, KKR India Advisors.

All this is at a time when the industry is having less than 70 per cent utilisation, lowest in a decade. However, in the long term, the India consumption story would stay intact. "Over the long run, these assets will create value, given India's infrastructure and growth needs," says Nayar.

The other large capacity on the block is Lafarge India's 11 mt business, for which it has applied to CCI. The regulator had earlier asked the company to sell off its five mt capacity in eastern India to complete its global merger. Lafarge India sold it to Birla Corp but the deal fell through due to the change in regulations on transfer of mining rights. With pressure to complete the global merger Lafarge India now plans to sell through a share sale deal.

"We are expecting one or two more serious players to come through consolidation," says Munesh Khanna, partner PWC India. Sajjan Jindal's JSW Cement has expressed interest in Lafarge's 11-mt business. Jindal made his fortunes in steel and has been consolidating his position in the power and cement businesses as assets change hands from weaker to stronger promoters, under lenders' pressure. JSW Cement wants to reach 20 mt capacity in about two years, up from the current six mt, through both organic and inorganic routes.

Dublin-based CRH, the world's third largest building materials company, is also getting into the fray for Lafarge India's cement business. Last year it acquired assets worth $7 billion as Holcim and Lafarge divested assets worldwide to meet anti-trust regulations for completing their global merger.

CRH has presence in the Indian market; it had acquired 50 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based My Home Industries (MHIL) in 2008. MHIL has annual cement capacity of 4.8 mt from two plants; it is the lowest cost producer. In 2013, it acquired South India-based Sree Jayajothi Cements, with annual capacity of 3.2 mt.

PE entities KKR and Blackstone are also keen to bid for Lafarge India's assets. "PE players might partly fund these consolidators or buy these assets on their own, to sell later on higher valuation when demand picks up and building new capacities become costlier," says Khanna.

There is also another six mt capacity from the Jaypee Group on the block. It includes Jaypee Associates' joint venture with public sector Steel Authority of India in Bhilai for two mt capacity and the four mt capacity Andhra Cement, owned by Jaypee Development Corporation.

"There is a clear capital market arbitrage opportunity in these acquisitions," says Ashutosh Maheshvari, managing director, Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors. "One or two players can buy large capacities and by combining their respective buyouts, can command a valuation close to top players such as UltraTech and Shree Cement."
the chairman emeritus of the Tata group of companies, says older airlines in the country are afraid of competition and are stymying progress in the sector.

This comes in the wake of lobbying by some of the bigger airlines against some of the proposed changes in the civil aviation policy. Notably, relaxation of the existing "5/20" rule on plying abroad. This says an airline cannot be eligible to do this till it is at least five years old and has at least 20 aircraft.

Vistara, an airline in which Tata Sons owns 51 per cent stake, is one of those which wants a relaxation in this and like rules, saying these are important for the country's economic growth.

Tata said on Sunday, "The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of the protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interests' entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years. These protectionist moves have held back progress in India, compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas."



This sparked a statement from Ajay Singh, the chairman of SpiceJet: "Mr Tata should ask these airlines in which his group is a shareholder to follow Indian law in letter and spirit. It is evident that these airlines are controlled by their foreign parents, in violation of Indian laws."



Adding: "While obtaining a licence, these two airlines had undertaken to follow the "5/20" rule, which they are now opposing so vehemently."



AirAsia group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes, however, lauded Tata. "I'm so glad that he has spoken out, no country in the world has '5/20'," Fernandes said.

Top executives of IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and GoAir had, under the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), recently met Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the PMO, opposing abolition of the "5/20" rule and urging for a law against ownership of foreign entities in Indian airlines.

They complained that no other country in the world allows substantial ownership and effective control of its airlines to be taken over by foreign ones but India has permitted some to operate despite being effectively controlled by a foreign parent.

"It is nothing wrong to ask for regulations which favour your own company but Mr Tata, who represents Indian business, should take a look at his own company which is being remote controlled from overseas. There is deep resentment in their own staff against this," said an executive from another airline which is a part of FIA.

AirAsia, another airline in which Tata Sons owns 41 per cent stake, has been in a controversy over foreign control after co-founder Arun Bhatia, who owns 10 per cent in the airline, threatened to go to court on the grounds that it was controlled by Malaysian shareholders.
Toyota, the world's largest car maker, is facing a rough ride in the Indian market, thanks to the temporary diesel ban and an increasing shift towards petrol vehicles. Naomi Ishii, managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, tells Ajay Modi how the events in India are a new learning for the company and necessitate a relook at strategy. Edited excerpts:



As a global player, how do you read recent events like the diesel engine restriction in the National Capital Region (NCR) and advancement of the schedule for BS (vehicle emission) norms?



I lost the trust of my headquarters in Japan because of the sudden change of stance, particularly the diesel ban. I have been explaining to my headquarters that this has occurred not only because of uncertainties but as Delhi is one of the top polluting cities in the world. I am trying to convince (headquarters in) Japan to look at the reason. Now, they realise the issue.

Toyota is not a company that only wants to make more cars and sell it. By utilising Toyota's technology and business practice, we must solve the problems a country faces. Toyota can learn once again from the events in India. We need to go back to our basics.

What is our real objective? Toyota should step ahead. We have the technology. We can't avoid regulations. To meet BS-VI (norms) in 2020 is a huge challenge for new and existing cars. There might be a small loss of business for us due to this. We have to go with it.

How do these events change your strategy?



We have to follow the regulations. If we can't, we should stop some of the business. If we cannot comply with BS-VI on existing models like the Etios, we will have to stop selling it. To comply with BS-VI, we don't only need installation of a component into a car. We need to change everything. A car consists of thousands of parts. Each will require a new design and localisation. All manufacturers are impacted. We need to relook at the strategy. Take the case of the petrol Innova that we now want to bring. It was not in our plan before December, though we were successfully selling the petrol variant in other countries.

Your focus in India has been sedans and SUVs. That has not helped in growing your market share. Will you look at the small car market?



There are so many customers of competitors who want to buy a Toyota but we lack a product line and they end up buying other brands. We have a responsibility to offer more choice. We see some possibility in the small car segment from that point. We are working very hard to streamline the priorities. If Daihatsu (recently taken over by the parent firm) can be utilised to meet the demand, we should do it. Compared to Toyota, Daihatsu is very good at designing the small car and manufacturing a cost-competitive vehicle. We have to study this area carefully and some decision should be taken.

Toyota has a technological edge in hybrid (vehicles). What scope do you see for hybrids, given the recent action against diesel?



The cost of hybrids is still very expensive. To popularise and gain acceptability, we need to lower the price. To do so, localisation is one tool. But, to localise a hybrid, we need volumes. Otherwise, we take a huge risk. As in Japan, if the Indian government can subsidise some portion of the cost, we might be able to boost the sales of hybrids. The Camry hybrid is around Rs 30 lakh and demand is limited. We need to have a more affordable price range. If we want to introduce an Etios hybrid, the petrol price is Rs 7 lakh and the hybrid would be Rs 11 lakh. Will you buy? We have to get some government support.

The fuel efficiency of a hybrid is double that of a conventional engine. That allows a 50 per cent reduction in fuel consumption. The real problem is pollution and to solve that, something has to be done. Unfortunately, a fraction of the issue has been addressed by banning diesel vehicles in the NCR. Other global players are seeing this as an illogical decision.

What three things will keep you busy in 2016?



The diesel ban is a big headache. The company and its dealers are in a pitiable situation. One of our dealers in the NCR gets 80 per cent of sales from the Innova and Fortuner. You can imagine the impact on him from the sudden order. If this continues, a huge impact will be there. I hope the new Innova will change the perception about Indian cars.

I hope this time the BS-VI discussion will be the final one and we can plan strategy for the future.

How is the R&D (research & development) role of the Indian set-up changing?



To be a top player in this country without having a prominent R&D function might be very difficult.

We have to work more closely with our suppliers. Every single part requires designing. We have to keep sharing information with Japan and get feedback. All these take time. Local R&D will become increasingly important.
The agitation by Jat protesters took a turn for the worse, as they blocked roads and railway lines leading to Haryana from the Capital, Punjab and other neighbouring states.

Several parts of the state remained under curfew as the protests demanding Other Backward Classes (OBC) status for the Jat community entered the seventh day.

Eight people were reported to have been killed last night, as violence spread to Gurgaon despite the presence of Armed Forces, taking the overall toll to nine. More than 80 people are reported injured and hospitalised in institutions across the state.

Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat, and Gohana towns of Sonipat district are among the regions where curfew has been imposed. Agitators set an ATM on fire last night and destroyed official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu, Bhiwani district.

Insisting that there can be no talks "with a mob", Harayana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar urged the agitators to form a committee that would take their case to the state government. He also called upon them to put an end to the protests, claiming that the state government had accepted their demands.

Jat leaders, however, insisted that the protests would be called of only when the state agreed to grant OBC status to the community.

Meanwhile Delhi is reeling under a water crisis due to the agitation, forcing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to announce austerity measures to ease the situation.
In the wake of continued violence by agitating Jats, additional 1,700 paramilitary troops have been sent to Haryana, taking the total number of central armed police personnel deployed in the troubled state to 5,000.

"We have sent 17 more companies of paramilitary personnel in addition to 33 companies sent in last three days," a senior Home Ministry official said.

Read more from our special coverage on "JAT COMMUNITY" Reservation issue: Jat stir continues in Haryana after talks fail

A company of a paramilitary force comprises about 100 personnel.

The additional forces have been sent following a request by the Haryana government, which is grappling with the situation arising out of the violence following the Jat stir for quota in government jobs.

During a telephonic conversation with Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar on Friday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured all assistance to the state government to deal with the situation.

Crisis Management Committee, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, has also assured Haryana government that there would be no dearth or delay in sending any assistance, including central forces.

Incidents of violence and arson continued overnight in the state with the Jat protesters setting on fire an ATM and records of a cooperative bank in Bhiwani district even as the Army staged flag marches in tense areas. Six people have been killed in the violence.

Despite various leaders, including the Haryana Chief Minister, appealing to the Jats to maintain peace, there was no let up in the protests which have disrupted normal life in Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar.
The Jat agitation in Haryana has dealt an estimated blow of Rs 18,000-20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property and halting trade, industry, small business and transport, says the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham). Several industries had come up recently on the Delhi-Rohtak highway.

"A huge loss of confidence among investors to set up industries in this area would happen, making it imperative for the state administration not to lose further time in reining in the anti-social elements who are taking advantage of the reservation agitation," says a report from the business chamber.

With a population of about 30 million, Haryana has so far been considered a progressive state for industrialisation, with a gross domestic product of about Rs 450,000 crore. It boasts of global business hubs like Gurgaon which houses top multi-national companies, with back-office operations in information technology and IT-enabled services, and automobile giants like Maruti Suzuki.

Incidentally, Maruti has stopped production at its Gurgaon and Manesar factories. Collateral damage has been done to businesses and industries in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, besides huge harassment to common citizens. A lot of damage, for instance, would be done to textile exporters with facilities in Panipat, which had made a name for itself for handlooms and carpets.

The state's director general of police said the situation had improved after enforcement of curfew and flag marches by paramilitary forces and the army. He said the situation was so far largely peaceful in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Sonipat, Kaithal and Jind. No casualties had occurred since Saturday evening, he added. He said about 10 people had been killed and 150 injured during the agitation till date.

A district-wise plan had been formulated, with security forces to conduct 'night dominance' activities in various cities. Apart from flag marches, they've got busy in arrests (45 so far) and preventive detentions. As many as 191 cases had been registered.

The government had made it a priority to stop further violence and to lift the blockades of highways. The DGP said the central Government had provided 49 companies of paramilitary forces, of which 39 had reached the state and 24 deployed.

The army has given 69 columns of personnel, deployed in Jhajjar and Rohtak districts. Another 10 columns are on way. Additional chief secretary, home, P K Das, said law and order had improved since Friday night in Rohtak, Gohana and Jind. The aviation ministry has asked all airlines for additional flights between Delhi to Chandigarh and Amritsar.
A 104-year-old resident of Dhamtari district, Kuwarbai Yadav, has become the poster child for the Swachh Bharat Mission. The resident of Kotabharri village, about 100 km from Raipur, sold the eight goats she owned to construct a toilet in her house.

An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She also encouraged others from the village to build. The prime minister touched Yadavs feet.

I would request the media to not cover my speech but air the inspiring initiative of Kuwarbai across the country. I had an opportunity today to seek the blessings of Kuwarbai.The initiative of an old-aged lady underlines that people's mindset is changing fast, Modi said. Yadav learnt about the Swachh Bharat mission during a government programme in the village about a year ago. She was inspired and decided to sell her eight goats to raise Rs 22,000. Yadav used the entire amount to construct a toilet at her house, where she stays with her son and daughter-in-law.

If that was not enough, Yadav also convinced 30 families in her village to construct toilets and end open defecation. In June 2015, the village was declared free of open defecation.
With the Budget session set to start from February 23 and the Opposition not agreeing with the government on major issues, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has suggested a slew of urgent reforms across sectors, which will not require legislative action.

The proposed reforms are spread across exports, taxation, and crucial sectors such as small scale, labour and infrastructure. According to Ficci, most of these reforms can be addressed by executive action by the respective ministries.

To boost India's lagging merchandise exports, which went down for the 14th consecutive month in January, Ficci has suggested simplifying the process by which exporters can claim incentive benefits. While the government has sought to incentivise exports through interest subvention and the merchandise exports from India scheme (MEIS), exporters have claimed several procedural and implementation difficulties to have made it unusuable.

The suggested reforms include increasing the time period allowed to exporters to claim MEIS benefits as well as for manually submitting the shipping bill. Allowing exporters to self-certify the origin of various goods, which usually take a considerable time, has also been mentioned.

In labour laws, Ficci has proposed a uniform period of five years across states after which factory licences are required to be renewed. Currently, the period ranges from one to five years.

It has also recommended fixing a three-year time limit to decide pending cases by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction under the Sick Industrial Companies Act, 1985, which has pending cases stretching back to 15 years.

Under the Employees Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance Acts, it has suggested placing a cap on the time duration of records summoned by the inspector for inspection for up to three years before.

It also urged the government to divest its stake holding in central public sector undertakings, especially mentioning Specified



Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India, where it said the Centre holds equity to the tune of Rs 52,000 crore or 0.4 per cent of the GDP.

To secure urgent infrastructure growth, the setting up of a one-stop shop for handling projects coming up under the public-private partnership mode has been recommended. While the government had announced setting up of an institution called '3P India' in 2014, the body has still not been set up.

Ficci has also called for introducing binding statutory timelines for adjudication of matters relating to indirect taxes. It said the uncertainty in such cases make doing business difficult especially for small and medium enterprises. Currently, the Customs Act states tax officials shall have to determine the amount of such duty within one year from the date of notice.

"A provision be made each in the Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax laws that in case a show-cause notice is not adjudicated upon within a specified period from the date of issue, the proceedings shall lapse as if the show-cause notice was never issued," said Ficci.

On cheap steel imports flooding the domestic market, it has argued for instituting anti-dumping norms and suggested import duty on all steel products should be raised to 25 per cent in the upcoming Budget. It has also called for the customs duty on all steel products be immediately raised to 15 per cent. Currently, the duty on import of long steel ranges from 10 to 12.5 per cent across categories.

The suggestions have been submitted to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion.
Consensus seems to have eluded a NITI Aayog task force on agriculture on use of genetically modified (GM) technology in pulses and oilseeds from state governments. However, state governments have broadly agreed to most other issues raised by the task force, including legalising land lease.

Officials said the task force, which concluded its final meeting with representatives from northern, eastern and northeast states last week, is likely to put down all suggestions and issues flagged by the states in the form of actionable points to be implemented.

The task force was constituted in March 2015 by the NITI Aayog to operationalise the decisions taken in the first meeting of NITI Aayog's governing council in February last year. "The final report is expected to be put in the public domain by the end of this month," the officials said.

The task force had floated a discussion paper in December on issues concerning the country's agriculture sector wherein it had recommended calibrated use of the Essential Commodities Act to ensure private investment in storage and warehousing is not hurt. It had also advocated the need for creating a vibrant land lease market and starting a land bank to be held by a private agency.

Later, it held extensive consultations with representatives of state governments. The meetings were held in Ahmedabad, Bengalaru and Delhi.

NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya presided over these meetings. According to officials, state governments were represented by senior officials and agriculture ministers.

On GM crops, the discussion paper floated by the task force has favoured selective use of transgenic seed varieties, commonly known as GM technology in pulses and oilseeds after necessary safeguards.

It is here that states don't have a common stand, officials said. Officials said NITI Aayog would frame a model land lease Act and it states could either adopt it in full or amend the law according to their local needs and requirements.

"The basic structure might remain the same, but states would be free to adopt the Act according to their needs. For example, in Bihar, remnants of the old zamindari system is still in place and special changes have to be made." NITI Aayog members Bibek Debroy and Ramesh Chand along with economist Ashok Gulati and a host of secretaries from the ministries of agriculture, land resources, water resources, and fertilisers are the other members of the task force.

Officials said that apart from the model land leasing Act, the states also seem to unanimous in their resolve to improve marketing of agriculture products.

"During our interaction, no state opposed amending the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Act, which will also get a push. On crop insurance products, the paper said the government should provide a diverse set of insurance products."



SOWING SEEDS OF HOPE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban (rural-urban) Mission from Chhattisgarh's Dongargarh block, which aims to draw an investment of over Rs 5,000 crore in three years to "transform rural areas to economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces."The Rurban mission would replace the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (Pura) initiative. Rurban would create village clusters to minimise rural migration to cities through skill development programmes.

"If there can be smart cities, why can't there be smart villages," Modi said here, while addressing a mammoth gathering after the launch of the scheme on Sunday afternoon.

Rural migration was increasing but could be contained by providing quality of life in villages, he said. Development should ensure that the soul of a village remained intact but amenities were like those in cities.

The prime minister said till now national schemes and projects were launched from Delhi. But he decided to start the Rurban Mission from Dongargarh's Kurubhat village  about 110 km from Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur. The intention of launching national schemes from a small centre was to move the government out of Delhi and ensure it reached villagers, he said.

Under the scheme, 300 clusters would be developed with an investment of Rs 5,100 crore in three years. Four clusters would be developed in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Kawardha and Bastar districts. This year, 100 clusters would be taken up under the project.

Modi said the country's economic growth should not be centric to 50 big cities. "For the development and growth of the country, the economy should grow at the village level also," he added.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for an electronic manufacturing cluster that would come up on 70 acres in Naya Raipur.

About 61 units would be set up in the cluster with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. Modi also launched the Chief Minister Housing Scheme that would build low-cost houses.
Health Minister Sh. J P Nadda urges Himachal Govt to take necessary steps to check Jaundice . . Union Health Ministry sanctions Rs 70 lakh for ICMR study on Jaundice in Shimla . .

Expressing concern over the situation arising out of outbreak of jaundice in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Sh. J P Nadda today urged the state government to take all necessary steps to handle the situation while assuring full support from the Centre in this regard. .

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An amount of Rs 70 lakh has been sanctioned by the Health Ministry for Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct a study so that reoccurrence of this situation can be avoided. .

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We are monitoring the situation closely and have already offered all assistance to the State government. I urge the state government to take all necessary steps by improving sanitation and checking supply of contaminated water," said Sh. Nadda. .

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The Health Minister further informed that a team of National Centre for Disease Control under the Union Health Ministry had already visited the affected areas in the first week of January 2016 itself to assess the situation and give expert advice to the state government to handle the situation. .

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The team comprising experts had assessed the situation on the ground level and had advised that the sanitation and cleanliness in affected areas need to be improved and contamination of water needed to be checked. .

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PM launches National Rurban Mission

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The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today launched the National Rurban Mission from Kurubhat, in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh. .

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Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister described the Rurban Mission as one which would enable cluster based development with a rural soul and urban amenities." He said this scheme would complement the Smart Cities initiative by creating Smart Villages. The Prime Minister described Rurban clusters as centres of economic activity, which would spur growth, and improve the quality of life in nearby villages. .

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The Prime Minister said the country is taking a new direction of development. He said one example of this was that the important Rurban mission was being launched not from New Delhi, but from Kurubhat, in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh. He said that Government was now being brought to the doorstep of the villages and the tribal communities. .

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The Prime Minister congratulated villages and communities of nearby areas for achieving Open Defecation Free status. .

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Earlier, the Prime Minister visited an exhibition at the venue, which showcased the implementation of development schemes, and handicrafts. .

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Presidents Greetings on the eve of Birthday of Guru Ravidasji . .

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has greeted fellow-citizens on the eve of birthday of Guru Ravidasji. .

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In a message, the President has said, On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidasji, I convey greetings and good wishes to all my fellow countrymen. .

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Guru Ravidasji was an embodiment of spiritual wisdom. He led a life of faith and devotion and dedicated himself to the service of humanity. May the teachings of Guru Ravidasji inspire us all to strive to remove social inequalities and work towards the progress of our nation and its people. Let us recall Guru Ravidasjis ceaseless struggle for the establishment of a casteless society and derive inspiration from his life and teachings." .

.
It took six years for Apple to persuade China's largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, to sell the iPhone. Apple's chief executive, Timothy D Cook, made repeated trips to China to meet with top government officials and executives to woo them personally.

The persistence paid off. In 2013, China Mobile relented, a moment Cook later described as "a watershed day" for Apple.

Today, China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States - Chinese consumers spent $59 billion on Apple products in the last fiscal year - and the iPhone, the company's top seller, has become both a status symbol and a form of personal security, given how difficult the device is to break into in a country where people increasingly worry about hacking and cybercrime.

Apple's success in China helps explain why it is now in a standoff with the United States government over whether to help officials gain access to the encrypted iPhone of one of the attackers in the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting last December.

The company is playing the long game with its business. Privacy and security have become part of its brand, especially internationally, where it reaps almost two-thirds of its almost $234 billion a year in sales. And if it cooperates with one government, the thinking goes, it will have to cooperate with all of them.

"Tim Cook is leveraging his personal brand and Apple's to stand on the side of consumer privacy in this environment," said Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the University at Buffalo who studies encryption and cyberlaw. "He is taking the long view."



Cook, who has called privacy a civic duty, said as much in a letter to Apple customers on Tuesday. He described how the United States government was asking for a special tool to break into the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone and said, "The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that's simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices."



An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the remarks in Cook's letter.

The business advantage Apple may get from privacy has given critics an opening to attack the company. In a court filing on Friday, the Justice Department said Apple's opposition to helping law enforcement appeared "to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy."



Apple senior executives responded that their defiance was not a business choice. They said there had not been any business fallout and that Cook had received supportive emails from customers across the country.

In fact, Apple has not made a point of advertising data security and privacy. The company has quietly built privacy features into its mobile operating system, known as iOS, over time. By late 2013, when Apple released its iOS 7 system, the company was encrypting by default all third-party data stored on customers' phones. And iOS8, which became available in 2014, made it basically impossible for the company's engineers to extract any data from mobile phones and tablets.

Cook has also been vocal about how Apple is pro-privacy, a message that he discussed more widely after revelations from the former intelligence contractor Edward J Snowden about government surveillance. Cook argued that the company sold hardware - phones, tablets and laptops - and did not depend on the mass collection of consumer data as some Silicon Valley behemoths, such as Google and Facebook, do for their advertising-oriented businesses.

At a conference in October, Cook called privacy a "key value" at Apple and said, "We think that it will become increasingly important to more and more people over time as they realise that intimate parts of their lives are sort of in the open and being used for all sorts of things."



For Apple, cooperating with the United States government now could quickly lead to murkier situations internationally. In China, for example, Apple - like any other foreign company selling smartphones - hands over devices for import checks by Chinese regulators.

Apple also maintains server computers in China, but Apple has previously said that Beijing cannot view the data and that the keys to the servers are not stored in China.

In practice and according to Chinese law, Beijing typically has access to any data stored in China.

If Apple accedes to American law enforcement demands for opening the iPhone in the San Bernardino case and Beijing asks for a similar tool, it is unlikely Apple would be able to control China's use of it. Yet if Apple were to refuse Beijing, it would potentially face a battery of penalties.

Analysts said Chinese officials were pushing for greater control over the encryption and security of computers and phones sold in the country, though Beijing last year backed off on some proposals that would have required foreign companies to provide encryption keys for devices sold in the country after facing pressure from foreign trade groups.

"People tend to forget the global impact of this," said Raman Jit Singh Chima, policy director at Access Now, a nonprofit that works for Internet freedoms. "The reality is the damage done when a democratic government does something like this is massive. It's even more negative in places where there are fewer freedoms."



Governments in Russia, Britain and Israel also have robust surveillance operations. Some governments have tried to use technology to gather intelligence on citizens at home and abroad.

Apple's resistance to the United States government's demand has been polarising. Apple supporters have held protests in cities like San Francisco in recent days to show their support of the company and have used hashtags on social media like #freeapple and #beatthecase.

"We're fighting to maintain even the assumption that companies should protect us," said Evan Greer, the campaign director at Fight for the Future, a civil liberties group that is organising protests nationwide on Tuesday to support Apple. "Apple is doing what every company should be doing."



Others, including the Republican presidential candidate Donald J Trump, have criticised Apple, and Trump has suggested boycotting its products.

Around the world, people are aware of the impasse but many say it does not affect their decision to buy iPhones and the company's other products. In Rome on Friday, Simone Farelli, a 34-year-old history teacher who was browsing for a new iPhone at an Apple Store, said she "didn't see why" the company's standoff with the Federal Bureau of Investigation "would change my mind about buying a new phone."



In China, the iPhone continues to hold a special place as a symbol of middle-class status.

Wen Shuyue, a 35-year-old consultant, who on Friday was waiting outside the Apple Store in Beijing's upscale Sanlitun district, is one of Apple's millions of Chinese users. He said he liked the iPhone because it was simply better than models made by Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei.

"I've never used Xiaomi or Huawei, because I think their designs are rough and not all that personal," he said.

Apple's shareholders have so far been quiet. In the past, investors who complained that some of Apple's socially driven initiatives were superfluous to the company's core business were quickly subdued. At a 2014 shareholders' meeting, Cook told investors that if they wanted him to make decisions based only on the bottom line, "then you should get out of the stock."



But data privacy may eventually motivate investors - and ultimately more customers - to vote with their wallets because "it's an issue that speaks directly to the business," said Michael Cusumano, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "Right now people buy phones regardless of encryption issues, but we have to wait and see how bloody this fight gets."



2016 The New York Times News Service
It's official: The US is reviewing more foreign acquisition proposals - and more from China - than it has in years, according to Treasury Department figures released Friday. The numbers, in a report to Congress, provide an annual glimpse into the secretive US process of vetting the national security implications of international corporate tie-ups. The report for 2014, the latest full year reviewed, shows that US officials combed through security risks of the most deals since 2008. Among them were 24 proposals for Chinese acquisitions of US assets out of a total of 147. The total for ...
Saudi Arabia said its accord with Russia to cap oil production was "the beginning of a process," but the path from a freeze to the output cuts needed to eliminate a global surplus is far from clear. When Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi suggested that the agreement in Doha was a prelude to "other steps," he fanned hopes that the kingdom's resistance to production cuts was finally weakening. Oil's recovery from a 12-year low last month was fuelled by speculation that major producers were finally building a coalition that could work to end the glut. The problem with ...
Major oil-producing nations, seeking to curb a flood of supply that's cut prices almost in half in the past year, agreed to wrap up talks on capping output by the start of March, according to Russia's Energy Ministry. "We agreed that all consultations should be completed by March 1," Energy Minister Alexander Novak told state TV on Saturday. Countries publicly supporting the deal export about three-quarters of the world's crude, so it "would be a positive signal" for the market, Novak said. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar reached a preliminary ...
Brand: Flipkart

Budget: Rs 10 crore

Agency: Dentsu Webchutney



Given that it leads the market for online retail in India, there can be no doubt about Flipkart's countrywide reach. A new campaign sets out to remove any lingering scepticism we may have about its acceptability among those who are entrenched in tradition and therefore likely to be indifferent to e-commerce or anything virtual.

A digital campaign, #Everyoneon Flipkart, presents a series of ads that end with a surprise element of discovering how a neighbourhood shopkeeper (Rastogiji) has started to sell his ware through Flipkart, a know-it-all aunt advises unsuspecting girls on smartphones, and a Mumbai cop and office watchman order items on the job. The four films would have us believe that all sections of Indian consumers have jumped on to the Flipkart bandwagon.

Shoumyan Biswas, the e-tail firm's vice-president, marketing, says, "Driving market development and accelerating adoption across different consumer segments are our key focus areas. Born from that belief, the #EveryoneOnFlipkart campaign reaches out to the e-commerce non-believers with stories that are inspired by their life and culture. The film uses slice of life moments that reflect how Flipkart has become the common thread connecting the nation and its aspirations."



Asked whether with this campaign, Flipkart specifically tried to woo the supplier community (Rastogiji) or the diehard kirana buyer, Biswas adds, "The film on Rastogiji is not one but two stories entwined, showing how India is transforming and adopting online shopping. It not only depicts how Flipkart is helping fuel the aspirations of thousands of sellers across the country but also enabling them to expand their horizons."



Flipkart, which boasts over 100,000 sellers on its platform, last week launched Spotlist, a cataloguing and listing service targeted at small and medium enterprises, artisans and other businesses across the country. Both Flipkart and its rival Amazon are aggressively aiming to gain more sellers from smaller Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

According to Biswas, Flipkart prides itself on offering increasingly hassle-free and delightful shopping experience to consumers. "There have been several initiatives to this end, be it the first of its kind chat and shop feature Ping!, easing product discovery through path breaking features like image search and bar code search, or on the service delivery side features like one-click returns and instant refunds."



Prashant Gopalakrishnan, general manager, strategic accounts, Dentsu Webchutney, which conceptualised the campaign, says, "The single line brief was to show how everyone is on Flipkart. We wanted to take the real people around us who are least likely to be associated with online shopping, how they have become Flipkart shoppers and how that positively impacted their lives in simple but genuine ways."



The campaign showed how Flipkart has followers not just among the "digital" generation but all across, he adds.

Gopalakrishnan says the agency was keen to showcase multiple stories but at the lowest possible production cost. "The task was to partner someone who believed in these stories as much as we did and would execute it keeping in mind the budget constraints."



The month-long campaign was, however, conceived of as any mainline initiative with a 360-degree approach. For instance, Biswas points out, there were contests around ideas like spotting one's office peon or grandmother who had shopped on Flipkart. The positive response on digital platforms including social media has prompted the company to introduce it in television on select spots before the month ends.

PG Aditya, associate creative director of Dentsu Webchutney, says, "The idea was to create great content that 'happens to be an ad'. The fact that Flipkart has been a brand led by human stories only made that easier. And to think they were produced as a digital-first effort only furthers my belief that this unsaid 'caste system' of platforms in advertising is rapidly breaking."
Chief of the Naval Admiral R K Dhowan on Sunday hosted a reception at the Naval officer's mess, Varuna for the Naval veterans residing in and around Delhi-NCR. Admiral and his wife, Minu Dhowan interacted with the retired naval officers and their spouses.

Array

Being an important activity of the Navy Week celebrated every year, the event affords an excellent opportunity for interaction between the serving and retired naval fraternity.

Over the years this event has provided a platform which facilitates not only exchange of ideas but also helps in obtaining feedback on the various initiatives implemented by the service for its retired community.

Array

The gathering comprising those in uniform and those who have re-attired into different outfits post retirement from active-service represented a vast pool of knowledge, experience and wisdom that is collectively leveraged for the benefit of the Navy in particular and for the country at large.

During the event, CNS apprised the veterans on the various naval activities including the recently conducted mega event 'International Fleet Review' at Visakhapatnam, future plans of the Navy and other initiatives taken towards developing various facilities in the NCR for the serving and retired naval fraternity.

In addition, the veterans also got an opportunity to interact with the professional teams from IHQ MoD (Navy) on issues related to pension, welfare and medical facilities etc.

Array

The event also witnessed the release of 'Quarterdeck' - an annual magazine published by the Navy Foundation. The magazine has over the years established itself as a conduit between the veterans and the serving communities and Senriches with the memoirs of our veterans. It facilitates a virtual walk down the memory lane.
Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, is on a five-day official visit to Bangladesh beginning today to take the existing defence cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries to the next level.

The areas of cooperation presently include exchange of military training courses, exchange visits and joint sporting activities.

During his visit, Air Chief Marshal Raha is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three Service Chiefs of the Bangladesh Armed Forces at Dhaka.

Array

He will also call on Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The main focus of the visit will be on improving bilateral relations, promote defence ties and outline further areas of defence cooperation between the two countries.

Air Chief Marshal Raha will also visit the Air Bases at Jessore, Bashar and Chittagong, the Defence College, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) at Mirpur and Bangladesh Army Headquarters.

During his visit to the Military Institute of Science and Technology, he shall be presenting several training aids relating to aircraft systems as a goodwill gesture.

The Air Chief's visit would provide further impetus towards increasing defence cooperation between the two Air Forces and pave way for greater interaction in the future.
Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu on Sunday said that the government's purpose is to provide reservation, which is definite and stands the test of law and the Constitution of India.

"Our purpose is to provide reservation which is definite and stands the test of law and the Constitution of India. Rajnath ji has made commitment to people that the Haryana Government will come up with a bill in the upcoming assembly session. I appeal to the protestors to end their protest as soon as possible," Captain Abhimanyu told ANI.

"In the meeting the protestors kept their demands in front of Rajnath Singh. The Home Minister appealed to them to end the protest immediately and maintain peace and brotherhood in Haryana. A committee has been formed under Venkaiah Naidu to look into the demands of the Jats," he added.

The Central Government has set up a committee headed by Union Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu to look into demand of the Jats for reservation in Central Government jobs.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi today, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, the committee has been asked to submit a comprehensive report to find the solution of this problem.

Singh also appealed to the people of Haryana to help in maintaining peace and order in the state.
Clarifying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's statement on National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that the government is neither afraid of, nor annoyed with the organisation and is not planning to clip the body's powers.

Nisar, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad, said that Sharif had only advised the NAB not to threaten businessmen and investors after receiving complaints from the community.

The Interior Minister said that the NAB was created by former dictator General Pervez Musharraf to target PML-N but if the bureau could not bring anything against the party in those years, how they could do it today, the Dawn reported.

He also accused the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led Government of making money from Haj revenues and said that other corruption scandals like 'EOBI, PSO, Abandoned Properties Evacuee Trust, New Islamabad Airport and PIA' all emerged during their regime.

Prime Minister Sharif had on Tuesday said that the NAB was harassing government officers and bureaucrats are afraid of taking decisions because of 'NAB harassment'.

He said that the organization terrifies the government officers and, thus, hinders them from performing their duty.
Impressing upon the Haryana government and the Centre to immediately bring under control the deteriorating law and order situation, ASSOCHAM today reported an estimated blow of Rs. 18,000-Rs. 20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property due to the ongoing violent agitation in Haryana.

Haryana being the transit route with Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, a number of highways and trunk railway lines have bared collateral damages to the economic activities to other states in terms of loss to production, transport and movement of people.

While the state government would assess the loss of damage to public property like burning of buses, private vehicles, railways stations, police stations, malls and hotels, the trade, industry and other businesses have come to almost complete halt in most of the districts, barring parts of Gurgaon, Rewari and other few areas on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway number eight.



The trade and industry loss is maximum in the worst affected areas of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Jind, Gohana, Sonipat, Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat.

"The state administration has to be on top of the situation to control the anti-social elements, causing immense damage to the reputation of the state," ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat.

Several industries had come up in the past few years, including that of Suzuki on the Delhi-Rohtak highway.

Huge loss of confidence among investors to set up industries in this area would happen, making it imperative for the state administration not to lose further time in reining in the goonda and anti-social elements who are taking advantage of the Jat reservation agitation.

With a population of about three crore people, Haryana has so far been considered a progressive state with the Gross Domestic Product of about Rs 4,50,000 crore coming from industry, trade, agriculture , dairy farming and transport.

It boasts of global business hubs like Gurgaon, which houses top multi- companies with back-office operations in IT and IT services and automobile giants like Maruti Suzuki.

Incidentally, Maruti Suzuki has stopped production at its Gurgaon and Maneswar plants.

"Hundreds of trucks with thousands of tonnes of goods and hundreds of trains, both goods and passengers have been affected. The current violent agitation would reflect in the balance sheets of not only the corporate, traders but also the state exchequers.
A delegation of Jat leaders from Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi, met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday night, and said that they were waiting for the formation of a committee which would review the reservation demands of their community, which will decide their future course of action.

"We had four demands; compensation for those who have died, return of complain, the reservation should be implemented and we demand action on the officers who have ordered firing," a Jat leader told the media after the meeting.

"They have told us that they would be forming a committee by tomorrow which would review the reservation demand," he added.

When asked about their course of action, the Jat leaders said they await the committee formation in as assured by the government.

The Jats leaders appealed people of Haryana to maintain peace in the region, saying violence would not lead to solution in this regard.

"All the Khap Chowdhary's are there with the people, so I would appeal to them that they must maintain peace," he added.

Another Jat leader told that that the delegation told Singh that the community in Haryana and states like Uttar Pradesh were facing problems because they were deprived of benefits.

"We expect the BJP government in Haryana and the NDA government at the Centre to meet their demands on reservation," he added.

Meanwhile, violence due to the Jat reservation stir spread to more areas yesterday in Haryana.

Four people were killed in Army firing at Jhajjar taking the death toll due to the agitation to seven.

Two people were also injured in firing at Rohtak where Jat agitators set on fire a cloth market and a bus stand.

Curfew was clamped in five more towns - latest being Jind, Hisar and Hansi. Earlier, curfew was imposed in Sonipat and Gohana towns of Sonipat district. In a related development, BJP has issued a show cause notice to its MP Raj Kumar Saini for allegedly speaking against reservation for Jats.

The BJP has issued a show cause notice to its MP Raj Kumar Saini for allegedly speaking against reservation for Jats.
Amid the escalating agitation by members of the Jat community, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday expressed confidence that a solution would soon emerge as he is scheduled to hold talks with the protestors.

"I have talks scheduled with leaders from the Jat community and I'm sure that a solution will emerge soon. I appeal to everyone to maintain law and order so that no untoward incident takes place," he told the media here.

The Home Minister is set to meet the leaders from the Jat community and also Khap leaders from Haryana at his residence at 3 p.m.

After the meeting yesterday, the delegation had said that they were waiting for the formation of a committee which would review the reservation demands of their community.



"We had four demands: compensation for those who have died, return of complain, the reservation should be implemented and we demand action against the officers who have ordered firing," a Jat leader told the media after the meeting.

"They have told us that they would be forming a committee by tomorrow which would review the reservation demand," he added.

When asked about their course of action, the Jat leaders said they await the formation of the committee as assured by the government.

The Jats leaders appealed to the people of Haryana to maintain peace in the region, saying violence would not lead to any solution.

Meanwhile, former Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda is on a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi as an appeal to the protesting Jat community to maintain law and order and call off the agitation.

"I have spoken to Haryana Chief Minister and have conveyed to him that I want to go the Rohtak. He told that that he was get back to me after he speaks to the respective authorities. I want to go among my people and appeal to them to maintain peace," Hodda said.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday said Islamabad has received a nod from Indian authorities regarding the Special Investigation Team's intention to visit India in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.

Khan said Pakistan had approached India to seek permission for Pakistan's SIT to visit Pathankot, and Indian authorities had given their nod to the SIT's proposed visit to India.

"The first step is that we take the record of these numbers from the service providers. This information should be handed over to the investigation team. Secondly, the few names that have been informally given to us from the other side, what is the connection between these names and the phone numbers? This will be examined," he said.

"There are some questions, some missing links that have come out in the initial investigation. Our Special Investigation Team (SIT) will go to India, along with all this information. Another thing that I want to clarify about which there is a lot of confusion: A letter has already been written to India by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that our SIT would like to visit India, and especially Pathankot, in order to complete this investigation. In a reply to our letter, they have agreed to this, but have also said that they should be informed five days ahead of whenever the team is planning to come. Now that the FIR has been lodged, and the initial investigation is complete, in the next few days communications will be exchanged and with a gap of five days, the SIT will go there," he added.

Array

On Friday, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) filed the FIR against unnamed suspects involved in Pathankot Airbase India attack, a move that did not receive a positive response from Pakistani security analysts.

Khan said all the insinuations about the FIR from both sides of the border were a 'storm in a teacup.' He added that the FIR was registered on the basis of some phone numbers which India had shared with Pakistan.

"Some numbers were shared with us in connection with Pathankot. Those numbers have formally been made a part of the FIR. Who the numbers belong to, as well as what is the connection of these telephone numbers to the names that were shared informally with the government of Pakistan from across the border. All this will come out after the investigations. Initial investigations have been carried out on those phone numbers, but the actual probe can only go on when we get a proper telephone record of those numbers from the service providers," the minister said.

He said he expected a decision regarding the visit of the SIT to India will be made in the next few days.

In reply to a question, Khan said some arrests have been made, however the authorities will be able to reach a correct conclusion after conducting a thorough investigation.

"I want to also clarify that some arrests have also been made, but what connection these arrests have with those names or those telephone numbers that were given to us by the other side, this will also have to be investigated before we can reach any results," Khan said.

The Foreign Secretary level talks between the two nations scheduled for January 15 were postponed on January 2, after the Indian airbase in Pathankot near Pakistan's border was stormed by terrorists, killing seven Indian security personnel.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are expected to meet in the United States next month during the nuclear summit in Washington.
At least four defence personnel lost their lives while fighting the militants in the ongoing encounter at Entrepreneurs Development Institute at Pampore on the Srinagar. Jammu highway.

Meanwhile, a civilian was also killed in the encounter.

Array

A soldier of 9 Para, who was injured in the ongoing encounter with the militants, succumbed to his injuries at 92 base hospital in Srinagar today.

Two CRPF jawans were killed and 11 others injured in an encounter with militants on Saturday at Entrepreneurs Development Institute at Pampore on the Srinagar - Jammu highway.

The nation paid tribute to the sacrifices of 10 Paramilitary Army Captain Pawan Kumar, Head Constable Bhola Prasad Singh and Constable R.K. Raina who were martyred during the ongoing encounter in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, as a wreath laying ceremony was held for the bravehearts here on Sunday.

'No father can be prouder', said 10 Para Army Captain Pawan Kumar's father Rajbir Singh.

"I had one child, I gave him to the Army and to the nation. No father can be prouder," Singh said.

"Captain Pawan was martyred while he was leading his troops from the front. Indian Army officers always lead from the front as is evident from the operations here in Kashmir in the recent past.

Captain Pawan was a young officer, son of a school teacher. He was a dynamic officer and a true commando. In fact, just last month, he was injured in an encounter in Pulwama just five days after his 23rd birthday. He was advised to go on sick leave, but he declined," Lieutenant General Satish Kumar Dua told ANI.

Twenty-two-year-old Kumar succumbed to his injuries today after he led a troop that stormed the EDI Complex last night, in which two to three militants are believed to be holed up.

The captain, who hails from Jind, Haryana, is from 10 Parachute Regiment and has been part of two successful operations in which three terrorists were killed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Centenary Celebrations of the Gaudiya Mission and Math in Kolkata.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said, "India's spiritual consciousness is the reason for its long-standing civilizational ethos. This spiritual consciousness had remained intact through the ages."

"This consciousness transcended even language. The bhajan 'Vaishnav Jan To Tene Re Kahiye Re' is a prime example of this. 'Vaishnav Jan' could easily be replaced with 'Jan Pratinidhi' (Public Representatives) in the modern context," he added.

The Prime Minister said that reform in the Indian society always came from within, and Raja Rammohan Roy, and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were prime examples of this.

The Prime Minister later offered prayers at the Gaudiya Math.

He met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Kolkata Airport before leaving for Varanasi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission at Kurrubhath in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh today.

Four clusters of adjacent villages in Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Bastar and Kabirdham districts of the state will be developed in the first stage of the mission.

The Rurban Mission intends to bridge the rural-urban divide by bringing civic and infrastructural amenities to clusters of villages across states evolving a new mantra for urbanization.

The mission would also help reduce migration of people towards the cities. The states would identify clusters of geographically adjacent Gram Panchayats with 25 to 50 thousand population in the plains and 5 to 15,000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas.

The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Jan Aushadhi Medical Store Scheme which includes setting up of 100 generic medicine stores in the state.

He will also lay the foundation stone for housing scheme and the electronic manufacturing cluster at Naya Raipur. Under the scheme, 40,000 houses would be constructed for families belonging to the economically weaker sections and lower income groups towards achieving the target of housing for all by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana.

Later, the Prime Minister will address a farmer's rally at Bargarh in Odisha. Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram will join the convention. The leaders will also interact with farmers highlighting the schemes initiated by the central government for their benefit.

In the evening, Prime Minister Modi will visit Kolkata where he will inaugurate the three-year-long centenary celebrations of the Gaudiya Math and Mission at a function which will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.
West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell has expressed his willingness to play the second season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in the country, but said he is too scared to travel to Pakistan amidst safety and security concerns.

"Based on what I have heard and stuff you know, I mean, I am going to be scared obviously .But, for some reason, I would go to Pakistan. But listen, I am going to be scared. That's the thing," Russell was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Russell, who is playing for Islamabad United in the ongoing inaugural edition of the PSL in UAE, also compared travelling to Pakistan with war-torn Iraq and added that he was just going by what he had heard.

"It is like me going to Iraq based on what I have heard about Iraq. You are going to have nice places in Iraq. You are going to have nice places in Pakistan. I've seen pictures, beautiful places, and beautiful people. But it is [about] what is surrounding [them]," Russell added.

Earlier, PSL league chairman Nasim Sethi said that he has been planning to host few matches in the major cities of Pakistan in the second season.
Swagway, one of the leading hoverboard sellers in the United States, has called on all the customers to stop using its products till they are deemed safe by the US Consumer Products Safety Commission.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after its months-long investigation on Saturday declared hoverboards as unsafe.

"In complying with the CPSC's requirements, we ask customers who have purchased a Swagway to refrain from using their boards in the interim. We will issue a recall if necessary, as soon as we fully understand the exact specifics that need to be addressed according to the CPSC requirements and will offer a remedy for our customers accordingly," a Swagway representative told Mashable.

The CPSC has sent out an official notice to retailers, manufacturers and importers with new hoverboard safety standards. The regulating body has called on hoverboard manufacturers and sellers to follow the safety measures.

"We believe that many of the reported incidents, and the related unreasonable risk of injuries and deaths associated with fires in these products, would be prevented if all such products were manufactured in compliance with the referenced voluntary safety standards," the CPSC said in a statement.

Hoverboards are generally depicted as resembling a skateboard without wheels. Several companies have drawn on hovercraft technology to attempt and create hoverboard-like products but none has demonstrated similar experiences to those depicted in the films.
The United States has said that it would support any decisions made towards developing ties between Indian and Pakistan as the Prime Ministers of both nations are set to meet in the US capital next month.

"We're supportive of any decisions that could be made for this to take place," US State Department spokesman, Mark Toner said when asked if the United States was involved in efforts to arrange a meeting between the two South Asian leaders.

According to Dawn, diplomatic observers in Washington say that the United States, India and Pakistan are quietly exploring the possibility of a meeting between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi when the two leaders visit Washington next month.

Both the Prime Ministers have accepted US President Barack Obama's invitation to attend a nuclear summit which is being hosted by the White House on March 31 and April 1.

"Certainly, we remain engaged with the Indian government. We want to see this entire effort move forward," Toner added.

Both Prime Minister Modi and Sharif have had three meetings so far

Toner also lauded Pakistan's efforts to fight terrorists, highlighting that no country was more affected by terrorism than Pakistan.

"I can't speak specifically to ISIL's presence or non-presence in Pakistan. I can say that we've seen elements of ISIL or ISIL-affiliated groups spring up in Afghanistan. I mean, they look for ungoverned spaces. There are parts of Pakistan that are havens for some of these terrorist organisations," Toner said.

He said the United States 'fully recognised Pakistani commitment to pushing back and fighting these terrorists'.

"No one's more affected by terrorism than the people of Pakistan, and we're going to continue to support them, whether it's ISIL or other terrorist groups operating on their soil," Toner added.
At least 10 people have been killed and 150 injured in violence linked to the pro-quota agitation by the Jat community in Haryana, the state's Director General of Police (DGP) Y.P. Singhal said on Sunday.

Singhal told media persons here that the violence in the worst-affected districts of Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar had been contained since Saturday night.

"As per reports, 10 people have been killed and nearly 150 are injured. No death has been reported since last (Saturday) night, either in police action or in rioting," he said.

Thousands of people continued to suffer as the violent agitation by Jat community protestors in Haryana continued for the eighth day on Sunday.

The agitation paralysed life in the entire state, cutting off all northern states from Delhi.

Trains and buses to and from Delhi and other places have been cancelled. All major highways passing through Haryana have been blocked by protestors at several places.

Those opting for the flight path faced hiked up ticket rates in view of the increased demand. Flight-tickets from Chandigarh to Delhi were being priced between Rs.25,000 and Rs.55,000 for the one-hour journey.

Singhal said the top priority of the security forces and the government was to restore water supply to Delhi.

He said paramilitary forces and irrigation department officials have reached the place where the water supply to the national capital was disrupted by protestors on Saturday and efforts were being made to restore the supply to Delhi.

The DGP refuted reports that there was lack of coordination between the army deployed in the state and the state authorities.

"There is complete coordination between army and Haryana Police. No truth in lack of coordination. The army is deployed to assist the civil administration," he said.

The DGP said the security forces have formulated an action plan for the affected districts and efforts were being made to restore traffic on NH-1 and other highways that have been blocked by protesters.

"We are trying to secure the cities. We have initiated night-dominance by security forces," he said.

Singhal said 69 columns of the army have reached Haryana and have been deployed in the affected districts, especially Rohtak and Jhajjar.

"The Centre has given 49 companies of paramilitary forces. Thirty-nine companies have reached and 24 have been deployed. The rest are being airlifted for deployment," he said.

The DGP said 291 cases have been registered following the violence and 45 people have been rounded up.

Chaos reigned in Haryana on Saturday with escalated violence in several areas as hooligans, who have joined the ranks of Jat protestors, ran amok setting on fire government and private property as well as vehicles.

Curfew was imposed in Hisar, Sonipat and Jind towns after the violence. Protests were also reported in Kaithal, while Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns have remained under curfew since Friday evening.

National Highway No.1 (NH-1) -- connecting Delhi to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir -- has been blocked by Jat protestors at various places in Sonipat and Panipat districts.

Thousands of vehicles and people were stranded at different places along the highway.
Archaeologists have excavated a 12,000-year-old village in the Jordan Valley that sheds light on the historical shift from foraging to agriculture.

Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem visited the site 'NEG II' which is located in Nahal (wadi) Ein-Gev at the middle of the perennial stream that flows west to the Sea of Galilee in Israel.

"A series of excavations on site revealed an abundance of findings, including human burial remains, flint tools, art manifestations, faunal assemblage, ground stone and bone tools," said researchers.

The excavated area revealed an extensive habitation with deep cultural deposits (2.5 to 3 metres deep) and the site is estimated as covering roughly 1,200 metre square.

The village encapsulate cultural characteristics typical of both the old Stone Age -- known as the Paleolithic period, and the new Stone Age -- known as the Neolithic period.

"Although attributes of the lithic tool kit found at NEG II places the site chronologically in the Paleolithic period, other characteristics -- such as its artistic tradition, size, thickness of archaeological deposits and investment in architecture -- are more typical of early agricultural communities in the Neolithic period," explained Dr Leore Grosman from Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Characterizing this important period of potential overlap in the Jordan Valley is crucial for the understanding of the socioeconomic processes that marked the shift from Paleolithic mobile societies of hunter-gatherers to Neolithic agricultural communities," Grosman added.

The archaeologists described the village as one of the latest settlements in the Levant region of the Late Natufian -- the last culture of the Paleolithic period.

The excavations at NEG II show that groups in the Jordan Valley became more sedentary and potentially larger in size.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
At least 88 Indian fishermen were arrested by Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (MSA) reportedly for fishing in the country's waters, an official said on Sunday.

"The Indian fishermen were arrested while they were fishing in Pakistani waters of the Arabian Sea on Saturday," Dawn online quoted a police official as saying.

The MSA has also seized 16 fishing boats, the official said, adding that the police had registered a case against them under Sections 3/4 of the Foreign Act and 3/9 of the Fishery Act.

The arrest of Indian fishermen came as the third such incident in three months after the two countries agreed in December 2015 to reinitiate the dialogue process during Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Pakistan.

The release and exchange of fishermen had come to a halt from the two sides for the past several months causing concern among the families of their arrested loved ones on both sides of the border.
Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Sunday embarked on a five-day official visit to Bangladesh.

An official statement said the visit, till February 25, is intended to take the existing defence cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries to the next level.

The areas of cooperation at present include exchange in military training courses, exchange of visits and joint sporting activities.

During his stay in Bangladesh, Air Chief Marshal Raha, who is also chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three service chiefs of the Bangladesh armed forces in Dhaka.

He will also call on the president and the prime minister of Bangladesh.

The Indian Air Force chief will visit the air bases in Jessore, Bashar and Chittagong, the National Defence College in Dhaka, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) in Mirpur and the Bangladesh Army headquarters.

During his visit to the Military Institute of Science and Technology, Air Chief Marshal Raha will present several training aids related to aircraft systems, as a goodwill gesture.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta's reality drama "Aligarh" will be closing the 2016 Dallas/Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF) on Sunday. And the director is elated over his film, dwelling on the stigma around homosexuality, being screened on foreign shores.

"#Aligarh is the closing film late tonight (IST) at DFW South Asian Film Festival, Dallas. Show sold out. Excited," Mehta tweeted on Sunday.

With "Aligarh", Mehta has tried to unfold a chapter on gender issues in India on the silver screen. The film touches upon how homosexual people conceal their true selves for the sake of the society.

The film is based on the real life incident of doctor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job as a professor because of his sexual orientation. The film stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao.

The film was screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival and 59th BFI London Film Festival. It opened the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Set in a town in Uttar Pradesh from which the film takes its name, "Aligarh" will release in India on February 26.

DFW SAFF, which rolled off on February 19 with "Miss India America", screened some of cinematic gems like "I Say, Bhallaji" - short feature; "The Backward Class" - documentary, "Dhanak" - feature film and "Amma Y Appa" - documentary feature.

The opening night of the festival took place at Perot Museum in downtown Dallas. It is currently being held at Angelika Film Center in Plano.
Dhaka, Feb 21 (IANS/EFE) Abul Bajandar, a 26-year-old known as the 'Tree Man' in Bangladesh who underwent an operation for a strange disease that left him with bark-like warts on his hands and feet, on Sunday said he dreams of returning to work so that he can support his family and live a normal life.

"My arm hurts a lot, but I am fine and content. I want to have a normal life again," Bajandar told EFE at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.

Accompanied by his mother, wife and three-year-old daughter, Bajandar said he felt no discomfort during the three-hour operation, conducted by a team of nine specialists, to rid his right hand of the warts.

The operation was dubbed a success by the hospital.

According to Samanta Lal Sen, director of the hospital's plastic surgery and burns unit, Bajandar will have to undergo tests and analysis over the next three weeks before he is operated on the rest of his limbs.

The warts started to appear on Bajandar, who hails from the southern province of Khulna, around a decade ago, but it was not until January this year that he was admitted to the medical centre in the Bangladeshi capital.

The warts were identified as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare, non-contagious disease.

It has no known cure and the medical team believes that the warts could reappear in the future.

--IANS/EFE

pm/
The key to improving India-Pakistan ties would be to bolster regional integration and trade, diplomats and political experts have said.

However, integration -- as well as peace and normalisation -- will remain a pipedream unless the visa regime in the subcontinent is liberalised, a Pakistani daily said in its editorial.

"There was no better way of improving relations between Pakistan and India than trade," Dawn online quoted Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale as saying while speaking at a programme in Lahore recently.

"This is quite true, while calls for an integrated and connected South Asia are also imminently sensible. But what are the respective governments doing to encourage trade or even people-to-people contact? Not much apparently," the daily said.

For example, the exercise of getting a visa for the other country by a citizen remains a test of endurance and commitment, it said.

"In Pakistan, citizens can apply for an Indian visa through courier services, which saves a trip to Islamabad. But the process is both lengthy and bureaucratic, with applicants having to secure 'sponsorship' letters from their Indian hosts as well as attaching a thick file of paperwork."

While in India, those desiring to visit Pakistan have to come to New Delhi to lodge a visa application with the Pakistan High Commission, it said.

If one is lucky enough to get a visa, the modes of transport to cross the border are relatively limited. For instance, the Thar Express -- the train service that links Sindh and Rajasthan and which has been running for 10 years now -- continues to suffer from inadequate infrastructure.

"Both governments can easily remedy this situation by easing visa procedures and making them less complicated, increasing the options for cross-border travel and reopening deputy high commissions in Karachi and Mumbai, respectively."

Once people can freely meet and trade, and work with each other, the animosities of old can give way to a relationship based on trust and good neighbourliness, the daily said.
Indian professional boxer Vijender Singh on Sunday appealed to the Jat community agitating for job quota in Haryana to maintain peace.

"I appeal to my Jat brothers to maintain peace and brotherhood in Haryana. It is absolutely essential for us, our families, our state and our country," he said in a video message on his Twitter page.

Beijing Olympics bronze medalist boxer Vijender, who belongs to Haryana's Bhiwani town, is currently in Manchester.

His fourth fight has been rescheduled to March 12 at Echo Arena Liverpool.
China's top economic planner issued a new regulation on Saturday to oversee energy saving work in corporations, allowing authorities to warn or impose penalties on violators.

The fine ranges from $1,534 U.S. dollars) to $4,600, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Detailed tasks will be set and divided by the regulatory institutions at provincial level according to local realities. Followed by institutions of city and county level, the provincial institutions are on the top of a three-tier regulatory body, reports Xinhua.

The institutions will oversee largely the corporations' enforcement of energy-saving laws, rules, regulations and relevant mandatory standards.

The measures will take effect starting from March 1 this year.

China has focused on mapping or revising standards in key industries in 2015, such as energy saving and environmental protection, said Tian Shihong, head of the national Standardization Administration in January.

The country rolled out 1,931 national standards last year, up 26.2 percent from the previous year, official data showed.
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, who is busy shooting for her Hollywood debut project "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" with action star Vin Diesel, says she is looking forward to meet her female co-star Nina Dobrev.

When Dobrev tweeted "Happy to be home.. Looking forward to starting XXX this week", Deepika also responded to it by writing "Can't wait to see you Nina! @ninadobrev @Deejaycar".

Deepika took off to Toronto, Canada, to shoot for the film earlier this month, and has been keeping her fans updated about her Hollywood sojourn through photographs and videos.

In fact, her rumoured boyfriend, actor Ranveer Singh also met her during his short trip to Toronto.

In some of images shared by Diesel, the actor is seen shirtless, showing off his tattoo-covered abs, while Deepika is wearing a bold black leather outfit which not just shows her washboard abs but also some temporary tattoos for a power-packed look.

The new film will follow Diesel's Xander Cage who returns to the National Security Agency after an eight-year absence.

In "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage", Samuel L. Jackson is back as Augustus Gibbons, with Ruby Rose, Jet Li, Conor McGregor and Tony Jaa joining the cast.

D.J. Caruso is taking the director's seat, and F. Scott Frazier has written the script. No official release date is set for the movie yet.
Delhi is on the verge of a severe water crisis with all its seven water treatment plants drying up after vandalisation by Jat protesters in Haryana forced closure of the Munak canal. The repercussions are already being felt in many parts of the national capital.

Delhi's Water Minister Kapil Mishra, while briefing media persons on Sunday, said the city government could not supply water through pipes in the evening.

"We could not supply water through pipe in north, central and west Delhi this evening as the stock of water was exhausted completely. We will provide water through tankers in these areas tomorrow (Monday) morning," said Mishra.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday morning appealed to the residents of Delhi to save water, saying they might have to depend on the stored water for one or two days at least.

He also spoke to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

Kejriwal also announced that all schools in the capital would be shut on Monday.

West Delhi was the worst affected area so far and the crisis is likely to spread across the capital on Monday.

"There has been no water supply in our area since this morning (Sunday). We had stocked water yesterday (Saturday) and it would be available till tomorrow (Monday) morning. If water supply is not restored by tomorrow, then we will be in crisis," said Anil Bansal, a resident of Paschim Vihar in west Delhi.

"The moment I got to know yesterday (Saturday) that all the plants have been shut down, I told my wife to store as much water as possible. The crisis is prevalent in almost all areas around Nangloi," he said.

Shilpa Negi, a resident of R.K. Puram in south Delhi, said: "We have stored water in our house. But we may face problems from tomorrow (Monday). There has been no supply of water since this morning."

Imran, a resident of Chandni Chowk in north Delhi, said: "There was no water crisis yesterday (Saturday). But the crisis has begun today. I took water from a neighbour for household chores. I don't know how will I manage tomorrow (Monday)."

Rani Harish of Dwarka in southwest Delhi, said that though there was no crisis on Sunday, the water pressure was low. "This is an indication that there may be crisis from tomorrow," she said.

Pankaj Agarwal, a member of the Water Bottling Association, said: "As of now, there is no increase in demand for water in Delhi. But from tomorrow, there could be acute shortage of water and the demand would rise. We are ready to meet the demand."
Security forces failed to secure the Munak canal, which supplies water to national capital Delhi, in Haryana's Sonipat district on Sunday even though one person was killed in firing by the troops, an official said.

With the canal and its water supply machinery, which has been damaged, not being in control of the authorities, Delhi's water woes are likely to aggravate in the coming days.

One person among the protestors was killed in the firing by security forces and the operation was halted by authorities fearing more casualties.

Army and para-military forces, which were sent to secure the area where Jat protestors had damaged equipment and disrupted the water supply to Delhi, had fired at the protestors after use of tear gas and other measures failed to give any results.

Haryana Home Secretary P.K. Dass said: "Efforts were made to disperse the protesters at Akbarpur-Barota so as to release water for Delhi, but all in vain. Since the protestors were in huge number, not much force was used to avoid casualties."

"The efforts to release water were temporarily postponed. One person was killed in firing. We have appealed to the protesters to let the administration release water for Delhi," he said.

Officials earlier said army and paramilitary personnel reached the place where the water supply equipment and machines were damaged by the protesters.

"The Haryana government is giving top priority to restore water supply to Delhi," Haryana Police chief Y.P. Singhal said here on Sunday.

He said paramilitary forces and irrigation department officials had reached Akbarpur Barota and efforts were being made to restore the supply.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the capital was "facing a very serious water crisis" because of the Jat protests in Haryana and water was to be strictly rationed in the city.

The Munak canal in Haryana, which supplies water to many parts of Delhi, was shut down after it was vandalised by a section of Jats demanding quota in government jobs and educational institutions.

Kejriwal said he had spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

He said water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday.
We escaped and hid ourselves fearing mob lynching and not Delhi Police, the five JNU students, who returned to the campus late on Sunday, said.

The students said they would surrender themselves if police came to arrest them from the campus.

"We were laying low and did not come to public life because we feared mob lynching and not police," Rama Naga, general secretary of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU), said.

The five students, Umar Khalid, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga and Anirban Bhattacharya, had disappeared from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus after the February 9 event that was held to mark the anniversaries of executions of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat.

Anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at the gathering.

Earlier, Khalid, addressing students in front of the admin bloc of the JNU, said he was "not a terrorist", adding the BJP government "needed an excuse to target the campus".

"My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist," Khalid said, condemning the media trial that branded him a terrorist.

"The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us."

"The media, all this while, presented a lot of things about me. The media trial, this propaganda... I know what my family is going through," he added.

He also refuted the media reports that he made 800 calls to 'Gulf or Kashmir' a few days before the program was organised.

JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges following the February 9 event.

--Indo-Asian news service

ar-sid-pku/
Focusing on "equal work and equal pay", a new research calls for actions to ensure equal wages for equally-performing or -skilled scientists, especially females who earn about 14 percent less than their male peers.

The study, which collected data of 9,692 inventors from 23 countries, emphasised on encouraging female students to engage in scientific studies, as females represent only 4.2 percent of inventors.

Women are significantly under-represented among inventors, and those who succeed as inventors earn less than their male peers, said Myriam Mariani from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

The results showed significantly lower wage for women even after taking into account possible differences in jobs, potential parenthood, and other characteristics that might differ or remain similar on an average between male and female inventors.

Most importantly, the difference in earnings persists in spite of the fact that the quality of research of females does not differ from that of males.

The relationship between having children and income is negative but is not statistically different for males and females. Still, females earn less than males.

One reason for the relatively less women in inventive jobs is because women recognise the lower return they would earn from becoming an inventor, Mariani rued.

Furthermore, they may anticipate the potentially negative impact of having children, causing them to refrain from choosing careers in research and development or to drop out early, she added.

To equip women with the skills and competences required to pursue inventive jobs, government action is required to create mechanisms for ensuring equal wages for equally performing or skilled employees, the authors suggested.

In addition, to stimulate science and engineering enrolment by women, teachers and policy makers need to encourage female students to engage in scientific studies.

School administrators can also provide information to families about the importance of early (scientific) learning and socialization processes that influence children's preferences for science.

The article will be published in the forthcoming issue of the journal Management Science.
President David Granger of Guyana has appealed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to resolve his country's dispute with Venezuela, which claims two-thirds of its land and a large area of oil-rich territorial waters.

Granger told reporters here on Friday that the process of settling the dispute on the basis of a treaty signed in Geneva in 1966 did not make headway because Venezuela has "not been behaving properly" and was using dilatory tactics.

Therefore, under the terms of the treaty, it was now up to the UN secretary-general to resolve it, he said. But Venezuela has refused to accept the secretary-general's intervention, he added.

Earlier in the day, Granger met Ban to update him about the border problem and request the secretary-general to take action under the terms of the treaty. After the meeting, Ban's office said in a terse statement only that they discussed the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy and political developments in Guyana.

Guyana, a small 214,970 sq km Caribbean nation located towards the north-eastern end of South America, has a population of less than 750,000 -- of whom 43 percent are of Indian origin. Granger, a former brigadier who commanded the country's defence forces and a journalist, was elected president last May succeeding Donald Ramotar, who lost the election.

Venezuela claimed vast areas of Guyana while it was a British colony in the 19th century. The dispute went to an international tribunal made up arbitrators from the United States, Britain and Russia. The tribunal gave most of the disputed land to Britain in 1899.

Caracas continued to lay claim to all of the Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River and, in 1966, Venezuela, the British government and the government of Guyana, which was on the verge of independence, signed a treaty in Geneva on resolving their disputes.

If the various steps outlined in the treaty for resolving the dispute failed or did not take off, it gave the UN secretary-general final say in setting up a mechanism to resolve it.

The disputed area is rich in minerals and tensions escalated last year after Exxon Mobil said it had discovered a huge oil deposit in the territorial waters off the coast of the territory that Venezuela claims.

Last summer Venezuela, which is in the throes of a dire economic crisis, increased tensions by holding military exercises across the border from Guyana.

Last September, the UN facilitated talks between Granger and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro which failed to thaw relations between the two neighbours.

The dispute has not come any closer to a resolution because of the refusal of Venezuela, currently an elected member of the Security Council, to cooperate. On the other hand, Granger pointed out that in the 50 years since the Geneva Treaty was signed, Guyana has "cooperated in every instance".

Regional efforts to bring about a solution have failed. "There is no more juice to be squeezed out of the orange of regional efforts," Granger said.

"We will work with the United Nations to resolve the dispute in a manner agreeable to the peoples of both Venezuela and Guyana," he said.
Besides that both were authors, and both died in the last couple of days, there seems nothing common between a reclusive American and an outgoing Italian philosopher. What connects Harper Lee and Umberto Eco however are the main characters they created in their first fictional work - a decent, tolerant lawyer who combats prejudice and vigilantism and a rational, tolerant monk who solves mysteries. As recent events in India show, both are much needed as role models.

Atticus Finch of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) set in segregationist American south in the 1930s and Brother William of Baskerville of "The Name of the Rose" (1980) taking place in superstition- and schism-ridden northern Italy in the 14th century are not only models for emulation but the authors' abiding contribution towards the goals of human dignity, equity, tolerance and reason. Remembering them is the best tribute we can pay to their creators.

Both works have been made into acclaimed films, with the parts played memorably by Gregory Peck and Sean Connery respectively (and earning them an Oscar and a BAFTA for best actor). Most of us would have read the books and/or seen the films but for those who might not have, or forgotten, the characters can be introduced again.

Like their creators, the middle-aged, widowed lawyer and the Franciscan monk are both disparate characters, not only in time and space but nature too though they have certain points of resemblance. Apart from being "moral compasses" and morally and personally courageous, they are caring father figures - Finch to his children (six-year-old Jean-Louise "Scout" and 10 year-old Jeremy "Jem") and William to companion, novice Adso.

"To Kill a Mockingbird", based on Lee's own reminiscences (Finch turned out to be based on her own father) and incorporating some contemporary racial issues, is set in a small town in Alabama during the Great Depression. Finch is asked to defend a young black man, Tom Robbins, accused of raping a white woman, and agrees despite public disapproval. Not only does he defend his charge the best he can, he also protects him from a lynch mob. He is however unable to get Robbins off despite demolishing the prosecution case, and learns later that he has been shot "while trying to escape".

But despite the outcome, it is the qualities Finch embodies - decent, fair treatment to all people, not to respond to violence with violence, to stand for what you believe and not force it on others - that make him relevant for any time.

A quote from the book - also used in the film - is illustrative. As he advises his daughter: "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was Lee's sole work. "Go Set a Watchman" (2015), set some years in the future and presenting a Finch who is not so heroic, is touted as a sequel but as per detailed examination is deemed to be an earlier draft.

Eco, apart from being a best-selling novelist, was an academician with significant contributions to semiotics or study of human signs and symbols and their interpretation, aesthetics, literary theory, media culture and philosophy and it shows in "The Name of the Rose".

William and Adso reach a northern Italian monastery to attend a theological disputation, but all is not calm there. First there is a suicide and then several other mysterious deaths, and William is asked to probe but there is labyrinthine library whose mysteries have to be solved, some secrets that the abbot is unwilling to divulge and the Inquisition is also present.

With his name commemorating a medieval philosopher and the area of a famous detective's most celebrated exploits, the character's inspiration is obvious. William of Ockham's philosophical technique "Ockham's Razor" advised that the simplest explanation accounting for all the facts should always be accepted as most likely mirrors Holmes' dictum "that when one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth".

William also looks and behaves like Holmes, being tall, so thin that he appears taller, with sharp and piercing eyes, a thin, sharp nose and a prominent chin, is capable of most intense activity but curiously still when not intellectually stimulated, and has the same sharp intellect and deduction powers. Unlike Holmes, his skills were not very welcome in his era but he didn't let it deter him.

When brute prejudice reigns, unthinking conformity imposed and dissent deemed criminal, such models are more than necessary. But will we - and especially those demeaning these professions - only let them remain fictional archetypes?

(21.02.2016 - Vikas Datta is an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )
As road movie "Highway" on Sunday completed two years of its voyage, its lead actress Alia Bhatt went down memory lane, and said looking back at the film's journey and experience of filming it still "gives her goose bumps".

Helmed by Imtiaz Ali, "Highway" traces the journey of a girl from an affluent family of Delhi after she is kidnapped and how she falls for her abductor as she finds solace in his company.

"Your love just makes my day, year, life! #2YearsOfHighway ? A journey and experience that'll always give me goose bumps," Alia tweeted on Sunday.

The 2014 film, with Randeep Hooda as the male lead, was shot in different places including Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.

Apart from the abduction angle, there are issues like sexual abuse, and the other side of elite society embedded in the story. The film is backed by soulful music by Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman.

Alia is now all charged up for her movie "Kapoor & Sons", and Randeep is also busy with his next movie titled "Sarbjit".
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday snatched a key victory in Nevada Democratic caucuses days before the crucial "Super Tuesday" round on March 1, according to projections by major US TV networks.

With 79.2 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton led Bernie Sanders 52.1 percent to 47.8 percent, prompting almost all US major TV networks to project that Clinton won in Nevada.

The modest victory was crucial to Clinton after the former first lady suffered erosion of supports nationwide in the wake of a near tie in Iowa and a stinging 22-point loss in New Hampshire, reports Xinhua.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Sunday expressed grief over the death of CRPF constable R.K. Rana in a gunfight with guerrillas in a Kashmir town.

Rana died on Saturday when security forces raided a multi-storeyed building near Pampore town in Kashmir to flush out hiding guerrillas.

The governor said Rana laid down his life for the cause of the nation and the people of the country would always remain indebted to him for his supreme sacrifice.

In his condolence message, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said Rana sacrificed his life for the integrity of the country.

Rana, 42, belonged to Jogindernagar tehsil in Mandi district of the state. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and widowed mother.
Hanoi, Feb 21 (IANS/EFE) The cast and crew of Hollywood movie "Kong: Skull Island" met the press on Sunday here in Vietnam, as they prepared to begin work on the largest motion picture ever to be filmed in the country.

American actor Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar-nominated actress Brie Larson, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spoke about plans for the epic action adventure movie, for which they will begin shooting on Monday.

"Kong: Skull Island" will see a group of explorers brought together on an uncharted island in the Pacific, unaware that they are crossing into the domain of the mythic King Kong, according to a press release.

Filming in Vietnam will last for around five weeks.

The movie, which reportedly has a budget of $190 million, is scheduled to hit cinemas in 2017.

--IANS/EFE

pm/
Umar Khalid, one of the six students accused of raising anti- slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on February 9, late on Sunday said he was "not a terrorist", adding the BJP government "needed an excuse to target the campus".

"My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist," Khalid, who fled the campus after the matter became serious, said as he condemned the media trial that branded him a terrorist. "The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us," Khalid said, addressing students in front of the admin bloc at the campus. Khalid, along with four other accused, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga and Anirban Bhattacharya, returned back to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus late on Sunday.

"The media, all this while, presented a lot of things about me. The media trial, this propaganda... I know what my family is going through," he said.

He also refuted the media reports that he made 800 calls to the 'Gulf or Kashmir' a few days before the program was organised.

JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges after some students organised a meet to mark the anniversaries of executions of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were raised at the gathering.
Indian peacekeepers are "taking robust measures to protect South Sudan refugees sheltered in a massive camp where 18 people have been killed and scores injured this week in fighting between ethnic groups -- which has come under attack from the South Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), according to a source monitoring the situation from here.

The fighting started Wednesday between young people belonging to the Shilluk and Dinka tribes in the Malakal camp in South Sudan and SPLA members fired into the camp and also entered it attacking civilians, the Security Council said Friday in a press statement.

At that point, the source at the UN told IANS, "the Indian troops went in and even fired with their APCs (armored personnel carriers) and other things to get the situation under control."

The SPLA, "although they would deny it, fired into the camp from the outside also" and the Indian peacekeepers "took robust measures externally to prevent any SPLA soldiers from harming these people and getting the situation under control," the source added.

The internal security of the camp is the responsibility of the UN police forces, while the external protection is of the troops. The troops back up the police inside in emergencies.

The source said that SPLA members were able to get inside the camp as civilians "because they are Dinkas they can wear civvies." It was also possible for them to bring in weapons through the Dinkas who live inside the camp and can go in and out, the source added.

There were no casualties among the peacekeepers, the source said. Out of the 2,273 Indian peacekeepers in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) about 550 are stationed in Malakal. Rwandan peacekeepers are also based there and operate alongside Indians.

Medecins Sans Frontiers, the Switzerland-headquartered international medical charity, said two of those killed were its staff members.

Amid rising tensions in South Sudan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to visit it next week, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday. He added that Ban condemned the latest round of violence and expressed concern over "the rising inter-communal tensions between the Dinka and Shilluk which precipitated this incident."

Both Ban and the Council issued a stern warning that attacks on civilians and UN facilities and peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.

Ban's Deputy Special Representative in South Sudan, Moustapha Soumare, told the Council Friday that in response to the growing tension, UNMISS had adopted "a more agile posture" to protect civilians and was conducting long-duration patrols away from its bases and setting up temporary operating bases in areas of heightened tension.

The refugee camp, known as a protection of civilian (POC) site, at Malakal in Upper Nile state is run by the UNMISS and houses over 47,000 people fleeing the civil war. People from rival tribes, whose members fight outside, are sheltered together in the camp and this sometimes leads to flareups.

South Sudan got its independence from Sudan in 2011 and two years ago the civil war started between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Vice President Riek Machar and their supporters.

After reconciliation efforts by the UN and a group of African nations, Kiir had said that a transitional government of national unity (TgoNU) was to be formed Friday. But the Sudan Tribune reported that Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said it was being delayed to give time for Machar's forces to deploy in the capital Juba to facilitate his return.

Last year an Indian colonel was injured in Malakal in a crossfire between rival groups. In 2013, five Indian peacekeepers were killed when their convoy was ambushed in Jongle state.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the Chandigarh-Shimla national highway on Sunday as Jat agitators blocked the road in Panchkula in Haryana near here, police said.

However, there was no report of any violence.

The traffic on both sides of the highway has been stuck at Panchkula because the road has been obstructed by the agitators, a police official told IANS.

This is for the first time that the agitators blocked the Chandigarh-Shimla highway, the major link to Shimla, Solan and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh.

The Jat community's pro-reservation agitation in Haryana continued for the eighth day on Sunday.
As Haryana is convulsed by the Jat community's agitation for job quota, which has led to obstruction of the Delhi-Chandigarh highway, private airlines have hiked their fares 15-20 times.

Since Saturday, the airlines were charging anywhere between Rs.25,000 and Rs.55,000 for the one-hour flight between Delhi and Chandigarh, as against the fare of Rs.2,500-Rs.3,000 on normal days.

"Indeed, the air fare for travelling between Delhi and Chandigarh has soared to almost 15-20 times the actual rates. But, the demand is no less as there are only four airlines providing the service," said Amit Singh, assistant team leader of Flight Shop, a travel agency, here.

He named Air India, Jet Airways, Spice Jet and Indigo as those four airlines which service Chandigarh.

Singh said there is no cap on fares, allowing the airlines to go in for multifold hikes in such crisis situations, unlike in normal times when the effort is to keep charges low to attract more and more passengers.

A statement from the aviation ministry said two extra flights were added by Air India between Chandigarh and Delhi. One extra flight by Indigo, three by Spice Jet, and one by Jet Airways will be added to ease the rush for air travel on this route.

Jitendra Guleria, director of Shagul Travels, said: "Even if the fares are high, people are buying the tickets at the available cost as there is no other option."

Noting that there has been 70 percent rise in demand for the Delhi-Chandigarh air tickets, he told IANS: "There are a lot of people who have to catch their international flights from Delhi, because of which they have to be in the national capital at any cost."

Guleria said air fares between Delhi and Chandigarh will continue to rise until the aviation ministry facilitates more flights.

The Jat community's agitation in Haryana has led to obstruction of railway tracks and arterial roads. The agitators have blocked the national highway between Delhi and Chandigarh at Jhajjar, Panipat and Sonipat. Trains and buses to and from Delhi and other places have been cancelled.

Piyush Rana of Sunshine Air and Train Ticketers, another travel agency here, blamed the sky-rocketing air fares on a lack of regulation.

"The private companies operate according to their own will and market situations. Similar situation was witnessed during the Chennai floods and Nepal earthquake when the price of air travel between Chennai and other cities had soared 20-30 times," Rana told IANS.
Jats backing their community's demand for job quotas in Haryana on Sunday paralysed traffic in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district bordering Delhi, police said.

Jat leaders assembled at Hapur junction, at Duhai on National Highway-58 and near the Lal Kuan Atma Steel factory on National Highway-24 and halted road traffic.

Another group of Jat leaders staged a sit-in outside the residence of union minister and BJP Lok Sabha member V.K. Singh and burnt his effigy and submitted a memorandum to the city magistrate.

The memorandum said Jats in Haryana should get job reservation in state service and Jats from nine other states in central services.

A group of Jats stopped a train at Duhai and blocked road traffic at Loni.

Police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the Abupur water treatment plan on the Upper Ganga Canal from where water is supplied to Delhi.

"No untoward incident has occurred at the water supply point," said Superintendent of Police R.K. Pandey.

Some Jats stopped traffic on the Delhi-Saharanpur road at Behta Hazipur but police persuaded them to let the traffic move, police said.

"Overall the situation in Ghaziabad is under control. Jat leaders were allowed to protest but no violence was allowed," said Additional District Magistrate Preety Jaiswal.
Jats backing their community's demand for job quotas in Haryana on Sunday paralyzed traffic in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district bordering Delhi, police said.

Jat leaders from across the rural areas assembled at Hapur junction, at Duhai on National Highway-58 and near the Lal Kuan Atma Steel factory on National Highway-24 and halted road traffic.

Another group of Jat leaders staged a sit-in outside the residence of union minister and BJP MP V.K. Singh and burnt his effigy and submitted a memorandum to the city magistrate.

The memorandum said Jats in Haryana should get job reservation in state service and the Jats of nine other states in central services.

A group of Jats stopped a train at Duhai and blocked road traffic at Loni.

Police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the Abupur water treatment plan on Upper Ganga Canal from where water is supplied to Delhi.

"No untoward incident has occurred at the water supply point," said Superintendent of Police R.K. Pandey.

Some Jats stopped traffic on the Delhi-Saharanpur road at Behta Hazipur but the police persuaded them to let the traffic move, police said.

"Overall the situation in Ghaziabad is under control. Jat leaders were allowed to protest but no violence was allowed," said Additional Deputy Magistrate Preety Jaiswal.
Rapper 50 Cent has been ordered to court by a judge after he flashed his bank notes on Instagram.

He was seen surrounded by dozens of $100 bills in one photograph and spelled out "B-R-O-K-E" with the money in another image.

Despite filing for bankruptcy, 50 Cent didn't look broke at all.

Instead of keeping a low profile, the hip-hop star bragged about his luxurious lifestyle, tweeted about building a house in Africa and shared images from his jam-packed performances.

"I'm concerned about allegations of nondisclosure or a lack of transparency in the case," said US Bankruptcy Judge Ann M. Nevins during a recent hearing, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"There's a purpose of having a bankruptcy process be transparent, and part of that purpose is to inspire confidence in the process."

The judge noted that bankruptcy court was a place where "an honest but unfortunate debtor can come into court and seek relief".

She added: "When that process becomes very public, the need for transparency, I believe, is even higher."

50 Cent's legal team assured that the rapper would show up in court "to make sure that all questions have been addressed".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi while he was on his way out of the city after a programme here.

Banerjee went to the NSC Bose International Airport to see off the prime minister.

The two leaders spoke for a short while.

Trinamool Congress sources said the two only exchanged pleasantries.

"Banerjee had gone to the airport as per of her constitutional responsibility. It was just a courtesy meeting," the sources said.

Modi attended the inaugural function of the Sri Gaudiya Math & Mission's centenary celebration here on Sunday evening.
The Napier Museum here, one of India's oldest and housing artefacts dating back to the first century, needs to undergo a restoration process -- both for the building and its collection, top international and Indian experts have decided.

The Napier Museum, located in the heart of the Kerala capital, is named after Lord Napier, the governor of Madras. It was designed by Chison, the consulting architect of the then Madras government and completed in 1880.

The Kerala government had earlier constituted an expert committee under Velayudhan Nair, former professor and head of the National Museum Institute.

A four-day workshop of the expert panel here discussed conservation of the museum.

Experts like John Scott, president of the New York Conservation Center; Gabriela Krist of the Institute of Conservation University of Applied Arts in Vienna; and B.V. Khabade, director of the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Culture Property were part of the panel.

"It has been decided to submit a detailed project report to conserve the building structure and the museum collection," Nair told reporters here on Sunday at the conclusion of the workshop.

The museum collection includes more than 550 objects, including textiles.

It has stones from the first century, bronze items from the eighth century and wooden objects from the 12th century and more than 5,000 coins.

Krist said the museum has a proper inventory and the objects were in good condition.

"Generally in museums, only 20 percent of the objects are put up for exhibition, while 80 percent are kept under storage. But here it's not like that.

"Overall, the materials are in good condition. When the report is prepared, we would lay emphasis on maintaining the humidity inside the museum and also on the concept of safe storage," said Krist.

Scott said the report would recommend adopting scientific processes of restoration of the building.

"Once the report is ready, it would go for an all-India tender because what we require is the service and expertise of those who are in this business," said Scott.

The experts also said immediate attention should be given to the building -- leaks on the roof have to be plugged immediately as the monsoon is round the corner.

Khabade said that at the moment, it was premature to say when the restoration work would start or the budget required, but once the project report comes in, they would be willing to extend financial assistance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday alleged that some NGOs and black-marketers were conspiring to defame him and destabilize his government.

He said it does not go down well with some people that a "chai wala" (tea seller) had become the prime minister.

"You would have seen there are attacks on me all the time. They are not able to digest how Modi became the prime minister, how a 'chai wala' became the prime minister," Modi told a farmers' rally here.

His remarks came while he spoke about the black marketing of urea.

In 2014, some chief ministers and MPs wrote to me on urea shortage. It is nore so, he said, ever since neem coated urea was introduced.

"Neem coating of urea causes problem for some, but it will greatly benefit the farmers. What we do troubles some but farmers will benefit," said Modi.

He said some NGOs were against him after they were asked about the financial help received from foreign countries.

"The moment we started asking them about their financial transactions, they united and said 'Modi ko maaro', 'Modi ko maaro'. Modi is seeking accounts from us," he said.

He said the country should know the spending of each paisa the NGOs got from abroad.

He said they had been conspiring to finish off and defame Modi but added they would not succeed.

"We will not allow them to loot the country. That's why we implemented the neem coating urea to stop black marketing and to benefit the famers."

He said his aim was to double the farmers' income by 2022, when the country will celebrate 75 years of independence.

He asked farmers to focus on areas such as fisheries, animal husbandry, honey bee and timber farming to increase income.

Asking the farmers to avail the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, he said the scheme had been a welcome project from all quarters including the opposition.

The prime minister said Odisha had the potential to be the number one in agriculture sector.

"Where will the second Green Revolution start? Have you ever thought it can be from your state, from Odisha?

"Odisha has abundant natural resources, but the people of the state are still poor. I don't know why poverty does not leave the Odisha people."
Thousands of people continued to suffer as the violent agitation by Jat community protesters in Haryana entered the eighth day on Sunday.

The agitation paralysed life in the entire state, cutting off all northern states from Delhi.

With trains to and from Delhi and other places being cancelled, buses not plying, all major highways passing through Haryana blocked by protesters at several places and railway tracks being blocked and uprooted, thousands of people suffered as they were stranded at different places.

Prices of flights from Chandigarh to Delhi were hovering between Rs.25,000 and Rs.55,000 for the one-hour journey.

With roads and railway tracks blocked, flights are the only safe option to travel from Chandigarh to other places.

Chaos reigned in Haryana on Saturday with escalated violence in several areas as hooligans, who have joined ranks of Jat protesters, ran amok setting on fire the government and private property as well as vehicles.

Curfew was imposed in Hisar, Sonipat and Jind towns after violence. Agitation was also reported in Kaithal. Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns were already under curfew since Friday evening.

The National Highway No. 1 (NH-1), connecting Delhi to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, has been blocked by Jat protesters at several places in Sonipat and Panipat districts.

Thousands of vehicles and people were stranded at different places along the highway.

NH-10 and NH-71 have also been blocked in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts.

The 'Sada-e-Sarhad' bus service between Delhi and Lahore and the Samjhauta Express link train from Delhi to Attari (Punjab) have also been affected.

The Delhi-Ambala railway tracks have been blocked by protesters in Sonipat and Panipat districts.

The Haryana government and the state police have failed to react adequately to the violence.

At most of the places, where the unruly mob of youth went on the rampage and set buildings, buses and other vehicles on fire, the Haryana Police and other security forces remained mute spectators.

The worst affected districts are Rohtak, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Bhiwani, Hisar, Jind, Kaithal and Panipat. The army has been deployed in these districts and the situation was far from being under control.

Violence escalated on Friday and Saturday, with several buildings, police stations, railway stations, buses, private vehicles and other property set on fire and damaged.

Hundreds of shops were looted and set on fire by the mob in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and other places.

Buses were set on fire in Gohana, Julana, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bhiwani and other places.

At least five more people were killed in Haryana on Saturday as the violence escalated, forcing the state government to seek additional columns of the army and more paramilitary forces to control the situation.

"Four people lost their lives in district Jhajjar and one was killed in Kaithal when the armed forces opened fire to quell arson and firing. Five people were injured in Rohtak. Apart from this, 10 people, including some police personnel, were injured in Jhajjar," a state government spokesman said here.

At least three people were killed in firing by security forces on Friday in Rohtak.

Additional security forces were requested as Haryana remained on the boil on Saturday due to violence by Jat protesters in several districts.

The losses due to the government and private property was estimated to be thousands of crore.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi discussed the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has appealed to the protesters to stop the violence and his Bharatiya Janata Party has invited them to hold talks with the party's central leadership.

Khattar's predecessor Bhupinder Singh Hooda, of the Congress party, said that he would start a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Chautala demanded that the Khattar government be dismissed and president's rule be imposed in the state in view of the deteriorating situation.

The army columns conducted flag marches at various places in the violence-hit districts as the security forces grappled with the tense situation in areas where violence occurred.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready for cease-fire in Syria on condition that the "terrorists" don't exploit it.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, whose script was published by state news agency SANA, Assad said halting the military operations in Syria demands deterring the terrorists from exploiting it to enhance their positions.

He pointed out that countries, like Turkey, must stop sending more terrorists and arms as well as providing logistical support to the terrorists, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Of course... we have declared that we are ready (to respect a cessation of military operations) but the matter is not only about declaring it because the another party may declare the same thing. It's about what will be done on ground," he said.

"The matter is primarily related to a cessation of fire but there are other complementary, and more important factors, such as preventing the terrorists from exploiting the cessation of the military operations to enhance their positions... it's also related to preventing countries like Turkey from sending terrorists and arms into Syria," the president continued.

The remarks comes at times Russia and the US were pushing to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

In a telephone call Saturday, US. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the progress about the "modalities" for a cessation of violence in Syria.

Meanwhile, Assad hailed the Russian and Iranian role in supporting his administration as "essential" contribution to the advance of the Syrian army against the militant groups on key Syrian frontline.

Achieving a cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access to all besieged Syrian cities were the outcome of the talks between superpowers in Germany, Munich this month.

Those two factors are deemed important for starting a second round of talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition in a bid to help find a political end to the Syrian crisis.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Sunday that Reliance Jio will be ready to commercially launch its 4G telecom services in the second half of 2016, thereby offering high-speed mobile internet and voice services to 80 percent of Indians.

"We'll be ready to launch in the second half of 2016 -- 80 percent of India's population will have high-speed, mobile broadband internet," Ambani said in an interview to CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

"Eighty percent of the 1.3 billion Indians will have high-speed mobile internet (this year). By 2017, we will cover 90 percent. And by 2018, all of India will be covered by this digital infrastructure," he said.

Reliance Jio's 4G services are currently available to roughly 120,000 employees, their families and business partners.

The company has invested nearly $15 billion in the telecom venture.

On the company's investment in acquiring airwaves and laying the physical infrastructure for offering high-speed internet services, Ambani said he believed that the world is at the beginning of the information and digital age.

"I believe humanity is at the doorstep of massive change and we're just at the beginning of the information and digital age. In the next 20 years, in a networked society, we are going to have change much more than we have seen in the last 100 years," he said.

Ambani also said digitisation will be at the forefront of the digital revolution and India cannot be left behind.

"It's really digitisation and the digital world that is going to lead this. From an India point of view, India cannot be left behind in this revolution. As we saw in the year 2012-13, India is 150th in the world in mobile broadband penetration as well as quality."

"Jio is really concieved to change this position," Ambani said.

"For me personally, we made this investment just to make sure that the youth of India, which is still the bulk of India -- India, as you know, is a very young country -- is empowered. They should have an equal opportunity to not only prosper themselves, but to contribute to this new world," he added.
The population of the Sarus crane, the tallest flying bird in the world, is surprisingly stable in India and showing increases in some areas, says a researcher.

Haryana's three districts show there are at least 250 birds, while Uttar Pradesh is home to the country's largest count of 13,000 birds -- much higher than was known before, said K.S. Gopi Sundar, research associate (India) of the US-based International Crane Foundation.

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal require scientific intervention as almost nothing is known of the Sarus crane there.

"The new population figures of the Sarus crane are partly due to new surveys in previously unexplored areas," Sundar told IANS in an email interview.

Wildlife experts attribute the dip in numbers in some areas to the increased use of pesticides, changing cropping patterns and degradation of wetlands and marshy areas.

Sundar said the Sarus crane is threatened in Gujarat owing to rapid conversion of wetlands and marshy areas to industries and cities.

The tallest of all the 15 species of cranes in the world, the Sarus is distinguished by its contrasting red head and attains a height of up to six feet, with a wingspan of eight feet.

The biologist said little is known from Haryana about the Sarus.

But seasonal surveys, he said, in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Foundation and the International Crane Foundation in Haryana's three districts -- Rohtak, Jhajjar and Palwal -- show that there are at least 250 birds.

Such a high number was not known before, but that was primarily due to a lack of systematic and repeated surveys, he said.

Sundar, the director of new programme SarusScape of the International Crane Foundation, said the increases of the Sarus are partly due to improved survey efforts.

This species, which the Red Data Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature - a compendium of species facing extinction - has put it in the "vulnerable" category, has the vast majority of populations in agricultural fields.

Some semi-arid and arid areas like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are seeing wetting of the landscape due to governmental activities to favour wet crops such as rice.

According to Sundar, in some of these areas, the new irrigation structures, combined with the growing amount of rice grown, seem to be conducive for the Sarus' growth in numbers.

But the increase of aquaculture can also be detrimental to the Sarus -- as is already apparent in Haryana.

On initiatives to conserve its natural habitat, he said the Sarus requires a combination of medium-sized and large-sized wetlands along with small wetlands to survive.

The breeding pairs are territorial and use the small wetlands to nest.

The larger wetlands on the landscape are crucial to safeguard the non-breeding population which can comprise up to 50 percent of the population, Sundar said.

The International Crane Foundation is currently working in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, besides in lowlands of neighbouring Nepal and several countries in Southeast Asia.

There is a brighter side too for its conservation.

Since the Sarus lives for long -- perhaps even more than 60 years -- its conservation work necessarily is long-term, said the biologist.

In the first International Sarus and Wetland Conference in Lucknow during February 2-4, there was healthy debate by researchers and conservationists about the methods to be used by conservation organisations and governments.

Kandarp Kathju, who has been monitoring the Sarus in Gujarat since 1998, said degradation of small wetlands and marshes -- apart from encroachments, drainage and civil works -- has shrunk and fragmented the natural nesting habitat of this species.

It was noted at the conference that easy methods such as payments to farmers would be highly destructive to long-standing favourable attitudes.

Instead, it was suggested that providing the farmers with a sense of pride would ensure that the current situation - which is very successful in conserving the Sarus - could be retained and encouraged.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Security forces on Sunday burst tear-gas shells and resorted to force to remove Jat protesters from the Munak canal in Haryana from where the water supply to Delhi was disrupted by the agitators on Saturday.

Sources said army and paramilitary personnel reached the place where the water supply equipment and machines were damaged by the protesters.

"The Haryana government is giving top priority to restore water supply to Delhi," Haryana Police chief Y.P. Singhal said here on Sunday.

He said paramilitary forces and irrigation department officials have reached the place where the water supply to the national capital was disrupted by the Jat agitators on Saturday and efforts were being made to restore the supply.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the capital was "facing a very serious water crisis" because of the Jat protests in Haryana and water was to be strictly rationed in the city.

The Munak canal in Haryana, which supplies water to many parts of Delhi, was shut down after it was vandalised by a section of Jats demanding quota in government jobs and educational institutions.

Kejriwal said he had spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

He said water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday.
A spat broke out in India's civil aviation sector on Sunday with the Tatas-funded twin carriers and older airlines arguing over whether the 5/20 rule should be retained or relaxed in the new aviation policy.

Hours after Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, in a tweet, favoured waiver of the 5/20 rule, which mandates five years experience and 20 aircraft fleet to qualify to fly abroad, budget carrier SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh joined issue, seeking it be retained.

"It is sad to see incumbent (old) airlines lobbying for protection and preferential treatment for themselves against the new airlines, which have been formed in full compliance with prevailing government policy and providing air transport to Indian citizens in line with the dream of 'New India'," tweeted Tata.

In rebuttal, Ajay Singh said: "All of us were asked to serve our great country before we got profitable rights to fly abroad. We served with great pride. What is wrong if these two foreign-controlled airlines are also asked to serve India before being allowed to fly international?"

Tata Sons-funded full-fledged airline Vistara with nine planes and budget carrier AirAsia India with six aircraft are opposed to the 5/20 rule, as they both are less than two years old and hence not eligible to operate international flights.

Vistara is a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, while AirAsia India is a tri venture with Air Asia Berhard of Malaysia and Arun Bhatia's Telstra.

Noting that lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines was reminiscent of the protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interest entities which seem to fear competition, Tata lamented that such moves held back progress in India compared to open economies that thrived on competition abroad.

"The call for a new open market economy in India will promote growth in an open market based on competitiveness and not from self interest-based protectionism," Tata said in his message posted on his Twitter account.

His observations came at a time when the Narendra Modi government is seized of the contentious issue on the civil aviation ministry's draft policy and response it got from stakeholders in the sunrise sector.

"Tata, whom we respect greatly, should in fact urge these airlines in which his group is a shareholder, to serve India willingly before being allowed to fly international," Singh observed, claiming that Vistara and AirAsia India undertook to follow the 5/20 rule before obtaining a licence though they were opposing it now.

Applauding Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and his ministry for considering the removal of the controversial 5/20 rule, Tata said he hoped the new policy would be free of discrimination and protectionism so that Indian aviation could grow for the benefit of consumer and common man and not to even the interests of select beneficiaries.

Tata's tweet follows a representation by the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) comprising Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir to Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh on retaining the 5/20 norm, auctioning of additional seats to foreign carriers among other issues.

Stating that Vistara and AirAsia India were controlled by their foreign parents, Singh said their holdings in both the joint ventures of Tatas were in violation of the Indian laws that require airlines to be effectively controlled by Indian shareholders.

"Tata should urge both the airlines to follow Indian laws in letter and spirit," Singh said, adding no country the world over, including Singapore and Malaysia, allows its airlines to be controlled by foreign airlines.

"If Indian airlines like SpiceJet and Indigo are not allowed in these countries, why should they be allowed to control airlines in India?" he asked.

The spat came to the fore three days after Home Minister Rajnath Singh on February 18 chaired a high-profile meeting to discuss the proposed aviation policy, amid hectic lobbying by domestic carriers for a level-playing field vis a vis foreign players, and demands for continuing the norms to fly overseas.

Among the seven main scheduled airlines in the country, only four meet the requirements -- Air India, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo. The three others -- GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India -- are not eligible under the present norms.

At the same time, several aviation research institutions such as the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, have described the rule as being damaging, discriminatory and anti-competition, besides preventing carriers from optimal fleet utilisation and expansion.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in more than 30 US cities to protest the conviction of Peter Liang, a former New York police officer of Chinese descent.

In an effort to show solidarity, a large number of protestors, mostly Chinese Americans, on Saturday joined demonstrations in cities around the nation from Washington DC and New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Xinhua reported.

In New York, 10,000 protestors from all over the metropolitan area converged with placards and banners in hands, chanting slogans like "tragedy, not crime", "equal justice for all" and "accident is not a felony".

The organiser of the New York protest -- the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights -- said what actually happened was a tragic accident that claimed two victims, Peter Liang and African American Akai Gurley, but Liang was unfairly made a sacrifice to ease the ever-intensifying friction between the police force and the black communities in the US.

A ricocheted bullet from Liang's weapon accidentally killed Gurley, an unarmed civilian, when the former New York police officer was patrolling in a housing project in the borough of Brooklyn in late November 2014.

Liang was found guilty of killing Gurley and convicted of second-degree manslaughter by a jury on February 11.

The conviction has sparked an uproar within the Chinese-American community, not only in New York city but also many other major US cities with substantial Chinese-American population.

In Washington DC, hundreds of protestors on Saturday rallied to support Liang. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco also saw similar protests.

Calling Liang's conviction "wrongful and selective prosecution", Yuanfan Sun, one of the volunteers who helped to organise the rally in the DC area, said the conviction was the latest case of making the ethnic minority American a scapegoat to pay for the police brutality that has troubled US society for a long time.

"Liang is not a criminal. Sacrificing Liang is not the correct way to solve the systematic problems. Justice is not served by finding a scapegoat," said John Chen, president of the New York-based Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.

On November 20, 2014, Liang, a 27-year-old "rookie" officer with only a year-and-half on the job, was patrolling on the eighth floor of the Pink Houses with his partner, Shaun Landau, who was also new to the job. Liang had his gun drawn.

In the court hearing, Liang testified that in the pitch-dark stairway, he was startled by a noise. "And the gun just went off after I tensed up."

The bullet hit the wall before ricocheting and hitting Akai Gurley on a lower level, piercing his heart and liver.

It was minutes later that Liang came to know Gurley was struck and killed. "I was shocked. I was in disbelief that someone was actually hit," Liang recalled.

Liang is the first policeman from the New York Police Department to be convicted of homicide in the shooting of a civilian since 2005.

Many believe that the manslaughter conviction has been influenced by the enormous pressure on the country's law enforcement as white police officials have often walked scot-free in similar incidents wherein innocent black civilians were killed, which have triggered massive protests and riots from African-American communities nationwide.

Outside the Cadman Plaza Park, a dozen of "black lives matter" activists also held an opposing protest. They demanded that "killer cops" be jailed, and called for stricter police accountability.

"In New York and all over this country, for a long time, we can point to many even worse instances of police abuse and police murder where the police have gotten off. But that does not make Peter Liang any more innocent," said protestor Richard Kossally.

Still, supporters of Peter Liang believe that the death of Gurley was purely an accident.

"There should be no conviction," said President of the New York Veteran Police Association Lou Telano.

"We hope that the law enforcement realise that this was just a tragic incident, which doesn't warrant manslaughter, and doesn't warrant a crime. There's no intent."

"My feeling is that (the guilty verdict of) Peter Liang is just pacifying certain political groups." Lou said.

Attorney Hugh H. Mo, who served as deputy police commissioner of New York and assistant district attorney in Manhattan, believes that the guilty conviction was affected by the current political climate.

"I think you have to examine Peter Liang's case in the context of wrong time, wrong place. Within the last year and half, or two years, there has been such a great number of police shootings of the innocent black man. That certainly created a whole issue of police accountability."

"As we all know after (Eric) Garner and (Michael) Brown, these cases that have galvanized African American community as well as the white community, many African American feel that police had to be held accountable."

Many others held similar opinion. Chief Information Officer at Coalition of Asian American Don B. Lee, said: "I believe that Peter Liang was convicted in the court of public opinion before he is even convicted in the court of law."

Liang and his partner were fired from the police department right after the conviction. His sentencing is set for April 14.

Although a guilty conviction by a jury is very difficult to overturn, supporters has voiced hope for leniency in Liang's sentencing.

"What happened on November 20 was a tragedy for both families," Councilwoman Margaret Chin in Manhattan said in a statement.

"I ask that Judge Chun give the many factors that made that tragedy happen due consideration in the sentencing of Peter Liang."

"I hope that District Attorney Thompson will say to the sentencing judges that Peter Liang did not intend to kill Akai Gurley to get things right. This is an accident, not a crime," said Don Lee.
A US drone crashed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province with no loss of life on the ground, the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission confirmed on Sunday.

"An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) crashed in Kandahar on Saturday night. No injuries or damage. No insurgent activity reported in that area," Xinhua quoted RS as saying.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, the mission said.

Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban and former stronghold of the hardliner group, has been the scene of violent militancy in the past several years.
Terming the water crisis in the national capital as "unprecedented", Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Sunday warned that the situation might worsen in the next few days if the supply from Haryana is not immediately restored.

He said the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had almost run out of water and advised people to use water judiciously.

"The present crisis is unprecedented. We are somehow trying to manage that all the people should at least get water for drinking," Mishra told reporters here.

He said that the DJB has introduced 14 new filling points for tankers that would become operational late in the night to ensure sufficient water supply on Monday.

"These new points would cater to 423 tankers that would be supplied to different areas in west Delhi early morning on Monday. The tankers would refill during the day and go to more areas. We have around 700 tankers in all that would be on duty on Monday," the minister said.

However, he requested people to use water carefully and mainly for drinking purposes as there was no certainty as to when the regular supply would be restored.

"The gates of Munak canal are still closed and there is no official word either from Haryana or the central government. Even if the gates are opened now, it will take at least 24 hours to normalise the water supply," he said.

"And in case the gates don't open by tomorrow (Monday), Delhi may face more trouble," he added.

Delhi has nine water treatment plants which together produce 820 million gallons per day (MGD) of potable water. Of these, only two - Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi - fed by water from Uttar Pradesh are operational. The current production is only 240 MGD. Delhi gets its bulk of water supply from Haryana.

Mishra also asked power discoms to ensure uninterrupted power supply at the tanker filling points, fearing that even small delay in the filling process would lead to a pile-up.
Delhi is facing "a very serious water crisis" because of Jat protests in Haryana and water is to be strictly rationed in the city, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. Only a handful of VIPs and essential services will be exempt.

"Barring (the) president, prime minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals (and) fire brigade, water (is) to be equally rationed amongst all," Kejriwal told the media.

He said he too would be covered by the water restrictions that he warned could last at least one or two days even if the water supply was to resume on Sunday.

The Munak Canal in Haryana, which supplies water to large parts of Delhi, has been shut down after it was vandalized by a section of Jats demanding job reservations.

Kejriwal said he had spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

"I requested them to please send the army (to Munak canal). They may be trying.

"But even if the water supply is restored now, it will take 24 hours to reach the water treatment plants in Delhi."

He urged residents of Delhi to "please save water", saying they might have to depend on the stored water for one or two days at least.

He added that water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by water scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia added: "No water available now. Still no hope to get it."

Both Sisodia and Kejriwal said that if nothing was done immediately, "water supply in Delhi will face an unmanageable crisis".

"Delhi facing an unprecedented water crisis," Kejriwal added.

Aam Aadmi Party legislator and former Delhi minister Somnath Bharti added: "Receiving panic calls from residents (over) no water supply. Request (Rajnath Singh) to intervene and get Munak canal normalized."

Delhi's Water Minister Kapil Mishra had said earlier that seven water treatment plants had been shut in the city, and water supply would be hit, including in areas covered by the New Delhi Municipal Council, the civic body that covers the VIP heart of the capital.
The 'Make in India' Week in Mumbai, which ended last Thursday, served as a welcome platform for states to make their cases for being business-friendly destinations to investors. Seventeen states had pavilions at the exposition centre in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, and several had special seminars. Chief ministers of states including Gujarat, Odisha, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were present. It is unfortunate perhaps that most of the chief ministers from states not ruled by parties in the National Democratic Alliance did not turn up - the leaders of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, all large states seeking investment, were not present. However, most states that were present did indeed make many ambitious announcements - there was news of several new collaborations and plans for manufacturing projects. This spurt of activity should certainly help in reviving a sector that had slowed considerably. The states subsequently issued statements adding up the notional value of promised investments. The total investment promised, if these promises are taken seriously, would amount to Rs 15.2 lakh crore, with the host state of Maharashtra accounting for Rs 8 lakh crore out of that. However, the proportion of such promises that fructify depends crucially on whether investors believe that a genuinely business-friendly environment has been created. In the past, only a small fraction of such memoranda of understanding has turned into actual investments. Indeed, as this newspaper has reported, even as the number of industrial investment proposals made in 2015 went up by eight per cent over that in 2014, the value of such investment proposals has declined by 23 per cent in the same period.
In the past seven years, the country's youngest regulator- the Competition Commission of India - has seen many of its headline-hogging orders make corporate India take note of fair trade regulations. There have also been challenges to its jurisdiction. Legal experts share their insights on measures to make the more effective



Ashok Chawla, former chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), in a recent interaction with this newspaper before demitting office, said he deemed upgrading of the institutional capacity as the foremost challenge for the fair-trade regulator. "Typically, it takes five to six years for the regulator to mature," he told Business Standard.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief has demanded that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah be charged with sedition. Speaking to journalists last weekend, Prasad said that in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly election last year Shah had claimed that if the Janata Parivar alliance - of which the RJD is a constituent - were to win, there would be celebrations in Pakistan. "For such remarks he should also have been charged with sedition," Prasad said while mocking the BJP for not being able to "teach lessons on patriotism to its ally, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, which has declared the 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru a martyr".
With reference to the report, "Govt considers 'bad bank' proposal despite doubts" (February 20), the idea is worth a try. A "bad bank" will basically buy the bad loans of a bank with significant non-performing assets (NPA) at the market price. By transferring bad assets of an institution to a "bad bank", banks will try to clear their balance sheets of toxic assets but will have to take write-downs. Shareholders and bond-holders, but not depositors, would likely lose money from such a move.

The history of banking worldwide contains several instances of bad banks. One oft-cited example is Grant Street National Bank, which was set up in 1988 to house the bad assets of The Bank of New York Mellon. The US sub-prime mortgage collapse of 2008 revived interest in bad banks as a solution, as managers at some of the largest banking institutions considered segregating their NPAs into bad banks.

In 2009, a report by McKinsey & Company identified four basic models for bad banks: 1) In an on-balance-sheet guarantee, the bank uses some mechanism (typically a government guarantee) to protect part of its portfolio against losses. While simple to implement, this situation is difficult for investors to assess; 2) In an internal restructuring, the bank creates a separate unit to hold the bad assets. This solution is more transparent, but doesn't isolate the bank from risk; 3) In a Special Purpose Entity, the bank transfers its bad assets to another organisation, typically one backed by the government. Such a solution requires substantial government participation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the finance ministry have to pick the model that best suits their needs.

Several experts are of the view that the first year of a bad bank determines its success. The challenge is how to deal with a large number of non-performing loans in a variety of sectors in different geographical locations and several types of industries. If the bad bank does not quickly get a grip on the loans, a lot of value would be lost and the capital requirements of the bad bank would change drastically.

A well-defined process on how different loans should be handled has to be established. This process has to be followed and managed well, else the bad bank will find itself in chaos. Let us hope the RBI takes a quick decision on this issue.

J S Broca New Delhi

can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
has a deal with Europe that's just about worth the paper it's written on. The UK prime minister emerged on February 19 with a way of forcing the 27 other members of the European Union (EU) to re-examine financial reforms that it doesn't like. But it probably won't mean unfriendly rules can't get through - and it won't ensure Britons vote against leaving the union.

Cameron's deal encompasses other areas like immigrant benefits and commitments on UK sovereignty. But the bit that most affects Britain's financial sector is a new unilateral "safeguard". If Britain thinks a new reform damages its interests, it can force European leaders to gather to discuss the issue. This is a progress of sorts: an alternative likely scenario was that the lever could only be pulled by Britain and one or more countries acting together.

What Cameron hasn't changed is a more fundamental imbalance. Euro zone countries' financial systems are growing closer via a beefed-up banking union, in accordance with the ongoing goal of harmonisation towards a more efficient single market. A voting system introduced in 2014 means euro countries can outvote those outside the currency union via the European Council's qualified majority system.

Imagine euro zone legislators decide all bankers have to speak French, to the certain chagrin of the City. The new deal would allow Cameron to call a meeting of the 28 states to debate the issue further, which might change minds. But there would be no obligation for them to shift their positions, and the voting imbalance would stop the UK being able to reverse the edict.

It's arguable that all this doesn't matter too much. Lots of the really important European financial legislation takes its cue from global regulatory groups, where the UK has negotiating influence. And there's value in putting in writing that the financial stability of countries outside the euro zone is a matter for domestic supervisors.

Either way, the health of the City is unlikely to be a vote-winner in Britain's forthcoming referendum over whether Britain stays or leaves the EU. Cameron probably hasn't changed the odds of "Brexit" much. But the financial sector has marginally more clarity about its European rules of engagement.
The Supreme Court has stated that if the interpretation of a notification on value-added tax leads to an absurdity, it should be avoided. The court stated so in its judgment, State of Jharkhand vs Tata Steel Ltd, where the company demanded benefits under the Jharkhand Act. The company's unit was originally in Bihar but after the bifurcation of the state, it fell into the new state of Jharkhand. While the Bihar government had granted certain sales tax benefits as incentives for the company to invest in the state under the industrial policy, the Jharkhand government passed the VAT Act and notifications, which affected the benefits granted originally. It led to multiple litigation, mainly on the issue whether a dealer enjoying the benefit of tax exemption is allowed to convert the facility from payment of tax into the facility of deferment. The company sought 13 years for repayment from the time of grant of benefit. The court stated that "such interpretation not only causes serious violence to the language employed in the notification but if it is allowed to be understood in such a manner, it shall lead to an absurd situation." The court reduced the period to five years in the facts of the case.
It is a usual practice that banks retain the title deed as security for loans advanced. There are quite a few instances when years later, after the loan is fully repaid, the bank finds itself unable to return the title deeds as these have been lost. The consumer is, thus, left without the title deeds to establish his ownership rights. Here is a case of Leenata Dhamankar, who successfully fought against the negligence of the mighty State Bank of India (SBI).

Dhamankar had taken a housing loan in 2000 for purchasing two flats in a society in Chembur, Mumbai. The title documents were deposited with SBI as collateral security, and had to be returned upon repayment of the loan. Considering the value of the flat, Dhamankar was also sanctioned an education loan in 2003 against the same title documents.

In 2005, due to compelling financial conditions, Dhamankar sought the bank's permission to sell both flats, and instead buy a new one in Thane, whose title documents would be deposited as security for the loans. After the bank gave its approval, all formalities were complied with in February 2006. However, the bank then stipulated she should obtain a Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) policy of Rs 6 lakh in the name of her daughter, Rachana, and assign it to the bank as additional security. Dhamankar also complied with this demand.

The equated monthly instalment (EMI) of Rs 10,200 was deducted from her monthly salary towards the loan amount. Suddenly, in 2008, the bank informed Dhamankar she would have to pay an additional Rs 1.25 lakh due to a shortfall in repayment of the loan. She was also told the file in respect of her loan had been sent to the bank's Stressed Assets Resolution Centre branch. A year later, the bank extended the EMI period to July 2010 for clearing the education loan.

After making all payments and clearing the entire loan amount, Dhamankar sought a release of the title documents entrusted. She was told the documents were at the bank's Retail Assets Central Processing Centre office at Bandra but when she went there, she was asked to collect them from the SAARC branch. The SAARC branch returned the LIC policy but could not find the title documents. After considerable correspondence and several follow-up visits to all the three branches, the bank obtained certified copies of the title deeds from the sub-registrar's office, which were incomplete.

In the absence of the title documents, Dhamankar was unable to sell her flat so that she could relocate to her native place. Aggrieved, she filed a complaint before the Maharashtra State Commission, seeking compensation for the harassment. She sought return of the original title deed, or alternatively a compensation of Rs 93 lakh for the loss due to inability to sell the flat.

The bank contested the complaint, contending it was time-barred. It also stated the loss of the original title deeds would not cause any loss, as certified copies issued by the sub-registrar were available.

The Commission agreed with Advocate Ashutosh Marathe who appeared for Dhamankar, that the complaint was filed in time, as limitation would have to be computed from the date when the bank admitted its inability to trace the title deeds and admitted the documents had been lost by it. The Commission found the correspondence with several prospective purchasers showed they were unwilling to purchase the flat in the absence of the original title documents. The Commission observed the loss of such important documents constitutes negligence, entitling Dhamankar to make a claim for deficiency in service. Though certified copies are valid, the consumer fora have a duty to do justice by awarding appropriate damages to compensate the consumer and at the same time bring about a qualitative change in the attitude of the service provider.

Accordingly, by order dated February 2, 2016, delivered by Usha Thakare for the Bench along with Dhanraj Khamatkar, the State Commission held the bank liable to pay compensation of Rs 3 lakh, along with 12 per cent interest from the date of filing the complaint till payment. Dhamankar was also awarded Rs 1 lakh for mental agony and harassment and Rs 50,000 towards litigation cost. The bank was directed to comply with the order within 45 days.

The author is a consumer activist
Even as Lower Parel and Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) for pre-eminence as Mumbai's commercial real estate hotspots, Dadar - one of the city's oldest and most established locations - stands in a class uniquely its own, by virtue of its extremely favourable geographical placement and connectivity. For this reason, and for all practical purposes, Dadar is the heart of Mumbai.

Dadar has historically proven so popular that the market itself is near saturation point in terms of residential property. There are very few new projects scheduled. There is next to no scope for further housing residential developments, owing to a lack of plots, so there is a significant level of redevelopment within Dadar and surrounding areas.

What drives Dadar real estate? Workplace location is the most important factor for Mumbai's professionals. By that account, Dadar scores a perfect 10 in terms of its legendary accessibility. Dadar station has the exceptional distinction of being the only one in the city that is common to both the Central and Western railway lines, with neighbouring Wadala as a convenient access point from the Harbour line.

A primary public transport hub, Dadar is also easily accessible by road. In practical terms, this means professionals living almost anywhere in Mumbai (in fact, even Pune) and working in Dadar reach their workplaces with a single journey and commute back with equal ease. The problem of changing buses and trains - the bane of most Mumbai's working professionals - is effectively eliminated.

Lower Parel has now firmly established itself as a business district, with a distinct multinational presence. However, with its rapid development as a corporate office hub, every available plot in Lower Parel suitable for office space development along the strategic Tulsi Pipe Road is now spoken for.

BKC continues to hold considerable tactical value for corporate office space occupiers. However, Lower Parel has set an astounding pace in Grade-A office space development, and the forward momentum set by some recent key projects has now found a natural growth extension in Dadar. With completion of a couple of new landmark Grade-A office projects, Dadar has joined the fray for such business spaces in Mumbai.

With these developments raising the commercial space equation in Mumbai's most advantageously connected location, it can be anticipated that redevelopment of many of the existing buildings in and around will follow. The up-tick in commercial real estate activity in Dadar will also lead to increased demand for residential properties there as well as the surrounding areas.

The writer is COO, business, & international director, JLL India
It is almost a truism that problems in the financial sector take longer to sort than those in any other segment of the real economy. A financial crisis can, at the very least, lead to a long-term slowing of growth. And, to defaults, affecting a wide range of sectors. It can even lead to a panic where banks fail. At the heart of the matter, all financial systems are unstable and ultimately based on public confidence. A currency is backed by nothing but faith in the system. Also, while fractional reserve banking is useful in that it creates a multiplier effect for money, it also means banks lend out anywhere from eight to 10 times as much as their owned funds. Meaning, they borrow many multiples of their net worth.

Under the new and stiffer Basel-III regulations, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will require commercial banks to hold net worth to the tune of roughly 12 per cent of total assets. That implies a bank will borrow 8.5 times its net worth. Or, that a few bad loans can push any bank to the edge of bankruptcy. Even a well-capitalised bank with solid debtors can be hit by liquidity problems if depositors want to withdraw money.

As of now, India's public sector banks (PSBs) are struggling. The RBI has set stiffer norms for recognising of non-performing assets (NPAs) and that led to a jump of a little above Rs 20,000 crore in these for the December quarter. PSBs now have gross NPAs of about Rs 3.06 lakh crore or just over six per cent of all their assets. The PSBs have provisioned for a fair proportion of those NPAs and the net NPAs, after provision, are at a combined Rs 1.75 lakh crore or 3.5 per cent of all PSB assets, roughly 1.25 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

This is not the sum and substance of bad loan issues. PSBs also have about Rs 2.70 lakh crore in restructured loan dues. Usually, about 40 per cent of restructured loans go sour. So, another Rs 1 lakh crore or so in NPAs will arise from restructuring. In addition, the enhanced capital adequacy needs of Basel-III will require more equity subscription. That was estimated at Rs 1.80 lakh crore before all the bad loan slippages came to light. Now, it would be considerably more.

All of this will have to come from the Government of India, which has promised to find only about Rs 70,000 crore so far. It is now rumoured that the government will commit to trebling of recapitalisation, though even Rs 70,000 crore will be difficult to provide with the other calls on its funds. The market has recognised this. In fact, the stress on PSB balance sheets was always an open secret, though the dimensions might be even larger than pessimists had guessed. The difference between PSB and private sector bank valuations is stark. There are several ways to look at this situation.

First, the difficult state of the banking sector will significantly slow down GDP growth - it already has. Those bad debts are one reason why PSBs had not passed on the policy rate cuts of last year. Right now, it might not matter, as credit demand is low. However, there are some signs that this demand is indeed rising and the PSBs might not be able to meet it. There is, therefore, a logical case for revising earnings projections down. If 70 per cent of the commercial banking system is struggling, growth will almost certainly be hit.

Second, the government will certainly organise bailouts for PSBs, to the best of its ability. The market might be enthusiastic about these and, therefore, somewhat push up PSB shares. Turnarounds and potential turnarounds do get high valuations in every sort of market. On the other hand, unless there are radical changes in terms of giving PSBs the room to operate on purely commercial lines, they will continue to bleed. So, any run-up could be sharp but temporary.

Third, India's private banks look seriously over-valued. HDFC Bank, for instance, has twice the market capitalisation of European major Deutsche Bank. If there's a hint of 'infection' from rotten PSBs, or some systemic problems emerge within the sector, private banks could take a hammering.

In terms of timing, this situation might come to a head in the next three or four months in terms of policy decisions. There will be a great deal of volatility during that period, certainly for banking and other financial sector stocks, and for rate-sensitive stocks in general.
Oh, the power of the word! Mamata Banerjee said, let there be light. And, there was light. On December 18, the Christmas lights were switched on for Park Street, the most happening thoroughfare in Kolkata. The chief minister had promised that for the first time, lighting would extend beyond Park Street. And, it has. Over the past week, lamp posts in all major streets of the city have been wrapped with intertwining blue and white lights. Christmas is still in the air, long after it's gone from every other city of the world, and will probably be around much after the Assembly elections in May, with Mamata Banerjee almost sure to return as chief minister. Till May, Kolkata will be a picture of prosperity.

It hardly matters that adversaries like the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are crying hoarse that Kolkata Municipal Corporation's electricity bill has increased from Rs 9 crore to Rs 25 crore a month in five years; there is festivity in the air and it's infectious.

"I slammed Mamata during Singur and after. But, I have been visiting every three months and she has done a wonderful job of cleaning up Kolkata. The general upkeep is far better," says Suhel Seth of Counselage India, a brand marketing consultancy firm.

"These are cosmetic changes. There is failure all around," CPI(M) leader and former mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, asserts.

That might be stretching it too far. Politically, Banerjee has scored significantly since she came to power in 2011 by living up to at least two key electoral promises: Ridding Lalgarh of Naxals and bringing peace to Darjeeling. What remains unfulfilled is returning 400 acres of land to farmers at Singur (which resurrected her political career). But, it does ring true when she says, "Pahar (hills of Darjeeling) hanshche (smiling), Jangalmahal (Lalgarh) hanshche (is smiling)."



During last years of the Left Front government, the death toll caused by Naxal violence was as high as 100 every quarter. That has given way to peace and development. The strikes that once caused widespread disruption in Darjeeling are not so frequent.

There are other successes. Bengal's finances are in better shape, with own source revenue collections having increased from Rs 65,574 crore in 2011 to Rs 1.33 lakh crore by March 2015.

"She is the best performing chief minister in the country," says Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka group.

Bhattacharya says such achievements are a part of Banerjee's successful public relations campaign but even he might find it difficult to explain why the various chit-fund scams like Saradha that played out in West Bengal in the last couple of years, and fanned by the Opposition, mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party, have had little impact on her popularity.

Last May, at the peak of the Saradha investigation, Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress swept the civic body elections in West Bengal, winning 70 of the 92 municipalities. In Kolkata, her party won in 115 of the 144 wards. The BJP, which was seen as a close contender, drew a blank and that kind of put to rest its ambitions in West Bengal, while paving the way for a new bonhomie at the Centre.

Friendly relations with the Centre have been mutually beneficial. The Trinamool Congress has extended support to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, while West Bengal has bagged some big-ticket investments from the Centre and its PSUs, perhaps Banerjee's weakest point.

According to the 2014-15 annual report of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion in the Union ministry of commerce and industry, during 2012-2014, Bengal received 214 investment proposals amounting to Rs 15,454 crore, which gives an annual average of Rs 7,727 crore. This is way below the Rs 18,836 crore in 2002-07 (10th Five-year Plan) and Rs 102,378 crore in 2007-12 (11th Plan).

The saving grace is the growth of the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector. The number of clusters have grown from 49 in the earlier regime to 331 during 2011-15, while credit flow has jumped from Rs 16,764 crore to Rs 91,752 crore.

The state government has a different set of investment numbers to rely on. After the recent Bengal Global Business Summit that had the who's who of India Inc, from Mukesh Ambani to Sajjan Jindal, the Chief Minister said a total of Rs 2,50,254 crore of business announcements, business documents exchanges, expressions of interest and investment proposals were received. That figure, however, includes the Centre's proposals: Investments in road, shipping, telecom and railways adding to Rs 51,000 crore.

Last year too, the biggest draw was Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL)'s Rs 40,000 crore project.

Perhaps the most significant show of how the Centre has extended a helping hand to Banerjee lies in the example of Haldia Petrochemicals. The central government recently exempted the joint venture company from a tax demand in excess of Rs 2,000 crore, paving the way for a pending share transfer between TCG's Purnendu Chatterjee and the government. It prompted Chatterjee to commit Rs 20,000-crore to the refinery.

Yet, these investments may not be enough if Bengal has to compete with other states. "Today, no one is investing anywhere in the country. But, when they do, will Bengal be their first choice? It may have now graduated to being considered as one of investment destinations but is that enough," asks an investor.

These questions are being raised by the Left Front as well. The Left had won the 2006 elections with an overwhelming majority on an industrialisation plank. Between 2005 and 2008, the government had bagged investment proposals of Rs 2.37 lakh crore.

"Much of the investment proposals that the Chief Minister is talking about had been bagged by our government. Bengal's youth need jobs and Banerjee has failed to deliver," a Left leader says.

The party has already led a march from Singur (erstwhile site for the Nano project) to Salboni (site for a mega steel plant originally, and now cement) against lack of industrialisation and had quite a bit of success, with people turning up in large numbers. In the days to come, it plans to raise the pitch on this count and is trying to get the Congress on its side.

Bengal and Banerjee will need more than summits to counter the charge.
Buckling under pressure from agitating Jats, BJP today announced that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session and a high-powered committee will be set up to examine the quota demand for the community in central jobs.

BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jail also appealed to the Jats who have been protesting in Haryana to call off their agitation, which has badly hit life in the region, and return to their homes as their demands have been met.

"A bill will be brought in the coming session of the Haryana Assembly for granting OBC status to the Jats in the state," Jain said after a Jat delegation had an hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Haryana is ruled by a BJP government headed by M L Khattar.

Jain said a high-powered committee headed by a senior Union Minister will be set up today to look into the demand of reservation of jobs in central government for the Jats.

"The composition of the Committee will be announced by the BJP President (Amit Shah)," he said.

Those who attended the meeting with the Home Minister include Jat leaders from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi besides Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Haryana Minister Abhimanyu, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, former Deputy Chief of Army Lt Gen (Retd) Raj Kandyan etc.

After the meeting with the Home Minister, Jat Sangharsh Samiti leader Jaipal Sing Sangwan said the discussion was very positive and he was confident that the community would accept the decisions.

"We appeal to everyone to call off the agitation," he said.

However, another leader of the Jat Sangharsh Samiti Rajesh Dahiya said a decision on calling off the agitation would be taken by the community later.

Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day so far claiming 10 lives.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed massive traffic jams in some parts.
Delhi today reeled under an unprecedented water crisis following cut in its supply from Haryana due to Jat stir, prompting city Government to order shutting of all schools tomorrow and rationing of water.

After a high-level emergency meeting, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the situation serious and appealed to people to conserve water as much as possible.

Delhi Jal Board said seven out of nine water treatment plants across the city have been closed due to disruption in supply of raw water from Munak Canal in Haryana which is under siege of the Jat agitators.

Considering the seriousness of the situation, Delhi Government last night had moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Centre to intervene and ensure restoration of supply from the Munak canal.

The apex court today agreed to give urgent hearing on the issue tomorrow.

The Delhi Government order excludes Rashtrapati Bhavan, residences of the Prime Minister and CJI, defence installations and hospitals.

"Rationing of water will include all sections barring Rashtrapati Bhavan, residences of Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals and fire brigades.

I am appealing to all to conserve water water," Kejriwal said adding his residence and office will also come under water rationing.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the schools will be closed tomorrow and the examination and admission process will be postponed due to the water crisis.

"It is feared that there will be no water tomorrow morning and the Delhi government has directed closure of all schools, including private ones tomorrow.

The ongoing examinations and admission process will be postponed.

The situation will be assessed tomorrow and further decisions will be taken afterwards," Sisodia said.

Calling the crisis "unprecedented", Kejriwal said Delhi Government has been pursuing the Haryana and Central governments since yesterday to seek army help to open the Munak canal.

Meanwhile, the Jat quota stir reached Delhi today as the agitating community held demonstrations at various places across the city including in Nangloi, Madhuban Chowk, Narela, Najafgarh, leading to severe disruption of traffic on several arterial roads in South, West Delhi and Outer Delhi.

There also were reports of damage to public property by the protesters, who blocked major state border entry points, including Sindhu border, Nangloi-Bahadurgarh Road, Karnal road, Tikari, Jharoda and Madhuban Chowk in southwest and outer Delhi.
In the past 18 months, nearly three million comments from citizens on diverse subjects have reached mygov.in, the crowdsourcing inbox of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Since July 2014, when this portal was set up with the objective of people's participation in governance, 487 themes ranging from the Union Budget to Digital India, Swachh Bharat to net neutrality, Indian Institute of Management Bill to smart cities have been discussed, with the number of registered members touching 1.87 million.

In the meantime, other platforms of crowdsourcing have also opened up, the most prominent being Prime Minister Narendra Modi's app to connect with him directly, besides a clutch of audio options when anybody wants to be heard by the powers who matter.

The PM had said at the launch of mygov.in that the success of democracy was impossible without the participation of people. However, there's no clear indicator yet on how much of the ideas' bank, generated through people's participation, is being used in policies, schemes and projects of this government.

Arvind Gupta, who leads Bharatiya Janata Party's information and technology team, said: "I cannot give a percentage of how much of the inputs received from people have been executed, but the significance of the exercise lies in engaging citizens in participatory governance."



Gupta cites the example of getting logos for schemes such as Jan Dhan and Swachh Bharat from crowdsourcing, to indicate the people's feedback is being put to use.

According to a civil servant, who did not wish to be named, the usefulness of getting ideas from people for schemes and policies ''is entirely unproven".

Karuna Gopal, president of Futuristic Cities, a think tank, pointed out that ideas would get generated faster than the government can implement them. "These ideas sometimes will be raw and may not reflect the nuanced understanding of implementation challenges." She said, "I personally prefer 'strategy crowd sourcing' over 'idea crowd-sourcing'."



Gopal was referring to something akin to what Washington DC had done in 2011 when it crowdsourced IT solutions for its government departments and implemented them. She added that the US government was using crowdsourcing for new spy drone designs, and Singapore's low-cost housing design was a result of a 'challenge'', too.

At Futuristic Cities, an initiative was taken in 2009 to crowd-source strategies for making cities liveable, Gopal recounts.

As for mygov.in, the ideas and inputs are a combination of bizarre and sound advice, but there's hardly any solution to any problem so far. Here are a few. In an input for PM's Mann Ki Baat radio address, a citizen writes jaggery could be used instead of sugar in cola drinks. In a Skill India discussion, there's a view that India will pay a heavy price if the initiative fails. Also, "PM, you are working very hard but the common man is yet to get relief in relation to his basic needs.''



Another advice is for a public toilet and a dustbin every 100 metres in Bengaluru.

Backing net neutrality, a citizen writes: "We want access to everything on the net free of cost." Then there's a voice asking for a modified model of Free Basics for which the government could work with Facebook. On IIM Bill 2015, an alumni writes, "This is not a Bill for excellence. Please leave them autonomous." Another one says on the same Bill, "Excellent work. Bill is 100 per cent perfect, which will take IIMs and India to new heights."



Narayanan Ramaswamy, head of education practice at consulting firm KPMG, believes while the government is not required to act on every suggestion it receives, the expectation of the people is increasing because of crowdsourcing. "The government must be sensitive to people's expectation. Once they start giving inputs and start participating, they become restless and want to know the result.''



Ramaswamy added the government's effort seems to be genuine, but there's a need to quickly show that things are moving so that people's enthusiasm is not dampened.

Like Gopal said, the PM might have begun with ideas crowdsourcing to engage people as a first step, but could very well go up to the next level of asking for full solutions and designs, not only ideas. While that will be the real test for participatory democracy, for now, the government's corpus of knowledge is overflowing with Big Data, according to Gopal. "Even if 10 per cent of this gets implemented, it's great news.''



PUBLIC INPUTS
The transformation of Amit Mitra to a political leader is best captured through the change in his sartorial choices. Ever since he was pitched as finance minister (FM) of West Bengal in early 2011, Mitra gave up his suits for well-starched white dhoti and kurta for good.

On Friday, he was appointed head of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on the proposed national goods and services tax.

Dipankar Dasgupta, former professor at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, says Mitra's tenure has seen more transparency than that of his predecessor Asim Dasgupta.

Dasgupta was often accused of camouflaging the burgeoning debt. The earlier government kept borrowing, without raising additional resources. Mitra is credited for making an honest effort in raising the tax base through higher compliance.

Yet, Bengal remains one of the most indebted states in the country, with total loans close toRs 2.99 lakh crore (budget estimate 2015-16), from Rs 2.04 lakh crore in 2011-12 (Budget estimate), an addition of Rs 95,000 crore in five years. The ratio of debt to gross state domestic product (GSDP) is one of the highest among all states at around 35 per cent.

Mitra has been instrumental in ushering reform through digitising the tax collection machinery. West Bengal's own collections increased from Rs 65,574 crore in 2011 to Rs 1.33 lakh crore by March 2015. The ratio of own tax revenue to GSDP increased from 4.46 per cent in 2010-11 to close to 5.7 per cent in 2014-15.

"It is very difficult to cut expenditure, given a number of fixed costs like high salaries, pension and servicing of debt. In the case of West Bengal, much of the fiscal improvement has taken place on account of better efficiency," said Devendra Pant, chief economist at India Ratings & Research.

Mitra is also seen as the brain behind the annual investor summits. He was instrumental in getting people such as Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Group, Subhash Chandra of Essel Group and Sajjan Jindal of JSW Group at the summits. Sources in the government claim if returned to power, the second term of the Mamata Banerjee-Amit duo will be marked by a stronger pitch for industrialisation.
Ten Indian crew of a ship, which was hijacked by pirates off the Ivory Coast, have been rescued with the help of the Nigerian navy, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today.

She said the ship with 11 Indians was hijacked last Saturday. 10 Indian crew members have been rescued and efforts are on to secure the release of the 11th, besides a Pakistani.

"A ship 'Maximus' with 11 Indian crew members was hijacked by pirates off the Ivory Coast last Saturday. On our request the ship was followed by Ghana and Nigerian Navy.

"We have rescued 10 Indians with the help of Nigerian Navy. We are trying to rescue 11th Indian and a Pakistani crew member from the pirates," she tweeted.
A local court has sentenced three robbers to 10 years of imprisonment for looting passengers of a roadways bus in 2008.

Fast track court Judge Punem Rajput held the convicts -- Sompal, Azmat and Shoket -- guilty under relevant sections of the IPC and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each.

In February 2008, armed bandits looted an UP roadways bus and shot at a passenger on Delhi-Rishikesh National Highway near Purkazi town in the district.
Three Pakistanis have been charged by the police in the UAE with attacking and kidnapping two Indians before stealing their car and valuables in Dubai, according to a media report.

The three Pakistani accused attacked two Indian workers at a parking lot, drove them away in their car and stole their cash and valuables, police said.

Identified only with their initials as 27-year-old AJ, 31- year-old KM and 26-year-old AS, the accused allegedly attacked the victims, carjacked their vehicle and stole from them a chequebook, a camera, a gold chain and 1,600 Dirhams (nearly Rs 30,000) in July 2013, Gulf reported.

Prosecutors charged the trio with kidnapping, carjacking, assault and theft under threat and use of physical violence.

The accused also threatened to kill the victims if they called the police, it said.

KM and AS pleaded not guilty when they showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday while Jail wardens did not bring AJ to present him in courtroom, the report said.

"My friend JJ went to get a parking ticket... Suddenly one of the suspects opened my door and beat me on my head. He ordered me to step out of the car and then pushed me into the backseat. In the meantime, JJ had arrived when another suspect also pushed him into the seat beside me," one of the victims AR said.

"One of them (AJ) drove my car away for around one km. The other suspect (KM) followed us on a motorcycle without any number-plate. They stopped in a residential area and kicked us out of the vehicle and drove away after taking our money and some valuables," he testified to prosecutors.
At least 50 Islamic State group fighters have been killed in the last 24 hours in an advance by Syrian government forces east of Aleppo city, a monitor said today.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters were killed in clashes as well as strikes by Russian forces that are waging an aerial campaign in support of government troops.

Since yesterday morning, Syrian government forces have taken more than a dozen villages from IS jihadists around a stretch of highway that runs east from the northern city of Aleppo to the Kweyris military base.

The advances have consolidated government control over the stretch of highway leading to Kweyris, which they seized in November.

"The army has encircled IS in 16 villages south of the road. The regime wants to take these villages to consolidate its position in the east and southeast of the province," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

The advances follow a major regime operation in northern Aleppo against rebel forces that has allowed them to virtually surround the opposition-held east of Aleppo city.
Eight dissident DMDK MLAs today resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly and left party leader Vijaykant stripped of his status as Opposition leader in the House.

Speaker P Dhanapal, who accepted the resignations, declared that Vijayakant has lost his Opposition Leader status since the strength of his party in the Assembly has now come down to 20 from 28.

DMDK founder Vijayakant no longer meets the "qualification" to be recognised as the Opposition Leader under relevant Assembly rules, the Speaker's Secretariat said in a release.

Further, with no other party having the 24 members stipulated for the same, "nobody else can be recognised as Opposition Leader", the release said quoting the Speaker.

DMK has 23 MLAs in the 234-member House.

The DMDK MLAs who tendered their resignation are -- C Arun Pandian, M Arun Subramanian, K Pandiarajan, K Tamil Azhagan, S Michael Rayappan, R Sundarrajan, T Suresh Kumar and R Santhi.

Actor-politician Vijayakant, who made his Assembly debut in 2006 as the then lone DMDK MLA, became Opposition Leader after the 2011 elections, when his party bagged 29 seats.

The party's senior leader and former Alandur MLA Panrutty S Ramachandran had resigned in 2014 before joining AIADMK, bringing down DMDK's strength to 28.

Though he had joined hands with the ruling AIADMK for the 2011 elections, Vijayakant had later walked out of the alliance after a spat with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the floor of the Assembly.

The latest development comes as the state prepares for Assembly polls later this year. DMDK is being wooed by the DMK-Congress combine, BJP and the four-party bloc, People's Welfare Front (PWF), for striking an electoral pact.

(REOPEN MDS7)



The Speaker also accepted the resignation of Puthiya



Tamizhagam MLA from Nilakottai (SC) constituency, A Ramasamy.

He was elected to the 14th Assembly along with party founder Dr S Krishnasamy (Oddapidaram), but had later switched allegiance to the ruling party.

Similarly, PMK dissident MLA Kalai Arasu's resignation was also accepted by Dhanapal, the release said.

PMK had won three seats in the 2011 Assembly elections with Kalai Arasu bagging the Anaikattu seat.
Pakistan has arrested 88 Indian fishermen and seized their 16 boats over the last two days for allegedly violating its territorial waters off the coast of Arabian Sea.

The Indian fishermen were arrested by the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) while they were fishing in Pakistani waters of the Arabian Sea, said an official at the Docks police station.

"Their (Indian fishermen's) 16 fishing boats have also been seized by the MSA. They were later handed over to police from where they would be produced before the respective courts," he said.

Of the total 88 fishermen, 40 were arrested late Thursday night while another 48 were arrested yesterday.

The Docks police had registered a case against the arrested Indian fishermen on behalf of the state under Sections 3/4 of the Foreign Act and 3/9 of the Fishery Act.

Pakistan and India regularly arrest fishermen who venture into each other's waters due to poorly marked maritime boundary.

Some of them spend years behind bars before being repatriated.

In the past the two nations have released the fishermen as goodwill gestures.
A group of eminent individuals has



voiced concern over the raging JNU row, terming those who allegedly raised anti-national slogans on the campus as "no less dangerous" than Pakistan-based terror group JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar.

"The anti-national slogans raised on educational campuses shake our consciousness. If slogans are raised on reputed campuses for fragmenting India, resolutions are made to destroy it, and if Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru is hailed as a martyr, it is shameful and disconcerting," an appeal which has the consent of 33 individuals, including intellectuals and artistes, says.

"We think it to be a well-planned conspiracy by anti-national forces and we believe that those raising such slogans are no less dangerous in their thinking than the terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar," the appeal which has been endorsed by actors Anupam Kher and Paresh Rawal, journalist Swapan Dasgupta, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, economist Bibek Debroy, lyricist and adman Prasoon Joshi, among others, said.

Terming the JNU incident as an indication of lurking "danger", they said,"We welcome ideological dissent against the government, but such slogans are unacceptable to all patriots."



They said some people were trying to "cover up" the incident under the garb of "freedom of expression".

"How can this be called freedom of expression when it questions the supreme judicial decision. Some people have stood behind such nefarious elements for political benefit. They forget that idolising Afzal Guru insults the Supreme Court, the President and Parliament," they said.

Maintaining that they favoured "debate and dissent", the group asked whether there could be debate on the country's destruction or Guru's hanging.

"Do Afzal Guru's hanging and 'India go back' slogan come within the ambit of dissent. Political allegiance may be different, but the country should be loved. What ideological freedom is this that slogans that are raised from across the border, from the homes of Kashmiri separatists, are also raised from the campuses in Delhi and Jadavpur," they said.

The group said the incident was part of a conspiracy by anti-national forces to "incite people" and "polarise" the country.

"They (anti-national elements) know the government will try to check them and then they will accuse the government of repression and call it 'worse than emergency' to create instability," they said.

The group said earlier an attempt was made to raise the issue of alleged intolerance, then a "manufactured environment" was created about repression of dalit students. "When those did not succeed, now there is this anti-India conspiracy in the garb of ideological freedom. We denounce it and appeal to people not to allow them to succeed," they said.

N Gopalaswami, Rajat Sharma, Udit Narayan, Madhur Bhandarkar, Roop Kumar Rathor, Malini Awasthi, Pushpesh Pant, Kamal Kishor Goenka, Narendra Kohli, Chitra Mudgal, Girija Devi are also part of the group.
Tipplers in Delhi have a reason to cheer, with the city government considering not increasing excise duty on liquor in the next financial year.

Government sources said there is no need to revise excise duty for 2016-17 as liquor prices, across various segments, which had been increased by 8-12% in 2014-15.

The AAP government had not increased excise duty on liquor last year, but raised license fee for different categories by around 20 to 30%.

"The government is contemplating not to increase excise duty for the next financial year as we don't see any need for revising the same. The existing system will be so upgraded that the revenue collection will increase," sources said.

They said a proposal will soon be prepared in this regard.

"The work on formulating new excise policy has started. The new policy will be tabled in Cabinet which will take a final decision in this regard," they said.

The city's excise department had last year submitted a proposal for bringing down the legal age for consumption of beer and wine from 25 years to 21 years, but it was struck down by the government.
National carrier Air India will launch a weekly night charter flight service between Kolkata and Port Blair, starting Thursday, to boost connectivity to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The charter flight AI 3707 will depart from Kolkata at 2100 hours and arrive at Port Blair at 2300 hours.

The return flight AI3708 will leave Port Blair at 2340 hours and land back in Kolkata at 0125 hours, Air India said today.

The Wadia group-promoted GoAir currently operates night flights to Port Blair's Veer Savarkar International Airport from Bengaluru.

"Air India, in fact, had pioneered night landing operations in Port Blair, by carrying out safety risks assessment through a test flight to check the viability of the night operations to Port Blair," the Government-run carrier said.

Air India's charter flight services to Andaman and Nicobar would benefit the islanders by improving their connectivity to and from the mainland, it said, adding the move will enhance regional connectivity to remote locations and tier II cities where air connectivity is vital for survival.
Ahead of the assembly election in Tamil Nadu, All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK), headed by R Sarathkumar, today severed ties with AIADMK.

"AIASMK has decided to walk out of the AIADMK alliance. The decision to continue with the alliance so far was only a 'koottani' (alliance) dharma," the actor-turned-politician told reporters, without elaborating the reason for quiting the alliance.

The next course of action would be announced later, he said.

AISMK had aligned with AIADMK for the 2011 assembly polls and won two seats, including Tenkasi, represented by Sarathkumar himself.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan was unable to attend the Zee Cine Awards held here last night due to ill health and he said he regrets not making to the ceremony.

The 73-year-old actor, however, assured that the illness is not "alarming".

"Laid up and had to regret presence at Zee Awards .. feeling bad at not being able to give Veeru Devgn his Lifetime Award!!" Bachchan tweeted.

"It is not alarming .. But it is and it puts me horizontal, with minimum movement and grief for regretting my appearance at the Zee Awards where I was to present the Lifetime Award to Veeru Devgn, the master action director, producer and Father to our Ajay Devgn," the actor further wrote on his blog.

Superstar Ajay Devgn's father, veteran action director Veeru was recognised with an honour for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema at the Zee Cine Awards.

Veeru, who has choreographed fight and action scenes for over 80 Hindi films, was presented the award by director Rohit Shetty, also close friend of Ajay.

The veteran attended the event with his daughter-in-law actress Kajol.

A man of few words, Veeru responded only with a simple thank you. An emotional Kajol, talking about her father-in-law said, "I was telling Nysa and Yug how much this honour matters. It signifies the hard work and dedication he has put in his work over the years. It is a moment of pride."



It was a special moment when a recorded message from Ajay, who is currently shooting for "Shivaay" in Bulgaria, was played.

"My father is not only an action director in movies but also a fighter in real life... Whatever I am today it is because of him. I exist because of him," Ajay said.

Before Veeru was presented with the award, as a tribute to film stuntmen, "Force" actor Vidyut Jamwal and Rohit's team of boys performed a daring stunt on stage.
Union Minister Anant Geete today assured all possible help from the Centre for the Marathi theatre in Maharashtra.

Geete, Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, said that "temple and drama theatre" are the two prominent things in Konkan region in the state where he hails from.

The Minister was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the 96th 'Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sameelan' (National Drama Meet) here in presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"I would like to tell them (the earlier speakers) that there are are 292 public sector enterprises (PSUs). They (PSUs) gave around Rs 2 lakh crore surplus funds," Geete said.

"The industries (PSUs) are supposed to spend 2 per cent of their funds for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. I have the power to take the decision where the funds are to be spent," he added.

Geete asked the Marathi Natya Parishad, organisers of this meet, to provide him with their requirement and assured that he would ensure they get sufficient CSR funds of the PSUs.
India may impose anti-dumping duty ranging between USD 15.55 and USD 127.82 per tonne on import of a chemical from the EU, the US and other regions to protect domestic industry from below-cost shipments.

After conducting a probe following a complaint by Andhra Petrochemicals, the Directorate General of Anti Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has recommended imposition of the levy on imports of 2-Ethyl Hexanol (2-EH) from Malaysia, Korea, the EU, Indonesia, the USA and Taiwan.

After the probe initiated through a November 2014 notice, the DGAD found the product entered the Indian market at prices less than their "normal values and the dumping margins of the dumped imports from these countries are substantial and above de minimis".

"The domestic industry has suffered material injury. The material injury has been caused by the volume and price effects of dumped imports...Coupled with disruption in raw material supply during a significant part of the period of investigation," the DGAD said while recommending definitive anti-dumping duties on the imports.

Based on the recommendations, the revenue department may impose the levy.

Andhra Petrochemicals, the sole domestic producer of 2-Ethyl Hexanol, had alleged dumping of the organic chemical and demanded levy of anti dumping duties.

The 2-EH is produced on a massive scale for use in numerous applications such as solvents, flavors, and fragrances and especially as a precursor for production of other chemicals such as emollients and plasticizers.

Main application of 2-Ethyl Hexanol is as a feed stock in the manufacture of low volatility esters.

Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.
Common antibiotics may be linked to a serious disruption in brain function, called delirium, and other brain problems, researchers including one of Indian-origin have claimed.

Delirium causes mental confusion that may be accompanied by hallucinations and agitation. Medications are often the cause of delirium, but antibiotics are not necessarily the first medications doctors may suspect.

"People who have delirium are more likely to have other complications, go into a nursing home instead of going home after being in the hospital and are more likely to die than people who do not develop delirium," said Shamik Bhattacharyya, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"Any efforts we can make to help identify the cause of delirium have the potential to be greatly beneficial," said Bhattacharyya.

For the study, researchers reviewed all available scientific reports and found case reports on 391 patients, over seven decades, who were given antibiotics and later developed delirium and other brain problems.

A total of 54 different antibiotics were involved, from 12 different classes of antibiotics ranging from commonly used antibiotics such as sulfonamides and ciprofloxacin to intravenous antibiotics such as cefepime and penicillin.

About 47 per cent had delusions or hallucinations, 14 per cent had seizures, 15 per cent had involuntary muscle twitching and 5 per cent had loss of control of body movements. EEG, a test that detects electrical activity in the brain, was abnormal in 70 per cent of the cases.

As many as 25 per cent of the people who developed delirium had kidney failure. The researchers identified three types of delirium and other brain problems related to antibiotics.

Type 1 was characterised by seizures and most often associated with penicillin and cephalosporins.

Type 2 was marked by symptoms of psychosis and associated with procaine penicillin, sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones and macrolides. Both Type 1 and Type 2 had a quick onset of symptoms, within days. Once antibiotics were stopped, symptoms also stopped within days.

Type 3 was characterised by abnormal brain scans and impaired muscle coordination and other signs of brain dysfunction, and was only associated with the drug metronidazole.

The beginning of noticeable symptoms took weeks instead of days. Symptoms also took longer to go away once the antibiotic was stopped. Bhattacharyya noted that all of the patients had an active infection that could not be ruled out as the cause of the delirium and other brain problems.

A scale used to determine whether side effects can be attributed to a drug found that the association was possible in most cases. When infections that affected the central nervous system were not included, the association was probable, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Andhra Pradesh saved about 421mn unit of power last year thanks to a major push given by the state government to use of LED bulbs in four of the 13 districts, an independent survey has revealed.

The state government distributed 57.03 lakh LED bulbs (two nine Watt bulbs per house) in Anantapuram, Guntur, West Godavari and Srikakulam districts, while overall 1.75 crore bulbs were distributed so far in all the 13 districts as against the target of 1.87 crore.

A study conducted by Andhra University and Engineering Staff College of India - covering 57,667 households in the four districts - reveal that 421 million unit of power could be saved in one year because of the use of LED bulbs.

The actual energy saving per bulb has been 73.7 unit on an average, as against the projected 55.65 units.

Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal would formally release the study at a function in Nellore on February 27 in the presence of Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

A release from the AP State Energy Conversation Mission (SECM) quoted Energy Secretary Ajay Jain as saying the state government has now decided to cover 100 per cent households in the state under the LED bulb distribution programme.

Under the scheme two bulbs (of nine Watts) would be given at a subsidised price of Rs 10 each.

The two power distribution companies have submitted proposals to the government for additional 57 lakh LED bulbs to cover 100 per cent households. With this, the total number of LED bulbs goes up to 2.44 crore, SECM chief executive officer A Chandrasekhar Reddy said.

Once the distribution is complete the state would save a whopping 1,806 million unit annually.

"We hope to complete the distribution by March 2016," Chandrasekhar Reddy added.

He said the Chief Minister directed the SECM to set up LED bulb replacement and service centres in all 175 Assembly constituencies to sustain the energy conservation measures.

The Chief Minister also wanted the energy department to facilitate use of five-star rated home appliances that would enable further saving of electricity by upto 40 per cent.
An army officer was killed as the operation resumedagainst holed up militants in a government building in Pampore on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Captain Pawan Kumar sustained injuries in the firing by militantsas security forces tried to maketheir way into the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building, anarmy official said.

He said the injured officer succumbed to injuries later on.

TwoCRPF jawans and a civilianwerekilled and nineother jawansinjured when militants opened fire on a CRPF convoy yesterday afternoon.

Theultras thentook shelter inside the EDI building, triggering a stand off.

Nearly 100 civilians -- staff and students ofEDI -- were evacuated to safety by the security forces from the building, a police official said.
Amidst the JNU row, army veterans today led a march here to spread a "positive narrative" and protest against the raising of alleged anti-national slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Led by ex-servicemen, participants in the march waved the tricolour as they walked from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar, where they took a vow to "unite India" as part of their stand against the "break India" slogans allegedly raised in JNU which led to the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.

"Certain slogans raised in JNU by a very small group of people spread to other universities, including those in J&K, and our enemies are also taking advantage of it.

"We decided to come together under the banner, 'People for Nation', to pursue the positive narrative of 'Bharat jodo' (unite India) to counter the 'Bharat todo (break India)' narrative," said Major General Dhruv Katoch, an ex-serviceman and an organiser of the march.

The protest march was "apolitical" and was for instilling a sense of pride in the nation and lend moral support to the army personnel, he said.

"We are one country and everybody is a nationalist. I support all the people of India and all the political parties. But let's have a proper narrative, especially as negative slogans do no good to our man on the border.

"My request to JNU is that please keep such anti-national elements out," Katoch said.

The march was promoted via social media and residents' welfare associations in many parts of the city, he added.

Several members of an organisation, 'Bhagat Singh Yuva Dal', too, participated in the march.
President Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published here.

Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syria's bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then.

And he said he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

"In 10 years, if I can save Syria as president -- but that doesn't mean I'm still going to be president in 10 years, I'm just talking about my vision of the 10 years," he said in an interview published on the newspaper's website yesterday.

"If Syria is safe and sound, and I'm the one who saved his country -- that's my job now, that's my duty.

"If the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they don't want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away."



World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities in Syria to pave the way for renewed peace negotiations, but the truce has faltered as fighting on the ground has intensified.

In an interview with AFP on February 12, before the deal was announced, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country.

Speaking to El Pais, he said he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but warned that it should not be exploited by "the terrorists" to improve their positions, using the regime's term for all rebel groups.

"It's about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists."



Syria's regime has been pressing an offensive in the northern Aleppo region backed by Russian air strikes and troops from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Assad said the support of his Russian and Iranian allies had been "essential" in the recent major advances made by regime forces.

"We definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways," he told El Pais.

Some backers helped "directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums," he told the daily.
At least 30 people were killed today in a series of attacks, including a car bombing, near a Shiite shrine south of Syria's capital, state television and a monitor said.

The Syrian state broadcaster said a car bombing and two suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, killing 30 and wounding dozens.

"The attacks came as pupils were leaving school, and several of them were killed," the state broadcaster reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group gave a slightly higher death toll of 31 and said there were four attacks.

"There was a car bomb and two suicide bombers who blew themselves up. We don't know the cause of the fourth explosion," the Britain-based Observatory said.

At the end of January, the Islamic State group said it was behind bombings near the shrine that killed 71 people, among them five children.

The Sayyida Zeinab shrine contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shiite Muslims.
Australia has warned that terrorists may be plotting attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city.

The Australian High Commission in Malaysia says there's an ongoing terrorism threat in Malaysia, noting that Malaysian authorities have arrested a number of people allegedly involved in planning attacks.

It warned in a travel advisory posted on its website today that attacks could be indiscriminate and may target Western interests or locations frequented by Westerners.

Malaysia has raised its security alert level following the January 14 attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighbouring Indonesia, that left eight people dead.

Kuala Lumpur city police chief Tajuddin Mohamad Isa told local media Sunday that security has been stepped up in the past few months and that there was no indication of a terror attack.
Bihar will become the sixth state tomorrow to formally join the UDAY scheme meant for revival of debt-ridden distribution utilities.

According to a statement by the Ministry, the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for joining the scheme will be signed by Secretary of Bihar, representatives of discoms and the ministry here in the capital.

Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have already inked the memorandum of understandings (MoUs) for joining the scheme.

Discoms across the country have an accumulated debt of over Rs 4.37 lakh crore.

The Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) has been launched to improve financial and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies (discoms).

It envisages to reduce interest burden, cost of power and transmission losses. Consequently, discoms will become sustainable to supply adequate and reliable power enabling 24x7 power supply.

The scheme provides that states would take over 75 per cent of the debt of discoms, as on September 30, 2015, in two years.

UDAY has inbuilt incentives encouraging state governments to voluntarily restructure their debts.

These incentives include taking over of discom debt by the states outside the fiscal deficit limits, reduction in the cost of power through various measures such as coal linkage rationalisation, liberal coal swaps and priority/additional funding through various central government schemes, among others.

UDAY is different from earlier restructuring schemes in several ways, including flexibility of keeping debt taken over outside fiscal deficit limit, reduction in cost of power and a series of time bound interventions for improving operational efficiency.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury today said the BJP government at the Centre is introducing a "new Emergency" and it will be worse than the one imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

"There is a takeover of Fascist forces. Today Fascist forces in the government are attacking people for raising their voices. They are doing a game plan to convert the secular democratic India into a Hindu Rashtra by attacking anyone who opposes them. This is the new Emergency," Yechury said at a rally here.

"All be attacked in the name of anti-nationalism. Hitler too rose with the help of Fascism and a World War was needed to end the menace of Fascism. That is the danger. That is why it is worse than the Emergency, which was imposed by Indira Gandhi," he said.

Launching CPI(M)'s poll campaign in Assam, Yechury said a big campaign needs to be mounted against the manner in which the Modi government was "ruining" higher education institutions and bodies.

Referring to the JNU incident, he said "They are doing it with a purpose, the purpose for establishing their concept of Hindu Rashtra by destroying the secular democratic republic. They want to replace history with Hindu mythology and philosophy with Hindu theology. That is the big struggle we all are fighting against."



"We need freedom. We need freedom from hunger, communal hatred, capitalist exploitations, Manuvadi cast exploitation and Sangh ideology. Raising slogans for such freedom is not an anti-national act, but an act of patriotism. This is a new conspiracy to crush the people's voice in the name of nationalism to hide their failure," Yechury said.

The CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP said Nathuram Godse is a national hero for RSS-BJP and those who raise voice against the Modi government are anti-nationals.
Members of BJP's youth wing today clashed with activists of Ambedkar Vichar Manch (AVM) here during a lecture by JNU professor Vivek Kumar at a function organised by AVM.

The incident took place at at around 4 PM at Municipal Corporation's Bal Bhawan auditorium, sources said.

"BJYM members stormed Bal Bhawan, chanted slogans and tried to disrupt the function alleging that it threatened peace," they said.

A heated exchange took place among the members of both the groups and a clash ensued. However, there were no reports of anybody getting hurt in the incident.

Based on a complaint filed by AVM leader Dinesh Maurya, BJYM district president Vivek Sharma and several others have been booked under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, police said.

SP H C Mishra said a probe is on in the incident.
Bhartiya Kisan Sangh today demanded the Centre to directly transfer the subsidy amount to the bank accounts of the farmers to avoid delays and not to permit the use of Genetically Modified seeds in the country.

In a resolution adopted today, the concluding day of the three-day national conference "Agri Expo-2016", RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) also demanded that farmers be given the Minimum Support Price for their produce.

"Genetically Modified seeds should not be allowed in the country, farmers be given the best Minimum Support Price (MSP) on their produce, and full subsidy be paid in farmers' accounts directly," BKS General Secretary Badri Narayan Choudhary told reporters here.

Demanding that the Centre announce new MSP, BKS National President I N Basvegowda said if it is not done, the farmer's body would launch a country-wide agitation from March 4.

He said every political party in 2014 Lok Sabha polls had promised to provide the best MSP to farmers but it has not been implemented yet due to which farmers have been facing hardships.

"Even a Parliamentary Committee had recommended that farmers should be given the best price for procuring their produce. The Union government should explain what the problem is," Basvegowda said.

"If the Union government does not announce new MSP, BKS would launch 'vada nibhao, kisan bachao' (fulfil promise, save farmer) agitation country-wide from March 4," the BKS President said.

Farmers and representatives from several states participated in the event.
A double bombing killed at least 46 people in Syria's Homs today, as US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a ceasefire.

World powers have been pushing for a halt in fighting that was meant to go into effect by Friday, but have struggled to agree on how it should be implemented.

Violence has intensified on the ground, with double car bomb blasts hitting the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood of the central city of Homs this morning.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 46 people had been killed and dozens wounded in the explosions.

State television broadcast footage from the scene, showing emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past shops shorn of their fronts and mangled cars and minibuses.

Homs city has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, including last month when a double bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 22 people in Al-Zahraa.

The district's residents are mostly Alawites, the minority sect of Syria's ruling clan, including President Bashar al-Assad.

Most of those killed in the city have been civilians. In one of the deadliest attacks, 48 children and four adults died in blasts at a school in October 2014.

The latest bombings came as Kerry said he had spoken with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and agreed an initial basis on how to implement a ceasefire.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman.

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task," he added.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for the resumption of new peace talks.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, were scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN's envoy on Syria has already acknowledged that date is no longer "realistically" possible.

Yesterday, a key opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, said it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.
Bolivians have voted on whether to allow Evo Morales, a leftist who is under fire over corruption allegations, to seek a fourth term and potentially extend his presidency until 2025.

Already the country's longest serving leader, the 56-year-old Morales cast his ballot in the coca-growing region of Chapare where he first emerged as a political force to become Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006.

Monitors from UNASUR, a regional political union, said polls opened "in a climate of absolute calm" in Bolivia, a major gas and mineral producer but one of South America's poorest countries.

But angry voters set fire to ballots and ballot boxes at a polling station in the city of Santa Cruz after they learned there were no election registries, a spokesperson for the regional election tribunal said.

A lack of election materials delayed the start of voting at other places.

Polling station began to close at the scheduled 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) deadline, but election authorities extended voting in some places.

Local television stations are expected to air exit polls a few hours after the voting ends, with official results to follow.

Urging supporters to turn out in record numbers, Morales -- an Aymara Indian -- exhorted them to "let us know if they love me or not" by endorsing changes in the country's constitution to allow him to run for a fourth term.

A late breaking corruption scandal involving an ex-lover of Morales appears to have hurt the campaign for a "Yes" vote, however.

Polls had shown voters to be evenly divided over the constitutional changes, but sentiment has swung sharply in the past week, with the "No" vote vastly favored in the most recent pre-election poll by a 47 to 27 percent margin.

Since taking office the first time in 2006, Morales has been re-elected twice, most recently in 2014 to a five-year term that ends in 2020.

Under the current constitution adopted in 2009, sitting presidents can only seek re-election once.

But Bolivia's Supreme Court ruled that Morales's first term was exempt from the rule, allowing him to run again in 2014.

Last month, he became the longest serving president since Bolivia's independence from Spain in 1825 -- a rare accomplishment in a country known for military coups and shaky, short-lived governments.

The campaign formally ended on Thursday but continued furiously on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the weekend.

Voting is mandatory, and some 6.5 million Bolivians are eligible to cast ballots.
Bomb attacks in Syria's central city of Homs and near a shrine outside Damascus killed at least 87 people today, as Washington pursued efforts for a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce, as violence intensified on the ground.

Double car bombings killed at least 57 people and wounded dozens in the Al-Zahraa district of Homs this morning, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Later at least 30 people were killed in a series of attacks, including a car bombing, near the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab south of the capital, state television and the monitor said.

The Homs attack was the worst in the city since twin bombings hit a school in October 2014, killing at least 55 people including 49 children.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted by attacks, including last month when a double bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 22 people.

State television footage from the scene showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past shops shorn of their fronts and mangled cars and minibuses.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an online statement that two its members had driven explosives-laden cars into crowds of residents.

The blasts outside Damascus saw a car bombing and two suicide attacks rip through the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, state television reported.

The Observatory gave a slightly higher death toll of 31 killed and said there were four attacks.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks but at the end of January IS claimed bombings that killed at least 70 people near the shrine, which contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is revered by Shiite Muslims.

World powers have been pushing for a halt in fighting in Syria that was meant to take effect by Friday, but have struggled to agree on how it should be implemented.

The latest bombings came as Kerry said he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and agreed on how to implement a ceasefire.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman.

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task," he added.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks.

Assad meanwhile told Spain's El Pais newspaper that he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but said it should not be exploited by "terrorists".
In a major blow to Prime Minister David Cameron, London Mayor and Conservative MP Boris Johnson today said that he would "throw his weight behind" a campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.

The London mayor announced that he will campaign for a leave vote after concluding that Cameron's deal will not deliver the reformed EU he promised.

His decision is a big blow to the prime minister who had pleaded with him earlier today to avoid "linking arms" with opposition Nigel Farage and George Galloway who are for Britain to exit EU.

Speaking outside his home in north London, the mayor said his decision had been "agonisingly difficult".

But he added, "I would like to see a new relationship based more on trade, on cooperation, with much less of this supranational element. So that is where I'm coming from and that is why I have decided, after a huge amount of heartache, because the last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the government, I don't think there is anything else I can do."



"I will be advocating Vote Leave - or whatever the team is called, I understand there are a lot of them - because I want a better deal for the people of this country, to save them money and to take control. That is really what this is all about."



Downing Street issued a low-key response, with one of its spokesmen saying "Our message to everyone is we want Britain to have the best of both worlds: all the advantages of the jobs and investment that come with being in the EU, without the downsides of being in the euro and open borders.
UK's BP plc has questioned the terms of reference of the Shah Committee looking into the issue of gas migration from ONGC's KG block to neighbouring fields operated by Reliance and BP, saying they appear to risk prejudging the outcome.

The government had in December set up a one-man Committee under Law Commission Chairman A P Shah to look into acts of omission and commission and recommend compensation to ONGC whose natural gas from Bay of Bengal block had flowed to adjoining Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields of Reliance Industries.

BP, which holds 30 per cent interest in the KG-D6 block, in its comments to the Shah Committee questioned the terms of reference of the panel saying they "appear to risk prejudging the outcome of the Committee's recommendations given their heavy focus on quantification of alleged unfair enrichment and the need to provide measures to prevent alleged unfair enrichment."



The panel was constituted after US-based consultant D&M in final report stated that as much as 11.122 billion cubic meters of natural gas, worth over Rs 11,000 crore, had migrated from idling Krishna Godavari fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL-BP.

"BP trusts that there is no preconceived notion of unfair enrichment being attributed to the Contractor (RIL-BP) so as to risk bias against the Contractor. BP specifically reserves it rights in relation to this characterisation," BP wrote.

The company said various conclusions of the D&M report "point that unless all the relevant data is integrated, it is not possible to conclude any connectivity (between the two blocks)."



"The D&M study provided the opportunity to integrate a larger data set combining information from both operators that was unavailable to all parties at the time key field development decisions were made. Therefore any assumption of unfair enrichment is misplaced," BP said.

In the same breath, BP said it was not involved in any discussion and has not provided any input to the study undertaken by D&M and its report.

Unlike RIL, BP had from the beginning decided to cooperate with the Shah Committee and provide inputs.

RIL had initially questioned the very constitution of the panel but this month backtracked and agreed to provide "technical inputs" but will not assist on financial part like calculation of alleged unfair enrichment by it.

BP cited examples of Egypt, Norway and Australia to say fields were jointly developed when it came to notice that reservoir in one extends into another.

According to the terms of reference, the Shah Committee has been asked to "quantify the unfair enrichment, if any, to the contractors of the adjacent block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) and measures to prevent future unfair enrichment to these contractors on account of gas migration."



It has also been asked to "recommend action to be taken to make good the loss to ONGC/Government on account of such unfair enrichment to the contractors."



DeGolyer and MacNaughton (D&M) has in its November 30 report established that reservoirs in ONGC's Krishna Godavari basin KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and the Godavari-PML are connected with Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 & D3) field located in the KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) Block of RIL.

It states that as much as 11.122 billion cubic meters of ONGC gas has migrated from Godavari-PML and KG-DWN-98/2 to KG-D6.
A British university once attended by Islamic State (IS) terrorist 'Jihadi John' has installed CCTV cameras in its prayer rooms, sparking protests by students who say the move has fuelled fear that they are being "monitored".

The University of Westminster in London has tightened security since Jihadi John - whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi - was last year revealed as a former student.

An internal report has said the varsity's Islamic society had become a "breeding ground for very ultraconservative views".

The university's student union has complained about the cameras and claims that key cards used to enter the rooms are being monitored, The Sunday Times reported.

"The lack of understanding leads to a lack of trust, some anger and frankly a degree of fear," said Jim Hirschmann, the union's president.

Salsabil Sila, one of the union's Muslim officers, said some students now prayed off campus.

"It has limited us from being able to perform our prayers in an environment where we can feel completely at ease. What would normally be a safe space where we could take off our scarves has now been taken away from us,"she said.

Father Stephen Wang, chaplain at the University of London, said: "It is certainly not the norm to have CCTV cameras in prayer rooms and chapels. I would want to know what the reasons were and whether it had been agreed with the chaplains, the interfaith team and the students concerned."



The University of Westminster said: "It was not the university's intention to cause alarm or offence. As these rooms are quiet, reflective and often solitary spaces, it is important to make sure people feel secure and not vulnerable ... The university has a clear and transparent CCTV policy."



Emwazi, who graduated with a degree in information systems, became IS masked executioner, responsible for the deaths of at least five British and American hostages.

At the time the world's most wanted man, he was killed by a targeted US airstrike last year.
Expressing concern over several cases of jaundice reported from Shimla, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda today urged the state government to take necessary steps and assured full support from the Centre.

According to a statement from theHealth and Family Welfare Ministry, an amount of Rs 70 lakh has been sanctioned for Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct a study to avoid outbreak of the disease in future.

"We're monitoring the situation closely and have offered all assistance to the state government. I urge the state government to take all necessary steps by improving sanitation andchecking supply of contaminated water," Nadda said.

The Health Minister said a team of National Centre for Disease Control had already visited the affected areas in January to assess the situationand gave expert advice to the state government.

The team had advised that sanitation in affected areas need to be improved and contamination of water checked.

So far over 1,500 jaundice cases have been reported in Shimla with the disease spreading to Solan and Sirmaur as well.
China has accused the US of "double standards" on the issue of militarisation of the South China Sea, days after it emerged that Beijing has deployed surface- to-air missiles on an island in the hotly disputed area.

"Instead of questioning China about "militarising" the region, the US should reflect on its own behaviour. Stopping patrols, drills and reconnaissance will be the right way for it to serve its own interests and others," the official Xinhua agency said in a hard-hitting commentary.

"The US has taken double standards on the militarisation in the South China Sea," it said, accusing Washington that it automatically links Chinese defence facility deployment to militarisation while "selectively dodging" the Philippines and Vietnam that have "militarised" the Chinese islands they occupy or the US joint drills and patrols.

US and Taiwanese officials last week confirmed satellite images showing two batteries of eight HQ-9 missiles placed on Woody Island in the resource-rich South China Sea (SCS).

China has not denied the appearance of the missiles, but says it was well within its rights to defend its territory.

Woody Island is part of the Paracels chain, under Chinese control that is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

"The US, the self-styled guardian of freedom of navigation, rationalises its navy and air force patrols for such purposes and says it will continue to do so," it said.

However, "freedom of navigation does not give one country's military aircraft and ships free access to another country's territorial waters and airspace," it quoted a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson as saying last week.

China and other claimants of the South China Sea have the capacity to work out their disputes through dialogue and negotiation, the commentary, published yesterday, said.

"As a non-claimant, the US should make good on its repeated commitment that it does not take a position on competing territorial claims," it said.

It noted that China has repeatedly made it clear that it has no intention to militarise the region. Its island construction is "mainly for maintenance purposes, improving the living conditions for stationed personnel and facilitating the movement of public goods in the region," it claimed.

"Then why is the US stirring up this hype? Previous self- defence moves on Yongxing Island (Woody Island) seemed to raise little US interest, still less an uproar such as has been seen in recent days."



"The change itself looks deliberate and questionable. Criticising China, regardless of the circumstances, seems to be the tool that the US is using to move more of its own military weight to the region. It is the US, rather than China, who is posing the most significant risk of militarisation," the commentary concluded.

Last week, President Barack Obama said the US will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and will support the right of all countries to do the same. He had also called for "tangible steps" to reduce tensions in the South China Sea.
Five members of security forces loyal to the internationally recognised Libyan authorities and eight fighters from rival groups were killed today in clashes in Benghazi, the LANA agency said.

They were killed a day after 14 members of the security forces died trying to retake a district in Libya's second city held by rival groups.

"Five soldiers were killed in an operation aimed at repelling terrorist groups in western Benghazi, as well as eight fighters belonging to these movements," said the agency which is close to the recognised authorities.

The oil-rich North African country has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognised government fled Tripoli after a militia alliance including Islamists overran the capital.

Citing a military source, LANA said that despite losing 19 men in two days, loyalist forces managed to seize Al-Marayseh port in western Benghazi and Al-Hawari hospital in the south.

"Orders were given to the soldiers to continue their advance and not to stop until they have successfully overcome the terrorist groups in Benghazi" in an operation dubbed "The Blood of Martyrs", the source said.

For a year and a half, Benghazi has seen bloody fighting between armed groups including IS and Ansar al-Sharia, which is close to Al-Qaeda, and forces loyal to the government.

LANA, citing a medical source, also said seven people were killed in Ajdabiya (190 kilometres, 120 miles southwest of Benghazi) in two days of fighting between loyalist forces and rival groups.

The country has been gripped by chaos and security problems since its 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with a multitude of armed factions battling for territory and control of its oil wealth.

The violence has allowed the jihadist Islamic State group to establish a foothold, and IS now controls the coastal city of Sirte and its surroundings.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton earned a much-needed win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, US networks projected, while Donald Trump looked for a big win in the South Carolina Republican primary.

The two main US political parties parted ways for the third stage of the surprise-filled race for the White House, with the Democrats heading west and the Republicans campaigning in the south.

In Nevada, CNN, Fox and NBC called the contest for the former secretary of state. With roughly two-thirds of precincts reporting, Clinton was at 52.2 percent to 47.7 percent for Sanders.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win. Thank you," Clinton tweeted.

Voters meanwhile streamed to the polls in South Carolina, in what could be an important test of strength for the 69-year-old frontrunner Trump. Voting places were to close at 7:00 pm (local time).

In the desert state of Nevada, both Clinton and Sanders worked hard to reach out to the African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans who make up roughly half of the state's population.

Clinton, who won by a hair in Iowa but was crushed by Sanders in New Hampshire, was counting on a major Hispanic voter turnout, especially among Las Vegas hotel and casino employees.

Nevada has some three million residents, and the population is overwhelmingly concentrated in two large urban centers, Las Vegas and Reno.

The former top US diplomat needed a win in Nevada, a state once seen as a relatively easy victory for her -- but one where Sanders gathered steam after trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire on February 9.

Clinton won their first showdown in Iowa on February 1, but only by a razor-thin margin.

Since Wednesday, the 68-year-old Clinton has visited staff at casinos in Las Vegas, where workers "caucused" right on the famous Strip.

"I need your help this morning -- in the show room, 11 am," she told employees at Harrah's yesterday, less than an hour before caucus time. Sanders visited the same casino cafeteria about 20 minutes earlier.

Clinton says she is the natural ally of Latinos on immigration, and if elected she promises a quick path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

The former first lady and senator from New York has relentlessly attacked Sanders for voting against immigration reform in 2007.

Sanders counters that the measure gave little protection for foreign "guest workers," and that he voted for a 2013 immigration reform bill that died due to Republican opposition.
US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has narrowly won the crucial Democratic presidential caucuses in Nevada, US media reports said.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win. Thank you," Clinton tweeted, shortly after media reports projected her victory.

With four-fifths of the votes counted, Clinton was at 52.2 percent while rival Bernie Sanders, was at 47.7 percent.

"We won the Nevada caucuses," she wrote in an email to her supporters.

"The choice in this primary might be tough for some, because the truth is, Senator Sanders and I agree on a basic premise: Wall Street, big banks, drug companies, and the like all have too much power and influence in our country," she said.

"But it's not enough just to want to take them on. If we were to stop those special interests in their tracks tomorrow, the indifference that caused the water crisis in Flint would still exist. Women would still be getting paid less than men for the same job. Racism would still hold people back. LGBT people would still be able to get married on Saturday and fired on Monday," she said.

"Americans are right to be angry. These injustices demand action from all of us," Clinton said.

Sanders telephoned Clinton to congratulate her on the Nevada victory.

"I just spoke to Secretary Clinton and congratulated her on her victory here in Nevada. I am very proud of the campaign we ran. Five weeks ago we were 25 points behind and we ended up in a very close election. And we probably will leave Nevada with a solid share of the delegates," Sanders said.

Sanders thanked the people of Nevada, saying their support had given his campaign a boost.

"I am also proud of the fact that we have brought many working people and young people into the political process and believe that we have the wind at our back as we head toward Super Tuesday," he added.

Clinton's victory in Nevada comes after her narrow win in Iowa and a convincing 22-point loss to Sanders in New Hampshire.

The contest moves next to South Carolina, where Democrats vote on February 27, and then to other states across the country.

In a message to his supporters, Sanders highlighted the positives from the results, saying that the close finish in a state which was "tailor-made" for the Clinton campaign was a message to the political and financial establishment.

"I want to be completely clear with you about what this result means: Nevada was supposed to be a state "tailor made" for the Clinton campaign, and a place she once led by almost 40 points. But today, we sent a message that will stun the political and financial establishment of this country: our campaign can win anywhere," he said.
Bihar Congress today burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here to protest against Rajasthan BJP MLA's alleged derogatory remark against party Vice president Rahul Gandhi.

The party, which held a protest march, also protested against increasing intolerance in the country besides Centre's alleged efforts to gag freedom of speech and expression.

On February 18, a BJP MLA from Barmer, Kailash Choudhary had allegedly called Gandhi a "traitor" and said he should be hanged and shot for backing "anti-national" students of JNU.

Former Bihar Congress chief Anil Sharma said "We are protesting against the Rajasthan MLA's remarks against Rahul Gandhiji besides Centre's barbaric way of dealing JNU issue .. ...This is complete autocratic functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government."



The party would organise demonstration in the district headquarters tomorrow on the same issue.

"We'll let people know as what the government is doing," Sharma said adding that it was illegal to book JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar under sedition charge.
Describing the Congress-DMK tie-up in Tamil Nadu for the coming assembly polls as an "alliance of corruption", BJP today asserted that no party can form a government in the state without its support.

"The Congress-DMK alliance is an alliance of corruption while the four-party People's Welfare Front will not be of much help to the people," BJP State Unit President Tamilisai Soundararajan told reporters.

She claimed that no party could form a government in Tamil Nadu without the support of BJP.

The Congress party had entered into an electoral pact with DMK on February 13 to fight the assembly elections.

The People's Welfare Front, headed by Vaiko led MDMK, comprises CPI(M), CPI and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.

Later, addressing a session on 'Startup India', organised by various industrial bodies, Tamilisai said, "Under the Narendra Modi government, India has become a powerful country within a span of 18 months, considering the development in almost all sectors.
A 29-year-old man died after his train was delayed by over 10 hours due to the rail roko agitation by GCPA members for Union territory status or C category statehood for Cooch Behar.

The rail roko at New Cooch Behar railway station continued despite the appeal by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to the protesters in Cooch Behar and Haryana to not block railway lines or harm railway properties as it inconvenienced the common people.

Benoy Thakur (29), a resident of Bihar's Begusarai, had boarded Kanchenjungha Express last evening at Guwahati with his wife to travel to Kishanganj. The train was delayed by over 10 hours as it was stranded in the blockade and the man fell ill, GRP officials here said.

He vomited several times and his condition deteriorated but could not be given any medical aid. The general compartment in which he was travelling was also extremely crowded due to the late running of the train, they said.

When the train reached Alipurduar Junction station at 4 pm instead of the scheduled 6 am via Samoktola railway station, Thakur was rushed to Alipurduar Railway Hospital where he was declared brought dead, hospital sources said.

Appealing to protesters who have blocked railway lines in Cooch Behar and Haryana, Suresh Prabhu said at a programme in Kolkata, "You can always have a right to demonstrate. That is a democratic right, we respect that right. But we appeal to you that it is the common people of India who face most inconvenience."



"We wanted to launch a project in Cooch Behar but couldn't do it due to the ongoing agitation there. So let me take this opportunity to tell all the demonstrators, who may have genuine grievance. They should not block the railway tracks for doing that," he said.

Trains are still stranded in various stations of the area, popularly known as the 'chicken's neck', which connects the eastern and north eastern parts of the country. Some trains are also being diverted, Railway officials said.

A Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman said in Guwahati,



the NFR headquarters, that local trains in New Jalpaiguri-Coochbehar section have been cancelled as the main line was closed and all major long distance trains were diverted via New Bongaigaon-Samoktola, Alipurduar, Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri junction routes.

The Coochbehar-Changrabanda-Siliguri train service, to be inaugurated today through remote control from Kolkata was cancelled due to the agitation, he said.

To this Greater Cooch Behar Peoples Association (GCPA) leader Bangshi Badan Barman told
The alleged kingpin of a notorious criminal gang surrendered before the police with arms and ammunition in Simdega district, police today said.

The alleged kigpin Lele Sahu surrendered before the Superintendent of Police, Rajiv Ranjan Singh and handed over two country-made rifles, eleven live rounds of cartridge on Friday last, Singh said.

Sahu was carrying a reward of Rs.20,000 on his head, which the SP has handed over to him an additional Rs.5000.

Singh claimed that the existence of the gang, locally known as 'Pahari Cheetah', came to an end following the surrender of Sahu, who was wanted by police in 28 cases including 13 murders, besides loot, extortion, and possessiong arms etc.
Top officials of Defence Ministry and the armed forces will meet this week to brainstorm on the blacklisting policy and the report on strategic partnership submitted by former DRDO chief VK Aatre.

Defence sources said that the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, will meet on February 23.

On the agenda is the report submitted by the high-level task force, they said.

While the ministry has already firmed up the new Defence Procurement Procedure, the issue of blacklisting of defence firms accused of corruption remains. This will also be discussed during the meeting.

Parrikar has said that random and complete blacklisting of firms hampers defence modernisation, a view shared by the armed forces as well.

But the main issue the defence firms are interested in is the Aatre report, which has recommended that one company cannot be eligible for multiple partnerships.

This means that each company would be restricted to just one critical segment in the overall multi-billion dollar defence manufacturing sector.

The task force in its report has divided the sectors eligible for strategic partnerships into two groups.

Segments in Group 1 are aircraft, helicopters, aero- engines, submarines, warships, guns (including artillery guns) and armoured vehicles, including tanks.

In Group 2, the segments are metallic materials and alloys, non-metallic materials (including composites and polymers) and ammunition, including smart ammunition.

However, it has recommended that in the initial phase, aircraft, helicopters, submarines, armoured vehicles and ammunition be considered for strategic partnerships.

The feeling among private industry players is that only the big firms will benefit out of this. However, even the large firms are not for the idea since they feel they would be restricted to just specific fields and, therefore, their overall investment and plans will get affected.

An official in a defence firm, who did not want to be named, said, "It creates the grounds for nomination of a private sector business partner for award of defence contracts on an exclusive basis in each of the major categories in defence production."



Claiming it may herald a return of "crony capitalism", an industry source said, "The Aatre process could enable the big five of the Indian private sector defence industry to corner about 80 per cent of the business and create monopolies in all categories."



Also, "restricting one group to one platform is unprecedented. Globally, every large defence firm has a land, air and naval segment", a defence company official said.

(REOPENS DEL 66)



Parrikar also said a new Defence Procurement Manual and a



separate manual for Ordinance Factory Boards will also be issued in the coming months.

DPM will most likely be notified in June after OFB manual is updated, Parrikar said.

Asked about the strategic partnership model, the Minister said once it comes into force, it will speed up projects.

He said the focus will first be on ammunition, followed by P75I submarine project and possibly a chopper and a fighter contract.

"Aim is to start 1-2 projects under the strategic partnership model by the end of this year," he said.

Talking about small scale and medium industries, the Minister said the new DPP helps them a lot.

He said credit must be given to small scale industries for surviving despite "stiffling and chocking" atmosphere that has existed.

Meanwhile, asked about the pending Rafale fighter deal, he said his objective was to save money for the country and his is working on it.

Replying to queries on whether he will allow the Pakistani Joint Investigation Team to visit Pathankot Air Force base, the Minister said he will take a call when it comes to crossing the bridge.
Encouraged by the Make in India push, low-cost handset and tablet maker intends to spend Rs 100 crore on a third manufacturing facility and is in talks with eastern states including West Bengal and Bihar, a top executive said.

"We have earmarked Rs 100 crore to set up a third manufacturing unit and are in talks with eastern states including West Bengal and Bihar for the purpose," chief executive Suneet Tuli told PTI.

"We have already deployed funds of Rs 100 crore to set up a unit in Hyderabad, Telangana. This will be operational in 60 to 90 days," he added.

Speaking about the government's initiatives in the previous Budget, he said correcting the inverted duty structure was an important step to boost handset manufacturing here.

"We are hoping that it extends to laptops and computing devices as well in the upcoming Budget," Tuli said.

This will also help potential manufacturers meet the country's increasing requirements which would be spurred by the growing digitalisation.

"In 2015, we saw 'double digit growth' for both handset and tablet manufacturing due to the favourable duty structure," he pointed out.

DataWind's first unit in Amritsarmanufactures one lakh unit per month, and it expects to produce 1.5 lakh unit a month initially in Hyderabad, he said.

The Canada-headquartered company employs over 700 people in Amritsar and expects to add 500 jobs in its Hyderabad facility.

The company is known for its development of the Aakash tablet computer, which is the world's cheapest tablet at USD 37.99. The Aakash tablet was developed for Ministry of Human Resource and Development.

Several handset makers are expanding manufacturing in the country, including large players like Samsung and Micromax.

Samsung, the country's largest phone seller which has been manufacturing here since 2006, has spent more than Rs 500 crore to add capacity at its plant in Noida.

Similarly, Micromax Informatics said it will shift its manufacturing from China to India, and make all of its phones here by 2018 with costs becoming cheaper.

Last week, Noida-based Ringing Bells also launched "the country's most affordable smartphone" priced at Rs 251, which is generating huge interest, but also raising flags following complaints about its pricing.
A day after alleging that Samajwadi Party did not fulfil its promises, Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Maulana Ahmad Bukhari today met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who assured him to look into his demands.

"We reminded the CM of the promises like reservation, special arrangement for education in Muslim-dominated areas, employment in security forces etc made in the party's 2012 Assembly poll manifesto and requested him to fulfil them," Bukhari told reporters after the meeting.

"The CM heard our demands and assured to fulfil them within next three months," he said.

Bukhari had yesterday demanded that the Samajwadi Party government fulfil all the promises made to Muslims in the last Assembly elections within three months or they will be forced to review their decision on extending support to it.
AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla blasted South Africa to victory by nine wickets after England collapsed in the second Twenty20 international at the Wanderers Stadium today.

De Villiers and Amla made England's total of 171 look puny as they thrashed 125 runs in a 55-ball opening stand.

De Villiers, on the ground on which he hit the world's fastest one-day international century against the West Indies last season, thrashed 79 off 29 balls with six fours and six sixes.

On the way he reached his fifty off 21 balls, the fastest for South Africa.

Amla was slightly more restrained but played some powerful strokes in making 69 not out off 38 balls with eight fours and three sixes.

The ease of South Africa's win, which completed a 2-0 series victory, did not look a possibility while England captain Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler were pounding sixes in a fourth wicket stand of 96 off 55 balls.

England had reached 157 for three and seemed set for a total well in excess of 200.

But Buttler (54) and Morgan were out off successive balls and England lost their last seven wickets for 14 runs after they had looked set to post a total in excess of 200.

South African captain Faf du Plessis said he was pleased with the win but felt his team had only produced a "70 percent" performance with the ball.

"Unlike (the first game at) Newlands we started well with the ball," said Du Plessis.

"The first three overs were excellent but then it got away from us a bit. But we pulled it back and that's important.

Adil Rashid was given out leg-before off Mehedi in the next over but the decision was overturned after review as replays indicated the ball had been missing leg stump.

Rashid made good use of his fortune to score a brisk 26 before a fine diving catch at cover by Sabbir Rahman off Taijul ended his innings.

Broad also profited from the Decision Review System as he was given out by umpire Kumar Dharmasena off Taijul before it was overturned.

In a nightmare Test for the umpires, with eight of their decisions overturned in five sessions, Bangladesh also benefited from the review system at the end of the England innings.

Umpire Chris Gaffaney initially declared Broad not out off Mehedi, but wicketkeeper Rahim immediately demanded a review which showed the ball took a sharp edge before going into the hands of the captain.
Officials in Fiji scrambled to assess damage today in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that tore through the Pacific island chain, leaving at least three dead and collapsing hundreds of homes as people were sheltering from winds of up to 285 kilometers (177 miles) per hour.

A curfew was extended through today and police empowered to make arrests without a warrant to ensure order. The government was responding quickly by clearing vital roads and the main airport reopened today.

George Dregaso from Fiji's National Disaster Management Office said two people on Ovalau Island died when the house they were sheltering in collapsed on them, and another man was killed on Koro Island, although it wasn't clear how.

Police are investigating reports of two more deaths on the main island of Viti Levu, Dregaso said.

Officials were trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and wouldn't know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.

Cyclone Winston hit Fiji yesterday and moved westward overnight along the northern coast of Viti Levu. Fiji's capital, Suva, located in the southern part of the island, was not directly in the cyclone's path and avoided the worst of its destructive power.

"Truth be told, we've gotten off pretty lightly here in the capital," said Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for UNICEF. "It was still a pretty awful night. You could hear crashing trees and power lines, and popping rivets as roofs got lifted and ripped out."



She said there was foliage everywhere, which looks like it has been put through a blender.

Dregaso said one person on the west of Viti Levu had been hospitalised after being hit by flying debris.

About 80 per cent of the nation's 900,000 people were without regular power, although about one-third of them were able to get some power from generators, he said. Landlines throughout Fiji were down, but most mobile networks were working.

Dregaso said there were 483 people who had evacuated from their homes and were staying in 32 emergency shelters. He said he expected the number of evacuees to rise.

Authorities were urging people to remain indoors as they cleared fallen trees and power lines. They said all schools would be closed for a week to allow time for the cleanup.

The government declared a 30-day state of natural disaster, giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

Clements said there was concern for the people on the northern part of the main island and smaller islands elsewhere. She said many would have lost their homes and livelihoods, and some tourist resorts on the outer islands may have suffered damage.

The airport reopened today to allow emergency flights, Dregaso said, after many flights had been cancelled the day before.
Fiji began a massive clean-up today after the most powerful cyclone in the Pacific nation's history left a trail of destruction, killing six people, flattening scores of homes and crippling infrastructure.

The super-storm lashed the popular tourist destination overnight Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325 kilometres (202 miles) per hour, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

OCHA said six people were killed during severe tropical cyclone Winston, the first-ever storm system to hit Fiji measuring a maximum category five.

"Homes have been destroyed, many low-lying areas have flooded," Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said earlier Sunday in a statement.

"In the aftermath of this great tragedy, many are without power and full access to water, and are cut off from communication."



Officials said one man died on Koro Island, reportedly from debris sent flying during the cyclone. Others died on Ovalau island and in Tailevu and Ra provinces, National Disaster Management Office director Akapusi Tuifagalele told Fiji One .

Five others were injured, Tuifagalele added.

OCHA said 150 houses were destroyed and 60 others damaged in the Eastern Division covering the provinces of Kadavu, Lau, Lomaiviti and Rotuma. It gave no figures for the country's three other divisions.

Aid agencies admitted they simply had no idea about the full extent of the destruction, as Fijians shared pictures on social media of roofless houses, flooded streets and metal signposts bent over by the wild winds.

Save the Children Fiji chief Iris Low-McKenzie said it was too early to assess the impact on outlying islands, although unconfirmed reports said thousands of homes had been destroyed and entire villages flattened.

"I'm especially concerned about the remote communities in outlying areas that we haven't been able to contact yet," she said.

"Until communications are re-established and we assess the damage, we won't know the full extent of the situation."



The capital Suva escaped the full fury of the storm but Low-McKenzie said it was still a terrifying experience.

"I've never experienced anything like this," she said. "The noise was frightening as roofs were blown off homes and trees were ripped out by their roots."



Bainimarama said the storm amounted to an "assault on Fiji", an impoverished nation of about 900,000 heavily reliant on its tourism industry.

"It is being described as one of the most powerful in recorded history... As a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind," he said in a national address late Saturday.
Amidst the raging JNU row, BJP today accused opposition parties of invoking "religion and region" to "protect" some accused and asserted that it will not tolerate "anti-India" activities on campuses and those doing so will find themselves behind bars.

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also hit back at opposition parties over their charge that the Narendra Modi government was misusing the sedition law as he quoted official data to claim that maximum arrests under it were made in Bihar, where JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance is in power and which has been ruled by Nitish Kumar for over 10 years.

Twenty eight out of 55 arrests on the charge of sedition have been made in Bihar, he claimed.

"The issue is about national unity and integrity. BJP will ask Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, his friend Omar Abdullah and Arvind Kejriwal to not politicise it. They are being driven solely by vote bank politics.

"By invoking religion and region, the likes of Abdullah are trying to protect those involved in shouting unacceptable slogans against India," he alleged.

The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister had yesterday tweeted, "I am a Kashmiri Muslim AND I am not a Ramdev supporter/follower. I would better prepare for my interrogation."



What Gandhi and Abdullah are doing is "negative and destructive" politics, Sharma alleged, adding that they should instead contribute towards constructive politics.

"By linking such a sensitive issue to religion and region, he is only trying to protect the accused," he said.

Anti-India activities have long taken place on campuses but the BJP government will not tolerate it, he said, adding, "Those who engage in it will find themselves behind bars.
A DoT panel has found some flaw in the methodology used by regulator Trai to arrive at pan-India base price for 700 Mhz band, which suggests the already record recommended price of the premium band could be higher.

Trai in its spectrum pricing recommendations for the next auction has suggested a record base price of Rs 11,000 crore per Mhz on all-India basis.

"There are some anomalies in methodology for calculating 700 Mhz band price. The working committee (DoT) has noticed that the price of 700 Mhz band in some circles is less than 900 Mhz band. How can it happen?" an official source told PTI.

Spectrum in 700 Mhz is considered more economical for providing telephony services compared to other bands like 900 Mhz or 1800 Mhz.

The official said that the DoT committee is expected to finalise its report on the Trai recommendations in about a week which would be placed before inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission.

The commission will give its view on spectrum auction and the final decision on the pricing will be taken by the Cabinet, the official added.

Trai has recommended spectrum pricing for seven bands, including the premium 700 Mhz frequency, for the next round of auction which could fetch the government a staggering Rs 5.36 lakh crore.

Of the Rs 5.36 lakh crore windfall, 700 Mhz spectrum could alone contribute over Rs 4 lakh crore if all frequencies are sold at pan-India base price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz - which is the highest price for any telecom radiowave.

The DoT committee has found that in some telecom circles, including UP East, UP West and Bihar, Trai recommended around 40% lower price for 700 Mhz band than 900 Mhz band.

Spectrum is priced on the basis of its efficiency to carry mobile signals and eco-system of device and equipment available for its usage. The lower the frequency band, the higher is its efficiency to carry long distance signals.

The cost of delivering mobile services in 700 Mhz band is approximately 70% lower than 2100 Mhz band, which is widely used for 3G services.

Trai used a formula recommended by it in April 2012 to calculate price of 700 Mhz band spectrum. The regulator had then suggested to set the price of 700 Mhz band at four times of 1800 Mhz band that was earlier used for 2G services and now fit to be used for 4G services as well.

Leading operators have requested the regulator and the government to defer sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band was not developed and sale would lead to underutilisation of the spectrum for several years and block industry's crucial funds.
Females only represent 4.2% of all inventors in industrial research, and earn about 14% less than their male peers, even after taking into account possible differences in jobs, potential parenthood, and other characteristics, a new study has found.

The difference in earnings persists in spite of the fact that the quality of of females does not differ from that of males, the study found.

Researchers from Bocconi University in Italy and Mannheim University in Germany studied a sample of 9,692 inventors from 23 countries.

They found that the relationship between having children and income is negative but was not statistically different for males and females. Still, females earned 14% less than males.

Furthermore, they matched females with males that had similar characteristics, and investigated whether within this group of similar males and females there is any difference in wage. Even then, females earned a statistically significantly lower income.

Part of the wage gap between male and female inventors remained even after accounting for a large amount of personal characteristics that might differ on average between male and female inventors, researchers said.

The findings were published in the journal Management Science.
The French and German foreign ministers, who head to Kiev for talks today, have urged Ukraine to push forward with reforms in the spirit of the movement that ousted Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych two years ago.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault, in today's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung paper, praised the progress already made by the Ukrainian government, but called for more, notably in the fight against corruption.

The reforms are so important that "all political and economic forces in the country aware of their responsibilities" should take part, the pair wrote ahead of their two-day trip, beginning today.

While in Ukraine the two European diplomatic heavyweights will attempt to consolidate a fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine while taking a reading on the state of the equally fragile pro-Western government.

The two foreign ministers stressed the need to "remain faithful to the spirit of Maidan," a reference to the bloody revolution that ousted Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

Ukraine's attempts at reform have been hampered by the conflict in the east where, despite the truce agreed last September, clashes continue to erupt sporadically between government troops and separatists, the foreign ministers noted, insisting on the need to enact the peace agreement signed in Minsk a year ago.

The Minsk deal is a package of measures agreed by the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia in the Belarusian capital last February.

The accords effectively brought the major hostilities in Ukraine to an end after more than 9,000 people were killed in a civil war that broke out the previous April.

The West and Kiev have accused Russia of fuelling the separatist insurgency in the east and sending regular troops across the border, claims that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The French-German diplomatic push comes as Ukraine's pro-Western ruling coalition teeters on the brink of collapse.

The war-scarred former Soviet republic has been riven by weeks of political chaos that culminated in a failed bid by parliament earlier this month to oust Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's government over its perceived failure to fight graft.

Yatsenyuk, criticised abroad for the slow pace of reforms which are deeply unpopular at home, is also suffering from the corruption scandals swirling around his entourage.
Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli today said he was fully satisfied with the outcome of his talks with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and that all misunderstandings with India in the last few months have been removed.

A day after his talks with Modi, Oli said Nepal followed a "very democratic process" in finalising and promulgating the Constitution.

He said he sought India's assistance in ensuring economic development of his country.

"My sole purpose was to clear the misunderstandings and improve the ties between the two countries that had reached its lowest for the past few months and I believe I have succeeded in that," Oli said.

Oli, who arrived here on Friday on his first trip abroad after assuming charge of the top office, said he was "fully satisfied" with the outcome of his talks with Modi. After the talks, the two sides had signed nine agreements including one on utilisation of Indian grant of USD 250 million to Nepal for post-earthquake reconstruction and another for improving road infrastructure in that country's Terai region bordering India.

"I did not come to Delhi with a shopping list. Therefore let nobody assume that I begged or inked any agreements," he said.

Asked about India's message that all issues relating to the Constitution must be addressed through consensus and dialogue, he said his government was ready to address the grievances.

"Nepal's constitution has guaranteed 31 different fundamental rights to people. We are ready to address the grievances of those who are protesting," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa described Oli's visit as "complete success".

Yesterday, Modi had conveyed to Oli that the success of its new Constitution will depend on resolution of contentious issues through "consensus and dialogue" in a time-bound manner. The focus of the talks was on repairing the ties soured in the wake of a four-month-long agitation by the Indian-origin Madhesi community.

India was for peace, stability and overall development of Nepal, Modi had asserted after the meeting with Oli.

The Madhesi community, which shares close family and cultural ties with Indians, was up in arms against the Nepalese government claiming the new Constitution discriminated against them. Nepal later amended the new Constitution to address two key demands of agitating Madhesis regarding proportional representation and constituency delimitation. However, certain issues still remain to be sorted out.

The agitators had blocked various entry points for almost four months crippling supply of petroleum products, medicines and other commodities from India. The blockade was lifted this month.
Home-grown FMCG major Ltd (GCPL) will increase shareholding in many of its joint ventures as part of its consolidation process, besides keeping acquisition options open in markets where it is already present.

"We are increasing our shareholding in many of our joint ventures. This is based on put and call options in the original agreements," Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej told PTI.

At present, GCPL has two joint ventures (JV) - one with the Darling Group in Africa and another with Canon Chemicals Ltd, a Kenya based home and personal care company.

This year, GCPL entered into an agreement with Canon Chemicals Ltd, that manufactures and distributes products in the personal and home care categories, for acquisition of 75 per cent stake in its business in Kenya.

After entering into a JV with the Darling Group in 2011, GCPL has since then acquired 100 per cent stake in the Nigeria and Ghana businesses, 90 per cent stake in South Africa and Mozambique businesses and 51 per cent stake in the Kenya business.

In 2010, GCPL had bought out the US-based Sara Lee's 51 stake from their joint venture for about Rs 1,065 crore.

The erstwhile JV -- Godrej Sara Lee, which lasted for 15 years -- primarily marketed insecticides including leading mosquito repellent brand Good Knight, Hit, air freshener Ambi Pur and shoe polish Kiwi in India. It was later renamed as Godrej Household Products Ltd.

On the acquisitions front, in a recent analyst interaction, GCPL Managing Director Vivek Gambhir said the company is "very open" to inorganic growth opportunities.

"Our acquisition strategy is not based on the next 6 months or one year or two years. Our acquisition approach is looking at the potential of the geography and the asset over the next 3-10 years," he said.

Gambhir added: "We are very open to looking at both scale acquisitions or bolt-ons in our existing geographic footprint. At this stage, our appetite is to remain focused on our existing geographies.

"But within our existing geographies, if we find interesting assets that have attractive valuations and make the right strategic operations, we are open to doing those."



GCPL has a strong history of acquisitions in global markets. These include buying of Nigeria's Tura soap brand, Indonesia's household care firm Megasari Group, Argentinian hair care firm Argencos and Issue Group, a market leader in hair colour in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay, among others.
Germany is considering sending troops to Tunisia to help train soldiers in the fight against the Islamic State group, a newspaper report said today.

Bild am Sonntag said that representatives of the defence and foreign ministries would hold talks in Tunis on Thursday and Friday about how the German military could lend support in a training mission.

It said the engagement envisaged training Tunisian soldiers first and could eventually be extended to setting up a training camp in Tunisia for Libyan soldiers, run with other international partners.

"The IS terror is threatening all of North Africa," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the newspaper.

She said it was thus crucial "to make every effort to support countries struggling with democracy such as Tunisia".

Von der Leyen told the newspaper that a training camp in Tunisia would be a contribution toward regional stability.

"And if its direct neighbour Libya manages to put in place a unity government one day, its security forces could also benefit from established training facilities in Tunisia," she said.

A defence ministry spokesman told AFP he had no further details beyond the minister's remarks. The foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

German forces are currently engaged in the international alliance against the Islamic State group, including by arming and training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and flying reconnaissance missions over Syria with Tornado jets.

However the country's defence commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels warned in a report last month that the German military was overstretched and underfunded and had reached "the limit of its capacity for interventions".

Tunisia suffered two devastating attacks targeting its vital tourist sector last year, in the beach resort of Sousse and on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, that together claimed 60 lives. Both were claimed by IS.

IS has also been gaining ground in Libya amid the unrest that has gripped the country since longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in 2011.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai will meet next week in Brussels with the European Union's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, a source familiar with the matter has said.

European competition officials have been investigating the US tech giant for years over alleged monopolistic practices involving its search engines, but any resolution has been elusive. Three successive proposals by Google for an amicable settlement have been rejected.

Pichai will meet Vestager next week in Brussels, the source said yesterday.

Vestager last year sent a "statement of objections," saying Google had diverted traffic from rival price-comparison services like Kelkoo, which operates in several European countries, to favor its own comparison shopping service.

Google responded in late August that Brussels's findings were "wrong," and based on a flawed evaluation of the market.

If no agreement is reached, and the group is found to have broken the EU's antitrust rules, it could face fines amounting to billions of dollars.

In addition to the initial inquiry into Google's search engines, which began in late 2010, the European competition services opened a second one in April to examine the group's Android mobile operating system. This software, used by a wide range of brands, is installed in more than 80 percent of the world's smartphones.

Pichai became Google's chief executive officer during a restructuring last year that installed a new holding company, Alphabet, as Google's parent.

Google now focuses on its core businesses (online activity, Android, YouTube) while its peripheral interests (driverless cars) are now overseen directly by Alphabet.
Government is considering a proposal to permit 49 per cent FDI through automatic approval route in the insurance sector with a view to attracting more overseas inflows.

Currently, FDI up to 26 per cent is permitted through automatic approval route. For FDI up to 49 per cent, the approval of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is required.

According to sources, the government could announce this decision in the forthcoming Budget as the move would help in improving ease of doing business also.

"If IRDAI is looking at the proposal, RBI too is looking at and the management is in the hands of Indian then the government may do away with the FIPB approval route," they said.

At present, as many as 10 proposals, including that of ICICI Prudential Life, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Aviva Life Insurance, are pending at different stages of clearances.

There are 52 insurance companies operating in India, of which 24 are in the life insurance business and 28 in the general insurance. State-owned General Insurance Corporation (GIC), in addition, is the sole national reinsurer.

In order to deepen the re-insurance market, IRDAI permitted UK-based Lloyds to set up business in India.

Lloyds India will ensure that the market and the constituents are housed in one location for the conduct of reinsurance business.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country more than doubled to about USD 4.5 billion in December.

The major sectors that attracted foreign inflows include computer software and hardware, trading, services, automobile and telecommunications.

India receives maximum FDI from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan.

In 2014-15, foreign fund inflows grew 27 per cent to USD 30.93 billion as against USD 24.29 billion in 2013-14.
The transport ministry is hopeful of receiving the Cabinet approval soon on the proposal to sell over 100 operational toll road projects to sovereign and pension funds that will garner at least $7.7 billion.

The road transport and highways ministry has lined up as many as 104 toll road projects to be sold to pension and sovereign funds for operations and maintenance for a fixed long-term period against an upfront value.

We are hopeful of the Cabinet approval soon on the proposal to sell these 104 operational toll road projects to pension and sovereign funds," a top Road Transport and Highways official told PTI.

Read more from our special coverage on "TOLL, HIGHWAYS"

These projects with a total length of about 6,000-km have a total potential of $7.70 billion (Rs 50,000 crore).

According to the official, these projects include Kishangarh-Bhilwara, Visakhapatnam-Champawati, Jalandhar-Pathankot, Ghaziabad-Hapur, Bhadrak-Balasore, Gorkakhpur-Kasia, among others.

The official said the scope of concessionaire includes toll collection, regular and periodic maintenance of project highway.

For investors, many of these projects are more attractive such as Chittorgarh Bypass due to ongoing development of India's second nuclear fuel complex at Rawatbhata town in Chhittorgarh, he said.

He further said Bhadrak-Balasore will prove another attractive stretch with about Rs 7,000 crore capacity expansion planned at Dhamra Port by Adani Group.

AP Karnatka border-Devanhalli stretch would hold immense scope for investors in view of a Tech Park under development there which will be completed by 2020.

Twenty of the 104 projects will fetch an annual total collection of Rs 50 crore or more each while 33 are such which will fetch an annual revenue in the range of Rs 25-50 crore each.

40% of the total 104 toll projects are generating more than 10% of the project completion cost annually through toll.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari recently said the government plans to sell highways projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore to foreign pension funds and insurance funds to attract overseas investments into the sector.

"We are trying to attract foreign investors. We have projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore. They are interested in buying out projects," he had said.

The government also plans to double the length of the National Highways to 2 lakh km from the existing 1 lakh km.

India has the second largest road network of 5.23 million km in the world and consists of 200 km of expressways, about 1 lakh km of national highways, 1.31 lakh km of state highways and other roads.

About 65% of freight and 80% of passenger traffic is carried by the roads.

National Highways constitute only about 2% of the road network but carry about 40% of the total road traffic.
As the banking sector grapples with mounting bad loans, Ficci has suggested that the government establish a National Company (NAMCO) for one-time resolution of large NPAs.

"The proposed time-bound and close-ended framework NAMCO would require Government sponsorship but no capital injection or guarantees. Ministry of Finance can encourage public sector banks (PSBs) to take up to 49.9% equity in NAMCO and the balance equity will be sourced from private sector banks and other private financial institutions.

"NAMCO shall focus on rehabilitation of large-scale NPAs (non-performing assets), restructured loans and other potential stressed assets, mainly in the infrastructure sector," Ficci said.

The recommendations submitted by the industry chamber to the Finance Ministry and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion recently, are part of a paper titled 'Executive Actions to enable Make in India'.

Major state-owned banks in the country including SBI have been reeling under NPAs leading to erosion of profits on account of higher provisioning for bad loans in the third quarter of the current fiscal.
Seeking to douse the Jat stir,the Centre today set up a high-powered committee to examine their demand for quota in central jobs after a meeting with Jat leaders during which it was decided that a Bill will be moved in Haryana Assembly for giving OBC status to the community.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today appealed to the agitating Jats in Haryana to restore peace after violence continued in the state taking the death toll to 12.

He also announced that a committee, headed by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, has been set up to look into the demand of Jats for reservation in central government jobs.

"I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. But law and order is a state subject. If someone indulges in violence we will have to take action," he told reporters after a series of meeting, including one with a delegation of Jats.

After the meeting, BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jain said a bill will be brought in the coming session of the Haryana Assembly for granting OBC status to the Jats in the state.

The Home Minister, however, did not make any comment on BJP's declaration that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session.

Those who attended the meeting with the Home Minister included Jat leaders from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi besides Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Haryana Minister Abhimanyu, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, former Deputy Chief of Army Lt Gen (Retd) Raj Kandyan etc.

After the meeting with the Home Minister, Jat Sangharsh Samiti leader Jaipal Sing Sangwan said the discussion was very positive and he was confident that the community would accept the decisions.

"We appeal to everyone to call off the agitation," he said.

However, another leader of the Jat Sangharsh Samiti Rajesh Dahiya said a decision on calling off the agitation would be taken by the community later.

The Home Minister also expressed grief over the loss of lives during the violence.

Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed massive traffic jams in some parts.
Haryana has suffered a loss of around Rs 20,000 crore on account of burning and destroying of public and private property due to one going Jat stir, said industry body Assocham.

Moreover, collateral damage has been done to businesses and industries in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.

"The ongoing violent agitation in Haryana has already dealt an estimated blow of Rs 18,000-Rs 20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property and halting trade, industry, small business and transport," said Assocham, but did not mention as to how it arrived at the figure.

As Haryana shares borders with Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and is the transit route to a number of national highways and trunk railway lines, the collateral damage would be more.

"The collateral damage to the economic activities to other states in terms of loss to production, transport and movement of people would add a few thousands crore more to the overall loss to the national economy," it said.

Trade and industry loss is maximum in the worst affected areas of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Jind, Gohana, Sonipat, Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat, it added.

While the state government would assess the loss of damage to public property like burning of buses, private vehicles, railways stations, police stations, malls and hotels, the trade, industry and other businesses have come to almost complete halt in most of the districts, it said.

"The state administration has to be on top of the situation to control the anti-social elements, causing immense damage to the reputation of the state," Assocham said.

Several industries had come up in the past few years, including that of Suzuki on the Delhi-Rohtak highway. Maruti Suzuki has stopped production at its Gurgaon and Maneswar plants.

Business hubs like Gurgaon which houses top multi-national companies with back-office operations in IT and IT services has been affected.

"A huge loss of confidence among investors to set up industries in this area would happen, making it imperative for the state administration not to lose further time in reining in the goonda and anti-social elements who are taking advantage of the Jat reservation agitation," he said.
Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda has appealed to the people of the Jat community, who have been agitating for quotas, to maintain peace and engage in peaceful dialogue with the government.

Randeep, who himself belongs to the Jat community in Rohtak, Haryana, which has been most affected by the unrest.

In a series of posts on Twitter, the 39-year-old actor addressed the issue in his native tongue Haryanvi and appealed to people to quit the destruction.

"Ram Ram. What is the use of burning your own houses down? Only dialogue can take this matter forward. Please brothers stop this destruction. #JatProtest #JatReservation," he wrote.

"There is no need to be this crazy. Only proper dialouge can bring a solution to this problem. Don't make it a political issue. Keep calm and peace. Don't burn down your own houses.

"The whole country has taken notice of your problems. Now quit all the destructions and move ahead with a peaceful dialouge process," the actor tweeted.
The Delhi High Court has agreed to examine a plea seeking immediate steps to check violation of Line of Control (LoC) trade policy between India and Pakistan.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked the Centre to respond within four weeks on the plea which sought direction to ensure that items like almonds are not illegally imported in contravention to LoC policy.

"Respond to the averments raised in petition within four weeks," the court said and listed the matter for April 4.

The court order came on a plea by Association of Agro Importers and Indo Foreign Chamber of Commerce, which came in appeal against the single judge's October 2015 decision, by which their petition seeking directions to the authorities concerned to take requisite measures to implement policy of LoC trade was dismissed.

It also urged to ensure that the items under the policy are not imported in contravention to LoC trade policy, besides direction to exclude import of almonds from the policy.

"The said directions were sought in view of the rampant and undeterred misuse of LoC trade policy between India and Pakistan..." the plea claimed.

It said the single judge had dismissed the association's petition while "ignoring the procedure and guidelines", which are of great concern for honest almond traders.

The plea sought setting aside of the LoC trade policy to the extent that the same applies to almonds.

It also sought order for complete ban on imports into India of almonds under the cross LoC trade policy.
National-award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan says Hindi is a beautiful language, but it should be counted as a regional language and should not be imposed on others.

Gopalakrishnan, 74, played a major role in revolutionising Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of India.

"Hindi is a very beautiful language. There are very fine writers in Hindi, no doubt about that, but you cannot impose Hindi over and above others... Not only administratively but even otherwise," he told PTI.

Adoor feels as India is made up of various cultures and traditions, an "exclusive" attitude will not work.

"Hindi was by official imposition only. Because officially they want to have one language kind of attitude from everybody... That's a very exclusive kind of attitude. India is a country of several different cultures, languages, styles of living.

"Naturally, you have to allow and understand that. It's all together only that India is made up of," he said, on the sidelines of the second edition of Gateway LitFest here.

Adoor says that for a language to be classified as national, it should be spoken by the entire country.

"It is wrong when you think Hindi is a national language and other languages are regional. All the languages are regional, it becomes national only when everybody in the country speaks a particular language, but that doesn't happen," he said.

The filmmaker pioneered the new wave cinema movement in Kerala with his first film "Swayamvaram" in 1972. He last made "Oru Pennum Randaanum" (A Climate of Crime) in 2008 and won Kerala state award for best director.

Adoor feels Hindi should be counted as a regional language, as people in many parts of the country do not speak it.

"In the North-East, in South, they don't speak Hindi. So, you cannot call it national language. These are languages used for inter-community dialogues, not more than that. Hindi is reaching more people because most of the North is speaking Hindi. It should be treated as regional language only," he said.

Adoor says taking a long gap was not a conscious decision



but he was waiting for a story worth telling.

"It was not a conscious decision to take such a long gap. But I needed an idea, which is novel and something worth telling. It should be exciting enough for me to go through the whole process of filmmaking. 'Pinneyum' was that."



The filmmaker also feels today cinema has dumbed down romance and has been reduced to something which is borderline vulgar.

"These days for romantic scenes, you need 40-50 extras, both men and women. Men should look rowdy, women should look like very loose characters. This is romance.

"They either sing with the hero or heroine, or dance with them. That has become the norm. When you make a film and show just simplicity, they (audience) say 'We don't understand'. But they understand this ludicrous thing.
In yet another assault on minorities, a Hindu priest was today hacked to death by unknown men in a predawn attack on a temple in Bangladesh which also injured two devotees, police said.

They said the attack in northern Panchagarh district killed 50-year-old Jajneswar Roy and wounded two Hindu devotees at the temple premises while the assassins, presumed to be three in number, fled the scene on a motorbike.

"They (assailants) first hurled stones at the temple which prompted him (Roy) to come out to see what actually happened. The killers then pounced on him and slit his throat," a TV channel quoted a devotee in the neighbourhood as saying.

Before fleeing the scene the killers fired gunshots and hurled crude bombs to avoid being chased injuring a neighbour who rushed to the spot to save the priest, Panchagarh police chief Giasuddin Ahmed said at the scene.

"The identity of the attackers or the motive behind the murder is not clear. Definitely we will launch an investigation and manhunt to track down the killers," he said.

Sunni-majority Bangladesh has witnessed a series of systematic attacks on religious minorities in recent months that killed nine people including two foreigners and wounded nearly 100 others.

Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was killed by unidentified assailants in Dhaka in September and and five days later Japanese farmer Kunio Hoshi was murdered. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State-affiliated militants.

Also, moderate Sufi saint Khizir Khan, progressive book publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon, and a Sufi shrine worker were murdered while two Christian pastors, one an Italian doctor, narrowly escaped attacks.


Their understanding of each other's



game improving with every match, Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan today said he and Rohit Sharma would look to not just emulate but surpass the success of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar- Sourav Ganguly pair.

"Me and Rohit have been opening for a long time. We understand each other very well, we know each other's nature very well. I know what he likes to do in the middle. We are quite comfortable. We both have a lot of strokes so if he plays fast I can play the role of rotating the strike," Dhawan said in the open media session ahead of the team's departure for the Asia Cup in Bangladesh.

"The way Sachin and Sourav had a long



Career in opening,



we can also have that in time. Maybe we can break more records. It's surely going to benefit both of us as well as the country," he added.

Earlier, Rohit had also spoken about emulating the success of the Tendulkar-Ganguly combo.





Speaking of his own game, Dhawan said he is in a good space having done well in the recent series against both Australia and Sri Lanka.

"I am enjoying that I am scoring runs at the moment. Looking forward to continue in the same way and do better in Asia Cup. I want to continue stretching that good form till the time I can," he said.

"It's a journey, getting more experience and mature with time. With time I am knowing my game better. In bad patches, I tried to stick to those things. I believe in my abilities," he added.

Questions on his famed debut Test hundred against Australia still follow Dhawan, who looks back fondly.

"I was enjoying the flow. No My



instincts had taken over



my mindset and it worked for me. I feel it's a balance of both," he said.

Also present at the media session was rookie all-rounder Pawan Negi, who can't contain his excitement at being part of the national team.

"It's a big thing to share the dressing room wish great players. I'm enjoying this moment a lot. I am excited to play and will try my best in all three departments," he said.
Union Minister Sitharaman today expressed the hope that Budget 2016-17, to be present next week, will allocate required funds for Start-up India programme.

She said her ministry, Commerce and Industry, will do its best to solve the financial difficulties being faced by start-ups.

Speaking on the "role of Centre through Start-up India initiative" at a programme here, the minister said "the government, I am sure, will be a lot more flexible in dealing with issues raised by start-ups and we are not just looking at tech-based or application-based start-ups".

She added: "With the kind of start-ups and the kind of activity generated, India was ranked third globally and this cannot happen unless there was ground swell for it and youth are already at it."



Stating that she would rather put a lot of energy in pure science related matters, health, space and defense, Sitharaman said she saw everything going in favour of Coimbatore to be the start-up capital.

"You have everything, with a bit more energy and push from several quarters you can create and sustain an ecosystem which can support a lot of youngsters, who are talented and skilled," she said.

Tamil Nadu will benefit from it and we are with you in whatever you want to do, she assured.

Expressing concern over paucity of women entrepreneurs in Start-ups, just 8 per cent, she said women have uncanny ability to notice where the problems existed and urged them to start new ventures, as was done by Padmashree awardee Arunachalam Muruganantham, who came out with napkin machines.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought in a change in the mindset, trusted the people and the first decision that we took was self-certification.

The government launched the start-up initiative only to motivate the people and give it a greater push.

"During Startup India policy announcement, government had proposed of creating the fund of funds of about $1.5 billion corpus which will be deployed in tranches over a period of four years. This will definitely provide some boost but we expect a detailed roadmap for its implementation with minimal bureaucratic intervention in the upcoming Union Budget. Besides equity as a mode of capital, which till date the startups have been used to, government should also explore alternate ways of raising funds like Venture debt. Removal of angel tax may be crucial to foster the start-up eco-system in India at a time when banks and venture capital funds are pulling away from providing financial aid to such companies," said Manish Kumar, Co-founder & CEO GREX.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
IAF Chief Arup Raha today left on a five-day visit to Bangladesh during which he will hold bilateral discussions to deepen defence cooperation.

He will also handover to Bangladesh training aids related to aircraft systems.

The visit is intended to take the existing defence cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries to the next level, an IAF statement said.

The areas of cooperation at present include exchange in military training courses, exchange visits and joint sporting activities.

During his stay in Bangladesh, the Chief of the Air Staff is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three Service Chiefs of the Bangladesh Armed Forces at Dhaka.

He will also call on the President and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

The main focus of the visit will be on improving bilateral relations, promote defence ties and outline further areas of defence cooperation between the two countries.

Air Chief Marshal Raha will also visit the air bases at Jessore, Bashar and Chittagong, National Defence College, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) at Mirpur and Bangladesh Army Headquarters.

During his visit to the Military Institute of Science and Technology, Raha shall be presenting training aids relating to aircraft systems as a goodwill gesture.
In a bid to attract more international talent, the prestigious IITs for the first time are planning hold their entrance tests in Singapore, UAE, Ethiopia and SAARC nations next year to select foreign students for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

At recent a meeting between officials of HRD and External Affairs ministries, eight countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (all SAARC member nations), Ethiopia in Africa, Singapore and Dubai (UAE) have been zeroed in on for holding entrance tests for foreign nationals from next year onwards.

"The entrance tests to the IITs abroad have been held till now only to admit Indian nationals. This is for the first time that it has been planned to admit foreign students through tests held abroad. It is aimed that the plan would be operationalised from the JEE/GATE exams to be conducted in 2017," a senior HRD Ministry official told PTI.

The students will be selected through a common entrance exam which would be administered by the with the help of Indian missions in these countries.

Officials, however, added that seats to be offered to foreign nationals would be supernumerary or additional in nature and would not reduce those available to Indian nationals at the 18 IITs.

The fee applicable in the case of foreign students will also be more as the subsidised fee which Indians pay would not be applicable to them.

To facilitate these foreign students, MEA will consider giving them research visa for the duration of the programme rather than one year at a time, officials added.

While the test is to be held in 2017, the outreach programme for the exercise would begin from August this year and will be conducted in all these eight countries. Mumbai has

been asked to prepare the necessary information material for this outreach. It would include details of the tests, the courses and FAQs. A web portal may be created for this purpose, sources said.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will be the nodal agency on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for these tests.

Earlier, IIT-M Director had prepared a report on comprehensive system to attract international students to the IITs. After the report was prepared, Khakhar was asked to prepare a detailed plan for conducting JEE and GATE exams abroad.

It is learnt that the government is keen on more foreign students studying at IITs as it could boost their international academic rankings.
Terming as sad the lobbying of incumbent airlines for "protection and preferential treatment", top industrialist today said such moves are reminiscent of the monopolistic pressures by entities with vested interests who fear competition.

Joining the ongoing debate over the 5/20 norm for local airlines seeking to fly overseas, Tata applauded the Civil Aviation Ministry's proposal to remove the "controversial" rule.

AirAsia India and Vistara -- two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures -- are currently ineligible to operate overseas under the 5/20 norm, under which only those domestic carriers having a minimum of five years' operational experience and at least a fleet of 20 planes can operate international flights.

While AirAsia India is less than two years old with six aircraft, Vistara, which started operations in January 2015, has nine planes.

ALSO READ: Ratan Tata says infrastructure not catching up with pace of growth

In recent past, airlines' lobby FIA has expressed concern over substantial ownership and effective control at AirAsia India.

Tatas along with Singapore Airlines run Vistara, while AirAsia is a three-way joint venture between Tata group, Malaysia's AirAsia and Arun Bhatia's Telstra.

"The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of the protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interests' entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years," Tata said in a strong message posted on his Twitter account.

"These protectionist moves have held back progress in India compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas," Tata Group's Chairman Emeritus said in his message titled '5/20 Rule and Vested Interests'.

Tata's remarks come days after a delegation of FIA -- whose members are Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir -- met Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh and submitted a memorandum that touched upon issues like opposition to removal of 5/20 norm, auctioning of additional seats to foreign carriers and substantial ownership and effective control.

Besides, the government is in advanced stages of finalising a new civil aviation policy.

"In the airline industry in India, it is sad to see the incumbent airlines lobbying for protection and preferential treatment for themselves against the new airlines.

"The new airlines have been formed in full compliance with prevailing government policy and providing air transport to Indian citizens in line with the dream of a 'New India' promoted by the new government under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's leadership," Tata said.

The Tata group patriarch applauded the Civil Aviation Ministry for considering the removal of 5/20 norm.

"One hopes when the new policy is introduced it will be free of discrimination and protectionism, so that Indian aviation can grow for the benefit of consumer and the common man -- not to serve the interests of select beneficiaries of protectionism," he said.

According to Tata, the call for a new open market economy in India, in line with policies promised by Modi, will "promote growth in an open market based on competitiveness and not from self interest-based protectionism".

In recent months, FIA has claimed that AirAsia India is being controlled by its foreign joint venture partner AirAsia.

FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) is a grouping of established airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir.

On February 18, a Group of Ministers discussed the draft aviation policy, including the 5/20 norm and the proposed options at a meeting here chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

At the meeting attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, among others, extensive discussions were held on the norm for international flying by domestic carriers and regional air connectivity, sources had said.

"After detailed discussions on the 5/20 issue, the decision (whether to continue with the existing rule or tweak it or scrap it altogether) has been left to the Civil Aviation Ministry," sources had said.

New carriers -- Vistara and AirAsia India -- are lobbying for its removal, but the established airlines want status quo to be maintained.
India has asked Pakistan to inform it at least five days prior to a planned visit by Pakistani investigators to inspect the site of the Pathankot terror attack, interior minister said here today.

"They (Indian authorities) said that let us know at least five days ahead of the visit," Nisar Ali Khan told reporters as he said India has agreed to the proposal of sending a probe team to India over the January 2 attack on the key Air Force base in Pathankot.

The two sides were in touch over the visit of the special team to inspect the site of the attack, Khan said, adding that the Foreign Office has written to India about the idea of sending the team and India has already written back.

Khan did not give the time of the visit of the team but official sources said it could take place early March.

He also said that Pakistan has arrested several suspects and investigation was going on.

India had also given some phone numbers, which were included in the FIR and probe was going on based on the information, he added.

Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack which has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who was found guilty of involvement in the attack.

The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault.
India and Australia need to work together in a host of areas, including water management, skill development and minerals, an Indian official said.

"Clearly, Australia sees the Indian economic story. It has benefited enormously from its 20 years engagement with China, but as Chinese economy begins to slow, India is seen as a natural partner," Indian High Commissioner to Australia Navdeep Suri told PTI.

This is more relevant particularly in the areas where Australia's strengths complements Indian requirements, he added.

"So in mining sector, for example, there is a substantial discussion on mining and engineering services. So, its not just a mine but the whole ecosystem. And when it comes to scale and technology, Australia is a world leader," Suri said.

When asked about the sectors that India can invest in Australia, he pointed out skill development and other areas.

"Australia is regarded as a world leader not just for its universities, but also vocational and training institutions. There are a number of conversations going in this regard as our Prime Minister has the ambitious programme of skilling millions of young Indians.

"Australian vocational institutions have developed most advanced and innovative curriculum for skills like automotive welder, electrician, and others. As Indian economy grows, we will need such skills in large numbers and we have little time at hand," he added.

That apart, there is lot of potential in water management because Australia, like India, is largely a semi-arid country, he said.

"Australia has done a lot of work in recharging aquifers, efficient water saving and other areas and they are seen internationally as world leaders. From India's perspective, it can be a great area," he noted.

According to him, India can also leverage Australia's huge natural resources such as LNG and coal as well as its advances in clean coal technologies and renewable energy.

Last week, Australia's Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb told PTI that his country is looking at India as a "favourable" investment destination and is keen to invest in LNG, financial services, education and healthcare sectors of the USD 2-trillion economy.

He added that India presents some "great" prospects for Australian businesses on account of a huge market of 1.2 billion people.

India and Australia are also close to finalising the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) to give a fillip to trade and investments between the two countries.

The bilateral trade between the nations stood at USD 13 billion in 2014-15 as against USD 12.12 billion in the previous fiscal.

On the avenues that India can offer for investing, the



High Commissioner said Australia is looking at sectors like services.

"Although everybody talks about Australia's agriculture, dairy and resources sectors, but 70 per cent of its economy is services. It sees a lot of potential for its companies to go to the Indian market and exploit these opportunities.

"There is a lot of interest by Rio Tinto (in mining), by some other Australian companies. It has come up for discussion...," he added.

Suri said that starting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's visit to India in September 2014 and the "very successful" visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2015, bilateral relations have been given a strong momentum.

"There was a feeling on both sides that there is a lot of catching up to do for lost time. As you know, Modi's visit was the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 28 years.

"Over the last year, we have successfully resolved the uranium issue, the agreement has been ratified by both sides. Commercialisation is beginning, so an issue that had lingered for so many years is out of the way," he said.

On the issue of attacks on Indian students in Australia, he said both governments have done a lot of work.

Australia has put in place systems to ensure that there is more sensitivity about issues of racial violence and that these measures are working, as can be seen in the rebound in the number of Indian students going to Australia, he asserted.

"Post the attacks, from a high of about 90,000, it had gone to around 39,000 students. Today, it is back up to around 69,000," he added.

Progress is also happening in other areas, like Energy Dialogue and the India Australia Education Council, which is being headed at the ministerial level.

"Another area is Australia India Strategic Research Fund, a USD 120 million fund, USD 60 million from each side.

"They have incubated 239 separate research projects in areas from clean coal to energy efficiency, nanotechnology, and biotechnology to producing lentils and chickpeas which are fortified with iron," Suri noted.

He said Australia can also provide its expertise in water resources and river basin management.

"Australia did linking of its Murray and Darling rivers almost a 100 years back. Today, as we proceed on that path of linking our surplus and deficit rivers, Australia has got a century of experience in terms of technology, environmental impact, silting, marine life and others," he added.

He further said: "I can tell you that view from Canberra is that they see India as a large stable country, which is democratic, transparent and predictable in its behaviour and with growing naval capabilities."



"It is also reflected in the first ever India Australia maritime exercises in the Bay of Bengal in Vishakhatpatnam in September 2015," he said.
India remains "sceptical" about Nepal's new Constitution, the media here commented today, a day after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Oli in New Delhi.

The about Oli's visit to India, his first foreign trip as premier, was prominently reported by the Nepalese media which however noted that India is still sceptical about the implementation of the new Constitution that led to turbulence in bilateral ties.

India yesterday conveyed to Nepal that success of its new Constitution will depend on resolution of contentious issues through "consensus and dialogue" in a time-bound manner as Oli and Modi held extensive talks with focus on repairing ties soured in the wake of the agitation by the Madhesis who are mostly of Indian origin.

With a banner headline, "India just extends support (to the constitution)" Nepali language daily Nagarik said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi terms the new Constitution of Nepal as a significant achievement".

"India cautiously welcomes the new constitution, though she had earlier just 'noticed' the adoption of the document," it said.

"The support extended by India to the Nepalese constitution was just a formality, and India is still sceptical about the implementation of the document," it said.

"Modi government lifted the economic blockade just a few days ago after Prime Minister Oli took the stance that he would not visit India without lifting the blockade," it said referring to the five-month agitation by the Madhesi community demanding better representation and political rights in the newly-promulgated Constitution.

"The Indian side still doesn't seem to be satisfied with the new constitution" the Annapurna Post said in its frontpage analysis.

"During the joint press conference in New Delhi, Modi has urged Nepal government to address the remaining issues of the constitution through consensus and dialogue, which clearly shows India's dissatisfaction over the constitution," the daily said.

During the high level talks, "Oli asked Modi to respect Nepal's sovereignty and territorial integrity" it said.

India had allowed the Madhesi agitators to demonstrate in no man's land on the border during the Madhesi agitation, the daily said adding the "Madhesi cadres were engaged in anti-national activities using the Indian soil".

"Indian officials even met with the secessionist Madhesi leader C K Raut in New Delhi," it said.

The main aim of Oli's visit to India was to clear



misunderstandings and mend ties, the Kathmandu Post said.

"During the 30-minute meeting between the two prime ministers there were telltale signs of rapprochements," the daily said under the headline, "Hand in Hand, eyes on mending ties".

"India had earlier expressed reservations about some of the provisions of the constitution against which some sections of society including the Madhesis were also protesting," the daily said.

"Most importantly, New Delhi's curt response that India had noted the constitution in Nepal had irked the political leadership in Kathmandu no end. But on Saturday Indian PM Modi, while addressing the joint press meet called the constitution an important achievement," it said.

Nepal and India signed nine agreements including one on utilisation of Indian grant of USD 250 million to Kathmandu for post-earthquake reconstruction and another on improving road infrastructure in the Terai region bordering India.
Iraqi authorities today recovered radioactive material that had gone missing in the country's south more than three months earlier, the environment ministry's spokesman said.

"We found the radioactive material that was lost by a Turkish... Company," Amir Ali Hassoun told AFP.

The material "still had the same properties and did not lead to the injury of anyone", Hassoun said.

He said the environment ministry will keep the material -- Iridium-192 -- until it can be returned to its owner, which another official earlier said was Turkish firm SGS.

The material was found near a wall at a petrol station in Zubair, a town near the southern port city of Basra, Hassoun said.

Mahdi Raykan, the head of the Zubair security committee, confirmed that the material was found in the town, and said it was recovered following a tip that a strange item was at the site.

Khajak Ferweer, the head of the Basra environment commission's radiation department, said the material belonged to SGS which had a contract with US oil and gas services company Weatherford.

It was Weatherford that reported it missing on November 15.

Ferweer said that exposure to the missing material, which he said amounted to at most several grams of Iridium-192, can lead to burns in the short term and cancer over a longer period, but that it cannot be used to manufacture a weapon.

A security official said the material was part of a device used to test welded portions of pipes for leaks or other weaknesses.

The south is home to the heart of Iraq's oil industry, which supplies the vast majority of government funds, and most of the country's crude is exported via Basra.
A string of suicide bombings near a Shiite shrine outside Syria's capital and in Homs claimed by jihadists killed at least 127 people today, as the US and Russia worked to secure a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce in Syria's brutal five-year conflict, only for the bloodshed to intensify on the ground.

Near Damascus, the attacks, including a car bombing, ripped through the area of the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and killed 68 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And two car bombs killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens in the pro-regime district of Al-Zahraa in the central city of Homs, said the Britain-based monitoring group.

The Islamic State jihadist group said it was behind the day's carnage.

State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted.

IS said in an online statement that two jihadists drove explosive-laden cars into crowds of local residents.

Two more of its suicide bombers carried out the Sayyida Zeinab bombings, the Sunni extremist group said.

State television said a car bombing and two suicide attacks hit the area, killing 30 and wounding dozens in a preliminary toll, whereas the Observatory gave a death toll of 68 in four attacks.

An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 metres from the shrine which contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is revered by Shiites.

At least 60 shops were damaged and cars reduced to mangled metal in the area, where a January attack also claimed by IS killed 70 people.

World powers have been pushing for a halt in fighting in Syria that was meant to take effect by last Friday, but have struggled to agree on the terms.

The latest bombings came as Kerry said he had spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and agreed on how to implement a ceasefire in the conflict that has cost more than 260,000 lives.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said on a visit to Amman.

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task."



The Russian foreign ministry later said on its Facebook page that Lavrov and Kerry held two more telephone conversations later today and finalised the ceasefire terms to be submitted to their respective presidents.

Assad, meanwhile, told Spain's El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but said it should not be exploited by "terrorists".
Separate bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State group in Syria today killed at least 119 people as Washington pursued efforts for a ceasefire.

As US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce, violence intensified on the ground.

Double car bombings killed at least 57 people and wounded dozens in the Al-Zahraa district of the central city of Homs, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

And near Damascus, a series of bomb attacks, including a car bombing, ripped through the area of the Sayyida Zeinab Shiite shrine and killed 62 people, the monitor said.

The jihadist IS said it was behind the carnage.

State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses.

The attack was the worst since twin blasts in October 2014 hit a school, killing at least 55 people, including 49 children. Al-Zahraa - whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect as Syria's ruling clan - has been regularly hit.

IS, which last month claimed a double bombing that killed 22 people, said it carried out the latest attack.

Two jihadists drove explosive-laden cars into crowds of residents, it said in an online statement.

The group also said two of its suicide bombers carried out the Sayyida Zeinab bombings.

State television said a car bombing and two suicide attacks hit the area, killing 30 and wounding dozens, whereas the Observatory gave a death toll of 62 in four attacks.

IS was also behind a massive attack in January that killed 70 people near the shrine, which contains the grave of a granddaughter of Prophet Mohammed and is revered by Shiites.

World powers have been pushing for a halt in fighting in Syria that was meant to take effect by Friday, but have struggled to agree on the terms.

The latest bombings came as Kerry said he had spoken with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and agreed on how to implement a ceasefire.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman.

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task."



World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for peace talks to resume.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, had been scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN's Syria envoy has already acknowledged that date is no longer realistic.

Assad, meanwhile, told Spain's El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but said it should not be exploited by "terrorists".
Doyen of Hindi poetry Gopal Das 'Neeraj' says 'Vande Matram' or 'Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Humara' should replace 'Jana Gana Mana' as the national anthem because the one penned by Rabindranath Tagore is reminiscent of British rule in India.

The 92-year-old Padma Bhushan awardee said due to the colonial hangover some saw those working in English as "bade" (big) and others as "chhote" (small).

"I have written in English also during my initial years as a poet. But, it was Harivansh Rai 'Bachchan' ji who asked me to focus on writing in Hindi. He told me 'Kavita maatribhaasha mein hi hoti hai' (poetry is done in mother tongue)," Neeraj told PTI in an interview.

He also recalled his acquaintance beginning in early 1940s with the legendary Hindi poet and father of Bollywood mega star Amitabh Bachchan, whom he says he has "lap-fed".

Asked if he felt there was a bias in the acknowledgement bestowed on litterateurs based on the language in which they work, he said, "Now it is the trend that if someone writes in English, they are taken as big men while those writing in Hindi are small. We have been slaves (of British rule). Our national anthem is also from the era when we were a British colony. The Britishers have left, but some still continue to remain slaves (of English)."



He said the national anthem was written by Tagore in 1911 at the coronation of George V, the King of United Kingdom.

Asked if he was suggesting a change in the the patriotic composition, he said, "Now that it is the national anthem what can be done. Why did we leave 'Vande Matram'... So many people were martyred for Vande Matram... Hindus as well as Muslims. In 'Jan Gan Mana Adhinanayak', 'adhinayak' stands for dictator. 'Jayahe Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata', he is the creator of the destiny of Bharat. Punjab Sindhu Gujarat Maratha, where is the Sindh now in India?"



"Even 'Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Humara' was a better song. This is the good song to honour the national flag. But if 'Jan Gana Man' is the national anthem, what can be done... ."



He favoured 'Vande Matram' as the national anthem. When asked if that was not in line with the RSS or the BJP, he said, "It is my own ideology. Nobody else has to tell me anything. I am a humanitarian poet. If you read my poetry you would know it. Sangh, BJP or any other... I have no relations with any political party. I have risen above things like these, politics is a third class thing."



"I have never written anything cheap. I still write and people invite me to programmes because I say what is right," he said, adding "poetry stands for humanism. There is no bigger truth in the world than human himself," Neeraj told PTI.

(REOP CES2)



State BJP President Dilip Ghosh supported the 'Hindu Samhati' and said "poets like Srijato don't have any acceptance in the society. They try to stay afloat and remain relevant by writing such useless stuff."



"Without knowing Yogi and his administrative capability, how can someone write such derogatory poem about him," Ghosh wondered.

Poet Joy Goswami, however, stood by Srijato and said "he was expressing his thoughts through his poem. I have read the poem which has triggered so much controversy, but I like it."



Noted writer Srishendu Mukhopadhyay also echoed Goswami's views.

"It is not right to threaten police action if someone is opposed to your views. There have been similar cases in different parts of the country," Mukhopadhyay said.
Leaders of various khap panchayats in Uttar Pradesh today blocked several roads here to demand reservations for Jats in government jobs even as security was stepped up along the UP-Haryana border in the state.

The leaders staged protest and blocked Bhakpa bridge on Ganga canal, Shukertal and Shahpur areas in the district, causing disruption to vehicular movement, police said.

Three companies of paramilitary force and PAC have been deployed at Uttar Pradesh's Kairana and Bidoli check posts onthe UP-Haryana interstate highway. Security has been tightened in view of Haryana's situation, SP Vijay Bhushan said.

Inter-state roadways bus services were today cut-off on Panipat-Kairana and Karnal-Shamli routes.

Not a single bus from Haryana has entered Shamli today, Shamli depot in-charge Rajender Chohhasaid.

(Reopens DES34)



Road and rail traffic in several western UP districts bordering Haryana were also affected by pro-reservation protest by the Jat community.

Major road and rail routes in Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahr, Saharanpur, Mathura and other districts were blocked for three hours.

Meerut Zone IG Sujit Pandey said the protesters blocked road in 16 districts but no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere.

The protesters also gheraoed the residence of Meerut BJP MP Rajendra Agarawal and broke up only after the leader assured of his support to their demand.

The protesters also blocked Yamuna Expressway and Delhi-Agra National Highway briefly.
The Jat quota stir today reached Delhi as agitating community members held demonstrations at various places, leading to severe disruption of traffic on several arterial roads.

There also were reports of damage to public property by the protesters, who blocked major state border entry points, including Sindhu border, Nangloi-Bahadurgarh Road, Karnal road, Tikari, Jharoda and Madhuban Chowk in southwest and outer Delhi, creating major traffic snarls which affected many areas in the city.

Police said the situation was being brought under control even as demonstrations were held at several places, including Nangloi, Madhuban Chowk, Narela, Najafgarh.

"Several companies of Delhi Police have been deployed in Najafgarh and adjoining areas and we are trying to bring the situation under control," said DCP (south west) RA Sanjeev.

The protests led to diversion of traffic with several roads leading to neighbouring Haryana having been blocked by protesters, a senior police officer said.

Heavy police deployment has been done for handling the demonstrators, he said.

There were also reports of some damage to public property, including buses, in some areas, police said.

"All the major roads are severely affected with Madhuban Chowk having been blocked by the demonstrators," Additional DCP (Outer) Pankaj Kumar Singh said, adding, "The situation is under control so far."



Jats in neighbouring Haryana have been agitating for the past few days to press their demand for quotas in jobs and educational institutions. The protests have been accompanied by violence with curfew having been imposed in many places and the army being called in to bring the situation under control.

The protests have disrupted normal life in Haryana's Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar districts.
With public transport system in Haryana severely hit by the Jat stir for quota, the Civil Aviation Ministry has asked airlines to operate additional flights from here to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jaipur to enable stranded people reach their destinations.

As part of this, all major domestic operators including Air India, Jet Airways and IndiGo will fly additional services from and to Delhi, an official release said.

Air India also said that it is offering special nominal fares for its additional flights.

"Air India has again spread its wings to fly out passengers stranded due to the sensitive situation along all surface transport routes in the adjoining areas arising out of the Jat agitation," the airlines said in a release.

"AI is operating an additional flight from Delhi at 1730 hours today on the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi sector to fly stranded people," it said.

Air India is charging a nominal all-inclusive one-way fare of Rs 3,339 for Delhi-Chandigarh journey while it will charge Rs 3,960 for a Delhi-Amritsar trip, the airline said.

Jet Airways will operate additional flight on the Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi route.

Budget carrier, SpiceJet will fly three additional return services today from Delhi for Jaipur, Amritsar and Chandigarh, the release said.

Budget airline IndiGo will operate two additional services tomorrow to Chandigarh and Jaipur from the capital and back, it said.

Amid reports that some airlines were overcharging and that some travel portals were exhibiting fares as high as Rs 89,000 for an indirect flight to Delhi from Chandigarh, Jet Airways today said it was not charging "high" air fares for flights.

"Most Jet Airways direct flights to/from Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jammu, Srinagar, Leh and Dehradun have been sold out. Some fares seen on third party online travel portals are constructed by those websites by combining the last available seats on indirect routes with multi-stop flights constructed over any mid-point transfer city to create a roundabout itinerary. In many cases Premiere (business class) cabin fares are shown," a Jet Airways spokesperson said.

"The higher fares that are referred on third party travel portals are the combination of fares over multi-stop flights. These fares are not available on Jet Airways website," he said.

"Such fares will be influenced by the availability of seats on these two different flights and hence will be generally higher than the direct non-stop flights. It is important to note that the journey times on these itineraries referred to are significantly higher than the direct flight," the spokesperson said.

"We are working with third party travel portals to not show such roundabout itineraries with last available Premiere cabin seats," it said.
Yielding to pressure from agitating Jats, the government on Sunday night announced setting up of a committee under a senior central minister to examine the quota demand for the community in government jobs. Fresh incidents of arson and violence left two more dead, taking the toll in the eight-day stir to 12.

A late night announcement by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi said a committee headed by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has been formed to look into the demand for reservation in central govt jobs for Jats.

I would like to make things clear regarding the ongoing protest. Just now, we have formed a committee which will be headed by our senior Cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu. The committee has been asked to file a comprehensive report to find a solution of the issue as soon as possible, he told reporters.

I appeal to the people of Haryana to help maintain calm and peace, he said after a meeting he had with Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar to take stock of the situation in the state.

The meeting came shortly after a delegation of Jats had a meeting with the home minister where it was stated that a Bill would be brought in the coming session of the Haryana Assembly to give Other Backward Classes (OBC) status to Jats in the state.

Even as some fresh incidents of violence were reported, protesters started lifting blockades at some places late in the evening, following the Centres assurances.

Late evening reports said that blockades from some national and state highways including Saharanpur-Ambala at Yamunanagar, Paonta Sahib-Yamunanagar, Ambala-Kaithal, Saharanpur-Pipli-Kurukshetra, Zirakpur-Parwanoo and Ladwa-Shahbad were being lifted.
Fresh incidents of violence were today reported in Haryana with Jat protesters in Bhiwani and Sonipat districts setting afire two police chowkis, shops and an ATM even as authorities mounted aerial surveillance in the worst-hit areas and the Army staged flag marches.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was hit.

As violent protests by Jats demanding quota continued, Haryana Minister Anil Vij made it clear that talks cannot be held with a "mob" and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

Violence was reported in Gohana in Sonipat district, where a mob set on fire several shops, two buses and two motorcycles.

In Bhiwani district, protesters late last night set on fire an ATM of a bank and burnt official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu.

Violence in Hansi last night prompted authorities to impose night curfew from 8 PM to 6 AM.

Police chowkis in Mundal and Kharak in rural areas of Bhiwani were also set on fire. A bus was also set on fire at Tosham in Bhiwani.

Police arrested 50 people in connection with the incidents of violence and arson. So far six persons have been killed in firing by security personnel "to quell arson and firing" by the protesters while 154 FIRs have been registered.

Road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighbouring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

While the Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 1000 trains, air fares from Chandigarh and Amritsar, both cut off from the capital by road and rail, have skyrocketed.

The fare for Chandigarh-Delhi, which normally varies between Rs 3000 to Rs 4000, was being quoted between Rs 20,000-Rs 60,000 by various airlines for direct and one-stop flights via other cities.

As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana state, the Centre sent additional 1,700 paramilitary personnel to Haryana, taking the total number of central armed police deployed in the trouble state to 5,000.

The NCMC, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, too assured Haryana government that there would be no delay in sending assistance, including central forces.

In Chandigarh, Chief Minister Manohar Khattar along with



some of his senior Ministers and top officials is closely monitoring the situation, official sources said.

State's DGP and Home Secretary were also regularly in touch with the Centre on the prevailing situation.

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation.

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Khattar had yesterday asked agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands".

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala have also appealed to the protesters not to indulge in violence and raise their demand through peaceful means.

Congress MP from Rohtak Deepinder Singh Hooda, whose parliamentary constituency has been worst-hit by violence, has appealed the youths to form "peace committees" and not indulge in acts of violence and help maintain peace and brotherhood.

However, several Jat leaders have refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.
Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day so far claiming 10 lives.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed big traffic jams in some parts.

Ten persons have been killed and about 150 injured during the ongoing Jat stir, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal said even as claimed that steps were being taken to restore water supply to Delhi and clear road and rail blockades.

"According to the information we have so far, in the entire state 10 people have been killed and about 150 injured," he said.

As the situation turned volatile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed for calm. "I appeal to all to maintain peace and ensure that there are no untoward incidents," he said.

The Home Minister met a delegation comprising Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh and Haryana Minister Abhimanyu rs to find a way to resolve the situation.

With violent protests by Jats escalating, Haryana Minister Anil Vij today made it clear that talks cannot be held with a "mob" and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

He said the agitation has become leaderless and "mobocracy" was prevailing.

Road and rail traffic through Haryana destined for North India from Delhi side remained disrupted with bus and train services remaining suspended. In the wake of shooting air fares airlines announced additional flights to Chandigarh and Amritsar today.

Curfew was imposed in Kaithal city in the wake of ongoing Jat agitation after tension erupted in the town due to protests by Jats and tussle between Jats and non-Jats.

With this, now Kaithal has become ninth city where curfew has been clamped after Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana town of Sonipat district.

While several roads have been blocked in Kaithal, protesting Jats have put up a tent in the middle of Hissar- Chandigarh national highway to express their anger for not being included in OBC category.

Markets, shops and commercial establishments remained shut in the wake of violent protest unleashed by agitating Jats.

The protesters are adamant on their main demand of OBC quota in government jobs and rejected Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's announcement of enhancement of the quota of reservation for Economically Backward Classes in the state from 10 to 20 per cent.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is likely to visit Rohtak, the epicentre of Jats stir for quota, to take stock of the situation in the town, official sources said today.

Khattar along with some of his senior Ministers and top officials is closely monitoring the situation, the sources added.

Khattar, who became the first non-Jat Chief Minister in Haryana after 18 years in 2014, has appealed to the people to maintain law and order in the state.

"No one will be benefited by damaging public property. I urge everyone not to be swayed by unfounded rumours and maintain peace in the state," he said in his appeal earlier.

Notably, Khattar's native village Nindana falls in Rohtak district.

The Jats have been agitating to press for reservation under OBC quota.
The impact of ongoing pro quota Jat stir in Haryana is being felt on Punjab's industry and traders who are facing shortage of raw materials and a halt in dispatches of finished products to other states, causing heavy financial losses.

"We are feeling the pinch of Jat reservation agitation in Punjab here. Almost all verticals of the industry have been adversely impacted," United Cycle Parts and Manufacturers Association, President Charanjit Singh Vishivkarma told PTI.

The Jat job reservation agitation has crippled the road and rail network through Haryana and destined to neighbouring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh.

Travel in the region remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade at several places.

Punjab's prominent industry verticals like cycle and cycle parts, ready made garments, iron and steel, auto parts are hit due to scarcity of raw material and disruptions in supply of finished products to buyers in other states.

"We have not been able to get raw material like iron and steel material for making bicycles. Moreover inventory of our finished products are pilling up because of hampering in supplies to other states due to blockades," Singh said.

In the wake of insufficient supplies of iron and steel, its prices have gone up by Rs 2,000-3,000 per tonne, he further said.

Bulk of raw material comes from other states through road and rail network which are almost paralysed in view of going in neighbouring Haryana.

Industry also feared losing buyers including overseas ones for not being able to supply goods to respective destinations. "Our export commitments will get disturbed if we fail to supply our finished goods to our buyers," he said.

"Most of factories have cut down their production supplies in the wake of disruptions in dispatches of finished goods," another Ludhiana based industrialist said.

Punjab is a major producer of bicycles, ready made garments, hand tools, auot parts, hosiery goods, among other items.
Situation today continued to remain tense in several parts of Haryana, which was hit by Jat quota stir after it turned violent even as security personnel staged flag marches in affected areas.

Despite various political leaders including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing protesting Jats to maintain calm and peace, the incidents of violence and arson continued during the night in various parts of the state, crippling the normal life in worst affected places like Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar.

Protesters last night set on fire an ATM of a bank and burnt official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu of Bhiwani district.

As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana state, the Haryana government has sought additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force and more columns of Army to be deployed in the state to control the ongoing agitation in the state.

As many as 15 companies of India Reserve Battalion and Haryana Armed Police, three companies of paramilitary forces and two columns of Army have already been deployed.

So far six persons have been killed in firing by security personnel "to quell arson and firing" by the protesters while 154 First Information Reports have been registered.

As Haryana remained on the boil, curfew had been clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani , Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat , Gohana towns of Sonipat district.

The road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighboring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 800 trains, and seven stations including in the state were set on fire by the agitators.

Jhajjar, Buddha Khera, Julana and Pillu Kheda were among the seven stations which were set afire.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday asked agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands", but did not elaborate.

But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than



800 trains, and seven stations were set on fire by the agitators.

Jhajjar, Buddha Khera, Julana and Pillu Kheda were among the seven stations which were set afire.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Khattar had yesterday asked the agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands".

But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.
The ongoing Jat stir for quota today spread to Panchkula district, adjoining Chandigarh with agitators blocking Zirakpur-Shimla highway.

About 100-150 protesters blocked the six-lane Zirakpur-Parwanoo Highway which links Shimla. Zirakpur-Parwanoo Highway is the entry point to popular tourist destinations like Shimla and Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh.

"Protesters have blocked old Panchkula road. We are trying to persuade them to lift the blockade," a Panchkula police official said.

He said the traffic was being diverted through Majri Chowk.

ALSO READ: What the Jat agitation is all about

In Yamunanagar district, agitating Jats continued to block roads with felled trees and by putting up tents, though there was no report of any untoward incident in the district, official sources said here.

The blocked roads are-- Jagadhri -Ambala highway at village Kail, Bliaspur -Jagadhri road at village Bhedthal, Pontasahib-Jagadhri highway at, village Chhachrauli and Saharanpur -Radour-ladwa road.

Several trains including Saharanpur-Kalka mail and Saharanpur- Nagal mail were cancelled by railway authorities.

A district administration official claimed the situation was under control and security personnel, including army, staged a flag march in several areas as confidence building measure.
Jeb Bush today dropped out of the Republican presidential race after a series of dismal performances in primaries and a sluggish campaign, as the Bush family's dream of an unprecedented third stint at the White House was shattered.

An introvert but articulate Jeb, with no dearth of money and support base of establishment across the nation, was hoping to follow the footsteps of his father George H W Bush and his elder brother George W Bush.

George H W Bush, now 91, was the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. His son George W Bush was elected as the two-term 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.

63-year-old John Ellis "Jeb" Bush was hoping to become the 45th president of the US when he announced his candidature last year.

After three consecutive abysmal performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and finally in South Carolina, the third presidential aspirant from the Bush family announced to suspend his campaign.

"The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken. I respect their decision. So, tonight, I am suspending my campaign," a visibly disappointed Jeb said as he took the podium in Columbia, South Carolina, after it became clear that he has received less than eight per cent of the votes.

"I congratulate my competitors, that are remaining on the island, on their success in a race that has been hard-fought, just as the contest for the presidency should be because it is a tough job," Jeb said.

In Iowa caucus on February 1, which kicked off the 2016 presidential cycle, Jeb was placed sixth with an abysmally low 2.8 per cent votes.

But Jeb, who had been polling low at the national level, saw a glimmer of hope in the New Hampshire primary where he came fourth and his votes crossed the double digit mark with 11 per cent.

The New Hampshire primary was won by controversial Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump who received the support of 35.3 per cent of the votes followed by John Kasich (15.8) and Ted Cruz (11.7 per cent).

Hoping that South Carolina would give him the much needed momentum, Jeb even roped his elder brother and former president George, who made his first public political campaign rally after leaving White House on January 20, 2009.

While the election rally by 69-year-old George was well attended and generated a lot of excitement, it was not enough to give the much need push to his campaign.

(Reopens FGN 5)



In his speech, Jeb said he remains optimistic that with the right kind of leadership, that they all need to work to make sure happens, America's best days are ahead.

"With strong conservative leadership, Republicans can win the White House, and we can get back to being in the verge of having the greatest time to be alive and that's what I honestly believe and I know you do as well. I look forward to working you to make that dream come true," he said.

Jeb said the presidency is bigger than any one person and it is certainly bigger than any candidate.

"We're different in our country because our head of state is not above us, but because the head of state, the people who aspire to the presidency are of the people," he said.

"I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is the servant, not the master. Someone who will commit to that service with honour and decency," Bush said.

"Our next president will lead an extraordinary country, whose people have always made the improbable, possible...In ways big and small," said Jeb, whose campaign had so far had spent a whopping USD 150 million.

Except for Trump, Bush received praise from two of his presidential rivals -- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

"I have an incredible affection and admiration not just for Governor Bush but for his family and for their service to our country. Jeb Bush has many things to be proud of. He is an extraordinary husband. He's an extraordinary father. He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida," said Rubio, who was in a virtual tie with Cruz in South Carolina.

Cruz praised Bush as "a man who didn't go to the gutter" and engage in insults and attacks.
Five JNU students, including Umar Khalid, who the police have been looking for in connection with a sedition case, today surfaced on campus, saying they did not do anything wrong but were "framed" using "doctored video".

While police rushed a team to the campus on receiving information about them, the students maintained that "they will not surrender but police can come and arrest them".

The five students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash had gone missing from the campus since February 12 after JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case. The complaint lodged in connection with an event held on the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-naitonal slogans were allegedly raised.

According to Ashutosh, former president of JNU students union and a PhD scholar at varsity's School of International studies, they "have come back with a view of supporting the enquiry. The massive support we got from students and others from across the globe gave us the strength to return. I, Rama, Anirban and Anant were around but did not come in public due to atmosphere of mob lynching."



He, however, maintained that the four of them were not in touch with Umar Khalid and had spoken to him last on February 9, the day of the event.

Ashutosh said the students were in Delhi itself and that the decision to return on Sunday evening had been taken individually and not collectively.

"We didn't do anything wrong but were being framed using doctored video. We will not go anywhere now and will be part of the movement against the branding of university as anti-national," he said.

The five students also participated in a march, shouting slogans and demanding release of Kanhiaya and addressed a gathering of students at varsity's administrative block where the protests have been going on ever since the controversy erupted.

Khalid denied that he had any terrorist links, while Anirban maintained that it was the look-out notice issued by police which made him decide to come back.

"I am disturbed at the way I have been attacked and I am also angry at the comments posted against my sister on social media," Khalid said.

Police said the students have not surrendered and a team has been rushed to the varsity.

"We had received some information about their reported presence on campus. A police team was rushed to the varsity to enquire out after we received information that they were spotted on the campus. The team has right now been positioned outside JNU," a senior police official said.

"So far nobody has surrendered. The officials at Vasant Kunj North police station have been asked to wait for them to present themselves before the police and surrender. If they don't come till morning, police team will be sent tomorrow to arrest them. No crackdown can be conducted at this hour," he added.

When contacted the university officials, maintained that they had no information about their presence in the varsity's premises.

The varsity Vice Chancellor Jagdesh Kumar later said that the entry for police as well as media persons has been barred for now and a call in this regard will be taken tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, an emergent meeting of the left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) was underway at the campus to decide futre strategy.

Shehla Rashid, vice president of the JNU students union also spoke to the crowd saying that those accused are innocent.

"They are ready for whatever is going to happen. We know there are policemen inside in plain clothes here," Rashid said. "We want everything to happen in the glare of the cameras."



Sources in the university said that few other students which the police had sought information about from the authorities, including Riyaz and Rubina, were also spotted on the campus.
Delhi Police today questioned two friends of Umar Khalid, who is wanted in connection with the sedition case registered over the controversial event at JNU.

One friend, a student of a Central University here, was questioned at a south Delhi police station for nearly six hours. According to police sources, he is suspected to have helped Khalid "logistically" in organising the event.

Sources said the student was most likely present at JNU during the event as well. Police might call him for questioning again.

The other friend Sadiq Naqvi, a journalist, was questioned for the second time today in connection with the case.

Delhi police had approached him in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh and questioned him about Khalid's whereabouts.

Naqvi was Khalid's classmate in Delhi University, where they both pursued graduation together. Khalid is one of the ten youths who the police are looking out for in connection with the event in JNU where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

A list of around 50 people, associated with the event that took place on February 9 has been prepared by the police. Police have also asked the varsity administration to forward a copy of their internal enquiry report.

Meanwhile, around 10 days after registering a sedition case in connection with the event on the basis of a video clip broadcast by a Hindi channel, Delhi Police have now asked the channel for the raw footage of the event and the chip in which the video was stored.

A letter communicating the matter to the channel was sent yesterday, a senior official said.

The investigating officer of the case has asked the channel for the camera with which the event was covered and the chip in which it was saved to extract raw footage which is likely to be sent to a forensic laboratory.

This move came amid controversy surrounding 'doctored' videos broadcast recently by some channels in which JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was allegedly misrepresented as raising anti-India slogans.

These videos were then countered by other channels which had a different version leading to the controversy.

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Police also approached three other Delhi-based journalists in connection with the case and the whereabouts of Umar Khalid and the other JNU students.

"Around 8.30 PM police came to my house when I wasn't there. They enquired about me from my mother and asked few other questions. However, I have not been questioned so far," a correspondent working with a leading English daily said.

Another correspondent said he got a call from police. "They asked me about a call I had made to Umar on the day of the event. I told them it was my job to take his version of the story."



"Police came to my locality and asked about my residence. But we were not at home then," said another journalist.

Police claimed that these journalists had contacted some of the named students during or after the event.
Students from Kashmir, whose numbers have been increasing at Jawaharlal Nehru University, are a scared lot today after the row over an event on its campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as police have been quietly approaching them in their rented accommodations and subjecting them to questioning.

After the February 9 incident where some anti-India slogans were allegedly raised, police is believed to have collected the names of Kashmiri students which sound similar to the names of the organisers of the Guru event.

"I woke up to two policemen knocking at my door earlier this week. They asked objectionable questions and also wanted to know whether I was in touch with any of the students they are looking for in connection with the event.

"They asked me whether I was present there on February 9? Why did I attend the programme and much more. They even asked for my passport and other ID proof," said a female JNU Kashmiri student who resides in south Delhi.

She said that police, however, did not ask any questions to her roommate, a fellow JNU student but one who does not hail from Kashmir.

"They said this is part of the investigation and I should not withhold any information. They, however, did not pose similar questions to my roommate, who is not a Kashmiri," she said.

A student who lives in a JNU hostel said, "Though I have not been approached by police directly probably because I am staying inside the campus, but police have gone to my house in Kashmir for some 'verification' during which they enquired about my presence in JNU. My parents are now pressurising me to come back."



Police in Delhi and Kashmir are maintaining silence on the matter and did not wish to come on record on why they were quizzing Kashmiri students.

JNU students union Vice President Shehla Rashid Shora, the first Kashmiri girl to be elected to the JNU students' body, said, "Fearing a witch-hunt in the aftermath of the event, some students have gone back to their homes in Kashmir till normalcy returns on campus. I have been told that random checks have been conducted in Malviya Nagar and Munirka targeting Kashmiri students.

"Some who were not even present on the campus on the day of the event have also switched off their phones. There is a constant atmosphere of fear and intimidation," Shehla said.

Not only JNU students but Jamia Millia Islamia students hailing from Kashmir, too, have faced similar interrogation, she claimed.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had yesterday lashed out at filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, a BJP supporter, for demanding interrogation of Shehla, saying now being a Kashmiri Muslim is a "crime" that warrants questioning.

"Now being a Kashmiri Muslim is crime enough to warrant interrogation. BTW (by the way) it's Shehla not Sheila but what the hell!.... I'm a Kashmir Muslim AND I'm not a Ramdev supporter/follower. I'd better prepare for my interrogation," he said in a series of tweets.

BJP MP Udit Raj had claimed last week that JNU students staying as tenants in south Delhi's Munirka area were being asked to "vacate" their rooms as a result of a "motivated" campaign for branding the varsity as a den of "anti-nationals and traitors".

He, however, did not specify if there were any Kashmiri students among them.

A row has erupted over an event on the JNU campus against Guru's hanging where "anti-national" slogans are alleged to have been raised. Though none of the organisers of the event was a Kashmiri, slogans like 'Kashmir ki azadi tak jang rahegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jang rahegi' were allegedly raised during the event.

JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar is in judicial custody in a sedition case in connection with the February 9 event which was organised to protest against the "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle of Kashmiri migrants".
Secretary of State John Kerry today said that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it "is not yet done." But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said.

"In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... Is possible over the course of these next hours."



The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry's announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organisations.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed on February 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

UN envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on February 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

"Peace is better than more war," Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees.

"A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself."



However, he reiterated the long-time US position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation.

"Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad," Kerry said. "Let me make that clear.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and discussed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the US State Department said.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have taken the lives of 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.

"The secretary continued to urge for calm and a decrease in violence, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman John Kirby said yesterday.

Kerry was in Jordan where he also met King Abdullah II, a key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State group, in the southern port of Aqaba.

A palace statement said the king stressed "the need for the international community and the United States first, to end the stalemate in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis and to move towards a two-state solution".

American diplomats said Kerry and Abdullah also discussed the Syrian conflict.

Kirby said Kerry had stressed to Abbas Washington's commitment to seeking a sustainable two-state solution "and to working with all parties to that end".

"He also reiterated our policy on the illegitimacy of Israeli settlements," Kirby said.

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

On Thursday, the Palestinians welcomed an initiative put forward by France for an international Middle East peace conference, a proposal which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed.
Reality TV star Kris Jenner is reportedly worried her son-in-law Kanye West is "damaging the Kardashian brand" with his foul-mouthed outbursts on Twitter.

The "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" star wants West to hire someone to look into his matters, reported New York Post.

"His Twitter rants are out of control, and Kris fears that he's taking the family down. Kris wants Kanye to hire someone to handle all the noise and drama so he can focus on being an artist," a source said.

Meanwhile, West - who has daughter North, two, and son Saint, two months, with wife Kim Kardashian West - had to come to his own defence earlier this week when he was criticised for claiming he made Taylor Swift famous in one of his new songs.
Handset manufacturer Lava Mobiles is looking to raise $100 million from strategic partners to fund its expansion in the country.

We are looking to dilute our equity to strategic partners...we are looking to raise $100 million and it will take around six-eight months to finalise, the company's Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai told PTI on the sidelines of the Make in India Week held here last week.

He said the company is already in talks with a couple of strategic investors, including foreign companies interested in investing in the country.

Rai, however, declined to share any details regarding the valuations which the company, founded in 2009, is expecting. He added the entire equity was currently held by founders and employees. Speaking about venture capital firms, he said their focus is on software rather than hardware.

One of the challenges is finance. There is a lot of traction on the software side of things among the VCs and PEs. But on the hardware side, the traction is a little less. People believe that it is a commodity market. I believe it is not so. There is a great chance for India, he said.

The company has prepared a plan to increase its overall capacity to 200 million units in the next seven-10 years, which will entail an investment of Rs 2,615 crore, of which Rs 500 crore will be invested over the next two years.

At present, the company has a plant in Noida with a capacity of 28 million phones a year, which it plans to double over the next 3-6 months, he said.

It has also bought a land parcel in Tirupati and is scouting for locations to set up units in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, he said.

The capacity ramp up is part of its strategy to decrease dependence on China for manufacturing of phones and shift those jobs to India, he said, adding that the number of employees at its manufacturing facilities will almost double to 8,000 in a year as more capacity gets created.

Apart from serving the large domestic demand, Lava is also looking to export phones to markets like Africa and Indonesia, Rai said.
An Indian-origin cleric who was the leader of Tablighi Jamaat sect in Britain and Europe, and who played an important role in the creation of Markazi Mosque, the European headquarters for the movement, has died aged 92.

Thousands today turned out for the funeral of Hafiz Yusuf Patel who died in Drewsbury, West Yorkshire, on Thursday. Mourners came from across the UK and flew in from European countries including France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Patel had been invited from India in the 1960s by Gujarati Indian Muslims who wanted a religious guide for the movement.

"He was a pioneer, a visionary when it comes to the Islamic identity and the place of the Muslim community in Britain," Ishtiaq Ahmed, of the Bradford Council for Mosques, told The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

The cleric, who was the leader in Britain and Europe of Tablighi Jamaat sect, was instrumental in the creation of the Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury in the late 1970s. The mosque is now the European headquarters for the Tablighi movement.

"He established Dewsbury as a centre for European Muslims in Britain as far back as 1978. He was also a strong believer in British home-grown Islam," Ahmed said.

After an open air service, relayed on a public address system, Patel was buried in a private ceremony at Dewsbury Cemetery. Free buses ran from surrounding towns for mourners to gather in the rain to pray side by side.

Patel is said to have gone door-to-door in the early years promoting the message of Islam and encouraging people to go to mosque.

The Tablighi Jamaat organisation was founded in India in 1926 and is closely linked to the conservative Deobandi school of Sunni Islam.

Estimates for its global membership range from 12 million to 80 million, with European members thought to number at least 150,000.
Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi resigned from the Cabinet today, saying the militant Hezbollah group dominates the government and is harming Beirut's relations with Arab countries.

The resignation of Rifi, a longtime critic of the Shiite Hezbollah, comes two days after Saudi Arabia halted deals worth USD 4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces.

The move came after Lebanon failed to back the Sunni kingdom in its spat with Shiite powerhouse Iran, the leading backer of Hezbollah.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council backed the Saudi decision, raising concerns it could have repercussions for thousands of Lebanese living in Gulf countries.

Lebanon has a sectarian divide that reflects the wider regional split between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and has long been a battlefield for the region's proxy wars.

The Saudi decision came after Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil declined to support Saudi resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers.

Bassil is the president of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, a key ally of Hezbollah.

"He (Bassil) dared to offend the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the request of Hezbollah," Rifi said in a statement announcing his resignation.

"The practices of Hezbollah's statelet and its allies are not acceptable and staying in the government means approving them."



Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction to remain armed after the country's 1976-1990 civil war and is widely seen as more powerful than the Lebanese military.

"There is an armed party that is dominating the government's decisions," Rifi said.

"I call upon the government to at least apologize to the (Saudi) kingdom, its leadership and people."



Lebanon has had a national unity government since 2014, with members of different factions including Hezbollah and the Saudi-backed Future Movement headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Hariri returned to Lebanon earlier this month. He had spent much of the past five years outside the country after his government was brought down by Hezbollah and its allies in early 2011.

Current Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam is a strong ally of Saudi Arabia and has called on the kingdom to reconsider its decision.

The Saudi-backed March 14 coalition is scheduled to hold a meeting later today.

It was not clear if more steps will be taken.
The Left Front today took out a rally here in protest against the arrest of the JNU students' union President Kanhaiya Kumar and also questioned the silence of Trinamool Congress over the issue.

"The BJP government at the Centre is trying to curb the democratic rights of the country. We protest against the attack on the higher educational institutions by BJP and RSS. We also condemned the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar," West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said.

Bose also questioned the silence of Trinamool Congress over the JNU row.

The protesters marched for about 3 kms from Curzon Park in central part of the city and ended the rally at the historic Mahajati Sadan.
With accusing older airlines applying "monopolistic pressures" to retain 5/20 rule, SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh today said the industrialist should ask Vistara and AirAsia to serve India before getting to fly international.

Joining the debate over the 5/20 norm, under which Indian carrier need to have minimum five years operational experience and at least 20 planes to operate international flights, Tata today applauded the Civil Aviation Ministry's proposal to remove the "controversial" rule.

Read more from our special coverage on "RATAN TATA" Incumbent carriers lobbying for preferential treatment: Ratan Tata

Terming as sad the lobbying of incumbent airlines for "protection and preferential treatment", he tweeted that such moves were reminiscent of the monopolistic pressures by entities with vested interests who fear competition.

AirAsia India and Vistara -- two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures -- are ineligible to operate overseas under the 5/20 norm.

Reacting strongly to Tata's comments, Singh said all the airlines were asked "to serve our great country before we got profitable rights to fly abroad" under the 5/20 rule.

"We served with great pride. What is wrong if these two foreign-controlled airlines are also asked to serve India before being allowed to fly international?



"Mr Tata, whom we respect greatly, should in fact urge these airlines in which his group is a shareholder, to serve India willingly before being allowed to fly international," Singh told PTI.

The SpiceJet chief further said that the two airlines associated with Tata group had undertaken to follow the 5/20 rule while obtaining their licenses, but "they are now opposing (this rule) so vehemently".

He also alleged that "it is evident that these airlines are controlled by their foreign parents".

"This is in complete violation of Indian laws that require airlines in India to be effectively controlled by Indian shareholders. Mr Tata should urge these airlines to follow Indian law in letter and spirit.

"No country in the world, including Singapore and Malaysia, allows its airlines to be controlled by foreign airlines. If Indian airlines like SpiceJet and Indigo are not allowed in these countries, why should they be allowed to control airlines in India?," he added.

Recently, the industry body FIA had also alleged that AirAsia India was being controlled by its foreign joint venture partner AirAsia.

A delegation of FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) -- a grouping of established airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir -- has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister's Office on their opposition to removal of 5/20 norm and on the issue of substantial ownership and effective control.

The government is currently in advanced states of finalising its new civil aviation policy.

While AirAsia India is less than two years old with six aircraft, Vistara, which started operations in January 2015, has nine planes, making them ineligible to fly abroad.

Tatas along with Singapore Airlines run Vistara, while AirAsia is a three-way joint venture between Tata group, Malaysia's AirAsia and Arun Bhatia's Telstra.
Homegrown drug major Lupin and Gavis Pharmaceuticals LLC, whose $850 million acquisition the Indian firm announced last year, have agreed to divest two generic drugs as part of the US Federal Trace Commission (FTC) requirement to complete the transaction.

The have agreed to sell rights and assets for two generic drugs to New Jersey-based G&W Laboratories in order to settle charges that Indian firm's proposed acquisition would likely be anti-competitive.

One of the drugs, doxycycline monohydrate capsules, is used to treat bacterial infections and the other, generic mesalamine extended release capsules is prescribed for treating ulcerative colitis.

"... Proposed respondents are willing to enter into this agreement containing consent orders to divest certain assets," an agreement put forth by the two before the FTC said.

FTC had asked the to divest the products as the merger (Lupin and Gavis) would have combined two of only four companies that currently market generic doxycycline monohydrate capsules in two dosage strengths likely resulting in higher prices.

The US competition watchdog had noted that the merger would have also eliminated one of only a few companies likely to enter the market for generic mesalamine extended release capsules in the near future, thereby delaying beneficial competition and the prospect of price decreases.

Under the terms of the proposed order, Lupin was required to transfer to G&W Laboratories all of Gavis's rights and assets related to generic doxycycline monohydrate capsules no later than ten days after the acquisition is consummated, so that G&W can begin selling the product immediately.

The transfer includes Gavis's manufacturing technology, which Lupin will help G&W set up at the latter's facilities. In the interim, Lupin will supply G&W with the finished product for two years.

"The proposed consent order preserves competition by requiring the companies to divest these products to the New Jersey-based generic pharmaceutical company G&W Laboratories," FTC had said.

In July last year, the company had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Gavis Pharmaceuticals LLC and Novel Laboratories Inc (GAVIS), subject to certain closing conditions, in a transaction valued at $880 million.

The buyout, the largest by an Indian pharma firm in the US, gives the Mumbai-based firm access to 66 generic drugs as well as broaden its pipeline in dermatology, controlled substance products and other high- value and niche generics.

The new entity would have a portfolio of over 110 in-market products, over 175 cumulative filings pending approval and a deep pipeline of products under development for the US.

The acquisition creates the fifth largest portfolio of abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) filings with the USFDA, addressing a USD 63.8 billion market.
Afghan migrants seeking to travel through the Balkans to northern Europe were barred from entering Macedonia today, Greek police on the border said.

"We were warned this morning that Macedonian authorities would no longer let Afghans pass," a Greek police official told AFP, adding that Macedonia justified its move by claiming that Serbia had made a similar decision.

The development came after Austria on Friday introduced a daily limit on asylum seekers entering and registering in the country, triggering EU fears of a domino effect along the so-called Balkan migrant route.

Today, Afghans seeking to enter into Macedonia through the Idomeni border crossing were pushed back, while only Syrians and Iraqis were allowed through.

A Greek government source confirmed the development, adding that Athens had received no official notice of the change from the Macedonian government.

"Greece condemns any unilateral action" on the management of the migrant crisis, the source added.

According to the UN refugee agency's representative Alexander Voulgaris, some 200 Afghans were being prevented from continuing their onward journeys.

Since November, countries on the Balkan route have allowed only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans to continue their journey up towards Germany, Sweden and other European nations where they plan to apply for asylum.

People from other countries, who were deemed economic migrants, have been pushed back, triggering human bottlenecks and leaving humanitarian organisations struggling to distribute aid.

Greek police now plan to stop Afghan migrants from travelling up to Idomeni from Athens -- their first port of call after reaching the Greek islands from Turkey -- "until the situation is clarified," the government source said.

"Iraqis and Syrians are crossing, but not us, why? Aren't we also human beings?" said Afghan migrant Sayed Wahab Sadat, a 26-year-old mechanic.

"I want to go to Germany to live and work in safety, where I come from my life is in danger," he said.

"We will stay here as long as it takes," said fellow Afghan Edriss, 30, adding that he too wanted to reach Germany.

On the Macedonian side of the border, Jasmin Rexhepi, who heads an NGO named LEGIS, said 700 Afghans were stuck "in the northern Tabanovci reception centre because Serbia did not allow them to cross the border".

"Macedonia started with this selection Sunday morning after seeing that Afghan migrants could not leave the country," Rexhepi told AFP by phone.

While Serbia's Immigration Minister Aleksandar Vulin denied there were any border closures, he implicitly admitted Afghans now faced a new obstacle by blaming neighbouring Slovenia and Austria.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today observed the International Mother Language Day (Bhasha Divas) with full honour at Bhasha Shahid Smarak, Deshapriya Park.

Banerjee was present at the occasion along with her cabinet colleagues including Subrata Mukherjee, Aroop Biswas, city Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and other dignitaries.

Incidentally, on the eve of International Mother Language Day, Banerjee paid an 'innovative' tribute to the martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement (Bhasha Shahids) by changing her Twitter profile name to Bengali font.

"Heartfelt greetings to all on the occasion of International Mother Language Day," Banerjee tweeted.

On Friday, the Chief Minister has inaugurated the Bhasha Shahid Smarak at Ekushe Udyan park in the southern part of the city.
A man arrested today after a shooting rampage that left six people dead in the northern US state of Michigan was an Uber driver, the company said.

Police accused Jason Dalton, 45, of carrying out a series of random shootings across Kalamazoo, Michigan late yesterday that left a trail of victims at three locations.

"We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo, Michigan," Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer, said in a statement sent to AFP.

"Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims of this devastating crime and those recovering from injuries. We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," he said.

The ride-sharing company said Dalton had passed a background check and had no prior criminal record.

He was carrying a semi-automatic handgun when he was arrested by police early Sunday after his vehicle was seen driving away from a bar, the county prosecutor said.

The prosecutor, Jeff Getting, said Dalton surrendered without incident.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said Marathi theatre has played an important role in the state's development.

Fadnavis who spoke at the closing ceremony of the 96th 'Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Nayta Sammelan' (National Drama Meet) here assured that his government will do everything possible to keep the Marathi theatre alive.

"I am aware of the problems faced by those related with Marathi theatre. Any state was not only evaluated on material growth but also by social and cultural growth. This is possible only if the state's art is protected, preserved and encouraged," he said.

"The Marathi theatre which has come a long way has played an important role in Maharashtra's development. Arts and culture of any state contributes immensely towards keeping alive the humanity and hence we will give all support to these arts and culture in the state," the Chief Minister added.

Fadnavis assured that a meeting involving the concerned stakeholders will be conveyed to solve problems faced by those associated with Marathi theatre.

On the demand for an amphitheatre at Masunda lake here, the CM directed Thane Municipal Commissioner to prepare a proposal in this regard and forward it to the state government.

Union Minister Anant Geete, Deputy Chairman of Maharashtra Legislative Council Vasant Davkhare, Thane guardian minister Eknath Shinde, MP Rajan Vichare along with several directors and producers were present on the occasion.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti today asked politicians and the media not to pronounce verdict on the students accused of raising anti-national slogans on the JNU campus, saying it should be left for the court to decide.

"I hope that Constitution will be followed in the JNU issue. It should be left to the court as to who is guilty and who is not. Political parties should stop advocating someone's innocence or guilt," Mehbooba told reporters here.

"It should be left to the court (to decide). Politicians and the media should not pronounce their verdict on them," she said when asked about her reaction to alleged raising of anti-national slogans on February 9 on the JNU campus.

The PDP president also said the issue has been politicised.

"Why was the doctored video aired? Then politicians started jumping in. The issue went from bad to worse when people started claiming themselves as nationalists and proving the other side as anti-nationals," Mehbooba said.

She also noted that the country's democracy was strong enough to see through the attempts at fooling the people in the name of secularism or exploiting psuedo-nationalism, and "people will not allow it to succeed".

The PDP chief also said apprehending possible harassment, she had asked two senior leaders, Haseeb Drabu and Amitabh Mattoo, to visit JNU to find out if there was any such incident against the students from Jammu and Kashmir there.

"I asked Haseeb Drabu and Amitabh Mattoo to visit the JNU. They went yesterday and met the Vice Chancellor, and there is another meeting today. There are lots of apprehensions about possible harassment. So far, there has not been complaint that any Kashmiri student has been targeted," she said.

She also asked her party leaders to take up with the Union Home Minister any issues concerning the students from the state at the JNU.

"I request the Government of India to ensure that the situation, which is already bad in Jammu and Kashmir, does not have a negative impact here," she added.
Striking a tone different from optimistic ally BJP, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti today said "only time can tell" if the two parties form government as she would move ahead only when convinced that "dreams" of her late father Mufti Sayeed for Jammu and Kashmir can be fulfilled.

Mehbooba, a Lok Sabha member from Anantnag, talked about the "unfortunate" developments of JNU as she prepared to leave for Delhi, a visit she insisted was only to fufill her duties as an MP.

"That only time can tell," was the cryptic response of the PDP president to reporters when they asked her if there was any forward movement in talks with the BJP for government formation in the state.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav, after a meeting with Mehbooba here three days back, had said: "Talks were positive. Both parties are positive that the state will benefit by continuing with the arrangement which guided our 8-9 month old government. We can give a stable government with the same arrangement. This view is on both side... I hope, yes, there will be continuation of previous arrangement."



Mehbooba, who attended first public function today since Sayeed's death on January 7, said coming to power was not her goal.

"If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then only it is worth it. If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me," she told party workers earlier.

She said her late father, throughout his political career spanning over five decades, had struggled for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Only 12 years of his long political career, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in power. However, he remained alive (in politics) due to the support of the people," Mehbooba said.

"He did not sacrifice his life so that I can get the chair. He sacrificed his life for you," she said.

Madhav had said the leaders of PDP will arrive in Delhi shortly to discuss fixing of timeline on a "few issues" which have found a mention in the alliance's Common Minimum Programme.

However, Mehbooba today said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.

"The Parliament session is starting on Feb 23... I am going to attend it. I have asked questions... If Parliament is allowed to function. There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we don't know what will happen in Parliament," she said.

She decried attempts to pronounce verdict on the students accused of raising anti-national slogans on the JNU campus, saying it should be left for the court to decide.

Apprehending possible harassment of students from Kashmir, she said she has asked her party leaders to take up with the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh any issues concerning the students from the state at the JNU.

Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing political stalemate ever since Sayeed passed away on January 7 after leading a coalition government with BJP for 10 months. The state is currently under Governor's Rule since no party staked claim to form government.

Turning to pellet guns which have been the cause of



serious injuries to thousands of protestors over last three months, Mehbooba said her government wants to ban the use of these weapons as a crowd control measure and sought cooperation of police in avoiding their use.

"If there is an injury on you, let it be, but if we save a youth's eyes or arms from pellet guns, then I think it will be your biggest sacrifice. Because this (protests) will not continue forever, it is temporary. But I need your cooperation," the Chief Minister told the security forces.

She said once peace is established in the state, she would ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to begin a dialogue process.

"Establish peace here and the next day I will go to Delhi and request the Prime Minister to talk to everyone and find a solution...To do justice with our people - those people who come out to vote on the edge of sword - for their safety, prosperity and development."



"If this vandalism, stone-pelting continues, then I will be focused on that only," she said, asking the police to help the government to establish peace.

The chief minister said children have to focus on their education and solving issues is the job of the elders.

Mehbooba said there were "instances where we made mistakes and which should not have happened" and cited cases like death of Junaid in Safakadal and a lecturer in Khrew area of Pulwama.

"If a family member has made a mistake, there should be action because we have to save the family," she said.

She asked the police to do hand-holding of the children and engage "in parenting and not just policing".

"Whatever amount of bullets had to be fired, they have been fired. I hope you will try from now on that even if you have to take a wound from a stone, take it, but try to avoid injuries to the children," she said.

Mehbooba also emphasised that Pakistan has a huge role in establishing peace in the region and will have to stop cross- border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir for any dialogue with India to be successful.

She said talks were not possible in the prevailing situation which has "deteriorated".

At the same time, she said she remained hopeful about resumption of talks between India and Pakistan as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to carry forward Atal Bihari Vajpayee's policy.

"This is not a hidden thing that infiltration takes place and encounters happen on borders. Pakistan has a role to see that infiltration does not take place and there is no support to the militancy," she told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

"When the graph of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir comes down, there would be more opportunities for the two countries to talk. Those talks will then be successful," she added.
Mere registration of an FIR in the Pathankot terror attack case is not enough, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said, making it clear that Pakistan should do serious investigation to India's satisfaction.

"Registration of a case is merely a step ahead but it won't do. There should be serious investigation. Our effort is that they should take legal action to our satisfaction," he said.

Pakistani authorities have lodged an FIR in connection with the Pathankot terror attack without naming JeM chief Masood Azhar who India has accused of having masterminded the strike.

Parrikar also ruled out withdrawing army from Siachen, a call often made by Pakistan, saying no such question arises and noted that India occupies highest peaks there.

Such things can be considered only after Pakistan establishes its credentials that it is worthy of trust, he told Aaj Tak tonight.

He also asserted that India will hit back at terror groups in their own language. Those who inflicted pain on India will have to pay, he said.

"When, what and how it will be done will depend on our convenience," he said.
An Independent councillor who had gone missing on February 17 was traced today following which he alleged the Trinamool Congress of kidnapping him.

Police said Kandi Municipality councillor Debajyoti Roy was found inside a car near Majlishpur area within Baryan police station limits and was produced before the Kandi court where he recorded his statement under section 164 CrPC.

"We have returned him home," said C Sudhakar, Murshidabad Superintendent of Police.

Roy later told reporters the ruling Trinamool Congress was behind his kidnapping ahead of a no-confidence motion it moved in Congress-run Kandi civic body.

"This (the kidnapping) was a pre-planned affair by the Trinamool Congress. I was kidnapped by them. I've told everything to the court and if I get the directions of the court, I'll talk about the matter in public," Roy said.

TMC district president Mannan Hossain, however, denied any role in the disappearance of the councillor.

The ruling TMC won the no-confidence motion by one vote (9-8), on February 19, in the absence Roy.

The Calcutta High Court had on February 18 directed the Murshidabad SP to ensure the presence of Roy when voting takes place at the municipality to elect the chairman. But, the voting took place in his absence.

The High Court had passed the order on a petition by Roy's wife Santana Roy, also an Independent councillor, who alleged her husband was kidnapped by TMC as the couple had said they would support the Congress during the voting.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury too blamed the TMC for kidnapping Roy and termed the party "dangerous" and "autocratic".

"Both the Police and the ruling TMC had conspired and kidnapped the Independent councillor. The entire state is in the grip of terror. People will speak against the TMC in the coming Assembly elections," Chowdhury said.

The Congress had formed the 18-member municipal board in Kandi with 13 councillors. But, six of them, including the chairman, joined TMC last month taking its tally to nine.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of a state of the art memorial to B R Ambedkar here next month.

The three-storeyed memorial spread over 1.85 acres on Alipur Road in north Delhi will be in the shape of an open Constitution with a dome in the middle.

Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, had breathed his last at 26, Alipur Road, and the place is considered sacred by his followers.

"The memorial would house relics of Dr Ambedkar, a photo gallery covering all important aspects of his life and work, Bodhisattva Bhim Jyoti, Bodhisattva Bhim Stambha, Boddhivriksha, replicas of Bhim Janambhoomi (Mhow), Deeksha Bhoomi (Nagpur), and Rajgraha and Chatiya Bhoomi (Mumbai).

"It (the memorial) will also have a meditation hall, an audio-visual wing, information centre and so on," said a senior official from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry.

The design of the building has been approved by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Government is also constructing a B R Ambedkar International Centre on Janpath the foundation stone of which was laid in May last year.

The Union government is celebrating 125th birth anniversary year of B R Ambedkar since the year 2015. The objective of year-long celebration is to make the world aware of the life and the work of the legendary social reformer and a champion of the underprivileged.

Also, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has decided to create a web portal which will have the complete works of Ambedkar.

The portal www.DrAmbedkarwritings.Gov.In, which will have collected works of Ambedkar in English and Marathi along with the translation of his works in nine other languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Bengali, Gujarati and Odiya, is likely to be launched by Modi next month.

The government is also planning to organise events at Ambedkar's house in London where a memorial was inaugurated by Modi during his UK visit last November.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who is also a renowned diabetologist, has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the governing council of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group India.

The award was conferred on Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office, at a ceremony held in New Delhi during the 11th national conference of DIPSI.

President, International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Dr S M Sadikot, world renowned Diabetologist and WHO Convener Dr V Seshiah, President, Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) Dr S V Madhu and President DIPSI Dr Anil Kapur were among those present on the occasion, an official statment said.
Madhya Pradesh Police will add 200 SUVs to the existing fleet of 800 to strengthen law and order and help people in distress.

"Eight hundred SUVs under 'Dial 100' service are on the job and 200 more vehicles will be deployed by the end of this fiscal," Director General of Police (DGP) Surendra Sinh said.

"The response time of these vehicles after getting a call is 10 minutes in urban areas and 20 to 30 minutes in rural areas," he said after inaugurating a police station.

The police department has sent a proposal seeking recruitment of 6,250 personnel, including 2,000 Assistant Sub Inspectors and as many constables, under the 'Dial 100' service, the DGP said.

After this recruitment, personnel from police stations won't be deployed for the 'Dial 100' service, he said.

All police stations in the state, except 100, are equipped to register First Information Report (FIR) online, the DGP said, adding efforts are one to connect the remaining 100 police stations online.
The Madhya Pradesh government wants cameras installed in tigers' dens so tourists can have a closer look at the life of the big cat in the wild.

The move is a part of its efforts to promote tourism through participation of private sector in wildlife conservation in forest areas outside national parks and sanctuaries.

The state has made a presentation to officials of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and other departments involved in wildlife conservation.

It has proposed to create secure habitat for dispersal of tiger and to develop eco-tourism in degraded forest land through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models and to have restaurants and picnic areas inside them.

"The restaurant can have flat screen TVs showing live scenes from the best water holes in the habitat. The restaurant could look out over a water hole used by general prey species as this will inevitably mean that tigers may be seen from the restaurant.

"There can be even cameras built into the tiger dens that are specifically provided for the tigers so that guests can witness the activities inside the den while having their lunch or refreshments," said the presentation, a copy of which was received in reply to an RTI query filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.

In the presentation, the state government said the restaurant and picnic areas would attract people to them even if the added draw of tigers was not there.

There are six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh--Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Bori-Satpura, Sanjay-Dubri and Pench-- which have about 257 big cats. While the tiger population in the country was estimated at 1,706 in 2010, it had risen to 2,226 in 2014.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had



in July last year written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his directions to the Environment Ministry to speed up execution of its proposal.

"The state government should first check cases of poaching there rather than promoting such private partnership related activities," Dubey said.

In the latest presentation, the state government has proposed that the wildlife experience in the habitat can be "initially at the same price or even a few rupees more expensive than current tiger reserve fees".

Madhya Pradesh wants tourism activities like guided vehicular excursions, natural treks and film shows to be organised by the private partner inside these protected areas, the presentation says.

"Once these parks are up and running, they should take most or all the pressure off the existing tiger reserves. Rejuvenation of degraded forests will not only improve the forest cover but will also create habitat and revive corridors for long ranging species like tiger and allow continuous distribution of other species, ensuring genetic continuity.

"The restoration of corridors may reduce man-animal conflicts," MP proposal said.

However, the Centre while reviewing the proposal at a meeting asked the state government to take up further consultation in the matter.

"The state government may take up consultation for assessing the feasibility of taking the project further, including pilot proposal for small safari park. It was also agreed that financial feasibility of the concept based on the proposed pilot project needs to be worked out and a policy proposal may be sent with specifics so that it can be examined in the longer legal and policy context of the sector," as per the minutes of the meeting.
Suspended Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Umesh Gandhi was sent to jail here after a court rejected his bail plea in a disproportionate assets case.

Special Judge Kashi Nath Singh yesterday turned down the bail plea of Gandhi, his wife Archana and brother Ajay Gandhi, who was posted as guard at Sehore district jail - also accused in the case - and sent them to Central Jail.

Gandhi had served as Superintendent of Central Jail in Bhopal from 1992 to 1995.

He arrived at the prison around 8.00 pm yesterday, Jail Superintendent Akilesh Tomar told PTI today.

Gandhi was put in the jail hospital under observation as he had undergone chemotherapy for cancer treatment the same day.

As per chargesheet filed against Gandhi by the Lokayukta Police last month, the suspended DIG owns assets which were 400 per cent more than his known sources of income.

Lokayukta Police had raided Gandhi's residence on November 3, 2012 and reportedly unearthed disproportionate assets worth Rs 5 crore.

Gandhi, his wife and brother did not depose before the court when they were chargesheeted on January 22, 2016 and were wanted since then.
A string of speakers at the international seminar on Prophet Muhammad here unanimously condemned terrorism today even as AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused government of "dividing" Muslims into different sects over terrorism.

"Islam is the religion of peace, fraternity, tolerance, mutual respect and patriotism," observed a number of speakers at the inauguration of the three-day conference on 'The Life and Ways of Prophet Muhammad'.

During his speech, Owaisi alleged that "the government is dividing Muslims into different sects and trying to prove that a certain group is favouring terrorism and a certain group is opposing.

"Government knows that Islam has no connection with terrorism whether it is ISIS or any terror organisation. Islam and Muslims have no relation with terrorism," he said.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind general secretary Maulana Mehmood Madani said, "Islam aur Musalmano ka koi rishta kisi bhi terrorist organisations ke saath nahi ho sakta" (Islam and Muslims cannot have links with terrorist organisation.)



He alleged a conspiracy was hatched to malign Islam. "We are holding campaigns against this conspiracy," Madani added.

Madani called upon Muslims "to co-exist cordially and in peace with other religions and do not refrain (yourselves) from expressing love for nation whenever possible".

Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali stressed on the need for educating youths to enable them to move forward.

He appealed to Islamic scholars and clergies to guide the youth to excel in different fields like engineering, medicine, science and technology, and other areas.

Ali also urged Muslim countries to spend their wealth on educational and welfare activities instead of using it for warfare, weaponry and destructive purposes.

'All India Muslim Personal Law Board' secretary Mohammed Khaled Saifullah Rahmani said, "Muslims should teach Islamic teachings in regional languages to clear the misconceptions about Islam among people of other faiths as it would help in narrowing the gap between Muslims and other communities".

Eminent scholars from across the country emphasised on the inter-faith cordial relationship, terming it as the "essence of Islamic teachings".
For the first time a group of Naga Sadhus from the Himalayas and Varanasi have arrived at Kumbakonam to take part in the ongoing Mahamaham festival, known as Kumbh Mela of the south, which takes place once in 12 years.

Clad in loin cloths, the sadhus have built tents on the banks of Veerachozhan river at Govindhapuram near Kumbakonam and are performing homams.

Local people and pilgrims visiting the town for a holy dip have been making a beeline to seek the blessings of the sadhus.

"Naga Sadhus make public appearance only rarely. They usually participate in the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad. This is the first time they have come down to participate in Mahamaham.They also took part in the three-day All-India Seers Conference which concluded at Kumbakonam on Saturday," said Sathyanarayanan, spokesperson of the Seers conference.

He said the Naga sadhus will take a holy dip in the Mahamaham tank tomorrow and then participate in 'Theerthavari', the most important event of Mahamaham



En route to Kumbakonam, the Naga sadhus visited Rameswaram.

They will be staying at Kumbakonam for some more days.
Australia was today set to allow an asylum-seeker's baby to remain in the country instead of being deported back to a remote Pacific detention camp, in what refugee advocates claimed as a victory after a public outcry.

Under Canberra's harsh immigration policy, asylum-seekers attempting to arrive in Australia by boat are sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where they are held indefinitely while their refugees applications are processed.

The one-year-old baby, named Asha and the child of Nepalese asylum-seekers, was held on Nauru with her parents before being brought to the Australian mainland for medical treatment last month.

Asha was due to be sent back to the camp after a court ruling in favour of the government's offshore immigration detention policy, but the hospital caring for her refused to release the infant until a "suitable home environment is identified".

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said today Asha and her parents would be sent to community detention from Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital.

"We are proposing that baby Asha will come from Lady Cilento and will go into community detention as have, as I say, 83 others who are living in the community who are in Australia for medical assistance," Dutton told reporters in Brisbane.

Community detention is when asylum-seekers waiting for their refugee applications to be processed live within the community and are usually allowed to move around freely. However they can still be moved or removed by the immigration department at any time.

Dutton said the government's decision was pre-planned and not a result of pressure from medical professionals and the public.

The hospital confirmed the decision and said the move would take place "within the next 24 hours".

Refugee advocates welcomed Dutton's announcement, hailing it as a victory for their campaign against the deportations to Nauru of Asha and 266 other asylum-seekers also in Australia for medical care.

"A week ago we had to file an urgent case in the highest court in the country to stop the government from secretively deporting this baby to Nauru," the Human Rights Law Centre's Daniel Webb said in a statement.

"Now the family is being released into the community. It's a massive turn-around."



Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor Premier of Queensland, the state in which the hospital is located, said Dutton's decision was "too slow and lacked empathy" as she renewed her offer to house asylum-seekers facing removal in the community.
Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, who is on a six-day visit to India met senior BJP leader Ram Madhav today.

"Had a good one-hour meeting with Nepal PM Shri K P Oli. He wants misunderstandings to end and India's support in Nepal's economic development," Madhav said in a tweet.

Oli and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held talks yesterday following which he said the misunderstanding between the two countries no longer exists.
New Zealand quick bowler Neil Wagner defended his use of the bouncer today but admitted to feeling "shaky" when he felled Steve Smith with a blow to the head in the second Test in Christchurch.

Century-maker Smith collapsed and lay prone on the ground for several seconds before staggering to his feet.

After he was given the all-clear following medical attention he continued his stand as Australia closed in on New Zealand's first innings 370 in the second Test.

The danger of head blows has been highlighted since Australian Phillip Hughes died after being struck on by a bouncer 15 months ago.

"It's not nice is it. It's bit of a shaky feeling," Wagner said when questioned about how he felt when Smith went down.

"It's never one's intention to hit someone in the head and see him go down like that.

"I ran up straight to him and he flashed his eyes a little bit and I was a bit worried at the start and he said he's fine and he took a bit of time."



Wagner, New Zealand's go-to bowler to break stubborn partnerships with his use of the short-pitched ball, defended the bouncer as an effective weapon.

"Short-pitched bowling is just about trying to throw them off their game and try to get a wicket in some sort of way," he said.

"Obviously they (Australia) made things look pretty easy so we were just trying to throw him off that."



Wagner used the delivery to good effect late on the second day by removing Joe Burns for 170 and Smith for 138 to have Australia 363 for 4 at stumps.

Both went in similar fashion as they tried to pull down short-pitched deliveries and hit the ball to Martin Guptill at square leg.

Being New Zealand's enforcer is not Wagner's normal role but "is something that gets given to me and I love doing any role that is given to me," he said.

"When Baz (Brendon McCullum) comes to me and asks me to do a certain role or plan then it's just what I need to do for the team to try and get a result or a wicket.

"Obviously the two wickets at the end helped us and were quite crucial."



Burns, who bounced back from scoring nought in the first Test to produce a career best 170, was in partnership with Smith when the Australian captain went down and said it was a disturbing feeling.

"It certainly always a concern when you see someone get hit in the head, it got him quite flush as well," Burns said.

"Fortunately the medical staff were out there very quickly, they gave him the all clear. Luckily the tea break was around the corner so he could sit down for 20 minutes and let the shock settle."



Australia go into the third day of the Test on Monday in a strong position just seven runs behind New Zealand and with six wickets in hand.
Voters in Niger went to the polls today in an election in which President Mahamadou Issoufou has promised a "knockout" blow to his opponents, one of whom is behind bars on baby-trafficking charges.

A vast nation endowed with an abundance of uranium, gold, coal and oil but among the poorest on the planet, Niger is electing a head of state, as well as a new parliament, with Issoufou hoping for a second five-year term.

A total of 7.5 million people are eligible to vote at 25,000 polling stations across the country on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The results are expected within five days.

Voting got off to a delayed start in many parts of the capital Niamey due to the late delivery of ballot papers and other materials.

"I'm waiting. It's 8:00 am and there's nobody. I don't see the number of the polling station and the electoral lists have not been posted," said Ali Issaka, 45, who was waiting to cast his vote at a school in Lazare-1 district in the capital.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Issoufou said he was "absolutely" confident of victory and predicted a second-round run-off vote would not be needed.

Issoufou said he had met his pledges on boosting growth and infrastructure, while shoring up security in the face of attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, Mali and Libya.

Known as the "Zaki" or "lion" in Hausa, the majority language in Niger, the 63-year-old former mathematician and mining engineer faces a total of 14 rivals, including two former prime ministers and an ex-president.

Should he fail to win a first-round victory, his rivals, who have accused him of planning to rig the result, have agreed to unite behind whoever scores highest amongst them for the second round.

Security was tight with security forces on patrol across the country, the south-east of which has been plagued by attacks by Boko Haram jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria.

"There is no such thing as zero risk but we are are working to uphold security on election day," Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou said ahead of the ballot.

Heading the opposition pack is 66-year-old Hama Amadou, who is campaigning from behind bars after being arrested in November on his return from exile in France over his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal.

Amadou, a former premier and parliament speaker, heads the Nigerien Democratic Movement (NDM) whose members were tear- gassed by police earlier this month after gathering in their thousands to support their man, known as "the Phoenix" for his ability to rise from the ashes.
A Delhi court has sent a Nigerian national to over three years in jail for illegally staying in India and forging documents and also asked the Foreigner Regional Registration Office to deport him to his native country after completion of sentence.

The court, which convicted Amachi Jude Onyeka for the offence under the Foreigners Act, acquitted him of the charge of possessing contraband drugs by giving him benefit of doubt.

Special NDPS judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar held Onyeka guilty of using a forged document and staying in India without any valid travel document and sentenced him to three years and three months jail. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 on him.

"After completion of sentence, he shall be deported to his native country. The FRRO be informed accordingly," the court said.

While acquitting him under the NDPS Act, the court said prosecution was not able to establish that the accused was in possession of 800 gram of 'Heroin'.

According to the prosecution, Onyeka was caught when he was alighting from an auto in December 2012. On seeing police, he tried to flee but was caught.

Police checked his bag and some narcotic substance was recovered from it, it had alleged, adding that the accused had admitted carrying cocaine.

During the trial, Onyeka claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case and no bag containing contraband substance was recovered from him and he was caught by the police when he de-boarded a Metro.

He also sought leniency in sentence, saying his financial condition was not sound and that he has no previous criminal record.
A preliminary probe has found "no evidence" to suggest that cow meat was served at Aligarh Muslim University's college canteen as was claimed by some right wing groups, police said.

"A police team led by the Station House Officer, Civil Lines Police Station, visited Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College's canteen immediately after receiving complaints by some right wing organisations that beef by being served there.

"However, the team found no incriminating evidence whatsoever to suggest that any banned food item was being served in the canteen," Senior Superintendent of Police K Ravindra Gaur said.

The row broke out after ring wing activists alleged that 'beef biryani' was being served at the AMU Medical College canteen, an allegation promptly denied by the university.

BJP Mayor Shakuntala Bharti, along with party leaders and several right wing activists, held a demonstration outside the office of Senior Superintendent of Police, demanding registration of an FIR against the contractor of AMU medical college canteen for serving 'beef'.

An university spokesman clarified that it was a common practice in India and abroad to refer to buffalo meat also as beef.

In fact cow meat had been banned in this institution more than a century back by its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, keeping in view Hindu sensitivities on this matter, he said.

AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt Gen (Rtd) Zameer Uddin Shah, today said that he was "seriously concerned" over the entire episode and the fact the City Mayor had taken up this issue with the police.

"I wish to point out that there is no truth whatsoever in the entire allegation that cow meat is being served anywhere at the AMU campus. This is entirely an attempt to whip up communal tension on a very lame excuse," Shah said.

"We, at AMU, are deeply aware of the sentiments involved in such sensitive issues and there is no question of permitting anybody for violating the law on this matter," he said.
For Captain Pawan Kumar, a Jat and a JNU degree holder, all that mattered was love for the country and not calls of azadi on the campus or reservation demand by his community members in Haryana.

"Kisiko reservation chahiye to kisiko azadi bhai. Humein kuchh nahin chahiye bhai. Bas apni razai. (Some want reservation and some independence, I don't want anything, brother, I want only my quilt)," said the 23-year-old captain of the Special Forces, who laid down his life while leading his team against terrorists in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir in his last Facebook post yesterday.

The young para commando had been in the Army for only three years after graduating from the Defence Academy. Under a tie-up NDA has with JNU, he had a degree from the prestigious university in Delhi.

The 10 Para Special Forces officer was leading his men from the front in a complicated operation in a 7-storey building in Pampore where at least three terrorists had holed up.

The army described him as an "inspiring leader", who in spite of being injured in an earlier anti-terrorist operation, went on to volunteer for more operations.

The young officer belonged to Haryana which is witnessing large-scale violence over the demand by Jats for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.

His Facebook account gives one a glimpse into his life. He has posted pictures of him with motorbikes and jeeps. One of his profile pictures he posted last year was of his dog Tyson, a young Rottweiler.
Asserting its sovereignty over Katchatheevu, a Sri Lankan Minister today said it was not possible for the island nation to return the islet to India.

"Katchatheevu is part of Sri Lanka according to an agreement and hence it was not possible to give it back to India," Sri Lankan Deputy Minister for Child and Women's Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran told reporters.

As per the 1974 and 1976 agreements, India had ceded Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

On the fishing rights of Indian fishermen in Katchatheevu, she said both the nations must work together to resolve the issue.

"Governments of both the countries must work together to devise a permanent solution to the fishermen problem," Maheswaran said.

On releasing the seized boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen, who strayed into their waters, she said they belonged to Sri Lanka and lawprohibited to release them.

Vijayakala was at Katchatheevu to participate in the two-day annual St Antony's festival, which began yesterday. She said about 4,500 persons from Sri Lanka and 3,000 pilgrims from India participated in the event.
One person was killed and 11 others, including four policemen, injured in an explosion in Egypt's restive North Sinai province.

A roadside bomb went off when an armoured vehicle passed by it in Al-Arish city late yesterday, killing a 19-year-old civilian, security officials said.

Security forces cordoned off the area and are investigating the incident.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled the 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 700 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.
Notwithstanding BJP's optimism,PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti today remained ambivalent on progress in talks on government formation, maintaining that she will be on board once she is convinced that she can "fulfill the dreams" of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for Jammu and Kashmir.

"That only time can tell," was the cryptic response of the PDP president to reporters when they asked her if there was any forward movement in talks with the BJP for government formation in the state.

Just days earlier, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had flown to Srinagar and held talks with the PDP chief after which he had said that "both parties are positive" on continuing with the arrangement.

Mehbooba, who attended first public function today after Sayeed's death on January 7, said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.

"The parliament session is starting on Feb 23... I am going to attend it. I have asked questions... If the Parliament is allowed to function.

"There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we don't know what will happen in Parliament," she said.

Earlier, addressing the party workers, Mehbooba said coming to power was not her goal.

"If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then only it is worth it. If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me," she said.

The PDP president said her late father throughout his political career spanning over five decades struggled for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Only 12 years of his long political career, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in power. However, he remained alive (in politics) due to the support of the people.

"He wanted to keep the state united and resolve the issues they faced," she said.

Recalling the last few days of her father, Mehbooba said despite the advice of doctors, he continued to work and was concerned about the people of the state.

"Even in the hospital, he asked me if the money for flood victims has been released (by the Centre), whether the work on additional accommodation for Kashmiri Pandits at Sheikhpura had been started. .. When I told him that Prime Minister Modi had visited Pakistan," he just smiled.

"He did not sacrifice his life so that I can get the chair. He sacrificed his life for you," Mehbooba, choking on her words, said.

On Sayeed's decision to ally with BJP, the PDP president said her father was ready for electoral loss but wanted to take the people of the state out of this uncertainty.

"He was of the belief that Modiji with such a huge mandate can take the state out of its troubles if he is able to convince him about the need for India-Pakistan friendship and resolution of outstanding issues," she said.

Mehbooba said Sayeed wanted Jammu and Kashmir to become a bridge between India and Pakistan.

The PDP President recalled how her father had canvassed



for opening of cross-Line of Control routes in his first tenure as chief minister.

The PDP president said Sayeed was a nationalist who believed in democracy and secularism of India.

"He started his career when there was a plebiscite movement in Kashmir... When talking in favour of India was considered blasphemous.

"But he was impressed by democracy where rich and poor had one vote each, where more Hindus can be seen at a Sufi saint's shrine than Muslims," she said.

The PDP president said her father was not the one to follow the beaten track and would not hesitate to go against the tide if it was in the interest of the people of the state.

"You should understand why he (Sayeed) created PDP. He never used to tread easy path but would create (new) ways, however difficult, and when he used to step on that road, he would not look back. He would never make a U-turn.

"He would never say something was right one day and wrong the day after," Mehbooba said.

She said she has been hearing since the last one-and-a-half months that the chief ministerial chair was her "inheritance" from Mufti.

"The inheritance from my father is not the chair. Mufti's legacy is so large than it cannot fit in the chair.

"It is courage, strength and the love for the people here which he always had in his heart. His inheritance for me is to tread those roads which nobody dares to take," she said.

The PDP president said that gun was not a solution to the issues which can be addressed through a dialogue.

"I am happy that they (BJP) understood that there is no option other than what Mufti used to say (regarding dialogue with Pakistan). There is America, a big power, but it has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"There is Syria and Libya, are they not independent nations? But once the gun entered, everything was lost.

"Gun does not benefit anyone. I can feel the pain of the parents who lost their sons yesterday or when any youth takes to gun and is killed in an encounter," she said.

"Our commitment is for dialogue among all and (former PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee's policy that we cannot change neighbours and have to have good relations with Pakistan.

"But how will that happen? If we want, and we should want, that our country and Pakistan should have dialogue, then that decision has to be taken here and not there and when we create such atmosphere here. Pakistan should also help us in that."



She said whenever there is an atmosphere of war, its impact is on Jammu an Kashmir.

"See, there is a fight on whether to show a film or not, but the trade continues on Wagah border," she said on a row over boycott of Pakistani artistes.

Reaching out to police, she said, "We all have to work together, heal the wounds of the people here. The children here are the responsibility of God first, then our police because it is they who see them every day, everywhere.

"These kids should have basketballs,cricket bats in their hands."



The chief minister said children have to focus on their education and solving issues is the job of the elders.

Mehbooba said there were "instances where we made mistakes and which should not have happened" and cited cases like death of Junaid in Safakadal and a lecturer in Khrew area of Pulwama.

"If a family member has made a mistake, there should be action because we have to save the family," she said.

She asked the police to do hand-holding of the children and engage "in parenting and not just policing".

"Whatever amount of bullets had to be fired, they have been fired. I hope you will try from now on that even if you have to take a wound from a stone, take it, but try to avoid injuries to the children," she said.

"We cannot single handedly create atmosphere for dialogue. We need the help of the people, the police and the security forces in that," she said.
Over 3,000 devoteeswho attended the annual St Antony's church festival in Katchatheevu islet off Sri Lanka, returned to this coastal town today.

The pilgrims had gone in 92 boats to attend the two-day festival, which began on February 20 after undergoing checks by police and customs officials, Fr Sagayaraj, coordinator of the pilgrimage, said.

The festivalbegan with the flag-hoisting ceremony followed by 'Way of Cross' procession and after the annual feast, the pilgrims returned, he said.

The pilgrims said they were treated well by Sri Lankan authorities and were given snacks and food during the festival.
In a security scare, a man today hurled a packet, claiming it was a bomb, at a stage when Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Minister Ananth Kumar and former Chief Justice M N Venkatachaliah were present there.

A man seated on the balcony of Ravindra Kalakshetra auditorium here suddenly stood up as Siddaramaih started to speak and shouted, "What have you done to our community? Tell that first."



He then threw the "plastic packet" on to the stage which fell short of the chief minister and lay close to where Kumar and Venkatachaliah were seated, police said.

Security personnel present on stage soon cleared the packet and the man was whisked away from the auditorium by police even as he continued questioning the CM.

Police said the packet contained chocolate wrappers and the man was being questioned.

"According to preliminary information, the man has been identified as B S Prasad and works with the Forest Division of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP)," said Sandeep Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division) Bengaluru City.

Stating that police are in the process of collecting information about him from BBMP and also his family members, Patil added the man's responses to police questions were peculiar.

"He is saying that he wants to become Member of Rajya Sabha so he had come there. We are gathering information about him and his activities," Patil said.

Speaking to reporters after the function, denied that the incident was a security breach, saying "such incidents are common in a democracy."



"I don't know which caste he belongs to, whichever caste is depressed and oppressed we are working for them. Such things are common in a democracy. I have seen such things several times," said.

The chief minister said he felt there might be someone who instigated the man as otherwise he did not see the need for him to behave in such a manner.
Veteranactress Sharmila Tagore could not cross the Wagah Border into India today as Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency Immigration stopped her for not having a'police report' of her stay in Lahore.

Tagore, who had come here on a four-day visit to participate in the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), was escorted by police to get to Wagah Border.

The Punjab government had given her 'official protocol' after her meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

However, when she reached Wagah Border the immigration officials told her that 'police report' was missing from her travel documents.

On her inquiry that "can't I go with this document", the immigration official said 'No'.

An FIA official told PTI that a protocol official accompanying Tagore contacted the police station concerned and arranged the report in about two hours through fax.

"By the time the police report matter was resolved Tagore, who was waiting at the guest room, changed her mind to cross the border. She decided to leave for India on Monday and returned to hotel on the Mall Road," the official said.

Perhaps, missing her flight Amritsar-Mumbai was the reason to extend her stay in Lahore for one more day, he said.

During her stay in Lahore, Tagore called on Prime Minister Sharif yesterday at his palatial Jati Umra residence in Raiwind and had a dinner with him and his family members.

She was warmly received by the family members of Sharif especially his daughter Maryum Nawaz.

Sharif, an admirer of Tagore, also inquired her about the health of iconic actor Dilip Kumar.

The prime minister told Tagore that Pakistan wanted cordial relations with India.
Pakistan has withdrawn the security of prosecution chief in the Mumbai attack case following which he has refused to appear for future hearings, the latest in a series of hurdles in the high-profile case in which the government has been accused of using delaying tactics.

The government has given no reason regarding withdrawing of the security of Chaudhry Azhar, who is also a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency.

"Yes, the government has withdrawn my security and I will not attend the Mumbai case hearing (till security is provided to me)," Azhar told PTI today.

He said he is facing threats and cannot attend the court proceedings of the high-profile case without security.

Azhar assumed the charge of the chief prosecution in the Mumbai case in May, 2013 after his predecessor Chaudhry Zulfiqar was gunned down allegedly by two members of the banned Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Azhar said he has "brought the matter to the knowledge of the trial court which directed the Inspector General Police Islamabad to provide me the required security".

When asked as to why the federal government had withdrawn his security, he said he had no knowledge of it.

"I did not attend the last hearing because of this and will not attend the future ones till my security is fully restored," he said.

A couple of years ago, the prosecution lawyers had also requested the trial court to ensure their and witnesses' security in the face of threats they received allegedly from Jamaat-ud-Dawah activists.

In the last hearing on February 17, theAnti-Terrorism Court Islamabad holding the attack trial ordered the Federal Investigation Agency to present all 24 Indian witnesses in the court to record their statements besides ordering to bring back the boats used by Ajmal Kasab and seized by India as it is case property and should be duly examined.

The court's summoning of Indian witnesses is being seen by law experts as 'delaying tactics' of the already delayed trial which has been pending for the last six years or so.

Seven accused - Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum - have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India's financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008.

Fifty-six-year old Lakhvi has been on bail since last April and is enjoying freedom at 'undisclosed location' in the country.
A Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank today and was shot dead, Israel's army said, the latest incident in a nearly five-month wave of violence.

The attack occurred at the Bitot Junction south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

"A Palestinian attacker attempted to stab an (Israeli) soldier at the Bitot Junction," the army said. "The force responded to the imminent danger, thwarting the attack and firing towards the assailant, resulting in his death."



Palestinian security sources spoke of gunfire targeting a Palestinian in the area.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have killed 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Many of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, while others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today expressed his grief over the loss of lives in the ongoing Pampore terrorist attack.

Three army commandos, including two Captains, and a militant were killed today in the fierce gunfight with a group of terrorists holed up inside a government building on the outskirts of Srinagar, raising the toll to seven in the encounter that began yesterday afternoon.

The Governor has expressed grief over the death of five personnel of CRPF and Army including two young Army officers and a devoted civilian employee of Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) in the continuing terror attack at Pampore, a statement from Raj Bhawan said.

Vohra conveyed his sympathy to the bereaved families of the slain soldiers and the civilian and prayed for peace for the departed souls.

He also wished for speedy recovery of the injured soldiers.

The Governor has been constantly monitoring the situation with the top security officials, including the Northern Army Commander and DGP, the statement added.
Three army commandos, including two Captains, and a militant were killed today in the fierce gunfight with a group of terrorists holed up inside a government building on the outskirts of Srinagar, raising the toll to seven in the encounter that began yesterday afternoon.

The multi-storied building of Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building in Pampore caught fire this afternoon as the encounter between army and the heavily-armed terrorists, suspected to be 3-4 in number, continued till late tonight on the second day.

Through the day, the terrorists kept on firing and throwing grenades on the security forces who have surrounded the building and making attempts to storm it.

Army lost Captain Pawan Kumar, Captain Tushar Mahajan and jawan Om Prakash, all of the elite Para commando units, in the gunbattle today. The army succeeded in eliminating one of the terrorists by this evening, an official said.

Captain Pawan Kumar, who hailed from Haryana's Jind, sustained grievous injuries in militant firing as security forces tried to make their way into the building in the wee hours today, an army official said. He succumbed to injuries later.

Captain Tushar Mahajan from Udhampur was also injured in the encounter and succumbed to injuries later at hospital.

As the security forces exchanged heavy gunfire with the holed up militants, another soldier from the Para unit, Om Prakash, was injured and taken to 92 Base Hospital of the Army at Badamibagh Cantonment where he succumbed.

The terrorists have been holed up in the building since yesterday afternoon after they attacked a CRPF convoy, killing two jawans and a civilian and injuring nine other jawans.

Nearly 100 civilians -- staff and students of Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) -- were evacuated to safety by the security forces from the building, a police official said.

He said the operation might be prolonged as militants seem to be heavily armed.

The open structure of the building where the militants are hiding also poses a difficulty to the security forces in advancing towards it, he added.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today kick-started its membership drive from summer capital Srinagar where many of the senior leaders renewed their association with the party.

The membership drive was started by party president Mehbooba Mufti during a workers convention near the party s headquarters here.

Many senior leaders, including legislators and former ministers, participated in the membership drive and renewed their membership of the party by paying an amount of Rs 100.

Addressing the workers, Mehbooba said the party launched the membership drive from Srinagar as it was her father and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's life culminated here.

"We had to start membership much before but Mufti sahib wished to do it in January. We felt it pertinent to start the drive from Srinagar as his journey culminated in Srinagar," she said.

The PDP president asked the workers to start the membership at the booth-level and attract new faces to the party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to arrive in his Lok Sabha constituency here tonight for taking part in birth anniversary celebrations of 15th century Dalit poet Shri Ravidas besides attending the convocation ceremony at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) tomorrow.

As per the revised protocol, the Prime Minister will reach Varanasi airport from Kolkata.

In the morning, the Prime Minister is scheduled to pay a visit to the Ravidas Mandir - a temple dedicated to the mystic who holds a special place in the hearts of Dalits - where he may partake 'langar' (food prepared in the community kitchen).

Modi is also expected to meet NRIs belonging to the 'Ravidasiya' sect, comprising mostly Sikhs from Punjab, who are devotees of the Varanasi-born poet-mystic.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also expected to visit the shrine later in the day in an apparent bid to woo the Sikhs belonging to this sect, with an eye on the upcoming Punjab elections.

The sect has played an important role in construction of the temple, a few kilometres from here, and every year the celebration of the birth anniversary of Shri Ravidas in this eastern UP town, better known for the myriad Hindu temples dotting its landscape, is marked by a large turnout of devotees from Punjab.

After spending some time at the temple, Modi will return to BHU to attend the convocation ceremony.

Earlier, varsity authorities had expressed their desire to confer an honorary doctorate on the Prime Minister. However, the offer was declined earlier this week by Modi, who cited his "policy of not accepting such degrees".

The Prime Minister would fly back to Delhi from Varanasi airport at tomorrow.

The PM's message to the booth-level workers of the BJP,



drawn from all five assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituency, will set the tone for the party foot soldiers faced with a daunting task of holding their own in a state where politics has been dominated by two rival regional players -- the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

From being a force to reckon with in the state in the 1990s, thanks to the momentum generated by the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the BJP underwent a steep decline in the first decade of the century.

However, expectations have been high since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the party stunned all by putting up its best-ever performance, winning 71 out of the 78 seats it had contested in the state.

The spectacular comeback owed much to Modi's decision to step out of Gujarat and contest from this eastern UP seat.

The party's performance in the assembly polls in the state -- which is the most populous and hence sends maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha -- will have a bearing on its future prospects on the national level.

This will be Modi's ninth tour of Varanasi since he became the Prime Minister in May, 2014.

Significantly, tomorrow's visit will also be his fifth since January this year.

The increased frequency of his trips here is seen as one of the many efforts being made by the BJP to improve its tally in the 403-strong UP assembly where it has less than 50 MLAs.
Slamming critical NGOs and black-marketeers, Prime Minister today accused them of conspiring to destabilise his government and "defame" him and asserted that he will carry on with his work without bowing to any machinations.

He said "some people" were not able to digest the fact that a "chai wala" (tea seller) has become the Prime Minister and hence were conspiring all the time to bring him down.

He was addressing a farmers' rally here after a brief visit to Chhattisgarh where he said his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed and deprived sections of the society as he launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres.

While enlisting the measures taken by his government for the welfare of the farmers, a combative Modi told the gathering, "You would have seen in the recent past, there is attack on me all the time. Some people are continuously at it. They are not able to digest how Modi became the Prime Minister, how a 'chai wala' became the Prime Minister, they cannot swallow it."



Without naming anybody or any specific instance, he said he had taken some steps because of which "these people are facing problems".

ALSO READ: PM Modi launches Rurban Mission from Chhattisgarh

He made the remarks while talking about the neem-coating of urea being done to avoid its pilferage and routing to chemical factories like in the past.

"Since we have done neem coating, will those chemical factories which were looting not be angry with Modi? If something is against Modi, will they not help it? Will they not shout against Modi," he asked the gathering.

The Prime Minister said that NGOs receive money from foreign countries and his government was seeking the account.

"We said let it come but give account of the funds received. The moment we started asking for accounts, they all got together and said 'Modi ko Maaro', 'Modi ko Maaro' (hit Modi), he is seeking accounts from us," he said and asserted that "the country needs to know where the money that comes in is being spent. It is in the law."



He said since the government started asking for accounts, "they all (NGOs) got together and have been conspiring all the time how to finish Modi, how to remove Modi government and how to defame Modi.

"But my dear brothers and sisters, you have elected me to cure the country of this disease and I am doing this.

"Whatever they may say against me, I am not going to deviate from the path of the work you have entrusted me. I am not going to stop, or get tired and there is no question of bowing to it."



The Prime Minister said he knows what is "irritating" and "pinching" his detractors but "we will not allow the country to be looted or destroyed.

Modi focussed his speech on his government's initiatives



for the welfare of the farming community, including Irrigation scheme, Crop Insurance Scheme and Soil Health Card scheme.

He said even the Start-Up scheme launched by him recently could be used for the development of the agriculture sector as it was not confined to hi-tech sectors like IT only.

The Prime Minister said the government is giving thrust to agriculture sector as it is convinced that the country can have 2nd Green Revolution in which Odisha and other eastern states should take the lead.

"I am your 'pradhan sewak'. Can we all together, the Centre and the states, work to ensure that the farmers' income is doubled by 2022, the 75th anniversary of the country's Independence? Let us all make some contribution to fufill the dreams of those who fought for the Independence," he said.

"I live for the farmers", Modi said as he appealed to the agriculture community to make ample use of the Crop Insurance scheme as it will help them during the time of crisis.

He said the newly-launched scheme is so good, as compared to the earlier ones, that even the critics have not been able to criticise it.

Earlier in Dongargarh, a remote village in Chhattisgarh, Modi launched 'Rurban Mission' amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.

He also launched the 'Jan Aushadhi Medical Store' campaign under which 100 generic medicines stores will be opened at government district hospitals and community health centres.

"This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row," he said.

Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, Modi said these are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. "This is the only way that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path," he said.

Noting that the 'Rurban Mission' was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up because of migration.

While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, Modi said a "huge country" like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and "good life" like education, healthcare and internet while retaining the "rural spirit".

Under the 'Rurban Mission', he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.

100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, he said at the event which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh among others.
Prime Minister David Cameron today began the daunting challenge of persuading Britain to stay in the European Union, declaring war on rebels within his Cabinet, a day after announcing a June 23 referendum on the UK's membership of the 28-nation bloc.

The battle lines were drawn instantly within the Cabinet along the "Leave" or "Remain" campaign, with Priti Patel, the senior-most Indian-origin member of the Cabinet, coming out openly in favour of leaving the EU.

Ahead of the Prime Minister's address to the parliament on the proposed EU deal struck in Brussels, the UK employment minister and Cameron's Indian Diaspora Champion joined other senior colleagues like UK justice secretary Michael Gove and Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers.

"Leaving the EU will enable us to restore proper immigration controls, protect our borders, and prevent EU nationals from abusing our benefits and welfare system," Patel told 'The Sunday Times'.

"For too long the EU's unaccountable institutions have meddled in our affairs, imposed unwelcome and costly laws on this country, prevented us from deporting those individuals who should not be in this country and they have taken money from hardworking taxpayers' pockets.

Each week 350 million pounds of taxpayers' money is sent to Brussels and this would be better spent in this country on our own priorities," she said.

In his interview with the newspaper, Cameron in turn challenged these Eurosceptics to explain to the British public what the country's relationship would be like with Europe if the UK voted to leave.

Cameron said: "The people who want out have got to explain what out is. Either you go for a Norway-style deal and you keep the access to the single market but with no say over the rules, no influence over its direction while paying into the budget and also signing up to free movement, or you try to go for a trade deal.

"Most trade deals take four, five, six years to negotiate and so the people who want to support that have got to set out what it means. If you have a deal like Norway you pay as much in per head but you have no say over the rules and you are subject to free movement."



In another blow to the Prime Minister, senior Conservative party MP and London mayor Boris Johnson, who is said to be "genuinely conflicted", is expected to also join the "Leave" camp.

Asked by the BBC if he would like to send Johnson a message, Cameron said: "I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else. We will be safer, we'll be stronger, we'll be better off inside the EU.
A 104-year-old woman from a village in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district who sold her goats for constructing toilet at her home, today came in for special praise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said it is a big sign of changing India.

Modi felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari for her efforts to make her village open defecation free, during the launch of 'Rurban Mission' at Kurrubhat village in the state's Naxal-hit Rajandgaon district today.

Two development blocks - Ambagarh Chowki and Chhuriya - of Rajnandgaon were also declared open defecation free by the PM during the programme.

"An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her. She sold off her goats to build toilet at home and also encouraged others from the village to build," Modi said.

Kunwar Bai had sold-off her 8-10 goats to build two toilets at her home.

Subsequently, she started showing other villagers the toilets at her home while informing them about its importance. Now every home in the village has toilets.

Calling it as a major change taking place at the roots of the country,Modi said, "The country is changing. It seems when a woman at a remote village makes efforts to fulfil dream of clean India mission, she is an inspiration for everyone, especially youths."



"I would like to tell media that you don't cover me but spread the story of this woman all over the country," the PM urged.

Modi also praised the residents of two Ambagarh Chowki



andChhuriya blocks for being open defecation free with toilets at all homes.

"Even a Prime Minister has to think before enforcing taxes (on public), but people in these blocks without hesitation decided to slap fine on those who defecated in open which is a good initiative for the welfare of society," he said.

"Making an area open defecation free is a biggest advantage and respect to our mother and sisters who have to go down to fields and forests (to relieve themselves). I bow my head in respect to them," Modi said.

"We would make sure that each and every home of the country should have toilets by October 2019 under 'Clean India Mission',"he added.

Modi also felicitated Phoolbasan Bai Yadav, a social worker for her efforts towards development of economically and socially backward women in the state. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2012 for her work.

On the occasion, the PM also highlighted the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna.
Prime Minister today launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.

Noting that the mission was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up because of migration.

While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, Modi said a "huge country" like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and "good life" like education, healthcare and internet while retaining the "rural spirit".

Read more from our special coverage on "NARENDRA MODI"

"This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row," he said.

Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, Modi said these are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. "This is the only way that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path," he said.

Under the 'Rurban Mission', he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.

100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, the Prime Minister said at the event which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh among others.

"There will be big change in quality of life. Pressure on cities will reduce and new cities will be developed, which will be planned and have good economic activity. I am sure crores and crores of people will benefit from this," he said.
Jat protesters today burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside the residence of Minister of State For External Affairs and Union minister V K Singh.

Manvir Singh, the district president of RLD, leding a group of agitators who burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside the residence V K Singh, the local MP.

The ongoing Jat stir for reservation today spread to the district. Protesters blocked several road intersections and railway tracks, sources said.

A group of protesters blocked Hapur-Chungi intersection in the afternoon, Salman Taz Patil, City superintendent of police said.

The traffic was diverted from Dasna toll plaza towards NH-24 Lal Quan-Vijay Nagar by-pass.

Rapid Action Force (RAF) and PAC was deployed at Soniya Vihar Ganga Canal water regulator near Abupur village of Muradnagar in anticipation of possible disruption of water supply to Delhi by protesters, Rajesh Pandey,Superintendent of police (rural) said.

A group ofprotestersbelonging to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) blocked the Delhi-Meerut railway track near Duhai village.

Police reached there and persuaded theprotestersto clear the railwaytrack.

In Loni Jat protesters led by Jagmer Singh Dhama of Jat Sabha blocked vehicular traffic on Delhi-Sahranpur road for an hour.

Traffic was diverted from Loni tri-section towards Teela Shahbazpur, said Pandey.

District Magistrate Vimal Kumar Sharma said no untoward incident was reported in the district.
The Prime Minister's Office has nudged the Law Ministry to finalise the new Memorandum of Procedure, a document which guides the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, so it can be handed over to the Chief Justice of India for a final decision.

In a letter to the Law Ministry on Wednesday, the PMO asked it to give final shape to the document after consulting the Attorney General.

The Supreme Court had late last year asked the government to draft a fresh MoP in consultation with states and high courts.

Chief Justice of India and members of the collegium will take a final call on the draft memorandum of procedure which the government will hand over to the CJI in the coming days.

The earlier drafts were also prepared after consulting Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

The MoP is a roadmap on how a judge will be appointed.

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 draft MoP for appointment of members to the higher judiciary is being prepared after the Supreme Court struck down the 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 left it to the Law Ministry to draft the MoP in consultation with CMs and chief justices of the 24 high courts.

However, despite reminders, only eight states, including Gujarat, Nagaland and Meghalaya have responded with their suggestions.

The government is unlikely to suggest bringing under the ambit of RTI the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts as it feels it would not be a practical idea.

There is a feeling within the government, sources said,



that bringing the process of appointment and elevation of judges to the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts under the transparency law would not be practical as the collegium will be flooded by RTI applications from candidates and other "interested parties" seeking file notings and other details.

But at the same time, amid calls to make the system of appointment of members to the higher judiciary more transparent, government is likely to include a clause that any dissent note to a recommendation of the collegium to appoint or elevate a judge should be mandatorily shared with the Executive.

When the Supreme Court was hearing ways to improve the collegium system, government had pressed for bringing the system of appointment under the ambit of RTI to usher in greater transparency.

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.

Government and judiciary are learnt to be on the same page on the issue of creating a permanent secretariat.

Earlier the CJI had decided to wait for the fresh MoP before recommending transfers and appointments. But later the SC collegium started recommending transfers and elevations as government was taking time in finalising the document.

So far the collegium has refrained from naming people from the lower judiciary and the Bar as judges of high courts or the Supreme Court.
A gunman drove around a western Michigan city randomly shooting people in the parking lots of a restaurant, car dealership and apartment complex, killing at least seven, including a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.

A 45-year-old man was arrested today following a massive manhunt after the shootings began last evening, authorities said.

A 14-year-old girl was among five people fatally shot outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant, said Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas, while a father and son were killed at the dealership.

A woman who was shot multiple times at an apartment complex was in serious condition early today, Matyas said, correcting an earlier statement in which he'd said nine people had been shot.

Matyas said earlier that authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst case scenario."



"These are random murders," he said.

Matyas told WWMT-TV that the suspect did not resist when approached by law enforcement officers in downtown Kalamazoo, and that weapons were found in the man's vehicle.

"The threat to the public is over," he said.

Kalamazoo is about 258 km west of Detroit.
A police personnel was killed while another was injured when a two-wheeler collided head-on with their motorcycle, while they were on night patrol duty at Mharal village in the district, police said today.

The deceased was identified as V S Wagh and the injured as T V Sable (35), both attached to Kalyan taluka police station, they said.

The two were on patrol duty last night, when a two-wheeler rammed head-on into their motorcycle on Kalyan-Murbad road, police said.

In the collision, Wagh died on the spot, while Sable got injured and was rushed to a hospital, they said.

The driver of the two-wheeler fled the scene after the incident, they said.

A case has been registered against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act, police said, adding further investigation is on.
In the backdrop of ongoing agitations in Haryana and Cooch Behar in West Bengal, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today appealed to protesters to not block railway lines or harm railway properties as it causes inconvenience to the common people.

"We wanted to launch a project in Cooch Behar but couldn't do it due to the ongoing agitation there. So let me take this opportunity to tell all the demonstrators, who may have genuine grievance. They should not block the railway tracks for doing that," Prabhu said while addressing a program here.

"You can always have a right to demonstrate that's a democratic right, we respect that right. But we appeal to you that it is the common people of India who face most inconvenience," he added.

Pointing out that most of the people who travel by train have no other means of transportation, Prabhu said, "They (rail passengers) cannot fly because they don't have enough money, they even find bus travel more expensive than rail travel.

"Therefore I appeal to all my friends in West Bengal, Haryana, please don't block the railway traffic. Your grievances can be dealt with separately," Prabhu said.

Noting that Railways incurred losses due to these agitations, Prabhu said, "Because of the agitations in Haryana, Railways has lost a very precious property. Now we have to find that money as railways is under pressure to find the money. And if you burn it, forget additional facilities, the present infrastructure needs to be strengthened by piling more money. So please don't block railway tracks."



Rail services are severely hampered in Haryana with agitating Jats squatting on railway tracks at various places, leading to the cancellation of various trains.

Prabhu today inaugurated the commencement of work for Sankrail-Satragachi Broad Gauge Link Line via Flyover, commencement of construction work of Underground Metro between Airport and Jessore Roads.

He also introduced 14 additional metro services during peak hours.

Prabhu also talked about staggered office timing in order to take care of peak time traffic in a much better way.
Prince William and wife Kate's Kensington Palace staff may go on strike in protest against a 3,000 pound pay cut.

The staff, who deal with members of the public visiting the palace in central London, have been asked to accept reduced working hours, which will hit their annual earnings hard, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

The UK's Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is to hold talks on a compromise deal tomorrow but a source close to the negotiations told the newspaper that a ballot to strike was likely to follow.

All the workers involved are uniformed wardens who are employed in the parts of the palace open to the public, protecting the exhibits and helping visitors, as well as working in the ticket office.

The staff at Kensington Palace are threatening to go on strike after rejecting plans forcing them to accept a 3,000 pounds pay cut, the report said.

One staff member was quoted as saying: "It's in the contract that they can cut the London living allowance and they're also cutting the starting times in the morning and the finishing times. I'll miss it if I have to go but I just couldn't carry on working here if it goes ahead."



It follows a similar dispute at Windsor Castle last year - thought to be the first in the history of the monarchy, which saw staff threatening to strike over additional duties that they were being asked to take on without a pay rise.

The palace, which is the London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, underwent a 12 million pound refurbishment which completed in 2012.

Improvements to the private apartments now used by William and Kate were completed in 2014 and cost a further 4.5 million pounds.

The public part of the building is run by Historic Royal Palaces charity and attracts about 400,000 visitors a year to its exhibitions, restaurant and functions.

The charity said: "The changes to working hours affect a small number of colleagues in the front-of-house team at Kensington Palace. We have given a year's notice of the planned changes and are currently in discussions with the PCS union."



"We value our staff very highly and hope to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement," the charity said.
Hollywood makeup artist Donald Simrock says actress Priyanka Chopra is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

"I am obsessed with Priyanka Chopra. She is one of the most beautiful women in the world," Simrock, who is currently in Mumbai to attend Bollywood Hollywood International (BHI) Make up and Hair academy's workshop, told PTI over phone.

The 33-year-old Indian star recently made Hollywood television debut with crime thriller "Quantico" and also won this year's People's Choice Award for Favorite Actress in a New TV Series.

Simrock was all praisefor the "Mary Kom" actress for her acting in "Quantico" and said he would like to work with her.

"She has done an amazing job. It's exciting to see people like her cross over to American market and have success," he said.

Simrock, whose career spans over two decades, said he has no experience working with Indian film industry.

"I haven't had any personal experience to work in Bollywood. I am interested to work there. Bollywood has so many amazing people. But working with Bollywood stars is not my active priority right now,," he said.

To a query about the prospects of makeup artists in India, Simrock said, "Bollywood is a huge market for makeup artists as it represents the country of people who are aware about their culture and style."



The celebrity makeup artist has worked with clients like Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Eva Mendes, Lindsay Lohan, Avril Lavigne, Cindy Crawford, Kate Upton, Nicki Minaj, Madonna among others.

He said celebrities are more about their talents but it is equally important to enhance their features.

"It is equally important to make them shine from outside along with their inner talents," he said.

Simrock said makeup differs depending on the kind of occasion, like makeup for red carpet it is about personal character and style while for photoshoot it has to be creative and colourful.

In Hollywood, he said, the makeup is about looking best of whatever age the actors are.

"It is about portraying best in the public. Simrock has no personal favourite amongst his clients. It is unfair to say one is better than other. All are different from each other. Everybody has a special quality," he said.
Led by a group of ex-servicemen, thousands of people today hit the streets against "anti- national" activities in JNU, a march that is believed to have been backed by BJP and the RSS who are under Opposition fire over the ongoing row at the premier university.

The rally from Raj Ghat to Jantar Mantar saw marchers fervently waving the tricolour and raising slogans like 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' with some of them saying that nothing is above 'nationalism'.

"Massive rally in Delhi led by ex-Generals against incidents at JNU in Delhi. Tens of thousands joined spontaneously," BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

BJP and RSS are undertsood to have mobilised crowd for the rally. "Lakhs of citizens including families of former soldiers at #MarchForUnity proved that we'd stand together for respect of motherland. JaiHind!" BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted.

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also hit back at opposition parties over their charge that the Narendra Modi government was misusing the sedition law as he quoted official data to claim that maximum arrests under it were made in Bihar, where JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance is in power and which has been ruled by Nitish Kumar for over 10 years.

Anti-India activities have long taken place on campuses but the BJP government will not tolerate it, he said, adding, "Those who engage in it will find themselves behind bars."



Amid political wranglings over the issue, renowned thinker and academician Noam Chomsky questioned Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar's decision to allow police on its campus, saying it was apparently "created and precipitated" by the government and the university administration.

Chomsky, who along with Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and 86 other academicians from renowned universities abroad, had last week condemned "the culture of authoritarian menace", said action against students were taken with "no credible evidence" of any seditious activities on campus.

"Why did you allow the police on campus when it is clear that this was not legally required?" Chomsky said in an email to the VC.

At the campus, teachers continued to take open-air classes on "Nationalism" as part of the ongoing protest demanding release of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar who was arrested for allegedly raising anti-India slogans.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear tomorrow a plea seeking contempt action against Kumar, former DU lecturer SAR Gilani and few others on the ground that they allegedly termed the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as "judicial killing".

Kumar was arrested on February 12. While the students and teachers supporting him have condemned raising of anti- national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.

The organisers of the rally, billed as "apolitical", had



earlier denied any involvement of RSS or BJP in the rally although it was publicised and invites were sent out by office bearers of the ABVP among others.

"Let's march and let's have a positive narrative. 'Bharat jodo' (unite India) to counter the 'Bharat todo' (break India) narrative," Major General (Retd) Dhruv C Katoch, one of the organisers, said.

Coming out in support of Kumar, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his "seditious" speech in English and uploading their videos online.

"I am not going to judge recent actions by the schools, by the students or by the government, but you know I watch it (incidents at JNU) with concern because I care about the people there," University of Chicago's Vice-President for Global Engagement Ian Solomon told
Rajasthan BJP chief Ashok Parnami today termed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi sitting with protesters in JNU as "disgusting" and said there should be a debate on patriotism and nationalism.

"People's sentiments were hurt by the way anti-national slogans were raised by some elements which is highly deplorable. More disgusting is the participation of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who sat with the protesters," he said.

"We welcome the government's position that there should be a debate on JNU issue related to patriotism and nationalism," the state BJP chief said on the sidelines of a programme here.

"Anti-national activities like that in JNU should not be allowed. There should be a healthy debate cutting across the party lines over this," Parnami said.

Earlier, addressing a conference titled 'Prevention and Action Against Insurgency Activities in India', Parnami said it was for the first time the BJP-led NDA government initiated cases against those allegedly involved in anti-national activities and booked them for sedition.

Speaking at the programme organised by a group of lawyers here, Rajasthan High Court Judge Manish Bhandari said each one of us should fulfil fundamental duties enshrined in the Constitution.

The country cannot be divided on the lines of caste, creed and religion. Harmony and brotherhood should prevail, he said.

There is a need for change in laws, system and people's thinking, but more importantly, media should play a positive role in such matters, Justice Bhandari said.

Deputy Speaker of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Rao Rajendra Singh said there is a need to preserve original culture (sanskriti) and Indian ideology should be patriotic.

If some of the citizens are misguided, they should be brought to the mainstream, he said.
Railway officer Vinay Kumar Singh is learnt to have been chosen for appointment as Managing Director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the implementing agency for the three corridors of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in the NCR zone.

While about 30 senior officials in the government had shown interest for the post of MD of the newly-formed NCRTC, about 15 were interviewed by the search and selection committee for the job.

The committee comprises Urban Development Secretary, Railway Board Member (Staff), an official from the DoPT and an expert from World Bank among others.

Singh has got the nod for the job and his appointment will be shortly announced, sources in the Urban Development Ministry said.

Currently Singh is with the RVNL, a railway PSU, and is involved in the study of high speed rail corridors.

NCRTC will execute three rapid rail corridors to Panipat, Meerut and Alwar from the capital at an estimated cost of Rs 72,170 crore. The corridors are expected to considerably reduce the travel time.

Detailed Project Reports (DPR) of the 111 km-long Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat corridor, 90 km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad- Meerut route and 180 km Delhi-Rewari-Alwar route are being prepared.

The Delhi government has also approved the alignments of the three RRTS corridors.

The speed on the RRTS corridors will be higher than the current Delhi Metro service and the distance separating two stations will also be longer.

As per the plan, the maximum speed of RRTS trains can be upto 150 km per hour and minimum distance between stations will be about 4 to 5 km.

The high-speed connectivity will facilitate seamless travel between the capital and suburbs.
A section of Jat community in Rajasthan today warned that they would hold a march to Harayana if the quota demand of the agitators in the neighbouring state is not fulfilled.

A few Jat organisations including Rajasthan Jat Student Union, Yuva Jat Ekta Manch led by former MP and Jat leader Hari Singh held a meeting and decided to join Haryana Jats agitation if the demand of Jat quota is not met, according to a press release here.

Rajathan Jat leaders also appealed to their brothers in Haryana to hold peaceful agitation and not disturb general public.

"If Jat quota demand is not met, Rajasthan's Jat community would not sit silently but would join their (Haryana) agitation, and march to support them," said Singh who was with Ramawatar Palsania, state president of Rajasthan Jat Student Union.
With Haryana on the boil following Jat agitation, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the prevailing situation in the troubled state with top officials, including NSA Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag besides others.

The Home Minister took stock of the inputs from various agencies and directed that all steps be taken to restore normalcy early as possible.

Singh said all assistance will be provided to the Haryana government in tackling the law and order situation.

Those present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nripendra Mishra, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Director of Intelligence Bureau Dineswar Sharma, Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal B S Dhanoa and Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi.

The meeting was held immediately after a Jat delegation met the Union Home Minister where it was decided that a Bill would be brought in the coming session of Haryana Assembly for providing reservation to the community.

A high-powered committee headed by a senior Union minister will also be set up to look into the demand of the Jats for reservation in central government jobs.

Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state. The Jat agitation for quota under OBC category has so far claimed 10 lives.

As the Jat stir also hit Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal government announced closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed big traffic jams in some parts.
In a major haul, Rs 1.42 crore were recovered from the common residence of two accused in an abduction case of last week, police said today.

The Crime Branch while investigating abduction last week of city businessman Ajay Rout who was later released, raided the house of notorious criminal Raju Vitthalrao Bhadre (38) and his aide Diwakar Baban Kotulwar (31) yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Ranjan Kumar Sharma said.

Rs 1.42 crore in cash was recovered from there, he said.

The police had earlier recovered Rs 2.40 lakh in cash and two cars from other accused, he said.

The crime branch took Bhadre, who was brought to the place during the raid, and Kotulwar into custody and arrested five others, the DCP said.

Bhadre had surrendered before a local court on December 20, 2015 and has been lodged in the Central Prison here since. Last week he was charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), he said.

Slapping of MCOCA implies Bhadre can't seek bail in a murder case against him, he said.
A prominent Saudi prince said today that Muslim countries need to take the lead in fighting terrorism and that a recently announced Islamic counterterrorism alliance of 34 nations should have been created sooner.

Prince Turki al-Faial's comments come as the kingdom hosts an 18-day military exercise with 20 members of the new alliance, which includes Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan and neighboring Gulf states. Defense Ministers from the coalition of Muslim-majority countries are scheduled to hold their first meeting in Saudi Arabia sometime in March.

"I consider this a leading and commendable step that should have happened sooner and thank God it has taken place," he told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

"It's no secret, unfortunately, that in our world today the majority of terrorism-related acts, its victims are Muslim," he said. "Therefore, it is our responsibility as Muslim countries to play the primary role in fighting this disease that has impacted us all."



Notably absent from the coalition is the kingdom's regional rival Iran, as well as Syria and Iraq, which are battling to win back swaths of territory controlled by the Islamic State group.

Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran are fiercely divided on a host of issues and support opposite sides of the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Relations worsened after the execution of a popular Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia last month, which triggered protests in Iran and the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy and another diplomatic mission there. The two countries then severed diplomatic and trade ties.

Prince Turki said "the ball is in the Iranian court" when it comes to any hope of improving ties.

"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has expressed publicly that Iran's interference in the affairs of Arab states is a situation that is unacceptable," he said.

The prince, who does not hold an official position in the government, is an influential and outspoken member of the Saudi royal family. He headed Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Directorate for more than two decades until Sept. 1, 2001, and held ambassador posts to the U.S., the U.K. And Ireland.
Security forces were today put on high alert across Jammu region following the encounter in Pampore in Kashmir where heavily armed militants have been holed up in the building of Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

The counter insurgency grid in Jammu has been put on high alert and security has been tightened at all vital installations in the region.

"Tight security arrangements have been put in place, the counter insurgency and the counter infiltration grids have been tightened in the entire Jammu region," Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jammu-Kathua Range) Ashkoor Wani said.

He said Quick Reaction Teams (QRT) of the police have been kept on standby and personnel at all check posts in the region have been asked to remain alert.

Security at vital installations in Jammu including the airport and railway stations has been increased.

"Nothing can be left to chance and all preparations are in place to thwart any nefarious designs of the anti national elements," the DIG said.

He said all entry points to Jammu from the border areas have been sealed and vehicles entering the city are being checked throughly.

Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the International Border (IB) in Jammu region, too is maintaining tight vigil.

"Infiltrators always try to take advantage of such situations as they think that such situations divert our attention, but we are always on high alert along the IB providing foolproof security," a senior BSF officer said.

The army has also deployed additional troops along the Line of Control (LoC) to check infiltration.

"Army commander of the Northern Command Lt Gen D S Hooda, a few days ago, had maintained that additional troops have been deployed along the LoC, I just want to reiterate that army never lets its guard down on the LoC," an army officer said.

Six security personnel have so far been killed in the encounter which continued in Pampore area of Pulwama district of Kashmir valley.
Senior Union ministers -- Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar -- today met for an hour to discuss the Haryana situation following the agitation of Jats demanding reservation.

This is for the third consecutive day that senior ministers have met to discuss the situation in Haryana, where a BJP government is in power.

Home Minister Singh, External Affairs Minister Swaraj and Defence Minister Parrikar reviewed the situation and the steps taken so far to bring back normalcy in Haryana, official sources said.

The meeting came shortly after a delegation of Jats had a meeting with the Home Minister where it was stated that a Bill will be brought in the coming session of Haryana assembly to give OBC status to Jats in the state.

A high-powered committee headed by a senior Union minister will also be set up to look into the demand of the Jats for reservation in central government jobs.

Army, paramilitary forces have been deployed in several districts of the state to maintain law and order.

Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day claiming 10 lives.

The Delhi government has announced closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed traffic jams in some parts due to dmonstrations by Jat protesters.
SGPC, the apex religious body of the Sikhs, today asked its gurudwaras in Haryana to provide all the help possible, especially food, to the people stuck at various places in the state as the Jat stir has paralysed road and rail traffic.

"We have asked our gurudwaras to offer all help possible. People can have 'langar' in the gurudwaras. They will also be helped in any other way possible," Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Avtar Singh Makkar told PTI today.

Due to the Jat stir for quota, a large number of people, including tourists, are stranded at various places and facing a shortage of essential items including vegetables, milk, fruits.

"We have adequate stocks and other necessary arrangements to take care of the people who are in need," Makkar said.
Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden tells an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that he is willing to be extradited to the United States if the federal government could guarantee he would get a fair trial.

The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping programme and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Snowden spoke yesterday at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. He has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and even go to jail.

Yesterday he said he asked for a guarantee of a fair trial where he can make "a public interest defense" then have jurors decide his case.
Tribal rights activist Soni Sori, who was attacked with an acid-like chemical in Chhattisgarh yesterday, was today flown to Delhi for treatment at Apollo Hospital even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the Raman Singh government to arrest the culprits immediately.

Sori, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on an AAP ticket, was brought to the capital by the party and taken to the hospital as the local doctors were "unable" to identify the chemical and treat her.

"Very painful. Whats happening everywhere? Hope she recovers fast. Chhattisgarh govt should nab culprits immediately," Kejriwal tweeted.

"Aam Aadmi Party condemns the dastardly attack on our leader Soni Sori in Chattisgarh. Sori is an iconic leader of the country and her fight against atrocities on innocent adivasis is exemplary," the party said in a statement.

Three unidentified men had last night allegedly hurled acid-like chemical on Sori in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit Dantewada district when she along with her two associates was heading toward Geedam from Jagdalpur on a motorcycle.

"Her face is swollen, she is unable to open her eyes and is in excruciating pain. The local doctors are unable to identify the chemical and treat her. Therefore the AAP is moving her to Delhi," it said.
Coming out in support of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his "seditious" speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, "I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiya's seditious speech.

"Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the society's collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting," Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiya's speech.

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley say in joint video, "We challenge the RSS's definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights."



Asserting if Kanhaiya's speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiya's speech.

"Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill?



"They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism," she says.

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.

"We are also going to protest against the witch-hunting



of JNU students and maligning of the university. For instance what happened to Ria Sharma at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration should not be seen in isolation, where she was asked to get out of the premises by the security guard and that he wouldn't allow in people from a 'deshdroh ka adda'," added Naga.

According to senior university official, the VC had a meeting with the chief proctor and his team and a decision on the show-cause notice to the students including Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Kanhaiya Kumar, Ashutosh Kumar, among others are also likely to be taken tomorrow.
Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao today said school textbooks should have a chapter on Bangladesh war hero Lt Gen J F R Jacob.

Speaking at the memorial service for late Lt Gen J F R Jacob at the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue here this evening, Rao said, "I do feel that we must have a chapter on the life and work of Gen Jacob in all school textbooks. His letter should be preserved and included in the book."



"I deem it an honour and privilege to rise and speak at the memorial service organised by the Mumbai Jewish community to remember one of the greatest patriots of India, hero of the 1971 war and former Goa and Punjab Governor General J F R Jacob, who passed away in Delhi on January 13," he said.

"The life of General Jacob is an inspiring saga of patriotism and service to the nation," Rao said.

Rao also said that the Jewish community in Mumbai must



create a large museum that will showcase the contribution of Jews to India, and provide brief information of prominent Jews to the making of India.

"Thought should also be given to creating a Jewish circuit in Mumbai for history and heritage lovers. I pay my respects to General Jacob and appeal to the Jewish community and to all citizens of India, to perpetuate his memory through service to the nation," the Governor said.

David Akov, Consul General of Israel in Mumbai, Solomon F Sopher, Chairman and Managing Trustee of the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue and President of the Indian Jewish Congress, Rabbi Yaaqob Menasseh, religious leaders and members of the Jewish community were present on the occasion.
About 10,000 protesters, many of them Chinese-American, have rallied in New York in support of a former police officer convicted for fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell in a public housing building.

The protest in Brooklyn over ex-officer Peter Liang's manslaughter conviction in the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley was one of about 30 taking place around the US, organizers said.

About 2,000 people marched in Philadelphia, according to Philly.Com, and about 150 gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to The Ann Arbor .

"No scapegoat! No scapegoat!" protesters in New York shouted as the crowd descended on Cadman Plaza, just outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. They carried signs declaring Liang's prosecution "selective justice."



The 28-year-old Liang, who was fired immediately after a jury convicted him earlier this month, faces up to 15 years in prison.

He testified that the shooting was an accident, and that he fired his gun after being frightened by a noise.

Many of his supporters say they believe Liang is being scapegoated because of anger over other police shootings in New York and across the country and that he has been treated unfairly because he is Asian-American.

Prosecutors argued that Liang's actions were reckless and he shouldn't have had his gun out or his finger on the trigger. They also said he did nothing to help Gurley as he lay dying on the floor.

"We're here today to let people know that Chinese-Americans count as well," said protester Don Lee, a candidate for New York's state Assembly from lower Manhattan. Lee added, "It is a tragedy that Akai Gurley was shot and killed. ... But this tragedy's been compounded by another tragedy, that Peter Liang, in an accident, is going to go to jail for up to 15 years."



A few dozen people held a counter-protest in New York yesterday, held across the street from the larger protest as officers with plastic handcuffs and batons stood between them.

Soraya Soi Free participated in the counter-protest. She argued that Liang was clearly not a scapegoat because he was tried by a jury of his peers, and she did not approve of the protest supporting him.

"This protest is definitely an insult to Akai Gurley's family," she said.

Liang was convicted February 11 on manslaughter and official-misconduct charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.

Liang's attorney, Robert Brown, attended the Brooklyn rally and said the community's support was "very uplifting" to Liang. Brown said he is making motions to have the verdict set aside.
Thousands of protesters formed a human chain around Japan's parliament today in protest at the planned construction of a new US base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Some 28,000 people, according to local media, surrounded the building holding banners reading "No more US bases in Okinawa" and "Follow the will of Okinawa".

Many wore blue, the colour symbolising support for the island.

Police did not give an estimate of the number taking part in rhe rally, the latest in a long series of protests.

The dispute has intensified mistrust between the central government and the southern island chain.

Okinawa accounts for less than one per cent of Japan's total land area but hosts about 75 per cent of US military facilities in the country.

The central government wants to construct a new US Marine air base in a remote part of the island to replace the existing US Futenma air base in heavily populated Ginowan, where it is widely seen as a potential danger to residents.

But Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga and many island residents want a replacement for Futenma built outside Okinawa -- either elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

They say they can no longer live with the noise, accidents and occasional crimes by US service members.

Japan and the United States first proposed moving Futenma in 1996. But they both insist the replacement base must remain in Okinawa, from where US troops and aircraft can respond quickly to potential conflicts throughout Asia.

Tokyo is keen to keep its crucial security ally satisfied, but frustration over the seven-decade American military presence is rife in Okinawa.
A Hindu head priest in Bangladesh was today hacked to death by gun- and cleaver-wielding suspected Islamists at a temple in an area bordering India, in the latest attack on religious minorities that also injured two devotees.

In a predawn attack, motorbike-borne unidentified assailants, said to over three in number, pelted stones at the house of 50-year-old Jajneswar Roy in the premises of the Santagourhiyo Temple in northern Panchagarh district's Debiganj Upazila.

"They (assailants) first hurled stones at the temple which prompted him (Roy) to come out to see what actually happened. The killers then pounced on him and slit his throat," a devotee in the neighbourhood as saying.

Panchagarh police chief Giasuddin Ahmed, citing local people, said that the head priest was preparing for the morning prayers, when stones were hurled at the temple.

The attack also wounded two Hindu devotees at the temple premises as the assassins were fleeing the scene on a motorbike, firing gunshots and hurling crude bombs to avoid being chased.

The injured includes a neighbour who rushed to the spot to save the priest but was shot at, Ahmed said at the scene.

"The identity of the attackers or the motive behind the murder is not clear. Definitely we will launch an investigation and manhunt to track down the killers," he said.

A blood-stained cleaver was recovered from the spot, authorities said.

The attackers could be members of the banned Islamist militant group Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), Shahriar Kajol, Superintendent of Police of Criminal Investigation Dept said.

Today's attack brings to three the number of assaults on religious leaders over the last five months in Sunni-majority Bangladesh, where systematic attacks have killed nine persons including two foreigners besides wounding nearly 100 others.

Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was killed by unidentified assailants in Dhaka in September and and five days later Japanese farmer Kunio Hoshi was murdered. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State-affiliated militants.

Also, moderate Sufi saint Khizir Khan, progressive book publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon, and a Sufi shrine worker were murdered while two Christian pastors, one an Italian doctor, narrowly escaped attacks.
Controversial Republican front- runner Donald Trump today exuded confidence that he was on his way to win the party's presidential nomination, defying the projection of political pundits who have been "wrong forever".

"So far, I'm really on my way," Trump told CNN after he netted back to back wins in South Carolina and New Hampshire following a close second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

Trump's win today gave him a critical burst of momentum heading into Nevada's Republican caucuses on Tuesday.

When asked if a strong opposition inside the party against him would result in a brokered convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July, Trump said he doesn't think "we're going to have a brokered convention. I think it is unlikely."



Trump said it was only the political pundits who were saying that he would not win the presidential nomination.

"I think most of the smart people are saying there's not going to be a convention. Interestingly, the ones who say there's going to be a convention, usually, they are the pundits that have been wrong forever, the ones that have been wrong about me," he said.

Referring to his win in the South Carolina primary, Trump said he was surprised that he won all Congressional districts, despite rivals launching blistering ad campaigns against him.

"I will say that I am surprised. There are seven and I won all seven. And therefore, I got every delegate. Every single delegate, which is sort of unheard of," Trump told MSNBC.

The 69-year-old real-estate tycoon claimed he will bring Democratic party members to his fold if he gets the nomination and will ultimately win the November presidential elections.

"As a candidate, I will bring over many, many Democrats. We're going to bring over a lot of Democrats. We're going to bring over a lot of independents. Nobody else will. In all fairness, the other candidates, they will never bring over independents," he said.

"We're going to bring over tremendous numbers. We're going to bring over youth. Bernie's not going to make it, in my opinion. And I never thought he would. Hillary won't make it. Frankly, if she gets indicted, that's the only way she is going to be stopped," he said.

"I think it's going to be between Hillary and myself. They say that it will be the largest voter turnout in the history of United States elections. And I want to tell you, that's a great compliment to the country, because we have such a low voter turnout compared to a lot of other countries," he said.

"I'm going to win. I'm going to win places like Michigan that the Republicans can't even think of," he claimed.
The reach of ISIS on Twitter has dwindled due to suspensions by the microblogging site that have resulted in drastic reduction of followers for recruitment purposes or disseminating information, according to a new report.

The report titled 'The Islamic State's Diminishing Returns on Twitter' by the Programme on Extremism at the George Washington University's Centre for Cyber and Homeland Security examined English-speaking ISIS supporters' accounts for a 30-day period in August and September 2015 with additional samples measured at various times from June to October.

It found that Twitter's consistent suspensions of ISIS- affiliated accounts reduced the number of repeat offenders, and accounts that returned did not regain the high number of followers they had originally.

The researchers - J M Berger, fellow at the Programme on Extremism, and Heather Perez, a law enforcement analyst - found that individuals who repeatedly created accounts after being suspended suffered massive reductions in follower counts.

Additionally, suspensions diminished overall activity from these accounts and the broader network, they found.

"Suspensions have a measurable effect in suppressing the activity of ISIS networks on Twitter," said Berger, co-author of the study.

"Occasional large-scale suspensions, such as we saw after the Paris attacks, have dramatically reduced the size of ISIS' presence on social media, and a lower level of routine suspensions hold the network flat in between these events," he said.

Berger and Perez also found that ISIS supporters are exploring other social media platforms to communicate with one another, but the supporters continue to emphasise the need to maintain a presence on Twitter since they are less effective recruiting on smaller or more restrictive platforms.

ISIS supporters have also implemented other measures to combat suspensions, but many of these are rapidly rendered obsolete as companies take increasingly aggressive action, the report said.

The Programme on Extremism at the University provides analysis on issues related to violent and non-violent extremism, according to information available on the varsity's website.
A man arrested early today on suspicion of shooting dead six people in the northern US state of Michigan was an Uber driver who may have been picking up fares just before the killing spree began.

Uber confirmed that the suspect, 45-year-old Jason Brian Dalton, was a driver for the ride-sharing company, adding he had passed a background check and had no criminal record.

"We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said in a statement.

Dalton was apprehended at 12:40 a.m today. He is believed to be the gunman who opened fire at three different locations in the city of Kalamazoo, killing six people and seriously wounding two others, police said.

A woman was seriously wounded outside an apartment complex, two people were killed at a car dealership, and four more were shot to death and a teenage girl seriously wounded at a chain restaurant.

Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said Dalton, who surrendered without incident during a traffic stop, will face murder charges in court tomorrow.

There is "no reason to believe" more than one person was involved in the crime, Getting added.

Local resident Matt Mellen said he was Dalton's passenger just a couple of hours before the rampage began, and was taken on a hair-raising ride.

"We were driving through medians, driving through the lawn, speeding along and when we came to a stop, I jumped out the car and ran away," Mellen told WWMT, a CBS affiliate.

"He wouldn't stop. He just kind of kept looking at me like -- 'Don't you want to get to your friend's house' and I'm like, I want to get there alive."



Mellen said he jumped out of the car at 4:30 p.m, and called 911, the phone number for emergencies.

He told his fiancee what had happened and she posted Dalton's picture on Facebook as a warning to .

"We're looking into his connection to Uber and whether or not he was picking up fares in between the shootings," Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said, according to CNN.

The shootings began at 6:00 p.m.

"What it looks like is we have somebody driving around, finding people and shooting them dead in their tracks," Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told local media.

"This is your worst nightmare, when you have somebody just driving around randomly killing people," he added.

The gunman's first victim was a woman who was with her three children outside an apartment complex when she was shot, he said.

She was seriously wounded but is expected to survive.
The mortal remains of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose should be DNA-tested to conclusively prove that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, according to a UK-based website set up to catalogue the nationalist leader's last days.

The website called on the Indian government to approach the government of Japan regarding a DNA test of the remains of the freedom fighter which are believed to be preserved at Tokyo's Renkoji temple since September, 1945.

Bose is believed to have died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

"A DNA test could end the controversy over Bose's death once and for all," www.Bosefiles.Info said in a statement.

The website also released letters to show that as far back as September 5, 1995, Ashis Ray - Bose's grandnephew and the website's creator - had written to then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao suggesting a DNA test of Bose's remains.

The letter, declassified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month and posted among the National Archives' files under the heading of Netaji Papers, reveals Ray pleaded with Rao for a DNA test of the remains at Renkoji temple.

After that and following telephonic contacts with British and American DNA testing organisations, on September 21, 1995 Ray apprised then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

The next day, September 22, 1995, Ray received a written communication from K Sullivan of Britain's Forensic Science Service, which stated: "Further to our telephone conversations regarding the analysis of the putative remains of Subhas Chandra Bose, I am able to confirm that a blood sample from either a nephew or niece from his sister's side of the family would be a suitable control for DNA analysis purposes".

Ray forwarded this note to Professor Anita Pfaff, the Germany-based daughter and sole heir of Bose.

Thereafter, Ray sought out a son of one of Bose's sisters - the late Shanti Kumar Dutt - who was willing to fully cooperate regarding a DNA test, the website notes.

The letters to Mukherjee, from the British Forensic Science Service and Dutt have now been posted on the website.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has praised the peaceful conduct of presidential elections in the Central African Republic, calling on the war-torn country's leaders to maintain a "constructive atmosphere."



Ban congratulated Faustin-Archange Touadera on his victory according to preliminary results of the vote, which many hope marks a step toward reconciliation in the country after years of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians.

Ban also called on the transitional authorities to complete the electoral process with the "timely" holding of a second round of parliamentary elections and "ensure the completion of the political transition process by March 31."



"The Secretary-General commends the peaceful holding of the elections in the Central African Republic," said a statement from Ban's office.

"The Secretary-General calls on all political leaders and national stakeholders to continue to maintain the constructive atmosphere and for all actors to maintain their commitments in line with the electoral code of conduct."



Touadera -- a former math professor and onetime prime minister -- was declared the winner Saturday after sweeping to victory with more than 60 percent of the vote in last weekend's runoff.

Ban expressed "appreciation" for Touadera's rival, Anicet-Georges Dologuele -- another former prime minister -- saying his concession speech showed "the spirit of statesmanship."



The Constitutional Court must certify the election's results within a week for them to become final.

Touadera said yesterday he felt the "full measure" of the Central African Republic's problems and would hurry to restore unity.

That is a huge challenge in a country where fighting has forced nearly half a million people to flee to neighbouring nations and left half the population with limited or no access to food.

Rebel groups still control much of the country's territory.

France is set to withdraw 900 remaining troops from the Central African Republic after it sent peacekeepers there during the height of the violence in 2013.

A UN peacekeeping mission numbering 11,000 troops will remain in place after the new government takes office.
In a contrast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'silence' on BJD government in Odisha during his visit to the state today, senior BJP leaders, including three union ministers hit out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accusing him of not being serious about farmers' issues, many of whom have committed suicide.

The union ministers, speaking before the Prime Minister rejected ruling Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) allegation of negligence by the Centre though Modi chose to skip the issue while addressing a farmers rally in this drought-hit zone of western Odisha.

"While the previous UPA government had sanctioned only Rs 332 crore for the droughts in 2003 and 2009, the Narendra Modi government has given Rs 815 crore for the one in 2015," Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.

Stating that the state government has not been able to spend Rs 4 crore sanctioned to it for issuance of soil health cards to farmers, Singh said the government should be pro-farmers and help them to boost food grain production.

He also rejected BJD's allegation of central negligence and said the NDA government has given Rs 34,000 crore to the state as central share in 2015-16 compared to Rs 15,000 crore during the UPA government in 2013-14.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also asked BJD to shun its slogans of central negligence as people would "laugh at them."



Instead of stressing on distress sale of paddy and other problems faced by farmers, the state government keeps itself busy in centre bashing, he alleged.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said both Patnaik and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi have no knowledge and sympathy towards the farmers.

"...The Prime Minister knows what is what in agriculture sector from his personal experience," he said.

BJP state president Basanta Kumar Panda also criticised Patnaik and accused him of being "anti-farmer."



Though the Chief Minister had been in charge of water resources department for the past 16 years, there had been no improvement in the irrigation sector and water resources department, he said.

Senior MLA and former BJP president K V Singhdeo while criticising Patnaik said, "It is not central negligence, but the negligence of the Chief Minister for which the farmers in Odisha suffer.
In an apparent bid to woo Dalits ahead of crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year, BJP has decided to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas in a big way tomorrow.

BJP would organise events in each district where party workers would celebrate the 15th century Dalit poet's anniversary, a party functionary said.

"Saints are above caste and religion. They belong to every section of the society. BJP workers had been attending Sant Ravidas' anniversary every year. It should not be seen as a political event," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told PTI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting his constituency Varanasi tomorrow where he will be taking part in birth anniversary celebrations of the mystic besides attending the convocation at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

On Thursday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had also attended a 'Dalit Conclave' in Lucknow.
With BJP not fielding any candidate from Varanasi Local Authority constituency, an SP leader today strangely asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct his party workers to support his sister, the only woman nominee in the fray for the UP Legislative Council election.

SP MLA Manoj Kumar Singh alleged that BJP, BSP and Congress have made a "tacit understanding" with Independent candidate Brijesh Singh, who faces several criminal cases and is lodged in jail, to ensure his victory in the biennial election.

Singh's sister and Zila Panchayat member Meena Singh is the SP nominee and she is pitted against Independent candidate Singh, besides three others.

The SP MLA also appealed to Modi to vote for his sister even as he questioned BJP as to why it has not fielded any candidate from the constituency.

The SP MLA from Syed Raja constituency in Chandauli district said Modi, who represents Varanasi in Lok Sabha and is a voter in the council election, should vote for his sister so as to elect a "clean face".

Polling for the Legislative Council election will be held on March 3 and counting of votes on March 6.
A number of journalists today staged a protest at Veer Vinay Chawk here demanding of lodging an FIR against SP leader Rakesh Yadav in connection with a clash with a scribe.

Yadav, Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha district President had clashed with a journalist during the block Pramukh elections in Gainsary area on February 7.

An accused, Harendra Singh was arrested in this connection, police said, adding that he has been released on bail.

Meanwhile, a lawyer Varshkar Singh Kalhans today attempted to immolate himself if an FIR was not registered against the SP leader in the case. He was taken into custody.

Security has been tightened in and around Veer Vinay Chawk.
Warning that language can serve as a "double-edged sword", the UNESCO said the continued use of Urdu in Pakistani schools has led to political tensions in the multi-ethnic country and recommended that children be taught in a language they understand.

A policy paper issued by the UNESCO coinciding with the 'Mother Language Day' today referred the multi-ethnic societies in Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Guatemala and recommended ensuring that "children are taught in a language they understand".

In Pakistan, the continued use of Urdu as the language of instruction in government schools, even though it is spoken at home by less than eight per cent of the population, has also contributed to political tensions, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said in a report released on Friday.

The post-independence government in Pakistan adopted Urdu as the national language and the language of instruction in schools. This became a source of alienation in a country that was home to six major linguistic groups and 58 smaller ones, it said.

The failure to recognise Bengali, spoken by the vast majority of the population in the erstwhile East Pakistan, was one of the major sources of conflict within the new country, leading to student riots in 1952. The riots gave birth to the Bengali Language Movement, a precursor to the movement for the secession of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh.

The UNESCO said that being taught in a language other than their own can negatively impact children's learning. Language can serve as a double-edged sword, "while it strengthens an ethnic group's social ties and sense of belonging, it can also become a basis for their marginalisation.

Education policy must ensure that all learners, including minorities' language speakers, access school in a language they know," Director of UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report Aaron Benavot said.

It said that at least six years of instruction in the mother tongue was needed so that gains from teaching in the early years were sustained.

Education policies should recognise the importance of mother tongue learning. Teachers need to be trained to teach in two languages and to understand the needs of second- language learners.

In many countries, large number of children are taught and take tests in languages that they do not speak at home, hindering the early acquisition of critically important reading and writing skills.

Textbooks should be provided in a language children understand. Classroom-based assessment tools can help teachers identify, monitor and support learners at risk of low achievement.
The US has decided to pull out B-1 bombers, one of the most dependable American weapons, from the battle against ISIS in Syria and Iraq for upgrades.

Commander of US Air Forces Central Command Lt Gen Charles Brown Jr said the fleet of B-1 Lancer bombers had been sent back to the United States from their deployment in the Mideast.

The four-engine bombers are due for upgrades to their cockpits, a process that will keep the jets stateside for an undetermined amount of time, Brown told reporters at the Pentagon via a video link from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The B-1s have drawn praise for the amount of weapons they can carry, their accuracy in using those weapons and their reliability during the campaign against ISIS.

Brown was quoted by CNN as saying that other US and coalition aircraft would pick up the B-1s' missions during the upgrades.

"We actually have plenty of capacity with other platforms. We lose maybe a little flexibility. The B-1 is a workhorse. The fact that it can carry as many weapons as it can and stay airborne as long as it can, it does provide a great capability," he said.

Brown said the air campaign against ISIS will continue and the B-1s will likely be part of it again.

"They will be back, I fully expect," he said.

B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, home to 27 of the bombers, flew 490 sorties against ISIS in a six-month deployment that ended in January. They dropped 3,800 munitions on 3,700 targets.
Vietnam has given a fresh push to its proposal to India to erect a statue of its former Prime Minister Ho Chi Minh in New Delhi, saying the Communist revolutionary leader was a "great friend" of Indian people and it will be an "excellent symbol" of Indo-Vietnam friendship.

"We expect that the government of India will accept our proposal to erect a statue of Ho Chi Minh in Delhi. He was father of Vietnamese people and a great friend of Indian people. And, also father of Indo-Vietnam relations together with Jawaharlal Nehru. The statue will be an excellent symbol of our friendship," Vietnam Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh said.

The Ambassador was speaking yesterday at the opening of two-day-long international seminar on 'Indo-Vietnam Cultural Relations: Retrospect and Prospect' organised by ICCR here.

"The proposal has been floating for the last couple of years and since we have a statue of Nehru installed in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, we thought Delhi could also have it, to signify the friendship between the two leaders and the bond they forged between the two countries," Thanh told PTI.

"We also have a park in Hanoi named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and a bust is also installed in the centre.

"We would love to have Minh's bust installed in the Nehru Park given their historic ties, or somewhere else in the heart of the city as it is in Kolkata," he said.

A bust of the former Vietnamese Prime Minister was installed at a main street intersection in Kolkata in 1990 by the Indo-Vietnam Solidarity Committee (West Bengal Chapter) to mark Minh's birth centenary.

The Harrington Street was also rechristened to Ho Chi Minh Sarani in his honour.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said the MEA is fine with the proposal and would like to facilitate it, but eventually the decision is to be taken by Urban Development Ministry and the civic bodies.

"The MEA is ok with the proposal but the decision to get a statue installed in the city will ultimately hinge on the Urban Development Ministry and the municipal body concerned.

"But, having said that, one has to see the rules, a lot of which have changed, that is whether such things can be done anymore or not," a source said.

The Ambassador also said, "We welcome Indian cultural centre in Hanoi, and we hope there will be a Vietnam cultural centre in New Delhi in the future."



"India and Vietnam, besides thousands of years of cultural linkages, also share same anti-colonial struggle history and the current environment, I would say is more favourable for greater cultural cooperation," Thanh said.

Nehru had visited Vietnam in 1954, and Minh came on a state visit to India in February 1958, when the two shared a warm hug that continues to represent the cordial ties between the two countries.

Delhi already has a Ho Chi Minh Road near Nehru Place.

ICCR has also put up an exhibition of rare pictures of Nehru and Minh, and of temples bearing Indian architecture and few of Rabindranath Tagore's works translated to Vietnamese on the occasion.
Concerned about the violence that has engulfed his home state Haryana owing to the jat agitation for reservation, star Indian boxer Vijender Singh today appealed for peace.

Vijender, who is gearing up to fight his fourth professional bout on March 12 in Liverpool, posted a video message on his Twitter page to plead for calm.

"I appeal to my jat brothers to maintain peace and brotherhood in Haryana. It is absolutely essential for us, our families, our state and our country," Vijender said in a brief message.

The 30-year-old belongs to the Kaluwas village in Bhiwani, which has also been severely affected by the violence during the agitation.

Jats are demanding reservation and despite various leaders, including the Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar, appealing to them to maintain peace, there was



No let up in



the protests which have disrupted normal life in Rohtak, Jind, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar.
Amid the row over the arrest of a Jawaharlal Nehru University student on sedition charges, a top official of the University of Chicago has said he is watching the developments with "concern", but will not judge recent actions of the students and the government.

University of Chicago has academic collaborations with various Indian institutions, including JNU and the Delhi University.

"I am not going to judge recent actions by the schools, by the students or by the government, but you know I watch it (incidents at JNU) with concern because I care about the people there," University of Chicago's Vice-President for Global Engagement Ian Solomon told PTI.

There has been an escalating row in the wake of the arrest of JNUSU leader Kanhaiya Kumar over sedition charges, with the university's faculty members, among others, protesting against the move.

Solomon said the university values the collaborations and partnerships with various Indian institutions.

"... We value those collaborations, those partnerships very much. And we want those schools to continue to be leading institutions in this country and continue doing great research and being great places for teaching," he noted.

Currently, the University of Chicago has some 400 Indian students on its campus. Besides, a number of people with Indian roots are associated with the university, Solomon said.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is also a professor at the university. Currently, he is on leave as the Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School.

"At the University of Chicago, a fundamental principle is the freedom of students and faculty... (they need) to be allowed to say whatever they want... It (university) does not seek to stop them (students) just because we don't like what they say, just because it's obnoxious, immoral or wrong," Solomon said.

He emphasised that there is a right to debate on the university campus, which is also an important part of Chicago's culture and identity.

"We don't necessarily expect that has to be true for everyone, but for us, it's an important principle for our institution," he added.

Kumar was arrested on February 12 in connection with an event at JNU to protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

About the Indian economy, Solomon said the country has made great progress and right now, it is the fastest growing among the large economies.

"Now, I have a feeling that the economy is doing well, but still there is a level of unease and uncertainty among the people I talk to. And they don't feel as good as the economy suggests they should feel," Solomon, who has also served as the US Executive Director of the World Bank Group, said.

Elaborating, he said it was not unusual as the US too has similar issues.

"The (economic) numbers are good, but people's sense of security, people's sense of economic stability... There is a perceptive vulnerability among people," he noted.

According to him, India still has a very large population and extreme poverty and the requirement of investment in infrastructure, education and healthcare, among others, is challenging.
Footwear and apparel player Woodland is looking to strengthen its presence in overseas markets, including the UAE and Russia where it has set up warehouses, by opening exclusive stores.

The company expects contribution of exports to its total turnover to 25 per cent by next year, up from 15 per cent currently, with the expansion in overseas markets.

"The demand for the outdoor category is the same in Russia and the Middle East as it is in India. We will look to gradually expand our presence," Woodland Managing Director Harkirat Singh told PTI.

He said the company has recently opened office and a warehouse in Moscow as it has done in Dubai. In Russia, the company has been utilising the online channel a lot to expand. While in the UAE, it has relied on distributors.

"We have been selling through distributors in these markets but now we want to grow the brand by ourselves there," Singh added.

Stating the company is looking to open its exclusive store both in Dubai and Moscow, he said, "The idea is to gradually open exclusive stores, at least one by next year."



Depending on the response to the stores, Singh said, the company can think of opening up to 10 such stores over a period of time.

Through the expansion in overseas markets, Woodland, which also has presence in Hong Kong, is looking at increased contribution from exports.

"The current contribution of exports to the total turnover is around 15 per cent. We want it to be 25 per cent by next year," he said, adding the company's turnover this year is around Rs 1,200 crore.

Singh added the company is looking at using its Dubai warehouse as a hub for supplying to other Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Around 35 Youth Congress activists were arrested for trying to show black flags to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who visited the city this evening to launch the centenary celebrations of Gaudiya Mission and Math, police said.

Around 5 PM, the Youth Congress activists gathered near Netaji Indoor Stadium, the venue of the event, and started waving black flags when a fleet of cars was approaching the place, they said.

The Youth Congress activities were protesting against the ongoing JNU controversy, a Congress party leader said.

"The activists mistook the fleet of cars with that of the PM and they started waving black flags and raised 'Modi go back' slogans. We did not take any chance and immediately arrested them," a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

Modi reached the venue around 7 PM after reaching the Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport at around 5.55 PM.

The Prime Minister was received at the airport by Governor K N Tripathi, state minister for urban development Firhad Hakim and state power minister Manish Gupta.
The world's oldest leader, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe turned 92 today, with no plans to step down as feuding over his successors threatens to tear his ruling ZANU-PF apart.

The veteran leader will mark the day with a public celebration on Saturday.

Last year's party was a massive feast with several elephants slaughtered and seven gigantic birthday cakes, one weighing 91 kilogrammes.

Today, state media lauded Mugabe for his leadership since independence from Britain in 1980, while the opposition urged him to consider stepping down.

In its 16-page special birthday supplement, the Sunday Mail described Mugabe as a "doyen of pan-Africanism".

"Thank You Bob, We now have a voice, since 1980," said the paper on its front cover.

"Long live comrade Mugabe" read another message, adding: "We pride ourselves in your visionary, bold, insightful and fearless leadership."



But the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said Mugabe should think about whether his country, which is in the grips of an economic crisis, would not be better served by his bowing out.

"Robert Mugabe should take time to reflect and say isn't it time for me to pass on the baton," MDC spokesman Obert Gutu told AFP.

Mugabe once quipped that he would rule until he turns 100.

Despite his advanced age and recent speculation over his health, Mugabe has avoided naming a successor, prompting perennial infighting among rival factions in his ruling ZANU-PF party jostling for his post.

Despite his age, he continues to give lengthy speeches in public, but his frailty was laid bare last year when he tripped and fell down steps at a televised ceremony.

He also courted ridicule in September by reading a speech to parliament, apparently unaware that he had delivered the same address a month earlier.

His government is accused of systematic human rights abuses and tipping the country into a severe crisis through a campaign of violent land seizures.

Born on February 21, 1924, Mugabe trained as a teacher and taught in what was then Rhodesia and Ghana before returning home to join the guerrilla war against white minority rule.

He became prime minister on Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980 and then president in 1987.
The head of Nestle's Asian business is hoping to restore revenue in India within three years to levels preceding the recall of its Maggi instant noodles from the market last year over a health scare, newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag reported.

India banned Nestle's Maggi instant noodles after local regulators in May said they found unsafe levels of lead in some packages sold at roadside stalls.

In August, an Indian court ruled in favour of Nestle to overturn the ban, but demanded the snack be tested again for safety before it can go on sale again.

Nestle, whose fourth-quarter sales in India fell more than a fifth, according to the paper, contends the noodles were safe, but ordered a recall that cost the company about 66 million Swiss francs ($66.68 million).

In an interview with the Swiss newspaper, Nestle's Wan Ling Martello said all five factories that produce the noodles were doing so again, although not all flavors had returned to Indian shelves.

A complete recovery of Indian revenue could take around three years, she said, citing experiences with similar crises elsewhere.

"But I'm pushing my team so it doesn't take that long," she told the newspaper.

She said Nestle was investing in TV commercials and an online campaign to restore faith in Maggi products.
The session of Parliament is set to start on a stormy note on Tuesday with issues like the JNU row, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide and Pathankot terror strike set to dominate the proceedings despite efforts to broker peace between the opposition and the .

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with leaders of opposition parties on February 16, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will hold another all-party meeting tomorrow to reach out to political rivals for smooth functioning of Parliament..

Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 The same day, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will also hold consultations with leaders of all parties in the House.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee has been convened by party chief Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the session. The deliberations at the meeting is expected to set the tone for the session. At the Monday meeting, Congress will finalize its floor strategy for the session.

Chairing a meeting of leaders of all parties from Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari yesterday reminded them "time has come to assure the public that parliamentary democracy does work and is sensitive to the needs of the people."



The remarks come in the backdrop of last two sessions being a virtual washout with the opposition and locking horns over a number of issues including the key reform measure of GST.

The has already said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament or any other issue that the opposition wants to take up.

Naidu had also held a meeting of leaders of a number of opposition parties on February 4 where it was decided to have a full-length session and not to go for any curtailment of its duration despite assembly elections in five states.

The government has a heavy legislative agenda to push through in this session. A list of 74 items of business has been compiled by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on the basis of responses received from various ministries and departments which, according to sources, contain 62 legislative Items and 12 financial Items.

It was decided to give 26 items 'top priority' as the ministries wanted them to be introduced and passed in the session itself.

A total of 16 bills, including the GST Bill, Lokpal



(Amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill and the Anti-Hijacking Bill are pending in Parliament -- five in Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.

The government will also push for the passage of a bill to replace the ordinance to amend the Enemy Property Act, which was promulgated on January 8.

An ordinance lapses 42 days/6 weeks from the day a session begins unless a bill to replace it is cleared by Parliament.

The ordinance amends the 47-year-old Enemy Property Act to allow custodians to continue to retain control over such properties.

The government is keen to push its legislative agenda in the Budget session, including the pending bills on GST and real estate, thwarted in the last two sessions, while the opposition is raring to target it on a host of issues, including the JNU row, Hyderabad Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide, imposition of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, and terror attacks in Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

Raising questions over the process of the appointment of Vice Chancellors of JNU and Delhi University, a number of opposition parties have come together against the government, accusing it of "undermining" the autonomy of the institutions.

Naidu had last month met Sonia Gandhi seeking cooperation for the early passage of the crucial GST and the real estate bills but Congress said the government has offered nothing substantial on its three demands on the key tax reform.

The session will commence on February 23 and will focus largely on the financial business of the government. The General Budget will be presented on February 29.

The first part of Budget session will end on March 16 and the second part will be convened from April 25 to May 13.

On February 16, the Prime Minister had reached out to the opposition by holding a meeting of leaders of major political parties.

In the first such exercise initiated by Modi against the backdrop of repeated stalling of Parliament sessions, he had sought their cooperation saying, "I am not the Prime Minister of BJP alone but the entire country."



The Winter session had ended on December 23, leaving the Goods and Services Tax Bill and a number of other measures in limbo.

The government's legislative agenda had suffered a serious setback due to lack of support from the numerically stronger Congress-led opposition in Rajya Sabha.
The Centre has called a meeting on Monday to finalise a proposal to set up a National Bullion Board, an umbrella body to implement gold policies and reforms, as well as a gold spot exchange.

Industry stakeholders, representatives from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A)'s India Gold Policy Centre and officials from the commerce and finance ministry will attend the meeting, which comes a week ahead of the Union Budget for 2016-17. According to sources, finance minister Arun Jaitley will announce several measures in the meeting, intended to reform the gold trade..

Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016



Apart from these two major issues, the finance ministry will also consider duty on dore (unrefined gold) imports, in view of some cases of misuse of concessions in import duty by some refineries in excise-free zones. The move is aimed at ending a one per cent arbitrage by way of lower duty to refineries in excise-free zones.

According to sources, the ministry is also considering a proposal to relax the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to ensure a better response. The Central Board of Direct Taxes had clarified that during raids by the income tax department, gold up to 500g cannot be seized. The finance ministry might allow such gold to be monetised under GMS without producing evidence of purchase.

Sudheesh Nambiath, lead analyst-precious metals, GFMS, Thomson Reuters, however, says certain factors might be missing in deliberation on gold policies. "In these deliberations, I haven't noticed willingness by policymakers to allow banks to buy gold bars from the market, allow banks to export refined gold bars and make banks operate as a bullion bank, instead of just being a channelising agent. Unless these basics are worked out, the concept of a spot gold exchange or the need to have a bullion board is not worth it."



India Bullion Jewellers Association has tied up with the BSE to set up a gold exchange. The finance ministry is considering a study done by IIM-A professors Jayant Varma and Joshy Jacob. According to the study, the proposed exchange should be under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's regulations.

The study also recommends it be set up in the finance special economic zone coming up at GIFT City near Ahmedabad and all foreign participants be allowed on it, while Indian players can participate according to the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act. The study has not favoured setting up of exchange by industry participants such as jewellers, refiners and traders. The stakeholders' meeting will discuss this report from IIM-A.
Members of Parliament are padding up to ensure a fruitful session even as the controversy over the arrest of a Jawaharlal Nehru University student continues to polarise public opinion.

The national mood could not be more ominous before a Parliament session..

Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 Since the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar on February 12 on charges of sedition, there has been a public debate on "nationalism". In the run-up to the 31-day session, protests are planned all over the national capital, by supporters of both sides of the debate.

The Jat stir demanding Other Backward Classes reservation was another dark cloud on the coming session, but the Haryana and the central governments were already trying to resolve the problem.

Aware of these challenges and the total washout of the previous two sessions in the face of continuous disruptions by the Opposition, senior politicians now seem to be doing what they can to prevent parliamentary democracy in the country from sliding into irrelevance.

At a meeting on Saturday, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Hamid Ansari implored senior leaders of political parties to ensure "more discussions and fewer disruptions".

"The time has come to assure the public that parliamentary democracy works and is sensitive to the needs of its citizen," he said.

Leaders agreed that important legislations such as the Goods and Services Tax Constitution (Amendment) Bill will be taken up in the second half of the session.

The government, on its part, agreed to have discussions on the Pathankot terrorist attack, the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula and the JNU crisis in the first few days of the session.

In a minority in the Rajya Sabha, the has found the Opposition not hesitant to block its Bills in the Upper House. It has, consequently, said it could take recourse to executive action, bypassing the legislature.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will also be meeting leaders of political parties on the eve of the session on Monday.

Congress, the main Opposition party, has called a meeting of its working committee to decide its strategy for the session.

The Lok Sabha could follow the lead of the Upper House by holding discussions on contentious issues before it takes up the Railway on February 25, the Economic Survey on February 26 and the general Budget on February 29.

On February 23, the two Houses will have a joint sitting for the customary presidential address. The tenor of the session, sources said, would depend on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on a discussion on the JNU row and the Rohith Vemula issue on February 24.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led is preparing to forcefully raise the issue of anti-nationalism including the testimony of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused David Coleman Headley regarding alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Ishrat Jahan.

Modi, however, indicated on Sunday that his was unlikely to bend if the Opposition were to toughen their stand and not let Parliament function.

At a public rally in Odisha, Modi said: "Conspiracies are being hatched to destabilise and defame the government as it is asking NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to give an account of foreign funds."



The violence in Haryana, where Jats, cutting across political affiliations, have come together to demand reservations, could be an opportunity for the two leading parties to bury the hatchet. A solution to the problem is unlikely in the short term, given that any ordinance, either by the Haryana government or the Centre, assuring reservations to the community is most likely to be struck down in the courts in the absence of a comprehensive survey to establish that the community is backward.

Several key Bills - GST, bankruptcy and real estate - will be taken up by the Rajya Sabha in the second half of the session. Sixteen Bills are pending in the two Houses.

The first half of the session is from February 23 to March 16, followed by over a month long recess. The second half begins on April 25 and ends on May 13.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Some of the key laws pending in Parliament:



UPPER HOUSE HURDLE

Bills passed by Lok Sabha but pending in Rajya Sabha

Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014



Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015



Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015



Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015



High Court and the Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2015

WAITING GAME

Consumer Protection Bill, 2015



Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015



Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill, 2015



Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015



Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013

STILL WAITING

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) BilI, 2013

Source: PRS Legislative Research
The next financial year will be a tightrope walk for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, with the mounted challenge of narrowing the fiscal deficit and enhancing tax revenue collections to compensate for higher salaries and pensions and capital spending.

Besides raising tax revenue, Jaitley will have to deliver on the promise of a fair, transparent and non-adversarial tax regime in light of multinational companies such as Vodafone receiving fresh notices for payment of tax dues based on retrospective provisions. Though the government has been assuring investors that it will not invoke the retrospective tax clause, there has been no attempt to remove it from the statute..

Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016



While personal income tax might not see much tweaking, corporate tax could see a small reduction from the current 30 per cent rate, as the finance minister moves to reduce it to 25 per cent in the next four years, as promised in the previous Budget. Towards that, the Budget will lay down the road map to simultaneously phase out exemptions to the corporate sector, simplify administration and improve India's competitive edge globally. The corporate tax rate is 30 per cent but it is effectively 23 per cent due to many exemptions. In 2014-15, the government is estimated to have foregone revenue worth Rs 62,400 crore in corporate taxes on account of various incentives, up from Rs 57,800 crore a year ago. However, there will be tax exemptions for start-ups during the incubation period for three years under the Start-Up India scheme.

According to the road map, profit-linked, investment-linked and area-based deductions will be phased out for both corporate and non-corporate taxpayers. Provisions with a sunset date will not be extended or advanced. For incentives with no terminal date, a sunset date of March 31, 2017, will be provided for commencement of the activity or for claim of benefit, depending on the relevant provisions. This will cover tax exemptions for development, operation and maintenance of infrastructure facilities or development of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) units. No weighted deduction will be allowed with effect from April 1, 2017. Weighted deduction allows a taxpayer to claim a deduction that is more than the actual expenditure incurred.

The government is also poring over the recommendations on tax simplification submitted by Judge R V Easwar. These recommendations to reduce litigation and simplify the tax regime for small taxpayers will make it to the Budget.

Taking away from the Easwar Committee recommendations, Jaitley might consider raising the threshold for deduction of tax at source (TDS) and reduction in rates, besides measures to reduce tax litigation that will not have significant revenue implications. Long overdue, the recommendation of revision of the TDS limits, if accepted will come as a big boost to consultants, brokers and depositors. For interest on securities, the committee proposed raising the threshold for TDS to Rs 15,000 from Rs 2,500 annually and halving the tax rate to five per cent. Similarly, for other interest earnings, the limit is recommended to be raised to Rs 15,000 from the current Rs 10,000 for bank deposits and Rs 5,000 for others. The panel recommended raising the TDS limit for payments to contractors from Rs 30,000 for a single transaction and Rs 75,000 annually to a Rs 1 lakh annual limit.

The government will also suitably amend the Income Tax (I-T) Act to ensure that no minimum alternate tax is applicable on foreign institutional investors without a permanent establishment in the country. An attempt or assurance to address ongoing retrospective tax cases in the Budget will help revive investment in the economy. The tax department has extended the bar on UK's Cairn Energy from selling its residual stake in Cairn India till March 31, as the Rs 10,247-crore tax dispute with the company continues. In a fresh notice to Vodafone, the tax department said it might seize the British firm's assets in the country if it failed to pay Rs 14,200 crore in disputed tax.

The Budget will provide Jaitley with the opportunity to assure investors of faster resolution of tax disputes. There are 344,000 income tax lawsuits and 136,000 indirect tax cases pending. The government in the past few months has taken various measures to reduce litigation, including increasing threshold for filing appeals in tribunals and high courts. This is expected to reduce the burden of appeals concerning direct taxes by about 50 per cent in the next three-four months.

The government is also likely to introduce changes related to transfer-pricing provisions in the Budget requiring firms with foreign presence and an annual consolidated revenue more than Rs 5,000 crore, to comply with extensive data reporting and documentation. The legislative changes in the I-T Act will be in line with Base Erosion and Profit Shifting measures unveiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last October to curb tax evasion by multinational firms.

India accounts for the largest number of transfer-pricing lawsuits in the world, with close to 70 per cent of the cases going in the assessee's favour. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has, so far, signed 39 (38 unilateral and one bilateral) Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), with 30 agreements in the current financial year alone. APAs provide certainty to companies operating in India, help avoid conflict over sharing of taxes, and reduce transfer pricing disputes. The finance minister is also expected to make safe harbour provisions more attractive by clarifying the definition and lowering the margins.

With the Modi government expected to take a Rs 1.1 lakh crore hit for implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission and one-rank one-pension recommendations, it will likely look at new sources of revenue arising from phasing out of corporate tax exemptions, reducing excise duty exemptions and increasing the service tax rate from the current 14 per cent.

The government is expecting a direct tax shortfall of Rs 40,000 crore in the current financial year, which will be made up by robust collection of indirect taxes. With economic revival looking uncertain, dependence on direct taxes will not be prudent.

The government could attempt to align the indirect tax regime to the proposed goods and services tax in the Budget. The Centre could also reduce the exemption limit for excise duty from the current Rs 1.5 crore to bring it closer to the proposed uniform indirect tax regime, which will have a significantly lower exemption threshold of Rs 25 lakh. Excise duty has been one of the major sources of revenue for the Modi government in the current financial year with a series of rises in levy on petrol and diesel. Till October, the additional excise levy on petrol and diesel yielded Rs 40,000 crore revenue for the government, against Rs 25,000 crore last year and the share of excise jumped to 39 per cent of indirect taxes, from 33 per cent on average. However, with uncertainty over oil prices, the government might focus on service tax to generate revenue to balance the higher outgo on pay and pensions.

EXPECTATIONS IN THE BUDGET
Thousands involved in the Ag community were surprised Friday at the news that a long running Cache Valley tradition, the Smithfield Livestock Auction, closed its doors Thursday after 56 years serving northern Utah and southeast Idaho.

The Parker Auctioneering family, which bought the business in 1996, said in its best years sales of 600 to 800 head of cattle a week was typical.

Layne Parker made the announcement Friday morning on KVNU at the conclusion of his weekly on-air report of Thursdays activity at the auction.

When we took over about 20 years ago the sale had been kind of run down, said Jared Parker, Laynes son. When we bought the sale they were running 150 to 200 head a week. It needed some major repairs and we felt like we could do those repairs and build it back up. It took several years but we went through and re-built the entire yard, installing steel fencing.

The Parkers said they bought the auction expecting there would be 10 to 12 years of good business before there wouldnt be enough cattle left in Cache Valley to keep it open.

We just about doubled that time, we got to 20 years and now we finally reached the point where there is not enough cattle in our area any longer to keep the doors open and stay profitable, said Jared Parker.

He said he received dozens of calls Thursday afternoon and Friday morning as the news spread, calls from patrons who had attended the auction for decades.

It is typical that youngsters whose grandpa used to bring them for lunch and to watch the auction are now grandparents bringing their own grand children, said Jared. To be honest, I feel like a lost puppy today. There are a lot of people who feel the same way. Many who arent even buying or selling have come to catch up with their friends, see what the market is and have a hamburger and a slice of pie. Its been an institution in Cache Valley for a long time.

During his final radio report Friday morning Layne Parker explained how the industry has changed. He thanked the thousands of patrons who have supported the auction since 1959 and praised those who have organized the weekly event, including Sharon Reay (ray).

She has been there for 33 years, feeding us every Thursday, said Jared. There were a lot of people who came to auction every Thursday for lunch and she has taken care of all of them.

We are really going to miss the interaction with all of the producers in our area. We have been able to meet so many different people and make lasting friendships with people we otherwise would never have met. We will miss the personal relationships the most.
Yet this is easier said than done. According to local experts, Kyrgyzstan could turn to China or India as potential investors. However, given the low profitability of the project, neither Beijing nor to New Delhi are likely to be interested. According to Bishkek-based energy analyst Ernest Karybekov, in order for both hydropower plants to be capable of generating a profit and thereby become attractive to investors, Kyrgyzstan will have to significantly increase the prices for energy, a move that the government will be highly unlikely to make given the very sensitivity of the issue for the general population. The governments previous decision to increase prices for public commodities led to a series of public uprisings and discontent.

The agreement on the construction of the hydropower plants was signed in 2012, during Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to Bishkek. The agreement assigned the task of constructing the US$ 3 billion Kambar-Ata-1 facility, with a capacity of 1,860 MW, to Russias state owned company Inter RAO together with RusHydro. RusHydro was contracted to build four additional smaller hydropower plants with a total output of 237.7 MW. According to preliminary estimates, the realization of this agreement required funding at around US$ 720 million. Over the course of these years, the Russian companies have invested only US$ 37 million, which the Kyrgyz side now has to pay back after its denunciation of the agreement. Kyrgyzstans former Minister of Justice and currently serving Member of Parliament Almambet Shykmamatov stated that he was recently at the construction site and did not see anything worth even US$ 5 million. In an interview to the local bureau of Radio Liberty, the MP said that he will now advocate the creation of a special Parliamentary Commission to investigate how these financial resources were spent. Conversely, Kyrgyz vice Prime Minister Oleg Pankratov stated that the money transferred was used transparently, and that the start of the construction will serve as input for future investors.

Moscows inability to finance the project and most importantly to keep its promises has met varying reactions. Moscow-based political analyst Mikhail Krutikhin argued that the decision is not of a political nature, but a purely financial one. Russias refusal to finance the hydropower projects in Kyrgyzstan is not the only big project cancelled. Gazprom has also now refrained from building a Caspian pipeline, a promise given to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The company also refused to repair the gas pipeline system Central Asia-Center, noted Krutikhin. Nevertheless, despite the pledge of the Russian side that it may reconsider investing in the construction project in the future, Bishkek has firmly stated that it will find a new investor within the next six months, a highly challenging task indeed.

These developments have also fueled the argument that Moscow promised to finance a number of significant projects in Kyrgyzstan, knowing a priori that it cannot and will not finance them, in order to draw Bishkek to the Eurasian Economic Union  which according to recent statistical data has even led to a decrease in the trade turnover among its four members. In addition to the deteriorating economic situation in Russia itself, this poses a serious challenge to the Kremlins ability to maintain the Union.

Image attribution: www.rferl.org, accessed on Feb 17, 2016
SHARE Matthew Swantner

Swantner becomes law firm partner

Jackson Walker LLP, of San Antonio, announced the election of nine attorneys to the firm's partnership, including Matthew Swantner, of Corpus Christi.

Swantner's work is focused on commercial litigation, including contract disputes, business torts, oil and gas matters, creditor's rights, mineral and construction liens, and bankruptcy matters throughout Texas and New Mexico.

SPEDC elects officers, new CEO

The San Patricio County Economic Development Corp. board of directors elected new officers during their first meeting of the year Feb. 8 and unanimously voted to hire Foster Edwards as the executive director. Edwards recently retired as the president/CEO of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, officials said.

Chairman Jo Ann Ehmann, Ingleside on the Bay

First Vice Chair Steve Connor, H-E-B

Second Vice Chair Rick Ritter, OxyChem

Secretary Pat Doherty, Mathis ISD

Treasurer Marshall Davidson, JM Davidson Construction

Member Rebecca Klaevemann, San Patricio Municipal Water District

Member Harold Ashley, AEP

Ex-Officio Roy DeBolt, Kiewit OffShore Services

SPCEDC 2016 board of directors

Harold Ashley, AEP

Wes Atwood, Dale Carnegie

Rober Barger, The Chemours Co.

Mike Barrera, city of Mathis

Sylvia Carrillo, city of Aransas Pass

Jonas Chupe, Voestalpine Texas, LLC

Paul Clore, Gregory-Portland ISD

Steve Connor, H-E-B

Vicki Daniels, TPCO America

Marshall Davidson, JM Davidson Construction

Roy DeBolt, Kiewit Offshore Services

Pat Doherty, Mathis ISD

Jo Ann Ehmann, city of Ingleside

Jesse Falcon, city of Odem

John Green, city of Portland

John Hobson, city of Sinton

Wes Hoskins, First Community Bank

Rebecca Klaevemann, San Patricio County Municipal Water District

Tom Moore, Port of Corpus Christi

Will Nichols, Cheniere Energy

Jim Paxton, Cravey Real Estate Co.

Rick Ritter, OxyChem

Rolando Rodriguez, city of Taft

Donnie Riojas, Taft Chamber of Commerce

Tim Rogers, Rogers Fine Jewelers

Tom Russell, Sherwin Alumina

Della Seal, Sinton Chamber of Commerce

Niki Shugart, Ingleside Chamber of Commerce

Terry Simpson, San Patricio County Judge

Denise Thompson, Frost

Rosemary Vega, Aransas Pass Chamber of Commerce

Colette Walls, Portland Chamber of Commerce

Tino Zambrano, city of Gregory
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TUESDAY

Learn website design at seminar

A website design seminar will be offered from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St., CED 140. The seminar's topics include, domain name, templates, layout of home page, how to add pages and photos and a Q-AND-A. Requirements for those who wish to attend are: must be a business owner, have a basic understanding of email and the Internet and be able to pay website starter fees. Cost: $45. Information: www.seminarscc.com

Business financial aid seminar offered

The Small Business Association will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Alice Chamber of Commerce, 612 E. Main St., Alice. SBA Guaranty Loan Programs can be an option to take care of financial needs, including working capital, land and building purchase, equipment, inventory and leasehold improvements. Information on government contracting and business consulting services will be provided. Information: 879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov

WEDNESDAY

Register now for contracting seminar

A business registration for government contracting seminar is from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Del Mar College Northwest Campus, 13725 Northwest Blvd., Room E116. The seminar will provide guidance to establish business credentials and enhancing business profiles on various governmental search engines. Free. Information and registration: www.seminarscc.com or 698-1021.

Workforce seminar explains services

The U.S. Small Business Administration will host a seminar by the Texas Workforce Solutions of the Coastal Bend to explain the services offered to employers. The seminar begins from 10-11:30 a.m. at the SBA office, 2820 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 108. Information: 361-879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov.

FRIDAY

Business financial aid seminar offered

The Small Business Association will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 9-10:30 a.m. at the SBA office, 2820 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 108. SBA Guaranty Loan Programs can be an option to take care of financial needs, including working capital, land and building purchase, equipment, inventory and leasehold improvements. Information on government contracting and business consulting services will be provided. Information: 879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov

Compiled by Natalia Contreras
Contributed The Frights, which includes Mikey Carnevale, Richard Dotson and Marc Finn, will perform Sunday at House of Rock.

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By Richard Guerrero of the Caller-Times

West Coast act The Frights might not be a household name in the Coastal Bend, but the band is hoping change that Sunday at the House of Rock.

To make that happen, the surf-inflected San Diego, California, garage rock trio  the band adds a rhythm guitarist for live appearances  dropped its latest album, "You Are Going Hate This," on Feb. 12, which should go a long way toward raising the band's profile on the national stage.

Guitarist/vocalist Mikey Carnevale said in a phone interview from San Diego the band's second full-length reveals a pronounced evolution from its debut, which was released more than two years ago.

"We have a dirty doo-wop style on the first one and we tried to maintain some of that. So you can definitely hear some of that influence in the songs  although they're a better quality than anything we've done before so it's definitely a step up for us," Carnevale said, referring to the tracks "Puppy Knuckles" and "Tungs," which were released as live recordings on an EP in 2014.

While the band's Cramps-flavored minimalism has given way to a more punchy punk stomp, Carnevale still draws on those '50s doo-wop classics for inspiration. Even so, life these days offers the vocalist a much deeper well to draw from than high-school angst.

"This record is mainly about growing up and coming of age and stuff like that," he said.

The Frights, which also includes bassist Richard Dotson and drummer Marc Finn, worked with Zac Carper, frontman for the Los Angeles skate punk band Fidlar, on the album. Carnevale said he contacted Carper with the sole purpose of landing an opening slot for tour swing. Carper, he said, had something else in mind.

"We played a couple of shows with Fidlar in (20)13-ish and so once of us emailed him and said, 'Hey, let's go on tour together'  we basically begged him to take us on tour. He said, 'No tours right now but I have a different idea  I want to do a record instead'," Carnevale said.

"You Are Going to Hate This" features a surprisingly varied palette of tonal colors from the punk school of songwriting, i.e., back to basics chord progressions that provide a solid foundation for Carnevale's syrupy croon. Tracks like "Afraid of the Dark" reveal a driving minimalism that recalls The Strokes or even The Cars while manic numbers like "You or Me" echo the brilliant angst of late Memphis great Jay Reatard.

House of Rock owner Casey Lain said while filling his venue on a Sunday evening may prove to be a tall order, he is excited about the tour package. A longtime talent buyer, Lain is inclined to take the long view: He booked country sensation Miranda Lambert as an opening act at the Executive Surf Club in the early '90s, years before Lambert hit the big-time.

"Since the House of Rock opened almost 11 years ago, some of our longest running relationships-partnerships have been with bands that have not necessarily been 'big' or on the radar of the mainstream listener," Lain said. "Also, a lot of bands that are now headliners started off as support acts at one point.

"There's a certain amount of risk involved when booking bands that are lesser-known, but when things work out, longtime partnerships are created," he said.

IF YOU GO

What: Swmrs, The Frights, The Turnaways, Evan Budihar

Where: The House of Rock

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $10

Information: 361-882-7625 or www.texashouseofrock.com
City Hall

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By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times

As January wound to a close and Texans shifted their focus to elections, developers were busy in Corpus Christi, proposing or resubmitting plans for more than $34 million in new work around town.

The lion's share of that belongs to a project at the intersection of Airline Road and Saratoga Boulevard where a nearly $24-million assisted living center has been proposed. If constructed, the facility will be more than 179,000 square feet. Further details about the project, including any target opening dates, were not immediately available.

The facility was just one of four projects valued over $1 million, and one of nine with valuations over $250,000. A multipurpose building for Calallen High School and a signs and operations shop for the city of Corpus Christi come in at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots for most costly.

Those projects, located at 4105 Wildcat Drive and 5352 Ayers St., respectively, are expected to cost more than $5.3 million. The multipurpose building is budgeted for about $3.1 million, and when constructed will cover about 42,000 square feet.

A new First Cash Pawn at 2821 Airline Road rounds out the list of projects proposed that exceed $1 million. The pawn shop is expected to cost $1.5 million.

Other large projects proposed include a remodel and addition to TGI Fridays on South Padre Island Drive ($750,000), work on a project underway by Action Gypsum at 522 Navigation Blvd. ($835,815) and a new building by Transport Industrial Properties at 5501 Transport Industrial Drive ($798,000).

City officials also permitted six projects during the two-week window, including the $9.9-million Hector P. Garcia Family Health Center by Christus Spohn. Flint Hills also received a final permit to build an administrative services building for $4.8 million, and a new Chicken Express was approved. Moore Plaza is also getting a new doughnut shop called Morning Donuts.

Twitter: @reportermatt

IN THE WORKS

Here are the past two weeks' actions at the Corpus Christi Development Services Department, with a brief description, location and estimated project cost

NEW PROJECTS

Corpus Christi AL/IL, new construction, $23.9 million, 2010 Airline Road

City of Corpus Christi, new construction, $2,280,000, 5352 Ayers Road

Corpus Christi Dental Offices, remodel, $8,000, 5314 Everhart Road

Trinity Towers Atrium, remodel, $100,595, 101 N. Upper Broadway St.

Action Gypsum, new commercial, $835,815, 522 Navigation Blvd.

TGI Fridays, $750,000, 5217 S. Padre Island Drive

Allstar Properties-Paint Booth, tenant finish out, $16,519, 2620 S. Padre Island Drive

Lakewood Village, new construction, $336,000, 2022 Hidden Lake

Lakewood Village, new construction, $336,000, 2012 Hidden Lake

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center, site work, $61,000, 5151 McArdle Road

First Cash Pawn, new commercial, $1.5 million, 2821 Airline Road

Air Gas, new construction, $5,720, 5817 Agnes St.

White box-2741 A, remodel, $12,300, 2741 S. Staples St.

White box-2747, remodel, $12,300, 2747 S. Staples St.

Transport Industrial Properties, new commercial, $798,000, 5501 Transport Industrial Drive

Bella Bella Hair Salon, tenant finish out, $4,750, 6033 Weber Road

Oso Mini Storage, new commercial, $51,200, 1533 Flour Bluff Road

Calallen High School, addendum, $3.1 million, 4105 Wildcat Drive

Wonders Bar and Grill, tenant finish out, $195,000, 4733 Alameda St.

Bay Area Mini Storage, remodel, $24,500, 2301 Rodd Field Road

Bay Area Mini Storage, remodel, $24,500, 2301 Rodd Field Road

Bay Area Mini Storage, remodel, $24,500, 2301 Rodd Field Road

Torrid at The Shops at La Palmera, tenant finish out, $160,000, 5488 S. Padre Island Drive

Verizon Tower, new construction, $85,000, 8051 S. Padre Island Drive

PERMITS

Flint Hills, new construction, $4.8 million, 1750 Nueces Bay Blvd.

Chicken Express, new construction, $675,000, 3014 Cimarron Blvd.

Morning Donuts, tenant finishing out, $37,400, 5425 S. Padre Island Drive

Dr. Hector P. Garcia Family Health Center, new construction, $9.9 million, 2606 Hospital Blvd.

City of Corpus Christi, new construction, $354,000, 5352 Ayers St.

24-Hour Safety, new construction, $364,575, 6766 Leopard St.
What has Gov. Abbott done about the six mass shootings on his watch?
SHARE Rep. Blake Farenthold, Rep, U.S. Rep Dist 27 (incumbent) Challenger Gregg Deeb

By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times

Republican primary challenger Gregg Deeb entered last week having outraised U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold in 2016, but a late campaign funding surge headlined by $10,000 from House Speaker Paul Ryan's political action committee changed that.

Ryan's Prosperity Action was one of four groups with connections to congressional candidates to write Farenthold, a Corpus Christi Republican, a check Friday. Ryan was joined by committees for Texas Republican representatives Brian Babin, of Woodville; Kenny Marchant, of Carrollton; and Mac Thornberry, of Amarillo, to give $18,000 to Farenthold.

The incumbent said a $26,000 poll commissioned by his campaign in early January leads him to believe he'll win the U.S. House District 27 Republican nomination handily, but fundraising goals are never satisfied, he added.

"You always want more money in a campaign because there's always another ad you want to buy," Farenthold said.

Farenthold declined to release the poll's results, which included questions about what issues voters in the district care about most and which candidate they prefer in the Republican primary.

About a week from the March 1 primary, Deeb has raised about $93,000 and loaned or given his campaign about $38,000. Farenthold, who fundraised about a year longer than Deeb, has raked in more than $627,000. About $51,000 of that was given last week.

Both candidates have spent nearly as much as they've brought in. Democratic primary candidates Roy Barrera and Ray Madrigal have not reported raising any funds in the race.

Deeb believes being so heavily outspent won't matter in the race, though he admitted he hadn't looked at Farenthold's financial reports.

"I'm focused on what we need to do to get things solved. That's what we're running for," Deeb said. "The money will come as we need it, because God has always given us exactly what we've needed in this campaign."

The most recent filing period is the pre-primary report, which covers contributions and expenses from Jan. 1 to Feb. 10. Any contributions of at least $1,000 after Feb. 10 must be reported within 48 hours of receipt.

In January, Deeb received more money from individuals considered self-employed than any other category, and Farenthold's largest contributors were political action committees, which the Republican says indicates Texas industries' support.

Since the start of the year, individual contributions to the two candidates have been similar in size, but Farenthold also holds a slight edge in that category. On average, each contribution to Deeb was about $1,230 while checks written to Farenthold averaged $1,575, a Caller-Times analysis found.

For Deeb, the first six weeks of 2016 totaled $47,300, nearly as much in contributions as the preceding three months' contributions of $49,000  a development he and his team were hoping would come to pass.

"From the start, it's been about building relationships, and that's what's led to this surge in support now," Deeb said.

Farenthold believes the large amount of contributions  in both numbers and value  indicate the community he represents is happy and wants to keep him in Washington longer.

Twitter: @reportermatt
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It's our hope that Republican and Democratic voters will locate the intersection of conscience and common sense, recognize that these two concepts can and should coalesce, and set up a general election showdown between John Kasich and Hillary Clinton for president.

Don't mistake this recommendation as an embrace of the so-called establishment. Those on both sides who throw that word around like an epithet need to grow up and recognize the seriousness of a U.S. president's place in the world.

Our two endorsees' demonstrated willingness and ability to work well with others is consistent with both parties' philosophies. It's conservative to find pragmatic solutions that win over the opposition. It's liberal to open one's mind enough to recognize the value of conservative input, agree that government has its limitations and accept that it should be limited to some extent.

Beware the destructiveness of candidates who sell themselves as nonsellouts because they eschew compromise  on the Republican side, the willingness of Ted Cruz to grind the government to a halt or to put forth the anti-constitutional notion that a president shouldn't be allowed to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, or of Donald Trump to wall off Mexico; and on the Democrats' farthest left, Bernie Sanders' vision of a socialist Robin Hood utopia doomed to fail because at some point he really would run out of other people's money. (Yes, Dear Readers, reports of our liberalism really have been greatly exaggerated.)

Kasich is one of only two Republican candidates with a relevant record of success in governing  the other being former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who suspended his campaign Saturday night. Kasich rises above Bush and the entire field in presidential demeanor. Only he and Dr. Ben Carson have consistently rejected the schoolyard behavior that has turned the Republican race into an embarrassment.

As Ohio's governor and previously as chairman of the House Budget Committee, Kasich has achieved what his opponents only talk about  successful reduction or elimination of budget deficits. And he has done it with buy-in from both parties. Bill Clinton is remembered as the last president to balance a budget. That's credit usurped from Kasich.

Kasich also has shown the realism to consider a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants  and the fortitude to say so to an unreceptive audience. He also accepted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act rather than let poor people in his state go uninsured for the sake of being seen obstructing the Obama administration  a display of conscience Texas' current and immediate former governor lack, unfortunately.

In the much more policy-oriented and less personality-conflicted Democratic race, the weight of Clinton's resume alone should crush Sanders. The Vermont senator can talk about universal health care but Clinton stands alone in having tried valiantly  and unsuccessfully  to achieve it and to have learned from defeat. Her ability to wake up, smell the coffee and work within the confines of the much less ambitious Affordable Care Act should be a plus, not a minus.

The two Democrats' competing views on how to expand college opportunity demonstrate why Clinton is the clear choice. Sanders would make college free  to students, that is. He'd make Wall Street pay for it  as if Wall Street wouldn't be smart enough to find a way to pass that expense on to us taxpayers. Sanders has made it to age 74 seemingly unaware that the private sector always finds ways around government's attempts to make it pay for things. Clinton would make affordable college a collaborative effort of the federal and state governments  and would not relieve students completely of the privilege and responsibility of paying for their educations.

Clinton and Kasich would offer voters two distinct choices between competing philosophies. They are alike in one regard  either one could be the kind of leader the entire country could follow. A Sanders or Cruz or Trump presidency could leave huge swaths of Americans disenfranchised  and make the world less stable.
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Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court did all Texans a favor: putting a temporary hold on the Environmental Protection Agency's sweeping new carbon regulation. With a final ruling not expected until at least 2017, any continued work by Texas agencies on implementation plans risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollarsand it's why they should halt work on it immediately.

First, some background. The EPA's carbon rule would fundamentally restructure the nation's power gridand force every American to pay for it. It requires states to cut emissions from power plants by varying amounts. Texas is required to cuts emissions by 33 percent by 2030.

About the only way to accomplish such dramatic cuts would be to shutdown affordable energy sources that Texans have already bought and paid for. Their replacements would largely come from wind and solar, which can be up to three times more expensive than traditional sources already in use.

Those higher costs will be passed on to Texas families in the form of higher energy bills. Economists at NERA Economic Consulting estimate it will increase annual electricity rates by up to 21 percent between 2022 and at least 2033. That will amount to hundreds of dollars per year for families who are already living paycheck to paycheckexpenses they cannot afford.

Those higher energy prices will hit employers, too, driving up the cost of doing business. That's especially true for manufacturers, which require abundant energy usage. Combined with other new carbon regulations, the Heritage Foundation estimates this will cost up to 43,000 manufacturing jobs in Texas alone.

These crushing costs are part of the reason why 29 statesincluding Texasjoined a federal lawsuit against the regulation. The other is that it is an unprecedented federal overreach into states' rights. This bipartisan coalition is backed by liberal Harvard Law School professor Laurence TribePresident Obama's own law school professorwho argues that it amounts to "burning the constitution."

This is where the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. In temporarily halting the regulation until this lawsuit is resolved, the Court ruled that moving forward with its implementation could irreparably harm the states, and that they have a likelihood of succeeding in federal court. This is an extremely rare move that speaks volumes to the regulation's shaky legal ground.

So, what does that mean for Texas? Testifying before Congress after the stay was issued, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy made it clear: "Nothing is going to be implemented while the stay is in place. It is clearly on hold until it resolves itself through the courts."

In other words, there will likely be no further action on this regulation until at least 2017, which is the earliest the Supreme Court could make its final ruling. And even with Justice Scalia's recent passingwhich many EPA supporters say improves their chances before the Courtthe future of the regulation remains in jeopardy, as evidenced by the bipartisan legal opposition to it.

Therefore, during that time, it simply makes no sense for Texas state authoritiesincluding air and environmental quality boards, public utility commissions, and individual utilitiesto proceed with implementation plans. Doing so risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars if the regulation is ultimately ruled illegal, which as the stay suggests, is likely.

President Obama has spent much of his eight years in office passing regulations that push constitutional boundaries. Now the Supreme Court has put a check on his authority, with a more decisive ruling to come next year. Texas state officials should heed the Court's warning and move to minimize any loss to taxpayers between now and then.

Thomas J. Pyle is the president of the American Energy Alliance.
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Vic Menard

Watts brave to bring criticism to board

It is not difficult to understand why Guy Watts' messages of student preparatory mediocrity at Del Mar College have been challenged so strongly. Too often, individuals courageous enough to speak to sensitive problems in our community receive more criticism than praise.

Moreover, as many successful problem-solvers have learned, sensitivity is not the greatest tool of problem solving. In those matters which seemingly concern race, religion, or politics, sensitivity must be set aside to engage the several often opposing sects of our community who seek resolutions of difficult matters. This is particularly true for those looking to the future success of our children and city. Diverse dialogue can be a key ingredient in successfully solving area and communitywide problems and establishing goals for the future.

In the '80s, Mr. Watts was one of our most vocal leaders in the effort to secure and establish a four-year university at Corpus Christi. Perhaps the success of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is one of the reasons why an increasing number of the better academically-prepared, graduating high school students are now choosing the option of the university, rather than Del Mar.

While many may not embrace Mr. Watts' seemingly radical solutions, current educational strategies at many levels and locations use more focused schools and platforms of curriculum to better serve their student's learning needs. That Mr. Watts did not choose to be more sensitive in the verbalization of his global thinking, is not unlike him; however, the possible merits of his conceptual thinking and the very complexity of the problem are worthy of follow-up and further consideration.

Some believe the mediocrity problem begins early on with children unprepared for even primary education because of literacy inadequacies, and thereafter escalates throughout the educational cycle as many of these ill-prepared students fall further behind their better prepared classmates. The students, who never catch up, account largely for most school drop outs. The middle portion of this group still minimally succeeds in high school, however, they often find themselves in our higher educational facilities still struggling academically.

President Escamilla and the trustees should not despair when ideas involving critical thinking are brought forward for assessment despite the sensitivity.

Mr. Watts is a brave bell-ringer.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Del Mar College Regent Guy Watts is sworn in December 2014.

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By Nick Jimenez of the Caller-Times

Early voters this week began the job of making their choices in the primary elections. Many candidates will be known to the voters but many won't. Even the job titles sometimes don't clearly indicate what the job is. The Railroad Commission, for instance, has nothing to do with railroads.

So it won't be unusual if the voter who just doesn't have time or the resources to research every candidate and their positions on issues is guided by either a familiar name, or just a name that appeared on a ballot before. That's risky.

Let the 2014 election of Guy Watts be the cautionary note for that approach to the ballot.

Watts is the regent on the Del Mar College board who has been creating quite a stir now for months. Watts has been insisting that the community college's proposed Southside campus be exclusively dedicated for what he has called "prepared students." In other words, no remedial students need apply for the campus proposed to be built at Yorktown Boulevard and Rodd Field Road.

Watts, in past comments, has associated students in remedial classes with "illegal immigrants" and said "prepared students" are more likely to come from the city's Southside high schools. He has said even to allow such remedial students on the new campus would "degrade" the campus' educational standards.

This is toxic stuff, even reprehensible, bordering on a kind of apartheid. This is not advocating honors courses or an honors curriculum, which the college offers. This is not advocacy for the academic integrity of the college coursework. This is labeling of every student who is aspiring to fulfill the dream of a college degree despite the academic hurdles being faced. The college would be renouncing one of its main missions if it were to segregate such students.

Watts has been personalizing his differences with the other regents. He sent a memo to a local political action group characterizing board chairman Trey McCampbell and second vice chairman Susan Hutchinson "charming but alarming" for voting for a resolution in support of the campus without 10 recommendations put forward by himself. The regents have now voted to investigate Watts for ethical breaches.

But Watts' out-of-bounds position on the new campus shouldn't have been a surprise to voters when he ran in November 2014. He was already writing and talking about excluding remedial students and about the "mediocrity" of the Del Mar campus. But that 2014 ballot was extraordinarily long and an election for a district post on a community college board can't compete for the attention of voters facing choices on state offices and hot local posts.

One might say that voters in District 4, which Watts represents, knew exactly what they were getting when they elected him over two other opponents. I find that highly questionable since campaigning for a community college post isn't a high dollar proposition and doesn't stir many passions. That's a shame since the regents govern one of the key educational institutions in the city, Del Mar College.

Watts has been on and off the Del Mar College board of regents since 1988. In short, he has name recognition when it comes to being associated with the college. A voter without much knowledge of the issues before the board would likely find it pretty safe to vote for Watts. After all, the guy has been there for quite a while.

I imagine that many voters facing this year's ballot are making the same kind of blind choices as they look down the slew of unfamiliar names and obscure posts. Candidates for the Court of Criminal Appeals tell the Editorial Board that voters often can't distinguish that court from the Texas Supreme Court. (Hint: they are the ultimate state court on criminal cases; the Texas Supreme Court is the ultimate court on civil cases.)

So if voters spy a familiar name or a name that hazily sounds familiar, that may be enough to gain a vote.

Watts' term runs until 2020. He hinted at one point he would resign, but then dispelled that notion. Now it looks like he will remain on the board, though his effectiveness is all but nullified, and continue to be a disruptive presence.

A voter is free to cast a vote for whomever they please. They should be sure, however, of what they are buying.

Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays.
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: CRP Leader Foligar Lang,Sympathizes with wum Inhabitants Accuses Biyas of Human Right Violation people

I am totally outraged, appalled, and anguished by the barbaric attitude of the CPDM / PAUL BIYAS Regime towards inhabitants of Wum. In our prompt denunciation of the savagery, behaviour of his Battalion intervention rapide (BIR)

We have characterized Wum as No1 crime scene 18 /19 January 2016 execution style. According to similar reports, the Wum had been turned into a torture centre as innocent inhabitants were tortured in public to dying point.These we consider human crimes and has called on the international human rights to look in to such barbaric behaviour by a regime that calls itself Les Grandes ambitions. As if that was not enough, mobile phones, TV, DVD Players, Radios and all electronics without receipts were carried away by these so called Military. In fact, 700 militia guys transported in Amour Cars and trucks took Wum hostage. This is unbelievable

We join the Wum people in expressing our sorrow to the families and friends of the victims and express our outrage at such an abhorrent ferocity committed on your land and on your people by the Biyas elements of security. As you may know this is aggression ended up in looting civilian belongings by Government Gunmen.

We are torn by this great tragedy and call on the other opposition parties and human right groups both national and worldwide to protest and express our outrage and condemnation of this ferocious act driven by the CPDM against the people they are meant to be protecting. We are watching,counting and registering all accountable crimes

Foligar Lang

Cameroon Reformation Party

God Bless Cameroonians
Yesterdays Presidential decree reshuffling cabinet uplifted Narcisse Mouelle Kombi as Minister of Arts and Culture.

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It was a day that started like others but finally turned out to be one that will go down memory lane to sons and daughters of the Canton Wouri-Bwele in Yabassi, Nkam Division of the Littoral Region. Joy and a show of gratitude gripped them on October 2, 2015 when on the 5 pm news cast over the Cameroon Radio Television, a Presidential decree reshuffling government raised their son, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, to Minister of Arts and Culture.



The news spread like wild fire and so did the mobilisation. The home of Narcisse Mouelle Kombi at the Mballa II neighbourhood was thus invaded with friends, colleagues, family relations and well wishers thronging to wish him good in his new duty post. I understand the sector like others is full of stakes and challenges but I am ready, with the collaboration of my team, to surmount setbacks, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi told Cameroon Tribune.



Before his appointment as Minister on Friday, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi served as Special Adviser to the President of the Republic since December 2011. The Law and Political Science Associate Professor was Director of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, IRIC, (2005-2012) before being appointed to the Presidency. He has served as a supernumerary lawyer in the Legal Affairs Division of UNESCO in Paris, France and as a Public Law Instructor at the Academy of Versailles. It was in 1993 that his teaching career began at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Yaounde II, Soa, from where he climbed the ladder to the rank of professor.



Born on May 6, 1962 in Douala, Littoral Region, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, trained in Mathematics and Physics in high school before opting for Law and Economics at the Bachelors Degree level after which he obtained a Masters Degree in Public Law. He also studied International Law in France. Narcisse Mouelle Kombi is author of over 30 scientific publications and four books. He counts several awards. The father of four is also an alternate member of the Central Committee of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement party.

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In late December Iraq's armed forces stormed the centre of Ramadi, a city ISIS captured from Iraqi forces in May. According to US officials, the group has lost about 40 per cent of once held territory in Iraq but only five per cent in Syria.
Mrs Spencer said the date of Bill's death, the date of the surgery, the fact his organs were transported from Canberra to St Vincent's and the fact Bill was taken off life support and his heart eventually allowed to die, all lined up with it being used in the revolutionary surgery.
The first operation to have lymph nodes removed occurred within weeks, one of five surgeries during the pregnancy. In January last year Mrs Mitchell had a mastectomy, capping a horror three months. In October her aunt had died by suicide. A month later her wedding dress and $1600 was lost as a bridal shop went under.
"This is the earliest vintage I have seen in my 43 years in the Canberra district," he said. "Last year was the earliest on record for us, but it looks we are ahead by another seven days this year.
"It's a head-in-the-sand approach," he said. "They know it is going to cost them money. [But] they should be thinking this is an opportunity to make sure they are doing the right thing and also see it as an opportunity to do more work in the clients' houses.
On Friday, Fairfax Media reported that Australia was in negotiations with Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia to try and resettle those in detention on Nauru and Manus Island who can neither be admitted to Australia or returned to their countries of origin.
As would be expected, the property industry is predicting dire consequences from changes to negative gearing arrangements. This would certainly be the result if existing geared transactions were to be affected but Labor has no intention to alter these arrangements. Similarly, the Coalition is most unlikely to make changes adversely affecting existing investors.
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Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

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Incorporated into the Mlada Boleslav automobile factory 70 years ago and transformed into a component production site in 2012, the Vrchlabi plant celebrates one million DSG transmission built.



The plant comes after a 245 million ($273 million) investment, during which a new factory building was built and existing production halls were modernized within 18 months.

The Czech facility has approximately a workforce of around 1,000 and is one of the most important employers in the region.

The state-of-the-art DQ 200 dual clutch transmission, which is manufactured by the local Skoda team, is of great strategic importance to the entire Volkswagen Group, said Board Member for Production, Michael Oeljeklaus.

Daily capacity will increase this year to 2,000 units per day and, in addition to transmission production at Vrchlabi, the MQ 200 and MQ/SQ 100 run off the line at the main factory in Mlada Boleslav, too. This is where more than 7 million of them have been built up to date, with around six million MQ 200 and more than one million MQ-100 ones.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Contributed - Thinkstock.com

The British Columbia Better Business Bureau is warning people about an online puppy scam that is anything but cute and cuddly.

The consumer watchdog says they have received several calls this year from people who fell victim after answering an online ads where supposedly legitimate breeders offered free puppies.

The Better Business Bureau says the posts on Craigslist and Kijiji promise the "breeder" will send the dogs if the interested pet owner will wire money to cover the cost of air transportation.

A few days after the money is sent, the buyer is contacted again by the scammer, who says they need more money for costs such as vaccinations and travel insurance.

Better Business Bureau spokesman Evan Kelly says a young B.C. mother was recently scammed out of $800 after she was shown some dogs on Skype and told two puppies would be shipped to her from Halifax.

The agency suggests people looking for a furry friend always visit breeders in person, ask for references and research reputable animal shipping companies.
Photo: Google Maps

One man was killed and a second snowmobiler was in hospital late Saturday following an avalanche near Golden, B.C.

Golden-Field RCMP said two other men were uninjured when the avalanche struck the four riders in the Quartz Creek area west of the community.

Golden and District Search and Rescue flew into the area by helicopter after police were notified just after 12 p.m. MT that an emergency GPS beacon had been activated.

Police said a 30-year-old Calgary man died in the avalanche and a 40-year-old man from Winnipeg was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

The two other riders were also from Calgary. No names have been released.

The incident came a day after Avalanche Canada issued an avalanche warning as potentially deadly snow conditions develop on slopes across parts of eastern and southeastern British Columbia.

The warning was in effect through to Monday in the North and South Columbia regions, the Purcell Mountains and the Kootenay Boundary.

"Recent new snow and wind have deposited up to a metre of new snow across these regions that overlays a weak layer," Avalanche Canada forecasting supervisor James Floyer said in the warning.

He said this layer has fail a "number of times" over the past few days, resulting in some close calls.

"Our concern is that as the sun comes out this weekend, this weak layer will become more easily triggered. And with the amount of snow thats on top of it we could be seeing some very large and dangerous avalanches.

Glacier National Park has issued a similar warning for backcountry users in that region east of Revelstoke.

Saturday's avalanche follows another in B.C. almost a month ago in which five snowmobilers were killed.

The five victims, all men from Alberta ranging in age from their early 40s to early 60s, died Jan. 29 near McBride, B.C.
Photo: Twitter

A vast smile breaks out across Wyatt Travis' face as the machine he's operating tilts slightly and whirrs upwards, an omnipresent buzz echoing from the four dizzying propellers.

It's Travis' first time flying a drone, and he couldn't be happier.

"It was incredible," he says after safely landing the machine. "It was a lot easier than I thought. And a lot of fun."

Once thought of as the stuff sci-fi movies, pilot-less flying machines are booming both recreationally and commercially as tech-enthusiasts and different industries explore their capabilities.

And experts say this is just the beginning.

"You have to have your head on a swivel these days because it's advancing so fast and the technology is changing so quickly," says Declan Sweeney, co-founder of Metro Vancouver's first-ever Drone Fair, held in Burnaby this weekend.

Sweeney has been working with drones for nearly 15 years, and says when he started, most other people flying unmanned aerial vehicles wore military uniforms.

Today there are a whole range of outfits flying drones, from hard hats on construction and mining sites to headsets on the back lots of Hollywood blockbusters.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced earlier this month that there are now more registered drone operators in the U.S. than there are licensed pilots.

Amazon has plans in the works to use the unmanned flying machines to deliver packages, and companies across Canada are already using the machines to survey land, monitor wildlife, help search and rescue operations and more.

But the new technology comes with concerns. As drones have dropped in price and become increasingly mainstream, questions have bubbled up about safety and privacy, as the machines fly over backyards and into commercial airspace.

Eric Edwards of non-profit drone association Unmanned Systems Canada says there seems to be a misconception that rules and regulations governing use of the machines are vague.

"They're not. The rules are very clear," Edwards says.

"Whether you're in the construction industry or the forestry industry, this is still aviation. You're committing an act of aviation."

Transport Canada requires operators to get a special certificate in order to operate a drone commercially, he explains.

The agency is currently working on a set of regulations for operating all small unmanned aircraft, whether recreation ally or commercially, and has launched a public awayness campaign dubbed "know before you fly."

Schools are also beginning to educate people about the machines. The British Columbia Institute of Technology will launch a course this April to teach the basics of unmanned aerial vehicles.

The school already has a fleet of drones which are used by almost every department, says Chris Cambon, project lead for unmanned aircraft systems at BCIT.

"Construction uses them, natural resources, geomatics. Everybody but health sciences, and we could probably find an application for them, too," Cambon says.

There has already been a lot of interest in the new course, Cambon says, not only from fresh-faced students, but from experienced pilots looking to transition to new careers, too.

"Young kids, old kids. I mean, how can you not love this technology?" he says.

The career possibilities for fledgling drone operators have grown exponentially in recent years, says Sweeney, as more and more industries begin using the machines.

Sweeney says he's recently had calls from people who want to use drones to survey the inside of nuclear plants, and he's heard the machines are being used to deliver mail in Europe and as life-saving flotation devices on Australian beaches.

He's excited to see where technology and imagination will bring drones next.

"Kids are going to start off playing (first person view drone) games and stuff like that. But it's actually going to translate into a future career," Sweeney says. "And that's going to be awesome."
Nine of Vernon regions most skilled Emergency Services teams presented thrilling demonstrations and showcases on SilverStar Mountain Resort this weekend.

The demonstrations were all part of the first Emergency Services Day benefitting Vernon Jubilee Hospital Foundation.

The all-day event honoured both first responders and everyone who steps up to help people in crisis situations.

From a heli-winch rescue to avalanche search techniques, Emergency Services Day featured the skills and equipment brought into action to assist those in need.

The event was in support of the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Foundation and $20 from every lift ticket sold Saturday was donated to the foundation.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Lawyers for Bill Cosby's wife have filed an emergency motion to postpone her deposition while she appeals a magistrate judge's order.

The motion filed late Saturday says the 71-year-old Camille Cosby's deposition scheduled for Monday should be delayed because she "has had no involvement with the facts or allegations underlying this case."

It argues that her public testimony would create "an unnecessary media circus and personal security threat that serves no purpose other than to harass and embarrass her."

Camille Cosby is slated to answer questions under oath in a defamation lawsuit brought against her husband by seven women who say he sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Lawyers for the Cosbys attempted to quash the deposition subpoena.

A federal judge ruled Friday that Camille Cosby's deposition must proceed Monday.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The county government that owned the iPhone in a high-profile legal battle between Apple Inc. and the Justice Department paid for but never installed a feature that would have allowed the FBI to easily and immediately unlock the phone as part of the terrorism investigation into the shootings that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.

If the technology, known as mobile device management, had been installed, San Bernardino officials would have been able to remotely unlock the iPhone for the FBI without the theatrics of a court battle that is now pitting digital privacy rights against national security concerns.

The service costs $4 per month per phone.

Instead, the only person who knew the unlocking passcode for the phone is the dead gunman, Syed Farook, who worked as an inspector in the county's public health department.

The iPhone assigned to Farook also lacked a Touch ID feature, meaning the FBI cannot use the dead gunman's thumbprint to unlock it now. The FBI found the phone in a car after the shootings.

A U.S. magistrate last week ordered Apple to provide the FBI with highly specialized software that could be loaded onto the work-issued iPhone 5C used by Farook. He died with his wife in a gun battle with police after killing 14 people in December.

The software would help the FBI hack into the phone by bypassing a security time delay and feature that erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful attempts to guess the unlocking passcode. This would allow the FBI to use technology to rapidly and repeatedly test numbers in what's known as a brute force attack.

The FBI said it wants to determine whether Farook had used his phone to communicate with others about the attack.

Apple has said it will protest the ruling and has until Friday to intervene in court.

San Bernardino had an existing contract with a technology provider, MobileIron Inc., but did not install it on any inspectors' iPhones, county spokesman David Wert said. There is no countywide policy on the matter and departments make their own decisions, he said.

Wert disputed the value of the remote management technology because he said Farook  or any other county employee  could have removed it manually. That would have alerted county technology employees and led them to intervene.

In many offices and classrooms, officially issued smartphones include the installed management software. It can unlock the phone, delete all information in case of loss or theft, track the device's physical location, determine which apps are installed, check battery life and push software updates. The technology is intended to make such products more suitable in corporate environments, where tighter controls are important to protect company secrets.

"This is the business case" for mobile device management, said John Dickson, a principal at Denim Group Ltd., a security consultancy. "The organization simply has no control or influence or anything over the device unless they have some MDM authority. The ability to do remote air updates, the ability to do remote wipe, the ability to control certain settings. Those are the standard kinds of things you do in mobile device management."

This is the first time since the county issued its first Blackberry device in 2003 that law enforcement has needed access to a locked county-owned phone, Wert said. Prosecutors said in court filings that the county gave its consent to search the device. County policy said digital devices can be searched at any time and Farook signed such an agreement.

Apple executives said Friday that the company had worked hard to help federal investigators get information off the locked iPhone, suggesting they use an iCloud workaround while the phone was connected to a familiar wireless network so that it would begin automatically backing up and provide access to data. The executives spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing legal process.

The executives said Apple sent engineers to work with the FBI on the workaround but the effort ultimately failed. In the government's filing Friday, prosecutors said in a footnote that neither the county nor the FBI knew the password to the iCloud account and the county, in an effort to get access to information on the phone in the hours after the attack, reset the password remotely  thereby eliminating the possibility of that workaround being successful.

But if the county had installed the management device it had bought onto Farook's phone, none of these efforts would have been necessary.

Gartner Inc., a technology research firm, estimated that over 60 per cent of large enterprises  meaning business, government and educational entities  used some kind of MDM software as of last year, though not necessarily on all company-owned devices. That percentage is likely higher now than when the research was done months ago, said Terrence Cosgrove, a research director with Gartner's mobile and client computing research group. Cosgrove said MDM adoption rates are generally higher among government users.

Many workers balk at the idea that the software can monitor and track their personal phones, said Alex Heid, chief research officer at the cybersecurity firm SecurityScorecard Inc. But if the company provides a phone, it's considered reasonable practice to use such software.

"If a company's assumption is that they might not be able to get back into a device one day then it's not really a company asset at that point, it's a gift," he said.

Ted Olson, a lawyer for Apple, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that the legal fight had evoked an important debate about privacy and civil liberties. But he warned there would be no limiting what the government could require Apple to do in the future if the Justice Department got its way this time.

"Apple has a responsibility to maintain the trust and faith of millions of people who've depended upon Apple to produce a product that protects their privacy  their intimate, personal life," said Olson, a former solicitor general under President George W. Bush. "This is a Pandora's box."
"I worked in one place where my coworkers were not very nice. When I talked to my boss about it, his response shocked me. 'Kindness is perceived by many to be weakness,' was his quote. Really? I responded that people do not have to be kind, they choose to be kind. But he did not agree and it made me realize I was perceived as the weak link in the group. On that day, I knew I would have to leave because my 'weakness' would never be encouraged in our group and I could not work in that sour atmosphere."
Jeb Bush tells supporters in South Carolina that he is ending his campaign for president. (Mark Makela / Getty Images)

Reporting from Columbia, S.C.  He launched his campaign in the warmth of a Florida summer, hailed as the candidate who melded a new, multicultural Republican appeal, a family history of winning and the most formidable fundraising machine his party had ever built.

Eight humiliating months later, in the South Carolina winter, defeated once again by Donald Trump, John Ellis Bush gave up, making him the most prominent casualty of an unruly presidential contest and marking a stunning public repudiation of a family that defined GOP success for decades during two turns in the White House.

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Jeb Bush's withdrawal from the race came as Trump handily won South Carolina's primary, advancing another significant step toward the party's nomination. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas were battling for second place.

By dropping out, Bush could help the party consolidate against Trump, although even if all his votes in South Carolina had gone to one of the two senators, Trump still would have prevailed.

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The heady promise of Bush's start made his fall that much more dramatic. The campaign's launch in June opened with a splashy call to action that was presidential in scale and embracing in tone, particularly toward the voters whom GOP leaders had identified as a crucial target after the party's loss in 2012.

Latin music blared, and speakers  including Bush  addressed the Miami audience in Spanish. His slogan added an exclamation point to suggest enthusiasm: "Jeb!" Bush employed his Mexican-born wife and his bilingual children and imported members of his famous family to craft a compelling image.

"He is the new America. He is the new Republican Party," said one announcement speaker, state Sen. Don Gaetz.

It was everything a candidate could dream of  except for an almost total lack of appeal to GOP voters.

Bush had sought to resurrect the political fortunes of a family partially sullied by the misadventures of his brother, George W. Bush. But he was hobbled by an inability to deal with both the fallout of his sibling's presidency and an angry, disaffected GOP electorate that despised the party establishment he personified and rejected its call to reach out to minority voters.

Out of office for more than eight years before he jumped into the presidential race in June, Bush appeared oblivious to the staunchly conservative direction the party had taken in his absence, a change driven by activist reactions to the presidencies of his brother and his father, George H.W. Bush.

He persisted in believing that people would eventually embrace a studious, serious candidate in a race filled with rhetoric-flinging rookie politicians and celebrity outsiders. But he failed to gauge the depth of animosity toward him and his family, and the more genteel Republican Party they championed.

In South Carolina, the last state in which he competed, Bush tried every trick. His mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, implored voters to side with her son. George W. Bush emerged from post-presidential retirement to denigrate his brother's nemesis, Trump, and ask South Carolinians who had once rescued his candidacy to do the same for Jeb. None of it worked.

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In the end, having finished no better than fourth place in any state, the most conservative candidate his family had produced was deemed insufficiently rock-ribbed and far too old-school for a party surging toward a new identity.

"The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision," said Bush, who occasionally grew emotional as he announced his departure.

He defended an effort that went from front-runner to underdog: "I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds."

Bush's candidacy rested on the same ruthless strategy that had worked for two family members. Within months of signaling his interest in the race early last year, he used the family's expansive network of fundraisers to collect more than $100 million for the super PAC that helped finance his activities, and more still for his campaign. In the end, the campaign and super PAC spent well over $90 million.

Yet in an early warning sign, his effort to clear the field worked only minimally, helping to persuade 2012 nominee Mitt Romney to forgo a third White House try.

Even with the threat of all that money, Bush could not dissuade others: Trump, the non-politician billionaire who would soak up so much attention and bully Bush; Cruz, the eventual Iowa caucus winner whose rapier speaking style would attract many of the party's newer voters; Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whose surprise second-place finish in New Hampshire would win over the more moderate and blue-collar voters Bush had counted on; and his onetime protege, Rubio, who would cast Bush aside as he called for a generational revolt.

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Bigger problems awaited. Some conservatives glowered at Bush's past support for the federal education standards known as Common Core. Others were enraged when Bush characterized immigrants in the country illegally as people who were acting out of "love"  a quote that Trump and others would mock for months.

Had the electorate been what he anticipated, the electorate of a generation ago, Bush might have surmounted his problems. But those two issues have become pillars of GOP activist fervor, so Bush's unorthodox views loomed large.

It's perhaps the biggest irony of Bush's campaign that while his family gave him many advantages  such as the massive fundraising base  it also set the stage for his failure.

Bush's father was never trusted by conservatives in the party, who saw him as the moderate underling not up to the stature of their hero, Ronald Reagan. The elder Bush's broken presidential pledge to not raise taxes led to a serious primary challenge by conservative Pat Buchanan in 1992 that served as a template for the racially tinged, insurgent candidacies this year.

George W. Bush campaigned as a "compassionate conservative"  a moniker that irked other conservatives it subtly maligned. His support for national education reforms and an immigration plan leading to rights of citizenship for those in the country illegally provoked another lurch to the right for party activists, which expanded further during the Obama years.

The sins of the father and brother made many Republicans greet the third Bush with skepticism, despite his conservative tenure in Florida. If there was to be a new Republican Party, as his supporters asserted, it was not in their view going to be one that heralded yet another Bush.

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Bush himself was another problem. He was neither his quietly confident, patrician father nor his back-slapping, perennially underestimated older brother. Jeb Bush was a self-described introvert, a sometimes diffident policy wonk comfortable in his briefing books, who had jumped into an election that was fuming with hostility toward politics as practiced by his family.

He started the campaign insisting that he would "show who I am, tell my story," one different from the other Bushes. But even before his campaign officially began, he was tied in knots for days as he tried to answer the question of whether, given current knowledge, he would have gone to war in Iraq as his brother did. (The eventual answer: "I would not have invaded Iraq.")

Trump mercilessly pummeled him over his brother's actions and what Trump declared to be Jeb Bush's personal inadequacies.

"I've got to get this off my chest: Donald Trump is a jerk," Bush finally declared in late December during a New Hampshire event, a comment whose prim language only underscored his discomfort with the rancor of the campaign.

Trump's most common refrain was that Bush was "low energy." It was meant to get under Bush's skin, but got to a central truth about him: In a field of aggressors evincing animal rage, he barely registered.

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He disappeared for long stretches during the early debates, as louder voices dominated. Campaign slogans  "Right to Rise," "Jeb Can Fix It"  came and went, each an acknowledgment that the previous theme hadn't worked. It was only in the final weeks that Bush seemed to find a sense of urgency in debates and in speeches, but by then the race had passed him by.

The closing chapter of the Bush dynasty opened with one of its key attributes  public optimism. Jeb Bush had survived New Hampshire in fourth place and was back in South Carolina, the state that had righted his brother's campaign in 2000 and propelled his father's in 1988.

But any momentum he might have had stalled when the well-liked Gov. Nikki Haley spurned Bush family appeals and instead endorsed Rubio. George W. Bush's popularity in the state proved nontransferable. A rally in Summerville descended into embarrassment as, one after another, supporters rose to give a visibly frustrated candidate campaign advice.

At the upbeat Miami event where his effort began so winningly, Bush had exuded optimism, and maybe even a sense of destiny. He was, he cautioned, presuming nothing.

"Not a one of us deserves the job, by right of resume, party, seniority, family or family narrative," he said. "It's nobody's turn. It's everybody's test. And it's wide open  exactly as a contest for president should be."

At the time, he was inoculating himself against any insinuation that he felt he should be handed the presidency. It turned out to be an early and prescient assessment of the emotions at play in campaign 2016, and of the forces that would chase him out of the race.

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cathleen.decker@latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Decker reported from Las Vegas and Mehta from Columbia.

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All the money in the world can't save Bush's campaign

Trump wins South Carolina primary: 'Let's put this thing away'

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Victory in Nevada caucuses sets Hillary Clinton back on track for Democratic nomination
The Chicago Police investigate a shooting on the 5600 block of South Prairie Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood. (Eric Clark / Chicago Tribune)

Two men were shot to death and at least 14 other people, including a 3-year-old boy, have been wounded since Saturday afternoon in separate shootings across the city, according to Chicago police officials.

Around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, one man was shot to death and a 25-year-old man was wounded in a shooting during a party in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, said Officer Hector Alfaro, a police spokesman.

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Both men were attending a party in the 600 block of East 79th Street when a fight broke out and someone fired shots, Alfaro said.

A 25-year-old man suffered several gunshot wounds to the abdomen, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Alfaro said. Police originally had given the age of the man killed as 23, but later corrected that information.

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The man was identified as Raheem L. Robinson, 25, of the 400 block of West 103rd Street in the Fernwood neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at 3:21 a.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

The second 25-year-old was shot in the right shoulder and also taken to Christ Medical Center, where his condition had stabilized, Alfaro said.

No one was in custody as a result of the shooting early Sunday.

At about 3 p.m. Saturday, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot in the head in the 5600 block of South Prairie Avenue. He managed to get himself to Provident Hospital, but he was later transferred to Stroger Hospital, police said. He was listed in critical condition, then pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital about three hours later.

The medical examiner's office identified him as Brian Johnson. His home address was not immediately available.

A 3-year-old boy was shot at 3 p.m. Saturday while he was playing outside on the 5600 block of South Wolcott Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood, according to police.

The boy was shot in the right leg and was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where his condition had stabilized.

The boy was playing with an adult male relative on the street when someone came up and shot him, police said. The relative left after the shooting, police said.

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Police do not believe he was an intended target. No one was in custody as a result of the shooting.

Later Saturday evening, three men were injured in two separate shootings that happened within a block of each other in the West Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, police said.

A 33-year-old man who had been standing in the 8100 block of South Harvard Avenue was critically injured in a shooting around 10:05 p.m. when someone in a white or gray vehicle fired shots, Alfaro said.

The man was shot in the right side of his groin. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, Alfaro said.

The shooting appeared to be gang-related, police said.

The second shooting happened about 7:10 p.m. in the 8000 block of South Stewart Avenue.

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Two men, ages 23 and 24, were standing in the area when someone in a passing dark vehicle fired shots, said Officer Veejay Zala, a police spokesman. Both men suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

They were taken to Stroger Hospital, where their conditions stabilized, police said.

In other shootings:

About 5:45 a.m., two men were wounded, one critically, in a shooting in the Belmont Heights neighborhood. A 27-year-old man was critically wounded when he suffered several gunshots to his body in the 3000 block of North Harlem Avenue and was taken to Community First Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, Estrada said.

A 34-year-old man who went to Loyola University Medical Center for treatment and claimed he was shot in the leg in the 3500 block of North Austin Avenue was later determined to be a second victim from the Harlem Avenue shooting, police said.

Around 4:05 a.m., a man in his 20s was shot in the Washington Park neighborhood, Alfaro said.

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The man was shot in the left hand in the 5100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue. He was taken to Provident Hospital, where his condition stabilized, Alfaro said.

No other information about the shooting was immediately available.

About 9:20 p.m., a 20-year-old man was seriously hurt after he was shot on Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast neighborhood, Alfaro said.

The man was a passenger inside a vehicle that was exiting North Lake Shore Drive in the 1600 block at North Avenue when he heard gunshots and realized he was struck, Alfaro said.

The man was shot in the side and back and was driven to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition, Alfaro said.

About 8:30 p.m., a 21-year-old man was shot in the left calf in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, Zala said.

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The man was walking in the 5700 block of South Seeley Avenue when a light-colored vehicle approached him and someone inside fired shots, Zala said.

The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition, Zala said.

At 5:48 p.m., on the 5600 block of South Shields Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood, an 18-year-old was shot in the leg, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman.

The man was sitting on his front porch when a light-colored vehicle drove by with two people inside, police said. Someone from inside the car started shooting, hitting the 18-year-old, Tannehill said.



He was taken to a hospital where his condition had stabilized, but police did not immediately release more information.



At 3:41 p.m., on the 5700 block of South Calumet Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood, a 24-year-old man was shot in the chest, police said.

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The man was standing on the sidewalk when he heard shots and realized he was struck, police said.



The victim was taken to Stroger Hospital, and no one was in custody, police said.

At 2:12 p.m., on the 9500 block of South Loomis Street in the Longwood Manor neighborhood, a 25-year-old man was shot in the torso, police said.

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The man was walking on the sidewalk then entered a garage in the area. Two male assailants followed him and fired gunshots, Alfaro said.

He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, police said.

At 1:51 p.m., on the 1500 block of South Trumbull Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, a 26-year-old man was shot in the right buttocks, police said.

The man was arguing with an assailant who pulled out a handgun and fired shots, Alfaro said.

The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition, officials said.
This undated photo made from a video provided by WWMT Newschannel 3 shows Matt Mellen. Mellen, an Uber passenger, said he called police to report an erratic driver more than an hour before the driver allegedly began a series random shootings that killed multiple people in Kalamazoo, Michigan. (AP)

KALAMAZOO, Mich.  Authorities trying to piece together an hours-long weekend rampage that left six people dead in western Michigan said they are looking into a report that the suspect picked up at least one fare for a ride-hailing service between shootings.

Jason Dalton, a 45-year-old Uber driver and former insurance adjuster who police said had no criminal record, was arrested in connection with the shootings after a massive manhunt and was expected to be arraigned Monday. Authorities could not say what they believed motivated him to target victims with no apparent connection to him or to each other in the Saturday night shootings.

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"How do you go and tell the families of these victims that they weren't targeted for any reason other than they were there to be a target?" Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said at a Sunday news conference.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas described a terrifying series of attacks that began about 6 p.m. Saturday outside the Meadows apartment complex on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times. She was expected to survive.

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A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the dealership.

Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, Matyas said. Four of them died.

"These are random murders," Matyas said.

Dalton was arrested without incident about 12:40 a.m. Sunday after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through downtown Kalamazoo after leaving a bar parking lot, authorities said.

Matyas declined to disclose anything found in the vehicle except for a semi-automatic handgun.

By midday, authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated the suspect was driving for Uber during the manhunt and had taken at least one fare, Getting said.

A spokeswoman for Uber confirmed that Dalton was a driver for the company, but she declined to say whether he was driving Saturday night.

Uber prohibits both passengers and drivers from possessing guns of any kind in a vehicle. Anyone found to be in violation of the policy may be prohibited from using or driving for the service.

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A man who knows Dalton said he was a married father of two who never showed any signs of violence.

Gary Pardo Jr., whose parents live across the street from Dalton in Kalamazoo Township, described him as a family man who seemed fixated on cars and often worked on them.

"He would go a month without mowing his lawn but was very meticulous with his cars," Pardo said, explaining that Dalton, at times, owned a Chevrolet Camaro and two Hummer SUVs.

Progressive Insurance confirmed that he once worked for the company before leaving in 2011.

Dalton was an insurance adjuster who did auto-body estimates and once taught an auto-body repair class at an area community college, said James Block, who has lived next door to him for 17 years.

Jason Dalton, of Kalamazoo County, Mich., was arrested early Feb. 21, 2016, in downtown Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt after several people were shot at random. (Kalamazoo County sheriff's office)

"He loved to do things outside with his kids" like taking them for rides on his lawn tractor, Block said.

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Dalton's wife and children were unhurt, authorities said.

The suspect was in contact with more than one person during the rampage, authorities said, but they would not elaborate. Prosecutors said they did not expect to charge anyone else.

Authorities were interviewing Dalton and reviewing his phone. They did not know if the handgun belonged to him, Getting said.

"This is every community's nightmare  when you have someone going around just randomly killing people, no rhyme, no reason," Getting said.

Tammy George said the woman who was shot outside the apartment building is her next-door neighbor. She and her family heard the gunfire, ran outside and saw the woman on the ground.

Police investigate the scene early Feb. 21, 2016, where people were shot in vehicles outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, Mich. (Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette)

Four bullets flew into a closet of George's home, she said. Her son, James, was playing video games with two friends a few feet away from where the bullets pierced the wall.

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"I checked out the back window and saw a car speeding off," said James George, 17.

On Sunday morning, Tammy George came outside to clean the parking lot.

"I was worried about the kids coming out and seeing their mom's blood," she said. "I cleaned it up. No kid should have to come out and see their parent's blood on the ground."

During a Sunday morning news conference, some law enforcement officials wiped teary eyes or got choked up. When the news conference ended, Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell and Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley embraced.

The four people killed outside the restaurant were identified as 62-year-old Mary Lou Nye of Baroda and 60-year-old Mary Jo Nye, 68-year-old Barbara Hawthorne and 74-year-old Dorothy Brown, all of Battle Creek.

The two victims killed at the car dealership were identified as Tyler Smith and his father, Richard, who was 53.

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A 14-year-old girl wounded at the restaurant was hospitalized in critical condition.

Late Sunday night, mourners streamed into a Kalamazoo church for a prayer service intended to honor the victims and help residents cope.

A vehicle driven by a suspect in multiple shootings sits in downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., after the driver was arrested early Feb. 21, 2016. (Ed Finnerty / Kalamazoo Gazette)

With a population of about 75,000, Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.

Associated Press
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Friday there was brand marketing strategy behind the refusal by Apple, a technology company in Silicon Valley, to help access the phone of a terrorist killer. [File photo]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Friday there was brand marketing strategy behind the refusal by Apple, a technology company in Silicon Valley, to help access the phone of a terrorist killer.

The DOJ filed a motion at the U.S. District Court, Central California, where Judge Sheri Pym on Tuesday ordered Apple to provide specialized software to hack into the phone of Syed Farook.

Farook, together with his wife Tashfeen Malik, is responsible for killing 14 people on Dec. 2 last year in San Bernardino, California.

In the 35-page court document, the DOJ included as an "exhibit" the three-page statement by Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, which was posted Wednesday to argue against Judge Pym's order.

Cook called the order, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), "an unprecedented step" threatening the security of Apple customers.

In its response, however, the DOJ said Apple's current refusal to comply with the court's order "appears to be based on its concerns for its business model and public brand marketing strategy."

It went to the length to say Apple "appears to object based on a combination of: a perceived negative impact on its reputation and marketing strategy were it to provide the ordered assistance to the government, numerous mischaracterizations of the requirements of the (court) order, and an incorrect understanding of the All Writs Act."

Under the U.S. law, the All Writs Act, the law Judge Pym applied in issuing her order to Apple, authorizes the U.S. federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principal of law."

FBI investigators, already accessible to call logs and other information from a mobile phone service carrier, told Pym earlier that without passcode, they were unable to look into an iPhone 5c used by Farook. It was a work phone owned by San Bernardino County, where Farook worked at the public health department.

The FBI therefore requested Apple's help to bypass a security feature that erases data in the smartphone after 10 unsuccessful unlocking attempts.

Cook acknowledged that the FBI asked for help from Apple in the days following the San Bernardino attack and his company has provided data in its possession.

Noting that Apple's assistance is necessary, the DOJ said technicians from both Apple and the FBI agreed that they were unable to identify any other methods that are feasible for gaining access to the "currently inaccessible data" on the phone.

It listed in footnotes four suggestions discussed between Apple and the FBI, including attempting an auto-backup of the phone with the related cloud service account at Apple and obtaining previous back-ups of the device.

Despite one senior Apple executive's defense on Friday that the company's refusal was about principles, rather than marketing, the DOJ pointed out that Apple "has consistently complied with a significant number of (court) orders."

The company reportedly unlocked at least 70 iPhones at federal investigators' requests between 2008 and 2015. At a court hearing last year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy confirmed that Apple "had an established procedure to routinely take any of these requests, comply with them, processing them."

While trying to compel Apple to comply with the latest court order and provide the software needed, the DOJ said it would allow Apple "to retain custody of its software at all times" and "the software never has to come into the government custody."

A hearing on the case at the U.S. District Court in Central California has been scheduled for March 22.
The tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are major variables having profound impact on regional politics. Scholars and observers argue that they are sectarian conflicts and believe that they will cause more serious tensions. I would argue that the conflicts are actually between nation states with religious overtones. As a result, the prospect of this round of Saudi-Iran conflicts will be limited and the implications will be complicated.

Geopolitics is the realm of major powers. Regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Iran are also players in the geopolitical game in the Middle East. With the decline of U.S. influence in the region, their roles will expand in the coming future. This has already been reflected by the recent activism of the regional powers.

While global powers like the U.S. and Russia might make use of their political, economic and military means to realize their geopolitical ambitions, Saudi and Iran have adopted religion as one of their major instruments in achieving their geopolitical objectives as religion is the very factor that defines the culture of the region. To put it another way, the bonds of religious identity have been employed to build alliances.

On the one hand, both Saudi Arabia and Iran are nation states, and actually they cannot avoid the over-arching structure of the nation-state international system. They both have every characteristic of modern nation states. They have central governments managing their respective states, they have clear borders with their neighbors, they have citizens who identify with their national identities and they are both members of the United Nations and other important international institutions. What's more, the two are both working for the interests of the regimes and the people within their territories.

But on the other hand, both of the two would like to employ religion to promote their influence and interests externally. As a major representative of the Sunni states, Saudi Arabia always portrays itself as the guardian of the two holy sites of the Islamic world, and takes every opportunity to promote its religious influence. It has spent a lot of time and money building mosques and religious schools in other Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia certainly means to build its status and image as the leader of the Sunni countries in the Middle East and also the world.

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The busted Islamic State (IS) terror cell in Morocco on Thursday planned series of attacks against key Moroccan sites, including a suicide attack in the country's parliament building, the official Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) agency reported on Saturday.

Morocco's Interior Ministry said Thursday that security services foiled "dangerous" IS terrorist attacks and arrested ten suspects, including a French national.

Citing a source close to the investigations, the report revealed that the attack on the parliament was planned to be carried out by a 16-year-old boy who received extensive training.

The report added that the other sites that were part of IS plan included "Morocco Mall," the biggest mall in Africa, and headquarters of the state owned Office Cherifien de Phosphate (OCP), world's leading producer of phosphate rock.

A top Moroccan intelligence official said Friday that IS planned a series of terror attacks in Morocco, including a suicide car bomb attack.

The mastermind of the cell was arrested inside a "safe house" in the city of El Jadida, about 190 km southwest of the capital Rabat, where a considerable amount of arms and ammunition were seized, according to the Interior Ministry.

Moroccan intelligence official said the seized weapons were smuggled from Libya in close collaboration with senior IS affiliates.

Morocco has seen a growing threat from the IS group. The ministry said it has busted 31 terrorist cells since 2013 and foiled "numerous terrorist plans" targeting vital national, Arab and Western interests.
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At least five people were killed in fresh violence Saturday in India's northern state of Haryana, as authorities deployed additional forces to contain the agitating Jat protesters seeking reservations in government jobs and education, local media reports said.

Four people was killed in Jhajjar district, while another one was killed in Kaithal district after army deployed in the districts opened fire on protesters, NDTV, a television news channel said.

Many people including some policemen were also reported injured in the clashes that continued on second day.

On Friday, three people were reported dead and over 70 injured in the clashes after agitators resorted to arson.

However, authorities have not confirmed deaths.

While addressing media on Saturday, Police Chief of Haryana Y.P. Singhal said that one person was killed and over 70 people including some policemen were injured in violence.

Officials said 23 units of Indian army and paramilitary have been deployed in nine districts of the state and curfew has been imposed in several violence hit areas.

Army used helicopters to ferry its men in the affected areas as protesters had dug the roads.

The agitators set ablaze shops, a mall, several vehicles including police cars, toll posts, railway stations, petrol pump, a house of local minister and several government buildings.

The agitators also looted an armoury in Rothak district Friday evening.

Authorities on Saturday issued shoot-on-sight orders, as columns of army staged a flag march in a bid to regain calm.

At several places protesters defied curfew and resorted to arson, officials said.

Television images showed mobs on roads and trucks shouting slogans to seek reservation.

The agitation was going on since Monday, however, it turned violent after talks with local government led by right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed.

The state's Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Saturday again appealed for calm and urged people not to damage public property.

"No one will be benefited by damaging public property," Khattar said in a televised address. "I urge everyone not to be swayed by unfounded rumours and maintain peace in the state."

However, Jat leaders have threatened to continue their protests until their demands are met.

"We will end our protests immediately after government announces it has accepted our demand," Yashapal Malik, the president of a national Jat organisation said. "Now we are not ready to buy their false promises."

The agitation and violence has affected normal life in the state and affected road and rail transport through the state. Reports said over 800 trains were cancelled because of the Haryana agitation.

Last month, a group of protesters in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh resorted to arson and torched a police station, several vehicles and train.

In India quotas for lower castes and economically weaker sections are guaranteed constitutionally.

Analysts say quotas give people in India an advantage in government jobs and education.

Although Jats are listed as upper caste, they are demanding the status of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), citing the quotas for other lower castes put them at a disadvantage.
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The Zimbabwean aviation authorities on Saturday let go an impounded U.S. cargo plane carrying a blood-stained dead body, after police found no crime evidence probe and now suspect the body belonged to a stowaway whose death was possibly caused by lack of oxygen.

The MD11 plane, owned by Western Global Airlines and hired by South Africa's Reserve Bank, was en route to South African port city Durban from Germany when it was impounded at Harare International Airport during a refueling stopover last Sunday. Stacks of cash in South African Rand were also discovered.

National police spokesperson Charity Charamba said the body, cash, and the plane had been released to the crew after investigators found nothing suspicious.

"Nothing from international law obliges Zimbabwe to be responsible for the burial, cremation or disposal of the body." Charamba said in a statement.

However, she said pathologists concluded that the cause of death asphyxia and no internal or external injuries found on the body. The body was tested for Zika virus, yellow fever, and Ebola. Finger prints, on the other hand, were taken and forwarded to Interpol in order to identify the deseased.
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The Syrian army on Saturday captured parts of the road connecting the country's northern province of Aleppo with al-Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State (IS) group, according to Syria's state-run TV.

The Syrian forces fully secured the road in the areas of al-Ma'amel, through Aleppo's Thermal Station, and the airbase of Kweris in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, according to the report.

The progress is the latest achievement of the Syrian forces backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Aleppo, as reports said that the Syrian troops are closing in on al-Raqqa.

Less than a week ago, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army was preparing to advance toward al-Raqqa.

The UK-based watchdog group said the Syrian army are a few kilometers away from the provincial borders of al-Raqqa, following the rapid progress it has recently achieved on the desert high way near the town of Athraya.

Advancing toward al-Raqqa will grant the Syrian army a foothold in that city for the first time since the IS terror group captured the al-Tabaqa airbase in 2014, the last government stronghold in the city.

The progress reflected the declared goal of the Syrian administration to keep striking the militant groups, following the failure of the first round of the talks in Geneva earlier this week between the Syrian government and the oppositions.
Los Angeles Times

By Ralph Jennings

 Taiwanese authorities asked a close ally of the Dalai Lama, as well as a U.S.-based activist for Chinas Uighur minority, not to attend a forum on religious freedom in Taipei this week because their presence might irritate mainland Chinas Communist leaders, the events sponsors say.

U.S.-based representatives of Taiwans government persuaded Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of Tibets Buddhist government in exile in India, not to apply for visas in December, said Bob Fu, the founder of China Aid, an American nonprofit that is co-sponsoring the forum.

To talk about Chinas religious freedom situation, if you dont mention the Tibetan and Uighur minorities, a discussion of religious freedoms is incomplete, Fu said from the forum in Taipei, which opened Thursday with 99 participants from 26 countries. The whole application process feels political.

Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of Tibets government in

exile, walks with Sarah Sewall, U.S. undersecretary of State

for civilian security, democracy and human rights, during a

meeting in Dharmsala, India, on Jan. 15.

(Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press)

Beijing regards representatives of the Tibetan government in exile and Kadeer as separatists, and routinely pressures other countries not to host or meet with them.

Taiwans Foreign Ministry and immigration agency said they had no information about what their offices in the United States might have told potential visa applicants. We have no way to comment; all we do is process the visas, a National Immigration Agency spokesperson said.

Though Tibet and the Uighur homeland of Xinjiang are under control of mainland Chinese authorities, Taiwan has had de facto independence from mainland China since 1949. But Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island. The commonalities among these three contested regions have sparked significant interest in Taiwan about figures such as Kadeer and Sangay.

But outgoing Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who is leaving office in May after eight years, has tried to foster closer ties with Beijing after six decades of icy hostilities.

The Dalai Lama retired as head of the Tibetan government in exile in 2011, giving up leadership to the democratically elected Sangay. The Dalai Lama abandoned calls for Tibetan independence in 1979, embracing instead a middle way in which Tibetans would enjoy autonomy and freedom of religion and speech under Chinese rule.



Kadeer, meanwhile, has taken a similar stance, speaking out on human rights issues in Xinjiang and campaigning for self-determination for the largely Muslim region.

Many Uighurs and Tibetans say Chinese officials restrict their religious practices as well as their language and customs.

In early February, a foundation in Taipei representing the Dalai Lama said it too was told by Taiwanese officials that Sangay should avoid this weeks forum.

Taiwan is in a tough spot because of pressure from China, thats the reason, said Bari Dawa Tsering, director of the Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He declined to say which agency gave the word.

Of course we hoped Sangay could do this. But Taiwan is small and right next to China, so their stance is not to add any new trouble, he said.

Shortly after Ma took office, the Dalai Lama visited Taiwan in 2009 to console survivors of a typhoon that sparked serious mudslides and killed about 700 people. China warned Taiwan then that the visit could damage relations, but the two sides put the matter behind them on the way to signing a series of landmark economic pacts.

Kadeer was invited to Taiwan later that year by a musician but denied entry.

This time, Kadeer was rejected along with Dolkun Isa, a Uighur activist who escaped China in 1997 and is now a German citizen.

Mas Nationalist Party administration fears that to let Dolkun Isa and Rebiya Kadeer enter Taiwan will affect the understanding it has reached with Beijing, Dilxat Rexit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, said Friday.

Mas Nationalist Party roundly lost elections in January, and in May he will be replaced by Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Beijings adding of pressure has had the result of refusing them entry, and proves that Taiwans policy depends on Beijings complexion, he added. I hope in the future the Democratic Progressive Party government can reject Beijing.

Jennings is a special correspondent.

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Local trade areas to feature prominently in next stage of the country's growth

Every stage of China's development can be likened to a sporting event played by local governments.

Since the start of the 1990s, the areas in which local authorities have competed include foreign direct investment, new airports with direct flights to popular overseas destinations, sprawling urban plans featuring exotic public buildings or office buildings, and high-speed rail services.

But what next, with the economy undergoing a difficult transition and almost every industry seeing a slowdown in growth?

News emerging from provincial-level policymaking meetings held before the annual session of the National People's Congress in March is that setting up local free trade zones will mark the next stage of the nation's development.

Local governments will embark on a new round of competition to obtain central government approval for such zones and to show who can run a local FTZ most successfully.

Commerce officials say that the competition will probably continue throughout the nation's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Also called tariff-free zones, FTZs are areas within which goods can be imported, processed and exported without going through customs inspections. Foreign investors can set up facilities in industries that are restricted elsewhere in the country.

FTZs are designed to provide greater access and convenience for foreign companies to expand in China and for Chinese companies to move money abroad  in diverse services and financial operations, as well as in manufacturing.
Liu Shiyu, new head of China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Liu Shiyu, the newly appointed head of China's securities watchdog to replace Xiao Gang, faces a daunting task in making the equity market more market-oriented and in cracking down on illegal activities.

Dong Dengxin, a finance researcher at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said, "I think the China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman has a challenging role.

"The Chinese capital market has not reached a high market oriented and law-based level, so the public relies heavily on the government and this puts pressure on the job.

"Therefore, launching registration based IPO reform and refining the Securities Law can be two focuses for the new chairman."

Li Shuguang, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said Liu's appointment before the annual sessions of the country's top legislature and advisory body next month shows that the central government is paying attention to the capital market, which plays a positive role in China's economic transformation.

Li, who knows Liu, said the new CSRC chief is experienced in financial market regulation and risk control. "For Liu, cracking down on illegal activities and protecting small and medium investors' interests can be important tasks," Li said.

He said the securities watchdog should help with the amendment of the Securities Law and implement this well, based on laws and rules.

JianYang, a professor of finance at University of Colorado Denver, said the watchdog would be more prudent in introducing new rules.

Hong Hao, managing director and chief strategist at BOCOM International, said: "The replacement of the stock market watchdog head announced over the weekend can be mildly positive for the stock market this week, as the market hopes for a new supportive policy. But in the long term, fundamentals will determine market direction."

Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said the replacement is aimed at restoring investor confidence and showcasing the determination to get the market's performance back on track.

"This is a step that has attracted global attention, and I'm sure that markets worldwide will respond accordingly on Monday," Dewit said.

He added that China's economic fundamentals are sound, its potential is huge and both factors will help to develop a healthy capital market.

Xiao Gang, 57, a former head of the Bank of China, had been CSRC chief since March 2013. During Xiao's tenure , unchecked leverage triggered a jump in equity prices in late 2014 before the market collapsed in June last year, leading to government stock purchases, restrictions on the sale of stakes and a temporary ban on IPOs.

Hong, of BOCOM International, said, "While there has been much criticism of Xiao, the market's compound annual return during his tenure was the highest among the past four CSRC chairmen."
BEIJING - President Xi Jinping's inspection tour to three leading news providers on Friday was lauded by reporters, experts and students majoring in journalism.

President Xi Jinping meets with the editors and other staff in the newsroom at the headquarters of People's Daily newspaper. [Photo/Xinhua]

During a tour to the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television and at a symposium afterwards, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged the news outlets to follow the Party's leadership and focus on "positive reporting."

Journalists supported the president's instruction that the media should work to guide public opinion in the right direction.

Zhang Tie, a senior editorial writer at the People's Daily, told Xinhua that it is the responsibility of all the media run by the CPC to uphold and spread the "mainstream voice" of society, especially as society becomes more diversified and opinions vary.

The Party's will and its propositions should be the strongest voice of the times, he said.

According to Xi, the mission of the Party's media work is to provide guidance for the public, serve the country's overall interests, unite the general public, instill confidence and pool strength, tell right from wrong and connect China to the world.

Lu Shaoyang, head of Peking University's School of Journalism & Communication, said guidance does not mean rigid lecturing.

"A firm political stance and fine-tuned professional skills are required for today's media to exercise their duty," Lu said.

Ma Xiaorong, a young editor working on the Beijing Youth Daily's WeChat news account, said sensationalism should be avoided when reporting, especially when publishing on social networks.




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A new first-grader gets a red dot on her forehead (which is called opening the wisdom eye) during a first writing ceremony near Hancheng Lake in Xi'an, Feb 20, 2016. [Photo/CFP]

An ancient-style "first writing ceremony" is held in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province on Feb 20, 2016. Dozens of children from Xi'an attended the event to experience the traditional Chinese culture.

First writing ceremony, also called "kaibi ceremony", is one of the most important events for students in ancient China. At the beginning of school sessions, parents would take their children to attend the First Writing Ceremony. Teachers would put a red dot on the students' forehead as it represents the opening of the wisdom eye since the words "red dot" are pronounced the same as "wisdom" in Chinese. Then, teachers would give lectures on basic principles of behavior. Next, Children kowtow to Confucius and their teachers. It means that from this moment, they are ready to take a step on the lifelong pursuit of knowledge.
LAS VEGAS/COLUMBIA, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton narrowly won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, beating back a stronger-than-expected challenge from rival Bernie Sanders.

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets employees during a campaign stop on caucus day at Harrah's Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada February 20, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

With 65 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton was leading with 52.2 percent of the vote to Sanders' 47.8 percent. Television networks Fox News and MSNBC projected Clinton would win. Vote counting was delayed in Nevada by heavy turnout.

"This is your win," Clinton said in a tweet, thanking supporters for her victory.

Clinton's narrow margin of victory in a state where she was once expected to win by double digits suggested the Democratic nominating race could be long and hard-fought, with Sanders performing strongly in a state with a heavy minority population.

Sanders was hoping to prove his appeal to minority voters in Nevada and puncture Clinton's argument that he is a one-note candidate whose support is limited to mostly white states.

After routing Clinton in New Hampshire and finishing a strong second in Iowa - states with nearly all-white populations - Nevada gave Sanders his first chance to prove he can win over black and Hispanic voters and compete nationally as the race moves to states with more diverse populations.
Protesters hold a rally in support of former NYPD officer Peter Liang in the Brooklyn borough of New York February 20, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK - Tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday in more than 30 American cities to protest the conviction of Peter Liang, a former New York police officer of Chinese descent.



In an effort to show solidarity, a large number of protesters, mostly Chinese Americans, joined demonstrations in cities around the nation from Washington D.C. and New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco.



At the Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, New York, 10,000-strong protestors from all over the metropolitan area converged with placards and banners in hands, chanting slogans like "tragedy, not crime," "equal justice for all" and "accident is not a felony."



The organizer of the New York protest -- the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights -- said that what actually happened was a tragic accident that claimed two victims, Peter Liang and African American Akai Gurley, but Liang was unfairly made a sacrifice to ease the ever-intensifying friction between the police force and the black communities all around the country.



A ricocheted bullet from Liang's service weapon accidentally killed Gurley, an unarmed civilian, when the former New York police officer was patrolling in a housing project in the borough of Brooklyn in late November in 2014.



Liang was found guilty of the killing of Gurley and convicted of second-degree manslaughter by a jury on Feb. 11.



The conviction has sparked an uproar within the Chinese-American community, not only in New York City but also many other major U.S. cities with substantial Chinese-American population.



In Washington D.C., hundreds of protesters on Saturday rallied around the Northeast Quadrant of the Washington Monument to support Liang. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco also saw similar protests.



Calling Liang's conviction "wrongful and selective prosecution," Yuanfan Sun, one of the volunteers who helped to organize the rally in the D.C. area, said the conviction was the latest case of making the ethnic minority American a scapegoat to pay for the police brutality that has troubled the American society for a long time.



"Liang is not a criminal. Sacrificing Liang is not the correct way to solve the systematic problems. Justice is not served by finding a scapegoat," said John Chen, president of the New York-based Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.



On Nov 20, 2014, Liang, a 27-year-old "rookie" officer with only a year and half on the job, was patrolling on the eighth floor of the Pink Houses with his partner, Shaun Landau, who was also new to the job. Liang had his gun drawn.



In the court hearing, Liang testified that in the pitch-dark stairway, he was startled by a noise. "And the gun just went off after I tensed up."



The bullet hit the wall before ricocheting and hitting Akai Gurley on a lower level, piercing his heart and liver. It was minutes later Liang came to know Gurley was struck and killed. "I was shocked. I was in disbelief that someone was actually hit," Liang recalled.



Liang is the first policeman from the New York Police Department to be convicted of homicide in the shooting of a civilian since 2005.



Many believe that the manslaughter conviction has been influenced by the enormous pressure on the country's law enforcement, as white police officers have often walked scot-free in similar incidents wherein innocent black civilians were killed, which have triggered massive protests and riots from African-American communities nationwide.



Outside of the Cadman Plaza Park, a dozen of "black lives matter" activists also held an opposing protest. They demanded "killer cops" be jailed, and called for stricter police accountability.



"In New York and all over this country, for a long time, we can point to many even worse instances of police abuse and police murder where the police have gotten off. But that does not make Peter Liang any more innocent," said protester Richard Kossally.



Still, supporters of Peter Liang believe that the death of Mr. Gurley was purely an accident. "There should be no conviction," said President of the New York Veteran Police Association Lou Telano. "We hope that the law enforcement realize that this was just a tragic incident, which doesn't warrant manslaughter, and doesn't warrant a crime. There's no intent."



"My feeling is, that (the guilty verdict of) Peter Liang is just pacifying certain political groups." Lou said.

Attorney Hugh H. Mo, who served as deputy police commissioner of New York and assistant district attorney in Manhattan, believes that the guilty conviction was affected by the current political climate.



"I think you have to examine Peter Liang's case in the context of wrong time, wrong place. Within the last year and half, or two years, there has been such a great number of police shootings of the innocent black man. That certainly created a whole issue of police accountability. As we all know after (Eric) Garner and (Michael) Brown, these cases that have galvanized African American community as well as the white community, many African American feel that police had to be held accountable."



Many others held similar opinion. Chief Information Officer at Coalition of Asian American Don B. Lee, said "I believe that Peter Liang was convicted in the court of public opinion before he is even convicted in the court of law."

Liang and his partner was fired from the police department right after the conviction. His sentencing is set for April 14.



Although a guilty conviction by a jury is very difficult to overturn, supporters has voiced hope for leniency in Liang's sentencing.



"What happened on Nov. 20 was a tragedy for both families," Councilwoman Margaret Chin in Manhattan said in a statement. "I ask that Judge Chun give the many factors that made that tragedy happen due consideration in the sentencing of Peter Liang."



"I hope that District Attorney Thompson will say to the sentencing judges that Peter Liang did not intend to kill Akai Gurley to get things right. This is an accident, not a crime," said Don Lee.
(Photo : Photo by U.S. Navy/Newsmakers) An U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane, The U.S. has used this plane for reconnaissance missions over the South China Sea in the past. China has said air/naval operations and joint military exercises in the South China Sea have heightened tensions and sparked a military build-up in the territory.

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The Chinese government on Friday accused the US of militarizing the South China Sea, days after civilian satellite images suggesting Beijing had deployed missiles to the disputed Paracel Islands grabbed media attention around the world.



In a seeming reversal of roles, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said US naval operations and joint military exercises in the South China Sea have heightened tensions, sowed mistrust and sparked a military build-up in the territory.



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"The current situation is that the US keeps increasing its military presence in the South China Sea," said Hong, citing US naval operations, surveillance activities and military alliances in the region. "It is those actions -- which heightened tensions in the South China Sea -- that are militarizing the South China Sea."



"Context is Important"



Hong pointed out that the Chinese government has maintained defensive facilities on the Paracels for as long as it has held administrative control over the island chain.



"Yongxing Dao is China's inherent territory," Hong said, using the Chinese name for Woody Island, which is part of the Paracels. "For several decades, China has been carrying out construction and setting up necessary defense facilities there."



The Paracels are the subject of a long-standing territorial dispute between China, Taiwan and Vietnam.



Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, appears to share -- at least in part -- Hong's view about Chinese defensive placements on the islands, saying China's reported deployment of missiles there should be viewed in the context of history.



"Context is important," Swift said, addressing a gathering of information technology and intelligence experts recently. "This isn't exactly new."



Uncanny Timing



Civilian satellite images of Chinese missiles on Woody Island went public just as US President Barrack Obama was concluding a highly-publicized US-led summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in California.



The timing with which Fox Network broke the news about the images has led critics of the US to conclude tht it was a deliberate attempt to impugn China's commitment to the region's stability before a worldwide audience.



International response to the images was immediate, and criticism of China's motives in the disputed territory was widespread. Within days, Australia, New Zealand and the EU called on China to defuse tensions in the region.



Responding to these entreaties, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that China's defensive posture in the South China Sea is limited, and de-militarizing the area requires international cooperation.



"Demilitarization is in accordance with the interests of all parties, but it should not be implemented by only one country or practiced under double or multiple standards," Wang said. "Demilitarization in the South China Sea requires efforts from countries both inside and outside the region."



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TagsUS-China relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Paracel Islands
(Photo : Getty Images) The Chinese government's new guidelines on left-behind children warns that irresponsible parents would be punished.

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Under the new guidelines released by the Chinese government, parents who are migrant workers may face sanctions if it is found that their children, left behind in their hometowns, are inadequately provided with care and attention.



The policy, which was approved by Premier Li Keqiang and announced this month, outlines the responsibilities of parents and the government in the protection of left-behind children. It stressed that parents bear the primary responsibility of their children's care.



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In a press conference on Friday, vice minister of civil affairs Zou Ming said that there are some irresponsible parents who, after giving birth to their kids, just abandon them without ensuring they are properly cared for, thus threatening their physical and mental health well-being.



Zou warned that if proven that these children are severely harmed because of their indifference, parents may face punishment. Also, their custody over these children can be renounced.



Shangxuelushang, an NGO that caters for left-behind children, revealed that in a survey conducted last year that nearly 15 percent of the children under their care claim to have had no physical contact with their parents in an entire year, while 4 percent said they received only one phone call per year.



Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center head Tong Lihua said that this can have a huge psychological impact that can even lead to poor school performance and extreme behaviors such as suicide. In June last year, four left-behind siblings aged between 5 and 13 years from Bijie, Guizhou province, all committed suicide by consuming poisonous pesticides.



Zou encouraged parents to take their kids along when traveling to look for jobs in other cities or if possible at least one of the parents should keep the kids company and care for them.



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The Chocolate Math of it All - v. 9/30/2022 Number of Days Since This Chocolate Bet Started: 5,860

Number of Chocolate Items Eaten: 5,860+

Number of different items combined with chocolate: 371 - from Absinthe to Zucchini)

Weight of Chocolate Eaten: ~ 5,860 oz. (366.25 lbs. or 166.12 kg)

Total Number of Chocolate Calories Consumed to date: ~ 879,000 (There are, on average, 150 calories in 1 oz. or 28.3 grams of chocolate.)

Number of Companies producing chocolate items I've eaten: Approx. 1,592; Number of bean-to-bar makers: 194

Number of Countries where chocolates were made: 66

Number of Pounds of Chocolate Americans Eat: Approx. 11-12 pounds per year; I eat 27 lbs. (more than 12 kg.)/year. Per capita chocolate consumption in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Ireland: 8-9 kilograms (17-22 pounds)/year. Global demand has stayed high, despite economic fluctuations.

Cost of all these Chocolates: A lot of money, but worth every penny. Chocolates range from $1 to $20 each. Occasionally I receive gifts or samples. Copyright Information

All other product names, logos, trademarks, and product packaging designs belong to their respective owners.

Content and photos are by Corinne C. DeBra unless otherwise noted; all photos are posted in low resolution. Copyright (c) 2006-2021 Corinne C. DeBra, Chocolate Banquet
African governments crack down on charismatic churches promising miracle cure and exploiting poor people

At least four African governments are proposing new measures to protect unsuspecting church members against charismatic churches that promote corrupt or immoral schemes.

The governments in Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon and South Africa have reportedly come up with a series of initiatives as part of a crackdown on rogue churches and clergies fleecing their followers.

Kenya unveiled in January a number of rules designed to regulate religious groups and prevent youth radicalisation by Muslim terrorist groups. One of the rules requires all clergy to hold theological degrees.

However, after strong protests by church leaders, the attorney general withdrew the rules.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, however, indicated his intention to rein in rouge preachers, according to Charisma News.

In Ghana, its government has asked the Christian Council to draft a proposal to ensure all churches are registered with the government.

The South African Council of Churches has called for some kind of guidelines to help churches self-regulate. President Paul Biya of Cameroon recently ordered the closure of 100 churches over alleged criminal activities by Pentecostal church pastors linked to miracles.

According to Tolbert Thomas Jallah Jr., a Liberian cleric who heads the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, said some African preachers have been confusing their followers with doctrines that are without any biblical and theological basis.

"They are doing strange interpretations of Scriptures to exploit poor people, using prosperity messages, calling for miracle services and purchase of healing," said Jallah.

"They are requesting money before praying for the sick, and people will have to pay money to get appointments and register before getting to see the apostle," he added.

In Kenya, for example, Nairobi pastor Rev. Njohi prohibits women from wearing undergarments and bras to church, arguing that women "should be free in body and spirit to receive Jesus."

Kenyan preacher Victor Kanyari also admitted to a scheme whereby followers were asked to pay him in return for his cleansing them of their sins. As proof their sins were forgiven, the pastor said the water in a "miracle basin" would turn red after he prayed over it. Later, church leaders admitted adding chemicals to the water to cause it to turn red, Charisma News reported.

In South Africa last year, a pastor in Pretoria forced members of his congregation to strip naked and ride on their backs as he prayed for them. Another Pretoria pastor, Daniel Lesego, made his congregation drink petrol and eat grass. Pastor Penuel Mnguni, based in northern Pretoria, capped it all when he declared that a live snake he presented was actually a chocolate bar and commanded his congregation to eat it, the report said.

Government authorities are hoping to address the alarming trend even as it assured that the move was not to trample on their religious freedom. Some clerics also suggested self-regulation through associations, national councils and fellowships.

About 63 percent of Africans identify as Christian, and Christian denominations founded and still run schools and hospitals.

These congregations reportedly played critical roles in helping "to keep communities together and stitching together a fraying social fabric,'' the report said.
Man undresses in front of women in Seattle locker room, asserts right to do so under state's transgender bathroom policy

The transgender bathroom rule in the state of Washington drew protests after a man undressed in front of women in a locker room at the Seattle Parks and Recreation, asserting that he had the right to do so.

The man entered the women's locker room at Evans Pool in Seattle last Feb. 8 and took off his shirt. The women called the staff, who asked the man to leave but he insisted that "the law has changed and I have a right to be here," USA Today reported.

"Seeing this individual in the locker room, parents of swim team members (girls) and women who had paid for lap swim became alarmed and alerted our front desk staff," said Seattle Parks spokesman David Takami, according to LifeSite News. "In response, an Evans pool staff member entered the women's locker room and asked the man to leave."

The man returned to the locker room while the girls were changing for swimming practice. No one was arrested.

Employees told USA Today that the man made no attempt to identify as a woman yet he cited the transgender bathroom rule.

"We have guidelines that allow transgender individuals to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. We want everyone to feel comfortable in our facilities," Takami said.

Some people said the man used the law to peep at women.

"Either identify yourself as a transgender or you're not, and you're just taking advantage of a loophole," said MaryAnne Sato, a regular pool patron.

In 2012, a 45-year-old male lounged naked in a women's locker room in Olympia that were frequented by girls as young as six. The facility allowed him to use the facilities.

Opponents of the transgender bathroom rule protested at the Washington state capitol to share their stories of sexual assault.

"I think it's completely outrageous to allow mixed sex nudity in locker rooms," according to Jill Wade.

A woman, a victim of sexual assault, said the law could be used by predators.

"We're not here saying that the transgendered community are predators," she said. "We will never say that because we don't believe that. What we do believe is that this code is so poorly written that predators will abuse. We know it because we have lived it."

Supporters of the policy dismissed the concerns.

Houston Mayor Annelise Parker accused the policy's opponents of waging a campaign of fear mongering and deliberate lies when voters repealed the transgender bathroom ordinance.

Transgender activist Gunner Scott told KIRO radio that the fear raised "was a setup by opponents of LGBT equality to try to exploit the recent debate of basic rights of transgender youth."
Mennonite pastor who aided escape of mom and her daughter from lesbian partner set to start serving jail term

A Mennonite pastor who was convicted of helping a mother and her daughter flee the United States to avoid the court-ordered visitations of a lesbian partner has been ordered to start serving his jail sentence.

According to the case's website, Judge Williams Sessions III has ordered Pastor Kenneth Miller to start serving his 27-month sentence on March 22 instead of March 1 as earlier reported at the federal medium security prison in Petersburg, Virginia.

Pastor Miller was convicted in 2012 of aiding in international kidnapping in the case of Lisa Miller (no relation to Pastor Miller) and her daughter Isabella who fled to Canada to avoid Lisa's former lesbian partner Janet Jenkins.

"God allows hardships and trials to make us into the image of His Son. THAT'S GOOD. So if this time in prison makes this poor sinner a little more like Jesus, it will be good and I will be happy," wrote Pastor Miller about his prison sentence.

He added, "We are not discouraged or depressed about the future, because God is in the future and we are with God, therefore we are encouraged. There are some things that can never be locked up behind prison walls. Truth. Conscience. Moral righteousness. The saving Gospel of Jesus."

A Vermont judge ordered Lisa Miller to allow Jenkins to visit Isabella.

Lisa Miller and Jenkins entered into a civil union in 2000 and the former conceived Isabella through artificial insemination and the two acted as parents, according to Burlington Free Press.

They separated and Lisa Miller became an evangelical Christian and renounced her homosexuality.

Vermont judge Richard Cohen recognised Jenkins as Isabella's daughter despite the fact that they have no biological relationship, LifeSite News reported. Jenkins' name also does not appear on Isabella's birth certificate.

The judge refused to change his decision despite the fact that Isabella suffered psychological trauma from previous visits. After Lisa and Isabella's flight, Cohen transferred full custody of the child to Jenkins. The order was never enforced as the mother and daughter remain in hiding.

The pastor already served several days in prison in 2013 and Judge Sessions released him after he testified that his imprisonment "has only made my convictions stronger."

The Mennonite community in Nicaragua, believed to have received Lisa and Isabella in 2009, was harassed by Nicaraguan police and in 2012, it declared that "[w]e have chosen to obey God. We are willing to give up our rights, go to jail, or even die, for the cause of helping anyone become free from a sinful life and helping that person to live in obedience to God's Word."
Pastor Rafael Cruz blames church inaction for America's moral decline: 'It's now the time to act'

By its inaction, the church in America can only blame itself for the nation's moral decline, said Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz.

Speaking to host Pat Robertson of "The 700 Club" Christian TV programme, Cruz said, "We are where we are primarily because the church has been silent."

"For too many years, the church has believed this lie of separation of church and state. That is neither in the Constitution nor in the Declaration," the ordained minister and traveling public speaker said, according to WND.

Cruz said now is "A Time for Action," which is incidentally the title of his recently published book. He believes Christian inaction in the face of societal change has been the church's greatest failing over the past 60 years.

He said this all started in 1962 when the church kept silent when the Supreme Court banned prayer from public schools in Engel v. Vitale.

The following year, the court banned organised Bible reading in public schools. Once again, church leaders failed to protest on the ground that they did not want to interfere in "political issues."

Cruz said this is wrong interpretation of the Constitution. "How can you call prayer a political issue? How can you call Bible study a political issue? But that's what the church did."

Again in 1973, when the Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion, the church kept silence, saying once again that abortion was a political issue.

Last year, the Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage throughout the nation, saying all Americans now have this "constitutional right."

Cruz thinks that this time the church has finally woken up from its slumber and has finally realised that it can no longer stay silent about public policy issues that deal with morality.

Turning to this year's U.S. election, Cruz said he is saddened to see the Republican candidates slinging mud at each other instead of talking about the serious issues that face America.

One issue he considers critical is the appointment of a justice to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who suffered a sudden death last week. Cruz said the Senate should wait until the next president takes office before confirming a nominee.

If President Barack Obama is allowed to nominate Scalia's successor, Cruz said he fears the Supreme Court will take a "hard left turn" to the further detriment of the religious conservative sector.

"This could tilt the balance of the court, and ... this could be something that would affect America for the next 30 years," he told Robertson. "We don't have 30 years, Pat."
Shane Claiborne: NAE report is 'one giant leap for abolition of death penalty'

The shift away from supporting the death penalty among evangelicals is "a big deal", according to Shane Claiborne.

On Monday the board of the National Association of Evangelicals approved a resolution that changed its 1973 resolution that favoured the death penalty. It did not remove support for the death penalty, but does now acknowledge evangelicals who oppose it.

Claiborne, a Christian activist based in Philadelphia, told The Washington Post that despite not being a reversal in position, the shift is significant:

"What it shows is that there is not a consensus to be pro-capital punishment," he said. "It flags both social and theological concerns and affirms the growing movement of evangelicals who are against the death penalty."

Arguably, the death penalty has been part of public policy because of conservative Christians, not in spite of them according to Claiborne.

Contrasting the evangelical position on capital punishment with its position on abortion, he said:

"While evangelicals have been champions for life on abortion, we've been the cheerleaders for death when it comes to execution.

"Over 85 per cent of executions in the last 40 years have been in the Bible belt. As death penalty scholar and death row chaplain Dale Recinella puts it, 'The Bible belt has become the death belt.'"

He challenged this reality, highlighting the cruel irony that while evangelicals sing "Amazing Grace" on a Sunday, they are happy to show a convict none when it comes to capital punishment:

"The Bible would be much shorter without grace. But for far too long we've missed the fact that every time we execute someone we undermine the very message of God's redeeming love."

Referencing the execution of Kelly Gissendaner last month in Georgia, Claiborne held up her time in prison as an "exemplary model of rehabilitation loved deeply by prisoners and guards alike." Despite her faith, the support of hundreds of pastors and Pope Francis, Gissendaner was executed by a person who shared her Christian faith.

Claiborne saw hope in the statement from the NAE, saying "grace has a foot in the door of evangelicalism. The new resolution is one small step for the NAE, but is one giant leap for abolition."

NAE President Leith Anderson said that a growing number of evangelicals are calling for government resources to be moved away from the death penalty.

It remains that 71 per cent of white evangelicals support the death penalty, according to a March 2015 Pew Research Center survey. This is less than 2011, when the support was at 77 per cent.

Millennial and non-white evangelicals are sending an anti-death penalty message, according to Samuel Rodriguez, who leads the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

"This is coming from very conservative evangelicals who are staunchly pro-life," Rodriguez said. "They don't see it as a liberal issue."

Claiborne hoped that "a generation from now ... a post-death-penalty world looks back and sees Christians standing on the side of life... in the name of the executed and risen Christ."
Shane Claiborne: Why Christians can't support the death penalty

Following the botched execution of Oklahoma prisoner Clayton Lockett on April 29, social activist, bestselling author and leading member of the New Monasticism movement Shane Claiborne has offered his thoughts on the death penalty.

In a blog for RedLetterChristians.org, Claiborne cites "the nagging problem of Jesus" as "the greatest obstacle for pro-death penalty Christians".

"There are plenty of other problems with the scriptural manoeuvring used to justify the contemporary practice of the death penalty with a few verses from the Bible, in the same way that a few verses were misused to justify slavery," he writes.

"Setting aside other compelling arguments against the death [penalty] such as the fact that the determining factor for execution is often not guilt but economics and race...and that 144 folks have been exonerated with recent studies showing 1 in 25 folks sentenced to death are likely innocent...all that aside, I want to focus on Jesus."

Claiborne notes that those Christians who support the death penalty fail to look to the teachings of Christ, instead choosing to focus on Old Testament passages, before Jesus came into the world in flesh and grace entered the equation.

He points to the blog written by R Albert Mohler for CNN earlier this month.

"I believe that Christians should hope, pray and strive for a society in which the death penalty, rightly and rarely applied, would make moral sense," Mohler wrote.

"In the simplest form, the Bible condemns murder and calls for the death of the murderer. The one who intentionally takes life by murder forfeits the right to his own life.

"Christians thinking about the death penalty must begin with the fact that the Bible envisions a society in which capital punishment for murder is sometimes necessary, but should be exceedingly rare. The Bible also affirms that the death penalty, rightly and justly applied, will have a powerful deterrent effect.

"In a world of violence, the death penalty is understood as a necessary firewall against the spread of further deadly violence," Mohler concluded.

Claiborne, however, contends that this understanding does not sit well with the way Jesus approached those who had sinned in the Gospels.

He highlights such teachings as "judge not lest you be judged"; "I did not come for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for the sinners" and "you've heard it said 'an eye for an eye' but I tell you there is another way" as indicative that Christ relentlessly stood for mercy, favouring forgiveness over punishment.

"There is an incident in the Gospels where Jesus is asked about the death penalty...A women has been humiliated and dragged before the town, ready to be killed. Her execution was legal; her crime was a capital one. But just because it's legal, doesn't make it right," Claiborne writes.

"Jesus interrupts the scene  with grace."

In the passage in question, found in John 8, Jesus challenges the mob ready to stone an adulterous woman; famously declaring, "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone" (v 7).

"The only one who is left with any right to throw a stone is Jesus  and he has absolutely no inclination to do so. We can see that the closer we are to God the less we want to throw stones at other people," Claiborne writes.

"It is this duel conviction that no one is above reproach and that no one is beyond redemption that lies at the heart of our faith."

He concludes with the assertion that, "Of all people, we who follow the executed and risen Christ should be people who are consistently pro-life, pro-grace and anti-death.

"We dare not forget the story  of a God who so loved the world that Jesus was sent, not to condemn the world but to save it. We must not forget that much of the Bible was written by murderers who were given a second chance. Moses. David. Paul.

"The Bible would be much shorted without grace," Claiborne adds. "And our churches would be empty is we killed everyone who was deserving of death."

The State of Texas is today preparing to execute the first US prisoner since Lockett's death. Robert James Campbell, convicted of murder, filed a final round of appeals yesterday.

"Every execution is a mistake," Claiborne tweeted last night.
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The school bus lurks down the street from Brandon and Lakeisha Williams' second-floor apartment. In the darkness before dawn, its amber lights pop off and on, off and on, off and on.

In a few minutes, it will be pickup time. The bus will lumber forward to the apartment entrance. Brandon and Lakeisha will trot down the rickety wooden stairs and out of the courtyard to climb aboard.

For Lakeisha, those are long minutes, hard minutes. She is nervous, as she has been for weeks leading up to this moment on the first Monday of February.

It has been four months since Lakeisha stepped on a bus headed to the Furr High School campus, four months since the accident. Four months of therapy, surgeries and home school, of recovery and relapse. She's missed a homecoming game and high school dances, endured headaches and hospital stays, wrangled nightmares and crying jags.

She tugs at Brandon, the twin brother with whom she has been through so much. She would have him - as always - for support. And she would have her earbuds, to help defuse her anxieties in a stream of music.

At 6:29 a.m., the yellow bus serving Route 3162 pulls up to the stop.

At 6:31, Lakeisha and Brandon, dressed in matching Trukfit T-shirts, walk gingerly toward the vehicle.

Brandon gets on first, sliding into the front right seat, where he can keep an eye on the speedometer.

Lakeisha, following by a few paces, pauses for a split second. She draws a deep breath, juts out her chin and clambers up the steps.

She plops into the row behind her brother, by a window under the emergency exit sign.

The interior lights flash on, illuminating Lakeisha as she rummages around the seat. Searching, frantically, under the cushions, below her legs, by her back.

Then, as the bus jerks to life and the lights are extinguished, Lakesha hops to a spot across the aisle.

The first seat belt did not work - and she is not about to take any chances. Not after the last time.

---

Brandon remembers a flash of yellow, a sudden swerve, then blackness.

Lakeisha describes screams. The school bus flipping over. Plunging off the overpass.

She's not sure how much is memory and how much was pieced together later.

She hit her head on a window and landed, still in the bus, along with Brandon and Janiecia Chatman, the twins' best friend. Mariya Johnson, the fourth student on board, was thrown from the vehicle.

It was around 7 a.m. on Sept. 15, a week after the twins' 17th birthday.

That day had started like any other, with Janiecia bounding up the stairs to the Williams' apartment, eager to get the school day started. With Brandon rushing to throw on clothes, grab his backpack, put on his Adidas ZX Flux. With a warm "hey" to Mariya, already sitting in her usual spot in the rear of the bus.

The only regular riders on that Houston Independent School District bus had coalesced into a merry quartet since the beginning of the academic year. Janiecia, whom the twins often referred to as a cousin, was a freshman at Furr; the others attended REACH Charter School, on the same campus.

On their 20-minute trips to and from school, they listened to music, gossiped about classes, goofed around. The girls joked and teased Brandon, posting Snapchat videos and photos of him napping. Brandon would feign indignation, then laugh it off.

That morning, as the bus chugged along Loop 610, Brandon stood to talk to the driver, who seemed distracted. He took a few steps, then felt an abrupt twitch.

Brandon dropped into a seat and muttered, "Oh crap."

Then everything went blank.

---

The swirl of students at REACH Charter School never ebbs - not even well into second period. They meander in and out of Room 115, new to the roster or late to class.

Inside Mr. Petty's Spanish class, Brandon seems oblivious to the rustle and racket around him. He pushes his desk close to Aunreyale Guillory, a 16-year-old whirlwind with a tangle of wild curls and a rapid-fire wit.

She is his distraction and his defender, his study buddy and roaming companion.

On this day, the last Tuesday of January, they are wrestling a Spanish worksheet, matching dates with the correct day of the week. "I don't get it," Brandon murmurs, twisting a strand of red-topped hair between his fingers.

In the front of the classroom, one board lists "Mental and Emotional Problems." Anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorder. Another offers Spanish translations for emotions: Ansioso- Anxious. Cansado - Tired. Nervioso - Nervous. Preocupado - Worried. Triste - Sad.

About 45 minutes into class, after Aunreyale and Brandon turn in their work, the girl signals to the teacher. "You know it's that time, Mr. Petty."

The two dash out, headed to see Furr Principal Bertie Simmons.

Since the accident, Brandon has had trouble focusing, trouble sitting through entire classes. Instead, several times a day, he exits class and ambles to the front office.

Often, his thoughts turn to Janiecia. Everything seems to remind him of her. A song. A photo on his Samsung Galaxy. The daily ride on the bus. Now so lonely.

When Brandon woke up in Memorial Hermann Hospital, swollen, bandaged, tethered to tubes, he had no idea what had happened. He was told that a Buick LeSabre, driven by an HISD teacher, had veered into their school bus, sending it through a freeway railing and tumbling 20 feet to the frontage road below. No one has been charged in the accident, which is still under investigation.

His sister was at Texas Children's in serious condition. The bus driver had been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Mariya and Janiecia, he believed, were in another hospital.

It would be eight days before he discovered the truth.

Mariya, the 17-year-old who loved to laugh and to needle Brandon, had died at a hospital shortly after the accident. Janiecia, Lakeisha and Brandon's constant companion, had died at the scene. She was 14.

Brandon collapsed into tears. He didn't want to talk to anyone, to see anyone. He had never imagined that kind of anguish.

He was released from the hospital on Sept. 24, in time to attend Janiecia's funeral two days later. "Heaven," a Beyonce song played at the service, is still on his tablet. But he rarely listens to it. Too painful, he says.

Three weeks after the accident, Brandon returned to school, where black wristbands memorializing Mariya and Janiecia had been distributed to the student body and a cluster of friends waited to cheer him.

But he was not ready to ride the bus.

For about two weeks, his mentor, Antoine Mack, drove him to REACH. Simmons called in a psychologist to ease Brandon past his fears.

Finally, Brandon steeled himself to get back aboard.

There was a new driver, who began the route with a prayer: Heavenly father, she beseeched, give Brandon the strength to endure the ride without panicking. The words - calming, comforting - got him through that first trip.

But surviving, he has learned, leaves scars.

He wonders how he survived, why he survived, why Janiecia and Mariya did not. Many nights, in the depths of sleep, he relives the split second before the accident. He envisions the bus careening off the freeway - and wakes up crying.

Many days, as he grapples with grief and guilt, he wishes he could be stronger - like his sister.

---

"I don't really want to be here, but I have to," Lakeisha tells her mother, as they sit in a blue-walled waiting room on the 21st floor of Texas Children's. "It's not like I have a choice."

"It brings back memories," nods Ella Williams, who rushed from her food service job at St. Luke's to accompany Lakeisha to a speech therapy appointment last month.

"Too many memories," the teenager sighs.

A week in the ICU. A month and a day in a hospital bed. Eight days in a room next door to Brandon, who was transferred to Texas Children's soon after the accident.

Surgery to remove her lacerated spleen. Bruises and scrapes and burns covering her body. Her left arm splinted and sore. A collapsed lung. Broken ribs. Grueling rounds of physical and occupational therapy, where she learned slowly and painstakingly to walk again.

Her mother, constantly by her side, urging her on, never letting her quit. You're going to get out of here soon, she would say. Just do what you need to do.

Sobbing without stop the day of Janiecia and Mariya's funerals. Mourning their deaths, distraught because she was hospitalized and unable to attend.

"My heart is broken knowing Janiecia is not with us anymore. Why do I feel guilty for not being able to say good-bye?" Lakeisha would write later. "Why did the stupid accident have to happen?"

The memories make Lakeisha shudder. She gestures to her mother and mouths a message of distress. She wants to go home.

"Hi, how are you doing?" chirps speech therapist Lauren Candia, in a voice as bright as her hot pink scrubs.

Candia leads Lakeisha and Williams to a cramped room with lavender walls. A sticker proclaiming "So Much Awesome!" decorates a red cabinet stacked with word and grammar games.

As Candia guides her through a reading comprehension exercise, Lakeisha rests her head on the table.

"When is your last homebound class?" Candia asks.

"My last day is tomorrow, but I have a lot to do," Lakeisha says. "It gives me a headache."

The headaches strike often, barely relieved by Tylenol and Motrin. Brought on by stress, by fear, by worry.

She is afraid, the teen tells Candia, that she will be too far behind in her classes.

Candia suggests using a planner and prioritizing assignments so she won't slip any further.

"Make sure you give yourself enough time. Take a break after hard work."

Another therapist, passing by the room, pokes her head in the door.

"Hey gal, how are you doing? Gone back to school yet?"

Lakeisha winces.

She has been flooded with questions since the crash. Sixty-four messages and 200 notifications on Facebook, 30 direct messages on Instagram, 150 on Kik. All asking the same thing: Are you okay? How are you? When are you coming back?

Even more will bombard her at school. The thought exhausts her.

They are reminders of something she will never forget, of wounds that bleed at random moments.

When she pulled out the shoe she had been wearing on Sept. 15 - an Adidas Limited Edition Pink Cheetah - and discovered a blood stain. When she was forced to board a yellow school bus at a teen group conference and cried quietly in her seat for the entire 30-minute ride.

When she passes by Telephone Road, the site of the accident, and replays that morning.

"I'm going to pray before I even go to school," Lakeisha says, six days before she would return to REACH. "That no buses go over any more bridges with any more kids that have to suffer as long as we have. I just don't want to deal with anything like this again. Ever."

---

The bus carrying Lakeisha to her first day back arrives on campus around 7 a.m., just as a few wisps of sunrise began to color the sky.

Lakeisha, earbuds still in place, Brandon still at her side, girds herself for the volley of questions.

The Furr principal, coffee mug in hand, calls out, "Hey, sweetheart" and wraps an arm around Lakeisha.

"How'd you feel getting on the bus?"

"It was weird," the teenager responds, an it's-all-good smile plastered on her face.

"If you need help, just let me know," Simmons urges. "We've been missing you, girl."

One down.

Minutes later, Danniella Tyner enfolds Lakeisha in a tight embrace. The girls dart through the school halls and outdoor walkways, chattering and catching up.

As they scurry to a science classroom to look for Lakeisha's old notebook, REACH dean Xavier Downs catches a glimpse of the pair.

"How you doing, stranger?" he asks Lakeisha.

Two down.

Next, Lakiesha ducks into the REACH office to check on her schedule and her credit tally.

"Welcome back," says Jahnelle Hueske, the REACH registrar. "Are you ready to be back? We're ready to have you back."

Thanks to home school classes, Lakeisha has 15 credits - just two shy of being a senior. With makeup work, she should be able to graduate in August.

Lakeisha paces in circles, her Victoria's Secret purse clapping against her thigh. Behind Hueske's desk, a sign on the wall warns: "Let go or be dragged."

"You will not be behind. I will not let you be behind," Hueske reassures her. "We're going to get it done. Little steps. We'll get it done."

Three down.

Then four. A swing through another room. Another teacher. Another "welcome back."

And five. And six. And too many to keep count.

Hugs. Hellos. Double takes. Questions.

In first period, Lakeisha settles at a lab table, scribbling the answers to a physics worksheet. The school announcements crackle over the intercom: "Happy Monday! Everyone have a great day!"

The hum of a run-of-the-mill school day. Well, almost.

"How does it feel to be back?"

Cathy Bucchino's query jolts Lakeisha.

"Weird," she tells her science teacher. "I haven't been here in forever."

"You and your brother had an angel watching over you. When I saw the bus, no one should have made it out."

Lakeisha smiles her polite smile, and bends her head over the worksheet.

At 8:17, Bucchino takes roll: Alejandro? Here. Aurora? Here. Precious? Here. Cedric? Here.

"Lakeisha?"

Most of the school day was still ahead. Lakeisha would face more quizzing, more loaded looks, more makeup work. She must still endure many more sessions of therapy that wring her muscles and drain her emotions.

And she and Brandon will always feel an ache when they think of Janiecia and Mariya.

But, on this morning, three words are enough.

Lakeisha raises her hand. "I'm right here."
Q: How exactly do social media help me get customers? If people "like" my Facebook page, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to come in to my store and make a purchase.

A: Constant Contact's Gina Watkins suggests three ways to translate those "likes" into actual customers.

Watkins, an expert on e-marketing for small business, recommends special offers exclusive to followers on your social media sites. For example, you can offer discount coupons only through your Facebook page to entice your followers into your store. Or, ask Twitter followers to respond to trivia questions and give those who respond correctly tickets to a sold-out event, or offer a similar prize to draw them in.

She also suggests hosting a private event just for your VIP fans. These are the fans and followers who do a particularly good job of sharing the news about your business with their own friends and followers. Invite them to an after-hours cocktail party or to join you for a first look at new merchandise.

Then, when you have made the first live contact with your online fans, provide reasons for them to return and become regular customers. When they do come in to your store, ask for their feedback.

Try to learn more about them and what would appeal to them. If you develop a more personal relationship with them, you can email them directly with special offers that you know would be of interest to them.

Whatever tactic you use, you should first determine where you want to focus your efforts. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and the like can all be good channels to get the word out about your store and your products, but your efforts will be in vain if you don't reach the right audience. Do your due diligence to find out which of the social media outlets your potential customers utilize most, and then start there. Staying up to date online can take a lot of time and effort, so be smart about developing a manageable e-marketing strategy.

Find more marketing tips from Watkins and other small-business marketing experts on America's Small Business Development Center blog at www.americasSBDC.org.

Also, access your local SBDC to get personalized assistance with both traditional and social media marketing methods. SBDCs are resource partners of the U.S. Small Business Administration, and are hosted by leading universities, colleges and economic development organizations. In Southeast Texas, find more information and the center nearest you at www.sbdcnetwork.uh.edu.
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Hillary Clinton pitched herself to Texas voters Saturday as a candidate prepared to fight discrimination and boost the middle class, using an evening rally in Houston to build on her earlier win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

Texas is key in Clinton's quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, as a strong win here  in a state where she has deep roots  would boost her delegate count and help quell momentum behind the Vermont senator.

"With me, let's imagine together a tomorrow where no child, no child grows up in the shadow of discrimination or under the specter of deportation," Clinton told a crowd of roughly 2,000 supporters at Texas Southern University. "Imagine a tomorrow where every child in every ZIP code gets the education he or she needs and deserves. Let's imagine a tomorrow where every parent can have a good job and every grandparent can enjoy a secure retirement."

The Lone Star State's 252 Democratic delegates make it Super Tuesday's biggest prize.

Clinton has maintained a large lead over Sanders in Texas polls, recently topping him by 23 percentage points in a survey conducted Feb. 14 -16 by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling.

The former secretary of state took the stage around 10:35 p.m. and spoke for about 20 minutes on a broad range of topics, including nominating a new Supreme Court justice, money in politics, clean energy and reforming the United States' criminal justice and immigration systems.

Clinton framed Sanders as a candidate unable to deliver on his promises.

"I don't think you should tell millions of young people they'll get free tuition if it actually depends on Republican governors like yours deciding to kick in tens of billions of dollars," Clinton said. "If the numbers don't add up, it's wrong to make those promises."

Clinton also slammed Republicans for what she termed their "assault on voting rights," harkening back to her last public appearance in Houston eight months ago, when she called for automatic voter registration at 18.

"Here in Texas and in state after state, they're doing everything they can to stop black people, Latinos, poor people, young people, people with disabilities with from voting," Clinton said. "It's a blast from the Jim Crow past, and we're gonna fight it."

Texas and Harris County both boast large populations of minority voters, whom Clinton's campaign has courted ahead of the March 1 primary.

The former secretary of state demonstrated wide appeal among Hispanic voters eight years ago, winning 66 percent of the Latino vote in Texas' Democratic primary, according to the Pew Research Center.

That ratio was similar in Harris County, TSU political scientist Michael Adams said. African-Americans favored Barack Obama by about 9-1, however, helping to propel him to a 13-percentage-point win over Clinton in the county. Clinton won the popular vote statewide.

"Certainly she's here to try to gin up her African-American support," Adams said. "I think that's going to be very important to pushing back against Bernie Sanders, who seems to have ... the support of the millennials."

Addressing the crowd prior to Clinton's arrival, state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) spoke to her work on behalf of African-Americans.

"Hillary Clinton has been fighting for the African-American community and every community throughout her entire political career," Ellis said. "Don't you let Super Tuesday make this race go on any longer. It ought to end right here in Texas."

Clinton's campaign turned its attention to Texas relatively late, however, waiting until early February to open its Houston office. Sanders has been on the ground in the Lone Star State since last November.

Both sides have been ramping up their field efforts statewide in recent days, recruiting volunteers to call and knock on doors of potential supporters. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to stump for Hillary Clinton in Dallas and Laredo on Monday.

"We are having an amazing response when we talk to voters one-on-one," Sanders' state director Jacob Limon said in an email. "We're running our game plan and feel fantastic about the number of new voters who are taking part in the political process for the first time."

Limon also expressed excitement about Sanders' performance among Latinos in Nevada.

Among Clinton's audience Saturday was Karen Lucario, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher who said she plans to vote early for Clinton on Sunday.

"The Latino vote  try to make it count," Lucario said. "I like her ideas about  that she's real. She's speaking for real instead of just trying to get your vote."

For all of the campaigns' efforts, however, participation among county Democrats through the first five days of early voting was about half of what it was in 2008, topping 29,000.

"People are just waiting to see what's going on," Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said. "Normally they would have voted early, but they're actually seeing a race."

Harris County Democratic turnout through Saturday more than doubled from 2012.

Still, state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, a member of Clinton's Texas leadership council, projected confidence about the former secretary's support prior to Saturday's rally.

"You don't see any Hillary signs in yards, but when I go talk to people, I'll say, 'Hey, don't forget to vote in the presidential.' And in my area, pretty much people overwhelmingly are voting for Hillary," Wu said. "They're not going to go and march in the street about it, but you ask them who they're going to vote for, it's a sure thing for them."

Adams, the TSU professor, said many students at the historically black university have lined up behind Sanders, however.

Kaleb Taylor, a 22-year-old political science major, said he voted early for Sanders last week.

"One of the reasons why I support Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton is because, early on in the race, he came out publicly and made a strong stance in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and ending racial inequality and racial injustice," said Taylor, who was not planning to attend Clinton's rally Saturday.

Taylor praised the Vermont senator's opposition to money in politics and what he said was Sanders' consistency.

Sanders' most recent public appearance in Texas came last July at the University of Houston, when he drew a crowd of 5,200. Limon said Saturday that the senator had not confirmed any Texas stops prior to March 1.

Early voting in Texas' March 1 primary runs through Feb. 26.
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An Oregon man who has spent more than 15 years living inside of a decommissioned Boeing 727 airplane converted into a home wants to build another in Japan.

RELATED: Northside ISD students built these awesome tiny homes from shipping containers

Bruce Campbell (not that Bruce Campbell) acquired his current Boeing 727 in 1999 and stuck it on a 10-acre lot in the Portland woods.

Since then, he has updated his website AirplaneHome.com, which charts the progress he's made to turn the plane's cabin into suitable living quarters.

"If a conventional home is a legacy age family Chevy or Ford, an airliner home is a fresh new Tesla or Porsche Carrera," Campbell told mySA.com.

RELATED: Texas professor living in dumpster for science: 'My life is a lot better now'

Boeing first commissioned the 727 in 1960 and only planned to build 250 at the model's outset, according to the company website.

By the time Boeing ended production on the 727 in 1984, the company had manufactured 1,832 of the planes.

RELATED: East Texas man turns mobile home into large two-story tin 'castle' with scrap parts

Campbell said in an interview that the plane's design "seemed to offer the most attractive overall characteristics. It's a reasonable size home for an individual or small family, but not so large that it can't be transported over public roads."

The renovated 727 contains many of the amenities found in a normal home: a kitchen, sleeping space with a cot, laundry area and a bathroom.

"Airliners, free of hundreds of passengers and the clutter of their seats, are a sheer thrill to live within," Campbell said. "They impart a near science fiction aura to an otherwise ordinary life, truly."

RELATED: Texas professor who lived in dumpster launches tiny apartment project

The next step?

Campbell, who spends half of the year in Japan, is looking for a decommissioned Boeing 747-400  which seats a maximum of 660 passengers, more than three times as many as the 727  to create a new home in the Japanese city of Miyazaki.

United Airlines, British Airways and Delta Airlines all have 747-400 in use.

Campbell said he believes "a superbly executed second project which very nearly fully preserves the original aircraft in all its sleek gleaming majesty will attract a great deal of world press interest for a very long time, and thus be of considerable promotional value to a partner airline."

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
Judith Clurmans Essential Voices Composer Speaks Program Continue

Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA (EVUSA), one of New York's preeminent choral ensembles, will present as part of Essential Voices USA's "The Composer Speaks" programs, Austrian emigres: Schoenberg, Von Trapp and the Power of Music, on March 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the DiMenna Space for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street, New York City.

Judith Clurman will conduct Essential Voices USA with Tedd Firth, piano; Maureen McKay, soprano; and Joseph Beutel, bass-baritone. Panel members will include Larry Schoenberg, son of the composer; Elisabeth Von Trapp, granddaughter of the legendary Maria and Baron von Trapp; musical theater luminaries Ted Chapin, David Chase, and Larry Hochman; composer David Ludwig; with moderator Naomi Lewin.

The program explores the stories of two Austrian emigres whose experiences have been captured in important musical compositions.

In 1947, with the sights and sounds of war ringing in his ears, Arnold Schoenberg composed Survivor from Warsaw as a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. Twelve years later, the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein recreated the experience of the Von Trapp family in the iconic musical The Sound of Music.

In a recent press release touting the upcoming concert, Clurman explains that she originally got the idea for the program while touring the beautiful landscapes that once served as the backdrop for such a harrowing tale:

"Last summer I was invited to conduct the 50th anniversary concert of the Sound of Music at the Mozarteum, in Salzburg, Austria.

"On the way, my husband and I visited the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna. I began to think about how the Von Trapp and Schoenberg families share a common fate, expulsion from Austria to flee the Nazis. This program juxtaposes the life stories and the music of these disparate emigres.

"We are honored to be presenting this wonderful music, and are very touched that our guests will be participating in our Composer Speaks program."

Tickets for Judith Clurman and Essential Voices USA, priced at $30, are available for purchase through the choral ensemble's official website.

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsJudith Clurman, Essential Voices USA, Composer Speaks, Austrian Emigres
Ohio Highway Patrol cruiser

An Akron man died Friday after crashing his motorcycle.

(American Association of State Troopers)

NEW FRANKLIN TWP, Ohio -- A motorcyclist died Friday after he crashed into a guardrail while swerving to avoid hitting a car pulling out of a driveway.

Michael Keith, 35, of Akron, died about 5 p.m. Saturday after being taken to Akron General Medical Center. Keith was not wearing a helmet.

Keith drove his 2007 Harley Davidson east on West Caston Road, down a hill west of South Main Street, when a 48-year-old woman pulled out of a driveway in front of Keith.

Keith swerved to avoid her 2005 Volkswagen Toureg. Keith veered off the right side of the road, hit a guardrail and was thrown from his motorcycle.

New Franklin EMS took him to the hospital, where he died, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Keith did not have a valid motorcycle driver's license. The 48-year-old Akron woman's car was not hit and she was unharmed, according to the patrol.
AKRON, Ohio -- A Stow man who lied about shooting himself in the leg to avoid being prosecuted for owning a weapon despite being a felon will spend three years on probation.

Joshua Jira, 30, was sentenced Friday by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker. Jira previously pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon as a felon, aggravated drug possession and making false alarms in the May 25 incident.

Jira also will have to abide by any recommendations made following a mental health evaluation and a drug and alcohol dependency assessment. He must pass all random drug tests as part of his probation. His driver's license was also suspended for six months.

Jira on May 25 drove himself to Sagamore Hills Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the right thigh. Stow police interviewed him after he was treated and released.

Jira told police he was shot during an attempted carjacking about 10:30 p.m. at the Speedway gas station in the 1000 block of Graham Road.

He said a man pointed a handgun at him and that he struck the man's hand causing the gun to fire.

Stow police investigated and found Jira lied about the fight and that he actually shot himself in the leg. Jira lied to cover up the fact that he's barred from possessing a gun because of his felony record, according to court records.

Police also found illegally obtained Adderall inside his car. He had no prescription for the drug, court records say.

Jira has criminal convictions in 2006 for attempted possessing cocaine in Hudson and for drunken driving in Medina in 2007.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Chicago-based urban design firm of PORT Urbanism on Thursday will unveil a detailed plan to improve the shadowy, confusing zone under the Main Avenue Bridge that separates the Historic Warehouse District from the new Flats East Bank development on the Cuyahoga River.

An image from a flier advertising the Thursday unveiling of a design proposal for improvements to the area beneath the Main Avenue Bridge in the Cleveland Flats.

The plan calls for new signs, pavement striping, plantings, seating areas and sculptural lighting elements.

It will be presented to the general public at the Aloft Hotel Riviera Ballroom, 1111 W. 10th Street, in a program from 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance announced.

The presentation is to begin at 5:30 p.m.

The association announced in September that a selection jury has chosen PORT to pursue the project after winnowing a field that originally started out with 51 contenders.

Aside from PORT, the finalists were Latent Design, also of Chicago, and Balmori, of New York.

The goal of the project is to improve the sloping section of Main Avenue beneath the eponymous bridge, an area that functions as the front door to the apartments, restaurants and nightclubs at Flats East, but which looks less inviting than it should be.

The Downtown Cleveland Alliance is asking would-be attendees to RSVP at a website set up for the occasion.

The improvement project is receiving support from The Cleveland Foundation and Dominion Foundation, along with stakeholders including Morgan Communities, Wells Fargo, Stern Advertising, Flats East Bank LLC, the Port of Cleveland, Landmark RE Management, the Art American Building. Ernst & Young and Aloft Hotel are contributing in-kind support.
FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - At Saturday evening's "Celebrate the Academy" gala at St. Joseph Academy, 1977 graduate Cheryl Hagan O'Malley received the 2016 Distinguished Alumna Award.

The honor recognizes service to one's community and alma mater, as well as to women's leadership causes. It also pays tribute to the graduate's personal and professional achievements.

Hagan O'Malley, a Fairview Park resident, has dedicated her life to the field of nursing, having spent 30 years caring for others. She recently became vice president of medical-surgical services at University Hospitals after previously serving at St. John Medical Center as vice president of patient care services/chief nursing officer.

Hagan O'Malley earned a bachelor of psychology degree from Ursuline College in 1982, followed by a master's degree in nursing in 2006 from the University of Phoenix. She is currently on track to receive a doctorate degree in nursing in August from the Chamberlain College of Nursing.

"It's an honor, and I'm humbled," Hagan O'Malley said in an interview prior to the gala, going on to explain why she chose to lead such a selfless life. "That's how we were raised. It's just me. My mom told me many, many years ago as I was preparing to work the night shift that I had a special gift. 'When you go in, you put a smile on your face and know that they just need you,' she said. That has carried through every single thing that I have done. I can hear my mother giving me those words. I love every aspect of being a nurse."

Hagan O'Malley frequently returns to St. Joseph Academy, the only all-girls Catholic high school in Cleveland, to speak with and mentor students. She has developed and promoted the school's health sciences honors program and continues to participate in the annual Women's Leadership Symposium.

"I tell them to cherish what they have in these halls," she said. "The sky's the limit, and they can achieve anything they want. I really learned a lot about integrity at St. Joe's, about doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do. And having the courage to do it."

Fairview Park Mayor Eileen Patton has known Hagan O'Malley since their children, now grown, attended St. Angela Merici School together.

"I congratulate Cheryl on receiving this honor," Patton said. "She's very deserving of this award. Cheryl is an advocate for families, for education and for the healthcare field. She's very caring and very giving, and that part of her just shines all the time."

For Hagan O'Malley, serving others has been its own reward.

"I've been given many great gifts in this world and in my lifetime, and I firmly believe that they're mine to share," she said. "I've been very blessed."
North Olmsted police car

North Olmsted police investigate tire slashing, jewelry theft, tax fraud.

(File photo)

Tire slashing, Andorra Drive: A resident called police Feb. 8 to report finding her rear tires had been slashed sometime overnight. She discovered the two flat tires about 8:30 a.m. and had the car towed to a nearby car dealer. The repair shop told her it appeared the tires had been deliberately cut, and she called police about 10:15 a.m. The woman told officers she doesn't have any suspects in mind.

Shoplifting, Brookpark Road: Police were called to Macy's department store Feb. 9 about two suspected women shoplifters being held by security. A security officer said he watched the two women in the fashion jewelry department. The security officer said one of the women hid jewelry in her purse and the other woman served as a lookout. One of the women made a purchase. The women left the store together through the south entrance, without making any attempt to purchase the concealed merchandise. The items taken included earrings, bracelets and necklaces, and the total value of the items was a little less than $500. The women were charged with petty theft, a misdemeanor.

Fraud, Hunter Drive: A resident called police Feb. 13 about fraud. The victim said he filed his taxes online that day, but had received an email from the Internal Revenue Service stating his taxes already had been filed. Police advised the man to contact the IRS to report an apparent case of tax fraud.
statehouse.JPG

The Ohio House Education Committee will likely vote Monday afternoon on Senate President Keith Faber's plan to save time and paperwork for school districts.

(Shari Lews, Columbus Dispatch, File)

House panel may clear education reform bill: The Ohio House Education Committee will likely vote to send Senate President Keith Faber's school "deregulation" plan to the House floor. The committee meeting starts at 3 p.m. at the Ohio Statehouse.

Beatty backs state rep candidate: U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty is set to endorse Dontavius Jarrells, a Columbus Democrat looking to succeed departing state Rep. Kevin Boyce, during a 10 a.m. news conference at the Ohio Statehouse.

Others to watch: Hillary Clinton has two fundraisers scheduled in the Los Angeles area; Bill Clinton is planning to visit Texas.
John Kasich

Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks during a campaign rally in Wakefield, Mass., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. The Republican presidential candidate was in New England as results came in from the South Carolina primary.

(Michael Dwyer, The Associated Press)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - John Kasich was never going to win the South Carolina primary.

But by downplaying his need for a strong finish there - and by arguing that Jeb Bush couldn't afford a poor one - the Ohio governor and his advisers won the expectations game.

There was a sense leading up to Saturday night's results that Bush, the former Florida governor, would be the next Republican to drop out of the presidential race. Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, encouraged that speculation in a morning conference call with reporters.

"For all practical purposes, that campaign will come to an end today," Weaver said of Bush.

"We've already won there," Weaver said later on the call, "because however we do is going to help drive someone else out of the race. ... Whatever we get tonight - and I think it's going to be more than people expect - it will help narrow the field down to four people early next week."

Weaver was right about at least one thing. Bush ended his campaign after South Carolina returns showed him and Kasich each hovering around 8 percent of the vote and fighting for a distant fourth place.

How can Kasich, who fared no better than Bush did in the Palmetto State, continue on while Bush goes home? How can Weaver declare victory now - never mind the fact that he actually declared victory nine hours before polls closed? Here's where the expectations game comes into play.

The Team Kasich company line is its candidate, at this stage in the race, is exceeding expectations. Kasich's second-place finish in New Hampshire has translated into higher standing in national opinion surveys, more media coverage, new donors and some key endorsements.

Bush, meanwhile, underachieved until the end.

He entered the race last year as a presumptive front-runner given his deep political organization and flush financial resources. But through three contests, Bush had zero top-three finishes.

Basically, Kasich saw little to gain or lose in South Carolina. That's why he spent Saturday in Vermont and Massachusetts - two New Hampshire neighbors where his milder brand of politics is likely to play better. Both states are part of a "Super Tuesday" lineup on March 1.

The path to a Kasich nomination in July at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland is murky. The goal, which Weaver reiterated Saturday, is to collect delegates in the Northeast and select Southern states on Super Tuesday and then have a big night March 8 in Michigan and Mississippi. Then comes March 15 and Ohio, which awards all 66 delegates to the winner.

With Bush gone, Kasich is the last governor standing. If you told Kasich a year ago that this would be the case after South Carolina, he might have begun working on his speech for Cleveland. But South Carolina primary winner Donald Trump and two senators - Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz - finished in the top three Saturday. A fifth remaining candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, has no realistic path to the nomination.

Weaver sees the race coming down to Trump vs. Kasich and not ending until April or May.

Here are a few other takeaways from Saturday night's results.

I was wrong about Donald Trump.

After he lost the Iowa caucuses to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, I wrote that the billionaire real estate mogul was a paper tiger - that he folded as soon as the first votes of 2016 were cast. All Trump has done since is win the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries in decisive fashion.

I'll be very careful about underestimating Trump again.

The more Trump wins, the more the notion of unelectable gives way to the notion of inevitable. He has taken advantage of several factors, not the least of which is a national media that can't get enough of his circus act. But Trump wouldn't have such staying power if he lacked appeal.

Voters are looking for something different, and they are drawn to Trump over the less-charismatic Cruz. At this point, it's uncertain if and when the Republican establishment - the elite party donors and leaders - will unite behind an alternative. It might already be too late.

Rubio had a good - not a great - night.

Here's another lesson in setting expectations - a particularly tough one for Rubio.

The Florida senator reportedly had been banking on a "3-2-1" strategy - third place in Iowa, second place in New Hampshire and first in South Carolina. That play was shot after New Hampshire, where he was hurt by a poor debate performance. He worked hard for a Palmetto State rebound and got a late endorsement from popular Gov. Nikki Haley. But it wasn't enough.

The saving grace for Rubio is he kept things close with Cruz. The two were fighting for second place as final results came in Saturday. Rubio also commanded enough of the vote to argue that he, not Kasich, is the best establishment-friendly alternative to Trump.

At some point, though, Rubio needs a win to solidify his case. The race to watch over the next two weeks will be if he can pull ahead of Kasich decisively in the so-called establishment lane.

Cruz is in trouble.

The Texas senator is now 1-2 against Trump. The conventional wisdom has been that Super Tuesday, with its high concentration of Southern and evangelical voters, would be Cruz's firewall on March 1. But Trump did just fine with these voters in South Carolina.

And even if Cruz racks up some wins, he probably won't be able to build much of a lead in the delegate hunt, as the number-crunchers at FiveThirtyEight.com noted this week. The Super Tuesday states award delegates proportionally, meaning Cruz could win the popular vote in a state but only walk away with a few delegates more than Trump or another rival.

South Carolina was a chance for Cruz to steal Trump's anti-establishment thunder. It also was his chance to put some distance between him and Rubio. He failed on both counts.

Kasich needs more cash to contend.

The race now spreads out and becomes more expensive. And Kasich is not among the field's top fundraisers. A report his campaign filed this weekend with the Federal Election Commission showed he had $1.5 million on hand at the end of January. That doesn't reflect what he spent in the final days before New Hampshire or what he has raised since his big showing there.

Weaver, the chief Kasich strategist who spoke with reporters Saturday, insisted the campaign is in sound financial shape. He pointed to the addition of staff and offices across the country as a sign of strength. And he emphasized how Home Depot co-founder and GOP mega-donor Ken Langone backed Kasich after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out this month.

You can understand why Kasich was so eager to see Bush go. He will heavily court Bush's contributors. But so will Rubio, and he could have an edge among Florida donors.

Kasich now sees this as a four-man race. To break through, he will need every last penny.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Sunday signed a bill intended to block Planned Parenthood from receiving funding for services it provides in health clinics around the state, although the new law would have no impact on abortion services.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Bill Patmon of Cleveland and Republican Rep. Margaret Conditt of Butler County, forbids the state from contracting for health services with any entity that performs or promotes non-therapeutic abortions.

That Kasich signed the bill is no surprise. As Ohio has wrestled with regulating abortion over time, Kasich has voiced his anti-abortion stance. He has publicly supported the idea of defunding Planned Parenthood in Ohio while campaigning for the Republican nomination for president.

His office announced the action without further comment.

Whether the bill ever takes effect remains to be seen. With the governor's signature, the bill would become law in 90 days.

But nationally, Planned Parenthood has fought other defunding attempts. In several cases the courts have set those laws aside as unconstitutional, most recently in Utah.

Kasich's action drew harsh criticism from Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

"This legislation will have devastating consequences for women across Ohio. John Kasich is proudly eliminating care for expectant mothers and newborns; leaving thousands without vital STD and HIV testing, slashing a program to fight domestic violence, and cutting access to essential, basic health care," Richards said in a statement.

The bill redirects about $1.3 million in state-directed grants from Ohio's 28 Planned Parenthood centers to federally qualified health centers, health departments, and other facilities that don't perform elective abortions or contract with organizations that do. It also earmarks $250,000 from Medicaid funding for community health centers only.

Ohio Right to Life, the state's leading anti-abortion organization, argued the bill was necessary because the money helped Planned Parenthood pay for staff and clinic costs, helping to keep them operating, even if it was not used directly for abortion.

Planned Parenthood clinics use the funding addressed in the bill to pay for HIV and cancer screenings, sexual health education programs, and infant mortality prevention, among other health services.

It represents about 5 percent of the organization's statewide budget, according to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and its largest affiliate, Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio CEO Stephanie Kight has said the cuts will not force the organization to close clinics or stop providing abortion services and they will try to replace funding for the affected programs.

The push for this bill was fueled by secretly-recorded videos released last summer that purported to show Planned Parenthood employees in other states selling aborted fetuses and fetal parts.

Planned Parenthood denied any wrongdoing and an investigation by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine did not find Ohio clinics sold fetal tissue. But lawmakers were not dissuaded, even after a Texas grand jury in January found no wrongdoing by the abortion provider and instead indicted the anti-abortion activist who filmed the videos.

Later that same week, Republicans in the Ohio Senate approved the bill, with some changes, sending it back to the Ohio House. Republicans in that chamber approved the bill earlier this month.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, in a statement Sunday, also criticized Kasich and Republicans for the legislation.

"With his decision today to sign House Bill 294, Governor Kasich has finally answered the question of whose side he's really on," Pepper said in the statement. "Rather than listen to the majority of Ohioans who oppose defunding Planned Parenthood, Kasich decided to take sides with radical extremists who were recently indicted on felony charges."
child in madaya

On 14 January 2016, a child is screened for malnutrition at a make-shift hospital in Madaya.

((c) UNICEF/UN07564/Singer)

William Lambers is a Cincinnati author and journalist

There are Syrian civilians starving to death as you read this. Some are trying to live off leaves and grass because of food shortages caused by the five-year civil war between the government and the opposition.



They are waiting for the international community to rescue them, but humanitarian convoys are blocked by the warring sides. Russia's bombings in support of the Syrian government's offensive on rebel-held Aleppo are killing civilians, destroying medical facilities and bakeries. Food supply lines are being cut off. Rupert Colville of the U.N. Human Rights Commission says, "The population of Aleppo is in dire need of an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian assistance."



Syrians are appealing to the world for help. The U.N. Peace Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, gets these messages daily. Mistura says the Syrian people plead, "We are human beings. We deserve to get food, water, access to medical facilities. And second, we need no more bombs, no more war."





Russia should understand, more than anyone, the suffering the Syrian people are enduring. For it was once they who were pleading for help as their children starved.



The Russian Famine of 1921 was the result of years of severe drought, conflict and instability. There was literally no food in many Russian communities.



In fact, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky appealed to the United States. Herbert Hoover read his cry for help and led an incredible relief effort. Tens of millions of people were saved from starvation by food sent from America and Europe.



After World War II, Russia sent food to France during the famine threat of 1946.



You would hope this Russian history would lend itself to humanitarian actions in Syria. While the Russians have donated several million dollars' worth of food aid in 2015 and 2016 to the World Food Program in Syria, that pales in comparison to what they are spending on bombs. A report estimates that Russian bombings in Syria cost the equivalent of $4 million per day.





U.N. vehicles travel a dusty road lined with the remnants of destroyed buildings in the Old City of Homs, Syria, in late January.

What Russia should be doing is taking more action to support a ceasefire in Syria and humanitarian access. They need to work with the United States, the United Nations and others to make this happen. Time is running out for many.



Ertharin Cousin, the director of the World Food Program, told the U.N. Security Council on Jan 27 that, "As I speak to you now, we estimate that there are 18 besieged areas and close to half a million people completely cut off from food and other crucial humanitarian assistance."



Yet WFP, which leads hunger relief in Syria, can only stand by and wait for permission from armies to move into areas where people are starving. Sometimes this tragedy takes place just miles away from WFP warehouses.



There continue to be talks on a cessation of hostilities, which would allow humanitarians to reach the besieged areas.

There were signs of hope last week. Five besieged areas received food deliveries from WFP, UNICEF and other relief agencies.

Dr. Rajia Sharhan of UNICEF was with one of the aid convoys. She said, "When the convoys arrived to Madaya, children were running towards them saying, 'food has arrived ... food has arrived.'" Children received lifesaving Plumpy'Nut, an enriched peanut paste which saves them from deadly malnutrition.



WFP, with planes from a Russian contractor, is planning to air-drop food to areas under siege by the Islamic State. Steve Taravella, a WFP spokesperson says, "It would be a high-altitude operation dropping off food and other aid supplies with parachutes." The Syrian Arab Red Crescent would distribute the food.



So many other areas need food, too. Aid workers need unrestricted and consistent access to the hungry. In the past, some towns have been allowed one food delivery, then to be followed by another blockade for months.



But regular and unrestricted access for humanitarian agencies would save children from the lasting physical and mental damage that malnutrition causes. It could create conditions for a peaceful settlement.



But it's hard to imagine this happening if Russian bombs continue to fall in support of Syrian offensives. And continuing the war helps the terrorist group IS (Daesh), which has established a base in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says, "The longer this conflict persists, the better it is for extremists, the more people like Daesh profit."



But ending the civil war would change things significantly in the Middle East. There could be peace, reconstruction, and food for the hungry. More resources could be devoted to eliminating the terrorists.



It can still happen. But Russia must be a partner for peace in actions, not just words. They have to make a choice as to what their standing in the international community is to be. The fate of Syria and the region will rest on their decision.

To help:

Urge an end to the Syrian civil war: Catholic Relief Services recommends contacting your representatives urging international diplomacy to end the civil war.

Donate: You can also donate to relief agencies feeding Syria's war victims, including:



U.N. World Food Program

About the author: William Lambers is a Cincinnati-based author and journalist who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book "Ending World Hunger."
maureen.jpg

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court talks about the work of a court task force looking at updates to the grand jury system during a Feb. 11 forum in Columbus.

(Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press)

Time was when, thanks to organized labor and the Ohio Democratic Party organization, the state Supreme Court, which, among other things, rules on utility rates and workers' compensation claims, was run 6-1 by Democrats.

Today, the court is 6-1 Republican. (The Democrat is Justice William M. O'Neill, a Greater Clevelander.) And this November, Democrats aren't running a candidate against Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.

Democratic State Chair David Pepper said O'Connor's free ride doesn't mean Democrats aren't aiming to rebalance the court. Pepper, elected chair in December 2014, said retaking the court is a step-by-step undertaking. (Also, though he didn't say so, O'Connor's re-election is virtually certain anyway.)

Retiring Republican Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger of Toledo and Paul E. Pfeifer of Bucyrus hold the other two Supreme Court seats on November's ballot. The Democrat seeking Lanzinger's seat is Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell. (In 2014, he drew 44 percent of the statewide vote in an earlier Supreme Court run.) The Ohio State Bar Association's 25-member Commission on Judicial Candidates rates O'Donnell as "recommended."

Two Republicans want Lanzinger's seat: Judge Patrick F. Fischer of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Court of Appeals (1st District) and Judge Colleen M. O'Toole of the Warren-based 11th District appeals court. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed Fischer. The bar commission rates Fisher as "highly recommended," O'Toole as "not recommended."

Running for Pfeifer's seat is Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice, also of the Warren-based 11th District appeals court. The Republican who wants it is Judge R. Patrick (Pat) DeWine, also of the Cincinnati-based 1st District appeals court, and son of Attorney General Mike DeWine. The bar commission rates Rice as "highly recommended," Pat DeWine as "not recommended."

Republican State Chair Matt Borges dismissed the rating of DeWine as political. Borges said DeWine is highly qualified and predicted he'll win.

In fairness to DeWine and O'Toole, "candidates who received favorable evaluations from less than 60 percent of the [commission's] members are rated 'not recommended,' " the bar commission says. That is, a super-majority's required.

In 2012, Republican Sharon L. Kennedy was rated "not recommended," then won an unexpired Supreme Court term with 57 percent of the statewide vote. In 2014, she won a full term with 73 percent of the vote, despite declining to participate in the bar panel's review. Yes, her last name helped. But that's not Kennedy's doing. Ohio's vague judicial campaigns helped more.

Beginning in the 1980s, Democrats and unions paid close attention to Supreme Court races. In 1976, Democrats finally gained a 4-3 majority. They elected former Cleveland Mayor Ralph S. Locher and Youngstown-born Cincinnatian A. William Sweeney as justices. Democrats lost their court majority in 1986, when Columbus Republican Thomas J. Moyer unseated Cleveland Democrat Frank D. Celebrezze as chief justice. (They died within 12 days of each other in 2010.)

Bystanders differ over whether Celebrezze lost because of how he'd run the high court and Ohio's judicial branch or because big business and insurance companies wanted to overturn pro-consumer, pro-worker rulings the Celebrezze-era court made. And that disagreement illustrates the paradox of Ohio judicial elections: Judges get lots of power - but voters don't get much information.

Footnote: If your child gets a ride to a non-public school on a public school bus, the late Antonin Scalia deserves some thanks.

Scalia, then a Cleveland lawyer, was among those lobbying at the Statehouse for passage of 1965's fair bus bill - which made it legal, for the first time, for pupils enrolled in Ohio's non-public schools to get transportation on Ohio public school buses. Safety for kids, one less worry for parents: Thank you, judge.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689
Westlake police cruiser new.JPG

Westlake police accuse a man of using his brother's identification.

(Patrick Cooley/cleveland.com)

Phony I.D.: An Olmsted Falls man, 35, pretended to be his brother Feb. 12 when he was stopped for a traffic violation and identified himself as his sibling. He has done this so frequently that there is a fraud warning attached to the brother's driver's license, police said. The suspect was arrested for driving under suspension, obstructing official business, and on warrants from other departments.

Theft, Detroit Road: A 16-year-old Avon Lake girl stole clothing worth $59 from a store Feb. 13. When store staffers caught her, she was found with stolen goods from other nearby stores worth $476, as well as $303 cash. She will face petty theft charges in juvenile court.

Funny money, First Street: A counterfeit $10 bill was passed at a business Feb. 13. The Cleveland woman who had it could not say where she had gotten it. It will be sent to the Secret Service.

Domestic violence, Center Ridge Road: A 22-year-old Center Ridge Road woman took the brunt of her 26-year-old boyfriend's ire after a Valentine's Day argument. He slapped her, pushed her down, locked her out of the home, and then left, police said. He was arrested for domestic violence when he returned later on that day.

Obstructing official business: A 27-year-old Fairview Park man gave false identification to an officer Feb. 14 during a traffic stop. His passenger wanted no part of the deception and correctly identified the driver, who had a suspended license and three active warrants. Driving under suspension and obstructing official business charges were filed.

Unauthorized use of a car: A 2005 Dodge pickup stolen in Elyria was recovered Feb. 14 on I-90. The driver, a Lorain man, 23, and his passenger, a Cleveland woman, 23, were arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The driver also was ticketed for driving without a license.

Drunken driving crash, Hilliard: A planter in the median in front of Westlake High School on Hilliard Boulevard was clobbered by a 2010 Hyundai the evening of Feb. 14. Police knew the make of the car because the bumper was left behind. The suspect vehicle and driver, a 22-year-old Westlake woman, were found at a Dover Center Road gas station a short while later. She was arrested for operating a vehicle while impaired, blood alcohol content, and failure to control.

Domestic violence, Crocker Road: Security was called to a fight at a Crocker Road hotel Feb. 15. A man was seen leaving the building. A 28-year-old Cleveland woman in the room claimed that the argument was only verbal and that she had just met the man. Officers saw the woman walking toward his car a short while later and tried to stop him in the parking lot. He fled but got stuck in a snowbank. He then fled on foot, was caught, fought with officers, and was shocked with a Taser. The woman then admitted that he had hit her, that they have lived together on and off, and that she may be pregnant with his child. He has a prior domestic violence conviction, making this charge a felony. He was also charged with operating a vehicle while impaired, blood alcohol content, driving under suspension, fleeing, resisting arrest and lesser traffic charges.

Rental scam, Dover Center Road: A savvy would-be renter saved himself trouble by double-checking on an online house rental offer. He drove by the Dover Center Road house in question Feb. 15 and found that it was up for sale, not for rent. He had already called the Houston phone number in the ad. The man that answered would not show the house. The renter then found that the owner had passed away, hence the sale and the attempt by unknown persons in Texas to take advantage of the situation. The ad was taken down as of Feb 18 and the account suspended.

Theft, Meadow Lane: A snow blower was reported stolen from a garage Feb. 15. It was taken sometime between Jan. 24 and Feb. 12.

Breaking and entering, Sperry Drive: 12 units at a storage complex were found broken into Feb. 16. Closed-circuit recordings and keypad access records revealed that two men forced entries and stole items including electronics, computers, and game systems Feb. 13 and 14. Much of that property was recovered at the suspects' Lakewood home. The 23-year-old suspect was charged with 12 counts of complicity to breaking and entering and falsification. The 37-year-old suspect was charged with 12 counts of breaking and entering, possession of criminal tools, and falsification
European Court finds directors of English company may be liable for breach of German company law

18 February 2016

In a recent case Kornhaas v Dithmar C-594/14, the European Courts of Justice have held that the managing director of an English company is liable to reimburse the company's liquidator for failing to file for German insolvency proceedings within a 21 day time limit imposed by German company law. This was in accordance with the provisions of the European Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings (EUIR), which provides a framework for allocating insolvency jurisdiction amongst Member States and then decides which law applies to those insolvency proceedings. So because the English company was subject to German insolvency proceedings, certain aspects of German corporate law which were closely linked to the insolvency law also applied.

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Public State guarantee to secure securitisations of non-performing loan receivables: the Italian 'bad bank' solution?

17 February 2016

On 16 February 2016, a set of measures presented by the Italian Government entered into force following the publication of the long awaited Law Decree no. 18 of 14 February 2016 (the "Banks' Law Decree")1 aimed at fostering the disposal by Italian banks of their portfolios of non-performing loans accumulated during the recession period. Although the new measures are nothing like the bad bank structures introduced in some other European countries over the past few years, they represent a significant (and apparently the only possible) step to allow Italian banks to reduce their exposures and clean up their balance sheets, with a view to enhancing the economic growth.

Download PDF
Dimitri Otis | Getty Images

Pity Silicon Valley job recruits. In the battle for top talent in the technology sector, the allure of perks such as free massages and unlimited vacation has lost some of its luster, by some accounts. Job sweeteners have become almost a necessity, even in an uncertain economy, as top talent is no longer seeing the value of switching jobs. "They've seen too many of their friends take jobs at companies that fail, or sign on with entrepreneurs who don't know how to manage," Ryan Armbrust, managing director at ff Venture Capital, told CNBC recently. That means job seekers are looking for benefits that are both quantitative and qualitative, he said.

"When options don't seem to have present value and every company looks the same at face value, companies are forced to resort to incentives, like offering SoulCycle classes and Warby Parker sunglasses," Ambrust added.

When perks become 'common'

According to Silicon Valley watchers, the list of possible perks are virtually endless. Future tech pioneers can expect activities like ping pong, personal trainers, afternoon meditation sessions, group fitness, and beverages on tap. For veterans, trips to Puerto Rico are no foreign concept, and some of the more adventurous firms let employees bring their pets to work  or even let you sleep on the job. Still, some argue that on-the-job bonuses don't necessarily move the pendulum for many workers. "The perks typically play a marginal influence on the decision making process because most companies are offering the same benefits," said David Saad, co-founder of SingleSprout, a New York-based recruiting firm. "The main factors that engineers consider now include depth of technical challenge, caliber of the team, personal interest in product, compensation, and more recently, if the company offers a social good element."

Firms are also more open to accepting engineers from "bootcamp" programs, instead of candidates with years of industry experience. "The cost of lost productivity from not having enough engineers heavily outweighs the cost of any barriers to getting engineers on-board," Saad said.

According to the firm, more influential factors are a company's willingness to relocate potential recruits, or sponsor them for foreign visas. According to data from SingleSprout, they've seen a 30 percent increase in relocation offers to bring people to New York City. Back rubs, out-of-town trips and other things "are nice to haves, but they are not swaying people anymore," Natan Fisher, SingleSprout's other co-founder added.

Diversity is key
Billionaire Larry Ellison, a generous contributor to the presidential aspirations of Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, doubled down recently on his support for the White House hopeful to the tune of $1 million.

Oracle 's executive chairman contributed the sum in January to Conservative Solutions PAC, a political action committee backing the Florida freshman senator's White House bid, federal campaign data showed. Although the PAC had dozens of other large contributors, Ellison was by far the most generous of those listed.

Read MoreTrump projected winner in SC GOP primary: NBC News

Overall, Ellison has donated at least $4 million to Rubio's campaign, as it seeks to make his case to GOP primary voters. For the period ending January, Conservative Solutions PAC had raised $2.5 million, FEC data showed.

The news was first reported on Saturday by Politico.


If your closets are stuffed but your wallet's too thin, a startup called thredUP is taking the hassle out of consignment with free pickup service.

"I started this business because I had a closet full of shirts I didn't wear and it was inconvenient to try and sell them on eBay, so they just sat in my closet," founder and CEO James Reinhart told CNBC's On the Money in an interview. "There needed to be an easier way."

The company launched in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco. So far, it has raised $131 million dollars from companies like Goldman Sachs, Redpoint Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Highland Capital and Upfront Ventures.

With thredUP, people can go on the website or mobile app and request a free "clean out" bag. After filling it up with unwanted items, customers can leave the bag on their doorstep. Reinhart says the company has a partnership with the postal service and FedEx .

Originally Reinhart started the secondhand store alternative exclusively for men's shirts. What he quickly realized, however, is that the much larger and lucrative market is women and children's clothing. The company shifted to that segment and hasn't looked back since.

"The irony is not lost on me that we still don't do men's [clothing] but it's a pretty small market in resale, Reinhart said. "Women's and kids' [clothes] is the sweet spot."

Read MoreTelling a 'Story' about brick and mortar retail
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Two thousand miles apart, voters in both parties on Saturday moved the nation closer to a November presidential election pitting Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. In Nevada, Clinton withstood the surge of support Bernie Sanders to win a narrow but clear victory in Democratic caucuses. In the first big test of his ability to make inroads among non-white voters loyal to the former First Lady and Secretary of State, Sanders made progress among Latinos. But it was not enough progress to win, which augurs well for Clinton's prospects in upcoming Southern contests where African-American voters play a larger role and have backed her overwhelmingly.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrates winning the South Carolina primary in Spartanburg, South Carolina (L). Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives a victory speech to a packed room of supporters after winning the Democratic Nevada Caucus, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada (R). Getty Images

In South Carolina, Trump defied predictions that his unlikely campaign would fall to earth after a debate performance in which he harshly attacked former President George W. Bush, after the state's Republican leaders rallied against him, and after he scrapped publicly with foils as prominent and diverse as Pope Francis and Apple CEO Tim Cook. He captured a third of the vote in a fractured field, won by a double-digit margin, and drew as many voters to the polls as pre-election surveys had indicated.

The bombastic billionaire still faces fierce resistance. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who edged Ted Cruz of Texas for second place, will now attempt to consolidate and rally Republican office-holders and donors aghast by the possibility that a Trump nomination could lead to lopsided defeat in November.

The decision by Jeb Bush  the quintessential "Republican establishment" figure in the race  to suspend his campaign after another weak showing on Saturday provided encouragement for Rubio. Yet broad support from Republican leaders, led by Gov. Nikki Haley, proved insufficient for him to run close to Trump in South Carolina, And Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who placed second in New Hampshire, soldiers on to fight Rubio for mainstream support in hopes of rising in Midwest and Northeast states voting in March.

Cruz, for his part, cast himself on Saturday night as Trump's principal rival. In a party that has grown increasingly ideological in recent decades, he claims the mantle of conservatism against Trump's largely indeterminate political philosophy. Because a slew of conservative Southern states hold primaries on March 1, the Texan insists he yet can defeat Trump by consolidating the right.

But he failed to do so in South Carolina with a conservative electorate dominated by the evangelical conservatives Cruz has ardently pursued. It didn't help that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson siphoned away a critical chunk of conservative Christians. Carson, rankled by Cruz' hardball tactics in the Iowa caucuses, vowed on Saturday night to remain in the race.




Dalton has no record of criminal history, nor anything in his background "that would lead us to believe he was capable of this type of behavior," Kalamazoo Police Chief Jeff Hadley said Sunday morning.

The suspected killer, a 45-year-old Uber driver named Jason Brian Dalton, was in custody Sunday but had not been charged, police said.

Six people died, and another two were seriously injured  including a 14-year-old girl who had been pronounced brain dead but squeezed her mother's hand as doctors were preparing to harvest her organs, police said. Amid the carnage, her case stood out as a miracle, authorities said.

Picking targets seemingly at random, a gunman went on a hours-long rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Saturday night, driving around the city and opening fire on unsuspecting victims at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Dalton, who is expected to be charged Monday, apparently acted alone and there was no continuing threat to the community, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said Dalton had passed a background check to become a driver. The company was "horrified and heartbroken" and had offered to help investigators, he said.

Local NBC affiliate WOOD reported that Dalton may have taken fares in between attacks.

The first shooting occured around 6 p.m. local time at the Meadows Town Homes in the city's northwest, where one woman was shot several times but survived, police said. The next burst of gunfire happened more than three hours later, when police were called to a car dealership, where two men, possibly father and son, were shot dead, authorities said.

The final attack occurred a few minutes later at a nearby Cracker Barrel, where the gunman approached two cars in the parking lot and had a brief conversation with people inside before he "unloaded his weapon into both cars," Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas said. Four adults died there, and the 14-year-old girl was seriously injured, authorities said.

Michigan State Police, according to WOOD, identified the dead Cracker Barrel victims as Mary Lou Nye, 63, of Baroda, Michigan; Mary Jo Nye, 60, of Battle Creek, Michigan; Dorothy Brown, 74, of Battle Creek; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek.

The victims "appear to have been chosen at random because they were available," Getting said.

The girl was initially reported dead. But more than an hour later, as doctors were preparing to harvest her organs, she squeezed her mom's hand, Michigan State Police Lt. Dale Hinz told NBC News. She was then able to respond to questions by squeezing her mom's hand several more times, and was rushed into surgery.

"It's an absolute miracle," Hinz said.



Other victims had not yet been identified because their families had not been notified, officials said.



"There's a sense of loss, there's an anger  there's fear  there's all these emotions and then you put on top of that: how do you go and tell the families of these victims that they weren't targeted for any reason other than they were there to be a target?" Getting said.



Dalton was taken into custody around 12:40 a.m. after his Chevrolet HHR was spotted on a surveillance camera leaving a bar parking lot, authorities said. Police found a semi-automatic handgun during the arrest.



"We have 9, 10, 11 shell casings at each of these scenes," Getting said, adding that police were investigating to ensure there no other crime scenes. "These weren't a sudden explosion ...this was done intentionally."











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Huawei has made a bold prediction, saying it plans to surpass Apple as the second-biggest smartphone player in the world in three years and leapfrog Samsung by 2021, a top executive told CNBC on Sunday. Currently, the Chinese network infrastructure and electronics company, sits in third place. After seeing solid growth in its smartphone shipments last year, Huawei appears to be confident it can unseat its rivals.

"We hope that in three years our market share can be top two and in five years our market share can be top one," Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei's consumer business group, told CNBC in a TV interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Read MoreHuawei takes aim at Apple with tablet launch

'Late' to US market, but we'll make it up

By most measures, Huawei has its work cut out for it. The company shipped 108 million smartphones in 2015, exceeding its own expectations with a 44 percent increase in sales, compared to 2014. That figure was dwarfed by Apple's 231.5 million iPhones shipped last year, and Samsung 317.2 million, according to Strategy Analytics data. Yu said that Huawei's level of growth is sustainable, and said the company is expecting a 30 percent year-over-year rise in smartphone shipments this year. That would bring the figure to over 140 million. "We have strong growth...continually in the last five years. So last year we ship out more than 100 million smartphones, definitely this year we will still have strong growth. So I believe our growth will be more than 30 percent (this year)," Yu said. Much of Huawei's smartphone growth has been driven by Western Europe and China, but the U.S. has eluded the company until now. Huawei has had a mixed relationship with the U.S. market and was effectively banned due to concerns about cybersecurity. Recently, the company has dipped its toes back into the U.S. market, by manufacturing Google's Nexus 6P device. Yu admits that the company was "quite late" to the U.S. but will "dramatically" raise its market share there in the next few years. Huawei devices have typically been sold on the open marketthrough retail stores or online without a contractbut Yu told CNBC the firm is in discussions with U.S. carriers to bring its smartphones onto their tariff plans.

Huawei jumping into VR

Josep Lago | AFP | Getty Images
The Obama administration initiated a clandestine diplomatic effort to engage North Korea on ending tensions on the Peninsulaonly to be rebuffed by the Communist regime days before it launched another nuclear test, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The publication, citing U.S. officials familiar with the talks, said that U.S. diplomats were willing to cede on a key term: That Pyongyang first make an effort to curtail its nuclear arsenal. The U.S. called for North Korea's atomic weapons to be a point of the talks, but the regime of Kim Jong Un rejected that provision. Days later, North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb.

Read MoreWhy North Korea is stoking US power grid fears

State Department spokesman told The Journal that the secret talks were "consistent with our longstanding focus on denuclearization." The North Koreans were the ones who actually proposed a peace treaty, spokesman John Kirby added, but ultimately rebuffed the administration's terms.

The approach is similar to the controversial tack President Barack Obama adopted with its approach to Iran, but the WSJ said the White House sees North Korea as much less transparent and cooperative.

The full report can be found on the WSJ's website (note subscription may be required).




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Consultations on a preliminary deal between leading oil producers to freeze output should be concluded by March 1 after a group led by Russia and Saudi Arabia reached a common position this week in Doha, Russia's energy minister said. In a television interview aired on Saturday, Alexander Novak also said that the agreement announced on Feb. 16 was weighty enough. "Those countries which have openly supported this approach are producing around 75 percent out of global (oil) export volumes. My point is that, in practice, this is enough to agree," Novak told the "Vesti on Saturday" program. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela said this week after talks in Doha that they were ready to freeze production at January levels if other producers do the same. Iran welcomed the deal. But it stopped short of saying it would itself freeze production at January levels and its deputy oil minister said on Saturday it would increase production soon.

Mexico, Norway will be constructive: Novak

Novak said talks between Venezuela and Iran were still ongoing, and said consultations would also be held with non-OPEC countries, including Mexico and Norway. "I believe that they (Mexico and Norway) would take a constructive stance," he said. Oil prices have crashed more than 70 percent in the past 20 months, driven by near-record production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, adding to one of the worst supply gluts in history. Crisis-hit Venezuela has been pushing for an oil deal to offset a brutal recession that cost the leading Socialist Party its legislative majority in a December election. If additional oil were not supplied to the market, then the global surplus of oil would fall by at least 1.3 million barrels per day, Novak added. Novak said Iran had taken a relatively constructive stance on the Doha deal but not yet said it was ready to sign up to the proposals. The country's Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted as saying on Saturday that Tehran aimed to increase oil production by 700,000 barrels per day in the near future. Iran has previously said it will not give up market share, having only just re-entered the oil market in January after U.S.-led international sanctions were lifted.

Oil freeze doesn't need Iran for impact

Alexey Texler, Russia's first deputy energy minister, said earlier this week that even without Iran there would be an effect from the deal. According to Texler, Russia is talking about freezing January production levels. January output was around 1.5 percent higher than the annual average for 2015. Novak also said it was "discussed with colleagues" that an oil price of $50 per barrel would suit consumers and exporters in the long term. He did not elaborate. The minister believes that if the Doha agreement enters into force then Russia's market share would remain unchanged.

Naimi to front up at Houston oil conference
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, right and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, celebrate after Rubio addressed supporters at a primary night event in Columbia, S.C. Win McNamee | Getty Images

We started getting some clarity in the Republican and Democratic races Saturday night. Hillary Clinton squeaked out a win in Nevada  but did so in a way that suggests she has, despite Bernie Sanders's strength, maintained her national advantage. Marco Rubio's strong showing in South Carolina helped push Jeb Bush out of the race, giving Mr. Rubio a chance to unify the mainstream of the Republican Party and bring about a true three-way race.

Republican primary in South Carolina

When Donald Trump won New Hampshire, he won it in two ways: He won the most votes, while the establishment was divided by a split result among its ranks.

Tonight, Mr. Trump won with nearly the same share of the vote. But he might lose once and for all what has been his biggest advantage: the divided Republican field. With 99 percent of the vote reporting, Mr. Rubio holds 22.5 percent of the vote. It might not seem an impressive figure, but it meant he finished well ahead of Mr. Bush, who holds just 7.8 percent of the vote. It was enough to force Mr. Bush out of the race. It is hard to overstate how important Mr. Bush's departure is to Mr. Rubio. No, Mr. Bush did not hold a large number of votes (though I would note that the sum of Mr. Rubio and Mr. Bush's support would have been very close to Mr. Trump's total, and well ahead of Mr. Cruz's). But he held a large number of donors and officials in his camp, and he kept as many or more on the sidelines. His presence prevented any other Republican from consolidating the power of the mainstream wing of the party. The fighting among the mainstream Republicans hindered them from focusing an attack on Mr. Trump. The combination of Mr. Rubio's strong showing and Mr. Bush's exit could bring about a "party decides" moment  the rapid consolidation of the mainstream of the Republican Party. It could mean a flood of endorsements and donations to Mr. Rubio ahead of Super Tuesday on March 1. The benefits to Mr. Rubio could be huge. He will have more endorsements, more money, and he will now be free of the attacks from the Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise and his other mainstream rivals. He will have more votes available as well. Mr. Bush's exit would be enough to make tonight a win for Mr. Rubio, but Mr. Rubio's share of the vote is impressive as well. Most important, he cleared 20 percent of the vote  a crucial delegate threshold for many Southern states on Super Tuesday (although not South Carolina tonight). If he can't exceed that number in states like Alabama, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee, he will receive no delegates in those states. It's a good sign that he's near or above this number even after the disadvantage of a divided field and after a weak showing in New Hampshire. The number of votes at stake is potentially considerable: Mr. Bush and Mr. Kasich currently combine for 15.4 percent of the vote, and that support would seem likely to break toward Mr. Rubio.



As for Mr. Trump, there's no question that his showing was strong. No matter how you cut it, around 33 percent of the vote is a big number in a divided field. He outperformed the final polls, which showed him slipping toward or under 30 percent. He may win all of the state's 50 delegates, since the state awards its delegates on a winner-take-all basis by congressional district and statewide. His tally is very near the number he would need to prevail in a three-way race. The question is whether he'll be able to maintain his position as the field narrows, and whether the field will narrow fast enough. That's his real test, and he hasn't faced it yet. He will now. If Mr. Rubio and Mr. Trump have a real case for a victory, Mr. Cruz does not. Also from The New York Times:

South Carolina's legacy, exploited by Trump

Bush is humbled as party lines shift

Mr. Cruz's campaign has always argued that his path to victory hinged on uniting "very conservative" voters and the religious right. South Carolina was the opportunity to do it: Evangelicals represented more than two-thirds of the electorate. Mr. Cruz, in fact, is not even doing better than past evangelical favorites like Mike Huckabee or Newt Gingrich. He currently trails Mr. Rubio, who has the burden of a divided field. Mr. Cruz is poised to struggle outside the South. His 12 percent share of the vote in New Hampshire was telling in that regard, and so was his weak showing in South Carolina's moderate coastal enclaves (he's currently trailing John Kasich in Hilton Head, for example). If Mr. Cruz can't win the South by a big margin, he's not going to win the nomination. At the moment, he's not winning at all.

Democratic caucus in Nevada

Hillary Clinton's victory in the Nevada caucus on Saturday suggests that her national advantage, although diminished, has survived a big loss in New Hampshire and a tight race in Iowa. Nevada is fairly representative of the national electorate, and it's a state where Bernie Sanders would be expected to fare slightly better than he would elsewhere. (The Nevada Democratic electorate is about as white as the national average, with a slightly smaller share of the black vote than the national average.) Mr. Sanders's supporters will undoubtedly protest this framing. Their candidate exceeded the expectations of a month ago, and he fared better among Hispanic voters than many would have guessed. Mrs. Clinton's lead is only five percentage points with 88 percent of precincts reporting. But judging Mr. Sanders merely by whether he makes life tough for Mrs. Clinton diminishes his candidacy. It assumes that he's just a protest candidate who should be judged by a lower standard. If he is taken seriously, and judged by whether he's on a path to the nomination, then his performance today fell short. Mrs. Clinton won by carrying Las Vegas's Clark County  the most diverse in the state  by a 10-point margin. She won the majority Hispanic precincts in East Las Vegas, calling into question the entrance-exit poll finding that Mr. Sanders won the Hispanic vote. The entrance-exit poll showed Mr. Sanders leading by eight points among Hispanic voters. The poll was small, with just 1,024 voters, and that makes it hard to measure a small subgroup. Hispanic voters are heavily concentrated in small areas, and these polls are conducted at individual precincts. If the precincts, simply by chance, are off, then the results for a small subgroup can also be off.



This is how the exit polls showed George W. Bush winning 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. Merely by chance, 3 of the 11 predominately Hispanic precincts were in heavily Republican Miami-Dade County. (The best estimate is that Mr. Bush actually won 40 percent of the vote, based on a compilation of the 50 state exit polls.) The danger is even greater with a poll of the size today.

More generally, the entrance-exit poll showed Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders in a virtually tied race, so we know that the poll understated Mrs. Clinton's support somewhere. The results by precinct also indicate that Mrs. Clinton fared extremely well among black voters. In six precincts identified as majority black by The Upshot, Mrs. Clinton won the delegate count by a staggering 96-7. The entrance-exit poll showed her with a 76-22 percentage advantage among African-Americans. It bodes well for Mrs. Clinton in the South, starting with South Carolina next weekend. Nevada was the third-straight state where, because of demographics, one would have expected Mr. Sanders to fare better than the national average. In terms of the Democratic primary electorate, the black voter share in the state is below the national average. If African-Americans are the principal source of Mrs. Clinton's national advantage, as her strength with them today and her modest showing among Hispanic voters suggest, then she should be expected to fare better elsewhere.
Santulli hazing unlikely to end binge drinking, says MU professor

Professor Phil Wood discusses how difficult it is to curb binge drinking in fraternities and sororities, what MU is doing and what it's not doing.
Jinggang Yin leads a chant for justice during a rally with members of the Asian community in Memphis to support former NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the death of an African-American man in New York. The Asian community believes that Liang was singled out as a scapegoat in what has become a highly politicized topic. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE More than 200 members of the Asian community in Memphis march down Main Street to support former NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the death of an African-American man in New York. The Asian community believes that Liang was singled out as a scapegoat in what has become a highly politicized topic. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

More than 200 Chinese and Chinese Americans gathered outside City Hall at the Civic Center Plaza Saturday morning to demand justice for a police officer they believe is being used as a scapegoat.

The demonstration in Memphis was one of many that took place Saturday across the country as part of a national day of protest for Peter Liang, a former New York City police officer convicted of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month for the November 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, a black man.

On Nov. 20, 2014, rookie cop Liang and his partner were on patrol in Brooklyn. When Liang opened the door to a dark stairwell in an apartment building, his gun went off and ricocheted against the wall before striking Gurley, 28, who was unarmed. He was struck in the chest and died.

Liang is responsible for Gurley's death, but the charges he faced were not appropriate, said John Chen, who organized the Memphis rally.

"The death was tragic, the death was an accident, but the death was not a crime," Chen told the crowd.

Liang's supporters argue that most police officers involved in fatal shootings of unarmed black people across the country are not charged for their actions, but Liang, who is Asian-American, was charged and convicted too severely since he never intended to fire his gun or kill anyone.

"Second-degree manslaughter is a very heavy felony, and we just believe that was overreaching," Chen said.

Chen and fellow supporters asked for more accountability from law enforcement and other systems.

Both Liang and his partner were new to the department and hadn't been adequately trained or assigned to patrols, New York state Assemblyman William Colton said in a statement. Also, the statement added, the New York City Housing Authority failed its community with its "reckless neglect" of the apartment building and by allowing it to remain dark.

"Injustice to Mr. Liang does not, unfortunately, bring justice to Mr. Gurley," Chen said. "We are not saying that Mr. Liang is not responsible or shouldn't be accountable for his actions, but we are just saying is this true justice? Did he get true protection under the law, or in this case was law abandoned?"

Before the demonstrators began their march down Main Street, they bowed their heads for a moment of silence to honor Gurley.

During the rally, many demonstrators held signs with phrases that said "Fair trial for Peter Liang," "Selective justice is not justice" and "Stop injustice to minority police officers."

Throughout the march, the group repeatedly chanted "No more scapegoating" and sang "we shall overcome."

They handed out informational fliers to people on the street who often stopped what they were doing to stare and take photos on their phones.

Liang was also found guilty by a grand jury of official misconduct. He will be sentenced on April 14 and faces up to 15 years in prison for the second-degree manslaughter charge.
U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III of Memphis was nominated last May to become a federal judge in the state's Western District.

SHARE

By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death has not only touched off a political brawl over who should name his successor, it also could complicate the confirmation of two Tennesseans nominated to become federal judges.

A year ago this month, President Barack Obama nominated Nashville attorney Waverly Crenshaw Jr. for a federal judgeship in Tennessee's Middle District. U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III of Memphis was nominated last May to become a federal judge in the state's Western District.

Both nominees have won the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee and have been waiting for months for the full Senate to schedule a vote on their confirmation.

But the fight brewing over Scalia's successor could delay a vote on all pending nominations, including the two Tennesseans, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who closely tracks the judicial nominations process.

"Often, just everything else shuts down while a Supreme Court nominee is in the process," Tobias said. "It doesn't have to, and there's no reason for it, especially with (nominees) on the floor. But I think it will be another excuse that could be used by the Republicans."

Senate Democrats have been complaining for months that Republicans have been dragging their feet on judicial nominees since the GOP regained majority control of the Senate a year ago. A report last fall by the liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice charged that the pace of nominees confirmed by the new Republican-controlled Senate is the slowest in 60 years.

The Senate confirmed just 11 nominees in all of 2015, and five of those came toward the end of the year. One was Travis McDonough of Chattanooga, who was confirmed in December to a federal judgeship in Tennessee's Eastern District after waiting for more than a year.

So far this year, the Senate has confirmed five judges. But 17 others already cleared by the Judiciary Committee are still waiting for a vote.

Obama said last week that the political battle over whether he should nominate Scalia's successor or whether that decision should fall to the next president is just an extension of the fight that has played out in the Senate over other nominees.

"We've almost gotten accustomed to how obstructionist the Senate has become when it comes to nominations," he said during news conference last Tuesday in California.

Obama noted that the judicial nominees awaiting confirmation were all approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee, "so Republicans and Democrats all agreed that they were well-qualified for the position," he said. "And yet we can't get a vote on those individuals."

Of the 17 awaiting confirmation, Crenshaw has been on hold the longest. His nomination has been pending on the Senate floor since last July.

"I just don't understand what's going on with Crenshaw," Tobias said. "He's well-qualified. It's an emergency vacancy. It absolutely needs to be filled. The Tennessee senators argued it should be filled last year, and it hasn't been."

Crenshaw should be next in line for a confirmation vote since he has been waiting the longest. Stanton, who has been waiting since the end of last October, should be third or fourth in line, assuming the Senate takes the nominees in the order in which they were sent to the floor.

Confirming either of them wouldn't be all that difficult or time consuming. In fact, it could be done in just a matter of minutes if Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would only schedule a vote, Tobias said.

"Hiding behind the Supreme Court nomination is just an excuse, really," he said. "It's just a matter of setting (the vote) and making it a priority."

Even if the vote on their nominations is delayed because of the squabble over the Supreme Court vacancy, Tobias said he expects both Tennesseans to be confirmed this year.

"It's just a matter of when," he said.

Michael Collins is The Commercial Appeal's Washington correspondent. His weekly Tennessee in D.C. column highlights Volunteer State lawmakers, causes and connections. Contact him at 202-408-2711 or michael.collins@jmg.com.
Feb. 18, 2016  Nurse practitioner Leighann Landy prepares a prescription at Care4Us clinic in Collierville. Care4Us is a cooperative health clinic geared to three suburbs and five municipal school districts. We are able to treat a majority of disease processes out of our on site dispensary, Landy said. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE Feb. 18, 2016  At the Care4Us clinic in Collierville, Dr. Karima Causey chats with a patient, Charles Veglio, during a recent office visit. A cooperative health clinic, Care4Us, serves several municipalities and the accompanying school districts. The clinic is so successful in Collierville that the group is opening a second clinic on the north side of the county. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) Feb. 18, 2016  Tamberlyn Mosby, LPN, checks the weight of a patient at the Care4Us clinic in Collierville. Care4Us, a cooperative health clinic for several municipalities and the accompanying school districts, is so successful in Collierville that the group is opening a second clinic on the north side of the county. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) Feb. 18, 2016  Charles Veglio discusses his symptoms with Care4Us physician Dr. Karima Causey at the Collierville clinic. Care4Us is geared to three suburbs and five municipal school districts. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

By Clay Bailey of The Commercial Appeal

It's kind of weird to enjoy a visit to the doctor, but Charles Veglio couldn't stop raving about it.

"I really enjoyed it," Veglio, a driver with Collierville's sanitation department, said after an appointment at the town's Care4Us facility. "I didn't mind at all. I'd go back tomorrow if I needed to."

Care4Us  a cooperative health clinic for employees of several suburbs and accompanying municipal school districts  is so successful in Collierville the group is opening a second clinic on the north side of the county later this month. The clinics provide primary and preventive care to employees and dependents of Bartlett, Collierville and Lakeland governments, along with all of the suburban school districts, except Germantown Municipal Schools.

The centers offer the health services without a co-pay, deductible or cost of generic medications. The Collierville location, the first for Care4Us locally, opened last November. The new one, planned from the start, will hold a ribbon-cutting Feb. 29 at 7665 U.S. 70, Suite 10.

"These clinics are the next step in ensuring our employees have the most efficient, affordable, quality and convenient health care we can offer," Ted Horrell, superintendent of the Lakeland School System and chairman of the Interlocal Health Benefits Committee, said.

Under the system, patients make an appointment online or by telephone. Organizers say they do not double-book schedules, so patients usually are seen within a few minutes of their arrival. Short waits, no costs and the availability of some generic prescriptions on site make the clinics attractive.

Peter Voss, Bartlett personnel director, said he is seeing more companies and governments providing these types of medical clinics for employees. Even in its short existence in Collierville, some patients have transferred their primary care to the Care4Us facilities, managed by Nashville-based CareHere.

Horrell is among those who has used the medical outlet  seeking relief for a sinus problem.

"I got all the help I needed," the superintendent said.

Veglio, who also stopped in for a sinus infection, said he registered and made his appointment online. He arrived at the scheduled time and barely had a seat before they called him back to the exam room. He was finished in 30 minutes  well within the lunch hour he set aside to address the ailment. Only one other patient was at the facility during his visit.

"If I called my regular doctor, it would have taken 10 days or two weeks to get in to see him," Veglio said.

Voss said reports he received in the early months echo Veglio's experience. The Bartlett personnel director said an employee was told by his primary care doctor it would take weeks for an appointment to address flu-like symptoms.

Voss directed the worker to the Collierville facility. After an appointment the next day, the employee called Voss with a glowing review similar to Veglio's  from the helpfulness of the staff to the minimal time necessary to no cost.

And once the Bartlett facility opens "we're expecting the usage to grow," Voss said.
SHARE

By Janell Ross

Like almost all of the Supreme Court's members, past and present, the late Justice Antonin Scalia was capable of decisions and theoretical positions that the public and court-watchers found surprising.

But far more often, Scalia's reactions ranked among the most reliably conservative  and sometimes the angriest  when it came to court decisions that appeared to clarify, extend or expand civil rights of any kind. He was a formidable enemy of civil rights.

Scalia was a self-described constitutional "originalist." He believed the Constitution can and should be read only in the precise way the men who wrote it and its existing amendments intended. To him, an understanding of rights, justice and equality that, initially, failed to bar slavery and that made no effort to require states to give the poor, women or people of color the vote or, for the last group, federally guaranteed unconditional birthright citizenship was more than sufficient, once a few amendments had been made. Nor did it seem to matter that the Constitution, a document shaping the nation's legal and cultural life, had been drafted by an all-white group of men who provided carefully for their own rights. The Constitution's real protections, prohibitions and provisions have all been explicitly identified.

In the 1980s and '90s, Scalia wrote opinions making plain his views on any form of affirmative action: The government could not and should not create so-called "racial preferences" to address past discrimination. This, he argued, amounted to a system of racial privileges. That logic continues to shape, if not define, the way many people who oppose affirmative action programs now view them.

Scalia more than signaled in court opinions, oral arguments and public speeches that he considered the court's decision to strike down a Texas law that criminalized sodomy an act of support for the "homosexual agenda." He claimed that overturning sodomy laws  which made a range of consensual sexual acts, even between heterosexual adults, illegal  imperiled state laws barring bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, bestiality and obscenity. He also said that forcing the Boy Scouts of America to accept gay troop leaders amounted to an unconstitutional burden on the organization.

Scalia typically voted in favor of law enforcement interests in cases aiming to exclude information or evidence gathered against defendants by illegal searches and other unlawful police activities. He told audiences he would like to do away with requirements that police read suspects their rights  the Miranda warning  when making an arrest.

When the court heard the case that eventually struck down gay marriage bans nationwide, Scalia issued one of his famously critical dissents reminding Americans of his belief that the Constitution need not protect anything  or, it would seem, anyone  it did not protect at the time the document or its official amendments were approved.

He wrote in a dissenting opinion made public after the gay marriage ruling: "When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, every State limited marriage to one man and one woman, and no one doubted the constitutionality of doing so. That resolves these cases."

In 2013, Scalia described a provision of the Voting Rights Act that gave the federal government the tools and authority to approve almost all changes to voting practices, locations, requirements or procedures in states with a history of voter suppression as a "racial entitlement." According to him, the Voting Rights Act was a misleading name for the law in that it actually delivered and then protected an alleged special set of rights for minority voters. In this case the "special right" was the right to vote like all other citizens without interference and changes that effectively or intentionally limit minority voter influence in congressional districts.

Scalia claimed that only the court could eliminate the "injustice" inherent to the Voting Rights Act  perpetrated against states  because members of Congress would face political consequences if they had the nerve to vote publicly against any portion of the law. To Scalia, members of Congress were the victims in need of legal protection, not minority voters.

In December 2015, Scalia drew a lot of attention when, during an affirmative action case, he opted to include the factually unmoored claims of a brief arguing against affirmative action programs in a question he posed from the bench. Many people did not like it. Audible gasps were heard. In case this has slipped your memory, here is what Scalia said:

"There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas [Austin] where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a less  slower track school where they do well . . . "

This year, Scalia said nothing during oral arguments in a pending case weighing whether states must count and consider all the people who live in a state when drawing new voting districts or must consider only eligible voters. Many noted his silence. The case could have major implications in the distribution of political power in the decades until the nation becomes one in which no racial or ethnic group makes up the majority (anticipated in 2044).

Immigrants, who are not eligible to vote unless they become citizens, often concentrate in particular areas. And, in a state like Texas, which saw such intense population growth between 2000 and 2010 that it gained new congressional seats, not only are many of those people too young to vote, but more than 90 percent of the population growth was made up of Latino, Asian and black children. (Similar demographic patterns exist around the country.)

So any court decision that comes down in favor of considering only eligible voters in the drawing of district lines effectively minimizes the political implications of the growing and changing population. It will sustain and essentially prop up the influence of the nation's aging white majority long after it no longer exists. And remember: Numbers, even narrow majorities, are everything in a democracy.

This case has questions about as big as they come in a democracy, and it illuminates just how hard any nomination battle will be.
Major companies in the Internet of Things world set aside their differences on Friday to work together toward a single standard for all IoT gear.

The group they formed, the Open Connectivity Foundation, could have the critical mass to make all embedded devices in homes and enterprises talk to each other. It includes vendors that have belonged to different, and in some cases competing, IoT organizations. Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Qualcomm, GE Digital and Cisco Systems are among the founders of OCF.

The announcement came as the wireless industry gathered in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, which this year is expected to include a strong focus on IoT.

IoT spans wearables, home appliances, industrial equipment and more. Across those categories, many connected devices use specialized hardware and software platforms that dont communicate with each other. Even efforts to build common standards have gone down separate paths, so some of them conflict with each other. This fragmentation is widely seen as a drag on the industry.

OCF plans to build a single specification, or at least a common set of protocols and projects, for all types of IoT devices. It expects OCF-certified products to be available this year. Given its membership, the group may actually be up to the task. OCF includes providers of IoT chips, software, platforms and products.

Objects as diverse as sensors in factories and lightbulbs in homes may never talk to each other directly, but common specifications for all types of IoT should create a larger ecosystem that spurs on innovation, lowers development costs and provides a bigger pool of developers for everyone.

The new group brings together members of two major rival organizations -- Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) and AllSeen Alliance. Both groups have been promoting their own ways for connected devices to discover each other and determine what they can do together.

All OIC members, including Intel and Samsung, are now part of OCF. AllSeen still exists, but at least two of its key members, Qualcomm and Microsoft, are now in the new group. In a blog post Friday, Qualcomm said, we will work with both organizations to help establish a single open standard for IoT.

Microsoft said Windows devices would natively interoperate with the OCF standard.

Cisco and GE Digital add credibility to OCF on the industrial side. Other members include CableLabs, home appliance maker Electrolux and video and broadband company Arris Group.
Peston: Boris will announce today that he has decided to campaign for Leave

ITV News understands Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will come out later and formally announce his decision to join the leave camp. If Mr Johnson does choose to campaign against the Prime Minister it would be seen as a blow for David Cameron who will already be up against leading Cabinet figures such as Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling and Michael Gove.  Robert Peston, ITV

Mayor held summit earlier this week with Gove

The two dined at the London Mayors home on Tuesday, where they agreed the Prime Ministers new EU deal was thin. Shortly afterwards, Justice Secretary Mr Gove shocked No 10 by joining the Out campaign to cut Britains ties with Brussels. The disclosure of the secret dinner  and the pairs sharp criticism of the outcome of Mr Camerons negotiations  will fuel speculation about which side Mr Johnson will back in the forthcoming EU referendum.  Mail on Sunday

Officially undecided but seems to be leaning towards getting out  The Sun ()

Johnson himself told a Westminster contact: Im veering all over the place like a shopping trolley.  Sunday Times ()

Cameron scrabbles for sovereignty rabbit to appease Mayor  Observer

Rudd warns Mayor to consider the City  Independent on Sunday

> Today: Tory Diary  Boriss Heseltine moment?

Zac Goldsmith is for Leave. So are Fresh Start Ministers Leadsom, Raab and Eustice

Last night Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate for London mayor, announced: My vote will be to leave. Today Dominic Raab, a justice minister, announces that he, too, is backing Brexit. Writing in The Sunday Times, he says: The argument for staying in is based on a fear of standing on our own two feet. The case for a new relationship, outside, is built on the opportunities of being masters of our own destiny. Raab will join members of the Fresh Start group of Tory MPs, including Andrea Leadsom, George Eustice and Chris Heaton-Harris at a meeting in Westminster today at which at least 30 MPs will launch a new project to draw up plans for Britain outside the EU.  Sunday Times ()

Raab: A chance to take 33bn burden off shoulders of small businesses  Sunday Times

What Ministers said in Cabinet

Cameron: We should have a good debate but it must be conducted on good terms. We need to remember we are all still members of a Conservative Government. This is my team and it is a team I love.

Leavers:

Gove  Ministers have lost so many powers. We cannot ignore it any longer.

Grayling  We will all support you regardless  you will be Prime Minister come what may.

Duncan Smith  I regret having to make this decision but the country requires it.

Whittingdale  Britain must :recover the powers we have lost.

Villiers  I made my mind up a long time ago: we must leave the EU.

Remainers:

Osborne: Sterling is at a low point right now and there will be economic shocks if we leave.

Fallon: There are no prizes for guessing which way Putin wants us to vote.

 Mail on Sunday

Elsewhere:

Javid was warned off by Osborne, Gove never forgave Cameron for demotion, May has never done anything very interesting with her power base and isnt starting now  Ann McElvoy, Mail on Sunday

Steve Baker hovered for two hours outside the Cabinet meeting in his black jaguar  Sunday Telegraph

> Yesterday: Chris Grayling on Comment  We have reached a crucial crossroads. The status quo is not an option. I am for Leave  and the campaign begins here.

Cameron interview: I wont resign if I lose

My future was determined by the British general election in which I said I would hold the referendum and abide by the result and thats exactly, I think, what people expect me to do and what I will do. Having staked his reputation on a vote to stay in the EU, many believe his position will be untenable if he loses. But Cameron said he would remain to lead Brexit negotiations if necessary. I will deliver what the British people determine in the referendum, he said.  Sunday Times ()

Grayling interview: If we stay, well just be fringe players in Europe  Sunday Times ()

How the Cabinet lines up  Independent on Sunday

It was Goves recent experiences as a Minister, not longstanding views, that made his mind up for Brexit

But it was, a colleague of Gove suggests, while the cabinet minister was sitting in his office in the Department for Education, on the walls of which he had hung pictures of Lenin and Malcolm X, that the itch to back Brexit became overwhelming. Everything, from changing guidance on behaviour in schools to changing the exam system, to the whole school building programme, was affected by officials waving EU rules, the colleague said. His experience as a minister showed him how little ministers are now in charge and how EU rules destroy sensible reforms, delay everything, and cost taxpayers billions.  Observer

> Yesterday: Goves statement  full text

The view from Poland: we won, Cameron lost

Beata Szydlo said the deal struck by European leaders would ensure Poles living and working in Britain could continue to receive welfare payments. Good agreement for Europe, we protected rights of Poles claiming social benefits across EU, she tweeted afterwards. Mr Cameron had wanted an emergency brake to stop migrant workers claiming benefits to last as long as 13 years, but after objections from Eastern European countries including Poland this was watered down to seven years.  Mail on Sunday

Our tally: he lost 3-1  Sun on Sunday

Italys Prime Minister: I thought wed be round that table forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and.  Sun on Sunday

Camerons summit marathon  Independent on Sunday

Reaction at home and abroad  Observer

The view from Hastings  Observer

> Today: Liam Fox on Comment  Camerons deal. Not the mouse that roared but the lion that whimpered

Survation finds Remain lead widens

According to the first poll since the Prime Ministers talks in Brussels, conducted for The Mail on Sunday, the In camp has a 15-point lead over the Out camp. Nearly one in two voters want to Remain in the EU; with one in three in favour of Leaving and one in five undecided. The support for the Prime Minister appears to have little to do with his claim to have won concessions from fellow EU leaders last week. More than six out of ten say the new EU deal has not affected the way they will vote in the referendum.  Mail on Sunday

What though will be crucial is what Conservative supporters eventually make of the deal. They, above all, are the group whom the Prime Minister is hoping to persuade. Even polls done over the phone suggest that hitherto rather more Conservative voters have been inclined to vote for Leave than Remain. With around a half of Tory MPs, including yet perhaps the charismatic London Mayor agreeing with them, they may still prove hard for Mr Cameron to win over.  John Curtice, Mail on Sunday

The timetable  Mail on Sunday

The clash with the European championships  Sun on Sunday

Leave and Remain Cabinet Ministers set out their stalls: Patel says that the EU is treating us like fools

Now is the time to show the EU that the British public cannot be treated like fools. We can see through the spin, propaganda, and abuses of taxpayers money for endless self-serving vanity projects that are not in our democratic, economic or national interest. But there is a better way. Following a vote to leave, Britain will be able to untangle the labyrinth of EU laws and regulations that have held our country back. We will be free to make our own laws and to negotiate a fair and new trade deal with Europe that defends our interests.  Mail on Sunday

While Javid says that we should never have joined, but shouldnt leave now

My heart says we are better off out. My head says its too risky right now. For the past six years, Ive been doing everything I can to repair the damage Labour did to our national economy. Im no europhile, but nor am I prepared to risk undoing all that work and casting aside all the sacrifices we asked of this country while the post-Brexit talks drag on and investor confidence wavers. Staying in the EU for now doesnt have to mean accepting the status quo.  Mail on Sunday

.and a warning to Cameron from John Rentoul

It looks as if the Leave total will be close to half of the Parliamentary Conservative Party. Thats 165 MPsThe split in the Conservative Party does not run in a perpendicular line. The top leans towards staying in the EU, MPs are split down the middle and the grassroots want to leave. That is the fault line with consequences.  Independent on Sunday

Editorials

> Yesterday

That Grassroots Out Rally: Galloway was the worst special guest since Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared in that episode of Friends.

Founders of the Eurosceptic Grassroots Out campaign last night defended the appearance of George Galloway at a packed Westminster rally. They spoke out after Galloway was described as the worst special guest since Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared in that episode of Friends. And at least 50 people in Fridays audience walked out when it emerged the special guest was none other than the former Respect MP for Bradford West.  Sunday Express

Farage and Galloway  Mail on Sunday

That garish Grassroots Out tie. Bone sent it to Cameron, who joked: Its arrived, and I feel that the blazer is soon to follow  Mail on Sunday

And, meanwhile, the Syrian civil war is reaching a climax  Patrick Cockburn, Independent on Sunday

Webb: Osborne is planning to scrap the tax-free lump sum

Steve Webb, who led pension reform for five years in the coalition, said the chancellor was plotting a tax bombshell that would hit hundreds of thousands of people. Currently people can access 25% of their pension pots tax-free in a single lump sum when they reach 55. But Webb said he believed the perk was heading for extinction as part of plans to revolutionise pension saving that are due to be outlined in the budget next month. Having worked closely with the chancellor, Webb said he believed Osborne would like to scrap all tax relief on pension contributions and replace it with an Isa-style system.  Sunday Times ()

Cut beer tax campaign latest  Sun on Sunday

Labour threatens Commons chaos over short money cuts

The party is drawing up plans for total non-cooperation in the Commons until the Prime Minister abandons the proposals, which could cost Labour about 1 million in state subsidies. The plans could involve forcing all- night sittings, staging surprise votes and potentially plunging next months Budget debate into chaos. It would also mean Tory MPs being forced to give up coveted overseas trips because they would have to be on stand-by to vote at Westminster.  Mail on Sunday

Labours anti-semitism row at Oxford masks a party in civil war  Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, Sunday Times ()

News in Brief
David Cameron today tells the Sunday Times that he will stay on as Prime Minister if Britain votes to leave the EU. He could scarcely say anything else, but he is clearly dissembling. A Leave vote would mean that he himself has to leave. This presents pro-Brexit Conservatives with a stark choice. Back Remain, and you betray your conscience. Back Leave, and you oppose your leader  and, furthermore, condemn him to resignation if Britain votes to leave the EU. In these circumstances, you will have helped to bring down the Partys most successful election winner in modern times save only Margaret Thatcher.

This is precisely the conundrum that Michael Gove has been wrestling with. The Justice Secretary is insistent that it is his experience as a Minister that has tilted him decisively against Britains EU membership, but it has been clear for several years that he has become convinced that we should leave. Boris Johnson, however, is not a natural Brexiteer. The son of a former MEP who backs EU membership, the brother of an MP who takes the same view, and raised himself partly in Brussels, Boris has never been comfortable with Brexit.

For all his EU-bashing Daily Telegraph columns and stories  his Delors plan to rule Europe splash played a part in the 1992 Danish referendum that rocked the Maastricht Treaty  and the distinctly Eurosceptic report that he commissioned as Mayor, he has never said that we would be Better Off Out. Indeed, he recently told Bernard Jenkin that he has never been an Outer. The latter added: Boris was quite open and frank about it  it was no secret conversation. He is genuinely torn but I hope he will change his mind because he is one of the few who understands that if we stay in Britain will be in a weaker position than ever before.

And now, we are told, he has indeed changed his mind. Robert Peston, ITNs Political Editor, tweeted yesterday evening that the Mayor will declare this evening that he will vote and campaign for Leave. It could be that the report will turn out to be misplaced: the Sunday Times reports him saying that Im veering all over the place like a shopping trolley, and one can never quite tell what Boris will do. But the placing and timing of the story could make sense. Peston is one of Britains great official journalists, whose ceremonial place in breaking a political story is not unlike that of the Gold Stick in Waiting or the Clarenceux King of Arms at the state opening of Parliament.

Events would unfold as follows: Peston blows the starting trumpet, Camerons Marr interview this morning is upstaged, reporters scurry off to Islington, commentators jostle and thrash like feeding frenzy-crazed carp, the cameras plonk themselves outside the Great Mans house, Marina is mobbed nipping out to Waitrose, the sense of expectation buildsand, as the sun sinks red into a bloody sky, the final dramatic stroke is struck. The Great Mans Monday Telegraph column declaring for Out thunders off the printing presses, and he himself shuffles from his home, eyeballs gently rotating, in a state of artfully manufactured disarray. Erumm.arrrggghhyaaaaah!

But if such story management makes sense, such a decision would be harder to conjure. It is true that the Mayors behaviour during the run-up to the summit  the impossibilist demands for the primacy of British law within the EU, the hints and murmurs, the preposterous public visit to poor old Cameron in Downing Street  only make sense if he is already set on Brexit. None the less, to come out for it would pulverise the sedulous, creeping, nail-chewing advance that he has steadily made on the Conservative leadership for the best part of 15 years. The safer course by far would be to tuck himself quietly in behind the Remain campaign and wait for the shine to come off George Osborne.

Boris has crawled towards Downing Street with the caution of a slobbery-mouthed lion stalking a shimmer-flanked young gazelle. For him to leap lumberingly at his prey with a roar would risk it galloping off shrieking into the bush. Then again, the Mayor has never been the man for the safer course. It is true that he is now damned if he does and damned if he doesnt. We return to the problem of him never having been for Brexit. If he goes with his history, he will look as though hes backing down after a week of winding up: willing to wound, afraid to strike. But he veers off in a new direction, it will be towards open war  not only with his past, but with his leader.

The Mayor is sometimes mocked for having no convictions whatsoever. Certainly, his recent tergiversations will have done him no good with his Commons colleagues, who have always been cooler about him than the voters. Leavers will never be convinced that he is truly One of Them (thats to say, One of Us). But I think that this view is wide of the mark. The best comparison is perhaps with another Tory Blonde Bombshell who parted with his leader: Michael Heseltine. The latters falling out with Margaret Thatcher was fired by a mix, impossible to separate, of frustrated desire and irrepressible conviction.

His resignation is sometimes said to have been about a trifle: a mere helicopter company. And so in a sense it was. However, behind it was something bigger. At the heart of the clash between the then Defence Secretary and Downing Street over who would take over Westland  Sikorsky or a European consortium  was a difference over the destiny of a nation. Where does Britains future lie? With our continental neighbours, or in the wider world? What is our place in the world? Here we are again. But this time the roles are reversed and the stakes are higher. This referendum fills the sky where one had to squint to see Westland  outside the Westminster Village, at any rate.

Yes, Cameron v Boris would have even more baleful implications than Thatcher v Heseltine. That conflict helped eventually to depose a three times election winner, undefeated at the polls, and pave the way for three terms of Conservative opposition  the longest period of Tory humiliation in modern times. This time round, the European question looms larger than ever, the referendum dramatises division, UKIP is with us and politics itself is more fragile. To date post-election, the Party has managed its differences extraordinarily deftly. But an Out decision by Boris might put all that to the sword.

Cameron and George Osborne, especially, have had their fallings-out with Boris, but this gang of three, and Michael Gove too, are not unlike  all roughly of the same age, all journalists or former SpAds, all at home in liberal London. They are part of a generation. Now there may be fratricide among the band of brothers. Perhaps Gove has titled Boris over the edge. Perhaps he will back off after all. Who knows what cocktail of ambition and belief is fizzing uncontrollably up within the Mayor? Maybe he thinks that only an Outer can next lead the Tories, or perhaps events are simply creating their own momentum. They all go mad in the end, the political legend runs. I cant help wondering if the long wait and tension is driving Boris slightly bonkers.
Dr Liam Fox is a former Defence Secretary and is MP for North Somerset.

In the end we asked for little and were made to settle for less. This was not the mouse that roared but the lion that whimpered. Most, if not all, of the other EU leaders were convinced that David Cameron would never recommend a Leave vote in the UK referendum, so they knew they would never have to make any great adjustment to the trajectory of the European project  the term they still use but is never uttered from the lips of the Remain camp in the UK.

The whole process was a wasted opportunity of truly historic proportions. The Germans fear the loss of British votes on economic issues and the possibility of becoming the greatest ATM of all time if the British counterbalance to the spendthrift southern Europeans is lost. The smaller states, by contrast, see the UK as a counterweight to the might of Germany which has become the overwhelmingly powerful continental state, especially with the continued decline of France.

Neither of these powerful levers were deployed in the negotiation or their potential influence exploited. What we had instead was part charade, part artificially-hyped drama and part pantomime. I do not doubt that the Prime Minister genuinely had to persuade other leaders to accept his unbelievably modest demands but he had no option having given away his best negotiating tool at the outset  a credible threat to campaign for Brexit.

It would be disingenuous of me to claim that the outcome of the negotiation affects my intention to campaign to leave  I set that out clearly some months ago. Part of my reason for doing so at the time was that the process itself had become part of the narrative. Watching the British Prime Minister taking the equivalent of a political begging bowl round some much smaller and poorer states, asking permission to change our own benefit rules, is the clearest possible example of how we have lost control of our own affairs.

The so-called renegotiation was beautifully taken apart yesterday by Christopher Howarth on this site and I will not repeat all his points. Suffice to say that the British press seem to have bought much of the spin attached, and I suspect will be less than thrilled when they see the actual truth. It is not a renegotiation at all, since there is no treaty reform  a point President Hollande was quick to make yesterday. Changes agreed are not enforceable in the ECJ and so are neither legally binding nor irreversible.

As for giving up the British veto on blocking Eurozone integration, all that we received was a promise to discuss the issues at stake and bring them to a European Council. Our partners should also understand that, since there is no treaty change on this and, as British governments do not bind their successors, a different British Prime Minister might take a different view. The so-called red card is so unlikely to be useable as to be completely irrelevant.

Finally, the benefit changes are so watered down that they will be likely to lose the very small ability they might ever have had to affect EU economic migration. We never asked for any restriction on the free movement of people nor received any. It now seems that, should we remain in the EU, it will be impossible to meet the Conservative Partys election pledge on immigration as a result of EU migration alone.

My objections to continued membership of the EU are that if we cannot make our own laws and determine our own borders then we are no longer a free and independent country. Nothing in this whole process has ever had any possibility of changing that position. The whole so-called renegotiation has been at best a well-intentioned fiasco and at worst clear proof, if any were needed, of the bizarre, wasteful and time-consuming way the EU does business.

I am not a Europhobe and I can see the good things that the EU has achieved. It was able to help bring Spain, Portugal and Greece from military dictatorships to democratic states in a short time scale. More importantly, I believe, it was able to act as a democratic beacon to the states in central and eastern Europe under Soviet oppression.

The EU leaders and the cosy cabal of ex-politicians and political elite who earn great sums from the Commission and the EU institutions have never, however, adapted to the changes brought by the fall of the Berlin wall, the era of globalisation or the implications of the creation of the euro. The fall of the Soviet Union sent a warning signal about the dangers of any supranational project, the subjugation of national identity under the umbrella of an artificial political construct.

That is not to compare the Soviet-imposed tyranny with freely chosen membership of the EU, but the results of recent elections across the continent have seen the continued rise of parties on the political extremes. I believe that the current direction of travel of the EU is potentially fanning the flames of nationalism, creating the very tensions it was created to diminish. If those in charge break it is because they will not bend.

The emergence of the single currency has also fundamentally altered the landscape. Ill conceived and badly executed, it has wreaked economic havoc , created a source of global financial instability and consigned millions of young Europeans to long term unemployment. It has put off the choice of political and economic union or breakup. Although the UK is not part of the Eurozone, we still pay for its failures. Our economy is subject to the instability it creates, the headwinds referred to by the Chancellor and our taxpayers pay directly through our contribution to the buget. As we are assessed to pay on the basis of our GNI, itself a weird measure, the more successful we are economically compared to the rest of the stalling EU economies, the more we pay.

Many of those who proclaimed themselves Eurosceptic have been unable to see their objections through to their logical conclusions, for whatever reasons. The British people must show more resolve. If you dont like the destination on the front of the bus, get off. The bus says ever-closer union, whatever the conductor pretends. Time to take control. Time to leave.
JNU Episode: Comedy Of Errors Glares At Indias Kashmir Policy

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

21 February, 2016

Countercurrents.org

There are two things that come out clearly from the JNU episode with regard to India's Kashmir. In New Delhi there are two lines of thought that are at work in tandem when it comes to dealing with the Kashmir.

The nomenclature whether it is an issue, a problem, or a conflict is still not settled between the parties concerned.

Anyway India holds two policies on Kashmir, one for the national audience another for the international consumption. The domestic policy is to whip up nationalism over Kashmir and international policy is to pander to the demands of globalization.

The domestic policy based on Hindi Hindu Hindustan variety of nationalism and represents a Delhi centric mindset. The international policy is to meet the norms of living in the community of nations that is governed by United Nations.

This jingoist nationalism is belted out to whip up emotions of the Hindu constituency with drumming up the idea that India is the legal claimant of every inch of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Any dissent from such Delhi centric perception is seen as an act of anti nationalism and liable to be booked under sedition charges. This is exactly what has happened in the JNU case.

However, when it comes to deal with international community, Indias hard-line approach on Kashmir takes a somersault and at international forums India has reiterated its commitment to the age old position thats being held since 1948. And that is India accepts the questionable nature of Jammu and Kashmir and is willing to resolve the differences through protracted negotiations.

The first BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had gone to Pakistan to tell to the world that the way forward to deal with Kashmir differences of opinion is through negotiations. And that should be held in the spirit of accommodation, reconciliation etc.

Prime Minister Narender Modi after playing the hard ball of nationalism on Kashmir almost for a year, gave it up to toe the Vajpayee line and gave green signal to talks with Pakistan. He even made a surprise visit to the neighboring country to tell to the world that India is ready to talk with Pakistan everything including Kashmir.

Now after going through the JNU episode what India wants to convey to the world could be interpreted as follows; that J&K is an integral part of India, the separatist in Kashmir are terrorists, they have to accept Indian sovereignty or get liquidated.

Extending the logic, it means that Pakistan has no claim over Jammu and Kashmir. The talks with Pakistan if held should talk about taking back occupied Kashmir, and a portion of which is in Chinese possession. If that is what our beloved Prime Minister had to mind to gate-crash into Pakistan, some really appreciate bravery to return safe.

The new position on Kashmir now being held by the current government after sending police to arrest the dissenting students at JNU slapping sedition charges throw out the positions so far held by India on Kashmir since 1948.

However, it raises the question where does the Indian hard-line nationalist policy on Kashmir will fall in line in the scheme of things of the League of Nations? Will the United Nations concur to Indias new position on Kashmir? The answer is very simple. India has to choose between International commitment and the nationalist position on Kashmir.

If India continues to foist its domestic hard-line Kashmir policy, then India has to leave its ambition of getting the Security Council seat. The fear is if the domestic nationalist policy on Kashmir is pressed hard India could be treated on par with ISIS by the international community. Thats the last thing any Indian can think about.

In such case pursing hard-line policy on Kashmir can tantamount to being an anti national activity. In such case sedition charges can be slapped on those who are the authors such new policy.

This raise the question what is the roadmaps to address this problem? Obviously the first map should be to hold negotiations with those having the sub nationalist aspiration and who hail Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru as their heroes. Some efforts have been made in this direction by the previous government and the committees report is gathering dust in the governments office.

The second map could be to negotiate with Pakistan and resolve the boundary question and make adjustments. The Modi government has made efforts in this direction as well by starting a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan.

If thats the road-map to tackle Kashmir problem, then where is the space for hard line Hindi Hindu Hindustan policy to look at Kashmir problem. This dichotomy has come out very clearly from the Modi governments decision to arrest some JNU students and slap sedition charges on them.

The modern day Chanakyas hypocrisy of speaking from two mouths stands exposed on the Kashmir question. The dichotomy between nationalist policy and international policy of on Kashmir clearly tells that a cheating business is going on this issue.

Who is cheating who is the question? On the one hand the government says to the international community that it is committed for negotiated settlement over Kashmir. In such case it is cheating the entire nation to whom it tells that Kashmir is an integral part of the Indian dominion. On the other hand the government is cheating the international community by not telling it its domestic policy on Kashmir. This act of hoodwinking is now becoming clearer with the JNJU episode.

India wants to keep reiterating its international commitments and at the same time wants the jingoist nationalism to go on. How long such thought process may continue to dominate the Kashmir agenda is something beyond comprehension. Even a lay observer can tell that how much this government is serious about talking Kashmir issue.

Anyone doing cost analysis of such dual policy can tell that such policy does not make any business sense. The make in India mindset of government of India does not work when it comes to dealing with Kashmir. The summery is country is booking loss in much access to the gains being supposedly made.

After getting a tight slap from the Bihar mandate, BJP led Modi government is engaged in committing a comedy of errors. In an attempt to placate its hard line Hindu constituency, he has made himself a fool sending police to arrest those supporting the Kashmiri separatist.

Actually while shooting from the hip the Prime Minister has put his foot in his mouth. He is caught up in his Hindi Hindu Hindustan identity and the challenges posed by multiculturalism and multi nationalism and how to live in international world order.

It would have been best of things to ignore those crackpots and considered it as a juvenile act but by going after them, the Prime Minister has demonstrated Indias domestic policy towards Kashmir.

Can Modi government deal in the same way as he did with the JNU students to those who revere Bhinderwala and hail him as martyr? Can Modi government deal in the same way to those who revere the killers of Indira Gandhi and hail them as martyrs? Can the Modi government deal the same way to those who revere LTTE supremo Prabhakran as their hero and hail him as martyr?

According to the home ministry open source, there are 36 sub nationalist groups that are openly resisting the Indian claim over them. Can the Modi government deal with them the same way as it dealt with the JNU students.

If the answer is no then why target those in JNU alone who have a difference of opinion? Maybe because, they are just students and they carry no political weight? By terrorizing the students of JNU, Modi government is setting an example on state terrorism. With the JNU episode he has made India loose the moral ground that its hold as being a victim of terrorism. It has given Pakistan another handle to internationalize the Kashmir issue.

This comedy of error may prove to be dearer Modi government than his holy cow variety of nationalism. The hard line approach on Kashmir is another setback to the six decade old problem.

Modi government by going after the dissenting JNU students is showing similar attitude that Indira Gandhi did declaring emergency. Indira Gandhi thought that by slapping emergency she can change India, Modi too thinks that by terrorizing the JNU students he may be able to stop them from thinking differently.

The din and clatter of the protest is now telling upon the Modi government. The protests against him on intolerance debate are making the writing on the wall to be read more clearly. A change of government at New Delhi is now getting over due. This could be a reality much before 2020.

Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He has earned his PhD from JNU. In the campus he belonged to the freethinkers group. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com




Dr. G.N Saibaba Denied Basic Medical Facilities In Jail

By Vasantha Kumari A S

21 February, 2016

Sanhati.com

Dear friends,

Dr.G. Ramadevudu, brother of Dr. G.N Saibaba met him in Nagpur Central Prison recently. He was witness to the shocking details of the torturous conditions within the prison in which Saibaba is struggling for his life. His brother was appalled by the denial of basic medical facilities despite Court Orders as well as a country wide outrage against the inhuman treatment that is being meted out to Saibaba in the Prison. If his treatments are not revived at an emergency basis and if he is forced to stay in the hostile prison conditions Saibabas growing ailments will become life threatening.

Ramdev observed that He looked very tired and weak. The jail authorities so far since 25th December 2015 did not provide him any medical treatment even though doctors at Delhi advised him to continue the present treatment to sustain the functioning of left shoulder nervous system. He is taking medicines which have been allowed into the Jail at the time of his surrender. The doctors of Jail hospital are also not responding. In the last 40 days or so, his BP was checked by them only thrice. The facilities which were extending to him previously at the Jail by the orders of the sessions court earlier were withdrawn. The authorities informed that he should get fresh similar orders again from the court. He wrote letters to Jail superintendent and Honorable Judge of Gadchiroli sessions court informing his difficulties. There is no response from the jail authorities. The court did not pass any orders pending reply from the public prosecutor.

The facilities which were extend to him previously at the Jail by the orders of the sessions court earlier were withdrawn. The authorities informed that he should get fresh similar orders again from the court. He wrote letters to Jail superintendent and Honourable Judge of Gadchiroli sessions court informing his difficulties. There is no response from the jail authorities. The court did not pass any orders pending reply from the public prosecutor. Since the medical treatment is stopped, the shooting pain of his left shoulder increased. Three muscles of the left shoulder, which responded to the treatment at Delhi are now stopped responding and going back to old condition. The improvement in the lateral movements of left hand due to the medical treatment is now coming to a stop due to lack of further medical management. The damage of nerves on the left hand shoulder worsen and may lead permanent impairment if the treatment is not continued. His right leg joint seems to be weakened. The Hip joint is regularly paining which is a new development. As a result he is unable sit even short time on the wheel chair. Gall bladder problem seems to be relapsed and hence unable to digest the food. It has become now again difficult to pass urine, which may be attributed to relapse of Kidney problems.

These observations by Dr. Ramdev are shocking and once again reveal the persistent torture that Saibaba is being subject to inside the prison. The medical condition of Saibaba is extremely serious and if his treatments are not revived as soon as possible, then his ailments will become life threatening. The gradual muscle atrophy in his left hand was being treated and gradually regenerated, while Saibaba was out on bail. If this treatment is not resumed once again then his muscles will be damaged beyond any recovery. Being 90% disabled and wheel chair bound, Saibaba is heavily dependent on his hands, one of which is being destroyed by the hostile prison conditions and the cruel prison authorities. We must collectively ensure that Saibaba is granted immediate bail on medical grounds, so that his treatments immediately resume.

To know more about G.N Saibaba case click here




Human Rights Defenders Under Police Attack In Chhattisgarh

By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

21 February, 2016

Countercurrents.org

 Soni Sori, local adivasi leader and the Aam Aadmi Party coordinator for Bastar Division, was attacked by three goons on her way home on the 20th of February in Geedam at 11 pm. Soni Sori has communicated that the attackers threw a chemical substance on her face and threatened her saying "stop complaining against the IG, stop raising the issue of Mardum. If you don't behave yourself, we will do this to your daughter as well." She was also warned against attempting to file an FIR against the IG of police again.

 The attack on Soni Sori is part of a larger campaign of State violence in Bastar; Under the guise of anti-Naxal operations, the security forces are indulging in rape and plunder. Teams of women activists have documented three cases of mass sexual violence in the past three months, where security forces have entered villages in Sukma and Bijapur- stripping women, conducting gangrapes, looting their food supplies, and destroying their homes and granaries. The number of "encounters" is increasing, people are "disappearing" from villages, only to show up in the list of "surrendered" or "arrested" Naxalites several days later as press clippings and testimonies recount. The local police and administration are talking in one voice of "clearing" the area within one year.

Most recently, Soni attempted to file an FIR against the IG (Bastar) SRP Kalluri for instigating people to boycott and physically harm her. She had also raised the incident of the fake encounter of Hidme in the Mardum thana in Bastar District. Soni had organised a press conference in Raipur with the villagers and was trying to file a FIR regarding the case. While the police claim that Hidma was a high-ranking Naxalite ("1 lakh ka inami naxali") killed after a fierce encounter in the jungles, the villagers claim that Hidma was an ordinary villager, picked up by the police at night from his house. His wife and elder daughter are eyewitnesses and the wife recalls the name of the police officer who had come to the house.

Soni has been working with fellow adivasis in responding to human rights violations by state athourities in the form of random arrests and unlawful detention, fake encounters, assaults on women etc. But peoples rallies and meetings have been stopped, villagers have not been allowed to register complaints and regular threats have been made against Soni Sori. In a recent incident, the Nagar Panchayat of Geedam reached Soni's house and questioned her with regard to the title of her house and indirectly threatened to break it down as an encroachment. About ten days earlier, parchas were thrown into her house calling her a randi and a Maoist. She has been warned against entering Bijapur, where a spate of sexual violence by security forces has taken place.

The attack and threats on Soni have taken place along with the hounding of other women journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders in Chhattisgarh. These inlude,

- Malini Subramanium, an independent journalist, reporting on issues in Chhattisgarh including the closing down of schools, women and children, brutal violence by security forces against the adivasis, fake encounters and surrenders in the Bastar. The domestic worker in Malinis house was called and kept in the police station till late at night to terrorize her into implicating the journalist of being Naxalite. Her landlord was similarly threatened by the police into asking her to vacate the house. Malini, fearing for the safety of those who have always stood by her, left Jagdalpur on 19thFebruary. - The Jagdalpur Legal Aid group (Jaglag), currently consisting of lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal were also hounded out of Jagdalpur on the 20th night, an hour before Soni Sori was attacked. Their landlord was picked up and detained in the police station and under threat asked them to vacate their house and office. Jaglag has been providing legal aid to adivasi prisoners under trial in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh since 2013. For the past year and a half, both lawyers were being hounded by the local police. They have been faced with thinly veiled threats at press conferences insinuating that the police are closely monitoring NGOs providing "legal aid to Naxalites". Their clients have been informed that the police are about to arrest them for Naxalite activities. Visiting journalists and researchers have been told that they are a "Naxalite front. The local Bar Association, clearly prompted by the police, took out a resolution on October 3rd 2015 prohibiting them from practicing in the local courts. On their complaint, the State Bar Council of Chhattisgarh passed an interim order allowing them to practice again. - Bela Bhatia, an independent researcher, living in Bastar has similarly been working with Soni Sori and Jaglag on documenting and filing cases of human rights violations and peoples livelihoods. She has also been collecting information on the systematic use of violence by armed personnel and security forces. Bela Bhatia has also been threatened and her landlord is being found for questioning. Ex-Salwa Judum members, under the banner of Samajik Ekta Manch and groups such as the Naxal Pedit Sangharsh Samiti have threatened her along with Jaglag and Soni Sori.

The series of events are clearly manipulated by the IG (Bastar) SRP Kalluri, who in 2006, as the Sarguja SP, was accused of raping a tribal woman and ordering his juniors to continue doing so for ten days. Kalluri was posted out of Bastar after 300 homes in Tadmetla and neighbouring villagers were burnt, people killed, and women raped by security forces in 2011.

We call attention to the fact that the hounding of the women human rights defenders is related to their work and the questions they have raised in regards to state repression and violence against the tribals in Chhattisgarh. This is an attempt to ensure that the state of affairs in Chhattisgarh remain hidden from the wider public.

Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) is a non funded network of womens rights, dalit rights, human rights and civil liberties organizations and individuals across India

For more information contact - ShivaniTaneja (9425600382); Bittu (8179542651)






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Mark Twain said it best.

"Human beings can be awful cruel to one another," he wrote in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

I'm thinking of that Twain quote as Indiana Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, Melissa Bickel and I talk about the rights of transgender Hoosiers.

Clere authored a bill  "now dead," he says  that would have protected the rights of intersex children in Indiana. He introduced the measure, he says, to try to elevate the debate over the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens "above the level of the potty police"  a reference to efforts by other legislators and social conservative activists to focus the discussion on access to and use of restrooms.

Bickel is the mother of a transgender teenager. She talks about how her daughter had to leave a drawing for Bickel and her husband depicting her discomfort with not being fully who she really was  a female. She describes the journey of discovery her daughter and their family have made.

Bickel's story, in the ways that matter, is a typical one. It's story about a mother who loves her daughter and wants her to be happy. It's a story about parents who love their children.

In this legislative session, a measure to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's civil rights laws died. Before the bill gasped its last in the Indiana Senate, conservative activists and legislators had waged a determined campaign to isolate transgender Hoosiers for special condemnation.

There were videos suggesting that men transitioning to being women would lurk in the state's restrooms ready to pounce on our daughters, our sisters, our granddaughters and our wives. Transgender Hoosiers were depicted as little more than sexual predators.

It was fearmongering at its most shameful.

I ask Clere and Bickel why transgender people seem to be singled out for so much animosity  why some people are so frightened of them.

Clere says we need to take a look at the message behind the scare tactics. He says the people who are pushing the fear aren't worried about women transitioning to men going into men's restrooms. Their focus is on men transitioning to becoming women.

There is, Clere says, "misogyny at work here."

Bickel's comments are just as thoughtful.

She says that too much of this debate has been about "what's in our pants."

"Gender," she says, "is in the mind."

Gender, she continues, is less about physical characteristics than it is about how one sees one's self. It's part of the process of figuring out how a person fits in the world.

As Bickel talks, my heart aches for her daughter and for all the other young people on this earth for whom gender identity is not an immediately resolved question.

One of the reasons adolescence  and adolescents  can be so difficult is that is the time in life when young people begin the work of finding and defining themselves. Teenagers' bodies become strangers to them as each day seems to bring about a growth spurt, a change in voice or some other awkward physical development.

In addition, most thinking adolescents find themselves preoccupied with fundamental questions.

Who am I?

Who do I want to be?

What role or roles should I play in life?

Where do I belong?

Most of us get to go through this process of discovery and self-discovery, as uncomfortable and sometimes painful as it can be, without having others point fingers at us. We can grow into our mature selves without being told that everyone should be afraid when we have to go to the restroom.

A grim-lipped group of conservative political activists decided this year to demonize some of our citizens, our fellow human beings. They wanted to isolate them from the herd of humanity.

They did it, they said, in the name of religious liberty. They did it, they said, to honor God.

Mark Twain had it right.

Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.

John Krull is director of Franklin College's Pulliam School of Journalism, host of "No Limits," WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
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By Kelly Gifford of the Courier and Press

University of Evansville Concerts: The UE choir and wind ensembles will perform at a "send-off" concert before they embark for competitive conferences in Chicago and Ames, Iowa.

The send-off concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Neu Chapel will showcase each group's program for their respective conferences, where they will perform alongside other collegiate groups from across the country.

The ensembles will then head out the next day to each of their events. The choir was selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Central Division Conference in Chicago. The wind ensemble was invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association North Central Conference in Ames, Iowa.

Professor Lecture: A professor from University of Notre Dame will give the annual Thomas Lecture on Philosophy and Theology at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.

Dr. Robin Jensen, the Patrick O'Brien Professor of Theology, will be giving a lecture called "The Cross as the Tree of Life: Images and Texts from Christian Tradition" at 7 p.m. March 8 in St. Bede Theater. In her talk, Jensen will explore the links between the Cross and the Tree of Life in Paradise. She will dive into how the Cross played a role in restoring life to all humanity and like its counterpart, the Tree of Knowledge, participated in Adam and Eve's fall and the consequent deaths of their descendants.

Jensen's lecture will also explore the relationship between the imagery of the Cross and Tree of Life and their connections to redemption and creation. Her lecture is free and open to the public.

First Friday Artists: The Arts council of Southwestern Indiana is accepting registration for artists to participate in the 2016 Haynie's Corner Arts District First Fridays series.

The second annual series runs the first Friday of the month from April to September and features artists, musicians and other performers in the restaurants, businesses and parks in the Downtown cultural district. Each event runs from 6-9 p.m. and will be free and open to the public.

There will be a fee for artist participation and no commission on art sales. Registration information can be found at artswin.org and all dates will be finalized before April 1.

Oscar Viewing Party: Bokeh Lounge will host an Academy Awards viewing party starting at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 at the bar. It's $10 to get in the door and there will be food provided by several Haynie's Corner businesses, a cash bar and prizes for the best dressed. Proceeds from door sales benefit the Alhambra Theatre Film Festival.

Listen to Your Mother: Auditions for Evansville's second annual Listen To Your Mother event will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the McCollough Branch Library Meeting Room and 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Central Library Conference Room. Listen to Your Mother is a live event where women and men from around the community share stories and essays about motherhood. Interested parties should prepare a five minute essay to read for the panel. Email ltymeville@gmail.com to schedule an audition and the event raises money for 4C Play and Learn.
By Zach Evans of the Courier and Press

An ordinance strengthening anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people that the City Council is considering Monday has led to lawsuits in other Indiana cities.

The Indiana Family Institute, Indiana Family Action and The American Family Association of Indiana recently sued the cities of Indianapolis, Carmel, Columbus and Bloomington.

The lawsuit alleges those cities' human rights ordinances violates the nonprofits' constitutional religious liberties and equal protection under the law.

Evansville City Council attorney Josh Claybourn said the city's ordinance is "substantially" similar to those cities'.

"The question isn't whether somebody could sue. The question is would they be successful," Claybourn said.

A person or organization can sue the city any time for any thing, he said.

"I just don't think he (the attorney representing the case) will be successful," he said

While the city included sexual orientation and gender identity in its human rights code more than four years ago, a provision made the discrimination claims for those groups unenforceable.

On Monday, the City Council will consider an ordinance that would give the Human Relations Commission more power in enforcing anti-discrimination policies for the LGBT community.

When called by the Courier & Press, city attorney Ted Ziemer said he was not aware of any legal complaints against other Indiana cities for similar ordinances.

If the city is sued, it wouldn't be Claybourn, or the Jackson Kelly Law Firm he works for, representing the City Council  it would be Ziemer and his firm representing the city administration.

It's not clear to Claybourn why the organizations are targeting those four cities in Indiana, when there are at least nine other cities with similar protections not named in the lawsuit.

The groups' first lawsuit was filed against Indianapolis and Carmel in December. In January, the group extended the lawsuit to the cities of Bloomington and Columbus.

A message left by the Courier & Press for Jim Bopp Jr., the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, was not returned.

The City Council has amended its LGBT ordinance since it was filed earlier this month to offer stronger protections to religious groups from being targeted for discriminatory practices.

The amendment would give the Human Relations Commission no authority over churches, religious nonprofits and other religious organizations.

That amendment wouldn't include the Indiana Family Institute or the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Indianapolis. While it's a nonprofit, it isn't formally affiliated with a religious organization.

The City Council will consider the ordinance at its meeting Monday night. Also on the agenda is a vote to approve a $16.75 million plan to revamp North Main Street, as well as an update to the Downtown convention hotel by the developers.
Photo by JESSIE HIGGINS Pastor Todd Robertson speaks about the life of Jacob C. Thompson, one of Evansvilles first black police officers, at a graveside service to honor Thompsons legacy Saturday.

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By Jessie Higgins of the Courier and Press

Several dozen police officers and city leaders gathered Saturday to honor someone they consider an extraordinary local man.

Though dead more than a century, they say much can still be learned from the short life of Jacob C. Thompson Jr.  one of Evansville's first black police officers.

"I doubt when they buried him here in 1878 they never would have dreamed anyone would be out here to honor him in 2016," said Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin, standing beside Thompson's Oak Hill Cemetery grave.

Thompson was born into slavery in Boyd County, Kentucky, in 1852. He lived as a slave until his family moved to Evansville when he was 15. Over the next decade, Thompson distinguished himself academically and professionally here. He was one of the first two black men allowed to study at The State Normal School in Terre Haute, now Indiana State University. He then taught grade school for two years before he was appointed to serve as a city police officer.

"He had to be appointed by white people to be a police officer," said Pastor Todd Robertson, of Evansville's Liberty Baptist Church  the same church Thompson and his family attended 150 years ago. "That was during a time when it wasn't thought great to do good things for people of 'their kind.' That tells me his character outshined those that would demean him by the color of his skin."

Thompson died of tuberculosis at age 25. Newspaper reports at the time followed his illness with distress. At the time, it was a strange show of community support for a black man, Robertson said.

"It shows me he lived his life so people recognized him for his character, not the color of his skin," Robertson said.

According to the news reports, Thompson was sick for several months, though he continued to perform his duties as a police officer until the last two weeks of his life.

"He has been quite anxious to return to his duties," a Jan. 28, 1878, newspaper article in Evansville The Journal stated. "And the appointment of a substitute Saturday excited him greatly with fears that he would lose his place."

Many in the Evansville community gathered for Thompson's funeral  the entire police force marched him to his Oak Hill Cemetery grave, where Thompson was buried in his police uniform.

"Mr. Thompson was a man of fine character,"said the Journal's 1878 report. "And a credit and ornament to his race  a living testimonial to the possibilities that lie before them, in spite of prejudice and sophistry."

Similar sentiments were echoed at Saturday's graveside service.

"All the things we're talking about, by age 25 he was able to accomplish," Bolin said. "And he was born a slave. I think this is a teaching moment for kids. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. You can accomplish anything you want."

The graveside service was hosted by the Evansville Police Department, The Evansville African-American Museum, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 73, and Evansville Police Department Foundation.
Photos by JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Kindra Lockridge, 8, of Evansville gets some assistance from Cleaves Clothes Closet volunteer Roberta Brewer as she looks for clothes at the clothing bank located at 311 E. Mulberry St., in Evansville Saturday. The free clothing bank opens to the public on the third Saturday of each month.

SHARE Mens and womens coats, pants, shirts, shoes and more can be found at Cleaves Clothes Closet located at 311 E. Mulberry St., in Evansville. Mens and womens coats, pants, shirts, shoes and more can be found at Cleaves Clothes Closet located at 311 E. Mulberry St., in Evansville Saturday. The free clothing bank opens to the public on the third Saturday of each month. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Rev. Louise Buckner checks her phone while working at Cleaves Clothes Closet located at 311 E. Mulberry St., in Evansville Saturday. The free clothing bank is open to the public on the third Saturday of each month.

By Bobby Shipman

Rev. Louisa Buckner couldn't sleep one night because she had a message weighing heavy on her heart.

She said the Lord wanted her to open a clothing bank. A message she at first dismissed.

At church, her pastor asked the congregation if anyone had something on their mind.

Buckner told the pastor about her mission, after which she received one room at church to start her new charity. Now, Cleaves Clothes Closet fills an entire house every third Saturday of the month to the brim with pants, jackets, shoes and jewelry -- for free.

Buckner, a co-ministry director at Cleaves Memorial C.M.E. Church in Evansville, started the clothing bank with sisters Rena Boone and Stacia Thomas.

Rena Boone said the closet has made a huge impact on the community since its inception.

"We don't ask questions, but if there is a need, we are able to provide clothing to anybody that's in need," Boone said.

When they first opened, Boone said many people were surprised it was free.

"We have a lot of people that come through here, and usually we have a lot of people that come in last minute," she said. "This wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for donations. "

Rev. Buckner said they receive donations from all over including Tennessee and Kentucky.

Everything at Cleaves is free, but they don't just let people come in and swarm the place. Instead, as shoppers arrive, they are given a card and sent to the church, where they can get free food and listen to a Bible study. As one group of people goes through the closet, a volunteer will buzz in the next batch waiting at the church.

Buckner said they work ahead of time to sort through the many donations they receive to size out clothes and toss out anything wet, dirty or damaged.

"The people in Evansville have been tremendous with giving their best clothing, instead of giving us junk. That's why people keep flocking over here," she said.

Although the closet has only open one day a month for more than a year, Buckner said they also try to get clothes to people in other ways.

Buckner said once a woman from a nearby shelter came to them in need. All of her clothes had been stollen; all she owned she was wearing.

"We gave her as much as we could find in her sizes," she said. "We got her eight outfits. Everything that we could find that we thought she need, we got it to her."

They also stay in touch with the Sheriff's Office to provide clothing for larger women, and also offer resources to the American Red Cross.

Buckner said they also do appointments for people who they have found are in need of clothing by word of mouth.

"People who have job interviews, they can come over here, they don't have to wait for the Saturday that we're open," she said.

Currently, they are in need of baby clothing and accessories.

Debra Carson left the closet with two new shirts, a pair of pants and a church dress Saturday.

She had never been before, but said she recently gained weight and no longer had any clothes that fit.

Carson said she is diabetic, asthmatic and has a heart disease and has to live off Social Security because her disability keeps her from working. She said the security check gives her just enough to keep a roof over her head.

"Some people can't afford (clothes). We can't go to the mall and shop, so If I can get it for free I am going to take what I can get," she said. "(The closet) is just a blessing."
What's going on with the real estate market in Evansville?

How did Vanderburgh County's housing market do in July? The median price for a house in 2022 was lower than 2021.
The Heritage Classroom recreates the 1920s era school room in the Lyles Station Historical School and Museum just west of Princeton, Indiana

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By Jennifer Loesch

Gibson County's Lyles Station Historic School and Museum is offering another way to educate the public about the history of African Americans.

Museum spokesman Stanley Madison said the museum and television station WEHT-WTVW are working together to present two showings of the documentary "America's Untold Story - 450 years of the African American Experience."

The documentary will be shown at the Lyles Station Historic School, located outside of Princeton, Ind.

"It's an eye opener," Madison said. "It takes you down to the Spanish in Florida and that's kind of where we pinpoint the first African American settlement back in the early 1600s."

The documentary discusses the history of after African Americans over the past 450 years in the US, Madison said. The film begins in St. Augustine, Fla., and moves north.

Madison said he learned some things by watching the documentary, which does not mention Lyles Station.

"I didn't realize that we were able to establish a fort and also a farming settlement that early in time because there was such a large turnover - so much traffic coming in and out of the country," Madison said. "I was very surprised that the African Americans could separate themselves and stand on their own with their own fort and be able to start with the farming part of it."

The documentary will be shown Feb. 22 and 28 at the museum. Rev. James Wilkerson will present a program, "The Role of the Church in the Community," after the Feb. 28 showing.

"That gives everybody a chance to get out there and see what we're all about you might say," Madison said. "(It) Kind of gives an understand how the Smithsonian looked at Lyles Station as a figure for African-American farmers."

Curators at the Smithsonian selected Lyles Station to represent African-American farming prior to 1860 in the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Freed African-Americans settled Lyles Station in the early 1800s. The first settlers farmed the area and their descendants are still use the land for agricultural purposes.

Charter buses from the area will travel to Washington D.C. for the exhibits ribbon cutting in late September.

Madison said schools can contact the Lyles Station Historic School and Museum to schedule showings for students.

If you go:

Where: Lyles Station Historic School & Museum, 953 N. County Road 500 W., Princeton, Ind.

When: 6:30 pm.., Feb. 22; 2 p.m. Feb. 28

Cost: Free

Contact: (812) 385-2534
By Staff Report

UPDATE:

Brian Paquette is lodged in Pike County jail following his release from the hospital.

EARLIER:

The man accused of causing a wrong-way crash on Interstate 69 in Pike County February 12 night now faces several formal charges stemming from the triple-fatal collision.

Investigators believe Brian L. Paquette, 48, of Newport News, Virginia, was under under the influence of meth when he was driving the wrong way on I-69 Friday night, according to charging documents filed in the case by the Pike County Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutor Darrin McDonald brought 12 felony charges against Paquette February 16.

Three people who were in two different vehicles struck by Paquette's wrong-way 1995 Chevrolet Tahoe died from their injuries, incluing Autumn Kapperman, a 21-year-old pregnant Boonville woman.

One of the charges against Paquette is for involuntary manslaughter causing the death of a fetus. The other 11 counts against him are: three counts each of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, resisting law enforcement causing death, and reckless homicide, as well as one count of both operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and causing a serious injury and possession of methamphetamine.

Kapperman was a passenger in the first vehicle Paquette reportedly struck: a 2014 Ford Focus driven by Kapperman's high school friend, Stephanie Molinet, 22. An Elberfeld resident, Molinet died a few hours after the crash.

The other fatality was the driver of a 2011 GMC Terrain that struck Paquette's Tahoe after it had collided with the Focus. That person was identified as Jason Lowe, 44, of Fishers, Indiana. A passenger in that vehicle, Samantha Lowe, 46, was also injured in the crash. Both Kapperman and Jason Lowe were pronounced dead at the scene.

Paquette was taken to Deaconess Hospital for treatment of what investigators have said are nonlife threatening injuries.

Less than 15 minutes before the crash, a passing motorist informed a state trooper who was parked on the side of the interstate about a wrong-way driver going north in the southbound lanes. The trooper located Paquette's vehicle and attempted to get his attention less than mile from the crash, according to police. However, when Paquette noticed the trooper, he crossed the median and made a U-turn to go south in the northbound lane. The trooper was unable to get Paquette's attention before the crash.

The collision happened near the 49 mile-marker, which is just north of the Petersburg exit.
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I always wanted to be a reclusive genius.

Write one great novel and live off it. Preserve the greatest version of myself forever. Never risk the sullying of reputation that comes with unavoidable failure.

I'd move to the base of the mountains in Montana. Spend my days collecting royalty checks from movie adaptations and drinking whiskey on a sloping front porch.

When fans would sneak onto my property to rifle through my trash, or when journalists clutching tape recorders would knock on my screen door, I'd just smile and retreat into the darkness of my house, always knowing something they never could.

But that can never happen for me. I'm a moron with a nagging need for attention. Aside from the Montana thing, my daydream's not even original. I stole it from Harper Lee.

As you know by now, the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" died on Friday. She released her masterpiece in 1960 and gave her final interview in 1964. Instead of wallowing in literary celebrity and releasing a diminishing book every few years, she mostly stayed in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Saw friends. Dropped by the local high school.

She did go out occasionally  to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Most Americans with the ability to read have read "Mockingbird." We know what it's about. Atticus Finch, Boo Radley and Scout. Racial injustice. The attempt to cling to childhood even as the world swoops in to steal it.

I first read it in eighth grade  a minor miracle since, even though I loved books, I hated anything I was told to read. I preferred to ignore "Of Mice and Men" in favor of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

This time I ignored my howling hatred of authority. How could I not?

"Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed."

In a class during my senior year of college, a professor asked us what we considered The Great American Novel. Since we were all drunk-on-ourselves English majors, we offered choices that said more about our unimpeachable tastes than about the universal trials of America. Nobody wanted to mention the book narrated by a kid.

Finally, a classmate uttered the obvious.

"How about 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?"

Everybody just nodded. Well yeah. Of course "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I met a girl named Rachel who told me it was her favorite book. Now we have two kids.

The only thing we disagree about is how it should be read. Rachel says it should remain a simple but powerful story about family, justice and the importance of holding onto beauty. I want to dissect it. You know Boo is just a stand-in for Lee, right? They stay inside because they want to stay inside.

Lee found the spotlight again when a "Mockingbird" sequel, "Go Set a Watchman," was released under shady circumstances last year. But her only other clear-cut contribution to literature came in 1966, with Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." She served as his research assistant, interviewing residents of Holcomb, Kansas, in the nerve-jarring aftermath of the Clutter family's slaughter.

Two books. One about societal racism, the other about criminals who murder children before wind-chiming from ropes outside a maximum security prison.

"Nothin's real scary except in books," Scout says.

But of course it's scary everywhere, inside and out. Maybe Lee denied us piles of books out of fear of that unavoidable failure. Or maybe she just knew she'd given us the best she could give.

Preserve herself, as in a famous photo taken in Monroeville. She sits on the porch smoking a cigarette, looking off at something we can't see.
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We were going to lable this NSFW until we realized it wasn't an actual penis.

While sitting on the bench as a juvenile court judge in Luzerne County, PA, Ciavarella personally sent thousands of children to a local detention center. One 10-year-old girl was sentenced to one degrading, horrifying month in the center for accidentally setting her house on fire while playing with a lighter, even though the landlord didn't want to press charges. An 11-year-old got nearly two years for taking out his mother's car and driving it over a curb (she only reported it because of the insurance), and a 14-year-old got three months for making fun of a teacher on MySpace. Most of these kids didn't have lawyers, and their hearings often lasted less than two minutes.

Via ABC News

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"They said 'MySpace' and I was like, 'Ugh, guilty.'"

Judge Ciavarella always claimed he was doing this for the good of the kids, but it turns out that "kids" was just a code word for the condo in Florida that he bought thanks to those sentences. You see, Ciavarella had a special arrangement with the owners of the private detention center he sent all these kids to: For each kid that ended up there, he would receive a generous kickback from the facility, which in time would accrue to upwards of a million dollars.

This went on for years. At some point he had to look at himself in the mirror and wonder if life was just an '80s movie, and he was the main villain.
Texas Correctional Officers can make as little as $22,581 per year, so you can see why the opportunity to smuggle in a fancy iPhone for five grand would be tempting. One California prison guard made over $150,000 smuggling cell phones in a single year. And while there are some distinctly oddball methods -- like sewing phones into the stomach of a dead cat and tossing it over the fence -- the consequences of phone-armed prisoners are less Hogan's Heroes and more The Wire: "... cell phones are pretty serious because you can call a hit. The cartels ... they are seriously involved with the different gangs."

Andrew Hetherington/Wired

That, and three life sentences leaves plenty opportunity to up your high score on Fruit Ninja.

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Cell phones are actually one of the deadliest things in any prison. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation traced a rise in inmate deaths across the entire state to the use of cell phones by gang members in prison. Cell phones allow gang leaders to stay in contact with their people on the outside, meaning they can credibly threaten the families of officers and other inmates. In 2008, a death row inmate used his cellphone to call and threaten a Texas senator. Guards try to confiscate phones whenever possible -- which, as our source noted, can be dangerous: "I've seen officers get assaulted over cell phones."
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D.H. Lawrence in Studies in Classic American Literature.

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
3D printing has become one of the most hyped technologies of the past decade, thanks in part to far-reaching stories of printing everything from houses to human organs.

While those technologies might one day become mainstream, the current market for simple desktop 3D devices making solid objects from plastic filaments has grown quickly, thanks to an influx of product and falling prices. These devices range in price from a few hundred dollars (such as the $499 printer launched by Aldi this week) for a basic unit up to several thousand dollars for more sophisticated devices. From there, prices ascend to tens of thousands of dollars for devices capable of printing high-quality objects in metals.

Deloitte has estimated that nearly 220,000 3D printers were sold in 2015 globally  double the number for 2014  with a market value of US$1.6 billion. Do these numbers represent an opportunity for the Australian IT channel? Numerous vendors hope so, including Konica Minolta, which has opened its 3D printing practice up to its partner community, while newer players such as Me3D and MakerBot are also looking for reseller partners.

The Australian 3D printing channel expanded in earnest back in February 2014 when Officeworks began selling the 3D Cube Printer. Officeworks has since increased its range of 3D hardware and consumables for personal or business use, including selling a combined 3D printer and scanner. The company also offers a 3D printing service and has opened a 3D Experience Centre on Russell Street in Melbourne, where people can have themselves scanned and printed in 3D in Mini Me format.

We have had a lot of interest in 3D printing hardware over the past six months as people have wanted to get a taste of the new technology, says Officeworks head of technology Toby Watson. There has been particular curiosity from people purchasing 3D printers for their home.

Most customers are buying these printers for their personal creative projects, whether it be their chess set, custom tool-bit holders, prototypes, toys, phone cases, bracelets or even Christmas decorations  and they can range from engineers to cake people designing figurines.

Watson says he has also seen increasing interest in professional uses. In particular, we see lots of potential for councils, real estate agents, designers, architects, engineers, educational institutns and manufacturing.

But any reseller expecting an easy transition from selling traditional printers and multifunction devices may be in for a shock, according to Joe Farr, general manager of one of Australias oldest 3D printing specialists, Melbourne-based Thinglab.

[3D printing] is often compared to 2D printing, but it is very different, Farr says. You are building a 3D model. They used to call it rapid manufacturing or additive manufacturing, and that is probably a more suitable way of looking at it, rather than as printing. There is a lot of background knowledge still in the design part of things, so it doesnt have issues when it comes to print.

One of the most active champions of 3D printing in the IT channel is Melbourne value-added distributor Alloys, which has signed on as the exclusive Australian distributor for the popular MakerBot 3D printers. Chief executive officer Paul Harman says the strategy has been driven in part by Alloys existing partner community, which services the traditional computer-aided design (CAD) market and has been seeking,  when somebody moves from the customer to the supplier side  support with 3D printing.

The only thing it has in common with a traditional printer is the word printer in the title, Harman says. What we are trying to do is make the technology available in a consistent way to a broader range of partners. We are trying to demystify the technology and, by and large, we have been able to do that in 2015.

Harman says the greatest interest has come from companies wanting it for the rapid prototyping, such as creating moulds or prototypes for manufacturing work, and from the education sector.

While 2D printers are often sold at a discounted price to drive the sale of consumables, Harman says the economics of 3D printing are very different. The filament market is not a revenue stream for the print manufacturers, so the price of the box does matter. What we tend to find is the cheaper the box, the harder it is to manage and to live with, so your costs come in frustration and annoyance and downtime.

Hence he cautions there is much more to 3D printing than simply installing the device and walking away. That means understanding of how to use software tools to get the most out of the device, and to ensure they are correctly configured for the desired results.

But Thinglabs Farr says some of the hype might be fading as the realities of owning and running a 3D printer sink in. We are on the downward slope of the hype curve at the moment, he says..

But what is still there is small and large business looking to implement the technology or expand their capacity.

Next: 3D printing milestones in the Australian channel
Award-winning reseller LeetGeek has rebranded as Blackbird, saying the new name better represents the work the company does in the enterprise sector.

Ben Corbett, a director at the Adelaide-based reseller, said: We felt like [the former name] didnt reflect the sophisticated nature of the work were doing.

Ninety-nine percent of our work is referral-based and we were often being miscategorised in terms of our capabilities.

What were passionate about isnt necessarily technology or specific solutions. What we love is outcomes. Its seeing improvements in efficiency, seeing kids engaged in schools or staff that are able to be passionate about education," said Corbett.

The name Blackbird symbolises soaring high, reflecting the idea of realising the companys potential. Corbett hopes the name change will also change the perception that prospective customers have about the company.

This whole change has been coming for a while and its been a hell of a ride, but its worth it, said Corbett.

LeetGeek was founded in 2007 originally as a clothing side project while founder Richard Stafford worked as an IT manager. When Stafford branched out as a sole trader in IT, he repurposed the LeetGeek brand for the new company.

The company now has 25 staff in its Adelaide office and caters for corporate, education and government clients.

LeetGeek won the CRN Fast50 in 2012, growing 299.33 percent with revenues of $3.4 million. The company also appeared in the CRN Fast50 in 2013 and 2014.
IBM's push to infuse intelligence into its products through cognitive platforms will be reflected in a major revamp of its channel program.

The reworking of the technology giant's PartnerWorld channel program shifts the focus from products to solutions while simplifying the overall structure, Marc Dupaquier, general manager of IBM Global Business Partners, told attendees of its PartnerWorld Leadership Conference in Orlando, USA on Tuesday morning US time.

The changes were spurred by IBM's transformation to cognitive computing and cloud, technologies that require partners to build on top of the IBM platform by integrating deep industry expertise and adding value to the solutions they deliver customers.

For two years, IBM has been talking about its transformation, the market shift, and the need for its partners to "change a lot of things - basically everything", Dupaquier told partners gathered from 82 countries.

The focus on cloud and cognitive computing "forced us to completely rethink how we are helping partners", Dupaquier said.

Partners were following a certification path aligned to products, and that had to change. The value partners add doesn't come from product mastery.

"We realised while the product knowledge was absolutely necessary," Dupaquier said, "the essential thing was everything you build on top"

Dupaquier said that while some partners in attendance haven't seen business growth while they worked to transform their businesses in line with IBM's larger vision, "they're still here, so they believe in IBM".

Now is the time for them to reap the rewards of all the work they've done, he added.

"We have transformed. We made being a business partner simpler," Dupaquier said. "I believe the market is coming our way."

The new IBM PartnerWorld program will go into effect in January 2017, introducing all new tiers, as well as skills, competencies, benefits and digital assets.

While partners have 11 months to gain new competencies, many of the credits they've already earned will apply to the new structure.

Dupaquier shared with CRN USA the details of the channel restructuring, which converts IBM's current three-tiered system  Member, Advanced and Premier  to one with four tiers to add granularity.

The new structure will have an entry-level tier called Registered. It's for partners with no real skills or engagements, and once they earn US$25,000 in revenue and gain a competency, they advance to Silver.

Partners in the Member tier will automatically transition to Registered. Those in Advanced will go to Silver, and Premier will shift to Gold. All partners will have to earn new certifications to make it all the way up the ladder to Platinum, including a certification in client satisfaction.

After six months, until June 2017, they'll be evaluated to see if they have done enough to remain in the tiers in which they first landed, he said.

Beyond the new tier structure, IBM will introduce 44 different competencies.

That's not a magic number, Dupaquier said, and it eventually could change. Any competency that doesn't have many partners certified after a year will likely be removed, while new ones might be added.

Competencies, as opposed to products, are solution-based, he told CRN USA.

In the past, "you could be best in one product", Dupaquier told CRN USA, but the solution is broader than any one product.

IBM is still developing a system of benefits to reward partners as they advance up the tiers. Those will vary by country, and they will not be linked to earnings.

The benefits will help partners further differentiate themselves and continue to advance through the tiers. They'll include vouchers for additional classes and competencies, helping solution providers see more staff members earn certifications.

For a Silver partner, benefits will include a digital marketing assessment; at Gold, it will be assistance implementing the digital experience. And Platinum partners will have access to a "lab advocate"  essentially a direct connection to senior IBM engineers.

IBM has also "completely, completely redefined our curriculum" for PartnerWorld University, an online portal in which partners can develop sales and technical skills, Dupaquier said.

This article originally appeared at crn.com
A court order demanding that Apple help the US government unlock the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters opens a new chapter in the legal, political and technological fight pitting law enforcement against civil liberties advocates and major tech companies.

The government argues that the phone is a crucial piece of evidence in investigating one of the worst attacks in the United States by people who sympathised with Islamist militants. But privacy groups warn that forcing companies to crack their own encryption endangers the technical integrity of the Internet and threatens not just the privacy of customers but potentially citizens of any country.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday US time ordered Apple to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators seeking to read the data on an iPhone 5C that had been used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others on 2 December in San Bernardino, California.

Both were killed in a shootout with police. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the couple's potential communications with Islamic State and other militant groups, and argued that it needs access to the iPhone to find out more.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Department of Justice was asking Apple for access to just one device, a central part of the government's argument, which Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook has said was "simply not true".

Representatives of several other tech companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.

"They are not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to one of their products," Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing.

In a letter to customers, Cook wrote: "The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control."

Most technology security experts, including many who have served in government, say technical efforts to provide government access to encrypted devices inevitably brings in law enforcement. The argument has been made on-and-off since the 1990s, when the government tried and failed to force tech companies to incorporate a special chip into their products for surveillance purposes.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone," Cook said in a statement on Tuesday. "But thats simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices."

If the federal judge, Magistrate Sheri Pym, rejects Apple's arguments, the vendor can appeal her order to the district court, and then up the chain to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and ultimately the US Supreme Court.

The 9th Circuit is known to be pro-privacy. "The government ultimately will have an uphill fight, said Robert Cattanach, a former Justice Department lawyer who advises companies on cyber security issues.

Farook was assigned the phone by the county health department he worked for, prosecutors said in a court filing on Tuesday US time. The health department had "given its consent" to authorities to search the device and to Apple to assist investigators in that search, the document said.

Next: Apple's 'master key'
Australian cloud distributor Rhipe has posted its highest ever half-year revenue, raking in $69.5 million.

Revenue was up by 44 percent for the half-year ending 31 December  or $21 million  from the same period last year.

Underlying EBITDA excluding growth was up by 17 percent to $3.2 million. Gross margins were also up by 65 percent from last year to $12.9 million.

Rhipe put the strong results down to a handful of new products around Microsoft, as well as investments in south-east Asian markets.

The Microsoft distributor launched its Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program in June, joining the likes of Westcon, Ingram Micro and Distribution Central with its own marketplace.

Since launching Microsoft CSP, Rhipe has added 482 customers to the program, 163 of which were completely new Rhipe customers.

Rhipe recently added public cloud services from Azure to its product lineup, which includes to Office 365, Windows InTune and Enterprise Mobility Suite.

OHanlon said that Rhipe has been selected as one of two Microsoft partners to implement a new Azure incentive program, but declined to mention specifics.

Overall, Rhipe operated at a net loss of $772,000 for the half-year. Chief executive Dominic OHanlon explained that investments throughout the year were funded through the companys profit, and the distributor has no external debt facilities.
A Telstra executive has said its IT services unit is still in the growth phase, even after it raked in $1.3 billion of revenue in the latest half-year.

The Network Applications & Services unit of Telstra is on track for a $2.7 billion financial year, with single-digit growth expected for the second half.

The $1.3 billion mark for the half ending 31 December represented 32.7 percent sales growth compared to the first half of the 2015 financial year.

NAS is still in the growth phase, chief financial officer Warwick Bray said. We are continuing to build momentum in terms of enhancing scale and capability and evolving the business mix for profitable growth.

NAS revenue has achieved more than 20 percent growth for five of the last seven halves, and now has annualised revenues of around $2.5 billion.

Cloud, Integrated Services and Industry Solutions business lines were massive contributors to NAS half-year result.

Cloud revenue grew by 50.8 percent due to infrastructure and data services, software-as-a-service and professional services, Bray said.

As an example, we are working with a large supermarket to implement a world class hybrid cloud solution to deliver to our customer; speed to market, cost reductions and the ability to consume cloud services on demand.

During 2015, Telstra joined forces with AWS, VMWare, Cisco and IBM to put together the countrys biggest cloud network.

Industry Solutions grew 44.2 percent in revenue mainly thanks to increased NBN commercial works and wireless network deployments, while Integrated Services sales was up 66 percent due to the achievement of transition and transformation milestones on major accounts, and growth from annuity managed services.

Bray boasted of vendor recognition for Telstras IT solutions arm.

We have been recognised externally with a number of industry awards for service excellence and innovation. These include Cisco APJ Collaboration Partner of the Year and Data Centre Dynamics Asia-Pacific Data Centre Transformation of the Year.

The top bean counter also noted that, in the unified comms area, vanilla solutions were increasingly popular, allowing the telco to cut costs.

Across managed network services and unified communications, our enterprise customers are continuing to adopt standardised offerings to a much higher degree. This improves our speed of implementation and lowers our unit costs - and provides improved quality and reliability for our customers.

Overall the giant Australian telco slightly increased its net profit to $2.1 billion for the half-year, delivering an interim dividend of 15.5 cents per share. Telstra shares were at $5.40 as of 12pm Wednesday - 2 cents down from Tuesday.

Telstra was recognised last year as a CRN MVP for its diversity in gold-level vendor relationships as a solutions provider.
Japan's electronics maker Panasonic Corp said on Thursday it plans to change its company rules to recognise same-sex marriages, joining a growing trend toward acceptance in a country where being openly gay largely remains taboo.

Panasonic said it is reviewing changes to its code of conduct that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. It is a rare move for a major Japanese corporate, and puts the company at the forefront of change.

Panasonic is considering a range of benefits for same-sex couples including wedding leave, although the details have not yet been decided, the spokeswoman said. The changes, if implemented, are set to come into effect in April, she said.

The review was prompted by requests from its employees, global trends, and its status as a sponsor of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she added.

Panasonic's move comes as Japan slowly widens recognition of same-sex partnerships. Iga in Mie prefecture, a city 500 km southwest of Tokyo, became on Tuesday Japan's third municipal government to recognise same-sex partnerships, according to local media.

Shibuya and Setagaya, considered the wealthiest of Tokyo's 23 wards, began issuing certificates to same-sex couples last November, a decision hailed as a major step forward for Japan's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

While the certificates do not provide any legal recognition of same-sex unions, they allow couples to rent an apartment, visit each other in hospital and gain a variety of other benefits as a couple.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Tablets that are just tablets? How very 2015. Following in the well-trodden footsteps of Microsoft's Surface range, Samsung unleashed its own spin on the 2-in-1 Windows 10 detachable at CES 2016 - and the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S looks to be a serious contender.

If you're used to a Surface Pro then the first thing you'll notice is just how light the Samsung is. Without the keyboard, this 12in tablet weighs 693g. With the keyboard - well, no-one seems to know for sure, but I'd be very surprised if it's more 1kg.

Keyboard and touchpad

That's partially because there isn't much to the keyboard other than plastic, with no hidden battery to add to Samsung's claimed 10.5 hours. This has the benefit of thinness, though, adding just 4.9mm to the 6,3mm of the device itself, but inevitably, such slenderness has a knock-on effect when it comes to key travel.

I'm not a fan of this shortened action, but one of my fellow CES-ers was full of praise for it, claiming he bashed out hundreds of words in quick succession. Certainly it's a billion times more pleasant to type on than an on-screen display.

I found myself a bit wary of the touchpad as well. It's short, even for a compact laptop, which meant I had to concentrate to avoid pressing the built-in left- and right-click buttons. Perhaps this is something you'd get used to, perhaps it will be a constant irritation. Without using the Tab Pro over a decent period, it's tough to know.

Another drawback of Samsung's design, compared to the adaptable hinge of the Surface and many of its rivals, is that there are only two positions for the screen, although the plus point of having no kickstand is that it sits more easily on your lap.

This is all due to Samsung's choice of case/keyboard, which attaches in a very odd way: the top hooks over the rear camera, you snap the tablet into position using the magnetised connector, and then lean it back - either into an upright, let's-do-some-work angle, or a hey-let's-chill-and-watch-a-movie angle.

Display and performance

Whatever you choose to do, the screen won't disappoint. Using Super AMOLED technology, its 2160 x 1440 resolution means there's plenty of vibrant colour and crisp detail when you need it. Video output is via a single USB Type-C port, with Samsung offering a cute mini adapter that will add two USB ports and one HDMI output. (It also promises a companion, optional, Bluetooth pen.)

You probably don't want to use this as your main laptop, though, with a dual-core Core M processor in charge. That should be plenty for everyday duties, but we know from previous experience with Core M laptops that they don't perform well in CPU-intensive tasks.

You'll also quickly hit the limits of the 128GB SSD (a 256GB version might become available in the UK), but I don't mean to be too harsh: the Galaxy TabPro S would be absolutely fine as a second PC, and as it uses Windows 10 it will be a flexible little machine.

It should be a fine travel companion as well, kitted out with 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.1, plus an NFC chip in the keyboard. There's also GPS chip in the tablet itself, along with heat and light sensors.

Oh, and there's one more key piece of information that remains elusive: Samsung is being annoyingly coy on the price, despite the fact the TabPro S is due to launch in February. If it gets that final piece of the puzzle right - and we know the keyboard will be included - then this could pose a serious threat to the Surface.
The legal showdown over US demands that Apple unlock an iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook might have been avoided if his employer, which owns the device, had equipped it with special mobile phone software it issues to many other workers.

San Bernardino County, which employed Farook as an environmental health inspector, requires some, but not all, of its workers to install mobile-device management software made by Silicon Valley-based MobileIron on government-issued phones, according to county spokesman David Wert.

That software is designed to secure corporate data. It also allows information technology departments to remotely unlock phones, even without assistance of the phone's users or access to the password needed to open the phone and unscramble the data.

"If that particular iPhone was using MobileIron, the county's IT department could unlock it," MobileIron vice president Ojas Rege told Reuters.

The problem is that the MobileIron software was not installed on Farook's phone because his department did not use it. "The app was not installed on that device," Wert said.

If it had been, the high stakes legal battle that has pitted Apple and much of the technology industry against the US government could have been avoided altogether. The Department of Justice, in court filings, has said there is no way to get at the data in the phone without Apple engineering a special software solution.

Apple, which is refusing to comply with a judge's order to unlock the phone, could not be reached immediately for comment.

Wert said he did not know why some departments opted out of using the mobile-management software. He said that the county might review the policy after the debacle over accessing Farook's phone.

"I think everybody who is in the business of providing mobile devices to their employees is probably taking a fresh look after these past couple days," he said.

County chief information officer Jennifer Hilber could not be reached for comment.

Other leading mobile device management software makers include BlackBerry, IBM and VMware.

David Goldschlag, a mobile-security expert with Pulse Secure, confirmed that MobileIron is capable of unlocking phones without the user's passcode, and he said the company's major competitors have similar features.

Representatives with BlackBerry and IBM declined comment. A VMware spokesman said he had no immediate comment.

To be sure, mobile security experts warned that Farook could still have prevented the county from remotely accessing his phone by simply deleting the MobileIron software from his phone. But such a deletion would at a minimum have alerted managers to a problem, security experts said.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Julia Love in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Bill Rigby; jim.finkle@thomsonreuters.com; +1 617-856-4344; Reuters Messaging: jim.finkle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.us)
Mobility News

Partners: HP's New Elite x3 Windows 10 Device Is A Mobility Game Changer, Shattering Smartphone Limitations

Steven Burke

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Solution providers say HP Inc.'s new Elite x3 Windows 10 device now makes it possible for business customers to access everything they need on a single handheld product  including Windows legacy applications - eliminating the need to switch between smartphones, laptops and desktops.

"This is smarter than a smartphone," exclaimed Joe Hemani, founder and sole owner of Westcoast, a $3 billion United Kingdom distributor that's betting big on the Elite x3. "HP has leapfrogged everyone in the mobile market by giving you the ability to have anything and everything you need when you are away from your office. You no longer need to tap into your legacy systems with another device like a laptop or desktop, and - by the way - you can use it to call your grandmother!"

Hemani credited the HP Inc. commercial mobility team, led by Vice President and General Manager Michael Park, with pushing the technology barrier beyond all limits to deliver a new standard for commercial mobility.

[Video: HP Inc. Launches Elite X3 Solution for Mobile Productivity With Big Channel Play]

By leveraging Qualcomm Inc.'s most powerful Snapdragon processor and Microsoft's Continuum technology in Windows 10, HP has opened the door for partners to modernize the tens of thousands of Windows apps that have been unavailable on smartphones up until now, said Hemani.

Park, who has overseen the Elite x3's development and sales plan, said the product is focused squarely on a solution provider-centric model, in sharp contrast to those of carrier-based consumer smartphones. "We are not going to drop this into carrier channels and subsidize it and sell it through consumer retail," he said. "This product set is reserved exclusively for our commercial channel."

Partners said the device marks the first time they have been at the tip of the spear to aggressively attack the explosive handheld device market in their commercial accounts. "What HP has delivered with Continuum is an unbelievable thread between what customers have in their workplace to wherever they are on the go - even in a subway," said Hemani. "You are now continuous wherever you may be. There is no other device that can give you this. Normally you have to carry at least two or three devices. This is true mobile computing."

The device goes beyond Windows legacy apps with a partnership with cloud computing kingpin Salesforce.com that puts the Salesforce1 mobile app on every Elite x3.

Calling the Elite x3 "the most powerful computational device that can fit in the palm of your hand," Hemani said the challenge for the channel will be making sure customers understand that the x3 is much more than a smartphone.

HP unveiled the Elite x3 on Sunday at the start of the Mobile World Congress, which is expected to attract 100,000 attendees in Barcelona, Spain. The Mobile World announcement is aimed at shining the spotlight on the "massive commercial opportunity" that the product brings to partners, said Park.

The Elite x3, based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor, looks like a smartphone, but when paired with a near-zero bezel 12.5-inch Mobile Extender lightweight display with keyboard, it becomes a full-function laptop. The product can also be paired with a Desk Dock that provides a desktop display port for a full desktop experience with an external monitor and several USB connections, along with a wired Ethernet connection. The Elite x3 product set even includes two new mobile printers: an OfficeJet 200 Mobile printer priced at $279 and an OfficeJet 250 Mobile All In One printer that will be available in the fall.

Partners said the x3 provides them the ability to break open the commercial mobility market with a product designed for businesses rather than consumer-centric offerings that have forced productivity workers to use more than just a smartphone.

Although the product will not be available until sometime this summer and has not yet been priced, it's already receiving plaudits from high-profile CEOs, including Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff and Tom Richards of CDW.

Nadella said the device heralds a new era in which "your experiences, content and data are mobile with you."

Benioff said the x3 opens the door for every company to "empower its users with the tools to run their businesses anytime, anywhere and on any device."

Richards, for his part, hailed the end-to-end thinking" that went into the product. "On its own, it's an impressive device, but the real breakthrough is the Elite x3 accessory ecosystem, which drives a seamless experience across computing platforms, and offers a solution beyond BYOD (bring your own device) and towards mobile workflow transformation," he said.

Westcoast, the UK-based distributor, is mounting a massive effort to bring the Elitex3 to customers with a pilot program featuring 50 mobile market leaders. "We are betting with our dollars to get seed units to large corporate customers," he said.

Hemani is betting that his company's aggressive bid to work hand in hand with customers on commercial applications for the Elite x3 will result in sales of as many as 250,000 to 350,000 units in 2017.

Kevin English, director of mobile at SHI International, the Somerset, N.J.-based solution provider behemoth that is No. 12 on CRN's 2015 Solution Provider 500 list, said HP Inc. has turned the "sluggish laptop market on its head" with a breakthrough, next-generation handheld device. "I am super excited about the product," he said. "It effectively turns a phone into a desktop experience. That is a first."

The Elite x3 holds all the processing power, negating the need for a laptop or a desktop device, said English. The accessories, including the 12.5-inch laptop-like add-on and the Desk Dock, effectively eliminates the need for a laptop or a desktop, he said.

The Elite x3 marks the first time SHI can bring legacy apps to a smartphone, said English. "Largely we have been left out of the phone business because it was so much of a carrier play," he said, noting that the Elite x3 is coming to market with long-term carrier contracts going by the wayside. "The unlocked phone is a huge opportunity. What we are focused on is the operating system, the imaging and deployment of these devices in large numbers. We are looking at how you manage applications on Windows 10 devices cross platform."

SHI is putting significant sales and marketing muscle around "educating customers" on the potential of the next generation of Windows computing in the form of the Elite x3, said English. "The apps are very important," he said. "The mobile apps through Continuum will be displayed as a desktop experience. The Win32 legacy applications is a big question: Is it a virtualization play or a retooling of Win32 apps to mobile apps? The verdict is still out on that. We are looking at all ways that customers will be thinking about this and we'll be ready to help them through the process whichever deployment method they choose."

The customer pain point around not being able to use legacy apps on a handheld device is "pretty significant," said English. "It's a huge untapped market," he said. "What you are fighting against is the status quo. It is about educating customers on the future. That is exciting for us."

HP Inc. has gone beyond the traditional consumer view of the handheld market, said English. "In a market where technology changes so quickly, it is refreshing to see HP take such a leap ahead of what is currently available in the marketplace," he said. "This is definitely a huge leap forward in a very saturated world of mobility products."

"I give HP credit," English said. "They are looking at things much more strategically since the split (of the company last year into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise). They have picked a hole in the current ecosystem of products and have filled that gap with this product."
BRIDGEPORT  Ahead of Valentines Day, one of City Halls biggest unions  the National Association of Government Employees  passed chocolates and roses out to its 750 members.

That is a morale booster, said NAGE President Dwayne Harrison. Because it is tough. A lot of people are nervous. They dont know whats going on.

It was not uncommon during last years bitter mayoral race to hear rank-and-file city employees talk optimistically about Joe Ganims return.

Mayor from 1991 to 2003, Ganim ousted Bill Finch in Septembers Democratic primary and handily won Novembers general election. Finchs critics complained his administration disrespected municipal employees and lead through fear and intimidation.

Ganim is not exactly coddling city workers. Or is it tough love?

Since being sworn in Dec. 1 the returned mayor has sought to undo two major contracts that contained retroactive and future raises  the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Supervisors Associations  and has laid off 56 workers.

Twenty of those were union members. There is talk about another two-dozen job cuts, as well as restructuring departments in the budget Ganim will propose to the City Council in early April.

And most recently Ganims staff has been scrutinizing so-called labor side agreements that assign specific employees extra duties in exchange for extra pay.

All of this is happening as Ganim hires campaign loyalists for politically appointed, well-paid jobs in his office.

Side labor deals

Many unions remained on the sidelines during the mayors race.

NAGE and AFSCME backed Finch. Earlier this winter Ganims city attorneys came up with what they argued were valid reasons for the City Council to reject new five-year contracts with AFSCME and with the supervisors that were approved in the final days of the Finch administration.

The supervisors, which has 168 members, is headed to court, while the state Board of Labor Relations recently decided to take up the rejection of the AFSCME deal. AFSCME represents 800 city and public school employees.

They have recommended that it go to a full hearing, Larry Dorman, an AFSCME spokesman, said. Clearly the board found our complaint serious enough. Were going to put our faith in that process. We maintain the (Ganim) administration acted in bad faith and in violation of municipal labor law.

Ganim in a brief interview for this story blamed his cost-cutting actions, as he has since returning to office, on Finch.

We were left with a $20 million budget deficit and contracts not disclosed or properly processed, Ganim said. Its unfortunate we inherited that.

Ganim also pledged on the campaign trail to at least hold the line on taxes, if not reduce them. He will present a budget to the City Council in early April.

As for the side labor deals, Ganim spokesman Av Harris said: We are evaluating every individual arrangement to determine whether the extra pay in addition to base salary and benefits is actually justified and not simply given out as a perk in exchange for political support.

Edward Gavin, the lawyer for the supervisors union, is battling to preserve his clients new contract. But he said the administration is free to cancel side labor deals.

The agreements always say they are voidable by the member and the city upon proper notice, Gavin said.

Harrison said at least when it comes to NAGE, City Hall needs to consider that 85 percent of his 750 members are residents whose loss of a job could hurt the city in other ways.

Bumps and challenges

Valerie Sorrentino for years ran the Laborers International of North America out of City Hall.

She emerged last year from retirement to back Ganim, and ahead of the September primary issued a damning critique of the work day under Finch. She alleged the prior administration was guilty of treating employees cruelly and creating an atmosphere of bullying and intimidation.

Despite some of Ganims recent decisions, Sorrentino is not experiencing buyers remorse.

When people call me, I tell them hes only been in for three months, said Sorrentino. Do your jobs, cooperate and let the dust settle.

Sorrentino was a part of Ganims massive volunteer transition task force that recently issued a report of recommendations for the next four years in office. Highlights included creating a fair and productive work environment; focusing on out-of-court mediation to settle labor grievances; and involving rank-and-file employees in improving services and cutting costs.

I think people just need to hang on, Sorrentino said of Ganim. He wants to hear from employees on whats wrong and how can we fix it?

Ganim promised his administration will soon transition from the bumps and challenges.

But how will his upcoming budget treat organized labor? Will he seek concessions? In 2013 Finch and the City Council passed a budget that included $2 million worth of givebacks.

Though the threat of layoffs was always present, the administration instead slowly but surely negotiated the concessions into new contracts, including the very AFSCME and supervisors deals Ganim has targeted.

We havent even got our arms around what the first budget will look like, Ganim said said.

Dorman said unfortunately it appears Bridgeport is following the alarming trend in other municipalities and at the state and federal levels of finger pointing at public service workers.

We need to make some fundamental change in Connecticuts tax structure if were going to protect the services the people in Bridgeport and everywhere else rely on, Dorman said. Not nickle and dimeing particular pieces of a particular contract.
HARTFORD  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Sunday he is again backing a bill that would allow liquor retailers to determine the price of the alcoholic beverages they sell.

Why would government force residents to pay artificially high prices? Its illogical and backwards, Malloy said. We need to be competitive with surrounding states, who have lower prices - and we need to let the market work instead of allowing backwards laws to remain on the books.

The legislation has stalled in the past due to strong opposition from package store owners who claim higher prices in neighboring states is the result of taxes, not the states pricing system. They also warn that as many as 600 of the 1,150 liquor stores could be forced out of business.

Malloy said Connecticut is the only state in the region with a law requiring that retailers of alcoholic beverages sell their products at a minimum price determined by the wholesaler industry. That means retailers cannot set the price of the products they put on the shelves in their own stores.

As a result, consumers in Connecticut often pay more for these products than in other states because of an artificially determined price that was required by the government. This statute is unique to only off-premises alcohol retailers and treats no other types of industries in the same manner.

Youre either for inflated, artificially high prices, or youre against them, Malloy said. Weve done much to reform out liquor laws in a consumer-friendly way, from Sunday sales to allowing stores to remain open later. But the prices for residents should come down - its the commonsense thing to do.

Malloy is proposing the law be modified to allow retailers to sell wine and liquor using a more reasonable, logical criteria: actual cost paid. This is the same standard used in neighboring states in the northeast.
'Joe Biden can have them': Mastriano vows to bus migrants to Delaware
Ian relief: Deadline extended for property tax payments

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order delaying the payment of property taxes across 26 Florida counties struggling from impact of Hurricane Ian.
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During those days when David Cameron soared high in the polls as Opposition Leader, he was asked about his success in ending Tory divisions on Europe. Of course, its an important issue but it shouldnt be the issue that dominates our party to the exclusion of everything else, he replied.

How times change. For the next four months, Britains place in Europe will be the single subject dominating British politics and dislocating our stability in the run-up to the referendum in June.

This is the biggest question our nation faces for a generation. It threatens not just to tear apart the Tories, but to reshape both our country and our continent.

And for Mr Cameron, who infamously once insisted that Tories should stop banging on about Europe, the fight has become a personal crusade.

British Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the media after the end of the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium

Since giving that interview in 2008, this pragmatic politician has persistently confounded his critics by winning power at two General Elections and notching up two referendum victories. Today, he bestrides British politics, his enemies on both sides vanquished and in disarray.

But as he prepares for his final tussle with the electorate, he knows this is the vote that will determine his place in history.

If he wins again, he can spend his remaining days in Downing Street focusing on a remarkable legacy, finessing his vision of compassionate conservatism and ensuring that his party  if it survives this divisive campaign  commands the political landscape.

If he loses, his political career will crash and almost certainly end this summer in self-inflicted disaster. He would go down in history as the man who provoked British withdrawal from Europe  and, possibly, also the consequent independence of Scotland.

The stakes could not be higher for this man who hides his fierce ambition and highly competitive character behind a genial exterior.

His battle began well. After a difficult summit in Brussels, he spoke strongly about his precious reform deal and  as ever on the big occasions  looked serious and self-assured. He repeated this trick yesterday, talking about his desire for a safer, stronger Britain from the Downing Street podium.

What a contrast with those images of two egotistical extremists  Ukips Nigel Farage and hard-left former MP George Galloway  bonding at a Brexit rally on Friday night. This event underlined how Out camp leaders are largely a disparate rabble of protest politicians who are trapped in the past.

The desertion of Michael Gove to their side is, however, both a personal and political blow for the Prime Minister. Their families are close friends, Gove has long been a loyal ally and the thoughtful Justice Secretary is rightly respected across the Conservative Party.

His statement yesterday was typically eloquent. Yet as one of Camerons closest aides cruelly told me: Michael is not well known to most voters  and those that do know him dont like him.

This contrasts with London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has done himself few favours with his flirtations on Brexit but has a rare ability to connect with voters. But keeping Home Secretary Theresa May on board was probably most important for the Prime Minister, given her quiet authority that resonates with Middle England.

For Mr Cameron, who infamously once insisted that Tories should stop banging on about Europe, the fight over the EU has become a personal crusade

As so often, Mr Camerons private views reflect many in his country: sceptical about Brussels and its mania for regulation, while ultimately believing Britain is better off arguing inside the club than giving up any say on EU rules that hold back our businesses.

For all the talk of self-determination, this would still be true if Britain votes to leave. Some point to Norway, yet though twice voting to reject EU membership it is the tenth biggest contributor to Brussels and has more migrants per capita from EU countries than Britain.

As Mr Cameron said on Friday night: We should be suspicious of those who claim leaving Europe is an automatic fast track to a land of milk and honey.

The Prime Minister and his allies are confident of success. The most trusted polls show a clear majority to stay in, while they plan to target moderate-minded Britons whose instincts are sceptical of Europe but whose heads tell them risks of departure are too high.

These people are largely uninterested in the debate, and face a campaign that will be boring and brash, filled with bluster and hype as one camp sows fear and the other offers a phoney vision of independence.

Mr Cameron is arguably the most secure prime minister for half a century, having seen off rivals to left and right. Yet these are turbulent times. The refugee crisis gets worse, security fears are growing, Schengen is crumbling, the Middle East is in meltdown, and Europe often seems paralysed in response.
Political scientist Professor John Curtice says David Cameron has embarked on the biggest gamble of his premiership so far

David Cameron has done his deal and named the date. He has now embarked on what looks to be the biggest gamble of his premiership so far.

True, if some polls are to be believed, the Remain camp, to which the Prime Minister has now nailed his colours, begins the campaign well in the lead.

During the last two months, polls conducted over the phone have on average put Remain on 59 per cent; Leave on just 41 per cent.

However, this picture is contradicted by polls conducted over the internet. These put the two sides neck and neck  with 50 per cent each.

Nobody can be sure which polls, if any, are right. But there is clearly a risk that the referendum race is much closer for comfort than Mr Cameron would like.

The Prime Ministers hope is that, now he has struck his deal, he will be able to convince voters that they should vote to stay in the EU after all.

When the draft of Mr Camerons deal was published a fortnight ago, it seemed that voters were unimpressed. Less than one in five told pollsters they reckoned the draft deal was a good one. More than two in five expressed the opposite view.

But the MoSs Survation poll today suggests that now Mr Cameron has actually delivered his deal, voters are more inclined to look upon it favourably.

What though will be crucial is what Conservative supporters eventually make of the deal. They, above all, are the group whom the Prime Minister is hoping to persuade.

Even polls done over the phone suggest that hitherto rather more Conservative voters have been inclined to vote for Leave than Remain.

With around a half of Tory MPs, including yet perhaps the charismatic London Mayor agreeing with them, they may still prove hard for Mr Cameron to win over.

The Prime Ministers hope is that, now he has struck his deal, he will be able to convince voters that they should vote to stay in the EU after all

But by June, what will matter is not the detail of Mr Camerons renegotiation, but what voters make of being in or leaving the EU more broadly.

On the one hand, many feel that Brussels interferes too much in Britains affairs and that the EUs freedom of movement provisions have resulted in too much immigration in recent years.

On the other hand, many also suspect we would be better off economically if we remained in the EU than if we left.

Whether or not Mr Camerons gamble succeeds will depend on how they eventually decide to resolve this dilemma.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid seen leaving Saturday morning's cabinet meeting

It's clear now that the United Kingdom should never have joined the European Union. In many ways, its a failing project, an overblown bureaucracy in need of wide-ranging and urgent reform.

Had we never taken the fateful decision to sign up, the UK would still, of course, be a successful country with a strong economy.

We would be an independent trading nation like the US, Japan, or Canada.

Over the years, we would have developed trade agreements with the EU and with others, all without surrendering control over immigration or our economic independence.

If this years referendum were a vote on whether to join in the first place, I wouldnt hesitate to stand up and say Britain would be better off staying out.

But the question were faced with is not about what we should have done 43 years ago. Its about what we should do now, in 2016.

Thats why, with a heavy heart and no enthusiasm, I shall be voting for the UK to remain a member of the European Union.

As Ive said before, a vote to leave the EU is not something Im afraid of. Id embrace the opportunities such a move would create and I have no doubt that, after leaving, Britain would be able to secure trade agreements not just with the EU, but with many others too.

The great unanswerable question is how long that would all take  and at what short-term cost?

Ignore the scare stories about a vindictive EU snubbing the UK  it simply couldnt afford to, and an agreement letting the UK maintain its current level of access to EU markets would, eventually, materialise. But it would require the unanimous consent of all 27 remaining members  something that simply cannot be achieved overnight.

When a deal is reached, it may require us to accept the same blizzard of regulations thats imposed by Brussels not just on member states, but on countries like Norway and Switzerland that need access to European markets.

And, like them, its possible we would have no say over what those regulations contained, while still potentially paying an access fee.

The same applies further afield. The EU  including the UK  currently has preferential trade deals in place with 53 countries and territories around the world.

These complex agreements have been built up over the course of nearly half a century, and nobody can say how many years will pass while they are unpicked and rewoven for a post-Brexit Britain. I worked in international business long enough to know that uncertainty is the single biggest enemy of growth.

The negotiations would end well for Britain, but we have no idea what the economic cost would be in the meantime  how much foreign investment would go elsewhere, how much domestic investment would be deferred or cancelled.

Even the most committed members of the leave camp accept that there will inevitably be a short-term cost to leaving.

The question is whether it is balanced out by the long-term gains. Its a very reasonable question  and I came incredibly close to answering Yes, yes it is.

But, in recent months, we have once again seen storm clouds gathering over the global economy. As a former financial analyst, I still take a keen interest in the markets. Far more important than what the commentators are saying is what the markets are forecasting: a significant global economic downturn.

The fallout from a leave vote this summer would only add to economic turbulence that is, quite possibly, about to engulf the world.

Some have even warned that Brexit could precipitate the total collapse of the EU, and while I know that many might welcome such a prospect, the shockwaves could prove catastrophic in the current climate.

From left, John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign

My heart says we are better off out. My head says its too risky right now. For the past six years, Ive been doing everything I can to repair the damage Labour did to our national economy.

Im no europhile, but nor am I prepared to risk undoing all that work and casting aside all the sacrifices we asked of this country while the post-Brexit talks drag on and investor confidence wavers. Staying in the EU for now doesnt have to mean accepting the status quo.

I am disappointed by the scope and scale of the reforms offered by the European Council. However, thanks to the Prime Minister, it is definitely a step in the right direction  and, crucially, one that shows reform is possible.

This package shows that Britain can exert influence over the future direction of the EU. And an opportunity to secure more significant reform is just around the corner. Even fans of the EU will admit that further treaty changes are needed to fix crises such as the Eurozone meltdown.

And when that happens, pro-reform nations will be in an extremely strong negotiating position. Yes, we will give you the change you want, but only if you give us the change we need  and Im particularly thinking of taking back control of immigration by ending the unrestricted freedom of movement.

For me, this referendum does not have to be a once-in-a-generation event. The fight for reform is not over and if Brussels fails to recognise that, I can see a time when walking away may be the right thing to do  but in a more benign global economic environment and under a UK Government that makes a credible case for leaving.

For now, we stay, and we fight.

So when I go to cast my vote in June, Ill only be thinking about one thing  what is right for my country and for my family.

And whether it means agreeing with me or not, Id urge you to do the same.
Things can only get bitter. Lets not be fooled by the spin of the triumphant EU deal, clinched at the last moment.

David Camerons Cabinet gathering yesterday marked the beginning of a seismic rift in senior Tory ranks which will dominate his final stint in office  and may even hasten his planned timetable for exit from the job.

As The Clash so rightly put it of a rather different dilemma: If I go there will be trouble/If I stay it will be double.

Mr Cameron addressed the nation from Downing Street yesterday and said Britain would be better off in a reformed European Union as he urged voters to back Remain in the referendum on June 23

Today, a sleep-deprived PM will haul himself out of bed and head for the Andrew Marr Show sofa, keen to explain how British sovereignty will be protected despite a failure to press for precisely that goal in the renegotiation.

Ostensibly, all this is about making a very modest deal sound palatable to voters unenthusiastic about the EU.

More viscerally, it is the first salvo in a war for control of a party that Cameron inherited from civil strife over Europe when he came into politics in the 1990s.

Relaxing recently with a colleague from his days as a junior party hack, the PM noted that his heartfelt wish was to see that the tone of the referendum and inevitable clashes on his own side did not derail or divide a party which otherwise dominates the political field.

Jeremy Corbyns meandering responses  lastly that the PM should have focused on poverty in Europe rather than concrete national demands  neatly illustrated that point.

But staving off bitter infighting on the Tory side will be formidably difficult. Cameron knew for sure a week and a half ago that his old friend and ideological outrider Michael Gove would back the Out side, but confirmation yesterday was still a bitter blow.

One factor has been overlooked in this saga  namely the breach between Cameron and Gove, when the latter was heaved out of his job as Education Secretary on the say-so of political strategist Lynton Crosby, to neutralise controversy before the Election campaign.

A friend tells me that his days of absolute loyalty to Cameron ended there and then. And as if to underline this, Gove was driven straight from Cabinet yesterday to the HQ of Vote Leave, run by his pugnacious erstwhile adviser, Dominic Cummings  a figure ardently distrusted by Team Cameron.

Like Gove, three of the Cabinets instinctive Eurosceptics  Theresa May, Michael Fallon and Sajid Javid  pushed hard for a more bullish deal on parliamentary sovereignty. Their reasons for remaining loyal differ.

May is a head prefect among Ministers: never happy breaking ranks. Shes never done anything very interesting with her power base and isnt starting now, says a Minister who served under her.

Fallon was a surprise return to Cabinet as Defence Secretary and does not want to endanger his position as a seasoned player.

Javid has long been tipped as a future leader from the 2010 intake. But he caved to the In side some weeks ago.

Essentially the former aide to the Chancellor is a George Osborne loyalist. And I gather the Chancellor made clear to Javid before Christmas that he would not appreciate someone so closely associated with him making a powerful economic case for Out.

Let me stick my neck out and say that this vacillation has probably ended Javids chances of becoming Tory leader  the rank and file are most infuriated by Ministers they thought were one thing, who turn out to be another.

WHY ANGELA WAS DESPERATE TO DUMP DAVID Terse: David Cameron and Angela Merkel at last week's Brussels talks Why was Angela Merkel in a such a hurry to get the British deal over? The German Chancellors mood, I am told, was terse from beginning to end. Hence her boot face, even as Cameron looked pleadingly in search of a gesture of approval in front of the cameras (he never got one). Besides shepherding the modest British concessions through, Merkel had troubles closer to home. Neighbouring Austria announced that it would limit overall migrant numbers to a daily tally of just over 3,200; this comes on top of its cap on asylum seekers at a mere 80 a day allowed to cross its southern border. This will pile the pressure on Germany, which has an unlimited refugee policy. With three important state elections next month and little help from her near neighbours, Angela badly needs a deal of her own with Turkey, oiled by EU funds, to stem refugee numbers  and prevent more damage to her chancellorship. Advertisement

This consideration figures in the churning mind of Boris Johnson, who has treated the disclosure of his final position like the Day of Revelation.

One of his closest Cabinet chums tells me that she cannot see Boris joining the Out campaign. He is at heart a pro-European  and it is very hard to end up not being true to yourself.

That analysis might be definitive, were it not for Boriss infallible ability to be true to so many things at once. Indeed, the Mayor of London has a very conditional relationship with the truth.

Boris once confided in me that he groaned at the thought of ghastly EU triumphalists winning and feared they would revive plans to drag Britain deeper into an integrated Europe. And shortly afterwards, there was Boris holding lengthy talks with Cameron on what plum job it would take to keep him in the tent.

Cameron firmly believes he can win in June by highlighting the unknowable risks of a Brexit. A No 10 source confides that grumbling about the deal now will seem like dusty footnotes from Brussels then. Dave had better hope so.

These coming months will be the sternest test in two decades of the Tory Partys ability to confront its fundamental division on Europe calmly, without lapsing into a seething pit of recrimination that infests Camerons long goodbye and what follows.

So will they pull it off? Now that really will be a nail-biter.

Has the Brussels get-together done incalculable harm to Belgiums already modest culinary reputation?

The menu was disgusting throughout, from greasy beer-battered loin of cod which was, I am informed, like eating a cold floor tile and a dessert described by an avid foodie member of the Prime Ministers entourage as fruit baby-food sludge for pudding.

No wonder Angela Merkel went out for evening chips. I gather that an exhausted Cameron is planning a hearty family lunch featuring beef.

Even the most punitive Outers might not begrudge him that.
The long Phoney War over the European Union is over. The much-delayed, much-anticipated seismic moment has come.

For the first time in 41 years, the people of the United Kingdom have the opportunity to vote on membership of the EU.

After many unkept promises, this most vexed and tangled issue can at last be tested properly and  with luck  resolved for good.

The apparently endless argument has at last solidified into a simple question  should we leave the EU for good or remain inside it for the foreseeable future?

And the day for the vote has finally been named as Thursday, June 23.

Few things are better at concentrating the minds of men and women than a pencil poised over a ballot paper.

The Prime Minister, who has long spoken of his desire for a reformed EU, has now brought an actual document back from Brussels in which this phrase has been turned into a series of specific clauses.

Nobody can claim it is a great deal. But all of us can read and analyse it. So can Mr Camerons own colleagues, men and women well-versed in this ancient controversy.

They can now decide whether to risk (or perhaps enhance) their reputations and careers by backing or denouncing it. Some of them may even act on principle.

We can all make our own judgments in the light of the intense and often bitter debate which is bound to follow.

The declarations we shall see over the next few days will make a great difference  though both campaigns will probably acquire embarrassing supporters they would rather do without. While Michael Goves support for the Leave campaign is a great fillip for them, they will come to regret their endorsement by George Galloway, a minority taste.

This whole process, in which we can expect to see quite a few dirty tricks and gaffes, will end with a vote which is unlikely to be repeated for decades, if ever.

When we mark our ballots  after years of hostility or moaning, of complacency, indecision or enthusiasm  each of us will have the chance to influence our national destiny.

As David Cameron rightly said yesterday, great issues are in play, above all national and economic security in a world where these things are nowhere near as assured as they were in 1972, when we joined the then Common Market, or in 1975, when we last voted on staying in.

China has become a great economic and political power. The US is undergoing a period of rapid change after which it may well be less concerned about our fate than before.

Friction with Russia has brought a new and dangerous tension to Eastern and Central Europe, quite different from the quiet stalemate of the Cold War. And the migrant crisis means that the whole of Europe, whether in or out of the EU, is faced with difficult moral and economic questions to which there are no obvious answers but where co-operation will be essential.

There is also the terror threat, which mutates almost every few months and against which the civilised nations of Europe stand as one of the few reliable bastions of law-governed democracy. Will we cope better with all or any of these things if we are in, or if we are out?

Let us hope for a serious, considered and responsible debate on both sides, remembering as we do so that the whole of Europe will be watching closely to see what we do, and could be influenced in its own actions by our choice.

Unlike 1975, when much of the argument revolved around the price of groceries and most British people (wrongly) believed they were discussing a mere customs union, the far-reaching political aspects of EU membership will be openly examined and acknowledged.

A great personal and political drama is approaching. Mr Cameron, who won a stunning and unexpected General Election victory last May could, if he loses the referendum, be gone from Downing Street before the end of the summer.

That is how momentous the question is. Now it is up to us. The opposing forces are choosing their generals and assembling their troops. The grounds of the dispute are clear and both equally-matched sides have strong arguments and persuasive spokesmen and women.
Head teacher Katie Chisholm, who sent parents a letter home about wearing pyjamas to pick up their children from school

I thought those slummy mummies who took their kids to school in pyjamas and slippers were the pits, as I made clear at the time. I didnt think we could sink any lower. Well, I was wrong.

To recap: I was right behind Kate Chisholm, the head teacher of Skerne Park Academy in Darlington, when she wrote politely asking mums and dads to put on day wear for their interactions with the school  pick-ups, drop-offs, meetings and plays  and said how it was important that they tried to set our children a good example about what is appropriate and acceptable in preparation for their own adult life.

But rather than spending a few minutes actually getting dressed in the morning, some parents babyishly turned up to school in nightwear, as if Miss had picked on them.

Miss Chisholm revealed she had been called a failed fat supermodel and an overpaid prostitute by parents in front of their own children for trying to maintain sartorial standards. Some even took a swing at her. But as it turns out, the race to the bottom had barely begun.

Just when you thought it might be safe to go back to the school gates and not see a grown woman in teddy-bear pjs, we had another issue of parental discipline in Greater Manchester, where parents at a Church of England primary school were rocking up ponging of weed  some even puffing on their Camberwell Carrots in plain sight of pupils.

This time it was deputy head Deborah Binns, of St Johns Primary in Radcliffe, who picked up her pen in despair: Please respect our school as a place of learning and make sure you set an appropriate example within the community, she pleaded.

Meanwhile, a primary in Tiverton, Devon, had to tell parents not to swear when picking up their children, and yet another school had to write to parents pointing out that the playground was not a public toilet.

I dont know about you but all this fills me with gravitational waves of panic and woe, as well as boundless sympathy for head teachers who have to lead staffrooms, educate and control unruly pupils, but also, it appears, discipline and nanny parents, too.

I can only imagine that what lies behind this infantile and insulting behaviour of parents is a sort of shameless laziness, combined with a surly refusal to accept that anyone has any authority  either over the children, or over them. Mums coming to school in nighties and the dads with their spliffs reek of a classic power struggle, as well as cannabis fumes.

At the West London Free primary school in Hammersmith, the staff try to pre-empt any such poor outcomes by spending the summer visiting the homes of every single one of the children who are due to join in September.

The school knows that it has to develop a relationship with parents, and needs to win their trust and enlist them if they are going to get them on-side when it comes to homework and so on, says one of the teachers.

This a great idea. But the West London Free Primary is just one school. It is clear that a national strategy is needed.

This years news from the school gates makes me feel that some parents need a massive kick up the backside and we mustnt allow them to let the entire side down. We should all wish head teachers Godspeed and good luck in their brave efforts to make parents pull their socks up by whatever means possible. Theyll need it.

Its wonderful news that, according to the editor of The Good Schools Guide, standards in state schools are now so good that they are giving top private schools a serious run for their money.

But this means that its even more critical that rising school standards arent torpedoed by a minority of slack, stoner, slob or useless mums and dads.

So I suggest we add some sort of Ofparent to Ofsted: a fully loaded, all-powerful inspectorate of parents, as well as schools. Because our children are worth it.

Nice legs, Taylor - shame about the pants!

If you're the biggest pop star on the planet, you're not going to please all the people all of the time.

I didn't like Taylor Swift's outfit at the Grammys much either (she wore a divided skirt revealing a garment known as 'party pants').

But those who attack her for having lean pins that go on for days are just jealous.

Don't mind the thigh gap, Tay!

Taylor Swift shows off her pins in this daring outfit at this year's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, USA

So its HRT all round now that its been found that testosterone gel improves desire, sexual performance and also mobility in older males.

Marvellous. Especially the Benny Hill visual this brings to mind of a grumpy old man casting aside the Zimmer to chase his wife around the kitchen.

Ralph's so hot I want to cry

Ralph Fiennes is SHRN (so hot right now), what with his hit movie and a hit show, The Master Builder, that your columnist felt obliged to blag tix for the Old Vic on your behalf.

Once there, we had to keep showing our tickets  not just at entry and curtain-up but also during the two (!) intervals.

Apparently his Super-Fiennes (OK, super-fans) without tickets are trying to sneak in at intervals. People may mutter that Fiennes is playing himself in a play that he chose himself.

All I can reveal is that he does do a very good turn as an ageing alpha who self-medicates with younger women.

And he deserved his standing ovation, even though I wanted to sob  with relief that it was over.

Actor Ralph Fiennes attends the press night after-party for 'The Master Builder' at The Old Vic Theatre earlier this month

George Osborne wants to gouge us in death as well as in life with his new hikes to probate charges.

It used to cost 155 to execute a will. Now it appears that those with estates worth more than 500,000 will incur a charge of 4,000, rising to 8,000 for those worth over 1million, and 20,000 for estates more than 2million.

This is grave robbery, George! The only certainties in life are death and rip-off death taxes.

Grey... and gorgeous

Another reason to be proud  unlike Emma Thompson  to be British: Sports Illustrated has featured its oldest-ever female in a bikini  a 56-year-old mum of 21-year-old twins from Nottingham.

Nicola Griffin has long grey hair, refuses to diet, and was scouted at a bus stop. She says: Ill still be 56 with two pounds less.
A fetish model with a social media following has been equally praised and derided after she filmed an aggressive confrontation between herself and an internet troll who she claims 'slut-shamed' her online.

Emily Snow, a Houston-based fetish model, tells Houston Press that she was updating her Facebook to tell friends she had to trim down her 5,000-strong friends list when one individual, Agnello Dei, apparently 'slut shamed' her. Agnello claims he was pointing out her 'hypocrisy' over posting sexually graphic images online but complaining that she was being bothered by 'creepy guys'. Emily claims she was called a 'slut' and was even physically threatened.

'So I tell him if he wants to say all of these terrible things, to come and say them to my face. He tells me to meet him as Starbucks at 2:30,' she explains. 'Everybody on my friends list starts saying "don't meet him, do you want me to come, let me meet you there". I tell everyone that I don't need them to meet me, and that I'm going by myself. I didn't want this to be a crazy situation.'

Head-to-head: Emily Snow (left), a Houston-based fetish model, filmed an encounter in Starbucks with Agnello Dei (right) who left insulting comments on her Facebook page

Kicking off: Agnello argued that Emily was a hypocrite for complaining about being called names like 'slut' when she posted this photo with the word over her mouth, which Emily says is a statement against shaming

Claiming that in order to protect herself and to ensure there was proof if anything were to happen, Emily filmed the entire encounter.

The resulting clip begins with Emily filming as she is stepping out of a silver car in the parking lot of the Starbucks on the corner of Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road in Houston and heading inside.

As she approaches, Agnello is seen wearing a blue shirt and standing to face her. He stretches out his hand to shake hers, saying: 'Hi, nice to meet you.'

'Hi, you're the guys that likes to talk bad to all the women?' she says.

He brushes off the comment and asks Emily if she would like something to eat or drink, but Emily cuts right to the chase, saying: 'No! I don't want a drink from someone who wants to call women bad names.'

The pair begin arguing, albeit calmly at first, with the man stating he thinks that she has welcomed his particular brand of criticism by posting suggestive images with the word 'slut' taped across her mouth.

'It's a statement!' Emily retorts, explaining how Agnello missed the point of the image: 'Because women are always treated badly and called that. So it's a statement. That's why I'm tied up in the photo.'

The man shakes his head in disagreement and continues to argue that she calls herself derogatory names so he believes she is being hypocritical.

Getting the story: Emily films herself walking up to meet Agnello, who is initially cordial, shaking her hand

Discussing: Emily describes how her photo he is complaining about is actually in fact 'a statement' against slut-shaming

Increasingly frustrated, Emily accuses the man of saying he wanted to 'beat someone's a** while their children cry and watch' - a claim Agnello acknowledges as having said to a male friend of Emily's who he claims threatened him - and asks if he wants to go outside and fight her. He declines, saying he is there only to talk.

Emily then uses a homophobic slur to make her point to him, saying that in his own social media pictures he is 'splattering f*****t' across his face because he has images of himself with pink hair and glitter eyebrows, 'but I'm not calling you that,' she adds.

He argues that it's a 'glam rock look' so 'unless you want to all David Bowie a f****t...'

Before he can finish, Emily hurls his cup off tea all over him. He angrily responds by throwing the empty cup back at her, but she just continues towards the door shouting: 'Call women whores again!'

The man's previously calm demeanor has disappeared as he follows her outside screaming across the crowded restaurant that she is a 'slut' and a 'd*** sucker' and other foul sexual obscenities before Emily whirls around with a can of mace and sprays him. He attempts to protect his face with his coat.

The clip ends with Emily fleeing into a car where a friend is waiting, and letting out a nervous laugh before telling her friend to 'drive, drive, drive!'

Escalation: After arguing for a short time, Emily throws a drink over Agnello (left) and he angrily follows her outside shouting sexual obscenities before she whirls around to spray him with mace (tight)

Sharing her side: Emily subsequently posted the video on YouTube, saying that she maced him because he was 'swinging and kicking' at her as she tried to leave

Stepping up: Emily and Agnello both claim to be pressing charges over the incident

In the description of the YouTube video the model and sex-positive podcast host subsequently posted, she wrote that while she took 'full responsibility' for throwing the drink over him, she didn't expect 'him to start swinging and kicking'.

She added: 'I ran for the door and pepper sprayed him as I got to my car. He was kicking me as I tried to shut the car door.'

In his own defense, Agnello tells Daily Mail Online that 'I didn't hit her as she later on claimed, as a slap or punch would have reflected on her movement in the video. She continued pepper spraying me, and screamed "Cover your face b**h!" and all I could do was cover myself with my jacket and kick randomly trying to get her to stop. That's the only instance in which I replied physically, in order to defend myself.'

While many of her Facebook followers have come out in support of Emily's confrontation of her online troll, plenty have also criticized her for being overly aggressive and trying to provoke Agnello into fighting her.

Both claim to be pressing charges against the other, with Emily saying that Agnello has also threatened her sister and sent nude images of her to her family members, while Agnello claims he was asked to send the images and told by Emily's sister that she was waiting outside the cafe with a knife to 'to stab me in case I genuinely attacked Emily, which I never did'.

'I was not there to fight her, just to talk to her, and she chose to assault me, obviously using this as an opportunity to further her modeling career,' he says.
She wants more women to say yes to public speaking opportunities

She says women should take risks to do what they are passionate about

Jess Scully makes a living doing what most people would consider their worst nightmare.

As the festival director for Vivid Ideas Australia, the cultural component of Sydney's Vivid Festival, and a curator for TEDxSydney, it's her job to speak to an audienceand watch others do the same.

It seems like the perfect job for the 35 year old, who is passionate about the creative industry and showcasing it to people. But it was, in her words, a 'zig-zaggy journey' that got her where she is today.

Starting off in journalism, Ms Scully worked in independent magazines before realising her passion lay with all things creative. It was from there that she became a 'creative entrepreneur' and changed her career to focus on what she loved doing.

Creative Entrepenuer: Jess Scully talks to an audience for a living and has given FEMAIL her top tips for public speaking

Light up the night: Ms Scully is a festival director for Vivid Ideas and a curator for TEDxSydney and has given, and watched, a lot of public speeches and talks

She started working on creative projects and in arts policy, before getting involved with the beginnings of Vivid in 2009. Now she works on creative industry projects full time, as well as giving presentations and talks, hosting discussions and being on boards and panels.

It hasn't been a easy path however, and Ms Scully says that for women pursuing passion projects, especially in the creative industry, that it's all about investment.

'I often advise young women, and this may not be the advice your financial planner would give you, but I say spend your 20s investing in yourself and investing in your career. And that means taking risks,' she said.

'Breathe': Don't be scared to slow down when public speaking and take your time

Confidence, investment and self reflection is a common theme in Ms Scully's advice for women, in public speaking and for their career. She says that she believes that every person has a unique selling point, and capitalising on that is the key.

'Its really important to hone your own niche. And the way I suggest people do that is to triangulate what youre passionate about and what motivates you, what you have the skills to do, and also the kind of impact you want to have in world,' she said.

'Somewhere between what youre good at, what youre passionate about, and what you believe in, the impact you want to have is often something that is unique to you. Very few people are going to have that exact same combination of factors that is going to define their career.'

Ms Scully is seen as an expert on the topic of creative entrepreneurialism, and is speaking on the topic Apple Store in Sydney for International Women's Day on Tuesday 8 March. Registration for the event is available online.

'The audience is on your side': Ms Scully says giving a talk is a shared experience, so show your enthusiasm

As well as career advice for young women, Ms Scully also gave FEMAIL her top tips for public speaking:

DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF

Draw on your confidence in your skills, or the individuality of your story: you were asked to speak for a reason. I ask just as many (if not more) women to speak than men, but In my experience, I find the women say no more often. Sometimes it's because they have too many demands on their time, but often, it's because of a lack of confidence, a reluctance to be seen as "showing off" or a sense that there's someone better qualified to speak.

We need to see more women presenting their expertise, their stories, their perspectives. Even if it terrifies you, say yes: you'll soon see it wasn't so bad, and you may even enjoy it. You'll find it easier the second and third times. And we'll all benefit from seeing reality more clearly represented on our stages, in our boardrooms or on our screens.

'Short sentences work best': Ms Scully says to write what sounds good and practice your speech as many times as needed

TRUST THE AUDIENCE

The audience is (almost always) on your side. They want you to succeed as much (or more) than you do - if you don't look like you're comfortable, and enjoying the moment, they certainly won't.

Think of your talk as a shared experience between you and the audience, and aim to transmit your enthusiasm about the topic, passion or energy about the work or cause at hand - even if they can't walk away being able to recite facts and stats from your talk, they'll remember that feeling and sense of engagement.

BREATHE

Take a deep breath before you begin, and don't be afraid to slow down and take your time. Scan the crowd for supportive faces or nodding heads, and address some of your words to them, directly. It'll help you to in having a more conversational manner, and often distracts from the fact that you're in front of a crowd.

'Say yes': Ms Scully says that too many women turn down opportunities to give speeches because they lack confidence

KNOW THE TECH

Don't struggle with technology. Test that clicker (if you can) before you walk on. If a video doesn't roll, or a slide doesn't flip over, be open about asking the AV tech to operate from the desk (they nearly always can).

If that doesn't work, move on and don't look back. The audience don't know what they're missed in your video or slides, so value their time and do your best to give them a positive experience without it.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Practice: yes, in front of a mirror. Or not. Just practice. See where your tongue trips over words, and rewrite those sentences. If you can, make the language as simple and direct as conversation. Short sentences work best in speeches.
With his cute button nose, bee-stung lips and wisps of soft blond hair, it is a face instantly recognisable around the world.

But while the real Prince George remains in the safe and devoted care of his mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, extraordinary replicas  identical down to the tiny blue veins in his hands  are cuddled every day by thousands of complete strangers.

They are part of a growing craze among up to 20,000 women worldwide  including a booming fanbase in Britain  who are devoted to the cult of reborn dolls; meticulously crafted infants mimicking real babies that change hands for up to 20,000 a pop.

And the hottest dolls on the market? Prince Georges and Princess Charlottes.

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Bestseller: A Prince George doll by Ping Lau, left, and a replica of Princess Charlotte - the dolls are gaining popularity around the world

So besotted are their mothers, they dress them in identical clothes to the young Royals. The dolls are even anatomically correct underneath their nappies  details critics have branded creepy and weird  and their bodies even weighted to feel like real babies.

Scores of British women show off on the internet their doll collections from nurseries with saccharine-sounding names such as Rainbows End Nursery, Silent Angels Nursery and HunnyBuns.

Dollmaker Helen Beattie invites would-be mums to visit the dolls for cuddles in her nursery in Liverpool. She sells limited edition Prince George dolls for 199 each.

Middlesbrough mother-of-four Wendy Archer, 40, spends hours dressing, bathing and shopping for her four fake children.

To me they arent dolls, they are my babies, she said. When you cuddle them, they feel like a baby because their heads loll and they even smell like a real baby because of the fabric softener their clothes are washed in.

When Princess Charlotte wore a 21 pink dress by Spanish brand m&h, reborn sites were inundated with requests from desperate mums seeking to buy the outfit. Some women are so obsessed with making the dolls lifelike that they have implanted tiny motors in their chests to simulate breathing.

While there are several versions of the Prince George and Princess Charlotte dolls available on the internet, the bestsellers are by artist Ping Lau, considered the queen of reborn dolls, whose work sells for between 350 and 3,500 depending on the finish.

The real thing: Prince George, pictured in London at the birth of his baby sister back in May 2015

Lau crafts the dolls out of clay around a tin-foil base at her studio in Maryland in the US. Her artworks are then shipped to a company in Florida which makes moulds and then sells reborn kits made out of soft vinyl or silicone.

In the case of George or Charlotte, I work from every available photograph I can find, the artist said.

When I first moulded Prince George, I had no idea how popular he would become. Now hes my bestseller. Charlotte is doing very well too. The vinyl kits are shipped out with the head, body, arms and legs separate. Then fans create each individual child. It truly is an art form.

Kym George, 55, from the US state of Wisconsin, has brought to life hundreds of dolls, including a Prince George and a Princess Charlotte.

Princess Charlotte - tiny replicas of the baby Princess are becoming increasingly popular thanks to a growing fanbase

It fills an emotional space inside me, she said. I have five stepchildren but never had kids of my own. With Prince George, I worked off every photo I could find.

'Its a laborious process which takes six weeks or more because you build up the skin tone using up to 30 layers of paint.

'Then you have to mottle the skin using sponges to get that newborn look. Each tiny vein has to be hand-painted. Georges eyes are made of German glass, which matches his real tone perfectly.

Every single hair was threaded by hand using Angora mohair, which is the most expensive. Even his tiny eyelashes match the colour of the real prince. You form an emotional connection with the dolls because they are so squishy and lifelike.

Some women have created reborns in the image of children who have died. Other dolls are used in therapy with dementia patients.

Debbie Roberts, 53, a mother from California married for 25 years, says there is nothing more natural than hugging her Prince George.

Ive always loved dolls and Im a massive Royalist, she said last night from the home she shares with more than 200 dolls. Prince George is my all-time favourite. Hes so cute. I dont think its weird or creepy at all. It takes me back to when my son, now 33, was a baby. People are blown away by how lifelike they are. Except, of course, my Prince George never cries or needs a nappy change.
A woman whose fake tan disaster went viral after she used a roller and paint tray to apply it has described the moment she realised it was a 'bad idea'.

Imogen Silversides, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, ended up 'the colour of a dining room table' after copying advice from a Facebook post in which Amy Ridler claimed it was the secret to an all-over even glow.

Imogen, 17, told Cosmopolitan the image of her caked in tan - which received 41,000 likes on Facebook - was a mistake rather than a joke, as she felt there was 'no going back' after covering her arms and legs.

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Imogen Silversides, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, went viral after using a roller and paint tray to apply fake tan and revealed she covered her entire body because 'there was no going back' after she started

Imogen Silversides, pictured before trying the technique, bought a paint roller from Wilko after reading the tip online and said it was a genuine mistake and not a prank

Imogen said that she decided to try the method after Amy, from Solihull, West Midlands, shared a photo on Facebook commenting on how impressed she was with the results.

The teenager bought a roller and paint tray from her local Wilko and used it to smother herself in the product, enlisting her boyfriend's help.

She told the magazine: 'It didn't take me long to realise that this was a bad idea and that it had gone wrong.

'However there was nothing I could do as I had already fake tanned my arms and legs with the roller, so there was no going back at this point.'

Imogen said it took 'around half an hour to an hour of constant scrubbing in the shower' to get rid of the tan, pictured afterwards

Imogen's boyfriend took a picture of her covered in fake tan and posted it to Facebook, it had 41,000 likes and went viral. Pictured before her tan disaster

Writing on her Facebook page, Amy told how it was a great method saying: 'You don't get it on your hands, can wash it, perfect even tan, no streaks, you can get it mega dark if you like - and you can reach your back'

Amy Ridler, from Solihull, West Midlands, uploaded this image to Facebook saying she was impressed with the method to get an even coverage with no streaks

Her boyfriend said she looked like she was 'burnt' and took a picture, showing her looking a dark shade of brown and holding the roller, which was posted on Facebook.

She said she was inspired by Amy's Facebook post, which showcased an all-over tan and was liked more than 21,000 times.

Imogen captioned it: 'Who ever the girl was that recommend to apply fake tan with a paint roller is one lying f***,' and wrote that she wouldn't be going into work that day.

But Imogen denied that the image was a prank, and told how 'it took around half an hour to an hour of constant scrubbing in the shower' to get rid of it.

Amy joked in her Facebook post that she should go on BBC show Dragons' Den with her idea and had 21,000 likes on Facebook for her inspired technique

Many Facebook users were intrigued by Amy's method while Ben joked it was how body builders apply fake tan, only with a different outcome

OUR GUIDE TO APPLYING FAKE TAN Always make sure that you exfoliate your body thoroughly beforehand - paying extra attention to knees, elbows, ankles, feet and anywhere else that feels dry.

Don't apply tanning lotion straight after you've take a bath or shower. Your skin is likely to be quite alkaline and your self-tan may end up orangey as a result.

Make sure that your skin is well-moisturised but don't overdo it. Too much moisturiser could form a barrier against the tanning product.

Only apply a small amount to the danger areas like ankles, elbows and wrists.

If you are doing your face, try mixing a little product with your regular moisturiser for a more subtle, natural-looking end result.

Afterwards, make sure that you wash your hands properly and use a nail brush around your nails and cuticles. There's nothing worse than orange hands.

Do not wash or have a shower until your tan has developed. This is usually about 2-4 hours but check the bottle to be sure. Advertisement

Amy posted her method of using a roller on Facebook, she wrote: 'Okay so after I put on Snapchat how I fake tan, everyone has thought it was a great idea okay so you don't get it on your hands, can wash it, perfect even tan, no streaks, you can get it mega dark if you like - and you can reach your back.

'Why haven't I gone on dragons den. Tesco were very confused when we told them what we were using their paint rollers for.

'PS I like to look megga dark you don't have to be this dark [sic].'

Amy had many people applaud her idea, with plenty suggesting they would try it out.

Vicki Ball posted that the technique was a 'game changer' while Donna Harris called it the 'best idea'.

Since posting the picture on February 4, Amy has had more than 21,700 people like her picture which showed her wearing a Calvin Klein crop top with a paint roller covered in fake tan.

However Imogen failed to create a similar look.

Commenting on how she looked, Amy wrote: 'I would just like to say that on behalf of myself and my paint roller, I am sorry to the girl who now looks like the same colour as my dining room table but actually I'm not sorry, you made my night.'
A young woman has publicly shamed her racist father after he sent a letter saying her family would leave her homeless and never speak to her again if she continued to date a black man.

Stephanie Hicks from Keller, Texas, shared the vile note on Twitter in which she was told she had 'disrespected her family in every way' by having a boyfriend with a different skin colour to her.

The dad, who claimed to be a Christian, gave her a final ultimatum - saying there were three empty suitcases waiting for her belongings to be packed in if she stayed with her partner, called Nike.

Stephanie Hicks from Keller, Texas, shared the vile note in which her father told her she had 'disrespected her family in every way' by having a boyfriend with a different skin colour

The couple pictured kissing on Twitter. He said if she chose boyfriend Nike 'over her family' she would be homeless and he never wanted any contact with her again, asking her to change her name as he didn't want to be associated with her

This is the letter that Stephanie posted to Twitter, having scribbled out some of the words. Her father wrote: He wrote: 'While it may not be anti-biblical, I know I will never accept it, and Ill never forgive you. My belief is that interracial relationships are despicable. Vulgar and reprehensible'

He wrote: 'While it may not be anti-biblical, I know I will never accept it, and Ill never forgive you. My belief is that interracial relationships are despicable. Vulgar and reprehensible.

'Theres nothing worse than a half-black, and Im crushed that my own daughter has entered into such a disgusting relationship.'

He went on to say that if he chose Nike 'over her family' he never wanted any contact with her again and asked her to change her name as he didn't want to be associated with her.

Stephanie , thought to be 19, uploaded a snap of the vile letter to Twitter commenting 'sad that it's 2016 and skin colour still matters', tagging her boyfriend.

She was met with overwhelming support and the post was retweeted more than 8,000 times and favourited by 7,000 people.

But she was also met with further abuse from racist users, and she has since deleted her account.

And in a twist, Stephanie has now met with further controversy after a screengrab of an apology, that appears to be written by her, was posted on Twitter. The note casts doubt on whether the letter was real or just a means of her getting back at him after an argument.

MailOnline has contacted Stephanie for comment.

Boyfriend Nike posted a photograph of the pair together in his car before his 'beautiful young lady' shared her father's letter online

She was told in the letter that three suitcases had been emptied for her to pack her things and leave the family home, should she continue dating Nike

The letter allegedly from her father read: 'This isnt easy, but you havent made it easy. Over the last several years, youve turned on everything that we tried to instill from childhood.

'Youre nowhere near the daughter I thought you would be at this point, and Im deeply broken-hearted.

'You treat both of us with contempt. Youve been using us for money, while disrespecting us in every way. You dress like a street walker, and you sulk when we take you to church. You have no respect for morals, and have abandoned any sense of righteousness.

'Yes, we had this discussion  sort of  a while back. At that time, I hoped I would eventually take the high road and come to accept an interracial relationship.

'The truth is that Im human, and I make choices of my own.

In another Twitter post, Nike shares a photo of himself with Stephanie who he refers to as his 'boo'

After Stephanie received the letter, Nike suggested that the couple should split as he didn't want to 'see her homeless', but his girlfriend refused to give into her racist father

'Mistakes can be forgiven, but you have willingly and consciously chosen a lifestyle of sickening choices, and I wont tolerate it.

'You have one final opportunity. Either end your relationship with Nike, or face the consequences.

'There are three suitcases emptied and waiting. If you choose this black kid over your parents, then fill them up and leave my house.

'Take my information out of your phone, and DO NOT attempt to contact me again, the rest of your life. Change your name as soon as possible, because I wont have any association with you. Ever.'

Both Stephanie and Nike have received many messages of support after sharing their story on Twitter

Stephanie's boyfriend later added a post on his Twitter account, reading: 'My girl's dad wrote that letter and once I read it I felt as though the mature thing to do was to end the relationship, I'm not about to see my girl homeless.'

But he said that Stephanie didn't want to split and instead told her parents they had broken up, but when the post of her letter went viral her family realised they were still together.

It is not known whether her father followed through with his threat.

Messages of support for the pair have flooded in on Twitter.

Mohammed Ali said the couple shouldn't 'let hatred tear them apart', while Phoebe Howland said some of the racist responses on Twitter had been as vile as the letter itself

Shonna White wrote: 'Much love for standing up, Stephanie. You're right, it's 2016 and skin colour shouldn't matter to anyone.'

Kaylee Casey said she was 'really sorry' she was having to go through the ordeal, and Terrense Lott added: 'As long as you and her are happy together, that's all that matters. Stay blessed.'

Mohammad Ali wrote: 'In all seriousness though, I hope this is resolved somehow. Good luck guys, don't let hatred tear you apart.'

Another user called Reece wrote: 'That isn't fatherly love...Take care of her bro.'
He harassed the other woman and posted revenge porn on Facebook

Cheated while she was pregnant but says he deserves a 'second chance'

A wife has revealed she has forgiven her cheating husband after he started a relationship with their lodger while she was pregnant.

Ashish Thamman, 29, from Birmingham, only admitted the two-year affair after posting a 20-minute video on Facebook of him and his mistress having sex.

But wife Ramanpreet Kaur, 31, told the Sunday Mercury she had decided to give Ashish a 'second chance' as he is a good father to their son Nishchay, five, who has global development delay and is bed-bound.

Ashish Thamman (left) and his pregnant wife, Ramanpreet (right), were living with the woman in rented accommodation in Birmingham when the affair began. Ramanpreet has forgiven him

Raman told the Sunday Mercury: 'He betrayed me but I am standing by him. He is a wonderful father.'

Thamman had a two and a half year affair with the housemate, but after she ended their relationship he bombarded her with 200 calls and then posted a 20-minute video of them having sex on Facebook.

Ashish Thamman and his pregnant wife, Ramanpreet, were living with the woman in rented accommodation in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham.

Asish formed a sexual relationship with her and kept it a secret from his wife, who was left disabled after she was hit by a car in 2011 while she was pregnant.

Asish formed a sexual relationship with their lodger - who is not named - and kept it a secret from his wife, who was left disabled after an accident in 2011 while she was pregnant

Ramanpreet told the Sunday Mercury: 'They both hid what they were doing behind my back so well  and these were the two closest people to me.

'I have a disabled son and she was lovely with him. I thought the world of her. I regarded her as my little sister.'

Ramanpreet believes her son's global development delay is down to her accident.

Ashish admitted he gave the woman 1,500 in cash and spent 500 on hair and beauty products. But when the woman decided to end the affair, he called her 200 times and sent her 50 text messages in three days.

Ashish then took matters further by creating a Facebook profile in the woman's mother's name and posting a video of one their illicit encounters - footage the woman did not even know existed.

The victim's family members were shocked, causing huge embarrassment and 'shame' to the woman.

Victoria Luke, prosecuting, told Birmingham Magistrates' Court: 'It would appear that for a period of time, despite being married, the defendant had a sexual relationship with the complainant.

Ashish admitted harassment and disclosing private photographs of his mistress, and was sentenced to 26-weeks imprisonment suspended for two years

Rampreet said Ashish, pictured, is a 'wonderful father' to their son Nishchay, five - who has global development delay and is bed-bound - and deserves a second chance

'Things turned sour and the woman no longer wanted a relationship with this defendant but he felt quite differently about that.

'She received at least 200 calls and 50 text messages, threatening to reveal a tape of him having sexual relations with her. She had no idea that a video had ever been made.

'He threatened that he would show this to her family and cause her shame.'

The victim moved to London to get away from what was happening but still continued to receive calls and texts, asking her to come back to the Midlands.

'Matters came to a head on September 30,' said Miss Luke.

Ramanpreet, with husband Ashish, said she had previously regarded the other woman as a 'little sister' and 'thought the world of her'

WHAT IS GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT DELAY? Children who do not reach two or more milestones in all areas of development may be described as having global developmental delay (GDD) if they have not reached two or more milestones in all areas of development. Motor skills - either motor skills like sitting up or rolling over and fine motor skills, for example picking up small objects Speech and language - which also includes babbling, imitating speech and identifying sounds, as well as understanding what other people are trying to communicate to them. Cognitive skills - the ability to learn new things, process information, organise their thoughts and remember things . Social and emotional skills - interacting with others and development of personal traits and feelings, as well as starting to understanding and respond to the needs and feelings of others. Advertisement

'The complainant was contacted by her cousin who stated that a Facebook account had been activated in the victim's mother's name and on that account had been posted a video of the defendant and the complainant having sexual intercourse.'

She said the woman had been left feeling 'scared and blackmailed' and that she felt she was at the mercy of the defendant. 'It is a huge betrayal of someone's privacy,' she said.

Sukhdip Randawa, defending, said Ashish had come from India to the UK with his wife and stayed in rented premises with the complainant.

He admitted he had the affair when his wife was pregnant.

He claimed he believed his mistress was going to make rape allegations against him and had posted the video as a form of 'self-preservation'.

Ashish, from Handsworth Wood, who had admitted harassment and disclosing private photos, was sentenced to 26-weeks imprisonment suspended for two years.

Magistrates described it as a 'nasty' offence. They also made an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting the woman, and ordered him to pay 185 costs and an 80 victim surcharge.
Kyrie Peters and her husband Craig were overjoyed when they found out they were expecting twins. But their happiness was short-lived when a 20-week scan revealed that their unborn sons had a life-threatening condition  and they were told the only hope of saving them was a pioneering operation that had to be carried out while they were still in the womb.

The boys were diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a condition that affects about 15 per cent of identical twins when they share a placenta and blood supply.

It means one twin gets too much blood, which can put a strain on the heart and lead to heart failure, while the other gets too little, affecting its growth and survival.

Pictured is the Peters family - Kyrie (left), Jude (second from left), Nyah (centre), Quinn (second from right), and Craig (right)

The Peterss surgeons at St Georges Hospital in London had to act quickly. They recommended a procedure involving a laser dividing the twins shared placenta in two, blocking off malfunctioning blood vessels and restoring an adequate oxygen and nutrient supply.

Kyrie and Craig, from Worthing in West Sussex, faced an agonising choice: if they went ahead with the surgery there was a one in three chance both twins would survive, a one in three chance only one would make it, and a one in three chance they would lose both.

Yet if they did nothing, there was a 90 per cent risk their sons would not survive.

It was the worst two days of our lives, recalls Kyrie, 28. We had gone to hospital that morning for a routine 20-week scan but we could see from the look on peoples faces that something wasnt right.

TTTS is a growing challenge for doctors because of the increasing number of twins. In 1984, just over 7,000 sets of twins were born in the UK. The figure is now 12,000.

This is partly due to rising birth rates, women having children later in life  increasing the likelihood of multiple births  and assisted reproduction technology, such as IVF.

In very mild cases, where the only signs are different levels of amniotic fluid around the two babies, only close monitoring is required.

In more complicated cases, treatment involves using a laser to selectively block off blood vessels to stop the blood flow between the two babies. While this treatment leads to the live birth of at least one twin in 85 per cent of cases, it can leave minuscule blood vessels in place, increasing the risk of the condition returning.

The new procedure, known as the Solomon technique, also blocks off any tiny blood vessels which are not visible but may cause problems after the treatment.

First, an ultrasound is used to identify the vascular equator of the placenta  a pattern of blood vessels indicating the dividing line between the individual territories of the twins. A tiny incision is made in the mothers abdomen, and a guide tube passed into the foetal sac for a laser to cut through the placenta.

Time is of the essence, says Basky Thilaganathan, a professor of foetal medicine who led the team that operated on Kyrie and her twins.

Prof Thilaganathan adds: Women tend to be seen within 24 hours and we operate seven days a week. The Solomon technique can be performed in 15 minutes. Complication rates are very low and we very rarely need to repeat the procedure.

Craig, a director of a PR company, was by Kyries side during the procedure. He recalls: I saw the tube and camera going in, and could see the twins on the screen  their faces, feet and hands.

We then had a six-hour wait for a scan to see whether the fluid levels had balanced out between the twins. Fortunately, they had and we could go home. It was an incredible journey  from desperation to elation in 48 hours.

Their sons Quinn and Jude, were eventually born three months premature in April 2014, weighing about 2lb each. Now 22 months old, they are healthy and thriving. Craig adds: Not a day goes by where we dont think of the staff at St Georges  and the parents who were not as lucky as we have been.
Only for babies: The life-saving meningitis vaccine is being given only to those under nine months old

A DOZEN young children will die this year and scores more will be maimed for life because a life-saving meningitis vaccine is being given only to babies, campaigners claimed last night.

Free NHS doses of the new Bexsero vaccine, which protects against meningitis B, have been limited to babies under nine months, as they are the most likely to catch the deadly bug.

But the charity Meningitis Now said this will leave millions of toddlers and pre-schoolers unprotected  meaning about 12 families will be hit by an avoidable death in 2016.

About 40 more will have to come to terms with their child suffering a serious, life-changing disability or brain damage.

Chief executive Sue Davie said NHS bosses should instigate a catch-up vaccination campaign to protect children up to five, as toddlers and pre-schoolers were the next most vulnerable age group after babies.

She said: With a disease that strikes so quickly, is hard to diagnose and has such devastating outcomes, we should be using the vaccine we have to protect the most at-risk groups.

More than 600,000 people have now signed a Government petition to give the vaccine to all children at least up to the age of 11.

The flood of support came after the parents of two-year-old Faye Burdett shared a picture of her shortly before she died of meningitis on Valentines Day.

Rugby hero Matt Dawson later posted a picture of son Sami on a life-support machine at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, his tiny body peppered with red blotches. The two-year-old has subsequently recovered.

Yesterday Dawson, 43, said that he and his wife Carolin, 30, never thought about getting their two children vaccinated privately because you think what the NHS offers should be fine.

Panic buying of the jab has prompted Bexsero manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to ask private clinics to stop offering the vaccine to new patients, to preserve supplies but stresses the NHS programme is unaffected. It costs at least 75 a dose privately but children need three jabs to give full protection.

Public Health England figures show babies under one accounted for almost a quarter of all cases in 2014/15  101 out of 418.

But there were also 139 cases among those aged one, two, three and four. About a tenth of cases are fatal. Of meningitis survivors, a third suffer serious lifelong health consequences.

Heartrending: A picture of Matt Dawson's sonSami at Great Ormond Street, which the rugby star posted in support of the vaccine campaign

Extending the catch-up campaign for all under fives would mean immunising another three million children but that could cost more than 100 million and some think the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Paediatrician Dr David Elliman said: There are other things that kill children, which need money too.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: New immunisation programmes are always introduced based on the best independent clinical recommendations to ensure we can protect those children most at risk.
Mercedes-Benz A 250 AMG

Rating:

As you are reading this, providing its some time on Sunday, I am scheduled to be up one of the many mountains in the Lake District.

I shall be either hot on the tail of Matt LeBlanc behind the wheel of an American Legend, or looking at him in my rear-view mirror bearing down heavily on the rear leaf springs of the Fifties British icon Ive been loaned to take him on. Yes, were filming Top Gear.

By now we should have spent most of Friday gunning it up north to overnight in Blackpool, met the donkeys on the beach yesterday and hopefully sampled some decent fish and chips and the odd pint of real ale on the way to Cumbria.

From a handling point of view, the Mercedes-Benz A 250 AMG is a car you just want to drive and keep on driving. I found myself staying in lower gears at higher revs for the sheer hell of it

This, in stark contrast to the weekends Ive just about become accustomed to: classic family weekends and, most important of all, classic Sunday family duvet days.

The duvet day has recently become a big hit in our house. Theyre our new favourite thing.

We declare them whenever we can, and various rules have now evolved. All members of the family must remain in their pyjamas from Saturday night until Monday morning.

Going out for the papers and some choice treats or vital supplies is allowed, but only if we go as one united crack unit on a stealth mission  otherwise we have to do without. Again, PJs must be worn at all times.

When it comes to control of the TV remote, kids get first pick, Mum goes second and Dad last. Cartoons of any length are limited to two each for the kids pre-and postmidday, and at least one major live sporting event must feature for the grown-ups.

A family Lego build, jigsaw or board game must be ongoing throughout.

There is an absolute ban on the use of cutlery to eat food  although a knife, fork and spoon can be employed in the preparation of sandwiches and various finger foods or snacks.

NB, takeaways are enthusiastically encouraged, especially a lunchtime Indian or Chinese, which is then left out for grazing purposes for the rest of the day.

Ah, Sunday Sweet Sunday, forever precious. Last week our duvet day ended with one of the best two-part documentaries Ive seen in ages: Greece With Simon Reeve.

Inside we have the usual new Mercedes chic. I particularly like the faux leather, carbon-fibre dash effect and the super-comfortable fabric seats, which may have set a new world record for heating up in the shortest time

If you have a spare two hours any time soon, you could do a lot worse than play catch-up with Simons excellent account of the madness that has befallen Greece since its entry into the Euro in 2001.

Originally broadcast on BBC2 at 8pm last Sunday and the Sunday before, this fantastically observed, frightening and perceptive insight into whats gone wrong there chilled me to the bone.

I woke up at 3am the next day still thinking about it, unable to get back to sleep. To say Greece still has an issue with the Germans is putting it mildly.

Following on from the atrocities they meted out to thousands of innocent Greeks during the Second World War, Merkel and co seem to be firmly cast once again in the role of hostile aggressor.

But this time standing accused of using financial clout instead of the military to strangle the once-great Grecian populace.

Safe to say, then, that I cant see that many new Merc A 250 AMGs rolling off the next load of car transporters in Athens any time soon.

That said, Im not sure if what I was sent to test this week was an AMG in the first place.

The paperwork said as much, but when the car arrived there was not a single AMG badge to be seen.

Not a single AMG growl or gurgle to be heard. Strange. Whatever. The A250s styling is AMG-attractive  a good-looking car indeed. Modern but not gimmicky, so hopefully it will not date too quickly.

You could argue that the engine is a bit noisy on start-up but sitting in the car with the door closed its as quiet as a mouse, and thats all that really matters

Like the seemingly timeless VW Scirocco, its small and chunky but perfectly proportioned, stopping well before the wrong side of ostentatious.

Style often comes at a price, though, and to be honest thats the only major downside here.

The dramatically rakish but therefore drastically compromised roof line means it ends up feeling a wee bit claustrophobic indoors.

Not squished, by any means, but more teenagers and kid-friendly in the back than big boys on the way to the Six Nations. The windscreen feels pretty in yer face too. Everything else, in a nutshell, is ace.

Inside we have the usual new Mercedes chic.

TECH SPEC From 28,995, mercedes-benz.co.uk Engine 2.0-litre petrol Transmission Six-speed manual Power 218hp 0-60mph 6.3 seconds Top speed 149mph Fuel consumption 41.5mpg CO2 emissions 158g/km (180/year tax band) Advertisement

I particularly like the faux leather, carbon-fibre dash effect and the super-comfortable fabric seats, which may have set a new world record for heating up in the shortest time. And whats not to like about the odd sporty red seatbelt?

A flash of colour here and there always brightens up proceedings, and red on black is among the best of all combos.

I also liked the constantly changing ambient mood lighting that kicks in when the vehicle is not running but still active.

And the audio sound quality is stunning, without a recognised outsourced logo hanging around to claim credit.

Maybe its living in sin with those missing AMG badges. So all good then, with the single exception of the otherwise glorious new gearbox, which is a joy to play with, except for reverse, which is an awkward lift.

All the way to the left and down. This felt prehistoric in comparison to the six-cog forward gate that was knife-through-butter smooth and as tight as the cocked wrist of a fly fisherman.

From a handling point of view, this is a car you just want to drive and keep on driving.

I found myself staying in lower gears at higher revs for the sheer hell of it, while almost commentating vaingloriously on my own cornering I was having so much fun. It has great braking, too.

AND THE VERDICT? This is a car you just want to drive and keep on driving. And its a bit of a looker, too. Advertisement

You could argue that the engine is a bit noisy on start-up but sitting in the car with the door closed its as quiet as a mouse, and thats all that really matters.

The motor in question is a two-litre four-banger with barely any noticeable turbo lag.

Feisty, though nowhere near as exciting as the (much pricier) A45 AMG. But itll do more than fine for most folks. And heres the biggie.

Do you remember the lacklustre, sort of nothing Honda HR-V from last week?

Well this car, which feels like its in a completely different class, almost like its from a different era, is only 2,940 more expensive. As icing goes, that sure sounds sweet to me.

DRIVE TALKING

WHAT'S HOT ON THE TOAD THIS WEEK

WIth NICK BAGOT

ALPINE ADVENTURES

Renault is to revive its Alpine performance brand next year with a two-seater sports car based on the stunning Vision concept unveiled this week. The Alpine marque, bought by Renault in 1973, was founded in 1955 and those with long memories will note the Visions resemblance to the iconic and extremely pretty Alpine A110 of the early Seventies. The new model will likely have a 250hp 1.8-litre engine and be small, light  and very rapid

ESTATE OF THE ART
The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story Monday, BBC2

Rating:

Countryfile Sunday, BBC1

Rating:

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were brutally murdered outside her LA home.

Her ex-husband, the footballer-turned-actor, OJ Simpson, stood trial and was acquitted. (Sorry, history is not a spoiler.)

The trial, which was televised live, obsessed the American people, as it brought everything into the mix: race, class, sex, violence, sport, celebrity and Hollywood.

The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story is blissfully directed, without a single wasted scene. It is beautifully performed, even if John Travoltas face deserves separate billing

It was an American cultural moment, an American story. We were interested, but not fanatically, and most of us have now forgotten the details anyhow. (I know I have.)

I therefore approached the docudrama The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story dutifully, with a heavy heart, reasoning that it would be an hour Id never get back, but as I had nothing better to do with that hour (I lead a dazzlingly boring life; seriously) it would not be a tragedy. But I was blown away. The first episode (of ten) was tremendous.

The writing is sharp. It is blissfully directed, without a single wasted scene.

It is beautifully performed, even if John Travoltas face deserves separate billing, as it appears to have nothing to do with John Travolta any more. I was riveted. I could not take my eyes from any of it.

Even if Poldark had wandered into the room topless, I would not have looked up.

Not now, Ross, I would have said, dismissively.

And if, say, Prince Andrei had miraculously come back to life and offered to take me to where the Russian soldiers skinny-dip, I would have been equally dismissive, but probably not before making an appointment for another time.

Im not made of stone, you know. There were no narrative high jinks at play here.

It started at the very beginning, when a passing dog sniffed out Nicoles and Goldmans bodies.

Like Serial (the podcast), and Netflixs Making Of A Murderer, this is true crime as told through the legal process; as told through the lawyers who, as characters, are brought so vividly to life. Simpson, who was rich and famous back then, hired the dream defence team.

He hired Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer), a lawyer who was also a close friend and who is, incidentally, the father of all those girls I can never tell apart, one of whom has an exceptionally big bum. (He is hilariously loyal and cant believe it when OJ flunks a lie-detector test.)

The other lawyers are Robert Shapiro (a compellingly camp Travolta. Plus face) and Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B Vance), who picks his suit colours according to whether he has a meeting with Michael Jackson that day. (If he does, he cant wear lime, because Michael is phobic about lime.)

On the other side, we have the prosecutor, Marcia Clark (the excellent Sarah Paulson), a harried single mother who has it in for Simpson once she learns he had beaten Nicole up in the past.

When its found that Nicoles blood matches the blood found in Simpsons home she imagines she has him.

As you would. This deftly works in the context without shouting it from the rooftops. You understand its a world in which celebrities expect special treatment.

You understand the escalating racial tension. And while this never downplays the seriousness of the crime, it is darkly funny.

Not in Kimmys room! shouts Kardashian, when OJ is staying with him, and is threatening to blow his brains out in his daughters bedroom.

Ive yet to mention that Cuba Gooding Jr plays OJ possibly because OJ seems the least of it, and it may be the one performance that doesnt measure up.

Simpson was fantastically charismatic, so it is said, but Gooding plays him as a tiresome grumbler.

But the fact is, I want to know what is going to happen even though I know what is going to happen.

And thats great drama.

Countryfile is like Blue Peter or The One Show, but in a field. Additionally, it seems to share the same worldview as Ukip, always nostalgically yearning for a Britain of the past

As an indoorsy sort of person, Countryfile has never been high on my viewing list, but it saw off War And Peace in the ratings, continues to see off Call The Midwife, and Im guessing its still seeing off Dickensian (will it ever stop? Will it?).

So I watched for the first time and have to say its about as exciting as pairing socks. (I accept I may find pairing socks more exciting than most, given my dazzlingly boring life.) It is banally condescending. It is like Blue Peter or The One Show, but in a field.

Additionally, it seems to share the same worldview as Ukip, always nostalgically yearning for a Britain of the past  the coalmines, werent they great?  that never was.

They seem to have singled out Matt Baker as the poetic one, so he has to look out across the landscape in his beanie and say: There is a raw beauty to this place with honest scars of its industrial past.

As opposed to dishonest scars? I dont know who writes the script but it may be the same person who writes all that rubbish for Natures Miracle Orphans, which I watch because I like baby animals.

Africa wouldnt be Africa without lions, said that zoologist this week, even though it would.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Theres an inevitable rule in my column-writing life that when I tear a strip off someone new, I bump into them.

Two days ago, I hammered Elton Johns husband, David Cruella de Vil Furnish, for ruthlessly expunging all the singers long-time aides from his life.

Tonight, I dined at Craigs restaurant in Beverly Hills and found myself placed directly opposite him, less than four feet away.

Tonight, I dined at Craigs restaurant in Beverly Hills and found myself placed directly opposite Elton John, less than four feet away. For an hour or so we pretended not to notice each other

For an hour or so we pretended not to notice each other.

Then our eyes met and locked in mutual withering antipathy.

His expression said: The King Elton and I will exact revenge, Morgan, you treacherous little weasel.

Mine said: Bring it on, Cruella, you spineless little toad.

This new feud is going to be fun.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10

When youre on the downward slope in Hollywood, Sylvester Stallone once told me, you can bet your life that there will be many volunteers eager to throw banana peels and additional oil on the decline.

'I met Peter Sellers once, and he said, Sylvester, remember the three Hs: Hollywood Hates Happiness. I never forgot that line.

Stallones my favourite movie star. I love his movies so much I even named my cat  the only pet Ive had in my life  Rocky Balboa.

Ive waited 40 years for this and it came when I least expected it,' said Sylvester Stallone on his Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor for Creed)

Stallone is a self-aware, highly amusing, surprisingly articulate and searingly honest guy whos always worn his heart on his sleeve, on and off camera.

A while ago, he invited me round to his LA mansion to watch a Floyd Mayweather fight in his private cinema, and we drank fine French wine, chomped on Monte Cristo cigars and chewed on life s gristle.

Do you wish youd won an Oscar for your acting? I asked him that night.

Of course! But action movies are always seen as the bottom rung of thespian endeavour  thats just the way it is. I wasnt going to get great dramatic roles while I played Rocky and Rambo all the time. You cant have it both ways.

I thought back to this conversation when it was announced hed been Oscar-nominated (Best Supporting Actor) for his stunning performance as an ageing, cancer-stricken Rocky in the seventh movie of the franchise, Creed.

Ironically, hed finally got that great dramatic role he yearned for playing the very character he believed had thwarted it for so long.

Tonight, I attended the Hollywood Reporters Nominees Night party at Spago restaurant.

The air was pungent with that unmistakable scent of desperation.

Being nominateds fine, but its the winning that counts.

Nobody wants to be THAT loser with THAT fixed grin pretending to be THAT thrilled when a rival wins YOUR award.

A barrage of flashblubs erupted and in walked Sylvester Stallone.

Hes a magnificent specimen. Not in a Ryan Reynolds way.

No, Slys beauty comes from how battered he looks; a face and body scarred and mangled by the physical hell of making action movies for four decades, and a mind and heart scarred and mangled by the ups and downs of life. (He was heartbroken when his son Sage died of heart disease in 2012, aged just 36.)

Sly! I cried.

Yo, Piers! (He didnt really say Yo!, I just wish he had.)

Excited?

Very excited, he replied, and nervous. Ive waited 40 years for this and it came when I least expected it.

Send your Twitter questions to @piersmorgan using the hashtag #askpiers  and every week Ill answer the most amusing

'I genuinely thought my time had come and gone. Then I get sent this new Rocky script where Im an old, sick guy and initially Im like, Forget it, but here I am.

Its irregular... I suggested, mimicking Rockys speech.

VERY irregular, he chuckled. I was young, impetuous and surrounded by a lot of idiots when the first Rocky did so well.

'So I didnt appreciate it properly. Now, after all Ive been through, this feels very special.

The whole Rocky franchise has been like a Rocky movie, I said. Full of triumphs like the first film, and disasters like Rocky V, but now ending on this incredible high.

He nodded. I never thought of it like that, but youre right.

Behind us, just 20 yards away, Sam Smith was singing Writings On The Wall.

Stallone smiled ruefully.

You know, this town has a way of crushing you when things go bad, just takes your head and tramples on it. It can be a lonely, awful place when that happens. But when things go well, like now, theres no place Id rather be.

Dont get too happy, I said. Hollywood hates happiness!

Ha! Peter Sellers!

I imagine youll feel pretty happy standing on that stage clutching the Oscar, if you win?

Absolutely. It would be the pinnacle, the culmination of an amazing, insane journey with the greatest character anyone could ever dream of.

Youre going to win.

How can you be so sure?

Because Rocky always wins in the end.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Eamonn Holmes is jubilant after coming higher than me in Heat magazines annual Weird Crush list.

He was 21st, I was 22nd.

Have beaten Piers Morgan in Heats gorgeous people poll! he tweeted. He hasnt taken it well.

Actually, Im thrilled.

Who wants to win a weird crush poll?

All this result proves is that Im a less weird crush than Mr Holmes.

Therefore, de facto, better-looking.
The former Scary Spice really, really hated working at Pizza Hut, is terrified of being alone, will never forget meeting Mandela  and wishes she had the girl power to be 21 for ever

What scares you? 'Being alone. The thought of having no contact with anybody terrifies me. I love texting, being on my phone, FaceTiming my kids and talking to my friends,' said Mel B

What is your earliest memory?

My sixth birthday party at home in Leeds. Mum had baked a chocolate cake that looked absolutely horrendous  but tasted amazing.

What sort of child were you?

Hyperactive  I still am. I ran everywhere rather than walk, and I had lots to say about everything. I was the child who was always doing shows in the lounge, always wanting attention.

Which living person do you dislike the most and why?

Anyone racist. Anybody of colour will have experienced racism at some point in their life and I definitely have  Im not fully black and Im not fully white. I am a mix and people get confused.

What is the worst job youve done?

Working at Pizza Hut in Leeds when I was 14. I got everybodys orders wrong and just ate pizza the whole time. I only lasted there a couple of months.

Tell us something nobody knows about you

I enjoy sewing and Im really good at it. I sew the kids clothes and adjust my own clothes. I dont have a sewing machine, I do it all with a needle and thread.

What has been your greatest achievement? 'Being part of the Spice Girls. To have five girls, from all different walks of life, who are still friends 20 years later  thats an achievement,' said Mel B

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

To Blackpool. When I was 16 I was a dancer in a show called Mystique at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I danced there for a season, working five days a week, earning my own money and it was so much fun. I was young, single and had my first one-bedroom flat. It was a great time of my life.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

I like everything about myself because I have no choice. It is what it is. You have to love the skin youre in.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

Jada Pinkett Smith. I know Jada and shes a great actress so hopefully shed be a good representation of me.

What is your most unappealing habit?

I colour-coordinate everything. It drives my kids mad. They always say Mum, why do we have to put our red shoes next to the other red shoes? and I say because it makes sense. It does their heads in. But I dont think I have OCD.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Watching The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. Its no-brainer TV.

What is your most treasured possession?

My meditation chair. I bought it from a charity shop in London when I was 17. The woman in the shop told me it was from India and I dont know if I believed her but it sounded plausible. Meditation is a big part of my life  Ive done it since I was very young. I meditate at least a couple of times a week.

Describe the best night of your life: 'Meeting Nelson Mandela at his house in South Africa in 1997. I was in the Spice Girls and he invited us over for dinner. It was just us and him, very private and just amazing,' said Mel B

What scares you?

Being alone. The thought of having no contact with anybody terrifies me. I love texting, being on my phone, FaceTiming my kids and talking to my friends.

What has been your greatest achievement?

Being part of the Spice Girls. To have five girls, from all different walks of life, who are still friends 20 years later  thats an achievement.

Describe the best night of your life

Meeting Nelson Mandela at his house in South Africa in 1997. I was in the Spice Girls and he invited us over for dinner. It was just us and him, very private and just amazing because he was talking to us and giving us advice about life. I remember he said: Always be aware of whats going on around you and take care of your friends. The whole thing was a surreal and beautiful experience. I dont think I ate anything at all. I coudnt I was much too fascinated with the conversation.

Who would be your dream dinner date?

Marilyn Monroe. Wed have got on. Ive got a lot of her artwork splattered over the walls of my house in LA. People think they know her but I dont think they do. She led a mysterious life.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?

When I fell over on stage the night I turned on the Leeds Christmas lights in 1998. It was soaking wet, and when I slipped the crowd went ooh!

What is your biggest disappointment?

That we all get old and die. It doesnt seem fair to me. Why cant I stay 21 or 31 for ever and ever, amen?
Triple 9 Cert: 15 Time: 1hr 56mins

Rating:

Last weekend, Kate Winslet very deservedly picked up the Bafta for Best Supporting Actress for her wonderful performance in Steve Jobs, and she stands every chance of making it a double at next weekends Oscars.

I hate to spoil her fun but Id be failing in my professional duty if I didnt point out that the chances of her repeating such a feat next year  at least for her performance in the newly released police thriller Triple 9  are just about zero.

Goodness, this is an unpleasant, unlikeable and pointlessly complicated picture.

You know a film is in trouble when the first captions pop up as we approach the 90th minute  shouldnt we know whats going on by then?

Its one of those films during which you spend the first two-thirds desperately trying to work out exactly what is happening, and the final third wondering why you bothered.

Its directed by the Australian film-maker John Hillcoat, whose strike rate, at least as far as Im concerned, is about 50 per cent.

I liked Lawless and The Proposition, but I absolutely hated the post-apocalyptic tedium of The Road and I feel pretty much as negative about Triple 9.

At some point in the creative process, he ought to have been able to stand back and think Nope, this isnt working, but apparently not. It just goes on and on and pointlessly on.

Its set in Atlanta, Georgia, and it doesnt take long to discover that this is a story of modern-day police corruption.

Woody Harrelson, who, discovering hes been given the relatively minor role of the detective supposedly in pursuit of the gang, goes royally and disastrously over the top

At least one member of the gang we watch robbing a bank is a serving police officer and, judging by his uncompromising behaviour, hes not so much undercover as an enthusiastic participant. But are more of the gang fellow cops?

I cant tell you how unexciting it is finding out, or how laboured the eventual explanation is that some of them turn out to be something different altogether.

What we do discover is that the gangs Russian mafia employers  improbably represented by a brassily blonde Winslet equipped with unplaceable Slavic accent  are not happy.

They will only pay out if the gang  corrupt cop(s) and all  agree to do another job.

And this is such a big one, the gang is going to need something big to distract the men and women of Georgias finest such as the fatal wounding of a police officer  a Triple 9, to embrace local police parlance.

Film-maker John Hillcoat should have been aiming to deliver another Serpico or Training Day but instead turns in something significantly more disappointing than J C Chandors underwhelming A Most Violent Year

The film has a fine ensemble cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie and Aaron Paul from TVs Breaking Bad but rarely can so much talent have laboured to so little effect playing such poorly established characters.

Winslet, who is very nearly as miscast as Kristin Scott Thomas was in Nicolas Winding Refns violent Bangkok thriller Only God Forgives, certainly isnt the worst of them.

That dubious honour belongs to Woody Harrelson, who, discovering hes been given the relatively minor role of the detective supposedly in pursuit of the gang, goes royally and disastrously over the top.

He slurs, he mumbles, he eats with his mouth full, and I wouldnt be surprised if the decision to make his character an alcoholic with a fondness for consuming the drugs seized in the course of his duties was his rather than that of first-time writer Matt Cook.

Apart from failing to spot the tedium of the plot or keep a lid on some of the performances, Hillcoat gets his pacing badly wrong too, giving us a film that goes on at least 20 minutes too long

Mind you, given the mess Cook makes of the rest of it, its a tricky call.

But you know a film is in trouble when the first captions pop up as we approach the 90th minute  shouldnt we know whats going on by then?

IT'S A FACT Triple 9 was dogged by casting difficulties. The movie was originally built around Shia LaBeouf in the lead. He was replaced by Charlie Hunnam before he too was replaced by Affleck Advertisement

The fact that we dont has to be down to the experienced Hillcoat, who should have been aiming to deliver another Serpico or Training Day but instead turns in something significantly more disappointing than J C Chandors underwhelming A Most Violent Year.

Apart from failing to spot the tedium of the plot or keep a lid on some of the performances, Hillcoat gets his pacing badly wrong too, giving us a film that goes on at least 20 minutes too long and in which one shootout is so overextended that Id forgotten who was shooting whom  let alone why  long before the end of it.

Triple 9? The emergency is finding the exit.

SECONDCREEN

The Finest Hours (12A)  is a tale of remarkable American heroism and, boy, doesnt it know it, with director Craig Gillespie generally overcooking things in pretty much every department.

But  thanks to a mix of impressive special and visual effects  he still just about holds on to what is undeniably a good yarn.

Set in the early Fifties, its the true story of a young U.S. coastguard officer, Bernie Webber (Chris Pine), who is ordered out to sea amid one of the worst storms the Massachusetts coast has ever seen.

The depictions of both lifeboat and stricken tanker are excellent and The Finest Hours does have an old-school appeal, albeit an obviously manufactured one

One oil tanker has already broken in half and another is about to follow. But can Bernie and his crew possibly make it over the sandbanks in these mountainous seas and find the drifting stern section of the Pendleton in the dark?

Pine channels his inner Jimmy Stewart, and Casey Affleck (playing the Pendletons chief engineer) his inner James Dean, while Holliday Grainger is a minor irritant as Bernies over-protective fiancee.

But in a film that is one part The Caine Mutiny and one part The Perfect Storm, the depictions of both lifeboat and stricken tanker are excellent and the film does have an old-school appeal, albeit an obviously manufactured one.

On paper, the story of a terminally ill detective struggling to leave her police pension to her lesbian partner hardly sounds promising. But thanks to some superlative acting and a beautifully constructed screenplay, Freeheld (12A)  is one of the unsung pleasures of the winter.

Julianne Moore and Ellen Page both shine in low-key ways in Freeheld, while there is tremendous support from Michael Shannon and Steve Carell

Julianne Moore plays Laurel Hester, who has kept her sexuality a secret for most of her 23-year career. But then she meets the love of her life, a young motor mechanic called Stacie Andree (Ellen Page).

Its soon after theyve bought a house together and entered into a domestic partnership that Laurel discovers she is ill.

Moore and Page both shine in low-key ways, while there is tremendous support from Michael Shannon and Steve Carell.

Dakota Johnson is cute, while Rebel Wilson delivers pretty much what she always delivers. But the strands dont come together as they should in How To Be Single

Its really not that long since Trainwreck and Sleeping With Other People both saw the light of cinematic day, so its no surprise that How To Be Single (15)  struggles to say anything new about the modern dating game in New York City.

Dakota Johnson plays Alice, who lives with her sister Meg (Leslie Mann), works at a law firm alongside new best friend Robin (Rebel Wilson), and has the hots for local bartender Tom (Anders Holm).

Johnson is cute and Mann very funny as the desperate-for-a-baby Meg, while Wilson delivers pretty much what she always delivers. But the strands dont come together as they should.

Bone Tomahawk begins and ends with moments of such sickening violence its difficult to remember that what comes in between is actually rather good, if in a clearly Tarantino-inspired way

Bone Tomahawk (18)  begins and ends with moments of such sickening violence its difficult to remember that what comes in between is actually rather good, if in a clearly Tarantino-inspired way.

Indeed, the presence of The Hateful Eight star Kurt Russell only reinforces the similarity of the two films.

The good news is that Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins are rather effective as the posse that sets off to rescue a kidnapped doctors wife and deputy sheriff.
A sleek and sumptuous blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca

Mother s Day has to be the single most important day of the year.

Without mums wed all be zeros, which is why theyre our heroes and why I am giving a full two weeks notice on the top bottles to make her day.

Etch March 6 in your diary and lets hunt the wine of Mums dreams.

Buying wine as a gift is all about the preferences of the person youre buying it for.

There is no right or wrong bottle  only the wine that works best for the person sipping it. If Britains best-selling rose Champagne from Lanson hits the spot, seize it.

If a big-brand Californian white Zinfandel is the wine of Mums dreams, grab it.

And if beefy reds are her dream squeeze, ride the bottle aisles bareback until you hit that hefty bulls-eye.

Perhaps Mum loves quirky wines from little-known vineyards conjured by the dedicated guardians of ancient bush vines, so hunt out your local independent wine merchant for guidance.

If organic and biodynamic wine is her thing, the excellent and full-flavoured Champagne Fleury Blanc de Noirs NV (12.5 per cent) is on offer for 25 from vintageroots.co.uk, or visit abelandcole.co.uk, which has a growing vino range alongside its trademark fruit and veg.

For a quality fizz from Argentina, Ruca Malens Sparkling Traditional Method bubbly (12 per cent) from corneyandbarrow.com is stupendous for 15.95.

WHERE I'VE SIPPED RECENTLY IMPERIAL CHINA, LISLE STREET, LONDON At Imperial China on Valentines Day we had a delicious bottle of Italian Biferno red with our scrumptious Chinese banquet! Advertisement

Back on the high street, theres plenty of choice and good value such as Aldis Val de Loire Pouilly Fume 2014 (12.5 per cent) for only 8.99, which is incredible for Sauvignon Blanc of this calibre.

But with two weeks to go, its well worth gathering together that extra bit of cash to bag Mum the bottle of her dreams and spend time sourcing it from a stockist who specialises in wines with oodles of character, quality and class.
Eugene Delacroix invented modern art. Renoir obsessed over his bold still lifes of flowers. Picasso imitated his crowded compositional styles, painting 1954s Les Femmes DAlger in tribute to The Women Of Algiers In Their Apartment (1834).

Paul Cezanne stole his colour technique and spoke for a generation of great artists when he said: We all paint in Delacroixs language.

Delacroix, who is the subject of a new show at the National Gallery, was born in 1798.

Eugene Delacroix invented modern art. Renoir obsessed over his bold still lifes of flowers. Picasso imitated his crowded compositional styles, painting 1954s Les Femmes DAlger in tribute to one of his works

He was the son of a leading figure in the post-1789 French revolutionary government, though gossip insisted his real father was Napoleons womanising and devious foreign minister, Talleyrand.

Appropriately, Delacroix was awkward from the beginning. Artists were expected to learn to draw before they could paint.

Delacroix simply went into the Louvre and let masters like Rubens be his tutors.

His first great picture, The Barque Of Dante (1822), showing the poet and his guide Virgil crossing into Hell, jammed the canvas with figures and was denounced as chaotic and confused. But as his journals made clear, Delacroix didnt care.

The first merit for a painting is to be a feast for the eye, he would write in his last-ever entry. Nothing else mattered.

The journals also used a rudimentary code, the artist placing an X alongside a models name.

It meant she did more than model that day, says Christopher Riopelle, curator of the National Gallery exhibition, Delacroix And The Rise Of Modern Art.

And there were an awful lot of Xs. There would have been a mattress in the studio  Delacroix was highly sexual.

Artists were expected to learn to draw before they could paint. Delacroix simply went into the Louvre and let masters like Rubens be his tutors (above, Christ On The Sea Of Galilee, 1853)

He was also physically brave; Delacroix saw the 1830 revolution at first hand on the streets of Paris.

On a trip to North Africa in 1832, he risked his life to witness a frenzied religious procession that became the subject of Convulsionists Of Tangier (1838).

The North Africa trip profoundly affected Delacroix, exposing him to what seemed to be an exotic and sensual culture.

Established French painters such as Ingres were poised  Delacroix wanted wildness.

He worshipped the British Romantic poets and writers Lord Byron and Walter Scott and pillaged literature, myth, the Bible and contemporary conflicts to find drama for his work.

Delacroix painted crusaders entering Constantinople, Greeks fighting Turks, men wrestling angels and Arab raiding parties falling upon each other. Massacre At Chios (1824), his masterpiece of pathos and terror from the raging Greek war of independence, was called a massacre of art by one critic.

In The Death Of Sardanapalus (1827), where a defeated Assyrian king awaits his fate amid the slaughter of the court concubines, so much is happening that the dazzled viewer wonders where to look.

The answer, as often the case with Delacroix, is at the naked lady.

Delacroix was a sensualist inside the studio and out.

He never married but engaged in intense relationships  particularly with the French novelist George Sand and her lover, the Polish composer Chopin, in a rumoured menage a trois.

Such rumour followed Delacroix all his life, but as he aged the gossip turned cruel. Our great visionary, mocked Paris wits, had lost it.

Then in 1861, two years before his death, Delacroix spectacularly proved them wrong when he revealed his huge murals, including Jacob Wrestling With The Angel at St Sulpice, the citys second-largest church after Notre Dame.

The Paris art world queued to wonder at the work of a painter in his full and brilliant maturity  Delacroix had done it again.

A SELECTION OF DELACROIX'S PAINTINGS...

Lion Hunt, 1861 In a widescreen scene of violent frenzy, Delacroix pays tribute to his hero Rubens  but also shows the old master how it should be done. In the wild, lions are seldom this supremely savage, and its likely that Delacroixs only face-to-face encounter with a big cat was at the zoo, on the dissecting table or at a taxidermists studio. But animals offered Delacroix excitement  and what could be more exciting than a lion hunt?

Convulsionists Of Tangier, 1838 In 1832, the 34-year-old artist joined a diplomatic mission to Morocco and Algeria that would change his life. In Convulsionists Of Tangier he exults in the frenzy of a wild procession of Muslim Sufis  reason has been overthrown and the danger is palpable. Delacroix hid behind a wall to watch, fully aware that hed be killed if discovered

Combat Of The Giaour And The Pasha, 1835 Full of verve, desperation and excitement, this painting of clashing horsemen would have been recognisable to gallery goers as a scene from Lord Byrons The Giaour, an epic poem of love, slighted honour and violent death in the Ottoman Empire. Delacroix was drawn to Britain and the British; he admired the Romantic poets and his lithographs illustrated French translations of Walter Scott and Shakespeare. On his visits to London, Delacroix bought suits and shoes, championing the British style among the dandies of Paris

Christ On The Sea Of Galilee, 1853 Van Gogh loved the intense green sea in this painting and it prefigures much of what was to come. Chagall said: I was stunned by the revelation of Delacroix. I didnt notice the subject matter, it was the materials. The faces of the disciples are blurred brushwork suggestions  Delacroix is seeking emotions and movement rather than replicating actual people. It would be a key tenet of the modernist movements that followed
The Bridge On The River Kwai, the Vietnam photos of Don McCullin... but when the BBC presenter wants a break from battle there's always Eskimo throat singing

Bill Turnbull has presented 'Breakfast' on BBC1 for 15 years but will say goodbye to the show this week with his last appearance on Friday

My movie magic

I first saw The Bridge On The River Kwai, about the construction of the Burma Railway, when I was seven years old and it made a huge impression on me

The Bridge On The River Kwai, about the construction of the Burma Railway, made a huge impression on me. I was seven years old when I first saw it at my local cinema in Esher, Surrey, and I remember walking in to hear the prisoners whistling the Colonel Bogey March. In those days the screens were enormous, the sound overwhelming. I was carried away by the whole experience.

Im a member of Macclesfield Silkscreen Film Society, which shows wonderful foreign films every fortnight. The ones that stayed with me are Butterflys Tongue, about the build-up to the Spanish Civil War, and The Lunchbox, a beautifully shot Indian romance.

My TV gold

I was at boarding school so only got to see TV in the holidays but used to watch Match Of The Day with my dad when Jimmy Hill was the presenter. It's still one of my favourite programmes and a Saturday night ritual

I was locked up in boarding school for ten years, so I only got to see TV in the holidays. In the Seventies, I used to enjoy Match Of The Day with my dad. The late Jimmy Hill was the presenter and they had three games on. Its still one of my favourites, and if my sons, who are 27 and 26, are around, we watch it as a Saturday night ritual.

Music to my ears

I'm a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen and when Born To Run came out I played the album to death. Another band I am very fond of is the fabulous Scottish group, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Im a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen and when Born To Run came out I played the album to death. I love second-hand record shops and if I ever get a couple of quid together, I go off and squander it on vinyl. I end up with everyone from Tom Waits to a fabulous Scottish group called The Sensational Alex Harvey Band that I am very fond of.

Dont touch that dial

When I was a child, I was allowed to listen to the comedy programme that followed The Archers on the BBC's Light Programme. My favourite was The Clitheroe Kid

When I was a child I used to listen to BBCs Light Programme. At bedtime I was allowed to listen to the comedy after The Archers. My favourite was The Clitheroe Kid.

Since I got married in 1988 we have been a Radio 4 household. I love listening to Eddie Mair on PM. He is challenging, innovative, and funny, and his show is far more engaging than your average news and current affairs programme. When I go to bed I often listen to Radio 3s Late Junction. It has a very broad mix of music, ranging from the ancient to the experimental. Only recently, I heard some Eskimo throat singing. It wasnt exactly harmonious, but it was very interesting.

The plays my thing

Kevin Spacey in one-man show Clarence Darrow is the only non-Shakespeare play I've seen. I have great admiration for Spacey but the play didn't work for me as he was facing away from me at least half the time

Everything Ive seen over the last year has been pretty much Shakespeare-related. My daughter directed Much Ado About Nothing at Sheffield University, and her boyfriend was in Henry V. We also went to see Othello at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The only non-Shakespeare play Ive seen was Clarence Darrow at The Old Vic with Kevin Spacey. I have great admiration for him but it didnt work for me as it was a one-man show in the round, so he was facing away at least half the time.

The art in my heart

Ai Weiwei's recent exhibition at the Royal Academy was the last thing I saw: I love how he mixes art, politics and architecture. But, as a teenager, I was deeply struck by Don McCullin's images of the Vietnam war

I was deeply struck as a teenager by the photography of Don McCullin. His images of Vietnam still resonate.

The last thing I saw was Ai Weiweis exhibition at the Royal Academy. I love how he mixes art, politics and architecture.

Words of wonder

I tend to fall asleep when I try to read a book - one of the problems of getting up at 3am for Breakfast. Although I've been reading a few 'country' books recently including Helen MacDonald's H Is For Hawk

One of the problems of getting up at 3am for Breakfast is that whenever I try to read a book, I tend to fall asleep. Ive been reading a few country books recently: H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald, and James Rebanks The Shepherds Life, which tells it like it is. The Smell Of Summer Grass is also a beautiful account by Adam Nicolson of his attempts to renovate a farm.

The book I read time and again as a pre-boarding school child was Shadow The Sheepdog by Enid Blyton, which involves two of my favourite topics  dogs and the countryside.
The dictionary definition of It-girl has been left in the 90s, but Phoebe Collings-James is not short on the creative kind of cool that it means today. Front Row met with the artist/DJ/model/fashion-week favourite on set for her latest ad campaign with Karen Millen, which also stars model Angela Lindvall (below)

Your favourite piece in Karen Millens collection?

The denim jumpsuit Angela wears [below right]  very 1970s.

Model Angela Lindvall

The department store where you could spend most time and money?

Dover Street Market in London, where I used to work when I was at university  but now I rarely go because I cant afford it.

What do you throw on when you have nothing else to wear?

Levis 501s or 510s, a long-sleeved T-shirt and boots.

Shoes of choice?

Gold Gucci mid-heel pumps, to be specific.

On a hot date youd wear?

Something both warm and slinky!

Latest obsession?

A book on Grace Jones lent to me by a friend over Christmas.

App you cant live without?

Definitely Google Maps. And also [the dating app] Raya  should I admit that?

The Instagram feed you love following?

The American writer Hilton Als. He just posts pictures of his friends and travels but his photos are as sensitive as his writing.

First thing you do when you wake up?

Check my phone. I really want to stop doing that, though. I mean, I am lying with my head under the duvet checking emails before Ive even said hello to the world.

If we could whisk you anywhere in the world right now it would be...

Jamaica, so I could swim in the Blue Lagoon in Port Antonio and soak up the sun and all those good vibes.

The Danes always get it right  and By Malene Birger (above) is one of the countrys biggest fashion success stories. At Copenhagen Fashion Week, the labels creative director Christina Exsteen told us the key to the Danish look is great layering: silk shirts and fine knits cinched with a belt; turtlenecks under slip dresses. Whether you keep it simple or add embellished pieces, you can always team things to make a statement. It keeps your wardrobe flexible. The brands new collection of bags is worth a look  were surprised they are not double the price. From 205, bymalenebirger.com

Bag, 380, By Malene Birger

This springs must-see, Vogue 100: A Century of Style at the National Portrait Gallery, turns out to be a must-shop, too. Front Row has never wanted to buy half a museum gift shop before. Silk scarves by Karen Mabon, lip balms in art-deco pill boxes by Andrea Garland and an exclusive collection of affordable jewellery by Patricia Nicolas  when Vogue does museums there is not a naff keyring in sight. Until 22 May, npg.org.uk. ABOVE: SCARF, 110, Karen Mabon. BRACELET, 27.50, and RING, 22.50, both Patricia Nicolas
Im making an effort. But the skin on the inside of my elbows is hideously crepey

So, then there was a misunderstanding. David told me to go and find someone else to argue with.

I left it and left it. Then I wrote: OK.

He must have read this as me asking after his welfare, and replied, Am OK. You?

So I replied, I miss my David.

I miss you, too.

He is coming to Edinburgh, although I did have to lie a bit and say, I wont write about the weekend. I will say youve died.

I told him to book his flight, and apart from initially getting the dates wrong, even though I had emailed, You have to book somewhere for dinner on Valentines night, all is fine. He arrives on Friday evening at 5pm.

Instead of me saying: I will pick you up!, I wrote: I will have driven from London to Yorkshire on Thursday, then from Yorkshire to Edinburgh on Friday morning [Ive requested my first day off in a year], so you have to get a cab. Ive booked a lovely room at Millers64, an upmarket b&b.

On Friday night, we are meeting my sister and my two nieces and their partners in an Italian, then on Saturday night, when we will be joined by my brother and his girlfriend, we are going for an Indian. Sunday teatime, my sisters 60th birthday, we are having high tea at The Dome.

David has booked Valentines dinner at a lovely vegetarian restaurant for just us two; I figure by that stage my sister will be sick of us.

The weekend will be an escape, however brief, from worry, not least of which is that our other sister, Lyn, is in intensive care in hospital in Sydney.

I wish I could fly out to visit her, but that is proving impossible. Ive never been anywhere lovely in over a decade, and if you think being sent to Stockholm to see an Abba show, when I had to get up at 2am to catch a plane, is a lovely jaunt, please think again.

It will be tricky leaving the dogs for the long weekend (Nic no longer lives next door), but I have decided to entrust my friend Isobel with the task.

Hilda still only goes out on a lead, although in daylight, in nice weather, I let her loose on the lawn, where she has a little canter and a prance.

Sam (Michael) is now almost completely blind. He stands in front of the house on the cobbles, wondering where on earth the door is, and so I yell and clap and he heads happily towards me, sometimes walking bang into a wall.

Isobels main problem will be Gracie, who last week set a new world record for destroying a brand-new dog bed: 20 minutes.

Im reminded of a line from the memoirs of my favourite author, Dodie Smith, author of The 101 Dalmatians. Writing about her two new spotted puppies, Folly, black and white, and Buzz, raisin bread, she wrote, Id like to take them down to the shore but Im afraid they might damage the sea.

Dodie couldnt change her dogs spots, and I cant completely change mine.

I am still making an effort for David for when we meet up on Valentines weekend. Im going to be wearing the Myla underwear he got me for Christmas, even though I took it back to Selfridges and upgraded it.

Although I have to say my confidence was knocked rather when I arrived at my hotel in Stockholm at 11.30pm, after admittedly a 19-and-a-half-hour day comprising a two-hour drive during which the A1 was shut and I went blind with stress trying to find Newcastle airport, two planes, one interview, two photo shoots and a concert.

I switched on the light in the bathroom, and caught sight of myself in the mirror. Oh my God! The skin on the inside of my elbows is hideously crepey, and creased. I dont think Ive ever seen the inside of my elbows in a mirror before, but Jesus Christ!

What on earth can I do about it! Cream? Surgery? Keep my arms straight? Email the woman who runs Millers64 and get her to install very low-wattage bulbs? Then I had a brainwave! Sleeves!
Girls creator LENA DUNHAMs unflinching portrayal of todays 20-somethings has seen her dubbed the voice of a generation. As she approaches her 30th birthday  and the finale of her groundbreaking TV series  she talks to Jane Mulkerrins about work-life balance, the pressures of being a woman and why she's voting for Hillary Clinton

As the creator, star and director of the US comedy series Girls  which begins its fifth and penultimate season tomorrow on Sky Atlantic  Lena Dunham has tackled tricky topics from mental illness to reproductive rights, and depicted female sexuality in a raw, unvarnished manner rarely seen on screen before.

But since the series  which details the lives of 20-something graduates struggling to carve their niche in New York City  launched four years ago, Lena has also endured a torrent of barbed commentary about her clothes, her words and her figure.

As the selfish, often petulant Hannah Horvath, she is frequently naked on screen  her ordinarily imperfect, non-Hollywood-issue body defiantly on display.

Lenas book Not That Kind of Girl, a collection of autobiographical essays for which she received a reported $3.5 million (2.47 million) advance, also caused controversy with an incredibly honest account of being raped at college  which she did not report at the time  and her admissions of sexual experimentation as a child, including bribing her younger sister to kiss her on the lips.

When we meet in Los Angeles, Lena, 29, has recently returned from a short holiday in Mexico and is looking rested and relaxed, with a light smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks.

I had a break  it hasnt happened in a while. I went to Cancun, which was much more beautiful than it sounds, she enthuses. Everyone thinks of it as the place where teenagers go for spring break, but theres a beautiful hotel there thats a little away from everything and very peaceful.

Lena with her musician boyfriend of three and a half years Jack Antonoff, 31

In person, Lena is a world away from her chaotic on-screen character. While she is perky and pithy, she is also considered and composed, and today looks demurely stylish in a black fishtail skirt and pointy kitten heels.

That she would make her mark as a creative was, perhaps, inevitable. Lena had a bohemian upbringing in downtown Manhattan, where her mother Laurie Simmons is an artist and photographer and her father Carroll Dunham is a painter.

Her childhood friends include Homeland actress Claire Danes and Jemima Kirke, who she subsequently cast as Jessa in Girls.

Lena made her first film Creative Nonfiction at just 20, while studying at the liberal arts university Oberlin College in Ohio. At 22, she made Tiny Furniture, a semi-autobiographical film about a graduate returning home to her artist parents loft (shot in her own artist parents loft).

My big fantasy with Tiny Furniture was that it would play in a small movie theatre for a week, and maybe I would get a new boyfriend out of it, she laughs.

The film did better than that, winning the prize for best narrative feature at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in 2010.

And, though it failed to score her a new relationship at the time, she now lives in domestic bliss in Brooklyn Heights with her musician boyfriend of three and a half years Jack Antonoff, 31, and her dog Lamby.

And, in just a few months, the prodigiously talented poster girl for 20-somethings will turn 30. Having achieved so much already, whats left for her to turn her hand to in her fourth decade?

Lena as Hannah in Girls with Peter Scolari, who plays her father

The most exciting new storyline in Girls is how much Hannah has to step up and take care of her parents. Its a lifecycle  that moment of growing up when you realise, oh, your parents arent always going to be your caretakers.

Its a change and that can be really hard to accept. At the same time that Hannah is freaking out about her own issues, she has to step outside them, and thats a big deal.

Im really attracted to difficult women, and I think difficult women are attracted to each other. I love having friends who are one quarter lunatic  sometimes half lunatic. It makes life more interesting.

Sometimes I get into fights with friends and then I realise its because I havent actually seen them for five months. New York is my home, but Ive been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles over the past year and Ive ended up missing important events in my friends lives.

So a huge thing for me recently has been to resolve to be present for some of those moments, because Im realising that you cant do those over again. If I miss my friends wedding, I cant catch it at another time.

Work-life balance is one of the most boring and over-discussed topics. Having said that, Im hoping to find a bit more of it. I was sick for a long time with endometriosis [as a teenager and in her early 20s] and I had two modes: working or being sick in bed.

Now I finally have a grasp on my health and Im realising that the balance of work and friendship is necessary to maintain it. And if youre just working like an animal and then spending the rest of the time recuperating, you are not having the full range of life experiences.

There are very different pressures on women than men when it comes to saying yes to work and no to other things. I see it with my boyfriend Jack all the time. When he says: Hey guys, I want to be there, but Im playing Glastonbury, people go: Thats really valid. What a huge opportunity for you, you have to go and do that.

But if I say: Im shooting that day, people say: Well, youre always shooting, so cant you get there? Our two jobs are equally valid, but somehow theres an expectation that women are going to do the work and be present for their family and friends. I think it drives a lot of women insane.

Even in 2016, women are always expected to be supportive. If youre a woman without children, theres so often an expectation that youre going to work, and be the perfect partner to your boyfriend, and show up cheerful at all of his work drinks, and take care of the cat and make sure you have toilet paper. Its just too much.

Im probably not going to be the person who remembers to send a thank-you card. A thank-you email is going to have to suffice because life is just too hard, and hopefully they do the same job, even though one is on paper and one is electronic.

Knowing that there is an end in sight for Girls is bittersweet. The people who work on this truly are my family, but it is all-encompassing, so I am excited to see what else life has in store.

This is a big year for me. I will turn 30 in May while on set, filming the final season of Girls  it seems like perfect synchronicity to me.

Im very excited about my 30s. Despite the fact that Ive had this great career opportunity, theres so much uncertainty that comes in your 20s, and so much striving to prove yourself. Sometimes, at the end of a day, I feel like all I did was try not to make people angry, and make sure I didnt step on anyones toes.

I look at my boyfriend, and my other friends in their 30s, and I think, Ill have some of what theyre having. Theres a little bit more of owning their own reality and of saying f*** it to peoples expectations that seems to be born out of increased experience.

Hannah is a lunatic  she really is. But she seems to be in a more stable relationship this season, with Fran [a fellow teacher whom she has been dating since the end of season four], and shes trying to move away from her drama-obsessed former self and become something thats a little bit healthier. But I think the question is, can she sustain that?

Were not telling a totally new story in Girls. The plot of people who want to work in a creative industry and are struggling is not a new theme  La Boheme is about that. But I think what is new  and the context for Girls  is that post-recession, opportunities for young, college-educated people are really limited.

I graduated in 2008, the year that everything collapsed. I came out with my creative writing degree, all ready to work at a literary magazine. Cut to a month and a half later and Im a hostess in a restaurant, babysitting part-time, and Im wondering, What the f*** happened?

I have nightmares that Im still a babysitter and I have to get from the Girls set to my babysitting job, or from the Girls set to my restaurant job, and I cant balance everything. I think it comes from the fear that this is all going to go away, because I remember so distinctly what that felt like. I just couldnt see the future beyond five steps in front of me.

No woman is perfect, and Im proud to depict girls in all their flawed glory. I think theres been a lot of licence for men to act in really ugly ways in film and on television, and I feel so lucky that [in Girls] we are not held to any standard of sweet female decency.

Theres an evolution in female friendship that happens in your 20s. You look around at your friends and think: Is this someone I really genuinely love and feel connected to, or is this somebody who I was friends with out of convenience? Do we share the same goals? Do we have the same sense of humour? Are we kind to each other?

'The reason Im voting for Hillary is not because shes female but because for us to elect such a competent, intelligent and thoughtful woman to such an important office is going to send an amazing signal to the world.' Lena (above) campaigning for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

Getting out there for Hillary Clinton is a massive priority for me. I have just got back from three days of campaigning in New Hampshire, Iowa, Boston and Chicago  I did six cities in 48 hours.

We have to shift our consciousness from if to when. The reason Im voting for Hillary is not because shes female  there are plenty of women with bad politics and plenty of men with great politics  but because for us to elect such a competent, intelligent and thoughtful woman to such an important office is going to send an amazing signal to the world. I believe she can do it and Im with her all the way.

Marriage is not my be-all and end-all. And every time I go to a wedding, Im, like, I am so glad this isnt my wedding. Its very old-fashioned that other people get so obsessed [about the weddings of others].

You can have a season of television coming out, and you can have a book coming out, and the thing that gets people most excited is the possibility that someone might want to marry you.

It is always surprising to me, what things offend people. I dont think I will ever be able to predict it accurately. But even after the backlash over the book, I knew that sexual assault was an issue that I had to discuss.

I think the most therapeutic way to move past your own experiences is to find a way to contribute to the larger cause.

I think we have to acknowledge the kind of culture that college [in America] breeds  the lack of responsibility and the lack of care that we take of each other. The institutions that are supposed to be protecting us are failing to make women feel safe in an academic environment.

I love the college I went to and I didnt report my sexual assault to it, so I couldnt  and wouldnt  place any blame on it for what happened.

My dream would be to leave Girls in a place where we could have a reunion one day. This isnt the kind of show where anything is too definite; its not like the end of Breaking Bad. Hopefully if we picked up with these girls lives in ten or 20 years, it would still be compelling. I would love to see their future.

Season five of Girls starts tomorrow on Sky Atlantic
TV presenter Julia Bradbury went through hell to complete her family, but now shes raring to go and singing the praises of walking in a new ITV series. Here she tells Judith Woods why every parent has a duty to instil a love of the great outdoors in their children

'Im not against looking rough  theres plenty of footage of me blearily peering out of a sleeping bag  but I swear by blusher'

Yomping breathlessly through Holland Park in London with a smiling, hearty Julia Bradbury, I find myself hopelessly outclassed on every front.

The former BBC Countryfile presenter and current purveyor of Best Walks With a View on ITV is rangy and rosy-cheeked, dressed in thermal leggings and an ultra-lightweight padded jacket.

Frankly, she would look equally at home on Snowdonia as she does today in Londons Little Venice.

Its all part of her television appeal  shes not just upbeat and easy on the eye, but comfortable in her own rather gorgeous Mediterranean skin (courtesy of her Greek mother).

There she is on-screen in the blustery Yorkshire Dales, or battling the elements on Exmoor, dark hair flying across her face, with not a scintilla of vanity.

Actually thats not entirely the case, interjects Julia, 45. Im not against looking rough if its truthful  theres plenty of footage knocking about of me blearily peering out of a sleeping bag  but I swear by blusher. I carry water, layers, Cadbury Dairy Milk and a map in my rucksack, but theres always, and I mean always, room for Dior bronzer and Mac rouge.

There arent many busy women with three children under the age of five, including twin daughters, who could look quite so radiant with so little gilding.

Im high-energy; a glass-half-full sort of person, she grins. But going through five rounds of IVF to have the girls was gruelling and sometimes all I had to cling to  to hide behind  was my happy disposition.

Julia and her partner, Irish property developer Gerard Cunningham, 55, have a son, Zephyrus, aged four, who was conceived naturally, just under the wire because I feared Id left it too late, when she was 41.

Julia with her Watchdog co-presenters Paul Heiney (left) and Nicky Campbell in 2007

Their daughters Xanthe and Zena are 11 months old. Everyone assumes I deliberately gave them look-at-me names, but I just wanted them to be Greek. Whenever I go there a bit of me feels at home and the kids names are quite commonplace there, says Julia.

She beams with baffled delight that even at this tender age her daughters are Belieber babies who sway in time to the stars music.

They go crazy when they hear or see Justin Bieber on MTV. I suspect he operates on some sort of unique high-pitched frequency that only little girls can detect, she giggles.

She admits that IVF took its toll emotionally, but for her own sanity she decided to keep working through treatment rather than taking time off.

I got pregnant the first time I had IVF and miscarried at six weeks, which was heartbreaking. I felt bereaved, she says. But there was no doubt in my mind I had to try again, because we were lucky enough to afford it. How many rounds of treatment would I have had? Hand on heart, I dont know. I was so driven, so determined to have a sibling for my son, that even I was shocked by the strength of my feelings.

The birth of the girls was traumatic. Xanthe was delivered safely but Zenas arrival turned into a medical emergency after Julia started bleeding.

Suddenly the room was full of people looking terribly grave, she says. Previously I had a mouth like a sailor, but then I just croaked at the consultant to get us all through alive. He nodded but I could see it was serious. I lost two pints of blood and the baby was delivered by forceps, but we all got through, thank God.

Now I feel so fortunate and blessed, and though its quite full-on, going from having one child to three, I wouldnt change the glorious mayhem.

Like many working mothers, Julias professional life takes her away from home, but she acknowledges her unique position. Instead of being chained to a desk, she is free to roam the most stunning scenery on these isles  and is paid for the privilege.

Ive been around the country four or five times and Ive seen the most astonishingly beautiful places, says Julia.

When you step out into the green lushness and take a deep breath you cant be anything but humble because youre a tiny speck in natures amphitheatre.

'Now I feel so fortunate and blessed, and though its quite full-on, going from having one child to three, I wouldnt change the glorious mayhem.'

Julia, who has a sister, Gina, ten years her senior, was born in Dublin to her mother Chrissi and Derbyshire-born father Michael, who worked in the steel industry. The family moved back to the UK in the early 1970s, settling in Rutland.

Initially Julia was interested in drama, but TV presenting proved a more powerful draw. Her first big break was on the consumer series Watchdog. Kill It, Cook It, Eat It on BBC Three followed, along with Countryfile and the first of her walking programmes Wainwright Walks, which traced the routes made famous by the 20th-century Lake District fellwalker Alfred Wainwright.

After the broadcasts, every area we featured received a boost from walkers, which was referred to as the Julia effect, she laughs.

Im a good saleswoman but, really, the beautiful landscapes arent a hard sell. She bats away the suggestion that too much television coverage can be a bad thing in that, thanks to her evangelism, a ramble in splendid isolation will soon no longer be possible.

Walking is already the most popular pastime in the country  millions go every weekend  so one of the challenges for us making this series was picking a time when the routes wouldnt be heaving with people. That meant filming very early. But theres nothing to stop the intrepid from heading off-road, as it were.

Go to Dartmoor and explore, she urges. Make sure you have an OS map, draw up a route and make it your own.

Interestingly, Gerard doesnt share her passion for walking. Gerard is wonderful and very proud of what I do but walking isnt his thing.

Instead, Julia walks with avid friends. What she doesnt have is a dog, which some  myself included  find odd; surely a walk without a dog is like a cup of tea without a biscuit? Apparently not.

I like dogs and I can see they make great companions, but theyre not for me  I cant bear the idea of picking up their poo! When I walk, Im walking for me.

But theres more to walking than simply getting from A to B; theres the local history, the wildlife, the characters and, ideally, a convivial pub along the way. Given her new programme is all about trekking to see fabulous panoramas, Julia understandably speaks with great passion about the buzz of reaching the summit.

Theres a moment when you get there and soak up the view and there are three or four of you  strangers, but immersed in a shared experience  and you cant help a collective murmur of well done us.

If shes on her own or with a friend, Julia may resort to that most reviled accessory: the selfie stick.

I hate them but if theres one moment you need one its when youre up there and nobodys there to record the event. Now some have torches and can recharge your mobile phone, which lends them a new legitimacy.

Home for Julia and her family is West London. Her sister has worked as her PA for many years and has also been instrumental in setting up Julias new website theoutdoorguide.co.uk, an interactive source of information about routes and all things to do with the countryside.

Julia with her fellow Countryfile presenters in 2013

Needless to say, even in the city Julia finds time to get outside; where possible she does the school run  on foot obviously, with a detour through the park on the way home.

Gerard may not walk with me now, but he will have to start when the children do, she jokes.

I think parents have a duty to make sure their children get regular exercise and are exposed to the outdoors. Its not just about obesity  our children need a connection with the countryside. Study after study has shown its not only the best exercise but it has a positive effect on mental health. If Im feeling a bit low or anxious or just need clarity I will go for a walk in the local park. Theres no question that it helps.

Julia is adamant that theres no excuse not to take children out; if parents have mobility issues they should encourage another family member to step in. All thats required is a warm coat and a pair of sturdy trainers or shoes.

Parents who dont bother are being irresponsible, she insists. Schools have a role to play, too. It should be part of the national curriculum to bring children to see our most beautiful, most iconic countryside, such as Malham Cove, the Jurassic Coast and the Lake District, to name but a few.

Wisely, she has no intention of taking her own children out properly until they are seven or eight. You have to use a bit of psychology, she says. You dont just announce one day that theyre going on a five-mile hike. You start with the park, then to extend the outing with snacks or a small bucket for collecting treasures. Later you could bring a picnic or give them a camera to take photographs.

Anyone tuning into Walks With a View or thumbing their way through Julias sumptuous accompanying book Unforgettable Walks: My Search for Britains Best Walks With a View will see plenty of achingly gorgeous scenery.

Julia with her father Michael: 'He made walking interesting by telling me fantastic stories and challenging me to get to the top first or look for birds or butterflies. He made the experience seem like an adventure and that we were survivors in the wilderness.'

Julias father appears in the Peak District episode of the new series  with good reason. My dad is the person who started the whole walking thing for me, dragging me as a little girl to the Peak District, she says.

He made walking interesting by telling me fantastic stories and challenging me to get to the top first or look for birds or butterflies. He made the experience seem like an adventure and that we were survivors in the wilderness.

For that reason, she cites her favourite trail as the walk through Edale Valley up to Kinder Scout, the hill immortalised by the mass trespass of 1932, when hundreds of ramblers ascended it in a bid to assert their right to roam.

The incident led to arrests and imprisonments, but also to the establishment of the Ramblers in 1935 and the subsequent 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, giving walkers permission to traverse the moors of Kinder Scout and swathes of land elsewhere in Britain.

Its a sentimental place for me, with a great story, says Julia. Filming with my dad was a really amazing moment. We talked and then I set off walking alone because now hes 76 its too much for him. I reached the summit and it was breathtaking as ever but I stood there thinking, I just want to hold hands with my dad.

She pauses, then smiles and shrugs. The essence of Julia Bradbury is all here: nostalgia, continuity, a fierce sense of loyalty to the landscape and the people in it.

I love the British countryside, she says. Its a very precious thing that needs to be preserved. Thats why its so important we ensure the next generation cares about it, too. So if youve got kids  get out there!

And with that, Julia tightens the straps of her backpack and hikes off home, very possibly via the Trossachs.

Best Walks With a View With Julia Bradbury continues on Fridays on ITV at 8pm

Hair and make-up: Nadira V Persaud using Studio 10 Beauty

Styling: Gayle Rinkoff/Carol Hayes

Location courtesy of Carol Hayes
At a time when young people are achieving outstanding A-levels and top university degrees yet cant secure first jobs, Anna Moore finds out which skills not on the syllabus are key to getting ahead at work

When Sarahs daughter Daisy won a place at a high-achieving state sixth form, they were both invited to an induction evening. The hall was filled with proud parents and children who had worked flat out to achieve their clutch of A* GCSEs. But now, said the head of sixth form, the real work was beginning.

A-levels, he warned, were ten times harder. To get the best grades for the best universities, the strong message was that they needed to put in the hours, Sarah recalls. After-school activities were frowned upon. For this bunch of students A-levels were their life. Everything else had to be squeezed in around Daisys workload. She couldnt have a Saturday job. She left her choir and orchestra as there was no longer time for them. Her social life was whittled down.

Two years later, Daisy aced her exams (A*, A, A) and went to a top university  where the message was the same. A good degree required absolute commitment, which Daisy gave  and graduated with a first. Now shes looking for a job but no one seems interested in her grades or degree, says Sarah. What everyone wants is real-life experience, people skills, a part-time employment record. Daisy has worked incredibly hard, but its as if those years of sacrifice  not to mention horrendous debt  were wasted.

Business leaders are sending out a similar message. Research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI), as well as poll upon poll by recruitment agencies, consistently point to the same conclusion: young people may be more academically qualified than ever  but theyre hopelessly unprepared for the world of work.

Interestingly, last month the publisher Penguin Random House announced it was dropping academic requirements for applicants, following the lead of financial firms such as Ernst & Young, which has removed all academic and education details from its trainee application process in a bid to boost workplace diversity.

In October last year, the BCCs director general John Longworth called for the reinstatement of compulsory work experience to help close the yawning skills gaps reported by frustrated businesses across the UK. One study by the Korn Ferry Hay Group showed just how deep this yawning gap can be, revealing that more than 90 per cent of the employers believed that strong people skills were important, whereas more than half the graduates believed that people skills got in the way of doing the job.

Young people have been taught to be results oriented so theyre focused on completing the task, says David Smith, consultant at Korn Ferry Hay Group. When you enter the workforce, its not only about producing financial figures or developing a software programme, its about working in teams, managing stress, demonstrating self-control. Can you influence people, sell an idea, stay calm in certain situations? Anyone with experience knows how important these soft skills are to the bottom line.

Peter Burgess, director of Retail Human Resources, couldnt agree more. As the largest recruitment company working in retail, with clients including Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Arcadia, Peter is finding young people at once better qualified and unemployable.

Nearly all companies want second-jobbers now, adds Peter. They dont want to recruit graduates or college leavers as they have no idea how the workplace works.

Its not their fault, he continues. Even if you have a first from Oxford, you probably wont have the skills recruiters need. At school and university, youre herded around. It doesnt matter if you miss a class or gawp at your phone in the middle of a lecture. It doesnt matter if you struggle speaking to strangers or you dont like using the phone as you prefer to text. All these things matter when you get a job  but if youve never worked, youll never know.

No one is interested in grades, people want real life experience

Peter Burgess is a passionate advocate of part-time jobs. He says, You learn a hell of a lot through waiting tables or working in Sainsburys on Saturdays. Weve let young people down by pampering them. In America, students work their way through college and come out well-rounded.

Jane Sunley, CEO of employment engagement agency Purple Cubed, is author of Its Never OK to Kiss the Interviewer: and Other Secrets to Surviving, Thriving and High-fiving at Work. She realised young people needed a guide to finding and keeping a job when she was giving a university lecture on employability skills and a student asked if he should kiss the interviewer even if she was a woman.

I love Generation Y  they have lots of optimism and brilliant potential, but theyve been a bit indulged. And I say this as a mother of daughters aged 17 and 19, says Jane Sunley. Lots of my daughters friends always got from A to B in minicabs charged to their parents Uber accounts. If youve been ferried around by parents or cabs, then youre never going to be able to get to work on time. Its as basic as that.

At 16, my elder daughter got a weekend job managing the queue in a burger joint, she continues. Shes at university now but that job taught her how to be a good employee. When she started she was quite timid, but it toughened her up, taught her resilience, negotiation skills, how to be respectful. The hospitality industry is brilliant for that, even if you never want to work in it again.

Mark Woolley, award-winning celebrity hairstylist and entrepreneur behind the Electric brand, is taking a similar approach with his four children, aged between five and 15. Mark himself left school at 16 to join a hair salon under the Youth Training Scheme.

My parents were in utter shock but I knew that if I stayed at school, Id have scraped by with a few A-levels, then gone to university and scraped an average or below average degree, says Mark. Instead I found something I loved, built a business and created a brand. A lot of the skills and knowledge behind that arent taught in school, so when my first child was born I made a pledge to myself to give my children this ongoing education. Im teaching all of them to do hair  not so they want to be hairdressers, but because it teaches them the social aspect and develops creativity and confidence.

Celebrity hairstylist Mark Woolley (above with his son Harrison) ensures his children receive an education that reaches beyond what is taught in schools

Both of Marks elder sons help out in the salon and head office. My eldest is very confident, happy serving drinks to people, having a chat. Hell remember what the customers were doing last time they came. They also attend product launches. We had one in Harvey Nichols and the boys dressed in blazers and walked around chatting to people  those people skills will help them whatever they want to do.

Most important is their financial education. I dont want to sound like a 40-year-old saying, Kids today! but this generation is a little less savvy than mine was, he says. Were in the process of buying a farm which will be a place to make products and a home. The children understand that we need to sell our house at X price and take on a loan of X amount. They understand the business balance sheet. I went to collect my ten-year-old daughter from school the other day and the head teacher came up to me and said that her knowledge of mortgages was unbelievable!

So what do employers look for in a young person? Rhian Price is agency manager at FCB Inferno, the creative agency behind the This Girl Can campaign. Rhian handles the CVs, interviews and inductions for hundreds of young applicants each year.

I dont know what my boss would think if he heard me say this but I never look at academic qualifications, she admits. Ill look at work experience, and Ill look to see what they have done with their spare time. We recently took on someone whod set up a company for writing code. We wouldnt employ anyone who hadnt worked already  even a Saturday job shows youve put yourself out there.

What doesnt go down well? Text speak, says Rhian. Lower case font, no punctuation, informal language. I get letters from graduates saying, Hi there, have you got any jobs? We had someone recently on work experience who was brilliant but he had this slouch. Hed lie back in his chair with his legs splayed. Something as small as this puts you off offering a job  you dont want someone like that working with clients, trying to win new business.

Many companies are now building soft skills training into their graduate schemes in recognition of the growing need. For parents wanting their children to acquire these skills a little sooner, there are a few projects and courses available, the best known of which is Young Enterprise (young-enterprise.org.uk). Available in more than half of the secondary schools across the country  and set to increase to 75 per cent by 2018  it offers one-day masterclasses and month-long schemes as well as its flagship project where participants set up a real business over an academic year, creating a product, devising a business plan, presenting and marketing it at trade fairs, all under the guidance of a mentor. (Unsurprisingly, follow-up research has shown that participants are twice as likely to start businesses in later life.)

Tacita Small has held senior human resources (HR) roles with Apple, Westfield, Disney and is currently HR director at Ministry of Sound. As the mother of two young boys, she feels strongly that theres a lot more work to be done. At state schools, and even a lot of universities, there are no admission interviews, she says. Many young people are having their first interview when they apply for their first job, by which time its too late.

Certain issues come up time and time again  in interviews and in first jobs, she continues. Theres time management  turning up on time and not wasting it. Taking feedback on board. Work is full of appraisals  if youve been told youre amazing your whole life, you dont respond well to anything negative. Now setting up her own HR consultancy company, Edeson, Tacita intends to run free workshops for primary- and secondary-school-aged children to teach presentation and communication.

For Sarah and Daisy, meanwhile, its back to square one, with Daisy having started weekend work in a bike shop, volunteering with a charity, filling out application forms and, ironically, restarting her old hobbies  choir, orchestra  to demonstrate her well-roundedness. With hindsight, Daisy would have been better off if shed spent less time studying in her room, says Sarah. My advice to other parents would be dont focus too much on academia. Get your child out into the real world.
The BJP has planned a sustained offensive in Parliament from Tuesday on the Afzal Guru show in JNU.

Sensing a groundswell of public support, it is keen to have an aggressive debate in which even the Prime Minister may intervene, say party sources.

The BJP and the Narendra Modi government are in no mood to relent on the nationalism debate sparked in the wake of the Afzal Guru commemoration row that erupted on JNU campus on February 9.

PM Narendra Modi with Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar and Sushma Swaraj in the Capital

The controversy escalated after the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges and the violence that followed at the Patiala House Courts Complex on two occasions when Kanhaiya was produced.

According to highly placed sources in the BJP, the party has decided to assume an aggressive approach both within and without the Parliament on the JNU row and the nationalism issue.

Party functionaries who did not want to be named told Mail Today that BJP MPs in both Houses had already placed their request for a discussion on the Afzal Guru-JNU incident and on the testimony of terrorist David Coleman Headley, especially pertaining to parts relating to Ishrat Jahan, the Mumbai girl who was allegedly a part of an LeT cell and who was gunned down in a controversial encounter in 2004.

In another move that could see the aggressive stance of the government, BJP sources also hinted that PM Modi himself may step into the debate in Parliament.

Though parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi parried a Mail Today question in this regard, he said the PM could intervene in the debate if needed.

Our primary concern in the coming Parliament session will be to get legislations passed, but we have also conveyed to the Opposition that we are ready for a debate on other issues if they want. The PM may intervene in the debate if needed and if he thinks so, said Naqvi.

The BJP has made a video package to be shown to people ahead of polls. The video also features Rahul Gandhis speech at JNU

The BJP is already running a three-day campaign, Jan Swabhiman Abhiyan.

As part of the campaign, from February 18-20, the party has planned to go to the people to educate them about such anti-national activities as the celebration of terrorists Guru and Maqbool Bhat in JNU, a leader said.

The ruling party feels there is overwhelming support on the ground for its stance on nationalism, although a section of the liberal intelligentsia has severely criticised it.

Also, the government feels the nationalism will put the Opposition in a dilemma.

They may not want to be seen arguing against nationalism and for those who raised anti-India slogans.

We are telling the people of the country that we will not accept anti-nationalism and we cannot allow such activities to continue in future. We are running the campaign from such grassroots level as mandals, the smallest units of the party, said BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

The party has made a video package to be shown to people.

The package is made from the footage available of the February 9 incident on JNU campus as also of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis speech when he went visiting the varsity later.

For long, the Opposition has tried to tarnish the image of our PM by spreading canards. The time has come to expose that all these elements who conspired against him. We will take the reality and the truth behind various issues to the people by all means, Sharma said.

Past governments had misused state agencies and hoodwinked the truth from people for its own narrow and anti-national politics.

Afzal show: Cops alert airports on JNU absconders

The Delhi police have deployed all its special units, including anti-terror wing Special Cell, to trace JNU students, including Umar Khalid, in a sedition case.

On Friday, the Delhi police issued the lookout notice for three youth.

The police also alerted the airport authorities to prevent absconders from travelling out of India.

Delhi University students staged a protest in support of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in New Delhi on Saturday.

Despite Khalids parents claim that he did not have a passport, investigators are suspecting these students have passports and may travel out of India.

These lookout notices will help us if they try to use any legal route to leave India. It may be possible that some of them have passports which they didnt disclose to anyone. It is quite possible to get a passport issued on the basis of JNU identity card, a senior official said.

Accused students are allegedly organisers or participants of the controversial Afzal show in the JNU campus last week in which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

The police have communicated the matter to the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO), asking them to alert airport authorities so that the three suspects, believed to be JNU students, do not leave the country.

The three have been identified as the main conspirators in connection with the event, over which a case of sedition was registered and JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested, the source said.

The police tracked the youths call details post February 9 until the day their phones were found to be switched off.

Investigators have also recorded statements of more than a dozen JNU students who were witnesses, he said.

The police are looking for 10 people in connection with the event at JNU.

Police sources said they may call Sadiq Naqvi, a reporter with an online news portal, for second round of questioning.

On Friday evening, Delhi police detained him from his hometown in Uttar Pradeshs Bijnore.

Naqvi was in the same college where JNU student leader Umar Khalid had studied.

Delhi University students also staged a protest in support of JNU stir on Saturday.

The students on Saturday gathered near Delhi University's Arts Faculty under the banner of Save DU, which received support of several Leftist student outfits, including AISF, AISA and SFI and also members of Delhi University Teachers' Union.

In another development, a group of army veterans will lead a protest march on Sunday against alleged anti-national activities in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Addressing a press conference, Maj Gen (Retd) Dhruv C Katoch said the rally has been organised by an apolitical group 'People for Nation' which has just been established.

ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, has been actively promoting the event and has sent out invites to the media, which Katoch downplayed claiming political parties across the spectrum have been invited to the event.
Even as the Centre has set up special courts under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which was enacted to prevent sexual abuse of children, most of the courts in Delhi lack the basic parameters prescribed.

In four out of the six district courts, including Asias biggest Tis Hazari, child and the accused occupy the same physical space in the courtroom.

These courts dont even have audio-visual facilities to record evidence of the children.

A report says nearly 30 per cent of the accused in sexual crime against children are neighbours. (Picture for representation)

A National Law School of India (NLSU) study says only the Karkardooma and Saket district courts have proper facilities as per the prescribed norms.

The most interesting part of POCSO courts in Karkardooma and Saket is the dais.

They are not specially-designed dais that enables a child to make an eye contact with the judges.

The courts have waiting rooms for the children and their families. These rooms are stocked with toys, games and a computer.

There is a rest room in the vicinity of the room in which the childs testimony is to be recorded.

The victims entrance is separate from that of the accused. This has a greater significance given the fact that the children - victims and witnesses alike - are most vulnerable to the accused who share the same space in the courtroom during the hearing.

The report says nearly 30 per cent of the accused in sexual crime against children are neighbours which underlines their vulnerability.

The study has been done keeping in view the guidelines issued by the Delhi High Court for recording evidences of the vulnerable witnesses in the criminal matter.

The guidelines focus on facilities to make these special courts child-friendly like waiting area, tools and facilities to prevent the exposure of the child to the accused, permitting breaks during the trial, minimal appearances in the court.

In other courts, the child is brought into the courtroom through the regular entrance and do not have waiting rooms.

As both accused and the child enter through the same door, it has an implication on the privacy of the victim.

In Karkardooma and Saket courts, the child approaches the building through judges entrance.

The two courts have audio-visual facility, which makes it possible for the child to take part in the proceedings from a different room.

The child is prevented from being confronted by the accused, the prosecutor or the defence lawyer.

The child is accompanied into the witness room by a legal aid lawyer to serve as a support person.

While the accused can see the child in the video, the child cannot see the accused.

Chandra Suman, a child Rights advocate, told Mail Today: Even though the child cannot see the accused while sharing the same space, the conventional setting of the court room makes the child uncomfortable and scared. The exposure of child to the arguments during the trial, insensitive questions emotionally and psychologically impact a child, he said.

The study also mentioned that the defence lawyers in most other special courts directly pose a question to the child instead of routing it through the judge.

However, some judges try their best to make the child feel comfortable in the limited facilities.

Additional Sessions Judge and Member Secretary of DSLSA Dharmesh Sharma emphasised on the need of child-friendly courtrooms.
The National Capital braces up for a major crisis with the ongoing agitation for Jat reservation spreading to Western Uttar Pradesh.

While agitating Jats have disconnected Delhi from north Indian states like Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh; the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has also decided to block the highways connecting Uttar Pradesh to the Capital.

As jats in Haryana blocked water supply to Delhi from Munak canal, all major water treatment plants in the city were shut down.

Jat leaders on Saturday refused to call off the pro-quota agitation until the Haryana government promulgates an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category. The response came after CM Manohar Lal Khattar released a statement saying his government has accepted their demands, but did not elaborate.

Delhi government said acute water crisis may significantly arise in the next one or two days with 60 per cent of water supply affected due to the Jat stir in Haryana.

This prompted the AAP government to rationalise water supply and approach the Supreme Court for help.

Sources said the BKU may also disrupt train services between Delhi and UP that would only aggravate the situation.

Retaliation

As the agitation intensified, five persons were killed in firing by Army personnel in Jhajjar and Hisar districts of Haryana on Saturday.

Four of them were killed in Jhajjar after they breached curfew orders in the region.

Army personnels, who were pressed into action on Friday night, had to open fire at violent mob in retaliation around 2.30 pm.

However, unconfirmed reports claimed that at least 12 people were killed in the firing.

Gurgaon too felt the heat of the ongoing agitation.

While several parts of the city reeled under massive traffic snarls, countrys largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation.

Reports of unruly activities arrived from Rohtak where the mob went berserk.

Several private and public properties were vandalised and vehicles were set afire.

The mob also set ablaze the houses of Haryana Minister Om Prakash Dhankhar and MP Raj Kumar Saini in Rohtak.

They held hostage a number of vehicles and personnel of Indian Army at Madanhedi village in Narnod.

They were released following long hours of negotiations. As most of the roads are blocked, the security personnels were para-trooped by choppers.

The road blockages also led to shortage of essential commodities in these districts.

The agitators also cut water supply line at Sonepat to disrupt national Capital Delhi and Gurgaon.

The heat of the agitation reached the Delhi University on Saturday as several students from the community showed solidarity to the agitation in Haryana and took out a protest rally from demanding quota in government educational institutions and jobs under OBC category.

Meanwhile, Indian Army flag marched in violence hit Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar districts to bring situation under control.

Curfew were imposed in these districts following Friday violence that has claimed three lives at separate places.

Randeep asks protestors to shun violence

By Manjeet Sehgal

Actor Randeep Hooda appealed to the protesting Jats to shun violence

Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda, who is currently shooting for Omung Kumars Bollywood biopic based on the life of Indian prisoner Sarbjit - has appealed to the protesting Jats to shun violence and return to mainstream life in the larger interest of state and nation.

Hooda, who is a Jat, expressed his concern over the sporadic violence reported in many parts of Haryana.

He appealed to the protesters not to play in the hands of anti-social elements and to remain calm.

"I belong to Haryana and I am proud to be a Haryana Jat. Sadly the Jats who once sacrificed their lives for others are destroying themselves."

"I appeal to my brothers to be peaceful as the violence is killing our brothers. Our property is being destroyed. The violence is not a solution. Only dialogue can solve the issue. Anti-social elements are indulging in violence. Youths are being misguided. I appeal to them to go back to their homes, Randeep Hooda said in Amritsar.

Rajnath chairs meet to take stock of situation

By Mail Today Bureau

Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a high-level meeting on Saturday evening to review the situation in Haryana following the Jat protests.

The meeting was attended by senior Cabinet ministers, chiefs of paramilitary forces, senior officers of the Army and top security and intelligence officials.

The meeting took place to take stock of the situation on the ground and whether more central forces need to be rushed in.

Army conducted a flag march in two curfew-bound districts

Sources said additional forces from the Army and paramilitary are on standby and will be sent if the need arises.

As violence continued during Jat quota protests, the Centre asked Haryana government to provide security to people and property by ensuring law and order.

This was conveyed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha to Haryana Chief Secretary DS Dhesi and DGP Yashpal Singhal at a meeting held through video conferencing.

The Cabinet Secretary reviewed the prevailing situation in Haryana and took inputs from the Chief Secretary and DGP.

He asked them to ensure protection of people and property by maintaining law and order, a senior government official said.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others senior officers were present in the meeting.

With roads blocked the Centre had to airlift paramilitary personnel to Rohtak in Haryana.

The security personnel were dispatched from Delhi's Safdarjung airfield in batches as the trouble-torn district was cut off by road and rail network due to protests by the Jat community demanding reservation.

The decision to send the paramilitary personnel by air was taken by the Home Ministry following a request of the Haryana government.

The Centre on Friday rushed 3,300 paramilitary personnel to Haryana and assured Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of all possible help to maintain law and order as the stir turned violent.

Concerned over the volatile situation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up the Haryana Chief Minister, who briefed him about the prevailing situation in the state.

More deaths took place in fresh incidents of violence in Haryana as the Jat stir for quota intensified with protesters torching a railway station in Jind.

Army conducted a flag march in two curfew-bound districts of Rohtak and Bhiwani, while curfew has now also been clamped in Jhajjar.
50 Cent, who infamously declared bankruptcy in a potential bid to avoid paying damages to Rick Ross

50 Cent, who infamously declared bankruptcy in a potential bid to avoid paying damages to Rick Ross baby mother for a stolen sex tape (among other debts), may be in additional legal trouble.

Bringing all the recent stories about 50 Cents Instagram memes full circle, a judge is bringing him back to the court because of a few Instagram posts he made over the last few months.

Judge Ann Nevins expressed concern that 50 Cent was not being fully transparent about his funds, and pointed to Instagram posts by the Queens rapper showing stacks upon stacks of cash.

Theres a purpose of having a bankruptcy process be transparent, and part of that purpose is to inspire confidence in the process.

Basically, Fifty might be taking advantage of what can be a very difficult process for people who are actually broke and in debt.

Naturally, the person who brought these photos to the attention of the judge is Lastonia Leviston, the winner of $7 million in damages from 50 Cent for a stolen sex tape.

Curtis Jacksons bankruptcy filing has prevented her from seeing any of that money thus far.

50 Cents lawyers have defended their clients posts by arguing they are all a part of his profession.

-hotnewhiphop.com

Emma takes a year's break

Emma Watson is saying goodbye to Hollywoodfor now.

The Harry Potter star has announced that she will take a year away from acting to further her knowledge of feminism.

In an interview for Paper magazine, she told bell hooks - author of Feminism Is for Everybody - about her plans to focus on self-development.

Im taking a year away from acting to focus on two things, really, she said.

My own personal development is one  my own personal task is to read a book a week, and also to read (another) book a month as part of my book club.

-celebuzz.com

Virgin galactic's new spaceship

Virgin Galactic unveiled its gleaming new spaceship on Friday, the first craft specifically designed to carry paying customers to space and return them safety to Earth.

The new blue, silver and white VSS Unity will undergo extensive testing on the ground and in unpowered flight before pilots fire up its rocket for flight tests.

The company hasnt yet released a schedule for when it may begin carrying passengers aloft, instead insisting it will launch only when ready.

Unity replaces a similar model destroyed in an Oct. 31, 2014 crash, although that model was built primarily as a test craft and was never intended to carry customers.
At The Mail on Sunday we take great pride in the quality of our journalism. All our journalists are required to observe the Editors Code of Practice and The Mail on Sunday is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the new regulatory body for the Press set up in response to the Leveson Inquiry. We aim to correct any errors as promptly as possible.

An advertisement feature about UK travel showed a picture of Mont St Michel, in France, rather than St Michaels Mount, in Cornwall.

A report of the Mental Health Taskforce that highlighted underinvestment and poor management was described as an audit of the UK. In fact, the report was by NHS England. Devolved health services in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were not covered.

If you wish to report an inaccuracy, please email corrections@mailonsunday.co.uk. To make a formal complaint under IPSO rules please go to www.mailonsunday.co.uk/readerseditor where you will find an easy-to-use complaints form.
Demi Pestell who suffered from lung cancer

I dont know Demi Pestell, but after a few hours together I feel as if were friends. Within a few minutes of meeting, she confides hilarious  and unprintable  secrets about a dreadful ex-boyfriend. Cue much laughter.

Given the fact that I know she has a rare terminal lung cancer, it feels like a terrible cliche to say she is so full of life. I cant help but think it though. Shes turned up in a stunning body-con dress and heels while Im in Saturday jeans and ill-fitting shirt  and I feel as if Im the one who looks unwell.

Yet three years ago, the 36-year-old former diving instructor from Northampton was effectively handed a death sentence when doctors warned she had just weeks to live. Tumours had spread from her lungs to her liver, bones and brain, and her only hope of survival was taking part in a clinical trial for a new drug.

That drug, called Zykadia, transformed her. She had been wheelchair-bound and suffering daily seizures. Today, although doctors can find no trace of cancer in her body, she still, apparently, has it  and it could return at any moment. But she is an outwardly healthy-looking young woman leading a normal life.

It seems like a miracle, but experts have hailed Zykadia as consistently performing such works of magic in similarly bleak cases.

Yet this is where the good news begins to end. The lifeline handed to Demi by Zykadia  proven in trials to prolong life by an average of 16 months  is being denied to other patients in the same position.

In January this year medicines watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected the 165-a-day drug for the NHS because of cost.

Nice has since revealed it is looking again at this decision, saying an error was made in the evidence they received. However, the drug is still not currently available on the NHS.

To make matters worse, Britains flagship fund to pay for life-enhancing cancer drugs in England is up for review and the approval of new treatments is suspended.

The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) was set up five years ago to allow patients to access new and expensive medicines before they were approved for widespread NHS use.

The CDF could have been a last-chance saloon for patients desperate for Zykadia.

The drug works by blocking a cancer-causing protein found in a rare form of lung cancer that typically affects younger people who, like Demi, are non-smokers.

Despite acknowledging its ability to prolong life and delay disease progression, NICE said the drug, which costs just under 5,000 for a 30-day supply, wasnt a cost-efficient use of NHS resources.

Yet Zykadia was approved for use in Scotland in December by NICE equivalent the Scottish Medicines Consortium. It was also licensed for use by the USAs Food and Drug Administration in 2014 and by the European Medicines Agency in May last year.

While Demi and others currently on trials for Zykadia will be allowed to continue taking the drug for as long as it is effective, NICEs current position means others wont be so fortunate. Asked about this, Demi is unequivocal: People in boardrooms are handing out death sentences by not approving this drug. They are putting a price on peoples lives, and effectively saying those lives are worthless. Im proof Zykadia works, and dont understand how cost comes into it  who wouldnt give everything they have for a few more months with their family?

Demi was diagnosed with stage four cancer in December 2012 after developing a persistent cough, back pain and coughing up blood. An MRI scan revealed cancer in her liver, bones and brain.

Doctors decided it had originated in her lungs as non-small-cell lung cancer. Of the 39,000 people diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer in the UK every year, about five per cent have a type caused by a defect in a gene called ALK, or anaplastic lymphoma kinase.

This produces a faulty protein that causes cancer cells to grow and spread. Sufferers of ALK+ non-small-cell lung cancer tend to be under 50 and, like Demi, non-smokers. Her consultant told her that her cancer was incurable and that without chemotherapy she had just days to live.

I was devastated, Demi recalls. All I could think about were the things I had left to do, like falling in love, having children and travelling the world. I was only 33. I wasnt ready for my life to be over.

By now wheelchair-bound and too sick to work, she endured four gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, but in March 2013 Demis oncologist told her that chemo was putting her body under so much stress that one more round could cause heart failure. She was then put on a drug called Xalkori, which works by blocking the faulty ALK protein. Within weeks, the four-a-day pills were having a remarkable effect, with scans showing the tumours on her liver and lungs were shrinking.

I started to stand up, and then hobble, and by the summer I was out of my wheelchair, says Demi. I could go for walks in the countryside again, and even went to Paris. I started to enjoy life again.

Demi was diagnosed with stage four cancer in December 2012 after developing a persistent cough, back pain and coughing up blood. An MRI scan revealed cancer in her liver, bones and brain

But Demis progress was short-lived as, by spring 2014, the cancer in her brain started to cause seizures that left her unable to walk, write or see properly. I lost consciousness for 90 minutes after one particularly bad seizure, and the doctors told my mum I had two weeks to live, she says.

DEMI was handed a lifeline when she was offered a place to take part in a clinical trial of Zykadia at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Crucially, unlike Xalkori, the drug is able to pass through the brain membrane to target cancerous cells there. Two single-arm studies into Zykadia of patients with ALK+ non-small-cell lung cancer have showed an absolute overall survival rate of 16 months.

DRUG FUND 'UNSUSTAINABLE' Survival rates for cancer patients in England are generally worse than in other high-income European countries, mainly because patients in England tend to be diagnosed later and have poorer access to treatment. The Government established the Cancer Drugs Fund in 2010 to improve access to drugs not routinely available on the NHS. For drugs to be available on the NHS, they must also be recommended by NICE, which appraises clinical performance and cost-effectiveness. The CDF gave patients another way of accessing drugs that had been rejected by NICE on cost or clinical grounds, or had not yet been appraised. Although 80,000 people have received drugs since its inception, the CDF, which is overseen by NHS England, has proved controversial. Money had to be diverted from primary care to cover two years of overspends, when the funds 480 million budget for the two years from 2013 to 2015 was overspent by 167 million. The fund heavily scaled back the number of treatments it backed following the overspend, axeing drugs for breast, bowel, pancreatic and blood cancers. The Public Accounts Committee said earlier this month that the fund was not sustainable in its current form, and NHS England and NICE are now consulting on proposals to reform it from April 2016. Advertisement

One study involved 163 patients with cancer that had spread and who had previously had both chemotherapy and Xalkori. Zykadia was shown to shrink or slow the growth of tumours in 55 per cent of cases.

Outlining its decision to approve Zykadia, the Scottish Medicines Consortium described it as a potent drug and strongly recommended it. Yet despite describing Zykadia in its initial decision as innovative and acknowledging its ability to prolong life and delay disease progression, NICE said the extent of treatment benefit was uncertain and that the data provided by Zykadia manufacturer Novartis had not yet been examined robustly enough.

Dr Rohit Lal, a consultant oncologist at Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust specialising in the treatment of lung cancer, is deeply disappointed by NICEs initial decision to reject Zykadia.

He claims the gap has widened between England and the rest of the world as far as availability of cancer drugs is concerned. This type of cancer tends to happen to younger people  and in particular those who dont smoke, he says. Many have small children and are still the cornerstone of their family. In those circumstances the extra months of life make a real difference. Zykadia is the only treatment available for patients after Xalkori and the only drug available here that can effectively treat this type of lung cancer once it has entered the brain.

Demi has been taking Zykadia four times a day for nearly two years. It has been so successful at shrinking her tumours that, at a scan in November, doctors were unable to detect any sign of the disease.

My hair has grown back, Im looking for part-time work and Ive fallen in love, beams Demi. People think lung cancer is a disease that only happens to old smokers  Im proof this is not the case.

Swiss drugs giant Novartis claims NICE initially rejected Zykadia because it reviewed it prematurely.

At that stage Zykadia had shown promising phase I and phase II trials but, Novartis believe, the NICE appraisal process is not designed to appraise drugs that havent released the results of their phase III trials, and these are due later this year.

Others, meanwhile, say the financially stretched NHS simply cant afford the new generation of designer cancer drugs that Zykadia belongs to and that pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to sell at lower prices, which vary between countries.

Despite acknowledging its ability to prolong life and delay disease progression, NICE said the drug, which costs just under 5,000 for a 30-day supply, wasnt a cost-efficient use of NHS resources

In the US for example, Zykadia costs 4,000 more than here, at 9,000 a month. Drug companies are prepared to negotiate on price  indeed NICE says Novartis offered a discount on Zykadia to the Scottish Medicines Consortium that was not submitted as part of the initial decision review with NICE  but insist costs need to remain high to justify the millions spent on research and development.

NICE also points out that it is told which drugs to review by the Department of Health. It adds that consultations between Novartis, healthcare professionals and the public are ongoing. But to Demi, cost doesnt come into it.

I should be dead by now but I am fit, healthy and alive, she says. I am intent on enjoying the present rather than what the future holds. I love my life and have so much to give. How can anyone put a price on that?
Police have issued a warning to people using dating apps

People looking for love by using dating apps have been warned they could be letting themselves in for more than they bargained for.

Police have issued a warning after heartless muggers used the apps to rob men they lured into intimate liaisons on Valentines Day.

One 56-year-old victim had his wallet and bike stolen in the early hours of February 14 after a man he invited to his Reading home told him to turn off the lights and light a candle  and then demanded his wallet.

Police said: The victim handed over his wallet and the offender left.

'The next day the victim discovered his bicycle had also been stolen.

Later that day, a victim in his 40s from Surrey was also targeted at home by a man he had arranged to meet via a dating app.

Police said: When inside his house, the man then robbed the victim of his wallet, mobile phone and Apple Watch.

The previous week, a victim in his 20s was threatened at knifepoint after arranging to meet a man in Readings Victoria Park.

Police said: He told the victim there were other people nearby who would wait with the victim while the offender went to withdraw money.

'He then stole his bank card and mobile phone. The victim was not injured.

PC Jim Bone, of Reading CID, believes all three incidents may be linked and said: I would remind everyone of the need to be careful meeting people online.

'While online dating can be a safe, enjoyable way to meet new people, its important to be aware of warning signs that might show that your new interest might not be who they claim to be.

Just before Christmas, two men from South London who had arranged meetings using the gay dating app Grindr were robbed by a gang armed with knives.
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A crowd of almost 15,000 people descended on Cadman Plaza, just outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, on Saturday to protest the manslaughter conviction of police officer Peter Liang, 28, after he fatally shot an unarmed black man in 2014.

Waving American flags and holding signs with slogans such as 'No scapegoating' and 'No selective justice,' among others, many of the protesters spoke out against what they saw as unfair treatment of a Chinese-American police officer.

They argued that Liang's February 11 conviction for accidentally killing Akai Gurley, 28, with a stray bullet only occurred because he is a minority, and that it was intended to pacify those who are angry about other shootings of minorities by police in the US, which has been a hot topic over the past year.

Anger: Almost 15,000 gathered in Brooklyn on Saturday protesting the treatment of Chinese-American cop Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter on February 11 after shooting an unarmed man in 2014

Tragedy: Liang admitted shooting Gurley but said it was an accident after his bullet ricocheted and hit the man. Protesters say this was a tragedy for both men

Two victims: A common theme among signs and banners was that both Liang and Gurley were victims, with some protesters recalling Dr Martin Luther King, Jr's speeches about race equality

Scapegoat: Protesters said Liang is a scapegoat to quell growing anger about police shootings of black men that resulted in white officers going free, and that a white officer would not receive the same treatment

Convicted: Liang (pictured) was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct on February 11. He will be sentenced on April 14. The prosecution argued that he should not have drawn his gun and that he did nothing to help Gurley after the shooting

Flags: Many protesters (left) waved American flags, emphasizing that they believe this is an issue affecting the country's Asian-American community, but counter-protesters said they wanted justice for Gurley (right), and that Liang's conviction was not scapegoating

'No scapegoat! No scapegoat!' protesters shouted, angry that Liang, who was fired immediately after a jury convicted him, now faces up to 15 years in prison. In court, Liang had testified that he had drawn his gun when entering a Brooklyn housing project and that he fired after being startled by a noise. His bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck Gurley, who subsequently died. Liang has never denied the killing, but says that it was an accident, not a crime.

That sentiment was echoed by a number of Brooklyn protesters who held up signs with pictures of Liang's face and text that read 'Tragedy not crime' and 'An accident is not a felony!' One woman held a sign reading 'One tragedy, two victims!'

One protester held up a sign with an image of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and the caption 'Dream for all Americans.'

Justice: Other protests were held in 30 cities around the country, with thousands marching in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and gatherings in Chicago, Dallas and Miami, among other locations

Justice: Liang's lawyer said at the protest that he is making motions to have the verdict set aside

Placards: A sea of placards could be seen at the protest, which was organized by The 'Coalition of Justice for Liang,' a national group

Justice for all: Many protesters emphasized that they saw this as an issue of racial inequality

'We're here today to let people know that Chinese-Americans count as well,' protester Don Lee, a candidate for New York's state Assembly from lower Manhattan, told Associated Press. 'It is a tragedy that Akai Gurley was shot and killed... But this tragedy's been compounded by another tragedy, that Peter Liang, in an accident, is going to go to jail for up to 15 years.'

Liang was convicted on manslaughter and official misconduct charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14. His attorney, Robert Brown, attended the Brooklyn rally and said the community's support was 'very uplifting' to Liang. He added that he is making motions to have the verdict set aside.

The Brooklyn protest was mirrored by similar gatherings in other cities: an estimated 5,000 people marched in downtown Philadelphia and thousands more rallied in San Francisco and Los Angeles's Chinatowns, and other protests occurred at the Washington Monument and in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and Miami. The 'Coalition of Justice for Liang,' the national group that organized the protests, said a total of 30 protests were held across the US.

Accident: Liang maintains that the shooting was an accident, and some signs reflected his remarks, saying 'An accident is not a felony'

Bilingual: Many signs were presented in both Chinese and English, emphasizing the protesters' Asian-American connections

Condolences: Many signs offered condolences to Gurley's family, but still demanded justice for Liang

But not everyone was convinced that Liang was a victim of injustice: a few dozen people held a counter-protest across the street from the Brooklyn protest as officers with plastic handcuffs and batons stood between them.

At the trial, prosecutors said that Liang had recklessly drawn his gun, that he shouldn't have had his finger on the trigger, and that he did nothing to help Gurley as he lay dying on the floor.

Soraya Soi Free was one of those counter-protesting. She said that Liang was tried by a jury of his peers, so he could not have been a scapegoat, and that she did not approve of the protest. 'This protest is definitely an insult to Akai Gurley's family,' she said.

Gurney's shooting occurred during a year of nationwide debate over police killings of black men. Activists have looked to Liang's trial as a counterweight to cases in which grand juries have declined to indict officers, including the cases of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Like Gurley, Brown and Garner were black and unarmed.

Counter-protest: Another group formed a counter-protest over the road from the pro-Liang camp, demanding jail for what some of them described as 'killer cops'
A 21-year-old New Zealand mum and her two-year-old son were found alive and safe by police on Sunday, police said.

Samantha Doreen Hansen and her child, from Christchurch, were reported missing after they were last seen at 5.30pm on Saturday by her mother, according to police.

Police said when she never returned to the apartment, her friends and family became concerned for her safety.

Samantha Doreen Hansen (pictured) and her child, from Christchurch, were missing for more than 12 hours on Saturday night to early Sunday

Because she hasnt shown up at her address last night, her flatmate has voiced a concern, Detective Sergeant Geoff Rudduck told Stuff.co.nz.

Ms Hansen is 167cm tall and of slim build and has recently been dating someone new.

She is also known to have problems with her mobile phone, according to Stuff.

It is the second time for Ms Hansen to be reported missing. She and her son went missing overnight in 2014 but were found in the early morning hours.
Is your child obese? If yes, then along with several other diseases related to obesity, also watch out for tooth troubles.

As obesity among kids is on the rise in India, dental decay is spreading like an epidemic as both are closely linked, dentists have revealed.

The Dental Council of India (DCI) has said it would soon reach out to the Union Ministry of Health to find a solution to the problem.

Obese kids have lesser physical activity which leads to ineffective chewing, and it further makes them susceptible to caries

Dentists have been doing major studies on the problem and have gathered a lot of data which is in a compilation stage right now. Dental caries and obesity are closely related and the problem is spreading like epidemic. Obese kids have lesser physical activity which leads to ineffective chewing which further makes them susceptible to caries, said DCI member Dr AK Chandna.

Obese kids in the age group of 5-12 years, sugar intake is very high and sugar has a great potential to cause tooth decay. China has already taken action in this regard. In a bid to minimise sugar intake, the open sale of sugar has been limited in China. We are also working in this direction and would soon reach out to the health ministry for taking an appropriate step, he added.

Dentists also pointed out in a National Dental Conference held on Friday that the oral health of Indian kids is not good.

Doctors say dental diseases start early in humans and if not prevented on time, continuous exposure to risk factors progressively worsens the overall dental condition.

Tooth decay or dental caries and obesity are two of the most prevalent health conditions affecting kids in India. Tooth decay affects almost 55% and obesity around 8-10% among children in our country, said Dr Mahesh Verma, director-principal, Maulana Azad Dental College.

Dentists also called for overall oral healthcare.
Poland's new Right-wing leaders are using fresh allegations about Solidarity hero Lech Walesa to revive conspiracy theories that the communist-era regime staged its own demise in 1989 to hold onto power behind the scenes.

In claims that Polish EU leader Donald Tusk lamented as 'unfortunate' for the country's image abroad, newly-released police files allege that Nobel Peace prize winner Walesa was in fact a paid communist spy.

Walesa is renowned worldwide for negotiating a bloodless end to communism in Poland in 1989. The move triggered the country's first democratic elections since World War II, ushering Walesa into the presidency a year later.

Legendary: Lech Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his defiant opposition to the communists and became Poland's first democratically-elected president after the 1989 fall of communism

Former Polish President Lech Walesa speaks at the National Assembly of Venezuela in Caracas on February 18 (left). Walesa is renowned for negotiating a bloodless end to communism in Poland in 1989

But Right-wing politicians like Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, have long argued that Walesa was a regime spy and a puppet whom communists used as a political fig-leaf while they held on to key military and economic sectors.

Centrists and liberals have repeatedly ridiculed the idea, arguing that Kaczynski - who was also a communist-era dissident - is being vengeful after falling out with Walesa during his presidency.

Kaczynski also insists his late twin, president Lech Kaczynski, is the true hero of Poland's historic transition from communism to democracy.

'In light of Walesa's complete disgrace, Lech Kaczynski will become the symbolic patron of the Solidarity movement,' Kaczynski is quoted as having said in 2010, after his brother died in a jet crash in Russia.

On Thursday, Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, which is responsible for prosecuting communist-era crimes, revealed a newfound 1970s secret police file allegedly showing Walesa was a paid collaborator codenamed 'Bolek'.

The legendary leader admitted on Friday he had 'made a mistake' but flatly denied he was ever a regime agent

Lech Walesa raises his arms to a cheering crowd as he leaves the shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, where he worked in June 1983

Walesa admitted on Friday he had 'made a mistake', but flatly denied he was ever a regime agent. He was cleared of suspicion by a special vetting court in 2000.

The 72-year-old did not elaborate on what his mistake was, but pointed to a mystery person who 'should reveal the truth' about the past.

Poland's new Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski says he is not convinced.

Walesa was a regime 'puppet' and the new secret police files can prove that 'the project to free Poland was orchestrated by the regime,' Waszczykowski told Poland's commercial TVN 24 news channel on Friday.

'We must try to find out... whether decisions made at the time were independent and in line with national interests or whether they were concocted by foreign or domestic secret services.

Lech Walesa pictured with The Queen in 1991 when he was President of Poland. A newfound 1970s secret police file claims Walesa was a paid collaborator codenamed 'Bolek'

Lech Walesa is carried on the shoulders of his Solidarity comrades after delivering papers for official registration of the Solidarity Trade Union at a court in Warsaw in 1980 (left). He is pictured, right, in 1983 during a press conference after the Nobel committee announced that he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

'It can show us that we were wrong in thinking we made the revolution and that our decisions were independent.

'This casts a shadow over the creation of an independent Poland and its political elites.'

Poland's TVP public broadcaster, which recently saw the PiS install loyalists in top management, aired interviews with several historians on Friday who said the files confirm their convictions that Walesa was indeed a regime collaborator.

During the interviews, TVP also showed communist-era pictures of Solidarity leader Walesa engaging in friendly meetings with regime top brass.

Walesa supporters have hailed his historic role in Poland's transition to democracy, but admit he could have caved in to secret police pressure while still a young electrician at the Gdansk Shipyard, later the cradle of the Solidarity trade union.

Walesa admitted on Friday he had 'made a mistake', but flatly denied he was ever a regime agent. He was cleared of suspicion by a special vetting court in 2000

Former Polish President and Solidarity founding leader Lech Walesa shows a v-sign in front of a Solidarity poster during his presidential campaign in Plock in 1989

Communist-era dissident Henryk Wujec insists Walesa 'never betrayed' fellow anti-regime activists to the secret police.

Grzegorz Schetyna, a former dissident and leader of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) official opposition, said the controversy surrounding Walesa was rooted in political 'vengeance' and dubbed it a 'real Polish hell'.

'It's a classic example of how Poles are able to bring out the worst in each other,' he added.

EU president Tusk, a communist-era dissident and former Polish premier, insisted that Walesa never hid the fact that he was questioned by the regime's secret police.

'It's all very unfortunate for Poland's image, for its great traditions and the legend of Solidarity and Lech Walesa,' he told Polish media on Friday in Brussels.

Lech Walesa (top left) speaks to workers at Gdansk shipyard during a strike in this 1980 file photo

Former Polish President Lech Walesa (left) talks to Polish Vice Premier Mieczyslaw Jagielski (right) of the Communist party at the Gdansk shipyard in this August 1980 file photo

Poland's image abroad has already suffered in recent months because of controversial reforms introduced by the right-wing government that critics say undermine the independence of state media and the constitutional court.

In the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, editor-in-chief Jaroslaw Kurski traces the history of ill will between Kaczynski and Walesa, which goes back to 1991 after earlier friendlier ties.

'To reduce Lech Walesa, victor over communism, our greatest contemporary historic symbol, to the level of secret agent? No one in the world will understand,' Kurski wrote.

'What are the Poles doing to their own history?'

Walesa himself, on a trip to Venezuela and the U.S., defended himself, saying: 'On the path I chose, I had to hold all kinds of discussions. And in the end, those discussions led to victory.

'If I had chosen another path, we would have ended up like Ukraine, or even worse,' he told reporters in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday.
With the opinion polls see-sawing  and up to 40 per cent of voters saying they could change their mind between now and June 23  the EU referendum is up for grabs.

Harold Macmillan famously declared that events, dear boy, events were the biggest threat to a leaders plans. Now, another Conservative Prime Minister will be hoping the historic vote is not decided by factors beyond Downing Streets control...

Hope: The EU referendum is up for grabs, with opinion polls see-sawing and up to 40 per cent of voters saying they could change their mind between now and June 23

MIGRATION

Last summers migrant crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of Syrians and North Africans making the perilous journey by boat to Europe, triggered a boost in the polls for the Out camp.

Reports that the same migrants were responsible for sex attacks in Germany, while others were living in the Jungle camp at Calais, increased the impact.

Last year, an astonishing 1.83 million people illegally entered the EU, over six times as many as the previous year.

This is why Downing Street was so keen to hold the referendum in June. The next possible date was after the summer, by which time the migrant situation could have deteriorated even further.

This years crisis is predicted to be even more serious than last year. If so, it could hand victory to the Out campaign.

JOBS

David Cameron needs Chancellor George Osborne  who is also the Government supremo trying to engineer a win for the In campaigners  to deliver a feelgood Budget in March. If voters are positive about their personal financial circumstances, they are less likely to vote for change.

More important will be the performance of the wider EU economy. A repeat of the eurozone crisis of two years ago, when Greece and other southern European governments were on the brink of collapse, would reinforce the notion that Britains economy would thrive outside the bloc  and with it a burst of job creation.

In campaigners will insist that British jobs are heavily tied to our trade links with our EU partners.

In a speech yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: Being part of Europe has brought Britain investment, jobs and protection for workers.

But Out campaigners will highlight sluggish growth rates across the EU as a reason to break free.

SECURITY

Downing Street is planning to claim that if Britain leaves the EU, we will be less protected against threats such as Putins Russia because hostile powers are intimidated by the unity of the 28-state EU. Out campaigners will counter this argument by highlighting the security risks presented by lax border controls.

The terror attacks in Paris last November accentuated these fears, particularly after it was revealed that some of the perpetrators had posed as migrants to enter Europe.

Home Secretary Theresa May has argued that being part of the EU is a major benefit to British security services as a result of cross-border intelligence sharing and valuable reciprocal agreements such as the European Arrest Warrant.

SOVEREIGNTY

Cameron has tried to win over London Mayor Boris Johnson to the In campaign by promising to enshrine in British law a pledge guaranteeing the ultimate supremacy of Parliament over Brussels  and hopes voters will also be persuaded.

The Prime Minister was today expected to promise to make clear that the British Supreme Court outranks the European Court of Justice, similar to an idea first put forward by Johnson last year as the price for his support for the In group.

He says it is critical the sovereignty of the House of Commons is put beyond doubt.

Legal experts say the move is pointless as Parliament already has the power to ignore EU law if it chooses to, it is just that the sheer volume of Brussels legislation makes it impractical  but it may have some impact on voters sentiment due to the political theatre it represents.

The Prime Minister was today expected to promise to make clear that the British Supreme Court outranks the European Court of Justice, similar to an idea first put forward by Boris Johnson last year as the price for his support for the In group

INFLUENCE

The Prime Minister is planning to make British influence on the world stage a key strand of his campaign  arguing that we have far more clout combined with our EU partners, rather than as a lone wolf. It explains the slogan of the In campaign group: Britain Stronger in Europe.

The arguments will be played out whenever a diplomatic crisis strikes, such as attempts to settle the war in Syria, but are likely to pivot on economic considerations.

The In camp says that Britain is better able to open up new trade markets by acting with other EU countries. The Out camp says British businesses are dragged down by Brussels red tape and would flourish by forging fresh alliances within the Commonwealth.

They say our influence within the EU is illusory because we are routinely outvoted on important decisions in Brussels, winning only eight per cent of the votes on vital EU decisions.

RISK

The In camp believes its trump card is Project Fear  making sure voters are too frightened to make a leap in the dark and instead plump for the security of the status quo.

They will say we cannot risk being cut off by our EU partners.
A restaurant with images of half naked woman eating pieces of fried chicken plastered on the walls has been labelled the most sexist diner in Sydney.

The Surry Hills eatery Butter, that sells sneakers alongside fried meals, opened just over a week ago, but has drawn criticism with customers confused over how chicken and 'babes' are related.

According to pictures surfacing on social media, the eatery's menu has a scantily clad woman eating a box of chicken with her legs spread on the front and the elevator doors are decorated with another female holding up her t-shirt to reveal her breasts are covered with fried food.

A restaurant with images of half naked woman eating pieces of fried chicken (pictured) plastered on the walls and ceiling has been labelled the most sexist diner in Sydney

The Surry Hills eatery Butter, that sells sneakers alongside fried meals, opened just over a week ago, but has drawn criticism with some customers confused over how chicken and 'babes' are related

Butter's website also features similar images, one with a woman pulling her thighs apart while holding a piece of chicken and another of a woman tucking into a burger in sneakers and a bra.

The eatery have received mixed reviews on Facebook, with some questioning how fried food ties in with naked woman.

'Excited for your opening, however your website page leaves a lot to be desired. Not sure what half naked women have to do with chicken/ butter,' one woman wrote prior to the opening of the restaurant.

'Chicken sells it's self. I would 10/10 too look at great food (sic), than unrelated babes.'

Butter responded to the woman's issue on Facebook, saying they hoped the diner could be 'about more than just food and drinks.'

'Part of our concept is also to do collaborations with artist, designers and musicians we find talented,' they wrote.

Butter has received mixed reviews on Facebook, with some questioning how fried food ties in with naked woman

The restaurant's menu (pictured) has a picture of a woman in underwear sprawled out on a couch eating fried chicken

The eatery have received mixed reviews on Facebook, with some questioning how fried food ties in with naked woman

Butter responded to the woman's issue on Facebook, saying they hoped the diner could be 'about more than just food and drinks'

The owners went on to say they planned to do many more collaborations in the future.

'Guys, what's with the pic with the half-naked woman on your website? Really?' another woman wrote on Facebook.

Butter's menu also has a few items with subtle innuendos, such as spicy sauces ranging from heat levels of 'naked' to 'hot AF'.

Daily Mail Australia have contacted Butter for comment.

The pictures were taken by photographer Sarah Bahbah from Raised by the Wolves as part of her 'Sex and Takeout' series.

She told Daily Mail Australia the series was inspired by indulgent junk food moments when she travelled the US with a former lover.

The owners went on to say they planned to do many more collaborations in the future

Butter's menu also has a few items with subtle innuendos, such as spicy sauces ranging from heat levels of 'naked' to 'hot AF'

'I often get asked to do these type of shoots for restaurants, and I'm very selective in saying yes,' she said.

'The excitement and positive energy that came from Butter made it easy to agree to do the shoot.

'The shots produced are with the same intention as the other pieces- (empowering females to feel comfortable in their own skin), however the pieces I have in art galleries differ from these a lot- the girls are looking at the camera in this shoot more often than not - which admittedly does come off more confronting.

'I choose to shoot females over males as the series is based on my love for the occasional indulgence and I want to reflect this through other females, who believe in the same ideas.'

Part-owner Mo Moubayed told Daily Mail Australia 'the artwork is purely an artistic piece created by an amazing female artist.'

Mr Moubayed said Butter do not have a specific customer demographic and attract anyone who 'loves great food, drinks and sneakers.'

Part-owner Mo Moubayed said they were not out to offend their diners and believes the pictures are a 'beautiful interpretation of modern street culture'
At least five thefts are occurring every day in care homes across the country amid fears that the elderly and vulnerable are being robbed of their most treasured possessions.

A Mail on Sunday investigation today reveals a multi-million- pound crimewave involving thousands of thefts from those in care  including cash, jewellery and heirlooms. Even wedding rings are being slipped off the fingers of elderly women.

In other cases, carers employed to look after the infirm instead drain their bank accounts or scam them into transferring money.

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Lowest of the low: This is the shocking moment a carer was filmed distracting a pensioner before stealing 20 from him (circled), aired on ITV's Heroes and Villains: Caught on Camera

Outrage: Lisa Cobane, 32, urged 66-year-old MS sufferer Malcolm Gill to look around at his Stockport home before taking the money from his mantelpiece

Using Freedom of Information requests to police forces, this newspaper has found that there have been at least 7,238 thefts from care homes for the elderly and other residential homes in England in a three-and-a-half-year period since 2012.

More than 2.7 million worth of cash, jewellery and other treasured possessions have been stolen from victims. Worryingly, police figures show that in scores of cases the perpetrators were employees of the care homes and, in a large proportion of reports, the offenders were never caught.

But campaigners warned the shocking figures would be only the tip of the iceberg, as many crimes would not be reported to police.

They called for more robust background checks on carers working with the elderly, including those coming from overseas. Some of the most alarming cases include:

A carer in Lancashire who siphoned off 12,000 from an elderly womans bank account over two-and-a-half years;

A home manager in Derbyshire who used internet banking to steal 20,000 from three residents accounts to pay for a lavish holiday to America and a gambling spree;

Thieves in Blackburn who stole jewellery belonging to residents suffering from dementia at a residential care home in 2013, as well as a tub of lottery money and petty cash worth 650;

A 15,000 eternity ring with seven diamonds being reported stolen two weeks after a resident at a nursing home in Suffolk died in 2014.

A petition calling for CCTV in care homes to protect the elderly residents who live there, featuring Joshua Smith. Mr Smith's family eventually moved him out of his care home after they noticed clothes and treasured photographs going missing

Last night, Health Minister Jane Ellison said: These are terrible crimes and we want the strongest possible sanctions brought against those who commit them.

Eileen Chubb, founder and director of Compassion In Care, a charity that campaigns to improve care for elderly people by supporting whistleblowers who report misconduct, added: These figures are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg. We need to improve the checks on people getting jobs in care homes, including those who come from abroad.

ROBBED OF OLD ARMY PHOTOS, A GOLD CRUCIFIX AND 20,000 CASH When Joshua Smiths family moved him into a care home, they were shocked that belongings including clothes and treasured photographs would go missing. Before he retired, Mr Smith, 87, from Rochdale, had served in the Army. His daughter, Lisa Smith, 34, said: We were forever reporting to the care home manager that his clothes were going missing. We also gave him photographs of his cat, which he loved, and pictures to remind him of his Army days. They would go missing too. The family of Mr Smith, who has dementia, felt he was neglected and so his daughter moved him into her home. She said: For those who dont have families to stick up for them, it breaks my heart. A care home manager walked free from court after stealing more than 20,000 from three vulnerable residents  and had to pay back only 1. Lisa McIntyre, 41, siphoned off the money by using residents online bank accounts and used it to pay for a holiday to America and gambling sprees. She pleaded guilty at Derby Crown Court in 2014 to three counts of fraud and was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years. She had stolen the money from vulnerable residents at Annefield House, in Littleover, a care home which looks after elderly people as well as those with mental health issues. But a judge ordered her to pay back only 1 as she was in debt and had no assets. In a separate case in 2013, a gold chain and crucifix and a gold bracelet  together worth 1,500  were stolen from a home in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire. Advertisement

Troubling examples included the case of carer Gillian Draper, 60, who was jailed for two years in 2014 after pleading guilty to theft after stealing 12,000 from a pensioner in Lancashire. She used the womans bank card with which she had been entrusted for shopping errands.

Last year, thieves stole a safe from a care home in Sawley, Lancashire, which contained 100 in cash, grey pearls worth 500, a gold ring with a diamond worth 500, a 650 gold ring with a blue gemstone, two gold rings worth 500 each and a 650 wedding ring. No arrests were made.

In Essex, there were 497 thefts totalling 141,062 for the value of items stolen. They included a shocking case of an 18-carat gold engagement ring with three diamonds being removed from a womans finger at an elderly care home in Colchester in 2013. The offender was never caught.

The figures are based on responses from almost two-thirds of the 39 police forces in England, of which 26 provided figures for thefts and 22 provided values of amounts stolen.

Of the 23 forces that were able to provide information about offenders, 387 criminals were charged or cautioned for the offences, with at least 80 being employees of care homes. In some cases, forces were not able to provide figures solely for care homes so the statistics may cover other residential care, including for those with physical or learning disabilities. Overall, Greater Manchester Police recorded the highest number of thefts, with 1,031 incidents over three-and-a-half years from January 2012, totalling 426,713 in the value of cash and goods stolen.

An estimated 426,000 people in Britain live in care and nursing homes. John Beer, chairman of Action Against Elder Abuse, said the findings were a major concern: The answer is the decent management of care homes. Staff should check the inventory of possessions when residents arrive and that should be checked regularly.

Andrea Sutcliffe, chief inspector of adult social care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said: CQC will check how staff are recruited and ensure proper safeguarding arrangements are in place.

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, called our findings deeply depressing. She added: We would advise loved ones of care home residents to be mindful of possessions and if they believe a theft may have taken place to raise it immediately.

Alzheimers Society head of policy, George McNamara said: These despicable acts show a total lack of respect for a persons property.

Eileen Chubb, founder of Compassion in Care, was forced to resign from her care worker job after blowing the whistle on staff abusing elderly patients

It is sickening... and just the tip of the iceberg

COMMENT: By Eileen Chubb, Compassion in Care founder

It is almost 17 years since I was forced to resign from my job as a care worker after blowing the whistle on staff who were abusing elderly patients. Sadly, rather than improving, things appear to be getting worse.

The theft of treasured items from elderly people in care is part of a wider problem of neglect and abuse. Often, the same elderly residents who have been hit, slapped, kicked, or even starved, will have had their possessions stolen from them too.

It isnt just their possessions that have been stolen. It is their right to be safe.

It sickens me to hear there have been thousands of cases in just a few years.

But, because many cases will never be discovered, I fear this is only the tip of the iceberg.

It makes me sad that we live in a country where there arent more people standing in the street waving banners screaming at the tops of their voices about this. We owe these people decent care.

Part of the problem is that elderly people are not always listened to and taken seriously. It is a cultural attitude to age. I spent six years working in elderly care homes but I never saw them as old people. They were just people; human beings. Thats the way the law needs to start seeing them.

There is not enough accountability. I think that if the Care Quality Commission disappeared tonight, no one would notice. The police also need to do more to bring the criminals  scores of whom are carers  to justice.

Although carers are meant to have criminal records checks before working with vulnerable people, there are too many cases where employers have failed to make them.

Its also a problem for workers coming from overseas, who get jobs without employers knowing about their backgrounds.

However, it is also true that many of the worst abusers have no criminal record.

Before I started working in care homes, I was just an ordinary person oblivious to what was happening. Then I realised that they were places where crimes could be committed without any kind of accountability.

Most people dont realise how important this issue is until it touches their life. Until it is your mother whose wedding ring was stolen from her finger. Or your fathers life savings siphoned off by some heartless carer.

We all need to open our eyes. How are we allowing this to happen every day?

The only way to stop abuse  including cases where carers steal from elderly people  is to protect the protectors.
Murdered: Unreleased witness testimony from 34 years ago throws fresh light on the disappearance and death of eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra (pictured) in 1981

The kidnap and murder of a young boy linked to Scotland Yards troubled VIP child abuse probe was actually carried out by an entirely unrelated gang, secret police files suggest.

Unreleased witness testimony from 34 years ago throws fresh light on the disappearance and death of eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra in 1981, previously believed to have been the victim of an establishment paedophile ring.

The original police report into the boys death, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, reveals that three witnesses spotted men and a woman of Asian appearance who may have been involved in the abduction, raising questions as to why the murder was ever linked to the VIP ring.

The witness accounts  known to detectives for more than three decades  are likely to lead to further criticism of the way the Met has conducted its controversial Operation Midland investigating allegations against politicians and public figures including lords Brittan and Bramall.

Vishal disappeared in Putney, South-West London, on July 29, 1981, after watching the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana. Parts of his skeleton were discovered six months later in a field in Sussex nearly 50 miles away.

Reports have linked Vishals case with Operation Midland, an investigation chiefly based on a witness named only as Nick, much of whose account has been discredited. Vishal was last seen less than a mile from the notorious Elm guest house, in Barnes, the supposed hub of the network.

A few months after Vishal disappeared, his father was telephoned by an anonymous rentboy claiming that his son may have been taken to the guest house. In a Met Police briefing note on Operation Midland in late 2014, Vishals case was mentioned, though it added it was not possible to decide whether the murder was linked.

The new Sussex Police report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, dates from 1983. One witness saw two men in a layby near where Vishals remains were found and recalled the men swinging a 4-5ft heavy hessian sack over the fence. He also described seeing an Asian woman in a car parked at the site. A second witness, a female petrol station attendant nearby, recalled three Asian men in a car with a boy aged around ten calling in on the day of the Royal Wedding.

Notorious: The former Elm guest house in Barnes, South-West London, was the supposed hub of the network

Earlier that day, a third witness saw a boy being pushed into a car near where Vishal was last seen. The man holding him by the arms was also described as of Asian appearance. According to the report: [Witness] states that when the Asian gentleman was bundling the young boy into the rear of the stationary car, he got the impression that the boy seemed to be very surprised.

Vishals father, Vishambar, told the MoS: I had no idea that there was an Asian connection. I have never been told. How the hell in 34 years have I never been informed of this? Until today nobody knew about this so that in itself, in my opinion, is a serious case of negligence. I dont understand it.

Sussex Police said: Contact is being maintained with Vishals family on a regular basis, and they will be advised of any significant developments.
Wild cheers greeted Donald Trump Saturday night as he took a victory lap following a decisive primary election win that pushed his bitter rival Jeb Bush out of the race entirely.

With victories now in South Carolina and New Hampshire, Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination: No GOP candidate has ever won in both of those states without going on to represent his party in the general election.

The billionaire Republican front-runner struck an uncharacteristically genial tone toward his two main challengers Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. shushing his crowd when they booed them.

'Ted and Marco did a really good job and they did quite well as I understand,' Trump said during a victory speech that was beamed around the world.

'No, just one minute,' he said as catcalls rang out. 'We go back to war tomorrow morning.'

He gave them both credit for enduring a grueling schedule and risking their reputations in a protracted slugfest.

'There's nothing easy about running for president!' Trump exclaimed. 'It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful.'

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Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a South Carolina Republican primary night event while flanked by his family members

The billionaire Republican front-runner struck an uncharacteristically genial tone toward his two main challengers Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, shushing his crowd when they booed the two first-term senators

Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump breaks her usual silence and to talk up her husband's candidacy after he won the South Carolina Republican primary

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump speaks as the candidate's family celebrates victory in the South Carolina primary

rump (second right) touches the stomach of his pregnant daughter Ivanka (second left) as he addresses supporters

'When you win,' he said, 'it's beautiful.'

'Let's put this thing away!' he urged, calling on supporters in a dozen states set to vote March 1 to come to the polls for him.

With more than 99 per cent of precincts reporting results in the Palmetto State, the billionaire had captured 32.5 per cent of the vote in a six-way contest.

Second was Rubio with 22.5 per cent. Cruz was just behind him in the third-place position with 22.3 per cent, with barely 1,000 votes separating the two first-term senators.

Former Florida Gov Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson made up the bottom half of the Republican results table with 7.8 per cent, 7.6 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively.

The contrast between Trump's triumphant speech and Bush's more somber tones from moments earlier was striking.

'I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant, not the master,' the former Florida governor said  someone with 'decency.'

'I'm proud of the campaign that we've run to unify the country, and to advocate conservative solutions ... but the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision,' he said.

'So tonight I am suspending my campaign.'

'No!' Bush's audience shrieked.

'Yeah. Yeah,' he replied, choked up.

Bush also motioned to his wife, explaining that with her at his side, it would all be OK.

'I've had an incredible life and, for me, public service has been the highlight of that life, but no matter what the future holds, here's the greatest safety landing if you can imagine,' he said.

'Tonight I'm going to sleep with the best friend I have and the love of my life.'

Hours later former President George W. Bush, who campaigned for his younger brother in South Carolina, said in a statement that he told Jeb 'how proud I am of him and his staff for running a campaign that looked to the future, presented serious policy proposals, and elevated the tone of the race.

Jeb's decision to suspend his campaign reflects his selfless character and patriotism,' the former president said.

Ben Carson, who finished the night lower than Bush on the tote board, vowed to stay in the race no matter what.

'I'm not going anywhere,' he told supporters.

Trump never mentioned Bush's name on Saturday night but mocked election analysts who predicted he could lose ground as his rivals quit their campaigns.

'A number of the pundits said, "Well, if a couple of the other candidates drop out, if you add their scores together, it's going to equal Trump!"' he mocked during his victory speech.

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Former Florida Gov Jeb Bush suspended his bid for the White House on Saturday, following disappointing results in the primaries

Bush would likely have faced pressure from GOP leaders and donors to drop out had he stayed in the race

Bush quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen Ted Cruz, who have billed themselves as anti-establishment alternatives to the early front-runner

Bush put on a brave face as he told supporters on Saturday that he was stepping out of the presidential race

Bush goes to kiss his wife Columba while announcing that he is suspending his presidential campaign

Jeb Bush told supporters that he had a great 'safety landing' in his wife Columba Bush, who tearfully stayed to his side as he dropped out of the presidential race tonight in South Carolina

'These geniuses. These geniuses. They don't understand that as people drop out I'm going to get some of their support.'

Ted Cruz had praise for Bush, calling him 'a man who ran a campaign based on ideas, based on policy, based on substance.

And in an unspoken comparison with Trump, he said the Floridian was 'a man who didn't go to the gutter and engage in insults and attacks.'

Cruz claimed he was effectively tied with Rubio for second place, and hinted that he was licking his chops for a general election debate against 'Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, or whatever other socialist they nominate' on the Democratic side of the political ledger.

He boasted, based on his surprising win in the Iowa caucuses, that his is 'the only campaign that has beaten, and can beat, Donald Trump.'

Rubio also acknowledged Bush, his former mentor, saying that he 'has many things to be proud of.'

'He's an extraordinary husband. He's an extraordinary father. He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida.'

'And I believe and I pray that his service to our country has not yet ended,' Rubio said.

But he also predicted despite his lack of any statewide wins, that he 'will win the nomination.'

'Practically speaking,' he said, 'It's down to three.'

'Tonight here in South Carolina, the message is pretty clear,' he said. 'This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to guide us into the 21st century.'

The Democratic National Committee's chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, unsurprisingly said Saturday night that the Republicans would ultimately fall flat in November.

'There is no longer any question over just how out-of-touch and extreme todays Republican party has become,' she said in a statement.

'Despite their best efforts to disrupt Trumps momentum, the rest of the Republican field has faltered even as they've spewed campaign rhetoric as extreme as his.'

'Whether it's Ben Carson's daily confusion and reports that he is running out of cash or Marco Rubio's growing desperation to spin his way out of three consecutive losses ... the once Grand Old Party is now the Party of Trump.'

Trump brought his family onstage including sons Eric and Don Jr., daughters Tiffany and Ivanka, and wife Melania.

Ivanka is just days away from delivering a baby.

'We have a hospital ready just in case,' Trump said.

Florida Sen Marco Rubio reacts at his South Carolina primary night headquarters in Columbia, South Carolina

Rubio gestures to supporters alongside South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (left) at primary night on Saturday

Rubio waves to supporters alongside South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at primary night rally on Saturday

'It could be any second. It could even be before I finish!'

Melania, the candidate's third wife, called South Carolina 'an amazing place.'

'Congratulations to my husband. He was working very hard. ... he will be the best president!' she gushed.

'This is an amazing, amazing night,' Ivanka added from the podium.

'My father is an incredibly hard worker and he'll be working for each and every one of you,' she pledged.

Saturday's win will add new momentum to what threatens to become an unstoppable election year Trump juggernaut.

The Donald was declared the winner with just 2 per cent of the votes counted in what amounts to his second solid victory in as many weeks.

More than 1,000 Trump supporters at his victory party in a Spartanburg, South Carolina, hotel ballroom chanted We Want Trump!' We Want Trump!' and cheered every time CNN, which was playing on flat screen TVs, announced an update in the counting.

By the time he hit the stage, they were shouting 'USA! USA! USA!'

The win keeps Trump firmly in the front-runner slot as the GOP race moves to Nevada next week for the state's caucuses, and then to a dozen races held on 'Super Tuesday', March 1.

It also solidifies the sense in South Carolina that the state's Republicans have undergone a monumental shift from a genteel, center-right majority to an angry conservative one.

That's the same transition the GOP is seeing nationwide  with Trump casting himself as the champion of frustrated voters who have lost patience with a divisive White House and believe President Barack Obama has weakened the United States.

Trump, the unlikely Republican front-runner who made his fortune in real estate and reality television, led every poll in South Carolina since mid-November.

That made Saturday night's topline result a largely foregone conclusion and set up a fierce battle for second place.

The same dynamic played out in New Hampshire eleven days ago, with Trump crushing the field and Ohio Gov John Kasich stealthily slipping past his noisier rivals to grab the silver medal.

Although the real gap between silver and bronze can be paper-thin, as Rubio and Cruz are seeing, the practical impact will be huge in terms of momentum and fundraising.

Only Trump, who is funding his own bid  his campaign committee accepts donations but he never asks for them  can afford a poor finish.

He has yet to see one.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives for a South Carolina primary night rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia

Cruz, accompanied by his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters, Catherine, four, and Caroline, seven, react to the crowd at a South Carolina primary rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia

Cruz had praise for Bush, calling him 'a man who ran a campaign based on ideas, based on policy, based on substance'

Trump seemed to know all along that keeping his rivals bunched together in the distance was his best-case scenario, batting down Cruz and Rubio every time either one seemed to have the upper hand.

As Cruz in particular surged among Christian-right voters, he played up the Texas senator's recent reputation as a decidedly un-Christian cheater and liar.

Cruz 'lies more than any human being I have ever seen,' Trump told a rally audience Friday night in North Charleston, hitting him for a heavily run TV ad that uses dated footage to paint Trump as holding positions that he abandoned years ago.

He also blasted Cruz for a dirty-tricks campaign against Carson that involved telling Iowa caucus-goers that the African-American doctor was pulling out of the race.

Trump had good reason to play hardball.

One South Carolina poll this week showed his lead narrowing to just 3 percentage points over Rubio, and another had him reduced to a five-point victor over Cruz.

But single-digit margins were exceptions in a race that had The Donald ahead by as many as 20 this month.

His final margin of victory will be closer to his average edge in recent polls, about 13 per cent.

But in a tweet The Donald fired off a few minutes after polls closed, he said he didn't care if his opponents were breathing down his neck.

'People (pundits) gave me no chance in South Carolina. Now it looks like a possible win,' he tweeted. 'I would be happy with a one vote victory! (HOPE)'

On Friday, Trump told a series of capacity crowds on the state's Atlantic coast that he didn't want to take anything for granted.

'You have to assume we're tied!' he said in Myrtle Beach. 'Go out and vote!

With Saturday's win, Trump will claim most if not all of South Carolina's 50 delegates to July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

The end of Jeb Bush's campaign came as little surprise to campaign watchers.

Reports surfaced Friday of Bush campaign staffers shopping their resumes and donors fleeing to Rubio and Kasich.

A few campaign insiders insisted the brother of one former president and the son of another is committed to collecting as many delegates as he can, for as long as he can, in the hope that a chaotic primary season will lead to a 'contested' convention.

In that scenario, delegates become currency. And the man who controls the largest number of them will have the most to say about who emerges from the resulting cacophony as the presidential nominee.

It was not to be, and Jeb ended his bid for a third Bush presidency with no delegates at all in his corner.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson visits voters in a restaurant during the Republican presidential primary in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Following Saturday's primary, Ben Carson, who finished last, vowed that 'I'm not going anywhere'. Pictured above, he speaks at a rally on Friday

With Bush and Carson floundering, and Kasich fleeing South Carolina for more hospitably moderate New England states before the voting was over, Rubio and Cruz were Trump's main in-state competition all along.

Cruz, the hard-charging tea party senator from Texas, staked his claim on an army of nearly 10,000 volunteers  mostly from the evangelical-heavy upstate region  charged with recruiting Bible-thumping conservatives to vote for him.

Meanwhile Rubio, a baby-faced Florida senator, relied on high-profile endorsements from the popular South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the African-American senator Tim Scott and the right-wing Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the congressional committee investigating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's Benghazi terror-attack scandal.

Saturday's outcome will give new weight to Republican Party insiders' fears that the maverick Trump can run the table and sew up the GOP's presidential nomination quickly unless the so-called 'establishment lane' condenses to just a single candidate.

Cruz remains as much an outsider as Carson and Trump, despite holding a U.S. Senate seat. But Rubio is competing for oxygen with Bush and Kasich, who are more centrist White House hopefuls.

Most early Republican primaries award convention delegates proportionately according to the percentages of votes won.

Beginning on March 15, state Republican parties are permitted to hold 'winner-take-all' contests, and many will do so.

That means Trump could scoop up massive numbers of delegates by scoring razor-thin victories and never winning a single outright majority, unless the field thins enough for a single 'establishment' candidate to combine votes from party moderates and challenge him effectively.

The South Carolina primary is an odd hybrid, and it's possible Trump could claim every delegate at stake on Saturday.

Some of the state's delegates are aligned with its seven congressional district  each gets three for a total of 21.

Twenty-nine more 'at-large' delegates are awarded in a single block to the winner of the election.

So if Trump out-polls his rivals in each of the seven congressional district in addition to winning statewide, all 50 delegates will be his.

Nervous party elders want 'anyone but Trump,' a Republican National Committee official told DailyMail.com, requesting anonymity since he is not authorized to speak to the press.

'It's better for the party if we get a two- or three-man race, and get it quickly,' the official said Saturday afternoon.

'Having 17 candidates at the beginning set the stage for Trump and allowed him to stand out,' the official added. 'And right now his opposition is spread too thin. It's time it began to consolidate.'

Reached after Trump was declared the winner on Saturday night, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks fired back.

Ohio Gov John Kasich wasn't in South Carolina for the primary on Saturday, but hosted a watch party in Wakefield, Massachusetts

Kasich greets supporters after speaking during the watch party in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on Saturday

n Kasich, center, walks through the crowd after speaking during the primary watch party and campaign rally on Saturday

'If RNC leadership wants to continue to attack the front-runner,' she said in an email, 'they should do so on the record and we will respond in kind.'

Future primary contests could see new levels of tension between the Republican party's 2016 standard-bearer and a party power structure that would be more comfortable with a Bush or a Kasich flying its colors.

An hour before the polls closed, a consortium of TV networks that participate in so-called 'exit polling' released data collected in interviews with South Carolina voters outside their polling places.

They predicted a record turnout and found a Republican electorate with strong pro-Trump leanings.

Fully three-quarters of the GOP primary voters on Saturday said they support a signature Trump proposal, temporarily banning non-citizen Muslims from entering the U.S. in the wake of December's terror shooting in San Bernardino, California.

That number outstripped support for such a measure among Republicans in New Hampshire, where Trump lapped the field.

And more than 40 per cent said they favor deporting illegal immigrants, another position that mirror's Trump's pledge to use a 'deportation force' to restore law and order.

Trump also won convincingly on the question of which candidate the state's Republican voters believe is best equipped to handle the U.S. economy.

Other exit-poll results, though, suggested Cruz might have an edge.

Nearly three in four voters said they were evangelical Christians, part of the demographic that lifted the senator to victory in Iowa. Trump's win in New Hampshire came with a pool of voters where only one-quarter were 'born again.'

And nearly half said it mattered to them 'a great deal' that a presidential candidate should share their religious faith.

One exit-poll result raised a giant question mark as voters anxiously awaited poll-closing time: Fully 38 per cent of South Carolina Republicans told pollsters they decided whom to support within just a few days of voting.

Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, easing the rising anxieties of her backers

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that 'the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum'

Similar numbers greeted pollsters in New Hampshire, where Trump did well. But the past three days in South Carolina were dominated by stories about a conflict between The Donald and Pope Francis, who told a reporter that he was 'not a Christian' because of his desire to wall off America's southern border.

Trump called the Pontiff's comments 'disgraceful' but later said the episode was overblown in early media reports.

Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, easing the rising anxieties of her backers.

At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, 'This one is for you'.

Clinton has emerged as a favorite of those seeking an experienced political hand, while Sanders is attracting young voters and others drawn to his call of a political and economic revolution.

The Nevada results highlighted Clinton's strength with black voters, a crucial Democratic electorate in the next contest in South Carolina, as well as several Super Tuesday states. The Hispanic vote was closely divided between Sanders and Clinton.

According to the entrance polls, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that 'the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum'.

With a vast network of small donors, Sanders has the financial resources to stay in the race for months.
Pressure is on the Prince to take on more 'bread and butter' duties

It could hardly have been more regal, or convenient: a special party at Kensington Palace to celebrate the Bafta nominees, with a glass or two of pink Taittinger champagne.

Three State rooms were filled with the aristocracy of the movie world, including Eddie Redmayne, Penelope Cruz and Cate Blanchett.

It was, by all accounts, a rather fabulous evening with only one slight note of disappointment.

Where, asked the guests, was Prince William, the president of Bafta  who lives in the house where the party was being thrown?

The answer, even a week after the big event, is still unclear, although some reports suggest that he was 50 miles away, spending time with his in-laws at their home in Bucklebury, Berkshire.

For the second year running, the Duke of Cambridge had been personally invited to a Bafta party at his London home  and for the second year running he had politely declined, preferring perhaps, to watch a box set.

Not that this should have caused any great surprise because William has form for going missing in action, to the growing concern of courtiers and senior Royals. And it is something they are determined to address.

Prince Charles is hoping his own sense of duty and workaholic view of life will in time rub off a little.

Others are more direct. One friend of the Royal Family referred to William as radiating a sense of entitlement and petulance, while also describing Kate as a little grand and occasionally abrupt.

The source added: They have surrounded themselves with people who say yes to everything so they get no proper advice.

When the figures for Royal engagements were released a few weeks ago, it emerged that the 94-year-old Duke of Edinburgh had carried out 128 more engagements than his grandson, who managed only 87 public appearances in Britain and 35 overseas in the course of last year.

This is fewer than any other leading Royal with the exception of Prince Harry (108) and Kate (62), who at least had the excuse of pregnancy and then caring for a new baby.

Bafta president Prince William high-fives rapper Tinie Tempah at last year's awards ceremony. Despite his role as President, he declined an invitation to attend a Bafta party

So far this year, the 33-year-old Duke has carried out just two engagements, both in the past week, including a trip to Anglesey to mark the end of the RAFs Search and Rescue service (pictured)

It is said the palace was relieved that the discrepancy attracted so little coverage.

In fact, William is at risk of looking as if he resents the handshakes and public appearances that are bread and butter for a working Royal. And his naivety when blundering into the Europe debate last week has hardly strengthened the impression of a young man dedicated to a life spent in the public eye.

So far this year, the 33-year-old Duke has carried out just two engagements, both in the past week: that ill-fated visit to the Foreign Office and a trip to Anglesey to mark the end of the RAFs Search and Rescue service.

can point to his full-time job as a helicopter pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance service, of course, but in recent weeks it has become clear that his schedule there is flexible

He has made it clear to his aides that he prefers to spend his evenings with his young family, if possible at Amner Hall, his country home in rural Norfolk, rather than at official functions.

And while his determination to be a hands-on father is admirable, there are concerns at the highest level within the Royal Family that William cannot postpone life as a full-time working Royal indefinitely.

He can point to his full-time job as a helicopter pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance service, of course, but in recent weeks it has become clear that his schedule there is flexible. The question of Williams workload is all the more pressing as the Queen, who turns 90 in April, is anxious to pass on some of her responsibilities.

There is an expectation that the Duke, together with the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, will be more visible in this milestone year and beyond. One well-placed source said: Theres talk that more responsibility is going to be handed down to the younger generation, which is right.

The feeling is that the Queen and Prince Charles need more support and I keep hearing that April will be the catalyst for some key changes.

Another said: The Queen has said she needs the support of her substitutes. This has been on the cards for some time.

While the Queen has already scaled back her overseas travel, her 90th birthday is being seen as an opportunity not solely to celebrate but also to reassess the contribution of all the working Royals.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: We are focused on delivering a busy programme for the Queen. Members of the Royal Family will continue to support the Queen as they always have.

Perhaps it is in response to this additional pressure that the public will be seeing more of the Duke and Duchess over the coming weeks and months.

In April, William and Kate will carry out a tour of India and Bhutan on behalf of the British Government, while Prince Harry is due to visit Nepal. In June, all three of the younger Royals will represent Her Majesty at the Somme commemorations in France.

William has made it clear to his aides that he prefers to spend his evenings with his young family, if possible at Amner Hall, his country home in rural Norfolk, rather than at official functions

All senior members of the family are expected to join Her Majesty in Windsor for the first round of celebrations for her 90th birthday which will include a walkabout and a party at the Castle.

The Cambridges and Harry are also expected to be in the Royal Box at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May when the Queen will watch a live televised birthday pageant, hosted by presenters Ant and Dec, at Windsor Castle.

They will also be on view in June at a service of Thanksgiving at St Pauls, Trooping the Colour, and at a street party in The Mall.

The public are set to see more of the Duke and Duchess over the coming weeks and months

Confirming they will have a full role in the celebrations, a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess and Prince Harry said: Supporting Her Majesty is a top priority of their work. They will play their part in joining the Queen for major events that celebrate her service to the country and Commonwealth in her 90th year.

Certainly, the Duke and Duchess will be seen to make the effort. Yet the questions about Williams long-term commitment remain.

Charles, already overloaded, is taking on yet more work as increasingly he steps in for the Queen.

But when he asked his son if he would take over the Princes Trust, the charity he set up 40 years ago, an achievement of which he is particularly proud, William said no, because he would prefer to concentrate on his own charitable foundation.

According to one family member, when it comes to William and what he wants to do, its Williams way or no way.

Convincing the younger Royals to step up and play their role in what Prince Philip once described as The Firm, is part of a sophisticated operation of what palace aides refer to as a period of transition  designed to prepare the monarchy for the day when Charles will be King.

By Williams age, of course, Prince Charles had quit the Royal Navy in order to dedicate his life to supporting his mother.

In contrast, William has been given the luxury of a normal life. He enjoyed his student years at St Andrews under a media blackout, had a successful career with the RAF, and lived with his girlfriend before he married her.

When he left the Armed Forces in 2013, he took a gap year before retraining as an Air Ambulance pilot. He is stationed at Cambridge Air Base and lives largely out of the limelight.

He enjoyed a month-long paternity leave after the birth of Princess Charlotte last May, and due to the day and night shift pattern of his job he is able to spend some quality time at home.
Minister says: 'The British public want less Europe and more Britain'

Employment Minister Priti Patel wants Britain to be 'safer and stronger'

Britain's future will be in the hands of millions of voters in the forthcoming referendum on the UKs membership of the European Union. In a matter of weeks, the British public will unleash the greatest show of democracy the EU has ever seen.

For 41 years, the British public have been denied a referendum on Europe, and their say on the powers and money that Brussels has taken from us. They now have the chance to hold its undemocratic and unaccountable institutions to account by voting to leave the EU.

I believe we can only safeguard Britains future by once again becoming a genuinely sovereign country, with British laws being made in the British Parliament in the interests of the British people.

The British public want less Europe and more Britain. The British public want our political leaders to say No to the unaccountable federalist European agenda which has led to the widespread failures of the European Union we face today.

By restoring the British values of democracy and self-determination which date back to the Magna Carta, Britain will be a stronger, more secure and more prosperous country. If the public vote for Britain to once again be a sovereign and independent country, British laws will once again be made in the British Parliament and accountable to the British people.

In practice, this means that this country will be in control of its own destiny.

Remaining in the EU will mean Britain will continue to be subjected to the supremacy of EU law and the European Court of Justice. The EU will still hold the final say where there are disputes and it will still be able to overrule decisions made in the UK. Unelected and unaccountable judges and bureaucrats will still have the power to meddle in our laws and decision-making.

We should be left in no doubt that by staying in the EU, nothing will change as no significant powers or competences have been returned to Britain. The European Commission and Court will still have the powers to interfere in our way of life.

Now is the time to show the EU that the British public cannot be treated like fools. We can see through the spin, propaganda, and abuses of taxpayers money for endless self-serving vanity projects that are not in our democratic, economic or national interest.

But there is a better way. Following a vote to leave, Britain will be able to untangle the labyrinth of EU laws and regulations that have held our country back.

We will be free to make our own laws and to negotiate a fair and new trade deal with Europe that defends our interests. Alongside a new UK-EU partnership based on free trade and friendly co-operation, we will be able to reach out to our friends in the Commonwealth, the US and other emerging markets.

From left, John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel at the launch of the Vote Leave campaign

Our international voice will once again be heard in its own right on international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation. Free from the protectionist and anti- market sentiments of some in Europe, we will be able to seek and secure new trading opportunities.

This will enhance our position as a major global power. British businesses strangled by billions of pounds worth of red tape and regulations being imposed on them by Brussels will also be better off by Britain leaving the EU.

The damage that a number of EU measures are causing to this countrys businesses is blindingly obvious. At a time when economic growth and job creation are so important, regulation and red tape emanating from Brussels is costing businesses and families billions of pounds.

By restoring our sovereignty and powers in these areas, we can set sensible policies that support businesses and free them to invest in jobs and growth. Leaving the European Union will also mean that Britain will once again be able to decide how our taxes are spent. Importantly, we will no longer have to pay a massive membership subscription fee to Brussels.

We can see through propaganda and abuses

Just think of the services we could pay for, new infrastructure we could built and taxes that could be cut with that money. Instead of sending 350 million a week to Brussels for the EU to waste on its over-bloated bureaucracy, inefficient and ineffective projects and its self-promoting propaganda machine, the money could be reinvested here in Britain. Our money will be spend on our priorities. Our country has paid a high price and our sovereignty has been undermined. We have Europe meddling in our affairs, taking billions of pounds from the hard-pressed British taxpayer.

From Lands End to John OGroats, an independent Britain would be able to use its taxpayers money to invest in its own infrastructure and development projects.

National Government, the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and local councils empowered through devolution and localism would be able to set their priorities for investment and receive funds more directly.

We will no longer have to go to EU bureaucrats with a begging bowl to seek permission to spend our money on regional infrastructure and development projects.

An independent and sovereign Britain will be able to control our borders once again. This means that we can introduce the tough measures needed to limit immigration and access to our benefits and welfare system.

By controlling our borders without interference from Brussels we can also protect ourselves from dangerous foreign criminals and terrorists. A Britain free from the EU is a safer, more secure country.

From left, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel, Iain Duncan Smith and John Whittingdale attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign

The EUs proposed emergency brake mechanism does not go far enough to restore the level of control that we need to exercise over our borders.

Moreover, the EU Commission and Court will ultimately pass judgement on their use and not the British Parliament.

The control that we need, and that the public expects, can only be achieved by leaving the European Union. Britain deserves strong borders and a robust welfare system for Britain thats made in Britain.

Those who are campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU have sought to frighten the public about this countrys ability to stand on its own two feet. We have heard the same people who campaigned for the UK to become a member of the Euro say we should remain.

We no longer have to go to the EU with a begging bowl

The same people who opposed a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty say we should remain. And the same people who would sign the UK up to any deal, surrender more power to Brussels and give up the rebate are saying we should remain. They were wrong in the past and their judgment is flawed again.

By scaremongering the public and trying to frighten them to vote to remain, they are talking down our economic prospects and have no confidence in the ingenuity and entrepreneurialism that is vibrant and dynamic across the country.

Being free from the European Union means that Britain can look forward with confidence as a strong, independent and sovereign nation. We will be free from the shackles of the EUs institutions and its army of unaccountable bureaucrats and judges meddling in our affairs.
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As police consider travelling to Rome to question Cardinal George Pell over child sex abuse allegations, Australia's top Catholic has been seen strolling along the streets in the early spring sunshine.

Cardinal Pell, 74, dropped into his local cafe with a friend on Saturday afternoon, the day after explosive revelations that he is the subject of a year-long investigation by Victoria Police for the alleged sexual abuse of up to ten minors from 1978 to 2001.

Just a stones throw from St Peters Basilica, the Pope's special Jubilee Saturday Mass could be heard from Cardinal Pells luxurious apartment block.

Cardinal Pell, 74, dropped into his local cafe with a friend on Saturday afternoon at Piazza della Citta Leonina

Cardinal Pell was seen near his apartment and next door to St Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on Saturday - the day after explosive revelations that he is the subject of a year-long investigation by Victoria Police for the sexual abuse of up to ten minors from 1978 to 2001

Thousands of pilgrims flocked to hear Pope Frances morning Mass, his first since he returned to Vatican City from Mexico on Thursday.

Set aside for the Popes inner circle, Cardinal Pell's apartment sits on a piazza lined with cafes, souvenir shops and heavy security  Italian police armed with pistols and soldiers with assault rifles patrol the block and intermingle with tourists, padres and nuns alike.

Cardinal Pells offices, where he works as a top aid to Pope Frances as Secretariat for the economy reforming The Vaticans finances, are just a short walk around the corner  and are under 24-hour guard by the city states Swiss Armed Guards.

Police want to fly to Vatican City to interview Cardinal George Pell who allegedly sexually abused up to 10 minors between 1978 and 2001, it has been reported

Cardinal Pell's apartment sits on a piazza lined with cafes, souvenir shops and heavy security

It was revealed last year that the Cardinal spent $5100-a-month on rent for an office and apartment, including $87,000 on new furniture, in a leak to Italys LEspresso newspaper.

But while The Vatican expenses scandal is still the talk of the town in Rome, Cardinal Pell has more explosive allegations made against him back in Australia.

Police want to fly to Vatican City to interview Cardinal George Pell who allegedly sexually abused up to 10 minors between 1978 and 2001, it has been reported.

According to the Herald Sun the detectives involved in the Sano investigation want to fly to the Catholic state to interview the Cardinal, but need to wait for senior figures to give them the go-ahead.

The Cardinal was seen briskly striding from his offices to his apartment with a small suitcase in tow on Saturday

Ballarat Survivors Group and Care Leavers Australasis Network are also calling for police to take their allegations to Pell.

The Cardinal was seen briskly striding from his offices to his apartment with a small suitcase in tow just hours after the Herald Sun reported the leak on Friday.

However Cardinal Pell vehemently denies the allegations.

A two-page medical report was handed up to support the application that a flight to Australia from Rome, where Cardinal Pell oversees the Vatican's finances, could pose a serious risk to his health.

The details of his health condition have not been released.

A two-page medical report was handed up to support the application that a flight to Australia from Rome, where Cardinal Pell oversees the Vatican's finances, could pose a serious risk to his health

The details of the two-page medical report have not been released
As Sydney's lockout laws continue to turn revellers away in droves, hundreds of thousands flocked to Melbourne to watch a sea of colour unfold throughout the city from dusk to dawn.

The city was transformed into dazzling spectacles from laser light shows to spectacular circus acts and live bands with pubs and nightclubs opened at all hours with no lockout laws in place.

More than 600,000 people streamed through the city's landmarks at the annual White Night event to see 120 installations, including a ten-metre inflatable Golden Monkey and Indigenous artworks.

A large crowd is seen outside Flinders Station during Melbourne's White Night event from Saturday night

A Victorian Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia there were no incidents of alcohol-fuelled violence reported from the all-night party, which started between 7pm on Saturday and 7am on Sunday.

'Police are generally pleased with the overall crowd behaviour at White Night in Melbourne's CBD,' she said.

'There have been no major incidents however a number of people have been lodged for drunk.'

The event has been met with mix responses, with revellers unimpressed with this year's colourful display while others described the night as eventful.

Artwork by Amanda Morgan is projected onto the facade of the State Library at the White Night extravaganza

Artwork by Reko Rennie is projected onto the facade of Federation Square from dusk to dawn in Melbourne

Artwork titled "Still Here" by Josh Muir is projected onto the facade of the National Gallery of Victoria

Robyn Box tweeted: 'The results are in: @whitenightmelb , you disappointed/insulted Melbournians more deeply than Meal Loaf ala AFL grand final. #neveragain.'

Ruth Bunford said: 'What a disappointment this year.'

Swapnil wrote: '@whitenightmelb yeah expected a lot, but there was nothing to cheer.'

Jane Drew posted: 'How very disappointing tonight was. What a dud.'

Kel said: 'My feel hurt but man it was worth it. Scraping my a*** off the Fed square steps and limping home. Thanks @whitenightmelb See you next year.'

The event has been met with mix responses, with some describing the night as 'worth it' or 'disappointing'

PT User tweeted: 'Clearly you know Sydney is jealous when #WhiteNightMelb is trending #1 in Sydney, probably full of jealousy tweets about @WhiteNightMelb!'

And Mark Roseman posted on the event's Facebook page: 'Once again this government and Melbourne City Council fails to deliver. IT WAS A DISGRACE !!

'Walking from one side of the city to the other only to be met with a few random buskers, a few food trucks and line 40 minutes long to view a graffiti covered lane way that I could walk down any other night without delay was hardly enough to entertain a crowd that could fill the MCG many times over.

'I pray we had no international tourists there last night as it was an embarrassment for Melbourne.'

More than 600,000 people streamed through the city's landmarks at the annual event to see 120 installations

A 10-metre golden monkey clings to the side of Melbourne Town Hall as part of White Night Melbourne

Artwork by The Pitcha Makin Fellas and OCUBO is projected onto the facade of the Royal Exhibition Building

A young man appears to be feeling the effects of a long night in Sydney. The 1.30am lockout laws are making the harbour city an international laughing stock, according to critics

Police are seen in conversation with three young men at Pyrmont in Sydney's inner-city suburb this month

The event comes as Sydney has been dubbed as the 'nanny state with Queensland enforcing tough new lockout laws to combat violent assaults from July 1, 2016.

But it seems Melbourne has been going the opposite direction, with a Victorian Police spokeswoman confirming to Daily Mail Australia that there are no lockout laws in place across the state.

Melbourne was one of the first cities in Australia to introduce a 2am lockout trial in 2008, which affected popular nightclubs and pubs across the CBD and the surroundings.
Church leaders have provoked outrage with plans to change a memorial plaque to a celebrated bishop after unproven claims that he abused a child.

Bishop George Bell served in Chichester for 30 years until his death in 1958 and was renowned during the Second World War for supporting resistance to Nazism.

But a plaque at Chichester Cathedral praising Bell as a champion of the oppressed and tireless worker for Christian unity is now being described as problematic by clerics. Last year, the diocese issued a formal apology and paid compensation to a woman who alleged that Bishop Bell sexually abused her from the age of five in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Bishop George Bell (pictured, left) served in Chichester for 30 years until his death in 1958 but a plaque at Chichester Cathedral praising Bell as a champion of the oppressed and tireless worker for Christian unity (pictured, right) is now being described as problematic by clerics after claims of sexual abuse

The cathedral is now considering rewording the memorial. And volunteer guides have been told they can leave the former bishop out of cathedral tours, while the cathedrals education centre has had its name changed from George Bell House to 4 Canon Lane. But Bishop Bells defenders believe that his memory is being destroyed unjustly by uncorroborated allegations and that the Churchs investigations have been too secretive.

Bishop Bells niece, Barbara Whitley, 92, said: The history books are all going to say this man was an abuser when nothing is proved.

And Tom Sutcliffe, a former member of the Churchs General Synod and a choirboy at Chichester Cathedral during Bishop Bells time, said: Those of us who knew him find these claims very difficult to believe.

No legal process has been gone through, and one doesnt know what really happened.
A shooting was reported inside a South Carolina mall Saturday evening.

'Shots were fired inside the mall. We are talking to witnesses at this time and trying to determine what happened,' Columbia police department spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons told Daily Mail Online.

Timmons repudiated early reports of an active shooter situation.

'This was not an active shooter situation, although that was the initial report that came from people calling 911. It might have been an isolated incident,' Timmons said.

'Initially a couple of people were involved [...] in a fistfight, a third person joined in, at least two people pulled guns and began firing into the air,' shortly after 7pm, police chief William Holbrook told reporters outside the mall.

Video courtesy of Instagram user aos_author

Police responded to reports of a shooting at the Columbiana Centre mall in South Carolina Saturday evening

Twitter user Erica Veal wrote that she was 'joking around' in line at a clothing store when the shots were fired, sending her 'running through the employees only section and out the back door.'

'I hid behind a huge dumpster and two young girls followed me. We heard the worried voices of people trying to figure out where the shooter was,' Veal wrote.

'I told the girls to turn off their ringers. I called 911 as we crouched dfown. My hands were shaking, then I heard someone yell he's coming,' she wrote, adding that she dashed for a car in the outside parking lot.

There were no reported injuries.

Police are searching for the two suspected shooters and the third person involved in the fight, the police chief said.

Cops were controlling the exits at the mall, frisking and questioning shoppers as they leave, police tweeted.

The public is asked to stay away from the mall by police who are searching for at least one gunman

Officers from at least five precincts around Columbia were responding to the Columbiana Centre mall, along with aviation units, police said.

WISTV said shots have been reported outside Dillard's department store and a T-Mobile store.

Officers with the Columbia Police Department evacuated areas inside the shopping center and interviewed witnesses during the evening.

The reported shooting happened just minutes after polls closed in the state's Republican primary election.

On Thursday, the Republican candidates gathered in Columbia for a town hall debate.

Roads in the vicinity have been closed and the public is asked to stay clear of the area.

Police were interviewing witnesses outside the mall Saturday night

Saturday night shoppers posted pictures from the dramatic incident to social media

Authorities in South Carolina respond to reports of shots fired at the the Columbiana Centre mall

Columbia police tweeted about the reported shooting Saturday evening
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The biggest container ship to ever dock in America has returned to the U.S. to take port in Long Beach, California.

The quarter-mile-long Benjamin Franklin, which is bigger than the Empire State building, can hold up to 18,000 units and 116,000 tons of produce.

On Friday, workers began moving 12,500 cargo containers on and off the ship. The unloading won't be finished until Tuesday.

Scroll down for video

Port of Long Beach, California released these pictures of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin taking port

The undated photos show the Benjamin Franklin, the largest shipping container ever to arrive in the U.S.

After arriving in California, the shipping vessel (pictured) will travel to Seattle, Washington

A private ceremony welcoming the Franklin to Long Beach, was attended by city leaders, elected officials and shipping executives.

The megaship will depart Wednesday for Seattle.

To get around, a ship of this scale only requires a few more staff than one half the size.

Velibor Krpan, the captain of the Benjamin Franklin, told CNN: 'The larger the ship you have, the more containers you can carry.

'It's cheaper to have bigger ships, containing more products, because you have fewer things to pay for. It's more efficient in every aspect.'

The quarter-mile-long Benjamin Franklin, which is bigger than the Empire State, left Xiamen at 4am on Monday. It can hold up to 18,000 units with 116,000 tons of cargo. Pictured on trial run to San Pedro in December 2015

To fit the mega ship, the 10th largest in the world, Los Angeles authorities had to renovate the city's port

While it normally takes up to three days to offload the contents of a shipping container, the cranes in Oakland took two weeks working on this unprecedented load when it came to the West Coast for a trial in December

However, it will take a while for America to acclimatize to this new style of importing and exporting, which has become popular in Asia and Europe.

Ports are not used to offloading cargo of this scale.

The Benjamin Franklin, built by French shipping firm CMA CGM specifically to operate with America, conducted its trial run from China to America's West Coast in December.

While it normally takes up to three days to offload the contents of a shipping container, the cranes in Oakland took two weeks working on this unprecedented load.

A ship of this scale only requires a few more staff than one half the size and is actually more financially sensible than a smaller vessel

Experts warn the rise in the number of mega ships is accelerating faster than the rate of exports

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti welcomes the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin (in background), the largest container ship to ever call at a North America port, during a press conference at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, on December 26, 2015

Meanwhile, experts warn the rise in the number of mega ships is accelerating faster than the rate of exports.

Analyzing the trend for mega ships in June 2015, the International Transportation Forum's Olaf Merk said: 'We found a disconnect between what is going on in the boardrooms of shipping lines and the real world.

'The growth of containerized seaborne trade is no longer in line with the growth of the world container fleet.'

He warns the surge could lead to 'gridlock' in ports around the globe.




Hospitals should automatically offer compensation to parents of babies left stillborn or brain-damaged due to poor care, an official review will recommend this week.

At the moment parents often have to fight for months or even years before the NHS agrees to compensation. Health bosses frequently deny liability until forced to do so by lawyers, and bereaved couples regularly say they have to call on solicitors to find out what went wrong.

Now Tory peer Baroness Cumberlege is expected to call for an independent scheme to investigate tragedies in childbirth, which would quickly decide whether compensation should be paid.

At the moment parents often have to fight for months or even years before the NHS agrees to compensation and have to call on lawyers to prove their claims. File image

She will recommend the investigations and any subsequent payouts are made on a no fault basis, meaning that neither the hospital nor any individual doctor, midwife or nurse would have to admit blame, according to a source. It is hoped this will encourage individuals to come clean with the facts much quicker.

The recommendation will be one of several that Baroness Cumberlege, who has been chairing an independent review of maternity services in England, will make when her findings are published on Tuesday.

Tory peer Baroness Cumberlege is expected to call for an independent scheme to investigate tragedies in childbirth to quickly decide on compensation

An insider said: It will recommend a faster system of investigation and learning and a no blame insurance option to allow families to get support and compensation without litigation.

It will be based on a similar scheme in Sweden, the source added. In 2011, the Scottish Government announced it would be introducing a no-fault compensation scheme for the NHS there, but it has yet to come into force.

Last night Caroline Tully, who has been campaigning for better investigation of stillbirths since she lost her daughter Clara two years ago, welcomed the idea.

Sometimes cases go on for six or seven years, she said.

However, she urged caution, saying investigations would have to be independent.

Patient safety groups also have concerns.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, said: The devil will be in the detail.

Any scheme has got to be voluntary, people must be able to retain their right to litigate, and it must compensate people on a needs basis  not on an arbitrary tariff basis. It should not short-change people.

Britain continues to have one of the highest rates of stillbirth in the developed world  worse than Estonia, the Czech Republic and Croatia, according to The Lancet.

About 600 stillbirths could be prevented each year if hospitals stuck to guidelines, listened more to parents concerns, and investigated more thoroughly, a report found last November.
A visit from Ross Kemp was a 'contributory factor' to the focus of a British crew of an Apache that crashed in Afghanistan, according to a new report.

The former EastEnders actor was one of a number of visitors to the 40million helicopter on September 4 2008, according to the report published eight years after the incident.

The Ministry of Defence board of inquiry found that a major cause of the accident was 'disorientation' experienced by the pilot when 'he entered a dust cloud during a transition'.

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A visit from former Eastenders actor Ross Kemp was a 'contributory factor' to the focus of a British crew of an Apache that crashed in Afghanistan

The Ministry of Defence board of inquiry found that a major cause of the accident was 'disorientation' experienced by the pilot when 'he entered a dust cloud during a transition' in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

It added: 'In summary, it is clear to the Board that this accident was caused by the disorientation of the HP when conducting a poorly executed transition downwind, with inadequate aircraft performance and engulfed in heavy recirculation.

'The Board believes that the crew lacked sufficient experience for the complex, high end, unsupervised operation, had become fatigued and were distracted at a critical juncture.'

However, referring to Kemp's visit, it added: 'Whilst not a distraction at the time of the accident the Board believes it was a contributory factor to the overall focus of the crew.'

Kemp, 51, had been flown into Forward Operating Base Edinburgh in the Sangin Valley in 2008 to make a second series of Sky Ones Bafta award-winning Ross Kemp In Afghanistan.

Both crew members - including the pilot - escaped the crash which saw the helicopter lose its tail and suffer severe damage to its rotor blades, with minor injuries.

Following the release of the report, an MoD spokesman said: 'Our highly skilled pilots are trained to deal with all kinds of emergency situations and incidents like this are extremely rare.

'To suggest that this was caused by the filming of a documentary would be disingenuous.'
Patients in a north London hospital were told over the loudspeaker to go home and come back in the morning unless they were dying after a massive influx.

The message was broadcast on the tannoy system to A&E in North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, north London, where 450 patients had arrived that day.

It asked all patients who did not have a life-threatening illness to go home, despite the fact that some had already been waiting in the stretched department for hours.

A message was broadcast on the tannoy system to A&E in North Middlesex Hospital (pictured), Edmonton, north London, where 450 patients had arrived that day

The message asked all patients who did not have a life-threatening illness to go home, despite the fact that some had already been waiting in the stretched department for hours

An eyewitness said they saw more than 100 people in the waiting room that day, reports the Sunday People, when the hospital admitted to being 'under pressure'.

The message was broadcast at around 11pm when it became apparent that the waiting time for doctors was eight hours for adults and six hours for children.

A trust spokesman told the Sunday People: We can confirm that it was an exceptionally busy Friday on North Middlesex Hospital with 450 cases. That included a number of major cases of resuscitation and blue-light ambulance cases.

'We were under pressure and we were seeing waits of up to seven hours. We did inform people to come back the next day if their cases weren't urgent.'

The news comes after it was revealed that some doctors and nurses at North Middlesex Hospital were forced to wait in corridors for hours for a trolley due to a shortage.

It is believed that the trust has been hit by the controversial closure of a nearby A&E unit at Chase Farm Hospital, three-and-a-half miles away, in December 2013.

The trust last year investigated claims that a three-year-old boy who died from meningitis passed away due to poor care
A 36-year-old North Dakota firefighter has died after getting caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling at a Wyoming national forest on Friday.

Levi Robert Hammond, of Dickinson, was identified as the victim by the Sheridan County Coroner's Office.

Hammond was thrown from his snowmobile and into a tree when the avalanche in the Bighorn National Forest was triggered.

The collision fractured his neck.

Levi Hammond, 36, (pictured with his wife Becky Hammond) died after getting caught in an an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Bighorn National Forest on Friday

Hammond was a father-of-three and a firefighter for the Dickinson Fire Department in North Dakota

Authorities were dispatched to the Hunt Mountain Road area near the US Highway 14 West just after noon on Friday, according to The Sheridan Press.

Hammond was deceased by the time police arrived at the scene, Sheridan County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Mullikin told KYTI.

His body was escorted by the Dickinson Fire Department to the city's funeral home.

Dave McKee, recreation program manager for the Bighorn National Forest, said the Hunt Mountain Road area has been a 'chronic place' for avalanches.

McKee added that it is the only location in the forest that has posted warning signs because it is a groomed snowmobile trail, he told The Sheridan Press in 2013.

The last person to be killed by an avalanche in the Bighorn Mountains is believed to have been a 24-year-old backcountry skier, named Rick Caller, in 1972.

McKee said the Bighorn National Forest does not have specific avalanche crews or a 'formal monitoring program'.

'It is on them,' he said of the people who seek out recreational activities in the mountain.

'But of course,' he added. 'If we know anything, learn anything, see anything, we certainly pass that along.'

Hammond's body was escorted by the Dickinson Fire Department to the city's funeral home

Authorities were dispatched to the Hunt Mountain Road area near the US Highway 14 West (pictured in a file photo), an area known for 'chronic avalanches', just after noon on Friday
Jeb Bush's journey to the White House officially ended tonight in South Carolina, despite raising $150million for his campaign.

The former Florida governor, who took fourth place with 7.8 per cent of the vote in the Palmetto state, told supporters the news at his headquarters in Columbia, South Carolina.

'But the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision, so tonight I am suspending my campaign,' Bush said.

'Noooo,' members of the crowd responded back.

'Yeah, yeah,' Bush replied.

Bush brought in more than $150 million in fundraising for his campaign, but it appears by the time he terminated his run in the race, he had only spent about $84 million, according to opensecrets.org.

Bush also motioned to his wife, explaining that with her at his side, it would all be OK.

'I've had an incredible life and, for me, public service has been the highlight of that life, but no matter what the future holds, here's the greatest safety landing if you can imagine,' he said.

'Tonight I'm going to sleep with the best friend I have and the love of my life.'

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Jeb Bush gave up the dream of being the third Bush in the White House tonight as returns showed him in fourth or fifth place

A tearful Columba Bush gave away what was about to happen, as Jeb Bush didn't announce he was retreating until about halfway through his speech

Jeb Bush tried to stay strong giving a thumbs up to supporters before heading to the podium and announcing he was suspending his campaign for president

Bush didn't show his hand immediately upon taking the stage, though Columba Bush appeared to be crying, previewing what was about to come.

'When I began this journey in Miami I committed that I would campaign as I would serve, going everywhere, speaking to everyone, keeping my word, facing the issues without flinching and staying true to what I believe,' Bush began.

He noted the 'presidency is bigger than any one person, it is certainly bigger than any one candidate.'

He also said, 'I've had a front row seat to this office for most of my adult life,' referencing both his father and his brother in the Oval Office.

'I am proud of the campaign we've run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions that would give more Americans to rise up and reach their God-given potential,' Bush said.

He then said that he planned to suspend his campaign.

Moving on from that moment, Bush congratulated his fellow Republicans as well.

'I congratulate my competitors who are remaining on the island, in their success for a race that has been hard fought,' Bush said.

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Jeb Bush told supporters that he had a great 'safety landing' in his wife Columba Bush, who tearfully stayed to his side as he dropped out of the presidential race tonight in South Carolina

Bush goes to kiss his wife Columba while announcing that he is suspending his presidential campaign

Jeb Bush had mom Barbara Bush come out on his behalf in South Carolina hoping that the popular former first lady could shore up support

Laura Bush and George W. Bush came out in support of Jeb Bush too - an unusual move for the ex-president who has stayed out of the public eye throughout the Obama Administration

Trump wrapped up the South Carolina primary shortly after polls closed in the state at 7 p.m., receiving about 33 percent support in the state.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have been vying for second and third place.

Bush, on the other hand, only got single digits of support and was, at several points in the evening, trailing all the candidates except last place-finisher Ben Carson.

South Carolina was the state that the Bush campaign thought could turn things around.

After a sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Bush did better in New Hampshire, coming in fourth, less than a point behind Ted Cruz, who came in third.

The candidate pulled out all the stops, not only campaigning alongside his mother, the popular former first lady Barbara Bush, but he brought out former President George W. Bush, his reclusive brother who hasn't entered the political fray since laving office in 2009.

But it wasn't three times the charm, for Bush in a state that had helped launch both his brother and dad to the White House.

Bush stuck to the theme of running a respectable campaign throughout tonight's speech.

'In this campaign I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds,' Bush said.

'Because, despite what you might have heard, ideas matter, policy matters,' he continued, in what could be translated into a slight jab at Trump, who labeled Bush 'low energy' early on, a ruthless attack that seemed to effectively derail the ex-governor's campaign.

Bush moved on to people he actually held dear.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich also wished Jeb Bush well. The two former governors flipped and flopped between fourth and fifth place during tonight's South Carolina primary

He gave a shout-out to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, an ex-presidential candidate himself, who threw his support to Bush before the state's primary.

Bush remarked at Graham's 'amazing humor' before saying sweet things about Columba as well.

The Bush news reverberated through the Palmetto state quickly with both Rubio and Cruz sharing pleasantries about the governor when they got onstage.

Rubio supporters at his South Carolina headquarters cheered when they heard that Bush was dropping out.

The candidate was a little bit more chivalrous.

Jeb Bush has many things to be proud of. He's an extraordinary husband. He's an extraordinary father. He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida,' Rubio said.

And I believe and I pray that his service to our country has not yet ended. and I thank Jeb Bush for everything he did for the state of Florida and for running a campaign based on ideas, Rubio continued,

And I pray for him and his family tonight as they move forward in other endeavors in their life,' he added.

Over in Cruz-land, the Texas senator immediately brought up Bush when he got onstage.

'Gov. Bush brought honor and dignity to this race, tonight he has suspended his campaign, but Heidi and I give our very best to Jeb and Columba and their entire extraordinary family,' Cruz said.

'We with them the best and we thank them for their remarkable campaign,' Cruz said.

John Kasich used Twitter to send his regards.

'Jeb Bush fought hard every day. He was a great governor and is a great man,' Kasich said.

When it was Trump's turn to take his victory lap, the South Carolina winner and constant thorn in Bush's side congratulated Rubio and Cruz for coming in behind him.
Detractors of Apple's decision to refuse to hack an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters for the FBI have questioned why, if the company feels it must protect 'the security of its customers,' it apparently complied with the Chinese government's demand to show it secret data one year ago.

In January last year Quartz reported that according to Chinese news agencies, Apple agreed to let the Chinese government perform 'security checks' to confirm that there were no 'backdoors' that might let the US government read Chinese citizens' data. The country had threatened Apple's access to the Chinese market.

On Wednesday Quartz writer Joon Ian Wong raised the issue again in the light of the San Bernardino shootings, asking what Apple had done to comply with the Chinese government's request, and whether this was inconsistent with their current attitude towards the FBI.

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Data: Apple CEO, Tim Cook (pictured center) in 2014. Apple refused to unlock a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone for the FBI, but some say it may have given secret data to the Chinese government in 2015

Meeting: This tweet from Chinese paper People's Daily on January 22, 2015 shows Cook and Chinese internet czar Wei Lu apparently agreeing that Apple will 'accept China's security checks'

Refusal: Apple is refusing to unlock the shooters' (pictured) iPhone, saying that it must protect 'the security of its customers.' Detractors say that security may already be compromised if data was given to China

After China made the demand in 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied that Apple software had any backdoors.

But according to Beijing News, Chinese internet czar Wei Lu replied, 'It doesnt matter what you say, you should let our internet safety department do a safety assessment. We need to reach our own conclusions to put the consumer at ease.'

A Tweet by Chinese newspaper People's Daily on January 22 last year showed Cook and Lu shaking hands, with the text '#Apple has agreed to accept China's security checks, 1st foreign firm to agree to rules of Cyberspace Admin of China.'

Exactly what, if any, information was handed over after the meeting was never made explicit, but analysts told Quartz that it would most likely be the source code  the raw programming that is used to make the machines work.

If so, it was suggested, giving over that data might allow China to build its own software capable of hacking Apple products.

'Handing over source code [would] mean that the Chinese government will know exactly how an Apple software works,' said a representative of anti-censorship group GreatFire.org under the pseudonym Percy Alpha.

He added that this would allow China to locate vulnerabilities in the software and that 'the government can then exploit such vulnerabilities to hack iPhone or MacBooks.'

'[If so,] Apple users world-wide are much more vulnerable to spying from the Chinese government,' he concluded.

Greeting: Cook meets Chinese premier Xi Jinping in September 2015, seven months after the People's Daily tweet. Some say if data was shown to China, its government could hack into users' private data

Locked out: The terrorists' iPhone was an Apple 5C similar to this one. Apple has not confirmed whether it agreed to China's security checks. Its statement says it does not work with governments to create backdoors

Those concerns have become relevant again in light of the company's recent decision not to hack into the iPhone retrieved from the San Bernardino shooting, and subsequent revelations that they had performed some 70 similar operations for authorities since 2008.

On Wednesday, Joon Ian Wong wrote for Quartz: 'Cook has said on earnings calls that he believes the Greater China region, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong along with the mainland, will eventually become Apples biggest market.

'Some could get the impression that Apple capitulated to Beijings security demands because it wanted access to a huge and growing market.'

He added: 'To be clear, Apple hasnt said that it agreed to special security checks by Beijing. But thats precisely the problem.

'Its silence regarding Beijings security demands, but its vocal resistance to requests from other governments, contributes to a perception that it has different security standards for different markets  even when that may not be the case.'

Speaking to Quartz, an Apple spokesperson pointed to a company statement that says the company has never worked with any government to create a backdoor to its products. The statement also says: 'We have also never allowed any government access to our servers. And we never will.'

Long history: Cook meets vice premier Li Keqiang in 2012. Although Apple has had huge success in China, the company says it 'never will' allow governments to access it servers

However, while Wong was scathing, John Khelt at The Mac Reporter took Apple's side. He pointed out that the governments' stated purposes were at odds  that the US is asking the company to put a backdoor in, while China wanted to make sure there were none already there.

He also said that even if Apple did let the government see the source code, it would most likely just let Chinese engineers look at the code under the supervision of Apple employees, rather than send over a copy for them to analyze and keep.

And he added, 'Showing the source code in no way reveals the magic encryption keys generated by the source code and maintained in secret on peoples' individual devices.

'It would be like saying revealing the source code to Microsoft Word would let the government know the contents to the novel you wrote using Word. To call this horse$%!# is an odious insult to horse$%!#.'
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With ever-increasing numbers of the Cabinet coming out as members of the 'In' camp or the 'Out' camp, pressure is growing on undecided members to pick a side.

Within just half an hour of the Prime Ministers Im in pledge, six rebel Cabinet Ministers announced that they would not be supporting his bid.

They pledged that they would not demand his resignation if his campaign to remain within the EU was ultimately unsuccessful  but rejected his last minute efforts to win them round.

Others, including Cameron's trusty allies George Osborne and Theresa May, have announced that they will follow Cameron.

But where do the other members of the Cabinet stand on the historic vote?

1. Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb; 2. Communities Secretary Greg Clark; 3. Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers; 4. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan; 5. Business Secretary Sajid Javid; 6. Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood; 7. Prime Minister David Cameron; 8. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond; 9. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon; 10. International Development Secretary Justine Greening; 11. Energy Secretary Amber Rudd; 12. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt; 13. Scotland Secretary David Mundell; 14. Employment minister Priti Patel; 15. Small business minister Anna Soubry; 16. Cabinet Office Minister Matt Hancock; 17. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin; 18. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin; 19. Leader of the Lords Baroness Stowell of Beeston; 20. Commons Leader Chris Grayling; 21. Home Secretary Theresa May; 22. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith; 23. Justice Secretary Michael Gove; 24. Environment Secretary of Liz Truss; 25. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale; 26. Chief Whip Mark Harper; 27. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands; 28. Attorney General Jeremy Wright

REMAIN

A DEFINITE 'YES'

5. Sajid Javid, business secretary - The Spectator reported he was too concerned about the risks of leaving given the precarious state of the global economy

7. David Cameron - the EU is vital for the UK's prosperity and security

10. Justine Greening, development secretary - Spoke out in favour of Cameron's Brussels deal, saying 'PM has got a good deal for Britain to stay part of a reformed EU'

13. David Mundell, Scottish secretary - Said Scotland nebefited from the terms of Britain's EU membership, and would have been aware of the dangers for the union if the UK voted to leave

17. Oliver Letwin, Cabinet Office minister - Told Sky News that it was a 'good deal' and he would be on the Remain side

21. Theresa May, home secretary - Confirmed yesterday morning that she backed the deal, which she said included 'important reforms to end the abuse of free movement'

27. Greg Hands, chief financial secretary to the Treasury - Tweeted: 'This deal is best for UK future'

George Osborne, chancellor - Told the BBC's Today programme that Cameron had negotiated a 'special status' for the UK, while Brexit would be a 'leap in the dark'

British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside Downing Street after securing a deal following two days of talks with European leaders in Brussels

MAYBE A 'YES'

1. Stephen Crabb, Welsh secretary - He said that Welsh businesses are 'huge winners' from EU membership

2. Greg Clark, communities secretary - He has previously written in support of renegotiation with the EU

4. Nicky Morgan, education secretary - Has said she finds it difficult to imagine voting for the Uk to leave the EU

8. Philip Hammond, foreign secretary - Eurosceptics see him as a turncoat, as he is widely expected to abandon his former reservations about the EU to back the In campaign in the end

9. Michael Fallon, defence secretary - Has a reputation as a trusted right-hand man of Cameron

11. Amber Rudd, energy secretary - She told the Telegraph that 'I would like to see a reformed Eu, and then I'd like to campaign to stay in'

12. Jeremy Hunt, health secretary - It is doubtful that he would break with Downing Street

15. Anna Soubry, business minister - She described many Eurosceptics as obsessives who have an unhealthy tendency to 'live, eat, drink, sleep' the campaign to get Britain out

16. Matthew Hancock, Cabinet Office minister - A loyalist and former chief of staff to Osborne

18. Patrick McLoughlin, transport secretary - Has said there are frustrations about Europe but it does not affect him too much in his job

24. Elizabeth Truss, environment secretary - Although she has described herself as a Eurosceptic, she told farmers in January that she 'fully support[s] the prime minister's renegotiation of our relationship with the EU'

26. Mark Harper, chief whip - As chief whip, he in involved in the Downing Street operation to persuade undecided Tory MPs to make sure they are supporting the prime minister

Robert Halfon, Conservative deputy chairman - BBC reported he has been persuaded to back the 'In' campaign

NOT SAYING

Boris Johnson, mayor of London - He has drifted heavily towards the Eurosceptic line, but is believed to be an instinctive In campaigner. Not to mention that to lead an Out campaign to victory would heavily support his ambitions to become prime minister

OPPOSED

A DEFINITE 'NO'

3. Theresa Villiers, Northern Ireland secretary - Has represented London for six years as a Eurosceptic MEP, and is unlikely to pass up the chance to back an exit

14. Priti Patel, employment minister - A staunch Eurosceptic who is tipped to become one of the main faces of the Leave campaign

(Left to right) John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign at the group's headquarters in central London

(Left to right) Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign at the group's headquarters in central London

20. Chris Grayling, leader of the House of Commons - A long-term Eurosceptic who has already said leaving the EU would not be a frightening prospect

22. Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary - The most likely cabinet minister to campaign to leave, and could end up resigning over the issue

23. Michael Gove, justice secretary - Gove has come out as an adamant supporter of the Out campaign, which the prime minster described as 'disappointing, but not surprising'

25. John Whittingdale, culture secretary - An experienced Eurosceptic, who is believed to be backing the Leave camp

28. Jeremy Wright, attorney general - The BBC reported he has confirmed Brexit support in yesterday's cabinet meeting

Andrea Leadsom, energy minister - Leadsom has confirmed on her website that she will vote to leave

The Gang of Six rebel ministers who have already stood up against Cameron

Rebel Cabinet Ministers who want Britain to quit the EU risk triggering an economic disaster  and are playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin.

Those were among the stark warnings delivered yesterday at the first Cabinet meeting to be held on a Saturday for more than 50 years.

One by one, the six rebel Ministers who plan to defy David Cameron by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU told him to his face why his new, hard-fought deal with other member states was not good enough.

However, they faced a backlash from Cabinet loyalists who rallied behind the Prime Minister.

Mr Gove said he had wrestled with his conscience before announcing he would back Out but later posed with Vote Leave activists having deciding to make the leap away from his old friend Mr Cameron

(Left to right) Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel, Iain Duncan Smith and John Whittingdale attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign at the group's headquarters in central London

Chancellor George Osborne painted a picture of doom and gloom in the wake of any Brexit.

We should bear in mind that the Governor of the Bank of England has said there will be a period of economic turmoil if we leave the EU, Mr Osborne said. Sterling is at a low point right now and there will be economic shocks if we leave.

He was backed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, a one-time critic of Brussels, who banished rumours that he could join the rebels. Leaving the EU would put Britains security at risk, he said, adding provocatively: There are no prizes for guessing which way Putin wants us to vote.

Some experts say the Russian president is hoping Britain will leave the EU, prompting a collapse in the union that would make it easier for him to pursue his expansionist policies.

After Mr Cameron defended the deal he achieved in Brussels, he appealed to all Ministers to avoid personal attacks in the debate.

Then Justice Secretary Michael Gove led the way for the rebels. He told Mr Cameron: It gives me no pleasure to say that I intend to vote to leave the EU  and I do it with a heavy heart. He praised Mr Cameron for doing a brilliant job as PM and for calling the referendum, and said it was vital we all stay together when it is over.

Chancellor George Osborne (left) painted a picture of doom and gloom in the wake of any 'Brexit'. He was backed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon (right), a one-time critic of Brussels, who banished rumours that he could join the rebels

However, Mr Gove continued: The critical issue for me is that the EU has fundamentally changed in recent years; it is set on a particular course and it is not going to change. Ministers have lost so many powers. We cannot ignore it any longer.

Commons Leader Chris Grayling told Mr Cameron: Any suggestion that what we doing is critical of you or that your position is in doubt depending on the result of the referendum is totally wrong. We will all support you regardless  you will be Prime Minister come what may.

The comments were greeted with hear, hears around the table.

Veteran anti-EU campaigner Iain Duncan Smith started apologetically: When I was leader I did my best to avoid banging on about Europe. Now Im not leader I find I will be doing exactly that. I have not always been a leaver  but the EU has gone too far. I regret having to make this decision but the country requires it. We have to be unshackled and build relationships with other countries, not just Europe.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, called for Britain to recover the powers we have lost.

Employment Minister Priti Patel said: My experience in business is that organisations are only successful and efficient when they are accountable and flexible  and the EU is neither. And Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers added: I made my mind up a long time ago: we must leave the EU.
White House rep said the extra security that would be required if Obama had attended the mass could have been 'disruptive'

Donald Trump took a shot at Obama earlier today for not attending Scalia's funeral mass Saturday.

The presidential hopeful tweeted: 'I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go!'

The bizarre comments come despite the sitting President having frequently referenced his Christian faith.

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Barack and Michelle Obama paid their respects on Friday, but the president drew criticism for not attending the service on Saturday. The White House Press Secretary said Obama will be reviewing potential nominees this weekend

Trump called out the President for his controversial decision not to attend Scalia's funeral mass Saturday

The president and first lady nstead paid their respects on Friday while Scalia lays in repose at the Supreme Court (pictured)

But Obama has been facing a raft of criticism for the decision not to attend, with many calling it a 'deliberate snub'.

Obama and first lady Michelle were among more than 6,000 people who paid tribute to Scalia at the Supreme Court on Friday in the first day of official mourning - but did not attend the service today.

The White House has defended the decision, and implied that one reason for his absence could be down to the 'potential for the extensive presidential security detail to be disruptive', reported the New York Times.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary said: 'Obviously, when the vice president travels to some place, his security footprint is at least a little bit lighter.

'But given his personal relationship with the family and given the president's desire to find a respectful way to pay tribute to Justice Scalia's service to the country, we believe we have settled on an appropriate and respectful arrangement.'

Washington mourned the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday morning during a funeral mass attended by thousands

Widow Maureen McCarthy Scalia (center) walks behind the casket as it is is brought out of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC

Earnest also added it was 'disrespectful' for Obama's critics to use the funeral 'as some sort of political cudgel.'

He said: 'The president doesn't think that that's appropriate, and in fact, what the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens even when you don't agree on all the issues.

'And that's what he's going to do.'

But many saw Obama's lack of attendance as nothing short of a partisan snub.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes said: 'Some amazing advice my mom gave me once: 'If you're wondering whether you should go to the funeral, you should go to the funeral.'

And in response to this, the communications director for Jeb Bush, Tim Miller, simply tweeted: 'Same.'

Republicans criticized President Obama, and saw his lack of attendance as a 'snub'. Presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted: 'I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go!'

But Ed Whelan, a former Scalia clerk who now heads the Ethics and Public Policy Center commented: 'I wouldn't have expected President Obama to attend the funeral Mass, and I see no reason to fault him for not attending.'

The funeral mass for late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia was attended by thousands, including Vice President Joe Biden, Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, and the remaining eight justices.

One of Scalia's nine children, the Reverend Paul Scalia, led the procession on Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with a highly personal tribute to his dad.

Antonin Scalia, who was the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court, died last weekend at the age of 79 at a remote Texas ranch from natural causes.

His casket was delivered this morning at 11am, draped by an American flag which was removed as it entered the church.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, left, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (upper right) take their seats at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday

In addition to the eight justices sitting on the Supreme Court, retired justice John Paul Stevens attended the service with David H. Souter expected to appear as well.

Sandra Day O'Connor, 85, is currently in frail health and did not make it to Saturday's mass.

Early arrivals included former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz and Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.

Several federal judges who are considered possible replacements for Scalia were also present, including Judges Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett and Chief Judge Merrick Garland, all of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

President Barack Obama first lady Michelle Obama were among the more than 6,000 people who paid tribute to Scalia at the Supreme Court on Friday.

Josh Earnest, Obama's White House Press Secretary, said the president will spend a significant portion of his weekend reviewing individuals who 'may be worthy of consideration'.

He added: 'I would expect the president will spend a significant portion of his weekend digging into those materials'.
US companies are hiring 'big data' organizations to track employees search queries, medical claims, prescriptions and even voting habits to get insight into their personal lives, it emerged this week, raising concerns about potential data leakage and discrimination.

Businesses such as Walmart favorite Castlight Health, which produces a healthcare management app for employees, are gathering up user information about their clients' employees,The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote on Wednesday.

That data can be used by the employers to work out how many employees are likely to fall ill of specific diseases, apply for expensive surgery or even get pregnant, so that they can plan for the future, or even guide their employees' actions.

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Predicting pregnancies: Employers are paying 'big data' companies to trawl through workers' medical claims, search queries and even voting habits to predict their health. Some companies offer pregnancy predictions

Secret observation: Castlight gives its clients' workers an app to help them manage their health, but the app collects data, allowing Castlight to report back to employers with information on illness, pregnancies and more

For example, after discovering that 30 percent of employees suffering back problems decided against spinal surgery after getting advice from top medical centers, Walmart asked Castlight to contact at-risk employees with advice and alternatives.

Castlight then contacted employees whose insurance and drug claims included back problems, painkillers and spinal injections with advice for physical therapists or second opinions, Jonathan Rende, Castlight's chief research and development officer, told the WSJ.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, employers are not allowed to view their employees' health information.

But that doesn't apply to third parties like Castlight, who can trawl insurers and other companies for information on employees, building up a database for analysis, and then contact users directly with advice or information.

Advice: Castlight offers advice for employees based on observations about their medical history made by its software's algorithms. Employers can also ask Castlight to offer specific advice to certain groups of workers

Because the 'big data' seen by the employers only shows numbers, not individuals  for example, they can see how many employees might be considering pregnancy, but not who  it is not forbidden by the 1996 act.

The 1996 act also does not cover information like search queries or health insurance claims, as these are not protected information, writes Fortune.

'There is almost no law that controls what data these big data companies can access. There isnt much law controlling what they can do with it,' Nicolas Terry, a professor specializing in medicine and IT in the law at Indiana University Robert H McKinney School of Law, told the magazine.

Concerns: While all of the big data companies comply with existing laws, there are concerns among some experts that those laws do not go far enough. Some also have fears about the potential for data leaks

Frank Pasquale, a law professor at the University of Maryland who studies health privacy, is concerned about the possibility of accidental data leakage. He told the WSJ: 'There are enormous potential risks in these efforts, such as the exposure of personal health data to employers or others.'

That risk is even more notable in the case of some companies that buy information from data brokers on purchases, credit ratings and even whether people vote, to find links between employees' personal lives and their health.

Harry Greenspun, director of the research wing of Deloitte LLP's Center for Health Solutions, another company that offers big data analytics, told the WSJ: 'I bet I could better predict your risk of a heart attack by where you shop and where you eat than by your genome.'

As an example, he said those with lower credit ratings are less likely to fill our prescriptions or go for follow-up appointments.

Unethical potential: While no one person can be identified in the data given to employers, one expert believes it may still lead to unethical decisions being made affecting large groups rather than individuals

And even if no individual can be identified in big data, it can still encourage companies to make unethical decisions, according to James Hodge, a professor of public health law and ethics at the Arizona State University Sandra Day OConnor College of Law.

He gave Fortune a hypothetical example: 'If [an employer] originally thought that 15 percent of the women in its employee base may become pregnant, but data shows its closer to 30 percent, that could lead an employer to say we cannot hire as many female employees this year because we cant afford them being out for family leave.'
Johnson had just proposed to fiancee Tempest Thomas five days ago

His sister suffered burns on 90 percent of her body, is in critical

Demetrius Johnson, 24, tragically died trying to save his son, 3, from a raging house fire after already rescuing his fiancee and two other children

A 24-year-old New York father has tragically died trying to save his 3-year-old son from a raging house fire he had already rescued his fiancee and two other children.

Demetrius Johnson woke his entire family up after he smelled smoke early Friday morning, helping his fiancee Tempest Thomas, and children Treasure Brighorn, 8, and 15-month-old Demaris Johnson out of the house.

That's when Johnson realized Demetrius Jr was still inside the first-floor apartment. He broke a window to let out smoke before running back inside the home engulfed in flames.

'Tempest told Demetrius, "Don't go back in there, it's too bad,"' William Johnson, Demetrius' brother, told Buffalo News.

'My brother said, "I'm not going to let my son die.'"

After breaking a window to let out smoke from the apartment, Johnson ran back inside and placed his son in a closet in the living room before he collapsed from the smoke.

Firefighters were able to rescue Demetrius Jr. soon after, but Johnson could not be saved.

'My brother died a hero, that's all there was to it,' William Johnson said.

'He was an angel...He died doing everything he could do to rescue his family.'

A 49-year-old man who lived in the apartment upstairs was also killed in the fire. He has not been identified.

Johnson's daughter Treasure suffered severe burns to 90 percent of her body and is in critical condition at the Shriner's Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Demetrius Johnson Jr. and younger brother Demaris are both in stable condition. Thomas, who Johnsons proposed to only five days ago, was not injured.

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Johnson woke his entire family up after he smelled smoke early Friday morning, helping his fiancee Tempest Thomas, and children Treasure Brighorn, 8, and 15-month-old Demaris Johnson out of the house

That's when Johnson realized Demetrius Jr was still inside the first-floor apartment (pictured). He broke a window to let out smoke before running back inside the home engulfed in flames

The family had only moved into the home a week ago, witnesses told WIVB.

Thomas told family members the apartment had smoke detectors but that they did not go off during the fire.

William Johnson told Buffalo News the apartment also had an electrical problem only hours before the blaze began and that Thomas had called the landlord requesting it be repaired.

It is believed the fire began around 4am in the kitchen area, but firefighters continue to investigate the cause.

Meanwhile, residents of the neighborhood claim the house was in terrible condition.

'People lost their lives because of these slum landlords out here,' one witness told WIVB.

Another resident said the house had issues with the hot water, the front door did not close properly and there was flooding in the basement.

There is no record of housing violations at the address, according to the Buffalo Housing Court.

Tamika Johnson said she's not surprised at all that her brother died a hero.

'Those were his kids,' she said. 'And he loved them.'

After breaking a window to let out smoke from the apartment, Johnson ran back inside and placed his son in a closet in the living room before he collapsed from the smoke
Akens' family said they haven't heard from her since her final text

But missing were the teen's clothes and her cell phone

Inside was her bank card, ID, wallet, cash, glasses and the plane ticket

Her suitcase was then found 45 miles away from where she was last seen

She texted her mom that she made it to the airport, but never boarded flight

Kaitlin Akens, 19, was supposed to catch a flight from Virginia to Arizona

Kaitlin Akens, 19, has been missing since December 5 when she disappeared on her way to Reagan International Airport

The mystery surrounding a missing woman continues to deepen more than two months after she disappeared on her way to a Virginia airport.

Kaitlin Akens was supposed to catch a flight from Reagan International Airport to Arizona, where she lives with her fiancee and was set to begin cosmetology school, on December 5.

But Akens never came home and now the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office is treating her disappearance as suspicious.

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The last person to see Akens was her stepfather, who was giving her a ride to the airport when the teen asked to be dropped off at Springfield Mall instead, the girl's mother, Lisa Sullivan, told WRIC.

Sullivan said Akens then planned to take the Franconia-Springfield metro to the airport, and had texted her later that day saying she had arrived at Reagan International.

But Akens never got on her flight and 48 hours later her luggage was found in a drainage ditch in Fredericksburg, nearly 45 miles away from where she was last seen.

Akens' phone charger, wallet, ID, cash, glasses and plane ticket were still inside, as well as a credit card that was her only source of financial support, according to WTVR.

But the teen's clothes and cell phone were missing, NBC 12 reported.

Aken's family haven't heard from her since that final text to her mother, and calls to the teen's cell phone now go straight to voicemail.

Akens was supposed to catch a flight to Arizona, where she lives with her fiancee Amber Rios (pictured together), and texted her mother that she made it the airport - but never boarded her flight

Rios pleaded with the public to keep a lookout for a distinguishing tattoo on Akens arm (pictured left). The blonde 5 foot 4 inches teenager also has a tattoo of stars on her foot (right)

'It's scary,' Sullivan said. 'You don't know what to think. Where is she?'

Detectives corroborated Aken's stepfather's story that he dropped her off at the Springfield, Virginia mall, according to The Free Lance-Star.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video from outside the mall and authorities have subpoenaed records from her cell provider to determine where her last text was sent from.

Meanwhile Amber Rios is pleading with the public to keep their eyes open for her fiancee's distinguishing arm tattoo, five silhouetted butterflies with blue around them going up her arm.

Akens, who is a white female, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 122 pound, with blond hair and blue eyes, also has a tattoo of stars on her foot.
A tragic Michigan car crash has left three generations of women in one family dead on Saturday - including the grandmother, her daughter and 9-month-old granddaughter.

Patricia Rayner, 62, and her granddaughter, Madi McMaster, died at the scene after Rayner's car collided with a pickup truck in Park Township.

Casey McMaster, Rayner's 24-year-old daughter, was airlifted to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries.

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A tragic Michigan car crash left three generations of women in one family dead on Saturday. Patricia Rayner, 62, her daughter Casey McMaster, 24, (pictured together left) and granddaughter Madi McMaster were killed

Authorities said the two-vehicle crash happened around 11.30am on Saturday when Rayner ran a stop sign and collided with the truck.

Rayner and McMaster were ejected from the car, according to WOOD-TV.

Bystanders were able to take Madi from the vehicle and tried to give her CPR before emergency responders arrived at the scene.

Ottawa County police said Madi was properly secured in her car seat.

A family friend said Pat and Casey were 'almost inseparable'.

Bryan Rottman, the 37-year-old driver of the truck and the two children with him, aged 2 and 5-years-old, suffered minor injuries in the crash.
Dating websites were named in 378 reports by police last year, up from 180 mentions in 2013 (file photo)

Crimes linked to online dating including rape and blackmail have more than doubled in the past three years.

Dating websites were named in 378 crime reports by Britain's police last year which is up from 180 mentions in 2013.

The worst offender among the sites was the popular PlentyOfFish which recorded 63 offences, with eight rapes and five sex attacks, according to a study carried out by the Sun.

Second was badoo, which had 17 offences including two rapes.

From 2013-15 dating sites were linked to a staggering 828 criminal cases including 88 allegations of rape, 49 sex attacks and 180 violent crimes.

There was also 115 cases of harassment and stalking and 43 incidences involving blackmail.

Just last year a mother of two was murdered after being attacked by her possessive boyfriend, who she had met through PlentyOfFish.

Darren Jeffreys, 47, repeatedly punched 45-year-old Karen Catherall in the head and strangled her in an alcohol-fuelled attack at her home in Gwernaffield near Mold, Flintshire.

He was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison for her murder.

Authorities are concerned about how vulnerable women become when using the websites with 85 per cent of victims thought to be female.

Out of that female group, 42 per cent were aged between 20-29 and 41 per cent of attacks took place when the first date was held at someone's home rather than a public place.

In a National Crime Agency (NCA) study earlier this month it was reported attacks on people meeting on dating sites will often happen on a first date.

It said: 'Reports indicate that these offences took place during the first face-to-face meeting between the victim and the offender after they initially met online.

'This emerging threat appears to be a result of the increasing popularity of online dating  including free and subscription services, dating websites, apps and 'hook up' services- combined with the behaviours and expectations fostered by an online environment.'

VICTIMS OF BRUTAL ATTACKS BY DATING WEBSITE PREDATORS Darren Jeffreys, pictured, repeatedly punched Karen Catherall in an alcohol-fuelled attack at her home in Wales Mother-of-two Karen Catherall was repeatedly punched in the head and strangled by boyfriend Darren Jefferys in an alcohol-fuelled attack at her home in Wales. The pair had met on PlentyOfFish, and had been seeing each other for several weeks at the time of the attack on September 13, 2014. Catherall and Jefferys were described as being fond of one another, and were becoming increasingly close. However, Ms Catherall had previously told a friend that her boyfriend was a 'very nice guy but possessive'. On the night of her death the pair had met up for a drink but, after spending some time together, they later went their separate ways. After arriving home, shortly after 7pm, Jeffreys attacked. It was not until the early hours of the following morning, at 2.35am, that he called emergency services, claiming that he thought she was sleeping off the alcohol and he was unable to wake her. However, paramedics who arrived at the house found she had been dead for some time. A post mortem examination revealed that her cause of death had been blunt force trauma to the head and mechanical asphyxiation. Jeffreys was sentenced to a minimum of 17 and a half years behind bars for Ms Catherall's murder. In another brutal attack a legal secretary was left unrecognisable after a rapist knocked out her teeth at the end of their first date. Peter Ramsey, 26, punched the woman to the ground, ripped her clothing and raped her when she refused him a goodnight kiss at her front door. He knocked out one of her front teeth and left her with 21 injuries as he ran off with her underwear as a trophy. Sick Ramsey was caught after using the victims Oyster travelcard to board a night bus within minutes of the attack in Clapham, south-west London. The pair had spent four days chatting on the PlentyofFish.com dating site before they arranged to meet for drinks in Brixton. He was convicted of rape, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and theft and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, in May 2012. Advertisement

The report went on to warn that these sites are creating a wave of dangerous predators.

It said: 'The online dating phenomenon has produced a new type of sexual offender.

'These offenders are less likely to have criminal convictions, but instead exploit the ease of access and arm-chair approach to dating websites.

'This is aided by potential victims not thinking of them as strangers, but someone they have got to know.'

Women Against Rape's Lisa Longstaff said: 'This is very worrying.'
A man has been sacked after it was found he deliberately targeted Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for a 'random' body scan, and 'pat down' at an airport last year.

The incident occurred on October 8 at Melbourne Airport as Bishop prepared to fly to Los Angeles, three other airport security members have been suspended over the incident the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Bishop maintains she didn't make an 'official' complaint about the issue.

A man has been fired after targeting Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for 'special attention' at a Melbourne Airport security checkpoint

Bishop says she didn't make a complaint - however correspondence between federal bureaucrats suggest something was said about the incident

'I didn't complain, but airport authorities found that I had been inappropriately targeted and treated inappropriately,' Ms Bishop told ABC program Insiders.

'There was an investigation into it and it was found that there were breaches of security protocols and that I was given, let me put it this way, an inappropriate amount of attention,' she said.

Correspondence between federal bureaucrats states Bishop did complain, but it does not specifically state the complaint was made in an official capacity.

'Just a heads up that the Foreign Minister had a bad experience through screening point in Melbourne recently and complained to DPMO,' Sachi Wimmer Office of Transport Security's executive director wrote in an email to the department.

The email mentioned a 'security guard insisted in patting her down'.

Ms Bishop received an apology from an airport executive who viewed CCTV footage of the incident describing it as 'not pleasant'.

An investigation found the man who was fired had picked Bishop from a crowd and told a colleague to include her in the 'random' check

A button on the minister's jacket set the scanner off - she removed the jacket so it could be scanned - but security insisted on a 'pat-down'.

When the shift changed the man who was sacked, and who had told his colleague to pick the minister for the scan, continued to work on the station near Bishop.

'In the course of being scanned a staffing change occurred and the lane swapped. This led to the Foreign Minister's belongings (including her shoes) to be not where she was and she was left without her belongings (and her shoes) for over a minute after the scanning was complete,' Department of Infrastructure director Cathy Murphy told colleagues in an email going on to describe the expression on Bishop's face at the time as 'unhappy'.

A spokeswoman from Bishop's office has admitted she has not been given an 'inappropriate level of attention' before or since the incident.

'The Foreign Minister has passed through security at Australian international airports more than 50 times in years, and through domestic airports many hundreds of times in recent years. This is the only incident.'
In bikini and shades, Formula 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone looks carefree as she walks along a Dubai beach holding her 23-month-old daughter Sophia.

But there was no sign of her husband, former City trader Jay Rutland, who two days earlier had been arrested and charged with helping an international drugs baron evade capture.

Tamara is sick with worry about him being banged up but is putting a brave face on it, a source told The Sun on Sunday.

Tamara Ecclestone walks along the beach holding on to her daughter Sophia while on holiday in Dubai

Rutland is accused of assisting James Tarrant, who fled to Holland in 2010 before his trial for drugs trafficking and illegal possession of a firearm. After absconding, Tarrant was put on Britains most wanted list and jailed for 14 years in his absence.

Rutland, who lives in a 70million mansion with Miss Ecclestone, 31, and their daughter in Kensington, West London, faces up to seven years in jail if he is convicted. The allegations against him date to before he met Miss Ecclestone, daughter of Formula 1 chief executive Bernie.

Rutland, 34, voluntarily attended a police station last week with his lawyer. He was arrested and charged with assisting an offender. He was granted bail and ordered to appear in court on March 16.

Tarrant, 66, was arrested after police found cannabis, cocaine and a handgun at a house in Waltham Abbey, Essex.

Charged: Jay Rutland (left), son-in-law to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone and husband of Tamara (left and, right, on holiday in Dubai) is accused of assisting international drug baron James Tarrant

On holiday: Rutland and British socialite Tamara (pictured), 31, married in 2013 and have a young daughter

The husband of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone, Jay Rutland (pictured together in New York just before Christmas), has been arrested and charged with helping an international drug baron who was on the run

He fled to Holland but gave himself up near Rotterdam in September and was detained on a European Arrest Warrant.

Rutlands spokesman said: He denies the charge and will defend it vigorously.

Under sentencing guidelines, Rutland faces up to seven years behind bars if he is convicted.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said he was bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates Court on March 16.

DRUG LORD'S 5 YEARS ON THE RUN James Tarrant, 66 James Tarrant, 66, was arrested after cannabis, cocaine, a handgun, ammunition, body armour and around 5,000 was found by police at a house in Waltham Abbey, Essex. He was arrested and granted conditional bail in 2009. But before the case could come to trial Tarrant absconded, later handing himself in to a police station in Holland last September. He had been convicted in his absence and was returned to the UK to serve the 14-year jail sentence imposed on him. Advertisement

Tarrant was accused of conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis as well as possession of a gun and ammunition when he absconded before his trial after being granted conditional bail in 2009.

He was convicted in his absence and handed a 14-year jail sentence.

Tarrant gave himself up at Breda police station, south of Rotterdam, last September.

He was detained on a European Arrest Warrant and returned to the UK.

Rutland's high-earning career in the City of London ended in shame in 2012, when he was banned from trading over 'market abuse'.

In a damning ruling, the Financial Services Authority concluded he was not a 'fit and proper person' and his behaviour demonstrated a lack of 'honesty and integrity'.

In 2013 Rutland needed treatment for facial cuts after he was ambushed by two men in a mugging when he stopped his black Ferrari - just a month after marrying Miss Ecclestone.

He was robbed of a 50,000 Rolex and a 20,000 bracelet by at least two thugs in an attack caught on CCTV, but the high-profile prosecution of a suspect was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
David Cameron attacked his own pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers this morning accusing them of misleading voters by claiming that leaving the EU would cut immigration.

As he went on the offensive after calling the referendum for June 23, the Prime Minister declared war on his Tory colleagues by claiming Out campaigners had made 'no effort' to plan for a post-EU Britain.

But he failed to persuade the hugely influential Boris Johnson to join the In campaign, despite a last ditch attempt live on TV begging the London Mayor to support him.

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David Cameron, pictured arriving for the Andrew Marr Show this morning, made a direct appeal to Boris Johnson to join the In campaign. The Mayor of London, pictured right leaving his Oxfordshire home this afternoon, announced later that he will be campaigning for Britain to leave the EU

David Cameron, pictured on the Anderw Marr Show this morning, accused Brexit campaigners of making 'no effort' to plan for a post-EU Britain as he lost the support of Boris Johnson to the Out campaign

The London Mayor, pictured outside his London home this afternoon, dealt a major blow to David Cameron's hopes of keeping the UK in the EU by declaring he will campaign for Brexit

It turned out to be a humiliating moment for the Prime Minister as he warned Mr Johnson against 'linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway'.

And he suffered a backlash from his own Eurosceptic Cabinet rivals this morning, with Chris Grayling, Leader of the House of Commons warning that the PM's own plans would see Britain's population soar to 80million.

Meanwhile Iain Duncan Smith directly contradicted Mr Cameron as he claimed staying in the EU would make the UK more vulnerable to a Paris-style terrorist attack.

Speaking on the flagship Andrew Marr Show this morning, Mr Cameron said if voters decide to leave the Europe, Britain would be forced to continue to allow the EU's core principle of freedom of movement if it wanted to remain part of the single market.

His comments were dismissed by Ukip leader Nigel Farage, saying the claims were 'completely and utterly untrue'.

It came on a day when:

Boris Johnson declared he will vote to leave the EU after months of speculation

Johnson and Michael Gove met for a secret dinner to discuss plans on Tuesday

Gove writes damning article describing the EU as 'mired in the past'

Cameron claims all his Cabinet ministers agreed his Brussels deal was 'a good one'

But six Cabinet members and 15 other ministers have committed to the Out campaign

Business Secretary Sajid Javid helps PM by committing to In vote

Up to 144 Tory MPs are rebelling against Cameron and backing Brexit

Cameron dealt a blow as Polish PM claims victory over failed crackdown on migrant benefits

In chaotic scenes outside his London home tonight, Boris Johnson announced he had decided to vote for Britain to leave the EU because he could not turn down this 'once in a lifetime' chance

Nigel Farage, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, defended sharing a platform with Respect party leader George Galloway

The Prime Minister has already lost his close friend and ally Michael Gove to the Out campaign, along with five other Cabinet ministers.

Chris Grayling, the leader of the House of Commons, used an interview this morning to warn that measures such as the new living wage would encourage even more EU workers to rush to the UK.

SOUND-BITE DAVE: VOTERS WARNED FOR AVALANCHE OF KEY SLOGANS FROM PM David Cameron, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said THE slogan safer, stronger, better off nine times during his interview Voters have been warned to expect a four month campaign of soundbites as David Cameron repeatedly uses a handful of key phrases to try and convince people the country would be less safe if we left the EU. In the 48 hours after being handed his renegotiation deal in Brussels, the former PR man deployed the carefully crafted soundbites over and over again as he hit the airwaves to set out his referendum stall. During a 20-minute interview on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show today the Prime Minister three times warned that a vote to leave would be a leap in the dark. Mr Cameron also used the phrase, which is expected to be a cornerstone of the In campaign that has been nicknamed Project Fear, in a speech in Brussels on Friday night and again the next morning in Downing Street as he announced the date of the referendum. In the three appearances, which were all televised, Mr Cameron used the slogan safer, stronger, better off, nine times  including twice in the address outside Number 10 that lasted only four minutes. He separately used the words safe and safer another eleven times. Despite failing to secure the curbs to migrant benefits promised at the election in the Tory manifesto, Mr Cameron repeated the expression something for nothing six times as he attempted to sell the changes he did get that will stop newcomers being able to claim tax credits from day one. Mr Cameron also delivered the catchphrase the best of both worlds six times and strength in numbers three times. In a round of television and radio appearances at breakfast time on Saturday, Chancellor George Osborne continually used the phrases as well. During the last parliament in the run up to last years election, Mr Cameron deployed the phrase long-term economic plan so many times it became a standing joke in Westminster. Mr Cameron rarely resisted the opportunity to shoehorn several mentions of it into his appearances at Prime Ministers Questions. By repeating his referendum soundbites ad nauseum, Mr Cameron is no doubt hoping to get the messages lodged in the publics consciousness in the run up to the vote on 23 June. It is thought the short sharp messaging will have been tested in focus groups. Advertisement

In the most dramatic intervention from the Cabinet Eurosceptics so far, Mr Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, claimed that staying in the EU exposes the UK to the continent's open borders and heightens the risk of a Paris-style terrorist attack.

His comments directly contradict Mr Cameron's claims that remaining in the EU was a 'safer and stronger' option.

Mr Cameron attacked them this morning, saying: 'I'm sure some people will try and paint it as 'the Establishment against the rebel alliance', well you don't get much more Establishment than the Lord Chancellor and the Leader of the House of Commons'.

In a further blow for Mr Cameron, the Tory party's London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith, also joined the Out campaign yesterday, along with the highly respected justice minister Dominic Raab - taking the estimated total Tory MPs committed to backing Brexit to 144.

But the Prime Minister was given a boost today as a poll for the Mail on Sunday showed the In campaign had a 15 per cent lead.

And in another victory for the Tory leader, the previously outspoken Eurosceptic Business Secretary Sajid Javid wrote in the Mail on Sunday that he will vote for Britain to stay in the EU, although he said he will be doing so 'with a heavy heart and no enthusiasm'.

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, Mr Cameron made a remarkable last-ditch appeal to Mr Johnson, claiming that membership of the EU was essential in the fight against Somalian pirates, standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and forcing Iran to abandon nuclear weapons.

Sources close to the Mayor of London revealed that he admits he was 'veering like a shopping trolley' over which side of the referendum campaign to join.

His sister, Rachel Johnson, this morning rejected accusations that Mr Johnson's decision to vote for Brexit meant 'betraying' Londoners, insisting his decision was 'enormously difficult' and predicted his decision will have a 'very significant' on the referendum result.

'This is an enormously complicated decision for everybody his participation in either camp is going to be very significant and this this is why he's taking so long to decide,' she told Sky News before he announced his decision.

Pleading live on TV with Mr Johnson to sign up to the In campaign, the Prime Minister said: 'I would say to Boris what I'd say to everybody else: We will be safer, we'll be stronger, we'll be better off inside the EU.

'I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country and if Boris, if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done.'

'We're members of Nato, we're members of the UN, we're members of the IMF, I care about Britain being able to fix stuff  whether it's stopping pirates off the African coast, whether it's closing down illegal migration routes, closing down smugglers, whether it's standing up to Vladimir Putin with sanctions, whether it's the sanctions we put in place to get Iran to abandon its nuclear plan  having that seat in the EU, just as being a member of Nato is a vital way that we project our values, our power and our influence in the world.'

Warning that leaving the EU would not signal an end of freedom of movement, Mr Cameron said: 'If we were to leave the EU and we were to try to insist on full access to the single market, like Norway has for instance, every other country that's got that sort of deal has had to accept the free movement of people and a contribution to the EU budget.

David Cameron, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, made a direct appeal to Boris Johnson, warning him not to 'link arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway' by taking a 'leap in the dark'

Michael Gove, pictured right leaving Boris Johnson's home on Tuesday evening, dealt a major blow to his close friend David Cameron by declaring support for Britain leaving the EU yesterday. The Mayor of London, pictured left, was said to be 'veering like a shopping trolley' before making his decision to back Brexit

'It would be ironic if we left the EU, negotiated our way back into that full access of the single market and then wouldn't be able to exercise those welfare restricts that I've just negotiated.

'What Nigel Farage is saying  and this important of course  there is the option of having a trade deal with the EU.

POLISH PM CLAIMS VICTORY OVER CAMERON'S FAILED CRACKDOWN ON MIGRANT BENEFITS David Cameron, pictured with Polish PM Beata Szydlo in Warsaw two weeks ago, faced fierce resistance from eastern European leaders over his plans to restrict benefits going to EU workers Poland's prime minister has claimed victory after David Cameron failed to stop EU migrants claiming benefits while in Britain. Beata Szydlo said the deal struck by European leaders would ensure Poles living and working in Britain could continue to receive welfare payments. 'Good agreement for Europe, we protected rights of Poles claiming social benefits across EU,' she tweeted afterwards. Insiders say her resistance to Cameron's demands had been one of the main reasons why the Brussels summit dragged on for 31 hours. Mr Cameron had wanted an 'emergency brake' to stop migrant workers claiming benefits to last as long as 13 years, but after objections from Eastern European countries including Poland this was watered down to seven years. The Poles also fought against the proposal to stop migrant workers in Britain receiving generous Child Benefit for families in their homeland. Under the new agreement, existing claimants will not see any change until 2020. After that date the payments will be 'indexed' to the cost of living in the individual countries, rather than being axed. Advertisement

'But if you look at all of the trade deals they do not cover every industry and this is crucial.

'I think this goes to the heart of the argument: if we remain in a reformed EU, you know what you're going to get, you know how to do business, you know how to create jobs, you know how to continue with our economic recovery.

'If you leave, seven years of uncertainty and at the end of that process you still can't be certain that our businesses will have full access to the market.

'So it could cost jobs, it could mean overseas businesses not investing in Britain. It would be a step in the dark, a real risk of uncertainty and that's just the last thing we need in our country right now.'

He added in an interview with the Sunday Times that Out campaigners 'have got to explain what out is,' accusing them of making 'no effort' so far to offer a plan for what leaving the EU would mean for the economy, immigration and trade.

But Mr Duncan Smith warned against keeping the status quo on the freedom of movement throughout the EU.

'This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come and spend time,' he told the BBC today.

'We've seen what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting so who's to say it's not beyond the wit of man that those might already be thinking about that.'

Asked whether staying in the EU made the UK more susceptible to Paris-style attacks, he replied: 'I think the present status of the open border we have right now many of us feel does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved.'

And Mr Grayling, leader of the House of Commons, warned that measures such as George Osborne's new living wage, which will be introduced in April at a rate of 7.20 per hour and will rise to 9 by 2020, will encourage even more EU workers to come to the UK and the Government would be powerless to the population soaring to 80m.

'The introduction of the national living wage will have a boosting effect on the attraction of Britain as a place to come and work and I don't see any obvious sign of the migration pressures on the UK ending anytime soon,' he said.

'I think we do need to take steps to place some limits on those pressures for the future. We clearly can't do that within the European Union.'

The Prime Minister, pictured arriving at the BBC studios for his Andrew Marr appearance this morning, said the Out campaign had made 'no effort' to plan for a post-EU Britain

The PM, pictured leaving the BBC studios, returns to Downing Street as he braces himself to losing the influential Boris Johnson to the Out campaign, which would deal a major blow to his hopes of staying in the EU

He added: 'The reality is that all the projections show our population rising to 75 or 80 million.

'I don't believe we can absorb that as a country. We don't have the houses, we don't have the school places, we don't have the hospitals, we don't have the GPs. We don't have the space on our roads and on our railways.

'It's imperative for us that we have the ability to set limits on the number of people that come to live and work here.'

The support for the Prime Minister in today's poll - the first since Mr Cameron returned from Brussels on Friday evening with his deal, appears to have little to do with his claim to have won concessions from fellow EU leaders last week.

More than six out of ten say the new EU deal has not affected the way they will vote in the referendum.

Nearly one in two voters want to 'Remain' in the EU; with one in three in favour of 'Leaving' and one in five undecided.

One by one, the six rebel Ministers who plan to defy David Cameron by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, including Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith (l-r) told him to his face why his new, hard-fought deal with other member states was not good enough

A total of 18 per cent say it has made them more likely to vote 'Leave' against 15 per cent who are more likely to vote 'Remain'.

However, claims by anti-EU campaigners that Mr Cameron made a hash of the negotiations are not endorsed by the poll.

A total of 35 per cent say he did well, against 30 per cent who say he did badly.

Similarly, there is evidence that the Prime Minister's claim to have won key new powers to curb migrants' benefits have won approval.

A total of 26 per cent believe his 'emergency brake' on in-work benefits for EU migrants will dissuade some EU nationals from coming here; against 13 per cent who disagree.

A total of 32 per cent believe the curbs on child benefit payments for EU migrants will cut immigration; against 12 per cent who disagree.

However, neither are seen as a panacea: approximately one in two believe neither measure will reduce the number of EU foreign nationals coming here.

Mr Cameron has insisted he will not resign as Prime Minister if he loses the referendum.

But if he is forced out, Boris Johnson is the favourite to replace him.

He scores 18 per cent, followed by Theresa May on 11 per cent and George Osborne on eight per cent.

Survation interviewed 1,004 people on the telephone yesterday.

Mr Cameron has already lost Mr Gove to the Out campaign. The Justice Secretary wrote a damning article in the Daily Telegraph today describing the EU as an institution 'mired in the past' but insisted his choice to join the Brexit campaign had been the 'most difficult decision of my political life'.

Ministers from both sides of the argument filled the newspapers this morning, with Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warning: 'leaving the EU would be a threat to our economic security and our national security'.

Mr Javid, who said he had decided to join the In campaign 'with a heavy heart', warned that leaving the EU would add to 'economic turbulence'.

WHO SAID WHAT ON THAT DEAL 'Britain banged the table and aggressively demanded the status quo. The EU, after some mandatory faux-agonising, agreed.' Tory MEP Dan Hannan 'Is this delay in Brussels just so that Cameron can serve up Eton Mess for pudding?' Labour MP Chris Bryant 'Oh, let's give them a few little morsels so they'll go away happy like children.' Tory MP Adam Afriyie 'That's it?' Ex-Welsh Secretary David Jones 'Enthusiasm from Grassroots 'Out' activists is in stark contrast to the scaremongering of the #Remain-ians & #ProjectFear!' Tory MP Liam Fox Advertisement

But Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said leaving the EU would make the UK safer.

She told the BBC there had been 'a sense of history' at yesterday's Cabinet meeting, where Mr Cameron allowed each member of the Government's top team to set out their arguments on the referendum.

'It was quite emotional. It was also very measured, very objective, very sincere,' she added.

The highly-respected human rights minister Dominic Raab declared today he was voting Out in the referendum, describing it as a 'head and heart decision' that should not be taken 'lightly'.

'For me, the head side of things is I want to free up small businesses from all that suffocating red tape  that will be good for jobs,' he told Sky News.

'I also want us to energetically trade with other parts of the world, from Latin America to Asia  that's going to be good for things like the cost of living...

'Should that [social legislation] be done by people accountable to the British people like me, or should it be done in some far away place by people they have no control over?

'And that's why ultimately it's a head issue but it's also a heart issue. I want Britain to be master of her own destiny and I feel that the EU has tested to breaking point the democratic contract in this country and that is why I think people feel gutturally that there is something rotten.'

NOW YOU DECIDE: YOUR AT A GLANCE GUIDE TO HOW JUNE 23 REFERENDUM WILL WORK David Cameron, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said holding the EU referendum was an act of sovereignty in itself as he hailed his EU deal reached with European leaders late on Friday evening With the opinion polls see-sawing  and up to 40 per cent of voters saying they could change their mind between now and June 23  the EU referendum is up for grabs. Harold Macmillan famously declared that 'events, dear boy, events' were the biggest threat to a leader's plans. Now, another Conservative Prime Minister will be hoping the historic vote is not decided by factors beyond Downing Street's control... MIGRATION Last summer's migrant crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of Syrians and North Africans making the perilous journey by boat to Europe, triggered a boost in the polls for the Out camp. Reports that the same migrants were responsible for sex attacks in Germany, while others were living in the 'Jungle' camp at Calais, increased the impact. Last year, an astonishing 1.83 million people illegally entered the EU, over six times as many as the previous year. This is why Downing Street was so keen to hold the referendum in June. The next possible date was after the summer, by which time the migrant situation could have deteriorated even further. This year's crisis is predicted to be even more serious than last year. If so, it could hand victory to the 'Out' campaign. JOBS David Cameron needs Chancellor George Osborne  who is also the Government supremo trying to engineer a win for the 'In' campaigners  to deliver a feelgood Budget in May. If voters are positive about their personal financial circumstances, they are less likely to vote for change. More important will be the performance of the wider EU economy. A repeat of the eurozone crisis of two years ago, when Greece and other southern European governments were on the brink of collapse, would reinforce the notion that Britain's economy would thrive outside the bloc  and with it a burst of job creation. 'In' campaigners will insist that British jobs are heavily tied to our trade links with our EU partners. In a speech yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: 'Being part of Europe has brought Britain investment, jobs and protection for workers.' But 'Out' campaigners will highlight sluggish growth rates across the EU as a reason to break free. SECURITY Downing Street is planning to claim that if Britain leaves the EU, we will be less protected against threats such as Putin's Russia because hostile powers are intimidated by the unity of the 28-state EU. 'Out' campaigners will counter this argument by highlighting the security risks presented by lax border controls. The terror attacks in Paris last November accentuated these fears, particularly after it was revealed that some of the perpetrators had posed as migrants to enter Europe. Home Secretary Theresa May has argued that being part of the EU is a major benefit to British security services as a result of cross-border intelligence sharing and valuable reciprocal agreements such as the European Arrest Warrant. SOVEREIGNTY Cameron has tried to win over London Mayor Boris Johnson to the 'In' campaign by promising to enshrine in British law a pledge guaranteeing the ultimate supremacy of Parliament over Brussels  and hopes voters will also be persuaded. The Prime Minister was today expected to promise to make clear that the British Supreme Court outranks the European Court of Justice, similar to an idea first put forward by Johnson last year as the price for his support for the 'In' group. He says it is critical the sovereignty of the House of Commons is 'put beyond doubt'. Legal experts say the move is pointless as Parliament already has the power to ignore EU law if it chooses to, it is just that the sheer volume of Brussels legislation makes it impractical  but it may have some impact on voters' sentiment due to the 'political theatre' it represents. INFLUENCE The Prime Minister is planning to make British influence on the world stage a key strand of his campaign  arguing that we have far more clout combined with our EU partners, rather than as a 'lone wolf'. It explains the slogan of the 'In' campaign group: 'Britain Stronger in Europe.' The arguments will be played out whenever a diplomatic crisis strikes, such as attempts to settle the war in Syria, but are likely to pivot on economic considerations. The 'In' camp says that Britain is better able to open up new trade markets by acting with other EU countries. The 'Out' camp says British businesses are dragged down by Brussels' red tape and would flourish by forging fresh alliances within the Commonwealth. They say our influence within the EU is illusory because we are routinely outvoted on important decisions in Brussels, winning only eight per cent of the votes on vital EU decisions. RISK The 'In' camp believes its trump card is 'Project Fear'  making sure voters are too frightened to make a 'leap in the dark' and instead plump for the security of the status quo. They will say we cannot risk being cut off by our EU partners. 'Out' campaigners will argue the UK is risking its future by being subservient to Brussels and make reassuring noises about life outside the EU. As leading 'Outer', Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling said yesterday: 'Does anybody actually think that on the day after Britain leaves the EU, the Germans are going to turn around and say, 'We're not going to sell you BMWs any more'? Advertisement

ONE IN FOUR TORY MEPS WILL REBEL AGAINST CAMERON AND BACK BREXIT Five of the 20 Conservatives who sit in the European Parliament have informed the Prime Minister they will vote to Leave despite his renegotiation deal A quarter of Tory MEPs will defy David Cameron by campaigning for Brexit, it has been revealed. Five of the 20 Conservatives who sit in the European Parliament have informed the Prime Minister they will vote to Leave despite his renegotiation deal. A further three are yet to make up their minds. Ashley Fox, the leader of the Tory group in the Brussels, yesterday said Mr Cameron had made clear to MEPs there would be no recriminations for their decisions. The MEP for the south west and Gibraltar said the Prime Minister had not asked for enough in his renegotiation, but said he would vote for the country to remain an EU member to ensure continued access to the single market. During the renegotiation, Mr Fox privately urged Mr Cameron to go as far as he could with his demands and wanted him to get back national control of employment regulations such as the working time directive. But he said Mr Cameron had been hampered by the reluctance of other countries to revise the EUs founding treaties. I wish we had achieved more in the renegotiation. I think what the Prime Minister has achieved are useful improvements to our membership, but I would have liked to have seen more demands in the first place and a larger repatriation of powers to the UK, he said. It has been a difficult decision, but we now face a binary choice, its either in or out, so theres no point now saying oh, I wish this had happened. I have come down on the Remain side. In my constituency I have Rolls-Royce, Honda and Airbus and its critically important that they have full access to the single market. I believe that leaving puts that at risk. Mr Fox said that in meetings with MEPs, Mr Cameron had made clear that after the referendum the Conservative party has to come together. Of course he wants his MPs and MEPs to support him, but hes also been clear there is not some dreadful threat hanging over us if we go for Leave, he added. Eurosceptic Tory MEPs Dan Hannan and David Campbell-Bannerman are expected to play a leading role in the campaign for Brexit, alongside Amjad Bashir, who defected from Ukip in January last year. Advertisement

GOVE AND BORIS EXPOSED IN SECRET EU PLOT: PAIR HELD FOUR HOUR TALKS AT JOHNSON'S ISLINGTON HOME AS LONDON MAYOR ADMITS HE'S 'VEERING LIKE A SHOPPING TROLLEY' Left, Boris Johnson's wife, lawyer Marina Wheeler - an outspoken critic of the PM's deal - leaves the family home before Michael Gove arrives. Right, a smiling Justice Secretary emerges from Boris's front door Left, perhaps the pair were expecting a long, sweaty discussion to rival the EU negotiations, as a courier arrives to deliver new shirts. Right, the meeting was also attended by Mr Gove's wife, Sarah Vine Boris Johnson had secret talks with Cabinet rebel Michael Gove last week on whether to defy David Cameron over the EU referendum, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The two dined at the London Mayor's home on Tuesday, where they agreed the Prime Minister's new EU deal was 'thin'. Shortly afterwards, Justice Secretary Mr Gove shocked No 10 by joining the 'Out' campaign to cut Britain's ties with Brussels. The disclosure of the secret dinner  and the pair's sharp criticism of the outcome of Mr Cameron's negotiations  will fuel speculation about which side Mr Johnson will back in the forthcoming EU referendum. Yesterday, Mr Gove and five fellow Ministers staged a dramatic revolt at a crisis Cabinet meeting on the referendum  the first time the Cabinet has assembled on a Saturday for more than half a century. Friends of the Mayor said last night he was still 'agonising' over his stance on the issue. No 10 aides fear that if Mr Johnson follows Mr Gove's surprise 'defection' to the 'Out' camp, the two formidable politicians could inflict a humiliating defeat on Mr Cameron. Mr Gove's meeting with Mr Johnson started after the Justice Secretary arrived at the Mayor's home in Islington, North London, at 8pm on Tuesday. He did not leave until 11.30pm. A well-placed source said the two men agreed that they were both 'disappointed' by the outcome of Mr Cameron's attempts to win back powers from Brussels. In particular, they felt let down by the way that Mr Johnson's call for the Prime Minister to find a way to enshrine the supremacy of the British Parliament over the EU had only achieved limited success. Mr Cameron's inclusion of the topic in the talks was seen by many as a ploy that could pave the way for Eurosceptic Mr Johnson to endorse the Prime Minister for having heeded his suggestion. But Mr Gove, the Minister tasked with making such moves legally watertight, privately admitted the plans were impractical: it was one of the main reasons he decided to back the 'Out' campaign. Mr Gove was accompanied by his journalist wife Sarah Vine, while Mr Johnson's wife  human rights lawyer Marina Wheeler  had been at the house earlier that evening. In a scathing magazine article two weeks ago, Ms Wheeler said the Prime Minister had done precious little to limit the 'untenable' power of the European Court of Justice. The supposed reassurances the PM secured with Brussels 'raise more questions than they answer,' she said. Mr Johnson's aides stressed his wife was speaking in a personal capacity, but her outspoken view was said by some to reflect her husband's opinion. Advertisement
This comes as local production of the Falcon and

Police are set to trial a Ford Mustang Pony to see if the American-made V8 will make a suitable replacement for Commodore and Falcon produce cars which will soon be out of production.

The NSW Police force have shared a photo of their brand new Mustang on social media - the vehicle has already earned its stripes - branded with the NSW Highway Patrol colours and labels.

Police have told MOTORS the car is not yet operational and won't be for 'some time yet' the photo revealed the car had not yet been installed with lights and sirens.

The V8 Mustang being trialed by NSW Police as a possible edition to the state's highway patrol fleet

The Pony features a 5-litre engine, and as it is a coupe has just two doors - however highway police have been commissioned cars in this style before.

In the 70s and 80s Valiant Chargers and Falcon Coupes were used by NSW, Queensland and Victoria Police, in more recent times, 2000s, the Holden Monaro was commissioned.

The lack of room for prisoners was not seen to be an issue as highway police can simply contact general duties officers if they need someone taken to a station.

The Commodore police currently use is set to go out of production in October while the Falcon will stop being made in Australia in 2017.

2015 marked 50 years since the Mustang Pony was first marketed to the public

According to Carsales the search for a replacement vehicle has not been easy and the Subaru WRX, SRT8 Core and Chrysler 300C are also under consideration.

BMW, Mercedes, and Audi makes were also under consideration according to Carsales however they did not fit the $50,000 - $60,000 price bracket the force was restricted to.

Current police vehicles cost the force $48,000.

The Mustang Pony is located at the NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Command centre in Huntingwood, Sydney.

It is not yet known if more Mustangs will be commissioned by the NSW Police.

The Mustang may replace Commodores once the Australian made police car stops being made
Parents can access pension pots early and splash out on expensive trips

Children in late teens and twenties can't afford holidays, travel agents say

Summer surge in number of parents paying to take older children

A rising number of twenty-something children are getting their parents to take them on holiday.

This year will see a surge in the number of parents paying to take their offspring on vacation with them, according to travel agents.

The children, many of whom would have gone through university, have been saddled with student debt and are struggling to get onto the housing ladder.

Ulun Danu temple Beratan Lake in Bali, Indonesia (file photo) - The Imrie family traveled to the Asian country

In contrast their parents look to retirement, with relaxed pension rules making it easier to withdraw large windfall sums earlier.

Research by travel group Souk Response found that almost three-quarters of parents are planning on spending some of their pension lump sum on expensive holidays for their partners and children.

Huw Williams, director of Souk Response, said the travel market was in flux.

'The top end of the market is very comfortable with the empty-nesters  the traditional affluent, double-income couples who are either pre- or post-children, but the picture is becoming more complicated,' he said.

There was now a squeezed generation which is more than happy to go away with their parents, he added.

A large number of parents were caught up with guilt because their children can't afford the holidays that they can, Mr Williams said.

Travel firms have coined the phrase the 'genervacation' to describe the change.

Souk Response found the most popular destinations for parents planning on holidaying with their older children were the US, Canada and the Caribbean, outside of the UK and Europe.

And many travel agencies see their incomes spiralling upwards with the rise of the 'silver traveller market'.

Andy Imrie and his wife, Tina, and their daughters Jessica, 19, and Georgia, 17, went on a three-week holiday to Vietnam and Bali.

The 54-year-old creative director, from South-West London, told The Observer: 'We hadn't really been on a holiday as a family for a couple of years.

'The girls had just wanted to do their own thing. But then we said we were thinking of Vietnam and they wanted to come. We felt far more at ease with them. It felt like I was going away with people who weren't just my daughters.'
North Korea has called South Korean president Park Geun-Hye a 'crazy old bitch' as tyrant Kim Jong-un watched army exercise run by the new military chief following his predecessor's execution.

In the latest personal attack on the South's president, Rodong Sinmun newspaper of the North's ruling communist party launched a colourful invective against Park for seeking stronger sanctions against Pyongyang following its nuclear and missile tests.

A full-page coverage on the conservative leader described her as a 'murderous devil' and 'senile old woman' whose only purpose is to topple the North's government.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversees a military exercise run by his new army chief Ri Myong-Su

Rocket artillery being fired during maneuvers for attack and defence between large combined units of the North Korean army

North's official newspaper Rodong called South Korean president Park Geun-Hye a 'crazy old bitch'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspects a flight drill of fighter pilots of the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force

'This tailless crazy old bitch called Park Geun-Hye is heaping further misery on our people, already suffering from the tragedy of division,' one article said.

Earlier, Park warned that North Korea must either change its ways or face the collapse of its regime. She added that Kim Jong-un's authoritarian government is an 'extreme reign of terror' and used his name three times

The president added that Kim Jong Un's authoritarian government is an 'extreme reign of terror' and used his name three times. It is believed that Kim has never referred to Park by name in his rare public speeches.

Park, 64, closed a joint inter-Korea industrial zone in reprisal for the North's launch of a satellite into orbit, in what many saw as a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile banned under UN resolutions.

The Kaesong estate in the North, where 126 Seoul firms operated factories that employed 54,000 North Koreans, had been considered a precious source of hard currency for the impoverished North since its opening in 2004.

For this reason, Rodong called Park the 'dumbest of the dumb'.

'This invalid, morally depraved human being... never showed any goodwill for other human beings as well as her people,' it said.

South Korea reacted with anger at the North's 'vulgar' personal attacks and urged Pyongyang to stop.

'We express strong regret over... the North's personal attacks that targeted our head of state with such base, vulgar language,' Seoul's unification ministry which handles cross-border affairs said in a statement.

South Korea closed a joint inter-Korea industrial zone in reprisal for the North's launch of a satellite into orbit, in what many saw as a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile banned under UN resolutions

South Korea reacted with anger at the North's 'vulgar' personal attacks and urged Pyongyang to stop

The war of words comes as North Korean state media, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), confirmed the country has a new military chief

Ri Myong-Su, former People's Security Minister, was referred to as 'chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff'

The war of words comes as North Korean state media, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), confirmed the country has a new military chief following reports that the former holder of the post had been executed.

Ri Myong-Su, former People's Security Minister, was referred to as 'chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff' and had the honour to run an army exercise guided by leader Kim Jong-Un.

Ri Myong-Su was again mentioned in a separate KCNA report on Kim's inspection of an air force exercise.

His predecessor Ri Yong-Gil was reportedly executed early this month in what would be the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials.

Ri Myong-Su'spredecessor Ri Yong-Gil was reportedly executed early this month in what would be the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials

Ri Yong-Gil was accused of forming a political faction and corruption, according to South's reports

In May last year South Korea's spy agency said Kim had his defence chief Hyon Yong-Chol executed - reportedly with an anti-aircraft gun

Ri Yong-Gil was accused of forming a political faction and corruption, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

In May last year South Korea's spy agency said Kim had his defence chief Hyon Yong-Chol executed - reportedly with an anti-aircraft gun.

Hyon's fate was never confirmed by Pyongyang but he has never been seen or heard of since. Some analysts have suggested he was purged and imprisoned.

Reports - some confirmed, some not - of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Kim took power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.

A large number of senior officials, especially military cadres, were removed or demoted as the young leader sought to solidify his control over the powerful military.

In the most high-profile case, Kim had his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek executed in December 2013 for charges including treason and corruption.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the new military chief was one of Kim's top three aides and was known to be well-versed in missile technology.

In the most high-profile case, Kim had his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek executed in December 2013

Reports - some confirmed, some not - of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Kim took power

A large number of senior officials, especially military cadres, were removed or demoted as the young leader sought to solidify his control over the powerful military
Network Rail is set to sell off 18 major train stations including Waterloo, Reading and Leeds in an effort to cut its 50billion debt.

The organisation is looking at ways to tackle its crippling financial problems and bankers from Citigroup have been brought in to identify options for major stations.

These choices may also include offering concessions in stations to firms and retail organisations, reports the Independent.

Network Rail is set to sell off 18 major train stations including Waterloo, pictured, in an effort to tackle its debt

Network Rail came under government ownership in 2014 and ministers are eager to make serious changes to the way the organisation is run.

Experts believe that running big stations such as Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and London Charring Cross is proving distracting for Network Rail at a time where rail use is at its highest since the 1920s.

Government bosses think that by taking the management, or at least a portion of it, away from the organisation a better customer service delivery could be achievable with a focus turned back to maintaining tracks and other issues.

Currently the firm runs 20,000 miles of track with 40,000 tunnels and bridges to focus on.

A station concession model has been used successfully at St Pancras station, which is managed by the High Speed One (HS1) link.

HS1 is run by a Canadian pension fund on a 30-year concession, who paid 2.1billion for a deal in 2010.

The modern and stylish station has an array of shops, cafes and restaurants busy with commuters often using the high-speed link to travel across Kent.

As well as a concession, the Government has also looked at ways of utlising obscure spaces owned by Network Rail in an effort to raise funds.

A station concession model has been used successfully at St Pancras station, which is managed by the High Speed One link. Pictured, commuters alight from a high-speed train at St Pancras

For example, spaces under railway bridge arches have been rented out to firms to be used as nightclubs and restaurants.

A Network Rail source told The Independent on Sunday that Citigroup had been asked to find the best options for the organisation's stations.

The source said: 'It could be just the retail; it could be a concession option like St Pancras. It could be some, could be all. It might be same answer for all or treating them individually.
'Out': Tory London mayor candidate Zac Goldsmith has become the latest party member to defy David Cameron after announcing he is joining six rebel Cabinet Ministers to campaign for an EU exit

Just under 150 Tory MPs will defy David Cameron and vote for Britain to leave the EU, a new survey has suggested.

It came as London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith became the latest Conservative to join six rebel Cabinet Ministers in campaigning for an EU exit.

Mr Goldsmith appeared to be leaning towards a voting for a 'Brexit' when earlier this month he labelled the Prime Minister's draft deal on EU reforms as 'not very impressive'.

At the time he said he was holding back his final verdict out of 'courtesy' to Mr Cameron but last night announced: 'My vote will be to leave.'

Meanwhile, a survey carried out by The Sunday Times revealed that at least 144 of the 330 Tory MPs oppose David Cameron's EU deal and will vote for the UK to leave.

Fifteen other ministers and whips said they wanted to leave, in addition to the six Cabinet Ministers, as well as 22 parliamentary private secretaries and 101 backbenchers.

The total number is far higher than predicted.

Today, justice minister Dominic Raab also revealed he is backing the Brexit campaign.

Writing in The Sunday Times, he said: 'The argument for staying in is based on a fear of standing on our own two feet.

'The case for a new relationship, outside, is built on the opportunities of being masters of our own destiny.'

Mr Raab is to join members of the Fresh Start group of Conservative MPs, including George Eustice and Andrea Leadsom, at a meeting in Westminster today.

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At least 30 MPs are expected to launch a new project to draw up plans for the UK outside of the EU.

Rebel Cabinet Ministers who want Britain to quit the EU have been warned of the risk it will trigger an economic disaster  and told they are playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin.

The claims were delivered yesterday at the first Cabinet meeting to be held on a Saturday for more than 50 years.

One by one, the six rebel Ministers who plan to defy David Cameron by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU told him to his face why his new, hard-fought deal with other member states was not good enough.

One by one, the six rebel Ministers who plan to defy David Cameron by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, including Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith (l-r) told him to his face why his new, hard-fought deal with other member states was not good enough

They pledged they would not demand his resignation as Prime Minister if he loses  but rejected his last-minute plea to change their minds and support him.

However, they faced a backlash from Cabinet loyalists who rallied behind the Prime Minister.

Chancellor George Osborne painted a picture of doom and gloom in the wake of any Brexit.

We should bear in mind that the Governor of the Bank of England has said there will be a period of economic turmoil if we leave the EU, Mr Osborne said. Sterling is at a low point right now and there will be economic shocks if we leave.

He was backed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, a one-time critic of Brussels, who banished rumours that he could join the rebels. Leaving the EU would put Britains security at risk, he said, adding provocatively: There are no prizes for guessing which way Putin wants us to vote.

The rebels pledged they would not demand his resignation as Prime Minister if he loses  but rejected his last-minute plea to change their minds and support him

Some experts say the Russian president is hoping Britain will leave the EU, prompting a collapse in the union that would make it easier for him to pursue his expansionist policies.

After Mr Cameron defended the deal he achieved in Brussels, he appealed to all Ministers to avoid personal attacks in the debate.

Then Justice Secretary Michael Gove led the way for the rebels. He told Mr Cameron: It gives me no pleasure to say that I intend to vote to leave the EU  and I do it with a heavy heart. He praised Mr Cameron for doing a brilliant job as PM and for calling the referendum, and said it was vital we all stay together when it is over.

However, Mr Gove continued: The critical issue for me is that the EU has fundamentally changed in recent years; it is set on a particular course and it is not going to change. Ministers have lost so many powers. We cannot ignore it any longer.

Commons Leader Chris Grayling told Mr Cameron: Any suggestion that what we doing is critical of you or that your position is in doubt depending on the result of the referendum is totally wrong. We will all support you regardless  you will be Prime Minister come what may.

The comments were greeted with hear, hears around the table.

Veteran anti-EU campaigner Iain Duncan Smith started apologetically: When I was leader I did my best to avoid banging on about Europe. Now Im not leader I find I will be doing exactly that. I have not always been a leaver  but the EU has gone too far. I regret having to make this decision but the country requires it. We have to be unshackled and build relationships with other countries, not just Europe.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, called for Britain to recover the powers we have lost.

Employment Minister Priti Patel said: My experience in business is that organisations are only successful and efficient when they are accountable and flexible  and the EU is neither. And Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers added: I made my mind up a long time ago: we must leave the EU.

Mr Cameron ended with an emotional plea for unity: We should have a good debate but it must be conducted on good terms. We need to remember we are all still members of a Conservative Government. This is my team and it is a team I love.

Chancellor George Osborne (left) painted a picture of doom and gloom in the wake of any 'Brexit'. He was backed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon (right), a one-time critic of Brussels, who banished rumours that he could join the rebels
ISIS claimed responsibility for the blasts with online statement

Bomb attacks in the central Syrian city of Homs and near a shrine outside Damascus killed at least 140 people as Washington pursued efforts for a ceasefire.

Double car bombings killed at least 57 people and wounded more than 200 people in the Zahra district of Homs on Sunday morning, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Later, at least 62 people were killed in a series of attacks near the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab south of the capital, according to the Observatory.

Attacks at the shrine included a car bombing and two suicide blasts, which ripped through the area.

But reports claim the shrine itself remained undamaged.

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Terror: A woman carries a child injured in the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus

A wounded Syrian man receiving first aid at a hospital in Damascus, following the ISIS terror attack, which killed at least 140 people

Syrians gather at the site of a series of attacks the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine south of Syria's capital Damascus on February 21

People gather immediately after two car bombings in the central Syrian city of Homs killed at least 57 people

In Homs, graphic footage from pro-Assad television channels showed charred corpses buried among rubble, damage to shop fronts and debris littering a wide area. Many cars were on fire, sending out plumes of black smoke. Wounded people walked around dazed.

ISIS claimed responsiblity for the attack, saying in an online statement that two of its members had driven explosives-laden cars into crowds of residents.

The Observatory said the attack was the second most deadly of its kind in Homs since 2011, and the deadliest for almost a year and a half.

Once dubbed the capital of the Syrian revolution, Homs city is now almost completely controlled by the Syrian government.

The only exception is Waer district, which is being gradually turned over to the government under a deal with opposition fighters.

Hospitals in Homs and Damascus are struggling to cope with hundreds of wounded people after a series of ISIS attacks in Syria

A wounded man receives treatment inside a hospital after multiple bomb blasts hit a southern district of Damascus, Syria

Two Syrian children receive treatment for injuries at a hospital in Damascus, Syria, following the series of ISIS attacks on February 21

An injured mother holds her crying baby while receiving treatment at a hospital in Damascus

Doctors at this hospital in Damascus are struggling to cope with the number of wounded after the attacks, which was the second most deadly of its kind in Homs since 2011, and the deadliest for a year and a half

Syrian army soldiers and civilians inspect the site of multiple bomb blasts that hit the Sayeda Zeinab area, a southern district of Damascus

Syrians gather at the site of multiple bomb blasts that hit the Sayeda Zeinab area, which destroyed many buildings and left at least 140 people dead

The double blast comes a day after government forces reportedly captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from ISIS

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria

The latest attacks come as US secretary of State John Kerry said that a 'provisional agreement' had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in the war-torn country

Most of the bombing attacks in the city over the past months have been claimed by ISIS, which controls parts of the Homs province including the historic town of Palmyra.

Zahra neighbourhood in particular has been the main target of the extremist groups as civilian residents there are mostly Alawites, the minority sect of Syria's ruling clan - including president Bashar al-Assad.

Last month, another twin bombing in Zahra killed 22 people, mostly civilians.

The double blast comes a day after government forces reportedly captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from ISIS.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

Zahraa neighbourhood is populated mainly by members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect

People walk by in front of damaged buildings near at the site of a twin bomb attack in the city of Homs

More than 200 people were wounded in the twin car bomb attacks in the city centre's Zahra district

Once dubbed the capital of the Syrian revolution, Homs city is now almost completely controlled by the Syrian government.

The only exception is Waer district, which is being gradually turned over to the government under a deal with opposition fighters

The Observatory said the attack was the second most deadly of its kind in Homs since 2011, and the deadliest for almost a year and a half

The double blast comes a day after government forces reportedly captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from ISIS

The latest attacks come as US secretary of State John Kerry said that a 'provisional agreement' had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in the war-torn country.

He said the cease-fire could begin in the next few days, but he acknowledged that it has not been finalised and not parties might not automatically comply.

Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier this month.

Syrian government forces remove an Islamic State (IS) group flag and replace it with a Syrian flag (right) at Aleppo's thermal power plant after they re-took control of the area on eastern outskirts of Syria's northern embattled city of Aleppo

Assad forces check Aleppo's thermal power plant after wrestling back the area from ISIS

A member of the Syrian government forces holds a portrait of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad as he burns, with his comrade, an ISIS flag

In two days Syrian government forces have taken more than a dozen villages from ISIS around Aleppo

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes

Syrian army soldiers inspect the site of a two bomb blasts in the government-controlled city of Homs

'We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days,' Kerry said.

'It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task,' Kerry told a press conference with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.

Hopes for ceasefire, which had been due to take hold on Friday, had floundered as fresh violence shook Syria last week.

But Kerry was optimistic that it could still be implemented.

'We are in fact making progress even as a I stand here today,' he said. 'We are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been.'

Alawite districts of the central Syrian city have seen numerous deadly bombings, mostly claimed by the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front jihadist groups

US secretary of State John Kerry said that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in the war-torn country

Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier this month

yrian onlookers and security forces inspect a crater at the site of the double blast in Homs

Hopes for ceasefire, which had been due to take hold on Friday, had floundered as fresh violence shook Syria last week

Syrian state media earlier reported that Syrian troops had captured some 10 villages in Aleppo province from ISIS

Homs city is almost completely controlled by the Syrian government, and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks
Pictured, prison worker Jess Marshall who is said to have bought presents for murderer Neil McMillan

A prison worker has been suspended after she 'became too friendly' with a killer who strangled a transsexual prostitute.

Jess Marshall, 27, who works at high security Frankland Prison, is said to have bought gifts for convicted murderer Neil McMillan, 47, as well as exchanging Facebook messages with his family.

The odd couple met when McMillan attended a upholstery class, run by Ms Marshall, at the jail which holds Milly Dowler's killer Levi Bellfield and Soham Murderer Ian Huntley, reports the Sun.

Ms Marshall started working at the prison just six months ago but her career there could now be in doubt as Frankland bosses investigate suspicions regarding their relationship.

A source said: 'She and McMillan were really close, laughing and chatting a lot and trying to spend time together.

'He seemed infatuated, which is not surprising as she is blonde and 20 years younger. She was also keen on him, supposedly giving him CDs and clothes, and that got reported to bosses.

'Apparently they found Facebook messages between Jess and McMillan's family, including his sister. She talked about him and how he was doing.

'McMillan was disciplined too and may lose privileges.'

Beast McMillan was convicted of the murder of trans prostitute Andrea Waddell, 29, in Brighton during 2009.

Ms Waddell's body was found naked and badly burnt on the bedroom floor of her flat. She had been strangled with severe force and the bedding around her had been set alight.

Victim: Murdered Andrea Waddell with her brother Nick in 2006 and after graduating from Durham University

McMillan admitted visiting the flat for sex but denied attacking her and said he did not know she was trans.
Two more MPs have come out as gay to take the total number in the House of Commons to 35  more than any other parliament in the world.

The SNPs business spokeswoman, Hannah Bardell, and Labours shadow Welsh Secretary, Nia Griffith, revealed their sexuality at a photoshoot celebrating Parliament's growing diversity.

At last year's election there were 32 lesbian, gay and bisexual MPs, which rose to 33 when Scottish Secretary David Mundell became the first openly out Tory cabinet member last month.

Announcement: The SNPs business spokeswoman, Hannah Bardell (left), and Labours shadow Welsh Secretary, Nia Griffith (right), have both come out as gay to take the total number of openly gay MPs to 35

Growing diversity: The MPs and peers who turned out for a photocall to celebrate LGBT History Month. Back row, from left, Hannah Bardell; Angela Crawley; Cat Smith; Mike Freer; Ben Howlett; Ray Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury; Jonathan Oates, Baron Oates of Denby Grange; Gerald Jones and Joanna Cherry. Middle row, from left, Iain Stewart; Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury; Chris Bryant; Stuart Andrew; Margot James; John Nicolson; Brian Paddick, Baron Paddick of Brixton; Peter Kyle; Crispin Blunt; Waheed Alli, Baron Alli of Norbury and Wes Streeting. Front row, from left, Martin Docherty; Nia Griffith; David Mundell; Angela Eagle; Alan Duncan; Stewart McDonald; Jenny Hilton, Baroness Hilton of Eggardon and Liz Barker, Baroness Barker of Anagach

Ms Bardell told Mark Leftly at The Independent on Sunday: 'I only came out to myself and to my family during the election.

'I then chose not to say anything publicly because I had just got elected and I didnt want it to be one of the first things I said about myself as an MP.

'When David Mundell came out, it must have been very difficult for him, but it got me thinking about saying something myself. I felt this was the right moment  Im very proud to be out and Im very happy.'

Ms Bardell, who previously worked for the then First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, was joined by Ms Griffith at the event for LGBT History Month.

The latter, who has been an MP since 2005, said her sexuality had been known among friends, family and colleagues since the mid-1990s.

At last year's election there were 32 lesbian, gay and bisexual MPs, which became 33 when Scottish Secretary David Mundell (pictured) became the first openly out Tory cabinet member last month

CHANGING TIMES IN UK PARLIAMENT There are now 35 openly gay, lesbian and bisexual MPs  around 5 per cent of the total number in the Commons. This dwarfs the 12 and ten in the parliaments of Sweden and the Netherlands respectively, both countries that pride themselves on their liberal attitude to gay rights. According to analysis by the New Statesman magazine, at the time of last year's election 13 there were Labour MPs, 12 Conservatives and six representing the SNP. In the last Parliament there were 26 gay, lesbian and bisexual Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative MPs. In 2015 the Conservatives put up more openly gay candidates than any other party  39 men and three women. Out of their 13 gay, lesbian and bisexual MPs from the previous Parliament, 12 stood for re-election and only one  Eric Ollerenshaw  was defeated. His loss was made up for by the election of Ben Howlett in Bath. Out of the ten seats Labour took from the Tories, three were won by gay candidates  Wes Streeting, Peter Kyle and Catherine Smith. The nine incumbent Labour gay MPs held on comfortably and the SNP returned seven gay and lesbian MPs, including 20-year-old Mhairi Black, the youngest MP to be elected since 1667. Advertisement

However, she said she 'hasnt made any great fuss about it in Parliament'.

Last month the son of divorced father-of-three Mr Mundell said he 'admires [him] today as much as yesterday'.

David Cameron was said to be 'very pleased and delighted' at Mr Mundell's decision to open up about his sexuality, while a number of other politicians including Nicola Sturgeon praised his announcement.

Mr Mundell made the revelation on his website in a post headlined 'new year, new start!'

He said: 'Over time, I came to understand that, for me, the only way to be truly happy on a personal level is to acknowledge in public as well as in private, who I am.'

The cabinet minister, who is the only Conservative MP in Scotland, said: 'I have already set out my political priorities for the year and now I am setting out my personal one.

'Having taken one of the most important decisions of my life and resolved to come out publicly as gay in 2016, I just want to get on with it, and now, just like that, I have said it.'

Lord Chris Smith was the first openly gay MP in the 1980s and also the first to be appointed to the cabinet when he became Culture Secretary in 1997.

He joined the group of MPs and peers for the photograph, organised with the help of shadow Leader of the House of Commons Chris Bryant.
He said takeoff feels as though 'you are trying to run away from gravity'

Mr Keles described the jets as 'practically breaking the laws of physics'

The aircraft took off and left the ground at an astonishingly fast

This cockpit camera has captured the incredible moment a F-16 fighter jet launches as part of a performance take off.

The footage of pilots Murat Keles, 41, and Murat Ozpala, 44 - recorded on a GoPro camera and released last year - shows the incredible speed the jets reach in just a matter of seconds.

Mr Keles has now described the remarkable experience, saying the jet can accelerate so quickly it felt as though he was 'breaking the laws of physics'.

Turkish TAI Test Pilot Murat Keles picks up speed in the F-16 B Fighting Falcon as he travels down the runway

The pilot brings the plane into the air, showing the startling speed in which the ground is left behind the jet

The jet, which belongs to the Pakistani military, had been modernised and the pilots were charged with pushing it to the limit.

During the flight they purposely made mistakes that a pilot could make in a real life situation to ensure the plane would fly with no problems in a combat situation.

Mr Keles said: 'The flights practically break the laws of physics. It's a lot like you are trying to run away from gravity but gravity is doing its best to not let go of you.

'As a former F-4E Phantom pilot I found the entire experience fascinating.

'On the day there was a thin layer of clouds which made it feel very dramatic breaking through.

'Murat is a very talented pilot - when he was flying at almost 90 degrees to the ground he was completely at ease, even though you could just see the sky above.'

The fighter jet reached a height of 15,000 foot in just 45 seconds from brake release.

No stranger to taking to the sky at speed, Mr Keles was the very first Solo Turk pilot  the solo aerobatics display team of the Turkish Air Force.

In the video, Mr Ozpala can be seen sitting in the back seat as the aircraft  in iconic black, silver and golden livery  travels along the tarmac.

Mr Ozpala celebrates in the cockpit as the plane reaches a height of 15,000 foot in just 45 seconds

Topsy-turvy! Mr Keles straightens out the plane after take off and performs a number of barrel rolls in the sky

The plane picks up speed and the surroundings become increasingly blurred as the pilots approach the end of the runway.

Suddenly the pilot brings the plane up into the air and the speed in which the ground is left behind is startling.

The plane then straightens out and performs some barrel rolls in the air while Mr Ozpala celebrates in the cockpit.

The Solo Turk acrobatics team formed in 2011 and first performed as part of the celebrations for the Turkish Air Force's 100th anniversary.

In the same year Mr Keles was honoured at the Royal International Air Tattoo with the King Hussein Memorial Sword for the Best Overall Flying Demonstration.
His father John, 56, is now calling for tougher restrictions to curb gambling

He had lost 500 on fixed-odds betting terminal on the day he took his life

Carpenter, 27, owed thousands of pounds when he hanged himself in 2014

A 27-year-old gambling addict who hanged himself after getting into thousands of pounds worth of debt was still getting hounded with promotional messages offering him free bets after he died.

Ryan Myers, a carpenter from Huyton, Liverpool, took his own life because he felt he had 'lost control' and was ashamed of his debt after losing thousands of pounds on betting machines.

Two days prior to his death in May 2014, engaged Mr Myers put a message on Facebook in which he apologised for 'letting people down' and said he 'didn't mean to break anyone's heart'.

On the day he killed himself, he lost 500 on a fixed-odds betting machine and left a suicide note in which he told how much he loved his family, friends and fiance Kiann Macdonagh.

Gambling addict Ryan Myers, 27 (centre), a carpenter from Huyton, Liverpool, took his own life because he felt he had 'lost control' after losing thousands of pounds on betting machines. His father John, 56, (left) is now calling for a crackdown on fixed-odds betting machines and hopes tougher restrictions will be brought in

He also informed his family that he had transferred his last 300 to his father's bank account, with instructions that it should be used to care for his partner.

His father John Myers, 56, is now calling for a crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals and said he is furious that his son was still receiving promotional messages for free bets even after his death.

Just days before his death, Ryan had been laughing and joking during a holiday to Turkey, with his family seemingly unaware of the extent of his gambling addiction.

After he died, it emerged he had spiralled into thousands of pounds worth of debt and had been forced to take out a payday loan. He had also asked several websites to ban him from gambling in a bid to curb his spending.

An inquest ruled that he took his own life.

Mr Myers, a DHL supervisor based at Jaguar Land Rover, said his son's death showed the damage that could be caused by fixed-odds machines as he launched a petition for tougher restrictions.

He said: 'Just two days after our holiday, Ryan put a message on Facebook saying he was so sorry he had let people down, and didn't mean to break anyone's heart.

'His aunt saw it, but by the time we got to his house in Toxteth the police and ambulance were there. They wouldn't let us go upstairs, and eventually told us he was dead.

'It was absolutely the worst day of my life. We just couldn't understand, but he had lost all his money again that day and felt he'd let everybody down.

'He probably couldn't face telling Kiann, and must have felt ashamed he couldn't control it. We could have sorted it easily, but he'd never done anything to be embarrassed of before.

Just days prior to his death, Ryan Myers had been laughing and joking during a holiday to Turkey, with his family seemingly unaware of the extent of his gambling addiction. After he died, it emerged he had spiralled into thousands of pounds worth of debt and had been forced to take out a payday loan after losing thousands

'To think he couldn't tell us - that's what hurts us more than anything. I'm not here to tell people how to spend their money, but the problem now is the industry is taking over town centres and people's lives.'

He added: 'I hate fixed-odds betting terminals with a passion. They're the crack cocaine of gambling, as you can lose hundreds in minutes and people get hooked - they should cap how much you can spend.

'It's disgusting there's so many betting shops, and so many free bets and adverts with people winning and smiling - while there are now adverts on the devastating impact.'

The Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) said new measures had since been introduced.

A spokesman: 'We deeply sympathise with Mr Myers and his family for their tragic loss.

'The industry takes responsible gambling very seriously and we have introduced new measures to help tackle problem gambling over and above regulatory requirements.

'This includes a mandatory code of practice for all betting shops, the banning of gaming machine advertising in shop windows and the introduction of a national self-exclusion scheme by April 2016.

'The ABB and our members have also introduced systems which allow targeted responsible gambling messages to be sent to account-based gaming machine players whose history indicates they may be on a trajectory of harm.'
A British tourist is fighting for his life in hospital after he was stabbed in the head by a mugger in San Francisco.

The 44-year-old man was visiting his niece when they were attacked by a man and a woman on Post Street, near Franklin Street, at about 8.30pm on Friday.

The male attacker chased after the tourist, who refused to hand over his bag and tried to run away.

A British tourist is fighting for his life in hospital after he was stabbed in the head by a mugger on this street in San Francisco

The assailant, who described as a muscular black man, stabbed his victim in the head with a knife, police told SFGate.

The British tourist is now in a life-threatening condition at San Francisco General Hospital. His 23-year-old niece, who is from southern California, was not injured in the attack.

The muggers got away with the green messenger bag, which contained the man's passport, credit cards, cell phone and cash.

San Francisco Police Department has informed the British Consulate. The Consulate was unavailable when contacted by Daily Mail Online.

Albie Esparza, from the SFPD, told ABC7: 'The female victim is visiting from Southern California and the male victim is visiting from the UK.

'Right now, the male victim is listed with life threatening injuries at the hospital.'

The British tourist, 44, is now in a life-threatening condition at San Francisco General Hospital (pictured)

The male attacker was described as a muscular black man who was about 5ft 10ins tall.

His female accomplice was also black and had dreadlocks or braids in a ponytail. She was said to be about 5ft 4ins.

They escaped on foot and police are now appealing for information. Officers are also trawling through surveillance footage.

Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said tourists were not likely to be specifically targeted.

'It happens to everybody, so every now and then there's going to be a tourist in the mix,' he said.
Australian banks are lending money to people who simply can't afford it

A renowned investment expert who predicted the mortgage bubble burst in Ireland the United States and Spain has warned Australia will be next.

Jonathan Tepper believes property values will plummet by 30 to 50 per cent leaving investors with high loans and little return, reported 60 minutes.

Not helping the situation are Australian banks which are lending money to people who want to invest in high risk areas or simply cant afford it.

As a result many Australians are already starting to feel the financial pressure.

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Australians are already feeling the financial pressure of paying unrealistic loan repayments

Young couples and families have already begun to look down the barrel of bankruptcy as they fail to meet their monthly repayments.

In 2010 when the economy began to boom, 24-years-young with no equity behind them, Kate and Matt Moloney gambled in the property market.

Labelled as Australias property investors of the year in 2012, the couple had purchased ten investment properties that came with a $6.5 million loan.

We bought too many properties. We bought them too quickly and with very high leverage. We absolutely did the wrong thing, said Ms Moloney.

Now the couple are incapable of paying the remaining $5.8 million debt with a $30,000 monthly repayment.

It was just debt on steroids, weve gone from the poster child of success to the poster child of financial screw up, she said.

Kate and Matt Moloney gambled were labelled Australias property investors of the year in 2012 but are now facing bankruptcy because they are unable to repay a $5.8 million loan

Renowned investment expert Jonathen Tepper predicted the mortgage bubble burst in Ireland, the United States and Spain and has has warned Australia will be next

Kate (pictured) and Matt Moloney purchased a total of ten properties during the boom and are now struggling to make the repayments

Mr Tepper has no doubt the mortgage crisis will hit Australia.

'Its not a question of if, its just a question of when, he said.

'In Australia the madness is collective, meaning everybody is borrowing more money than they should.

Mr Tepper pretended to earn an annual salary of $110,000 in order to see how willingly banks and brokers offer obscene amounts of money as loans to Australians with average incomes.

Speaking to property moguls developing multi-million dollar complexes Mr Tepper was offered a million-dollar apartment on 95 per cent borrowings.

Inquiring into where he can get such a loan, Mr Tepper claims the property developers boasted about knowing someone on the inside that can help.

Property values in Australia are out of control and the level of mortgage debt in Australia is something like 3.8 times the gross domestic product, he said.

Mr Tepper believes the mortgage bubble will burst within the next year as a consequence of the unsustainable level of borrowing.

Property values are expected to plummet by 30 to 50 per cent leaving investors with high loans and little return

Mr Tepper believes the mortgage bubble will burst within the next year as a consequence of the unsustainable level of borrowing

The level of mortgage debt in Australia is approximately 3.8 times the gross domestic product

Parents, Simone and Shane James, earned $150,000 a year between them and now they owe $2.3 million with no hope of repaying the loan.

Shane and Simone failed to foresee the collapse in their investment suburb of Moranbah, a coal mining town in eastern Queensland.

However the bank did and still approved the loan.

[There is] a real possibility of a reduction in value and rental values for the proposed units a downturn in the coal industry may result in a significant write off in value, read a bank statement.

Unable to explain to their children the dire financial circumstances, Simone and Shane James question the banks willingness to accept the loan.

Were not saying that we are not partially responsible for this, we did make a decision and we own up to that but the fact is it can happen to anyone, said Simone

Many Australians cant afford to pay the principal on their loans and with half of all new mortgages sitting at interest only, disaster is expected to strike.

Insane, thats the best word to describe the Australian housing market, said Mr Tepper.
Jacyln McLaren, 36, who is also known as Jackie Jones, is charged with 36 sex crimes against four children as young as 12

A female teacher has been accused of carrying out a three-year string of sex attacks against children as young as 12, according to police.

Jacyln McLaren, 36, who is also known as Jackie Jones, a French teacher from Stirling, Ontario, is facing 36 sex crime charges against four children dating back to 2013.

McLaren, who is employed by the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board, appeared in court Friday where she was freed on $100,000 bond.

Hasting was told she cannot have any contact with males aged under 18, go to places where young people meet, or leave the house without a parent accompanying her.

Ontario Provincial Police say McLaren believe McLaren abused her position of trust over the youngsters to temp them into sexual acts.

She is charged with three counts of making child pornography and one count of making sexually explicit material available to children.

She is facing a further four counts each of sexual assault on a person younger than 16, sexual interference with a person younger than 16 and making an invitation to sexual touching involving a person younger than 16.

In addition, McLaren is charged with eight counts of sexual exploitation, six counts of luring a person younger than 16 and six counts of making sexually explicit material available to a person under 16.

The school board released a statement that said it was an aware of a police investigation involving a teacher and that the employee is not at work.

The board said counsellors are available at its schools to support students if needed.

The statement said no other information would be released, saying it's a confidential employee matter and citing the police investigation.
The woman at the heart of Rolling Stone's retracted rape article has been ordered to appear in court.

Known only as 'Jackie', the then-18-year-old has remained anonymous since telling the magazine she was brutally gang-raped at UVa for a 9,000-word feature - then admitted she had made it up.

However, as the magazine now battles numerous defamation lawsuits over the retracted November 2014 article, a judge has ordered 'Jackie' to take to the stand for a one-day hearing in April.

'The court believes that a one-day, seven-hour deposition will be sufficient,' Judge Glen Conrad wrote in a court order on Friday, according to Newsweek.

She is scheduled to appear on April 5.

A judge has ordered 'Jackie' - the subject of Rolling Stone's retracted rape article - to take the stand for a one-day hearing in April as the magazine battles numerous defamation lawsuits over the November 2014 piece

The debunked Rolling Stone article 'A Rape on Campus' stemmed from the alleged victim's crush on a boy. 'Jackie' (left) faked a love interest and cried gang rape so Ryan Duffin (right) would come to her rescue

It comes after lawyers for UVa hit out at Jackie, claiming texts show she made up the story and her fictitious rapist in order to impress a love interest.

According to legal papers filed by the university's attorneys, Jackie claimed that a junior named Haven Monahan, who was later found to be made up, forced her to perform oral sex on five men at a university fraternity house in 2012.

Two years later, she became the main subject of a Rolling Stone expose about on-campus rape cases.

The magazine later retracted the story after the police determined Monahan was made up and the gang rape never happened.

'All available evidence demonstrates that 'Haven Monahan' was a fake suitor created by Jackie in a strange bid to earn the affections of a student named Ryan Duffin that Jackie was romantically interested in,' lawyers of the university's associate dean wrote in court papers filed last month.

It all began when Duffin sparked up a friendship with Jackie, according to the papers. But when Duffin rejected her advances for a more romantic relationship, she goaded him into texting a boy from her chemistry class named Haven Monahan.

On September 28, 2012, Jackie told Duffin that her date with Monahan had gone horribly wrong and he forced her to perform oral sex on five other men.

Duffin and some friends immediately rushed to see her, and later described her to be in a hysterical state, the Washington Post reported. He said she refused to report the crime to the police.

Two years later, Rolling Stone magazine wrote a 9,000 word story about the alleged attack in a campus fraternity house.

But an investigation by Charlottesville Police later determined that no one named Haven Monahan had attended the university.

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house where 'Jackie' claimed she was gang raped. The fraternity is now suing Rolling Stone for $25 million over the discredited article

The photos Jackie sent to Duffin, claiming they showed Monahan, were actually of a boy she went to high school with in Northern Virginia.

Eventually, the police said no gang rape had occurred that night and Rolling Stone retracted its story.

With hindsight, Duffin wondered how he did not see through Jackie's lies. He told the Washington Post he found Monahan's infatuation with Jackie odd.

He told of how he received a text from Monahan saying: 'Get this she said she likes some other 1st year guy who dosnt like her and turned her down but she wont date me cause she likes him [sic].'

The texts sent by Monahan alluded to Jackie's romantic feelings for Duffin, the lawyers of associate dean Nicole Eramo wrote in court documents.

Duffin said Monahan once texted him to tell him Jackie was dying from a terminal illness, which she confirmed to him.

Duffin became suspicious of Monahan after Jackie told him she had seen him in person and forgave him for the alleged attack.

The account of the gang rape in Rolling Stone are said to have differed greatly from the facts given to Duffin in 2012.

She told the magazine the attack involved nine men - not five - and she identified Haven Monahan by a different first name.

The next time they spoke was after the Rolling Stone story was published and he confronted her over discrepancies in her account.
In his first interviews since his big South Carolina win, Donald Trump was asked if he thought the nomination was in sight.

'Certainly no one's unstoppable,' Trump said. 'I'm dealing with very talented people. They are politicians. They are senators. And I guess, do we have any governors left? I don't know, let's see, I don't think so. But we have a lot of talented people.'

Seemingly forgetting Ohio Gov. John Kasich was still in the race, Trump was alluding to the other big story, besides his commanding win, that came out of South Carolina: Jeb Bush calling it quits.

'I don't know what did him in,' Trump told Jake Tapper this morning on CNN's State of the Union.

Trump dismissed the notion that Americans were voting against the Bush legacy in choosing the outsider billionaire over the third Bush to seek the White House.

'I hope not,' Trump replied. 'Because it shouldn't be. It wasn't meant to be. Jeb fought very hard. It wasn't his time. He's a very capable person.'

'It just wasn't his time,' Trump repeated.

Trump now stands at the top of the Republican pack, having earned 61 delegates, which is 50 more than No. 2 vote-getter Sen. Ted Cruz who has just 11.

'Yesterday I won every delegate, I won all seven Congressional districts on top of having a big margin,' Trump said on Face the Nation.

He has precedent on his side, with no Republican since 1980 winning both South Carolina and New Hampshire and not taking the nomination.

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'It just wasn't his time,' Donald Trump said when asked on CNN's State of the Union why Jeb Bush's candidacy failed

Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary last night, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire

In fact, the only candidate to win South Carolina and not take the nomination, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, suggested that the GOP watch out.

'Nobody should kid themselves,' Gingrich said last night, according to the New York Times.

With Bush out, pressure will be on Ben Carson and Kasich to ditch the race too, as it looks like Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio have the best chance of taking down the frontrunner, a political outsider who many establishment Republicans don't want to see on the November ballot.

Rubio said this morning on Face the Nation that he planned to capitalize on the ceiling of Trump's support.

As the Florida senator explained it, Trump has about 30 percent support and then the other 70 percent of the Republican electorate says 'we're not voting for him,' Rubio suggested.

'But they're divided up among five or seven people,' he continued.

'So as that five or seven people continues to narrow down, I think it's going make the race clearer and clearer,' Rubio added.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke during a South Carolina Republican primary night event while flanked by his family members

The billionaire Republican frontrunner struck an uncharacteristically genial tone toward his two main challengers Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, shushing his crowd when they booed the two first-term senators

Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump broke her usual silence and to talk up her husband's candidacy after he won the South Carolina Republican primary

Wild cheers greeted Trump last night as he took a victory lap following a decisive primary election win that pushed his bitter rival Bush out of the race entirely.

With victories now in South Carolina and New Hampshire, Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination: No GOP candidate has ever won in both of those states without going on to represent his party in the general election.

The billionaire Republican front-runner struck an uncharacteristically genial tone toward his two main challengers Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. shushing his crowd when they booed them.

'Ted and Marco did a really good job and they did quite well as I understand,' Trump said during a victory speech that was beamed around the world.

'No, just one minute,' he said as catcalls rang out. 'We go back to war tomorrow morning.'

He gave them both credit for enduring a grueling schedule and risking their reputations in a protracted slugfest.

'There's nothing easy about running for president!' Trump exclaimed. 'It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful.'

'When you win,' he said, 'it's beautiful.'

'Let's put this thing away!' he urged, calling on supporters in a dozen states set to vote March 1 to come to the polls for him.

With more than 99 per cent of precincts reporting results in the Palmetto State, the billionaire had captured 32.5 per cent of the vote in a six-way contest.

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump spoke as the candidate's family celebrated victory in the South Carolina primary

Trump (second right) touched the stomach of his pregnant daughter Ivanka (second left) as he addressed supporters

Second was Rubio with 22.5 per cent. Cruz was just behind him in the third-place position with 22.3 per cent, with barely 1,000 votes separating the two first-term senators.

Former Florida Gov Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson made up the bottom half of the Republican results table with 7.8 per cent, 7.6 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively.

The contrast between Trump's triumphant speech and Bush's more somber tones from moments earlier was striking.

'I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant, not the master,' the former Florida governor said  someone with 'decency.'

'I'm proud of the campaign that we've run to unify the country, and to advocate conservative solutions ... but the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision,' he said.

'So tonight I am suspending my campaign.'

'No!' Bush's audience shrieked.

'Yeah. Yeah,' he replied, choked up.

Bush also motioned to his wife, explaining that with her at his side, it would all be OK.

'I've had an incredible life and, for me, public service has been the highlight of that life, but no matter what the future holds, here's the greatest safety landing if you can imagine,' he said.

'Tonight I'm going to sleep with the best friend I have and the love of my life.'

Hours later former President George W. Bush, who campaigned for his younger brother in South Carolina, said in a statement that he told Jeb 'how proud I am of him and his staff for running a campaign that looked to the future, presented serious policy proposals, and elevated the tone of the race.

Jeb's decision to suspend his campaign reflects his selfless character and patriotism,' the former president said.

Ben Carson, who finished the night lower than Bush on the tote board, vowed to stay in the race no matter what.

'I'm not going anywhere,' he told supporters.

Trump never mentioned Bush's name on Saturday night but mocked election analysts who predicted he could lose ground as his rivals quit their campaigns.

'A number of the pundits said, 'Well, if a couple of the other candidates drop out, if you add their scores together, it's going to equal Trump!'' he mocked during his victory speech.

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Former Florida Gov Jeb Bush suspended his bid for the White House on Saturday, following disappointing results in the primaries

Bush would likely have faced pressure from GOP leaders and donors to drop out had he stayed in the race

Bush quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen Ted Cruz, who have billed themselves as anti-establishment alternatives to the early front-runner

Bush put on a brave face as he told supporters on Saturday that he was stepping out of the presidential race

Bush goes to kiss his wife Columba while announcing that he is suspending his presidential campaign

Jeb Bush told supporters that he had a great 'safety landing' in his wife Columba Bush, who tearfully stayed to his side as he dropped out of the presidential race tonight in South Carolina

'These geniuses. These geniuses. They don't understand that as people drop out I'm going to get some of their support.'

Ted Cruz had praise for Bush, calling him 'a man who ran a campaign based on ideas, based on policy, based on substance.

And in an unspoken comparison with Trump, he said the Floridian was 'a man who didn't go to the gutter and engage in insults and attacks.'

Cruz claimed he was effectively tied with Rubio for second place, and hinted that he was licking his chops for a general election debate against 'Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, or whatever other socialist they nominate' on the Democratic side of the political ledger.

He boasted, based on his surprising win in the Iowa caucuses, that his is 'the only campaign that has beaten, and can beat, Donald Trump.'

Rubio also acknowledged Bush, his former mentor, saying that he 'has many things to be proud of.'

'He's an extraordinary husband. He's an extraordinary father. He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida.'

'And I believe and I pray that his service to our country has not yet ended,' Rubio said.

But he also predicted despite his lack of any statewide wins, that he 'will win the nomination.'

'Practically speaking,' he said, 'It's down to three.'

'Tonight here in South Carolina, the message is pretty clear,' he said. 'This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to guide us into the 21st century.'

The Democratic National Committee's chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, unsurprisingly said Saturday night that the Republicans would ultimately fall flat in November.

'There is no longer any question over just how out-of-touch and extreme today's Republican party has become,' she said in a statement.

'Despite their best efforts to disrupt Trump's momentum, the rest of the Republican field has faltered even as they've spewed campaign rhetoric as extreme as his.'

'Whether it's Ben Carson's daily confusion and reports that he is running out of cash or Marco Rubio's growing desperation to spin his way out of three consecutive losses ... the once Grand Old Party is now the Party of Trump.'

Trump brought his family onstage including sons Eric and Don Jr., daughters Tiffany and Ivanka, and wife Melania.

Ivanka is just days away from delivering a baby.

'We have a hospital ready just in case,' Trump said.

Florida Sen Marco Rubio reacts at his South Carolina primary night headquarters in Columbia, South Carolina

Rubio gestures to supporters alongside South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (left) at primary night on Saturday

Rubio waves to supporters alongside South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at primary night rally on Saturday

'It could be any second. It could even be before I finish!'

Melania, the candidate's third wife, called South Carolina 'an amazing place.'

'Congratulations to my husband. He was working very hard. ... he will be the best president!' she gushed.

'This is an amazing, amazing night,' Ivanka added from the podium.

'My father is an incredibly hard worker and he'll be working for each and every one of you,' she pledged.

Saturday's win will add new momentum to what threatens to become an unstoppable election year Trump juggernaut.

The Donald was declared the winner with just 2 per cent of the votes counted in what amounts to his second solid victory in as many weeks.

More than 1,000 Trump supporters at his victory party in a Spartanburg, South Carolina, hotel ballroom chanted We Want Trump!' We Want Trump!' and cheered every time CNN, which was playing on flat screen TVs, announced an update in the counting.

By the time he hit the stage, they were shouting 'USA! USA! USA!'

The win keeps Trump firmly in the front-runner slot as the GOP race moves to Nevada next week for the state's caucuses, and then to a dozen races held on 'Super Tuesday', March 1.

It also solidifies the sense in South Carolina that the state's Republicans have undergone a monumental shift from a genteel, center-right majority to an angry conservative one.

That's the same transition the GOP is seeing nationwide  with Trump casting himself as the champion of frustrated voters who have lost patience with a divisive White House and believe President Barack Obama has weakened the United States.

Trump, the unlikely Republican front-runner who made his fortune in real estate and reality television, led every poll in South Carolina since mid-November.

That made Saturday night's topline result a largely foregone conclusion and set up a fierce battle for second place.

The same dynamic played out in New Hampshire eleven days ago, with Trump crushing the field and Ohio Gov John Kasich stealthily slipping past his noisier rivals to grab the silver medal.

Although the real gap between silver and bronze can be paper-thin, as Rubio and Cruz are seeing, the practical impact will be huge in terms of momentum and fundraising.

Only Trump, who is funding his own bid  his campaign committee accepts donations but he never asks for them  can afford a poor finish.

He has yet to see one.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives for a South Carolina primary night rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia

Cruz, accompanied by his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters, Catherine, four, and Caroline, seven, react to the crowd at a South Carolina primary rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia

Cruz had praise for Bush, calling him 'a man who ran a campaign based on ideas, based on policy, based on substance'

Trump seemed to know all along that keeping his rivals bunched together in the distance was his best-case scenario, batting down Cruz and Rubio every time either one seemed to have the upper hand.

As Cruz in particular surged among Christian-right voters, he played up the Texas senator's recent reputation as a decidedly un-Christian cheater and liar.

Cruz 'lies more than any human being I have ever seen,' Trump told a rally audience Friday night in North Charleston, hitting him for a heavily run TV ad that uses dated footage to paint Trump as holding positions that he abandoned years ago.

He also blasted Cruz for a dirty-tricks campaign against Carson that involved telling Iowa caucus-goers that the African-American doctor was pulling out of the race.

Trump had good reason to play hardball.

One South Carolina poll this week showed his lead narrowing to just 3 percentage points over Rubio, and another had him reduced to a five-point victor over Cruz.

But single-digit margins were exceptions in a race that had The Donald ahead by as many as 20 this month.

His final margin of victory will be closer to his average edge in recent polls, about 13 per cent.

But in a tweet The Donald fired off a few minutes after polls closed, he said he didn't care if his opponents were breathing down his neck.

'People (pundits) gave me no chance in South Carolina. Now it looks like a possible win,' he tweeted. 'I would be happy with a one vote victory! (HOPE)'

On Friday, Trump told a series of capacity crowds on the state's Atlantic coast that he didn't want to take anything for granted.

'You have to assume we're tied!' he said in Myrtle Beach. 'Go out and vote!

With Saturday's win, Trump will claim most if not all of South Carolina's 50 delegates to July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

The end of Jeb Bush's campaign came as little surprise to campaign watchers.

Reports surfaced Friday of Bush campaign staffers shopping their resumes and donors fleeing to Rubio and Kasich.

A few campaign insiders insisted the brother of one former president and the son of another is committed to collecting as many delegates as he can, for as long as he can, in the hope that a chaotic primary season will lead to a 'contested' convention.

In that scenario, delegates become currency. And the man who controls the largest number of them will have the most to say about who emerges from the resulting cacophony as the presidential nominee.

It was not to be, and Jeb ended his bid for a third Bush presidency with no delegates at all in his corner.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson visits voters in a restaurant during the Republican presidential primary in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Following Saturday's primary, Ben Carson, who finished last, vowed that 'I'm not going anywhere'. Pictured above, he speaks at a rally on Friday

With Bush and Carson floundering, and Kasich fleeing South Carolina for more hospitably moderate New England states before the voting was over, Rubio and Cruz were Trump's main in-state competition all along.

Cruz, the hard-charging tea party senator from Texas, staked his claim on an army of nearly 10,000 volunteers  mostly from the evangelical-heavy upstate region  charged with recruiting Bible-thumping conservatives to vote for him.

Meanwhile Rubio, a baby-faced Florida senator, relied on high-profile endorsements from the popular South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the African-American senator Tim Scott and the right-wing Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the congressional committee investigating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's Benghazi terror-attack scandal.

Saturday's outcome will give new weight to Republican Party insiders' fears that the maverick Trump can run the table and sew up the GOP's presidential nomination quickly unless the so-called 'establishment lane' condenses to just a single candidate.

Cruz remains as much an outsider as Carson and Trump, despite holding a U.S. Senate seat. But Rubio is competing for oxygen with Bush and Kasich, who are more centrist White House hopefuls.

Most early Republican primaries award convention delegates proportionately according to the percentages of votes won.

Beginning on March 15, state Republican parties are permitted to hold 'winner-take-all' contests, and many will do so.

That means Trump could scoop up massive numbers of delegates by scoring razor-thin victories and never winning a single outright majority, unless the field thins enough for a single 'establishment' candidate to combine votes from party moderates and challenge him effectively.

The South Carolina primary is an odd hybrid, and it's possible Trump could claim every delegate at stake on Saturday.

Some of the state's delegates are aligned with its seven congressional district  each gets three for a total of 21.

Twenty-nine more 'at-large' delegates are awarded in a single block to the winner of the election.

So if Trump out-polls his rivals in each of the seven congressional district in addition to winning statewide, all 50 delegates will be his.

Nervous party elders want 'anyone but Trump,' a Republican National Committee official told DailyMail.com, requesting anonymity since he is not authorized to speak to the press.

'It's better for the party if we get a two- or three-man race, and get it quickly,' the official said Saturday afternoon.

'Having 17 candidates at the beginning set the stage for Trump and allowed him to stand out,' the official added. 'And right now his opposition is spread too thin. It's time it began to consolidate.'

Reached after Trump was declared the winner on Saturday night, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks fired back.

Ohio Gov John Kasich wasn't in South Carolina for the primary on Saturday, but hosted a watch party in Wakefield, Massachusetts

Kasich greets supporters after speaking during the watch party in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on Saturday

n Kasich, center, walks through the crowd after speaking during the primary watch party and campaign rally on Saturday

'If RNC leadership wants to continue to attack the front-runner,' she said in an email, 'they should do so on the record and we will respond in kind.'

Future primary contests could see new levels of tension between the Republican party's 2016 standard-bearer and a party power structure that would be more comfortable with a Bush or a Kasich flying its colors.

An hour before the polls closed, a consortium of TV networks that participate in so-called 'exit polling' released data collected in interviews with South Carolina voters outside their polling places.

They predicted a record turnout and found a Republican electorate with strong pro-Trump leanings.

Fully three-quarters of the GOP primary voters on Saturday said they support a signature Trump proposal, temporarily banning non-citizen Muslims from entering the U.S. in the wake of December's terror shooting in San Bernardino, California.

That number outstripped support for such a measure among Republicans in New Hampshire, where Trump lapped the field.

And more than 40 per cent said they favor deporting illegal immigrants, another position that mirror's Trump's pledge to use a 'deportation force' to restore law and order.

Trump also won convincingly on the question of which candidate the state's Republican voters believe is best equipped to handle the U.S. economy.

Other exit-poll results, though, suggested Cruz might have an edge.

Nearly three in four voters said they were evangelical Christians, part of the demographic that lifted the senator to victory in Iowa. Trump's win in New Hampshire came with a pool of voters where only one-quarter were 'born again.'

And nearly half said it mattered to them 'a great deal' that a presidential candidate should share their religious faith.

One exit-poll result raised a giant question mark as voters anxiously awaited poll-closing time: Fully 38 per cent of South Carolina Republicans told pollsters they decided whom to support within just a few days of voting.

Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, easing the rising anxieties of her backers

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that 'the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum'

Similar numbers greeted pollsters in New Hampshire, where Trump did well. But the past three days in South Carolina were dominated by stories about a conflict between The Donald and Pope Francis, who told a reporter that he was 'not a Christian' because of his desire to wall off America's southern border.

Trump called the Pontiff's comments 'disgraceful' but later said the episode was overblown in early media reports.

Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, easing the rising anxieties of her backers.

At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, 'This one is for you'.

Clinton has emerged as a favorite of those seeking an experienced political hand, while Sanders is attracting young voters and others drawn to his call of a political and economic revolution.

The Nevada results highlighted Clinton's strength with black voters, a crucial Democratic electorate in the next contest in South Carolina, as well as several Super Tuesday states. The Hispanic vote was closely divided between Sanders and Clinton.

According to the entrance polls, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that 'the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum'.

With a vast network of small donors, Sanders has the financial resources to stay in the race for months.
Cardinal George Pell was in good spirits today as he repeated his insistence that he would 'of course cooperate' with Victoria Police's investigation into allegations that he sexually abused between five and ten boys.

The Cardinal and top aide to Pope Francis has rejected the allegations as 'utterly false' and said that he has still not been contacted by police on the matter.

He is the subject of a year-long investigation by Victoria Police for the alleged sexual abuse of up to ten minors from 1978 to 2001.

Regarding his health, which has prevented him from flying to Australia to give evidence to the Royal Commission on allegations that he covered up the abuse of minors while he was a priest in Ballarat, he said he was 'holding up'.

'I can't travel on my doctor's advice,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Cardinal Pell was in good spirits today as he repeated his insistence that he would 'of course cooperate' with Victoria Police's investigation into allegations that he sexually abused between five and ten boys

The Cardinal and top aide to Pope Francis has rejected the allegations as 'utterly false' and said that he has still not been contacted by police on the matter

Cardinal Pell has continued to deny allegations that he sexually abused minors decades earlier in Ballarat

Cardinal Pell has continued to deny allegations that he sexually abused minors decades earlier in Ballarat, and has called for a public inquiry into how the Herald Sun got the story, which was reported after a leak.

The Church has been quick to come to his defence, with Melbourne's Archbishop Hart describing the timing of the leak as being 'designed to do maximum damage', ahead of the Cardinal's scheduled date for giving evidence to the Royal Commission by video link on February 29.

'The allegations do not reflect the man I have known for more than 50 years,' Archbishop Hart said.

The Church has been quick to come to his defence, with Melbourne's Archbishop Hart describing the timing of the leak as being 'designed to do maximum damage'

Pell dropped into his local cafe with a friend on Saturday afternoon

Supporters have branded the allegations a 'witch hunt', while others have called him a 'coward' for not returning to Australia

When asked to speculate who was behind the leak to the Herald Sun, and if he was the subject of a smear campaign, Cardinal Pell said: 'Who knows?'

It has been alleged that the 74-year-old Cardinal sexually abused minors 'by both grooming and opportunity', but no evidence has been presented, no charges have been filed and he has not been officially named as the target of an investigation by Victoria Police.

Supporters have branded the allegations a 'witch hunt', while others have called him a 'coward' for not returning to Australia to face the victims of child abuse he is accused of concealing.

It has been alleged that the 74-year-old Cardinal sexually abused minors 'by both grooming and opportunity'

No charges have been filed and he has not been officially named as the target of an investigation by Victoria Police

A two-page medical report was handed up to support the application that a flight to Australia from Rome

As police consider travelling to Rome to question Cardinal George Pell over the child sex abuse allegations, Australia's top Catholic has been seen strolling along the streets in the early spring sunshine.

Cardinal Pell, 74, dropped into his local cafe with a friend on Saturday afternoon, the day after explosive revelations that he is the subject of a year-long investigation by Victoria Police for the alleged sexual abuse of up to ten minors from 1978 to 2001.

Just a stones throw from St Peters Basilica, the Pope's special Jubilee Saturday Mass could be heard from Cardinal Pells luxurious apartment block.

The Cardinal was seen briskly striding from his offices to his apartment with a small suitcase in tow just hours after the Herald Sun reported the leak on Friday.

However Cardinal Pell vehemently denies the allegations.

A two-page medical report was handed up to support the application that a flight to Australia from Rome, where Cardinal Pell oversees the Vatican's finances, could pose a serious risk to his health.

The details of his health condition have not been released.





The details of his health condition have not been released

Cardinal Pell vehemently denies the allegations
Staying in the European Union would make a Paris-style attack more likely, one of the leading Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers said yesterday.

Iain Duncan Smith directly contradicted David Cameron's claims that EU membership made the UK 'safer and stronger' by saying the EU's open borders exposed the UK to terrorists.

'This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come and spend time,' he told the BBC yesterday.

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Iain Duncan Smith, pictured left, contradicted the Prime Minister, pictured right leavnig the BBC studios yesterday, by saying staying in the EU would make Britain more exposed to Paris-style terror attacks

'We've seen what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting so who's to say it's not beyond the wit of man that those might already be thinking about that.'

Asked by the BBC whether staying in the EU made the UK more susceptible to Paris-style attacks, he replied: 'I think the present status of the open border we have right now many of us feel does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved.'

He was speaking just minutes after the Prime Minister warned that membership of the EU was essential to stop the illegal smuggling of migrants into Europe.

Mr Cameron, who was making a last-ditch appeal to Boris Johnson to join the In campaign, said: 'I would say to Boris what I'd say to everybody else: We will be safer, we'll be stronger, we'll be better off inside the EU.'

Iain Duncan Smith, pictured giving an interview yesterday, said Britain would be safer if it left the EU

He added: 'We're members of Nato, we're members of the UN, we're members of the IMF, I care about Britain being able to fix stuff  whether it's stopping pirates off the African coast, whether it's closing down illegal migration routes, closing down smugglers, whether it's standing up to Vladimir Putin with sanctions, whether it's the sanctions we put in place to get Iran to abandon its nuclear plan  having that seat in the EU, just as being a member of Nato is a vital way that we project our values, our power and our influence in the world.'

Employment minister Priti Patel, pictured in central London yesterday, said she was campaigning for Brexit because of the 'democratic deficit' in the EU

The pair's comments came on a day when the referendum campaign began in earnest - a day after Mr Cameron announced the EU vote will take place on June 23.

Yesterday he went on the offensive, accusing his Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers - including Mr Duncan Smith - of misleading voters on claims that leaving the EU would cut immigration.

He said if voters decide to leave the EU Britain would be forced to continue allowing the EU's core principle of freedom of movement if it wanted to maintain access to the single access.

Mr Cameron said: 'If we were to leave the EU and we were to try to insist on full access to the single market, like Norway has for instance, every other country that's got that sort of deal has had to accept the free movement of people and a contribution to the EU budget.

'It would be ironic if we left the EU, negotiated our way back into that full access of the single market and then wouldn't be able to exercise those welfare restricts that I've just negotiated.

But Ukip leader Nigel Farage yesterday morning dismissed the claims as 'completely and utterly untrue'.

And his Eurosceptic Cabinet rivals hit straight back at the PM's claims with warnings that his own plans would see Britain's population soar to 80million and Iain Duncan Smith directly contradicted Mr Cameron as he claimed staying in the EU would make the UK more vulnerable to a Paris-style terrorist attack.

Mr Duncan Smith's fellow Eurosceptic Cabinet minister Priti Patel, the employment minister, yesterday said she had decided to vote for Britain to leave the EU because of its democratic deficit.

'I've started off by saying I've got long standing, long held views on Europe, the institutions of Europe; fundamentally as well though, I have always believed there has been a democratic deficit as well in Britain's relationship with the EU.

One by one, the six rebel Ministers who plan to defy David Cameron by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, including Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith (l-r) told him to his face why his new, hard-fought deal with other member states was not good enough

Nigel Farage, pictured on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning, said Cameron's claims that Britain would still have to allow the free movement of EU workers even if it left the EU were 'completely and utterly untrue'

'And that's why it's important that we have this referendum.'

Responding to Iain Duncan Smith's claim that EU membership exposes Britain to the risk of terrorist attacks, Lucy Thomas, deputy director of Britain Stronger In Europe, said: 'In recent weeks we have heard from a wide range of experts with frontline experience of the fight against terrorism that Britain's streets are safer in Europe.

'Though Iain Duncan Smith may wish to ignore them, the message is clear from the head of Europol, Army chiefs and Home Secretaries past and present, that co-operating with our European allies is crucial to keeping British people safe.

'The European Arrest Warrant lets us deport terrorist suspects back to their country of origin, Europol helps our police co-operate with their European counterparts, and EU data-sharing measures allow our security services to access information on threats from anywhere in Europe within minutes.'

Last night Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: The Prime Minister has been dealt a very weak hand in the negotiations.

In a game of high-stakes poker, if you have a weak hand, the only thing to do is to bluff. That explains Project Fear.

On Friday it emerged two suspected Islamic State terrorists held by the Austrian authorities in connection with the Paris attacks entered Europe through Greece posing as refugees.

AT 12.23 PM SAYS 'I'M IN', BUT AT 13.05 GANG OF SIX USE BANNER TO PARADE THEIR DEFIANCE John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel (left to right) attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign As soon as yesterday's special Cabinet meeting had concluded, Michael Gove slipped out of the back entrance of Downing Street and headed for a rendezvous with the other five 'Outers'. At the headquarters of the Vote Leave group, based in a tower block on the south bank of the Thames, the Justice Secretary posed with his fellow 'freedom fighters'  as they have been dubbed by admirers  as they clutched a signed campaign banner. They are: 1) JOHN WHITTINGDALE The Culture Secretary is the last authentic Thatcherite in the Cabinet: in the 1980s he worked as her private secretary and has remained loyal to her ideology  including her Euroscepticism  since. An unlikely-seeming Meatloaf fan, Whittingdale was a tenacious chairman of the Commons Media Committee, where he subjected figures such as Rupert Murdoch to forensic interrogation. He is said to be thoroughly enjoying his portfolio, which includes a root-and-branch review of the BBC's funding. 2) THERESA VILLIERS The Northern Ireland Secretary is a Major's daughter who is descended from Edward I. Along with Chris Grayling, the Commons Leader, she is understood to have spent the past six months agonising over whether to leave the Cabinet to campaign for an 'Out' vote. However, after a chat with Mr Cameron before Christmas, she was reassured she would be allowed to campaign from within the Cabinet  sparing the PM an awkward reshuffle. Her stance has caused controversy in Northern Ireland, with local politicians claiming an EU exit could stoke sectarian tensions. 3) MICHAEL GOVE The Justice Secretary is the star name out of the six  and the one with the closest personal relationship to the Prime Minister. An ex-Times newspaper executive and author, who has been friends with Mr Cameron for more than a decade, he was part of the 'kitchen cabinet' who encouraged him to run for the Tory leadership. Throughout his Cabinet career, Gove has been Mr Cameron's first choice to help him prepare for the weekly ordeal of PMQs, amusing No 10 staffers with his razor-sharp rejoinders in practice sessions. Gove was a controversial reforming Education Secretary until moved to the Whips' Office after private party polling suggested he was an electoral liability. The move caused a 'wobble' in his and Mr Cameron's friendship. Mr Gove said he had wrestled with his conscience before announcing he would back Out but later posed with Vote Leave activists having deciding to make the leap away from his old friend Mr Cameron 4) CHRIS GRAYLING Mr Gove's predecessor as Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling is a long-term Eurosceptic. The Manchester United fanatic was deployed by the Tories as an energetic 'attack dog' during their long period in Opposition, harrying Labour  including the Blairs  over their personal business affairs. The 6ft 5in Leader of the House has a cool relationship with Gove, who has reversed many of his justice reforms. 5) IAIN DUNCAN SMITH Few people were surprised by Iain Duncan Smith's decision to back the Out campaign: the Work and Pensions Secretary has been a long-standing critic of the EU and supporter of tighter immigration controls. The former Scots Guards officer's undistinguished period as Tory leader between 2001 and 2003 is remembered largely for the conference speech he gave in which he portrayed himself as 'a quiet man' who was 'turning up the volume'. Duncan Smith has since rebuilt his reputation by becoming a crusading campaigner for social reform, which prompted David Cameron to put him in charge of the Government's welfare shake-up. 6) PRITI PATEL Priti Patel, who answers to Mr Duncan Smith as Employment Minister, is regarded by the former Tory leader's team as the up-and-coming poster girl for Cabinet Eurosceptics. As the daughter of Ugandan immigrants who came to this country in the 1970s to seek sanctuary from Idi Amin, she says that the welcome they received here has instilled in her a fierce British patriotism. Patel, whose political heroine is Margaret Thatcher, started out in her Westminster career working for Sir James Goldsmith's Eurosceptic Referendum Party in the 1990s, and sees her current stance as being consistent with her long-term political beliefs. Advertisement
Campaigners, including former TV presenter Selina Scott (pictured), warn that luxury cashmere jumpers are being made with a mixture of cheaper materials

Luxury cashmere jumpers may not be what they seem with evidence of fraud and fakery.

Cheap alternative materials - even rat fur in one case - are being woven into garments, according to campaigners including former TV presenter Selina Scott.

One famous name producer, the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, will be taken to court this week following allegations that it mislabelled scarves as '100 per cent cashmere'.

Trading standards chiefs claim the products were actually a mix of cashmere and other materials.

The company denies the allegations and has made clear it will vigorously defend the case.

However, supporters of cashmere goat farmers in China and Mongolia, say their efforts and industry are being undermined by fraud and mislabelling.

Selina Scott investigated the industry ahead of the launch of her own ethical cashmere collection and believes the problem is widespread.

Miss Scott said: 'It's an absolute scam. It is a well-recognised fact in the industry that parts of the cashmere trade have been corrupted.'

She said she had no faith whatsoever that cheap cashmere was genuine and said the fraudulent trade undermined the livelihoods of goat herders in Mongolia, because of a fall in demand for high-quality cashmere.

'The industry has been involved in a race to drive down prices,' she said.

It was reported two years ago that a million items of cashmere clothing seized from Chinese-run firms in Rome were found to be a mixture of acrylic, viscose and fur from rats and other animals.

Global cashmere production is about 7.5million kilograms, however sales of products carrying the name are much higher.

Malcolm Campbell, managing director of the Cloth of Kings in Fife, who has worked for more than four decades in the textile industry, said: 'There are not enough cashmere goats in the world to produce the amount of cashmere that is on sale.

'The more basic cheaters will use acrylic or polyester in the blend. A lot of the blends will have 50per cent or 60per cent cashmere and 50per cent or 40per cent modified sheep or yak wool. It is very difficult to check.

Luxury cashmere jumpers may not be what they seem with evidence of cheap, alternative materials - even rat fur in one case - being woven into garments at Chinese-run factories, campaigners are claiming (file picture)

'Much of the cashmere that is on sale and sold as 100% cashmere has a percentage of modified wool.'

Mr Campbell, who has travelled to cashmere factories in China, said the factories used a wool stretching machine, which can be used to make finer wool fibres. These are then blended with cashmere, which is sold as '100per cent cashmere'.

Karl Spilhaus, president of the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute (CCMI), which represents cashmere producers and conducts worldwide testing on cashmere garments, told the Sunday Times there was a particular lower-priced wovens, such as jackets, coats and scarves.

He said: 'There is a significant problem on the British high street. We have tested many products and found a significant amount of mislabelling.'

The CCMI has previously complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about Edinburgh Woollen Mill, claiming its 'pure cashmere' scarves are not 100per cent cashmere. The complaint was not upheld after the retailers provided tests results showing the products as authentic.

In a statement, Edinburgh Woollen Mill said: 'We strongly refute these claims and will continue to vigorously defend them.

'The cashmere products sold by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill are subject to robust independent testing by experts in the fibre-testing field. Furthermore we conduct regular supplier audits designed to ensure the highest standards of product authenticity throughout our business.'
Britain leaving the EU would 'put the economy at risk,' business leaders are set to warn as they partner with David Cameron to step up their campaign against Brexit.

Bosses from up to a half of firms in the FTSE-100 are expected to sign a letter praising the deal reached by the Prime Minister after marathon talks in Brussels last week.

Tory party officials started cobbling the letter together on Thursday - before Mr Cameron's EU deal had even been finalised with European leaders.

Bosses from up to a half of firms in the FTSE-100 are expected to sign a letter praising the deal reached by the Prime Minister after marathon talks in Brussels last week

Backbench Tory MPs said it was proof that even Downing Street viewed the renegotiation as 'irrelevant' and nothing more than 'imaginary gruel'.

Downing Street is believed to be helping with drawing up the final letter, which is likely to spark further accusations of an orchestrated attempt in Whitehall to scaremonger voters - similar to the criticism the UK Government received before the Scottish independence referendum.

The letter is expected to warn voters that Brexit will 'deter investment and threaten jobs,' according to Sky News.

It will reportedly add: 'Britain will be stronger, safer and better off remaining a member of the European Union.'

Easyjet boss Carolyn McCall, pictured left, and BT chief executive Gavin Patterson, right, are among FTSE-100 chiefs set to sign a letter endorsing David Cameron's EU deal

It comes on a day when the referendum campaign kicked off in earnest, with Boris Johnson electrifying the EU referendum campaign by declaring his support for Britain to leave the EU.

It is a major blow for the Prime Minister, who made a last ditch attempt to persuade him to join the In camp, warning him against 'linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark'.

Advertising maestro Sir Martin Sorrell is one of the names expected to appear on the letter warning about the economic dangers of Brexit

Earlier this morning Mr Cameron declared war on his own Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers by accusing them of misleading the public over claims that leaving the EU would win back control over immigration.

Pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers challenged the Prime Minister's EU deal today and Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Welfare Secretary, directly contradicted Mr Cameron over claims that Britain is 'safer and stronger' in the EU.

He warned that remaining a member of the EU would make a Paris-style terror attack in the UK more likely.

'This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come and spend time,' he told the BBC today.

'We've seen what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting so who's to say it's not beyond the wit of man that those might already be thinking about that.'

Asked by the BBC whether staying in the EU made the UK more susceptible to Paris-style attacks, he replied: 'I think the present status of the open border we have right now many of us feel does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved.'

The letter from business chiefs - expected to be published on Tuesday, is expected to say: 'We run businesses representing every sector and region of the United Kingdom.

'Together we employ hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

'Following the Prime Minister's renegotiation, we believe that Britain is better off staying in a reformed European Union.

'He has secured a commitment from the EU to reduce the burden of regulation, deepen the single market and to sign off crucial international trade deals.

Iain Duncan Smith, pictured left leaving the historic Cabinet meeting yesterday, contradicted the Prime Minister, pictured rightleavnig the BBC studios today, by saying staying in the EU would make Britain more exposed to Paris-style terror attacks

Boris Johnson, pictured arriving at his London home this afternoon, has decided to join the Out campaign, dealing a major blow to David Cameron's hopes of staying in the EU

'Businesses like ours need unrestricted access to the European market of 500m people in order to continue to grow, invest and create jobs.

'We believe that leaving the EU would deter investment and threaten jobs.

'It would put the economy at risk.

'Britain will be stronger, safer and better off remaining a member of the European Union.'

SOUND-BITE DAVE: VOTERS WARNED FOR AVALANCHE OF KEY SLOGANS FROM PM David Cameron, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said THE slogan safer, stronger, better off nine times during his interview Voters have been warned to expect a four month campaign of soundbites as David Cameron repeatedly uses a handful of key phrases to try and convince people the country would be less safe if we left the EU. In the 48 hours after being handed his renegotiation deal in Brussels, the former PR man deployed the carefully crafted soundbites over and over again as he hit the airwaves to set out his referendum stall. During a 20-minute interview on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show today the Prime Minister three times warned that a vote to leave would be a leap in the dark. Mr Cameron also used the phrase, which is expected to be a cornerstone of the In campaign that has been nicknamed Project Fear, in a speech in Brussels on Friday night and again the next morning in Downing Street as he announced the date of the referendum. In the three appearances, which were all televised, Mr Cameron used the slogan safer, stronger, better off, nine times  including twice in the address outside Number 10 that lasted only four minutes. He separately used the words safe and safer another eleven times. Despite failing to secure the curbs to migrant benefits promised at the election in the Tory manifesto, Mr Cameron repeated the expression something for nothing six times as he attempted to sell the changes he did get that will stop newcomers being able to claim tax credits from day one. Mr Cameron also delivered the catchphrase the best of both worlds six times and strength in numbers three times. In a round of television and radio appearances at breakfast time on Saturday, Chancellor George Osborne continually used the phrases as well. During the last parliament in the run up to last years election, Mr Cameron deployed the phrase long-term economic plan so many times it became a standing joke in Westminster. Mr Cameron rarely resisted the opportunity to shoehorn several mentions of it into his appearances at Prime Ministers Questions. By repeating his referendum soundbites ad nauseum, Mr Cameron is no doubt hoping to get the messages lodged in the publics consciousness in the run up to the vote on 23 June. It is thought the short sharp messaging will have been tested in focus groups. Advertisement

NOW YOU DECIDE: YOUR AT A GLANCE GUIDE TO HOW JUNE 23 REFERENDUM WILL WORK David Cameron, pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said holding the EU referendum was an act of sovereignty in itself as he hailed his EU deal reached with European leaders late on Friday evening With the opinion polls see-sawing  and up to 40 per cent of voters saying they could change their mind between now and June 23  the EU referendum is up for grabs. Harold Macmillan famously declared that 'events, dear boy, events' were the biggest threat to a leader's plans. Now, another Conservative Prime Minister will be hoping the historic vote is not decided by factors beyond Downing Street's control... MIGRATION Last summer's migrant crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of Syrians and North Africans making the perilous journey by boat to Europe, triggered a boost in the polls for the Out camp. Reports that the same migrants were responsible for sex attacks in Germany, while others were living in the 'Jungle' camp at Calais, increased the impact. Last year, an astonishing 1.83 million people illegally entered the EU, over six times as many as the previous year. This is why Downing Street was so keen to hold the referendum in June. The next possible date was after the summer, by which time the migrant situation could have deteriorated even further. This year's crisis is predicted to be even more serious than last year. If so, it could hand victory to the 'Out' campaign. JOBS David Cameron needs Chancellor George Osborne  who is also the Government supremo trying to engineer a win for the 'In' campaigners  to deliver a feelgood Budget in May. If voters are positive about their personal financial circumstances, they are less likely to vote for change. More important will be the performance of the wider EU economy. A repeat of the eurozone crisis of two years ago, when Greece and other southern European governments were on the brink of collapse, would reinforce the notion that Britain's economy would thrive outside the bloc  and with it a burst of job creation. 'In' campaigners will insist that British jobs are heavily tied to our trade links with our EU partners. In a speech yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: 'Being part of Europe has brought Britain investment, jobs and protection for workers.' But 'Out' campaigners will highlight sluggish growth rates across the EU as a reason to break free. SECURITY Downing Street is planning to claim that if Britain leaves the EU, we will be less protected against threats such as Putin's Russia because hostile powers are intimidated by the unity of the 28-state EU. 'Out' campaigners will counter this argument by highlighting the security risks presented by lax border controls. The terror attacks in Paris last November accentuated these fears, particularly after it was revealed that some of the perpetrators had posed as migrants to enter Europe. Home Secretary Theresa May has argued that being part of the EU is a major benefit to British security services as a result of cross-border intelligence sharing and valuable reciprocal agreements such as the European Arrest Warrant. SOVEREIGNTY Cameron has tried to win over London Mayor Boris Johnson to the 'In' campaign by promising to enshrine in British law a pledge guaranteeing the ultimate supremacy of Parliament over Brussels  and hopes voters will also be persuaded. The Prime Minister was today expected to promise to make clear that the British Supreme Court outranks the European Court of Justice, similar to an idea first put forward by Johnson last year as the price for his support for the 'In' group. He says it is critical the sovereignty of the House of Commons is 'put beyond doubt'. Legal experts say the move is pointless as Parliament already has the power to ignore EU law if it chooses to, it is just that the sheer volume of Brussels legislation makes it impractical  but it may have some impact on voters' sentiment due to the 'political theatre' it represents. INFLUENCE The Prime Minister is planning to make British influence on the world stage a key strand of his campaign  arguing that we have far more clout combined with our EU partners, rather than as a 'lone wolf'. It explains the slogan of the 'In' campaign group: 'Britain Stronger in Europe.' The arguments will be played out whenever a diplomatic crisis strikes, such as attempts to settle the war in Syria, but are likely to pivot on economic considerations. The 'In' camp says that Britain is better able to open up new trade markets by acting with other EU countries. The 'Out' camp says British businesses are dragged down by Brussels' red tape and would flourish by forging fresh alliances within the Commonwealth. They say our influence within the EU is illusory because we are routinely outvoted on important decisions in Brussels, winning only eight per cent of the votes on vital EU decisions. RISK The 'In' camp believes its trump card is 'Project Fear'  making sure voters are too frightened to make a 'leap in the dark' and instead plump for the security of the status quo. They will say we cannot risk being cut off by our EU partners. 'Out' campaigners will argue the UK is risking its future by being subservient to Brussels and make reassuring noises about life outside the EU. As leading 'Outer', Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling said yesterday: 'Does anybody actually think that on the day after Britain leaves the EU, the Germans are going to turn around and say, 'We're not going to sell you BMWs any more'? Advertisement
They may be one of the most feared predators in the ocean, but it seems that this Flordida man couldn't resist the temptation to get up close with a shark.

Shot on Palm Beach, where thousands of blacktip sharks were recently filmed migrating through the warm waters, the video shows a shirtless man pulling the two-meter long beast from the waves.

But, rather than trying to rescue the powerful animal, the man instead takes a pause to pose for a quick selfie with bystanders.

A Florida man has been pictured dragging a shark from the sea along Palm Beach in order to pose for pictures with onlookers who gathered to watch

Shark Capture, Release on Palm Beach VIDEO: Shark capture, release on Palm Beach(Shark was put farther into water after end of video. It did not resurface for several minutes.) WPTV #amcrew #wptvwx #beach #shark Posted by Ashleigh Walters on Saturday, 20 February 2016

For around a minute the man can be seen pinning the shark to the sand while posing for the cameras, pushing out his chest in a show of bravado.

Despite the shark writhing around underneath his arms, the man continues to hold it, lifting up its tail to get a better angle.

Eventually another man can be seen dragging the fish back into the waves, though it doesn't get very far before washing back up.

According to a Facebook post by WPTV journalist Ashleigh Walters, the shark was eventually placed further out to sea, where she says 'it did not resurface for several minutes.'

It is unclear what the eventual fate of the creature was.

The man pins the struggling creature down for at least a minute while posing for the cameras, before eventually returning the shark to the water

Footage shows the shark ended up in shallow water before the man spotted it and dragged it on to the beach

The video was taken just days after a baby dolphin died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while beach-goers passed it around in order to take selfies with it.

The Franciscan dolphin, listed as 'vulnerable to extinction', was plucked out of the ocean by gawpers before people began taking pictures.

While the dolphin is a mammal, and so will not struggle to breathe in air, it does have a very thick layer of fatty tissue to keep it warm underwater, and so being exposed to the harsh South American sun likely caused it to dehydrate and overheat.

Last year saw a record number of shark attacks worldwide, with people bitten 98 times, smashing the previous record of 88, set in 2000.

Of the 59 that took place in the United States, around half took place in Florida with the rest spread across North and South Carolina, Hawaii and California.

In a highly unusual attack, a man was also bitten while boogie boarding off Long Island in New York, in a sight that sharks are being drawn further up the coast by warmer sea waters.

Tens of thousands of the predators are currently migrating through the warm waters around Florida and are swimming very close to shore according to researchers
A Southern California couple pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 900 endangered sea turtle eggs into the United States from Mexico.

Hemet residents Jose, 64 and Olga, 52, Jimenez entered their pleas Friday in San Diego to federal smuggling and conspiracy charges.

Authorities say the couple tried to smuggle the eggs into the U.S. in 2014 in coolers under layers of ice, fish and shrimp.

Jose, 64 and Olga, 52, Jimenez, could face up to 50 years in prison when they're sentenced in May for pleading guilty to smuggling more than 900 endangered sea turtle eggs into the U.S. from Mexico. The couple agreed to forfeit the eggs and pay up to $9,000 in restitution to the Mexican government

The eggs are considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in Asia, where they may sell for hundreds of dollars.

The couple also agreed to forfeit the eggs and pay up to $9,000 in restitution to the Mexican government.

They still could face up to 50 years in prison when they're sentenced in May.

The couple was indicted in San Diego on charges of smuggling sea turtle eggs into the United States from Mexico, in December.

The couple smuggled eggs from 'clutches' of 100 to 200 laid in the sand by two species of sea turtle, olive ridley and Kemp's ridley sea turtles. Pictured is a Kemp's ridley sea turtle at the Cayman Turtle Farm in West Bay, Cayman Islands

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Pierson said the indictment marked the first time criminal charges had been brought in the Southern District of California for smuggling sea turtle eggs.

The eggs came from 'clutches' of 100 to 200 laid in the sand by two species of sea turtle, olive ridley and Kemp's ridley sea turtles, officials said.

Both are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and both are subject to protection under the 1981 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which the United States and Mexico signed.

The turtles lay their eggs in the sand on beaches in southern Mexico before returning to the ocean. In Mexico, Central America and some Asian cultures, the eggs are thought to have aphrodisiac properties.

According to the indictment, Olga Jimenez obtained 911 eggs in Nayarit, Mexico, loaded them into a cooler and boarded a bus to Tijuana, a border city just south of San Diego.

Her husband then drove to Tijuana, where the couple allegedly moved the eggs to two coolers, covered them with fish and shrimp, and then passed them off to a hired driver, without informing him of the eggs.
Students have called for a bronze statue adorning a Cambridge college to be returned to Nigeria after it was looted from the country in the 19th Century.

In a row similar to the furore that has engulfed Oxford's Oriel College, students at Jesus College, Cambridge have voted in favour of telling their master the statue should be returned.

The cockerel statue is a Nigerian Benin Bronze, of which more than 2,000 sit in museums and collections across the globe.

Students have called for this bronze statue of a cockerel (pictured), which adorns a Cambridge college, to be returned to Nigeria after it was looted from the country in the 19th Century

Students at Jesus College (pictured) have voted in favour of telling their master the statue should be returned

But Nigeria itself has only 50 pieces of the artworks and the statue remains in the college's dining hall despite the country's requests for the bronzes to be returned.

It was given to the college as a reference to the surname of founder John Alcock, the bishop and architect who constructed the college.

One student described the row as the 'new Cecil Rhodes', in a reference to a campaign to remove a controversial statue of the tycoon from an Oxford college, The Sunday Times reported.

A spokesperson for Jesus College told the paper: 'Recognising that ethical issues are of great importance, Jesus College has structures in place through which these matters can be raised by its members.

'The request by students is being considered within these processes.'

The statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, Oxford

Meanwhile, campaigners at Oriel College, Oxford have said they will redouble efforts to remove the statue of Rhodes, warning that it is critical for the institution to 'reckon with its past'.

The Rhodes Must Fall In Oxford group also accused Oriel College of 'selling out' by deciding to keep the statue before a consultation had taken place.

The governing body of the college announced last month it had decided following 'careful consideration' to keep the statue after receiving an 'overwhelming' amount of support to do so.

At a meeting earlier this month, the campaign group attacked the decision and said it would not be backing down.

It set out a series of seven demands, as well as calling for the statue's removal.

These include asking Oxford to 'acknowledge and confront its role in the ongoing physical and ideological violence of empire' as well as changes to the university's application processes and bias training for all academic staff.

Sarah Atayero, one of the campaign organisers, said: 'We are not backing down and we will be redoubling our efforts to take the struggle to the university as a whole.

'We continue to believe that the removal and relocation of the monument to Cecil Rhodes is critical for Oxford to reckon with its past, and for Oxford to acknowledge the present-day issues it faces around racism and representation.'

Oriel College dismissed reports that donors had threatened to withdraw gifts and bequests worth more than 100 million if it was removed.
Pope Francis has called on Catholic leaders to seek a ban on the death penalty exclaiming that 'Thou shall not kill applies to the guilty as well as the innocent'.

Speaking to thousands at St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, the Pontiff asked politicians around the world to make 'a courageous and exemplary gesture' during the Church's current Holy Year.

He said: 'I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty.

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Execution ban: Pope Francis has called for Catholic leaders to ban the death penalty during a speech at St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, today

Thousands flocked to St. Peter's Square to hear the Pope speak about the death penalty and conditions for prisoners earlier today. His comments came prior to a conference on the issue in Rome this week

'The commandment 'You shall not kill,' has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.'

The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005.

The pope added that there was now 'a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defence of society' because modern means existed to 'efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves.'

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting on Monday in Rome and organised by the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group.

Catholic faithfuls are given rosary beads by a nun in St Peter's Square during the Pope's speech today

Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly three years ago - the latest in Mexico last week - also called for better prison conditions.

He said: 'All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom.'
One person is still missing after a small plane crashed in the Long Island Sound, less than a mile off the New York shoreline.

A Coast Guard search team is still trying to find one person who was onboard the Piper PA-28 plane when it went down around 11pm Saturday.

Authorities said the plane landed in the Port Jefferson Harbor, which is about 60 miles east of New York City.

One person is still missing after a small plane crashed in the Long Island Sound (pictured file image) Saturday night. Divers and rescue crews rescued three men, including the pilot, after the crash, but are still searching for a fourth man

A Suffolk County Police spokeswoman said Sunday morning that the search went on through the night as divers searched for the missing man.

The pilot and two other men aboard the plane were rescued after the crash.

The three unidentified males were pulled from the water and transported to Stony Brook University where they were 'doing well', according to NewsDay.

Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said early Sunday that four people were on board the plane heading to Long Island MacArthur Airport when the pilot reported engine trouble and made the 'forced landing'.

She said the FAA is investigating and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause.

The pilot reported engine trouble while flying the plane that has been identified as a Piper PA-28 (file image). FAA is investigating the accident and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine probable cause

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini told NewsDay that officers could hear those aboard the plane in the water yelling to rescuers.

Six officers from the Sixth Precinct commandeered kayaks from residents to help in the rescue.

Sini said that when they arrived, rescuers held two men afloat until boats could pull them from the water, while one sixth precinct officer jumped into the water to save a third.
'We feel really good about this coalescing,' Rubio said on Face the Nation that aired this morning

Instead, he suggested, those Republican voters will start supporting his campaign now that the field has narrowed

Marco Rubio believes since around 30 percent of Republicans are voting for Trump another 70 percent won't go to the polls for the frontrunner

Marco Rubio thinks the math actually adds up in his favor, as he explained this morning on Face the Nation how he could still win the nomination without coming in first in any primary contest thus far.

Donald Trump, who ran away with South Carolina last night, generally gets around 30 percent of Republican support, according to Rubio.

'And then you have 70 percent of the Republican electorate that says, 'We're not voting for him.' But they've divided up among five or seven people,' Rubio explained.

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Marco Rubio said he believes that only 30 percent of Republican voters will ever support Donald Trump, meaning that there are 70 percent who could come his way

Marco Rubio came in a narrow second place last night, just ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz, while Donald Trump won the state easily

With Jeb Bush out, Ben Carson in single-digits and John Kasich focusing on Michigan instead of a wide-scale national campaign, Rubio suggested the race was really just down to three people: himself, Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz.

'So as that five or seven people continues to narrow down, I think it's going make the race clearer and clearer,' Rubio said.

'And we feel really good about this coalescing,' he added.

Face the Nation host John Dickerson wondered aloud if Rubio having to wait for other candidates to drop out to see bursts of momentum meant that he was simply everybody's second choice.

'No, I don't think so because as I explained earlier, when you have seven or eight people competing for the same chunk of votes, it's a lot of votes, but you have seven or eight people, it's all segmented,' Rubio said.

Rubio noted that the timing was good too, because many of the states that vote in mid-March are winner-take-all and he's hoping that he can start challenging Trump's delegate lead, which is substantial, by winning in those states.

'So we feel good about the states we're going into and the process that they award delegates by. And we're in real good shape, we've got to keep working hard,' Rubio said.

Rubio is also mostly free of similar candidates, running in what pundits call the establishment lane, with Bush dropping out and Kasich earning fifth place in South Carolina.

Reports hit the web early this morning that Rubio would soon be getting the endorsement of Mitt Romney, the last Republican nominee, but the Florida senator swatted those stories away.

'Well, that report is false,' Rubio said on CNN's State of the Union. 'I have no reason to believe that he's anywhere near endorsing anyone.'
Residents of Crystal City, Texas, have lashed out at officials after their drinking water turned to think, black sludge this week

Residents in a Texas town plagued by corruption have hit out at city officials again - this time after their water turned to black sludge.

Hundreds of people living in Crystal City, in the state's south, said their water turned into a filthy, smelly, oil-like liquid on Wednesday night with no warning from authorities.

While concerned locals flooded social media with pictures of the gruesome discovery, it took until the following day for Carlos Ramierez, the city's water superintendent, to respond.

According to Ramierez, the sludge was sediment that had built up in the city's water tank over the course of 20 years during which the vital asset was neglected by his predecessor.

Ramierez said that he was attempting to clean up the old manager's mess by draining and cleaning the tank on Wednesday, when the sediment washed into the fresh supply.

He told CNN: 'The previous operator was here 25 years, I've been on the job eight, nine months. It hadn't been cleaned in 20-25 years."

'The previous administrations neglected it. Just neglect on the city's part. We had to clean their mess.'

He sought to assure people the following day that government tests had shown the water was safe to drink, but was undermined by the state regulator, who suggested continuing to boil water until further testing could be completed.

Carlos Ramierez, the city's new water superintendent, said the sludge was sediment from the bottom of the water tower that was accidentally washed into the system as workers were draining it

Trust in local government in Crystal City is at an all-time low after almost every top official was arrested in an FBI corruption sting earlier this month.

Mayor Ricardo Lopez was arrested and accused of taking bribes, along with the city manager, mayor pro tempore, a city councilman, and a former councilman - leaving just a single councilman not caught up in the scandal.

At the time of the arrest, FBI special agent Chris Combs said the city had been 'liberated' from the grip of corruption.

While the water in Crystal City remained unsafe on Thursday, thousands of bottle of fresh water were brought in for locals to drink in scenes reminiscent of those in Flint, Michigan.

Though there are a number of similarities between the situations in the two cities, it is unlikely that Crystal City residents will be subjected to the same fate as those in Flint.

While the water remained toxic, thousands of bottles of drinking water were brought in for residents in scenes reminiscent of Flint, Michigan

Ramierez, who has only been in his job for eight months, said he was attempting to clean up the mess left by his predecessor who hadn't cleaned the tank in 20 years

In that case, city officials swapped their water supply from the central Detroit system to the Flint River in order to save money, despite warnings of dangerously high pollution levels.

Chemicals in the water then caused lead to leech from the old pipes and into the supply, poisoning hundreds, including young children, for months before the scandal was exposed.

The city, one of the poorest in American, is now faced with a repair bill stretching into the hundreds of millions of dollars in order to fix the problem.
Three people, all aged 20, were ordered to leave for hampering firefighters

A 'disgusting' drunken mob applauded and cheered as a fire destroyed a planned refugee shelter in eastern Germany overnight raising fears of a new wave of violence towards migrants.

Police in Bautzen, Saxony, said bystanders who witnessed the fire made 'derogatory remarks' and showed 'unashamed joy' at the inferno as firefighters worked furiously to douse the blaze.

The fire broke out overnight, during which police ordered three people to leave the scene because they were hampering emergency services.

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Firefighters work to contain the blaze at the former hotel that was being turned into a refugee centre

Police said an anti-migrant mob made 'derogatory comments' and showed 'unashamed joy' at the blaze

Authorities also said the fire was an arson attack - investigators found traces of an accelerant at the scene

This photograph, taken from above the building today, shows the damage caused to the refugee centre roof

They temporarily detained two of them, whom they described as intoxicated 20-year-old locals, after they ignored the order.

While most Germans have been welcoming toward refugees, a vocal minority has staged protests in front of refugee homes, especially in the east. Germany last year saw a surge in violence against such lodgings.

The former hotel was being converted into a refugee home, raising new concerns about violence toward migrants in a nation that registered more than a million asylum-seekers in 2015.

Investigators found traces of a fire accelerant at the scene and believe it was caused by arson, police said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the building can be restored.

Saxony is home to the anti-Islam and anti-immigration group PEGIDA, and incidents there have caused concern before.

In August, a mob in Heidenau, outside Dresden, hurled bottles and fireworks at police protecting a shelter being set up for refugees.

The Bautzen fire came after a mob in the small town of Clausnitz, also in Saxony, on Thursday screamed 'We are the people!' and 'Go home!' as they blocked a bus carrying asylum-seekers outside a new refugee home.

Police drew criticism in that case for roughly hauling some migrants off the bus into the building - which they insist was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating - and for saying that some of the migrants had made provocative gestures.

Saxony Governor Stanislaw Tillich called the two incidents 'appalling and shocking' and described the perpetrators as 'criminals.'

'This is abhorrent and disgusting,' Tillich told the Funke newspaper group. He pledged that authorities will investigate and 'bring everyone responsible to account'.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that everyone in Germany is entitled to express their concerns 'but there is a threshold of decency and law that must not be crossed'.

He added this threshold 'was clearly crossed in the incidents in Saxony,' news agency dpa reported.

'It is completely unacceptable for people who are seeking protection from persecution here to be greeted with hatred and agitation,' he said.

Police fear the arson is another instance of escalating anti-migrant violence in eastern Germany. Pictured is a group of passersby at the scene today

The actions of those at the scene were widely condemned. Justice Minister Heiko Maas said those who 'shamlessly applaud when houses burn' are displaying 'disgusting and revolting behaviour'

Members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right 'grand coalition' government, which has come under increasing pressure over its liberal stance on asylum, expressed outrage at the incidents.

'Racists are pathetic lawbreakers, a disgrace for our country. Shame on you!' deputy foreign minister Michael Roth wrote on Twitter.

'Those who shamelessly applaud when houses burn and scare refugees to death are displaying disgusting and revolting behaviour,' Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted.

Maas told media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland he was stunned by the growing brazenness of far-right groups, which he said crossed the line of free expression to become a threat to public safety.

'Verbal radicalism is a prelude to physical violence,' he said, noting there were more than 1,000 criminal acts against refugee shelters recorded in Germany last year, when the country let in nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers. Saxony registered the highest number of attacks.

Aydan Ozoguz, who handles integration issues for the government, condemned the actions of the police in Clausnitz, calling it 'deeply shocking' that the authorities were 'not protecting the refugees'.

She also blasted the 'deplorable' scenes in Bautzen.
She reportedly renewed the two-year lease just a few months ago

Locals remember how she did the crossword and went to the butcher's

The Upper East Side spot was under $1,000, New York Post reports

But it has emerged she also kept an apartment in New York City

This is the modest $900-a-month apartment Harper Lee rented in New York City until the day she died.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer passed away aged 89 this week at home in the town where she was born and raised: Monroeville, Alabama.

But it has since emerged she also kept a small abode on Manhattan's costly Upper East Side - and renewed the astoundingly cheap lease for another two years just months ago.

It has been years since she visited Manhattan, having relocated permanently to Monroeville after suffering a stroke in 2007.

However, neighbors at 433 E 82nd Street speaking to the New York Post this week warmly and vividly remember her daily routines, such as doing the crossword and popping into the butcher's for a scone.

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Harper Lee kept a small apartment in this building on Manhattan's costly Upper East Side - and renewed the astoundingly cheap lease, which was less than $1,000-a-month, for another two years just months ago

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author was a regular at Ottomanelli Bros butchers, seen here on the corner

And the building's manager Steven Austern said she never once faulted on a rent payment.

'She was a very Southern and hospitable type of person,' a neighbor told the Post, explaining how she would always be out of the building by 9am on a Sunday.

Every week without fail, she would leave a completed New York Magazine crossword at the door, they recalled.

And the local butcher Nicolas Ottomanelli of Ottomanelli Bros told the Post she routinely dropped in to get a cut of chicken or lamb 'trimmed real neat'.

'She used to come in and say, "Remember, my knives arent sharp, so the steak has to be tender!",' he reminisced to the Post.

Her name, 'Lee - H', was on the buzzer for apartment 1E but few of the other tenants realized their reclusive neighbor was the To Kill A Mockingbird writer.

Apartments in the building, which is just a block away from East River, are now listed from a minimum of $1,750-a-month. Some exceed $5,000-a-month.

Austern said he was legally obliged to cut Lee's lease and raise the rent for a new tenant as she did not live there permanently.

Her name, 'Lee - H', was on the buzzer for apartment 1E but few of the other tenants realized their reclusive neighbor was the To Kill A Mockingbird writer

Lee (pictured) passed away aged 89 this week at home in the town where she was born and raised: Monroeville, Alabama. She relocated permanently to Monroeville after suffering a stroke in 2007

But he told the Post he couldn't bring himself to do that.

'She was a personal friend of mine,' he explained.

Lee was quietly laid to rest in a private funeral in her Alabama hometown on Saturday afternoon.

About three dozen family members and close friends attended the service at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville.

Her casket was taken by silver hearse to the adjacent cemetery where her father, AC Lee and sister, Alice Lee, are buried.

Two uniformed Monroeville police officers stood outside the church during the private service.

Wayne Flynt, a longtime friend of Lee, said he delivered a eulogy that Lee specifically requested years ago.

It was a 2006 speech, entitled, 'Atticus inside ourselves,' that he gave as a tribute when Lee won the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for racial justice.

A man rakes soil over a grave in the Lee family cemetery plot after a private service on Saturday

A billboard welcomes visitors and thanks the late novelist in her home city of Monroeville, Alabama

Flynt said Lee liked the speech so much that she wanted him to give it as her eulogy.

'I want you to say exactly that,' Flynt quoted Lee as saying at the time. 'Not one thing more, and not one thing less.'

'If I deviated one degree, I would hear this great booming voice from heaven, and it wouldn't be God,' Flynt said in an earlier interview.

Lee, who passed away in her sleep on Friday age 89, drew inspiration from her hometown of Monroeville for the fictionalized Maycomb, the setting in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
Nashville's chapter of Black Lives Matter can no longer meet at the Nashville Public Library.

Library officials told the group, that meetings that welcome only people of color can't take place inside the city's libraries.

The library canceled all future meetings the group had organized for the month of February.

For the past few months, Black Lives Matter in Nashville has held its chapter meetings at the North Branch Library in North Nashville (pictured), but were recently told they could no longer hold meetings that don't include the general public

For the past few months, Black Lives Matter in Nashville has held its chapter meetings at the North Branch Library in North Nashville.

Outraged members of Black Lives Matter posted a notice on their Facebook page that reads: 'Due to white supremacy in our local government, this week's BLM General Body Meeting location has changed.'

The notice also says the group's meetings are 'open to black and non-black people of color only'.

But library officials say they're enforcing a library policy that says all meetings at their facilities must be open to the general public and news media, according to The Tennessean.

Outraged members of Black Lives Matte posted a notice on their Facebook page that reads: 'Due to white supremacy in our local government, this week's BLM General Body Meeting location has changed'

The organization posted to their website that these meetings welcome only black people and non-black people of color to 'center the voices and experiences of people of color that have historically been excluded or segregated within supposedly public spaces'

Emily Waltenbaugh told the Tennessean that the 'library didn't cancel anyone's meeting'.

'We're a library. We're taxpayer funded. We have to be open to anyone anytime.'

A library patron, who had seen advertising about the upcoming meeting and felt excluded, alerted the library staff to Black Lives Matter's policy, according to Waltenbaugh.

She said the library hadn't previously been aware of the group's rule.

Joshua Crutchfield, an organizer of the Nashville chapter of Black Lives Matter, told the Tennessean that the group has a rule: Only black people as well as non-black people of color are allowed to attend the gatherings.

The chapter gave reason for having this policy in place in a statement posted on their website that reads: 'The Nashville Chapter of BLM has this policy in place to center the voices and experiences of people of color that have historically been excluded or segregated within supposedly public spaces.

The organization wrote that they 'view these spaces as integral to healing and community building, particularly to those who have experienced racialized violence'.

Crutchfield also said that the group was surprised about it, 'but we shouldn't have been'.

The organization said in a statement that they view their 'spaces as integral to healing and community building, particularly to those who have experienced racialized violence'

Black Lives Matter activists during the Reclaim MLK march on January 18

'We kind of know the history about how this goes in this country,' he said.

Sean Braisted, spokesman for Mayor Megan Barry, told the Tennessean that the library has an 'open-door, open-meeting policy, and that's what the library has adhered to'.

Waltenbaugh said the Nashville Public Library system is committed to civil rights. She also stressed that the library told the organization that meetings held there had to be inclusive of the general public, but the group chose to move to another location.

The meeting was rescheduled for Saturday morning at the Dixon Memorial United Methodist Church.
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This is the moment two stallions fight over a female horse in a barbaric Chinese tradition which dates back hundreds of years.

The event was held at Rongshui Miao Autonomous County in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Auang Autonomous Region yesterday in front of a huge audience.

A mare enters the ring, before they allow two males in to fight over her. The crowd look on gripped by the bloody action in front of them. Some people are seen taking pictures and videos on their phones and cameras.

The female horse watches on and dances round the ring, flattered by the interest in her.

These type of competitions are held in small villages by Miao people across southern China to ring in the new year. When it's the Year of the Horse, the fights are said to hold more significance.

Before each fight people bet on who the winner will be and can often earn around 10,000 yuan (1,064) per battle.

Animal rights campaigners condemn the fights, which are said to be around 500 years old. But those who take part are adamant that they take care of the horses.

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This is the moment two stallions fight over a female horse in a barbaric Chinese tradition which dates back hundreds of years. Pictured are the horses fighting with the brown one going in for a bite (right)

Two horses fight during a competition in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County in Liuzhou, in front of an enthralled audience

The event was held at Rongshui Miao Autonomous County in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Auang Autonomous Region yesterday in front of a huge audience

The crowd look on gripped by the bloody action in front of them. Some people are seen taking pictures and videos on their phones and cameras

These type of competitions are held in small villages by Miao people across southern China to ring in the new year. When it's the Year of the Horse, the fights are said to hold more significance

Animal rights campaigners condemn the fights, but those who take part are adamant that they take care of the horses

Before each fight people bet on who the winner will be and can often earn around 10,000 yuan (1,064) per battle
Stores are selling childrens ready meals which seriously underplay the salt content.

Big supermarkets and brands carrying the Disney name use the salt intake guidelines for adults on products specifically for children.

Consequently, a ready meal promoted as offering just 25 per cent of the recommended daily intake, will actually add up to 75 per cent of what a child should eat.

Asdas 250g Disney Pixar The Incredibles Meatball Pasta Bake contains 1.5g of salt, which it says is 25 per cent of the recommended daily intake - although for a child aged between four and six, this would actually be 50 per cent of the recommended daily intake

The situation has highlighted a serious flaw with the way food companies use so-called Guideline Daily Amount figures on nutritional labels.

Companies, such as breakfast cereal manufacturers, suggest one bowl might add up to a relatively low level of the salt, sugar and calories for a day.

However, the bowl they use for this calculation is usually much smaller than an adult or child would normally eat.

The recommended daily maximum for salt consumption for children aged over 11 and adults is 6g. However it is a lower 5g for those aged 7-10, 3g for children aged 4-6, 2g for 1-2 year-olds.

High salt consumption over a lifetime is associated with high blood pressure, strokes and an early death.

Asda has an exclusive deal to sell childrens ready meals branded with popular Disney characters, many of which are high in salt.

Asdas 250g Disney Pixar The Incredibles Meatball Pasta Bake contains 1.5g of salt.

The front of the packaging tells parents this is 25 per cent of the recommended daily intake, but adds in much smaller writing that this is the recommended intake for an adult.

In fact, 1.5g of salt is 50 per cent of the recommended daily intake for a child age 4-6, and 75 per cent for a children age 1-3.

Sainsburys Kids Cottage Pie has 1.2g of salt, or 20per cent of an adults recommended daily intake, as displayed on the packaging. But for a child of 4-6 it is 40per cent and for a child of 1-3 it is 60per cent.

The Disney TV channel banned all unhealthy foods from its TV, radio and online channels in 2012.

The recommended daily maximum for salt consumption for children aged over 11 and adults is 6g. However it is a lower 5g for those aged 7-10, 3g for children aged 4-6 and 2g for a 1-2 year-old

The misleading labelling of salt guidelines on children's food has highlighted a serious flaw with the way food companies use so-called Guideline Daily Amount figures on nutritional labels

However, all the Disney-branded ready meals in Asda contain high levels of salt for children, with the lowest having 39.5 per cent of a 1-3-year-olds recommended daily intake and the highest having 75 per cent in one meal.

Nutritionist, Amanda Ursell, said firms should offer honest labels that reflect the fact children will be eating the product.

Its outrageous. If youre making a ready meal for children you have a duty to ensure the salt is as low as possible.

'To put an adult recommended intake on the front is just disingenuous, she said.

Asda said it is planning to reduce salt, saturated fat and sugar in its own-brand foods. It said: We agree there needs to be appropriate labelling in order for parents and guardians to make informed decisions.

Sainsburys said it would be removing the adult recommended intakes from childrens ready-meal packaging and is reformulating the range to improve its quality and nutritional value.

Disney said its branded foods meet official nutritional guidelines.
Mixed martial arts fighter Dada 5000 is recovering in hospital today after collapsing from exhaustion during the third round of a fight against Kimbo Slice.

Dada, who real name is Dhafir Harris, was in critical condition after being carried from the Toyota Center in Houston last night, but that has since improved according to a statement from his family.

The 38-year-old former street fighter was suffering from renal failure, severe dehydration and fatigue caused by high levels of potassium in his blood, the statement said.

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Dada 5000, real name Dhafir Harris, 38 (right), was in critical condition overnight after collapsing during a fight with Kimbo Slice, 42 (left) on Saturday

Harris, a former veteran of street fighting who came late to professional MMA, made it to the third round with Slice, real name Kevin Ferguson, before losing consciousness (pictured)

Doctors believe this was partly caused by his 40lbs weight loss during training before the fight, hosted by Bellator.

The maximum weight allowed for heavyweights is 265lbs, which is exactly where Harris tipped the scales on Saturday night.

The statement continued: 'Dada showed the heart of a lion in the cage - not backing down throughout.

'He worked extremely hard preparing for the fight and stepped forward for three rounds against a tough veteran.

'He kept digging through the adversity - leaving it all in the cage for his fans and supporters. You can never take that away from him.'

Both Harris and Slice, real name Kevin Ferguson, 42, had look exceptionally tired even in the second round of the fight, as they swung widely at one another, often without guards raised.

Dada 5000 carried out on a stretcher #Bellator149 pic.twitter.com/r9ySiHPtpW  MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) February 20, 2016

A statement from Harris's family said he was suffering from very high potassium levels in his blood causing extreme dehydration, renal failure and fatigue thanks to 40lbs of weight loss leading up to the bout

Ferguson took the first round with a heavy takedown of Harris, but otherwise the contest remained largely unremarkable.

The fighters exchanged weary blows for much of the second without either making much of an impact, until around a minute and 30 seconds into the third.

Coming back off the cage, Harris appeared to be advancing towards Ferguson as he laid punches on Harris' unguarded face.

It soon became clear that Harris was in trouble, however, after he slumped up against Ferguson's shoulder and his eyes lost focus.

As Ferguson moved out of the way Harris stumbled for a few paces before hitting the canvas when the fight was stopped.

Harris had to be given oxygen and placed on to a stretcher before being carried from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, last night

Ferguson (left) was declared the winner by TKO making his professional record 6-2, but also looked completely worn out by the time the fight was declared over

As Harris's medical team rushed on to treat him, a clearly exhausted Ferguson leaned with his arms against the side of the cage, panting heavily. Ferguson was ruled to have won the fight by TKO.

Both Harris and Ferguson came late into professional MMA, having claimed extremely successful street fighting careers previous to that.

The pair grew up rough in Miami, Florida, where Ferguson became famous for bare-knuckle fights posted across the internet, and was once branded 'King of the Web Brawlers' by Rolling Stone.

Meanwhile Harris started a successful street fighting event in his mother's back yard where he took on the role of manager, promoter, referee and judge following a career of street fighting himself in which he bragged that his record was 47-0.
Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders heard something very familiar come out of Hillary Clinton's mouth when she smacked around Wall Street during her Nevada victory speech yesterday afternoon.

'Those are our words,' he said. 'We're looking into the copyright issues here,' the senator continued, laughing, as he sat down for an interview this morning with Meet the Press' Chuck Todd.

Sanders has made knocking bankers and billionaires central tenets of his campaign, but as he's become a more formidable challenger than Clinton expected, she's started singing that tune as well.

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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders noticed that Hillary Clinton started to sound a lot like him as she bashed Wall Street and dirty money in her Nevada victory speech yesterday

Bernie Sanders held his head up high after his six point loss to the former secretary of state, telling his supporters that he still had the 'momentum' and would win the Democratic nomination

That trend was especially evident yesterday.

Besides saying, 'Wall Street can never be allowed to threaten main street again. No bank can be too big to fail, no executive too powerful to jail,' which was the clip that Todd played for Sanders, she also brought up Wall Street in the context of campaign finance reform.

That's an issue near and dear to the Sanders campaign.

'In the campaign you've heard a lot about Washington and Wall Street,' Clinton said, alluding to Sanders' complaints that she's too cozy with New York bankers. 'We all want to get secret unaccountable money out of politics that starts with appointing a new justice to the Supreme Court.'

Clinton also touted the 'vast majority' of donors who gave her less than $100, as Sanders has railed the former secretary of state for inheriting President Barack Obama's super PAC, while fueling his own campaign on donations that average $27.

'Well, obviously I think what the secretary has recognized is the American people are extremely angry about the power of Wall Street, the greed, the illegal behavior of Wall Street,' Sanders said this morning on Meet.

Yesterday, Sanders downplayed, Clinton's win in the Nevada caucuses, her first pronounced triumph, as she grabbed up about 53 percent of the vote to Sanders 47 percent.

Hillary Clinton thanked supporters yesterday in Las Vegas and blasted Wall Street in her remarks

'It is clear to me and to most observers that the wind is at our backs, we have the momentum,' Sanders said, noting how far down in the polls he was in the state just several weeks back.

'And I believe that when Democrats assemble in Philadelphia in July at that convention we are going to see the results of one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States,' Sanders stated.

Sanders blamed the loss on lower voter turnout than he had hoped for.

'As I understand it, we actually won the Latino vote yesterday, which is a big breakthrough for us,' he noted.

'And what I've said over and over again, we will do well when young people, when working-class people come out,' he said.

Sanders also suggested that Clinton got the best at him because she's ran this race before.

'But remember, we were taking on a candidate who ran in 2008. She knew Nevada a lot better than we did, she had the names of a lot of her supporters,' Sanders explained.

The Vermont senator said he was proud of the Nevada campaign. 'Obviously, I wish we could have done a little bit better, but at the end of the day, I think she gets 19 delegates, we get 15 delegates.'
Men who carry their mobile phone in a trouser pocket or talk on it for just an hour a day risk suffering with fertility problems, scientists warn (stock photo)

Men who carry their mobile phone in a trouser pocket or talk on it for just an hour a day risk suffering with fertility problems, scientists warn.

Research shows that sperm count can also be reduced by talking on a phone that is charging, or even keeping it close by on a bedside table at night.

The quality of sperm among men in Western countries is steadily decreasing, and is considered the factor in 40 per cent of cases in which couples have difficulty conceiving a child.

Heat and electromagnetic activity which emanate from a mobile phone are thought to be cook sperm, causing them to die.

The findings have led to a leading British fertility expert to warn men about the risks of being addicted to mobile phones.

Israeli scientists monitored 106 men attending a fertility clinic for a year.

The study revealed that men who chatted on the phone for more than an hour daily were twice as likely to have low sperm quality as those who spoke for less than an hour, while those who talked on the phone as it charged were almost twice as likely to suffer problems.

It also found that 47 per cent of men who kept their phones within 20 inches of their groin had sperm levels that were seriously affected, compared with just 11 per cent of the general population.

The findings, published in Reproductive BioMedicine, support a long-feared link between dropping male fertility rates and the prevalence of mobile phones.

Professor Martha Dirnfeld, of the Technion University in Haifa, which carried out the study, said: The [sperm] levels were down to a number that would make conception difficult.

The research found that 47 per cent of men who kept their phones within 20 inches of their groin had sperm levels that were seriously affected, compared with just 11 per cent of the general population

If you are trying for a baby and it doesnt happen within a year you might want to think of whether it could be your mobile phone habit that is to blame.

Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, a fertility consultant at St Georges Hospital, London, said: Men need to think about their well-being and try to stop being addicted to their phones.

The study concludes that men planning to conceive should turn off their devices while charging, or keep it at least 20 inches from the groin.
The Chancellor is said to be considering a 4billion tax bombshell which could hit millions of people

George Osborne is planning a raid on middle-class pensioners by scrapping the tax-free lump sum, it was claimed yesterday.

The Chancellor is said to be considering a 4billion tax bombshell which could hit millions of people.

The claim comes from Steve Webb, the former Liberal Democrat pensions minister, who worked closely with Mr Osborne during the Coalition years.

Currently, people can access 25 per cent of their pension pots tax-free in a single lump sum when they reach 55.

But Mr Webb said he believed the perk was heading for extinction as part of plans to revolutionise pension saving that are due to be outlined in next months Budget.

Some 20million people saving for their pensions could be affected, although the move would not be retrospective  meaning that pots already built up will be safe.

Last night, the Treasury said all options were still on the table and that no decisions have yet been made.

Former Lib Dem minister Mr Webb, who lost his seat at last years election, said he believed the Chancellor would like to scrap all tax relief on pension contributions and replace it with an Isa-style system.

Mr Osborne outlined the idea in the summer, when he launched a consultation on changing tax relief on pension contributions.

It had been expected that the Treasury would opt to equalise the rates of pension tax relief so that all taxpayers receive the same benefits. This would hit higher-rate taxpayers.

But Mr Webb, who now works for the pensions firm Royal London, said contacts with Treasury officials had convinced him that the Chancellor would like to take the more radical course.

He told the Sunday Times: I do not believe that the flat-rate was ever the Treasurys first preference.

The Isa approach would mean an extra tax bombshell that seems to have gone almost completely unnoticed, because it would scrap the tax-free lump sum.

Under the current system, you can get tax relief on your pension contributions, enjoy tax-free growth in your pension fund and then take a quarter out tax-free  a hugely tax-advantaged way of saving, he writes.

Former MP and pensions minister Steve Webb said he believed the Chancellor would like to scrap all tax relief on pension contributions and replace it with an Isa-style system

In effect, a quarter of the money in your pension never gets taxed at all under the current rules.

But with a pensions Isa, this tax break quietly disappears. Since all of the money that goes in to a pensions Isa has already been taxed, there is no equivalent of the tax-free lump sum.

SISTERS AGED 61 AND 63 TO RETIRE FOUR YEARS APART There is just 19 months between them but controversial rises in the retirement age for women means sisters Rosemary Milton, 61, and Jean Wood, 63, will get the state pension four and a half years apart. Mrs Wood started receiving her pension in November aged 62 but Mrs Milton will have to wait until July 2020  just before she turns 66. This is because the retirement age for women is being raised from 60 to 65 to bring it into line with men. Changes have been enacted so quickly, however, that groups of women who consider themselves to be peers are effectively finding themselves in different generations. The sisters, who are so close they married at the same ceremony, had hoped to visit Australia, Canada and Bermuda together in retirement. Mrs Milton, a former teacher from Southwell, Nottinghamshire, said the jump in the retirement age was an injustice. Suddenly, all our plans were dashed, she told The Sunday Times. Im not sure Ill have the health or energy to carry out our plans to travel far and wide. The Government is refusing to budge on the issue and an announcement is not expected at next months budget. Advertisement

Given that the tax-free lump sum costs the chancellor around 4billion per year in lost revenue, it is easy to see why he might like to get rid of it.

It is remarkable to think that one of the most popular and best understood parts of the tax system  the tax-free lump sum  could be on the brink of extinction without anyone noticing.

If the tax-free lump sum is abolished, 20million people saving into a workplace pension could be affected.

The Chancellor is not expected to make the change retrospective, however, so tax-free lump sums already built up would be safe.

But Mr Webb warned: The Isa approach would stop people building up any more tax-free lump sums on future pension savings.

Even for someone 10 years away from pension age this could have a big impact on their retirement planning.

Mr Webb is not alone in thinking the Isa plan is Osbornes preferred option.

Last week, a leading figure in the pensions industry said he would take his tax-free lump sum before March 16, the date of the budget, if he was 55 or above. This is the minimum age at which the cash can be withdrawn.

A spokesman for the Treasury said: The government launched a wide-ranging consultation into pensions tax relief last summer.

We have not decided on whether or how to reform the system and are considering all options, including retaining the current system.
The father of one-punch victim Thomas Kelly was paid $125,000 in wages by the foundation set up in his son's name to combat alcohol-fuelled violence, it has been revealed.

Ralph Kelly established The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation (TKYF) following his son's tragic death from an one-punch attack in Sydney's nightlife district of Kings Cross in 2012.

For his role as director and the sole employee of the charity, Mr Kelly was paid $125,000 last financial year, just over half the foundations's annual revenue.

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Ralph Kelly (left), who founded The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation after his son's death, was reportedly paid $125,00 in wages by the foundation last financial year

Thomas Kelly (pictured) was tragically killed in an unprovoked attack in Sydney's Kings Cross in 2012

According to The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation's latest financial reports, the charity's annual revenue for the 2014-2015 financial year was $243,373.

Of that revenue 51 per cent was paid in employment benefits to Mr Kelly, the report independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed.

Mr Kelly was the only employee paid by the company, and still holds his role as Managing Director of Hemisphere Hospitality Solutions.

He previously worked at Accor Hotels, which is one of the supporters of the foundation.

According to the foundation's website: 'The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation and Take Kare Safe Spaces are funded by the NSW Government, the City of Sydney, the Macquarie Group Foundation and the Crown Resorts Foundation'.

Take Kare safe spaces are set up in Sydney's Town Hall Square and Kings Cross on Friday and Saturday nights.

They are a joint venture with the Salvation Army and aim to help young people get home safe after a night of partying.

'Since December 2014 TKYF has raised significant funding to operate our Take Kare Safe Spaces in Sydneys CBD and Kings Cross,' Chairman of the TKYF Phillip Crawford told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

'The majority of these funds are paid directly to the Salvation Army under an arrangement with TKYF and its sponsor.

According to The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation's latest financial reports, the charity's annual revenue for the 2014-2015 financial year was $243,373

Kieran Loveridge is serving 14 years for Mr Kelly's manslaughter

'These funds are not therefore included as income in the TKYF financial statements.

'To date the Take Kare Safe Space has trained 273 volunteers, who along with the Salvation Army professionals, have staffed the Take Kare Safe Spaces forover 15,000 hours and helped 13,600 people in 2015.

'TKYF has in place a governance structure to ensure that the Foundation is managed prudently,' Mr Crawford said.

The board of directors at The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation, which includes Senior Australian of the Year Gordian Fulde, are said to have fully supported the payment to Mr Kelly, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Other directors include executive director of Macquarie Bank Guy Reynolds and Patricia O'Rouke, CEO at St Vincent's Health Australia Public Hospitals.

Spokesman for St Vincent's Hospitals David Faktor said they have supported the foundation's work in minimising 'alcohol related harms' since its establishment.

The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation also runs Take Kare in conjunction with the Salvation Army

' St Vincents is proud of the impact that the TKYF is having in reducing the amount of harms the Hospital has long had to contend with,' Mr Faktor told Daily Mail Australia.

'St Vincents is confident that the TKYF has in place a thorough and transparent governance structure to ensure that that the Foundation is managed prudently and that funds raised are earmarked in accordance with their purpose,' he added.

Thomas Kelly died in 2012 after an unprovoked attack by Kieran Loveridge, who is serving 14 years for Mr Kelly's manslaughter.

Mr Kelly suffered catastrophic head injuries after Loveridge punched him once in an unprovoked attack at Kings Cross, in Sydney's inner-city, on July 7, 2012.

The 18-year-old's life support was turned off two days later.

It comes as tensions about the NSW lock-out laws are at an all time high, with over 15,000 people marching in Sydney's CBD on Sunday to protest the measures.
Trump's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Germany before having his dad stateside

The only difference in their scenarios is that both of Rubio's parents had been born in Cuba, and only Trump's mom was born abroad in Scotland

Like Donald Trump , Marco Rubio was born in the United States to immigrant parents

When asked about it by George Stephanopoulos Trump said, 'I honestly have never looked at it'

Donald Trump retweeted a tweet yesterday that suggested both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were

Donald Trump wouldn't say on Sunday whether he thought Sen. Marco Rubio was eligible to be president after retweeting a tweet that suggested both Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz would run into problems.

'You're really not sure?' asked ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos, pointing to a retweet that called Cruz and Rubio's ineligibility a 'slam dunk case.'

'I don't know. I really  I've never looked at it, George,' Trump replied. 'I honestly have never looked at it.'

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'I never looked at it,' said Donald Trump when asked whether he believed that Sen. Marco Rubio, who was born on American soil, was eligible to be president

Yesterday morning, Donald Trump retweeted a tweet that suggested both Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada, and Marco Rubio were ineligible to be president

The Constitution reserves the office of the presidency for 'natural born citizens' of the United States.

For years, Trump was a thorn in President Barack Obama's side over the 'birther' issue, with swaths on the far right believing the current occupant of the White House wasn't eligible because they thought Obama, whose father is Kenyan, was born in Africa.

This election cycle it was Cruz who received most of Trump's birther ire, as the Texas senator was born on Canadian soil to an American mother and a Cuban dad.

Cruz has countered that he has been American since his birth because of his American mother, but the matter is not entirely settled.

Rubio's eligibility, however, is more cut and dry.

He's the son of Cuban immigrants and was born in Florida.

Trump's own mother was born in Scotland, so eligibility would be in dispute for both if there were any prohibitions against second-generation Americans taking over the Oval Office, which there are none.

Trump's father was second-generation himself, as his parents immigrated to the United States from Germany.

When Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked Trump about his retweet this morning, the billionaire, who was basking in the glow of his South Carolina win, tried to wiggle out of affirming that Rubio was indeed eligible.

'I think the lawyers have to determine that  and not  it was a retweet, not so much with Marco,' Trump said, seemingly pointing to the fact that the tweet mentioned Cruz too.

'I'm not really familiar with Marco's circumstances,' Trump added.

Trump said he retweeted it to 'let people make their own determination.'

Cruz is having his eligibility questioned in court in Texas, Illinois, New York, Utah and Alabama.

When it was Marco Rubio's turn to talk on This Week he called Trump's comments 'a game he plays' to suck up all the media attention

Trump had threatened to sue Cruz too, calling the senator a 'liar' this week and asking for an apology.

Questioning, Rubio, however, seemed to come out of the blue.

'As somebody said, he's not,' Trump said of the Florida senator's eligibility. 'And I retweeted it. I have 14 million people between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and I retweet things and we start dialogue and it's very interesting.'

'And maybe that's why I have 14 million people,' Trump mused.

Rubio had his own slot booked on the Sunday show and sputtered when Stephanopoulos asked him about it.

'Well this is  look, this is a pattern,' Rubio said. 'This is a game he plays. He says something that's edgy and outrageous and then the media flocks and covers that and then no one else can get any coverage on anything else.'

'And that worked when there were 15 people running for president. It's not going to work anymore. I'm going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to eligibility,' Rubio continued.

'And I'm going to spend all my time talking about what this campaign should be about,' Rubio added.

Rubio, who came in second place last night in South Carolina, then made a pitch for his own candidacy.
Thousands of migrants have forced their way into Hungary in spite of a four-metre-high razor-wire fence along the entire length of its 110-mile border with Serbia.

More than 1,200 people were caught after cutting through or climbing over the barrier in the first 20 days of February alone  which is four times as many as the 270 who got past in December.

The growing migrant chaos spreading across Europe illustrates how David Camerons renegotiation deal will do little to tackle the immigration problems facing the continent.

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Thousands of migrants have forced their way into Hungary in spite of a four-metre-high razor-wire fence along the entire length of its 110-mile border with Serbia

More than 1,200 people were caught after cutting through or climbing over the barrier in the first 20 days of February alone  which is four times as many as the 270 who got past in December. Pictured is the fence being built in September last year

Macedonia yesterday became the latest country to limit the nationalities and numbers of those allowed through. Pictured is Afghan migrants protesting at the border of Macedonia and Greece

British celebrities including Jude Law and playwright Tom Stoppard yesterday gave performances at the Jungle migrant camp in Calais to draw attention to the plight of migrants facing imminent eviction.

Law helped organise a petition to David Cameron urging him to press France for a delay to the demolition of the southern part of the camp, which could start as early as Tuesday.

Over 96,000 people, including over 150 public figures, have signed the letter, which calls for children in the Jungle with relatives in Britain to be reunited with their families while their asylum cases are heard.

The demolition by French authorities is part of efforts to discourage migrants from trying to smuggle themselves to Britain via the ferries or the tunnel under the Channel.

In Hungary, prime minister Viktor Orban erected the fence as part of a crackdown last September that also included introducing tough punishments of up to three years in prison for illegal immigrants who manage to cross the border or damage the fence.

But increasing numbers of economic migrants from Pakistan, Iran and Morocco, have breached the defence after being stopped from making their way through Europe on other routes.

The numbers of people getting past demonstrates the difficulty faced tackling the migrant crisis by even countries taking the toughest of stances.

Mr Orban had said his number one job job is to defend the borders and control who is coming in. The outspoken prime minister has accused the majority of Western leaders of denying the fact there is a connection between the rising Muslim population and terrorism.

Afghans participate in a protest demanding to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni

Migrants make their way to reach the borderline to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni

Small groups of migrants sprayed with water as they try to sneak into Hungary on the day after the country sealed its border with Serbia, in September 2015

A migrant is overcome by pepper spray and tear gas after Hungarian police repelled an attempt by migrants to break the border post gate and pull down the razor wire fence in Horgos, Serbia, in September last year

A wagon equipped with razor wire stands on a track in Roszke at the border between Hungary and Serbia, some 180 kilometers southeast from Budapest, Hungary. The fence was built in September 2015

Macedonia yesterday became the latest country to limit the nationalities and numbers of those allowed through.

Officials closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians.

MACEDONIAN-GREEK BORDER SHUT Greek police say Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians. Macedonian authorities reportedly said that Serbia has done the same on its southern border with Macedonia. Macedonian police started restricting the flow of migrants across the Greek-Macedonian border Saturday, conducting body searches and demanding passports. Earlier, they had accepted Greek polices official documents attesting that an individual had been processed. The moves have led to a buildup of migrants waiting at the Greek side of the border. Greek police said 800 were stranded at the border Sunday and another 2,750 were waiting in 55 buses nearby. By 6am today, only 310 migrants had been allowed into Macedonia. Advertisement

The move will ramp up pressure on Greek authorities to stop arrivals who are not genuine refugees. More than 3,500 were today left stranded on the border.

Austria announced it is beefing up its border controls with 1,450 soldiers on standby to enforce a cap introduced on Friday allowing only 80 people to claim asylum and 3,300 pass through the country per day.

These forces will be able to deploy all over the country and be brought into action using army helicopters at short notice as the interior ministry requires, the Austrian defence ministry said.

A company of military police will also be deployed to handle violent persons or groups of persons and prevent them crossing the border.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann imposed the limit in an attempt to slash the number of asylum seekers this year to 37,500 in defiance of a warning from officials in Brussels that it would be illegal.

Mr Faymann yesterday said he was surprised at the criticism from the EU migration commissioner who said it was plainly incompatible with EU and international law.

We know already now that we would be well above the number of migrants that we can cope with by the middle of the year at the latest [without the cap], Mr Faymann told the Kleine Zeitung daily.

It would be politically negligent not to do something against that in good time, he said.

He stressed the plan was necessary because the EUs efforts to deal with the crisis are not having the effect that they should be.

Two people were yesterday arrested in Germany after they tried to prevent firefighters putting out a fire at a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home.

A group of people gathered outside the building in Bautzen, in the eastern state of Saxony, to celebrate the blaze, which police suspect was arson.

A Greek policeman checks the documents of a man at the borderline with Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni,

Officials closed Macedonia's southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians

It came three days after a mob of 100 people blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers from getting to a refugee home in Clausnitz, near the border with the Czech Republic.

Police officers pulled screaming children and teenagers from the vehicle as the neo-Nazis screamed obscenities.

The police drew criticism for manhandling the 25 passengers, but they insisted it was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating.

The move will ramp up pressure on Greek authorities to stop arrivals who are not genuine refugees. More than 3,500 were yesterday left stranded on the border

People eat on the grass as they wait with other migrants and refugees as they wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian border

Children sit near the train tracks as migrants from Afghanistan wait for permission to cross the border from Macedonia to Serbia near the village of Tabanovce
This is the moment police officers threatened to shoot and pepper spray a drunk man who fell asleep in the middle of the road, leading to them being suspended.

Dashcam footage shows officer John Slepski swearing at and threatening the man after attending a call-out with officer John Slezak in the city of Meriden, Connecticut, in September last year.

Climbing out of his patrol car, Slepski can be heard calling the man a 'f***ing a**hole' before telling Slezak: 'I think we ought to just f***ing pop him.'

Connecticut police officer John Slepski was suspended for 60 days without pay after dashcam footage captured him threatening to shoot and pepper spray a drunk man laying in the road (pictured)

Throughout the film, released to the Record-Journal after an FOI request, Slepski is captured on audio and video from his patrol car that turn on automatically when the flashing lights are on.

Because Slezak did not active his car's lights, there is no audio or video recording from his side.

Slepski's recording captures him repeatedly using foul language against the man, including calling him a 'f***ing douchebag' before saying he's going to use pepper spray to wake him up.

Slezak can be heard agreeing with Slepski, who unclips the spray from his belt, causing the man to suddenly sit up.

Initially, investigators believed Slepski had used spray on the man, but after conducting a probe they concluded that the liquid had not been deployed.

Fellow officer John Slezak (center) was suspended for five days after joining in with threats to pepper spray the man in order to force him on to the sidewalk

In the footage, Slepski can be heard repeatedly swearing at the drunk man, calling him a 'f***ing a**hole' and a 'f***ing douchebag' before threatening to 'pop' him

Slezak, caught on Slepski's microphone, can also be heard questioning whether the man is really drunk, saying he simply wants a ride to the hospital.

After an altercation with the officers, in which Slepski continues wearing at the man, they manged to persuade him to get up and walk over to the curb.

The incident was subsequently brought to the attention of police internal affairs, who suspended Slepski without pay for 60 days, and Slezak for five.
A celebrated aviator known as the worlds greatest test pilot has died at the age of 97.

Captain Eric Winkle Brown completed a staggering 2,407 aircraft carrier landings and flew a record 487 types of plane - world records unlikely ever to be matched.

He was the Royal Navys most decorated pilot, who fought in WWII, witnessed the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp and was one of only two men to survive the sinking of HMS Audacity in 1941.

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Celebrated: Aviator Eric 'Winkle' Brown, who completed a staggering 2,407 aircraft carrier landings and flew a record 487 types of plane, has died aged 97. Pictured, left, in 2013 and, right, in 1940

Brave: He became the Royal Navy's most decorated pilot, after fighting in World War II and witnessing the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Pictured, Brown climbing into the cockpit of one of the Ar 234Bs, which were brought back into Britain for flight testing in the immediate post-war period

Captain Brown was also one of the only pilots who - on top of all his campaign medals - had the Distinguished Service Cross as well as the Air Force Cross.

Fluent in German, he was brought in at the end of the war to interrogate captured German air chiefs, including Luftwaffe head Hermann Goring.

The British wartime ace passed away yesterday today at East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, following a short illness.

A statement released by his family said: It is with deep regret that the passing of Captain Eric Melrose Brown CBE DSC AFC is announced.

Eric was the most decorated pilot of the Fleet Air Arm in which service he was universally known as Winkle on account of his diminutive stature.

Audacious: Fluent in German, he was brought in at the end of the war to interrogate captured German air chiefs, including Luftwaffe head Hermann Goring. Pictured, Brown in action in an aircraft most likely to have been a Grumman Martlet

War effort: Brown was universally known as Winkle on account of his diminutive stature. Pictured, Capt Eric Brown with other test pilots at AeroFlight, Farnborough. Eric is wearing the darker uniform of the Fleet Air Arm

Unmatched: Brown built such a global reputation that the US Navy gave one of its pilots the task of breaking his landings record, but they were only able to reach 1,600. Pictured, Brown with his wife Lynn in Lossiemouth in 1954

He also held three absolute Guinness World Records, including for the number of aircraft carrier deck landings and types of aeroplane flown.

NAZI AIRCRAFT THAT EXPLODED ON LANDING As the Allies progressed through Italy and France, Eric became commanding officer of a very exotic unit  Farnboroughs Enemy Aircraft Flight. His task was to capture and evaluate as much Nazi hardware as he could find. One of the most unappealing was a Messerschmitt 163  a rocket plane that ran on liquid explosive. Dozens of German pilots had been killed developing the thing, but Eric recalled his maiden flight in a Daily Mail interview in 2013: I soon worked out that the only way to land it without exploding was to run out of fuel first, so you had to get your timings right. Advertisement

Born in Leith, Edinburgh, on January 21, 1919, he was educated at Fettes College and Edinburgh University, where he learned to fly.

He was seconded to the Royal Aircraft Establishment to test new aircraft at sea and experts say that few people today appreciate how much he risked his life every time he climbed into a cockpit.

Rear Admiral Simon Charlier, former Commander of the Fleet Air Arm, said: The aircraft Eric was testing were not just difficult and novel, they were untested. We cant imagine in this day and age how dangerous his job was.

Captain Brown himself recalled: You are sent off into the big blue yonder, not sure where your carrier is - maybe 100 miles away in the ocean. It was Russian roulette.

When landing on a carrier, you are essentially aiming for a small layby in the middle of a large lake.

He built such a global reputation that the US Navy gave one of its pilots the task of breaking his landings record, only reaching 1,600.

Danger: Captain Brown himself recalled: You are sent off into the big blue yonder, not sure where your carrier is - maybe 100 miles away in the ocean. It was Russian roulette'. Pictured: (left to right) Lt.Cdr John Moffat, Lt.Cdr. Edgar Lee and Capt. Eric Brown aboard HMS Illustrious on the River Thames in May 2009

Historian James Holland said the Scot was easily one of the top five aviators of all time and certainly the best British one.

And during an appearance on the 3,000th Desert Island Discs in 2014, Captain Brown said simply: Flying was in my blood.

When he gave up flying in 1994, he described it as drug withdrawal.

He said: Its an exhilarating world to live in. Theres always that aura of risk - you come to value life in a slightly different way.
The group included four men and one woman aged between 45 and 61

A group of five people have been arrested after an investigation into an alleged child pornography ring that uncovered photos of a naked baby and images of a sex act being performed on a dog.

Four men and one woman were arrested by Sex Crimes Squad detectives after an eight-month investigation following a tip-off from Queensland Police.

A 49-year-old was arrested at his workplace in Macquarie Park, in Sydney's north-west, on Friday.

A group of five people - including four men (47-year-old is pictured above) and one woman - have been arrested after police went undercover to expose a child pornography ring

Three men - aged 61, 50 and 47 - and a 45-year-old woman, from Sydney's north-west and west, were arrested in October and November last year.

Police seized photographs of a naked infant related to one of the men, which were allegedly shared from one person to another.

Detectives also found numerous communications describing sexual activity with children and images depicting sexual activity with a dog.

It is alleged one of the men had planned a meeting with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with an infant.

A 45-year-old woman was charged with conspiring to commit sexual intercourse with child under 10 years and bestiality

Police seized naked photographs of an infant related to one of the men, which were allegedly shared from one person to another. Left is the 47-year-old man and right is 49-year-old man

A 61-year-old man was charged with three counts of produce disseminate or possess child abuse material, and use carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child pornography.

A 50-year-old man was charged with inciting sexual intercourse with child under 10 years, procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity, procuring child under 14 years for unlawful sexual activity and two counts of use of a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child pornography.

A 47-year-old man was charged with incite sexual intercourse with child under 10 years, use child under 14 years to make child abuse material, bestiality, use carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child pornography, and produce disseminating or possessing child abuse material.

A 45-year-old woman was charged with conspiring to commit sexual intercourse with child under 10 years and bestiality.

The group were remanded in custody and bail was refused.

They will reappear at Penrith Local Court on March 18.

The group were remanded in custody and bail was refused. They will reappear at Penrith Local Court on March 18. Pictured is 47-year-old man

The 45-year-old woman, who was arrested last year, is seen here talking to detectives

On Friday about 10am, a 49-year-old was arrested at his workplace and taken to Ryde Police Station where he was charged with two counts of using a carriage service for child pornography.

The Hurstville man was given bail to appear at Burwood Local Court on March 15.

Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett, who is the commander of NSW Police's Sex Crimes Squad, commended the work of the detectives to date.

'This has been an intensive and challenging investigation conducted by detectives from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit who have been thoroughly committed to gaining a result and protecting children,' Det Supt Howlett said.

'The unit will continue to have a strong presence in the online environment to target people who use the internet to locate and target children.
The CEO of Yelp has called on the city of San Francisco to lower the cost of housing after an employee complained they could not afford to work at the firm's headquarters.

Jeremy Stoppelman made his surprising dig at city leaders in response to the open letter from Talia Jane, who slammed the company's low wages.

She said she could barely afford groceries on a salary of $733.24 every two weeks, with rent a hefty $1,245 a month.

'Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They're taking side jobs, they're living at home,' she wrote.

Jeremy Stoppelman (left) turned the blame on San Francisco city leaders after one of his employees Talia Jane (right) penned an open letter to him, slamming the company's low wages, saying she can't afford to eat

This was the Yelp CEO's response to an employee's complaint that her wage doesn't cover San Francisco rent

The windy city has notoriously extortionate house prices, which Stoppelman took aim at

After publishing the blog post on Medium, Jane posted an update to say she had been fired - and added an appeal for donations to help fund her unemployed job hunt.

In a series of tweets, Stoppelman acknowledged her distress - but blamed San Francisco for her plight, not the company. He also insisted he knew nothing about the saga or her being let go.

Jane's searing critique of the company's pay distribution soon made their way around social media, sparking a buzz in the West Coast's tech hub.

Stoppelman responded with a five-part Twitter message on Saturday: 'Late last night I read Talia's medium contribution and want to acknowledge her point that the cost of living in SF is far too high.

'I have been focused on this issue, backing anti-NIMBY group SFBARF and speaking out frequently about the need to lower cost of housing.

'I've not been personally involved in Talia being let go and it was not because she posted a Medium letter directed at me.

'Two sides to every HR story so Twitter army please put down the pitchforks. The reality of such a high Bay Area cost of living is... entry level jobs migrate to where costs of living are lower. Have already announced we are growing EAT24 support in AZ for this reason.'

Twitter users seemed to have mixed feelings about Stoppelman's response.

Some accused the CEO of shifting the blame.

Many, however, joined his rallying cry against extortionate house prices in San Francisco which have become something of a running joke on social media.

In October 2015, a 765-square-foot wood shack that has sat in the city's Outer Mission neighborhood since it was built in 1906 as the area built up around it was sold for a whopping $408,000.

This is part of Talia Jane's open letter, in which she said she could barely afford groceries on a salary of $733.24 every two weeks, with her rent in San Francisco, California, a hefty $1,245 a month

It had been advertised for sale at $350,000, but the price quickly rose under competing bids.

The house, which sits at 16 De Long Street, managed six offers in the 10 days it was up for sale.

Taking up a decent lot measuring at 1,633-square-foot, the property will now likely be restored and used as a rental.

The shack was built in 1906 as relief housing after the city was devastated by a 7.8 earthquake.

It is now considered historical property, and this cannot be torn down or undergo any major changes.

The tiny one-story abode was showcased as a 'single family home'.

The listing described the property as a 'distinguished home in need of work'.

A recent report by Zumper revealed that San Francisco is the most expensive city in the US when it comes to renting homes.

The average cost for a one-bedroom apartment reached a record $3,530 in the city in August, compared with $3,160 in New York, $2,270 in Boston and $2,110 in Washington DC.

To rent a one-bedroom home in Los Angeles will set you back an average $1,830 a month, while in Seattle, it is $1,650.
With the new regime not expected to come into force until mid-2017, large numbers are expected to flock here to take advantage

Critics warn it could lead to number of incomers entering UK going up

EU migrants could claim benefits within months of arriving in the UK even if the Government uses the so-called emergency brake.

David Cameron admitted today that precise details of the brake  designed to strip migrants of in-work benefits  had yet to be nailed down.

And the Prime Minister was forced to try to defend the plan amid warnings that it could lead to the number of incomers going up, not down.

Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured on the Andrew Marr show) admitted today that precise details of the so-called 'emergency brake'  designed to strip migrants of in-work benefits  had yet to be nailed down

Migration experts pointed out that, over the past six months, he had advertised across Europe the fact that Britain offers handouts to low-paid workers.

With the new regime not expected to come into force until mid-2017, large numbers are expected to flock here to take advantage.

Anybody who arrives in Britain just before the rules are changed will keep their tax credits in full.

The one-off seven-year emergency brake was agreed following 30 hours of gruelling talks in Brussels on Friday.

The rest of Europe agreed to a new regime where, while the brake is operational, EU workers will have payments of tax credits phased in over a period of four years.

But the PM today conceded that the details of how the new emergency brake system would work had not yet been agreed with the rest of the continent.

He was asked repeatedly by Andrew Marr on the BBC how long it would be before migrants start to receive benefits, but did not give a full answer  even when it was suggested migrants could get 90 per cent of their benefits restored after just six months in the UK.

POLAND'S PRIME MINISTER BEATA SZYDLO BOASTS OF BLOCKING DAVID CAMERON'S ATTEMPTS TO STOP EU MIGRANTS CLAIMING BENEFITS Poland's prime minister has boasted of blocking David Camerons attempt to stop EU migrants claiming benefits in Britain. Beata Szydlo proclaimed victory shortly after the deal was signed, writing on Twitter: Todays agreement is good news for Europe. We took care of the interests of Poles using social benefits in EU countries. Mr Cameron had wanted an emergency brake to stop new arrivals from claiming in-work benefits, such as tax credits, to be in place for 13 years, but this was watered down to seven. In the Tory manifesto, the Prime Minister had also pledged to end migrant workers with children living in other countries being able to claim child benefit, but he failed to secure this. Instead, Britain will be allowed to pay reduced rates based on the cost of living in the country where the child is living. The cut will affect existing claimants from 2020. Mrs Syzdlos resistance to Mr Camerons demands has been given as one of the reasons the summit dragged on for nearly 30 hours. The Prime Minister met with her twice on Friday in a bid to persuade her to back down. Aides tweeted pictures of her in a war room with the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, as they plotted how to block the reforms. Before the renegotiation talks Mrs Syzdlo had said: We want a deal, but not at all costs. Advertisement

Mr Cameron said: What weve said is that you get nothing to start with and you dont get full access till after four years. And now we have to settle the details and put all that in place, which we will.

What we know is you  you get no benefits to start with and you dont get full access for four years. No more something for nothing. Everyone has to pay in before they get out. Its going to be phased in over four years.

Today, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith questioned whether proposals for an emergency brake on migrants benefits would make any significant difference.

He said there had been a glaring need to win controls on free movement, but this had not been achieved.

Mr Duncan Smith said: We originally wanted to have a brake on migration, not just on benefits, and the EU point blank refused to discuss it.

It is deeply troubling that the details of what the EU has offered us on migrant workers access to benefits wont be set out until after the British people have voted.

(Left to right) John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel attend the launch of the Vote Leave campaign at the group's headquarters in central London yesterday

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) suggested the brake could cost British workers their jobs

Lord Green of Deddington, who chairs MigrationWatch UK, said: This deal will do virtually nothing to reduce mass immigration which is the publics greatest concern.

Labour MP Frank Field, a co-chairman of Parliaments cross-party group on balanced migration, said it would be amazing if there wasnt a spike in immigration before the brake is applied.

He added: I dont think overall it will make any difference. It will just change the timing of when people come. People thinking of coming will say better get in now, in case things are difficult over jobs.

Meanwhile Jonathan Portes, a former Downing Street economic adviser, said the benefits part of the EU deal was primarily symbolic.

He said one of the real ironies was that it could increase migration ahead of the application of the seven-year brake, expected next year.

We have quite a bit of research that most people in Eastern Europe dont know very much about the benefits system in the UK. Well, they do now, he said.

The Prime Minister has spent the last six months engaging in the biggest, most publicised awareness campaign about the UK benefits system in Poland [and other countries]. So its possible some people will come in advance of the brake because they know after that theyll be missing out.

NOW FTSE BOSSES JOIN DOOM MONGERS SAYING 'ECONOMY IS AT RISK' The bosses of some of Britains biggest firms are to sign a letter that claims leaving the EU would put the economy at risk. The document is expected to be backed by about a third of chairmen or chief executives of FTSE 100 companies. But critics will say the letter is designed to scare the public into believing an EU exit would threaten jobs and deter investment. The letter, which is due to be released tomorrow will claim: Britain will be stronger, safer and better off remaining a member of the European Union. A host of pro-European bosses are thought to have put their name to the document, including Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of BAE Systems who was at the helm of Cadburys when the chocolate maker fell into US hands. Others include the Italian chief executive of Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, and Sir Andrew Witty, the embattled chief executive of drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline. A new survey by the Institute of Directors shows that six in ten business leaders are likely to vote to remain in the European Union. Advertisement

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested the brake could cost British workers their jobs.

He said: The evidence suggests that Camerons much-heralded emergency brake on in-work migrants benefits will do nothing to cut inward migration to Britain. Nor will it put a penny in the pockets of British workers.

But there are dangers it could drive down pay rates still further as migrant workers take second jobs to make up for lower incomes - and that it could be extended to young workers in Britain on the grounds that they havent contributed enough to qualify.
Asylum seeker baby Ashas release into community detention is temporary as the 12-month-old will ultimately be transferred back to offshore detention on Nauru, the Immigration Minister said.

Peter Dutton made the announcement on Monday shortly after she was transferred from Brisbanes Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital to community detention to the joy of advocates whod staged a round-the-clock vigil in a 10-day stand-off with the government.

Doctors and nurses had refused to discharge the 12-month-old, who they treated for burns suffered on Nauru, until they received assurance she would go to an acceptable home environment.

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Baby Asha, who was being treated for burns she suffered in detention in Nauru, has been released into community detention but will later be transferred to Nauru

Doctors and nurses at Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital refused to release the 12-month-old until they received assurance she would be given an appropriate home environment. However, she will be returned to Nauru

The vigil was momentarily deemed a success by supporters when Mr Dutton on Monday confirmed baby Asha and family had been moved to community detention, where an officer will remain with the family.

But Mr Dutton later clarified that Asha and family would later be transferred to Nauru once legal and medical issues are resolved.

People will go back to Nauru, he told ABC radio.

We are not going to allow people smugglers to get out a message that if you seek assistance in an Australian hospital, that somehow that is your formula to becoming an Australian citizen.

On Monday, dozens of mothers and their babies staged a sit-in at Parliament House in Canberra to protest the removal of baby Asha and others (Greens SA Senator Sarah Hanson-Young pictured centre)

He said police were investigating how the child came to suffer burns while in immigration detention on Nauru.

A small number of protesters remain at the hospital, saying they want to keep the spotlight on the issue of children in offshore immigration detention.

On Monday, dozens of mothers and their babies staged a sit-in at Parliament House in Canberra to protest the removal of baby Asha and others.

They sung 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', according to Christina Hobbes, ACT Senate candidate for the Greens.

'Nice to meet the Mums who came to parliament to tell @TurnbullMalcolm to stop sending children to Nauru,' Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young wrote on Twitter.

Natasha Blucher, a former Nauru detention centre caseworker and family advocate, said she had spoken to Asha's father, and he was incredibly grateful to those who had taken a stand for his family.

It's astounding what can be achieved when the community stands together to demand that a family be treated with humanity, she told ABC radio.

I've spoken with Asha's father and he'd like to pass on his immense gratitude for everything that Australia has done to protect his baby, his wife and his family.

Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler has pointed to the strong body of evidence that detaining children causes them harm, and says baby Asha is now the face of a shameful practice.

What baby Asha's case has done is really put some perspective for the public, giving at least one child a face and a name, Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said

Pop sister act The Veronicas Lisa and Jessica Origliasso made an appearance at the protests

What baby Asha's case has done is really put some perspective for the public, giving at least one child a face and a name, he told ABC radio.

I do hope public opinion is starting to change.

But Mr Dutton hit back at activists accusing some of using the opportunity to promote their own media profiles.

He said the government ultimately wanted all children out of detention.

Protesters who've spent more than a week at the hospital are planning an appreciation rally for doctors on Monday evening.

We feel like the tide is turning on this issue and people now know Nauru is not the place for vulnerable men, women and children, Get Up campaigner Ellen Roberts told AAP.

We'll be keeping pressure on government, and we encourage people to contact local MPs.

An offer from New Zealand to resettle some of the 267 asylum seekers currently in Australia also appeared to be rejected by Mr Dutton.

The 267 asylum seekers includes more than 30 babies, who could be returned to Nauru after a failed High Court challenge to offshore detention.

Pop sister act The Veronicas, Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, made an appearance at the vigil at the Brisbane Hospital.

Protesters have been using the hashtag #LetThemStay to protest the removal of asylum seeker babies to Nauru

What baby Asha's case has done is really put some perspective for the public, giving at least one child a face and a name, Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said

Refugee advocates have maintained a presence at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane around the clock in a 10-day stand-off with the government
A monster shark weighing more than a staggering 400 kilograms has been reeled in off a coast of a popular resort town.

Photographs have emerged of a massive shark dangling by its tail from the edge of a wharf after being caught off the coast at Port Stephens in the Hunter Region of New South Wales.

Hanging above the jetty, up to four fishermen were spotted standing at the weighing station along the wharf, dwarfed by the giant predator, which appeared dead.

Mark Staveley shared the images of the 434 kilogram tiger shark on the Shark Spotters Facebook page after it was captured on Saturday evening.

A monster shark weighing more than a staggering 400 kilograms has been reeled in off a coast

'I'm not a believer in this kind of 'hunt' and I don't normally post these kinds of images, but I am in awe at the size of this shark,' the caption read.

'There is most definitely a case for both sides though, those that think shark numbers should be controlled and those that believe they should be left alone and free.'

The photo was shared on the Shark Spotters Facebook page on Sunday and has since received more than 500 likes and a significant amount of mix responses.

Mel Fisher said: 'I think they should be left where they belong, not killed. We are the ones that enter their home. I still swim in the beach, and if I ever was bitten or killed, I still would be against shark culling.'

Hanging above the jetty, up to four fishermen were spotted standing at the weighing station along the wharf

The photo was shared on Shark Spotters' Facebook page on Sunday and has since attracted a lot of attention

The giant predator was caught off the coast of Port Stephens but it's unknown where the exact location was

Josh Horvath posted: 'I think it's time these 'fishing tournaments' started to take responsibility for what they do to our marine life. If they are going to catch a kill beautiful sharks like this, then stay away from the bay. I for one do not want to see these game fishing tournaments in the bay again. There is no respect. Just Cowboys.'

Deb Campling wrote: 'Such a beautiful animal . What a shame.'

Darren Mobbs said: 'We are the only animal on earth that hunts for the largest apex predator. We are the aliens of this planet....awesome catch tho!'

Ivan Liversidge posted: 'what a great effot [sic].'

And Kurt Fatouros wrote: 'They were fishing they caught 1 monster good on tgem [sic].'
At least 340 blunders are occurring on NHS maternity wards every day, figures reveal.

Mothers and babies are routinely being harmed as a result of mistakes by midwives, doctors and other staff.

Although most errors are classed as near misses or low injury, some have tragic consequences. Last year, 151 women and newborns died on maternity wards and another 351 suffered severe harm.

At least 340 blunders are occurring on NHS maternity wards every day, figures reveal. Above, a stock photograph of a mother with a newborn baby

Today, the NHS will publish a major review into the safety of maternity services which will urge staff to learn from their mistakes to ensure they dont happen again.

It was commissioned in the wake of the scandal at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS trust where up to 30 mothers and babies died needlessly over a decade. Led by Tory peer Baroness Cumberlege, the review is also expected to call for more women to be allowed to give birth at home or in smaller midwife-led centres. But critics will warn that it is a cost-cutting drive as both are far cheaper than hospital births.

Hospital maternity units are struggling to cope with immigration and the rising numbers of older and more obese women who have complicated labours.

Figures from NHS England show that 124,143 safety incidents were reported by NHS hospital maternity units last year.

They included midwives not monitoring the foetuss heartbeat, doctors wrongly administering epidurals, or emergency caesarean sections being carried out too late. The number has increased by 4 per cent on the previous year when 119,561 were reported.

The NHS will publish a major review - led by Tory peer Baroness Cumberlege (pictured) - into the safety of maternity services which will urge staff to learn from their mistakes to ensure they dont happen again

Labour health spokesman Justin Madders said: These disturbing figures show how badly new mums are being let down by this Tory government. Five years ago David Cameron promised 3,000 more midwives, but he failed to deliver them.

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: The sort of things that prevent these incidents are good communication, staff having time to do the job and midwives listening to women. Weve got to improve on all of these.

Were still short of midwives and junior doctors in maternity services and theres no doubt that when theres not enough staff, things are more likely to go wrong. Maureen Treadwell, of the Birth Trauma Association charity, said: Far too many women are being injured and too many babies are dying because necessary and wanted interventions are being delayed.

More than a third of incidents related to treatment or procedure such as pain-relieving epidural injections being inserted into the wrong place or errors with forceps.

Another 8,504 related to infrastructure, which included women and babies being harmed due to a lack of staff. A further 8,724 were due to documentation such as patients medical notes being mixed up or drugs charts misinterpreted.

But three-quarters of the cases were deemed to be near misses and not to have caused any harm to the mother or baby. A further 26,023 caused low injury while 351 were classed as severe and 151 led to death.

The figures only related to incidents which staff bothered to report  there may have been many others that were never logged. Separate data for last year showed that half of NHS maternity units had been forced to close their doors to women in labour because they were too busy.

An NHS England spokesman said: The chances of a baby dying  the stillbirth or neonatal death rate  has fallen by a fifth over the past decade, and maternal mortality has fallen by 50 per cent, but it is vital we take every step to make further gains.

A report into the Morecambe Bay scandal last year revealed how midwives obsessed with natural childbirth failed to involve doctors even when births went dangerously wrong.
Bernie Sanders has desperately rushed to distance himself from his older brother's comments about Bill Clinton being a 'rapist'.

Larry Sanders, an 80-year-old left-wing politician in the UK, scathingly took down the former president in an interview last week about his brother's bid for the Democrat nomination.

He was explaining that he felt Hillary Clinton has not been adequately probed on the detail of her policies - but added a dig about her husband's love life.

'You don't get that detailed discussion,' he told the Daily Beast - adding: 'You get: "Is Hillary a nice person? Is Bill really such a terrible rapist or is he a nice rapist?"'

On Sunday, Bernie, 74, rushed to clarify that he would not call Bill Clinton a rapist and that he disagreed with his older brother.

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On Sunday, Bernie Sanders, 74, rushed to clarify that he would not call Bill Clinton a rapist and that he disagreed with his older brother Larry, 80, who said: 'Is Bill Clinton a terrible rapist or a nice rapist?'

George W. Bush was a bad president, but Bill Clinton was worse, Bernie Sanders' brother declared in an interview on Friday. Larry Sanders is pictured here in his kitchen in Oxford, England

'I disagree with what he said. He speaks for himself, not for me or my campaign,' he told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Instead, the younger Sanders turned the conversation to Hillary's attack on Wall Street, saying that she stole that line from him.

The two Democrat hopefuls are engaged in a neck-and-neck battle for the nomination.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, Larry Sanders made it clear he felt the Clintons were running an unfair campaign against he 'very socialist' brother, and accused them of trying to 'make it personal'.

'[Clinton] was a dreadful presidentin generalfor poor people.'

'A lot of bad key policies didn't come in under the Bushes,' he said.

'The imprisonment stuff stems back to him, the breaking up of the welfare system stems back to him, which caused a lot of misery, the trade dealsthe NAFTA.'

As for Hillary, Sanders deemed her moderate policies 'feeble.'

'I certainly dont dislike herBernard has been very clear to say he likes her and respects her but they have big differences on policy,' he said.

'Theyre not friends but theyre people who worked near each other for 20 years.'

He added that, in his opinion, George W. Bush was a bad president, but Bill Clinton was worse.

The Sanders brothers, Bernie and Larry, in an undated photograph. Larry, right, is six years older than Bernie

Sanders said his younger brother, whom he calls Bernard, is 'very socialist' in his political outlook.

'Bernard is a genuine socialist in his sense of class warfarethat he thinks there is not a national interest so much as there is an interest with sectors of the population,' he told the Daily Beast.

'In that sense, his passion and the sense of conflict between the major owners and the rest of the population is very socialist.'

Sanders, who lives in the UK and works for the leftist Green Party, said he speaks to his brother every other Sunday.

'He'll say, "I'm tired. It's sooooo haaaard." So I say, "But it's going great?" and he says, "Yes, it's going great." I'm the outlet for thatI'm not sure he's even saying that to his wife.'

Bernie Sanders is a 'genuine socialist in his sense of class warfare,' his brother Larry said

As for the prospect of losing, Sanders said his little brother is not worried.

'What he said to me very clearly was: "I don't mind running and making a fool of myself, I've been humiliated beforeI'll go back to doing the job I love, no big sweat, but if I do badly then everyone will say: 'See, I told you, nobody is interested in that crap.'" And for a generation those ideas and the millions of people he thinks need those ideas will be wiped out,' Larry said.

'He would not have run if he thought he would damage the cause"I think I can make a respectable showing"that was his decision. Im not sure that he thought he could win.'

But Sanders thinks there's a good chance that might happen.

'The nomination is the hard partif he wins the nomination it looks to me that he would win handily,' Sanders said. 'I think hes likely to win.'

Larry Sanders, left, with little brother and future presidential candidate Bernie in an undated photograph

In Larry Sanders' view, Bernie's switch from Independent to Democratic Party member in 2015 did not constitute a compromise.

'He's not selling outthere is nothing that he's conceded to the Democratic Party other than the label.'

Speaking of the party establishment, Sanders said 'They must feel like they are up against a juggernaut at the momentit is astonishing with their huge array of elected officials, party officials, and so on.'

'And Bernie comes along and says they got it wrong. Not drastically, not as bad as the Republicans but they got it wrong. And people are saying: "Oh, yeah." And they must feelhow did that happen?'

The Vermont senator has no plans to ditch the Democrats for a last-minute Independent run, Sanders said.

'He didn't want to go through all that bother and elect some right-wing terror. He thinks the Democratic Party should be like his policies.'
Boris Johnson will lead as many as half of Tory MPs against David Cameron after revealing yesterday that he will back the Leave campaign - declaring it was a moment to 'be brave'.

The Mayor of London made his long-awaited announcement amid chaotic scenes outside his house in Islington, North London - just nine minutes after texting the Prime Minister to confirm his decision.

Last night, he invoked the glories of the British Empire and the leadership of Winston Churchill to say the country which gave the world parliamentary democracy should not subject itself to legal colonisation from the EU.

Out: Boris Johnson made his long-awaited announcement on his decision to back the Leave campaign amid chaotic scenes outside his house in north London

Statement: Mr Johnson has invoked the glories of the British Empire and the leadership of Winston Churchill in calling for Britain to take the once in a lifetime chance to end the erosion of democracy.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he said it was a moment to be brave and take a once in a lifetime chance to end the erosion of democracy.

So far, some 139 out of 329 Tory MPs have declared for the Out campaign, and 55 are still to state their intentions.

It means Mr Cameron now faces the prospect of Boris Johnson - one of his principal potential successors - leading half of his parliamentary party into battle against his position.

Mr Johnsons dramatic announcement yesterday was the climax to a weekend of political theatre.

Explaining his reasons in detail last night, he wrote: We have given so much to the world, in ideas and culture, but the most valuable British export and the one for which we are most famous is the one that is now increasingly in question: parliamentary democracy  the way the people express their power.

This is a once in a lifetime chance to vote for real change in Britains relations with Europe. This is the only opportunity we will ever have to show that we care about self-rule.

A vote to Remain will be taken in Brussels as a green light for more federalism, and for the erosion of democracy.

Announcement: He spoke in Islington just nine minutes after texting the Prime Minister to confirm his decision

Opposing views: Mr Johnson will lead as many as half of Tory MPs against Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured yesterday on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show)

In other developments:

Iain Duncan Smith warned remaining in the EU left Britain at greater risk of a Paris-style terrorist attack;

Mr Cameron faced the damaging prospect of more than half of Tory MPs backing Brexit;

The PM admitted details of his emergency brake on migrant benefits have not been nailed down;

He triggered a row by claiming people who love Britain should vote to stay inside the EU;

Bosses of FTSE 100 firms are signing a letter claiming leaving the EU would put the economy at risk.

The intervention by Mr Johnson came as a bitter blow to Mr Cameron, who had long believed that his old rival from their days at Eton and Oxford would ultimately fall in behind his EU re-negotiation package.

The Prime Minister is understood to have offered Mr Johnson a senior Cabinet post  foreign or home secretary  in a fruitless bid to keep him on side.

The mayor claimed he did not want to provoke disunity in the Conservative party, and said he hoped the Prime Minister would stay leader even if he lost the vote.

Tory politicians: Mr Johnson's intervention came as a bitter blow to Mr Cameron, who had long believed that his old rival from their days at Eton and Oxford would ultimately fall in behind his EU re-negotiation package

But his decision sparked a furious reaction from Lord Heseltine, the former Tory deputy prime minister and keen Europhile. He branded Mr Johnsons decision as illogical and said it would lead to hundreds of job losses.

The Tory grandee, who is close to No 10, said: Given that Boris has spent so long agonising over this decision his decision is illogical.

LOOK WHO DAVE HAS TO BE PALS WITH! David Cameron was accused of hypocrisy last night as it was pointed out he will have to line up alongside adversaries Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon to defend staying in the European Union. The Prime Minister had warned that anyone wanting to join the Leave campaign would face the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark. His comment referred to Mr Farages appearance on Friday with Mr Galloway  the former Respect MP who was kicked out of the Labour party in 2003  at an event promoting Leave campaign group Grassroots Out. But former defence secretary Liam Fox pointed out Mr Cameron will have to join forces with some of his biggest opponents. Fellow supporters of the In campaign include SNP leader Miss Sturgeon, with whom he is pictured right, and Labour leader Mr Corbyn. He could also find himself on the same side as militant leaders of trade unions if they back the In campaign  such as Unites General Secretary Red Len McCluskey. Dr Fox said: People say: Oh, how could you be in the same campaign as George Galloway and others, but the Prime Minister is going to have to link arms with Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn on that side of the argument  not a pretty picture, I have to say. Advertisement

If it takes you this long to make up your mind about something so fundamental and you still have questions, then surely the right option is to stay with what you know rather than risk our economy and security with a leap in the dark.

If he were to be successful in his ambition to cut us off from Europe, the flags would fly in Frankfurt and Paris in his honour. At a stroke, he would have blown away the safeguards for our financial services industry that the Prime Minister has just secured.

That is to risk countless jobs across our country from Edinburgh in the north to Bournemouth in the south and, of course, London itself.

Yesterday, speaking outside his house, the London mayor said the EU was in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control.

I would like to see a relationship based more on trade but with much less of this supranational element, he said.

So thats why I have decided after a huge amount of heartache  because I did not want to do anything to go against David Cameron or the government  I dont think theres anything else I can do.

I will be advocating Vote Leave because I want a better deal for the people of this country, to save them money and to take back control.

Later, in his newspaper article, Mr Johnson wrote that the EU has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable.

He said the public were enraged by inability of British politicians to control immigration. This alienation from politics was contributing to the rise of extremist parties.

The mayor said: There is only one way to get the change we need  and that is to vote to go; because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says No.

He rejected claims it would be impossible to negotiate decent trade deals if the people vote for Leave, pointing out that we used to run the biggest empire the world has ever seen.

We have become so used to Nanny in Brussels that we have become infantilised, incapable of imagining an independent future, he wrote.

A vote to Remain will be taken in Brussels as a green light for more federalism, and for the erosion of democracy London Mayor Boris Johnson

No 10 let it be known that Mr Johnson had used a text to inform Mr Cameron. However the mayors aides said he had sent the PM an email on Saturday saying he would probably be Out. There was no reply.

On the BBC yesterday Mr Cameron warned that Mr Johnson would be linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway.

Friends of the mayor insisted he had no intention of turning the referendum on June 23 into Dave v Boris.

He does not plan to lead the Out campaign, debate against the PM or become involved in any briefing wars, insiders said.

The mayor said: I stress what I wont do is to take part in lots of blooming TV debates against other members of my party. If Im asked my views I will give my views.

He insisted it had nothing to do with any ambition to replace Mr Cameron as prime minister.

But bookmakers responded to the news by installing him as the new 2/1 favourite to be next Tory leader, overtaking Chancellor George Osborne.

Tory grandee: Mr Johnson's decision sparked a furious reaction from former Conservative deputy prime minister and keen Europhile, Lord Heseltine

Campaigning for Out will vastly increase his popularity with grassroots Tory members, who have the final say over who will win the contest.

It also increases the chances of him securing the support of enough Tory MPs to ensure he is one of the two names that will go forward to the final ballot of party members.

After securing the backing of Justice Secretary Mr Gove, the Out camp was delighted. Sources said it now had the most popular and best known Tory MP in Mr Johnson and the partys biggest brain in Mr Gove.

Mr Johnson said Europe was a political project in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control.

He claimed UK sovereignty was being very greatly eroded by EU institutions, with too much judicial activism and legislation coming out of the EU.

He added: I look at what the Prime Minister achieved from the EU the other day and I think given the time he had he did fantastically well.

But I dont think anyone could realistically claim that this is fundamental reform of the EU or of Britains relationship with the EU.

I dont see how having worried about this issue for quite so long I can then pass up what may be the only chance any of us has in our lifetime.

In a further blow to the Prime Minister, it emerged that a quarter of Tory MEPs will also defy him by campaigning for Brexit.

Five of the 20 Conservatives who sit in the European Parliament have informed No10 of their decision, and a further three are yet to make up their minds.

Yesterday, at least 30 MPs  including a number of rising stars from the 2010 intake  will launch a new project to draw up plans for the UK outside of the EU.

The group, which includes Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom and Communities Minister James Wharton, is to publish a report demolishing the PMs claims of success in his negotiations last week.

Mr Wharton will be considered a blow to Mr Cameron and George Osborne, given he is in charge of the Chancellors Northern Powerhouse project.

Yesterday, London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith also declared himself in favour of Brexit.

Mr Cameron was left highlighting the fact that 23 of the 29 ministers who attend Cabinet had backed his deal.

In a relief to Number Ten, Mr Cameron managed to secure the support of Cabinet heavyweights Sajid Javid and Theresa May, who had been the subject of overtures from the Out campaign.

But Business Secretary Mr Javid said he would be voting for the UK to remain in the EU with a heavy heart and no enthusiasm. He said leaving the EU could add to economic turbulence.

In a blistering article, Justice Secretary Michael Gove  a close friend and key ally of Mr Cameron  said the EU was mired in the past. He said choosing to join the leave campaign had been the most difficult decision of my political life.

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said leaving the EU was a safer option than staying in it.

HOW BoJo'S VIEWS HAVE VEERED LIKE A SHOPPING TROLLEY Boris Johnsons backing for Brexit comes after months and years of indecision, prevarication and fence-sitting. As recently as last week, he was telling friends he was veering all over the place like a shopping trolley. Here, in Boriss own words, we reveal how he has kept on changing his mind. IN Look, Im actually rather pro-European, actually. I certainly want a European community where one can go and scoff croissants, drink delicious coffee, learn foreign languages and generally make love to foreign women. January 1997 We cant leave Europe. Were part of the European Continent. What is the English Channel? Its a primeval river that got slightly too big  Were always going to be a part of Europe psychologically. August 2015, Der Spiegel We want, in an ideal world, to stay in a reformed European Union but I think the price of getting out is lower than its ever been. Its better for us to stay in, but to stay in a reformed EU. Thats where I am. October 2015, BBC interview, Japan The trouble is Im not an outer. What he reportedly told eurosceptics trying to persuade him to lead the Leave campaign January 2016 Ive never been an Outer. Boris to Eurosceptic Tory MP Bernard Jenkin after he was taunted in the House of Commons. February 3, 2016 OUT No matter how deep public anger, how many fishermens wives chain themselves to the railings in Downing Street, or how many trawlers tie up alongside the terrace of the House of Commons, the Government will not do it. That will not be the outcome of this debate. The objection is legal. As long as Britain remains a signatory of the EU Treaty, it cannot unilaterally abjure one part of it without abjuring the whole. On fisheries policy. January 1995 I went there [Brussels] a pretty starry-eyed idealist. I came out a pretty vinegary sceptic. On his time as a journalist in Brussels. May 2001 In the next couple of years we are entitled to pose the question, What is the point of the EU?. December 2013, Daily Telegraph We have nothing to be afraid of in going for an alternative future...Im sure there is a great and glorious future for Britain as an open, outward looking economy that has great trading relations with Europe, but that starts to think about the rest of the world where you are seeing huge growth. People should not be paranoid and scared about that option. August 2014, LBC Radio phone-in It should be up to this Parliament and this country  not Jean-Claude Juncker  to decide if too many people are coming here. It is not that we object to immigration in itself ... It is about who decides; it is about who is ultimately responsible; it is about control. Speech to Tory conference, October 2015 Advertisement

ANDREW PIERCE: Be in no doubt - Mr Ambition wants PMs job

Finally, Boris Johnson, an inveterate political ditherer, has come off the EU fence. And its a move that could define his place in history.

He would have preferred to have delayed any announcement  to have given himself time to mull over public reaction to David Camerons deal and assess which choice would be in his own best interests.

For while Boris has often been an outspoken critic of Brussels, dont be in any doubt  the crucial factor in this dramatic decision was: What would most promote the career of Alexander Boris de Pfeffle Johnson?

Boris Johnson (pictured with David Cameron) has a target: Being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

It has been woven into political folklore that when Boris was a young man, he told people that his ambition was to be world king.

ANDREW PIERCE: It has been woven into political folklore that when Boris was a young man, he told people that his ambition was to be world king

That particular job may never be available  but Boris has another target: Being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

He would not have launched himself behind Brexit unless he thought it served that grand design.

Even so, it was not an inevitable decision. Over recent days, the London mayor confessed he had been veering like a supermarket shopping trolley over which side to back.

Among competing forces was the lure that if he backed the Stay campaign, he could have exacted from Cameron a top Cabinet post  possibly, sources suggest, even Foreign Secretary or Home Secretary. Victory in the referendum, many believe, would then have made him a shoo-in to succeed Cameron as Tory leader.

In the opposing balance was his intense rivalry with fellow old Etonian Cameron and the opportunity to outflank his leadership rivals by striking out against the Establishment and standing up for Britain in the style of his hero Winston Churchill.

An astute student of recent political history, Boris will also have realised he was facing his own Portillo moment. That is a reference to Thatcherite minister Michael Portillo, who 20 years ago seemed destined to be Tory leader but fatally delayed deciding whether to stand in 1995.

Having allowed allies to set up a campaign HQ, and even install extra phone lines, Portillo lost his nerve at the 11th hour; John Major kept the job and Portillos political reputation never recovered.

There are, indeed, similarities between the two men.

It took months of public and private agonising for Boris to decide to challenge to be London mayor. Ultimately, he agreed to run after Cameron and George Osborne told him that if he didnt, he had no future in Tory frontbench politics.

Residence: The mayors Islington home (above) is ironically located about half a mile from the restaurant where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown infamously carved up the Labour leadership between them in 1994

Then, after winning the mayoralty  and brilliantly securing a second term  there was another bout of confusion and dithering when he stated that he wouldnt combine being mayor and standing as an MP.

Yet that is precisely what he then did  because he calculated that having both jobs would further his career.

Tories: Friends of Boris were exasperated that Michael Gove (pictured at Boris's home last week) had stolen the moral high ground by declaring first

The fact is that he had been boxed into a corner this weekend by Michael Gove, who had made the bolder move of breaking Tory ranks quicker. Friends of Boris were exasperated that Gove had stolen the moral high ground by declaring first.

It was not as if Boris was not aware of Goves intentions.

The Justice Secretary had made it clear he would back the Leave campaign when the pair met for dinner last week at the mayors 3million Islington home  ironically located about half a mile from Granita, the restaurant where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown infamously carved up the Labour leadership between them in 1994.

Im told that long-time allies of Boris, such as Lynton Crosby, who masterminded the Conservative general election victory, then privately urged him to throw his hat in with Leave.

There was also another key calculation in Boriss mind. Whenever Cameron steps down as Tory leader, his replacement will be chosen from a shortlist of two by the partys 100,000-plus members.

It is estimated that around 70 per cent of those want to quit the EU  and so they would most likely pick a man or woman who has championed the anti-EU cause.

Boriss qualms over Europe have always been at odds with his very international background  born in New York (to a father who has worked for the European Commission and has been an MEP), his great-great-grandfather was a Muslim entrepreneur from Anatolia, he worked in Brussels and he has toured the world drumming up business for London.

Yet, as a young Brussels correspondent, he established himself as one of the few Eurosceptic journalists in the late 80s and early 90s, belligerently criticising the European Commissions excesses.

More recently, however, he has blown hot and cold  one moment saying there was nothing to fear from Brexit; the next, vehemently denying he was an outer.

Never recovered: Thatcherite minister Michael Portillo (pictured next to a portrait of his former leader) 20 years ago seemed destined to be Tory leader but fatally delayed deciding whether to stand in 1995

Only two weeks ago, in his weekly newspaper column, he wobbled again  writing that the choice was simple in favour of staying, as it was in Britains interest to be intimately engaged in the workings of a Continent with a grim 20th-century history.

Leaving would be read as a very negative signal for Europe. It would dismay some of our closest friends, not least the eastern Europeans for whom the EU has been a force for good, stability, openness and prosperity.

But always in the background was the thought of the Tory leadership.

Once, discussing the prospect of leading his party, Boris famously said that if the ball came loose from the back of a scrum, it would be a great thing to have a crack at.
After countless leaks and teasers, Samsung has officially launched the new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - with a little help from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

The S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch (14cm) screen, while the S7 has a smaller 5.1-inch display, with both handsets boasting water resistant features that were missing on the S6 and S6 Edge.

As rumours suggested, the phones feature an 'always-on' display so users can see basic phone information, such as time, date and notifications, without having to wake it up and use up battery life.

Scroll down for video

After countless leaks and teasers, Samsung has officially launched the new Galaxy S7 (right) and S7 Edge (left) phones, which have a 5.1 and 5.5-inch screen respectively. As rumours suggested, the phones feature an 'always-on' display so users can see notifications, without having to wake it up and use up battery life

Futuristic: Attendees use the new Samsung Gear 360, a 360-degree camera, during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this week's Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona

While the technology is new to Samsung handsets, the Nexus 6P and Motorola Moto X both use always-on ambient displays.

The ambient display works by only showing the pixels that are needed to display a particular notification at the top of the screen.

For instance, when a notification arrives, it appears in black and white on a small portion on the S7 and S7 Edges screen, meaning the phone doesn't have to use its battery's energy powering up all of its pixels.

'We know that people check their phones on average 85 times a day,' said Samsungs Vice president of brand and product marketing, Europe, Rory ONeill.

FACEBOOK'S MARK ZUCKERBERG ON VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY Presentation: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Samsung Mobile chief DJ Koh shake hands today in Barcelona Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage at the conference to sing the praises of Samsung's Gear VR headset, which uses Facebook's Oculus Rift technology. He said Facebook is committed to VR technology for the long-term and it's 'the next platform. 'One day youll put on a headset and that will change the way you work and communicate.' He said he intends to film his daughter's first steps using virtual reality technology. Samsung's Galaxy 360 Camera can be used to record footage, processed by the new handsets that can be played on the Gear VR headset. 'I think about my baby daughter and the way I want to remember when she takes her first steps,' he said. 'When I took my first steps, my parents just took a pen and wrote the date down in a baby book...when my cousin, when her son took his first steps, she took a photo with a camera. My sister, when her son took his first steps, she took a video on her phone. 'But I want to capture the whole scene, so I hope we can take a 360 video. 'So that way, even if my parents and my family aren't there to experience it in person, they can feel like they're right there with us. VR is the next platform, where anyone can create and experience anything they want.' Zuckerberg said that since Gear VR launched in November 2015, the response has been incredibly strong. More than 200 games and apps are now available for the platform in the Oculus store, and people have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR. The demand for more immersive videos is growing too. More than 20,000 360 videos have been uploaded to Facebook, with hundreds more added daily. Facebook is bringing its 'dynamic streaming technology for 360 to Gear VR, which increases video resolution in VR by four times, while reducing the bandwidth needed to view it - 'so videos in VR look clearer and play faster.' Zuckerberg said that since Gear VR (current headset pictured) launched in November 2015, the response has been incredibly strong. More than 200 games and apps are now available for the platform in the Oculus store, and people have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR Zuckerberg revealed his firm has a team of hundreds working on the future of social interaction in VR, from how people can share today's VR videos, to how meetings could be held in VR in the future. 'Going back about 10 years, most of what we shared and experienced was text,' he said. 'And then it was photos. And now we're entering into a world where that's video. 'But pretty soon we're going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you're right there in person. 'There are lots of other challenges that we need to solve to create great VR experiences. Facebook, with Oculus, are committed to this for the long term... 'VR is going to be the most social platform... Gear VR is by far the best mobile VR experience. 'And that's because it combines the best hardware, from Samsung, with the best software - from Facebook, with Oculus.' Advertisement

The flagship S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch (14cm) screen, while the S7 has a 5.1-inch display. They both have other features seen in previous Galaxy devices that users missed in the S6 and S6 Edge (pictured)

As rumours suggested, the phones feature an 'always-on' display so users can see basic phone information, such as time, date and notifications without having to wake it up and use up battery life. This image shows the S7 Edge's curved screen and slim profile

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 AND S7 EDGE Lee Bell tested the handsets for MailOnline. 'I was impressed with the design and found it noticeably more solid than past handsets. 'I also liked the S7 Edges user interface, which features an extended Edge panel app menu that doubles the number of apps compared with the S6 Edge. 'It is brought up with a left swipe of the right side of the screen 'The camera is super-fast at focusing on different objects in different lighting conditions thanks to the double lens design The S7 Edges user interface, features an extended Edge panel app menu (pictured) that doubles the number of apps compared with the S6 Edge. It is brought up with a left swipe of the right side of the screen 'Vibrancy on both screens is amazing, and photos appear very rich in colour. 'Balance levels are great, viewing angles are wide and text and icons are crisp. 'The Samsung Edge UI user interface is much cleaner than weve seen from Samsung phones in the past. 'I was impressed at how good a job Samsung has done in making it simpler to use and most of the additions are positive. 'The Edge S7 also doesnt feel as big as other 5.5-inch smartphones I've used due to the ergonomics. 'Samsung said a proprietary 3D thermos-forming engineering process has been used to ensure the tight curve fits into a slimmer chassis, hence its smaller feel. 'Overall, both devices feel much more luxurious than previous models thanks to their updated design and simpler user interface. Advertisement

'For a large amount of people thats usually to check the clock or the calendar so what weve done is built a series of configured time, or calendar, or "other" always on displays, which means the display will always be on on the device.'

He explained the S7's super-AMOLED can be controlled pixel-by-pixel.

'Because we used super-AMOLED we are much more power efficient in terms of how it will respect the battery,' he added.

A new feature that will excite more accident-prone users is the reintroduction of a water resistant finish.

On the inside, the S7 and S7 Edge (pictured) tout more powerful central and graphics processors than the S6 versions. Samsung wouldnt confirm the make of these chips but said theyd be joined by 4GB of RAM, making them 'the most powerful processors in an S range ever'

Both devices are waterproof up to a depth of 5ft (1.5 metres) for as long as 30 minutes, with an IP68 Ingress Protection rating alongside what Samsung says is 'a zero compromise on design.' The S7 is pictured

HOW 'ALWAYS ON' WORKS The concept of always-on is not new. It has already featured on the Nexus 6P and Motorola Moto X, which both use always-on ambient display in a bid to save battery life. Ambient displays work by only showing the pixels that are needed to display a particular notification at the top of the screen, for example. For instance, on Google's Nexus 6P smartphone, when a notification arrives, it appears in a black and white on a small portion on the screen. This means the phone doesn't have to use its battery's energy powering up all of its pixels. However, previous phones sporting ambient screens have only showed limited information on the screen. Advertisement

Both devices are waterproof up to a depth of 5ft (1.5 metres) for as long as 30 minutes, with an IP68 Ingress Protection rating alongside what Samsung says is 'a zero compromise on design'.

The waterproof feature was first introduced in the Galaxy S5 two years ago but disappeared when Samsung ushered in the Galaxy S6.

Samsung said it has brought back the feature due to user feedback, but unlike the S5 there is no removable cap where the charger slot is.

Instead, Samsung has made sure the devices metal bodies are fully water tight, locked within the design of the phone.

On the inside, the S7 and S7 Edge tout more powerful central and graphics processors than the S6 versions.

Samsung wouldnt confirm the make of these chips but said theyd be joined by 4GB of RAM, making them 'the most powerful processors in an S range ever'.

To keep them cool, the handsets have got internal air conditioning thanks to technology first used for cooling rockets.

As for storage, Samsung has extended its SIM tray to include an SD card slot to be used for expandable memory up to 200GB, meaning users can store hundreds or even thousands more photos, videos or music locally on the handset.

As for storage, Samsung has extended its SIM tray to include an SD card slot to be used for expandable memory up to 200GB, meaning users can store hundreds or even thousands more photos, videos or music locally on the handset

When it comes to the camera, Samsung claims both the S7 and S7 Edge smartphones are the first in the world to feature dual pixel sensors (rear-facing camera pictured)

WATERPROOF RATINGS EXPLAINED Both devices are waterproof up to a depth of 5ft (1.5 metres) for as long as 30 minutes, with an IP68 Ingress Protection rating. IP stands for Ingress Protection, created by the International Electrotechnical Commission. It is used to classify how much a coating provides protection. The rating is typically followed by two numbers - the first is the level of dust resistance, the second is water resistance. Dust resistance ranges from zero to six, and water resistance ranges from zero to nine. If an X is included, the device doesn't offer a classified rating for that substance. A rating of seven on the waterproof scale means: 'Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water (up to one metre).' Advertisement

When it comes to the camera, Samsung claims both the S7 and S7 Edge smartphones are the first in the world to feature dual pixel sensors.

The addition of an extra sensor means the phones camera can focus in on an object much quicker, 'the same way your eyes work together to focus quicker,' Mr ONeill said.

Theres also a brighter lens and bigger pixels in the S7 and S7 Edges camera so that they let in more light to improve aperture and therefore work better in low light conditions.

The company said the handsets have the largest aperture of any smartphone camera, to let more light in, meaning it can be used to take great shots in low light.

'The pixels on this lens are bigger by 1.5 micrometers, so lets in 56 percent more light, making it work better in low lighting,' he added.

As part of the presentation, the company showed a comparison between the S7's camera and that of the iPhone 6S Plus, and the demo seemed to show Samsung's being faster, brighter and sharper.

Samsung also showed off a 'motion panorama' mode and optional clip-on fish eye and wide angle lenses for budding photographers.

The camera in the Galaxy S6 had a slightly protracted lens that stuck out of the back, but it is less noticeable in the new handset.

Samsung said it has shrunk this a little in the S7 and S7 Edge, making it more in line with the shell of the device.

Both of the new handsets have larger batteries than their predecessors.

The S7 now features a 3,000mAh and the S7 Edge a 3600mAh battery, which promises longer battery life.

Samsung said it has shrunk this a little in the S7 and S7 Edge, making it more in line with the shell of the device. The S7 now features a 3,000mAh and the S7 Edge a 3600mAh battery, which promises longer battery life

As part of the smartphone announcement, Samsung also unveiled the Galaxy 360, a camera that is capable of recording 360 degree films. It is shown here alongside an Edge handset and VR headset

SAMSUNG'S GEAR 360 CAMERA As part of the smartphone announcement, Samsung also unveiled the Galaxy 360, a camera that is capable of recording 360 degree films. In what Samsung is hoping will 'change how you create memories', the 360 cam can be controlled by a users phone and works by recording two 180 degree movies from each of two fish eye cameras, and stitching these together to create a 360 film. Advertisement

Samsung said the S7 Edge will be able to perform for 13 hours while playing non-stop video content - for example, a whole series of Game of Thrones.

The firm said those who pre-order the handsets in Europe will receive a free Gear VR headset.

Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to talk about the phones, virtual reality and Facebook, saying his company is committed to VR for the long-term.

'Going back about 10 years, most of what we shared and experienced was text,' he said.

'And then it was photos. And now we're entering into a world where that's video.

'But pretty soon we're going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you're right there in person.

'There are lots of other challenges that we need to solve to create great VR experiences. Facebook, with Oculus, are committed to this for the long term...

'VR is going to be the most social platform... Gear VR is by far the best mobile VR experience.

As part of the announcement, Samsung also the Galaxy 360, a camera that is capable of recording 360 degree films.

In what Samsung is hoping will 'change how you create memories', the 360 cam can be controlled by a users phone and works by recording two 180 degree movies from each of two fish eye cameras, and stitching these together to create a 360 film.

Zuckerberg said virtual reality films can be easily shared on Facebook and technology is being rolled out in the coming weeks to make the process easier.

The Gear VR is already on sale and the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge handsets will go on sale on 11 March, with pre-orders open in 'a matter of days'.

They will be available in onyx black, gold platinum, silver titanium and white pearl.

Those who pre-order them in the US and Europe will receive a free Gear VR headset.
New buddy service will help you make the most of your stopover in Iceland

When booking a special trip away, I spend weeks trawling through guide books and websites to ensure I make the most of my holiday.

But more often than not, I arrive at 'secret' locations to find hoards of other camera-wielding tourists on their toes trying get the best photos.

Now the bright sparks at Icelandair have come up with a solution to this problem in the form of the Stopover Buddy service.

Northern Lights: Your buddy can't guarantee you will see the aurora borealis but their local knowledge means they will certainly give you the best chance

Stunning scenery: Our base for the 48-hour trip was Reykjavik, where the scenery will take your breath away

Glacier: Langjokull is the second largest glacier in Iceland. We visited an ice tunnel at its peak but it is the views that really make the bumpy off-road journey to the top of the ice cap worthwhile

Tell them your interests and they will pair you with a local, and not just any local, one of their staff members.

It could be airline CEO Birkir Holm Gunason, who is keen to take passengers skiing off-piste, or pilot Bjorn Ingi Haflidason, who has been working for the firm for 20 years.

My buddy was Icelandair website manager, part-time mountain rescuer and keen photographer Siggi Anton.

As an adventurer with incredible local knowledge, he knew how to show off his country in all its glory.

I am one of few tourists who can say they have watched the Northern Lights while sitting in a hot rock pool with an ice cold beer in the middle of the countryside. And have walked through an ice tunnel on the top of a glacier.

Of course your buddy can't guarantee you see the aurora borealis, but as locals they will give you the best chance of seeing them if they do decide to make an appearance.

Buddy: I was paired with Icelandair website manager, part-time mountain rescuer and keen photographer Siggi Anton, who took many of the photographs for this piece

Waterfalls: Iceland was one of the world's fastest-growing tourist destinations with 1.3million visitors last year

Siggi not only knew the best places to take in the country's unparalleled views, but had visited them ahead of my visit to ensure they are still up to his exacting standard.

I had just 48 hours in Iceland, which is surprisingly only a two-and-a-half hour flight from London, so having a pre-planned itinerary was essential.

Every restaurant had been carefully chosen, meaning we only ate traditional Icelandic fare - mostly mouth-watering fresh fish and juicy steaks, as well as some more unusual dishes.

My buddy's enthusiasm for his country's food encouraged me to try things I might otherwise have steered clear of.

Our first taste of Icelandic cuisine was at Apotek restaurant and hotel in the centre of Reykjavic, in a building which once served as the capital's pharmacy.

The menu had items on it that are normal in Iceland, but others might find controversial, such as minke whale and puffin. There's also crispy duck served on a Belgian waffle.

I tried a mouthful of the seabird - an animal that is not endangered - which bizarrely tasted like both meat and smoked fish, but it wasn't really my cup of tea.

Ice tunnel: Couples looking for an unusual location for their wedding can get married in this chapel in a man-made ice tunnel at the top of Langjokull glacier

Magical: The tunnel is lit with artificial lights that mimic the real thing. The real treat at the top of the glacier is the unspoiled view

A range of cocktails called 'painkillers, stimulants, tranquillisers and even placebos (non-alcoholic)' were served up by the restaurant's 'pharmacists'.

The base for our two-night stay was the Reykjavik Lights hotel, a few minutes from the centre of the city.

Although nothing to write home about, the bed was extremely comfortable and the room had everything I needed to recuperate after a long day exploring.

Rooms at other hotels in Reykjavic had sold out - a sign of the increasing popularity of the picturesque Nordic country.

Siggi arrived at the hotel at 8am on our only full day in the country bright-eyed and bushy-tailed - and he was determined to make sure we didn't waste a minute of it.

A proud Icelander, he was keen to show off the country's surprising history with a quick stop at the former home of Snorri Sturluson - one of the most famous Icelanders of all time.

The work of the historian, poet, and politician, born in 1179, inspired Game of Thrones, Avatar and Thor.

Langjokull glacier - the second largest in Iceland - was the next stop on our whirlwind tour of the island.

Perfect picture: Jenny Stanton (second from right) at the top of the glacier with her travel companions

Pimp my ride: We navigated the precarious off-road journey to the top of the glacier in a pimped-up Mercedes

And when travelling to the top of an ice cap, why not travel in style? We navigated the precarious off-road journey in a pimped-up Mercedes.

A treat awaited us at the top - a 500m man-made ice tunnel, which is the largest of its type in the world.

Lights behind the ice emulates the colours of a natural tunnel, but I doubt it compares to the real thing. In my opinion, it is the view from the top of the glacier that is the real reason for taking the trip.

Imagine standing at the top of a mountain in the French Alps looking across the snow-tipped peaks, but there is no sign of civilisation for as far as the eye can see.

The best was yet to come... a Northern Lights expedition. With our foreheads pressed up against the steamed up windows of our mini-bus, we stared out intently in the hope of seeing the elusive natural phenomenen so many of us have dreamed of seeing.

There was a strangely tense atmosphere inside the vehicle as Siggi and his friend Kristinn, an Icelandair pilot who joined us for the day, searched for the aurora borealis.

Our buddy spotted a faint light in the sky, almost invisible to the naked eye. It was what we had been looking for.

Mouthwatering: Iceland is known for its unusual dishes, but also for its unbelievably tasty fresh seafood

Pharmacy: Our first taste of Icelandic cuisine was at Apotek restaurant and hotel in the centre of Reykjavic, which once served as the capital's pharmacy

It was a little disappointing - I had imagined bright green and violet lights dancing in the sky - but this was barely visible.

We continued our journey to Siggi's secret hot spring in the countryside, and as I was changing into my swimsuit in the back seat, I heard a cry of 'I can see them!'

Half dressed (but still decent), I leaned out of the mini-bus and into the snow to see green lights flickering in the sky. It was breathtaking.

And even better, we then slipped into a natural, albeit a muddy 40C hot tub with a bottle of beer as the lights faded away.

It was a magical end to my first trip to Iceland, which wouldn't have been the same without my buddy Siggi.

Iceland was one of the world's fastest-growing tourist destinations last year, so the new service has come at exactly the right time if, like me, you want to experience the country through the eyes of a local.

Sunrise: My buddy Siggi used his local knowledge to provide me with an unforgettable first trip to Iceland
Detroit has a glorious past, a perilous present and an uncertain future, all of which make it one of the edgiest destinations in America today.

The Motor City  once renowned for producing cars by Ford and General Motors, and for its Motown hits  is now best known for inner-city decay, a shrinking population and crime.

But a renaissance is under way.

Towering presence: The city skyline from the Detroit River is a magnificent sight to see

Buyers are snapping up inner-city properties at rock-bottom prices, and artists  usually the first to sniff an upward swing in fortune  are establishing studios.

Last summer Virgin Atlantic started daily flights from Heathrow to Detroit Metropolitan, making it the only UK airline to fly there direct.

After travelling on the inaugural flight and meeting local business leaders, Virgin boss Richard Branson described Detroit as 'vibrant'.

There can be no hiding the city's recent miseries, though.

As the motor industry declined and the workers moved out, thousands of homes, businesses, hotels, schools and theatres were abandoned.

Detroit slipped from being the country's fourth-biggest city to its 18th.

There are so many dilapidated buildings that, ironically, they have become a tourist draw. People come to snoop around decaying factories and ghost hotels.

The trend has been dubbed 'ruin porn', and visions of rusting girders and collapsed ceilings have become the stuff of coffee-table books.

Home of Motown: In the 1960s, Detroit was the place to go for great music. Pictured: The Supremes

To get the best (and safest) view, I took a tour with Jesse Welter, a photographer who specialises in exploring the ruins.

In a smart van, I was driven to two car plants, a theatre, a church and a school. What they had in common was that they'd been deserted and vandalised and were slowly being taken apart by the elements.

For four-and-a-half hours, our group sauntered through vast vacant factory spaces, stepping over broken glass and scaling teetering staircases.

The only people entering these sites now appear to be tourists, photographers, graffiti artists and, in the case of the 40-acre Packard Plant, a few security guards, although anything worth stealing has long been stolen.

I understand the appeal of this contemporary wasteland. Blown plaster, peeling paint and twisted metal have their own beauty.

There is something moving about an empty, dusty classroom containing nothing but a teacher's desk with an open book.

Within 30 minutes of completing the tour I was at the Wheelhouse on Detroit's riverfront being kitted out for a two-and-a-half-hour bike ride led by Jason Hall.

It was like going from a war zone to Bel-Air.

Taking a lead: Steve with Detroit Slow Roll founder Jason Hall, far left. Slow Roll is a community bike ride

Hall is the sort of person Richard Branson had in mind. Every Monday evening from April to October, Hall organises a Detroit Slow Roll  a huge bike ride taken at a gentle pace.

The events began with 130 cyclists and now attract up to 3,000.

We started along a cycle path by the river and headed to Indian Village, the most upmarket area of central Detroit with streets lined by stately homes. There's no decay on these streets.

One of Detroit's earlier entrepreneurs was Motown founder Berry Gordy. With artists such as Smokey Robinson and The Supremes, he made the city a place of renown for every music-loving teenager of the 1960s.

A tour of the Motown Museum concluded in the studio itself where hits such as Uptight and Reach Out I'll Be There were recorded.

It's small and photos on the wall show Gordy looking adoringly at Diana Ross on the spot where we were standing.

On my last day I took a cruise down the Detroit River past some of the grander sights  the GM Renaissance Center, the Joe Louis Arena and Hart Plaza.

On the opposite bank was Windsor, Ontario, with its neat houses and Canadian flags.

We disembarked near Grosse Pointe, Detroit's most glamorous suburb, where the mansions rival those you'll find in Beverly Hills.

Historian Thomas Sugrue said that Detroit is where the boundaries of the American dream and the American nightmare are 'powerfully and painfully visible'.

It's not always comfortable viewing, but it's never boring.
I am lying on a lounger laughing at a cat chasing, in vain, a dragonfly at the edge of the pool.

In the distance, I can see Moroccos Atlas Mountains, topped with a frosting of snow, etched against blue sky.

It is hot, it is winter, and I am feeling smug.

Saintly: The Majorelle Gardens, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent proved a popular outing for Nina

There is nothing more satisfying than escaping the gloom of winter with a bargain break, expecting to rough it a bit, but finding instead five-star charm and a funky vibe.

On the outskirts of Marrakech, the Fellah Hotel is a haven from the dubious delights of the medina.

We arrive, blinking like moles, to discover an enchanting place behind big wooden doors.

The milk-chocolate-coloured villas are dotted through desert grounds studded with wooden sculptures, cacti, orange trees, and beds of rosemary, thyme and lavender. The scent is absolutely gorgeous.

The architecture is modern with an African flavour  the kind of place you see in fashion shoots  and our suite is both vast and chic.

The Cultural Centre in the grounds, with a library containing 10,000 books, provides mental stimulation.

And pedalling each morning in the jungly gym among banana trees helps to work off the excesses of the delicious food, some of which hotel staff grow themselves.

And the Wat Po spa provides Thai massages to destress even further.

Hustle and bustle: The Jemaa el-Fna square was a bit too busy so the Hotel Fellah oasis beckoned

One day we took a taxi (costing about 14) to the city to see the magnificent Jardin Majorelle, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent.

After that the mayhem of the medina was almost too much. Rattled by a skirmish with a snake-charmer in the famous Jemaa el-Fna square (he suddenly advanced towards me waving one of his larger reptiles), we dived into the souk behind.

People talk about the delights of getting lost in the maze of little alleys crammed with stalls and the thrill of striking a bargain, but I hate haggling, cannot bear being pestered, and end up feeling guilty that I dont enjoy what so many people seem to relish.

So we scuttled back to our oasis where we let go.

At the Fellah we felt completely relaxed  and just let that cat entertain us.
British Airways is set to fly from Stansted  home of the low-cost airlines  for the first time.

From May 28, it will fly to four European beach destinations: Palma, Ibiza, Malaga, and Faro for the Algarve.

Operated by BA's subsidiary BA CityFlyer, the flights will take place once a week, at weekends. The 98-seater Embraer 190 aircraft are being switched from London City Airport.

With Stansted the heartland of the low-cost airlines, is BA an attractive proposition for short-haul flights to Europe when compared against easyJet and Ryanair?

Take flight: BA CityFlyer will begin four routes from Stanstead to European beach destinations come May 28

Basic fares

BA says its hand-baggage only fares from Stansted start at 98 return. Picking the Malaga route from June 18 to 25, the fare I found online on a dummy booking was 213 return.

Flying Stansted-Malaga on the same dates, the cheapest fare with Ryanair was 142 return, and 234 return with easyJet.

For Stansted to Palma between July 23 and 30 with hand luggage only, it was 200 return with BA, 312 with easyJet and 401 with Ryanair.

Fares may have changed since I checked, and BA's may have increased as the flights are new.

But the underlying message is BA can undercut, or at least compete with, the low-cost airlines on price.

Beach getaway: Palma will be among the destinations, as well as Malaga, Ibiza and Faro for the Algarve

Bag charges

Three years ago, BA introduced hand-baggage only fares on short-haul routes  effectively charging for checking in bags, as low-cost airlines do.

The extra cost to book a ticket including one standard checked-in bag (up to 23kg) varies by route, but for the new Stansted services it is 30 return.

That is less than easyJet or Ryanair flying, say, Stansted-Malaga this summer.

On that route, to check in a bag up to 20kg with easyJet would cost 44 return, and with Ryanair 70 return.

Seating

The legroom on short-haul flights varies little between BA, easyJet and Ryanair.

However, the two-by-two seat configuration of the Embraer planes is more pleasant. And across BA's European flights, you have the option of a business-class seat.

Will it work? It seems as though the faresand bag costs will be comparable to other low-cost carriers

With BA you can select a regular seat for free 24 hours before departure.

The exception is if you have purchased a hand-baggage only fare. In that case choosing a seat costs extra  from 10 to 18 per flight.

That looks pricey.

Per-flight charges for a regular seat with easyJet range from 2 to 6, and 6 to 9 with Ryanair.

Food and drink

This is a key selling point for BA. Food and drinks (soft, alcoholic and hot) are complimentary on its flights.
He recently made headlines branding the Australian dream as 'racist' during an impassioned speech.

And now journalist and television presenter Stan Grant has lifted the lid on his own experiences detailing what life was like growing up as part of the indigenous population.

Appearing on an episode of ABC program Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery, which is set to air on Wednesday, the 52-year-old Sky News anchor reveals he and his three younger siblings once lived in fear of welfare officers visiting his housing commission home in Griffith.

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Opening up: Indigenous TV presenter Stan Grant reveals to Julia Zemiro on Wednesday night's episode of Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery that he once lived in fear of welfare officers visiting his housing commission home

Returning to that very location in New South Wales where he grew up, the Wiradjuri man explains to Julia: 'We were always afraid of the welfare men. Theyd come to our school, theyd go through our bags and check what food we had; theyd come to your house and check what food your parents had, theyd ask us questions'.

Revealing he was around six or seven years of age at the time this would happen, Stan says the fear and trauma drove him to hide.

'I used to come home and if there was a white car in the street, because those were the cars the welfare men drove, I wouldnt come home. Id hide out until dark and sneak in after dark,' he says.

'This was back in the 70s, before there was an awareness of the Stolen Generations ... we were living it. We were living the Stolen Generation.'

Traumatic times: Revealing he was around six or seven years of age at the time this would happen, Stan says the fear and trauma drove him to hide

After having moved to Canberra as a teenager, life took a turn for Stan, with a university degree leading the way to a career in journalism.

He has gone on to work for ABC, Channel Seven, SBS and Sky News in Australia, as well as CNN on an international scale with a posting in Abu Dhabi.

The father-of-four made headlines last month after a video emerged of him making a speech back in October 2015, where he delivered an eloquent and deeply personal speech about his experiences of what he described as racism in his home country.

In the video Stan declared the nation's history was 'rooted in racism'.

Early days of his career: After having moved to Canberra as a teenager, life took a turn for Stan, with a university degree leading the way to a career in journalism

Speaking out: The father-of-four made headlines last month after a video emerged of him making a speech back in October 2015, where he delivered an eloquent and deeply personal speech about his experiences of what he described as racism in his home country

'It is the very foundation of the dream. It is there at the birth of the nation,' he said.

'The Australian dream - we sing of it and we recite it in verse: 'Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free',' he said.

'But my people die young in this country - we die 10 years younger than average Australians - and we are far from free.'

Stan said that, to indigenous people, the booing was a 'howl of humiliation that echoed across two centuries of dispossession, injustice, suffering and survival. We heard the howl of the Australian dream and it said to us again that you're not welcome.'

The video was released a week before Australia Day, often seen by indigenous Australians as the anniversary of British invasion.
He is the iconic haute couturier whose name is synonymous with Parisinan luxury.

But Jean Paul Gaultier, 63, has revealed that he would consider living in Australia, were it not so far away from France, thanks to the country's laid back attitude.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph about his collaborative collection with Australian retailer Target, which launches next month, Gaultier said: 'I hope the people of Australia will love me for it, for they are not stuffy like the British or Oh my gawd! like the Americans'.

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'They are not stuffy like the British': Jean Paul Gaultier, 63, has revealed that he would consider living in Australia, were it not so far away from France, thanks to the country's laid back attitude

'If Australia wasnt so far away I could easily live there!' he added.

Gaultier has made no secret of his love for the Australian way of life, having recently revealed in a public statement that: 'Every time Ive been to Australia Ive been impressed by the laid-back, unstuffy confidence that Australians display with their fashion'.

'It resonates with my design philosophy and has such synergy with my own approach to fashion and style,' he added.

'Every time Ive been to Australia Ive been impressed': Gaultier has made no secret of his love for the Australian way of life

The flamboyant fashion king recently demonstrated his enthusiasm for Australians when he selected local model Nicole Trunfio as his model for the line.

The 29-year-old beauty will star in a campaign for the collection alongside her baby Zion.

Nicole recently gave her fans a sneak peek at the campaign by sharing a photograph of herself with the designer on Instagram, telling fans excitedly: 'So excited to announce this!' before sharing Target's original message.

Local talent: Australian model Nicole Trunfio appears in the campaign for the collection alongside her baby, Zion

For the whole family: Gaultier's collection will comprise of more than 100 items and will include a range of affordable women's, men's and children's clothing as well as a series of homeware products

The supermarket store first shared the news, posting to its own account the same photo alongside the caption: 'Here's a sneak peek at the upcoming #JPGforTarget campaign with the stunning Nicole Trunfio and her baby Zion.'

Gaultier's collection will comprise of more than 100 items and will include a range of affordable women's, men's and children's clothing as well as a series of homeware products.

The range will also include aspects of the designer's signature aesthetic, including his infamous Breton stripes and kitsch tattoo motifs.

Target Australia's latest high fashion collaboration was with Australian label Dion Lee, featuring pieces starting from just $25- a far cry from Dion Lee's usual $300 plus price tag.
She just secured a role on long-running Australian drama Neighbours.

And on Sunday Sarah Ellen, 18, scored a congratulatory message from Australian pop princess and Ramsay Street alumni, Kylie Minogue.

The Spinning Around singer sent her well wishes to the young starlet welcome her TV daughter to the soap's family.

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'Congratulations on your first acting job Sarah': Kylie Minogue welcomes blogger and model Sarah Ellen, 18, as her TV daughter after the beauty bagged a role on Neighbours

Sarah Ellen is taking on the role of Kylie's character's daughter Madison on the iconic Australian soap.

The young character is of course the daughter of Australia's favourite TV couple, Scott, played by Jason Donovan, and Kylie's character Charlene Robinson.

The 47-year-old penned the congratulatory message to NewsCorp Australia, saying: 'Congratulations on your first acting job Sarah and welcome to the neighbourhood!'

'A lot has changed since I was in Neighbours, but I have no doubt the family spirit of the cast and crew remains the same.

'Have a great time,' she concluded.

Social media stars: Natasha Oakley and Sarah take a selfie together on the red carpet

Viewers will see Madison head to Erinsborough to check up on her brother Daniel (played by Tim Phillipps), on behalf of her anxious parents.

The Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Sarah's representatives for comment.

Sarah's career in the limelight started more than five years ago when the teenager posted a quirky 30-second video 'dancing her eyebrows' to a funky beat to YouTube.

Old memories: Sarah will play the role of Madison - the daughter of Australia's favourite TV couple, Scott (played by Jason Donovan) and Charlene Robinson (played by Kylie) in an upcoming episode

Concerned parents: She will head to the drama filled suburb of Erinsborough to check up on her brother Daniel (played by Tim Phillipps), on behalf of her anxious parents

'After people saw me in that video, they became interested in who I was - my life, what else I was doing and what was next for me  so my audience on social media grew quite fast after that!' Sarah said previously to the Daily Mail Australia.

'I love technology, social media and creating fun content (like most people my age do!), and it was great to have an audience to share this with.

'So from then on, it has been my job to grow and interact with my followers - I kept creating and posting new content everyday for my followers to see, and my following just kept growing.'

Growing fame: Sarah's social media fame has only grown to include 121,000 Twitter followers, 880,077 friends on Facebook and more than 935,000 followers on Instagram

Since then, Sarah's social media fame has only grown to include 121,000 Twitter followers, 880,077 friends on Facebook and more than 935,000 followers on Instagram.

The social butterfly has secured modelling contracts with fashion chain Supre and Maybelline Australia.

To add to her busy schedule, Sarah will also head to Los Angeles next month to pursue a role during pilot season.
She is set to play a sniper in the upcoming movie xXx: Return Of Xander Cage.

But as well as developing her infantry skills, it appears Ruby Rose has also been working on her fitness.

The Australian actress showed off the results of her dedicated exercise regime in a mirror selfie on Saturday, following another an intense workout.

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'Training on training on training': Ruby Rose revealed a glimpse of her ripped abs during an intense workout on Saturday after her first day of filming new action blockbuster xXx: Return of Xander Cage

'Training on training on training,' the 29-year-old wrote underneath the image which shows her lifting up her shirt to reveal a glimpse of her ripped abs.

The Orange Is The New Black is seen star showing off her toned midriff in the snap as she poses in a black sports top and leggings at the gym.

As well as flaunting her washboard stomach, the striking beauty also reveals her collection of impressive body ink etched across her torso, as well as her newly-dyed cropped green locks.

See more of the latest updates on Ruby Rose as she flashes her impressive toned abs

Edgy: As well as flaunting her washboard stomach, the striking beauty also reveals her collection of impressive body ink and newly-dyed cropped green locks

Earlier in the day, Ruby took to Instagram to share a celebratory video of herself and her new film's leading man Vin Diesel together on her first day of filming the action flick reboot.

The 12-second video - originally shared on the app by the American stunts-man - starts off with Vin talking to the hand held camera with Ruby in the background of the shot.

He says with a cushion wrapped around his neck: 'So her first day of filming - the amazing Ruby Rose playing Adele. She's a monster.'

The camera then moves to focus on the DJ who is dangling mid-air with the aid of a harness.

Ruby, who will play a sniper named Adele in the upcoming movie, then says: 'I've just been hanging in a tree for like four hours. No big deal. I love how you come and grab me at my worst angle.'

'She's a monster': Ruby Rose, 29, shares a video from her first day of filming action blockbuster xXx: Return of Xander Cage with Vin Diesel, 48

Ruby later caption the highly popular video: 'Haha love you @vindiesel #xxx3.'

So far the video has received more than 112,000 likes from her 6.6 million followers and 643 comments.

Her latest film follows extreme sportsman Xander Cage who returns from a near death experience to take on another tough mission.

The movie will also star fellow Australian actress Toni Collette, Nina Dobrev, Samuel L. Jackson and Deepika Padukone.

Popular post: The post has received more than 34,000 likes and 241 comments

Blue hair, don't care: Ruby dyed her hair blue for the action flick

Meanwhile Ruby's career in the spotlight continues to go from strength to strength.

The model and TV personality joined the cast of Orange is the New Black to play the sassy Litchfield inmate, Stella Carlin, in season three.

After captivating a new fan following from the American comedy-drama, the tattooed beauty has managed to secure a number of modelling gigs and roles in new movies.

Last year it was announced that she had been cast as Abigail in the zombie blockbuster, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

According to Variety magazine, the action horror series will pick up after the events of the fifth film in the franchise, Retribution.

Sniper training: After captivating a new fan following from the American comedy-drama, the tattooed beauty has managed to secure a number of modelling gigs and roles in new movies

Practice: Ruby trains for her sniper role in the action flick which will also star Toni Collette, Nina Dobrev, Samuel L. Jackson and Deepika Padukone

It will see Milla's character, Alice, as 'the only survivor of what was meant to be humanitys final stand against the undead hordes.

'Alice must return to where the nightmare began  Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.'

Alice will join forces with her old friends, which could be where Abigail comes into the picture, which will allow Ruby to show off her rough and tumble skills.

Rehearsals: The 29-year-old has been rehearsing hard in all different climates

The actress has also recently filmed a cameo in sci-fi TV series Dark Matter and could be set to carve out a niche for herself in the genre.

Another of Rubys projects includes the animated flick, SheepnWolves.

Ruby is set to lend her voice alongside Harry Potter actor, Tom Felton in the family friendly feature due out this year.
She was recently polished to perfection after a business trip in Minnesota.

But Jessica Alba returned to her boho chic California roots when she was spotted out in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The 34-year-old actress donned a cosy blush sweater and feminine flowing skirt while stepping out on Melrose Ave.

California cool! Jessica Alba, 34, was spotted out and about on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles on Saturday

The Sin City actress exited her blacked out Audi and fed a parking meter as she kept concealed behind vintage inspired movie star shades carrying her ullu Hand Painted Leather iPhone 6 Case in Turqish Delight.

She paired the graphic layered maxi skirt with a basic white V-neck tee and mauve-coloured Doc Martens boots which matched her cardigan.

The Golden Globe nominee left her honey mane fall in loose waves past her shoulders and went make-up free which highlighted her natural beauty.

After her coffee run, the mother-of-two shared a darling Instagram snapshot of fresh manicures she got with her youngest daughter, Haven.

Street chic! The California native went with a boho vibe in a long, blush sweater and feminine flowing skirt

Banking it: The Sin City actress exited her blacked out Audi and fed a parking meter as she kept concealed behind vintage inspired movie star shades

Jessica went with a shiny silver hue as she placed her hands over little Haven's, who opted for a blue tone with glitter sparkled throughout.

In 2012 the entrepreneur also co-founded The Honest Company that sells non-toxic household goods.

On Wednesday the entrepreneur - who co-founded The Honest Company that sells non-toxic household goods - was returning from Minnesota where she was meeting with Target.

Mother-daughter day! After her coffee run, the mother-of-two shared a darling Instagram snapshot of fresh manicures she got with her youngest daughter, Haven

Purple is pretty: Haven showed off more of her glittery purple nail polish

Starting them off early: Jessica participated in a nail polish comparison with her little mini-me daughter

Treats too: The mother-of-two shared a look at the cupcakes she made

Help has arrived: Haven helped out by mixing a batch of frosting

Truly scrumptious: Jessica's expression said it all - it was um um good

Taste test: Haven made sure the chocolate cupcake mix was up to par

Health-conscious baker: They were baking with a box of gluten free and wheat free cake mix

Fun and games in the kitchen: This little baker was clearly getting a sugar rush

The Minneapolis-based retail giant has been selling The Honest Company products since June 2014 at its stores and on its website.

A lawsuit was filed last week by Brad and Manon Buonasera in US District Court in Manhattan accusing the brand of fraudulently labeling dozens of their products as natural, plant-based or chemical-free, causing consumers to overpay, according to the New York Post.

The company was accused of falsely marketing at least 41 items such as floor cleaners, laundry detergent, children's toothpaste, soap and bubble bath.

The lawsuit sought class-action status for New Yorkers who bought Honest's products but Alba was not named as a defendant.
He has been tirelessly working on the World War II movie, Hacksaw Ridge.

And during his time in Australia, it appears Mel Gibson has formed a close bond with one of the film's stars, Ryan Corr.

The actor-turned-director was seen chatting to the Australian actor outside Sydney's exclusive Aria restaurant on Saturday.

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Fancy seeing you here! Mel Gubson was seen chatting to Hacksaw Ridge star Ryan Corr outside Sydney's exclusive Aria restaurant on Saturday

It appears Mel, 60, and Ryan, 27, were rewarding themselves with some much needed down time after a hectic filming schedule in New South Wales.

The pair were seen deep in conversation as they chatted on the steps leading into the restaurant and appeared to be getting along famously as they laughed together throughout.

The men were also accompanied by a blonde female.

Catching up! It appears Mel, 60, and Ryan, 27, were rewarding themselves with some much needed down time after a hectic filming schedule in New South Wales

Close friends: The pair were seen deep in conversation as they chatted on the steps leading into the restaurant and appeared to be getting along famously as they laughed together throughout

Cool and casual: The Hollywood A-lister and Australian actor both dressed down for the outing in similar ensembles

The Hollywood A-lister could have easily been mistaken for any average diner as he opted for a casual outfit which included a dark blue polo shirt, jeans and black leather shoes.

Meanwhile, Ryan dressed similarly in a jumper rolled up at the sleeves, dark jeans and black and white flip-flop shoes.

It's also not the first time the pair have been seen hanging out, they were also spotted together along with Ryan's girlfriend Kyla Bartholomeusz, late last year in Sydney.

Chivalrous: Mel was seen arriving at the venue with a blonde female

Dressed down: The Hollywood A-lister could have easily been mistaken for any average diner as he opted for a casual outfit which included a dark blue polo shirt, jeans and black leather shoes

Farewell: Mel was then seen hugging the female goodbye as they departed from the venue

Mel was out earlier this week to judge the Tropfest film festival in Sydney, and was joined by local stars Rebecca Gibney and The Mentalist's Simon Baker.

The star has been spending time in Sydney for a number of months and was visited by his 24-year-old girlfriend Rosalind Ross.

He has also been getting to know local haunts and was pictured posing with two female fans at the Shakespeare Hotel in Surry Hills before Christmas.

Getting along just great! It's also not the first time the pair have been seen hanging out, spotted together along with Ryan's girlfriend Kyla Bartholomeusz, late last year in Sydney

Work in progress: The pair have been working in New South Wales locations, Richmond and Bringelly to shoot Hacksaw Ridge II

Mel's World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge is based on the true story of conscientious objector Desmond T Doss and stars Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn alongside Australians Sam Worthington, Ryan Corr and Teresa Palmer.

It is Mel's fifth directorial offering after the mixed critical and commercial successes of The Man Without A Face, Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.

Including Ryan, Mel has been working with a contingent of Australian actors - including Teresa Palmer, Sam Worthington, Firass Dirani and Ben Mingay - shooting Hacksaw Ridge in Sydney, including on location in Richmond and Bringelly in the western suburbs.

It will also star Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spider-Man as Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who went to Japan during the bloodiest battle of WWII and saved 75 men without firing a gun.

Helping out: Mel was out earlier this week to judge the Tropfest film festival in Sydney

He was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon and the only conscientious objector to ever win the US Medal of Honour.

Mel lends his Academy Award winning director skills to the action flick.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald last year, the Braveheart actor explained that the story attracted him back to the directors chair nine years after the action film Apocalypto.

'It's about a man who wouldn't touch a weapon yet wanted to be part of saving lives in the worst place on earth,' he said.

'Okinawa was a horrific place, where, I think, more life was lost in that Pacific battle than any other Pacific battle  and they were all bad. There were over 300,000 casualties, mostly civilian, which is really sad.'
He's the only judge to have appeared on all five seasons of The Voice.

And will.i.am has vowed to continue with the same kind approach to mentoring contestants that he's taken across the series as he admitted he doesn't want to end up with a reputation like media mogul, Simon Cowell.

Speaking to The Sunday People, the 40-year-old explained: 'When you see Simon on TV youre like, "Wow, youre a monster. Youre so mean to these people." But when you get to know him youre like, "Wait a second! Youre not that guy".'

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Mr Nice Guy: will.i.am has vowed to continue with the same kind approach to mentoring contestants that he's always taken on The Voice as he admitted he doesn't want to end up with a reputation

Clarifying his comments, the Black Eyed Peas star revealed that there was a reason why The Voice judges - Ricky Wilson, Boy George and Paloma Faith - were all so kind on the show instead of taking Simon's acid-tongued approach.

Hitting back at critics who had labelled the foursome as nice, the veteran judge explained: 'The reason you see this unanimous behaviour on The Voice when none of us turn, but then were all nice, is because we have all been told "no" in the past.'

He added: 'The worst thing you can do for a person with a dream is kick them in the b***s'

See Simon Cowell updates as Will.i.am vows to never judge wannabe singers as harshly

Mr Nasty: will.i.am explained that he doesn't want to be compared with Simon Cowell - who has a reputation for being brutally honest and rather blunt with his remarks

The kind crew: The Voice judges (L-R) Ricky Wilson, Paloma Faith, Boy George and will.i.am have been criticised for being too nice on the show, but will explained they didn't want to be rude

The I Got A Feeling hitmaker did prove he could be brutally honest, however, in a previous show when he accidentally pushed his chair choice button and span around for a contestant he wasn't interested in having on his team.

The incident came last month as Alaric Green took to the stage to give a dramatic rendition of the theatrical song Broken Vow.

For the majority of the song none of the four judges appeared to show much interest in the performance.

Whoops! The I Got A Feeling hitmaker did prove he could be brutally honest, however, in a previous show when he accidentally pushed his chair choice button for a contestant he didn't want

However, as will.i.am went to make notes on his pad, he inadvertently pressed his buzzer and spun around.

Yet, as the chair made its 180-degree turn, the LA-born star could be seen mouthing the words 'Oh no! I din't mean to do that!'.

Luckily, Ricky also chose to turn for the singer, which left will.i.am in a good position to admit: 'Can I be honest? So, I am sitting here listening to you sing, I am writing the notes down, and then my arm hits the button. No, but I think the lord works in mysterious ways.'
Kiernan Shipka earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of troubled but fashion-forward teen Sally Draper on Mad Men.

The 16-year-old actress couldn't have been further from character as she emerged in New York City on Saturday thanks to an understated outfit.

Kiernan blended into the sidewalk scenery while clad in a black beanie and blue puffa jacket over a red jumper and army-green trousers.

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Dressed down in NYC: Kiernan Shipka - who played stylish Sally Draper on Mad Men - couldn't have been further from character as she emerged in low-key style in NYC on Saturday

A red checkerboard-designed bag was looped over her shoulder and there were pink socks peeking from the tops of her sensible black loafers.

The teen appeared to be stepping out on a very casual errand run, and there was an iPhone in her hand that she consulted from time to time.

For seven seasons, Kiernan played the daughter of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Betty Draper Francis (January Jones), and Sally had to deal with a lot as her parents went through divorce and moved on to other relationships.

Fashion statement: The 16-year-old actress was warmly clad in a black beanie, blue puffa jacket, red jumper and army-green trousers with sensible black shoes

On the go: Kiernan clutched an iPhone that she consulted from time to time during her errand run

Sally eventually went to live at boarding school, and she and her ad executive father tried to become better acquainted.

'Ive particularly always loved all of Don and Sallys scenes from the very beginning, when they were so sweet, to now where theyre sort of heartbreaking and filled with so much emotion,' Kiernan said in a 2014 interview published on AMC.com.

'I love working with Jon. Hes the best, and its been fun to see the relationship change, and its been great as an actor to have so many opportunities to have these scenes.'

Mad Men style: The role of Sally Draper required the young star to wear 1960s-style wardrobe including neat plaids and prim hairstyles

Don and Betty's daughter: Kiernan's character, Sally, had to deal with a lot as her parents went through divorce and moved on to other relationships

The role required the young star to wear 1960s-style wardrobe from neat plaid skirts, modest jumpers and bright coats, along with prim and proper hairstyles.

The popular AMC series finally ended, airing its final episode last spring after a long and successful run.

Kiernan's low-key outing comes two days after she made a chic appearance at the Marc Jacobs Fall/Winter 2016 show during New York Fashion Week on Thursday.

On that occasion, Kiernan looked delightful and bright in an ensemble featuring red, blue and white hues and paired with silver Mary Jane heels.

She sat front row at the show with the likes of Juliette Lewis, Natasha Lyonne and Christina Ricci.
She's a Vogue cover girl and one of the world's highest-paid supermodels.

And on Saturday evening Lara Stone reminded the world why as she stomped into Gareth Pugh's after show party at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

The 32-year-old Dutch beauty dazzled in black, wearing a sleeveless, open-front dress that revealed her sculpted legs and silky thighs.

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Leggy lady: On Saturday evening supermodel Lara Stone, 32, dazzled at Gareth Pugh's after show party at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London

The edgy dress featured a plunging neckline, but criss-crossed laces obscured Lara's highly desirable decolletage.

Decorative elements - including textured leather lining and roughly-cut layers of chiffon - gave this a gritty, almost tribal finish - perfect for the fashion warrior who wants to slay the fashion stakes.

No doubt titillating the good and the great of London Fashion Week, and perhaps catching the eye of ex-husband David Walliams, Lara's translucent dress put her high-rise black panties on show.

The 5ft 10in glamazon gave herself even more height with black, open-toe heels with straps at the ankle.

Pure glamour: Lara wore a sleeveless, open-front dress that revealed her sculpted legs and silky thighs

Busty and beautiful: The edgy dress featured a plunging neckline, but crisscrossed laces obscured Lara's very desirable decolletage

Decorative elements - including textured leather lining and roughly-cut layers of chiffon - gave this a gritty, almost tribal finish - perfect for the fashion warrior who wants to slay the fashion stakes

Black nail polish and a black clutch with gold embellishments completed the all-black ensemble.

Lara, who helped take quirky mainstream with the famous gap in her front teeth, let her platinum locks flow freely and their natural waves framed her face beautifully.

The party may have been co-hosted by cosmetics giant L'Oreal Paris, but Lara played a simple make-up game, opting for the lightest dusting of blush, dark eye liner and a light pink lip.

That natural approach revealed her even skin-tone and smooth complexion - and adorable freckles on the bridge of her nose.

It's me, Lara: The model, who helped take quirky mainstream with the famous gap in her front teeth, let her platinum locks flow freely and their natural waves framed her face beautifully

Natural beauty: The party may have been co-hosted by cosmetics giant L'Oreal Paris, but Lara played a simple make-up game, opting for the lightest dusting of blush, dark eye liner and a light pink lip

Over the course of the evening Lara caught up with her celebrity sisters, including Russian model Natasha Poly, former Girls Aloud star Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Brazilian catwalk queen Luma Grothe.

Those who think on-trend Lara always knows what to wear may be surprised to learn that she struggles with her sartorial choices.

Speaking to the New York Times at the recent Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition in London, she explained how she decided on her gorgeous black dress.

'I really didn't know what to wear. I stood there for ages. Eventually, I just pulled this on after rifling through my wardrobe.'

The X Factor: Lara Stone paused to take a photo with former Girls Aloud star Cheryl Fernandez-Versini

Fashion elite: Lara also mingled with Russian model Natasha Poly, in red, and Brazilian catwalk queen Luma Gothe, who worked avant-garde heels and a star-studded dress

Sitting pretty: Earlier in the evening, Cheryl took her seat in the front row of the Gareth Pugh runway show

Finishing touch: Her locks were flawlessly styled into tumbling curls while a slick of red lippie added a pop of colour
They're a pair of blonde beauties who are used to the finer things in life.

So it was no surprise to see Kimberley Garner, 25, and Ashley James looking at home during the exclusive Barrus X Rolls-Royce party in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, on Saturday.

The ex-Made in Chelsea starlets wowed in two contrasting black ensembles at the London Fashion Week event.

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Racy! Kimberley Garner, 25, looked right at home during the exclusive Barrus X Rolls-Royce party in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, on Saturday

Stunning Kimberley showcased plenty of leg in a racy LBD with an extensive split just underneath her pert derriere.

Clutching a Champagne flute, the socialite posed seductively in front of an exquisite Rolls-Royce.

Wearing a pair of towering black stilettos, the reality star was only too happy to show off her toned and tanned limbs.

Lithe limbs: Stunning Kimberley showcased plenty of leg in a racy LBD with an extensive split just underneath her pert derriere

All smiles: Kimberley looked to be having a ball on the red carpet, posing for a picture with a handsome male companion

Cheers! Clutching a Champagne flute, the socialite posed for pictures inside the Mayfair venue

Stood sideways on, the low cut back of her dress revealed even more flesh. The star turned her head to the camera and flashed a brilliant smile, her eyes twinkling and her cheeks full of colour.

She wore her golden tresses in a middle parting, and the sleek locks caught the light as they fell over her shoulders.

Meanwhile, Ashley opted for a gothic style on the night.

With her hair scraped back and styled in a fancy updo, the beauty wore a slick of bold red lipstick and sported heavily contoured cheekbones.

Vamping up: Ashley James opted for a gothic style on the night. Her unusual ensemble consisted of a black bust, a matching skirt with a studded waistline and a sheer overlay

Back in black: With her hair scraped back and styled in a fancy updo, the beauty wore a slick of bold red lipstick and sported heavily contoured cheekbones

Ladies in leather: Model Charlotte de Carle and Ashley were sartorially in sync

Reality stars: Former TOWIE star Lauren Pope posed with her arm around Kimberley

Her unusual ensemble consisted of a black bust, a matching skirt with a studded waistline and a sheer overlay.

She draped a leather jacket over her shoulders and accessorised with a black clutch and chunky black bangle.

The Barrus X Rolls-Royce event proved to be a popular draw for celebrities, with the likes of Lauren Pope, Lady Victoria Hervey, Tallia Storm and Natalie Anderson also attending.

Glamorous: Veteran socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, 39, looked stunning in a quirky mini-dress and white blazer

All white on the night: Lady Hervey showed off her slender pins in a pair of subtle silver heels

Happy to attend: Natalie Anderson wore a pair of high-waisted white trousers and a cropped white top underneath a billowing black cover-up

Red hot: R&B singer Hatty Keane, 21, put on a fiery display in a bright orange dress with a large hood

Woman in black: Tallia Storm was another celeb who favoured a leather jacket, wearing it over her intricately patterned black ensemble

Both Ashley and Kimberley have been busy on the LFW circuit so far, having attended the Felder Felder show at Freemasons' Hall on Friday.

In contrast to Saturday evening, the former E4 stars sported bright and bold outfits for the daytime show.

Kimberley gave onlookers quite an eyeful when she stepped out as a special guest at Julien Macdonald's catwalk show at One Mayfair earlier on Saturday.

Putting her impressive figure on display, she squeezed herself into a very fitted trouser suit which managed to conceal and reveal.

Spinning discs: Zara Martin was the house DJ for the bash, looking glamorous in some glittering headphones

Shimmering: TV presenter Olivia Cox took to the party in a patterned metallic ensemble
She is one of the world's most iconic film stars.

So it's fitting that Meryl Streep should lead the celebrities as they attend the closing night of the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival.

The three-time Academy Award winner, 66, was pictured alongside British star Clive Owen at the event, which celebrates the best in indie cinema.

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Classy: Meryl Streep, 66, was typically demure as she arrived at the close of Berlin's 66th annual Film Festival

The 66 year-old star looked resplendent as she stepped out at the 'Baerendinner' - the last official part of the annual event.

Wearing a fitted green dress jewelled detail, the blonde beauty - whose hit movies include The Hours and Sophie's Choice, looked understated in her choice of attire.

Usually glam, she instead opted for a green a-line dress with a scoop-neck collar. Wearing it with a pair of black tights and some knee-high boots, she was clearly going for a less-is-more approach.

Glam: The star looked resplendent as she stepped out at the 'Baerendinner' - the last part of the annual event

in good company: The three-time Academy Award winner, 66, was pictured alongside British star Clive Owen at the event, which celebrates the best in indie cinema.

Fellow judge: Clutching his smart phone as he arrived, the Children of Men actor was a fitting side-kick

Scraping her hair back into a casual ponytail, she seemed to go make-up free for the occasion and also wore her spectacles for a more formal, learned aesthetic.

However, she still managed to defy her years and looked positively youthful, despite the fact she'll be 70 in a few years.

Clutching an umbrella as she waded through the red carpet crowd, she smiled gracefully as she navigated the press-populated space.

On good form: Clutching an umbrella as she waded through the red carpet crowd, she smiled gracefully as she navigated the press-populated space

Dapper dude: Joining her was British talent Clive Owen, who looked typically handsome in a form-fitting tuxedo, which he wore with high-shine leather shoes

Meryl managed to defy her years and looked positively youthful, despite the fact she'll be 70 in a few years

Joining her was British talent Clive Owen, who looked typically handsome in a form-fitting tuxedo, which he wore with high-shine leather shoes.

Clutching his smart phone as he arrived, the Children of Men actor was a fitting side-kick for Meryl.

Naturally, as jury president, Meryl was centre-stage for the photo-call which launched the event. But she was also joined by a host of other fellow judges.

These included Alba Rohrwacher, Nick James, Lars Eidinger, Brigitte Lacombe and Malgorzata Szumowska.

Naturally, as jury president, Meryl and Clive were centre-stage for the photo-call which launched the event. But she was also joined by a host of other fellow judges

Jury members Clive Owen, Lars Eidinger, Meryl Streep, Malgorzata Szumowska, Alba Rohrwacher, Brigitte Lacombe and Nick James attend the closing ceremony of the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival

Busy week: Jury president Meryl and festival director Dieter Kosslick pose-up a storm as the bash closes

Getting close: Jury members Meryl and Malgorzata Szumowska share a camera moment

Fire at Sea, a documentary about the Italian island of Lampedusa  many migrants' first destination on risky journeys toward safety and a better life in Europe  won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.

The jury chose director Gianfranco Rosi's movie from a field of 18 contenders at the first of the year's major European film festivals.

In 'a year of thrillingly diverse films, the jury was swept away by the compassionate outrage of one in particular,' Streep said.

Big hit: Fire at Sea, a documentary about the Italian island of Lampedusa  many migrants' first destination on risky journeys toward safety and a better life in Europe  won the Golden Bear for best film

Good times: Majd Mastoura (2ndL), winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor, poses with his award with (L-R) Dora Bouchoucha Fourati, Meryl Streep, Mohamed Ben Attia and Rym Ben Messaoud

Big moment: Director Lav Diaz (2ndL), winner of the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer trophy, poses with his cast and jury president Meryl Streep

'It's a daring hybrid of captured footage and deliberate storytelling that allows us to consider what documentary can do,' she said.

'It demands its place in front of our eyes, compels our engagement and action. It is urgent, imaginative and necessary filmmaking.'

Rosi contrasts the native islanders' everyday life, particularly that of a 12-year-old boy,with the arrival of the many men, women and children making the dangerous trip from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea on decrepit smugglers' boats.

Many migrants drown on the perilous passage to Europe, their bodies often pulled out of the waters around Lampedusa, a small island located between Sicily and Libya.

Another win! Trine Dyrholm (R), winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress, is congratulated by the star

Mwah! The lovely luvvies share a moment on stage as the event reaches fever pitch

Congrats! Majd Mastoura, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor, receives his award from Meryl

Award-win: Michael Ballhaus poses with his Golden Honorary Bear and Meryl Streep on stage
She's famous for blowing through boyfriends from Taylor Lautner to John Mayer to Harry Styles and Zac Efron.

So it's perhaps not surprising that among her closest friends, the jury may still be out on whether Calvin Harris has got what it takes to stay the course.

While the 10-time Grammy winner was serving as maid of honor at her best friend Britany Maack's wedding on Saturday in Pennsylvania, the EDM producer and DJ was hitting the gym solo in west Hollywood.

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Separate coasts: Calvin Harris was spotted heading to the gym in West Hollywood on Saturday as his girlfriend Taylor Swift served as maid of honor at her BFF's wedding in Pennsylvania

Ready to sweat: The DJ and EDM producer, who's been dating the pop supertsra for a year, was kitted out in Nike gear for his workout

And while the Bad Blood singer was dressed to the nines in her designer bridesmaid gown on the east coast, over on the west coast her boyfriend dressed down in sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt for his trip to the gym.

The bearded Scot wore Nike trainers with red soles and carried a plastic bottle of water and a cell hone as he headed out.

Solo: The bearded Scot, who had celebrated his girlfriend's Grammy wins earlier in the week, either didn't get a wedding invite or couldn't attend the ceremony

Closest friend: Taylor, 26, served as lead bridesmaid for Britany Maack, whom she has known all her life

The pop superstar and the DJ are about to celebrate their first year anniversary of dating and there's no indication that there's any trouble in paradise for the pair.

On Monday, Calvin, 32, posted a photo of Taylor, 26, on stage with her Grammy award for Album of the Year for 1989 with the caption: 'Congratulations to my beautiful girlfriend.'

It could be that Calvin doesn't particularly care for going to weddings, or that Taylor wanted to focus on being there for her BFF whom she's known all her life.

Beautiful BFFs: Both bride and maid of honor wore Reem Acra gowns; Taylor's was pink with a plunging neckline, while the bride's was traditional white silk taffeta with a cathedral-style veil

Serious role: The Shake It Off singer seemed focused on her duties during the wedding

The singer and songwriter has revealed she first met Britany when she as 10 days old and first met her husband Benjamin LaManna at Kindergarten when she was four.

She wore pink Reem Acra gown featuring a plunging, hand-embroidered bodice for her maid of honor duties in Reading, Pennsylvania, and carried a pretty bouquet.

The day before the nuptials, on Friday, Taylor announced to her combined 212.9M followers on social media that her seventh single off 1989 will be New Romantics.

On Saturday, Calvin posted a black and white snap on Instagram showing him at work in a recording studio.

Getting on with business: Calvin, 32, posted this photo to his Instagram on Saturday showing him hard at work in a recording studio
For fans of espionage, The Night Manager was nirvana: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy author John Le Carre doing 007 with some British Homeland thrown in.

Locations ranged from Cairo during the 2011 Arab Spring to breath-taking Bond-like Alpine peaks in Switzerland. The thriller followed the battle of wits between an immaculately English hero and a baddie so ostentatiously Evil he might as well have been stroking a fluffy white cat.

The worst man in the world, the Night Managers predictably exotic, beautiful, lover described Richard Roper (a chap so dastardly he was played by Hugh Laurie).

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Nirvana: For fans of espionage, The Night Manager was nirvana: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy author John Le Carre doing 007 with some British Homeland and London Spy thrown in

To be honest, we had already realised this - given Roper was merrily selling mustard gas, sarin, and even NAPALM (to help repress the uprising).

The Night Manager may have been a more intelligent, less frenetic, variation of Ian Fleming by Le Carre but subtle it wasnt.

Our hero was such a variant on Bond, you half expected him to introduce himself by saying: 'the name's Manager. Night Manager.'

As for the Night Manager's maternal recruiter (the M-like figure of Angela Burr) Olivia Colman was channeling Judi Dench so well, she's probably started calling herself 'O.'

Call me 'O': The 007 formula was completed by Olivia Colman channeling Judi Dench as the maternal 'M'-like figure who recruits The Night Manager into the world of espionage

Still its timing was exemplary.

Spies are all the rage. Theyve never been more popular. Not because theyre so likeable  on the contrary - but because they make great television.

The six part series was the latest drama to fuel our obsession with espionage, arriving a recent deluge that has included Homeland, The Americans, Deutschland 83, London Spy, Spielbergs Bridge Of Spies, and of course Spectre.

Youd hope someone at the BBC was asking which bright spark decided to scrap Spooks.

'The name's Manager. Night Manager.' Jonathan Pine meets 'the worst man in the world.' No, not Hugh Laurie - his character arms dealer, Richard Roper, a baddie so ostentatiously Evil he might as well have been stroking a fluffy white cat

In its defence The Night Manager was the Beeb at its best  must-see Sunday night television, again - effortlessly segueing War And Peace into another slick production about international relations of a more contemporary kind with just a week for the BAFTAs between them.

No doubt War And Peace and The Night Manager will be up against each other for next years awards, not just for Best Drama but the cast and the stunning cinematography.

The Night Manager was both compellingly modern and strangely timeless  as much a contemporary of London Spy or Homeland as a continuation of the BBCs Tinker Tailor Solder Spy back in 1979.

Like most Le Carre adaptations, it bore the distinct, dismaying, ring of realism but was also enjoyable, escapist, nonsense.

Contemporary: The Night Manager was the Beeb at its best  must-see Sunday night television, again - effortlessly segueing War And Peace into another slick production about international relations

Tom Hiddleston ticked a lot of boxes as the eponymous hero, a posher, more conventional Bond. Jonathan Pine was a dashing, idealistic, former British army officer, working as the Night Manager of a luxury hotel in Cairo whose reaction to explosions announcing the Arab Spring is a typically British stiff upper lip: Would you like to wait in the bar Madam? Cocktails. Complimentary.

If only Carrie Mathison would be so composed next time she's caught up in a riot in the Middle East, you thought - rather than panicking, frowning maniacally, and playing jazz,

Pine's love interest was Sophie Alekan - as spy stereotypes required, the stunning, mysterious, mistress of Freddie Hamid, a violent, volatile, local playboy whose wealthy family had influential connections with Egypts rulers.

Freddies family owns half the city. Freddie owns me, Sophie said simply.

Competition: No doubt War And Peace and The Night Manager will be up against each other for next years awards, not just for Best Drama but the cast and the stunning cinematography

When Pine watched Sophie walk/stalk through the lobby like a modern-day siren from Raymond Chandler we knew it could only mean trouble. Despite years of experience observing such matters from behind the hotel desk, Pine didnt see it coming though.

Without wasting time or bothering with much dialogue, inevitably they became involved.

Have you always been the night manager? she wondered about his profession. You chose it?

I think it chose me, he purred (a la Bond).

Its a shame. You look fine by daylight, she pouted, evidently not a woman to take any chances on whether she had made her intentions clear.

You have many different voices Mr. Pine. I want one of your many selves to sleep with me tonight.

Gulp. Resistance was, frankly, futile.

Comparable: The Night Manager was both compellingly modern and strangely timeless  as much a contemporary of London Spy or Homeland as a continuation of the BBCs 1979 Tinker Tailor Solder Spy

A plot twist in which Sophie turned out to be a modern Mata Hari  a double agent seducing him in an elaborate honey trap  would have been interesting.

But in fact she was just what she appeared to be: a reluctant escort who wanted to get out but was always doomed to be a victim.

She knew she was risking her life giving Pine the papers detailing the deal Hamid had made with the self-professed English entrepreneur Richard Roper, a shopping list long and terrifying enough to start a war  or massacre a popular revolt: Kalashnikovs, trident missiles, mustard gas, nerve agent, tanks, Vulcan jets, rocket launchers, not forgetting (just in case) napalm.

Kalashnikovs, mustard gas, napalm ! The man from the British Embassy (Russell Tovey) reads the list of armaments being sold to repress the Arab Spring resolving to send it to M16 - once he's finished his bath

Why do you call Roper the worst man in the world? Pine asked Sophie, perhaps needlessly.

He sells destruction, pain and death and he laughs, she mused, as if Ropers laughter made the napalm, sarin, and mustard gas worse.

Horrified, Pine passed the documents to a friend at the embassy Simon Ogilvey (Russell Tovey) expecting the British government to take action against Roper and Hamid and offer Sophie protection.

But of course it didnt. Hadnt he seen Spooks, you thought?!

If you think the government is going to give safe haven to Hamids tart, think again ! Ogilvey thundered, pointing out Freddies family had invested billions in the UK.

Around the world: Locations ranged from Cairo during the 2011 Arab Spring to breath-taking Bond-like Alpine peaks in Switzerland. The London locations (above) were more dingy

Back in London, at least Angela Burr from the International Enforcement Agency was on his side though. She had Roper in her sights, whatever MI6s objections.

But as soon as she phoned Pine and tipped him off to get Sophie out of the hotel immediately, we knew it was an ominous rather than a good one.

Sure enough, despite the excitement of Pine sprinting to Sophies room, when he got there her little dog was trembling beside her dead body - a bloody mess splayed on the floor. (Poor thing. It was an awful sight. And they never said who would look after it now its owner had gone.)

Angela Burr had discovered the government wasnt keen on the unpredictable consequences of the Arab Spring, preferring to protect Hamid and Roper (the devil they knew) instead of Sophie. Neither she nor Pine had done much of a job protecting her - not a great surprise given that Burr's team couldn't even make the heating in their office work.

Grace under pressure: When the Arab Spring erupted outside his hotel, the Night Manager behaved with exemplary composure. If only Carrie Mathison could behave this way in Homeland you thought - rather than panicking, frowning maniacally, and playing jazz

Fast forward four years and Pine cut the type of tragic figure that is traditional with any Ian Fleming/Graham Greene/Le Carre saga, still scarred by Sophies death even though hed only known her a few days.

He was living alone in a log cabin high in the Swiss mountains, and working as the Night Manager in the very hotel in Zermatt into which, as luck would have it, Richard Roper was checking in.

Selling napalm and ordering Sophies death was obviously not enough to spell out what how nasty Roper was.

So pleasing to wake up to Germans ! he announced marching from his helicopter towards the hotel. The swine.

As if this werent enough, Roper had a crack squad of armed bodyguards in black polo neck jumpers and a despicably young, semi-naked, blonde, model on his arm - with the unusual name of 'Jed' (Elizabeth Debicki).

Here was a gal who brought to mind the question: 'if the scene required it, would she keep her clothes on?'

Within one minute of arriving she was having a bath (in front of Pine and Roper's bodyguards) then almost immediately afterwards went for a swim (in front of Pine, without a bikini - naturally).

Was Roper so rich, you wondered, that his girlfriend was an actual mermaid? The type an evil mastermind from Marvel would have?

Spy series: The six part series was the latest drama to fuel our obsession with espionage, arriving a recent deluge that has included Homeland, London Spy, The Americans and Deutschland 83. And of course Spectre

Evidently equipped with the razor-sharp mind of an evil genius, Roper quizzed Pine about his background, engaging him in suspiciously matey banter - as if instinctively sensing danger.

'Are you English, Pine?' he barked. He couldn't be much more English if he were called Smith. Or Bond...

But for all his security precautions, Roper and his team were careless enough to allow Pine to procure the SIM cards they had thrown away and entrust them to Angela Burr.

What happened in Cairo shames me to the bottom of my soul, she told him, confirming she was a saint - even for a spy. (Well it was Olivia Colman after all.)

Evil: The worst man in the world' was arms dealer Richard Roper, a chap so dastardly he was played by Hugh Laurie - not necessarily successfully (so far). Like a nasty version of Bertie Wooster

Burr wanted to know why Pine had risked his life and betrayed guests from his hotel  twice, here and in Cairo.

Something stirred I suppose, he replied heroically. Listen, if theres a man selling a private arsenal to an Egyptian crook and hes English and youre English and those weapons can cause a lot of pain to a lot of people, then you just do it.

It was a bit simplistic but, coming from Le Carre, probably as convincing a motive as any.

This was the moral of the first episode: never trust anyone. Especially a hotel manager...
Kerry tells Lavrov he seeks Syria truce as soon as possible

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Saturday that a ceasefire be agreed as soon as possible in Syria, during a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"The Secretary expressed his hope that a full cessation of hostilities could be achieved in the shortest timeframe possible," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Kerry, who arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday night from London ahead of meeting King Abdullah II Sunday, again expressed his concern to Lavrov about Russian air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, seen in Zurich on January 20, 2016, also discussed progress made by two UN task forces meeting in Geneva this week Jacquelyn Martin (AP POOL/AFP/File)

"Secretary Kerry also restated his deep concern over the indiscriminate nature of continued bombing by Russian military aircraft and the lives being lost as a result," Kirby said.

"The United States continues to call for all sides to abide by international obligations to avoid civilian casualties, and that responsibility lies first and foremost with the Assad regime and its supporters," he added.

The two ministers discussed progress made by two UN task forces meeting in Geneva this week, one on humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns and the other on a "cessation in hostilities" that had been set to come into force on Friday, Kirby said.

On Saturday in London, Kerry said in a statement that a lot of work remained to be done before reaching a truce in Syria.

Russia meanwhile promised to continue to help Damascus to fight "terrorist" groups in Syria, while a key Syrian opposition group said it would support a truce only if regime supporters halted their fire.

Kerry and Lavrov are the main architects of the Munich agreement on February 11 and 12 according to which 17 countries and three organisations agreed on a proposed ceasefire for Friday.

The European Union, which is part of the Munich grouping, separately announced that Kerry and the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had spoken by phone Friday and Saturday about the crisis in Syria.

"They discussed the ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach a cessation of the hostilities and the positive progress of the task force for the humanitarian assistance, in which the European Union plays a key role, that has already managed to deliver aid to the population in parts of Syria," it said in a statement.
Clinton, Sanders in tight Nevada race, Trump seeks S.Carolina win

White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were in a tight race Saturday in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, early results showed, while Donald Trump looked for a big win in the South Carolina Republican primary.

The two main US political parties parted ways for the third stage of the surprise-filled presidential nominations race, with the Democrats heading west and the Republicans in the south.

In Nevada, Democratic voters streamed into caucus sites to show their support for either Clinton or rival Bernie Sanders. With nearly 39 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was at 51.4 percent to 48.5 percent for Sanders.

A polling manger holds "I Voted" stickers as she wait for people to cast their ballots in the Republican presidential primaries at Moultrie Middle School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on February 20, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP)

Voters meanwhile streamed to the polls in South Carolina, in what could be an important test of strength for the 69-year-old frontrunner Trump. Voting places were to close at 7:00 pm (0000 GMT Sunday).

- Clinton bets on immigration -

In the desert state of Nevada, both Clinton and Sanders have been working hard to reach out to the African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans who make up roughly half of the state's population.

Clinton, who won by a hair in Iowa but was crushed by Sanders in New Hampshire, is counting on a major Hispanic voter turnout, especially among Las Vegas hotel and casino employees.

Nevada has some three million residents, and the population is overwhelmingly concentrated in two large urban centers, Las Vegas and Reno.

The former top US diplomat also needs a win in Nevada, a state once seen as a relatively easy victory for her -- one where her advantage has dissipated as the Sanders campaign gathered steam after trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire on February 9.

Since Wednesday, the 68-year-old Clinton has visited staff at casinos in Las Vegas, where workers "caucused" right on the famous Strip.

"I need your help this morning -- in the show room, 11 am," she told employees at Harrah's on Saturday, less than an hour before caucus time. Sanders visited the same casino cafeteria about 20 minutes earlier.

Clinton says she is the natural ally of Latinos on immigration, and if elected she promises a quick path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

The former first lady and senator from New York has relentlessly attacked Sanders for voting against immigration reform in 2007.

Sanders counters that the measure gave little protection for foreign "guest workers," and that he voted for a 2013 immigration reform bill that died due to Republican opposition.

Clinton claims that Sanders is offering impractical, pie-in-the-sky ideas, but Sanders's camp is convinced that young minority voters will back him.

- Crunch time for Trump -

In South Carolina, pre-vote surveys showed the billionaire businessman Trump with a lead over his five Republican rivals, although his advantage had shrunk in one poll in the lead-up to Saturday's primary in the Palmetto State.

Lynn Derrick, a regional vice president for Oracle Corporation and a first-time primary voter, said he had cast his ballot for Trump.

"I want to put somebody in the White House who has a business background," Derrick told AFP at a high school in the state capital Columbia.

"We just think we want to take a risk with Trump. We think he's had success with everything he's touched."

Trump is banking on a big symbolic win ahead of "Super Tuesday" on March 1, when about a dozen states will go to the polls to choose candidates for the November 8 presidential election, with a quarter of the nominating delegates up for grabs.

"It's crunch time, folks," Trump told voters at a North Charleston rally, his final pitch Friday before the primary.

He finished second to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa on February 1, but secured a commanding win in New Hampshire one week later. The two have duked it out in the past week, with the campaign growing increasingly nasty.

On the eve of the primary, Trump led with about 28 percent of likely Republicans voters backing him, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll.

The ultra-conservative Cruz followed with 23 percent. Trailing were Senator Marco Rubio at 15 percent and former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 13 percent.

Rubio and Bush are under intense pressure to fare well Saturday, as are Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose campaigns have struggled.

Edwin Pearlstine, a retired beer distributor and brewery owner who said he voted for Kasich even while conceding he had little chance of winning, said if Trump wins the Republican nomination, he'll leave the country.

"I got a pretty place right on the beach in the Bahamas. I'll just go stay there," he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (L) listens while her husband and former US president Bill Clinton speaks at a campaign event ahead of the Nevada Caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 19, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP/File)

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders greets the audience during a campaign event in Henderson, Nevada on February 19, 2016 the day before first in the West presidential caucus John Gurzinski (AFP/File)

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina, February 19, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP)

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio speaks with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley during a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 19, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP/File)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 19, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP/File)
Trump wins big in South Carolina, Clinton takes Nevada

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump grabbed a big win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, while Democrat Hillary Clinton breathed life into her sluggish campaign with a victory over Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

The wins for the brash billionaire and the former US secretary of state give them a major boost heading into the crucial next phase of the White House race -- Super Tuesday on March 1, when about a dozen states go to the polls.

But the rough-and-tumble campaign claimed another victim when former Florida governor Jeb Bush -- brother and son to two US presidents -- dropped out of the race after another poor showing.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrates victory in the South Carolina primary in Spartanburg, South Carolina on February 20, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP)

In South Carolina, the 69-year-old Trump captured about a third of the votes, with all of the precincts reporting.

His supporters erupted in a roar when CNN called the contest in his favor -- his second win of the nominations race after New Hampshire and an important test of the strength of his bid to succeed President Barack Obama.

"There is nothing easy about running for president, I can tell you," Trump told his victory party in Spartanburg. "It's tough, it's nasty. It's mean. It's vicious. It's beautiful."

"When you win, it's beautiful."

After several nail-biting hours, final results showed Florida Senator Marco Rubio in second place in the Republican contest with 22.5 percent of the vote, narrowly ahead of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who had 22.3 percent.

"After tonight, this has become a three-person race and we will win the nomination," said Rubio, like Cruz a Cuban-American first-time senator.

In Nevada, Clinton claimed a major win in the Democratic race. Final results gave her 52.7 percent of the vote against 47.2 percent for Sanders.

"This is your campaign, and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back," Clinton said in her victory speech at her Caesars Palace headquarters on the Las Vegas Strip.

- 'Take a risk' with Trump -

In South Carolina, Trump -- a onetime reality TV star who has upended the political landscape with his tough talk on everything from Muslims to Mexico to waterboarding -- showed he could compete for the long haul.

"We just think we want to take a risk with Trump. We think he's had success with everything he's touched," Lynn Derrick, a first-time primary voter, told AFP in the state capital Columbia.

Trump and Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses, duked it out in the week leading up to Saturday's primary, with the campaign growing increasingly nasty.

Trump even had a spat with Pope Francis, who suggested the tycoon was "not a Christian" for wanting to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Trump also called for a boycott of Apple over its refusal to unlock the phone of a suspect in the San Bernardino attacks.

If Trump wins the Republican nomination and is elected president in the November 8 election, he would be the first US president in history to have no government experience.

Saturday's results were bad news for Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who were relegated to the second tier of candidates.

Bush did not wait long to fold.

"In this campaign, I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds," he said.

- Clinton wins in desert -

In the desert state of Nevada, the 68-year-old Clinton scored a major win, but Sanders proved he was in it for the long haul.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton said in a fiery left-leaning speech clearly aimed at the minority voters who make up roughly half of the state's population and who are key in the US South.

Clinton claims that Sanders is offering impractical, fantasy ideas that he cannot deliver as president, and on Saturday took aim at corporate America -- usually a message sounded by Sanders.

"If you cheat your employees, exploit consumers, pollute our environment, or rip off taxpayers, we're going to hold you accountable," Clinton said.

"But if you do the right things, if you invest in your workers, contribute to your communities, help build a better America -- we're going to stand with you."

Clinton, who won by a hair in Iowa but was crushed by Sanders in New Hampshire, had counted on a major Hispanic voter turnout, especially among Las Vegas hotel and casino employees.

CNN entrance polls showed that she handily won the black vote, but the Latino vote was more evenly split -- evidence that the Sanders campaign may have more stamina than first expected.

Clinton did well with women, but was again stomped by Sanders with young voters, the polls showed.

Sanders congratulated Clinton, and said he was proud of having significantly narrowed the gap.

"We have the wind at our back as we head toward Super Tuesday," the 74-year-old Sanders said, looking ahead to the showdown, when about a fifth of the Democratic nominating delegates are in play.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (R) and husband Bill Clinton wave to a cheering crowd after winning the Nevada democratic caucus at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 20, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP)

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters on February 20, 2016 in Henderson, Nevada Joe Raedle (Getty/AFP)

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina, February 19, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP/File)
Crowded field competes for Comoros president

Voters in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros cast their ballots in an election for a new president Sunday from a crowded field of 25 candidates, with a struggling economy and poor infrastructure high on the agenda.

Officials started counting the ballots after polling stations closed, using candlelight and camping lamps in a country that suffers from endemic electricity shortages that paralyse the economy, said an AFP journalist in Moroni.

Polling in the country of less than one million people took place without any major incidents, although some were delayed by the late arrival of voting materials.

Voters queue in the Comoros capital Moroni to cast their ballots for the presidential election from a crowded field of 25 candidates on February 21, 2016 Ibrahim Youssouf (AFP)

Voting in areas affected by delays continued after the official closing time at 6:00 pm.

A total of 159,000 voters on Grande Comore island were eligible to vote in the first round of the election, in accordance with electoral rules that stipulate the president is chosen on a rotating basis from one of the archipelago's three main islands.

Among those running for president are a former coup leader and the vice president.

After the first round, the three top candidates will go into a nationwide run-off on April 10 that will decide the successor to President Ikililou Dhoinine.

Dhoinine comes from Moheli, the smallest of the three main islands. The other island in the trio is Anjouan.

The system of rotating candidates among islands was established in 2001 in a bid to usher in stability after more than 20 coups or attempted coups, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

Among the candidates leading the field are vice president Mohamed Ali Soilihi, Grande Comore governor Mouigni Baraka and Azali Assoumani, a former coup leader and two-time former president.

Athoumani Toioussi, an unemployed mother who was voting in the capital Moroni, on Grande Comore, said she would vote for Assoumani, despite his coup history.

"Yes, he came to power through a coup but it helped get the country out of chaos," Toioussi told AFP.

Another voter, Houmadi Ahmedi, favoured Baraka saying "he gave learning materials to elementary school."

- Avoiding 'double voting' -

Moinaecha Youssouf Djalali, a businesswoman, is the only female candidate in a country where the majority are Sunni Muslims.

Dhoinine's successful completion of his five-year term has been seen as a sign of growing stability in Comoros, though many candidates had expressed fears of electoral fraud.

"Real efforts are being made by the election commission and international actors to ease any political or social tensions," European Union representative Eduardo Campos Martins said.

With suspicion poisoning the political atmosphere in the archipelago nation, "we are entering the sensitive phase now, with the tallying and counting," said Nadia Torqui, a UN consultant.

The electoral commission on Saturday had agreed to a request from 20 candidates to ban proxy voting, seen as a possible source of fraud, "to preserve the peace".

Voters were also set to be forbidden from leaving Moroni or moving between villages unless they had an official pass "to avoid double voting", the interior ministry said.

The election is being monitored by dozens of African and international observers as well as a 425-person monitoring platform established by local civil society groups.

The campaign of all 25 candidates had been centred on similar promises of free health care, education and infrastructure improvement, in a country where the roads are riddled with potholes and women and children queue for water.

Voters were also choosing governors for the three islands.

Early results were expected from Sunday night.

Former Comoros president and presidential candidate Azali Assoumani addresses supporters at a campaign meeting in Moroni on January 24, 2016 Ibrahim Youssouf (AFP/File)

The candidate for the Presidential election of Comoros Moinaecha Djalali poses in Moroni on February 16, 2016 Ibrahim Youssouf (AFP/File)
IS blasts kill more than 150 as US, Russia press Syria truce

A string of suicide bombings near a Shiite shrine outside Syria's capital and in Homs claimed by jihadists killed more than 150 people, as Washington and Moscow worked to secure a ceasefire.

The Islamic State group said it was behind the carnage.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce in Syria's brutal five-year conflict, only for the bloodshed to intensify on the ground.

Syrians gather at the site of a series of attacks near the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine south of Damascus on February 21, 2016 Youssef Karwashan (AFP)

Near Damascus, a car bombing followed by two consecutive suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and killed 96 people according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's official news agency SANA, quoting a police source, said 178 people, including children, were among the wounded.

An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 metres (yards) from the revered Shiite shrine containing the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed.

A January attack in the same area -- also claimed by IS -- killed 70 people.

The Observatory also reported that two car bombs killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens in the pro-regime district of Al-Zahraa in the central city of Homs.

IS said online that two suicide bombers struck in Sayyida Zeinab and two others drove explosive-packed cars into crowds in Homs.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura "strongly condemns" the attacks, his spokesperson said in a statement.

State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted.

- 'Provisional' ceasefire deal -

World powers, which have been pushing for a halt in Syria's nearly five-year war, had hoped to see a truce take effect on Friday but have struggled to agree on the terms.

On Sunday, Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at least three times to try to nail down a truce.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman after one round of talks.

The Russian foreign ministry later said Lavrov and Kerry held two more telephone conversations and finalised the ceasefire terms to be submitted to their respective presidents.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for peace talks to resume.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, had been scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN's Syria envoy has already acknowledged that date is no longer realistic.

Key opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee said at the weekend it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.

HNC chief Riad Hijab said any ceasefire must be reached "with international mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, told Spain's El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but that it should not be exploited by "terrorists".

- Turkey defends shelling Kurds -

Moscow is a key architect of the proposed ceasefire, but has shown little sign so far that it plans to rein in the air campaign it began in September in support of Assad's government.

Regime forces backed by Russian strikes were advancing on Sunday east of Aleppo city against IS, consolidating their control over a stretch of highway from the city to the Kweyris military base.

The Observatory said at least 50 IS fighters had been killed in clashes and Russian strikes since Saturday morning.

Tensions have been rising between Moscow and opposition-backer Ankara, alarmed by both the regime's Russian-backed advances and a major operation by Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo province.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab partners have seized key territory from rebel forces in Aleppo province, prompting Turkey to shell their positions.

Ankara considers the YPG to be an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

It fears the Kurdish advances are intended to link areas in north and northeast Syria to create a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone along the Syrian-Turkish border.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his country's fight against the YPG as "legitimate defence" after international calls for Ankara to halt its military action in Syria.

Map locating the Sayyida Zeinab Shiite shrine just south of Damascus, the target of deadly bomb attacks Jonathan Jacobsen, Jihad Kachaami (AFP)

Syrians gather at the site of a series of attacks in the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine south of Syria's capital Damascus on February 21, 2016 Youssef Karwashan (AFP)

Syrians gather at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs on February 21, 2016

Members of the government forces install a retractable military bridge to cross a trench on the eastern outskirts of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on February 21, 2016 George Ourfalian (AFP)
Palestinian tries to stab Israeli soldier in West Bank, shot dead

A 16-year-old Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and was shot dead, Israel's army said, the latest incident in a nearly five-month wave of violence.

The attack occurred at the Bitot Junction south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

"A Palestinian attacker attempted to stab an (Israeli) soldier at the Bitot Junction," the army said. "The force responded to the imminent danger, thwarting the attack and firing towards the assailant, resulting in his death."

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have killed 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count Jaafar Ashtiyeh (AFP/File)

Palestinian security sources identified the Palestinian as Qusay Abu al-Rub, 16 and from the town of Qabatiya.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have killed 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Many of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, while others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.

Ten of the Palestinians left dead in the current wave of violence have come from Qabatiya, including three behind a gun and knife attack in early February that killed a border policewoman.

Israeli forces imposed a four-day lockdown on the village following the February 3 attack outside Jerusalem's Old City.

Qabatiya has a long history of what Palestinians call resistance against Israeli forces.

Separately on Sunday, a Palestinian was arrested while allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier east of the West Bank city of Hebron, near the village of Bani Naim.
'Provisional agreement' on terms of Syria ceasefire: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in Syria.

Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier this month.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the media at the Department of State in Washington, DC. on February 18, 2016 Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task," Kerry told a press conference with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.

Hopes for ceasefire, which had been due to take hold on Friday, had floundered as fresh violence shook Syria last week.

But Kerry was optimistic that it could still be implemented, noting that UN-backed aid deliveries had reached besieged Syrians last week.

"We are in fact making progress even as a I stand here today. There is aid now getting through, the modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," he said. "We are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been."

Noting that a US-led coalition had carried out more than 10,000 air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Kerry said: "We are determined that we will win this fight."

"The coalition is planning further actions even as we speak," he said, without providing details.

Kerry highlighted coalition member Jordan's contribution, saying the country would receive $1.6 billion in US assistance "that will enhance border security, create economic growth and create jobs for Jordanian people."

"As part of this assistance Jordan received $450 million in foreign military financing this year, making it the third-largest recipient in the world," Kerry said.

He said a political transition in Syria was crucial in the fight against IS and reiterated US opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying in power.

"At the end of the day, nothing will do more to make the fight against Daesh effective than to put in place a political transition that finds a government responsive to the desperate needs of the Syrian people," Kerry said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Clashes in jihadist-held Iraq city halt after residents seized

Clashes between Iraqi tribesmen and the Islamic State group in Fallujah have halted after the jihadists detained dozens of residents of the city west of Baghdad, officials said Sunday.

The fighting between the Sunni Arab tribesmen and IS in Fallujah, one of two cities it still holds in Iraq, challenges the jihadists' ability to maintain control.

But officials said tribesmen were running short of supplies on Saturday, and IS, which is known for its extreme violence, has already executed a large number of opponents elsewhere in Anbar province.

An image made available by the jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 11, 2014, allegedly shows a militant of the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant waving the Islamic Jihad flag at the Syrian-Iraqi border

Tribesmen in three areas of Fallujah "withdrew from the clashes (with IS), fearing for the fate of the detainees", an army lieutenant colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The clashes stopped because of the imbalance of power and fear that the detainees would be executed," said Issa Sayir who was appointed by the Anbar governor to administer the Fallujah area.

Sayir said IS was likely to execute Fallujah residents for their alleged "cooperation with the security forces".

Raja Barakat, a member of the provincial council in Anbar, where Fallujah is located, said: "We now fear that the (IS) organisation will carry out a massacre in the city."

Sayir estimated the number of detainees at around 60, while the lieutenant colonel said the figure was over 110 and a tribal leader said more than 100.

Sheikh Majeed al-Juraisi, a leader in one of the tribes fighting the jihadists in Fallujah, said IS had seized the residents over the previous two days.

- Civilians trapped in city -

"We hold the prime minister responsible for any massacre carried out against the people of Fallujah," Barakat said, calling for the launch of a military operation to retake the city.

Both Sayir and the army officer said a military operation would be launched in the Fallujah area in coming days, but it may come too late for the detainees in the city.

Officials said the clashes began Friday as a fight between tribesmen and Al-Hisba, IS members charged with enforcing the religious strictures of the Sunni extremist group in the city.

The fighting escalated into gunbattles involving members of several tribes.

IS launched a sweeping offensive that overran swathes of Iraq in June 2014, but security forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with US-led air support.

Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is the only Iraqi city apart from IS's main hub, Mosul in the north, still under jihadist control.

The militants also hold other areas, including large towns such as Tal Afar and Hawijah.

Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 during unrest that broke out after security forces demolished a protest camp in western Iraq, and it later became an IS stronghold.

The tens of thousands of civilians in Fallujah are facing increasingly dire living conditions, and officials say IS is preventing people from leaving the city, which has largely been cut off by security forces.
Iraq tracks down missing radioactive material: ministry

Iraqi authorities on Sunday recovered radioactive material that had gone missing in the country's south more than three months earlier, the environment ministry's spokesman said.

"We found the radioactive material that was lost by a Turkish... company," Amir Ali Hassoun told AFP.

The material "still had the same properties and did not lead to the injury of anyone", Hassoun said.

Iraqi soldiers man a checkpoint in the southern city of Basra on January 14, 2016 Haidar Mohammed Ali (AFP/File)

He said the environment ministry will keep the material -- Iridium-192 -- until it can be returned to its owner, which another official earlier said was Turkish firm SGS.

The material was found near a wall at a petrol station in Zubair, a town near the southern port city of Basra, Hassoun said.

Mahdi Raykan, the head of the Zubair security committee, confirmed that the material was found in the town, and said it was recovered following a tip that a strange item was at the site.

Khajak Ferweer, the head of the Basra environment commission's radiation department, said the material belonged to SGS which had a contract with US oil and gas services company Weatherford.

It was Weatherford that reported it missing on November 15.

Ferweer said that exposure to the missing material, which he said amounted to at most several grams of Iridium-192, can lead to burns in the short term and cancer over a longer period, but that it cannot be used to manufacture a weapon.

A security official said the material was part of a device used to test welded portions of pipes for leaks or other weaknesses.
UN envoy in Tobruk to 'help' with Libya unity govt vote

UN envoy Martin Kobler travelled to the seat of Libya's internationally recognised parliament Sunday to "help" with a vote of confidence on a national unity government for the crisis-torn country.

"The eyes of the people of Libya are on Tobruk. They expect a GNA. I am here in Tobruk today to help, not to interfere," Kobler tweeted in reference to the hard-fought formation of a government of national unity.

Kobler held a meeting with parliament speaker Aguila Salah, parliament's website reported.

Libyan women place a shoe on a placard bearing a portrait of UN envoy for Libya, Martin Kobler, during a demonstration against a UN-sponsored agreement on forming a national unity government in Tripoli on January 8, 2016 Mahmud Turkia (AFP/File)

On Saturday, Libya's prime minister-designate, Fayez al-Sarraj, presented the programme of his unity government before the parliament of the internationally recognised government.

"The members of parliament discussed with the Presidential Council the proposed unity government's programme as well as the names of ministers," said LANA news agency, which is close to the recognised authorities.

Debate, which has often been "heated", continued in parliament on Sunday ahead of a vote of confidence expected to take place on Tuesday.

The oil-rich North African country has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognised government fled Tripoli after a militia alliance including Islamists overran the capital.

That alliance has established its own administration and parliament called the General National Congress.

The United Nations has been pushing both sides to back a unity government.

A Presidential Council, born of an agreement in December under UN auspices between representatives of the rival parliaments, last Monday proposed the formation of a unity government of 18 members.

Before a confidence vote, the deputies in Tobruk had asked that Sarraj appear before them.

Libya has been torn by strife since Moamer Kadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011 following a rebellion supported by Western military intervention.

The chaos that has reigned since has allowed the jihadist Islamic State group to establish a foothold, and IS now controls the port city of Sirte and its surroundings.
Captain of doomed ship said 'clock is ticking' in final call

The captain of the doomed freighter El Faro said in his final call for help that the "clock is ticking" as his ship took on water and lost propulsion.

Part of Capt. Michael Davidson's call was played Saturday in Jacksonville during a U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing into the Oct. 1 sinking. All 33 aboard died when the ship sank in 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) of water near the Bahamas.

Davidson called the emergency operations center just after 7 a.m. the day the El Faro sank. He'd left a message minutes earlier with a company official, whom he couldn't reach, saying the ship had a "pretty good list," or was tipping, but that people were safe.

Family members of the lost crew members of the El Faro listen to recordings of a phone call between the U.S. Coast Guard and Capt. John Lawrence from Tote Services Inc. which took place after the El Faro's captain reported that the ship was taking on water Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Jacksonville, Fla., during a U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing into the Oct. 1 sinking. All 33 aboard died when the ship sank in 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"We had a hull breach, a scuttle blew open during a storm," Davidson told an operator in a follow-up call minutes later, his voice calm but urgent. "We have water down in three holds with a heavy list. We've lost the main propulsion unit, the engineers cannot get it going."

The operator asked the captain for his satellite phone number and to spell the name of the vessel, at which point Davidson sounded frustrated saying "the clock is ticking" and that he needed to speak to a company official. He can also be heard calling to crew members to ask what they're seeing down below.

The call was sent to Capt. John Lawrence, the designated person onshore for Tote Services Inc. He said Davidson sounded calm, and planned to "push all the buttons" or activate his emergency beacons.

That call was not recorded, but Lawrence took notes and testified that Davidson said the crew was safe.

"He said he felt he could pump out the hold ... I expected to talk to him further," Lawrence said.

After an unsuccessful attempt to reach the ship again, Lawrence called the U.S. Coast Guard. A petty officer told Lawrence that, based on preliminary information, he didn't think the ship was yet in "the distress phase" and said he'd try to call the ship's satellite phone.

In the call, also played at the hearing, neither Lawrence nor the Coast Guard officer mention Hurricane Joaquin, which had become a Category 4 storm with wind speeds between 130-156 mph.

Lawrence said that after the call, his office charted the course of the storm along with the ship's last known coordinates. Only then did he realize Joaquin was bearing down on the El Faro.

Family members of lost El Faro crew members and Tote executives looked on as the crackly audio played to the quiet room.

The investigative panel has been hearing testimony in the El Faro's sinking since Tuesday, and asking questions about how Tote tracked hurricanes and their vessels at sea. Testimony is scheduled to continue next week.

Officials have said the responsibility for tracking weather was the captain's, and that onshore staff was there to help only if asked by the master.

Still, testimony revealed that Lawrence had sent an email in August asking Tote vessels to send daily updates and storm avoidance plans during Tropical Storm Erika. The company also sent out a safety alert before Hurricane Danny, the named storm before Erika.

Investigators have asked why the same kind of warnings and attention was not paid to Joaquin. Lawrence pointed to the fact that Erika and Danny were both forecast to hit Puerto Rico and areas farther west, whereas early forecasts showed Joaquin saying farther east.

But here was evidence that some at Tote knew Joaquin was moving. Davidson emailed Tote officials including Lawrence the day before the El Faro sank asking if he could take a longer route home because of the storm.

An official replied "authorized."

Val Champ(foreground, out of focus) a, left, the mother of Louis Champa, Jr. who was lost with other crew members when the El Faro sank, listens to phone call recordings from the ship's Capt. Michael Davidson, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Jacksonville, Fla., during a U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing into the Oct. 1 sinking. All 33 aboard died when the ship sank in 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer, the chairman of the El Faro hearing board, looks over his hearing notebook Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Jacksonville, Fla., during a morning break in a U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing into the Oct. 1 sinking. All 33 aboard died when the ship sank in 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Capt. John Lawrence from Tote Services Inc. answers questions Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Jacksonville, Fla., during a U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing into the Oct. 1 sinking. All 33 aboard died when the ship sank in 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Kin of Guyanese activist demand release of report on killing

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Family members and supporters of slain historian and black activist Walter Rodney are calling on Guyana's government to release a report on those responsible for his 1980 assassination.

Rodney's youngest daughter Asha Rodney and other supporters urged the administration to release the report Saturday after several local media outlets said it found that then-Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of the People's National Congress, or PNC, had knowledge of the plot to kill the activist in a car bomb explosion in Guyana's capital.

Members of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry said they delivered the report to President David Granger's administration on Feb. 9. The PNC is part of Granger's ruling coalition and his administration was criticized for ending the commission's work last November even though it had requested two more weeks to interview important witnesses.

"This is not the end. The report needs to be read and reviewed because justice still needs to be done," Asha Rodney told The Associated Press on Saturday. She declined to comment on leaked portions of the report saying it would be unfair to do so.

Sixteen years after Rodney's death, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for former army Sgt. Gregory Smith, who fled to nearby French Guiana and was never arrested. He has since died.

The Commission of Inquiry, comprised of three prominent Caribbean attorneys, was established in 2014 under the administration of former President Donald Ramotar. Commission chairman Richard Cheltenham, of Barbados, said at that time at least 100 witnesses including politicians and ex-soldiers were expected to testify.

Rodney also said her family wants to undo what it considers the unjust conviction of her uncle Donald Rodney in her father's death. He was in the car at the time of the explosion and survived but was later charged with involvement in his brother's killing, she said.

Rodney said her father's assassination came at a time of political violence in Guyana and the report could help clarify other deaths and disappearances.

"This is a very, very important inquiry," she said. "There is a lot more to be done with these findings."
Canadian ice dancers Virtue and Moir to return next season

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP)  Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are planning a comeback after a two-year break.

The 2010 Olympic champions said Saturday that they will return to competition next season.

The 26-year-old Virtue and 28-year-old Moir took two seasons off after finishing second in the ice dance and team events at the 2014 Sochi Games. They plan to move to Montreal to train with Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.

"In returning to competition, our motivation stems solely from our love for the sport and our desire to create art. We are ready for the challenge, and ready to embrace life as athletes again," Virtue and Moir said in a statement released by Skate Canada. "With Marie-France and Patrice, we have found a renewed passion for skating that feels both invigorating and inspiring. We have been working tirelessly on new techniques, and a different approach to ice dance  both mechanically and philosophically."
The Latest: Rubio 2nd in South Carolina's GOP primary

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  The Latest on the 2016 presidential election and two crucial contests Saturday: South Carolina's Republican primary and Nevada's Democratic caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time):

12:28 p.m.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has finished second in South Carolina's Republican primary, according to complete but unofficial results.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, meets with supporters during a Nevada Democratic caucus rally, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Rubio edged out Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by less than two-tenths of 1 percentage point.

The results are unofficial, pending the state's formal confirmation of the outcome. That will take place by next Saturday.

Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary, topping the two freshman senators by roughly 10 percentage points.

___

12:05 a.m.

Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan is "I'm with her." But now she wants voters to know that she's with them.

Clinton kicked off her post-Nevada campaign with a retooled message, shifting focus from her White House qualifications to what Americans can accomplish together, from ending discrimination to reforming immigration laws.

She greeted 2,000 supporters at a rowdy rally late Saturday night in Houston and told them that together they'd "build ladders of opportunity so that every American can go as far as your heart will take you."

Aides to Clinton say she's shifting her tack toward rival Bernie Sanders with the argument that the county must tackle problems beyond income inequality and cracking down on Wall Street. That approach is an effort to turn Sanders' greatest strength  his economic message  into a weakness.

Clinton says she respects Sanders' "passion and commitment" but argues that he can't deliver on his promises of single-payer health care and tuition-free public college.

Clinton says, "You shouldn't say that unless you can really deliver it."

10:30 p.m.

Despite Ted Cruz's shortcoming in South Carolina's primary Saturday, his supporters are optimistic that he'll make a comeback in his home state of Texas and southern states with large evangelical populations.

Dean Johnson, a 55-year-old salesman from Sumter, South Carolina, says Cruz will "leave here with momentum."

Joe Bateman, who traveled from Illinois to help the campaign in South Carolina, says there's a "long road ahead" but he feels confident that Cruz will "blow away people's expectations."

Stacy Baker of Columbia, South Carolina says she really thinks Cruz can pull off a win if he keeps "doing what he's doing."

___

10:10 p.m.

Donald Trump won at least 44 of the 50 delegates at stake in the South Carolina primary while Hillary Clinton won a majority of the delegates in Nevada caucuses.

Trump and Marco Rubio were in a tight race in two congressional districts for the remaining six delegates.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 61. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates and Rubio has 10.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

In Nevada, Clinton won at least 19 delegates and Bernie Sanders won at least 15.

Clinton is far ahead in the overall delegate count because of early endorsements from superdelegates, the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice.

Including superdelegates, Clinton has 503 delegates and Sanders has 70.

It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

___

10:00 p.m.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid says he will make an endorsement in the Democratic presidential race when he returns to Washington.

Reid caucused in Nevada on Saturday and says he voted "uncommitted."

He says he's taken pains to remain neutral in the competition between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders so he would not be accused of rigging the contest.

___

9:50 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is highlighting his Iowa win over Donald Trump on Feb. 1 as he urges conservatives to unite behind him against the Republican front-runner.

Speaking to supporters in South Carolina following the state's Republican primary, Cruz said that there is "only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race," adding that it's why Donald Trump "relentlessly attacks us and ignores the other candidates."

___

9:40 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says his campaign is the only one that "has beaten and can beat" billionaire Donald Trump, who won the South Carolina primary.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Columbia, South Carolina at the close of the state's Republican primary day, Cruz warned that the "Washington cartel" is growing nervous with the successes of the conservative movement.

Cruz says he is "effectively tied for second place" with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a finish that he said defied expectations.

Cruz is praising Jeb Bush, who ended his bid for the White House Saturday, as "a man who didn't go to the gutter" and engage in insults and attacks.

___

9:30 p.m.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Sen. Ted Cruz is "standing tall" despite losing the South Carolina primary to Donald Trump.

Patrick told Cruz backers Saturday night that Cruz has "taken every punch they've thrown, and he's standing tall."

Cruz was battling with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for second place in South Carolina.

Patrick says "regardless of what the pundits say, it's a two-man race" between Cruz and Trump. And Patrick says Cruz is the only candidate in the race with a proven conservative record "who will take on the Washington cartel."

Patrick predicted a Cruz win in Texas, which votes on March 1.

___

9:18 p.m.

Donald Trump is thanking his supporters for delivering a commanding first-place finish in South Carolina Saturday, cementing his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.

And he's predicted big wins in the races ahead.

"Folks, let's go, let's have a big win in Nevada...Let's put this thing away," he tells hundreds of screaming supporters at a victory party in a Spartanburg. "And let's make America great again."

Trump also offered his congratulations to rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are in a tight race for second place, drawing boos from the crowd. "Just one minute, come on, one second, alright?" he urged them, as he explained how tough it is to run.

But Trump notably made no mention of Jeb Bush, who announced he is suspending his campaign earlier in the evening. Trump has hammered Bush throughout the campaign.

___

9:15 p.m.

Marco Rubio says the Republican presidential primary has become a three-person race between himself, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

The Florida senator is predicting that he will win the GOP nomination after performing well in the South Carolina primary. As results stream in, Rubio and Cruz are fighting for second place behind winner Trump.

Rubio is congratulating Trump for his victory in South Carolina's primary. He's also praising former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped out after a disappointing finish in South Carolina.

Rubio is returning to his central campaign themes of a strong U.S. military and a new generation of conservatism. He says tonight he's a step closer to being the next president.

___

9:10 p.m.

Donald Trump's wife is breaking her usual silence and talking up his candidacy after he won the South Carolina Republican primary.

Melania Trump tells Trump supporters that "he loves you." She says they are going ahead to the next contest in Nevada and will see what happens.

She says her husband will "be the best president."

The Slovenian-born former model is occasionally spotted with her husband on the campaign trail but rarely gives any lengthy remarks.

___

8:59 p.m.

Donald Trump is telling supporters after his victory in the South Carolina Republican primary that "when you win, it's beautiful."

The billionaire businessman says running for president is tough, nasty and mean. But he also says it's beautiful, too.

Trump is also congratulating his rivals, especially Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as they battle for second place.

But despite the kind words, Trump says he goes "back to war tomorrow." He's predicting he will do "very, very well" in the next Republican contest in Nevada.

Trump predicts that as Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates eventually drop out, many of their supporters will switch to his side.

___

8:45 p.m.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is ending his bid for the White House.

A teary-eyed Bush says he's proud of the campaign he ran to unify the country and advocate conservative solutions.

The son and brother of former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fueled them with fundraising.

But he quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who have billed themselves as anti-establishment alternatives to the early front-runner.

Following disappointing performances in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Bush pinned his hopes on South Carolina, a state where the Bush name has maintained some clout. But Bush was unable to break into the top three in South Carolina. He would likely have faced pressure from GOP leaders and donors to drop out had he stayed in the race.

___

8:30 p.m.

The final results aren't in, but John Kasich's campaign is already claiming victory in the so-called "governor's bracket."

Kasich's chief strategist John Weaver says in a statement that the race will now be a four-man contest between Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. His comments are similar to ones he made this morning on a conference call with reporters.

Despite Weaver's declarations of victory, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush remains in the race and it's still unclear whether Kasich will beat him in the South Carolina contest.

Kasich's supporters are gathered at a hotel in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the state where Kasich spent Saturday campaigning rather than remaining in South Carolina.

___

8:15 p.m.

It's been a night mostly lacking of cheers or applause at the Ted Cruz South Carolina victory party.

The room remained only about half-full Saturday as results came in showing their candidate locked in a tight battle for second place in the state's Republican primary with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Cruz backers stood quietly and watched footage being broadcast on two large screens from Rubio's party, where his supporters were shown chanting "Marco! Marco!"

The only brief moment of awakening for the otherwise cautious Cruz supporters came when Fox News broadcast a live shot from his party, prompting cheers from the crowd.

___

7:55 p.m.

Donald Trump has won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary  and he has a chance to take them all.

Trump will win at least 38 of the 50 delegates at stake.

South Carolina Republicans award delegates for being the statewide winner as well as for winning individual congressional districts.

More votes are needed in individual congressional districts to award the final 12 delegates.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates, Marco Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has 4 and Ben Carson has three.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

___

7:45 p.m.

Donald Trump's supporters erupted into cheers as they learned their candidate had won South Carolina's GOP primary.

Supporters gave each other high-fives and held Trump signs high above their heads as they celebrated. Some chanted "USA! USA!"

Hundreds of people are gathered in a ballroom at the Spartanburg Marriott for Trump's watch party, where they're snacking on cubed cheese and crudite, and sipping beers from plastic cups.

Trump is expected to deliver a victory speech later tonight.

___

7:25 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are in close race for second.

Exit polls taken in South Carolina found that about three-quarters of Republican voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States. That's one of Trump's signature proposals.

A majority of voters looking for an outsider candidate supported Trump, providing a boost to the first-time candidate for office.

___

7:10 p.m.

Bernie Sanders' campaign says it raised more than $21 million in January, bringing its total for the campaign to almost $95 million.

That's according to fundraising reports through Jan. 31 that Sanders campaign is filing on Saturday.

The campaign says the average donation amount was $27.

Sanders has made campaign finance reform and ending what he calls corruption in politics a major focus of his campaign.

Rival Hillary Clinton's campaign says it raised roughly $15 million in January.

___

7:00 p.m.

Nevada's Democratic party's initial estimates are showing that 80,000 Democrats caucused on Saturday, about 10,000 more than most party insiders expected.

Still, it was well below the nearly 120,000 who showed up in 2008 for Hillary Clinton's contest against Barack Obama.

Clinton beat rival Bernie Sanders in the state's Democratic caucuses Saturday, earning her a second win in the nomination process.

___

6:50 p.m.

With her husband, former President Bill Clinton, standing by her side, Hillary Clinton has told her supporters that "we're in this together."

"This is your campaign and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back," she said. "We're going to build ladders of opportunity in their place so every American can go as far as your hard work can take you."

Though she never mentioned Sanders by name, Clinton cast her rival as offering a narrow economic message that wouldn't tackle the full range of problems facing the country. Rattling off promises to lower student debt, reform the immigration system, combat systemic racism and improve education, Clinton promised a country of new opportunities.

"There's so much more to be done," she said. "The truth is we aren't a single issue country. We need more than a plan for the big banks."

___

6:45 p.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says "the wind is at our backs" despite his loss to Hillary Clinton in the Nevada caucuses.

Sanders says Clinton ran a very aggressive and effective campaign in Nevada that led to her victory in the Democratic caucuses Saturday.

He congratulated her for her victory and praised her effort.

But Sanders is suggesting he beat expectations because he started far behind Clinton and gained significant ground.

Sanders said he's heading now to South Carolina and that he has an "excellent chance" to win many of the states voting on Super Tuesday.

Sanders said the election will result in one of the greatest political upsets in U.S. history.

___

6:20 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says Americans are "right to be angry," but also hungry for what she calls "real solutions."

Clinton is using her victory speech after the Nevada caucuses to draw contrasts with Bernie Sanders. She says the truth is that the U.S. isn't a single-issue country. Clinton spent much of the run-up to the Nevada caucuses portraying Sanders as singularly focused on economic issues.

Clinton says many doubted her in Nevada but that she and her supporters never doubted each other. She says to Nevadans: "This one is for you."

___

6:10 p.m.

About four in 10 South Carolina Republican primary voters say that an important quality in a candidate is that they "shares my values."

A poll conducted by voters in Saturday's primary showed that being an instrument of change and electability in November are also important qualities.

The voters are split on whether the next president should be an outsider or a member of the political establishment. Nearly half said they prefer someone who has experience in politics and about the same numbers would rather see someone from outside the political establishment.

Four in 10 voters see the campaign of Donald Trump as most unfair, and a third said that of Texas Sen. Cruz's campaign. Less than 10 percent selected Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina.

___

6:05 p.m.

For South Carolina Republican primary voters, terrorism is the top issue that mattered  selected by about a third.

The economy and government spending were each picked by nearly three in 10. Even so, three-quarters of the voters said they were very worried about the direction of the nation's economy, and more than 4 in 10 said billionaire Donald Trump would be best at handling the economy.

However, Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are both seen as candidates who would best handle an international crisis by about a quarter of voters.

Only about 10 percent selected immigration as the most important issue. Asked specifically what should be done with illegal immigrants working in the United States, the voters were evenly divided. Republican voters were far less divided on the issue of allowing Muslims into the country. About three-quarters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina.

___

5:55 p.m.

John Kasich says if he spent the day in South Carolina he'd be doing nothing more than yelling at people on their way into the polls saying "Hey, vote for me."

With that in mind, he's campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont instead. The two states hold primaries on March 1.

"If somebody yelled at me as I was going to the polls, I'd vote against them," he joked with reporters after a town hall in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He says he wishes he could have spent more time in South Carolina, but that he and his team "did everything we could do."

___

5:50 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is conceding the race in Nevada in a phone call with Hillary Clinton.

The Vermont senators said in a statement Saturday that he congratulated Clinton on her victory. He says he's proud of his campaign and expects to leave Nevada with a "solid share of the delegates."

Sanders is touting his campaign's work to bring working people and young voters into the process. He says he believes his campaign has "the wind at ours backs" heading to the Super Tuesday contests.

Sanders is thanking Nevadans for their support.

___

5:45 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's aides cast her victory in Nevada's Democratic caucuses as a sign that her new focus on increasing opportunities for minorities and poorer Americas  what her team calls her "breaking barriers" agenda  was resonating.

As the race has turned to primary contests in states with more diverse Democratic electorates, Clinton has increasingly decried the issue of "systemic racism" and highlighted her plans to combat the problem.

She started the week with a policy address in Harlem focused squarely on issues impacting the African-American community. In Nevada, she's worked to woo Latino voters with promises to tackle immigration reform in the first 100 days of her administration, should she win the White House.

___

5:35 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's win in Nevada means she will pick up most of the state's delegates.

With 35 at stake, Clinton will gain at least 18. Sanders will pick up at least 14. Three delegates remain to be allocated, based on votes in the congressional districts.

The results of the caucus are the first step in determining delegates who are expected to support candidates at the national convention.

To date, Clinton remains far ahead in the overall delegate count due to early endorsements from superdelegates, or party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter whom voters back in primaries and caucuses.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has at least 501 delegates and Sanders at least 69.

It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

___

5:25 p.m.

As a small gathering of Nevada supporters waited for her appearance in a Caesar's Palace ballroom, Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to say thanks.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win," she wrote.

Back at her Brooklyn headquarters, aides cheered as she was announced the winner. Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, ran her 2008 effort in the state, giving the contest special significance for some of the staff.

___

5:15 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, rebounding after a second-place finish to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.

The victory for the former secretary of state over the Vermont senator gives her two wins to one in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses before Sanders posted an overwhelming victory in New Hampshire's primary.

Surveys of caucus-goers taken as they entered caucus sites showed that older women turned out in force to support Clinton, pushing her to victory despite her continued struggles to attract young women.

The competition heads next to South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary next Saturday.

___

4:30 p.m.

South Carolina polls close in a few hours, but for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio it's never too late to pick up another endorsement.

The latest is Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina congressman who gained national attention in 2009 when he yelled "You lie!" at President Barack during the chief executive's first annual address to Congress.

Wilson told The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston on Saturday that he cast his ballot for Rubio. Wilson praised Rubio's positions on national defense and said the Florida senator can "bring positive change" to Washington.

Rubio is looking for a strong performance in South Carolina after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, he's also picked up high-profile nods from Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy.

___

4:15 p.m.

John Kasich is assuring voters he's tough enough to be president after a woman in Worcester, Massachusetts, told him she worries he's "too nice" to fend off his GOP rivals and world leaders like Vladimir Putin.

Kasich is trumpeting a positive-only message on the campaign trail, refusing to attack his rivals. But he says that doesn't mean he can't take on the Russians and the Chinese.

He tells the crowd: "I don't want you to have the wrong impression: It's possible to be kind and at the same time very tough."

Kasich says he'd sit Putin down and tell him "no more nonsense" and tells the crowd he was the "first one" to say the Islamic State group needs to be destroyed.

And, Kasich tells the crowd, he's been known to be "brusk" and "tough" in his home state of Ohio.

___

4:00 p.m.

As caucusing got under way for Democrats in Nevada, voters weighed in on their picks for the party's presidential nominee.

Marley Anderson, 21, a junior from Las Vegas, said she turned out at her first caucus Saturday to support Bernie Sanders because of his stands on social issues.

"He stands for the middle-class," Anderson said, adding that Sanders is "definitely the most trustworthy of the candidates."

Marvin Teske, 53, a security guard at a Reno casino, is backing Hillary Clinton because he worries Sanders would have trouble winning in the fall.

"All the stuff he is promising is never going to happen," Teske said. "I've always liked Hillary."

___

3:30 p.m.

A flood of Democratic caucus-goers trying to get into a room at Caesars Palace became such a problem that it briefly brought the process to a standstill.

People had to register as Democrats before they could vote. But it was taking so long to register the hundreds of casino workers that they were in danger of exceeding their paid break times and having to return to work.

First, Democratic party officials said the caucus would begin with-or-without those who had been waiting in line. A few minutes later they reversed themselves, rushed everyone inside the room and said they will register voters while the caucus is under way.

___

3:20 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers are showing that about half said they think the next president should generally continue President Barack Obama's policies.

About 4 in 10 say they want the next president to have more liberal policies.

Among those who want a continuation of Obama's policies, most are planning to support Clinton. Among those who want more liberal policies, most support Sanders.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

___

3:15 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is making an impromptu stop at a Las Vegas high school, walking past a long line of caucus-goers and answering questions about his campaign.

Sanders asks at Western High School, "Any questions I can answer?"

He is talking to voters about health care and getting big money out of politics. He jokes, "It's a never ending line!"

A reporter asked Sanders how he's feeling on caucus day. He replied: "The bigger the turnout, the better I feel."

___

3:05 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers are showing that Hillary Clinton captured the support of voters for whom electability and experience are of paramount importance.

Bernie Sanders is doing best with voters who are looking for a candidate who cares and is honest.

Voters who say the economy is most important in their vote decision were evenly divided between the candidates.

Clinton has received two-thirds of the voters who care most health care, while Sanders is dominating by 6 in 10 voters who says income inequality is most important.

Those who said the economy was their top issue split about evenly between the two candidates, while those whose top issue was health care tended to support Clinton and those who said income inequality tended to support Sanders.

Caucus-goers were slightly more likely to say they preferred Clinton than Sanders to handle Supreme Court nominations.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

___

3:00 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers is showing that Hillary Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college educated voters, those with annual incomes over $50,000.

The survey also showed that moderates, voters aged 45 and older, voters living in union households, suburbanites and non-white voters mostly backed Clinton.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders did best with men, voters under 45, those less affluent and educated.

Sanders did particularly well with the quarter of Democratic caucus voters who identify themselves as independents, getting 7 in 10 of their votes. He also was backed by nearly 6 in 10 of the 3 in 10 voters who consider themselves very liberal.

Overall, whites were split in the Nevada democratic caucuses: more than half of white women preferred Clinton while about 6 in 10 white men supported Sanders.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

___

2:45 p.m.

Hundreds of voters are lining up to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich  in Massachusetts, not South Carolina.

Kasich is spending the day of the South Carolina Republican primary campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont, states that vote on March 1. He's about to kick off an afternoon town hall in Worcester, Mass., following a morning meeting with in Burlington, Vermont. He'll watch the South Carolina primary results with supporters in Boston.

A cultural center in Worcester is packed with a standing-room only crowd waiting for Kasich and a line of voters is still waiting outside to enter the venue.

___

2:30 p.m.

A major Muslim civil rights group says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's telling of a discredited story about a U.S. general shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs' blood could incite violence.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations National Executive Director Nihad Awad says in a statement that Trump's "inflammatory rhetoric has crossed the line from spreading hatred to inciting violence."

Trump was defending his support of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques at a rally in South Carolina Friday night when he told the largely unsubstantiated tale of Gen. John Pershing allegedly halting Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting them with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.

Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and some other religious groups.

___

2:15 p.m.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is questioning whether President Barack Obama would have attended Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral Mass "if it were held in a mosque."

Trump says on Twitter that it's "very sad" that Obama didn't attend Saturday's service in Washington.

Vice President Joe Biden represented the administration. Obama visited the court on Friday to view Scalia's flag-draped casket. The White House says Obama's decision about the Mass was a "respectful arrangement" that took into account his large security detail.

Trump has raised questions about Obama's birthplace and religion, falsely suggesting that Obama was born outside the United States and is a Muslim.

Trump's tweet came as South Carolina was holding its GOP primary.

___

2 p.m.

Close call.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders almost crossed paths just before Nevada's Democratic caucuses get underway.

First it was Sanders who stopped by an employee cafeteria at Harrah's casino in Las Vegas. Just minutes after he left, Hillary Clinton came in and was greeted with cheers.

Unionized casino workers are an important constituency in the caucuses. Their union has ensured that a room at each casino is open for employees to caucus in during special, two-hour paid breaks.

___

1 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is kicking off his caucus day in Nevada with culinary workers at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas.

Sanders tells reporters that "if there's a large turnout I think we're going to do just fine. If it's a low turnout, that may be another story."

Sanders drew cheers from union workers at the casino hotel's cafeteria. He shook hands and posed for photos and asked workers if they planned to attend the caucuses.

___

11:40 a.m.

John Kasich's presidential campaign is already claiming a victory of sorts in South Carolina.

A top strategist, John Weaver, tells reporters that however the Republican candidate does in Saturday's primary, Kasich's showing will be enough to "drive somebody else out of the race."

Weaver says he's expecting two candidates to drop out over the next week  including Jeb Bush. Weaver says that "for all practical purposes, there's no path forward" for the former Florida governor.

Kasich finished second in the New Hampshire primary, but the expectations are lower for his performance in South Carolina.

The Ohio governor hasn't ignored South Carolina, but he has focused resources on states in the Midwest and Northeast that host contests in March.

___

10:45 a.m.

Ted Cruz has taken time away from campaigning in South Carolina to attend the funeral Mass in Washington for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Republican presidential candidate plans to be back in South Carolina later Saturday to await the results. Voting ends at 7 p.m.

The Texas senator has a personal connection to the high court: In the late 1990s, he served as a law clerk for a year to then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

___

10:10 a.m.

Jeb Bush says he's "excited where we stand" as he faces a critically important test in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary.

Bush says he's going to "work hard for the day" and await results after the polls close at 7 p.m. He says "it's interesting that a lot of people claim they're undecided this late."

The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish  if not better  in South Carolina in order to remain a viable candidate.

Bush tells reporters outside a polling location in Greenville that "to be able to beat expectations would be helpful. I think we'll do that."

And his take on the prospects of a President Donald Trump? Bush says the billionaire businessman "can't win, plain and simple."

___

9:15 a.m.

Will there by a "Haley effect" in South Carolina' Republican presidential primary?

Jason Sims  a teacher from Mount Pleasant  says he made a last-minute decision to vote for Marco Rubio, and that Gov. Nikki Haley's endorsement was "a big deal."

Sims say he was "kind of riding the fence" until Haley said she was backing the Florida senator.

Rubio is trying to rebound after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire  and he's hoping the popular governor's endorsement will be a big boost.

Rubio wants to emerge as the go-to candidate for mainstream Republicans  and the chief alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the race.

___

8:40 a.m.

There's a lot of attention on Jeb Bush as South Carolina Republican vote in their presidential primary.

The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish  if not better  on Saturday in order to remain viable in the race.

Bush finished sixth in Iowa's leadoff caucuses and fourth in New Hampshire.

He's trying to break out as the establishment alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But Bush has competition on that front, chiefly from Marco Rubio and John Kasich.

Without a strong showing in South Carolina, the Bush campaign may have a hard time competing in Nevada next week and then in the large number of states voting on March 1.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes his way to the stage during a campaign stop Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center, pauses for photos with hotel workers as he is joined by his wife, Jane, right, at MGM Grand hotel and casino Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks at a town hall at The Hall at Senate's End in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Feb. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, center, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, upper, left take their seats prior to a funeral mass for the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush poses with supporters outside a polling place at Eastlan Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016 in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

A young boy waits to meet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign stop Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., stands with, from second from left, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., during a rally, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Sara Watts, center, and other supporters cheer for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., while waiting for the arrival of Sen. Sanders at a rally Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Police: 7 die in 'random' Michigan shootings; suspect held

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP)  A gunman drove in and around a western Michigan city randomly shooting people in the parking lots of an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant and killing at least seven, including a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.

A 45-year-old man was arrested early Sunday in downtown Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt after the shootings began early Saturday evening, authorities said.

A 14-year-old girl was among five people fatally shot outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant, said Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas, while a father and son were killed at the dealership. A woman who was shot multiple times at an apartment complex was in serious condition early Sunday, Matyas said, correcting an earlier statement in which he'd said nine people had been shot.

Police investigate the scene early Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, where people were shot in vehicles outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, Mich. A man drove around Kalamazoo shooting people at three locations Saturday, leaving six dead and three injured, two of them critically, police said. Police have arrested the suspect in the Saturday, Feb. 20, multiple shootings. (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette) MANDATORY CREDIT

Matyas said earlier that authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst case scenario."

"These are random murders," he said.

He described a terrifying rampage that began about 6 p.m. in the parking lot of the apartment complex in Richland Township on the eastern edge of the Kalamazoo County, where the woman was shot and seriously wounded. About four hours later and 15 miles away, the father and son were fatally shot while looking at cars. Fifteen minutes after that, five people were shot in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel along Interstate 94, including the teenager.

The suspect was arrested about 12:40 a.m., authorities said. Matyas told WWMT-TV that the man did not resist when approached by law enforcement officers, and that weapons were found in his vehicle.

"The threat to the public is over," Matyas said.

Kalamazoo, with a population of about 75,000, is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.

A vehicle driven by a suspect in multiple shootings sits at at Ransom and Porter streets in downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., after the driver was arrested early Sunday morning, Feb. 21, 2016, in Kalamazoo. A man drove around Kalamazoo shooting people at three locations Saturday, including a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a Ford dealership, leaving six dead and three injured, two of them critically, police said. (Ed Finnerty/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

Police meet early Sunday at Kalamazoo Valley Community College after searching for a gunman involved in multiple shootings Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016 in Kalamazoo, Mich. A man drove around Kalamazoo shooting people at three locations Saturday, including a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a Ford dealership, leaving six dead and three injured, two of them critically, police said. Police have arrested the suspect in the multiple shootings. (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
PICTURED: Donald Trump sees the beauty in winning

South Carolina's primary turned into a twofer for Donald Trump. Not only did the New York businessman win a Southern state, his victory helped drive rival Jeb Bush out of the Republican race for president.

Democrat Hillary Clinton needed a victory in Nevada's caucuses after the drubbing Bernie Sanders handed her in New Hampshire  and she got one.

For Jeb Bush, once the Republican with the most money and the biggest name, bowing out came with a lump in his throat.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives a thumbs up during a South Carolina Republican primary night event in Spartanburg, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Trump claimed a big victory in South Carolina's Republican primary Saturday, deepening his hold on the party's presidential field as the contest moved into the South. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

___

"It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious, it's beautiful. When you win, it's beautiful. ... Let's put this thing away."  Businessman Donald Trump.

___

"If you are a conservative, this is where you belong because only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race."  Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

___

"After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will in the nomination."  Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

___

"I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant not the master."  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

___

"Americans are right to be angry, but we're also hungry for real solutions."  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

___

"What I think is happening is that as people hear our message, and it's a tough message, because it speaks to the truth of American society today that a lot of people just don't want to address. That is the fact that we have a corrupt campaign finance system that is undermining American democracy."  Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accompanied by his wife Heidi, right, pauses while speaking at his South Carolina primary night rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, walks on stage during an election-night rally Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush meets with supporters at his South Carolina Republican presidential primary rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, greets supporters with her husband and former President Bill Clinton at a Nevada Democratic caucus rally, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Deadly north India protests lead to New Delhi water shortage

NEW DELHI (AP)  Authorities in India's capital have closed schools and taken other measures to combat water supply problems caused by violent protests in a neighboring state that have left at least 12 people dead.

Thousands of members of an underprivileged community who are protesting to demand government benefits have damaged equipment that brings water from the Munak canal in Haryana state to New Delhi, depleting the capital's water supply. New Delhi, a city of more than 16 million people, gets about 60 percent of its water from Haryana state.

Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi's chief minister, announced Sunday that schools in the capital would be closed Monday due to the water shortage. He also ordered the rationing of water to people's homes.

Burnt vehicles by protesters are seen piled up in Rohtak, in Haryana state, India, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. As thousands of members of an underprivileged community in northern India continue to protest to demand government benefits, the more than 16 million people in India's capital are facing a water shortage as a result of the violent demonstrations, which have left many dead. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

At least 12 people have been killed by Indian security forces firing on protesters since the weeklong protests turned violent on Friday, state Home Secretary P. K. Das told reporters Sunday. Another 150 protesters have been injured in clashes in various parts of the state.

Two more deaths were reported on Sunday in the Sonipat and Hissar districts of the state, raising the death toll to 12, Das said. Ten people were killed on Friday and Saturday.

However, a breakthrough appeared to be in sight as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government set up a federal committee to examine the protesters' demands.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the protesters started lifting the highway blockades in some areas later Sunday after the government's announcement. There was no formal announcement yet by the protesters on the issue.

Sporadic violence was reported in Haryana on Sunday, with protesters setting fire to a bank ATM and bank records, a car showroom, a gas station, some shops and a railroad station.

The state government said paramilitary forces and irrigation engineers were trying to restore the water flow from the Munak canal to New Delhi.

The protesters, members of the lower-caste Jat agricultural community, are demanding benefits both at the federal and state levels, including guaranteed government jobs or university spots. Talks Friday between community leaders and state government representatives failed to lead to an agreement.

India's constitution includes a system of affirmative action for people in the lowest castes to help them overcome discrimination. The government has expanded the number of groups, including the Jat, qualifying for quotas.

Indian army soldiers conduct a flag march past damaged buildings at Rohtak, a day after being rocked by violence in Haryana state, India, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in the northern Indian state, with at least four people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, officials said. (Deepak Khanna. via AP)

Indian army soldiers conduct a flag march at Rohtak, that was Friday rocked by violence in Haryana state, India, Saturday, Feb.20, 2016. Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in the northern Indian state, with at least four people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, officials said. (Deepak Khanna. via AP) NO ARCHIVE, NO LICENSING

Indian army soldiers conduct a flag march at Rohtak, after Friday was rocked with violence in Haryana state, India, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in the northern Indian state, with at least four people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, officials said. (Deepak Khanna via AP)

An Indian Airforce helicopter carrying Indian Army soldiers lands in Rohtak, in Haryana state, India, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. As thousands of members of an underprivileged community in northern India continue to protest to demand government benefits, the more than 16 million people in India's capital are facing a water shortage as a result of the violent demonstrations, which have left many dead. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
Philippine candidates grilled on poverty, crime in debate

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  One Philippine presidential candidate warned of a bloody presidency, promising to take down criminals and the corrupt in six months. Others pledged to lift many from poverty and offered a way out of daily miseries, including a new way for fishermen to locate catch faster via radar technology.

The five aspirants addressed personal issues, including graft allegations, womanizing, incompetence, a bout with lung cancer and a lack of experience as they squared off Sunday in a nationally televised debate ahead of the May 9 presidential election.

Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said the two-hour debate, the first to be organized by the commission in 24 years, aimed to shift the public's focus toward policy talk and programs to confront social ills.

In this image provided by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, from left: Vice President Jejomar Binay; Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago; Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of southern Davao city; Sen. Grace Poe; and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas; raise hands after a presidential candidates debate held in southern Cagayan de Oro city, southern Philippines on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The five Philippine presidential candidates were grilled in a nationally televised debate Sunday on how they would fight the long-pestering problems of poverty, corruption and crime that have blighted their Southeast Asian nation through several presidencies.(Lyn Rillon/Philippine Daily Inquirer via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES

Voters being swayed more by personalities, patronage politics and showbiz-like campaigns have long been a concern in the Philippines, which continues to grapple with widespread poverty, Marxist and Muslim insurgencies, corruption and other major problems three decades after toppling a dictatorship through a "people power" revolt.

President Benigno Aquino III, who won with a landslide margin on a promise to battle poverty and corruption in 2010, ends his six-year term in June.

The candidates were asked how they would fight the long-pestering problems that have blighted their Southeast Asian country through several presidencies.

"If I become president, it would be bloody," said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who has gained prominence for his tough anti-crime campaign in southern Davao city, warning he would take down criminals, drug traffickers and corrupt officials in six months if elected.

He acknowledged he has killed an unspecified number of criminals himself but did not provide details, including how he could ease widespread crimes that fast. He has said in the past that he would reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes and assured he would not resort to extrajudicial killings. Asked about his romantic links to a number of women, Duterte said he had girlfriends after separating with his wife, adding that he did not cause any scandals with his romantic flings.

"All of these happened in a bedroom, not elsewhere, so what's the problem?" he said.

Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas pledged to continue the battle against poverty and corruption of Aquino, who backs his candidacy. With the improving economy, more than 2 million Filipinos have risen from poverty under Aquino, he said, promising to expand pro-poor projects like the use of a new radar technology that has helped fishermen find catch faster in one province.

Roxas addressed allegations that he failed to adequately deal with transport and law and order problems in the years he was in government, including his handling of the deadly devastation inflicted by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said that if elected, he would apply to the entire Philippines what he has done as a mayor to Makati city, the country's main financial district and Manila's version of Wall Street. He repeated his denial of allegations of massive corruption, which came under a Senate committee investigation for months.

Sen. Grace Poe, the adopted daughter of a popular movie couple, showcased the bills she has pushed, including a larger budget to help poor farmers and a freedom of information bill that failed to pass. She said her being a political neophyte should not be an issue in a country where longtime politicians have failed to ease basic problems like hunger.

Another candidate, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, said she would crack down on corruption like she has done in her long government career, including as a feisty former trial court judge.

"We are resource rich but one of the poorest in Southeast Asia because everybody wants to have the money of the government in his own pocket," she said.

Asked why she was seeking the presidency after surviving stage-4 lung cancer and other ailments that sidelined her from the Senate for long stretches of time, Santiago growled. "That's my right under the constitution," she said. "I was waiting to die, but my guardian angel did not kill me."

The elections commission brought back the presidential debates, which were last held in 1992, to allow Filipino voters to scrutinize the main contenders and help them "vote correctly," Elections Chairman Bautista said. After Sunday's debate, held at a university in southern Cagayan de Oro city, two more will be staged in March and April ahead of the election.

Under President Aquino, the economy has been growing steadily. His predecessor has been detained on an elections fraud charge and three senators were separately detained on corruption charges under Aquino's anti-graft fight.

But daunting challenges remain, led by the poverty that grips about a fourth of the Philippines' 100 million people, forcing about a tenth of the population to seek jobs and better opportunities abroad.
The Latest: German lawmakers urge daily quotas for refugees

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP)  The Latest on the massive influx of migrants into Europe (all times local):

9:05 p.m.

A senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party is renewing a call for centers at borders from which refugees would be allowed into the country according to daily quotas.

Migrants make their way to reach the borderline to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, according to a Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Julia Kloeckner, a deputy leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats, hopes to oust a center-left governor in a March 13 election in Rhineland-Palatinate state. In neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg, fellow party member Guido Wolf hopes to return the party to power after a five-year hiatus.

In a joint statement Sunday, they pressed for daily quotas of an unspecified size, renewing a call Kloeckner made a month ago. The pair stressed their support for Merkel's efforts to achieve a European solution to the migrant crisis but added Germany can't depend solely on the goodwill of other unwilling nations.

Germany saw more than 1 million asylum-seekers enter the country last year. European nations have been deeply divided over the immigration crisis.

___

8:10 p.m.

Germany's interior minister says his country won't put up in the long term with other nations simply waving migrants through to Germany, and is objecting to the number that neighboring Austria is allowing to transit.

Germany is under pressure as others, including Austria, take an increasingly restrictive approach to letting in asylum-seekers. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television Sunday it's unacceptable for others to increase Germany's burden by waving people through or not checking.

Since Friday, Austria is allowing no more than 80 migrants a day to apply for asylum at its borders while allowing up to 3,200 other people wanting asylum elsewhere to pass through.

De Maiziere said the asylum limit is "an Austrian decision" but the transit figure is "the wrong signal. The number is much too high. We don't accept that."

___

4:10 p.m.

Serbian state television says police have stopped more than 100 migrants who tried to walk to Croatia from a refugee center in a Serbian border town.

RTS television says police stopped the refugees in the village of Adasevci, near the Croatian border on Sunday. It says they then sat down on the ground, blocking traffic.

The RTS footage showed a column of people walking along a road, carrying their belongings.

It wasn't immediately clear if the group would be allowed to move on to Croatia and other EU countries amid tighter rules for entry along the so-called Balkan migrant route. The report says that a train carrying 600 migrants left for Croatia earlier Sunday.

Wealthy European nations have sought to cap the influx after more than one million refugees entered in 2015.

___

3:55 p.m.

Serbia says the decision to block refugees from Afghanistan from passing through the so-called Balkan migrant corridor has been made by Austria and Slovenia.

Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Sunday that "everyone can move in accordance with the rules set by Austria and Slovenia." He added that "the Serbian state does not decide who can pass through its territory without consulting the states up the migrant route."

Vulin insists that Serbia's "borders are open, Serbia has not closed its borders with Macedonia or Bulgaria in any way."

EU countries have sought to cap the influx of refugees after more than one million people entered in 2015. Nations along the entry route have agreed to jointly control the flow of migrants through their territories.

___

12:30 p.m.

Police say a fire has damaged a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home in eastern Germany and two people have been detained after hindering firefighters' work.

The blaze at the roof of the building in Bautzen, in the eastern state of Saxony, broke out early Sunday for reasons that remain unclear. Police said no one was injured, but a group of people gathered outside, some of them "commenting with derogatory remarks or unashamed joy" on the fire.

The fire came three days after an incident elsewhere in Saxony in which a mob screaming "Go home!" blocked a bus carrying asylum-seekers outside a refugee home. Police drew criticism in that case for hauling some migrants off the bus, which they insist was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating.

___

11:15 a.m.

Greek police say Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians.

Macedonian authorities reportedly said that Serbia has done the same on its southern border with Macedonia.

Macedonian police started restricting the flow of migrants across the Greek-Macedonian border Saturday, conducting body searches and demanding passports. Earlier, they had accepted Greek police's official documents attesting that an individual had been processed.

The moves have led to a buildup of migrants waiting at the Greek side of the border. Greek police said 800 were stranded at the border Sunday and another 2,750 were waiting in 55 buses nearby.

In the 24 hours to 6 a.m. local (0400 GMT) Sunday, only 310 migrants had been allowed into Macedonia.

A Greek policeman checks documents of a man at the borderline with Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An man participates in a protest by Afghan migrants demanding to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, according to a Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An man reacts, as Afghan refugees participate in a protest demanding to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, according to a Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Passerbys look at a burned down roof of a building in Bautzen, eastern Germany, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The fire damaged the former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home and two people were detained after hindering firefighters work, police said Sunday, days after an incident in which a mob blocked a bus carrying asylum-seekers in the same state. (Christian Essler/dpa via AP)

An Afghan woman collapses at a checkpoint of the borderline with Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An Afghan woman collapses at a checkpoint of the borderline with Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Syrian refugees try to keep themselves warm around a fire as they wait to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A Greek policeman checks documents of refugees and migrants before they cross the borderline to Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A woman stands in line with her child as they wait to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A man stands in line with his child as they wait to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A family sits inside a tent as they wait to be allowed to cross the borderline to Macedonia near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing only Iraqis and Syrians, Greek police report. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
IS bombings rock Syria as world powers seek truce

BEIRUT (AP)  Bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs killed nearly 130 people on Sunday, highlighting the threat posed by the extremists as the country's warring factions fight for the northern city of Aleppo and world powers chase an elusive cease-fire.

The blasts came as Secretary of State John Kerry said that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the next few days. But he acknowledged that it's not finalized and all parties might not automatically comply.

A series of blasts ripped through the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of Damascus, killing at least 83 people and wounding more than 170, the official SANA news agency said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on local Syrian activists, said the blasts killed 62. SANA said the bombs went off near schools during the afternoon rush hour.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, an injured victim of the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus arrives to a hospital to receives treatment, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (SANA via AP)

The neighborhood is home to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, which his heavily guarded by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and other Shiite militiamen from Iraq and elsewhere. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the blasts were caused by a car bomb and two suicide bombers.

The bombings in the central city of Homs killed at least 46 people and wounded dozens, according to Syria's Foreign Ministry. The Observatory said 57 people, including 11 women, were killed by two car bombs set off in a mostly Alawite neighborhood. Syrian President Bashar Assad hails from the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Syrian TV footage from Homs showed streets filled with debris and mangled cars, and the charred body of a man being taken away on a stretcher. Footage from Sayyida Zeinab showing people running in narrow streets as others carried the wounded, including several children. "He's alive, he's alive," a man shouted as he tried to administer CPR to an unconscious man. The TV later called on citizens to donate blood.

The Islamic State group claimed both attacks. The extremists are dug in on the outskirts of the two cities and have repeatedly targeted Shiites, who they view as apostates deserving of death.

The deadly blasts may strengthen the government's argument that it should press ahead with a major offensive in the north of the country, where troops backed by Russian airstrikes are close to sealing off Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and commercial hub. Syrian insurgents, including Western-backed rebels, seized several neighborhoods in 2012.

The heavy fighting near Aleppo led to collapse of peace talks earlier this month. World powers later agreed on a "cessation of hostilities" to begin within a week, but the deadline passed with no letup in the fighting.

Kerry has since reached out to his Russian counterpart, and during a visit to Jordan on Sunday, said they had struck a "provisional agreement" and must now reach out to the opposing sides on the ground. Russia is a key ally of Assad's government, while the U.S. backs some of the rebels fighting to overthrow him.

Kerry declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it "is not yet done."

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said, adding that it was "possible over the course of these next hours."

Assad meanwhile said his government was ready to take part in a truce as long as it is not used by militants to reinforce their positions.

"We announced that we're ready," Assad told Spain's El Pais newspaper in remarks published Sunday.

"It's about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists," Assad said in English in the interview, which was also carried by state news agency SANA.

Assad's government refers to all the armed groups battling to overthrow him as terrorists. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are among the leading supporters of the insurgents.

Assad said the Aleppo operation is not about "recapturing the city," but "closing the roads between Turkey and between the terrorist groups."

The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva. Aid shipments were allowed into several besieged areas last week.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he welcomed the latest provisional agreement and called on all regional powers to use the "window of opportunity" to exert their influence on the warring parties.

In northern Syria, meanwhile, the Syrian army captured 31 villages on Sunday that were controlled by IS, according to the pro-Syrian Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV and Hezbollah's Al-Manar station. Both outlets often have reporters embedded with Syrian troops.

__

Riechmann reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report.

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. Residents said the attack was about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines and did not damage it. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, doctors treat a girl injured in the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus arrives to a hospital to receives treatment, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, doctors treat victims injured in the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus arrives to a hospital to receives treatment, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (SANA via AP)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. Residents said the attack was about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines and did not damage it. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures during a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh (unseen) in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a Syrian cease-fire that could begin in the next few days, but he acknowledged that its not finalized and all parties might not automatically comply. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures during a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh (unseen) in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a Syrian cease-fire that could begin in the next few days, but he acknowledged that its not finalized and all parties might not automatically comply. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People examine the destruction in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

People gather in the aftermath of a multiple explosive attack in the Sayyida Zeinab area, 10 km south of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Natalia Sancha)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a woman carries a child injured in the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus arrives to a hospital to receives treatment, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, an injured victim of the triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus arrives to a hospital to receives treatment, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in the Shiite suburb, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts and killing dozens. (SANA via AP)
Michigan attack is latest in string of US mass shootings

A gunman killed at least six people Saturday in what authorities said was a random shooting in the parking lots of a western Michigan apartment complex, car dealership and restaurant. Here's a look at some of the nation's deadliest rampages since 2012:

 Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, opened fire at a social services center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding more than 20. They fled the scene but died hours later in a shootout with police.

 Oct 1, 2015: A shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, left 10 people dead and seven wounded. Shooter Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, exchanged gunfire with police then killed himself.

 June 17, 2015: Dylann Roof, 21, shot and killed nine African-American church members during a Bible study group inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Police contend the attack was racially motivated. Roof faces nine counts of murder in state court and dozens of federal charges, including hate crimes.

 May 23, 2014: A community college student, Elliot Rodger, 22, killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks in the area near the University of California, Santa Barbara, campus. Authorities said he apparently shot himself to death after a gunbattle with deputies.

 Sept. 16, 2013: Aaron Alexis, a mentally disturbed civilian contractor, shot 12 people to death at the Washington Navy Yard before he was killed in a police shootout.

 July 26, 2013: Pedro Vargas, 42, went on a shooting rampage at his Hialeah, Florida, apartment building, gunning down six people before officers fatally shot him.

 Dec 14, 2012: In Newtown, Connecticut, an armed 20-year-old man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 26 people, including 20 first graders and six adult school staff members. He then killed himself.

 Sept. 27, 2012: In Minnesota's deadliest workplace rampage, Andrew Engeldinger, who had just been fired, pulled a gun and fatally shot six people, including the company's founder. He also wounded two others at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis before taking his own life.

 August 5, 2012: In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, 40-year-old gunman Wade Michael Page killed six worshippers at a Sikh Temple before killing himself.

 July 20, 2012: James Holmes, 27, fatally shot 12 people and injured 70 in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Mauritania vows no abuse by soldiers in C. African Republic

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP)  Mauritania's defense minister vowed on Sunday that his country's peacekeepers will never be implicated in the type of sex abuse allegations that have rocked Central African Republic's U.N. mission in recent months.

Diallo Mamadou Bathia made his remarks during a ceremony Sunday before the deployment of 225 Mauritanian soldiers to Central African Republic, where thousands have been killed in sectarian fighting since 2013. Mauritania already sent 225 soldiers to the country two weeks ago and 300 more are scheduled to deploy next month, bringing the country's contribution to the mission to 750 troops.

Since allegations first became public last April, peacekeepers with the U.N. mission have been repeatedly accused of rape and other forms of sexual abuse. In January, the U.N. said there likely were 22 confirmed allegations, and still more allegations have been reported this month. The U.N. has been unable to explain why the allegations in Central African Republic have been so widespread.

Mauritanian soldiers are greeted by commanders as they board a United Nations flight to Central African Republic as a peacekeeping force in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Sunday, Feb 21, 2016. Mauritania's defense minister vowed on Sunday that his country's peacekeepers will never be implicated in the type of sex abuse allegations that have rocked Central African Republic's U.N. mission in recent months. (AP Photo/Ahmed Mohamed)

The U.N. has started repatriations over the abuse claims. Last week, a spokesman said the repatriation of a Congolese battalion in Bambari, where a number of cases have been reported, would start on Feb. 25, and that Mauritanians would serve as replacements.

At Sunday's deployment ceremony, Bathia promised that Mauritanian troops would be positive ambassadors for the country and would not violate any laws.

"Our military will never resort to these reprehensible practices because they are contrary to our values and traditions," he said.
Uganda: Opposition leader urges protests over his detention

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)  Uganda's main opposition leader on Sunday urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election that was won by President Yoweri Museveni.

"The only way to get out of this is to use the popular numbers that we have to make sure that the gunmen do not do what they are doing," said Kizza Besigye, speaking to reporters at his house on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala.

Besigye is unable to leave his house, with the police saying he is under preventive arrest to stop him from leading protests against Museveni's win that could turn violent. Armed police stand guard outside his residence and have set up a barrier preventing most people from accessing Besigye.

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye speaks to the media while under continued house arrest, at his home in Kasangati, outside the capital Kampala, in Uganda Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Besigye urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home following the country's disputed presidential election and rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

"If the regime continues to restrict me, to detain me in my home ... I call upon all of you citizens to protest this," he said Sunday. "At the very minimum let us also stop them from moving," he said, referring to the security forces.

Kampala remained calm Sunday following the announcement of results amid a heavy security presence.

Museveni was on Saturday declared the winner of presidential polls held on Thursday, but Besigye's party has rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. Museveni won more than 60 percent of the votes while Besigye got 35 percent, according to final results announced by the election commission.

Besigye said those results are fraudulent and is calling for an independent audit that includes members from the international community.

Museveni denied the allegations of vote fraud and vowed to "use both soft and hard means to guard the peace in Uganda," speaking to reporters Sunday in his home district of Kiruhura. Museveni said there was a threat to burn down Kampala by young people directed by leaders he described as "criminal politicians."

Besigye, a 59-year-old doctor, has been detained at his house since Friday. After Besigye's arrest, his supporters took to the streets. Riot police lobbed tear gas and stun grenades at them and fired warning shots from automatic rifles, then chased them through narrow alleys, arresting some.

Voting was marred by lengthy delays in the delivery of polling materials, some incidents of violence as well as a government shutdown of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, which remained inaccessible Saturday. Most of the delays happened in areas seen as opposition strongholds, including Kampala.

"The Ugandan people deserved better," said U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner.

The election was marked by an "intimidating atmosphere, which was mainly created by state actors," and the election commission lacks independence and transparency, the European Union observer mission said in its preliminary report.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the Commonwealth observer mission, said the election "fell short of meeting key democratic benchmarks."

The 71-year-old Museveni took power by force in 1986 and pulled Uganda out of years of chaos after a guerrilla war. He is a key U.S. ally on security matters, especially in Somalia. Critics fear he may want to rule for life and they accuse him of using security forces to intimidate the opposition.

Besigye was Museveni's personal physician during the bush war and served as deputy interior minister in his first Cabinet. He broke with the president in 1999, saying Museveni was no longer a democrat.

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye speaks to the media while under continued house arrest, at his home in Kasangati, outside the capital Kampala, in Uganda Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Besigye urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home following the country's disputed presidential election and rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, with a copy of the Ugandan Constitution at his side, speaks to the media while under continued house arrest, at his home in Kasangati, outside the capital Kampala, in Uganda Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Besigye urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home following the country's disputed presidential election and rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye arrives to speak to the media while under continued house arrest, at his home in Kasangati, outside the capital Kampala, in Uganda Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Besigye urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home following the country's disputed presidential election and rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye speaks to the media while under continued house arrest, at his home in Kasangati, outside the capital Kampala, in Uganda Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. Besigye urged his supporters to protest his continued detention at home following the country's disputed presidential election and rejected the official results, alleging massive vote rigging. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Camera boost, virtual reality in new Samsung, LG gadgets

BARCELONA, Spain (AP)  To revive interest in smartphones, Samsung and LG are improving their cameras and embracing the nascent world of virtual reality.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg joined Samsung at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, to announce that their companies are teaming up to push VR in mobile phones and social networking.

Virtual reality "is now mainly used for gaming, but that is quickly changing," Zuckerberg said. "That is why Facebook is investing so much in VR, so we can deliver these social experiences."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

Samsung's new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge promise better photos under low-light conditions, in part with sensors that capture more light. Both will work with the $100 Gear VR headset that Samsung released last fall. And Samsung will now make a 360-degree camera for everyday folks to capture and share VR images.

VR is still in its early days, with much of the interest coming from hard-core gamers and tech pioneers. Samsung wants to make it easier for everyday people to create VR videos  so that friends will buy VR headsets to view them.

LG will also have its own VR headset and 360-degree camera, while the main camera on its upcoming G5 smartphone will have two lenses  one for standard shots, and another with a wider angle to capture more of what's in front of you.

Sunday's announcements at the Barcelona show come as worldwide smartphone growth has slowed, particularly for high-end devices such as Samsung's S and LG's G series. Many consumers have turned to lower-cost Android devices that sport features considered top of the line just a few years ago.

Phone makers used to guarantee upgrades by making phones bigger and bigger  but phones can't get much bigger for one-handed use. In fact, the new LG phone is shrinking to 5.3 inches, from 5.5 inches last year. Samsung's Edge is getting bigger, at 5.5 inches, but because the sides curve like a waterfall, the phone won't be much wider. The main S7 model is staying constant at 5.1 inches.

With size out of the equation, phone makers have to innovate elsewhere.

"Their problem is that phones from two to three years ago are still in use," said Ian Fogg, head of mobile analysis at IHS Technology. "VR is essential. It is a smartphone-industry initiative to drive consumers to upgrade."

That's been particularly important for Samsung, as its chief rival, Apple, largely matched Samsung on size, while boosting the iPhone camera's resolution to 12 megapixels from 8. The iPhone has also gotten better at low-light shots, even surpassing some stand-alone, point-and-shoot cameras in performance.

"Having seen everything the smartphone can deliver, at Samsung we have other ideas," said D.J. Koh, the head of Samsung's mobile business.

In a few months, Samsung will start selling its Gear 360 camera, a device with front and back lenses to stitch together 360-degree videos for VR devices and apps. Samsung phones will come with apps for viewing those videos on the Gear VR and sharing them with friends.

Samsung's phones will see improvements, too, particularly in the camera.

Realizing that the megapixel count alone doesn't necessarily translate to quality images, Samsung is reducing resolution in the new phones to 12 megapixels from 18. That allows individual pixels on the sensors to be larger, thus capturing more light. The new cameras also allow the camera's aperture to open wider, letting in more light. Together, the shutter needs to stay open for a shorter time, reducing the blurring that sometimes mars indoor and night shots.

Samsung also says its new phones will have a faster focus, which it says will improve performance at low light.

And for the selfie camera, Samsung is turning the screen into a flash, similar to what Apple introduced last fall.

Samsung is restoring the ability to add storage, but the battery won't be replaceable by users, something Samsung had allowed before last year. Instead, Samsung is increasing the battery capacity in both models, though the Edge's larger screen and other new features in both models, including an always-on mode, will sip away power.

The new phones will start shipping March 11, with advance orders to begin this week. In some markets, including the U.S., Samsung is including a Gear VR headset for free to those who order ahead of time. Prices will vary by carrier and region. In the U.S., AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are offering the regular version for $650 to $695 and the Edge version for about $100 more. Verizon hasn't announced prices yet.

LG, meanwhile, designed the LG 360 VR headset to work with an LG smartphone that's attached by a cable. With Samsung's VR device, the smartphone is inserted at eye level and becomes the headset's display, increasing the weight on the head. LG's version has built-in, lighter displays in the headset's eyepieces.

For the G5 phone, an optional attachment will function as a camera grip with physical buttons to take shots and control video recording. It's part of LG's new modular approach to design; you'll be able to pop out the phone's bottom and swap in new hardware features.

Prices and release dates for the LG phone and accessories from both companies have yet to be announced, though the LG phone is expected in the U.S. in April.

Neither VR system will be as powerful as full-fledged VR devices coming this year. HTC said Sunday that a consumer version of the Vive will start selling in early April for $799, with ordering to begin Feb. 29. A personal computer is required and sold separately.

VR isn't limited to high-end devices: On Saturday, Alcatel announced a mid-range Idol 4S  with packaging that can be folded into VR headset.

___

AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun reported from New York.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

A woman uses the LG 360 VR glasses during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Frank Lee, head of Brand Marketing for LG Electronic MobileComm USA, shows the LG 360 VR glasses during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Frank Lee, head of Brand Marketing for LG Electronic MobileComm USA, uses the LG 360 VR glasses during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A man uses the LG 360 VR glasses during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Juno Cho President and CEO of LG Corp. shows the new LG's G5 smartphone during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Juno Cho President and CEO of LG Corp. shows the new LG's G5 smartphone during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Juno Cho President and CEO of LG Corp. shows the new LG's G5 smartphone during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Juno Cho President and CEO of LG Corp. presents the new LG's G5 smartphone during the LG unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21. 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

In this Feb. 11, 2016 photo, the rear camera and front screen of the LG G5 smartphone is displayed in New York. The main camera on the G5 will have two lenses, one for standard shots, and one with a wider angle so you can capture more of whats in front of you without having to step back. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this Feb. 11, 2016 photo, the LG G5 smartphone is displayed in New York. As smartphones reach their size limit for single handed operation, the G5 is shrinking to 5.3 inches, from last year's 5.5 inches. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this Feb. 11, 2016 photo, the LG G5 smartphone is used to take a photo as the device is demonstrated in New York. The main camera on the G5 will have two lenses, one for standard shots, and one with a wider angle so you can capture more of whats in front of you without having to step back.(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, shows the new the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, shows the new the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event, on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

Attendees use the new Samsung Gear 360, a 360-degree camera, during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

Attendees use the new Samsung Gear 360, a 360-degree camera, during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

Attendees use the new Samsung Gear 360, a 360-degree camera, during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, right, shakes hands with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)

DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, shows the new the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event, on the eve of this weeks Mobile World Congress wireless show, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernadez)
Saudi prince says offer of troops reflects unease over Syria

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  A prominent Saudi prince said Sunday that the kingdom's offer to send troops to Syria to fight extremist groups reflects growing unease over the ability of U.S.-led airstrikes alone to defeat the Islamic State group and end the Syrian civil war.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, speaking at a luncheon in Abu Dhabi attended by a handful of journalists, said the kingdom does not expect the U.S.-led coalition battling the IS group, of which Saudi Arabia is a member, will succeed unless there is a ground intervention.

Saudi Arabia has made clear that its willingness to send special forces to Syria is contingent on the U.S. leading the ground effort.

Former director of the Saudi Arabia General Intelligence Directorate, Prince Turki Bin Faisal Al Saud, and a member of the board of the Beirut Institute, talk during a press conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. The prominent Saudi prince said Sunday that Muslim countries need to take the lead in fighting terrorism and that a recently announced Islamic counterterrorism alliance of 34 nations should have been created sooner. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

"The world community has the capability, economic, political, military and otherwise, to put a stop to the killing," he said.

"I think it is high time that people said enough is enough, but simply saying it is not going to do it. There has to be concrete action on the ground to put a stop to the killing."

He added that he has not seen any indication from Saudi leaders that if Saudi troops were deployed to Syria, they would also fight Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

Riyadh is one of the main supporters of Syrian rebels battling to overthrow Assad. Its regional rival Iran is one of Assad's main backers.

The prince, who does not hold an official seat in government, is an influential and outspoken member of the Saudi royal family. He headed Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Directorate for more than two decades until Sept. 1, 2001, and held ambassador posts to the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland.

Speaking earlier at a press conference, he said Muslim countries need to take the lead in fighting terrorism.

The kingdom is currently hosting an 18-day military exercise with 20 members of a recently announced Islamic counterterrorism alliance, which includes Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan and neighboring Gulf states.

Defense ministers from the coalition of Muslim-majority countries are scheduled to hold their first meeting in Saudi Arabia sometime in March, and the Saudi leadership is working on making its capital a logistical hub for the 34-nation alliance.

The prince said that because the majority of victims of terrorist acts are Muslims, "it is our responsibility as Muslim countries to play the primary role in fighting this disease that has impacted us all."

Notably absent from the coalition are Iran, Syria and Iraq, all of which are battling the Islamic State group.

Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran are fiercely divided on a host of issues and support opposite sides in the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Relations worsened after the execution of a popular Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia last month, which triggered protests in Iran and the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy and another diplomatic mission there. The two countries then severed diplomatic and trade ties.

As Iran readies for parliamentary elections on Feb. 26, the prince said he has little hope that those elected will help bridge the political divide.

He said the vote is likely to make the relationship "even worse" because some liberal and reformist candidates were barred from running by the country's Guardian Council, which vets candidates.

"You are going to get a very conservative (parliament) as is the present one, and so we're going to have more of the same," he said.
A decade before Flint's lead scare, there was Rhode Island

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Lisa Solano-Sanchez looks at her 16-year-old son and sees a bright, healthy, musically gifted teenager. A relief, considering she had no idea how he would turn out when she discovered he was poisoned by lead as a toddler.

Still, she scrutinizes her son's behavior and can't help but wonder if he's been held back from his full potential.

"Not knowing drives me crazy," she said.

In this Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016 photo Lisa Solano-Sanchez, of Providence, R.I., speaks with a reporter in the kitchen of her home, in Providence. Solano-Sanchez believes her son Jay Henriquez, 16, who was born in July of 1999, was poisoned in 2000 by consuming paint chips containing lead from a window sill in the home of his grandmother. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A decade before Flint, Michigan, there was Rhode Island, a tiny state that took a daring plunge by suing the paint industry to seek money for cleaning up a danger lurking on walls and windowsills in up to 80 percent of its homes. The landmark lawsuit reverberates today not only in Flint, but also in California, where 10 cities and counties are fighting to hold onto a $1.1 billion victory over the same industry.

Though the lawsuit remains influential, Rhode Island has little to show for its short-lived triumph on Feb. 22, 2006. Two years later, the state's highest court unanimously overturned the verdict, saying the paint industry couldn't be held responsible.

"My heart is still broken at the Supreme Court's decision that I still today cannot understand or justify," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the former Rhode Island attorney general who had initiated the case.

Studies have tied lead poisoning to permanent damage to children's brains and conditions including lowered intelligence, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Symptoms can take years to manifest and be hard to confirm.

Leaded paint, easily ingested by children whose fingers touch contaminated dust or who pick up sweet-tasting flakes that end up in their mouth, was a known danger and outlawed in the late 1970s. Rhode Island was hardly the only place with potentially exposed children, but in a compact and old state with an elderly housing stock, the threat was especially acute.

In 1999, when Rhode Island first sued, more than 2,300 children under 6 years old, nearly 7 percent of all those tested in the state, were found to have dangerously elevated levels of lead , according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By 2014, that number had dropped to 217, just under 1 percent of all the children tested statewide  but still 40 percent above the national rate.

Education campaigns helped, health experts say, as did government subsidies for remediation and laws that put more responsibility on landlords. But blood tests still find more than 1,000 new cases each year of children with elevated levels.

Few families were immune, especially in poorer areas populated by racial minorities  a connection also seen in Flint, where the culprit is the water supply.

"Lead poisoning would have been wiped out" if the problem had been concentrated in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods, said Roberta Hazen Aaronson, founder and director of the Childhood Lead Action Project.

"It's not an equal-opportunity disease," she said.

But wealthier families did fall victim.

Donna Lizotte thought she and her husband knew what they were doing when they bought a stately Victorian a decade ago in the desirable Edgewood district of Cranston and painted over old layers.

Later, their daughter was found to have 23 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Federal health officials have said there is no safe level of lead in children's blood, but that anything above 5 micrograms is high.

The family found evidence she had scratched at a wall near her crib.

"I thought lead poisoning was something that happened in dilapidated rental units," said Lizotte, an educator and scientist with a doctorate in molecular biology. "Honestly, I think I was just naive."

Now 10, the girl has attention deficit disorder, something correlated with lead poisoning, and other conditions.

"Here we are, 40 years later, it's still everywhere," she said. "I think the companies owe it to the children that are sick to fix it."

Most companies began phasing out lead-based pigments decades before the U.S. banned them in residential paint in 1978. Plaintiffs have said the companies and the now-defunct Lead Industries Association, a trade group that declared bankruptcy during Rhode Island's litigation, should have stopped promoting and selling the paint earlier because some of lead's damaging effects had been known for a century.

Whitehouse  whose own two children had elevated lead levels  sued on the state's behalf in 1999. It ended in a hung jury and mistrial, and was followed by a second trial argued by Whitehouse's successor. A jury found three companies liable: Sherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings and NL Industries.

After the industry appealed, Rhode Island's highest court recognized the long-term health consequences but dismissed the theory that a problem in homes and apartment buildings was a public nuisance for which paint companies were liable. The judges declared it landlords' responsibility to keep homes safe.

Courts and state officials elsewhere scrapped lawsuits that sought to hold manufacturers responsible for the windfall of cash needed to repair hazardous housing stock.

Only in California, where 10 cities and counties are defending a $1.1 billion victory, could paint companies still be liable for the lead in pigments they sold decades ago. Plaintiffs there are working with the same firm, Motley Rice, that Rhode Island hired and before that took on the asbestos and tobacco industries.

A phone call Friday to NL Industries rang unanswered and an email went unreturned. Millennium Holdings has declared bankruptcy.

Dale Leibach, a spokesman for Sherwin-Williams, declined to comment but pointed to the website www.leadlawsuits.com, which describes California's ruling as "the aberration" that unfairly holds companies liable for creating a durable product that was in high demand.

"This litigation by hindsight has failed nationwide," the website says, calling attention to the outcome in Rhode Island.

Despite the loss, Rhode Island's lawsuit was an "important and innovative piece of litigation" that "demonstrated that a lot of the paint companies knew what was going on. They knew there were hazards and they continued selling the product," said Erik Olson, an attorney who directs the health program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which was not involved in the litigation.

"It showed that there was a pretty reasonable argument that this was one way to get the resources to have their housing cleaned up," Olson said, "that the companies that created the problem ought to have a hand in cleaning it up."

In this Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016 photo Lisa Solano-Sanchez, left, and her son Jay Henriquez, 16, both of Providence, R.I., stand together for a photograph in the kitchen of their home, in Providence. Solano-Sanchez believes her son, who was born in July of 1999, was poisoned in 2000 by consuming paint chips containing lead from a window sill in the home of his grandmother. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Long Island's top official battles sexting accusations

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP)  He runs one of America's largest suburban counties and has repeatedly deflected questions about federal probes of political cronies and personal friends. But until last week, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano never had to utter one of the most dreaded phrases of 21st-century politics: "I have not sexted."

The 53-year-old Long Island Republican, a married father of two, found himself the focus of a television report on the eve of Valentine' Day that alleged sexually suggestive texts were sent from his phone to a public relations executive who received two no-bid county contracts worth nearly $50,000.

Mangano responded on camera that someone had obviously hacked into his phone, an explanation that drew immediate comparisons to former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner after he was accused of sexting in 2011.

FILE- In this Nov. 16, 2015 file photo, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, second left, and Nassau County's acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter, right, speak at a news conference in Mineola, N.Y. Mangano says he is a victim of cybercrime and is vehemently denying allegations in a TV report that he sent sexually suggestive texts to a public relations executive who has done work for the county. (AP Photo/Frank Eltman, File)

"I am outraged at this smear attempt and will take legal action against the sick individual who has sought to assassinate my character and hurt my family," Mangano said in a statement.

Investigating such a case involving one of Long Island's most powerful politicians raised questions, particularly since Mangano is the chief executive of a county of 1.3 million people and has control over a $2.9 billion budget, 7,250 employees, public works, social services and, most notably, the police.

A police news release issued after the TV report said that 10 days earlier, Mangano had filed a complaint claiming he was the target of a social media "spoof." Police said WCBS-TV provided investigators with a document from an anonymous source that appears to be a cut-and-paste of sexually suggestive texts from an 'Ed M.' and tweet from Karin Caro.

The Associated Press is not publishing the alleged texts because police wouldn't confirm their contents. Authorities also declined to say whether the number belonged to Mangano's personal cellphone or a government-issued phone.

Police said Mangano and the 40-year-old Caro, who runs a public relations company, have "no record of any such text or tweet." They said detectives also reviewed Mangano's social media account and found no record of a tweet. Caro, according to the police statement, said she never had social media communication with Mangano, nor does she have his cellphone number.

In a video Caro produced that was put on YouTube in 2013, she is shown interviewing Mangano in his office, thanking him for "giving a regular girl like me the opportunity to sit down with you; I mean, you're an amazing guy."

Caro issued her own statement saying that she and Mangano had been "maliciously attacked" and that the texts were fabricated. She said she was currently "going through a trying period of my life regarding abuse and attacks" but declined to elaborate. Calls to Caro and her attorney from the AP seeking further comment were not returned.

Caro received two contracts to provide "unique expertise" in promoting special events for the county's parks department. The contracts were for just under $25,000, a sum that does not require county legislative approval.

Mangano, serving his second four-year term, has also come under scrutiny over his political ties to former state Sen. Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau resident who was convicted in December of conspiracy, bribery and extortion.

One of Mangano's close friends is a restaurateur facing federal charges of bribing a town official. The restaurateur, Harendra Singh, arranged and paid for vacations for the county executive and his family, according to Newsday. Mangano has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

In 2013, Police Commissioner Thomas Dale resigned after interfering in an election-year dispute over petition signatures for a third-party candidate for county executive.

Former District Attorney Kathleen Rice found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing but said Mangano must "look beyond that threshold and evaluate the actions of the department for ethical and administrative propriety."

Similar questions have been raised in the current investigation.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the new district attorney should be in charge of the handling the case instead of the police because Mangano is expected to nominate the acting police commissioner, Thomas Krumpter, to run the department.

"He has to investigate the guy who is going to appoint him," Giacalone said of Krumpter. "It would be the best course of action to hand this over."

Giacalone also questioned why there was no written police complaint, only a verbal one. If no formal police complaint exists, he suggested, it could insulate Mangano from charges of filing a false report if his allegations of being hacked are disproven.

___

Follow Eltman on Twitter at @feltman41
Dorothy Hollingsworth was just 7 when her brother Tom left the family farm in Indiana to join the Army where he went on to become a decorated war hero.

Three months later, the United States entered World War II and she never saw him again.

Nearly 70 years after Pfc. Thomas E. Davis was killed in one of the war's final, major battles, a tangible reminder of her beloved sibling has been found on the Pacific island of Saipan  one of his Army dog tags.

Now 82-years-old, Hollingsworth lives outside Dayton, Ohio. She recalled memories of her sibling sitting next to her at the dinner table, saying: 'He was always laughing and singing and whistling.'

More than 70 years after Thomas E. Davis was killed in WWII, his dog tags have been found on the island of Saipan. His family members have been tracked down, and a nephew who was named after the war hero will likely be the one to keep the memento

Cultural historian Genevieve Cabrera found the dog tag in this field in Saipan, where Davis saved a wounded American soldier. He was awarded for a Silver Star for his act of courage

David enlisted in the army three months before the US entered World War II. He fought with the 165th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division and died in Okinawa, Japan

Cultural historian Genevieve Cabrera found the discolored metal tag sticking out of the soil of a farm field on Saipan in early 2014.

It was embossed with Davis' name, serial number, hometown and other information.

Cabrera recently gave the tag to members of Kuentai, a Japan-based organization that has found the remains of five 27th Division soldiers on Saipan.

The group notified the Associated Press this month and his family members were found with the help of Anthony Barger, an archivist for the Putnam County Public Library in Indiana.

Kuentai representatives said they'll arrange to meet the Davis family in the U.S. to hand over the tag.

While it is relatively common to find canteens, weapons and even unexploded shells from the 100,000 Americans and Japanese who fought for 25 days on the 46-square-mile island, dog tags remain a rare find, Cabrera said.

The tags, attached to a chain worn around the neck, were the only item of military-issued gear a soldier wore daily that included potentially life-saving information such as blood type and when a tetanus shot was administered.

In June 1944, he earned the Silver Star, one of the nation's highest military honors after surviving the bloody battle on Saipan.

He risked his own life to rescue a wounded comrade in Saipan 'at a time when the American front was undergoing brutal Japanese artillery and mortar fire.'

He was shot by a Japanese sniper when he was helping another wounded soldier. He died on April 30, just two months shy of his 28th birthday (file photo: Battle of Okinawa)

A year later, Davis was serving in the 165th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division when it took part in the Okinawa invasion on April 1, 1945.

Three weeks later, he was shot by a Japanese sniper while he was helping another wounded soldier, according to what Hollingsworth says military officials told the family.

Davis died April 30, two months shy of his 28th birthday. Four years later, his body was brought back for reburial in his hometown.

Davis was born and raised on his family's farm in Roachdale in Putnam County, 30 miles west of Indianapolis.

His mother died when he was a young boy, and his father remarried. Davis had six siblings: an older brother, Harold, three half brothers and two half sisters, including Hollingsworth.

The brothers have died. His other half-sister, Hazel Priest, 81, lives in Victoria, Texas, and several nieces and nephews live in Texas, Ohio and Indiana.
10 years on, Iraq scarred from attack on Shiite shrine

SAMARRA, Iraq (AP)  Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up a revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias.

The rebuilt golden dome of the al-Askari shrine rises above the low, brown skyline of Samarra, but down below a maze of blast walls and checkpoints manned by Shiite militiamen separate pilgrims from the city's mostly Sunni residents. The IS group's lightning advance across northern and western Iraq in 2014 stalled just outside Samarra, though the front lines are now some 30 kilometers (20 miles) away.

Many believe IS would have never emerged if al-Qaida in Iraq -- a precursor of the extremist group -- had not blown up the shrine in the early hours of Feb. 22, 2006, shattering its golden dome and setting off a two-year wave of reprisal attacks.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, file photo, Iraqis walk past the damaged al-Askari shrine following an explosion in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed, File)

Shiite lawmaker Muwaffak al-Rubaie, who was then Iraq's national security adviser, remembers the call he got from a local security official that morning. "He said today is the day of judgment," al-Rubaie recalled. "He was absolutely right."

In the days that followed, hundreds of Sunni mosques were attacked and thousands of civilians were killed. As Sunni extremists carried out near-daily suicide bombings, Shiite militiamen raided Sunni neighborhoods, abducting young men, torturing and killing them, and dumping the bodies in the streets.

In 2006 alone, the United Nations estimated that more than 34,000 civilians had been killed across Iraq. The following year, the government withheld casualty figures from the U.N., fearing they would be used to paint a "grim" picture of the country and undermine security efforts.

Baghdad's once-mixed neighborhoods were carved into Sunni and Shiite enclaves that soon came to be surrounded by high concrete walls and concertina wire. In a country where mixed marriages were once common, merely having a Sunni or Shiite first name was enough to be disappeared at one of innumerable flying checkpoints.

Iraqi security forces backed by a surge of tens of thousands of U.S. troops were eventually able to halt the bloodletting by 2008, but the country has never been the same.

"The wounds that were created then have healed, but with permanent scars," al-Rubaie said.

The lingering animosity can be seen in the shadow of the rebuilt shrine, where Sunni residents who once prided themselves on being its guardians now live under a permanent security lockdown. Streets that once thronged with pilgrims are empty, and shops that catered to them are shuttered.

Saad Eskander, an Iraqi historian and former director of the National Archives, said that as the only Shiite shrine located in a Sunni-majority city, the site was a symbol of coexistence for centuries. A Shiite Muslim, he remembers praying there alongside Sunnis as a child.

But he says that in the aftermath of the 2006 attack, politicians exploited popular anger for their own ends. Years of sectarian politics paved the way for the emergence of IS, and led many Sunnis in Iraq to initially welcome the extremists as liberators.

"Daesh is a result of those sad events," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

"Before 2006, the divisions in Iraq were between the political representatives of the two communities," Eskander said. "Now the divisions are between the two communities themselves."

Thousands of pilgrims still visit the shrine every day, but they are channeled through a labyrinth of walls that separate them from Sunni neighborhoods. Sunni residents must pass through checkpoints manned by Shiite militiamen, who took over security after Iraq's army and police crumbled in the face of the IS advance.

Aruba, a 30-year-old Sunni woman who works in a pharmacy, said her parents used to regularly visit the nearby shrine before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and recalls going there herself as recently as 2005. But she doesn't know of a single Sunni resident who has been since 2006.

"They don't respect that this is where I come from," Aruba said of the forces guarding the shrine. "They search me in my own home." She asked that her last name not be published out of concern for her safety.

"This place belongs to us," said Abdul Rahman Salah, a customer at the pharmacy. "The shrine's Imam was our grandfather."

The shrine is the final resting place of the 10th and 11th imams, religious figures from the 9th century who most Shiites believe inherited the mantle of leadership from the Prophet Mohammed. The adjacent mosque is built on the site where the 12th imam, who most Shiites believe will return as a messiah-like figure, disappeared more than 1,000 years ago. Millions of pilgrims visit every year.

Salah said that before 2006, Samarra residents looked after the shrine and handled security, even worshipping alongside the mostly Shiite visitors. But after the February attack, the militias moved into the area and brought Shiites from neighboring villages to maintain the grounds.

In the following years, while money poured in to rebuild the shrine, the local economy withered as pilgrims no longer ventured out into the city.

"I don't even want to look at that site anymore," Aruba said. She said she views it as a symbol of the Shiite-led government's neglect of Sunni communities.

Naji Sayad, a member of the so-called Peace Brigades, the Shiite militia that guards the site, acknowledges that the city seethes with resentment.

"Honestly, they don't want us here, they say take your shrine and just leave," he said. "The people of Samarra, they used to survive on the people who visited the shrine... But because they attacked it in 2006, this doesn't belong to them anymore."

___

Associated Press writer Ali Hameed contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2006 file photo, Iraqis collect copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book, from the ruins of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2006 file photo, Iraqis gather at the ruins of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 photo, Shiite pilgrims visit the holy al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, photo, the golden dome of the holy al-Askari shrine is under restoration in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 photo, Shiite pilgrims visit the holy al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 photo, Shiite pilgrims visit the holy al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, photo workers renovate the holy al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up a revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 photo, Shiite pilgrims visit the holy al-Askari shrine, under reconstruction, in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up the revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 photo workers renovate the holy al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after Sunni extremists blew up a revered Shiite shrine, igniting the worst sectarian violence Iraq had ever seen, the country remains deeply divided, with the Islamic State group facing off against increasingly powerful Shiite militias. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Michael Fallon authorised use of RAF Lakenheath for US air raid on Daesh camp

A US air raid on an Islamic State training camp in Libya was launched from an RAF base in Suffolk.

The attack, launched from RAF Lakenheath on Friday, has been welcomed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

He said: "I welcome this strike that has taken out a Daesh (Islamic State) training camp being used to train terrorists to carry out attacks.

Michael Fallon allowed the use of RAF Lakenheath for the US air raid on a Daesh camp in Libya

"I was satisfied that its destruction makes us all safer and I personally authorised the use of our bases."

A key Tunisian extremist is believed to have been killed in the attack on the camp, near the Tunisian border.

US officials added that around 60 militants were present at the site when the war planes struck.

In Libya, local officials estimated that more than 40 people were killed with more wounded.

The Obama administration has previously vowed to strike key IS targets in Libya when opportunities arise, h owever, the strike did not appear to mark the start of a sustained US air campaign in the country.

Earlier this month UK foreign office minister Tobias Ellwood confirmed that RAF war planes have already been involved in flying missions over the country but gave no further details.

He said the UK was prepared to provide advice, support and training to the Libyan military if political agreement could be reached on the formation of a new government of national unity.
Everton see off Bournemouth as FA Cup run keeps their season alive

Everton kept their season alive as goals from Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku fired them into the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 2-0 win at Bournemouth.

Barkley struck early in the second half with a heavily-deflected strike and Lukaku wrapped up the victory with his 21st goal of the season.

They were also indebted to goalkeeper Joel Robles, who kept out a first-half penalty from Charlie Daniels to keep the sides level at the interval.

Ross Barkley, third from left, celebrated opening the scoring for Everton at Bournemouth

Toffees boss Roberto Martinez, under pressure with his side off the pace in the Premier League, knows this competition is his best chance to salvage something from an otherwise disappointing season.

He therefore took the rare step of naming an unchanged side for the fifth-round trip while Bournemouth, whose priority remains top-flight survival, made seven changes.

England boss Roy Hodgson was in attendance to watch Everton's Three Lions contingent, but it was an Argentinian who caught the eye during the first half.

Bournemouth's January signing Juan Iturbe won possession from Barkley in his own half and embarked on a lightning run to the edge of the area before firing wide.

By contrast Lukaku, on his own in the Everton attack, was cutting a frustrated figure at the lack of service from his team-mates.

So after half an hour he took matters into his own hands by powering past Tommy Elphick down the left like a 400metre runner going round the final bend.

Having cut in from the wing he bore down on Adam Federici and attempted to tuck the ball inside the near post, but the Cherries keeper stuck out a leg to block the Belgian's effort.

Bournemouth's big chance arrived in the 38th minute when James McCarthy was penalised after Daniels' corner hit his outstretched arm.

But Robles made a fine diving save to keep out Daniels' spot-kick and, in their haste to get to the rebound, four Bournemouth players ran into each other, knocking Simon Francis off balance as he slashed the ball wide.

Everton looked a different side after the interval and made the breakthrough in the 55th minute when Tom Cleverly fed Barkley, who took aim on the edge of the area.

Dan Gosling attempted to block the shot, only to see the ball loop up off his foot and high into the air before dipping under the crossbar just out of the reach of the back-pedalling Federici.

Lukaku thought he had doubled the lead moments later when slotted the ball past Federici after being put through by Barkley, but the striker was flagged for the tightest of offsides.

However, Lukaku got his goal with 14 minutes remaining from Bryan Oviedo's scuffed near-post corner.
Scrambling Rory McIlroy two shots off Northern Trust Open lead

Rory McIlroy is two shots off the lead going into the final round of the Northern Trust Open in California and the Northern Irishman knew he had to rely on some hustle to stay in contention.

The world number three fired five birdies in a four-under-par 67 in his third round to join five other players on 10 under, two shots behind leader Bubba Watson.

After a second-round 70 was blighted by some indifferent putting, McIlroy regained his form with birdies at the second, sixth, 10th, 15th and 17th holes, with his bogey five at the par-four third his only blemish.

Rory McIlroy is in contention in California

That was due to some impressive up-and-down play, which saw him scramble unlikely pars at holes seven, eight and 18.

He told pgatour.com: "I didn't play particularly well, I didn't hit my first fairway until the eighth but my scrambling was good, my putting for pars was good, I stayed patient and let the opportunities present themselves.

"It added up to a great 67 and I am right in there going into the final day.

"There were a lot of up and downs today that didn't look like they were going to be up and downs. You need to do that especially if you are a little scrappy with your long game as I was today."

There are plenty of other players standing in the way of McIlroy and glory in his maiden outing at the tournament, not least two-times Masters champion Watson.

Watson also carded five birdies in his 67, let down by a solitary bogey at the eighth, as he forged a one-shot lead at 12 under.

Second-round leader Jason Kokrak, Chez Reavie and Dustin Johnson are in the chasing pack at 11 under, though Kokrak squandered a one-shot overnight lead with his round of 70.
Sarah Taylor shines again to lead England to T20 series win over South Africa

Sarah Taylor's third successive Twenty20 half-century eased England's women to a series-clinching four-wicket victory over South Africa at the Wanderers.

Taylor (60) and Heather Knight shared a third-wicket stand of 62 as the tourists chased 131 for four with 27 balls to spare for a 2-1 success.

South Africa did well to push England that far, after recovering from six for three - with Anya Shrubsole on a hat-trick - thanks to a fourth-wicket partnership of 89 between Lizelle Lee (69no) and Mignon du Preez.

Sarah Taylor starred with the bat once again as England sealed a T20 series victory over South Africa

Taylor reached her 15th Twenty20 half-century from 33 balls, having hit nine fours - and then for good measure passed 2,000 runs in this format, after Knight was caught-behind from a mis-sweep at Sune Luus.

Dane van Niekerk pulled off a fine caught-and-bowled to dismiss Taylor.

By then, though, England needed only 16 in almost seven overs - and despite a late wobble to the returning Shabnim Ismail (three for 27), Tammy Beaumont finished the job.

The tourists' loss of three late wickets in eight balls was a mere blip, compared with South Africa's early troubles after they were put in.

Tash Farrant, and Shrubsole with her two wickets in two balls, consigned the hosts to a miserable start - before Lee took over with her career-best batting, in a stand which saw captain Du Preez pass 1,000 Twenty20 runs.

Farrant, and England, were indebted to a very good stumping by Taylor off a leg-side wide to see off Trisha Chetty for a duck to the third ball of the match.

Van Niekerk then could not deal with Shrubsole's inswing, and neither could Marizanne Kapp - both bowled in successive deliveries.

South Africa's openers, who had hit 169 runs between them in the first two matches, were gone for an aggregate five this time.

But Lee and Du Preez did the business instead for South Africa.

Lee had an escape on 30, dropped at long-off by Knight in Jenny Gunn's first over - which cost 15.

Knight made minor amends when she responded to a fumble in the deep with a direct-hit flat throw to run out De Preez.
At least 12 dead in clashes between army and Islamists in Libya's Benghazi

BENGHAZI, Libya, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Heavy clashes in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have left at least 12 people dead and 17 wounded, a hospital official said on Saturday.

Five years on from the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is plagued by instability and Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to expand their presence there.

A spokesman for the military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government, Wanis Boukhamada, said fighting was mostly in the neighbourhood of Boatni. The army has been battling Islamist groups in the city for months.

Two governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east, each backed by complex alliances of armed factions, are vying to for control of the country.

On Friday, U.S. warplanes carried out an airstrike on a suspected militant camp in western Libya. At least 50 people were killed including two Serbian embassy staff abducted in Libya in November.
At least 14 dead in clashes between army and Islamists in Libya's Benghazi

BENGHAZI, Libya, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Heavy clashes in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have left at least 14 people dead and 32 wounded, medical officials said on Saturday.

Five years on from the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is plagued by instability, and Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to expand their presence.

A spokesman for the military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government, Wanis Boukhamada, said fighting was mostly in the neighbourhood of Boatni. The army has been battling Islamist groups in the city for months.

Two governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east, each backed by complex alliances of armed factions, are vying to for control of the country.

On Friday, U.S. warplanes carried out an airstrike on a suspected militant camp in Sabratha in western Libya. At least 50 people were killed including two Serbian embassy staff abducted in Libya in November.

Neighbouring Tunisia's Interior Ministry said on Saturday that five militants had been arrested in the southern city of Ben Guerdan who had trained in Sabratha and had planned to carry out attacks in Tunisia.

U.S. officials said on Friday that one of those targeted in the attack was the Tunisian Noureddine Chouchane, blamed for two attacks targeting foreign tourists in Tunisia last year in which dozens were killed.
Fiji super cyclone kills five, raises fears of health crisis

By Jane Wardell and Colin Packham

SYDNEY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Downed power lines and flooding are hampering relief efforts in Fiji after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the Pacific island nation, flattening remote villages and killing at least five people.

Harsh winds and torrential rains tore up homes and cut power, water and communications links across the nation of about 900,000 people, although Suva, the capital, escaped the brunt after the storm changed direction at the last minute.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama confirmed the death toll and declared a 30-day state of emergency, with schools ordered to shut and a nationwide curfew extended until Monday morning.

"When we are able we will provide timelines for the return of water and power," he said, adding that electricity supply to some areas had been deliberately cut to avert further damage.

The archipelago of about 300 islands hit late on Saturday by tropical cyclone Winston, which packed winds of 230 kph (143 mph) that gusted up to 325 kph (202 mph).

Businessman Jay Dayal, who lives near Rakiraki, on the north coast of Fiji's main island where the cyclone hit land, said the storm damage was extensive.

"I wouldn't be surprised if people are now starting to go without food," Dayal told Reuters. "It looks like a different country, it doesn't look like Fiji."

Humanitarian agencies warned Fiji may be facing a potential health crisis, mainly due to the lack of electricity. Low-lying river areas where hundreds of people live in tin sheds are also particularly vulnerable, aid workers said.

"We need electricity to ensure pumps are working and for sterilization," Raijeli Nicole, an official of aid agency Oxfam, told Reuters by telephone that flights have been scheduled on Sunday to assess damage in remote areas.

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

An elderly man died on Koro Island when a roof fell on him, authorities said. In a nearby village, 50 homes were reported to have been destroyed.

"Some villages have reported that all homes have been destroyed," Jone Tuiipelehaki of the United Nations Development Program tweeted late on Saturday.

People flocked to 758 evacuation centres on Saturday, while tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and conference rooms in coastal areas.

"The images that we're starting to see roll in are terrifying," Alice Clements, a UNICEF official based in Suva said by telephone, describing visuals of a car on a building roof and a small plane nose down in debris.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who offered to send a P-3 Orion aircraft to help in the relief effort, said about 1,200 Australians were registered as being in Fiji, although there could be many more.

Australians are frequent travellers to the archipelago, which gets around 340,000 tourists each year. Airlines Virgin and Jetstar on Saturday suspended flights to Fiji, and the national carrier suspended all flights.
UN under pressure to show it can help end Burundi violence

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - When U.N. Security Council envoys flew to Burundi in January to try to end months of violence, the central African country's leader flatly rejected their offer of help and hundreds protested against what they saw as meddling.

A month later, with fears of a new ethnic conflict growing a decade after a civil war ended, diplomats say Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will step up peace efforts by visiting Burundi for talks on Tuesday with President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The U.N. is under growing pressure to show it can halt the bloodshed in Burundi, two decades after the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Hutu majority in neighbouring Rwanda, which has a similar ethnic make-up.

But Nkurunziza has rejected a proposal for the 54-nation African Union to send in peacekeepers and shows no sign of changing the message he gave the U.N. Security Council envoys in January -- that Burundi is "up to 99 percent secure".

"He's in total denial about what is going on," Amr Aboulatta, Egypt's ambassador to the U.N., said of the Jan. 22 talks at a hilltop residence outside the capital Bujumbura.

Aboulatta suggested the Security Council, whose purpose is to maintain international security, must now be "more sensitive, more cautious and take things step by step".

But Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has made clear the need for action is pressing in the landlocked country of 10 million.

"What Burundi needs urgently is an inclusive broadened mediation, and an expanded international presence ... we have a responsibility to try again and again to convince the president to stop rejecting offers of international support," she said.

DEATH TOLL RISING

The U.N. says at least 439 people have been killed in the violence, which began after Nkurunziza's decision last April to seek a third term, and that the number could be "considerably higher." About 240,000 have fled the country.

Since a failed coup last May, Bujumbura has been hit by frequent shootings and grenade attacks aimed at civilians and police, who have frequently mounted raids at night on districts in the capital which the government says are hotbeds of anti-Nkurunziza sentiment.

The United Nations is investigating reports of mass graves, the crisis has triggered foreign aid cuts and Burundi, one of the world's poorest countries, is facing an economic disaster.

This has prompted calls from human rights groups for the U.N. to be more assertive in Burundi, where 300,000 people were killed in the 1993-2005 civil war. Like Rwanda, Burundi's population is about 85 percent Hutu and about 15 percent Tutsi.

"The Security Council needs to quickly shift from early warning to preventive action. It should convince the Burundian government to accept a strong U.N. political mission with an international police component," said Philippe Bolopion, Deputy Director for Global Advocacy at New-York-based Human Rights Watch.

Diplomats say Ban will push Nkurunziza for political talks and a greater international presence, but it is not clear what the United Nations can do if the president continues to refuse outside help.

A U.N. political mission in Burundi stopped operating in 2014 at the government's request and Ban's lead official on Burundi, Jamal Benomar, has only a small team on the ground.

Nkurunziza has also rejected the African Union's proposal to send in 5,000 peacekeepers because he says it would amount to an invasion.

"At some point the world has to wonder what you're hiding if you're adamant about preventing any independent eyes and ears on the ground," Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy to Africa's Great Lakes Region, told Reuters.

U.N. POLICE MISSION?

After asking the U.N. peacekeeping department to prepare contingency plans in case Burundi spirals out of control, the Security Council is now likely to request options for sending U.N. police, seizing on a proposal by Russia, diplomats say.

"The idea of U.N. police -- and the format, the conditions, the modalities of course must be discussed -- is potentially a productive idea. That is one of the ideas we must work on," French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters.

Russia initially opposed action over Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term because it saw it as a constitutional matter of a sovereign state.

But after violence worsened following his victory in a disputed election last July, Russia and China - both veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council - backed a resolution in November aimed at boosting a U.N. presence and threatening "additional measures" against those fuelling the crisis.

Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Petr Iliichev, said his understanding was that Nkurunziza had expressed interest in the possibility of international assistance for Burundi's police.

"We should not lose the momentum because there is some kind of openness from the Burundi government," he told Reuters. But he added: "If we move very attentively, very cautiously, it will be better for everyone."

But Burundi's U.N. ambassador, Albert Shingiro, made clear any potential U.N. help would be limited to assisting in the development, or "capacity-building", of the police and monitoring the border with Rwanda.

"We don't need an armed mission, it would be a civilian mission for capacity-building ... it would be a small, limited number," he told Reuters.

The United States and the European Union have imposed targeted sanctions on several Burundians over the crisis, but the African Union and the Security Council have not followed suit. Iliichev said there was no need for U.N. sanctions.

The crisis in Burundi has raised fears of violence spreading beyond its borders, heightening tension with Rwanda over accusations that it is meddling.

Kigali has denied reports of Burundian refugees being recruited and trained in Rwanda, with the aim of ousting Nkurunziza, though the United States says the reports are credible.

Some diplomats say the reports could be a way to convince Nkurunziza to accept a greater international presence by suggesting it could help monitor the border with Rwanda.
Niger holds tense vote, with Issoufou running for second term

By Abdoulaye Massalaki

NIAMEY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Niger closed its land borders and ramped up security on Sunday for an election in which President Mahamadou Issoufou is running for a second term promising to crush Islamist militants and reduce the country's deep poverty.

Security forces patrolled cities and villages in case of unrest or militant attacks. Some voters said they had never experienced such a tense election.

Unidentified armed men attacked two electoral commission vehicles in a rural area about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital, according to security sources, but there were few other reports of trouble.

"Niger needs strong democratic institutions. I hope that the presidential and legislative elections will permit us to reinforce our institutions," Issoufou said when he cast his ballot at city hall in the capital Niamey.

He faces 14 candidates including Seyni Oumaru, leader of an opposition coalition. Critics say Issoufou has used political repression in the run-up to the vote, arresting opposition supporters and jailing opposition leader Hama Amadou over charges related to a baby-trafficking ring.

"These are not free and fair elections. We have one presidential candidate in prison who has not been able to campaign. ... The president has manipulated the electorate and used repression," said Amadou Saidou, a voter in Niamey.

The government says it respects the law and calls such criticisms politically motivated.

Voting ended at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) after a day of steady turnout in most areas but polls will reopen from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday in areas where voting could not take place on Sunday, the electoral commission said.

It gave no details but local media reported problems in Tahoua region in the northeast, Zinder in the east, Diffa in the southeast and Tillaberi in the west. The country has eight regions in total and results are not expected before Tuesday.

Opposition spokesman Ousseini Salatou said on a private television station, Tenere, that the election had been badly organized and he had witnessed cases of voting card fraud.

Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the U.N.'s Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates. The country ranks 114 out of 142 in the 2015 prosperity index run by the UK-based Legatum Institute.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in neighbouring Nigeria, has staged a series of attacks in Niger in recent months, forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa.

But Niger prides itself on being peaceful relative to its neighbours Nigeria, Libya and Mali.

Issoufou, born in 1951, won an election in 2011, a year after a coup. Under election rules, a run-off will be held if no candidate secures an outright victory on Sunday.
U.S. criticises Uganda election, says concerned about Besigye's arrest

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The United States has criticised the handling of Uganda's disputed presidential election and raised concerns about the house arrest of an opposition leader who failed to end President Yoweri Museveni's 30-year rule.

Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders and a U.S. ally, was declared winner on Saturday but opponents rejected the outcome of the election. European Union and Commonwealth observers have also criticised the handling of Thursday's poll.

Main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye was arrested three times this week and alleges the police have put him under house arrest and blocked his electronic communication. Besigye has described the election as a sham and another challenger, Amama Mbabazi, said the poll was "fundamentally flawed".

The U.S. State Department said it was concerned by Besigye's continued house arrest and the shuttering of social media in Uganda, where Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have faced outages since election day.

"We call for his immediate release and the restoration of access to all social media sites," Mark Toner, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson, said late on Saturday.

He said the widespread reports of irregularities and the conduct of officials was "deeply inconsistent with international standards and expectations for any democratic process".

Ugandan deputy government spokesman, Shaban Bantariza, dismissed the U.S. criticism, saying it "appears partisan and lacks merit".

He added: "The few and isolated irregularities that occurred can not be used to discredit the integrity of an exercise that otherwise went smoothly."

The EU observer mission said the election had been conducted in an "intimidating" atmosphere, while Commonwealth observers said the poll "fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks".

Museveni, 71, has presided over strong economic growth but is accused at home and abroad of repression of dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the nation of 37 million people.

Besigye has urged the international community to denounce the poll win by Museveni, who has won favour with the West by sending Ugandan troops to Somalia to battle Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Museveni on Friday to voice concern over Besigye's detention, the harassment of opposition figures and the shutdown of social media.
Iraq's Abadi keeps Iran at arm's length in war on Islamic State

By Maher Chmaytelli

BAGHDAD, Feb 21 (Reuters)- - As fighting in Iraq raged last summer, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani came across unexpected opposition to his plans to defeat Islamic State.

Soleimani is the commander of Iran's al-Quds brigade and has been a key figure in the fight against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq. That fight has been led not by Iraq's army but by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias.

But in August, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Soleimani that a planned assault on the Sunni city of Ramadi should be left to the Iraqi army, according to a government official and two diplomats.

Abadi, a 64-year-old Shi'ite, wanted the militias to stay away to avoid inflaming ethnic tensions, the sources said.

Abadi's office declined to comment on the story, which has been repeated in Baghdad's diplomatic circles for months. Three Iraqi politicians denied it ever happened.

But the government official and the diplomats said the incident was one of a series of moves by Abadi to assert his authority as leader and to distance himself from Tehran and the militias that came to Baghdad's rescue in 2014 and early 2015.

Abadi has begun to push for reconciliation between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis, and for better relations with Sunni Arab neighbours like Saudi Arabia, they said.

If he can bridge the gap between rival sectarian communities as he has promised, he will have gone a long way towards reuniting a country which has been deeply riven since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

According to the government official and the two diplomats, Abadi also objected to Soleimani's plane landing at Baghdad airport without prior permission. Abadi was also irritated that Soleimani used an official VIP hall at the airport when entering Iraq, even though he was not officially invited by the government.

The deterioration in their relationship, the sources said, began in August when Soleimani attended a top Iraqi security meeting run by Abadi and behaved in, what one source said, was "a bossy manner as if Iraq was an Iranian protectorate".

This, the sources said, had led Abadi to ask Soleimani why he was at the meeting. The Iranian general had then left.

"Abadi questioned his presence. It was a matter of Iraqi sovereignty and nationalism," one Western diplomat said. Abadi's office declined to comment.

The Iraqi government official said Abadi and Soleimani had not fought but were "keeping an operational, business-like relationship. We can't say it's warm".

Whatever the case, Soleimani has receded from public view in Iraq in the past six months. The omnipresent posters and television images of him on the battlefield have all but disappeared.

There are likely to be limits to that change. Iran's allies within Abadi's Shi'ite camp are pushing back against his more muscular stance, while the collapse in oil prices has cut the government budget, said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government adviser and an expert on Islamic State.

For now though, Abadi seems to be trying to deliver on his initial address to parliament in 2014 in which he painted a vision of a decentralised and united Iraq.

VICTORY IN RAMADI

The army's victory in Ramadi against the ultra-hardline Sunni militant group was a key moment.

An elite corps of the Iraqi army dislodged Islamic State from the city, the largest in western Iraq, in the final days of 2015. Support came from U.S. warplanes while Sunni tribesmen held the ground behind the army lines.

The army is now preparing to take on Islamic State in Falluja, a bastion of Sunni jihadists to the west of Baghdad, and plans to start a push towards Mosul, the largest northern city.

It was the fall of Mosul to Islamic State in 2014 that forced the exit of Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki. Many Iraqi lawmakers blamed Maliki for the Iraqi army's defeat in the city. Crucially, Maliki lost the backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive octogenarian who enjoys almost mythical status among millions of Shi'ite followers and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians openly challenge.

Sistani called for a consensus candidate. Abadi was Maliki's replacement, in part because he promised to heal the sectarian rift between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunnis.

The new prime minister grew up in Baghdad amongst Sunni, Christians and other communities.

"His father was a prominent doctor. (Abadi) is used to living with other communities," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with the Geneva-based think-tank Gulf Research Center.

After more than 20 years in exile in Britain where he studied in the northern English city of Manchester and worked as an electrical engineer, Abadi returned to Iraq in 2003 following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam's Baath party.

Like Maliki, Abadi is a member of the Shi'ite Dawa Party, which along with other Shi'ite groups carried out a U.S.-initiated de-Baathification campaign, effectively removing Sunnis from state, army and police positions.

A decade ago, Abadi backed that campaign. But when he became prime minister he promised to unite the country. At first, he struggled to assert himself. Some U.S. officials then perceived him as a weak leader who needed the backing of the militias.

But in the past few months that perception has begun to shift. On Feb. 9 he renewed a bid to dismantle the country's patronage system and root out corruption. Abadi said he wants a government reshuffle with technocrats as ministers.

The move surprised several groups of his ruling coalition, the government official said. "He made the announcement straight to the media, without consulting the party leaders."

Abadi has also improved relations with Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia. In December, Riyadh reopened its embassy in Baghdad, 25 years after it shut following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Saudi Ambassador Thamer Al-Shabhan told newspapers the move would enable greater cooperation against extremism.

The closer ties survived their first test in January, when Saudi Arabia executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Iraqi government resisted pressure from Shi'ite groups to break off ties and instead offered to mediate between Riyadh and Tehran.

"Abadi has kept himself at arm's length" from Iran, said a European diplomat. "He has only been to Tehran two or three times in 18 months, not like his predecessor who would go all the time."

THE LIMITS TO CHANGE

Convincing Sunni Iraqis that he is sincere will not be easy. Parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri, the most senior Sunni in the Iraqi state, said Abadi is showing good intentions but "does not use all of his authority to do what he promised to do".

Many Shi'ite politicians feel like Abadi is already too accommodating. Shi'ite political parties continue to back de-Baathification measures affecting tens of thousands of Sunnis. They also oppose the creation of a National Guard that would incorporate provincial forces like the Sunnis who are fighting Islamic State.

The government official said most Shi'ite politicians still have a strong anti-Sunni feeling. After Abadi's recent call for reforms, some Shi'ite government officials even discussed replacing the prime minister, the official said.

The European diplomat said the resistance Abadi faced made it hard to implement real change. "The feeling remains that Sunnis should pay the price for what they have done under Saddam," he said.

The sharp drop in oil prices and growing economic crisis in Iraq make things even harder.

"For the prime minister you can't not spend on the military, otherwise you can't defeat (Islamic State)," the same diplomat said. "He has a lot less money to play with than any of his predecessors have had since 2003."

Abadi's limited influence on the Shi'ite militias was apparent in January when his government failed to stop revenge attacks on Sunni civilians after Islamic State carried out a series of bombings east of Baghdad.
Lebanon's justice minister announces resignation

BEIRUT, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Sunday announced his resignation, blaming political rivals Hezbollah and their allies for the country's political crisis, which has seen it without a president for 21 months and paralysed state institutions.

"Continuing (to be part of) this government has become an agreement to this deviation, or at least is a failure to confront it," Rifi said in a statement.
Lebanese justice minister resigns, blames Hezbollah over deadlock, court case

BEIRUT, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi resigned on Sunday, blaming political rivals Hezbollah for the country's political deadlock and protesting over the release on bail of a former minister sentenced for smuggling explosives from Syria.

Lebanon's political crisis has left it without a president for 21 months with rival factions unable to agree on a candidate, and has paralysed state institutions, preventing the government from taking even basic decisions.

The release on bail of ex-information minister Michel Samaha last month after serving eight months of a 4 1/2 year jail sentence for smuggling explosives from neighbouring Syria and planning attacks drew anger and condemnation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's opponents in Lebanon.

In a new sign of regional tension spilling over into Lebanon, Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended a military aid package to the Lebanese security forces in what an official said was a response to Beirut's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Rifi said Hezbollah was to blame for the political paralysis, the Samaha case and the Saudi episode.

"Continuing (to be part of) this government has become an agreement to this deviation, or at least is a failure to confront it," Rifi said in a statement.

"So I present to you and to Prime Minister Tammam Salam my resignation," he said.

The cabinet was to hold an emergency session on Monday, the National News Agency said.

Rifi described the Samaha case as a "national crime which Hezbollah is responsible for," calling for the case to be referred to international courts.

The case captivated a Lebanese public accustomed to seeing political violence go unpunished. It was another example of how turmoil in Syria is rippling through a country where Damascus has played a major role for decades and whose future will be shaped by the outcome of the civil war next door.

Hezbollah is an ally of Assad and of Iran, and its fighters have provided crucial support for Damascus's efforts to turn battles in western Syria in its favour.
CDC, Brazil start big study to test Zika link to birth defects

By Julie Steenhuysen

Feb 21 (Reuters) - U.S. and Brazilian researchers are heading to Joao Pessoa in the state of Paraiba on Monday to recruit mothers and babies in one of the biggest government-led studies to understand whether the Zika virus is linked to microcephaly, a rare birth defect.

Brazil has confirmed more than 500 cases of microcephaly, defined by an unusually small head, since the start of the outbreak. Over 3,900 additional suspected cases are being investigated.

Brazil normally only sees about 150 cases a year. The spike in microcephaly prompted the World Health Organization on Feb. 1 to declare Zika an international health emergency.

The study has been in the planning stages for several weeks. It will pair researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with Brazilian experts to examine babies already born with microcephaly and their mothers to determine whether Zika or some other infection caused their malady.

"What we're trying to do is to better define the association between children that have been diagnosed with microcephaly and whether or not they might have evidence of congenital Zika virus infection," said Dr. Erin Staples, a CDC medical epidemiologist leading the study in Paraiba.

In an interview, Staples offered a first glimpse at the long-anticipated study. Researchers hope to enroll 100 mothers and their babies with microcephaly. These will be matched with 300 to 400 pairs of healthy mothers and their babies. Initial results are expected this spring, a senior CDC official said.

Blood samples from moms and babies in both groups will be tested for signs of Zika infection.

Current diagnostic tests looking for Zika antibodies are limited because they closely resemble dengue, a related virus common in Brazil. The team hopes that taking samples from both mothers and their babies will give a more precise picture of whether Zika was involved. They will also look for other exposures that might explain why a baby developed microcephaly.

The study's design should help determine the relative risk of microcephaly in babies whose mothers were infected with Zika.

Staples said the work could provide stronger confirmation of a link, but that it would take years of scientific investigation to prove whether Zika actually causes microcephaly.

In the meantime, evidence of a connection is mounting. Researchers have found the virus in fetal brain tissue, amniotic fluid and placenta. An autopsy of an aborted fetus showed the full genetic code of the virus in the brain and evidence that the virus was replicating.

Brazil is the only country to report a spike in microcephaly after Zika arrived last year. The CDC has a vested interest in unraveling the mystery as the outbreak makes its way north. The mosquito-borne virus is circulating in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and is expected to reach several southern U.S. states with warmer weather in the spring.

CDC experts will join staff from the Brazil's Health Ministry. The team will also try to determine the most common characteristics of microcephaly that might be specifically associated with Zika, and check whether other abnormalities might result from exposure to the virus.

Staples estimates it will take four to five weeks to get the study fully enrolled, but it may take longer.

"We need to make sure we have the right number of cases and controls to be able to say with a good degree of certainty what is going on," she said.
Hindu priest killed in Bangladesh

By Serajul Quadir

DHAKA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh on Sunday, and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.

Police said the attack was perpetrated by a local militant group, while Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement issued via social media.

Bangladesh has experienced a wave of militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by Islamic State, which has said it was behind the killings of a Japanese citizen, an Italian aid worker and a policeman.

In Sunday's incident, five or six attackers cut the throat of the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, 55, as he was organising prayers at the Deviganj temple near Panchagar, 494 km (308 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, police said.

Police have arrested four people who are members of the Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), police official Humayun Kabir said, rejecting the claim by Islamic State which was issued through the Telegram messaging app and Twitter.

"In a security operation facilitated by the almighty God, soldiers of the Caliphate liquidated the priest Jogeshwar Roy, the founder and the head of the Deviganj temple that belongs to the infidel Hindus," the ISIS statement read in Arabic.

"One of his companions was hurt after being targeted with light weapons in the area of Panchagar in Northern Bangladesh, and the Mujahideen returned to their positions unharmed, and all praise be to God."

The devotee who tried to stop the priest's attackers was shot in the leg before the group fled, Kabir said.
Criticism of crackdown mounts in Egypt as policeman sent to trial

CAIRO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Egypt's prosecutor sent a police officer to trial for murder, state news agency MENA said on Sunday, after he confessed to shooting dead a driver, in the latest incident of alleged police brutality that has stirred public anger.

Slow handling of a string of alleged abuses by police and a move to convict an author over his sexually-explicit writings has prompted rare criticism of Egypt's authorities by prominent journalists and broadcasters.

Sergeant Mustafa Abdel Karim, who was said to have confessed to shooting the driver after an argument about a fare, was forced to flee an angry mob of locals on Thursday night after the incident. They then protested outside Cairo security directorate.

Last week, thousands of doctors held a rare protest against police who they say beat two doctors at a Cairo hospital for refusing to falsify medical records.

Earlier this month, the body of a missing Italian graduate student was found on the outskirts of Cairo showing signs of torture, including electrocution.

Activists said the injuries bore the hallmarks of Egyptian security services. The Interior Ministry denies allegations of involvement in the Italian's death.

Then, on Saturday, a court sentenced author Ahmed Naji to two years in jail over the sexual content of his novel, prompting criticism over an apparent imbalance in justice.

In an unusually strongly-worded comment in Al Maqal newspaper, prominent journalist Ibrahim Eissa compared the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to his predecessor -- the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi, whom he overthrew in 2013 following mass protests.

"Your state imprisons people for their thoughts and their novels ... what happened exactly to make our nation turn around with you to the era of searching consciences and trying minds and imprisoning writers and authors?" he wrote.

"Your state and your agencies are like the state and agencies of your predecessor, which hate intellectuals, hate thought and hate creativity.."

Anger over perceived police excesses helped fuel the 2011 revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak 30-year rule and began on a Police Day holiday.

Sisi, who has banned the Brotherhood and restricted the right to protest, told the interior minister on Friday to crack down on police abuses.

In her talk show on Saturday night, presenter Lamees al-Hadidi criticised the interior minister's handling of recent allegations, saying a perceived lack of accountability was pushing Egyptians to take the law into their own hands.

Hadidi also condemned the conviction of the author, Naji, saying the world now saw Egypt as a country that jailed intellectuals and let abuses go unpunished.

"The citizen should feel that everyone is under the law as the feeling of a lack of equality makes voices grow loud and citizens take the law into their own hands," she said.

"The interior ministry must take a tough stand with its members."
Evo Morales looks set to lose Bolivia referendum on fourth term

By Daniel Ramos and Monica Machicao

LA PAZ, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales looked headed for defeat in a referendum on whether the leftist leader can seek a fourth term in office, according to exit polls and early results on Sunday.

Morales, 56, now serving his third term, was trying to change the constitution so he could run for re-election in 2019, potentially allowing the former coca grower to remain president until 2025.

With 3.6 percent of votes counted, the 'no' camp was on 67 percent, versus 33 percent for 'yes', according to early official results from the electoral commission. Full results are expected later on Monday.

Exit polls also showed he may have lost the vote, although by a narrower margin. An Ipsos poll had the "no" side at 52.3 percent and "yes" at 47.7 percent, while a Mori poll gave a 51 percent to 49 percent lead to the "no."

Speaking outside the presidential palace, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera insisted on Sunday evening that it was "clearly a dead heat" and the result could still be reversed.

"It could be that the tears of joy on some opposition politicians will turn into tears of dismay by the morning," he said.

If the result is confirmed as a loss for Morales, it would be another blow for South American's once dominant populist leftist movement that has suffered a series of recent electoral defeats across the continent.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has been credited with slashing poverty in one of the region's poorest countries by spending a natural gas windfall on welfare programs and new infrastructure since taking office in 2006. He was re-elected in 2014 with 61 percent of the vote.

But a growing body of critics charge Morales' administration with corruption, waste and authoritarianism. Recent allegations about an ex-girlfriend whose company won lucrative government contracts have weighed heavily on his popularity.

In a middle-class neighborhood in a southern district of La Paz, 37-year-old Susana Macias said she had voted "no" as a form of rebellion.

"We feel we have been tricked. The people who are leading us are not who we thought they were," she said.

Even if he loses the referendum, Morales has plenty of time before the next election to pick a successor and otherwise influence Bolivia's future, said Michael Shifter, head of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

"He is one of the most charismatic and powerful leaders in Bolivian history. It is unlikely he is going to just retire from politics," he said.

"But perhaps for the first time in a decade, it is possible to imagine a Bolivia without Evo that does not return to the old times of economic and racial exclusion," Shifter said.
Fiji super cyclone kills 10 and raises fears of health crisis

By Jane Wardell

SYDNEY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Fiji began a massive cleanup on Monday after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the Pacific island nation, flattening remote villages, cutting off communications and killing at least 10 people.

Aid agencies warned of a widespread health crisis, particularly in low-lying areas of the country where thousands of the country's 900,000 people live in tin shacks, after crops were wiped out and fresh water supplies blocked.

Many people remained hunkered down in hundreds of evacuation centres across the country, where they had headed before tropical cyclone Winston hit late Saturday, packing winds of up to 325 kph (200 mph).

"Many people have been left stunned and confused about what to do," Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said after declaring a 30-day state of emergency.

"This is a time of sorrow but it will also be a time of action ... we will reclaim what we have lost."

The 10 fatalities were all along the western coast and were caused mainly by flying debris and drowning in storm surges, the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation said, citing authorities. There were also fears for seven fishermen believed to be missing at sea.

A curfew in place for more than 36 hours was lifted early on Monday, allowing the Fijian military to ramp up efforts to reach the more remote parts of the archipelago of about 300 islands.

"The Fijians are desperately trying to repair severed lines of communication, but they hold grave fears that the news waiting for them will be dire," said Oxfam Pacific Regional Director Raijeli Nicole.

"Given the intensity of the storm and the images we have seen so far, there are strong concerns that the death toll won't stop climbing today and that hundreds of people will have seen their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed."

Aerial footage of villages taken by the Royal New Zealand Air Force and posted on the Fijian government's official website of the outlying islands showed whole villages flattened and flooded.

The Australian and New Zealand government authorised the release of emergency aid supplies held in the Fijian capital of Suva, which escaped the brunt of the Category 5 storm.

"These stores will ensure communities have access to safe drinking water and basic hygiene for those who have lost their houses or are displaced," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement.

Bishop added that the high level of preparation by the Fijian government had helped keep the death toll low.

Virgin Australia said it would resume flights on Monday, while Jetstar said it was still assessing the situation.
I have always held that religion, or religious beliefs, are extremely personal matters. However, each time my "bhakt" friends spark a conversation on who is a better Hindu, I get aggressive and begin to argue. I say, I am a Hindu as much as they profess to be, if not more.

I was born in a Brahmin family. Both my parents are extremely religious. Indeed, the virtue of being religious (Hindu) for my parents was all about putting the fear of god in me; to have me surrender myself to the almighty, to inculcate the virtues of honesty and respect.

Strangely, my conversation with friends who promote Hinduism is never about these virtues. It is just mindless arm-wrestling. The loudest usually wins.

Given todays social and political environment, I seem to have lost my patience. I don't want my Hinduism to be defined by "other" Hindus - the macho, chest-thumping and self-proclaimed upholders of the Hindu faith.

I feel it is important that each one of us Hindus tell these so-called caretakers of Hinduism that we just don't need them, we can manage our own business. Yes, my religion is my business, not yours, thank you very much. Its also important to remind ourselves, and them, that we don't want moral policing.

I am not your Hindu, I am mine.

Here's why:

1. I eat beef and I like it

What I eat or like to eat has always been a personal matter for me. I didn't listen to my mother when she wanted me to eat something, like vegetables, that were obviously good for me, or avoid something else. But the recent killing of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri by an angry mob on the rumour that he had stored "beef" in his refrigerator scares me.

How could the choice of food enrage someone? Also, how can the state just be a mere spectator to the doings of these few hurt Hindus? My Hinduism is about respecting an individual's freedom to eat what he or she wants, of course, without hurting anyone's sentiments. My Hinduism doesn't kill someone in the name of beef-eating.

2. I don't believe in Manusmriti, I have been a bad Brahmin

I blame this one treatise for most of the evils that I find in my religion. It establishes the supremacy of a particular caste over other Hindus and manipulates rules to maximise that caste's power and hold over the religion. This has been celebrated rather than just tolerated, and indeed been justified. It's that untouchable holy text that empowers a few to exercise an absolute authority over the rest (mostly Shudras).

In fact, I am of the opinion that Manusmriti should be pulped, and put in an unmarked grave. But my Hindu friends will not like that, especially our Book Minister Smriti Irani.

It has hardly been a few weeks since poor Rohith Vemula was murdered (sorry, committed suicide!) by the political class. I don't want to be Rohith. I don't want to be a Brahmin either. I don't want to be killed, nor do I want to be a killer. My Hinduism is non-brahminical, it respects equality, equity and justice. My Hinduism is devoid of discrimination on caste or other lines.

3. Other Hindus are violent. The most I can take is Arnab Goswami!

Most of my gods carry weapons, and some carry many weapons. As a child, it intrigued me why our gods didn't keep toys, or maybe even a few chocolates. Then I used to convince myself that may not have been chocolates or toys when the gods were invented.

The only saving grace was that each time we celebrated their birthdays (festivals I mean, see I was a child!) we had a school holiday. But the longest school holiday I ever had in my childhood was when communal riots broke out in Bhagalpur in 1989. As a kid, I saw the city burn for months, with Har Har Mahadev and Jai Shri Ram being chanted all around. Every "real" Hindu had a weapon, just like my gods.

I was told that even Muslims had weapons, hence we must have as many weapons of our own. A lot of people, both Muslims and Hindus, went missing. But I understood that there was something in those jingoistic chants. Schools got shut every time the chants got louder. But yes, that was when I was a child.

As I grew up a little older (still a child though!) I heard that a mosque somewhere in the Gangetic Plain, from where I went to school, was being demolished by thousands and thousands of bhakts. It was a school holiday again. But I understood the real story behind these chants after I gained some age and probably some sense.

Reality bit in 2002 when Godhra happened, and the riots followed. And of course, when every other day we get a demonstration of the tolerance of these Hindus. Saffron-clad goons enter campuses and parks and thrash couples who dare to showcase their love, films are demanded to be banned, books are banned and we head steadily towards becoming a failing society.

Violence, in a spiritual sense, is not just physical, and it can't be the only foundation of survival and self-preservation. When a faith starts hating love, it scares me. When mere chants and slogans kill hundreds, that's sedition for me. These other Hindus are seditious, not me. Non-violence is the greatest virtue or, in fact, the very virtue of virtues.

4. They say Hindu is BJP, BJP is Hindu

Although just 31 per cent of India voted for the BJP (NDA) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, somehow, this Hindutva party seems to have appropriated all of India, and for sure, all of the Hindus. The party and its spokespersons speak on my behalf, mostly crude and demented words that mean nothing to me. They want to call India a "Hindu Rashtra" and of course, want to define Hinduism as a way of life, rather than mere religion. But I am not stupid and I know what they really mean. I can't accept that my friends belonging to Muslim, Christian, Sikh and other religions surrender their faiths and unique identities, only to become a shadow of the Hindus.

I don't want my politics to be guided by my religion. Rather, it should be based on ideas, ideology and governance. It almost seems as if I am not a true Indian if I am not a true Hindu. The divisive and arrogant propaganda by the people in power, including their ideologues, such as those belonging to the RSS and BJP is the worst form of governance. We can't have Make in India, Swachh Bharat, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao on the one hand and an idea of Hindu Rashtra on the other. These two ideas don't go well together.

5. Hindus hate women. For me, every girl counts

Every other day we find these other Hindu leaders coming on TV channels and dictating to us their idea of culture and how they want women to behave. Some of them have gone to the extent of banning the wearing of jeans or the use of mobile phones by girls, considering them as reasons provoking men to rape.

We have had sati in the past, and we continue to have dowry deaths, female foeticide, deteriorating child sex ratio, increasing violence against women, especially in the families of the the so-called "true" Hindus. The same Hindu society that worships women is tolerant towards violence and discrimination against women.

We heard a senior government official from Haryana speaking out against women who study in universities, calling them prostitutes. We just watched a bunch of law-keepers thrashing dozens of women journalists at the Patiala House Court on the pretence of guarding the asmita of another female - Bharat Mata. This is absolutely ridiculous. My Hinduism doesn't adhere to this at all. For me, women are not just to serve, assist and enable, they are to lead and live, more importantly, BE!

6. I love India, I love Pakistan too

My patriotism and religion is always questioned when I say anything to praise Pakistan. According to the Hindu nationalists, one has to hate Pakistan to prove that he loves India or is a true Hindu. I disagree. I have had the privilege of visiting Pakistan very recently and have interacted with hundreds of Pakistanis. I can't put up a facade of hatred towards them just because my countrymen want me to.

The Pakistanis I met were warm, friendly and peace-loving. Every time I met someone on the streets of Lahore and told them I was from India, they had tears in their eyes, and embraced me with love and respect. I stayed there for eight nights and I never had to pay for a single meal. The Pakistanis never allowed me to.

Indeed, there are terror-mongers and violent people in Pakistan too, and yes, many of them have waged a war against the Indian state. Similarly, we have such people on our side too. I don't have to hate Pakistan to love India. I love India, I love Pakistan too.

I am my Hindu, not that of the other Hindus. I will not allow someone else to speak on my behalf. My religion and nationalism is not to be defined by an institution, not even the state. In fact, never by the state. My love for this country and my belief in Hinduism is stronger than it ever was, for it is in times like these that your resolve to fight divisive and violent forces get stronger.
1. Political career: Early years of the first decade of the 21st century brought Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan into mainstream politics. Modi became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 and Erdogan became prime minister of Turkey in 2003.

2. Right-wing and modest background: Modi was an active member of India's controversial right-wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before becoming the chief minister of Gujarat and Erdogan was actively engaged in Turkey's now-banned Islamist political party Refah Partisi or the Welfare Party before holding the office of prime minister of Turkey. Apart from their right-wing affiliations, both these leaders hail from modest backgrounds which are at the heart of their popularity among the masses of their respective countries. The mix of right-wing and modest past has significantly helped them to relate to the majority of the population.

3. Strongman image: Modi's Pakistan kills our soldiers, yet we feed them biryani remark during his campaign for the general elections 2014 and Erdogan's angry exchange, popularly known as One Minute, with Israeli president Shimon Peres during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in 2009 helped build a strongman image of these leaders. The supporters of Modi see a leader in him who roars like a lion against the terrorists of Pakistan and the admirers of Erdogan see a Caliph in him who can give an Ottoman slap in the face of the "Israeli occupiers".

4. Development plank: Apart from their strongman image, the two leaders have also been carefully and enthusiastically projected as leaders who are committed to the development of their countries and making them economically stronger. Their model of development, however, is largely seen as favouring crony capitalists and big corporates, and ignoring the marginalised sections of the society.

5. Ascent to higher office of power in 2014: After successfully serving almost three terms in their previous jobs, both of them were elected to higher offices of power in 2014 in their respective countries. Modi ascended to the office of prime minister of India and Erdogan ascended to the office of president of Turkey.

6. Animosity towards critical media: Both these leaders have shown intolerance towards critical media on various occasions in their political career. However, in this regard, it will be unfair to equate Modi with Erdogan as Erdogan's record on crackdown on media dwarfs most of the other authoritarian leaders' record and Modi has not gone that far yet.

But it does not mean that Modi has not shown similar tendencies. In March 2015, the Modi government banned the documentary India's Daughter which was to be aired on NDTV. In August that year, the Union information and broadcasting ministry issued show cause notices to three major television channels (ABP News, NDTV 24x7 and AajTak) for airing disrespectful stories on Yakub Memon's hanging. As chief minister of Gujarat, in 2007, Modi infamously walked out of an interview with journalist Karan Thapar when faced with tough questions on his role in 2002 Gujarat riots.

7. Legislating morality: Last year, the Modi government blocked access to 857 pornographic websites in India, only to reverse its decision a few days later. Turkey, under Erdogan, is more determined towards this cause. The countrys government has been maintaining such a restriction for years now.

Many would wonder what is wrong in that. True, some studies suggest that pornography promotes sexual violence, objectification of women and so on, but watching it nonetheless is a personal affair. It is not the job of governments to legislate on what people should or should not do in their bedrooms.

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that almost all authoritarian governments use banning pornography as the first step towards gaining significant control over citizens' lives. If they succeed in garnering support for the first step, they move on to the next.

8. Intolerance towards dissenters and declaring them anti-national: Modi government's recent brutal crackdown on Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on the exaggerated allegation of anti-national activities there shows its intolerance towards dissenters. Not only has the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar been arrested on sedition charges, but almost the whole JNU community has been declared anti-national.

Similarly, hundreds of academics in Erdogan's Turkey are facing allegation of treachery after signing a petition which called on the government to end war and engage in dialogue with the Kurds in the south-eastern part of the country.
The Sangh giroh attack has come out in the open.

They have said since there is no Church in India, the separation of the Church and state does not arise, thereby making secularism a foreign concept.

But this was discussed threadbare in the Constituent Assembly.

Religion was not only made a Fundamental Right, but this right included the right to propagate religion i.e., convert. Other Fundamental Rights, such as Articles 19 and 20, encouraged the state to fund minority institutions, and allowed privately funded minority institutions.

So the Sangh claim that Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia should not be funded by the state, is unconstitutional, and a distortion of the Constitutional definition of secularism.

Moreover, unlike France secularism in India is not rigid. As Professor Rajeev Bhargava has pointed out, secularism in India is a "principled distance" between the state and institutions, apart from religion. There are several judicial findings on this, not to speak of the pre and post independence historical experience.

Led by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS has also questioned the tricolour. They claim that the Congress Working Committee in 1931 suggested that the national flag be changed. Even the Congress is unaware of such an event. Such a non-existent proposal would never have got past the likes of Gandhi, Subhas Bose, Nehru or Ambedkar, to mention just a few Congress stalwarts.

It is ironic that when the RSS is proposing a new Indian flag, which is to be saffron with a round blue-coloured circle in the middle, the government of India wants the national flag to be flying even in the universities.

So the Sangh giroh speaks in two voices, if not more. The target is not only the post-Rohith Vemula Dalit assertion, or JNU, but a systematic onslaught on secular democracy and its institutions.

Take the ban on beef, for instance. Contrary to the Hindutva claim that the beef ban is religious, Article 48 of the Directive Principles clearly lay down that the slaughter of cows is banned in order to improve and increase the breeds; and apart from cows, also milch and draught cattle, like buffalos, mithun, yaks, etc., which also should not be killed. So not only cows are protected, contrary to the Sangh propaganda.

But even this is violated.

In Goa, beef has been sold and eaten widely even when Manohar Parrikar, now the defence minister in the BJP-led NDA Union cabinet, was the state chief minister, and continues under his successor, the current BJP CM of Goa.

So in Bishara, Dadri, UP, Mohammed Akhlaq was murdered on the mere suspicion of eating beef, which was not proved, but in Goa, the BJP benignly allows beef sale and consumption.

"Veer" Savarkar, the Hindutva hero of the freedom struggle, propagated the sale and consumption of beef as a cheap source of protein for the poor. The NDA government has brought out a stamp in his honour, but hides this fact.
Umar, I remember the time I saw you at the namaaz-e-janaaza (burial) for the Jamia Millia Islamia students killed in the Batla House encounter six years ago. My first natural reaction to seeing you solemnly stand by your fathers side at the burial grounds was: Arrey, commie bhi aa gaya Musalmaano ke beech (a Communist comrade among Muslims).

Many would raise eyebrows over the mention of Batla House and may have formed their opinions already, but they would never know what it felt like to be a Jamia student or resident in those days.

You were there, in solidarity.

That has been you since years, relentlessly raising your voice for those oppressed by the state. You never cared if those at the sharp end of the states sword were adivasis, Dalits or minorities; in your Leftist eyes they were all deprived of justice by the state. You went on, day after day, one protest after another, dissecting arguments in public meetings, leading with thunder.

And so, it has become increasingly difficult to make sense of the events of the past few days. You were just one of the people behind the Afzal show that has jolted Indians into questioning their loyalty towards the country.

But it was just another day for you, speaking up against a hanging forced forward by my countrymens collective conscience.

Clashes follow protests, primetime anchors pop steroids, newspaper splashes go berserk on corporate-funded ink. Within two days, you are branded a jihadi.

And why shouldnt you be? How dare you question the states oppressive tactics when you know that the state can easily justify all of it by using the sweet alibi of army men dying in Siachen.

Do you know what that means Umar?

It means that you are in danger because the state is brute and drunk on mass hysteria like never before. Standing strong on its four pillars, it today seeks to destroy you and everything you have ever stood up for.

They might go easy on Kanhaiya Kumar, but you, you have landed up in real trouble boy. They wont forget you because your identity and the slogans raised at the February 11 event just serve as a perfect glass for the heady cocktail being served to the republic right now.

Bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah Inshallah, Umar Khalid, the anti-national whose father is affiliated to Muslim organisations, a PhD scholar visiting suspicious areas like Chhattisgarh, Indias most wanted terrorists supporting the Afzal show from across the border, your love for the K-word  it all adds up to that cocktail, right?

We all love it. Well, most of us do!

And indeed, most of us do not realise that some of us feel differently about things. Hey, come on now, no one is going to question the Supreme Court: its the word of God. We do not want to know Afzal Gurus history as a militant (or ex-militant, is that even a term? Nothing like  once a militant, always a militant? How depressing!), but we are sure that he had to be sent to the docks without knowing the devil in the details.

We also do not think that those at the lowest rung of Indias self-proclaimed ladder to becoming the global economic powerhouse are being exploited in the name of development. We sure as hell do not think that Kashmir is not an integral part of India and there is a historical pact that the country needs to honour.

Nor did we find the incident involving Manipuri women stripping off to protest AFSPAs unjust power  used to protect Mother Indias sovereignty  offensive.

Alls been perfect in our India. But have you popped LSD? Ask too many questions, and we will lynch you. We will threaten your 12-year-old sister and we will scan through your fathers history to find ways to malign you. We will hit you left, right and centre. We are India, exemplifying multiculturalism on the world map.

Coming back to first person singular, this is not my idea of India because my country needs you. It needs your dissent. It needs your energy to ensure that nobody forgets the most oppressed.

You are radical, true. And that makes it all the more important for your voice to stand out. I am sure you are not the only one who thinks that way. Some of your peers may disagree with you on various issues, but some may think alike.

If there could be a survey on how many countrymen think such voices are anti-national and should be muzzled, there would be hundreds and thousands who would vote against the motion.

Oh, I forgot that a channel is already through with that survey. The nation has already voted, am sure the channels competitors agree in their editorial meetings.

Umar, I still see hope that the four pillars of democracy, will stand strong for justice. And people like you, minority only by opinion, will be able to make the other side of the story heard despite the first-past-the-post system.

They are all debating whether these students should be behind bars or should they continue to study on subsidized facilities.

Stuck in grandfathers paradox, I think the more important questions have been lost.

Can creative spaces like universities not question any of the states actions? Why should Afzal Gurus hanging be a taboo subject? Why should India allow its politicians to easily turn dissenting students into terror sympathisers? Who is getting terrorised, the state?

Why should I be a part of the system that gets the heebie-jeebies over dissent expressed through debate? Is dissent expressed Patiala House court style more like the India that Ambedkar dreamt of?

While posters in the city call for your death, I wait for the day you come back. I hope how they put your family under a trial  only for your name  doesnt make you lose your spark, like one Rohith Vemula, whose circumstances led to his death and no one was to be ever blamed for it.

Till the time it happens, all of us anti-nationals will continue to stand together. Not because we have the same opinions, but because they are all different and hence, need to be protected.

The way your name has been smeared has brought back the sense of alienation and persecution felt by many in the aftermath of the Batla House encounter, and the post 9/11 witch-hunt against many families, whose members were associated with Muslim organisations.

I am shocked that people like me and you, no matter how much detached or attached we are from our religion, no matter how liberal we become, no matter which road we take, the establishment can still come back to remind us of our Muslim identity, not in the most pleasant of ways, leaving a lingering sour aftertaste.

I only have one last question for my fellow Indians. How will you remember Umar Khalid after all this is over? As a jihadi traitor or a bright scholar who chooses to fight for Indias weak every day of his life when he can easily aspire for the other route  the one with the exotic holidays, plush apartments and snazzy SUVs?
ANKARA - Turkey - Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister has revealed that a war between Russia and Turkey will not result in NATO help through the invocation of Article 5.

NATO commanders do not want anything to do with Turkey, for a very good reason. If Russia were to crush the Turks, it would be a win win situation for a Europe that detests anything Turkish, and the Russians who are out for Turkish blood.

Once Russia takes Turkey and does the bidding for its many enemies, that region of the world will be white washed and the Russians will have a foothold in the Mediterranean next to their dear friends the Greeks. Greece has always courted Russia to do their dirty work, as much as Assad and Iran, and now mortal enemies of the Turks, the Kurds are being fully supported by Russia to destabilise Turkey as much as possible through terrorism. As for Israel, no one detests the Turks more than them, so there are no losses all around, political commentator Francois Carrion, told French news stations to much fanfare.

The Russians wish to create an element of civil war in Turkey, reminiscent of the former Yugoslavia, utilising the Kurds as their proxy weapon. The Russians are arming the Kurds and giving them high level intelligence as to which targets to hit within Turkish mainland through terrorism and other means. This sly method of destabilisation is most certainly orchestrated directly from Moscow.

The unfettered Russian carpet bombing operation in Syria at the behest of Assad is also creating a wall of refugee misery seeking refuge and entering through the already bloated borders of Turkey. This further destabilises the nation much to Russias delight.

The ultimate Russian goal of course is to gain control of the Straits.

Control of the straits. And it is the age-old dream of the Russian tsars since the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans. The release of Orthodox shrines, Greek project  Eastern Question  perhaps the most important question of geopolitics Empire. In total, for the period from 1568 to 1918-th happened 13 Russian-Turkish wars. Over the centuries, Russia and Turkey were at war 69 years. On average, a Russian-Turkish war from the other separated only 25 years old. Not with any other country, we did not fight as much. The war was originally for the control of the Northern Black Sea coast, then over the North Caucasus, and then over the South Caucasus. Well, of course, of a protectorate over the Eastern Christian peoples who fell under the authority of the Porte. All these territories under Stalin managed to unite in one grand geopolitical project. Source

The plan is to create a Kurdish homeland directly adjacent to the Turkish border and portion of a major part of Syria including Kirkuk, a heavily oil rich area which the Kurds will use to subsidise their new state along with the help of the Russians.

Has Erdogan, the Turkish leader bitten off more than he can chew? With Russian forces bearing down on Turkey from the North and West, Greek Russian forces from the East, there seems to be no place to go now, especially when NATO has abandoned the Turks to their Russian fate.

Turkey can certainly count on its friendserof which there are none.
Yuichiro Tokuda, who was born in Japan, studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA. The young musician was in Hyderabad recently to perform at a club.

Talking about his journey so far, he said, My parents and grandparents were into music and dance, but it was not on a professional level. My uncle Hiroshi was a saxophone player and died just about a year before I was born. Maybe, its his legacy that runs in my blood.

I have met many wonderful musicians from India  Gino Banks, Dhruv Ghanekar, Sheldon DSilva and Tala Faral (who is now settled in Indonesia) at the Borneo Jazz Festival in Malaysia. Since then, I have been collaborating with Indian musicians. I have also recorded an album for Louis Banks in Mumbai. My new project is RALYZZ DIG which literally means to dig into jazz that sends out hot ray and touches the heart with lyrics. Recently, we had an all Japanese band performing in Bengaluru and I collaborated with musicians Aman Mahajan, Jeoraj Stanly George and Avishek Dey, he said.

India is a land of diverse culture, religion, language and music. The structures in Indian music are detailed and delicate, which touch my heart. Very small portions of the performances are written and there is a lot of improvisation. Some of the melodies are set to rhythms which make you fly into another world.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has given his green signal for construction of four new 1,000-bedded multispeciality hospitals in GHMC limits. Mr Rao asked officials to identify land for the new multispeciality hospitals in Uppal-LB Nagar, Malkajgiri-Secunderabad Cantonment, Qutbullahpur-Kukatpally and Serilingampally-Rajenderanagar areas. While the existing King Koti hospital in city will be turned into a multispeciality hospital, special towers would be constructed for women and child welfare in MGM hospital in Warangal in addition to the multispeciality hospital attached to the health university.

Expressing anguish over the poor medicare facilities and absence of some doctors in rural government hospitals, the CM told officials to modify the law to ensure doctors stay in the place of their posting, follow fixed working hours and get basic facilities. Not only junior doctors but also qualified doctors appointed by the government should work in rural areas for some time, Mr Rao said. The health university, medical college and multispeciality hospital in Warangal will come up in Central jail premises.

Government hospitals in Karimnagar, Khammam and Suryapet will also be upgraded. Mr Rao took these decisions during a review of the medical and health department as part of a pre-Budget exercise and allocation of funds for various projects under the department here on Saturday. Prepare a detailed project report soon. Purchase all the required equipment, recruit doctors and other paramedical staff, Mr Rao said. Health minister Laxma Reddy, finance minister Etala Rajender and senior officials of the health department participated.

The CMs review comes a day after Governor E.S.L. Narasimhans surprise visit to Gandhi Hospital on Friday, where he expressed his anger at the appalling conditions in the hospital. Mr Rao told the meeting that every district should have four MRIs in different corners of the state, 40 such equipment besides CT scans, ultrasound, mammography, facilities for scanning breast cancer, treatment of heart, kidney, liver and other serious ailments and medicines in all government hospitals in state.

Attenders of patients should also be provided beds, he added. The CM asked the department to promote Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, and Unani along with Allopathy, adding government hospitals should be on par with private corporate hospitals. He decided to send a high-level delegation headed by the health minister to Tamil Nadu to study the functioning of government hospitals there. Besides, the CM is keen that 104 and 108 services are lined with highway patrol vehicles and police to ensure prompt medical attention to victims of road accidents.
ALAPPUZHA: A 1.5-year-old Nepalese boy left to starve in a dingy room for many days by his father was rescued by Childline with the support of local police from Moonamkutty near Kayamkulam here on Friday.

The district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) sent him to the foundling home in Ernakulam. His condition is stable. CWC member K. K. Joseph said the by Childline brought the starving child with torture marks on his body to it.

His father, an employee in the Elite tea shop near Kayamkulam, had shown no interest in looking after him after his wife eloped with another man a couple of months ago.

The Women and Children Hospital authorities here refused to admit him without a bystander. Si we sent him to the foundling home, he said. The CWC official also said that the probationary officer had been entrusted with an inquiry into the matter, and the committee would decide whether legal action against father should be taken or not after receiving report.

It was Friday morning DySP K. Subhash of the district crime record bureau received an alert on his plight. Acting on the tip-off, he handed the information to the Childline and they swung into action and rescued him with the help of Kurathikad police.

District coordinator Sergio Fabian said the child was confined to a padlocked room of a crumbling house behind the petrol pump near Moonamkutty, Kayamkulam.

When we broke the flimsy door of the room, the child tired of starving was fast asleep. No sooner did we reach the spot than the house owner and panchayat member arrived there giving information about the childs condition and parents. The house owner claimed that she was giving food whenever she visited his home. Maybe it was the only intake he had for some days," Childline coordinator said.

Since there is telltale evidence of torture on his body, a report in this regard will be handed over to CWC by the next day.
Brussels: Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai will meet Europe's antitrust chief next on Thursday for the first time since his appointment last August, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who has accused the world's most popular Internet search engine of favouring its shopping service over rivals' when delivering search results, is considering whether to penalise Google.

Possible sanctions could include ordering Google to change its business practices, as well as a fine of up to 10 percent of its global turnover.

The case has dragged on for more than five years since the EU competition enforcer launched an investigation in November 2010, followed by three unsuccessful attempts by Google to settle the issue with concessions.

Vestager may also scrutinise Google's back-tax deal with British tax authorities following a complaint from the Scottish National Party. Google agreed last month it would pay 130 million pounds ($187 million) to settle tax claims covering a 10-year period, but opposition parties have called the amount derisory.

The sources described Pichai's visit as an introductory meeting. He will also meet EU telecoms chief Gunther Oettinger,a vocal critic of US might in a sector where German media companies have, for example, been lobbying to protect content from online giants.

European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment.

Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt met Vestager in March last year but failed to appease her.

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Experts fear the drug can lead to addicts having violent spells - and now it is hitting London. (Representational Photo: AFP)

London: A drug which that can 'turn users into cannibals' has hit the streets in the UK, according to reports in the Mirror.

The drug called Blue Star came into the limelight after a user from Florida, Rudy Eugene, carried out a horrifying attack on a homeless man after consuming the drug in 2012. Eugene reportedly chewed off the mans face.

A user warned that the drug was becoming popular in London and wrote online: "I would advise against Blue. Bad reaction for someone I know: tremors, swelling, veins in hand went bigger and red for a good hour or so, slight hallucinations. Just wanted to warn people."

Experts fear the drug can lead to addicts having violent spells - and now it is hitting London.

Scientists have also warned against the impact the drug can have on users.

According to reports, Pharmacologist Dr Paul Skett from Glasgow University said: We know about whats in mephedrone but bath salts is a very broad term and could refer to a number of things. This substance could mimic the effects of mephedrone or MDMA or amphetamines. We already know mephedrone itself can make people anxious or upset, so taking it alongside something else could potentially magnify its effects.
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union- wide law enforcement agency, said these trained terrorists may be plotting further attacks like those in Paris last November which claimed 130 lives. (Photo: AP)

London: Up to 5,000 Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists may have returned to Europe after being trained in terror training camps in Syrian and other war zones as the continent faces its highest terror threat in over a decade, the head of EU's police agency has warned.

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union- wide law enforcement agency, said these trained terrorists may be plotting further attacks like those in Paris last November which claimed 130 lives. "Europe is currently facing its biggest terror threat in more than a decade," he told Germany's 'Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung' newspaper.

"One can expect Islamic State (ISIS) or other religious terror groups to stage an attack somewhere in Europe with the aim of achieving mass casualties among the civilian population. Additionally, there is the risk of individual attackers - this has not reduced," he said.

Europol estimates that there are between 3,000 and 5,000 Europeans who have traveled to terrorist training camps abroad, including those run by ISIS in its territories in Iraq and Syria, and returned home, the report said. "The growing number of these foreign fighters presents new challenges for EU countries," Wainwright added.

But he played down fears that terrorists are using the European migrant crisis to infiltrate the continent as asylum seekers at refugee camps. "There is no concrete evidence terrorists are systematically using the flow of refugees to infiltrate Europe," he said.

However, Austrian prosecutors this week have confirmed a 34-year-old Pakistani suspect, who has not been named, was arrested along with a 28-year-old Algerian at a refugee shelter in the country on December 10 in connection with the serial terror attacks in Paris in November, 2015. Their arrest came after two other suspects were taken into custody.

An Austrian prosecutors' statement said: "It can be assumed that all four are members of ISIS." In January, the Europol in a report had warned that "ISIS is preparing more terrorist attacks, including more 'Mumbai- style' attacks, to be executed in member states of the EU, and in France in particular".
No one was hurt in the blast in Pakistans restive tribal belt, but 18 labourers working on the site were abducted, said Azam Tariq, a spokesman for an arm of the Pakistani Taliban known as the Sajna group, which claimed responsibility for the attack. (Photo: AP)

Dera Ismail Khan: Militants blew up part of a newly constructed government school in Pakistans South Waziristan region late Friday night, a spokesman for a wing of the Pakistan Taliban said on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks on educational institutions.

No one was hurt in the blast in Pakistans restive tribal belt, but 18 labourers working on the site were abducted, said Azam Tariq, a spokesman for an arm of the Pakistani Taliban known as the Sajna group, which claimed responsibility for the attack. He said the workers were released a short time later.

We have blown up the school because it was a government installation, said Tariq, warning the group would continue to attack government targets.

Twenty people were killed and dozens wounded last month when militants launched an attack on Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a little more than a year after Taliban gunmen massacred 134 students at a military school in nearby Peshawar.

The Peshawar school attack was seen as having hardened Pakistans resolve to fight militants along its border with Afghanistan.

Officials in South Waziristan said the girls wing of the school in the Tehsil Tiarza area was damaged in Fridays blast, as well as some heavy machinery being used for ongoing construction at the site.

In a separate incident in Mohmand tribal area to the north, Pakistani security officials killed five militants during a clash near Mohmand Agencys administrative headquarters on Saturday.

The militants were planning an attack in the area, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A generation of Pakistani militants have used the tribal region to launch attacks on the Pakistani state and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban are fighting to topple the government and install a strict interpretation of Islamic law. They are loosely allied with the Afghan Taliban who ruled most of Afghanistan until they were overthrown by US-backed military action in 2001.
The killers then pounced on him and slit his throat, a TV channel quoted a devotee in the neighbourhood as saying. (Representational Image)

Dhaka: In yet another assault on minorities, a Hindu priest was on Sunday hacked to death by unknown men in a predawn attack on a temple in Bangladesh which also injured two devotees, police said.

They said the attack in northern Panchagarh district killed 50-year-old Jajneswar Roy and wounded two Hindu devotees at the temple premises while the assassins, presumed to be three in number, fled the scene on a motorbike.

They (assailants) first hurled stones at the temple which prompted him (Roy) to come out to see what actually happened. The killers then pounced on him and slit his throat, a TV channel quoted a devotee in the neighbourhood as saying.

Before fleeing the scene the killers fired gunshots and hurled crude bombs to avoid being chased injuring a neighbour who rushed to the spot to save the priest, Panchagarh police chief Giasuddin Ahmed said at the scene.

The identity of the attackers or the motive behind the murder is not clear. Definitely we will launch an investigation and manhunt to track down the killers, he said.
The Constitution is not a religious text. It is meant for its non-believers as well. To use the phrase coined by John Rawls, Tolerating the intolerable is an intrinsic democratic virtue. Dissent is the soul of democracy and therefore to label opposite views as instances of sedition is deleteriously undemocratic.





Freedom of expression has its foundational logic in what John Stuart Mill said: If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.



There is no question of misusing a draconian law, for its every use is a misuse. Invoking Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against some students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the subsequent violence to suppress the dissent is a shame for the nation.



Paradoxically, sedition is not an Indian legal concept. Macaulays draft code contained Section 113 in it, criminalising sedition. Even the IPC at its inception (1860) did not carry it. The offence of sedition was incorporated in 1870. Since then it did its work by trying to suppress the political dissenters.



According to Section 124A, the words or signs which attempt to lead to hatred or contempt or disaffection towards the government would be punishable, even with life imprisonment. The very vocabulary of the Section has a chilling effect on free speech. Now, scan the Section, historically. It was the disaffection or hatred towards Her majesty that was originally styled as sedition. Again, in the original section, it was the British government, and not even India, that was insulated. It was only in 1950 that we Indianised the sedition part of IPC, by deleting the words Her majesty and British.



An earlier attempt to incorporate sedition as an instance of exception to freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution was aborted by the timely intervention of K M Munshi, T T Krishnamachari and Seth Govind Das. Their speeches in the Constituent Assembly (1948) were emblematic. Munshi bemoaned: Our notorious Section 124A of the Penal Code was sometimes construed so widely, that I remember in a case of criticism of district magistrate was urged to be covered by Section 124A. But the public opinion has changed considerably since and now we have a democratic government.



The constitutional validity of sedition laws came up for consideration by the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath vs State of Bihar (AIR 1962 SC 955). Kedar Nath, inter alia, said that himself and his party, the United Communist Party, advocated for that revolution, which will come and in the flavours of which the capitalists, zamindars and Congress leaders of Indiawill be reduced to ashes. He was charged for seditionSections 124A and 505(b) of the IPC). The trial court convicted him and the Patna High Court upheld the conviction.



The Supreme Court, however, set aside the judgments and held: The criticism or comment of government action, however strongly worded, would be within reasonable limits and would be consistent with the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression. It is only when the wordshave the pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder or disturbance of law and order that the law steps into such activities in the interest of public order.



In Kedar Nath, unfortunately the court did not strike down the law which in turn resulted in its continued and atrocious imposition. In Bilal Ahmed Kaloo (1997) and Balwant Singh (1995), finally it took the Supreme Court to hold that charge of sedition was untenable. These judgments may have an exonerative impact on JNU students. The tragedy, however, is that even for dissent, one may have to pay a heavy cost.



Judicial review



In my view, the Supreme Court should have scrapped the law by using its power of judicial review. First of all, the apparent conflict of the sedition law with Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution as evaluated in the Constituent Assembly debates should have been acknowledged and accepted by the Court.



Secondly, the Supreme Court needs to consider the global trend on the subject. Countries like the UK and New Zealand have abolished sedition laws for those had the potential to meddle with free speech. In the US and many other democracies, the law has been put to disuse.



Thirdly, in the new legal context of Shreya Singhal verdict (2014) that scrapped Section 66A of the Information Technology Act for the cause of free speech, a revisit to Section 124A of the IPC by the apex court is a legal imperative. Shreya Singhal has taken the view that mere discussion or even advocacy of a particular cause, however unpopular, is protected in the country that believes in free trade in ideas. The judgment thus contains a judicial warning against trapping the innocent, even by specifically referring to the IPC (paragraph 47). Therefore, the Kedar Nath doctrine to the extent to which it validates the law, needs reconsideration by a larger bench.



The most prominent academic bastion in the country is now mowed down by a government which is politically primitive, intellectually fragile and morally indefensible.

Again paradoxically, the very same government by its quixotic posture has indirectly made out a strong case for junking the sedition law once and for all.



(The writer is lawyer at the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court)




One of the three lawyers summoned by Delhi Police for questioning was arrested and released on bail on Saturday.





Om Sharma was summoned along with lawyers Vikram Chauhan and Yashpal Singh for allegedly assaulting journalists and JNU students at Patiala House Courts Complex on February 15 and 17.



Om Sharma went to Tilak Marg police station. He was questioned and released on bail from the police station, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal.



The three lawyers face a case under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).



They were not named in the FIR, but have been zeroed in as prime suspects based on evidence from videos.



If Chauhan and Singh fail to join the probe, police are likely to move court seeking warrant against them this week.



In his questioning, Sharma admitted that he was at the court when the attacks took place. He has a chamber at Patiala House Courts Complex and District Court Saket.

Sharma told police that he was pushed in the courtroom of Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen on February 15.



He claims the situation then went out of control. He alleges that students inside the courtroom were raising slogans because of which they were angry, Narwal added.



Despite being caught on cameras, lawyer Vikram Chauhan claims that he was responding to provocations by anti-national elements. Sharma told police that Chauhan has been consulting his seniors and planning to apply for an anticipatory bail.



Yashpal Singh, who was also seen assaulting students, has been a lawyer for 15 years, and earlier served as Delhi Bar Associations additional secretary.



It is alleged that they also attacked JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar inside the court on February 17. Kumar was being escorted to the courtroom when he was attacked.



Earlier on February 18, BJP MLA OP Mishra was also arrested and released on bail after he responded to a summon.


Comrade Pradeep ka Lal Salam, shouts come from the crowd, as Pradeep Narwal, an ABVP leader who recently quit the right-wing group, addresses student protesters outside the JNU administrative block on Friday evening.



Students have been protesting since the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on charges of sedition, two days after he allegedly organised the February 9 event on the JNU campus against the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.



Police sought permission to enter the campus stating that anti-national sentiments were voiced, according to a JNU note on the row. Eight students have been put under academic suspension pending a disciplinary inquiry.



The vice chancellors move and Kanhaiyas arrest have sparked protests from two warring camps  one led by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the other by the Left student parties which has the backing from Congress National Students Union of India (NSUI). Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is among the non-Left leaders to come out in solidarity with the students demand for Kanhaiyas release.



Narwal, the former ABVP JNU unit secretary, who addressed Kanhaiya supporters, signed off saying, Looking at the smiles on your faces, I think what I did was right and for the truth. I wouldnt take much of your time. I cant even speak for long, so I tell you all  Jai Bharat! Jai Bhim! Lal Salam! Vande Mataram!



A day before, this postgraduate student of History was busy defending his resignation amid online rage that trended #shutdownjnu on Twitter. Such is the frenzy surrounding Kanhaiyas arrest that a Delhi University teachers WhatsApp status reads: Protest Against JNU.



Mera Facebook ja key dekh, bawal ho rakha hai (Check my Facebook profile, hell has broken loose), Narwal says while answering a phone call, the morning after the day he resigned. People are looking for me, he then tells this reporter. Someone told me this when I was coming up to my room this morning.



Sitting in his hostel room on Thursday, Ankit Hans, another ABVP office bearer who recently quit, a Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) member and two other self-proclaimed former ABVP sympathisers argued that liberals are drifting away from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student outfit after the controversial arrest of Kanhaiya.



Attacked for the second time this week in Patiala House court complex, Kanhaiyas All India Students Federation (AISF), which fielded him as its only candidate in the last years JNUSU elections, says concern looms over his safety. He fears that he might be attacked by the fellow-prisoners in Tihar jail, as per the bail plea that Supreme Court transferred to the Delhi High Court on Friday.



AISF is student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI), which a JNU student and blogger Harshit Agarwal describes as mildest of all Left parties with no Maoist or secessionist ideology.



Arvind, a research scholar who, like Kanhaiya, stays at Brahmaputra hostel, says Kanhaiya attended the February 9 public meeting and later addressed protesters. He adds that because of the noise he couldnt hear what the JNUSU president said that day.



He recalls that the day after the Afzal Guru `commemoration, he confronted Kanhaiya at the tea shop on the hostel campus and asked him why he felt it was necessary to make a speech. Arvind has been a JNUSU election panel member for four years in a row up to the 2015 JNUSU elections.



Kanhaiya is very polite. He may have political differences with other people, but he always counters them with argument, Arvind says, claiming that Kanhaiyas association with AISF has been since his formative years as a student

activist.



Sipping tea in the hostel lawns, he argues that the BJP-led Centre wants to divert attention from Rohith Vemulas case. The Hyderabad University scholar was a Dalit, while Kanhaiya is an upper caste Bhumihar, he says.



Arvind expresses concern over shift in the sedition debate from the controversial event to Kanhaiyas arrest.



According to Harshit Agarwal, the ex-members of Democratic Students Union had called for a cultural meeting of a protest against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru & Maqbool Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination.



A lot of Kashmiri students allegedly attended this meet, where Kanhaiya being

the JNUSU president was an invitee.



Democratic Students Union (DSU) is an ultra-leftist group in the campus that believes in the ideology of Maoism. It's a very small group of very well-read students. They are not terrorists or Naxals by any means. I have been in the campus for more than two years and never have I witnessed or heard of them committing a terror activity as much as of throwing a stone, let alone overthrowing the state, Agarwal says in his blog.



DSU has barely 10-15 student members, according to Arvind.

Addressing a news conference after the SC refused to hear Kanhaiyas bail plea, JNUSU vice president and ultra-Left All India Students Association (AISA) member Shehla Rashid Shora expressed JNUSUs resolve to fight sedition charges and academic suspension of students.



Hijacked meeting

Later in the day, she accuses the ABVP of hijacking the JNUSU. She says the joint secretary Saurabh Kumar Sharma called a council meeting in the absence of the JNUSU president and general secretary. In the last years JNUSU polls, ABVP made an entry in the four-member central panel with Sharmas win. AISF has one and AISA has two office bearers.



Even as AISAs Shora dubs the call for council meeting as political opportunism, Sharma says the meeting resolved to identify, isolate and ensure punishment for those involved in the February 9 incident.



Two days after the incident, the ABVPs JNU unit president Alok Singh, who lives opposite Kanhaiya in Brahmaputra hostel, had posted a purported video of the February 9 on Facebook, with allegation that venom induced slogans were again chanted in the campus. Singh had also urged JNU students to identify and shame the anti-national faces.



His hostel-mate, Arvind says the campus has seen protests against Afzals hanging before, but it was for the first time that he saw masked protesters shouting slogans. Insiders in the JNU administration allege involvement of Kashmiri youths from outside the JNU campus.



Singh tells DH that JNUs democratic culture allows even political adversaries to live in proximity to each other. Our differences are only political and not personal, he says.



Unrelenting in his opposition to the seditious slogans, the president of the right-wing outfit says in an another Facebook post, Watch full video carefully, you will listen... Tum kitne Afjal maroge, Har ghar se Afjal niklega... This was the slogan raised by all leftist organizations in JNU.



Some JNU teachers are also outraged as the varsitys teachers association president illegally passed a proposal to boycott classes to protest the arrest of Kanhaiya.

I know the student. The student is naive, very naive. When Kanhaiya won I knew that he is just out of a village, a poor mans home. He is a struggler, but suddenly he has got a big platform, Amita Singh, chairperson JNUs Centre for Law and Governance says.



He was constantly being sidelined by the dominant party and on one occasion I told Kanhaiya to beware. I told him that they will trap you some day, she tells DH.



The right-wing teacher faction and ABVP plans to organise a massive gherao of the university to demand action against the organisers of the controversial event. Around 4,000-5000 right-wing group members are expected to participate in the protest on Monday.



Narwal, who hails from School of Social Sciences, says the ABVP has alleged that he was persuaded by the dominant Left-teacher lobby to side with Kanhaiya. Very few students on this campus think that Kanhaiya should have been booked for sedition, he says.



The university appointed probe committee has to submit its final report by February 25, while the High Court is likely to hear Kanhaiyas bail plea on Monday.



The probe committees list of eight has no Kashmiri on it, says an insider in JNU administration. JNU blogger Harshit Agarwal, however, is more direct in his allegations against the Centre. The PDP with whom BJP formed a government in Jammu & Kashmir itself called Afzals hanging travesty of justice, he says in his post on Quora.



A lot of answers are here, Agarwal says on Quora, commenting on what others have posted on the website.



 The only weird thing is not one of them is from a JNU student or who witnessed what happened on that controversial day and yet everyone has such strong opinions about the whole incident from people calling everyone studying in JNU as terrorists, jihadis and naxals to asking for the university to be completely shutdown, Agarwal writes.




Delhi Police lost very little time in slapping sedition charges and arresting JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar after a controversial meeting on the varsity campus.



But the lawyer with Bharatiya Janata Party link roams free in the capital despite thrashing journalists and students in court around the time the student was being produced before the magistrate.



This after the lawyer dares to lead a protest march near the police station where a case has been filed against him.



Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi and his senior officers have so far failed to provide a satisfactory reply to questions on why lawyer Vikram Chauhan has not been arrested. He has defied two police summons, while Kumar is in judicial custody.



Police went a step further by asking a relative of Kumar to join the probe after sending a team to his house in Uttar Pradeshs Bijnor district. However, no such effort has been made to nab Chauhan.



Due to such double standards, the Central government and police have been facing protests by journalists along with students and staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) slamming police for failing to ensure security in the court.



According to NHRC, police have also been mindlessly patrolling the JNU campus and students are being witch-hunted and demonised for doing nothing.



It is surprising that Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested after a raid was conducted in the university campus. On the other hand, there is clear evidence against lawyer Vikram Chauhan. It is difficult to understand why police have chosen to ignore Chauhans acts, NHRC spokesperson Jaimini Kumar tells Deccan Herald.



After going through the evidence in Kumars case, lawyer Prashant Bhushan feels that police acted too soon and without strong evidence. Kumar has denied the allegations stating that he went to the spot only to intervene in a clash between two groups.



I feel he has been falsely implicated. Police do not have any eyewitness from JNU who claims to have seen Kumar shouting anti-national slogans, Bhushan told media.



After two incidents of violence in Patiala House Courts Complex, Bhushan also says that lawyers must refrain from taking law into their own hands. Waving a national flag and chanting Vande Mataram does not make people nationalist or give them the licence to beat up people who are saying otherwise, Bhushan adds.



Citing earlier judgements, some lawyers also argue that what Kumar said was not anti-national or seditious in nature. Just because it does not fall in line with someones thinking does not mean it is seditious, lawyer Rakesh Kaim tells

Deccan Herald.



IPS officer Kiran Bedi also says that the rule of law demands that Kumar is given a fair trial in an atmosphere free from fear.



Kumar has so far denied that he raised anti-national slogans, so a chance must be given to him to prove himself in the court, says Bedi, adding that police must ensure enough security in the court. Bedi has also faced trouble from lawyers when she was serving with Delhi Police. In 1988, lawyers at Tis Hazari Courts had turned violent after police arrested a lawyer.



She demands strict action against Chauhan. So far, Chauhan seems to have evaded arrest, allegedly due to his political affiliation.



On Facebook, Chauhan has posted photographs with top BJP leaders. The cover photo on his Facebook page shows Chauhan posing with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the profile photo is with party veteran L K Advani. Chauhan describes himself as a lawyer and also a worker of BJP.



Police say Chauhan did not appear before the investigating team citing prior commitments. But he was seen at a function in Kakardooma Court, where he was felicitated by other lawyers.



Despite the criticism, Bassi only says that strict action will be taken against those who defy police summons. He was summoned on February 16 and he did not appear on February 17 so he was again summoned on February 17 to appear on February 18. If he continues to ignore the summons, I will examine my legal options

and take action, Bassi told media.



Kumars arrest and the political controversy has also hit Bassi hard. Days after it was being speculated that Bassi may be included on the Central Information Commission after he retires on February 29, it became clear on Friday that he has been ignored.



Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist), which have been most vocal in criticising the Central government and police over Kumar's arrest, have demanded Bassis resignation. Party leaders have sought Kumar's release and punishment to those who they said fabricated evidence leading to his arrest.



There are allegations that Kumar's video was tampered and actual video showed no anti-national slogans being raised. Delhis Aam Aadmi Party-led government has now intervened, sending five video clips for tests and the report is expected on Monday.

Kumars supporters say that the video doing the rounds is doctored.



It seems somebody took the audio from the February 9 video and put it on the video that was shot two days later on February 11, says Mahesh Jain, Kumars friend associated with All India Students Federation (AISF). He claims Kumar was in the crowd on February 9, but raised slogans only on February 11, that too only against the BJP and the RSS.




Incidents of violence and arson continued overnight in Haryana with Jat protesters setting on fire an ATM and records of a cooperative bank in Bhiwani district even as the Army staged flag marches in tense areas.



Despite various leaders including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing to the Jats to maintain peace, there was no let up in the protests which have disrupted normal life in Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar.



Protesters had last night set on fire an ATM of a bank and burnt official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu in Bhiwani district.



As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana state, the Haryana government sought additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force and more columns of Army to be deployed in the state to control the agitation.



As many as 15 companies of India Reserve Battalion and Haryana Armed Police, three companies of paramilitary forces and two columns of Army have already been deployed.

So far six persons have been killed in the firing by security personnel "to quell arson and firing" by the protesters while 154 FIRs have been registered.



Curfew remained in force in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana towns of Sonipat district.



Road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined for neighboring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of the blockades.
Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha says she is too scared to read her father Shatrughan Sinha's biography till the end.





'Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography' by Bharathi S Pradhan was launched in Mumbai on Saturday.



"I am too scared to read the book. There are certain things in a parent's life that the child just should not know," Sonakshi told reporters.



One of the chapters in the book reportedly has the Shotgun talking about his off-screen intimacy with co-actor Reena Roy and how the relationship continued for sometime even after his marriage with Poonam.



Sonakshi said she has read the book till the point Sinha is about to become an actor, but doesn't wish to read on. "I have read a few chapters in the start of the book that talk about his younger days, his childhood and certain things you skip out in a conversation which we didn't know.



"Now I am holding back from reading any further... I've reached the struggling days and the college and him becoming an actor. That's it. I am okay till there," Sonakshi added.



Biographer Pradhan took seven years and a series of interviews with the actor-turned-MP and the people who have known him to write the book. Sinha's wife, Poonam, said she had to read the book to understand her actor-husband more.



"It was necessary to read the book because after reading it I felt I don't know this man... I wish I had known a lot of this....'The Man I Didn't Know' would be a sequel to 'Anything But Khaamosh,'" she said.



In 2012 Sinha was hospitalised after he complained of breathlessness. The actor said he owes his 'second life' to his 'only' wife, Poonam.


Notwithstanding BJP's optimism,PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti today remained ambivalent on progress in talks on government formation, maintaining that she will be on board once she is convinced that she can "fulfill the dreams" of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for Jammu and Kashmir.





"That only time can tell," was the cryptic response of the PDP president to reporters when they asked her if there was any forward movement in talks with the BJP for government formation in the state.



Just days earlier, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had flown to Srinagar and held talks with the PDP chief after which he had said that "both parties are positive" on continuing with the arrangement.



Mehbooba, who attended first public function today after Sayeed's death on January 7, said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.



"The parliament session is starting on Feb 23... I am going to attend it. I have asked questions... if the Parliament is allowed to function.



"There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we don't know what will happen in Parliament," she said.



Earlier, addressing the party workers, Mehbooba said coming to power was not her goal.

"If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then only it is worth it. If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me," she said.



The PDP president said her late father throughout his political career spanning over five decades struggled for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.



"Only 12 years of his long political career, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in power. However, he remained alive (in politics) due to the support of the people. "He wanted to keep the state united and resolve the issues they faced," she said.



Recalling the last few days of her father, Mehbooba said despite the advice of doctors, he continued to work and was concerned about the people of the state.



"Even in the hospital, he asked me if the money for flood victims has been released (by the Centre), whether the work on additional accommodation for Kashmiri Pandits at Sheikhpura had been started. .. when I told him that Prime Minister Modi had visited Pakistan," he just smiled.



"He did not sacrifice his life so that I can get the chair. He sacrificed his life for you," Mehbooba, choking on her words, said.



On Sayeed's decision to ally with BJP, the PDP president said her father was ready for electoral loss but wanted to take the people of the state out of this uncertainty.



"He was of the belief that Modiji with such a huge mandate can take the state out of its troubles if he is able to convince him about the need for India-Pakistan friendship and resolution of outstanding issues," she said.



Mehbooba said Sayeed wanted Jammu and Kashmir to become a bridge between India and Pakistan.



The PDP President recalled how her father had canvassed for opening of cross-Line of Control routes in his first tenure as chief minister.



The PDP president said Sayeed was a nationalist who believed in democracy and secularism of India.



"He started his career when there was a plebiscite movement in Kashmir... when talking in favour of India was considered blasphemous.



"But he was impressed by democracy where rich and poor had one vote each, where more Hindus can be seen at a Sufi saint's shrine than Muslims," she said.



The PDP president said her father was not the one to follow the beaten track and would not hesitate to go against the tide if it was in the interest of the people of the state.



"You should understand why he (Sayeed) created PDP. He never used to tread easy path but would create (new) ways, however difficult, and when he used to step on that road, he would not look back. He would never make a U-turn.



"He would never say something was right one day and wrong the day after," Mehbooba said.



She said she has been hearing since the last one-and-a-half months that the chief ministerial chair was her "inheritance" from Mufti.



"The inheritance from my father is not the chair. Mufti's legacy is so large than it cannot fit in the chair.



"It is courage, strength and the love for the people here which he always had in his heart. His inheritance for me is to tread those roads which nobody dares to take," she said.



The PDP president said that gun was not a solution to the issues which can be addressed through a dialogue.



"I am happy that they (BJP) understood that there is no option other than what Mufti used to say (regarding dialogue with Pakistan). There is America, a big power, but it has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq.



"There is Syria and Libya, are they not independent nations? But once the gun entered, everything was lost.



"Gun does not benefit anyone. I can feel the pain of the parents who lost their sons yesterday or when any youth takes to gun and is killed in an encounter," she said.
Archaeologists have discovered a prehistoric village in Israel, dating back to about 12,000 years, that sheds light on the historical shift of humans from foraging to agriculture.



The site, named NEG II, is located in Nahal (wadi) Ein-Gev, at the middle of the perennial stream that flows west to the Sea of Galilee in the fertile Jordan Valley.



Researchers excavated human burial remains, flint tools, art manifestations, faunal assemblage, ground stone and bone tools from the site.



The excavated area showed an extensive habitation with deep cultural deposits (2.5 to 3 metres deep) and the site is estimated as covering roughly 1,200 square metres.



The village differs markedly from others of its period in Israel. The findings encapsulate cultural characteristics typical of both the Old Stone Age - known as the Paleolithic period, and the New Stone Age - known as the Neolithic period.



"Although attributes of the lithic tool kit found at NEG II places the site chronologically in the Paleolithic period, other characteristics - such as its artistic tradition, size, thickness of archaeological deposits and investment in architecture - are more typical of early agricultural communities in the Neolithic period," said Leore Grosman, from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who led the excavations.



"Characterising this important period of potential overlap in the Jordan Valley is crucial for the understanding of the socioeconomic processes that marked the shift from Paleolithic mobile societies of hunter-gatherers to Neolithic agricultural communities," said Grosman.



The Paleolithic period is the earliest and the longest period in the history of humankind.



The end of this period is marked by the transition to settled villages and domestication of plants and animals as part of the agricultural life-ways in the Neolithic period.



The researchers described the village as one of the latest settlements in the Levant region of the Late Natufian - the last culture of the Paleolithic period.



NEG II was occupied in the midst of the cold and dry global climatic event known as the Younger Dryas where temperature declined sharply over most of the northern hemisphere.

Affected by climatic changes, Late Natufian groups in the Mediterranean zone became increasingly mobile and potentially smaller in size.



Excavations at NEG II show that groups in the Jordan Valley became more sedentary and potentially larger in size.



"The buildings represent at least four occupational stages and the various aspects of the faunal assemblage provide good indications for site permanence," said Grosman.

This shift in settlement pattern may be related to greater climatic stability due to a lesser effect of the Younger Dryas in the region, higher cereal biomass productivity and better conditions for small-scale cultivation, researchers said.



These factors had provided the ingredients necessary to taking the final steps towards agriculture in the southern Levant, they said.



The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.


He made the remarks while talking about the neem-coating of urea being done to avoid its pilferage and routing to chemical factories like in the past.



"Since we have done neem coating, will those chemical factories which were looting not be angry with Modi? If something is against Modi, will they not help it? Will they not shout against Modi," he asked the gathering.



The Prime Minister said that NGOs receive money from foreign countries and his government was seeking the account.



"We said let it come but give account of the funds received. The moment we started asking for accounts, they all got together and said 'Modi ko Maaro', 'Modi ko Maaro' (hit Modi), he is seeking accounts from us," he said and asserted that "the country needs to know where the money that comes in is being spent. It is in the law."



He said since the government started asking for accounts, "they all (NGOs) got together and have been conspiring all the time how to finish Modi, how to remove Modi government and how to defame Modi.



"But my dear brothers and sisters, you have elected me to cure the country of this disease and I am doing this.



"Whatever they may say against me, I am not going to deviate from the path of the work you have entrusted me. I am not going to stop, or get tired and there is no question of bowing to it."



The Prime Minister said he knows what is "irritating" and "pinching" his detractors but "we will not allow the country to be looted or destroyed."



Modi focussed his speech on his government's initiatives for the welfare of the farming community, including Irrigation scheme, Crop Insurance Scheme and Soil Health Card scheme.



He said even the Start-Up scheme launched by him recently could be used for the development of the agriculture sector as it was not confined to hi-tech sectors like IT only.



The Prime Minister said the government is giving thrust to agriculture sector as it is convinced that the country can have 2nd Green Revolution in which Odisha and other eastern states should take the lead.



"I am your 'pradhan sewak'. Can we all together, the Centre and the states, work to ensure that the farmers' income is doubled by 2022, the 75th anniversary of the country's Independence? Let us all make some contribution to fufill the dreams of those who fought for the Independence," he said.



"I live for the farmers", Modi said as he appealed to the agriculture community to make ample use of the Crop Insurance scheme as it will help them during the time of crisis.



He said the newly-launched scheme is so good, as compared to the earlier ones, that even the critics have not been able to criticise it.



Earlier in Dongargarh, a remote village in Chhattisgarh, Modi launched 'Rurban Mission' amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.



He also launched the 'Jan Aushadhi Medical Store' campaign under which 100 generic medicines stores will be opened at government district hospitals and community health centres.



"This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row," he said.



Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, Modi said these are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. "This is the only way that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path," he said.



Noting that the 'Rurban Mission' was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up because of migration.



While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, Modi said a "huge country" like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and "good life" like education, healthcare and internet while retaining the "rural spirit".



Under the 'Rurban Mission', he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.



100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, he said at the event which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh among others.

Slamming critical NGOs and black-marketeers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today accused them of conspiring to destabilise his government and "defame" him and asserted that he will carry on with his work without bowing to any machinations.He said "some people" were not able to digest the fact that a "chai wala" (tea seller) has become the Prime Minister and hence were conspiring all the time to bring him down.He was addressing a farmers' rally here after a brief visit to Chhattisgarh where he said his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed and deprived sections of the society as he launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres.While enlisting the measures taken by his government for the welfare of the farmers, a combative Modi told the gathering, "You would have seen in the recent past, there is attack on me all the time. Some people are continuously at it. They are not able to digest how Modi became the Prime Minister, how a 'chai wala' became the Prime Minister, they cannot swallow it."Without naming anybody or any specific instance, he said he had taken some steps because of which "these people are facing problems".


The government is currently in advanced stage of finalising its new civil aviation policy, wherein one of the proposals is to scrap the 5/20 rule.



While several older airlines including SpiceJet, Jet Airways, IndiGo and GoAir are vehemently opposing any move to scrap the 5/20 norm, Tata today applauded the Civil Aviation Ministry's proposal to remove the "controversial" rule.



Terming as sad the lobbying of incumbent airlines for "protection and preferential treatment", he tweeted that such moves were reminiscent of the monopolistic pressures by entities with vested interests who fear competition.



"The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interests' entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years," Tata said in a strong message posted on his Twitter page.



"These protectionist moves have held back progress in India compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas," Tata Group's Chairman Emeritus said in his message titled '5/20 Rule and Vested Interests'.



"In the airline industry in India, it is sad to see the incumbent airlines lobbying for protection and preferential treatment for themselves against the new airlines...



"...(the new airlines) have been formed in full compliance with prevailing government policy and providing air transport to Indian citizens in line with the dream of a 'New India' promoted by the new government under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's leadership," said Tata, who was instrumental in the group's re-entry to the aviation sector.



Tata Group and Singapore Airlines together run Vistara, while AirAsia is a three-way joint venture between Tatas, Malaysia's AirAsia and Arun Bhatia's Telestra. AirAsia India is less than 2-year-old with six aircraft, while Vistara was started in January 2015 and has nine planes.





With the government considering the removal of 5/20 norm, Tata said, "One hopes when the new policy is introduced it will be free of discrimination and protectionism, so that Indian aviation can grow for the benefit of consumer and the common man -- not to serve the interests of select beneficiaries of protectionism."



According to Tata, the call for a new open market economy in India, in line with policies promised by Modi, will "promote growth in an open market based on competitiveness and not from self interest-based protectionism".



Reacting to Tata's comments, SpiceJet's Singh said all the airlines were asked "to serve our great country before we got profitable rights to fly abroad" under the 5/20 rule.



"We served with great pride. What is wrong if these two foreign-controlled airlines are also asked to serve India before being allowed to fly international?



"Mr Tata, whom we respect greatly, should in fact urge these airlines in which his group is a shareholder, to serve India willingly before being allowed to fly international," Singh told PTI.



The SpiceJet chief further said that the two airlines associated with Tata group had undertaken to follow the 5/20 rule while obtaining their licenses, but "they are now opposing (this rule) so vehemently".



He also alleged that "it is evident that these airlines are controlled by their foreign parents".



"This is in complete violation of Indian laws that require airlines in India to be effectively controlled by Indian shareholders. Mr Tata should urge these airlines to follow Indian law in letter and spirit.



"No country in the world, including Singapore and Malaysia, allows its airlines to be controlled by foreign airlines. If Indian airlines like SpiceJet and Indigo are not allowed in these countries, why should they be allowed to control airlines in India?," he added.



Recently, the industry body FIA had also alleged that AirAsia India was being controlled by its foreign joint venture partner AirAsia.



A delegation of FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) -- a grouping of established airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir -- has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister's Office on their opposition to removal of 5/20 norm and on the issue of substantial ownership and effective control.



On February 18, a Group of Ministers discussed the draft aviation policy, including the 5/20 norm and the proposed options - scrapping or retaining this rule - at a meeting here chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.



At the meeting, attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju among others, extensive discussions were held on the norm for international flying by domestic carriers and regional air connectivity.



Hitting out at older carriers, top industrialist Ratan Tata today accused them of lobbying and using "monopolistic pressures" to retain preferential treatment under the controversial 5/20 rule that restricts overseas flying by new airlines.Reacting strongly to the charge, low-cost carrier SpiceJet's chief Ajay Singh asked him to rather advice the two airlines associated with Tatas - Vistara and AirAsia India - to first serve India and then seek to fly international.Singh also alleged that the two carriers were apparently controlled by their foreign parents and said they had undertaken, while applying for the licence, to follow the 5/20 rule which they are opposing so vehemently now.AirAsia India and Vistara - two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures - are presently ineligible to operate overseas under the 5/20 norm, which requires an Indian carrier to have minimum five years operational experience and at least 20 planes to operate international flights.
Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore could not cross the Wagah Border into India today as Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency Immigration stopped her for not having a 'police report' of her stay in Lahore.



Tagore, who had come here on a four-day visit to participate in the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), was escorted by police to get to Wagah Border.



The Punjab government had given her 'official protocol' after her meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



However, when she reached Wagah Border the immigration officials told her that 'police report' was missing from her travel documents.



On her inquiry that "can't I go with this document", the immigration official said 'No'.

An FIA official told PTI that a protocol official accompanying Tagore contacted the police station concerned and arranged the report in about two hours through fax.



"By the time the police report matter was resolved Tagore, who was waiting at the guest room, changed her mind to cross the border. She decided to leave for India on Monday and returned to hotel on the Mall Road," the official said.



Perhaps, missing her flight Amritsar-Mumbai was the reason to extend her stay in Lahore for one more day, he said.



During her stay in Lahore, Tagore called on Prime Minister Sharif yesterday at his palatial Jati Umra residence in Raiwind and had a dinner with him and his family members.



She was warmly received by the family members of Sharif especially his daughter Maryum Nawaz.



Sharif, an admirer of Tagore, also inquired her about the health of iconic actor Dilip Kumar.



The prime minister told Tagore that Pakistan wanted cordial relations with India.
Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal on Sunday said the present government is fully committed to the principle of cooperative federalism, both in the letter and spirit.





He was speaking in an interview for the official YouTube Channel of the Finance Ministry in the run-up to the Union Budget 2016-17, in what appeared to be a departure from the past, when the Finance Ministry abstained from giving interviews or meeting media in the Budget quarantine period.



So far this fiscal, over Rs 4.11 lakh crore (78.56 per cent of Budget Estimates) has been released to states by way of tax devolution and three more instalments will be released in March 2016 based on the tax collections till then, Watal said.



His interview comes close on the heels of Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha tweeting on whether India should tax people to earn more or borrow more to carry out government expenditures.



Prior to that Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said in an interview on YouTube that the Budget may focus on tax simplification and economic growth, and not much on tax exemptions.



Late last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley himself had said the direction of this years Budget will be determined by the resources India has, the economys growth potential and tax buoyancy. It will not be populist, apparently lifting the veil of secrecy from Indias most secret financial document.



Though there is almost no interface between journalists and the ministers or the government officials, ahead of the Budget, the message about the governments functioning and even the direction of the upcoming Budget has been reaching the stakeholders through social media and the newly-launched Finance Ministrys YouTube channel.



Late last year, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers at his residence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked them to feel upbeat about what the government was doing.


Agitating Jats on Sunday came down on to the streets in large numbers in several western Uttar Pradesh districts and blocked important highways and rail routes disrupting movement of vehicular traffic and trains throwing life out of gear.



According to police sources here, members of the community had also gathered in large numbers near the Ganga Canal in Muradnagar in Ghazaiabad to what the authorities apprehend stop supply of water to Delhi. The national capital was already facing shortage of water after the agitating Jats stopped water supply from Munak canal in Haryana.



Security had been tightened around the canal, sources here said.



Reports said that Jats blocked traffic at Mathura, Binjore, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and some other near by districts, where they were in sizeable numbers. Agitating members of the community also blocked traffic on the busy Yamuna Expressway connecting Noida and Agra bringing movement of vehicles to a complete halt. Traffic continued to be affected on NH 58 and NH one owing to the agitation.



Jats have reportedly forced closure of offices at Bawali Halt railway station in Baghpat district and squatted on the tracks disrupting movement of trains between Delhi and Shamil in UP.



Some trains were also stopped at different railway stations by the agitating community members, reports said.



Senior BJP leaders, including some ministers, also faced heat of the ongoing Jat agitation for reservation in jobs under OBC category. The Jats on Sunday held demonstrations before residences of Union ministers V K Singh in Ghaziabad, Sanjiv Baliyan in Muzaffarnagar and BJP MP Rajendra Agarwal in Meerut town.



Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and lawyers' associations in Meerut and Bijnore have also extended support to the agitation.




With Haryana's public transport system in disarray due to the Jat agitation, the government on Sunday ordered the opening of Air Forces Satwari Airport in Jammu for civil air traffic in the night.



A number of train services to and from Haryana to Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi have been cancelled while road movement to Delhi has been hampered, resulting in severe hardship and constraints to a number of people.



Following this, Air Force administration at Jammu has been asked to keep the Satwari Airport open for civil air traffic in the night from Sunday.



This measure will ensure availability of airport for civil operators round the clock. The administration of Airport Authority of India and all other civil aviation agencies like Directorate General of Civil Aviation and airline operating companies have been intimated by the Indian Air Force through a notice to airmen regarding the extended period of availability of airport, an official statement said.



While, the Civil Aviation ministry has asked airlines to operate additional flights from New Delhi to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jaipur to enable stranded people reach their destinations.



As part of this, all major domestic operators including Air India, Jet Airways and IndiGo will fly additional services from and to Delhi, an official release said. Air India also said that it is offering special nominal fares for its additional flights.



Air India on Sunday operated an additional service from Delhi to Chandigarh, which went to Amritsar and then back to Delhi.



SpiceJet operated additional services on Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi, Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi and Delhi-Chandigarh Delhi while Jet operated Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi. IndiGo will be operating an additional service on Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi and Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi on Monday besides one it operated on Sunday.



In view of the exigency we have extended our relief flight operations and have put in 10 additional flights between Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Chandigarh routes on Sunday. Airport managers in these airports have been given clear instructions to facilitate best possible services to the stranded passengers at airports, SpiceJet said in a statement. IndiGo said it will add two additional flights from Delhi to Chandigarh on Monday. These supplementary flights will allow stranded passengers to travel between these cities.
Water supplies in the capital remained severely affected on Sunday due to the violent Jat stir for quota in neighbouring Haryana. With no water left to be supplied after Sunday in West, North, Central and parts of South Delhi, residents are only left at the mercy of water tankers from Monday.





The capital gets most of water from the Yamuna through the neighbouring state.

The protestors have damaged equipment that brings water from Munak Canal to Delhi, vandalized control buttons at the station and cut iron ropes through which the gates of the canal are lifted.



The government has said that even if the Irrigation officials of the Haryana government manage to reach the canal, it will take 24 hours to fix the systems.



However, according to a senior government official, the situation is not likely to improve even on Tuesday as the security forces had to retreat from the area and nothing could be done to fix the system.



With this, seven plants have been shut down and all of Delhi, with the exception of east and parts of south has run dried from Sunday night.



The water in east and south is supplied from the only two functional plants right now  Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi plants  which get water from Uttar Pradesh.



Appeal to SC

The government has also moved a petition in the Supreme Court in this connection which will come up for hearing at 10:30 am on Monday, Delhis Water Minister Kapil Mishra said.

We have already released the morning supply and after this there is no water. It is going to be a messy affair, said a DJB official.



An emergency meeting was held at the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) headquarters in the evening where Mishra took stock of the situation. From Sunday night water will be supplied from the Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi plants through767 tankers to the rest of Delhi.



But these two plants produce only 240 MGD of water, as against the total production of 820 MGD million gallons per day.



We cannot provide water to the whole of Delhi with this, the official said.

A control room has also been set up at the DJB headquarters where the officials are monitoring complaints of water shortage.



We are not sending our tankers randomly. We are collecting complaints of certain areas, aggregating them; analyzing data to find out the maximum number of complaints are coming from which parts and then sending tankers. Because the available water is the only water we have, the official said.|



Meanwhile, the government also ordered all the schools to shut on Monday due to water shortage.




Jat agitation spilled over to many parts of Delhi from neighbouring Haryana on Sunday as agitating community members held demonstrations at various places, leading to severe disruption of traffic on several roads.





The police said the situation was being brought under control even as demonstrations were held at several places, including Nangloi, Madhuban Chowk, Narela, Najafgarh.



Traffic on Tikri border and Sindhu border to and fro Haryana was completely blocked due to the agitation on the side of Haryana. However, Rajokri road was open, which worked as a contact route between Delhi and Haryana, said Muktesh Chander, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic). The protests led to diversion of traffic with several roads leading to neighboring Haryana being blocked by protesters. Heavy police deployment was done for handling the demonstrators.



Thousands of vehicles were stuck in northwest Delhis Madhuban chowk for few hours, as protesting people of the Jat community blocked a portion of the road. Traffic police had to divert the traffic through alternate routes which cleared the jam after a massive effort, said a senior police officer.



Similar scenes were witnessed in outer Delhis Narela and southwest Delhis Nazafgarh areas.



In Narela, hundreds of people came on road in an attempt to disrupt the traffic flow, while in Nazafgarh, reports of burning tyres being thrown on roads were reported. Three low-floor DTC buses were reported to have been damaged in Nazafgarh by angry protestors. Outer Delhis Kanjhawala, and Bawana Chowk also saw massive traffic jam due to the ongoing stir by the Jat community. The Delhi Police had beefed up security, anticipating the quota agitation to spread to the capital, after receiving several calls from different areas about groups gathering in connection with the agitation in Haryana.



However, in an unexpected turn of events, the police were caught off guard when in South Delhis Vasant Kunj area several agitating people blocked a crucial road joining Chattarpur with the Indira Gandhi International Airport, leading to traffic jam.

Several police and traffic police personnel were rushed to deal with the agitating protestors.



On Saturday, roads like NH-8, Aya Nagar Link Road, Delhi-Faridabad Road and GT Karnal road, through which maximum supplies are transported, were completely stalled for nearly four hours as protesters parked their tractors and trucks on them. This led to traffic jams on Ring Road and Mathura Road in south Delhi.


The NDA government at the Centre wants to double the income of the farmers in the next six years and steps are being taken to see the target is achieved, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.





By 2022 when the country would be celebrating the 75th year of its independence, the income of an Indian farmer should be more than two times what he is earning now, Modi said while addressing a farmers rally in Bargarh town in Odisha. He sought the co-operation of everybody including the state governments in this regard.



The prime minister highlighted the steps initiated by his government for development of agriculture sector which include the new crop insurance policy that would largely benefit the farmers. No government in the past had come out with such a crop insurance policy. Everybody, even the Opposition parties have welcomed it, he said highlighting the main features of the new policy.



Prime minister also stressed the need for a second green revolution in the country and said it should begin in the states located in eastern part of India. States in eastern India like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have the potential to flag off the second green revolution in the country, he observed.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday dropped enough hints that her party would not hesitate to discontinue its alliance with the BJP if civilian killings and encounters continued in Jammu and Kashmir.





Chair (power) is not our destination. If chair can bring peace and we could fulfil dream of Mufti (Mohammad Sayeed) Sahab, for which he took such a bold decision and if the chair can help in brining relief to people and if Jammu and Kashmir can become a bridge of peace between India and Pakistan then sitting on chair can be worth, she said while addressing workers at the membership drive function here.



But, she said, if killings and encounters dont stop then it is not worth to sit on the chair.

In such a scenario my inheritance is my party which is enough for me, Mehbooba said amid applause from the party workers who had gathered here for the membership drive programme for Srinagar district.



Later, when reporters asked her about the meeting on government formation with the BJP nationalGeneral Secretary Ram Madhav, the PDP chief said, I think that is something that only time can tell.



For the last one and half months, I am hearing that why dont I take up the chair (of chief minister) left behind by my father. Chair and power are not the legacy of my father. Mufti Sahabs legacy is so huge that it cant be replaced by the chair, she added.



Last week Madhav, after meeting Mehbooba in Srinagar had said that both parties were positive on continuing with the alliance. There were speculations that Mehbooba is meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah in Delhi this week before a formal announcement would be made over the formation of the new government.



However, Mehbooba, who attended her first public function today after Muftis death on January 7, said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.


More than 10 people were injured after Congress workers raided the house of a JD(S) leader in Rudrakshipura village of Maddur taluk on Sunday.





According to the police, the Congress workers barged into the house of Kencha, a JD(S) leader and assaulted his mother and other women in the house with clubs. According to the complaint lodged by Savithramma, the mother of Kencha, the attackers snatched her gold ornaments weighing around 300 grams before fleeing the spot.



Political enmity is said to be the reason behind the incident. According to sources, there were heated arguments between the workers of the Congress and the JD(S) during the ZP polls held on Saturday.



Following this, Kencha of JD(S) and his accomplices had allegedly assaulted Raju of Congress on Sunday morning. Both the parties have lodged complaints and counter-complaints.


Tension prevailed for a while at Ravindra Kalakshetra on Sunday morning when an inebriated man threw a packet containing chocolates at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and raised an alarm that the cover contained a bomb.





The chief ministers security personnel seized the cover and opened it, only to find a few pieces of chocolates inside. They detained the man, identified as B H J Prasad. The incident took place during the golden jubilee celebration of Udayabhanu Kala Sangha.



Prasad claimed to be a Bahujan Samaj Party leader and said that he targeted Siddaramaiah as he had not done anything for the Bahujan community.



Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar, former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah, former High Court judge Justice A J Sadashiva and writers Siddalingaiah and M H Krishnaiah were on the dais when he threw the packet. Prasad, who was seated on the first row, stood up as Siddaramaiah approached the mike. Prasad shouted: Chief Minister, tell us what measures you have initiated for the welfare of our community? When Siddaramaiah asked which community, Prasad referred to the Bahujan community. Soon, he started shouting.



The police detained him and he went towards the exit. Prasad then threw the packet at Siddaramaiah and said that it had a bomb. The security personnel immediately seized the packet. Siddaramaiah downplayed the incident and said that he was committed to the welfare of all sections.



Kannada should get importance



At the event, Siddaramaiah stressed the importance of Kannada language in Karnataka.

Kannada should get prime importance in Karnataka and committed efforts should be made in this regard, he said.



No language can be pure and a language will grow richer if it absorbs words from other languages, he added.



The chief minister promised financial assistance for the proposed golden jubilee building of the Sangha.



Bengaluru Darshana, a book from the Sangha, introduces Bengaluru City in all its aspects. It contains impressions of more than 300 artistes, writers, thinkers and others.




The BJP on Sunday acceded to Jats demands and announced that a five-member committee led by senior leader and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will examine the communitys demand for reservation.



At least two protesters were killed in firing by security forces on Sunday, taking the toll to 12. Incidents of violence, arson, clashes, road and highway blockages continued across the state throughout the day. However, there were signs of return of normalcy following the steps taken by the BJP.



Curfew lifted in 2 places

Curfew was lifted in Kaithal and Kalayat after protests in the two towns subsided following the announcement by the Centre. The protesters have started clearing road blockades in many areas, an official spokesman said.



After a meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Jat Sangharsh Samiti leader Jaipal Sing Sangwan and BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jail announced the setting up of panel and reiterated that the state government will move a bill in the Assembly to provide Jats the OBC status.



In Delhi, BJP president Amit Shah set up the panel led by senior minister M Venkaiah Naidu. A statement from the party said the members of the panel include Ministers of State Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Balyan, former Union minister Satpal Malik, Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna.



The committee on Jat reservation would go into all issues and speak to all sections to prepare the report. It will be submitted to the BJP president and the Centre, it said.

Rajnath Singh, who held a meeting with Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar to take stock of the situation, said, I appeal to the people of Haryana to help maintain clam and peace.





Late in the night, the Meham Chaubisi khap, which represents 24 villages of Meham sub-division in Rohtak, announced that it will help bring back normalcy to the district.



"The forces have been asked to clear all the places where the protesters were squatting affecting communication network and water supply," a senior government official said.

Earlier in the day, the Army deployed choppers to survey trouble-torn areas.

A train engine was set on fire. A police post was burnt and a college was vandalised in Sonepat.



Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hissar, Hansi, Sonepat and Gohana town of Sonepat district have witnessed largescale violence.



The Haryana government rushed paramilitary and technical team of the irrigation department to Akbarpur-Barota point in district Sonepat to ensure that the water supply to Delhi was not hit.



Several parts of the highway connecting the capital city Chandigarh to New Delhi were blocked by protesters.



Train traffic on routes between Chandigarh-New Delhi, Delhi-Rohtak, Delhi-Jammu and more have been suspended. There were reports that more than 1,000 trains have been cancelled since the beginning of the agitation.



DGP Y P Singal said the paramilitary forces, the Army and the state police conducted night dominance activities in many places throughout the night. He said the situation was under control.



More than 200 cases have so far been registered.



The Centre had provided 49 companies of paramilitary forces of which 39 companies have reached the state and 24 have already been deployed.

As many as 69 columns of Army were deployed in trouble-hit areas.


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Region receives more than $73 million for fiber broadband service through two federal grants.

Affordable, reliable, high-speed internet is coming to Western Alaska! Bethel Native Corporation (BNC), in partnership with GCI, Alaskas largest telecommunications company, today (October 10, 2022) announced the launch of a partnership to bring fiber-optic connectivity to Alaskas Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The project will bring 2 gigabit internet speeds and affordable plans to more than 10,000 Alaskans.

At an event held in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Indigenous Peoples Day, the partners announced more than $73 million in broadband grants recently awarded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) and the USDAs Rural Utilities Service ReConnect program.

The partners announced the new project name, the Airraq Network (pronounced EYE-huck). Airraq, a traditional Yupik game similar to cats cradle, translates to string that tells the story.

ABOUT THE GRANTS

The Bethel Native Corporation has been awarded a $42 million grant from the NTIA to build a fiber network to Bethel, Platinum, Eek, Napaskiak, and Oscarville.

The 405-mile network will start in Dillingham, follow a submarine route to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, and then transition to an overland route to Bethel.

As BNCs subgrantee partner, GCI will construct and operate the fiber network.

GCI will upgrade its existing cable plant in Bethel and deploy fiber-to-the-premises local access networks in the four other communities.

Consumers in these communities will have access to 2 gig consumer broadband service plans that include unlimited data and affordable prices. Customers who qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program will be eligible for free internet service.

The service is scheduled to launch in Bethel at the end of 2024.

The Bethel fiber project will connect in Dillingham to another NTIA-funded fiber project to be constructed by Nushagak Telephone, which, in turn, connects to an USDA RUS-funded fiber network that connects to Anchorage. By leveraging other federal investment, BNC and GCI are using every NTIA Bethel grant dollar in the most efficient way possible.

GCI has been awarded a $31 million USDA RUS ReConnect grant to construct long-haul fiber and local fiber in the Y-K Delta communities of Atmautluak, Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, Quinhagak, and Tuntutuliak.

GCI will construct and operate the fiber and will deploy fiber-to-the-premises local access networks in the five communities.

Consumers in these communities will receive 2 gig consumer broadband service plans that include access to unlimited data and affordable prices. Customers who qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program will be eligible for free internet service.

This project will connect to the Bethel fiber, leveraging federal dollars in an efficient way.

The residents of the 10 grant communities are now looking forward to faster speeds, more data and having much more affordable plans in the coming years, said BNC President & CEO Ana Hoffman. The people of the Y-K Delta are resourceful, respectful and resilient. We have a strong sense of community, and we depend upon collaboration with our friends and neighbors to be successful. We know the value of presence, and that is why I have so much confidence in this partnership between BNC and GCI and our collective commitment to deliver this service together.

Ana is fond of saying a first-class people deserve a first-class internet service. We couldnt agree more, said GCI President & COO Greg Chapados. GCI pledges to the people of the Y-K Delta, our partner BNC, and NTIA and RUS that we will build and operate a first-rate network that will not just narrow, but eliminate the rural-urban digital divide for the 10,000-plus residents of Bethel and the other served communities.

In addition to Indigenous and community stakeholders, the push for federal support of Alaskas broadband projects, including the Airraq Network, also received broad support from state and federal leaders.

I was a big supporter of these projects and am thrilled about this announcement, said Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. These types of infrastructure projects are some of the most important investments in Alaska today. These projects will finally bring high-speed, affordable internet to homes, businesses, schools, and health care facilities. High-speed broadband service will attract more investment in Alaska; it will grow our economy. Most importantly, it will create more job opportunities for our youth in the communities where they live.

Congratulations to Bethel Native Corporation and to all the villages in the area that are going to stand to benefit from this expansion of broadband, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Weve been working hard on the infrastructure bill, doing everything that we can to try to help facilitate, through NTIA, these grants and opportunities that will be coming to really connect all of Alaska, and most particularly rural Alaska. From Kasigluk to Eek, youre going to see benefits. This is good reason for celebration and Im glad to be part of it.

Access to high-speed, reliable internet can be life-changing for a community, enhancing the delivery of health care and education, and opening doors for small businesses and entrepreneurs, said Sen. Dan Sullivan. Many of our rural, Alaska Native communities for too long have found themselves without the broadband connectivity that most Americans take for granted. Im glad to see the significant federal infrastructure dollars we secured being deployed to break down the digital divide and improve the lives and wellbeing of thousands of Alaskans across the Lower Kuskokwim region.

On this Indigenous Peoples Day, Im honored to join you in celebrating the NTIA and USDA awards to Bethel Native Corporation and GCI, said Rep. Mary Peltola. With this funding, fiber service will be brought to residents in 10 communities, including Bethel, my home. My kids and I cant wait to enjoy the service we will have there once its constructed. And the name for the network is just perfect.

It was a real pleasure to be able to visit with so many of you in August, said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, recalling his trip to Western Alaska over the summer. I was honored on that trip to meet with so many community members in places like Napaskiak and Napakiak and Bethel to hear firsthand from leading educators and health professionals. It was honestly humbling for me and for our team that was there to hear firsthand, to see the real connectivity challenges that people are facing on the ground and the real impacts that these grants could make. We know that delivering connectivity to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is critical, as we were hearing; access to jobs, healthcare, education, all the things that your community needs, but as you so clearly showed us on this visit, this is not just about bringing the internet to the Y-K Delta, this is also about bringing you all, your communities, your local knowledge, your beautiful culture to the broader internet community. And for that I think we are all going to be very grateful.

Its incredible, this big lift, and USDA Rural Development is so thrilled to just be a piece of that federal funding and were so excited to be working alongside tribes, municipalities, and telecommunications companies like GCI to connect really remote and rural communities, said USDA Rural Development State Director for Alaska Julia Hnilicka. Ive had the honor to go out to the Y-K Delta a few times this summer and I have just been, as a lifelong Alaskan, so blown away by the beauty and the complexity of culture and Im beyond-words-thrilled to be a part of even a small part of sharing that culture with the world. Internet connectivity is not just about what it brings in, but what we are able to share out from Alaska as well.

It has truly been my honor to work with the Bethel Native Corporation as well as GCI as weve worked through the process of bringing this application forward to fruition, said NTIA Division Chief, Tribal Connectivity and Nation to Nation Coordination Adam Geisler. Were entering an age now where access to affordable, reliable broadband service is going to be at your fingertips here in the very near future and, again, I want to emphasize affordability.

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I agree whole heartedly with this letter. There is no real reason, or need for this mine (Donlin), other than making a lot of money for a very few people. The untold devastation of the source of life for thousands of people and millions of animals is too high a price to pay for trinkets and computer parts.

Come back to the table with a more viable alternative, and perhaps the issue can be re-addressed. At this point, with the proposal as submitted, there is no way this is a good idea.

Anne Kosacheff

Bethel, AK

Response to Speak Your Mind, May 20th, 2020

The risk of the proposed Donlin Mine far exceeds any potential benefit to the people of the region and the resources upon which they depend.

William Eggimann

Bethel, AK

Anchorage community stands together to call for the protection of Black and brown lives

Anchorage community members and organizations such as Native Movement and Native Peoples Action stand together to call for the protection of Black & Brown lives. We are calling for solidarity of our diverse communities to stand together in saying Enough is Enough, police brutality is unacceptable anywhere.

Our communities are feeling the pain and hurt of repeated violences from law enforcement and the justice system. In addition to the reality and truth that black and Indigenous communities have experienced firsthand, research studies have shown the disproportionate violence faced nationally from police brutality. A 2019 study by Northwestern University shows, Black women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police. (1) Enough is enough. We are done dying. We ask leadership from institutions everywhere to commit to stopping this violence. We seek actionable item response from law enforcement. As Black and Indigenous communities we are asking all people to stand together in solidarity and in care.

Anchorage event: I Cant Breathe Social-Distance Rally was held 2pm Saturday, May 30, 2020.

Jasmin Smith, Charlene Apok

Native Movement

Anchorage, AK

Senator Murkowski Shares Memorial Day Message

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released the following message in observance of Memorial Day.

For Alaskans, Memorial Day is typically our big kick-off for summer, with sunlight nearly all day and a long weekend to enjoy the great outdoors with our friends and family. It is also a day of tradition and ceremony as we honor the fallen who have served our nation.

This year is different for us as many of our Memorial Day ceremonies are cancelled or as we follow new guidance due to the coronavirus. But it doesnt take a large gathering or multiple speeches by dignitaries to honor those who have bravely defended America and all that we hold dear.

Let each of us, and with our families, in our own way, reflect on the service and sacrifice of those in our armed services who gave their lives in defense of our great nation. Remember their children and families who loved and supported them. These heroes selflessly sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy today and we honor them.

To you and your families: Be safe. Be well.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Washington, D.C.

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Clarence Daniel, Lower Kuskokwim School District School (LKSD) Board Member, was awarded the 2022 Don MacKinnon Excellence in Education Award by the Alaska Superintendents Association (ASA). Daniel was presented the award during the ASA fall conference in Anchorage.

Daniel has served on the LKSD regional school board since 2013 and has held the positions of secretary, treasurer, vice president and president. His dedication to education in the district dates to 1988, when he served as a student representative on the board.

LKSD Superintendent Kimberly Hankins said, Clarence wants to see LKSD students be prepared for whatever they choose to do in their future.

To promote this vision Daniel has supported collegial and post-secondary education functions and helped establish the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) Acceleration Academy.

Daniel believes Yugtun programs in LKSD should have measurable standards on par with English standards and has been a strong advocate of the districts mission to develop bilingual and biliterate programs for students.

Daniel also is a member of the National Indigenous Language coalition and has worked with Senator Lisa Murkowskis office to review and propose language for the Indigenous Language bill.

Superintendent Hankins added, Clarence believes that student success is, and should be, defined by the accomplishments each individual makes toward their goals, whether they choose to be the student with the most college degrees, running their tribe/corporation, taking care of elderly family members, or being the most successful hunter providing food for the village. It is the successful fulfillment of each individual students vision.

The Don MacKinnon Educational Excellence in Education Award was established in 1985 to recognize Don MacKinnon and his service to education in the state. In honor of his work to forge professional relationships on behalf of Alaskas young people, the AASA Board of Directors established this award to be given to school board members who have provided meritorious service to their school districts and communities. Don, the first Executive Director of the Alaska Association of School Administrators and the Alaska Council for School Administrators. He was an influential force in bringing educators together for the benefit of our students.

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18 February 2016 (UN)  As the European Union summit starts in Brussels, a United Nations expert on the human rights of migrants warned today that it has become impossible in Europe to have a meaningful discussion about migrants rights, diversity, and integration. Europe has always been a strong advocate of human rights in Europe and elsewhere, said Francois Crepeau, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, in a statement. In its struggle to maintain control of its borders however, it is being tested on its adherence to human rights. Through slowly stripping away the rights of asylum-seekers and migrants, Europe is creating a scary new normal, he added. Mr. Crepeau called on the leaders of the 28-nation bloc gathering on 18 and 19 February to halt the continuous regression of the human rights of migrants as Europe struggles to deal with its migrant crisis. In his appeal, the Special Rapporteur reiterated the key messages of his 2015 report on the management of the external borders of the EU and its impact on the human rights of migrants. European countries must offer safe and regular channels for mobility. It is the only way that European countries will regain full control of their borders, he stressed, noting that the operationalisation of the NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] military operation recently announced by European leaders raises many questions. What will NATO do that Frontex [European Union border coordination agency] didnt do? When intercepting a migrant boat, what will the procedure be? Will they embark migrants on their navy ships as the Italians did in Mare Nostrum? If they do, where will they disembark them? To what authority will they transfer them? How will simple pushbacks be prevented? How will they treat the migrants on board? How will they identify protection needs? And how will we know what NATO forces are doing? What civilian oversight mechanisms will be in place to ensure the protection of the rights of the migrants during the operation? he asked. Mr. Crepeau said fighting the smugglers is a red herring: as long as persons in need of mobility are not provided with official mobility solutions, unofficial channels will be provided by opportunistic smuggling rings. He underlined that he has repeatedly insisted that overreliance on securitisation of borders will not work, as people will continue to come because they need to survive, and smugglers will continue to adapt, prosper and exploit the migrants as long as their business model is not effectively destroyed. The only way to actually eliminate smuggling is to take over their market by offering regular, safe and cheap mobility solutions, with all the identity and security checks that efficient visa procedures can provide, he said. It is appalling to see how the discussion concerning migrants has been lowered to the smallest common dominator, feeding off fear and xenophobia and making migrants fair game for all types of verbal or physical abuse. Migrant-bashing has dangerously become the norm and the standard is so low now that to have a meaningful and serene discussion about rights, diversity and integration is often impossible, Mr. Crepeau warned. Concluding his statement, the Special Rapporteur said Europe must reclaim its role as a moral and political leader of human rights in this debate of fear, stereotyping, racism and xenophobia. I continue to urge European political leaders to show moral and political leadership in fighting much more vigorously racism, xenophobia and hate crime, by consolidating our common human rights culture and strengthening its institutions at all levels, and in celebrating the diversity of cultures and religions as an enrichment for everyone, citizens and foreigners alike.
The HTC A16 might come with a 5-HD display, Snapdragon 210, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB onboard storage, and 8MP/5MP cameras

The specifications of a HTC device, dubbed the A16, have leaked and suggest that the device may be an entry-level handset. According to a tweet by @LlabTooFeR, The device will come with a 5-inch HD display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 SoC with 1.5GB of RAM. The device is tipped to come with 8GB of onboard storage that can be expanded via a microSd card. The HTC A16 might come with an 8MP camera at the back with a 5MP front facing camera. It may also come with a 2200mAh battery.

Earlier, Evan Blass tweeted renders of the phone, which suggested that the HTC A16 may come with the company's BoomSound speakers and would be available in multiple colours. It is possible that the A16 might be one of the four phones the HTC may launch at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. In addition, the company may also unveil their new flagship phone, the HTC M10, at the event.
Samsung is set to launch the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge flagships on February 21, 11:30 PM IST. Here's how you can watch the event Live on your PCs, smartphones and Samsung's own Gear VR.

Today, is the big day when Samsungs much awaited Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge flagship smartphones are set to launch at the Mobile World Congress, 2016. As per various leaks, the Galaxy S7 is likely to feature a 5.1-inch display and the S7 Edge could feature a 5.5-inch display. It is also expected that Samsung may announce a third device S7 Edge +, which may come with a 5.7-inch display.



All three phones are expected to offer a 2K resolution on their respective displays. We have also heard that the phone maker may equip the upcoming devices with its own iteration of 3D touch. A recent rumor suggested that Samsung may introduce an all black design and chassis to give the smartphones a premium look.



The good news is, those who cannot make it all the way to Barcelona in Spain, can now sit back and watch the launch event live on their PCs, smartphones and even through the Gear VR. Heres how you can catch all the action from Samsungs Galaxy Unpacked event, which will stream live in 360 degree starting 19:00 CET or 11:30 PM IST.

Watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 on your PC

1. Head to the Galaxy Unpacked page on the Samsung website when the event begins.

2. Choose from one of four viewing positions for the event.

Watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 on your Mobile

1. Go to the Google Play Store (for Android devices) or the App Store (for iOS devices) and search for the free Unpacked 360 View app.

2. Download the app and install it.

3. Once the event starts, launch the app and you can select one of four viewing angles.

Watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2016 with Gear VR

1. Go to the Oculus Store and search for the Unpacked 360 View app.

2. Download and install it.

3. Launch the app using the Gear VR headset.

4. When the event begins, select one of four viewing angles.
Sell shares in Weir Group , said the Sunday Times 'Inside the City' column. The Glaswegian pumps and valves manufacturer enjoyed the boom of the US fracking industry while its shares topped 25 for most of 2014, they entered 2015 at less than 18 and exited at 10. The shale tale is tailing off and their lenders are beginning to wield the axe, which bodes ill for Weir, which counts the oil sector as a quarter of profits.

The mining industry, which represents much of the remainder, is not in much better a position, as global demand wanes. Yet worldwide oversupply in many metals could take years to unwind. The Glasgow company's management have slashed spending and yet analysts still forecast profits will be cleaved in half last year and continue to fall in 2016. A bid is a possibility but not one worth betting on yet.

Avoid Centrica's shares, argued Questor in the Sunday Telegraph. The British Gas owner may have impressed with recent full year numbers, boosted by profits at the UK's biggest energy provider up by almost a third thanks to falling gas prices, with US-based Direct Energy performing even better but profits at the UK business supply division declining slightly due to billing niggles.

The North Sea gas 'upstream' business was the major blip, with profits down by almost two thirds and assets written down somewhat savagely. Looking forward, the falling price of gas has led to big planned cuts in capital expenditure and a major haircut for staff numbers to try and produce savings of 750m a year. The 2015 dividend was cut and with pressure on domestic prices from continuing commodity weakness the ongoing income is a concern.

Constellation Healthcare is a share to buy for adventurous investors, according to Midas in the Mail on Sunday. The company is focused on the US, where under the 'Obamacare' regime, pressure from health insurance companies is forcing doctors to cut costs, turning to Houston-based Constellation's offshore workers to process bills more efficiently. Doctors are often joining together to create economies of scale from their practices as the regulatory burden becomes heavier.

Traditionally, small firms processed medical bills and Consetllation began buying them up since 2013, with sales and profits soaring increasingly as he outsources to workers in India to cut costs as the natural churn in the US industry sees minimum-wage staff leave before too long. Only 2% of 10,000 doctor clients move away once Constellation acquires their billing firm. Future plans are to more than double client numbers and maybe expand services outside of just billing.



Please note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only and not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.






Two Columbus-area solar farms could power 100,000 homes

State regulators have signed off on turning a chunk of Darby Dan Farms into a solar farm in western Franklin County.
The approximately $25 million Kewaunee County budget presented on Tuesday drew only praise during the scheduled board meeting. Kewaunee County Administrator Scott Feldt went department by department describing some of the highlights of the budget. Even though the budget size and the tax levy amount went up, taxpayers will likely pay less depending on their property values.

One of the budget's more significant changes is with the corporation counsel, which will become a full-time position in 2023. Before winning his position as a circuit court judge, Jeffrey Wisnicky served a dual role as corporation counsel and human services director. Feldt hopes that once a new corporation counsel is hired and gets a grasp of the position, they can be contracted out to other municipalities.

The county will continue to receive payments from Dominion due to the Kewaunee Power Station closure. The $500,000 has been used in the past to fund loans to Bug Tussel Wireless as they wire the county with broadband and fiber services.

The countys human services department commands the most significant part of the budget at $6 million, but the staffs ability to get reimbursed for billable hours has lessened its impact on the tax levy by as much as $60,000. It also contains the budgets biggest question mark, which sets aside $20,000 a month for two children determined to be under the countys care.

One of the few questions of the discussion came from Supervisor Aaron Augustian. He asked Feldt why they are paying down an additional $300,000 in debt service ahead of the countys most considerable expense moving forward: the future jail facility.

Supervisor Gerald Paape praised Feldt and his staff for putting together the budget and making it easy to understand. The Kewaunee County Board will vote to approve the budget at their next meeting. Community members made no comments during the public hearing on the budget preceding the board meeting.
dpa ElectionsData

With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc.

The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties.
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News Details

Ramco open MRO lab in Singapore

Date: 21-02-16

Chennai based software company Ramco Systems opens a new engineering lab in Singapore to develop advanced aviation IT solutions such as wearables for ground engineers and drones to inspect aircraft on the tarmac. This lab is opened with support from Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) as the first anchor partner. This lab is also supported by Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

This lab will work on next-generation applications and develop intellectual property ("IP") to solve major problems facing the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry.

The Lab is located at Ramcos regional headquarters in Singapore to work on solutions such as:

 Internet of Things, or embedded sensors for aviation components;

 Machine learning equipment which can cut down on manual maintenance and checking;

 Analytics for engineering planning and optimisation to reduce aircraft on ground (AOG);

 Robotics for the shopfloor and drones to inspect aircraft on the tarmac; and

 Wearable devices including Google Glass for on-ground engineers.

P R Venketrama Raja, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, at Ramco Systems, said: With its strategic location and business-friendly environment, Singapore is growing in prominence as a preferred investment hub. We are happy to have partnered with Singapore EDB in setting up this co-innovation Lab, which will be the platform for developing solutions that can transform operations for the complete eco-system of the aerospace industry.

We are pleased that Ramco has chosen Singapore to establish their largest Innovation Lab outside of India, said Lim Kok Kiang, Assistant Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board. Through this Lab, Ramco will work with leading aerospace companies and airlines in Singapore to co-develop and catalyse lead adoption of transformative digital solutions. The collaborations will enable delivery of greater value and new services offerings for the industry from Singapore.

Franck Terner, EVP of AIR FRANCE KLM Engineering & Maintenance, welcomed the opening of the centre, saying: We are proud to extend our R&D capability and anchor it in the heart of Singapore, one of the worlds greatest innovation platforms. In being able to benefit from the combined expertise of two acknowledged MRO sector players, the MRO Lab Singapore will be able to offer in very short order innovative solutions that are likely to deliver real benefits to our clients.

Virender Aggarwal, CEO of Ramco Systems, said: Innovation and disruptive technologies are key to the growth of the aviation MRO industry, where many manual procedures could be improved. This Lab positions us at the forefront of research in this sector, which will benefit airlines across Asia, if not the world. We are glad to have an anchor customer in AFI KLM E&M who shares the same passion to develop solutions that can transform operations in the aerospace industry.

We intend to tap the brightest minds in Asian aviation to develop bespoke, future-ready IPs that bring MRO into the 21st century. Our heartfelt thanks to the EDB and AFI KLM E&M for their support, he added.
Re: Zurich work and Child care Quote: chith Would staying outside Zurich help? Somewhere closer to Obersee? Hopefully the rent and child care would be cheaper there



Hiya





Rent may be - but childcare seems to be universally eye-wateringly high here. When we first arrived we looked into putting Little Rufus into day care. It would have had to have been private as we wanted bi-lingual and she was only 14 months old. The deal was we would have had to have put her in for a minimum of two full days, not the one day we wanted so I could find my feet, job hunt and attend some language classes (there was some other stipulation too but I can't remember what it was) as we wanted her to have her lunch there too. It would have been in the region of 2500 CHF per month. We have friends here with an 8month old and a 3 year old who pay 4500CHF per month and that's only for 4 days a week. We were used to paying 40 quid a day all in at a private day nursery in the UK and that was from 8 am until 5.45 if need be.





I stayed at home with our daughter - the system here does seem stacked against both parents working, particularly full time. Now she's two there are more options regarding playgroups etc - and things like Gymboree and Kindermusik.





It was a real shock to us, I don't mind saying, and greatly affected our plans. I wasn't used to being a stay at home mum (still aren't although I now have a very part time job which thankfully works around the times she can attend a local playgroup) and it was a massive adjustment. You should also know that there aren't the same mandatory minimums regarding adult-child ratios here (for example it's two adults to 3 children under 3 in the UK) and there's a rather more laissez-faire approach generally I've found. There isn't a CRB check equivalent either.





I can't help re Zurich but feel free to PM me should you have any further questions.





I hope the move goes smoothly.





Rufus HiyaRent may be - but childcare seems to be universally eye-wateringly high here. When we first arrived we looked into putting Little Rufus into day care. It would have had to have been private as we wanted bi-lingual and she was only 14 months old. The deal was we would have had to have put her in for a minimum of two full days, not the one day we wanted so I could find my feet, job hunt and attend some language classes (there was some other stipulation too but I can't remember what it was) as we wanted her to have her lunch there too. It would have been in the region of 2500 CHF per month. We have friends here with an 8month old and a 3 year old who pay 4500CHF per month and that's only for 4 days a week. We were used to paying 40 quid a day all in at a private day nursery in the UK and that was from 8 am until 5.45 if need be.I stayed at home with our daughter - the system here does seem stacked against both parents working, particularly full time. Now she's two there are more options regarding playgroups etc - and things like Gymboree and Kindermusik.It was a real shock to us, I don't mind saying, and greatly affected our plans. I wasn't used to being a stay at home mum (still aren't although I now have a very part time job which thankfully works around the times she can attend a local playgroup) and it was a massive adjustment. You should also know that there aren't the same mandatory minimums regarding adult-child ratios here (for example it's two adults to 3 children under 3 in the UK) and there's a rather more laissez-faire approach generally I've found. There isn't a CRB check equivalent either.I can't help re Zurich but feel free to PM me should you have any further questions.I hope the move goes smoothly.Rufus
HARRISBURG, Pa.  Farmland in 18 Pennsylvania counties will remain in agricultural production, thanks to the states Agricultural Land Preservation Board.

The board took action Feb. 18 to safeguard 2,412 additional acres on 27 farms through the states farmland preservation program. The board preserved farms in 18 counties: Adams, Allegheny, Beaver, Berks, Blair, Chester, Clinton, Columbia, Erie, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mercer, Monroe, Northampton and York.

Farms preserved in western Pennsylvania include:

Allegheny : The Frank White farm #4, a 91.67-acre livestock operation;

: The Frank White farm #4, a 91.67-acre livestock operation; Beaver : The Timothy and Robin Haffey farm #1, a 78.57-acre crop farm;

: The Timothy and Robin Haffey farm #1, a 78.57-acre crop farm; Erie : The George A. and Linda P. May farm #1, a 112.66-acre crop farm; the Thomas G. and Wendy L. Wilkinson farm #1, a 34.6-acre crop farm;

: The George A. and Linda P. May farm #1, a 112.66-acre crop farm; the Thomas G. and Wendy L. Wilkinson farm #1, a 34.6-acre crop farm; Mercer: The Paul Lawrence farm, a 189.98-acre crop and livestock operation.

The board also approved a $31 million state funding threshold for 2016 easement purchases. Counties across Pennsylvania have certified $14.1 million for farmland preservation in 2016. Additional land will be preserved through nonprofits and bargain sales, where owners of farmland agree to receive less than fair market value for the lands development rights.

About the program

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements, also called development rights, from owners of quality farmland. Since the program began in 1988, federal, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1.3 billion to preserve 518,827 acres on 4,919 farms in 57 counties for future agricultural production.
Why Joey Logano knew from the start 2022 was going to be a playoff season
Lucy Liu is to be honoured by Harvard University.

Lucy Liu

The Harvard Foundation are set to name the 'Charlie's Angel' star as 2016's Harvard University Artist of the Year at the Cultural Rhythms Festival today (20.02.16).

S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, said in a statement: "The students and faculty of the Harvard Foundation are delighted to present the distinguished and much-admired television and film star Lucy Liu with the 2016 Artist of the Year award.

"Our student and faculty committee commended her outstanding contributions to the performing arts and her highly-praised humanitarian work as UNICEF Ambassador and other charitable projects."

And Lucy has shared a photo of her trip to the prestigious university on Instagram, which is somewhat surprising after she previously admitted she's "terrible" at social media.

She said: "I'm terrible. I'm a visual person so I'm much more comfortable sending pictures. It's so hard to keep up with emails and lines and a 14-16 hour day of work. I'm not a daily Instagram or Twitter or Facebook person. I send things out when I feel like it. I don't know how people find the time."
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Hon. Faiyaz Siddiq Koya cautioned traders not to take advantage of the current natural disaster situation and charge consumers exorbitant prices.



Traders should be mindful that many people in Fiji have suffered significant losses in terms of damage to their properties. Therefore, traders should not take advantage of this situation and charge more for items that are in need and high in demand, such as, basic food items, building materials and other emergency supplies, added the Minister.



The Fiji Commerce Commission together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and all other relevant authorities will be monitoring trading practices in the market. Any trader found in breach of the law will face prosecution, said the Minister.


Cyclone Winston has caused widespread devastation to homes, livestock, farms, schools, businesses and infrastructure in Western Viti Levu, Koro Island and Lau Group.



In an effort to provide relief and assistance to the cyclone victims, the Fijian Government is calling on the Fijian private sector companies to provide relief items that could include food items, water, building materials, clothes, tents, water tanks, beddings, etc. Companies could also assist by providing logistical services to transport relief items to the affected areas.



The private sector companies who wish to donate the relief items can contact the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Mr. Shaheen Ali on 3305411 or email shaheen.ali@govnet.gov.fj or kamlesh.prasad01@govnet.gov.fj.



Hon. Faiyaz Siddiq Koya

MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY, TRADE AND TOURISM


For the second year running,FinanceAsia has ranked the finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific regions 12 largest economies.

We've been releasing the results day by day, from lowest to best. For the results so far, click here. For last year's results, click here.

FinanceAsia considers several factors when thinking about how to compare the performance of these men over the past 12 months. The roles responsibilities and powers vary between countries but each minister contributes to fiscal policy and the budget, accesses capital markets, regulates financial institutions, and drives reform. Investor perceptions are one way to view how good a job they are doing, particularly when times are tough.

But the hardest criterion is independence. Most finance ministers serve at the pleasure of their prime ministers, presidents, or military dictators. Their ability to get things done requires political deftness, mastery of policy, sway over the bureaucracy, and the will to fight for the public interest.

Today, we name the minister who impressed most over the course of 2015.

Ranked No1: Cesar Purisima, the Philippines

Top of the class once again is Cesar Purisima of the Philippines, our finance minister of the year for the second and, probably, last time given that his term expires this spring.

Purisima deserves his gong, having improved the countrys finances and avoided missteps that could have undermined the remarkable growth story in the Philippines.

My proudest achievement was changing the Philippines from being viewed as the sick man of Asia, Purisima told FinanceAsia. It would have been beyond belief to imagine just a decade ago that we would become a comfortably investment grade credit.

The Philippines has been one of the few bright spots in Southeast Asia. The IMF expects the economy to grow by 6.2% in 2016, a very respectable figure for what looks set to be a relatively weak year for Asia.

With a five-year average growth rate hitting the highest in 40 years, it seems the country, once dubbed the sick man of Asia, has learned its lesson to become one of the most resilient of Asian economies.

The country has fared relatively well in part because of its service industry focus, strong domestic consumption, government spending (which rose 19% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2015, according to HSBC), and the steady flow of remittances from its diaspora of overseas workers.

Cesar Purisima and the department of finance also deserve plaudits for their sound economic management. Purisima has been the architect of the governments reputation for fiscal discipline, professionalism, and a desire to combat corruption.

Click image for more stories

Years of careful economic management have meant the central governments debt was only 45% of GDP in 2015, the lowest in 30 years. A carefully managed reduction in foreign borrowing means that non-peso denominated debt should drop from 31.6% of public debt last year to 30.4% this year. Plus, most of the governments external debt repayments are spread out over a long time frame.

Purisima admits his biggest regret was not conducting comprehensive tax reform. We introduced the Sin Tax in 2012, and I should have pushed forward with comprehensive tax reform then, he told FinanceAsia. I thought the president wouldnt consider it. However, I didnt know him as well then as I do now, and I think he would have been open to the idea.

The law imposed higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, overcoming a strong industry opposition that kept prices in the Philippines among the cheapest in the world. The additional revenues went towards universal health care for Filipinos.

Yet even despite this, Purisima has overseen a marked improvement in tax revenues. The Bureau for Internal Revenues collection has risen from 12.1% of GDP in 2010 to 13.7% between January and November 2015. The country has used this largesse to invest heavily, increasing social services fivefold over five years and hitting its goal of spending 5% of GDP on infrastructure.

Purisima with Christine Lagarde

These positive indicators led NICE Investors Service to upgrade the countrys credit rating by a notch from the minimum investment grade of BBB- to BBB. The Philippines has had 24 such upgrades from rating agencies since 2010 - making it the most upgraded sovereign in the last five years.

The change in attitude towards the country has been marked.

In 2005, during my first brief time as finance minister [under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo], we attended an Asean forum event in New York, Purisima recounted after collecting his award at FinanceAsia's annual Achievement Awards dinner in Hong Kong. Each country had a room to meet investors, and it was embarrassing because nobody came to our room. In fact two other countries, Thailand and Vietnam I think, came in to ask if they could borrow our chairs.

Its fair to say this would not be the case today.

The pace of approved public-private partnerships continues to frustrate, with the award of just 12 contracts since the launch of the programme in 2012. Analysts believe the government could, if anything, expand its budget deficit of 2% of GDP to spend more on needed-infrastructure.

However, the biggest immediate concern for onlookers is the fact that President Benigno Aquinos six-year term ends this year, so the country will soon get a new president and financial team.

However, Purisima can leave with his head held high, having burnished the countrys reputation for solid financial management.
- The company will showcase a wide variety of innovative technologies and services under the theme of 'Dive into the Platform' to share with the world how it is transforming into a platform company

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) announced its participation in the 2016 GSMA Mobile World Congress to be held from February 22 to 25, at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160220/335507

Reflecting its strong determination of transforming itself as a platform company based on its unrivalled competitiveness in telecommunications, SK Telecom has set this year's theme as "Dive into the Platform," and will be showcasing a wide variety of innovative technologies and services in the areas of Life Enhancement Platform, Media Platform and IoT Platform, along with industry-leading 5G enabling technologies.

Life Enhancement Platform

SK Telecom is promoting the development of its Life Enhancement Platform to add innovative value to all areas of people's daily lives. The company will introduce products and services, including wearable kids phone 'T Kids Phone,' pet care services namely 'T Pet,' 'Petfit,' 'BallReady,' and 'Friendsbot,' integrated call platform 'T Phone,' and laser pico projector 'UO Smart Beam Laser 2'.

In particular, SK Telecom will unveil the prototype of Smart Beam Laser 2 for the first time at MWC 2016. Applied with advanced laser light source technology, the device provides a brightness of 200 ANSI Lumens, two times brighter than its predecessor and powerful enough to be used both indoors and outdoors. Also, other units like high-quality speaker and external battery can be simply added to the device like blocks.

The company will also display T Phone, and open key APIs/technologies of the platform to enable global mobile carriers and platform companies to create a wide variety of new value-added services based on T Phone.

Media Platform

SK Telecom will showcase a number of solutions that can be applied to many areas of the media from amateur individual broadcasting to professional broadcasting stations.

For instance, '8K UHD Super Encoder,' developed for professional broadcasting facilities, is capable of compressing ultra-high definition video (four times clearer than 4K UHD) within a much shorter period of time and seamlessly transmitting it to IPTV or smartphones. SK Telecom expects the solution to become a core technology for reducing network overload in the near future when 8K UHD TV and UHD mobile devices become available in the market.

Introduced for the first time at this year's MWC, 'Mobile Social Broadcasting Platform' supports live broadcast of UHD video over LTE network. It perfectly supports communication between a producer and a viewer by reducing latency to less than seconds, and provides a feature that allows the producer to deliver advertisement, multimedia content and messages during programs. The company plans to apply it to diverse video platforms within this year.

'Cloud Streaming' is a solution that uses virtualization technologies to allow even legacy/low-end set top boxes to offer advanced user interfaces and services. The solution is drawing interest from Europe and Latin America where the spread of IPTV is taking place at a sluggish pace due to initial investment costs in set top boxes.

IoT Platform

SK Telecom is setting a milestone in the IoT era by exhibiting an end-to-end IoT ecosystem encompassing IoT platform, network and solution.

At MWC 2016, SK Telecom will showcase ThingPlug, an open IoT platform based on international standards. Launched in June, 2015, ThingPlug offers a one-stop development environment as well as diverse application-enabling features for developers.

To date, SK Telecom has developed diverse IoT networks such as Narrow-Band IoT (NB-IoT), which utilizes the existing LTE network, and Low Power Wide Area (LPWA), an exclusive network for IoT. The company will demonstrate a bicycle monitoring service that operates over the LPWA network. As opposed to the existing bicycle monitoring services that use IoT devices attached with 3G modules, thus resulting in high line cost and battery power issues, SK Telecom's service that works over the LPWA network effectively prevents bicycle theft by enabling low-power tracking of bicycle locations. At present, public institutions in Korea that operate a large number of bicycles are showing great interest in this service.

Moreover, SK Telecom will introduce its name IoT services/solutions such as Smart Home and connected car service 'T2C (Tablet to Car)', co-developed with Renault Samsung Motors. The company, which has already launched 25 different Smart Home-compatible home appliances in Korea, will introduce devices optimized for Europe and North America - including wallpad, robot vacuum cleaner, humidifier and air purifier - to promote export of these products.

SK Telecom will introduce its tablet navigator T2C. It serves as a personal tablet when removed from the holder and works as a smart infotainment system when connected to the car. Using LTE connectivity, T2C offers not only navigation service, but also music and vehicle management/inspection services to enhance driving experience. The company plans to evolve T2C into a device that creates an office environment within a vehicle and supports communication with other vehicles.

5G Enabling Technologies

At MWC 2016, SK Telecom and Nokia will demonstrate 20 Gpbs transmission speed over the air - which meets the performance requirement of 5G set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - for the first time in the world. Following its display of a disaster-response robot last year, SK Telecom will showcase diverse use cases over the 5G network.

Also, SK Telecom will demonstrate a 3D hologram image to realize realistic communications, which will become widespread in the 5G era. The company will also unveil the first 5G device prototype that will support communication between vehicles, the core enabler of autonomous vehicles. Moreover, it will demonstrate Virtual Reality (VR) games, which involve transmission of massive amount data - over its 5G network.

SK Telecom plans to lead the upcoming 5G era by working closely with diverse partners across the globe and suggesting how the 5G network will be used as the enabling infrastructure of all future technologies.

-Attachment 1: List of Exhibition Items at MWC 2016

Next Generation Network 5G SK Telecom displays its technological capability in the end-to-end 5G system by demonstrating 20Gbps transmission speed over the air - which meets the performance requirement set by ITU - with Nokia; Network Slicing technology with Ericsson; and 5G device prototypes co-developed with Intel. Customized Network Service: T OVEN & T PLATE T OVEN is the world's first carrier-grade NFV orchestrator that manages heterogeneous virtualized network resources/functions to realize a software-based network on demand. Based on this, T PLATE delivers an optimal customer experience by tailoring the network according to the customer's preference, time of use, location and situation. Based on virtualization technologies (SDN/NFV), T OVEN and T PLATE enable prompt provision of a customized logical network that meets customer's needs - i.e. specialized functions, differentiated QoS and security levels - in a cost-efficient manner. 3DV (3D Visualization and Management Platform) 3D Visualization and Management Platform is the world's first commercial network visualization and management system based on 3D game engine technology. The platform visualizes complicated network information in real-time and in an intuitive and interactive way, tackling network failure and security threats with a single click, enabling stable, simple and efficient network management. Lifestyle Enhancement Platform T Phone 2.0 T Phone 2.0 is an innovative call platform that provides users with a rich communication experience by combining data services to the traditional dialer. Besides call-related features like 'Advanced Phone Directory Search' and 'Pre-Call Caller ID,' it also allows users to share documents, photos and web links, and even draw together during a voice call session. Moreover, by opening the APIs to third-party apps, it now offers a wide variety of new contents to users. T Kids Phone T Kids Phone is a wearable phone for kids designed to keep them safe and secure at all times. Along with basic communication features, the cute-looking device provides location-tracking service, diverse safety features and other useful content for children. Smart Pet Products SK Telecom introduces a full lineup of multi-functional IT-based pet devices, including Friendsbot, an automatic smart pet ball which rolls and plays with dogs; BallReady, a smart pet feeder which automatically dispenses food when the pet fetches a projected ball thus encouraging exercise; T Pet, a location tracker; and Petfit, a Bluetooth-enabled fitness tracker for pets. These devices can be connected to owners via a smartphone apps UO Smart Beam Laser 2 Applied with advanced laser light source technology, UO Smart Beam Laser 2 provides a brightness of 200 ANSI Lumens, which is two times brighter than its predecessor and powerful enough to be used both indoors and outdoors. The projector can be connected wirelessly to an array of smart devices including smartphones, laptops and tablet computers. Also, other units like high-quality speaker and external battery can be simply added to the device like blocks. Media Platform 8K UHD Super Encoder 8K UHD Super Encoder is a technology that compresses 8K UHD (resolution of 7680X4320 pixels, four times clearer than 4K UHD) content and seamlessly delivers the content from the server to IPTV or smartphones. It will become a core technology that reduces network overload in the near future when 8K UHD TV and UHD mobile devices become available in the market. Cloud Streaming Cloud Streaming is a solution that uses virtualization technologies to provide the latest User Interface (UI) to television even through legacy/low-end set-top box. With the solution, UI is processed at the cloud, allowing only the results to be shown on the viewer's television, unlike the conventional way where the whole process relies on the performance of CPU and RAM of the set-top box.. Mobile Social Broadcasting Platform Mobile Social Broadcasting Platform is an optimized platform for one-person broadcasting, which involves 1)taking a video with a smartphone; 2)live streaming the video through an app or Multi-Channel Networks; and 3)chatting or sharing multimedia content with viewers. Through the application of high-speed mobile streaming technology, the platform dramatically reduces latency to less than three seconds even for extremely large video. IoT Platform ThingPlug ThingPlug is an open IoT platform based on oneM2M standards. It offers a one-stop development environment as well as diverse application-enabling features for developers. With ThingPlug, an IoT service can be created right away as long as there is a good idea as it provides everything from software for device to diverse API and cloud-server platform that offers web-based service. IoT-Dedicated Networks : LPWA and NB-IoT Networks SK Telecom has developed diverse IoT networks such as Narrow-Band IoT (NB-IoT), which utilizes the existing LTE network, and Low Power Wide Area (LPWA), an exclusive network for IoT. It will demonstrate a bicycle monitoring service that operates over the LPWA network. SK Telecom's service that works over the LPWA network effectively prevents bicycle theft by enabling low-power tracking of bicycle locations. Smart Home Commercially launched in May 2015, Smart Home is an intelligent platform that creates an ideal home environment for users. By opening up its home-grown platform, SK Telecom has collaborated with over 30 companies, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, and launched over 25 different Smart Home-compatible home appliances including humidifier, boiler, air conditioner, switch, air purifier and door lock. The company plans to introduce at least 70 smart home-compatible products within the end of this year. Tablet Navigation (T2C) By partnering with Renault Samsung Motors, SK Telecom developed T2C(Tablet to Car), a detachable tablet navigation. It serves as a personal tablet when removed from the holder and works as a smart infotainment system when connected to the car. Using LTE connectivity, T2C provides not only car navigation functions such as a remote control switch, rear view camera, radio and Bluetooth but also a navigation app and music streaming/movie player functions.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, KSE: 017670), established in 1984, is Korea's largest telecommunications company with more than 26 million mobile subscribers, accounting for around 50% of the market. The company reached KRW 17.137 trillion in revenue in 2015. As the world's first company to commercialize CDMA, CDMA 2000 1x, CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, SK Telecom launched the nation's first LTE service in July 2011. SK Telecom also became the world's first mobile carrier to commercialize 150Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2013 and 225Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2014 through Carrier Aggregation(CA). In line with its efforts to swiftly move towards the next-generation mobile network system, or 5G, it successfully commercialized 300Mbps tri-band LTE-A CA. As of the end of December 2015, the company has over 18.98 million LTE and LTE-Advanced subscribers. Based on its strength in network operations business, SK Telecom is seeking new growth engines through three innovative platforms namely Lifestyle Enhancement Platform, Advanced Media Platform and IoT Service Platform. For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com or email to skt_press@sk.com.

Media Contact

Cindy Kang

SK Telecom Co. Ltd.

(822) 6100-3836

(8210) 9113-2344

psyche@sk.com

Raphael Rashid

Edelman Korea

(822) 2022 8228

Raphael.Rashid@edelman.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/21/16 -- Joint Task Force (Central)

Note to editors: There is a photo associated with this press release.

Approximately 900 Canadian Army soldiers, members of the Regular and Reserve Force and personnel from the Royal Canadian Air Force, completed field training Operation TRILLIUM RESPONSE 2016 today. The Operation saw the soldiers working closely with over 100 members of the Canadian Rangers during seven days of training in 13 communities across Northern Ontario.

The Operation put the training and equipment of the soldiers of 4th Canadian Division to the test, challenging them to both support a large number of personnel spread across a wide geographic area and to work in an austere environment with temperatures routinely reaching below -40 degrees C. The goal of the field training Operation was to enhance skills of 4th Canadian Division personnel while strengthening relationships with the Canadian Rangers and other government partners. This kind of cooperation is essential to set the stage for success in the eventuality of any requirement to deploy the Canadian Army domestically to respond to a disaster or other request for assistance, in Northern Ontario.

Quick Facts

-- Nearly 900 Canadian Army Regular and Reserve Force soldiers from units based across Ontario participated in field training Operation Trillium Response 2016, along with approximately 100 Canadian Rangers from 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. -- The Royal Canadian Air Force supported the Operation with the CH-147 Chinook and CH-146 Griffon aircraft. -- TRILLIUM RESPONSE 2016 utilized a logistical and movement support hub located in Thunder Bay, Ontario with its operational headquarters in Pickle Lake, Ontario from which 13 remote communities throughout Northern Ontario were accessed. -- Soldiers from the Arctic Response Company Group using Light Over Snow Vehicles (LOSV) during the training, conducted daily long-range patrols, travelling over 300 kilometres. -- During the course of the field training, temperatures ranged from a high of 1 degrees C to a low of -48 degrees C, including wind chill.

Quotes

"This field training operation was a major success in enhancing our ability to embed with local communities while deploying, in particular in remote and austere winter conditions."

Colonel Conrad Mialkowski, Commander, 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group

"Operation TRILLIUM RESPONSE 2016 is an important step in training the soldiers of Joint Task Force (Central) to operate in the demanding conditions of Northern Ontario in support of the Government of Canada's goals. The operation succeeded in strengthening the relationships and sharing skills in order to set the stage for success in any future domestic operations occurring in Northern Ontario."

Brigadier-General Lowell Thomas, Commander, Joint Task Force (Central)

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Triptease, a London, UK-based provider of digital tools for hotels, raised $7M in Series A funding.

Backers included Notion Capital and Episode 1 Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to invest in products.

Co-founded by Charlie Osmond, Alasdair Snow, and Alexandra Zubko, Triptease provides a SaaS-based marketing platform that allows hotels to create better experiences and relationships with guests.

The companys products include the Price Check, which is a widget for booking engines that encourages travellers to book direct by showing OTA prices on a hotels page, a price checking data platform for hotels to check competition prices, and a messaging tool to engage users before they leave their websites.

FinSMEs

21/02/2016
Why is that when women complain aloud about rape or sexual abuse, it is considered a rant? Why arent more women 'ranting'? What are men doing? Shouldnt they join and create awareness, asks Arnesh Ghose, founder and creative Director of the theatre company, The Mirror Merchants.

The 26 year-olds stage productions have been vocal about the problems women face: from eve teasing to sexual assault and rape. His last play Murgistaan ran to packed houses in Mumbai. Based on Satyajit Rays 1980 film, Hirok Rajar Deshe, it was a comedy with a political subtext. Rays film was about subjects in Hirok Deshe who were brainwashed when they spoke against the kings subversive ways.

My attempt has been to showcase plays that are socially relevant. Thankfully, I havent faced any bans for the topics that I turn the spotlight on, he says.

Ghoses The Mirror Merchants has released videos with the tongue-in-cheek title Ball Talks where men talk about sexuality, masculinity and reaction to words and terms associated with women and their bodies.

Ghoses latest play, Chaarpaai is a compilation of four stories that make you ponder and reflect on the hardships faced by Indian women even today. The stories deal with womanhood, sexuality, identity and how a majority (of men) wont instill the belief in others of their ilk that women are equal to them.

Bold and hard-hitting, the four short plays are called Khol Do, Pussy Riot, Do Boond Roshni Ki and The Idiots.

Khol Do is an adaptation of Saadat Hassan Mantos short story, which beautifully portrays the trauma of sexual violence in times of political calamity.

Pussy Riot is a commentary on censorship and how it does not allow for the freedom of expression of women writers, poets and artists around the world, across time.

Do Boond Roshni Ki discusses masculinity and gender roles through the eyes of a eunuch and a prostitute who fall in love and can see themselves as entities beyond bodies.

The Idiots is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about escapism, objectification of women in todays media and how, at the end of the day, we really dont give a damn about the serious stuff.

Ghose articulates his point of view in an understated manner. He recalls being brought up in a household where his father told him that he could take whatever that Ghose did but he was to ensure that his mother did not shed a tear on account of him or his actions. We were raised in the belief that the mother was the most important person in the household and that all women should be treated respectfully. It was a shock when I moved out of Calcutta and saw lewd words being used for girls and girl friends.

Chaarpaai came out of the angst he felt with regard to assault on women  physical, verbal and mental. I have wanted to do Chaarpaai for a long time but I wasnt sure when the audience would be ready for it. He terms the play irreverent and obnoxious and that it would shock the audience. One thing is for sure. No one will watch Chaarpaai and go for a dinner or a party after that, he says, confident about his latest production.

The primary focus is to encourage conversation about these issues and make men in particular more sensitive towards this subject. We also plan to produce the four Chaarpaai plays as independent short films too further reach and audience. Art heals. But art can agitate too. Art can shake things up and stir conversation. Art can change minds, says Ghose. Hopefully.

Chaarpaai will have three shows at 6 pm on 26 and 27 February, and on 4 March at Sathaye auditorium, Vile Parle, Mumbai.

Watch two episodes of Ball Talks below:
New Delhi: Lightson Ngashangva still remembers the long train journeys followed by interminable bus rides each summer when he went home from New Delhi to his village in India's remote northeast.

Now, when the 26-year-old biotechnology student visits his home in Manipur state, his nearly three-day long journey by train and bus has been reduced to a four-hour flight.

A fast-growing economy and an expanding middle class have made India the world's fastest growing air travel market. The number of passengers grew 20 percent last year and airlines are announcing flights to new destinations almost every week.

And yet, Indian airlines are in distress. Experts say the explosion in air travel of the past decade has happened despite major hurdles in the form of high jet fuel prices, lack of aircraft maintenance infrastructure, choked airports working beyond their capacities and fierce fare wars that have many carriers in the red.

Although the problems appear huge, the size and potential of the Indian market continues to draw new players and several foreign airlines have also entered the market. Out of a 1.2 billion population, only about 70 million Indians fly on domestic routes in a year, just a quarter of the size of air travel in China which has a similar population.

Air travel in India is "showing double digit growth and will continue to grow at double digits for the next 10 to 15 years," said Kapil Kaul, regional head of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Indigo, India's biggest and most profitable airline, ordered 250 new A320neo aircraft from Airbus in August in a whopping $26.6 billion deal. At the Dubai Airshow in November, US plane maker Boeing announced that Jet Airways had agreed to an $8 billion deal to buy 75 Boeing 737 aircraft. Jet Airways, part owned by Etihad Airways, will start taking delivery of the planes from mid-2018.

The purchases are in line with Boeing's forecast released in August that it expects demand for 1,740 planes in India over the next 20 years, at an estimated price of $240 billion. Most of these planes will be for fleet expansion and the rest to replace older aircraft.

The industry's rapid growth is helping the millions of Indians who need to travel long distances to their country's far northeast or deep south. Budget airline Indigo was the first private carrier to fly to the northeast, starting flights in 2006 to an area that was otherwise an epic train and bus journey.

"More and more airlines have started flights to my home town. Also, the competition between airlines means tickets are getting cheaper," said Ngashangva.

Aviation experts say that in the past, socialist-leaning politicians viewed traveling by plane as a luxury and not as an enabler of business and economic growth. The luxury tag ensured punitive taxes on jet fuel, making it nearly 60 percent more expensive than in Singapore or Dubai, both home to busy international airports.

Despite such hurdles, India is forecast to become the third largest aviation market by 2020. Domestic air passengers are expected to jump from the current 70 million to 300 million by 2022, and to 500 million by 2027.

In an attempt to minimise the industry's growing pains, the government in October announced a draft aviation policy. It proposes the development of no-frills airports at more than 400 airstrips across the country. Some of the airstrips date back to British colonial days and have fallen into disuse and disrepair. The government announced it would spend up to 500 million rupees ($7.6 million) on each site to make it useable as an airport.

Some problems remain, however. Aviation experts say the policy remains unclear on an existing condition imposed on airlines in India known as the "5/20 rule" where the government does not allow new airlines to fly internationally until they have completed five years of operation and have at least 20 aircraft.

The draft policy's silence on the future of the country's much-subsidised national carrier, Air India, has also been disappointing, aviation experts said.

"The government's ownership of the national carrier negatively influences policy decisions and has cost the Indian tax payer $3 billion in recent years," said Kaul, the aviation analyst. "Air India needs to be privatised, or at least be prepared for privatisation."

As Indian airlines expand their operations, linking more second tier cities, another major problem facing them is the severe shortage of experienced pilots and technicians. As newer airlines entered the business, the hiring standards for pilots, including their hours of flying experience before taking command of an aircraft, were weakened.

High demand for pilots with adequate flying hours has led to corrupt practices. A few years ago, civil aviation authorities detected fake pilot licenses, an unlicensed 'flying school' supplying certificates and touts who helped unqualified candidates obtain licenses for a price.

A government crackdown on those issuing fake certificates and tighter scrutiny of airlines' hiring practices has curbed the problem. But the shortage of pilots persists. Last week, more than 250 passengers of a Jet Airways flight to Toronto were stranded for about nine hours as no pilot was available after a technical fault held up the flight.

The shortage of pilots has also given them enormous power, leading to lack of discipline when it comes to flight schedules. Pilot unions often fight efforts by budget-strapped airlines to get them to work longer hours.

But even with its litany of possible pitfalls, flying is the compelling choice compared with lengthy ground travel.

"Above all, it's the time saved," said Lisa James, an interior decorator who hails from the southernmost state of Kerala.

Her twice-annual trips home by train from New Delhi would take her nearly two days each way. "It was exhausting, apart from the two days that went in travel," said James. "Now that my business is picking up, I can't afford to spend time travelling. Flying just saves me so much time. And money."

AP
New York: Reliance Jio will give a farmer in rural India high quality broadband internet comparable to best in class connectivity in the US or even better by 2018, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited and Indias richest man said on CNN's globally top rated Fareed Zakaria GPS show Sunday.

Ambani said his ambitious Reliance Jio is gearing up for commercial launch of its fourth generation (4G) digital communication services in second half of 2016  which Zakaria pegged as staggering" and "bet of the century on the marquee Sunday show.

Ambani explains to Zakaria why he is taking high risks with his transformational Reliance Jio to bring high quality digital broadband connectivity to a global cohort the Economist calls the brainiest, best-educated generation ever. To Zakaria's question on how Jio in India will compare with US telecom penetration, Ambani said Jio will do this very year what major US carriers have managed over the years: I think if you look at what you have in the US, where major carriers today cover only 75 to 80 per cent of the market we would be pretty much doing that in 2016 itself, Ambani said.

India headlined Fareed Zakarias GPS show with two icons Mukesh Ambani and Shah Rukh Khan speaking on Indias dominant place in the worlds telecom, oil and showbiz markets as demographic shifts give India the phenomenal numbers that have turned the worlds spotlight here.

For me personally, we made this investment just to make sure that the youth of India, which is still the bulk of India  India, as you know, is a very young country  is empowered, and they have an equal opportunity to not only prosper themselves, but to contribute to this new world. And that was really a main reason. And thats why we took very high risks, Ambani said.

Zakaria, often described as the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation interviewed Ambani at length on what he introduced to global audiences as the economic opportunity of the moment.

Ambani explains why he is betting big on Jio and why that is crucial for India which is on the threshold of a revolution never seen in a "100 years".

As we saw the year 2012-13, India is 150th in the world in mobile broadband penetration as well as quality. And Jio is really conceived to change this position, says Ambani in the exclusive interview that airs worldwide on CNN. Zakaria speaks at length with Mukesh Ambani on global oil prices too. Ambani said oil prices will remain "low for long, at least 3-5 years."

Zakaria travelled from New York to Mumbai to meet Ambani at his residence  Antilla, in Indias financial capital.

Full transcript of Zakaria's interview with Mukesh Ambani:

Zakaria: Indias richest man with a staggeringly vast plan of bringing high speed internet to a billion plus Indians in four years....Im just back from India where I had the opportunity to sit down with that countrys richest man who is also the CEO of its biggest company. Forbes estimates Mukesh Ambanis net worth as being almost $ 20 billion. Reliance Industries, the compay he heads, has a market capitalisation of $40 billion according to Bloomberg. He talked to me about what what seems to be one of the most hopeful stories about India and a piece of positive news in a gloomy global economy. In the next few years, an extraordinary thing will happen - one billion that's billion with a 'B' Indians will get internet access for the first time. What does that mean, for India and the world? Ambani's company, through a venture called Jio has bet billions of dollars on The economic opportunity of the moment. We sat down to talk in Mukesh Ambani's home in Mumbai.

Fareed Zakaria: Mukesh Ambani, than you for coming on the show.

Mukesh Ambani: Thank you Fareed, it's always a pleasure.

Zakaria: Your company generates huge amounts of cash. You have been pouring all of of this into one huge venture which is to provide the internet to people essentially on cellphones. Why do you think this is worth that massive investment?

Ambani: I believe that humanity is at the doorstep of massive change and we are just at the beginning of the information and digital age. And, in the next 20 years, in a networked society, we are going to have change much more than we have seen in the last 100 years. Its really digitisation and the digital world that is going to lead this. From an India point of viewIndia cannot be left behind in this revolution. As we saw the year 2012-13, India is 150th in the world in mobile broadband penetration as well as quality. And Jio is really concieved to change this position.

Zakaria: To put it simply, would it be fair to say, India has not been really connected to the internet in a broad sense because infrastructure being suchthe landlines that provide wired internet reach only about a 100-150 million Indians. What you are proposing is

Ambani: Well we are ready to launch and in the second half of 2016, 80% of Indias population will have high speed mobile broadband internet - so 80 % of the 1.3 billion Indians will have high speed mobile internet. By 2017 end, we will cover 90 % and by 2018 all of India would be covered by this (Jio) digital infrastructure.

Zakaria: So by 2018, would a rural farmer in India have better internet than somebody in America.

Ambani:I think if you look at what you have in the US, rightafter 5 years all the major carriers cover only 75-80 % of the US..and we would be pretty much doing that in 2016 itself.

Zakaria: Do you think this is the best investment opportunity in the world right now?

Ambani: This digital infrastructure I think is a very good investment. For me personally, we made this investment just to make sure that the youth of India, which is still the bulk of India  India, as you know, is a very young country  is empowered, and they have an equal opportunity to not only prosper themselves, but to contribute to this new world. And that was really our main reason. And thats why we took very high risks. As time has passed, this looks pretty good even business-wise.

Zakaria: Your company runs the largest oil refinery in the world. What do you think is the trajectory for oil prices going forward?

Ambani: As we see the situation- its low for long. And its really the first time in the world that oil prices have gone down on incremental supply.

Zakaria: What does that mean? Could you explain?

Ambani: What it really means is that we have had oil price spikes but never has it been because of more supply than demand. Also because of innovation primarily in the US, we have large quantitues of oil. The US has gone from less than a million barrels per day to 9 million barrels a day and OPEC has lost control of supply.

Zakaria: How long is long?

Ambani: At least 3 to 5 years until we see a structural change, but ive always been wrong (smiles).

Zakaria: This is indeed a dramatic situation

Ambani: As we sit in India, consequence for India is very favourable as we are one of the largest importers of oil. It helps our forex bill, helps lower prices and in a certain sense it helps fiscal deficit of the government as they can mop up incremental revenue. For oil importing countries it is very good. On an overall economic basis, it is deflationary. All of us understand the dangers of deflation.

This transcript includes television and web content.
BEIRUT Twin car bomb blasts killed at least 57 people in Syria's Homs on Sunday, a monitoring group said, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

At least 100 others were injured in the attack in the central Zahra district of the western city, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Footage from pro-Damascus television channels showed charred corpses buried by rubble, damage to shop fronts and debris littering a wide area. Plumes of smoke rose from burning cars and wounded people walked around dazed.

State television said at least 32 people had been killed.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the two car bombs through Amaq, a news agency that supports the militant group.

A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State last month in Homs killed at least 24 people as government forces took back some Islamic State-held villages in Aleppo province in the north.

Sunday's attacks also came a day after government advances against Islamic State.

A bomb attack killed 32 people in Homs in December after a ceasefire deal paved the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of the city, which was a centre of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Violence rages on unabated across the country as world powers and the United Nations push to end the five-year-old conflict, meeting in Geneva to try to broker a ceasefire.

Peace talks were suspended almost immediately earlier this month as Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russian air strikes, intensified assaults against insurgents in Aleppo province.

The latest fighting in the north of the country has displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom headed for the Turkish border. The exodus added to more than 11 million already displaced by the conflict, which has claimed 250,000 lives.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Andrew Roche)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Soni Sori, Aam Aadmi Party leader in Chhattisgarh and tribal rights' activist was attacked by two unknown men late on 20 February. The incident took place near Jawanga village under Geedam police station at around 10.40 pm, reports said.

According to The Hindu, Sori had been "anticipating a risk to her life" in Bastar because she is the face of the tribals' democratic protest. Recently, a group of legal aid lawyers, a freelance journalist were evicted from their residences on the orders of police chief, SRP Kalluri. The tribal rights' activist was in Raipur on 16 February to lodge a police complaint against Kalluri. However, it was not registered, according to The Hindu report.

The Times of India, quoted Sori as saying that "some acid-like black substance" was rubbed on her face by two bikers who had accosted her on her way back home in Geedam. Dantewada police confirmed that there were in fact, three unidentified men on a motorcycle who chased Sori, reports Hindustan Times. Police officials said the liquid  chemicals diluted with grease had not disfigured her, but had put her in pain. She is currently under observation at Jagdalpur hospital.

40-year-old Sori born and raised in Dantewada had earlier survived arrests and alleged brutality while in custody a few years ago. According to DNA, the adivasi teacher was arrested in Delhi on 4 October 2011 and was brought to Dantewada police station on 8 October on the charges that she was an intermediary between the Essar group and Maoists. She was allegedly raped and tortured  stones were said to have been inserted into her vagina and rectum. She had written a letter to the Supreme Court the following year asking, "Will giving me electric shocks, stripping me naked, shoving stones inside me solve the Naxal problem?"

With inputs from agencies
By Rakesh Bhatnagar

It is an uphill task for the Modi government to quell the rising upsurge among the Jat population in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi for demanding reservation in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category. The Supreme Court has already expressed its opinion that a self-proclaimed socially backward class of citizens cannot be a yardstick of determining policy.

When the UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh had issued a notification in March 2014 allowing quota to Jats in nine states, the BJP government and its leaders including Narendra Modi slammed its political adversary saying it was using caste and class for the purpose of wooing a vote bank of about eight crore Jats across the nine states.

Soon after Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, the Supreme Court scrapped the UPA governments controversial decision which put the ball in the court of the NDA government. In its judgment in March 2015, the Supreme Court had declared that the decision of the UPA-II government was constitutionally impermissible.

Possible wrong inclusions cannot be the basis for further inclusions, and the gates (of reservation) would be opened only to permit the entry of the most distressed, the court had observed. Any other inclusion would be a serious abdication of the constitutional duty of the state, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton F Nariman remarked.

We cannot agree with the view taken by the Union Government that Jats in the nine States are a backward community so as to be entitled to inclusion in the Central Lists of OBCs for the states concerned, the top court had categorically stated as it underlined that the governments decision was contrary to the view of the statutory National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).

The population of Jats in India is around 8.25 crore. In UP, the caste comprises less than 6% of population but their dense presence in the states western part affects more than 50 assembly seats. States, including Rajasthan and UP, have already given OBC status to Jats in their state lists. Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are among the other states that consider Jats as OBC.

The situation in Haryana is somewhat different. Despite the fact that several districts are dominated by Jats, and various chief ministers represented this agrarian community, the populace has been demanding reservation in education and jobs.

At a time when the Army has been called out, curfew imposed and shoot and sight orders passed in Haryana, which is gripped by the recurrence of violent protests by the members of Jat community, the BJP government looks shaky.

Its also showing overzealousness in arresting the violence at any cost but the fact remains that there doesnt appear to be any immediate solution which could pacify the belligerent agitators who are comparatively at ease as the harvest season starts only sometime end of April.

There is a 50 percent cap also which doesnt allow reservation beyond this limit under any circumstances.

While upholding the decision of then Prime Minister V P Singh accepting the recommendations made by Mandal commission to allocate 27 per cent quota for socially and educationally backward classes, the Supreme Court by a 6:3 majority in 1993 had recommended leaving out creamy layer from the benefits. The court had also recommended the setting up of NCBC to collect data regarding the current status of the OBCs and other backward castes so that the benefits of reservation could reach only the eligible persons.

But the successive governments shirked in effectively implementing this vital recommendation as that could adversely harm the interests of SC/ST and OBC leaders who are certainly prosperous so as to join the national mainstream.

Shaken by the massive stir in his state, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has made a hasty announcement that the demand of the agitating Jat community would be met. But in reality, neither the state government nor the Union government can assuage the misplaced grievance of the community.

It may be pointed out that the government can have a policy of affirmative action under Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the Constitution, which refer to social and educational backwardness.

It has, however, been held by the Supreme Court that determination of backwardness must also cease to be relative and it must be determined with the help of current data. So far the government has been relying on antiquated and outdated data relating to 2001 or so.

Backwardness is a result of several independent circumstances which may be social, cultural, economic, educational or even political.

The Supreme Court has also said that new practices, methods and yardsticks have to be continuously evolved moving away from a caste-centric definition of backwardness. This alone can enable recognition of newly emerging groups in society which would require affirmative action.

Efforts must be made to discover such groups rather than to enable groups of citizens to recover lost ground in claiming preference and benefits on the basis of historical prejudice.

It may be pointed out that the Modi government had tried to follow the UPA governments decision which had been scrapped by the top court. It filed a review petition but the court dismissed it.

The review petition claimed that the court could not have sat in judgment over the decision by the government to grant OBC status to Jats, since the decision was taken under a constitutional authority.

It had argued its case on the basis Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) which deal with making special provisions, including reservation in appointments for certain disadvantaged classes, and contended that it could not be denuded of its authority by an interpretation of the court. But the contention didnt yield any positive response from the court.
I have been travelling in France and America over the past few weeks while the JNU controversy has been gathering steam in India. However, I have been able to follow the brouhaha via Twitter; but being outside the echo chamber in India, I have been able to consider how others react in similar situations.

First, going by my small sample of a few people I have known for some years, I get the feeling that the French have become more vocal in their feelings about their country and their way of life. After the major incidents of terrorism in the past year, I had wondered if the French would have changed their lifestyles and become more cautious. At least as far as I can tell, they havent. Even in the bitter cold of winter in Paris, they throng cafes and restaurants. But if you talk to them, there is resentment about the French-born, especially white people, who have taken to terrorism or been seduced by the vision of Islamic State. They are viewed as traitors to the cause.

Europeans dont treat traitors well. The Vichy regime in World War II France, which collaborated with the occupying Nazis, is still remembered with contempt. I read somewhere about how French women who had fraternised with the Germans were humiliated in public, their heads were shaven, and they were even tarred and feathered for the crime of sleeping with the enemy. The name Quisling is evoked as the ultimate in betrayal, much like Mir Jafar.

There is the case of Captain Delannoy, the Dutch mariner whose invading fleet was decimated by Travancore at the Battle of Colachel in 1741, and who then chose to join his vanquisher, Marthanda Varma, and serve out the rest of his life in the employ of the Indian kingdom. I was told by a historian that the descendants of Delannoy are still treated with contempt by the Dutch for this act of what they consider betrayal.

The story is no different in the US. The name Benedict Arnold comes to mind as someone held in utter contempt for betraying his country: he was a turncoat who sided with the British forces during their War of Independence. But his name stands for something vile today.

There is also the fictional account of the The Man Without a Country. A soldier, under trial for treason, declares in a moment of hot-headedness, that he never wished to hear the name America again. The judge obliges, and he is sentenced to be imprisoned on naval brigs out at sea for the rest of his life. The young man repents at leisure, but that single outburst is enough to condemn him forever. Yes, they take their country seriously.

The British poet Sir Walter Scott went one step further: quoth he 

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd, From wandering on a foreign strand!

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;

For him no Minstrel raptures swell;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

This should be the fate for Indias would-be men-without-a-country: to be unwept and unsung. But there are enough motivated actors who sing for their supper in supporting them.

Some people have made the rhetorical point that India is being harsh on the JNU rabble rousers, under some odd notions about freedom of speech. They ask, what would the US do?. So far as I can tell, neither Europeans nor Americans tolerate sedition very well. But the situation in India is not the same. There is a famous person, a harsh and theatrical critic of the Indian state (she believes communist terrorists are Gandhians with guns), who announced that she is a global citizen. But she travels on an Indian passport. The government would have been well within its rights to take umbrage and cancel her passport.

For a moment of levity, there is the possibly apocryphal story about how the papers for citizenship in the US  and that too they take very seriously, and it is a matter of pride for most Americans when some foreigner opts for it  included a question. It asked whether youd advocate the overthrow the government of the United States by sedition or violence. Obviously, the intention was to deny citizenship to those who would advocate such by either sedition or violence.

It seems most applicants chose sedition! I imagine they felt violence was too messy. Anyway, the authorities changed the wording of that question.

In the US, free speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment. And this is used by people with unpopular views, for example neo-Nazis. But people still constrain or even self-censor because they understand intuitively that free speech also has to be responsible speech. You do have the freedom to shout Fire! in a crowded theatre, but as a responsible person, you will not. Many years ago, I wrote The Problem with Fire , about the film of that name, where I accused the actors of deliberately inciting divisiveness through irresponsible speech.

In India, ironically (thanks to that paragon of free speech, Nehru), the First Amendment to the Constitution constrains free speech, presumably because Nehru didnt want to be judged by lesser mortals. And, irony heaped upon irony, it was Nehrus daughter who suspended civil liberties during the Emergency. Which, if I remember right, was rather gleefully supported by the lefties. So for the Congress and their proteges at JNU to suddenly become champions of free speech is a bit disingenuous. Especially in light of a spate of political murders: for instance an RSS worker hacked to death in Kannur, Kerala; a BJP state VP shot to death in Bihar.

It is also the case that students are not held to different standards in other countries. There were pitched battles between police and college students during the Vietnam War, and the long-haired hippies who protested what was an unwinnable war were often attacked with firehoses, dogs, and so forth: and if I remember right, they were only protesting government policy, not advocating the disintegration of their country. In an incident at Kent State University which later crystallised the anti-war movement, police fired on and killed several student protesters.

Thus the question of what would America do? (in analogy with the equally silly question what would Gandhi do? that is trotted out periodically) is meaningless. They treat those who advocate sedition with contempt, and India should do the same. There are limits to tolerance. Your free speech ends where my nose begins. And there is no compromise on respect for the nation.

My conclusion is that there is a deliberate attempt to keep India on the boil and Narendra Modi on the defensive. Just as the award wapsi drama and the #intolerance meme were Bihar election specials, the Rohith Vemula fuss was meant to affect Hyderabad elections, the #Dadri brouhaha was meant to create communal riots, this JNU imbroglio is meant to divert attention.

Intriguingly, every time there is an effort by the government to advance its economic agenda, the MSM, the lefties and the Congress will bring up yet another non-story. There was a major #MakeinIndia initiative in Mumbai from 13 to 18 February . The JNU nonsense was intended to overshadow it, and it did. It too will disappear from the headlines this week: but mission accomplished, as the #DeepState and its minions like The New York Times and The Guardian have had enough flame-bait to peddle.
New Delhi: Coming out in support of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California - Berkeley and Yale University, are narrating his "seditious" speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, "I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiya's seditious speech.

"Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the society's collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting," Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiya's speech.

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California - Berkeley say in joint video, "We challenge the RSS's definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely

able to exercise constitutional rights."

Asserting if Kanhaiya's speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiya's speech.

"Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill?

"They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism," she says.

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University and University of Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on 12 February in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26-minute-speech rendered a day later.

PTI
By Devesh Kumar

Towards the end of 2015, an invitation was extended to Baba Ramdev to deliver the keynote address at the 22nd International Congress of Vedanta, being organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies. The Centre, in its wisdom, thought that the Yoga Guru had the right credentials to address the gathering. But a section of students thought otherwise. A campaign was launched to stall his appearance at the meet, on the ground that he represented "a regressive ideology," and harboured "extreme hatred, bias and prejudice against various minorities  religious, gender, and also against girl-child." They came up with an even more specious argument to thwart Baba Ramdev's arrival: that his views on Indian Indian science were "not academically driven."

The stop-Baba Ramdev campaign was spearheaded by none other than Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNUSU president who has today emerged as the symbol of freedom of speech and expression. The truth is that the ideology that Kumar represents doesn't have room for contra-opinion and dissent, and JNU, unfortunately, has become a fertile breeding ground for such thinking. Since its inception in 1969, JNU had little space for free and frank speech. The Left-backed student organisations ensured that.

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani got a taste of the Left's disdain and contempt for free speech way back in 1996, when he was invited to release a book published by Prof. Vasant Gadre of the Centre for Spanish Studies. As soon as the student leaders belonging to the Left and radical Left got wind of the programme, they raised a brouhaha, asserting that Advani could not be allowed to enter the campus as he represented a "communal organisation and fascist ideology." Faced with sustained protests from these sections, the organisers had no option but to shift their function to a different venue outside the campus.

Over the years, "communal organisation and fascist ideology" has become the perfect ruse to throttle the growth of alternative viewpoints in the university. Students gravitating towards a nationalist ideology have been kept under watch, and even intimidated. Several students were forced to

remain closet supporters of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for fear of inviting the wrath and fury of their Left-inclined teachers. This was particularly true of centres such as the Centre for Historical Studies (CHS), Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP) and the Centre for Study of Regional Development (CSRD). Those who dared to come out in the open with their 'inconvenient' ideological predilections found their grades ruined and careers destroyed.

In the iconic 1992 blockbuster Scent of a Woman, Frank Slade, a retired US Army Colonel, laments the fall in the standards of a preparatory school in New England. "Well, when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And it has fallen here," he says. It had fallen several years back in JNU. The Leftists and their ideology facilitated the process. And if they are crying foul today, it is because an alternative ideology is threatening their free run and altering the course of the narrative.

Devesh Kumar is a former journalist and an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University
By Badri Narayan

Ram Prasad Singh, a Jatav youth of Saharanpur and an advocate in the district court, voted for the BJP in the 2014 Parliamentary elections. He was always a BSP supporter but he changed his preference this time because he sincerely believed that under Narendra Modis leadership, the BJP government would work for the growth and development of Uttar Pradesh and the entire nation, and that there would be many job opportunities for youth like him. He is a disappointed man now. He feels the BJP government has failed to fulfill his aspirations. He is determined to cast his vote in favour of the BSP in the coming 2017 UP Assembly elections.

His other complaint is that it was due to the BJP and the ABVP politics that an able Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula, of Hyderabad Central University committed suicide. Rohith, a PhD scholar, was found hanging in a university hostel room. He was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader.

Ram Prasad Singh feels the BJP is actually an anti-Dalit party. It does not seem to be in favour of Dalits and is not working for their benefit. This is one of the many reasons why he would vote for the BSP.

Varanasi is considered to be the capital of eastern Uttar Pradesh and the political turmoil in eastern Uttar Pradesh is very well visible here. OP Bharti, a Dalit assistant professor of BHU, had cast his vote in favour of Narendra Modi in the 2014 Parliamentary elections because he also felt that Modi would work for the uplift of the Dalits. He did not have any faith in the BJP but he had full confidence in Modi. But he too is disheartened by the Vemula incident.

He feels now that the BJP can never become a supporter of Dalits.

Both these interviews are representative in nature. While doing field work in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, we documented many such interviews and got to experience the increasing aggression of educated rural and urban Dalit youths towards the BJP. This, despite the fact that the BJP has taken many initiatives to associate itself with the Dalits. The BJP and RSS have initiated intensive nationwide programmes and campaign activities such as arranging community meals (Samrasta Bhoj), opening schools in Dalit settlements, and organising sensitisation campaigns for upper castes.

The Sangh Parivar has also propagated the concept of Ramrajya in which the upper and lower castes come together in social life as well as in democratic politics. To mobilise each Dalit caste individually, the BJP has also adopted a new strategy of communalisation and saffronisation of public spaces by evoking its unique caste identity. The party is constantly trying to appropriate the BR Ambedkar legacy. The prime minister recently inaugurated a world-class memorial in the Indu Mills Compound in Mumbai and also inaugurated the Ambedkar memorial at the partially restored London house. Prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the BJP president took part in caste rallies and meetings of various Dalit communities.

Modi will be making a visit to the Ravidas temple at Sheergoverdhan in Varanasi, the birth place of Saint Ravidas, in the coming days. This temple has been constructed by Dera Saccha Bal Khand Jalandhar of Punjab and a golden dome has been constructed inside the temple. On the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti, which is usually celebrated in February every year, people of the Ravidasia community, particularly from Punjab, arrive in large numbers to pay their homage to saint Ravidas. The people of the Ramdasia Sikh community from Punjab living abroad, who are chamar by caste, also visit the temple on this occasion. The political motive of Modis visit is to associate the Dalits of Punjab with the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh, but the horrific Vemula incident has put a big question mark on all their efforts.

Dalits who were gradually inclining towards the BJP have started distancing themselves from the party. The repercussion of this will be felt in the 2017 Assembly elections. As of now, Mayawati is not making much effort to associate the Dalits with her party, but those who had joined hands with the BJP have no alternative but to vote in Mayawatis favour, because they are strongly in need of a leader who can fight for their rights.

We recorded the increasing aggression of the Dalits towards the BJP in various regions of Uttar Pradesh. Ramkali, a Dalit woman of a village nearby Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, said the suicide of an educated Dalit student is a matter of immeasurable grief for them.

He lost his life just because of the BJPs politics, she said.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Subramanian Swamy is confident of a positive verdict from the Supreme Court on the Ram Janmabhoomi case and is hopeful that the construction of Ram Mandir would begin in Ayodhya by year-end.

In a conversation with Firstpost after his address at Deendayal Research Institute at Jhandewalan on Saturday evening, the maverick politician and one of the most vocal proponents of Hindu nationalism, Swamy shared how he plans to go about the issue and why it is important for the country. Excerpts:

How do you see the Ram Mandir becoming a reality?

Well wait for the Supreme Courts verdict. Im confident that the apex court will give a favourable judgment. And if it happens, by the end of the year, construction of a Ram Temple will begin with mutual consent. Ive filed a writ petition seeking day-to-day hearing of petitions in the Supreme Court. Our case is very strong and even the Allahabad High Court had supported our stand based on the evidence presented by us. The historical, archeological and epigraphy-based evidences have shown that there existed a temple beneath the Babri mosque.

According to Hindu scripture and the present law, a Praan-Pratisthit Vigraha (deity) is a living entity and a deity (Ramlala) can hold the property, so all the property vests with the presiding deity and Ram is the owner. Nobody can have adverse possession over it. The Muslim Scriptures and Law lay down that no Wakf can be created on another's property. The Sunni Waqf Board was in adverse possession of this property. The emperor Babar owned no land on this soil.

Do you think the Muslim leaders will agree to it?

The Muslim leaders have said that they would accept the Supreme Courts verdict. I dont want to do it forcibly. I had discussions with AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, Syed Shahabuddin and other Muslim leaders. They also want day-to-day hearing. Earlier, I had taken up the issue for negotiation with Shahabuddin who was heading the other side. But the government fell, and so I could not complete the process.

During Narsimha Raos government in 1994, the Supreme Court had asked the government to take a stand on Ram Janmabhoomi issue. The government gave an affidavit in the court, which stated that if a pre-existing temple was found beneath the mosque, the Hindus would keep this land for temple construction. And, across Saryu river Muslims would built a mosque. No mosque will be allowed to be built in Ram Janmabhoomi.

Is it practically possible to shift/construct mosque across the Saryu river?

Even in Islamic countries like in Saudi Arabia, an important heritage mosque was demolished to give way for the construction of a project. An alternative plot was given and it was built at some other site. According to Islam, a mosque is a facilitating centre for offering Namaz, where people gather and read. Its a kind of prayer hall, unlike the way a temple is. If Muslims agree to it, Hindus will join in the construction of the mosque.

Considering the present turmoil in the country, dont you think construction of Ram Mandir and shifting of mosque would escalate it?

As Ive mentioned, all Muslim leaders have said that they would accept Supreme Courts verdict on this issue. As far as extremist elements are concerned, they can be dealt with.

Is the issue only restricted to the Ram Mandir, or does it extend beyond it?

During the 800 years of Muslim rule, some 40,000-odd temples were demolished in the country. Weve asked for three  Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya, Krishna temple in Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. If Muslims agree to give us these three temples, they can keep the rest 39,997 mosques.

As per news reports, the arrival of stones to Ayodhya from other states has triggered panic among the locals. Is there any tension brewing there?

No, theres no tension and it (arrival of stones) has been taking place for quite some time. People know well that without the Supreme Courts ruling, construction wont begin.

Finally, do you think people are still interested in the construction of Ram Mandir?

There is a public demand for building the Ram Temple. This is not the only project that Ive been pursuing. Earlier Ive taken up several projects, including religious ones. On the issue of Ram Temple, people are very much concerned. They came and told me to pursue it in the manner I did on Ram Setu, which was a big success. The Ram temple will become a reality.
Editor's note: When it was inaugurated in November 2012, the Aam Admi Party symbolised an experiment in audacity; Jacobin radicalism wrapped in a muffler. It windmilled its catapult in the direction of the grand old goliaths of India's political pantheon, signalling its intent to dismantle the prevailing order. Three years later, on 10 February, it succeeded in felling the Philistine giant, seizing 67 of 70 seats in the Delhi legislative Assembly  32 of which were held by the ruling BJP, and eight by the Congress. In the year that has elapsed since, AAP has pendulated between triumph and failure  some of its shimmer has dulled, and yet it is encrusted with new jewels; the muffler is frayed at the edges, and still it flutters as the pennant for an alternative form of political engagement.

It has lost much of its original flock, while gathering new, unlikely adherents to its scrappy, DIY dogma. The party is marking its anniversary revelries by launching a massive self-congratulatory campaign 'PehlaSaalBemisal (one wonderful year)' to draw attention away from the disappointments, and instead enumerate all that it has achieved. We shouldn't grudge AAP its birthday bash because that's what every party does: glorify its performance on the ground. But when it comes to politics, AAP came in with the promise of a difference, of ringing in an era of alternative politics. AAP has left out that aspect of its promise from its anniversary achievements narrative. To understand this aspect of the party, and the bearing it has on alternative politics in India, Firstpost has invited writers to assess AAPs performance against its founding principles.

This essay by Firstpost Executive Editor Ajay Singh concludes the series.

At Lucknows state guest house on Meerabai Marg in 1993, BSP chief Kanshi Ram held aloft a pen and explained the complexity of politics and society in a manner which would otherwise be lost to a researcher in years of incomprehensible academic rigour and jargon. You see, the society is like this pen; hierarchised vertically, and my objective is to make it horizontal, he said in his exposition in front of a bunch of journalists.

But, you know, how would I do it? he would spring a question and then answer without waiting for anyone to guess, saying, Through the instrument of political power. The discourse was a complete departure from the usual political rhetoric in Uttar Pradesh where overweening influence of suave Brahminism in politics was unrelenting. Kanshi Ram not only challenged this hegemony but also subverted it with the help of Mulayam Singh Yadav. His rainbow coalition of Dalit, other backwards and Muslims acquired power against the backdrop of the Babri Mosque demolition of 6 December, 1992.

Since then, the BSP has acquired political power on its own or with the help of an alliance four times. Kanshi Rams understudy and successor Mayawati has become a powerful politician in her own right, and has ascended to the throne of UP many times. Yet society and politics in UP remain as hierarchised as ever. There may indeed be a change in the demographic composition of the ruling elite at Lucknow yet they have behaved like their predecessors. Irrespective of their political denomination, there is hardly any difference between Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. Both love and patronise elements like Yadav Singh, the Noida engineer now facing corruption charge. And they retain the same officer as their principal secretary. The proverbial pen of Kanshi Ram is lost like a phoenix that can never be resurrected.

As a rookie reporter, you rarely get a chance to meet a charismatic underground leader. Vinod Mishra, popularly known as VM, of the CPI-ML (Liberation) was one such leader who was a cult figure in the eighties. An engineering graduate, Mishra was quite articulate and effective in his political positioning.

The mystique around him grew by the fact that he was a vocal but selective proponent of the theory that power flows through the barrel of a gun. In my first meeting with him at a friends house in Lucknow, he came across as a pragmatic revolutionary determined to challenge the status quo. He was least bothered about the emergence of the BSP which monopolised the Dalits space in UP. In fact, the CPI-ML(Liberation) had occupied the same space in neighbouring Bihar.

You see, they (the BSP) cannot take away Dalits from us. We (the party and Dalits) are related by blood, he would passionately emphasise to underscore his belief that the relationship between the social underdogs and Mishras variant of the radical left was unbreakable. Mishra sounded genuine and his partys base was expanding exponentially in Bihar.

Despite the high-sounding rhetoric that found resonance briefly, Dalits and OBCs gradually drifted away from Mishras revolutionary dream and joined regional parties. As of now, the CPI-ML (Liberation) appears to be a pale shadow of the traditional left party like CPI. The ideological fervour that promised to bring a radical change in society and politics is replaced by forging caste combinations and tactical alliances to win elections. This is a classic case of The revolution is dead! Long live the revolution.

A few months before the 1991 elections, BJP president LK Advani resumed his Yatra which had been terminated with his arrest at Samastipur in Bihar. Unlike the past when he was travelling on a Toyota Rath, this time he was driving around eastern UP in a car. I followed him as a reporter and interacted with people who came in large numbers at most of the places where he addressed gatherings.

What I found most surprising was the peoples abiding faith in the notion that Advani was divinely ordained to take up Lord Ramas cause. In Jaunpur and Azamgarh, I saw people picking up dust from the trail of Advanis car in the belief that the soil was sanctified by the leaders presence. It embarrasses me no end, Advani would admit when asked about peoples innocence and credulity.

Ram Lala hum aayenge, mandir wahin banayenge (Lord Ram, we shall come to build temple at Ayodhya) was the ringing slogan that often prompted the BJP leader to declare in the midst of cheering crowds that no power on earth could stop the construction of the temple at Ayodhya. The BJP came to power in UP in 1991. The subsequent agitation destroyed the mosque under whose dome the idols were kept. Since then, the BJP has come to power at the centre thrice but could do little to pave the way for the temple construction.

Advani as home minister came down quite harshly on the activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) when they tried to mobilise people for temple construction during the Vajpayee regime. VP Singh who lost the prime ministership following Advanis Rath Yatra was quite amused to see Advanis dilemma as home minister. This prompted him once to remark in a caustic candour, Bahut samjhaya Advaniji ko ki sadhuon ke chakkar me na pado, ye apne maabaap ke nahin hue to tumhare kyo honge (I tried to convince Advani not to get involved with religious saints in politics with the belief that they belong to you. They are hardly indebted to their parents, why would they belong to you?).

Through the above three stories I have tried to capture the reflections of the time and pick up a strand of alternative politics that often begins by promising a radical change but ultimately fights resolutely to retain status quo. It may sound a cliched expression but holds true of Indias political situation, that more things change, the more they remain the same.

But what appears truly worrisome is the fact that every alternative politics promises radical change, but soon the statecraft invariably attains a new nadir of deceit and deception, eroding the trust of the people and making them slightly more suspicious of the next political initiative. In this sense, alternative politics is no different from a revolution that devours its own children. In the present circumstances if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen as inadequate to meet peoples expectations, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee are equally seen as products of the lowest cunning of Indian politics. Bereft of an icon, Indian politics appear to be violently drifting away from its moorings, letting the critical issues to be sorted out at street brawls and TV studios in noisiest and superlative degree of self-righteousness.

What could be behind this travesty of ideals? It could be the populist and short-term nature of electoral politics that makes them fling ideals and principles and run after votes. This hypothesis can be supported by the fact that largely every movement toward alternative politics that has refrained from entering electoral politics has maintained its ideals, no matter how debatable those ideals might be.

Those who still have faith in alternative politics can begin by some introspection about the term alternative itself. Arguably, the structure of mainstream politics is perfectly okay, and what is the need of hour is reform from within.

Part 1: Yogendra Yadav on how AAP tainted the idea of alternative politics

Part 2: Shiv Vishwanathan says Arvind Kejriwal is the Maggi sauce of governance

Part 3: Sudhir Kakar warns that the betrayal of AAPs idealisations could decimate it
AMMAN U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before.

But he indicated there were still issues to be resolved and he did not expect any immediate change on the ground. In Syria's Homs, twin car bombs killed at least 46 people on Sunday, and explosions hit parts of Damascus.

Russian air strikes launched in September against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have exacerbated suffering and destruction in Syria, where a five-year-old civil war has killed more than a quarter of a million people.

Assad said on Saturday he was ready for a ceasefire on condition "terrorists" did not use a lull in fighting to their advantage and that countries backing insurgents stopped supporting them.

The Syrian opposition had earlier said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus's allies including Russia would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide.

"We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry told a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed. In fact, we are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been," said Kerry, who was also to meet King Abdullah.

He declined to go into detail about the unresolved issues, saying the two sides were "filling out the details" of the agreement.

But he repeated the U.S. position that Assad had to step down. "With Assad there this war cannot and will not end," he said.

Assad's fate has been one of the main points of difference between Washington and Russia, the Syrian leader's main international backer. Russia recently has begun to say Syrians should decide on whether Assad should stay or not, but it continues to support Damascus with air strikes.

OBAMA AND PUTIN TO TALK

Kerry said he had spoken to Lavrov on several occasions, including earlier on Sunday, and that he anticipated U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk in the coming days to complete the provisional agreement in principle.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov and Kerry had spoken by phone on Sunday about conditions for a ceasefire. It said discussions were on ceasefire conditions which would exclude operations against organisations "recognised as terrorist by U.N. Security Council".

These are groups including Islamic State and the al Qaeda- linked Nusra Front.

Despite the provisional agreement, Kerry did not see an imminent change in fighting on the ground.

"I do not believe that in the next few days, during which time we try to bring this into effect, there is somehow going to be a tipping point with respect to what is happening on the ground ... The opposition has made clear their determination to fight back," he said.

In Homs at least 46 people were killed and 100 people wounded by the car bombs, one of the deadliest attacks in the city in five years of civil war, a monitoring group said.

There were several explosions too in a southern district of Damascus, state television and witnesses said. The monitoring group reported casualties.

Kerry said any deal would take a few days to come together, while the two sides consulted with other countries and the Syrian opposition. Russia had to speak to the Syrian government and Iran, and the United States had to speak to the Syrian opposition and its partners, Kerry said.

Russia's RIA news agency said on Sunday that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had arrived in Tehran, quoting a source in the Russian Embassy in Iran. It did not give a reason for the visit.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in AMMAN, Katya Golubkova in MOSCOW and John Davison and Kinda Makieh in DAMASCUS; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Richard Balmforth)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Madrid: Two images stick in the minds of Spaniards from 23 February, 1981, the day Spain escaped a military coup.

The first shows politicians cowering under their benches as armed guards burst into parliament, shooting over their heads.

The second is that of King Juan Carlos, on television in his green military uniform hours later, ordering an end to the revolt.

"I have ordered the civil authorities and the chiefs of staff to take the necessary measures to maintain constitutional order," he said.

It proved to be the making of the king, 43 at the time and five years into his reign in a country still wary of him as the late dictator Francisco Franco's chosen successor.

Spain's young democracy was put to test when 200 Civil Guards, under Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero, stormed into the lower house of parliament as lawmakers were voting in a new prime minister.

"The first impression I had was surprise," said one man who witnessed the assault, Jose Bono, a young lawmaker of 30 at the time. "A Civil Guard came in, adjusting his tricorn hat, and started yelling and shooting," Bono, who later served as defence minister, told AFP.

"Everyone on the floor!" Tejero yelled at the lawmakers.

"The most tense moment was when they fired -- more than thirty shots," said Bono. "More than 30 bullet holes are still there in the walls of Congress. We decided not to get rid of them, so they would remain as the historic wounds of that coup."

As the deputies hid under their benches, just three people apart from the soldiers remained upright, as seen in the grainy pictures of the drama recorded by security cameras.

One was the deputy prime minister Manuel Gutierrez Mellado, himself a lieutenant colonel. He stayed on his feet and squared up to Tejero, who shoved him about.

Another was the outgoing prime minister Adolfo Suarez, and the third was the leader of the Spanish Communist Party, Santiago Carrillo, a seasoned political survivor -- both of whom stayed sitting up in their seats.

"It was possible they would kill us, but we had to save our honour," Carrillo said afterwards.

They were held there most of the night, uncertain of what was happening outside.

"Two of the deputies had radios and news passed by word of mouth," Bono said. "We heard that the king had spoken, but we heard it very late and it was very unclear."

In the Zarzuela palace on the outskirts of Madrid, Juan Carlos was undergoing a test of his own.

Aided by his royal secretary Sabino Fernandez Campos, the king was working the telephone, talking with various military leaders to gauge support for the coup.

Among those backing Tejero was the military commander of Valencia, Jaime Milans del Bosch, who sent tanks into the streets of the eastern city.

Tejero also wanted to occupy Madrid, but the commander in the capital, General Guillermo Quintana Lacaci, showed allegiance to the king.

"The whole evening was one long arm-wrestle, a tough fight in which the king and Sabino had to push all the way to get control of the regiments," the then state security chief Francisco Laina told El Pais newspaper later.

Juan Carlos kept his son and heir Prince Felipe, then aged 13, at his side throughout the crisis. "I wanted him to see what one has to do when one is king," he said later.

Juan Carlos appeared on television around 1:00 am on February 24 and his stern announcement heralded the beginning of the end of the short-lived coup.

"I knew that the soldiers were going to agree because I had been named by Franco... because I had been through the military academy and I had won the friendship of most of them," the king said later.

Later in the night, the civil guards who had stormed the chamber climbed out of the windows to give themselves up and Tejero and Milans del Bosch surrendered within hours.

Milans died in 1997 and another of the military leaders jailed for the coup, Alfonso Armada, died in 2013. A former tutor of Juan Carlos, Armada always denied masterminding the uprising.

"The king had been legitimised in the constitution, but his legitimacy from a popular point of view came from that night, when instead of opting for the coup leaders, he opted for the people," said Bono.

"In that sense, he did more for the monarchy than all of his predecessors."

AFP
Thessaloniki (Greece): Macedonia closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants Sunday, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians.

Macedonian authorities confirmed earlier reports by Greek police, saying they are responding to a "domino effect" of similar restrictions by their neighbors to the north.

"The Serbian side has stopped the entrance for Afghan refugees," Macedonian police spokeswoman Natalija Spirova Kordikj told The Associated Press, adding that there is no official explanation from the Serbian side for the move.

Macedonian police started restricting the flow of migrants across the Greek-Macedonian border Saturday, conducting body searches and demanding passports. Earlier, they had accepted Greek police's official documents attesting that an individual had been processed.

The moves have led to a buildup of migrants waiting at the Greek side of the border. Greek police said 800 were stranded at the border Sunday and another 2,750 were waiting in 55 buses nearby.

In the 24 hours to 6 a.m. local (0400 GMT) Sunday, only 310 migrants had been allowed into Macedonia.

At the collection center in Tabanovce, on the Macedonian side of the border with Serbia, a total of 617 Afghan refugees are waiting to be allowed into Serbia, Kordikj said.

"367 have been waiting since Friday. Another 250 arrived at the collection center (Saturday)," she said.

AP
New York: Pakistani spy agency ISI's detention facilities in Karachi and elsewhere were used as an initial detention and interrogation point by the CIA during America's war on al Qaeda which was supported by over 54 countries following 9/11 attacks, a new report has claimed.

The report authored by Amrit Singh, daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, says over 54 countries assisted the US in its war against al-Qaeda including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories and detaining, interrogating and "torturing" terror suspects.

It said detention facilities in Pakistan in which detainees were held at the behest of the CIA include the ISI detention facility in Karachi, which was allegedly used as an initial detention and interrogation point before detainees were transferred to other prisons. Although controlled by the ISI, detainees at the facility claim to have been interviewed by both US and British intelligence officials.

The report Globalising Torture - CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition released on Wednesday by rights advocacy group Open Society Justice Initiative details the involvement of 54 nations in the American campaign against al-Qaeda and identifies 136 people who had been held or transferred by the CIA, describing when and where they were held.

Singh said she had found evidence that prisoners were held in countries like Thailand, Romania, Poland and Lithuania while Denmark facilitated CIA air operations. The report provides the number of known victims of secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations, in which suspects were transferred from one country to another without any legal process.

Singh, who joined the Open Society Initiative in 2009 as senior legal officer for national security and counter-terrorism, said "the moral cost of these programmes was borne not just by the US but by the 54 other countries it recruited to help". The report said foreign governments also failed to protect detainees from secret detention and extraordinary rendition on their territories and to conduct effective investigations into agencies and officials who participated in these operations.

The governments identified in the report span the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America and include Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and United Kingdom.

"By engaging in torture and other abuses associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition, the US government violated domestic and international law, thereby diminishing its moral standing and eroding support for its counter-terrorism efforts worldwide as these abuses came to light. By enlisting the participation of dozens of foreign governments in these violations, the United States further undermined longstanding human rights protections enshrined in international law including, in particular, the norm against torture," Singh said in the report.

"Responsibility for this damage does not lie solely with the United States, but also with the numerous foreign governments without whose participation secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations could not have been carried out. By participating in these operations, these governments too violated domestic and international laws and further undermined the norm against torture," Singh said.

Amrit Singh, 43, is currently a senior legal officer at the National Security and Counter-terrorism program at the Open Society Justice Initiative. Formerly a staff attorney at the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, Singh is the co-author of Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond.

Singh also called for conduct of an effective and thorough criminal investigation into human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations (including into abuses that had been authorised by the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice).

The report urged the US Government to create an independent, non-partisan commission (with authority to access all relevant documents, subpoena witnesses, and make its concluding report public) to investigate human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations (including into abuses that had been authorised by the Office of Legal Counsel), with a view to examining, and publicly disclosing, the role of officials who authorised, ordered, assisted, or otherwise participated in these abuses.

In her report, Singh urged other governments to refuse to participate in CIA extraordinary rendition and refuse to participate in secret detention, including at the behest, or with the involvement, of any US agency or any other government.

PTI

View the full report below:


The remaining eight presidential candidates (two Democrats and six Republicans) have a slew of hot-button issues that they're itching to tackle. Social Security, healthcare reform, and national security are all toward the top of the list. However, if the candidates were to listen to the American public, they'd be tackling the marijuana debate head on.

Marijuana's unstoppable momentum

Since California first legalized medical marijuana in 1996, 22 additional states, along with Washington, D.C., have followed suit. In addition to patients having access to new pathways of treatments for a variety of diseases (including glaucoma and certain terminal cancers in most states) residents in four states -- Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska -- have OK'd the use of recreational marijuana.

The numbers, both sales and polls, show that Americans are very much excited about the potential expansion of marijuana. Gallup's latest marijuana poll released in October showed that a whopping 58% of respondents would like to see marijuana legalized. This tied the highest percentage on record for a Gallup poll on marijuana's favorability, and it's up substantially from the 25% favorability registered just two decades ago. Favorability toward medical marijuana is even more robust, with 84% of respondents from a CBS News poll in 2015 expressing that they'd like to see the substance approved for medical use.

State regulators are also thrilled with the early results -- and it's causing non-legal states to take a second look. Colorado wound up reporting nearly $1 billion in sales in 2015, and Washington totaled more than a half-billion in sales. Tax and licensing revenue being generated from retail marijuana sales has been a big help in adding funding to Colorado's education system, as well as its law enforcement budget.

Here's your cheat sheet on where the remaining eight candidates stand on marijuana:

Legalize it all

Bernie Sanders: There aren't too many candidates in this year's election that are willing to take the previously taboo stance of calling for marijuana's full legalization, both medically and recreationally, at the federal level, but this year Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders has done just that.

In fact, Sanders introduced legislation, known as the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, in the Senate during November, making his views on the illicit substance very clear. While Sanders has stated that marijuana "wasn't for him," he views the drug war on marijuana as wasting government resources. If you are strongly in favor of sweeping marijuana legislation, Bernie Sanders is the candidate you'll want to be closely monitoring.

Legalize medical marijuana, recreational maybe

Donald Trump: Another controversial, non-establishment candidate that's drawing a lot of attention in this election is Donald Trump. Although Trump has mostly made waves for his views on immigration, Trump has potentially gained some supporters based on his views of marijuana.

When it comes to recreational marijuana, Donald Trump has proposed more of a wait-and-see approach. In a recent interview on Fox News, Trump iterated that he wanted to "see what the medical effects are." However, when pressed for his opinion on medical marijuana, Trump noted that he was "a hundred percent" in favor of medical marijuana's legalization.

Support states' rights, but not federal legalization

Ted Cruz: Viewed as one of the Republican front-runners, Ted Cruz has taken a view on marijuana that pretty much supports the status quo. Cruz went on the record in April 2015 on the Hugh Hewitt Show saying marijuana's legislation is an issue states should be allowed to deal with. Cruz said at the time that it's "appropriate for the federal government to recognize that the citizens of [Colorado and Washington] have made that decision."

On the flipside, Cruz has also suggested that if a marijuana initiative were brought up in his home state of Texas he would vote no. He's also previously criticized (in 2014) the Obama administration for allowing states to legalize marijuana. If Cruz becomes president, don't expect much to change.





Hillary Clinton: Clinton, the other Democratic Party front-runner, has a far less progressive view from her main rival Bernie Sanders, although it's worth noting that Clinton's stance on marijuana has evolved in line with the opinion of the general public.

When it comes to medical marijuana Clinton is completely in favor of ongoing research into the potential benefits of the drug, but would likely restrict access (until all the safety data is in) to extreme cases of need/compassionate use. By a similar token, Clinton has taken a wait-and-see approach to recreational marijuana. She doesn't appear to have an issue with states legalizing and regulating the drug on their own, but she's been clear that nothing would change federally until a complete safety profile of marijuana has been established.

Mostly against it

Marco Rubio: Florida senator Marco Rubio, one of the leading presidential candidates for the Republican Party, has a generally negative approach to marijuana's momentum. In fact, if he became president he'd consider using his "Marcomentum" to stamp out recreational use of the drug entirely. When questioned on Meet the Press in August 2015, Rubio clearly stated that he'd enforce the federal law when it comes to recreational marijuana. He's previously been on the record suggesting that there's no responsible way for recreational marijuana to be used.

However, Rubio is open to lifting the federal ban on medical marijuana if it's shown by the Food and Drug Administration to demonstrate medical benefits. Researchers are still gathering plenty of data on marijuana, so it'll likely be years before they have enough data to take to lawmakers.

Jeb Bush: Former Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush joins a very crowded field of candidates that still stand mostly against legalizing marijuana. Bush has generally avoided discussing marijuana during debates, but he's taken a pretty one-sided stance against the substance.

During the September GOP debate, Bush announced that while he had tried marijuana in his younger days, he views drug use in general, which includes marijuana, as a serious problem. He also voiced that he had voted no to a medical marijuana law in his home state of Florida.

It is worth mentioning that Bush has somewhat supported compassionate use of medical marijuana, but in general he views marijuana to be a gateway drug regardless of whether it's for medicinal or recreational purposes.

Ben Carson: Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson takes one of the toughest stances on marijuana among the remaining candidates. While speaking with Glenn Beck in October, Carson announced, without hesitation, that he would "intensify" the war on drugs, and that he completely disagreed with the idea of legalizing recreational marijuana. Carson went on to argue that he believed marijuana was a gateway drug to considerably more harmful and/or addictive and damaging substances.

The one ray of sunshine for marijuana supporters is that Carson does believe marijuana could be helpful in instances of medical compassionate use.

John Kasich: Ohio governor and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich joins Rubio, Bush, and Carson among those who offer very limited support of marijuana as a whole. Following the defeat of Issue 3 in Ohio this past November, which would have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, Kasich went on the record with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show by reinforcing his belief that recreational marijuana "is a terrible idea." Kasich's main concern revolves around the perceived double-standard of telling kids not to do drugs, but that marijuana is OK.

On the other hand, Kasich is for the idea of decriminalizing marijuana so the vast majority of offenses aren't jailable, and he would push for medical marijuana legalization if, and only if, the FDA determined that it was safe and offered medical benefits.
Source: Alphabet

Apple's recent quarter resulted in a rare rebuke by the market. While the company exceeded expectations on both revenue and EPS, Wall Street was disappointed with iPhone unit sales, and left wondering where future growth will come from. In a supplemental release, Apple played up service-related revenue from its 1 billion active installed base as a source of future growth.

And there's a good reason for the pivot. According to app-analytics firm App Annie, the global mobile app market is projected to expand 24%, from $41.1 billion in 2015 to $51 billion this year in gross revenue across all app stores. This is not a one-off surge, but rather a trend, according to App Annie. By 2020, mobile app revenue is projected to grow 20% annualized to a $101 billion market. With a combined operating-system market share of more than 95%, Apple and Alphabet are sitting in the driver's seat of this rapidly growing market.

If only there was an app to find out Apple's and Alphabet's app-related revenueUnfortunately, neither Apple nor Alphabet specifically break out revenue attributable to their respective app stores. Alphabet files revenue attributable to its Google Play store in its Google other revenues subsegment, along with service fees from Maps, Google Chromecast, and other licensing revenue.

During the last two years, the company has grown revenue in the catch-all subsegment 27% annually, from $4.4 billion in 2013 to $7.2 billion in fiscal 2015. As a result of growth above Alphabet's total revenue growth, this segment is now nearly 10% of the total revenue haul.

Apple also doesn't release specific results from App-related revenue, reporting results in its services segment alongside iTunes, Apple Care, Apple Pay, and iBooks results, among others. Apple's services division posted 11% annualized growth during the last two fiscal years, lower than Google's torrid pace, growing from $16 billion in 2013 to nearly $20 billion last year. Apple made a point to disclose that App Store net revenue grew much larger than the segment overall, with 29% growth, last fiscal year.

So investors can expect huge revenue growth, right? On the surface, this sounds great. Between Apple and Alphabet, App Annie's estimates indicate nearly $60 billion in incremental annual revenue during the next four years. However, much of this revenue will not show on financial statements. For example, Apple reports its app-based revenue on a net-revenue basis, deducting the 70% it pays to third-party app developers.

App Annie estimates that Apple will produce nearly $45 billion of gross App Store revenue in 2020, but $13.5 billion will be reported in revenue. This is up substantially from the $22 billion gross ($6.6 billion net) App Annie estimates Cupertino made in App-based sales in 2015. For a company as big as Apple, though, with a top line rapidly approaching $250 billion, growing incremental revenue $7 billion annually in the next four years wouldn't be a huge revenue driver.

Apps may be a significant revenue driver for Alphabet, however. App Annie expects Google Play and third-party Android stores -- mostly in China -- to grow from $18.3 billion in 2015 to nearly $56 billion in 2020. If Google is able to enter the country, as rumors are suggesting, and consolidate market share, the company's 30% revenue net in 2020 would be nearly $17 billion. Compared to Alphabet's current top line of $75 billion, this becomes a more-intriguing proposition for Mountain View.

The article Apple and Alphabet Are in the Drivers Seat of This Soon-to-Be $100 Billion Market originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jamal Carnette owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Companies often issue additional shares to raise money for their financing needs. For example, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are known to issue shares in order to acquire more properties and grow their business. You can find information about a company's recently issued shares in its annual report, and here's how to use that information to calculate the issue price per share.

Calculating issue price per shareFirst, you'll need to locate the company's information about its recently issued shares. This can be found in the annual report, often in several places, and should include the following information:

The number of shares issued.

The net proceeds from the issue.

The costs related to issuing the shares, such as fees and commissions.

Although it's not needed to calculate the issue price, the annual report can usually tell you the month in which the stock was issued, as well as what the proceeds were used for.

Once you have this information, the calculation is pretty straightforward. Start by adding the net proceeds to the costs in order to find the gross (total) proceeds from the stock issuance.

Then, divide the gross proceeds by the number of shares issued to calculate the issue price per share.

An exampleTo illustrate this, let's consider some information from Realty Income Corporation's 2014 annual report. After the financial statements section, the company lists several notes, including one about its common stock issuance:

"In April 2014, we issued 13,800,000 shares of common stock, including 1,800,000 shares purchased by the underwriters upon the exercise of their option to purchase additional shares. After underwriting discounts and other offering costs of $22.8 million, the net proceeds of $528.6 million were used to repay borrowings under our acquisition credit facility."

Using the formulas, we can calculate the gross proceeds of the issuance to be $551.4 million. Dividing this by the 13,800,000 shares that were issued, we can calculate the issue price per share to be approximately $39.96.

This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us atknowledgecenter@fool.com. Thanks -- and Fool on!

The article How to Calculate the Issue Price per Share of Stock originally appeared on Fool.com.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
President Obama would like to sign these new tax changes into law, but their fate remains uncertain. Photo: White House, by Lawrence Jackson

As Presidents do every year, President Obama has recently released his proposed budget for the fiscal year 2017. It includes a host of interesting requests, such as $19 billion for cybersecurity -- a 35% increase over the previous year's allocation -- and many proposed changes for how we in America are taxed -- both tax cuts and tax increases. In general, President Obama is looking to hike taxes on high-income households and on oil and foreign income, while cutting them for the middle class and small businesses. His proposed changes would generate $2.6 trillion in new tax revenue over the next decade if enacted.

Here's a closer look at just a handful of the proposed tax changes. Few expect them to pass, as our current Congress is not known for its cooperation with President Obama, but they will still be starting points for discussions and negotiations. See which ones are likely to affect you:

Making information filings due soonerYou may have noticed that many financial services companies with which you do business take a long time to get you the 1099 forms and other documents you need in order to prepare your taxes. Their filing due date for much of that has been in late February, but it will now be moved up to Jan. 31.

Increasing regulation of paid tax preparersWhile many paid tax preparers do a fine job preparing our returns, many others don't -- and haven't been subject to much regulation. The new budget aims to give the Treasury the power to regulate paid preparers. This aims to boost the integrity of the tax preparation process and is complemented by a proposed increase in funding for IRS enforcement.

Stiffening sentences for those convicted of tax-related identity theftThis proposal won't reduce your taxes, but it might reduce your chance of experiencing tax identity theft, where crooks claim your tax refund before you do. President Obama is asking for stiffer sentences for those convicted of tax-related identity theft and additional $5,000 civil penalty fines.

The new budget aims to help families. Photo: David Amsler, Flickr.

A tax credit for two-earner householdsOne burden that many American households face is paying for child care or other expenses when both adults in the household work. President Obama is asking for a second-earner tax credit of up to $500 per year -- which, it's estimated, should help more than 20 million two-earner couples.

More help for familiesPresident Obama is also looking to increase the Child and Dependent Care Credit and to have a much bigger credit available to those with one or more children age five or younger. He would make the phase-out ranges more generous, too, to help more families qualify for this help.

Expansion of the Earned Income Tax CreditThe Earned Income Tax Credit is a powerful aid for lower-income families that has been, sadly, under-used, because of being a bit complex and just under the radar for too many people. The new budget aims to expand it to apply to childless workers, too.

Improved tax breaks for educationThe proposed budget aims to simply and strengthen tax breaks for education, consolidating the Lifetime Learning Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit, making the credit available to more students (including fifth-year undergrads and part-time students), and increasing the refundable portion of the credit. (The budget also aims to make two years of community college free to many students.)

Higher maximum tax rates on capital gains and dividendsA proposed tax change that won't be welcome to many investors is an increase in the top capital gains and dividend tax rate from 20% to 24.2% (to 28%, including the current 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax). The good news here is that this will only affect higher-income taxpayers. For 2016, for example, the higher 20% rate applies only to single filers with taxable income of $415,051 or more and married-filing-jointly folks earnings $466,951 or more.

Strengthened retirement rulesThe proposed budget will allow for workers without employer-provided 401(k) plans to have contributions automatically made from their pay to IRA accounts. It's also looking to eliminate "back-door Roth IRAs," whereby high-income folks who don't qualify to make Roth IRA contributions have been making contributions to traditional IRAs instead and then converting those IRAs to Roth IRAs. Another proposed new rule is to impose required minimum distributions on Roth IRAs. They're already a feature of traditional IRAs (as well as traditional and Roth 401(k)s), requiring account holders to withdraw certain minimum amounts each year beginning at age 70 1/2.

Reduced value of deductions for higher earnersHigh earners would also, under the new budget proposal, enjoy less benefit from itemized deductions. Remember that there are seven tax brackets for tax year 2016: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%. Most of us face no more than the 28% rate. If you can deduct $1,000 of expenses from your taxable income and you're in the 28% bracket, you'll save $280. If you have those expenses and you're in the 35% bracket, you can save $350. The new rules would limit those in tax brackets above 28% to receive no more than 28% of relief when deducting.

President Obama awarded Warren Buffett the Medal of Freedom in 2011 and included the "Buffett" rule in his new budget. Photo: Medill DC, Flickr.

The Buffett ruleWarren Buffett has gone on record many times decrying our current system, where wealthy people like himself pay lower overall effective tax rates than average Americans. That happens in part because many of these wealthy people have significant dividend and capital gain income, which has been taxed at lower rates. The proposed "Fair Share Tax" would require those with very high incomes to pay no less than 30% of their income in taxes (adjusted for charitable contributions).

A 19% minimum tax on foreign income -- plus a 14% one-time taxThis item is aimed at corporations, imposing a minimum tax rate of 19% on the foreign earnings of multinational American companies -- and reaching back to impose a one-time 14% tax on previously earned and untaxed foreign income.

Keeping more jobs in AmericaPresident Obama is aiming to make it harder for American companies to shift jobs overseas. The new taxes will make it less attractive from a tax standpoint to keep earnings abroad. He's also clamping down more on "tax inversions" -- which involve U.S. companies merging with companies based in nations with lower corporate tax rates and changing their address in order to shrink their tax bills. Such actions may seem foul, but they have been legal. The new budget widens the definition of inversions -- and it also offers a tax credit for those companies that bring jobs back to the U.S. from abroad.

Those are many of the proposed tax-related changes in President Obama's 2017 budget. Others include increased taxes on oil and oil products (to fund clean energy and clean transportation initiatives) and aid for small businesses, such as via simplified accounting rules and bigger tax credits for setting up retirement accounts for workers. Energy-related tax breaks would also be strengthened.

It's an ambitious and far-reaching proposed budget, with the potential to bring about a lot of change. Stay tuned as we see how Congress treats it and how much of it actually comes to pass.

The article President Obama's Budget Calls for Another $2.6 Trillion in Taxes. Will Your Tax Bill Increase? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool specialistSelena Maranjian, whom you can follow on Twitter, owns no shares of any company mentioned in this article.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Pat Hittmeiers tenure at Kampgrounds of America Inc. dates back to an era when reservations were made using a landline telephone and family memories were captured on a Polaroid.

Now, the Billings-based companys new CEO operates in a world where a campers experience is measured in likes, retweets and shares.

The key to growth is maximizing these experiences, particularly in a world where high land values make building new campgrounds nearly impossible.

Twenty or 25 years ago, this was very much a sales company. It was all about selling franchises. Today, were a marketing company. Its all about providing value and brand experience, pushing that brand out, Hittmeier said in a recent interview from his downtown office in TransWestern Plaza.

Hittmeier, 62 of Billings, was named top executive at KOA in December, following the retirement of longtime CEO Jim Rogers. Most recently, Hittmeier was president of the company, and he previously led the companys franchisee services department and helped develop several new campgrounds.

KOA is the nations largest outdoor camping company with 490 campgrounds nationwide, both corporate-owned and franchises. The firm was founded in Billings in 1962.

Montana has 18 of those campgrounds, including the world's first KOA in Billings on the banks of the Yellowstone River, owned by the Linde family. Another 12 are in Wyoming.

KOA is owned by New York-based financier Oscar Tang and his family, who bought controlling shares in the company in the 1980s and turned the company private.

As a privately held company, KOA isnt required to report earnings or sales figures. Hittmeier said the company has grown steadily for about the last five years while seeking to improve cabins at its sites and improve its marketing.

Obviously, we have a very stable company, been around 50 years. But weve been on a good trajectory for awhile now, and its really been based on a foundation of reinventing our brand and marketing it effectively, Hittmeier said.

A big piece of this is social media, which Hittmeier says is a growing part of the outdoor camping experience. About 285,000 people like Kampgrounds of America Inc. on Facebook. On Instagram, a photo-sharing site, the company has 6,328 followers and growing, Hittmeier said.

This month, KOA launched a camping photo contest on social media where users can share photos to win camping gift cards.

These types of programs help people associate KOA with a good, relaxing time, Hittmeier said.

Certainly, getting outdoors, creating memories family and friends. Its a very experiential type of offering that we have. People remember the memories from camping for a whole lifetime, whether it be from KOA or somewhere else. It sticks with them, he said.

KOA also adds about 1.5 million contacts to its database for email contact and other marketing every two years, which requires a sophisticated operation, Hittmeier said.

Were very much a technology company. (People) dont think of us that way. We have the largest website of any camping company in the world, probably, other than the federal government. We have proprietary software that every KOA uses in their operation  for operating, reservation, registration, accounting, retail, he said.

As baby boomers move into retirement, they have more free time and more money to spend on travel, which helps KOA, Hittmeier said. About 70 percent of the companys business is from RV travelers, he said.

In 2015, wholesale shipments of motor homes were 7.6 percent higher than in the previous year, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association.

For all units, which includes tow campers, shipments were 4.6 higher last year than in 2014, representing the best year since 2006. Analysts with the trade group say the industry has recovered from the recession, and more people are looking to travel.

Low gas prices have also been a nice shot in the arm over the past year, Hittmeier said, adding that KOA doesnt count on these factors to last.

The campgrounds will typically see bursts of activity during big swings in gas prices, he said. When they drop, people feel free to travel far and stay at KOA along the way.

When they rise, others opt for cheaper trips, which could mean camping at a KOA closer to home, he said.

Today, theyll go take the longer trip and visit places thousands of miles away, Hittmeier said.

KOA is also trying to improve its cabins to meet growing demand, he added. About 20 percent of KOA guests stay in the cabins, which now often include grills, linen service and other amenities.

KOA has 85 employees in Billings, mostly at the corporate office, and about 1,000 in the field. Hittmeier said the company is seeking to become more attractive for prospective workers and introduced a profit-sharing program and eight weeks of paid family leave at the beginning of the year.

With technology demands increasing, KOA wants to hire good talent and keep them there, he said.

Were a family-oriented company. It makes sense. You want to attract good people.  You want to make sure the employees feels good about staying home, and can stay home.
This has been a tough year so far for the stock market, and pharmacy retail stocks such as Walgreens Boots Alliance aren't immune to the volatility. Walgreens stock is down nearly 8% year to date and currently trading just 7% above the stock's 52-week low. However, investors should keep their eyes on Walgreens in 2016, because there are three catalysts could propel the stock higher from here.

Image Source: The Motley Fool.

A more nimble cost structureWalgreens, which acquired the remaining stake of European drugstore chain Alliance Boots last year to become Walgreens Boots Alliance, is cutting costs across its global business today. Walgreens is closing underperforming stores, restructuring its operations both domestically and abroad, and streamlining its IT systems as part of the company's plan to save $1 billion by 2017.

This, together with strategic acquisitions I'll discuss in a moment, should help Walgreens improve operating margins and fuel earnings growth in the upcoming quarters.

Large and in chargeThe market's recent mood swings could destroy smaller pharmacy outfits such as Rite Aid Corporation that are less equipped to deal with uncertainty both in the healthcare space and the broader market. However, as the largest retail pharmacy in the U.S. and Europe today, Walgreens has the size and scope to weather this storm. Not to mention Walgreens announced a bid last year to buy rival Rite Aid for more than $9.4 billion in cash.

Walgreens alone filled over 16% of all U.S. prescriptions in fiscal 2014 -- and that figure continues to grow. The company's footprint of more than 8,400 stores throughout the U.S. makes it more convenient for consumers to fill their prescriptions there, versus rivals such as Rite Aid, which has half as many stores. If regulators approve the takeover deal, it could significantly boost sales growth for Walgreens, thereby pushing the stock higher.

Importantly, a merger between Rite Aid and Walgreens would also give Walgreens Boots Alliance more leverage with drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers. This would help the company keep costs down. The deal is on track to close by the end of the year, assuming regulators don't interfere. However, that shouldn't be a problem, since there's still ample competition in the pharmacy space now that big-box stores such as Target and Wal-Mart are increasing the number of pharmacy clinics within their discount stores.

The Federal Trade Commission, after all, recently approved a deal between Target and CVS Health Corporation , in which CVS purchased the big-box retailer's pharmacy and clinic business. The transaction carried a $1.9 billion price tag. As part of the deal, over 1,660 pharmacies within Target stores across 47 states will be rebranded as CVS locations. If approved, Walgreens' merger with Rite Aid would leave Walgreens with a whopping 13,000 U.S. stores -- significantly more than CVS, which currently boasts a network of roughly 9,600 stores.

The stock is cheapIn addition to the catalysts I've discussed, Walgreens stock is attractively priced at its current market rate of $77 a pop today. The stock carries a price-to-earnings growth rate of 1.3, which is one of the lowest in the industry today. Moreover, shares are trading at just 15 times next year's fiscal earnings. On top of this, Walgreens stock pays an annual dividend of $1.44, which yields 1.88% at its current stock price.

While that might not seem like a lot, Walgreens' payout is a big deal because it offers investors reliable income in an otherwise uncertain market environment. You see, Walgreens has increased its dividend every year for the past 40 years, thereby earning it a reputation as a Dividend Aristocrat. Walgreens' management said the company plans to maintain its steady dividend increases, despite its pending purchase of Rite Aid.

For these reasons, I believe Walgreens Boots Alliance will reward patient shareholders in 2016.

The article 3 Reasons Walgreens Stock Could Rise originally appeared on Fool.com.

Tamara Walsh owns shares of Target. The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Delphi.

Do me a favor. The next time you're driving down the road, take your hands off of the steering wheel, put them firmly on the ceiling of the car, and see how long you can go before you completely freak out and grab the steering wheel again. Wait, scratch that. That's a ludicrous idea. Your car can't drive itself yet, and I don't want you blaming me for your eventual accident.

For some of us -- the ones who've been driving in traditional vehicles for decades -- riding in a self-driving car could feel a lot like the example above. Let's call it the weirdness factor. A car that drives itself around without the need for us to direct it will simply freak a lot of people out.

There are plenty of other inhibitors to driverless cars. Snow is currently one of them (they're working on that), but one of the biggest problems will be us. And there are few good indicators as to why.

You don't adopt new technology as fast as you think you doOver the past century, humans have adopted some pretty amazing technologies. Electricity, telephones, radio, television -- you get the idea. And in general, we've gotten faster at accepting new technologies than we have in the past. But we're still pretty slow.

According to data from the MIT Technology Review (republished on Phone Arena), it took the U.S. population 30 years for just10% of us toget electricity (yikes!). That was a long time ago, and the underlying infrastructure was substantial, so we'll give our past countrymen a free pass on that one. But more recently, it still took us eight years for just 10% of the population to get a smartphone. And at 10.5 years, smartphones found themselves in the hands of only 40% of U.S. consumers.

Remember, we're just talking about a phone here, not a self-driving car that we're entrusting our lives with. I think it's pretty safe to say that even if tech adoption rates are somewhat speeding up, it's going to take much longer for us to hop into a driverless car than it was for us to put an Internet-enabled, touchscreen phone into our pockets.

You like to be in controlIf, by some unprecedented chance, we are more willing to adopt driverless cars than we were smartphones, it's still possible we'll run into yet another obstacle: our fear of not being in control.

When we drive, we run the show. But we'll have to cede that control to autonomous cars when they hit the road. This may sound great now, because we can imagine all the extra work we'll get done on our commute (or the mobile games we'll play) and how much better it'll be to take a nap rather than deal with the guy that just cut us off.

But it may take us a while to feel relaxed in ourartificiallyintelligent cars. Consider acommon anxiety that plagues nearly 40% of Americans: the fear of flying.One of the major stress factors associated with flying is a fear of not being in control. If something goes wrong in the plane, you have no way of fixing the issue. You have to trust the pilot and the crew 100% of the time.

Now, driverless cars to flying is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but there are similarities. In a driverless car, as in a plane, you're just along for the ride. Software and hardware in autonomous cars will -- especially if they're going to save lives -- control the vehicle the vast majority of the time. And that's going to make a lot of people anxious.

Of course, unlike flying, most self-driving cars will have a way for passengers to take back over control in certain situations. But that won't be the default setting. Most of the time, you and I will be passively sitting in our vehicles.

Alphabet'sGoogle didn't want steering wheels in its driverless car prototypes, essentially because humans are the ones making all of the mistakes. That doesn't yet match up with autonomous car testing laws in the U.S., but it's a still a focus for the company.

Maybe you're ready to travel down the highway at 65 MPH with cars all around you and no steering wheel -- but there are plenty of others who aren't.

You're easily distractedEven for those driverless cars that do keep a steering wheel around for emergencies, the likelihood of you making the right decision in those situations seems a bit low.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute are studying how people act while riding in self-driving cars. More specifically, if people are aware of what's going on around them.

Most of the time, this won't matter. But in those instances where the autonomous car software doesn't know what to do, and you have to take back over control, the researchers suggested you and I still need a lot of situational awareness to make the right decision, and we may not have it because we've been too busy doing something else.

Foolish thoughtsAutonomous cars will be a reality on our roads soon enough. And while the hype may be a bit overblown right now, there's no denying tech companies and automakers are moving quickly in this direction. But we'll have to address our own shortcomings that could hold the technology back before we reach true driverless car ubiquity.

The article You Are the Biggest Roadblock for Driverless Cars originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A and C shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Among investors, there may be none more revered than Warren Buffett. Although recent stock market weakness has pushed Buffett well behind Bill Gates for the title of richest person in the world, there's little denying that Buffett has been nothing short of masterful for turning a fortune of less than $10,000 in the 1950's into a net worth of nearly $61 billion today, according to Forbes.

Much of the credit for Buffett's success goes to his and his teams' ability at Berkshire Hathaway to recognize quality companies trading at a discount.

For example, since 1988 Buffett and his team have gobbled up 400 million shares of beverage giant Coca-Cola . Coca-Cola's days of rapid growth are well in the rearview mirror, but with a presence in all but one country around the globe (North Korea), and more than 3,000 unique beverages, product diversification and inelasticity have worked in Buffett's and Berkshire's favor regardless of the economic environment. On a split-adjusted basis, Buffett's initial investment in Coca-Cola is up more than 20-fold, and Berkshire Hathaway is now reaping $528 million in dividend income annually, which builds upon Coca-Cola's 53-year streak of raising its annual payout.

And you can trust me when I say there are many more "Coca-Cola's" in Buffett's portfolio.

Warren Buffett's secret to paying a lower tax rate than you But stock picking is just one reason Buffett's been able to amass such incredible wealth. The other component to Buffett's success is an exceptionally low effective tax rate. As noted by the Oracle of Omaha himself in an op-ed column in The New York Times in 2011, Buffett claimed to be paying only a 17.4% effective tax rate (that year) compared to 20 workers in his office who were paying an average tax rate of 36%.

In Buffett's own words,

Although our progressive income tax brackets have changed a bit since Buffett wrote this piece in 2011, this basic tenet still holds true: Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, is probably paying a lower tax rate on his income than you are.

How is this possible? Simple. Buffet takes advantage of capital gains taxes and lengthy stock holding periods.

Image source: Flickr user Christine Chua.

How capital gains taxes give Buffett an edgeBuffett has often emphasized the importance of long-term investing in his shareholder letters and annual meetings. Putting into practice what he preaches has made a big difference when it comes to him paying a far lower tax rate than many Americans.

Buffett himself only takes home a $100,000 salary each year as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, although there are other areas where the Oracle of Omaha is compensated. The remainder of Buffett's taxation comes from capital gains taxes.

Capital gains tax rates are pretty cut-and-dried. If you own a stock or bond for one year or less, it's considered a short-term investment. As such, the individual claiming the gain will pay an ordinary income tax rate commensurate with their peak marginal tax rate. For the super-rich today that could work out to a 39.6% tax.

The magic happens when you hold onto an investment for a year and a day or longer. Selling a stock beyond this point and claiming a capital gain allows an investor to substantially reduce their tax liability on the gain. Taxpayers in today's 10% or 15% ordinary income tax bracket would owe zero, zilch, nada, on their long-term capital gains based on the 2016 federal tax tables. Taxpayers in the 25%, 28%, 33%, or 35% ordinary tax brackets owe just 15% on their long-term capital gains. Finally, the super-rich, which would encompass anyone bringing in more than $415,050 as an individual or $466,950 as married filers in 2016, would owe just 20%.

Imagine this for a moment. Let's assume Buffett were to sell stock and claim $1 billion in long-term capital gains. His tax on this amount? Based on 2016's tax schedule, he would be responsible for paying a 20% tax (plus a potential 3.8% net investment income surtax which is tied to the Affordable Care Act). By contrast, a worker with no investment income who earns $37,651 in 2016 finds themselves stuck in a peak ordinary income tax bracket of 25%. Understandably effective tax rates for both individuals would be lower than their peak marginal taxes rates, but this difference clearly shows how long-term capital gains significantly favor the rich. It's a tool that Buffett has used to keep a good chunk of his money.

Buffett's tax secret is a secret no longer. Image source: Flickr user Mateus Lunardi Dutra.

A holding period of forever helps too But, on top of just paying a lower tax rate via capital gains taxes, Buffett's wealth is also a factor of the 0% in taxes he pays by holding stock in companies for very long periods of time (if not forever). If Buffett never sells, he never has to pay any tax, and all the while he gets to benefit from the rising value of the stocks he and his company Berkshire Hathaway owns. Historically, the stock market has risen at a pace equivalent to 7% to 8% per year, meaning a long-term investor could see their money double about once every decade under "average" circumstances.

The good news is Buffett's tax secret really doesn't have to be a secret at all. Anyone can benefit from long-term capital gains as long as they remain disciplined. This means seeking out and investing in businesses not because of some great earnings report or new hot gadget, but because they have a long-term business model/plan that, after careful research, you believe can succeed over the long run. Finding companies with competitive advantages, and that pay regular dividends, is a formula Buffett's used for a long time. You, too, can use it to grow your investment portfolio while also possibly lowering your effective tax rate.

The article Billionaire Warren Buffett's Secret to Paying a Lower Tax Rate Than You originally appeared on Fool.com.

Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway. It also recommends Coca-Cola. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: SunEdison.

SunEdison Inc still bills itself as the largest renewable energy developer in the world --just look at its home page. But it appears it can't even get renewable energy development right, much less its own finances.

Hawaiian Electric Industries announced recently it has canceled power purchase agreements (PPA) for 148 MW of solar plants the company was supposed to build. SunEdison missed multiple contracted deadlines and couldn't arrange financing after agreeing to sell the projects to D.E. Shawin late December. Now, SunEdison is sitting on a partially developed solar project without a PPA and a buyer that won't likely close on the transaction. Could this get any worse?

Hawaii becomes a headache for SunEdison After months of missed financial and progress milestones, Hawaiian Electric had finally had enough of dealing with SunEdison. The PPA that was supposed to support the 148 MW in projects was canceled, and that now calls into question SunEdison's losses on the money that's already been spent on the projects as well as what role D.E. Shaw will play in the process.

Image source: SunEdison.

On December 30, SunEdison announced it had agreed to exchange "certain under development renewable energy assets" and TerraForm Power shares for the extinguishment of $336 million in Exchangeable Notes. According to the release, $121 million was extinguished shortly after the agreement was signed, and the remaining $215 million would be extinguished when assets were transferred. Documents filed with the Hawaii PUC indicate the transfer still hasn't taken place.

Based on the correspondence provided in the PUC filing (seen here), it seems like SunEdison and D.E. Shaw were trying to negotiate who would make certain progress payments and line up project financing, which kept delaying the projects. At the end of the day, Hawaiian Electric just wanted to wash its hands of the process.

This was a pre-emptive move by Hawaiian Electric Don't think canceling these PPAs wasn't well thought-out. Hawaiian Electric wanted to reduce the risk in its own portfolio by ridding itself of SunEdison before it was too late. If the PPAs were still outstanding and SunEdison went into bankruptcy, it could have frozen resources and space on the grid. Here is the direct quote from the utility's filing with regulators:

That's a scathing statement showing how little confidence Hawaiian Electric has that SunEdison won't end up in bankruptcy. In fact, it's basically betting SunEdison will go bankrupt and is saying it doesn't want any part of that process.

This doesn't end well Just a few days ago, I wrote that SunEdison is running out of survival options, and creditors are starting to stake claim over the scraps that may be left if the company becomes insolvent. Hawaiian Electric took the path of not having anything to do with SunEdison's deteriorating balance sheet.

This is just the latest black eye for SunEdison, and I don't see how it ends well for the company. If simple renewable energy projects can't be completed on time, what can we really expect from SunEdison going forward?

The article If SunEdison Inc Can't Even Get This Right -- What's Next? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The list of companies committing to cage-free eggs just keeps growing.

Trader Joe's announced this week that it would go cage-free by 2025, and by 2020 in some states. The alternative grocer said that 60% of the eggs it sells are cage-free already, and believes demand for cage-free eggs is evolving faster than supply.

With that announcement, Trader Joe's joinsCostco Wholesale,McDonald's Corp.,Nestle,Wendy's, Starbucks,Panera Bread, General Mills,Subway, and others that have all committed to selling only cage-free eggs. As consumers become more concerned about animal rights and where their food is coming from, the movement has reached a critical mass.

McDonald's and Costco would seem to have the biggest effect on the trend among all the companies listed above. With 14,000 locations nationwide, Mickey D's is one of the country's biggest purchaser of eggs, buying 2 billion annually. Under new CEO Steve Easterbrook, the company has made food transparency and quality a priority, committing to antibiotic-free chicken as well as cage-free eggs. Meanwhile, Costco, the country's second-biggest retailer, finally responded to calls for it to commit to cage-free eggs. The warehouse retailer has not set a date for the transition, but groceries make up 57% of its sales, or more than $60 billion last year, meaning its decision is likely to further tip the scales to cage-free and could influence other grocery chains.

But the biggest beneficiary from this trend is not a retailer or restaurant but a supplier.

And the winner is...Cal-Maine Foods is the nation's largest producer and marketer of shell eggs. In fiscal 2015, it sold over 12 billion eggs, or an estimated 23% of the domestic market. The company has grown to a dominant position in the market thanks to a series of acquisitions.

Cal-Maine sells to a wide variety of businesses, including national and regional grocery stores, club stores, and restaurant chains. It sells shell eggs to a majority of the largest food retailers in the U.S, and is also a major producer and distributor of specialty eggs. Specialty shell eggs bring in about 60% more revenue per egg, and made up nearly 20% of total egg volume in its most recent year.

In other words, doubling the percentage of specialty eggs it sells would lead to a 12% increase in revenue and a greater increase in profits from the premium-priced product. Cage-free eggs command a premium as much as double that of regular eggs. If the whole industry goes cage-free, revenue could jump between 50% and 80%.

Going cage-free won't happen overnightMost of the big brands that have made their cage-free announcements have given themselves as much as 10 years or more to transition. From a business sense, caged hens have their advantages. Caged henhouses can hold as many as one to two thirds more birds, and caging helped turned a niche industry populated by small businesses into a global commodity with price points that made eggs a staple food.

Going cage-free on a scale big enough to satisfy McDonald's, which buys 2 billion eggs a year for its U.S. restaurants, will require billions in investments from farmers as well as a much larger hen population, since cage-free hens don't lay as much. Currently, 8% of the national flock is cage-free.

Cal-Maine has already gotten started on filling the upcoming demand. Last year, it announced it was teaming up with Rose Acre Farms, the country's #2 egg supplier, to build a cage-free facility that would house 1.8 million to 2.9 million hens, which would increase the cage-free population by about 10%.

More to like about Cal-MaineCal-Maine has a history of growing through acquisitions, having bought 18 companies since 1989, and is now focused on buying specialty egg producers as specialty eggs are the major driver of growth. As the company is already the largest egg producer in the U.S., its advantage is only likely to increase as it further consolidates its leadership position. In addition, the company is benefiting from other trends in the food industry like a decline in packaged and processed food consumption. Breakfast cereal, one competitor with eggs, is on the decline, and the trend of making food from scratch, rather than out of the box, also favors egg sales.

In addition, Cal-Maine delivers strong profit margins and a dividend yield above 6%, and its stock has been a historically strong performer. As the chart below shows, the stock is up more than 1,000% in the last ten years.

CALM data by YCharts

Eggs have long been considered an inelastic good, meaning consumers' decisions to purchase them are mostly unaffected by price. Now Americans are saying they're willing to pay more for cage-free eggs, and businesses are responding. That should lead to a windfall for egg suppliers

With its leading position in the industry, track record of acquisitions, and commitment to meeting cage-free egg demand, Cal-Maine is uniquely positioned to benefit from this trend.

The article One Stock To Profit From This Huge Food Trend originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Costco Wholesale, Panera Bread, and Starbucks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Last Tuesday, the U.S. and Cuba signed an historic agreement allowing scheduled flights between the two countries to resume after more than 50 years. This follows the renewal of diplomatic ties between the two countries last summer.

U.S. airlines are competing for rights to operate scheduled service to Cuba.

Travelers still need to certify that they qualify for one of a dozen "approved" categories to visit Cuba -- tourism is still officially banned. Yet airlines anticipate a rapid increase in demand for flights to Cuba.

As a result, the five largest U.S. airlines -- American Airlines , Delta Air Lines , United Continental , Southwest Airlines , and JetBlue Airways -- are now fighting to secure the rights for new flights to Cuba. Let's take a look at how this battle may play out.

It's all about HavanaThe U.S.-Cuba agreement allows U.S. carriers to fly up to 20 daily scheduled roundtrip flights from the U.S. to Havana, as well as up to 10 flights to each of Cuba's nine other international airports.

Some airlines will likely be interested in flying to Cuba's secondary airports. American Airlines has a major hub in Miami, home to a large Cuban-American community and just a few hundred miles from Cuba. JetBlue has a sizable focus city nearby in Fort Lauderdale. Both airlines could likely support flights from South Florida to secondary airports in Cuba to serve the "visiting friends and relatives" market.

American Airlines will likely become a major player in Cuba. Image source: American Airlines.

By contrast, in their press releases discussing the U.S.-Cuba air service agreement, Delta Air Lines and United Continental only mentioned filing for flights to Havana. (Southwest Airlines may also stick to Havana flights at first, though that's not certain.)

Due to the relatively modest demand for flights from the U.S. to Cuba's smaller airports, airlines don't necessarily need to file to operate these flights right away. There should be route authorities available for these airports after the initial allocation, allowing airlines to wait and see how demand shapes up.

By contrast, as Cuba's capital and largest city (by far), Havana should see strong flight demand almost from day one. As a result, airlines are likely to aim high as they apply for flights to Havana.

What will the airlines request?Based on their strong positions in South Florida, American Airlines and JetBlue will probably request permission to operate multiple daily flights to Havana from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, respectively.

The New York City metro area has the second largest Cuban-American population in the U.S. (Of course, it is also the largest city in the country.) Delta, United, American, and JetBlue all have hubs in the New York area. There is a good chance that all four will request permission to operate one or more daily flights from New York to Havana.

JetBlue will likely seek authority for multiple routes to Cuba. Image source: JetBlue Airways.

Additionally, Delta Air Lines will certainly request permission to fly to Havana from its largest hub in Atlanta. American Airlines will also probably want to fly to Havana from its No. 1 hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It may also consider applying for routes from its hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

United Continental may file for route authorities to Havana from its hubs in Houston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. JetBlue may request flights to its Orlando focus city -- and perhaps also Boston -- in addition to Fort Lauderdale and New York.

Southwest is the big wild cardSouthwest Airlines' plans for Cuba are a big open question. The carrier only began flying beyond the U.S. a few years ago, following its merger with AirTran, and it is still in the early stages of its international expansion. However, due to its broadly distributed route network, Southwest could potentially support flights to Havana from numerous markets.

Southwest has identified Baltimore-Washington, Houston, and Fort Lauderdale as its key international gateways. Thus, it wouldn't be surprising to see it request flight allocations from all three markets to Havana. (This is complicated by the fact that Southwest's international terminal in Fort Lauderdale won't be ready until late 2017, at best.)

Southwest could potentially support flights to Cuba from several cities.

However, Southwest also has a large presence in other cities in the Southeast, including Atlanta, Orlando, and Tampa. It could potentially request route authorities from those cities in order to gain a first-mover advantage in the one Caribbean market where it isn't playing from behind. Finally, Southwest may be interested in flying to Havana from Chicago, its largest focus city.

Considering all of the players and all of the possible route opportunities, it seems likely that the 20 available roundtrip flights to Havana will not be nearly enough to meet the airlines' requests. That means the Department of Transportation will play a big role in determining which airlines will win and which ones will lose from the opening of the Cuban market.

The article U.S. Airlines Scramble for Cuba Flights originally appeared on Fool.com.

Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of JetBlue Airways and United Continental Holdings, and is long Jan. 2017 $17 calls on JetBlue Airways, long Jan. 2017 $40 calls on Delta Air Lines, Inc., and long Jan. 2017 $30 calls on American Airlines Group. The Motley Fool is long Jan. 2017 $35 calls on American Airlines Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia caught the legal and political worlds by surprise. Photo source: Stephen Masker.

The shock over the sudden death of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia quickly gave way to political enmity as it was immediately understood the ramifications his demise has for future court decisions.

The court is set to rule on a number of cases that hold important outcomes for individuals and business, but it's the outcome of future cases after a justice has been appointed to fill the vacancy where the biggest questions loom.

And arguably there is no more contentious issue that may make it to the Supreme Court than those about gun rights and the implications such decisions will have on Smith & Wesson Holding , Sturm, Ruger , and the other firearms manufacturers.

The seminal case on gun rightsIn fact, one of Scalia's most influential decisions wasDistrict of Columbia v. Heller, a ruling that established theabsoluteconstitutionalprotections afforded an individualand his right to purchase and own firearms.

Where the city government had made it virtually impossible for a person to legally own a gun, Heller held that "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."

That was followed two years later by McDonald v. City of Chicago, written by Justice Samuel Alito, which said the due process clause of the 14th Amendment made the federal protections outlined in Heller applicable as well to the states, meaning just as Congress could not pass laws violating the Second Amendment, neither could state or local legislatures.

Both decisions, though, were 5-4 in favor of upholding an individual's right to keep and bear arms, but a court packed with the type of progressive justices President Obama has nominated thus far would likely have a very different outcome, which is why the battle over whether Obama or the next president should fill the vacancy is likely to be hotly contested. Liberals obviously want another progressive on the bench; conservatives want to wait for the next president to have the choice of justice, undoubtedly hoping their judicial philosophy will prevail.

Fear is a powerful motivatorHowever, the possibility an anti-gun majority will sit on the bench sent the stocks of Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger racing higher on Tuesday, as investors expect a gun-buying frenzy to follow. Their shares closed out the day 3% and 2% higher, respectively.

The firearms industry has thrived during the current administration because of fear over actions the president might take to impede lawful gun ownership. Yet no real laws were attempted, let alone adopted. Not even his vaunted executive orders did anything meaningful.

Source: Chart by author from data provided by the FBI.

Still the demand for firearms is staggering. For nine straight months now, the FBI has conducted record numbers of background checks on applicants wanting to purchase a gun. In January it performed more than 2.5 million investigations into gun buyers, more checks than during any other January since the law enforcement agency began keeping records in the late 1990s. It was higher than evenJanuary 2013, which had been the all-time record as it followed on the heels of the Sandy Hook shootings. Last month's volume is now only second to this past December, when the FBI conducted over 3.3 million investigations.

Gun buyers are not who you thinkYet the demand for guns isn't being driven by survivalists planning for Armageddon. Rather, just as Heller foretold, it's been the desire for self-defense in the home that is the single greatest impetus behind the spike in gun sales. And it's not just men, either, but women, too, seeking to level the playing field, a factor that could be key to drivingfuture gun sales. As the Illinois Supreme Court noted in the follow up gun case of Aguilar v. Illinois, the premise of both Heller and McDonald was that "individual self-defense is 'thecentral component'of the Second Amendment right."

Last month, Smith & Wesson tore up the guidance it issued just the month before and said it was experiencing sales so red hot it was raising its revenues and profits forecast. Sturm, Ruger looks like it's on track, too, for yet another profitable quarter, and even Colt Defense has returned from bankruptcy in time to capitalize on the demand for weapons.

Although there is perhaps more reason for concern for the future of gun rights with the passing of Justice Scalia, it is likely not an issue that will be decided for some time to come. Because of the U.S. Senate's power over consenting to any nominee put up for consideration, the checks and balances built into the Constitution mean the outcome will almost certainly be punted till next year, though the pace of gun buying will continue unabated.

The article What Does Justice Scalia's Death Mean for Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rich Duprey has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Alternative grocery stocks have hit a wall lately. As mainstream grocers such as Kroger,Costco, andWal-Marthave rolled out more organic offerings, the niche players have tumbled.

TFM data by YCharts

Against that backdrop, it's not surprising thatThe Fresh Market announced last October that it would explore a sale of the business. Comparable sales have declined in each of the past three quarters, getting worse with each report and hitting 3.7% in its most recent quarter.

The story became more intriguing last week, whenReutersreported that Kroger was in the second round of an auction to purchase The Fresh Market, competing against several private-equity firms. Fresh Market shares jumped 23% on the news, as a competitive auction could indicate a high purchase premium.

It figures that Kroger would be part of the mix. The company is the largest pure-play grocer in the country, having snatched up banners including Fred Meyer, King Soopers, and Ralph's over the years, and more recently Harris Teeter and Roundy's. Kroger's acquisition strategy has proved to be a savvy one, as it allows the company to grow without further saturating the grocery market. As competitors add new stores, it only makes sense that weaker brands would lose sales, as supermarkets are a slow growth industry and can only support so many new stores each year.

What Fresh Market means to KrogerFresh Market has 183 stores in 27 states, enough to grow Kroger's base by about 7%. At a market cap of $1 billion, Fresh Market wouldn't break Kroger's bank in an acquisition, and at a P/E of 17 the company trades at a lower valuation than Kroger itself. Kroger has taken out debt to fund its recent acquisitions and now has $11.5 billion in debt on its books, though low interest makes borrowing for the purpose of acquisitions more compelling than waiting a few years.

The Fresh Market is strongest in the Southeast, with 40 stores in Florida, more than it has in any other state. Kroger currently has just one store in Florida and would like a bulkhead in the country's third-largest state. However, Fresh Market's other stores tend to overlap with Kroger's brand, including Harris Teeter, as Kroger is strongest in the Southeast and in the Ohio Valley.

Despite Fresh Market stock's recent woes, the business is a better one than Kroger, according to some important metrics. Through the first three quarters of 2015, Fresh Market has delivered a profit margin above 3% while Kroger's is below 2%. Profitability, then, isn't the issue for Fresh Market, though its profits have slightly decreased over the past three quarters.

How Kroger handles acquisitionsHistorically, Kroger has preferred to acquire only well-run rivals, avoiding turnaround plays. Its latest acquisition, Roundy's, shows a departure from that approach, as the Midwestern grocer has been losing market share lately, and Kroger plans to invest money to overhaul some of the older stores in Milwaukee and Madison and expand the brand in that region.

In its integration of Harris Teeter, Kroger has mostly left the brand alone. CEO Rodney McMullen has said that the two brands have been able to learn from each other and apply best practices. Kroger, for example, has borrowed Harris Teeter's online ordering system and Harris Teeter's supply chain has benefited from its new owner.Kroger also converted a few Harris Teeter locations in Nashville, but it has left the majority operating under their original banners, with the distinct Harris Teeter branding and higher-end product offering.

As for a potential Fresh Market acquisition, the integration would probably resemble Harris Teeter's, as Fresh Market is another high-end grocery banner with a foothold in the Southeast, a fast-growing part of the country. While Harris Teeter had a similar profit margin to Fresh Market at the time of its acquisition,the company was still growing steadily with 3.7% same-store-sales growth in its last quarter before the acquisition was announced, a key difference.

Revitalizing Fresh Market's growth will be the biggest challenge for its suitors, but Kroger has as a strong track record in that department. Ultimately, the decision will come down to the price tag. At its current level, taking over The Fresh Market would make sense for Kroger, but that calculus changes as the premium goes up. Its current stock price resembles what it paid for Harris Teeter, but if a bidding war ensues, Kroger may justifiably lose interest.

The article What a Fresh Market Acquistion Would Mean for Kroger originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Costco Wholesale. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A recently published patentreveals that Microsoft might build a "modular" PC consisting of a processor, graphics card, hard drive, battery, speakers, wireless card, and other components encased in removable magnetic shells. The shells, which would be similar to Lego blocks, could be easily swapped out from the base, making customizing or upgrading the system much easier. The display, which rests on top of the stack, could also be swapped out.

Source: U.S. Patent Office.

The patent filing also briefly mentions gesture recognition and holographic projection, hinting at compatibility with the HoloLens. Tim Escolin, an industrial designer on the Surface team, co-authored the patent, indicating that it might be developed as a Surface device. The filing doesn't mean that Microsoft will actually launch a modular PC, but we should discuss why the tech giant would even consider creating such a device.

The business of modular computingUpgrading a traditional desktop today requires opening the case, unscrewing and removing components, swapping in the new ones, and installing drivers. Putting the components into block-like shells saves a lot of time, and Microsoft-branded or approved modular components could be automatically installed and be less likely to cause hardware conflicts.

However, many companies have teased similar products before. In 2014, Razer introduced a similar modular PC concept called Project Christine, but it was never mass produced. Total Geekdom unveiled a similar Micro Lego Computer last July, but it hasn't launched yet either. Acer started selling the core unit of its Revo Build stackable PC, but it hasn't launched any of its modular components yet.

Acer's Revo Build (L) and Total Geekdom's Lego Computer (R).

On the mobile front, Alphabet'sGoogle started testing Project Ara, a modular smartphone, in 2014. The base device only has a frame, touchscreen, and a Wi-Fi module, and users buy and attach additional blocks for the battery, speakers, RAM, and processor. But as I mentioned in a previous article, the Ara is impractical because cheap smartphone reference designs already clump many of those components together -- making them more cost effective than pick-and-choose modular devices.

Google's Project Ara. Source: Google.

What's Microsoft's angle?After Microsoft launched the Surface, many PC OEMs created similar 2-in-1 devices, sparking a form factor revolution for devices running Windows' desktop and tablet modes. Microsoft might be trying to spark a similar revolution in the desktop market, which has remained the weakest section of the sluggish PC market.

Enterprise customers, which are a key market for the Surface, also still rely heavily on desktop PCs. These customers might think that a modular all-in-one PC with removable shells could be more efficiently upgraded than traditional desktops. These PCs could also complement the Surface Dock, which turns Surface tablets into full desktops, in enterprise environments. Lastly, introducing an all-in-one modular PC would expand Microsoft's Surface line, which already consists of 2-in-1 devices and a laptop.

Why a modular PC will likely failThe idea of a Lego-like Surface PC is interesting, but I doubt that it will see the light of day for several reasons. First, Microsoft doesn't manufacture first-party CPUs, GPUs, or other components. This means that those third-party manufacturers must agree to create proprietary blocks for Microsoft's PC. Since those components will require extra parts, like magnets and cases, they will likely cost more than their non-modular counterparts for traditional PCs.

There's also no industry standard for modular components, which means that companies would have to create specialized blocks for each modular manufacturer. Moreover, modular PCs will never be as cost-effective as ready-made desktops, because OEMs buy the parts in big bulk orders. Lastly, desktops are dying because tablets, laptops, and 2-in-1 devices can pack comparable horsepower on smaller boards. SoCs and tightly knit reference designs now do the work of multiple hardware devices, so the practice of upgrading individual components is becoming outdated.

Not a mobile-first strategyIntroducing a modular PC at this point would also be a baffling move which contradicts Microsoft's attempt to become a "mobile-first" company. Continuum, for example, can already turn Windows 10 phones and tablets into full-fledged desktops with a $99 Display Dock. Those mobile-centric devices are more elegant "all-in-one" solutions for mainstream and enterprise users than a stack of magnetic shells.

Microsoft already dabbled in modular designs last year with the modular Xbox One Elite controller, which let users swap out the analog sticks, D-pad, or add paddles to the rear. However, a modular PC is a much bigger project than a controller, and one that could dent itsgrowing Surface division if it flops. Therefore, I believe that a modular Surface desktop is an interesting idea, but one that Microsoft definitely shouldn't mass produce.

The article Will Microsoft Corporation Launch A Lego-Like Surface Desktop? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares) and Alphabet (C shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
How is it possible to have presidential contests in Nevada and South Carolina that are both appealing and appalling to conservatives?

Lets review Saturdays results.

In Nevadas Democratic caucuses, Hillary Clinton struggled for a third consecutive time. As in Iowa and New Hampshire, she blew a double-digit lead (25 points, only a month ago), walking away with what looks like a five-point win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Again, Clinton had difficulty in pumping up her base (she can thank Sen. Harry Reid and a last-minute labor push for getting her over the top). As per usual, she didnt connect with millennial Democrats and voters concerned about her integrity.

Clinton may go on to win the Democratic nomination. On paper, a competition that moves to the South, beginning next Saturday in South Carolina, works to her advantage given the heavily African-American electorates that await her there.

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign cant wait to bid adieu to a February in which the candidate hasnt run so much as shes lurched.

Pre-Nevada, Hillarys national lead over Sanders evaporated. Showing none of the certainty of a repeat presidential candidate, Clinton has fiddled with her core message (Im a progressive who likes to get things done) with the same frequency that she changed hairstyles back in the 1990s.

The bottom line: despite winning Nevada, Clintons long-term prospects remain shaky.

And that should elate conservatives.

Now, for the appalling: a Republican primary in South Carolina that had little do with conservative principles, ideas or values.

The complaint here isnt that Donald Trump won. Or, that his dominance again defies common sense: only a single-digit number of South Carolinians told exit pollsters that Trump shares their values; the twice-divorced candidate split the evangelical vote with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

The concern: the nature of how Trump goes about his business  the king of noisy bandwidth, his bombast and calculated fights for months now have dominated news cycles, streamed ceaselessly on social media, and stifled any chance at a calm, rational, issues-driven conversation on the Republican slide.

South Carolina was yet another casualty. The primary was an opportunity to discuss what exactly the conservative movement embodies these days. Now, the moments passed.

To the need to broadening the partys appeal to win national elections, there was a chance to showcase Gov. Nikki Haley (the nations only female Indian-American head of state) and Sen. Tim Scott (one of only two African-American senators).

Both supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dominated the exit-poll electability question. Both played cameos roles compared to the candidates infighting.

South Carolina leads the nation in direct foreign investment and has a veteran population 25 percent larger than the national average. Last year, the state dealt gracefully with three divisive issues: lowering the Confederate flag at the state Capitol; a mass shooting at a black church in Charleston that led to an outpouring of calm, not violence; the fatal police shooting of black man in North Charleston that likewise didnt turn into urban riots.

So where was the conversation regarding growing the economy, the perils of union over-reach (West Virginia, like South Carolina, becoming a right-to-work state this past week), a more coherent foreign policy and a more united society across racial and ideological lines?

The answer: they all were smothered by Trumps antics  and a malady best described as Candidate Derangement Syndrome.

During the course of the GOPs 10-day road trip down south, Trump threatened to sue Cruz over an ad claiming the GOP frontrunner once supported abortion rights. Trump went mano-a-mitre with Pope Francis over building a border wall. He blamed George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks, insinuating that the former president lied his way into the Iraq invasion. Trump even called for a boycott of Apple products so long as the computer refuses to hack into a dead terrorists iPhone.

The media ate it up.

Not surprisingly, the primary played into the stereotype of South Carolina as a political circus.

In fairness, Trumps not the only offender here. Cruz and Rubio spit-balled each other over character flaws, policy inconsistencies and sloppy photo-shopping. Jeb Bush went after Trump in defense of his big brother and in vain hopes of jump-starting a campaign that ended not long after the polls closed.

The question moving forward for conservatives: is this the way its going to be until someone earns 1,237 delegates and the partys nomination?

With three primaries down and another 17 Republican contests to be held over the course of the next two weeks, look for the following dominos to tumble.

Bush. Theres a saying in Silicon Valley: WFIO. It stands for Were F---ed, Its Over.

Credit Jeb Bush with recognizing in an instant that his campaign was over. His concession speech was dignified and without a trace of bitterness  rarities in this age of harsh politics. Other candidates whod spend nearly $81 million in ads ($15 million in South Carolina) with only four delegates to show night not have been so graceful.

Now, the political question: how quickly does Bush throw his organizational and financial weight behind Rubio? Its a good question, as relations between the Floridians are strained, but nowhere near Bushs animosity for Trump.

Rubio. As was the case after his third-place finish in Iowa, opportunity knocks. So how does Rubio capitalize on newfound moment? Look for an infusion of cash and a spate of endorsements. Rubios priorities in the weeks ahead: amassing delegates on March 1 (much easier now that Bush is out of the race), winning Florida on March 15.

Meanwhile, circle this date: Feb. 25. Its the next GOP candidates debate  University of Houston, CNN and Telemundo moderating. And its Rubios next chance to shine as the establishments alternative to Trump and Cruz.

Cruz. Six March 1 states line up as targets for Cruz  Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and his home state of Texas. For Cruz, the goal is to stay close to Trump by winning as many delegates as possible in these winner-takes-most states that allot the delegates proportionally.

The key figure for Cruz and Rubio, presuming Trump continues to run in the low- to mid-30s: 20 percent, which is the threshold required in most states in order to earn delegates.

Trump. Yes, he won. Decisively so.

But as the attention focuses on three candidates, does Trumps share of the pie expand? Trumps support so far: 24.3 percent in Iowa; 35.3 percent in New Hampshire; 33 percent in South Carolina.

For those who see Trump as a media-savvier version of Pat Buchanans insurrection back in 1992, this reminder: Buchanan peaked at 37.5 percent in New Hampshire; he then had trouble cracking 30 percent. The protest movement had a ceiling.

Unlike Buchanans run, Trump is actually winning states. Whether he can get to 40 percent and beyond: its the difference between a race that could be over by Easter Sunday or an unsettled national convention in July.

With the Republican race staying in the South through March 1, perhaps its best to remember a NASCAR adage about the pushing and shoving and fender-bending that occurs along the speedway: rubbings racing.

Thats true in this Republican field, even if the process rubs conservatives the wrong way.
David Koel, AIA, NCARB, has joined the principal ownership team at CTA Architects Engineers. Koel, a prolific designer of many commercial, educational and residential projects for CTA across a wide geography, and team leader of the firms residential market, is a registered architect in Montana and Minnesota; a past president of AIA Montana; and a design review board member for the City of Kalispell and Whitefish Mountain. He earned a bachelors degree in architecture with a minor in landscape architecture from North Dakota State University in 1993. His award-winning work includes Skyhouse in Lakeside (2014 AIA Design Award of Merit); the Cohen residence in Whitefish (2013 AIA Design Award of Merit); Whitefish Lake Poolhouse in Whitefish Lake (2012 AIA Design Honor Award); and Forrest M. Bird (formerly Sandpoint) Charter School in Sandpoint, Idaho (2011 AIA Design Award of Merit).
Republicans in deep-blue Maryland are hoping to pull off an upset in this year's Senate race like GOP Gov. Larry Hogan did in 2014, according to InsideSources.



Republicans are hoping to build on Hogans success by electing the first GOP U.S. senator from Maryland since 1987, in the contest to fill the open seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

Maryland House Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga is one of six GOP Senate candidates looking to duplicate the Hogan miracle in the partys April 26 primary.

As the highest-ranking Republican woman in the state Legislature, shes the perceived front-runner and boasts significant support from the political establishment.

Szeliga told InsideSources that the tide is changing in Marylan and that voters want a senator focused on jobs, national security and education.

As the only woman in the Republican field, Szeliga also argued shes a good fit for an electorate thats 60 percent female.

Its an uphill climb during a presidential election, especially in a state with more than twice as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans.

In addition, the Democratic candidate in the general election will likely either be Maryland Reps. Chris Van Hollen or Donna Edwards, who each have strong name recognition, though no strong connections to Baltimore's Democratic machine.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings said last week that he will not seek Mikulskis seat. Cummings has strong ties to Baltimore and would have become the instant frontrunner, according to some early polling.

Szeliga is facing several other candidates the the party primary including Chrys Kefalas, the 36-year-old vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers who thinks hes the candidate to replicate Hogans win.

A former legal counsel to Marylands previous GOP governor, Bob Ehrlich, Kefalas played up the fact that, as was the case with Hogan, hes never held public office.

"The people of Maryland, whether theyre Democrat, independent or Republican, are not looking for a politician, he said.

Szeliga touts her three decades of business experience -- including at a construction company she founded with her husband.

Kefalas said Republicans also need to compete in places like Baltimore, and in fact the entire campaign will turn on whether his party appeals to voters beyond its conservative base.

Its going to be very hard to get more Republican voters to the polls [than Hogan did in 2014], he said. The key to this election, with 250,000 or 300,000 more Democratic voters turning out in a presidential year, is doing better than Gov. Hogan did in predominantly Democratic and independent jurisdictions.

Kefalas, who is openly gay, plans to tout his advocacy for marriage equality and service as a speechwriter to former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Click here to read more from InsideSources:
Big crowds turned out Saturday for the Nevada Democratic caucuses -- leading to scattered delays and long lines throughout the state.

Delays were still being reported, shortly before Fox News called the race for Hillary Clinton.

The Nevada State Democratic Party told Fox News that many of the caucus sites remained open because of the heavy volume.

According to early entrance polls, there were a huge number of first time caucus-goers. Early entrance polls also showed minority voters turned out in strong numbers for the candidates, giving Clinton a very slight lead over Bernie Sanders from the beginning.

A large number of older voters were also showing up to the caucuses, according to early polling, with about 30 percent of attendees 65 or older.

Among those was Mary Moore, a 68-year-old retiree, who said shed followed Clintons career for years.

"I've seen Hillary do things for the Mexicans, I've seen her do things for the blacks, the whites, all of them," said Moore, who is black, told The Associated Press. "It wasn't about just one color -- we're all God's children."

Moore, a former customer service representative for Delta Airlines, said shes planning to speak up at the caucus.

"I'm going to be here to put her in office," she said. "They're going to hear my mouth. They're definitely going to hear me."

Clintons camp was counting on a strong turnout among Latino voters to hold off Sanders momentum in Nevada.

In the days leading up to Saturdays caucuses, Clintons allies have worked to slam Sanders immigration record and criticized him as a johnny-come-lately to related issues.

Still, many Democrats like Andrea Reyes, a 29-year-old hair stylist, said Sanders would get her vote and expressed concern over some of Clintons donors.

"She's being funded by all the top dogs, we're being funded by the people," Reyes said at a Las Vegas Strip caucus site at Caesars Palace. "I don't want a politician who's going to stand up for corporations."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Donald Trump charges into Nevada and the mega-March primaries with a commanding lead over the GOP field after sweeping to victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary  while Hillary Clinton can breathe a sigh of relief that her firewall held just enough to beat back Bernie Sanders in Nevada, as they head to Palmetto State territory.

The outcome of Saturdays contests helps both 2016 front-runners regain their footing after going one-for-two in the leadoff contests. But there are potential hurdles ahead.

The big question now looming over the GOP race is: With Jeb Bush suspending his campaign on the heels of a distant finish Saturday, where will his supporters go?

At his victory rally, Trump challenged pundits who say such votes will gravitate to his rivals. The billionaire businessman sounded a booming note of confidence as he previewed the race ahead.

Lets put this thing away, Trump told cheering supporters.

Reflecting on the rough-and-tumble primary, which gave him a 10-point margin of victory, Trump also said, When you win, its beautiful. 

Clinton heads into the next round in a more fragile  albeit improved  position.

Clinton has watched her lead in national polls essentially evaporate after losing big in New Hampshire. Her showing in Nevada marks a crucial victory, and she enjoys a significant advantage heading into next weekends South Carolina primary.

I am so, so thrilled and so grateful to all of my supporters, Clinton said at her Las Vegas victory rally.

NEVADA DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS RESULTS

SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRIMARY RESULTS

But her 5-point margin of victory may not be enough, at this stage, to significantly blunt Sanders momentum. The Vermont senator maintained he has an excellent chance to score some big wins in the upcoming Super Tuesday contests.

The Palmetto State, meanwhile, delivered a huge victory Saturday night on the Republican side to Trump -- while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were locked in a tight race for second.

Cruz nevertheless gave a fiery speech to supporters, as the senator touted his campaigns ability to defy expectations and maintained that hes the best candidate to go up against Clinton or Sanders or whatever other socialist they nominate on the Democratic side.

Indeed, the screaming you hear now from across the Potomac is the Washington cartel in full terror that the conservative grassroots are rising up, Cruz said, while suggesting hes the only candidate who can beat Trump.

Rubio, for his part, declared: After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination.

Rubio was in need of a recovery after stumbling in New Hampshire following a rough debate performance earlier this month. He had vowed to bounce back, and was buoyed in South Carolina by support from the state's popular governor, Nikki Haley, and other state leaders.

With Bush now out of the race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the only governor left standing on the GOP side. It remains unclear where his supporters will go. The only other candidate left is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who vowed to press on.

The GOP race heads next to Nevada and after that to Super Tuesday, representing a delegate gold mine. Even South Carolina, with 50 delegates, is the most valuable GOP primary to date. As the winner, Trump would get the lion's share.

South Carolina, historically, also is a prized contest for Republican candidates as it has a knack for picking the eventual nominee  the primary winner has gone on to claim the nomination in every race since 1980, except for 2012 when Newt Gingrich won.

The race tightened in the final days, but not enough to shake Trump's long-time advantage there. Fox News exit polls indicate significant numbers of late-deciding voters ended up supporting Cruz and Rubio, causing both candidates to perform more strongly than pre-election polling suggested.

Clintons Nevada win comes just a week-and-a-half after she lost to Sanders by double-digits in New Hampshire.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win. Thank you," Clinton tweeted after the race was called.
Donald Trump swept to victory in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, putting him in a commanding position as the race shifts to a slew of delegate-rich contests.

Jeb Bush, though, abruptly suspended his campaign after a distant finish, leaving unclear to whom his supporters will gravitate.

But Trump, at his victory rally, seemed to dismiss the notion that other candidates would benefit from Bush's exit.

"[The pundits] don't understand that as people drop out, I'm going to get a lot of those votes," Trump said.

He said the primary race lately has been "mean" and "vicious" but: "When you win, it's beautiful."

He closed by saying, "Lets put this thing away, and lets make America great again."

Trump's victory is not by the big double-digit margin that pre-election polls had suggested. Still, this makes back-to-back victories for Trump, who more than doubled the vote of his closest competitor in New Hampshire last week.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio remain locked in a battle for second place.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Rubio is narrowly leading Cruz with just over 22 percent. Trump leads with 33 percent.

Both candidates were staying confident.

"After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination, Rubio told supporters.

Rubio placed third in Iowa, but stumbled in New Hampshire following a rough debate performance. He vowed to bounce back, and entered the South Carolina contest enjoying support from the state's popular governor, Nikki Haley, and other state leaders.

Senior Cruz aides maintained the Texas senator remains well-positioned going into looming Southern state primaries, since he won Iowa and placed third in New Hampshire.

Lagging far behind Saturday were the three other candidates  Ohio Gov. John Kasich, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Bush, all of whom appear to be stuck in single digits.

While Bush suspended his campaign, Carson vowed to stay in, as did Kasich.

The GOP race heads next to Nevada and after that to Super Tuesday, representing a delegate gold mine. Even South Carolina, with 50 delegates, is the most valuable GOP primary to date. As the winner, Trump would get the lion's share.

South Carolina, historically, also is a prized contest for Republican candidates as it has a knack for picking the eventual nominee  the primary winner has gone on to claim the nomination in every race since 1980, except for 2012 when Newt Gingrich won.

The state has a reputation as well for bringing out bare-knuckle campaign tactics, and this year was no exception. Charges of dirty politics flew on all sides in the lead-up to Saturdays primary, with robo-calls and misleading websites surfacing about the candidates.

The race tightened in the final days, but not enough to shake Trump's long-time advantage there.

Trump had enjoyed a 13-point lead in the latest average of pre-election polls by Real Clear Politics. Fox News exit polls indicate significant numbers of late-deciding voters ended up supporting Cruz and Rubio, causing both candidates to perform more strongly than pre-election polling suggested.

Trump, according to exit polls, was still the overwhelming favorite among voters who said theyre angry with the federal government. Cruz, though, had the edge among voters who said their top issue is terrorism.

But of the three other candidates, only Kasich has made it onto the leaderboard in the three opening contests. With Bush out, he's the last governor standing in the race.

Bush, the former Florida governor, entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite, but fell in the polls steadily, despite having had a couple strong debate performances in recent weeks.

The presidency is bigger than any one person. It is certainly bigger than any candidate, he said in suspending his campaign.

SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRIMARY RESULTS

Kasich, who placed second in New Hampshire, had low expectations in South Carolina. He is looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March.

Trump's victory, meanwhile, could foreshadow a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1. Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which determines the nomination.

Trump won in South Carolina after the Democrats held caucuses earlier in the day in Nevada, where Hillary Clinton was projected the winner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is to bring his campaign to Arkansas just days before the March 1 primary.

A Cruz campaign official told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the Texas senator will make his third visit to Arkansas on Feb. 28 at an a yet to be determined location.

Cruz previously campaigned in Little Rock, Van Buren and Russellville last summer and again in Little Rock in December.

Unofficial returns from the South Carolina primary on Saturday show Cruz finishing third behind Donald Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.




Marco Rubio has joined Ted Cruz in Donald Trumps crosshairs.

Fresh off his Saturday win in the South Carolina Republican primary, Trump said Sunday he didnt know whether Rubio, a Florida senator who finished second, was eligible to run for president and that the lawyers have to determine that.

I dont know, Trump told George Stephanopoulos on ABCs This Week. I really  Ive never looked at it, George. I honestly have never looked at it. As somebody said, hes not. And I retweeted it. I have 14 million people between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and I retweet things, and we start dialogue and its very interesting.

Rubio brushed aside Trumps assertions later on This Week.

"@ResisTyr: Mr.Trump...BOTH Cruz AND Rubio are ineligible to be POTUS! It's a SLAM DUNK CASE!! Check it! https://t.co/NjqWP0pP6X"  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2016

This is a pattern, Rubio said. This is a game he plays. He says something thats edgy and outrageous and then the media flocks and covers that. And then no one else can get any coverage on anything else.

And that worked where there were 15 people running for president. Its not going to work anymore. Im going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to eligibility.

Trump was questioned on the issue after he retweeted a supporter Saturday who made the allegation and linked to a video from the Powdered Wig Society, a conservative news and commentary website. That video features an unidentified woman claiming someone can only be a natural-born citizen if the persons father was a U.S. citizen.

The Constitution states only a natural-born citizen can be president, though it does not explicitly define that phrase.

Rubio, whose parents came to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1950s, was born in Florida in 1971. His parents were not U.S. citizens at the time.

Trumps musings about Rubios eligibility is comparable to how his similar feud began with Cruz, a Texas senator, though that argument has since intensified.

Trump has argued that Cruz, who finished third in South Carolina, may not be a natural-born citizen because he was born in Canada, even though his mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of Cruzs birth.

Numerous legal scholars have said both Cruz and Rubio are considered natural-born citizens, though Trump has said other experts disagree.

I mean, let people make their own determination, Trump said Sunday.

Similar questions of eligibility dogged previous Republican contenders such as John McCain in 2008, George Romney in 1968 and Barry Goldwater in 1964. McCain was born in Panama, Romney was born in Mexico and Goldwater was born in Arizona before it became an official U.S. state.
An 18-year-old Ohio man was charged with impersonating a peace officer and telecommunications fraud after posing as a state senator and giving a speech to a high school class, authorities said Saturday.

Izaha Akins, of Marion, visited Mohawk High School in December and claimed to be a lawmaker who was going to replace another senator who was planning on resigning due to an illness. Akins told the school he was second in line for the appointment after the first choice declined, according to The Toledo Blade. He also gave a speech to students.

School officials realized they were duped weeks later after Sen. David Burke, of Marysville, showed up to speak weeks later, as scheduled. Burke told the Associated Press in an email Friday that when he learned about the hoax, he and the high school immediately began working with police.

Akins told The Toledo Blade he wanted to make a point about school security in small communities.

"These country schools think it can't happen to them," Akins told The Blade in a brief interview. He said he wanted to "prove a point  that these kinds of things can happen. They could easily have Googled me, and they didn't."

School officials said Burke was scheduled to speak to a class at Jan. 14 when Akins called to tell them he was his replacement. He arranged to visit Dec. 15, provided his real name, presented his drivers license at the school that afternoon, got a tour of the school from the principal, then gave his presentation and left, Mohawk Schools Superintendent Ken Ratliff said.

"The presentation was about being active in politics, political processes," Ratliff said. "Everyone thought it was legit; bought into it, including the teacher."

Authorities said Reineke Ford provided a car and driver for the day to the supposed legislator. The Blade said Reineke Motors general manager Tony Flood said it's not unusual for the dealership to help the nearby school district.

Wyandot County Sheriff Mike Hetzel said no one at the school was in any danger, and a sheriff's deputy was at the school during the time of the visit.

Ratliff said, though, that the district now takes extra steps to verify visitors' identities.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Texas town is facing another crisis days after its mayor, city manager, mayor pro tempore, a city councilman and a former councilman were arrested earlier this week.

Crystal City residents dont have any water they can drink. Black water came out of the pipes in homes in the tiny city where the sweeping bribery and conspiracy indictments brought down city leaders. Volunteers handed out donated bottles of water on Friday, as state environmental officials test the water for bacteria.

Joel Barajas  the only City Council member not facing criminal charges  told the San Antonio Express-News that he was grateful to residents elsewhere in the region who donated water. The city has blamed the water problem on dirt and mud build up in a water tank that was flushed, the newspaper reported.

"There are caring people in Southwest Texas," said Barajas, who has been thrust into being the point person for all of the city's departments.

Residents told Fox San Antonio Thursday they werent warned that the water tank was going to be flushed and were surprised of what was coming out of their faucets.

"It smelled as soon as I turned on the water we were getting ready for showers and I smelled it and then I started getting the text from my friends 'hey is this happening at your house look what's going on at mine," a woman identified only as Nora told Fox San Antonio.

"We didn't get a warning; we didn't get a warning that this was going to happen," she said.

And to add even more to the town's woes, the Texas Education Agency said Friday that the local school district could lose its accreditation after failing to meet state standards for the third straight year.

Crystal City leaders were charged with taking bribes from contractors and sending city workers to help an illegal gambling operator, according to a federal indictment released earlier this month. Another councilman is facing unrelated allegations that he helped smuggle Mexican immigrants into the U.S.

Mayor Ricardo Lopez resigned Friday afternoon, just days after he was arrested during a City Council meeting following a scuffle with an angry audience member  in full view of television cameras. That meeting was held to schedule a recall vote for Lopez and two City Council members.

I feel bad talking about the little town where I grew up, but this is ridiculous," Alicia Martinez told the Associated Press, 33. "We need help to get it back to where it used to be."

The Laredo office of the Texas Commission on Environmental is investigating the reports of black water. A water department employee said residents should boil water before using it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox San Antonio.
The accused gunman who police say killed six people and wounded two others during a rampage in Michigan on Saturday night is a married father of two who was working as an Uber driver, USA Today reported.



Jason Dalton, 45, passed a background check when he was hired by Uber, the company told the paper. Dalton had no criminal record and only five traffic violations, police said.

A Michigan prosecutor said authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated Dalton picked up Uber customers around the time of the shootings. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting says he was aware of the post, but was not prepared to discuss it.

Dalton lived just outside Kalamazoo, where the shootings occurred, in a ranch-style house with his wife of at least 15 years and two children, ages 10 and 15, according to USA Today.

Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said investigators contacted Dalton's wife Saturday evening "to make sure she wasn't a victim." Hadley added that she's cooperated with police in their investigation.

Law enforcement sources told WMMT-TV that Dalton was arrested without incident early Sunday morning in downtown Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt.

Four people were killed and a 14-year-old girl was wounded outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a father and son were killed outside a Kia dealership, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas said. A woman shot outside an apartment complex was in serious condition as of early Sunday, Matyas said. The 14-year-old girl was in critical condition.



Matyas said earlier that authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst-case scenario."

"These are random murders," he said.

He described a terrifying rampage that began about 6 p.m. in the parking lot of the apartment complex in Richland Township on the eastern edge of the Kalamazoo County, where the woman was shot and seriously wounded.

The suspect was arrested about 12:40 a.m., authorities said. Matyas told WWMT-TV that the man did not resist when approached by law enforcement officers, and that weapons were found in his vehicle.

"The threat to the public is over," Matyas said.

Michigan State Police Lt. Dale Hinz called the shooting spree incomprehensible, according to Fox 17 Online.

Kalamazoo, with a population of about 75,000, is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Montanas Apprentice Hunter Program wrapped up its first season with state officials and participants noting an overall positive experience and strong turnout.

The program, which allows 10-year-olds to hunt a limited number of species with a designated mentor, saw more than 3,600 participate. Wayde Cooperider, Fish, Wildlife and Parks Outdoor Skills & Safety supervisor, was not surprised by the solid participation and heard mostly positive reviews from the field.

Overall, the parents and grandparents have been ecstatic and just very grateful for an opportunity like this, he said.

Cooperider asked game wardens to weigh in on their observations of apprentices and mentors. From the sampling he received, wardens had no negative experiences with apprentice hunters, although, We did have some encounters with mentors setting poor examples and getting a citation or two. Unfortunately, that did occur.

Legislation creating the program was controversial during the last Legislature and divided hunting conservation groups before ultimately succeeding as an amendment to the FWP licensing bill. The program allows young hunters from 10 to 17 to hunt as apprentices for two years before having to take hunter safety classes. Apprentices are largely limited to hunting deer and birds.

Early skepticism

Critics focused on the lack of a hunter safety requirement. Some were also critical of lowering hunting ages from 12, citing the maturity necessary to operate a firearm and hunt safely.

Supporters noted that similar programs in other states had good safety records and played a big role in encouraging youngsters to eventually enroll in hunter safety. Supporters pointed out that age restrictions are not placed on hunting of many species such as coyotes or gophers, so the program only opens up additional opportunity.

The Montana Wildlife Federation was among the groups opposing the legislation, but conservation director Nick Gevock said the federation is looking to the future with the program in place.

Were lucky to live in a state where we have the opportunity to get kids hunting, and were fortunate to have a healthy fair-chase ethic, he said. This is the law and were moving forward, and well do the best we can to make it work.

Theres been no decline in the number of kids going through hunter ed every year, and hopefully these kids will go through that program.

Safari Club International supported the legislation since its initial proposal, and its Western Montana Chapter president Matt Ulberg received a great deal of positive feedback from members.

Were only one year into the apprentice program and theyre happy to have that opportunity, he said.

Ulberg talked to a variety of apprentices and mentors. Along with some of the younger children, he heard from some 16- and 17-year-olds who werent sure they wanted to hunt but thought theyd give it a try as apprentices. Now they plan to enroll in hunter safety, he said.

Ulbergs own 11-year-old son, Steyr, testified before the Legislature in support of the bill and became an apprentice last season, harvesting a deer. Steyr plans to enroll in hunter safety next year.

SCI would support the program whether hunter safety was required or not, Ulberg said, adding that he was disappointed that the issue drove a wedge between hunting groups.

SCI sees a value in hunter safety, but also sees the value of youth out there and people unsure if they want to hunt having this opportunity, Ulberg said. Itll be good ultimately and a successful program, and some of these safety concerns are simply not proving to be an issue nationwide.

'Family of hunters'

Kathy Wilcoxs 11-year-old son, Allen, had been shooting in 4-H and was looking forward to hunting when the apprentice program became law.

Were a family of hunters, and this was one more way to do it, she said. We had talked about it, my husband and I, on whether he was mature enough to do it. We talked it over and then talked to Allen, and he said Im ready.

As Allen and his father pursued a buck, they encountered a smaller buck with a significant limp, Wilcox said. Allen made the ethical choice to harvest that deer, only to find out it had lost the lower portion of one of its hind legs, she said.

Oh yeah, when he got home with his deer he was higher than a kite and thought that was pretty neat, Wilcox said.

Allen will hunt as an apprentice one more year and then take hunter education, as hed like to hunt elk and moose some day, she added.

Although not required, more than 500 10- and 11-year-olds enrolled in hunter safety among the 3,600 that became apprentices, Cooperider said. He estimates a bump of between 1,000 and 1,500 enrollees this year, as some parents want to take advantage of the program but prefer their children first complete safety training.

The bump comes from adding an additional age class of youngsters to the 12-year-olds that became eligible for hunter safety under existing laws, he explained.

From a department perspective, were welcoming them into our classes, Cooperider said. Its one of the unintended consequences of the program, so were monitoring it to see what impact this has. We want these 10- and 11-year-olds to have the opportunity to take hunter safety, but at the same time dont want to prevent a 12-year-old.

The estimated bump in enrollees has officials looking at whether additional classes may be necessary, he said.
A Florida woman is hospitalized and in a coma after she was allegedly attacked on Valentines Day by a roommate she had found on Craigslist.

Byron Mitchell, 35, is being held at Metro West Detention Center in Miami on attempted murder charges for his alleged attack on Danielle Jones, 23. Mitchell has entered a written not guilty plea, according to the Associated Press.

Mitchell claims he acted in self-defense after Jones came at him with knife, according to the Miami police report. Jones suffered numerous slashes and bruises in the incident.

Photos on the familys GoFundMe page showed Jones bloodied and battered as she lies in a hospital bed. Jones hasnt woken up since the attack, according to the Miami Herald.

She is in a coma, intubated and holding on to life, the family wrote on the page. If and when she wakes, she will need extensive care and rehabilitation.

Authorities said Mitchell had recently moved into Jones downtown Miami apartment two weeks ago after she found him on the Craigslist roommate listings, according to NBC 6 South Florida.

Miami Police spokesman Lt. Freddie Cruz told the Miami Herald he didnt have any further details on the attack because of conflicting statements from both parties.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A middle school students Black Lives Matter poster on display in a suburban New York courthouse has generated controversy with some retired cops, according to a local television station.

The poster is part of a Black History Month exhibit at the Central Islip courthouse on Long Island. But three retired NYPD officers told CBS2 New York last week that the drawing doesnt belong in a courthouse. One referred to it as hate speech.

Black Lives Matter we feel is anti-police and the rhetoric that they spew is anti-police and weve actually had them on video walking the streets of New York City calling for the death of police officers, retired NYPD officer and Internet radio host Ed Munoz told the station. So for it to be hanging in a courtroom, we find outrageous.

The drawing reads: Stop The Violence. Black Lives Matter. Stop the Racism.

The verdict on the poster with courthouse visitors was split, the station reported.

I think its highly political and controversial, one said.

Another said, I dont think its anti-cop, its just awareness of whats going on in society today.

State judge C. Randall Hinrichs, who oversees the courts in Suffolk County, told CBS2 there are no plans to remove the poster.

It is not the intention of the court to put forth any anti-law enforcement message, he told the station. This is the cultural response of a middle school student, here in Central Islip, to present-day America.

Hinrichs said the last thing they want to do is offend law enforcement.

It talks about stopping violence and racism, which are admirable sentiments, and I know its interpreted by different people, different ways, he said.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a ceasefire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

"There is a stark choice for everybody here," Kerry said.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement because all parties need to be fully consulted. Kerry said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

He said Russia has to talk with Iran and the Syrian government and the U.S. has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group.

"What we are trying to achieve is a process with precision and commitment, and if we get that, that's the best opportunity for the people of Syria to see the violence reduced."

"Will every single party agree automatically, not necessarily," he said.

"The opposition is tough. The opposition is not about to stop. And the opposition has made clear their determination to continue to fight back," he said.

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

"These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective," Kerry said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country has the right to launch operations in Syria against terrorist organizations, in remarks that could be viewed as a shot across the bow at Russian intervention.



To fight the threats which it faces, Turkey has the right to launch any kind of operation, in Syria and wherever else the terrorist organizations are located, Erdogan said in a speech on Saturday, according to a Dogan news agency report cited by AFP.

Turkey and Russia each back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, with Russia aiding embattled President Bashar Assad and Turkey supporting rebel groups which seek to topple him. The immediate targets of Turkeys military might are Syrian Kurdish fighters, some of whom have benefitted from Russian airstrikes in Syria.

The situation we are currently facing is one of legitimate defense,"  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey has blamed the Kurdish fighters for, among other attacks, a deadly car bombing this week that killed 28. Turkey fears the Kurdish fighters, which Turkey considers terrorists, could create a significant base along the countrys southern border. In an attempt to prevent those groups from controlling a large swath of territory, Turkey has already been shelling targets in Syria, drawing the ire of the Russians. Russia views the shelling as an affront to Syrian sovereignty, as evidenced by a since-rejected proposed UN resolution demanding an end to the shelling, Reuters reported.

French President Francois Hollande said Friday that Turkeys expanding use of force in Syria could risk a war with Russia.

Turkey is involved in SyriaThere, there is a risk of war, Hollande told France Inter radio in an interview cited by AFP.

Also on Friday, Barack Obama urged Erdogan to show reciprocal restraint with the Kurdish fighters, according to AFP.

But Erdogan appears to be rejecting the calls to caution.

The situation we are currently facing is one of legitimate defense, Erdogan said Saturday. No one can deny or limit Turkeys legitimate right to defense in the face of terrorist attacks.
Marshall Kindred, 85, of Port Royal died Friday, Feb. 19, 2016.

He was born April 8, 1930, in Dallas, Texas. A lifelong resident of Dallas, he was a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School and attended Southern Methodist University. An Air Force veteran, he participated in the Berlin Airlift. He worked many years as a designer for Humble Oil Co., Sears and Roebuck and J.C. Penney. After retirement, he worked for the Rowlett, Texas, Wal-Mart in their Paint and Hardware Department, until finally calling it quits at 81 years old.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Sally Thornton Kindred of Port Royal; his four sons, Lt. Col. Marshall Loyes Kindred, USMC (Ret.) of Port Royal and Robert Maxwell Kindred, Thomas Downs Kindred and Jonathan Douglass Kindred, all of Dallas, Texas; 14 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

His last four years were spent in Virginia where he was in awe of the beauty of the countryside and fascinated with the rich history and architecture of this part of the country. He was a loving husband and most respected father.

No service is planned at his request.

Remembrances, if desired, are requested to be made to Historic Port Royal Inc., Box 233, Port Royal, VA 22535.

Online guest book is available at covenantfuneralservice.com.
Peter Van Schoonhoven Myers, 88, of Fredericksburg passed away on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, at his home after battling cancer.

Peter was born at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 28, 1927, to Howard Hovey Myers and Clara Blanche Dodd. His formative years were spent in Sea Cliff, N.Y., on Long Islands north shore, with his four brothers and his sister.

During World War II, Peter proudly served as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1945 to 1947, and was stationed in China during its occupation. On Feb. 23, 1952, Peter married A. Charlotte Mason at Christ Church in Gordonsville.

Peter worked for Standard Oil Co. and Proctor and Gamble, before being employed as vice president of Freeman Associates of Fredericksburg. After more than 30 years of dedicated service, Peter decided to retire in 1990. Never one to be idle, he was chairman of the Bay Consortium and a board member of the National Private Industry Council. He also worked for the Fredericksburg Auto Auction during his retirement.

Sailing was one of his lifelong passions, starting at a young age and developing into a love of ocean racing as he grew older. Peter also took great delight in singing and shared his rich, base voice by being a founding member of Lees Lieutenants, a competitive barbershop quartet. He also participated in the community Messiah program.

As an active member of St. Georges Episcopal Church for over 55 years, Peter spent much of that time serving on the Vestry and singing in the choir. On June 24, 2001, Peter married Elizabeth Christ at St. Georges. They enjoyed traveling together and took many trips to Europe, Asia, and across the United States.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Charlotte; his four brothers; and his sister.

Surviving Peter are his wife, Elizabeth; his daughters, Anne Havard (Robert Jr.), Susan Evans (Michael), Eileen Herrick (Edward) and Adrianna Waddy (Thomas); his son, Robert Schwartz Jr.; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, at St. Georges Episcopal Church. Burial will be a private ceremony in Gordonsville on Friday, Feb. 26.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to St. Georges Episcopal Church, 905 Princess Anne St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401.

Sometime at Eve when the tide is low I shall slip my moorings and sail away  The Unknown Shore, Elizabeth Clark Hardy.

Online guest book is available at covenantfuneralservice.com.
On 23 January 1968, the U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo was seized by North Korea. One Navy crewman was killed by the North Koreans during the seizure. The Pueblo, despite its modest size, slow speed and unimpressive armament, was a very formidable vessel.

The fact that its crew included cryptologic technician enlisted men reveals that the vessel routinely handled the highest levels of classified material and that every wavelength from D.C. to daylight in North Korea was being monitored and decrypted or relayed by the tubby little vessel.

Whether or not the Pueblo was in international waters at the time of the seizure, her crew was treated in the manner one would expect from the North Koreans: horribly.

The Pueblos captain, Lloyd Bucher, caught hell from both the North Koreans and many in the United States, who believed that Bucher should have, in accord with U.S. Navy tradition, resisted the capture regardless of the consequences. Bucher was treated to mock executions and other torments. After his release, boards of inquiry absolved him of any misconduct and he rightfully finished his career without blemish.

The fact that the Pueblo crew took every opportunity to ostentatiously display their middle fingers during staged propaganda photos did not endear them to the North Koreans. The crew duped the Commies for a while with the explanation that the middle finger was a Hawaiian good luck expression, but the world roared with laughter when the photos were released. Kim Something-or-Another was not amused.

Fast forward to January 2016. Iran seized, legally or not, two small U.S. Navy patrol boats and their crews. The 10 sailors were detained overnight and fed. Contrition and gratitude knew no bounds, based on the comments by one of the detained U.S. sailors and our State Department.

Something must have happened in the years since the Pueblo incident or when John Paul Jones and his crew sprang from the deck of their sinking, burning garbage barge, captured the British ship Serapis and changed history. The British captain called on Jones to surrender, the only logical thing to do. Jones response was to seize the British ship.

In 1977, my Coast Guard cutter was shadowed in the North Pacific for six days by a Soviet AGI (a ship similar to the Pueblo). On my own, with no orders, another gun-fire control technician and I gave the AGIs antennas three blasts of well-tuned RF energy, which most certainly destroyed their air and surface search radars. If the Russians wanted an electronic signature of my radar, they got it burned right onto their superstructure.

My captain (a real O-6 Captain, a four-striper), knew exactly what I had done and made no comment. After the electronic attack, the AGI took off for parts unknown. When I was serving on another cutter in the Atlantic, a Cuban submarine deliberately surfaced in our path during a declared gunnery exercise. I broke target track, but not before giving the Cubans a good look down our 127-millimeter gun barrel. During the Cold War (which we won), the Code of Bushido was integral to the Rules of Engagement, like it or not.

I have never known a Coast Guardsman or sailor in the 40 years since I signed up, who, I swear, would not look like they had a long stay in Buchenwald before they let any captors film them languidly eating and lounging about sans boots.

Lloyd Bucher had the good judgment to preserve the lives of his crew by not offering futile resistance. U.S. service members are not obligated to commit suicide when confronted with overwhelming force, but the Pueblo crew lost 11 months of their lives because they took every opportunity to humiliate those who sought to humiliate them.

One can only hope that some lame Rules of Engagement emanating from the State Department, not the Defense Department, governed the conduct of those captured in the Persian Gulf, but I do not believe that the Pueblo crew would have followed those rules.

Bob Sargeant is a defense analyst who lives in Spotsylvania County.
The hottest item these days at Uberbrew isn't the beer.

Days before Valentine's Day, Uberbrew rolled out a limited-release hot sauce, featuring sinister-sounding Trinidad Moruga scorpion peppers, vinegar, garlic, salt, honey and a dash of their popular White Noise Hefeweizen beer.

The spicy sauce is the creation of Blind Hot Sauce, a small weekend hot sauce outfit operated out of the Whitefish area by Brian Lind, a regional manager and culinary director for MacKenzie River Pizza. Uberbrew co-owner Mark Hastings and managers Troy Soulsby and Paul Morup have known Lind since their time working for MacKenzie River Pizza prior to the opening of Uberbrew.

The Trinidad Moruga scorpion pepper comes in at 401 times hotter than a jalapeno, according to the Scoville Scale, which measures the levels of the spice-creating chemical compound capsacin.

You can go online and see pictures of them, how evil they look, said Brian Lind, operator of Blind Hot Sauce. I mean, they look hot.

For years Lind has brought his latest batches into Uberbrew for testing during work trips to Billings. The tradition sparked conversations about the commingling of sauces and suds, eventually leading to his most recent creation.

A lot of times its just sitting around talking beer and talking hot sauce, said Hastings, Uberbrews head brewer who described himself as one of Linds primary guinea pigs. "We'll try his latest hot sauce on some wings, then we'll go in the back and drink some beers and try to find some beer to parallel what he's doing."

Hastings admitted Linds most recent creation packs a punch.

I put three big dabs on a tortilla chip, Hastings said. You know its hot when it gives me the hiccups.

Six months ago Lind became legally licensed to distribute hot sauce after several years of collecting and then four years of making hot sauces, of which he said hes made around 150 varieties during weekend free time. Early experiments with hot sauce-making had him at times considering trips to the hospital, so these days he wears gloves and eye protection.

The 24 five-ounce bottles holding his batch of White Noise Hefeweizen Hot Sauce arrived at Uberbrew from Whitefish last week, but the idea had been simmering for some time.

Lind was in Billings when White Noise first hit the shelves in November 2014. Picking up a case before heading back west, he said he had the idea to combine the two as a joke to say Hey, look what I did to your beer, your award-winning beer.

The White Noise hops provide a touch of bitterness to the sauce and a slight beer flavor, said Lind. He makes most of his hot sauces with honey, which gives them a deceptive sweetness.

Its the sweetness that catches you first  and then, depending on the pepper Im using, you get to feel the heat of it.

Lind said Angry Hanks representatives have expressed some interest in the idea of a hot sauce involving their Street Fight red ale. He and Hastings have discussed aging hot sauces in casks already used for Trailhead Spirits whisky and Uberbrew aged beers.

Wed be pulling the hot sauce, the hot pepper character, out of those staves and into the beer, Hastings said, adding that hed also like to see Blind Hot Sauce concoct batches involving some of Uberbrews black and double black ales, like the Alpha Force Double Tap and the Alpha Force Tactical IPA.

Uberbrew has made chili beers in the past, including a ghost chili black ale and a pepper saison. Trips to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver often bring Hastings and Uberbrew staff closer to southwestern breweries, where chili beers are more popular.

One of our favorite things to do is grab a turkey leg and just sample chili beers, Hastings said.

Lind said that hes noticed a national enthusiasm for spicy things, sauces included, in recent years due to the popularity of hot pepper-eating and growing competitions and food challenges. He doesnt currently have his website setup for online sales but hopes to sell online starting this summer.

Some of Lind's other hot sauces, like the Montana Smoke Jumper and Habanero Smoke can be found at King's Ace Hardware on Zimmerman Trail, his only local carrier in addition to Uberbrew, where the White Noise sauce sells for $9 in five-ounce bottles. Uberbrew conveniently sells a variety of extinguishers for the sauce as well, including the beer inside it.

White Noise has always been good to put the fire out, Hastings said.
RiverStone Health occupies most of a block on the east side of South 27th Street, but it reaches much further.

Health care professionals see patients in the main clinic at 123 S. 27th St., in Worden, Joliet and Bridger, at Orchard Elementary and at local homeless shelters.

They bring home health services to the sick, and hospice to the dying.

RiverStone helps train more than 300 students in health care professions annually, in addition to being the headquarters for the 24 doctors in the Montana Family Medicine Residency.

Sanitarians inspect water systems and restaurants.

Nurses administer flu shots and childhood immunizations.

Public health professionals work with local emergency services to prepare disasters plans.

The clinic houses the only pharmacy on the South Side.

We focus on family care, RiverStone CEO John Felton said. Everything from prenatal care through hospice.

Altogether, RiverStone operates 35 health programs, including some that serve a large region, such as Ryan White Act services for 160 people with HIV/AIDS living in the eastern half of Montana.

RiverStone is the Yellowstone City-County Health Department. Last year, it cared for more than 20,000 clinic patients who made more than 90,000 visits.

RiverStone will serve anyone in its mission to improve life, health and safety. About 75 percent of its clients have income low enough to qualify for clinic discounts. About 20 percent of RiverStone patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, about 50 percent dont have any insurance. In RiverStones dental clinic, 80 percent of patients are uninsured.

Many clients dont have stable housing, they need groceries or assistance to pay their energy bills. RiverStone case managers assess those social risks and link clients to other community help.

This holistic approach to health care pays big dividends for the patients and for the community. Recent multi-state studies by George Washington University found that costs of care in community health centers lowered cost of caring for Medicaid patients by 23 percent and saved between 11 percent and 34 percent on care of Medicare patients. This is remarkable savings considering that community health center users tend to have complex medical problems and unmet basic needs, such as food insecurity or homelessness.

The RiverStone dental clinic started with just one dentist. Now it keeps busy with four dentists on staff, plus the states only dental resident. Every workday, RiverStone professionals treat about 70 dental patients and 150 medical patients.

Every square foot of space is in use. Care coordinators work out of a cupboard under the stairs. On a tour with Felton, visitors repeatedly stepped aside to allow staff to pass in narrow hallways.

With growing demand for care, RiverStone leaders adopted the patient-centered medical home model in which a team cares for each patient. So if the patients regular doctor isnt available on a day that the patient needs care, another doctor on the same team will be.

New clinic space is being designed for efficiency. Pods of exam rooms will provide quick access to all the services (X-ray, for example) that practitioners use. Patient waiting areas will be more private and close to the pod. Childrens play areas will be included. RiverStone plans to build space for staff to provide total patient care without traipsing down long hallways. The new halls will be wider, too.

This hard-wires in the patient-centered medical home, Felton said. The whole community benefits when care is provided at the right time at the right place.

CTA Architects Engineers is designing the new clinic, which will be an addition along South 27th Street. Groundbreaking is expected in August. When finished, the new clinic will have 48 exam rooms, compared with 31 in the present building that will be renovated in the second phase of construction.

It will be named The Ballard Center to honor the Ballard family of Billings, who donated $1 million. The city of Billings and Yellowstone County each contributed $50,000. RiverStone is reaching out to private donors to complete its $11 million project.

For all of us who call Yellowstone County home, this patient-centered public health clinic is an excellent investment in our community. Please support it as much as you can.
Farmers are demanding more information about how their businesses would be affected if the UK stays in or leaves the EU.

In the event of the UK leaving the EU, the impact on the future of British agriculture remains unknown.

Defra secretary Liz Truss has admitted her department has No Plan B for the farming industry if the UK votes to leave the EU.

Farmers and landowners say they are still being kept in the dark about what an EU exit would mean for their livelihoods.

They are calling on the government to provide some much-needed clarity ahead of the crucial EU referendum vote, which is widely expected to take place on 23 June this year.

Prime minister David Cameron headed to Brussels this week to meet European partners to secure a renegotiation ahead of an in-out vote on the UKs membership of the EU.

See also: Brexit campaign must make case for farming, says Eustice

The NFU, which has yet to announce whether it is in favour or against a Brexit, has called for clear and accurate answers from Mr Cameron about what a Brexit would mean for UK agriculture.

Three key Brexit questions farmers need answering Farm support  The single farm payment accounts for roughly 56% of total income of farm businesses. Would these subsidies be replaced by funding from the UK Treasury?

 The single farm payment accounts for roughly 56% of total income of farm businesses. Would these subsidies be replaced by funding from the UK Treasury? Farming regulations and trade  What effect would this have on the bureaucratic burden for farmers as well as tariff and trade policy on agricultural products?

 What effect would this have on the bureaucratic burden for farmers as well as tariff and trade policy on agricultural products? Employment law  What effect would a Brexit have on the thousands of EU and foreign farmworkers employed in the UK?

NFU president Meurig Raymond said: If Britain is to stay in the EU then David Cameron must be clear. How will the UKs position within the EUs single market be made stronger?

Will this weeks European Council lead to a commitment to create a globally competitive market with less red tape and compliance costs and better regulation for the benefit of British agriculture?

British farmers must not go into an EU referendum without all the information. If Britain stays in the EU, we need to know what steps will be taken to make European agriculture more competitive.

Will we be able to remove some of the blocks to progress  such as barriers to biotechnology?

If we leave the EU, what will a British agriculture policy look like and what is the future of support payments? How will British farmers access the European market and will the UK be more open to imports from outside Europe?

A number of reports have raised key issues about the effect a Brexit would have on UK agriculture.

These include: the NFUs UK Farmings relationship with the EU, a report for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society on the Implications of Brexit for UK Agriculture and Agricultural Implications of Brexit, prepared for the Worshipful Company of Farmers by Allan Buckwell.

Professor emeritus Alan Matthews, of Trinity College, Dublin, became the latest agricultural economist to highlight the great unknowns that farmers needed answering on the potential implications of a Brexit for UK food and agriculture when he addressed the AHDB Outlook Conference on 9 February.

Writing in his latest post on his CAPReform EU blog this week, Prof Matthews said: In recent weeks there has been a steady flow of reports evaluating the possible consequences for UK farming of withdrawal from the EU.

It is impossible to make any sensible evaluation, because no one knows the agricultural, trade, budgetary and regulatory policies that would be put in place if the UK did vote to leave in its referendum.

Prof Matthews highlighted the many flaws of the EU as an institution, including a wasteful and ineffective agricultural policy, which despite the worthwhile reforms in recent years, was still not fit for purpose.

Pleased to be speaking at AHDB Outlook conference in London today on implications of Brexit for UK farming https://t.co/27SIFBZpmH  Alan Matthews (@xAlan_Matthews) February 9, 2016

But he said the EU remains a powerful force with its collective action to achieve common goals more effectively than any one nation can do on its own.

Farmers Weekly asked three farmers how they were likely to vote if the EU referendum was held tomorrow:

IN: Simon Rinder, farm owner, Stroud Farm, Holyport, near Maidenhead, Berkshire

I think its better the devil you know and we should stick with it. But I am concerned about what the EU has turned into. Brussels is making decisions and rules on all manner of subjects that really should be decided by our own government.

If Britain had known what we know now when we entered the common market in 1973, we would never have entered it in the first place.

But now we are in, we probably need to stick with it. But we must lay down a few rules and regulations if we are to remain in the union.

OUT: Terry Moore, tenant farmer, Otmoor Farm, Horton-cum-Studley, Oxfordshire

Definitely out. I think we would be better off outside of the EU. To my mind, they are not helping us at all.

When we trade with other countries we have got to pay a levy on all our animals. I think thats all wrong. Why should we?

The problem is a lot of these countries are not interested in our beef cattle and sheep at the moment because the pound is too high for them.

I dont see why we should lose out on subsidies either. If we stopped paying these billions of pounds to the EU, the UK government would surely be able to give us a subsidy.

Even if we were to lose our subsidies, food prices would likely go up a bit, which would be a good thing for farmers.

UNDECIDED: Peter Lundgren, White Home Farm, Branston Fen, Bardney, Lincolnshire

I am not sure. But what I do know is that the issue is far bigger than a bit of subsidy or acreage payments for agri-environment schemes.

The NFU will host an open debate on Brexit on 24 February, day two of its annual conference in Birmingham. George Lyon, former MEP for Scotland, will be speaking for the Britain Stronger In Europe group, and Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for south-east England, will make the case for a Brexit.
Before I explain, let me just say that I am no 'expert' nor have I ever claimed to be. I haven't/don't read books on how to write poetry nor do I read much poetry nor do I know all those 'million dollar words' that define all the different types of poetry. I don't claim to be an 'expert'. So criticize away if you wish. I'll be the first to admit that I am not a perfect professional.

Now that that has been disclosed, for those doing book reports, trying to improve their own poetry or just for the curious, here are some objectives that I try to apply to my own poetry...

1) Be as accurate and honest as possible while rhyming. Sometimes the story (allegory, parable) is fictitious but they are 'real life' situations that have/could happen and the meaning is true/important. Rhyming is easy. It's trying to rhyme, keep a rhythm and keeping the story intact all at the same time that's hard. I use a thesaurus more than a rhyming dictionary because I often have a hard time trying to think of the word I want.

2) Ask questions. A few of my poems are only questions. There are no statements. My "Knocks and Locks" poem is simply a single question - but makes its point clearly.

3) Apply humor.

4) Apply suspense ("Adrift" for example).

5) Run two themes through a poem ("The Sparrow" for example) - one obvious (the hawk and sparrow) and one not so obvious (man and sin) - so those who 'skim through' a poem may enjoy a poem, but they miss the 'meat'.

6) 'Paint' a picture with words - sometimes I feel as though I must get into the details when using such things as a tree, a flower, an "Ol' Barn", grandma's "Apron Strings", etc...

7) Finish poems with a shock or unexpected twist. These are fun to write. "Speed" and "Adrift" both have unexpected encounters in the story.

8) Speaking in 1st person. The reader doesn't think I am delivering a sermon. I am a sinner saved by grace through faith as any Christian so I write it as if I was in that persons (sometimes a sinner or someone depressed) shoes - even though I may not have experienced it personally.

9) I'm sorry, but to me, it's not a poem if it doesn't rhyme or have rhythm. It's something else.

10) The focus should be on God and not 'self'.

11) Pouring emotion into the poetry. it's okay to love, laugh, cry, etc...

12) Because I focus on helping others, (not for money/profit) and because I love God and country and every soul on earth, and I have nothing to gain or lose from my poetry, how can failure be feared? I can write as free as I wish without being intimidated, questioned, coerced or paid off.

13) Turn the poem into a story. It holds interest and can be written with suspense holding the interest of the reader. I write more story poems lately because people seem to enjoy them and it gives me a chance to make an important point - or a 'moral to the story'.

14) I NEVER write a poem without changing lines, moving lines and/or deleting most/some. I once saved my "throw-away" rhyming lines and had about 120 or so. It's okay to keep the 'cream' and throw away the rest.

15) I may scrap more unfinished poems than I write. I often scrap more lines than I publish. Keep the best ones. Edit, edit, edit.

16) Try not to give away the ending of a poem in the Title. (for example, I did not call "My Horse" poem, "Knocked Off My Horse").

17) Cry. If you re-read your poem and it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, then it's not yet good enough...

18) You can use the perfect words, perfect rhythm and perfect rhymes, but if it doesn't hold the reader's interest, then what good is it if no one reads it? Try to write some suspense into your story.

19) After writing a poem, 'shelve' it for 3 or 4 months. Then take it out and read it again. It's then you'll know if it's a 'masterpiece' or not and can make changes/corrections to it...

20) Check your spelling. It's not "Please don't LOOSE your phone." It's "Please don't LOSE your phone." Please think.

21) We all make mistakes spelling. I like to blame my failing eyesight. :)

22) You will notice that many of my poems begin and end with the same lines. I do this because the lines - after reading the poem - have more impact at the end than the beginning.

23) Have fun! You can't write a good poem if you can't have fun doing it.

The challenge of writing poetry is enjoyable. Enlightening others to the truth of God and His Word is reward enough for that challenge. If you love writing, I pray that however you write, it becomes an encouraging blessing to others... Every poem I write is practice for the next one. Continue improving and keep writing!
A Pinch of Salt: To vote now or to vote later  that is the question
Good news! I read through all the presidential candidates economic plans so you dont have to. I even came up with a handy rule of thumb to help you quickly assess everyones ideas.

Heres the rule: The more growth a candidate promises, the worse his or her economic plan probably is.

Why? Not because promising bonkers growth suggests economic illiteracy, necessarily, though it might. The reason this axiom works is that promises of big growth usually signify a statistical sleight of hand  legerdemath, if you will.

If a candidate is making ridiculous claims about how much hell grow the economy, he probably needs to make those claims to hide the massive deficits that his policies would create under less generous (i.e., more realistic) assumptions. Astronomically higher economic output and employment create an astronomically larger tax base, after all, which helps offset the costs of spending increases or tax-rate cuts.

Take Bernie Sanders suite of economic proposals, which include higher taxes, Medicare for all, big infrastructure investments, free college and higher Social Security benefits.

The campaign has lately been flogging an analysis of these proposals by Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In a glowing 53-page report, Friedman says Sanders policies would:

Raise the rate of gross domestic product growth to 5.3 percent per year, more than double the Federal Reserves current long-run projection of 2 percent.

Reduce unemployment to 3.8 percent, which is way below the Feds long-term estimates of 4.9 percent.

Restore the share of the population in the labor force back to what it was in 1999, even though the baby boom generation is much older today and so many more Americans have reached retirement age.

If you dont follow economic statistics closely, these numbers may not mean much to you. Heres how Id describe them in laymans terms: garbage.

Its not just that these figures assume delusionally large effects. Some show effects that dont even point in the right direction.

Consider the claims about labor force participation. If you actually think about Sanders proposals  such as completely delinking health insurance from employment, making college free and increasing Social Security benefits  youll realize they mostly would reduce workforce participation on the margin.

That doesnt mean theyre unworthy policy choices. Like any other choices, though, they bring tradeoffs  including making it easier or more attractive for Americans to not have a job. In no known universe would they have the effects Friedman predicts.

Usually Democrats accuse Republicans of partaking in this sort of voodoo economics.

Jeb Bush infamously promised 4 percent growth, a number he seems to have pulled from thin air during a conference call. Other Republican contenders matched and even one-upped his preposterous promise, with Donald Trump offering 6 percent growth. Both claims were widely mocked.

Its no wonder that liberal economists are frustrated that Sanders campaign is practicing, or at least touting, similar statistical shenanigans.

Making such promises runs against our partys best traditions of evidence-based policy making and undermines our reputation as the party of responsible arithmetic, four former top economic advisers to Democratic presidents fumed in an open letter to Sanders and Friedman this week.

One of its signatories, University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, compared the realism of the Sanders agenda to magic flying puppies with winning Lotto tickets tied to their collars.

Sanders campaign has responded to such critics by impugning their motives, suggesting that theyre all on Team Clinton. (Friedman turns out to be on Team Clinton, too.)

Theres a good reason why Team Sanders  like Teams Bush and Trump  avoids addressing critiques of fuzzy math directly. Their economic assumptions may be laughable, but they have one serious advantage: They help make the candidates look less fiscally irresponsible.

If you assume 4 percent growth, Bushs trillions of dollars in tax cuts suddenly cease to mar the deficit, according to his own advisers. If you assume 5.3 percent growth, Sanders tax-and-spend policies may induce a budget surplus (!), Friedman says.

Other experts, using different, more reasonable economic assumptions do not agree. Sanders health plan alone  which his campaign insists is fully paid for  has an estimated shortfall of between $3 trillion and $14 trillion.

For all of Sanders disgust for Wall Street, this form of numbers-fudging is actually a well-known trick in investment banking. When putting together your pitch book for a merger, you start with the price you need the valuation to come out to, then bake in more and more generous revenue projections until you get there.

And anyone who questions your numbers? Well, maybe theyre on Team Clinton, too.
The 21-year-old Corvallis woman who allegedly wielded a realistic-looking toy gun and told officers to shoot her has been denied release from the Benton County Jail.

Sarah Maebell Rodgers has been at the Benton County Jail since Feb. 3 after a stay in Samaritan Mental Health following the Dec. 29 incident, in which Rodgers allegedly brandished a modified toy gun and urged Corvallis police to shoot her outside of the Law Enforcement Center.

If released, Rodgers, who has mental health issues, would be put in a partially staffed transitional housing facility known as New Life Transitional House in Philomath.

But Benton County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Donohue denied Rodgers release Friday, citing a concern for her safety and the safety of the public.

Given that her behavior appears to be escalating, Donohue said Friday, I dont find if I release Ms. Rodgers shell be in any improved mental state.

Rodgers is receiving regular visits from Benton County Mental Health officials while in custody. But health officials testifying in court Friday said they had not received patient history files from the time when she was a patient of Linn County Mental Health.

Donohue said in court Friday that he would like to get Rodgers out of the Benton County Jail soon, noting that inpatient treatment appeared to be what she needed. But the judge had doubts as to whether Rodgers is stable enough for release to the Philomath facility.

Donohue added that he would reconsider Rodgers release if Linn County Mental Health records became available and the defense requested an additional hearing.

Rodgers allegedly stole a Maxx Action toy revolver from the Corvallis Fred Meyer store and modified it to make it look like a real gun before confronting Officer Derrick Samuels at the Law Enforcement Center shortly before 9 p.m. Dec. 29.

Samuels got out of his car and used the vehicle as cover while he called for backup before aiming his own pistol at Rodgers and ordering her to drop her weapon. Rodgers initially refused until additional police officers came out of the building, at which point she dropped the toy gun and was taken into custody.

No shots were fired in the Dec. 29 incident but police believe Rodgers brought the replica handgun to the center in hopes of provoking an officer into shooting her, a phenomenon known as suicide by cop.

Corvallis Police Department officers have said that Samuels dashboard camera was not turned on during the encounter.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Jordan called five witnesses Friday for the release hearing, including Corvallis Police Officer Brock Ameele. Ameele testified that Rodgers previously has stated that, if released, she would likely try to commit new crimes and could attempt to get an officer to shoot her again.

Her behavior demonstrates that she would commit new crimes were she to be released, Jordan told the judge. She continues to pose a risk to herself and the community.

Jordan noted that Rodgers was convicted of assaulting a public safety officer in August 2014 and was still on probation for that conviction on the night of Dec. 29.

Rodgers defense attorney, Robert Corl, argued that while Rodgers was receiving mental health treatment in the Benton County Jail, she needed to be released to the care of mental health officials outside of a jail setting.

They have a bed (at New Life Transitional House) waiting for her, Corl said. She could be out of jail and in a therapeutic place this evening.

Rodgers has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of menacing, attempting to commit a felony, interfering with a police officer, second-degree disorderly conduct and third-degree theft in connection with the Dec. 29 incident. She is facing additional charges of harassment, criminal trespass, felony identity theft, interfering with a police officer, and third-degree theft in unrelated incidents dating back to November 2015. Her next hearing is scheduled for March 3.
(Stone Mother outcropping at Pyramid Lake, Nevada)



I spoke in a prior post about the kernel of truth in legends. Let's discuss these kernels. I will bold and underline things that are based on actual historic or verifiable details.







Stone Mother (Paiute Legend)

Thousands of years ago, the father of all Indians, The Wolf came to live on a mountain near Stillwater (a real place located in the Lohantan Valley). The Great Father was a wise and good ruler. A woman, who lived with her husband in another part of Nevada, had heard about the great father. The woman became infatuated with him, and thought of nothing except to meet him someday. This made her husband very jealous and led them to fighting all the time. One day, while they were having another fight, the woman, in a rage, killed her husband. She began searching for the Great Father.

During her journey she had many adventures. One, while walking on the Shore of Mono Lake (actual lake in California near Nevada), a giant creature tried to eat her, but she was able to kill the giant and escape (in keeping with Lake Lohantan red-haired cannibalistic giants and skeletons found in Lovelock Cave and giants reported in Death Valley, CA)



She continued on her quest to find the Great Father. Until finally her journey brought her to Stillwater . Just as she arrived, she caught a glimpse of the Great Father. The woman couldnt believe her eyes. She couldnt believe how handsome he was.



The woman tried to hide from him for a time, but The Great Father noticed her tracks and called out to her and let her know that he knew she was there. He asked her to come out of hiding. The woman was scared and embarrassed but finally came out to meet him.



The Great Father knew she had traveled a long way and he took her to his camp. He fed her good food, and asked her to stay the night and she agreed with no hesitation.



After a few days together they fell in love with each other and they married on the eighth day. Soon afterwards they had children. The first child was a son, their second another son, and later several daughters. The oldest son was mean, troublesome and always fought with the other children, especially his brother. The fighting and bickering continued for many years.



The Great Father grew tired of all the fighting and had a meeting with all of his children to try to stop the fighting once and for all. He began by telling them that if they did not stop fighting, he would separate all of them. But before he could finish what he had to say, the children started fighting again.

The Great Father had had enough, and decided to separate all of them. He sent his oldest son and a girl to the west. They in turn became the Pit River Tribe (real tribe in Nevada) . He sent his younger son with a girl to the east. They in turn became the Bannock Tribe (another great basin tribe). The other children remained at home and they became the Paiute Tribe (it might be interesting to test today whether these tribes are genetically related to secure yet another part of the tale as fact).



After shunning his children the Great Father was so distraught that he went to his home in the sky.



After a time, both brothers returned home, and the brothers brought many warriors for battle. They began fighting in a valley. When the mother saw her sons fighting she was so sad, it broke her heart. The mother climbed until she got to the top of a hill and sat there as she watched her sons fight. She soon started to cry. The sons continued to fight and the mother cried faster and harder. She cried so hard and for so long that her tears filled the land below. From her tears a lake started to form. After many moons her tears created a great lake, this lake is now called Pyramid Lake .

The mother stayed on the hill crying for so long that she turned into stone and remains there to this day.

You can see the Stone Mother (there is, in fact, a stone that looks like a woman-photo above) sitting on the east Shore of Pyramid Lake with her basket by her side. Of course, this is not say the woman actually became a stone, but that the legend tries to explain an actual feature that does exist.







**I highly recommend the book "Stone Age In the Great Basin" by Emory Strong that gives lots of info on these tribes where the red-haired giants lived including stories of the giants. This region of the Great Basin was filled with waterways and lots of ancient tribes and much of Giant Territory. You will find many kernels in this book that will amaze!**

Supporting That Giants Existed: This legend supports the ancient giants of the Great Basin, including a Paiute legend of their ancestors fighting off cannibalistic red-haired giants and trapping them in a cave to burn them to death; a cave that as later found to hold the bones of ancient tall ones with red hair and a tale of giant skeleton finds in Death Valley caves.







Sami-Lapland, Scandinavia





One of the most famous Sami folktales is the story of "The Pathfinder." In it, a Sami village is attacked by a marauding tribe from the east called the Tjudes (aka Chudes)--ancestors of the Komi People. --***TRIBES FIGHTING IS A CLUE OFTEN OF GIANT SKIRMISHES*** In Russian folk legends, the Chudes were described as exalted and beautiful. One characteristic of the Chudes was 'white-eyed', which means lightly colored eyes, powerful and giant in size (a characteristic often attributed to finds of ancient giants with fair hair). The village fights as best it can, but the Tjudes vastly outnumber the Sami and soon kill all but onea young boy. The Tjudes then force the young boy to lead them to the next village so they can attack and overtake it as well. The boy reluctantly agrees, leading the Tjudes by night through the mountains. At the top of one mountain, the Tjudes decide to wait until morning, fearing they will lose their way getting down the mountain. The Sami boy, however, urges them to follow him. He says he knows the mountain well and will lead them by torch. He suggests that they all tie themselves together by rope so none of them gets lost. The Tjudes agree, grateful that the Sami boy has become so loyal to them.





As they make their way down the mountain, however, the Sami boy leads them to a great cliff, stops at its edge and tosses his torch over the side, yelling, "Follow me!" The Tjudes, tied together, fall over the edge.











Supporting That Giants Existed: "The Seven Giants," as these pillars (above) are called. In the Northern Region of Russia in this territory of the Tjudes (Chudes - above story), comes a local legend Russian of their formation (called "Manpupuder" - one of Russia's 7 Wonders). How did something this massive come to be? An experienced climber once tried to climb them and could only manage one! Although scientists claim they are a natural stone destruction over time, there are interesting legends involving the stone pillars and giants.







"According to a local legend, the stone pillars were once an entourage of Samoyeds giants walking through the mountains to Siberia in order to destroy the Mansi people. However, upon seeing the holy Mansi mountains, the shaman of the giants dropped his drum and the entire team froze into the stone pillars."









Giant skull found in Dmanisi Georgia)





**Incidentally, the Finnish have a giant called Koljo who was supposedly a carrier of disease and Pre-historic stone structures and large stone boulders that were thought to have been erected by Hiisis or giants. The Finnish term for a Bronze Age cairn grave (consisting of a pile of rocks) is still called a hiidenkiuas, Hiisi's pile of rocks. A giant's kettle is called a hiidenkirnu (literally, a hiisi's churn) in Finnish. n Christian-influenced later folklore, they are depicted as demonic or trickster-like entities, often the autochthonous, pagan inhabitants of the land, similar in this respect to mythological giants**









HIMALAYAS

incidentally, present day Yeti Territory) Raksha - source (

"Demonic creatures who eat the flesh of man." (Here we go again with the cannibalistic tendencies of these giants-repeated too often to ignore) . Described variously as " Rakshasa were most often depicted as ugly, fierce-looking and enormous creatures and with two fangs protruding down from the top of the mouth as well as sharp, claw-like fingernails. They are shown as being mean, growling like beasts and as insatiable cannibals who could smell the scent of flesh. Some of the more ferocious ones were shown with flaming red eyes and hair, drinking blood with their palms or from a human skull (red-haired and ferocious as reported by the Paiutes in America). Generally they could fly, vanish, and had Maya (magical powers of illusion), which enabled them to change size at will and assume the form of any creature.





Supporting That Giants Existed: Today in the Himalayas there are reports of Yeti, tall, hairy and often reportedly ferocious beings who walk on two legs.

A very high altitude lake in in the Himalayas called "Mystery Lake" had the remains of hundreds of bones surfacing in the early 1900s.

The local legend said that king of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife Rani Balampa, servants, dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine and the group faced a hail storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund lake.

Guess what? For 60 years the skeletal remains of more than 200 people, discovered in 1942 close to the glacial Roopkund Lake in the remote Himalayan Gahrwal region, have puzzled historians, scientists and archaeologists. Were they soldiers killed in battle, royal pilgrims who lost their way and succumbed to hypothermia, or Tibetan traders who died of a mysterious illness? Now, the first forensic investigation of one of the area's most enduring mysteries has concluded that hundreds of nomads - whose frozen corpses are being disgorged from ice high in the mountain - were killed by one of the most lethal hailstorms in history.



Yet another legend proven to be true!

Want more mysteries of the Himalayas - you have to check out one of the most intriguing and amazing archaeological finds ever at this link













Aborigines, Australia





Thardid Jimbo (incidentally, present-day Yowie Territory)

A cannibal giant, ultimately defeated by the resourcefulness of the family of a hunter he killed.





A sinister Giant from the tales of the Native Australians. One day a man named Mummulbery hunted and caught a kangaroo. As he was taking this back to his two wives in his camp for dinner, Thardid Jimbo stepped in his way. He demanded to see the carcass that Mummulbery was holding. As Mummelbery turned round to show the kangaroo, Thardid Jimbo tore his head off. He then severed and ate the limbs carrying the head and torso back to Mumelberys camp (another cannibalistic giant) by following the footprints. When he got to the hut, he threw down to corpse he had carried and demanded that the two wives cook it for supper. The wives had been taught to be kind and resourceful so they took the body to cook. However instead of cooking they devised a plan to kill Thardid Jimbo. They told the Giant that a body of a man was not great enough for a magnificent Giant such as him. They told him to catch a female dingo that could be located in a cave. Thardid Jimbo took his nullanulla (club) *and ventured in to the far end of the cave. Whilst in there, the wives took some scrub at the entrance and set light to it. The fire spread inside the cave and Thardid Jimbo was caught in the flames (almost identical story to Paiutes at Lovelock Cave in Nevada). He tried to jump over the flames but being so big he hit his head against the ceiling an fell unconscious into the raging fire. Later the wives met with a wirinun (shaman) who used his powers to talk to Mummelbery. Mummelbery told his wives not to be sad and that if they missed him so much they could join him in the after life. The wives agreed and they hugged the golden light spirit of Mummelbery. They too turned into light and went into the after life.



Supporting That Giants Existed: Today's giant in Australia is the Yowie. Reportedly giant skeleton finds and giant footprints have been discovered here. More mythical support can be found in the Bible -





"For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof [ 13 to 14 feet ], and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man."

Holy Bible, Deuteronomy 3:11





And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.

These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

Holy Bible, 2 Samuel 21:20-22





It is rather interesting that this 6-toes/6-fingers/double rows of teeth are repeatedly described from dig site finds and yet there are legends thousands of years ago that speak of these same traits which are odd features to elaborate a story upon.













PERU





Flesh-eating giants (incidentally, today the site of supposed hunchbacked red-haired giants reported by villagers and site of mummies of giant size with elongated skulls)



From Pedro de Cieza de Leon:





As there is in Peru a story of some giants who landed on the coast at the point of Santa Elena, in the vicinity of the city of Puerto Viejo, I have resolved to mention what I was told about them, as I understood it, without taking into account the opinions of the common people and their various anecdotes, for they usually magnify events larger than life. The natives, repeating a story received from their forefathers from very remote times, say that there came from across the sea on reed rafts that were as large as big ships some men that were so big that an ordinary man of good size scarcely reached up to their knees: their members were in proportion to the size of their bodies, and it a monstrous thing to see their enormous heads and their hair hanging down about their shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates. They say they had no beards and that some of them were clad in the skins of animals, and others only in the dress nature gave them. There were no women with them. (This red-haired population of giants were reported around the world, showing a tendency to be sea-based people who traveled, seashells were prominent in the dig sites of giants as ornamental and reed boats were described by the Paiutes of the red-haired giants in the Great Basin in Nevada. Interestingly, I will be talking more about them arriving without mates next Wednesday - harkens to the Biblical Nephilim) On reaching this point, they set up their camp like a village (and even in these times there is a memory of the site of their houses). As they found no supply of water they remedied the lack by making some very deep wells, a labor certainly worthy of record, being undertaken by such strong men as these must have been, to judge by their size. They dug these wells in the living rock until they came to the water, and afterwards they built the wells in stone from the water line upwards so that they would last for ages. In these wells the water is excellent and it is always so cold that it is very pleasant to drink. "When these great men or giants had thus made their settlement and dug these wells or cisterns, they destroyed and ate all the supplies they could find in the neighborhood. It is said that one of them ate more than fifty of the natives of the land; and as the supply of food was not sufficient for them to maintain themselves, they caught much fish with nets and gear that they had. They lived in continuous hostility with the natives, because they slew the latter's women in order to have them, and they also slew the men for other reasons . (yet more talk of mating up with local women and eating the Native People) . But the Indians were not numerous enough to kill these newcomers who occupied their land and lorded it over them; and although they held great discussions about this, they never dared attack them.

"After some years the giants were still in this region, and as they had no women of their own and the Indian women of the neighborhood were too small for them, or else because the vice was habitual to them and inspired by the demon, they practised the unspeakable and horrible sin of sodomy, committing it openly and in public without fear of God or personal shame. The natives say that our Lord God, unwilling to conceal so wicked a sin, sent them a punishment suited to the beastliness of the crime, and when all the giants were together engaged in this accursed practice there came a fearful fire from heaven to the accompaniment of a great noise, in the midst of which a shining angel appeared holding a sharp, bright sword with which he slew them all at a single stroke, and the fire consumed them leaving only a few bones and skulls, which God allowed to remain unconsumed as a token of the punishment. This is the account they give of the giants, and we believe that it happened, for it is said that very large bones have been found and still are found thereabouts and I have heard Spaniards say they have seen pieces of teeth which they thought must have weighed half a pound when whole, and who had also seen a piece of a shin-bone of wonderful size, all of which bears witness to the truth of the incident. In addition to this one can see the places where the sites of their villages were, and also the wells or cisterns they made. I cannot state whence or how these giants came there.

"In the present year of 1550 when in the city of Lima, I heard that when his excellency Don Antonio de Mendoza was viceroy and governor of New Spain, certain bones of men as big as these giants, and even bigger, were found there. I have heard too that in an ancient sepulcher in the city of Mexico or somewhere else in that kingdom certain bones of giants have been found. Since so many people saw them and attest having done so, it can therefore be credited that such giants did exist and indeed they may all have been of the same race. "At this point of Santa Elena, which is as I have said on the coast of Peru and in the district of the city of Puerto Viejo, there is a remarkable phenomenon: the existence of certain wells or seams of pitch of such excellent quality that it would be possible to tar all the ships one wished with it, since it flows from the earth. This pitch must be from some seam passing through that place: it comes out very hot,etc. (more support of possible outsiders with advanced capabilities) "Thus far Pedro de Cieza, whose history we have followed to show the Indian tradition about the giants, and the well of pitch at the same place, for it too is remarkable."









Supporting That Giants Existed: The Peruvian legend is in great detail and the finding of the skulls, bones, and wells all support this. As well, on Lake Titecaca, there is a tribe that lives on reed constructed islands and uses reed boats since long ago and still today. On Lake Lohantan in Nevada where Lovelock Cave is located - the site of the Paiute battle, these giants were reportedly using reed boats. In fact, in Lovelock Cave they unearthed amazing tightly woven reed containers that could hold water and duck decoys made of tule. The very name for the red-haired giants translated to "tule eaters." The giants of the Upper Midwest lived on lakes and waterways and coveted shells.



It would appear that cannibals with advanced technology took the world thousands of years ago and settled in where Natives were forced to deal with this race of troublemakers and try to kill them off once and for all. Nearly every indigenous culture around the world tells of slewing these giants and their bones are still found today to support that these fair-haired/fair-eyed monstrous beings could not survive the unwelcoming by Natives.



**Interestingly, the Yaghan Tribe from the tip of Argentina on DNA showed no halotype A or B that is shared with all natives in the Americas. What exactly did they mate with? And the tribes of Florida and Texas Coast that were unusually tall - might they have been the product of a giant and a Native woman? Well, these mysteries continue and hopefully we get off our collective butts, find more skeletons and get the proper DNA screening to learn the place of their origin and if they show up in modern day people.**

Are you still wanting more cool and amazing discoveries? You know how much I love to stimulate your brain cells - check out this video below and ponder....
nametalkam at 21-02-2016 09:19 AM (6 years ago) (m)

Jeremiah Sodiq Igomigoh, 49, a former correctional officer and active security guard, shot his estranged ex-wife, Nnenna Laura Ogbonna, 44, and then shot himself afterwards. The tragic incident happened in the Middle River / Essex region in Maryland USA. Baltimore County Police have declared it a murder-suicide.





Jeremiah used to be known as Muhammad who used to be a Muslim but converted to Christianity and even became a pastor but had been living a double life allegedly messing around with other women and having multiple wives .....



They both had 2 kids but unknown to her he also had a wife with three kids in Nigeria. The guy had filed for them and she accidentally found out, which was what led to her leaving him and renting an apartment in Essex. When the Nigerian family came down to US, he relocated them to the same complex where Nnenna lives with her own two children and mother.



The guy who was a correction officer filed tax late January and used both his three children from the first Nigerian wife plus Nnennas first child.That aggravated Nnenna who then reported it to IRS.

IRS then wrote the guy to refund the money or face the consequences.

When he found out what she had done,He went over to her apartment demanding to speak to her,they got into an argument and he ended up shooting her and himself.



The lady is an Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) who worked 2 jobs. One in the same correction facility as Muhammed and another in a nursing home. Though she was a nurse in Nigeria before coming over to the U.S, but had done a quick and accelerated nursing program for one year to get in the system and then take her time to challenge the Registered nurse (RN) Licensure exam.



Baltimore Police also said the handgun Igomigoh used was legally registered to him according to reports. Igomigoh also had a carry permit for the gun, which he used in his employment as a security guard. Jeremiah used to be known as Muhammad who used to be a Muslim but converted to Christianity and even became a pastor but had been living a double life allegedly messing around with other women and having multiple wives .....They both had 2 kids but unknown to her he also had a wife with three kids in Nigeria. The guy had filed for them and she accidentally found out, which was what led to her leaving him and renting an apartment in Essex. When the Nigerian family came down to US, he relocated them to the same complex where Nnenna lives with her own two children and mother.The guy who was a correction officer filed tax late January and used both his three children from the first Nigerian wife plus Nnennas first child.That aggravated Nnenna who then reported it to IRS.IRS then wrote the guy to refund the money or face the consequences.When he found out what she had done,He went over to her apartment demanding to speak to her,they got into an argument and he ended up shooting her and himself.The lady is an Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) who worked 2 jobs. One in the same correction facility as Muhammed and another in a nursing home. Though she was a nurse in Nigeria before coming over to the U.S, but had done a quick and accelerated nursing program for one year to get in the system and then take her time to challenge the Registered nurse (RN) Licensure exam.Baltimore Police also said the handgun Igomigoh used was legally registered to him according to reports. Igomigoh also had a carry permit for the gun, which he used in his employment as a security guard.

Post Reply I specialize in investigative reportage across several subject matter and sectors but mainly focus on metro events and investigation. Do leave your thoughts and opinion on my reports to let me know what you think about them. Thank you Posted: at 21-02-2016 09:19 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero
#1

Making a big impact at MWC 2015 - with the Doogee Ibizia F2 and Ironbone smartphones - Doogee is back at the carnival with some more promising smartphone launches expected next week. Equipped with the latest Mediatek Helio X20 processor, the Diogee F7 is the company's big announcement for 2016. Packing in a quad-HD display and 4GB of RAM, this is going to be a blockbuster announcement if the pricing is done right. The company is also expected to launch the Titan S7 with a clamshell design and a compact 5.2-inch display.

Source : 1

#2

Another underdog of the populated Chinese smartphone market is Zopo. After making its mark in India - with the launch of the Zopo Speed 7 in August 2015 - Zopo is aiming to gain traction in the international market by making a debut at MWC 2016. Zopo will be launching its 2016 flagship, the Zopo Speed 8, at the event and the smartphone is expected to be topnotch when it comes to specs and build quality. It will sport a fingerprint scanner, an all-metal unibody and a huge 21-Megapixel camera sensor. The Speed 8 also has powerful internals, the Helio X20 processor and 4 gigabytes of RAM.

Source :

#4

After numerous leaks' and rumors teased by Bluboo themselves, we are now waiting to see the devices that the company will be displaying at this year's Mobile World Congress. The company will release not one, but three devices at the event, the Bluboo XWatch, the Bluboo Picasso and the Bluboo XTouch Plus. Out of the lot, the XTouch Plus is their flagship smartphone for this year and a great one at that. Boasting of features like a USB Type-C port, fingerprint sensor and a notifications switch, the smartphone is something to look out for in the premium segment this time.

Source :1

#4

Bezel-less smartphone displays have been a reality since 2015 but you haven't seen anything like this before. The Ulefone Future is the company's offering for MWC 2016 and it has a sleek design. It also has the 2.0 GHz Mediatek Helio P10 processor, 4GB of RAM and the latest 20MP Sony IMX230 rear camera sensor. Along with these killer specs, the user will apparently have an option of choosing the software, between Cyanogen and Android 6.0.

Source: 1

#5

Chinese smartphones are making their mark at MWC 2016 but there is one Indian OEM that doesn't want to remain in the dark. One of the leading smartphone brands in India, Intex is yet to make a mark in the international markets. This is all set to change, as the company will be making some big announcements at this year's Mobile World Conference. Starting with the launch of their new UI, the Sailfish 2.0, Intex will also debut the first-ever smartphone to run on the OS. Called the Aqua Fish, the smartphone is a resultant of the partnership between Jolla and Intex. It has decent specs - Snapdragon 410 chipset, 1GB of RAM and 8GB internal storage.
HELENA  A 43-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing two people in a Helena apartment building Saturday night.

Officers from the Helena Police Department and Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office responded to the Sherwood Apartments at 301 West Lawrence St. at 9:13 p.m. Saturday on a report of shots fired.

They found the bodies of two men in the hallway of the main floor, Helena police reported. One of the men was 42 and the other was 40, and they lived together in the apartment building, police said.

Officers found another resident of the apartment building, Tilmon Nungesser, in the basement of the complex and arrested him on suspicion of deliberate homicide, police said. The firearm believed to be used in the shooting has been recovered.

Police are currently investigating the incident as a double homicide and interviewing possible witnesses.
SHARE The occupant of the house talks with fire personnel on scene.

By Staff Report

At least three cats died in a house fire caused by an overheated power tab  a block of electrical sockets that attaches to the end of a flexible cable  on the San Angelo's north side Saturday.

Around 4 p.m. the San Angelo Fire Department responded to a single residence house fire in the 2000 block of Juanita Ave.

Karla Steppe, fire inspector with SAFD, said the homeowner was in her bedroom when she smelled smoke, and checked in a second bedroom where her cats usually stay and found fire behind a bookcase, she said.

"Through my physical investigation, we excavated the scene and looked and there was a perfect v-pattern going down to the outlet," she said.

The woman has 10 cats total, but was only able to catch two. There are several other cats unaccounted for, she said.

Four firetrucks responded to the home and Red Cross was called to assist the woman. No injuries were reported.

Steppe said there was an "excessive amount of items in the home," and because the power strip was buried underneath some items it likely overheated and caused the fire.

"There was quite of bit of damage, we had fire damage to the bedroom, we also had fire damage to the hallway and to the doors and doorframes in the little hallway," she said. "And then we had heat and fire damage throughout the residence."
A West Texas sunset over Twin Buttes Reservoir. - photo by Ken Grimm

SHARE

Ballinger

Club to hold baked potato, salad lunch

The Ballinger Woman's Club will hold its annual Baked Potato and Salad luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 1 at First Baptist Church Family Life Center, 400 N. 8th St.

Dine in and plates-to-go are $8.

Del Rio

Independence Day celebration planned

The Whitehead Memorial Museum will hold a Texas Independence Day celebration from 7-11 p.m. March 5 at 1308 S. Main St.

Dancing, beer, food and live music by The Ruztic Bluez Band will be available.

Tickets are $5 per person. For more information, call 830-774-7568.

Fort McKavett

Fort offers stargazing party

Fort McKavett State Historic Site will hold a Spring Star Party at 5 p.m. March 5 at 7066 Farm-to-Market Road 864.

The Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society will set up high-powered telescopes on the parade grounds.

Regular admission fees apply. For more information, call 325-396-2358.

Marfa

Exhibit shows art from 1930s, 40s

Ballroom Marfa will hold the exhibit "After Effect" from March 11 through Aug. 21.

The exhibit looks at historical paintings and film from the 1930s and 40s, alongside works from contemporary artists.

An opening reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. March 11 at Ballroom Marfa with a 7 p.m. performance by Heron Oblivion. An exhibit walk-through will be held at 11 a.m. March 12.

The exhibit coincides with the Marfa Myths Music Festival March 10-13. For more information, visit www.ballroommarfa.org.

Mason

Artist to use variety of instruments

The Mason County M. Beven Eckert Memorial Library will host musician and vocalist Lauren Pelon in concert at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Stribling Room, 410 Post Hill Road.

Pelon will perform on 20 ancient and modern wind, string and free-reed instruments, such as an ocarina, psalmodikon, a guitar-lute, gemshorns, a pennywhistle and a hurdy-gurdy.

Her program features music of America's indigenous peoples, its immigrants and her own compositions.

Pelon has performed throughout the United States, Canada, China, Russia, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Admission is free. For more information, call 325-347-5446.

Miles

Sale to be held in Weatherby Hall

The Miles America For Life team will have a garage sale from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 5 in the Weatherby Hall, West 1st Street.

Anyone who would like to donate items can call 325-245-7059, 325-468-3611, 325-468-2931, 325-650-1939 or 325-227-0013. Proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society.

 Compiled by Jane Jeschke
It all began with the announcement of the worlds cheapest smartphone - the $4 Freedom 251 made in India. The company behind the project - Ringing Bells - received a huge coverage in the media.

The first odd thing to happen was the change of the design shortly after the announcement. Few people noticed this, but it happened - Ringing Bells swapped the picture of the Freedom 251 on their website from an attractive phone with thin bezels to a more generic 4" brick with rather thick bezels and just a single key under the screen.

But hey, this thing is supposed to cost $4, so nobody cared how the phone looks like.

Recently, media representatives received prototypes of the phone, which raised more questions instead of building more hype. The shipped phones turned out to be Adcom phones with their logos covered by simple correction fluid. Adcom is a Chinese company, and they are currently selling this model on the Indian market for about $50. Not only is it a rebranded device, but it's certainly not the Made in India phone, which Ringing Bells promised.

A slightly less disturbing fact was the demo phone software - the UI icons were entirely identical to those found on the Apple iPhone. So overall, the local media were looking at a cheap Chinese iPhone lookalike device and not an original product.

All those facts raised more than one eyebrows, and the Ringing Bells's CEO had to take time to answer some of the pressing questions regarding their product.

It turned out that Ringing Bells indeed used an Adcom phone as a demo unit but only did so in an attempt to gauge the reception by the audience. The Freedom 251 smartphone will supposedly have the same specs as this Adcom phone though the external design might differ in the final version. While plausible, that certainly is not the legitimate way of going about creating a new product. If the company used the journalists and the public as a research focus group for straightening up their product design plans, how did they come up with the pricing in the first place without a clear product plan?

As for the pre-installed software on the phone, the Ringing Bells CEO shared that they've had plans to change the UI with a custom design of their own anyway.

Essentially, users who registered to get the device, still don't really know what their device or the software on it will look like.

Another red flag is the fact that the Ringing Bells CEO claims they are a registered Android Partner, although the company is not on the list. They have not submitted a phone for certification within the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) either. So how come are they selling one online?

So if the Freedom 251 is merely at its early concept level, this all begs the question whether users will get the promised device at all. It also raises questions about the viability of the Ringing Bells business model, and the whole thing is increasingly starting to look like a sham - or a mere publicity stunt if nothing else.

In just two days the company has received more than 60 million registrations and has since stopped accepting new ones. Ringing Bells reportedly didnt anticipate such an interest, and allegedly plans to work on fulfilling the first 30,000 orders and continue with their campaign only after that.

Meanwhile Indian companies have asked the Telecom Ministry to check the Ringing Bells credentials. The company would certainly come under scrutiny, and the authorities already feel pressure to look more closely into how this unbelievable offer is made possible as current estimates from people in the know suggest the minimum per-unit production costs for a phone in China are no less than $30.

Whatever the outcome of the government checks may be, one thing is for sure - at this stage, the Freedom 251's future is unclear. It's still a concept phone which may not see a market launch anytime soon. For now, you'd be better off spending your money elsewhere on a product from a more reputable phone brand. You know, sometimes when a thing sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 (incl. images)
These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.




Haiti - Justice : Monitoring Mission of Gustavo Gallon





Gustavo Gallon, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti, will be the country Monday, February 22 to Tuesday, March 1, 2016, to verify the situation of human rights and among other of difficulties that surrounded the realization of elections.



"I also want information on the other concerns raised in my last report to the Council of Human Rights, including the issue of literacy, conditions of detention, impunity and the situation of deportees from Dominican Republic https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15185-haiti-social-inhumane-living-conditions-for-haitians-back-from-dr.html ," indicated Mr. Gallon, adding "[...] I plan to visit at least one place of detention and a camp sheltering people from the Dominican Republic. I sincerely hope to see improvement in these fields."



Like during his previous mission, he will moves out of Port-au-Prince to assess the situation of human rights outside the capital. The information collected will be used in the preparation of dialogue following the presentation of its report to be submitted to the Council of Human Rights on 22 March.



During his mission, the independent expert will meet with Haitian authorities, including the Office of Citizen Protection, the diplomatic corps (Core Group), representatives of the UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and UN agencies, human rights activists and organizations of civil society.



Learn more about Gustavo Gallon :

The Commission on Human Rights appointed Mr. Gustavo Gallon as Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti in June 2013. Mr. Gallon has over 30 years of experience as a human rights defender and university professor in public law and human rights. He was Special Representative of the UN Human Rights Commission for Equatorial Guinea (1999-2002). He is currently the Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists since its inception in 1988. Mr. Gallon is independent from any government and carried out its mandate in its sole individual capacity.



The independent UN experts, are working on a voluntary basis, they are not officials of the UN organization and are independent of any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work at the UN.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





The Episcopal Commission estimates that more than 120 days are necessary to Privert

On the occasion of the national day of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (JILAP), held under the theme "Ke sansib ak rekonsilyasyon sosyal", the Commission considered that more than 120 days are necessary to the provisional government

that will establish Jocelerme Privert, to implement the various points of the agreement of February 5, 2016.



According to Jocelin Renord, the Secretary General of the JILAP, the next government must be formed on the basis of consensus among all sectors to find solutions to the crisis: political, social, and economic that plague the country.



Shots on RDNP premises ?

Saturday afternoon, according to reports, individuals fired on the premises of the party "National Gathering of Progressive Democrats" (RDNP) in Delmas 49. There would be no casualties according Mirlande Manigat, who was present at his office.



Financial situation of Haiti  alarming and chaotic  dixit Privert

Friday Jocelerme Privert declared that the number of minister in the next government will down to 15 compared to twenty previously and that the number of posts of Secretary of State will also be lowered to reduce public spending in a country in financial situation he described as alarming and chaotic. He recalled that not once since the beginning of the fiscal year, the institutions responsible for collecting taxes have managed to collect the 6.5 billion gourdes monthly provided to enable revenue to reach the bar of 77 billion over the year, noting that the budget of 119 billion gourdes as adopted will have to be revised downwards.



Fanmi Lavalas denies

Ansyto Felix of the permanent mobilization Commission of Fanmi Lavalas, has denied allegations suggesting that Lavalas had regained power.



Investing in public administration

Thursday the Ambassador of the European Union in Haiti, Vincent Degert met President a.i. Jocelerme Privert "[...] we talked about a number of issues and objectives that are there, he is well aware the need for continued efforts. Leaders can be changed, but the administration remains also I think one should also invest in the capacity of government administration," declared the Ambassador Degert.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Selling 65,000 copies in its debut week, Joey + Rory Feek's new album is heading for the #1 spot on Billboard Top Christian and Country Albums charts in the week ending Feb. 18, according to industry forecasters. Hymns that Are Important to Us will also make a handsome bow within the top 10 on the all-genre Billboard 200 (all of which are career-high ranks for the duo).

They have previously logged seven entries on the Top Country Albums chart, including two top 10s: The Life of a Song (No. 10 peak in 2008) and Album Number Two (No. 9 in 2010). On the Billboard 200, they've placed four titles on the list, going as high as No. 60 with Album Number Two.

Despite Joey's battle with terminal Stage IV cancer, the Christian country duo recorded the new album last year as Joey was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She's currently in hospice care at home in Indiana, after the cancer returned and the couple decided to end treatment.

Here's part of our review of their new album: "Rory and co-producer Joe West must be applauded for doing an excellent job in making these recordings sound cohesive and never jejune. If you had not known about Joey's condition, you would not have guessed that the vocals come from a thing and frail lady who is at the throes of death. Together with a chorus of children, Joey sounds like she was in the pink of health when she delivers "Jesus Loves Me" with her western cowgirl verve. Similarly, the Southern Gospel favorite, "I'll Fly Away," receives a bluegrass kick from Joey. She showcases her crystalline voice on Will Thompson's "Softly and Tenderly," taking her time to nuance the different shades of emotions that we first feel when we first hear the call of Jesus Christ to come home."

The album is available in a number of formats, including a version exclusive to Cracker Barrel that features a 48-page booklet of stories, photos and memories written by Joey + Rory, and a CD/DVD edition that includes a live concert performance recorded in 2015.

Tags : joey feek joey feek cancer joey feek news joey + rory feek joey + rory feek news joey feek latest rory feek joey + rory feek hymns that are important to us hymns that are important to us
Published on 2016/02/21 | Source

Defense Minister Han Min-koo on Monday rejected calls from fellow politicians for South Korea to acquire its own nuclear weapons.

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Han told the National Assembly's Defense Committee that the calls are mainly an expression of anger and disappointment at North Korea's latest nuclear test and rocket launch.

In a speech earlier that day, Won Yoo-chul, Saenuri Party floor leader called for a review of "various strategies for survival", including responding to North Korea's nuclear armament in kind.

Turning to the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries by the U.S. Forces Korea, Han said their location will be determined based on "military efficiency and tactical and geographical conditions".

"We will find a place that is optimal to protect us and strike the North's missiles", some of which are stationed just north of the border, he said.
BIRDING MONGOLIA covers any topic concerning wild birds in Mongolia: conservation, migration, observations, identification, projects, events etc. Contributions on other aspects of Mongolias natural heritage, as well as information from regions bordering Mongolia, are also featured from time to time.

Axel Braunlich

I have been birding in Mongolia since 1995. Birding Mongolia was originally set up in March 2007, providing information on the fabulous birdlife (especially migration) at my local patch in Khovd, near the Altai Mountains in the west of the country, where I lived from 2005 to 2007. The blog grew rapidly, with contributions coming from more and more observers, and covering other parts of Mongolia, too.

Andreas Buchheim

I have been visiting Mongolia since 2004. It all started with gull research trips, but I now come to Mongolia at least twice a year, staying for about 6 months annually since 2010, not only for the continuing gull research but now mainly to be with my Mongolian wife and our son and to go birding. As a quasi resident of Ulaanbaatar, I do most of my birding around the city during winter but, luckily, I can visit the even more fascinating rural regions of this rapidly changing country during the warmer seasons.

Contributions (observations, photos, news etc) are very welcome! Any material contributed will be acknowledged and the copyright will remain with the author(s).
Published on 2016/02/20

My Korean Kitchen has a recipe for making rice cake skewers, South Korea's government dissuades citizens from supporting North Korean restaurants overseas, Holly has an amazing looking curry to try, and McDonald's in Korea will soon be offering...beer?

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"Korean Rice Cake Skewers (Tteok Kkochi)"

Sue over at My Korea Kitchen has a recipe for making rice cake skewers: a popular street snack made from spicy rice cakes that you can now enjoy at home! As always, Sue has shared simple steps along with great pictures to guide through the process.

READ ON MY KOREAN KITCHEN

"Food fight the new front in Korea stand-off"

North and South Korea are standing off on many fronts, even when it comes to food! The South Korea government is encouraging citizens to not support North Korean restaurants around the world in order to "stop money helping fund Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear warheads and missiles". A little strange, no?

READ ON THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

"Chicken Pumpkin Curry with Homemade Thai Yellow Curry Paste"

This sounds absolutely delicious! If you like your curry be sure not to miss out on Holly's latest recipe for making this amazing dish for you and yours: "Making homemade yellow curry paste is not difficult at all. I am not a curry expert by any means, but I was able to whip up a decent curry in no time all made from scratch. I am proud of that".

READ ON BEYOND KIMCHEE

"McDonald's experiments serving beer with burgers in South Korea"

Oh, McDonalds! Yes, you read that right: McDonalds in Korea will soon (Monday, 22 February) be offering beer with their burgers! "Turns out the concept is already on tap in Europe and if it's a success in South Korea, we can expect the McSuds to keep on flowing to other outlets".

READ ON WTOP
Published on 2016/02/20

Artnet has a great list of exhibitions and galleries to catch if you can, Robert Koehler gets caught in the snowy streets of Seoul, find out how one joke about MERS went viral, and the Korea Times interviews Jang Tai-san about the challenges he's faced in the digital age.

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"Must-See Art Guide: Seoul"...READ ON ARTNET

Love you some art in Seoul? Take a look at the post from Artnet for a list of exhibitions and galleries you can enjoy in Korea's capital, but be quick because many of them are ending this month!

"A very snowy day in Bukchon Hanok Village"

Travel photographer Robert Koehler snaps up another timely stunner as the chilly weather continues to blanket the capital.

...SEE ON ROBERT KOEHLER TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

"How one joke photo has become a symbol of South Korea's fears about MERS"

The Washington Post examines the photo that became a symbol of South Korea's fears around the MERS outbreak: "It's a joke but that didn't stop it from going viral".

...READ ON THE WASHINGTON POST

"Cartoonist refuses to die away in digital age"

This is the first in series of interviews the Korea Times had with various Korean cartoonist from the Manhwa Business Center. In this first interview they spoke to Jang Tai-san at his offices in Bucheon about the various challenges associated with our digital times: "While I was planning on drawing the life story of Genghis Khan, I was asked to release the series on Naver. But to serialize my work online, I had to learn how to use all kinds of digital tools..."

...READ ON THE KOREA TIMES
By Vasia Orion | Published on 2016/02/20

Hold on to your hats and other detachable wearables, because "Descendants of the Sun" is coming, almost a year after it first got viewers excited over its existence. The drama is a fully pre-produced work partially filmed in Greece and features a powerhouse hallyu-fueled cast and crew. Expectations are high and emotions even higher. Are you all ready for the big reveal?

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Premise

Captain Yoo Si-jin (Song Joong-ki) of the UN peacekeeping troops and doctor Kang Mo-yeon (Song Hye-kyo) meet when they are dispatched to a war-stricken country. The series depicts the struggle of its characters and their romance developing under dire conditions.

The Worrying

Pre-production Precedent

It is no secret that full pre-production has not done well for Korean drama in the past. Audiences are very used to having control and creators to providing it, but it is a whole other ball game when that influence is nearly eradicated. On the other hand, partially pre-produced shows are a rising cable format and many of those dramas do well commercially and in building a fan base.

War and Love

Why make love and not war when you can combine both and get the most drama you can out of them? Combining genres and especially combining romance with others has been a tricky thing in Dramaland. Romance more often than not takes over while most intense situations are trivialized. If the series pulls the mix off well though, keep some tissues, some ice cream and a fluffy pet nearby. You will likely need all of them.

The Reassuring

Pre-Production Quality

Writer Kim Eun-sook might not be everyone's favorite (confession: Yours truly included), but you know pre-production is tempting when even someone who had previously said they would never do it gives it a go. Pre-production offers the time and focus necessary to do creative work, which cannot and should not be churned out under pressure. If the creators used that time well, we are in for quite a ride.

Capable Cast

Hallyu-fame is good, but not every commercially successful star can handle demanding roles. Song Hye-kyo, Kim Ji-won, Song Joong-ki and Jin Goo are all actors who have dealt with different types of roles and, along with many from the supporting cast, are skilled in what they do. Dramas after popularity often forget talent is a big deal, so it is most reassuring to see this is not the case here.

Final Thoughts

It is difficult not to get excited about such a big project and one important to the Korean drama industry and its future approach to a much needed change in the production format. It is also even more nerve-racking. Still, "Descendants of the Sun" promises romance, action and even some nice eye-candy (the human and location kind), so assuming it delivers that, we are golden.

"Descendants of the Sun" begins its run on February 24th and will air every Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m., on KBS2.

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Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'
By William Schwartz | Published on 2016/02/20

This episode opens up with Yeong-sil and his science buddies admiring the stars and pondering over the mysteries of the universe as Jang Yeong-sil's scientific bagpipe music plays in the background. It's a capstone to a whirlwind of successful research, and I really hate these scenes because they mostly just remind me of the story that "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" could be telling, except that now it's time for the requisite unnecessary violence on the part of science-hating extremists.

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I know that antagonists in "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" do not really hate science, but most of the time this is a more sensible motivation than their needlessly complicated political posturing. Is astronomy really all that important? It's certainly a relevant enough scientific discipline, but "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" constantly makes it seem as if astronomy is so important that political leaders are willing to field small private armies just to make sure it stays in the right hands.

That much is just plain silly, with the consequence being that it's difficult to take much of anything in "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" all that seriously- Yeong-sil's improbable escapes are only one of many major structural problems with the story. I have to wonder how King Sejong can be so horribly ignorant about everything that's happened until it's already too late. Shouldn't he at least be a little suspicious at this point?

I understand what "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is going for here. We're supposed to be sad that Yeong-sil has to go through such troubles all for the sake of science. Yet as far as the people who do die are concerned, their importance is obscured by the fact that we don't really have any idea who they are. I wouldn't even have been able to name them if it weren't for the historical subtitles. Mind, I doubt any of these people were real- even if such events really happened, who would record them?

Huge destructive episodes like this make King Sejong's reign of Joseon look horribly dysfunctional. It's a wonder Yeong-sil was able to find time to invent anything considering how often his workshops end up getting destroyed and later relocated. For that matter, why doesn't he just run off to China, where people appreciated his talent and made some effort to avoid having him killed? Once more, I'm left hoping "Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" will just give up this story thread and try to be about the actual science.

Review by William Schwartz

"Jang Yeong-sil - Drama" is directed by Kim Yeong-jo, written by Lee Myeong-hee, Ma Chang-joon and features Song Il-kook, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Young-chul, Park Sun-young, Kim Do-hyun, Son Byung-ho,...
Published on 2016/02/21 | Source

A restaurant in Lyon has become the first Korean-run establishment in France to be awarded a prestigious Michelin star.

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Le Passe-Temps, run by 32-year-old Lee Young-hoon, is included in the 2016 edition of the Michelin Guide for France, which was published on Feb. 5. It is one of 42 one-star restaurants newly added to the coveted list.

The guide praised Lee's Korean-inflected French dishes, including his signature foie gras and vegetables in soy sauce broth.

Lee said, "After studying culinary arts at a university in Korea, I worked in a French restaurant in Seoul for a while. I wanted to learn real French cuisine systematically, so I moved to France and went to the Institut Paul Bocuse, a culinary arts school in Lyon. After graduating, I wanted my food to be recognized by French people, so I opened my own restaurant in 2014".

Lee said that while he does not set out to combine French and Korean cuisines in his cooking, his Korean origins naturally influence his dishes.

Le Passe-Temps is a small restaurant with 26 seats. Lee and his team of three to four chefs run the kitchen, while his sommelier wife Lim So-young, 33, and three to four other staff welcome the diners. The team is made up entirely of Koreans.

The Michelin Guide for France is published in February each year. Among the 600 entries from across France this year are 26 three-star restaurants, including two new entries; 82 two-star (10 new entries) and 492 one-star (42 new entries).

Le Passe-Temps is one of five restaurants run by Korean chefs worldwide to have earned a Michelin star. The other four are San Francisco's Benu (three stars); Tokyo's Yunke and New York's Jungsik (two stars); and New York's Danji (one star).
Published on 2016/02/21 | Source

A majority of South Koreans support the deployment here of the U.S.' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries, a poll suggests.

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The THAAD batteries form a core part of the U.S. missile shield aimed mostly at containing China, and some parts of the South Korean political establishment are vocally opposed to their deployment here.

But 67 percent of ordinary people here seem in favor, and many also back the government's decision to shut down the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex after the North's recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

KBS and Yonhap News polled 1,013 South Koreans and found that 67.1 percent support the U.S. Forces Korea's deployment of THAAD batteries here. Some 26.2 percent are against due to the potential damage to Seoul-Beijing relations.

Some 54.4 percent also support Seoul's decision to close the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, while 41.2 percent felt it should continue. Asked whether the industrial park is useful in principle, 56.6 percent said yes and 40.9 percent no.

Only 29.3 percent support for South Korea developing its nuclear weapons and 23.2 percent for the redeployment of tactical U.S. nuclear weapons here, while 41.1 percent want South Korea to remain free of nuclear weapons.

A majority also now favor a tough response to North Korea's endless provocations. Some 30.9 percent are for tougher sanctions and 18 percent the option of military measures against the North's nuclear facilities. A combined 40.1 percent favor appeasement.

In another survey by the Joongang Ilbo, 67.7 percent favored the THAAD deployment compared to 27.4 percent against.
Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

15:19, 20 OCT 2022
Southwest North Dakota manufacturers are teaming up to get students considering careers in manufacturing.

The Southwest Area Manufacturing group, along with the Greater North Dakota Chamber, launched the Manufacturing Institutes Dream it. Do it. program a year ago in the state and spent the past year building it up.

We haven't done a good job of telling our story, and we're going to change that, said Guy Moos, CEO of Steffes Corp.

TMI Systems Corp., which manufactures laminate cabinet storage systems; Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing Inc., which makes circuit board assemblies, cables, harnesses and ground support equipment catering to aviation; Fisher Industries, which manufactures equipment for the sand, gravel and stone industry; Steffes Corp., which manufactures oil field products and off-peak heaters; Baker Boy, which makes wholesale baked goods; SolarBee, which makes solar-powered water treatment equipment; Worthington Industries, which purchased and operates Steffes former oil field tank manufacturing business; and FunShine Express Inc., which makes craft learning kits, all want to tell the story of the careers available in manufacturing in hopes of persuading high school and college students to join their employee ranks upon graduation.

Moos predicts the next five to 10 years will be the most challenging for manufacturing, or any industry, as baby boomers retire.

They need to be replaced, he said.

The group started with a Manufacturing Day Expo, the first collaborative event by manufacturers, inviting 250 students and educators to view presentations on their various companies.

Teachers brought busloads of kids, said Uma Hoffmann, who works in human resources for Steffes and has helped organize the Dream it. Do it. program.

In a presentation to 14-year-olds at Dickinson High School, Hoffmann said she could see the students becoming engaged and excited and their perception of manufacturing changed.

Going into 2016, the groups goals include three outreach events and more social media outreach. Theyve already been to New England Public School this month, talking to 80 high school-age students, and have plans to go to Beach and Dickinson high schools in March. Richardton, Belfield and South Heart also are on the list.

The group has nine ambassadors  rising stars from the various companies, training to conduct presentations. The group includes electricians, engineers, sales people, safety coordinators, human resources personnel and researchers and developers. Hoffmann said the goal is to eventually have 15 ambassadors.

Were making great gains developing ambassadors, Moos said.

In their presentations, ambassadors give students an idea of what's going on in manufacturing in the region, touching on tools of the trade, including robotics and 3-D printing.

(Manufacturing) is not any less than a really cool IT job, Hoffmann said.

The ambassadors talk about the reach of the companies: KMM sells along the West Coast, in Arizona, Missouri, Rhode Island and in the Southeast; Baker Boy covers the upper Midwest; and TMI, Steffes, Fisher and SolarBee are global.

We're doing a lot from where we are, Hoffmann said.

The presentations cover what each company has for career opportunities, including a baker, assembly worker, engineer or accountant at Baker Boy.

We go through the gambit, Moos said, adding his company employs 210 people in the state. We've got all kinds of occupations.

He said students also are pleased to see the level of wages provided, which may average $24 to $27 per hour. Hoffman said the annual salary average of all the Southwest Area Manufacturers is $77,000 annually.

Often, the students the companies' representatives talk to may already know someone who works for one of their companies. The ambassadors are younger, often only a few years older than the students their talking to and may have grown up down the street.

Young people like to listen to other young people, Moos said, and the ambassadors serve as examples of what the students could be at a time when theyre making up their minds about a career path.

There's so many good stories students can relate to, Hoffmann said, like the two friends getting together to start SolarBee.

Moos said manufacturing is no longer associated with a dingy garage: Its inviting, theres a family culture.

We make things; we're very proud of that, he said.

Hoffmann said workers can see a set of stairs in the oilfield and say: I made that; I was a part of that.

Hoffmann said there are not a lot of drop-in manufacturing companies in the state, most were started and grown by locals. For that reason and others, she said it becomes important for manufacturers to develop their workforce from people already living in the state.

Hoffmann said she believes the companies involved will see the success of Dream it. Do it. when students coming out of school, whether it be high school, trade school or a four-year degree, are aligned with what the industry needs. She said programs, such as high school welding, are already good but the skill gap could be even less.

(Students) can be gainfully employed at 18 if they want, said Hoffmann, adding the Dream it. Do it. program is showing results all over the country. North Dakota is one of 35 states participating.

Its a phenomenal development opportunity, she said. Were still setting it up; itll be really fun when its up and running.
by

Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see Disclose and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information.

The shores of Jamaica attract millions of visitors every year. With plenty of budget holidays and low cost accommodation, theres never been a better time for a Caribbean holiday. If youre planning to explore this tropical island, be sure to visit some of these jaw-dropping natural wonders.

Mystic Mountain

The famed Mystic Mountain in Ocho Rios is home to one of the most popular, most exhilarating attractions in Jamaica. Starting your adventure into the heart of this rainforest, walking routes or a chairlift will take to you to the summit of the 700 foot mountain. Admire the spectacular ocean views before hopping aboard a bobsled. Set on a 1,000 meter metal track, youll whizz down the mountain and take in the vibrant eco system along the way.

Doctors Cave Beach

No trip to Jamaica would be complete without sampling one of its beaches. Doctors Cove in Montego Bay is one of the best  a sweeping strip of palm fringed white sands. Its long been attracting visitors from around the world with many believing the crystal waters have rejuvenating and curative properties. Even the cynics can agree, this is one of the most relaxing spots on the island.

Martha Brae River

Immerse yourself in the natural beauty of Jamaicas rural landscape with a guided tour down the Martha Brae River. Locals lead the expedition aboard a bamboo raft which offers an authentic insight into the region. Expect beautiful fauna and flora and make sure you bring a swimsuit. There are lots of chances to cool down with a swim and escape the midday heat.

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park

Covering an expanse of 200,000 acres, this national park is a nature lovers paradise. The preserve is home to more than 800 endemic plant species and over 200 species of tropical birds. Hike deep into the rainforest and you can marvel at towering waterfalls and jaw dropping scenery. The adventurous can also climb to the summit of Jamaicas highest point, Blue Mountain Peak.

Dunns River Falls

One of the islands national treasures, this collection of cascading waterfalls is Jamaicas top-grossing attraction. Visitors can amble across the gentle tiers of limestone or take a refreshing dip in one of the plunge pools. Arrive early and youll avoid the crowds of tourists for a secluded experience.

Black River

Spanning over 50km, Black River is one of the longest rivers in Jamaica. Its murky depths are home to a huge array of fish species and crocodiles. It may not be safe for swimming but visitors can take a guided boat tour and learn more about the diverse ecology. Along the way, youll spot herons, snowy egrets and many other beautiful bird species.

Take some time to visit some of these must-see attractions on your next Jamaica holiday and youll be guaranteed an unforgettable experience. Its just one of the worlds most fantastic islands you can visit.
ingapore-based craft beer company, RedDot BrewHouse, has been accused of underpaying staff working in Melbourne on the construction of its first overseas brewery.The firm was investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman which found it had underpaid a Filipino welder over $20,000 during a period of three months after he was hired.The workplace watchdog found the employee had signed a contract stating he would be sponsored on a 457 visa  or Temporary Work (Skilled) visa  for four years.The contract also stipulated a salary of AU$55,000 per year plus overtime and penalty payments. This amount was later cut to $36,000 without the workers knowledge, the agency toldLater investigations found the worker had been paid nothing for almost half the hours he had worked and was denied penalty rates for overtime, weekends and public holidays.The paper reported that RedDot owner, Kah Noe Ng, preferred recruiting employees from overseas because the Australian labour market was too expensive, he said in a recorded interview. He also did not pay the worker for the extra hours because the work was disappointing and slow.Fair Work Ombudsman, Natalie James , toldthat Mr Ng had now signed a workplace pact for future compliance. He will apologise to the employee and pay all outstanding wages.RedDot BrewHouse is a home grown brand and this is the first time that we have expanded our operations outside of Singapore, the company wrote in a statement toAs a consequence, the management was unfamiliar with the laws and regulations of our host country, Australia. This resulted in certain lapses and we regret the misunderstanding and inconvenience caused to all stakeholders.RedDot is now better equipped to guide the operations and management to run its Melbourne branch, the firm added.Ms James said the agency was finding more employers from abroad with little or no understanding of their legal obligations in Australia.Migrant employers simply cannot undercut the minimum lawful entitlements of their employees based on what they think the job may be worth, what the employee is happy to accept, what other businesses are paying or what the job may pay in their country of origin, she said.There are minimum pay rates, they apply to everyone  including visa-holders  and they are not negotiable for any reason.
By Troy Brooks

A fantastic alternative to western medicine is sweeping across the High Country at the Jung Tao Clinic for Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Located at the Historic Cove Creek School in Sugar Grove, the clinic offers low cost acupuncture treatments to the public and school community performed by student interns in their final year of training to become professional practitioners of Chinese medicine.

Patients come from all over the county to treat a wide variety of conditions. The clinic is located on the Jung Tao campus on the first floor of the old rock building.

One really important aspect of the clinic is the affordability, said Amber Kent, a current student of Jung Tao. We charge on a sliding scale so it makes it incredibly reasonable for patients. Healthcare is expensive these days and many of our patients are either on fixed incomes or rely on expensive surgeries and medications.

Students are required to finish three years didactic study in medical theory, diagnosis and treatment, acupuncture point location, western biomedical anatomy and physiology and pathophysiology, and professional ethnics and practice management. Interns are required to finish 210 hours of observation with licensed acupuncturists and senior students are prepared to undertake responsibilities.

As stated on the schools main website, the main purpose of the clinical training is to effect a transfer of knowledge from theory learned in the classroom to the actual acquisition of skills in clinical acupuncture, with the ultimate goal being the attainment of professional competency by each student graduating from Jung Tao School. This transfer is accomplished by ensuring that each student receives a continuum of clinical experiences that correlate closely to the classroom and clinique experiences previously obtained. Students are exposed to a wide variety of patients and experiences to give them a solid foundation in the application of the principles and doctrines of Classical Chinese Medicine.

I think the program is great. Its not that different from walking into a regular doctors office, said Christine Clare, a former patient of the school. The students as Jung Tao really know what theyre doing and they always have a lot of backup. The atmosphere is also very reassuring and I find it to be a very trusting place. I often remember walking into a doctors office and being very tense as I sometimes didnt have everything explained to me. Its so different at Jung Tao. I feel calmer. The healing process starts as soon as you walk through the door.

Acupuncture is an alternative medicine and key component of traditional Chinese medicine that involves inserting thin needles into the body at acupuncture points.Application of heat and pressure to these acupuncture points relieves tension and pain. Acupuncture can be used to cure a wide range of conditions, including asthma allergies, mental and emotional disorders, arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, fatigue, cessation, weight control and menstrual irregularities, just to name a few.

My husband and I started using acupuncture several years ago and its been a blessing in helping to allow the body to regulate itself, said Amber Kent, a current student of Jung Tao. We just need to give it what it needs. I felt that I wanted to learn more about the science behind it and I find it amazing. It has you looking into all types of subjects, such as physics and biology, and there are still many things I have yet to learn. Youre able to manipulate what happens in the body. Your intention has an effect on the treatment.

Studying Chinese medicine is very profound because it observes how organs work with one another in the body. It also doesnt have the same side effects that come with a lot of prescriptions these days. Would I want to take this prescription and develop these other symptoms it warns you of?

Jung Tao approaches Chinese medicine through classical methods with an eastern style of instruction that emphasizes natural remedies and physics compared to techniques used in western medicine.

Chinese medicine is based on physics. Its all about moving energy in the body, said Kent. When somebody gets a fever in the body, they recognize it as heat. Western medicine allows you to record that heat using electroencephalography to detect electric waves in the body. On the other hand, Chinese practices can sense that heat in the body with the use of needles. Think of them as little antennas. They pick up energy waves in the body and allow the acupuncturist to tap into those waves and move energy to where the body needs it.

The foundation of Jung Tao dates back to 1976 with Sean C. Marshall, who offered apprenticeship training in Chinese medicine and taijiquan. Eventually, Marshall established a graduate program and the Chinese medicine school in Boone. The first classes began in Sept. of 1998.

Jung Tao teaches students in a plethora of ages ranging from college studentsto people in their mid 50s

Everyone has a passion here for wanting to help others, said Kent. Thats the root of why most students are in the program. They want to serve and support others in their journey to wellness. The students here come from a wide range of backgrounds from doctors and nurses to engineers and marketing directors. Many of them have had their own challenges in the past and the program helps them learn how to take care of themselves.

For more information the Jung Tao School and the Acupuncture Program, visit http://www.jungtao.edu/index.php.

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Safety awards

The North Dakota Safety Council recognized individuals who are champions for safety in their workplaces and communities at the 2016 Ceremony of Champions held Feb. 4.

The following awards were presented during the ceremony:

The Duane Kuehn Outstanding Safety Professional award was presented to Dave Opp of Opp Construction in Grand Forks. This award is presented annually to an individual who has been instrumental in the development and implementation of safety programs that increase the safety of their organization or community.

NDSC Lifesaver Award was presented to individuals who have acted above and beyond the call of duty to assist or rescue another individual. The following individuals were nominated and received the award: Alyssa Dollinger, Bismarck; Travis Erickson, Bismarck; Leland Olds First Response Team, Stanton; Breanna Nehl, Bismarck; Ryan Nelson, Grand Forks; Scott Parker, Saginaw, Minn.; Kevin Trowbridge, Fargo; Danielle Trowbridge, Fargo; and Joel Valadez, Minot.

Four individuals were recognized for their completion of the Advanced Safety Certificate program. This program is designed to maximize a person's effectiveness as a safety leader and help them establish safety best practices. Completion of this certificate program demonstrates their dedication to occupational safety excellence. The recipients are Donny Askvig, Des Lacs; Victoria Kreger, Williston; Joely Heavy Runner, Bismarck; and Derrick Miller, Minot.

Interning

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp announced that five students and recent graduates are working as interns in her Washington D.C., and Fargo offices.

The following individual is interning in Heitkamps Fargo office: Amy Crane, Bismarck, is a junior attending Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., where she is double majoring in history and political science.

Heitkamps offices are seeking summer interns. Students interested in politics, government and the legislative process may apply at www.heitkamp.senate.gov/. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

'Bell Ringers'

Two Bismarck Public School principals have been named Bell Ringers by the North Dakota Association of Elementary School Principals.

Michele Svihovec, principal at Centennial, was recognized for being a "fierce instructional leader" with a "passion in the area of reading." Svihovec has served on the North Dakota Reading Association and helped plan state conferences. She worked through the children's Choice program to get more than $100,000 in free books for schools in Bismarck.

Svihovec is also the English Language Learner Coordinator for Bismarck Public Schools. She researched and secured funds and resources to create the BPS Newcomers Center for ELL families this school year.

Shawn Oban, principal at Highland Acres and Roosevelt, shares the belief that "investing in teachers through professional development is the greatest impacter in the lives of students." He seeks out learning opportunities for students beyond the classroom walls and has secured and hosted many guest speakers, performers and art programs in his schools.

Oban is also the fine arts coordinator for Bismarck Public Schools. He sought funding and created Building Integration Mentors in all BPS elementary schools, including money for art supplies and professional development in the arts. He coordinates a district program that allows all BPS elementary students to experience one performing art per year. Oban also coordinates the elementary summer band camp.

Pantry aided

Bismarck High School has received a $1,000 donation from the Tesoro Foundation for the BHS food pantry. The funds will be used to buy a refrigerator and freezer so the school can provide a wider variety of food to families in need.

On UTTC staff

United Tribes Technical College announced the hiring of Camille Martell to the position of career development counselor. Shes an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Tribe and joined the UTTC staff in January.

Martell has experience in academic and mental health counseling. She was an adult inpatient addiction counselor and worked with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Standing Rock, for both Indian Health Service and for the tribe. Most recently, she served as a career and technical guidance counselor at Sitting Bull College.

In her new position at UTTC, she helps students find a career path for long-term employment by offering resume-writing workshops, skill testing and mock interviews. She works with employers to evaluate their employment needs and also coordinates a UTTC speaker series held on the campus.

Martell earned a bachelors degree in human services with an emphasis in mental health from Sinte Gleska University, Mission, S.D. She is nearly complete with a masters degree in mental health counseling and has been accepted into the UND Distance Masters of Social Work program.

Tesoro grants

The Bismarck Public Schools Career Academy, BPS middle schools and the Missouri River Education Consortium will benefit from two Tesoro Foundation grants totaling $100,000.

The $25,000 grant will support Career and Technical Education in the development of a statewide energy curriculum. The second grant in the amount of $75,000 will fund STEM activities in grades 6-8 for both Bismarck Public Schools and the MREC. Paul Keidel wrote the grants in cooperation with Ron Day and the Tesoro Foundation.

Stadler honored

Kevin Stadler, a 13-year member of the Abused Adult Resource Center board of directors, was presented the Abused Adult Resource Centers 22nd annual Love Without Fear award on Feb. 11 at Pams House, AARCs emergency shelter for battered women and their children.

The award honors someone who has made a difference in the community regarding domestic violence. Presenting the award were Tamara Barber, chair of the AARC board of directors, and Diane Zainhofsky, AARC executive director.

Stadler, who serves as senior vice president of business banking for BNC National Bank, also serves on the boards for the Missouri Slope Areawide United Way and the Dacotah Foundation.

According to Barber, Stadlers involvement with AARC began in 1990. He helped coordinate the financial details of purchasing a second shelter, Pams House. In 1995, with Stadlers help, AARC opened the Seeds of Hope Thrift Store, she said. He was instrumental in getting the project operational, including arranging for staff from BNC to provide training to the employees and volunteers in all aspects of managing and operating a retail business.

Barber said today the Seeds of Hope is AARCs largest fundraiser, provides employment to 20 people, uses volunteers and offers affordable clothing and household items for our community. She also said Stadler's financial expertise is vital to the board and, with his dedication, AARC is on sound financial footing.
Duties change

The North Dakota Air National Guard has a new senior enlisted leader. Chief Master Sgt. Kevin Muehler assumed duties as the state command chief master sergeant in January, during a change of responsibility ceremony at the Air National Guard base in Fargo.

Muehler, of Fargo, replaced, Chief Master Sgt. Bennett G. Bush, who officially retired from the National Guard Feb. 1, after four years in the position.

As the state command chief master sergeant, Muehler reports to Brig. Gen. Ronald W. Solberg, assistant adjutant general for North Dakota's Air National Guard. In this capacity as the senior enlisted airman in the North Dakota Air Guard, Muehler will advise senior military leaders on matters concerning discipline, morale, welfare, effective utilization, professional development and career progression of the state's airmen.

Muehler began his career in the U.S. Air Force in June 1978 as a pneudraulics system specialist, providing aircraft maintenance for the F-5E Aggressor Squadron. Two years into his career, he was selected to become a member of the air demonstration squadron known as the Thunderbirds

Muehler would go on to join the New York Air National Guard's 106th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group, out of Westhampton Beach, in 1986. There he provided aircraft maintenance until 1988, when he transferred to the N.D. Air National Guard's 119th Wing, known as the "Happy Hooligans."

In June 2006, after more than 26 years in aircraft maintenance, Muehler moved into the intelligence career field, when the 119th Wing took on a new MQ-1 Predator mission. As a mission intelligence coordinator and superintendent of the wing's Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group, Muehler has supported Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn.

Bush, who joined the Air Guard while in high school, spent 26 years in the 119th Civil Engineering Squadron. In 2008, he was deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, serving as the chief of civil engineering for the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, out of Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait. While there, he oversaw base maintenance as well as runway maintenance and repair, coordinating and scheduling work with coalition forces from five other countries.

Upon his return from deployment, Bush transitioned from civil engineering to the Bismarck-based Joint Force Headquarters, where he took on the role of state human resource adviser. Working with the wing's human resource adviser, Bush stood up the 119th Wing Diversity Council. In February 2012, Bush became the fourth North Dakota state command chief.
Many residents of the 36 older apartment units south of the Law Enforcement Center in Mandan rejoiced when the HUD contract was renewed for another year by the Morton County Commission at its Feb. 11 meeting. The building will stand intact as its future use beyond the next two years remains undecided.

The county commission bought the 45-unit Berube building before voters decided whether Morton County should partner with Burleigh County in building a new jail in Bismarck or expand its own jail in Mandan. Morton County voters approved sharing costs of the $82 million combined county detention center in Bismarck, so Morton County doesn't need the apartment space to expand its jail.

Cody Schulz, chairman of the county commission, said residents of the one-bedroom apartments will still have a home until March 1, 2018, at least.

"When you renew the HUD contract, you are technically renewing it two years," he said.

"Our goal is to wait until the jail moves," Schulz said of any decisions about the future of the apartment building.

Thirty-six of the apartments are subsidized by HUD and the other nine pay rent in full.

Rebecca Horn, 29, who has resided in the apartment building for the past year, gave a fist pump and exclaimed "Yes!" when asked about the renewal. Though a decision to shutter the apartments would mean its occupants would be placed on top of a list for new housing, she is not sure she would get it.

"A lot of people here don't own a vehicle. How do they look for a new place? Renters want you to have a 600 or better credit score, and a lot people here don't," she said.

"This building is essential for people living here. We need it," Horn said. "It's efficient. It's right down the street from the drug store. I'm diabetic, and that's important. We're right next to the police. The fire department is just a block away. I feel safe. It is a secure building."

Horn, who returned to the state from South Carolina to be near family, said she cannot work because she is disabled, though she trained at the Job Corps in Minot for culinary work.

Janna Buchl, 34, from the Aurora, Colo., area, said she suffers from post traumatic distress syndrome so she cannot work at this time.

Though she is aware there may be an expiration date on residents' stay there, she remains confident there would be other housing.

"Under our HUD contract, they would have to place us before they close this or relocate us," said Buchl, adding that the building could use improvements, including a better air system.

"We are blessed to have a place. The apartments are very small, but we have a roof over our heads .... It's cheaper than what Ruth Meiers charges," said Buchl, pointing out that the building management firm works with residents, such as her need for a therapy dog.

For Deland Decoteau, 50, a former social worker, the simple apartments are home.

"It's a good atmosphere. We really got to know each other. You just go down the hall, and you can talk to someone. ... If they lose the HUD contract, where else can they go? A lot of people appreciate the building. For some people, this is their last chance," he said.

The $204,000 in rent revenue received from the apartments per year helps to repay the county's internal fund used to buy the building for $1 million, said Dawn Rhone, county auditor.

"It could be 10 years before we do something with that property," Commissioner Bruce Strinden. "Our plan is to run that property until there are needs for expansion. What could accelerate tearing it down is a serious roof problem."
Two recent reports shouldnt come as a big surprise to North Dakotans.

The Census Bureau of the North Dakota Department of Commerce says those age 60 and older are leaving the oil patch in significant numbers. And two researchers from North Dakota State University found that more than 80 percent of nonresidents working in the states oil and gas industry dont want to stay in the state,

Its not unusual for people to move when they retire. Theres a desire to live in a warmer climate, the lure of grandchildren in a different state or the interest to see another part of the country. During the peak of the oil boom the traffic was crazy, stores and restaurants were crowded and life changed drastically. Many older residents decided they would rather leave a community they enjoyed for years for peace and quiet.

The Commerce Department expected the 65 and over age group in the Williston area to grow from 2010 to 2014, but the bureau estimates there will be 282 fewer than in 2010. In the Minot region, an increase of about 750 or more was expected; instead the estimate is for about 60 fewer than four years previously. The Dickinson region should have shown 225 more and instead showed about 30 fewer.

The loss of older residents has been filled by the arrival of younger workers attracted by jobs in the oil patch.

A survey by NDSU researchers Nancy Hodur and Dean Bangsund indicates most of those younger workers arent likely to stay long. The researchers found only 19 percent who responded to the survey want to remain in the state. The main reason given for not planting roots is the high cost of housing and the fear that home values will eventually fall below current prices.

The two reports might indicate that in the long run the state could see a population dip, especially in the oil patch. Thats likely not the case. The 65 and older group tends to move to Bismarck, Fargo and other cities in the state. The age group tends to get involved in their new communities  going to church, volunteering and taking part in other activities.

The states Census Bureau predicts the states population will grow steadily even with the oil slowdown and be near the 1 million mark by 2040. The bureau predicts the state's population could range from 800,000 in 2020 to a high projection of 1,060,000 by 2040.

The bureau estimated North Dakota's population in 2015 at 756,927.

So the fact that older residents are looking for peace and quiet and younger workers chasing the latest oil boom dont plan to stay shouldnt surprise us. What will be interesting is how the states demographics change. Will the state get younger, will there be areas dominated by older residents and how fast will we grow? Only time will give us the answers.
This weekend might be the last warm one we have in awhile
The spectre of Jagannath Sarkar, one of the finest Marxist leaders in India, haunts the troubled state of Bihar, which awaits a crucial election between October 8 and November 5. During his stewardship in the late 1960s, the Communist Part of India (CPI) became the most powerful Left party in the state. Unfortunately, the CPI leaders today  as also their counterparts in the CPI(ML) Liberation and CPI(M)  do not wage a social jihad against the privileged castes that own and control the property and also torture the underprivileged masses.

With the RSS calling the shots, especially in the Hindi belt, the cobra-hold of extremely in-egalitarian property relations in Bihar is stronger than ever, thanks to the decimation of the three official Left parties. Democratic forces and civil rights organisations need to emerge and lend support to chief minister Nitish Kumar to halt saffron politics. Kumar showed the courage to set up a one-man committee for agrarian reforms, under chairmanship of D Bandyopadhyay, but shelved the report and its recommendations. So the Lefts criticism of Kumars back-down in implementing the recommendations of the Bandyopadhyay committee was conscientious but not in sync with the socio-politically nebulous nature of the BIMARU state.

True, the top brass of the JD(U), like the once-powerful Samyukta Socialist Party, have no interest in establishing democratic solidarity based on social justice. Instead, its purpose was to strengthen its mass base by inciting cattiest passion against forward castes, observed Sarkar in a note to his partys national council in 1998 on the reasons for the vertical decline of the CPIs masses in Bihar from the early 1980s.

Yet Kumar tried to chart a new governance that the Left parties never studied dispassionately. They never appreciated steps such as curbing of criminal raj (life imprisonment for nearly 6,000 criminals and death sentence for over 80) between 2006 and 2008. Laws such as the Bihar Special Court Act, 2008, empowering the state to seize the assets of public servants proved to possess disproportionate assets and mandatory utilisation of forfeited assets for primary or secondary schools, and the Right to Service Act,2008, to end red-tapism in the issuance of caste certificates, birth and death registration, are of no value to them. These laws were never thought by the CPI(M)-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. All this is simply parliamentary opportunism thriving on negative politics.

CPI(M) polit bureau-member Brinda Karat looks forward to a strong political and electoral intervention as the Left parties have been fighting on peoples issues in Bihar since long in contrast to other alliances  implying that the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine has no ideology and are fighting on seat-sharing issues. She reflects her obsession with vacuous conceit, evading the reality of the alienation of the Left from the upper-caste-oppressed people in chill penury.

For elite-brand leaders like her, Ravidas, Kanu, Lohar, Paswan and Dusadh are Greek. Little wonder that out of the over 100 candidates fielded by the Left parties in the last assembly polls, only one seat was won and that too by the CPI. They refuse to learn the lesson, excepting a showbiz self-critique that has no impact on the electorate.

Sankar Ray is a Kolkata-based writer. The views expressed are personal.
The disquiet on our university campuses is troubling, to say the least, and this is not an unease that has come upon us suddenly. However much we wish to make a case for our universities as being spaces for dialogue and dissent, we have to reckon with the fact that many are bureaucratic fortresses as well, whose administrators are loath to let go of their privileges, based on birth and State office. Appointments to key posts within universities, including of vice-chancellors, are determined by parties in power, and men and women that parties favour, or are happy to favour party purses. This is an open, dirty secret, at least in regional universities, which, like caste, we dont wish to acknowledge or engage with. Over the last year and more, there has been sustained student protest over such appointments and their consequences in south India  in Madurai Kamaraj University and Pondicherry Central University.

Institutional decay, which affects the prospects of students who look to the State to support their educational endeavour, occurs in diverse ways; while corruption and nepotism are its most obvious expressions, these conceal other equally malign tendencies. For instance, in a state like Tamil Nadu, both State and private educational players insistently and glibly celebrate educational success, without asking too many questions about its content  though there is enough evidence to show that not all is well with universities in the state, and that some of them have been arraigned by the University Grants Commission for not being the centres of excellence they claim to be. Institutional decay happens also on account of ethical indifference, in abundant evidence in Hyderabad Central University (HCU), where neither the vice-chancellor who was in office when Rohith Vemula died, nor the man who was chosen in his place, deigned to acknowledge the scale of the tragedy that had occurred, but instead looked to protect themselves, and their office.

Read| A lesson in Rohith Vemulas death: India is shackled to caste

Sadly, this state of affairs is seldom consistently challenged, except by those who are its victims. Even when challenged in particular contexts, institutional decay is not something we seek to debate with alacrity, as we do, for instance, threats to free speech or anti-fascist politics. This also means that we are not always aware of or take mindful heed of developments that are likely to truly transform our university spaces. On account of the concerted efforts of Dalit families, activists and community elders determined to ensure access to higher education, and demographic shifts in the composition of students in higher education, we have today a vibrant culture of Dalit-Bahujan intellectual labour and activism on many campuses  HCU has been home to such a culture for a while now, as is the English and Foreign Languages University. And there are many others whose stories stand to be told.

Students of several educational institutions and organisations protest against the suicide of Rohith Vemula. (PTI)

Besides, there are individual teachers, or reading groups who have actively promoted anti-caste cultures, and facilitated meaningful discussions to do with caste inside and outside the campus. Dalit teachers in several moffusil colleges  in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, for instance  have sought to create inclusive classrooms where social and cultural issues could be actively debated  given the largely OBC and Dalit presence in these colleges, this has proved both fraught as well as productive. Where no protocols exist, either in the syllabi or in the larger campus culture for speaking critically of caste, such efforts have proved enormously valuable. Writer Perumal Murugan, when he was in Namakkal, which he left last year due to casteist bullying, had built a reading and discussion circle, whose members went on to write on their experiences of being born and raised in particular castes. Subsequently collected into a volume titled Caste and I, it has proved to be a rich resource that tells us a lot of what has changed and not changed in rural and moffusil contexts, including in youth cultures and educational institutions.

Members of various student organisations collected at Arts Faculty in North Campus to express solidarity with the Dalit Student Rohith Vemula. (Saumya Khandelwal/ Hindustan Times)

It is in this context that we may want to re-examine the disquiet on our campuses  for clearly these have to do as much with the articulate power of expression on display by young Dalits as with resisting Hindutva and the States high-handedness. Vemulas eloquence and universalism proved cumbersome to an establishment devoid of imagination and oblivious to social suffering. JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumars speech irked the Hindu Right because the young man, with an indigent background dared to embrace several strands of critical thought and traditions of protest, which, when thought together, threaten casteist nationalism and a manuvadi State. Kumars invocation of Jai Bheem, his criticism of the venality of economic and political power and Brahminism, his clarity about raising the blue flag alongside the red communist banner, his endorsement of the right to justice for minorities  these suggested a new politics, brought about largely by the justness and critical content of Dalit political reasoning.

Read| Rohith Vemula: An unfinished portrait

At stake today for all of us committed to free speech and a happy, creative culture of youthful idealism and defiance is not only the life world that is JNU, but the vibrant intellectual world of the Dalit-Bahujan youth as well. For the latter to flourish, the institutional decay of our public universities needs to be addressed  for it is only in spaces that are truly open and collectively experienced will Dalit-Bahujan practice and thought acquire the weight and resonance to anticipate a caste-annihilating and, therefore, fraternal politics and society, not only within the university but outside its precincts as well.

V Geetha is a writer, translator and publisher

The views expressed are personal
Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has replied to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnaviss open letter to him, in which the politician explained why his government had banned the sale of meat in the state and other issues.



Here is Sardesais response to Fadnavis which first appeared on his website :

Dear Devendraji,

Firstly, I wish to thank you for replying to my open letter and creating space for a public debate. This is a sign of a truly healthy democracy and is rare for a politician in this day and age. I truly appreciate that a big politician chooses to reply to a humble columnist: doesn't happen too often in an age where the media is a soft target. However, while I do not wish this to become a tu to main main, I must reserve the right to reply.

Sir, there are four basic issues that I raised in my original letter to which you have responded. Firstly, the meat and beef ban in Maharashtra. On the beef ban, the fact is that your government has imposed a statewide ban in a unilateral manner with no attempt to engage with the stakeholders. The results are there for all to see. Thousands of people associated with the cattle trade have overnight been rendered unemployed. They are all citizens of this country, many of whom voted for you in the last election. I haven't heard a word of empathy for their plight ( a number of them belong to the minority community but let's not go down there for now). Should I not ask as a journalist what useful public purpose has been served by this ban? Or does asking questions make me agenda driven?

The issue of a meat ban has a more chequered past. Yes, previous governments of the Congress-NCP, be it at the state or municipal level, have sought to impose bans on meat sale during the Jain festival. Under pressure from the Jain community, attempts have been made by your predecessors (and I mention this in my article without citing the dates) in 1994, 2003-04 and 2014 through government resolutions, but these were never widely enforced (the 94 order, for example, was never carried out), were often driven by a spirit of voluntarism (an ''appeal" was made to close meat shops) and nor did they initially last beyond two days (although the August 2014 Government resolution did seek to extend it to four days). It is only this year that the BJP dominated Mira-Bhayandar municipal corporation imposed an unprecedented eight day ban on meat sale and strictly enforced it. Taking a cue, a group of BJP MLAs, councillors and Jain community persons met the municipal commissioner and sought to extend this to Mumbai city and have a similar eight day ban on meat sale across the city. It is only when the Shiv Sena and MNS opposed this, that your local leaders were forced to back off because they couldn't muster a majority.



The message is clear and this was the point I was making: the state BJP wanted to impose, indeed was pushing to impose, a ban much wider in scope and ambit than in the past And if I ask questions in this regard, am I agenda-driven or pseudo-secular or simply reflecting the concerns of a large section of the population who do not appreciate the ban culture, be it by a BJP government or a Congress government?

Lets turn to Rakesh Maria and the musical chairs played with the police commissioner's office. You claim that his sudden transfer was necessitated by the rush of festivals: a new man was needed to oversee the festival arrangements. Truth is, almost no senior police officer I have spoken to is willing to buy this theory. Those who have retired have openly scoffed at this explanation, those in service are naturally hesitant to speak out. The conjecture is that Mr Maria's transfer has something to do with the ongoing Sheena Bora investigation or a personal animus. You seem to suggest that his role as commissioner in a murder case was purely supervisory. Maybe it was, or should be. But the fact is, your government after transferring him to DG Home Guards in the morning, the very same evening claims that he will continue to oversee the Bora investigation. This, even as a new police commissioner and another fine officer Ahmed Javed takes charge. Can there be anything more confusing? Then, to compound the confusion, your government now decides to suddenly hand over the Bora case to the CBI. The Mumbai police claimed in court that it had clinching evidence while seeking remand against the accused; then why is the case being transferred out? Is the Mumbai police incompetent, is there a cover-up, or is the case throwing up new dimensions which perhaps might need fresh investigation? Is a journalist not to ask such questions without his motives being questioned?

Let's turn to the issue of sedition and a government circular. You claim that the circular is a routine translation from Marathi of an order passed by the previous state government. Your reply seems to suggest that the role of the present government is little more than clerical that requires no application of mind to a serious issue. Well, all I can say is that on Tuesday, the Mumbai high court gave a very different spin to this issue: on a petition by cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, they have asked your government not to implement the circular for now and asked you to reply by the20th of October. Since the matter is now before the esteemed court, maybe we should wait to see how they interpret the government circular: clearly, this round has been won by those who are worried that the circular can be misused by the police. Also, if you are not in agreement with the sedition circular why did your government not withdraw it? `Sedition' is hardly a weapon to be used in the armoury of a democratic government which should welcome debate and disagreement. Why did your government re-issue this circular? And if I point to this potential for misuse, am I being agenda driven or simply doing my duty as a journalist?

The fourth issue is one which is dear to your and my heart: the plight of the farmers, especially in Marathwada at the moment. As a politician from Vidarbha, I know you empathise with farmers issues; I am aware that you took a lead role in exposing the irrigation scam when in opposition. And I am also aware of your efforts through the Jal Yukta Shivir Yojana to try and improve the situation on the ground. The facts though are that 729 farmers have committed suicide since January in Marathwada alone, more than any other part of the country, and tanker mafias and usurious money-lenders continue to rule. Yes, this is an inherited legacy (and I refer to the irrigation failures and comments made by previous ministers in my original letter), but on the ground there is hardly any evidence of the situation showing any marked improvement. Maybe, if your micro-irrigation schemes do work, then in the long run, there will be change. But for now, there is a deepening crisis. Should I not be asking you, therefore, to prioritise farm relief above all else? And should I not also ask what happened to the election promise of ensuring that those involved in the irrigation scam are punished? Or is asking hard questions in this age of cheerleaders and unbridled Bhakti, no longer acceptable?

My final point sir: in your response, at various points you call me a 'leftist', `pseudo secular', and 'biased'. You also rather derisively placed the word senior, as in senior journalist, in inverted commas. Personal attacks are now par for the course; 27 years of journalism have helped me acquire the skin of a rhinoceros. Over the years, I have been attacked by one and all: in 1992-93, Sharad Pawar, also a former Maharashtra CM, threw me out of a press conference because of the questions I asked on the Mumbai riots. Ten years later, my coverage of the 2002 riots led to my being attacked again. I have stood up against all forms of extremism, Hindu and Muslim, and am suspicious of all dogmas, be it of left or right. I have exposed Congress corruption (as editor of a news channel, I supervised the path-breaking investigative story on the Quattorochi accounts being defrozen), and sangh parivar hate politics, Mulayam's goondaism (for which I was summoned to the UP state assembly) and Mayawati's disproportionate assets (for which our OB van was burnt). Please do go through my columns over the last two decades, especially on Maharashtra politics, a state whose social and political decline I have observed with dismay.



I am happy to introspect, be corrected, but dislike being pigeonholed in any manner, except to say that I do believe in the spirit of a liberal, plural India that strives to provide equal opportunities to all its citizens. Does that make me a "Leftist?" as you appear to caricature all dissenters or questioners? If I question any form of bigotry, does that make me pseudo-secular? In my view, it makes me a proud, humane Indian.



Post-script: I must also thank all your followers who ensured I trended all through Tuesday on twitter. Their constant abuse gives me strength. Look forward to meeting soon! Jai Maharashtra, jai Hind!

The writer is author and senior journalist.

Read Rajdeep Sardesai's column in Hindustan Times in which he wrote an 'open letter' to Devendra Fadnavis.

Read Devendra Fadnavis's reply in Hindustan Times in which he responded to Sardesai's points.

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The musings of a meandering mind ministering in the name of Christ
To say that the ruling BJP is concerned about the Jat quota stir would be an understatement. Its panicky, rattled.

Within 24 hours beginning Friday evening, top ministers and NDA government strategists held three meetings  the last one attended by the national security adviser, the army chief and heads of intelligence agencies at home minister Rajnath Singhs residence  but a solution eludes.

Installing a non-Jat chief minister was good politics so far as it mobilised non-Jat communities, who together far outnumber the Jats. But that may have taken away the leverage that the BJP might have to convince the protesters that reservation under the OBC category is bound to be struck down by courts and so, they have to be more flexible and reasonable.

Its not just the extent and spread of violence or the seeming breakdown of the law and order machinery in the state, which is giving jitters to the ruling dispensation at the Centre. The agitation threatens to unravel the long-term political and electoral strategy of the BJP. Its sweep in western Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was in the aftermath of riots that split the Jat-Muslim vote bank that RLDs Ajit Singh had consolidated with the Congresss help.

The Jat reservation stir, which is spreading outside Haryana, could not only spoil the BJPs game plan in western UP but also adversely affect the partys outreach to other backward castes in the run-up to the assembly polls next year.

Read: Jat quota stir sends airfares soaring, Delhi-Chandigarh Rs 99,000

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees announcement of reservation for Rajasthan Jats in Central government jobs in 1999 had broken the Congresss sway over the community. The Vasundhara Raje-led BJP was the biggest beneficiary of this in 2003 and 2013 assembly polls.

If Jats of Rajasthan commiserate with their brethren in other states, it may compound problems for Raje, especially when Gujjars are on a warpath demanding a shift from OBC to ST category. They argue that Jats gobble up opportunities meant for all OBCs. Meenas, who are the biggest beneficiaries in the ST category, are opposed to the Gujjars inclusion in the ST category. The BJP may find itself under a three-way siege in a state that gifted all 25 Lok Sabha seats to the party in 2014.

In neighbouring Gujarat, the Jat agitation seems to be adding fuel to the Patidars stir for reservation, who are preparing to resume their agitation. Many other communities spread over different states but with similar demands are already looking at the Jat agitation closely.

Jats put up a blockade on the railway overbridge (ROB) at Kanjoli Line area on the Bharatpur-Alwar route in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. (HT Photo)

The BJP has reasons to be particularly wary of caste-based movements. The party has all-encompassing Hindutva as its ideological bedrock but, for political expediency, it has sought to ensure that Hindutva is not seen as subsuming other identities of castes and tribes. For instance, the party is assiduously wooing the Ezhava community in Kerala and projecting a tribal face, Sarbananda Sonowal, to supplement its anti-immigrant politics in Assam.

The Jat stir may also force the BJP to do a re-think about its criteria for selecting chief ministerial candidates. With the Bhupinder Hooda-led Congress and the INLD holding sway over Jat votes in Haryana, the BJP sought to forge a coalition of numerically strong non-Jat communities. But it needed someone with political and administrative acumen to strike a balance. The RSS obviously did not teach it to its veteran pracharak, Manohar Lal Khattar.

The BJP chose Devendra Fadnavis, who belongs to a miniscule Brahmin community in Maharashtra, to head the coalition government. The young chief minister has shown no lesser penchant for controversies.

Similarly, the BJP chose a non-tribal in Jharkhand where tribals constitute about one-fourth of the total population. As a political strategy, forging a numerically stronger coalition of smaller communities was seen as a masterstroke. Jats in Haryana seem to have other ideas.

Read: Jat quota protests could cost BJP dear during Uttar Pradesh polls

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to hand over this year's duty of speaking before the United Nations General Assembly to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is not unusual. The then foreign minister, S M Krishna, standing in for Manmohan Singh in 2010 is one among many such cases. Also, this year's Sustainable Development Goal session, which Modi will be addressing, will be centerstage.

However, Modi's decision does underline his lack of enthusiasm for multilateral arenas. During his election campaign, his advisors spoke privately of the possibility of a Prime Minister Modi dropping symbolic summits like the BRICS and Non-Aligned Movement from his itinerary.

Once he took office such a drastic action proved impossible. But Modi privately complains about big international powwows: "Lots of small countries with their small problems." The United Nations is deliberately not under the direct charge of his foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar. It has been handed over to an additional secretary, a clear sign of the UN's demotion in India's priorities.

There are a number of reasons for this.

One, Modi is extremely focused on tangible foreign policy returns. Overseas relations that contribute to immediate economic and policy goals--foreign investment, renewable energy and so on--top his list. The UN, like most multilateral initiatives, tends to be strong on symbolism and weak on substance. Concrete results are visible, if at all, only after several years of diplomacy.

Two, Indian scholars have long argued the country has four schools of foreign policy. Of these the Hindutva worldview is the least interested in global togetherness. Explains Kanti Bajpai, professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School in Singapore, "The Hindutva school is not terribly interested in multilateral settingsYou don't want to be in the company of the international minnows too long. Being one of the crowd is not Hindutva's idea of India. India is to be vishwa guru, a teacher and model that others look up to. Multilateralism requires you play by the rules and debate and compromise -- none of these are Hindutva traits."

Three, the Indian prime minister is attuned to using foreign travel to appeal to his middle India base back home. This can be seen in his diaspora roadshow and constant references to his domestic policies even before foreign audiences. Most multilateral diplomatic efforts tend to be on issues - whether climate change, human rights, trade negotiations - that have little resonance with the larger Indian public. The UN initiative Modi is most associated with is International Yoga Day, something that earned him soft points at home.

Over the long term, this neglect of the larger big picture could prove damaging. New Delhi's protectionist stance in trade negotiations, for example, is undermining the "Make in India" strategy and hopes for strong bilateral relations with the US and Japan. New Delhi is doing many positive things in climate change but will receive no international recognition because of its unwillingness to put them in a global treaty.

Says Bajpai, "Modi wants the world to know him and quick -- multilateral settings were initially good for that because you quickly meet a lot of other leaders. But one year in, the world knows him and he doesn't need multilateralism very much."

Read: UNSC disagreement doesn't mean lack of support for India: US



PM Modis US visit to focus on start-up partnerships


Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both headed to the United States and certain to meet on the sidelines of the 70th United Nations General Assembly. The UN, in fact, provides a fitting backdrop for a fresh look at India-China ties after the high of Modis visit to China in May and the subsequent low of the Chinese block of an Indian bid in New York to sanction Pakistan for releasing the 26/11 mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

This relook must in the main be about Pakistan. Modi and his political affiliates at home appear still not to have decided whether to deal with Pakistan as a religious Other and anathema, or to engage with it as a member of the international community  reports of whose failed status have been greatly exaggerated. Even if Pakistani State institutions necessary for public welfare are weak, those facets that are capable of creating regional discord and instability have always been and continue to remain strong.

China, more than India, seems to have understood this distinction and its potential damage to Chinese national security interests. It has, therefore, through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), tried to reorder priorities in its all-weather friendship with Pakistan. Can New Delhi afford to be any less ambitious?

Modi must start with a recalibration of Indian cooperation with China on terrorism. Despite the Lakhvi episode, there are signs that the Chinese are coming around to the view that Pakistan is not such a reliable ally on the fight against even Chinas specific terrorist problem of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Beijing realises that the Pakistanis are incapable of targeting specific elements such as ETIM without also targeting those terrorists that Pakistans security establishment has provided support for against India and which they remain reluctant to do.

While China has over the years seen many of its citizens kidnapped and killed in Pakistan, Beijings tolerance might run thin due to a variety of factors. For one, Chinas military is now moving beyond mere symbolic displays to taking on increasingly practical tasks such as anti-piracy and evacuation of its citizens from conflict zones. This then increases the pressure on both the military and political establishments to respond to threats to lives and livelihood of Chinese outside Chinas borders.

In the case of Pakistan, with the launch of the CPEC, those threats just increased manifold. And despite a Pakistani security force ostensibly dedicated to the protection of Chinese personnel working on the CPEC, there is little guarantee that attacks, whether by Baloch nationalists or by the Pakistani Taliban, will not occur.

For another attack by the latter and sundry other mutations will involve messaging about Chinas treatment of its Muslim minorities. This will lead to complications in Chinas relations with West Asia and other Muslim countries, which Beijing certainly cannot afford. And when this happens, Beijing will, much like the West, find it easier to assign blame broadly to Islamic militants operating from the Af-Pak region than to specific entities.

This then could be an opportunity for New Delhi to bring Beijing around to working together on pressuring Islamabad to reform its act. Simultaneously, India must also put pressure on China over their bilateral hand-in-hand anti-terror exercises to ensure that the latter understands and agrees with the Indian definition of terrorism as essentially being of a cross-border nature and specifically originating from Pakistan. This then can lead to an upgrade of these exercises from the current photo-ops to a more substantive activity  something the Chinese are likely keen to do also.

Next, Modi must also recalibrate Indias approach to the China-Pakistan relationship. For Beijing to give greater weight to Indian concerns and to stop deferring to Rawalpindi or Islamabad, India must also be seen as being reasonable and accommodating.

New Delhi could start by dialling down its noise on the fact that the CPEC passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Instead, Modi could, without prejudice to Indias position on Kashmir, cultivate important constituencies in both neighbours by declaring his governments openness to connecting the Indian economy with the CPEC.

While neither the Pakistanis nor the Chinese have given any indication that they are interested in such a possibility, Chinas state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will certainly be looking for quicker returns than Pakistan can provide. Chinese SOEs are a politically powerful interest group within the communist party and are well aware that the Indian market is the real prize in Chinas much-vaunted one belt, one road initiative. They could be useful allies for the Indian government.

To his credit Modi has already been courting Chinese businesses and entrepreneurs as one way of changing Chinas calculus of interests and hence also its behaviour. But he might try and scale up his ambitions to use the economic context to also induce changes in Pakistani behaviour. Just as important as Chinese economic involvement might be in the Make in India campaign, so also are they to Indian efforts to bring Pakistan to the straight and narrow of responsible state behaviour.

In fact, one mistake the Indian government might have made post-Ufa was to ignore the possibilities that China offered as a pressure point on Pakistan. As he sits down to talk with Xi in New York, Modi must put any bitterness over past China-Pakistan misdeeds behind him and seek actively to position India as a swing factor in that relationship.

Jabin T Jacob is assistant director, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.
Shes the new darling of the industry, and why not? Sonam Kapoors Neerja, a biopic on the courageous air hostess who sacrificed her life to save 359 passengers on board the hijacked PanAm flight in 1986, opened to a great first day on Friday, and is already being hailed as one of this years best, and even the biggest, films. Is Neerja the lifeline Sonam needed so badly to sustain her fledgling career in the industry? Will Neerja help Sonam step out now as a bonafide actor whos got more to her than a famous father and those designer clothes?

Read: Neerja review

Whatever that may be, the fact is that Ram Madhvani film is also about many things most of us hold close to our heart. Heres a list of life-lessons all of us could learn from Neerja.

1. Love and live life

The film opens with Sonam getting off a cab and bidding goodbye to the cabbie with one of Bollywoods most iconic dialogues: Babumoshai, zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi. The under current of this Rajesh Khanna dialogue from Anand (1971) is felt throughout the film. Despite the tragic and painful experiences of the characters, they enjoy small things of life. Yes, Neerja is in love with life, and we all love her for her spirit.

Watch Sonam Kapoor in Jeete Hain Chal from Neerja

2. Your family may be overbearing at times, but never stop loving them

How many times have you snapped back at your mother when she insists you dont leave home without eating something? Remember the bitter fights youve had with your siblings for the magazine you both wanted? The film reminds us, in its own sensitive way, that these fights are what adds spice to life. However big the fight is, whatever the excuse, one thing we never lose is the love for each other.

Watch a touching song from Neerja

3. Think of solutions

During the hijack-episode, Neerja often tends to panic -- when she witnesses the first murder, when the hijackers frisk her, and when they torture a child. The gruesomeness scares her, but the brave flight purser composes herself and starts thinking of solutions to get out of the situation. Remember, when the situation threatens to go out of control, fear and panic is natural reaction, but it should never cloud our judgement and focus.

Read | Neerjas dads moving piece in 1986: Goodbye Lado, please keep coming

4. Diamonds may be a girls best friend, but you can make do with cookies when proposing to her

So just before making her final move to ensure the safety of the passengers onboard, Neerja decides to open a birthday gift: a special friend gave her. Along with a sweet love-cum-proposal letter for marriage, she finds a chocolate coookie! The poor girl is famished, been battling against the hijackers trying to save her passengers, and then there is a cookie: What a gesture of love!

Watch Shekhar Ravjiani and Sonam in a song from Neerja

Read | Neerjas dads moving piece in 1986: Goodbye Lado, please keep coming

5. Support your kids

In one of the flashback scenes, Neerjas mother (Shabana) scolds her for running away from her marriage and giving sermons on how as a woman, she must learn to adjust. The next moment, Shabana realises her daughter was in an abusive marriage. Suddenly, she is ready to give up all her notions of feminity and stands with her daughter. You may have missed asking them to prioritise self-respect but when faced with a crisis, do not let them down.

Watch Neerja trailer

Read | Neerja Bhanot: Her dads Ladli and an answer to his prayers

6. Change the way we bring up our daughters

There is a heart-wrenching and moving speech by Shabana towards the end of the movie. One, where Neerjas mother talks in details of how she brought up her daughter. The way she humbly says I never taught her to be a hero underlines the gender discrimination in our society. She even says, Humare mein bhaiyo ko veer bolte hain. Veer ko behenein rakhi bandhti hain taaki wo unki raksha karein. Beheno se to koi nahi kehta raksha karne ko. Maine use kabhi nahi bataya, pata nahi kaha se usne sabke liye jeena seekh liya. Stop telling your daughter she needs to adjust because shes a woman and her man wont because hes the man. Just, stop.

Watch Shabana in Neerja

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There is a photograph, a widely tweeted one, which shows a Delhi lawyer in black jacket, white shirt and lawyers collar band, standing atop a car outside the Patiala House courts last Wednesday, throwing stones at students and journalists as policemen stand around as mere spectators.

There are more photographs that you may have seen on the front pages of several newspapers and plenty of video footage on TV channels: of lawyers on the rampage against JNU students and journalists in the court premises last Tuesday, and then again on Wednesday, when they kicked and punched Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU students union president who is controversially charged with sedition when the police brought him to the court. All of this documents what happened in the heart of Indias capital city while policemen, of whom there were nearly 400 in the court premises, stood around doing nothing or very little.

There is also, inexplicably, the response of Bhim Sain Bassi (a.k.a. BS Bassi), Delhis police commissioner, when he was asked why the police were not able to rein in the violent lawyers. Mr Bassi is reported to have said that lawyers are officers of the court and that the use of heavy force would have been inappropriate.

Wait, what? In case you didnt catch the drift, this is the top cop in Indias capital city justifying his forces inaction against a mob on the rampage not on one day but on two consecutive ones by arguing that reining it in wouldnt have been in order because it comprised lawyers. In effect, Mr Bassi, who has been a career policeman since 1977, seems to think it is not the nature of the offence but who perpetrates it is what should determine police action.

A lawyer shouts slogans at Patiala House courts where JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was being produced. (PTI)

Read: Delhi Police chief BS Bassi comes out major loser in JNU row

On Monday, he went a step further. As police waited outside JNU to arrest the students who allegedly shouted anti-national slogans and face sedition charges, the veracity of which is now being widely challenged, Bassi said the onus now rests on the students to prove they are innocent.

But then if youve been following the news, you already know all of this, including the unforgettable statements Mr Bassi has made. What you may not know is that barely a couple of hours after last Tuesdays barbaric rampage by the people Mr Bassi describes as officers of the court, he hosted his At Home function just a few kilometres away from the site of the violence. The At Home is an annual do where tea and snacks are served and is attended by an invited list of the citys VIPs. Last Wednesday, these included the President of India, the Vice-President, the home minister, the Army chief and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. I am also told that there was the usual cohort of Delhis celebrity editors and senior journalists, including a sprinkling of a media baron or two. What I dont know is whether any of these luminaries quizzed Mr Bassi about his rather peculiar notion of dealing with incidents of mob violence.

Lawyers raise the Indian flag and shout slogans at Patiala House court, in New Delhi. (HT Photo)

Still, things have an unerring manner of catching up with you. While the media  most TV news channels and the newspapers  denounced the mobs actions and the polices inaction, one Mumbai newspaper had a special mention of Mr Bassi. The Mumbai Mirrors front page featured a full-length photograph of him with a headline that simply said Meet the man who makes Mumbai cops look good.

But no, this is not about what Mr Bassi said. Its about how the police dealt with Tuesdays and then Wednesdays incidents. It has now surfaced that perpetrators of the violence on those two days had orchestrated their actions using social media networks and planned their resolve to teach a lesson to those they targeted. The police, who were present in force, did little to stop that. Moreover, on the following day, photographs that clearly identified the lawyer-goons at the forefront of the attack were all over in the media. Yet, on Thursday, the police filed an FIR against unidentified persons, made no arrests, and summoned a few lawyers to co-operate in the inquiry. They are, after all, to quote Mr Bassi, officers of the courts.

You may have also heard that there are changes ahead for Mr Bassi. On February 29, he will retire and his successor has already been named. But, and this is the intriguing bit, he was shortlisted for the post of an information commissioner. If he became one, would he have brought his singular views to his new job  of deciding whether to disclose information on RTI applications that go into appeal? Well never know because on Friday his name was dropped from that shortlist. Small mercies.

Read| Bassi jaisa koi nahin: A career marked with controversies

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A Jamia Millia Islamia University PhD scholar was detained and questioned on Sunday by the police in the sedition case registered in connection with the February 9 event at JNU.

Jamias PhD scholar Kamran, resident of south Delhis Munirka, was questioned for over six hours at the Vasant Vihar police station after police asked him to join investigation, police sources said. Police suspect Kamran was present at JNU during the event as well.

Sadiq Naqvi, a reporter with a news portal, who was detained from Bijnor on Friday and questioned on Saturday, was questioned again on Sunday. Like Naqvi, Kamran is also a close friend of JNU student Umar Khalid, who reportedly organised the event. Naqvi allegedly was in the same college where Khalid studied earlier and was in constant touch with him.

The police have learnt that some students who participated in the JNU event were from other universities and colleges in Delhi and other states such as Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Sources in police said that a group of students of Jamia Millia Islamia has written to the university administration to inform that some youths who were seen in the video footage, participating in the pro-Afzal Guru demonstrations at the JNU, were from their varsity.

We have not received any communication from police in this regard, said Mukesh Ranjan, university spokesperson, when asked about the detained Jamia student. He also said that contrary to some reports, the university has not received any letter or communication from students claiming that a few of the students spotted in a video are from their university and the administration should help identify them.

Police sources said Kamran was detained and quizzed after investigators learnt that he was allegedly in touch with Khalid before and after the controversial event. A senior investigator went on to say that locations of both Kamran and Naqvi were at the same places outside Delhi where locations of Khalid and a few other suspects were traced last.

We questioned Kamran and Naqvi to ascertain if they had any information about the whereabouts of the absconding suspects, said a senior investigator.
Delhi is staring at a dry Monday after it exhausted its water reserves on Sunday and a man was killed in a failed bid by evict Jat protesters from the Munak Canal, the citys lifeline, in neighbouring Haryana.

There will be no water supply to central, west and north Delhi, including the Lutyens zone  the citys power district. Water will be rationed, with 423 Delhi Jal Board tankers criss-crossing the Capital, the Delhi government said on Sunday.

West Delhi, which has been hit the hardest, will be the first area to get water.

Watch | Jat agitation hits Delhi, schools and water supply affected

<span itemprop="name" content="Watch | Jat agitation hits Delhi, schools and water supply affected"></span><span itemprop="description" content="Residents of Delhi are facing water shortages after Jat protesters in neighbouring Haryana damaged equipment that brings water from the Munak canal to New Delhi. As a result, the state government in Delhi has has ordered for schools to be closed on Monday and water rationing to be introduced. The national capital gets about 60 percent of its water from the neighbouring state. Thousands of members of the lower-caste Jat agricultural community are demanding reservations both at the federal and state levels, including guaranteed government jobs or university spots.The week-long protest has killed at least 10 people and injured another 150 protestors."></span><span itemprop="duration" content="64"></span><span itemprop="thumbnail" content="http://cfvod.kaltura.com/p/1679921/sp/167992100/thumbnail/entry_id/0_6b78bw6l/version/100012/acv/192"></span><span itemprop="width" content="640"></span><span itemprop="height" content="362"></span>

Piped water will only be available to army installations, hospitals, fire brigade, the Rashtrapati Bhavan and residences of the prime minister and chief justice of India, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

His water minister Kapil Mishra requested people to use water judiciously as there was no clarity on when regular supply would be restored.

Haryana, the single biggest source of water for the city, has been rocked by widespread violence and arson with Jat protesters demanding a quota in jobs and colleges.

The closure of the Munak Canal, which carries 543 million gallons of water per day (MGD) from the Yamuna river to the city, has severely hit Delhi. Many areas of the city went without water on Sunday and many more reported low pressure.

The Delhi government was short of 480 MGD, the CM said. The tanker of the citys water distributor, the Delhi Jal Board, will provide only 2.5 MGD and that too for drinking purposes. The government, which has ordered closure of schools on Monday, will also plead its case for the Munak water in the Supreme Court.

The government is hopeful of a positive outcome but it will take at least 24 hours for the supply to be restored. The water has to be sent to treatment plants, seven of which have been forced shut due to lack of supply from Haryana.

Even if the gates are opened, the damage to the equipment will have to be repaired. It will take at least 24 hours for the supply to start, a Delhi Jal Board official said.

On Sunday afternoon, army and para-military forces were sent to Sonepat to secure the Munak Canal but couldnt dislodge the protesters, one of whom was killed in firing.

We have not been able to evict the protesters. We have temporarily suspended the efforts to evict them as the situation may turn volatile, Haryana additional chief secretary (home) PK Das said. Warning of a grave situation on Monday, Mishra, who is also the Delhi Jal Board chairperson, said they would only be able to supply drinking water.

Only two water treatment plants are functional. We are looking at all available options but our supply will be completely depleted after Monday, Mishra said.

Though the Haryana government on Sunday accepted the quota demands, it is still not clear if it would end the violent stir. Delhi will be watching the developments closely.
Nepal is among the oldest states in South Asia. But it has never been a nation in an inclusive, democratic sense. Staggeringly diverse for its size, its various groups and ethnicities were tied together due to the force of an autocratic monarchy rather than a common sense of citizenship.

Democracy in 1990 opened up political space, but it was only in 2006, through a popular movement, that Nepals political parties and Maoist rebels succeeded in forcing the monarch to accept that sovereignty lay with the people. The two forces together decided that they would draft a new Constitution, through an elected constituent assembly (CA).

Nepals new Constitution institutionalises some of the core elements of a new Nepal  particularly republicanism, secularism and federalism. Many Nepali citizens are relieved that the prolonged political transition has ended. But the constitution also is a lost opportunity. This CA was to bring the nation together and overcome social cleavages; instead, it has deepened the rift between the hills and the Terai, and between various communities.

It was meant to give citizens a sense of collective participation in drafting a common document; instead, the Constitution was rammed through even as a mass movement was building across the Terai, curfew was imposed, and over 40 people killed. It was to create a political order where excluded social groups exercised greater political power; instead, a tiny set of leaders  all belonging to traditionally dominant hill upper caste communities  hijacked the process and used it to entrench their power.

The Constitution draws federal boundaries in ways that would perpetuate the dominance of certain communities, at the cost of Terais Madhesi, Tharu and hill ethnic groups. It dilutes the principle of affirmative action. It shrinks political representation for those in the Terai, both by reducing constituencies in the region and the share of proportional representation. It includes draconian citizenship provisions against the interests of women and Madhesis.

India has rightly assessed that such a constitution will only lead to instability and chose not to welcome it. Despite PM Narendra Modis personal investment in improving ties, Kathmandus elite has not listened to wise Indian counsel. Instead, it has chosen to stoke chauvinistic ultra-nationalism targeting India. New Delhi should have paid more attention and prevented such an outcome.

But now it must sustain high-level focus on Nepal and exert pressure on Kathmandu so that the leadership agrees to a substantial review and amendment in the constitution. And it must stay firm in pushing for a truly inclusive Nepal.
One of the more exasperating arts of parenting is that of persuading children to sleep, particularly if they happen to be teenagers. Children have higher energy levels that do not get depleted as they do in adults, and they are growing up with unprecedented visual stimuli thanks to television, smartphones and tablets  all of which make our young a very sleep-deprived generation.

It turns out that this is a grave public health risk. Doctors reckon that inadequate sleep can eventually cause anxiety, weight-gain and hypertension and have consequences for mental health as well. Neuroscientist Paul Kelley of Oxford University and his colleagues have proposed shifting school timings to make up for the 10 hours of sleep that teenagers lose each week.

They have suggested that children aged eight to 10 should start school at 830AM or later, 16-year-olds at 10 am and 18-year-olds at 11AM. In fact, Oxford University has started a four-year experiment with 30,000 pupils to see if teenagers who start school late do better in exams than those who dont.

The results will be out only 2018, but policymakers in India may consider the case for changing school timings. If the circadian rhythms of teenagers are such that they prefer sleeping around midnight, is it wise to put them through a regime that rudely interrupts them each day, particularly when they have such competitive pressures to put up with?

This will, of course, be a logistical headache. Changed timings would force parents to change their daily routines. The repercussions on public transport in cities would be huge as schools now hire private buses that also ferry office-goers heading home from work. Delayed school timings would also be particularly punishing for school teachers as their days would be inevitably extended.

No one said it will be easy. In fact, Mr Kelley says the 9-to-5 working hours for adults also pose a serious threat to mental health and proposes changes to work timings as well. A public health crisis is evidently in the works that taxpayers will eventually pay for.

Policymakers need to debate these options now, as the world will anyway.
The trend of outsourcing medical services to stand-alone specialists is on the rise among super-speciality hospitals. By outsourcing, hospitals  especially those that provide tertiary care can free up resources that can be used in their core areas, like we did, says Dr Kousar Ali Shah, chief operating officer at BLK Super Speciality hospital, Delhi.

It has outsourced its eye-care, dental care, radiology, and radiation oncology departments, which brings down the operation cost by 20% to 25%. Outsourcing is essentially like buying expertise, it helps the hospital provide expert care almost immediately, which would not be possible if we set up a department of our own.

Mahajan Imagings runs its centres at Sir Ganga Ram, BLK and Fortis Hospitals. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT photo)

In Mumbai, Nanavati and Global hospitals have outsourced laboratory services from Metropolis India. It is convenient for a hospital to outsource lab services as it reduces its workload, and is easier to conduct rare and expensive procedures such as DNA and tumour tests, says Dr Nilesh Shah, group president of scientific services and operations at Metropolis. The rare tests especially require latest machinery and facilities, which we own, but are lacking in some hospitals.

Focus on quality care

In Delhi, The Centre for Sight runs the ophthalmology unit at the Fortis Escorts and BLK Super Speciality hospitals. We specialise in eye-care procedures and follow a hub-and-spokes model, says Dr Mahipal Sachdeva, chairman and medical director, The Centre for Sight. It has 51 centres across 30 cities, including ophthalmology departments in four. The clinics at hospitals are the spokes that provide almost 80% of services, and the main centre with high-end customised equipment is the hub.

In this model, the hospitals do not need to invest in technology or specialists, says Dr Sachdeva, who offers a food analogy to explain the model. Its like getting a Le Cordon Bleu (a leading hospitality management institute) chef bring in his expertise, equipment and ingredients to cook up a meal at a fast-food restaurant.

We bring in a lot of volume to make the entire process affordable, says Shah of Metropolis. It has 2,200 labs in Mumbai alone. When we operate on such a large scale, we get the materials at subsidised rates, which helps us run a sustainable model.

Diagnostic edge

Outsourcing is particularly helpful in cost-intensive diagnostic processes such as PET-CT, CT scan and MRI.

In the era of super speciality care, it is not possible for a hospital to run all the departments by itself. For instance, the cost of setting up a radiology department is as high as Rs 15 crore to 20 crore, says Dr Harsh Mahajan, director, Mahajan Imaging, which has six centres including Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis Vasant Kunj and BLK hospitals in Delhi. It is easier for specialised centres to adopt newer technology than a hospital as its difficult for a hospital to invest a big amount for a single department for a short duration.

Moreover, for some new hospitals it is difficult to invest large amounts into pathological and radiological facilities, says Dr Rina Shah, chief pathologist of Metropolis lab at Global Hospital.

Right from collecting blood samples to testing it and dispatching the reports, Metropolis does it all for the four-year-old hospital. Run inside the hospital premises, Metropolis also manages molecular diagnostics, surgical pathology and hematology centres. With a lab right there, the hospital saves time on investigating the cases and can focus on the patients conditions and demands, adds Rina.

Dialysis is another service that is frequently outsourced. The Delhi-based Deep Chand Dialysis Centre provides dialysis units and also an entire nephrology department to different hospitals such as the National Heart Institute and Kalra Hospital, in the capital.

Some like Apollo hospital outsource their lab tests within their chain. Most of our clinical services are provided in-house, including 90% to 95% diagnostic tests, says Neeraj Garg, CEO of Apollo diagnostics. Smaller centres outsource specialised tests to bigger Apollo centres. Only a few foetal, genetic or cancer marker tests, which are not done routinely have been outsourced to standalone labs like Lal Path Labs in Delhi.

The only shortfall of the model is that the centres success is dependent on how well the hospital does. The expected volumes and the required high quality of service are an integral part of the contract. If the hospital doesnt make money, we could run into losses as the equipment is very expensive, says Dr Mahajan.

Agrees Dr Sachdeva: The partners have to be chosen after due diligence because bad choices can affect your brand.

Read: India gears up for the battle against breast cancer
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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned on Sunday an attack on party leader Soni Sori in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada as the Aam Aadmi Party announced it will shift the tribal leader to the Capital for treatment.

Three men attacked Sori on Saturday night and smeared black chemical on her face, on a day a well-known human rights lawyers group was allegedly forced to leave Jagdalpur after threats.

V painful. Whats happening everywhere? Hope she recovers fast. Chattisgarh govt shud nab culprits immediately https://t.co/4sSjOExwrE  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

The attack on Sori occurred at Geedam when the tribal leader was returning to Dantewada on motorbike with her party associate from Jagdalpur.

Sori, who is socially active among the tribal communities, was returning from Jagdalpur after saying a good bye to the two human rights lawyers Isha Khandelwal and Shalini Gera, who were forced to pack-up from Bastar, AAP state convener Sanket Thakur told HT.

The shocked Chhattisgarh unit of AAP said the situation in Bastar has turned alarming.

This is an attempt to terrorise and force her to leave Bastar. She has raised the issue of fake encounter and the high handedness of the forces. She has inflammation and pain on her face. Cant trust the state administration anymore. We are shifting her to Delhi for treatment, Thakur said.

According to Dantewada police, three unidentified men on a motorcycle chased Soni Sori, stopped her near Geedam and fled after smearing some black chemical ink on her face.

Prima facie it seems,it wasn't acid bt grease like substance used to blacken her(SSori) face-Vijay Pandey,ASP Bastar pic.twitter.com/Y5nDR8Izsu  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

An FIR has been lodged against unidentified persons who blackened her face with some black chemical. It was not an acid attack, Dantewada SP Kamal Lochan Kashyap told HT.
The BJP on Saturday issued a show-cause notice to the partys Kurukeshtra MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has not yet apologised for his anti-Jat rants despite chief minister Manohar Lal Khattars assurance in this regard in the all-party meeting.

BJP Haryana in charge Anil Jain said Saini was asked in the past too to not make such statements, yet he defied the partys central leadership.

Saini, however, could not be contacted for his comments..

Read | Jat quota protests: Missteps by Khattar government fuelled violence

Hailing from Naraingarh assembly constituency of Ambala district, Saini has been in the news ever since he openly spoke against the inclusion of Jats in the OBC list for quota in jobs and eeducational institution tutions.

On numerous occasions, Saini has said he will form a Sena (brigade) to counter the Jats efforts to get included in the OBC list since Jats are already affluent.

Read | Haryana lawmakers curb anti-Jat comments during all-party meeting
A new study by scientists and army doctors has nailed a long-standing belief among many soldiers that high-altitude posting in places such as Siachen leads to impotence. It also found blood clots to be the deadliest threat to soldiers serving in Siachen, the worlds coldest battleground.

The findings are based on research carried out over more than four years involving the medical examination and feedback of about 700 soldiers, who have served on the glacier.

For long, the impotence myth has left many soldiers anxious about a posting in Siachen, where temperatures can plunge below -50 degrees Celsius. Usually, a soldier serves about three months on the glacier where some posts are located at an altitude of more than 21,000 feet.

The prevalence of impotence was not significantly different from soldiers in the plains. This should put to rest longstanding concerns about Siachen causing sexual dysfunction, said Lt Gen Velu Nair, one of the militarys top doctors who conceptualised and led the research.

His team consisted of 15 army doctors and three scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

The sample for the study was first examined in 2012 and continues to be observed for health risks four years on. The soldiers were examined in five phases: at sea level, 15,000 feet, 16,000-21,000 feet, again at 15,000 feet and then back in the plains. The research found backing from private doctors as well.

High altitude and cold weather does not cause impotence. Its a baseless rumour that was around in Siachen even when I served there around 30 years ago Dr Subhash V Kotwal, senior consultant urology, Sitaram Bhartia Research Institute and Artemis Hospital told Hindustan Times.

The study also showed blood clots account for a third of health-related complications among soldiers on the glacier. The frequency of developing a blood clot on the glacier is 100 times higher than that in the plains, it found.

Thirty-seven of them were sent back from the glacier after they developed health complications, including 13 with dangerous blood clots in brain, lungs, limbs and liver. Three of them died due to multi-organ failure caused by the clot.

We have found venous thrombosis (blood clots in veins) to be the biggest health challenge in Siachen. No other medical condition is affecting soldiers more than blood clots, said Nair, who oversees medical research in the armed forces.

Frostbite was the second leading cause of health risks, affecting six soldiers of the battalion surveyed. In Siachen, 20% of medical cases are linked to frostbite that can lead to amputation of limbs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused opposition parties and NGOs of conspiring to destabilise his government for fighting corruption.

I have been under attack because some people cannot digest that a chaiwalla (tea-seller) has become the Prime Minister. Yeh log shadyantra kartein hain ki Modi ko kaise khatam kiya jaaye (people are conspiring to end my rule), he said at a farmer rally in Odishas drought-hit Bargarh district.

Modi said he had taken steps because of which these people are facing problems.



Read | PM Modi launches Rurban Mission, says govt is for deprived sections

His NDA government has been facing widespread criticism of ignoring rural India as farmers, grappling with the impact of unseasonal rains, hailstorms, drought and debt, were driven to suicide. A decision to amend a land acquisition law has also drawn flak; the Opposition calling the move pro-industry and anti-farmer.

He dismissed allegations of being pro-industry and said his government was the most farmer-friendly since Independence.

He wondered why Odisha was lagging in development despite having the second-largest water reserve in the country after Uttar Pradesh.

Odisha has the potential to become the number one state in the country in terms of agricultural production, he said.

Read | PM Modi offers crop balm as BJP MP mocks farmer suicides as trend

He criticised NGOs over foreign funding. The moment we started asking for accounts, they (NGOs) all got together and said, Modi ko maaro (hit Modi), he is seeking accounts from us... the country needs to know where the money that comes in is being spent. It is the law.

Whatever they say against me, I am not going to deviate from the path of the work you have entrusted me. I am not going to stop, or get tired and there is no question of bowing to it, he said.

Modi said his government aims to irrigate more land under the Prime Minister Sinchai Yojna than what has been done in the past six decades and appealed to farmers to opt for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna, a crop insurance scheme he launched on Thursday.

Only 20 out of 100 farmers opted for the UPAs insurance scheme. The new scheme by my government has been devised taking farmers welfare into consideration, he said.

Some farmers were disappointed that Modi didnt announce any immediate relief for the state. More than 150 farmers committed suicide in drought-hit Odisha in 2015  almost half of them in Bargarh  because of debt and crop failure.

He did not say a word about our farm crisis, said Raghaba Pradhan, a farmer.
A second army soldier died in the ongoing gunfight between security forces and militants in Kashmirs Pampore on Sunday.

The soldier, belonging to the 9 Paras, succumbed to his injuries, taking the toll in the encounter to five including four security personnel.

Earlier on Sunday, 22-year-old Pawan Kumar was killed when his team tried to enter J&K Entrepreurship Development Institute, a government building where militants are holed up.

An officer of 10 Paras Pawan Kumar attained martyrdom, leading his men from the front in a tricky operations as terrorists are hiding in a government building with the possibility of some more civilians being trapped is not ruled out, said a Srinagar based spokesman.

Two to four terrorists were believed to holed up inside the Entrepreneurship Development Institute building even as the encounter was underway.

Heavy exchange of fire was continuing and security forces were trying to neutralise the militants, said Bhavesh Kumar, PRO of CRPF.

All injured CRPF jawans are stable now.Terrorists are holed only in main building of EDI- Bhavesh Kumar,PRO #Pampore pic.twitter.com/R3NIKDpUxn  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

Kumar also said that 11 CRPF jawans were injured in the gunbattle and all were stable.

Armymen take position. Heavy gunbattle continues. Multpile rounds from both sides. @htTweets pic.twitter.com/l27AH2RbCo  Abhishek Saha (@saha_abhi1990) February 21, 2016

A possible hostage situation was averted on Saturday after police and paramilitary quickly evacuated the building though some of those evacuated said they were allowed to go by the two heavily-armed militants.

Two CRPF men and a civilian were killed, and 11 security men injured when militants attacked a convoy before sneaking into the training centre with more than 100 people inside.

Security forces had cordoned off the area and put their operations on hold for the night late on Saturday.

CRPF spokesperson Bhavesh Chaudhary said two soldiers were killed while seven others were injured when militants opened fire on the convoy.

Four jawans were injured in the subsequent gun fire between militants and security forces, he added. He said the militants barged into the building, located on the national highway, after attacking the convoy.

The attackers were holed up in the main building of the institute and surrounded by security forces, Pampore police superintendent Mohammad Irshad said.

(With agencies input)

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Hundreds of Jat protesters started a fire at a railway station in Haryana and blocked the Delhi-Chandigarh highway on Sunday as the army deployed 1,200 more personnel to control the violent demonstrations for quotas in jobs and education.

In other incidents, agitators vandalised a petrol pump and blocked roads in Jind.

To control the situation, additional troops were sent to the state.

 Army 69 columns have reached Haryana and have been deployed, maximum in Jhajjar and Rohtak, said YP Singhal, director general of police.

Army 69 columns have reached #Haryana and have been deployed, max deployed in Jhajjar and Rohtak- YP Singhal,DGP pic.twitter.com/AIcLf71DxX  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

Security personnel used government vehicles to help people stranded in their houses for over a week in Rohtak town  the epicenter of the protests that has virtually been taken over by around 10,000 protesters.

Meanwhile, Haryana minister Anil Vij made it clear that talks cannot be held with a mob and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

He said the agitation has become leaderless and mobocracy was prevailing.

At the moment, the ongoing agitation has become leaderless. It is like mobocracy (rule of the mob). The Jats should immediately form a Committee to hold talks with the government. We cannot hold talks with the mob, the minister said.

Vij said the BJP Government was committed to granting OBC quota to Jats.

Our government, be it in the State or at the Centre, is committed to give OBC reservation to Jats, but it is for the Jats to decide whether they want to give us time so that we can come out with something concrete which later does not get struck down by the courts, Vij told PTI.

Top political leaders including chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealed for calm and peace but violence and arson continued through the night, crippling normal life in several places such as Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Hisar.

The government has struggled to keep the lid on the protests that have claimed eight lives already. Jat and Khap leaders are scheduled to meet home minister Rajnath Singh at 3pm to hammer out a possible solution.

Army during a flagmarch in Rohtak city under curfew following the Jats protests. (PTI)

In an emergency meeting on Sunday, cabinet secretary PK Sinha reviewed the law and order situation in the state Haryana with top officials, directing authorities to take strict action against miscreants. The Rewari- Jhajjar road was reopened and the situation was fast returning to normal, a government spokesperson said.

But tensions simmered on the ground as angry mobs wielding sticks and guns set fire to shops, ATMs, looted non-Jat property and used trees to block highways and rail networks, leaving thousands of people stranded.

Authorities used helicopters to bring in army and paramilitary soldiers after angry mobs dug up roads and used trucks and buses to seal off the districts of Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Rohtak.

As many as 15 companies of the India Reserve Battalion and Haryana Armed Police, three companies of paramilitary forces and two columns of Army have already been deployed. The Haryana government sought to deploy additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and more columns of Army to control the violent demonstrations.

A delegation of the western UP and Delhi-NCR Jat community's leaders coming out after meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Saturday. (PTI)

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 800 trains, and seven railway stations in the state , including Jhajjar, Buddha Khera, Julana and Pillu Kheda, were set on fire by the protesters.

The countrys largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

On Saturday, CM Khattar had appealed the protesters to end their stir and return to their homes as the government has accepted their demands, but he did not elaborate.

But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.

The road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighbouring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

In Sonipat districts Gohana, members of other communities including the Valmikis, also protested against the Jats, triggering fears of imminent clashes.

Curfew had been clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani , Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonepat , Gohana towns of Sonipat district.
At least 10 Indian sailors were rescued from pirates in Ivory Coast, a week after their ship was hijacked off the west African nation, but one more Indian and a Pakistani crew member remain captive, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday.

We have rescued 10 Indians with the help of (the) Nigerian Navy, Swaraj tweeted.

She said the Indian bulk carrier, Genco Maximus, was hijacked with 11 Indian crew members by pirates off the Ivory Coast on February 13.

On our request, the ship was followed by Ghana and Nigerian Navy, the minister said, adding efforts were on to rescue the 11th Indian and a Pakistani crew member from the pirates.
CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya is a stake-holder in the JNU sedition controversy, considering four out of eight students the Delhi police have a lookout notice on, belong to the CPI-ML(L) - affiliated all India students association (AISA). Counted among the countrys top left ideologues, Bhattacharya, 55, has already served 17 years as head of the party, which has risen from its extreme left moorings to emerge as a mainstream communist party in the country. In a chat with Rai Atul Krishna, he spoke of what is at stake in the arrest of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on the charge of sedition. Excerpts

What is at stake in the controversy that has enveloped JNU, Indias premier university?

At stake is the democratic, participative environment that is an idiom of the JNU and serves as a guiding force valued by institutions of higher learning across the country. As the JNU has shown a preference for the left, as validated by students union election after election, it has become a target of the RSS for quite some time. The immediate trigger is the lead taken by JNU students in protesting over the suicide of Hyderabad student Rohit Vemula, occupy UGC movement and on GATT. The government and RSS targeted JNU to escape the heat generated by the Hyderabad incident but this has left them in more trouble.

What, in your view, is the root cause of the JNU crisis?

The JNU crackdown is meant to serve as a warning to students of other universities and to silence any and every voice of dissent. It started with the HRD ministry persuading IIT-Madras to ban a dalit studies group, then happened the controversy over appointment of FTII head, then the university of Hyderabad targeting Vemula at the centres behest and now, the JNU crackdown. The government wants to place curbs on thinking young minds. All this is part of the BJPs obscurantist, regressive agenda to determine what should be written in the name of history and what should be taught in universities. But if dissent is killed, democracy dies. So, the left is a committed defender of dissent.

Does raising slogans favouring separation of Kashmir, backing terror convicts, fall within acceptable limits of free speech?

I cannot see why not. You cannot call it sedition. Although the ruling PDP has opposed the hanging of Afzal Guru, the BJP doesnt mind being in a coalition government with it. How can the same view be a big no, no in JNU? This is hypocrisy at its worst. In any case, the VC had given permission for the Guru event, which was later withdrawn under ABVP pressure. The JNUSU leaders were there in support of the democratic rights of students. When things started going out of hand, they stopped it. In a mature democracy, fringe view gets filtered out on its own. You cannot undertake an exercise in regimentation. Free thought, freedom of speech ought to be protected or else democracy will be in grave danger.

There is a view that political activism is undermining the academic atmosphere on JNU.

This is not true. JNU students have found place in policy making, academia and in bureaucracy, showing its academic atmosphere has not declined. It is most peaceful and its elections are unaffected by money or muscle power. Rather, the power of intellect is to the fore.

Shouldnt a university funded from tax-payers money be more into academics than politics?

In JNU, public money is being put to best use  by encouraging free thought. Misuse is in corporate loan defaults and other scams running into lakhs of crores of rupees.

Doesnt the JNU stir marks the coming together of forces opposed to PM Modi?

We have no allergy to PM Modi. He was given a mandate to usher in good days, not all this. The opposition is taking a stand on the disturbing developments in the country. It is the pressure of public opinion that is forcing parties to back the JNU stir.

Where does the stir go from here?

(Arrested JNUSU chief) Kanhaiya Kumar must be freed and the witch-hunt against all the accused students must stop. Now that the JNU happenings have served as a trigger, the larger battle for democracy and free speech will continue.

How do you see the HRD ministrys decision to making tricolor hoisting compulsory in central varsities?

I dont see anything wrong with it. But the government would be better served concentrating on the larger concern of students, like increased funding of universities.

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Haryana issued shoot-at-sight order in Rohtak and Bhiwani after the Jat agitation entered its sixth day of protests on Friday, even though the state government said it will introduce a bill declaring Jats and four other castes as backward communities on Friday.

Two people were killed and 18 injured in Rohtak after police clashed with Jat protesters as the army was deployed to manage the law and order situation. A curfew was also imposed in Haryana while mobile internet services were discontinued through Friday morning.

Meanwhile, members of 35 communities waged violent counter-protests opposing reservation for Jats under the OBS category.

The Jat community has mounted similar protests on multiple occasions since 2010 -- including instances when they blocked some rail links to Delhi and protests turned fatal.

Heres how the events unfolded:

Jat community members blocked the Delhi- Rohtak railway track and stopped two local trains in Ismaila village. (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo)

A motorcycle was torched by protesters at the Chhotu Ram Chowk in Rohtak. (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo)

Jat students throw stones at security personnel hiding behind the main gate of Rohtak range IGPs office on Friday.

Jat protesters sat on roads during the demonstration, in Gurgaon. (Abhinav Saha/HT Photo)

Jat protesters blocked roads during a protest demanding reservation under the OBC category, in Gurgaon on Friday. (Abhinav Saha/HT Photo)

A policeman throws stones at protesting Jat students in front of IGP office in Rohtak. (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo)

Jat community members blocked railway tracks during their agitation, in Hisar. (PTI Photo)

Police arrive at the site after Jat community members torched a motorcyle during their agitation, in Rohtak. (PTI Photo)

Jat students damage a vehicle during protests demanding reservation, in Haryana. . (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo)

Jat community people block a road in Gurgaon. (PTI Photo)

There were long queues of vehicles at petrol stations in Rohtak due to the blockade by Jat protesters. (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo)
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar travelled to China and Japan and has been crisscrossing the country to tout his state as an ideal and peaceful investment destination.

Promoting the state with the Happening Haryana tagline, Khattar, whose first year in power was lacklustre, had finally started to show the first signs of being in control with no major controversy in the new year.

But, as noted, these were just the first signs.

GOVT LACKED SURE-FOOTEDNESS

When the Jats took to the streets to press their longstanding demand for reservation in jobs and education, the Khattar government failed to find the straws in the wind and realise the gravity of his first major political challenge. The brass, both administrative and political, first took time to react to a fast-developing situation and then responded in the now-familiar lumbering manner. Sure-footedness expected from the government was clearly missing.

Before the authorities could grasp the situation, the agitation that started from Rohtak and some adjoining areas with small groups of Jats squatting on roads and railway tracks had escalated and spread to the entire Jat heartland. The leadership did not show the requisite political will and gave confusing signals, and no effective back-channel negotiations were initiated. The ruling partys Jat leaders such as Birender Singh, Capt Abhimanyu and Om Prakash Dhankar, who never cloaked their political ambitions, either lay low or tried to punch above their weight and failed.

Read More: Jat stir in Haryana may dry up Delhi, SC moved over water crisis

The offer to double the economically backward quota, which the agitators rejected instantly, too revealed that the CMs camp lacked political rigour and manoeuvring talent. And the fact that there is no one clear leader who is in command of the violent state-wide stir has only added to the troubles of the government. The administration, according to a top bureaucrat, is not sure of who to talk to in the disparate groups of protesters.

The leadership cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the current situation. It is a prisoner of indecision and cannot escape the blame for doublespeak of its leaders on quota, a political science teacher said requesting anonymity.

The result: The happenings of the week gone by are not just threatening to upset its plans to market Haryana as the most suitable investment destination, but also sharpened caste fault lines.

PAMPERED FOR LONG, JATS RESTLESS

Though opinion is sharply divided on granting quota to the dominant caste, Jats, an affluent community with considerable political clout traditionally, have been restless since the BJP came to power in the state for the first time with strong support from non-Jats, riding a Modi wave in October 2014. Khattar, a first-time MLA from the Punjabi community, was appointed as chief minister  the first non-Jat CM in almost two decades.

Pampered for long, Jats  especially those in Rohtak district, the epicentre of the ongoing protests  saw power and perks such as political clout, powerful positions and government-funded projects slipping out of their hands. The current CMs assembly constituency of Karnal was said to be the new favourite. Though the government made swift payment of compensation for crop failure last year, there is widespread feeling that under the present government, the community does not have the sway it once commanded.

Another misstep of the BJP was to let Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has been vehemently opposing Jat quota and heaping scorn on the community, continue his provocative statements. Sainis egregious behaviour has been blamed by several leaders, including a former CM, for the current crisis. The party also failed to take any confidence-building measures.

The paradox in the Jat community is that a microscopic minority has an economic edge whereas a large section, mostly marginal farmers, is facing pauperisation due to shrinking land holdings and constant failure of crops. And, those who are agitating may not be beneficiaries of reservation, if and when it is granted, says former dean, social sciences, Kuruksehtra University, prof (retired) Ranbir Singh.

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As a traveler coming to Alaska, you know that choosing a

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Security forces on Sunday used tear-gas shells, resorting to force to remove Jat protesters from the Munak canal in Haryana from where the water supply to Delhi has been disrupted.

Sources said army and paramilitary personnel reached the place where the water supply equipment and machines were damaged by the protesters.

The Haryana government is giving top priority to restore water supply to Delhi, Haryana Police chief YP Singhal said.

He said paramilitary forces and irrigation department officials have reached the place where the water supply to the national capital was disrupted by the Jat agitators on Saturday and efforts were being made to restore the supply.

At least 10 people have been killed in the weeklong protests that turned violent on Friday, Yashpal Singhal, the Haryanas top police officer, told reporters on Sunday. Another 150 protesters have been injured in clashes in various parts of Haryana.

The protesters are demanding benefits, including guaranteed government jobs or university spots.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the capital was facing a very serious water crisis because of the Jat protests in Haryana and water was to be strictly rationed in the city.

The Munak canal in Haryana, which supplies water to many parts of Delhi, was shut down after it was vandalised by a section of Jats demanding quota in government jobs and educational institutions.

Kejriwal said he had spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

He said water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday.

The protests also paralysed traffic in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad district bordering Delhi. Jat leaders from across the rural areas assembled at Hapur junction, at Duhai on National Highway-58 and near the Lal Kuan Atma Steel factory on National Highway-24 and halted road traffic.

Another group of Jat leaders staged a sit-in outside the residence of Union minister VK Singh and burnt his effigy.

Police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the Abupur water treatment plan on Upper Ganga Canal from where water is supplied to Delhi.

No untoward incident has occurred at the water supply point, said superintendent of police RK Pandey.

Some Jats stopped traffic on the Delhi-Saharanpur road at Behta Hazipur but the police persuaded them to let the traffic move, police said.

Overall the situation in Ghaziabad is under control. Jat leaders were allowed to protest but no violence was allowed, said additional deputy magistrate Preety Jaiswal.
A spate of violence unleashed by Jat protesters demanding quotas has sent air fares on the Chandigarh-Delhi sector through the roof with the cheapest available one-way ticket for Monday selling for over Rs 99,000.

The one-way, 45-minute flight is priced almost double that of a Delhi-London return flight that costs around Rs 46,000. A Delhi-New York return ticket costs around Rs 63,000.

Airline sources said flights out of Chandigarh were fully booked as people were desperate to get out of the city. These are the last few seats available and they are being sold for a premium, said an airline official who did not wish to be named.

Across the board from economy to business class seats, prices showed a ten-fold jump, with a one-way ticket on travel portal makemytrip selling at Rs 99,128.

Tickets in the economy class cost between Rs 32,000 to Rs 77,000.

Eight people have been killed in the past few days in violence across Haryana with Jat protestors demanding reservation in jobs and colleges that has badly affected road transport.

Sources said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation was keeping a tab on the situation.

We have requested special permission for the DGCA to operate flights to Chandigarh on Sunday when the airport is closed and also requested for permission for additional flights in the late evening. We will also be flying the bigger Boeing 737 jets to Chandigarh to accommodate additional passengers, said a SpiceJet spokesperson.

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As Amma turns 68 on Wednesday, party workers, admirers and followers are getting ready to make it a day India would remember for long. This year celebrations have been planned across India including the national capital.

In scale, sweep and grandeur Ammas 68th birthday celebrations are going to be such that they would touch almost every aspect of life, in Tamil Nadu for sure. The celebrations would last for five days, in Tamil Nadu, Pudducherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, and Andamans, party leaders said. In poll-bound Tamil Nadu, this would mean scaling up people-oriented welfare schemes. Further strengthening Brand Amma, under which a plethora of goods and services are distributed across the state. From Amma canteens to Amma medicines to Amma drinking water, toAmma salt to Amma cement to Amma fruits and Amma vegetables, the list goes on to include all items of daily use.

If opposition parties lament that Jayalalithaa was leaving the state in financial ruins, by mounting up a public debt crossing a whopping `2 lakh crore and an average debt per person of `28,778, the AIADMK leader dismiss it as they dont have any answers to the pro-poor programmes of Amma and that is why they have to criticize them some way or the other.

Ignoring every criticism coming their way, Amma bhakts are readying to drape Chennai, or for that matter many cities and towns in Amma banners, buntings and posters with her giant cutouts blessing the people from here, there and everywhere.

Pre-birthday special pujas have already begun at many temples on her behalf, for her long life and victory in the assembly polls. Coming out of one such puja, AIADMK spokesperson CR Saraswathi said, Party workers are very excited and want to celebrate Ammas birthday like never before. Her birthday itself will see countless rallies and functions to reach out to the common man. Annadanams (distribution of free food) will be the order of the day. Public meetings, where her leadership and persona would be eulogized, cultural programmes to mark the birthday celebrations are scheduled to go on till February 28. All elected party representatives will be attending these programmes.

Chennai corporation has drawn up elaborate plans. All the 282 Amma canteens would serve sweet pongal to all customers for starters and food will be served free of cost allthrough the day.

The Chennai corporation will give mosquito fish, a larva feeding fish species, in 68 mosquito breeding spots. Medical camps will be conducted in 68 parks and 68 blood donation camps too will be conducted all for the special number 68. Sixty-eight mobile medical camps, 68 special camps to test for diabetes and blood pressure and medical camps at all its urban primary health centres are also planned. Babies born on Ammas birthday will have a fixed deposit of `10,000 in their names. Sixty-eight transgenders will be honoured and 68 women participants in a kolam competition will be awarded prizes. Sand sculpting competitions, felicitation of resident welfare associations and NGOs and other competitions will complete the day.

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Students from Kashmir, whose numbers have been increasing at Jawaharlal Nehru University, are a scared lot after the row over an event on its campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as police have been quietly approaching them in their rented accommodations and subjecting them to questioning.

After the February 9 incident where some anti-India slogans were allegedly raised, police is believed to have collected the names of Kashmiri students which sound similar to the names of the organisers of the Guru event.

I woke up to two policemen knocking at my door earlier this week. They asked objectionable questions and also wanted to know whether I was in touch with any of the students they are looking for in connection with the event. They asked me whether I was present there on February 9? Why did I attend the programme and much more. They even asked for my passport and other ID proof, said a female JNU Kashmiri student who resides in south Delhi.

She said that police, however, did not ask any questions to her roommate, a fellow JNU student but one who does not hail from Kashmir. They said this is part of the investigation and I should not withhold any information. They, however, did not pose similar questions to my roommate, who is not a Kashmiri, she said.

A student who lives in a JNU hostel said, Though I have not been approached by police directly probably because I am staying inside the campus, but police have gone to my house in Kashmir for some verification during which they enquired about my presence in JNU. My parents are now pressurising me to come back.

Police in Delhi and Kashmir are maintaining silence on the matter and did not wish to come on record on why they were quizzing Kashmiri students. JNU students union vice president Shehla Rashid Shora, the first Kashmiri girl to be elected to the JNU students body, said, Fearing a witch-hunt in the aftermath of the event, some students have gone back to their homes in Kashmir till normalcy returns on campus. I have been told that random checks have been conducted in Malviya Nagar and Munirka targeting Kashmiri students.

Few of them who were not even present on the campus on day of event have also switched off their phones. There is a constant atmosphere of fear and intimidation. The raids, Shehla said, were not limited to JNU students but also Jamia Millia Islamia students hailing from Kashmir.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had on Saturday lashed out at filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, a BJP supporter, for demanding interrogation of Shehla, saying now being a Kashmiri Muslim is a crime enough to warrant questioning.

Now being a Kashmiri Muslim is crime enough to warrant interrogation. BTW (by the way) its Shehla not Sheila but what the hell!.... Im a Kashmir Muslim AND Im not a Ramdev supporter/follower. Id better prepare for my interrogation, he said in a series of tweets.

BJP MP Udit Raj had also claimed last week that JNU students staying as tenants in south Delhis Munirka area were being asked to vacate their rented accommodations as a consequence of a motivated campaign to label the varsity as a den of anti- nationals and traitors.

He however, did not specify if there were any Kashmiri students among them. Jawaharlal Nehru University is caught in a row over an event in the campus against the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where anti-national slogans were alleged to have been raised.

Though none of the organisers of the event were Kashmiri, some slogans like  Kashmir ki azadi tak jang rahegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jang rahegi were allegedly raised. The varsitys students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, is in judicial custody in a sedition case in connection with the February 9 event against judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle of Kashmiri migrants.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said only time can tell if her party and the BJP would form government in Jammu and Kashmir as she would move ahead only when convinced that dreams of her late father Mufti Sayeed for the state can be fulfilled.

Mehbooba, a Lok Sabha member from Anantnag, talked about the unfortunate developments of JNU as she prepared to leave for Delhi, a visit she insisted was only to fufill her duties as an MP.

That only time can tell, was the cryptic response of the PDP president to reporters when they asked her if there was any forward movement in talks with the BJP for government formation in the state.

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, after a meeting with Mehbooba in Srinagar three days back, had said: Talks were positive. Both parties are positive that the state will benefit by continuing with the arrangement which guided our 8-9 month old government. We can give a stable government with the same arrangement. This view is on both side... I hope, yes, there will be continuation of previous arrangement.

Mehbooba, who attended first public function since Sayeeds death on January 7, said coming to power was not her goal.

If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then only it is worth it.

If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me, she told party workers earlier. She said her late father, throughout his political career spanning over five decades, had struggled for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Only 12 years of his long political career, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in power. However, he remained alive (in politics) due to the support of the people, Mehbooba said. He did not sacrifice his life so that I can get the chair. He sacrificed his life for you, she said.

Madhav had said the leaders of PDP will arrive in Delhi shortly to discuss fixing of timeline on a few issues which have found a mention in the alliances Common Minimum Programme. However, Mehbooba said her visit to Delhi was only related to her duties as a Lok Sabha member.

The Parliament session is starting on Feb 23... I am going to attend it. I have asked questions... if Parliament is allowed to function. There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we dont know what will happen in Parliament, she said.

She decried attempts to pronounce verdict on the students accused of raising anti-national slogans on the JNU campus, saying it should be left for the court to decide.

Apprehending possible harassment of students from Kashmir, she said she has asked her party leaders to take up with the Union home minister Rajnath Singh any issues concerning the students from the state at the JNU.

Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing political stalemate ever since Sayeed passed away on January 7 after leading a coalition government with BJP for 10 months. The state is currently under Governors Rule since no party staked claim to form government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the ambitious Rural-Urban (Rurban) mission, aimed at improving the nations basic infrastructure, at Dongargarh in Chhattisgarhs Rajnandgaon district on Sunday.

Starting his public address with a few words in the Chhattisgarhi dialect, Modi described the ways in which the ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Scheme would improve the quality of living in rural areas and reduce the population pressure on cities.

When we talk of smart cities, why cant we talk of smart villages? The villages in our country can get the facilities of urban areas without diluting their imbibed rural characteristic. Our vision is to create growth centres in Rurban clusters, and ensure the development of rural segments. This will make them gradually assume the shape of urban areas where modern infrastructure and educational facilities are available, he said.

Modi said that the focus of the Rurban mission would be on improving infrastructural facilities such as power, shelter, roads, drinking water connections and drainage in rural areas, besides creating community assets such as schools, colleges and health centres  among other things.

The project aims to create village clusters with a population count of 25,000-60,000, and minimise rural migration to cities through skill development programmes and local economic activities. Around 300 such clusters of the kind will be created across the nation under this project, the Prime Minister said, adding that it would initially be taken up in four districts across the state  Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Kawardha and Bastar.

Announced by the BJP-led Centre last year, the Rurban scheme replaces the UPA governments Pura (provision of urban amenities in rural areas) initiative.

Modi also inaugurated the Jan Aushadhi Centre project, aimed at supplying low-cost drugs to Chhattisgarhs poor through 100 medical stores in the state. Taking the occasion to highlight his governments concern for Dalits, tribals as well as the financially deprived, he said: Our schemes are meant for them.

Multi-layered security measures had been put in place for the Prime Ministers visit to Raipur as well as Dongargarh in the Maoist-affected Rajnandgaon district. Police personnel maintained a strict vigil over an area of five square kilometres in the city, where Modi addressed the public for nearly half an hour.

After being received by governor Balramji Das Tandon and chief minister Raman Singh at the airport earlier in the day, Modi had laid the foundation stones for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (the Prime Ministers housing scheme) and an electronic manufacturing cluster at Naya Raipur. At present, the country needs houses for over five crore families, he said after the event.

Over 40,000 EWS and LIG houses will be build in Naya Raipur for achieving the housing goal by 2022. The electronic manufacturing cluster is slated to be developed over 70 acres of land at an estimated cost of `90 crore.

The Prime Minister also launched the Chhattisgarh governments Startup Policy 2016, which intends to promote innovations and entrepreneurship, attract investments to the state, facilitate economic development and create the avenues for employment.

After inaugurating the Rurban mission, Modi left for Bargarh in Odisha to attend a public rally.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Rurban mission, aimed at improving the countrys basic infrastructure, at Dongargarh in Chhattisgarh on Sunday.

The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban (rural-urban) project will focus on improving infrastructural facilities such as power lines, shelters, roads, drinking water connections and drainage, and creating community assets such as schools, colleges and health centres.

Multi-layered security measures have been put in place for the Prime Ministers visit to Raipur as well as Dongargarh in the Maoist-infested Rajnandgaon district. Police personnel will maintain a strict vigil over an area of five square kilometres at Dongargarh, where Modi is expected to deliver a public address.

Announced by the BJP government at the Centre last year, the Rurban project replaces the UPA governments Pura (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) initiative. The other goals of the scheme include ensuring the development of a given area by creating clusters of villages with a population count of 25,000-60,000 and minimising rural migration to cities through skill development programmes.

According to officials, around 300 clusters of the kind will be created across the nation under the project. It will be initially taken up in the Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Kawardha and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh.

During his visit to the state capital, Modi will also lay the foundation stones for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana  the Prime Ministers housing scheme  and an electronic manufacturing cluster at Naya Raipur.

Over 40,000 EWS and LIG houses will be built under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, which aims to provide housing for all by 2022. The electronic manufacturing cluster will be developed on 70 acres of land at an estimated cost of `90 crore.

The Prime Minister will also launch the Chhattisgarh governments Startup Policy 2016, which intends to attract investments to the state, at Raipur. After his Chhattisgarh visit, Modi will leave for Bargarh in Odisha to attend a public rally and then proceed to Kolkata for attending the centenary of Gaudiya Mission and Math.
PM Narendra Modi wooed rural India on Sunday, inaugurating a rural-urban or Rurban mission at Dongargarh in Chhattisgarh and exhorting Odisha farmers to sign up for his governments crop insurance scheme.

The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Scheme, aimed at improving basic infrastructure, was launched from the Maoist-hit district of Rajnandgaon. When we talk of smart cities, why cant we talk of smart villages? The villages in our country can get the facilities of urban areas without diluting their imbibed rural characteristic, Modi said. Our vision is to create growth centres in Rurban clusters, and ensure the development of rural segments. This will make them gradually assume the shape of urban areas where modern infrastructure and educational facilities are available.

The project aims to create village clusters with a population of 25,000 to 60,000, and minimise rural migration to cities through skill development programmes and local economic activities. Around 300 clusters will be created across the nation, initially in the four districts of Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Kawardha and Bastar.

In Odisha, Modi said Indias second green revolution will begin from the eastern states and the central government aims to double farmers income by 2022.

I want the eastern part of India to be as developed as the western part. This can be done through integrated farming, including agriculture, fisheries, dairy, poultry and beekeeping that the central government is promoting, he said at a rally in Bargarh district. More than 150 farmers committed suicide in drought-hit Odisha last year  almost half of them in Bargarh  because of debt and crop failure.

He appealed to farmers to opt for the crop insurance scheme, in which farmers have to pay a uniform premium of 2% of the sum insured for kharif crop and 1.5% for rabi. Modis meeting in Bargarh is politically significant as it follows recent events attended by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and CM Naveen Patnaik after farmer suicides.
A controversy has broken out in Aligarh Muslim University over beef biryani being allegedly served at one of its canteens.

On Friday, a WhatsApp post circulated a report of beef biryani being served at the AMU Medical College canteen. A picture of the canteens menu card also went viral on social media.

On Saturday, mayor Shakuntala Bharati and some locals complained to the police about the presence of beef in AMU. Police said that the matter was under investigation.

Beef is being openly served in Aligarh Muslim University, says City mayor Shakuntala Bharati (Feb 20) pic.twitter.com/ORexyZiyR3  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

Bharati, a BJP member, along with party leaders and right-wing activists held a demonstration outside the office of the SSP demanding an FIR against the contractor of the canteen.

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Mayor & locals complained of the presence of 'beef' on noticeboard of AMU, investigation will be done, say Police pic.twitter.com/ndu50zhv3X

 ANI (@ANI_news)

University authorities, however, denied the allegation. University spokesperson Rahat Abrar alleged that the incident was a malicious attempt to defame the institution, asserting that the beef mentioned in the menu was of buffalo meat.
JNU students union chief Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, has received support from students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale.

The students are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiyas seditious speech. Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the societys collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting, Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiyas speech.

Read | UK universities like Cambridge, Oxford condemn police action on JNU

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, who are studying at University of California, Berkeley say in joint video, We challenge the RSSs definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights.

Asserting if Kanhaiyas speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiyas speech.

Read | Kanhaiyas Facebook account likely hacked, given nationalist makeover

Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill?

They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism, she says.

Read | JNU row: Contempt plea in SC against Kanhaiya Kumar, other students

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Soni Sori landed in the Capital for treatment on Sunday, even as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the attack on her in Dantewada, south Chhattisgarh, on Saturday and demanded prompt arrest of the culprits.

Swati Maliwal of the Aam Aadmi Party said Sori was admitted to the Apollo hospital in the city.

On a day when human rights lawyers were evicted from Jagdalpur, Sori was attacked by unidentified men who smeared a black chemical on her face. The incident took place at Geedam when the tribal leader was returning to Dantewada with her party associate from Jagdalpur.

Demanding action, Kejriwal tweeted, V painful. Whats happening everywhere? Hope she recovers fast. Chhattisgarh govt shud nab culprits immediately.

AAP state convener Sanket Thakur said Sori, who is socially active in the tribal community, was returning from Jagdalpur after bidding farewell to human rights lawyers Isha Khandelwal and Shalini Gera who were forced to pack up from Bastar.

The shocked Chhattisgarh unit of AAP said the situation in Bastar had turned alarming. Thakur said, This is an attempt to terrorise and force her (Soni) to leave Bastar. She has raised the issue of fake encounters and the high-handedness of the forces. She has inflammation on her face and is in extreme pain. We cant trust the state administration anymore and are thus shifting her to Delhi for treatment.

According to the Dantewada police, three unidentified men on a motorcycle chased Sori, intercepted her near Geedam and fled after smearing some black chemical ink on her face.

An FIR has been lodged against unidentified persons. It was not an acid attack, Dantewada SP Kamal Lochan Kashyap said.
When posters for a February 9 event, titled Poetry reading - The country without a post office, were pasted across the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus earlier this month, it quickly snowballed into a nationwide controversy.

Voices across the country came out against the contentious claims made by the poster on the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt and its expression of solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination. The subsequent arrest of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar resulted in an ugly stand-off between the Centre and university students.

However, in the midst of this melee, an engineer from Hyderabads Miyapur area found himself asking a completely different question. Is it true that Kashmir does not have a single post office, he wanted to know.

Now, the man in question  Kanumuri Manikanta Karthik  also happened to be a prolific RTI activist. So he lost no time in filing an application, a copy of which is with HT, to make the following enquiries: First, what percentage of Kashmir is covered by the postal department? Second, how many post offices are there in Kashmir? Third, what should be the number of post offices in Kashmir, according to postal department norms? And fourth, if there is difference between the numbers of post offices established, what is the reason for the difference and what steps are being taken to cover it?

However, if Karthik had run a quick Google search before getting all RTI-happy, he would have realised that the title of the event actually referred to a poem penned by renowned Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali. The work pertained to a certain period of time in 1990, when militancy and counter-insurgency operations had peaked in the Valley, resulting in the disruption of postal operations across the region. Originally titled Kashmir without a post office, it was later revised and published in 1997 as the title poem of a collection called The country without a post office.

Unfortunately, Karthik knew nothing of this. When I saw the JNU poster on the Internet, I wondered if the protesting students were trying to misguide others into believing that Kashmir backward enough to not have a single post office. So I filed an online RTI, the engineer told HT over the phone from Hyderabad.

He received a prompt response from the office of the chief postmaster general, Srinagar. Replying to the first two questions, JR Angural, assistant director of postal services, J-K Circle, said: Postal facilities are provided in every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley A total of 1,699 post offices function in the J-K Circle, of which 705 post offices function in Kashmir Valley.

As there was no data available for his third and fourth questions, Karthik had to make do with an inconclusive no comments.

Confirming that a man from Hyderabad had indeed filed such an online RTI query, Angural told HT: We could not answer the third and fourth queries because we did not have sufficient data. In any case, we did provide all the necessary data the man had asked for  such as the number of post offices in Kashmir.

However, despite having all his doubts on Kashmirs postal system cleared, Karthik isnt a very happy man. For one, he is being trolled mercilessly on social media.

Someone filed an RTI to disprove Agha Shahids famous poem. No hope, tweeted London-based Kashmiri novelist Mirza Waheed along with a screenshot of Karthiks RTI response. While others ridiculed him with abrasive adjectives like ignorant and hilarious, a few asked him to give Alis poetry a try.

Karthik admitted to interpreting the title of the event wrong, but hoped that his baiters on Twitter would be a little sparing in their criticism. I agree that I took the title of the event at JNU rather literally, considering that I did not know about the poem. But they are mercilessly making fun of me now, he lamented.

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The country lost two brave and young Captains of the armys elite Para special forces and a Lance Naik on Sunday in a fierce operation to flush out terrorists hiding in a government complex in Jammu and Kashmirs Pampore.

The standoff with the heavily-armed rebels, firing guns and grenades, is turning costly for the security forces. Two CRPF men and a civilian were killed on Saturday since the terrorists stormed the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, a sprawling complex housing three multi-storey buildings by the Jhelum.

Unconfirmed reports suggest a terrorist was killed on Sunday. That can be confirmed only after the body is retrieved, CRPF spokesman Bhavesh Kumar said.

Early in the day, 23-year-old Captain Pawan Kumar of Jind in central Haryana came under a hail of bullets when he was leading troops into the complex.

Hours later, Captain Tushar Mahajan, a 26-year-old native of Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, took multiple hits while leading his men. He died in hospital.

Another soldier from 9 Para, 32-year-old Lance Naik Om Prakash, died of his wounds. The Shimla native, who was decorated with the Asadharan Suraksha Seva Praman Patra gallantry award on Independence Day in 2013, is survived by his wife and two daughters  aged seven and three.

The training centre in saffron-rich Pampore had more than 100 people  staff and students of the institute  inside when the militants barged in. The rebels allowed the civilians to leave the building.

The open space surrounding the complex made it difficult for the security forces to advance without getting exposed to the rebels firing from vantage points. Soldiers tried storming the complex at night but faced stiff resistance.

Police officers said the standoff could prolong because the institutes canteen has supplies that can last days.

As an intense gunbattle raged, a portion of a five-story building caught fire on Sunday. But the blaze subsided after some time.

The standoff began on Saturday when the terrorists ambushed a CRPF convoy before taking refuge in the nearby government buildings.

Captain Kumar of 10 Para, a Jat from Haryana that is caught in widespread violence over his communitys demand for reservation in jobs and colleges, gave a peek into a soldiers love for the country.

Kisiko reservation chahiye to kisiko azadi bhai. Humein kuchh nahin chahiye bhai. Bas apni razai. (Some want reservation and some independence, I dont want anything, brother, I want only my quilt), he posted on Facebook on Saturday.

Born on Army Day (January 15), 1993, Kumar had a fun-loving personality with a passion for bikes, cars and cricket. One of his profile pictures posted in 2015 was of his dog Tyson, a Rottweiler.

Son of well-known Udhampur educationist Dev Rah Gupta, Capt Mahajan of 9 Para was enlisted into the army after he completed his course in the National Defence Academy, the countrys premier military graduation school in Pune.

I am proud of my student. He was a topper, particularly in maths and sports. He has made the entire nation proud, said Sunil Gorge, a teacher in Udhampur.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Umar Khalid and four other JNU students facing charges of sedition returned to the campus on Sunday night, saying they wanted to be part of the struggle against branding the university anti-national.

Khalid and Anirban even shouted slogans against the sedition charge, the RSS and called for revolution close to the vice-chancellors office.

Slogans like Inquilab Zindabad, Sedition hum nahi sahenge, RSS ka ek jawab, fund cut ka ek jawab - Inquilab Zindabad were raised by them.

Watch | Umar Khalids full speech after returning to JNU

<span itemprop="name" content="Watch | Umar Khalid&#x27;s full speech after returning to JNU campus"></span><span itemprop="description" content="Umar Khalid, one of the six students accused of raising anti-nation slogans at a controversial event on February 9, returned to JNU campus late on Sunday night.He addressed fellow students outside the administration block and said, &quot;My name is Umar Khalid and I&#x27;m not a terrorist.&quot; He continued by condemning the alleged media trial in the case and insisted that he would stand his ground."They are scared of us; they are afraid of us because we can think. To think is to anti-national in todays time. In fact the easiest thing to do is to be an anti-national," he said."></span><span itemprop="duration" content="839"></span><span itemprop="thumbnail" content="http://cfvod.kaltura.com/p/1679921/sp/167992100/thumbnail/entry_id/0_v9277zs8/version/100012/acv/132"></span><span itemprop="width" content="640"></span><span itemprop="height" content="362"></span>

However the two refused to speak to the media in the absence of their lawyer. Sources told HT that the two had not left the city and decided to come back to the campus. Students are now going to hold a night long vigil in the campus.

Read | Umar Khalid not a terrorist but has poor judgement: Swara Bhaskar

They were around but just didnt step out in public, former Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Ashutosh said. A nation-wide hunt was launched to track the students, who went into hiding after cases were lodged against him.

We were around but just did not come out in public because of the prevailing atmosphere. There is mob-lynching and witch-hunting going on but now we have decided to go out in public, Ashutosh, who is with the All India Students Association (AISA), told HT

Police, too, reached the campus late in the evening, the PTI reported.

Read | Police hunt for Umar Khalid, kin allege threat calls from gangster

We have only heard about the students reaching JNU just now. We have no concrete information of our own, a senior police officer said. If the students do not come and join investigation, we will take permission from the university authorities to get them the officer said.

Khalid has been blamed for planning a rally on the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which alleged anti-India slogans were chanted. Police crackdown that followed has snowballed into a major controversy, with teachers and students holding protests in the capital and other cities.

Read | JNU row: Delhi Police acted in haste, leaves government red-faced

The others who returned are JNUSU general secretary Rama Nag and Anant.

Sources close to students said they wont surrender but if police comes it can arrest them. There is no question of surrender. Police can come and arrest them, sources said.

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Acceding to the demand made by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajjapathi Raju on Sunday agreed to start additional flights from Delhi to Chandigarh and Amritsar.

In a telephonic talk with Raju, the CM urged him to immediately start flights from the national capital to Amritsar and Chandigarh to provide connectivity to the people of the state who were cut off from other parts of the country and Delhi due to widespread violence and disturbances in Haryana following the issue of Jat reservation.

Badal informed him that a huge section of society, especially students, who had to appear in tests for seeking jobs or admissions in various educational institutes across the country, had been affected, adding that most of these examination centres were located only in Delhi.

Badal informed Raju that some aviation companies were exploiting the situation by overcharging the passengers, asking him to check this.

The minister told Badal that SpiceJet had planned another additional flight to Chandigarh for Sunday. The additional flights being organised in view of the Jat agitation include Air Indias Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi, SpiceJets Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi, Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi and Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi, Jet Airways Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi, Indigo Airlines Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi and Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi flights.

CM greets people on Parkash Utsav of Guru Ravidas

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday felicitated the people of the state on the 639th Parkash Utsav of Guru Ravidas.

In a message, the chief minister said the life and teachings of Guru Ravidas, a great spiritual ambassador and messiah of the poor and unprivileged sections, continued to guide humanity towards an egalitarian society. Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal also greeted the people on the occasion. HTC
Alleging that the Khalsa College Governing Council had things to hide, local Congress leader Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia has condemned it for denying entry to Amritsar MP and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Captain Amarinder Singh earlier this week.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Lalli said, I am not against any university, but I am against the intention of the management of Khalsa College behind the move. The non-transparent approach and the the intention to conceal and distort facts is not acceptable. The council has to make sure that questions put to them are answered. They also need to ensure visionaries and educationists need to be part of the process.

If the doors can be closed on Captain who is such a senior leader, then it is clear that the management is scared. We will not allow them to grab the land donated by many. If they wanted to make a Sikh University, then it could have been on some other land and why have they chosen their own land. It is clear they plan to make it private property and we will not let this happen. If need be, the Captain will visit the college again, he added.

On a query, he said, We are not doing any politics. The heritage of the Khalsa College would not be thought of, once the university is set up.

He also accused the Khalsa College management of distorting facts in books printed by them, claiming that books published by the Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (SGPC) reflected the facts.

The land and finances for the Khalsa College were donated by both Sikhs and non-Sikh families and the government. Around 700 acres was consolidated at Kot Khalsa from proceeds of land sold which was donated in other parts of Punjab. Dr Sohan Singh ( an Amritsar based famous eye surgeon), in order to secure the properties and assets on the name of Khalsa College made an agreement with the then Deputy Commissioner that lands and assets of Khalsa College can neither be transferred nor sold, he claimed.

A society willing to establish a private university must be an independent Society. The Khalsa College Society is an independent body, but the Khalsa College Management Society and the Khalsa College Charitable Trust are not independent bodies. No college can be affiliated to a private university under the law, he claimed.
Citys Neerja Bhanot, who died saving lives aboard a hijacked Pan Am flight in 1986 and now has become the subject of a critically acclaimed biopic, was the answer to her fathers long prayers for a daughter after two sons. On September 7, 1963, when she was born to veteran journalist Harish Bhanot, he was a Hindustan Times special correspondent here.

He was out on assignment when he received a call from the Sector 16 Government Hospital in Chandigarh, informing him of the good news. He couldnt hold his joy and replied: Double thanks. In Mumbai, 23 years later, he was at a press conference when he got to know about the Pan Am hijacking in Karachi.

a Childhood picture of Neerja. (HT File Photo)

She had written to me, I will do you proud, and the brave girl has kept her word, reads a line from an article he wrote in HTs Sunday Review a month after her death. Two days after the funeral, he was back at work in HTs Church Gate office, where he became a bureau chief later.

Neerjas mother, Rama Bhanot, found it much harder to cope with her loss. She was the one who accepted a posthumous Ashok Chakra awarded to her daughter. Neerja was the youngest recipient of the award. As kids, Neerja and I would meet dads journalist friends at our home in Bandra. I have fond memories of playing together in the house allotted to HT in Sector 16 of Chandigarh, said Neerjas brother, Aneesh Bhanot.

Neerja Bhanot was Lado to her father. (HT File Photo)

Neerjas bravery, courage to do her duty come what may, and the attitude of not tolerating injustice was because of her upbringing. As kids, we absorbed what we witnessed  be it dads spending an entire night in a flooded local train on his way back from office or his being adamant not to send Neerja back to her husband after receiving a humiliating letter from him, said Aneesh. Neerja confided the most in her Papa.

She was the familys Lado, a name given to her by her father, who even in his last days spoke proudly of his agyakaari beti (obedient daughter) or DDD (daddys darling daughter) as Wendy Sue Knech, who was trainer and in-flight supervisor on the Pan Am flight, mentions in the book, The Neerja I Knew.

No one in the house, not even Neerja, was allowed to touch the morning newspapers before my father had read them, said Aneesh, adding: If there were to be a quarrel, Neerja won her fathers support hands down, and he would motivate her dotingly to never give up, by saying, Mera bahudar bachcha kaun (whos my brave child)?.

To honour her memory

After Neerjas death, her parents put the insurance money and the contribution from Pan Am into making Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust, which instituted two bravery awards of Rs 1.5 lakh each. My father refused to accept the sum offered by Pan Am, saying it was against Indian culture to accept any money from a daughter in her parents house, and thats how the trust was born, said Aneesh.

Lados dad

Harish Bhanot covered the 1971 war from Amritsar as a special correspondent. (HT File Photo)

Harish Bhanot joined HT in Chandigarh in 1963. He then moved to Mumbai as special correspondent in 1974, went on to become bureau chief, and retired in 1993. Known best for political reporting, he also covered the 1971 war from Amritsar, the state elections in Maharashtra, and the Dornier air crash. He died in 2007 after a two-year battle with Alzheimers.

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Hailing the decision of the Punjab and Haryana high court that upheld the Punjab Medical Council (PMC)s move of asking doctors to provide their PAN details and income tax returns, PMC president Dr GS Grewal and ethical committee chairman Dr Arun Mitra have said the efforts of the council to end the practice of ghost faculty would continue.

This is an important judgment for the training of upcoming doctors, and the practice is a criminal negligence on the part of institutions and ghost doctors, said Dr Grewal.

In a landmark order, the high court has lauded the objective of the PMC in connection with the cases of doctors who are registered with it but are practising in other states, he added.

Dr Grewal said the decision came on a petition filed by Dr Ravinder Singh, former vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, who had challenged the PMC for asking the doctors information regarding the PAN number and IT returns, which the petitioner perceived to be unfair as it solicited information that was private in nature.

Disclosing the PAN number to the registering authority could not be construed to be disclosure of the private information, particularly when the registering authoritys object is laudable  to have a database information of those medical practitioners who are registered with a particular state but are practising outside the state, Dr Grewal disclosed the court order.
The All-India Youth Congress (AIYC) has squarely blamed the Union and Haryana governments for the violence that erupted in parts of the neighbouring state on the Jat reservation issue.

Both, the Centre and the state governments did not act when the first signs of resentment among the Jats began to surface. They should have come forward to hold talks with the Jat leaders. The two governments were caught on the wrong foot when the situation took a turn for the worse, resulting in the loss of human life and damage to property, AIYC president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring stated while talking to the media at Nawanpind village on Sunday after addressing a rally organised by the Amritsar (rural) unit of the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC).

Raja Warring, who is also an MLA from Gidderbaha constituency of Punjab, pointed out that the issue of bringing Jats under the reservation quota came up during the time when the Congress under its chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power. Hooda supported the demand of the Jat community, he added.

However, I fail to understand why the BJP government under chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar ignored the issue even after receiving reports that the situation could take an ugly turn, he claimed.

Asked whether the Haryana unit of the Youth Congress supported the demand of the Jat community, the Youth Congress leader replied, Yes, members of this community, who are members of the Youth Congress are obviously supporting the demand. We have asked them to remain peaceful and protest in a non-violent and democratic manner.

JNU issue

Raja Warring strongly defended the visit of All-India Congress Committee (AICC) vice-president Rahul Gandhis visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He refuted allegations of the BJP that Gandhi had gone to the JNU and supported anti-national elements.

Gandhi had gone to the JNU to show his support for those students or staff members, who despite having nothing to do with anti-national elements were being harassed by the police at the behest of the BJP and the RSS, he claimed.

The AIYC chief said the RSS agenda was very clear Create trouble and even use force to take control of educational institutions like the JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Aligarh Muslim University and a few others where the BJP or the RSS had no say.

Raja Warring condemned the manner in which the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief and local MP Capt Amarinder Singh was prevented from entering the historic Khalsa College last week so as to interact with the students and staff on the Khalsa University issue.

It was wrong on the part of the authorities to have acted in such a manner with a person who has remained the chief minister of the state, he added.
Lahore-Delhi bus Sada-e-Sarhad carrying seven passengers from Pakistan, including three women, was stranded at Fatehgarh Sahib in the wake of ongoing Jat stir for quota in Haryana.

The New Delhi-bound bus had to be stopped at Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib on Delhi-Amritsar road yesterday in view of road blockades on National highway in Haryana, police said.

Seven passengers including three women were travelling in the bus, a senior official of Fatehagarh Sahib police said on Sunday.

They (Passengers) are staying in a rest house while bus is in police lines, Fatehgarh Sahib, he further said.

The road and rail services through Haryana destined to neighbouring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.
Life has come a full circle. I watch my 85-year-old mothers shrunken frame crouched on the hospital bed. Osteoporosis had resulted in yet another fracture. Exasperated, I flung up my hands in despair for the umpteenth time and asked her as to why she didnt take to the walker.

What purpose did the walking sticks and walkers serve neatly lined up against the bedroom wall, if she had to stumble her way out all the time? Guilt writ large on her feeble face she just stared blankly.

As she was being wheeled in for surgery, I was trying to keep calm, what with hubby nervously discussing the possible complications with the surgeons and the endless pre-op tests going on.

She, the lady, oblivious to everything, requested for her hair to be neatly done up and a better shawl to be draped around her shoulders! Dumbfounded at her spirit I asked, why the red-carpet-walk mood for the cold, impersonal operation theatre? She folded her hands in prayer and said: Waheguru bhali karuga!

Post surgery, the force feeding sessions started. Coaxing, at times threatening, I made her gulp down the required amount of tasteless food. She politely suggested that I buy her a feeder with a nipple for tea, so that it doesnt trickle down her cheek while being served from a tilted cup.

One realises the futility of anger and impatience with an old and helpless parent when one recalls the dedication that they had rendered towards you. In a flash, I recollected how she would accompany me to school every day and lovingly assure me that she was sitting right outside the class till school got over. In the unfamiliar new nursery of perpetually howling students, I sat secure in the faith that Ma was right outside. How small I felt in the present state of losing patience with her when she never gave up on me even when a battery of tutors had withdrawn from the tortuous task of trying to teach me arithmetic. My most average performance would not dismay her and she never let me feel discouraged either.

I wanted to swallow back my doled out sermons as I remembered that my goof-ups were never reprimanded sternly. She maintained that no child can be judged by one act of callousness.

The generation that preceded us had borne their struggles stoically. Having lost most of the male members to feudal battles, she was an overcautious and overprotective parent -- yet, gave in graciously, as and when independence was asked for. Never expecting anything, she selflessly educated countless children of country cousins and the like. Denial and deprivation was humbly and unquestioningly accepted. Duties prevailed over rights. We are a privileged lot; yet, seldom step outside our comfort zone. The aged, in their sunset years, are still spreading light.

A frail hand on my shoulder brought me back into the present. Concern-laden, Ma asked: Have you eaten anything? Go home and rest. I am fine.

(The writer is a Chandigarh-based freelance contributor)

bubbutir@yahoo.com
Chinese retailers believe the device being sold in India as the worlds cheapest smartphone is a knock-off of an older version of the iPhone that was made in China but is no longer popular or readily available here.

The Freedom 251 phone, which has created a buzz with its price of just Rs 251, appeared to be the iPhone knock-off that was readily available across China, according to retailers at Zhongguancun in Beijing, one of the countrys largest electronics markets.

A similar phone is still available on the Chinese online retail platform Taobao.

Retailers described the phone as a Shanzhai (fake) iPhone.

Read | Fake In India: Makers of Freedom 251 justify copying Apple designs

Hindustan Times visited more than two dozen electronics retail shops in Zhongguancun and showed photographs of the Rs 251 phone. Every retailer easily recognised the phone, identifying it as a locally made version of the iPhone that was popular some years ago.

I know this phone. But no longer available now. There are companies in Shenzhen (in southern China) where they probably still make these phones, said David, a shop salesman.

Most retailers said they were willing to take bulk orders to make the same phone and pass them on to factories in Shenzhen. At least 10,000 to 15,000 phones to start with, said one shop owner.

Most shop owners were shocked to learn that the phone is being sold for Rs 251 in India, equivalent to 25 RMB or a cup of coffee at a Starbucks in China.

Impossible. You cannot even get a cover for a mobile phone here for that price, said one retailer.

Ashok Chadha, president at Ringing Bells, the company behind the cheap smartphone, dismissed reports that the device was a iPhone knock-off.

We have not copied the design or any other part of a mobile made in China to launch Freedom 251. Our phone will be manufactured in India with most of the indigenous ingredients. Every phone has to be unique and we do not need to copy anything from China, Chadha told Hindustan Times.

Read | How the worlds cheapest smartphone compares with its pricier cousins

Read | Whats the catch? We answer your 10 interesting questions on Freedom 251
A Hindu priest was hacked to death and two members of the minority community were injured in an attack by unidentified people outside a temple in northern Bangladesh early on Sunday.

Police said the attack occurred at Deviganj Upazila of Panchagarh district at 6.30 am when priest Jogeshwar Roy of Sri Sri Shantu Santo Gaurio monastery emerged from the temple on the banks of Karatoa river.

At least three unidentified men attacked and killed the 50-year-old priest with sharp weapons.

Local police chief Gias Uddin said the attackers also opened fire and exploded several homemade bombs, injuring Gopal Chandra Roy and Nitai Pada Das, who had come to the temple to pray.

Uddin said police have no clues about who was behind the attack and why.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Local residents told police the attackers were unknown to them and came to the temple on a motorcycle. Some of them said they saw three men on the motorcycle flee the area but they did not chase them as they could not understand what had happened.

In recent months, several Christian and Hindu priests have been threatened in Bangladesh. A Christian pastor survived an attack, also in northern Bangladesh, last October.

Last year, an Italian and a Japanese national were killed in similar but separate attacks while four secular bloggers and a publisher were killed, allegedly by radical groups.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for some attacks but the government rejected the claim and pointed to local radical groups.
As winter loosens its grip on Pakistan, more than a hundred fashion houses, big and small, prepare to unveil their summer collections of lawn to an eager clientele ranging from housewives and working women, to teenagers and schoolgirls.

The lawn season is about to begin, announce fashion writers, and every year the competition gets more intense and the demand for the product rises correspondingly.

Lawn is the name Pakistanis use to refer to the brightly coloured cotton fabric sold in stitched and unstitched form in a myriad of hues to an eager set of buyers who will sometimes go to great lengths to get their favourite suit pieces.

In Pakistan, the shalwar suit is the preferred outfit for women, but now thanks to strides made by different brands, its not just about wearing the right cloth.

We look at brands, at designs, at colours, at cuts, at textures, even at who is wearing what to determine what will be the hottest number in the market for the year, remarks designer Amir Ahmad, who works for one of the largest producers of lawn suits.

One of the biggest players in the market is Al Karam Textiles, earlier known only for its mens suits. Now, Al Karam and other textile mills devote much of their production to womens lawn suiting. However, in a market like Pakistan, their investments in producing new designs are short-lived because these are copied within months and sold by others at cheaper rates.

The bigger houses set the trends and the smaller mills then make cheaper copies. So its all about continuing to beat the competition by innovating and re-inventing, says fashion writer Mohsin Sayeed.

It was a smaller designer, for example, who stole the limelight with plant and picture motifs last year and caused a new sensation in the market. The fashion house Sapphires last collection was so sought after that a video of two women who came to blows at the companys outlet over one suit piece went viral last year.

Watch | Shopping in Pakistan is not easy

Pakistans total textile exports exceed $11 billion a year, and exports of ready-made garments are worth $1.7 billion. Lawn exports alone are worth an estimated $500 million while lawn sales within the country are believed to be double that figure. The industry employs in excess of 30,000 people in factories and workshops.

Housewife Amina Khan says for her, the lawn fabric is comfortable and easy to wear in summer. But she laments the fact that she now has to pay more than Rs5,000 for a decent outfit because the rates have risen with the increasing demand for quality cloth. The cheaper ones are poor in quality and not as comfortable. But instead of prices dropping with competition, they have actually risen.

While the bigger fashion houses focus on unstitched lawn fabric, fashion designers are now taking the business a step further.

Umar Sayeed, who launched a new outlet in Dubai this year, says Pakistani fashion houses have come of age. Using almost all locally produced textiles, many houses have started competing at the international level with their range of clothes.

Lawn fabrics from the 2016 spring-summer collection of Sapphire Fashion. (Photo courtesy: Sapphire Fashion)

Fashion houses focus on formal wear and this includes bridal dresses, says a designer, who adds that for such dresses the sky is the limit.

One an average, in the upscale Zamzama area of Karachi, a bridal dress can cost about Rs700,000. The more it is customised, the more expensive it becomes, says the designer.

Lawn sales in Pakistan are a happening event. Thousands of women throng hotels and makeshift sale venues to buy to their hearts content. On an average, they buy a couple of suits.

Watch | Women fight during a dress sale at a local shop

We go to all the major names. They hold their sales one by one, says Naheed Sohail, who comes from Canada to buy the latest shalwar suits.

One of the most popular sales is hosted by Junaid Jamshed, a rock star-turned-televangelist who has his own line of clothing. Jamsheds Soully East collection may probably be the largest such offering among designers this year.

In all this, the one drawback many Pakistanis see is that the sale of lawn overseas remains limited despite the quality of the fabrics on offer. Some fashion houses have taken lawn to India but the sales there are nowhere near the volumes seen in Pakistan.

These products could do well if marketed properly, says one seller. But given that the market for shalwar-kameez is limited overseas, sales remain low.

Sayeed says the Pakistani designers needs to move on from shalwar-kameez and focus on other outfits and designs.

We are hopeful that this is the only way to gain international recognition for our products, says Shamoon Ali Khan, who opened an outlet of his shop in London this year.
Secretary of state John Kerry said Sunday that a provisional agreement has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syrias five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it is not yet done. But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed, Kerry said. In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... is possible over the course of these next hours.

The Russian foreign ministry seemed to stop short of Kerrys announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed the modality and conditions for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the UN Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed February 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

UN envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

Peace is better than more war, Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself.

However, he reiterated the long-time US position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad, Kerry said. Let me make that clear.

He said Russia now has to talk with the Syrian government and Iran, which backs Assad, and the US has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. He said he knows that not every party will automatically agree to the agreement reached for a ceasefire.

There is a stark choice for everybody here, Kerry said.

I know how much work remains and I dont know if everyone is going to meet their commitments, Kerry said. I cant vouch for that  the United States cant make certain of that.

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective, Kerry said.
Double car bomb attacks killed at least 46 people in Syrias central city of Homs on Sunday as international efforts to bring about a ceasefire in the war-torn country floundered.

More than 100 people were injured in the twin bomb attacks in the Al-Zahraa district, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Syrian state television quoted Homs provincial governor Talal Barazi putting the death toll at 32.

It broadcast footage from the scene of the attack, showing the air thick with dust and smoke rising from blazes started by the blasts.

Homs city is almost completely controlled by the Syrian government, and has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks.

Al-Zahraa neighbourhood in particular has been hit multiple times, including a double suicide bombing last month that killed 22 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The residents of Al-Zahraa are mostly Alawites, the minority sect of Syrias ruling clan, including President Bashar al-Assad.

Most of those killed have been civilians.

Among the deadliest attacks to hit Homs was in October 2014, when blasts at a school in the Akrameh district killed 48 children and four adults, prompting residents to protest lax security measures.

Syrian firefighters spray water on burning car at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the central Syrian city of Homs. (AFP Photo)

Demonstrations were also reported in the city after the January bombing in Al-Zahraa, with residents questioning why attackers have been able to strike so many times.

Homs city was once dubbed the capital of Syrias uprising, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

But after years of devastating fighting and government sieges, most of the city is now back in regime hands, with the exception of the Waer district, which is being gradually turned over to the government under a deal with opposition fighters.

Ceasefire efforts stumble

Video footage of Sundays attacks showed firefighters running through debris strewn by the explosions as security forces and civilians tried to prise open the wreckage of one vehicle to retrieve a person inside.

Nearby, a charred body was carried away on a stretcher by emergency services workers past shops with their fronts ripped off and mangled cars and minibuses.

The new violence came as international efforts for a temporary ceasefire stumbled, with UN-led talks on how to implement the proposed truce postponed to an unspecified future date.

World powers last week proposed a cessation of hostilities and expanded humanitarian access throughout Syria in a bid to pave the way for the resumption of new peace talks.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, were scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UNs envoy on Syria has already acknowledged that date is no longer realistically possible.

On Saturday, a key opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, said it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.

HNC chief Riad Hijab said any ceasefire must be reached with international mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting.

There will not be a truce unless fighting stops simultaneously on the part of all the belligerents, sieges are lifted, humanitarian aid is delivered to those in need, and prisoners, particularly women and children, are released, Hijab said.

Assad meanwhile told Spains El Pais newspaper that he was ready for a ceasefire, but said it should not be exploited by terrorists.

Regime backer Moscow is a key architect of the proposed ceasefire, but has shown little sign so far it plans to rein in the air campaign it began in September in support of Assads government.

On Saturday, it said it would continue to provide assistance and help to the armed forces of Syria in their offensive actions against terrorists.

Tensions meanwhile have been rising between Russia and opposition-backer Turkey, which has been alarmed by both the regimes Russian-backed advances and a major operation by Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo province.

The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab partners have in recent days seized key territory from rebel forces in Aleppo, prompting Turkish anger and shelling of their positions.

Ankara considers the YPG an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

It fears the Kurdish advances are intended to link up areas in north and northeast Syria to create a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone along the Syrian-Turkish border.
Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, according to The Associated Press, a development that solidifies the business moguls status as the GOP's national front-runner.

Trump's victory in the Palmetto State, on top of his double-digit victory in New Hampshire, puts him in a strong position has he heads into Nevada's Republican caucuses Tuesday and the slate of 13 states voting on Super Tuesday, March 1.

The victory comes following a Friday NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey that showed Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with 28 and 23 percent support among likely Republican voters respectively going into Saturday's South Carolina primary. The results indicated that Trump had a strong chance of taking the state, but it was a still a drop from the 36 percent support he had just one month before.

Contrary to the results, Cruz who was slated for a second place finish (if Trump indeed took first) is currently in a fight for second with Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) who had 15 percent support in the poll. Similarly, Jeb Bush, who despite having ex-President George W. Bush aiding his campaign in the past week, is fighting for a fourth place finish with Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio). Coming in last is Ben Carson, who despite coming across various difficulties in his campaign, has vowed to remain in the running so long as he has the support of "We the People."

Trump's victory doesn't just establish him as the front-runner within the GOP and adds on to his momentum into the coming weeks, but it makes it difficult for critics within the party, who are loath to have him serve as their nominee, to argue that they have a viable means to stop him.

Most importantly however, it will serve to unnerve the Republican establishment, who has relied on South Carolina to serve as reliable indicator of conservative opinion after siding with the eventual nominee in every GOP presidential race since 1980, apart from Newt Gingrich in 2012. After attacking George W. Bush, who is popular in S.C., as well as entering a brief feud with Pope Francis, his win illustrates that Trump is capable of taking on positions that would prove to be the undoing of almost any other U.S. politician.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Fiji, on Saturday, has been hit with a Category 5 cyclone dubbed Winston, leaving the country with damaged villages and at least three people dead.

Winston's wind speed was up to 220 kph, peaking over Fiji's eastern islands, and making it one of the most severe cyclones to ever hit the area.

"It was so strong that the weather stations there actually went down, they just stopped recording. People were saying that roofs just popped off. I can't even imagine what that sort of wind feels like," said Emma Blades, a meteorologist with MetService, New Zealand's meteorological office, according to Bloomberg.

The government is now working on reconnecting communication lines with some of the smaller islands in the area that were directly hit by the cyclone. Homes and crops were destroyed so authorities continue to warn residents to stay inside their homes as it works on clearing the roads from fallen trees and posts. Schools will not resume for a week to give ample time for the cleaning and restoration, according to Associated Press.

The curfew set by the government since Saturday will not be lifted until 5:30 a.m. local time, Monday.

A state of emergency has also been declared by Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, which is set to last for the next 30 days, according to CNN.

Details of the deaths and exact death count remains to be confirmed.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In the midst of the massive spread of Zika virus in Latin America and other regions, Pope Francis has created controversy by suggesting that the use of contraceptives might be a good way to combat further spread of the notorious virus, according to USA Today.

The pope's statement came from a press conference while the Holy See was en route from Mexico to Rome on Thursday. When asked by if the Catholic Church would be open to birth control in light of the Zika virus issue, Pope Francis quickly drew a line between two prominent birth control methods: abortion and contraception, both of which the Catholic Church has traditionally condemned.

"Abortion is not a lesser evil. It's a crime, killing one person to save another. That is something that the Mafia does, an absolute evil. Don't confuse avoiding pregnancy with abortion," he said, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Pope Francis further pointed out that in the use of contraceptives, though usually deemed taboo by the Catholic Church, had been previously allowed by his predecessor, Pope Paul VI during the 1960s. During that time, Pope Paul VI allowed nuns in Africa to use oral contraceptives due to the threat of rape in the area.

Rev. James Keenan, an expert on Catholic sexual ethics and morality, stated that the Pope's comments would have far-reaching effects which would have a positive impact among those in areas being ravaged by the Zika Virus, reports CNN.

"This is not just about individuals. This is about the thousands of Catholic hospitals that can help women in this situation by providing contraception," he said.

For more World News, click here.

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In response to the Lebanese government's controversial backing of Iran, Saudi Arabia has announced on Friday that it would be halting $4 billion worth of military deals set to improve and strengthen Lebanon's security forces, according to CBS News.

The $4 billion pledge from Saudi Arabia involved two primary deals: a $3 billion contract to provide the Lebanese army with French arms and modern anti-tank guided Milan missiles, and a $1 billion contract to improve the country's police force.

News of Saudi Arabia's halting of support has angered millions of Lebanese, with some stating that the government was not thinking of its people when it decided to support Iran. Mohammad Abu Diab, a food importer, described how the issue is looked upon by a significant number of the country's people, reports Gulf News.

Our politicians talk a lot but say precious little. What is truly sad is that most do not have any memory as they seem to have forgotten the myriad aid we received from Saudi Arabia, from the Ta'if Accords to the billions they gave us over the years," he said.

Saudi's decision was supported by a number of its peers in the Gulf, however, with members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) stating that they fully back the pullout of the funds from Lebanon. Abdullatif Al Zayani, secretary-general of the GCC, stated that members of the GCC do not agree with Lebanon's decision, reports Ya Libnan News.

"The members of the GCC back the decision, which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made in response to Lebanon's official positions that contravene pan-Arab consensus and are not in line with the deep relations between the GCC and Lebanon and the great support extended by Saudi Arabia and other GCC members," he said.

For more World News, click here.

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BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi -- Authorities in Hancock County say 13 people have been arrested in a weekend roundup of drug suspects. And several others were being sought.

Officials say some of the suspects named Friday already were behind bars on other charges. Two had been arrested in another recent drug investigation in Waveland.

Jeremy Skinner, commander of the Hancock County Narcotics Task Force, told The Sun-Herald that a variety of drugs were involved.

Investigators told WLOX-TV that a couple of the suspects are allegedly connected to recent shootings in Waveland.
North Korea allegedly fired several artillery rounds near a maritime border that is in dispute with South Korea, causing South Koreans in a nearby island to panic and almost resort to an evacuation.

A South Korean defense ministry official who wishes to remain anonymous said the shooting was probably targeted in a northwestern direction, as part of the North's artillery drill, Reuters reported.

The firing was heard from an island named Baengnyeong which is only a few kilometers from the Northern Limit Line  near the area were a South Korean navy ship sank in 2010 for which the south blames the north. North Korea denies any responsibility.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7, which stirred a dispute between the Koreas, and had U.S. officials condeming North Korea for violating U.N. laws, as previously reported in this HNGN article. South Korea has recently increased efforts to look for debris of the rocket to help in the investigation.

Given the political tension between the neighboring countries, both are responding by making their military powers felt.

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As China reels from a slowed economy, and as dissent grows among its citizens, Chinese President Xi Jinping is oiling the country's propaganda machine, initiating a rare, high-profile tour of the nation's most prominent media outlets on Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The president's visit targeted three of the Communist Party's most powerful mouthpieces, the People's Daily, the official Xinhua News Agency, and state broadcaster China Central Television. Xi's tour marked the first time he has visited the media outlets since he took power three years ago.

During his whirlwind tour, the Chinese president asserted that the Communist Party and the state media must always see eye to eye, and that reports must have the party's best interests in mind, reports The Guardian.

"The media run by the party and the government are the propaganda fronts and must have the party as their family name. All the work by the party's media must reflect the party's will, safeguard the party's authority, and safeguard the party's unity. They must love the party, protect the party, and closely align themselves with the party leadership in thought, politics and action," he said.

China's media outlets are among the most restricted in the world, with the country's most daring journalists and editors usually ending up behind bars after attempting to incite dissent by reporting negatively on the Communist Party. Currently, the country has the most journalists behind bars and ranks 176th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, as compiled by Reporters Without Borders, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

With the country seemingly heading towards dire straits, Xi Jinping's sudden, rare appearance in Chinese state media outlets could be seen as an attempt to rally the country's propaganda machine behind him, and most importantly, his image to the Chinese people.

For more World News, click here.

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Bolivia's polling stations opened Sunday morning for voters to participate in the South American country's nation-wide referendum, which will decide whether current President Evo Morales will be allowed to run for a controversial fourth consecutive term in 2019.

Morales, 56, is Bolivia's first indigenous president, and he has held office for 10 years. Having taken office in 2006, he won strong margins in the following residential elections, garnering 64 percent in 2009 and 61 percent in 2014. The Bolivian constitution currently only permits the president and vice-president to hold office for two consecutive terms of five years each, with an additional term after a gap of one term, BBC News explains.

A constitution implemented in 2009 created a limit of one re-election for sitting presidents, but Bolivia's Supreme Court decided that Morales' first term was exempt. This allowed him to run again in 2014. His current term ends in 2020, but if the referendum goes in his favor, the constitution could be amended to permit him to serve until 2025.

President Morales' government has been recognized for having reduced poverty in one of South America's poorest countries, by spending restructuring welfare programs and developing infrastructure, Reuters noted.

Recently, however, Morales' administration has faced criticism for corruption, financial waste, and authoritarianism. Allegations that he used his power to grant lucrative contracts to an ex-girlfriend's company appear to have shifted public opinion about the president, who maintains that the allegations are a slanderous ploy by the opposition to bring down his Movement for Socialism party, according to Agence France-Presse.

More than 29,000 polling stations have been set up throughout the country, and citizens have until 4 p.m. local time to vote. Electoral reviewers from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Organization of American States (OAS) will be stationed in six of Bolivia's nine electoral districts to monitor the electoral proceedings, according to TeleSUR.

Around 6.5 million Bolivians are expected to vote, and the government has deployed 15,000 police officers for special security during the referendum.

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Umberto Eco, the bestselling author of the critically-acclaimed novel "The Name of the Rose," died Friday. The author, philosopher, professor, essayist and literary critic was 84 at the time of his passing, according to the New York Daily News.

His death was confirmed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt spokeswoman Lori Glazer, but the cause of the author's death has not been officially released. Local reports, however, have alleged that the prominent literary figure had been battling cancer.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has issued a statement about the author's death, emphasizing Eco's fascinating talent in the world of literature, reported Investment Underground.

"He was an extraordinary example of European intellectualism, uniting a unique intelligence of the past with an inexhaustible capacity to anticipate the future," Renzi said.

Even before he became a household name due to the runaway success of his most famous novel, Eco was already a formidable figure in academic circles. Fascinated by the obscure and the mysterious, he had a penchant for dabbling in philosophy and the theory of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols in languages, reported Fox News.

After becoming a bestselling author, he became an even more prominent figure in the academe. By 2000, 23 educational institutions had awarded him with honorary degrees.

Eco is survived by his wife, Renate Ramge Eco, whom he married in 1962, as well as his son and daughter.

For more World News, click here.

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Volkswagen's reputation continues to face problems despite the company evidently doing everything it can to repair it, as investigators in Seoul, South Korea, searched the automaker's office in the city Friday, according to The Voice of America.

The search was initiated by investigators from the Seoul Supreme Prosecutors' Office, who raided the office and the house of a Volkswagen official in the Asian country. The investigators also confiscated computer hard drives that were housing emails exchanged between the official and company headquarters, as well as documents pertaining to emissions verification and vehicle certification.

South Korea's crackdown on VW intensified last month when the country's environment ministry filed a complaint against Johannes Thammer, the head of Volkswagen AG and Audi's South Korean unit, reported The Economic Times.

While VW had submitted a recall plan for emission-cheating cars to the South Korean government, the environment ministry has declared that the beleaguered carmaker's plan fell short of legal requirements.

A spokesman from the German carmaker has confirmed the raid on its Seoul offices. However, no other details were provided, reported Reuters.

VW, however, has maintained that it is fully cooperating with any investigations that are in any way related to the company's massive cheating scandal, which broke in September last year.

Check out more World News here.

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Executive Summary (2pages)

Financial Statement (proforma, basic information)

In Line with the Subject

Need Identification (You must Clearly state a problem, which you are hoping to solve)

Solution (Well-defined solution as an answer to previously identified problem)

Monetization (You should illustrate your pathway to monetizing the proposed solution)

Fit to African Market (external analysis) Macro Trends - Environment Competitive Landscape

Operational Feasibility (internal analysis) Internal Competencies Management Team

Innovativeness Novelty Aspect (Clear proposition of breakthrough innovation) Added Value (Presentation of a clear path to tangible value creation to customers thanks to suggested innovation) Societal Impact (strategy and operations aligned for responsible and sustainable business)

Financials Income Sources (Identification of a way, in which a business is going to generate money) Investment Ask (Accurate identification of financial needs & plan of utilizing potential funds)



Time Management

Design (Appropriate use of audio & visuals)

Delivery

The winner of the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia will win a cash prize of US $25 000 towards their start-up, and will also benefit from a yearlong partnership with Jumia, where they will have the opportunity to work from any of JUMIA's offices across Africa.

This will enable the winner to learn from, and be mentored by experienced and successful entrepreneurs in the JUMIA network.

The winner will also have access to a Facebook Start Program to the value of US $15 000, which includes tools and services needed to build mobile applications.

In addition, they will have the opportunity to work from the MTN Solution Space at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business. The two runners-up will each receive US $5 000 towards their projects.

Information on MTN Solution Space: http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/MTNECbyJumia

Jumia at www.Jumia.com or visit their Social Media Pages.

Facebook: facebook.com/uctgsbsolutions

More information will also be available on Twitter at @uctgsbsolutions and @Africa_IG.

MTN, in partnership with the MTN Solution Space and Jumia, are proud to announce the launch of the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia.The Pan-African competition launching today, will be the first of its kind in Africa, bringing together over 1000 entrepreneurs, students and investors, to collaborate on ways to amplify and consolidate the continent's entrepreneurs. Targeting more than 60 universities in 13 countries across Africa, the competition will challenge students to develop a unique digital application or smart solution that will solve a tangible problem faced on the continent."We are incredibly excited to partner with Jumia to launch the entrepreneurship challenge. Africa is a continent of promise, and our aim with the MTN Solution Space has always been to help fulfil this promise by developing uniquely African solutions. We believe that the entrepreneurship challenge is a key element of this. The response and willingness from universities across Africa to collaborate on this initiative has been truly remarkable and certainly exemplifies the impact of collective efforts to foster entrepreneurship among our next generation of business leaders," says Sarah-Anne Arnold, Manager of the MTN Solution Space.MTN's Group Chief Digital Officer, Herman Singh, says the company is proud to both sponsor and endorse the initiative."The Entrepreneurship Challenge is strongly aligned to MTN's own entrepreneurial culture and history as well as our values as a business. We believe inspiration of new business leaders in Africa and their enablement to success, will be key drivers for the future rapid evolution of a broader start-up culture on the continent. This is an environment already teeming with excellent potential and we hope to assist in accelerating its further growth and to raise MTN's role in creating new businesses in Africa," says Singh."This competition will contribute to building a stronger and more sustainable business environment across Africa. Its main goal is to boost and fuel African entrepreneurship by enabling young and smart entrepreneurs to kick off with their own projects. The key for us is to give full and adapted support to young talents, from funding to mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs," says Bankole Cardoso, Head of Communications from Jumia.Our review team (encompassing campus captains and selection committee) will be evaluating applications according to four main areas (which are underpinned with more specific criteria). Particularly, participating teams should make sure that their business plans will: fit to African market, be operationally feasible, be innovative and contain relevant financials.The general assessment scheme can be found below:Formal Requirements:Organization:Content:Presentation:Teams may be comprised of 2 or 3 individuals with at least one member currently enrolled at in an African university or a recent graduate (Academic year 2014 - 2015 or 2015 - 2016) of an African university.Campus presentation Live pitches1st - 8th April, 2016.16th April, 2016.27th May, 2016.27th March, 2016.The MTN EC by JUMIA uses the Website application platform to manage applications. To enter, the designated team leader should complete the online enrollment form.Application, Executive Summary and Video Pitch (optional, but highly encouraged) must be completed no later than 23:59 pm GMT, Sunday, March 27, 2016.For more information about the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia, visit the following:These are where regular updates, articles and interviews will be shared.
Unlike U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who has pretty much abandoned any constructive involvement in issues unrelated to his years-long presidential quest, his senior colleague and fellow Republican continues to attend to the people's work.

One of the more obvious recent examples is U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's sustained effort to persuade fellow Republicans that criminal justice reform is in the interest of the nation. He's a key sponsor of bipartisan legislation that would give judges discretion to hand down lesser sentences than federal mandatory minimums, eliminate mandatory life sentences for three-time, non-violent drug offenders and create programs to help prisoners reenter society successfully. His bill also would reduce the prison population in a nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world.

In essence, Cornyn's legislation would save taxpayers money, create a safer, more just society and help rebuild lives.

Such would be the result if Cornyn can persuade hardliners in his party in this, an election year, that they won't be branded as soft on crime if they agree to legislation that would represent one of the rare bipartisan efforts in this Congress. A Cornyn spokesman said the senator is working to adjust the bill with the express goal of getting it done this year. Although the bill made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall, the conservative Texas senator is probably facing an uphill battle.

"I am hopeful, but I don't think it's critical we do it this year," the senator said in an interview with the Associated Press a few weeks ago. "I have been involved in a lot of fights around here that have taken us years to get things done. And ultimately the question is, can you get it done at some point."

Cornyn's challenge involves a reluctant Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and intense opposition from - guess who - the junior senator from Texas, one of four GOP senators who labeled the bill "dangerous for America." The fear-mongering four argue that passage of the bill would loose dangerous felons into society and threaten to undo historic reductions in the crime rate. They warned of another Willie Horton, the Massachusetts inmate during the 1980s who raped a woman while on a weekend furlough.

A senior Republican aide told Politico recently that Cornyn and his cohorts have changed the bill to directly address concerns expressed by Cruz, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and others. Despite the modifications, McConnell still hasn't said whether he'll bring the bill up this year.

Cornyn's model is a hard-right state, which should have offered some reassurance to the hardliners. The senator - who also happens to be a former district judge, member of the Texas Supreme Court and Texas attorney general -maintains that criminal-justice reform in Texas reduced crime and saved taxpayers more than $2 billion. "Successful reforms in Texas and other states have taught us that it's not enough to be tough on crime, we have to be smart on crime, too," he said late last year - before opponents undercut his efforts.

As Craig DeRoche of the Prison Fellowship points out, from 2009 to 2014, crime rates dropped 16 percent in the 10 states that had the largest reductions in imprisonment rates, a larger decline than in the states that continued to build more prisons. Numerous other studies report similar findings.

Cornyn's chief cosponsor is a Democrat, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, another fact that no doubt discomfits his hard-right friends. Twenty-eight senators from both parties signed on. The bill also has the support of such disparate groups as the ultraconservative Koch brothers and the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and the tea-party group FreedomWorks.

We're pleased that Cornyn remains hopeful and that he continues to work on efforts to mollify critics of the bill. Otherwise, supporters will have to rely on relative modest reforms President Obama can implement through executive action. We hope they don't have to resurrect the old cry from long-ago, long-suffering Brooklyn Dodgers fans. "Wait'll next year," they used to say. With this Congress, it's a handy slogan to have around.
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Carey Wright, John Moore

Sitting behind the House Education Committee Chairman Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright, right, listens as lawmakers discuss a bill on authorizing charter schools open enrollment across school district lines during the meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016 at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss.

(Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press)

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Charter schools and using public money to send students to private schools are part of the same larger choice movement. But the two different options are presenting much different faces in Mississippi right now.

Charter schools in Mississippi were birthed only after a years-long debate, followed by a very cautious administrative process, with the effect that the alternative form of public schools were heavily scrutinized and are hemmed in by many regulations.

House Bill 943, which was passed Thursday by the House Education Committee, gives wide freedom to spend public money on private schools with few standards and little monitoring. Sponsors say they're confident that parents will make good choices, and that such accountability to parents is ultimately the best form of oversight.

For example, charter school students, as part of the public school system, will have to take the same tests as students in traditional public schools. The voucher bill required no tests at all be administered and no results be reported publicly if students are tested.

While the Charter School Authorizer Board performs extensive analysis of a school's academic plan and the prior record of school operators before approving a school, the voucher bill says any school is eligible as long as it meets one requirement -- that it holds class 180 days a year.

And while charter schools are authorized for a fixed term and the board is required to evaluate schools' operations and academic performance, House Bill 943 has no repealer clause, which means lawmakers would never be forced to consider the program again.

The low-regulation approach varies from a voucher program enacted in Louisiana, which requires students in private schools to take state tests. There, the state government can forbid private schools with low test scores from accepting additional voucher students.

Actually, House Bill 943 is something of a reaction to the Louisiana program. The measure shares much in common with a 2015 American Enterprise Institute report that examined voucher programs in Louisiana, Florida and Indiana.

That report found that private schools disliked giving state tests because school leaders feared doing so would force private schools to alter their curriculum and teach to the state test. One particular concern is that schools that have shunned Common Core-linked curricula could have to start using at least some of their ideas to avoid students floundering.

"Private schools value their autonomy and ability to provide an alternative to public schooling," the report states.

The report does suggest that some private schools would be open to giving nationwide standardized tests such as the Iowa Assessments or the Stanford Achievement Tests. Without any public test results that can be compared to some other yardstick, it could be hard for parents unfamiliar with schools to judge their academic quality.

Private school leaders in the report also express concern about maintaining their autonomy in areas other than testing, saying those too could prevent them from being a "valid alternative" to public schools.

Like an earlier law in Arizona, the Mississippi law also allows parents to save any leftover money in a federally tax-protected account for college. While it's unlikely that parents would have much money left after paying private school tuition, it could provide a large college nest egg for home-schooled children, whose parents are also eligible to draw money under the proposal.

It's unclear if the permissive structure will survive through the legislative process. House Education Committee Chairman John Moore, after telling reporters that "every private school in this state is beating the public schools," added that there could be some changes before the bill hits the House floor.
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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-21 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] President Pavlopoulos sends message of unity and solidarity to Greek people [02] IMF needs to understand that Greece is a European country, FinMin Tsakalotos says [03] An ecumenical government is not the solution to the problems, ND leader Mitsotakis says [01] President Pavlopoulos sends message of unity and solidarity to Greek people Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Sunday sent a message of unity, understanding and solidarity to the Greek people from the city of Ioannina, Epirus. Pavlopoulos is visiting Ioannina for the celebration of the 103rd anniversary of the liberation of the city from the Turks on 21 February 1913. "The history of Epirus is an integral part of the history of our Nation, the Nation of the Greeks," Pavlopoulos stated and pointed out the true national characteristics of Epirus and its people from the post-Byzantine period onwards, that send rather instructive messages for the people and nation. [02] IMF needs to understand that Greece is a European country, FinMin Tsakalotos says Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in an interview with RealNews newspaper on Sunday sent a message to the IMF to understand that Greece is a European country. He also underlined that the basis for the discussion cannot be other than those agreed last summer. "The IMF must understand that Greece is a European country which has references to the EU acquis and that any obstruction in the negotiations complicates the government's strategy to escape the vicious circle of measures-recession-new measures," Tsakalotos stressed. The Finance Minister estimated that the program review will soon be completed and added that the creditors should not ask for further fiscal measures and pension cuts when the economic performance and the revenues are higher than expected. "We have red lines on the issue of pensions and fiscal adjustment," he explained and noted that part of the discussions for the completion of the evaluation concerns the management of the expenses earmarked for dealing with the refugee problem. He stated that there is no reason for a new recapitilisation of the banks, but as regards the debt, he proposed a political solution that will not transfer the technical solution in the future. "This is the only way to boost demand and support investors," he stressed. Tsalakotos also said that the government's new development law will be presented in spring. [03] An ecumenical government is not the solution to the problems, ND leader Mitsotakis says "An ecumenical government is not the solution to Greece's problems," main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday said in an interview with "VIMAGAZINO." He also cleared out that he does not trust Alexis Tsipras and he could not co-govern with him. Mitsotakis stated that he is not asking for elections. "I do not participate in election talk that causes political uncertainty," he said and added: "I am sure I will win the elections whenever they are held ... there is a strong momentum for New Democracy. May aim is, of course, self-majority, but this does not mean I will not seek collaborations." The leader of the main opposition lashed out at Tsipras accusing of having adopted a dangerous policy in the first half of the year, either as a result of ignorance or arrogance. As he said, he led the country very close to the total destruction and hurt the Greek economy significantly. Regarding New Democracy's policy, he said that it changes and it promotes a totally different political speech. "The main challenge is the organisational restructuring of New Democracy," he stressed. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-21 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] The main mission of NATO in the Aegean will be surveillance, Alternate Civil Protection Min Toskas says [01] The main mission of NATO in the Aegean will be surveillance, Alternate Civil Protection Min Toskas says "The main mission of NATO in the Aegean will be surveillance," Alternate Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Toskas on Sunday said in an interview with newspaper "Avghi." "NATO will be responsible for the surveillance and observation of migratory flows and then it will notify Frontex, which will act mainly in the Greek territorial waters and will oversee whether the Turks respect the agreement and allow boats to come to our islands or not," he explained adding that NATO will not get involved in identification procedures. He underlined that Greece and Turkey's sovereign rights will be respected. "Turkish ships will not act in Greek territorial waters, and Greek ships will not act in theirs," he stated. Toskas confirmed that Greece has met its commitments as regards the hotspots on islands and the reception centres on the mainland. On the return of refugees, he said: "We cannot accept any more people. We are more than willing to accept these people on humanitarian basis, but agreements need to be made for their return in Turkey or other countries. We are not talking about asylum seekers, but economic migrants." Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
There was no discriminatory intent from the employer

The company had a rational business-related reason for the request

The request to wear a long sleeved shirt was an effective way of dealing with the company's concern

The employee did not make the employer aware she was unhappy with the request and therefore its need to consider alternative means for dealing with its concerns

The request was only for one function so any discriminatory effect was limited

egations of discrimination strike fear into the hearts of every HR professional so asking an employee to cover up a cultural tattoo can be a daunting prospect  but is it legally allowed?Generally, employers have significant latitude to set guidelines on their employees' appearance, says leading employment lawyer Brian Nathan.From uniform and work attire to hair colour or body piercings, company policies dictating their appropriateness are legal and remain commonplace in many workplaces.As an employer, you have the right to determine how you wish to present your business in the best manner to attract and maintain customers, stresses Nathan.So what about tattoos? Well, according to the Nelson-based lawyer, this is where the waters becoming somewhat murky.Legally speaking, discrimination only occurs when the treatment the person is complaining of is because of one of the 13 protected grounds of discrimination, set out in the Human Rights Act, says leading employment lawyer Brian Nathan.The thirteen protected grounds are: gender, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief, colour, race, ethnicity, disability, age, political opinion, employment status, family status and sexual orientation.The request to cover up a tattoo which has cultural significance by reason of the employee's religion or ethnicity could be discriminatory as these are prohibited grounds, warns Nathan.For example, asking an employee to cover up a culturally significant Maori tattoo such as a moko could be discriminatory, he explains. On the flip-side, a tattoo of a cartoon character or a flower would not be.While theres potential for discrimination, not every case is cut-and-dry and a recent Human Rights Review Tribunal proved that employers do have some discretion.The case centred on a woman of Maori descent who was asked to wear a long sleeved shirt to cover the moko on her forearm while working at a corporate event.The tribunal acknowledged that the moko was indeed of ethnic significance to the employee but found that the employers request was not discriminatory. Heres why:While the tribunal sided with the employer in this instance, Nathan says HR managers should remain vigilant when it comes to possible discrimination.As part of your wider duty as an employer, it is important that employees are treated fairly and are not unreasonably singled out, he says.So in future to ensure all employees are clear about the company's expectations in relation to presentation for public appearances, especially if these differ from the day to day standards, it would be advisable to send out an email prior to the event outlining the dress expectations and the business reasons for them to avoid any complaints or concerns, he advises.
Zealands senior leaders have been sharing their industry woes in an annual survey that shed some valuable light on the issues worrying our top bosses.Conducted by PwC , the study found that chief executives are becoming increasingly concerned about the state of the global economy  luckily, that seems to be doing little to dampen their confidence about company growth.The annual survey interviews 47 chief executives across a range of companies and found 40 per cent of respondents were very confident about their companys growth in 2016  an additional 51 per cent where somewhat confident."Kiwi organisations are remaining optimistic about their own growth prospects despite the possibility of a stagnant or declining global economy, commented PwC chief executive Bruce Hassall.Despite the apparent positivity, its clear there are some major shared concerns  the most common among senior execs was the dwindling availability of key skills.A full 85 per cent of people indicated they were worried about the issue compared to the global average of 74 per cent.However, the biggest growth in concern was in the cybersecurity and data sector  jumping from 66 per cent last year to 77 per cent this year, earning the issue second-place position.Over regulation came in at third place, with 74 per cent of respondents expressing concern  up from 66 per cent last year.
Scaachi Koul is a senior writer at Buzzfeed Canada.

A BuzzFeed Canada writer was harassed on Twitter Saturday after putting out a call for story pitches from non-white contributors.

Senior writer Scaachi Koul tweeted that the the site was looking for "Canada-centric" content, and "would particularly like to hear from you if you are not white and not male."

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A screengrab from Scaachi Koul's Twitter account, which has since been deactivated.

Koul said she wasn't going to ignore pitches from white male writers, but would be less interested in them.

"Giving ignored voices preferential treatment is not racism against white people ...it is an attempt to fix all of history," she tweeted.

Maclean's columnist Scott Gilmore said her call for pitches was illegal, because it violated Canadian human rights and labour laws.

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The Ontario Human Rights Code states that employers cannot advertise positions that indicate qualifications "by a prohibited ground of discrimination" such as by age or ethnicity.

But Koul's boss, Craig Silverman, came to her defence, saying the callout was not a job posting.

@Scott_Gilmore @Scaachi it's clearly not a job ad, and it violates no laws to encourage women & poc to pitch. But yeah thx for the link.  Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) February 20, 2016

Koul then tweeted that she was receiving violent threats. She has since deleted her Twitter account.

Some journalists decried the backlash and praised Koul's work.

Think Canada doesn't have race issues? @BuzzFeedCanada's @scaachi tweeted for more women/writers of colour and was harassed off Twitter.  Elan Morgan (@schmutzie) February 21, 2016

Scaachi Koul is one of the strongest, most brilliant writers/editors in the world. Fuck all of you dickwads for harassing her off Twitter.  Julia Alexander (@loudmouthjulia) February 21, 2016

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Davide Mastracci, blog editor of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, said he felt that BuzzFeed's search for diverse writers is progressive, not racist.

Last November, the magazine wrote about "The Unbearable Whiteness of Canadian Columnists," underscoring that opinion columns are "dominated by old white men." It floated solutions including actively recruiting writers from underrepresented communities.

Jeet Heer, the Canadian editor of The New Republic, pointed out on Twitter, "The freakout of the Canadian media at any little push for ethnic diversity and gender equality is really something."

9. Very modest attempt by BuzzFeed for ethnic diversity & gender equality in Canadian media is in context of Godfrey dominated industry  Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 20, 2016

11. Ascent some active policies to change, segregation of Canadian media will remain the norm.  Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 20, 2016

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Disclosure: Scaachi Koul once worked as an editorial intern at The Huffington Post Canada.

Also on HuffPost:
A passenger airliner has gone off the runway and ended up on the grass verge after landing at Birmingham Airport.

The Airbus A320, carrying 98 people, "manoeuvred" off the tarmac while it was taxing to the terminal after touching down at about 2pm on Sunday, according to airport officials.

All the passengers were taken off the plane safely once it had come to a standstill, and there were no reports of any injuries, according to a spokesman for the airport in Bickenhill, Solihull.

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The plane, operated by Small Planet Airlines, had arrived from Paderborn in Germany, the Press Association reported.

A passenger plane went off the runway and ended up on the grass verge after landing at Birmingham Airport

The stricken airliner was eventually towed out of the heavily rutted grass at about 4pm, and back onto the taxiway.

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In a statement, the airport said: "Birmingham Airport can confirm that an A320 aircraft belonging to charter company, Small Planet, has manoeuvred off the taxiway into grass after landing from Paderborn at 1320 today.

"Passengers have safely disembarked and have been bussed to the terminal. There are no reports of injuries."

The airport's fire engines and emergency teams were on the scene throughout the drama, however Birmingham's single runway was fully operational.

A spokesman for the carrier Small Planet, said: "On February 21, Small Planet Airlines flight S5-3260 from Paderborn in Germany ran off the taxiway after landing at Birmingham airport and stopped on the grass.
Boris Johnson revealing he will back the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union has sent tremors through the political world, with the move hailed a game-changer.

But many will question the London mayors motives given that he has repeatedly expressed support for remaining part of the union and rejecting Brexit.

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Even before his announcement at an impromptu press conference this afternoon, some made clear they thought he was not a true believer - including Tory MP Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill.

Whatever my great friend Boris decides to do I know that he is NOT an outer .  Nicholas Soames (@nsoamesmp) February 21, 2016

On more than one occasion, Tory MP Johnson, whose move many think will put him in pole position to succeed David Cameron as party leader, has said he supports staying in, and warned against the negative impacts of coming out.

Here are a handful.

Reports had suggested he was poised to lead the eurosceptic campaign, but not only did he meet them to say he did not want to be the frontman, he went even further. It was reported: It is understood he said: The trouble is, I am not an outer.

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Boris Johnson announces that he will be backing the 'Leave EU' campaign whilst speaking to the press outside his London home

In 2012 he signalled he was more aligned to underlining the benefits of EU membership: If we get to this campaign, I would be well up for trying to make the positive case for some of the good things that have come from the single market.

Here's the quote, from his Daily Telegraph column just two weeks ago, in full.

It is also true that the single market is of considerable value to many UK companies and consumers, and that leaving would cause at least some business uncertainty, while embroiling the Government for several years in a fiddly process of negotiating new arrangements, so diverting energy from the real problems of this country  low skills, low social mobility, low investment etc  that have nothing to do with Europe.

He admitted Britain was at risk of losing influence and would face some penalties, telling the German Der Spiegel newspaper of several disadvantages: First, we wouldn't be able to stick up for what we believe in. Secondly, we would face some penalties.

He has argued the choice is really quite simple: In favour of staying, it is in Britains geo-strategic interests to be pretty intimately engaged in the doings of a continent that has a grim 20th-century history, and whose agonies have caused millions of Britons to lose their lives.

A source from the remain campaign to stay in said: This is the most nakedly self-serving piece of political positioning in years.

Everybody in Westminster knows that Boris doesnt really believe in Out. Hes putting his personal ambition before the national interest.

It says a lot about Boriss priorities that his last act as Mayor of London is to betray this great city by turning his back on the needs of the City of London and the views of the majority of Londoners.

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Lord Heseltine, the former Tory deputy Prime Minister, said: "Given that Boris has spent so long agonising over this decision his decision is illogical.

"If it takes you this long to make up your mind about something so fundamental and you still have questions, then surely the right option is to stay with what you know rather than risk our economy and security with a leap in the dark.

"If he were to be successful in his ambition to cut us off from Europe, the flags would fly in Frankfurt and Paris in his honour.

"At a stroke, he would have blown away the safeguards for our financial services industry that the Prime Minister has just secured.
Boris Johnson has blown the EU referendum wide open after deciding to back Britains Brexit from the European Union.

In a dramatic move that could ensure he becomes the next Tory party leader as well as determine the UKs future role in the world, the Mayor of London will defy David Cameron to urge voters to support the Leave campaign on June 23.

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After weeks of speculation - and just hours after a personal plea from the Prime Minister - Mr Johnson is went public with his decision at 5pm with a short announcement outside his home in Islington in London.

Boris confirms he's backing campaign for Britain to leave the EU pic.twitter.com/MrPtJutBIR  Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) February 21, 2016

Speaking outside his home, Mr Johnson stressed that he would not share a platform with Nigel Farage or George Galloway and would not take part in any TV debates opposing any fellow Conservatives.

And crucially he added: "Whatever happens at the end of this.. and I've said this to the Prime Minister...he's got to stay [after any 'Out' vote]."

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Boris, who had warned weeks ago that his decision would be unveiled with 'deafening eclat', added that the main reason he was backing 'Brexit' was "because I want a better deal for the people of this country".

In an article in the Daily Telegraph setting out his detailed case, Boris admitted there was a risk of tensions that could lead to Scottish independence but argued that most of the evidence I have seen suggests that the Scots will vote on roughly the same lines as the English.

His main argument was that Britons needed to vote Leave to halt creeping European federalism, declaring this is the only opportunity we will ever have to show that we care about self-rule.

And in the matter of their own sovereignty the people, by definition, will get it right.

But there was a hint from the Mayor that he felt that a Leave vote could trigger a desperate move by Brussels to give Britain more of what it wants, through a free trade deal - or a looser EU membership status approved by a second referendum.

There is only one way to get the change we need and that is to vote to go; because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says No.

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His announcement prompted Nigel Farage to say he'd be delighted with headlines declaring 'Bojo was for BoGo', a phrase repeated on Twitter.

So it's BoGo.  Andrew Neil (@afneil) February 21, 2016

A recent Ipsos/MORI poll found that of all the politicians in the UK, only Boris Johnson was capable of affecting the outcome of the referendum, adding a potential 15% to the Leave campaign if he backed it publicly.

His announcement is a huge coup for the Brexit camp and immediately installs him as favourite to succeed David Cameron in a future Tory leadership contest, given the substantial grassroots Conservative movement in favour of quitting the EU.

With 140 Tory MPs set to back 'Brexit', Chancellor George Osborne and Home Secretary Theresa May now face a difficult task in a future leadership contest, even if the EU referendum results in an In vote.

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Bookies Ladbrokes narrowed their odds to 2/1 on Boris Johnson becoming next Tory leader, with 3/1 for George Osborne

8/1 for Theresa May and 10/1 for Michael Gove.

Mr Johnson left Downing Street unconvinced last week after a meeting with David Cameron to discuss plans to assert British Parliamentary sovereignty over EU law.

The Six Cabinet-attending ministers who have backed the 'Vote Leave' campaign

HIs decision to join the half dozen Cabinet ministers backing Brexit - Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Theresa Villiers, John Whittingdale and Priti Patel - led Eurosceptics to declare the 'Gang of Six' was now 'The Magnificent Seven'.

Reaction from Eurosceptics to his decision today was swift, with many delighted to have a big hitter on board.

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Here we go here we go here we go... https://t.co/UKWL0u20wx  Paul Goodman (@PaulGoodmanCH) February 21, 2016

The man makes me proud to be British. Go on BoJo you saucy old goose! #Brexitpic.twitter.com/reNFy3bwV4  Skip 204 (@SkipLicker) February 21, 2016

Tories who had worried that Boris would put a job in the Cabinet before his principles were pleasantly surprised.

I was wrong about @BorisJohnson. Sir, I apologise, and I doff my hat in deep respect. #VoteLeavepic.twitter.com/svntg0vnxf  Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) February 21, 2016

Some instantly spotted that David Cameron was now unlikely to give Mr Johnson a senior Cabinet post in any post-referendum reshuffle.

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So Boris doesn't want a Cabinet job except PM, then.  John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) February 21, 2016

But the news was a direct rebuff to the Prime Minister, who had made his last-ditch plea to Boris to back the 'In' campaign on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning.

Mr Cameron had warned him against linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway in backing Britains exit from the EU.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU, he said.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country .

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And if Boris and others really care about being able to get things done in our world then the EU is one of the ways we get them done."

And as No.10 was kept in the dark, the announcement underlined just how difficult relations are now between Downing Street and the Boris camp.

I understand Number 10 has still not been informed of @MayorofLondon decision on Brexit referendum  Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) February 21, 2016

In a fresh blow to Mr Cameron, it emerged today that Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate to succeed Boris as Mayor of London, was backing Brexit too.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a long-time personal friend and ally of the Prime Minister, also came out for 'Brexit' this weekend, along with five other Cabinet attending ministers.

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But Boris's personal appeal - he is one of the few British politicians to have a net positive rating among the public - will rival that of Mr Cameron's, and exceed it among non-Tory voters.

Within minutes of the BBC confirming Mr Johnson's intentions, the Mayor's own previous writings opposing Brexit were dug up.

The 'Vote Leave' campaign was swift to react today, putting its umbrellas outside the Mayor of London's home.
David Cameron has warned Boris Johnson against linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway in backing Britains exit from the EU.

Ahead of the Mayor of Londons long-awaited announcement tonight, the Prime Minister made a direct plea for him to support the In campaign in the European Union referendum on June 23.

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With all eyes on Boris - whose backing could add 15% to the Brexit camp, according to a recent poll - Mr Cameron rolled out his biggest arguments that the UK would be safer and stronger inside the EU.

The PM warned that with Putin to the East and ISIL/Daesh to the south, Europe needed to stick together to defend itself from threats from abroad.

But as Tory splits over the EU became wider than ever, he also warned Boris against being on the same side as UKIP leader Mr Farage and Respect party leader Mr Galloway.

Many on Twitter have ridiculed Mr Farages decision to join forces with Mr Galloway, with the In campaign citing it as their biggest propaganda weapon, given how negatively both men poll among parts of the electorate.

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Are you IN - or are you with these two? Join us: https://t.co/2d1WP10fpr#marrpic.twitter.com/mdCfr1l6FW  Stronger In (@StrongerIn) February 21, 2016

The unlikely allies, who appeared together at a rally in Westminster on Friday night, did win the backing however of comedian Jim Davidson, who tweeted today nothing wrong with Nigel and George.

Nothing wrong with Nigel and George  Jim Davidson (@JimDOfficial) February 21, 2016

And some Eurosceptics hit back at the PM, pointing out that Ulster politicians and the Labour leader were backing the In camp.

Eurosceptic Tory source hits back at Galloway/Farage line: "You could equally warn the PM against linking arms with Corbyn and Gerry Adams."  Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) February 21, 2016

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Boriss sister Rachel revealed today that he would finally announce his decision at 10pm, when his Daily Telegraph column will be tweeted out.

Yet Mr Cameron used the Andrew Marr programme to make one last, direct appeal to the Mayor of London and Uxbridge MP.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU, he said.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country .

And if Boris and others really care about being able to get things done in our world then the EU is one of the ways we get them done."

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In a fresh blow to Mr Cameron, it emerged today that Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate to succed Boris as Mayor of London, was backing Brexit too.

Novelist Robert Harris joined in the waiting game.

The country sits by the phone, waiting for Boris to ring pic.twitter.com/wK5I3Kavzs  Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) February 21, 2016

And spoof Twitter account General Boles couldn't resist imagining what the Boris column would look like.

***** BREAKING ***** My sources at the Telegraph (hi Chris) have leaked the first part of Boris's column pic.twitter.com/VFL9tKdpj3  General Boles (@GeneralBoles) February 21, 2016

Speculation that Mr Johnson will back Brexit has been rife since last week, when he emerged unconvinced from a Downing Street meeting with the Prime Minister about plans to protect British Parliamentary sovereignty from EU laws.

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His economic adviser Gerard Lyons gave fresh hints today, tweeting at length about the benefits of Britain outside the EU.

b/ I am not so sure regarding that. Leaving the EU is disruptive not deadly for The City of London #Brexit#Remain  Gerard Lyons (@DrGerardLyons) February 21, 2016

HuffPost UK understands that the Mayor has been agonising over his decision because he is genuinely torn over the case for Brexit and his loyalty to the PM.

His sister Rachel told Sky News today: His participation in either camp is going to be very significant and this is why hes taking so long to decide.

The deal came through on Friday and perhaps you could all imagine that its a very, very hard choice he has to make. And its a hard choice for everybody to make because there are good and bad arguments on both sides.

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I have spoken to him and he will let everybody know his decision in his Daily Telegraph column which will be tweeted out at 10 oclock tonight.

It is agonising.. This is not in any sense boris milking his decision for maximum publicity. This is an enormously complicated decision for everybody not just Boris. This is going to be the Euro vision song contest thats going to go on for four months.

UKIP leader Mr Farage today defended his decision to share a stage with Mr Galloway on Friday night, a moment that sparked a walkout by many pro-Brexit supporters.

He was very disobliging about me last year in quite personal terms[But] I dont think ive got a great pull amongst the Muslim community in this country, George does, he told Sky News.

Eighty per cent of those eligible to vote in the general election, did not vote ConservativeTo win this referendum we need different messages to different parts of electorate."

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Mr Farage said that he now believed that Boris would back Brexit. "Hurrah," he said.

But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: "Boris has had more positions on Europe than the Karma Sutra".

And Alan Johnson, leader of Labour's In campaign, said Boris had never written anything that suggested he would really back Brexit. He pointed out Boris's brother Jo, a Government minister, and his father Stanley, an environmentalist, both backed the In camp.
File photo dated 01/10/13 of the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith who has vowed to bring pensioner Norman Brennan, who skipped Britain after he admitted embezzling almost 120,000 in false claims and has been living in Spain for five years, back to face justice. Dave Thompson/PA Archive

Labours Alan Johnson has ridiculed Iain Duncan Smith after he claimed the UK could face Paris-style terror attacks unless it quit the EU.

As the EU referendum descended into acrimony on just the second day of the campaign, Mr Johnson derided Mr Duncan Smith and five other Tory Brexit ministers as not the most astute bunch of political all-stars.

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A 'Gang of Six Cabinet-attending ministers - Mr Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, John Whittingdale, Chris Grayling, Theresa Villiers and Priti Patel - came out on Saturday to campaign for an EU exit.

But the Work and Pensions Secretary hit back at Mr Johnson, saying the former Cabinet minister degrades himself by making such personal attacks.

The spat came after Mr Duncan Smith sought to counter David Camerons claim that staying in the EU was the best way to protect Britain from threats overseas.

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Speaking to BBC Newss political editor Laura Kuenssberg, he said that the PMs benefit curbs would have some small effect but the bigger issue was migration and possible terrorists being allowed into the EU as asylum seekers.

"This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come and spend time," he said.

"We've seen what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting so who's to say it's not beyond the wit of man that those might already be thinking about that.

Iain Duncan Smith, on BBC News

Asked directly whether he believed EU membership made the UK more vulnerable to Paris-style attacks, he replied: "I think the present status of the open border we have right now many of us feel does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved."

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On the Andrew Marr show, Mr Cameron put national security at the heart of his own campaign to persuade voters to back the Remain camp in the June 23 referendum.

The Prime Minister warned that with Putin to the East, and ISIL/Daesh to the south, the EUs joint working on diplomacy, security and intelligence was crucial to defending itself from outside threats. He also pointed to the EUs role in combatting Somali pirates and Irans nuclear programme.

And on Radio 4s World This Weekend programme, Mr Johnson - who is heading up Labours In campaign - derided Mr Duncan Smiths and Mr Goves' claims that they'd seen first hand as ministers the obstacles Brussels put in the UKs way.

The Six Cabinet-attending ministers who have backed the 'Vote Leave' campaign

Mr Johnson - a former Home Secretary, Education Secretary and Trade and Industry Secretary - also went on the offensive about the calibre of the 'Gang of Six' ministers who on Saturday backed Brexit.

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I wouldnt say that the six Cabinet members that I saw yesterday could be described as the political all-stars, Mr Johnson said.

Lets be kind. They're not the six most astute politicians that I've ever met in the cabinet.

Alan Johnson, leader of Labour's 'In' campaign

Mr Duncan Smith hit back on the same programme. I say to Alan very simply he degrades himself by saying things like that.

"Im surprised at Alan being disparaging about anybody personally, frankly. I never thought politicians were all-stars anyway. No politician is a celebrity. If politicians begin to believe they are celebrities they need to go and sit down in a darkened room.
Nigel Farage has slammed David Cameron's European Union renegotiation as a "Cam-Sham" and likened the EU to a "burning building" in a state of political crisis as he called on the British public to make a dash for the exit by voting No in the referendum.

The Press Association reported that the leader of Ukip said: "The more I look at the EU - we've a currency crisis tearing north and south apart, a migrant crisis leading to walls being built in Austria and Hungary - Schengen isn't working, nothing is working.

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"It's in a permanent, perpetual crisis.

"The EU looks like a burning building but there's an exit door, and I suggest on June 23, we take it."

Nigel Farage likened the European Union to a 'burning building'

Speaking ahead of a speech to hundreds of supporters at Wolverhampton race course, Farage also branded the renegotiation deal announced by the Prime Minister as a "Cam-Sham" which would change nothing.

He said: "There was going to be fundamental reform and change, big treaty changes - well, nothing like that has happened."

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Farage added: "It doesn't address the major issues that concern the British public which are; why can't we veto a bad law, why is it costing us over 50 million a day, and why do we have an open door to over 500 million people."

Farage went on: "The European Parliament can water down or even veto the changes to migrant benefits and all the rest of it can be ruled out of court by the European Court of Justice.

"It's not a renegotiation, it's Cam-Sham."

Taking to the stage without notes for the Say No To The EU-branded event, he delivered a speech and answered questions from the floor for almost an hour.

Addressing his appearance on Friday alongside Respect Party leader George Galloway at the anti-EU Grassroots Out event in London, he said he would was happy to make common cause with politicians of any stripe so long as they backed leaving the European Union.

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Earlier, he told reporters: "I would be diametrically opposed to George (Galloway) on a whole host of issues.

"Sometimes in life things come along that are bigger, more fundamental and more important than normal Left/Right divides in politics.

"This question of whether we're a self-governing nation, whether we're a democracy, whether we rule ourselves, make our own decisions in terms of our friends and trade partners in the world, transcends all traditional boundaries."

Farage said Galloway had "a strong voice", particularly with the Muslim community.

The unlikely pact between the two was described as an "unholy alliance" by some, with many.

Galloway's appearance provoked mixed reaction at the rally, with more than 100 people walking out of the room when he took to the stage.

Farage also criticised the "massive policy error in Europe" of allowing thousands of people from Syria and beyond into the EU, saying it would put UK security at risk.

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Farage labelled David Cameron's EU renegotiations as a 'Cam-Sham'

Earlier this week, the head of the EU police agency Europol estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 EU citizens who had received terrorist training in the Middle East may have slipped back into Europe.

Farage, referring to Europol director Rob Wainwright's comments, said: "I've been predicting this since April last year, in speech after speech in the European Parliament.

"The point I kept making is that when Isis say they will use the migrant crisis to flood our continent with people that wish us harm we probably ought to take them seriously.

"Of course I was called a scaremonger but now the boss of Europol tells us that up to 5,000 of these jihadist fighters are in Europe and I cannot think of a louder clarion call signal that says to the British people: 'vote to leave the EU, vote to get back control of our borders'.

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"Because all these people who have gone to Germany and elsewhere will have EU passports within a few years - we need to protect our country."
The Pope has called on Catholic leaders not to allow executions this year and said that he hopes that ultimately the death penalty will be abolished.

Pope Francis urged leaders to show "exemplary" courage in making the decision not to allow executions, saying that "the commandment 'do not kill' holds absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.

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Speaking in St Peters Square in Rome, he added that there is "an ever more widespread opposition in public opinion to the death penalty, even only as an instrument of legitimate social defence."

The Pope said that the commandment 'do not kill' applies to all

"I appeal to the conscience of those who govern so that international consensus is reached for the abolishment of the death penalty," the pope said. "And I propose to all those among them who are Catholic to make a courageous and exemplary gesture: may no execution sentence be carried out in this Holy Year of Mercy."

The Associated Press reported that the Pope is using the Catholic Church's Holy Year, which runs until 20 November to encourage efforts for more reconciliation and mercy in the world."

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In effect, modern societies have the possibility to efficiently repress crime without taking away definitely the possibility to redeem oneself from those who committed" the crime, Francis said.

The Pope said "even criminals hold the inviolable right to life" given by God.

Francis called on all Christians and all those of good will to work not only to abolish capital punishment but also to improve prison conditions.

From the start of his papacy, he has expressed concern that inmates in jails and prisons should be treated with dignity. He has often visited prisons during his trips throughout Italy and abroad, including last week while in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

While the pope insists he doesn't interfere in the political sphere, he has also made clear people must follow what he calls a "well-informed" conscience, and that local bishops can give guidance to Catholics, including voters, on political issues.

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The Queen has discussed her personal faith in the foreword to a new book marking her 90th birthday.

The Press Association reported that, writing in The Servant Queen And The King She Serves, the Queen said: "I have been  and remain  very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for his steadfast love. I have indeed seen his faithfulness."

In her comments, the Queen refers to the changes she has seen in her life, which has made her the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

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The Queen has discussed her faith in the foreword to a new book

"The extent and pace of change has been truly remarkable," she said.

"We have witnessed triumphs and tragedies."

The monarch also took the opportunity to allude to the current problems in the Middle East saying the world is now experiencing "terrible suffering on an unprecedented scale".

The book, published by the Bible Society, churches' group HOPE and LICC (the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity), is being released in April to mark the Queen's 90th birthday.

The Queen has often referred to her Christian faith and holds the title Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

In her Christmas broadcast last year, she spoke of how the nativity story continued to inspire Christians around the world.

She added: Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ's unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's Saturday night at Campania: Phones ring off the hook and diners, waiting patiently to be seated, gather at a packed bar to engage in a pleasant exchange of back and forth banter -- while retro music reverberates in the background.

Restaurateurs John and Joseph LaRocca and Paul Montella (of Nucci's) had just the right idea when they opened Campania Coal-Fired Pizza on the site of former Nove Italian Bistro at Richmond Avenue near Amboy Road in Eltingville.

With the national trend toward upscale, casual dining amid a refined atmosphere, and the demand for more comfort food on the rise, it's easy to see why Campania -- named for the region in Southern Italy -- has been received with open arms.

The menu is also to the point: Classic brick oven pizza in a Woodstone coal-fired pizza oven, with a wide selection of toppings such as sweet sopressata, chicken and everything in between.



Gourmet pies come in a variety of red and white, including Margherita, Lombarda, Ortolano and Puttanesca. Plus, Funghi pie with portobello mushroom and clam pies.



Antipasto appetizers include baked clams, mussels, pot of clams and focaccia, just to mention a few -- in addition to a slew sandwiches, salads and interesting desserts.

So then, here's a quick sampling of how the delightful evening played out to perfection!
A visit from Ross Kemp was a "contributory factor" to the focus of a British crew of an Apache helicopter that crashed almost eight years ago in Afghanistan, according to a report.

The former EastEnders actor was one of a number of visitors to the helicopter on September 4 2008, the report says, according to the Press Association.

The Ministry of Defence board of inquiry found that a major cause of the accident was "disorientation" experienced by the pilot when "he entered a dust cloud during a transition".

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The report said: "In summary, it is clear to the Board that this accident was caused by the disorientation of the HP when conducting a poorly executed transition downwind, with inadequate aircraft performance and engulfed in heavy recirculation.

Ross Kemp was one of a number of visitors to the helicopter

"The Board believes that the crew lacked sufficient experience for the complex, high end, unsupervised operation, had become fatigued and were distracted at a critical juncture."

However, referring to Kemp's visit, it added: "Whilst not a distraction at the time of the accident the Board believes it was a contributory factor to the overall focus of the crew."

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Both crew members - including the pilot - escaped the crash which saw the helicopter lose its tail and suffer severe damage to its rotor blades, with minor injuries.

Following the release of the report, an MoD spokesman said: "Our highly skilled pilots are trained to deal with all kinds of emergency situations and incidents like this are extremely rare.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and Samsung Galaxy S7 have both been unveiled this evening at the Mobile World Congress technology conference.

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Samsung's new smartphones share visual similarities to the S6 but come with a number of new features including water-resistance, a more powerful camera and an always-on display that can show information even when the phone is locked.

Designed to be the 'perfect phone experience' Samsung will be hoping that it's new Galaxy range (traditionally always launched before the iPhone in September) will give the company a strong headstart both against Apple and its own Android rivals in the form of LG, HTC and Sony.

The S7 edge and S7 have both been upgraded based on a 'checklist' which Samsung believes represents what customers want in today's phones.

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With the traditional race for bigger and better now disproved both phones have been designed around solving lifestyle problems.

While both phones have the same 2K resolution screens (5.5-inches for the S7 edge and 5.1 for the S7), Samsung has adapted them to become always-on.

That means that even when the phone has been locked the S7 is able to show information on the screen while using just 1 per cent of battery power every hour.

How do these screens work? Well both phones feature a Super AMOLED display which is essentially a screen with individually lit pixels that can be turned on or off.

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By having that control they can make sure they only turn on the bare minimum of pixels needed to show that information.

While the phones still feature a premium glass back and front, Samsung has made both IP68 water resistant which means they can be submerged in water up to 1.5m for around 60mins.

That very precise number essentially means you can take it pretty much anywhere but don't go scuba diving with it.

Combating the age old problem of battery life (what's the use of taking it anywhere if it then dies before you reach the end of the day?) Samsung has beefed up the batteries in both phones to 3,600mAh on the S7 edge and 3,000mAh on the S7.

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The company claims that'll give you around 13 hours of solid HD viewing, which if true will be an impressive new benchmark for rivals to try and beat.

For those early adopters out there Samsung has included wireless charging on both devices including an updated version of their fast-charging system which will give you well over half of your battery back in the first 10mins of charging.

Then there's the matter of gaming. According to Samsung 85 per cent of all app revenue on the Play Store is from games. The problem with games however is that they're spectacularly good at draining your battery.

From the low-intensity titles like Clash of Clans to the high-end console quality games like Bioshock the simple fact is that they all require huge amounts of processing power which in turn results in two things: a phone that's draining battery life, and a phone that can get extremely hot.

Samsung's approach to this is to take some pointers from the world of high-end PC gaming. Along with their most-powerful processor yet, Samsung have actually installed a water-cooling system into the phone.

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Don't worry there's not water sloshing around inside your phone, the whole system is incredibly small, but it's enough to actually prevent the classic case of 'burnt hand' every time you try and play a game for longer than 30mins.

On top of that there's a new on-screen tool when playing games which allows you to shut down the phone's other applications, saving on precious battery life.

There's also the option of taking screenshots or even recording footage and then sharing it to YouTube or Twitch.

This gaming-focused approach is probably the biggest sign yet that phone manufacturers are starting to see the potential that mobile gaming has when it comes to encroaching on the traditional console gaming sector which already is based heavily on the idea of sharing your accolades on social media or video sites.

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For the photography enthusiasts Samsung has unsurprisingly given the camera a fairly major update. The company's big focus this year is low-light.

As a result the phone now has a 12MP F1.7 lens which for those of you who aren't camera enthusiasts basically means it can let it more light, a lot more light. 95 per cent more.

Along with brighter photos, Samsung's using a dual-pixel sensor which allows the phone to autofocus incredibly fast, in fact in real-world testing the focusing process is so quick you'll never even notice it happened.

Finally, and last but not least Samsung has brought back removable storage. That means that theoretically you'll be able to beef your phone's storage up by an extra 200GB should you have the inclination.

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Jeremy Corbyn has come out in open support of the EU, despite his previous misgivings. Writing in the Guardian, he explained his reasons for supporting the EU as follows.

It's because being part of Europe has brought Britain investment, jobs and protection for workers, consumers and the environment. We are convinced that the EU is a vital framework for European trade and international cooperation in the 21st century, and that a vote to remain in Europe is in the best interests of our people.

It is quite ironic that Corbyn mentions investment, given his previous comments about foreign companies essentially nationalising British industry. What is the difference, for instance, between foreign investment and the purchase of British electricity by the French state? Corbyn was correct with his initial comments: if a foreign company, owned by a foreign state, takes ownership of British industry - or invests sufficiently in British industry - then that is nationalisation by a foreign state. We can forget about the argument from investment then.

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What about the EU's record on jobs? Here there is unambiguous, clear evidence. The EU has been a disaster as far as employment is concerned. One only has to look at Greece, Spain, Italy, or Portugal, to see the results of EU policy. Noam Chomsky, in an interview in 2012, observed that European policy makes "sense only on one assumption: that the goal is to try and undermine and unravel the welfare state." This follows from the fact that in some countries a quarter of the population are unemployed - or half of the youth population. No country can function under those conditions; nor can any welfare state be maintained.

What about the UK? Perhaps the EU got it wrong with Greece, but managed some success with the UK. The difference between Greece and the UK, in this case, is the fact that the EU has no power over the UK. The UK's relative successes are only attributable to the fact that Britain has retained control over its own currency. Greece, on the other hand, must serve the European Central Bank in order to be given scraps from the table. This is because the way the Euro is set up has deprived each member state of any fiscal power. The UK, outside of this EU institution, consequently is at an enormous advantage. The Conservatives have imposed their own austerity, of course, but not because of any inherent property of the pound. Should a progressive government be elected in the UK, full employment would be a real possibility. This is not so should the UK integrate further into the EU, which is the only plausible outcome given current trends.

So that is investment and jobs out. What about protection for workers and consumers? Well, Germany has inflicted massive wage stagnation upon its workforce. This is the only thing Germany can do in order to remain competitive with other EU countries - devaluation of the currency is not an option. As Neil Irwin, in the New York Times wrote, "from 2000 to 2010, after-tax income for people in the middle of the income distribution in Germany increased 1.4 percent. Not per year. Total." Likewise for any other country in the EU that wishes to export goods: the only option is to cut wages. Even more depressingly, there is a serious question to be raised here. Which workers? As already noted, Greece has a quarter of its population out of work, with however many more in precarious and temporary work. What rights have these people been given by the EU? The right to live in poverty.

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No leader can have done more to advance the national interest of their country in Europe than David Cameron has over the past 12 months. Following visits to the capitals of every member state, and gruelling hours of negotiation in Brussels, he has achieved what many believed was impossible. Britain now has the opportunity to create a new relationship with the European Union, giving us a special status enjoyed by no other country.

This new deal marks a clear break with the past, and real change to our membership of the EU. For the first time it is clear in law that we will never be part of economic and political union. Other countries may advance in that direction if they want to, but they can't take Britain with them, or discriminate against us if we refuse to follow. David Cameron has secured protections for the City of London making sure that Europe cannot interfere with the regulation of our financial sector. This is a vital reform, which brings power back home from Brussels, and achieves a positive change in the UK national interest that we had previously been denied.

Outside of the European open borders 'Schengen Area', we can enforce passport checks and controls. Britain will also have new powers to limit the in-work benefit payments to EU citizens coming to the country, which have made doing even low paid jobs here so attractive.

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Looking to the future, we want Britain to continue to be the jobs factory of Europe, the most attractive location for foreign direct investment, and the best place to start and grow a business. Full access to the European Single Market is vital to this, but it is also in our interest to have a voice in how it is run. We want to see the development of the Single Market in services, an area of business where we export more to Europe than we import back. There also needs to be constant pressure for deregulation that enhances greater competition. We can only work to achieve these goals as a member of the European Union. On the outside, we could have access to the European Single Market, but would have no say in how it was run.

The complexities of withdrawing from the Single Market would be enormous. For example, the world famous English shoes manufactured in Northampton are largely made from leather imported from Germany. New English wineries in Kent and Sussex rely on imported vines from Burgundy, and many Ford motor cars imported to the UK from Europe, have engines that were manufactured in Essex. Is it any wonder that businesses want the certainty of Britain remaining as a full members of the European Single Market. Some of the most future- focused businesses are also amongst its biggest supporters. In a recent survey of over 850 tech companies by TechUK, over three- quarters said they thought the UK would lose influence outside, and 71% wanted us to stay in a reformed EU.
The 23 June referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union is a moment that will define the future of our country.

It is a choice not just about our EU membership but our national identity.

Britain itself is on the ballot paper, because a vote to leave the EU will embolden those who seek to break up our United Kingdom. That would be a terrible consequence of Britain leaving the EU.

I say that as someone who is unashamedly patriotic and loves Britain. My frustration though, is that we don't fulfil our potential - that we could do better. Of course we get frustrated with Brussels. Of course the EU needs to be reformed. But leaving is not the answer.

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Anyone who truly understands what patriotism means, knows that it is about our shared national identity, our culture and values.

It is not about wrapping yourself in the Union Jack. It's about standing up for our country: doing the right thing for our people.

We should be proud that here in Britain we combine our patriotism as Brits alongside our distinct national patriotic identities of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

So let us be crystal clear that whilst some who want us to leave the EU are already claiming a monopoly on patriotism, there is a deeply patriotic case for Britain remaining in Europe.

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Because as a country we have always been at our best when we have been outward looking and confident.

This referendum is a test of our national ambition and the extent to which we want to make a contribution to the world.

Do we continue as a country seeking to play a role on the global stage or do we consign ourselves to a bit-part role of an island in the North Atlantic? Like Iceland but with more daylight hours.

Can anyone really say it is patriotic to put our country in a situation where we would have to beg our European neighbours to access their common market while no longer having a say over the rules?

I think it is patriotic to stay in Europe so that the people living in every corner of Britain can benefit from a stronger economy, better jobs and more protection for their rights at work.

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It is patriotic to be part of Europe-wide rules like the European Arrest Warrant that keep our people safe and make sure terrorists and criminals face justice.

And it's patriotic to say that the EU has made a vital contribution to making Western Europe more secure, enjoying its longest period of peace in 2,000 years.

After a scrappy first week-end of campaigning, I want to see an argument for a positive patriotism based on our shared values. That demonstrates beyond doubt that it is in our national interest to remain in a reformed EU.

That says Britain will be a global player instead of pulling up the drawbridge.

The starting gun on this referendum has finally now been fired - it'll no doubt be a long campaign so let us fight it with passion and principle.
As a child, I remember my parents going to evening meetings organised by the British Medical Association (BMA). In medical school, our summer holidays were organised around the location of the annual BMA conference, so that we could travel around places like Brighton and Blackpool while they attended conference sessions. A very different childhood to most, I would guess. I had no real idea about medical politics and my only recollection of such events was being seated in a session that proposed a vote of no confidence for something or the other and I recall fudge being handed round one session as a metaphor for the way in which that situation had been handled by the government.

I experienced a true maelstrom of medical politics, combined with the fact that my parents as treated very much like permanent junior doctors. Both came to England when I was two years old at a time when the government found it difficult to fill medical posts in specialties such as geriatrics and psychiatry. Perhaps it's no surprise that my father was a geriatrician and my mother a psychiatrist. Even less of a surprise that I became an old age psychiatrist with strong feelings about the way that both doctors are treated if they are not at the top table of politics, as most of my parents' consultant colleagues were during their own careers.

Now let's fast forward several decades. After helping to set up a system of national continuing professional development for doctors in non-training grades like my parents, I then took over the role of Chair of my Local Negotiating Committee. Little had changed. I sensed that that there still remained a poor appetite among consultants for medical politics. The perception seemed to be that there was something called the BMA that dealt with terms and conditions of doctors' contracts. Little did they know that for junior doctors, this whole area would turn from a ripple into a tidal wave.

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In 2012 the UK government asked the BMA to begin negotiating a new contract for junior doctors. In July 2013, BMA's UK junior doctors committee agreed to enter formal negotiations that began in October 2013. A year later, contract negotiations stalled as the BMA believed that there were insufficient safeguards for doctors' welfare and patient safety. The BMA submitted evidence to the Doctors Dentists Review body (DDRB), an independent body that makes its recommendations directly to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health. The DDRB undertook a review and provided recommendations for a new contract. Sadly, these recommendations were still not sufficient to be regarded by the BMA as safe to patients or fair to junior doctors. The government did not appear to budge an inch and contract negotiations stalled once again in the Summer of 2015.

In September 2015, the BMA junior doctors committee decided to ballot junior doctor members on support for industrial action. More than 37,000 junior doctors were balloted. On November 19th 2015, the results were announced. More than 99 per cent voted in favour of industrial action short of a strike and 98 per cent for full strike action.

Although direct contract negotiations took place again (this time under the auspices of the Advisory, Council and Arbitration Service (ACAS), the outcome was not better. Two 24 hour strikes have since taken place by junior doctors across England, whilst maintaining emergency cover.

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The system is clearly broken. The current stalemate made me think of the 2007 banking crises, with the current government now propping up an NHS with dwindling resources but peddling the notion that all is well and still trying to expand it. So what's behind the government's intransigence? Well, not surprisingly, it is cut-throat politics at its worst.

In July 2015, the UK Secretary of State for Health delivered a keynote speech to the King's Fund. In it, he stated that "...by the end of this Parliament, we expect the majority of doctors to be on 7 day contracts...". Behind this is a government mandate to deliver 7 day services, at the same time introducing new contracts for junior doctors so that they will not just be covering emergencies, but also routine NHS work at weekends. The plan was that once the contract had been negotiated for junior doctors, consultants would be next in the firing line, so that they would no longer be allowed to opt out of non-emergency work at weekends. The often quoted studies from the government about an excess of weekend deaths that has been used to back up the mandate for a 7 days NHS has finally stumbled and fallen. An internal Department of Health draft report, leaked to a national newspaper this week stated that they "cannot evidence the mechanism by which increased consultant presence and diagnostic tests at weekends will translate into lower mortality and reduced length of stay".

The 'Hunt logic' for the junior doctor contract is clearly flawed. The grand plan to have the same number of junior doctors stretched across 7 days and carrying out both routine and emergency work at no extra cost to the government would challenge even the most liberal economist. Indeed, the BMA itself suggested a cost-neutral solution that would have ensured a smoother contractual ride, but this was again met with smoke and mirrors by the Health Secretary earlier this month.

The fallout from the perceived obfuscation by the government has been without precedent, fuelled by anger over both social media and on radio and television, by both formal and grassroots BMA members expressing their indignation over a contract that is clearly being forced through to meet a mandate that has neither the reasoning nor resources behind it. An online petition for Jeremy Hunt to resume meaningful contract negotiations with the BMA has now gained over 100,000 signatures, with a further petition for vote of No Confidence in Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary attracting over 300,000.

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The government might think that they have called the bluff of the junior doctors by using flawed logic as a defence against as the imposition of a junior doctors contract, but they have been wrong-footed once again. It is estimated that if all 482 junior doctors who applied to work abroad this month alone actually do leave the UK, it will be at a cost of 144 million to the taxpayer.
Britain's last referendum on its membership with the EU was in June 1975. Back then, the country needed Europe. The '75 referendum, as with any vote of political significance, was largely focused on the economy following the UK's dire financial state. The common market shone as an escape from the nation's desperate socio-eco reality and opened up an alluring world of greater business enterprise. Ted Heath, the Conservative Prime Minister, had always been an EU man - critical of Britain's 'special relationship' with the U.S., he instead desired to shape Europe into becoming a third super-power.

The fear among the EU's other member states of Britain leaving Europe in '75 was far from what it is today. With the seventies being as dire as they were financially, Britain was known as the "sick man of Europe", a sidelined country that, stay or go, wouldn't have caused too much chaos among other EU heads. That was America's view of us, looking from the outside in. In 2016, however, the picture is very different. David Cameron was finally granted a reformed EU deal earlier this week largely due to the fact that Europe needs Britain, rather than vice versa. The employment opportunities that bring migrants over to the UK not only help the whole of Europe economically, but also provide a stability that wouldn't be there had Britain not joined the EU. Although Britain's prosperity inevitably means that the nation contributes more generously to the community's budget, the financial benefits end up being spread across Europe as a whole and without that support, other members would suffer.

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Of course, the UK's economy is also a reason why some will choose to vote Out on June 23rd, given that the country finds itself in far better financial circumstances than it did 40 years ago. The argument to protect our boarders, limit migration and curb welfare opportunities to other EU workers has recently gained momentum, not least by some within Cameron's own Cabinet. An "emergency brake" on migrants' in-work benefits for four years when there are "exceptional" levels of migration, and eliminating Britain from the EU's quest for an "ever closer Union" are the key areas that Cameron has negotiated. The full deal may be more than what some expected he'd come back from Brussels with, but for some it's simply not enough.
If any government openly stated it intended to pick upon the weak, the vulnerable, the ill, those dealing with tragedy and anyone unable to speak up for themselves, there would be uproar.

This government does it cynically to throw red meat to those who have concerns over mass immigration, and to distract from the fact that we're doing absolutely nothing about the true issues. It's as disgusting a strategy as it is simple: pick upon people who can't defend themselves and show a severe lack of compassion and simple crass intolerance. Kick a few people out of the UK who should obviously be allowed to stay, and hope that people don't notice that overall immigration figures are at record levels because our government has been too impotent to do anything about it. Make an example of the innocent, and hope that we won't notice the failure to deport those who have abused our hospitality and committed serious crimes - or that we can't because of 'human rights' legislation.

So we have the 92-year-old woman from South Africa, whose family are all in the UK, who has nowhere to go and no-one to care for her if she's sent back to South Africa. That case was taken to court to force her deportation. If it weren't for the public outcry then the government wouldn't have had to back down (and in a case that's dragged on for months, the climbdown actually occurred whilst I was in the middle of writing this article).

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Or what about the Nigerian student who the government wants to get rid of, so that he can die of Hepatitis B in Nigeria rather than survive in the UK - despite the fact that he's contributed massively to the UK whilst here? This vendetta can only be described as pure nastiness.

How about the Canadian woman who cared for and married a motor neurone disease sufferer, who is looking after his three children after his death, who faces deportation? Apart from the obvious trauma it'll cost to the kids, are we really so clueless as to the economic cost of unnecessarily taking three children into foster care? It's hard to imagine a more unthinking decision.

There is absolutely no justification for this - or for a raft of other cases which I could mention. But it's a great dog-whistle way for an exploitative government to try to distract us from what's really going on.

We've had killers given the right to stay in the UK, Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law fighting extradition to face justice in Morocco, a Zimbabwean robber and drug dealer freed to roam the streets and a rapist fighting deportation given extra taxpayers' money because he'd spent his current allocation on cigarettes.

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There are many more of these appalling decisions. Murderers, IRA gunmen and terrorists are being allowed to stay in the UK thanks to the European Convention on Human Rights. We're now being sued by those who aren't even in the United Kingdom, who've crossed safe country after safe country but want to seek asylum in England instead.

Why doesn't Cameron do something about it? Because he knows that in order to be in the European Union, you have to accept the Convention. And he's hell-bent on remaining in the EU, come what may. For the same reason, he won't speak out about mass immigration. He promised before he became PM that he'd bring net immigration down to the tens of thousands; from the European Union alone we've had 183,000 more coming to the UK than leaving in the last year.

The Conservatives' immigration policy is a disaster. But Cameron persists in using dehumanising language about immigrants. The government continues treating people who deserve to be allowed to stay in the UK like dirt. Do they seriously think the British people won't see through their squalid actions? Have they no shame?

Sadly, I think they don't. Uncontrolled mass immigration will continue. It will continue to drive down workers' wages in the UK. They'll continue to try to prove that we're an uncaring, immoral, inhumane nation by exploiting the vulnerable.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been locked in talks this week with other European Union (EU) leaders and officials, aiming to secure a deal on Britain's membership of the EU ahead of his promised referendum on the issue - expected to be on June 23. EU leaders are playing hardball and insisting on a clause that any deal agreed now is final. Even if the British public vote to leave the EU in a few months, it will be impossible to get around the table once again for further talks.

At present, much of the debate around Brexit is largely driven by the question of migration. Angry Brits see that their employment prospects have changed in the past few years, partly because European migration has increased significantly since the EU expanded east in 2004. Migrants are accused both of stealing jobs and migrating primarily to live on the British benefit system.

A key area of negotiation for Cameron is the ability to prevent EU citizens migrating to the UK and claiming local benefits. The exact period he will manage to agree is still unclear, but it looks like he will get an agreement to block all benefit payments until EU citizens have lived in the UK for 4-7 years.

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If Cameron secures this agreement then for a period of several years it will destroy the claim that 'they just come here to claim our benefits' - it would clearly be impossible. However, most research indicates that the vast majority of EU migrants come to the UK to work, therefore it is highly likely that migration will be as high, or higher than before, and the detractors will no longer be able to claim that migrants are scroungers looking for dole money.

The fear that nothing will be achieved on migration by accepting a EU deal is what will drive many to vote for a complete exit from the EU. The 'out' campaign remains highly disorganised, but the clear message that leaving the EU is the only way to fix migration doesn't need a slick media campaign - people who believe this already know how they are going to vote.

The bigger European question is what to do about the refugee crisis, which has not subsided in winter and summer is on the way. Refugees from Syria are mixing with others from North Africa who just want a better life in the EU. Safety, security, education, and an opportunity to work. This is what we all want from the place we live - refugees are just people from another country, not aliens with different values.

What angers me is that the EU refugee problem should be simple to solve, yet it is presented as an issue where only Germany can lead. First consider the rules around refugees arriving in the EU - and we can assume that all 28 EU member states are safe places to find refuge.

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The first nation state where a refugee arrives and is processed is where they stay, according to the present rules. However, this places a huge burden on Mediterranean states such as Italy and Malta.

Should we seriously expect all refugees arriving from boats in the Mediterranean to stay in Italy?

It is no surprise that border agencies ignore many refugees if they continue moving - and sometimes even help them to move on - because once they pass into another EU member state then they are a problem for someone else. The UK media is paranoid that every Syrian refugee is on the way to London because they all want to speak English and claim those fantastic British benefits.

So here is a radical thought. Why don't the EU member states actually work together for once? Why not share the cost of processing them wherever they arrive and then offer a safe new place to live in any one of the 28 member nations based on existing population size - so Germany would be allocated many more refugees than Sweden or Estonia, but it would be based entirely on an even distribution across the union.

Why aren't the leaders working on plans like this? Germany knows that they need migrants because their population is rapidly ageing. Far-sighted leaders might agree with Chancellor Merkel when she claims that Germany can cope. It's not just about coping - European nations need new people.
The military intervention by Russia on the behalf of the Assad regime has led to a rapid reversal in the course of the fighting. Pro-Regime forces have made sizeable gains on the ground and are on the verge of circling Aleppo, Syria's biggest city. The western media has swung from predicting Assad's imminent downfall to predicting an eventual victory for his forces. This swift turnaround in predictions ignores one central point in all foreign military expeditions in the modern era which is summed up in David Petraeus's comment on American policy on that country's occupation of Iraq; "tell me how this ends."

It is entirely feasible and indeed likely that with a combination of indiscriminate Russian air power and foreign Shia troops that pro-regime forces could defeat all the rebels including ISIS and occupy much of the territory lost in the civil war, but maintaining order would entail permanent military occupation as the conflict would undoubtedly shift into one of guerrilla warfare where control of territory is less important than grinding down the occupying army in terms of men, morale and money following Mao Tse Tung's maxim that guerrilla warfare is about "trading space for time". As conflicts from Vietnam and Afghanistan in the Cold War era to our generation's post 9/11 war have shown, winning every engagement is no good if the population is resolutely against you. Sooner or later your bank account or patience runs dry.

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In the context of Syria, there is the added frisson that Assad's indigenous armed forces have been degraded to such an extent that it would be impossible to maintain control over the country without most of the boots on the ground coming from Assad's foreign allies. What would result would be the sectarian repression of Sunni Syrians in their own country by foreign Shia and Christian troops broadcast throughout the Sunni world by Al Jazeera and spreading virally on the internet. It is not an exaggeration that such a scenario would lead Syria being a source of anger among Sunnis equal to the Palestinian situation, perhaps more given the novelty of the event is likely to increase the injustice that young Muslims feel over it.

Short sighted commentators in the West commend Putin's actions in backing Assad in Syria as they believe it will keep us safe from ISIS. If anything it will increase the threat that ISIS poses to us by reinforcing their narrative of a cosmic war between believers and infidels. In their earlier incarnations in the late 2000s, ISIS have had much experience of existing with little to no actual territory controlled, and not only would still be able to organise terrorist outrages in the West but would find that their level of support may rise as they would be able to pose as the only defender of Syrian Muslims, especially if the Russians efforts to destroy the moderate opposition are successful.
The University of Cambridge and Nesta have just published their report on the progress made by the online alternative finance sector during 2015. The report is appropriately entitled 'Pushing Boundaries'.

During 2015, online alternative finance platforms provided 3.2 billion of finance according to the report, with 2.2 billion of this going to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the UK. In 2014, 1.74 billion of finance was provided with 1 billion going to SMEs, so the sector has experienced impressive overall growth of 84 per cent during 2015, with business finance growing by 120 per cent. Indeed, the report estimates that 3.9 per cent of all loans made to SMEs during 2015 came from online lending platforms. This figure rises to 13.9 per cent for small companies with a turnover under 1 million. This is clear evidence that online lending platforms are helping companies to gain much-needed access to finance to allow them to grow and employ more people.

The introduction of the IFISA should allow increased, effective lending

Loans to companies from online platforms amounted to 1.49 billion of the total 2.2 billion of business funding during 2015. Of this, 609 million was lent to the property sector to fund around 600 commercial and residential developments. Enthusiasm for property lending through P2P business platforms is high, with a large proportion of current funding coming from institutional investors. However, the report includes an extract from a study done for alternative-finance media outlet, AltFi, at the end of last year, which states that, "44 per cent of UK retail investors would like to increase their exposure to the property market, not only through owning their own home, but also in other ways, such as investing through peer-to-peer lenders." The introduction of the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) in April of this year should allow retail investors to access this segment of P2P business lending more effectively and platforms involved in property lending believe that the IFISA alone could increase property lending via platforms by 51 per cent during 2016.

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Of the remaining 881 million of business lending in 2015, the report estimates that loans were made to over 10,000 SMEs in the UK. The top industry sectors lent to were manufacturing, engineering, transport, utilities, finance and retail. In terms of geographic location of borrowers, the top region was the West Midlands, followed by London and the South East. Given the prevalence of lending to manufacturing and engineering companies, it is not surprising that the West Midlands was the top region and it is good to see that companies outside the South East are benefiting from the alternative finance revolution.

The UK is one of the most attractive places in the world to start a business

Equity crowdfunding saw very considerable growth during 2015, increasing from 84 million in 2014 to 332 million. Real estate also featured in this segment of the market, accounting for 87 million of equity finance. 245 million of pure venture finance came from online platforms such as Seedrs and Crowdcube during 2015 and the report estimated that they were responsible collectively for 15.6 per cent of all venture funding in the UK. This is an outstanding achievement and makes the UK one of the most attractive countries in the world to start a business.

The UK government's role in encouraging alternative finance should be acknowledged. The regulatory regime is relatively benign for platforms, which was acknowledged by the report, and the existence of schemes like the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Enterprise Investment Scheme have been very helpful to those seeking to raise equity investment because of the generous tax benefits that they afford to investors. In addition, the British Business Bank has lent in excess of 60 million through business lending platforms, which has helped those platforms establish themselves as a real alternative to the banks as lenders to business.

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Bristol, my home for the past year, often feels like a city on the edge: home to Banksy; a past built on the fruits of slavery and tobacco; a melting pot of cultures and creeds. I live on the leftish wing of the city - Bishopston, a middle-class leafy suburb with a green vibe.

I recently saw a screening of This Changes Everything, a film inspired and narrated by Naomi Klein, that apparently 'connects the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there,' and tells us 'that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.' The film invites us to engage with others, by example, to save our lands from destruction by capitalism. Crystal Lameman, from the indigenous Indian Beaver Lake Cree Nation, is leading a struggle to conserve their territory that lies above the largest known reservoir of crude bitumen oil in the world, the Alberta tar sands. Beaver Lake is at tipping point. Crystal says,'This is no longer an "Indian" problem. If you breathe air and drink water, this is about you too."

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The venue, The Cube, the alternative cinema in the so-called People's Republic of Stokes Croft, is sold out and the audience seems to be a mix of young and old middle-class activists.

The film is interesting and its message clear, plausible and provocative, but there is little in the way of nuance and critical informed debate on the issues.

Reflecting on the experience and drawing on what influences me as a writer, I compared how three books read recently had spoken to me of man's tenuous co-existence with nature. The books cover the last 300 years in terms of their content and publication dates but all feel as ecologically relevant today as they were when written.

Gilbert White (1720-1794), a naturalist and Hampshire clergyman, wrote The Natural History of Selborne in 1789, a book that has never been out of print since. Selborne is the quintessential small English village where he lived. He has been called, by journalist Simon Barnes, 'the first ecologist, ethologist and phenologist of our times.' Phenology is the study of recurring seasonal events, a science now critical to the climate change debate. The book records daily events of the natural world in meticulous detail, showing the inter-dependence of plants, birds and animals for perhaps the first time and evidences the previously unknown phenomenon of bird migration. White was ahead of his time in realizing that his little patch of England was, in terms of its natural composition, a single living entity. Charles Darwin was a fan.

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Source: P d Murphy

Virginia Woolf wrote of him in 1939,

'We observe through our field-glasses this very fine specimen of the eighteenth-century clerical naturalist...he escapes from Selborne, from his own age, and comes winging his way to us in the dusk along the hedgerows.'

In Bristol, a small publishing co-operative, Vala, publishes a select handful of books that explore and celebrate the human spirit. Last year it published Spindrift - A Wilderness Pilgrimage at Sea by retired academic Peter Reason.

Reason takes the reader with him on a 'wilderness journey or deep ecology pilgrimage' from his home in England across the Irish Sea. Like White he wants to connect with nature at an elemental level. At one point, sailing through the night, he feels 'a more naked sense of what it is to be a human being.......it is as if a crack in the cosmic egg opens.'

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Finally, I receive a copy of a new book by Laurie Lee, a favourite writer, and in whose footsteps I followed down through Spain on my own journey into unchartered terrain as I researched my book, As I Walked Out Through Spain in Search of Laurie Lee

Village Christmas - And Other Notes on the English Year is a gentle collection of short stories and essays never published before but discovered recently by Lee's daughter Jessy. It recalls life in a small village in the Slad Valley on the edge of the Cotswolds before the advent of the ever-present car. He recalls a childhood December walk, 'pushing the cold before me like a sheet of tin.' On returning home to find the Christmas tree in place, he writes,

' Mother put out the oil lamps one by one, and we stood hushed and entranced together, adoring the tree and its chaste white glare coated all over in frosty fire.'

He then takes us back to an English spring day when

'a barefooted maid could tread on seven daisies at once, and gather up wood sorrel, cranesbill, cuckoo-flowers, scented shaves of wild fruit-blossom.'

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http://www.joewainwright.co.uk/

Lee died in 1997. Last year would have been his centenary and fellow writers gathered at the British Library to pay tribute. We heard Tim Dee talk of Lee's writing being 'soft at the edges' and of his alchemy at conjuring up 'the mists, dews and wateriness of those hard bony Cotswold chalk hills' of his beloved Slad Valley.

We see Lee, like White, conserving and bringing to life his 'little patch' of England for future generations. And yet, in his essay

'The Fight to Save Slad'

, a new radical man emerges. It is a more contemporary piece describing the local campaign to save the Slad Valley from development. It is not quite a Naomi Klein scene of industrial pillaging and Lee is not Crystal from the Cree Nation; indeed some might describe him as a classic middle-class 'nimbyist' but it is a more local example nevertheless of what threatens much of the natural world today. Lee attends a critical planning meeting and lays bare the destructive impact of the development. The valley is saved - for now. As Lee says:
Dear Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP,

I am sure you've heard about the about the crisis facing domestic violence refuges discussed around the Cabinet table. Your colleagues, the home secretary and the secretary of state for communities and local government, have made it a priority to halt the closure of these lifesaving services. Women's Aid is genuinely grateful for what this government has done so far, and we are hoping for more once the new cross-government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy is announced.

Frankly, I cannot believe you genuinely want to undo all the work we and the government have done together to try to put refuges on a more secure footing. I think the disastrous impact the housing benefit cap will have on refuges is unintentional. But, make no mistake, it is dangerous.

Two years ago, refuges were being destroyed by funding cuts - often the first service to be deemed unnecessary by local authorities.

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Women's Aid members - hundreds of domestic abuse services all over the country - asked us to do something before it was too late. So, we launched the 'SOS: Save Our Services' campaign. The government listened: we won 10 million in short-term emergency funding. Nine months later, we partnered with the Sun for the 'Give Me Shelter' campaign to take the refuge issue to a new and powerful audience. This ended in us going to Downing Street to hand in a letter to the chancellor - who listened again. We won a further 3million, and George Osborne released a statement of support. Women's Aid pushed refuges onto the political agenda, and the extra 13million has saved many of these lifesaving services.

But, many refuges are still operating with half the funding they used to have. Thousands of women and children fleeing for their lives every year still need support. We still need a long-term solution, and we hope that the 40million of domestic abuse funding from DCLG will be used to develop a long-term sustainable system.

If you do not exempt refuges from the housing benefit cap, you will destroy all of these good intentions, and the 13million already spent will have been in vain. Whilst Women's Aid and your colleagues have been shoring up the cost of care and support, you will be taking away the funding that covers the rent and living costs in refuges, slicing it from about 300 per room per week to 60-100. You do the maths. Refuges will not survive.

Yes, refuge funding is frustratingly complex. That's not the fault of refuges, who have fought to keep going for decades, pulling together funding from a range of sources. It's why a funding crisis which literally costs women's and children's lives can go unnoticed until people like us start to make a fuss.

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Thank you for all the government has done: emergency funding, investment in earlier support for women and children, a genuine focus on violence against women. Please don't undermine it all. It makes no political sense. And it will cost lives. We need you to tell us, and right now: will refuges be exempt from the housing benefit cap?

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Polly Neate
I feel the need to blame someone for the EU referendum imbroglio, so I'm going to blame Margaret Thatcher. She injected a poison into the Conservative party, and it has now spread to infect the entire body politic.

The poison produces a form of hysteria whenever the words 'Europe' or 'Brussels' are mentioned in the hearing of a Tory MP. That's because many of them are, politically speaking, Thatcher's children - David Cameron was just 12 years old when she was first elected - and they ingested with their mother's milk her deep suspicion of anything that carried with it a whiff of mainland Europe.

Like her, they boast that Britain has always stood alone in Europe, an island apart, stronger and more valiant than the rest of the continent. Look what happened to the Spanish armada, they say. Were we conquered by Napoleon? Or Hitler? Alone in Europe, we did not yield.

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Thatcher spelt it out in her famous Bruges speech in 1988. "Over the centuries we have fought to prevent Europe from falling under the dominance of a single power. We have fought and we have died for her freedom ... Had it not been for that willingness to fight and to die, Europe would have been united long before now--but not in liberty, not in justice."

The countries of mainland Europe, she believed, have never really been Britain's partners; for most of our history, they have been our foes, to be vanquished, not embraced. (The exception is Portugal: the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, signed in 1373, is said to be the oldest alliance in the world still in force.)

Too few MPs of all parties have dared to point out that throughout its history, Britain has fought its wars in alliance with European partners. If it can adopt a pan-European identity in war, can it not also do so in peace? Or was the 1940s US secretary of state Edward Stettinius right when he suggested that the British would always be uncomfortable in any club that they did not lead?

MPs have utterly failed to shape a coherent debate over Europe. They were prepared to move ahead of public opinion on issues such as capital punishment, gay rights and race relations in the 1960s and 70s, but have too often pandered to populism and xenophobia when it comes to the EU. Too much of what many people believe about it is simply wrong. Our politicians, of both major parties, have quaked in Thatcher's shadow for far too long, and now they are reaping the whirlwind.

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Sir Humphrey Appleby neatly defined the Thatcherite approach to Europe in the TV comedy series Yes, Minister, in 1980, just a year after Mrs Thatcher entered Downing Street: "Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last five hundred years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Germans and Italians... Why should we change now, when it's worked so well?"

What Thatcher's children don't seem to have noticed is that this approach is no longer fit for purpose. Of course Britain has a history to be proud of, but the challenges that we face now - global economic fragility, the mass movement of refugees and other migrants, climate change, a resurgent Russia, terrorism, including cyber-terrorism - are not challenges that can be met by Royal Navy gunboats or RAF Spitfires.

Desperate refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria will not stop trying to smuggle themselves into the UK just because we are no longer in the EU; indeed, I would have thought it must be obvious that our chances of finding a solution to the refugee crisis will be much diminished if we turn our backs on the rest of the continent. Do we really not want to be included in Europe's attempts to solve the crisis?

My generation, the post-war baby-boomers, were the first for hundreds of years not to face conscription into the armed forces to fight in a foreign war. Two world wars, fought on the battlefields of Europe as well as in north Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, led directly to a burning determination in France, Germany and the Benelux countries that there had to be a better way. Britain, despite its own grievous losses, thought otherwise: we still had an empire, after all, so why did we need to sign up with a bunch of unreliable Europeans?

So, yes, of course, our history is different. But no, our future cannot be splendid isolationism. The EU is not without fault, God knows, but we are, surely, in the words of the Scottish independence referendum campaigners, Better Together.

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Incidentally, I am indebted to Alex Barker and George Parker of the Financial Times for pointing out that on the issue of child benefit being paid to EU workers whose children have remained in their country of origin, the maximum savings of the proposed reforms would be about 25million, on a par with a recent government grant to fund research on driverless cars. That's how relevant this whole referendum charade has become.

And on the subject of numbers, not that anyone seems much interested in actual facts when it comes to the EU debate, here are a few more for your consideration (they relate to 2014): 85% of EU migrants to the UK have jobs; 32% of the most recent arrivals have university degrees; 37% are classed as managers or professionals. In other words, they are exactly the kind of people whom we should be welcoming to bring extra vitality to our economy and extra taxes to the exchequer.

Surprisingly, given our chronic euro-grumpiness, our EU partners are still keen for us to stay - although I rather liked the front page of the French newspaper Liberation on Thursday: 'If it's yes, fine; if it's no, never mind.' If we do vote to leave, however, it's unlikely that our partners will be so forgiving, because the last thing they want to do for the next five years is get bogged down in endless, tiresome negotiations over their future relationship with the UK. If we think they'll be accommodating, I fear we'll be in for a very rude awakening.
This past week I delivered a cheque to HM Treasury for 50billion.

That's the amount we could add to London's economy if women were able to work the hours they want to, at the same rate of pay as men.

It's a sizeable sum. Indeed, our cheque was so big that passers-by laughed as I and the brilliant women running for WE in the GLA elections carried it up the steps of the government's exchequer.

Sure, it was a fun thing to do. But I'm deadly serious about the opportunity Londoners are missing. And I'm running for Mayor because I want to seize that opportunity to transform the city.

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I know that Londoners themselves are the best resource we have for fixing inequalities in the capital, and making it the world's first gender equal city - I've been out and about meeting them.

I've met young entrepreneurs who are using tech to work flexibly so their staff have a better work/life balance. (The infrastructure they required to enable this took over a year to install - something I'll tackle so London's digital providers are quicker, and more agile.)

We discussed London's big skills shortage and the ways that WE can provide apprenticeships for young people to encourage them into STEM careers and to address the shortfall in young women taking up STEM careers.

I've also been talking to business leaders about addressing the shortfall of women in senior leadership. I've met board members and partners who know not having an equal number of women on boards and executive committees is damaging for their businesses' productivity. We discussed the use of quotas to fix this, and how we can change workplace practices so that everyone feels included.

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I also met senior leaders in the finance and legal sector who are doing great work to put women forward. They told me about their 'path to success' programmes to develop young female talent, and unconscious bias training for senior leaders - a blueprint WE would use across all of London's top firms to make them truly diverse and successful.

London's business leaders and innovators understand that gender equality is not a 'women's issue' but a business imperative. They understand, as one of them put it, that "equality raises your game as an employer." They have read the reports showing that allowing women to achieve their full economic potential would add $28trillion to global GDP and an extra 10% to the UK economy by 2030.

But we have work to do.

London's gender pay gap is 23% - higher that the already unacceptable national average of 15%. While many firms understand the importance of transparency and parent-friendly policies, too many are too slow to implement them. Childcare costs in this city are a third higher than the rest of the UK and only a tiny percentage of fathers are taking up the government's shared parental leave policy because they worry about damage to their careers.

I will tackle unequal pay by working with businesses to introduce transparency and equal parenting leave. I will change the way we work in London by championing companies with equal pay and equal promotion opportunities and flexible working policies. I will help new parents share care by introducing equal parental leave and supporting dads to stay at home if they wish.

I will make childcare affordable and practical. Recently I visited a ground-breaking flexible work hub, where parents do business on the first floor while their children are cared for in the nursery downstairs. London will greatly benefit from more examples of innovative solutions to working parenthood.

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I want to be clear that it's time we empower women to do business on the same terms as men - for the benefit of all of us.
Lisa's Lacies

For years, Melbournes Lisa Medhurst struggled finding lingerie that suited her size 26 body.

"21 years ago, before I started my business, I had just met my now ex-partner and had gone shopping to buy something lovely," Medhurst told The Huffington Post Australia.

"It was a terrible experience and I came home with nothing. I had shop assistants looking me up and down. I had rude comments said to me, and was offered cartoon character t-shirt nighties as that was all that was available in my size. I decided at size 24 that this needed to change and I was the perfect person to change it. Why shouldn't we have lovely lingerie just because we are bigger? Are we not worth it to look pretty or sexy?"

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Fed up with such little choice and by the attitude of sales staff, she took matters into her own hands and began designing her own garments -- creating Lisa's Lacies, a lingerie brand catering up to a size 40.

"It was at a time when all manufacturing of lingerie was just starting to go offshore so companies were selling off their machines and laces via auction. This was great for me, however I could not sew, design, grade patterns -- let alone run a small business. However one thing I do truly believe is that if you are passionate enough about something you can make it work," Medhurst said.

With the average weight of female Australian's being around 70 kilograms, it's fair to say that the barrage of advertising imagery featuring size 8 and 10 models is not a true reflection of the masses. Medhurst recognised this gap in the market two decades ago.

"I decided that Lisa's Lacies would be everything that a plus size lady had missed out on in her life. This was 21 years ago and things were a lot different back then, however ladies size 24 and up are still left out in the cold, so to speak, and so that is why, no matter what your size, we make for you," Medhurst said.

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A Lisa's Lacies campaign shot

Medhurst emphasises that although the industry has come along way in 20 years with a wider range of plus size labels available, still, size 24-40 is grossly neglected.

"We have ladies travel from all over the world to us. Some ladies even cry as they come to the shop as they have never ever seen anything like what we have. I have been awarded around 90 awards over the years, but the best thing, as corny as it sounds, is helping ladies who were like me and couldn't find anything in their size," Medhurst said.

Though Medhurst is aware that there may be some backlash in relation to catering to a size 40 -- a dress size that is indicative of someone whose health is at risk.

"We don't encourage ladies to be size 40. Though, we want the ladies to feel better about themselves in something pretty and hopefully then become healthier as they feel better about themselves."

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"Some people can be extremely cruel, and that can be what keeps some people bigger. Would the critics prefer that the ladies are naked? Where else can they go? It is a sad story and we are just trying to help everyone. If someone was even bigger we would make something lovely for them to feel good in," Medhurst said.
Stefan Postles via Getty Images CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - JULY 15: MInister for Health Peter Dutton during Question Time at Parliament House on July 15, 2014 in Canberra, Australia. A vote on the Government's Carbon Tax Repeal Legislation has been delayed as debate in the Senate continues. (Photo by Stefan Postles/Getty Images)

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has announced that refugee baby Asha and her family have been released into community detention.

Dutton told Channel 9 that Asha had been discharged from Lady Cilento Hospital and moved to a community facility on Monday morning.

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Doctors at the Brisbane hospital had been refusing to release baby Asha until "a suitable home environment was identified with protestors gathering last night following concerns of her imminent deportation.

On Sunday, Dutton said the government remained firm its position to monitor cases on an individual basis, and said the asylum claims for Asha and her family would be subject to normal processing.

The situation (for Asha) is as it has been for many other families. Once the medical assistance has been provided to the patient, the doctors allow the patient to be released and arrangements are made at a detention facility in Australia or in the community," Dutton told reporters in Brisbane.

"This has always been the case and we have made that very clear."

We have an important policy to continue -- that is stopping the boats and making sure we deal with cases compassionately, Dutton said.

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"That's what we have proposed all along but at some point, if people have matters finalised in Australia, they will be returning to Nauru."

The response from the government comes after calls from the Australian Medical Association to release all children from immigration detention.

Speaking at a forum, AMA President Brian Owler warned the removal of baby Asha from the Brisbane hospital would represent a point of no return for the asylum seeker debate.

We have seen from the Australian Human Rights Commission that there is no doubt that having children in detention is harmful, Owler said.

We support the doctors and nurses working in Lady Cilentro. It is an ethical obligation for them to not release baby Asha into a situation where they believe she will be going into harm.

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Met Dr Burridge at #LadyCilento yesterday. "I couldn't bear a child like mine being subjected to abuse & torture"  pic.twitter.com/uGtuY2J8qV  Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) February 20, 2016

The AMA also called for a moratorium on any child being sent back to offshore detention centres and the establishment of a national body of clinical experts to independently review the health care provision of asylum seekers.

Doctors, along with nurses, lawyers and others, must lead debate on an issue of national importance, Owler said.

It's time for all of us to listen to our better selves and say we want the mistreatment of children to stop #healthasylum  AMA President (@amapresident) February 21, 2016

If the Government is providing appropriate care in detention facilities they have nothing to fear from independent oversight #healthasylum  AMA President (@amapresident) February 21, 2016

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Amidst ongoing discussions over the fate of baby Asha, Minister Dutton said the case had been hijacked by refugee advocates, and remains unchanged in his position.

Yes, I do want to be the Minister to make sure that we keep the boats stopped, but I do want to be the Minister that gets children out of detention.
Video by Ryan Diefenbach

A crowd estimated to be 15,000 strong has rallied in Sydney to protest the New South Wales government's controversial lockout laws.

Kicking off at 12.30pm on Sunday, the protesters, undeterred by the rain, made their way from Belmore Park (opposite Central Station) to Hyde Park, where a number of speakers and performers have made an appearance.

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The laws, which came into effect in February 2014 after a spate in fatal one-punch assaults, dictate no bottle shops sales after 10pm, no shots to be served after midnight, no new guests are allowed to enter venues past at 1.30am and no alcoholic drinks to be served after 3am.

Though Premier Mike Baird attributes the laws to a 40 percent drop in assault rates in the CBD, the Australasian Performing Rights Association has estimated a similar drop in live music revenue in Sydney's lockout zone since the lockout was introduced.

The laws have also been attributed to the closure of popular Sydney nightspots Hugo's Lounge in Kings Cross, Flinders Bar at Taylor Square and Q Bar on Oxford Street.

Australian radio host, DJ and music producer, Nina Las Vegas, spoke at the rally on Sunday to highlight the difficulties Australian musicians now face was a result of the laws.

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"My career wouldn't exist today without the nightlife we once proudly enjoyed," Las Vegas said.

"Not so long ago Sydney was vibrant... You could find friends with whom you could share the last dance."

Nina Las Vegas speaks at the Keep Sydney Open rally.

It was a sentiment echoed by protestor Hayley Milano, musician and CEO of Singing Sydney, who stated the lockout laws have made it even more difficult for up and coming talent to find a place to perform.

"Im passionate about it for many reasons, one of those being the fact I own a singing school," Milano told The Huffington Post Australia.

"What opportunities can I provide to up and coming performers and artists? If venues are suffering, it means less work for us and for our students. The whole community is being impacted. I certainly am, as part of the music industry as well as a small business owner.

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"When is enough enough?"

Social media outlets such as Twitter have been flooded with messages of support as the hashtag #KeepSydneyOpen goes viral.

"I don't need to moralised for wanting my city to be alive." Isabella Manfredi from @ThePreatures#keepsydneyopenpic.twitter.com/33lxZbYJKL  Johnny Lieu (@Johnny_Lieu) February 21, 2016

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By all accounts, the rally has been a far cry from the violence which inspired the laws to begin with.

"It's beautiful. No one is fighting or anything," Milano told HuffPost Australia. "It's really calm.

"There's a very positive feeling to the whole thing, though there are a lot of people asking, 'why are we even here? Why are the casinos exempt but we are not?' It's really unfair, if you think about it."
Mired in domestic social issues such as banning beef or purging universities of 'anti-national elements,' India's government seems to have lost focus on the agenda of economic reform promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the time of his election in May 2014. The second budget of the Modi administration, instead of pushing for big reforms chose to act like its predecessor government by moving left: focusing on agriculture, offering few incentives for foreign investment with few measures that would help resolve the structural fiscal challenges.

Modi rose to power promising "minimum government, maximum governance." His image as a business friendly chief minister and his no-nonsense style of functioning created the aura of a new India: an India that would look to the future, not the past, would move towards an open society not paternalistic control and would focus on economic issues above all else.

Eighteen months later, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been unable to legislate any of the key economic reforms it promised to the electorate. An attempt to change the land acquisition process, critical to bolster investment in Indian manufacturing, ended in a fiasco because of opposition from both the ruling party's own members and the opposition in parliament. The government ultimately withdrew the bill.

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Absence of a BJP majority in the Upper House of parliament led to failure of attempts at labor reforms at the federal level. These too are critical if manufacturing is to expand in India. Now chief ministers in BJP-ruled states have been asked to experiment with labor reform, hoping for a best practices model that might take years to unfold.

Another Modi priority should have been ending the practice of retrospective taxation that deterred even Indian corporations from increasing their investments, dating back to the time of the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. While on the campaign trail, Modi termed the practice of imposing tax on past earnings at new rates as a 'breach of faith' and promised early end to such taxation. Not only is the taxation still on the rule books but recently Vodafone, the British multinational telecommunications firm, was recently threatened with seizure of assets if it did not pay $2 billion in taxes imposed retroactively.

The Modi government appears so mired in dealing with religious, cultural and social issues to be able to afford priority to economic ones. A few months after the May 2014 elections there was a rise in attacks on minorities, especially Muslims. Hindu chauvinist organizations close to the ruling party asserted they would seek to convert Muslims back to Hinduism, arguing that even those whose ancestors had converted centuries ago should return to the fold of their ancient faith. The program was called 'ghar wapsi' ('returning home').

These attacks on religious minorities were accompanied by the demand for a ban on cow slaughter and eating of beef, forbidden among some Hindus out of respect for the cow. Numerous incidents of mob-enforced rule led to October 2015 when in a village outside of Delhi, an elderly Muslim gentleman was lynched to death by a mob that wrongly accused the Muslim family of eating beef. They were, in fact, eating mutton.

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Focus on issues like "cow protection" and "ghar wapsi" instead of economy resulted in the BJP's defeat in key state elections in the northern state of Bihar. Success in these elections would have helped the BJP build its strength in the upper house of the Indian parliament and thus push through economic reforms. Instead of the election campaign being focused on the need for economic growth and development, social issues dominated the BJP's campaign, leading to its loss.

In early February 2016 the Modi government held a weeklong event to promote its flagship program "Make in India": an attempt to convince both Indian and foreign corporates to bring state of the art technology and skills to India and manufacture in this country. The attention of both Indians and the world was diverted by student protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a bastion of left wing academia and student activism. The protests were spurred by the controversial arrest of the student union president on grounds of the colonial era law of sedition.

These protests have turned key segments of the Indian intelligentsia against the government and hurt India's image internationally. They have also played into the hands of left-wing protestors, making it difficult to push economic reforms- like the passage of the much needed Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill - in the upcoming critical budget session of the parliament.

The recent budget demonstrates that the message the government has learned is not that it needs to push through critical reforms that would boost India's economy and lead it down the path of faster growth. Instead it appears the Modi government believes it will benefit by going back to the policies of its predecessor Congress-led government, where redistribution was the focus, not growth and development.

India has demographic, economic and strategic potential but the Modi government appears to be losing this unique opportunity by embroiling itself in issues of identity politics. As the world's third largest economy on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, India has been seen as the potential competitor to China for global leadership. In February 2016, India overtook China as the fastest growing economy in the world but that reflected China's problems more than India's achievements. With a GDP of USD $8.7 trillion (PPP basis), a labor force of half a billion and a middle class of over 250 million people, India's economy is predicted to grow at over 7 percent over the next two years. It can grow at double-digit rates if it can repair and rebuild its British era rail, road, and air transport and port infrastructure, improve accessibility to basic amenities like electricity and water and untangle the Gordian knot of its complicated bureaucratic rules and regulations.

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A still from Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare, featuring Samuele Pucillo

Every year, at every festival, there is a film that shuts it down for me. I could happily pack up and go home after viewing it, because I feel I've seen the best.

Last year at Berlinale, it was early on during the second day with Jafar Panahi's Taxi, and this year the revelation came a couple of days into the festival, when I watched Fuocoammare by Gianfranco Rosi. Is it a coincidence that both films went on to win the Golden Bear? Probably not. I think Berlinale is the "A list" festival most in touch with human rights, and even some of the "side" winners, meaning the actors and cinematographers that walked away with Silver Bears for their work this year, have been picked with a socially conscious awareness in mind. For someone like me who covets cinema with a conscience, the festival is a perfect fit. It also doesn't hurt that unorthodox thinking and great Hollywood powers like Darren Aronofsky and Meryl Streep were respectively each president of the jury, at last year and this year's Berlinale. This is the kind of cinema, and the sort of people who can, and will change the world.

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I loved sitting down with Rosi and will publish his full interview in the days to come, but a teaser on how the filmmaker feels can be found in his words, "Italians are doing a lot but it's not enough, this is a crisis that needs to be solved politically. The whole world should be in charge of this." Lets just say I'm proud of my people these days, and more than ever since last night.

Apart from Rosi winning the Golden Bear for Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) a film that beautifully crosses the line between great cinema and groundbreaking documentary, there was a Best Actor Silver Bear awarded to Hedi star Majd Mastoura. Mohamed Ben Attia's Inhebbek Hedi (I Love You Hedi) is another of those important films that can help explain, through metaphors and wonderful performances, the story of Tunisia and the Arab Spring. Don't get me wrong, Hedi, which is produced by the Dardenne brothers, is a love story, an intelligent look at a man who finally comes into his own character, thanks to the women around him, and I can't think of the film without being haunted by the at times a bit old man, at times little boy particular-looking Mastoura. Without him, Ben Attia would never have achieved the perfect film he did, devoid of standards and cliches and always keeping its audience on edge.

In his director's statement, Ben Attia writes, "at that time in Tunisia we were in the midst of our first democratic elections and we were learning to discover ourselves above anything else. Under Ben Ali, political censorship ended up anesthetizing us and eventually made everything around us rotten. Just like Hedi at the beginning of the film, we tried live our lives without asking too many questions." Check another one for a perfect choice by the jury. The film also won the Best First Feature award, a big achievement for the first Arab title in the competition in more than 20 years. Mahbrook!

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In the cinematography department, the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Mark Lee Ping-Bing (known for his stunning photography on In The Mood for Love and The Assassin) for his cinematography on Chang Jiang Tu (Crosscurrent) by Yang Chao, also a stand-alone film, because it is the only Chinese entry in this year's Berlinale Competition. I didn't get a chance to speak with the DP, but rather with his intelligent and wise director Yang Chao, who made a film about the threatened and now increasingly polluted Yangtze and refers to the river as a "she". Soulful and spiritual, the filmmaker draws parallels between the lives of humans, the river and Buddhist sonnets, in a way that leaves the audience breathless.

Among the questions I asked Chao, which looking back seemed to inspire the perfect answers for this wrap-up "Berlinale Diaries", were some on whether Berlin was his first choice as a festival and what the first thoughts were, upon being included into the festival's competition line-up. We spoke through a translator and Chao said that, "maybe it was meant to be because this is a film that has had a very long gestation period, and during that process we thought about certain other film festivals. But we hadn't yet finished the editing. When we had the final cut complete it just happened to be the right time for the Berlinale, so maybe this is meant to be." And what went through his mind, at first? "Wow! (no translation needed), I was honored. I also felt I'd achieved some recognition, particularly because this isn't a conventional Chinese art house picture, so I have a lot of respect for the Berlinale organizers for their eye and for their courage to have picked a film like this."

Finally, there is no cultural event on earth that can survive in my book, and where spectators can thrive, if there isn't nourishment. For the second year in a row, I tasted and savored, and loved cinema even more, because of the wonderful food in Berlin. From warming Thai curry sit-down meals with friends at COA (Cuisines of Asia) in Potsdamer Platz, to the food trucks outside the Berlinale Palast, I was in heaven. In particular, I owe many a hurried yet surprisingly satisfying and joy-on-my-palate meals to the South Indian vegetarian Chutnify truck that each day reinvented dishes featuring pumpkin and broccoli and including the wonder that is Indian cheese paneer. And don't even get me started about their vegan masala chai. It's the stuff this foodie, culture film addict's dreams are made of.

For a complete list of winners at the 66th Berlinale, check out their website.
Throughout my career, I've been intrigued by the way that introducing unexpected comparisons into discussions of China can unsettle entrenched assumptions and stimulate new thinking on familiar topics. I've periodically written journal articles and general interest commentaries in this vein, from an early essay that placed the Chinese Boxers and British Luddites side by side, to a contribution to later ones that argued that Shanghai, more often compared to New York and Paris, was, in some ways, perhaps more like Los Angeles (among American cities) and had a good deal in common with Budapest. Now, for the first time, I have a book about to come out (in digital formats in the United States, though as a tiny paperback in Australia and Asia) that is made up exclusively of short commentaries built around unexpected comparative moves, and which begins with a brief (as everything in the book is brief) explanation of why I am drawn to using "imperfect analogies" in my writing on China. The book, published on February 22, contains the phrase "imperfect analogy," in fact, in its subtitle, as its full name (a long one, especially for a very short book) is Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo. The word "imperfect" is important to have in there, as I am keenly aware that the parallels I draw in chapters that bring together, for example, post-Communist Russia and still-Communist China, the current Chinese author Yu Hua and the long-dead American one Mark Twain, and Xi Jinping and Pope Francis, can only be taken so far. Holes can easily be poked in each comparison, yet, if the commentaries are successful, this will not strip them of their usefulness.

When pulling together that short book, which has chapters linked very loosely to each of the last eight years, I thought it might be my last foray into "imperfect analogies" for some time to come. I was wrong. Since I signed off on the proofs a few months ago, I've already been drawn to the same method of using quirky but I hope revealing juxtapositions twice. First, when writing about the Hong Kong booksellers, I toyed with the value of seeing parallels between the city in question and Berlin. And then, more recently still, I wrote a juxtaposition-focused piece on Xi Jinping, placing him this time not beside a foreign figure but a figure from China's past, Chiang Kai-shek.

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When I wrote a post about the Xi-Chiang comparison for the new social media site Parlio, with a link to that commentary, I got one short and one long commentary questioning the value of placing these two leaders side by side. I responded with a long rejoinder, which I feel might be worth sharing with Huffington Post readers, so I am appending it below, with only small adjustments in the language. It begins with a quote from a book China specialists in particular will find it useful to know about (though it has things to offer World War II buffs as well):

The parallels between the nationalist ideology of [Chiang Kai-shek's] China's Destiny and contemporary CCP rhetoric are striking and more than superficial. Increasingly, the CCP has embraced China's past and encourages the Chinese people to embody traditional values, especially a respect for order. The party condemns the espousal of ideas that it deems foreign and not in accord with China's past and current reality, or at least not with the government's agenda.

Daniel D. Knorr, "Debating China's Destiny," in Joseph W. Esherick and Matthew T. Combs, eds., 1943: China at the Crossroads (Cornell University Press, 2015).

I want to respond here to David Cohen's short, querying comment as well as Kaiser Kuo's long and thoughtful rejoinder to my comparison of Xi and Chiang. I thought it useful, though, to begin with those sentences from 1943: China at the Crossroads as a way of acknowledging that I am by no means the only specialist in Chinese studies who has been struck by the value of seeking parallels to post-Mao texts, events, and personalities in the pre-Mao era of Nationalist Party rule (1927-1949). Well before Knorr wrote the book chapter quoted from above, which ends with reflections on the similarities between the discourse associated with the "China Dream," Xi Jinping's most famous slogan, and the rhetoric of China's Destiny, Chiang Kai-shek's most famous book, scholars ranging from Geremie Barme to Rana Mitter had drawn attention to other kinds of echoes of Nationalist times in the very different China of Deng Xiaoping and his successors.

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I accept most of Cohen and Kuo's points relating to specific contrasts between the two leaders and another point, Kuo, brought up, which is the importance of syncretic traditions throughout Chinese history. Those are among the reasons the analogy need to be seen as an "imperfect" one. Why, then, do I still insist that, despite its flaws, the Xi-Chiang parallel is worth pondering? One reason is that is shakes up problematic assumptions, which is what is often best about imperfect analogies. It has become routine within Chinese studies circles to note continuities across the 1949 divide and to stress, in particular, the similarities as well as differences between the Nationalists and the Communists as ruling parties, but this is not always routine within general interest discussions of China. Thanks partly to the lingering hold of Cold War mindsets and a kind of changeless China Orientalism, there is still often a tendency among those with only a passing interest in Chinese events to assume that the best place to look for precursors for post-Mao developments is either in the Mao years (1949-1976) or back before the 1911 Revolution, that is, in the imperial era.

It seems natural somehow for headline writers to ask if Xi is a new Mao (not a new Generalissimo) and for magazine cover creators to show him clothed in Qing Dynasty robes (not clothing that suggests the Nationalist era), in both cases skipping over the time when a Leninist Party other than the Communist one led by Mao held power. The Nationalist years also get overlooked when Xi's wife Peng Liyuan is described as "China's First First Lady," since there was the least partial precedent of Chiang's wife, Song Meiling. Paul Cohen wrote an important piece back in the late 1980s about the value of thinking of many Chinese leaders, from late Qing to warlord to Nationalist to post-Mao times, as fitting into an ideologically eclectic authoritarian modernizer mold into which Xi could certainly be put, but I don't think this has made the jump to broadly understood conventional wisdom, that is, becoming the the sort of notion with which even general readers, as opposed to China specialists, are readily familiar.

My interest in Nationalist era analogies for recent Chinese events, as well as a sense that parallels to that period can get skipped over too easily, long predates Xi's ascension to power. Specifically, it goes back at least as far as the spring of 1989. In early April of that year, I filed a dissertation on the history of Chinese student activism, and then soon after began watching with first excitement and then eventual dismay the Tiananmen struggle. I was struck, during the weeks before the June 4th Massacre, as I followed the protests and then repression long distance, by how often things were said and done that reminded me strongly of the events I had dealt with in the last main chapter of my thesis: the protests of the Civil War era (1945-1949). Then, too, for example, activists had been furious about the corruption of a ruling party that seemed to have lost touch with its professed ideals.

When history was brought into the discussion of the 1989 protests, however, the tendency was often to bring in other periods instead. The students emphasized legitimating parallels to 1919, for instance, and some wall posters likened Deng Xiaoping to an out of touch Empress Dowager. The government stressed delegitimizing parallels associated with the Red Guards of the 1960s, and some journalists looked back only as far as the Democracy Wall Movement of the early post-Mao era. I knew there was much that was problematic about the Civil War era comparison, but thought there was something to gain by paying attention to it as well as those other times -- and not just because some leaders of the Communist Party in 1989 had been student activists in the 1940s, the decade during which, I am pretty sure, incidentally, the term "democracy wall" was first used, as a term for places where placards calling on the Nationalists, rather than the Communists, to liberalize their political system were placed.

Two other times, pre-Xi, when I thought about Nationalist era parallels were when Jiang Zemin and company launched a patriotic education drive in the 1990s, and when Hu Jintao and company moved to rehabilitate China's best known classical philosopher the following decade. The Nationalists in the 1930s had put a great deal of emphasis on "national humiliation" in the official school curriculum, and Chiang Kai-shek had made Confucian values central to his New Life Campaign.

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On Saturday February 20th, Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni extended his thirty year rule by winning an election marred by vote rigging and political intimidation according to a European Union observer mission. Opposition candidate Kizza Besigye was put under house arrest after the election and was jailed during the campaign.



As a strategic ally, the United States has provided Museveni with $750 million in aid each year and established a Special Forces mission to hunt down Joseph Kony in Sudan. During the 1990s, Bill Clinton heralded Museveni with his counterpart Paul Kagame of Rwanda as the "new face of democracy" in Africa. Both leaders remain in power two decades later and have presided over repressive police-states. In the late 1990s, they invaded the Congo to plunder its resources, resulting in the deaths of millions of people.



Museveni came to power in 1986 after leading rebel forces against Idi Amin. He started out as a Marxist-Leninist though came to embrace a neo-liberal economic model, becoming a darling of the International Monetary Fund and Western donor community. Museveni has been especially valued by the U.S. for helping to counter China's growing influence in Africa and for aiding in the fight against terrorism. He also allowed the CIA to establish a major African electronic listening post in Kampala.



Though he has presided over considerable economic growth, Museveni as Olive Kobusingye documents in her 2010 book, The Correct Line? Uganda under Museveni, has incarcerated more journalists than those detained in all of Uganda's previous regimes, has overseen numerous deaths in custody and has established an elaborate system of illegal and punitive detention without trial. Kobusingye notes that "Museveni's revolution has devoured so many of its own children." The regime has sustained its system of patronage in part through participation in the invasion of Congo, where Ugandan soldiers looted some $10 worth of timber, elephant tusks, gold and other minerals according to Helen Epstein in the New York Review of Books.



The Ugandan military has also committed myriad atrocities against the Acholi people who were punished for supporting the previous regime of Milton Obote. As historian Adam Branch chronicles in Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda, forced displacement resulted in the growth of an anti-government insurgency led first by religious prophetess Alice Lakwena and then by Kony, with the Acholi subjected to reprisal attacks by home guard units reminiscent of the Vietnam War.

According to Branch, however brutal he may have been, Museveni maintained the war against Kony for years primarily to keep a crisis environment that enabled it "to justify measures that would be unacceptable in different circumstances," and allow the government to "silence political dissidents, including vocal members of the Acholi population in parliament accused of being 'friends of the terrorists.'" The war also enabled Museveni to maintain the large amounts of foreign military aid and to legitimize heavy military expenditures to the neglect of needed social reforms.

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The Obama administration's continued support for the Museveni government underscores the double standards at the heart of American foreign policy in Africa. Obama and his then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton promoted military strikes to foster "democratic regime change" in Libya for example, while sustaining dictatorships elsewhere.

Mainstream media such as the New York Times it should be noted have often failed to point out the contradictions, accepting rhetoric about democratization without subjecting U.S. policy to serious scrutiny.

On February 18, 2016, The Times published an article by Jeffrey Gettleman entitled "Uganda moves Toward Dictatorship Light' Amid Election," which highlighted many of the positive aspects of Museveni's rule and emphasized that he was "still genuinely popular though repressive." Similar kid gloves treatment has been evident with other American backed dictators like Paul Kagame, for example, who was long heralded in the press for engendering an economic miracle in Rwanda, with the dark side of his rule almost entirely ignored.

Prior to his overthrow in 2011, Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi by contrast, who had opposed the giant U.S. military base AFRICOM and moved to renationalize portions of Libya's oil sector, was frequently painted in the worst light by The Times and other dominant news sources. He was never referred to as "genuinely popular" or a "dictator lite," though Qaddafi had used the country's oil wealth to help sustain the highest living standard for Libya's people in Africa and to support the African Union.

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Bernie Sanders has emerged this election cycle as the main political contender speaking out against corruption and hypocrisy in government. His rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Hilary Clinton, along with her husband Bill, are central figures in upholding a U.S. foreign policy in Africa marred by blatant double-standards and injustice. Bernie should cast attention on this as he has done with the Clinton's ill-fated support for the war in Iraq. He should in turn more clearly lay out for the public an alternative foreign policy in which military aid to repressive governments like Museveni is cut and the rhetoric of democracy promotion is matched with reality on the ground.
COLUMBIA, SC - FEBRUARY 20: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is joined by his wife Heidi and daughter Catherine on stage during a primary night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds February 20, 2016 in Columbia, South Carolina. Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are locked in a tight race for finishing second in the South Carolina GOP primary. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The day after he won the South Carolina primary, Donald Trump was a gracious victor. "Look, I'm dealing with very, very talented people, smart people, good people and you know, I think they'll be competing," he said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. But in an appearance on ABC's This Week, Trump disparaged Senator Ted Cruz's campaign. "I said to myself, wow, this is a tough business," he asserted, "These people are worse than Manhattan real estate developers."

For his part, Cruz, the third place finisher, said he was the victim of character attacks. "There's no doubt that both Donald and Marco (Rubio) got very personal, got very nasty," he charged on Face the Nation. "They scream liar, liar, liar. They impugn your integrity... and from the beginning of this campaign, nearly a year now, I have consistently refused to respond in kind," he continued.

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But the Cruz campaign may have taken politics to a new low this election. His campaign team spread word, just as the Iowa Caucuses were beginning, that candidate Ben Carson was going to drop out of the race. Cruz disingenuously blamed the incident on a CNN report, but Carson called on him to fire his campaign staffers who were responsible for the misinformation. Of course, Cruz did not do so, but he did win the Iowa Caucus.

A strong finish for Cruz in South Carolina was critical to his nomination strategy. However, leading up to the contest, Trump led in the polls and Senator Marco Rubio was gaining momentum. The Cruz campaign pulled out all the stops. South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy accused the Cruz super PAC of creating a fake Facebook page that made it appear Gowdy had retracted his Rubio endorsement. Further, Rubio's campaign accused Cruz's operatives on Saturday of robocalling voters that Rubio was dropping out. However, this claim has not been confirmed.

The Cruz campaign did put out mailers, with a picture joining Rubio and President Obama's face as one, saying they both support trade legislation. And Cruz accused Rubio of employing aides who are supportive of gay marriage in order to draw the ire of conservatives. Nonetheless, Rubio eked out a second place finish Saturday.

Cruz campaign also attacked frontrunner Donald Trump. The Cruz PAC assailed Trump for supporting the removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina state grounds. They sent out a robocall charging Trump was too supportive of LGBT rights. In the call, the narrator says, "It's about mandatory celebration. It's about forcing people to bake cakes and photograph gay weddings. Forcing clergy to officiate. It's about transgender bathrooms in your child's schools. It's about tearing down our Judeo-Christian values. It's about tearing down America."

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Cruz has attacked Trump on the campaign trail for supporting Obamacare, even though Trump has consistently vowed to repeal and replace the law. And Cruz attacked Trump for supporting Planned Parenthood, a favorite target of conservatives. Trump explained his position in the last Republican debate. "It does wonderful things, but not as relates to abortion." He added, "There are wonderful things having to do with women's health."

According to the South Carolina exit polls, Trump won 78 percent of those voters who chose a candidate who "tells it like it is." Trump also won a plurality of the evangelical vote, a category Cruz was expected to win.

Cruz took the high road Sunday morning when reacting to his disappointing third place finish in South Carolina. "I'm not going to impugn anyone's integrity. I'm not going to attack their character," he said on Face the Nation. "And, in fact, I will happily praise both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio as men who I admire, as people who I am not going to go personal with."
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)aIn the strongest sign to date that he intends to seek the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has officially resigned his position as George W. Bushas brother.aNo longer being related to his brother is a key step to clearing Jebas path to the nomination,a an aide said on New Yearas Day. aWe expect his poll numbers to soar on this.aAccording to the aide, the former Florida governor resigned his post as brother in a ten-minute phone call with George W. Bush, after which he blocked the former Presidentas phone number and e-mail address.In an official statement, George W. Bush said that he aunderstands and supportsa his former brotheras decision.aIf I were him, I would no longer be related to me either,a he said.

Only a few months ago, CNN touted a poll showing George W. Bush's popularity exceeded Barack Obama's. But you wouldn't know that on February 20, 2016, as Hillary Clinton engineered a great comeback by linking herself to Obama, while Jeb's campaign flopped as he joined himself at his brother's hip. Only Hillary is still in the race now.

Though Jeb Bush didn't always campaign next to George W. Bush, the former president was never far from his brother during the campaign. One of Bush's campaign spokesmen, who once worked for ex-House Speaker John Boehner, touted Dubbya's approval rating among Republicans at 77 percent. "He kept us safe," Jeb would often say when asked about his brother, or terrorism, at debates.

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If that's true, then either: (a) Jeb Bush is the worst candidate in the history of American elections, or (b) George W. Bush's numbers weren't so great. It's probably some of both. That's because Jeb got nowhere near 77 percent in state. He was lucky to get more than 10 percent, if he ever did. Those "Miss Me?" signs with Dubbya's face really aren't a big seller for someone who left office with a 22 percent approval rating, still better than Jeb's numbers in the primary.

These days, President George W. Bush draws interesting art, goes to Selma, Alabama for a civil rights march and helps Bill Clinton raise money for good causes. His numbers haven't been so bad, because he's not really involved in government. However, when push comes to shove, even Republicans clearly cringe at the thought of another Bush in the White House.

Regardless of whether or not you like George W. Bush, "He kept us safe," is a factually incorrect statement. Whether you completely blame Bush for 9/11, the Hurricane Katrina, the intelligence findings and the invasion of Iraq, it clearly was anything but a safe eight years. Donald Trump simply reminded GOP voters what the rest us knew, and was unafraid to publicly point out each of George W. Bush's significant errors. And Jeb subsequently suspended his campaign.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton found herself reeling from a big loss in New Hampshire after the narrowest of victories in Iowa. At the next debate, with Sanders having all the momentum, Hillary Clinton pointed out her support for Barack Obama, and how her opponent was less than supportive of the president.

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Sanders backpedaled, angrily denying the charges. But his written foreword of Bill Press' book critical of Barack Obama, and revelations that he was open to a primary competitor to Obama in 2012 undermined his argument. Saying that Hillary Clinton opposed Obama in 2008 was an ineffective response, given her loyal service to the president as Secretary of State. Now she appears to have pulled out another win in a caucus, a format where she doesn't thrive, in another neutral region. Sanders can only point to a win in a state next to his home state.



A second look at the June 2015 CNN poll reveals that Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush had the highest approval ratings (at 64 percent), along with Jimmy Carter (56 percent approval), and George W. Bush sporting the lowest approval rating of a living ex-president (52 percent). Jeb's embrace of his brother cost him dearly, while Hillary's support of Obama helped her campaign recover. Such a move will likely demonstrate Democratic unity, while it's back to the drawing board, or painting easel, for ex-President George W. Bush.
Gwen Ifill of the PBS News Hour concluded that this was a real test of privacy versus security during a recent conversation about Apple Computers' decision to reject a federal court order to unlock a cell phone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino attackers. No, said Nate Cardozo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "This is about security versus surveillance."

The News Hour conversation ended, but the issues raised by Ms. Ifill's characterization of the controversy is enormous.

Unfortunately, this is not unlike most reports. The next day, the New York Times reported that according to Alex Abdo, staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberty Union's privacy and technology section, "Apple deserves praise" for its decision; and, as pointed out by the Times, "Privacy advocates and others said they worried that if the F.B.I. succeeded in getting access to the software overriding Apple's encryption, it would create easy access for the government in many future investigations."

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But is this so much about privacy as it is about all the rights we think we have under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which provides citizens are "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures"?

There is no doubt that loss of personal privacy in the age of "Big Data," where marketers collect rearms of personal information from Facebook, Twitter, shopping web sites and even email to target potential buyers, is a huge concern. Hackers, who steal millions of social security numbers from banks, credit card numbers from retail chains and other personal information from insurance companies, is also most troubling.

But governments around the world also want to use surveillance to find dissenters to sitting governments, oust those whose religious belief system may not be popular or allowed, or simply to contain potential -- often unfounded -- protest. Government's interest in data -- in information of all kinds -- is well known.

Just a few years ago, according to the ACLU, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy conceded that it may have violated federal privacy guidelines by using devices used by a data collection firm called DoubleClick to monitor traffic on its Internet sites for children and parents. The White House office which operates two anti-drug Web sites, one for children and another for parents, was spending over $130 million to advertise anti-drug use, with $12 million designated to direct users to Internet sites. But when users click to reach the Drug Control office, cookies are installed. The office also made deals with search engines so that computer users who searched the Internet using key words and phrases like "pot" or "weed," would automatically receive anti-drug advertisements on their computer screens and be invited to the Drug Control Web sites.

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However well intentioned, this example is but one in a long history of abuses by government to track citizens' behaviors. According to the ACLU and other libertarian groups, there are still significant flaws in the Patriot Act that threaten fundamental freedoms by giving the government the power -- without probable cause -- to access medical records, tax records, information about the books you buy or borrow and the power to break into your home and conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks, months or indefinitely.

There is no doubt that the privacy rights of our citizens have taken a back seat to the fight against terror. The fight against terror justifies such powers, it has been argued, although the executive duty to seek court approval -- before or within 72 hours after wiretaps for example -- has only been recently resolved. Or so it has been said.

The House and Senate were right to extend the act. But must we wait four more years to determine the effectiveness of the acts various provisions? The threat of terrorism notwithstanding, the threat of government abuse is very real and growing.

As we rush headlong into a new but uncertain age, it is becoming increasingly clear that in our zeal to promote the marvels of the Internet, we may be seriously eroding the fundamental rights of the average citizen and consumer. Freedoms that Americans have so long cherished and expected are being undermined everyday not only by both Internet entrepreneurs and global corporations, but also sadly by our own government.

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At stake are much more than merely occasional abuses of our more traditional concept of privacy, i.e. the right to protect confidential personal information from disclosure. Rather our more fundamental, constitutional right to be left alone -- the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness without unwarranted scrutiny, physical or electronic invasion, is being assaulted by the proliferation of surreptitious data gathering on the Internet.
Hunter S. Thompson famously chronicled life on the campaign trial. Perhaps there is nothing left to say. But perhaps it's worth a reminder of what life on a campaign is like. It's easy to forget the humanity behind the messaging.

A quarter century ago, I worked in politics. I worked one election cycle, six campaigns. I won twice, lost twice and was fired twice. I was a deputy political director on a presidential bid, a finance director on a Congressional race, campaign manager of a state representative race and had vague job credentials on the other three. My maximum salary was $1,200 a month. I was grateful to be paid; almost no one else was.

About once a month, I would wrap everything I owned in green garbage bags and throw them into the back of my base model pick-up truck, one with no air conditioning, a manual transmission and hand-cranked windows, and move. Washington, D.C. Lynchburg, VA. Washington, D.C. Roanoke, VA. Washington, D.C. St. Petersburg, FL (where I moved three times) and back to Washington. And a brief foray into Northern Virginia. Ten moves in ten months.



It was equally exhilarating and debilitating.

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On the exhilarating side, I met everybody. I shook hands with every presidential candidate, Clinton, Harkin and Brown. Bob Kerrey bought me a Big Mac after I watched, mostly alone, the chilling image of this Medal of Honor winner walk through a veteran's cemetery on a gray Veterans' Day. I met all of the huge personalities of the day: Jesse Jackson, Jack Germond, everyone. I got a hug from Paul Tsongas. I almost (but thankfully did not) knock down Coretta Scott King when she bustled from her car as I obliviously tromped down the sidewalk. A second tier, but serious, regional newspaper ran a front page story about my adventures. It was heady stuff for a 22-year-old.

But the flip side was worse than the upside was rewarding. Perhaps it's no surprise that I now do cost-benefit analysis for a living. I'm still chewing on the calculus of a high-profile life.

I would wake up at nine in the morning, start work with a conference call at 10, work in the office until 5 or so, run from the call center to campaign events in the evening, try and catch up on paper work at night, and sit on a two hour wrap conference call that generally started at midnight, and went to 2 AM or later. There would be follow-up work and a vague attempt at sleep. Saturday was our respite. Generally we shut down the call center at 7 PM or so and didn't report for work until noon on Sunday. That was our off day. This went on for almost a year. Nobody's shooting at you, but it is war.

I've heard candidate's say jaw-dropping things in private. I've been berated by family for associating with candidates they despised. I was subject to very public and profane tirades for being eight minutes late early morning meetings after two hours of sleep.

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The Jack Germond story sums up the pearls and perils of campaign life. After a momentous Florida event, we took the presidential candidate to the airport, and Jack Germond, a lion of journalism and then a stalwart on The McLaughlin Group, happened to be on our airport shuttle. My boss told me to chat him up and keep him away from the candidate. I did that. I have no idea what I was saying. I was so engrossed in talking to the Jack Germond, one on one, think about being a recent college graduate talking with Bill O'Reilly or Rachel Maddow, that moments passed before I realized the entire senior staff was making throat-slicing gestures from the other end of the tram to tell me to shut up. I was told later that I was to be fired on the spot.

In campaign land, every day is critical to the tournament: split second decisions determine who survives and advances.

I've seen former colleagues exit Air Force One with the president, and still see people I know on the cable news circuit. I am happy for them. But, I realized eventually that their business, and my former business, was really marketing. Branding and messaging. Lifting up, accelerating, scaling and leaning in. There is nothing ignominious about marketing, but that was not my life goal. So I walked away.
On February 19, 1942, then President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the U.S. government to forcibly remove thousands of American citizens who lived on the Pacific Coast and relocate them to concentration camps located inland in remote parts of Arizona, California, Idaho, and other states in the West. More than 120,000 people were relocated to these concentration camps and many lost their businesses, homes and assets in addition to their freedom.

The incarcerated were forced to live in barracks-style buildings in camps surrounded by high fences. Families ate together at communal dining halls and children attended schools with few windows in blistering heat and teacher student ratio of 48:1. And on top of these conditions, the U.S. government hoped that the imprisoned could make the camps self-sufficient by farming to produce their own food, although the soil was not generally good for farming.

What was the crime these people committed? The only thing they had done "wrong" was being of Japanese ancestry at the time when World War II began. The vast majority of those incarcerated were American citizens who were solid members of the community and loyal to their country. They had successful businesses, worked at farming, and valued education. In fact, despite their imprisonment, some of the incarcerated volunteered for military service in one of two all-Nisei army regiments and went on to distinguish themselves in battle.

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One of the many examples in American history of a failure to respect civil liberties and cultural differences among immigrants and their descendants, the Japanese internment should give us pause when we hear right-wing politicians argue for preventing Muslims from entering the country, building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, or claiming that Muslim immigration is an attempt to destroy Christianity.

For all of the claims that America stands for liberty and freedom, we live in a society that has routinely found reasons to trample civil rights and disrespect those who are perceived by those in power, or those who want to be in power, as different. Slavery and the treatment of Native Americans are the obvious examples, but there are many more throughout American history.

In the 19th Century Irish Catholics were marginalized in American society and discriminated against in hiring, when help wanted signs often had "Irish need not apply" written on them. And in the later part of the century there was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that prohibited all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S.

The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the population from that country already living in the U.S. as of in 1890 Census. This law was aimed at restricting immigration of southern and eastern Europeans, but also banned the immigration of Arabs and Asians in order to preserve American racial homogeneity.

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Racial and religious differences have often been at the center of discrimination against both immigrants and American citizens who are descendants of recent immigrants. And the argument usually goes that such people represent some sort of danger to the American way of life, threaten national security or undermine Christian morality (despite the fact that the U.S. is not a Christian nation, nor were many of the authors of its Constitution Christians).

So when you see those on the right claiming that we need to do something about Muslims, Mexicans or whatever other group they don't like, keep in mind those Americans of Japanese descent who were imprisoned simply for looking like Japanese people. They were not Japanese. They were Americans, and many of them -- more than 30,000 -- served loyally in the U.S. military with over 800 killed in combat during World War II.
Kurdish YPG Militia in Kobani

Syria's Kurds are on a roll. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a loose coalition consisting primarily of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), and an assortment of Sunni Arab, Turkmen, Yazidi and Assyrian ethnic militias are steadily expanding west of the Euphrates River. In the last several weeks the SDF has taken control of the Menagh Air Base and several key villages to the north and west of Aleppo. More importantly, it is closing in on its long sought goal of uniting the Kurdish majority canton of Afrin in the west with the rest of the Kurdish controlled areas of northern Syria.

The village of Tal Rifaat (Arpad), 24 miles north of Aleppo, is now held by the SDF. Tal Rifaat is only 28 miles from the town of Afrin. That town is on the border of the Kurdish controlled canton of the same name. The two villages are less than an hour's distant on Highway 62, which connects them. As the crow flies, they are only 15 miles apart. On Feb 15, the town of Kafr Naya, five miles southwest of Tal Rifaat, also fell to the SDF.

In the meantime the SDF has cutoff Islamic State (IS) forces in Raqqa from the M 4 highway to the Turkish border; their primary supply line for smuggling and bringing in new jihadist recruits. They are closing in on the outskirts of the ISIS held towns of Manbij and Al Bab. The former has been a key logistical center for ISIS and was the center of its antiquities smuggling operation. Control of Manbij would also cut off IS forces in Raqqa from Islamic State territory in the northwest.

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They are also closing in on the town of Azaz even further to the northwest of Aleppo. That town was a key transit route for Turkish aid to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo until it was taken over by Syrian military forces earlier in February. In total, the SDF has seized control of a broad swath of territory from the Iraqi frontier to the zone immediately to the west of the Euphrates River. This region includes the cantons of Kobani and Jazeera. The SDF may be on the verge of taking control of the northern tier of Syria from Iraq almost to the Mediterranean. Kurdish/SDF militias claim they already control an area three times the size of Lebanon.

The success of the SDF has prompted the Turkish Government to launch attacks against SDF forces in Syria; principally using T-155 long-range artillery along the Syrian-Turkish border to shell SDF positions near the Syrian town of Azaz. Turkey has also begun preparations to launch a ground invasion with the dual objectives of seizing the remaining territory between Afrin canton and the SDF forces advancing from the east, as well as coming to the aid of the besieged Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo.

In the meantime, Russia has firmly aligned itself with the Kurdish YPG and the SDF. In recent weeks the Kremlin has hinted that it would support Kurdish plans to organize the autonomous state of Rojava (Western Kurdistan). Russia has also insisted that, against Turkish opposition, the Kurds be included in the Geneva talks. Russian air forces in Syria have also been providing air support for SDF forces, although the extent of that support is unclear.

Disposition of military forces in the Syrian Civil War as of February 16, 2016

Russia's support of Syria's Kurds has opened up yet another fault line in the Byzantine politics of the Syrian Civil War. While that fault line is not a particularly new one, the advance of the Kurdish led SDF along the Syrian-Turkish border, and the possibility of a Turkish ground invasion in response, has intensified it, threatening to spill the Turkish-Kurdish conflict in Syria into Turkey itself and risks reigniting the long simmering civil war in Turkey between the Turkish government and its ethnic Kurdish citizens. It has also raised the prospect of a direct military clash between Turkish troops and Russian air power.

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From Washington's standpoint, the continuing conflict between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds has vastly complicated its campaign to roll back the Islamic State in Syria. Increasingly, both parties are pressuring the U.S. to pick sides--a no win situation for Washington.

Initially, Turkish support for U.S. military operations against the Islamic State in Syria was predicated on an American promise that Washington would not support the Syrian Kurds or their attempts to carve out an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Syria. American efforts were, in fact, originally focused on supporting the Free Syrian Army and those Islamist and rebel groups that the U.S. had identified as being "moderates." That program failed, despite the expenditure of over $500 million, to train an effective ground force which Washington could support.

That orientation changed in late 2014, when Washington deployed U.S. air power to assist Kurdish YPG and FSA forces to resist the siege of Kobani by IS militants. Since then, the YPG, and subsequently the Kurdish organized SDF, supported by U.S. air power, has emerged as an effective ground force in the battle to roll back the Islamic State.

Despite Turkish pressure, the U.S. has been unwilling to sever its ties with the SDF and the YPG, seeing them as the only effective ground force with which to combat Islamic State in Syria. The U.S did briefly bow to Ankara's demands and suspended air support for the SDF when it crossed the Euphrates and began its attack on the Syrian border city of Jarabulus in December 2015. Air support has since been restored.

On the other hand, Washington needs Ankara's support, and the continued use of the Incirlik Air Base, for its military operations in Syria. Turkey's status as a member of NATO, and its key role in trying to stem the floodtide of Syrian refugees into Europe, further complicates the situation.

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Although the SDF alone is likely both incapable and unwilling to entirely roll back the Islamic State, and even though its operations in predominantly Sunni Arab areas of Syria will cause renewed frictions between the Kurdish dominated SDF and Syrian Arabs, it can play a major role in seizing control of the border areas along the Syrian-Turkish frontier. Doing so would cut off IS from its supply lines and smuggling routes into Turkey and significantly weakening the Islamic State's ability to wage war.

Kurdish regions in the Middle East

This region, an area with a predominant, although not exclusively, Kurdish population, could, however, form the core of an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria. Syrian and Turkish Kurds have already demanded that the international community recognize this region as the autonomous state of Rojava, or Western Kurdistan in the Kurdish language. The designation "western" differentiates it from the semi-autonomous Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq.

For Turkey an autonomous Kurdish state along its southern border is anathema. Ankara fears that such a state would intensify the efforts by Turkey's own Kurdish population for a semi-autonomous state within Turkey itself. This effort was the subject of a long running civil war between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK led a long-running campaign of domestic violence against the Turkish government and military from 1978 to the present. Despite a number of cease fires, the most recent in 2013, the conflict has continued and since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria has intensified dramatically.

The historic conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in casualties of around 30,000 dead or wounded combatants as well as civilian casualties in excess of 36,000 people. In addition, the PKK claims that the Turkish government has destroyed approximately 2,400 Kurdish villages and approximately three million Turkish Kurds have been displaced.

Independent estimates of the casualties are much higher, with claims that more than 18,000 Kurds have been executed by Turkish authorities, in addition to the ones killed in the fighting, and that a further 17,000 Kurds are missing and unaccounted for. In addition, Turkish Hezbollah, a mainly Turkish Sunni Islamist militant organization, has been waging a war against both the PKK and the Turkish government in the same region. The actual number of casualties is unclear and may never be known.

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Proposed autonomous Kurdish state in the Treaty of Sevres

Turkey's objectives in the Syrian Civil War are, in order of priority, to prevent the formation of an autonomous Kurdish state along its southern border, to overthrow the Assad regime and replace it with a Sunni dominated government, and to defeat the Islamic State. On the latter point, Ankara has been somewhat ambivalent and has been willing to support the Islamic State and to allow IS supporters to transit Turkey to reach IS controlled regions of Syria, while turning a blind eye to the involvement of Turkish companies in participating in the smuggling of oil and antiquities from Islamic State controlled regions of Syria when such actions advanced its first two goals.

U.S Special Forces operating in Syria have obtained considerable evidence of widespread Turkish involvement in support of Islamic State. The most recent, well publicized example, resulted from a raid on the compound of the Islamic State's finance chief, Abu Sayyaf, in May 2015. The raid led to the death of Sayyaf, the capture of his wife, Umm Sayyaf, and the recovery of a cache of documents and computers which, according to intelligence sources, indicate that the Turkish Intelligence Agency, MIT, was fully aware of the Islamic State's smuggling operations, the Turkish companies participating and may even have facilitated the smuggling.

The historic Kurdish region covers northern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, with some spillover into northwestern Iran and the southern Caucasus. In the subsequent reorganization of the former Middle East territories of the Ottoman Empire that followed the end of World War I, there was even some discussion of creating a Kurdish state.

The Treaty of Sevres which brought an end to hostilities with the Ottoman Empire and which subsequently dissolved it had stipulated the organization of an autonomous Kurdistan region. This region only included Kurds living in Turkish Anatolia however and did not include Kurds living in the French and English mandate territories of Syria and Iraq. That treaty was never implemented however and was subsequently replaced with the 1924 Treaty of Lausanne. The Lausanne treaty dropped any reference to an autonomous Kurdish state.

Although the Kurds living in this historic Kurdish region share a common language, culture and ethnicity, it would be a mistake to assume that they share a common political agenda. Politically, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil has aligned itself with the United States and has sought American armaments and support in its long-running disputes with the Shiite dominated government in Baghdad.

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The YKK, historically a militant leftist organization, had, on the other hand, long-standing ties to the Soviet Union. Both Turkey and the United States have classified the YKK as a terrorist organization. Ankara considers the YPG an arm of the YKK and wants Washington to also classify it as a terrorist organization. To date, however, the U.S. has refused to do so.

Kurdish PKK militia in Iraqi Kurdistan

The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is the political offshoot of the PKK that operates in Syria. The YPG is the militia organized by and aligned with the PYD. The Peshmerga on the other hand, are the Kurdish militia organized by the KRG in Iraq. The Peshmerga have generally stayed out of the fighting in Syria although they have from time to time lent support and military supplies to the YPG; most notably during the siege of Kobani.

Although the KRG has supplied bases to the YKK in Iraqi Kurdistan, and provided support to the YPG, it has also tried to maintain good relations with Ankara. The KRG is dependent on Turkey as an alternative supply route to the Baghdad controlled oil export infrastructure for the sale of the oil it produces. Turkey, notwithstanding a number of attacks on PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, has also attempted to cultivate good relations with the KRG. For Ankara, its dealings with the KRG are a way of reducing Iranian influence in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as giving it some leverage in dealing with Baghdad.

Not surprisingly, the PYD and the YPG has been very adept at playing off Russia and the United States, threatening to align itself completely with Russia if the U.S. withholds support in response to Turkish pressure. For Washington, the "loss" of the YPG and the SDF would deprive it of the one ground force that has proven to be effective against the Islamic State. It would also deprive U.S. air forces of the one role, close ground support, where it has proven to be most effective. Air missions against Islamic State targets and in support of U.S. Special Forces operating in Syria, would, however, continue.

The autonomous Kurdish state of Rojava would allow Erbil an alternative route for exporting its oil. This option would require the construction of an oil pipeline along Syria's northern frontier and sufficient military control to insure its security. Neither objective would be easy or is quickly achievable. In addition that pipeline would need to transit either Turkish or Syrian soil for its final stretch to access the Mediterranean.

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What happens next? Turkish foreign policy is in shambles. Erdogan's attempt to position Turkey as the leader of the Sunni world is failing. Instead Turkey finds itself in a growing conflict with Russia, a conflict that if Turkey invades Syria could erupt into a direct military clash between the two countries. Such a clash could well, according to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev "draw everybody in" and might lead "to a new world war." The latter is a bit of an exaggeration, but the prospect of broader fighting is a very real threat.

Ankara's ambivalence in fighting the Islamic State, and its single-minded determination to prevent the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria, is bringing it increasingly into conflict with the United States. In addition, Turkey's inability to stem the tide of Syrian refugees, at the very least, those that are transiting Turkey's frontiers, is bringing it into conflict with the European Union.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with U.S. President Barack Obama

By aligning itself with the Syrian Kurds, while simultaneous supporting Syrian armed forces against the Free Syrian Army and the various Islamist organizations in the civil war, Russia is singlehandedly changing the reality on the ground in Syria.

That does not mean that Bashar al-Assad will survive in Syria. Ultimately, the Kremlin may decide that its interests in Syria will be better served by having someone else at the head of the Syrian government. It does mean, however, that whatever government emerges in Syria will be one that is acceptable to Russia and which the Kremlin can rely upon to protect Russian interests there. International peace conferences notwithstanding, the future of the Syrian government, and who will lead it, will increasingly be settled in Moscow.

The Obama White House, on the other hand, finds itself playing an increasingly weakening hand. American air power and Special Forces alone are insufficient to either destroy the Islamic State or change the situation on the ground for the anti-Assad forces. Its only effective proxy in Syria, the SDF, is unable to completely rollback the Islamic State and its continued expansion, with American support, along the northern portion of Syria will further complicate America's relations with Turkey.

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By Adele Charbonneau



Urban agglomeration is an inevitable consequence of explosive growth in cities. Indeed, the expansion of cities and their outskirts has created a situation where administrative boundaries are inadequate in regards to the geographic distribution of communities, resources, and infrastructure. Therefore, in terms of public policy, one can no longer think in isolated solutions, but in integrated and innovative actions between cities. This article presents four examples from developing cities where integration has been necessary both in terms of spatial planning and public policy, such as in Surabaya and Rio de Janeiro, but also for the development of infrastructure and basic services, such as in Jakarta and Bogota.

In Indonesia, the development of Surabaya due to large-scale urbanization has been affecting nearby cities. Although physically, economically and socially integrated, these cities are administratively separated. Widya Anggraini writes about the situation of several of the outskirt cities, which do not even have proper city management, nor do they include economic and social developments in their spatial planning. Management of the larger area would thus gain from being integrated in order to respond jointly to transversal issues. Implementation should also be translated into sectorial plans, which consider the integration of outskirt cities with Surabaya. Indeed, differences in socio-economics and spatial dynamics between the areas would require a physical and non-physical approach to control the development of the region. A non-physical approach usually relates to issues such as availability of cross-sectorial policy; meanwhile, a physical approach is more related to infrastructure available, such as mass rapid transit (MRT), bus rapid transit (BRT) system, or other facilities that cross the city.

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Similarly in Brazil, Andrea Azambuja also notices how large cities tend to bring together other urban centers, and Rio de Janeiro is no exception. That is where the work of Observatorio das Metropoles comes in, regrouping 159 researchers and 59 universities, government (state and municipal), and non-governmental organizations, under the overall coordination of IPPUR, Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The group has been dedicated to researching the growth of Brazilian metropolises and their structural and productive adjustments. Observatorio's work also extends to the formation of local leaders so that they can intervene directly in the administrative management of their cities. The great strength of Observatorio das Metropoles lies in its multidisciplinarity. Its research, based on the relentless monitoring of public policies, integrate several areas into a unified database. Cooperation is also a mark of its executive role, incorporating actors from diverse spheres and locations working for the same purpose: the pursuit of cities that are more just and democratic.

In Bogota, Jorge Bela describes the difficulty associated with being under two separate administrations. For Soacha, a neighboring city of Bogota such situation, has complicated the provision of basic services like transportation. Until the late 1970s, Soacha was an industrial suburb of Bogota with 28,000 habitants. It has now over 500,000 inhabitants. As early as 2006, steps were taken to extend Bogota's then successful BRT, the Transmilenio, to Soacha. The project suffered massive delays, and did not enter into operation until December 2013. It now serves four stations in Soacha, all near the Autopista Sur. Yet, there is still no clear date for the feeding bus system to start its operations, despite the fact that over 75,000 passengers from Soacha use the Transmilenio every day. Currently, work is being done in expanding existing stations, to ease overcrowding, and adding a 3.8-kilometer expansion. Yet, these problems in Soacha illustrate the current necessity to think beyond the traditional city boundaries.

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Such necessity is also valid for the city of Jakarta as explains it Widya Anggraini. City development in Greater Jakarta has had spillover effects on the outskirts, not only economically but also on issues such as waste. Since waste management is a common challenge, it should not be thought of only within the Jakarta area, but rather, in collaboration with neighboring cities. With that in mind, a joint cooperation has been established utilizing Bantar Gebang, a landfill in one of the neighboring cities, Bekasi, by building a temporary joint landfill (TPST) to reduce waste volume to be sent to Bantar Gebang. At the moment, TPST Cakung Cilincing has been operating and is able to manage 1,300 tons per day. Coordination between outskirt cities continues, while at the same time each city implements different waste management strategies. However, the main challenge for the management of waste often lies in the willingness of outskirt cities to use their land as dumpsites.

Check out more of the discussion on measuring the impact of urban development project on URB.im and contribute to the debate.
Liberal Politics from the Heart of Bluegrass Country
The world powers' view of Iran has significantly shifted. Those days in which Iran was being punished for violating the law seem to have gone. For many, it is baffling that Iran is now capable of getting away with breaking international laws, particularly in the last few months after the nuclear deal was reached between the six world powers (known as P5+1; China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany) and the Islamic Republic.

Lets take a look at some of the latest violations which are linked to Iran's military institutions. In clear violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution, Iranian leaders test-fired, long-range ballistic missiles and laser-guided surface-to-surface missiles several times. Additionally, in October and November, Iran tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads.

This week, as the Iranian and Russian media outlets boasted, the Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan, who was reportedly the architect of the 1983 terror bombing that killed 241 Americans in Beirut, Lebanon held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu as well as President Vladimir Putin regarding delivery of The S-400 air defense system, a more advanced form of the S-300, and the purchase of Russia's most sophisticated and powerful offensive weapons, such as tanks and jet fighters.

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This development came just after Iran has received billions of dollars worth of sanctions relief.

Several UN and Nuclear Laws Are Violated

It worth noting that this contract and Iran's similar activities are in violation of several critical U.N. Resolutions. First is U.N. Resolution no. 2231, that clearly bans the Islamic Republic from purchasing "battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships..." without prior approval from the U.N.

The second is the United Nations Security Council resolution 1929 that states "Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities".

The third one is the JCPOA (UNSCR 2231 Annex II, paragraph three) that points out that Iran should not undertake any ballistic missile activity "until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier."

Offensive Strength, Iran's Air Force

Currently, the major questions to address are: What aspect of its military is Iran attempting to strengthen? Why does the UN continue to ignore the Islamic Republic when it is clearly violating its resolutions? And, why does Iran so publicly announce such actions which are violations of the UNSC resolutions?

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If we closely analyze the 8 billion dollar contract between Iran and Russia, Iranian leaders are mainly concentrating on buying offensive weapons such as Su-30 fighter jets.

In fact, this is the first time that Iran is publicly announcing that it is upgrading its offensive weaponries. Even the S-400, despite being characterized as defensive in nature, can be utilized by Iranians to defend their nuclear sites.

Most specifically, Iran is advancing its air force. Tehran has an adequate number of ground forces to operate in foreign countries, support or train Shiite proxies(including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bahrain), but Iran desires to deploy its air force and make it superior to that of Turkey or other Arab nations in the region.

With a robust military on the ground and powerful air force supporting the forces, for example in Syria and Iraq, Tehran will be in much better position to direct the conflicts in its own geopolitical and ideological interests, as well as, reduce the number of its casualties.

Green Light from the UNSC Members to Iran

On the other hand, Iranian leaders would not have announced such a provocative deal without receiving an implicit green light from the White House and other powers in the UNSC, or without being cognizant that world powers will not react to Iran.

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Not having a clear agenda on how to deal with the crisis in Syria and rise of the Islamic State, the US and other Western powers have given the driver's seat to the Islamic Republic. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, on the other hand, is exploiting this situation, to make its organization a regional military empire.

By having the most powerful military in the region, IRGC and Iranian leaders not only can frighten domestic oppositions, but can also attract the world powers respect, and send a message to other countries in the region, that Iran is back, that Iran has the power to purchase any offensive weaponry it wants, that the West is on the side of Iran, that even the UN will not object Iran's actions; and that no regional countries should dare to challenge Iran.

Finally, with regard to the UN, the UN is primarily the five members of Security Council. Russia and China are on the side of Iran and the European states follow the US footsteps and their own economic interests. The US, President Obama to be more specific, currently does not want to scuttle his crowning foreign policy "accomplishment"- the nuclear deal. As a result, every member of the UNSC is backing Iran. There are no reasons for the UN (the five members) to politically or economically punish Iran for violating international laws and terms of the nuclear deal (JCPOA) .

Iran will be best contained if regional powers unite and take actions for Iran's violations of international laws. Iran projects the capabilities of its military power to be more than what it really is. Iran is actually more vulnerable than it projects to regional powers. However, if a strong message not sent to Iran soon, it will be too late to contain the IRGC's military stranglehold and empire, Tehran's regional hegemonic ambitions, as well as Iran's relentless pursuit to be treated as the superior power in the region.

--

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an American political scientist, business advisor and the president of the International American Council on the Middle East. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the advisory board of Harvard International Review. An American citizen, he is originally from Iran and Syria, lived most of his life in Iran and Syria till recently. He is a board member of several significant and influential international and governmental institutions, and he is native speaker of couple of languages including Arabic and Persian. He also speaks English and Dari, and can converse in French, Hebrew.

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You can sign up for Dr. Rafizadeh's newsletter for the latest news and analyses on HERE.

You can also order his books on HERE.

You can learn more about Dr. Rafizadeh on HERE.
On February 21, Niger will vote in the first round of a presidential election. This has barely been a blip in the western media -- the the New York Times published its last article on Niger in August 2015 and while the Washington Post ran a blog post this week, it has no reporters on the ground. Yet, whether the election is fair or not matters to Nigeriens and it should matter to the rest of the world, because if democracy fails in Niger, the country could become the next breeding ground for radical Islamic terrorism.

Mahamadou Issoufou, the current president, is running for a second term but is widely considered an ineffective and corrupt leader. In November, he arrested and jailed his strongest opponent, Hama Amadou, one of the leaders of the opposition and the the most direct threat to Issoufou's re-election. The constitutional court is allowing Amadou to stand as a candidate in the presidential election with his charges pending, though he must rely on supporters to campaign on his behalf.

One thing that's certain is that Issoufou feels threatened: he also arrested nine people in the military and several civilians in December, because he suspected they were planning a coup to overthrow his government. Amidst widespread skepticism, leaders of the political opposition are still waiting to see evidence of the alleged coup.

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Issoufou is unfortunately part of a long history of political corruption, in part because of Niger's history of colonialism and corporate exploitation. France discovered uranium in Niger in 1957 and has dominated the industry ever since. New archival evidence opened recently shows how France deliberately manipulated the government that was emerging in Niger in the years immediately following independence in 1960. By promoting leaders who would do business on French terms, the former European colonial power was able to widen the profit margin to its advantage, an unfair split that persists.

Today, Niger supplies roughly one third of the raw materials that power some 58 French nuclear-energy reactors, which produce 75% of France's electricity. Yet Niger collects a fraction of the profits. During his first term, Issoufou had an opportunity to re-negotiate Niger's contract with the French-owned uranium company Areva but set the rate at which Niger taxes Areva's revenues at just 12%, well below what Nigeriens were calling for and lower than what is standard in other countries, such as Botswana.

Nigerians want and need a government that effectively represents the majority's interests, but many citizens are understandably disaffected and impoverished. Niger currently ranks last in the United Nations Human Development Report, with a human development growth rate of 1.8 % in a country of 14 million, where the average adult has 5.4 years of schooling. The nomadic Tuaregs, who live on the land where the uranium is extracted, can dust the sand off their tunics without any hope of ever owning a cellphone or watching satellite television. Meanwhile Areva and other multinational corporations are making billions in profits. According to UN estimates, just 2 % of all Nigeriens use the Internet and more than half do not have a cell phone.

While Niger is a precarious democracy rife with corruption, the best hope for progress is a free and fair election. Yet Americans are ignoring this profoundly unjust and potentially volatile situation in what is a very dangerous neighborhood. Niger shares a porous border with Mali, a current terrorist threat as well as a cautionary tale. From 1990 to 2012, Mali was an example of democracy in the region. But since a coup in 2013 when radical Islamists invaded northern Mali, it has been a failed state. Hassoumi Massaoudo, Niger's minister of the interior, says that his country faces a "constant threat" of terrorist attack from the al-Qaeda faction in Mali. In addition to Mali, Niger also shares a border with Libya another failed state where terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and ISIS are also wreaking havoc.

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While Nigeria just celebrated the most free and fair election in a generation, much work remains to be done to stop Boko Haram along the border with Niger, where the Nigerien town Diffa has been under "a state of emergency" for months.

The U. S. hasn't entirely ignored Niger--over the past two decades we have increased our military presence in the region, including surveillance by drones and counterterrorism forces. But these activities are conducted with virtually no public scrutiny. AFRICOM, the U. S. military headquarters for Africa, has an annual budget of nearly $300 million with questionable results. After the coup in Mali, the Washington Post reported that the military officer who led the coup in 2013 was U. S. trained, which is just one of the many unintended consequences that come with covert counterterrorist operations.
The Arab-Russian Forum will convene at the ministerial level in Moscow next week, in the midst of the battle for Syria amid growing Russian-Turkish tensions and increasing talk of Saudi and Gulf ground intervention in Syria. The Russian foreign minister will be very clear in drawing the strategic frameworks for Russian policies in the Middle East, and will insist on an agenda that Arab ministers are unlikely to find compatible with Arab priorities. Sergei Lavrov will not soften his rhetoric just because he will be playing host, because the broad features of Russia's Middle Eastern policy, as drafted by President Putin, are not subject to negotiations from Moscow's viewpoint. If the Arab ministers still believe it will be possible to induce a radical change in Russian policy, then they will hit a solid wall and perhaps even condemnation because this will be seen as tampering with Russian national interests. These days, the Russian mood is stubborn and rigid, yet Russian diplomacy believes there are ways to soften relations with the Gulf countries despite the rift over Syria. Russia also believes that having special relations with Egypt is a crucial part of its goals in the Middle East, with one eye on Turkey. Meanwhile, Moscow is determined to win the battle for Aleppo at any cost. It does not take seriously the international anti-ISIS coalition in Syria, which it sees as futile. Russia also wants to let everyone know that its relations with Iran are not affected by anything no matter what. So faced with all this Russian clarity, what will the GCC foreign ministers take with them to Moscow? Is there a single Arab agenda in the Arab-Russian forum, or will Arab foreign ministers take their differences with them to the Russian capital and leave without making any achievement? Perhaps it is worthwhile for Arab ministers to understand Russia's military and political thinking before the meeting.

Syria is a key issue of contention, especially in military terms, in light of Russia's insistence on settling the battle for Aleppo in the regime's favor. According to well-informed Russian sources, airstrikes will not stop. Ground operations in partnership with the regime and its allied militias will not relent until Aleppo is secured and supply routes to Turkey are cut off. Moscow has only clung on further to this strategy after Turkey hinted at a ground operation in Syria, before downplaying it days later.

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Moscow believes severing routes between Syria and Turkey cuts off supplies it accuses Ankara of providing to terrorist groups, which are not confined to ISIS and the Nusra Front according to the Russian definition. Moscow believes helping the regime restore control of Aleppo would boost its morale and allow it to continue fighting the Russian war against Islamic groups it classes as terrorist groups. Aleppo is therefore key to the strategy pursued by Russia, which will not stop bombing it for the sake of the Vienna process created by Russia or for fear of European or American reactions.

The contrast is clear between the European reaction and the US reaction. Europe fears Russian policies and their implications, including further refugee influx to its shores.

Russian diplomacy refers to what it calls Russian-American accord on a roadmap for Syria, which apparently ignores the resurgent cold war between the two countries on more than one issue, including the Middle East. The Vienna Process, which includes a timetable for a ceasefire and elections, is part of this roadmap as seen by Moscow. But Russian diplomacy has different plans when it comes to the war on ISIS, Nusra, and other groups.

First of all, the battle over what constitutes a terrorist group and what constitutes an armed opposition group is an exercise in semantics. The real Russian point of view is that the regime in Damascus is the legitimate regime, and that the armed opposition is illegitimate. Therefore, who is a terrorist and who is opposition is only part of the elasticity necessary in diplomacy, and is not a serious issue. Moscow understands the extent of US support for the armed opposition, which Washington has often questioned, sometimes arming rebels and at others abandoning them.

Second, Russian diplomacy believes US pledges to crush ISIS in Syria as an empty promise. For one thing, Moscow believes, crushing ISIS can only be done in collaboration with the regime in Damascus and its allies on the ground. Therefore, the divergence the US and Russian understanding of what it would take to defeat ISIS is radical: One side believes it would be possible by removing Bashar al-Assad, because he is an obstacle to mobilizing Sunni support against ISIS, while the other side believes I would be only possible by working with Assad and his militias with Russian air cover.

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For this reason, Moscow has not welcomed Arab ground forces even if their remit is to fight ISIS in Syria under US leadership of the international coalition. Moscow is committed to the end to the Assad regime, and is shrugging off accusations of bombing the opposition rather than ISIS. It does not care that it is giving the impression of rejecting Arab assistance against "Sunni terrorism", fearing this could weaken or topple Assad.

There are two views regarding Arab military involvement in Syria: Some say there is no option but to deploy Arab-Islamic ground forces to be the boots on the grounds that the US will not provide. Otherwise, Russia, Iran, and the regime in Damascus will achieve total victory in Syria and eradicate the Syrian opposition.

The other view holds that it would be a trap for Saudi and Emirati forces, because Washington, even if it becomes implicated, would leave halfway down the road as it is its habit, and because it is too late to change the Syrian equation after Russia intervened and decided to settle the battle in favor of the Syrian regime.

There are also the Turkish and Kurdish factors at play. Washington backs the Kurds in Iraq being the boots on the ground of the anti-ISIS coalition there, and is sympathetic to Kurdish ambitions but not to the extent of supporting an independent Kurdistan spanning the Kurdish communities of Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, at least not for now.

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For its part, Ankara sees Kurdish statehood as a red line since it would impact large parts of Turkey. President Erdogan is intent on fighting Kurdish groups in Syria, some of which he sees as terrorist organizations and some as allies of the Assad regime.

Russia is pleased by the Kurds' military role that benefits the regime in Damascus and Russian strategy in Syria, and is wagering that Washington would pressure Ankara to tone down its threats of ground operations in Syria against Kurds. Russia is hoping NATO would not be involved and implicated, despite the fact that Turkey is a NATO member and there are certain obligations according to the alliance's charter.



Russia, for its part, happy with contributions Kurdish military in favor of the regime in Damascus and in favor of its strategy in Syria, which is betting that Washington would press Ankara to soften unit pedaling ground intervention in Syria, the prosecution of the Kurds. Bet that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would not descend will not be compromised despite the fact that Turkey is a member in it and there's obligations under the charter. Russia is also betting on American apathy vis-a-vis its policies in Syria to defuse growing European criticism of the Russian role, bombardment, and displacement of refugees in the direction of Europe, which some believe is a deliberate Russian policy.

Amid all this, Russian diplomacy sees relations with Turkey especially as concerns Syria from the lens of the personal hostility between the Tsar Putin and the Sultan Erdogan. However, there are factors involved that certainly go beyond the two men's characters, and have to do with the ideological and religious orientations each has.

Indeed, Putin believes the rise of Sunni Islamism is a threat to Russia, and sees Erdogan as an incubator of Islamism, be it moderate or militant. For his part, Erdogan has seen himself as the sultan of political Islam who wants to restore Ottoman influence in the Arab region. He has invested a lot in Syria and acted arrogantly, contributing to the disaster in Syria, and today, he is face to face with Russian arrogance, another crucial factor in the Syrian tragedy.

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The difference is that Russia considers itself victorious in the Syrian battle, and is enforcing red lines to warn Turkey against confronting it in Syria. This is while Turkey appears confused and weak against Russia in Syria. Turkey also appears to be losing in Egypt, which Turkey had made the first stop for the rise of political Islam to power through the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood project met an early end, much quicker than expected, and were replaced in power by someone completely opposed to Erdogan's Neo-Ottoman dreams. Putin then capitalized on this loss, giving Egypt a crucial position in his strategy for the Middle East and North Africa.

Egypt, according to the same Russian diplomatic sources, is now one of the most important pillars of Russian foreign policy second in importance only to the Islamic Republic of Iran but ahead of the Arab Gulf states.

Moscow considers the Islamic Republic of Iran central to its international and regional alliances. According to Russian diplomacy, the relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is part of a long-term strategy. In other words, regardless of whether the moderate mullahs or hardline mullahs in Iran and the Revolutionary Guards prevail, Moscow considers the ties with Tehran the most important bilateral relationship in the entire Middle East, whether Gulf Arabs like it or not.

Developing dialogue with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Gulf countries would therefore proceed based on two key premises: Russian-Iranian strategic relationships are a constant, but this does not prevent establishing and developing relations with the Gulf countries regardless of the disagreement on Syria. And second, the US-Gulf relationship is on the decline and is marred by mistrust, which opens a window for new kinds of relations between Moscow and Gulf countries.

In other words, Russian diplomacy wants to upgrade ties with the Gulf through the gateway of arming Gulf countries. Moscow believes common interests can be served in the arms market: on the one hand it is a strategic and economic asset to Moscow. And on the other hand, it is a way for Gulf countries frustrated by Washington to say they have other options.

In addition, what Putin wants for Russia goes beyond winning Syria. He wants to cement Russia's position in the Middle East, and there is an opportunity to do so now with the decline of US interest in the region under President Obama. Russian diplomacy under Putin still sees Washington through the lens of the Cold War, even if the two sides are active partners in Syria.

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Russian diplomacy does not see any adventurism in its policies, whatever the human cost has been in Syria or the risk of becoming implicated in a quagmire or a protracted war of attrition with ISIS and al-Qaeda. The most Russia will offer to the GCC countries is turning a blind eye to what is taking place in Yemen, without directly supporting the Iranian position there.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Trump as the GOP's nominee for President is looking very plausible, whatever the day to day advances and setbacks of his campaign. Many Republicans cringe at the thought that the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower is becoming the party of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, many Democrats and progressives smirk, complacent in their belief that Trump would suffer a presidential election loss so huge it would make Goldwater's 1964 debacle look like a triumph. Despite these naysayers, Trump, if nominated, actually has a very attainable path to the White House.

Trump as GOP nominee would seem to be an unlikely winner of the 2016 election. In 2012, President Obama won by about 5 million votes and Trump has the highest disapproval ratings of all GOP candidates (about 60 percent of all Americans have an unfavorable opinion of him). Trump's mere presence on the ballot should energize the Obama coalition and get Democratic voters to the polls.

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However, if nominated, expect Trump (like many candidates before him) to make a rush towards the middle ground. Perhaps Trump even plans to play a bit of Prince Hal hoping that (to paraphrase Shakespeare)

When his loose behaviour he does throw off, his reformation shall glow more goodly and attract more eyes, than if it had no history of bad behaviour to set it off.

Imagine a grand convention speech where Trump disavows his more offensive remarks, and commits to wanting to be President of all Americans. America loves contrition in its politicians -- after all, how many times have we forgiven the Clintons their various transgressions?

Let's assume Trump runs a shrewd campaign. Now, combine that campaign with even one of these exogenous shocks:

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A severe and successful "9/11" type attack on the mainland United States (the attack might be conventional, nuclear, biological, chemical and/or cyber -- but severe in effect) occurs close to the election. In the resulting chaos and panic, the GOP (rightly or wrongly) paints the Democrats as soft on terrorism and/or national security -- Trump becomes the man of the hour.

Assuming Clinton is the Democratic nominee, she might be indicted as a consequence of her private email server and/or the activities of her family's foundation, or perhaps key members of her team will be charged with criminal offences. (I realize for people on the far right, it is a matter of religious belief that Clinton is guilty, and for people on the far left, it is an equally fervent belief that she is innocent. As a more neutral observer, I will opine that it's possible a crime -- or crimes -- may have been committed.) An indictment could occur in the middle of the election. Remember, one of Clinton's greatest defects is that she's viewed as untrustworthy (some polls already show that about 60 percent of Americans feel she can't be trusted). If criminal charges are filed against Clinton or her team, the impact on her campaign would be enormous (one might even say "Yuge") -- and that might tilt the election to Trump.

An economic collapse on the scale of the 2008 financial crisis begins (perhaps triggered by China or the technology sector). At this point in the 2008 election cycle, the unemployment rate was 4.9%, and by November 2008 it had risen to almost seven percent. Imagine the impact that kind of economic debacle would have on a Democratic presidential candidate's prospects.

Clinton (age 68) or Sanders (age 74) -- whichever is the Democratic nominee -- dies (from natural causes, a plane crash or whatever) or is incapacitated (e.g., by a severe stroke), and the Democratic Party finds it difficult to rally around a new and strong candidate. The GOP candidate would likely benefit from the resulting chaos.

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Michael R. Bloomberg (or someone else) runs as an independent, and the election results in no presidential candidate winning a majority of votes in the the Electoral College. The presidential election would then be decided by the House of Representatives. (The voting process is by state delegation, and you can find the details here.) The bottom line is that the GOP would probably decide on the next President, and they would likely vote for the GOP candidate -- Trump.

Granted, individually these events have a low probability of occurring, but collectively -- they have a non-trivial probability. Moreover, this list of exogenous shocks that would assist Trump (or whoever is the GOP candidate) is far from exhaustive.
by Cheri R. Kaufman

I've come here today to share with you a perspective that spans many years.

Because, as I look out upon the bright, young and determined faces in this room, I see someone I recognize. I see myself, years ago, setting off on all of my adventures and amazing experiences.

I was then a young woman just barely out of college, and working in the hospitality industry. I was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: an executive position as Middle East Director of Acquisitions for the Intercontinental Hotel Chain. The catch was it meant moving to Dubai, which then was just beginning its climb towards its future status as a world capital. It was a very, very scary proposition.

I knew how exceptionally rare it was that a woman, especially a young, single, dare I say "attractive" Western woman, would be negotiating and executing deals with sheiks and heads of royal families in such a traditional, male-dominated culture. My parents, of course, were very concerned.

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"You have more guts than brains," my mother said to me one day. Not that she thought I wasn't smart, she knew that I always had a great curiosity about life. She also knew that I was fearlessly determined to explore and experience the world. Neither she, nor I, knew at the time that my decision to move halfway across the world would set in motion a career and life that, even today, continues to surprise me at every turn.

My hotel career, which included postings in Dubai, Sharjah, Cairo, New Delhi and Singapore, brought me in contact with many inspiring people, heads of state and international entrepreneurs. On these travels to cities in far-off countries, I was a witness to and informed by a vast variety of cultures, people, traditions and lifestyles so different than my own. These adventures awakened within me a life-long capacity for empathy and a passion to make a difference in the world.

When I was your age, I certainly never imagined that I'd ever be speaking from the podium of the UN General Assembly. I am proud to say that from an early stage in my life, I have endeavored to translate my idealism, curiosity, tenacity and energy - qualities I perceive in all of you --into rewarding involvements with charities, philanthropies and arts organizations that foster cultural understanding and global cooperation.

For no matter what form it takes, philanthropy, defined as the "love of mankind," allows us to imagine what it is to walk in someone else's shoes: to think about others and how we would feel if we had to face their challenges; to feel the incredible affirmation of one's own humanity by giving hope and help to others in this world.

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Remain alert. You will discover that life is constantly presenting you with situations in which you can make a difference. The act of giving may involve you being generous with your time, generous with your creativity, generous with your enthusiasm, as you reach out to your friends to urge them to consider being supportive.

Currently, I serve as Vice President of the foundation's Board of Directors. For those who don't know it, Lifeline is a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian aid and medical assistance to the innocent children of war-torn Serbia. The missions I've been on to that region, and the relief I've seen in action there, have affected me deeply and stiffened my resolve to pitch in and help out. The plight of Middle East refugees now streaming across Europe has been taken up by Lifeline.

It is love that allows us to more deeply empathize with our fellow humans. This is a bond that you and I share because I know it is your concern for others, your expansive values and commitment to global issues that have brought each-and-every one of you here from distant corners of the world, to this great room for this important gathering, perhaps your first foray upon the global stage.

You are here, maybe to advance yourselves, but more nobly to promote the welfare of others. You and your generation are just now arriving at your great opportunity to take on the world and to change it for the better.

Like every new generation, the ancestors who preceded you, and especially those who raised you, are somewhat skeptical about your prospects. Not unlike my contemporaries, the flower-power youth of the late 1960's, you and your fellow "millennials" are reputed to be self-absorbed and entitled. You have been raised in the Digital Age, in a global culture saturated with self help, self love and selfie-sticks. So, naturally, there are elders who worry and wonder if your generation will want to, or will be able to, reach out and help others.

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Happily, the answer is a resounding YES.

In fact, statistics gathered by the Case Foundation already prove it. In 2013, for instance, 83 percent of Millennials responding to a Case survey, said they made a financial gift to a non-profit organization in the previous year.

You truly are the New Philanthropists.

You are here because you have already chosen altruism over narcissism. You've arrived at this conference to help advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to alleviate poverty, end hunger, ensure access to good education, and advance gender equality. You are here because, fundamentally, within your hearts, within your guts, as my mother would say, you care about our world and its future.

Thanks to your extensive immersion in social media, you have an expansive understanding of the tremendous challenges our world must overcome. Many of you have already made those challenges your own personal priorities. Your commitment to the world is simultaneously selfish and selfless.

Indeed, your generation is in the process of making its presence felt by making a difference in new and very effective ways. You are the masters of social media, teaching the world how to put the technologies at our fingertips into effective messages that instantly echo around the world. You are showing us that the best use of digital platforms is not to point your smart-phones at yourself, but to share with the world what you see with your eyes. When you see injustice, when you see indifference, when you see inequality, you amplify your outrage to the ears and eyes of others.

This will be the great challenge of your generation: how to unleash your skills, live your values and facilitate change by fortifying the institutions and organizations that manifest your values. Philanthropy is the down-payment one generation makes to secure a better world for the next. In other words, philanthropy is the very currency of sustainability.

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And so, please forgive me if I seem like a big sister to each one of you-cheering you on, believing in you. Take advantage of this moment, this occasion of being surrounded by like-minded leaders of tomorrow. Look to your right. Look to your left. These people will be your colleagues, your collaborators, your partners, your supporters. As they say in Broadway's Hamilton, "History has its eyes on you."

You are the new generation of leaders, willing to commit yourselves to philanthropy as a way of life, fully integrated into business, government and the private sector. So, dare to imagine a better future. The future does not just happen as we imagine it. We can go out and create it with our guts and our brains by the everyday things we do. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't tell us: "I have a plan." He inspired us, saying: "I have a dream."

So, for every individual, the big questions are: What values do you care about? How can you engage others to enact them? What skills have you honed that are in short supply, and the world needs? What organizations exist that best embody your ideals, and deserve your support and time? I urge you to exploit the inspirational power of what interests you, what moves you, what captures your imagination.

There will always be resistance. There will be those who tell you not to try, that the cost is too high or the distance too great. Be persistent. Believe. Be flexible. Be resilient. Be ready to take the old model and make it fresh. Be the difference between the world as it is and the world as it might be.

You want a better world? Go create it!

This is an address by Cheri R. Kaufman to the 2016 UN Youth Assembly.
Odious though it certainly is, Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border resonate with past efforts by politicians like him to deny entry to "undesirable" groups. The anti-immigrant stance of candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio also conforms to an historic pattern in which recent arrivals and their children prove their patriotism by voicing nativist views. The politics of exclusion has always resonated with voters fearing loss of White, Anglo-Saxon-Protestant privilege. Its advocates often use national security as a smokescreen for prejudice.

Almost everyone knows about the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II on the dubious grounds that they posed a threat. Few people, however, are aware of the ethnocentric measures that preceded this violation of human rights. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to keep out members of the ethnic group that had just labored to complete the Pacific end of the trans-continental railroad. Then in 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt reached the "Gentleman's Agreement" with Japan to reduce Japanese immigration.

These measures did not, however, satisfy the nativists. In 1917, Congress passed over President Wilson's veto an act that barred immigrants from an East-Asian exclusion zone. The 1924 Immigration Act went even further, setting quotas for future immigration based upon the number of people from each ethnic group already in the U.S. Instead of using the 1920 census, though, the act based quotas on the 1890 census. It thus privileged immigrants from northern and Western Europe. The 1924 Act prevented many Jews fleeing Nazi persecution from finding refuge in the U.S.

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Sadly, new immigrants and particularly their children have sometimes been the strongest advocates of stricter immigration policies. Embracing traditional prejudice is a good way to prove your bona fides as a true American. Cruz and Rubio fit this pattern. They would of course insist that since their parents entered the U.S. legally, so should everyone else. Cuban immigrants like Cruz's father and both Rubio's parents, however, enjoyed a privileged path to citizenship not offered to people from other Latin American countries.

Exclusionary politics derives from visceral fear by members of the dominant group that they are losing their privileged position. The fact that an African American was elected president angers and frightens such people. They see Muslim immigrants as a threat to what they consider the Christian identity of the country. Anyone who believes that the founders of the republic advocated any religion would do well to consider Thomas Jefferson's famous quip: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

If you depend for your news on the New York Times you have been subjected to a drumbeat of article attacking Bernie Sanders -- and the conclusion of everyone "serious" that his economics are daft. In particular, you would "know" that four prior Chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) (the Gang of Four) have signed an open letter to Bernie that delivered a death blow to his proposals. Further, you would know that anyone who dared to disagree with these four illustrious economists was so deranged that he or she was acting like a Republican in denial of global climate change. The open letter set its sights on a far less famous economist, Gerald Friedman, of U. Mass at Amherst. It unleashed a personalized dismissal of his competence and integrity. Four of the Nation's top economists against one non-famous economist -- at a school that studies heterodox economics. That sounds like a fight that the referee should stop in the first round before Friedman is pummeled to death. But why did Paul Krugman need to "tag in" to try to save the Gang of Four from being routed?

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Krugman proclaimed that the Gang of Four had crushed Friedman in a TKO. Tellingly, Krugman claimed that anyone who disagreed with the Gang of Four must be beyond the pale (like Friedman and Bernie). Indeed, Krugman was so eager to fend off any analysis of the Group of Four's attacks that he competed with himself rhetorically as to what inner circle of Hell any supporter of Friedman should be consigned. In the 10:44 a.m. variant, Krugman dismissed Bernie as "not ready for prime time" and decreed that it was illegitimate to critique the Gang of 4's critique.

In Sanders's case, I don't think it's ideology as much as being not ready for prime time -- and also of not being willing to face up to the reality that the kind of drastic changes he's proposing, no matter how desirable, would produce a lot of losers as well as winners.

And if your response to these concerns is that they're all corrupt, all looking for jobs with Hillary, you are very much part of the problem.

The implicit message is that four famous economists had to be correct, therefore anyone who disagreed with them must be a conspiracy theorist who is "very much part of the problem." Paul doesn't explain what "the problem" is, but he sure makes it sound awful. Logically, "the problem" has to be progressives supporting Bernie.

Two hours later, Paul decided that his poisoned pen had not been toxic enough, he now denounced Sanders as a traitor to the progressives who was on his way "to making Donald Trump president." To point out the problems in the Gang of Four's attack on Friedman was to treat them "as right-wing enemies." Why was Krugman so fervid in its efforts to smear Friedman and prevent any critique of the Gang of Four's smear that he revised his article within two hours and amped up his rhetoric to a shrill cry of pain? Well, the second piece admits that Gang of Four's smear of Friedman "didn't get into specifics" and that progressives were already rising in disgust at Paul's arrogance and eagerness to sign onto a smear that claimed "rigor" but actually "didn't get into specifics" while denouncing a scholar. Paul, falsely, portrayed Friedman as a Bernie supporter. Like Krugman, Friedman is actually a Hillary supporter.

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Sanders needs to disassociate himself from this kind of fantasy economics right now. If his campaign responds instead by lashing out -- well, a campaign that treats Alan Krueger, Christy Romer, and Laura Tyson as right-wing enemies is well on its way to making Donald Trump president.

If we combine both of Paul's screeds we see that the only way to disagree with a prominent economist is to demonize them as either "corrupt" or "enemies." They are apparently inerrant. Paul was eager to use "authority" raised to the second power (the Gang of Four plus both barrels -- two hours apart -- The "Full Krugman") to prevent anyone actually looking at the Gang of Four's letter and Friedman's study. Indeed, as I was finishing this first article in a series on their smear I found that Krugman has tripled down on his smear of Friedman with a Sunday column.

Jamie Galbraith Scores a One-Two Punch K.O. on the Gang of Four and Krugman

Alas, Krugman ran into Jamie Galbraith, who is not susceptible to Paul's edicts of intimidation. Jamie's piece is wonderfully concise and should be savored in its entirety. But here are the two key takeaways. Jamie destroyed the Gang of Four and Krugman. Jamie made two simple points. First, Friedman is a supporter of Hillary Clinton, not Bernie. That means there is every reason to believe he did not engage in "voodoo" economics as Krugman charged in order to help Bernie. It also means that Paul's demand: "Sanders needs to disassociate himself from this kind of fantasy economics right now" is bizarre. Why would Sanders need to disassociate himself from a Hillary supporter?

Second, Friedman's study is utterly conventional in terms of the macro models that Krugman has been praising for years in his column. The results he calculates, that Krugman dismisses as "fantasy" and "voodoo" are in fact the normal product of the normal models Krugman and the Gang of Four rely on. Friedman, Jamie, and I all have many doubts about those models, but not Krugman and the Gang of Four. Why does the standard model generate such powerful results for employment and growth? It does so because Bernie's plan to spur the economy is far larger than current policies or anything program to spur the economy supported by Hillary. As Jamie phrases it:

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What the Friedman paper shows, is that under conventional assumptions, the projected impact of Senator Sanders' proposals stems from their scale and ambition. When you dare to do big things, big results should be expected. The Sanders program is big, and when you run it through a standard model, you get a big result. That, by the way, is the lesson of the Reagan era -- like it or not. It is a lesson that, among today's political leaders, only Senator Sanders has learned.

Give the conventionality of Friedman's study, using a methodology that the Gang of Four and Paul all embrace, what accounts for the mocking, dismissive tone of the Gang of Four's letter and Krugman's rhetorical race to the bottom with himself to demonize Friedman and Bernie? One might assume that Friedman had made a glaring error and that the Gang of Four had discovered the error in the course of their rigorous review of his modeling of Bernie's proposals.

We are concerned to see the Sanders campaign citing extreme claims by Gerald Friedman about the effect of Senator Sanders's economic plan -- claims that cannot be supported by the economic evidence. Friedman asserts that your plan will have huge beneficial impacts on growth rates, income and employment that exceed even the most grandiose predictions by Republicans about the impact of their tax cut proposals.

That's how the Gang of Four leads, and those two sentences are an enormous "tell" in the sense that word is used in poker. They are not attacking him for the model he used, they are not attacking him for his inputs, and they are not attacking him for a computation error. They are attacking him because their own models predict that Bernie's plan would produce "huge beneficial impacts." To state what should be obvious to any economist, much less the Gang of Four and Krugman, that is not a logical criticism of Friedman or Bernie. The Gang of Four and Paul's criticisms are historical. When modest economic measures are taken to spur growth we observe only modest impacts on growth. That is not a logical argument against Friedman modeling Bernie's proposals.

Again, I'm perfectly open to a critique that says the standard models are so badly flawed that such a projection should not be relied upon, but that is not what the Gang of Four and Krugman do. They love the flawed models.

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The Myths Economists Tell That Friedman's Modeling of Bernie's Plan Exposes

Orthodox economists just hate the results of Friedman's model, for the results support Bernie, rather than Hillary. Worse, they show that orthodox economists' claims that the government can do little good is a myth. They set out to kill the messenger, Friedman, even though Friedman shares their support for Hillary. The Gang of Four and Krugman's reaction to Friedman's use of their own models has an odd, disturbing parallel made famous by my colleague Randy Wray.

[In] an interview Nobel winner Paul Samuel on gave to Mark Blaug (in his film on Keynes, "John Maynard Keynes: Life/Ideas/Legacy 1995"). Samuelson said: "I think there is an element of truth in the view that the superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times [is necessary]. Once it is debunked [that] takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. There must be discipline in the allocation of resources or you will have anarchistic chaos and inefficiency. And one of the functions of old fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that the long-run civilized life requires. We have taken away a belief in the intrinsic necessity of balancing the budget if not in every year, [then] in every short period of time. If Prime Minister Gladstone came back to life he would say "uh, oh what you have done" and James Buchanan argues in those terms. I have to say that I see merit in that view."

Orthodox economists are appalled by federal government deficits and stand in terror at the possibility that the public might ever understand how much the government could accomplish for the benefit of the American people if it got over the myths that a government with a sovereign currency is really just like a regular household and cannot run persistent deficits. Friedman's modeling of Bernie's plan is so terrifying to the Gang of Four and Krugman because it shows -- under the orthodox economic models -- that the government can be a powerful engine of producing "huge beneficial impacts." What is required is that our President has the nerve to junk the orthodox economic myths. As Jamie Galbraith wrote, "When you dare to do big things, big results should be expected."

The Gang of Four then evince another tell. They decry the fact that the standard models predict "huge beneficial impacts" from Bernie's plan because the use of standard models "undermines our reputation as the party of responsible arithmetic." The concept of "responsible arithmetic" is wondrous. Notice that they do not claim that Friedman's "arithmetic" is inaccurate in the sense of making a computational or data input error. Nor do they attack his use of the conventional models they embrace. No, their criticism is that they hate the results of Friedman's accurate arithmetic. They point out no errors in Friedman's arithmetic. There is no indication that they ever checked out the accuracy of how he modeled the impacts of Bernie's plans.

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This means, as Jamie Galbraith observes, that the Gang of Four and Krugman have smeared Friedman and Bernie. Here is the Gang of Four's claim:

We have applied the same rigor to proposals by Democrats, and worked to ensure that forecasts of the effects of proposed economic policies, from investment in infrastructure, to education and training, to health care reforms, are grounded in economic evidence.

I certainly hope that statement is a knowing lie, for otherwise they owe an enormous apology to the Republicans. The Gang of Four claims that they apply "the same rigor" to modeling policy proposals by Democrats as they do in their modeling of proposals by Republicans. Their claim is that that "rigor" has exposed Friedman to be someone who is gaming the arithmetic in a shockingly dishonest manner to help Bernie. I've already noted the embarrassing failure to reveal to their readers that Friedman supports Hillary, not Bernie. But what grievous errors of arithmetic did Friedman commit that were disclosed by the Gang of Four's "rigor[ous]" review of his modeling? The Gang of 4, and Krugman, present no errors, and no analysis of Friedman's study. They present no evidence that they conducted any review, much less a "rigor[ous]" review of Friedman's modeling that disclosed any arithmetic errors. They literally simply hate the results of their own "standard" models because they show that Bernie's plan produces "huge beneficial impacts."



The Gang of Four and Krugman Should Retract and Apologize to Friedman

Jamie Galbraith called the Gang of Four and Paul out on their smear and their disgusting effort to substitute "authority" for logic, integrity, and intellectual honesty. The effort to use authority to destroy Friedman's reputation, with no identification of a single arithmetic mistake in using their own models is reprehensible. The Gang of Four and Krugman should retract their letter and blogs and personally apologize to Friedman. It is despicable to abuse authority and status.

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Krugman's Smear of Laura Tyson and His Ode to the (All Male) "Pecking Order" of Economists

Paul is famous for his arrogance and his dismissal of the work of economists he considers to be lesser in status. This makes his imperious demand that no one critique the Gang of Four's smear of Friedman all the more ironic, because Laura D'Andrea Tyson is a member of the gang. Perhaps Paul has forgotten his smear of Ms. Tyson when, in 1993, she was the first woman appointed to chair the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers has generally overshadowed the two other members, working directly with the President while the others have stayed in the background, their names almost unknown to the public. But as a macro-economist, Mr. Blinder is likely to play a prominent role on the council, since he is considered more suited than Ms. Tyson to performing a crucial task of the council: assessing the impact of proposed policies. "I will be vastly reassured if Alan Blinder is named to the Council of Economic Advisers," said Paul R. Krugman, a macroeconomist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had himself been a candidate for the chairmanship. "He would provide the necessary analytical skills that Laura Tyson lacks." Mr. Krugman and many other macroeconomists, particularly those in academia, have come to consider the three-member Council of Economic Advisers as their "embassy" in Washington. Because they view the council as their chief means of influencing Administration policy, they urged Mr. Clinton to appoint a top macroeconomist who would properly practice their skills and represent their views. Her appointment also raised the issue of rankings within the profession. Mr. Krugman and other economists argued that after 12 years of Republican Administrations, the chairmanship of the council should go to one of the Democrats among the ranks of the top macroeconomists. "Despite what people say about economists always disagreeing with each other, there is agreement on rankings within the profession," Mr. Krugman said. "There is a pecking order," he continued, citing Nobel laureates in economics like Paul Samuelson, Robert M. Solow and James Tobin as those at the pinnacle in the over-65 generation. All are Democrats. Mr. Blinder, Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Krugman, also Democrats, are ranked among the top 20 or so in the younger generation

.

There is in fact "a pecking order" that has closed off Krugman to many important advances for decades because the advances were not made by people he considers to be sufficiently exalted in his "pecking order." I am sure, however, that Ms. Tyson feels the irony that Krugman has now elevated her so high in his pecking order that no one is permitted to critique the Gang of 4's smear of Friedman. Note that Krugman's dismissal of Tyson was based on the fact that she had no expertise in macroeconomic modeling -- precisely the skill necessary to critique Friedman's modeling of Bernie's economic proposals. Paul can't even maintain logical consistency in his smears.

Ms. Tyson may wish to reflect on Krugman's earlier sexist smear of her, based on status. I hope doing so will prompt introspection about her own role in smearing Friedman.

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But you will learn none of these things in the New York Times, where the Upshot column, without any analysis, treats the smears of Friedman as revealed truth.
By Tania F. Cohen

The unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is leading to chaos during an already unpredictable presidential election cycle. Unsurprisingly, Republicans do not want President Obama to choose Scalia's replacement, which would shift the Court's ideological balance to the left. Prior to Scalia's death, the Court had a 5-4 Republican majority, with Justice Anthony Kennedy serving as a swing vote who sometimes voted with more liberal justices. Many Republicans have already argued that President Obama should allow the next president to fill the vacancy with the hopes that the GOP takes back the White House. This argument is not surprising, but the influence that the appointment battle and the temporary absence of a ninth justice can have on foreign policy is noteworthy.

There are two major foreign policy cases on the Court's docket this term. United States v. Texas challenges President Obama's executive orders deferring action on the deportation of select groups of undocumented immigrants. Justice Scalia's absence is unlikely to have a great impact on the outcome of this case; with his vote, the Court probably would have blocked the executive orders, so without it, a 4-4 vote would leave the lower 5th Circuit Court's ruling against the orders in place. The political stakes for this case, however, are high.

Immigration is one of the most contentious issues in this year's presidential campaign. No Republican candidate supports Obama's executive orders, though the alternatives proposed in each candidate's immigration policy platform vary. As for the Democrats, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have said they would defend and consider expanding the executive orders. The impact that a new justice's vote would have on one of President Obama's signature policy initiatives drastically increases the pressure on him to appoint a new justice before he leaves office, and on Republicans to block the appointment.

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The second foreign policy-related case on this term's docket is West Virginia v. EPA. West Virginia challenges the Clean Power Plan, which is integral to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. If the United States does not implement the Clean Power Plan, it is unable to adopt the Paris Agreement because it cannot meet its treaty obligations without the plan's strategy to reduce emissions. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 along party lines that the Clean Power Plan cannot be implemented until federal appeals courts determine its constitutionality. Regardless of the lower court's decision, this case is likely to make its way to the Supreme Court.

As with United States v. Texas, Justice Scalia's seat would be key to the outcome. If the Senate does approve the president's eventual nominee, the Court will likely uphold the constitutionality of the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement will proceed. If Republicans succeed in blocking an Obama nominee, win the White House, and successfully appoint a new justice before the case reaches the Supreme Court, the Agreement will almost certainly fail. Regardless, if a new justice has not been approved before the case reaches the Court, the fate of the Paris Agreement, and thus our international climate policy, remains unknown.

Another possible conflict the Court may need to address is the issue of Middle Eastern refugee resettlement. Following the November terror attacks in Paris, governors from more than two dozen states announced that they would not permit refugees from Syria and several other countries in the Middle East to be resettled over concerns about the vetting process. States cannot override federal policy and deny refugees entrance; the power to determine the number and type of refugees the United States will accept, as well as the location of resettlement, is granted to the president and the State Department through the Refugee Assistance Act of 1980. It would not be surprising, however, if a case addressing this issue reaches the Supreme Court. For example, although states do not have the power to override the federal government on this issue, they can refuse to fund the local organizations that facilitate the refugee resettlement process.

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The issue is equally contentious among the presidential candidates. Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump all want to block refugees from some or all Middle Eastern countries. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio say that at minimum, they would tighten the screening procedures for potential refugees. On the other hand, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would maintain or increase the current quotas for Syrian refugees. Should a case about refugee resettlement arise, the ideology of Justice Scalia's replacement could heavily influence the outcome.

The appointment of a new Supreme Court justice is always a partisan endeavor, particularly during an election year. In today's hyper-partisan climate, the impact of an appointment is further amplified. Members of Congress, candidates for president, and other politicians from both parties are already seizing the opportunity that the vacancy presents to shape policy. The multitude of foreign policy issues currently on the Court's docket and driving the presidential race ensures that the vacancy and the process by which it is filled will have a significant impact on many aspects of American foreign policy.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images BAHADURGARH, INDIA - FEBRUARY 20: Jat community members protest demanding reservation in government services on February 20, 2016 in Bahadurgarh, India. A mob of around 10,000 people carrying weapons from the surrounding villages of Rohtak were also seen vandalising private property. Police and army have not been able to reach the area as yet. At least one person was killed and 20 others were injured on Saturday in Haryana's Jhajjar after Indian Army personnel fired on Jat protestors, demanding reservation in jobs and education, turned violent and tried to set government buildings on fire. Jat leaders rejected the offer made by the state government and said that the stir would continue till their demand is met. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

CHANDIGARH -- Violence and arson in the Jat quota stir in Haryana spread to more areas today with five people being killed in firing by security forces in three districts taking the death toll to six even as the Army staged flag marches in worst-hit pockets.

As Haryana remained on the boil, several Haryana Roadways buses, seven railway stations, a police station and some buildings were torched by pro-quota protesters. Army had to use choppers to reach parts of blocked Rohtak district.

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A milk plant of the Haryana Dairy Corporation (Vita) was set on fire by the protestors at Rohtak. The residents nearby were asked to move out to protect them for possible gas leak from the milk plant, an official spokesman said tonight.

Curfew was clamped in five more towns--the latest one being Jind, Hisar and Hansi. Earlier today, curfew was imposed in Sonipat and Gohana towns of Sonipat district. It was already clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar towns.

The road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighboring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

An official release said tonight that five persons were killed "when Armed Forces opened fire to quell arson and firing" by the protesters. Fifteen persons, including security personnel, were injured in Rohtak and Jhajjar today, the release said.

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The fifth casualty occurred in Kaithal district while earlier in the day deaths of four persons in firing were reported from Jhajjar and Rohtak. One person was killed in firing by BSF in Rohtak yesterday.

As many as 15 companies of India Reserve Battalion and Haryana Armed Police, three companies of paramilitary forces and two columns of Army have already been deployed, the release said.

Among the five dead, three were identified by authorities as Parveen (Jhajjar), Krishan (Jhajjar) and Nitin (Rohtak). The identity of the fourth is not yet known. One unidentified person was killed in firing by BSF yesterday in Rohtak.

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 800 trains, and seven stations in the state were set on fire by the agitators.

Jhajjar, Buddha Khed, Julana and Pillu Kheda were among the seven stations which were set afire, a Railway spokesperson said, adding that two track machines were also burnt at Pillu Kheda.

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The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

In a new twist to the agitation, there were reports of clashes between Jats and non-Jats with 10 persons being injured at Kalayat in Kaithal district and in Hansi area of Hisar district.

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar asked agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands", but did not elaborate.

"Such incidents create disharmony," he said here after reviewing the situation with his ministerial colleagues and senior civil and police officers.

But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.

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Hi all, It's been a while since my last post. Time has been against me since starting my new job. I've still managed to play a lot, just not had the time f...

7 years ago
Marketa Jirouskova via Getty Images Wagah, border-closing ceremony at Pakistan-India border near Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

NEW DELHI -- An India trade exhibition scheduled to be held from February 26-28 in Pakistan has been cancelled following threat of terrorists attack.

The meet, which was to be held in Lahore, has been cancelled after the Indian High Commission in Islamabad warned of High security threat perceptions.

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Around 100 Indian companies had signed up for the event, titled India Exhibition organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that was supposed to be held at the Lahore Expo Centre. After the conclusion of the meet, dignitaries from India were also supposed to talk to Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over a call on 27th February.

The Indian High Commission in Pakistan warned us of serious security concerns due to which the meet had to be cancelled. A lot of money has gone down the drain, top sources in the know told HuffPost India.

Companies from various sectors had signed up to participate in the event. The gem and jewellery sector probably had the maximum representation with booking for at least 50 stalls at the venue.

While an e-mail sent to FICCI seeking comments did not elicit any response, a senior FICCI official who wished not to be named confirmed that the event has been cancelled.

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"We were keen to go ahead with the event. But because of prevailing security threat perception, FICCI felt it appropriate at the moment to postpone' it" the official said. No fresh date has been decided yet.

As per the schedule, the delegation from India was supposed to reach Amritsar on 24 February and walk across the Wagah border the next day to enter Pakistan and register at the Pakistan Rangers Post before proceeding to the Pakistan Immigration and Customs office.

They were supposed to reach Lahore on February 25 afternoon and check into Hotel Pearl Continental. This was to be followed by a seminar on India-Pakistan Economic Relations by the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of South Asian Association for Regional Corporation (SAARC).

India-Pakistan ties have been volatile and terror continues to strain trade relations. On Friday, Pakistani authorities lodged an FIR into the 2 January Pathankot attack in which suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked an Indian Air Force Station, killing seven security men and injuring 20 others.

All six terrorists were killed as Indian forces retaliated. The attack derailed a scheduled meeting between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India in January in Islamabad.

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An inkjet printer is usually used for personal use. This type of inkjet printer is only used for printing, without the need for the usual scanner function. It connects to a single computer / laptop from which it is printed and is used according to the need of each printer.

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In Windows 10, adding a local printer often requires simply connecting the printer to a USB port on your PC and then turning on the printer. If Windows 10 detects it correctly and finds the right drivers for it, it should see a message in the bottom right corner of the screen confirming this.
Hutchinson's Orscheln Farm store has become a Bomgaars location

The Hutchinson store was one of 73 the FTC said Tractor Supply could not own due to anti-trust concerns. Transition to new store could take 15 months.
When 'Fargo: Season One' debuted on the basic cable channel FX in 2014, I was immediately caught off-guard by it. I absolutely love the Coen brothers - even their movies that most people don't - but I didn't put much stock in the series; however, after watching it, I found that it was actually amazing. Each episode raised the bar higher and higher and, by the end, surprisingly, I personally deemed it "better than the movie." I certainly didn't see that coming. And even more to my surprise, "Year Two" is even better.

The creator of the television series has explained that he wants the show to flow like a singular grand story of crime in the mid-west. Characters, objects or events will link each of the stories (seasons) together to tell the grand nonlinear story of Fargo. In fact, one episode of Year Two even shows the book of Fargo (aka, "The History of True Crime in the Midwest"). Like the opening of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the episode kicks off with the physical book opening and pages turning with a voice-over narration that gets us up to speed with the specific episode. What we see is a mere fraction of what lies within the fictional book. One page references back to events that occurred in the 1800s, making me really hope that we get a full-blown western season by the time the series has run its course. In the grand plan of things, the movie falls right within the middle of the chronological order of the story, season one lies later in the book, and season two takes us back to 1979.

Season one primarily featured a link to the 1996 film 'Fargo' through the snow-buried briefcase and the red windshield scraper. The primary link to season two is through one of the characters: Lou Solverson. In season one, he's played by the Keith Carradine. In it, the seasoned old character is the ex-cop father of the Allison Tolman's good-willed leading police office character. In season two, his younger version is played by the always-good Patrick Wilson.

Season two gets even more complex than the first season  both is story and concept. The story follows two mob-like crime organizations fighting over territory. On one hand, there's the local family-run organization. And on the other, there's the corporate-style syndicate out of Kansas City. As expected, the Minnesota police are involved, as are those of North and South Dakota. A fairly dimwitted couple also becomes ignorantly entangled in the mix. Leading up to the "Massacre at Sioux Falls," which was much-teased in season one, and an extremely high body count.

On the conceptual side, it's just as complex and thought-out as the story. Unfortunately, unless you were around in the '70s-'80s transition or have a vast knowledge of American economics, the brilliant concept and symbolism won't mean as much. Fortunately, for those of us too young to know that part of the history books, we have excellent special features to walk us through the desirn of its thoughtful premise.

The season two ante is upped significantly over that of season one. First, there's only one character whose fate we know is safe: Deputy Solverson. Aside from him, no one is safe. Not his father-in-law/boss (Ted Danson). Not a single member of the local Gerhardt crime family (Jean Smart, Jeffrey Donovan, Angus Sampson, Kieran Culkin, Rachel Keller, Zahn McClarnon). Not the Kansas City boys (Bokeen Woodbine, Brad Garrett). And not the locals (Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, Nick Offerman, Cristin Milioti). Anything and everything can happen  and I literally mean anything.

Everything that made season one perfect is still present in season two, and yet somehow it has been amplified. They took the perfection, added the lightning that they magically caught in a bottle, and churned out a second season that defies the odds and outdoes the flawless and magnificent first season. It has to be seen to believed  which is a very, very good thing.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Fargo: Year Two' comes with Blu-ray package that matches the merits and aesthetics of 'The Complete First Season'  only without a cool keepsake. The three-disc Elite keepcase houses Region A BD-50s. Prior to the main menu, skippable trailers for other great TV series run.
Genres : Drama, Thriller

Starring : James Woods, Lesley Ann Warren

Director : James B. Harris

Plot Synopsis

A killer on the loose! A cop on the edge! James Woods (The Onion Field) stars as a brilliant maverick police detective in this exciting, violent thriller with a hint of film noir. Police detective Lloyd Hopkins (Woods) doesn't like to be told what to do, or what not to do. Stripped of his badge and gun, he pursues a killer no one thinks exists. By uncovering a secret hidden in a high-school yearbook, he will piece together seemingly unrelated clues to expose crimes dating back two decades. Based on the James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) Best Seller, Blood on the Moon with a screenplay by producer and director James B. Harris (Fast-Walking). The strong supporting cast includes Lesley Ann Warren (Life Stinks), Charles Durning (The Rosary Murders), Charles Haid (TV s Hill Street Blues) and Raymond J. Barry (Year of the Dragon).
 

         

                     ,  ,    ,       ,   .
Starring : Carol Connors

Director : Gail Palmer

Plot Synopsis

Carol Connors became and instant sensation for her starring role as Candy in Gail Palmer's sexy classics. Vinegar Syndrome proudly brings these cult favorites to Blu-ray, fully restored and totally uncut from their original 35mm negatives. EROTIC ADVENTURES OF CANDY (1978): In this madcap adaptation of Voltaire's CANDIDE, virginal Candy is curious about sex, but no one will teach her, so she sets out to learn from experience. Her lust filled adventure takes her from one hilarious encounter to the next! CANDY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD (1979): Buxom Candy arrives in Hollywood, searching for fame and fortune. After meeting lecherous agent Johnny Dooropener, young Candy gets to know the ins and outs of Hollywood in every way possible! Featuring a guest appearance from punk legend Wendy O. Williams.




Some of Sanders' Democratic Party adversaries have claimed that the Senator's history of principled stands has been short on racial equality, a charge that has required those opponents to claim that photos of Sanders being arrested at civil rights demonstrations are actually photos of someone else.



The Chicago Tribune has dug through its archives for the original negatives of mass arrests from the era, revealing several exposures that clearly show the Senator as a young man, being dragged away by police at a 1963 demonstration in Chicago's Englewood. It's just one of many records of Sanders' long-term commitment to racial equality and civil rights, including court records stemming from the arrest, which name him as the arrested party.

The issue has picked up steam as the presidential primaries have moved into southern states with large black communities, where Hillary Clinton expects to pick up more votes, despite the endorsement of her husband, whose dismal record on racial equality, including his disastrous criminal just reforms and welfare reforms, which subjected poor and African-American people to levels of discrimination, incarceration and deprivation at rates unheard of in the developed world.

Sanders enrolled at the University of Chicago on Oct. 3, 1960, and graduated in June 1964 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science, said Jeremy Manier, a university spokesman.



Sanders attended Brooklyn College before coming to the U. of C., Manier said. At the University of Chicago, he was a leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, a major civil rights group. News accounts from the time had Sanders leading protests over racial inequality.

Arrest photo of young activist Bernie Sanders emerges from Tribune archives

[Katherine Skiba/Chicago Tribune]

(Photo: thumbnail of a 1963 photo taken by Tom Kinahan for the Chicago Tribune)
Imperial Valley News Center

Industry Initiatives to Prevent Drinking and Driving Lack Scientific Evidence of Effectiveness, Study Suggests

Baltimore, Maryland - The majority of the alcohol industrys actions around the world to reduce drinking and driving either lack evidence of effectiveness or havent been studied, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

Reporting February 18 in the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers analyzed the content of 266 initiatives the alcohol industry implemented around the world to reduce drinking and driving between 1982 and 2015.

They found that the most commonly used industry initiatives -- including designated driver programs, ride services and mass media campaigns -- lack evidence of effectiveness or have not been studied. For instance, while ride services may reduce drinking and driving, people may actually consume more alcohol, which can increase the risk of other negative outcomes such as violence and injuries, the researchers say. Additionally, mass media campaigns with messages to drivers about reducing their alcohol consumption are generally ineffective unless they are rigorously planned and executed, and used alongside other evidence-based interventions.

Over the past 30 years, the alcohol industry has implemented more than 3,500 initiatives around the world to reduce harmful drinking as part of their corporate social responsibility business practices. Along with individual alcohol corporations, many of these programs are led by industry trade associations and public relations organizations funded by the industry. Fewer than 3 percent of the industry actions listed a health-related agency as a partner.

Our findings suggest that almost none of the alcohol industrys efforts to reduce drinking and driving were based on what scientific evidence has told us can work to improve public health, says study supervisor Adnan A. Hyder, MD, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School.

According to the World Health Organization, driving under the influence of alcohol contributes to nearly 15 percent of road traffic deaths globally.

To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed an online database of industry initiatives for reducing harmful drinking kept by the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, an industry group. Of the 266 actions they evaluated, the majority were instituted in Europe (61.7 percent) followed by the Americas (22.2 percent).

Examples of interventions that have been shown to have the highest levels of evidence of effectiveness include the use of sobriety checkpoints and the installation of ignition interlocks that prevent someone with an elevated blood alcohol level from driving a car. The researchers found that these were only used 0.8 percent of the time among the sample of industry initiatives in the study. Nearly 42 percent lack evidence of effectiveness, while 56 percent have not been scientifically evaluated or there is insufficient evidence to make a determination.

Despite their wide use, there is little evidence that programs funded by the alcohol industry actually protect public health and prevent drinking and driving, the researchers say. In fact, the industry commonly distributed flyers, leaflets and small giveaways about the risks of drinking, which the researchers say not only isnt effective, but often doubled as marketing for the alcohol brands that sponsor such programs.

The majority of industry initiatives are either ineffective or of unknown effectiveness; public health interventions are generally held to a higher standard, says study co-author, David Jernigan, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School.

Evaluation of the Evidence Base for the Alcohol Industrys Actions to Reduce Drink Driving Globally, was written by Marissa Esser, PhD, MPH; James Bao, MSPH; David H. Jernigan PhD; and Adnan A. Hyder, MD, PhD, MPH.

The research was conducted during the Global Road Safety Program, which is funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Experimental Stent Stems Danger of Major Artery Rupture

Rochester, Minnesota - It was just supposed to be wrist surgery. But when Ron Hall, an 80-year-old retired structural steel worker from Blue Earth, Minnesota, was preparing for his procedure, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, doctors noticed something else. They discovered that the major artery that carries blood through his stomach was "in high danger of rupturing." When given this news, Ron and his wife, Val, considered their options. And then, Val says her "brain clicked on that we were near the Mayo Clinic."

At Mayo's Rochester campus, Ron came under the care of surgeon Gustavo Oderich, M.D., and received a treatment he likely wouldn't have received elsewhere. He became the first person in the country to receive an experimental abdominal aortic stent that would help "shore up" the "bulge in his abdominal aorta." That was possible, the newspaper reports, because Mayo Clinic is one of the "handful of medical facilities across the country" to have approval from the U.S. government to carry out applied research, or "early feasibility studies," on the device.

By the time he came to Mayo, Ron tells the Star Tribune, his aneurysm had gotten so large that doctors told him it could "cause me to tip over any minute and die." To keep that from happening, Dr. Oderich and his surgical team implanted the "specially designed" stent in his abdomen to keep his blood flowing "without the risk of blowing open a 9-centimeter weak spot." First, however, they used a 3-D printer to "make a model of Ron's abdominal aorta" to allow them to simulate the entire procedure "the day before it actually took place." Thanks to that prep work and a skilled surgical team, the Tribune reports that Ron is back home and on his way to a "complete recovery."

Dr. Oderich also credits Mayo's ability to use early feasibility studies to help "high risk" patients who don't have alternative treatment options. For manufacturers, these studies provide a path to bring products to market more quickly, according to the newspaper. The stent's manufacturer, W.L. Gore and Associates, is working with a handful of medical centers to test the device, as well. Dr. Oderich tells the paper he's also "testing other aortic abdominal stents" in "larger, later-stage feasibility studies" to try and help them become more widely available to other patients like Mr. Hall. That's good for patients and helps fuel further advances. "If this type of early feasibility becomes more frequent, you will drive development of devices forward and bring technology earlier to physicians in the United States," Dr. Oderich says.
Adderall Misuse Rising Among Young Adults

Baltimore, Maryland - While the number of prescriptions for the stimulant Adderall has remained unchanged among young adults, misuse and emergency room visits related to the drug have risen dramatically in this group, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

Anecdotal evidence had suggested the most severe problem of Adderall misuse was among older children and adolescents, but the new research  published Feb. 16 in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry  finds otherwise. The study examined trends from 2006 through 2011 and found that it is mainly 18-to-25-year-olds who are inappropriately taking Adderall without a prescription, primarily getting the medication from family and friends and without a physician recommendation or prescription.

The growing problem is among young adults, says study co-author Ramin Mojtabai, MD, MPH, PhD, a professor of mental health at the Bloomberg School. In college, especially, these drugs are used as study-aid medication to help students stay up all night and cram. Our sense is that a sizeable proportion of those who use them believe these medications make them smarter and more capable of studying. We need to educate this group that there could be serious adverse effects from taking these drugs and we dont know much at all about their long-term health effects.

Says first author Lian-Yu Chen, MD, who received her PhD in 2014 from the Bloomberg School: The number of prescriptions for Adderall has fallen and yet we are seeing more medical problems from its use. This suggests that the main driver of misuse and emergency room visits related to the drug is the result of diversion, people taking medication that is legitimately prescribed to someone else. Physicians need to be much more aware of what is happening and take steps to prevent it from continuing.

Adderall, the brand name for dextroamphetamine-amphetamine, does improve focus, Mojtabai says, but it can also cause sleep disruption and serious cardiovascular side effects, such as high blood pressure and stroke. It also increases the risk for mental health problems, including depression, bipolar disorder and unusual behaviors including aggressive or hostile behavior. There is little research on long-term effects. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put a black box warning on dextroamphetamine-amphetamine due to cardiovascular risks. It is prescribed for conditions such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.

For their study, the researchers examined three separate sets of data: the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a population survey of substance use; the Drug Abuse Warning Network, a survey of emergency department visits; and the National Disease and Therapeutic Index, a survey of office-based practices including prescribing.

They found that in adults, over the six-year study period, treatment visits involving Adderall were unchanged, while non-medical use of Adderall (that is, taking the drug without it being prescribed) rose 67 percent and emergency room visits went up 156 percent. Over the same period, in adolescents, treatment visits involving Adderall went down, nonmedical use was stable and emergency room visits declined by 54 percent. The trends for methylphenidate, sold under the brand name Ritalin among others, and another prescription stimulant prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, were unchanged over the period.

Meanwhile, the major source for nonmedical use of Adderall was family or friends; two-thirds of those family or friends obtained it by prescription.

The researchers found that of all Adderall nonmedical use, from age 12 and up, 60 percent of it was among 18-to-25-year-olds.

Mojtabai says that from a public health perspective, drugs like Adderall should be monitored in the same way that prescription painkillers have started to be monitored in recent years. He says prescriptions should be entered into a database that a physician could check before writing a prescription to make sure the patient isnt receiving multiple medications from multiple physicians, a warning sign of diversion or abuse.

He also says it would be helpful to institute informational campaigns for young adults explaining the adverse effects associated with the drug. Many of these college students think stimulants like Adderall are harmless study aids, he says. But there can be serious health risks and they need to be more aware.

Prescriptions, Nonmedical Use, and Emergency Department Visits Involving Prescription Stimulants was written by Lian-Yu Chen, MD, PhD; Rosa M. Crum, MD, MPH; Eric C. Strain, MD; G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS; Christopher Kaufmann, MHS; and Ramin Mojtabai, MD, MPH, PhD.

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Healths National Institute on Drug Abuse (K24 DA023186), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (RO1 HS01899600 and a National Research Service Award (F31AG044052).

Alexander is Chair of the FDAs Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee, serves as a paid consultant to IMS Health, and serves on an IMS Health scientific advisory board. This arrangement has been reviewed and approved by Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. Mojtabai has received consulting fees and research grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Lundbeck.
NIH Rare Disease Day event, on Leap Day, will feature patients voices and international collaboration

Washington, DC - On February 29, NIH will host a Rare Disease Day event to raise awareness about rare diseases, the people they affect and current research collaborations. An estimated 25 million people in the United States have rare diseases. The event will feature presentations, posters, exhibits, an art show and tours of the NIH Clinical Center - a hospital at which researchers are studying nearly 600 rare diseases in partnership with over 15,000 patients. Admission is free and open to the public.

Agenda: http://bit.ly/1JYUEQ3 (link is external)

Registration: http://bit.ly/1X45Z3d (link is external)

Watch the event live: https://videocast.nih.gov

Learn more: https://ncats.nih.gov/rdd

When/Where

February, 29, 2016

8:30 a.m.  3:30 p.m.

NIH Clinical Center (Building 10) Masur Auditorium, 10 Center Dr., Bethesda, Maryland

Who

The event is hosted by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the NIH Clinical Center. Partner organizations include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Organization for Rare Disorders, Genetic Alliance, Global Genes, Everylife Foundation for Rare Diseases, and Uplifting Athletes.

Speakers will include

Congressman Leonard Lance, (NJ-07), co-chair of the Rare Disease Caucus

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D.

NIH Clinical Center Director John I. Gallin, M.D.

Patients will be available to tell their rare disease stories.

Press

Members of the media should use contacts above for more information and to discuss interview, filming and photography opportunities.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences is a distinctly different entity in the research ecosystem. Rather than targeting a particular disease or fundamental science, NCATS focuses on what is common across diseases and the translational process. The Center emphasizes innovation and deliverables, relying on the power of data and new technologies to develop, demonstrate and disseminate improvements in translational science that bring about tangible improvements in human health. For more information, visit https://ncats.nih.gov.

The NIH Clinical Center is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. Through clinical research, clinician-investigators translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health. More information: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov
National survey finds physicians support PDMPs, encounter barriers to providing non-opioid therapy to treat patients pain

Chicago, Illinois - The American Medical Association today released the findings of a national physician survey that shows strong support for key policies and recommendations to end the nations opioid epidemic, including ways to improve prescription drug monitoring programs, enhancing physician education as well as removing barriers to care.

Released by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, the survey shows that 87 percent of physicians agree that prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) help physicians become more informed about a patients prescription history. The survey also found that to further enhance this as a resource, physicians said PDMPs need improvement to integrate with electronic health records, provide real-time data and other key features that would make them even more useful.

In light of the findings, AMA President Steven J. Stack, MD, issued a call to action to the nations physicians and physicians-in-training this week, highlighting five important recommendations when prescribing opioids and encouraging physicians to increase their efforts in the fight against opioid misuse.

If a physician is considering prescribing an opioid  whether for acute or chronic pain  we strongly encourage physicians to ensure that they are current in their knowledge and training as to when an opioid is appropriate  and when it is not, said Dr. Stack. This new survey helps underscore that medical societies must be leaders in providing the best resources possible to our colleagues in every state and for every specialty, both for appropriate opioid prescribing and in urging physicians to register for and use PDMPs.

The AMA survey also found that a majority of respondents have taken continuing medical education (CME) on safe opioid prescribing (68 percent) and pain management with opioid alternatives (55 percent). Moreover, the survey found that physicians seek more practice-specific and specialty-specific education. Specifically, the survey found that 1 in 4 physicians said that CME on these issues either was not readily available for their specialty or did not directly address their practice needs.

The national survey also addressed overdose prevention and treatment of substance use disorders. Only 15 percent of the surveyed physicians had taken education on medication-assisted treatment (MAT). The AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse has made increasing access to MAT a key recommendation and several medical organizations offer waiver-qualifying MAT training to help physicians recognize patients with substance use disorder and become certified to increase access to treatment.

In addition, the survey found strong support for increasing access to naloxone. More than 80 percent of physicians said that naloxone should be available to a patient via a standing order or collaborative practice agreement with a pharmacist. The AMA has model legislation that includes support for standing orders, and the AMA also has supported more than 20 state laws that increase access to naloxone in the community. Additionally, it is essential that the pharmaceutical companies and health plans ensure ready, reliable, and affordable access to this life-saving medication.

The next step to help increase access to naloxone is for physicians to co-prescribe this life-saving medication to patients at risk of overdose, said Dr. Stack. Just as we would co-prescribe an epi-pen to a person at risk for a life-threatening allergic reaction, we should co-prescribe naloxone to a patient at risk for overdose.

This survey provides an important window into physicians perceptions about caring for patients with pain and those with substance use disorders, said Dr. Stack. This survey confirms that physicians support many of the key policies being considered to end this crisis. The AMA and the nations physicians are committed to partnering with others to implement proven solutions.
Six Things That Raise Your Blood Pressure

Dallas, Texas - Keeping your pressure under control can mean adding things to your life, like exercise, that help lower it. But, you may not realize that it also means avoiding things that raise your pressure. A healthy blood pressure level means youre less likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

If you or someone you care about is among the nearly 80 million U.S. adults with high blood pressure, you need to be aware of these six things that can raise blood pressure, and thwart your efforts to keep it in a healthy range.

Salt

The American Heart Association recommends people aim to eat no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day. That level is associated with lower blood pressure, which reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke. Because the average Americans sodium intake is so excessive, even cutting back to 2,400 mg per day can improve blood pressure and heart health.

Decongestants

People with high blood pressure should be aware that the use of decongestants may raise blood pressure. Many over-the-counter (OTC) cold and flu preparations contain decongestants. Always read the labels on all OTC medications. Look for warnings for those with high blood pressure and who take blood pressure medications.

Alcohol

Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure. Your doctor may advise you to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink. If cutting back on alcohol is hard for you to do on your own, ask your healthcare provider about getting help. The AHA recommends that if you drink, limit it to no more than two drinks per day for men and no more than one drink per day for women.

Hot Tubs & Saunas

People with high blood pressure should not move back and forth between cold water and hot tubs or saunas. This could cause an increase in blood pressure.

Weight gain

Maintaining a healthy weight has many health benefits. People who are slowly gaining weight can either gradually increase their level of physical activity (toward the equivalent of 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity), reduce caloric intake, or both, until their weight is stable. If you are overweight, losing as little as five to 10 pounds may help lower your blood pressure.

Sitting

New research shows that just a few minutes of light activity for people who sit most of the day can lower blood pressure in those with type 2 diabetes. Taking three-minute walk breaks during an eight-hour day was linked to a 10-point drop in systolic blood pressure.

Learn more about keeping a healthy blood pressure level at www.heart.org/hbp.
Anniversary of Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity

Washington, DC - Today, we join the people of Ukraine in honoring the memory of their Revolution of Dignity and those who gave their lives to build a more just, democratic, and European Ukraine. They braved sniper fire and three months in the bitter cold, and Ukraine got a second chance for freedom, justice, and a government that serves the people.

Ukraines reformers have made substantial progress, but much more remains to be done. The United States calls on Ukraines leaders to honor the memory of the Maidan by working together, accelerating reform, and respecting the will of the Ukrainian people who want progress. That means fulfilling the conditions of Ukraines IMF program, rooting out corruption, and ending the oligarchic grip on politics and the economy. The Ukrainian people demand change, they deserve it, and the United States will continue to stand with them in support of their European choice.
Watch: This Video Of Woman Failing At Archery, Hitting Arrow On Head Is Hilarious
For 13 years, Iraq's post-Saddam elites have run amok, looting the country's riches while creating a pervasive culture of corruption that spreads all the way down  only the continuous injection of new money from the country's oil-fields kept the whole thing from collapsing.



When oil prices fell, the country was left with the same level of extractive corruption, but not enough new money coming in to keep things rolling. Now the cookie jar is empty and the country is in chaos. Official corruption has meant that much of the country's armed forces was composed of "ghost soldiers"  either real people who never showed up for work and split their wages with their commanding officers, or works of pure fiction whose paychecks went straight into their commander's pockets. All those breathtaking ISiS victories? Victories over ghost soldiers: bases staffed by accounting fictions, rather than armed defenders. But of course, they were full of real guns.



Hoshyar Zebari estimates that there as many as 30,000 ghost soldiers in Iraq's military and that corrupt officers are pocketing their salaries. The impact is even more significant than the bottom line. The fall of Mosul, Iraq's second city, in mid-2014 was in part blamed on there being far fewer soldiers in position to defend the city than there were on the books. Generals and other senior officers accused of running the scam have yet to be brought to account. "They were protected," said Jabouri. "We only go after the easy targets here. Recently a Christian businessman was jailed for two years for stealing $200,000 to build his house. That is nothing. It doesn't even register as a crime compared [with] what else is going on." "We have paid out $1bn for war planes that never arrived. In Tikrit there have been budgets paid for courthouses that have never been built. It is the same with road projects all over the country, the port at Umm Qasr near Basra. If I had 50 staff to help me, we could barely scratch the surface. "The problems here are social as much as everything. You are seen as weak if you don't steal. Everyone wants to claim power, because they know that nobody else is going to share power with them."



Post-war Iraq: 'Everybody is corrupt, from top to bottom. Including me'

[Martin Chulov/The Guardian]





(Image: Syria & Iraq developments, December 01 2015

, Syria & Iraq News)

(via Super Punch)
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When I first heard the story of how Robert Schumanns Violin Concerto came to light in the 1930s, I nearly fell off my chair.

This extraordinary piece, the composers last orchestral work, has had a chequered existence. After one airing by its intended soloist, Joseph Joachim, it languished in obscurity for nearly eight decades. Then in 1933 Joachims great-niece, the Hungarian violinist Jelly dAranyi (one-time muse to Bartok, Ravel and even Elgar) claimed to have received spirit messages via a Ouija board begging her to find and perform it.

So bizarre was her quest  extending to the highest echelons of the Third Reichs administration  that Ive turned it into a novel, entitled Ghost Variations. The book has been taken up by the groundbreaking publisher Unbound and is due out this summer.

The violinist Jelly dAranyi, once a muse for Bartok and Ravel (Hulton Archive/Getty) (Getty Images)

The reality is admittedly stranger than fiction. After Schumanns death, his widow, Clara, put the concerto aside, fearing it might betray its composers increasingly unstable state of mind. Always prone to extreme highs and lows, Schumann may have been bipolar, or suffered from tertiary syphilis, or possibly both; academics remain divided on the nature of his malady, though most incline towards the syphilis explanation. In February 1854 he suffered a devastating breakdown and tried to drown himself in the Rhine. Having survived, he requested to go into a mental hospital. He spent his final two years in an asylum in Endenich, Bonn, and died there in July 1856.

Thereafter, it was up to Clara to decide which of her husbands unpublished works should see the light of day. In consultation with her two right-hand men, Johannes Brahms and Joachim, she took time to make up her mind about the concerto. Finally she elected not to issue it. Joachims heirs deposited the manuscript in the Prussian State Library, placing what was thought to be a 100-year embargo on the work. Schumanns daughter, Eugenie, insisted that in fact her mother wished it never to be played.

Jelly dAranyi was 14 when her great-uncle Joachim died. Her elder sister, Adila Fachiri, likewise a celebrated violinist, had been Joachims pupil in Berlin. Fachiri was, as it turned out, a psychic sensitive, able to receive at considerable speed and intensity detailed messages in the then-fashionable Glass Game (ie, a home-made Ouija board).

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

Although dAranyi herself claimed to have received the initial message, she rarely participated in such sessions. It was largely Fachiri and her friend Baron Erik Palmstierna, the Swedish Minister in London, who drove the search thereafter; Palmstierna himself unearthed the manuscript in Berlin; and his book Horizons of Immortality, based on messages interpreted by Fachiri, broke the news of the concertos revelation upon an incredulous and cynical public in September 1937.

Others, though, also had a vested interest in reviving the piece. Once the concerto was found, its publisher-to-be, Schott, sent a copy to the young superstar violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who longed to give its modern premiere as his comeback after a years sabbatical. Meanwhile, the Nazi administration was alerted by the enquiries from England to the fact that something interesting was sitting in the Prussian State Library. Having investigated for themselves, they elected to override any alleged embargoes, as well as dAranyis claim to priority. Germanys most popular violin concerto, the one by the Jewish-born Mendelssohn, had been banned; Goebbels wished to promote Schumanns suppressed work as a great German violin concerto by a great German composer  performed by a German soloist, Georg Kulenkampff. Menuhin, in the US, was relegated to second place and dAranyi, in London, to third. She finally gave the UK premiere in February 1938.

There was little chance, though, that the Nazis would persuade the public to love this concerto as much as they did Mendelssohns. To some  including the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, whose new recording of the work is out next week  the work can represent a testimony to a mind tragically dislocated from reality. And even if you dont feel it necessarily betrays signs of incipient insanity to such an extreme degree, it is certainly complex, formally intriguing, filled with struggle, difficult to pace in performance.

Either way, it contains much wonderful music. Its slow movement is heartbreakingly beautiful  sharing a shred of melody with Schumanns last piano work, written soon afterwards, entitled Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations). Schumann believed that the theme for the piano piece had been dictated to him by the spirits of composers beyond the grave  forgetting that he had already written it himself.

Today the Schumann Violin Concerto is finally rising to prominence. Given chances to shine in the hands of todays leading soloists, it proves that its genuine soul, passion and intensity can ride high, despite its composers tragic fate. And even if Jelly dAranyi did not quite give its first 20th-century performance, her effort on its behalf saved it from oblivion. Thanks to her, we can appreciate and assess it for ourselves.

Ghost Variations by Jessica Duchen is to be published by Unbound: Patricia Kopatchinskajas recording of the Schumann Violin Concerto, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester conducted by Heinz Holliger, is out on 26 February on the Audite label
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Pakistans prime minister is to host a special screening of an Oscar-nominated film that has highlighted the scourge of so-called honour killings of women - in his country and in many others.

Nawaz Sharif will show Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoys A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness at his office on Monday, after meeting with the Pakistani filmmaker and promising his support.

The film, which focusses on the attempted murder of a young woman from Pakistans Punjab who is shot in the face and thrown in a river by her father and uncle for marrying the man she wanted to, has garnered praise in Pakistan and internationally. Yet it has also led to criticism of Ms Obaid-Chinoy by some, who claim she is portraying a negative image of her country.

Saba, 18, was a rare survivor of an honour killing attempt (A Girl in the River)

At a showing of the film in the New York last week, Ms Obaid-Chinoy said that honour killings were a menace not just in Pakistan, but in countries such as India, Bangladesh, and nations in the Middle East.

She said the practice was less connected to religion, ethnicity or nationality, than it was about communities where women were victims of patriarchy. Honour killings also took place in some immigrant communities in the West, she said. She is planning screenings of the film in the UK.

Change does not come overnight. I think it is important to keep pushing the envelope, said Ms Obaid-Chinoy, who said she chose to live and work in Karachi, despite having joint Canadian citizenship. I want to leave a better country for my kids.

Ms Obaid-Chinoy, who previously won an Oscar for her film Saving Face, focusses her lens on an eighteen-year-old girl, who is a rare survivor of an honour killing attempt. Initially she and her husband  supported by a lawyer and a police investigator  planned to prosecute the young womans father and uncle.

When #Socfilms began work on #Agirlintheriver we wanted to create an impact & change the discourse around #Honorkillings- We are delighted that the Prime Minister shares our concerns and will also be working to change the laws. Also it's quite incredible that the very first screening of our film will take place at the PM secretariat next week! A photo posted by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (@sharmeenobaid) on Feb 15, 2016 at 9:43am PST

But the film reveals how, under pressure from members of the local community, she and her in-laws were forced to accept a compromise, where she was obliged to tell a judge she had forgiven her relatives and they were set free. The film finishes with the young woman, Saba Qaiser, telling the filmmaker that she did not forgive the men in my heart.

Human rights experts in Pakistan believe anywhere up to 1,000 women are lose their lives in honour killings every year, most of them killed by family members. The film underscores the difficulty of prosecuting such cases.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

Ms Obaid-Chinoy said it was essential police and prosecutors pressed ahead with such cases, despite the difficulties. She said if people were jailed for the killings, it may help create a deterrent, rather than the current climate of impunity.

Saba was shot and thrown into this river by her father and uncle (A Girl in the River)

There are people in Pakistan who say my work shames Pakistan, she said. My response to them is why shoot the messenger?.

Mr Sharif agreed to host the screening after meeting with the filmmaker and vowing to address the issue. A spokesman for Pakistans foreign ministry confirmed it would be shown at Mr Sharifs office in Islamabad.

Customs and practices such as honour killings have nothing to do with the divine principles and theories of Islam, said Mr Sharif, according to a report in The News.

Women are the most essential part of our society and I believe in their empowerment, protection and emancipation of achieving the shared goal of a prosperous and vibrant Pakistan.
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While The Simpsons may have been going for well over 25 years now, theres still one question no-one really knows the answer to: where is Springfield?

Fans of the series have been asking that same question since the first season, yet little is known except Shelbyville is next door, and there are a lot of Shelbyvilles in the US.

Well, luckily those guys over at Film Theorists think they have the answer, giving a long-winded explanation as to where Springfield really is.

So where is it? Using evidence from various episodes, the detectives narrow their search down to either Washington or Oregon. But which one, I hear you say.

Well, in the episode Much Apu About Nothing, a classic episode in which a Bear Tax is introduced, outraging Homer, theres a little clue as to which of the two states Springfield is in.

At one point, Homer gets charged state tax, which is not applicable in 9 states, including Washington State, meaning The Simpsons home state  according to these theorists - is Oregon.

The icing on the cake isnt any of the geographical evidence though, it is the fact show creator Matt Groening grew up in Oregon and based Homer on his own father, as explained at the end of the video. Lovely.
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You are about to enter another dimension. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone! The cult sci-fi show which exposed the paranoia of Cold War America is to return with a series of unheard radio dramas broadcast by the BBC.

Incorporating elements of horror and suspense, and heralded by a nerve-jangling theme tune, The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling, electrified the nascent medium of television when it launched on CBS in 1959.

Running for six years and adapting stories by leading authors, including Ray Bradbury, The Twilight Zone entranced viewers with morality tales that touched on greed and hysteria, as well as on topical issues such as McCarthyisms witch-hunts, racism and nuclear catastrophe. Each of the 156 episodes ended with a shocking plot twist.

Now classic episodes from the series, based on original scripts from Serlings archive, will be broadcast as 40-minute dramas on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Stacy Keach, who played the TV detective Mike Hammer, voices Serlings famous narrations in the radio dramatisations, which feature Jane Seymour, Jim Caviezel, Michael York, Malcolm McDowell and Don Johnson among the cast.

The Twilight Zone episodes will run at 6pm on Saturdays, beginning next month with An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce, a short story set in the American Civil War.

The radio episodes are adapted by the American producer Carl Amari, who licensed the rights from CBS and the Rod Serling estate in 2002 after pledging to recreate the episodes with an A-list cast, music and sound effects.

There are 10 episodes in the initial 4 Extra batch, which the BBC said had never been broadcast in the UK. A number of episodes first broadcast by BBC 7, the digital stations predecessor, will also be rebroadcast under the deal.

The series, which inspired Charlie Brookers dystopian Black Mirror dramas, has been revived twice for television, in 1985 and 2002. A 1983 feature film, co-directed by Steven Spielberg, was marred by the death of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors in an on-set helicopter crash.
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So, the new Top Gear show is off to a good start, right? Well, not exactly, as on his first day of filming, Matt LeBlancs car broke down, leading to the star being swamped by fans keen to get selfies.

The ex-Friends actor was driving a Reliant Rialto covered in stars-and-stripes when his car began to falter, leading to the unplanned pit-stop near a KFC in Orbital Retail Park in Cannock, Staffordshire.

Chris Evans also stopped off in his Union Jack themed Rialto, both of whom were happy to take selfies with the fans surrounding them.

Among those fans were sisters Magan and Macy, aged 16 and 12, who both got photos with LeBlanc, their mother later Tweeting: Sorry for the breakdown but you've made my two daughters very happy in Cannock! Totally unexpected but thank you so much."

Meet the new Top Gear presenters Show all 7 1 /7 Meet the new Top Gear presenters Meet the new Top Gear presenters Chris Evans Chris Evans said of his new Top Gear gang: We really do have a bit of everything for everyone. A fellow lifelong petrolhead from the other side of the pond in Matt; a fearless speed-demon in the irrepressible and effervescent Sabine; the encyclopedic, funny and wonderfully colourful character that is EJ; Chris, one of the worlds top no-nonsense car reviewers; and Rory, who simply blew me away in his audition and fully deserves his place on the team" Meet the new Top Gear presenters Matt LeBlanc LeBlanc, best known for playing Joey in Friends, set the fastest celebrity lap time in the reasonably priced car on the former Top Gear hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. He recently presented the standalone spin-off Top Gear: The Races, where he reminded fans of the most memorable moments from the past 22 series. He will be Top Gear's first non-British host. 2015 Getty Images Meet the new Top Gear presenters The Stig The Stig, clearly not wanting to be left out of todays announcement, sent the following reply via electronic communication: -.-. .... . .-- .. . --..-- / .-- . .----. .-. . / .... --- -- . .-.-.- <static text> Meet the new Top Gear presenters Sabine Schmitz Sabine Schmitz is a German racing driver who is already well known to fans of Top Gear. She grew up in her parents hotel just 300m from the legendary Nurburgring track and has spent her life surrounded by cars and racing. She became the first woman to win the prestigious Nurburgring 24 hours in 1996 and repeated the feat a year later. Sabine became known as the Worlds fastest taxi driver by driving passengers around the track in a BMW M5 and has since presented several motoring shows for German TV. She has appeared on Top Gear several times over the years, becoming a firm favourite with viewers. She still races successfully today and runs her own race team Meet the new Top Gear presenters Eddie Jordan Eddie Jordan is an Irish former racing driver, team owner and entrepreneur whom a host of drivers owe their breaks to Eddie as a champion of young talent including Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine. Having suffered a number of major accidents whilst competing in racing himself Eddie retired to set up his Jordan team in 1980. The team went on to be champions in Formula 3 with Johnny Herbert in 1987, Formula 3000 in 1989 with Jean Alesi - and in 1990 Eddie established Jordan Grand Prix and entered Formula 1. He sold Jordan Grand Prix in January 2005 and has since developed a portfolio of business interests as well as presenting the BBC's coverage of Formula 1. He has been inducted into the Irish Motorsport Hall of Fame and in 2012 he was awarded an honorary OBE by Her Majesty The Queen in recognition of his services to charity and motor racing 2015 Getty Images Meet the new Top Gear presenters Rory Reid Rory Reid is an award-winning journalist of eighteen years specialising in cars. Rory has written and presented for the likes of CNET UK, where he launched the company's popular Car Tech channel, receiving a prestigious Association of Online Publishers (AOP) award for Best Use of Video in the process. Rory has featured in a number of car-focused television shows and had a starring role in the Gadget Geeks series on Sky 1, where he reviewed cars and consumer tech. He was also a presenter on the hugely successful Fast Furious & Funny YouTube channel. He is editor-in-chief of Recombu, specialising in producing car reviews Meet the new Top Gear presenters Chris Harris Chris Harris is probably best known for his popular YouTube channel, Chris Harris on Cars which he launched in 2014, established with the help longtime friend Neil Carey. It has already amassed over a quarter of a million subscribers and the content has been viewed over 20 million times. Chris began his career in motoring journalism at UK-based Autocar magazine, becoming their official road-test editor. This gave him the opportunity to do some racing and skidding before starting a website for fast cars the week Lehman Brothers went under in 2008, which obviously ended badly. He then looked to solve his new found indebtedness at Evo magazine and then became a member of the Pistonheads.com crew, as well as a regular feature on YouTubes DRIVE channel

Evans and LeBlanc received their first challeng via David Baddiel on BBC Radio 2, who told them to travel in the Reliant Robins to the Las Vegas of Britain  Blackpool  in the cars.

"Each of you will defend your respective nation's motoring honour in a series of suitably gruelling and potentially godawful Top Gear challenges," he said. "Yep, it's the USA versus the UK.

Getty

"First, you've got to get there, which will involve the time-honoured Top Gear presenter initiation experience brought to you by the letters 'R' and 'R'.

"Waiting for you outside right now are a brace of British three-wheel beauties that the likes of Top Gear has never seen before. We are talking about ruthless Reliant Robins for 250 to Blackpool in Friday traffic."

Rory Reid, Sabine Schmitz, Chris Harris, Eddie Jordan and The Stig complete the presenter line-up for the show, which will be competing against Clarkson, Hammond and Mays new as-yet-untitled Amazon Prime offering.
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Thousands of landfill dumps around the UK are at risk of being compromised by flooding and coastal erosion, sparking fears that dangerous substances could spill into rivers, streets and beaches, academics warn.

The UK faces a toxic timebomb after an analysis of its ageing dumps revealed that 2,946 are located in flood plains, experts say.

Furthermore, 1,655 of these historical landfill sites contain dangerous materials such as hazardous chemicals and asbestos, according to calculations for The Independent by Dr Daren Gooddy of the British Geological Society (BGS).

Recommended Read more Dead whales removed from Skegness beach and taken to landfill sites

Dr Gooddy is especially concerned about these sites because they are in areas with a high flood risk, and they are very unlikely to have a protective lining because they predate tough EU waste regulations introduced in the 1990s. These significantly strengthened requirements to insulate landfill waste from the surroundings and protect it from severe weather.

The research is alarming, said Friends of the Earth Campaigner Guy Shrubsole. Britains leaky landfills could turn out to be a toxic timebomb  and its clear that some are already leaching waste and chemicals into our watercourses.

Details about the contents of the UKs 21,027 historic landfills, which date from about 1890 to 1990, are sketchy, making it hard to assess their individual vulnerability to flooding and coastal erosion.

But with nearly 3,000 of them located in flood plains  and a further 1,264 in low-lying coastal areas, often by the sea  many waste sites risk being flooded from heavy rain, storm surges and coastal erosion.

Many of these landfill sites are protected by flood defences and will be able to withstand extreme weather. However, experts are concerned that many others may not be adequately protected and point out that heavy flooding in recent years demonstrates that even robust defences can be overcome by heavy rain.

There are major gaps in our knowledge about historical landfills and huge uncertainty about the scale of contamination they have caused in water and on land, said Dr Gooddy, principal hydrogeochemist at BGS. While its hard to say for sure, I would suggest that many of these legacy sites are vulnerable to flooding.

Furthermore, historic landfill sites across the country pose a risk to their surroundings even if they dont flood because they can still discharge waste that eventually washes into the waterways.

Even when flooding does not occur these sites leach out contaminated waste, which generally gets transported towards the nearest river, said Dr Gooddy.

His estimates relate to England and Wales but there are also numerous historical landfills in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland which are thought to pose similar risks.

Last year, waves washed away the clay walls of a disused landfill north of Bray, near Dublin, giving an indication of the risks at other sites. Environmental group Coastwatch revealed that about 200 metres of the tip has been exposed, with asbestos, rusted metal, heavy plastics, bricks and bags seen at the foot of the eroded cliffs.

Waste has also been reported hanging out of the side of the riverbank near the village of East Tilbury in Essex as a result of erosion.

With climate change set to increase heavy rain, storms and storm surges, these historical sites will become increasingly vulnerable  putting marine wildlife at risk, scattering rubbish over river banks and beaches and posing a risk to people, especially children, coming into contact with the waste.

The work weve done in the South-east suggests that there has already been widespread pollution from historic landfills, said Dr Kate Spencer, of Queen Mary University of London. And at one site we actually found a blue poison bottle from a pharmacist that had a skull and crossbones on it, with a stopper and liquid inside.

She added: These sites date back to a time when there were no protective linings, no regulation about what went in and little in the way of records about the contents. Many are on coastlines highly vulnerable to coastal erosion, storm surges and flooding and the big concern is that they will become even more vulnerable as climate change makes storms more frequent and intense.

Dr Spencer and her PhD student James Brand are working with the Environment Agency to create a vulnerability index ranking to identify those sites posing the greatest danger  based on the risk of flooding and the contents of the dump.

Francis OShea of University College London, who researched the state of Britains historical landfill sites for his PhD at Queen Mary, said: I was surprised how many historic landfill sites are lying in areas at risk from flooding or coastal erosion. With little information about their current state and what could be released if they flooded this is an area of considerable concern that needs to be investigated.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: We are supporting a research project by Queen Mary University of London to assess the potential impacts of flooding and coastal erosion on historic landfill sites close to the coast. We hope the research findings may provide a useful contribution to future shoreline management plans.
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Students at Cambridge University are calling for a bronze cockerel statue looted in a British colonial expedition to be returned to Africa in a public ceremony.

The cockerel  dubbed the new Cecil Rhodes by one student, following the row over whether a statue of the colonialist should be taken down at Oxford University  holds pride of place in Jesus Colleges dining hall, and reflects the three cockerels heads on the colleges official crest.

Students say it should be repatriated to Nigeria in a ceremony at the countrys royal palace, having been among hundreds of bronze works of art looted from Africa in the late 19th century, The Sunday Times reported.

However, the wording of the motion has also been contentious. Jason Okundaye, a Pembroke College student, said more black students should be involved in penning the repatriation demand, set to be debated next month by the colleges council.

A Cambridge University spokesman said: We recognise that ethical issues are of great importance.
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Student unions are no longer sticky bars filled with beer-swilling students avoiding their lectures. Todays undergraduates are more likely to be found sipping a coffee in an academic study group than downing a cheap beer with their mates.

New research from YouthSight and the National Union of Students (NUS) reveals that student unions are more often focused on providing academic clubs, support services and cafes than bargain booze.

Life on university campuses has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and many unions now provide low-cost vegetables, run their own ethical lettings agencies and provide venues for students own academic support groups.

Sales of draught and packaged beer at unions across the country have fallen over the last three years, the NUS said, whereas sales of hot drinks are up 11 per cent in the past year.

The survey of 1,000 undergraduates found that the most useful services for students were the clubs and societies (60 per cent), advice and support (50 per cent) and cafe facilities (43 per cent), with only 37 per cent identifying bars as the most useful service.

Coffee shops and cafes were the most-used service (87 per cent), the union shop (81 per cent) and clubs and societies (78 per cent) were the services most used by students, ahead of bars (74 per cent).

Students reported that clubs and societies were the most-beneficial services provided by student unions, with 55 per cent saying they had benefited a lot from them. Half said they benefited a lot from coffee shop facilities, while 42 per cent said they benefited a lot from advice and support.

Support services provided by student unions continue to rise year on year, with an increase of 15 per cent in cases at Hertfordshire, and 14 per cent in Cardiff. Academic societies have also increased, with the number trebling at De Montfort and at Chester in recent years.

Richard Brooks, NUS vice president for union development, said student unions should no longer be judged by outdated stereotypes.

Ten or 15 years ago people went to university, obviously to learn something but also to make friends and have a good time. A lot of policy-makers think its still like when they were at university, but since the introduction of the 9,000-a-year fees regime in 2012 students have become much more focused on employment prospects.

Todays students are now much more likely to set up an academic society to provide the academic support that they may feel is lacking on their course.

They also set up social enterprises, such as a scheme in Liverpool where students grow their own food on allotments and sell it at cost price in the student union, or in Hull where they set up their own lettings agency to improve student housing.

Mr Brooks added: Student unions are not an outdated stereotype of sticky bars filled with beer-swilling students avoiding their lectures. This is the new face of student life: profitable enterprise with a social edge.
Once Seattle became the first city where Uber drivers were allowed to unionize, the drivers started getting "customer service" calls that polled them on their satisfaction with the company, while ham-handedly pushing anti-union messages.

Ironically, Uber has been aggressively offshoring its call-center jobs, and laying off tons of those customer service reps, with the result that the call-center reps rebelled in subtle and not-so-subtle ways as they found themselves in solidarity with the drivers against a mutual enemy: Uber.

Uber worries that a successful unionization drive in Seattle would be the thin edge of the wedge, with other cities to follow, giving drivers a say in pricing, ratings, and other important aspects of their lives. As Seattle Uber driver Don Creery put it, Uber's position that drivers are independent contractors means, "We're small business owners who are not allowed to charge what we want or need for the service we're performing."



When conflicts between Uber and drivers arose, customer service reps tended to sympathize with the drivers, says the former rep who spoke with Quartz. And as Uber terminated more US-based reps' contracts, that solidarity increased. "It definitely eroded our loyalty to Uber when they started outsourcing, and we started to feel more like drivers in the way we were treated," the rep says. "We didn't feel [the script] was appropriate at all." Uber's cautions about unionizing aren't necessarily misguided. There are two federal laws under which Uber could challenge Seattle's ordinance, and any litigation could take years to resolve. Even were the ordinance to move forward unobstructed, it would likely be a year to 18 months before Uber and its drivers reached any new agreements under collective bargaining, says Mike O'Brien, the Seattle city council member who sponsored it.

Uber is using its US customer service reps to deliver its anti-union message

[Alison Griswold/Quartz]
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A government-backed scheme which guarantees that recruits will only spend four days a week in the classroom is helping to solve the teacher shortage in maths and science.

The Researchers in Schools programme works along the lines of the TeachFirst scheme, which lured some of the brightest graduates in the country into teaching. Its unique angle is that the Researchers project only recruits graduates with a PhD.

On their fifth day, the teachers can do their own research, go to conferences to improve their teaching skills, or work with small groups of students  possibly from disadvantaged communities.

Recommended Read more Engineers and teachers top list of sought after graduates in 2016

The project has three key aims for teachers on their fifth day: increasing their subject expertise, championing the idea of students aiming for university, and carrying out research in their field.

Simon Coyle, co-founder of the Brilliant Club, which devised the scheme, believes a similar approach adopted elsewhere in the system could make teaching more attractive, thus helping to tackle the workload problem that has bedevilled the profession.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA 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. 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Figures show that the scheme attracted 629 applicants in 2015  and placed 77 trainees in September of that year, the majority teaching maths or physics. Of those who applied, 81 per cent said they were not applying through any other route to enter the profession.

Long term, it might be applied elsewhere in the sector, possibly to address the workload issue, Mr Coyle said. It does mean, though, that their teaching is more compressed into the four days to get the one day a week off.

The scheme, government-funded until 2020, targets non-selective schools, and is operating in London, Kent, Somerset, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester and Luton.

Dr Richard Branch, who completed a PhD at Oxford University, is now a science teacher at Lampton School, Hounslow, in west London. He is supported by GlaxoSmithKline.

He arranges enrichment classes for his pupils on his fifth day, which have involved a trip to the companys headquarters. A highlight of the trip was a Q&A session with laboratory users including Formula One drivers Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, he said. I look forward to organising further enrichment activities with GSK in future. He is also researching the effect of science teachers degree outcomes on the performance of their students.

Nicola Loaring, at the Southern African Large Telescope, runs an astronomy club for sixth formers (Basie van Zyl)

Dr Nicola Loaring, who also completed a PhD at Oxford, now teaches at Ivybridge Community College in Devon and runs an astronomy club for her Year 12 pupils when she is not in the classroom. I enjoy teaching, and working with the children is really fun, she said. It is a great feeling when a child is struggling with something and suddenly they get it  and the light bulb comes on.

Mr Coyle is adamant that far from being a day off for teachers, it actually condenses their teaching and preparation into four days, while adding specific projects to their schedule. He has compiled a list of what the first cohort have achieved on their fifth day. It includes:

887 hours spent helping targeted pupils, such as those on free school meals, prepare for university;

Organising 21 university trips for targeted pupils;

Spending 677 hours on university research and 932 on preparing research for publication.

Christine Blower, NUT general secretary, welcomed the government-backed projects adoption of the unions long-held policy aim of giving teachers 20 per cent of their week away from the classroom.
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While David Cameron was widely mocked in the British press for securing what many saw as cosmetic reforms at last weeks Brussels summit, newspapers in Europe saw it as profoundly meaningful and wondered if this could lead to further unpicking of the EU.

Even if they were relieved a deal had finally been secured, there was concern about the UKs special treatment, perceived discrimination against fellow EU workers, and fear of damage to the ideals that have driven the European project since the end of the war.

French centre-left daily Le Monde said Mr Camerons victory amplified the movement towards Europe a la carte, while centre-right Le Figaro called the deal The kiss of death, saying no one has reason any longer to bend to the common rules, since one can escape them by means of a little blackmail.

 David Cameron doesn't know the details of the Benefit Deal at Andrew Marr's show.mp4

In Germany, Bild, noted: There is no longer a uniform movement at the level of 28 member states. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said it was all about finding formulations that would allow Cameron to score points at home.

Der Speigel magazine said: While the whole house is threatening to collapse because of the refugee crisis, European leaders are spending hours rearranging the furniture over Brexit.

Recommended Read more Cameron to launch final appeal for Tory backbenchers to back EU deal

Italian daily La Repubblica said that with two million Britons living in the EU, the UK should accept the two-way process of migration and immigration. Romano Prodi, former Italian prime minister and ex-EC president, wrote in Il Messaggero that the summits consequence is  extraordinarily important: Brussels has officially enshrined a multi-speed Europe. In Spain, El Pais said the EU had paid a high and unjustifiable price to secure the continued membership of a wayward partner. El Mundo said Mr Cameron had behaved like a true pyromaniac.

Polands coverage focused on Mr Camerons efforts to cut benefit payments to prospective Polish immigrants, with Gazeta Wyborcza saying a possible Brexit would make the situation of Poles in the UK far worse, because then their rights would not be defended in Brussels. In Belgium, La Libre Belgique said that what is considered to be good by London is not necessarily good for Europe.
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Forty state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman Rushdie, according to the state-run Fars News Agency.

Fars News Agency, which is closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was among the largest contributors, donating one billion Rials - nearly $30,000.

The announcement coincides with the anniversary of the fatwa issued the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, the agency said.

Ayatollah Khomeini, the First Supreme Leader of Iran, issued the fatwa against Rushdie on charges of blasphemy for his novel The Satanic Verses on 15 February, 1989.

The Ayatollah called for the death of the book's author along with anyone "involved in its publication".

Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death outside his office at Tsukuba University, the Italian translator Ettore Capriolo survived being stabbed at his apartment in Milan, and the novel's Norwegian publisher was shot three times in the back and left for dead outside his home in Oslo.

Protesters chant slogans to condemn Britain's knighting of the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie June 22, 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Rushdie was put under police protection by the British government and spent many years in hiding.

While Iran's former President Mohammad Khatami said the threat against the author was "finished" in 1998, the fatwa has never officially been lifted.

Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 the order still stands.

The new bounty is the largest organised effort to assassinate Rushdie since the fatwa was issued.

It is currently unclear whether he has been made aware of the new bounty.

Last year, the Islamic Republic cancelled its appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair after Rushdie was announced as a speaker. They urged other Muslim nations to boycott the fair.
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Donald Trump has called for a boycott of tech giants Apple - while continuing to use his iPhone.

Speaking at a town hall event in South Carolina, the Republican presidential frontrunner asked followers to steer clear of the firm until it cooperates with the FBIs request to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number," he said.

How do you like that? I just thought of that!

Shortly after the event, Trump sent a tweet from his iPhone, made by Apple.

Even though the US government sought a court order to force Apple to unlock the iPhone as part of the inquiry into last year's San Bernardino attacks, the firm has refused to comply with the demands.

The tech giants chief executive, Tim Cook, described the FBIs demand as chilling in a letter published on the companys website.

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand, he wrote.

The very fact Trump used the term security number suggests the Republican would-be presidential candidate has little insight into discussions between Apple and the FBI.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

The US government has in fact called for Apple to build software which gets round a security feature on iPhones that completely erases the memory after 10 failed passcode entry attempts  rather than the passcode itself.

After being called out on his demands by Colin Jones from The Daily Beast, he backpedalled and tweeted that he used both a Samsung device and an iPhone.

It is not the first time Trump has called for a boycott. He previously demanded a boycott of Macy's after the retail giant pulled his line of clothing from its shops because of his controversial comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants.
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Three-thousand-year old fingerprints have been discovered on the lid of an ancient Egyptian coffin.

The prints are believed to have belonged to a craftsman handling the inner lid of the vessel before the varnish had chance to dry, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has said.

The coffin, believed to have belonged to a priest named Nesawershefyt (also known as Nes-Amun), dates from around 1,000 BC and is part of a new exhibition called Death on the Nile, analysing how Egyptian coffin design changed over 4,000 years.

Julie Dawson, head of conservation at the museum, told the BBC the prints were first identified by researchers in 2005 but had not been widely publicised before now.

The prints are one of the human touches and stumbles that bring us closer to the people who made the coffins", a museum spokesman said.

Nes-Amun's coffin set is understood to be one of the finest of its type in the world and in an outstanding state of preservation.

It was studied with x-radiography and the inner coffin lid was also sent for CT scanning at the radiography department of Addenbrookes Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals.

In addition to the fingerprints, Ms Dawson said researchers also discovered the inner coffin box is made up of a multitude of pieces of wood, including sections from at least one older coffin."

"Wood was a precious commodity and the craftsmen were incredibly skilled at making these complex objects from sometimes unpromising starting materials, she added.

The radiographs and scans also reveal how people tried to restore or preserve the coffins in the past. Some parts of Nespawershefyts coffins are held together with 19th century ironmongery."

Organisers of Death on the Nile said it was the first time a major exhibition had put focus on ancient Egypts artisans as well as exploring the "beliefs and working practices" behind the coffins.
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Police helicopter pilots are to be equipped with protective eyewear amid concern at a steep rise in laser attacks on aircraft. Incidents have more than doubled in less than a decade.

In an effort to stop the rising use of lasers against planes and helicopters, government ministers will hold talks this week with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Public Health England, the Metropolitan Police and Trading Standards. They will discuss calls to restrict the sale of lasers, and demands by pilots unions and the police for the law to be changed to classify them as offensive weapons.

A government spokesperson said: The Government is aware of the issue and is meeting stakeholders, including the Civil Aviation Authority, to determine what more can be done to protect the public from the potential dangers of certain laser products.

Last Sunday, a Virgin Atlantic passenger jet bound for New York was forced to return to Heathrow airport when the co-pilot fell ill after a laser was shone at the cockpit shortly after take-off. Earlier this month, the Popes plane had been targeted by a laser on its approach to Mexico City. And on Friday, sentencing Philip Houghton, 25, from Hull, to five months in jail for shining a laser at a police helicopter, District Judge Frederick Rutherford warned: It is only a matter of time before a tragedy is caused by this type of behaviour.

About 1,800 incidents were reported to the CAA last year, according to the Police Federation of England and Wales. In contrast, there were only 746 incidents reported in 2006. The surge in use of lasers against aircraft equates to five incidents a day.

Many laser pointers bought online come from the Far East and can damage eyesight (PA) (Corbis)

The National Police Air Service (Npas), which has 17 bases in England and Wales, is to equip its pilots with protective eyewear this year. This comes after a successful trial carried out last month in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Health Protection Agency. Lasers were directed at the crew of a helicopter wearing different forms of protection, based on a dye coating which absorbs light, or a mirrored coating that reflects it.

Police helicopters can pinpoint where people are directing the lasers from, but this carries a risk to pilots. There were more than 100 attacks against police helicopters last year.

Ollie Dismore, director of operations for Npas, said: Where youve got big airports  Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Gatwick, Heathrow  that are being consistently targeted, we are then invited to put aircraft up to be targets and encourage laser attacks which Im not prepared to do unless theyve got some form of mitigation of the risk of attack on themselves.

Laser specs will allow us to be proactive in supporting other airspace users, for example where airports are reporting multiple attacks on airliners. Then with the specs we will be able to send the police helicopter prepared for an attack so we can catch the perpetrators.

It is illegal, under the Air Navigation Order, to shine a light at any aircraft in flight with the intention of dazzling or distracting the pilot. People can face a prison sentence of up to five years if found guilty of endangering the safety of an aircraft.

But the British Airline Pilots Association is calling for laser pointers to be classed as offensive weapons, which would give the police more power to arrest people for possessing them if they had no good reason to have them. Mr Dismore said: A quick win would be to classify lasers as offensive weapons, not making them illegal to buy, to sell or own, but actually if they are misused to give the police the power to arrest people as a result. At the moment, the only legislation for most offences is aviation legislation which isnt necessarily within the normal understanding of bobbies on the beat.

Attacks on planes with lasers are "not isolated incidents" say pilots (Statista)

There have been more than 10,000 incidents targeting civilian aircraft in the UK in the past seven years. British military aircraft have also been targeted, with 250 laser-related defence air safety occurrence reports in the past five years, according to the MoD.

There is no law preventing the sale of lasers which are far more powerful than ones up to 1mW which can be bought by the general public. The website of one company, based in London, describes how people can buy laser pointers so powerful they can burst balloons, melt plastic and have a range of up to 100 miles.

A spokesperson for the Professional Pilots Union, said: There is massive concern about the increase in misuse of high-powered lasers within the aviation industry. Restrictions on the use of such high-powered lasers must be introduced.
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The rescue operation to find two climbers missing in the Scottish Highlands has been suspended due to hazardous weather.

A team of 26 people have been searching for 24-year-old Rachel Slater and 27-year-old Tim Newton, who went missing while climbing Ben Nevis.

High winds, limited visibility, snow and sub-zero temperatures halted the search for the couple - who have been missing for a week.

Police Scotland said: "The weather today was very poor with high winds, falling snow, limited visibility and a considerable risk of avalanches.

"Sadly, there were no positive sightings today and searches have been suspended for tomorrow (Sunday) due to increasingly hazardous weather and further risk of avalanches.

"Reviews continue to be ongoing and it is hoped that there will be an improvement to the conditions on Monday or Tuesday.

"Both Rachel and Tim's family continue to be appraised of these circumstances."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA 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

It is understood the couple contacted police themselves on Saturday evening, but no other details are known.

The search is expected to resume once weather conditions improve.
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A Syrian refugee living in Wales has been reunited with his infant son after spending several months thousands of miles apart, with the Red Cross warning that bureaucracy is making this a familiar occurrence for many families trying to escape conflict.

Mousa al-Sharki has been able to celebrate the first birthday of his son Omar by holding him for the first time in four months, after his family were separated by war and bureaucracy.

Mousa al-Sharki had fled the bombed-out Syrian city of Aleppo with his pregnant wife Rajaa and their four children, eventually travelling to the UK to find a new home for his family while they waited in Lebanon  where Rajaa gave birth to baby Omar.

Earlier this year he was able to secure a family reunion visa to bring his wife and children to Cardiff. But an error on Omars passport, listing his place of birth as the Syrian capital, Damascus, stopped the newborn from boarding a plane.

The family were forced to leave Omar with Rajaas sister-in-law until the International Red Cross, after a request by the British Red Cross, intervened to get Omar an exit visa to come to the UK.

The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West Show all 11 1 /11 The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-1.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-2.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-3.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-4.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-5.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-6.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-7.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-8.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-9.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-10.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West syria-11.jpg Robert Fogarty/dearworld.me /care.org

He was only eight months old when I left him  he wasnt even on solid food yet, said Mr Sharki. The authorities in Lebanon told me if I didnt leave the country then I would never be allowed to come to the UK. They said this was my only chance. I felt threatened. My other daughter has Downs syndrome and needs a lot of care. I didnt want to leave her either, or my other children. I had to make a snap decision. Either way it was a huge sacrifice. I feel so guilty for leaving him, but I had no choice.

He added: I was so excited to see him again. I was going hot and cold with nerves. I was so worried that hed have forgotten my face but he smiled when he saw me. Words cant describe how happy I am to have him back with me in time for his first birthday.

Rajaas mother, three brothers and two sisters are still in besieged Aleppo, where they have lived for seven months without electricity.

The Red Cross is calling on the British government to expand the family reunion criteria for refugees to cover all children and dependants, including elderly parents, unmarried siblings and family who lived with the claimant before they fled.

Karl Pike, refugee policy manager at the British Red Cross, said: It is fantastic news that Omar has been reunited with his parents, but we are aware that there are many more people in need of our help. As a parent, being separated from your baby is an unbearable thought, yet it has been a nightmare reality for this family.

The Red Cross is calling for the family reunion application process to be made simpler and safer  so that more children like Omar can be reunited with their families.

He said administrative blocks, such as short entry clearance visas and a lack of legal support for people trying to bring family members to the UK should be addressed, and decried the Home Offices business as usual approach.
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Natural ways of slowing river flow after heavy rainfall are to be investigated for above York to try to help relieve one of Britains most flood-prone cities. Similar, but controversial, measures managed to keep the Yorkshire town of Pickering safe during downpours over Christmas.

The measures, planned as part of a programme to manage the river Ure, will be launched upstream in Wensleydale on Monday. The 74-mile-long Ure  whose name is thought to derive from an early British word for strong river  changes into the Ouse at Aldwark and becomes the main source of flooding in York.

The programme  by the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority  is believed to be the biggest of its kind yet planned in Britain. The Wensleydale Project Catchment Plan will investigate techniques for holding water on moorland to prevent flooding downstream that proved effective in Pickering, and similarly plans to involve local people in designing and implementing them.

Recommended Read more How a town in Yorkshire worked with nature to avoid the floods

On Wednesday, Prince Charles visited the Pickering Slow the Flow scheme  the effectiveness of which was reported exclusively by The Independent on Sunday  and saw it working in very wet conditions. The scheme ensured that the market town  which was flooded four times between 1999 and 2007  escaped over Christmas despite some two inches of rain falling in 24 hours.

After being approached by academics at Oxford, Newcastle and Durham universities, local people helped to work out details of the scheme to hold water back on the North Yorks Moors by building 167 leaky dams in local becks. These are built of logs and branches and let through normal flows of water but restrict and slow down excessive ones. They also built 187 smaller obstructions, made of heather, in smaller drains and gullies, planted 29 hectares of woodland and built a bund to store floodwater, releasing it slowly through a culvert.

Prince Charles at Stamford Bridge (PA)

Last week, Andy Brown, the Secretary of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, said the plans for the Ure were developed on exactly the same principles as at Pickering and involved blocking ditches, constructing leaky dams and planting trees. He stressed that they would not by themselves solve the problem of flooding downstream but could make a big contribution by helping to reduce peak river flows.

Helen Keep, the National Park Authoritys senior farm conservation officer, said: Recent events have reminded us that the speed with which water flows out of upland areas like Wensleydale can contribute to major problems further downstream. Something needs to be done to slow the flow.

Gary Smith, director of conservation and communities for the authority, added that flooding could not merely be addressed by building ever higher barriers and that it was sensible to start using moors for upland flood management.

As in Pickering the programme aims to involve local people, starting with a public meeting in the Wensleydale town of Leyburn tomorrow evening aimed at gathering suggestions on how to improve the Ure.

Even grouse moor owners  widely blamed for exacerbating flooding over recent decades by draining uplands  were coming round to the idea, Mr Smith said, because they had realised that rewetting the moors by obstructing ditches increased the numbers of insects on which the birds fed.

The Ure programme, and Prince Charless visit, provide support for the Pickering scheme which has come under attack in recent weeks from traditional hydraulic engineers who have said it would not have been sufficient to have prevented flooding from the record levels of rainfall suffered in some other parts of the North over Christmas.

But it was never designed to do so, and nor do its proponents suggest that it should replace more traditional flood barriers. It did, however, fulfil its objective of preventing flooding in the town under conditions that would otherwise have caused it  after the authorities had refused to build a 20m concrete wall on cost grounds.

Dr Jeremy Biggs, director of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, contended that the town was saved not by the scheme but because it did not rain much at Christmas in Pickering, with precipitation only a modest amount above the average. He based his argument on total rainfall figures for the area for the whole of December, which do not reflect particular events: most of the rain could fall in a short period after a dry spell, which is what happened.

The nearest weather station to Pickering recorded 47mm (more than 1.85in) over 24 hours, while a family in the town measured 51mm (2in) over 20 hours, enough to have caused an inundation in the past. Mike Potter, the chairman of the Pickering and District Civic Society, commented: The town would have flooded. Fact.
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Boris Johnson has gambled his long-standing ambition to become Britains next Prime Minister on winning the referendum to pull the country out of the European Union as he became the most significant Tory to come out in favour of Brexit.

In a statement Mr Johnson said that after a huge amount of heartache he had made the agonisingly difficult decision to go against David Cameron and advocate Vote Leave.

But significantly he suggested that a no vote might not necessarily result in the UK pulling out of the EU altogether instead, creating a new relationship based upon trade and cooperation.

Recommended Read more Cameron to launch final appeal for Tory backbenchers to back EU deal

Speaking outside his home, Mr Johnson said the EU was "a political project that has been going on for decades, and is now in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control".

Mr Johnson said he couldn't "pass up the only chance any of us have in our lifetimes to put an alternative point of view".

He asked: "Is it better for Britain to remain in Europe as it currently is, or is there a way that we could actually get a better deal that did more for Britain, and restored some control to the people in this country?"

Congratulating David Cameron on doing "fantastically well" in the time he had to negotiate a new deal with Brussels, Mr Johnson addressed comments the Prime Minister made earlier by saying he would not be standing on a podium with the likes of George Galloway or Nigel Farage or speaking against members of his own party in TV debates.

His decision nonetheless makes him the natural leader of the leave campaign, and the natural front-runner to become Prime Minister should the country vote "out" in Junes referendum.

While David Cameron has insisted he would stay on whatever the result most senior Conservatives believe he would have no choice but to resign immediately if there is a leave vote.

That would place Mr Johnson in poll position to succeed him in a vote of Tory MPs and activists.

However, should the country back the Prime Minister and vote to stay Mr Johnson will be associated with the failed campaign  damaging his reputation as an electoral asset to the Tories.

He can also expect few favours from Mr Cameron who is said to be furious both at Mr Johnsons decision and the manner in which he has strung it out.

I cant understand why Boris, as leader of the great financial capital, wont support the city, he is said to have aides.

How his position has shifted The trouble is, I am not an outer. January 2016 You have got a supreme judicial body in the European Court of Justice that projects down on this 500 million-people territory a single unified judicial order from which there is no recourse. In my view, that has been getting out of control. There is too much judicial activism, there is too much legislation coming from the EU. Today There would be several disadvantages [to leaving]. First, we wouldnt be able to stick up for what we believe in. Secondly, we would face some penalties. August 2015 I now think [the EU] is in real danger of getting out of proper democratic control. Today Leaving would cause at least some business uncertainty, while embroiling the Government for several years in a fiddly process of negotiating new arrangements, so diverting energy from the real problems of this country  low skills, low social mobility, low investment etc  that have nothing to do with Europe. February 2016

One minister said: "I think Boris has done himself quite a lot of damage. He's been all over the place. Saying to people in the Commons, 'I'm not an outer,' but flirting with Brexit. People are left thinking that it's not a point of principle."

Sir Nicholas Soames, the former defence minister who is a Cameron loyalist, highlighted the Tory leaderships suspicions about Johnson when he tweeted: Whatever my great friend Boris decides to do I know that he is NOT an outer.

The London Mayor denied his decision had anything to do with his ambition and said he had agonised about going against the Prime Minister, whom he informed of his decision in an email on Saturday.

The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the Government but after a great deal of heartache I dont think there is anything else I can do, he said.

I will be advocating Vote Leave ... because I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control.

He claimed he had told Mr Cameron that he wanted him to stay as Prime Minister even if there was a vote to leave. However, many believe that Mr Johnson would ideally like to take over as Prime Minister and then attempt to renegotiate a new deal with the EU on the basis of the Out vote. Other European leaders have already dismissed this idea.

Many believe Mr Johnson has calculated that he would have had little chance of winning the Tory leadership over George Osborne or Theresa May if he had decided to join the In campaign.

Instead he is gambling that his popularity will help sway voters to leave cause and reassure them that Britain can thrive outside the European Union.

A source in the remain campaign was scathing about Mr Johnsons announcement. This is the most nakedly self-serving piece of political positioning in years, they said. Everybody in Westminster knows that Boris doesnt really believe in Out. Hes putting his personal ambition before the national interest.

Mr Johnsons declaration also drew a scathing response from the former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine, who branded it illogical. If it takes you this long to make up your mind about something so fundamental and you still have questions, then surely the right option is to stay with what you know rather than risk our economy and security with a leap in the dark, he said.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

His would-be successor as Mayor of London, the Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith, has also confirmed he will vote to leave the EU.

Mr Johnson laid out his reasons for backing Brexit in an article for The Daily Telegraph, for which he works as 274,000-a-year columnist on top of his job as Mayor of London. In it, he said federalism had been born of the highest motives and added: They [federalists] just have a different view of the way Europe should be constructed."

Friends said he had been genuinely conflicted about the right thing to do and denied that leadership calculations played a part in his decision.

"He genuinely thinks Britain should not turn its back on Europe at a time like this. He feels that very deeply, but he genuinely thinks the deal is pretty hopeless, that Cameron should have asked for more and that what they have come up with on sovereignty doesn't do what he wants it to do."

Mr Johnson is said to have told one person he met recently: "I'm veering all over the place like a shopping trolley."

 EU referendum timeline - What happens if Britain gets the deal

Earlier in the day Mr Cameron issued a last-ditch appeal to Boris Johnson not to join the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU," the Prime Minister told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country.

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done."

Labours shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said that declaring for the out side could backfire on Mr Johnson.

"I'm surprised really because Boris Johnson in the past has written a lot about the importance of staying in the European Union and if he is actually thinking about putting his personal leadership ambitions above the national interest I don't think it's going to do him any good," he told Sky News's Murnaghan programme.
As you know, Apple just said no to the FBI's request for a backdoor in the iPhone, bringing more public attention to the already hot discussion on encryption, civil liberties, and whether those in authority should have the ability to see private content and communications -- what's referred to as exceptional access. [1]

An extended version of this piece was originally published December, 2015, on the Association for Computing Machinery's Huffington Post blog. It has been excerpted and updated slightly here to speak to the recent news around Apple and the FBI's request for backdoor access.

We are not here to debate whether such access is useful from a policy perspective, i.e. whether it would work to stop bad guys. While a critical conversation that raises many questions, we leave that to others. We are here to review the technical realities, and to explore the impact and potential danger of such proposals from this perspective.

The ability to secure Internet technologies  to ensure that the right people gain access to the right things, and the wrong people don't  is what makes online banking and commerce possible, and is what allowed the Internet to become an unprecedented driver of economic and social change. This point is not up for debate. What we now need to understand is that the call to provide law enforcement (or anyone) exceptional access to communications and content poses a grave threat to the sustainability and future of the Internet: it is simply not possible to give the good guys the access they want without letting the bad guys in. There's nothing new or novel in this statement. Experts have been saying the same thing for 20 years. But while the message is old, with the integration of Internet technologies into nearly all aspects of life, the stakes are higher than they've ever been.

Machines don't know a bad guy from a good guy. Machines respond as they've been programmed to respond. Programming them (with new software, or otherwise) to open up to third parties cannot be guaranteed to limit access to only those intended: it limits access to anyone who is able to make a request in a way that the machine responds to. In the case of Apple, the FBI is requesting new software that would enable them to crack an iPhone user's password and bypass the security measures in place to prevent such intrusion.[2] Were Apple to build such software, it would create a "backdoor" into one criminal's iPhone, and any other iPhone model with which the software requested can be used.[3] Apple is being asked to give the FBI  and anyone else who obtains the software in question  a ticket to exceptional access.

The risks are not theoretical: we know of no case where adding extraordinary access capabilities to a system has not resulted in weakened security.

Take the case of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a 1994 law designed to make it easier for US law enforcement to tap phone conversations. Under this law, telephone companies had to design their systems to allow wiretapping  adding a vector for extraordinary access (similar in kind to what's being requested of Apple). It was due to CALEA-mandated wiretapping capabilities that, in 2012 all of the Department of Defense's phone switches were reported to be vulnerable. Similar capabilities, built to comply with CALEA-like laws, were exploited to eavesdrop on the phone conversations of Greece's Prime Minister and those of at least 100 other dignitaries and politicians, some of them US diplomats. It was these same mechanisms that were used to illegally tap phone conversations of at least 5000 people in Italy. In the Greek case, it's unclear who did it. In the Italian case, the crime appears to have been authorized by a high-ranking official at the Italian SISMI military intelligence agency. From our perspective it doesn't matter  if the means for extraordinary access weren't there, these crimes almost certainly wouldn't have happened.

The fact that backdoors create technical vulnerabilities is not the only issue. In a global world, in which multinational companies like Apple deploy hardware, applications, and communications services to markets everywhere, how do we determine whose law enforcement and government should be allowed to use this exceptional access, and for what purpose? Who are the "good guys," and according to whom? Should the Chinese, Canadian, US, and South Sudanese governments all be granted access under the same terms? Whose agendas and policies do we favor, and what does consensus look like? Who governs and audits such decisions, and how can they be implemented in an industry reliant on innovation and speed? And, finally, how do we program millions of machines to respect the huge and dynamic complexity of such decisions, assuming such a process is even possible?

Combine the technical realities with these procedural questions, and you see a recipe for potentially security disaster. Imagine if it weren't phone switches that were vulnerable via exceptional access capabilities, but the computers that run critical national infrastructure, the databases that store medical records, the intellectual property of major US economic interests, the engines of the global financial industry. Closer to home, imagine the frighteningly-plausible scenario of a bad actor obtaining the FBI-requested iPhone cracking software, and using it not to catch criminals but to access national secrets, intellectual property, or personal information from high-ranking officials and businesspeople. Now recognize that misuse only has to happen once to cause unspeakable harm to national economic and security interests.

None of this means that the job of tracking and apprehending terrorists and other wrongdoers on a global scale is easy. Or that the frustration felt by those tasked with keeping populations safe isn't very real. However, the palpable immediacy of these problems does not mean that extraordinary access is a workable idea. Put another way  however much it might appear like exceptional access is a silver bullet, it is not. Instead such a path would weaken our collective security.

[1] In using the term "exceptional access" we take our lead from the authors of 2015's definitive and highly-recommended Keys Under Doormats paper, who in turn followed the lead of the "1996 US National Academy of Sciences CRISIS report in using the phrase 'exceptional access' to mean that 'the situation is not one that was included within the intended bounds of the original transaction.'"

[2] A post from the security firm Trail of Bits does a lovely job reviewing the technical specifics and feasibility of the request.

[3] In an order from a judge, the FBI requested Apple create "limited" custom software that would work to provide access only to the iPhone in question. Many knowledgeable people have affirmed that this is, theoretically, possible, using a per-phone identifier that would ensure the software executed solely on the one device. Apple claims that it is not able to guarantee such software is limited in such a way (a reasonable claim, given the complexity of what's being requested). The key point is that Apple is being asked to create a system that, even if limited, could be used again with only slight modifications, that sets a precedent under a troubling law, and that announces to the world in the US and beyond a means of backdoor access.

Meredith Whittaker and Ben Laurie are co-founders of Simply Secure, an organization that focuses on improving the design of secure technologies. This among many other things.

(Image: Geralt/Pixabay)
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Boris Johnson will lend his support to the campaign for Britain to leave the EU at the referendum in June, The Independent understands.

The Mayor of London will officially announce which camp he will be behind when his column for the Daily Telegraph is released at 10pm on Sunday night.

But after listening to David Cameron put the case for remaining in the bloc on the Andew Marr Show, Mr Johnson has made up his mind and will campaign for "out", informed sources have said.

Those lobbying for Britain to leave the bloc have been courting the mayor for some time, hoping he will prove a popular figurehead alongside the likes of Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and Nigel Farage.

It is a blow for the Prime Minister, who issued a personal plea to Mr Johnson to join him in supporting the re-negotiation deal agreed with Brussels.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU," the Mr Cameron told Andrew Marr.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country."

Mr Farage said earlier he expected Mr Johnson to join the Leave campaign, telling Sky News' Murnaghan show: "I think he will, and 'hurrah' is all I can say to that.

"What again I think a lot of the commentariat in Westminster don't understand is there are literally only five or six people in this referendum whose campaigning, whose presence, can sway the undecideds, and he is one of those half a dozen."

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith said Britain's membership of the EU leaves the country vulnerable to a Paris-style terrorism attack.

The Work and Pensions Secretary, one of six ministers to declare for the "out" camp following Saturday's Cabinet meeting - said the UK's "open border" meant there was a lack of control over people entering the country.

But he faced criticism for "scaremongering" and lowering the tone of the debate just two days after Mr Cameron secured a deal on reforms if Britain stays in.

The pro-EU former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said: "I hope that Mr Duncan Smith's comments about terrorism are not typical of the scaremongering that could so easily characterise those arguing to leave Europe."
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David Cameron will launch a final appeal to Tory backbenchers to back his EU renegotiation package amid fears in Downing Street that up to half of his own MPs are preparing to defy him and campaign for Brexit.

So far over 70 Tory MPs have declared that they are in favour of leaving including five cabinet ministers and at least three ministers of state.

But with many more yet to declare some in the party believe that up to 150 Tory MPs could eventually come out against Britains membership  out of a total of 330.

Leave campaigners said the likely decision by Boris Johnson to declare for Brexit would further boost the number of MPs willing to support them and admitted that frantic lobbying was going on by both sides to win over waverers.

 David Cameron doesn't know the details of the Benefit Deal at Andrew Marr's show.mp4

Mr Cameron himself is expected to try and sell his deal one to one with those MPs yet to declare both before and after his Commons appearance on Monday.

Downing Street desperately needs to ensure that a majority of his Parliamentary party backs the Prime Minister in the referendum campaign. Not achieving this would be symbolic failure that aides fear would haunt him on the campaign trail.

On Sundayt, in his third public attempt to sell the deal he struck in Brussels on Friday night Mr Cameron used an interview on the BBC to warn that while leaving the EU could create the impression that Britain was reclaiming its own sovereignty, in practice this would be an "illusion".

"If Britain were to leave the EU that might give you a feeling of sovereignty but you have got to ask yourself 'is it real?'," he said.

"Would you have the power to help businesses and make sure they weren't discriminated against in Europe? No you wouldn't. Would you have the power to insist that European countries share with us their border information so we know what terrorists and criminals are doing in Europe? No you wouldn't.

"If suddenly a ban was put on for some bogus health reasons on one of our industries, would you be able to insist that that ban was unpicked? No you wouldn't.

"You have an illusion of sovereignty but you don't have power, you don't have control, you can't get things done."

While Mr Cameron acknowledged that it was possible that Britain could have a trade deal with the EU if it left, he pointed to the example of Canada, which had been negotiating for seven years and still did not have full access to European markets.

"If we leave: seven years, potentially, of uncertainty, and at the end of that process you still can't be certain that our businesses will have full access to the market. So it could cost jobs, it could mean overseas businesses not investing in Britain. It would be a step into the dark," he said.

"The weakness of the Leave campaign is, I think, they forget that even if you leave the EU still exists, it is still on your doorstep."

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

Mr Cameron also repeated his warning that a time of great international uncertainty - with the threats of Russian expansionism and Islamic State terrorism - there was "strength in numbers".

He added that in the coming days he would be setting out his plans for new domestic legislation that, he claimed, would increase Britains sovereignty and make it harder for Government decisions to be challenged in the European Court of Justice.

But in a sign of the new reality in the Tory Party on Europe his Work and Pension Secretary went on the same programme to undermine the assertion by Theresa May that being in the EU made the UK more secure.

Iain Duncan Smith claimed that in fact the European Union left Britain vulnerable to a Paris-style terrorism attack.

"This open border does not allow us to check and control people who may come and may spend time (here), he said.

We see what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting.

"The present status of the open border we have right now, many of us feel, does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved."

His comments were immediately condemned by the pro-EU former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine.

"I hope that Mr Duncan Smith's comments about terrorism are not typical of the scaremongering that could so easily characterise those arguing to leave Europe," he said.

"He has not a shred of evidence to support the statement that we would be safer outside the European Union. Anybody with any knowledge of how counter-terrorism activities work knows that our intelligence services are closely interwoven with those of our American and European colleagues.

The Leader of the Commons Chris Grayling - one of five Cabinet ministers campaigning for "out" - dismissed fears that Britain's trade with Europe would suffer if it left the EU.

"Do you think on the day that Britain leaves the European Union the Germans are going to say: 'We are no longer going to sell BMWs to the British?' It's not going to happen," he told the BBC1 Sunday Politics programme.

"We run a massive trade deficit with the European Union, we are their biggest customer. Why would they take a risk with jobs in Germany and in France and in other European countries by not agreeing a proper, modern free trade agreement in goods and services?"
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David Cameron has admitted after weeks of intense negotiations to secure an EU reform deal in Brussels that he still does not know of how an emergency brake on migrant benefits would be implemented.

Speaking on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show in his first major interview to put the case for staying in the EU, the Prime Minister said the UK would be stronger, safer and better off if it votes to remain.

But when pressed on the details of the deal he has secured with the rest of Europe, Mr Cameron admitted were going to settle all that later.

What we do know is you get no benefits to start with and you dont get full benefits for four years, Mr Cameron said. [We will have] no more something for nothing and people have to pay in before they get out. I think that is something people said we wouldnt achieve and it is something we have achieved.

Mr Marr asked if a Hungarian migrant would be entitled, for example, to 90 per cent of benefits after just six months, to which the Prime Minister was only able to say that the brake is going to be phased in over four years.

Now we have to settle the details and put all that in place, which we will, he said.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

Mr Cameron was speaking ahead of an expected announcement from Boris Johnson later today, in which the London Mayor is to reveal whether he favours in or out.

Asked what he would say to convince Mr Johnson to join his side, the Prime Minister said he would say "the same thing I would say to anyone".

"I think the prospect of linking arms with George Galloway and Nigel Farage and leaping into the dark is wrong for this country," he said.

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done."

On the question of sovereignty, Mr Cameron said leaving the EU would mean Britain lost the power to defend businesses against discrimination, receive security information from other European countries or fight trade regulations.

Leaving would give the illusion of sovereignty  but you dont have power, you dont have control, you cant get anything done, he said.

If you love this country  and I love this country so much  then you want whats best for it, and you want to make sure we are stronger, we are safer, we are better off and we are able to get things done in the world, he said.

Part of the deal secured with Brussels means that benefits claimants from other EU countries receive less money if they come from a poorer country - a bid to remove the incentive to come to Britain and receive more money for not working.

Asked if working out different levels of benefits for claimants from 27 different countries would be challenging for an already overstretched Department for Work and Pensions, Mr Cameron disagreed.

He said: Its not a difficult calculation, you just have to work out the relative cost of living in different countries and you pay that level of child benefit.
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Remaining in the European Union makes Britain more vulnerable to Paris-style terror attacks, Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The Work and Pensions Secretary yesterday became one of six ministers  now dubbed the gang of six  to turn out to back the Vote Leave campaign just minutes after Prime Minister David Cameron announced the referendum would take place in June.

Asked by the BBCs Laura Kuenssberg whether staying in the EU made the country more vulnerable to Paris-style attacks, Mr Duncan Smith said: I think the present status of the open border we have right now, many of us feel does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved,

The former Tory leader's claim directly contradicts the Prime Ministers assertion that remaining in the EU would make the UK safer and stronger.

He added: The migration issue in meltdown around the European Union with the EU almost incapable it seems of handling this massive wave of migration coming in and what we see is incapacity to get its act together.

This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come. We see what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting,

In November of last year, gunmen in Paris killed 129 people and injured a further 352. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The Work and Pensions Secretary also questioned the effectiveness on the curbs to migrants benefits on immigration to the UK.

Under Camerons negotiated terms with Brussels the government will be able to apply an emergency brake for seven years, banning migrants from claiming in-work benefits. In a major concession to other EU leaders, the new terms will not cover migrants already in the UK.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister said leaving the EU would mean Britain lost the power to defend businesses against discrimination, receive security information from other European countries or fight trade regulations.

Leaving would give the illusion of sovereignty  but you dont have power, you dont have control, you cant get anything done, he said.

If you love this country  and I love this country so much  then you want whats best for it, and you want to make sure we are stronger, we are safer, we are better off and we are able to get things done in the world.

Mr Duncan Smith added: The reality is we have an entity called the European Union. It is a political union and it intends to get deeper and tighter because that is how it sees itself and there are reasons why many in Europe feel like that.

He added: For us I think its really critical to recognise if we dont want to part of that political union then I think the answer is we should leave, forge proper trading relationships with the European Union I am deeply attached to the idea of being good friends, good trading neighbours and working with them cooperating on security and defence and things like that.
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The Palestinian envoy to Britain has dismissed the Governments approach towards resolving Israeli occupation as a charade and attacked an invitation for the Speaker of the Knesset, who lives in an illegal settlement, to speak in Parliament.

Yuli Edelstein, who presides over the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem and lives in the Jewish settlement of Neve Daniel in the West Bank, will address MPs and peers at an event organised by the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union next month.

But Manuel Hassassian, who serves as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass UK ambassador, believes his appearance will be seen as legitimisation of Israeli occupation.

Mr Edelstein lives on an illegal Israeli settlement built on Palestinian land and he publicly opposes Palestinian statehood, he writes in an article published by independent.co.uk today. He even supports initiatives such as Lobby for Greater Israel, whose members want to colonise what is left of Palestinian land.

He added: I am quite incredulous that Mr Edelstein is being given a platform in Parliament itself the self-same Parliament that only a short time ago voted to recognise the Palestinians right to self-determination and a state of their own.

Who is Yuli Edelstein? Born in Ukraine in 1958, Yuli Edelstein was a Jewish dissident who was arrested by the KGB in 1984 on false charges of drug possession and sentenced to three years in a labour camp. He emigrated to Israel with his family after his release in 1987 and later described being routinely beaten black and blue during his time in prison. Mr Edelstein was a founding member of the right wing Yisrael ba-Aliya party, and served as Minister for Immigrant Absorption in Benjamin Netanyahus government. He was also the Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs between 2009 and 2013. The speaker of the Knesset for the past three years, he is a widower and has two children.

More than 230 Israeli settlements are home to 680,000 people, in what Mr Hassassian says constitutes a creeping annexation.

Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, said in November: The UKs position on settlements is clear. They are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace and take us further away from a two-state solution.

But Mr Hassassian said: The current British Government is reneging on its long-held policy positions on illegal Israeli settlements and on the two-state solution. Are these positions just empty words?

Mr Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset for three years, has been a minister in Benjamin Netanyahus government. His appearance in Westminster comes amid consternation among political activists at guidance issued by the Cabinet Office to stop inappropriate procurement boycotts by public authorities.

There are concerns it will interfere with the long-running Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli products, after the Cabinet Office said: Any discrimination against Israeli suppliers involving procurements would therefore be in breach of the agreement.

But Mr Hassassian said: It is the failure of British Government to hold Israel to account for contravening international law that has led to popular action by the British public to make ethical choices and support BDS.

This is being criminalised by the Government in its new guidance on the Boycott movement, allowing Israel to act with total impunity.

The Foreign Office said: The UKs position on Israeli settlements is clear and unchanged: they are illegal under international law and are an obstacle to peace.
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Deep in the Colombian jungle, child fighter Yeimi Diaz feared for her life as members of Latin Americas oldest guerrilla group held a meeting to decide whether to order a firing squad to shoot her.

In the 14 years she fought for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels, Ms Diaz had faced two such councils.

A war council is almost always a death sentence, she said, recalling the way the Farc punished fighters who broke its rules. I got lucky. A guerrilla commander who knew my mother stepped in at the last minute and voted to save my life, she said.

After years of skirmishes with government troops, long mountain treks and rationed food, Ms Diaz escaped and turned herself in to the army in 2009, after finding a leaflet dropped by its helicopters urging rebels to surrender.

Around 18,000 former rebels have quit the Farc ranks since 2003 and joined the governments re-integration programme.

A further 8,000 Farc members may hand in their weapons over the coming months, if peace talks in Cuba result in an agreement with the government to end their 51-year war, which has killed 220,000 people and displaced millions.

With the deadline of 23 March for a peace accord looming, negotiators are discussing how best to reintegrate former fighters, while Colombians consider how far they will accept former combatants back into society. Demobilised fighters, who may have spent 20 years or more in rebel ranks, face significant obstacles to reintegration.

Only a third of those who have joined the reintegration programme have found jobs in the formal sector (AFP) (AFP/Getty)

Ms Diaz said it has taken her six years to rebuild her life. Under the state reintegration programme, she is paid a monthly allowance of up to $140 (100) provided she attends school or university, takes free psychological counselling and vocational training schemes and does community service.

After learning to read and write and completing secondary school, she found work as a cleaner. You have to stay positive. Its not easy, Ms Diaz said. The government provides opportunities and grants to start small businesses, but its up to you to take advantage of them. Some people dont. Some complain and dont stick it out.

Boris Folero, 48, joined the Farc at 18 because he sympathised with its Marxist ideology, but today works with the reintegration programme. He said finding his own identity after decades with the rebels was a struggle. Leaving was painful. My personal identity was shaped there. I was formed as a man in the Farc, Folero said; he left the group in 2005. Before, it was us: the collective. Now its just me. You have to reconstruct yourself, find a new identity, find out who you really are. I had to grow up  its been difficult.

At one government-run centre for demobilised fighters in a poor neighbourhood in south Bogota, Johanna Diaz is one of 860 state psychologists helping former fighters get used to civilian life. Many are from poor rural backgrounds and adapting to a new life in the capital is hard. She helps them find a place to rent and get job interviews, but her duties also extend to showing them how to use a knife and fork, take escalators and lifts and buses.

We have to see ex-combatants at least once every month and form a bond with them, to make sure they stay on the straight and narrow, said the psychologist, adding that years of fighting can led to mental trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia.

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. 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Joshua Mitrotti, head of the governments reintegration agency, said integrating thousands of ex-fighters hinges on long-term provision of education and on rural communities agreeing to give them a second chance. This is about the transition of people who once held arms to becoming citizens in a democracy, Mr Mitrotti said.

Around 650 companies in Colombia offer jobs and training to former combatants in exchange for tax breaks. But only one-third of those who have joined the reintegration programme have found jobs in the formal sector. The lack of work means some give in to the temptation to earn money working for criminal gangs. If we dont give job opportunities the cycle of violence will repeat itself, Mr Mitrotti said.

Just signing a peace agreement doesnt mean the drug trafficking, the organised crime, will go away. The offer of that kind of work will remain.

Thomson Reuters Foundation
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A seven-year-old from Virginia has raised more than $10,000 to get sanitary water to crisis-hit schools in Flint, Michigan.

Isiah Britt heard about the water contamination problem in the city, which left students at Eisenhower Elementary School afraid to wash their hands, and decided to help.

Setting up a GoFundMe page, Isiah wrote: Hi everyone! My name is Isiah and I am a 2nd grader at Buckland Mills Elementary in Gainesville, VA. I want to help the students at Eisenhower Elementary School in Flint Michigan.

They have a lot of water bottles from big companies but they still can't wash their hands at school. So I am going to raise money to buy hand sanitizer for their school. $500 will help buy 20 cases of hand sanitizer (one case for each classroom). Once we meet our goal, we will have the hand sanitizer shipped directly to Eisenhower Elementary School. Thank you for helping me!

Sharing a picture of the first shipment of sanitiser with people who had donated to his appeal, Isiah wrote: Looks like Eisenhower Elementary School received the first part of their shipment of hand sanitizer!

Following his appeal, which has raised a total of $10,125 in two weeks, Isiah now has enough money to get sanitising products to every single school in the city.

Reaching his goal, Isiah wrote: We have raised enough to send hand sanitizer to every school in Flint! Let keep going until all kids in Flint have clean hands!! Thank you for all the support and well wishes! #IsiahsHelpingHand #Cleanhands.

Spurred on by the successful fundraising campaign, Isaiahs parents told WTVR their sons next goal was to help day-care and womens centres in the city.
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Donald Trump, the billionaire bulldog with no ties to Washington and barely to his own party, thundered to a wide victory in the crucial South Carolina Republican primary, further confounding those who thought his braggadocio  not to mention tangles with the Pope  would undo him.

With the last results coming in, Mr Trump appeared to have captured roughly a third of the vote, a good ten points ahead of his nearest rivals. There was a brawl going on for second place between senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, with the former seemingly inching ahead.

Jeb Bush, the son and brother of former presidents who sagged into single digits, announced he was ending his candidacy, one that had started with great promise and the benefit of over $100 million in outside financing. It spelled the likely end of the Bush dynastys hold on the Republican establishment.

Hilary Clinton needed Nevada to be her firewall against Mr Sanders

On the other side of the country in Nevada, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton achieved a narrow, but critically important, victory over Senator Bernie Sanders in caucus voting, offering some reassurance to her supporters and donors that she has found a way to turn back his surprisingly potent challenge. While Mr Sanders made up great ground to come within five points of her, his campaign needed a win there.

The continuing rise of Mr Trump may be pushing Democrats to resist the lure of Mr Sanders and stick with Ms Clinton with the thought if it comes to stopping him actually taking residence in the White House she may in the end be better equipped to do it than a democratic socialist from Vermont.

This is your campaign, she told her supporters in Las Vegas. It is - it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back. Were going to build ladders of opportunity in their place, so every American can go as far as your hard work can take you. She and Mr Sander meet next in the Democratic primary in South Carolina next Saturday.

Back in South Carolina, it was unquestionably Mr Trumps night. When you win its beautiful, Mr Trump told his supporters repeating his pledge to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and make Mexico paid for it. He notably missed the opportunity to pay tribute to Mr Bush for his campaign. But behaving badly doesnt seem to harm him.

Some in the party are wondering whether his grab for the party nomination can now be thwarted or if he has become unstoppable. History is on Mr Trumps side: no Republican who has won both New Hampshire and South Carolina did not go on to win the nomination.

 GOP candidates battle for survival in South Carolina

With most of the results in, Mr Trump stood at 32.6 per cent while Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio had 22.4 per cent and 22.2 per cent. The radically conservative Mr Cruz may face a problem longer term. This was a state with a very large block of evangelicals which are his base - a full three quarters of voters described themselves as born-again evangelicals in exit polling  and yet the gap with Mr Trump was wide.

Mr Rubio, the Florida Senator, who had fared poorly in New Hampshire, had arguably more reason to celebrate. He had clearly been boosted by a big endorsement from the popular Governor of the state, Nikki Haley. He has attempted to distinguish himself as the candidate of a new generation of Republicans, stressing the new century and his youth.

Anger meanwhile has clearly been a driver of the Trump train. Just over half of the Republican voters said they felt betrayed by their own party leaders, a stunning number. Speculation that the mogul had gone too far at times, attacking former President George W Bush over the Iraq War, and then calling Pope Francis disgraceful after he called his Christianity into question was not borne out.

But he has also benefited from the crowded and fractured field beneath him, in particular with Mr Rubio, Ohio Governor John Kasich and  until last night - Mr Bush all battling to emerge as the establishment alternative to him and Mr Cruz and thus dividing the anti-Trump forces.

However, his ability to replicate tonights win in the states around the corner, including Nevada on Tuesday and 12 states voting on so-called Super Tuesday one week later will become trickier if the field continues to narrower.

After tonight this has become a three-person race and we will win the nomination, Mr Rubio declared as the last results came in, disregarding Mr Kasich and also Dr Ben Carson who apparently was remaining in the race in spite of placing last in South Carolina. This country is ready for a new generation of conservatives to lead it into the 21st Century, Mr Rubio went on.
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The visit of a Thai princess to one of Cambodias poorest provinces has sparked controversy after at least $40,000 was spent building an air-conditioned outhouse in anticipation of her arrival.

The luxury toilet has been assembled on the banks of the protected Lake Yeak Laom in Ratanakkiri province, where Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will spend the relaxing first leg of her three-day visit to the country.

With silver railings up its white-washed steps and an all-white tiled roof, the 8-metre square building has taken Thai construction company SCG around 19 days to complete.

The toilet will be reserved exclusively for the use of the princess during her one-night visit to the lake and, once she is done with it, will be disassembled.

Local officials told the Khmer Times that $40,000 was, given the number of Thai workers involved and the fact that all the materials were imported from Bangkok, a low estimate.

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on a state visit to New Zealand, March 2006 (Getty Images)

An SCG manager identified as Mr Pursat told the newspaper the community could use the small building as an office after the royal delegation had left, and defended spending such a figure on a facility that will be used only once.

If you have a kingwell, just, normal people cant use the kings toilet, he said.

Ven Churk, head of the Yeak Lom Lake committee, said local community leaders had been told to make sure the princesss visit goes well or risk losing control of the nature reserve to the government.

With a sparse population largely made up of subsistence farmers and a history of logging and mining exploitation, Ratanakkiri is one of the least developed provinces in Cambodia.

The director of the Cambodian Rural Development Team, Channy Or, said Princess Sirindhorns bathroom cost around 130 times more than a standard public toilet for the region.

He suggested Bangkok could have spent $1,000 or $2,000 on a good bathroom and then give the rest to the communities and villages.

After being given private use of the lake on Monday, the princess is scheduled to open a health centre in the province, visit a number of primary schools, inaugurate a new technology institute and meet with King Norodom Sihamoni, Cambodia Daily reported.

Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a former journalist and author of the book on Thailand A Kingdom in Crisis, said the cost of the toilet belied royalist propaganda about the Thai monarchys simple lifestyles and humanitarian works.

He said the lakeside bathroom was an insult to the Cambodian people. Most Cambodians have limited access to modern sanitation, he said. For the cost of Sirindhorns toilet  to be used just for a single night  whole Cambodian villages could have been provided with proper sanitation.
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A Hindu priest has been hacked to death during an attack on a temple in Bangladeshs Panchgarh district.

Police said two people on motorbikes fired guns at Jogeshwar Roy as he left the temple, which attackers had been throwing stones at.

The men on bikes also set off explosives, injuring two other Hindu worshippers who were attempting to help the 50-year-old priest after he was attacked with what with police officer Kafil Uddin described as a sharp weapon.

The two men fled the scene following the murder, which comes less than a year after a string of similar attacks on secular bloggers. No group has claimed responsibility so far for the killing.

However, previous attacks on religious minorities in the majority-Muslim country have been carried out by Isis or other militant groups.

Although the government does not believe there to be an Isis presence in the country, Islamist groups Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team operate in the area and are believed to have carried out at least seven attacks on foreign and minority people, killing seven people last year.

In 2015, an athiest blogger was hacked to death with a machete, and a British citizen and two other members of Ansarullah Bangla Team were arrested in connection with his murder and those of several other prominent bloggers in Bangladesh.
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.
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Thousands of refugees living in the ramshackle Jungle camp on the outskirts of Calais will be able to stay for a little longer, after the French government put plans to forcibly evict them on hold.

The eviction, which had been set for Tuesday evening, was postponed by French courts after a census carried out by the charity Help Refugees discovered many more refugees were living in the area than authorities had initially calculated.

The charity said there were 3,455 people living in the southern stretch of the Jungle scheduled to be demolished. It is more than three times Frances estimates of between 800 and 1,000. That figure includes 445 children, of whom 315 were living without their parents  that is not to say they are orphans. The youngest child found was a 10-year-old boy from Afghanistan.

An open letter asking David Cameron to protect the children of Calais has garnered more than 100,000 signatures at the time of writing. Among the signatories are Idris Elba, Helena Bonham Carter, Benedict Cumberbatch and a number of other high-profile figures.

The letter states: This is a humanitarian crisis that needs to be acknowledged as such and it is imperative that we do everything we can to help these innocent and highly vulnerable refugees, especially the minors, as swiftly as is humanly possible."

Under the previous expulsion order, a vaccination centre, camp shops, cafes, churches, mosques and a library would be razed.

Josie Naughton, co-founder of Help Refugees, told The Observer: The figures highlight the brutality of destroying these homes before proper child protection schemes have been put in place. These children have post-traumatic stress, you cant just put them on a bus, they are going to be in danger.

It is going to be an important few days. We are just hoping with all our hearts for a win  if they start bulldozing this week, hundreds of unaccompanied minors risk being lost in the system.

The refugees have previously said they would resist the move away from their tents to new accommodation in converted shipping containers, despite the poor living conditions. Doctors of the World warned that the alternative accommodation was not suitable, noting in a protest letter to the French interior minister, the move is very far from answering the needs of the problems encountered.

Inside the camps in Calais Show all 20 1 /20 Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A Kurdish child and her father get out of their tent in the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Kurdish migrants works around the tents of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Volunteers from Holland set up a bridge of fortune over the mud using pallets of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Refugees walk among tents in a makeshift camp as containers (rear) are put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A makeshift camp is seen in front of containers (rear) put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais The camp near Calais harbour where refugees from the Middle East and central Asia congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Camp residents cook and share food at their site just outside Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A group walk through the camp near Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A 16 year old immigrant from Eritrea tries to brace himself against the rain and cold by sheltering under the road bridge Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Rubbish strewn on the ground near one of the campsites Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A man stands among the tents at the campsite just outside Calais, France Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A camp near Calais harbour where migrants from the East africa congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK. Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Eritrea. Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Graffiti depicting the dangerous journey trying to smuggle onto a lorry to the UK

Fabienne Buccio, the top official in Frances northern Pas-de-Calais region, said earlier this month: Its time to tell the migrants of Calais who live in undignified conditions, and give Calais an image that isnt dignified either, that we have a solution for each of you.

Last month, a British judge ordered that three Syrian children and an accompanying adult should be allowed to escape the living hell of the Calais refugee camp and enter the UK to join their relatives.
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A planned home for asylum seekers has burned down in Saxony, eastern Germany, as bystanders cheered, police said.

Police said no one was injured, but a group of people gathered outside, some "commenting with derogatory remarks or unashamed joy" about the fire.

Three people were ordered to leave the scene after hampering firefighters' work, while two others were detained.

Investigators found traces of a fire accelerant at the scene and believe the fire was caused by arson.

The building in Bautzen, known as the Husarenhof, was originally a hotel and was being modified to shelter asylum seekers.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the building could be restored.

Saxony is home to anti-immigration group Pegida.

On Thursday, a mob shouting "we are the people" and "go home" blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers outide a refugee home in Clausnitz.

Saxony governor Stanislaw Tillich described the two incidents as "appalling and shocking" and described the perpetrators as "criminals".

"This is abhorrent and disgusting," Mr Tillich said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group. He pledged that authorities will investigate and "bring everyone responsible to account".

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany, has banned coffee pods and other disposable products from its council buildings as part of a drive to reduce environmental waste.

Announced as part of a 150-page Guide to Green Procurement, the city introduced a ban on buying "certain polluting products or product components" with council money. The ban therefore includes bottled water and beer, chlorine-based cleaning products, air freshener, plastic plates and cutlery.

The report states: "These portion packs cause unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminium.

Jan Dube, spokesman for the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy, told the BBC: "The capsules can't be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium."

"It's 6g of coffee in 3g of packaging. We in Hamburg thought that these shouldn't be bought with taxpayers' money."

Around 10 per cent of Britons polled by The Grocer, a supermarket trade magazine, said they believed coffee pods are very bad for the environment". However, 22 per cent of those asked said they owned a machine.

Five third wave coffees to know Show all 5 1 /5 Five third wave coffees to know Five third wave coffees to know Long black Espresso and hot water, simple. A stronger, shorter Americano. A coffee for purists who want to savour it. Water first, espresso second. Always. The drink retains more of the crema than an Americano, is less voluminous and more strongly flavoured. An antipodean classic taking UK menus by storm.



Who drinks it: The cafe purist Five third wave coffees to know Ristretto Coming from the Italian for restricted, forcing less hot water through the coffee granules at a faster speed makes for a very short shot  typically 45ml for a double compared to 60ml for the same espresso. Say hello to a coffee with more flavour and less bitterness. A pain to make on pre-calibrated machines, it's "a fusspot's coffee," says Kamal Yusuf of Etcetera Cafe in London.



Who drinks it: The nuisance Five third wave coffees to know Lungo Originally from Italy, this one gets the thumbs down from many third wave baristas. Pulling more hot water through the bed of espresso  a minute's worth, rather than 30 seconds  gives a longer coffee, typically 90120 ml. But, some say, the grains are overused and the bitterness is drawn out. "If someone asked for one, I'd tend to put a touch of hot water in the bottom of an espresso shot instead," says Estelle.



Who drinks it: The poseur Five third wave coffees to know Cortado Consists of two shots of espresso 'cut' (cortado is Spanish for cut) through with textured milk. The ratio of milk to coffee is between 1:1 and 1:2 (our diagram has 1:2), with the milk added after the espresso. Also known as a piccolo and  less commonly  a Gibraltar. "They're normally served in a 4oz glass. Like a mini strong latte," says Estelle Bright of Caravan in London.



Who drinks it: The trend-setter Five third wave coffees to know Flat white It's the coffee that started it all. Soon after the flat white came to these shores from its native New Zealand, it found its way on to the menus of the big chains from Pret a Manger to M&S. But its pleasingly simple blend of foamed milk and a double shot of espresso, sees it hold its place as the third wavers' favourite coffee. Shorter than a latte, with higher coffee to milk ratio, typically served in a small 150160 millilitre ceramic cup.



Who drinks it: The blogger

In the last year, more than 112m-worth of coffee pods were sold in the UK, up by a third from 2014, according to analysts. Sales are expected to treble by 2020, at which point coffee capsule sales are projected to overtake those of tea bags.

Nespresso, the most popular provider in Europe, first sold single-serving coffee pods in 1986. In the US, roughly 13 per cent of people drink a coffee made from a single-cup brewer every single day.

A Nespresso spokesperson said: "We are frequently asked whether individual portions and the use of aluminium contradict sustainability - in our opinion, the opposite is the case."

Last year, Caffe Vergnano, an Italian producer, developed a type of capsule that can decompose naturally.
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Hundreds of migrants could be forcibly removed from a camp in the French port of Calais known as the Jungle, unless they voluntarily leave by Tuesday night, prompting an outcry from charities and activists.

The local authority has issued a decree ordering the southern part of the camp to be cleared by 8pm. After this deadline, if they have not left the area, the evacuation of the occupants of this area will take place, if necessary by force, it said.

Temporary shops, cafes, churches and mosques will also be razed. The migrants, many of whom are Syrian or Iraqi, have previously said they would resist the move, despite promises from officials that heated shipping containers would be provided as an alternative.

Recommended Read more French authorities issue expulsion order for Calais Jungle

The authorities said up to 1,000 people could be affected but volunteers on the ground estimated that at least twice that number lived in the area. Eight associations working in the camp, including Doctors of the World, warned that the alternative accommodation is very far from answering the needs of the problems encountered in a letter to the French interior minister.

Help Refugees also claimed that essential services including a clinic, a mental health centre and an aid distribution centre would also be destroyed.

Philli Boyle, the charitys Calais manager, told LBC Radio that if people were forced out it was a distinct possibility that they would form smaller camps along the coast. The French authorities dont appear to have provided for enough people, she said. Who is going to look after them?
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The prime suspect in a Swedish murder case has said he does not remember stabbing his friend in the chest but admitted "it cannot be someone else who did it", it has been reported.

The 39-year-old man, who has not been named, is accused of carrying out the attack at a dinner party in Onsala, western Sweden last December, according to Swedish regional newspaper Goteborgs-Posten.

The suspect allegedly then returned home to pick up an axe and attacked two other local residents, who sustained life-threatening injuries.

Prosecutor Ann-Christin Claesson told the newspaper the man did not remember the incident but had said "it cannot be someone else who did it".

It is thought the attacker had been mentally ill for some time and had recently been released from psychiatric care at the time of the incident.

Ulla Brehm, spokesperson for the Onsala police, said: There is considerable work to be carried out. We will also knock on doors in the neighborhood to see if anyone has seen or heard anything. It is also an opportunity for people to talk to police. Many feel worried after what happened.

Police say they have found the murder weapon, but have refused to discuss the motive at this time.

In pictures: Sweden school attack Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Sweden school attack In pictures: Sweden school attack Emergency services at the scene of the attack in school in Trollhattan Rex In pictures: Sweden school attack Swedish police officers at the scene of the attack Getty Images In pictures: Sweden school attack Police react outside the school in Trollhattan, as a masked man with a sword attacked students and a teacher In pictures: Sweden school attack Swedish police officers secure the area outside a primary and middle school in Trollhattan Getty Images In pictures: Sweden school attack Swedish police officers secure the area outside a primary and middle school in Trollhattan Getty Images

Tommy Nyman, spokesperson for the Western provinces police, said: He knew those who were at the event. Whether he knew the other two, I can not answer, but they live in the neighborhood.

A neighbour told local media of her surprise that something like this could happen to a town of just 11,000 residents. She said: I'm really shocked. It is a very quiet area.

The municipality has put in crisis aid to the affected families.

After two changes of lawyers, the defendant is now represented by Lennart Johansson. He told local media: I can not speak about really it. But when one is suspected of such a serious crime feel is obviously not good.

A trial was expected to begin on Friday, but Ms Claesson requested additional investigation time. In a letter to Varberg District Court, she said her technical studies were not yet complete, and that she required further time before the hearing. The case has been postponed until 18 March.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he wants to be remembered a decade from now as the person who saved his country.

As the civil war, which has claimed more than 250,000 lives, enters its sixth year President Assad said to the Spanish newspaper El Pais: In 10 years, if I can save Syria as president  but that doesnt mean Im still going to be president in 10 years, Im just talking about my vision of the 10 years.

If Syria is safe and sound, and Im the one who saved his country  thats my job now, thats my duty.

He added: If the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they dont want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away.

Recommended Read more Obama taking threats of Turkish intervention in Syria seriously

Assad said that he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, dependent on the condition that the terrorists  the regimes term for all rebel groups  and their international backers did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

The peace talks have faltered in recent days as the fighting in the war-torn region has intensified, especially in the northern Aleppo district where the Syrian regime has been pressing an offensive.

Speaking to El Pais, he said he was ready for a ceasefire, but warned it should not be exploited by the terrorists to improve their positions, using the regimes term for all rebel groups.

Its about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists.

Before the ceasefire deal was announced the Syrian president told AFP news agency that he realised the involvement of regional and international forces means that the solution will talk a long time and will incur a heavy price.

President Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end the civil war, also vowed to retake the whole of Syria by force.
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Israeli director Udi Aloni, who won the top audience at Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, has labelled the Israeli government "fascist" and urged Germany to cease its military support of the Jewish state.

At a Q&A session about his award-winning film Junction 48, hours before being presented with the Panorama Audience Award for best fiction film, Mr Aloni said Germany supported the fascist regime of Israel, according to a report by Channel 10 News.

The 56-year-old called Israel a "democracy of white people" and criticised German chancellor Angela Merkels support for Israel, saying: "Merkel does not mention the occupation and sells submarines to Netanyahu to continue such things."

But Mr Aloni later clarified to Channel 10 that his comments were directed against the Israeli government and not against the country, which I love".

"In contrast to the prime minister who spreads hatred, my movie spreads love and co-existence," he said.

Mr Aloni expressed support and admiration for Tamer Nafar, the Palestinian rapper on whose life his film is based, and who has also previously claimed Israel is a terrorist country.

He said: "What makes Tamer such an amazing man is that he actually grew up in Lod, and from the beginning he sang about the fact that Israel is the real terrorist.

In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Show all 18 1 /18 In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London Palestine's supporters and Palestinians themselves gathered in Portland Place outside the BBC headquarters, to protest against the alleged lack of information in British news on the war in Palestine In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London Palestinian and pro-Palestinian demonstrators assemble outside the BBC TV Centre in central London to protest against it's biased, pro-Israeli reporting of the conflict in Gaza In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London Pro-Palestinian protesters stand on a London bus during a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy on 11 July Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London A protester holds a placard during the protest on 11 July Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London Demonstrators scale a London bus during the protest on 11 July Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world London Police line the demonstration outside the Israeli embassy on 11 July Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Washington, US A man waves a flag at a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC on on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Mexico City A rally against the Israeli military held outside the Mexican Foreign Ministry building in Mexico City on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Tunisia Tunisians hold Palestinian flags as they protest in Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Jakarta, Indonesia A portrait of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sprayed with fake blood at a rally in Jakarta on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Jakarta, Indonesia A pro-Palestinian rally in Jakarta on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Rome, Italy A rally in downtown Rome on 11 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world Paris, France Pro-Palestinian protesters in Paris on 11 July Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world New York, US Pro-Israeli protesters rally near the Israeli Mission to the United Nations on 9 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world New York, US The pro-Israeli protest on 9 July Getty In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world New York, US A man shouts "Free Palestine" during a march in midtown Manhattan on 9 July Reuters In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world New York, US A march in Manhattan demanding an end to the escalating Israeli-Palestinian hostilities on 9 July Reuters In pictures: Israel-Palestinian demonstrations around the world New York, US Protesters rally across the street from the Israeli Mission to the United Nations in New York on 9 July 9 Getty Images

According to the report, Junction 48 received financial support from Israels culture ministry. Miri Regev, the hard-right Israeli minister of culture, said in response that Israel should not fund films that slander it.

Ms Regev said the statements were clear proof that artists who subvert the state, defame it and hurt its legitimacy should not be funded by the taxpayer".

"A sane country should not assist slanderers and denouncers who malign it, immediately after drinking from its coffers," she said.

Last year, more than 3,000 artists, including some of the countrys most prominent actors and directors, signed a petition against Ms Regevs policies.
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Officials in Iraq have reportedly recovered a "highly dangerous" radioactive material which went missing last year, prompting fears it could fall into Isis hands.

The device was found dumped near a petrol station some 15km from the oil company storage facility where it went missing in November, a spokesman for the Iraqi environment ministry told Reuters.

The material, contained in a special protective case roughly the size of a laptop, included a "highly dangerous radioactive source" and could have been combined with conventional explosives to create a dirty bomb, officials had warned.

Ameer Ali told Reuters the device, which used gamma rays to test for flaws in pipeline materials, had not been damaged and had been recovered by radiation prevention specialists.

"A passer-by found the radioactive device dumped in Zubair and immediately informed security forces," the chief of security panel in Basra provincial council, Jabbar al-Saidi, said.

"After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100 per cent and there is absolutely no concern of radiation."

Leaked environment agency documents revealed last week that the device had been missing since at least 30 November, prompting international concern.

An unnamed senior security official with knowledge of the apparent theft said at the time: "We are afraid the radioactive element will fall into the hands of Daesh (Isis).

In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work

"They could simply attach it to explosives to make a dirty bomb.

Unlike a nuclear bomb, which uses uses nuclear fission to trigger a vastly more powerful blast, a dirty bomb simply uses a conventional blast to disseminate nuclear material, potentially causing radiation damage over a wide area.

Officials said the device contained up to 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of Ir-192, a radioactive isotope of iridium also used to treat cancer. The material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive by the International Atomic Energy Agency - meaning it can be fatal to someone exposed for a matter of days or even hours."
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More than 400 Palestinians have been displaced from the West Bank due to Israeli demolitions in the first six weeks of the year, according to a senior UN official.

Between 1 January and 15 February, Israeli forces are accused of dismantling or confiscated 283 homes, displacing 404 Palestinians - including 219 children.

The Coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, described the findings as alarming and called on Israel to halt demolitions in the West Bank.

The number of demolitions for just the first six weeks of 2016 is greatly alarming," he said.

"Over 400 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes  equivalent to over half the total number of Palestinians displaced in all of 2015.

Most of the demolitions in the West Bank take place on the spurious legal grounds that Palestinians do not possess building permits.

In Area C, official Israeli figures indicate only 1.5 per cent of Palestinian permit applications are approved in any case. So what legal options are left for a law-abiding Palestinian?

International law is clear  Palestinians in the West Bank have the right to adequate housing and the right to receive humanitarian assistance.

As the occupying power, Israel is obliged to respect these rights.

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. 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It comes after Israel announced it was to resume building settlements in the West Bank following an 18-month moratorium.

The demolition policy has received criticism worldwide. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, described the Israeli zoning and planning policy in the West Bank as restrictive and discriminatory.

The EU has also condemned Israel's actions, saying it made it impossible for there to be an independent Palestinian state.
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Russia is guilty of committing some of the most "egregious" war crimes seen in decades, Amnesty International has claimed.

The leading human rights organisation said Moscow's air force has not only been targeting civilians and aid workers in Syria over the last week, but that warplanes have been deliberately attacking those attempting to treat the victims.

Tirana Hassan, director of Amnesty's crisis response programme, told Sky News: Weve documented strikes on schools, strikes on hospitals and civilian homes. And one of the most egregious parts of what Russia and the Syrian forces are doing is that theyre bombing these civilian targets when it itself is a war crime.

But then theyve been looping around  and this is a consistent report, that there are second bombardments  which are then injuring and killing humanitarian workers and just civilians who are going in to evacuate the wounded and the dead."

The Kremlin has in the past rejected suggestions that it has intentionally been hitting civilian zones, insisting that it is only dropping bombs on terrorist targets. Russian president Vladimir Putins official spokesperson denied the country is guilty of war crimes, dismissing them as unfounded accusations.

German chancellor Angela Merkels has called for a no-fly zone in order to prevent air strikes by all the opposing sides.

Andrew Mitchell, a Conservative MP and former International Development Secretary, said earlier this week that Russias air strikes on hospitals and a school were certainly a war crime.

But Mr Mitchell said there was effectively nothing we can do at the moment but they can be held to account in the future.

In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

Russia is one of the only countries to openly support the Syrian President, who the West wants to see permanently removed to usher in a new government and end the bitter civil war.

More than half of Syria's population has been displaced over the course of the conflict  amounting to around 11 million people.
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The seemingly impossible task of bringing the Syrian civil war to an end have been laid bare when, even as John Kerry said there was provisional agreement on a ceasefire, bombings killed almost 90 people across the country.

Almost as the US Secretary of State announced the deal, the series of blasts in Homs and Damascus wrought more terror on the country. Hinting that the various sides fighting in Syria would find elements of a new package difficult, Mr Kerry warned: There is a stark choice for everybody here.

Weeks of talks about ceasefires have come to nothing amid military action on the ground and airstrikes.

There were few details of what Mr Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, had agreed, but speaking in Amman, the Jordanian capital, Mr Kerry said: The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed. In fact, we are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been.

Despite his words, at least 30 people died in the Shia Sayeda Zaynab district in the south of Damascus. Isis later claimed responsibility for four blasts at the site, which were reported to be the result of two car bombs and two suicide bombings. Earlier in the day in Homs at least 57 people died when twin car bombs were detonated.

Mr Kerry acknowledged that the fighting would continue until a lasting settlement could be achieved.

I do not believe that in the next few days, during which time we try to bring this [new deal] into effect, there is somehow going to be a tipping point with respect to what is happening on the ground, he said. The [Syrian] opposition has made clear their determination to fight back.

In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work

Any deal between the American and Russian governments would need to be put to the myriad of political and military groups fighting in Syria. It was reported yesterday that Moscows defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whose government supports the Syrian administration, was travelling to Tehran to speak to Iranian allies.

A supposed peace conference in Geneva earlier this month ended in acrimony when representatives of rebel groups walked out amid a renewed government offensive in Aleppo. Those loyal to the administration accused the Turkish and Saudi governments of planning renewed military campaigns against the Syrian government, and even the possibility of the deployment of ground troops.

Mr Kerry said that American and Russian diplomats were still filling out the details of the agreement. There has been bitter rhetoric on both sides over Russian bombing raids in Syria. As well as targeting positions held by Isis and the al-Qaeda-backed Jabhat al-Nusra, as the US-led coalition has been doing, Russian strikes have also hit other groups opposed to the Syrian government.

Some of these groups are defined as moderates by Washington, which has in certain cases provided training and equipment to fighters on the ground.

A new deal will not end attacks on Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, but it is hard to see any lasting peace coming from an agreement that does not include aid corridors being opened to towns being besieged by Syrian troops, and an end to Russian bombing of moderate anti-Assad groups.

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, told Spanish newspaper El Pais he would be willing to agree to a ceasefire as long as terrorists did not use the pause in fighting as an opportunity to make gains. Since the beginning of the conflict, the Syrian government has characterised as terrorists everyone opposed to Mr Assads government.

The Syrian leader also suggested that he would be remembered as the person who saved his country.

In 10 years, if I can save Syria as president  but that doesnt mean I am still going to be president in 10 years, I am just talking about my vision of the 10 years, he said. If Syria is safe and sound, and I am the one who saved his country  that is my job now, that is my duty.
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Five hundred years ago, the lawyer and philosopher Thomas More wrote a book with an unhelpfully unwieldy title: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia. We can just call it Utopia  an original name, coined by More himself, for an original and hugely influential idea.

Derived from the Greek, that title means no place, but it hints at an alternative meaning: when the book was first published in 1516, it included a short poem claiming that the better world More described really was Eutopie, a happy place. Its a paradox and a pun, playing on the British inability to distinguish between the pronunciation of the two terms, and it suggests that somethings not quite right. (The word dystopia seems to be a much later invention.) Is this paradise, whichever name you give it, unobtainable? Thats assuming the place really is meant to be a paradise in the first place.

Whatever it is, in Mores book Utopia is described by a traveller called Raphael Hythloday who bends the narrators ear with a survey of our own corrupt, far-from-happy side of the world before enthusiastically describing how much better things are in the island republic of Utopia on the far side of the world. There is no such thing as private property there, and no sectarian strife  but there is a welfare state (incorporating state-sanctioned euthanasia), as well as full employment, a programme of rehabilitative slavery for Utopian criminals, a democratic political system that works, a six-hour working day (many enjoy their work so much that they work longer, though), divorce courts, and a general disdain for gold and silver (which are used to make chamber-pots). Reason governs all  at least until Christianity comes along.

The 30 best cities in the world Show all 30 1 /30 The 30 best cities in the world The 30 best cities in the world 30. Stockholm, Sweden The 30 best cities in the world 29. Dresden, Germany The 30 best cities in the world 28. Shanghai, China The 30 best cities in the world 27. Dublin, Ireland The 30 best cities in the world 26. Hong Kong, China The 30 best cities in the world 25. Singapore The 30 best cities in the world 24. Victoria, BC, Canada The 30 best cities in the world 23. Quebec City, Canada The 30 best cities in the world 22. Madrid, Spain The 30 best cities in the world 21. Siena, Italy The 30 best cities in the world 20. Edinburgh, Scotland The 30 best cities in the world 19. Vancouver, BC, Canada The 30 best cities in the world 18. Lucerne, Switzerland The 30 best cities in the world 17. Amsterdam, The Netherlands The 30 best cities in the world 16. Cape Town, South Africa The 30 best cities in the world 15. Tokyo, Japan The 30 best cities in the world 14. Barcelona, Spain The 30 best cities in the world 13. Venice, Italy The 30 best cities in the world 12. Salzburg, Austria The 30 best cities in the world 11. Jerusalem, Israel The 30 best cities in the world 10. London, England The 30 best cities in the world 9. Kyoto, Japan The 30 best cities in the world 8. Bruges, Belgium The 30 best cities in the world 7. Prague, Czech Republic The 30 best cities in the world 6. Rome, Italy The 30 best cities in the world 5. Paris, France The 30 best cities in the world 4. Sydney, Australia The 30 best cities in the world 3. Vienna, Austria AFP/Getty Images The 30 best cities in the world 2. Budapest, Hungary The 30 best cities in the world 1. Florence, Italy

Hythlodays description of Utopia has meant different things to different readers. In the 19th century, it could be drawn on as a prototype for Communism. A historian interested in the Tudor period could draw satirical lines between Utopia and the disorderly London that More knew all too well in his capacity as one of the citys undersheriffs (he once had to face down a rioting mob). A good Roman Catholic familiar with him primarily as Saint Thomas More (he was canonized in 1935) could point out how divorce, married priests and euthanasia might not fit that easily with their beliefs.

All of these approaches ought to make us question what we think is going on in the book, just as Mores contemporaries and fellow humanists were invited to do. It started a centuries-spanning conversation  one sign of the books greatness  which this week takes the form of the London School of Ecomomics Space for Thought literary festival, devoted entirely to Utopias, the power of dreams and the imagination and... the benefits of looking at the world in different ways.

On the other hand, there is also a fine tradition of Utopias going terribly wrong when people tried to put their ideals into practice. It is true that some intentional communities, as those who study them like to call them, have flourished. But here are a few, imagined and historical, that show how acting on a dream can sometimes land you in a nightmare.

1. Thomas Mores troubled vision

A portrait of Thomas More (Getty Images)

You find yourself in a street in a small city  exactly which city is hard to say because all the streets in all the cities on this island are equal in size and virtually identical in appearance. All the buildings are the same height (three storeys each) and are constructed from the same materials. Perhaps youre feeling thirsty? Well, tough: there are no pubs here in Amaurot.

Yes, this is Amaurot, the capital of city of the island-state of Utopia, where the very idea of a public house is redundant: every house is public because no house is private, and the double doors to each of those identical houses around you are not locked. You could walk into any one of them right now. The Utopians find this architectural uniformity saves them a lot of collective mental adjustment when they move house  which they do in a regular and orderly fashion every decade, by drawing lots.

As you would soon discover on your journey through Utopia  for which you would need a special licence, by the way  this is indeed a society founded on reason, organised rationally for the benefit of all. And the ultimate benefit of this rational hierarchy is pleasure  not just any kind of pleasure, please, but only good and proper pleasure, either for the body or the mind. You dont need to be a raging libertarian to realise that living in the Utopia of all Utopias, is strictly for those who are rational, egalitarian and all but selfless.

2. Palmanovas fortress for the few

Plans for the Italian city of Palmanova (De Agostini/Getty Images)

From the air, the design of the Italian city of Palmanova is striking. It was originally a nine-pointed star citadel with ramparts and a moat, founded on 7 October 1593, as part of the Venetian Republics defences against the Ottoman Empire. Overseen by the veteran military architect Giulio Savorgnan with the most up-to-date defences built in, its construction was intended to express ideals of social harmony, at the same time as warding off any barbarians at the gates. The only snag was: nobody wanted to live there. The Venetians eventually resorted to pardoning criminals and offering them financial incentives to settle.

Since later regimes kept on adding to Palmanovas defensive perimeter, an English visitor in the 18th century could say Palmanova was beautifully laid out, but not quite finished, while another, in the 19th century, after Napoleons few years in charge, could call it a strong fortress, but a miserable little town. So much for that idea. This immobile Renaissance Death Star barely ever saw any military action, perhaps because nobody could be bothered to attack it.

3. Henry Nevilles pornotopia

First published in 1668, the satirical narrative The Isle of Pines has been called a pornotopia. It tells of Dutch sailors who are blown off course in the southern hemisphere, spy land and, to their surprise, are welcomed on shore by naked islanders speaking English.

This community turns out to have been founded by an English bookkeeper called George Pines (swap around the surnames vowels for the obvious joke) who was also blown off course and made landfall with only my masters daughter, the two maids, and the negro female slave for company. He sleeps with the first three women quite openly; the fourth seeing what we did, longed for her share. By the time the Dutch arrive on the island, nature has taken its course: it is Georges grandson who rules the roost, and rebellion is stirring one branch of his extensive (yet closely related) family.

The Dutch help to restore order and then leave, but not before hearing that whoredoms, incests and adultery abound in this island paradise, and seeing that the civilised advantages with which the colonys founders arrived have been forgotten. Its difficult to say what Nevilles getting at, but some have read it as a kind of politically charged parable.

4. The poets Pantisocracy

The poet Samuel Coleridge (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Hulton Archive/Getty)

Some Utopias fizzled out before they had even properly begun. The literary lives of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey could have been very different, or even non-existent, if only theyd had a little more money in their younger days. They met in Oxford in 1794, when Southey had already been discussing radical notions such as the abolition of private property with his friend George Burnett. Coleridge added his republican views to the mix and, between them, they cooked up a scheme for immigrating to North America to set up a Pantisocratic community founded on egalitarian principles. They identified the banks of the Susquehanna river as the place for a dozen families to start over, the following year.

Its once the Pantisocrats started looking into practical matters such as, well, money that they realised they couldnt even get to Pennsylvania, let alone build a new life there. Missing the point, Southey suggested they take servants with them to do the hard graft. He eventually settled for a farm in Wales and, 18 years later, was Poet Laureate to the monarchy Coleridge had condemned.

5. New Lanark, a near miss

The village of New Lanark was founded in 1786 (Getty Images)

In one sense, the village of New Lanark, southeast of Glasgow, could hardly be called a failed Utopia, and shouldnt be included in this list. Founded in 1786, it centred on the cotton mills that only closed in 1968; its inhabitants had been the beneficiaries of some laudable Utopian socialist principles, most famously those of the Welsh reformer Robert Owen. Many of the original residents had come from urban poorhouses. Owen built houses for them and opened the first school for infants in Britain in 1817. As somebody who saw his business turn a profit, but also saw his employees as more than just a workforce to be used and abused, Owen stands as a historical rebuke to more cynical capitalists of all ages.

Look at things from another angle, though: what did the Utopian conditions of New Lanark mean in the 19th century? A single room for a whole family; thousands of people lived like that. And although Owens successors respected his legacy, they failed to invest in machinery to keep up with competition, and the mills closed. New Lanark is now a World Heritage Site with a hotel, and deserves its high reputation  but its all too easy to take a rose-tinted view of its essentially industrial history, and a sobering thought that such conditions could be called a success. Theres much to admire about New Lanark  you can still visit it yourself, and even stay in the cotton mill converted into a hotel  but imagine living there for real.

6. Etienne Cabet and the Icarians

It was with Robert Owens example in mind, among other things, that a French lawyer called Etienne Cabet wrote his utopian fantasy, Voyage en Icarie. When it was published in 1840, its success led Cabet to think about putting his ideas into action on the other side of the Atlantic. He imagined 10,000 people pulling together in communist harmony  in Texas, which Owen himself had recommended.

Alas, things started going wrong straight away: for a start, there werent 10,000 Icarians; more like 69 pioneers made the initial journey (and Cabet himself wasnt one of them). Then it turned out the Texan land agent had conned them into buying a completely impractical checker-board pattern of land. A course of further misfortunes led them to try again at Nauvoo in western Illinois. Here, things went well for a few years, only for Cabet to mess up by trying to impose his own personal authority on the scheme. He went off with 170 followers; the Nauvoo colony petered out and those survivors clinging to their principles moved to a second Icarian colony, in Iowa, which stuck it out until almost the end of the century.

7. Penedo, land of saunas

The happy colonists are vegetarians and teetotallers...who help one another to build houses and to settle on their own little estates, sell the collected fruits and share the proceeds. They can live without too much toil, and thus have leisure for study, games and hobbies. The Australian reporter who wrote these words in 1933 had seen an extraordinary thing: a group of Finns, led by a charismatic yet fraudulent man called Toivo Uuskallio, living in a former coffee plantation called Fazenda Penedo, in south-eastern Brazil. Divinely inspired, Uuskallio wanted to help solve the terrible problem of world unemployment. He wanted a party of poor children from the East End of London to come out and join him.

Fat chance. Penedos soil had been drained of nutrients during its time as a plantation. There was an infestation of leaf-cutter ants and a series of forest fires. Some followers went home; others were trapped there. They only got some shares in the land of their own after taking costly legal action against their leader.

On the bright side, it was here that Brazilians were introduced to the delights of the sauna. (The Finns assets turned out to be the culture they had brought with them.) Uuskallio himself died of starvation, aged 60. He ate a lot of bananas, a follower recalled, but bananas alone cant sustain a man. Penedo survives him, and its principle business is now tourism.

8. JG Ballards hell on high

Tom Hiddleston in the film of 'High Rise' (Rex Features)

With Ben Wheatleys film of the book out in March, and city skylines becoming increasingly dominated by shards, gherkins and all the other shapes, now seems like a good time to re-read High-Rise, JG Ballards savage novel of 1975, about everything going to the dogs (although it begins with one being eaten by its owner) in a luxury skyscraper.

Stratified by both economic and social class, isolated from the rest of the world (even though the City of London is only a couple of miles away), High-Rise describes how a populace of 2,000 tower dwellers descend into bloody chaos. Tribes from rival floors fight for control of the mod cons; they become incapable of meeting strangers except with suspicion or even aggression. And it is their being trapped in a vertical concrete landscape  an environment built, not for man, but for mans absence  that seems to have this unravelling effect.

Ballard wrote the book following the rise of the Brutalist style of modern architecture exemplified by Erno Goldfingers Trellick Tower in Kensington. Even as that block of flats opened in 1972, it was clear that tower blocks could cause drastic social problems. There was a price to pay for their soaring ambitions, and it was the residents who paid it. The Trellick is 31 storeys high. Perhaps its no coincidence that the first sign of trouble in High-Rise, dog-eating aside, is a bottle of wine smashing on the protagonists balcony, after its seemingly knocked over the rail by a boisterous guest at a party on the top floor. The thirty-first...

9. Experiments in Utopian living

In 2005, the idea of living off-grid came to Dylan Evans. He duly found a good spot for establishing an independent community up in the Scottish Highlands, and issued an online invitation to others to join him. Things did not go according to plan: his book The Utopia Experiment begins with him waking up at 3am in a psychiatric hospital.

The idea of The Utopia Experiment was, in principle, simple and appealing; a group of voluntary Utopians would live, work and learn new skills together, over a strictly limited period of 18 months, playing out the likely scenario, in the wake of a global catastrophe, of having to fend for themselves. Utopianism isnt just a whimsical side-project here but a potential survival strategy.

A hopeful start, however, gave way to all kinds of disappointment. The Utopia Experiment wryly tells of battling to keep the Scottish rain out of home-made yurts, arguments over religion  even somebody cutting a finger while chopping wood and having to be driven to hospital. Perhaps worst of all, Evans wonders why he has done any of this. Is it really about founding a better way of life  or is it merely a sign of depression?

In any case, as Evans admits, To call something Utopian is...not entirely positive...The connotation of a perfect society is offset by that of a hopelessly impractical ideal. Try telling that to the Icarians, Pantisocrats, inhabitants of the high-rise and the rest.

On 23 February, Michael Caines will be one of the speakers at We Dont Have to Live Like This: Experiments in Utopian Living , part of the LSE Space for Thought literary festival.

http://www.lse.ac.uk
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A few days ago, on a hilltop above the Mediterranean city of Latakia, with the sun going down and the whisper of jets  Russian jets, of course  high in the sky, Samah Ismael told the story of her eviction from Raqqa. It is one small tragedy in a million  but it seemed to illustrate much.

This was long before Isis existed, when the Nusra Front  which represented al-Qaeda in those days  was growing in power and when the people living in the little town of al-Sabha on the banks of the Euphrates thought that even then, in 2013, the war which had consumed much of Syria might not touch them. Samah was a 39-year-old government teacher at the Ahmad al-Azawi school and had been happy taking her English classes with 17 and 18 year-olds. Education is free in Syria.

Samah, I should add, is an Alawite, the Shia minority from which Bashar al-Assad comes, although it does not dominate the teaching profession in Syria. She had been living just outside Raqqa for four-and-a-half years. But in March of 2013, she had stayed in the city until 10 at night and noticed that all the government buildings appeared to be empty. There were no police in the streets, no lights in the police station.

Then three days later, just as she was leaving her school after evening class, another teacher, a friend called Ahmad, told her that 8,000 men had come to Raqqa from the east, dressed in black uniforms with guns. Some said they rode in aboard Turkish tanks.

I cried, Samah remembers. It was a very painful moment. I packed my bags. I knew what was to happen. Then at night, they came to my door. There were five young men and an older man who was the owner of the house I lived in. I said cheerfully, Come in, please, take coffee. The young men were all dressed in black and I knew them. They were my own students.

Samah knew what was to come next. Most of the boys were 16 years old. I recognised them at once. Ahmad, Ali They didnt say anything impolite to me. They said they didnt want to hurt me. They said We want you to get out of here because you are not welcome here in your country. Their faces were not beautiful as they were before, when they were just students. They were trembling with anger. They were also shy and they would not look into my eyes and they were looking down.

They were wearing black shirts and jeans and they all had guns. They said that if I did not leave, they would take all the furniture and burn the house down.

Samah Ismael moved to a neighbours house for three days. No, I was not afraid, she says brightly. I thought this might happen but I didnt care  I could not be afraid. I never was. My students stayed half an hour  no, they were not very good students in the school  and then they left.

Why wasnt I afraid? I suppose because this is my country and it was because I was a teacher  their teacher  that they didnt hurt me. They were all from farming families. There had been government reforms and their families were new farmers with new lands and so the parents were comparatively quite rich. The whole countryside is rich. They grow corn, grapes, cotton...

After 11 days, Samah boarded a bus to Palmyra  which fell to Isis last year  and then to Homs and then to her family above Latakia where she now feels safe but bored. I grew up here and there is nothing and I hate this place, she said.

But it is better than Raqqa today. Fridays were punishment days after I left. I could still talk to friends for a while on the internet and they told me that the first thing that happened was that women were told to cover themselves. Then the schools were all closed  my school was closed  and the only place where children were taught was at the mosques.

Samah reflects on the clouds that shadowed her country so quickly. It happened so suddenly, she says. We went to sleep in one state and we woke up in another state. Most of the Nusra are now completely against the Isis and I have this feeling that my students, the ones who told me to leave, are now dead. Im not sure why. It is a feeling. They didnt get good marks at school but there had been a very good relationship between me and them.

Later, Samah agrees that the students also told her that the reason she could not stay was because she was an Alawite  and thus the sectarian curtain brushed aside the more obvious reason for her eviction; that she worked for the government and thus represented the regime which was to be destroyed. At least, that was the idea in 2013. And today?

Raqqa is bombed  by the Americans, by the Russians, by the Syrians, by the Jordanians and the Saudis and just about everybody else in the region. At least, that is what we are supposed to believe, although some messages from residents of Raqqa suggest that much of the bombing is in the imagination of the various powers that claim to be destroying the worlds latest most-hated cult. But will Samah ever go back to teach in the Ahmad al-Azawi school? Can Syria be put back together again? Soon, perhaps sooner than we think, life after Isis and Nusra and all the other outfits will have to be contemplated here.

And if the future of this country  like all the other Arab states  rests on education rather than guns, then how do we account for the friendly but not-very-bright students who turned up in their black shirts with their guns at Samahs home? Doesnt education work? March 6, 2013, that was the day they came. Everyone in Syria remembers the day of their eviction.
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During one of last years election debates, Nigel Farage tried to grab the publics attention with a hideous call for a ban on foreigners with Aids being treated on the NHS. It was dog whistle politics of the most depressing kind. Among his fiercest critics was Respect party chief George Galloway, who tweeted that such a bigoted smear should disqualify the Ukip leader from any civilised company henceforth.

Yet fast forward to today and this pair of publicity-crazed egomaniacs have become a dodgy double act promoting Brexit - the toxic twins, as one observer dubbed them. Given their record for alienating allies, this bromance is unlikely to last long. Galloway later insisted the pair were not pals but allies in one cause. Like Churchill and Stalin Certainly he can never be accused of having a low opinion of himself, although does he sees himself like Churchill or Stalin?

Perhaps Boris Johnson, the best-selling biographer and part-time London mayor, can clarify matters now he has joined this gang. Johnsons revelation yesterday was, of course, really about his leadership ambitions for all his straight-faced denials and protestations of loyalty to David Cameron. He says he has spent years pondering the issue of Europe. Yet he has turned his decision into a drawn-out drama to hog the headlines and underline his importance. The aim is clear: to succeed the Prime Minister after dominating the campaign for withdrawal.

The stakes in this struggle are now even higher; it is a battle for Downing Street as well as for the future of our country and our continent. This is politics at its most primeval alongside serious issues of defence, diplomacy and economics. Yet the creation of such strange bedfellows to fight the EU underscores how those pushing for Brexit are united only by loathing of Brussels. No wonder they are unable to come up with a common vision of what a vote to leave would mean for Britain.

Those pushing this outmoded cause are a motley collection of protest politicians, elderly ex-ministers and people with thwarted ambitions, given a veneer of respectability by Michael Goves decision to join their ranks and a frisson of excitement by Boris. They rage about red tape, bang on about borders and sell a phoney dream of independence. But some proclaim a free-market future for Britain free of regulation, while others promote an end to neo-liberalism and an anti-Socialist union. Then there are the Little Englanders seeking a return to past certainties.

It is hard to see how Britain leaving the EU could satisfy such diversity of claims. Former chancellor Lord Lawson bemoans the frenzy of regulatory activism and mesh of European Union regulation that is damaging and costly to business. Chris Grayling seeks fewer health and safety rules. Meanwhile the likes of transport union boss Mick Cash claims the club is irreversibly committed to privatisation, welfare cuts, low wages and the erosion of trade union rights. And Labours Kate Hoey, a former minister and MP for almost three decades, says she is engaged in revolt against the political establishment as she fights alongside six Tory cabinet ministers.

It would be hard not to laugh if the consequences were not so serious. Forget Boris for a moment. Some of these people have spent years campaigning for this referendum, yet cannot even agree which country offers the right vision of life outside the EU. Ukips optimistic MP Douglas Carswell and the Freedom Association see Britain as a supercharged version of Singapore, open to flows of people and capital. Others advocate the charms of Iceland and Greenland, while the energetic Tory MEP Daniel Hannan is among those suggesting Switzerland and Norway offer guides for our relationship with Europe.

But David Davis says the Norway option is not really appropriate for a major power like the UK. Another senior Tory, former minister John Redwood, also insists his side does not want the UK to seek a Norway-style deal, as we see no need to pay any money into the EU once we have left. He proposes Canada, Australia and Mexico as role models since they trade well with the EU without having to pay for the privilege. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave, pointed to Turkey since it does not adopt EU social and employment legislation. Another group even highlighted the visa rules of Vanuatu in the South Pacific.

There are differing stances on the Stay side, of course. But this matters less since they are arguing for the status quo, so voters can see the validity of their claims. Meanwhile their rivals peddle myths. No wonder Grayling squirmed on the BBCs Sunday Politics programme when pressed repeatedly to clarify his utopia of a trade deal with no costs and no freedom of movement. His notion that one of the worlds biggest economies could sort a new deal in two years - similar to Greenland, a nation of 56,000 people reliant on the fishing industry - was simply absurd. Canada took seven years to conclude similar discussions - and that was without any bitterness caused by rejection.

These people offer pipe dreams. Pick any nation as a role model: they must still trade with Europe, permit movement of people and remain part of the globalised world. The rules would remain, but we would give up any say in them. This debate is really a proxy for other political causes. There are those for whom it is genuinely about sovereignty, the issue that turned Gove from Blairite into a Bennite. But they are joined on the left by those driven by dislike of capitalism, and on the right by those sceptical of the state or simply seething with distaste for migrants and modernity. And now Boris has entered the fray, ruthlessly turning a referendum on Europe into his own personal fight.
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Too many students at our universities and colleges are censorious and absurdly touchy. Public figures have to meet strict and ever-changing student union compliance standards before they are permitted to talk on campus. Those who fail these capricious tests are rudely disinvited, stalked and verbally abused online. Some of these cases reach the media, most do not.

Last week the neurobiologist Dr Adam Perkins of Kings College London was informed by the LSE that his planned lecture could not go ahead (for now) because concerns about negative social media activity. Activists object to his book, The Welfare Trait, in which he claims that welfare dependence causes generational dysfunction and reduces motivation. I personally hate the thesis already, but I do think he should be asked back to make his case and then be grilled by smart, sharp students.

There have been other such moments of youthful repression. Last autumn, Germaine Greer was due to speak at Cardiff Uni. A storm was whipped up by those who believed she had dissed transgender people. (Did they not know that Greer has dissed almost all interest groups in her colourful life?) Last September, Maryam Namazie, a feminist and a former Muslim, was due to speak at Warwick University. The student union carried out a risk assessment and concluded that her modernist opinions could incite hatred. (Her supporters fought back and she was allowed to speak.) University College Union would not let a Kurdish man, Macer Gifford, describe his experiences as a fighter against Isis. Peter Tatchell, the irrepressible gay campaigner, has been blacklisted by several universities and one NUS rep recently refused to share a stage with him and labelled him racist and transphobic.

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A survey has found that the most ban happy universities are Edinburgh, Leeds and Aberystwyth and that freedom of speech is now resisted across our higher education institutions.

I understand the students and their concerns. I was like them once too, a ferocious no-platform pugilist. Payton Quinn, Greers nemesis, said: Language does have a genuine, sometimes violent consequence for those at the sharp end The trouble is that many in the mainstream have no experience of it and so dismiss it. I was Payton once. Actually, way, way past my student days, I demonstrated at various sites where fascists and racists were allowed to address audiences. I still adamantly maintain that freedom of speech is not an absolute right. It gives licence to those who debase women, gay, black or Asian people and plant hatreds. (Take a look at the online abuse I get.)

But I now accept that when bad ideas and depraved thoughts are silenced, they become more powerful and potent. And that sometimes, debate can disable the worst ideologues. I have the BBC to thank for this conversion from zealotry to open-mindedness. In 2009, Question Time invited the BNP leader Nick Griffin to be on the panel. I fired off an apoplectic letter to the BBC Trust, then watched as Griffin slowly disintegrated live on the show. The BNP sank into a swamp of irrelevance where it still languishes today.

Nicola Dandridge, the chief executive of Universities UK, has spoken up for vigorous debate in higher education institutions. That means speakers with contentious, even inflammatory or offensive views must be allowed to address students. I agree. But pro-platform defenders face a big conundrum, and one that has so far gone unheeded: university students are expected to be free-thinkers, but what are they to do when the state silences their thoughts and tongues? Do they accept that liberties and freedoms are conditional and ephemeral in the real world? Is freedom on campus merely a charade?

Since the spurious war on terror was declared, our people have been cowed. Independence of mind, critical democratic engagement and free speech are discouraged. Here is a short list of official government suppression and raids on civil rights:

From May, charities will be banned from using public money to campaign against government policies. They can feed the poor but not comment on the causes of poverty.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005) outlawed peaceful protests outside Parliament, one of our inalienable and long standing rights.

Theresa Mays Prevent agenda requires police, local authorities, prisons, probation officers, schools and, yes, universities, to report anyone who appears to be on the path of radicalisation and to take action. Those inflammatory speakers defended by Ms Dandridge above apparently must not include anyone Muslim.

It is frowned upon to criticise Israeli policies which systematically discriminate against Palestinians, or to accuse that state of breaking international laws. Our government is complicit in this censorship. Last week ago it banned public service organisations from boycotting Israeli goods, because such actions are supposedly anti-Semitic.

Muslim preachers are also watched and put on banned lists. Some are indeed dangerous demagogues and need to be stopped. But the Government needs to come clean and say clearly that all freedoms are subject to government control. To be a good citizen, one must acquiesce to authority.

They claim this is all to keep us safe. Student bodies want to keep out controversial speakers because universities should be safe spaces. Illiberal students are simply reflecting the illiberal society they and we now live in.
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The Lex Building is not the ugliest building in Brussels. That, among stiff competition, would be Bloc A of the Europa Building, although others may have their own favourites. The Lex is itself a curved reflective glass high-rise, about a dozen or so storeys high, and you would not have thought that such an edifice, or the view from it, would encourage concupiscent thoughts among those employed within it. Rather the reverse, if anything  after all, is not European bureaucracy meant to be faceless, and therefore incapable of stimulating desire?

And yet it has managed just that, with the news yesterday that two Germans  possibly interpreters  were caught in congress, and not the dull kind of congress, in a locked toilet cubicle, enjoying what The Sun felt moved to describe (in the words of a possibly made-up laughing EU source) as a bit of hows your Fatherland.

This is a significant development in the European debate. On the rare occasions that sexiness has been mentioned in the same breath, it has invariably been with the prefix un-. And, indeed, the architecture of this part of Brussels, especially when seen on a grey, drizzly day, with David Cameron banging on in the background  sorry, I mean, using all the eloquence at his command trying to extract meaningless concessions in order to bolster his campaign to keep the UK in Europe  is not the kind of mise-en-scene one would expect to give rise to carnal thoughts.

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Also, from what I know about interpreters, which is admittedly not a huge amount, I would have thought that they would have other things on their minds instead. Simultaneous translation is a hugely involving business, and leaves little opportunity or time, let alone cerebral bandwidth, for erotic reverie.

Then again, human beings do have this wonderful capacity for inappropriate behaviour. Poe called it the imp of the perverse, and I once went out for a long time with a woman whose pleasure in visiting country churches was, she admitted, enhanced by the rude things she felt like doing in them. I also recall a particularly splendid encounter in a quiet corner of a well-known central London library which I had better not name, although that was after in impromptu boozy lunch at a restaurant round the corner well-known for its oysters, which may have had something to do with it (although, as I recall, I had the whitebait).

But the true significance of this story is that The Sun is the paper that has run it. (Mail Online borrowed it too, referring to an elicit encounter, a howler that The Suns subs would never have made.)

As we all know, this populist mouthpiece of the Murdoch empire never has a good word to say about the European Union; and the subtext of this story, whose veracity I suspect hangs by a thread in the first place, is that Eurocrats are not only obsessed with straightening our cucumbers, so to speak, but they are irresponsible, even when on the job, so to speak, and that we would do well to withdraw, so to speak, from the whole project.

And yet if there is another subtext to a huge number of Sun stories, it is that sex is both naughty and desirable; reprehensibly human. And when one considers three of the four main figureheads of the anti-Europe movement  Nigel Farage, George Galloway and Michael Gove  one sees, even with the most accommodating eye, the least sexy men in the whole of the British Isles (and Boriss appeal has always been a mystery to me). Could it be that The Sun is coming round to a pro-European position? So to speak?
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The time must come, even in Republican politics, when the laughter has to stop. Judging by the South Carolina primary result, that time is close.

After Donald Trumps victory, the GOP nomination is a two-horse race. Jeb Bush has quit, because this is no time for dull and decent. For the same reason, Ohio governor John Kasich will do the same. So will Ben Carson, the seemingly self-lobotomised brain surgeon with single-digit support.

As for indescribably creepy Ted Cruz, the writing is on the wall for the Texas senator. A third-place finish in born again-dominated South Carolina, a state that looked tailor-made for his psychosis-inducing praise-be evangelism, is the beginning of his end.

There now begins a mano-a-mano scrap between Trump and Marco Rubio, the young and relatively pretty Cuban-American from Florida. Trump is Betfairs favourite to be running for the White House come November, but only by a whisper. It currently rates Rubio a 45 per cent chance.

And so the time approaches to cease the giggling. I cant pretend it will be easy. Whatever you think of Trump, no one can deny his value as an entertainer, which is why his success has been a guilty pleasure.

Even when the laughter abates, I will be on my knees begging the Creator to make his success continue, and for this simple reason. At this moment in history, more perhaps than at any moment since the Second World War, the world needs a grown-up in the White House. And the only one on offer this surreal election season is Hillary Clinton, who appears to have the Democratic nomination sewn up (albeit with an attritional battle for delegates ahead) after beating Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

Hillary, who like Trump is pushing 70, may be old by presidential standards, and after decades on the scene she is undeniably stale. She is in many ways a weak candidate, which is why the even older demi-socialist Sanders runs her close. But does any of that matter when weighed against the potential for the Middle East, that tinderbox of a region, to spark a forest fire far beyond its land mass?

The civil war in Syria rages on after a farcical ceasefire. Apart from with the vast migration of refugees and continuing threat from Isis, Russia and Turkey are now flirting with war. As for Iran, the survival of the deal with which Obama coaxed Tehran away from developing nuclear weaponrydepends on Hillary succeeding him.

In pictures: US Elections 2016 Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: US Elections 2016 In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters after rival candidate Hillary Clinton was projected as the winner in the Nevada Democratic caucuses Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes photos with workers at her campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, second from left, prays before lunch with supporters at Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Maryland Governor. Martin O'Malley, speaks during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks, as his wife Jane OMeara Sanders looks on, at a campaign event at Iowa State University Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio speaks at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at a campaign event at Fireside Pub and Steak House in Manchester, Iowa. Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum visiting supporters at a house party in West Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Ted Cruz campaigns at Greene County Community Centre in Jefferson, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Senator Rand Paul speaks during a Caucus rally at his Des Moines headquarters in Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa AFP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin introducing the arrival of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 A portrait of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Campaign badges on sale ahead of a Trump rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Centre in Waterloo, Iowa Getty

The leading Republican candidates insist they will attack Iran, as John McCain promised to do in 2008. You may recall that his unofficial campaign song was Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb-Iran. What would the world look like today had a President McCain parlayed that droll adaptation of Barbara Ann into targeting cruise missiles at Irans nuclear plants? It doesnt bear imagining.

Obamas presidency may one day be revered as much for the wars he avoided as universal(ish) health care and rescuing the US economy from the edge of the precipice. History may one day judge him a very good, even great, President for what he did not do in the Middle East  and Hillary would largely continue his policy doing nothing to inflame an already white-hot region.

On the other hand, Trumps policy may be precised as 1) kill em all; 2) take out Iran; 3) win-win-win; and 4) kill some more  but it can be ignored since it is so unlikely that a contender with his unfavourable ratings among independent voters could beat Son of Sam or the Unabomber, let alone Hillary.

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Rubios foreign policy cannot be ignored, because he might well beat Hillary. For her, an articulate 40-something Latino with a juicy back story and a cute way of projecting the platitudinous rot about Americas best days lying ahead is trouble. America is a young country and its people natural optimists. Almost invariably, they plump for hope over experience and schmaltzy sentiment over hard-boiled reality.

Rubios foreign policy is George W Bushs foreign policy. The implications of thatneed no spelling out. So when the Republican nomination devolves into a two-way fight, as it soon will, I suggest you join me in prayer that Donald Trump beats Rubio to the nomination. You dont have to like her and you need not respect her. But you need her, and her vast experience as Secretary of State (not to mention Bills respectful advice as First Gentleman).

This is no time, as Gordon Brown once said of Hillarys little friend David Miliband, for a novice. Marco Rubio might be the most dangerous novice in modern history. He may cut an unlikely altruist, but when the laughter finally stops, Donald Trump has deadly serious work ahead of him  on behalf of us all.
At the end of a tough quarter, the fraught debate over how policymakers should tackle the world's economic woes gets another airing in the coming week as central banks on both sides of the Atlantic publish minutes. Photo: Getty (stock image)

A quarterly business survey has found that companies are less optimistic about growth prospects than at any stage in the past year.

About 52pc of companies surveyed in a recent optimism index by BDO said they expected results to stall or decline in the first three months of this year, the highest proportion since the end of 2014, amid renewed concerns about the prospects for the global economy and the possibility of Britain's exit from the EU.

"2015 was an exceptionally strong year of growth for the Irish economy, expanding 7pc over the year, by far the quickest pace of growth in Europe", said Con Quigley, partner at professional services firm BDO. "However, what is noticeable in our latest survey is the lower number of businesses expecting activity levels to rise in the first quarter of 2016.

"When asked to look ahead, 48pc of respondents said they expected their businesses to grow in the first quarter. That is the lowest forward projection growth for any of our surveys in 2015.

"Undoubtedly there has been a rise in economic volatility since the start of 2016, with increasing uncertainty as to the prospects of global economic growth. We have seen a sell-off in global equities, concerns about China's economy and ongoing political instability in the Middle East as well as a dramatic fall in the price of oil. We see the impact of this confluence of global concerns not only in our client base in Ireland but in our work on projects with Irish firms holding assets in London and those we are preparing for IPO."
The European Commission will bring a Norwegian airline's fight to launch transatlantic routes from Cork to the US State Department next month.

European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc plans to raise the issue of permit delays for planned transatlantic routes from Cork Airport with the State Department at the beginning of March. The State Department is responsible for international relations on behalf of the United States and is led by Secretary of State John Kerry, the former Republican candidate in the 2004 US presidential election.

Commissioner Bulc will meet with the State Department on March 1 under the auspices of discussing the de-carbonisation of aviation, but will also use the opportunity to raise Norwegian Air Shuttle's case, a spokesperson for the Commission said.

The low-cost European airline said last week that it had been forced to defer the launch of a new route between Cork and Boston planned for May.

The launch of the new route by its Irish subsidiary was shelved because it has not gained approval from the US Department of Transport, despite meeting all requirements under the EU-US Open Skies Agreement.

The airline said it was still committed to opening the route. It also plans to begin flights between Cork and New York in 2017.

As Norway is not a member of the EU, the airline established an Irish subsidiary early in 2014 to avail of the Open Skies Agreement. It lodged its application for the transatlantic routes shortly afterwards. It claims this is the longest pending application of its kind.

The Commission first informed US authorities they were in breach of the EU-US air transport agreement in November 2014. Commissioner Bulc has also raised the issue with US Transport Secretary Anthony Foxx, to no avail.

The US Department of Transport declined to comment when asked why it had not yet given its approval to the new routes.

One of the options open to the Commission is to pursue arbitration under the EU/US Open Skies Agreement.

The decision whether to pursue arbitration will not take place until after the Transport Commissioner meets with State Department officials, a spokesperson added.
'With the Irish State still owning 99.8pc of AIB, 75pc of Permanent TSB and 14pc of Bank of Ireland, profit growth is essential if the Exchequer is to recover as much as possible of the 64bn it spent bailing out the Irish banks'

Bank of Ireland publishes its results tomorrow - the first of the Irish-owned banks to release its full-year 2015 results. AIB's results follow next week, and Permanent TSB's the week after that. Investors will be analysing the results closely for any signs of a return to loan growth.

When Bank of Ireland boss Richie Boucher gets up to deliver his results presentation tomorrow he is likely to reveal that the company recorded operating profits of more than 1.4bn and pre-tax profits in excess of 1.2bn in 2015. These numbers will leave Bank of Ireland well-positioned to resume paying dividends to its long-suffering shareholders in 12 months' time.

AIB is also gradually returning to health. With the Government anxious to sell a 25pc stake in the bank later this year, Michael Noonan will be pleased to hear that analysts are forecasting that chief executive Bernard Byrne will unveil 2015 operating profits of more than 1.2bn and pre-tax profits of 2bn, on March 3, as it writes back some of its previous loan loss provisions.

The news from Permanent TSB on March 9 probably won't be quite so good, with chief executive Jeremy Masding having already indicated that any return to profit is unlikely before 2017.

So is the Irish bank crisis, that cost the Irish taxpayer a gross 64bn and bankrupted the Irish state, finally behind us? Is it back to business as usual at the country's banks?

Not quite. While the acute phase of the crisis may finally be over, the Irish banks are still a long way from being in the full of their health.

The latest figures from the Central Bank show that, contrary to what the banks' own advertising campaigns would have one believe, overall bank lending is still falling. At the end of December total bank lending to Irish households stood at 91.9bn, while lending to non-financial Irish companies was 47.4bn.

Bank lending to households has fallen by a further 5pc over the past year and is down by a massive 41pc from its May 2008 peak. The fall in bank lending to non-financial Irish companies has been even more dramatic, down by a further 22pc over the past year and by a scarcely credible 72pc since August 2008.

If one figure illustrates the dysfunctional nature of the Irish banking system, it is the fact that for most of the past year Irish households have been net funders of the Irish banking system - that is, the total bank deposits of Irish households, which stood at 94.7bn at the end of December, exceed their bank borrowings. This is the first time that this has happened since the late 1990s.

If the Irish banks are recovering, then it is a very limited recovery.

A further indication that all is still not well with the Irish banks is their continuing very high levels of problem loans. At mid-year, AIB had 18bn of impaired loans on its balance sheet, Bank of Ireland had 13.3bn of defaulted loans (there are slight differences of definition between the three banks as to what constitutes a problem loan), while Permanent TSB had 5.9bn of non-performing loans.

Add it up and the total comes to a hefty 37.2bn. The good news is that the Irish banks' stock of problem loans is falling, down from 42.8bn at the end of 2014 and is likely to have fallen further by the end of 2015. The bad news is that problem loans still represent a very high proportion of the Irish banks' loan books, almost 20pc at mid-2015.

Measuring problem loans as a proportion of total loans, Bank of Ireland is by some distance the healthiest of the Irish banks, with defaulted loans accounting for 14pc of its total loan book at the end of June 2015 as against 24pc at AIB and almost 27pc at Permanent TSB.

With the Eurostoxx index of European bank shares down by almost a quarter since the start of the year, and their balance sheets still loaded down with problem loans, who would want to buy shares in the Irish banks?

The answer to this question will be of particular interest to whatever government emerges following Friday's General Election.

The outgoing Government had planned to sell up 25pc of AIB's shares to outside investors later this year. If all had gone according to plan the AIB IPO would have yielded the Exchequer 2.5bn-3bn.

Emer Lang, banking analyst with Davy Stockbrokers, is still optimistic that the AIB IPO will go ahead. When it comes to the bank's continuing high levels of problem loans she is very much in the glass half-full rather than half-empty camp.

When AIB's Bernard Byrne unveiled the bank's half-year results last August, he was able to fatten up the numbers with a 542m write-back of previous provisions against bad loans.

With the Irish banks carrying a total of 19.1bn provisions on their balance sheets, with AIB alone having total provisions of 9.5bn, Ms Lang is of the belief that there may be more where that came from.

"We think that non-performing loans can continue to come down, but we have stopped short of putting a figure on any write-back of provisions," she says.

What is clear is that a sustained improvement in the economy would reduce the volume of problem loans at the Irish banks. This in turn would allow all of the Irish banks, and not just AIB, to write back a substantial proportion of the amounts which they have previously set aside to cover losses on those problem loans - something which Michael Noonan or his successor will be keen to impress on potential AIB investors.

The potential write-back of provisions is certainly a plus for all of the Irish banks. However, even if these write-backs materialise, they are a once-off item. The key to a sustained recovery at the Irish banks is to get profitable lending growing once again.

This may still be some way off. Last November, both AIB and Bank of Ireland revealed that their lending volumes were unchanged in the third quarter when they published their interim management statements. Since then there have been some indications of possible future loan growth with Bank of Ireland revealing a 30pc increase in loan approvals of loans to SMEs in the final quarter of 2015.

While any increase in loan approvals is welcome, the proof of the pudding will be the volume of loans actually drawn down. As the experience of the mortgage market in recent years has demonstrated, it can take much longer for loan draw-downs rather than just approvals to start growing.

Even when they do, there remains the fact that recession-scarred borrowers, both households and companies, are still very much in loan repayment mode. In the short term this may not matter very much, as the new business being written by the banks is at much higher margins than much of their existing loans, such as tracker mortgages. As Ms Lang points out, this means the Irish banks could see their profits increase even as their loan books continue to shrink.

Even so, investors will be listening very closely to what Messrs Boucher, Byrne and Masding have to say about loan draw-downs. An increase in actual draw-downs is the key to future growth in lending and profits. With the Irish State still owning 99.8pc of AIB, 75pc of Permanent TSB and 14pc of Bank of Ireland, profit growth is essential if the Exchequer is to recover as much as possible of the 64bn it spent bailing out the Irish banks.

At the end of last week, Bank of Ireland had a market value of 8bn, while Permanent TSB was worth 1.26bn. This places a combined value of about 2bn on the State's shareholding in these two banks - AIB has a notional market value of 19bn but with only 0.2pc of its shares publicly traded, most analysts reckon that its real value is roughly comparable to that of Bank of Ireland.

The Bank of Ireland share price is down by 26p since the beginning of the year while the Permanent TSB share price has fallen by almost 40pc over the same period, shaving over a billion euro off the value of the State's shareholdings in the two banks.

Taxpayers and Ministers can only hope that the bank bosses have good news to report when publishing their results over the next few weeks.
Fruit and vegetable company Keelings is going organic for its growth strategy.

Chief executive Caroline Keeling told the Sunday Independent that the family-owned business wants to help people consume their five-a-day without it "being a chore or a huge challenge".

"One of the things that we're trying to do is innovate in how we package the product for consumers - things like snack-pots, because I'm probably not the only one who needs to snack on the move," she said.

"We've really worked on developing them for families. I think we're launching now a four-pack to enable people to get a little bit of economy of scale in there, but to have it in a convenient format".

Asked if the company would consider an IPO, a significant fundraising or acquisitions, Keeling said: "Probably more organic growth within our categories but we also have a software business. On the funding side of it, we are a family business, it's 100pc family-owned and currently we're happy with that. We're all fairly aligned in what we want to do, we believe very strongly in our products and driving the quality of our products and hoping that consumers will reward us with increased sales."

The software business is based on licensing software Keelings developed for managing a produce-style business to other companies.

It's an unlimited company and doesn't disclose profitability, but Keeling said that she hopes revenue this year would be in excess of 325m. About 65pc of its sales come from Ireland, with the UK and France the next-biggest markets.

"Competitiveness in our business is always a challenge, there's a number of competing products, and if you looked at produce, there isn't massive growth in consumption, unfortunately, of fruits and vegetables as an overall. But you can see very strong growth in berries. Since I think about 2009, berries has grown maybe 80pc in consumption... you would have seen grapes growing reasonably well also."
FINISHING TOUCH: Aoife Walsh with Window Doctor and former Clerys window dresser Gerhard Scully at the launch of the Go Green with Green Angel Skincare Challenge  a Guaranteed Irish-backed nationwide search to find the most creative window featuring the successful Irish skincare brand. Picture: Conor McCabe Photography

The man who made Clerys windows come to life is now on a one-person mission to improve the standards of window dressing in Ireland's store fronts.

Gerhard Scully was responsible for window dressing for 25 of his 37 years at the iconic O'Connell Street store, where he was Sales and Merchandising Manager.

Gerhard, now establishing himself as a Window Doctor to the trade, is unequivocal in his views of modern window dressing in Dublin and beyond, which he describes as dreadful in the main.

"Brown Thomas, in my view, are the only people in Dublin who do good windows," said Gerhard.

"A lot of the rest are flown in from the UK and done by numbers and it's a crying shame."

Gerhard was speaking at the launch of the Go Green with Green Angel Skincare Challenge - a Guaranteed Irish-backed nationwide search to find the most creative window featuring the successful Irish skincare brand.

"Despite the resurgence in retail, people just aren't spending on window dressing any more - and they are missing out on an obvious way to attract both more spend and customer loyalty," said Gerhard.

"Now, if you walk through any retail hub, you see corporate and not creative. In my view, windows in the main are devoid of love."

Gerhard served his retailing apprenticeship in Cork in the Munster Arcade before moving to Dublin to join Clerys.

At the time of the brutal and sudden closure of the iconic O'Connell Street store, he was described as "the soul of Clerys".

Gerhard also gained experience as a buyer during the store's heyday and was an assistant to the Store Manager. He deeply regrets the closure of Clerys and was working on the store's plans to celebrate the 1916 Rising at the time the shutters came down.

"It was going to be two-month-long exhibition. Staff were going to dress up in costume," he says.

But that was then. Now he sees retail is on the up but after years in the doldrums he believes that retailers and traders must seize every opportunity to lure and keep customers.

"There are two key components to a good window - individuality and creativity.

"People need to bring their own things into a display, and make it in their own image almost. It should be something that they have designed themselves, put together themselves and shown that bit of love to."

Gerhard launched the Green Angel Skincare Challenge, which is themed around St Patrick's Day, along with former Miss Ireland Aoife Walsh.

For more details of the competition email: customerservice@greenangel.ie; Tel 01 412 4900. Gerhard can be contacted at windowdoctorgerhard@gmail.com
Former National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) chief executive Michael Somers has had his term as a director of AIB extended to the end of 2017.

Goodbody Stockbrokers chairman Somers is a nominee of Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who ordered the NTMA's current boss, Conor O'Kelly, to extend the term two months ago in a letter released to the Sunday Independent under the Freedom of Information Act. The fee that Somers (73) will be paid for his services was redacted from the letter.

He had previously indicated to this newspaper that he would stay on beyond his previous term, expiring in December last, if asked.

Somers has made headlines for his outspoken commentary on the treatment the NTMA - which is responsible for borrowing on the Government's behalf and managing the national debt - received during the process of guaranteeing the banks in 2008.

He backed the evidence given by Nama chief executive and former NTMA director Brendan McDonagh to the Banking Inquiry, saying the NTMA was effectively sidelined in the decision-making process around the bank guarantee.

"We were in a room, the door was closed and we could see that something was going on in another room but we didn't know what it was," McDonagh told the inquiry.

Somers told the Sunday Independent that he "went through that carry-on of being shoved into a room as well for hour after hour as the guys decided what to do".

"I was in New York that night, but I mean that was the general practice. You were brought over, put into a room, and the politicians, possibly the Attorney General, all the guys from the Department of Finance, and the governor of the Central Bank, went into another room. We'd be left there for ages," Somers said.

"My only attitude to the banking sector was we had to raise money to run the country and I didn't want to put it into the banks. It was as simple as that.

"I got legal advice which said, well, the Minister for Finance is the boss, you've got to do what you're told, but get it in writing.

"So it was put in writing. I said, well, if it's put in writing, then I'll do it. Otherwise, I don't do it."

Somers is also deputy chairman and head of the board risk committee at AIB.

He's on the board of Kerry financial services company Fexco, and is a former chairman of the European Investment Bank's Audit Committee.
Some of the top names in Irish business gathered in Dublin to mark the 20th anniversary of the Junior Achievement Ireland (JAI) programme.

JAI is said to be the largest non-profit organisation in the country recruiting, training and supporting volunteers from business to facilitate in-classroom programmes covering themes such as employability, financial literacy, the value of studying STEM subjects and entrepreneurship skills for students.

Modelled along the lines of JA USA, which was set up in 1919, JAI was founded in 1996 with 600 students participating in its first programmes.

Last year, more than 63,000 students took part.

Among the companies that have supported the JAI programme are: 3M; A & L Goodbody; AIB; Baxter Healthcare; Campbell Bewley; Dell; Dublin Airport Authority; Deloitte; Fidelity; Lilly; Hewlett Packard; Irish Shell; Johnson & Johnson; PwC and Symantec.

Current patron Leslie Buckley, who is also chairman of Independent News & Media - publisher of this newspaper - hosted the event to celebrate those supporting organisations that have worked with JAI from its early days and to reflect on the impact of the programme.

He commented: "The level of demand for JA activities from school leaders and the support it enjoys from leading industry figures is testament to a really great initiative, which shows what can be achieved when industry and education are facilitated in their joint endeavours. Volunteers from businesses who work with students in the classroom is a great way to help make that connection between what they are doing in school and the real world."

JAI chairman Peter Cosgrove, who is a partner in recruitment firm CPL, added that the JA programmes and activities were now "more relevant than ever".

He went on to pay tribute to founding director Della Clancy and those chairmen who had preceded him.
It has been touted as "the most important tech case in a decade".

But can Apple stop governments ordering it to hack its own customers' iPhones? And who holds the moral high ground among companies and governments when it comes to the battle between privacy rights and national security?

Last week, Apple chief executive Tim Cook told the FBI that his company would not co-operate with US authorities' requests to neutralise an iPhone security mechanism, even to help a terrorism investigation.

The FBI had captured the iPhone of one of the terrorists responsible for a lethal gun attack in California's San Bernardino last December. They wanted Apple to create a new bit of software that would disable the phone's 10-attempts-and-you're-out passcode security system. Cook told them to shove it.

"The implications of the government's demands are chilling," he wrote in an open letter to Apple's customers. "The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone's microphone or camera without your knowledge.

"In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks - from restaurants and banks to stores and homes.

"In the wrong hands, this software - which does not exist today - would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession."

The FBI isn't backing down and has a court order on its side. If Apple keeps saying no, it could go all the way up to the Supreme Court, which may force the tech giant to hack its own phone.

The case has sparked worldwide interest and has divided views. Politicians and security chiefs have brandished Apple as the "friend" of "terrorists and drug dealers" and have threatened the company with court action or legislation.

"Who do they think they are?" thundered Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential contender.

Supporters of Apple have been equally vocal.

"This is the most important tech case in a decade," said the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last week. "The FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around."

Who has the moral high ground? Should an iPhone security system be circumvented to retrieve terrorist information? Or does the risk of all iPhones becoming permanently hackable make such a foray reckless and disproportionate?

"The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation," said Cook.

"The FBI may use different words to describe this tool - but make no mistake: building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor.

"And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control."

Is Tim Cook really standing up for us? Or is it just all about business?

On one hand, publicly defying US authorities on this issue makes strategic business sense.

Security and data privacy is one reason why people buy iPhones over rival handsets. Apple cannot be seen to cave in easily to such requests.

The company has an even bigger business concern: China. If it co-operates with the US government in creating backdoor keys to its own iPhones, Chinese authorities will bristle at the thought of popular smartphones within China being accessed by US spies. China, lest it be forgotten, is a bigger iPhone market than the US.

The reverse espionage-laden scenario is also at issue for many US companies. If the US gets Apple's security secrets, China will demand similar access. That could spell a lot of trouble for US and European industrial sensitivities.

Some politicians recognise this as a doomsday scenario.

"This move by the FBI could snowball around the world," said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the US Senate's Intelligence Committee. "Why in the world would our government want to give repressive regimes in Russia and China a blueprint for forcing American companies to create a back door?"

But while some cynics say that this is just a tactical commercial ploy by Apple, others point to Cook's track record on privacy issues. More than other company executives, the Apple chief executive has form on the topic.

In a Sunday Independent interview last November, the Apple CEO was adamant that Apple would not introduce any form of 'back door' into iPhone or iMessage security systems, no matter who told the company to do it.

He was speaking against the background of the company's outspoken stance against a proposed UK government surveillance law that could compel Apple and other tech companies to water down encryption standards in the name of enhancing Britain's anti-terror capabilities.

"Any change made would contradict the UK government's view that they would not weaken encryption," he told the Sunday Independent at the time. "I have every faith that through this process of the next year, give or take a year, that the bill will become very clear."

He has also spoken out against other tech companies for their more liberal approach on privacy matters.

"Our privacy is being attacked on multiple fronts," he told a privacy conference last May. "I'm speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information.

"They're gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that's wrong. And it's not the kind of company that Apple wants to be."

Can Cook talk on our behalf, though? Is the head of a company the right person to be affecting decisions on society's behalf around such universal issues?

Cook takes a view that being the head of a company and being a civil liberties advocate are not mutually exclusive in the way they may have once been.

"Business has an important responsibility to society," he said at a conference in September. "That responsibility has grown markedly in the last couple of decades or so as government has found it more difficult to move forward."

This is an interesting point.

In Ireland, there are few state bodies or government entities which promote data privacy in any active way.

Usually, elected or representatives bodies are the ones fighting for restrictions on privacy, rather than extensions of it.

For example, it took a small campaigning group (Digital Rights Ireland) to bring down a law requiring telecoms operators to hold details of our phone calls and texts for two years.

The European directive on which the law was based was ultimately struck down by the European Court Of Justice.

And looking through the political parties' election manifestos, just one party (the Greens) has any specific policies on privacy. Most do not even mention the issue in passing throughout their entire manifestos.

In the US, there are far more politicians to condemn Apple than to applaud it.

"Apple chose to protect a dead Isil terrorist's privacy over the security of the American people," said US senator Tom Cotton. "It's unfortunate that the great company Apple is becoming the company of choice for terrorists, drug dealers and sexual predators of all sorts."

Ultimately, many will hope that such hyperbole does not win out.
'Mobacar offers a real-time network of transportation options to business clients such as airlines and online travel agents' (stock image)

Kerry car-hire software start-up Mobacar has inked a deal with an international travel commerce group which its chief executive describes as "transformational" to the business.

The company has secured a partnership with US travel platform Travelport. The deal will give Mobacar access to Travelport's customers around the world.

Mobacar offers a real-time network of transportation options to business clients such as airlines and online travel agents.

It claims to have the largest array of ground-transportation options in real-time in the world.

It operates in the same space as Cartrawler, the car-hire technology business created by brothers Niall and Greg Turley and now owned by private equity firms BC Partners and Insight Ventures, which recently signed a major deal with Ryanair.

New York-listed Travelport, meanwhile, provides an array of digital solutions to the global travel industry. It has a presence in more than 170 countries with around 3,500 employees.

"This deal with Travelport is huge for Mobacar on the demand side," said chief executive Mike Webster.

"It will drive hundreds of thousands of transactions to us. It should help to multiply current revenue quickly."

Webster, Mobacar's founder, spun the company off from Kerry financial-software business Fexco in early 2014, having previously worked there as a senior executive.

Mobacar will seek to hire around 10 extra people toward the end of the year to support the extra business created, adding to its current team of 35.

The company was valued at around 20m before closing the deal with Travelport, based on a fundraising exercise completed last year.

Dublin private-equity firm Delta Partners and AutoEurope, which is owned by New York private equity firm Courtsquare, invested 4m in the company, which is based in Killarney, last September.

Cartrawler was reported to be in talks to buy AutoEurope months before, but it is thought that deal fell through.
The director's latest novel manages to implicate the reader in the lives of his characters.

Given his fame as a filmmaker, it's easy to forget that Neil Jordan's first artistic calling was literary and his story collection, Night in Tunisia, preceded his 1982 debut movie, Angel, by six years.

That was originally published by the Irish Writers' Co-Operative, which the 26-year-old had co-founded, and it was followed in 1980 by his first novel, The Past. Other novels have followed over the years, but movies have consumed most of his time and energies, even if the results haven't always been satisfying.

For every interestingly intimate film he's made (Angel, Mona Lisa, The Miracle, The Crying Game, The Butcher Boy), there have been misfires (We're No Angels, In Dreams, The Brave One, The Good Thief) that seemed like director-for-hire assignments unworthy of his talents and that led critic David Thomson to reflect that "after a dozen films, Neil Jordan seemed as unsettled as a beginner".

Indeed, although the now 65-year-old's enthusiasm for film has led him to create, write and direct The Borgias for television and to embark on further movie projects, it's hard not to feel that literary fiction has always been his great love. I recall that when I and co-judge Kate O'Toole chose his superb 2011 novel Mistaken as the Kerry Group Book of the Year (he'd previously won the same award for his 2004 novel Shade), his boyish pleasure on accepting the prize at Listowel Writers' Week was that of someone for whom it really mattered.

Mistaken, which concerns a Dubliner on the northside who has a lookalike on the southside, is, among other things, a haunting meditation on personal identity and a love letter to the capital city in which the Sligo-born author grew up - indeed, its evocation of Dublin from the 1960s onwards is so vivid, both in its details and mood, that it recalls Joyce's similar feel for the metropolis half a century earlier.

But Jordan is as restless in his prose fiction as David Thomson suggested of his movies and in his new novel we find English-born narrator Jonathan in a very different city, though again so vividly realised that you feel you've been there yourself and know its every street, alleyway and building.

This unnamed city is in eastern Europe and has never recovered from its oppressive Soviet past - indeed, we're told of one of its outlying villages that "one could imagine Zhukov's tanks ploughing through it, years ago. And Putin's, doing the same, some day soon".

That's the book's most directly political observation, though from the outset Jordan conjures up the constant unease among the city's populace as Pussy Riot-style protesters confront heavily armed police forces. However, private detective Jonathan's main concerns are more personal, especially his marriage to archaeologist Sarah, which has come under strain due to her affair with Jonathan's colleague Frank.

This marriage in all its frailty is beautifully evoked as Jonathan puts further strain on it through his encounter with a young woman whose life he saves when she jumps from a bridge into the city's main river. A budding young cellist (the Bach suites recur throughout as a constant motif), she takes him back to her apartment and he becomes haunted both by her fragility and by her elusiveness.

He's haunted, too, by the assignment he has undertaken at the novel's outset to locate Petra, who was last seen by her parents two decades earlier when she was a little girl. To this end, he consults a psychic called Gertrude who has a vision of her "in a small room she cannot leave". Could it be a brothel? And Jonathan's love for his own young daughter, Jenny, intensifies his compulsion to find Petra.

Jonathan is a congenial narrator and the scenes of his domestic life with Sarah and Jenny are tenderly observed, though he harbours a darker side, too.

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"I am employed to obsess about all sorts of things," he tells the therapist to whom he and Sarah have gone in a bid to save their marriage, though his obsessiveness is not just confined to work, and jealousy is among these obsessions.

Jordan has always been fascinated by transgressive demons and he has a leaning towards the mysterious and even occult, too, as we discover two-thirds of the way through The Drowned Detective. And so, while we learn the truth about Petra and also about the young cellist (the author delivering on the conventions of his detective story), other mysteries remain tantalising, not least about little Jenny, her imaginary friends, and her uncanny awareness of things that should be beyond her knowledge.

Some readers may have problems with this shift into the supernatural, but the author negotiates it so adroitly that I, for one, was persuaded by its haunting suggestiveness.

"Can you make sense of it for me?" Jonathan asks Gertrude late in the proceedings, her answer being, "Some things don't make sense, Jonathan".

Yet, imaginatively they do. Gertrude may confess that she's a "charlatan" rather than a psychic, but we nonetheless accept she can intuit things that others can't. More crucially, we care about these people that Jordan has created.

"It was only love after all," Jonathan reflects of the predicament in which himself, Sarah and Frank find themselves, "no one had died, the crime was the familiar one and the only victims were ourselves".

But a large part of the book's achievement is that the author has made us so implicated in the lives and frailties of his characters that they seem as real to us as real people - and just as ultimately unknowable, too.
Michael Collins might not be very pleased with the current crop of Irish politicians, according to a star of the 1996 film that tells his story.

Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn, who was raised in both Dublin and Offaly, said the Irish icon would have split feelings when it comes to modern politicians.

"A part of him would be proud and part of him would be dismayed and pissed off, like the rest of us," he said.

The Elementary star admitted he's not as familiar with Irish politics as he used to be, since he spends most of his time living and working in America.

Quinn joined a variety of cast and crew members from Michael Collins to mark 20 years since the film premiered, as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival.

Director Neil Jordan was among the crowd celebrating the film's anniversary and agreed that Collins would be no fan of contemporary politicians.

"I think it's lucky he's not around actually," he said.

"The landscape has changed so much really."

The movie, which will be released on Blu Ray for the first time next month, also starred Alan Rickman, who died last month after a battle with cancer at the age of 69.

The English actor, who played Eamon De Valera, made his final public appearance in Ireland at last year's film festival. Quinn, who played republican politician Harry Boland, said Rickman's Irish roots were very important to him.

"Year's after filming, I met [Alan] in Whelan's at a concert and I realised he had a huge affinity for all things Irish that he loved.

"He was a lovely man and an incredible talent and he'll be missed."

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Jordan, who also directed Interview With The Vampire and Crying Game said both the film and playing DeValera on screen were very important to Rickman.

Michael Collins, will receive a welcome release for the first time on Blu Ray on March 4th, followed by a re-release in cinemas on March 18th.

The Audi Dublin International Film Festival runs until February 28.
This week's pilot of Martin Scorsese's much-hyped Vinyl (Sky Atlantic) provided a retread of familiar tics from the master's most famous movies, as if he were paying weary homage to his former and better self.

The confiding voiceover from GoodFellas? Check. Mean Streets' slow tracking shot along customers in a bar? Check again. A car bonnet gliding through Taxi Driver's rain-washed night-time streets? Check once more.

And in the manner of Mean Streets, the scuzzy New York of an earlier era was also recreated, along with the bad clothes, terrible hair, testosterone-fuelled sexism and casual obscenities of a male-dominated set-up - this time the record business rather than two-bit mobsters, not that it was easy to tell the difference.

The series, which is co-produced by Mick Jagger, is full of tired old macho tropes, and it was hard not to feel during this two-hour pilot that neither Scorsese nor the Rolling Stones frontman found these strutting creatures as risible or repellent as the viewer did.

How, for instance, were we meant to take the confidings of main man Richie, who told us at the outset that his label's success was due to the fact that he had "a golden ear, a silver tongue and a pair of brass balls"? Were we being encouraged to laugh at him or to applaud?

There was some fun to be had during this opening episode, not least at a meeting with Polygram executives ("Nazi bastards") who Richie and his colleagues hoped would buy their ailing company, and during a confrontation with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, who gestured towards a group of female hangers-on and told Richie that later on "I'll be doing to those birds what your label is doing to me".

I liked, too, some of the performances, especially Bobby Cannavale's commandingly volatile Richie and Juno Temple's star turn as the young office gofer who was more wise to new trends than any of her swaggering male superiors. But a frantically overheated tone remained throughout, making you wonder if you weren't just being fed yet another lurid soap opera.

You never got that feeling with the terrific Breaking Bad or with its quirky successor Better Call Saul, which began a new Netflix season this week. Jimmy McGill hasn't yet become Saul Goodman but in the brilliantly-conceived backstory dreamt up by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and co-writer Peter Gould, the viewer can already see how he achieved that transformation.

There wasn't one predictable shot in this arrestingly-filmed opener and no predictable storyline, either, as Jimmy dithered over taking a secure law-firm job and continued yearning for his legal pal Kim - a yearning that found fulfilment after they both scammed a business blowhard who'd been booming into his cellphone at a nearby bar table and from whom they pretended to seek financial advice.

The writing, as throughout last season, was terrific, especially the performances of Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy, Rhea Seehorn as the sardonic if somewhat bemused Kim, and Jonathan Banks as taciturn enforcer Mike, who'll eventually become Walter White's stealthy hitman in Breaking Bad.

There was no violence in this second-season opener, which was almost sweet, and often very funny, about the foibles and aspirations of its participants, but mayhem promises never to be too far away as Jimmy pursues his dangerous destiny. Wonderfully good.

Last week's TV3 election debate was a shouty bore, with neither Colette Fitzpatrick nor (surprisingly) Pat Kenny able to put manners on the fractious political leaders, but on Monday night's RTE1 Leaders' Debate, Claire Byrne was having none of such nonsense.

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"There is only one rule here tonight," she told the seven participants at the outset, and that was to "be respectful to each other, to the studio audience and to the people at home". And lest they didn't get the message, she spelt it out: "There's no need to shout at each other, and if you leave the jargon out it's bonus points."

And she meant what she said, curtly declaring "That's banned" when Richard Boyd Barrett used the ghastly buzzphrase "fiscal space" and walking away from a slanging match between four of them with a dismissive: "All we're hearing now is nothing actually."

She was a terrific moderator even if, after declaring "no jargon", she forgot to add "and no platitudes, either", which would have made for a very short debate.

Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran's Ultimate Party (BBC4) was a typically excellent Storyville documentary about the 1971 desert bash in which royalty from around the globe, along with other heads of state, paid homage to 2,500 years of Persian rule.

The whole thing was so tacky as to defy belief and meanwhile ordinary Iranians were living in a repressive state where poverty was the norm and protests were brutally snuffed out.

Hardly surprising, then, that a few years later the vainglorious Shah fled into exile as fanatical Muslim clerics put their own manners on the unfortunate citizens of Iran.

At least, the Queen of England had the good sense to decline an invitation to attend, sending Philip and Anne instead.
The Garda team investigating Michael Lynn is expected to fly to Brazil early next month to personally collect the fugitive former solicitor and bring him back to Ireland to be charged in connection with mortgage fraud.

At least two detectives will be selected to make the long haul journey travel in early March for the formal handover of the Lynn from Brazilian to the Irish authorities.

Officials from the Department of Justice may travel with them.

The rogue solicitor will also have to go through a formal identification procedure before gardai bring him home.

He fled Ireland in October 2007 after his property empire collapsed with debts of 80m. Mr Lynn was struck off more than seven years ago by the Law Society.

Garda investigation resulted in the Director of Public Prosecution preparing 33 criminal charges against him, in his absence.

He was arrested in Brazil in 2013 and remanded in prison and has been fighting his extradition ever since.

By last week, however, Lynn had exhausted all his legal options, and Brazil's Supreme Court cleared the way for his return.

Lynn had argued a technicality in his case but on Monday night the Supreme Court dismissed Lynn's request for "clarification".

Brazilian federal police could hand him over to their Irish counterparts within three weeks.

Before his arrest in Brazil, Lynn had lived openly there with his wife, Brid Murphy. She gave birth to their child there, entitling them to permanent residency.

It is understood Mr Lynn has been in touch with some family members in his native Mayo while he was incarcerated in a grim prison in Recife.
COURT PROCEEDINGS: The Special Criminal Court will decide on Murphys sentence for tax fraud on election day. Photo: PA

Almost half of Gerry Adams' own voters are against the Sinn Fein leader's controversial plan to abolish the Special Criminal Court, according to a Sunday Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll.

More than two thirds of those polled are against the abolition of the non-jury court, which hears cases involving gangland criminals and terrorists.

A mere 13pc of people are in favour of getting rid of the Special Criminal Court and almost one-in-five said 'don't know' or 'it depends' when asked about abolishing the court.

Mr Adams has been at the centre of a political storm after he reaffirmed his commitment to abolishing non-jury courts in the wake of the Special Criminal Court conviction of former IRA chief Thomas 'Slab' Murphy.

However, the majority of the Sinn Fein leader's voters do not share his view on the court which will this Friday - General Election day - decide on Murphy's sentence for tax fraud.

The poll shows 49pc of Sinn Fein voters oppose abolition while less than a third are in favour of removing non-jury courts from the legal system. The survey interviewed 1,065 people between February 17 and 18.

The findings are sure to cause concern for Mr Adams who spent the first week of the General Election campaign defending his proposal to abolish the court.

The poll also shows more than a third of voters believe Sinn Fein will be the 'least effective' party in tackling gangland crime.

Following the escalation in gangland violence in Dublin, some 34pc of voters polled by Millward Brown said they believe Sinn Fein would be the 'least effective' party at tackling gangland crime if in government.

And 4pc of Sinn Fein's own voters said they believe the party would be 'least effective' at tackling crime. Asked which party they believe would be 'most effective' at tackling crime, one in five said Sinn Fein (20pc) and the same percentage replied Fine Gael (20pc).

On this question, the Labour Party polled worst with just 3pc of voters saying Tanaiste Joan Burton's party was the 'most effective' at tackling crime, while 18pc said Fianna Fail.

Gangland crime has been a central issue during the election campaign after the daylight murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel in Dublin by a gang of heavily armed raiders dressed as gardai.

The murder was followed by the retaliation killing of Edward 'Neddy' Hutch - the brother of the infamous underworld figure Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.

The funerals of both men were held this week amid calls for an end to the gang war.

After the violence erupted on Dublin's streets, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald promised no expense would be spared in hunting down the killers.

Ms Fitzgerald also pledged more resources for a new armed rapid response unit for Dublin City Centre. However, the plan was met with criticism from garda representative bodies which claimed the move would not involve new recruits.

All the main political parties have committed to increasing Garda manpower if elected. Fine Gael said it will increase it to 14,000 members in five years, Sinn Fein is aiming for 14,250 and Fianna Fail set its goal for 15,000 gardai.

Sinn Fein said it will reopen all the Garda stations closed by the Coalition, while Fianna Fail will ask the Garda Inspectorate to examine the impact of the closure of 139 stations.

Mr Adams has also pledged to repeal the Offences Against the State Act, which is a central piece of legislation in tackling terrorism and gangland crime.

The commitment is outlined in Sinn Fein's election manifesto but does not detail what the legislation would be replaced with.

Rural crime has also featured heavily in election manifestos following the epidemic of burglaries in rural Ireland in recent years.

Most parties have pledged crackdowns on roving crime gangs terrorising rural communities and there has also been an emphasis on protecting older people.
Fugitive former solicitor Michael Lynn is attempting to cash in on the sale of a 700,000 site in Brazil weeks before his is due to be handed over to Irish authorities to face trial in relation to an alleged 80m mortgage fraud.

Mr Lynn, who was stuck off by the Law Society several years ago, is facing 33 charges in Ireland relating to the collapse of his property empire.

The Mayo-native fled the country in 2007 with debts of 80m, and used his son to secure a permanent Brazilian visa in 2012.

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The disgraced businessman has spent 30 months fighting extradition while being held in the infamous Cotel prison but last week Brazil's Supreme Court cleared the way for his return after he exhausted the last of his legal options.

Now it has been revealed that Mr Lynns wife Clare-born nurse Brid Murphy is attempting to sell a site purchased by one of Mr Lynns Brazilian firms in 2011 near the booming industrial town of Cabo de Santo Agostinho for almost 700,000.

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Together, the small group run a local company called Quantum Assessoria e Empreendimentos which acquired Mr Lynns Brazilian site for 171, 971 in 2011.

In 2013, the land was revalued for tax purposes to 700,000  based largely on Mr Lynns plans to build 140 apartments on the one acre site.

At the time of the sale, Quantum was own by the disgraced businessman and his wife, with each holding a 50 pc stake.

According to the Mail on Sunday, since his arrest, 32 pc of Mr Lynns stake was been transferred to another local firm controlled by his former associates and another 20 pc has given over to a Brazilian associate.

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However his wife, who has put the site up for sale at R$3 million (667,886), still controls the majority share.

Brazilian federal police are expected to hand Mr Lynn over to their Irish counterparts within three weeks.
On the eve of the general election, Taoiseach Enda Kenny still finds himself haunted by a meeting with a young girl dying of cancer.

In a revealing interview with Sunday Independent's Brendan O'Connor reflecting on the last five years, the Fine Gael leader says he often finds himself thinking back to a brave little girl who he invited to tour Government buildings.

She has an interest in politics, 10 or 11 [we] showed her around the office and sat her in the Taoiseachs chair and took her picture.

Expand Close Enda Kenny greets Brendan O'Connor in the engine room of Fine Gael's head office in Mount Steet, Dublin Photo: David Conachy / Facebook

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Whatsapp Enda Kenny greets Brendan O'Connor in the engine room of Fine Gael's head office in Mount Steet, Dublin Photo: David Conachy

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The parents had sent me a mourning card afterwards, Deputy Kenny continued. And I just thought that, there was a little girl who was at the start of her life, and brave you know.

Its like, can somebody find out about, what causes this, why bloods are down or whatever else? And, see, in the mad rush of politics, I often think about things like that.

I just think that the older you get, the more you appreciate the responsibility of politics.

Mr Kenny made the touching admission in an extensive interview featured in todays Sunday Independent.

I have no interest in the trappings of power, admitted the Taoiseach during the interview, explaining he would do whatever was required following the election to ensure the country would have a stable government.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Enda Kenny has a frank and emotional conversation with Brendan O'Connor Photo: David Conachy Taoiseach Enda Kenny pictured during his visit to Grant Engineering in Birr, Co Offaly, last week Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

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Stopping short of admitting that Fine Gael has misstepped in its message that only they can Keep The Recovery Going, the Taoiseach conceded more could have been done to flesh out this insistence on focusing on the economy.

Asked why the election campaign had not been more about the Governments social achievements, such as the same sex marriage referendum, Mr Kenny replied simply: The economy allows all of these other issues to be addressed.

I dont like to see people on trolleys in hospitals, I dont like to see old people sitting in chairs for hours.

Asked about his biggest regret, Mr Kenny continued: I wont lie you know, people have to live with that inside them.

The stress and the pressure on the families, thats not the kind of country we should be.
Enda Kenny will embark on 'a whistle stop tour' of marginal constituencies on Wednesday for a 'high energy 48 hour canvass' Photo: Frank Mc Grath

Enda Kenny is launching a five-day 'ground war' to sell a message of stability and get back into power.

Fine Gael strategists are depending on a last-minute swing by voters as they try to "humanise" the idea of economic recovery and inject new passion into their campaign.

Expand Close BOOST: FF leader Micheal Martins popularity has risen in latest poll. Photo: Arthur Carron / Facebook

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Whatsapp BOOST: FF leader Micheal Martins popularity has risen in latest poll. Photo: Arthur Carron

It comes as Fianna Fail continues to close the gap on the government party, according to a Sunday Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll.

The poll indicates a Grand Coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is now the most likely result - with Micheal Martin a significantly more popular leader.

Fine Gael is still the largest party on 27pc, but is now just four points ahead of Fianna Fail (23pc) as Ireland prepares to decide on Friday.

The satisfaction rating of Micheal Martin (40pc) has soared by 13 points in two weeks to its highest ever level and shows him as the most popular political leader in the country.

Dissatisfaction with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny (66pc) increased four points since the campaign officially began and dissatisfaction with Labour leader Joan Burton (69pc) is up seven points.

The poll was limited to registered voters who say they are either "certain" or "likely" to vote.

If this trend continues until polling day, the possibility of an electoral upset cannot be ruled out.

Fine Gael sources last night said they could still break the 30pc mark by "ramping up the pace" over the coming days.

Ministers will be rolled out "to humanise the message of economic recovery, show passion and hold the other parties to account".

They noted that 27pc of voters still say they are looking towards Independents and smaller parties but nobody can predict where their transfers will go. "We feel it's turning back towards us, but it hasn't quite turned yet," said a source.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Independent, Mr Kenny accepted people might have not fully appreciated the message about keeping the recovery going, because a lot of people weren't feeling the recovery.

"I admit that, of course, and I understand that," he said.

"You need warmer language around it. Rather than just saying, like your economy is the be all and end all," he said.

"I go back to my three roots that I've often said about this being the best country for business, the best to raise a family in, and the best to grow old in with a sense of dignity and respect."

He still insisted that his party would form a coalition with Labour.

"So I am very clear in my mind, that I say to the people, I have always trusted the people's decision and I believe that the kind of Ireland that I want to see can be delivered by the government that is in situ.

"It's the people's choice and I'm not going beyond that. And for me the return of Fine Gael and Labour  there is a programme there that will change this country for the better."

But as things stand, this weekend, the most likely election outcome in terms of stable government formation is an historic coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

Last night, Fianna Fail sources told the Sunday Independent that the party would "step up to the national interest" and work with Fine Gael in "some way" if Sinn Fein and far-left TDs looked to form a government.

"There will be difficult choices but Micheal Martin is clear about one thing - the centre has to hold," a source said.

The poll also finds that, in the event of a deadlocked Dail, more people would prefer a new election (33pc) ahead of a Fine Gael/Fianna Fail coalition (24pc).

However, 38pc of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail supporters are in favour of a grand coalition.

Both parties will this week continue to rule out a grand coalition in a bid to maximise support, but it is Fianna Fail which will face into the final week of the campaign with a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

Mr Kenny is to dispatch a number of Cabinet ministers to neighbouring constituencies where Fine Gael believes they are in the mix for the final seat.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar is to be sent to Dublin North West to help councillor Noel Rock, while Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan will be asked to travel to Tipperary where Fine Gael are in a dogfight to save their two seats.

The Taoiseach will also embarked on "a whistle stop tour" of marginal constituencies on Wednesday for a "high energy 48 hour canvass".

Last night, Fine Gael's director of elections Brian Hayes told the Sunday Independent he is still "absolutely confident" they can achieve 34pc and as many as 63 Dail seats.

Fine Gael remains narrowly ahead of Fianna Fail across both genders and all age groups and has twice the level of support as Fianna Fail in Dublin (30pc v 15pc) with Labour support in Dublin plummeting to 7pc.

But in a remarkable turn of events, Fianna Fail leads Fine Gael in the rest of Leinster and in Munster, while Fine Gael maintains a comfortable lead in Connaught/Ulster.

Fine Gael will be relieved that nearly one in three (32pc) believes the party is most trusted to manage the economy.

This is up eight points in a fortnight, ahead of Fianna Fail (17pc), unchanged, and it is marginally perceived to have the most credible manifesto (21pc) ahead of Fianna Fail (18pc).

But the poll also finds that voter attitudes have hardened on the issues of 'economic stability' and 'a fairer society'.

Asked if a change of government would put Ireland's economic stability at risk, almost half (49pc) say no, up seven points in a fortnight, while a clear majority (57pc) now agree a government change would lead to a fairer society, also up seven points.

The state of the parties is Fine Gael (27pc); Fianna Fail (23pc); Sinn Fein (19pc); Independent candidates (13pc); Labour (6pc), Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit (5pc); Social Democrats (4pc); Green Party (2pc); Renua Ireland (2pc) and the Socialist Party (1pc).

While this poll is not strictly comparable with the Sunday Independent/Millward Brown tracking poll two weeks ago, for relative comparative purposes, Fine Gael is unchanged, Fianna Fail is up one point, Sinn Fein is down two points, Labour is unchanged and Independents/others are up two points.

The face-to-face poll was taken last Wednesday and Thursday among 1,065 registered voters certain or likely to vote at 100 sampling nationwide.

While party support levels show minimal movement, the popularity ratings of the party leaders have significantly changed.

Enda Kenny (28pc satisfied) up one point, (68pc dissatisfied) up six points; Joan Burton (25pc satisfied) up three points, (69pc dissatisfied) up seven points; Micheal Martin (40pc satisfied) up 13 points, (47pc dissatisfied) down one point.

Gerry Adams (28pc satisfied) up one point, (60pc dissatisfied) up five points; Lucinda Creighton (30pc satisfied) up 14 points, (37pc dissatisfied) down five points.
THE Taoiseach has said he doesn't regret calling some residents of his hometown "All Ireland champions" at whinging.

Mr Kenny made the remarks at a Fine Gael rally in Castlebar. Fianna Fail candidate for Mayo Lisa Chambers has since called for an "immediate apology" from the Taoiseach.

Earlier today, Mr Kenny was asked he he regretted the comments.

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"No I don't," he replied adding: "Some of them wouldn't know sunshine if they saw it."

Mr Kenny initially made the remarks after visiting three businesses in Castlebar that are expanding and hiring. He also visited the local IDA business Park where an new advanced technology building will employ as many as 300 in the years ahead.

On campaign stops in Mayo Mr Kenny has emphasised that he has had to focus on national and international issues, rather than local concerns.

In his speech to supporters in the town Mr Kenny didn't hide his disappointment at some of the local response to his time in office.

"God knows we have some All-Ireland champions here in Castlebar. I don't mean Castlebar Mitchells [GAA club], I mean the whingers that I hear every week saying there's nothing happening.

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"Well I want to assure them that the future is very bright. All we have to do is maintain the progress in terms of our economy. We'll look after our hospitals, we'll look after our schools, we'll look after our infrastructure. We'll look after the people who create jobs and business and give them that opportunity to grow in the time ahead."

Later he was asked what he meant by whingers and replied: "Locals - nothing to with national politics at all. Obviously you get this all the time but sometimes I find that people find it very difficult to see any good anywhere, anytime."

Fianna Fail's Ms Chambers today called for an apology.

The arrogance that has been the hallmark of Fine Gael in Government and their national campaign is now emerging locally and is a sign of the pressure the Taoiseach is beginning to feel," she argued.

The Taoiseach must apologise to the people of Castlebar for his insensitive and out of touch remarks, she added.
History looms on Friday as a record 165 female candidates bid for the Dail.

As they move towards the finishing line, some of Fine Gael's leading women say gender quotas have been a big topic of discussion on the doorsteps.

But they add that they are not interested in token votes.

Senator Catherine Noone, Seanad spokesperson on European Affairs, said: "I won't turn away a vote but I don't want people to support me just because I'm a woman. I want people to support me because of the work that I do.

"Clearly there has been an absence of women at the top for too long. We need more women at the table, and that balance and equality is of the utmost important."

Josepha Madigan, Fine Gael candidate in Dublin Rathdown, says the issue has come up with the electorate in her constituency.

"Yes, it has come up, but as a woman I like to think I stand on my own credentials, everything I've achieved in my life has been on my own two feet. Most of the women running in this election are strong, competent women and I want to see them move forward," she said.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail senator Mary White is packing a punch in her battle with burglars terrorising her neighbourhood. The 71-year-old candidate, who has experienced several attempted break-ins at her south Dublin home, has vowed to electronically tag all burglary suspects out on bail.

"I am all for tagging these people who think they can creep around in the middle of the night, robbing homes and frightening families and old people half to death," she said, calling for Stepaside garda station to re-open. "It's not just a big rural problem - it's urban, too."

Our photo by Dave Conachy shows Catherine Noone, Maria Bailey, Josepha Madigan and Anne-Marie Dermody.
Winnie ODonnell says her home has become fire hazard

A desperate mother of 10 claims she has been abandoned by the State because her local council refuses to house her adult children.

Winnie ODonnell says her overcrowded three-bedroom house in Lucan, South Dublin, has become a fire hazard and that her fears are being ignored by South Dublin County Council.

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Ms ODonnell lives with her husband, Martin and their 10 children, aged between 16 and 26, and five grand-children.

Just before Christmas, due to overcrowding, one of the daughters, Winnie Jnr left the house with her two children and moved into a caravan parked at the front of the house.

Ms ODonnells husband and one of their adult children are on disability allowance, while the rest of the adult children are in receipt of social welfare.

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According to the desperate mum, her daughter got a 7,000 loan from a moneylender to buy the caravan and is paying back 100 a week.

When a Traveller family are accommodated there is no future planning for when the children grow up," she added.

Ms ODonnell said what was "hurting" the most was that there were five houses sitting empty in her area.

A spokesman for South Dublin County Council told the Irish Sun that the family is in significant rent arrears and that they had refused to engage with its 'Choice Based Lettings' housing system.

Under the scheme, people on the waiting list can log on to a website to view properties and can lodge their interest from a menu of social homes.
'A spokesman for the courts service confirmed that the time taken to process applications had increased' Photo: PA

The welfare of people who cannot make decisions for themselves is being put into jeopardy by cutbacks delaying the granting of Ward of Court status, it has been claimed.

A Ward of Court application is made on behalf of vulnerable people who have become unable to manage their own affairs.

Once someone is made a Ward of Court, the President of the High Court becomes responsible for their welfare and assets.

Among those who fall into this area are people with dementia, whose assets have to be protected  particularly if they want to make an application under the Fair Deal nursing-home scheme.

Ward of Court applications can also be made in the case of someone with an acquired brain injury.

However, solicitors have recently been told that they will have to wait more than eight months to complete the process.

In 2011, the timescale from submitting the initial Petitioners Application to the court, dealing with the court queries, to getting the Ward of Court order was around four months, said Rush, Co Dublin solicitor Dermot McNamara, who works in the area.

We now have an application with the court for some eight months, but the Wards of Court Office says it cannot give us an indication when it might be heard as it has many applications waiting to be listed and is very short-staffed.

If Ward of Court status cannot be granted in a reasonable period of time and a person needs nursing-home care, then no decisions can be made and the whole process grinds to a halt.

Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland has urged people to consider making decisions for future health and care earlier.

In many cases, people may have already entered into a nursing home when their capacity changes and this will affect their ability to make decisions, said Mr Daly.

A spokesman for the courts service confirmed that the time taken to process applications had increased.

The average time is now about seven months, said the spokesman.

Staffing resources within the Wards of Court office have been reduced as a result of the public service moratorium.

However, more staff have recently been allocated to the Wards of Court Office. The increase in the length of waiting time has already stopped, and, we hope, will reduce in the coming months.

Applications for wardship have also increased.

Over a three-year period, the numbers of wardship applications increased by 36pc and the number of Power of Attorney cases by 35pc.

Why this has happened we cannot be certain, although it may reflect an ageing population and the

resultant frailties which arise, the spokesman said.

In 2012, there were 279 applications for adult wardship and 489 enduring Power of Attorney registrations.

But three years later, that had increased to 382 applications for wardship and 660 applications for enduring power of attorney registrations.

New laws are on the way, however. The Assisted Decision Making Capacity Act 2015 creates a new legal framework for dealing with persons who lack capacity.
A new version of the HPV anti-cervical cancer vaccine is likely to be introduced as a top medical expert dismissed claims that acute long-term side-effects in young girls are linked to the jab.

The HPV programme was rolled out to girls in secondary schools all over the country in 2010.

It is also anticipated that the next government will recommend that the vaccine programme be extended to boys.

The vaccine is intended to protect against diseases caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), including: pre-cancerous lesions of the female genitals and anus, genital warts and cervical and anal cancers.

This summer there will be a conference in Salzburg to mark the 10-year anniversary of the introduction of the Gardasil vaccine.

It will also feature the launch of Gardasil 9 - a new, extended version of the vaccine that will protect against five additional HPV viruses.

The US has already made the switch.

Initially, medical experts believed they would have to wait several years before seeing any results. However, a number of impact studies coming out of programmes in Australia, Scotland and Denmark are showing promising short-term results.

The vaccine was rolled out in these countries approximately two years before Ireland.

Janice Murtagh, senior medical adviser for Sanofi Pasteur MSD, the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines, said in Scotland they are already seeing a 50pc reduction in premalignant lesions in the vaccinated population.

"In less than a decade of the introduction of the programme, we are already seeing results in terms of a decrease," she said.

"The cancers could potentially be eradicated through HPV vaccination and we're hoping that when the cohort of Irish girls present for their smears that we will see a decrease in cervical abnormalities," she said.

The first population of vaccinated Irish girls will present for their cervical smears in 2018 and their vaccination status will be recorded.

Treatment for HPV cancers can be highly emotional and distressing for the individuals. In addition, sexual health clinics are extremely costly to the taxpayer. HPV causes 5pc of the worldwide cancer burden.

Ms Murtagh says the HPV vaccination programme is one of the most successful in the world. Uptake nationally is approximately at 85pc.

Studies from Australia, where a "girls-only" HPV vaccination programme was rolled out in 2007, reveal that immediately after receiving the jab the percentage of cases of genital warts decreased by almost 92pc.

Interestingly, in the same cohort of Australian boys who were not vaccinated, there is an 81pc decrease in the presentation of genital warts.

"This is an example of herd immunity. They are seeing a decrease in virus circulation, so the boys having sex with vaccinated girls have a lesser risk of picking up genital warts," she said.

A woman's risk of picking up HPV is very high between mid-20s to 40s, but then it decreases. However, a man's risk remains at a constant level.

Last December, senior health policy advisers to the Government recommended that Irish boys also get the vaccine.

"There is a huge amount of scientific data that boys should be vaccinated as well. We believe the Irish recommendation is imminent," said Ms Murtagh.

Despite this optimism, fear is growing that the uptake of vaccine will plummet this March - when girls are due their next jab.

Members of Reactions and Effects of Gardasil Resulting in Extreme Trauma (Regret), a parents' group, claim their daughters - mostly aged 11-17 years - became seriously ill after receiving the Gardasil vaccine.

Almost 280 girls have presented to the group so far. They all claim to be suffering a broad range of debilitating ailments, including seizures, constant pain, chronic fatigue, pancreatitis, lock jaw, menstrual problems and extreme anxiety.

Despite these claims, Ms Murtagh is adamant that the side-effects are not linked to the HPV jab. "We can definitively say there is no link back to our vaccine," she said.

Anna Cannon, a spokesperson for Regret, said: "Some 10,000 teenagers worldwide are presenting with mirroring side-effects. This vaccine warrants a major investigation."
They may be concerned about the provenance of their free-range chicken, or fret over the labour conditions in the Bangladeshi factory where their T-shirt was made, but most recreational drug users are unlikely to contemplate where the joint they got off their trusted friend came from.

Fewer still are likely to have thought about this month's escalation of gangland warfare and wondered if their own enjoyment of cannabis - or something stronger - has played its part in fuelling a terrifying vista where known criminals are shot dead in busy hotels in the middle of the day or where armed gardai, with balaclavas concealing their identities, are having to patrol the streets.

Dublin independent councillor Mannix Flynn believes there is no doubt that so-called recreational drug users play their part in lining the pockets of gang overlords. "The middle classes play a huge part in all of this and without them, the gangs wouldn't be making nearly as much money as they are," he says. "Middle-class people don't want to admit there's a link, or even think about it, but there is and by deciding to smoke a joint or snort cocaine, they're aiding and abetting very dangerous criminals who have made themselves very wealthy while spreading nothing but misery around them."

Flynn has seen for himself the devastation caused by drugs and organised crime in his central Dublin constituency and he believes it is disingenuous for well-off suburban drug users to think their actions have no consequences. "It's the middle classes who can afford to buy cocaine by the ounce or hash by the slab. They are bigger drug consumers than the working class and always have been.

"When cocaine first surfaced in this country in the 1970s, it was middle-class people who were buying it and helping to make the drugs gangs back then very rich. Nothing has changed."

Flynn's words echo the comments of former President Mary McAleese a decade ago. "It is the people with good jobs," she noted at the time, "it is the people with a great social life and a fancy car out the door, who are probably out tonight or last night, who were doing cocaine, who think it is a really smart thing to do, who are smoking hash or using cannabis or who are using E tablets and think it is a perfectly acceptable part of their life.

"The level of culpability for all of this is much more broadly based than many people are prepared to face up to. The same people, by the way, who will give out about it and who are terrified at what is happening out there are going to have to accept a fair deal of responsibility up the line for what happens in the pyramid."

The former president was speaking at the height of the Celtic Tiger when Ireland's cocaine consumption went up by 800pc in 10 years, making us the third highest users in the EU. Now that the much trumpeted recovery is in full swing - according to Fine Gael, at least - there's anecdotal evidence that consumption among the middle classes has started to pick up. And the gang warfare appears to be heightened.

"There's no doubt that there's a connection between a buoyant economy and criminality when it comes to drugs," says University College Cork sociologist, Niamh Hourigan, the author of a ground-breaking study on Limerick's internecine gang culture. "That was certainly evident in Limerick during the Celtic Tiger years - the gangs were at their deadliest when there was more money floating around."

Hourigan says the middle class distanced itself from the events that made Limerick notorious and says it wasn't until a popular and highly esteemed member of their own class was killed (in a case of mistaken identity), that hard questions started to be asked. "The killing of Shane Geoghegan in 2008 made people question how the gangs had become so powerful and who the customers for the drugs were down the line. People in marginalised parts of Limerick would have certainly thought that the middle classes were feeding the demand."

Hourigan believes that an economic recovery in Dublin and some other urban centres will not have gone unnoticed by the gangs. "Talk to some of the security correspondents and they say that the gangs are responding to the recovery by investing more in recreational drugs."

A garda source says cannabis 'grow-houses' really took off in the austerity years and continue to be significant money-getters for gangs looking for a quick kill.

"The thing about cannabis is you'd have people using it who wouldn't dream of touching MDMA or cocaine," he says. "They almost don't see it as a drug. And because of the hippy connotations, they don't realise that there's a very serious criminal dimension to its supply.

"If they realised the money that could be made from it, they might think again. It's not unusual to find a grow-house in a bog-standard two-bedroom apartment - say 600 sq ft - and you've got 50 or 60 grand worth of cannabis growing there at any one time. Multiply that amount over several years and you can get a sense about how much money can be made."

Mannix Flynn believes that for some of Ireland's middle classes, there's a whiff of glamour about the country's dangerous underworld figures. "They've been glamorised in the media, given nicknames and been portrayed as celebrities."

The councillor believes hugely popular dramas like Love/Hate have played their part too, and notes that the central character, Nidge, is seen by some as something of a modern-day folk hero. "Love/Hate was utterly reckless," he says, "and only served to normalise the worst kind of criminal behaviour. The way they were facilitated to shoot in identifiable parts of Dublin, that have been scarred by decades of government inaction, was a disgrace too."

Flynn notes the disquiet in some quarters when sportswear manufacturer O'Neills launched a limited edition Dublin GAA jersey with the legend 'King Nidge' emblazoned on the back. "The O'Neills thing was seen as a bit of a laugh," he says, "but it was yet another example of these characters being normalised and celebrated. There's nothing normal about the way Dublin crime figures have behaved and the misery they've left behind.

"The real fear with the way very dangerous criminals are portrayed in the tabloids or on dramas like Love/Hate is that they will be seen as heroes for a new generation of working-class teens. Any young boy living in deprived circumstances might look up to these people as role models and there's a danger that they'll be sucked into such a life of crime and never be able to escape it."

Niamh Hourigan says such young people were targeted with State support during the boom years, but with funding slipping in the austerity era, they remain especially vulnerable for exploitation by criminal fraternities today. "People like Fr Peter McVerry have highlighted this issue," she says, "and it's something that really should be addressed." The key, she insists, is intervention before it's too late.

Meanwhile, Mannix Flynn has a simple message for those "normal, middle-class people" who will indulge in their recreational drug of choice this weekend: "I would ask someone who's going to do a line of coke or is planning to have friends over to listen to Jimi Hendrix while smoking a few spliffs to bear in mind that the choice they're about to make is playing its part in wrecking communities and creating fear and ensuring that certain criminals lead a life of unimaginable luxury.

"You might be someone who is concerned about Fair Trade but, believe me, there's no Fair Trade when it comes to drugs."
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said something revealing in the course of the first televised leaders' debate on TV3, though it was not picked up at the time, either by his opponents in the studio or by observers afterwards.

It came after the other three leaders - Fine Gael's Enda Kenny, Labour's Joan Burton, and Micheal Martin of Fianna Fail - each ruled out the prospect of going into coalition with Sinn Fein, declaring that the IRA's political wing was unfit for government.

Why, Adams demanded to know with his trademark supercilious smile of a fifth-form debater convinced he's about to score a knock-out blow, should any party in the Dail consider SF to be an unsuitable partner when the Democratic Unionist Party, sworn enemies of Irish republicanism for a generation, had agreed to share power with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness and others?

Pat Kenny cut him off by pointing out that government in the North was decided on a complicated D'Hondt system which wasn't comparable at all to politics in the Dail, and he's right; but that was to miss the much more glaring contradiction in Adams's words, which was that if FG, FF and Labour were being inconsistent in deeming SF unfit for coalition when the DUP did not, then SF was being even more equally inconsistent in ruling out FG, FF and Labour as suitable coalition parties whilst being prepared to share power with the DUP.

Mary Lou McDonald stressed again during the deputy leaders' debate on TV3 last Monday that "we will not prop up either of the conservative parties". In other words, SF is prepared to "prop up" the DUP, which is far more regressive than any of the main parties in the Republic, but will not sully itself to get into bed with parties who founded the State and guided and shaped it for decades through difficult and happier times alike.

SF is, in effect, treating FG and FF as if they are insignificant second stringers whose only function in Irish life has been to keep the seat of power warm until SF, its rightful inheritors, came to claim it for themselves. Adams has more respect for the DUP, because at least it comes from the North, the true Ireland, the one which had now finally been lifted to its deserved place and given the task of leading the false Ireland in the South to the promised land.

By flatly rejecting suggestions that SF should share power under any of the three main parties, Adams confirmed two things. The first is his latent kneejerk hostility to the character of the State that he has designs to lead and to which the Constitution compels him to show allegiance. The second is that SF has no intention of, or interest in, serving in government at all.

Stormont doesn't count. That is not a natural government by any standards. SF could bankrupt Northern Ireland, increase poverty by 3,000pc, and have the homeless piling up in the streets, and it would still waltz back into power in the North, It's an abnormal society which elects abnormal administrations decided solely on sectarian head counts. The largest unionist party must share power with the largest nationalist party, so as long as SF outpolls the rival SDLP its path back to power is guaranteed, and it can easily do that as long as it outdoes the more sedate nationalist party on the green rhetoric. Extremism is rewarded in the North, not results.

Knowing that power is divided up this way encourages voters to head to the fringes in order to strengthen the bargaining hand of their particular side. SF and the DUP have that racket sewn up between themselves for decades to come. There are no penalties for failure in the North's administration, none for broken promises.

The Republic isn't like that. There are consequences for failure in the Dail. A party which fails to deliver on its commitments will be punished at the next poll, as Labour, FG, FF, the Greens and Progressive Democrats have all discovered to their costs in recent years. Sometimes, in the case of the PDs, the damage is fatal. More often, as with Labour, it's cyclical. SF has no experience of this type of politics and it has even less appetite for discovering what it's like on that side of the fence.

Its political experience in the North is akin to that of an invading army. Electoral areas are territory to be won by overwhelming force. Once won, they hold on to them. They're hugely successful at it.

In the Republic, it's different. Votes are borrowed, not seized like the spoils of battle. Fail to deliver and they'll be taken back and handed to another party. Right now SF is concentrating on building up the war machine, ready for the big push, but its mantra is "not now, not yet", because it knows that this momentum will wither the moment it has to disappoint the loyal foot soldiers with difficult decisions.

Better to stay safely out of government, remaining as a fulcrum for discontent, without risking unpopularity with hard policy choices. The last thing they want or need right now is SF ministers being held accountable or answerable for real, rather than fantasy, funding options, and facing the criticism of eloquent opposition deputies who can outflank them from the left, stealing the clothes in which SF now wraps itself.

It's as an opposition force that SF is most dangerous, where its political influence is most malign. Imagine SF ministers trying to reform a health service which has defeated bigger and better politicians in its time. The magic would quickly lose its glow for voters.

It's plausible that a SF-led government would wreak havoc with the country's economy and security, as it played brinkmanship both with the peace process and financial realities. That possibility should not be discounted.

Just as likely, though, is that SF would be forced to realise that its rhetoric is bigger than its ability to deliver. That's what happened in the North last year. Faced with an inability to get its way on welfare reform, SF simply caved in on its promise to protect the poorest from cuts and instead cobbled together a shabby deal with the DUP to send back all responsibility for the issue to Westminster.

It's worth pausing for a moment to consider the significance of that act. A party whose entire raison d'etre is to return national sovereignty from Britain to the Irish people voluntarily gave up an executive power which had already been returned from Britain to an elected Irish assembly, simply in order to save face, having been caught out as being unable to make good on its political pledges.

These are people who claim that they would stand up for Ireland in Europe, but who wouldn't or couldn't stand up to a Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The episode was staggeringly symbolic of the limits of SF's capabilities as negotiators and legislators, and was rightly condemned by the SDLP's Alex Attwood as a "grotesque abdication of political responsibility". SF would be equally scathing if FG, Labour or FF had pulled a similar stroke.

Not that such a thing is possible. Irish governments don't have the option of washing their hands of unpleasant financial decisions and begging the boy from the Bullingdon Club in 11 Downing Street to step in and sort it all out.

Even in the North, some voters are beginning to see through this charade. People Before Profit is making inroads into SF's core vote in West Belfast, but it will take time to chip away at that edifice. Voters in the Republic are less tolerant of failure and less respectful of reputation, which is why SF has calculated that it's safer to stay out of government, hiding instead behind waffle as it pursues the central aim of picking off its rivals one by one and becoming the main voice of opposition in the State.

The worst thing that could happen to it is to be put in a position where it has to do rather than just talk, because once it fails at real, bread-and-butter politics in Dublin, as it has in Belfast, the allure is gone forever.
STORMY WATERS: Enda Kenny at the home of trainer Tom Cleary near Athlone during the flooding. Pic Steve Humphreys

More than 1m in emergency funding has been paid out to small businesses and communities left in dire straits after the flooding crisis, the Sunday Independent has learned.

Yesterday, hundreds of flood victims gathered at a national protest rally in Athlone.

Almost 350 business owners, community groups and sporting bodies have applied for financial support under the Irish Red Cross scheme since storms Desmond, Frank and Gertrude wreaked havoc on homes, land and rivers nationwide.

Of these, 211 have received payment - with 203 collecting 5,000 lump sums to reinstate their premises.

To date a total of 1,162,060 has been paid out.

Last December, Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that 5m would be made available for small businesses that have suffered flood damage and were unable to get insurance.

Remaining applications have been denied compensation, require further information or are pending review under new criteria.

Earlier this month, the Government announced that emergency flooding would be extended to businesses in non rateable areas.

Despite the pay-outs, flood victims from Longford, Westmeath, Leitrim, Roscommon and further afield, are furious over the Government's failure to commit to long-term flood defences.

Jer Bergin, national chairman of the IFA said: "We need action to be taken now, and we need a change of direction in terms of maintenance of the River Shannon, it has to become part of public works for the future".

"It's not acceptable anymore that no work is being done to keep our rivers clear. There has to be a programme of works undertaken to protect rural dwellers and farmers".

Campaigners are urging the Government to establish a proper maintenance programme of the River Shannon and the implementation of a single authority to look after the rivers.

Victims are also considering bypassing the Government and going directly to the European Court to raise their flooding concerns.

"The livelihoods of people and their properties has to come first. We need to see the people who are directly affected as part of the decision-making process, they have to play a role," said Mr Bergin.

The IFA are calling for the appointment of a full cabinet minister with responsibility for rural affairs.

The organisation also wants agriculture and fisheries to come under the one ministership.

"We're seeing an uneven recovery after the recession and we're seeing rural areas being left behind with agriculture under serious pressure," said Mr Bergin.

Michael Fitzmaurice, Independent TD for Roscommon, South Leitrim, who attended yesterday's march said "the people on the ground want action, not lip service".

"There was a good turn out at the protest and people said what needed to be said but the next Government can rest assured that further protest will be coming down the track. The people of these areas have been waiting too long for action and they're not going to back down," he said.
'Brian said the Town Team, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, was working closely with the local authority in order to eradicate the dereliction that has blighted so many rural towns like Boyle'

Buds of regeneration are beginning to blossom in the scenic north Roscommon town of Boyle.

The newly formed Town Team, a Roscommon County Council-led initiative, has placed window graphics of local beauty spots in derelict buildings, powerwashed town monuments and funded shrubs for the 2016 Tidy Towns campaign.

They also funded a 'shop local' campaign, organised the inaugural 'Fall in Love with Boyle' weekend, commenced phase one of a CCTV system for the town and are working on the establishment of a Greenway from Lough Key Forest Park to the town.

Town Team chairman Brian Nerney said: "Boyle is very much alive and open for business. We have a number of fine restaurants and cafes with an emphasis on local produce, a bustling Farmers' Market, vibrant, friendly pubs and a quality of life in one of the most scenic areas of Ireland that is the envy of many."

Brian said the Town Team, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, was working closely with the local authority in order to eradicate the dereliction that has blighted so many rural towns like Boyle.

"The economic boost that is evident on the east coast has not hit Boyle just yet but savvy investors have seen the opportunities in commercial and residential property."

The town's new information website, Boyletm.ie, was launched last week with funding assistance from Boyle Town Team.
It's that time of year when light and bright spring clothes fill the stores, but the weather outside is still decidedly wintry. Instead of letting the dull days drag you down, make the most of what the continuing cold snap has to offer and create a cosy haven in your home.

Think a raging fire in the fireplace, a bearskin rug on the floor, and you reclined in a tweed high-back chair sipping spiked hot cocoa. With all the cosiest natural elements of a wood cabin, this rustic daydream will leave you rested and refreshed by the time it's warm enough to wear those floaty florals.

1 Tweed Textures

A cabin wouldn't be complete without a few perfectly woven textures to evoke extra warmth on cold winter nights. Think tweed for texture and checks for pattern. Both add instant cabin appeal.

Buy it: Argyll tartan chair, 480, Argos' Heart of Home range

2 Camp Fire Chic

Enamelware took a break from camp fire duty in the last few years and made it to the mainstream. Enamel cookware is durable and works on a number of surfaces, but it's also just downright cute. These enamel mugs would be perfect for that spiked hot chocolate (Bailey's, anyone?).

Buy it: Mint enamel mugs, 6 from dotcomgiftshop.com

3 Scandinavian Sense

Take a page out of the Scandinavian play-book by embracing their decorating style - if only for their enviable cheerful tolerance for bitter winters. Think simple additions of minimal country style, like these sweet wooden houses which are perfect for decorating your mantle above a blazing fire. Consider adding stark carved candle sticks with white tapers to complete the look.

Buy it: Dickens and Jones wooden houses, from 16, House of Fraser

4 Pretty Pottery

Texture doesn't just come in fabrics, pottery and ceramics can also add different feels to a room. We love mixing one-of-a-kind pieces with those you'll worry less about when the kids are running rampage. This gorgeous serving bowl from Helen James' Considered range at Dunnes is a good place to start your collection.

Buy it: Considered by Helen James Ludlow serving bowl, 30, Dunnes Stores

5 Unfinished Business

Another key element to this rustic cabin style is unfinished wood furniture - no stains or paints. The key is for it to look as though it was recently hammered together - preferably by a burly woodsman with a perfectly coiffed beard using wood he lovingly chose and chopped in the back grove. Or, as the case may more realistically be, hammered together by you with a side of angst as yet another set of Ikea stick-figure directions goes awry. A light coat of tung or linseed oil will keep this table from staining when you set down your enamel mug of cocoa.

Buy it: Norraker table, 120, Ikea

Bullseye

The best thing about this totally trendy bull's skull? It's faux! You can sleep peacefully without worries about being haunted by your latest decor choice. Just make sure you have ample space for those horns; a high ceiling will allow him to make the biggest impact. For maximum drama, try painting a charcoal accent wall to hang it on.

Buy it: Faux bull skull, 305, April and the Bear, aprilandthebear.com

Sea inspired

Ella and Lukas Szczerbak, based in Castlebar, Co Mayo, are a ceramics team creating beautiful dishes and artwork inspired by the Irish Sea. Originally from Poland, the couple travelled to Ireland in 2006 and fell in love with the west coast. After relocating, they enrolled in pottery courses and opened their own handmade pottery business, The Mood Designs. The couple relocated their friendly mare to a different stable so they could take over her digs for their studio, where they create pieces inspired by the sea, sky and scenery of Croagh Patrick and Clew Bay. You can find their Irish sea-inspired pottery in shops around the west coast or online at themooddesigns.ie. And make sure to bookmark their customised baby name wall hangings for the perfect baby gift!
Premium

Colm McCarthy Opinion Free money is not the way to head off a crisis

Managing the macro economy involves three perspectives. These are the short-term  the next six months or a year; the medium-term  the next four or five years; and the long-term  the issues that demand to be addressed decades in advance. From the perspective of Irish governments in recent times, only the short-term merits attention, with the medium-term left to the civil service and the long-term to sporadic commissions and academic worrywarts.
Premium

Radio review: The thing about the Wolfe Tones is not that their music is Irish, but that its bad

We have established that nationalism in general is eejitry taken to such extremes it becomes a form of evil. And in the case of our version of nationalism, perhaps the ultimate eejitry is that many of us would broadly agree in theory with a United Ireland if it wasnt for the nationalists themselves  they have contrived somehow to be the main obstacle to their own ambitions.
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.
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.
This month, Facebook celebrates its 12th anniversary. I, on the other hand, am marking our three-year divorce. It wasn't an easy separation. We haven't remained 'friends'.

I mulled over the decision for months. Would my friends be annoyed? Would I end up being left behind? Would I become a social pariah?

I had lived a huge chunk of my life online, spent years developing my profile, expanding my friend pool, and sharing well, basically everything, with everyone - was I really prepared to say goodbye to all that?

Yes, I was.

Like all bittersweet relationships, I remember the day we first met, the day I signed up!

It was the summer of my second year in college and I was at home, basking in post-exam bliss.

A couple of pals had told me about this "cool new website" making waves across campuses in the United States.

(The term 'social network' hadn't really caught on yet.)

I cleared my hall stand, plugged the landline wire out of my house phone and hooked it up to my Advent laptop - considered cutting-edge in the mid-noughties.

After about 10 minutes of 'dialling up' the internet, I was finally on Facebook.com and ready to set up my account.

I still remember agonising over my first profile picture.

I was 20, so I wanted something that said "she looks cool, fun, a bit alternative".

So I went with a photo of me wearing aviator sunglasses, sipping on a coffee, outside a cafe in Amsterdam.

I uploaded basic details - birthday, hometown, university, music, books and sporting interests and that was it - Claire Mc Cormack was 'live.'

I was hooked.

Very few of my friends had accounts at the time, so I spent the next few months telling them about it and encouraging them to join.

I was Little Miss Facebook.

Getting notifications and friend requests was a great buzz. I felt important, liked, popular.

Status updates were an opportunity to reveal my personality. Again, I wanted to get the tone right, sound intelligent but good craic at the same time.

The community boomed. We posted up photos of nights out, concerts, holidays and lots of 21st birthday parties. I shared music videos, funny clips and interesting articles.

As planeloads of my friends started to emigrate, I could stay completely up to date on their travels and exciting new lives in Australia and Canada.

Birthdays were the best! It was your special day, you got all the attention, I remember counting almost 100 birthday messages for my 25th - (come on, who really has 100 friends?)

It soon became the first thing I checked in the morning and the last thing I looked at night. I didn't see anything wrong with that.

But the older I got, the more sceptical I became. The word 'friend' has loose interpretations on Facebook.

Some are genuine, even life-long, and yet those friendships hold the same online weight as an old classmate you haven't seen since primary school or a neighbour's cousin's friend that you met at Mass.

It became commonplace to chat to complete 'randomers' on a night out and expect a friend request from them the next day.

These 'new friends' can flick back through old photographs of you and posts that you wrote years ago. They can decide on your character without ever actually having a proper conversation with you.

This started to bother me.

Then came the birth of smartphones.

I was spending my day going from screen to screen while the world went by around me.

My newsfeed became bombarded with ridiculous updates of what people were eating for breakfast, the 'amazing craic' they were having and a constant thread of perfectly angled selfies.

No one ever seemed to have a bad day online. If I was feeling a bit down in the dumps, Facebook had the power to make me feel even worse.

Alternatively, if I was feeling fine, Facebook equally had the power to make me feel crap - especially if I saw something online that I didn't like.

Thoughts of wanting to break away started to creep in but I was also at the stage where I didn't think I could cope without it.

FB kept me in the loop, I knew everyone's headlines, I was on top of their news, I knew when all the events were happening.

However, I noticed that conversation among friends slowly started to dry up - we knew it all already. I knew everything about everyone and they knew everything about me too.

My self-esteem was taking a hit. I wanted my privacy back.

I didn't want everyone to know my location, to know that I'd lived abroad, to know my hair used to be blonde.

Just before my 27th birthday I made a promise to myself - I was going to deactivate my account for good.

We'd endured a changeable relationship for almost seven years - but it was time to face the real world on my own.

For me, the benefits outweighed the downside. I took my mystery back and, finally, I have a private life again.

However, I haven't totally eschewed social media; I still use Twitter, mostly on a professional basis. But now when I meet friends, we chat for hours and they bring me up to speed.

It's exciting to hear about their new relationships, new jobs or even recent dramas when we're face to face.

And I'm thankful that they have been patient with me and understand my decision to remain offline.

Last December, Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, announced plans to donate 99pc of Facebook Shares to charity - around $45bn (40bn).

Despite this gesture and all the positives of Facebook, we cannot ignore the negative side.

Increasing numbers of people are losing control of the amount of time they spend online as internet and social media addiction soars.

Recent studies have warned that using social media can be even more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol.

Shane Kelly, spokesman of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) said: "Many young people find the desire to use Facebook and Twitter so strong that it's affecting their personal relationships, their studies and often their jobs."

Research has also shown that people with high usage of social media sites may have lower levels of self-esteem and have a higher incidence of depression.

Kids on school buses no longer goof around and race for the back seat, pull the girls' ponytails or wink at the boys from the other school.

Instead, they sit in relative silence with their heads stuck in their phones. Growing numbers of parents are signing up to computer classes to keep up with their digital offspring.

Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet recently admitted to clamping down on social media in her home amid fears that it could leave someone's self-esteem in tatters.

"It has a huge impact on young women's self-esteem, because all they ever do is design themselves for people to like them," she said.

"And what comes along with that? Eating disorders. And that makes my blood boil. And is the reason we don't have any social media in our house," she told a British newspaper.

I've no regrets about setting up a Facebook account, I'm glad of the experience and the perspective it gave me.

But for those of you toying with the idea of breaking away, know that it really is possible.

In fact, it's been exhilarating to end our needy and controlling relationship.
Anastasija Varslavane, a beautiful young Latvian woman, is missing in Ireland and was most likely murdered and secretly buried by members of an Irish Traveller gang.

Officially she is a 20-year-old 'missing person'. So too is her boyfriend, Traveller Willie Maughan (34), who disappeared at the same time around April 14 last year.

Their names aren't big in the public consciousness but the fact they were most likely murdered and secretly buried together should be a major issue in this State, maybe even a topic of debate about law and order and the Garda in the General Election, but it isn't. Anna, as she was known, was completely innocent having met Willie and fallen in love.

Barry Corcoran, meanwhile, from Wicklow, is not the subject of any particular media or Garda interest. He was a drug addict but also a father. He too was likely murdered last July and also secretly buried, most likely in the Wicklow Mountains.

Along with the shootings and stabbings of the usual criminal suspects that we perhaps reasonably don't care about, there was also the innocent 64-year-old Edward Nugent, who was shot dead outside his home in west Dublin last February. And, two days later, another entirely innocent man in his 50s, Rupert Walker, was shot dead at his home in Greystones, Co Wicklow - believed the victim of mistaken identity.

The 2014 list of victims of gang violence was similar to last year, and similar to the year before and the year before that. The thing that really stands out and really sets the Republic apart from other 'modern' Western states is that we, apparently, don't do prosecutions for murder where organised crime or 'political', ie IRA, terrorism is involved.

Even petty robber gangs like the one that murdered Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in January 2013 get away with it. And if you are getting away with it, why stop? No one living in a working class area of Dublin or along the Border, where the IRA is 'the only law' - as they say themselves - would dare give evidence against any gang who might well come round to your home and shoot you dead too, or your spouse or son or daughter. You then become a statistic and an unsolved murder as well.

It's not that we don't have gardai with the skills and dedication to catch and prosecute these gangs.

We do. We have some of the best detectives and regular gardai in the business - officers who, in other circumstances, would have the murderers of Anna Varslavane, her Irish boyfriend and the rest of the gangster 'hitmen' rounded up and jailed if they were properly resourced and led.

Twenty years ago, after Veronica Guerin was murdered, then Garda Commissioner, Pat Byrne, set up a squad under the leadership of his best officer, Chief Superintendent Tony Hickey, and set them - over 100 tough gardai and brilliant detec tives - on John Gilligan's revolting gang of thugs.

They tore the gang apart within weeks and had most of them on charges within a few months.

Since then, even the notion of protecting witnesses seems to have gone completely from the reckoning in crime prosecution. In one serious case, which cannot be detailed for legal reasons, a garda witness even declined to appear in court. Nothing was made of it. The victims in the case were left bewildered as the accused walked away free. The victims have had no contact from gardai since and are living in terror, totally unprotected.

One of the sides in the current Dublin feud is said to be considering a mass killing of its opponents. Quite a lot of people seem to share this view. They won't tell gardai, however, because they don't want to be murdered too.
You'd think the sheer predictability of moral panic around sex and middle-class kids would have tripped some alarm in newsrooms. When reports surfaced that 200 male Agricultural Science students in UCD were swapping photographs of naked women in a secret online forum, a skeptic might think to check before publishing. Alas, no. Inserting the word "alleged" into the text seemed easier. Thus the story was taken out of UCD's student-run college paper and into the mainstream media.

The scandal was given extra legs when UCD's Students' Union, following the lead set by their counterparts at Trinity College, announced it was calling on college authorities to fund mandatory sexual consent classes.

The original story seemed dubious to me, and as for mandatory sexual-consent classes - that's the kind of fascist initiative that would have sparked protests by students in my day.

Needless to say, when the story was investigated by the grown-ups at UCD, it quickly transpired to be fictional. That was disappointing for the outraged campaigners who are still claiming that the secret online forum is so secret that it probably exists but the investigators just couldn't find it. It's like those Weapons of Mass Destruction. They must be out there! Because we want them to be! Because then we can have a war! A sex war!

War is good for some people. Like author Louise O'Neill, the organiser of a 'Slut-Walk' who got an outing on TodayFM and declared herself "sickened" when she heard about the photographs. Her current nausea levels that the photographs can't be found have yet to be announced.

To be fair, not all third-level students lost the head. The Union of Students in Ireland's Annie Hoey, who was on my Newstalk show last week, said she didn't agree with mandatory classes. But she still thought voluntary classes were necessary because there's so much confusion among male and female students as to what constitutes sexual consent.

Hoey said reported rapes are no higher than off-campus. But there are highly distressed women who had sexual relations with men and wondered afterwards if it constituted sexual assault. This also means there are innocent men vulnerable to serious allegations. Why are intelligent, educated, people living in the most liberal times in our history incapable of negotiating sexual relations?

My grand-aunt was one of the first female students at Trinity College, Dublin. She was part of the brave cohort who broke the prejudice that women weren't safe on campus.

When I arrived in Trinity from rural Meath I had barely turned 17. Yet I was resolute. Men were after only one thing and it was my solemn duty to stop them getting it - until I felt like getting it myself. I didn't need a workshop to help me figure this out.

What changed so that the current generation of women don't know how to say no and the men aren't sure what constitutes a yes?

The typical explanation is to blame the vast quantities of alcohol being consumed.

I'm not entirely convinced that much has changed there. Drinking to excess was normal when I was at college in the 1980s and 1990s. I left college with a degree and a stomach ulcer for heaven's sake. There was also plenty of sexual regret when people got drunk, went to bed with someone, and woke up wishing they hadn't. It was just put down to misadventure with a resolution to make better decisions next time.

So I think there's something more going on. What obviously has changed is the pornification of society in which girls are afraid to say no because everything in popular culture demands they say yes. The music industry is largely responsible for driving this hypersexuality, and feminists should be protesting the sexualisation of young women. Instead, they attack anyone who raises their hand against it. Third-wave feminists did so much to raise awareness and change the law around rape. But with 'Victim Feminism' that's evolved into something quite different.

Now, if you warn women to recognise the world is a dangerous place from which they need to protect themselves - like, not drink so much they render themselves incapable of providing consent - you're accused of "victim-blaming". The 'Slut-Walkers' say women have the right to dress and behave anyway they want without being accused of asking for it.

Well, of course they do. We all have the right to leave our back doors unlocked and our handbags in the car without getting robbed. But we don't do those things because there are opportunistic predators out there waiting to pounce. So yes, society should change, but as Caitlin Moran argues, there are certain things we have to do while we're waiting for that to happen. Crime is crime, but we take steps to protect ourselves from it. What's wrong with that?

Moran also applies another test when society starts worrying about women's behaviour. She asks: "And are the men doing this too?" As the mother of young sons, I've already started warning them about reckless behaviour, so yes, my protective attitudes are gender-neutral.

Perhaps the classes, which seem infantile to me, are necessary. But surely a more lasting solution is that modern feminists make a distinction between sexual liberation and pornification. That advising street smarts and secure behaviour is not victim-blaming. That sexual regret is not the same as sexual assault. And rather than waiting on men to telepathically divine consent, nothing beats an old-fashioned shriek and a firm "No".

Sarah Carey presents 'Talking Point' on Newstalk at 9am on Saturday
1. Gerry Adams has led the party since the 1980s, and is contesting his fourth election to the Dail. He still has no command of policy detail, a woeful understanding of economics, and seems to believe bluster and aggression will deflect all reasonable questions. The idea that this approach will work in Europe is laughable. Mandarins in Brussels may be unpalatable, but they know their stuff, and they eat amateurs like Adams for breakfast. Just ask Alexis Tsipras.

2. Speaking of the Greek prime minister, SF has still not provided a credible explanation for its support for Syriza and other left-wing movements, all of whom have so far failed to achieve any of the concessions which SF continues to pretend that it can win in the face of the same resistance from EU power brokers. As a result, Greece is a basket case looking at decades of economic stagnation; Spain has unemployment levels that make the worst days of Dublin in the 1980s look like a boom by comparison; and Portugal is without a stable government and beginning to suffer the effects as it's shunned by investors. Why would Ireland fare any differently if it heeded the siren's call?

3. SF speaks with a forked tongue on opposing austerity, implementing cuts in government in Northern Ireland while claiming it would oppose them in government in the Republic. "Sinn Fein is doing Tory austerity - and in spades," as SDLP deputy leader Fearghal McKinney put it. West Belfast, the heartland of the party, suffers the worst child poverty in the whole of the UK and 2,000 people languish on the housing waiting list in that one area of the city alone.

4. Last week, the son of murdered prison officer Brian Stack revealed that he has information linking his father's murder to two senior SF representatives. The party's only official response to this shocking development was to advise Austin Stack to take any information he has to An Garda Siochana as, in the words of Gerry Adams, "it isn't up to us to investigate these matters". Despite this, Adams has admitted that SF/IRA did conduct investigations into rape and child abuse allegations made against senior republicans, before moving those it found guilty of sexual offences to secret locations around the Irish Republic and in Britain. The whereabouts of these perpetrators of abuse remain unknown, and SF continues to insist that it has no further information about them and no way of finding out. This assertion lacks all plausibility in light of SF's willingness to pursue so-called "comfort letters" from the British government granting immunity from prosecution for IRA "on the runs". It only seems to know how to find former republicans when convenient.

5. SF is shamelessly ambivalent about law and order. Abolishing the Special Criminal Court would be of particular concern in the present circumstances, but SF sees no problem in taking away powers from the State that allow law enforcement agencies to act quickly against republican-inspired terrorist organisations and ruthless criminal gangs who murder and threaten innocent people in working-class communities in Dublin and elsewhere. The case of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy clearly demonstrated SF's belief that "good republicans" should be above the law.

6. For a party which claims to be squeaky clean, and which berates mainstream politicians for presiding over corruption, SF's finances are a black hole from which light rarely emerges. A recent investigation in Northern Ireland found that the party played fast and loose with political expenses, in one case alone channelling 1m in public money to a research group later revealed to be little more than a front for SF. It is generously funded beyond the dreams of most political parties and is not keen for outsiders to know what it does with that money.

7. Gerry Adams said on RTE radio last Thursday that a strategy for Irish unity was a "red line" issue for the party and insisted it would push in government for a referendum on a united Ireland. The Belfast Agreement has already set down the conditions under which such a poll could be held, stating that it should only be called if there is a realistic chance of it being carried on both sides of the Border. These conditions are far from being met. The party's manifesto contains a large number of measures to push for Irish unity, including a proposal that MPs elected in the North should be "automatically accorded membership of Dail Eireann", with speaking rights, which has received little attention from other parties. Many of these measures could only be divisive and retrograde steps that would sour relations with unionists in the North and with Britain, to no positive end. Dublin and London enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship and there is no evidence that Irish people have any appetite for using the offices of a sovereign government for the advancement of a one-sided propaganda war in the way envisaged by SF.

8. The younger generation of SF representatives cannot be relied upon to make a break with the past. Normal democratic parties have their internal struggles. Not SF. It has only a single-minded personality cult which refuses to accept that its leader, Gerry Adams, has questions to answer about his past conduct both in the IRA's activities during the Troubles and in his handling of controversial child abuses cases, one involving his own brother, Liam. Whenever Adams is under fire, SF hides from legitimate questions. Not one SF representative has broken ranks to question their treatment of Mairia Cahill.

9. The concept of free speech remains anathema to SF. Some of the party's enemies, such as former IRA man Eamon Collins, have been murdered for exercising their right to openly dissent from Provo orthodoxy. Only this week, an academic study based on confidential documents from RTE management meetings showed how SF attempts to bully the media into giving the party more favourable coverage. In recent years it has ruthlessly orchestrated its online supporters to troll SF's critics on social media . Recent death threats against journalists have demonstrated again that threats to press freedom are no laughing matter, but a deadly reality.

10. Article 15 of the Constitution declares that "the right to raise and maintain military or armed forces is vested exclusively in the Oireachtas", adding that no other force should be raised "for any purpose whatsoever". SF begs to differ, still giving its fraternal allegiance to another claimant in the shadows, the Irish Republican Army. Adams refers to this terrorist organisation as "the Army", giving it equal legitimacy with the actual armed forces of the State, and the current status of this other "army" remains uncertain. It retains large stores of weapons, and continues to flex its muscle to threaten the peace process when roused to anger, as when Gerry Adams was arrested for questioning about the brutal kidnap, torture, murder and secret burial of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville. As recently as last autumn, it was revealed that the IRA still has overarching command over SF policy. What it intends to do with that control is a worrying mystery.
Sir - The news which emerged during the week about the friendship (could I say loving friendship) between Pope John Paul and the intellectual Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka is a wonderful and heart-warming story.

The life of a priest is a lonely one. A life in which he goes through all of the experiences each day, whether good or bad.

The joyful moments and the sad ones are brought home to an empty house. It is a lonely life in which men struggle all of their life.

Women in particular will have been happy to read the account of the friendship between the two which was based on mutual respect and admiration, one which did not infringe on the celibate existence of the priest.

Harry Mulhern, Dublin

Time to ask the question

Sir - With the recent violent killing of two people, law and order and the security of the State has become a big issue in the General Election.

Therefore voters should remember the atrocities and murders carried out by Sinn Fein/IRA over a long 30 years. For example out of 3,600 who were killed during the so-called troubles, Sinn Fein/IRA were responsible for half of them.

This organisation also did untold damage to our economy and caused mayhem to our emigrants living in England with their bombing campaign.

I remember very well when four IRA thugs were robbing post office van in Limerick and shot dead Garda Jerry McCabe in cold blood and wounded his colleague.

Voters should ask every Sinn Fein candidate do they agree with what the IRA did and the damage they did to our country over a long 30 years. The present Government has managed to recover the economy and has created 140.000 jobs to enable them to maintain welfare payments with an increase payments in the last budget. If Sinn Fein was to be in government with its mad economic and taxation policies it would be unable to pay these payments. Anyone with a bit of sense or care for our country should not vote for Sinn Fein.

Noel Peers, Graignamanagh Co Kilkenny

Trusting Sinn Fein with law and order

Sir - Martin Ferris and other Sinn Fein deputies visited the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe and welcomed them out of prison.

How could voters trust Ferris and Sinn Fein with law and order in Ireland?

Fr Con McGillicuddy Killarney, Co Kerry

Gwyneth's healthy recipe for life

Sir - After reading all the madness of gangland killers and Election news in the Sunday Independent last week, it was a welcome relief to read a wonderful, healthy quote from actress Gwyneth Paltrow in your 'Quotes of the week' section (Sunday Independent, February 14).

No doctor could have put it better.

"I believe in exercise, eating well, drinking lots of water, sex, sleeping and being among people who make you feel good."

It may be stating the obvious, but wow, is this lovely actress not right or what!

Brian Mc Devitt, Glenties, Co Donegal

The accuracy of election polls

Sir - I have read much criticism of election polls in newspapers recently and while some criticism may be justified, as someone who has studied polls and bet on elections over the last 45 years, I feel I can give a balanced opinion of them. Polls are not always accurate certainly, but let us take a look at the outcome of the elections they claimed to forecast over the last 45 years in Ireland, Britain and France.

The first election I placed a small bet on was the Irish general election of 1973. Early polls gave the incumbents Fianna Fail victory, but as election day approached, the opposition (Fine Gael led by Liam Cosgrave and Labour led by Brendan Corish) overtook Fianna Fail until polls claimed 1pc difference and too close to call. I bet IR10 on the coalition - the momentum was with them.

On the night, just one seat gave victory to the coalition parties. The final count for that seat went well past midnight and when the result was announced at 1.30am some reporter phoned Mr Cosgrave's house for his reaction to his party's victory, only to be told by his housekeeper he had retired to bed at 11pm with a cup of cocoa, without knowing the result!

Imperturbable, unflappable, a sense of proportion in life? Surely the ship of state would be safe in the hands of a man who had cultivated such a passion of indifference to success or failure in life.

Forty three years later Mr Cosgrave is still with us!

In the French presidential election of 1981 a similar scenario unfolded. Early polls suggested Mr Giscard d'Estaing the incumbent president would win a second term but as the first round polling day approached the polls began to narrow until Mr Francois Mitterrand was neck and neck. The following Sunday in the second round Mr Mitterrand won by just 50,000 votes - less than 0.4pc of the electorate at that time. Were those polls accurate? You bet! President Francois Mitterrand's father worked for the French Railways SNCF, and it was said in France at the time, were it not for the fact that 90pc of SNCF employees voted for him, he would have not had that slim 50,000 vote majority that made him president.

In France votes are counted while voting takes place on the day of the election, so the result is announced at 8pm when the polling booths close. President Mitterrand was to make his inaugural speech at 8.30pm.

Renowned lawyer, historian, acclaimed writer, President Francois Mitterrand was the most cultured and literate president France had ever had. I listened intently to his victory acceptance speech, like President Obama, Mr Mitterrand had a penchant for 'Le Bon Mot' or 'La Phrase Resonnante' the poignant phrase, and he ended his speech with "To all those who await a better fate I say tonight your time has come". It was heavy stuff but then he was the first socialist president since the war.

It was however, a bittersweet victory. Unknown to France or the world, he was already suffering from the cancer that would haunt him throughout his two terms in office and led to his death in 1995.

Only three people that night knew of his illness, his personal physician, his wife and one close confidante.

The years 1981-1982 were also a busy time for election watchers and punters in Ireland. There were three great general elections within a period of 18 months. In all three, the polls predicted extremely close results. So close, parties were dependent on Independents to pass legislation and keep them in power. Garrett FitzGerald's first coalition government fell on the issue of imposing VAT on children's shoes. One Independent voted against it and the government fell. These elections saw the first betting on choosing winning candidates in marginal constituencies introduced by the bookmakers Sean Graham. Polls in these marginal constituencies had to be really accurate if you were to choose the winner and not lose your money. Believe me, the polls were accurate and many punters had good wins. By the 1987 election this format of bet was gone.

In the British general election of 1993, the Labour Party led by Neil Kinnock contested the conservatives led by John Major. Early polls favoured Labour to win over the conservatives by 4pc to 5pc, even more in some polls, but on the morning of the election the final poll gave the conservatives a 1pc lead. It was too late for me. I had already placed my modest bet, but once again polls proved their worth in tracking public opinion.

In the 2007 French presidential election between Madame Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party and Mr Nicolas Sarkozy of UMP, all polls gave Mr Sarkozy a comfortable lead over Madame Royal and they were correct. Mr Sarkozy won by a comfortable majority.

Current scepticism about polling companies comes, I believe, from the gross error made in predicting the outcome of the referendum on the abolition of the senate in Ireland. Here polls were predicting 20pc-25pc in favour of abolition. On the day, Ireland voted to retain the Senate. It was an enormous error and no polling company has ever offered satisfactory explanation for it.

Leon De Sachy, Dublin 11

Exploiting the Boss's visit

Sir - It seems that not just Croke Park is delighted with the news that Bruce Springsteen is to perform two concerts at GAA Headquarters. As soon as the dates of the concerts were confirmed, some hotels doubled and even tripled their prices for the relevant dates. Hotels all over Dublin and beyond, not surprisingly, have reported a surge in bookings as fans from around Europe and Ireland seek a room for their stay in Dublin.

One Dublin city centre hotel is reputedly now charging 630 a night for a room that normally charges 280 a night. This is blatant exploitation and profiteering. This fleecing of visitors by mercenary hoteliers should draw the ire of Failte Ireland. With tourism numbers reaching record levels in 2015, and the country on target for growth of six per cent in 2016, it is difficult to justify the retention of the 9pc VAT rate.

Exploitative hoteliers' coughs could and should be softened by the removal of the VAT rate of 9pc. Without question, this reduction in the VAT rate loosened tight wallets and created jobs leading to a steady recovery in the sector.

However, following an in-depth study into the performance of the tourism sector in Ireland in 2014, the OECD called for Ireland to return hotel VAT rates to 13pc on the basis that tourism numbers had risen to pre-crisis levels and therefore the subsidy should be withdrawn.

Tom Cooper, Dublin 6W

Time to boycott the old parties

Sir - I have been a Fine Gael supporter for over 40 years and in that time no one could convince me to vote for anyone else. But that has now changed. So which party convinced me to vote for someone else? None other than Fine Gael themselves.

They have unfortunately lost the run of themselves.

This first manifested itself on the evening news when a smirking Michael Noonan said "if you don't pay your property tax I will put the revenue on you". What arrogance. This was followed some months later when again on the news a smiling Phil Hogan said "if you don't pay your water charges I will turn the water down to a trickle".

It is only in these few weeks that they will knock on your door and tell you they work tirelessly on your behalf. Why is it that 166 people out of five million think that they always know what is best for us.

Everyone has to live within their means except the Government. Need more money? Bring in a new tax and if the person on the street gets uppity threaten them with gaol, the revenue, all the forces of the State but please don't ask them to do better with what they have.

So, on the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising I ask you to start a 2016 revolution by boycotting the old revolutionary parties.

D O'Huallachain, Navan, Co Meath

Bonuses for three brave writers

Sir - Do give bonus points to Eilis O'Hanlon, Brendan O'Connor and Willie Kealy for their straight-talking bravery (Sunday Independent, February 14).

Could Murphy's Law be coming into play for both Fine Gael, who used to uphold law and order, and Sinn Fein, who "used" to befriend men of arms. The timing seems impeccable for each of their election campaigns.

It would be great if these three writers got into politics but, on second thoughts, no, their brains would get fried.

Ml Teehan, Tipperary

Putting gangsters out of business

Sir - I loved the no-nonsense article on by Gene Kerrigan (Soapbox, Sunday Independent, February 14). Great journalism in the public interest rather than the pursuit of popular appeal, saying it like it is.

The problem of drug abuse and its distribution being in the control of gangsters could herald the destruction of society.

People who use drugs will continue for some time to need them so they will be supplied. Surely the solution is for government to take over the controlled distribution of these substances at prices that put the gangsters out of business and use the proceeds to educate the public, through the media and schools as we have done with smoking.

Yes it will take 10 to 15 years to be effective, but must be undertaken. Can our spineless politicians ever see beyond the next election?

Martin Dunn, Stepaside

Vultures in control of the market

Sir - Gene Kerrigan writes about the need for democratic politicians to keep the 'vultures' from stripping us bare' and advocates left wing policies [Sunday Independent, February 14]. He is, however, ignoring one or two important facts.

The market economy is anything but perfect, but the alternative centrally planned economy of the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989. In that system the vultures not alone controlled the market they also controlled politics and the media.

When he advocates that we vote for the left he is ignoring what happened in Greece when they voted for the extreme left.

For example the Irish government deficit in 2010 was far worse than it was in Greece. Before berating our 'spineless' politicians, Gene Kerrigan should have looked at Greece to see what could have happened to us and to see how much worse the stripping bare could have been. As the Greeks show, left wing politics might not be the best alternative in that scenario.

A Leavy, Sutton, Dublin 13

Narcissistic nobodies

Sir - Seminal thinkers such as Copernicus and Darwin laid out the fact that we humans are merely an ephemeral species inhabiting a tiny planet revolving around an undistinguished star in one galaxy among billions. One would have thought that their writings would have paid to our narcissism.

The opposite is the case. In today's world everyone's goal seems to be to parade their entire lives on TV chat shows, lifestyle magazines and a multitude of social media outlets.

I'm beginning to think that I must be one of the few people left who has not appeared on a chat show or had my house scrutinised in a magazine.

Do people suffer from this chronic desire to exhibit themselves precisely because they wish to mask the fact that they know they are useless. Perhaps they are only too aware that if the entire human race disappeared in the morning the world would get on fine without us. By all means interview genuinely talented people like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney, or interesting scientists such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking.

But the rest of you people who possess no discernible talent or intellectual ability please keep to yourselves. You really are of no interest to anyone else.

Colm Stack, Lixnaw, Co Kerry
RAVE REVIEWS: Models showcasing Paul Costelloes new autumn/winter collection in the Meridian Hotel on Piccadilly during London Fashion Week. Photos: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

RAVE REVIEWS: Models showcasing Paul Costelloes new autumn/winter collection in the Meridian Hotel on Piccadilly during London Fashion Week. Photos: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

RAVE REVIEWS: Models showcasing Paul Costelloes new autumn/winter collection in the Meridian Hotel on Piccadilly during London Fashion Week. Photos: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

You know you are at London Fashion Week (LFW) when the traffic is jammed all over central London and the taxi drivers are in a good mood because they do so well from it.

Once-seedy Soho is now new-trendy territory where fashion week is on in its Brewer Street car park. This is the week the world gets its first look at the fashion collections for next autumn/winter and wannabes dress-up in mad garb to get attention.

LFW is renowned for supporting new and young talent. Friday, which by comparison to the hectic and important shows of Saturday, Sunday and Monday, is less packed with big names, allowing some room for newer labels to show.

One of my favourite new brands is Le Kilt, literally a revival of the kilt-based brand. Another is by Irishman Richard Malone. He got the fashion set raving about his latest collection on Saturday morning. See next week's Living and also LIFE to learn more.

This fashion week really did get off to an auspicious start for the Irish.

Paul Costelloe showed on Friday night, in the Meridian Hotel on Piccadilly, to rave reviews from everyone there. It was a dark, themed collection full of drama, innovative fabrics and sex appeal.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Alexa Chung attends the JW Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe AW16 Paul Costelloe Designs from Paul Costelloe's AW16 collection. Photo: Debbie Bragg Designs from Paul Costelloe's AW16 collection. Photo: Debbie Bragg Designs from Paul Costelloe's AW16 collection. Photo: Debbie Bragg Designs from Paul Costelloe's AW16 collection. Photo: Debbie Bragg / Facebook

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Whatsapp LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Models walks the runway at the J.W. Anderson show during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016/17 at Yeomanry House on February 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

"I took risks with this collection," Paul told me. "I didn't worry about the price of the fabric, or the cost of making the collection, I just went for it. I want to sell the Costelloe brand."

After Paul Costelloe, was the prestigious Central St Martin's graduate show.

This is where big fashion stars, like John Galliano and Stella McCartney, had their talent honed. The front row is the place to be if you want to spot the next hottest thing, such as Irish designer Simone Rocha, who also graduated from St Martins.

Simone, who gave birth to her first child in November, presented her collection last night to a huge audience. It was pure Simone - gently avant-garde, feminine and very beautiful.

Video of the Day

So far, all signs are this is going to be a great fashion week. In all, 83 designers will show their fall/winter 2016 collections over just five frenetic days.

The event, now in its 63rd season, is the showcase of a womenswear industry that was worth 27bn to the UK economy last year, and there is a huge spin off for our own fashion industry.

Latest news suggests Victoria's Secret, the world's most famous women's lingerie company, is in talks to take one of the most prominent stores on Grafton Street and certainly retail fashion is in recovery mode here.

But back to London... An estimated 35 million people will see the latest creations on 60 outdoor screens across the country during the event.

It's not all roses though. The event has been targeted by animal rights activists protesting over a revival in the use of fur.

Animal rights militants have already staged one protest and are threatening further demonstrations.

The protest came after the International Fur Federation predicted that as many as 80pc of the catwalk shows at London will contain items using fur.

Activists from the animal rights group PETA gathered in Soho on Friday, outside the official launch of LFW, dressed only in gas masks, knickers and strategically placed masking tape, holding signs reading 'Fur is Toxic'.
Mr Kerry said there was a "stark choice" on offer for all sides

The death toll from three blasts in a Shiite suburb of Damascus has reached 50, with more than 200 wounded, Syrian state TV reported.

It says the bombings on Sunday targeted a vegetable market in the afternoon during rush hour.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a triple blast in Sayyida Zeinab, saying two IS fighters set off a car bomb before detonating their explosive belts.

Residents said the attack was about half a mile from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines and did not damage it.

A triple explosion in Sayyida Zeinab killed 45 people last month.

The blasts came hours after two explosions in the central city of Homs killed and wounded scores of people.

The day of violence follows diplomatic moves aimed at organising a truce.

Earlier, US secretary of state John Kerry said a ''provisional agreement'' has been reached on a ceasefire in Syria's five-year civil war.

Mr Kerry, who spoke alongside Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, Jordan, revealed he had spoken earlier this morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about the agreement.

Now, he said, both the US and Russia plan to reach out to the various sides of the conflict.
THE FULL DECK: Donald Trump told his Republican Party faithful in South Carolina that only he was tough enough to negotiate with the Chinese should they devalue their currency. Photo: AP

Donald Trump confronted two top US companies, a popular pope and virtually anyone else in his way as he headed toward his next test in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

Last night voters in South Carolina had their say in the Republican presidential contest, while in Nevada Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton narrowly won the Nevada caucuses, beating back a stronger-than-expected challenge from rival Bernie Sanders.

The outcomes in those two states probably will answer key questions about the contours of the two races, including the strength of the anti-establishment candidates.

Trump and five other Republican candidates face off in South Carolina's primary. South Carolina polls close at 7pm.

During the final full day of campaigning on Friday, Trump's most dramatic move was to call for a boycott of Apple, following the company's refusal to cooperate with a judge's order to assist law enforcement in unlocking the iPhone of a shooter in the San Bernardino, California, rampage that killed 14 people in December.

"Boycott Apple until they give up the information," the billionaire said at a rally in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. "The phone is owned by the government."

The real estate mogul singled out Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, saying he's "looking to do a big number, probably to show how liberal he is." Trump later tweeted that he'd stop using his iPhone - and only use a Samsung device - until Apple cooperates with authorities.

Earlier, Trump suggested that one of South Carolina's top employers could lose jobs if he isn't elected president because nobody else will negotiate as well with the Chinese.

"Boeing is building massive plants in China," he said at a rally in Myrtle Beach. "You have a beautiful plant. Be careful because when they cut the value of their currency, in two years after their plants are built, and you find out you're losing - not going to happen if Trump is president, that I can tell you - but be careful."

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner assembly plant came on line in 2011 in North Charleston and employs about 8,000 people in the region, the top example of a manufacturing renaissance the state has enjoyed in part because of its mostly non-unionised workforce.

The company doesn't build passenger jets outside of the US, although it unveiled its largest industrial investment in China last year: a new plant to finish work on planes before they're delivered to local carriers.

"Boeing is committed to South Carolina, our workforce and the local community. We have invested more than $2 billion in the state since 2009," Elizabeth Merida, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Trump, who holds a commanding lead in most South Carolina polls, also went after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, his nearest rival, for being "the biggest liar I have ever seen," and took credit for bringing Senator Marco Rubio of Florida into the fight.

"Even Marco Rubio said, 'He's a liar,' and when a politician says another politician is a liar - I've never heard that before - I felt so good," Trump said.

Cruz, in turn, launched a new attack on Trump, suggesting that he can't be trusted to pick a conservative justice to fill a US Supreme Court vacancy, like the one created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

"If a candidate says - and described himself as very pro-choice and supporting partial birth abortion for the first 60 years of his life - there's no reason on Earth to think they'd suddenly wake up and start fighting to appoint conservative justices," Cruz told a crowd at the College of Charleston.

He didn't mention Trump's name, but the reference was unmistakable. Cruz's campaign and allies have been hammering Trump in recent weeks for telling NBC in a 1999 interview that he was "very pro-choice" and wouldn't ban partial-birth abortion.

Cruz, who has been emphasising his credentials as a former Supreme Court litigator, vowed that if elected president, "every justice I put on the Supreme Court will be a principled constitutionalist" with a "proven" record.

"If we elect a Democrat, we will lose our constitutional rights for a generation," Cruz said. "But here's the sad truth: Electing a Republican, if it's the wrong Republican, doesn't ensure we keep our rights."

Later during the Cruz rally, some in the crowd chanted, "Dump Trump!"

Cruz also picked up the endorsement of US Representative Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican, during a rally at the College of Charleston.

Rubio won the endorsement of South Carolina's popular governor, Nikki Haley, on Wednesday and she has been at his side on the campaign trail ever since. That could give him a boost as he continues to try to recover from his fifth-place finish in New Hampshire's February 9 primary.

"We've got a lot of people watching us today and a lot of people want to know what we're going to do tomorrow," Haley told about 500 people gathered on Friday for a Rubio event in the state capital of Columbia.

"We need to nominate someone that can bring us together," said Rubio in his closing pitch.

"I know that I can better than anyone in this race. I will bring this party and this movement together, so that we can begin the work of growing our movement."

In a statement on Friday, Nevada Democratic Party officials sought to discourage any gamesmanship in their caucuses by Republicans on Saturday. Republicans caucus there Tuesday.

"We believe that registering under false pretences in order to participate in the Democratic caucuses for purposes of manipulating the presidential nominating process is a felony," Roberta Lange, the state party's leader, said in a statement.

The latest campaign chapter arrives with its share of twists - a staple of the 2016 presidential race. Thursday brought a rare criticism of a White House candidate by a pope.

Condemning Trump's hard-line immigration agenda, Pope Francis singled out the New York real-estate developer and suggested that he "is not Christian" because of statements he's made about building a wall on the Mexico border. Trump responded by calling the pope's actions "disgraceful."

Since 1980, the winner of South Carolina's Republican primary has gone on to become the party's nominee every time, with one exception. The outlier was in 2012, when a pair of strong debate performances just ahead of the voting lifted Newt Gingrich to a win over eventual nominee Mitt Romney.

South Carolina is also the first test for candidates in a diverse state and in the solidly Republican southern US, so its results could be predictive ahead of contests in March, when other southern states will host a large proportion of the primaries and caucuses. The state's voting could spell trouble for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who once had hoped to win the state but is trailing in the polls.

Bush focused on Friday on north west South Carolina, the conservative heart of the state, where his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, joined him on the trail. At Wade's Restaurant in Spartanburg, the 90-year-old matriarch posed for pictures and joked that Jeb Bush was "one of my four favorite sons".

"He's steady. He's honest. He is modest. He's kind. He is good," Barbara Bush said.

Bush pitched himself as the most accomplished candidate in the race. He warned the crowd about backing a candidate who wasn't ready for the job, and criticised Trump for saying George W Bush was responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

"Yes, Mr. Trump, he did keep us safe after 9/11. You're just dead wrong," Bush said to applause. "My first job as president of the United States will be to rebuild the military, and to talk a little less."

Democrats vote in South Carolina a week later, so the outcome in Nevada will be felt there. Clinton is in better shape in South Carolina. A Bloomberg poll from South Carolina released on Thursday showed the former secretary of state leading the senator from Vermont, 53pc to 31pc, among likely Democratic primary voters. She was buoyed by a 3-to-1 advantage among black voters.

Clinton received a boost on Friday with the endorsement of the state's highest ranking black Democrat, US Representative Jim Clyburn. Her campaign also released a new ad narrated by legendary black actor Morgan Freeman that tells the story of her lifetime commitment to "breaking barriers".

A Trump win in South Carolina would help his prospects of winning his party's nomination.

A Bloomberg Politics poll of likely Republican voters in South Carolina released on Wednesday showed Trump leading the field with support from 36pc, followed by Cruz at 17pc, Rubio at 15pc and Bush at 13pc.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has found little success in previous contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, was backed by 9pc. Ohio Governor John Kasich was at 7pc.

A second-place showing in South Carolina for Rubio would do much to anoint him as the establishment Republican favourite to confront Trump and Cruz. It could also go a long way toward extinguishing the flame of the campaign of his one-time mentor, Bush.

Bloomberg
Handout photo issued by Help Refugees of Jude Law performing during a one off Letters Live performance in association with Good Chance at the refugee camp in Calais: Help Refugees/PA Wire

ACTOR Jude Law and singer Tom Odell were among a number of famous faces to take to the stage at the Jungle camp in Calais in a bid to raise the plight of refugees.

The stars travelled to the site in France two days before it is due to be dismantled on the order of the the country's authorities.

More than 100 celebrities have already signed an open letter urging David Cameron to step in and ensure children based in the sprawling camp are saved.

An estimated 4,000 migrants and refugees from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iraq are currently based within the Jungle.

Many of them are unaccompanied children, aid charities have said.

On Sunday Law and Odell joined actress Juliet Stevenson and comedian Shappi Khorsandi, all of whom had already signed the letter to the Prime Minister, to reinforce their message that something must be done to help.

Expand Close Handout photo issued by Help Refugees of Jude Law (left) and Sir Tom Stoppard talking to an unnamed woman after a one off Letters Live performance in association with Good Chance at the refugee camp in Calais, France.: Help Refugees/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Handout photo issued by Help Refugees of Jude Law (left) and Sir Tom Stoppard talking to an unnamed woman after a one off Letters Live performance in association with Good Chance at the refugee camp in Calais, France.: Help Refugees/PA Wire

Speaking after the Letters Live event at the Jungle's makeshift Good Chance Theatre Law said: "It's our responsibility as humans to look after our children. The children in the camp at Calais need us. It isn't a big ask. It is simply the right thing to do."

Odell, who played alongside other musicians in the camp, described it as "one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life".

A number of displaced refugees also performed at the event, which was held in support of aid organisation Help Refugees.

Afghan refugee Taj said: "We are ordinary people who want to live a peaceful life. Please open your hearts and borders to us, and help to end the war."

Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart has said the dismantling of the camp would keep migrants and refugees away from activists bent on causing disruption.
The Democratic Unionist Party has formally announced its intention to campaign for a Brexit.

The anticipated move from DUP leader and Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster came in the wake of David Cameron's referendum announcement. Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers has also joined those advocating an exit from the European Union.

The other three parties in the Stormont Executive - Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Alliance party - all support the UK staying within the EU.

The Ulster Unionist Party, which quit the power-sharing coalition administration in Belfast last year, has yet to nail its colours to the mast. Mrs Foster said individual members of her party would be free to take opposing sides.

"The DUP has always been Eurosceptic in its outlook," she said. "At every stage in this negotiation process we had hoped to see a fundamental change to our relationship with Europe. In our view we see nothing in this deal that changes our outlook. Therefore we will on balance recommend a vote to leave the EU.

"Importantly however the decision on whether the UK should remain in or leave the EU is fundamentally not one for parties, but for every individual voter across the nation to determine.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "This campaign will be one of the most important votes faced by people in Northern Ireland in decades.

"It is therefore vital that a strong and positive campaign is conducted to remain in Europe."

He added: "Secretary of State Theresa Villiers has today joined the Leave Campaign. As I have told her repeatedly, she does not represent Northern Ireland in this position. She must not attempt to speak on our behalf.

Already six UK ministers signalled their intention to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in the June 23 referendum by going straight from a cabinet meeting to the headquarters of the Vote Leave campaign group.

Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling, the leader of the House of Commons, were among the six who featured in a picture tweeted by Vote Leave holding a banner reading "Let's take back control". They were joined by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Theresa Villiers and Employment Minister Priti Patel.

The move by the six ministers underscores the divisions over Europe that have long riven Cameron's Conservatives, helping bring down the party's previous two prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

In an effort to avert cabinet resignations, Cameron told MPs in January that ministers would not be disciplined for opposing the official line on the referendum. Cameron followed up his dispensation with a letter to ministers telling them they weren't free to break ranks until after his renegotiation had been completed.

Polls on the outcome of the referendum have been inconclusive, with most telephone polls showing leads for staying in of more than 10 percentage points, and more frequent online surveys showing the 'Leave' vote ahead at times.

A poll on February 17 found that after Cameron, it's the London mayor Boris Johnson's stance on the referendum that matters the most to voters. Some 44pc of people surveyed said the PM's views will be important when making their decision, with Johnson on 32pc.

Johnson's stance may affect the currency markets, Morgan Stanley said on Friday in a note to investors. "Should the popular mayor of London throw his hat into the ring and support the no vote camp then GBP should come under immediate pressure," the bank said.

"I'm going to wait until the Prime Minister does his deal and I will then come off the fence with deafening eclat," Johnson said on the BBC.

UK ministers must usually abide by the principle of collective responsibility, which means supporting the government's position even if they have doubts.
Pope Francis gestures as he leaves at the end of a Jubilee audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican

Pope Francis has called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy Year, which ends in November.

"I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.

"The commandment "You shall not kill," has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty," he told the crowd.

The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005.

The pope added that there was now "a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defence of society" because modern means existed to "efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves."

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting Monday in Rome and organised by the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group.

Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly three years ago - the latest in Mexico last week - also called for better prison conditions.

"All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom," he said.

In the past, the pope also denounced life imprisonment, calling it "a hidden death penalty" and saying that more should be done to try to rehabilitate even the most hardened of criminals.
Jeb Bush speaks with reporters in South Carolina before his decision to drop out of the Republican race to the White House (AP)

Hillary Clinton is well ahead in the overall delegate count in the Democratic race to the White House (AP)

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton secured vital wins in the race for the White House, as Jeb Bush quit after a disappointing result.

Billionaire tycoon Mr Trump widened his lead over the Republican party's presidential field claiming a big victory in South Carolina as the contest moved into the south.

Mr Bush ended his quest to follow his father and brother to the White House, suspending his campaign after a fourth place finish.

Meanwhile, out west, Mrs Clinton beat Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for a crucial win in Nevada's Democratic caucuses.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump's victories put them in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election heads towards Super Tuesday - the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

"There's nothing easy about running for president," Mr Trump said at his victory rally. "It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful - when you win it's beautiful."

Mrs Clinton's roughly five-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Mr Sanders.

Mr Trump's strong showing in South Carolina marked his second successive victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the party nomination.

No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were locked in a race for second place in South Carolina. Mr Bush and other candidates lagged far behind.

"This has become a three-person race," Mr Rubio said of his strong finish, which with Mr Bush quitting bolsters his case that he is the candidate of mainstream Republicans.

Mr Cruz, who has run as a political outsider, harked back to his win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses as a sign he was best positioned to take down Mr Trump.

He urged conservatives to rally around his campaign, saying pointedly: "We are the only candidate who has beaten and can beat Donald Trump."

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system.

The public mood has upended the usual political order. That gave Mr Sanders, who put up a stiff challenge to Mrs Clinton in Nevada, and Mr Trump openings over many more mainstream candidates.

In Nevada, Mrs Clinton won the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Mr Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

She capitalised on a more diverse Democratic electorate who helped her rebound after a second-place finish to Mr Sanders in the New Hampshire primary.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Mrs Clinton told her cheering supporters during a victory rally in Las Vegas. "This one is for you."

She said Americans are "right to be angry," but are also hungry for "real solutions".

Mr Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, congratulated Mrs Clinton on her victory, but then declared his campaign has "the wind at our backs as we head toward Super Tuesday".

Mrs Clinton now leads in delegates pledged to her at the Democratic Party's national convention in July, but only has a fraction of the number needed to secure the nomination.

Her win means she will pick up at least 18 of Nevada's 35 delegates, while Mr Trump is also accumulating a delegate lead among Republicans.

No candidate has shaken the establishment more than Mr Trump. He spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former president George W Bush of lying and even rowing with Pope Francis on immigration.

The Trump win drove Mr Bush, once the frontrunner, who was counting on his family's broad popularity in South Carolina, out of the race. Mr Bush is the son and brother of former presidents.

Now, the Trump victory foreshadows a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1.

Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which decides the nomination at the party's national convention in July.
'It seems Bashar Al-Assad's commitment to peace may be waning as he gains ground against the rebels' Photo: Reuters

The developments of the past week were said to be crucial to finally achieving a long-lasting, peaceful solution to the bloody and devastating war in Syria. But were promises of such an immediate downscaling of violence in Syria too good to be true?

Last week did begin with some glimmers of hope, as the Syrian regime allowed humanitarian convoys to deliver aid to civilians in seven besieged areas.

However, the Russian-backed government has continued its bombardment of Aleppo, already a sore point in the negotiations for peace.

Last Monday, a series of raids on the embattled city left seven dead at a Medicine Sans Frontieres Hospital, which was repeatedly hit during the bombardment. The attacks were branded war crimes by French and Turkish officials, with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying the strikes violated international law.

It seems Bashar Al-Assad's commitment to peace may be waning as he gains ground against the rebels, and in a belligerent speech last Monday, he cast further doubt on his willingness to "cease hostilities".

"When does the West talk about a ceasefire? When the militants hurt. When the defeats begin," he said in an address to Syrian state news which was broadcast last Monday night.

However, last Wednesday Assad was reprimanded by an unexpected promoter of peace: Russia.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's envoy to the UN, slammed Assad, particularly for his remarks before the cessation of hostilities was announced in which he pledged to retake the whole of the country.

He warned that if Syria "follows Russia's leadership in resolving this crisis, then they have a chance to come out of it in a dignified way," but that "If they in some way stray from this path - and this is my personal opinion - a very difficult situation could arise. Including for themselves."

While Churkin stressed this was his personal opinion, it could be a sign that Russia itself is looking for a 'dignified way' out of the conflict too.

This comes after Obama gave stark warning to Putin earlier in the week, saying it would be "smarter" to work for peace, rather than back Syria's weak government. As Obama said: "You send in your army when the horse you're backing isn't effective".

Another reason Russia may bow to peace is the entrance of Saudi Arabia into the conflict, which began joint training with Turkish forces on the Syrian border last week. The threat of two new international forces on the ground may finally force peace in the area, however it may also escalate the war if Russia and Assad don't comply.

Turkey has its own ulterior motives for military involvement in Syria too. A bombing in Ankara that targeted a military convoy last Wednesday killed 28 and injured 61 and was immediately blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

While the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units) has denied involvement, it points to wider hostilities between Turkey and US-backed Kurdish fighters who are trying to seize territory in the vacuum opened up by Russian air strikes on the Syrian-Turkish border. Yet another complication to the attempt to sow peace, and one which threatens to divide Turkey andNato.

While the international community struggles to make progress over the peace agreement for Syria, it emerged last week that Iraq was searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material which was stolen last year, and Iraqi officials fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Isil.

While alarming, such news may actually unite those fighting for peace in Syria, reminding them that achieving peace is the first stepping stone to defeating Isil. Meanwhile, last Tuesday, Obama spoke on the US presidential race, warning: "Whoever's standing where I'm standing right now has the nuclear codes with them." But Obama is unconcerned by Trump who has been riding the wave of populism.

"I have a lot of faith in the American people," he said. "I think they'll make a sensible choice in the end."
Two Serbian embassy staffers, held hostage since November, died in US airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said.

Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were killed in the bombing last Friday. They were snatched by Isil last November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of Sabratha.

"Apparently, the Americans were not aware that foreign citizens were being kept there," Vucic told reporters yesterday.

Speaking in Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said information about the deaths was given to Serbia by foreign officials but had not been confirmed by the Libyan government.

"We got the information, including photos, which clearly show that this is most probably true," Dacic said.

American F-15E fighter-bombers struck an Islamic State training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing dozens, probably including an Isil operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year. Three Irish citizens - Larry and Martina Hayes from Athlone, and Lorna Carty of Co Meath - were killed in the attack. Dacic said Serbia had known where the hostages were and had been working to get them back, adding that Libyan troops were considering an operation to free them.

"I believe we had been close to the solution for them to be freed. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the attack against Isil in Libya, the two of them lost their lives," Dacic said. "We will seek official explanation from both Libya and the United States."

He said, according to the information received by the Serbian security services, a criminal group believed to be linked to Isil had demanded ransom for the hostages, who they were holding at the site that was bombed.

"On the other hand, the American administration said it was an Isil training camp," Dacic said. "This is information that has to be checked."

He did not specify the amount of ransom demanded of the families, saying only it was "impossible to pay".

"It wasn't in the interests of the people who held them to kill them, because there were no other demands but financial," Dacic said.

A Libyan armed group calling itself the Special Deterrent Forces announced on Facebook that the two bodies had been delivered to Tripoli's Matiga Airport, posting pictures showing the coffins sitting next to a small plane.

The Special Deterrent Forces are loyal to the militia-backed government that now controls Tripoli. The group's posting did not indicate when the bodies would be flown to Serbia.

In November, gunmen in Libya crashed into a convoy of vehicles taking Serbia's ambassador to neighbouring Tunisia and then kidnapped the two embassy employees. Serbian ambassador Oliver Potezica escaped unharmed along with his family.

"The attack happened when one of the embassy cars was hit from behind. When the driver came out to check what happened, he was dragged into one of the attackers' cars," Potezica said at the time.

Since the 2011 overthrow of Libya's longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi, the nation has fractured into warring camps.

Libya's internationally recognised government has been forced out of the capital, Tripoli, and now operates out of Tobruk and Bayda. Another government, backed by Islamist-affiliated militias known as Libya Dawn, controls Tripoli and much of western Libya. UN-brokered efforts to form a unity government continue to falter.
SC Supreme Court hears challenge to 6-week abortion law

The SC law, temporarily blocked until the court considers its fate, is being challenged on the grounds that it violates privacy rights in constitution.
Stock Commentary:

IDBI Bank Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Bank at its meeting held on February 20, 2016 has approved the proposal for Preferential Issue of Capital to Life Insurance Corporation of India aggregating upto Rs. 1,500 crore (inclusive of premium amount) subject to Govt. of India's approval and to convene an Extra Ordinary General Meeting of the Shareholders to pass the necessary Special Resolution in this regard under section 62(1)(c) of the Companies Act, 2013.IDBI Bank Ltd ended at Rs. 54.85, up by Rs. 1.25 or 2.33% from its previous closing of Rs. 53.6 on the BSE.The scrip opened at Rs. 54 and touched a high and low of Rs. 55.35 and Rs. 53.15 respectively. A total of 5198927(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 10421.79 crore.The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 95.7 on 03-Dec-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 47.4 on 12-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 55.35 and Rs. 50.25 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 80.16 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 11.62 % and 8.22 % respectively.The stock traded above its 100 DMA.
Jet Airways said that it will operate two additional flights, one each to Chandigarh and Amritsar from Delhi on February 22, 2016. This is to assist those who have been inconvenienced by the lack of availability of other means of transportation to and from these cities.

Guests are advised to visit www.jetairways.com or call the airline call centre on (city code) 39893333 for information on these additional flights.

Jet Airways continues to monitor the situation in North India and will take all steps as may be necessary to help its guests.
I had the chance to meet former Florida Governor Jeb Bush a few years ago when he was in Indianapolis. We chatted for a while and I thought he was very thoughtful, engaging, even tempered and while principled, also pragmatic.

Unfortunately for Bush, thats not what the majority of the GOP primary electorate has been looking for this cycle. In fact, it seems they want the opposite.

Instead of thoughtful, they want simplistic.

Instead of engaging, they want polarizing.

Instead of even tempered, they want angry.

Instead of principled and pragmatic, they want dogma and demagoguery.

And instead of choosing a Republican Governor from a state that has gone blue in the last two Presidential elections, a plurality is picking someone who alleges to be an outsider and who has manipulated government for the last few decades to get rich off the system.

Now this isnt to say that Bush wasnt without flaws. His even temper could easily be mistaken for a lack of passion making it difficult for for voters to make that necessary emotional connection. Also, the fact that his father and brother were both President did not help in a time where voters were looking for something different. And to be honest, he seemed like someone who more comfortable governing than campaigning.

But such is the world of politics. You might say timing is everything. You not only have to have the organization, money and discipline to compete, but you also have to be what voters are looking for at the time. I point to John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as examples. Each ran as agents of change in one form or another and appealed to an electorate that was tired of what they had seen in the previous administration.

Bush was ultimately a victim of bad timing. He wasnt the candidate Republicans were looking for. Now its time to move along.
It has happened to all of us at some point or the other that our Facebook friend list has suddenly dipped. We've felt heartbroken if it has been done by the exes and felt extremely agitated if someone random has done it. Not to forget, weve deleted a lot of people ourselves, but it still hurts. It really does.

For years, Mark Zuckerberg and team at FB refused to let us know who has unfriends us from Facebook- the largest, and most popular social network in the world.

But all of thats going to finally change! Ladies and gentlemen, a new app that has been released that will change your online lives forever. Welcome this not-so good news because, an app called Who Deleted Me is now available on Android, as well as a plug-in for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

who deleted me

According to sources, it will instantly disclose the list of contacts who have unfriended you every time you sign into Facebook. It will also reveal whether youve actually been deleted or the user has deactivated their account.

Unfortunately, it doesnt backdate. Thus, you cant find out who deleted you from their friend list in previous months. Moreover, youll only know which contacts have unfriended you after you install the app.

We are sure that this app is going to make social media a lot more gossipy, especially if you are someone who regularly trims down their friend list.

So brace yourself everyone, social media is ready to take yet another toll on you!

Best of luck, everyone!
Actor Deepika Padukone says she will never be in a situation where she has to fight for her man. Ever again.

Indiatimes

1. You've been on a roll. What was that one moment of epiphany for you as an actor?

Filmfare

Deepika: It's been more on a personal level. A phase of my life that I went through a couple of years ago, broke me down and enlightened me too. It was about growing up, like Imtiaz Ali says through 'Rockstar.' But I don't like to talk about it. There's been a lot of self-discovery, a lot of learning, a lot of heartbreak included. Learning also came from the kind of films that I did and the kind of people I worked with.

All three films you did this year showed different forms of love. What is the love that you believe in? Have you been in a live-in relationship?

Pineterst

Deepika: I've not been in a live-in relationship. But I've been exposed to various kinds of equations that can exist between people. When I came from Bangalore, it was black and white. Over the years, I've realised that there's more to what we see on a day-to-day basis. There are all kinds of relationships, all kinds of equations. I may not personally endorse them but I've begun to accept and understand that it's all okay. I'm nobody to judge the equations, however strange they may be. But at the same time, I go back to my home and live in the traditional way in which I've been brought up. I'll only move in with my husband. There's no question of a live-in relationship.

3. What if your man loved another woman?

Pinterest

Deepika: Firstly, I'd try and avoid that situation. I wouldn't settle for that because I'm someone who needs to be loved and nurtured. I need my man to be mine.

4. You've never been in a situation where your man is in love with someone else and you had to fight to get him back?

Vogue India

Deepika: I've been in that situation and for that very reason I wouldn't want to be in such a situation again. The relationship didn't work out for whatever reasons. But I need my man to be mine. I need attention from him. I need to be loved. I need to be nurtured. I also need peace and stability in my relationships. I can't be in volatile relationships.

5. Do you possess the same resilience as Mastani?

Deepika: Yeah, I do. I do. That's why I could identify and relate to her. Feelings of destruction and pain are processed internally. She was not just a warrior by profession. She was also a warrior from within.

6. The passion between Ranbir Kapoor and you is palpable. Is it difficult to portray chemistry with an ex-lover?

Deepika: It's not something that's crossed my mind while on set, 'Oh! I have had a personal equation with someone, and so now how is that going to translate'. I believe chemistry is based on the trust between two performers. What actually works is something intangible - being extremely comfortable in each other's presence.

7. Is the comfort level similar with Ranveer Singh?

Deepika: I guess so. I'd like to believe I have that with all my co-stars.

8. With whom do you believe you share the best onscreen chemistry?

Deepika: How I can I choose? It's like asking you to choose between your father and mother or between your son and daughter. You can't.

9. Recently, Ranveer mentioned in an interview that you believed your chemistry was better with Ranbir while his was better with Anushka...

Deepika: (Giggles) It was a joke. It was a conversation about something else, which was never meant to leak. But it did, and now I have to answer all these stupid questions. They are both very special for me. I can't choose one over the other.

10. Does working with an ex-boyfriend bring back certain feelings?

Deepika: It doesn't give you a sense of deja vu but there's definitely a sense of familiarity. The smell, the presence, the physical comfort, there's a sense of familiarity. You know this soul, you know this person. You know everything. You know every beat. There is familiarity in that sense.

11. Ranveer must be really secure for you to be working with an ex?

Deepika: Is he secure? You have to ask him. How secure or insecure is my boyfriend? I can't answer that question on his behalf. It would be unfair. But what I will definitely say is that I'm going to take a bit of credit for that. I also make it easier by being honest about my feelings for all the people in my life, good, bad, past and present. I'm very, very clear and honest that this is how it is. I make the relationship easier if at all.

12. Is it tough to live on your own with so much going on around you?

Deepika: It's tough. Last night I realised a simple thing. I woke up coughing badly and I missed my mother. If she was there, she'd have come out of her room, slept with me or made sure I had the medicine. The more I work, the more I miss these little things. It's tough running a home.

3. Katrina Kaif gave an interview, which when read between the lines, suggested that she's not comfortable with the equation that Ranbir and you share...

Deepika: I don't read between the lines. I take people at face value.

-Jitesh Pillai

(Originally published in The Times of India)
Here was unrest among faculty and students at Aligarh Muslim University on Saturday after some local BJP and VHP functionaries, led by city mayor Shakuntala Bharati, alleged that beef was being sold at the university's canteens and that the police should immediately lodge a case against varsity authorities.

kitchencultures.ca | representational image of a beef biriyani

Armed with copies of the AMU canteen's menu, which has 'beef biryani' as one of the items, BJP activists picketed the office of the senior superintendent of police. AMU, meanwhile, said the beef biryani mentioned in the menu is actually "buffalo biryani" as cow meat is totally banned in the state and there is just no way it can be sold on the campus.

The police have received a complaint about beef being sold at Aligarh Muslim University canteens and would seek a clarification from the university authorities, investigate the matter and decide on the appropriate action to be taken, Aligarh SSP J Ravinder Goud told TOI on Saturday. BJP netas, however, were not happy with the police response to their complaint.

"We have a photo of the menu that has 'beef biryani' listed as one of the items. What else do you need? There should be a case registered against the university authorities for violating law and selling gau maas (cow meat) openly," Aligarh mayor Shakuntala Bharati said. VHP member Ram Kumar added, "If a case is not registered against the varsity officials within 24 hours, we will start an andolan (movement)."

A statement from AMU vice-chancellor Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah's office said, "We have taken a serious note of the vicious allegations levelled by BJP's city mayor Shakuntala Bharti. This is an attempt to whip up communal tension. It is clarified that only buffalo meat is served in AMU and it would never violate national sentiments in this regard."

Other AMU officials rubbished the charge and said they only serve chicken, mutton and buffalo meat, which is permissible.
A captain of the Indian Army, two personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force and one civilian have been killed in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore district.

The martyred soldier has been identified as 22-year-old Captain Pawan Kumar.

Twitter

The gunbattle, which started on Saturday evening, is still going on; the terrorists are holed up in a building.

The gunfight ensued after the militants attacked a CRPF bus on the Jammu-Srinagar highway and then entered a training institute located nearby.

Twitter

Twitter

Twitter

"Militants attacked a CRPF bus on the Jammu-Srinagar highway near Pampore town in Pulwama district Saturday evening," a senior police officer said.

"Eleven CRPF troopers travelling in the bus were injured in the attack. Three of the injured troopers identified as head constable GD Bhola Prasad of the 144 Battalion, constable-driver RK Raina of the 79 Battalion and one more succumbed to their injuries while other injured are being treated in the hospital," he added.

Encounter in Jammu &Kashmir's Pampore underway, heavy gunfire heard (Visuals deferred by unspecified time)https://t.co/qzfKHAIAmr  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

2 dead, 11 injured in an encounter between unidentified gunmen and CRPF personnel in Pampore, Jammu & Kashmir https://t.co/ZirTPjgyI2  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) February 20, 2016

After attacking the CRPF bus, the militants believed to be three in number, entered the multi-storeyed Jammu & Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) building situated close to the highway when more than 150 trainees and staff members were present inside, the official said.

Pampore, Jammu & Kashmir: 1 dead & 10 injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire at CRPF bus near EDIhttps://t.co/ZucSToJ4X6  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) February 20, 2016

AFP

All civilians evacuated from building at Pampore where an encounter is taking place: JK Police chief K Rajendra.  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 20, 2016

Officials said the security forces are focusing on the safety of the civilians in the building while battling the terrorists.
The issue of reservation based on caste has always been a polarising one in India. While those support reservation say, it gives a level playing field for the underprivileged sections of the society, others say it take away the opportunity of the general class.

Reservation was introduced in the Indian Constitution based on the notion that, due to the caste system, SCs and the STs were historically oppressed and denied respect and equal opportunity in Indian society and were thus under-represented in nation-building.

Initially it laid down 15% and 7.5% of vacancies to government aided educational institutes and for jobs in the government/public sector, as reserved quota for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of five years, after which the situation was to be reviewed.

However, due to political compulsions reservation was never revoked and more and more groups demanding that they should also be recognised as SC/ OBC so that they can also avail the benefits of reservation.

While the Jat community in Haryana are continuing their violent protest demanding that they should be recognised as OBCs, some other prominent groups across the country have also raided same demand recently.

Kapus in Andhra Pradesh

The Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh has been demanding OBC status for nearly three decades. Kapu leaders said they were classified as BC until 1960, when their status was changed and quota benefits revoked.

Despite the Chandrababu Naidu government setting up a commission to study their demand, the agrarian community which comprises of nearly 26 percent of Andhra Pradesh's population recently intensified their protest.

PTI

Earlier this month the protest turned violent and they went on a rampage, injuring some 15 policemen in clashes. A train and a police station were set on fire by the protesters. Currently the demonstration has been suspended following an assurance by the CM to consider their demand.

Patels in Gujarat

It came as a surprise to a lot of people in India when the affluent Patel community in Gujarat demanded reservation last year. The Patidar community, led by 22-year-old Hardik Patel organised protests demanding OBC status.

PTI

The protest which began on a peaceful manner took an ugly turn when Police tried to arrest Hardik in a mid-night raid. Protesters went on a rampage attacking police and public transport, torching many vehicles.

Reuters

At least eleven people were killed in various police crackdowns. Despite Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, who also belongs to the Patel community appealing for restrain, the demonstrations continued. In many places internet services were suspended for nearly a month.

Even though the intensity of the protests have come down recently, the community is still adamant on their demand.

Gujjars in Rajastan

Gujjar community, led by Kirori Singh Bainsla, held a 10-day protest in May 2015 demanding reservation. Thousands of Gujjar community members blocked railway tracks for days, bringing train traffic to a halt. The community had organized similar protests in 2008, and 2010 too.

Indian Express

Indian Express

They called off the demonstration after government announced it would bring two laws, providing 5 per cent reservation to Gujjars in the Special Backward Classes category and another 14 per cent reservation for the Economically Backward Classes among the upper castes.

Other than this many small and large groups across the country have also raised similar demands. However with such high demands, governments are in a predicament as the Supreme Court has put a cap of 50 percent on reservations. In most of the states the limit has already reached and the government can't accommodate any new group into the SC/ OBC category.
Protest by the Jat community demanding Other Backward Class (OBC) status has entered its seventh day.

So far, nine people have been killed across the state ever since the agitation began. Over 80 people have been admitted to various hospitals.

Curfew has been imposed in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat, and Gohana towns of Sonipat district.

Protester have blocked Munak canal, which supplies water to Delhi, resulting in a water crisis in the national capital.

Del facing unprecedented water crisis. Soon, water will have to be rationed. Shudn't scarcity be equally shared betn public n VIPs?  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

Since yest, v r pursuing wid Har n Central govts to seek army help to open Munak canal,which supplies Del water. Pray something happens soon  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016

Here is the protest in pictures

PTI

PTI

PTI

PTI

Protesters set fire to number of shops and vehicles

PTI

PTI

Facebook

PTI

Twitter

Twitter

It has also affected the traffic in and out of Haryana

TOI

TOI

TOI

Army has been called in to keep the situation under control

PTI

PTI

Protesters have been sitting on railway tracks, blocking hundreds of trains

PTI

ANI

ANI
The hackers of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's Facebook account uploaded a photograph of the Tricolour being hoisted by soldiers as his profile photo.

Facebook

Recently, during a debate on a TV channel, a panellist had also shown a similar photograph and said it was that of Indian soldiers hoisting the Tricolour at the border.

Twitter

The photo has gone viral ever since with many posting it to their Facebook profiles and updating statues "feeling proud".

TOI

It escaped their attention that the Tricolour is in colour while the soldiers and the backdrop is in black and white. There's a reason for that it's a morphed photograph.

The original photo was clicked by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal when five US Marine Corps soldiers and a US Navy hospital corpsman had hoisted the American flag at Mount Suribachi after the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.

AP

The photo had won the Pulitzer Prize that year and was used to sculpt the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1954 too.

The photograph has had its share of controversies in the last 70 years.

But anyone familiar with Second World War imagery would agree that this is one of the most recognisable photographs of that war: something that has come to symbolise the stellar American contribution to victory in the war and the fighting spirit and resilience of the American GI.

That this has been morphed and circulated around by the nouveau patriots is a telling comment on the understanding of the Second World War in India: a conflict in which 2.5 million Indians had fought.

If one had to choose a picture to show the gallantry of Indians from that era, then there are scores of photographs of the old Indian Army fighting and defeating the Nazis and the Fascists in North Africa, the Middle East and Italy, and the Japanese in Burma, Malaya and Singapore. Of course, the flag used then was the Union Jack and the Star of India flag.

For the Tricolour, there are scores of photographs of Indians unfurling the Tricolour everywhere on Mount Everest, at Kargil during the war, at Antarctica...the list is endless.

IndianDefenceReview

What was the great need then to hijack a moment of American history and run it as Indian? Is it not an insult to the glory of India? Does this hoax make anyone a patriot? Perhaps it's time to do some soul-searching.
Follow us on this new app tells who removed you from facebook friend list

New Delhi: A newly-released mobile app 'Who Deleted Me' allows people to check which of their Facebook contacts have 'unfriended' them. The app tracks Facebook friends and sends the user a notification if one disappears.

It will also inform users know when you make new Facebook friends. When you first login, the app takes stock of your current friend list and every time you return it compares the latest version to the saved one.

It will even inform you if your friends have deactivated their accounts.

Meanwhile, the social media giant has redesigned its popular Messenger app so several people can use it on the same smartphone or tablet without relinquishing their privacy.

The update announced Friday initially will only be available on devices running on Android, the world's most popular mobile operating system. Facebook didn't set a timetable for making similar changes to its Messenger app for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad.

The new feature will accommodate multiple accounts without allowing people sharing the more versatile app to get into each other's queue of messages.

Facebook added the ability to switch accounts within the Messenger app after getting requests from people who share their smartphones and tablets with family and friends.

More than 800 million people currently use Messenger.

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Follow us on rajasthan s jat community to join haryana agitation on quota

Jaipur: A section of Jat community in Rajasthan today warned that they would hold a march to Harayana if the quota demand of the agitators in the neighbouring state is not fulfilled.

A few Jat organisations including Rajasthan Jat Student Union, Yuva Jat Ekta Manch led by former MP and Jat leader Hari Singh held a meeting and decided to join Haryana Jats agitation if the demand of Jat quota is not met, according to a press release here.

Rajathan Jat leaders also appealed to their brothers in Haryana to hold peaceful agitation and not disturb general public.

"If Jat quota demand is not met, Rajasthan's Jat community would not sit silently but would join their (Haryana) agitation, and march to support them," said Singh who was with Ramawatar Palsania, state president of Rajasthan Jat Student Union.

Latest India News
Follow us on watch video 11 yr old isis fighter blows himself up

New Delhi: Terror group Islamic State has released a new horrifying video showing an 11-year-old boy near Syria's Aleppo blowing himself up in a suicide mission.

In the video, the boy, who has been identified as Abu Imara al Omri, kisses his father's outstretched hand before setting off on a suicide bombing.

The militant group claimed that the jihadi boy targeted Syrian soldiers in the town of Ghazi last month by driving a truck laden with explosives into their midst.

In the video, Abu is seen saying his final goodbyes before donning a weapon and being groomed for his mission by his father. He is shown inspecting the truck and being taught how to ignite and drive the truck.

The boy is just one of an estimated 89 brainwashed youngsters the terror group have sent to die in the last year.

This is not the first time the Islamic State has used children as propaganda. Last year, ISIS had released a video showing kids attending training camps and religious courses to propagate their Islamic ideology.

According to a United Nations panel investigating war crimes in the Syrian, there are no reliable figures on the number of minors the group employs. However, it mentioned that ISIS was actively recruiting children and providing them jihadi training.

Latest World News
Follow us on britain s referendum on european union membership to be june 23

London: A historic referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union will be held on June 23, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Saturday, even as he declared his belief that the U.K. would be safer and stronger if it remained in the 28-nation bloc.

Cameron spoke in front of his 10 Downing Street office after holding a rare Saturday Cabinet meeting and winning its agreement to recommend that Britain remain part of the EU rather than strike out on its own.

Despite that support, some Cabinet figures will back the leave campaign that wants Britain to carve its own path outside of the EU bureaucracy in Brussels.

Cameron said if Britons decided to remain in the EU, he would seek continued reforms to address their concerns about job losses and benefit payments to EU migrants seeking work in Britain.

I don't love Brussels, I love Britain, he said, emphasizing that Britain can have the best of both worlds if it remains in the EU under a reform deal he reached Friday night with EU leaders.

The June vote will come as the EU struggles to deal with a sustained immigration crisis that last year brought more than 1 million people fleeing war and poverty to its shores.

Cameron is poised to lead the campaign for Britain to remain in the bloc in what is expected to be a closely fought referendum  yet still faces skepticism from within his own Conservative Party.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove was the first to publicly oppose continued EU membership after Saturday's meeting, saying Britain would be better off on its own. He said it pained him to break ranks with Cameron.

Two strong future Conservative party leadership contenders, Home Secretary Theresa May and Treasury chief George Osborne, indicated support for staying within the EU, as did Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, another influential Conservative figure seen by some as a possible future party leader, has so far kept his intentions to himself.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he will support Britain's continued membership in the EU, though he said Cameron's vaunted renegotiation of the terms of its relationship with the EU will have little impact.

Much of the opposition to EU membership comes from the UK Independence Party led by Nigel Farage and from skeptical members of Cameron's own party.

The deal Cameron agreed upon Friday with 27 other EU leaders protects Britain from taking part in an ever closer union with European nations and makes clear that Britain will not adopt the euro currency shared by 19 EU nations. Cameron says it also protects British interests and restricts British welfare payments to migrants from other EU nations.

Latest World News
Follow us on donald trump wins big in south carolina hillary clinton takes nevada

Columbia: Republican front-runner Donald Trump late on Saturday won the South Carolina Republican primary, deepening his hold on the GOP presidential field as the contest moved into the South. Out West, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton snatched a key victory in Nevada Democratic caucuses days before the crucial 'Super Tuesday' round on March 1.

The victories put Clinton and Trump in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election barreled toward the March 1 Super Tuesday contests, a delegate-rich voting bonanza.

Clinton's roughly 5-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Bernie Sanders. At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, "This one is for you."

Trump's strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the GOP nomination. No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, a pair of freshman senators, were locked in a race for second place in South Carolina. Jeb Bush and other candidates lagged far behind.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' anger with the political establishment and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

Trump's victory comes after a week in which he threatened to sue one rival, accused former President George W. Bush of lying about the Iraq war and even tussled with Pope Francis on immigration. His victory was another sign that the conventional rules of politics often don't apply to the brash billionaire.

Trump was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who were angry at the federal government, and a third of those who felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

For Cruz, even a second-place finish in South Carolina would be something of a disappointment. The state was his first test of whether his expensive, sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation could overtake Trump in a Southern state, where the electorate is tailor-made for the conservative Texas senator.

Florida's Rubio was seeking to position himself as the more mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz, candidates many GOP leaders believe are unelectable in November. Rubio scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, overcoming a dismal debate performance two weeks ago that raised serious questions about his candidacy.

South Carolina looked to be a bitter disappointment for Bush, who campaigned alongside members of his famous political family, which remains popular in the state. Though Bush was once considered a well-funded front-runner for the GOP nomination, new fundraising reports out Saturday showed that donations to his super PAC had largely stalled.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers.

The crowded Republican contest was a contrast to the head-to-head face-off among Democrats. Sanders, backed by a powerful network of small financial donors, has plenty of money to stay in the race for months.

Clinton's victory came as a relief to her campaign, particularly after her blowout loss to Sanders in the previous New Hampshire contest.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton said during her victory rally.

The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that "the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum."

Clinton and Sanders split the first two voting contests, revealing the Vermont senator's appeal with young people drawn to his impassioned calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and providing free tuition at public colleges and universities.

According to the entrance polls of voters, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

Clinton's win means she will pick up at least 19 of Nevada's 35 delegates. She already holds a sizeable lead in the delegate count based largely on her support from superdelegates the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter the outcome of primaries and caucuses.

Trump won a majority of the delegates in South Carolina and he has a chance to win them all. With votes still being tabulated, the real estate mogul was projected to win at least 38 of the 50 delegates at stake.

Democrats and Republicans will swap locations in the coming days. The GOP holds its caucus in Nevada on Tuesday, while Democrats face off in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

The polling of voters in Nevada and South Carolina was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites.

With AP Inputs

Latest World News
Follow us on hindu priest hacked to death in bangladesh

New Delhi: A Hindu priest in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was hacked to death and two devotees injured in an attack Sunday on a temple in the country's north.

Police said Jogeshwar Roy, 50, was attacked as he came out after people threw stones at the temple in Deviganj area of Panchgarh district, on the border with India.

Quoting local people and witnesses, police officer Kafil Uddin said the assailants on a motorbike attaced the priest with a sharp weapon, fired guns and exploded crude bombs, injuring two devotees who tried to help him. The attackers fled.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Local Islamist radicals and the Islamic State group have in the past claimed responsibility for killing minorities and foreigners. The government denies that the Islamic State has presence in the country.

Last year, seven people, including four atheist bloggers and two foreigners, were killed separate attacks.

Investigators blamed local Islamist groups, including Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team, for the killings.

Latest World News
Follow us on jeb bush drops out of white house race

Columbia: Republican Jeb Bush ended his campaign for the presidency Saturday after a disappointing finish in South Carolina, acknowledging his failure to harness the hopes of Republican voters angry at the political establishment.

The former Florida governor and political scion told supporters in Columbia that he'd tried to stay true to what he believes. Still, he was lagging far behind in the primary in South Carolina, where his well-organized campaign was outmatched by insurgent billionaire Donald Trump, and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

"I'm proud of the campaign that we've run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions," a visibly emotional Bush said. "The presidency is bigger than any one person. It's certainly bigger than any one candidate."

"I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant not the master," Bush said.

The son of George H. W. Bush and brother of George W. Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fueled them with fundraising. Working with a super PAC that has supported his candidacy, Bush and allies raised more than $150 million by the end of 2015 far more than any of his GOP rivals.

However, Bush's presence in the race and fundraising potential wasn't enough to dissuade more than a dozen other Republicans from entering the race, including fellow Floridian, Sen. Marco Rubio.

Bush's failure to ignite was not simply a factor of the size of the GOP field. Bush, like others, was caught off-guard by the durable popularity of political outsiders particularly Trump.

The final stage of Bush's campaign became an all-out bout with the outspoken real estate mogul the two frequently referring to each other as a "loser." Bush took shots at Trump's lack of experience while Trump attacked Bush's family legacy, particularly the unpopular Iraq war waged by his brother George W. Bush.

Latest World News
Follow us on us russia discuss syria peace process assad says ready for ceasefire

Moscow/ Damascus: US and Russia have launched talks on brokering a ceasefire in trouble-hit Syria after failing to make Friday's scheduled deadline for a pause in fighting. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the issues to try to find a way for a long-term cessation of hostilities that would help efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to besieged areas.

The two, over a phone call, discussed humanitarian aid issues and the planned cessation of hostilities in Syria, "with the exception of fighting against terrorist groups". It was noted that progress was made on humanitarian aid delivery to besieged areas in Syria.

Lavrov and Kerry also discussed current practical interaction between the two countries, both being co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group.

"It was confirmed that the establishment of mechanisms to implement tasks (in the Munich agreement reached last Friday) requires military coordination," Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

Lavrov also stressed the importance of not allowing Turkey to violate Syria's territorial integrity, as Ankara continued "inadmissible and provocative" bombings against Syrian territories.

Ready for ceasefire, says Syrian President

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that he was ready for ceasefire in Syria on condition that the 'terrorists' don't exploit it. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, Assad said halting the military operations in Syria demands deterring the terrorists from exploiting it to enhance their positions.

He pointed out that countries, like Turkey, must stop sending more terrorists and arms as well as providing logistical support to the terrorists. "Of course... we have declared that we are ready (to respect a cessation of military operations) but the matter is not only about declaring it because the another party may declare the same thing. It's about what will be done on ground," he said.

"The matter is primarily related to a cessation of fire but there are other complementary, and more important factors, such as preventing the terrorists from exploiting the cessation of the military operations to enhance their positions... it's also related to preventing countries like Turkey from sending terrorists and arms into Syria," the President continued.

The remark comes at times Russia and the US were pushing to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

Russia asks NATO nations to choose targets carefully

In another development, Russia has urged the US and other NATO countries to responsibly and carefully choose their targets in Syria. The comment came as the Serbian Foreign Ministry earlier confirmed two employees of the Serbian embassy, kidnapped last November in Libya, were killed in the US airstrikes against terror outfit Islamic State.

"This is far from the first time NATO airstrikes have killed innocent people," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, expressing deep condolences to the families of the victims.

"Of course, the US and its allies should be guided first and foremost by international law and act not unilaterally, with coordinated steps with all concerned parties in the international community."

The US-led coalition have been conducting airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria and other Middle East countries since 2014, while Russia started bombing terrorist targets in Syria from last September.

Russia has fallen into "war of words" with western countries on Syrian issues, accusing each other of causing civilian casualties and bombing targets other than terrorists'.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday claimed that Russian armed forces in Syria "helped Syrian government army and other participants in anti-terror efforts to defeat terrorists, saved civilians from violence, barbarism and tyranny".

"We have always sought to resolve any disputed issues solely through political and diplomatic means, we have repeatedly contributed to stabilizing the situation in different countries, helped resolve serious conflicts," Putin said.

Reiterating that fighting terrorists in Syria is protecting Russia's national interests, Putin said the Russian army must "always be ready to promptly and efficiently respond to any potential threat, to stop any provocation and aggressive actions".

With IANS Inputs

Latest World News
Follow us on budget session likely to get off to a stormy start on tuesday

New Delhi: Despite efforts to broker peace between the opposition and the government, the Budget Session of Parliament is set to start on a stormy note on Tuesday. Several issues like the JNU row, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide set to dominate the proceedings of both the Houses. Also the Pathankot IAF base terror strike and the ties with neighbouring Pakistan will be discussed on the floor of the House.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with leaders of opposition parties on February 16, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will hold another all-party meeting tomorrow to reach out to political rivals for smooth functioning of Parliament. The same day, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will also hold consultations with leaders of all parties in the House.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee has been convened by party chief Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the session. The deliberations at the meeting is expected to set the tone for the Budget session. At the Monday meeting, Congress will finalize its floor strategy for the session.

Chairing a meeting of leaders of all parties from Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari yesterday reminded political parties "time has come to assure the public that parliamentary democracy does work and is sensitive to the needs of the people." The remarks come in the backdrop of last two sessions being a virtual washout with the opposition and government locking horns over a number of issues including the key reform measure of GST.

The government has already said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament or any other issue that the opposition wants to take up.

Naidu had also held a meeting of leaders of a number of opposition parties on February 4 where it was decided to have a full-length session and not to go for any curtailment of its duration despite assembly elections in five states.

Govt keen to push legislative agenda

The government has a heavy legislative agenda to push through in this session. A list of 74 items of business has been compiled by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on the basis of responses received from various ministries and departments which, according to sources, contain 62 legislative Items and 12 financial Items. It was decided to give 26 items 'top priority' as the ministries wanted them to be introduced and passed in the Budget session itself.

A total of 16 bills, including the GST Bill, Lokpal (Amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill and the Anti-Hijacking Bill are pending in Parliament -- five in Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.

The government will also push for the passage of a bill to replace the ordinance to amend the Enemy Property Act, which was promulgated on January 8. An ordinance lapses 42 days/6 weeks from the day a session begins unless a bill to replace it is cleared by Parliament. The ordinance amends the 47-year-old Enemy Property Act to allow custodians to continue to retain control over such properties.

The government is keen to push its legislative agenda in the Budget session, including the pending bills on GST and real estate, thwarted in the last two sessions, while the opposition is raring to target it on a host of issues, including the JNU row, Hyderabad Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide, imposition of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, and terror attacks in Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

Raising questions over the process of the appointment of Vice Chancellors of JNU and Delhi University, a number of opposition parties have come together against the government, accusing it of "undermining" the autonomy of the institutions.

Naidu had last month met Sonia Gandhi seeking cooperation for the early passage of the crucial GST and the real estate bills but Congress said the government has offered nothing substantial on its three demands on the key tax reform.

The session will commence on February 23 and will focus largely on the financial business of the government. The General Budget will be presented on February 29.

The first part of Budget Session will end on March 16 and the second part will be convened from April 25 to May 13.

On February 16, the Prime Minister had reached out to the opposition by holding a meeting of leaders of major political parties. In the first such exercise initiated by Modi against the backdrop of repeated stalling of Parliament sessions, he had sought their cooperation saying, "I am not the Prime Minister of BJP alone but the entire country."

The Winter Session had ended on December 23, leaving the Goods and Services Tax Bill and a number of other measures in limbo. The government's legislative agenda had suffered a serious setback due to lack of support from the numerically stronger Congress-led opposition in Rajya Sabha.

With PTI Inputs
Follow us on jayalalithaa sacks cabinet minister bv ramana over private photos on social media

Chennai:Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa on Saturday dismissed Milk and Dairy Development Minister BV Ramanaa from her cabinet and also dismissed him from his party post.

Accordinh to reports, two days after private photos of Tamil Nadu milk and diary development minister B V Ramana and a woman were circulated on social media, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa removed him from the cabinet on Saturday.

Ramanaa was also removed from the party post. He was Tiruvallur west district secretary of the AIADMK.

The action came on the last day of the last session of the 14th assembly.

Governor K Rosaiah issued a statement announcing Ramana's removal from the council of ministers.Sources in the AIADMK said he was sacked for causing an embarrassment to the party and AIADMK leadership.

On Friday, pictures of Ramana with a woman, said to be his 'second' wife were circulated in Whatsapp. The minister failed to turn up in the assembly on Friday and Saturday, the fag end of the interim budget session.

(With inputs from IANS)
Follow us on just fir in pathankot attack won t do manohar parrikar

New Delhi: Mere registration of an FIR in the Pathankot terror attack case is not enough, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said, making it clear that Pakistan should do serious investigation to India's satisfaction.

"Registration of a case is merely a step ahead but it won't do. There should be serious investigation. Our effort is that they should take legal action to our satisfaction," he said.

Pakistani authorities have lodged an FIR in connection with the Pathankot terror attack without naming JeM chief Masood Azhar who India has accused of having masterminded the strike.

Parrikar also ruled out withdrawing army from Siachen, a call often made by Pakistan, saying no such question arises and noted that India occupies highest peaks there.

Such things can be considered only after Pakistan establishes its credentials that it is worthy of trust, he told Aaj Tak tonight.

He also asserted that India will hit back at terror groups in their own language. Those who inflicted pain on India will have to pay, he said.

"When, what and how it will be done will depend on our convenience," he said.
Follow us on conspiracies to destabilise government defame me pm modi

Bargarh (Odisha): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today alleged that disgruntled NGOs and black-marketeers were conspiring to destabilise the government and "defame" him and asserted that he will not bow to any machinations.

He said "some people" were not able to digest the fact that a "chai wala" (tea seller) has become the Prime Minister and hence were conspiring all the time to bring him down.

"You would have seen in the recent past, there is attack on me all the time. Some people are continuously at it. They are not able to digest how Modi became the Prime Minister, how a 'chai wala' became the Prime Minister, they cannot swallow it," a combative Modi said addressing a farmers' rally here.

Without naming anybody or any specific instance, he said he had taken some steps because of which "these people are facing problems".

He made the remarks while talking about the neem-coating of urea being done to avoid its pilferage and routing to chemical factories like in the past.

"Since we have done neem coating, will those chemical factories which were looting not be angry with Modi? If something is against Modi, will they not help it? Will they not shout against Modi," he asked the gathering.

The Prime Minister said that NGOs receive money from foreign countries and his government was seeking the account.

"We said let it come but give account of the funds received. The moment we started asking for accounts, they all got together and said 'Modi ko Maaro', 'Modi ko Maaro' (hit Modi), he is seeking accounts from us," he said and asserted that "the country needs to know where the money that comes in is being spent. It is in the law."

He said since the government started asking for accounts, "they all (NGOs) got together and have been conspiring all the time how to finish Modi, how to remove Modi government and how to defame Modi.

"But my dear brothers and sisters, you have elected me to cure the country of this disease and I am doing this.

"Whatever they may say against me, I am not going to deviate from the path of the work you have entrusted me. I am not going to stop, or get tired and there is no question of bowing to it."

The Prime Minister said he knows what is "irritating" and "pinching" his detractors but "we will not allow the country to be looted or destroyed." The Prime Minister focussed his speech on the initiatives

of his government for the welfare of the farming community, including Irrigation scheme, Crop Insurance Scheme and Soil Health Card scheme.

He said even the Start-Up scheme launched by him recently could be used for the development of the agriculture sector as it was not confined to hi-tech sectors like IT only.

Modi said his government was giving thrust to the agriculture sector as he was convinced that the country can have 2nd Green Revolution in which Odisha and other eastern states should take the lead.

"I am your 'pradhan sewak'. Can we all together, the Centre and the states, work to ensure that the farmers' income is doubled by 2022, the 75th anniversary of the country's Independence? Let us all make some contribution to fufill the dreams of those who fought for the Independence," he said.

With regard to the 2nd Green Revolution, he said the entire eastern region is full of natural resources including water and has the potential to emerge as the place for production of food grains to feed the entire nation.

"Odisha has so many rivers like Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani and others. The state is blessed with water resources. If Odisha wants then it can be number one in agriculture," Modi said.

Claiming himself as committed to the protection of farmers interest, he appealed to the farmers to make ample use of the Crop Insurance scheme as it will help them during the time of crisis.

He said the newly-launched scheme is so good, as compared to the earlier ones, that even the critics have not been able to criticise it.

"Even the opponents, the farmers, the states, all have welcomed the new Crop Insurance scheme. But I am not satisfied with this appreciation. I seek your help to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the farmers in the country take this policy," the Prime Minister said.

He said the earlier schemes were such that only 20 per cent of farmers utilised it and even many of them quit as they found these were not beneficial.

Highlighting the benefits of the Crop Insurance scheme like the cap of 2 per cent on premium unlike "upto 50 per cent earlier", he said if more farmers take the policy, it would mean more financial burden on the government. "Usually the governments would avoid any scheme that increases financial burden on it. But I live for the farmers. If the money goes, let it go. After all, it is going to the farmers only," Modi said.

Talking about some of the benefits of the scheme, he said now the farmers can get compensation even if only one-third of their crop, Modi said. Earlier, compensation would be given only if 50 per cent of crop was damaged.

He said the soil health card scheme has already started and the farmers getting benefits out of it.

The Prime Minister said besides crop production, the farmers should also focus on the fisheries, poultry, diary, forestry and honey production.

"If you (farmers) plant trees in one-third of your land, you may meet the expenses of your daughter's marriage by cutting certain timbers. You need to do it for increasing the income of the family," Modi suggested to the gathering which chanted 'Modi.. Modi.. Modi', all through his 50-minute long speech.

Stating that transformation in India's agriculture sector has to be made, the Prime Minister said his government has pledged to develop the eastern states besides north eastern states.

"The economic activities in eastern part of the country must increase," Modi said.
The Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, has said that agitations for a new Republic of Biafra by Igbo youths were based on long emotions, which were short on logic.

While I am not trying to put any one on the spot, you will agree with me that these allegations (of marginalisation against the north) have been around for many years. Yet, like all allegations made by angry people, they are long on emotions and short on logic, Coomasssie said at Nsukka while accepting the conferment of honourary Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) on him by the University of Nigeria (UNN), yesterday

The problem of Nigeria has nothing to do with its size, diversity or attempt by any group to marginalise other nationalities. As was succinctly put by the late great literary giant, Chinua Achebe, the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely the failure of leadership.

For one thing, we have paid a heavy price fighting a bloody civil war in which over a million people lost their lives.

Even a bitter enemy of Nigeria would not wish that we go through what always attended the process of breaking up a country.

My attention was drawn to the fact that in allocation for capital projects in this years budget, the South-West and South-South under a northern presidency have more than the three northern zones combined. Yet, no one is crying of marginalisation.

From 1999 when democratic governance was restored to today, trillions of Naira have poured into these states and local governments from the federation account.

If no developments have taken place in my state or local government, shouldnt I first of all, query those running the affairs of my state or local government?

President Muhammadu Buhari is no miracle worker  but with the enthusiastic support and cooperation of all Nigerians, especially the youths, who should have no difficulties embracing positive change, we are today poised to witness extraordinary reconstruction of Nigeria, the former IG said.
An Egyptian court has sentenced a four-year-old boy to life in prison for committing murder when he was aged just one. Ahmed Mansour Karmi was not in court on Tuesday when he was convicted of four counts of murder, eight of attempted murder, one vandalisation of property and another count of threatening soldiers and police officers  all before his second birthday.

Ahmed was one of 115 defendants who were all handed life sentences at the same time at the court in western Cairo for crimes allegedly committed in early 2014. His defence attorney, Faisal al-Sayd, told the Jerusalem Post the childs name had been added to the list by mistake but the court did not pass Ahmeds birth certificate on to the judge to prove he was born in September 2012.

He said: The child Ahmed Mansour Karnis birth certificate was presented after state security forces added his name to the list of accused, but then the case was transferred to the military court and the child was sentenced in absentia in an ensuing court hearing. This proves that the judge did not read the case. Another lawyer said the case showed there is no justice in Egypt.

He said: The Egyptian scales of justice are not reversible. There is no justice in Egypt. No reason. Logic committed suicide a while ago. Egypt went crazy. Egypt is ruled by a bunch of lunatics. Egypt has been ruled by a military dictatorship under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi since Mohammed Morsis elected government was ousted in 2013.

UK Independent.
The owner of a Michelin-ranked gourmet restaurant has banned bankers after they refused to give him a loan. Alexandre Callet, 30, who runs Les Ecuries de Richelieu in Paris, put up a sign warning: Dogs welcome, bankers banned (unless they pay an entry fee of 70,000). Keen to open a second restaurant, Mr Callet asked for a loan of 70,000 (54,000), but numerous banking firms turned down his request.

As soon as I see a banker that I recognise I wont let them enter my restaurant, he told The Local. They have treated me like a dog, so I have denied them access. He said he felt humiliated because the loan he asked for was was nothing considering his turnover for last year of 300,000. He added: This is not just a kebab shop. My restaurant is in the Michelin guide and film stars come in here.

A lot of bankers who turned me down know me. They come in here. This is not the first time the chef has had problems getting a loan.

When he tried to open his first restaurant, aged 23, he was turned down over 20 times before one bank agreed to lend him money. Restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, we are all in the same situation. Whenever we want to start a business, we have to get on all fours,he told Le Figaro. I have never had financial problems and yet I find myself in this situation. Bankers are not doing their job.

UK Independent.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Gwoza Council Area of Borno State are protesting their evacuation from public schools within the capital city where they have found temporary shelter for more than a year.

The State Government had shut down public schools within Maiduguri to accommodate the displaced persons sacked from 20 local government areas in the heat of Boko Haram insurgents attacks.

Evacuation of the displaced persons to alternative makeshift camps is part of governments plans to reopen public schools.

The Chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, Ahmed Satomi, said that 700 tents had already been constructed at the Bakassi camp to house the IDPS from Monguno and Gwoza Local Government Areas.

Mr Satomi said that the Yerwa Secondary School and Women Teachers College among others, had already been evacuated. Some IDPs from Gwoza Local Council had been occupying the Government College Maiduguri.
The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) is set to complement the Federal Governments move to revitalise the economy.

NOTAPs mandate is to ensure that technological agreement in the country are not obsolete, said NOTAP Director General, Alhaji Danazumi Ibrahim, who promised that NOTAP would align its activities to the current drive to diversify the sources of revenue generation and acquisition in the country. Ibrahim was speaking on Saturday during the organisations 2016 management retreat in Minna.

In 2010/2014, the agency saved Nigeria N188.2 billion that would have gone out of the country in capital flight.

In this regard, it is important to review our activities in line with the mandate, identify the existing gaps and develop clear strategies for implementation.

This will guide us on how to reposition the office to play more vital role in the national economy.

To be able to achieve this, it is important for management staff to brainstorm and exchange ideas on the implementation of the programmes of the agency, he said.

Ibrahim decried the shortage of manpower in the agency, urging the Federal Government to improve the institutions finances for better mandate performance. He also spoke vowed that the DG would always monitor technological transfer to the country.

We have informed universities, polytechnics and research establishments to bring in intellectual culture.

Once a student or lecturer comes up with innovation and before it reaches the public domain, come to us to protect it for you to avoid fear of litigation, he said.
Members of the PDP Rescue Group, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have continued to kick against the appointment of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the partys national chairman.

The Chairman of the PDP Rescue Group, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, who had sought the partys chairmanship position, described the emergence of Senator Sheriff as an imposition by some persons in the party.

He told a press conference in Abuja on Sunday that the current chairman lacked the integrity that the PDP needed at this time.

The group, therefore, called on the new chairman to resign, as he was never at any time nominated by the northeast wing of the party for the race.

The PDP had on February 16 appointed Senator Sheriff the partys new national chairman, at the meeting of the National Executive Committee held at the partys National Secretariat in Abuja.
Two Serbian embassy employees who were being held hostage by Isis were killed in an air strike targeting the group in Libya. Serbias Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, died in the bombing in the early hours on Friday morning. They had been abducted by militants in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of Sabratha.

They were being kept in a building outside the same city when it was hit by American air strikes targeting a senior Isis facilitator linked to terror attacks in neighbouring Tunisia. Apparently, the Americans were not aware that foreign citizens were being kept there, Mr Vucic told reporters. Ivica Dacic, the Serbian foreign minister, said they were told of the deaths by foreign officials but that had no confirmation from the Libyan government. We got the information, including photos, which clearly show that this is most probably true, he added.

The US sent F-15E fighter jets on the operation, which is believed to have killed up to 40 Isis militants including Noureddine Chouchane, who had been linked to Junes hotel attack in Sousse, which killed 38 people, and the massacre that killed 22 people at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

He said Serbian authorities knew where Ms Stankovic and Mr Stepic were being held and had been working to get them back, adding that Libyan troops were considering an operation to free them. I believe we had been close to the solution for them to be freed. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the attack against Isis in Libya, the two of them lost their lives, Mr Dacic told reporters. We will seek official explanation from both Libya and the United States about the available facts and the selection of targets.

UK Independent.
On this day in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party led by Olusegun Obasanjo, won 169 of 360 seats in the House.

 Also on this day in 2000, Muslim and Christian youths seized parts of Kaduna in clashes over a proposal to bring Islamic law (Shariah) to the state. Over 20 people were killed.

The violence began when hundreds of Christian demonstrators marched through the streets chanting `No to sharia! No to sharia! Counter-chants by Muslims who support sharia, or Islamic law, quickly degenerated into fighting between the two groups, said the witnesses.

By the afternoon, the two sides had gained control of different neighborhoods and divided the city into warring zones.
Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic Party caucuses in Nevada, beating Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, while Donald Trump prevailed in the crowded Republican nominating primary in South Carolina. Saturdays contest was the first test for the White House hopefuls Clinton and Sanders in a more racially diverse state than the opening contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, which the candidates split.

Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has done poorly in the first three early Republican contests, suspended his campaign. Voters in South Carolina backed Trump in the First in the South contest to pick the Republican nominee for the November 8 US presidential election.

While Clintons campaign once saw Nevada as an opportunity to start pulling away from Sanders, her team had anticipated a close contest with Sanders. The victories put Clinton and Trump in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election barreled toward the March 1 Super Tuesday contests, a delegate-rich voting bonanza.

Theres nothing easy about running for president, Trump said at his victory rally. Its tough, its nasty, its mean, its vicious. Its beautiful  when you win its beautiful. Clintons roughly five-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Sanders. At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, This one is for you.

Trumps strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the party nomination. No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Aljazeera.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Rivers State has condemned the attempted assassination of the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Comrade Beatrice Itubo.

A four-man gang reportedly invaded Comrade Itubos residence at Rumuagholu community in Obio/Akpor local government area of the state early hours of Friday.

Reacting to the incident, The Rivers TUC Chairman, Comrade Hyginus Chika Onuegbu, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday, called on security agencies to investigate the matter and ensure that the culprits are fished out and prosecuted.

The statement reads in part, The Trade Union congress of Nigeria (TUC), Rivers state condemn in its entirety the assassination attempt on the life of Comrade Beatrice Itubo, Chairman of Nigeria labour Congress, Rivers State.

We call on the Security agencies in the state to thoroughly investigate the matter and ensure that the culprits are fished out and prosecuted.
Petrol prices in Venezuela will rise by almost 6,000 per cent after an announcement from President Nicolas Maduro. The price of a litre of high-quality gas is currently approximately one US cent and will be increasing to 60 US cents. The move has been described as aggressive by some, as Venezuela tries to battle triple-digit inflation and the countrys deepest recession in a decade.

Thats an aggressive hike in fuel prices and its still the cheapest in the world, Edward Glossop, an economist at Capital Economics who covers Venezuela, told CNN Money. The increase is the first in almost two decades, with the last change in prices sparking vast protests throughout the country.

Venezuela has the cheapest gasoline in the world. This is a necessary measure, I assume the responsibility, Mr Maduro is reported to have said before the announcement, according to Bloomberg. Mr Maduro also announced a new structure for the exchange rate. One bolivar went from being worth 6 US cents to 10 US cents.

UK Independent.
E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei.

Sky: Rafforzata leadership

Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018.

Sfida Serie A

Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia.
BlackRock Inc. (BLK) is by some measures the biggest investment management company across the globe, with more than $10.0 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of Dec. 31, 2021. As a major publicly traded company with a market capitalization of about $112.3 billion, BlackRock provides investment and technology services to both institutional and retail clients around the world.

The firm offers a variety of funds and portfolios investing in vehicles such as equities, money market instruments, and fixed income. Clients look to BlackRock for access to mutual funds, investments focused on objectives related to retirement income and college savings, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

BlackRock is the parent company for the iShares group of ETFs, the largest global provider of ETFs. BlackRock derives the majority of its revenue from investment advisory and administrative fees charged to its clients. Among BlackRock's major competitors are The Vanguard Group, State Street Corp. (STT), and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW).

Key Takeaways BlackRock is one of the world's largest investment management companies by AUM.

The company operates as a single business segment.

The firm derives most of its revenue from investment advisory and administration fees.

BlackRock said that it has halted purchases of Russian securities amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

BlackRock's Financials

BlackRock announced in mid-January financial results for Q4 of its 2021 fiscal year (FY), the three-month period ended March 18, 2021. The company reported a net income of $1.6 billion, up 6.1% compared to the year-ago quarter. Revenue grew 14.0% year over year (YOY) to $5.1 billion. The company's AUM rose 15.4% YOY to a new high of $10.0 trillion.

BlackRock generated $212 billion of net inflows during the quarter. The Americas region led all other regions with long-term net flows of $139 billion. The company's ETF offerings generated $104 billion in long-term net inflows, more than the long-term net inflows of retail and institutional investors combined.



BlackRock's Business Segments

BlackRock operates as a single business segment and does not report on income for individual parts of its business. However, it does divide its revenue according to categories for "Investment advisory, administration fees, and securities lending revenue," for "Investment advisory performance fees," for "Technology services revenue," for "Distribution fees," and for "Advisory and other revenue."

Investment Advisory, Administration Fees, and Securities Lending Revenue

BlackRock derives the majority of its revenue from investment advisory and administration fees levied over time and is typically based upon predetermined percentages of AUM. This category of BlackRock's business includes fees related to the firm's equity, fixed income, multi-asset alternative, and cash management services. In Q4 FY 2021, this category accounted for $4.0 billion in revenue, or about 78% of total revenue. This was up 16.9% compared to the year-ago quarter.

Investment Advisory Performance Fees

In contrast with administrative fees, performance fees are assessed to certain types of BlackRock accounts when performance exceeds a predetermined threshold. Performance fees accounted for $329 million in revenue, or about 6% of total revenue in Q4 FY 2021. This was down 21.5% compared to the year-ago quarter.

Technology Services Revenue

BlackRock offers a range of investment management technology systems, risk management services, wealth management, and digital distribution tools to various insurance company, bank, pension fund, and asset manager clients. Technology services accounted for $339 million in revenue for Q4 FY 2021, or about 7% of the total. This figure was up 11.1%.

Distribution Fees

BlackRock levies fees associated with the distribution and service of its various products, as well as for support services related to investment portfolios. In Q4 FY 2021, this category accounted for $411 million in revenue, or about 8% of total revenue for the year. This was up 30.9% compared to Q4 FY 2020.

Advisory and Other Revenue

BlackRock also separates out a category of revenue associated with its advisory services for global financial institutions, regulators, and governments. These fees are set at a fixed rate. In Q4 FY 2021, this category accounted for $59 million in revenue, or about 1% of total revenue. This was up 25.5% compared to the year-ago quarter.

BlackRock's Recent Developments

On March 3, 2022, BlackRock said that it had halted purchases of all Russian securities in both its active and index funds amid Russia's recent invasion of Ukraine. Russian securities comprise less than 0.01% of the company's clients' assets.

How BlackRock Reports Diversity and Inclusiveness

As part of our effort to improve the awareness of the importance of diversity in companies, we offer investors a glimpse into the transparency of BlackRock and its commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. We examined the data BlackRock releases to show you how it reports the diversity of its board and workforce to help readers make educated purchasing and investing decisions.



Below is a table of potential diversity measurements. It shows whether BlackRock discloses its data about the diversity of its board of directors, C-Suite, general management, and employees overall, as is marked with a . It also shows whether BlackRock breaks down those reports to reveal the diversity of itself by race, gender, ability, veteran status, and LGBTQ+ identity.
The life insurance market in the United States is both massive and highly competitive. Though bigger may not mean better, either for consumers or for investors, it does imply a degree of longevity and financial stability in the life insurance business.

Life insurance is a policy or contract that guarantees the customer or the insured's beneficiaries a sum of money outlined in the insurance policy. In exchange, the customer agrees to pay periodic premiums or payments to the life insurance company. Life insurance can be helpful since it can provide a measure of security for a policyholder's loved ones by providing financial support to pay for funeral expenses and pay off debts.

Outlined in this article are the eight largest insurance companies in the United States. However, please remember that the precise ranking order of our group is based on the total volume of premiums written and may change frequently.

Key Takeaways According to a 2021 NAIC report, Northwestern Mutual, New York Life, Metropolitan, and Prudential are the four largest life insurance companies in the United States, all together holding 31.09% of the market.

The next biggest life insurance companies are Mass Mutual, Lincoln National, State Farm, and John Hancock, which together hold about 17.93% of the market.

Some insurance companies offer riders, which are benefits added to policies, allowing for customization.

Some of the insurers offer unique coverage options, including coverage for those who are HIV positive and who have been diagnosed with diabetes.

1. New York Life

New York Life Insurance Company has 8.3% of the U.S. life insurance market share and was the second largest insurance company in 2021. Apart from its life insurance business, New York Life also sells long-term care insurance, annuities, and mutual funds and operates a growing investment management business.

New York Life is a mutual insurance company and is not publicly traded. It reported $2.2 billion in operating earnings for 2021, a record high. The company also announced a dividend payout of $1.9 billion for 2021. Dividends are cash payments made by companies to their customers.

2. Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company holds 8.93% of the American market. In addition to its life insurance and other insurance products, the company offers annuities, investment products, and financial planning services. The company reported revenue of $31.1 billion in 2020, up from $34 billion in 2021, up from $11.7 billion in 2020.

As a mutual insurance company, Northwestern Mutual is managed for the benefit of policyholders rather than stockholders. Policyholder benefits amounted to $11.7 billion in 2020, up from $11.5 billion in 2019. The company is privately owned and announced its largest dividend payout of $6.5 billion for 2022.

3. MetLife

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (NYSE: MET) is a publicly traded insurance and financial products company. Better known as MetLife, it is the third-largest life insurer in the United States, holding 7.18% of the market share. MetLife offers term life, group universal life, and group variable universal life insurance as well as accidental death plans.

The company also has a wide array of other insurance products available, from health to home. More than an insurance company, MetLife provides financial products, like investment and retirement plans as well as helping small businesses give benefits to their employees.

For the fiscal year 2021, MetLife had a 9.7% return on equity and a $77.12 book value.

4. Prudential

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) is a publicly traded financial services conglomerate offering insurance products, annuities, mutual funds, investment management services, and other products. The company was founded in 1875 and operates in over 40 countries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Prudential had a 6.66% market share of all life insurance companies in the United States in 2021.

Prudential offers several types of life insurance, including universal and variable universal life. Prudential's term life insurance comes in four options: SimplyTerm, Term Essential, Term Elite, and PruTerm One. The first three options are personal policies with SimplyTerm providing basic coverage and the other two offering customizations and riders. The fourth option, PruTerm One, is specifically designed for small business owners who are paying off short-term loans.

Prudential reported a net income of $7.72 billion in 2021 versus a net loss in the prior year of $374 million due to the challenging environment during the coronavirus pandemic. Prudential had assets under management totaling $1.742 trillion in 2021 versus $1.721 trillion for the prior year. The company plans to pay nearly $11 billion in capital to shareholders, including in the form of dividend payments.



5. Lincoln National

Lincoln National Corp. (NYSE: LNC) is a financial services company offering life insurance products, long-term care insurance products, annuities, and retirement plan services. It does not operate outside the U.S. The company and its subsidiaries are marketed to consumers under the Lincoln Financial Group brand.

Lincoln National has 5.2% of the 2021 life insurance market share. In their annual report, Lincoln National reported $660 million in written life insurance premiums versus $630 million in 2020. Lincoln's net income for 2021 amounted to $1.4 billion, up 64% from $499 million the year before.

6. MassMutual

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, known as MassMutual, was the fifth biggest life insurer in the United States in 2021. MassMutual offers a variety of insurance products, including whole life, universal life, term life, and variable universal life insurance. The company also offers disability and long-term care insurance.

In addition to insurance, MassMutual provides a full range of financial products, such as annuities, investments, wealth management, and workplace benefits, to employees through their employers.

In 2021, the company earned nearly $20.2 billion in income from insurance premiums and $30.4 billion in revenue. As a result, the company had a net loss of $310 million, which decreased from the previous year's profit of $128 million. MassMutual's market share is 6.29%.

7. State Farm

State Farm is primarily known for its home and auto insurance products, but it is the seventh largest life insurer in the U.S. and has been in business since 1922. However, State Farm is not licensed and does not offer life insurance in MA, WI, and NY. State Farm offers term, whole, and universal life insurance. The company has 3.29% of the 2021 life insurance market share.

State Farm's joint universal life policies can pay two individuals, such as spouses. The company's whole life insurance has limited payment options, which allow the customer to adjust how and when the payments are made for the coverage.

In 2021, State Farm issued over $212 billion in life insurance products. By the end of 2021, there was $1.1 trillion in individual life insurance policies in force, meaning that premiums are actively being paid on those life insurance policies. For 2021, State Farm reported a premium income of $5.7 billion, paid out $593 million in dividends to policyholders, and earned $929 million in net income for the year.

8. John Hancock

John Hancock is the eighth largest life insurer in the United States and holds 3.15% of the 2021 life insurance market share. The company is part of Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC), the largest public company and largest life insurance company in Canada. John Hancock offers two types of life insurance: term and permanent life insurance.

In the 2021 annual report, Manulife reported an increase in net income, earning 7.1 billion compared to 5.9 billion in 2020.
Letters and a Christmas card revealed a previously undocumented friendship between the Peoples Princess and the nun from County Kildare.

Editor's Note: On this day 25 years ago, August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a high-speed accident in Paris, France. Today we remember the Queen of Hearts links to a Co Kildare nun.

The missives, dating from 1992, were sent from Kensington Palace by Princess Diana to Sister Teresa of the Little Sisters of the Assumption. At the time, the nun was based in the orders convent in Wrexham, North Wales. The Irish Times reported that the nun met the princess through a mutual friend, the mother of a palace butler.

In 1992 when the letters started, Princess Diana was the subject of intense scrutiny in the media as her marriage to Prince Charles started to break down. Late that year, newspapers published transcripts of taped, intimate conversations between Princess Diana and an alleged lover as well as private conversations between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

In December 1992, British prime minister John Major announced to the House of Commons that the Prince and Princess of Wales were separating.

Following the death of Dianas father, the 8th Earl Spencer, in March 1992, Sr Teresa wrote to the princess expressing her sympathy. Princess Diana replied to Dear Sister Teresa with a typed letter expressing her gratitude and saying her father had been a strong and positive force in her life. She hand-signed the letter with my love, from Diana.

In one handwritten letter dating November 1992, Princess Diana thanked Sr Teresa for her prayers, support and, most importantly . . . care for which she was deeply touched. She goes on to express her deepest admiration for the wonderful work the nun was doing, which included visiting and tending to the needs of the poor and sick.

In December, the princess sent the Irish nun a Christmas card featuring a photograph of Princes William and Harry, which she hand-signed with much love from Diana.

Princess Diana died five years later in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.

The correspondence was cosigned to Sheppards Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois, in 2017.

Auctioneer Philip Sheppard said at the time that Sr. Teresa did not want to discuss her friendship with the princess. She had gifted her correspondence with the princess to a relative, also now elderly, who decided to sell the letters and card because of concerns about what might happen to it long-term and in the hope that it would be acquired by either an archive or by a collector of Princess Diana memorabilia.

* Originally published in 2016, updated in August 2022.

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With the entertainment world focused on all of the movie awards announced in recent weeks, it was easy for many to miss the nominees for the National Book Critics Awards which were released last week and will be handed out March 17 -- yes, St. Patricks Day.

Given this date, its hard not to root for Brian Seiberts nominated book What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing. Seiberts book is a long, detailed look at the history of a sometimes-overlooked art form. And Seibert focuses intensely on the role the Irish played in making tap what it is today.

As The New Yorker magazine put it in a rave review: Then, there is taps history, the fact that it was created by extremely poor people, Irish and West African, in a place that they came to not because they wanted to be there --that is, here [in America] -- but because in their own lands either they were starving or they had been captured and converted into salable property.

The magazine also noted that some people still dont want to hear that Irish step dancing contributed to tap. But after reading Seiberts authoritative book, its impossible to deny the massive influence of the Irish when it comes to tap, from the 1600s to the Famine right up through Riverdance.

In Americas early Colonial period, one of the functions of the British colonies was to serve as a dumping ground for what authorities considered the dangerous classes: vagabonds, debtors, criminals, rebels. The Irish were well represented in each category, Siebert writes.

In the American colonies, of course, the Irish were treated poorly. Early on, at least, the distinction between indentured servitude and slavery was not as fixed as it would become, and race relations were more fluid. Servants and slaves, white and black, often worked together, played together, Seibert adds. It was in this atmosphere of what Seibert calls cultural mixing that Irish and African dance traditions began to blend.

By the mid-19th century, the time of mass migration spurred by the Great Hunger, the process became accelerated.

As Seibert writes: This wave of people...concentrated in the eastern cities of the United States, but also in the South, establishing an Irish America that was urban and Catholic. The propensity for dancing remained a just indication of its spirit and character.

When it came to the Irish and the Africans in America, Closeness gave rise to competition, hatred, and bloodshed, but also to friendship, love, and shared recreation among people to who dance and music were vital.

Things werent always pretty, of course. As tap spread from street corners to dance halls, the racist yet very complicated tradition of blackface and minstrel shows evolved.

The stage was an arena where immigrant Irish could grapple for a higher place in Americas racial hierarchy; they could become more American by acting Negro, more white by blacking up, Seibert writes.

Some of the key Irish American figures Seibert explores include Ray Bolger, most famous as the flopping Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.

Bolger grew up in Irish Catholic Boston...learning his first steps on the sidewalk from a retired vaudevillian, Seibert writes.

Then, of course, there was Gene Kelly, a product of working-class Pittsburgh, the third of five children in a tight-knit, upward striving Irish Catholic family. They were all part of an early Vaudeville act called The Five Kellys. Young Gene was picked on because of his dancing, but it helped his family survive the Depression and eventually made him a star.

Some might quibble with Seiberts harsh assessment of late 20th century Irish dance.

In Ireland and Irish America, he writes, step dancing became a discipline children were forced to study so that they might express the cultural heritage of their no longer dancing parents.

Either way, it was into this world that Riverdance exploded, bringing the Irish contribution to American tap dancing into the 21st Century.

Not bad for an immigrant group of vagabonds, debtors, criminals, and rebels.

* Contact sidewalks@tdeignan.blogspot.com.
Last year, the lobbyist, lawyer, and former Congressman from Connecticut Bruce Morrison and his family took their first vacation in Ireland despite a decades-long relationship with the Emerald Isle.

Well, the roads didnt get any better, Morrison quips, as Im sure many would agree, but it seems a small price to pay in return for the enormous political improvements made since his own first trip to Derry in the late 1980s, improvements he can take much of the credit for.

From a country torn apart by the violence of the Troubles, the influence of Bruce Morrison and his determination to end the human rights struggle in Northern Ireland has brought about a peace in the state that some feared would never be reached.

The UN recently declared Northern Irelands capital city Belfast as the second safest city in the world, just behind Tokyo, an almost unthinkable achievement for those who lived throughout the deaths of over 3,600 people, and without Morrison and other Irish Americans in the driving seat, its hard to see how it could have come about so soon.

His role in the Northern Ireland peace process has now been beautifully penned by his friend and fellow lawyer Penn Rhodeen in Peacerunner: The True Story of how an ex-Congressman helped End the Centuries of War in Ireland, drawing on Morrisons unique experiences in Northern Ireland on the path towards the Good Friday Agreement.

In terms of the average American youd expect to become so deeply involved with human rights issues in Northern Ireland, Bruce Morrison may not have come top of the list. He was not raised as Irish or Catholic.His grandfather was Scots-Irish from Co. Cavan, but his German American heritage on his mothers side of the family was always the part of family history that was given more precedence.

This is not to say he was not interested, however. There was an engagement and an awareness of the country and its problems that especially came into play on the subject of human rights. Traveling all over the world to promote human rights as a Congressman it was this struggle in Northern Ireland that suddenly became most important to him.

Read more: The day the world changed: Bruce Morrison on the 1994 IRA ceasefire

Speaking to IrishCentral before the release of the book, Morrison said: The unequal treatment and lack of open political process that had resulted in violence interested me, noting that his previous success with the Morrison visas meant hed already passed a certain litmus test with the Irish American and Irish community, earning him a respect that allowed him to become so involved in the process.

Peacerunner opens with the tale of then congressman's Morrisons first trip to Ireland in August 1987, a tale thats far from the average fawning over green fields, the Cliffs of Moher and the Guinness brewery.

Driving through Derry with Gerry OHara, an official from Sinn Fein, Morrison had been warned their car could be pulled over. Little did he expect the warning was really needed and that a gun would be pointed at his kneecaps as a result.

Its still vivid in my memory, Morrison said. It was something I was warned about and Gerry O'Hara said we might be stopped but I discounted what he said until it happened.

I had heard people saying they were harassed in Northern Ireland, more from nationalists and republicans, but I didn't know how to rate it [until then].

Bad events like this came with the good in Northern Ireland, however, and this bizarre and unsettling first encounter with how things worked in the country was only the start for Morrison in a determined effort to involve the US in the peace process.

The next few years would see him as a major player in an Irish American delegation which featured billionaire Chuck Feeney, business leader Bill Flynn, Irish Voice publisher Niall O'Dowd who created the group, and union leader Joe Jameson.

Their aim was simple --to find a way to leverage American infleunce in Ireland. They were the first to engage President Clinton on the issue in a protracted manner and they shuttled back and forth to Belfast forging close links with paramilataries and politicians on both sides convincing them the US would take a major role if the violence could first be stoped.

They ended up as the intermediaries between the Repubican movement and the White House when communication was forbidden with Sinn Fein by the White House. As the official spokesman Morrison played a critical role, negotiating with Sinn Fein reassuring unionists that the US intent was not to have a winner or loser but to help with the peace process.

The group made the vital breaktrhough by winning the fight for a visa for Gerry Adams which was a key element in securing an IRA cesefire and the eventual peace process.

It was the end of a three year quest, but much work needed to be done.Morrison and the others endured frustration with British Prime Minister John Major at his reluctance to engage in all-party talks despite an IRA ceasefire; and eventually watch as George Mitchell, US economic envoy, oversaw the negotiations that would result in the Good Friday Agreement.

The important thing is to understand your role and not feel competitive with the role of others, he observes of the Good Friday negotiations.

Theres no one person role in the world and people who make things happen in the world understand they need to share the work and share the stage. I was an active observer and shared perspective and when it was over I came [to Northern Ireland] and talked to people who ran the campaign [to pass the Agreement].

I couldn't have kept up the pace that we were at from 93-97/98. It was an intense period of time and good things were happening. I don't miss that intensity but I was glad to be there.

The trick for Morrison was always to talk to as many people involved as possible.

One of the main things I learned was to put yourself in other peoples shoes, he said.

I always insisted on as broad a possible set of meetings and encounters and the habit in Irish America was only really to talk to the people you agreed with, whether it was [Gerry] Adams,or Adams and John Hume.

It was certainly not loyalist paramilitaries.

I needed to try my best to talk to both sides because when people feel you are just another American, it was easy to be immediately painted green [deemed a supporter of the republican movement alone] and forgotten.

Read more: Irish President presented Peace Building Award to former US Congressman Bruce Morrison

The voice of loyalists is something that is still missing from Northern Ireland politics if complete peace and democracy is ever to be achieved, Morrison believes, referring to the lack of political party that will speak on behalf of working class loyalist people.

Republicans had a well developed political plan and they had embarked on a political project. The loyalists never managed that. The UUP and DUP had sucked all the politics out of the communities. They were expected to be the warriors, not the politicians, and this disadvantaged them, he said.

It's still true today and the communities that have been struggling the most with progress have been the loyalist communities, because theyve been left behind and they don't know what happened to themselves.

Theres high unemployment, high drug abuse and high dysfunctionality.

Although some would question why the communities that had previously discriminated against Catholics are entitled to feel put out by progress, the former Congressman doesnt believe that complete progress can be made without them.

You can take that view if you want, he argues, but being attentive to the social advocacy for the working class needs of unionists is important for the long term health of Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland would be better for non-sectarian politics and it is still decidedly sectarian.

As for last years stalemate in Stormont, Morrison emphasizes the good practices now being adopted by the political system and the proper attempts made by political parties to argue through a democratic process, praising the DUP for their in-out policy, a party that walked out of the Good Friday Agreement talks, abandoning the democratic process almost 20 years ago.

You don't tell the political process what result to get, you give them a process, thats the difference between peace and war, he explains.

The achievement is not that people agree on everything but that they agree to argue about them in a democratic progress. Its finding a way that we can process these disagreements.

An extract from Peacerunner by Penn Rhodeen will be featured on IrishCentral.com on Monday.

You can purchase the book and read the remarkable story of Bruce Morrison and the journey towards the Northern Ireland peace process here.
Bill Kenneally, of Laragh, Summerville, Waterford City, pleaded guilty last December to 10 sample counts from a total of 74 counts of indecent assault on 10 boys, aged 13 to 16, over a four-year period between October 1984 and December 1987.

Delivering 10 consecutive two-year sentences at Waterford Circuit Court, Judge Eugene OKelly said the accountants actions bore all the hallmarks of the systematic behaviour of predatory paedophiles in that the abuse suffered by each teenager was very similar in nature.

The offences took place at his family home, in his car, and at various woodlands and laybys.

Kenneally used copious amounts of alcohol to disarm his victims. He gave them money initially as a gift, but then it turned into a debt that had to be paid back. The abuse was similar for most of the boys.

Recognising his guilty plea, Judge OKelly took seven months off each sentence.

Kevin Keating, one of Kenneallys victims, said yesterday a monster has been taken off the streets.

For the record, I hope today the coverage it is getting will prove to people that there is a fantastic support network there, Mr Keating told Liveline on RTE Radio 1.

I had terrible apprehension coming forward, but it was a fantastic support network. Anyone who is going through it, either with this man, or any other person who is out there  just believe me when I say you are not alone.

Also speaking on Liveline, Colin Power, another victim of Kenneallys, said that they know how difficult it is for abuse survivors to tell their stories.

We have come forward, but we know how difficult it is to come forward. We would hope that today gives some kind of satisfaction to the guys who for whatever reason  we understand there are a multitude of reasons why somebody would not want to come forward. Hopefully today has some bit of good for those people.

News: 5
Toormore, West Cork 695,000

Size: Sq m 206 (2,225 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 4

BER: C1

Best Feature: Exquisite small domain

Land? As the old cliches go, its valuable because they are not making any more of it.

Lakes? Well, floodplains notwithstanding, theyre not making many more lakes either, youd imagine. But, down West Cork way at least, youd be wrong.

Lakes, loughs, and ponds to plunge into are the new, eco- and country homes must-haves.

Last week, Skibbereen estate agents Maeve McCarthy and Charles McCarthy of Skibbereen put the extraordinary lakeside Liss Ard estate near Skibbereen up for sale, on 165 acres, with two period homes on it, amid exquisite woodland and waterfalls, and it included the 50-acre coarse fishing Lake Abisdealy.

Unfortunately, Liss Ard was guided at 7.5 million, which sort of puts it out of reach for anyone bar the super-wealthy, or the winners of a half-decent EuroMillions jackpot.

So, heres a West Cork lake home within the purchasing grasp and hopes of a far wider buyer cohort, for less than 10% of the cost of the luxury Liss Ard package.

Welcome to Lake House, the 695,000 version, just as private, just as secure, easier to lock up and leave, and the highest point of this particular property even has a view of the Fastnet lighthouse.

The Fastnets sweeping beacon at night obliquely grazes its side walls, essentially the only bit of flash at this low-key, contemporary bolthole.

This, the second house that West Cork man Terry ODriscoll has so far built for himself (pictured here in its early spring glories, and just now for sale) seems to have served as a calling card for his talents, showing that when you are good, youre good.

Since completing this hidden lakeside one-off, set high up among low hills, off the Schull-Goleen road near Toormore, the said Mr ODriscoll has been asked to do house designs, interior designs and consultancy work for many others, often working with Embellish Interiors in Skibbereen while trading as Peninsula Life and Design ( www.plad.ie ).

And, its not just homes: he is currently advising and overseeing hotel makeovers in West Cork, at the Westlodge and Bantry Bay hotels amongst others, as near-to-home examples.

He has also overseen a phased upgrade to a beach hotel complex in only-slightly more exotic Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa, where he now wants to add a beach bar to a Spice Islands boutique hotel project.

Clearly, what started as a passionate interest has turned into a second job for the man whose day job for the last three decades has been working with British Airways, on long-haul flights.

Having been in capital cities and coastlines across the continents, and bunking down in four-and five star hotels, this is where he lands home to, with the odd architectural artefact, curio or next bright idea brought back for a tweak on the home-front.

However, it was pure West Cork roots that brought Skibbereen native Terry ODriscoll up a rocky, yet peaty hillside when he started looking for sites for this new-build back in 2008.

Where others would have seen a bit of bog with views, he saw pond life nirvana, the chance to build a waterfront home where hardly anyone knew there was water, courtesy of a corrie-like dip in the ground, a steady stream of water in and out, and a dark sink hole of lough water between the peaty hillocks.

Its the sort of land youd raise grouse or pheasants on, but even grazing sheep might turn their noses up at.

To get this vision realised took persistence (but no planning issues, its unobtrusive and deferential), and work, a deal of digging and excavating, and then landscaping that put some manners on wilderness, yet respected it, dotted with dogwoods in vivid red stems, and tussocks of grasses.

It also needed an access road up of several hundred metres, from where an uphill boreen had petered out: a relative Denny ODonovan from Goleen did the digging and scooped out the pond and relined it, while Terrys cousin Bernard ODriscoll was the builder, unfazed by it all and a rock, himself, of practical solutions.

But, for all of the builds appeal, its the site that steals the thunder. Theres an extraordinary natural, aloof moors beauty to Lake Houses setting, in a place known in previous generations for copper mining, and the quite modest insertion of this single storey, understated dwelling amid its contours makes the maximum use of it.

Theres barely another house to be seen from this most withdrawn of hollowed-out settings; theres no light pollution, and by night the stars are a glittering movie show, while the moons reflection on the water is a private treat.

You can break that lunar spell and still-water ambience with just a hop, skip, and a dive from the living rooms patio doors, thanks to the jutting-out deck, like a stand-out pier over the pond.

Its a glorious bit of genius, anchoring and connecting the house itself to the lake/pond.

You could replicate this house anywhere, but a site like this? Youd never get this again, Terry ODriscoll told Rose Martin of this newspaper when she visited to feature it in 2011, in the first month or so of the Irish Examiners relaunched Property and Interiors supplement.

Since then, it has also featured in a string of Irish interiors magazines, as well as in the UK in publications such as 25 Beautiful Homes.

It was good looking back in 11, and its even better now as landscaping has taken an even more firm hold; in holiday season peaks, Terry has moved out and rented it to holidaymakers who relish this retreat from the bustle of busy beaches and bays.

Having been home, and holiday hideaway, its now up for new appreciative ownership too.

A rugged landscape, secluded position and spectacular views over a private lake, this property is simply a place apart, enthuses estate agent Maeve McCarthy as she prepares to start viewings at Lake House, and where she feels the interest in the main will come from overseas or from Dublin, and mostly from couples or families with older children, old enough at least to be comfortable with Lake Houses USP or selling feature, its just add water setting.

Add in creature comforts in a high-end four-bed, four-bath 2,225 sq ft house with design flair and nous, a landscape which naturally feeds and drains the lake so it never dries out, or (more importantly) never overflows, in a setting half a mile from the coast road between Schull and Goleen, beaches at Barleycove, towns like Bantry and Skibbereen a short drive away, and Cork city and international airport a 90-minute world away, and this is indeed a rare bird of an offer.

The houses low-slung design, with wings set at right angles and topped with mono pitch roofs, mimics the hills which climb up from this 1.65 acre site. Visible near one hills crown is a slender

stone cairn, one of two such stone edifices used by sea-farers along the rocky, indented coastline to, literally and litorally, get their bearings.

Here too, on the property, theres a steeply climbing gravel path up to a seating spot which has the full 360 degree views over hills, valleys, sky, and sea, and of Irelands teardrop the Fastnet rock and its precarious-looking lighthouse, miles out to sea, and where Terry ODriscolls own brother has been a lighthouse keeper.

They surely must have been tempted to each use the line I can see your house from here...!

The sibling who designed, and built, and kitted out this one-off pad is modest about the building itself, saving his energies for eulogising the site and telling tales of the wildlife which has come to colonise the enhanced lake, now moved from brackish pond to clean water asset.

There are ducks galore, mallard as tame as anything, moorhens and waterhens, herons, foxes, hares and rabbits, and freshwater fish too have started to increase in species (the fish spawn comes on in ducks feet, Terry explains).

The mallard, it seems, are as at-home on the water as they are on the deck, and in the house itself, and the ducklings love a waddle through the living room in search of crisps, pasta, and anything else that grabs their fancy: I have to check around the house before locking up when I leave, in case theyre in and would be stuck, Terry says of his native worldly-wise webbed waddlers.

In terms of creature comforts for humans, Lake House has its living quarters in one wing, ranging from kitchen through to a dining room, and on via retractable, sliding doors to a main, lofty-ceilinged 22 by 18 living room, with feature chimney-breast flanked by an artily-stacked log store and book shelves.

This main rooms scene-stealing, scene setting piece de resistance is the full-glazed gable wall, with French doors to the pointed deck, seeming to cut into the lake like a ships prow, and with chunky, wharf-like ropes (from CH Marine in Skibb) threaded between posts as a suitably maritime-looking protector (in case it all goes wrong, theres a lifebelt on the houses gable wall...).

The two-winged rock-solid house, on immense foundations packed with steel, is entered via a central linking hall with on-high clerestory window, and there are views from the hall through a study to the lake.

Then, its off to the left to the bedrooms wing, with three of the four bedrooms here having exterior access, via glazed doors, to the graveled paths skirting the lake.

The master bedrooms off at the far end, a decent 17 by 10; it too has a stack of corded timber logs up the side of an open fireplaces chimney-breast, and has a large en suite bathroom with enormous wet-room double shower at one end with rainforest shower, and a bath at the other end.

Following the principles of good design, the main bathroom, and another bedrooms en suite, are also grouped close by for easy plumbing pipe runs, and also allowing for the lake views from the maximum number of rooms.

Decor wise, its muted, calm and contemplative, with clean lines and angles, and with long interior views too.

Most walls are white, with the odd blast of earthy colour, but its up to the artwork and furniture in the main to inject colour and personality.

One bedroom has a feature brick wall insert section, painted, acting as sort of visual bedhead but rock solid to the touch, and floors are walnut, in the main, cream tiles in kitchen and bathrooms and carpet in the bedrooms.

Heating is via oil and radiators, plus the sizeable Esse multi-fuel stove in the living rooms and the main bedrooms fireplace.

Solar panels provide lashings of hot water, and theres even an outdoor shower by the floating pontoon on the lake, where a raised seating wall is much used in fine weather for barbecues and al fresco dining (locally sourced duck, anyone?).

VERDICT: A new bog-standard bearer, with its toes in the water, the Lake House is head and shoulders above the throng.
Economy Thant Myint-U: The Number One Challenge is De-Isolation

Thant Myint-U, historian and founder of the Yangon Heritage Trust, discusses Burmas challenges, economic outlook, and relations with China.

RANGOON  With a new government still almost six weeks from taking power, The Irrawaddys founding editor-in-chief Aung Zaw speaks with author and founder of the Yangon Heritage Trust Thant Myint-U on the countrys challenges and economic outlook, the peace process and relations with China. Following is an edited transcript of a longer interview, which can be viewed in full below.

Welcome to The Irrawaddy, Thant Myint-U. Were very happy to have you here. Id like to shoot with the first question. As the NLD [National League for Democracy]-led government comes to power in April, Id like you to share your perspective, your optimism. What are the challenges and opportunities facing the country and the government?

Thank you very much, Im very happy to be here. I think in general Im very optimistic. We all know the challenges: The transition to democracy is at best half-finished, theres no agreement on constitutional change, we have major economic challenges, issues from land to electricity to other things related to the growth of the economy. We have very weak institutions.

On the other hand, I think what unites almost everyone in this country, 99 percent of the people in this country, is that there is a desperate desire to catch up with the rest of the region. And I can feel from everyone, from very top to ordinary people, that they dont want to remain the poorest country in the region. They want to see growth, they want to see economic change, and they want to see it in some kind of freer country and, if possible, a more democratic country. And I think that energy is whats going to animate a lot of what comes next We know more or less what the prescription is, and weve seen so many other successful transitions to democracy as well.

Before we talk about this prescription, Id like to hear your opinion on the reform process, because there has been renewed interest in Burma among donors and investors. But how can the country maintain its momentum, attract new foreign investment and donors, and increase its international engagement and image?

I think that even if not much more happened in terms of economic reform and everything else, I think we will still see growth, because were moving from a situation of really bad policies to not so bad policies, and usually when that happens, you see explosive growth. Its just because people suddenly have electricity, people have a solar panel, people have a motorbike, people have some stability. They can do five times, 10 times more than they could before. So I think just that momentum alone will help improve the livelihoods of a lot of peoplenot everyone, but a lot of people. I think the question is whether we move from that kind of growth5 percent, 6 percentor can we really have the explosive growth of countries like Korea in the 1980s10, 15 percent. That will require strategic government policies.

Were talking about the NLD and economic policies, which stay very much vague, but were also talking about expectations. Its very difficult once a government comes to power to manage expectations. There are lots of news articles talking about high expectations. But Burmese usually have very modest expectations. That may be a good thing for the new government. But on a business level, for international investors and donors, I think they will have very high expectations.

I think youre exactly right. Sometimes I think the problem here is people are too patient, and I think people will continue to be quite patient. To some extent, among the top people on different sides of the political establishment, theres some degree of we have all the issues right now about the immediate transition, but in general, theres a sense of what the way forward is. Its not like you have royalists on one side and communists on the other. Its not that kind of huge ideological division that weve experienced in this country as well in the past

Myanmar needs hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in infrastructure. It needs tens of billions of dollars, literally, in foreign investment for the infrastructure it needs for the economy to take off. It has a unique opportunity now to try to attract the investment needs. But again, for those things it needs the institutions that are going to come up with policies.

When you talk about institutions, we have very, very weak institutions. The question is: How can the international community and donors and investors help assist and encourage building stronger institutions in the country?

It has to be demand-driven, not supply-driven. Its the responsibility of a democratic government to have the policies, have the programs and compel the donors to have their aid fit with that strategy and with that program. Its not for the donors to decide.

But you dont want Burma to be aid-driven.

It shouldnt be aid-driven. Aid is going to be and should only be a small part of the picture. The main thing is how to attract the private investment, and then that donor assistance that might be required in the short or medium term that can complement that assistance I think in terms of institutions, if you go back to the last democratic period in the 1950s, it was very messy politics. But in the 1950s, we had a Burma civil service, we had a foreign office, we had a Rangoon university, we had a central bank, we had institutions that were some of the best in the region. We dont have any of those institutions now.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said herself a few weeks ago that peace is the biggest issue that our government will tackle and will try to resolve. Do you think theyre setting a very ambitious look at the peace and conflict issues? Because when we talk about peace, thats also related to business and industries in neighboring countries that are very influential in domestic politics in Burmas ethnic conflicts. How do you see this?

On every issue, I think its wrong to have an economic prescription that doesnt first look at the reality of the political economy herewho is making money; how? Unless you have that analysis first, its impossible to think about how the economy can change. What I mean is you cant have people coming in from outside coming up with ideas on whats worked outside without thinking about how the current system works That has to be the basis for thinking about how things can change.

U Nu said in 1949 well have peace within one year, so I think theres always been a hope and an expectation that we will have peace very soon. And I think its a noble expectation, and I think its a good focus. But I think we have to be clear that peace means different things. One is, peace and reconciliation between the different peoples of the countrylinguistically, religiously, ethnically defined. If we move toward a more federal system of government, more local democracy, more equality, less discrimination, a lot of those issues can be, I think, slowly, resolveda more inclusive civil service, for example, more inclusive institutions in general. Thats slightly different from the question of how to deal with the armed groups, many of whom want those things, but many of whom will also have other aims and ambitions, on a personal level or an institutional level in terms of economic interests, in terms of revenues and everything else.

I think there will be many armed groups who feel that they are legitimately fighting for the self-determination of their people or for non-discrimination. But we all know that in different parts of the country, where youve had a war for seven years, you also have an entrenched political economy from which all sides benefit in often illegal ways, corrupt ways

President Thein took the credit for building peace and signing the NCA [nationwide ceasefire agreement], but critics have said its half-baked success. A Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-government will carry the torch, I believe, and I dont think they want to reset this whole issue; they will continue to proceed. But I think [the new governments] approach will be very much different.

I think that because theres this NCA framework, this very broad framework, you can read many different things into it, you can take it down very many different paths. I think theres going to be a lot of both the kind of homework I mentioned, but also I think we need a lot of out-of-the box thinking. We dont need the kind of peace deal that wouldnt work in 1949. We need the kind of peace deal thats going to work in 2020 or 2030.

If you look at the past and the history of our country, particularly those in the north have never been governed. We talk about federalism and a federal union, but the hill people are still very resentful toward this Burmanization and the army playing a very dominant role.

At the national level I mentioned the issues of inclusivity, of non-discrimination, of equality. At the local level, it has to be some degree of local democracy. People have to feel that theyre governing themselves or at least that people from another part of the country arent coming in and governing them. There are issues of state-building, building basic state capacity, but there hasnt been state capacity ever, even in British time

In a way, one could argue, why not have the most liberal approach, why not give everyone autonomy, why not give maximum autonomy and let people govern themselves all the way down to the village level? And I think it makes a lot of sense up to a point. But when you factor in that were still a relatively small country, where what defines being Burmese is partly that were not of India or China, then it becomes a much more complicated calculation to think about

The important thing to think about is, what can meaningfully be achieved in five years? And I think at least no violence is one thing. That alone benefits a lot of people who have been subject to violence and displacement over many decades. Basic developmentthats inclusive, thats not exploitativethats actually going to benefit millions of people in conflict-affected areas by building some local institutions and self-government.

Talking about China Recently you wrote in the Financial Times that Burma should reset its policy, rebalance its policy with China. How do you see an NLD-led government doing that?

First of all, I think its good that sanctions have virtually been lifted, that theres a potential to rebalance relations, that relations with the West are getting better, that relations with Japan are getting deeper. I think theres absolutely no reason why this country cant be friends with everyone China is a very special case, because over the last 20 years China has had a track record that people will judge. China has been involved in projects that have been very unpopular. And many people have a view of China that is often very negative, so thats a very different case than with any other country.

At the same time, we are next to the greatest industrial revolution in human history. China is an enormous engine, or has been, for global economic growth. China has the tens of billions of dollars that can be invested for the kind of infrastructure investment that this country desperately needs. The question is, how can we fit these two stories together? How can we attract and have the kind of Chinese investment that will actually be good for this country? And that means not simply responding to Chinese requests, whether its a dam project or a deep-sea port. Its for the Burmese side to think through what does it wantdoes it want one deep-sea port, two, where should it be, does it want railway lines improved, where should it runand then to ask the Chinese as well as the Japanese as well as the Americans as well as everyone else to invest within a framework that the Burmese people themselves decided democratically and in an informed way.

When we talk about China I think the conventional wisdom is that China is unhappy with the US coming in, the Western influence. Do you agree with that notion?

Not completely. Because weve been so isolated, because were so used to no competition over Burma, we see a little bit of competition and we overestimate it sometimes. I dont have a sense that in Washington or Tokyo or Beijing that they want this to be a point of conflict. There are many other more serious issues strategically. We need to make the case for how Burma can be the place for cooperation between all of these countries So for Burma, the biggest challenge when we talk about democracywe think about the economy, we think about the peace processthe number one challenge is de-isolation. Its been isolated for 40, 50 years on its own and then under sanctions, coming out of this isolation brings so many different challenges. If we go back into the global world and global economy and global society with the kind of narrow nationalisms that have developed in this country over 60, 70 years, we will not succeed.

When we talk about de-isolation, we talk about how Burma looks at itself and the world. If Burma fails to acknowledge its prominence, its strategic location and its potential, I think theres also a danger in that. Burma will fail. Our No. 1 asset is our geographic location between Asean and China and Indiathe biggest markets that are growing in the world Now we have millions of Burmese living in Thailand. We also have hundreds of thousands, millions of Burmese who have relatives in Australia, the UK, America, all these places, for the first time ever. The Burmese are becoming, without knowing it, globalized again in a certain way.

Talking about foreign policy, how do you want to move the country to the next [phase]?

I think in terms of foreign policy, its about moving a little bit away from the old, non-aligned approach, which is a little bit defensive, at least since the 1960s, and toward a much more active foreign policy This country should be much more involved with international issues like climate change, for example, which is going to deeply affect this country more than almost any other country. Our discussions about climate change, international peace and security, health risks like the spread of infectious disease, we should raise our profile on all of these things.
Last week, when Apple refused to obey a court order asking it to effectively create a backdoor into iOS, its mobile operating system, it looked like a straightforward fight with the FBI.

But now, it looks like the FBI has contrived a situation to try and force Apple to do what many government officials and their supporters have been asking for: get the company to create backdoors into the iPhone.

That is the only conclusion one can draw after a remarkable few days following the FBI's obtaining of the court order asking Apple to create a way to bypass security on an iPhone 5C in order that it could gain access to data on the phone.

After Apple rejected the court order, the FBI filed a motion on Friday, asking that Apple be forced to comply with the earlier court order.

The iPhone that the FBI wants to access belongs to the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health; it was being used by its employee Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two terrorists who launched an attack last year that killed 14 people.

Apple did not sit quietly by while the FBI was going to court; it began toinformation to the media, something very unusual for a company that only rarely indulges in leaks.

And from these leaks, it looks like Apple has been trying to help the FBI to gain access to the date since January; four options were apparently proposed for data recovery by the company, none of which involved creating a backdoor.

A passcode can be set on any iPhone and when this is entered one can use the device. All data is stored in the cloud and to look at that, the iPhone needs to have its correct Apple ID  again created by the user  entered.

The FBI does not know the passcode. It cannot guess it for two reasons: as one keeps entering passcodes, the time one has to wait to enter the next increases. And random guessing will work only up to a point after which the phone locks up and become useless.

The FBI's initial court order asked Apple to make changes in the firmware to remove these two limitations. It also asked Apple to provide a means of loading this firmware on the iPhone in question. This would then allow the FBI to indulge in random guessing of the passcode using brute force.

Now it turns out that the Apple ID on the phone was changed after the FBI took possession of it; the change was done via the web. Hence one means of gaining access to the data went out the window.

The FBI was pushing the line that this change of ID was done by the San Bernardino County but this has been countered by the revelation that the change was made in co-operation with the FBI. (Feb 22: The FBI has now admitted it asked for the Apple ID to be reset.)

After all these developments, it looks like the claim made by Apple chief executive Tim Cook is true: the FBI wants to create a legal precedent for asking Apple for a backdoor into iOS. This would open the door for everyone and his dog to follow suit.

And it looks like Cook was right to refuse to comply. The FBI has been caught out, not for the first time in its history, of trying to be too clever.
Telstra will offer its comprehensive Australian network with Samsungs new Galaxy S7 smartphones from Friday 11 March.

Customers can pre-order Galaxy S7 from 26 February by heading to telstra.com/galaxys7 Telstra's Galaxy S7 site.

Customers who pre-order the new Galaxy phones online at from February 26 will receive a Samsung Gear VR for free.

Telstras Director of Devices, Andrew Volard said the new smartphones were set to be a hit with Australians.

Luxurious design, standout processing power, high-speed web performance and the return of much-loved features like water and dust protection are set to make this the most popular Galaxy smartphone launch yet.

Customers upgrading to the new smartphones can look forward to the fastest web speeds yet on Samsungs flagship phones with both the S7 and the S7 edge supporting category 9 LTE download speeds of up to 450Mbps on Telstras 4GX network. That means faster streaming, sharing and surfing on the web when in 4GX areas, Mr Volard said.

Telstra customers will also benefit from next-generation voice calling (voice over LTE) which delivers high-definition voice quality and faster call set up times.

Other features customers will love include Samsungs new 12MP Dual Sensor camera with even faster auto focus and outstanding lowlight performance, an immersive Quad HD display and Micros SD card support for expandable memory.

In addition to offering the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, Telstra will cater for Australias growing appetite for virtual reality technology by bringing the Gear VR to participating Telstra stores across the nation.

Both smartphones will be available Black, Silver and Gold on a range of Go Mobile and Go Business mobile plans.
Users of the iPad Pro that want to connect to remote desktops will soon get some relief from problems they face using Parallels Access.

The virtualization software company is testing a version of its remote access application specifically written for the big-screen iPad, which fixes some trouble the software has been having with the devices massive touchscreen.

On Sunday, the company demonstrated it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Parallels Access app lets people with mobile devices like iPads, iPhones, and Android tablets access their Mac and Windows computers while theyre away from home, without having to go through a ton of trouble configuring a remote desktop client. Users of the iPad Pro may have experienced some trouble with using Parallels Access  especially when it comes to features like selecting areas of the screen.

Kurt Schmucker, a senior product manager at Parallels, said in an interview that the company hopes to release the update sometime in the next couple of months. The update is currently in its first beta, and Parallels will be opening it up for an internal company test soon.

The results of that beta will determine how much work is still to be done on the new update  and how long it will take to be made available to users.

In addition to the iPad Pro features, Parallels Accesss game mode will also get an update, Schmucker said. Its still in early tests, but the forthcoming changes will allow users playing first-person shooter games on their PC or Mac through Access to shoot by tapping on the touchscreen.

The iPad Pro update will be available for free when its released, but users will still have to pay a US $19.99 per year subscription fee to use Parallels Access beyond an initial 30-day trial period.
Jewish Humor Central is a daily publication to start your day with news of the Jewish world that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas. It's also a collection of sources of Jewish humor--anything that brings a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling to readers. Our posts include jokes, satire, books, music, films, videos, food, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some are new, and some are classics. We post every morning, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy!
Mark Ruffalo Credit: Getty Images

By of the

This year, two actors with Wisconsin ties are going head to head at the Academy Awards. It won't be the first time.

Sunday night, Mark Rylance and Mark Ruffalo will be waiting for actress Patricia Arquette to read the name of the winner of the Oscar for best supporting actor: Rylance, the Britain-born actor who went to the University School of Milwaukee, nominated for "Bridge of Spies"; Ruffalo, the Kenosha native nominated for a third time (after 2014's "Foxcatcher" and 2010's "The Kids Are All Right") for "Spotlight."

In 1932, Alfred Lunt, the theater legend who made his home at Ten Chimneys in Genesee Depot, received his only Oscar nomination, for "The Guardsman," but lost to Racine native Fredric March ("Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"), who tied with Wallace Beery ("The Champ") for the award.

Lunt's wife, acting legend Lynn Fontanne, was also nominated for "The Guardsman"; she lost, too.

March, who was nominated the year before for "The Royal Family of Broadway" (1930), won best actor again for "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946). He also was nominated in the same category for "A Star Is Born" (1937) and "Death of a Salesman" (1951).

Joining Rylance and Ruffalo in Hollywood on Sunday will be Adam Stockhausen; the Marquette University alum, who won in 2015 for best production design for "The Grand Budapest Hotel," is nominated again this year for "Bridge of Spies." He also was nominated in 2014 in the same category for "12 Years a Slave."

Here are some more of Oscar's Badger State connections (sources include imdb.com, uwalumni.com and oscars.org):

Jim Rygiel: The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee alum won the Academy Award for best visual effects for each of the three "Lord of the Rings" movies  "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), "The Two Towers" (2002) and "The Return of the King" (2003).

Spencer Tracy: The Milwaukee native won Oscars for best actor for "Captains Courageous" (1937) and "Boys Town" (1938). He was nominated seven more times, all for best actor, for "San Francisco" (1936), "Father of the Bride" (1950), "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955), "The Old Man and the Sea" (1958), "Inherit the Wind" (1960), "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961) and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967).

John Ridley: The Mequon native won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for "12 Years a Slave" (2013).

Orson Welles: On his first movie  "Citizen Kane" (1941)  Kenosha-born Welles was nominated for best original screenplay, best actor and best director, winning for original screenplay. He was never nominated for a competitive Oscar again, although he did receive an honorary Academy Award in 1970.

Don Ameche: After five decades as a light-comedy star and supporting player, the Kenosha native won for best supporting actor for "Cocoon" (1985).

Walter Mirisch: A UW-Madison grad, Mirisch, one of Hollywood's most progressive and prolific producers in the 1960s, took home the Oscar for best picture for "In the Heat of the Night" (1967). He also was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1983 and the Irving Thalberg Award in 1978.

Errol Morris: Another UW-Madison grad, the documentary filmmaker won for best documentary feature for "The Fog of War" (2003).

Gene Wilder: Born in Milwaukee, Wilder was nominated for work on both sides of the camera: for best supporting actor for "The Producers" (1967) and for best original screenplay for "Young Frankenstein" (1974).

Willem Dafoe: The alum of Milwaukee's Theatre X and an Appleton native, the prolific actor was nominated for best supporting actor for "Platoon" (1986) and "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000).

Gena Rowlands: Born in Madison, Rowlands received best actress nominations for "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974) and "Gloria" (1980). She received an honorary Oscar last fall.

Agnes Moorehead: Before she was the witch-in-law Endora on "Bewitched," Moorehead  who lived in Reedsburg, went to UW-Madison and taught in Soldiers Grove  was nominated four times for best supporting actress, for "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942), "Mrs. Parkington" (1944), "Johnny Belinda" (1948) and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964).

Nancy Olson: The Milwaukee native received a nomination for best supporting actress for "Sunset Blvd." (1950).

Michael Mann: The UW-Madison grad has been nominated four times, for best picture (as producer) for "The Aviator" (2004) and "The Insider" (1999), and for best director and best adapted screenplay for "The Insider."

Joan Cusack: Another UW-Madison alum, she's been nominated for supporting actress twice: for "Working Girl" (1988) and "In & Out" (1997).

Jeremy Scahill: The journalist and Wauwatosa East High School alum was nominated for best documentary feature for "Dirty Wars" (2013).

Hattie McDaniel: Before she went to Hollywood, the first African-American to win an Oscar  for best supporting actress for "Gone With the Wind" (1939)  sang and worked as a maid at Sam Pick's Club Madrid in Waukesha County in the late 1920s and early 1930s. (Look for a story on McDaniel's time in Milwaukee in Wednesday's Green Sheet.)

Rob Marshall: The Madison native was nominated for best director for "Chicago" (2002).

Robert Stone: Born in England and a graduate of UW-Madison, Stone was nominated for best documentary feature for "Radio Bikini" (1988).

Ellen Corby: Before she was TV's Grandma Walton, the Racine native was nominated for best supporting actress for "I Remember Mama" (1948)

Brian Donlevy: He was born in Ireland, but Donlevy moved with his family to Sheboygan Falls before he was a teenager. He was nominated for best supporting actor for "Beau Geste" (1939).

Eric Simonson: The Milwaukee theater veteran won an Oscar for best documentary short subject for "A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin" (2005), and was nominated for best documentary short subject for "On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom" (2000).

Howard Hawks: The director of some of the smartest and funniest movies of Hollywood's Golden Age grew up in Neenah. His only Oscar nomination for best director was for "Sergeant York" (1941); he also received an honorary Oscar in 1975.

Glenn Silber: The UW-Madison grad was nominated for best documentary feature for "The War at Home" (1979), about the protests against the Vietnam War in Madison, and "El Salvador: Another Vietnam" (1981).

Nicholas Ray: The veteran director, born in Galesville, received just one Oscar nomination, for best motion picture story for "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955).

Terry Zwigoff: The Appleton native, who broke through as director of the documentary "Crumb," about alternative-comics legend Robert Crumb, was nominated for best adapted screenplay with graphic novelist Daniel Clowes for "Ghost World," which Zwigoff also directed (2001).

Tom Rosenberg: Prolific filmmaker and UW-Madison grad Rosenberg shared the producer credit with Clint Eastwood, Albert Ruddy and Paul Haggis on best picture winner "Million Dollar Baby" (2004).

Marshall Brickman: A former TV writer, Brickman, a UW-Madison grad, shared the Oscar for best original screenplay with Woody Allen for "Annie Hall" (1977), and a nomination for best original screenplay for "Manhattan" (1979), which he also co-wrote with Allen.

Peter Weller: Best known for his acting ("RoboCop"), the Stevens Point native was nominated for best live-action short film for "Partners" (1993).
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Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies arrested 15 drivers suspected of being drunk, including four repeat offenders, on county freeways between 4 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Sunday, Sheriff's Captain Scott Stiff said in a news release.

Thomas Goodluck, 51, of Milwaukee was arrested on suspicion of 4th-offense operating while intoxicated, Stiff said. Oliver Principe, 37, of Racine was arrested on suspicion of third-offense drunken driver.

James Colle, 42, of Milwaukee and Stephanie Hendren, 28, of Oak Creek each were arrested on suspicion of their second offenses, according to the news release.

The eleven drivers arrested on suspicion of their first drunken-driving offense included one man from Chicago and two male residents of Waukesha County. The others were Milwaukee County residents.

The Sheriff's Office has arrested 1,448 repeat offenders since starting its weekend Operation Drive Sober on county freeways in January 2010, Stiff said.
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A pair of hunters, including a Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy, have agreed to plead guilty to bringing a black bear and a timber wolf illegally killed in Ontario into the U.S.

Reid X. Viertel of West Allis and Terry Schmit of Franklin are each charged with illegally importing the bear in 2013, and Viertel faces a second count related to the importation of the timber wolf in 2012.

Schmit, a 19-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was placed on administrative duty earlier this month for failing to report that he was under federal investigation.

Each count is punishable by up to a year in jail and $100,000 fine, plus a year of extended supervision. The charges, federal misdemeanors, and the plea agreements were filed Thursday. No hearing dates have been set.

As part of the plea bargain, both men gave up their rights to fish, hunt or trap wildlife in North America until 2021.

Each has already pleaded guilty in Ontario to various offenses related to the same incidents and together were fined a total of $11,000 and banned from hunting there for 15 years. The court there found Viertel had forged documents to obtain export licenses, among other violations.

According to Milwaukee federal court records:

In 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources suspected Viertel and other Wisconsin residents of operating illegal hunting and guiding services around Dryden, about 120 miles north of International Falls, Minn. The OMNR asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for assistance in the investigation.

The Ontario authorities found a Viertel Facebook post about game he and associates supposedly took in Ontario, but the authorities found no record of him having been licensed to do so.

They did find an export permit Viertel got in February 2013 for four wolves, two foxes, a fisher and three weasels, all of which he claimed were gifted to him by a Canadian trapper.

Viertel gave a similar story about the bear he tried to export in 2013, saying it was also a gift, from a different Ontario resident. Viertel, Schmit and the Ontario man had registered the bear there, but claimed the local man had shot it.

However, investigators saw a post on Viertel's Facebook page of the men with the bear, claiming Schmit had taken it. He did not have a license to hunt bear in Ontario.

The Ontario man under whose license the bear had been registered told investigators Schmit shot the bear.

When U.S. authorities interviewed Viertel in February 2014, he gave conflicting accounts about who shot the bear and the wolf he had imported in 2012.

Schmit told the U.S. investigators he did not shoot the bear, though he admitted telling everyone except the Canadian natural resources officials that he did. He also admitted paying to have the bear mounted, and that it was on display at his house. It was later seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By August 2015, Schmit had changed his story and admitted killing the bear illegally, and to importing illegally with Viertel.
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A state Department of Justice agent is on administrative leave after admitting he pulled over three teenagers and confronted them at gunpoint, resulting in a dayslong search by other agencies for a suspected police impersonator.

The teen driver gave a dramatic account of the Feb. 10 stop to WISC-TV in Madison. He said a car with flashing red, blue and white lights pulled him over on U.S. 18, the Beltline Highway, near Park St. about midnight. A man got out and began pounding on his window. He and his two 16-year-old passengers put their hands up, he said.

Then the man ordered him to roll down his window. The driver said when he did, the man put a gun to his head, reached in and took the keys from the ignition and threw them in the grass.

He asked why the teen ran a red light back on Park St., then drove off. The teens called 911.

Town of Madison police Chief Scott Gregory told the station his department contacted other area law enforcement and no one knew of any of their officers in a black Dodge Durango in that area. Gregory's department began investigating the possibility of someone impersonating an officer.

On Saturday, WISC-TV reported the surprising follow up: The "fake cop" was actually an agent from the Division of Criminal Investigations at the Department of Justice.

Gregory had spoken with the agent on Feb. 15, and basically confirmed the teens' story. Gregory decided not to recommend charges against the agent, which neither he nor the DOJ would name. He did ask the Dane County district attorney's office to review the matter.

DOJ spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said Saturday that the agent has been put on administrative duty, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at his South Carolina Republican presidential primary rally in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. Credit: Associated Press

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The Clinton political dynasty is still alive. The Bush dynasty has been routed. Their contrasting fates, to this point at least, tell us much about our two parties, the nature of this year's presidential election and the dueling legacies themselves.

The Republican and Democratic contests are very different, beginning with the fact that Hillary Clinton did not have to deal with Donald Trump, who targeted Jeb Bush with a viciousness rarely seen in contemporary politics. For months, the self-contained former Florida governor responded ineffectually to an opponent who flouted all the norms. This only made it easier for Trump to mock him as "low energy" and "weak."

Bush also was entitled to a certain bitterness as he watched Marco Rubio, his ambitious and impatient protege, seize his natural base in the party: voters who loathe both Trump and Ted Cruz. Rubio's definition of loyalty did not include yielding to his one-time mentor.

Bush finally found his voice toward the end of his campaign, and he often stood alone in denouncing Trump's brutal Islamophobia. He thereby bravely upheld the most estimable parts of his family's public service tradition. But his efforts came too late, and were, in any event, out of tune with so many in a party eager to respond to angry and exclusionary rhetoric.

Clinton now faces only one opponent, and Bernie Sanders, especially in contrast to the often thuggish behavior of Republican candidates toward each other, has been positively courtly. Building a durable progressive wing of the Democratic Party clearly matters more to him than scoring points off Clinton.

Still, Sanders has exposed real weaknesses in Clinton's long-term position. The issues he has used against her  particularly her ties to Wall Street and her acceptance of large speaking fees from financial firms  are matters Republicans surely will bring up again should she secure the Democratic nomination.

In a party whose election victories are increasingly dependent on heavy turnout among younger voters (when they don't show up, the Democrats lose, as they did in 2010 and 2014), Sanders has overwhelmed Clinton among those under 45. He did it again in Nevada's caucuses on Saturday.

Clinton's "trust deficit" is a cliche. But, like her weakness among the young, it remains part of her own ongoing legacy problem. According to the entrance poll reported by CNN, a quarter of Nevada caucusgoers listed honesty and trustworthiness as the most important qualities they were seeking in a candidate; they backed Sanders by about 6-to-1.

Clinton prevailed anyway and her Nevada victory dealt Sanders a serious blow. The state's caucus system gave Sanders' energetic followers a real chance at victory. He fell short.

Endurance under trial is a defining characteristic of a Clinton brand that also has the benefit of being less established than the Bush trademark. The Clintons have been in the public consciousness since 1992. Bushes have been in presidential politics since 1980 and on the national stage since 1952, when Prescott Bush, Jeb's grandfather, entered the U.S. Senate. If the Clintons aren't exactly Facebook, neither are they General Motors or Studebaker.

And while frustration on the Democratic left with Bill Clinton's pro-business policies has fed support for Sanders, the antipathy to both Bush presidencies on the Republican right runs far deeper. As Laura Ingraham, the conservative talk radio host, told The Washington Post in 2015: "The Bushes have always underestimated the depth of the base's dissatisfaction with their policies." Moreover, even some of Bush's natural allies among Republican professionals worried that public memories of the peaceful and prosperous Bill Clinton years were much fonder than those of a George W. Bush presidency characterized by an unpopular war and a financial meltdown.

These problems fed an ambivalence in the Bush circle about the legacy issue itself. Both the Bush and Clinton logos highlighted their first rather than last names. But the exclamation point in "Jeb!" paradoxically underscored his awareness of the lack of enthusiasm for another Bush presidency.

Jeb can console himself that his son George P., a Texas politician, already is in the family business, and that being scorned by fellow Republicans is part of the family's tradition. When Prescott Bush successfully sought re-election to the Senate in 1956, his biographer Mickey Herskowitz recounts, some in the party hoped he'd lose because of his stands in favor of immigration and higher taxes.

"I was amazed," Prescott Bush said, "that they would take so small a view as that of a man who was trying to do his damnedest for the Republican Party."

Jeb can relate.

E.J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post. Email ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne
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Economic growth in the United States is expected to strengthen in 2016 for a third year in a row. What does this mean in terms of jobs? The economy is on the mend and labor market conditions are continuing to improve. The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9% from its level of 8% in January 2013. At 15.7%, the youth unemployment rate is still high.

Despite a more encouraging picture in the United States, many women and men are working in low-paid jobs and too many people are still jobless. Income inequality continues to rise. Recent evidence suggests that weakening of labor market institutions (including low unionization rates) is strongly linked to the rise in income inequality in the developed economies. In the U.S., a principal source of inequality lies in the labor market, including wages.

On a global level, the International Labor Organization expects that worldwide unemployment will rise in both 2016 and 2017. In January, the ILO annual World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) forecast reported total global unemployment at 197.1 million people  27 million more than the pre-crisis level of 2007. Beyond these stark numbers, there is strong evidence that rising income inequality undermines economic growth and employment creation. Almost eight years after the global financial crisis, urgent action is needed to boost the number of decent work opportunities or we risk intensified social tensions.

The ILO is focused not only on job creation but also on decent jobs and the future of work. Today, many people are working in jobs that did not exist 20 years ago. Advances in technology have created and eliminated many jobs, and continues to change the way we work. The emerging "gig economy" includes "work on demand apps" generating workers who drive for Uber and other forms of "crowd work." These are new ways of finding work. New technology enables an employee in Milwaukee to work for an employer in New York or in London. This work can supplement income and create access to work that bypasses discrimination barriers in traditional job seeking.

There also are important issues that come with new forms of work. Policy-makers are carefully considering key questions such as who is an employee and who is an employer. How do basic labor protections such as safety and health, wages and hours and access to health and pension apply to workers in the new economy?

There is much evidence that well-designed labor market and social policies are essential for boosting economic growth and addressing the jobs crisis. If policy-makers tailor current and new policies to extend worker protections and promote new forms of work, communities also can use these tools to tackle inequality and unemployment. Today, a focused effort to strengthen global, federal and state policies promoting decent work is urgently needed.

Apprenticeship is one path to decent jobs for both adults and youths. It addresses skills gaps and labor market shortages and combines on-the-job training with classroom instruction that is often paid and creates a trained workforce ready to enter the workplace. This also benefits employers seeking a skilled workforce.

President Barack Obama has dedicated $175 million to an American Apprenticeship grant initiative that will help 46 public-private partnerships create more opportunities for both workers and employers to participate in apprenticeship programs. At the state level, Wisconsin supports apprenticeship programs with training for 2,500 high school students and incentives for business owners to participate. These state-led and federal programs should be ramped up to provide opportunities to more people, including those in disenfranchised communities.

The recent push in the United States to raise the minimum wage represents an important step toward tackling income inequality, but clearly more measures will be needed to reverse the inequality trend. This should include efforts to close the gender gap, address youth unemployment and inactivity, and integrate immigrant workers into the labor market.

There are no easy answers to fixing inequality, whether in education or employment on the global and local level. As we move into the future, inequality and discrimination must be tackled at the core of our efforts to broaden the decent work agenda and promote inclusive economic growth.

Nancy Donaldson directs the Washington, D.C., office of the International Labor Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations.

FIRESIDE FORUM

Topic:Inequality and Work

With Nancy Donaldson, director of the International Labor Organization's Washington, D.C., office.

Local Respondent: Sheila Cochran, chief operating officer/secretary-treasurer, Milwaukee Area Labor Council

Details: 7 p.m. Tuesday, UWM Student Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., Fireside Lounge. The series is free; sponsored by the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Institute of World Affairs and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

More information:www.iwa.uwm.edu
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Scalia and the law

Conservative columnist Christian Schneider bemoans the politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court as did, says Schneider, recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia. ("Court fight proves Scalia right," Editorials, Feb. 18).

It's an odd argument for a political writer to make. According to some, Scalia was not a conservative/theocratic partisan but just a humble "originalist" interpreting the Constitution and law as it was plainly intended (only liberal judges are political, you know). Few judges were more politically/religiously motivated than Scalia, which is precisely why Republicans don't want President Barack Obama to even bother nominating Scalia's replacement as they hope for a Republican president.

Because law is always a matter of perfecting democracy, no American justice or judge is free of the responsibility to interpret the Constitution and subsequent law in light of democratic progress. Law as we understand it has indeed evolved, and to deny that fact is just silly. Had United States law not evolved, slavery would be legal and women still could not vote. The failure of the Supreme Court to view the Second Amendment in terms of modern reality (and original intent) is now doing great public harm, as is the legal ruling that a corporation is a person.

If we want to elevate Scalia above the political fray, we should focus on Scalia's opinion regarding pizza: deep-dish is not pizza, said Scalia at the Chicago-Kent School of Law in 2011, "real pizza is Neapolitan. It is thin. It is chewy and crispy, OK?" Most New Yorkers at least, regardless of political party, agree.

John Kaufman

Wauwatosa



Hold parents accountable

How many innocent babies need to die before something is truly done about co-sleeping deaths ("Girl's death was 2nd at home/Boy died in earlier co-sleeping incident," Feb. 18)?

I have written several legislators in the past to enforce a co-sleeping safety law. If a child is killed due to co-sleeping, the adults should be prosecuted. Perhaps, involuntary manslaughter. They are responsible for this act.

You are not allowed out of the hospital with a baby unless you have a proper car seat. I will be the first volunteer to check homes before babies go home. If there is no safe place, the babies don't leave.

There are several places that offer free, safe, cribs. Stop trying to teach. This has gone nowhere, and precious, innocent babies are dying. Start holding these people accountable. Protect life!

Pat Mierendorf

Franklin



Walker undermining state

I read that Gov. Scott Walker slashed millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood ("Scott Walker signs bills reducing funding for Planned Parenthood," Feb. 18).

Who is this person who claims to be "governing" our state when in fact he is systematically undermining it? Planned Parenthood serves an important role in women's health in many, many ways, and yet Republicans have politicized it.

Who is really being served here by our elected body (although I certainly didn't elect the majority of these individuals)? Our governor and legislation slash Planned Parenthood funding, write into law changes in the way our civil jobs have been run and are systematically altering a fine university system by slashing money and changing the manner of tenure.

These "so-called" elected officials are anti-woman, anti-worker and anti-intellectualism, and I've had enough!

Maggie Melville

Cedarburg
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U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) introduced a bill recently that would repeal an obscure provision of the federal Clean Air Act aimed at curbing international air pollution. According to his office, it was an op-ed I published in Politico earlier this month that inspired his bill.

In my Politico piece, I argued that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should use this obscure provision  Section 115  to broadly, and more efficiently, regulate greenhouse gas emissions in this country. Not just from power plants or cars, but from all sources. Perry apparently did not like this idea, so he didn't wait long to act.

Section 115 allows the EPA to issue a broad rule mandating that every U.S. state cut its emissions by whatever amount the EPA determines is necessary to protect public health and welfare if two things happen.

First, the EPA must receive a report or studies from an "international agency" showing that U.S. air pollution is expected to endanger public health or welfare in a foreign country. The many reports put out by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change over the last few decades meet this requirement.

Second, the EPA must determine that the foreign country that is harmed by the U.S.'s pollution has given the U.S. "essentially the same rights with respect to the prevention ...of air pollution occurring in that country." In other words, there needs to be reciprocity. That's where the newly signed Paris Agreement becomes important. The Paris Agreement satisfies this reciprocity requirement because there are now nearly 190 countries planning to reduce their emissions, at least in part, to protect each other's health and welfare.

With both boxes in Section 115 checked, the EPA now has free reign to use the section to require blanket greenhouse gas reductions from the states. The agency could leave all of its prior greenhouse gas rules  for cars, power plants, landfills, transportation fuels and oil and gas wells  in place, for example, and issue a new rule ordering every state to cut its pollution by 28% from 2005 levels by 2025, which is what the U.S. has promised to do under the Paris Agreement. Or it could go much bigger than that and replace this patchwork of regulation with a more economically efficient and effective blanket rule requiring states to get whatever reductions the EPA believes are necessary. Each state would then have complete flexibility to decide which types of sources to regulate and by how much.

Some Republicans don't want climate regulation because they don't believe in the science. They are beyond convincing. But there also are many moderate Republicans who are worried about climate change but don't like government inefficiency and a hodgepodge of regulation. It's this latter group that should oppose Perry's bill.

Section 115 is the only sensible pathway in the Clean Air Act for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. We shouldn't repeal it.

Brian H. Potts is a partner in the Madison office of the law firm Foley & Lardner. He has published articles on the Clean Air Act in law journals published by Harvard, Yale, N.Y.U., and Berkeley.
Jacquelyn Ranallo (left) was last seen Nov. 18 when she visited her elderly mother in a Germantown nursing home. Police tape still stretches across the door of her Mequon home, where authorities found her purse, wallet, car keys and cellphone in her home and her car in the garage. Credit: Mequon police; Bruce Vielmetti

By of the

Mequon Court papers refer to Jacquelyn Ranallo as merely "the absentee."

But in plain English, the Mequon woman is "missing," a smiling face on fliers all over the city, vanished without a trace three months ago.

Ranallo, 53, was last seen Nov. 18, when she signed in to visit her elderly mother at a Germantown nursing home. Three days later, she didn't show up at friend's home for a scheduled dinner.

At a nephew's request, police broke into Ranallo's Mequon home and found her purse, wallet, car keys and cellphone  fully charged, but turned off. Her car was in the garage.

Searches, continued investigation, publicity and even a substantial reward haven't produced any real tips or clues about Ranallo, who most often went by the name Jackie.

"It's very difficult. We don't know what to think," said Ranallo's older sister, Julienne Burton of Texas. She has recently had to petition an Ozaukee County court to appoint her receiver of Ranallo's modest estate, to pay her bills and keep things going as the mystery deepens.

"It's been really frustrating," Mequon police Detective Chuck O'Connell said.

He said dogs searched all around Ranallo's home without picking up any scent. Officials drained a pond just northwest of her home in December, but found nothing. Boat searches of the Milwaukee River from Thiensville south to the county line likewise revealed nothing.

Police searched a storage unit Ranallo has in Germantown and nearby empty units. They checked all her phone and computer logs and interviewed many friends and relatives.

On Feb. 1, police announced a $15,000 reward for information.

"We're not ruling out anything," O'Connell said, "but there's nothing suspicious so far."

Ranallo grew up in Mequon, in the home she now owns just down the street from the police station. She was active in theater at Homestead High School.

She was in the musical senior year with Melissa Frank, and the two stayed friends through college at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Frank said Ranallo earned a communications degree, worked in television production, became a jockey and raced in Japan.

After quitting horse racing, she moved to California, where she was stunt double in the television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," and was an extra in some episodes of "Babylon 5." She got married, taught high school, sold real estate and did some announcing at a horse track, Frank said.

She divorced nearly 10 years ago and moved back to Mequon, where she held various outside sales jobs and continued her interest in theater, acting with local groups. She didn't have children, but was connected to her family, including nieces and nephews in the area.

No signs of trouble

Burton said she spoke with Ranallo about once a week and had talked with her the weekend before she disappeared. They discussed how the family's usual Thanksgiving plans were changing because their usual host had different plans.

"She sounded perfectly normal, perfectly fine," Burton said.

Ranallo's only health issues are arthritis and a thyroid condition she's had under control since childhood, Burton said.

Had she mentioned anything to her mother on Nov. 18? Burton said her mother has dementia and didn't even recall that Jackie had visited when a third sister stopped in two days later.

"It's a blessing she has no idea Jackie is missing," Burton said.

Could Ranallo have chosen to disappear?

"I know people do that, but it would be totally out of character for her," Burton said. "We don't believe she did. She hasn't accessed any of her money."

Frank, her friend, agreed. "She didn't walk off, and didn't do herself in," and she had too many interests and plans and commitments she wouldn't break, Frank said.

Like the dinner she was going to have with Frank and her husband Nov. 21. Ranallo had agreed to watch Frank's dog during an upcoming vacation, and they were going to go over the duties.

Frank said Ranallo was never late for anything, and when she called her friend, it went straight to voice mail. "That was odd, because she never turns her phone off," Frank said.

Frank drove to Ranallo's house, saw it was locked and then contacted Ranallo's family, who called police.

"We'd all love an answer," Frank said.

O'Connell said police haven't given up their investigation. They are still awaiting some financial records and tracing back some phone calls and remain open to ideas.

They've also submitted Ranallo's information, including DNA from her toothbrush, to national missing persons centers, in case she were to turn up  alive or deceased  far from Wisconsin.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at his election night party Saturday in Spartanburg after he was declared the winner of the South Carolina GOP primary. Credit: Getty Images

By of the

Charleston, S.C.  Donald Trump captured this key conservative stronghold in a fashion befitting his impolitic, improbable and increasingly imposing drive toward the GOP nomination.

He blithely committed one Republican heresy after another, thumbing his nose at conservative doctrine on trade, Social Security, Middle East wars, Planned Parenthood and health care.

He slammed his party's last president, George W. Bush, and its current House speaker, Paul Ryan.

He mixed it up with Pope Francis.

He was accused by this state's senior Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, of "going to Kook Land."

But wherever Trump is going, an angry army of GOP voters is following him there.

His victory here Saturday leaves him in undisputed command of the Republican race for president in the run-up to the Super Tuesday primaries on March 1, a race Trump described this way in his victory speech Saturday:

"It's nasty. It's mean. It's vicious. It's beautiful."

A week from now, Democrats will hold their own South Carolina primary, where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be heavily favored after defeating Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses Saturday.

But the landscape on the GOP side is a bit more complicated.

Trump's win drove former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush from the GOP field Saturday, yet leaves the battle open between Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over which Republican will emerge as Trump's chief rival.

Those two were fighting fiercely for second place in South Carolina.

Exit polls showed a very conservative group of GOP voters (four-fifths conservative, one-fifth moderate), a very religious one (white evangelicals made up two-thirds of the GOP vote here) and a very angry one.

They were angry about the economy, about the government and about their own party.

The chief beneficiary of that frustration and disgust: Trump, whose ability to match the mood of the Republican electorate has allowed him to bridge many of the party's fault lines with a message that is populist, nationalist, defiant, but not all that ideological, all that detailed, or all that consistent.

"I think people are just sick of the lies and the same old song and dance," said Tom Conlon, a Trump voter interviewed here last week. "Even though he's lying half the time about some of the things he says, it's refreshing to hear someone just kind of attack politics."

Exit polls showed that more than half the GOP voters here said they felt betrayed by Republican politicians.

"I tell you what. The problem with the Republican Party, with this GOP, they've picked these people in the past, you know, regular politicians and they've done nothing," said Elaine Verma, another Trump supporter in this state, the disgust evident in her voice. "And they picked people that couldn't even win to begin with. And a lot of Americans are just very upset. And we've got to do something before it's too late. I think he's a man of action."

Exit polls showed Trump did his best with less educated, lower income and older GOP voters.

But his coalition was not limited to those groups. He won both moderate and conservative voters. He won veterans. He won all education levels except voters with postgraduate degrees.

His victory was almost as broad as it was in New Hampshire, a Republican coalition Trump described Friday as "rich, poor, fat, thin, tall, short," male, female, college-educated and "smart, smart, smart people that don't have the big education." He even narrowly won evangelicals, a blow to Cruz. The breadth of his victory left him likely to win, at a minimum, the vast share of delegates that were in play here.

Cruz did his best with the most conservative voters. Rubio did his best with the most educated and well-off Republicans.

For Cruz, this will go down as a painful lost opportunity to win a state that played to his strengths, with its southern conservative and evangelical tilt.

For Rubio, the results give him some ammunition to persuade the party's establishment and pro-business wing to coalesce behind him to try to stop Trump.

But Rubio has now finished third, fifth and either second or third in the first three contests  not nearly the performance he had hoped for before the voting in these states began.

After the very different battlegrounds of New Hampshire and South Carolina, the contours of this race seem set.

Trump owns the single biggest share of GOP voters. There are also many Republican voters who are very uncomfortable with his candidacy.

It's therefore quite possible for Trump to lose this nomination. But, so far, no one else in the race has shown the same capacity that he has to win it.
Samples in the recent find of microfungi at the Wisconsin State Herbarium were collected in the 1900s by George Washington Carver, a prominent African-American scientist. Credit: Andy Manis / for the Journal Sentinel

By of the

Madison  They were just tiny black dots on sesame stalks, unnoticed except to the trained eye.

But the eyes who noticed them were extremely knowledgeable about microfungi and so in December 1900, somewhere in Tuskegee, Ala., they were picked and carefully packaged along with the date and location.

Just how specimens of Metasphaeria carveri ended up at the Wisconsin State Herbarium has been lost over the last century. In a way, the specimens themselves were lost  tucked into orange folders inside plastic bags and filed away in cabinets. For the most part no one knew they were there so no one asked about them.

And that's how microfungi specimens collected by George Washington Carver, the famous scientist who was born into slavery and became a pre-eminent botanist and professor at Tuskegee Institute, went unnoticed at the herbarium on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus until last week. So far more than two dozen microfungi samples collected by Carver have been found.

"George Washington Carver is so synonymous with peanuts that when you see this it forces you to go back and see him in a broader light," said Herbarium director Ken Cameron, noting the serendipity in discovering the specimens during Black History Month.

Under a two-year digitization project started last fall through the National Science Foundation, a team of UW-Madison students is painstakingly photographing labels on the specimen packets, typing the text into a database and posting them online. Last week a researcher emailed Cameron asking whether one of the specimens, which was entered as coming from Alaska, was actually fungus from Alabama. The label noted it came from Tuskegee, Ala., and the student typed in Alaska.

And, oh, by the way, did Cameron realize the specimen had been collected by Carver?

He didn't. But he immediately told digitization project manager Sharon West and herbarium curator Mary Ann Feist.

Excited to learn of the famous scientist's presence in the collection, West began combing through the 21,000 specimens already digitized to see if there were more and through Monday, she had found 26, including one more on Monday afternoon. West predicted her Carver quest could lead to more than 50 specimens.

Holding up the Metasphaeria carveri envelope, Feist said, "This one is actually named after him."

Carver was born in Missouri during the Civil War and was kidnapped as an infant with his sister and mother. His owner, Moses Carver, hired someone to find the family, but only George, who had been sold in Kentucky, was found and brought back to Missouri. When slavery was abolished after the Civil War, Carver was raised by his former owner, who taught him to read and write. Carver attended college and when his talent for painting flowers and plants was noticed, he was encouraged to study botany, later becoming the first African-American student and teacher at Iowa State University.

Booker T. Washington hired Carver to lead the Tuskegee Institute's Agriculture Department in 1896, and he spent the next 47 years there, turning it into a prestigious research center where new applications for crops were developed and generations of farmers were trained. He experimented with new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans as a way for African-American farmers to grow crops other than cotton.

The Carver-collected microfungi that ended up in Madison were found on grape vines, sorghum, sesame stalks and hibiscus stems.

The Wisconsin State Herbarium has upward of 120,000 fungal specimens "but they're not your typical mushrooms. They're almost microscopic dots," said Cameron, adding that even though they're tiny, microfungi have caused calamities like the Irish potato famine.

Wisconsin's microfungi collection is believed to be the second largest in the nation and includes specimens from around the globe. Many date from the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was common, as it is today, for botanists to share their collections with others.

"Madison must have been growing as a center of agriculture research at that time, so this was the place for researchers to send samples," said Cameron.

Because the microfungi specimens are still on their host plants, researchers can learn much about the spread and growth of organisms, changes in diversity and eventually their DNA  in essence, they're tiny time capsules. And once everything is in an online database, maps can be plotted to show the distribution of plants and fungi.

"It's a permanent record because you record the host as well as the microfungi. You can see how they changed over time and you can compare the DNA now to the DNA from specimens collected in 1900," said Feist.
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By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net) |  

The war against ISIL has seen 18 months of of airstrikes by United States-led coalition forces in both Iraq and Syria. An even more concentrated period is now under way, with signs of greater use of special forces by western militaries and pledges of ground troops by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And while western governments continue to claim that there are no boots on the ground, there is clear evidence that special forces from coalition states are involved in combat.

An already complex situation is made hugely more so by intensive Russian air operations. Russias determination to have a major impact on the course of the war and its outcome is reflected in its deployment of four of the countrys small stock of modern Su-35S multi-role strike-aircraft, the latter supplementing a force of no less than 36 other types. The Russian assaults appear to be causing high civilian casualties, which does much to explain the desperate movement of a new tranche of refugees towards Turkey. They also may become the crucial factor in allowing the Assad regime to survive, while having little impact on ISIL.

For its part, ISILs main concern is the US-led air campaign in both Iraq and Syria. By late 2014, the Pentagon was claiming that over 20,000 ISIL supporters had been killed by its air war. If this estimate is remotely accurate, then ISIL should be very badly affected and in retreat from much of the territory it holds.

In practice it is not nearly as simple as that. A wider view indicates that ISIL has withstood the assaults by changing tactics and finding diverse, unexpected sources of support. ISILs loss of Ramadi, captured in the surprise advances across Iraq in 2014, was certainly serious; but it took the Iraqi armed force several efforts and in the end a five-month campaign to recover it. Even then help was needed from Iranian-backed militias and coalition airstrikes, the latter causing massive damage to much of the city. Tacituss verdict, they made a desert and called it peace, comes to mind.

It is also worth remembering that Ramadi had been held for months by just a few hundred determined paramilitaries facing upwards of 10,000 troops backed by air-power. There are indications that when the city fell, many of these ISIL fighters succeeded in melting away, much as did the Taliban when the Northern Alliance entered Kabul in November 2001.

From Syria to the world

More generally, understanding ISILs position needs to take four elements into account: the increase in support for the movement among other Islamist groups, its expansion in Libya, a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and the potential for more actions beyond the Middle East.

On the first point, the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon reported last week that there are now 34 groups believed to have allied themselves to ISIL. He also pointed out that ISIL itself was the worlds richest terrorist organisation, generating $400-$500 million from oil and oil products in 2015.

On the second, ISIL-linked paramilitaries in Libya are now increasing their control of territory while building extensive defences round their main base at Sirte. US intelligence sources now estimate that ISIL has more than 5,000 fighters in Libya and is developing new training bases as well as beginning to threaten the seizure of oil-and-gas facilities.

Some recent airstrikes by US forces have been launched, and US special forces are reported to be in Libya collating targets and gaining other intelligence. But President Obama is coming under increasing pressure to escalate the war via extensive air operations and even sending combat-troops, as part of a strategy aiming to involve coalition partners including France and Britain. The killing early on 19 February of more than 30 Islamic State recruits in an airstrike on a camp close to Sabratha, west of Tripoli, may be a sign that he is listening.

On the third point, Afghanistan, there is a triple concern: the spread of ISIL in Nangarhar province, the re-emergence of al-Qaida in Kandahar province, and the expansion of the Taliban, especially in the key opium poppy-growing area of Helmand province. The new head of Nato and US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General John Nicholson, reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee on 28 January that the overall security situation is deteriorating. The main consequence of this is that any hope Barack Obama had of withdrawing all US combat-troops by the end of his second term is dashed  indeed, an expansion is more likely.

On the fourth, ISIL-linked incidents outside the Middle East are expanding and may continue to do so. Even in the United States, intelligence sources now regard the most substantial internal-security threat as coming from home-grown extremists. In Russia, the attack on police in Daghestan on 15 February has been claimed by ISIL, while a week earlier Russian security forces detained seven people in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of planning attacks.

In November 2016 the identity of the White Houses new occupant is decided. Unless Bernie Sanders drives all before him, Barack Obamas successor will be more hardline on international security than the incumbent of eight years. In the absence of unforeseen reversals for ISIL and its many associated groups, the war on terror in its current incarnation is set to escalate and indeed last well into the 2020s.

Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He is openDemocracys international security editor, and has been writing a weekly column on global security since 28 September 2001; he also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group. His books include Why Were Losing the War on Terror (Polity, 2007), and Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century (Pluto Press, 3rd edition, 2010). He is on Twitter at: @ProfPRogers

A lecture by Paul Rogers, delivered to the Food Systems Academy in late 2014, provides an overview of the analysis that underpins his openDemocracy column. The lecture  The crucial century, 1945-2045: transforming food systems in a global context  focuses on the central place of food systems in human security worldwide. Paul argues that food is the pivot of humanitys next great transition. It can be accessed here

Via OpenDemocracy.net

NB IC house style, ISIL, has been used instead of the originals ISIS.

-

Related video added by Juan Cole

CNN:  U.S. strikes ISIS training camp and senior operative
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Maan News Agency |  

GAZA (Maan)  The unemployment among women in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 60 percent, a womens organization said on Saturday.

Fida Abu Darbi, the executive officer for the Association Of Womens Work Committees, said the unemployment of women in Gaza had reached astronomical levels at 63.3 percent.

Abu Darbis comments were made during a seminar organized by the association, titled Unemployment among female graduates in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Associations head in Gaza, Arij al-Atrash, said unemployment was the biggest issue facing the Palestinian economy in Gaza, as the crippling Israeli blockade on the enclave has severely limited opportunities for job creation.

The UN has warned that unless current trends are altered, Gaza could become uninhabitable for residents in just five years.

The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020, the UNs development agency said last year.

Via Maan New Agency

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

New China TV: Gaza disabled women learn crafts to earn living
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By Sarantis Michalopoulos | ( EurActiv.com)

A dispute over how to shelter 160,000 refugees in Europe got deeper today when Poland said its population is unable to live with people from the Middle East. EurActiv Greece reports.

The Dutch EU presidency, helped by Germany, Italy and Greece, is trying to convince Eastern European countries to join an EU-wide plan to redistribute 160,000 refugees seeking shelter in Europe.

But the leaders from the Visegrad (V4) countries  Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary  are opposed to the idea.

Central and Eastern EU countries do not have the experience to live with citizens from North Africa or the Middle East, said a Polish diplomat contacted by EurActiv.

From the very beginning of the refugee crisis we have underestimated the social differences in those countries. Before we start taking in and distributing [refugees] we need to communicate it to the people of Europe, said the Polish diplomat, who preferred not to be named.

The Polish position echoes comments by Slovakia, whose Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Muslims cannot be integrated in mostly Christian European societies.

50 million migrants who will change Europe

Speaking to EurActiv on condition of anonymity, another high ranking diplomat said up to 50 million immigrants were expected to arrive on the old continent in the coming years, adding this will change Europe forever.

V4 countries intend to prevent this from happening.

At their mini-summit on 15 February, the V4 adopted a plan B in the event of a collapse of the Schengen area, which could be triggered by an exit of Greece from the European passport-free area.

V4 leaders want Greece to seal its borders with Bulgaria and Macedonia to effectively stem the migration flow coming from Turkey.

Warsaw says it comprehends that some EU countries face difficulties in protecting their external borders, but these countries should also understand that some other EU countries havent learnt how to live with people from the Middle East. Coalition of the willing Now, a high-ranking EU source told EurActiv that a powerful front was taking shape against the Visegrad Groups plan B to address the refugee crisis.

The source, who preferred not to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the V4 was highly influenced by Hungarys Victor Orban and showed no willingness to reach a political compromise with its European partners.

A coalition of the willing is now being established to raise the pressure on the V4 to accept more migrants.

Greece believes that some EU countries have no idea what the protection of sea borders means. Of the four Visegrad countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are landlocked.

Athens, together with Rome, argues that there is a lack of cooperation with other EU member states to address the refugee crisis, especially concerning the relocation of 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy.

To date, less than 500 people have been relocated, and only 14 member states have informed Greece that a further 601 refugees could be relocated, a diplomat said, adding that almost 1,000 people have been relocated from Italy, too.

The diplomat said that most criticism of the EU plan came from those countries that had not provided any help at all.

Rome is urging member states to contribute and implement the relocation agreements, insisting that the refugee crisis concerned people, and that no one should forget that.

Italy similarly believes that the temporary reintroduction of border controls within Schengen should be avoided at all costs.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who attended the Visegrad meeting in Prague, opposed the Visegrad plan, and told its hosts: I dont shut my borders.

Geopolitical disorder

The same diplomat told EurActiv that the refugee crisis could turn a geopolitical fragility into a geopolitical disorder.

There will be a destabilisation of the wider region of the Western Balkans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. There are many black holes and sources of war there [] once we pretended that we were ignoring them, but suddenly these countries will be exporting their destabilization in our heart, he said.

Frances thin voice

Another EU diplomat told EurActiv that Frances silence over the refugee crisis was problematic.

Paris is absent and its quite strange that it has such a thin voice, the source noted.

EurActiv was informed that Paris was reluctant if not against the relocation scheme agreed on by EU leaders, and that after the Paris terrorist attacks, whenever the issue arises, it invoked security concerns.

Sarantis Michalopoulos | (EurActiv.gr)

Via EurActiv.com



Related video added by Juan Cole:

RT: Islamophobia Awards 2016: Worst anti-Muslims of the year to get Racism Oscars
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Los Angeles Auto Accident Lawyer Resource Discusses Liability and Avoiding Mistakes on Claims

Accident liability and how to avoid mistakes on personal injury claims is discussed by Los Angeles car crash attorney resource to help victims understand proper filing procedures.

For Immediate Release  New York City, For anyone who has been in a serious car accident, they immediately have a multitude of questions that require answers. Many of them dont believe their cases deserve the attention of a Los Angeles auto accident lawyer, and so they attempt to handle their cases on their own. In doing so, errors are frequently made. These errors, which are usually committed because of lack of understanding, can add up to thousands of dollars lost in car accident claims.

CarAccidentCases.com, a prominent, Los Angeles car crash attorney resource, has provided excellent information to assist car accident victims in their most recent articles on their blog. One of the vital components victims frequently fail to comprehend is the importance of determining negligence and liability in a car accident. In addition, they cover four of the most common mistakes that are made by victims following a car accident.

The professionals at CarAccidentCases.com also provide critical information for those who have been injured in other types of crashes, such as truck accidents and bike accidents. Additional information on the various types of car accidents can be found by reading their popular article, entitled, The Most Common Types of Car Accidents.

Determining liability in a car accident is very difficult, and without a strong knowledge of car accident law, the average person is generally unable to present an effective case. Filing a personal injury claim involves working with a qualified and experienced attorney who not only understands the law, but who will work hard to ensure a car crash settlement for victims. Even so, many victims attempt to take on their own cases in an effort to avoid paying high, upfront fees for personal injury lawyers. In doing so, they often compromise their cases, and are either unable to get a settlement, or they settle for a much smaller amount of money than they deserve for their damages.

The best way to create a strong case after an auto wreck is to work with a professional car accident attorney. In choosing to hire a lawyer, victims will maximize the amounts of their car accident settlements and avoid costly mistakes that could jeopardize their claims. Los Angeles auto accident lawyers offer the expert legal advice thats necessary to collect a settlement.

CarAccidentCases.com is a useful resource for victims of car crashes in Los Angeles as well as in New York City.

Media personnel are invited to contact CarAccidentCases.com in Los Angeles at 562-200-0093, and in New York at 516-582-4367.

Individuals who have become victims of car accidents can find additional information and resources to assist them with filing their cases by visiting the CarAccidentCases.com blog.

Social Media Tags:liability in a car accident, filing a personal injury claim, car crash settlement

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Accident victims often have two conflicting ideas about lawsuits, says Rand Spear, the Philadelphia car accident lawyer. They may fear the legal process is so lengthy, time consuming and expensive they dont want to get involved. Others, after seeing too many courtroom dramas on television and the movies, may be overly optimistic as to what it will take to successfully litigate a case. The reality is somewhere between these two extremes.

Our clients cases generally proceed along a set path, though the parties may compromise and reach a settlement at any time along the route.

1. Free Legal Consultation

If you believe youve been injured due to the negligence or intentional act of another party you can discuss this with us for free. You are under no obligation to retain us and what you tell us will be kept confidential.

We will talk about the facts surrounding your injury. We will ask about how it was caused, your injury and its treatment. We will only use the conversation to help us decide whether there may be a basis for a legal claim and how likely that claim may be successful.

Not only is the consultation free but our services will be paid from the settlement or verdict thats finally reached. If there is no settlement or verdict in your favor we wont get paid.

2. Investigation

A thorough investigation of your case is absolutely critical. Its the only way we can get all the facts we need to properly advise you as to how your case should proceed. Each case is unique but generally we obtain police reports, accident reports, witness statements, medical records, photographs and videos. As the case proceeds we may need the help of experts with whom we share the information we receive so the experts can do their job: provide an opinion as to the cause of the accident, who is responsible as well as the cause or extent of your injuries.

3. Pre-Suit

Before trial we gather and organize the materials and information concerning your case including medical records, information about your injury as well as obtaining information from the other party. We shift from assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your case to managing it to maximize its value to you.

An attorney and legal assistant are assigned to case. They work for you and you are free to contact them, talk about any concerns you may have and ask any questions.

During this process but especially as the date of a trial nears clients want to know how much money they may receive if their personal injury claim is successful. The value of any case depends on the facts of the situation, the outcome of your medical treatment, the extent of your recovery, any lasting limitations and how the law applies to the facts of the case.

4. Litigation

Most of our clients cases settle during the pre-suit process before a trial takes place. We negotiate in good faith with insurance companies to resolve each case. Over the years weve become very familiar with the insurance companies that do business in the area and their attorneys. We know how to present a case and negotiate with them to maximize the chances of a successful settlement.

A trial may be necessary if an insurance company refuses to compromise and is unwilling to settle the case for an appropriate value. Going to trial doesnt intimidate us and we wont let it intimidate you. We have substantial trial experience and financial resources to fully protect and defend your legal rights to compensation for your injuries.

If you live in Pennsylvania or New Jersey and believe you have suffered an injury caused by another party, contact Rand Spear, the accident lawyer. A consultation is free and you have no obligation to retain us. We can learn about your situation and you can learn about the law and how it may be applied in your case. It will only take some of your time and the effort you take may be greatly rewarded in the future.

2 Penn center plaza suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19102

randspear.com

(215) 985-2424

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New York City, 02/21/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Thank you for joining us for the second post in our series on understanding your personal injury settlement for your car accident. You already know the importance of contacting an experienced Los Angeles car accident lawyer, and weve talked about damages for a car accident and how that affects your personal injury claim. At CarAccidentCases.com, we know how important it is for you to understand all of the different variables that come into play when youve been in a car accident. Our goal is to help you maximize your compensation for your car accident case.

Everyone has questions about their personal injury claims after theyve been in a car accident, so its likely that you have some questions of your own. Such as:

What injuries are covered in a car accident settlement?

Can I handle my car accident case on my own?

What happens if I need my car replaced after my car accident?

Types of Injuries and Compensation after a Car Accident

Virtually any type of injury that occurred as a result of your car accident can be included in your personal injury claim. This might include soft tissue damage, such as disk injuries in your back and neck, or muscle and ligament pain. It can also include head injuries, broken bones or damage to any internal organs. Everyones car accident is different, and your injuries are unique to you. Thats why its vital to work with a qualified attorney in order to maximize your compensation. Learn more about the various types of car accident injuries here.

Vehicle Replacement after a Car Accident

In some cases, car accidents are so severe that vehicles become totaled and need to be replaced. Its important to understand that the insurance adjuster you work with will assess the value of your vehicle at the time of the crash and offer you that amount of money in your settlement, in most cases. Your lawyer will be able to advise you on the appropriate amount, so theres no need to worry about getting less than you deserve.

Its never a good idea to handle your car accident case on your own. A qualified Los Angeles car accident lawyer offers you the best chance of getting the compensation you deserve.

For a review on car accident compensation, please be sure to see our first article in this series, Understanding Your Personal Injury Settlement for Your Car Accident Case, Part Two  By a Los Angeles Car Accident Lawyer.

Be sure to check back to learn more about the following accident topics:

source: http://caraccidentcases.com/understanding-personal-injury-settlement-for-car-accident-cases-part-two-by-a-los-angeles-car-accident-lawyer/

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Deal. Unanimous support for new settlement for #UKinEU twitted European Council President Donald Tusk in the evening of 19 February, when the leaders of the EU agreed to a number of concessions in the hope of keeping the UK in the Union. Prime Minister Cameron immediately expressed his satisfaction and his determination to work for a Yes vote in the UK in/out of the EU referendum now scheduled for 23 June 2016.

Victory, therefore, for unity and solidarity among the EUs leaders and nations? Another glorious day in Europes post-World War II history? If only things were as simple

The deal reached on 19 February is a victory for the UK Prime Minister, who got a lot of what he had wanted  from limitations to benefits of non-British EU nationals working in the UK, to preserving the prerogatives of the City of London, to excluding the UK from the ever closer union principle of deepening European integration  while maintaining the benefits of the 500-million single market. All in all, a special status for the UK, keeping it within the EU but allowing it to continue with its old ways of balancing other powers against each other to its economic and political advantage, without offering long-term loyalty and commitment to anyone (see also our Viral Europe video as a satirical testimony to this).

Of course, the UK-EU deal will apply only if UK citizens approve it and agree to stay in the EU through a majority Yes vote in the June referendum. Judging by the polls and the mobilization on both sides it is still very much unclear which way it will go. EU citizens in other countries have no say on the special deal offered to the UK, by the way, but that is another long discussion that may be taken up when another country tries to assert its special status.

For now, the best-case scenario for those still believing in the European Project would be for Britain to remain in the EU. Of course, this will be a weakened EU, where not all countries are equal in their obligations, where the euro co-exists in perpetuity with the pound sterling, and where everything continues to be ultimately decided upon by national leaders through negotiations on the basis of national interests. This will keep in a state of permanent underdevelopment the notion of a common European interest and bold initiatives like a real common foreign and defence policy, common borders and migration policy, fiscal integration and a social Europe.

Or will it? Perhaps the time has come for those who still believe in the European ideal and an ever-closer union to make the leap of faith and start implementing it decisively in practice. It could be the six countries that founded the EU, the foreign ministers of which recently met in Italy, or the 19 countries of the Eurozone, or some other combination of EU members, who will decide to go forward, within the EU but also beyond it. That would require new treaties, a constitution in fact, new institutions and leaders with a pan-European mind frame and appeal. But it may be the only way to go beyond the post-UK-deal single market to a political entity that can really shape and not just be shaped by developments, really compete in a world of increasingly continental-size powers, really inspire and release the creative potential of its citizens.
OMAHA -- Sarah Root is dead.

Eswin Mejia is missing.

And authorities are scrambling to answer how the 19-year-old accused drunken driver went missing just days after his arrest in Roots death.

A World-Herald review of Mejias case shows a systemic failure  from county pretrial release staff to the county judge to federal immigration enforcement officials  to ensure that the man charged with felony motor-vehicle homicide in Roots death would answer in court to the charge.

Hes gone, a law enforcement official told The World-Herald.

Hes gone because of a lack of communication and common sense among governmental agencies, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said.

Start with the crime: Omaha police allege that Mejia was drunk and street racing on L Street when he rammed into the back of a vehicle driven by Root.

Root died at the Nebraska Medical Center just hours after she graduated from Bellevue University with straight As and a degree in investigations. Prosecutors say Mejias blood-alcohol content was .241, three times the legal limit of .08.

A week after the crash, Mejia posted bail and skipped a urine test. Officials cant find him.

The World-Herald review of court records found the following missteps:

 Mejia, who was listed on his jail booking sheet as from Honduras and not a U.S. citizen, was graded a low risk to flee by Douglas County pretrial release officials, despite the fact that he had a warrant and twice had failed to appear in court. On a scale of 1 to 7  the higher the number, the more risk of fleeing  the countys pretrial release staff graded Mejia a 2.

 On Feb. 4, Douglas County Judge Jeff Marcuzzo set Mejias bail at 10 percent of $50,000  meaning that Mejia had to post $5,000 cash to be released. The newspapers review of 10 motor vehicle homicide cases filed in Nebraska over the past two years showed that five judges set the same bail amount. Five other judges set higher bail amounts  10 percent of $75,000, $250,000 (twice) and $500,000 (twice). All of the other defendants were U.S. citizens.

 Its not clear whether the judge was informed of Mejias immigration status. Deputy Omaha Police Chief Dave Baker said late Friday that an accident investigator informed Deputy Douglas County Attorney Matt Kuhse of Mejias ICE status before Mejia was released from Nebraska Medical Center.

 In considering bail, a transcript shows, Marcuzzo did not give prosecutors a chance to state their position  something every judge typically does.

 After not receiving a chance to speak about bail, Deputy Douglas County Attorney David Wear did not interrupt Judge Marcuzzo. Nor did anyone object after the judge set bail at 10 percent of $50,000.

 Roots father called Omaha Police accident investigator Dawn Turnbull concerned about Mejias bail amount.

 Turnbull repeatedly called ICE about detaining Mejia due to bond amount and elevated flight risk, Baker said. Eventually, Baker said, her request is denied. She and her lieutenant tried to call an ICE supervisor. The call was never returned, Baker said.

A day after Mejias bail was set, a family member posted his bail. Jail officials released him at 8:44 p.m. on Feb. 5.

He then failed to show up to his required twice-daily urine tests. A warrant was issued.

His legal status  both in terms of U.S. citizenship and as a charged criminal  has prompted legal observers to question why the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency failed to place a hold on Mejia.

Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE, said that Mejias Jan. 31 arrest did not meet ICEs enforcement priorities as stated in a November 2014 federal memo issued by Jeh C. Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Due to limited resources, DHA and its components (including ICE) cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons illegally in the United States, Johnson wrote.

The memo prioritizes detention and removal for those with felony convictions; it does not specifically authorize an immigration hold simply based on a felony arrest.

However, the memo has a catch-all provision.

These factors (listed) are not intended to be exhaustive, Johnson wrote. Decisions should be based on the totality of the circumstances.

In Mejias case, ICE said in a statement: Mejia, 19, of Honduras, did not meet ICEs enforcement priorities ... because he had no prior significant misdemeanor or felony conviction record. As such, ICE did not lodge a detainer. Mejia is scheduled to go before an immigration judge on March 23, 2017, and it will be up to the immigration courts ... to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.

Whether Mejia will make it to his immigration court hearing is a mystery.

Mejias court appearances before his disappearance had officials scratching their heads. As he was awaiting the bail hearing, authorities brought him into court on a warrant for a Feb. 10, 2015, driving-under-suspension misdemeanor.

On Monday, Feb. 1, a day after the crash, Douglas County Judge Marcela Keim gave Mejia a 1-day jail sentence and fined him $50 for failing to have a child passenger restrained in his vehicle. City prosecutors dismissed a misdemeanor count of failing to have a proper vehicle registration and failing to appear in court.

Mejia, who police say doesnt have a valid drivers license, had not appeared in court in the 11 months since he was charged with those February 2015 driving offenses.

He also never appeared in court for a July 2014 traffic stop in which he drove the wrong way on a one-way street. He was charged with having no valid drivers license.

It is not clear whether pretrial release officials factored in those failures to appear when they listed him as a low risk.

On Feb. 4, Mejia was brought before Judge Marcuzzo for his bail hearing.

According to a transcript of Mejias less-than-two-minute hearing:

Judge Marcuzzo asked Wear, the prosecutor, for the facts of what happened. Wear relayed the allegations.

I find probable cause exists for detention, Marcuzzo said. For purposes of bond, pretrial, have you information?

A pretrial clerk said: Yes, your honor, we found a score of 2.

Marcuzzo turned to Mejias attorney, Thomas Niklitschek.

Looking at my clients previous record, it doesnt appear to have any felony traffic. Hes also eligible for the courts 24/7 sobriety program. I think thats a positive event in the situation. Id ask for a reasonable bond, judge. Hes been in Omaha the past three years, has a lot of family here who support him.

Marcuzzo didnt ask for Wears input on bail.

Ill set your bond at $50,000, 10 percent, Marcuzzo said. If you post that bond, Ill authorize you for the pretrial release program and the 24/7 program. Thank you very much.

He moved onto the next case.

Marcuzzo didnt return calls Friday. Nor did Keim, the countys presiding judge.

Douglas County judges say they do not necessarily see a defendants rap sheet when they impose bail. In crowded hearings that often have more than 10 to 20 felony defendants, judges say, they typically rely on pretrial release officials and prosecutors to fill them in on any skipped court appearances or other flight-risk factors.

Kleine, the Douglas County attorney, said he was concerned that Marcuzzo didnt turn to his prosecutor. The judge just went, Bam, heres the bond. Hes running the show in terms of how the hearings conducted.

Asked if his prosecutor should have interrupted  and highlighted Mejias failures to appear  Kleine said: We werent given an opportunity to speak. In some ways, I wish our person would have just stopped the proceeding and said, We think thats an insufficient bond, but that didnt happen.

Kleine said common sense and communication are lacking in ICEs detention policy. He questioned why ICE doesnt put immigration holds on those arrested on suspicion of felonies.

As consequences increase, Kleine noted, so does a persons motive to flee.

No ones saying that people need to be profiled, Kleine said. But when we have someone who has been arrested for a serious crime  and theyre not here legally  they have every reason in the world to flee.

There has to be a common-sense communication between the feds and the state. ... For him to be able to evade prosecution is tremendously frustrating to us. And I know thats true for (Roots) family and for police as well.

Beyond their dismay, Roots relatives have been deflated by the official decisions that have led them here. Told Friday night that Douglas County pretrial release staff had determined that Mejia was a low risk to flee, Roots mother said: Of course they did.

Its just outrageous, Michelle Root said.

She regrets that she did not attend the arraignment, even if it would not have made a difference. But there was a funeral to plan, and an investigator said she didnt need to go.

Staff writers Emerson Clarridge and Kevin Cole contributed to this report.
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What does it mean to be competent at something? Competency may be defined as the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. When it comes to determining if a physician is competent in his profession, no one, board, no organization, no government, no residency training program or hospital actually will state that an individual is competent. There are significant legal ramifications to declaring someone as competent to practice medicine, and a maloccurence happens. Would the organization that states a physician is competent become legally responsible?

In medical school, residency and fellowship programs, trainees need to demonstrate proficiency in core competencies specific to medicine. The ability to gather information, interpret the information and form a management strategy along with the ability to perform a variety of interventional tasks are inherent to the role of being a physician. Medical students must pass national subject exams, national board exams, mock patient interview and physical exams. Residents and fellow must pass annual in-service exams for advancement and board exams regulated by the American Board of Medical Examiners to become board certified. To take the board exams, ones residency director certifies that the trainee has completed and met the requirements of the training program.

The state mandates that physicians are licensed to practice medicine. Ones application includes diplomas from medical schools and residency programs, and a certificate of completion from the national board of medical examiners. One then is licensed to practice medicine and surgery. Most physicians practice beyond the four walls of their office and may have admitting and or operating privileges at a hospital or surgical center. The assumption is that licensure and having ones boards is a measure of competency, and, for the most part, it serves well.

In 1989, New York State enacted the 405 regulations limiting resident work hours, as the result of a commission evaluating the causes of the death of the daughter of a prominent journalist at New York Hospital. The commission blamed resident work hours and poor supervision for the death. This was a controversial finding with little data to support such sweeping changes.

I was a junior resident at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center at the time, and we were very concerned about the impact on our training as surgeons. A surgeon has to know a lot and do a lot. Fewer hours in the hospital meant fewer chances to perform surgery and follow patients. We worried that when on-call were covering far more patients than we normally did. Patients that we did not normally cover, so we were at a disadvantage in providing care. We used to joke that 405 meant the 4th or 5th-year residents now did all the work, while the intern and junior residents went home. The choice was between having a tired doctor that knew you versus a less tired doctor that had never seen you before.

In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education made the cap of an 80-hour work week mandatory nationally. The length of shifts were limited. Time off between overnight shifts required. In a surgical residency, what had been a full-time duty, had become shift work with penalties to the training institution for violation. As a faculty member of a university, I was concerned that we were making a major change to how we train physicians without first defining how competent our current product was and not knowing if the decreased time on topic would result in less competent trainees.

In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the end points of patient mortality and complications along with resident satisfaction were compared between surgical training programs that adhered to the work hour mandates versus more flexible policies that waved the rules on maximum shift length and time off between shifts. The results were that there was no difference in patient outcomes among the groups. No mention or measurement standard was applied towards assessing resident competency.

Shouldnt the competency of residents be the subject in a training program?

Gary B. Nackman is a surgeon and owner, NJ Vein Care.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Paraeducator Donna Huff comforts a special needs student at Naval Avenue Early Learning Center. In Kitsap and North Mason counties the average base salary of a paraeducator ranges from $32,354 to $37,317.

SHARE LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Naval Avenue Early Learning Center paraeducator Donna Huff uses visual picture flash cards to help guide a student. There are more than 24,800 paraeducators working in the school in the state, and an effort is afoot to get standardized certification. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Sidney Glen Elementary School paraeducator Anita Severson guides a first-grade student to the tutoring room. Severson has been a paraeducator for 27 years in the South Kitsap School District. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Naval Avenue Early Learning Center paraeducators Donna Huff (back left) and Amanda Winslow (right) dance with special needs students to a learning musical video. Paraeducators fill a host of classroom jobs. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Paraeducator Anne Adkins helps a student in a special education classroom at Naval Avenue Early Learning Center in Bremerton.

By Chris Henry

BREMERTON  An ear-shattering scream splits Kathy Williams' classroom at Naval Avenue Early Learning Center as paraeducator Donna Huff escorts a student into class.

The girl, a kindergartner, keeps up the verbal outbursts, sounding like a frightened bird, while Huff guides her to the coat rack, then a table where the youngster briefly takes interest in a pile of Legos.

The little girl takes a small swat at Huff, who deftly avoids contact, keeps her cool and goes on giving gentle direction for the activity.

There's been much talk about teachers' salaries as legislators work on a plan to pay for the true cost of public education. Little is said in the media and around the water cooler about paraeducators, the classified employees who do everything from small-group tutoring to helping students with severe disabilities use the toilet.

On the front lines in some of the most difficult classroom settings, paras can get hit or spit at by students with behavior issues. They fill a host of jobs, from teaching English as a second language to serving as a second pair of hands for harried teachers, performing mundane but essential tasks. Paras work one-on-one with medically fragile students and monitor children who pose a risk to themselves or others.

"We're everywhere!" said Janet Meeds, a paraeducator for Central Kitsap School District.

Teachers, especially those in special education, say they couldn't manage without their paras. According to a state task force studying the impact of these workers, paras in the past school year provided more than 60 percent of the instruction time given to special education students, working under guidance of teacher's lesson plans and students' individualized education plans (IEPs).

"With class sizes the way they are, paraeducators provide that one-on-one relationship for kids," said Olympic High School Principal Rebecca Johnson. "They just are that bridge. For the kids who need it the most, paraeducators are critical."

Most families say paraeducators are a godsend. Central Kitsap parent Mary Blackwell said her daughter Summer would have been "lost" without the direction and support of paras in elementary and middle school. Summer, now in ninth grade, no longer needs a para.

"Those paraeducators made her world go 'round, let me tell you," Blackwell said.

Yet these school employees' pay averages around $16 an hour, hardly a living wage.

Paraeducators, who need at minimum a high school diploma, earn substantially less than typical high school graduates across the state, according to a group that researched how K-12 employees' wages stack up against the private sector.

The Compensation Technical Working Group, whose 2012 report guides current education funding reform talks in Olympia, recommends boosting paraeducators' pay. And a bill now making its way through the Senate calls for more training and better support of these women and men who are the glue holding many classrooms together.

WHO ARE THE PARAEDUCATORS?

There are 24,875 paraeducators in Washington State, one for every five teachers, according to a committee of the Professional Educator Standards Board tasked by the Legislature in 2014 with evaluating the role of paras in public education.

Paras work an average of six hours a day and earn between $11.41 and $25.40 per hour, the committee reported in January. In Kitsap and North Mason counties the average base salary for a full-time equivalent position ranges from $32,354 in Bremerton to $37,317 on Bainbridge Island, according to the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The statewide average is $35,193, with average benefits valued at around $20,000. In reality, mosts paras work part-time, so their acutal take-home pay is much lower.

Paras are predominantly white, 91 percent female, and their average age is 50.5 years.

Anita Severson has been a paraeducator for 27 years in the South Kitsap School District. Like many, she started as a part-time para when her children were in school so she could have summers off. She originally worked with medically fragile students and now tutors groups of students at Sidney Glen Elementary who are either special education students or Title I struggling learners in the high-poverty school.

After nearly three decades, her hourly pay is just more than $19 an hour, but like many paras, her spouse was the primary wage earner. He's now retired and wonders when she will follow suit. Severson, 60, says she loves her job too much to quit just now.

Meeds, the Central Kitsap paraeducator, is a single parent who works a second job to make ends meet. That's typical of many paras. After 10 years, she earns just more than $18 an hour.

Meeds starts her day at 7 a.m., floating between three schools, doing small group instruction for students whose first language is not English. When school's over, she heads to her job as a respite caregiver for Navy families with children who have autism and other conditions, working until 10 or 11 p.m. most nights.

Meeds and others say there are definite perks to the job of a paraeducator, however. Unlike teachers, they do not bring home hours of paperwork. The summers off are a draw, especially for those with children. And many rely on the job for insurance and retirement benefits.

SEEING STUDENTS' POTENTIAL

Back in Williams' class at Naval Avenue Early Learning Center, the young girl flits from table to table, settling before a pile of books, which she methodically moves from one pile to another. Then she's on the move, again erupting in shrieks of distress. Huff, the paraeducator, lets the girl roam but keeps a constant eye on her.

"She is stressed," Williams says. "When she's stressed she screams. We give her some space. She's doing really good. She's not running around tipping over chairs."

The girl flops in a soft green plastic chair, the "calm down chair."

"That is excellent," said Williams. "She's making an excellent choice."

Last spring, when the girl arrived as a preschooler, the screaming was "brutal" and far more frequent. She did not participate at all in group activities and could barely focus on individual tasks. Thanks to Huff and other staff members, she's come a long way. She will briefly join a group, and she can count, sort objects and play educational games on an iPad, a favorite activity.

"She is an amazing kid," Williams said. "She's incredibly intelligent."

Later the class takes a "brain break," dancing to the music of a Frozen video. As one student puts his fingers in his ears, another pats the wall where the video is playing. Paraeducator Amanda Winslow stands behind the girl and moves the child's arms to the music, and the two sway gently together.

MAKING THE JOB A CAREER

While teachers are quick to sing the praises of paraeducators, paras themselves don't always feel respected by the education community.

"To some extent, when I first started, I felt that way, too," said Severson, who early on was moved from building to building, as needed. "You're just like the pawn on the chess board. You go here, you go there."

Now, with plenty of seniority, she feels part of the school's intervention team, which includes teachers, herself and two other paras. Like most paraeducators, Severson has received on-the-job training, and she takes part in planning meetings on students' ever-changing needs.

Public education's reliance on paraeducators has grown over the past five decades with the evolution of legislation under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. IDEA guarantees children with disabilities the same opportunity for education as students without a disability. The trend toward inclusion  providing education within the general ed setting whenever possible  fueled a greater need for paras in the classroom and increased complexity of the duties they perform.

Senate Bill 6408, which passed the Senate on Feb. 15, sets new minimum education standards for paraeducators and requires the state by 2018 to have in place a certification program, similar to how teachers are certified. Certification would assure paras have all the qualifications now required by law for the job. As it is, training is anything but uniform across the state.

Paras would have three years from 2018 to earn certification through paths that could include an associate degree, relevant higher education credits, or an apprenticeship program. Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, a sponsor of the bill, said details on career pathways will be worked out through the state's Professional Education Standards Board.

The Legislature has not identified a funding source to create and run the certification program or to ensure the required training is provided through districts, community colleges and universities. Rolfes said the bill could be considered an unfunded mandate, unless the Legislature can agree on a separate bill that calls for a massive overhaul of how public education is paid for. The work of paraeducators is clearly a critical part of basic education, Rolfes said.

THE RIGHT STUFF

Michael McCloud, a former computer programmer, has worked for 11 years as a special education para on Bainbridge Island. He's done everything from teaching life skills to high-needs students in wheelchairs to academic tutoring for higher functioning students striving to keep up.

What started as a convenient schedule for McCloud, primary caregiver in the family, has become a passion.

"Each kid is so unique," he said. "You begin to love the work, too. I fall in love with almost every kid I work with, because they're so cool and funny, and you appreciate all their talents."

McCloud, also head of the classified employees union, says burnout is a big problem for paraeducators, especially those who deal with students with high physical needs or behavior issues.

"It's extremely draining if you have to be constantly vigilant about the kid might take off running, or lash out or injure another student or themselves or another staff member," he said.

Demands of the job make it hard to find and keep qualified paras, McCloud said.

"There are paraeducators who get hired and will only last a year or two," McCloud said. "Most of the people who last five or more years tend to stick around, and we've got people who have 30 years of seniority."

"You've got to love the kids, and you've got to be passionate about the work," said Martha Patterson, a Bremerton special education teacher who's been "blessed" with some outstanding paras. "You've got to take direction well. You can't get your feathers ruffled."

Kathy Williams, the Naval Avenue special education teacher, is a former paraeducator who spent five years earning her certification. Now in her second year of teaching, seasoned general education teachers come to her for advice on special education kids, said Naval Avenue Principal John Welsh. He calls Williams "the best I've ever seen."

Williams is saddled with school debt and making less than her son, who has a low-level management job at an electronics store. With special education teachers in high demand, the paraeducator bill also would make it easier for people like Williams to take the next step.

But she has zero regrets.

"I love it. It's really hard work," she said. "I like the challenge, and you know what? The kids need an advocate, and I wouldn't trade it at this point."

This article was updated Feb. 25, 2016, to clarify that the base pay listed on the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's website is for full-time equivalent positions.
Jane Ruley was the first African-American teacher in Kitsap County, hired in March 1897. She was hired by the Sheridan School District, which was annexed to the Bremerton School District in 1942, according to historylink.org. The girl under the star is Gertrude Ruley, daughter of Jane Ruley. This photo provided courtesy of the Kitsap Black Historical Society in honor of Black HIstory Month.

SHARE Jeffs Clipper Station, in Charleston at 245 Callow Avenue S, experiences a lineup in the mid-1940s because of war-time gas rationing. The 1940-41 black business coupe in the covered garage may be the newest car in the photo as Detroit was ordered to cease building civilian vehicles during war the to free up assembly lines for military production.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.

In 1941 (75 years ago)

 Legislation necessary to transfer $1,700 from the state toll bridge authority to the state motor vehicle fund, making the money available for reconstruction of the Bremerton approach to the Manette Bridge, will be introduced at Olympia soon, Mayor Homer Jones reported to members of the city commission today.

The funds, now being held by the authority, are part of the surplus collected before the bridge was made free by the state. The transfer must be completed before money can be used.

An overpass from the bridge to Pacific Avenue is now being studied by federal, state and city officials. The principal use of the overpass will be as a fire lane to serve East Bremerton, a rapidly growing community, with greater expediency.

One of the most important measures affecting Kitsap County interests is now before the Legislature.

House Bill 494 introduced by state Rep. Cyrus Hanks of Port Orchard would provide $155,000 to be devoted toward the straightening of the state highway in the Port Orchard region.

If the bill meets with favor, the money would be appropriated before the session terminates and the work could proceed, thereby transforming the present crooked highway into a slightly more serviceable road, while affording employment to many men for many weeks.

In 1966 (50 years ago)

 "A wild guess" at damage to Seattle's new Coleman Ferry Dock was $80,000, with a couple of thousand dollars damage to the ferry Kalakala when it rammed the ferry slip early today. No one was injured.

Making the initial estimate was Washington State Ferries Operation Manager A.F. Eikum.

Cause of the crash was undetermined this morning. All that was known was the ferry approached the dock too fast when arriving from Bremerton, causing the bow to ram under the auto bridge and the bridge to hit the "house" of the Kalakala, the manager said.

Whether the cause was mechanical failure or human error has not been determined, Eikum said. Two cars received bent fenders in the collision.

 Might Kitsap County Airport share in the big expansion of the Boeing Co.?

Mayor Glenn Jarstad says he deems the prospects at least good enough to be pursued further. And Bremerton Port Commissioner Richard E. Schultheis says, "We will do what we can!"

The mayor says he hopes to arrange a follow-up meeting in which a top Boeing executive, Facilities Director John D. Bixby, will come to the airport for a personal inspection.

Jarstad and others flew to Seattle on Friday for a session in Boeing offices with Bixby and his staff. A main purpose was to acquaint the Boeing company with the facilities available here, the freedom of movement, the room for runway extension, the availability of industrial land, the availability of water, power lines and a rail siding, said the mayor.

In 1991 (25 years ago)

 Crew members of the Bremerton-based supercarrier USS Nimitz have their eyes on the new departure date  now it's Monday, they say.

The 3,000-member crew has been waiting to hear when their ship would leave on an extended deployment since an earlier departure date was scrubbed. The new date of Monday, Feb. 25, was provided at an all-hands meeting of the ships crew.

But Navy officials declined to make the announcement public.

The ship could get orders to head for the Persian Gulf region or it could take part in training exercises. Either option is expected to take the Nimitz on a course that will bring it closer to the Gulf war zone.

In 2006 (10 years ago)

 Over the years, the battle against water pollution in Kitsap County has been sort of nip and tuck, as shown by ongoing water samples taken from more than 50 streams throughout the county.

As the water-monitoring program enters its 10th year, there are signs that pollution fighters may be winning the battle, at least for some streams and marine waters.

A new study by the Kitsap County Health District shows some progress.

In a few areas where pollution is worsening, health officials hope to escalate the struggle by enlisting more people to help.
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Roxanne Gihl, Bremerton

Dems' caucus comes next month

The Democratic party in Washington State uses the caucus process (not the May 24th primary!) to determine how many delegates each candidate for president will receive. That's how Democrats in our state make this vital choice and I believe many voters and potential voters don't realize that fact.

The Democratic caucuses are held on Saturday, March 26, beginning at 10 a.m.

From the kitsapdemocrats.com website: "Who can attend and vote in the precinct caucuses? Anyone can attend the precinct caucuses to participate in platform and resolution discussions. To be able to vote for candidates and delegates, one must attend, be a registered voter in the precinct, and sign a form declaring him/herself to be a Democrat. Anyone 17 years of age who will be 18 years old on or before election day (Tuesday, November 8) is eligible to participate. Those who are not currently registered to vote may register to vote at the caucus and participate on the same day."

Caucus locations are also available through their website, as well as a link to apply for a surrogate affidavit.

Voters who can't attend the Democratic caucus can easily apply for a "surrogate affidavit" to make their choice, but this is allowed only if they can't attend their caucus due to religious observance, military duty/work schedule or disability/illness.

This is democracy in action, and participation can truly make a difference. Caucus participation can even be fun, so why not "save the date" now?
SHARE Columnist Robert Reich

By Robert Reich

I'm writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization.

It died in 2016. RIP.

It has been replaced by warring tribes:

Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage and science.

Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.

Market fundamentalists convinced that the "free market" can do no wrong.

Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes and other forms of crony capitalism.

Billionaires craving even more of the nation's wealth than they already own.

And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald Trump and are becoming convinced that the greatest threats to their well-being are Muslims, blacks and Mexicans.

Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology  and its own candidate.

What's left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party. But the Grand Old Party inside the shell is no more.

I, for one, regret its passing. Our nation needs political parties to link up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles and forge a platform.

The Republican Party used to do these things. Sometimes it did them easily, as when it came together behind William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt in 1900, Calvin Coolidge in 1920 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. Sometimes the Republican Party did these things with difficulty, as when it strained to choose Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

But there was always enough of a Republican Party to do these important tasks  to span the divides, to give force and expression to a set of core beliefs, and to come up with a candidate around whom Republicans could enthusiastically rally.

No longer. And that's a huge problem for the rest of us.

Without a Republican Party, nothing stands between us and a veritable "Star Wars" cantina of self-proclaimed wannabe nominees.

Without a Republican Party, anyone who is able to raise (or already possesses) the requisite money to run for president can run  even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, and even if he's a knave detested by all of his Republican colleagues.

Without a Republican Party, it's just us and them. And one of them could even become the next president of the United States.
Michael Tanner writes at Cato:

A self-professed democratic socialist is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he is running neck and neck with a party icon. Polls show that more than a quarter of Americans have a favorable opinion of socialism, which might not sound so bad until you learn that that includes 43 percent of those under age 30, and 42 percent of Democrats. Meanwhile, barely half of Americans have a favorable view of capitalism. Democrats, in fact, are as likely to view socialism positively as they are capitalism. What accounts for this collective historical amnesia?

Tanner reminds us:

After all, if one looks at the long course of human history, our existence was pretty much hand to mouth for most of it. All that began to change in the 1700s with the development of modern  that is, capitalist  economics. But one doesnt have to go back 300 years to see the advantages of free-market capitalism. Consider that in the last 25 years, a period during which much of the world has embraced free markets, a billion people have been lifted out of poverty, and the global poverty rate has been slashed from more than 37 percent to less than 10 percent. Its not just the decline in poverty that tracks with the adoption of free markets and capitalism. Literacy rates increase and infant mortality declines as countries adopt market-based economies. Life expectancy rises, and peoples health improves. Even the environment gets cleaner. And opportunities open up for women and minorities. Indeed, nothing challenges entrenched elites like the creative destruction of free-market capitalism.

People dont like the destruction of capitalism but without destruction, you dont get new businesses.

There was a reason, after all, why West Germany built the Mercedes-Benz, while East Germany produced the Trabant. Bernie Sanders may think its terrible that we have a choice of deodorants, but most Americans would rather not shop in a Venezuelan supermarket. Need more? According to the Human Freedom Index, more economic freedom correlates with more personal freedom. Just consider countries with state-controlled economies and how little personal freedom they allow. On the other hand, countries with free-market economies tend to be free in other ways, too.

Economic freedom and personal freedom almost always go together, with only a couple of exceptions such as Singapore.

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Americans will celebrate anything. Heck, this month alone we have "National Drink Wine Day," and for some, drinking wine is a religion.

For the past 10 years, employees have steadily filed workplace-based religious-discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. There are no fewer than 16 religious holidays or "holy days" in February. While you may be familiar with Ash Wednesday and St. Valentine's Day, many others exist.

But this case involves Christianity and a strongly held belief. A coal mining company in West Virginia installed a time clock with a biometric hand scanner and implemented a policy requiring all workers to clock in and out by using the hand scanner.

A veteran worker of 35 years objected to the policy on the basis of religion; he believed it would be used as "part of an identification system and collection of personal information that would be used by the Christian Antichrist, as described in the New Testament Book of Revelation, to identify his followers with the 'mark of the beast.'"

The worker asked to be excluded from the hand scanner policy as a religious accommodation, stating he feared "damnation from its use."

The source of the "mark of the beast" concern is found in Revelation 13:16-17: "And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

The worker's supervisors told him to use his left hand (since the Bible verse references only "right hand"), but the worker wanted to continue submitting manual attendance records. Scanning the left hand was the only accommodation offered to the worker. Other workers were allowed to bypass the hand scanner because of physical incapacities.

In response to his renewed requests for accommodation, the company gave the worker a copy of its progressive discipline policy, which included possible termination after only four missed hand scans. The worker retired (imagine the fun at that retirement party) after realizing he would be fired if he did not use the hand scanner.

Enter the EEOC, which filed a civil action on the worker's behalf claiming the company's refusal to provide the requested accommodation to the employee was religious discrimination under federal law. The West Virginia jury agreed and awarded the worker $150,000 in compensatory damages and almost $450,000 in back pay and front pay. The court issued a permanent injunction against the company's further religious discrimination of workers.

Title VII requires reasonable accommodation of employees' "sincerely held religious beliefs, observances, and practices" when requested, unless accommodation would impose an undue hardship on business operations.

Undue hardship under Title VII is defined as "more than de minimis" cost or burden, which is a significantly lower standard for employers to meet than the "undue hardship" defense under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is defined instead as "significant difficulty or expense." In this case, all the company had to do was make an exception for the worker and move on.

Here is a checklist for companies on accommodating religious beliefs:

Has management learned of a religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement?

Determine whether the worker sincerely holds the belief  and keep in mind there's no requirement that the belief be widely held or popular;

Analyze all reasonable accommodations  be creative. Document all exchanges with the worker and keep the interactive process going. Explore all options before dismissing all options as "undue hardships." (The EEOC says an "accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on other workers' rights, or requires other workers to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work.")

Some options are flexible scheduling, voluntary shift swaps, job reassignments, and changes to workplace policies or practices.

By all means, be reasonable. Don't refuse a simple accommodation on principle unless you have job security and your company can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and lost productive employee time on lawsuits.

Heather G. Anderson is an employment law attorney in Knoxville with Miller Anderson Law Group, PLLC. Email her at handerson@millerandersonlaw.com and find her @HRLawyer Knox.
Bula Boutique co-owner Julia Ford, left, assists customers Alison Cunningham, center, and Annette Sydes. (Photo by Ali James/Special to the News Sentinel)

SHARE Ali James/Special to the News Sentinel Julia Ford uses social media, private shopping events and partnerships with other local businesses to connect with customers. Rhonda Gordons Karns store, Spoiled Rotten, has such a loyal following that 400 customers lined up last Black Friday to purchase her coupon card offer. SUBMITTED PHOTO SUBMITTED Rhonda Gordon has evolved her fashion boutique Spoiled Rotten over the years. Recently she revamped the store using antique furniture to create a welcoming shopping environment for customers. Gary Braden store, Bradens Lifestyle in Turkey Creek, offers full-service interior design consulting in the store. (Photo by Ali James/Special to the News Sentinel)

By Ali James of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Online sales continued to grow during the holiday season, forcing even many big-box stores to slash prices and announce plans to close some stores.

It was tough for small, homegrown businesses, as well. But to help them survive and stay relevant as consumers continue to migrate to online shopping, some Knoxville local retailers say they capitalized on their unique strengths and focused more on their shoppers than ever.

At Bula Boutique, a women's clothing store on Gay Street, co-owners Brandon Radar and Julia Ford said they refuse to rest on their laurels after a strong holiday season.

"We'll do a social media blast and people share it and like it, then we pick someone to shop privately before the clothes hit the racks," Radar said of their regular private shopping events.

According to Radar, another successful effort is the store's First Friday cross promotions. They partner with photographers and makeup artists to offer makeup and styling consultations. They also use their own training to provide a "cute" hairstyle such as an up-do, braid or hair chalk application with purchase.

"We work with photographer Sarah McAffry, as she does a lot of senior sessions and prom portraits," Radar said. "We host senior photo sessions at the boutique and style them from head to toe."

"We always put new stuff out every Friday and post it on social media," he said. "Once it's gone, it's gone; we don't reorder."

The pair also travel to their growing customer base in Nashville and host trunk shows to build sales.

"To be successful in business, you have to evolve," Radar said. "We're all the time looking for something new."

He added that they avoid coupons and rarely hold sales.

"We don't do extreme markups," Radar said. "We're not going to charge $240 for a dress and then sell it for 85 percent off. We would rather price it reasonably. A lot of places sit on so much inventory, but we have it down to a science. We don't normally keep a style over two to three weeks."

Rhonda Gordon has owned Spoiled Rotten on Oak Ridge Highway in Karns for 25 years, and she says the business continues to be successful despite the challenging environment.

"I started the store in the drugstore next door when I was going to college," she said.

While her merchandise has evolved over the years, Gordon points to one constant: friendly customer service.

"We do big events when we welcome a new brand," she said. "We give away a lot of T-shirts and shopper totes. My regular customers get at least one T-shirt a year."

More than 400 shoppers lined up around the block last Black Friday to snap up one of Spoiled Rotten's $15 coupon cards. The cards cost $15 and offer 12 coupons with an average savings of $200. They come with a free T-shirt and an instant $10-off coupon. Spoiled Rotten was completely sold out in 30 minutes, Gordon said.

Gordon is constantly working her social media tools, too  posting new arrivals and showing photos of her customers with their purchases on Instagram and Facebook.

Before Facebook, Gordon said, she spent up to $5,000 mailing out postcards and fliers to her customer mailing list. "Now we do sales, show new arrivals and have giveaways" on social media, she said.

Offering unique items is another draw for Gordon's customers.

"I draw (the designs) for all of my own T-shirts, and a local screen printer prints them," she said. "I have a lot of Tennessee shirts, and a collection for Christmas and even some Valentine's Day shirts."

While there is a Spoiled Rotten website, Gordon prefers to dedicate her time and resources to the in-store experience. The store is being revamped using vintage furniture from Sisters' Vintage Rentals to display her store merchandise and create a welcoming environment for shoppers.

"It was a great year; a lot of people are wanting to go to boutiques," Gordon said of 2015. "Boutiques are the in-thing right now. I heard that continually from customers. We've tried to move with the times, you've got to sell what people want."

Gary Braden's family business Braden's Lifestyle will celebrate 60 years in the furniture business this May.

"We're an older company, but we're a growing company," he said. "We had a robust season with a strong fall; sales were up 15 percent in 2015."

The Turkey Creek store offers full-service interior design, and merchandise ranges from area rugs to patio furniture. He estimated that 40 percent of the furniture purchases made involved customization of upholstery, wood finish and color.

"With Wayfair and Overstock, the consumer is buying a blind product," Braden said. "We're not in the same business. We have a lot of American-made furniture. We focus on how well it performs."

To keep the sales floor fresh, Braden moves discontinued and clearance items to his Maryville Warehouse. He also has created a Facebook clearance page to sell individual items, and also promotes them on the store's Instagram page.

"That's been successful so far, and we have had a lot of interest in it," he said. "We hope that will grow."

Braden's hosts three in-store events a year, including a recent successful Mom's Night Out for a local parenting group. It was a private party featuring 15 outside vendors who provided food and items for purchase, such as gifts, plants and fashion. The idea was to encourage potential customers to walk the store and promote other local businesses.

In addition to traditional media advertising, Braden said search engine optimization helps maintain his online presence. Email blasts and social media posts keep regular customers informed of sales.

Braden said businesses such as his need to keep abreast of trends and offer what their multigenerational customers are seeking.

Lisa Petree, co-owner of Be Media Savvy, consults and provides marketing services for small businesses. "One of the things that we're promoting is video," Petree said. "Some of the larger Internet research companies are predicting that 70 percent of all content online will be video, and if you want to be found, you need to use video."

Petree suggested creating an online video experience that mimics the experience inside the retail store. For example, an outdoor retail store might highlight a popular grill by throwing a tailgating party, creating a video of it and positing it on social media to connect with consumers.

"It's interesting how people are having to be more personal to attract more customers," she said. "With the advent of social media, retailers need to be very narrow and focused on who their client is, and be laser targeted."

Petree calls this "narrowcasting" instead of "broadcasting."

One local antique store client has been advertising videos of new products on Facebook, while a gift store hosted a Feng Shui expert to draw in customers, Petree said.
Anna M. King

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By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE  Deputies are investigating after a man reported he was carjacked in the Kimberlin Heights community of South Knox County around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

The victim was at a stop sign at the corner of Kimberlin Heights and Hodges Ferry roads when a couple driving a Ford Explorer blocked his path, according to a news release from the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

The couple forced the victim out of his 2008 silver convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse and drove away.

Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers had been chasing the couple just before the carjacking, the release said. The Explorer was stolen from Lenoir City, and the tags were taken from a vehicle in Knox County, authorities said.

The carjacked Eclipse is a Spyder Edition with a black top.

The carjackers are described as a man in his mid-20s with short, black hair, a slim build and of average height, wearing a T-shirt and jeans; and a woman in her mid-20s with dark hair in a ponytail, a slim build and of average height.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 865-215-2243.
Anna M. King

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By News Sentinel Staff

A bullet passed through the drywall of a house in North Knox County early Saturday morning, through the headboard of a crib where a baby was sleeping, through three more walls and then lodged in a stud in an unoccupied bedroom, according to a news release from the Knox County Sheriff's Office

No one was injured, but the Major Crimes Unit of the Sheriff's Office is asking the public for help on the investigation.

The incident happened shortly before 1 a.m. at 6300 Stillglen Lane. Sheriff's Office detectives believe it may be related to shots fired shortly beforehand at the 1900 block of Murray Drive. Officers said that 10 rounds were fired and detectives recovered nine shell casings there.

Those who were in the area of Murray Drive or Pleasant Ridge Road area before 1 a.m. Saturday, and heard shots fired or saw something that might help, are asked to call the Knox County Sheriff's Office at 215-2243.
Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web
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The Tennessee Winter Beer Fest celebrates its fifth year on Feb. 27 with an all-star cast of local breweries.

This year's event will feature the Saw Works Brewing Company, Bluetick Brewery, Fanatic Brewing Company, Depot Street Brewing, Yee-Haw Brewing Company, Balter Beerworks, Crafty Bastard Brewery, Blackhorse Brewery, Johnson City Brewing Company, Holston River Brewing Company, Last Days of Autumn Brewing, and Calfkiller Brewing Company.

The Tennessee Winter Beer Fest runs from 3-8 p.m. at the Carriage House, 8310 Highway 73, in Townsend. The festival began as the idea of Maryville resident Mike Adams. Organizers early on decided to make the event a fundraiser for the New Hope Blount County Children's Advocacy Center, and while the available number of tickets has remained constant at 300, donations to New Hope through the beer festival reached a record $16,000 in 2015.

Kroger, Alcoa Aluminum and Grayson Subaru have donated water to the event. The Tally Ho Inn, the Townsend Gateway Inn and the Highland Manor Inn have donated 10 percent from their rooms booked for the festival back to the festival itself.

The mission of the Tennessee Winter Beer Fest is to promote the regional craft beer culture in East Tennessee through various events while promoting local charities.

Tickets for the event are $60 and may be purchased online at: www.tennesseewinterbeerfest.com. Tickets also are available at the Casual Pint in Bearden and Maryville. The ticket price includes a commemorative glass, beer and catered dinner. Designated driver tickets also can be purchased for $30, which also includes dinner.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump and Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, stand on stage before the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

SHARE Donald Trump Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the son of Cuban immigrants, prepares for a news conference where he expressed his disappointment in President Barack Obama's initiative to normalize relations between the US and Cuba, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Ted Cruz Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, points at Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  When Hope Foulds talks politics with other Christian conservatives, they tell her they want the next president to be a true man of God, one who lives his faith in his private life as well as on the public stage.

For her, that man is Ted Cruz.

"He is the one candidate who has stayed true to his word," said Foulds, who can be found most every Sunday in the pews at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Knoxville. "It's not just campaign rhetoric. It's something you can see when you look back at his political past and even before his political life began."

On the opposite end of the state, Hunter Baker is backing Marco Rubio, who he says is creating a lot of excitement among evangelical voters who are well educated, professional and looking for someone who can inspire Americans to reach for higher ideals.

"Many evangelicals worry about a candidate making them look bad," said Baker, a political science professor at Union University, a Christian college in Jackson, Tenn. "Rubio is so well spoken and articulate, they like that. They think he can represent their point of view without being craven and get their message across."

With just a week left until Tennessee voters head to the polls, Cruz and Rubio are fighting to lock up the support of the state's evangelicals, a voting bloc so large and influential it could determine who walks away the winner of the Republican primary on March 1.

Evangelicals made up more than 70 percent of voters in Tennessee in 2012, the last time the presidency was on the ballot, according to University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, which closely monitors election contests across the country.

Evangelical turnout that year was credited with pushing former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to a comfortable win in Tennessee over the eventual nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon.

Republican leaders across the state predict the vote will be just as critical this year.

"Over the last few cycles, evangelical voters have played a major role in Tennessee," said Brent Leatherwood, executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party. "We see no evidence to suggest the contrary for this cycle. Any presidential candidate who is serious about winning Tennessee will likely place an emphasis on evangelical engagement."

Cruz in particular has made a concerted effort to reach out to evangelical voters in Tennessee.

He has sent his father, Rafael Cruz, an ordained minister, into the state on several occasions to speak to pastors, in churches and at other events. The Texas senator's supporters have been distributing email messages making the case that he gives Christians hope for America.

A group called "95 Pastors for Cruz" has been working to win the endorsement of a pastor in every county in the state. On the group's website is a videotaped message to Tennessee pastors from Cruz himself, who warns that religious liberty is under attack and that, now more than ever, "this nation needs each of us to speak the truth of the gospel."

Cruz "is by far the best choice for someone who believes strongly in the authority of scripture and in the originality of the Constitution, in that it should be interpreted as originally intended," said Ashley Ray, senior pastor at Ridgeway Baptist Church in Memphis.

Rob Bremer, a retired nondenominational pastor who runs a wedding business in Gatlinburg, said he's backing Cruz for several reasons.

"He's a very intelligent person," said Bremer, past chairman of the Sevier County Tea Party and a member of Cruz's Tennessee leadership team. "He has argued in front of the Supreme Court. He defends the Constitution."

Bremer lived in Texas for a decade, and when Cruz first came on the scene and ran for Senate there in 2012, Bremer called some friends and asked what they thought about him.

"He's the real deal," was their reply.

A month ago, Buddy Burkhardt thought Cruz had the evangelical vote in Tennessee all locked up. But after Cruz's combative posture during the GOP debates and questions about some of his campaign tactics, he's not so sure.

"You're talking about the Bible belt right here," said Burkhardt, chairman of the Knox County Republican Party. "People want you to be nice and forgiving."

Rubio also has been making a push for evangelical voters in Tennessee and other states.

"Marco's faith is one of the primary reasons I signed on as chairman of his Tennessee campaign," said Zach Wamp, a former Republican congressman from Chattanooga.

Rubio's team has shared the Florida senator's "deeply held beliefs with pastors and people of faith across the Volunteer State, but Marco is his own best spokesperson," Wamp said. "His moving, genuine testimonial in response to an atheist voter in Iowa went viral, giving people all across the country an opportunity to hear directly from Marco about how his faith influences his every decision and how he will strongly defend religious liberty as president.

"When Tennesseans hear Marco talk about his faith, they know it's genuine, and we're encouraged by the number of people rallying behind our campaign."

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has made his faith a big part of his campaign, yet "I rarely hear Ben Carson's name from evangelicals as a candidate they are considering," said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville.

"Most evangelicals I know think highly of Ben Carson," Moore said, but "he's not really in the mix anymore. I think that is because he has done so poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire. People of all stripes wonder why he's still in the race."

Polls show Donald Trump with a commanding lead among all Republicans in Tennessee, but Moore said he doesn't see Trump with a large following among the state's evangelical voters.

"It seems he is going for a much more secular or nominally Christian voting base," Moore said.

Trump may be the beneficiary if Cruz and Rubio end up splitting the evangelical vote, Baker said.

"Until one of those guys gives way, Trump may just continue winning," he said.
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Republican malcontents  and front-runners  Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have their differences but each is a bona fide culture warrior, eager to fight "them" in the name of "us." Cruz, who refers to his campaign as an "awakening" in "the body of Christ," blasts same-sex marriage as "an unrelenting assault" on biblical matrimony. Rubio opposes abortion, and he won't go on the record for exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Trump allays the fears and anxieties of many by promising to wall off the nation from Mexicans and Muslims.

You may think such hostility is a modern phenomenon, unveiled in Pat Buchanan's 1992 Republican National Convention speech declaring "a cultural war" for "the soul of America."

But we misunderstand our culture wars if we see them as current events. Americans have been denouncing one another as blasphemers and traitors, false patriots and civic menaces, from the beginning of the republic.

Elections have long been bloody battlefields. The election of 1800, which pitted Federalist John Adams against Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, holds the U.S. record for viciousness. It served up "family values" and religious indignation with all the nastiness of the Crusades and all the urgency of the Apocalypse.

Adams' surrogate, Alexander Hamilton, spoke of saving America from the "fangs of Jefferson" while Jefferson's followers spoke of saving it from the "talons of Monarchists."

But this culture war homed in on Jefferson's theological transgressions. Hamilton called him an atheist. As if anticipating current whisperings about President Barack Obama, the Connecticut Courant suggested Jefferson might be a secret Jew or Muslim. A Federalist minister, convinced that Jefferson's heresies disqualified him for the presidency, wrote that a vote for this "manifest enemy to the religion of Christ" would cause God to call down his wrath upon the nation.

After an electoral college tie and much drama in the House of Representatives, Jefferson was finally elected. In his inaugural address, he famously tried to unite his not-so-indivisible nation. "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists," he said.

But culture wars persisted. In the 19th century, the targets were Catholics and Mormons. According to Protestant traditionalists, both of these groups practiced fake Christianity. Each harbored sexual deviants, who were driven by celibacy (Catholics) or polygamy (Mormons) to the grossest forms of immorality. And each presented a grave challenge to American democracy, by forcing adherents to vote in lockstep with the pope or their husbands.

In the 1920s and 1930s the battle over Prohibition and repeal was never confined merely to "drys" and "wets." More broadly, Prohibition pitted a largely monocultural right anxious about the blooming, buzzing confusion of modern life against a multicultural left committed to liberty in religion, dancing, dress and drinking.

Two surprising conclusions emerge when America's culture wars are stacked up and weighed together. Conservatives typically start the battles, and liberals almost always win them.

Conservatism is often said to be rooted in a commitment to states' rights, free markets and limited government. But American conservatives have been for and against all these things at various times. The more consistent idea behind American conservatism is cultural: a form of life is passing away and it is worth fighting to revive and restore it. Driven by this narrative of loss and restoration, culture warriors struggle to resurrect the patriarchal family or Christian America or the homogeneous hometown.

Conservatives typically lose these battles because the causes they select are lost from the start. For example, culture warriors took on Catholics when the Catholic population was mainstreaming and gaining power. They took on same-sex marriage when many gays and lesbians were already out of the closet and accepted by their heterosexual relatives, co-workers and neighbors.

Southern historian Charles Reagan Wilson wrote about the "Religion of the Lost Cause" embraced by Southerners after the Civil War. According to this gospel, the Confederate dead were martyrs in a righteous cause, not losers in the war against slavery. Even now, winning a battle doesn't make a culture warrior righteous; losing does. Each defeat proves that America is in fact going to hell and is desperately in need of a defender.

This is one reason why Republicans often win elections today even as they campaign on lost causes. There is no way Mexicans are going to pay to build a border wall with T-R-U-M-P emblazoned upon it. And banning Muslims from the country is obviously a lost cause. But victory on these questions is not exactly the point of our current culture wars. The point is to win power electorally by losing culturally.

Investigating America's many culture wars can be depressing. The United States is supposed to be "a nation of immigrants" with competing religious beliefs and political ideas. It is supposed to be a "symphony of civilization," as the cultural pluralist Horace Kallen wrote in 1915. But all too often that symphony is shrill and off-key.

At least individual cultural battles do come to an end. Usually the conflict produces some consensus. And the consensus produces a more inclusive nation. You don't need "New York values" these days to welcome Catholics or Mormons into the American family. American values will do the trick. It is not altogether naive to hope that today's tumult over who we are will soon die down, leaving Muslims and Latinos as American as can be.
2:01 p.m. February 21, 2016

Corker on President Signing North Korea Sanctions







U.S. Senator Bob Corker made the following statement after President Obama signed the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 into law.



We can no longer afford to allow North Koreas rogue regime to enhance its nuclear and missile capabilities without tougher consequences, said Corker. This legislation provides a robust set of tools for the U.S. to deter North Koreas illicit behavior in a more effective manner and promote human rights for the North Korean people. I hope the administration will use this opportunity to take a more proactive approach against the North Korean nuclear threat.



On February 10, the Senate passed the legislation in a unanimous vote of 96 to 0 following a day of legislative floor action led by Sen. Corker. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a ballistic missile last week in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. In recent testimony before Congress, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed North Koreas progress in expanding production of weapons-grade nuclear fuel.



The North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, which was approved unanimously by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, includes the following key provisions:



Sanctions:

 The bill requires the president to investigate sanctionable conduct, including proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), arms-related materials, luxury goods, human rights abuses, activities undermining cyber security and the provision of industrial inputs such as precious metals or coal for use in a tailored set of activities, including WMD, proliferation activities and prison and labor camps.

 The president is mandated to sanction any person found to have materially contributed to, engaged in or facilitated the above activities.

 Penalties for sanctionable activities include the seizure of assets, visa bans and denial of government contracts.

 The president retains the discretionary authority to sanction those transferring or facilitating the transfer of financial assets and property of the North Korean regime.

 The president may waive sanctions, but only on a case-by-case basis.

 The bill requires the Secretary of Treasury to determine whether North Korea is a primary money laundering concern. If such a determination is made, assets must be blocked and special measures applied against those designated persons.



Strategies and Policies:

 The bill requires a strategy to promote improved implementation and enforcement of multilateral sanctions; a strategy to combat North Korean cyber activities; and a strategy to promote and encourage international engagement on North Korean human rights-related issues. There are reporting requirements related to the above strategies as well as a report on political prison camps and a feasibility study on providing communications equipment to the people of North Korea.  The State Department is required to expand the scope and frequency of travel warnings for North Korea.



U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Published February 21, 2016
Nonfiction book review Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki, October 11, 2022, Al...
POSCO staff help Vietnamese students during the company's charity housing project in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, one of the nation's largest business clusters near the capital Ho Chi Minh City. / Courtesy of POSCO



By Jhoo Dong-chan

POSCO's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in Vietnam have set an example for 295 foreign companies in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, one of the nation's largest business clusters near Ho Chi Minh City.

The company has rebuilt 43 houses for low-income families in the area since 2011, and started another housing project with student volunteers in September 2014 to build 85 houses in Dun Dan in the province for people in need. The project is expected to be completed by April.

POSCO also built a steel bridge for residents in the province's flood area, Da Bac, to secure safe travelling. The company executives and staff held the bridge's completion ceremony with residents in the area Jan. 14.

POSCO undertook various education infrastructure businesses including building an IT education center in Dun Dan and an elementary school and kindergarten in Song Luy.

The company's scholarship mission, the "POSCO Asia Fellowship," has supported a total of some 600 students who now actively play important roles in the government, industries, academia and media. The scholarship program also funded various universities' research projects and supported distinguished students to study in Korea.

In 2008, the company also participated in UNICEF's medical aid project by building water tanks, kitchens and repairing public restrooms in five villages in northern Vietnam.

POSCO started its operations in Vietnam before Korea established diplomatic ties with the country in 1992 and is now the third largest foreign direct invested company there.

In September 2009, POSCO built a cold-rolled steel plant with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons there to feed growing demand in Southeast Asia.
By Jhoo Dong-chan



Foreign car companies have been the biggest beneficiaries of the government's consumption tax cut, because more motorists are encouraged by steeper discounts to purchase high-priced vehicles produced and imported by BMW and Mercedes-Benz, according to market data Sunday. In addition, SUVs have been outselling passenger cars.



These outcomes are in contrast to the stated intentions of policymakers, who said they hoped to help domestic carmakers that produce mostly compact and midsize sedans. But the sales tax cut has largely bolstered the sales of foreign imports rather than firms that assemble their vehicles here, including GM Korea, Renault Samsung and Ssangyong.



According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) and the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA), Sunday, a total of 85,161 foreign cars were sold between September and December last year, on the heels of the government lowering the consumption tax on automobiles from 5 percent to 3.5 percent in August. This marks a 26.1 percent increase from the previous year's sales of 67,542 in the same period.



Although a total of 509,269 domestic cars were also sold, up 18 percent in the same period, their sales were mainly concentrated in mid-and large-sized vehicles.



However, since the tax cut does not fully apply to cars with a engine displacement of less than 1,600 cc, the public questioned whether the tax cut was really intended to stimulate the nation's sagging economy, claiming that the policy only helped wealthy consumers.



"The government's tax cut only applies to such luxury vehicles," said a 33-year-old Gyeonggi resident surnamed Song.



"Most people cannot afford those cars. I think the government is only trying to stimulate the economic activity of rich people."



Sales of cars priced between 40 million won and 50 million won increased 42.2 percent, while sales of cars within a price range of 100 to 150 million also rose 40 percent in the same period.



However, sales of small-sized cars declined from 63,664 to 63.092 units while compact sales dropped by 11.3 percent from 11,390 to 10,107 units.



Kia Motors even offered a free kimchi fridge to customers if they bought the Morning, the company's flagship small-size model, but even this did not help the car's sales.



"The government's tax cut for stimulating the economy has only helped large-sized or foreign luxury vehicles," said an industry official. "Additional measures are needed for the sales of small and compact-sized cars, which are mostly used by the low- and middle-income classes."




By Yoon Ja-young



The central bank started issuing 50,000 won bills in 2009, expecting them to be widely used. But now, more 50,000 won bills seem to be entering the underground economy. Some suggest Korea should adopt 20,000 won bills instead.



According to the central bank, Korea is one of the few countries in the world without a coin or a bill that is denominated with a "2," such as the $20 bills of the United States, 2,000 yen notes of Japan or 20 yuan bills of China.



If the central bank is to follow the global trend, it should be issuing 10,000 won, 20,000 won and 50,000 won banknotes. However, the central bank governor said: "We aren't considering issuing a 20,000 won note at all."



The central bank says 20,000 won notes will only increase confusion and incur huge costs for the financial industry because they will have to upgrade ATMs.



However, analysts note that 50,000 won bills are disappearing, instead of being widely circulated. The central bank has issued 110.5 trillion won of the bills so far, but only 47.4 trillion won of them have been collected. It means each Korean should have, on average, 25 50,000 won notes.



That is why analysts say the 50,000 won notes are entering the underground economy. According to a report by the Korea Development Institute (KDI), the underground economy takes 30.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). It soared to 57.3 percent of GDP in 1998, when the East Asian financial crisis hit, but slid to 24.5 percent in 2009 following the government's promotion of credit card use. It is rising again after the introduction of 50,000 won notes.



"Note that the underground economy began increasing in the latter half of 2009, which is the time when the 50,000 won bills debuted," said Cho Young-moo, a researcher at the LG Economic Research Institute.



He said the low collection rate of the bills means they are derailing the cycle of money circulation. Instead of returning to the central bank, they are remaining in wallets or safes.



"When taking into account that it is difficult to track the whereabouts of cash, the disappearance of 50,000 won bills leads to the conclusion that there is increasing demand by people who want to evade the tax agency and keep the money to themselves, or transfer their wealth to these bills," he said, citing surging sales of gold bars and personal safes as other evidence backing the hypothesis.




By Kim Jae-heun

Bae Yoon-young, the hottest local fashion model often dubbed "Mulan"





Name: Bae Yoon-young

Agency: YGKPLUS

Height: 176cm

Waist: 22 inch

Shoe size: 250 mm

From her debut in August 2014, 19-year old fashion model Bae Yoon-young has been dominating the world's top international fashion magazines such as Vogue, W Magazine, Marie Claire, CeCi and Sure.

Bae became interested in becoming a fashion model in middle school when she saw some collection cuts from European Fashion Week, but it was Chae Han-suk, a popular local stylist, who discovered the young modeling talent in her hometown, Daegu.

"I was working part-time when Chae suggested I try modeling" said Bae during an interview with The Korea Times, last Tuesday. "He introduced me to my current agency YGKPLUS and I debuted through the magazine Vogue Girl immediately."

To her amazement, Bae grew 10 centimeters in three months in her freshman year, now standing 176 centimeters tall. Bae thinks she can reach up to 180 centimeters by straightening her crooked back.

But Bae's apparent strength as a fashion model lies in her distinct Asian beauty  with facial characteristics like a small nose and single eyelids. According to fashion industry insiders, Bae has a characteristically Asian look that is also not a typical Korean face either. For this reason, the young model is called by her nickname, "Mulan" from the Disney movie, by her fans on her Instagram.





Her small physique is another advantage for fitting into European collection pieces.

"I have a small body compared to my height and my bones are thin too. I don't gain weight easily and even if I do, it's hard to notice. I was 176 centimeters tall and weighed 47 kilograms when I debuted," Bae said.

The rookie model participated in nine shows at her first fashion week in 2014 and 21 shows at the latest 2016 Spring/Summer Seoul Fashion Week last year. For the upcoming 2016 Fall/Winter collection, she is planning to walk some 20 runways and aims for the catwalks of New York's fashion week in the second half of the year.

"I want to earn the title as the most-recognized Korean model abroad," Bae said. "I want to get rewarded for the efforts I put in."

Koryo-in model, Vita Kan





Name: Vita Kan

Agency: Cjes Model Edition (Figaro: Mother agency)

Height: 174 cm Waist: unknown

Shoe size: unknown

Vita Kan is not a popular name in the Korean fashion industry. It has only been two weeks since the 21-year-old arrived in Korea. The Koryo-in (Korean-Russian) model was born in Uzbekistan and raised there until she moved to Moscow for university.

The young model has grandparents, both from her father and mother sides, who are half-Koreans, from which she inherits her Korean identity.

She started modeling four years ago after being discovered in Uzbekistan by Korean designer Jung Ku-ho, who visited her school to shoot the fashion model audition show "Hello, Russia." Kan won first place in the three-day running audition program.

"He asked me if I wanted to be a model and I said yes," said Kan during an interview with The Korea Times last Thursday. "I don't remember clearly, but there were several hundred participants, mostly Russians and some Korean-Russians. I did not expect anything in the first place and participated very comfortably."

After the audition, Kan signed a contract with W Magazine and came to Korea to participate in her first fashion show, "Epitaph." During her 15-day stay, she also shot for major fashion magazines such as "Dazed."

Kan is currently working as a model in 12 cities such as London, Paris, Milan, New York and Seoul. Her mother agency Figaro, where she got her start, is based in Moscow and the renowned modeling agency Select Model Management takes care of her modeling activities in London.

"It's funny that I had a dream of living in London and I was watching the whole city from the balcony," said Kan. "A few days later, my mother agency asked me whether I want to go to Paris or London and I said London."

In London, Kan participated in fashion shows such as "Meadham Kirchhoff" for 2014 Summer and Spring and "Zoe Jordan" for Fall and Winter.

This is the Koryo-in model's fourth time in Seoul and she will be staying here for the next two months, her longest stay in Korea.

"My plan in Korea is to participate in as many fashion shows as possible in the upcoming Seoul Fashion Week," Kan said. "I don't know the popular designers here, so I cannot name who, but I would like to walk for big names at the show."
By Yi Whan-woo



President Park Geun-hye is facing calls to include economic policymakers on the National Security Council (NSC) to benefit decisions that affect major economic issues.



When the council decided to shut down the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) on Feb. 10 in response to North Korea's long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Yoo Il-ho was absent.



Critics say that council members, including the President, failed to properly consider the impact that the closure would have on the economy and the 124 South Korean enterprises at the GIC.



This means that the council may also fail to take South Korea's trade with China into account if it is convened in the near future to discuss deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula.



China is against deployment of a THAAD battery here, claiming it could be used to spy on its military activities.



Under the NSC Act, President Park Geun-hye chairs the 11-member NSC, which includes Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, Presidential chief of staff Lee Byung-kee, National Security Office (NSO) chief Kim Kwan-jin, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, Defense Minister Han Min-koo, Interior Minister Hong Yun-sik, Public Safety and Security Minister Park In-yong, NSO deputy chief Cho Tae-yong and Senior Presidential Secretary on Foreign Affairs Kim Kyoo-hyun.



The finance minister has been excluded from NSC meetings since the act was amended in 1998.



"South Korea's economic losses from the shutdown of the GIC are estimated at $3.2 billion," said Rep. Kim Young-rok of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) on the second and last day of the interpellation sessions at the National Assembly, Friday. "Under such circumstances, the finance minister should have been present at the NSC meeting."



Citing the Hyundai Research Institute, the MPK lawmaker added that the South Korean government and its firms have invested 2 trillion won in the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong since it opened in 2004. Total sales revenue from products produced amounted to 8 trillion won.



In the United States, the NSC and its regular attendees, both statutory and non-statutory, includes the Secretary of the Treasury. In Japan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Taro Aso attended a NSC meeting there on Feb. 10 when Tokyo decided to toughen unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang for conducting a long-range rocket launch three days earlier.



However, not all analysts agree that the finance minister should attend NSC meetings.



"Economic development was directly linked to the well-being and safety of the people in the 1960s and that's probably why the finance minister was included as a NSC member when the NSC Act was set up," said Im Tobin, a former president of the Korean Association for Public Administration, Sunday. "The government in the late 1990s may have thought that it was no longer necessary for the country's top economic policymaker to join the NSC as the country became industrialized. Moreover, we began to see meetings among economy-related ministers who could direct their thoughts to the President."



In an e-mail interview, Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies stated, "The formal membership of South Korea's NSC is not a sufficient indicator that it is somehow incapable of making policy that includes both national security and economic dimensions."



Bradley Babson, a former World Bank senior analyst, also stated in an e-mail that he does not think "economic security is very much an important consideration for both South Korea and North Korea to address in their overall security calculations."




By Lee Kyung-min



Industrial union branches are likely to form independent company groups following a Supreme Court ruling Friday that allowed members to set up individual unions at their workplaces.



Industrial unions, which were introduced in Korea in the late 1990s to increase leverage in bargaining and strikes, are expected to lose members. They have often been under fire for engaging in politically motivated rallies and holding frequent strikes instead of pursuing improved working conditions.



Previously, these branches could change form only through direct collective bargaining and agreement from company management.



The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the nation's second-largest umbrella union, expressed concerns over the ruling's aftermath as about 550,000 industrial union members account for more than 80 percent of its membership.



"The ruling will bring a serious blow to labor movements led by the industrial unions which have grown amid the democratic movement," the KCTU said.



In 2010, workers of the international automotive supplier Valeo branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) left the umbrella union and formed their own separate company union.



More than 530 out of 601 members of the Valeo branch voted for leaving the KMWU, but four members, including its chief, filed a suit seeking the nullification of the decision after they were denied three months' income when their company was shut down following union members' radical actions.



On Friday, the Supreme Court sent back to the appellate court a ruling that found against the Valeo branch that sought to terminate membership with what it called a "radical and unproductive" supervisory entity.



The top court allowed it to set up its own automotive components company union with independent regulations and executive organization after leaving the KMWU.



Earlier, lower courts ruled in favor of the leaders, saying the Valeo branch lacked the independence to mount collective action.



However, the top court said decisions reached through the democratic process should be recognized as valid.



"The law guarantees union members' right to establish a group, as well as to resort to collective action," the court said. "Such a right includes its members' determination on whether to change, retain, or discard rules involving the operating of the group."



Similar rulings are expected to follow.



The top court is reviewing a case filed by members at Sangsin Brake, a supplier of brakes and brake assemblies, seeking to leave the KMWU. Lower courts ruled against them, but the top court is expected to make a similar ruling to Friday's decision.



Last Saturday, the Suncheon branch of Gwangju District Court rejected a request by industrial unions to ban a group of its teacher members from leaving and joining a separate group.



Since 1997, the KCTU has sought to attract people to join the industrial union to gain strength in its bargaining power.



Industrial unions comprise the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and tire manufacturing sectors. Recent criticisms against the KCTU included their neglect of non-regular workers.




By Jung Min-ho

Korea will strengthen its law enforcement system to better cope with child abuse cases, following a string of high-profile cases underlying serious social problems.

The Seoul Central District Court said Sunday that three of its criminal investigation departments will be dedicated only to child abuse cases starting Monday.

"The restructuring plan reflected increasing social concerns about the crime," a court official said.

Other than family courts, this is the first time for any court in Korea to set up departments dedicated to child abuse crimes. This groundbreaking change by the nation's largest court may encourage others to follow suit.

The National Police Agency will also create a department to throw more weight into domestic abuse investigations. The agency said about 350 officers will be assigned to the department by the end of this year and the number will increase to about 1,000 by the end of next year.

The changes came after President Park Geun-hye's call for stronger measures against domestic violence during a cabinet meeting on Jan. 19.

Last month, the remains of a seven-year-old boy were found more than three years after he was presumed killed in 2012 by his father in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The incident sparked criticism of the nation's lax system for child protection.

As part of the government effort, the ministries of education and welfare said they will strengthen their system for checking up on students missing from school.
Campaigner urges South Koreans to donate USB memory sticks



By Jung Min-ho





Alex Gladstein

Tiny flash drives or memory storage cards could become powerful weapons to use against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his military regime.

The idea behind the Flash Drives for Freedom campaign, led by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and Forum 280, is to smuggle flash drives into the isolated state in order to provide North Koreans with flash drives holding South Korean soap operas or Hollywood movies.

"Outside information and knowledge will transform North Korea," Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for HRF, told The Korea Times.

"According to the Seoul-based North Korea Strategy Center, only about 30 percent of North Koreans know that they are brainwashed and that the outside world is much more prosperous.

"Through campaigns like this, we hope to get that number closer to 50 percent or even 75 percent, and at that point, the evil Kim dictatorship will not be able to survive."

The way to participate in the campaign is simple: just ship any USB sticks to the campaign office in Palo Alto, California. (More information is available on www.flashdrivesforfreedom.org)

According to the organizers, campaigners will then find ways to smuggle the sticks into the repressive state.

Few citizens have access to computers and the Internet. However, portable video players known as Notels are becoming increasingly common, Gladstein noted.

"South Korean soap operas, Hollywood movies, video footage of South Korea, interviews with defectors, music videos and even the Korean language Wikipedia can all be useful content," he said. "Through education we can help North Koreans liberate their country."

According to HRF, about 200 flash drives and $10,000 have so far been donated.

Some South Koreans have participated in the campaign, but this is far fewer than expected, Gladstein said.

"There are some South Koreans that support the North Korean civil society groups, like the North Korea Strategy Center, but not many," he said. "The lack of interest inside South Korea with regard to helping the human rights situation in North Korea is a problem."

Gladstein said that he believed most South Koreans remained unenthusiastic about the campaign largely for two reasons  a lack of awareness and concerns about possible legal trouble.

So campaigners are trying to push the South Korean government to pass the North Korean Human Rights Act, which has been pending at the National Assembly for more than a decade.

"This will unlock a lot of new funding, support, and awareness for the defector organizations," Gladstein said. "And it will make the average South Korean more comfortable supporting these groups, once the government gives a signal that this is a legitimate and worthwhile endeavor."

In the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear test and rocket launch, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation last week to impose tighter sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, according to the White House.

Part of the sanctions is to authorize $10 million annually over five years to expand North Korean citizens' access to the media and to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees.
ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun, third from right, attends the organization's 8th Council Meeting held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Feb. 18. Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hong-kyun and representatives of 10 ASEAN countries reviewed last year's activities and discussed this year's plans.

/ Courtesy of the ASEAN-Korea Centre



By Rachel Lee

Representatives of 10 ASEAN countries arrived in Korea last week to discuss further cooperation.

At the 8th Council Meeting of the ASEAN-Korea Centre last Thursday and Friday, the directors reviewed last year's activities and discussed this year's plans. The meeting was at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul.

Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hong-kyun gave a welcoming speech, highlighting special relations between ASEAN and Korea in the business field.

"Economically, the ASEAN community will unlock the opportunities offered by a single mega-market with 6.3 billion people and a $2.5 trillion GDP, the seventh largest in the world," the deputy minister said.

"In this regard, Korea and ASEAN can grow together as partners for prosperity. For many Korean businesses, an economically integrated and vibrant ASEAN, with freer movement of goods, services and people, will become even more attractive."

ASEAN is Korea's second-largest trading partner and investment destination.

"As ASEAN aspires to build a peaceful and prosperous community, its voice and stakes are continuing to grow on the international stage," Kim said.

"In this regard, we in Korea see in ASEAN a reliable partner for peace and stability in the region. Already, we are working closely together to meet common traditional and non-traditional challenges that affect the region and the international community at large."

Ekkaphab Phanthavong, deputy director general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lao PD, also gave congratulatory remarks at the meeting.

"I note with satisfaction that substantive progress has been made in all areas of cooperation under the framework of the ASEAN-ROK cooperation, through the implementation of projects and programs under the previous Plan of Action," Phanthavong said.

"At the 17th ASEAN-ROK Summit, our leaders reaffirmed their commitment to foster closer cooperation in the areas of SME development, innovation, connectivity and narrowing the development gap in the region, aiming to promote greater trade and investment interactions as well as to realize the set target to increase the two-way trade volume to $200 billion by 2020."

In line with last year's launch of the ASEAN Community, council directors put a special emphasis on discussing the organization's activities to realize the mandates and goals in theASEAN Community Vision 2025and theASEAN-Republic of Korea Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity (2015-2020).

"We will also widen and deepen cooperation on the other priority areas that lag behind, such as narrowing the development gap, connectivity, trade facilitation, SME development, tourism promotion, employment creation and cultural preservation, among others," the deputy director general said.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre was established in March 2009 as an intergovernmental organization to promote economic and socio-cultural cooperation between ASEAN and Korea, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on establishing the ASEAN-Korea Centre between the Republic of Korea and the 10 ASEAN Member Countries signed in November 2007 in Singapore, at the 11th ASEAN-ROK Summit.

The group consists of Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

"The centre is playing a growing role infacilitating social and cultural exchanges, especially among youths," Kim said.

"I believe that all these activities carried by the centre will help heighten awareness and understanding on ASEAN in Korea."


EU ambassador explores Korea's IT world

European Union (EU) Ambassador to Korea Gerhard Sabathil visited Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (CCEI) on Feb. 19 to learn about Korea's IT industry.



CCEI representatives explained the roles of the center and the creative industry. EU member states' ambassadors were also present at the event.



"I witnessed their efforts to create eco-system to foster start-ups," Sabathil said.

"It was a very good opportunity to understand and to learn about Korea's creative economy and to compare it with similar development in Europe."



The visitors inspected several research and development centers, including IoT DIY Lab, Mobile Lab and 3D Printer Lab, the EU embassy said.



"During the past year, we have had more than 850 high-level visitors from 100 countries," said CCEI director Lim Deok-rae.



"I will do my best to keep providing information to the world about our creative economy for start-ups and SMEs."



The CCEI promotes jobcreation with the government, local government and large companies.



It also supports start-ups and potential SMEs with KT (Korea Telecom) in Fin Tech, IoT, Game, and 5G areas in Gyeonggi Province, the home for Pangyo Techno Valley.







Germany-Korea Times: Vice Environment Minister Jeong Yeon-man, left, poses with German Ambassador to Korea Rolf Mafael at the Greenhouse Gas Inventory & Research Center of Korea in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Feb. 18. The two officials discussed further cooperation in the enviromental field between the two countries.

/ Yonhap






By Yi Whan-woo



South Korea and the United States will begin working-level talks this week regarding possible deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system on the Korean Peninsula, according to military officials, Sunday.



The Joint Working Group (JWG) of the two allies will sort out details regarding the deployment of a THAAD battery in Korea including details such as: schedule and place, operational costs and concerns about possible environmental risks.



It is speculated that Chang Kyung-soo, the Ministry of Defense's director general for policy planning will lead the Seoul delegation while the U.S side will be headed by Maj. Gen. Robert Hedelund, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) assistant chief of staff for policy and planning.



"It's likely that the two sides will focus on setting up only one THAAD battery," a Ministry of Defense official said on condition of anonymity. "And the goal will be making sure that deployment will be made as early as possible."



The possible JWG talks will come after the defense ministry confirmed last week that Seoul and Washington have been discussing deployment of THAAD since Feb. 7 when North Korea test-fired a suspected ballistic missile.



Both Seoul and Washington will take an agreement made at the JWG into account before allowing the U.S. Army to deploy a THAAD battery.



Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum said, "The JWG will have a series of things to consider beside military-related issues."



China has vowed to retaliate against possible THAAD deployment, claiming it can be used to spy on its military activities instead of deterring North Korea's military attacks.



Local government officials, lawmakers and environmental activists from the neighborhoods cited as possible THAAD sites also have protested. They pointed out health and safety risks associated with strong electromagnetic radiation emitted from THAAD's AN/TPY-2 radar.



Citing the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the military authorities said that South Korea is likely to provide land and related infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewage treatment. Some possible candidate sites include Daegu, Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province, Wonju in Gangwon Province and Gunsan in North Jeolla Province.



Among them, a U.S. Army base is stationed in Dageu, while Pyeongtaek will host the new headquarters of the USFK.



The authorities said the U.S. side is anticipated to cover expenses on deployment and operations in return.



It is estimated that the cost for setting up a THAAD battery is 1 trillion won. A battery includes six missile launchers and a set of 48 missiles.




By Andrei Lankov

One question foreigners tend to ask when they read is: "Do they really believe this stuff?" Indeed, many of the often-seen claims in North Korean propaganda look comically implausible or grossly distorted. Thus, one cannot help but wonder whether the North Korean public really takes all of this nonsense seriously.

There is no clear-cut answer to the question. Some parts of the official propaganda are embraced by nearly all North Koreans, while other elements are looked upon with a great degree of skepticism. At any rate, we must not oversimplify things and conclude that North Koreans are either the brainwashed battle robots of the Great Kim Dynasty, or alternatively, democratic revolutionaries, merely biding their time.

To start with, the North Korean people generally respect and even revere the founder of the country, Generalissimo Kim Il-sung  who passed away unexpectedly, at the tender age of 82 (in 1994). Official propaganda confidently states that he  more or less singlehandedly  brought the entire Japanese Empire to its knees in 1945, before repelling an American invasion in 1950. Such comical distortions are indefensible: in 1945, Kim Il-sung was in the Soviet Union, playing virtually no role in the defeat of Japan, but this is believed almost universally in the country.

The attitude toward the Korean War also follows the official line. Nearly all North Koreans are absolutely certain that, in the early morning of June 25, 1950, the peaceful life of their country was interrupted by the brutal invasion of forces of U.S. imperialist aggression and South Korean stooges.' They also believe that the initial invasion' was successfully repelled, and that North Koreans almost liberated' the country, had it not been for the intervention of hordes of U.S. mercenaries' who tipped the balance. The role of the Chinese army, which in real life saved North Korea from total defeat, is grudgingly noted, but played down.

Judging from my experience with North Korean refugees, only a handful of North Korean intellectuals have secretly entertained doubts as to whether the war was indeed started by Washington. Even these people see both versions as equally plausible or dubious, concluding that there is no way to learn what actually happened on June 25, 1950.

When it comes to claims about the economic performance of the two Koreas, popular notions appear to differ from the official line. Until the 1990s, the majority of North Koreans believed the official story, which insisted that South Korea was a place of hunger and despair, a starving colony of the United States. However, over the past 20 years, a great deal of information on the prosperity of the South began to seep in. The North Korean agitprop shock brigades have gone back to the drawing board, toning down the propaganda. As a result, since the early 2000s, North Koreans have come to believe that South Korea is doing better than the North, though few are aware of just how large the gap is.

When it comes to their own economic performance, virtually no one believes the line about a prosperous "workers' and farmers' paradise." Pretty much all North Koreans are now aware that their country is backward, poor and lagging behind its neighbors.

However, explanations for such economic problems that the regime offers are generally accepted: the United States is held largely responsible. There are some people, especially amongst intellectuals and officials, who say that North Korea would be much better off had it followed the Chinese path of economic reforms. But for most, the major reason remains the economic blockade imposed on their proud country by the "US imperialists and their stooges." Many others would add that the need to keep the country armed against U.S. aggression is another reason for North Korean destitution. At the same time, it seems that the belief in the basic superiority of the centrally planned economy (ie the Stalinist economy) is largely gone.

To a large extent, the communist ideology has been replaced by nationalism, and as one would expect, nationalist claims in North Korean propaganda tend to be embraced by the North Korean public with little or no doubt. They tend to believe the official history books that tell them that Korean civilization is 5000 years old, first flourished in Pyongyang in the third millennium B.C. and is essentially equal to the civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and India.

The picture is, therefore rather mixed, but on balance, if asked, "Do they really believe this," I would answer: "Not always, but quite frequently."

Professor Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. Reach him at anlankov@yahoo.com.
The USS Pueblo displayed in Pyongyang / Yonhap



By Rachel Lee

North Korea will not return the USS Pueblo, an American spy ship seized off the North's east coast in the late 1960s, its state-run newspaper reported Saturday.

The North's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said that the country is determined to keep the U.S. vessel, which they said "intruded their territorial waters to spy" on movements in the North.

Colorado's House of Representatives and Senate put together a joint resolution last month to send a letter to Pyongyang asking for their naval intelligence ship to be returned.

The Pueblo is listed as the only U.S. Navy vessel currently held captive by a foreign country.

The newspaper said that the North is "the winner that has the right to dispose the war trophy," and the U.S. will "gain nothing even if they make a great disturbance about the return." The North's possession of the ship is regarded by the country as a potent symbol of how it has stood up to the power of the United States.

The USS Pueblo "tells all the future generations and the whole world with pride that North Korea captured the U.S. spy ship" and the country will "pulverize" anyone who violates the national sovereignty in the future, it said.

The navy ship is on display as a tourist attraction in Pyongyang, moored on the Taedong River near the site of the General Sherman incident of 1866, in which locals destroyed a U.S. merchant vessel sent to open up the country to trade.

The Pueblo was attacked and captured on Jan. 23, 1968, while on an intelligence-gathering mission. Out of the ship's crew of 83, one was killed when the ship was strafed by machine gun fire and the remaining sailors were taken prisoner.

Maj. Gen. Gilbert H Woodward, the chief U.S. negotiator, admitted that the ship illegally entered the North's territorial waters and apologized for the acts, assuring it would not happen again, in a statement in December 1968 in order to secure the release of the hostages.

They were released after 11 months of captivity in North Korea, at which point the U.S. verbally retracted its apology.
By Rachel Lee

In constant fear of purges by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his top military aides are acting in blind obedience to survive, a defense institute said Sunday.

According to a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency under the Ministry of National Defense, the North's military officials show obedience not necessarily because they respect their leader, but because they are afraid of execution.

Kim has executed several high and middle-ranking officials, including Jang Song-thaek. In 2013, Kim killed his uncle Jang, previously one of the country's most powerful men, for offenses including corruption and dissolute behavior.

The report described the North's high-profile officials as people who "just wait for the leader's directions for their duty" while consistently showing absolute obedience.

The North Korean leader may have "successfully managed to gain control of the military, but a string of executions has caused problems within the country," it said.

The situation has led to "lack of trust and communication" within military circles, and has made it difficult for officials to make necessary criticism or judgment.

North Korean defectors also talked about such a communication problem in the North in interviews with South Korea's news outlets, the report said.

"It seems unlikely that the high and low-ranking officials have trust in each other at the moment," it said.

Apart from the leader's military control, poor conditions within the military were another problem in North Korea, according to the report.

It said a tight financial situation had made it difficult to provide necessary support, including food and intensive training, to middle and low-ranking soldiers.

The report said the "success of Kim's grip over the military depends on his economy" in the long run and suggested that South Korea broadcast topics that encouraged people to listen to the South's broadcasts, which would have greater impact.
By Chang Se-moon

Within the past six months, there have been three new proposals in the U.S. Congress that were aimed to levy additional sanctions against North Korea. The three proposed laws are:

(1) S. 1747, the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2015, as introduced in the Senate by Senator Menendez on July 9, 2015;

(2) S. 2144, the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2015, introduced in the Senate by Senator Gardner on October 6, 2015; and

(3) H.R. 757, the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2015, introduced in the House by Representative Royce on February 5, 2015.

Among the three, H.R. 757was passed in the House on January 12, 2016 by a vote of 418-2, and was placed on Feb. 2, 2016 on the Senate Legislative Calendar. On Feb. 10, 2016, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 757 by a 96-0 vote. Because the Senate made changes, its version of H.R. 757 was sent back to the House. On February 12, the House approved the Senate version of H.R. 757 under a House procedure called "suspension of the rules" which is typically used to pass non-controversial bills. Votes under suspension require a two-thirds majority. The vote was 408 in favor, 2 opposed, and 23 non-voting. H.R. 57 thus became law with the President's signature.

Work toward the final Act has been rushed in the U.S. Congress because of the two recent events: the Jan. 6, 2016 alleged test of a hydrogen bomb according to North Korea  a nuclear bomb according to South Korea  and the Feb. 7 test-firing of a long-range missile called Kwangmyongsong-4 with a range of about 10,000 kilometers; far enough to reach the west coast of the United States and, thus, scare lawmakers in the U.S. Congress.

Key sanctions are included in Section 104 and Section 201 of H.R. 757. Targeted sanctions in Section 104 are to ban any transactions in foreign exchange and any transfers of credit or payments between North Korea and financial institutions that are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. It would not be easy to implement these sanctions since target banks are located mostly in China and Europe.

Section 201 states that "If the Secretary of the Treasury determines under this subsection that reasonable grounds exist for finding that North Korea is a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern, the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Federal functional regulators, shall impose one or more of the special measures," described in Title 31 of the United States Code, much like the Banco Delta Asia case of 2005.

Put differently, if a bank is found to be a part of "money laundering" for North Korea, U.S. banks may limit any relations with the bank, forcing it to cut ties with North Korea. This will severely restrict Pyongyang's access to the bank. Again, since some of these target banks are in China, the success of these sanctions on global financial institutions is far from being certain. The Banco Delta Asia case, however, does indicate that the financial pressure contained in H.R. 757 might have some impact. Let me explain.

The October 2002 discovery of North Korea's nuclear program, and its subsequent announcement that it was renewing its nuclear weapons program, broke the terms of the 1994 Agreed Framework, and led to a broad tightening on illegal financial transactions. This culminated in Banco Delta Asia's termination of business dealings with North Korea as of February 16, 2006. Banco Delta Asia had long been suspected of handling North Korea's illicit activities overseas, such as laundering counterfeit U.S. dollars, sales of illegal drugs, and more. Banco Delta Asia is located in Macao, which is a Special Administrative District of China.

On January 30, 2007, "a U.S. delegation led by Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser met at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing with North Korean officials to discuss the $24 million and related allegations," such as North Korea's counterfeiting and money laundering activities. The $24 million is the amount that North Korea held at the Banco Delta Asia and that was frozen by the bank under pressure from the United States in September 2005. North Korea demanded resolution of this frozen fund as a condition to participating in future negotiations.

On February 8, 2007, the six-nation talks resumed in Beijing, Pyongyang agreed to shut down its Yongbyon plant by April 14, 2007, while Washington promised to resolve the dispute over the North Korean funds frozen at Banco Delta Asia. Fund transferwas completed on June 14, 2007.

We all know that the positive outcome from the Banco Delta Asia precedent did not last long. It is puzzling to see how South Korea, which is so much superior to North Korea economically and technologically, is so much weaker than North Korea militarily. It is about time for all leaders in South Korea to wake up and prepare meaningful national defense away from relying on outside forces.

Semoon Chang is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies. He can be reached at changsemoon@yahoo.com.


Gene-sequencing company leads advances in precision medicine

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

During his State of the Union address in January, U.S. President Barack Obama called on his nation to conquer cancer.

During his speech, Obama mentioned the Precision Medicine Initiative, a research project he launched a year ago in order to revolutionize the modern healthcare system altogether.

The United States is not alone in striving for what he described as a medical "moonshot." As the world moves toward the new era of personalized genomic medicine, Macrogen, a Korean company that offers genome sequencing services, is drawing international attention for its huge potential to become a major player.

In September last year, U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins visited the office of Macrogen Chairman Seo Jeong-sun in Seoul to discuss possible ways to collaborate on the Precision Medicine Initiative.

"Thanks to technological advances, treatments will be more tailored to maximize the effect for each patient," Seo, 63, said in an interview. "We are entering a new age of medicine that will bring fundamental changes."

Precision medicine refers to the customization of treatment according to a patient's characteristics of the patient's genetic information and other factors that make the patient unique.

DNA sequencing is an essential part of precision medicine because an individual's genetic information, such as whether he or she has any genetic mutation or defect, needs to be considered to find the best treatment for the person.

Chemotherapy, for example, is not effective for all cancer patients because their genetic makeup influences their response to the treatment. With precision medicine, doctors can, in theory, find out whether the treatment will work for each patient.

Macrogen is the world's first firm to sequence more than 30,000 whole human genomes, a laboratory process that determines the complete DNA sequence, Seo said.

"This shows the potential we have as a company that collects and manages biological data, which is required to make medical services personalized in the future," he said.

It is too early to tell the real value of such data as many companies, including Macrogen itself, are still trying to figure out how human health can benefit from the data. But Seo believes that goal will be achieved in the not-so-distant future.

"Revolutions occur when technological advances meet a massive market. Human-genome sequencing is more affordable today than ever before. In 2005, it cost an estimated $2.5 billion. The cost was reduced to just $1,000 in 2014," he said. "This set up a favorable environment for the revolutionary changes because many people can now afford it, just like what happened with computers in the 1980s."

With its advanced technologies, Korea could play a leading role in promoting the new approach for disease treatment and prevention, he noted.

"The country has, for instance, technologies to record a person's eating and exercise habits. Such information can be collected as data and be used, along with genetic data, for an overall health analysis. This way, an individual can know his or her health risks and can take steps to remain healthy," he said.

Moving from the current treatment-focused medicine to a prevention-focused one will be necessary for many developed countries facing increasing healthcare costs for their aging populations, he noted.

In fact, according to the state-run Health Insurance Policy Research Institute, medical costs for Koreans 65 and older are expected to reach as much as 337.1 trillion won ($278.8 billion) in 2060, approaching the entire government's budget in 2016.

"Concerns about the costs, which are increasingly becoming unbearable for many countries including the United States, are pushing them to shift their focus to prevention," Seo said.

He said Macrogen has already collected about 13 petabytes of genome information. "I think Macrogen will eventually evolve from being a sequencing service provider to something more like a global data powerhouse, and in its course, the company may end up competing with Google," he added.





U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, fourth from left, and Macrogen Chairman Seo Jeong-sun, fifth from left, pose in front of the company's office at Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul on Sept. 8, 2015. They discussed possible ways to collaborate on the Precision Medicine Initiative, a research project U.S. President Barack Obama launched a year ago to revolutionize the modern healthcare system. / Courtesy of Macrogen



Asian Genome Project

Sequencing a genome is one thing, but understanding it and using it is quite another. Macrogen's next step is taking its technologies out into the real world by helping to improve the health of the 4.5 billion Asians in the world.

In cooperation with researchers in each Asian nation, the company plans to build databases for the genes of the nation's population. By doing so, Macrogen can try to develop a comprehensive gene analysis to find the diseases the people in each country are particularly vulnerable to.

Given that those who are living in the same country share genetic and environmental backgrounds, such as ethnicity, climate and food, Seo believes gene databases will be useful resources for understanding many things about their health.

"Through the project, Korea can realize its founding value  humanitarianism. This will be the meaningful beginning of precision medicine," Seo said.

In cooperation with Kyoto University, the company already started a Japanese gene analysis project. After completing the project, they want to develop the targeted gene therapy and medications for the health problems that many Japanese have.

Macrogen is also in collaboration with various universities and institutes in other countries, including China and Mongolia, Seo said.

"Our short-term goal is to sequence 10,000 whole human genomes in Asia and we will continue to go further," he said.

"Too many people suffer from diseases and live with inconveniences and fears. Ultimately, I want everyone to have a long healthy life and make the best use of it. That would make our work very meaningful."

Korea's first public biotechnology company

From the moment he got into Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1970, Seo never doubted his future as a physician-scientist.

"I was born into a family of physicians and other health workers, so having such a dream was natural to me. My initial plan was to become a cancer researcher," he said. "I thought I did not have an entrepreneur gene.'"

But his curiosity about the field of genetics led him to an unexpected path. After graduating from medical school, Seo began his own gene study with mice. In 1984, along with other researchers, he set up a private biotechnology company, NUDON, in the United States.

The company closed four years later, but he continued the research, which caught the attention of some major Korean firms that were looking for new growth engines as well as that of the government. They recognized the potential value of what he was doing and offered to fund his research.

In 1997, Seo established Macrogen, which was listed on the KOSDAQ market to become the nation's first public biotechnology company in 2000.

Since then, Macrogen has grown steadily: its sales and profits last year reached 79.3 billion won ($6.5 million) and 4.9 billion won, respectively. He believes these figures will exceed 100 billion won and 12 billion won, respectively, by 2017.

"One of the most valuable things about Macrogen is that it creates its own market," he said.

"I think the company has not seen its best days yet."

His dream of publishing papers in the world's renowned scientific journals also came true in a surprising way, thanks to Macrogen. In the course of the Asian Genome Project, Seo made breakthroughs on various genomics challenges, such as the sequencing of the first Korean genome in 2009 and the discovery of the Asian copy number variations in 2010. The findings were published in Nature and Nature Genetics, respectively.

"Choosing Macrogen over my initial dream of becoming a physician-scientist was tough," he said. "But later, the company gave me what I gave up in a way that I had never expected. Life is so unpredictable, isn't it?"
By Park Hee-kwon

On May 19, 2015, the South Korean ship Petro Alpha was attacked by pirates while crossing the Strait of Malacca. Armed with knives, the pirates assaulted the crew and robbed them of their personal belongings and cash. The Singaporean MT Ocean Energy, attacked about two weeks earlier in the same strait, was less lucky: after threatening the crew members at gunpoint and hijacking the tanker, the pirates made off after transferring the ship's oil cargo to another vessel.

These incidents are just two examples of a continuing spate of pirate attacks on vessels transiting the narrow stretch of water located between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Needless to say, acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships are a source of great concern to the international community. Given the recent sharp rise in pirate attacks in Southeast Asia, East Asian states are particularly apprehensive about piracy and armed robbery.

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre, a total of 190 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships occurred in 2015 between January and September. This is a 6.7 percent increase over the same period in 2014. Particularly noteworthy is the sharp rise of incidents in Southeast Asia. Approximately 83 percent of all cases were registered in this area, with the majority taking place in Indonesia (86 incidents), followed by Vietnam (19), Malaysia and Bangladesh (11 each). While pirate attacks in other locations such as Somalia and West Africa have diminished considerably, incidents in Southeast Asia registered a 38.9 percent year-on-year rise.

Today, the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca are among the world's most dangerous waters with far too many incidents. Ships of diverse nationalities pass through the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, as it is an important shipping route linking the Indian Ocean to South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries. The rising number of transnational pirate attacks and the increasingly violent nature of the incidents make the question of piracy and armed robbery against ships a rising safety threat in Southeast Asian sea lanes.

It is also likely that modern-day pirates are becoming increasingly involved in other types of organized crime such as human and drug trafficking. Moreover, some analysts have long warned of the danger that pirate groups and terrorist organizations could join hands, thus heightening the risk of major seaborne attacks.

The global scope and severity of piracy and armed robbery call for a boost in multilateral, national and bilateral efforts at combating piracy. Recent effective multilateral efforts have led to a sudden drop in pirate incidents in Somalia: no pirate incidents have occurred off the coast of Somalia from January to September 2015. The combined efforts of the navies of various nationalities, including South Korea, together with the stabilizing factor of the central Somali government have surely contributed to this positive outcome. The precipitous decline of piracy in this area underscores the importance of strengthened regional and multi-dimensional cooperative efforts at combating piracy.

The precedent of successful international efforts in Somalia is a clear sign of the need for expanding region-wide cooperation in Southeast Asia. Since present-day pirates are often extremely mobile and equipped with state-of-the-art technology, piracy and armed robbery against ships have become extremely difficult to eradicate on a purely national level. Moreover, with the economic slowdown and persisting poverty, some of the root causes of piracy, this trend is expected to increase in the coming years.

In this regard, the region's countries, including littoral states, port states and flag states should jointly strengthen multi-dimensional cooperative efforts such as information sharing, coordination of sea patrols, conducting of cross-border and multi-agency operations and regional training, as well as the swift prosecution and extradition of pirates. Furthermore, it is necessary for countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia to become party to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP).

In Korea, the task of formulating and implementing anti-piracy efforts takes on special importance when considering the country's status as a major trading nation. As an export giant that is highly reliant on global trade, Korea is particularly vulnerable to piracy that threatens maritime trade routes. In Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden in 2011, Korean troops engaged in a naval operation against Somali pirates that had captured and held a Korean tanker, the Samho Jewelry. This operation has shown that Korea is willing and able to protect its nationals and property whenever and wherever needed. It also points toward the possibility of Seoul taking on a more dynamic role in regional anti-piracy efforts.

The recent escalation in piracy incidents in Southeast Asia signals a strong need for boosting the region's efforts to deter pirates, and calls for Korea and other Asian nations to strengthen regional cooperation aimed at combating piracy.

Dr. Park Hee-kwon is ambassador to the Royal Kingdom of Spain.
US sanctions send strong message to Pyongyang



With the Iranian nuclear issue out of the way, there is a growing perception in Washington that North Korea is the biggest threat to U.S. national security ahead of Middle East problems and tension with Russia. This view was highlighted during the U.S. presidential candidate debates over the past few weeks. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas even paused their presidential campaigns to help the Senate unanimously pass legislation on sanctioning Pyongyang.



Reflecting a renewed urgency toward the North Korean nuclear issue, U.S. President Barack Obama last week signed the strongest sanctions bill ever introduced in the U.S. Congress against North Korea. It marks the first time a sanctions bill exclusively targeting Pyongyang had been passed by the House and the Senate. U.S. Senator Robert Menendez said the bipartisan bill sent a united message that "any provocation will be met with consequences that will shake the Kim Jong-un regime to its foundations."



In the wake of Pyongyang's successive nuclear and missile provocations, Korea and the international community is using tougher sanctions to put increased pressure on North Korea. The newly enacted sanctions came days after Seoul suspended operations of a joint factory town in the North Korean city of Gaeseong, the symbol of inter-Korean exchange and an important cash source for the impoverished country. Japan has also deployed more stringent sanctions on Pyongyang, expanding travel restrictions between the two countries and banning North Korean ships from Japanese ports.



Pyongyang has shown that it has no regard for the additional sanctions, scorning them as "laughable" and reiterating that it will continue to pursue its official policy of developing nuclear weapons and its economy.



With tougher restrictions on North Korea's economic activities, the undeniable message from the international community is that the country will only face harsher economic and diplomatic isolation that will expedite its collapse. Kim Jong-un must take notice of this message and reflect on what he must do for his country's survival.



After years of negligence about the North Korean nuclear issue, the new U.S. sanctions are a step in the right direction to curb Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions. During his final year in office, Obama has finally made a significant gesture toward containing North Korea's arms race, while providing timely momentum for key international players such as China and the United Nations Security Council to implement similar punitive measures. During the remainder of his term, Obama should continue to show leadership in a global effort to punish Pyongyang, making this his diplomatic priority.



The question now is how effectively these new sanctions can achieve their ultimate goal of denying North Korea the money to finance its development of miniaturized nuclear warheads and long-range missiles. The law calls for mandatory blacklisting of anyone assisting North Korea with equipment or knowledge for building weapons of mass destruction or engaging in luxury goods trade, money laundering, drug smuggling, counterfeiting to help support Pyongyang. It also imposes sanctions on human rights, cyber attacks and other crimes.



The sanctions will affect Chinese companies and financial institutions the most, because China is North Korea's biggest trading partner. The U.S. should show that it will implement the sanctions consistently even in the face of opposition from China and properly monitor the implementation of the sanctions. Washington should also keep talking with Beijing about the necessity of curbing North Korea's arms program and persuade Beijing to join the international community in sanctioning North Korea for its military provocations.




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Top diplomats from South Korea and the United States met in Washington on Thursday for talks expected to focus on ways to significantly expand sanctions on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile tests.



Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief of South Korea's presidential national security office, met with Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Also in attendance was White House Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines, sources said.



Upon arrival in Washington on Wednesday, Cho underscored Seoul's push for greater pressure on Pyongyang, saying South Korea hopes to work closely with the United States to force a change in North Korea's behavior so as to curb its nuclear and missile development.



The two sides were also expected to discuss ways to win Chinese cooperation in adopting a strong U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Pyongyang. Chinese reluctance to impose harsh measures on Pyongyang has been the main stumbling block in the U.N. sanctions talks.



Beijing has condemned the North's nuclear and missile tests but has been lukewarm about calls for a stern response. Analysts have long said Beijing fears that pushing Pyongyang too hard could lead to its collapse, instability on its border and ultimately the emergence of a pro-U.S. nation.



Chinese cooperation is key to putting together any meaningful sanctions resolution and its implementation as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel to the impoverished North.



Cho said Wednesday that the sanctions negotiations at the Security Council are moving forward under the goal of adopting a much stronger resolution than previous resolutions as China shares a broad strategic view with Seoul and Washington that the North's fourth nuclear test is unacceptable. (Yonhap)




South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed the effectuation of a U.S. law that hits North Korea with a package of stringent sanctions, anticipating it will help curb Pyongyang's provocative behavior.



U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a North Korea sanctions bill that Congress overwhelmingly passed last week in response to Pyongyang's nuclear and long-range rocket tests.



"The bill was the first one exclusively targeting North Korea, which was passed in an unusually expeditious fashion. We expect it to provide a platform for the U.S. to take strong and effective measures (against North Korea)," the ministry said in a statement.

"We believe that the act demonstrates the U.S.' strong will to respond sternly to North Korea's provocations of nuclear and missile tests."



The statement also said that the effectuation of the act will strengthen the concerted efforts by the international community to make Pyongyang "pay the price" for its latest provocations.



"Our government, in tandem with the international community, will seek to take all possible measures to make North Korea renounce its nuclear program and change course," the statement added.



The sanctions bill (H.R.757) calls for imposing mandatory sanctions on those assisting Pyongyang due to its nuclear and missile programs, cyberattacks, human rights abuses and imports of luxury goods.



It is also aimed at choking off sources of cash for the regime by sanctioning trade in coal, minerals and precious metals, as well as blacklisting those helping with Pyongyang's money laundering, counterfeiting, cash smuggling and narcotics trafficking. (Yonhap)




By Lee Min-hyung

Minority shareholders of CJ HelloVision (CJH) may suffer short-term losses from SK Telecom's proposed takeover of the cable TV operator, according to industry analysts Sunday.

The warning comes amid growing worries among retail investors over the merger and acquisition (M&A) plan since it was announced on Nov. 1.

SK Broadband, Korea's largest mobile carrier's wholly-owned subsidiary, will merge with CJH, the nation's leading cable TV operator, when the government approves the deal.

"The valuation level for SK Broadband is low, as it has recorded a relatively poor profit rate," Samsung Securities analyst Yang Seung-woo said.

As of September last year, SK Broadband's operating profit to sales ratio was 1.87 percent, while the CJH ratio was 10.48 percent.

"When the two companies are merged, we cannot rule out the possibility that CJH's stock price will fall for a short period," he said.

His remarks came about a week before a CJH shareholders' meeting scheduled for Feb. 26 when CJ O Shopping, which holds a 53.9 percent stake in CJH, is expected to vote in favor of the deal.

SK Telecom previously signed the M&A deal to buy a 30 percent stake in CJH, now held by CJ O Shopping, for 500 billion won ($ 405.51 million). Under the deal, the mobile carrier will acquire CJ O Shopping's remaining 23.9 percent in CJH later through call and put options.

Opposing sides among CJH shareholders hold the right to ask the company to buy their stock within 20 days after the meeting. SK Telecom previously notified shareholders that they could sell their stock at 12,000 won.

"Due to the differing valuation between the two companies, CJH shareholders may be negatively affected by the merger plan for a medium and short period," the analyst said.

"However, the M&A deal will cast a positive outlook on CJH in the long term, as it comes at a time that the future for the cable TV industry remains uncertain."

The nation's cable TV industry has suffered falling demand in recent years, while the Internet protocol TV (IPTV) market is growing.

As of June last year, the number of cable TV subscribers was 14.55 million, down from 14.67 million in December 2014, according to Korea Cable Television Association (KCTA) data.

However, IPTV is growing, with 10.85 million subscribers in June last year, up 24.6 percent from the same period in 2013, according to the telecom watchdog.

Daishin Securities analyst Kim Hoi-jae stated previously in a report, "(Investors) should consider potential effects diluted after the deal is finalized." He said the merged entity would generate synergy by cutting costs, not by increasing subscribers or improving sales performance.

Meanwhile, a number of government agencies  the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC)  are reviewing documents to decide on the acquisition.

SK Telecom wants to receive approval by the end of April, while its rivals  KT and LG Uplus  oppose the deal, calling for the agencies to conduct careful scrutiny.

Both sides have remained poles apart over the effects of such a deal. SK Telecom wants to expand its presence as a converged media platform provider. However, rival carriers claim that the M&A deal would hurt fair competition.

The plan to hold the shareholders' meeting also caused a strong backlash from the both sides, which claimed this was a clear breach of law, because the broadcasting act stipulated that a de facto owner for a merged entity cannot vote before receiving the government's approval of any M&A plans.

LG Uplus previously issued a statement that reads, "The plan will harm CJH shareholders because they cannot be compensated over losses after they sell their stocks due to worries over the deal."

But CJH said it would hold the meeting as planned within legal boundaries. The company claimed it needed to gather shareholders' opinions. It stressed that the meeting, in itself, did not have any problems, as decisions made at the meeting would be invalidated if the government disallowed the deal.
Models show a demo of Samsung's first connected car  Samsung Connect Auto  at the company's booth a day before the opening of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) convention which will run from Monday to Thursday in the Spanish city of Barcelona. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Kim Yoo-chul





BARCELONA, Spain  Samsung Electronics is apparently on track to achieve a transition into the less-volatile business-to-business (B2B) sector after announcing a series of new plans.

Over the last few decades, Samsung's tech leadership has enabled the firm to get ahead on process migration for chips and displays.

But its conventional winning formula  producing goods with on-time delivery, output commitment and better prices  is increasingly being challenged because a new order is prevailing in the global technology industry with the rise of Chinese competitors.

Samsung hopes to remain adaptive and it's been quick to respond to challenging market situations because it's been keen to strengthen its business partnership in order to sell its components and devices for integrated solutions.

On Sunday, Samsung Electronics announced it will release its first in-vehicle technology  Samsung Connect Auto  at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), here, which will run from Feb. 22 to 25.

"The Samsung Connect Auto will be operational by means of a unique port in the car's dashboard. The Connect Auto is a location-based service helping drivers check any expected hurdles on a real-time basis while driving, which is good for driver safety and beneficial for fuel consumption," the company said in a statement.

Another key feature is a cloud-computing system, which can provide individually-tailored advice in accordance with each driver's habits.

"The Auto solution is also embedded with a Samsung-owned KNOX mobile security solution for improved management both in hardware, software and application. The interesting thing is the recently-released automotive product will be powered by a Samsung-developed Tizen operating system," said the statement.

The firm's spokesman Yoon Ji-nam said its latest development will help Samsung Electronics expand its enterprise into the insurance and telecommunications industry, respectively.

For an effective push, Samsung teamed up with AT&T of the United States, a major wireless company. The alliance is calling for the American telecom to release the service to its customers within the second half of this year.





An unnamed consumer attempts to make a payment using a Samsung Pay-installed Galaxy smartphone in a shop, Sunday (KST). / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



Samsung Pay on rise

While Samsung's chief rival Apple has been servicing its mobile payment solution  Apple Pay  to Chinese customers, the Korean company said it plans to take on the iPhone maker in a heated race for mobile payment by adding more customers for Samsung Pay.

In a separate statement, Samsung said that the number of its Pay users has exceeded five million, globally, since the release of Samsung Pay last August in South Korea.

"The total transaction volume topped $500 million, which is quite impressive to see. This is, according to the company's analysis, because of increased consumer confidence for the Samsung Pay in terms of convenience and safety," the release added.

Its Pay service will be available in China by next March and the company is in talks regarding Pay with several unnamed firms in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, Canada and the United Kingdom, countries where Samsung has huge presence.

So far, more than 70 leading banks have signed with Samsung to jointly promote the Pay service.

Samsung's management in mobile communications is set to talk more about its detailed plans for the Pay service during a dinner meeting with South Korean media, Feb. 23.

The two releases come just a day before the opening of the MWC, the world's most-influential mobile convention on every February.

In a strategy to appeal for its moves to be recognized as a "trustable solution provider" not just a "product seller," Samsung's unpacked event for the Galaxy S7 will live using its virtual reality (VR) headsets.

"Participants may learn the company's transition efforts on how to create new ecosystem using existing devices and how Samsung is progressing amid an era of convergence," said another company statement, adding that it will set up a "VR four-dimensional (4D)" theater to tell the history of its Galaxy products.

Its street-site "Gear VR Studio" will run from Feb. 21 to Feb. 28 in Catalunya Square.

Beyond such updated business strategies and devices, Samsung's new component will also be unveiled to support the annual fair's convention concept, it said.

The company's network division has been set up to introduce upgraded disaster prevention network solutions and the company also has a plan to exhibit wireless processors to be operational within the Internet of Things (IoT) frame.

With U.S.-based mobile chip titan Qualcomm, Samsung also plans to hold demonstration sessions for 5G wireless technology.

Qualcomm agreed with Samsung to supply its wireless FSM9955 chips to small cell-based liaison equipment that supports LTE-Unlicensed (U) technology being developed by the Korean company.
by Charles Saunders,

SONAHR: February 21, 2016 - This weekend, a movie about legendary track-and-field star Jesse Owens made its debut. The title of the film is Race, and it chronicles the life of Owens from his early years to his four-gold-medal triumph at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The title of the film has a double meaning, referring not only to the races run at track meets, but also to the issue of race as a social and political powder keg. This weekend, a movie about legendary track-and-field star Jesse Owens made its debut. The title of the film is Race, and it chronicles the life of Owens from his early years to his four-gold-medal triumph at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The title of the film has a double meaning, referring not only to the races run at track meets, but also to the issue of race as a social and political powder keg.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazis had intended the Berlin Olympics to be a showcase for the supremacy of white  especially Aryan German  athletes. Owens, an African American, upset Hitlers racial applecart by winning four gold medals, in the long jump, 100 and 200 meter dashes, and the 4x100 meter relay. His presence at the top of the podium effectively punctured the myth of Aryan athletic superiority.

Owenss stellar performance also provided a counterpoint to a setback for an athlete in a different sport that had occurred less than two months before the Olympics, which were held in August of 1936.

On June 19 of that year, Joe Louis, an undefeated African American heavyweight contender who was touted as a future champion, stepped into the ring to face Max Schmeling, a German ex-champion who was thought to be past his prime. In an upset that was as shocking then as Buster Douglass defeat of Mike Tyson was in 1990, Schmeling battered Louis en route to a knockout in the 12th round. Jubilation reigned in Germany in the wake of that unexpected outcome. America, on the other hand, was stunned. And black Americans, who had invested their hopes and dreams in the fists of the young fighter known as the Brown Bomber, reeled in devastation and despair.

For Hitlers regime, the Olympics were intended to provide icing for the cake Schmelings victory had produced. German track stars were expected to reap a bonanza of gold medals, leaving the rest of the world gasping in the dust. They were supposed to easily overcome black American athletes such as Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, and Mack Robinson (older brother of baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson), and burnish the image of the almighty Aryan.

But Owens and his compatriots scraped away the icing and crumbled the cake. Those who were saddened by Schmelings defeat of Louis were gladdened by Owenss gold medals, which he won in the heart of Nazi Germany, under the nose of Adolf Hitler himself.

Two years later, Louis  who had become heavyweight champion by knocking out Jim Braddock  gained his revenge by annihilating Schmeling in the first round of a title defense. It was Americas turn to cheer, and Germanys turn to mourn. The victory served as Louiss equivalent to Owenss Olympic triumphs.

Louis and Owens became lifelong friends, sharing the ups and downs of their successes and failures during and after their time of athletic stardom. They both died in their mid-60s in 1981. Memories of their feats in the athletic arena will live on.

Race is a fitting tribute to the achievements of Jesse Owens. Earlier, the movie 42 paid homage to Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseballs color line in 1947. The life, times, and accomplishments of Joe Louis cry out for similar cinematic recognition. Hopefully, theres a Brown Bomber biopic on Hollywoods horizon.

Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers. His novels, Imaro, Damballa, and Abengoni: First Calling are available at Amazon.com.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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In a few years, patients with chronic breathing problems will puff on an Internet-connected inhaler that instantly sends data about how often the device is used to the medicine provider and doctors who monitor care.

This is just one example of the potential benefits of bringing connectivity to medical devices. It is not lost on pharmaceutical and technology companies, which are working to get more medical Internet-of-Things devices to market.

Last month, Qualcomm Life and Novartis said they were teaming up to develop an Internet-connected Breezhaler to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. It will detect and report usage and other information. The data will go to a patients smartphone via a Novartis mobile app, which sends the data to the Internet cloud.

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By enabling near-real-time data capture from the patient and the connected Breezhaler device, patients can monitor their own adherence to the medication they take, which is vital to their health outcomes, said David Epstein, head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

So far, however, the connected medical market has been slow to develop, with a raft of questions holding back adoption. They include concerns about regulation, security, privacy, liability and reimbursement.

There have been numerous studies that have been positive, but there are a lot of yeah, buts around, said Victor Camlek, principal analyst on connected health for research firm Frost & Sullivan. Although it is very promising, there is no one, simple reimbursement policy. Its hard to make generalizations, but chronic conditions are probably going to be the leading thing driving this forward.

Frost & Sullivan estimates the connected health market, excluding fitness trackers, at less than half a billion dollars in the U.S. today. But it predicts a compound annual growth rate of 13.2% over the next five years.

To date, the top proponent of remote patient monitoring has been the U.S. Veterans Administration. They have been the early adopters in the United States, Camlek said.

Others are moving more slowly. Novartis isnt planning to release the connected inhaler until 2019.

Its a market issue that includes regulatory matters, and they are also doing payer trials, said Rick Valencia, head of Qualcomm Life. Trials to show [health insurers] the efficacy  the outcomes it generates  to motivate the right type of reimbursements.

The cost savings and care improvements of connected medical devices are potentially significant, advocates say. Sending data to the Internet cloud lets health providers monitor vital symptoms and prod patients to take their medicine once they leave the hospital, potentially preventing costly readmissions.

If someone has congestive heart failure, if the monitor indicates they are gaining weight  even a little bit of weight in a day or two  that is a very serious indicator of possible fluid buildup in the heart, said Camlek of Frost & Sullivan. That would trigger an alert for somebody to take an intervention step.

Last year, Qualcomm Life began working with drug giant Roche on a connected coagulation meter that measures the viscosity of blood in stroke patients outside the hospital. The goal is to make sure that blood-thinning medicine is preventing further clots.

Using the meter, while vital to patients, isnt fun. It requires a finger prick.

If patients are very compliant, theyll typically do two a day, Valencia said. If theyre not, they might do one. Having that radio link enables [caregivers] to remind the patient about doing their test. Thats the objective, to get them more compliant.

Qualcomm Life is also helping a large managed healthcare company that aims to offer some customers discounts on their health insurance premiums based on how active they are.

Its working to develop a sophisticated activity tracker that monitors not only steps taken but also the vigor and duration of exercise, among other things. The tracker learns the gait of the user to prevent fraud.

Longer term, reams of connected health data can be tapped to create predictive analytics software that scours data and spots telltale warning signs of pending problems.

But there are hurdles to wider adoption. Tele-medicine insurance reimbursement policies vary by state and, in some cases, the age of patients. Hospital administrators are concerned about the work flow and liability challenges of tracking hundreds of home-monitored patients.

Security is also a worry. Qualcomm Lifes 2net platform has security baked in and meets federal privacy standards. But some older connected medical devices with off-the-shelf Bluetooth radios could be less secure.

Youre as strong as your weakest link, Valencia said, and where there are weak links in the industry still [they] are the medical device itself.

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com
Marley Naturals bid to become the first global cannabis lifestyle brand started in a rented house in the Hollywood Hills. Thats where L.A. insiders got a first look at its hemp seed body care products and artfully arranged smoking accessories the day before the labels official launch  the 71st birthday of the late reggae singer Bob Marley.

Touted as the official Bob Marley cannabis brand, the New York company is a collaboration between Seattle-based Privateer Holdings and the Marley family, several of whom were on hand for the occasion (including musician, actress and artist Zuri Marley  Bob and Ritas granddaughter  who flew in from New York City).

Why a pied-a-terre high above the City of Angels for the launch?

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Los Angeles was the logical choice, said Privateer Holdings director of public relations Zach Hutson, because were creating a lifestyle brand.

While one segment of its business is the smokable product made from four different strains of cannabis flower  sold in Los Angeles dispensaries only to those who can legally possess cannabis by recommendation or authority of a California-licensed physician  much of the lifestyle end of the Marley Natural brand centers on a line of completely THC-free personal-care products that combine cold-pressed hemp-seed oil and an assortment of Jamaica-sourced botanicals, including ginger, lemon grass and turmeric.

Items include a body wash with traces of eucalyptus and ginger; body lotion with a zing of lemon grass, bergamot and rosemary (each $25 per 8-ounce bottle); bar soap ($15); lip balm ($8) and a few other salves and ointments.

Currently available via the Marley Natural online shop, retail distribution is expected to widen by the middle of the year. (Its easy to see the product lineup right at home on shelves of your local Whole Foods.)

Marley Natural also makes an assortment of handsome accessories made with sustainably grown, kiln-dried American black walnut wood and hand-blown glass.

There are contoured walnut wood trays ($65 and $78) finished with teak oil, stash boxes ($52) with nifty compartments and a range of pipes ($35 to $162).

Like any good aspiring 21st century lifestyle brand, the launch of Marley Natural comes with a tailor-made philanthropic effort.

Called Rise Up, it is committed to environmental sustainability, social change and adding to the conversation about cannabis. It aims to help communities in Jamaica and around the world, as well as fund projects that reflect Bob Marleys message of positivity, social justice and respect for nature in coordination with global crowd-sourcing nonprofit GlobalGiving.

Marley Natural accessories and body products are available online at www.marleynaturalshop.com.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com
School districts throughout the state are warning that students personal data will soon be accessed by two nonprofit organizations as part of a federal court case involving special education services, sparking an outcry from parents and lawmakers over privacy rights.

The data  including Social Security numbers, mental health records and home addresses  has been sought by the California Concerned Parents Assn. and the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Assn., which is suing the state Department of Education.

The groups allege that the state is not providing a free and appropriate public education to children with disabilities, as is required by law.

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School districts began notifying parents this week that the data would be provided to comply with a recent court ruling in the case.

I was literally out of my mind, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat who serves the 80th District in southern San Diego. She learned of the court ruling over the weekend.

They dont need all of this information.

Parents can object to the data dump by April 1 via the Education Departments website, cde.ca.gov, or the California Concerned Parents Assn.'s website at californiaconcernedparents.org.

Peter Tira, an Education Department spokesman, said its unclear whether objecting would prevent a students data from being released.

Its up to the court to make that determination, he said. Nothing has been turned over.

Representatives of the California Concerned Parents Assn. could not be reached for comment, but a statement on the groups website said the nonprofit is very concerned about the privacy of all students in the state.

We would like parents to understand that we had offered to mediate a settlement with the California Department of Education many times and have offered to receive the information with fake names, the statement said. The attorneys for the CDE refused, which forced the judge to make this ruling.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento imposed several measures designed to protect the information, including that fewer than 10 people be allowed to search student records and that attorneys and consultants will have access only to records through judicial overseers.

Still, parents, administrators and state officials said thats not enough.

Follow the Times education initiative to inform parents, educators and students across California >>

Gonzalez joined Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) and Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) to introduce legislation designed to ensure that personal information such as Social Security numbers are protected at the school district level.

Its time to clean up some of this stuff, she said.

The San Diego Unified School District has posted information on its website about the order and how it might affect the districts 128,000 students, spokeswoman Linda Zintz said.

At this point, were asking schools to let parents know about the ruling, she said. Well look at other strategies to make sure all parents are informed.

Sue Kroncke, director of special education with the Escondido Union High School District, said officials are trying to determine who must comply with the ruling and how it will be handled.

We are still trying to make sense of this, said Kroncke, adding that uncertainty remains on whether the order affects all 8,000 students in her school district or only the 800 students who are classified as having special education needs.

She said that she previously thought that such data was protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

We operate in good faith that we will keep information private, she said. This ruling was quite a surprise to all of us in education.

pat.maio@utsandiego.com

Twitter: @patmaio

Maio writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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To comply with the FBIs demand to unlock mass shooter Syed Rizwan Farooks iPhone would spring open Pandoras box, endangering the privacy of millions of Apple customers here and abroad, an Apple attorney said Sunday.

Theres no limit to what the government could require Apple to do if it succeeds this way, attorney Ted Olson told host George Stephanopoulos on ABCs This Week.

Olson said the tech giant has cooperated with the FBI in every way the law required in its investigation of last years massacre in San Bernardino.

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But Apple has to draw the line at re-creating code, changing its iPhone, putting its engineers and creative talents to destroy the iPhone as it exists, said Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush.

Then, in a plain-spoken rejoinder late Sunday night, FBI Director James Comey said he hoped folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other.

We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorists pass code without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly, Comey said in a statement. Thats it. We dont want to break anyones encryption or set a master key loose on the land.

The remarks Sunday by Comey and Olson represent the latest back-and-forth in the clash between Apple and the Justice Department, a controversy that has pitted digital-age privacy concerns against advocates of national security.

The FBI is investigating the attacks by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, as the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil since Sept. 11.

On Dec. 2, the couple armed themselves with combat rifles and stormed into a room at the Inland Regional Center, where Farooks co-workers at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department were having a holiday potluck.

The couple killed 14 people and injured 22 others, and were killed in a shootout with police hours later.

That day, the FBI says, a message pledging allegiance to Islamic State had appeared on Maliks Facebook page.

The government believes that Farook used his iPhone 5c  supplied to him by his employer, the Health Department, where he worked as a restaurant inspector  to communicate with some of his later victims.

The government said the phone may contain critical communications around the time of the shooting that only Apple can help unlock. The FBI has a warrant to search the iPhone, but Apples encryption technology prevents authorities from trying to break the pass code without risk of erasing the data altogether.

Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of Riverside ordered Apple to assist the FBI in cracking the phone, prompting Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook to announce  in an open letter to Apple customers  that the company would resist. Cook said the FBI has asked Apple to build a backdoor to the iPhone, which it considers too dangerous to create.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But thats simply not true, Cook wrote. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks  from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The U.S. attorneys office replied, in turn, with a motion to compel Apples compliance with the order. The government said it was not asking Apple to create a master key but to create software that opened this particular iPhone.

Apple could maintain custody of the software, the government motion said, and destroy it after the phone was unlocked. It does not mean the end of privacy, the motion said.

In his remarks Sunday on ABC, Olson said the clash had generated an important national debate about privacy and civil liberties, and that Congress should take up the issue.

Stephanopoulos asked Olson if Apple executives would be willing to go to jail in contempt of court rather than obey the Justice Departments demands.

I dont want to get ahead of the judicial branch, Olson said, noting that the parties were waiting for a hearing before the magistrate. Whoever won, he said, the other side would likely appeal, and the case might ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Remember, terrorists wish to change our lives, Olson said. They wish to take away our civil liberties. We cant surrender our civil liberties and give the terrorists a victory that they actually seek.

Another guest on the show, John Miller, the New York Police Departments deputy commissioner of intelligence and counter-terrorism, said that Apples reaction was entirely overstated and that its portrayal of frightening government invasions of privacy was absurd.

The battle was over a government-owned phone that belonged to two dead people who have no privacy rights, who are at the middle of a terrorist investigation, where the information on that phone could save lives, Miller said. I dont know why were still talking about this.

Comey, in his Sunday night statement, said awesome new technology creates a tension between privacy and safety that should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living, or by the FBI, which investigates for a living.

Instead, he said it was up to the American people to decide how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before.

christopher.goffard@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATChrisGoffard

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Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies shot and wounded a driver and arrested him and two passengers after a deputy was struck by the suspects vehicle during a confrontation Saturday night in Paramount, authorities said.

Deputies were following the three men as their car sped around residential streets in Paramount about 9:25 p.m., said Deputy Lisa Jansen.

When the car stopped in a driveway, the deputies walked up to the vehicle and saw a passenger, a 34-year-old man, pointing a gun at them, Jansen said. After the car backed up and hit one of the deputies, the deputies fired an unknown number of times, striking the driver, a 32-year-old man, in the leg, Jansen said.

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Deputies arrested the driver and the second passenger, a 24-year-old man, after the driver crashed the car into another vehicle while attempting to flee, Jansen said. They arrested the other passenger after he got out of the car and tried to run away.

The driver was treated at a local hospital and was expected to survive, Jansen said. The deputy who was struck by the vehicle was also treated for non-life-threatening injuries and was released that night, Jansen said.

NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>

The suspects, whose names have not yet been released, were booked on suspicion of assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon. The gun used in the incident has not been recovered, Jansen said.

Homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department continued to investigate the shooting Sunday morning.

Twitter: @frankshyong


The FBI on Saturday rebutted media reports that San Bernardino County technicians acted without the agencys consent when they reset the password for the Apple iCloud account belonging to one of the shooters involved in the Dec. 2 terror attack at a county facility that killed 14 people.

This is not true, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement released late Saturday night. FBI investigators worked cooperatively with the county of San Bernardino in order to exploit crucial data contained in the iCloud account associated with a county-issued iPhone that was assigned to the terror suspect, Syed Rizwan Farook.

Apple has refused to give the FBI the tools to unlock Farooks iPhone, and the battle escalated Friday when the government urged a federal judge to immediately compel the tech giant to comply, arguing that it appears more concerned with marketing strategy than national security.

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Separately on Friday, federal prosecutors and senior Apple executives also disclosed new details about what transpired privately in the weeks leading up to their very public legal battle, including their previous efforts to access the phones content.

Apple said that in early January it provided four alternatives to access data from the iPhone besides the controversial method the FBI is now proposing.

But one of the most encouraging options was ruled out after the phones owner  Farooks employer, the San Bernardino County Public Health Department  reset the password to his iCloud account in order to access data from the backup, according to Apple officials.

That means the iCloud password on the iPhone itself is now wrong, and it wont back up unless someone can get past the phones passcode and change it.

The issue was discovered after Apple engineers sent to Southern California to work with the FBI struggled to trigger an automatic backup, Apple said. When iCloud is enabled, iPhones automatically sync with the cloud if they are charging and are connected to a familiar Wi-Fi network.

Had there been no reset on the iCloud password, investigators may have been able to get a more updated backup of Farooks iPhone without any need to unlock the device itself.

Some news agencies reported this week that federal investigators only found out about the password reset after it occurred and that the county employee responsible acted on his own.

Federal prosecutors wrote in court filings Friday that the reset by the phones owner took place in the hours after the attack, and an Apple executive later said it occurred within 24 hours.

But the FBI said in its statement Saturday that agents worked with San Bernardino County technicians to reset Farooks password on Dec. 6  four days later  because the county owned the account and was able to reset the password in order to provide immediate access to the iCloud back up data. The agency went on to say that the reset of the password does not impact Apples ability to assist with the court order under the All Writs Act.

NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>

Prosecutors still contend that unlocking the iPhone is crucial because some data does not sync to iCloud. They said the FBI has retrieved Farooks iCloud backups up to Oct. 19, about six weeks before the attack, and an FBI affidavit suggested that Farook deliberately disabled the sync feature.

Even if the password had not been changed and Apple could have turned on the auto-backup and loaded it to the cloud, there might be information on the phone that would not be accessible without Apples assistance as required by the All Writs Act order, since the iCloud backup does not contain everything on an iPhone, Eimiller said in her statement Saturday. As the governments pleadings state, the governments objective was, and still is, to extract as much evidence as possible from the phone.

Apple deliberately changed its iPhone software in 2014 to make it nearly impossible for anyone besides a devices user to unlock it. Its now refusing to weaken some of the security measures to provide the government with an easier route in.

The company has said allowing even one exception to that policy, including for a terrorism case, would open the floodgates for authorities to seek the same workaround in all types of investigations.

carlos.lozano@latimes.com

paresh.dave@latimes.com

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Ron Rogers, a public relations executive who was influential in L.A. civic affairs, died Friday from respiratory complications related to cancer. He was 72.

A Los Angeles native and the son of Hollywood public relations giant Henry Rogers, the younger Rogers formed his own firm in 1978 and built it into a prominent force in corporate branding and behind-the-scenes crisis management. He helped shape the images of well-known brands including Coca-Cola, Honda and Kelloggs.

Outside of work, Rogers was involved in several organizations, using his influence and understanding of the news media to bring attention and raise funds for their issues.

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He felt everyone has an obligation to give back something, to contribute to their community. It sounds trite, but thats how he really felt, said Mickey Kantor, a prominent attorney and friend.

Shortly after he opened his firm, for example, the little-known Rape Treatment Center at UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital turned to Rogers for public relations help. It was the start of a decades-long relationship for the group and Rogers, who sat on its board of directors.

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Gail Abarbanel, the centers founder and director, credited Rogers with having a significant hand in drawing the nations attention to the realities of rape, beginning at a time when the crime and its victims were rarely discussed or acknowledged. National media campaigns orchestrated by Rogers spotlighted, among other issues, outdated rape laws that required victims to prove they resisted their attackers and how common it was for victims to know the person who raped them.

He realized early on that the secrecy surrounding rape was helping to perpetuate it, Abarbanel said. He was instrumental in giving victims a voice.

Rogers was also interested in police work. He helped launch the Los Angeles Police Foundation, which raises funds for the LAPD. After seeing what the foundation did for the Police Department, LAFD officials persuaded him to help start a similar group for firefighters.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Rogers was a longtime friend and sometime professional advisor. He called him unique and credited him with building the police foundation from scratch.

He was probably the most genteel and generous person that I know, Beck said. I meet a lot of people, and ... you know, he was real genuine.

Rogers was, at heart, a cowboy, said his wife, Lisa Specht.

Rogers was born Sept. 19, 1943. He rode in rodeos in his late teens. He and Specht bought a 1,500-acre cattle ranch along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. He led the yearly drives of his large herd of cattle until the cancer made it too arduous. He also built chicken coops and landscaped the expanse, helping to plant hundreds of trees  cottonwood, aspens, pines. Rogers died at the ranch.

This is the place he loved, Specht said.

Twitter: @joelrubin

Times staff writer Jill Leovy contributed to this report.
As a top official in the Los Angeles County Republican Party, Scott Hounsell was quick to tweet sex scandals involving prominent Democrats such as former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and ex-San Diego Mayor Bob Filner.

But over the last three years, the one-time head of the GOP in L.A. has been mired in a scandal of his own. Twice, Los Angeles prosecutors have accused Hounsell of sending inappropriate messages online to teenage girls.

Through his attorneys, Hounsell strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying both cases were the result of a political vendetta by Democratic elected officials. Prosecutors say Hounsell is falsely claiming partisan dirty tricks to distract from his misbehavior.

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His allegations are utterly baseless, said Rob Wilcox, spokesman for Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, who prosecuted Hounsells first case.

It began in 2013, when Los Angeles police detectives informed Hounsell they were investigating allegations that he sent inappropriate messages online to a teenage girl.

Hounsell, 33, has a wife and two kids, and lives in Los Angeles. As a nationally ranked speaker while attending Cal State Northridge, he earned an internship with a Republican assemblyman during his senior year. By 2011, hed founded his own Los Angeles-based political and public relations consulting firm  Del Cielo Group.

The L.A. County district attorneys office declined to file charges but referred the case to the city attorney, who brought misdemeanor charges in August 2013.

The complaint accused Hounsell of exchanging Facebook messages with the intent of trying to seduce the girl.

When the accusation went public, the blowback hit Hounsell hard. One websites headline read, Ex-GOP Leader Who Made Fun of Weiner Arrested for Sexting a Minor.

Hounsell maintained his innocence. Eventually, he agreed to attend counseling sessions and make a $2,000 contribution to a local charity in exchange for the charges being dropped.

In the field of politics, any hint of impropriety, especially sexual impropriety with a minor, makes a person almost entirely unemployable.  Lawsuit filed on behalf of former L.A. County GOP chief Scott Hounsell

Hounsell then filed a federal lawsuit against the city for defamation and announced it on social media. He said he was a political target of Feuer, a Democrat, because he was Republican. Hounsell cited the media scrutiny, including several news vans waiting in front of his house, after his arrest.

In the field of politics, any hint of impropriety, especially sexual impropriety with a minor, makes a person almost entirely unemployable, his lawsuit said. Scott was arrested at the time two Democrats Anthony Weiner of New York and Bob Filner of San Diego were both in trouble for sexual misconduct.

The L.A. city attorneys office chose to make a public case of the filing in an effort to defame Scott and Republicans, Hounsells lawsuit alleged.

But his declarations of innocence caught the eye of a woman in Pennsylvania, who said she recognized his name from conversations he allegedly had with her daughters, said L.A. Police Det. Gil Escontrias.

The woman called the Los Angeles Police Department, Escontrias said. After filing a search warrant with Facebook to track down the messages, police presented their case to the district attorneys prosecutors last year.

Hounsell was arrested by the LAPDs juvenile division in November. In December, a judge dismissed his claim against the city attorney.

Hounsell is free on $40,000 bail and has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of distributing or showing pornography to a minor. He is awaiting a preliminary hearing, which could be scheduled in February.

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Hounsell declined to comment. But his attorneys say prosecutors cannot prove their case.

During the time he was my client, there was no proof whatsoever that he was involved in any kind of child endangerment, said Abraham Labbad, who represented Hounsell when he first filed his lawsuit. I do not represent child molesters or people that endanger children  I just want to make sure that thats put out in every shape or form.

Hounsells current attorney, Brian Dunn, added: Hes sure hes the victim of some targeted prosecution.

Police maintain theres enough evidence to support the current charges against Hounsell.

The case alleges the defendant distributed or showed pornography to a minor through social media. The victims in this case contacted law enforcement and provided the information, which is the basis for this case, county prosecutors said in a statement.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna



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The author of the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird was laid to rest Saturday in a private ceremony attended by only the closest of friends and family, a reflection of how she had lived.

Harper Lee, who died Friday at age 89, was eulogized at a church in the small Alabama town of Monroeville, which the author used as a model for the imaginary town of Maycomb, the setting of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

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A few dozen people who made up Lees intimate circle gathered at First United Methodist Church to hear a eulogy Saturday by her longtime friend and history professor, Wayne Flynt. Afterward, her casket was taken by a silver hearse to an adjacent cemetery where her father, A.C. Lee, and sister, Alice Lee, are buried.

Flynt, a longtime friend of Lee, said he delivered a eulogy that Lee specifically requested years ago. Entitled, Atticus inside ourselves, the eulogy was written by Flint for a speech that he gave in 2006 as a tribute to Lee when she won the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for racial justice.

Flynt said Lee liked the speech so much that she wanted him to give it as her eulogy.

I want you to say exactly that, Flynt quoted Lee as saying at the time. Not one thing more, and not one thing less.

If I deviated one degree, I would hear this great booming voice from heaven, and it wouldnt be God, Flynt said in an earlier interview.

Details of the service were fiercely guarded. Lee had wanted a quick and quiet funeral without pomp or fanfare, family members said.

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We obeyed her wishes, said Jackie Stovall, Lees second cousin.

The town was appropriately somber a day after their native daughters death.

Ann Mote, owner of the Ol Curiosities & Book Shoppe in Monroeville, said she thought the town would always be linked to Lee.

Jared Anton, of Hollywood, Fla., sat outside the old courthouse in Monroeville during part of his planned vacation through the South that coincided with Lees death.

Anton said reading the book  in which attorney Atticus Finch defends a wrongly accused African-American man  was one reason he decided to become a lawyer.

It had an impact on me when I was younger. I wanted to do the right thing, to stand up to people, to defend the innocent, if you will, Anton said. It is the greatest American novel. Name one that really has had more of an impact on Americans than that book.

Mockingbirds chirped and frolicked among blooming camellia bushes outside the courthouse on the warm Alabama morning that teased the early arrival of spring.

The courthouse was where as a child Lee, like her creation Scout Finch, would peer down from the balcony as her father tried his cases in the courtroom. The Southern town was home to childhood friends Truman Capote and Lee, giving rise to its self-given nickname as the literary capital of the South.

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Shes a part of it and always will be, said Mote.

Tributes to Lees novel dot the town. The courthouse is a museum that pays homage to her creation. Theres the Mockingbird Inn on the edge of town and a statue of children reading Mockingbird in the courthouse square.

Tickets go on sale in a week for the citys annual To Kill A Mockingbird play, Mote said. A black mourning bow donned the top of the sign at the bookstore, where a stack of hard copies of Mockingbird sat on the counter along with a DVD of the movie.

1 / 2 Author Harper Lee during a ceremony in 2007 honoring the four new members of the Alabama Academy of Honor in the capital, Montgomery. (Rob Carr / Associated Press) 2 / 2 In 2007, Harper Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

The town this summer had a celebration for the release of Go Set a Watchman  Lees initial draft of the story that would become Mockingbird  even though many residents had ambivalent feelings about its release.

Lee was largely unseen in her hometown in recent years, as she first sought privacy and then was secluded at an assisted-living home. Security guards would shoo away the inevitable mix of reporters, curious onlookers and old acquaintances who were not on her list of approved visitors.

You would see her around, but still we would honor her wishes of being a very private person. The impact from now forward, I think for the next few weeks well have an influx of people in here just looking around, and at some point  like when anybody passes away  at some point it just returns back to normal, said Tim McKenzie, chairman of the museums board of directors, who also acts in the play.

McKenzie said the best way fans can honor the authors memory is by applying the values in Mockingbird to the way they treat others.

That story  Im glad its in just about all the schools now because its a story that everybody needs to hear, he said. If you adhere to the values she put in that book  if everybody did  wed be living in a much better world.

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An Uber passenger said he called police to report an erratic driver more than an hour before the driver allegedly began a series of three random shootings that killed six people in Michigan.

Matt Mellen told Kalamazoo television station WWMT that he hailed a ride around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. He said driver Jason Dalton introduced himself as Me-Me and had a dog in the backseat.

Mellen sat in front. About a mile into the trip, Dalton got a phone call, and when he hung up, he began driving erratically, blowing through stop signs and sideswiping cars, Mellen said.

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We were driving through medians, driving through the lawn, speeding along, and when we came to a stop, I jumped out of the car and ran away, Mellen said. He said he called police and that when he got to his friends house, his fiancee posted a warning to friends on Facebook.

Mellen said he also tried warning the ride-hailing service.

Im upset because I tried contacting Uber after I had talked to the police, saying that we needed to get this guy off the road, Mellen said.

Since Daltons arrest, several people have come forward to say that he picked them up for Uber in the hours after the first attack. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm those accounts.

Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller said Uber is cooperating with law enforcement officials, and he believes the company will help us fill in some timeline gaps.

Investigators are particularly interested in communication between Dalton and Uber, as well as customers he might have driven, the sheriff said.

Questions about motive and Daltons frame of mind are going to be the hardest to answer for anybody, Fuller said. He expects some answers to emerge in court, but he doubts they will be satisfying.

In the end, I ask people, because I keep hearing this question of why, What would be the answer that would be an acceptable answer for you? They have to think about it for a moment, and they say, Probably nothing.

I have to say, You are probably correct. I cant imagine what the answer would be that would let us go, OK, we understand now. Because we are not going to understand.

Authorities allege that Dalton shot the first victim outside of an apartment complex shortly before 6 p.m. and that he shot seven others over the next several hours.

Dalton, 45, was arrested without incident early Sunday after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through downtown Kalamazoo after leaving a bar.

He was expected to be arraigned later Monday.

Authorities have not provided a motive. The victims in the Saturday night shootings had no apparent connection to the gunman or to each other.

The attacks began outside the Meadows apartment complex on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times.

A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at a car dealership.

Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Four of them died.

Two people were wounded, the woman shot at the apartment complex and a 14-year-old girl hit at the restaurant.

A spokeswoman for Uber confirmed that Dalton was a driver for the company, but she declined to say whether he was driving Saturday night.

Uber prohibits both passengers and drivers from possessing guns of any kind in a vehicle. Anyone found to be in violation of the policy may be prohibited from using or driving for the service.

A man who knows Dalton said he was a married father of two who never showed any signs of violence.

Gary Pardo Jr., whose parents live across the street from Dalton in Kalamazoo Township, described him as a family man who seemed fixated on cars and often worked on them.

He would go a month without mowing his lawn but was very meticulous with his cars, Pardo said, explaining that Dalton, at times, owned a Chevrolet Camaro and two Hummer SUVs.

Progressive Insurance confirmed that he once worked for the company before leaving in 2011.

Dalton was an insurance adjuster who did auto-body estimates and once taught an auto-body repair class at an area community college, said James Block, who has lived next door to him for 17 years.

He loved to do things outside with his kids like taking them for rides on his lawn tractor, Block said.

Daltons wife and children were unhurt, authorities said.

Authorities were interviewing Dalton and reviewing his phone. They did not know if a handgun found in the car belonged to him.

Tammy George said the woman who was shot outside the apartment building is her next-door neighbor. She and her family heard the gunfire, ran outside and saw the woman on the ground.

Four bullets flew into a closet of Georges home, she said. Her son, James, was playing video games with two friends a few feet away from where the bullets pierced the wall.

I checked out the back window and saw a car speeding off, said James George, 17.

With a population of about 75,000, Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bells Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.

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Jeb Bush refuses to say whether he is considering dropping out

Jeb greets voters at a polling place in Daniel Island, S.C. pic.twitter.com/eAUQN31REk  Seema (@LATSeema) February 20, 2016

As rumors swirl that Jeb Bushs presidential campaign is collapsing, he refused to say whether he would remain in the race if he placed poorly in Saturdays primary in South Carolina.

Im going to work as hard as I can till 7 p.m. Im not going to feed the speculation of people who have no clue about my campaign, Bush told reporters after greeting voters at a polling place at an elementary school in this tony island hamlet.

Bush had told reporters earlier Saturday that he intended to campaign in Nevada for the Republican caucuses there Tuesday, insisting that he didnt think anything could change his plans.

Bush, accompanied by his son Jeb Jr., Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other supporters, skittered around this state that political observers have said is key to his chances of reviving his campaign. But polls show Bush, the former Florida governor, in fourth place, and recent reports in Politico cited donors concerned about his legacy if he continues his campaign and campaign staffers sending out resumes.

Bush brushed off the reports.

My campaign is doing great, he said.

But even among supporters accompanying him, there was an air of sadness.

I hope [voters] wake up, said former Rep. Henry Brown, who represented South Carolina in the House of Representatives for a decade. When he made his announcement, I think people thought he was the heir apparent. But it all faded away.

Julie Thornton was excited to take a pic w/Jeb in SC. But she never considered voting for him. Voted for Rubio. pic.twitter.com/rtOyDqNGZz  Seema (@LATSeema) February 20, 2016

Julie Thornton jumped out of her car to take a picture with Bush when she saw him at her polling place. But she said she never once considered voting for him.

I feel like a hypocrite, she said after Bushs car drove off. It was exciting seeing Jeb but [Im voting for] Marco Rubio. I think he is more conservative and probably a bigger fighter than Jeb. I do think Jeb is a good human being, but Im not sure would be able to fight and do what hes sent up there to do.

The 55-year-old pharmaceutical sales rep said that until recently she had been deciding between Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz but ultimately settled on the former because she believes he is more electable and less polarizing.

12:47 p.m.: This post was updated with Bush saying his plan was to go to Nevada after the South Carolina primary.
Timing is a big deal in politics, and Hillary Clintons timing is rotten.

Shes running a campaign for president on the argument that she is the most carefully prepared, judiciously educated candidate for the White House  at a time when many voters want to cast their lot with newcomers.

Shes set a table full of nuanced policy prescriptions to solve the problems at hand. Voters, many of them anyway, want someone to smash the plates.

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Clinton heard it Thursday night, most painfully from one of her supporters, during a televised town hall at which she and challenger Bernie Sanders separately took questions.

We need a rebel, a college student and supporter told the candidate, in explaining Clintons persistent problems with young voters. My generation is a little wary of placing another politician in the White House. With your tenure in politics, how are you going to deserve our vote?

If you are Hillary Clinton, how do you answer that?

The problem facing Clinton at a perilous point in her quest for the Democratic nomination is theres no response that will satisfy the emotional yearnings of voters, particularly the younger ones who have been fueling Sanders challenge, for something that feels new and revolutionary.

Clinton tried, asserting that she believed with all my heart that she would be able to deliver as president. And she followed with a list of promises: to boost the economy, to eradicate biases and barriers, to give women equal pay and college students cheaper tuition.

Those are the exact sorts of promises that dont seem to pass muster this year, as they pale in comparison to Sanders rebel calls. Clinton cant change that any more than she can change the desire for a fresh face, even a 74-year-old one like Sanders.

I think they really come down to saying, Well, look, you know  youve been around a while. Weve seen your face a long time, Clinton said later in the town hall. Well, Ive been around doing stuff. Ive been around getting things that I believe will help people. And thats what Im going to keep doing.

Both the Democratic and Republican races this year have been upended in similar ways, even if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would recoil from the comparison.

Trump is running a trust me campaign, bereft of almost any detail other than his questionable claim that hed build a giant wall along the nations southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Sanders, too, has skimped on details, as well as seriously overestimating the likelihood of his plans getting through a Republican Congress.

Asked specifically on Thursday how he would make child care better and more affordable, the Vermont senator spoke of how important the work was and how the nation had to change its priorities, but he did not say how. Asked  twice  what he would do to ensure that immigration and visa policies protect Americans, he spoke vaguely of having a much stronger security approach to vetting people who are coming in.

And there are a variety of ways that you can do that, he said, detailing none of them.

Clinton, meantime, has delivered what voters say they want  specific proposals that are closer to the center and, at least theoretically, have a more realistic chance of success  only to find that it doesnt help her all that much. Thats because the race is pivoting not so much on the things that Clinton hoped would matter  a record, endorsements, detailed plans  but on the sense voters get that Sanders feels their frustration.

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More outlandishly, perhaps, Trump has succeeded in being the voice of the aggrieved in his party, leaving in the dust candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who like Clinton has done things the old way only to find that the old ways no longer work.

In recent days, polls have shown Clintons once dramatic national lead winnow; Democrats in Nevada, where she was presumed to have an indomitable lead, believe the results of Saturdays Democratic caucuses could be close. Anything less than a solid victory here would call into question Clintons argument of inevitability just as the race careens into South Carolina.

For now Clinton is pressing ahead, trying to hold onto her target groups: older voters, Latinos, African Americans and women. In the latter three categories, shes trying to stem the flow of younger voters to the Sanders camp.

That came through Thursday night, as she went down her list of proposals. But in her assertions that she would keep doing what shed been doing, there was also a hint of how Clinton approached the Democratic race in 2008, after it was upended by that years fresh face, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Clintons tenacity, even as that race slipped further from her, became a character test of its own. Voters watching her struggle came to believe she was fighting for them; she became more popular, not less.

She alluded Thursday to what could be accomplished by hanging tough, something of a rebellious act on its own.

So people are really asking: Is she in it for herself -- or is she in it for me? Clinton said.

She answered her own question: She said she isnt in it for herself. But the answer that voters give will determine Clintons fate.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

For political news and analysis, follow me on Twitter: @cathleendecker . For more on politics, go to latimes.com/decker.

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With Jeb Bush out, his donors ponder their options with one goal: stopping Trump

Donors who fueled Jeb Bushs fundraising juggernaut were surprised by his decision to end his presidential bid Saturday but were already beginning Sunday to move on to other candidates in hopes of stopping Donald Trump.

Bobbie Kilberg and her husband, Bill, who were recently named finance committee co-chairs for Bush, said they decided Sunday morning that they would join Sen. Marco Rubios campaign.

He has the best, and perhaps the only, chance now of coalescing the mainstream part of the party and hopefully winning the nomination and being the one person who I think can take on Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, said Kilberg, an influential GOP donor from Virginia. I am very worried about nominating someone totally outside of the mainstream.

Kilberg said she was contacted Sunday by the Rubio campaign as well as by people in her network.

I started getting phone calls from people within my group of donors saying, Where do we go now? Well go where you go, she said.

The couple initially supported New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie until he dropped out, and then joined Bushs campaign Wednesday. She said she thought both men, whom she has long known and admired, couldnt get through to voters because of all of the attention on Trump.

I cant explain it. This is the strangest political season I have ever seen, Kilberg said.

Dale Dykema, founder of the Santa Ana-based T.D. Service Financial Corp. and a member of Bushs finance committee, is also likely to support Rubio.

Theres no way I can support either [Sen. Ted] Cruz or Trump, and I think Cruz is probably done for anyhow. I think it boils down to between Rubio and Trump, he said. I see no choice but to go with Rubio. I will do whatever I can to avoid Trump getting the nomination.

Venture capitalist Bill Draper, who co-hosted a fundraiser for the super PAC supporting Bush in East Palo Alto, Calif., last year, agreed.

I am totally astounded and horrified, said Draper, the former president and chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

He said would consider supporting Rubio or Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

I liked the three governors who were running, and two have now dropped out, he said. The training that a governor gets is extraordinarily helpful in preparing one for president.

But Draper, who attended Yale with Bushs father, former President George H.W Bush, questioned the impact of money in an election season that has defied all predictions.

I dont think its up to the donors right now. I think its really up to voters, he said.
The sight of hundreds of freely elected members of Myanmars Parliament  former political prisoners among them  at the opening of its legislative session earlier this month was testament to the Southeast Asian countrys extraordinary journey from military-run pariah state to would-be democracy. Only five years ago, Myanmar was under the control of a military junta with little respect for elections. But last November, the opposition National League for Democracy Party, led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, won an astonishing 80% of the contested seats in Parliament.

This transition is far from complete, however, and its most difficult tests lie ahead. Per Myanmars constitution, the military still controls 25% of the seats in Parliament and three top ministerial posts. The constitution also forbids anyone with a spouse or child of foreign citizenship from becoming president. This stricture was intended to bar Suu Kyi  a former political prisoner whose late husband was a British citizen and whose two sons are as well  from becoming president, even though she has been the face of Myanmars democracy movement for nearly three decades. Suu Kyis party certainly has the votes in Parliament to pick the president it wants  except Suu Kyi. A member of Parliament herself, she has made no secret of her desire to be president. In fact, she has indicated that if she isnt chosen, she intends to exert great control over whoever is.

The rule preventing her from running is absurd, and the constitution needs to be amended. But as she and her party negotiate with the military to form a government, they must be careful not to cede even more authority to the military in their eagerness to open the presidency to Suu Kyi. For instance, the military should not be granted more high-level posts, as some analysts have suggested they might be. Thats not a compromise, thats a sacrifice of the trust that Myanmar voters put in the pro-democracy party to move the government further away from military control and toward a fully democratically run government.

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For now, the Democracy Party must work with the military to ensure that the new president comes to power peacefully. But that should not deter the new government from immediately stopping a variety of ongoing human rights violations in Myanmar. Laws that restrict freedom of association and expression should be repealed. And, above all, the oppression of the 1 million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar should cease. It would be unconscionable for this new government, with or without Suu Kyi as president, to continue disenfranchising the Rohingya and relegating so many of them to squalid refugee camps.

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The United States has for 86 years banned the import of goods produced using forced labor  unless, as the Tariff Act of 1930 put it, the goods are not mined, produced, or manufactured in such quantities in the United States as to meet the consumptive demands of the United States. Thats right, you read it correctly: The nation stands against importing goods made by slave labor unless we really want them.

That repugnant loophole is about to get closed, and the ramifications could be significant. President Obama is expected this week to sign the recently passed Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, which would do away with the exemption. This is no symbolic step. Forced labor fuels $51 billion a year in profits in international trade, not including sex trafficking, according to the International Labor Organization, which estimated that more than 14 million people worldwide work as a result of force, fraud or deception in homes, factories, mines and farms. The U.S. Department of Labor lists 319 foreign goods that it believes are produced with child labor (usually forced), and 102 goods with forced adult labor, including Brazil nuts from Bolivia, cocoa from West Africa, rice from India and seafood from Thailand.

It is the use of forced labor on fishing boats and factory ships based in Southeast Asia that have helped drive this despicable practice into public view. For years, migrant workers there have fallen into the hands of unscrupulous human traffickers who sell them to ship captains, who use brutal violence and the isolation of the high seas to maintain control. The Guardian and the Associated Press have documented the practice, closely linked to Thailands fishing industry, as have some advocacy groups.

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Efforts to undermine seagoing slavery could be further helped by an unrelated rule that has been proposed in the United States to protect overfished species and make it tougher to mislabel fish. The rule would require importers to divulge the chain of custody of seafood from the ship that caught it or the farm that raised it to the point of entry into U.S. commerce, creating a database that federal officials say can help customs agents pinpoint the sources of imported fish.

Human rights groups have hailed the closing of the import loophole, as well as similar steps being taken in Europe, as significant actions to curb international slavery. Enforcement will be key, but banning forced-labor imports and requiring more transparency in supply chains will make it harder to exploit vulnerable people around the world. Will this mean higher costs for consumers? Maybe. But if the trade-off for cheap imports is supporting slavery, then let the prices rise.

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The number of refugees, asylum-seekers and other displaced persons exceeded 60 million globally last year. More than half of the refugees have been uprooted not for months, but for years upon years.

Its clear that the international legal framework for responding to such crises  the 1951 Refugees Convention  is insufficiently comprehensive to deal with a situation of this magnitude and complexity. Created to respond to the 1 million Europeans still displaced years after World War II ended, the convention was the first treaty to codify legal rights for refugees. And while its scope was expanded in 1967, the framework does not extend to cover all those in need of protection.

For instance, it defines a refugee as someone unable to return to their country owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Certainly not all those fleeing Syria meet these criteria. They are, however, fleeing violent conflict, state collapse and brutal extremism, and most would agree that they deserve international protection. Yet how, and how long, countries should shelter such persons are difficult questions  not only because they touch on the sensitive issue of state sovereignty, but because of the sheer number of refugees.

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Further, while host states are required to accept and keep asylum seekers, there are no binding rules on sharing the financial burden. Donor states can (and do) scale back their aid once the emergency phase has passed, leaving hosts to struggle on alone. My own country, for example, is sheltering 635,000 U.N.-registered refugees, but in 2015 Jordans response plan received only 34% of the funding it needed.

The convention also has been unable to induce states to act in the manner intended. Australia, for example, has entered into agreements with Nauru and other neighbors to process refugee claims offshore  essentially outsourcing its convention obligations. (Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, by contrast  which are not parties to the convention  collectively host approximately 6 million refugees.) And what can be made of Europes behavior? Surely giving Turkey $3 billion and other incentives to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into Europe is expedient, but hardly within the spirit of the convention.

The current refugee crisis in Europe has brought these challenges to the fore; in particular, it is clear that countries which enjoy wealth and safety do not want to host refugees in large numbers, nor forever.

New solutions are required that address the reluctance of traditional resettlement countries to absorb vast numbers of refugees permanently, as well as the frustrations of host states about unequal burden sharing.

These might include the notion of temporary protection. Research suggests that short-term migration can benefit both the individual and the destination country. These gains are not only economic. Migrants absorb civic and institutional norms that they bring back to their societies. Temporary protection also overcomes the issue of stripping a society of the very people it needs most post-conflict. Those Syrians seeking a life in Europe (and those resettled) are disproportionally educated and employable. From a utilitarian perspective, it is preferable that they repatriate when the war ends and contribute to reconstruction and state-building. If they take with them some acquired governance values, all the better.

Research suggests that short-term migration can benefit both the individual and the destination country.

Greater thought also should be invested in how safe havens might be made more effective. If European nations had to choose between the current refugee crisis, or working together to operationalize a safe zone within Syria that was actually secure, my bet is that theyd choose the latter. Safe havens, historically, have had appalling track records at protecting vulnerable groups, but the idea itself is not unsound. One might imagine a refugee camp in a Syrian safe zone protected by a coalition of international forces, where small businesses operate unhindered and Syrian teachers run the schools. (Indeed, one factor behind the low school enrollment at Jordans Zaatari refugee camp is that Syrian students did not want to transfer to the unfamiliar Jordanian curriculum.)

Safe zones are far from perfect, but they do create greater scope for continuity and autonomy, both of which aid in the reintegration and rehabilitation process when a conflict ends. Moreover, just because we have not been able to get safe havens right in the past does not mean we should abandon the concept.

If, however, refugees are unable to return home, host countries must be offered solutions that are in  or at least not contrary to  their national interest. The London conference on the Syrian conflict in early February was a promising development in this regard. Donor nations pledged money, but also aid for elements that Jordan needs to grow its economy: infrastructure, education and jobs for refugees.

Finally, the regions that face the most dramatic refugee issues might consider localized regulatory arrangements along the lines of those implemented by the African Union (the 1969 Convention Governing Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa) and in the Americas (the 1984 Cartagena Declaration). Such arrangements can support more context-specific burden-sharing and financing mechanisms that take into account the assets and challenges of each participating country.

It should go without saying that human dignity, the right to live with freedom and without fear, and empathy for humankind should underpin any arrangement for the care of displaced people. When the Refugee Convention was signed in 1951, European countries were grappling with a crisis of mass displacement from war. How paradoxical that a similar crisis today reveals the Refugee Convention as deeply imperiled.

Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan is chairman and founder of the West Asia-North Africa Institute.

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Tabakika was once a tobacco factory. Now its a dust filled, dimly lit, altogether dreary overflow center for refugees on the Greek island of Chios where many spend their first night, huddled around space heaters like the ones you might find at a restaurant, stretched out on broken down cardboard boxes or directly on concrete. This is their welcome to Europe.

The refugees arrive from wartorn countries in glorified dinghies; often smugglers push them off the boats early and they must swim to shore, finally setting foot on land cold and wet. Some are in shock. Some have hypothermia. Most are hungry.

Shoes that fit are a luxury.

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Recently the Greek government opened a registration hotspot just outside of Chios; a contractor there provides food and water. But its simply not big enough to meet demand, so refugees are sent on to Tabakika and entrusted to volunteersnot United Nations, European Union or international NGOsresponsible for buying provisions, cooking and distributing meals at a cost of 50 cents per person.

Volunteers use WhatsApp to circulate urgent messages. Food for 300 needed at the port. Low on jackets and socks! And mens pants! We need a doctor for someone with a broken leg. Two boats arrived on the shores and the refugees are soaked from head to toe. Can someone bring dry clothes, especially for children?

While food and potable water are of course basic necessities, warmth is just as critical in the winter months. During blanket distribution, after the sun goes down, the refugees are desperate. Exhausted men and women confront volunteers at every turn, tug at the blankets, push other refugees, yell baby, baby (meaning they have a baby that needs a blanket).

But ask almost any volunteer anywhere in Greece, from Lesvos to Athens to Idomeni, and they will tell you that even more than food and blankets, shoes are the hottest commodity.

The refugees shoes are in shambles, ruined by sea salt and arduous journeys out of the Middle East. Replacements are essentialthey may have long, snowy marches ahead. So the refugees line up for shoes; and the volunteers fight through language barriers using hand signals, broken English and numbered cards to figure out sizes. More often than not, the volunteers then point apologetically to a plastic box filled with mismatched pairs, some too big, others too small. Shoes that fit are a luxury.

Were out of shoes! Does anyone have any shoes? plead the messages on WhatsApp.

The refugee crisis in Europe is only just beginning. If eventual integration is the goal for those who can never go home, then first impressions matter, and the first impressions on Chios are rarely good. Just imagine fleeing violence, risking death on a tiny boat across the Mediterranean, only to fight for blankets and a tight pair of shoes. Although the new hotspot and others like it may improve matters in time, theres little reason for optimism.

Volunteers in Greece and elsewhere are attempting to turn an impossible situation into a tolerable one with only limited donations, material and financial. What they can muster together truly matters. A thin blanket breeds frustration and resentment; but if a volunteer can find a warm jacket and a hot cup of soup for a little girl, she and her parents will feel grateful and indebted to the people of the continent taking them in.

Joshua Newton volunteered on Chios in December and January. He works as a consultant on international water policy for international NGOs and the United Nations.

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Will originalism survive Justice Antonin Scalia? Will he be remembered, as President Obama suggested just hours after his death, as one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the Supreme Court? Initial comments have for the most part seconded the presidents kind words: Scalia was brilliant, incisive, larger-than-life. Scalias record, however, is mixed, and his place in the courts history is yet to be determined.

In his three decades on the high court, Scalia had an undeniable impact in several areas of the law. His originalist reading of the 4th Amendment, which requires a warrant before any kind of police search, and of the 6th Amendments Confrontation Clause, giving defendants the right to face their accusers, changed police procedures and provided greater protection to persons accused of crime. As Scalia told the Georgia Bar Assn. last spring, those cases alone ought to make him the poster boy of the criminal defense bar.

Scalia famously argued that only by reading the Constitution in the light of the Framers original intent can judges arrive at an impartial and objective understanding of the document. He was a caustic critic of activist courts  especially if they were liberal  but originalism itself gives conservative judges a fig leaf to cover their activism. Close observers of the court have noted that whenever Scalia invoked an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, it usually favored his biases. In the 2010 Citizens United case  which allows companies to make large campaign contributions from their corporate treasuries  Scalia wrote a concurrence in which he claimed the Framers believed in free speech rights for corporations. It astounded and dumbfounded historians who know that corporations barely existed in 18th century America.

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Originalism has long been under attack, and not just by its political opponents. How is it possible to discern absolutely the Framers intent? A book published last fall revealed that James Madisons notes on the Constitutional Convention, long considered a documentary source on the debates of the Framers, was edited later by Madison to emphasize his and Thomas Jeffersons states rights view of government rather than that of their archenemy, Alexander Hamilton, who believed in a strong central government. Moreover, there are many parts of the Constitution for which there is no contemporary source of meaning. The basis for impeachment, for example, is high crimes and misdemeanors, for which no definition is to be found in the Federalist Papers or elsewhere.

Scalia will without doubt be remembered as one of the best writers on the court. Even those who disagree with his opinions read them just for the fun of it. But he often went too far, especially when in dissent, and his tirades insulted more moderate conservatives such as Sandra Day OConnor and Anthony Kennedy. The justices shrugged it off with a well, thats just Nino. In recent years, observers have noted that a nastiness is showing up in lower federal courts. A number of opinions have attacked opposing jurists not just on jurisprudental grounds, but on a personal basis as well. If Scalia can do it, the writers seem to think, then so can we.

Whenever Scalia invoked an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, it usually favored his own biases.

Scalia, appointed by President Reagan, arrived at the court buoyed by his supporters belief that he would serve Chief Justice William Rehnquist much as William Brennan had the much more liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren  providing the intellectual underpinning for a new conservative majority. But Scalia lacked an essential Brennan attribute.

At the beginning of each term, Brennan would ask his new law clerks what was the most important number on the court, and then he would hold up five fingers  the number of votes needed for a majority. Brennan worked to make his opinions acceptable to the undecided and middle-of-the road justices; he compromised. By doing that, he often turned a minority into a majority, and a potential defeat into a victory.

Admittedly, when Scalia spoke for the court, he toned down his rhetoric in order to fairly represent the common ground that had built the majority. His many solo minority opinions however are evidence of his un-Brennanlike demeanor. In them, he seems very much like the most liberal justice of the 20th century, William O. Douglas, who said the only soul he had to save was his own.

Scalias harsh, solo opinions were especially notable in the last decade of his tenure, when the majority decided a series of cases recognizing the civil rights of the LGBT community. Scalia attacked his colleagues for signing on to the homosexual agenda, as he derided it, and claimed not only that the Constitution gave no rights to gay people, but the non-gay majority had every right to protect itself from contamination. With each case his dissents grew shriller, reaching an apogee in the 2013 Windsor case, in which a majority of the court struck down DOMA  the Defense of Marriage Act  and declared that the federal government had to recognize same-sex marriage in those states that had adopted it.

Ironically, it is one of Scalias most important dissents. He attacked Kennedys majority opinion, and then went on to warn that the decision was an open invitation to challenge state laws against same-sex marriage in the courts. He laid out several arguments, all implicit, he claimed, in the Kennedy opinion, that activists would use to demand approval of same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

The very next day, ACLU chapters in Pennsylvania and Virginia went into federal court with the Scalia dissent as the template for their arguments. Same-sex advocates won nearly every case in the lower courts, and the Supreme Court validated their claim last term.

Historical reputation, of course, requires time for scholars to assess. Scalia and his ideas have played an important role in the Rehnquist and Roberts courts. It will take time, however, to see if originalism can withstand the political, jurisprudential and scholarly analyses that will be forthcoming; whether the blame for the growing nastiness in lower courts will be placed at his feet; and whether his inability and unwillingness to forge a conservative coalition to advance his conservative views will make him no more than an interesting oddity in the courts history.

Melvin I. Urofsky is a legal historian and the author, most recently, of Dissent and the Supreme Court.

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He launched his campaign in the warmth of a Florida summer, hailed as the candidate who melded a new, multicultural Republican appeal, a family history of winning and the most formidable fundraising machine his party had ever built.

Eight humiliating months later, in the South Carolina winter, defeated once again by Donald Trump, John Ellis Bush gave up, making him the most prominent casualty of an unruly presidential contest and marking a stunning public repudiation of a family that defined GOP success for decades during two turns in the White House.

Jeb Bushs withdrawal from the race came as Trump handily won South Carolinas primary, advancing another significant step toward the partys nomination. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas were battling for second place.

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By dropping out, Bush could help the party consolidate against Trump, although even if all his votes in South Carolina had gone to one of the two senators, Trump still would have prevailed.

The heady promise of Bushs start made his fall that much more dramatic. The campaigns launch in June opened with a splashy call to action that was presidential in scale and embracing in tone, particularly toward the voters whom GOP leaders had identified as a crucial target after the partys loss in 2012.

Latin music blared, and speakers  including Bush  addressed the Miami audience in Spanish. His slogan added an exclamation point to suggest enthusiasm: Jeb! Bush employed his Mexican-born wife and his bilingual children and imported members of his famous family to craft a compelling image.

He is the new America. He is the new Republican Party, said one announcement speaker, state Sen. Don Gaetz.

It was everything a candidate could dream of  except for an almost total lack of appeal to GOP voters.

Bush had sought to resurrect the political fortunes of a family partially sullied by the misadventures of his brother, George W. Bush. But he was hobbled by an inability to deal with both the fallout of his siblings presidency and an angry, disaffected GOP electorate that despised the party establishment he personified and rejected its call to reach out to minority voters.

Out of office for more than eight years before he jumped into the presidential race in June, Bush appeared oblivious to the staunchly conservative direction the party had taken in his absence, a change driven by activist reactions to the presidencies of his brother and his father, George H.W. Bush.

He persisted in believing that people would eventually embrace a studious, serious candidate in a race filled with rhetoric-flinging rookie politicians and celebrity outsiders. But he failed to gauge the depth of animosity toward him and his family, and the more genteel Republican Party they championed.

In South Carolina, the last state in which he competed, Bush tried every trick. His mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, implored voters to side with her son. George W. Bush emerged from post-presidential retirement to denigrate his brothers nemesis, Trump, and ask South Carolinians who had once rescued his candidacy to do the same for Jeb. None of it worked.

In the end, having finished no better than fourth place in any state, the most conservative candidate his family had produced was deemed insufficiently rock-ribbed and far too old-school for a party surging toward a new identity.

The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision, said Bush, who occasionally grew emotional as he announced his departure.

He defended an effort that went from front-runner to underdog: I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds.

Bushs candidacy rested on the same ruthless strategy that had worked for two family members. Within months of signaling his interest in the race early last year, he used the familys expansive network of fundraisers to collect more than $100 million for the super PAC that helped finance his activities, and more still for his campaign. In the end, the campaign and super PAC spent well over $90 million.

Yet in an early warning sign, his effort to clear the field worked only minimally, helping to persuade 2012 nominee Mitt Romney to forgo a third White House try.

Even with the threat of all that money, Bush could not dissuade others: Trump, the non-politician billionaire who would soak up so much attention and bully Bush; Cruz, the eventual Iowa caucus winner whose rapier speaking style would attract many of the partys newer voters; Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whose surprise second-place finish in New Hampshire would win over the more moderate and blue-collar voters Bush had counted on; and his onetime protege, Rubio, who would cast Bush aside as he called for a generational revolt.

Bigger problems awaited. Some conservatives glowered at Bushs past support for the federal education standards known as Common Core. Others were enraged when Bush characterized immigrants in the country illegally as people who were acting out of love  a quote that Trump and others would mock for months.

Had the electorate been what he anticipated, the electorate of a generation ago, Bush might have surmounted his problems. But those two issues have become pillars of GOP activist fervor, so Bushs unorthodox views loomed large.

Its perhaps the biggest irony of Bushs campaign that while his family gave him many advantages  such as the massive fundraising base  it also set the stage for his failure.

Bushs father was never trusted by conservatives in the party, who saw him as the moderate underling not up to the stature of their hero, Ronald Reagan. The elder Bushs broken presidential pledge to not raise taxes led to a serious primary challenge by conservative Pat Buchanan in 1992 that served as a template for the racially tinged, insurgent candidacies this year.

George W. Bush campaigned as a compassionate conservative  a moniker that irked other conservatives it subtly maligned. His support for national education reforms and an immigration plan leading to rights of citizenship for those in the country illegally provoked another lurch to the right for party activists, which expanded further during the Obama years.

The sins of the father and brother made many Republicans greet the third Bush with skepticism, despite his conservative tenure in Florida. If there was to be a new Republican Party, as his supporters asserted, it was not in their view going to be one that heralded yet another Bush.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Bush himself was another problem. He was neither his quietly confident, patrician father nor his back-slapping, perennially underestimated older brother. Jeb Bush was a self-described introvert, a sometimes diffident policy wonk comfortable in his briefing books, who had jumped into an election that was fuming with hostility toward politics as practiced by his family.

He started the campaign insisting that he would show who I am, tell my story, one different from the other Bushes. But even before his campaign officially began, he was tied in knots for days as he tried to answer the question of whether, given current knowledge, he would have gone to war in Iraq as his brother did. (The eventual answer: I would not have invaded Iraq.)

Trump mercilessly pummeled him over his brothers actions and what Trump declared to be Jeb Bushs personal inadequacies.

Ive got to get this off my chest: Donald Trump is a jerk, Bush finally declared in late December during a New Hampshire event, a comment whose prim language only underscored his discomfort with the rancor of the campaign.

Trumps most common refrain was that Bush was low energy. It was meant to get under Bushs skin, but got to a central truth about him: In a field of aggressors evincing animal rage, he barely registered.

He disappeared for long stretches during the early debates, as louder voices dominated. Campaign slogans  Right to Rise, Jeb Can Fix It  came and went, each an acknowledgment that the previous theme hadnt worked. It was only in the final weeks that Bush seemed to find a sense of urgency in debates and in speeches, but by then the race had passed him by.

The closing chapter of the Bush dynasty opened with one of its key attributes  public optimism. Jeb Bush had survived New Hampshire in fourth place and was back in South Carolina, the state that had righted his brothers campaign in 2000 and propelled his fathers in 1988.

But any momentum he might have had stalled when the well-liked Gov. Nikki Haley spurned Bush family appeals and instead endorsed Rubio. George W. Bushs popularity in the state proved nontransferable. A rally in Summerville descended into embarrassment as, one after another, supporters rose to give a visibly frustrated candidate campaign advice.

At the upbeat Miami event where his effort began so winningly, Bush had exuded optimism, and maybe even a sense of destiny. He was, he cautioned, presuming nothing.

Not a one of us deserves the job, by right of resume, party, seniority, family or family narrative, he said. Its nobodys turn. Its everybodys test. And its wide open  exactly as a contest for president should be.

At the time, he was inoculating himself against any insinuation that he felt he should be handed the presidency. It turned out to be an early and prescient assessment of the emotions at play in campaign 2016, and of the forces that would chase him out of the race.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Decker reported from Las Vegas and Mehta from Columbia.

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Nearly a year ago, then-City Manager Mark Scott told the Burbank City Council about the urgent challenges facing the community: low projected growth, sales tax revenue stagnation, a potential housing crisis that may make it harder to woo businesses, and $115 million in unfunded projects.

As of this month, Scott is gone  he resigned and took the top executive job in San Bernardino, a city with its own urgent challenges  and Burbank Water and Power General Manager Ron Davis has stepped in to fill his shoes until a permanent replacement is selected.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >>

In an interview this week, his second week as interim city manager, Davis said hes interested in the permanent position, but you dont know till you try.

Taking it up temporarily while the city conducts a nationwide search will give him a chance to try it out and give the council a chance to test the fit as well.

As part of its national search, the city will seek the publics input in defining the characteristics and skills officials would like to see in a potential city manager.

A public meeting on the topic is slated for 6 p.m. March 2, in Room 104 of the citys Community Services Building, 150 N. 3rd St., Mayor Bob Frutos said recently.

Davis contract with the city would allow him to go back to managing the utility if hes not selected or declines the city manager position. Davis, who holds a bachelors degree in business and professional accounting from Eastern Washington University and is a graduate of the Navys nuclear program, has led the utility since 1999.

Davis hopes to bring a leadership style hes accumulated over several years in Burbank working with various city managers and city councils.

One idea introduced by Scott that he said hes looking forward to carrying out is a plan to focus some City Council meetings on information-only presentations before items come up for a council decision.

Longtime Burbank Water and Power board member Bob Olson said Davis is a formidable choice for city manager.

I have first-hand knowledge of Rons incredible and considerable strengths, such as a steady hand at the helm and an ability to get the best work from his staff, Olson said in a council meeting last week.

At Daviss first meeting as city manager last week, Juan Guillen, a local businessman and two-time City Council candidate, said he had wanted him to take the city manager position four years ago, before Scott was hired, and looks forward to Davis running a tight ship.

Compared to helming the utility, leading the city is similar, but a lot different, Davis said. For one, its more complicated, with game of puzzles and interests to balance.

For example, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority wants a new airport, but that has to be balanced against the interests of the citizens of Burbank and their desires.

And then there are challenges like those Scott outlined last May. Burbank wont be able to find a solution with a budget  by cutting expenditures to meet revenues  Davis said. Instead, we need to plan our way out of it.

Balancing priorities such as infrastructure needs, economic development and the optimal use of the citys workforce to provide better services, isnt done in a budget cycle, he said.

But, the jigsaw puzzle of it all is engaging and fun for him, he said.

Daunting, too, but it has to happen, he added.

--

Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland
A new welcome sign at Crescenta Valley Park is a nod to an era when the open space was used for gatherings by local Germans.

It tells visitors theyve come to Hindenburg Park, a section of Crescenta Valley Park renamed by Los Angeles County officials in 1992.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in and around your neighborhood >>

It was named for Paul Von Hindenburg, a German war hero during World War I and president of Germany from the late 20s to early 30s, according to the website for the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

The grounds were acquired by the German American League in 1925 and, through the years, a stage and a dance floor were added. It was originally called the La Crescenta Valley Picnic Grounds.

The welcome sign delivers its message in English and German with the phrase willkommen zum.

It was fully paid for by the German heritage organization called the Tricentennial Foundation.

For many years, Germans gathered on the weekends there and they had their dances and German food and wine, said Hans Eberhard, the foundations chairman.

The land was the site of one of the first Oktoberfest celebrations in Southern California, he said.

The park was sold to the county in 1958 and made part of the already-established Crescenta Valley Park.

However, the Hindenburg Park area was the site of some controversy.

It was once home to a 5-foot bust of Paul von Hindenburg, president of the Weimar Republic during Adolf Hitlers rise to power. It was removed once the park was sold.

The site was also used for Nazi rallies in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation granted approval to the Tricentennial Foundation to install the sign.

A required step the group had to take was to get support from groups such as the Crescenta Valley Town Council and the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Steve Pierce, who is on the chambers board of directors, said no one opposed the sign and that the sign is not a reflection of the dark history that happened there.

The sign is just recognizing the German culture that was in our community, he said. I think thats important. Im very in support of that.

--

Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian
TRAVEL

Presentation

Learn strategies for packing for your trip, getting through security smoothly and staying healthy and comfortable on your flight.

When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena

Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220.

MT. WHITNEY

Workshop

Experts will discuss how to apply for a permit, plan a route and choose proper equipment and food.

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When, where: 7 p.m. Tuesday at the REI store in Manhattan Beach, 1800 Rosecrans Ave., Suite E

Admission, info: Free. (310) 727-0728

CATALINA

Presentation

Discover the best day hikes out of Avalon and Two Harbors and what it takes to tackle the 37.2-mile Trans-Catalina Trail.

When, where: 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Adventure 16 store in Tarzana, 5425 Reseda Blvd., and Friday at the Los Angeles store, 11161 W. Pico Blvd.

Admission, info: Free. (818) 345-4266 for Tarzana; (310) 473-4574 for Los Angeles.

JOSHUA TREE

Field class

Learn about the rocks and minerals of Joshua Tree National Park in this three-day class.

When, where: 6 p.m. Friday-4 p.m. Feb. 28, Oasis Visitor Center

Admission, info: $145. (760) 367-5535.

UGANDA

Slide show

The World Traveled presents Elisa Kotin, who will discuss gorilla trekking in Uganda.

When, where: 11 a.m-2 p.m. Saturday, Du-pars, 16120 Ventura Blvd., Encino

Admission, info: $5. Walk-ins OK or RSVP on Meetup Group page: www.meetup.com/TheWorldTraveled

Please email announcements at least three weeks before the event to travel@latimes.com.
Drivers licensesand air travel

Just read Catharine Hamms On the Spot column about air travel and California drivers licenses [You Have License to Be Frustrated, Feb. 14]. Very simple answer: Require a federally issued passport for all air travel. No cost to states. Uniformity. Leaves states rights.

Done.

Maggie Holmes

Laguna Beach

About midway through the article about drivers licenses, Real ID requirements and California, various forms of ID accepted by the Transportation Security Administration were listed.

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This form of proof of ID isnt listed  a license to carry a concealed weapon, or CCW for California, at least for Orange County  but it could be a model.

This would appear to meet the approved ID requirements, since the license holder is required to have physically provided documentation; they dont take the applicants word for proof. It:

 Contains a picture ID.

 Has much security involved (example: issued by Orange County Sheriffs Department).

 Shows a California residency address.

 Involves proof of residency (in this case a California county) by requiring two months utility bill statements.

 Is issued by a government agency.

And that doesnt even cover the vetting of the applicant him/herself, including Department of Justice background checks and fingerprint ID checks.

W. Belisle

Westminster

Paris wine tip

We enjoyed S. Irene Virbilas article Raise a Glass to Paris [Feb. 7]. In the last few years, wine bars have popped up all over Paris, changing the way Parisians and tourists alike experience food and wine. No more unwieldy, leather-bound wine lists to wrestle with. Instead, youll find casual places serving small plates and featuring interesting wines from small vineyards. Many of the wine bars featured in the article are included in our Wining & Dining in Paris book.

Wed like to add one to Virbilas list. Albion is a wine bar/bistro in the 10th arrondissement, not far from Gare du Nord and Gare de lEst. Its run by English chef Matthew Ong and New Zealander sommelier Hayden Clout. Youll find dark plank floors and walls lined with wine bottles. It has an inventive menu and interesting wine list.

Andy Herbach

Karl Raaum

Palm Springs

Best Memphis ribs

In Andrew Benders Memphis Tells Our Story [Feb. 7], the description of the Peabody Hotel is excellent, but the locals did you a disservice in not recommending the Rendezvous. They have the best barbecue ribs in the country. Before my retirement, I used to go to Memphis four times a year for business and never missed a dinner there. The ambience is terrific, casual and fun. I have also had them delivered by FedEx.

John Landau

Encino
British Prime Minister David Cameron has spent months shuttling between European capitals to secure backing for a deal that would keep his country from bolting the European Union.

He claimed victory Friday in the final hours of a tough two-day summit. But the hard work has just begun: Now Cameron has to sell the deal to his own party and the British electorate.

The agreement reached with European leaders would provide greater protection to Britain from rules and principles that it does not like, including requirements to provide equal benefits to all EU residents living in Britain and to contribute to financial bailout packages for members of the eurozone to which the country does not belong. However, Euroskeptics within Camerons own Conservative Party argue that it does not go far enough.

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A referendum on whether to remain in the 28-member bloc is expected June 23.

What is in the agreement?

Special status for Britain

Britain has long had a love-hate relationship with the EU. It opted out of being part of the common currency, the euro, and is not part of a passport-free travel zone. Still, some felt that Britain was becoming beholden to too many EU rules, and calls for a separation have been growing.

Cameron contends that the deal he negotiated offers Britain the best of both worlds -- the ability to work cohesively with its European neighbors on issues such as trade and security but opt out of other elements of EU membership that it finds less palatable.

Child benefit payments for migrants

Hundreds of thousands of people have moved to Britain from other EU countries in the past decade seeking higher-paid jobs. Upon arrival, they can claim benefits for their children, who in many cases continue to reside in their home countries.

Cameron wanted the practice stopped, arguing that it was putting a strain on Britains already overstretched welfare system. This was a particularly difficult sell to Eastern European nations that account for a large portion of these migrants. But an agreement was reached to calculate the benefits based on the cost of living where the children reside.

The new rules would not apply to migrants already in Britain until 2020.

Emergency brake on migrant workers benefits

EU migrants in Britain can also claim additional benefits if they are in low-paying jobs.

Cameron successfully negotiated for the ability to put an emergency brake on these benefits in the event of exceptional levels of migration. Such a move would need EU approval, although Cameron says he has received assurances that this would be automatic.

Once triggered, benefits for migrants would be phased in gradually over a four-year period. However, the limits could only remain in effect for seven years, less than the 13 years Cameron had sought.

Ever closer union

A founding principle of the EU is the idea of ever closer union among the peoples of Europe. This has never sat comfortably with Britain, which has tended to set itself apart from the rest of Europe. That is partly because the country is an island, but also because it has always taken its sovereignty very seriously.

The proposed deal states that Britain cannot be forced into greater political integration, a provision that would also be written into the EU treaty. This would ensure that the country is never part of a European superstate, Cameron said.

Financial protection

The EU would for the first time formally recognize that the euro is not the only currency in Europe. Countries that are outside the 19-member eurozone would be able to delay and force a debate about any financial rules that could negatively affect their economies.

Cameron said this would create safeguards for Britains large financial services hub in the City of London. It would also mean that British businesses no longer have to relocate to mainland Europe to ensure they are not getting an unfair deal by operating outside the eurozone, he said.

Eurozone bailouts

When the global financial crisis hit, there was much criticism in Britain about the way it was handled in many of the capitals that use the euro.

As an EU member, Britain found itself required to help bail out counties like Greece when it was teetering on the brink of a financial meltdown. Under the new deal, however, countries that are not in the eurozone would not have to contribute.

What happens next?

Cameron called a Cabinet meeting Saturday to brief ministers about the deal -- the first time Cabinet has met on a Saturday since the 1982 Falklands War.

He later announced that a promised referendum on whether to remain in the European Union will take place June 23, a date that will have to be approved by Parliament.

While the negotiations were under way, the most senior government ministers were not permitted to express their points of view on the subject. But those restrictions have now been lifted and campaigning is expected to be heated.

Who backs the deal?

Prime Minister David Cameron firmly supports the deal.

It underlines our special status through which families across Britain get all the benefits of being in the EU, including more jobs, lower prices and greater security, he said. But our special status also means we are out of the parts of Europe that dont work for us.

Members of the opposition Labor Party have also come out in support of the agreement, along with Liberal Democrats and members of the Scottish National Party.

Who opposes the deal?

The far-right UK Independence Party has been a loud critic.

This is a truly pathetic deal, party leader Nigel Farage said in a tweet Friday. Lets Leave the EU, control our borders, run our own country and stop handing 55m every day to Brussels.

At least six Cabinet members are also expected to vote to leave the EU. They include Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a close ally of Cameron.

Instead of grumbling and complaining about the things we cant change, and growing resentful and bitter, we can shape an optimistic, forward-looking and genuinely internationalist alternative to the path the EU is going down, Gove said in a statement.

Boyle is a special correspondent.

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Officials in Fiji scrambled to assess damage Sunday in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that tore through the Pacific island chain, leaving at least three dead and collapsing hundreds of homes as people were sheltering from winds of up to 285 kilometers (177 miles) per hour.

A curfew was extended through Sunday and police empowered to make arrests without a warrant to ensure order. The government was responding quickly by clearing vital roads and the main airport reopened Sunday.

George Dregaso from Fijis National Disaster Management Office said two people on Ovalau Island died when the house they were sheltering in collapsed on them, and another man was killed on Koro Island, although it wasnt clear how. Police are investigating reports of two more deaths on the main island of Viti Levu, Dregaso said.

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Officials were trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and wouldnt know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.

Cyclone Winston hit Fiji on Saturday and moved westward overnight along the northern coast of Viti Levu. Fijis capital, Suva, located in the southern part of the island, was not directly in the cyclones path and avoided the worst of its destructive power.

Truth be told, weve gotten off pretty lightly here in the capital, said Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for UNICEF. It was still a pretty awful night. You could hear crashing trees and power lines, and popping rivets as roofs got lifted and ripped out.

She said there was foliage everywhere, which looks like it has been put through a blender.

Dregaso said one person on the west of Viti Levu had been hospitalized after being hit by flying debris.

About 80 percent of the nations 900,000 people were without regular power, although about one-third of them were able to get some power from generators, he said. Landlines throughout Fiji were down, but most mobile networks were working.

Dregaso said there were 483 people who had evacuated from their homes and were staying in 32 emergency shelters. He said he expected the number of evacuees to rise.

Authorities were urging people to remain indoors as they cleared fallen trees and power lines. They said all schools would be closed for a week to allow time for the cleanup. The government declared a 30-day state of natural disaster, giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

Clements said there was concern for the people on the northern part of the main island and smaller islands elsewhere. She said many would have lost their homes and livelihoods, and some tourist resorts on the outer islands may have suffered damage.

The airport reopened Sunday to allow emergency flights, Dregaso said, after many flights had been canceled the day before.

As a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama wrote on social media. We must stick together as a people and look after each other.

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Islamic States finances have been squeezed by falling oil prices and airstrikes on oil production sites and cash hoards, forcing salary cuts for its fighters and limiting purchases of arms and ammunition, according to U.S. officials.

Unable to dislodge the extremist group from its quasi-state, the U.S.-led coalition has begun targeting buildings where it suspects the militants store cash from looted banks, ransom payments or taxes collected in territory they control.

U.S. officials estimate the group has lost more than $100 million in 10 such airstrikes. In one, a Pentagon video released last month showed a missile slamming into a building near Mosul, in Iraq, sending a cloud of bills fluttering in the air and presumably incinerating others.

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Thats a small fraction of the multibillion-dollar wealth the Sunni militants have amassed in Iraq and Syria over the last two years.

U.S. officials, who have struggled to trace the groups funding schemes, cautioned that the financial losses are still more a management problem for Islamic State than a strategic threat to its future.

Still, combined with the groups several recent defeats on the battlefield, the effort is showing some results, according to U.S. military, counter-terrorism and Treasury Department officials.

U.S. intelligence officials recently obtained an Islamic State notice, for example, that said leaders had halved monthly salaries for all fighters in Raqqah, the groups self-declared capital in Syria, because of exceptional circumstances.

Theyre cutting peoples salaries, cutting wages, Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition, told reporters Wednesday in a teleconference from Baghdad. Thats a fairly significant indicator that the airstrikes have hampered the militants ability to generate revenue, he added.

There is nothing on their economic horizon that could backfill the lost oil revenue and burned cash stores, agreed Matthew Levitt, the former top Treasury Department official on terrorism financing.

The bank vaults arent being replenished. It is a fairly closed economy. And you can only tax and extort people so many times, he said in a telephone interview.

Daniel Glaser, an assistant secretary of the Treasury, said airstrikes on oil infrastructure have undoubtedly impeded the groups ability to profit from oil as it had been doing.

Glaser praised the Iraqi governments decision in August to stop issuing about $170 million a month in salaries and pensions to Iraqi citizens in captured areas. That stopped the militants ability to tax that income at rates of up to 50%.

It is clear that these measures in fact have played a key role in pressuring ISIL financially, Glaser said at a conference on terrorism financing at Chatham House in London, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The Treasury Department also has imposed financial sanctions on more than 30 individuals and institutions accused of assisting the group.

In the most recent cases, on Feb.11 Treasury officials sanctioned Faysal al-Zahrani, who managed oil fields and moved money for the group in eastern Syria; Husayn Juaythini, who recruited fighters in the Gaza Strip and Libya; and Turki al-Binali, a religious advisor who called for attacks on Bahrain after the government there revoked his citizenship.

Cutting them off from U.S. banks and financial systems is unlikely to affect the militants operations, however, because Islamic State is largely self-funded, said Seth Jones, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official now with Rand Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank.

It still controls major cities and towns in Syria and Iraq. The militants can raise money by increasing local fees and taxes, demanding a bigger cut from smugglers and expanding extortion of businesses, Jones said.

Until they start losing territory, I am skeptical it will have a huge dent on their ability to collect money, he said.

In any case, the militants have a ready supply of cash. They raided banks and businesses as they swept into Iraq in 2014, initially seizing at least $500 million, and have raised millions more from smuggling oil, antiquities and other illicit schemes.

Officials say intelligence for some of the recent airstrikes came from a Delta Force raid into Al Amr, a town in eastern Syria, in May.

The U.S. commandos killed their target, Abu Sayyaf, who ran Islamic State black market oil and gas operations. But they took his wife, Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar, and a cache of notebooks, laptops, cellphones and other materials back to a base in Iraq.

The 25-year-old Iraqi woman ultimately revealed details about the groups leaders and clandestine financial system, according to a criminal complaint, filed on Feb. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, that charged her with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Bahar, who is in Iraqi custody, said Islamic State had used her house to store large sums of U.S. dollars from oil and gas sales, according to the court documents.

Starting in October, coalition air raids began targeting other buildings with suspected cash hoards. The coalition also stepped up attacks on oil wellheads, oil and gas separation plants, and tanker trucks, mainly in the oil-rich Dair Alzour region in eastern Syria.

The attacks have cut production in the region to about 34,000 barrels a day, down from 45,000 barrels daily, according to Pentagon officials, but the small decrease means the revenue stream remains strong. Smugglers carry the oil across the border into Turkey and Iraq or sell it in Syria.

The long-term effects of this effort to degrade ISIL oil revenue will take time to be fully realized, but we know in the short term we are disrupting a significant source of [their] funding, said Sgt. Maj. Donald Sparks, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition.

The Pentagon is calling the bombing campaign against the oil installations Operation Tidal Wave II, named for the American daylight bombing raid on heavily defended Nazi-controlled oil refineries around Ploiesti, Romania, in World War II.

The original Operation Tidal Wave, on Aug. 1, 1943, was a military disaster. The U.S. Army Air Forces lost 53 aircraft and more than 600 air crewmen on the mission, the worst such loss of the war. Oil output from the refineries actually increased soon after the raid, the U.S. military later concluded.

brian.bennett@latimes.com

william.hennigan@latimes.com

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Menacing, crudely written signs hung from highway bridges or left with mutilated corpses have delivered the message: Mexicos fastest-growing drug trafficking group, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, is now in Tijuana  and fighting to expand its influence.

The groups growing presence coincides with a surge in homicides in Tijuana that started last spring, authorities said, and have continued in these first weeks of the new year, with many of the perpetrators and victims described as low-ranking members of the citys neighborhood drug trade.

Drug-related killings accounted for more than 80% of Tijuanas 670 homicides in 2015, the highest number in five years, according to the Baja California Attorney Generals Office. A total of 71 homicides last month marked the most violent January in the city since 2010.

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With the participation of Nueva Generacion, the battle for control of Tijuanas neighborhood drug trade and lucrative smuggling routes to the United States has entered a new phase, one that has left the Sinaloa cartel increasingly on the defensive and led to the defections of some of its members, according to law-enforcement officials.

What happens with Nueva Generacion over the next year is going to reshape the landscape of drug trafficking in Mexico.  David Shirk, professor, University of San Diego

Nueva Generacion is the new player in town that is trying to gain control of the Tijuana plaza, said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations San Diego office.

While the extent of Nueva Generacions physical presence and influence is the subject of some debate, there is consensus about this: The group is now involved in both the street-level sales, narcomenudeo, and cross-border smuggling activities, called trasiego.

Daniel de la Rosa, Baja Californias public safety secretary, said Nueva Generacion does not have a significant physical presence in the state, but has focused on forging alliances with members of the Tijuana underworld in a challenge to the Sinaloa cartel, which has been widely acknowledged in recent years as the citys dominant drug trafficking group. Their rivalry preceded the recent recapture of the Sinaloa organizations longtime leader, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.

As far as a visible head of Grupo Jalisco Nueva Generacion, we dont have one, De la Rosa said. You dont see the presence of their operators, their hit men, criminal logistics. The only thing that weve detected is smuggling, and the protection of their loads heading to the United States, and the importing of cash and weapons from the United States.

For years, Tijuana was known as the domain of the Arellano Felix Organization, and that familys control extended over both the smuggling of drugs to the United States and the local drug trade, authorities said.

That supremacy unraveled amid the detentions and deaths of its leaders and challenges from rivals in the drug trade. The final blow came in 2008, when an Arellano former lieutenant, Teodoro Garcia Simental, mounted a bloody challenge to his former bosses, with backing from the Sinaloa cartel.

Now, it seems the tables have turned.

A key figure said to have switched his allegiance from the Sinaloa cartel to Nueva Generacion is Arturo Gomez Herrera, better known by his nickname, El Gross.

According to Tijuana police, El Gross now leads a criminal cell that has been fighting for control of the drug trade in Tijuanas impoverished Sanchez Taboada neighborhood. Recently, police announced the arrest of a 19-year-old they said was a hit man working for El Gross and connected him to the killings of at least five neighborhood drug dealers.

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Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, often called CJNG, is a relatively new player in Mexico that emerged from a power struggle among drug traffickers in the countrys central region. The group rose to power around 2009 with the decline of the Valencia-Milenio cartel, according to the U.S. State Department.

The current leader is said to be 49-year-old Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, El Mencho, a native of Michoacan who has been significantly involved in drug trafficking activities since the 1990s, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Oseguera served nearly three years in a U.S. prison following a 1994 federal conviction of heroin distribution in Californias Northern District. In 2014, he was indicted in U.S. federal court in Washington. And last April, the U.S. Treasury Department named Oseguera a kingpin, a designation that involves freezing any of his or his groups U.S.-based or U.S.-controlled assets and prohibiting transactions with them.

The U.S. State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to his capture and conviction.

On both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities and drug experts are watching the group closely. What happens with Nueva Generacion over the next year is going to reshape the landscape of drug trafficking in Mexico, said David Shirk, a professor at the University of San Diego, who studies the drug trade and Mexicos justice system.

Alejandro Hope, a Mexican analyst and the security and justice editor of the website El Daily Post, expects Nueva Generacion and other cartels to continue fragmenting.

The large-scale, vertical, highly visible, highly identifiable cartels that were so prominent between the 1980s and the 2000s are increasingly a thing of the past, Hope said. Thinking about cartels is a misnomer about what is going on in Mexico. The fragmentation that has dominated the Mexican underworld is here to stay. Ten years from now, neither Sinaloa nor Nueva Generacion will exist.

Dibble writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

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A wave of suicide bombings killed dozens of people in government-controlled areas of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the city of Homs on Sunday, even as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted the parties were closer to a ceasefire than ever before.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that a pair of car bombs exploded at a public transport station in the Zahraa neighborhood of Homs on Sunday morning, killing at least 46 people and wounding more than 100, in what pro-government media said was the 20th suicide attack on the district since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011.

Photos taken in the immediate aftermath of the blast showed charred husks of cars and minivans in the middle of a debris-strewn thoroughfare, as emergency crews scrambled to take the wounded to nearby hospitals.

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Other pro-government outlets and activists on social media said the bombings occurred in a coordinated fashion, with one parked vehicle detonating as a truck carrying the other suicide bomber was passing through the area. They also put the death toll at more than 100.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings in a statement on social media on Sunday, crediting two knights of martyrdom with targeting Nusayris, a pejorative name for the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whose members include Syrian President Bashar Assad. It claimed it had killed 90 people and wounded more than 150.

The Sunni Muslim extremist group, which adheres to a strict reading of Islamic law, views Alawites and Shiites as apostates to be killed.

Later on Sunday, at least 31 people were killed when Islamic State jihadists launched multiple attacks near the Sayedah Zeinab suburb, 10 miles southeast of Damascus.

A statement by Islamic State, however, said more than 90 were killed and approximately 160 were wounded in the blasts when two suicide bombers struck a vegetable market near the Sayedah Zeinab mosque, an important Shiite shrine commemorating the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad.

The area, a frequent target of the Sunni-dominated insurgency (in January a triple bombing by Islamic State killed some 60 people) is heavily secured by Shiite militias allied to the Assad government.

A pro-government Sayedah Zeinab Facebook community page reported all entrances to the shrine were closed in the wake of the onslaught.

The Syrian conflict, which is about to enter its sixth year, has killed more than 250,000 people and left large swaths of the country ravaged by the fighting. It has also spurred a large refugee crisis that has reached Europes shores and created fissures among the nations of the European Union.

Although it began as a series of largely peaceful anti-government protests, the crisis soon devolved into a sectarian bloodbath that has pitted the countrys minority Alawites, Shiites and Christians against Sunni-dominated armed rebel factions.

The attacks come as Kerry gave a stubbornly optimistic reading of a ceasefire taking hold in the war-ravaged country in a press conference in the Jordanian capital, Amman. His comments followed a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Kerry said the mechanics of a cease-fire are now being completed. In fact, we are [closer] to a ceasefire today than we have been.

And I take nothing for granted about this. A cessation of hostilities, a hudna [the Arabic word for truce], is possible over the course of these next hours.

Earlier in February, the International Syria Support Group, a group of 17 nations working to enact a political transition in Syria and end the fighting, said its members would use their influence with the fighting parties to enforce a ceasefire. The group includes the United States, which wants Assads removal from power, as well as Assad patrons Russia and Iran.

The ceasefire, however, would not include groups designated as terrorist organizations, including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the Islamic State.

However, the Friday deadline for a cessation of hostilities passed with no letup in the fighting, as pro-government forces backed by Russian airstrikes drove rebels out of key areas along the Syrian-Turkish border, the oppositions main lifeline.

The government is now poised to take back rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo, where its troops have fought to dislodge the opposition since 2012.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Sunday said the diplomats had discussed issues of the current practical interaction between Russia and the United States, including the coordination of the cease-fire, except for the fight against terrorist groups.

Russia deployed aircraft and special forces units in support of the Syrian government in September in what it claimed was an air campaign against the Islamic State. Its attacks, however, have focused on the so-called moderate opposition, which includes factions supported by the C.I.A. and the Pentagon.

Kerry reiterated that the United States plans to put in place a political transition that finds a government responsive to the desperate needs of the Syrian people.

And, my friends, that is a government that cannot possibly have Assad at its head. That is why we have said again and again that with Assad there this war cannot and will not end, said Kerry.

Assads fate has been a major hurdle in negotiations. The Syrian government and its allies contend there can be no pre-conditions regarding the countrys leadership. The opposition, however, insists Assad cannot be a part of any transitional government.

Bulos is a special correspondent
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) marked Kansas' voter's ID law a bureaucratic move after requiring the citizens to provide further proof of citizenship for registration.

ACLU lawyer Dale Ho said some voters showed citizenship documents but were required to submit such again.

"It's a bit of a bureaucratic mess over there," said Ho.

In a suit filed in federal court, the ACLU claimed that more than 35,000 potential voters were blocked over two years from voting because of the additional hurdle - or nearly 14 percent of all new registrants.

The voters' ID law requiring documents like a birth certificate or U.S. passport for voter registration, which took effect Jan. 1, 2013, is one of numerous voter ID laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures in recent years.

The lawsuit takes aim at a measure that was pushed through the Republican-led Legislature five years ago by Secretary Kris Kobach, who has lobbied heavily for measures that he said were needed to prevent non-citizens from voting.

One of the plaintiffs in the suit, Ralph Ortiz, a U.S. Air Force veteran who registered to vote while renewing his driver's license, claimed he received a letter telling him he was suspended from voting. He had also required for additional proof of citizenship.

"I joined the military to help protect American freedoms, yet now I'm being denied the most fundamental right in our democracy," said Ortiz, 35, in a statement.

The lawsuit also named a 36-year-old Lawrence man who had been born on a now-closed Illinois military base and has not been able to find his birth certificate, and a 57-year-old Wichita woman who cannot afford the fee to get her Maryland birth certificate.

However, Kobach succinctly stated that, "The state has every right to verify that the person is eligible to vote before completing the person's registration." He is one of the authors of a controversial law passed in Arizona in 2010 that allowed law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of people they believe to be in the country illegally.

He additionally said that it was misleading that registrations were being purged because the people whose voter applications were in suspense had never officially been registered to vote. He challenged that assertion. There were some technical glitches in the early days of the law, but those have long since been resolved, he said.

The lawsuit names Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan as defendants. Craig McCullah, a spokesman for Kobach, said the office was reviewing the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.
A 35-year-old Allentown man was arraigned Friday on charges he forged stolen checks and cashed them at a Bethlehem bank, city police say in court records.

Christian N. Umstead, of the 400 block of East Susquehanna Street, faces four counts of forgery, four counts of theft and related offenses, court records say.

He was arraigned before District Judge Roy Manwaring and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $35,000 bail.

The owner of the checks on Jan. 2 told police his checkbook was stolen from the front of his home on North New Street in Bethlehem. He checked his account online and discovered two checks were cashed for a total of $700.

Bank employees at the PNC Bank, 519 W. Broad St., flagged the suspect when he tried to cash a third check there on Jan. 11. They obtained a copy of his photo ID and turned it over to police. It was Umstead's ID, police say.

Umstead also allegedly tried to cash a third stolen check at the United Check Cashing, 1814 Stefko Blvd., Bethlehem, but was turned away.

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Opioid painkiller classification change challenges pharmacists

Opioid painkillers, seen here in a 2014 file photo, are now considered schedule II controlled substances by the federal government. A town hall is scheduled Wednesday to answer questions from local parents and students about heroin and opioid addiction. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Parents and students with questions about the heroin/opioid addiction epidemic will be able to get answers directly from the people who face its consequences every day.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Dan McNeill, D-Lehigh, is hosting a town hall meeting Wednesday about how children get involved with drug use, how to identify children who are abusing the drugs, and what the community can do.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Sheriff Joe Hanna will be joined by medical professionals from Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Opioids include heroin and prescription pain relievers such as morphine, fentanyl, Percocet, methadone and oxycodone.

Dr. Matt Cook, a toxicologist with Lehigh Valley Health Network, will be a part of the panel.

"This is something I deal with every day," Cook said of the heroin and opioid epidemic. "It's gotten worse and more noticeable."

In the early 2000s, when Cook was in residency, students were taught about pain as a fifth vital sign, and opioids were a good way to treat it.

But some people who are given legitimate prescriptions get "hooked," Cook said, and then transition to heroin. There were issues with doctors over-prescribing opioids, leading to more people becoming addicted. In 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration put new restrictions on prescribing narctoic painkillers to combat opioid abuse.

And now, there's the new issue of addicts using heroin adulterated with fentanyl. The DEA issued a warning a year ago about the combined drugs leading to thousands of overdose deaths around the country.

For kids specifically, Cook said part of the attraction of prescription opioids is that access isn't through an unknown drug dealer. People can gets pills from family and friends who have legitimate prescriptions, or from classmates who are selling them.

"It probably seems safer...We know that the most misuse of prescription opioids happens from people using pills prescribed to someone that they know," Cook said.

Cook is one of three doctors in the toxicology service at Lehigh Valley Health Network, which is the only toxicology service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The doctors work primary and the Cedar Crest and Muhlenberg campuses, as well as helping of 22 area hospitals via phone.

Cook's experience with heroin/opioid addiction both in the ER and with in-patient treatment is with people in their late teens, and 20s and 30s.

"Younger teenagers don't seem to be affected by it," he said.

Asked about area police officers carrying the heroin overdose antidote, Cook was unequivocal: "It will save lives."

But Cook said he will still encounter those people at the hospital for treatment of the damage from being unconscious, which can include brain damage.

IF YOU GO

The town hall is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Whitehall High School, 3800 Mechanicsville Road in Whitehall, in the large group instruction room.

Correction: Sheriff Joe Hanna's last name was previously misspelled in the article, and was corrected.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Kutztown University stabbing

Authorities are seeking suspects seen in surveillance photos fleeing the scene of a stabbing in Kutztown that left a student in serious condition. At least one of the suspects is believed to also be a university student. (Courtesy photo)

UPDATE: Kutztown stabbing an 'isolated incident,' university president says

Police have identified three suspects in an early Saturday morning stabbing near Kutztown University that left a student there in serious condition.

Kutztown police on Sunday morning said in their official Twitter account that they anticipate arrests, but did not specify when or give the names of the suspects they've identified.

3 suspects ID'd in #KutztownStabbing. Arrests(s) anticipated. If you saw incident call KPD. Victim still in serious condition.  Kutztown PD (@KutztownPD) February 21, 2016

The student, a 22-year-old, still remains in serious condition, the Twitter post says.

He was stabbed in the neck and ribs about 12:45 a.m. at a location several blocks from the Berks County university, according to a post on the university's Facebook page relaying information from local police.

The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, the Associated Press reports.

The suspects were seen fleeing in surveillance photos. At least one is believed to be a student, the university said.

Borough police continue to ask for the public's help in the investigation. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the police department at at 610-683-3545.

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Andrew Rawnsley has an excellent column in the Observer today, entitled: This cant be left to the Tory party  its everyones country at stake. He hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:

The black hole at the heart of the Out campaign is this. After all those years of demanding this referendum, they cant agree on what the UK would look like if it chose to self-eject from the European Union. And because they cant agree, they struggle even harder to reassure the uncertain voter that it would be worth the risk. This is the bruise that the In campaign will keep punching. In focus groups of swing voters, there are two phrases that the undecided often spontaneously produce. One is that membership of the European Union gives the UK strength in numbers. The other is that Brexit would be a leap in the dark, a phrase David Cameron deliberately echoed back to the undecideds in his statement yesterday. Leaping in the dark will surely feel even riskier when the people urging the blindfolded jump are Nigel Farage and George Galloway.

Rather like an old uncle, Nigel Farage says that we must leave the EU so that we are in control. Well, a man on a desert island is in control. The Leave campaign needs to do more than their oft-repeated They need us more than we need them  which is errant nonsense. 27 countries forming the largest trading bloc in the world, versus little Blighty off the coast of the continent, with even the Americans saying we are better off in the EU? And, for example, Japanese car companies likely to shift investment to the continent. Dont be silly.

The Norwegians are warning us against going for the Norwegian model.

We dont have a unified model from the Leave campaign. The reason is because if they tried to present a model the wheels would fall off their wagon at a stroke.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is currently taking a break from his role as one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Here are a few articles that have caught my eye from the Sunday papers:

The Sunday Times () leads with Cameron declares war on rebels, starting:

DAVID CAMERON ignited a fresh Tory civil war over immigration last night, warning that those who wanted to leave the European Union were misleading the public by claiming that they could seal Britains borders. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the prime minister said those who wanted to leave would be forced to accept the free movement of people if they wanted a free trade deal with the rest of the EU. He challenged Eurosceptics to explain to the public what Britains relationship would be like with Europe if the UK voted to leave, accusing them of making no effort to spell out their plans. Warning that Britain would still have to contribute to EU coffers even if it left, Cameron said: So far, the EU has never given full access to the Single Market without insisting on a contribution to the budget and free movement.

The front page is emblazoned with a big picture of the Secessionist Six (five and a half)  the five and half cabinet ministers who are campaigning for a No vote in the EU referendum. The six make an interesting half dozen when lined up for the cameras.

The Scotsman leads with Dont put UK at risk in June referendum  David Cameron. I have to admit that I was distracted from this article by the advert at the top of it, featuring Kevin Bacon, the two blokes off of Gogglebox and a pair of pink shorts. I fear Referendum Tedium is setting in early. But I did notice this:

Last night Nicola Sturgeon warned against scaremongering and fear tactics which were employed during the Scottish independence campaign as she said that she would add her voice to the in campaign.

The Independent on Sunday leads with Our safety frames the EU vote battle. It says that Cameron plays on fears saying Leaving is a threat to economic and national security, while Gove retorts with EU now a source of insecurity; razor wire criss-crosses the continent. Were in for an extraordinary four months if this is how the Prime Minister and his Justice Secretary communicate in public.

The Telegraph underlines this Tory battle with A Cabinet divided. Its worth reminding ourselves that, out of a cabinet of twenty-two full members, five have, so far, joined the leave campaign.

The Telegraph gives us a little glimpse into future offerings from the PM, saying he will emphasise the British Bill of Rights as a way to assert the UKs sovereignity. That promise of another Cameron attempted sleight of hand reminds me of dear Paul Daniels, whose tragic plight is covered in several of the tabloids  my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

The Mail says that Gove and Boris are plotting in secret about the EU leave campaign. As usual, their article comes with photos for those who Kenny Everett referred to as the hard of thinking.

The Observer centres its front page on a picture of David Cameron announcing the referendum in Downing Street with the quote:

The choice is in your hands. I believe well be safer and stronger in the EU

I see that the Observer/Guardian reports online that Boris is genuinely torn about whether to campaign for in or out. Whatever calculations are going through his head at the moment, one can be sure that, top of the list, are the chances of having a statue erected somewhere, sometime in the future, of one Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. (That is not an idle quip  when asked once whether he would concentrate on his journalistic career or his political one, he replied (from my memory): They dont tend to erect statues to newspaper editors.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is currently taking a break from his role as one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
NEWCASTLE Wests only hotel, which closed last year, will reopen next year as the Longcourt House Hotel after a 3m make-over.

Planning permission to redesign and revamp the former Courtenay Lodge Hotel was granted this week and its new owner hopes it will be up and running by September 2016.

Jim Long, the Feohanagh-born businessman based in London who bought the hotel last November, said this week: It has been a long road.

But he confirmed he plans to invest over 3m in redesigning and upgrading the hotel. And he expects that between 40 and 50 jobs will come on stream once the hotel opens for business.

The Courtenay Lodge Hotel closed very suddenly last October with the loss of over 40 jobs and was bought by Mr Long shortly after. Mr Long is a property developer of long-standing and has an extensive portfolio in London but this is his first hotel project.

And the project is an ambitious one. It will invole demolishing the existing night club and function area and replacing it with a 22,000 square feet of space that will seat up to 375 people for dinner or 750 people for concerts, conferences or other functions.

The design will also include a redesigned bar and bar restaurant as well as a high-end dining room. The existing 39-bedroom block will be restyled and refitted while the exterior of the hotel and its surroundings will also get a facelift.

But work cannot begin for at least a month, to allow time for any appeals to An Bord Pleanala. If there are none, Mr Long said he hoped the demolition crew would move on to the site in November.

A number of conditions are attached to the planning permission. There are particular stipulations about sound levels. And there is also a stipulation that an area to the rear of the hotel cannot be used after 11pm. But Mr Long described these conditions as realistic and is happy to meet them.

He is also optimistic the Irish economic recovery will have deepened by the time the hotel is up and running. There has been a pick-up in Dublin but it has been slower down the country, he said. A lot of people are still struggling with debt.

Mr Long is married to Prof Mary Sheppard, a native of Newcastle West and a cardiac pathology expert who teaches and lectures in hospitals and universities in London and abroad. They have four adult children, the youngest of whom has just begun his university education.

I have always maintained my association with the GAA,  he said, explaining that he makes regular return visits to the area and is a long-standing attender at the Listowel Races.

Through the GAA and racing, I have never really lost contact, he added. At some point in the next few years, he hopes to move back to the area.

Fellow Feohanagh man, Cllr Jerome Scanlan, also welcomed this weeks development.

He described Mr Long and his wife as exceptional business people and said: They will make a noble contribution to the economic and social life of Newcastle West.
TWO young men who broke into the offices of four lawyers, including that of state prosecutor John OSullivan, hatched the plan while viewing the citys St Patricks Day Parade, a court has heard.

Cian ODonnell, aged 24, who has an address at Rutland Street and Paul Sheehy, aged 23, of St Munchins Terrace, Thomondgate pleaded guilty to several burglary charges relating to an incident on March 17, 2014.

Garda Sheila Clavin told Limerick Circuit Court she was on duty in the city centre at around 2.30pm when she was alerted to a burglary at an office complex at Bank Place.

After entering the building, which encompasses a number of separate offices, she noticed that a several internal doors had been smashed and that four of the offices had been ransacked.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told thousands of euro worth of damage was caused by the defendants and that a large quantity of electronic equipment, including computers, tablets, scanners, cameras, digital dictaphones and external hard drives were taken.

A small quantity of cash and a number of personal items were also stolen by the culprits.

Garda Clavin said when Christopher ODonnell was stopped and searched by a colleague a short time later a gold cufflink which had been stolen from one of the offices was recovered.

Michael Collins BL, prosecuting, said a significant amount of the stolen property was recovered during a follow-up search of his home and that further items were recovered at a second-hand electronics store in the city centre.

Garda Clavin told the court there were a number of other people in ODonnells flat when gardai arrived to carry out the search including Sheehy who was also living there at the time.

During interview, the defendants told gardai they had been on the balcony of their flat complex viewing the St Patricks Day parade when they hatched a plan to break into the offices after discovering they could gain access to the building via a skylight in the roof.

Garda Clavin said they admitted using a ladder and sledgehammers which had been left on the rooftop by a satellite installer some time previously.

Laurence Goucher BL, representing Cian ODonnell, said his client, who is a chronic drug addict, had made admissions to gardai and had fessed up rather than playing the system.

He added that his client, who has almost 70 previous convictions, had a difficult upbringing and had gone off the rails for a period of time.

Urging the court to be lenient, he submitted his client was not beyond redemption.

Tom ODonnell BL, representing Paul Sheehy, said his client, who has no previous convictions, did not remember what had happened on the day as he had blacked out having consumed sticks (Xanax) and alcohol.

He said he offence was out of character for him and he told the court his client has not come to the attention of gardai since the incident.

He added that Sheehy, who has a 15-month-old daughter, is engaging with the probation services and with FAS.

Having heard the circumstances of the the offence, Judge Tom ODonnell adjourned the matter indicating he will impose sentence on both men in May.
A SWATHE of east Limerick is the political version of The Hokey Cokey.

They put their foot into the Limerick county constituency for the 2011 election but after another shake-up by the boundary commission they are right back with Limerick city again.

The old Limerick East - encompassing the city and rural areas - lasted from 1948 to 2011. Now parts of east Limerick - but not all - are back to where they started. But not for the likes of Doon, Oola and Kilteely, who remain in their new home of Limerick county.

Dr Theresa Reidy, of the Department of Government in UCC and a native of Kilmeedy, discusses how these changes could affect the electorate.

She describes the boundary redraw in 2012 as the biggest in almost 40 years.

There were changes made to pretty much all of the constituencies. The main reason is the number of TDs was reduced from 166 down to 158. That meant serious changes at constituency level and reducing the number from 43 to 40, said Ms Reidy.

The continual population movement from the west to the east coast also had to be factored in. Dublin, alone, has over 40 TDs.

Ms Reidy describes the boundary changes in 2009 as piecemeal.

It did a bit of tinkering. In Limerick a bit of west Limerick, not too far from where I am from, was packed over to Kerry. It meant that they didnt have to do a major redraw of the constituency. 2012 was actually more coherent as it amalgamated a lot of the counties like Kerry and Tipperary from two into one, said Ms Reidy, who adds that geography matters a great deal.

The advice is you should retain integrity of counties as people identify with their counties. If there is a lot of changing, if people move quite a bit it does have a demobilisation effect. People, not by large numbers, do complain and dont want to participate in the election

The last time when west Limerick was put in Kerry north there were some saying, Im not going to bother voting, I have nothing to do with those TDs, explains Ms Reidy.

For the voting man and woman it causes some unsettlement and for politicians too.

In the most part they are still voting in the same polling station but they dont know the candidates as well. It takes a period of time to get to know them.

For people who are not very interested in politics, who might need a little extra push to get to the polling station you lose out on some of what we call the friends and neighbours effect.

Previously you might have known the TD and say because he wasnt a bad sort you would go out and vote whereas if he is in a new constituency, and you never really had anything to do with the new people you are less likely to go to that trouble and effort to vote. It really only matters on the margins. It is not going to be the attitude of a large section.

It is a challenge for the candidates as well. When they get lots of territory added in it is a whole new area where they have to build up their network and promote themselves. It does make it difficult on both sides.

Ms Reidy refers to RTE exit polls from 2007 and 2011 which showed that 39% and 37% said they voted for someone who was going to deliver for their constituency.

What that really says is people are interested in having somebody who is in their community dealing with local issues. If you dont have a candidate close by that effect is diluted. It is a little bit more difficult for them to make their decision.

This directly affects east Limerick as the candidates are all in the city, or the nearest in the county is James Heffernan, Kilfinane and Richard ODonoghue, Ballingarry.

Always a good barometer of what the population is thinking is the local publican.

Donald Riordan is the perfect example as his pub - Uncle Toms - is located in the parish of Caherconlish/Caherline which the boundary has bisected. Mr Riordan is in Limerick city but right across the road is Limerick county.

I will be voting in Killinure National School for the first time in my life. I always voted in Caherline National School, said Mr Riordan, who echoes what Ms Reidy said about the unsettlement factor.

Everyone gets into their comfort zone, no ones like change. You have people voting all their lives in Caherline and you then have to go to Killinure - will they go? We have no local candidate. I suppose when the day comes people will go. If they want to vote they will vote, said Mr Riordan. From speaking to his regulars many have been trying to figure out are they in Limerick city or Limerick county.

It is only of late it has dawned on them. They are getting the flyers in the post box on who they can actually vote for. The constituency map isnt great, you cant go deep into it. With technology in this day and age it could be a lot better, he said.
PLANS for kitting out the Mungret College site have been further delayed for at least six months, after councillors narrowly voted against the councils proposal to rezone the 70 acre area for mixed use.

At Mondays metropolitan district meeting, representatives were asked to approve of the council planning offices wishes to approve of their flexible plan to potentially construct a neighbourhood hub, on the Mungret-Loughmore site.

Though Labour Cllr Joe Leddin approved of the plans, Fine Gael Cllr Maria Byrne proposed a further amendment, that no new development would take place at Mungret College, and that community use would get priority on the site.

However, after this was seconded by her party colleague Cllr Daniel Butler, Fianna Fail Cllr James Collins interjected and proposed a vote to reject the plans.

Seven councillors voted in favour of rejecting the plans, while six  mainly Fine Gael members  voted against Cllr Collins.

This means, according to Cllr Byrne, that plans for the Mungret College site must return to public consultation, and has restricted the future use of the building.

Cllr Collins told council officials that, while he thinks the use of the Mungret College site is a good news story, he has been contacting the planning office about the exact use of the building for more than a year.

They tell us, Approve our plans and we will tell you what we are going to do with it. Im sorry, but thats not how we do business, he said.

Cllr Collins said that he is objecting to the plans because he wants a detailed plan on paper on what the council will be doing with the building and the nearby courtyard. He added: The council hasnt given us enough information.

I dont want to see suggestions, objectives or priorities. Even if it means a few retail units, as long as there is a plan. We only get one chance to do this correctly.

However, the councils senior executive planner, Maria Woods, said at the meeting that there is no definite use of whats going into the college, but added that there are very detailed conditions in the plans for offices with some element of community use.

This plan is very rich. Its a mix of residents and retail. We are building a new neighbourhood and that will require a neighbourhood hub.

So the immediate plan of action is to get the building back into use, she told the councillors.

She added that the council does not have exact plans, as we dont know what the market is for the site.

Independent Cllr John Gilligan said that this is an issue that councillors have been discussing for quite some time, and that he supported Cllr Collins idea to reject the mixed use plans.

Cllr Leddin said that the building is in serious disrepair and that a new roof needs to be put on the building.

But we actually need to start the process, and we have had a huge amount of public and private consultation, he said, adding that the exciting project should be strictly for community use.

Ms Woods said that there was no detailed plan, but that it would provide flexibility in terms of creating a neighbourhood hub.

Council deputy chief executive Pat Dowling suggested that a special meeting should take place, within the next 10 days, to discuss plans for the Mungret site.

Some councillors disagreed, as a number of them would be busy with the election.

So if I wanted to start up my own business, Cllr Byrne told the Limerick Leader after the meeting, and I just wanted to have my office inside it, and somebody else wanted to open a creche, you would have more scope about the different things that you could put in there.

But, at the moment, the way it is zoned, nothing can go ahead until someone is going into room A and somebody else is going into room B.

That makes it very restrictive, because not all of it will be let together. Thats what we were trying to avoid. But also to make a huge community emphasis on the project.

She said that she is disappointed that these plans have been delayed for another six months.

What we decided today is that the whole thing cannot be developed until we know who is going where. I could be looking for usage today, and you could be looking for one in six months time. But I wont be able to go ahead until there is an overall plan.

Between October 31 and December 14, the public was invited to make submissions on the councils plans for the Mungret-Loughmore area, which covers 200 acres.

Some groups said that the mixed use plans for the Mungret College complex could undermine the settlement integrity and commercial function of Mungret village, and that community facilities should be put in place there, rather than residential facilities.
Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson walks toward the podium during the unveiling of the new VSS (Virgin Spaceship) Unity on Feb. 19, 2016.

MOJAVE, California  Virgin Galactic's new spaceship has the enthusiastic endorsement of one of the world's greatest scientists, who plans to fly on the vehicle one day.

Famed cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking revealed the name of the new SpaceShipTwo suborbital craft  VSS (for Virgin Spaceship) Unity  during its star-studded unveiling ceremony Friday (Feb. 19) at Virgin's manufacturing facility here at the Mojave Air & Space Port.

Unlike actor Harrison Ford and English soprano Sarah Brightman, Hawking did not attend the event. But Virgin Galactic played a four-minute-long recorded message from the physicist when it was timae to announce Unity's name. [Gallery: Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity Rolls Out]

"We are entering a new space age, and I hope this will help to create a new unity. Space exploration has already been a great unifier  we seem able to cooperate between nations in space in a way we can only envy on Earth," Hawking said in the message.

"Taking more and more passengers out into space will enable them and us to look both outwards and back, but with a fresh perspective in both directions," he added. "It will help bring new meaning to our place on Earth and to our responsibilities as its stewards, and it will help us to recognize our place and our future in the cosmos  which is where I believe our ultimate destiny lies."

Hawking's message concluded with the name annoucement: "Please welcome Virgin Spaceship Unity."

Stephen Hawking has suffered from the neurodegenerative disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, for more than 50 years. He is confined to a wheelchair and speaks with the aid of a computer.

Hawking said in his recorded message that he has always dreamed of flying to space, but for most of his life he viewed that dream as unachievable. After hearing Hawking speak of his dream during a radio interview about eight years ago, however, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson called the scientist up and offered him a free seat on SpaceShipTwo.

"I said 'yes' immediately," Hawking said in his recorded message. "Since that day, I have never changed my mind. If I am able to go  and if Richard will still take me  I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship."

Branson has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Hawking, who was invited to Friday's event but apparently couldn't make it because of health issues. The scientist is the only person ever to be offered a free ride on SpaceShipTwo, Branson has said. And the entrepreneur revealed Friday that a piece of Hawking graces VSS Unity's exterior.

"We felt strongly that we should somehow make sure that Stephen remained a permanent part of Unity's story, because so much of what he stands for resonates with what we at Virgin Galactic aspire to be," Branson said during the unveiling ceremony. "So the Galactic Girl on the side of our proud Spaceship Unity now carries a banner using an image of Stephen's eye."

The face of Unity's Galactic Girl is based on an old photo of Branson's mother, Eve, the entrepreneur added.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry six passengers on brief journeys to suborbital space, for $250,000 per seat. Customers will get to see the curvature of the Earth against the blackness of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness during the trip, Virgin Galactic representatives say.

VSS Unity is the second SpaceShipTwo to be built. The first, VSS Enterprise, broke apart during its fourth rocket-powered test flight on Oct. 31, 2014, killing co-pilot Michael Alsbury and seriously injuring pilot Peter Siebold.

Unity will be subjected to a variety of ground-based tests before beginning its flight trials. It's unclear exactly when the new spaceship will be ready to start carrying passengers to suborbital space and back.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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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
Map detailing Taliban-controlled or contested districts. Click colored district for information. Map created by Bill Roggio, Caleb Weiss, and Patrick Megahan.

Yesterday, the Afghan National Army withdrew from two bases in the district of Musa Qala in Helmand. Today, we learn that the Afghan Army also withdrew from the district of Now Zad.

It appears that the Afghan military doesnt intend to return to the bases anytime soon. As TOLONews reported, the bases are said to have been destroyed as the troops left:

Major general Mohammad Moeen Faqir, commander of 215 Maiwand Army Corps said Sunday that Afghan National Army (ANA) troops have withdrawn from three bases in Musa Qala and Nawzad districts in a move to improve security situations in the volatile province. The three bases evacuated by the Afghan army are Sher Ghazian and Roshan tower bases in Musa Qala and Dahni base in Nawzad district.  According to members of the provincial council, 400 ANA troops were deployed in each base. The ANA allegedly torched all three bases after leaving them. Security forces also reportedly evacuated the area under tight security from air and ground.  Helmand provincial council has criticized the ministry of defense for taking such a decision and warns of dire consequences. They [security forces] have left their military bases and outposts. Not only Musa Qala, but also Nawzad district is under the control of the Taliban, said Ataullah Afghan, secretary of Helmand provincial council.

Like Musa Qala, The Long War Journal considered Now Zad to be effectively under the control of the Taliban, as press reports from Afghanistan indicated that the Afghan military was confined to its base as the Taliban administered key areas. The militarys withdrawal from Now Zad confirms that the Taliban now fully controls the district.

Helmands governor is attempting to put the best face on the militarys abandonment of two key districts that have served as Taliban bastions over the past decade and a half. From TOLONews:

Meanwhile, provincial governor Mirza Khan Rahimi has said that the Afghan army evacuated the bases in line with a comprehensive strategy. We have no concerns regarding this step, but we have plans in place to ensure security of vulnerable areas, said Mirza Khan Rahimi, governor of Helmand.

In the past, the Taliban has used the northern Helmand provinces of Musa Qala, Now Zad, Bagran (which has remained under Taliban control for more than a decade), Washir (the status of Washir is unclear but the Afghan military operates a large base there), and Sangin and Kajaki (both which are heavily contested) to put pressure on the key central districts of Nahr-i-Sarraj, Nad Ali, and Lashkar Gah, which hosts the provincial capital. If the Afghan military and government officials believe that leaving Now Zad and Musa Qala will improve security, as TOLONews reported, then they havent been paying attention to the history of the fight in Helmand over the last decade.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Militants from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrebs Al Ghuraba Brigade pledging allegiance to the Islamic State in Algeria

Jihadists in Algeria loyal to the Islamic State claim to have killed three Algerian soldiers, according to Aamaq News, an Islamic State news outlet. That claim, however, was not supported by reports in the Algerian media. Their short statement was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Killing of 3 Algerian soldiers following clashes with Islamic State fighters during a combing operation by the army on Mount Shakshut in Bouira province the day before yesterday, the statement reads.

According to Algerian media, the combing operation is said to have killed two jihadists, but made no mention of Algerian soldiers being killed or wounded.

The Islamic States branch in Algeria, Wilayat al Jazair (or Jund al Khilafah), has not claimed many attacks since its 2014 inception. The groups most infamous claim was the capture and subsequent beheading of a French captive, Herve Gourdel, in Sept. 2014. The Algerian military has since cracked down on the group, killing its leader  former al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) commander Abdelmalek Gouri  and several other commanders in an operation in late 2014. Since then, the group has largely been defeated, claiming sporadic attacks near Constantine and now Bouira.

However, several small AQIM brigades in Algeria have defected to Wilayat al Jazair. In one such instance, a group calling itself the Al Ansar Battalion of AQIM released an audio statement pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and the Islamic State. A day later, AQIM put out a statement from the emir of the battalion denying the entire group left AQIMs fold. The emir, who reiterate the groups allegiance to AQIM, said that fewer than 10 members left to join Wilayat al Jazair. (See Threat Matrix report, AQIM battalion claims fewer than 10 members defected to Islamic State.)

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
This security measure is necessary to protect your device and prevent a fraudulent Touch ID sensor from being used. If a customer encounters Error 53, we encourage them to contact Apple Support," Apple said.

This was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers. Customers who paid for an out-of-warranty replacement of their device based on this issue should contact AppleCare about a reimbursement, Apple said.

We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders, Sundar Pichai stated.

But that's wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent, he added.

Apple has finally made a move that numerous customers will definitely appreciate, the famous company issuing a fix for its Error 53.Apple also apologized to customers for the inconveniences created by this error. The tech giant has recently been targeted by a series of class action lawsuits linked to its security measure, thus, maybe its fix issuing is linked to these litigation risks.So, Apple has been criticized by a series of customers who found that their iPhones became inoperable due to the existence of Error 53. This affected customers who had their home buttons repaired by third parties, something that Apple does not approve of. Apple has always claimed that it created Error 53 as a security feature to protect its customers.However, it seems that Apple might be willing now to make things better for its customers.Furthermore, Apple claimed that the damage suffered by users' devices might have been a "factory test."Along with the fix, Apple also apologized to its customers.However, it is important to mention that solving Error 53 does not mean that the Touch ID will be re-enabled. Apple is determined not to allow third-party replacements of home buttons to permit unauthorized access to a phone. After all, Apple has proven that security is the most important thing for its business.Apple is in the middle of a battle with no one else than the US government in the attempt to prove that security should be protected no matter what. And it seems that Apple has numerous supporters on this.Now, billionaire Mark Cuban has praised the tech giant for fighting the FBI on encryption.Cuban stated that Apple did "the right thing" when it refused a request from US authorities to create a software that would allow access to the locked iPhone of one of the individuals engaged in the San Bernardino attack that led to the death of several people. "Amen. A standing ovation," Cuban wrote on his blog.Google's CEO also defended Apple's stance on this, even though the two companies are rivals on the market.Exactly what Apple plans on doing and what the government is asking from the famous company are things that are yet to be fully clarified. However, most likely both Apple and the government are not going to let this go easily.
The captain of the doomed El Faro warned that the "clock was ticking" as his cargo ship took on water in an Atlantic hurricane that would eventually sink the vessel, a U.S. Coast Guard panel heard on Saturday.



Captain Michael Davidson pleaded for help as his ship, operated by Tote Services, sailed into the path of Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas, according to a recording of his final calls played at the hearing.



He told an on-shore call center of a "maritime emergency," saying water breached the hull, entering three holds.



Soon afterwards, contact with the ship was broken, and Davidson and 32 others were lost at sea. The sinking ranks as the worst disaster involving a U.S.-flagged cargo ship in more than three decades.



Recordings of the calls, made last October, were posted on the website of WOKV, a Jacksonville radio station.



The U.S. Coast Guard began hearings this week to investigate the sinking. Executives of Tote Services have testified that ship captains have full responsibility for deciding when it is safe to sail and on setting the route.



Tote officials said it was Davidson's call to depart Jacksonville with a storm brewing in the Atlantic, and said they were not closely monitoring the El Faro's cargo run to Puerto Rico as a tropical storm strengthened into Joaquin.



On the phone call to shore, Davidson sounds frustrated with an operator who asked him to spell the name of the boat, telling her "the clock is ticking."



In a voicemail to Tote's "designated person ashore" John Lawrence, Davidson said that he had had a "navigational incident" and a "pretty good list," referring the water in the holds, and that while the crew was safe he needed to talk to Lawrence.



Lawrence said that he had called Davidson back quickly, and the veteran Maine mariner sounded calm, according to WOKV. Lawrence then called the Coast Guard.



Family members of dead crew members have sued Tote in federal court.



After the 790-foot (241-meter) vessel was lost, the company bought a subscription for a bad-weather routing system for its ships, Tote President Philip Greene, testified this week.



The Coast Guard's hearings continue through next Thursday.



The investigation could result in civil charges. If evidence of criminal activity is found, the Coast Guard will turn it over to the Justice Department.



(Editing by Frank McGurty and W Simon)
The Vancouver International Maritime Centre (VIMC) welcomes the Provincial governments $1-million commitment for the second year in a row.



B.C. Finance Minister Mike De Jong mentioned the Centre specifically in his Budget Speech:



Recently, the Wall Street Journal for the first time listed Vancouver amongst the leading global shipping centres and named Vancouver alongside London and Singapore, and the Vancouver International Maritime Centre is already beginning to fulfill its mandate and attract shipping companies to Vancouver.



The VIMCs mandate is to encourage global shipping companies to move their operations to Vancouver, bringing high-paid, high-value jobs with them. The city is well-positioned to create the first maritime hub on the west coast of North America, offering competitive tax rates and access to the Asia Pacific Gateway.



Last fall, Singapore-based AAL opened an office in Vancouver, with the support of the VMIC.





VIMC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KAITY ARSONIADIS-STEIN CHRISTENS SAAM SMIT TOWAGE SST CAPILANO



Yesterday, VIMC Executive Director Kaity Arsoniadis-Stein, along with Jewel Jacobs of the Squamish First Nation, were given the honour of officially christening the SST Capilano. The new tug was named after historical leader, Chief Joe Capilano. The vessel was built by ABD Boats of North Vancouver for Saam Smit Towage Canada and will provide service in Vancouver Harbour and along the BC coast.


EU Referendum - The British People vs Establishment, Bankster's and Westminister Elite

David 'Chamberlain' Cameron returned from Brussels on Saturday to proudly stand outside 10 Downing Street and wave a piece of paper proclaiming 'Reforms in Our Time' to a skeptical British audience who have witnessed the farce of the past week that had seen each member state whittling down what were already pretty feeble proposals from David Cameron so as to prevent the 'contagion' of other EU member states following the same path as Britain which I likened to the EU effectively putting a gun to their head and then proceeding to pull the trigger, and so this is likely to turn out to mark the start of the end of the European Union.

However given the fiasco of the negotiations, I have to wonder if David Cameron secretly wants a BrExit but is playing a game for what would follow in Britain's negotiations with Europe? Perhaps as June 23rd draws closer and an BrExit appears inevitable, David Cameron to end of the winning side could declare himself backing the Brexit camp.

Anyway, Britain's first EU referendum in over 40 years will be held on the 23rd of June when it will be the British people who will decide Britain's relationship with the emerging centralised European Superstate. A relationship that should be built on trade and mutual interests and not one of virtually every single law that the UK parliament proposes being first checked, refined and ultimately watered down by an army of expensive lawyers as they compare against the ever expanding EU paper mountain of do's and don'ts that member states are allowed to do.

So now the battle lines have been drawn between the British people and the establishment that currently includes 550 of the 650 MP's who are virtually all in the pockets of the bankster elite. Though the LEAVE and REMAIN numbers are likely to change depending on which way the wind (opinion polls) blows as the slithering politicians slowly manoeuvre themselves towards the winning side, probably most at the last minute unless than opinion polls by 23rd of June coming in on a knife edge.

Nevertheless, as I have often voiced that THIS referendum really is Britain's LAST chance to vote for FREEDOM from an emerging european superstate as the following two recent videos illustrate why -

https://youtu.be/-oYS6X-63cU

This video covers the key points of David Cameron's failures to negotiate anything of value that in large part amounted to nothing more than a smoke and mirrors exercise.

https://youtu.be/MF3QLhoxkwQ

And why there always is a price to pay for freedom -

03 Feb 2016 - David Chamberlain Cameron, Britain's Last Chance for Freedom From Emerging European Super State

Britain's Last Chance to Gain Freedom from Emerging European Super State

What most pundits fail to recognise or lack experience of is trend and momentum both of which for the past 40 years have been moving in one direction that for the emergence of a highly centralised European super state that the financial crisis and subsequent economic depression of southern europe is accelerating the trend towards.

So whilst it is too late for the euro-zone members who for better or worse are locked into a death embrace that has all but nullified democracy for most of the euro-zone states as the elections in Greece, Spain and Italy have clearly demonstrated the lack for even radical governments such as Syriza to do anything other than obey their German paymasters who control the euro currency and can within a couple of weeks bring fellow euro-zone members to the brink of collapse as was repeatedly demonstrated by Greece last year.

Thus, for Britain the saving grace of not being in the euro-zone offers the UK a unique final opportunity to make the choice of either FREEDOM or become another satellite state revolving around a German centre that will increasingly dictate terms and conditions.

Therefore, given that there would probably not be another referendum for at least 20 years, then this really is Britain's VERY LAST CHANCE. There WON'T be another opportunity because with each passing year the price for a BREXIT increases, and we are not that far off from the point of no return when an exit would result in an economic collapse, much of the situation the euro-zone members have been since they signed up to scrap their currencies and join the Euro-zone.

Of course both the LEAVE and the REMAIN camps put out a lot of propaganda and spin on the others consequences. For LEAVE it's a case of everything smelling of roses in a Britain that has been freed from increasing European bureaucracy and interference, that would be in full control of Britain's borders. Whilst the REMAIN camp paints a picture of FEAR, of economic and financial catastrophe coupled with punitive terms for exit that would seek to punish Britain for daring to exit the euro-zone, so much for so-called european unity built on common purpose and friendship instead the European Union is increasingly a club of FEAR and PARALYSIS.

The Price for Freedom

The truth is that a BREXIT WILL BE ECONOMICALLY PAINFUL despite all of the benefits of being outside of the E.U. The cost of BrExit will be anywhere from 2% to as high as 5% of GDP if the euro-zone is determined to make an example of Britain to act as a warning to others by raising punitive tariffs on trade. However remember that attaining FREEDOM ALWAYS carry's a PRICE, in which respect even the worst case scenario for a 5% loss of GDP in the grand scheme of things does not compare against the infinitely greater price the people of Britain paid for their freedom in both past World Wars and so it is now THIS generations turn to pay a price for the freedom of future generations.

What the people of Britain need to fully understand is that this really is their VERY LAST CHANCE for Freedom!

Ensure you are subscribed to my always free newsletter (only requirement is an email address) for the following forthcoming analysis -

US Interest Rates 2016

US Dollar Trend Forecast

Stock Market Trend Forecast 2016

US House Prices Forecast 2016 and Beyond

Gold and Silver Price Forecast 2016

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright  2005-2016 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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 trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

Nadeem Walayat Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




June Millington.jpg

June Millington, co-founder of Fanny. (Photo courtesy of Linda Wolf | www.lindawolf.net)

June Millington says that while the members of the pioneering band Fanny were aware of their groundbreaking status, they really weren't the first all-female rock band.

"We were aware what we were doing was revolutionary when we started our first all-girl band in 1964. It was really apparent that it was shocking to people and that continued with Fanny," she said during a telephone interview last week. "And in some cases they had a negative reaction because they didn't want to see girls with electric guitars, and basses and drums and amps."

Millington's contributions to the world of women in rock music will be honored today at 2 p.m. at the Academy of Music in Northampton as part of the Northampton Arts Council's "Four Sundays in February" series. The show will feature such artists as Holly Near, Jill Sobule, Toshi Reagon, Gail Ann Dorsey, Christine Ohlman, Mitch Chakour, and Sonya Kitchell. Three members of Fanny will also be there: Millington, her sister Jean, and the band's second drummer, Brie Brandt.

Millington now runs the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in Goshen with her partner Anne Hackler. The institute's mission is to provide guidance and support for women and girls in music and music-related industries.

While Fanny was the band that finally broke through, those first bands Millington founded, the Svelts and Wild Honey, gave the band the experience it needed for Fanny to succeed.

"What was important for us was from '64 to '69, we were already doing it. And we had already gotten all the compliments, which would now be seen as an insult, the best of which was 'not bad for chicks,'" Millington said with a laugh. "That finally stopped a few years into Fanny because the times changed, but also because they couldn't say 'not bad for chicks' when we were better than most of the guys."

Millington recently detailed her history and struggles in the book "Land of a Thousand Bridges." She said she began working on the autobiography back in 1988 both as a way to set the record straight and to tell the story from an inside perspective.

"A lot of stuff hass been written about us and a lot of it was probably originally fabricated for publicity purposes," she said. "Like, George Harrison supposedly thought of the name (Fanny). Absolutely not true."

Millington arrived in the U.S. with her family from the Philippines in 1961. While her bands would later face the institutionalized sexism of the time, that wasn't the first bias that affected her.

"The first -ism we noticed was racism. I hardly noticed the sexism at first because the racism trumped everything," she said.

With such a long and successful history, Millington has seen a lot of changes as far as women in music.

"One of the biggest changes that's positive is that it's not so shocking to see girls in a band anymore. When we started, that was not available to us even as a concept. We were in our own black box and we had to figure out where the light was. So that's huge," she said. "Now you see young woman forming bands and it's just not shocking anymore."

The flipside of that, she said, is that women are viewed through a sexist and objectified lens.

"There is still a lot that women in bands have to deal with. I'm always regretful when I see women artists -- whether they are solo artists or in bands -- and they're wearing outfits that are basically underwear," she said."I tell them if they want to do that, it's their choice, but just know that you have other choices. Every choice you make has responsibility. So things are going to come up and you will have to deal with them."
SALEM

 A Beverly man, accused of strangling his wife, was found no competent to stand trial for her murder.

Axel Scherer,45, has been held in Bridgewater State Hospital since the November 16 killing, the Salem News reported.

Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeney listened to testimony from a panel of mental health experts Friday afternoon, who said Scherer suffered from mental illness to the degree that he could not be held responsible for his actions that night, nor can he be expected to contribute meaningfully to his own defense.

Judge Feeney ruled Scherer incompetent, and he was returned to the Bridgewater hospital where he will remain pending a March 10 status update. The hope is he will at some point become competent.

Scherer was charged with first-degree murder in the strangling death of his estranged wife, Edith Black Scherer, whose body was discovered November 16. Scherer turned himself in to Beverly police. He was arraigned on a charge of murder in Salem District Court November 24 and sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for a competency evaluation.
Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with employees of Paris Las Vegas during a visit to the hotel and casino Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, in Las Vegas. Clinton has the edge over her Democratic presidential rival, Bernie Sanders, when it comes to scoring endorsements from unions. But what about union members? Sanders is running hard to capture the votes of rank and file members even as their leadership joins the Clinton bandwagon. (AP Photo/John Locher)

(John Locher/ The Associated PRess)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial victory in Nevada's Democratic caucuses Saturday, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Bernie Sanders and potentially easing the anxiety of some of her supporters.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win," Clinton said on Twitter.

Clinton captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

The polling of voters was voters conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites.

The contest in Nevada was the first of two presidential primary contests being held Saturday. Republicans were battling in South Carolina, a state seen as billionaire Donald Trump's to lose and one that could start to clarify who, if any, of the more mainstream candidates might emerge to challenge him.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

Clinton's victory in Nevada could be crucial in holding off a challenge from Sanders that has been tougher than almost anyone expected. Clinton and Sanders split the first two voting contests, revealing the Vermont senator's appeal with young people drawn to his impassioned calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and providing free tuition at public colleges and universities.

According to the entrance polls of voters, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

Republicans were voting in South Carolina, the first Southern state in the 2016 presidential election. Trump spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former President George W. Bush of lying, and even tangling with Pope Francis on immigration, yet he still entered the primary contest in strong position.

The prospect of a Trump win alarmed rival Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor trying mightily for a strong showing in the first Southern state to vote.

"Trump can't win, plain and simple," Bush told reporters outside a polling place in Greenville. "A ton of people would be very uncomfortable with his divisive language and with his inexperience in so many ways."

South Carolina voters were split on whether the next president should be an outsider or a member of the political establishment. Nearly half said they prefer someone who has experience in politics and about the same numbers would rather see someone from outside the political system.

A Trump victory could foreshadow a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1. Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which determines the nomination.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz banked on a well-regarded get-out-the-vote operation and 10,000 volunteers to help overtake Trump on Saturday, as well as in the Southern states that follow.

A failure to top Trump in South Carolina could puncture that strategy, though Cruz, who sidetracked briefly to Washington to attend the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral Mass, will still have more than enough money to run a long campaign.

Marco Rubio and Bush were fighting to establish themselves as credible alternatives to Trump and Cruz, candidates some GOP leaders believe are unelectable in November.

Neither Bush nor Rubio expected to win South Carolina. But they wanted to finish ahead of one another; otherwise, there would be tough questions about long-term viability.

Rubio scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and seemed to have rebounded after a dismal debate performance two weeks ago. Bush hoped his deep family ties to South Carolina -- his brother and father each won two primaries here -- would be a lifeline for his struggling campaign.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers.

Democrats and Republicans will swap locations in the coming days. The GOP holds its caucus in Nevada on Tuesday, while Democrats face off in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Alex Sanz in Greenville wand Ken Thomas in Elko, Nevada, contributed to this report.
massachusetts state police car icon.jpg

(The Republican file photo)

HUNTINGTON - Massachusetts State Police are continuing to investigate the cause of an accident that killed a 22-year-old motorcyclist from Montgomery.

Police have identified the man as Kenneth Dejordy. He died at the scene of the accident, which happened on Route 20, troopers said.

Dejordy was driving a motorcycle when he collided with a pickup truck at about 1:45 p.m., Saturday. The accident happened near number 59 Russell Road, which is also known as Route 20.

Police have not released the circumstances of the accident. It is under investigation by troopers from the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Crime Scene Services Section, and those assigned to the State Police Detective Unit attached to the Hampshire County District Attorney's Office. Troopers were assisted at the scene by Huntington Police and Huntington firefighters.


NEW YORK (AP) -- Two police officers were shot in a confrontation with a gunman who slammed his car into a police vehicle early Saturday, in the second on-duty shooting of multiple officers in the nation's biggest city this month, police said.

Jamal Funes, who used to use the name Frederick Funes, is seen in an undated photo provided by the New York State Department of Corrections. Two police officers were shot in a confrontation with Funes, early Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, who slammed his car into a police vehicle. Funes had pointed a gun at some of the officers, fled and then rammed a police car, Bratton said. Funes, 34, was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. Officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were in stable condition after the 3:30 a.m. encounter. (New York State Department of Corrections via AP)

Officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were in stable condition after the 3:30 a.m. encounter, which happened as multiple officers converged and fired at an armed driver who had pointed a gun at some of the officers, fled and then rammed a police car, Police Commissioner William Bratton said.

Police were investigating how many officers fired and the exact sequence of events, including whether police themselves fired any of the shots that injured their colleagues. It's standard for police shooting investigations to look into the possibility of what's known as "friendly fire," and Saturday's shooting unfolded in what Bratton described as "a complex crime scene" involving eight officers and suspect Jamal Funes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Yurkiw and Reddin were alert and expected to recover.

"These are very dedicated officers who were out there protecting us," de Blasio, a Democrat, said at a news conference.

Funes, 34, was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Bratton said.

Officers found a .357 Magnum revolver on the front seat of his car, with five spent shell casings in the gun, the police commissioner said. He said police were trying to determine what might have prompted Funes' conduct.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department said investigators have notified the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force about the incident but are unaware of any ties Funes may have to terrorism. A spokeswoman for the FBI did not immediately return a call for comment Saturday night.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Funes, who police said had previously used the name Fredrick Funes, had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf. No working telephone number for Funes' family could immediately be found.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show Fredrick Funes was released from state prison in 2010 and has served about three years behind bars after being convicted of attempted assault in Brooklyn. A police spokesman confirmed the records are those of the man they have in custody.

The shooting came a little more than two weeks after Officers Diara Cruz and Patrick Espeut were shot and wounded on patrol in a public housing stairwell by a gunman who killed himself soon after, police said. Last month, Officer Sherrod Stuart was wounded in the ankle in what police later determined was a friendly-fire shooting as another officer exchanged gunfire with a suspect in a Bronx street brawl.

In October, Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed by a suspected bicycle thief he was chasing.

Yurkiw, an officer for three years, was hit in his bulletproof vest -- 27 years after such a vest also saved his father, former Officer Paul Yurkiw.

"It's like I'm going through this all over again," Paul Yurkiw told the Daily News. "Without the vest, me or him and a lot of other police officers wouldn't be walking on this planet right now."

Reddin, who participated in a gun arrest only Friday, was shot in the hip, authorities said.

Reddin, a nine-year police veteran, was part of a harrowing arrest in the same part of Brooklyn in 2011, when his partner, Sgt. Michael Miller, struggled with a suspect over a gun. Miller's finger, wedged between the gun's hammer and cylinder, prevented the suspect from pulling the trigger, according to news reports at the time.

Bratton said the confrontation started when two uniformed housing police officers -- not Yurkiw and Reddin -- heard gunfire near an intersection in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. As they approached Funes, he pointed a revolver and fled, and they followed and radioed for help.

Driving the wrong way down a street, Funes rammed a responding, marked police car, Bratton said. He said Reddin and Yurkiw, in plainclothes, were in another car on the scene as multiple officers opened fire.

Funes was still in his car when he was shot, Bratton said.

___
Jason Dalton, Mich shooting spree suspect

Jason Dalton

(Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety)

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The 45-year-old man authorities said went on a killing spree Saturday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan was calm when he was arrested by police roughly seven hours after the shootings first began, according to Michigan officials.

The suspect in the shootings has been identified as Jason Brian Dalton. The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety said on Facebook that Dalton has no known criminal record.

Dalton was even-tempered during his arrest Sunday morning, according to the department. He was arrested sometime around 12:40 a.m. Authorities said Dalton had a semi-automatic handgun in his vehicle.

"He was cooperative," the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety wrote. "Acts committed were intentional."

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting held a press conference Sunday after the three shooting incidents that began at 6 p.m. Saturday. He said a total of six people were fatally shot and another two people were injured.

A 14-year-old girl who was shot during the mayhem was still alive at the time of the press conference, the department of public safety said.

Officials said the shootings began around 6 p.m. at the Meadows Townhomes. MLive.com reports a woman was shot in the parking lot. The second shooting occurred at Seelye Automotive. Two men, believed to be a father and son, were fatally shot in the parking lot, MLive.com reports.

The final shooting incident took place at the Cracker Barrel around 10:15 p.m.

Video at area businesses helped authorities track down Dalton, officials said.
"Were a family-oriented company. It makes sense. You want to attract good people.  You want to make sure the employees feels good about staying home, and can stay home."

Pat Hittmeiers tenure at Kampgrounds of America Inc. http://koa.com/ dates back to an era when reservations were made using a landline telephone and family memories were captured on a Polaroid.

Now, the Billings-based companys new CEO operates in a world where a campers experience is measured in likes, retweets and shares.

The key to growth is maximizing these experiences, particularly in a world where high land values make building new campgrounds a nearly impossible.

KOA has 85 employees in Billings, mostly at the corporate office, and about 1,000 in the field. Hittmeier said the company is seeking to become more attractive for prospective workers and introduced a profit-sharing program and eight weeks of paid family leave at the beginning of the year.

With technology demands increasing, KOA wants to hire good talent and keep them there, he said.

By ERIK OLSON [email protected]

Full Story: http://billingsgazette.com/business/features/koa-s-top-boss-guiding-company-through-new-challenges-in/article_4ff7fc32-9583-5c0e-bc45-e80709fb7892.html

Request A KOA Directory https://koa.com/webtransactions/directory/request/default.aspx
Do graphic warning labels on cigarette packets really help smokers consider the health risks? Yes, according to the results of a new study, which found that such images prompt activity in areas of the brain associated with decision-making, emotion and memory.

Share on Pinterest Understanding how graphic warnings on cigarette packs impact brain activity may shed light on how they can help smokers quit.

Co-lead study author Darren Mays, PhD, an assistant professor of oncology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Addictive Behaviors Reports.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the US, responsible for killing more than 480,000 Americans every year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke by two to four times and raises the risk of lung cancer by around 25 times.

Statistics like these emphasize the need for strategies to reduce smoking rates, and one such strategy has been the introduction of graphic warning labels (GWLs) to cigarette packaging.

To date, GWLs on cigarette packaging have been implemented in more than 65 countries, spurred by increasing evidence that the warnings help smokers consider the health risks and may even help them quit the habit.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed the implementation of such warnings in 2009, though legal challenges from tobacco companies delayed the process. It is now unclear when the federal agency will action their proposals.


Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested

You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends.

Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
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Such transitions included transferring from and to a hospital, skilled nursing facility, home health agency, hospice, or home. The researchers said that they considered these specific transitions because they were those most likely to mean changes in the patient's care team, which could lead to uncoordinated care.Of the 311,090 people included in the study:- 10.2% (31,675) experienced at least one healthcare transition after their hospice enrollment.- 6.6% of hospice patients had more than one care transition, some up to 19 transitions.- Of those transitions, more than half were to a hospital.Those who experienced care transitions tended to be younger or non-white, had more than one chronic condition, or received in-patient hospice care compared to those who did not experience transitions.The number of transitions varied widely from state to state, ranging from 6.9% of study subjects in Idaho to 20.6% of study subjects in Florida. The proportion of people who had a transition to a hospital ranged from 1.6% in North Dakota to 13.4% in Mississippi.People who had mental disorders, nervous system diseases or symptoms, and 'ill-defined' conditions were less likely to experience transitions than were people diagnosed with cancer."Even after being enrolled in hospice, Medicare beneficiaries may have numerous transitions between different healthcare settings. These transitions are not only expensive, but also may not lead to better care or quality of life. Many of these transitions may be avoidable through advance care planning, appropriate provider-to-provider communication, and proper hospice inpatient care," said study co-author Shiyi Wang, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health.Source: Eurekalert
BOSTON (AP)  A plan by the state to establish a colony of venomous timber rattlesnakes on an off-limits island in Massachusetts' largest body of water has some rattled by visions of dangerous serpents slithering through the surrounding woods, attacking hikers, fishermen and hunters.

Those are completely irrational fears based on the public's aversion to snakes, said Tom French of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, who's directing the project at the 39-square mile Quabbin Reservoir and representing the state at a public meeting Tuesday to address the concerns.

French said he's received several emails and phone calls from worried residents who fear the snakes will escape the island.

"People are afraid that we're going to put snakes in a place of public use and that they are going to breed like rabbits and spread over the countryside and kill everybody," he said.

There are only about 200 of the endangered snakes indigenous to Massachusetts left in five scattered pockets from greater Boston to the Berkshires, French said. Loss of habitat and human-caused deaths means they could disappear altogether, which is why the Quabbin project is so critical.

The plan to establish the snakes on Mount Zion  at more than 1,400 acres, the largest island in the reservoir  has been in the works for several years. A handful of snakes will be raised at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, and placed on the island in a couple more years when they are mature enough to survive in the wild.

The project has received the endorsement of Gov. Charlie Baker.

The public's concerns stem from the fact that rattlesnakes can swim and the island is connected to the mainland by a pair of narrow causeways, French said.

Bob Curley, an avid hiker, isn't opposed to the rattlesnake preservation effort; he just doesn't think the Quabbin is the place to do it. Even though Mount Zion of off limits to the public, he's concerned the state will use the snakes as an excuse to shut off public access to areas around the reservoir about 65 miles west of Boston.

"When the inevitable happens and there is an interplay between a hiker and a rattler, what's the repercussion?" said the Athol resident, who said his dog was bitten by a rattlesnake last summer. "Are the trails around the Quabbin going to be shut down?"
The Muskegon Chronicle reports Dayvon Davis learned his punishment Friday after earlier pleading guilty.

Davis, who turns 18 this month, will serve a mandatory two years for possessing a firearm while committing a felony, followed by sentences of one to 15 years for firearm possession by a felon, possession of a short-barreled shotgun and resisting and obstructing police

Staff at Muskegon Heights Public School Academy called police in September to report an intruder was in the building. Davis wasn't a student at the school.

Police say Davis dropped a backpack and ran when officers approached him. He was later found hiding under a vehicle.
CARO  The Thumb Regional Sobriety Court will hold its fifth graduation ceremony on Friday for participants who have successfully completed the program. Huron County Chief Judge David B. Herrington will be the keynote speaker for the event.

Every time we have a graduation ceremony, it is extremely rewarding to see the tangible difference were making in the lives of our program participants, stated Tuscola County Chief Judge Amy Grace Gierhart in a news release. This time around is even more special, because we are privileged to have Judge Herrington here to offer his perspective on the difference the program is making in the lives of the people he refers to the program.

Proceedings will begin at 10 a.m. with the semi-monthly Thumb Regional Sobriety Court review hearing, which the public is also invited to attend. The graduation ceremony itself is set to begin at noon Friday in the 54th Judicial Circuit courtroom on the second floor of the Tuscola County Courthouse in Caro.

After Herringtons speech and recognition of the graduates, there will be a luncheon to follow. Anyone interested in attending is invited to participate in the luncheon as well.

This graduation ceremony also marks the first anniversary of the Thumb Regional Sobriety Courts first graduation ceremony, held in February 2015.

As we get further along in this program, it is so satisfying to see past graduates continue their involvement with the program in mentoring current participants, Gierhart stated. Last year, our first sets of graduates were pioneers. Now, they have a chance to offer something special to current participants: the example of someone who can say I made it through this program, and you can too.
Air Force Gets Its Own Combat Dive Badge After Using the Navy's for Years

Air Force officials said there is a notable distinction between Navy divers and their divers, which was a key reason for...
The Orioles have agreed to sign Yovani Gallardo to a three-year, $35MM deal with a $13MM club option for 2019. He will be paid $9MM in 2016, $11MM in 2017, and $13MM in 2018. The 2019 option comes with a $2MM buyout, pushing the total guarantee to $35MM. The deal is pending a physical and does not include a no trade clause. The only incentives are small bonuses for awards (tweet).

Gallardo owns a career 3.66 ERA, 8.23 K/9, and 3.31 BB/9 across parts of nine major league seasons. After spending the bulk of his career with the Brewers, Gallardo was traded to the Rangers prior to 2015. He posted another solid campaign with a 3.42 ERA, although ERA estimators were less enthused by his work (4.00 FIP, 4.31 xFIP, 4.59 SIERA). It was his most contact oriented season  he had a career low 5.91 K/9 and 6.5 percent swinging strike rate.

The Orioles rotation was among the worst in the league last season, making Gallardo an important addition. While hes not a traditional ace, he does have plenty of experience pitching in other bandbox ball parks. Milwaukees Miller Park and Texass Globe Life Park are two of the most home run friendly stadiums. So too is Camden Yards.

Interestingly, Baltimore inked Gallardo for substantially less than the Royals paid for Ian Kennedy. Both pitchers were expected to have similar difficulties on the free agent market. The former Padres starter is a year older than Gallardo. The two starters are comparably talented but Kennedy has the more inconsistent track record. Of course, Kennedys complicated deal is backloaded and includes an opt out after just two seasons, making an apples-to-apples comparison difficult. Kennedy also has a history of high strikeout rates while Gallardo is more of pitch-to-contact guy.

When the Rangers tagged Gallardo with the qualifying offer, some believed he should have accepted it. While the soon-to-be 30-year-old had a long wait to find a new home  pitchers and catchers have already reported to Orioles camp  Gallardo ultimately secured nearly three times the qualifying offer which was valued at $15.8MM this offseason. Hell now be under contract through at least his age 32 season with a chance to return to the market in either 2019 or 2020.

Gallardo effectively replaces Wei-Yin Chen in the Orioles rotation. Chris Tillman, Ubaldo Jimenez, Kevin Gausman, and Miguel Gonzalez will undoubtedly form the rest of the rotation, although all four pitchers were disappointing in 2015. Jimenezs 4.11 ERA was the best of the bunch while Tillman and Gonzalez finished with just under a 5.00 ERA. The club does have decent rotation depth including Odrisamer Despaigne, Tyler Wilson, Mike Wright, and out-of-options Dylan Bundy, but none of them offer a high ceiling. Gallardo is the de facto ace of this group.

The Orioles will lose the 14th overall pick in the 2016 draft as a result of the signing. The slot value of the pick is $2.97MM. The Orioles also have the 28th overall pick which they received as compensation for losing Chen. However, they would also lose that pick if they sign Dexter Fowler.

Eduardo E. Encina of the Baltimore Sun was the first to tweet the two sides were finalizing a deal as well as the specific year-by-year terms. Jon Heyman reported the three-year, $35MM base contract with deferrals (tweet) and fourth year option. Chris Cotillo of SB Nation added that the option was for $13MM (tweet).
BAY CITY, MI -- High school juniors have an opportunity to sail a 30-day excursion from the Florida Keyes back home to the Great Lakes and learn not only about life at sea, but be immersed in a truly hands-on educational curriculum.

BaySail, a Bay City-based nonprofit, is launching its first Sea Scholar program to give five high school juniors an opportunity to sail aboard the Appledore V tall ship for what's billed as a journey of a lifetime.

"There are other organizations along the East Coast and in Europe that offer a similar program, but this is the first time that someone here has taken a crack at it," said Shirley Roberts, executive director of BaySail. "This is going to be a life-changing opportunity for five lucky young people."

From now through March 1, high school juniors interested in the sailing experience can apply online at www.baysailbaycity.org/shipboard. Selections are made by March 11. Training sessions take place throughout March and April.

The fee, which includes airfare to Florida, is $5,000 per student. BaySail is actively seeking scholarships to help offset the cost.

"While those scholarships aren't a guarantee, we want to encourage anyone who is interested to at least fill out an application," Roberts said.

BaySail is targeting students in Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties, but the opportunity is open to any interested Michigan high school junior, Roberts said.

While the curriculum is going to be focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- STEM -- students are also going to learn plenty of history, astronomy, geography, navigational skills and how to be part of a sailing crew.

"And as we sail up the East Coast, we're going to learn about American history, the industrialization of our country, point out historical sites -- it's going to be one of the most unique learning experiences of these students' lives," said Beth Christiansen, a Midland resident who is serving as the onboard teacher for the trip.

Before departing for their journey on May 2, students go through a rigorous orientation in Florida, including a stop at the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key.

The 30-day trip is to include stops at the University of North Carolina Marine Research Center in Beaufort, North Carolina, the New York Harbor School and South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, a transit along the Erie Canal and a visit to Niagara Falls. Flexibility is built into the schedule to deal with potential weather delays.

The Central Michigan Science Mathematics Technology Center is providing support for developing the curriculum.

The students and the Appledore V will make it back to Bay City about a month before the 2016 Tall Ship Celebration, which is scheduled for July 14-17. The event is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to downtown Bay City.
Kocsis house.JPG

The home of Leroi D. Kocsis at 600 N. Sherman St. in Bay City as of 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.

(Gavin McIntyre | The Bay City Times)

BAY CITY, MI -- Though police's standoff with an armed gunman who shot one of their own has come to an end, officers remain at the scene on Bay City's East Side.

As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20, Bay City public safety officers and Michigan State Police troopers were at the home of 38-year-old Leroi D. Kocsis at 600 N. Sherman St., sifting through the ruins and rubble of the structure. Civilian onlookers gathered to watch as traffic slowly flowed through the street.

"The Crime Lab is gathering evidence and processing the scene," said Michigan State Police Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser. "They will be searching for the weapon used to shoot the police officer and gathering other evidence."

Leroi D. Kocsis

The house's front porch is damaged, several windows are broken, there is a gaping hole in the front of the structure, and debris litters the lawn. Kaiser could not say precisely how all of the damage to Kocsis' home was inflicted.

The incident that culminated in Kocsis' suicide began at 11:45 a.m. Friday, when four undercover Bay City officers attempted to serve a felony arrest warrant on Kocsis for a bond violation. Kocsis ran into his home, obtained a firearm, and opened fire on the officers, delivering a grazing wound to one's back, Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini has said.

The name of the wounded officer has not been disclosed, but he is expected to make a full recovery. He was resting at home as of Friday night, Cecchini said.

Kocsis then holed up in his home, prompting a state police Emergency Support Team to respond. As the tense standoff progressed, Kocsis on several occasions posted on his Facebook page and telephoned friends and family gathering at the scene.

About 40 minutes after the shooting, he posted "I love everybody n my daughter n corrupt police have forced my hand."

Numerous friends replied to the status, offering thoughts and prayers, and expressing their love for him. They encouraged him to not "go out like this." Others have shared new statuses on his Facebook wall expressing similar sentiments. Some have posted comments with hashtags such as "#teamleroi," "#goleroi," and "#justice4leroi."

He later posted on his Facebook page: "Freedom of speech I want my story heard."

About 8:45 p.m., troopers fired tear gas canisters into Kocsis' home. At 9:17 p.m., Kocsis posted on his Facebook: "Tear gas equal gas mask." At 9:38 p.m., he published: "N again mo gas."

His final post was at 9:58 p.m., when he wrote "Last post my phone dead love real (expletive)."

Police were in contact with Kocsis by telephone but had lost contact with him early Saturday. At 9:11 a.m., tactical teams entered the home and found Kocsis on the main floor, dead via a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Cecchini has said.

Reports that others were inside the house at the time of the incident were not true, meaning Kocsis was in the home alone, Cecchini said.

Police put North Sherman and Sheridan streets on lockdown from Center Avenue to Ninth Street. Streets in between were also blocked to traffic.

Kocsis in January was arraigned on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a relation between the ages of 13 and 16. The charge is punishable by up to life imprisonment.

An affidavit contained in court records signed by a Bay City Department of Public Safety detective states that a 14-year-old girl alleged Kocsis had intercourse with her in July 2012.

Since Kocsis' death was announced, several people have taken to his Facebook page to express their sorrow.

The state police is heading the ongoing investigation into the shooting and subsequent standoff.
DETROIT, MI - A parolee wanted in connection with the disappearance of a 4-year-old girl and her mother has turned himself in to police.

Marcus Hightower, 33, walked Sunday morning into a Detroit precinct, Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Michael Shaw said.

Marcus Hightower

Hightower is presently being questioned in Detroit, Shaw said.

In the meantime, an Amber alert remains active for 4-year-old Savannah Walker, the daughter of Heidi Walker, believed to be Hightower's girlfriend.

Walker and Savannah, both missing, were last seen with Hightower in Detroit and he was listed as a suspect on the Amber alert, issued by the state police after 2 a.m. Saturday.

Less than four hours later, the bodies of a female and a child were found in a burned, vacant house on Detroit's east side. The house on Lakeview Street is about three miles from the Cadillac Boulevard address listed in the alert. Authorities have not yet identified the bodies, a process state police reported Sunday could take "a few days."

The deaths could be linked to the Amber alert, Detroit Police Chief James Craig earlier said. "Preliminarily we believe it could be the missing mother and daughter, but we can't confirm that."

Craig called Hightower armed, dangerous and a "person of interest" in the Amber alert.

Police were looking for Hightower and a black 2004 Ford Explorer, which has since been located by Detroit police, according to an updated Amber alert.

Walker and Savannah were first reported missing on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in Livingston County. Walker's adult daughter went to the police with "sketchy" information that her mother might be dead, according to the county sheriff and undersheriff. A deputy did some work on her case, including tracking Walker's cell phone to Detroit, and then recommended she contact authorities with jurisdiction, such as the state or Detroit police.

Hightower is on parole for assault with intent to do great bodily harm and other crimes.

He was sentenced in November 2007 in Wayne County to at least five years in prison and released in September 2014, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records. In addition to assault, he has been convicted of second-degree child abuse and weapons offenses.

Anyone with information related to the Amber alert is asked to call 313-596-1616 or 911.
DETROIT, MI - A girl was shot and injured Saturday afternoon in a road rage incident on Detroit's west side,

according to WDIV-TV, Channel 4 news

.

Channel 4 is reporting the girl is in critical condition at a hospital. She was initially reported to be 10. The news channel is now saying she is 5 years old.

The shooting was reported about 12:30 p.m. in the 16000 block of Mark Twain Street after a hit-and-run accident.

One driver, with the girl as a passenger, followed another to a home and a second driver ran inside and opened fire, according to Channel 4. Police believe two weapons were involved, one of which could be an AK-47.

An effort to contact the Detroit police late Saturday afternoon was not successful.
Craig Spencer, Bill de Blasio

Dr. Craig Spencer, right, who was the first Ebola patient in New York City, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio laugh during a news conference New York's Bellevue Hospital, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. Spencer was released from Bellevue Hospital on Tuesday at a joyous news conference where medical team members were cheering and hooting. It happened 19 days after he was diagnosed with the virus. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

((AP Photo/Richard Drew))

FLINT, MI -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray have started the "NYC Loves Flint" effort to urge residents of the Big Apple to aid two funds in water crisis relief efforts.

de Blasio and McCray, who also serves as Mayor's Fund Board chairwoman, are urging donations towards the United Way of Genesee County's Flint Water Fund and the Flint Child Health & Development Fund established at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

"While we need to hold people accountable for the terrible decisions that led to this disaster, that cannot be the only focus of our outrage," said McCray in a message on the city's website.

"The people of Flint are counting on us to turn our anger into ACTION. And that is exactly what we are doing today," she said. "Thanks to all of you, the people of Flint will receive some much-needed support."

The Flint Water Fund is being used to purchase water filters, replacement filters, and provide emergency support services and prevention effort, while The Flint Child Health & Development Fund aims to provide educational, health and nutritional aid to Flint children ages 0 to 6 suffering from lead exposure.
PARK TOWNSHIP, MI -- A crash between a pickup and Volkswagen Beetle has claimed a third life from the same family.

Ottawa County sheriff's deputies say 62-year-old Patricia Rayner of Lake Odessa, 24-year-old Casey McMaster of Clarksville and her 9-month-old daughter, Madi McMaster, all have died.

Police said Rayner, the mother of Casey McMaster, was driving a Volkswagen Beetle north on 152nd Avenue and went through a stop sign at Quincy Street.

The Beetle collided with a GMC Sierra pickup going east on Quincy Street at about 11:30 a.m.

Related: Infant, grandmother killed in crash when car misses stop sign

Rayner and Casey McMaster were ejected from the car.

Bystanders who stopped at the crash scene found the infant in the back seat, removed the child and tried resuscitation efforts in an adjacent field.

Fire department rescuers soon took over, but the child could not be saved.

Police said the child was properly secured in a car seat in the Beetle.

Rayner and Madi McMaster were pronounced dead at the scene. Casey McMaster, who was riding in the front passenger seat, was flown by Aero Med helicopter to Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital.

She later died.

Deputies said the crash sent the Beetle into a telephone pole. The truck went across a ditch and rolled over, coming to rest upside down.

The truck driver, 37-year-old Bryan Rotman, and two child passengers, 2-year-old Maxwell Rotman and 5-year-old Isabel Rotman, all had injuries not considered life-threatening.

They were taken to Holland Hospital for treatment.

E-mail John Tunison: jtunison@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/johntunison
CHESTER TOWNSHIP, MI - A woman died and a man was seriously injured in a single-car crash late Saturday night, Feb. 21.

The crash occurred about 11 p.m. near the intersection of 24th Avenue and Harding Street in Chester Township, east of Conklin, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department.

The driver of a 2001 Ford Expedition, 24-year-old Bobbie Jo Bridges of Conklin, died in the crash, according to the sheriff's office. She was wearing a seatbelt and pinned in the vehicle.

A front seat passenger, 32-year-old Dave Hinkley of Conklin, was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. He was airlifted to Spectrum Health's Butterworth Hospital Campus where he was listed in serious condition, according to the Sheriff's office.

Sheriff's deputies believe that Bridges was driving southbound on 24th Avenue when she lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle crossed the roadway, overturned and struck a tree.

A variety of agencies responded to the scene, including the Ottawa County Sheriff's Road Patrol, Chester Township fire/rescue, Wright/Tallmage fire/rescue, Rockford Ambulance, and Aeromed.

Stephen Kloosterman is a reporter for MLive. Email him at sklooste@mlive.com or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- An advocate of preventing gun violence in Michigan said her organization is "saddened and outraged" by a mass shooting spree in Kalamazoo County that left six people dead and two critically wounded.

She and others called on lawmakers to do something to stop gun violence.

"Kalamazoo is a beautiful, beloved city in Michigan. People in America must be able to shop for cars, dine and enjoy their city on a balmy Saturday night without fearing the worst," said Linda Brundage, executive director of the Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.

She called the gunman moving from one location to the next, shooting and killing people along the way on Saturday, Feb. 20, "every community's greatest fear and nightmare."

Related: Complete coverage of Kalamazoo mass shootings

Linda Brundage

Brundage urged citizens to demand that lawmakers keep guns out of "dangerous hands."

"Too often, the response from our lawmakers is simply to provide thoughts and prayers," Brundage said. "While we do pray for these innocents, we must also honor their lives with additional action."

Current gun laws in Michigan aren't sufficient to stop horrific events, she said.

"People of Michigan should ask themselves -- when are lawmakers going to do something about the reckless availability of firearms in our communities?" Brundage said. "Why aren't there better safeguards to protect our families and our rights? Why do lawmakers continue to pander to the profit seeking motives of the gun lobby and gun manufacturers?"

Kalamazoo County resident Marti Ulmer, volunteer with the Michigan Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, also encouraged citizens to demand lawmakers keep their communities safe.

"We don't expect this type of violence to happen here in Kalamazoo, but the truth is that gun violence is affecting communities across the country every day," she said in a prepared statement. "It does not have to be like this. We need to come together as a community to heal and take action.

"We must demand our Michigan lawmakers do more to keep our communities safe. I encourage other Kalamazoo residents who are angered by what happened last night to get involved -- we all can do more to reduce gun violence."

Gov. Rick Snyder ordered flags be flown at half staff for six days beginning Monday, Feb. 22, "as a mark of respect" for the six victims.

Police said Jason Brian Dalton's shooting spree began at about 6 p.m. Saturday when he shot a woman multiple times in Richland Township. She is expected to survive.

Four hours later, Dalton, an Uber driver, shot Tyler Smith, a 17-year-old Mattawan High School senior, and his father, Rich, in the parking lot of Seelye Automotive on Stadium Drive, police said.

The gunman then shot four women and a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel restaurant on South Ninth Street at I-94.

The two men shot at Seelye Automotive and the four women shot at the Cracker Barrel restaurant were killed. The 14-year-old girl was clinging to life Sunday at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.

Police have said it appears Dalton picked his victims at random and the shootings were unprovoked.

Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting Kalamazoo police to learn more about the gun, a semi-automatic handgun, they suspect was used in the killings.

Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said ATF agents are helping investigators from his agency, Michigan State Police and the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office pinpoint the origin and the history of the alleged murder weapon.

Brad Devereaux is a reporter at MLive.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- One man's shooting spree spread across Kalamazoo and surrounding townships Saturday night, killing six and seriously injuring two.

Kalamazoo police arrested Jason Brian Dalton, 45, at 12:40 a.m. Sunday in downtown Kalamazoo, five hours after the shooting spree began and less than two hours after the final shooting.

The first shooting occurred Saturday evening at Meadows Townhomes in Richland Township, around 5:42 p.m. A woman was shot multiple times in a parking lot. She was in serious condition at Bronson Hospital on Sunday morning.

At about 10:08 p.m., less than five hours after the first shooting, a father and son, Rich and Tyler Smith, were shot and killed in the parking lot of Seeyle Automotive on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo.

Nearly 20 minutes later and four miles away, four people were shot and killed in two vehicles in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township near I-94.

The victims were identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Mary Jo Nye, 60, of Battle Creek, Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74, of Battle Creek, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek.

A 14-year-old in one of the vehicles at Cracker Barrel was also shot, and was in critical condition on Sunday morning at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.

MORE:

* See complete coverage of Kalamazoo mass shootings here
JACKSON, MI - A man accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill a Michigan State Police trooper contends he was manipulated and bullied by the jailhouse informant who got him busted.

Bryan Crowley, in prison for a separate and similar crime, is on trial in Jackson County for attempting to solicit the murder of a West Michigan state police trooper in March 2014.

Lawyers are to give closing statements Monday morning in the courtroom of Circuit Judge John McBain. The trial began last week.

Friday, Crowley, 48, took the stand. He said a fellow inmate threatened and hurt him and arranged to have him beaten. A tape clearly shows Crowley, previously housed in Jackson County prisons, requested the inmate set in motion a murder, according to information presented in court.

Crowley, however, said he never intended to cause the death of the trooper and did not wish to be part of the conversation.

He never took his concerns to law enforcement or corrections officers because he was scared of the informant, he said. "I hadn't gotten any protection from them in the past."

Much of the testimony Friday centered on the credibility of the informant, who frequently had been incarcerated and often volunteered to cooperate with police in hopes of helping himself.

Police in St. Clair County, the informant's home area, testified information he had given to police in the past could not be substantiated or was unreliable.

While working with a drug team in St. Clair County, he once wrapped up candle wax and tried to pass it off as cocaine he had purchased, St. Clair County Sheriff's Lt. Matthew King said.

Another time, he was instructed to tape his interactions with an inmate and it was clear from the tape that he was prompting the conversation.

Jackson State police Sgt. Michael Church testified that the informant was indeed a liar, but he had not caught him in a lie in regards to Crowley's case.

The trooper Crowley was allegedly trying to have killed was the officer who initially placed him in prison.

While in jail in Mecosta County, north of Grand Rapids, Crowley said he talked to a different inmate about his ex-wife, with whom he was angry for the treatment their children were receiving in her home.

They discussed framing her with a gun and drugs so she would get arrested. This was admittedly "stupid," Crowley said, answering questions from his lawyer, George Lyons.

The undercover trooper met with Crowley after he got out of jail and he went to prison in 2013 for drug solicitation and conspiracy offenses.

Assistant Attorney General Greg Townsend said Crowley agreed to have his ex-wife killed. Crowley said this wasn't the case because he never paid the trooper and he didn't want her dead because of their children.

Crowley now is serving four to 20 years at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater.
Uber Rider.JPG

Kalamazoo man says in online post that he rode Saturday night with shooting spree suspect Jason Brian Dalton.

(Twitter Post)

KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Kalamazoo man tweeted that he unknowingly rode with a shooting spree gunman on Saturday night -- apparently between shootings.

The Kalamazoo man says in an online tweet that he booked a ride with Jason Brian Dalton, the suspect in the Saturday-night shooting spree that has left six dead and two bady injured.

Attempts to contact the man, who identified himself as IamKeithBlack, were not immediately successful Sunday. He indicated that he booked a ride with the shooter at 8 p.m. Saturday through Uber, the person-to-person taxi-like driving service.

According to his Twitter posting, he rode with Dalton for 4.8 miles and was with him for a little more than 10 minutes.

His post includes a Uberx receipt with a small picture of the suspect. He did not indicate where the ride started and where it ended.

Dalton is the 45-year-old Cooper Township man who was arrested without incident at 12:40 a.m. Sunday after allegedly beginning a series of shootings that began at 5:42 p.m. Saturday.

Police allege that he drove from place to place and shot a woman in Richland Township, two men at a Kalamazoo car dealership, and five at a restaurant in Texas Township. They believe he would have shot others if his vehicle had not been identified and stopped by a Kalamazoo County Sheriff's deputy.

Uber has confirmed that Dalton was a driver-partner with Uber and had passed their background check.

MLive writer Al Jones may be contacted at ajones5@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter at ajones5_al
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Jason Dalton's alleged murder spree that killed six in Kalamazoo brought a harrowing reminder to Grand Rapids authorities who chased after Michigan's last mass killer in 2011.

The actions police attribute to Dalton, who left six dead and two wounded, including a 14-year-old with critical injuries, in shootings at three locations, instilled the same fear in Kalamazoo as Rodrick Dantzler did when he shot and killed seven people at two crime scenes in Grand Rapids.

Dantzler turned July 7, 2011 upside down when he killed Thomas Heeren, 51, his wife, Rebecca Heeren, 52, their daughter, Jennifer Heeren, 29, and Jennifer and Dantzler's 12-year-old daughter, Kamrie Heeren Dantzler, at the Heeren's Brynell Court home.

The rampage also claimed Kimberlee Emkens, 23, her sister, Amanda Emkens, 27, and Amanda's 10-year-old daughter, Marissa Emkens, inside the Emkens Plainfield Avenue house.

Dantzler shot another woman in a third location, was involved in a road-rage shooting and led police on a high-speed chase before he burst into a stranger's home and held three people hostage. Dantzler eventually killed himself without harming the hostages.

A key difference between the killing sprees: While each was unpredictable, Dalton was picking off strangers as opposed to Dantzler, who was hunting loved ones and others close to him.

Police in Grand Rapids said Dantzler's wife was leaving him and that he had stopped taking his bi-polar medication. The combination set the stage for a day of fury.

Little is known or has been released about the possible motivations behind Dalton's alleged violence. The married father of two was an insurance adjuster with no criminal record. He worked as an Uber driver, apparently taking fares between the alleged heinous acts.

Kalamazoo authorities say Dalton shot a woman in an apartment parking lot. She remains hospitalized, police said.

Five hours later, Tyler Smith, 17, and his father, Rich Smith, were killed in the parking lot of Seelye Kia, 4102 Stadium Dr., The father and son were looking at cars shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Nearly 20 minutes later and four miles away, four people were shot and killed in two vehicles in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township near I-94.

The victims were identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Mary Jo Nye, 60, of Battle Creek, Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74, of Battle Creek, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek.

A 14-year-old in one of the vehicles at Cracker Barrel was also shot, and was in critical condition on Sunday morning at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. She had earlier been pronounced dead before squeezing her mother's hand, police said.

Police say Dalton's wife and two children are alive and unharmed.

Here's more on the Dantzler shooting:

Grand Rapids mass murder case: Examining Police Chief Kevin Belk's actions

How the Rodrick Dantzler murder spree has affected Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk, his officers

Rodrick Dantzler's family speaks after his murder spree kills 7 in Grand Rapids: 'He's no monster'



8

Rodrick Dantzler murder spree survivor talks about why she called 911, how her life has changed

Report sheds new details in Rodrick Dantzler's murder spree that killed 7, note he left to his mother

Full coverage: Grand Rapids shootings kill 7, suspect Rodrick Dantzler kills himself


KALAMAZOO, MI -- A shooting rampage in Kalamazoo County that killed six people and injured two was the 42nd mass shooting in 2016, the Washington Post reported.

Police say Jason Brian Dalton, 45, of Cooper Township, police have said it appears Dalton picked his victims at random during the shooting spree and that the shootings were unprovoked.

The Washington Post said according to the crowd-sourced Mass Shooting Tracker, Dalton's actions were "the 24th mass shooting in the United States during the first 21 days of February and the 42nd mass shooting overall in 2016."

In the report, the Washington Post defines mass shootings as "instances in which four or more people (which can include the gunman) are shot and killed."

Read the full report here.

According to police, Dalton started a shooting rampage at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, when he shot a woman multiple times in a Richland Township townhome parking lot

About four hours later, police said Dalton shot an 17-year-old man and his father in the parking lot of Seelye Automotive on Stadium Drive just before 10:30 p.m. and then, around 10:30 p.m., shot four women and a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel restaurant on South Ninth Street at I-94.

Police said the two men shot on Stadium Drive and the four women at the Cracker Barrel were all killed. The 14-year-old girl was clinging to life Sunday at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.

The victims have been identified by police and school sources.

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
Tyler Smith

KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Mattawan High School senior is among six victims who were killed in a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo Saturday night, the schools superintendent said.

Tyler Smith, 17, was killed in the parking lot of Seelye Kia, 4102 Stadium Drive, along with his father, Richard, said Robin Buchler, Mattawan school district superintendent. The father, 53, and son were looking at cars shortly before 10:30 p.m. when police say Jason Brian Dalton shot and killed them in a parking lot.

It was the second of three shooting scenes in Kalamazoo County where, police say, Dalton shot eight people, killing six and injuring two.

Buchler said social media is "exploding" with Mattawan students expressing disbelief about Smith's death.

"We have a lot of kids that are just really panicking a bit," Buchler said.

"It just doesn't make sense to them. There's just a feeling of fear and not wanting to really venture out right now. I think it's just because there's just no logic that it would happen."

Smith has been a student at Mattawan schools since eighth grade. Buchler said he's enrolled in the marketing entrepreneurship program at the tech center and also at the high school

Buchler said her son, also a senior, had a senior seminar class with Smith.

"He was really a great kid and really well liked," Buchler said. "It's just so traumatic, just heartbreaking."

Buchler said she will meet with her crisis team from the school district this afternoon. She said counselors will be available for students and staff to talk to at school Monday.

"We will take care of our students and staff," Buchler said.

RELATED STORIES

* 2 Kalamazoo shooting victims were sisters-in-law, friends, college roommates

* Retired Battle Creek teacher among victims in Kalamazoo mass shooting

* Kalamazoo mass shooting victim Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74: 'A sweet, sweet old lady'

* Names of mass shooting victims in Kalamazoo released

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Although authorities are not sure yet what prompted the mass killings Saturday night around Kalamazoo County, the identification and arrest of the suspect surely interrupted more to come, authorities said.

"There's just no question more people would have died if they hadn't found him when they did," Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said in a press conference early Sunday morning.

Six people were killed and two people seriously injured by a lone gunman in three separate random shooting incidents that began at around 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, in outside a townhouse in Richland Township. The next shooting happened at Seelye Automotive on Stadium Drive at around 10 p.m. and the third at the Cracker Barrel restaurant at I-94 and 9th Street at about 10:15 p.m.

Getting said there appears to be no connection between the victims at the three locations, who were apparently shot only because of their availability to the shooter.

Authorities have not discovered any additional shooting incidents between the first two, nor between the third shooting and the arrest of Jason B. Dalton, 45, the lone suspect arrested in the mass shooting spree, who was taken into custody at around 12:40 a.m. Sunday.

A Kalamazoo County sheriff's deputy spotted the Chevrolet HHR that Dalton was driving leaving the parking lot of a bar in downtown Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers were able to quickly pull Dalton over "without incident" on Ransom Street between Porter and Walbridge streets downtown's near north side.

"I don't think that (Dalton) had a list (of more victims)," Getting said, "but there is no question in my mind that the police work that was done in this incident saved lives. No question."

"Being able to locate him and take him into custody without further harm to police or to anyone else -- it was a remarkable job by law enforcement," he said.

Getting said Dalton had been in contact with several people during the time between the first shooting at 6 p.m. and the subsequent shootings at about 10 and 10:15 p.m., but he would not say who.

Police retrieved Dalton's cell phone, he said.

The police are investigating the motive, he said, and "that information will come out along the way."

"This is a very active investigation at this point," he said.

"The point is that there is no continuing threat to the community from this incident."

Getting said at the news conference about the manner in which the community was informed of an active shooter on the loose.

"The community was immediately informed through the media," he said. Police "were in the middle of two crime scenes ... this couldn't have been done any faster. This is a remarkable outcome at this point," he said of the fact the suspect was in by shortly after midnight.

"There is no question in my mind that the police work that was done in this incident saved lives," said Getting, who credited cooperation among the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and Michigan State Police in particular.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Michigan State Police have released the names of four victims shot and killed at a Kalamazoo-area restaurant as part of a shooting rampage across Kalamazoo County.

The shooting happened at 10:24 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, when, police say, Jason Brian Dalton, 45, of Cooper Township, approached a Chevrolet Cruze and an Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, 5581 Cracker Barrel Blvd., in Texas Township.

Dalton allegedly shot all four occupants of the Chevrolet Cruze, and the driver of the Oldsmobile, who was the single occupant of the van. The victims in the Chevrolet Cruze are: Mary Jo Nye, 60, of Battle Creek, the driver; Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74, of Battle Creek, the rear driver-side passenger; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek, the rear, passenger-side passenger.

The driver of the minivan, Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Mich., also was killed.

A 14-year-old front-seat passenger of the Chevrolet is in critical condition at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. She was pronounced dead until she squeezed her mother's hand, police have said.

UPDATES:

* Shooting victim Tyler Smith: 'He's such a great kid,' school leader says

*

2 Kalamazoo shooting victims were sisters-in-law, friends, college roommates

* High school senior from Mattawan killed in Kalamazoo mass shootings

* Retired Battle Creek teacher among victims in Kalamazoo mass shooting

* Kalamazoo mass shooting victim Dorothy Brown, 74: 'A sweet, sweet old lady'

The shooting at Cracker Barrel was the last of three separate shootings Saturday, and police say Dalton is the suspect. At approximately 5:42 p.m. on Saturday, the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office was called to the Meadows Townhomes on G Avenue near Comstock for a woman who had been shot multiple times in the parking lot. The woman remained in serious condition at Borgess Medical Center Sunday morning. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation into that shooting.

The second shooting was reported at approximately 10:08 p.m. at the Seelye Ford Kia Dealership on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo. Mattawan High School senior Tyler Smith, 17, and father, Richard Eugene Smith, 53, were killed. The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety is leading the investigation into that shooting.

Following the shooting at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant, Dalton was stopped at 12:40 a.m. at Ransom and Porter Streets in Kalamazoo and was taken into custody without further incident. Police were acting on a BOL (Be On the Lookout) for a dark-colored Chevy HHR that was spotted by witnesses at the Stadium Drive and Cracker Barrel shootings.

Dalton is believed to be the solo actor in these shootings and there is no further threat to public safety, police say.

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
KALAMAZOO, MI - Community groups in Kalamazoo are gathering to remember victims, grieve and pray following a series of shootings that killed four and critically injured two others.

Law enforcement officers are detaining a suspect who allegedly conducted a series of three shootings Saturday night. The shooting victims are thought to have been chosen at random, officials have said.

The victims will be remembered in two separate events tonight and tomorrow night:

A prayer vigil, Pray for Kalamazoo, will occur 7 p.m. today, Feb. 21, at Centerpoint Church, 2345 N 10th St. in Kalamazoo.

Taking place TONIGHT at 7PM at Centerpoint. Posted by Centerpoint Church-Kalamazoo on Sunday, February 21, 2016

A Kalamazoo Community Vigil is also being planned for tomorrow, Feb. 22, at 345 W. Michigan Ave., in Kalamazoo.

"Please join us for a time of remembrance and lament as we grieve those lost to the mass shooting spree, honor their memories, and find hope as a community," according to a facebook.com event. Childcare will be provided at the event.

So far, police have identified four of the victims as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda; Mary Jo Nye, 60, of Battle Creek; Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74, of Battle Creek; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek. All were killed in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo. An unidentified 14-year-old girl with the group is critically injured.

Tyler Smith, 17, was killed in the parking lot of Seelye Kia, 4102 Stadium Drive, along with his father, Rich, according to the Mattawan school district superintendent.

Police have not yet identified a woman who is hospitalized after being shot at Meadows Townhomes near Comstock.
Mary Jo Nye

KALAMAZOO, MI -- A 60-year-old woman who was one of six people killed in a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo County Saturday, Feb. 20, was a former teacher in Battle Creek, the Battle Creek Enquirer has reported.

Mary Jo Nye taught English at Calhoun Community High School. The school's assistant director, Tara Egnatuk, said Nye was an integral part of the school's founding. Nye retired

"She became like a mother to a lot of kids," Egnatuk told the Enquirer.

Police say Nye was the driver of a Chevrolet Cruze, who was killed along with Dorothy "Judy" Brown, 74, of Battle Creek, the rear driver-side passenger; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, of Battle Creek, the rear, passenger-side passenger. Also killed was Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Mich., the driver of a minivan.

Jason Brian Dalton, 45, of Cooper Township, was arrested without incident at 12:40 a.m. Sunday after allegedly beginning a series of shootings that began at 5:42 p.m. Saturday.

Police allege that he drove from place to place and shot a woman in Richland Township, two men at a Kalamazoo car dealership, and five at a restaurant in Texas Township. They believe he would have shot others if his vehicle had not been identified and stopped by a Kalamazoo County Sheriff's deputy.

A 14-year-old front-seat passenger of the Chevrolet is in critical condition at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. She was pronounced dead until she squeezed her mother's hand, police have said.

RELATED STORIES

* 2 Kalamazoo shooting victims were sisters-in-law, friends, college roommates

* High school senior from Mattawan killed in Kalamazoo mass shootings

* Kalamazoo mass shooting victim Dorothy Brown, 74: 'A sweet, sweet old lady'

* Names of mass shooting victims in Kalamazoo released

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
Update: This story has been updated to say Abigail Kopf was never declared brain dead, but that her heart had stopped beating.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- A 14-year-old girl who was among several people shot in a rampage in Kalamazoo was feared to be dead -- until she squeezed her mother's hand.

The girl was critically injured in a shooting that killed four others in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township, one of three shooting scenes where six people died Saturday night, Feb. 20,

Authorities early Sunday morning told the media she had died. At Bronson Methodist Hospital, her heart had stopped beating, and doctors had restored her heart beat. Then she squeezed her mother's hand.

Doctors, however, feared she could become brain dead. At her parents' request, they contacted Gift of Life in the event of organ donation, but had yet to perform tests to see if she had become brain dead, Bronson officials said Wednesday.

"She's in extremely critical condition but she's still clinging to life," Michigan State Police First Lt. Dale Hinz said Sunday morning. Authorities at a press conference Sunday clarified that the girl, later identified as Abigail Kopf, was still alive.

RELATED: Abigail Kopf not brain dead but 'alive and fighting for her life'

Hinz said the girl's mother was not at the restaurant with her, but the teen was with other family friends at the time of the shooting.

"The only word to describe it is wow," Hinz said of the girl being alive. "It's absolutely a miracle that she's alive and we're definitely hopeful for her continued improvement."

The shooting scenes threw Kalamazoo County into chaos late Saturday and early Sunday as police tried to make sense of the seemingly random murder spree.

Police arrested the suspect, Jason B. Dalton, 45, on Ransom Street near Porter Street on the downtown Kalamazoo's near north side at about 12:40 a.m.

Police in a press conference said Dalton did not resist police, and no officers were injured. A sheriff's deputy spotted the vehicle and Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers joined in, pulling Dalton over in a traffic stop.

KDPS Chief Jeff Hadley said after the arrest police wondered if there were perhaps other victims since the acts were so random, but at this point they are unaware of any other people who were shot during the murder spree.

"It's totally unprovoked, random acts of violence," he said. "We're still trying to figure out the motives."

Authorities for several hours Saturday worked the multiple shooting scenes.

Michigan State Police, Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department and the Kalamazoo Public Safety Department worked the multiple shooting scenes.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting during a news conference Sunday morning praised cooperation among police agencies. "There is no question in my mind that the police work that was done in this incident saved lives," he said.

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter.
KALAMAZOO, MI - As police responded to Saturday night's mass shooting spree that left seven people dead and another injured, students at nearby Western Michigan University slammed their university for not putting out an emergency safety alert.

Before a "strong suspect" was arrested about 12:40 a.m. Sunday, WMU students took to social media with a barrage of criticism, saying they had received no warning from the college that a gunman was driving around town, reportedly shooting people at random.

WMU alerts can notify me when there's a gas leak in the dorms but not when there's a mass shooter on the loose SMH  Stephen Cleland (@Sjcleland990) February 21, 2016

A man believed to be the gunman was arrested in the area of Ransom and Porter streets after he was followed by a deputy who spotted the car, police said.

Six people were gunned down at three separate locations, and police said a seventh victim - a teenage girl - died later at a local hospital, but then revised that information and said she is in critical condition.

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Western Michigan University President John Dunn said the university "failed" to promptly alert the campus community of a mass shooting suspect when it didn't issue an alert Saturday night.

Students at WMU slammed the university on social media for not putting out an emergency safety alert during the hunt for suspect Jason Brian Dalton, 45, of Cooper Township, Saturday.

Dunn issued a letter to the campus community just after 3 p.m. Sunday in response to the criticism:

To the Western Michigan University Campus Community:

We're tremendously saddened by the senseless acts of violence that occurred Feb. 20 and join the wider Kalamazoo county community in its grief. I know that all of you join me in offering our condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of this tragedy.

In the aftermath of the terrible incidents, many have raised questions about why we did not issue a WMU Alert to inform our campus community about the unfolding tragedy. Frankly, as we review information now surfacing, I understand the concern and respect the input.

Our WMU Alert system is set up to comply with the Clery Act and, as such, warn members of the WMU community of the existence of a credible threat to our campus and the people on it. Saturday's events occurred in three different county communities over a period of hours. It was 11:30 p.m. before our public safety officials were told the shootings were linked. Our public safety chief was on his way to an inter-agency briefing when the suspect was taken into custody at 12:40 a.m.

Two of the three incidents happened miles from the campus, and while these incidents were not linked until very late in the timeline, we need to make adjustments in our own procedures to respond to extraordinary circumstances.

Last night's incident clearly was one. We are looking carefully at our guidelines and the possibility of developing a public safety advisory covering a broader array of safety issues. We're also exploring more effective ways to use social media.

Clearly, we failed last night to provide adequate information and updates. We look forward to working with our student leaders, faculty and the University community to be much more responsive to the need for information and communication. To that end, I have scheduled a universitywide forum for 7 p.m. Monday in the East Ballroom of the Bernhard Center to provide information, respond to questions and seek additional input.

This is a community committed to learning, and we will learn from this incident and improve our campus alert measures moving forward.

Dr. John M. Dunn

President

Western Michigan University

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for MLive.com. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter
NORTON SHORES, MI - A fisherman fell through the ice on Little Black Lake, but clung on to the ice's edge long enough to be rescued Sunday morning, Feb. 21.

Lt. Ben Chartier of the Norton Shores Fire Department said that the man was hospitalized after being pulled out of the lake.

The Fire Department was dispatched at 10:40 a.m. to the lake, where the fisherman was found "still holding onto the ice shelf," according to Chartier.

Firefighters donned safety equipment before venturing out onto the ice for the rescue.

"It took us probably about half an hour to rescue him," Chartier said.

Other agencies responded to the emergency, including the Norton Shores Police Department, ProMed Ambulance, the U.S. Coast Guard from Muskegon, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Dive teams from the Muskegon County Sheriff and Norton Shores were initially dispatched, but called off en route.

Stephen Kloosterman is a reporter for MLive. Email him at sklooste@mlive.com or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

.
Christian audiences have felt a little burned lately by bad movies on biblical subjects. But one really good movie can change all that.

Ben Hur, The Robe, The Ten Commandments, Quo Vadis?who can forget the golden age of biblical films? But that was the 1950s, and this is 2016.

Biblically based movies these days often come across as, well, less than inspired. Writers and directors sometimes play fast and loose with the source material, leaving out crucial details and inventing some bizarre stuff. Worse, portrayals of God often come across as flippant or even blasphemous. And thats just not something I enjoy watching.

Well, I want to urge you to give the genre another chance. Because a film hitting theaters this weekend proves that swords-and-sandals productions based on the Bible can still hold their own against Ben Hur.

Risen, directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Joseph Fiennes, is the story of the manhunt for the corpse of Jesus Christ. Spoiler alert: They dont find it.

Fiennes plays a Roman tribune named Clavius. Hes tasked by Pontius Pilate with crucifying the latest batch of Jewish rabble and self-proclaimed messiahs. The only catch? One of them really is the Messiah.

Of course Clavius, a good Roman military man, doesnt think anything of Jesus. When the centurion at Golgotha admits, Surely this Man was the Son of God, Clavius lets him have it. Clavius is tough, and hes immune to Jewish superstitionthat is, until Sunday morning. For Clavius, thats when all Heaven breaks loose.

The tomb is empty, the guards arent talking, and the Disciples of Jesus are spreading the news that Hes come back to life. The high priest warns Pilate that theyll have an uprising on their hands if he doesnt put the resurrection story to rest. So Pilate sends Clavius on a grisly, CSI-style hunt for the body of Christ.

Thats when our tribune has an encounter that shakes his pagan worldview to the core. I have seen two things which cannot reconcile, he says. A man dead without question, and that same man alive again.

Everyone on our BreakPoint team whos seen the film loves it, not just because its a respectful and riveting portrayal of the gospel accounts, but because it shows an unbelievers crisis of faith when confronted by the Risen Lord.

In anticipation of Easter, I cannot think of a better reminder of how Christianity, as Tim Keller puts it, forces us to doubt our doubts. The empty tomb is the most startling fact of historysomething two millennia of skeptics have tried to explain away. But the evidence is just too strong. And Risen, like a good detective novel, follows that evidence where it leads.

For instance, the Roman officials and Jewish leaders had every motive to produce a body. Yet they couldnt. And Jesus Disciples had nothing to gain and everything to lose from lying about the Resurrection. But their transformation from cowards to spiritual conquerors testifies that they, like Fiennes fictional character, saw somethingor Someonewho rocked their worlds.

Joe Fiennes, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing on the Eric Metaxas Show, told BreakPoint that he expects this movie to touch audiences in a unique way precisely because it invites them to examine these events through the eyes of a non-believer.

I think Risen has the potential to spark a renaissance of solidly biblical movies. But more importantly, I think it will challenge audiences to confront, with Clavius, the question that defies doubters to this day: If Jesus is dead, then where is the body?

Go see  Risen . And take some unbelieving friends with you.

Risen is a breath of fresh air for moviegoers who have longed for a quality, biblical-themed movie that upholds the truth of Scripture rather than attacking it. Due to its unique approach, viewers get to experience the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through the eyes of an unbeliever.

The movie absolutely, positively affirms the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Having first read and reviewed the novel , I had the opportunity to watch the film twice before its release, in preparation for this review. It is difficult to write this evaluation without providing a spoiler, so allow me to get this obvious one out of the way at the beginning. The movie absolutely, positively affirms the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians do not need to worry about the film attacking the core of our faith.

Starring Joseph Fiennes (Martin Luther in the 2003 film Luther ) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series), Risen is a work of historical fiction , meaning it places fictional characters in the midst of a historical setting. It follows a Roman tribune named Clavius (Fiennes) who is stationed in Jerusalem during Christs Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Story

After a morning battle with a group of zealots led by Barabbas, Clavius is summoned by Pilate to make sure that the three people crucified that morning would be dead before sundown. Assisted by his beneficiarii Lucius (Felton), they head for Calvary when an earthquake shakes the city. Upon arriving, Clavius orders his soldiers to break the legs of the crucifixion victims. Since Jesus (called Yeshua in the film) appears to be dead already, and due to the wailing of some women in the crowd, Clavius orders a soldier to pierce His side with a spear instead of breaking His legs. Joseph of Arimathea arrives and shows Clavius a letter from Pilate granting Joseph the rights to the body of Jesus. They bury the body in Josephs tomb and roll the stone in place.

Jesus crucified along with other convicted criminals in Columbia Pictures Risen .

Pilate summons Clavius again the next morning. The Jewish authorities, including the high priest Caiaphas, are meeting with Pilate, requesting that a guard be posted outside the tomb. They want to make sure that none of the disciples of Jesus will attempt to steal the body and then proclaim that He rose from the dead, as He said He would ( Matthew 27:6266 ). Pilate orders the tomb to be sealed and guarded. Clavius personally sees to the sealing of the tomb, allowing a representative of the Jewish authorities to inspect the tomb first to see that the body of Jesus was still there. He then orders soldiers to stand watch for the night.

Early the next day, Pilate calls for Clavius again. He is furious that the tomb has been opened with the soldiers nowhere to be found, and that followers of Jesus are claiming that He is alive again. The chief priests arrive and tell Pilate that his soldiers came to them seeking their protection and claiming that the disciples came during the night and stole the body. Caiaphas asks Pilate to officially announce this claim, but Pilate wants proof. He commands Clavius to track down the body so that they can put an end to the talk of a risen Messiah.

Thus, the story is set up. Clavius must comb through Jerusalem in a search for the body of Jesus, investigating the evidence. He visits the empty tomb and examines the scene. They search Jewish cemeteries to see if any recently crucified men had been buried there. Through a series of interviews with those who have been heard speaking about the Resurrection, Clavius determines that the disciples are the keyfind the disciples and hell find the body. Clavius eventually locates the disciples and gets much more than he ever bargained for as he comes face-to-face with the truth. Review

The films director, Kevin Reynolds ( Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Count of Monte Cristo ), has put together an enjoyable and unique film. The acting, score, and sets were very well done, and the scenery (filmed in Spain and Malta) is beautiful. The movies PG-13 rating is due to the corpses shown during Clavius investigation and the violence in the opening battle scene, which is somewhat mild compared to most action movies. Parents with young children will want to consider these factors when thinking about taking the family to the movie.

Some Christians may wonder why the movie doesnt show every detail about these events found in the Gospels. For example, Risen does not show the trials or beatings of Jesus, and it does not show all of the post-Resurrection appearances. While many of these things are discussed, they arent shown because the movie is shown through the perspective of Clavius. If he didnt see these things, then they are not included. This does not mean that the filmmakers deny these events; it only means that they were not part of Clavius story.

A great strength of this film is that Clavius is forced to investigate the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus.

A great strength of this film is that Clavius is forced to investigate the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus. He cannot simply ignore the evidence, pretending it doesnt exist as so many skeptics do today. Jesus Mythers ignorantly proclaim that Jesus was not even a real person , and that the ideas about Him were copied from pagan deities despite the fact that no fewer than 17 ancient non-Christian sources (Jewish, Roman, and Gnostic) discuss Jesus as a real person in Israel in the first century AD. When we add the Holy-Spirit-inspired writings of the New Testament authors, we have at least 25 ancient sources for the life of Jesus, including the infallible Word of God.

Because of Clavius investigation, viewers are presented with some basic apologetic arguments for the truth of the Resurrection, such as the changed lives of the disciples, the empty tomb, and the inability of critics to develop a reasonable alternative that accounts for the facts that even the majority of skeptical scholars accept . Skeptics should not assume that a complete defense of the Resurrection is provided in this film. Much more could be said to defend this precious truth (see Risen Without a Doubt , a brand new six-disc, in-depth study on the Crucifixion and Resurrection).

Making Sense of the Unexpected

One of the most moving scenes in the film occurs when Clavius confronts one of the soldiers he had stationed at the tomb. To allow them to promote their claim that the disciples stole the body while they allegedly slept at the tomb, the soldiers are pardoned by Pilate. Clavius tracks one of them to a local tavern and notices the man has suddenly come into some money, confirming Clavius suspicions that the soldiers were paid off by the Jewish authorities. Here, the visibly shaken soldier pleads with Clavius to help him make sense of what he witnessed at the tomb the morning of the Resurrection. The stone rolled away and the brightest light he could imagine filled the tomb, causing the soldiers to run in fear.

This scene underscores how people usually interpret evidence in a way consistent with their worldview. The description troubled Clavius because it brought further confirmation for what once seemed impossible but now was becoming evidentthe disciples were telling the truth about Jesus rising from the dead. The deeply troubled soldier from the tomb struggled to make sense within his own worldview of what he knew he saw that morning. Figuring It Out

The behavior of the disciples will probably seem a little strange to some viewers, but I appreciated the way they were portrayed. At this point in their lives, they were not mature leaders writing epistles to established churches. They had just been devastated by the Lords Crucifixion and then overcome with joy at His Resurrection. The Holy Spirit had not been sent at Pentecost yet. What did all of the recent events mean? What were they expected to do?

Risen shows the disciples sincerely intent on following Jesus but unsure of what to do next. Bartholomew can barely contain his excitement even though he has been brought in for questioning. We see one of them attempting to share the good news on the Galilean seashore, and we see them interacting awkwardly with a Gentile. Peter has to admit his inability to answer certain theological questions about Jesus. While part of the artistic license in the film, these are all believable scenarios, and I often found their portrayal refreshing. Caveats

As a work of historical fiction, Risen necessarily utilizes artistic license.

As a work of historical fiction, Risen necessarily utilizes artistic license, and it is in this area that some Christians may have a problem with the film. Obviously, Clavius is not mentioned by name in Scripture, although there was surely a soldier in charge of affairs at the Crucifixion. Similarly, the entire concept of a manhunt to find the Lords body is not mentioned in Scripture. But just because the Bible doesnt mention one, does not mean that it did not happenPilate and the Jewish leaders would have had plenty of reasons for wanting to find the body. So the storyline is plausible at many points.

A handful of inaccuracies appear in the film, but they do not undermine key biblical doctrines. Instead, the imprecisions are found on secondary matters (if such a thing can be said about Scripture). For example, in the film, the Lords appearance to the disciples with Thomas present ( John 20:26 ) occurs approximately four days after the Resurrection rather than eight days later as mentioned by the Bible. This was likely done to keep the suspense and pacing of the film, but it isnt accurate. A few more timing and location issues could be cited, but that would require giving away spoilers.

The depiction of Mary Magdalene was a little disappointing, since the filmmakers followed the traditional idea that she was a former prostitute. The Bible does reveal that she was a woman from whom Jesus had cast seven demons ( Luke 8:2 ). While it is possible that she had been a woman of the street (the term used in the film), the Bible does not clearly tell us this, and she had certainly become a faithful follower of Christ by the time of His Crucifixion and Resurrection. I thought the film played up this aspect a little too much.

Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) and Lucius (Tom Felton) execute orders from Pontius Pilate in Columbia Pictures Risen , in theaters nationwide February 19, 2016. Recommendation

Conservative Christians have grown wary of Hollywood portrayals of biblical people and events, and rightly so. Some recent Hollywood movies centered on biblical events have been woefully inaccurate with directors seemingly intent on attacking Scripture and defaming Gods character (see Noah and, to a lesser extent, Exodus: Gods and Kings ). It would be entirely unfair to compare the inaccuracies on minor issues in Risen to the outright assault on Scripture and Gods character seen in these other films. For example, in the scene where Jesus appears to the disciples with Thomas present, Risen shows this as a real miraculous event. One gets the impression that these other films, had they dealt with the same subject matter, would have severely twisted the event or denied it altogether. Kevin Reynolds has made an excellent film while treating the overall biblical message and the beliefs of Christians with respect.

I highly recommend Risen for Christians and non-Christians alike.

In my first viewing of the movie, I watched with the primary intent of trying to find mistakes and red flags. Other than the issues cited above, it was excellent. A few days later, I watched it again with the goal of simply watching it as a movie, and I absolutely loved it.

I highly recommend Risen for Christians and non-Christians alike. Since the Resurrection is often neglected or thrown in as an afterthought to discussions about the Cross, I am thrilled that it is the central focus of an excellent movie. The film provides a wonderful opportunity to discuss the most important events in human history with unbelievers, which naturally leads to a presentation of the gospel itself.
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Weeping dominated the one-week rites for the late Member of Parliament (MP) of Abuakwa North, Mr J.B. Danquah-Adu, in Accra Thursday, but the event was not without controversy.

While the formal ceremony, attended by dignitaries, including the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur; the 2016 presidential candidate of the

NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and almost all those who matter in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was ongoing, a number of people from the Abuakwa North Constituency invoked curses on people who they alleged killed the MP.

Some of the constituents held eggs and bottles of Schnapps, poured libation and called the deities in the Abuakwa area to deal with all those who had a hand in the murder of the MP.

The NPP legislator was stabbed to death at his residence at Shiashie in Accra on February 8, 2016.

Curses

'No justice, no peace', the group from Akyem Tafo and its environs chanted as some of them positioned themselves near a stand on which a framed photograph of Mr Danquah-Adu had been placed.

It took the National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Mr Sammy Awuku, and other party functionaries to talk the group out of the main funeral ground, leaving only the leader of the group, a man dressed in a black smock and togas, with a big red cloth wrapped around his neck and holding a pot covered with a red cloth, to break the eggs and pour libation to invoke the deities to deal with the culprit.

About an hour after they had been persuaded to move from the main funeral grounds, the members of the group returned under the leadership of the man who later identified himself as Thompson Oduro to state what he described as their message to the nation.

'If the truth does not come out, there will be no peace. He was the husband of widows and the father of orphans. He was everything to us in Abuakwa North, Okyeman and the country.

'Evil people conspired to kill him. We summon anyone involved and anyone who bears false witness in the death of J.B. before all the water bodies in Okyeman. We summon you before all the water bodies in Ghana,' he said in Twi, to cheers from the crowd.

Although one person had been arrested in connection with the murder and had confessed to the crime, Mr Oduro said the group had no confidence in the police investigations so far.

He asked for the burial of the late MP in his home town and added that they would ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo had 90 per cent of the votes in the constituency.

Mourners

Among the mourners was the widow of the late MP, Mrs Ivy Danquah-Adu.

Flanked by two women who took turns to console her, she sat quietly, with her hands buried in her black cloth. Tradition would not permit her to shake hands. Occasionally, she wiped her face with a white hankerchief or nodded to those around her.

Although the occasion was sorrowful, the event was full of colour and a display of Akyem culture.

A group of Kete dancers twisted and turned to the sound of the drums, occasionally drawing cheers and applause from the crowd.

Although Nana Akufo-Addo arrived to a rapturous welcome, it was the Okyeman Apagyahene, Nana Asante Bediatuo, who stole the show.

Nana Bediatuo, who arrived in the company of Barima Kwaku Duah, the Okyehenenananomhene, could not resist a few dance steps.

His body gestures and facial expression managed to elicit a nod and a smile from the widow, probably the only one for the day.

The arrival of the embattled Chairman of the NPP, Mr Paul A. Afoko, also brought the event to a standstill.

Tributes

Writing in a book of condolence opened for the late MP, Mr Amissah-Arthur paid his tribute: 'This is one crime that is impossible to explain. The motive is lost to almost everybody. All we know is that it has terminated the life of a promising man. A career has been cut short. Ghana is the loser. We sympathise with the family and pray that they will be able to carry on. May J.B. Danquah rest in peace.'

A three-time failed presidential aspirant of the NPP, Mr John Alan K. Kyerematen, described the late MP as an enterprising entrepreneur.

'Looking at what J.B. did for his constituents, I think he is a good example of what young professionals can do to support the development of the country if they go into politics.

'One outstanding thing about him was that he was able to relate to everybody, in spite of their political allegiance. That is what we need in the politics of our country,' Mr Kyerematen said of the departed legislator.

The MP for Okaikoi Central, Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, told the Daily Graphic that the late MP was the voice of private sector businesses in Parliament.

'He was such a fine gentleman. His death will create a vacuum in Parliament for the private sector,' he added.

Among National Democratic Congress MPs who graced the occasion were the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr Alfred Agbesi; the MP for Builsa North and the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere.
Niamey (AFP) - Niger's voters go to the polls Sunday for a presidential election that has all the makings of a political thriller -- including a jailed candidate facing baby-trafficking charges, a failed military coup and fears of jihadist attacks.

A vast desert nation blessed with immense riches of uranium, gold, iron and oil but reputedly the poorest on the planet, Niger is electing a head of state, as well as a new parliament, with outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou hoping for a second five-year term.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Issoufou said he was "absolutely" confident of victory and predicted a runoff second-round vote would not even be needed, pointing to his campaign slogan "Promises met".

He says he has met his pledges on growth and infrastructure, while shoring up security in the face of attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, Mali and Libya.

Known as the "Zaki" or "lion" in Hausa, the majority language in Niger, Issoufou, a 63-year-old mathematician and mining engineer turned politician, faces a total of 14 rivals including a particularly tough challenge from two former prime ministers and an ex-president.

Should he fail to snatch a first-round victory, his main rivals have struck a deal to back whoever scores highest amongst them in the hope of ditching the president.

- The Phoenix in prison -

Security was expected to be tight with security forces "patrolling with 1,000 vehicles nationwide, 24 hours a day", said Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou.

Heading the opposition pack is 66-year-old Hama Amadou, who is campaigning from behind bars after being arrested in November on his return from exile in France over his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal.

Amadou, a former premier and parliament speaker, heads the Nigerien Democratic Movement (NDM) whose members were tear-gassed by police earlier this month after gathering in their thousands to support the prisoner-candidate, known as "the Phoenix" for his ability to rise from the ashes.

Fellow candidate Seini Oumarou, of the National Movement for the Society of Development (NMSD), is nicknamed "the wise man" and was runner-up to Issoufou in the last 2011 presidential race.

He also served as premier to charismatic president Mamadou Tandja, who was overthrown by the army in 2010 after 10 years at the helm.

Also among the favourites is Niger's first-ever democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, 66, who is making his fourth bid to step back into the job since his 1993 election.

Defence remains a top budget priority in the impoverished nation, amid the threat of raids by jihadist groups in the remote north and attacks by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists on the southeast border.

In December, the government said it had foiled an attempted military coup. Twelve soldiers and a civilian have since been arrested.

Moussa Tchangari, a leading civil society and opposition figure who heads "Alternative Espace Citoyen", a rights and development group, fears there could be trouble.

"Everyone is afraid the outcome could be exceptionally serious," he said.

Like Tchangari, traditional leaders and religious groups have also issued calls for calm.

- Voting without ID -

In a country where multi-party democracy dates back only to 1990, the 18 million residents have been dealing with entrenched poverty as well as military coups.

Three quarters of Niger's people survive on less than two dollars a day and desertification, driven by climate change, is pushing struggling rural people into towns.

The UN expects two million people will need food aid this year in Niger, which has the world's highest fertility rate and where the average age is just 15.

Tensions are also running high after Niger's top court approved a controversial plan to allow voters to cast their ballots without identity papers, sparking an opposition outcry Saturday on the eve of the presidential and legislative polls.

The proposal, submitted by the government, allows people to vote without any ID as long as they are accompanied by two people who can vouch for their identity.

A total of 7.5 million people are eligible to vote, with results due within five days.
Moroni (Comoros) (AFP) - Voters in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros began casting their ballots for a new president Sunday from a crowded field of 25 candidates, with a struggling economy and poor infrastructure high on the agenda.

Polling stations in the country of less than one million people officially opened at 0400 GMT, although some were delayed by the late arrival of voting materials.

Among those competing in the first-round poll are a former coup leader and the vice president.

Only voters on Grande Comore island will cast their ballots on Sunday under an unusual electoral system that decrees the president is selected on a rotating basis from one of the three major islands.

The three leading contenders will then compete in a nationwide vote on April 10 that will decide the successor to President Ikililou Dhoinine.

Dhoinine comes from the smallest island, Moheli. The other island is Anjouan.

The system was established in 2001 in a bid to bring stability after more than 20 coups, or attempted coups, in the decades following independence from France in 1975.

Among the prominent candidates are Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, Mouigni Baraka, the governor of Grande Comore, and Azali Assoumani, who led a coup in 1999 and is a two-time former president.

Moinaecha Youssouf Djalali, a businesswoman, is the only female candidate, in a country where the vast majority of people are Sunni Muslims.

Dhoinine's completion of his five-year term has been seen as a sign of growing stability in Comoros, though many candidates have raised fears of electoral fraud when voting gets under way.

"Real efforts are being made by the election commission and international actors to ease any political or social tensions," said European Union representative Eduardo Campos Martins.

Nadia Tourqui, consultant to the UN, added however that there were "a lot of suspicions" surrounding the poll.

In order to calm tensions, the electoral commission on Saturday agreed to a request from 20 candidates to ban proxy voting, seen as a possible source of fraud, "to preserve the peace".

On Sunday, voters will also be forbidden from leaving the island's capital Moroni or moving between villages unless they have an official pass "to avoid double voting", the interior ministry announced.
21.02.2016 LISTEN

If we lived in the best of worlds, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with the Eavesdropping Bill being presently debated by our legislators in Parliament that is aimed at listening in on the telephone conversations of Ghanaian citizens, as well as empowering the governing to open up suspicious pieces of mail envelopes and parcels, for national security purposes (See Row Over Eavesdrop BillMedia Foundation Urges Mass Protest The Chronicle 2/19/16). Well, those of us who are old enough to remember know fully well that our parcels and letters have been tampered with since the introduction of this modern communication system in the country, but it was often about postal agents stealing our valuables and enriching themselves and crushing our dreams and aspirations than protecting Ghanaian citizens from terrorism or money laundering, as the Mahama posse would have the rest of us believe.

We are also told that among the purposes for which the bill is being debated, with the ultimate aim of being passed into law, is to fight crime, including money laundering, terrorism, narcotic trafficking and identity theft for the general protection of Ghanaians. The fact of the matter, though, is that the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the chief sponsor of the bill, is the most reckless and dangerous government in the nearly 60 years of Ghanas postcolonial history. This is a government that has contracted with Washington to serve as a beneficent host by using Ghana as an ideal haven for the resettlement of Arabo-Islamist terrorists being discharged from the U.S. Navy-sponsored Guantanamo Bays Maximum-Security Prison, not because these hardcore foot-soldier terrorists no longer pose any serious threat to civilized society, but primarily because as part of his 2008 presidential campaign platform, then-Senator and Candidate Barack Obama promised American voters that the Gitmo Prison had become an inexcusable moral eyesore to the consciences of the citizens of the worlds most powerful democracy and needed to be promptly dismantled as a means of cleansing the flagrantly blighted soul of this enviable global model of freedom and justice.

In essence, it is rather ironic for anybody to smugly suppose that a government that has made it a major cornerstone of its development agenda of packing Ghana chock-full with Saudi-born Yemeni terrorists is really interested in protecting its citizens against any acts of violence generated or perpetrated by such pathologically anti-Christian terrorist organizations as ISIS/ISIL, Taliban and Al-Qaeda. More poignantly stated, the Eavesdropping Bill would make far better sense if it was primarily and specifically targeted against the secretive and disdainful President Mahama and his cabinet of deliberately waffling congenital liars and, perhaps, even the entire parliamentary contingent of the ruling National Democratic Congress. And on the latter score ought to be underscored the fact that the incontrovertibly grave decision to resettle Messrs. Bin-Atef and Al-Dhubyin the country was deliberately undertaken by President Mahama on the blind side of both Ghanas Parliament and the electorate at large.

In other words, what we have here is a bizarre  to speak much less about the patently criminal  case of Ghanaians being offensively and outrageously punished for naively allowing themselves to be taken for granted, or a ride, by being abjectly disrespected by their elected officials and leaders. On the latter score, Ghanaians could be aptly described as a people who have our priorities in reverse. In sum, if Ghanaians were that jealous of our hard-fought and won liberties, we would be preparing to impeach and throw out President Mahama and his cabinet as soon as this ill-intentioned bill that is squarely aimed at returning us to a neocolonialist political culture is passed and enacted into law.

On the question of us citizens protection against narcotic drug-trafficking, the very fact that Ms. NayeleAmetefe was able to board a British Airways flight to London, some two years ago, through the VVIP or Presidential Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport, with the full support, guidance and protection of our national security operatives, ought to inform Ghanaians, in no uncertain terms, that it is the Mahama government, and not themselves, which they need to be protected from, rather than naively expecting to be protected by the very government of the National Democratic Congress that has been secretly collaborating with foreign agents and their assigns to callously, viciously and unconscionably endanger our lives.

The question of money laundering has the same shade and coloration as that of drug-trafficking, which is that only rich and powerful politicians and their associates have been known to be studiously engaged in this most economically exploitative and immitigably unpatriotic act of criminality. And so what is all this bunk talk about the protection of the general Ghanaian public when, in reality, this bill is fundamentally about the drastic abridgement of our freedom of expression and our inalienable right to dialogical privacy? Then also, how protective is this flagrantly devious backdoor attempt to reintroduce the Akufo-Addo-crafted and implemented savvy proscription of the Criminal Libel Law?

The good news here is that now Ghanaians have a clear-cut choice, going into Election 2016, between their certain return to theslavo-colonial days, as starkly and unabashedly represented by President John DramaniMahama and his so-called government of the National Democratic Congress, on the one hand, and governance in freedom and prosperity under an Akufo-Addo leadership come January 2017, on the other.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Well, you'll be glad to hear it is a most happy one! A prediction that was made on paper 100 years ago by the greatest scientist the world has produced, Albert Einstein, has just been confirmed as correct by physicists using modern ultra-sensitive radio telescopes, lasers and other apparatus.

You mean, for 100 years, people read Einstein's theory and couldn't prove it?

- - Precisely. Let me quote the Washington Post newspaper about the significance of what has just happened:

QUOTE:

By Sarah Kaplan February 12 2016

From Aristotle to Einstein, the world's greatest minds have long theorized about gravity... [Now, a] chirp has been heard with radio telescopes that] is bright and bird-like, its pitch rising at the end as though its asking a question. To an untrained ear, it resembles a sound effect from a video game more than the faint, billion-year-old echo of the collision of two black holes.

But to the trained ear of experimental physicists, it is the opening note of a cosmic symphony. [The discovery that was made on Thursday 11 February 2016] opens up a new field of scientific research, one in which physicists listen for the secrets of the universe rather thanlookingfor them.

Until this moment, we had our eyes on the sky and we couldnt hear the music, said Columbia University astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka, a member of the discovery team that made the observation at [the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) at two huge structures situated in Washington and Louisiana.] The sky will never be the same again! [she added].

[The] moment of revelation has its roots a century earlier, in 1916, when Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves as part of his ground-breaking theory of general relativity. The intervening years included brush-offs,.., false hope and reversals of opinion [plus] an unlikely decision to take a $272 million risk. UNQUOTE

It was actually in 1915 that Albert , Einstein gave a series of lectures on his General Theory of Relativity, asserting that space and time form a continuum that gets distorted by anything with mass. The effect of that warping is gravity  the force that compels everything, from light to planets, to apples dropping from a tree, to follow a curved path through space. This theory was reduced to the most mazing three words in science: space is curved!

The next year  1916  Einstein theorised that gravitational waves are something of a corollary to the earlier general theory of relativity. If space-time is the fabric of the Universe, then huge events in the cosmos  like a pair of black holes banging into each other  must send ripples through it, the way the fabric of a trampoline would vibrate if you bounced two bowling balls onto it. Those ripples, Einstein predicted, are gravitational waves which exist all around us, causing time and space to minutely squeeze and expand without us ever noticing. Theyre so weak as to be almost undetectable, and yet, according to Einsteins mathematical calculations, they must be there.

And a century after Einstein hypothesized that gravitational waves exist, have now tracked such waves. When he was asked what he would have done if measurements made in 1919 had discredited his theory, Einstein replied: In that case, I would have to feel sorry for God, because the theory is correct.

In other words, in Einstein's eyes, God would have been a poor mathematician!

Well, Einstein' had been right all along: successive experiments proved other aspects of general relativity to be true, until all but one were validated. No one, not even Einstein, could find EVIDENCE of gravitational waves. In the end, even Einstein himself had doubts.

But meanwhile, engineers were trying to build apparatuses that could detect the tiny ripples that would be made by gravitational waves  if they truly existed, in accordance with Einstein's prediction..However, people were also inclined to believe that gravitational-wave hunters were all liars.

One of the scientists who were not bothered by such scepticism and worked hard to to try and prove that gravitational waves existed was Prof Rainer Weiss. Now 83, he was then a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rainer Weiss (the Nobel Prize for Physics is his, no?) tried to think of the simplest way to explain to his students how gravitational waves might be detected, and came up with this: Build an immense, L-shaped tunnel with each leg an equal length and a mirror at the far ends, Then install two lasers in the crook of the L. Next send beams of laser light through the tunnels.

The beams of light should travel down the tunnels, bounce off the mirrors, and return to their origin at the same time. But if a gravitational wave was passing through, space-time would be slightly distorted, and one light beam would arrive before the other. If you then measure that discrepancy, you can figure out theshape of the wave, then play it back as audio. Suddenly, youre listening to a recording of the universe.

That idea would eventually become the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), where the discovery was announced on 11 February 2016. The next step will be to hear the gravitational waves created by the Big Bang itself  the origin of the Universe!

What a day that will be!
21.02.2016 LISTEN

Once upon a time, there was a story attributable to the appearance of an Angel of God before three people: a Mallam, Evangelist, and an Atheist. The Angel asked them to make a wish that would ensure peaceful co-existence among their people.

The Mallam said he would wish that one religion prevailed, and no single Christians remained on the face of the earth. The Evangelist said he would wish that every Muslim perished from the face of the earth; while the Atheist said, I shall be well pleased if you will attend to the wishes of these two.

Metaphorically, this story depicts the height of Political intolerance, and factional divide that is currently pervading our society in general, particularly, in New Patriotic Party. This situation must pose a serious concern to peace loving people of our great country, while some of our leaders or politicians remain indifferent.

According to our biblical readings, a letter from St. Paul to the Ephesians (2: 19-22) extols us to regard one another as fellow citizens of the household of God or Allah, as the case may be, and not as strangers or visitors in our own land!

There should be no room whatsoever for discrimination among the people of God, if we actually believe in what we profess as true Christians or true Muslims.

In New Patriotic, everyone should feel a sense of belonging, irrespective of wherever we found ourselves. There should be no excuse for favoritism, mediocrity, and discrimination in the appointment of people to serve their party.

As people of One Party, and as true Christians and Muslims, we are supposed to be each others keeper in the household of God; it should remain that way in practical terms wherever we found ourselves.

It stands to reason that if the Flagbearer of NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo wants a Change, being the watch-word of his New Patriotic Party, invariably; he must strive assiduously to dismantle every barrier that cuts across the people of NPP first and Ghana as a whole.

Regrettably, so far, there is little or no sign for such happening, but all hope is not gone. However, the late Martin Luther King Jr. said, Either we live together in fraternity or we perish together as fools. A word is enough for the wise, is a popular adage!

Anyways, if you are asking what I meant by political intolerance, here you are with my take; political tolerance means accepting and respecting the basic rights and civil liberties of persons and groups whose viewpoints differ from one's own. All citizens, including political leaders, have a responsibility to practice political tolerance in their words and actions. As a clear rejection of "might makes right," political tolerance is a key principle of democracy.

As an ideal, democracy upholds that members of the society should treat each other, and be treated, as equals. Underlying democracy is the acceptance and respect of the other. Democratic life is both the right to differ as well as the acceptance of such difference by all. Democracy implies respect for the plurality of views and virtues of dialogue as a means of resolving conflict.

Political intolerance is engendered by a willingness to restrict the rights of a disliked person or group based on their differing views. It represents a threat to democracy since it discriminates against and may even silence certain parts of the population. Intolerance creates a conformist culture and a closed society, which narrows citizens perceptions of politics and shapes their subsequent behavior.

A culture of tolerance involves debate and dynamic exchanges of opinions and arguments, whereby people can learn from others, get closer to the truth, and benefit from a vital public life. Developing a culture of tolerance is a long term undertaking that removes the roots of intolerance and is necessary for the democratic process.
A 20-year-old unemployed has been sentenced to five (5) years imprisonment in hard labour by the Tarkwa Circuit Court for possessing firearms without authority.

The accused person Charles Frimpong, pleaded guilty and he was convicted on his own plea.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah told the court presided over by His Honour Mr. Justice Emmanuel Bart Plange Brew that complainant are Asankra Breman neighborhood watch committee.

He narrated that in recent time, there has been robbery incident within asankra breman and its environs so the communities there decided to organized night patrols.

Detective chief inspector Oscar Amponsah said, on 23rd and 26th day of January this year, during their patrols accused Salifu Alale who is now at large was spotted in the community with a bag and on seeing them, abandoned the bag and fled into the bush.

The prosecutor said the bag was taken from the scene by the complainant and when searched, it was found to contain three manufactured pistols. Accused Salifu Alale was pursued but could not be arrested.

Detective Amponsah said upon a tip of accused Charles Frimpong was arrested as an accomplice and when interrogated in the presence of independent witness, he admitted the exhibits belongs to him and that he gave the weapons to Salifu Alale now at large.

Court has ordered police to destroy the pistols retrieved.
Beware! This revolutionary piece of writing cannot be imbibed by shallow minds, for one may need the mindset of an intellectual to fully construe the mystery to be unravelled. But I pray the Lord grants you rare understanding as you read the unfolding content of this powerful write-up. So I now ask the assembly of Ghanaian students: Are you geniuses or you are dying to be excellent students? Some say Sir Article is a writer of genius - it stands out a mile.

This makes me more competent to dissect the contentious matter in hand, as I embody the soul of a genius. And after grasping a sacred revelation barely two years ago upon completing high school; I think less of becoming an excellent student, but I think more of upgrading my genius by leaps and bounds. That is why I look weird as a result, and yours truly is tempted to say that, "I am a member of the lucky sperm club," as Donald J. Trump says.

Folks, the world is fast advancing and this makes the dynamics of globalisation murky to a large extent. My motherland Ghana, a so called third-world country, through its backward-looking schooling system, places a premium on academic excellence. Almost all Ghanaian homes compel their wards to aim at being excellent students rather than the geniuses Ghana needs and God wants them to be. Ghana in this postcolonial era with its grossly unrefined educational structure, has groomed millions of excellent students.

Yet our societal problems still exist and are even escalating in the midst of the many best graduates we have produced in our underdeveloped system over the years. This shows that the dimensions of our problems require pure genius, not ordinary academic excellence, to fix them. Well, believe me, a chunk of these excellent students and best graduates are not geniuses to say the least. I mean, they are actually lacking in creativity, intellect, passion and wisdom, all in surpassing proportions.

Donald J. Trump did not mince words when he wrote in "Think Like a Champion" that, "Champions are born and champions are made." Likewise, geniuses are born and geniuses are made. You can be the genius you were born to be, for genius is not the preserve of the ruling elite. Okay, who is a genius? Wikipedia defines a genius as a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge.

According to forbes.com, "...real geniuses, who are among the top 2% of our nation's [probably America] population, often times are the ones to defy the status quo..." Geniuses are noted for taking risks, defying the odds and daring to be different. And geniuses are mostly deemed to be intellectually crazy in the eyes of the general public. At least I know I am a living testimony to these two descriptions.

Moreover, I need not remind you that Albert Einstein, Kantanka, Mozart, Mark Zuckerberg, Messi etc. are all certified geniuses in their respective fields. As an undergraduate in a Ghanaian university, I find our academic society suppressible towards my spirit of genius. The school expects me to attain a "first class" on my CGPA, but I believe and live otherwise as a typical genius. In fact, I do not consider myself to be a student anymore, though people think I am since I am schooling. I am a writing genius, rightly educating my soul to perfectly master the art of writing as per the dynamics of globalisation.

Frankly speaking, many excellent students end up being unemployed or poor after graduating from the university. Why? Such people are not geniuses (this globalised world is ruled by geniuses) at any skill, talent, gift or potential. All they could achieve were excellent certificates which readily determine their value through employment. Can you imagine that these individuals have not read priceless books by incredible writers? No wonder I call them schooled jokers in this 21st Century.

I personally feel ashamed for reading 6 inspirational books by writers of genius such as Donald J. Trump, Rob Yeung, Napoleon Hill etc. in the last 6 months. Ha-ha, it sounds impressive to you per my age as a 19 year old and educational level as a first-year undergraduate, but I am really not satisfied with it. Thank God even excellent students get mesmerised by my seemingly unparalleled level of intelligence, and they know I am non-academically super brilliant. Look! Geniuses are extremely curious, passionate, decisive, versatile, defiant, perfection oriented and avid readers. I always say that my value as a writing genius is simply incalculable since I practise writing far beyond what Communications Studies or English students are capable of. Yes, I am clearly delivering on my mission statement - to meet the knowledge needs of our society - as a writer of genius. Besides, geniuses in all other spheres of influence are solving problems to better their societies.

Source: sirarticle.blogspot.com
Information from reliable sources craving anonymity, whose tips are always credible, have indicated that Warri High Chief General Ekpemupolo aka General Tompolo may order his boys to blow up more pipelines and plunge the nation into oil crisis if soldiers who have invaded Gbaramutu Kingdom in search of him, and ransacking the whole creeks, is not withdrawn.

The High Court sitting in Lagos had earlier in January sought for the arrest of the charges of corruption in excess of N30 Billion naira. Tompolo, fearing humiliating arrest and detention, had through his lawyer, defied the court directives and failed to answer to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) investigations. The same court has listed his properties for auction if he fails to surrender.

I alluded in an earlier piece titled War in the Creeks as Buhari, Tompolo Alliance Crumbles that Tompolo had boasted to groups of people two months before the renewed Biafra protests of November 2015, why he cannot support Kanu when a big masquerade called Buhari had already begged him to pipe low. At that time Kanu was still posting his hate messages from London, Therefore, before that Biafran struggle too off, many ingredients were already compromised, including Tompolo factor.

I also explained in the piece that militant leader Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo took his luck too far. Tompolo equated his alliance with Buhari to mean that he has the license from the Muslim North to do as he likes. Tompolo started harassing every political opponent who fails to worship Him, his views and his God. He arrogated to himself the status of a Niger Delta Godfather, and this did not go down well with some sources within the ruling party.

This alliance crumbled because Tompolo failed to remove his hand from the Bayelsa Gubernatorial elections, and bent on supporting Dickson. The duo of ex-governor Rotimi Amechi and Timipre Sylva decided that the Tompolo factor in Niger Delta politics will have to end. EFCC which had opened a case file onhim since August last year, suddenly renewed efforts to capture him, especially after the ruling APC lost the Bayelsa elections. Human rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo, sworn enemy of Tompolo, who is also EFCC counsel, is laughing last.

The blown pipelines in Warri and Port Harcourt were largely attributed to him, though he has vehemently denied. Information at my modest disposal shows that he knows something about the blown pipelines. His boys did the job, but probably out of overzealousness, not on instructions from him.

The issue of Tompolo has divided Niger Delta Militants. Ramsey Mukoro, a prominent militant leader warning on Tompolo issue described it as witch-hunt. According to Mukoro none of us is happy with what is happening to Tompolo and other Ijaw people who served under Jonathan, it is a tribal witch-hunt Iwere Peace Movement, a group advocating for Ijaw Nation and through Mr. Merie Oritsejolomi and Johnbull Deghele Omadeli warned against the Tompolo crisis. According to the group We see the EFCC charges against Tompolo as a plot to arrest him and keep him in detention like the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr Nnamdi Kanu and the former National Security Adviser,NSA, Sambo Dasuki and murder him in detention.

Another Niger Delta warlord, Mr Africanus Ukparasia also known as General Africa has dismissed the Tompolo threat and given government the assurances that there is nothing can do to destabilize the region, He even offered to help the security agencies dismantle the Tompolo factor. General Africa is still relevant in Niger Delta struggle.

Tompolo have been hiding in the creeks, though he has been sighted at Asaba Government House recently, and sighted in few places in Warri and Sapele, the military have not been able to capture him.

Tompolo knows what will happen if they catch him. He will most probably be handcuffed, dumped into underground cells, forced to make confessional statements and paraded like a criminal in the courts. The case of Olisa Metuh, Nnamdi Kanu, Raymond Dokpesi and Sambo Dasuki is an indication that Tompolo will be finished off.

From his hiding place Tompolo had issued fresh warning to Buhari few days ago. According to the outbursts from the warlord You cant send soldiers to destroy a community, arrest young men and rape women in the name of searching for Tompolo. If they claim that everybody in the Ijaw land is a criminal, does it also mean that everybody in the north is a member of Boko Haram?

The dilemma is that if Tompolo surrenders, humiliation untold will accompany him. Ibori may be better than him. If Tompolo fights back, the nation will burn but Gbaramutu Kingdom will be another case of human rights violations in the hands of security agencies. If Tompolo capitulates, the Niger Delta struggle will be buried because this man has enough influence to marshal out formidable forces more than the rest of the groups.

Tompolo have vowed to fight back. From what I gathered, has put his people on red alert in such a manner that if anything untoward happens to him, hell will be let loose on oil installations in such a manner that soldiers will be taken by surprise. To the best of my knowledge, he is ready to wreck more havoc, and is not ready to be humiliated like Nnamdi Kanu.

What options do Tompolo or correctly put what options do the Niger Deltans have because the embattled militant is a major factor in the Niger Delta struggle. Any humiliation of Tompolo is the humiliation of Niger Delta. It will bring joy and confidence to the bruised ego of Joint Military Patrols and Task Force, whose jobs of policing the creeks were re-assigned to the militant. Soon it will be the turn of Asari Dokubo, and other warlords until all Niger Delta militants are on the run, and the zone becomes another conquered territory.

What will the Niger Deltans do to avoid this Tompolo- Buhari war of the creeks and steer the nation out of this conflict. I will discuss it sometime n the future, but before then I advise the Tompolo boys who have sworn to defy Buhari and his soldiers, blow up oil facilities and set Nigeria ablaze to suspend their plans and allow the elders work out a settlement.

Obinna Akukwe via [email protected] , @ObinnaAkukwe, www.facebook.com/obinnaakukwe
A group, Concerned Patrons of Ghanaian Kenkey, is set to bring to Ghanaians their first edition Of International Ghana Kenkey Festival on 7th March at Mantse Agbona - James Town in Accra.

The need for this festival has become expedient because, Kenkey (in English) but called Kormi, Kokoe, Dorkono, whichever you choose to call it based on ones ethnic/tribal background in Ghana, is a staple dish similar to sourdough dumpling from the Ga, Akan and Ewe inhabited regions of West Africa.

Its a food usually served with soup, stew, grinded pepper, or sauce. Kenkey has many health benefits that Africans and the international world should be exposed to.

Speaking to the leader of Concerned Patrons of Ghanaian Kenkey, Mr. Manuel Nii Martey Mensah, he told MustaphaInusah.Com that the festival is targeting at drawing over 1000 people from all over the world to Ghana.

There's no country this meal isn't consumed. In Ghana alone there are so many varieties linked with different ethnic groups. KKFest therefore seeks to bring all these varieties onto one venue where people can sample the various Kenkey dishes at will.

He added that, A platform will be given for indigenous Ghanaian companies in the hospitality industry primarily, to showcase their products. It will also be an event for music, spoken word and networking.

He added that, the official guest for the festival will be Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon Dzifa Gomashie.
NIGERIA is considered the economic powerhouse in the West Africa region. As it is popular known, Nigeria is one of Africa's fastest growing economies and boosts the largest population. After the change over of the presidency in May 2015, from Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian diplomatic mission said it was ready to take practical steps to bolster economic and strategic ties with Russia.

Quite recently, Ibrahim Usman Gafai, Charge d'Affairs at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Moscow, said in an interview that economic relations between both countries have steadily developed during the past few years with a number of leading Russian companies establishing their presence in Nigeria.

Russian investment in Nigeria covers such areas as energy, iron and steel, and hydro carbon. Over the years, the diplomatic relationships have also witnessed the establishment of Russia-Nigeria Business Council (RNBC) which oversees economic activities between between the two countries.

So far, the two countries have held three meetings of the Joint Commission, the last being in 2009. The Joint Commission is the platform for the two countries to sit down and draw up agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on how to conduct businesses and investment in each other's country.

Interestingly, Russia and Nigeria's two-way trade was a modest $350 million in 2013. Authorities in both countries have repeatedly said that it should be many times larger, given that Russia is the biggest market in the former Soviet Union and Nigeria the biggest market in Africa.

"Unfortunately, trade volume between Nigeria and Russia has been comparatively low and highly skewed in favor of Russia. There is an attempt to balance the current trend through boosting economic relations between the two friendly nations," Gafai acknowledged in the interview.

One of the strategies is to encourage trade promotion through solo exhibitions of good made in each other's country. Nigeria businesses are encouraged to carry out such solo exhibitions in Russian cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar and Kuzbas regions.

On the other hand, Russian businesses are also encouraged to participate in various annual trade fairs organized by different Chambers of Commerce in Nigeria. In addition, the Moscow's Nigerian Embassy will continue to call on the two countries to create an investment forum to showcase their potentialities in each other's territory. The major challenge facing investors from both sides of the divide is dearth of information on each other's business environment. This has, over the years, created a condition of uncertainty and misgivings among prospective investors.

As part of the initiatives to contribute to revamping the Nigerian economy, Nigerians under the auspices of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization in Europe (NIDOE), the Russian Chapter in collaboration with Russia-Nigeria Business Council, Institute of African Studies and Russian ministries and agencies have adopted corporate strategies in identifying and wooing potential Russian businesses and industry directors to invest in Nigeria.

In another interview with Buziness Africa, Rex Essenowo, Chairman of NIDOE-Russia, talks about current opportunities and wide ranging perspectives for strengthening business partnership and the huge potential that exists for mutually economic cooperation between Russia and Nigeria.

He believes strongly that NIDOE-Russia and the Russia-Nigeria Business Council could help greatly to further develop the mutual business cooperation both in the private and public sectors between the two countries.

The key issues and questions raised were focused on trade and investment possibilities in Nigeria. What has been done and what has not been done in order to boost economic development in Nigeria, and how the relationship has benefited both countries.

A very important issue is the post-election investment climate. Nigeria is always considered as one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world before the 2015 general elections, so it is necessary to keep that environment stable in order to boost the country's relationship with Russia.

"As already known, we are only doing our best to supplement government efforts at boosting economic development, which in turn can benefit the population. On implementation of various agreements that were signed, we could not achieve 100% results, that is the reason why we keep pushing forward to make some considerable changes," according to the views of the Chairman.

"Most of the issues are still based on logistics, we have been able to identify other setbacks and challenges which depend much on the part of the governments of Russia and Nigeria," Essenowo said.

At the last NIDOE-Russia workshop that took place in April 2015, the Chairman and CEO of the Business Council, Valeriy Vozdvizhenskiy, expressed high optimism about the new Nigerian administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, noting assertively that "there is a lot to do, for example, starting from implementing the numerous MoUs that were signed by the previous administration."

But NIDOE-Russia Chairman Essenowo pointed out explicitly: "Personally, I will suggest a quick review of those key areas that can impact positively on the lives of Nigerians and on the economy of Nigeria. One important aspect is providing sufficient and required information about Nigeria for the Russian business and investors' community as well as widening the scope cooperation in different sectors of the economy."

Further, Essenowo said that "NIDOE-Russia wants to see different directions in the Russia-Nigerian economic cooperation. We are really tired of wasting potentials and the rate of poverty our country, despite our enormous amount of resources."

Russia and Nigeria should not only be regional leaders or key players in world market of oil and gas, but they must become real strategic partners in economic cooperation and development.

There are millions of the educated youth and graduates unemployed, while many Russian companies need external markets and new cooperation for their technologies; the technologies are quite affordable.

There are thousands of Nigerians who were trained in the Soviet Union and in Russia now, could effectively be used as bridges. For example, Nigerians would love to see a Nigerian Ambassador who speaks Russian language to deal with strategic and development issues as well as identifying with and tapping into the fast growing vibrant Nigerian diaspora in the Russian Federation.

The face of African diplomacy is changing steadily. At least, during the past one decade, Russian-speaking African ambassadors from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Zambia have been appointed to the Russian Federation. Besides, there are Russian-speaking diplomats that make for a new face of Russia-African diplomacy.

The former Nigerian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Mr. Assam Ekanem Assam told a Nigerian press that he was determined to get Russian businesses to invest in the economy with a view to enhancing growth and explained further that Moscow was home to most dollar billionaires in the world who were looking for a safe and secured environment to invest their money.

He also told the media that Russia as a BRICS (the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has a lot to offer Nigeria in the area of investment in agriculture and the oil and gas sector  especially now that major European countries are facing economic downturn.

As far back as in October 2013, the Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Nikolay Udovichenko said during a business forum in Abuja that Russia was interested in developing cooperation with Nigeria in the fields of investment, energy, trade and agriculture, among others.

"We see new opportunities for Russian companies. Suffice it to say that Nigeria has all chances to become Africa's biggest economy in the nearest future. That is why we and the Embassy of Nigeria in Moscow almost simultaneously decided to amplify efficacious bilateral cooperation," he said.

Udovincheko noted however that Russia considered Nigeria to be a strategic partner in Africa because of its numerous opportunities in human and natural resources, and added that "Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and it needs objective and balanced information that promotes cooperation and harmony between different groups in the country and the international community."

With all these laudable ideas on raising economic cooperation, significant corporate projects are yet to be undertaken. But now, new hopes in Moscow and Abuja are that the countries' annual commercial ties will rise to billions of dollars in the few coming years. Russia plans to help Nigeria explore for oil and gas. Nigeria has expressed interest in Russia, helping it build nuclear power plants, petroleum pipelines, railways and other infrastructure.

Both Russia and Nigeria have a wealth of minerals  and some could be the basis of additional commerce between the two. Nigeria's natural resources include gold, bauxite, zinc, tantalum, niobium, iron ore and coal.

Nigeria and Russia are both "large economies" and "rich in natural resources," Goodie Ibru, head of the Chamber of Commerce of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, said at a bilateral economic conference in 2013, adding that "although Nigeria is smaller in terms of technology and infrastructure development, there's a lot for both countries to benefit from."

The Federal Government of the Republic of Nigeria has, indeed, expressed its support for any Russian genuine and legal investment. Without doubts, Nigeria remains "one of the best countries in the world to do business because of guaranteed return on investment."

Russia has pledged to help Muhammadu Buhari to fight terrorists in Nigeria. It is selling weapons to Nigeria and training Nigerian troops in counter-terrorism. Moscow was delighted during Nigeria's election campaign to hear Buhari say he wanted his country to forge a "special relationship" with the BRICS countries, and in particular, Russia. The other BRICS members are Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
21.02.2016 LISTEN

Just as happen when serious disasters occur in the country, almost all well meaning citizens were amazed over the fatal lorry accident on the Kintampo road which claimed the lives of over 70 people with many others getting seriously injured. Many are those who said the nation has not experienced a calamity of this magnitude before on our roads. Apart from exposing our poor maintenance culture, the accident also blew the lid on lack of preparedness on the nation for an accident as huge as we experienced. We need to question all the institutions such as hospitals, the ambulance service and the police on their ability to handle emergencies.

If we had no adequate facilities in all parts of the country, we need to do all we can to acquire them now that the nations economy and social settings are growing. Almost all the presidential candidates for this years elections , religious leaders and traditional rulers are expressing sorrow and their condolences to the bereaved families of the dead men, women and children some of whose bodies are said to be mutilated. Although the government has promised to foot the bills on medical care for the injured and burial of the departed souls most people feel the accident could have been avoided if steps were taken to follow the rules governing the use of the vehicles involved in the accidents.

The government public transport involved in the accident was said to be faulty and overloaded at the time of the accident but the driver refused to curtail the journey to get the vehicle attended to. But this is wrong on the part of the driver who unfortunately died in the accident. The President John Mahama joined the scores of Ghanaians to lament the poor maintenance of commercial vehicles as well as the reckless driving on roads in Ghana, saying they are the main causes of the many road accidents in the country.

He expressed the desire for stakeholders in the transport sector to do a lot more work to make the roads safer for users. Although the president is right we need to probe further on whether the vehicle owners and the intuitions in charge of checking the roadworthiness of vehicles are doing their duties to the letter. Although vehicle owners especially the state owned are required to make sure their vehicles are driven by qualified drivers who are required to stop to seek help when their vehicles develop serious faults while in motion most drivers do not do that.

Again when some of the drivers are tired and are required to stop midday to take a rest they do not do that. Again most vehicles including the government owned that are running around our nation especially in the rural areas are not in the best of shape. Even when traffic wardens from the Ghana Police Service are aware of the faulty vehicles they hardly call those driving them to book largely because of the little monies they get from the drivers.

We are told that apart from the accident at kintampo road some other road accidents were recorded within the same period in Accra and other parts of the country. There is no doubt that National Road Safety Commission is busy the whole year round educating vehicle users on how to drive safely together with the police service who are seen checking vehicle users at vantage points. However due to the bitter experiences we have gained on our roads the authorities must take steps to improve on methods of checking vehicles on our roads.

The Ministry of Transport in conjunction with the National Road Safety Commission and the Ghana police service must intensify their education for road users in the cities and rural areas where road offences such as overloading and reckless speeding and overtaking are rampant. We need to urge police officers to arrest offending drivers. Apart from vehicles the safety of our ferries that carry people, vehicles and goods from one point to the other seem no longer safe due to lack of periodic maintenance on them.

Quite recently one of our ferries run by the Volta Lake Transport carrying more that 500 people from Makango to Yeji nearly sank in the Volta Lake with all the people on board. The ferry was said to be in use without adequate regular servicing. The time has come for us to turn our attention to good maintenance culture to ensure that our vehicles and ferries are in good shape.

Apart from fatal accidents, and the fear of our ferries running aground, we have also been suffering from fire out breaks which have often claimed the lives of people and caused damage to properties in homes offices and markets. In view of the need to ensure the safety of the people, we ought to move a step further by dealing with ways of encountering all possible life threatening incidents in the country.

To achieve this We must set up a Public Safety Office within the presidency. Together with the ministry of transport the police service, NADMO other relevant agencies the new office could study ways of reducing accidents to the barest minimum.

The Public Safety Office must move fast enough to remove all rickety vehicles on our roads in both the cities and the rural areas. All government commercial vehicles must all be made to adhere to the rules governing passenger vehicles by getting them insured against accidents. Vehicles plying our roads especially in the rural areas must be made to run at acceptable speet limits and stop from overloading, overspending and reckless overtaking. All ferries must also be insured if that has not been done against accidents.

The office must take a hard look at our government offices and our markets to ensure that they are provided with fire safety facilities. The recent murders committed by cutlass wielding youngmen on farms in parts of the country are all issues that can be studied in the new office to ensure that the causes of those crimes are dealt with. Because such an office is required to be proactive it must be given enough support to be able to work around the clock to ensure the safety of all the people in cities and rural areas of the country.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

0244 370345/ 0274853710/0208844791

[email protected]/[email protected]
The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for the New Juaben South constituency has entreated Ghanaians to give the partys flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo a chance in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to Dr. Mark Asibe-Yeboah, the former attorney general is determined to implement brilliant ideas and policies that would fix the problems facing the country and will also improve the living standards of the citizenry.

He made the comments Sunday when he joined members of the Pentecost International Worship Center (PIWC) in Koforidua for church service.

He blamed the problems facing the country on poor leadership and promised an Akufo-Addo government will fix them.

He said Ghana needs a politically committed and visionary leader who will ensure that resources of the country are utilized judiciously. He bemoaned what he described as wastage of resources in the Mahama-led government.

I am here to worship with you not because we are in a political season but because I am part of you. We as politicians have pledged our commitment to ensuring peace after and before the 2016 election, however, we implore you to pray for the country to have a peaceful election. But I my message to you is to give Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo a chance as he contests for the third time.

let me tell you one thing; Nana Addo is a man with great vision for the country ,he will put the country on the right track with his brilliant economic and social policies, he assured.

For his part, the District Pastor of the PIWC Pastor Nii Tackei-Otoo called on Politicians to be mindful of their utterances so they do not instigate violence in the November polls. He also cautioned the media to be circumspect and professional in their reportage.
Berlin (AFP) - Germany is considering sending troops to Tunisia to help train soldiers in the fight against the Islamic State group, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

Bild am Sonntag said that representatives of the defence and foreign ministries would hold talks in Tunis on Thursday and Friday about how the German military could lend support in a training mission.

It said the engagement envisaged training Tunisian soldiers first and could eventually be extended to setting up a training camp in Tunisia for Libyan soldiers, run with other international partners.

"The IS terror is threatening all of North Africa," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the newspaper.

She said it was thus crucial "to make every effort to support countries struggling with democracy such as Tunisia".

Von der Leyen told the newspaper that a training camp in Tunisia would be a contribution toward regional stability.

"And if its direct neighbour Libya manages to put in place a unity government one day, its security forces could also benefit from established training facilities in Tunisia," she said.

A defence ministry spokesman told AFP he had no further details beyond the minister's remarks.

A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the planned talks in Tunis "on further cooperation on security" but declined to provide more information.

German forces are currently engaged in the international alliance against the Islamic State group, including by arming and training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and flying reconnaissance missions over Syria with Tornado jets.

Since 2013, Germany has provided Tunisia with more than 100 million euros ($111 million) in programmes to improve its economy. It also provides its security forces with equipment and training.

However the country's defence commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels warned in a report last month that the German military was overstretched and underfunded and had reached "the limit of its capacity for interventions".

Tunisia suffered two devastating attacks targeting its vital tourist sector last year, in the beach resort of Sousse and on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, that together left 60 people dead. Both were claimed by IS.

IS has also been gaining ground in Libya amid the unrest that has gripped the country since longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in 2011.
Accra, Feb. 21, GNA - Dr. Nii Amu Darko, the Founder and Leader of the African Reform Movement (ARM), a new political group in Ghana, has called for the adoption of best governance practices to deepen democracy.

He said it was improper for a Vice Presidential Candidate to be solely selected by the Presidential Candidate because it was not in line with best governance practices, where their election was preferred.

'Under our present Constitutional regime, the Presidential candidate selects his or her running-mate, this is a copy and paste situation from the United States of America with no cultural or historical link to Ghana,' he observed.

Dr. Darko, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, stated: 'I just want to say it is not best practice for a potential President to be selected by one person.'

The Founder of the ARM said in the past few months, President John Mahama had to contend with all sorts of lobbyist groups because he needed to announce his running-mate.

'In canvassing for their respective candidates, these groups really pounded the Veep into near stupor,' stated.

'Now, that he has been selected, I wonder where his confidence level is and the relationship between him and those who 'violently' badmouthed him would be like.'

Dr Darko stated: 'The present system is hopeless. The second highest paid pubic officer may be grounded and made redundant by the first gentleman; we need value for our money, but that is not what we are getting now.'

He said some people were 'screaming' for the President to give more assignments to the Vice President, but he (Dr Darko) was against their position because one person should not be given that discretionary power.

'We need a split - an Executive President (Head of State) and Prime Minister (Head of Government and Deputy Head of State) with constitutionally mandated duties for both leaders so that in any case of disagreement, the Head of State's rule would stand,' he suggested.

He, therefore, recommended the adoption of the South African Governance System blended with the Ghanaian Chieftaincy with Cultural practices, whereby the deputies of chiefs were not appointed by the chiefs.

Dr. Darko said the South African System was presidential in form, but sort of parliamentary in practice.

'Both the President and the Deputy are voted for at the National Delegates Conference, the President does not appoint the Deputy,' he explained.

'As for ARM we will combine Ghanaian chieftaincy practices, South African Governance System and the Moses-Aaron (Exodus 4:10-16) to elect a Head of State; and a Deputy who will be a Prime Minister , and make the Head of Government to be accountable to the people who are their electors.'

GNA
Awutu-Beraku (C/R), Feb. 21, GNA - The Awutu-Senya District Assembly has paid about GH32,000 cedis under its special Educational Development Fund, in scholarships to some 76 brilliant but needy children in the area.

The scholarship awards, ranging from GH300.00 to GH2,000.00 , were given to the students who are currently pursuing various educational programs in Senior High Schools and Nursing Training Institutions across the country.

Mr. Sampson Abbey-Armah, the District Chief Executive for the area, said the purpose of establishing the Fund was to fulfill President John Dramani Mahama's Better Ghana Agenda.

Mr. Abbey-Armah praised the Member of Parliament for the Awutu/Senya Constituency, Madam Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, for the immense financial and moral support she had been offering the scheme since its introduction four years ago.

Mr. Abbey-Armah announced that Madam Tetteh contributed GH8,000.00 from her share of the MP's Common Fund to the scholarships awarded.

In a message read at the brief ceremony, at which the cheques for the beneficiaries were presented to parents and representatives of schools at Awutu-Beraku, Madam Tetteh expressed the hope that the scheme would go a long way to help the Assembly produce more qualified technocrats to enhance the socio-economic development of the district.

Mr. Abbey-Armah and Ms. Anna Belinda Baidoo, the Awutu-Senya District Director of Education, both advised beneficiaries to take advantage of the offer to engage in serious studies to produce credible results at the end of their respective courses.

Students in the various Nursing Training Institutions had the highest allocation of GH10,000.00 from the chunk of money voted for this year's award to help defray their school fees.

They were followed by students in the Bawjiase Senior High School, with GH6,082.50, while the Awutu-Obrachire Senior High School also gained GH1,583.70, while the Senya Senior High School got GH1,163.00.

The parents and students who attended the presentation ceremony thanked the District Assembly for the offer and promised to work hard for excellent returns.

GNA
Winneba (C/R) Feb.21, GNA - The OSANKO Child Poverty Relief, a Non-Governmental Organisation, with the Effutu Municipal Assembly has organised a meeting to introduce the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) project to people in the area.

The SPEFA project is a component of the Local Government Capacity Support Project funded with a grant from the World Bank grant and their partner, the Netherlands Development Agency (SNV), through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The overall aim of the project is to improve the citizens' perception of urban management and increase their engagement with the Assembly.

Representatives of Parent Teacher Associations, youth groups, women's groups, transport unions, traders, identified political parties, assemblies, unit committees, traditional rulers and religious bodies were among the participants.

Mr. Francis Ayikwi Tagoe, the Effutu Municipal Chief Executive, who launched the Project at Winneba, stated that transparency and accountability would be the hallmark of his Administration to end the negative perception of the activities of the Assembly.

He said because the Assembly was a grassroots Parliament but non-partisan in nature, Assembly members and Unit Committee members must put aside their political sentiments and effectively make constructive contributions towards creating a healthy environment to live in.

The MCE urged the participants to take the project very seriously to enable them to play their roles effectively to serve as a knowledge sharing platform for strengthening the fiscal framework for decentralisation in the Municipality.

Mrs. Sarah Naa Dedei Agbey, SPEFA's Project Manager, said accountability was key in achieving fair and equitable rules in line with the mechanisms by which individuals and organisations needed to safely and legitimately report their concerns for redress.

SPEFA is targeted at achieving consistent and high quality support for the development and the operationalisation of civil society-led processes for transparency and accountability in the operations of MMDAs.

'It is also to strengthen CSO's/NGO's, Members of Parliament, Traditional Authorities and Community Leaders to effectively engage with the MMDAs and the sub-structures on public financial management issues,' she explained.

The participants were schooled on Citizens' Engagement Platform, Local Government Systems, Understanding Social Accountability, Roles of Citizens in Social Accountability, Media and Social Accountability and Success Factors for Social Accountability.

GNA
21.02.2016 LISTEN

The Electoral Commission has set April 5 for the bye-election of Abuakwa North constituency which became vacant following the bloody murder of the Member of Parliament, Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu.

The late legislator was stabbed at his East Legon residence on February 9, 2016.

The killer, 19-year-old Daniel Asiedu was apprehended by a team of investigators acting on a tip-off from a Member of Parliament.

He has confessed to committing the crime, and has been charged with murder.

Bye-election in the offing:

The 1992 Constitution stipulates that Parliament is expected to notify the Electoral Commission in writing within seven days after a vacancy in a constituency has occurred.

When this is done, a bye-election would then be held within thirty days after the vacancy occurred.

The Director of Public Affairs at the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry, has confirmed the set date for the bye-election to replace the late legislator.
Accra, Feb 21, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama has said his Administration would do everything under its purview to ensure that the November 7 General Election is a free and fair.

He said Ghana had in its repertoire seven successful elections and this year's polls would not be different in terms of good security, adequate logistics and other facilities

"The successful elections in some African countries last year has sent a clear message to the world that Africa is ready and forging ahead in democratic dispensation,' he said.

President Mahama, who was addressing members of the Diplomatic Corps as part of his Annual Get-Together with them, said the Government was committed to maintaining the peace that had united Ghanaians over the years.

The programme brought together Diplomats, Government officials and representatives of international organisations, who had the opportunity to interact with the President, the Vice President, the First Lady and some Ministers of State.

President Mahama said as an icon of democracy and successful elections, Ghana would continue to blaze the political trail by ensuring that only the best and positive political practices were implemented to further deepen its democratic credentials.

On good neighborliness on the continent, President Mahama called for unity among all African countries to solve their common challenges without attracting international interventions.

He said West Africa demonstrated maximum unity during the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, explaining that it would be expedient to exhibit the same level of unity and cooperation to tackle other nagging issues on the continent.

Apart from diseases, which he said had no borders, President Mahama appealed to African countries to brace up against the insurgent terrorists attacks in the world.

He said:"Ghana considers an attack on one as an attack on all ...and this is the time for the world to unite against terrorists' attacks."

President Mahama said the recent attacks in France, Mali, Kenya, Burkina Faso and the activities of the Boko Haram in Nigeria, were clear signs of insecurity, therefore, every country had to brace up against their practices.

On economic cooperation in the West African Sub-region, President Mahama indicated the readiness of Ghana to ensure that the implementation of common tariffs were successful.

He said Ghana would fast track the movement of people and goods at its borders with her neighbours as part of the steps to enhance integration and cooperation in the region.

Mrs Pavilin Tendai Musoka, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, commended Ghana for spearheading the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease in the recent outbreak when President Mahama was the chairman of Economic Community for West African States.

"Ghana played a significant role in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa... and the appointment of President Mahama as the co-Chair of the Sustainable Development Goals cannot go without recognition," she said.

Mrs Musoka, who is also the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Ghana, commended other African countries for successfully organising their general election last year.

GNA
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Saudi Arabia and Russia have taken the first step to stem the slide in oil prices. Theres just one problem: If they are successful  and thats a big if  the wildcatters of Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are waiting to pounce.

With 4,000 wells drilled and just waiting for better prices to be brought on stream, the so-called fracklog could act as a cap to any oil rally, industry executives, traders and OPEC officials said. Worse, a price recovery could effectively bail out dozens of shale companies now struggling with $30-a-barrel oil, allowing them to return to the capital market.

If you think about making a production cut as OPEC, prices rise and these producers can get oil online in 80 days, Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs Head of Commodities Research, said on Bloomberg TV. It makes any type of price rally self-defeating.

The search for a grand bargain among oil producers shifted to the Iranian capital Wednesday as Venezuela and Qatar energy ministers started talks with Iran and Iraq to try to expand an agreement to freeze crude production to shore up prices.

The risk of meaningful output cuts for Saudi Arabia, Russia and others is that they backfire. Slowly but surely, low prices have been bringing the U.S. shale industry to its knees. Bankruptcies have mounted while company after company slashed spending, laid off roughnecks and idled drilling rigs. As many as 74 North American producers face significant difficulties in sustaining debt, according to credit rating firm Moodys Investors Service.

The drop in U.S. oil rigs to the lowest level since 2010 is starting to translate to the wellhead. In North Dakota, production from the prolific Bakken formation suffered its first year-on-year drop in a decade in September. In Texas, home of the Eagle Ford and Permian basins, output in November fell on an annual basis the first time since 2010.

Saudi Arabia needs to be assured that U.S. shale wouldnt bounce back quickly, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Group in Washington and a former senior oil official at the White House.

With shale groups struggling, U.S. production is set to decline this year by 740,000 barrels a day to 8.69 million, according to the latest government forecast. A rebound in oil prices could alter that math.

Shale output will come back if oil prices rise to $50 a barrel, Ian Taylor, chief executive officer of Vitol Group, the worlds largest oil trader, said in an interview before the Saudi-Russia deal was announced. It looks clear that a lot of the oil thats probably going to be shut down in the next year or so because it is simply too low a price, some of it could come back, he said.

Once oil rises, shale companies can lock in prices, insulating themselves against any market weakness and attracting lenders. If the price of oil goes back up to $50, the banks will respond quickly, said Ed Hirs, an energy economics lecturer at the University of Houston and managing director of private drilling company Hillhouse Resources. Shale companies will buy a new round of hedges, and banks will not be calling their loans, he said.

So far, the prospect of a price rebound seems limited. U.S. oil futures fell back below $30 a barrel on Tuesday after the deal was announced on speculation that it wouldnt reduce the current glut. Futures were up $1.73, or 6 percent, to $30.77 a barrel at 11:02 a.m. Wednesday.

Some shale companies may not be inclined to dive back in. Bill Thomas, chief executive officer at EOG Resources Inc., the largest landholder in Texass Eagle Ford shale formation, told attendees at an industry conference in Houston last week that his company wont start boosting output the first time oil hits $60 a barrel.

Were going to make sure the market is in good shape, its balanced, and weve got a future, Thomas said. We dont want to ramp it up and drive the price of oil down again.

The cheapest and quickest way for shale companies to increase output would be to tap the fracklog. Almost 4,000 wells have been drilled but are still waiting to be hydraulically fractured so they can produce, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts William Foiles and Andrew Cosgrove. If the fracklog were reduced by just 170 wells a month, it could add 400,000 to 600,000 barrels a day, Cosgrove said.

It wouldnt be as quick as stepping on an accelerator, because companies have laid off so many roughnecks that it would take time to rebuild the work force in order to take on the projects, he said. Its not an immediate snap-back, but it is waiting in the wings, Cosgrove said.
To get a sense of how much more oil the world has than it needs, look to the world's oceans. Everyday, supertankers carrying two million barrels apiece sit idle, in hopes that the price of oil one day will rise again. Or look at the line of ships being turned away from ports at the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea and everywhere in between. In some parts of the world, there is no more land left to store oil. Or, perhaps, look at the United States' largest oil storage facility  a series of massive drums across the plains of Oklahoma  which is storing more crude than at any point in the past decade.

Oil has been so cheap for so long that seemingly everybody is trying to wait it out. And, perversely, that's just perpetuating the rout. Right now, at least three billion barrels of oil  a record  is just sitting there. That oil alone could power the world for a month.

The excess illustrates the massive challenge that Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations confront if they want to halt a one-and-a-half-year collapse in oil prices that has upended the global economy: energy companies in the U.S. going bankrupt, sharp austerity in Saudi Arabia, economic combustion in Venezuela. Since July 2014, the West Texas Intermediate price of oil has dropped from $105 per barrel to $30.

To push up the price of oil, Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries would have to shrink the supply of oil to the point that reserves are tapped. This is no easy task. Right now, the planet needs about 94.5 million barrels of oil per day, according to the International Energy Agency. It's producing nearly 96.5 million barrels per day. That's the greatest imbalance of the 21st Century, and for every day this gap persists, up to two million more barrels wind up in this overflow stockpile.

Prices will only rise when the market begins to believe that this abundance is tapering off, said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil market research at IHS Energy.

"The overall sense of the market, certainly since last summer, is that we are a world awash in oil," Burkhard said. "Oil supply is in excess of demand by a significant measure. So it's created this sense that, gee, this is a world of glut and abundance."

Ever since the mid-1980s, when Saudi Arabia last flooded the oil market, the kingdom has cut production in order to push prices up. Other OPEC members contributed some relatively minor cuts to help. But this time, when prices began to fall due to a number of factors including China's slowdown and the burst of new energy resources in the United States, the Saudis held back, hoping the drop in oil prices would squash the U.S. fracking industry. That spurred a race to the bottom, one both the Americans and the Saudis felt they could win.

Now, the risk is that the low oil prices have persisted for so long that no country, not even the heavyweights, can bring them quickly back to "normal." This week, Saudi Arabia and Russia  the world's second- and third-largest producers  gave it a try, and the market basically laughed back at them. The plan essentially said that those two countries, along with Qatar and Venezuela, would freeze production, though it had many caveats. Oil investors had said the only way to push up prices was for them to cut production, but much as countries like Saudi Arabia dislike low prices, they're also fearful of losing market share.

"A nothing burger," Robert McNally, president of the Rapidan Group, a consulting firm, called the deal.

Forcing prices back up is going to require a far more significant step, analysts say, adding that more dramatic action is unlikely. That's why a lot of banks now predict oil will hang for the year in the $20-$30-per-barrel range.

One cure for cheap oil would come in the form of a stronger global economy  and stronger demand for fossil fuels. That is, of course, the most palatable fix. It's also a long shot, given the slowing of China's manufacturing machine and stagnation from Japan to Europe.

The excess might also be erased if oil-producing countries  the U.S. or Saudi Arabia, for instance  break under the pain of low prices. But neither, so far, seems to be in the offing. To the surprise of economists, U.S. drillers have so far managed to largely maintain production by focusing their efforts on the best and most efficient wells. Despite 50-some bankruptcies and an oil price drop of more than 70 percent, U.S. output has climbed from 9.1 million barrels per day in November 2014 to 9.2 million this month. Some industry forecasters, though, do say U.S. oil output could drop this year after severe investment cutbacks in 2015.

Meantime, the Saudis have pumped full-on. The Saudis can stomach a period of low prices because their oil is relatively cheap to access and (perhaps more important) they've built a treasure chest of savings, usable for a rainy day. That money will eventually dwindle, but it figures to last several years and hasn't yet influenced the Saudis' strategy.

The cutback in production could also come from another country. Roughly 15 nations produce more than 2 million barrels per day. Any of them, in theory, could close the gap between supply and demand. But why would they? Pumping and getting some cash, however scant, may be viewed as better than letting your investments rot.

The last scenario is one in which many countries, acting in concert, enact gradual production decreases. That is, well, how a cartel would do it. And the oil world happens to include a cartel, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. But OPEC has been weakened by disparate interests. Some countries suspect others will cheat on their pledges. And so no pledges get made. And every country continues pumping more than the world needs.
Victor Chinikidiadi has joined Lone Star State Bank in Midland as vice president in the energy and commercial lending division.

Chinikidiadi began his banking career in Midland in 2008.

Chartered in 2007 Lone Star State Bank began as a regional West Texas bank in Lubbock. Its fifth full service bank location opened in Midland in Dinero Plaza, 1004 N. Big Spring St. Mike Davis serves as the banks Midland Market president and an advisory director to the bank.

The Buckle names Midland store co-manager

Ashley Gutierrez has been named co-manger of The Buckle in Midland Park Mall.

She joined The Buckle in 2010 and was a management trainee at the Midland store before being named co-manager.

Abbott names Midlander to commission

AUSTIN  Governor Greg Abbott has reappointed and named Ronnie Hagerty chairman of the OneStar National Service Commission and appointed eight members to the commission.

Kate Williamson of Midland was appointed for a term to expire March 15, 2016. She manages her own consulting practice and is associated in that capacity with Hooks Solutions LLC.

Hagerty, of Houston, will serve a term set to expire March 15, 2018. She is assistant vice president of community relations and talent management for the United Way of Greater Houston. She is a lecturer at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and an adjunct professor at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

Vice Chairman Lisa Lucero is employed by the Texas Oil and Gas Association.

Other commission members include Sonal Bhuchar of Sugar Land, Laura Dixon of San Antonio, Roger ODell of El Paso and Kirk Beckert of Richardson, who was reappointed; all will serve terms set to expire on March 15, 2018. Annette Juba of Austin will serve a term set to expire on March 15, 2016, and James Senegal of Conroe for a term set to expire on March 15, 2017.

BBB recognized as one Texas best companies

Better Business Bureau serving Central, Coastal, Southwest Texas and the Permian Basin was recently named one of the 2016 Best Companies to Work for in Texas. The awards program was created in 2006 and is a project of Texas Monthly, the Texas Association of Business, Texas SHRM and Best Companies Group. This is the second year in a row this BBB has been recognized.

This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Texas, benefiting the state's economy, workforce and businesses. The 2016 Best Companies to Work for in Texas list is made up of 100 companies.
Some walked for two hours; some walked for 10 hours. Some shivered in the cold winds in Mexico City; others sweated under a blazing sun in Juarez. All made the pilgrimage for one reason: to see Pope Francis.

More than 100 Midlanders made the trip. A group of 12 from San Miguel Arcangel Catholic Church and 110 with St. Stephens Catholic Church traveled by bus, taxi and eventually foot to see the pope in Mexico City and Ciudad Juarez respectively.

Rosario Gonzalez of the San Miguel parish traveled with her husband and 10 others to see Francis in Mexico City and receive his blessing at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

At 5 a.m. Feb. 12, the taxi drove the Gonzalezes to a bus stop an hour from their hotel, then stopped.

This is as far as we can go, the taxi driver told them

So what do we do? they asked.

Take the bus, and when you get off, just follow the crowd, he said. You will not get lost.

It was a true pilgrimage, Gonzalez said.

To see the multitude of people was an experience within itself, she said. To see the faith, the willingness, the sacrifice that people made to get there. ... There were stories of people walking 10 hours. The grace of God was there.

Before the pope arrived from the airport, people lined the street to create a pathway  called la valla in Spanish  for him to pass through. They stood waiting for him for five hours. When he arrived, the Gonzalezes were mere feet from him.

His blessing was just so graceful, so full of love and mercy, Gonzalez said. You could literally see him light up, almost as if the Holy Spirit was with him. I encountered a lot of people that shared their experiences, their faith. That really helped all of us grow in our faith. I could say we all received a spiritual awakening, a call to love, a call to mercy.

Gonzalez took many things from her experience there, but the popes message of love, mercy and perseverance rang loudest.

When she returned to Midland and went to Mass the following morning, she said she still felt the glow from her time in Mexico City.

As the priest was consecrating, something overcame me, Gonzalez said. I felt the blessing that God had given me through Pope Francis, the blessing that I had received in visiting Our Lady of Guadalupe, just come together. I felt that this blessing was not only for me, but it was for me to give to those who wanted to receive that blessing. It was the moment of that awareness that God is working within you, an awareness of Gods grace in you, and to have had the privilege to have been there to receive the blessing. ... To me, that is truly amazing. It might be a simple testimony, but for me it was something huge. It was something beautiful.

And it was a feeling shared by people from across the globe.

My experience was just overwhelming joy within myself, Gonzalez said. As soon as he extended his hand to give us that blessing, you could literally feel Gods presence. I felt the blessing around my face and it was just warmth and this sense of love and peace and tranquility. There are no words to describe the feeling that was there. And it was not only me; it was all those that were there.

In Juarez on Wednesday, members of St. Stephens received the same blessing.

Shouts of Viva papa! Viva papa! reverberated through the old Juarez fairgrounds, called El Punto. They had been waiting for hours  and some had traveled for days to get there  to see Pope Francis. And despite the heat, their hunger and exhaustion, the crowd was revitalized when he arrived, said the Rev. Bala Anthony of St. Stephens.

When he got there, I felt like I was shaking from the emotion when he passed by me, Roxana Galindo, a member of St. Stephens parish, told the Reporter-Telegram in Spanish. The one thing I really liked that he said was to love ourselves, but to also love one another no matter who it is.

There were thousands of people there, but the atmosphere was peaceful, said Galindos aunt, Loly Galindo, who came from Dumas to take the trip with her niece.

It was such a beautiful experience," Loly Galindo said in Spanish. Seeing the pope up close, it was an experience that I never thought I would get to experience. (He spoke of ... peace because it was in Juarez, a city known for the violence. And it was really beautiful that it was about peace and love between the families.

Sitting in a room just outside the sanctuary at San Miguels, Gonzalez read a quote the pope had tweeted during her time in Mexico.

Remember that crisis that you lived, in which you thought you were about to falter, she said, her voice strong, tears welling up in her eyes. That swamp that you crossed, that homework without an end that squeezed the life out you, they seemed eternal to you. Everything happened, everything you are living now will also pass. Never doubt God is your substance, the friend that never fails, the bridge that never breaks, he is preparing you for the best. Cheer up, never stop fighting.
LAREDO -- Scores of Cubans crossed the border bridge here from Mexico on a recent weekday, pregnant women in fluorescent rhinestone-studded T-shirts, men in tight jeans towing suitcases -- all in search of Alejandro Ruiz.

Many of the migrants find Ruiz via his cellphone or by navigating his Facebook page. But on this day, those searching for Ruiz came up empty when they reached his storefront office. He was on the other side of town, busy helping new arrivals at one of two temporary shelters he operates.

Ruiz, 49, a Cuban-American auto body shop owner, noticed the need here years ago as the influx was just starting. He encountered Cuban migrants at the border checkpoint who seemed to have no idea what to do once they stepped into America, the same overwhelming feeling he had when he flew from Havana to New Jersey in 1992. Back then, a Cuban womens group helped him navigate the system.

Now a citizen, Ruiz founded Cubanos en Libertad, a nonprofit that provides transportation, shelter and assistance to Cuban migrants.

The number of Cubans arriving in the U.S. has steadily increased since 2009 but nearly doubled in the fiscal year that ended in September to more than 43,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

At Ruizs transit shelter, a white corner house on a run-down stretch of Hidalgo Street near the San Augustin de Laredo historic district, new arrivals chatted in rapid-fire Cuban Spanish in a rear courtyard. On the living room couch, next to a pile of luggage, teenagers listened to Dos Copas de Mas, by the pop duo Ha*Ash, on Spanish-language radio on their cellphones. In a darkened back bedroom, two women slept.

In the kitchen, a cook served Cuban fricase de pollo, stewed chicken and potatoes with black beans on rice, and a desert of dulce de toronja, candied grapefruit rind sprinkled with Mexican white cheese.

I only help the people who dont have money. I have a little house, and I help them get documents, Ruiz said as he sat down at the kitchen table for lunch.

Of course, its more complicated than that.

Thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans who arrive in America are granted permission to stay legally. Unlike the tens of thousands of Central Americans who have poured into south Texas in recent years, the immigrants from Cuba are also eligible for federal welfare benefits and permanent residency, a path to citizenship.

But as relations between the U.S. and Cuba began to normalize in 2014, thousands fled toward America, afraid their window of opportunity would close.

Most of the Cuban migrants fly to Ecuador, then travel north through Central America and Mexico to this Texas border town. Its a longer trip than the traditional overseas route to Florida but considered a better bet.

Once they arrive, Ruiz -- a heavyset man with gray hair and a goatee -- is there to help. He provides temporary shelter and arranges drivers and vans to ferry many of the new arrivals to Miami, a top destination. Others stay for months at one of the houses while he helps them get Social Security numbers, food stamps, work permits, Medicaid and other benefits.

Then when they get their permit for work I say, Youre on your own! Ruiz said.

Many arrive hoping to join relatives, some of whom came during past mass migrations.

Those who dont go to Cuban enclaves in Florida migrate to Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or Louisville, Ky. -- the last the home to a host of immigrant resettlement groups. Others go to New Jersey or to Omaha and slaughterhouses that are hiring.

About 600 arrived two weekends ago, Ruiz said, clicking through emails on his smartphone. A friend was emailing him updates from Costa Rica, where an estimated 8,000 Cuban migrants have been stranded since late last year after Nicaragua closed its border.

Central American leaders announced a deal last month that allowed the stranded Cubans to fly from Costa Rica to El Salvador, then travel by bus to the border _ for $550. On Feb. 9, officials added the first direct flight to Laredos sister city, Nuevo Laredo.

But many of the migrants Ruiz was aiding were not on that plane.

When they said they were going to have only two flights per week, the Cubans said we will be here another six months. So they contacted coyotes to cross, Ruiz said, adding to the influx here.

One of them was Ernesto Rosales, 23, a barber with rhinestone studs in his ears who fled Matanzas, Cuba, in early December, leaving behind his mother and 18-year-old brother. After landing in Ecuador, he traveled to Costa Rica, where he was stuck for months, working as a barber.

When Rosales heard about the new flight limits, he knew it was time to go. He paid a coyote $650 to get him to Honduras, another $300 to reach southern Mexico.

I didnt want to be stuck another five months, he said.

This week, Rosales and three other men will go with Ruiz to get Social Security cards, Medicaid and food stamps.

Rosales plans to find work as a barber in Miami or New Jersey, become a citizen and bring the rest of his family to America.

Sulen Marrero, a 15-year-old bottle blond wearing a pink tank top, also turned to a coyote after spending three months stuck with her mother and 27-year-old sister in Costa Rica, living in a partitioned room with more than 100 others and working as a stylist. Now theyre headed to Miami to join her stepfather.

Marrero recalled the most dangerous part of the trip was traveling through Colombia, where she saw armed men in the streets.

There were some others who got kidnapped, robbed. They just want money. If you dont give it, they kill you, she said.

Another migrant, one of the first passengers from the Costa Rica flight, is six months pregnant and said she has yet to see a doctor.

I want it to be free, Janey Saque, 27, said of her unborn baby.

Saque said she spent three months in Costa Rica and that she and her mechanic husband paid $38,000 for the trip after leaving Havana.

On the plane with them from Costa Rica were about 40 other pregnant women, she said.

That worried Ruiz. He has been trying to get the government to provide more assistance here and in Florida, where at least one lawmaker has proposed a job training and placement program for them. Tomorrow he is meeting with officials from a local Methodist church who may help.

If more people start coming, Ruiz said, we are going to be in trouble.

---

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Sarkodie should have been bigger than ...
The manhunt continues for the 15-year-old suspected of running over a Orange County Sheriff's deputy continues.

Law enforcement officers said they are actively looking for JanCarlos Ortiz, but to avoid tipping anyone off, they are not disclosing the areas being searched.

Sgt. Marcy Pearce had an order to take Ortiz into custody, which is what she was working on Friday morning near his home. Ortiz has a lengthy rap sheet, including four warrants out for his arrest.

Pearce spotted the car he was in, and as she got closer, officials say he deliberately ran over her and left the scene.

My heart just dropped," said friend Bridget Pine. "I started praying for her immediately. I know her very well."

Pearce was treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center for head, back, hand and foot injuries. Now shes back home where her husband says she is slowly recovering.

Mary Huggins, a deputy and the president for Central Florida Cops, said, We want to go out and help people every single day and have the best outcome for the people that we do helpthat explains Marcy Pearce to a T.

Pearces colleagues described her as supportive and very involved in the community.

Shes a very strong individual and a very compassionate person for others, Pine said.

It is not known if this young man is armed, but a spokesperson with the Orange County Sheriffs Office tells us he has violent tendencies.

Its a really scary time for law enforcement," Huggins said. "And I am grateful for the community support that has been with Marcy though this entire event.


Crews are still searching for an Orlando newborn who has been missing since Monday.

Orlando Police said a human placenta was found at the Willow Bend Apartment Complex on Silver Star Road. Crews are now searching the area in hopes of finding Baby Willow.

Dive teams searched a retention pond that sits near the complex on Friday. On Saturday, crews started to drain the pond. They will continue to drain the pond until Sunday.

We looked over there and I said 'What is that?' and walked over there and said 'Wow someone just had a baby over here,'  said Odanell Lewis, who lives in the apartment complex.

Police believe 30-year-old Susan Richardson had the baby in the parking lot of the apartment complex. They also discovered a trail of blood that led to her home.

Lewis and others who live in the apartment complex say they hope the baby is still alive.

On Saturday, friends and family left teddy bears and balloons near the entrance to the apartment complex.

Lewis said Richardson didnt live in the apartment complex, but would walk around asking people for money.

Several times she would walk through here going towards the 7-11 and several times me and my husband gave her a few dollars, said Lewis.

The 7-11 is not far from the retention pond where crews are searching.

Richardson was arrested and charged with neglect and unlawful abandonment. She remains in custody at the Orange County Jail.


MASHANTUCKET  It may be just a dozen or so miles away, but once youve settled in to your spot at Vue 24  the posh yet comfy restaurant high atop the Grand Pequot Tower at Foxwoods Resort Casino  youll think youve traveled far, far from home and landed softly in the lap of luxury.



Surrounded by the tinkling of soft piano music and the twinkling of distant lights, Vue 24 is elegant yet welcoming, sophisticated yet simple and surely one of the more romantic spots in the area. It may have been that our visit occurred just before Valentines Day, or the way the red roses were arranged in small glass bowls upon each table, or the flickering candlelight, perhaps theres just something about being doted upon and treated like royalty that goes a long way after a long week of work. Our visit was rich and memorable and we know well be back.



As a person with severe celiac disease, eating outside the home is always risky and often awkward, having to explain that not only am I unable to tolerate any wheat or anything that includes the least bit of wheat, and cross-contamination is also a major concern.



I had alerted the staff ahead of time (always a wise thing for diners with food allergies) so when our waitress, Shannon, arrived, she was aware of my plight, and reassured me that I was in good, safe hands.



My husband, Sam, on the other hand, is blessed with the ability to eat whatever his heart desires. So, when the little, warm loaves of freshly-made bread  one cranberry-studded and the other multi-grain  arrived at the table, he was overjoyed. Gluten is not a welcome ingredient in our kitchen, so when he gets the opportunity to eat good bread, he relishes the experience. He rated the bread as out of this world.



Soon after we were settled in, we were warmly greeted by Jan Sedlak, the general manager and sommelier, who tended to all the guests with genuine concern and care, so I observed as the night went on. He likes to say that Vue 24, for all its sophistication, is approachable.



Sedlak, who recently moved to Cranston (his wife is a Cranston native) from New York where he worked at Daniel Bouluds restaurants, knows his wines, and recommended a fabulous white Bourgogne Les Setilles from Olivier Leflaives Burgundy vineyard in France and a interesting Pinot Noir, Whole Cluster from Willamette Valley in Oregon to try as soon as our dinners arrived. But first things first.



We settled on the Crab & Avocado with Celery Root Remoulade and the escargot with garlic, parsley, shallots and white wine butter for our Plats Premieres, (first courses) and shared the Caesar with Shaved Parmesan, White Anchovies for our salad course. It had been a while since I last indulged in escargots, and these tender morsels swimming in butter and garlic reminded me of what a treat they can be. Sam raved about the crab and avocado and praised the salad as one of the best Caesars ever. The romaine, was cold, crispy and, in an unusual twist, shaved.



It was about then we were surprised by a table-side visit from Chef Michael Yaffe, a large, friendly Teddy Bear of a fellow who grew up in Brockton, Mass., just south of Boston. Super personable and eager to please Vue 24 patrons, Yaffe is chatty, interesting, knowledgeable and happy to be back in New England. Yaffe told us he began his career in Boston, then did a stint at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Las Vegas, before moving back east. He, his wife and seven-year-old son live in Stonington Borough, he said, and are thrilled with the location. Yaffe was pleased with our choices; Sam selected the roasted salmon with creamed leeks, sorrel and horseradish (lovely,) and after deep consideration (Duck a lOrange with Coffee Scented Duck Breast, Confit, Burnt Orange Grand Marnier Sauce? Local lamb with peas, Dijon-herb crusted rack, eggplant chevre tart, tarragon jus?) I chose the butter-poached Stonington lobster with the mushroom-thyme pudding and lemon beurre blanc (heavenly.) Yaffe was justifiably proud of his work and took great care to explain the hows and why of his preparation. He called his velvety, mushroom-thyme pudding (a true taste treat) old school.



When Shannon asked if wed like accompaniments, Sam chose the asparagus and I chose creamed spinach, not knowing how fabulously rich it would be. (Later, once we were home, I said to Sam, You know, that could have been a whole dinner.) Covered in melted Gruyere cheese, it was like a mini casserole.



One might think that after splurging on such delicacies, dessert would not be an option. And it wasnt. Until a glass cup of coconut sorbet arrived for me, and for Sam, Vue 24s signature Cygne Chantilly, a flaky choux pastry swan filled with creme brulee, cherry compote and pistachio sponge. Needless to say, the swan was off limits for me, but Sam enjoyed every last morsel. The sorbet was a perfect ending.



Now, back to that romantic piano playing I mentioned earlier. Please do yourself  and your sweetheart  a favor and plan a visit to Vue 24. Yes, for the upscale French menu; yes, for the charm and ambiance; and yes, for the panoramic view, but triple yes to listen to the extraordinary Jack Madry on piano. He is a jazz pianist lovers dream come true. Madry, who sits close by the shiny, curved, wooden bar, seems to know everyone who stops to say hello, understandably since hes something of a fixture. Madry, who is also the pastor at New Londons Madry Temple Church, has been playing his piano in the same spot for more than 20 years (he played at the Paragon before Vue 24 moved in at the beginning of the year.) Wearing his trademark fedora, and smartly dressed in a suit coat, Madry is charming, engaging, and supremely talented. The night we were there he played everything from Sinatra to Coltrane to such personal favorites as Satin Doll, Dont Get Around Much, and A Train, and greeted us like longtime friends. Next time, Im going to ask him to play Nancy with the Laughing Face.



And, yes, there will be a next time.



Vue 24, boasts an excellent wine list, an intriguing selection of classic cocktails, and a good assortment of after dinner and dessert drinks. A Sky Brunch is offered on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a $40 fixed-price menu that includes one choice each from the starter and entree sections along with assorted breakfast breads and a grand dessert buffet. Options include French deviled eggs, sliced smoked salmon on a bagel, grapefruit brulee, shrimp cocktail, croque madame, pain perdu, and an omelet with butter-basted Stonington lobster. Classic brunch cocktails like mimosas, bellinis, and bloody Marie with shrimp and bacon and a Pimms cup are $15 apiece. There is also a lounge menu featuring an avocado BLT, the Vue Burger and duck sliders.



Vue 24 is on the 24th floor of the Grand Pequot Tower at Foxwoods Resort Casino, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket. The restaurant is open Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sky Brunch. 800-369-9663 and foxwoods.com/vue-24.



nbfusaro@thewesterlysun.com






Nobody likes change, at least not when it seems to threaten their own power and importance. But when the old ways of doing business arent working, it may well be time to try a different tack.



Thats just what Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is doing with his proposal to give department heads more authority to decide how their budgets are spent.



So it comes as no surprise that hes getting plenty of push-back from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.



Like governors, members of the General Assembly are accustomed to fine-tuning budgets, line by line. Malloys proposal to treat departmental appropriations more like block grants  to allow department heads to move some funding around within their budgets, without having to go back to the legislature for approval every time, and then to hold them accountable for the results  certainly parts with tradition.



The governor says his idea would allow department heads to budget more efficiently, something thats especially important now, when he is asking for overall budget cuts of 5.75 percent after repeated deficit projections. This, he says, is part of the new economic reality Connecticut faces. Malloy said he knew the idea might be unpopular when he presented it, on Feb. 3. That prediction has come true.



The role of the legislature has been established over many years, said Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, of New Haven, Malloys fellow Democrat. We dont want to do anything that would undermine the legislatures authority, responsibility and accountability.



Why are we even here if were going to do that? asked Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven.



Why have a legislature? asked House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. Thats not how were set up.



Because agency chiefs answer to the governor, the argument goes, this increases his or her power at the expense of the legislature.



They have a point. Working out the details has long been part of their job. Some of those line items may be very important to their constituents back home, and its hard to take credit for something that was out of your control. By the same token, governors, too, like to take credit for anything positive that might happen on their watch, whether or not they were directly involved in it. So, in that respect, Malloy would also be making a sacrifice.



Malloy says that a proposed Office of Policy and Management website will spell out state agency spending in detail for all to see, thus increasing government transparency.



Fasano argues that the lawmakers and members of the public will be left totally in the dark, in part because managers could make changes outside the legislative session.



The only thing thats really clear right now is that the governors proposal has stirred up a swarm of angry lawmakers (the cautious tone of the Democrats in criticizing a fellow Democrat notwithstanding), and that well be hearing plenty more about this between now and June.



In 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt took office during an economic crisis, he unleashed an unprecedented barrage of ideas and programs, declaring, This nation asks for action, and action now.



While not all of FDRs actions were successful, and while the problems this state now faces dont rival the scale of the Great Depression, we have suffered several years of chronic deficits that have proved immune to special sessions, gubernatorial rescissions and all the usual remedies.



Maybe its time for something unusual.






A man was shot in the right buttock while smoking a cigarette outside his home in the 1000 Block of Cantrell Drive on the South Side around midnight Saturday, according to San Antonio Police.

The man was fired on from a car that pulled up by the house. Neighbors said the man was a troublemaker in the neighborhood, and that they were not surprised by the incident.
While Republicans battle one another in the primaries over who is the true conservative, Democrats should be concentrating on expanding their base for the general election in November.

Whether their nominee is Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, Democrats can win by forging a new rainbow coalition of disparate groups who realize Republicans do not represent their interests. This will require work on what is often referred to as the ground game.

Lets do the numbers. (Actually, these estimates and projections have been done for us by some of the very best demographers and survey researchers at the Pew Research Center.)

Women: Relentless assaults on Obamacare and Planned Parenthood are often viewed as Republican assaults on women themselves, making the most vulnerable women among the best candidates for Democratic mobilization. In 2012, women comprised 53 percent of all voters and 55 percent of those voting for Obama.

White independents: Washington Post exit polls reported that only 39 percent of white voters in 2012 supported President Barack Obama. While my own research shows clear evidence of party polarization along racial lines, targeting voters by race alone will not win. With more precise identification, whites who joined the Greens in support of Ralph Nader in 2000 and 2004, and gun-control advocates and Occupy Wall Street activists can be drawn back into the Democratic base with precision targeting and policies addressing their self-interests.

Blacks: African-Americans have been part of the Democratic base since at least the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Obamas candidacy in 2008 inspired historic black turnout. The challenge for a white Democratic candidate in November  when blacks are 12.4 percent of eligible voters  will be to maintain that enthusiasm.

Latinos: An additional 4 million Latinos have become eligible to vote since 2012. Projected to make up about 1 in 8 of all eligible voters (11.9 percent), the 27.3 million Latinos number almost as many as eligible black voters. Except for those of Cuban ancestry, Latino groups have provided a growing bloc of Democratic voters  71 percent supported Obama in 2012. They will be most helpful in key swing states: Florida, Nevada and Colorado, where they make up at least 15 percent of eligible voters, and in Virginia, where they are 5 percent of those eligible to vote.

Asians: Asian-Americans  61 percent of them foreign-born  are another immigrant group put off by the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Republicans. They are projected to be 4 percent of eligible voters in 2016.

Naturalized immigrants: Special investment in naturalized immigrants will produce large dividends at the ballot box. One-fourth of eligible Latinos, an estimated 6.6 million, and another 6 million Asians are naturalized citizens. Latino immigrants turned out in 2008 at higher rates (54.2 percent) than U.S.-born Latinos (48.4 percent).

Millennials: The millennial generation (born in 1981 or later by Pews definition) makes up 44 percent of eligible Hispanic voters and are projected to number 11.9 million on Election Day. When combined with 9.9 million blacks and 2.9 million Asians in the same age group, thats roughly 25 million. Young minority voters are often left out of targeting plans because they dont vote. A more detailed targeting plan needs to be tied to an issue agenda that bridges both generation and ethnic gaps.

Nonreligious voters: Evangelical Christians make up 1 in 4 Americans and the core of the Republican base. But almost as many (22.8 percent) of Americans are un-churched. Candidates seldom target nonreligious voters. They would be a strong constituency for Democrats to mobilize on the Founding Fathers principle of separation of church and state.

Note that these estimates and projections are of eligible voters. The ground game must detail plans to make them actual voters. Reaching specific groups requires the use of very elaborate and expensive databases, and an attitude of inclusiveness is needed to rebuild relationships with the politically alienated.

Robert Brischetto is the former executive director of the Southwest Voter Research Institute.
As the Member of Parliament for Provencher, I would like to share with you a concern of mine regarding Canadas financial situation.

During the federal election, the Liberals suggested that they would take a balanced Conservative budget and transform it into a $10 billion deficit. Now, a new report by the National Bank of Canada shows an even more gloomy situation and states that the Liberal government could indeed see an accumulation of $90 billion in debt over the next 4 years due to their spending promises.

While the government cannot control the uncertainty in the global economy, it can control its actions during these challenging times. While Canadian families are worried about their jobs and financial security, now is not the time for out of control spending that will lead to waste and higher taxes.

My office has received a great deal of feedback from constituents who say that they want the federal government to be prudent with their finances. Governments need to remember that the money they collect belongs to hard working taxpayers and not to politicians or bureaucrats.

There seems to be a concerning trend that the new Liberal Government is focusing on out of control spending rather than prudent financial management of our national economy.

I have been clear that I will work with the new government in the best interests of Canadians and our riding. In this particular case, I believe that being fiscally responsible in this time of global uncertainty is in the best interest of the residents of Provencher and I will deliver that message loud and clear to the Liberal Government in Ottawa.
Lambert here: Its interesting to see what Varoufakis has come up with now, and I read the DiEM 25 Manifesto. Im not getting a lot of clarity on Who, Whom; that is, who, exactly, is preventing Europe from being democratized?

By Mathew D. Rose, a freelance journalist in Berlin

The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. These words of former British Prime Minister Harald Macmillan in 1960 with regard to Africa are just as applicable to Europe today. It is incontrovertible that a change is not only coming, it is already here. If this is a positive development depends much upon what ensues.

On the one side we have the ultra-right nationalist parties, the most prominent being the Front National in France and UKIP in the United Kingdom, which have not yet had the political breakthrough that was feared. In Scandinavia and the Netherlands there are a number of nationalist conservative parties that are strongly influencing the policies of their nations. More salient are Fidesz in Hungary and the Law and Justice party in Poland, both of whom are in government.

On the other hand there are leftist parties, such as the newly elected government in Portugal, as well as a surging Podemos is Spain. Add to this an increasing leftist awakening in Britains Labour Party trying to wrest power from Tony Blairs venal votaries. I am intentionally excluding Syriza in Greece for the time being, yet believe we have not heard the last from the Greek people.

Last but not least there are the nationalist governments of Catalonia and Scotland, representing a broad political spectrum. There are many more parties, groups and movements forming in Europe, all of which I cannot mention within the framework of this piece, who are together altering the political map of the EU  for better or for worse.

All may not bear the label nationalist, but they all have something in common: their resistance to the political programme of the EU, better said, pitting the welfare of their own populace against the hegemony of Germany and its brutal neo-liberal blueprint.

A case in point is the issue of the refusal of many east European EU member states, which are unwilling or not happy about accepting refugees currently fleeing to Europe. Explanations, such as a lack of contact with foreigners or racism, doubtlessly play a role. More important is the fact that most citizens of these nations have been the victims of Germanys policy of austerity for the EU. They have not experienced the prosperity that was supposed to be part of EU membership, unlike a small corrupt elite in their nation. They have lost faith in the EU, distrustful of any new measures coming from Brussels, correctly fearing a worsening of their own plight. Why should they welcome destitute refugees, when they themselves are destitute, with little perspective except migrating to the wealthy nations of the EU often to work for pittance, leaving behind their families, communities and culture? They too have become refugees, wandering through Europe in an attempt to keep body and soul together. I do not wish to be an apologist for xenophobia, but it is a label that often conceals relevant issues. Ambivalence, scepticism and outright antagonism towards the EU have become ubiquitous through large swathes of the populations of member states.

Enter a most unexpected figure. Most politicians who suffer a crushing defeat either fade away or lead an emotional, often irrational struggle to vindicate their reputation. Yanis Varoufakis, Greeces former Finance Minister, has instead started a remarkable offensive against the institutions that are responsible not only for one of the most nefarious political and financial events in the history of the European Union, but also for a perversion of the European dream.

On 9 February Varoufakis launched the movement Democracy in Europe Movement 25 (DiEM 25) in Berlin, the capital of his principle enemy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkWwUG0p89Y&feature=iv&src_vid=cd4Owt05-ZM&annotation_id=annotation_767904811) . In its manifesto (http://diem25.org/) DiEM 25 discerns a rather stark alternative facing the EU: The choice between authentic democracy and insidious disintegration. In his speech at the launch of DiEM 25 Varoufakis went further, claiming that Europe was on the verge of a postmodern version of the 1930s with the recrudescence of nationalism, extremism and racism resulting in dissolution of the European Union. Responsible for the crisis according to Varoufakis and the other speakers at Berlins Volksbahne is a phalanx of EU politicians and their accomplices in national governments together with financial and industrial conglomerates. The victim is the demos, the people, of Europe. Not only is democracy being sacrificed at the altar of an opaque decision-making process of the EU government, but also the social and material welfare, as well as the health of the EUs populace in the name of austerity.

Probably Varoufakis knows better than the other speakers, which included leftist members of the European Parliament of various parties, activists from Spain, among others, what lies behind the forces that rule the EU. If one has followed his interviews since he resigned as Finance Minister, he has provided explicit glimpses into the abyss, be it in fragments. Things look much worse than many of us feared. The EU is not beset by chaos, or just kicking the can down the road, but has a clear plan for destruction of democracy and social gains of post-war Europe.

In its manifesto DiEM 25 sees the European Union member states confronted with only two alternatives: a retreat into the cocoon of our nations-states or the surrender to the Brussels democracy-free zone? DiEM 25 offers a third path: re-democratising Europe.

One wonders, if this analysis is too fatalistic with regards to nationalism. Probably one of the great surges of democratisation in the EU in this millennium was Scotlands plebiscite. The vote may have been lost, but Scottish society has as a result been politicised, especially in those classes that had long lost their political voice. Of course the Scots could now go on and campaign for the re-democratising of the United Kingdom, whose politics make those of the EU look humane, or they can achieve independence  and it is around the corner  and serve as a tangible example of a Europe of the demos. The same process seems to be playing itself out in Catalonia.

Probably the most sanguine moments of the DiEM 25 evening in Berlin were the speakers from Spains recently elected anti-austerity, activist municipal governments of Barcelona and La Coruna. These victories are the result of political processes that may not be saving the rest of Europe, but are certainly providing a palpable respite for many of the cities denizens from the ravages of neo-liberalism.

DiEM 25s concept is the creation of a very, very broad pan-European coalition of democrats, a political movement, not a party, to forge a common agenda, and then find ways of connecting it with local communities and at the regional and national level. This coalition, so Varoufakis, should contain radical democrats, left wing democrats, social democrats, green democrats and liberal democrats; all those who wish to put the demos back in democracy. How broad this coalition should be was demonstrated by the speakers from Germany. Most are elements of the status quo, not the forces of change.

Such an extensive coalition may well be necessary, as the 19 aspirations of DiEM 25s manifesto not only entails a re-democratisation of Europe, but a political revolution. Its goal of creating a new, democratic constitution for the European Union is to be achieved by 2025, thus the 25 in the organisations name. The first step has already been defined: Full transparency in decision-making. This includes live-streaming sessions of important EU bodies, such as the EU Council and the Euro group among others; the publishing of the European Central Banks minutes and documents pertinent to crucial negotiations (e.g. trade-TTIP, bailout loans, Britains status); and, a comprehensive register of EU lobbyists. Following a number of intermediate steps 2025 is to see the Enactment of the decisions of the Constitutional Assembly.

At the conclusion of the event in Berlin members of the audience fielded questions. One of the first was how to proceed from here and now? Varoufakiss answer was to organise assemblies for democracy in Europes cities, which seemed a bit vague for Germans, a nation of panglossians, where all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Varoufakis brought together many impressive intellectuals from throughout Europe to thrash out DiEM 25s priorities. Germanys intellectuals however are seen by many here as of doubtful integrity and being too close to power, as most of them are employed or financed by the state or have joined the predominant political parties to enhance their careers. The major German unions are considered more a force of repression, not emancipation. The wind of change in Germany is currently at best a slight breeze. In other nations that are bearing the brunt of German hegemony things are looking very different.

Yanis Varoufakis is probably not a great pragmatist and during negotiations with the EU did little to help his own people. Maybe he never had a chance. Maybe he did not know how to use the one he had. On the other hand, he may end up being one of the great European political thinkers of this decade. What Varoufakis may not comprehend is that DiEM 25 will not lead the forces of change in Europe. The Europeans have had enough of great leaders like Merkel, Schauble, Juncker, Cameron and all the others. Still, DiEM 25 may well be a major influence as the demos put itself back into democracy.
Winstons 185 mph Winds in Fiji: Southern Hemispheres Strongest Storm on Record Weather Underground

That Sinking Feeling The American Prospect (Re Silc)

Buyer Beware: The Vulnerability of One Complex Debt Investment WSJ. CoCos.

Financial turmoil half a world away is melting Minnesotas iron country WaPo

For Silicon Valley, the Hangover Begins WSJ

Robots at Boeing: Ex-Boeing Employee Chimes In On Robotics MishTalk

A Skeleton Key of Unknown Strength Dan Kaminsky. TL;DR: The glibc DNS bug (CVE-2015-7547) is unusually bad.

Xi tours Chinese top state media, demands total loyalty WaPo

Syraqistan

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare NYT. Yeah, if America is your gated community in Montana and you own a bunker.

Imperial Collapse Watch

Whither Europe?

2016

Obama Seeks Generational Bridge Within Civil Rights Movement Bloomberg. Where movements go to die

Class Warfare

Modern Milgram experiment sheds light on power of authority Nature

Bluebook vs. Baby Blues (Or, Bleak House Lite) Another Word For It. Important outside the legal community: If citiation systems are not in the public domain, then authorities located through those systems might as well not be. Imagine if URLs were copyrighted! The parallel is exact.

USDOJ: Make Apple Fix Their Brand Marketing Strategy for Our Needs emptywheel

Retrotopia: Back To What Worked The Archdruid Report. I keep waiting for the protagonists real mission

Robin Hood in a Time of Austerity LRB

The Tax Justice Network February 2016 Podcast Tax Justice Network. Which country is the second easiest in the world after Kenya to set up an anonymous shell company? I love podcasts, and this is a good one.

Antidote du jour:

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Lambert: Interesting the political connections the exporters have.

By Julie Dermansky, a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universitys Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Originally published at DeSmogBlog.

The Sabine Pass LNG terminal owned by Cheniere Energy in southwest Louisiana offers a glimpse of the challenges facing the growing natural gas industry in the United States.

The first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) was scheduled for export from Cheniere Energys new export terminal in Cameron Parish, in January, but the company reportedly delayed its plans by up to two months due to faulty wiring.

Following the announcement of the export delay, Cheniere Energy sought $2.6 billion to refinance its adjacent LNG import terminal in Cameron Parish which was impacted by extreme fluctuations in the price of oil and gas. The company built the import facility before the U.S. fracking boom took hold, and was therefore saddled with unnecessary import infrastructure in the new age of abundance of domestic gas availability and the prospect of U.S. exports.

Chenieres $20 billion, multiphase terminal is one of four LNG terminals in the lower 48 states that got the green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And the existing Kenai LNG plant in Alaska, an export terminal operated by ConocoPhillips, was recently permitted to restart operations after closing down in 2013, when operations ceased due to a shortage of gas.

The Chenier Energy project, as well as the over 40 proposed or approved LNG export facilities around the United States, are a serious threat to our climate, Gulf Restoration Network organizer Johanna deGraffenreid told DeSmog. She criticized the massive export infrastructure investment craze for promoting the use of fossil fuels on an international scale.



A flare at Cheniere Energy Sabine Pass LNG facility. 2016 Julie Dermansky

But rather than acknowledging the climate risk posed by further expansion of LNG export infrastructure, the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration are moving in the opposite direction.

The natural gas export industry may grow even more rapidly if the first new bipartisan energy legislation drafted since 2007 passes. The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, known as S. 2012, would expedite permitting for LNG export terminals.

The bills passage was considered imminent until it derailed with the introduction of an amendment that would provide emergency aid towards solving the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Now the passage of the bill hinges on whether the Senate will come to terms on aid to Flint.

Lobbying for the bill has been heavy. As DeSmogs Steve Horn reported: The list of lobbyists for S.2012 is a whos who of major fossil fuel corporations and their trade associations: BP, ExxonMobil, Americas Natural Gas Alliance, American Petroleum Institute, Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Southern Company, Duke Energy and many other prominent LNG export companies.



Cheniere Energy Inc. Sabine Pass LNG facility. 2016 Julie Dermansky  Flight made possible by SouthWings

Horn also described the revolving door between the federal government and Cheniere Energy:

Cheniere Energy, the first company in the fracking era to receive an export permit from the Obama Administration back in 2012, also has a politically connected Board of Directors. Among its members is Obamas former climate czar, Heather Zichal.

Horn continued: Ankit Desai, a campaign finance bundler for Hillary Clintons 2016 run for president and former top-level aide to Vice President and then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden, is also on Chenieres lobbying payroll. Desai also formerly served as a top-level staffer for current U.S. Secretary of State and then-U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA).

Also tied to lobbyists with political connections is Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). It bought The Williams Companies, owner of the Gulf Trace pipeline, which is set to feed into Cheniere Energys Sabine Pass LNG export terminal.



As Horn reported: ETP  whose assets include both hotly contested proposed Dakota Access LLC pipeline and the Trans-Pecos Pipeline  is run by CEO Kelcy Warren, who served as an advisory committee member and donor to former Republican Party presidential candidate Rick Perry. Perry sits on ETPs Board of Directors.

According to lobbying disclosure forms, Adam Ingols, a lobbyist for Daryl Owen Associates, is the former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Energy for President George W. Bush, and special assistant for the Bush White House Office of Legislative Affairs. He now lobbies for ETP at the federal level.

Bechtel Oil, Gas & Chemicals, Inc., the lead contractor for Chenieres LNG plant, also knows how to grease the wheels of the federal government. Bechtel Incs political action committee (PAC) has contributed $105,000 to federal candidates so far in the current election cycle, and poured $639,500 into the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Among the recipients of Bechtels PAC contributions in the 2014 cycle were Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu ($5,000) and Rep. Charles Boustany ($5,000).

Natural Gas A Bridge To Nowhere Except Climate Disruption

Though natural gas is still touted by many as a clean, safe energy source, there is mounting proof to the contrary.

The in-depth report Natural Gas Exports: Washingtons Revolving Door Fuels Climate Threat, by DeSmogs Steve Horn and Republic Reports Lee Fang, shows how LNG interests have manipulated public opinion:

Far from being a bridge fuel towards a sustainable energy future, multiple reports reveal that methane leakage throughout the shale gas production lifecycle has produced dangerous levels of emissions, surpassing even coal in its climate disruption-causing potential. Despite this fact, and evidence that shale gas drilling has contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing agents, the federal government is on track to propel the gas industry to new heights by approving multiple liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals.

Yet ongoing lobbying and advertising campaigns have kept alive the message that natural gas is a form of clean energy. The massive gas leak at Porter Ranch in Los Angeles is one of the latest examples of the risks the natural gas industry poses to communities.

And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency draft report on the impact of hydraulic fracturing on water resources, including groundwater, made clear the fracking industry has contaminated water sources.

Yet the Obama Administration has played a major role in the fracking industrys development at home and abroad. During Hillary Clintons tenure as Secretary of State, she promoted fracking throughout the world via the State Departments Global Shale Gas Initiative.

In President Obamas State of the Union speech after his 2012 re-election, he referred to natural gas as a bridge fuel, despite data showing that fracked gas can emit more harmful greenhouse gases than burning coal.

As a presidential candidate, Clinton still embraces natural gas. Her campaign released a fact sheet on responsible natural gas production that states she is committed to making America the worlds clean energy superpower and meeting the climate change challenge. The fact sheet states:

Domestically produced natural gas can play an important role in the transition to a clean energy economy, creating good paying jobs and careers, lowering energy costs for American families and businesses, and reducing air pollution that disproportionately impacts low income communities and communities of color. By putting in place new safeguards and raising labor standards, Clinton will ensure safe and responsible natural gas production as we move towards a clean energy future.

Sharon Wilson, an anti-fracking activist and Gulf Coast representative for Earthworks, told DeSmog: Ive been hearing about safe and responsible natural gas production for about a decade now, but Ive been to shale plays (geological formations where oil and gas are trapped in rock) all across the country, and I havent seen safe or responsible anywhere. Its polluting land, air, and water, making neighbors sick, causing earthquakes, and devaluing private property.

Wilson thinks Clintons natural gas fact sheet reads like oil and gas lobbyists wrote it.

Clintons rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders, is the only candidate who came out against the fracking industry. His plan to combat climate change includes banning fossil fuel lobbyists from working in the White House.

None of the Republican presidential candidates have embraced any new regulatory measures to govern the oil and gas industry or released a plan to deal with climate change.

Lake Charles Sasol Chemical Complex. 2016 Julie Dermansky  Flight made possible by SouthWings

Despite the governments natural gas industry-friendly plans, plummeting natural gas prices are showing signs of slowing the industrys growth.

Sasol, a South African energy and chemicals company, has put the brakes on a multi-billion dollar gas-to-liquids plant it plans to build around Mossville, Louisiana, about 60 miles from the Sabine Pass.





Gulf Restoration Network organizer Johanna deGraffenreid on flight provided by Southwings to survey new oil and gas developments. 2016 Julie Dermansky

Gulf Restoration Networks deGraffenreid pointed out: Not only are these fracked-gas projects unnecessary for public energy need or demand, they dramatically undermine the free market potential for renewable energy.

By developing export terminals and permitting more pipelines to enable fracked gas exports, the U.S is poised to play a larger role in the global gas market, despite the federal governments pledge to combat climate change.





Cheniere Energy Inc. Sabine Pass LNG facilities in Cameron, Louisiana. 2016 Julie Dermansky  Flight made possible by SouthWings



Blog image: Cheniere Energy Inc. Sabine Pass LNG facility. 2016 Julie Dermansky  Flight made possible by SouthWings
Nancy Landi, a native of Argentina, shows a rental property to a potential renter while working with her investor counseling and property management company, Xclusive Homes Realty, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Naples. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of businesses owned by Hispanics rose by 44 percent in Collier County and 39 percent in Lee County, a higher increment than Floridaas average. (David Albers/Staff)

SHARE Nancy Landi, a native of Argentina, shows a rental property to a potential renter while working with her investor counseling and property management company, Xclusive Homes Realty, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Naples. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of businesses owned by Hispanics rose by 44 percent in Collier County and 39 percent in Lee County, a higher increment than Floridaas average. (David Albers/Staff)

By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

In the past decade, Luis and Claudia Velez have opened or bought five Little Caesar's Pizza restaurants in Southwest Florida, started a business center in Golden Gate City, and partnered with a Miami company to provide impact glass windows, doors and walls in Collier County.

Luis Velez and his wife, both from Colombia, say they started the first Little Caesar's restaurant because they thought it was a good opportunity. After the first restaurant proved profitable, the others soon followed.

Although their companies require a lot of work and responsibility, they say it's worth it.

"We are very happy to work for our own business," said Claudia Velez.

Luis and Claudia Velez, ages 48 and 43, are among those driving the growth in the number of Southwest Florida businesses  Hispanic and other minority entrepreneurs. Businesses owned by minorities, particularly Hispanics, grew at a much higher pace than the rest and made for most of the increase in the number of businesses in Collier and Lee counties between 2007 and 2012, according to the latest data from the Survey of Business Owners released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hispanic-owned firms increased by 44 percent  2,590 more companies  in Collier between 2007 and 2012. The number of all businesses that can be classified by the demographics of their owners in Collier grew by 3,314, or 9 percent, during that time. Hispanics owned 8,522 companies in 2012 in Collier County, while non-Hispanic-owned 30,912 businesses.

The growth in businesses comes as Hispanics grow in population, but at a slower rate, according to the census data. The Hispanic population grew by 8 percent in Collier, and increased as a percentage of total population from 25.5 percent to 26.2 percent from 2007 to 2012.

In Lee County, Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 39 percent reaching 12,262, while non-Hispanic owned companies decreased by 3 percent, down to 51,277.

***

When Nancy Landi moved from Buenos Aires to Florida in 2007, she brought her business with her. In Argentina, she worked with foreigners who invested in real estate, usually buying properties and renting them out.

After a couple of years in Orlando, she moved to Naples and continued her real estate business. She says she counsels investors from Latin America and Europe, or even Qatar about what properties are a good investment to buy as a rental. The clients, she says, visit the place very rarely. She gets them in touch with local certified public accountants so they follow the regulations, she offers interior design services and she often stays as the property manager.

Land says entrepreneurship is in her family history.

"I belong to a generation of entrepreneurs," Landi, 55, said. "I have worked in my father's and my family's companies."

Starting in the U.S. was difficult though. She knew how to do business in Argentina, but in Florida, she had to start from scratch. She said she surrounded herself with professionals to learn.

And now her clients are spreading the word about her.

Her sales pitch: Naples real estate is cheaper than Miami or New York, the traditional places that come to mind for foreign investors. Naples investors can buy less pricey residences, and they can buy more.

"The good investor buys different properties," Landi said.

***

Augusto Sanabria is CEO of the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund, a Florida nonprofit that counsels Hispanic business owners. He said Hispanic business ownership typically outpaces non-Hispanic ownership 3-to-1. Hispanics, he said, want to control their financial welfare and leave a legacy for their children.

"That is the culture that we had from our parents and grandparents," he said. "Most likely, in your family you had someone who was a business owner."

He said the trend of Hispanic business growth has continued since 2012 in Southwest Florida.

"The Hispanic community is contributing a lot to this economy," he said.

Veronica Culbertson, CEO of the Southwest Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said cultural and language barriers for Hispanics and lack of professional experience in the U.S. may make it easier for them to open their own businesses than find a job in an American company.

"As we are hard workers, we want also to have control on our lives and be able to make progress," Culbertson said.

Luis Bernal, executive director of the Naples-based Council of Hispanic Business Professionals, said many Hispanics are emigrating from Florida's East coast to Collier looking for another life style.

"People think this area has potential," he said.

***

Ciro Gomez opened his seafood store in Golden Gate City in 2009 with no experience in the business. One day he was working painting apartments, he went out to buy fresh seafood and didn't find any.

"That same day, I went to the county to apply for the permits," he said.

Establishing his business was harder.

Gomez, 47, had one "paladar" or small private restaurant, and a pizzeria when he lived in Cuba. But a seafood store was different.

"The first year and a half, my wife cleaned houses and I stayed at the seafood store to pay the bills," he said. "The following year and a half, both she and I worked at the shop seven days a week, without taking a single day off."

Bills kept coming. At one point, he said, they couldn't keep up with the car payments, so he returned it. His credit score went south.

The owners of Miami seafood supplier Casablanca helped him, he said. They lent him money and gave him credit to buy supplies. The owner of the building where his market is didn't charge him rent for a year and a month, he said.

Now, he said, he has paid almost all of his debts and his credit score has recovered. The store owner has offered to sell him the property after he saw Gomez invested over $15,000 in equipment for the store.

"Little by little, and with a lot of work, you can achieve things," he said.

***

Hispanic-owned businesses increased in most sectors in Collier and Lee counties, according to the census data. Hispanics create cleaning, agriculture and landscaping businesses, but they also open private medical, accounting, legal and real estate practices.

Sanabria, with the nonprofit HBIF, said as the population grows in Southwest Florida, there will be more job opportunities in sectors other than construction and the hotel industry.

"That attracts a more educated Hispanic population that is going to open businesses in sectors like real estate or finance," he said.

But the survey numbers also show Hispanic business in Collier and Lee tend to have less volume of sales and fewer employees than the average business, with more of them having no employees.

Sanabria says many Hispanics are reluctant to bring outside investors to grow their business because they want to keep them as a family legacy to pass to their children and very few are approved for a bank loan. Cultural and language barriers and a short credit history may play against them.

Bernal, with the Hispanic business council, said there is not much support in Collier for small businesses, those that Hispanics tend to open. The bureaucracy to get permits, he said, can be a heavy burden.

"The business environment has to keep improving," he said. "Especially for small businesses."
SHARE Film and popcorn symbol (done in 3d)

1. Starts Thursday: 'A Season of 'Saga'

The Island Theater Company is celebrating a 20-year-old favorite by bringing back a season of music, comedy, and melodrama with "Saga of Roaring Gulch," music, book and lyrics by Jack L. Canon. In the wild 'n woolly town of Roaring Gulch men live and die by the "Code of the West!" Boo, cheer, hiss and sigh throughout this musical melodrama spoof full of songs, dances, and, of course, a hero in white and a villain in black. It's a classic pistol packin' confrontation between good and evil with plenty of comedy and lots of colorful townspeople.

The production will be held at Rose History Auditorium on Feb. 25-28, March 17- 20, March 31 and April 1-3.

Information: 239-394-0080.

2. Today: Canadian Club event

Join us for a healthy lunch, refreshments and a guided tour of the YMCA at 101 Sand Hill Street, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23.

Learn about the NCH Healthcare System Blue Zone Initiative and using your Canadian Emergency Travel Medical Insurance Cards at NCH facilities. Consider making a donation of $20 per person to the YMCA. Sponsors are BMO Harris Bank and Island Title 5 Star Agency. Call Gary Elliott at 239-248-1776.

3. Wednesday: Winter Movie Series beings

Three famous movies will be shown at Marco Movies and the price is only $15 for all three. Movies begin at 10 a.m., Wednesdays. Call Ginny at 642-1645 or Lindy at 389-1333 for tickets.
Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs in "Love." (Netflix)

SHARE Gillian Jacobs in "Love." (Suzanne Hanover/Netflix)

By Mary Mcnamara, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

In one of the truly ironic moments of this century's explosion of small-screen art, a young woman is lectured about the dangers of bingeing.

It's a righteous if slightly malicious speech  Mickey, played by the truly luminous Gillian Jacobs, is an alcoholic and all that entails amid the Echo Park singles scene (i.e. she makes a fool of herself at parties and has sex with many men, some of whom she treats badly). But the speech comes in the middle of the latest 10-episode download from Netflix, which makes it a bit difficult not to, you know, project.

Especially since this series, titled "Love" and created by Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin and Paul Rust, exploits the OK-just-one-more effect of its binge model so fully that somewhere around Episode 7 the term "Stockholm syndrome" comes to mind.

Which may actually be the point. The story of two damaged people becoming unlikely friends then lovers, "Love" is essentially "When Harry Met Sally" tatted up for the modern age, taking its time and full advantage of its freedom from commercials and time slots of any sort.

No well-scored-montage shortcuts here! "Love" is the enemy of the well-scored-montage shortcut! Apatow and company want to explore the whole darn thing in as close to real time as possible, which, with the aid of Jacobs' standout performance and just enough humor and insight, slowly lulls you into a state of theta-wave fascination.

During a wholly expositional and overly wrought first episode we meet Mickey, whose job as producer of a radio self-help program works in eye-rolling contrast to her self-destructive personal life, and Gus (Rust), an on-set tutor, passive narcissist and self-defined "nice guy" who can't understand why his girlfriend has cheated on him.

Mickey and Gus don't meet-cute until the end of the 40 or so minutes (the episodes vary in length, but the rebellious 40 or so minutes appear average); it's the second episode that sends them on one of those why-not daylong urban adventures in which Gus falls for Mickey and Mickey admits, "I usually hate meeting people, but I don't hate you."

This is the sort of thing Mickey will say often, in a self-hating sort of way, and it is to Jacobs' everlasting credit that she usually makes it stick, despite her perfect cheekbones and Mickey's obvious essential kindness.

Gus, on the other hand, is a vibrating mess of OCD control-freakiness cloaked in a miasma of constant apology and genuine human concern. He is drawn to Mickey because she is funny and wild but also because she is hot, putting "Love" firmly into the category of the aspirational male-dating myth, or Schleps Who Date Supermodels, embraced by Apatow and male screenwriters everywhere.

The rest of the episodes documents their courtship as a series of missteps, miscues and occasional moments of tremendous illumination (the Magic Castle episode is terrific on every level). With many Echo Park locations used as both exterior and interior, Los Angeles hasn't looked this real since "Transparent" went to the Warehouse in Marina del Rey for drinks.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the courtship, which is fretted with all the my-dysfunction-fits-with-your-dysfunction tics required of modern romantic comedies ever since Apatow began making successful films in the genre. (See also "Girls," which Apatow produces, and "You're the Worst," which he does not.)

This means "Love" often feels infuriatingly familiar to the point of derivative  seriously, is drunken sex with random partners and a foul mouth the only foibles a troubled heroine can have?  until some small twist adds just enough zest to keep things moving. Gus' main student is a bratty but genuinely exploited child star (Apatow's daughter Iris); Mickey has a new roommate, played by the wonderful Claudia O'Doherty, who owns any scene she's in without seeming to steal it.

And Apatow is indeed a master of his genre. As with the works of Ernest Hemingway and Ayn Rand, the tempo of and message of "Love" are so overwhelming, so confidently dictatorial, that it's difficult not to fall into step while watching.

"Ah, yes," you find yourself muttering as Gus vents to his sweet nerdy friends over breakfast at a diner so exquisitely retro hip it actually is the Brite Spot, "I know/remember those existential brunches." "So true," you say, as Mickey's boss, played by Brett Gelman, explains how bingeing doesn't just apply to booze.

Which may be among the few things you actually remember when you emerge from however many episodes of "Love" you can watch in one go, blinking into the unfamiliar sunlight, mouth dry and wondering: "Oh, my God, what time is it?"
Christopher Corey

SHARE Caleb Fernandez Facebook Christopher Corey with one of his two dogs.

By Kristine Gill of the Naples Daily News

More than two years have passed since deputies found Christopher Corey face down in a pool of blood at his Holland Street duplex.

Investigators said the East Naples man, a former Marine, had been shot and killed along with his two dogs after two men burst into his home after 3 a.m. that Monday morning in January. A third person, a woman, was also involved.

One of the men, Schuyler Casey, was arrested and later took a plea deal in the case.

The woman, Mallory McCann, was convicted for her role in the crime  investigators said she helped coordinate the burglary that led to Corey's killing.

But a third man whose actions have been laid out by state prosecutors and witnesses has never been arrested. Caleb Fernandez, a 23-year-old East Naples man, was publicly named a suspect but has never been charged in the case.

Now a petition is circulating online criticizing the local court system for allowing Fernandez to avoid charges.

"What message does the Office of the State Attorney's inaction so far send to the public?" the petition reads. "You can get away with murder in Southwest Florida? No faith in our system of justice? We must compel the Office of the State Attorney to do their job."

Organizers behind the petition are not named on the site and declined to comment for this story but have said they are speaking out because they believe the justice system has failed in this case. So far more than 360 people have signed. Commenters on the petition say they're worried a career criminal could go free.

In the meantime, Fernandez is behind bars on unrelated charges and is facing a maximum of 20 years in prison. His Lee County trial on charges of possession of drugs and weapons begins in April. Investigators with the Collier County Sheriff's Office said Fernandez remains a person of interest in the Corey investigation, which they say is still active.

In Facebook messages with a Daily News reporter in February 2014, Fernandez said he was not involved in Corey's killing.

"Of the mistakes I have made, I had nothing to do with the murder of a Marine and his dog," he wrote.

Corey's stepmother, Michelle Cisneros, said she too is hopeful the case will be resolved.

"No one wants justice for Chris more than our family does," Cisneros said in a statement. "The pain and anguish is palpable in our daily lives. Our son's life was violently stolen. he was set up by a girl he called a friend. He was betrayed and murdered. We want all responsible held accountable for his brutal murder."

The evidence

McCann testified during Morris' recent trial, saying Fernandez and Morris masterminded a plan to steal drugs and money from Corey. She also testified that Fernandez and Morris had conversations after the shooting that led her to believe Fernandez was the triggerman.

"I remember Schuyler Morris asking Caleb Fernandez if Christopher Corey was standing or was down when Caleb shot him and Caleb answered and said that Christopher Corey was standing," McCann said. "I also remember Schuyler Morris saying that he had a Taser with him that didn't work, or he tried to use it on one of the dogs and it didn't work. And Schuyler said he had shouted to Caleb, 'Shoot the dogs.'"

McCann said Fernandez and Morris were looking for someone to steal drugs and money from when she suggested Corey.

McCann said Morris and Fernandez had her canvass Corey's home that evening, and then she arranged a return to the home later.

According to her testimony, Fernandez and Morris told McCann they would come into the home while she was there with Corey.

McCann said they told her to get down on the ground and duck when they came in, but they didn't say why. They told her to act like she was scared. After 11 p.m., McCann returned to the duplex where she and Corey watched TV on his couch and used drugs. McCann said she and Fernandez exchanged text messages right before the homicide. McCann said she was conveying information about the scene inside Corey's house. At Morris' trial, a prosecutor read them aloud:

"Who you with?" Fernandez asked. "Is it an open house?"

"Just Chris," McCann responded. "Hold on, I'll find out."

Fernandez grew impatient at times saying "Tell me," asking "When?" and insisting that she "Answer!"

McCann also said he instructed her to leave the front door open and to spend the night at Corey's home.

"Let me know if he locks it," Fernandez texted McCann around 2:45 a.m.

Three minutes before 3 a.m., McCann said the door was still unlocked.

Then, sometime around 3:30 a.m., two men McCann recognized only from their voices came through the front door. Both shouted for Corey and McCann to get down.

McCann said she ducked down near a couch but Corey approached Morris and Fernandez with his dogs.

"I had peeked my head back up just a little to see what was going on and right when I did that, I hear two loud pops," McCann said.

McCann said she left the house through the back door, but returned to retrieve her purse.

Later, as they drove together, McCann noticed she had gotten blood on her jacket. Fernandez took it from her and got rid of it outside of the car, McCann said.

McCann said the plan was never to kill Corey, but prosecutors argued otherwise, pointing to the fact that both Morris and Fernandez had warned McCann to get down when they entered the home, presumably to avoid being struck by bullets.

The trial for Morris

Morris' trial ended in a hung jury after jurors were unable to reach a verdict in his first-degree murder case. Without a conviction, prosecutors offered a plea agreement for a manslaughter charge, which Morris accepted. He is now serving a 17-year sentence in prison for an alleged role in the killing.

"It had not been discussed before," Chief Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox said of the plea. "When it became evident there was going to be a mistrial and a hung jury, we discussed it with the family of the victim. They did not want to go through another trial. We discussed a possible sentence that they agreed to and we determined that that would be the best course of action at this time."

McCann was sentenced to 15 years for her role. In exchange for her cooperation in Morris' trial, McCann pleaded no contest to an armed robbery charge and faced five to 20 years behind bars. Without the plea deal, she could have faced life in prison if convicted.

Fox said in an interview following Morris' trial that just because Morris wasn't convicted by a jury doesn't mean Fernandez won't be arrested.

When asked how the outcome of Morris' trial might impact the state's decisions relating to Fernandez, Fox said, "We will take that into account and we certainly don't know what occurred back in the jury room so we really can't comment any further."

When asked if there had been a decision to charge Fernandez, Fox said, "I can say that there has not been a decision not to charge."

Fox clarified by saying there had not been a decision on whether to charge Fernandez.

Fox declined follow-up interviews in February for an update on the status of the case.

Questions answered through email by detectives with the Collier County Sheriff's Office confirm Fernandez is still a suspect in the ongoing investigation.

Investigators also said they are aware of the petition circulating calling for his arrest.

McCann's mother, Carol McCann, reached out to the Daily News by email saying many people had expressed outrage to her because Fernandez has not been charged in the case.

Cisneros, Corey's mother, said she is willing to wait as long as necessary to see justice served in her son's death.

"We feel very confident that when the state is ready, with the proper evidence, they will move forward," she said. We want this case to be winnable  with a conviction!  not just quick. We will forever be seeking justice for Chris, our beloved son, brother, grandson, cousin, veteran and friend."

Fernandez' history

In Facebook messages to a Daily News reporter in February 2014, Fernandez said McCann was implicating him because she had a grudge against him over a former girlfriend.

"I hope you as a person can understand just how much I am an animal lover and a military supporter and just know that of anything I could ever be accused of, this is not something I am capable (of)."

Fernandez was arrested in Lee County on April 21, 2014, on drugs and weapons charges unrelated to the Corey case. His trial on those charges begins in April. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of about 20 years.

Fernandez was also sentenced to 40 months in prison for charges out of Collier County in 2014 when he was found with cocaine.

Since age 12, he has been found guilty of about 10 crimes. He spent about two-and-a-half years in prison for aggravated assault and battery after a 2008 arrest.

When he was sentenced in Collier County in 2014 on the unrelated cocaine charge, he told Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie he wanted to turn his life around and become a better father to his toddler son.

Prosecutor James Stewart asked for the maximum five-year sentence saying, "We're all safer when he's off the streets."

Read more about the petition online at www.change.org/p/stephen-russell-dave-scuderi-amira-fox-charge-caleb-fernadez-with-murder

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RELATED STORIES:
Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at his South Carolina Republican presidential primary rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Bush says he is ending his bid for the White House. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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By Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News

Jeb Bush's decision to drop out of the presidential race drew supportive reaction Saturday night from one Collier County supporter and local Republican Party leaders.

"Jeb's a class act, and he's doing the right thing," said Ave Maria University President Jim Towey, a Bush friend who traveled with him in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary earlier this month. "We have not heard the last from Jeb Bush.

"I think he will continue to be a voice of reason and ideas in this race, but not as a candidate anymore."

Bush ended his bid after finishing far behind the pack of GOP contenders in the South Carolina primary, which was seen as a bellwether for the former Florida governor's run for the White House.

Donald Trump picked up his second primary victory with South Carolina, after also winning in New Hampshire, but Towey predicted Bush's bowing out would be a boon for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign.

Collier GOP leaders said Bush's stances on immigration and the educational standards known as Common Core were his downfall with Republican voters.

"I don't think he was ever able to explain that to the satisfaction of the voters," said Mike Lyster, chairman of the Collier County Republican executive committee. "He kind of reaped what he sowed and ended up where he is."

Bush had no formal support group set up in Collier, Lyster said, unlike challengers Trump, Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.

Lyster said he expected Bush's campaign coffers would allow him to last through the Super Tuesday round of primaries March 1, if not all the way to Florida's primary March 15. It might have been for naught, though, Lyster said.

"I'm not sure he could have won the vote (in a Republican presidential preference primary) in Collier County," Lyster said.

Collier County state GOP committeeman Doug Rankin said it is time for Republicans to look beyond Bush, all the way to November.

"He was a great governor, but he isn't resonating with the voters so we move on to other Republicans who can beat Hillary and that other communist, Sanders," Rankin said.

"He (Jeb Bush) and his family have given great service to our country, but the voters are speaking."
REG BUXTON

Age: 71

Family: Married to Sandra; 2 children, 4 grandchildren

Hometown: Flint, Michigan

Came to Naples: 1990

Business background: Media/Publishing

Naples public service: Planning Advisory Board (2014-present)

Top 3 issues:

1. Growth, redevelopment. I support growth and redevelopment but only in compliance with the city charter and the land development code. If the code doesn't adequately protect us from development that threatens to change the city's character, I'll work with city residents to change the code using a careful, inclusive process.

2. Commercial flights. Elite provides a test case on commercial airport service. I'm open to evaluating the service and listening to the community response. If noise and pollution continue to be concerns, then we'll need to address these issues.

3. Baker Park. I'm in favor of moving forward with Baker Park in a cost-effective manner and am committed to fundraising to develop this park for the people, a place that is inclusive, open and available to everyone. I support the preliminary design for the park and the bridge connecting the Collier Greenway to Baker Park.

TERRY HUTCHISON

Age: 54

Family: Married to Sherri; 2 children, 2 grandchildren

Hometown: Seminole, Oklahoma

Came to Naples: 2012

Business background: Oil field engineer, QuikTrip Corp. and local 7-Eleven franchisee

Naples public service: None

Top 3 issues:

1. Managing Growth. I am in favor of ensuring the city has an effective, updated and comprehensive plan to address the city's growth and redevelopment. This includes alleviating traffic congestion, establishing density targets that bevolve with the city, adhering to current codes and not spending any taxpayer money on connectivity projects without a budgeted master plan in place.

2. Naples Beach, Bay Pollution. I am in favor of immediately addressing the ongoing man-made emergency we have created by annually dumping hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic water into our surrounding marine environment. This includes a review of the Aquifer Storage and Recovery system. If we can't protect our environment, how can our citizens trust us to protect them as well? Think Flint!

3. Financial Viability. We are spending when we should be increasing our cash reserves! I am in favor of reducing spending immediately on nonessential projects, holding fast or even lowering fees on our residents and increasing our cash reserves to where we can cover a minimum of three years of essential government services.

MICHELLE MCLEOD

Age: 52

Family: Married to Mike

Hometown: Fort Myers, Florida

Came to Naples: 1993

Business background: 25 years in the hotel industry; over 5 years in banking

Naples public service: Community Services Advisory Board Chairwoman (2010-present); Executive Director of Park Shore Association (2005-10)

Top 3 issues:

1. Comprehensive Plan. I favor re-evaluating the city's redevelopment plans to consider the city's carrying capacity, traffic, development density and intensity, the impacts of county growth, and more green space in the community.

2. Interlocal Agreements. I favor re-examining them to better recognize the county's use of the beach, the city pier and parks, to increase the share of tourist development tax funds devoted to beach renourishment and, if determined to be of benefit to the city, to provide improved fire and emergency services within the city.

3. Transparency. I favor the practice of civility and professionalism among council members and greater efforts by staff and council to build consensus with city residents and stakeholders before decisions are made.

JAMES MOON

Age: 46

Family: Married to Doris, 1 child

Hometown: Saginaw, Michigan

Came to Naples: 1997, became city resident in 2001

Business background: Attorney

Naples public service: Code Enforcement Board (2008-present); Code Board Chairman (2014-present)

Top 3 issues:

1. Updating Charter, zoning and land use code. The plan is nearing 25 years old and the city has changed significantly since its inception. The current controversial developments downtown fall under current code but are not necessarily what the public wants as we are losing the fresco feeling and open spaces to the satisfaction of developers.

2. Airport. The City Council needs to insist on a renegotiated lease at fair market value, greater noise reduction and safer flight patterns away from residential/school areas along with greater oversight of the Naples Airport Authority and airport manager.

3. Traffic/pedestrian improvements. A turn lane from 41 onto Golden Gate, changes to the turn lane from East Trail onto Goodlette, and additional east/west street improvements to reduce downtown traffic congestion are needed. Roads must be safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

WYNN PHILLIPS

Family: 2 children

Age: 67

Hometown: Richfield, Ohio

Came to Naples: 2005

Business background: Psychology, Law, Peace Corps

Naples public service: Code Enforcement Board (2012-14); Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board (2008-10)

Top 3 issues:

1. Baker Park. The plans are in place for this project. The remaining funds will be raised through a nonprofit organization once construction has started. Donors need to see progress before being asked to donate as they have in the past.

2. Refurbish dock, expansion. Broken and rotten boards are dangerous. The dock is a Naples icon so some public money could be used. An improved dock could raise revenues as required by a designated enterprise.

3. Central Avenue. A roundabout may block cars entering from Eighth Street South, especially during "season." Access should be provided to existing businesses. Synchronize lights. Provide for connectivity including walks and bike lanes from Gordon River to the Gulf.

ELLEN SEIGEL

Age: 67

Family: Married to Art; 2 children

Hometown: Elmont, New York

Came to Naples: Became city resident in 2004

Business background: Health Care Administration

Naples public service: Park Shore Association, Membership Chairwoman (2009-2011); Park Shore Association, President (2012-14); The Park Shore Fund, Founder (2014-present); City Planning Advisory Board (2014-present)

Top 3 issues:

1. Growth, Development, Traffic. We need to find the right balance of development to allow our community to continue welcoming tourists and new residents while maintaining the high quality of life for current residents. I believe that with vision, respect for property rights, and adherence to city plans and codes, continuing redevelopment will greatly enhance our city.

2. Safety. I believe that one of the most important challenges for the city of Naples will be how to provide emergency services in the most efficient and effective way. I support continuing efforts of the city of Naples to work with other Collier County Fire Districts on Mutual Aid and Automatic Aid Agreements.

3. Natural beauty of Naples. I support increased funding for city beaches, parks, trees and landscaping. During the economic recession, it was necessary to reduce the maintenance schedule for city-owned trees, and I believe it is now time to restore that funding to ensure Naples remains "the green jewel of Southwest Florida."
SHARE

A backdrop to the March 15 election will be the ongoing debate about building a wall and the number of walls being built, as well as where.

In a region where immigration is an issue, the debate about building a wall at our border with Mexico will either delight or disgust voters, depending on their perspective. We would hope such issues encourage more voters to cast ballots.

While Iowa saw record caucus turnout, the percentage of those of voting age who participated was low. New Hampshire hit around 61 percent. South Carolina results were due out late Saturday.

A key concern we have in 2016 is the effect the nonvoter will have on important elections this year. That's based on a sense of unhappiness with the overall lineup of national candidates in both major political parties. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll late last year showed an unprecedented level of negativity about the field of candidates.

That's not an excuse for anyone to stay away, however.

The field locally

Two Southwest Florida cities have elections scheduled to coincide with the state's March 15 presidential preference primary.

Even if voters in Naples and Bonita Springs aren't enamored with the presidential choices, there's good reason to turn out in droves because there is a strong field of municipal candidates and an issue that's seemingly on everyone's lips  all of the walls going up during this resurgence of growth after the Great Recession.

The coming weeks leading up to the start of early voting, which is March 5-12 in both Naples and Bonita Springs  followed by the day at the polls March 15  will be important times to study up on the local candidates.

There are three candidates in hotly contested mayoral races in each city. There is an impressive field of candidates for City Council vacancies in both cities. In Naples and Bonita Springs, it's not about having a lack of good candidates from which to choose, it's about making difficult decisions among excellent choices on the ballot.

To assist voters, the Naples Daily News this coming week will hold two mayoral debates that we will live-stream online at naplesnews.com from the studio in our headquarters office. The Naples mayoral debate with incumbent John Sorey and council member challengers Bill Barnett and Teresa Heitmann can be viewed from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Bonita Springs mayoral debate is 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday; the candidates to determine who takes the gavel from Mayor Ben Nelson are council members Peter Simmons and Steve McIntosh, and challenger Rick Steinmeyer.

There are six candidates seeking three Naples council seats and five candidates for two Bonita Springs council seats.

That's 17 local candidates. To further help voters, along with our news coverage prior to the election, the Daily News is conducting nearly half-hour issue-oriented videotaped interviews of each municipal candidate that we will post at naplesnews.com, starting in the next few days leading up to the start of early voting.

Not to give away the plot, but rest assured you'll hear on the videos what candidates think about all of the walls going up (for good or for bad?) and traffic. In Bonita Springs, development in the groundwater recharge, low-density conservation area  the DR/GR  is on folks' minds. In Naples, redevelopment of the immediate downtown area is an issue.

Our recommendations?

As is customary, we will offer our recommendations to voters through endorsements around the time that early voting begins. Our endorsements aren't intended as predictions of who we think will win. We endorse because we're a politically unaffiliated institution with a significant stake in the community.

Of particular note is that the March 15 municipal elections are nonpartisan  a designation we take quite seriously. We're alternately accused by partisan readers as being beholden to the opposite political party, so we take that to mean we're a prisoner to neither.

The candidates are doing their part. We're striving to do ours.

In the end though, it's the voters' choices that matter, for they will help shape the future in each municipality. Be sure to vote.
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Bernie Kennedy, Naples

Miranda warning

After reading some letters to the editor, and professional editorials, I think the Naples Daily News should adopt a Miranda warning. Consider this:

You have the right to your opinion and may refuse to use logic. Anything you write may be used against you in a response letter. You have the right to consult a fact-checker or logician before writing and to have an English teacher edit your final copy.

If you cannot afford a fact-checker, one will probably do it after your letter is published but it would have been better if you questioned yourself before submitting the letter. If you decide to submit the letter anyhow, you will still have the right to stop publication until you talk to a fact-checker.

Knowing and understanding your rights as explained to you, are you willing to submit a rant letter without substantial backup and regardless of the truth?

I'm not sure how to cover professional slyness. In a recent commentary, Charles Krauthammer refers to "a wasteland of stagnant wages, rising inequality, a sinking middle class, young people crushed by debt, the American dream dying."

He says these issues are left behind by President Barack Obama. True that they will be left when Obama leaves, but the sly implication that Obama caused them is a professional rant without substantiation. It started with "trickle-down" economics and was worsened by not putting Wall Street crooks in jail and then allowing them  via the Citizens United ruling  to buy the politicians they want.
SHARE Jaysen Roa President and CEO Avow Hospice

By Jaysen Roa

Guest commentary

In a guest commentary on Feb. 7, Freedom Partners, an organization with ties to Koch Industries and based in Arlington, Virginia, paints a frightening picture of how Florida's certificate of need (CON) law poses unnecessary burdens on medical professionals and facilities at the expense of patients.

The information anecdotally references issues that have occurred in other states, not Florida.

In fact, hospice certificate of need assures that everyone in Florida is within reach of hospice care by requiring programs to serve everyone in their service area. Hospices cannot discriminate based on patient location, race, gender or ethnicity, and as a not-for-profit hospice, Avow takes all patients regardless of their ability to pay for care. As a result of CON, Florida has the third-highest hospice utilization rate in the country, according to a 2013 independent report by Hospice Analytics.

Hospice CON:

Ensures all areas of a county are served, not just the profitable ones. Some less affluent or more rural communities are expensive to serve and, in an unregulated environment, are unattractive to new providers.

Ensures programs are monitored for quality and compliance. Florida hospices are required to be surveyed by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration every three years, whereas in other states it can be six to eight years.

Allows not-for-profit hospices to partner with the community to provide patient care beyond the basics required by Medicare and no-cost support to the community. Because Collier County supports Avow, for example, we can provide free grief support to anyone in need, camps for grieving children, caregiver support programs, and massage and music therapies for our patients, just to name a few of our many programs.

The community also helps Avow operate the only Hospice House in Collier County.

Additionally, with or without CON, hospice does not and will not operate in the free-market environment because there is no free market under a fixed reimbursement and defined benefit, both of which hospices in the United States operate under. Medicare and Medicaid rates are set by the federal government, and more providers do nothing to drive down costs, particularly for hospice, which is a risk-assumed per diem model.

The number of people at the end of life is wholly unrelated to market factors. Hospice CON has no impact on cost and actually can reduce the expenses of hospices because of economies of scale.

An alternative regulatory/licensure structure will become increasingly reactive instead of proactive and will have a negative impact on the state budget. Removing CON will actually grow government as more staff will be needed to license, regulate and oversee all of the new hospice entrants to Florida.

According to estimates from a 2014 study by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, the maximum cost of deregulating hospice CON will be just under $1.2 million per year for the first three years.

Across the country, no CON law looks the same. Yet, other states agree that CON in Florida is a model of its kind  so much so that other states are looking to our CON as they work to implement their own structure. According to a 2014 Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association report, these states include South Carolina, Michigan and Mississippi.

Simply, hospice care is not a supply-and-demand business. We get just one chance to help our patients and their families die in peace. This is sacred work and CON allows Avow to have the resources we need to serve our patients and their families in Collier County.

In Florida's own House of Representatives and Senate, a number of bills are circulating. One particular Senate bill would, in part, allow any company, regardless of its mission, experience, community roots or qualifications, to open a hospice as long as it donates a portion of its revenues to a statewide fund for charity care. The irony of the bill is hospices already do provide charity care to anyone who needs it. The bill is a solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist in Florida hospices.

You have an opportunity to tell your state government that the Florida hospice CON was put in place to make certain hospice care is available to everyone at the end of life  and that you want it kept intact, with no exemptions.

I urge you to contact your state senator or representative and ask them to not harm hospice.
SHARE Les Wicker, pastor First Congregational Church of Naples

By Pastor Les Wicker

On Dec. 30, the school board attorney for the Haddon Heights, New Jersey, school district received a letter from ACLU attorney Edward Barocas that the practice of Glenview Elementary, a school within the district, was violating the constitution by the daily ritual of beginning the day with students saying "God Bless America" after their pledge to the American flag, a ritual related to 9/11 responders.

When local reporters questioned Barocas whether there had been parental complaints about the practice, he said he had received none.

Simply stated: There will be no more "God Bless America" at Glenview Elementary. A lengthy and costly court battle with the ACLU would usurp much-needed funds intended for education. Similar battles in other school districts have been costly and schools need their funds for instruction, not court battles.

What's the message here?

The message seems loud and clear that there is a quiet, insidious transition of values in America. While little note is taken of such incidents as banning "God Bless America" in Haddon Heights schools, such occurrences transpire with increasing frequency across America. It all effects who we are as a people.

When events such as the Haddon Heights school district occur, those making the challenge usually make reference to the founding fathers or the First Amendment. Who were these men and what did they believe about religion? All of those who signed the Declaration of Independence were men of faith, but intelligent enough not to impose their faith on anyone else as is evidenced in the First Amendment. The amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It is a stretch from a law that Congress might impose regarding the establishment of a religion to such challenges as that of banning children saying "God Bless America."

What is implied in the terms "God Bless America" or "In God We Trust or "One Nation Under God?"

Normally, most people assume it is the Judea-Christian God of the Old and New Testament. While the Judea-Christian understanding of God is subliminally implied, the truth is America is a multicultural nation of multiple religions, yet all of whom reference a higher power as "God," or as Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence, "Creator."

The term, "God" is a much broader and more inclusive term than those who blur the distinction with the claim it is pushing one religion over another. In truth, it's an affirmation of America's belief in a higher power vs. a complete void. The underlying truth is a definition of who we see ourselves to be as a people.

The use of such terms as "God" implies such moral traits as goodness, love, hope and kindness. Forbidding the use of such terms creates a society void of such feelings and people become hard and even sinister. Just reference the Soviet Union experience under Lenin and Stalin who promoted a society void of religion.

What's next?

While the assault against any expression of religion has been focused primarily in public schools, one wonders where the foothold will lead. Schools are vulnerable and soft targets. But by incrementally subduing one district after another, the challengers will become more emboldened, ready to take on larger challenges, including removing "In God We Trust" from the currency and "one nation under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

While this seems far-fetched, it is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

Ironies

It's ironic that every president normally ends a speech of importance with "God bless America," but for elementary children to utter the term is suspect.

It is ironic that all patriotic hymns, including the national anthem, reference God in some way, but any reference to his blessing is unconstitutional.

It is ironic that the sculpture of Moses and the Ten Commandments are carved into the Supreme Court building, but any allusion to God violates separation of church and state.

It is ironic that the original constitutions of all states mention God, but it violates the Constitution to use the term in a public school.

It is ironic that all U.S. currency has emblazoned on it the words, "In God We Trust," but a school district allowing its children to ask his blessings will find the school board in a court of law.

The Gateway

The gateway is what it has always been for people. Americans are good people, ones who weigh thoughts of what's right and wrong. They will be pushed so far, then they push back. Such will be the case of such nonsense as no more "God Bless America" at Haddon Heights and the countless other such cases that surface out of the blue.

Just wait and see!
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Narco News published original investigative journalism & analysis for 19 years (2000 - 2019) on the "war on drugs" from Latin America, and on social movements, community organizing, nonviolent resistance and election campaigns throughout the world.

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A group of TDs who made a prank phone call to Mattie McGrath from the Dail bar, on the night before the budget, would have been better off looking after their own constituents and working on the budget, according to the South Tipperary TD.

A group of TDs who made a prank phone call to Mattie McGrath from the Dail bar, on the night before the budget, would have been better off looking after their own constituents and working on the budget, according to the South Tipperary TD.

Pizzagate, as it has come to be known since the story of the prank broke at the weekend, took place last Tuesday night, when the South Tipp deputy was part of a sit-in at a Dublin bank, in support of a farming family.

The five TDs, including Deputy McGraths constituency colleague Tom Hayes TD, rang the independent TD pretending to be from a pizza takeaway restaurant and said they too didnt like the banks and so would send him food.

Speaking to The Nationalist about the call, this week, Deputy McGrath said he fell for the prank hook, line and sinker.

A diabetic, the Newcastle deputy said that he had not eaten since breakfast at 8am that day, and said that when the call came I was hungry, I was tired, I was quite weak.

However, because of his condition he had just left the Friends First bank building to return to his hotel in Bray for nourishment. He asked the pizza restaurant to deliver food to those who were still in the bank and asked them to make sure there was pizza for the two female gardai who were on duty in the bank because of the sit-in. He then rang the group in the bank to say food was on the way.

At 2am he got a call to say the food never arrived. It was only much later that next morning, when he adjourned to the Dail bar for a morning coffee and scone after the Order of Business in the Chamber, and his request was met with the barmans answer: would you like a pizza? that the penny dropped and he realised he had been pranked.

I remember Brian Lenihan, on the night before a budget, he would be in his office. These fellas would be much better off with Michael Noonan, fighting off attacks on carers and farmers. Im trying to represent my constituents and if Tom (Hayes) doesnt like that its his business.

It was very insensitive. The prank was on me, fine, but to let it out into the media is a pity. We have enough of problems to deal with. It gives the image we are all up in the Dail bar making a feck of it. They will have to answer to the electorate.

In his defence, Deputy Hayes said he arrived at the Dail bar for a coffee at 11pm that night, after working in his office, to be told there was rumour that Deputy McGrath was on a hunger strike.

He said he had worked 14 hours that day and is fully aware of the issues among constituents who are in financial difficulties.

He said many people had come to him for assistance but I do it secretly and behind the scenes.
Aluminum and polysorbate 80 are both linked to toxic vaccine effects

Shocking 88% of ovarian failure incidents have been attributed to Gardasil

Vaccine science fraud: "Placebo" trials used polysorbate 80 and aluminum to hide the toxic side effects

Vaccine industry must resort to scientific fraud or else the truth might come out

Systematic vaccine violence against children is covered up by every institution in America

(NaturalNews) In the minds of many concerned parents, there is no more toxic, dangerous vaccine in the world than Gardasil. More children and teens have been maimed, hospitalized, injured and even paralyzed by HPV vaccines than any other category of vaccine interventions. And now, the-- a strongly pro-vaccine group -- is sounding the alarm over the toxicity of Gardasil.Gardail vaccines could be "associated with the very rare but serious condition of premature ovarian failure (POF)," says the ACP on its website Furthermore, none of the junk science "safety" studies touted by the vaccine industry ever tracked post-vaccination outcomes regarding ovarian health. "[L]ong-term ovarian function was not assessed in either the original rat safety studies or in the human vaccine trials," explains the ACP. Even more, because doctors are so aggressively propagandized by the cash-rich vaccine industry, they don't even realize that HPV vaccines can cause ovarian failure. "Most primary care physicians are probably unaware of a possible association between HPV and POF and may not consider reporting POF cases or prolonged amenorrhea (missing menstrual periods) to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)," says the ACP.One of the crimes against children that's carried out by the vaccine industry is the ongoing use ofin vaccines. These toxic chemicals include aluminum, monosodium glutamate and polysorbate 80, and they are intentionally added to vaccines in a misguided effort to try to make the vaccines produce an inflammatory response in vaccine victims.But these same toxic chemicals may also cause, in some children, extreme neurological inflammatory responses that lead to precisely the kind of permanent damage that gets diagnosed as Autism Spectrum Disorder (among other neurological side effects). If society routinely injects poisons into children, we should not be surprised when some percentage of those children are damaged by those poisons.As theexplains:In other words, the science already knows about the mechanisms of potential harm caused by these ingredients. It's not a mystery, and it's not even debatable that injecting children with aluminum, mercury (i.e. flu shots in California ), MSG, formaldehyde and polysorbate 80 will inevitably cause severe damage in some of those children.When I tested flu shots in my laboratory via ICP-MS instrumentation, I found them to contain 25,000 times more mercury than the legal limit of mercury in the water supply This is why some children are so severely damaged by vaccines that they suffer permanent brain damage . Recently, the UK government paid out $90 million financial compensation to families whose children were severely damaged by the swine flu vaccine. (In the United States, vaccine makers have absolute legal immunity and cannot be sued in the customary courts.)If you're still not aware that all these ingredients continue to be used in vaccines in America, the CDC has already admitted they're all routinely used in vaccines . This is not some hypothesized conspiracy theory; it's an open admission by the CDC and the vaccine industry.According to the American College of Pediatricians, 88% of adverse event reports involving ovarian failure have been associated with just one vaccine: Gardasil."[S]ince licensure of Gardasil in 2006, there have been about 213 VAERS reports (per the publicly available CDC WONDER VAERS database) involving amenorrhea, POF or premature menopause,."Keep in mind that because doctors don't even realize Gardasil can cause ovarian failure . It is feasible that the real number of ovarian failure cases caused by Gardasil might be up to 100 times the reported number, or as many as 20,000 cases across America in the last decade.As Natural News readers know very well, virtually every bit of "science" carried out by the vaccine industry is fraudulent science. Gardasil trials were no different: they put aluminum and polysorbate 80 into the placebo injections, making sure that, thereby cancelling each other out. From this, fraudulent researchers can proclaim the clinical trials showed Gardasil to be "safe" while causing "no increase in adverse effects.""Pre-licensure safety trials for Gardasil used placebo that contained polysorbate 80 as well as aluminum adjuvant," says the ACP. And that's not an accident. It was done by design to conceal the harm caused by those ingredients.Note carefully that the vaccine industry never conducts legitimate science that compares, for example, the injected of aluminum and polysorbate 80 vs. injections of nothing but saline solution. If that trial were carried out, it would reveal the serious, long-term toxicity caused by aluminum and polysorbate 80 (not to mention mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and other toxic ingredients that are deliberately added to vaccines)."Therefore, if such ingredients could cause ovarian dysfunction, an increase in amenorrhea probably would not have been detected in the placebo controlled trials," explains the ACP. And they're correct.But the design of those trials wasn't an accident. The vaccine industry routinely and systematically designs its clinical trials to conceal the evidence of harm caused by vaccines.Time and time again, the vaccine industry turns to fraudulent science to cover up the truth. As just two examples of this systematic science fraud, consider these:1) According to CDC scientist and whistleblower Dr. William Thompson , the CDC knew over a decade ago that childhood vaccinations caused a significantly increased risk of autism in African-American boys. Dr. Thompson and other CDC scientists actively conspired toin order to erase any such correlation. Two years ago, Dr. Thompson publicly admitted to taking part in this scientific fraud The ENTIRE mainstream media -- without exception -- blackballed this story and refused to report it. No one in Congress ever called Dr. Thompson to testify about the CDC's vaccine fraud.2) In 2010, two Merck virologists filed a False Claims Act with the United States government, asserting that they were ordered by Merck management to commit scientific fraud by spiking antibody samples with. This was done to defraud the FDA into thinking that MMR vaccines worked to prevent disease when, in reality, they utterly failed to work at all.Natural News has published that False Claims Act document at this link Some of the bullet points I originally wrote at this Natural News article include:Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test results to fabricate a "95% efficacy rate." In order to do this, Merck spiked the blood test with animal antibodies in order to artificially inflate the appearance of immune system antibodies. Merck then used the falsified trial results to swindle the U.S. government out of "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization." Merck's vaccine fraud has actually contributed to the continuation of mumps across America, causing more children to become infected with mumps. Merck used its false claims of "95 percent effectiveness" to monopolize the vaccine market and eliminate possible competitors. The Merck vaccine fraud has been going on since the late 1990's, say the Merck virologists. Testing of Merck's vaccine was never done against "real-world" mumps viruses in the wild. Instead, test results were simply falsified to achieve the desired outcome. This entire fraud took place "with the knowledge, authority and approval of Merck's senior management." Merck scientists "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings," according to court documents (see below).Now, a full six years after the filing of this False Claims Act describing systematic vaccine fraud at Merck, there isn't a single mainstream media outlet that has bothered to honestly investigate this astonishing story -- not even during the staged measles outbreak pandemic that was set up to push for passage of the SB 277 vaccine mandate in California.That's because the vaccine industry, the CDC and the mainstream media are all deliberately pushing an. That violence against children is not merely ignored but even condoned by the CDC, drug companies, doctors, hospitals, universities, media outlets and lawmakers. The systematic maiming of children has become the mantra of modern medicine, where countless children now suffer under athat demands the sacrificial destruction of children in order to appease the profit gods of Big Pharma.There is not even a shred of legitimate science to be found in the vaccine industry. It is nothing but vaccine voodoo and medical mythology carried out by the Church of Medical Mysticism where all "evidence" is faked in order to support the faith-based beliefs of the devout followers who profit from harming children. Far from "evidence-based medicine," today's vaccine industryand obliterates any possibility that vaccine risks vs. possible rewards might be assessed through rationality and critical thinking. Instead, vaccines are pushed under a totalitarian demand of absolute, mindless obedience... a position that stands in utter contradiction to the very principles of scientific discovery.As children continue to be maimed and murdered with vaccine injections, the conspiracy of silence across every institution in America reveals what can only be called a. Yet those who are the most seriously injured by these vaccines are so damaged that they cannot speak for themselves anymore. Who will speak for them if not us?And if "science" is whatever we are told it is by health authorities -- but it cannot be questioned or challenged or even validated by independent scientists -- then it isn't really science at all, is it?
Obamacare deductibles significantly higher than private coverage

Obamacare enrollees having to take out loans to pay medical bills

(NaturalNews) Deductibles are soaring under Obamacare, and many U.S. hospitals are now attempting to collect medical paymentsservices are even rendered, according to new reports. The financial burden of medical care has increased so much as a result of Obamacare -- just as predicted -- that hospitals can now clearly see the writing on the wall: Many more people than ever before will be unwilling or unable to pay their medical bills.According to, Americans today are having to foot a much higher percentage of their medical bills than ever before due to ever-increasing deductibles. Five years ago, for instance, an individual, employer-sponsored policy had a deductible of just over $800. Today, that same policy carries a deductible of about $1,217, a rate more than 50 percent higher.Similar increases have occurred for family plan deductibles, which the 2014 Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust report says have increased by 31 percent overall. Since 2006, family plan deductibles have nearly doubled, jumping from an average of about $1,034 per family to $1,947.For those who didn't previously have healthcare coverage but now have Obamacare, the deductible sticker shock is even more substantial. Many lower-level enrollees, according to, including those who signed up for "bronze" and "silver" plans, pay deductibles ranging anywhere from about $2,000 to upwards of $5,000."The bronze plans are scaring a lot of administrators because the patient liability is so large," stated Debra Lowe, administrator director of revenue cycle at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, about the travesty of Obamacare deductibles. "Patients are unaware they have this high deductible."Since the consumer cost of Obamacare is so much higher than what is typical of private insurance, and because this cost is applied to some of the poorest members of society, many Obamacare patients are simply dodging their hospital bills . And these hospitals, in an attempt to recuperate at leastof the losses, are responding by attempting to bill patients early."We are trying to minimize the after-service bill shock and get them into financial assistance or some other program for more affordable care," said Andy Scianimanico, vice president for revenue cycle at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, the parent company of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.The irony of Obamacare is that it has turned out to be anything but affordable. Deductible payments are so high, in some instances, that enrollees are actually having to take out loans to pay for medical treatments. Isn't this scenario the type for which Obamacare was supposedly created to alleviate? Wasn't the whole idea to make healthcare more accessible to the poor?Obviously, this is not the case, no matter what the media pundits would have us all believe. Obamacare is pulling the noose tighter around the neck of our nation's medical system, making it increasingly more difficult for this system to even function at a basic level. Consequently, heathcare providers are now treating all patients as if they are about to eat the meal without paying the bill, the medical equivalent of a restaurant dine-and-dash."[I]t's far more difficult to get that $2,900 from an individual patient than it is from the Medicare program or from Blue Cross Blue Shield," said Richard Gundling, vice president of the trade group Healthcare Financial Management Association.A report by Gundling's group states bluntly, "Today's high deductibles are tomorrow's bad debt."
Religious persecution is a serious threat for many people in China  in spite of the fact that the Communist government does not espouse an official state religion.



No anesthesia

A former Chinese hospital worker and doctor's wife, whose identity was withheld, [said] that her husband had removed the corneas of 2000 people while they were still alive. Afterwards the bodies were secretly incinerated.



'Still alive'

(NaturalNews) It's tough being a political prisoner in China, and in more ways than one. You can be beaten, tortured, starved, neglected  and have your organs removed, even against your will.As noted by theand, the government in Beijing is facing increased global scrutiny and outcry over new allegations that authorities regularly harvest the organs of political prisoners.Several respected investigators from around the world who have been looking into the allegations have come to agree that thousands of prisoners have had organs taken by the Chinese state  forcefully, and often without anesthesia. Many of the victims are members of the banned religious sect, a forbidden group that was created in 1992 (the official state religion in China is, because its communist leaders want the people to worship). As such, admitted members of the sect are regularly persecuted by the government.As reported byOver the years, various communist regimes in Beijing have jailed members of a number of dissident groups including, Christians and Tibetans. Many of the incarcerated have charged their captors with severely abusing them, including forced organ harvesting . The mistreatment and forced procedures date back at least to the 1990s and is said to include the extraction of corneas, kidneys and livers."It is known that Chinese surgeons perform the removal procedure [on political prisoners] and sometimes the 'donor' has still been alive during this processthe organ-removal process is what actually kills them," researcher Katrina Bramstedt toldAddsNot surprisingly, China has the second-highest transplant rate in the world, with amazingly short transplant wait times of just two-to-three weeks."Somebody's being killed for the organs," human rights lawyer David Matas told the. "There's no other way to explain what's happening."Chinese officials have denied that organs are being taken from anyone other than volunteers. That said, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said the transplant program would be ended by August, and blamed former security chief Zhou Yongkang for any problems.However, in an SBSepisode titled "Human Harvest: China's Organ Trafficking," one Chinese medical student said he recalled seeing blood still pumping out of one "donor" whom he said was still alive when he cut into the body. He added that he removed that individual's liver and two kidneys, and said the procedures under which he operated were unusually sloppy and quick."The documentary revealed how patients are secretly placed into incinerators in hospital boiler rooms while they are still alive  after organs are removed from their bodies,"noted.The documentary noted further that, during an eight-year investigation, the Chinese government removed some 11,000 organs from political prisoners without putting them under anesthesia every year.A United Nations investigation in 2008 also concluded that the government was harvesting the organs of political prisoners.The report said that "organ harvesting has been inflicted on a large number of unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, for the purpose of making available organs for transplant operations."Vital organs including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas were systematically harvested from Falun Gong practitioners at Sujiatan Hospital, Shenyang, Liaoning province, beginning in 2001."
Protesters are preparing to assemble in more than 30 cities to lash out at the FBI for obtaining a court order that requires Apple to make it easier to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a gunman in December's mass murders in California.



The protests organized by the Internet rights group Fight for the Future are scheduled to occur Tuesday outside Apple stores the U.S., the U.K., Hong Kong and Germany.



The U.S. protests will be in cities scattered across more than 20 states, including in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, where protesters plan to express their discontent outside the FBI's headquarters.



The gatherings will come a week after the FBI went to court to force Apple to weaken the security built into most iPhones to help a terrorism investigation in San Bernardino, California. The FBI wants the Apple to remove a feature that erases the information stored on an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to enter a password, preventing unauthorized users from accessing the device.



The iPhone that the FBI is trying to examine was used by Syed Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people in December.



Apple is fighting the court order issued in the case, arguing that the special software sought by the FBI could be used to break into millions of other iPhones. The FBI contends Apple is exaggerating the security risks of complying with the court order in a marketing ploy aimed at selling more iPhones.



Fight for the Future believes Apple's concerns are warranted and is hoping the protests will persuade the Obama administration to take a stand against the way the FBI is trying to break into Farook's iPhone, said Evan Greer, the group's campaign director.



The White House so far has stood behind the FBI in its battle with Apple Inc.
A mother of three young children was tied up at gunpoint and sexually assaulted by multiple suspected armed robbers during a string of home invasions, prosecutors revealed in court Friday.

The five suspects, one of whom worked at the San Diego Unified School District, appeared in court for their arraignment, all entering not guilty pleas.

Stephen Gomez, 20; Thomas Smith Jr., 24; Aaron Rico III, 20; and Aaron Rico V, 17, were ordered to be held on a $1 million bail each. A judge ordered the fifth suspect, Robin Shawvner, 20, be held on $550,000.

The Ricos are brothers, and though Aaron Rico V is a minor, he is being charged as an adult. According to the SDUSD spokeswoman, Smith was employed with the school district from July 2012 to September 2013, working as a workability trainee in career and translation services.

Deputy District Attorney Jalyn Wang said on Jan. 31 at about 2:15 a.m., the suspects got into a victims home in Sorrento Valley through an unlocked door.

The five people barged into the mothers room and demanded to know where the safe was, threatening to shoot her, the prosecutor said.

At gunpoint, the men allegedly tied the woman and sexually assaulted her. At least one of her three children woke up during the crime, according to Wang.

They pointed a gun at her, threatened to shoot her, assaulted [her], bound her hands and fled her house with a lot of her property, she said.

Gomez, Smith and the Ricos were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, sex with a foreign object, assault during a first-degree burglary, robbery and burglary.

Shawvner faces robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime charges.

Police said they had tied the group to at least three other home invasions across the North County, but the charges read in court only stem from the Sorrento Valley case.

Its ongoing, said Wang. Additional charges  thats left to the Sam Diego police to do their investigation.

Smith, who has a previous residential burglary conviction on his record, faces 60 years to life in prison if convicted. The other men face 25 years to life.
Dallas police say they could conclude their domestic violence investigation of Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel by late next week.

Police spokesman Maj. Midge Boyle said Saturday that investigators have reviewed medical records provided by Colleen Crowley, Manziel's ex-girlfriend. Crowley told police Manziel hit her and dragged her into a car in late January.

Manziel hasn't been charged, but a judge has issued Crowley a protection order against him.

Police haven't interviewed Manziel, but spoke to several other witnesses. Boyle says police want to have their strongest case against Manziel before speaking to him.

Some defense lawyers have questioned whether Manziel is getting special treatment and another suspect facing similar allegations might already have been arrested. Boyle said the detective investigating the allegations "hasn't gotten all the facts yet."

"She's still putting the case together," Boyle said. "It's been two weeks since this investigation started, and it is high-profile. As soon as we have something pertinent to put out, we will let you know," she said.



A Heisman Trophy winner at Texas A&M, Manziel has had several incidents of trouble in the NFL. The Browns have indicated they will release him next month.

Crowley said in an affidavit filed with the judge who issued the protective order that Manziel hit her so hard that she temporarily lost hearing in one ear.

In the affidavit, Crowley says she and Manziel had a confrontation in his Dallas hotel room around 1:45 a.m. Jan. 30. She says that after hitting her, he threatened to kill himself as he drove her to Fort Worth.


Several thousand protesters, some holding signs and other chanting, rallied in New York on Saturday in support of a former police officer convicted for fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell in a public housing building.

The protest in Brooklyn over ex-officer Peter Liang's manslaughter conviction in the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley was one of about 30 taking place around the U.S., organizers said. About 2,000 people marched in Philadelphia, according to Philly.com, and about 150 gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to The Ann Arbor News.

"No scapegoat! No scapegoat!'" protesters in New York shouted as the crowd descended on Cadman Plaza, just outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. They carried signs declaring Liang's prosecution "selective justice."

The 28-year-old Liang, who was fired immediately after a jury convicted him earlier this month, faces up to 15 years in prison.

He testified that the shooting was an accident, firing his gun after being frightened by a noise. Many of his supporters say they believe Liang is being scapegoated because of anger over other police shootings in New York and across the country and that he has been treated unfairly because he is Asian-American.

Prosecutors argued that Liang's actions were reckless and he shouldn't have had his gun out or the finger on the trigger. They also said he did nothing to help Gurley as he lay dying on the floor.

"We're here today to let people know that Chinese-Americans count as well," said protester Don Lee, a candidate for the state Assembly from lower Manhattan.

"It is a tragedy that Akai Gurley was shot and killed. ... But this tragedy's been compounded by another tragedy, that Peter Liang, in an accident, is going to go to jail for up to 15 years." he added.

A few dozen people held a counter-protest in Brooklyn on Saturday, held across the street from the larger protest as officers with plastic handcuffs and batons stood between them.

Soraya Soi Free participated in the counter-protest. She argued that Liang was clearly not a scapegoat because he was tried by a jury of his peers, and she did not approve of the protest supporting him.

"This protest is definitely an insult to Akai Gurley's family," she said.

Liang was convicted Feb. 11 on manslaughter and official-misconduct charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.

Liang's attorney, Robert Brown, attended the Brooklyn rally and said the community's support was "very uplifting" to Liang.

Brown said he is making motions to have the verdict set aside.

In addition to the protests in New York, Philadelphia and Michigan, organizers said rallies took place in dozens of other cities in the U.S. Saturday including Los Angeles and San Francisco.
A teenager posing as a state senator toured a high school and spoke to a class, and school officials didn't realize they were fooled until weeks later, authorities in Ohio said.

Mohawk Local School District officials said Izaha Akins, of Marion, Ohio, visited the high school in December and claimed to be a lawmaker replacing another senator. They realized they'd been duped when Republican Sen. David Burke, of Marysville, showed up to speak weeks later, as scheduled.

Burke said in an email Friday that when he learned about the hoax, he and the school immediately began working with law enforcement. He said, "This was an extremely elaborate scheme and not as simple as walking through the door."

The Blade newspaper of Toledo reported that Akins said he was making a point about school security in small communities. He was charged recently with felony counts of telecommunications fraud and impersonating a peace officer.

"These country schools think it can't happen to them," Akins told The Blade in a brief interview. He said he wanted to "prove a point  that these kinds of things can happen. They could easily have Googled me, and they didn't."

School officials say Akins knew that Burke was scheduled to speak to a class Jan. 14, and called to bill himself as Burke's replacement as senator and available to speak earlier. He arranged to visit Dec. 15, provided his real name, presented his driver's license at the school that afternoon, got a tour of the school from the principal, then gave his presentation and left, Mohawk Schools Superintendent Ken Ratliff said.

"The presentation was about being active in politics, political processes," Ratliff said. "Everyone thought it was legit; bought into it, including the teacher."

Authorities said Reineke Ford provided a car and driver for the day to the supposed legislator. The Blade said Reineke Motors general manager Tony Flood said it's not unusual for the dealership to help the nearby school district.

Wyandot County Sheriff Mike Hetzel said no one at the school was in any danger, and a sheriff's deputy was at the school during the time of the visit.

Ratliff said, though, that the district now takes extra steps to verify visitors' identities.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it "is not yet done." But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

"The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," Kerry said. "In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities ... is possible over the course of these next hours."

The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry's announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb. 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

"Peace is better than more war," Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. "A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself."

However, he reiterated the long-time U.S. position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. "Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad," Kerry said. "Let me make that clear."

He said Russia now has to talk with the Syrian government and Iran, which backs Assad, and the U.S. has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. He said he knows that not every party will automatically agree to the agreement reached for a ceasefire.

"There is a stark choice for everybody here," Kerry said.

"I know how much work remains and I don't know if everyone is going to meet their commitments," Kerry said. "I can't vouch for that  the United States can't make certain of that."

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

"These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective," Kerry said.

Later, Kerry met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman and was scheduled to fly to Aqaba for an evening meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

On the ground in Syria, a pair of explosions ripped through the central city of Homs, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens, according to activists and Syrian state TV.

The Homs blasts came amid reports that Syrian government forces captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from the extremist Islamic State group. Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The television report said Sunday's blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa  a frequent target for similar explosions. The report quoted Homs governor Talal Barrazi as saying that 32 people were killed and dozens of others wounded.

Most of the bombing attacks in Homs over the past months have been claimed by IS, which controls parts of Homs province including the historic town of Palmyra.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists around Syria, said the blasts killed 46 and wounded more than 100. The explosions took place just after 6 a.m. local time, and both the Observatory and the TV report said they were caused by a pair of car bombs.

The television report aired footage of the destruction caused by the blasts. Debris and mangled cars filled the streets and the charred body of a man was seen being taken away on a stretcher.

The Zahra neighborhood is predominantly Alawite, the minority Muslim sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs.

Homs, once dubbed the capital of the Syrian revolution, has been hit with a wave of explosions in recent months, killing and wounding scores of people. The rebels controlled large parts of Homs after the uprising against Assad's government began in March 2011.

With time, the government gained control of most of Homs' neighborhoods and a deal was reached late last year for militants to evacuate the last rebel-held neighborhood of Waer.

Two blasts hit the Zahra neighborhood on Jan. 26, killing 20 and wounding more than 100 people.

To the north, the Syrian army captured 31 villages on Sunday that were controlled by IS, according to the pro-Syrian Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV and Hezbollah's Al-Manar station.

Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar often have reporters embedded with Syrian troops in northern Syria.

Syrian state media earlier reported that Syrian troops had captured some 10 villages in Aleppo province from IS.
President Obama discussed his upcoming March trip to Cuba in this week's address. The visit intends to further advance the progress made in U.S.  Cuba relations, since his announcement to restore relations more than a year ago. This will be the first visit of a U.S. President to Cuba in nearly 90 years.

President Obama stated the best way to promote American interests and values, and help improve the lives of the Cuban people, is through engagement.

"I believe that the best way to advance American interests and values, and the best way to help the Cuban people improve their lives, is through engagementby normalizing relations between our governments and increasing the contacts between our peoples. Ive always said that change wont come to Cuba overnight. But as Cuba opens up, it will mean more opportunity and resources for ordinary Cubans. And were starting to see some progress."

The President will also meet with members of civil society and Cuban entrepreneurs, and speak directly to the Cuban people about shared beliefs and their continued support.

"Ill meet with members of Cubas civil societycourageous men and women who give voice to the aspirations of the Cuban people. Ill meet with Cuban entrepreneurs to learn how we can help them start new ventures. And Ill speak directly to the Cuban people about the values we share and how I believe we can be partners as they work for the future they want."

President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are scheduled to meet during the trip.

"Ill meet with President Castro to discuss how we can continue normalizing relations, including making it easier to trade and easier for Cubans to access the Internet and start their own businesses."

The President noted that his visit to Cuba will advance the goals that guide us: promoting American interests and values, and assisting efforts to build a future of more freedom and more opportunity for the Cuban people.
An elderly woman died while six other people were injured following a car crash in Georgetown, Delaware Saturday afternoon.

Police say a 79-year-old woman was driving a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country on Redden Road approaching the intersection of Check Road around 4:10 p.m. At the same time a 44-year-old driver of a 2006 Toyota Sequoia was traveling westbound on Redden Road, according to officials.

As the two vehicles approached each other, the Chrysler crossed into the westbound lane directly into the path of the Toyota, police said. The driver of the Toyota swerved left in an attempt to avoid a crash but the vehicles right side was struck by the Chrysler, according to police. The collision caused both vehicles to spin out of control. The Chrysler then came to a rest in the middle of the roadway while the Toyota came to a stop in a private driveway.

The 79-year-old driver of the Chrysler and three passengers, a 77-year-old woman, 87-year-old man and 85-year-old Eleanor Brown of Delaware, were all injured in the crash. Brown was taken to Milford Memorial Hospital where she died from her injuries.

The 79-year-old driver was taken to Milford Memorial as well and is being treated for serious injuries while the 77-year-old was airlifted to Christiana Hospital where she is being treated for life-threatening injuries.

The 87-year-old man was also taken to Milford Memorial where he was treated for minor injuries and later released.

The 44-year-old driver of the Toyota and two passengers, a 41-year-old woman and a 12-year-old child, were also injured in the crash. The driver of the Toyota was treated for minor injuries and later released while the 12-year-old is being treated at AI DuPont Hospital for a non-life threatening injury. The 41-year-old woman was airlifted to Christiana Hospital and is being treated for serious injuries. An 11-year-old child and a 14-year-old child were also inside the Toyota but were not hurt.

Police say alcohol and drugs did not play a role in the crash and all of the drivers and passengers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

Redden Road was closed for about four and a half hours Saturday while officials investigated the crash.


A New Jersey man was arrested Saturday on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his wife, authorities said.

Thirty-three-year-old Mario Flores is accused of killing 35-year-old Roxanne Flores on Saturday at their home in Stratford, Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo and Stratford Police Chief Ronald Morello said.

Flores was later arrested by police in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was being held pending extradition to New Jersey.

The authorities said police responded to a call for a wellness check to the couple's home at about 1:32 a.m. and found Roxanne Flores dead in a bedroom. They said that about 40 minutes earlier, a police officer on patrol in the neighborhood saw Mario Flores' sport utility vehicle pull away from the residence; investigators learned that he then dropped off his young daughter at a relative's home.

Witnesses told police the couple were having marital problems and had an argument that involved a gun.

The authorities say detectives learned that Flores was near Alexandria, Virginia, and notified police there who stopped his SUV and arrested him.

An Alexandria jailer told The Associated Press that Flores was being held without bond at the detention center there and would be arraigned Monday. Authorities said they had no information yet on whom Flores' lawyer might be.




A man wanted for vehicular homicide in connection with a horrific Northeast Philadelphia car crash that killed two teenage girls and a man in July was arrested this weekend, police said.

Police said officers from the Accident Investigation District served a warrant at Christopher Bloomfield's home and arrested him without incident about 10:15 p.m. Saturday. Bloomfield, 20, is accused of driving a 2007 Acura at more than three times the speed limit on Sandmeyer Lane near Red Lion Road in Bustleton the night of July 29.

Police say Bloomfield, who they said may have been street racing another vehicle captured on surveillance cameras at the time, lost control of the car doing about 75 mph at a curve and slammed into a tree. Killed instantly were 17-year-old Sabrina Rhoads, 17-year-old Yvette Gonzalez and 20-year-old Felip Hernandez. Bagdon Arutyunov, 17, suffered severe head trauma in the crash but survived.

Police said Bloomfield will face charges of homicide by vehicle and related offenses.

Family members of the victims have been pushing for an arrest for months after the crash. They told NBC10 they believe Bloomfield was reckless and should be held accountable.

"I think that this is what all the families have pushed for," said Kelly McDade, the aunt of one of the victims. "We just don't want our loved ones to be forgotten."

Erin Gonzalez, the mother of Yvette, said the arrest was "bittersweet."

"It's what I've been waiting for," Gonzalez said. "But, I still don't have my daughter."
A New Jersey man was arrested Saturday on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his wife, authorities said.

Mario Flores, 33, is accused of killing Roxanne Flores, 35, on Saturday at their home in Stratford, Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo and Stratford Police Chief Ronald Morello said.



Flores was later arrested by police in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was being held pending extradition to New Jersey.



The authorities said police responded to a call for a wellness check to the couple's home at about 1:32 a.m. and found Roxanne Flores dead in a bedroom. They said that about 40 minutes earlier, a police officer on patrol in the neighborhood saw Mario Flores' sport utility vehicle pull away from the residence. Investigators learned that he then dropped off his young daughter at a relative's home.



Witnesses told police the couple were having marital problems and had an argument that involved a gun.



The authorities say detectives learned that Mario Flores was near Alexandria, Virginia, and notified police there, who stopped his SUV and arrested him.



An Alexandria jailer told The Associated Press that Mario Flores was being held without bond at the detention center there and would be arraigned Monday. Authorities said they had no information yet on whom Mario Flores' lawyer might be.
Several people were sickened after a carbon monoxide leak occurred at a church in Prince Georges County, Maryland, Sunday morning.

The Prince Georges County Fire Department arrived at the Refreshing Spring Church of God, in Riverdale Park, Maryland, and found high levels of carbon monoxide. At least one person was transported to the hospital in good condition.

Crews said the CO leak occurred because of the natural gas HVAC system. The equipment was shut down, and the facility was aired out.

Washington Gas also arrived to assist.
Police are searching for a man who they say broke into a home and assaulted a woman early Saturday morning in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County.

Officers were called to a home in the 8400 block of Blankenship Street in Fairfax County around 3 a.m., where a 51-year-old woman said she had been sleeping when a man entered her home.

The victim told officers the man threatened and sexually assaulted her before fleeing. He also burglarized the home, Fairfax County Police said.

The victim may have recognized the man from around the neighborhood, police said, but it is unclear if he targeted her.

The woman was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The attacker was described as Hispanic, in his early to mid 20s, between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 120 to 130 pounds, Fairfax County Police said. He was clean-shaven with short black hair, and was wearing a black jacket and carrying a black backpack.

They worked with the victim to develop a composite sketch, which they released Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Solvers by calling 866-411-TIPS/8477, online at www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or by texting "TIP187" plus their message to CRIMES (274637), or call police at 703-691-2131.
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator running to be the Democratic candidate for president, will visit Virginia next week for a public rally.

The campaign said Saturday night that Sanders would host a rally in Norfolk Tuesday at the Norfolk Scope Arena.

Doors will open at 9:30. The event is open to the public, but an RSVP is encouraged.

Sanders' battle against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination is expected to sweep into Virginia in the next few weeks as the state's Super Tuesday primary, on March 1, approaches.

Several GOP candidates are holding events in Virginia next week, too, including John Kasich, who will hold town hall meetings at George Mason University in Fairfax and at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Monday, and Donald Trump, who will appear Wednesday in the presidential candidate series at Regent University in Virginia Beach.

Ted Cruz will appear in the Regent series Friday, and Ben Carson will appear in the Regent series the following Monday.

Hillary Clinton had held a campaign rally in Alexandria as early as October, 2015. Sanders held rallies in 2015 in Virginia, too, including one in Manassas in September.
Donald Trump barreled to victory in South Carolina's Republican primary Saturday, deepening his hold on the GOP presidential field as the race headed into the South. "Let's put this thing away," he shouted to cheering supporters.

Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, easing the rising anxieties of her backers. At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, "This one is for you."

The victories put Clinton and Trump in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election advanced toward the March 1 Super Tuesday contests, a delegate-rich voting bonanza. But South Carolina marked the end for Jeb Bush, the one-time Republican front-runner and member of a prominent political family, who withdrew from the race.

"I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant, not the master," Bush told supporters in an emotional speech.

South Carolina marked Trump's second straight victory  this one by 10 points  and strengthened his unexpected claim on the GOP nomination. No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

"There's nothing easy about running for president," Trump said at his victory rally. "It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful  when you win it's beautiful."

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, a pair of freshman senators, were fighting for second place, while Bush and others lagged far behind.

"This has become a three-person race," Rubio declared.

Cruz harked back to his win in the leadoff Iowa caucuses as a sign he was best positioned to take down Trump. He urged conservatives to rally around his campaign, saying pointedly, "We are the only candidate who has beaten and can beat Donald Trump."

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' anger with the political establishment. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

Trump's victory comes after a week in which he threatened to sue one rival, accused former President George W. Bush of lying about the Iraq war and even tussled with Pope Francis on immigration. His victory was another sign that the conventional rules of politics often don't apply to the brash billionaire.

He was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who were angry at the federal government, and a third of those who felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

For Cruz, despite his confident words, South Carolina must have been something of a disappointment. The state was his first test of whether his expensive, sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation could overtake Trump in a Southern state, where the electorate seemed tailor-made for the Texas senator.

Florida's Rubio used his top-tier finish to bill himself as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz, candidates many GOP leaders believe are unelectable in November.

South Carolina was the final disappointment for Bush, who campaigned alongside members of his famous family, which remains popular in the state. Though he was once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, new fundraising reports out Saturday showed that donations to his super PAC had largely stalled.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina and was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson vowed to stay in the race, despite a single-digit showing.

The crowded Republican contest was a contrast to the head-to-head face-off among Democrats. Clinton has emerged as a favorite of those seeking an experienced political hand, while Sanders is attracting young voters and others drawn to his call of a political and economic revolution.

The Nevada results highlighted Clinton's strength with black voters, a crucial Democratic electorate in the next contest in South Carolina, as well as several Super Tuesday states. The Hispanic vote was closely divided between Sanders and Clinton.

According to the entrance polls, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that "the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum." With a vast network of small donors, Sanders has the financial resources to stay in the race for months.

Clinton's win means she will pick up at least 19 of Nevada's 35 delegates. She already holds a sizeable lead in the delegate count based largely on her support from superdelegates  the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter the primaries and caucuses.

Trump won a majority of the delegates in South Carolina and he had a chance to win them all. With votes still being tabulated, he was projected to win at least 38 of the 50 at stake.

Democrats and Republicans will swap locations in the coming days. The GOP holds its caucus in Nevada on Tuesday, while Democrats face off in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

The polling of voters in Nevada and South Carolina was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites.

Hillary Clinton was the projected winner of Nevada's Democratic caucus Saturday, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Bernie Sanders and potentially easing the anxiety of some of her supporters.

Donald Trump was projected to win the Republican primary in South Carolina, according to NBC News. Trump emerged after early results showed him in a fight with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Clinton's win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Bernie Sanders. At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, "This one is for you."

Trump's strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the Republican nomination. Underscoring the electorate's frustration with Washington, he was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who were angry at the federal government, and a third of those who felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

Trump addressed his overjoyed supporters just before 9 p.m.

He thanked his family, saying, Its been not easy for them. They dont see me anymore  Im making speeches all the time!

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, a pair of freshman senators, were locked in a race for second place. Other candidates lagged behind, including Jeb Bush, who announced Saturday evening he was suspending his campaign.

"Thank you for the opportunity to run for the greatest office on earth. I love you all and God bless you," Bush said.

Cruz opened his speech by paying tribute to Bush as well as late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He then got down to the evening's race.

Right now we are effectively tied for second place, he told his supporters. We are the only campaign that has beaten and can beat Donald Trump.

Rubio, speaking to his supporters, said he was confident he would emerge from the crowded GOP field.

"After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination, he said.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' anger with the political establishment and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

Trump's victory comes after a week in which he threatened to sue one rival, accused former President George W. Bush of lying about the Iraq war and even tussled with Pope Francis on immigration. His victory was another sign that the conventional rules of politics often don't apply to the brash billionaire.

For Cruz, even a second-place finish in South Carolina would be something of a disappointment. The state was his first test of whether his expensive, sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation could overtake Trump in a Southern state, where the electorate is tailor-made for the conservative Texas senator.

Florida's Rubio was hoping a top-tier finish in South Carolina could help establish him as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz. Many GOP leaders believe neither Trump nor Cruz could win in the general election.

Rubio scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and seemed to have rebounded after a dismal debate performance two weeks ago.

Bush hoped his deep family ties to South Carolina  his brother and father each won two primaries here  would be a lifeline for his struggling campaign. But if Bush was unable to stay close to the leaders, he was sure to face pressure to end his campaign.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers.

The crowded Republican contest was a contrast to the head-to-head face-off among Democrats. Sanders, backed by a powerful network of small financial donors, has plenty of money to stay in the race for months.

Clinton's victory came as a relief to her campaign, particularly after her blowout loss to Sanders in the previous New Hampshire contest.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton said during her victory rally.

The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared that "the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum."

Clinton and Sanders split the first two voting contests, revealing the Vermont senator's appeal with young people drawn to his impassioned calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and providing free tuition at public colleges and universities.

According to the entrance polls of voters, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

Clinton's win means she will pick up at least 19 of Nevada's 35 delegates. She already holds a sizeable lead in the delegate count based largely on her support from superdelegates  the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter the outcome of primaries and caucuses.

Democrats and Republicans will swap locations in the coming days. The GOP holds its caucus in Nevada on Tuesday, while Democrats face off in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

The polling of voters in Nevada and South Carolina was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites.
An East Bridgewater, Massachusetts man is under arrest after a man told police he was attacked by three individuals on the Bridgewater State University campus.

Police said the victim called campus police after he was kicked and robbed by three individuals -- all known to the victim -- in the Swenson Parking Lot off of Plymouth Street.

Chad Jay Kadis, 18, of 124 Pleasant Ave., was charged with armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, larceny from a person and disorderly conduct. He also had two outstanding warrants.

Neither the victim nor the three suspects were students at Bridgewater, police said. He was transferred to Plymouth House of Correction until his arraignment, scheduled for Monday. He was denied bail by a court clerk.
A 90-year-old man is dead after a fatal car crash in Falmouth, Massachusetts, police there said Saturday.



Police said Marvin Rumpler, of East Falmouth, pulled out of Mahoneys Too parking lot just after 1 p.m. to travel west on the East Falmouth Highway when his Ford Econoline van was T-boned by a Hyundai SUV.

The driver of that vehicle sustained minor injuries, but Rumpler was transported to a Boston area hospital by helicopter, where he later died.

The crash remains under investigation by the Falmouth Police and Boston Medical Examiners office. There are no charges against the driver at this time.
Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden told an audience of supporters in New Hampshire on Saturday that he is willing to be extradited to the United States if the federal government would guarantee he would get a fair trial.

The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping program and left the country. He faces U.S. charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Snowden spoke Saturday at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. WMUR reported that forum organizers did not allow the media to video record his remarks.

"I've told the government I would return if they would guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public interest defense of why this was done and allow a jury to decide," Snowden told his audience.

Snowden has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and his willingness to discuss a plea deal and even go to jail. Last year, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said a plea deal with Snowden was a possibility, but Snowden told the BBC in an interview in October that he and his lawyers were still waiting to hear from the government.

Snowden's revelations about the NSA, Britain's GCHQ and other intelligence agencies set off an international debate about spies' powers to monitor personal communications, and about the balance between security and privacy. Critics say his disclosures harmed the ability of the United States and its allies to fight terrorism.

To some, he is a traitor; to others, a hero.

Saturday, Snowden said that while some of his former colleagues at the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency were sympathetic to his beliefs concerning individual privacy and freedom, others said "the Constitution doesn't really matter."
Im sorry I have to come with bad news, wrote Clement Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, before announcing Linux Mint suffered an intrusion; on February 20, hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it.

Its not all Linux Mint, ranked by DistroWatch as the most popular Linux distribution for the last year, that were affected, but only the ISO for Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition downloaded from the site on Saturday. Lefebvre noted that other ISO releases downloaded from the site on Feb. 20 as well as the Cinnamon edition ISOs downloaded via torrents or a direct HTTP link should not be affected.

If you downloaded the Cinnamon edition yesterday, then Lefebvre advised users to compare the MD5 signature. However, technologist Micah Lee seemed flabbergasted by that advice, since the attackers could have also changed the MD5 checksums. Nevertheless, if you installed the maliciously tainted edition, then Lefebvre said to take your PC offline, reinstall a clean version and then change your email and other passwords.

The attackers breached the site via WordPress, Lefebvre admitted in a comment. The hacked ISOs are hosted on 5.104.175.212 and the backdoor connects to absentvodka.com. Both lead to Sofia, Bulgaria, and the name of 3 people over there.

Database was sold on the dark web

After Lefebvres warning to beware of hacked ISOs, security-minded individuals jumped into action. CSOs Steve Ragan found the data for sale on TheRealDeal dark web marketplace and tweeted a screenshot.

Ragan tweeted LinuxMint didn't just have their ISOs backdoored. Their server and forum were dumped. It's up for sale online, asking price is ~$85 USD.

Someone seemingly purchased it, then dropped the Linux Mint forums configuration file into the discussion on Hacker News.

Hackers re-compromised the site after it was first "cleaned"

After comments on the Linux Mint blog said the download page was again pointing to the hacked Cinnamon ISO, Lefebvre confirmed it was a second attack and the site was still vulnerable. The Linux Mint team kicked into action once more, entirely shut down its server this time, searched for the source of the second intrusion  most likely a remnant left over from the first, and then closed the holes the attackers exploited to gain access.

Backdoor was a Tsunami IRC bot

Lefebvre added that the attackers chose to taint Mints Cinnamon edition with an oldie, the Tsunami IRC bot. With the unlimited choices available, some security pros wondered why the hackers bothered to settle for an IRC-based botnet; Tsunami is an old tool with very very poor performance. As Dutch-based Fox-IT senior threat intelligence analyst Yonathan Klijnsma put it:

Several social networking site discussions suggested the attackers must be noobs. Softpedia said the entire hack was mishandled and asking a mere $85 for the forums database showed lack of vision.

Softpedias Catalin Cimpanu expounded on the attackers inexperience:

The fact that they've re-compromised the site after they've been originally discovered also shows the group's lack of experience. With their entry point still working, and with the Linux Mint team blaming the WordPress site, when all clues pointed to the phpBB forum, all the hackers had to do was to wait. Instead, they escalated the entire incident, placed ads on an underground hacking forum, which eventually caught the eye of security experts and forced the Linux Mint team to bring down their entire website, cutting off their access.

Although Linux Mint doesnt know the attackers motivation, Lefebvre said, If more efforts are made to attack our project and if the goal is to hurt us, well get in touch with authorities and security firms to confront the people behind this.

Update: Steve Ragan contacted me to say the config file for phpBB that was posted on Hacker News was copied from elsewhere as 'proof' by the hacker. Additionally, Tsunami isn't the name of the bot; the code is called Kaiten, and it's been open source since about 2001.
Seeking a better life, nearly 400 Central Virginia residents left the United States and sailed with their families for Africa between 1829 and 1865.

They were among 3,700 Virginians who emigrated to Liberia as part of the American Colonization Societys efforts to remove African-Americans from the states and in the process Christianize the old continent.

Liberia was founded to receive black emigrants from the U.S., as well as Africans who had been rescued from slave ships.

The colonization movement was controversial from the start. It began in 1816, before Southern attitudes toward slavery hardened. It was deeply racial in nature, and at first, was meant to remove already-free blacks, not slaves, from the country. Northern abolitionists opposed it. They wanted an end to slavery, not to see the free blacks, or the enslaved, expelled from the country.

Still, the chance to live as citizens with full rights, and freedom, for themselves and especially their children was enough to convince the emigrants to leave their Virginia home behind.

The first Central Virginia emigrants were a free Bedford family, the Rev. Joseph Turner, his wife, Lucinda, and their two children, Harriett, 13, and Elizabeth, 2.

Rev. Turner was also the first of the Lynchburg emigrants to die, from malaria.

He was memorialized by the Lynchburg Colonization Society:  The Rev. Joseph Turner, a man of colour, late of the county of Bedford, hath departed this life since his arrival at the colony of Liberia; Resolved, that this society bearing in mind his worth, high respectability and distinguished virtue while living, do deeply deplore the loss of the deceased, and sincerely sympathize with his surviving relatives, and also with the Colonists at Liberia, for the loss they have sustained in his death.

That was reported in the African Repository, a detailed journal published by the American Colonization Society. While the repository contains a wealth of facts, it is also filled with much boosterism about the little colony on the western coast of Africa.

Life was hard. Families were granted some land and six months support. There was little shelter, and emigrants who arrived without a trade often had to go into the swamps and cut wood to sell to feed their families. Almost everyone who arrived in the wet, tropical colony contracted malaria. Some survived, but it was especially harsh on emigrants used to the temperate climate of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The journal minimized, but did not ignore, dangers and hardships, at one point estimating that only 2 percent of emigrants perished. Modern estimates put that closer to 50 percent. Still, there is little doubt the colonists knew what they were getting into. News was circulating in the community here.

Around 1830, John Wynn, a free resident of Lynchburg, wrote that free black people here had received letters from a group of emigrants from Lexington who passed through Lynchburg saying that many had died, apparently from malaria, according to An African Republic: Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia by Marie Tyler-McCraw.

This era was the Lynchburg Colonization Societys most active, and its leadership included some of the towns leading white citizens.

R.H. Toler, a local newspaperman, made a remarkable speech to the Lynchburg society during its annual meeting in 1832. He said he believed that black people had the same potential as whites if given a chance and said slavery was started by the white Souths money-loving ancestors who didnt want to work so hard themselves.

I am decidedly of opinion that with a short notice, a full cargo of manumitted slaves would be furnished from this part of Virginia, Toler said. The Virginia legislature endorsed the movement, but appropriated little money for it, according to Tyler-McCraw.

The emigrations were mostly financed by donations from well-meaning people in the Northern states, although the Turners received help from some Lynchburg citizens.

The Turners' ship, the Harriet, left Hampton Roads in 1829 with 160 emigrants from Virginia and Maryland, a mix of emancipated and free African-Americans. Many of those had long been free and had acquired considerable property, and took with them a very liberal supply of provisions, household furniture, tools, and agricultural implements, and articles for trade, said the repository.

With two future presidents of Liberia aboard, it is regarded as one of the founding voyages of the country, although about a quarter of the emigrants died within a month. Rev. Turners teen-age daughter Harriet died of a diseased brain in 1836. His wife, Lucinda Turner, survived. What happened to little Elizabeth, 2, is not known.

The second group of Lynchburg emigrants, aboard the ship Liberia in 1830, included Central Virginias Cook family as well as the Erskine family from Tennessee. The Erskines had stayed in Lynchburg after arriving in Virginia too late to catch the Harriet in 1829.

Lynchburg was somewhat of a crossroads for migrants from the West on their way to Baltimore or Norfolk. Describing another group of emigrants years later, an ACS agent wrote, Our company numbering 70, passed through (Abingdon) to day, and it is expected they will reach Lynchburg in two weeks from this time. Several of these emigrants will have horses, wagons, etc., to sell when they get to Lynchburg. They are depending very much on the sale of these to get to Liberia.

A letter from the ships captain in the African Repository gives some detail on the local 1830 emigrants. The Erskine family was led by a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. George Erskine, who had purchased the freedom of the other family members. His mother, 80, had been born in Africa.

The ships captain also wrote, I had on board another interesting man by the name of Cook. He was about 70 years of age, and had a very patriarchal appearance. His family amounted to about 30 in number, who all evidenced the benefits resulting from the counsel, admonition, and direction of a good old man, whom they loved and respected. They were Methodists from Lynchburg, Va.

After 1830, residents of Lynchburg and Amherst, Bedford, Campbell and Nelson counties, mostly slaves who were freed on the condition they emigrate, continued to move to Liberia, which became an independent country in 1847.

There was no emigration during the Civil War, but in late 1865, 172 Central Virginia residents organized the final emigration from Lynchburg. Although they were all free, they were not yet citizens, lacked the right to vote, and faced continued discrimination here.

Their leader, John McNuckles died soon after arrival. His brother, Woodson McNuckles, summed up the emigrants hopes and dreams when he wrote back to Lynchburg:

If our folks in America had a correct idea of this country and the advantages that would in time accrue to them by coming, nothing would stop them from emigrating here. It is true we are poor; we came to the country poor, but by labor and perseverance we can soon better our condition.

Sources: The African Repository and Colonial Journal; An African Republic: Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia by Marie Tyler-McCraw; The Daily Virginian, Lynchburg; The African-American Mosaic, Liberia, the Library of Congress; Emigrants Database, Virginia Emigrants to Liberia, Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia.
Supernormal rockers

Sunday Newsday spoke with one of the two local rock bands representing the nation this year in Suriname, at a battle of the bands. The winner of that battle, will go to Germany to play in the biggest international rock festival in the world.

Andy Rambarat, Anthony Borde, Johnny Agostini and Mitchell Rambaran make up the local band, Supernormal, a quartet out of Malick, Barataria that fuses local style with heavy metal. For the past three years the four men have transcended even their own expectations and have developed a massive following, to the point where they headline several local events. At an interview in their practice room in Malick, the band said while they were still riding high after their latest album release, The Fire Inside, this battle would not only be the next great step in promoting the genre of indigenous rock but will give a new outlet for local favourites, Calypso and Soca.

Ever since Trinidad had rock bands, we have always tried to mix it (Soca/Calypso and Rock), like with bands like Orange Sky, and they have seen their own success with it, said front man Andy Rambarat,  I have always wanted to express to the world how we do it here in Trinidad - Rock with a Trinidadian feel. We try to get that authentic sound of TrinidadOne of their more popular songs, Fishnin almost has a Chutney Soca vibe to it, with a call and response style of lyrics over heavy metal riffs.

NOT JUST NOISE The band members noted that while making it in any genre in music locally was difficult, there was an added stigma to a local rock band.

There are a lot of people that know about local rock, said Andy, but most people dont take it as seriously down here as they would Soca or Dancehall; it is easier for them to assume that it is just people making noise and getting drunk.

But there are others that see the art in the music and as Trinidad and Tobago becomes more aware and into the arts they would realise that we could bring in millions of dollars into this country with the talent we have in this country. Anthony, the bassist, said he believes people outside the rock community dont understand the style of music.

Contrary to popular belief that rock was mostly associated with violence, he said there was more musicianship and lyrical content than other genres that are more popular locally.

Drawing reference to their song  Anchors Away on their album Fire Inside, Anthony said the lyrics were very uplifting. It is really self-empowering. The song encourages the listener to get themselves out of depression.

The whole idea of Anchors Away is to free yourself. The band sees the battle of the bands in Suriname as an opportunity to change the perception of local rock for Trinidadians, by educating people about the genre and opening their minds.

It needs this one band to do one big thing out there, so people could see that it is legit, said Andy. Like Rihanna for example, I am sure there are a lot of young kids in Barbados that are inspired to sing, just like her.

And now, if they go to their moms and say they want to take singing lessons, the mother would be like, come, lets do it. But there is nothing like that for rock in Trinidad. THE KEY TO WINNING: BALLS Before using their stardom to inspire other bands, the four members still have to win an international competition against the best rock and metal bands in the Caribbean. The winners of this competition would then stand on one of the metal genres premier worldwide stages. The task would be daunting for any other group of musicians, but the Supernormal Band believes it has what it takes to take the grand stage. Asked what was needed to win an international rock competition, lead guitarist Johnny Agostini summed it up in one word: Balls. he said.

We are a rock band. It is in our nature to go against the odds, Johnny explained. He added that the band was tight musically, and their songs were enjoyable. He believed they simply have to have confidence and work hard. I know that making it in the rock scene is going to be hard, but we would just have to work that much harder and we will make it. Waken Open Air, a metal festival which has been in existence since 1990, will this year focus on Caribbean metal bands, with WOA Metal Battle Caribbean.

The WOA community hand-picked five Caribbean bands-including Supernormal, and another local rock band, Lynchpin-who will clash with three other Caribbean bands in Suriname in April this year.

The administrators of the yearly competition saw WOA Metal Battle Caribbean as an opportunity to help the metal scene grown in the Caribbean.

WOA Metal Battle Caribbean is carded to be held in Paramaribo, Suriname, in April 2016.
Victorious Treble Makers

With mere months to learn how to play the national instrument, the 35 students practised diligently, mastering each note of tutor Keva-Ann Blackmans arrangement of soca star Destra Garcias infectious 2006 hit Max It Up.

And so, on January 31, giving a maximum performance on the grand stage of the Queens Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, Trebble Makers went on to make history, winning, with 270 points, Pan Trinbagos Junior Panorama finals for primary schools this past Carnival on their maiden attempt.

They dethroned St Pauls Boys Anglican School, which was seeking its third victory in a row, and beat back St Margarets Boys Anglican School, a nine-time winner of the competition, into second place. Trebble Makers shared their thrilling victory with schoolmates on February 3, with a command performance at the school located on 104 Eastern Main Road, Tacarigua.

I did not plan to arrange or compete in the Junior Panorama until the question was put to me by the principal. I kept telling myself that we were going to win this competition, an elated Blackman shared with Spotlight.

Most of the bands members had no idea how to play the steelpan, said Blackman, who credits the childrens discipline for their success which also made it a pleasure for her to work with them.

I distributed the music on a weekly or every other week basis, and the students were disciplined.

They all listened and were very co-operative which made the job even easier, she explained.

Blackman chose to go with one of Destras songs as the artiste is known for her melodic tunes, and Max It Ups structure was simple for the children to learn. At the beginning, the students thought they would have to do something really hard, knowing that it was their first time with the steelpan and first time entering a national competition. I think the selection of the song was just enough for them, the arranger explained.

Max It Up was easy to work with, and the lyrical content of the song is all about culture. It was very easy to arrange the song for the children because it was a song that they could have related to and enjoyed. The song was not anything unruly for the children.

They enjoyed playing it from start to finish. The students, who range in age between eight and 12 years old, showed a lot of enthusiasm and learned to play the tune in approximately three months, starting first in the library and then moving into a pan room, built from raising funds. The pan room was completed last December.

Students had to be taught in pairs and there was barely any room for students and myself to be in the classroom (library) at the same time. They only moved into the pan room in the new term of this year, she said.

She indicated that under the Multi-Cultural Music Programme Unit (MMPU) they were provided with a 16-piece pan set. However, because Trebble Makers has 35 members, they still had to borrow pans from the Arima New Government Primary School where Blackman also teaches.

Blackman said while the students were preparing the piece, teachers expressed how good they sounded and the feedback from the neighbouring environs was also positive.

On our worst days we were still getting motivation by the teachers and people on the outside of the school who were consistently complimenting the bands performance, she said.

In the early stage of preparation and onwards, I continued to encourage the students to believe in themselves-- win, lose, or draw.

I told them we were going for the win and they went through the competition with that expectation, and stayed focus. When they got the results, they were very excited and happy. Blackman said the students were groomed in a short space of time, and during that time she knew their abilities and their limitations.

She praised them for executing a winning performance, and promised that Trebble Makers will be defending their title in 2017.

Amelia Ahwai,11, who plays the tenor pan, said when she heard Max It Up being played on the steelpan, she fell in love with the sound and joined the band although she did not know how to play the instrument. I felt really happy to know that we beat other schools who won several times in a row, she said.

The youngest player of the band, Jamal Thomas, eight, who plays the African drums, said he too fell in love with the sound of the song on the steelpan. I love the music. The song had me feeling relaxed, and gives me rhythm in my bones. I felt so happy to know that we won. I am looking froward to actually playing the steelpan instead of the drums in next years competition, he said.

Weighing in on Tacarigua Presbyterians accomplishment, Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz said it was an honour to have the school compete in the national competition for the first time, and win, as that had never happened before.

It is a great achievement for the teachers, parents and the children. It is a great accomplishment for the students, he said, as he congratulated them and hoped they continue their good work.

In a press release last month, Education Minister Anthony Garcia extended congratulations to all the schools and students who participated in the National Junior Panorama.

I am happy to see the tremendous amount of student participation.

This augurs well for the integration of such activities into the school curriculum and enhances the creative competencies of our children, he said then.

He stated that at the end of yet another successful National Junior Panorama, hosted by the Ministry of Education in association with Pan Trinbago, the overall feeling among the patrons was one of praise and satisfaction with the high standard of pan playing skills and discipline displayed by the nations young pannists.

In the secondary school category, St Josephs Convent, St Joseph placed first with their rendition of Guitar Pan by the late Aldwyn Lord Kitchener Roberts, winning with 262 points. bp Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra, scoring 288 points, won the 21 and Under category with their performance of David Rudders Calypso Music.
TEACHERS UNDER SIEGE

I see blood, I part gang fight, but its the first time I ever saw anything like that, Sinanan said yesterday. Maybe if I didnt see it first-hand I would not have believed.

I can empathise with the teachers: the students have no regard for authority. How do you teach a school like that? Teachers are under siege... .

Classes had to be suspended after news leaked of a plan by some students with help from gang members to shoot a teacher and other students at the school.

The bloody plan was reportedly foiled when a soldier from the TT Defence Force accompanied by some of his colleagues just happened to turn up at the school to collect his childs class report. At least seven soldiers remained on the compound after learning of the plot. The Chaguanas police would arrive an hour later.

As tensions ran high at the school on Friday morning, the TTUTA president was contacted and asked to come to the school.

He arrived in the midst of the melee and in turn contacted the Education Minister who later hosted a news conference to apprise the national community of the dangerous situation.

Speaking during an interview yesterday, Garcia assured, there will be school tomorrow but he could not definitively say whether the security at the school would be increased in time for the resumption of classes. Admitting that as a veteran educator, it was the first time he had ever come across a situation of that magnitude, Garcia vowed to use all the resources to effectively clamp down on that level of indiscipline. He argued however that it was an isolated case. He said the situation required constant monitoring.

The Education Minister plans to visit the school on Tuesday as he will be in Tobago tomorrow for the National Consultation on Education.

He will be accompanied by the TTUTA head and the president of the National Parent Teacher Association, Zena Ramatally.

Garcia said the school presents some challenges as it is the largest secondary school with an enrolment of over 800 students and close to 100 teachers.

Sinanan too recalled that as a teacher and principal he had come across some rough situations but never one where there were plans to take out a teacher and other students. Asked whether teachers would be reporting for duty on tomorrow, Sinanan said he had advised his membership to go to school. He however explained that when they get to the school, they are to assess the situation and then act accordingly. He, like Garcia, disclosed there are close to 100 teachers at the school.

Sinanan related how when he arrived at the school on Friday, teachers and students were traumatized.

He said one has to be in that school environment to know what the teachers are going through on a daily basis. He said the situation had become so bad that there is an unwritten rule among teachers not to walk the corridors alone.

Sinanan is calling on the various arms of the State to come together and work with the school.

We must take back control of the school and certain communities. The catchment area of the school is Enterprise and surrounding communities.

He is also calling for increased security with at least two corporals and six constables to man the compound and regular patrols especially on the perimeters of the school.

In addition wants students on suspension to be counselled before returning to school. He pointed to the suspension centre programme. He said such a centre exists in Princes Town in the south eastern Education district and has reported some level of success.

Meanwhile Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodhan also admitted he was shocked when he heard about what almost transpired at the Chaguanas North Secondary School on Friday. He said the school is located within walking distance from his home and had the gang violence played out it would have created mayhem not just in the school, but for residents in the community.

I was really shocked at what is happening there, the Mayor said.

I live a few houses away from the school, and my concern is for the safety and security of students and staff, and people within the community. Boodhan said in light of the crisis at the school he is renewing his call made in January for an army post to be set up in Chaguanas.

In fact he is calling on the Ministry of Education to visit all the schools in the central borough to see what support is needed.

The Mayor feels security at the school must be increased to curb the level indiscipline so staff and students could go about their business safely.

The Mayor is also calling on religious leaders in Chaguanas, and elders in the community to come up with ideas and suggestions to resolve the situation. He is further calling on the religious leaders to speak to the young people under their watch in the various churches, temples and mosques.

The Mayor plans to visit the school tomorrow to see what assistance he could give.
Ian Alleyne in police brutality battle

Alleyne, who turned up more than an hour late for his scheduled visit to the station, was accompanied by his attorney Gerald Ramdeen. Despite much publicity on his programme the evening before about the visit, a mere 10 supporters turned up to show support. Alleyne accused his former friend Alexander, who now hosts a similar crime programme Beyond the Tape on rival station TV6, of using excessive force during his dramatic arrest last Tuesday outside the Chaguanas home of businessman Sheron Sukdheo.

It was reported that Alexander and police officers were at the time conducting investigations at Sukdheos home, when Alleyne and his camera crew arrived on the scene. At the time Sukdheo was being sought by officers in connection with reports of alleged domestic violence. Alleyne was subsequently manhandled and arrested - he was later handcuffed and taken to the Chaguanas Police Station where he was charged by Alexander with using annoying language, resisting arrest and assault. The men are demanding a full investigation.

Alleyne was expected to arrive at the station at 10 am yesterday; he eventually arrived at 11.15 am where he met the gate to the compound of the police station shut only persons going to make reports were being allowed on to the compound. Both Alleyne and Ramdeen expressed surprise when they had to tell an officer posted at the gate, the purpose for their visit. They were however allowed inside. The visit lasted just over an hour while reporters and the handful of supporters waited on the pavement.

Yesterday, seconds after exiting the door of the police station where the two met and spoke with Inspector Harry before officially giving a statement to PC Moore, Ramdeen announced that Alleyne will now be championing the cause of victims of alleged police brutality. Ramdeen said: We take the view that notwithstanding what was done to Mr Alleyne, this is an example of what takes place on a daily basis to citizens just as Mr Alleyne. The purpose of doing this is that we will use this incident to fight the cause of police brutality. This is a cause Mr Alleyne has taken up as a personal battle against those who perpetrate this kind of action against innocent citizens. He is devoting this cause to fight on behalf of those who this has been done to before and those who it may be done to in the future. Ramdeen said video footage that appeared on social media and believed to be recorded by a police officer inside the police station is also among the complaints made yesterday. He went on to tell reporters: It was disturbing that a press conference could be held by Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, less than 24 hours after my client was arrested and charged, it was announced that there will be no investigation into the matter. We will fight this battle as far as we have to take to ensure that justice is served in this matter. Alleyne also spoke to reporters, saying that the issue was no longer about him.

He said: I am Ian Alleyne, but I am no different to the person who lives on the Beetham, the person from in Laventille, the person from Gonzales, from Arima from Sangre Grande, I am no different to them. Police brutality has become so prevalent and as a result of what I have gone through here, it will stop as of now. He dismissed having any concerns with new video footage which alleged that he used obscene language during his arrest.

He continued: The issue here is that police brutality must stop.

Remember I was never charged for whatever language, I was charged for using annoying language. A small group of about five persons who identified themselves as fans of Alleyne openly expressed their disappointment that more of his fans were not present to lend their support to Alleyne.

All now here should be packed with people, said one man who had arrived just before 10 am.

When they want help they does run to him but today none of them come out. Alleyne has since appeared in the magistrates court and has been placed on $20,000 bail and he is expected to return to court next month
Scalia a man of God, country

Scalia, the longest service justice on the current Supreme Court, was found dead on February 13 at a resort ranch in west Texas. He was 79.

Adele Scalia, originally from Trincity and a former student of St Josephs Convent, has been married to the late Justices son Christopher since July 2010. She used a photo of the late Justice reading to one of her sons as her profile picture on Facebook. In another photograph she is flanked by Scalia and his wife, Maureen, while holding one of her children.

Prayers and love to you and your family, one person posted on the photo.

So sorry to hear of your familys loss Adele. I pray strength and leave and comfort for you all. Take care, another person posted.

According to an AP report yesterday more than 3,000 mourners attended a funeral Mass for the late Justice at the largest Catholic church in the United States (US), Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

US Vice President Joe Biden and 10 of the 11 living justices with whom he served joined his wife of 55 years, their nine children and dozens of grandchildren at the service.

Associated Press reported Scalia was remembered yesterday as a man who loved God, country and family.

Another Scalias son Paul  a Catholic priest  led the service and mixed humour with reverence for the conservative icon and father of nine who died unexpectedly last weekend.

Sure he forgot our names at times or mixed them up, but there are nine of us, Paul told thousands of mourners. He loved us and sought to show that love and sought to share the blessing of the faith he treasured. Scalias sons and sons-in-law served as pallbearers, carrying his flag-draped casket up the steps of the basilica. Scalia lay in repose at the Supreme Court on Friday, where thousands of visitors came to honour one of the countrys most influential conservative voices.

The service was a traditional Catholic funeral Mass that was filled with pageantry, celebrity and a little bit of humour. It was simple, with no formal eulogy, in keeping with the justices philosophy that funerals should not be dominated by effusive praise.

Washingtons archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl drew chuckles during opening remarks when he told the massive crowd that he would keep his comments brief in keeping with your desire to have a simple parish family Mass. Only two people read from Scripture.

Leonard Leo, executive director of the conservative Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, read a passage from the Old Testaments Book of Wisdom. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who shared Scalias conservative judicial bent, read a passage from the New Testaments Book of Romans.

During the homily, Paul recalled how his father reacted once after accidentally standing in his sons confessional line.

He quickly departed it. As he put it later, Like heck if Im confessing to you, the younger Scalia said. The feeling was mutual. Paul joked that the Roman collar was not a shield against his criticism. The family departed for a private burial at an undisclosed site immediately after the Mass. A memorial service for Scalia has been set for March 1 at a Washington hotel.

Scalia was known as a champion of originalism  interpreting the Constitution according to the meaning understood when it was adopted. He famously sparred with liberals who view the constitution as a living document and frequently declared in public speeches his view that the Constitution is dead, dead, dead. Several federal judges who are considered possible replacements for Scalia also attended the funeral Mass, including Judges Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett and Chief Judge Merrick Garland, all of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They were joined by a whos who of the political and legal world in Washington
TTUTA: Same-old, same-old

Rather, the Governments National Consultation on Education, which heads to the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Tobago, tomorrow, sought to provide a long-awaited forum for the ventilation of issues affecting the system.

At the first two consultations, held at the Teaching and Learning Complex, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, and the Southern Academy of the Performing Arts (SAPA), last Monday and Wednesday, respectively, stakeholders spared no emotion in highlighting the initiatives, which, in their opinion, not only placed additional burdens on the students ability to learn but hampered the sector generally.

Chief among these were the Governments signal to review the Concordat, a document which basically gives denominational boards the autonomy to manage their respective schools. Heads of denominational boards were adamant that the Concordat, which they view as sacrosanct, should not be tampered with. However, then Acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert made it clear Government never intended to tell denominational boards how to run their schools but suggested that workable measures needed to be implemented in relation to infrastructure and upkeep.

It also emerged during the consultation that the Continuous Assessment Component (CAC) and the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SE A) placed untold burdens on primary school students.

The consultation touched on the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) (as regards abuse by some its beneficiaries), student violence and indiscipline, teacher absenteeism, politicisation of the system and the need to make education more relevant to the needs of the students.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Devanand Sinanan, told Sunday Newsday he welcomed the consultation but felt that it was a case of same-old, same-old in many respects.

A lot of what people are saying are not altogether new, he said, alluding to discussions on curriculum reform, teacher absenteeism and the need to hold parents more accountable for their children.

Sinanan observed that while stakeholders did express themselves freely, many seemed more concerned with sectoral interests as opposed to a holistic transformation of the system.

He said: For me, who has been teaching for many years, there were no innovative ideas. In many instances, it was de ja vu. Sinanan argued that a radical transformation of the system was required with respect to re-examining the nature and purpose of education.

We have to understand what we are educating people for. We have to be able to say in 25 years time, these are the kinds of citizens we want to see in the society, he said., Saying the focus should now be on developing the total human capital, Sinanan said examinations such as the SE A and CAC, would have no place in such a system.

There would be no room for arrangements that certify people as failures. That is the kind of radical overhaul we are contemplating.

Sinanan also said people must understand that education was a privilege and not a right and that while there was equality of opportunity, there should also be equity.

Countries that have successful education systems place a high premium on equity and improved student learning outcomes, he said.

Sat Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, told Sunday Newsday he was deeply concerned about possible moves to amend the Concordat.

However, Maharaj said he noted Imberts statement that Government merely wanted to improve the relationship with members of the denominational boards, at face value. He said, though, that Sinanan appeared to be advocating a levelling down of the system with respect to the performance of denominational schools as against government-assisted schools.

The denominational schools are the high-performing schools and Mr Sinanan appears to be advocating a reduction in the performance level of denominational boards. He has to see how the Government can raise the performance of their schools, not demonise the schools that are performing, Maharaj said.

The outspoken Hindu leader also took issue with Sinanans statement at the San Fernando consultation that education should not be politicised, saying: He is the one person who has taken TTUTA into the political arena by marching in Fyzabad and in Port-of-Spain. They have lost their focus in education. Education Minister Anthony Garcia, meanwhile, regarded the consultations as excellent if only for the manner in which stakeholders spoke out.

They were well-attended and stakeholders made their contributions.

Everything has been going well so far, he said in a brief interview.

Garcia said many stakeholders were concerned about issues relating to the Concordat, curriculum and school maintenance.

Among other objectives, the consultation seeks to develop strategies and recommendations for treating with issues and problems plaguing the education system.
Brothers Who Haven't

Spoken in Decades Both

Want to Be Mayor
(Newser)  "I said, 'Well damn  wait, where is my belly button?'" That's Lori Jones describing her reaction to her post-surgery discovery that her navel was no more. Hoping to don a two-piece bathing suit this summer, the 45-year-old Houston woman in December underwent the removal of an umbilical hernia and had a tummy tuck to get rid of her C-section-related "baby pooch," KTRK reports. A month later it was time to remove the surgical tape. Jones, "thinking my belly button is there," found out that it was not. And she has questions for renowned plastic surgeon Younan Nowzardan, who performed the surgery: "What happened to it? Did you throw it in the trash?" Nowzardan, however, tells KTRK he informed Jones that, because of a preexisting scar, the belly button was going to go.

"We can call Hollywood and get an Oscar nomination for her," he says, adding that he can go back in and give Jones a new belly button. But Jones says she has contacted an attorney and wants to settle the issue in court. Her displeasure notwithstanding, Jones is not alone in being belly-button-less. Fashion model Karolina Kurkova, for instance, is lacking a navel because of a surgery she had as an infant, the New York Daily News noted when this odd fact made headlines a few years ago. The BBC also looked into the issue, explaining that in addition to surgery, another factor sometimes at play is a "lotus birth"in which the umbilical cord and placenta are left to drop off on their own. (Cosmetic surgery turned this woman into a kleptomaniac.)
(Newser)  Ted Cruz, too Canadian to be president? An Illinois judge says she'll decide in March whether she has jurisdiction over that question, Reuters reports. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby has set a March 1 date to hear arguments about whether Cruz's birthplace of Calgary, Alberta, makes him ineligible to run for president. Pharmacist and lawyer Lawrence Joyce (who supports Ben Carson) filed the complaint and says he's too busy to appear for arguments before March 1; the Illinois primary comes on March 15, USA Today reports. Meanwhile, a Cruz attorney appeared in court Friday and said it's "very, very clear" that Cook County has no jurisdiction over the case because Cruz wasn't served properly with the complaint. (See why the Cruz birther debate is "pitch perfect.")
(Newser)  The son of GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons is headed for a stint in jail for a July domestic assault on his girlfriend, reports the Arizona Republic. Robert Sean Parsons, 44, was sentenced Friday to four months in jail and three years' probation for the incident at his Scottsdale home (though complying with terms of his probation could reduce jail time by three months), in which he admitted to grabbing the woman's throat, choking her, and striking her after she confronted him about texts from other women. She went to the hospital twice. "We believe that the sentence is appropriate to send a message to the defendant," said the Maricopa County prosecutor. "There are consequences for his actions. It is time for him to take responsibility and have a wake-up call."

"I stand here today to accept the punishments of my crime," said the younger Parsons, who called July 21 "possibly the worst night" of his life. Bob Parsons in a note to the court said that his son's actions since the incident, which included drug rehab, were the first time he'd seen him take "the bull by the horns." (The elder Parsons isn't entirely controversy-free.)
(Newser)  Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement" has been reached on a ceasefire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war. Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a ceasefire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict. "There is a stark choice for everybody here," Kerry said. He declined to go into the details of the agreement because all parties need to be fully consulted. Kerry said he hoped President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke Sunday for a second day and discussed "the modality and conditions" for a ceasefire in Syria that would exclude groups that the UN Security Council considers terrorist organizations. He said Russia has to talk with Iran and the Syrian government and the US has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. "What we are trying to achieve is a process with precision and commitment, and if we get that, that's the best opportunity for the people of Syria to see the violence reduced," Kerry said. "The opposition is tough. The opposition is not about to stop. And the opposition has made clear their determination to continue to fight back." He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved. (Read more Syrian civil war stories.)
(Newser)  The man expected to be charged in the Kalamazoo shooting spree that has so far claimed six lives and injured eight people was an Uber driver who was giving rides to customers in between opening fire on three separate locations, reports WOOD-TV. Uber confirmed that suspect Jason Dalton worked as a driver for the ride-sharing company, and had passed a background check; Dalton had no previous criminal record. "We are reaching out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," the company said in a statement, adding that "we are horrified and heartbroken."

Dalton reportedly dropped a group at a Fairfield Inn Marriott, right next-door to the Cracker Barrel where four women were killed and a 14-year-old girl was critically injured. A woman at the hotel heard about 10 shots and said she saw the suspect driving away at what the station calls "a normal rate of speed." Police are also investigating a Facebook post by a woman whose fiance rode with an Uber driver, "Jason," who was driving erratically prior to the shootings and sideswiped another vehicle. Meanwhile, notes the Washington Post, the incident in Kalamazoo was the nation's 42nd mass shooting of 2016. (Read more mass shootings stories.)
US led airstrikes killed 43 in Libya on Friday, including a Tunisian terrorist who allegedly was plotting an attack.

According to CNN, the airstrike by US is believed to have killed Noureddine Chouchane who was in the building in Sabratha when warplanes struck. Chouchane was said to be involved in at least two terror attacks last year in Tunisia that left over 50 dead. Friday's strike also killed others in the building who were said to be in advanced terror training.

Local authorities were described finding weapons including grenade launchers in the rubble, The Washington Post reports. Sabratha is located close to the Tunisian border, about 40 miles from Tripoli. The attack was aimed at ISIS terrorists. The building was believed to be a recruiting center for terrorists.

The airstrike comes days after US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concerns over the influence of ISIS in Libya, which fell into turmoil following the ouster and death of Muammar Gaddafi. Though Kerry had ruled out sending troops to the country he said President Obama is open to taking affirmative action when required.

The airstrike was the second by US in Libya. Experts opine strikes on the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq are ISIS to regroup and set up base in Libya.

"Destruction of the camp and Chouchane's removal will eliminate an experienced facilitator and is expected to have an immediate impact on ISIL's ability to facilitate its activities in Libya, including recruiting new ISIL members, establishing bases in Libya, and potentially planning external attacks on U.S. interests in the region," Pentagon said according to Reuters.
New Delhi :

The Jat row on Sunday burned Haryana after the agitation spread to Uttar Pradesh and other villages on the outskirts of Delhi.

Curfew was clamped in six out of the eight sensitive districts as attempts by an edgy Haryana government and the Centre to pacify Jats failed miserably.

The agitation is the result of Jat agitators adamant on bringing the community under 27% OBC quota, with a 10% share, leaving only 17% for the present OBCs. Else, they wanted reservation for all castes to be dropped.

The agitation also forced the top leaders to meet and discuss the outcome. Union home minister Rajnath Singh held two express meetings, the second one late in the evening where three top ministers  Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar & Sushma Swaraj  and top officials of the security establishment, including Army chief DS Suhag were present.

According to sources, BJP chief Amit Shah has been tasked to speak to influential Jat leaders and win them over.

On Saturday, Jat leaders in large numbers blocked all roads leading to the national capital by erecting barricades and deflating tyres of goods carriers and felling trees

The violent agitators even torched a police station in Mahem, near Rohtak.

Roads leading to Munak canal between Karnal and Sonepat, that supplies about 10% water to Delhi were blocked.

The blockade also resulted in limiting the supply of milk and vegetables to Delhi from Haryana and UP,

Due to blockage, Armymen were para-dropped in Rohtak and Jhajjhar to rein in big mob of rioters.

The Defence also resorted to firing in which, according to Haryana government one person was killed taking the total toll to five.

Protests were witnessed in Rohtak where agitators ransacked and torched petrol pumps, mall and several shops.

House of Haryana finance minister Capt. Abhimanyu was also set on fire despite the fact that the leader belonged to Jat community.

In Next two days, the agitation will be intensified. According to Yashpal Malik, an influential Jat leader and national president of the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), All Jat leaders in UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand have agreed to block roads peacefully in their respective villages and towns in support of Jats of Haryana.

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New Delhi :

The Jat quota stir on Sunday burned Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after Haryana forcing violence and damaging properties worth crores. Protestors blocked rail tracks throwing Railways in a loss of more than Rs 100 crores.

Caste angle has been majorly responsible for the quota stir. Turning the pages of history one may know that Jats were in power in Haryana for the last 20 years but things changed after came to power in 2014.

A state where always a Jat leader was named the Chief Minister for the first time in 20 years saw a Punjabi CM.

The thought gave the Jats in the state a feel of insecurity and side-lining.

Jats demand for more reservation has also perturbed other backward classes (OBCs) who feel that they will lose out on the ratio if Jats get more reservation.

BJP's MP Rajkumar Saini statements, who belongs to the OBC category, has been adding fuel to fire.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has failed miserably in sorting out the issue by promising inclusion of Jats in economically backward persons (EPB) quota for general castes and increase in quota from 10 percent to 20 percent.

The issue

The community has been demanding reservation in jobs and educational institutions in the state but when they were turned down by Punjab and Haryana High Court, the planning for agitation worsened.

The High Court has stayed the decision of the Haryana government on July 27 2015 to grant 10 per cent reservation to Jats and four other castes-Jat Sikh, Ror, Tyagi and Bishnoi under the Special backward Caste category (SBC).

Earlier, the Supreme Court also quashed the former Congress led UPA government's decision on March 17, 2015 to provide reservation to Jats under other backward classes (OBC) category of the central government.

BJPs reaction

BJP supported the quota row but the OBCs were strictly against it under the leadership of MP Rajkumar Saini who has been giving anti-reservation statements for the last one year. Khattar has so far disowned Rajkumar Saini's statements but in vain.

UPAs stroke

It was UPA that included Jats in the Centre's OBC list during the final year of its power in 2014 in a glimpse of electoral politics. This came at a point when the demand was rejected by National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), however, UPA government overruled it and gave reservation to the Jats in several states including Haryana, Himachal Praadesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government in Haryana re-constituted the Haryana Backward Classes Commission (HBCC) to study the reservation demand and recommended 10 per cent reservation for the five castes under the Special Backward Caste (SBC) category.

The study was implemented thus shooting up the reservation for Jats which constitute 26 per cent of the total electorate and others.

Interestingly, this exceeded the quota limit. In Haryana:

Scheduled Castes- 20 percent

Backward Classes- 27 percent

SBC- 10 percent

Economically backward persons (EBP) for general caste- 10 percent

This means that the total reservation in state stood at 67 per cent, much above the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court of India.

What next?

Jats constitute 26 per cent of Haryana's electorate and are demanding reservation back for them. They form the single most powerful and politically influential community. Significantly, out of 90 assembly seats in Haryana about one third or 30 seats are formed by Jats and Jat Sikhs. Without their support no government can survive in Haryana thus concerning the ruling BJP of a political fallout in the state.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced to bring special BC quota Bill for Jats and four other castes in the forthcoming Budget session of the Assembly which will not withstand judicial scrutiny because again the government will have to cross the 50 per cent quota limit which the courts will not allow.

Meanwhile, the government has appealed to the agitators to withdraw stir but to no avail.

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Syria:

President Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published here.

Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syrias bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then.

And he said he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

In 10 years, if I can save Syria as presidentbut that doesnt mean Im still going to be president in 10 years, Im just talking about my vision of the 10 years, he said in an interview published on the newspapers website yesterday.

If Syria is safe and sound, and Im the one who saved his countrythats my job now, thats my duty.

If the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they dont want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away.

World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities in Syria to pave the way for renewed peace negotiations, but the truce has faltered as fighting on the ground has intensified.

In an interview with AFP on February 12, before the deal was announced, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country.

Speaking to El Pais, he said he was ready for a ceasefire, but warned that it should not be exploited by the terrorists to improve their positions, using the regimes term for all rebel groups.

Its about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists.

Syrias regime has been pressing an offensive in the northern Aleppo region backed by Russian air strikes and troops from Iran and Lebanons Hezbollah, which has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Assad said the support of his Russian and Iranian allies had been essential in the recent major advances made by regime forces.

We definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways, he told El Pais.

Some backers helped directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums, he told the daily.

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New Delhi :

Buckling under pressure from agitating Jats, BJP today announced that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session and a high-powered committee will be set up to examine the quota demand for the community in central jobs. Meanwhile, Curfew was also lifted from Kaithal and Kalayat after protests in the two towns subsided following the Central governments announcement of setting up a committee under a senior Union minister to examine the quota demand for the community in government jobs.

We take a look at the top developments of the day:

1. Har govt to bring in bill for OBC quota to Jats: BJP

Buckling under pressure from agitating Jats, BJP today announced that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session and a high-powered committee will be set up to examine the quota demand for the community in central jobs.

BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jail also appealed to the Jats who have been protesting in Haryana to call off their agitation, which has badly hit life in the region, and return to their homes as their demands have been met.

A bill will be brought in the coming session of the Haryana Assembly for granting OBC status to the Jats in the state, Jain said after a Jat delegation had an hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Haryana is ruled by a BJP government headed by M L Khattar.

Jain said a high-powered committee headed by a senior Union Minister will be set up today to look into the demand of reservation of jobs in central government for the Jats.

2. Schools to remain close tomorrow

Faced with cut in water supply from Haryana due to the Jat stir, the Delhi government announced closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing in the city to deal with the crisis.

After a high-level emergency meeting, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said barring Rashtrapati Bhavan, offices and residences of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals and fire brigade, water will be rationed equally among others. He said his residence and office will also come under water rationing.

He said disruption in water supply to Delhi from Haryanas Munak canal due to the Jat agitation has severely affected the city and appealed to the people to conserve water as much as possible.

Barring President,PM,CJI,defence installations, hospis,fire brigades- water to be equally rationed amongst all. Pl save water. Schools closed tomo, Kejriwal said in a tweet.

3. Situation tense

DGP YP Singhal said Army's 69 columns have reached Haryana and have been deployed, maximum deployment has been done in Jhajjar and Rohtak. 49 companies of para military forces sent. 39 have reached Haryana and 24 deployed, rest are deployed through air

4. Traffic and tourism affected

Be it rail, road or air, traffic is at a huge loss following the Jat agitation in Haryana which has now moved to several parts of Delhi.

Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) today suspended all bus services on routes passing through Haryana in view of the Jat agitation.

HRTC routes passing through Haryana are being suspended till there is assurance of safety of our buses and passengers from Haryana government, state Transport minister G S Bali said.

He added that all passengers are advised to check the status from concerned bus stands regarding plying of buses through Haryana area.

Staring at a serious water crisis, Delhi government tonight moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Centre to intervene and ensure water supply to the national capital from Munak Canal in neighbouring Haryana which has been affected due to the Jat stir.

Delhi government moves SC on water crisis. Petition accepted. Likely to be heard on Sunday morning(sic), Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra tweeted.

Earlier, Delhi governments senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra said a petition is being moved before the apex court, seeking urgent hearing on the issue and a plea is being made that the Centre should deploy army to ensure supply of water from Munak Canal.

The Registrar of the Supreme Court said it will be known tomorrow whether the Delhi governments petition would be taken up on Sunday or Monday.

Water should be supplied immediately to Delhi as it is lifeline of people, he said, adding all water plants in Delhi are shut as the protesters have taken over the canal.

Mehra said the Lutyens zone and several other areas are not getting water. The army should ensure that Delhi gets water immediately, he said.

5. Delhi water shortage

The Delhi government had last night moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Centre to intervene and ensure water supply from Munak canal.

The Chief Minister said all the water treatment plants have been shut and even if Haryana releases water today it will take at least 24 hours more to restore the supply.

There is very little water as it is not coming from there (canal). All the water treatment plants are closed and whatever water is stored in reservoirs is being supplied through the tankers, he said.

Delhi is staring at huge water shortage in next one or two days with 60 per cent of water supply affected due to the Jat stir.

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New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the ambitious Rurban Mission for developing 300 villages across the country as urban growth centres amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed sections of the society.

Noting that the mission was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up because of migration.

While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, Modi said a huge country like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and good life like education, healthcare and internet while retaining the rural spirit.

This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row, he said.

Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, Modi said these are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. This is the only way that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path, he said.

Under the Rurban Mission, he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.

100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, the Prime Minister said at the event which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh among others.

There will be big change in quality of life. Pressure on cities will reduce and new cities will be developed, which will be planned and have good economic activity. I am sure crores and crores of people will benefit from this, he said.

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New Delhi :

Hitting out at older carriers, top industrialist Ratan Tata today accused them of lobbying and using monopolistic pressures to retain preferential treatment under the controversial 5/20 rule that restricts overseas flying by new airlines.

Reacting strongly to the charge, low-cost carrier SpiceJets chief Ajay Singh asked him to rather advice the two airlines associated with Tatas - Vistara and AirAsia India - to first serve India and then seek to fly international.

Singh also alleged that the two carriers were apparently controlled by their foreign parents and said they had undertaken, while applying for the licence, to follow the 5/20 rule which they are opposing so vehemently now.

AirAsia India and Vistara - two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures - are presently ineligible to operate overseas under the 5/20 norm, which requires an Indian carrier to have minimum five years operational experience and at least 20 planes to operate international flights.

The government is currently in advanced stage of finalising its new civil aviation policy, wherein one of the proposals is to scrap the 5/20 rule.

While several older airlines including SpiceJet, Jet Airways, IndiGo and GoAir are vehemently opposing any move to scrap the 5/20 norm, Tata today applauded the Civil Aviation Ministrys proposal to remove the controversial rule.

Terming as sad the lobbying of incumbent airlines for protection and preferential treatment, he tweeted that such moves were reminiscent of the monopolistic pressures by entities with vested interests who fear competition.

The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interests entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years, Tata said in a strong message posted on his Twitter page.

These protectionist moves have held back progress in India compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas, Tata Groups Chairman Emeritus said in his message titled 5/20 Rule and Vested Interests.

In the airline industry in India, it is sad to see the incumbent airlines lobbying for protection and preferential treatment for themselves against the new airlines...

...(the new airlines) have been formed in full compliance with prevailing government policy and providing air transport to Indian citizens in line with the dream of a New India promoted by the new government under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modis leadership, said Tata, who was instrumental in the groups re-entry to the aviation sector.

Tata Group and Singapore Airlines together run Vistara, while AirAsia is a three-way joint venture between Tatas, Malaysias AirAsia and Arun Bhatias Telestra.

AirAsia India is less than 2-year-old with six aircraft, while Vistara was started in January 2015 and has nine planes. With the government considering the removal of 5/20 norm, Tata said, One hopes when the new policy is introduced it will be free of discrimination and protectionism, so that Indian aviation can grow for the benefit of consumer and the common mannot to serve the interests of select beneficiaries of protectionism.

According to Tata, the call for a new open market economy in India, in line with policies promised by Modi, will promote growth in an open market based on competitiveness and not from self interest-based protectionism.

Reacting to Tatas comments, SpiceJets Singh said all the airlines were asked to serve our great country before we got profitable rights to fly abroad under the 5/20 rule.

We served with great pride. What is wrong if these two foreign-controlled airlines are also asked to serve India before being allowed to fly international?

Mr Tata, whom we respect greatly, should in fact urge these airlines in which his group is a shareholder, to serve India willingly before being allowed to fly international, Singh told PTI.

The SpiceJet chief further said that the two airlines associated with Tata group had undertaken to follow the 5/20 rule while obtaining their licenses, but they are now opposing (this rule) so vehemently. He also alleged that it is evident that these airlines are controlled by their foreign parents.

This is in complete violation of Indian laws that require airlines in India to be effectively controlled by Indian shareholders. Mr Tata should urge these airlines to follow Indian law in letter and spirit.

No country in the world, including Singapore and Malaysia, allows its airlines to be controlled by foreign airlines. If Indian airlines like SpiceJet and Indigo are not allowed in these countries, why should they be allowed to control airlines in India?, he added.

Recently, the industry body FIA had also alleged that AirAsia India was being controlled by its foreign joint venture partner AirAsia.

A delegation of FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) -- a grouping of established airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAirhas submitted a memorandum to Prime Ministers Office on their opposition to removal of 5/20 norm and on the issue of substantial ownership and effective control.

On February 18, a Group of Ministers discussed the draft aviation policy, including the 5/20 norm and the proposed options - scrapping or retaining this rule - at a meeting here chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

At the meeting, attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju among others, extensive discussions were held on the norm for international flying by domestic carriers and regional air connectivity.
Karachi:

Pakistan has arrested 88 Indian fishermen and seized their 16 boats over the last two days for allegedly violating its territorial waters off the coast of Arabian Sea.

The Indian fishermen were arrested by the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) while they were fishing in Pakistani waters of the Arabian Sea, said an official at the Docks police station.

Their (Indian fishermens) 16 fishing boats have also been seized by the MSA. They were later handed over to police from where they would be produced before the respective courts, he said.

Of the total 88 fishermen, 40 were arrested late Thursday night while another 48 were arrested yesterday.

The Docks police had registered a case against the arrested Indian fishermen on behalf of the state under Sections  of the Foreign Act and 3/9 of the Fishery Act.

Pakistan and India regularly arrest fishermen who venture into each others waters due to poorly marked maritime boundary.

Some of them spend years behind bars before being repatriated. In the past the two nations have released the fishermen as goodwill gestures.

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New Delhi/Chandigarh:

Yielding to pressure from agitating Jats, Government tonight announced setting up of a committee under a senior Central minister to examine the quota demand for the community in government jobs even as fresh incidents of arson and violence left two more dead taking the toll in the eight-day long stir to 12.

A late night announcement by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi said that a committee headed by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has been formed to look into the demand for reservation in central govt jobs for Jats.

I would like to make things clear regarding the ongoing protest. Just now, we have formed a committee which will be headed by our senior Cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu. The committee has been asked to file a comprehensive report to find the soluction of the issue as soon as possible, he told reporters.

I appeal to to the people of Haryana to help maintain clam and peace, he said after a meeting he had with Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar to take stock of the situation in the state.

The meeting came shortly after a delegation of Jats had a meeting with the Home Minister where it was stated that a Bill will be brought in the coming session of Haryana assembly to give OBC status to Jats in the state.

Even as some fresh incidents of violence were reported, protestors started lifting blockades at some places late in the evening following Centres assurances.

Late evening reports said that blockades from some national and state highways including Saharanpur-Ambala at Yamunanagar, Paonta Sahib-Yamunanagar, Ambala-Kaithal, Saharanpur-Pipli-Kurukshetra, Zirakpur-Parwanoo and Ladwa-Shahbad were being lifted.

Normalcy was also reported to be returning to some other cities including Kaithal and officials expected that by tomorrow situation would improve considerably following todays developments in Delhi.

Haryana Home Secretary (HS) P K Das told media here this evening that one person was killed at Akbarpur Barota in Sonipat district near the Munak canal headwork.

The second person was killed in clash between two groups (Jats and Non-Jats) at Hansi in Hissar district, Das said.

He said that some Dhabhas along the Delhi Ambala National Highway near Murthal in Sonipat district were damaged by protestors today.

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Larry Kudlow of Redding, a TV and radio financial pundit, spent seven months pondering a challenge to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal this fall. On Tuesday, he decided not to.

In an interview on CNBC, the former adviser to President Ronald Reagan said that he doesnt want to give up his broadcast jobs. CNBC is like an extended family to me, said the 68-year-old commentator, who in recent months was contemplating his first run for elective office. I love it some much I dont want to give it up.
iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A series of explosions in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus have left dozens of people dead, BBC News reports.



The deadly blasts in Homs came from two vehicles packed with explosives. Later, at least four blasts were later heard in the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, causing many more deaths.



Among those killed and injured were government employees and students.



Images from the scene show witnesses and rescue workers collecting the dead and treating the wounded.



In recent months, Homs has been the scene of numerous bombings targeting the city's Shiite minority.



US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Jordan, condemned the attack, "No tactics such as those being employed today will win this war. They will only create more refugees, more victims."



More than 250,000 people have have already been killed in the ongoing civil war.



Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The United States government has said the fight against Boko Haram insurgents will be a long fight. It therefore called on academics a...

The United States government has said the fight against Boko Haram insurgents will be a long fight.It therefore called on academics and think tanks to assist in resolving the Boko Haram crisis by finding out the underlying causes of the insurgency.Speaking recently at the Capitol Visitor Centre, US House of Representatives in Washington, the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the ongoing battle against the terrorist group would require perseverance and huge resources.We need academics to help us understand the underlying conditions that led to Boko Haram. We need think tanks to identify creative solutions. We need the business community to help bring investments in the region and to create jobs and spur greater economic development in the affected areas. We need our ambassadors. We need our African ambassadors based here in Washington to advocate for more resources in the fight against Boko Haram, and greater cooperation among the Lake Chad Basin countries.This will be a long fight that requires perseverance, and it is going to require strong resources. We all know the stakes are high. We know what the stakes are. But now is the time  now is the time for us to work together with our African partners to redouble our efforts to defeat Boko Haram and create the bright future  and its a bright future that all of the people of Africa deserve. But I would say in this case, particularly, a bright future for the people of northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin, the US official said.According to Thomas-Greenfield, there is hardly any protest whenever people are killed in Nigeria and other countries in Africa.She noted that in the US people protest human rights violations but that theres rarely a protest every single day when we hear that Boko Haram is killing people.The outcry in Nigeria and internationally over the killings of the Chibok school girls was impressive  but it was slow. We waited to hear what people would say. Those protests, once they started, helped greatly to raise awareness of Boko Harams brutality. But they were only a start. We must say something, she said.
Nigeria has pledged to assist neighbouring Benin Republic develop its Information Technology (IT) towards the conduct of successful gene...

Nigeria has pledged to assist neighbouring Benin Republic develop its Information Technology (IT) towards the conduct of successful general elections next month.Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made the pledge when he received a delegation of Benin Electoral Commission led by the Bennenoise Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Oyedipo Falaye.Attributing the successful conduct of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria to the use of Information Technology, the INEC boss said: The change that made the (2015) election a success was Information Technology, beginning with voter registration, collation and transmission of results.In a related development, Bio Abdoulaye Tchane, an independent candidate, has emerged as the frontrunner in the run-up to the countrys presidential elections.Tchane, an economist and former top executive at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is also a former head of the West African Development Bank.He announced his candidacy at a rally in the capital, Porto Novo, last month.He will run against Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou of the ruling Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin and Sebastien Ajavon, the leader of Benins National Employers Council.Tchane, 58, a former finance minister, is being supported by a coalition of parties called ABT, the initials of his surname and other names.In a new opinion poll released in the French speaking West African country last week, he polled 21.9% and was closely trailed by his closest rival who got 20.5%.Currently the Chairman, Board of Directors of African Guarantee Fund (AGF) based in Nairobi, Kenya, Tchane, is also former Minister of Finance and Economy from 1998 to 2002, during which he introduced far reaching reforms and transparent budgeting and procurement policies, which reduced the countrys internal debt and auditing systems.An author of many articles and opinions on economic and financial issues, Tchane also had stints at the Central Bank of West African State (BCEAO) in Cotonou and in Dakar, Senegal, as Director of Research and Head, Credit Department, amongst several other high profile international appointments.
The Nigerian military has arrested two Boko Haram suspects, Messrs Audu Umar and Hassan Umar, for smuggling themselves among the Internal...

IDP camp in Borno

The Nigerian military has arrested two Boko Haram suspects, Messrs Audu Umar and Hassan Umar, for smuggling themselves among the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) brought from Pulka to Gwoza IDPs camp in Borno State.The PRNigeria reported that the male suspects are undergoing interrogation by the military and intelligence operatives. Meanwhile, the Nigerian military is yet to confirm the speculation over the arrest of a Boko Haram kingspin, popularly known as Bashir Sarkin Yanka, which in Hausa means Bashir the King of Slaughter.According to the Media Coordinator, Operation Lafiya Dole in the North-East, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, the military cannot confirm the arrest of Shekaus actor. Alonge, however, said that the military has sustained its counter-insurgency operations where some terrorists have been eliminated and others apprehended in the North-East.He said: As you are aware, the Nigerian military has succeeded in routing out terrorists from some of their hideouts in the North-East and in the process some were eliminated and others have been arrested.
National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday revisited the circumstances that played out in th...

National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday revisited the circumstances that played out in the months leading to the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in last years election and said God merely used him to play a crucial role in the polity.God in His wisdom placed me in the position to recognize the change that was needed and to help effectuate that change, Tinubu said in a prepared speech at The Sun Newspapers Man of the Year award ceremony in Lagos.But he said the victory ultimately was achieved through the collective effort of Nigerians of diverse backgrounds.What was accomplished in 2015 was not a singular effort. It was done through the collective love and labour of millions of Nigerians, he said in the speech issued by his media office.Continuing, he said: a handful of them were well known. Most of them are hardworking anonymous people who together constitute the backbone and great strength of this nation. It was this collective effort that produced the unprecedented change.Many sacrificed greatly to achieve this great turn of events. Some practically surrendered their businesses. Some provided funds. Especially that elderly 90-year old woman, Hajia Fadimatu Mai Talle Tara, who donated N1 million, her life savings for the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari, (may her soul rest in peace).Others worked ceaselessly, hour after hour, day after day until the historic job was done. Many hit the campaign trail day and night from Katsina to Lagos. I reserve a special recognition and commendation for the youth across this nation who formed part of the foot soldiers in the struggle for change.He dedicated the award to these heroes.But he warned that Nigeria, having reached this point in its desire to move forward must not look back, saying:we have come to a point where there is no turning back for there is nothing worthy of the sacrifices so recently made to turn back to.We have reached the juncture at which we must reform our institutions, rid our country of corruption or admit that we have mortgaged away the good future due us. The infrastructural decay of past decades, the unemployment time bomb, the challenging security situation make a compelling case for us all to join with this government embrace a new politics that will help build a new country.He added that the renaissance for a better society must come from within through perseverance, strong determination and an irrevocable sense of patriotism.Tinubu charged Nigerians to remain steadfast and build a nation that all can be proud of.The nation is going through a challenging period and truly we must build our tomorrow today-together, he said.On the award itself, he said: I am honoured to have been picked as The Sun Man of the Year. The decision to give me this award I understand resulted from a thorough process reviewing the significant political developments that our country in the last quarter of a century has witnessed and particularly the monumental happenings in the past one year.He said there were equally other Nigerians eminently qualified for the award.I am humble enough to know that The Sun could have chosen any one of several figures. Their decision would not have been gainsaid. I think particularly of the man at the helm of affairs and who won the election, President Muhammadu Buhari.Yet, I am mindful enough to realize such Awards do not come frequently and that I better grab the good thing given me.The publisher of The Sun, Dr. Orji Kalu called on Nigerians to rise up to the task of nation building. He said the country was passing through a critical stage and needed patriotic people to join hands to salvage the country from the problem it was facing.He said those who were honoured were considered in view of their track records to the betterment of the country. Those selected made positive impact on Nigeria, so we are celebrating excellence and achievement.The award was formally presented to him by The Sun publisher and former Governor of Abia State, Dr.Orji Uzor Kalu who recalled Tinubus involvement in the fight for democracy from the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) days till now.As Tinubu was called to step forward to receive the award, a large coterie of his friends and political associates including Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Babachir, Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, former Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Demola Seriki and Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello accompanied him to the podium.Also flanking him was his wife, Oluremi.Also honoured at the ceremony were former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Lifetime achievement award); Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano (Governor of the Year); General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd), Gen. Samuel Ogbemudia, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, Chief Kessington Adebutu, and Chief Mbazulike Amechi,.The most supportive First Lady of the Year went to Hajia Nana Shettima, Public Service Award went to Chenelo Anohu-Amazu; Banker of the Year went to Yemi Adeola; Business Man of the Year, Anthony Chukwuka.Others were Erick Umeofia, Uche Ogah, Amaju Pinnick, Josephine Ugwu, Obateru Akinruntan , Rockview Hotels, Omoni Oboli and Harrison Okiri for their impact on the society.
President Buhari will depart Nigeria for Saudi Arabia today February 22nd. A statement by the Special Assistant to President Buhari on...

President Buhari will depart Nigeria for Saudi Arabia today February 22nd.A statement by the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, states that President Buhari, who will be accompanied by a high-powered Federal Government delegation, including the Minister of State (Petroleum) and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, will first fly to Riyadyh for talks on Tuesday with King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and senior officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Ongoing efforts by Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to achieve greater stability in the price of crude oil exports are expected to be high on the agenda of discussions between President Buhari and the Saudi Monarch.Crude oil prices and market stability will also be on the front burner when President Buhari goes on to Doha on Saturday for talks on Sunday with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Buhari is also scheduled to meet with leading Saudi and Qatari businessmen in Riyadh and Doha, and invite them to support his administrations efforts to revamp the Nigerian economy by taking advantage of the great investment opportunities currently available in Nigerias mining, agriculture, power supply, infrastructure, transportation, communications and other sectors.President Buharis other engagements in Saudi Arabia include meetings with heads of international financial organisations and multilateral associations. Before going on to Doha, the President will also visit Medina and Mecca to pray for greater peace, prosperity and progress in Nigeria.
Embattled Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Rickey Tarfa, has filed a fresh fundamental rights enforcement suit against telecommunications ...

Embattled Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Rickey Tarfa, has filed a fresh fundamental rights enforcement suit against telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, for the alleged violation of his right to privacy.Tarfa is seeking a court declaration that his right to privacy was violated when the call records/log on his phone with mobile number 08034600000 was allegedly accessed without his authority and made available to Sahara Reporters and other online news media without any reasonable cause or a lawful court order.The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had on February 5 arrested Tarfa and confiscated his two mobile phones and his Mercedez Benz SUV with Registration No. KJA 700 CG, on the allegation that Tarfa hid two alleged suspects of economic and financial crimes in his car to prevent their arrest.Joined as respondents in Tarfas second fundamental rights enforcement suit are the EFCC, its Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, Mrs. Rashidatou Abdou and Mr. Femi Falana (SAN).He is urging the court to order the respondents to pay him N5bn for the alleged violation of his rights.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered N381m from Mrs. Omolara Amosu, the wife of the immediate past Chief of Air S...

Sources within the EFCC said on Saturday that the money was recovered in three tranches: N180m, N101m and N100m.The detective told our correspondent that the money was traced from the account of the Nigeria Air Force to the bank accounts of a company in which Amosus wife is a director.He added that Amosus wife is a signatory to the accounts.He said, We recovered N381m from Amosus wife, Omolara. Initially, we recovered N180m from her account before another N101m and then N100m. These were monies transferred from Air Force accounts.Explaining how the money was diverted, the detective added, They (Air Force officers) sent the money to an account where their wives have interests or are signatories without doing anything.A second source within the EFCC told our correspondent that more properties belonging to the immediate past Chief of Accounts and Budgeting of NAF, Air Vice Marshal J.B. Adigun, had been seized.The detective said a property, which is a quarry located in Ogun State, had equipment worth about $600,000.He, however, did not state the value of the property.Two weeks ago, houses worth over N2bn in Ikoyi and Victoria Island allegedly belonging to Adigun were seized.The source said, Adigun is still here with us. We recovered a quarry which he owns. In the quarry there were pieces of equipment worth about $600,000. They have all been impounded and investigations are ongoing.Amosu, Adigun and over nine air force officers are currently under investigation by the anti-graft agency for the procurement of equipment which was said not to be transparent.Since his detention, Amosu had been quizzed over the procurement of two second-hand Mi-24V Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at a cost of $136.9m.The helicopters were alleged not to be operationally airworthy at the time of delivery while a brand new unit of such helicopters costs about $30m.Meanwhile, it was learnt that Amosu and some other officers would be charged to court as soon as the holding charge which the EFCC obtained in court to hold the officers for 30 days from January 28 lapses.A detective said, Amosu will be charged to court anytime from now. Recall that we obtained a holding charge from a court to hold him for a maximum of 30 days. We are rounding off our investigations and anytime from now, he will be charged to court.It can be reclled that the EFCC had seized houses and other properties belonging to the immediate past Chief of Air Staff and other senior military officers worth N5bn.According to the report, the properties, which were seized in the Ikoyi, Ikeja GRA and Badagry areas of Lagos State, allegedly belonged to Amosu; the immediate past Chief of Accounts and Budgeting of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal J.B. Adigun; and Air Commodore O. O. Gbadebo, who was the Director of Finance and Budget at NAF.A source, who spoke to newsmen had said, We have sealed a block of 12 luxury flats, located on Agodogba Street, Park View Estate, Ikoyi, belonging to Adigun. It is worth over N1.7bn. The same Adigun also owns another block of luxury flats on Sinari Daranijo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. It is worth N1.8bn.A parcel of land, located on Bourdillon Drive, Ikoyi, worth N908m, belonging to Adigun has also been seized by the EFCC operatives.The source added that six other properties had been traced to Adigun, including a set of four terrace houses on Agede Street, off Aminu Kano in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja.He stated that the properties traced to Amosu were located in the Ikeja area of Lagos metropolis.The operative said apart from the buildings, Amosus vehicles had also been confiscated by the anti-graft agency.He added, Amosu confessed to owning an ultra-modern hospital on Adeniyi Jones Avenue in Ikeja. The hospital, St Solomon Health Care Limited, which is worth about N85m, has been sealed off.A house located on Adeyemo Alakija Street, GRA Ikeja, near the Ghanaian High Commission, which belongs to Amosu has also been sealed. It is worth over N200m.
The worlds oldest leader, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe turned 92 on Sunday, with no plans to step down as feuding over his success...

The worlds oldest leader, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe turned 92 on Sunday, with no plans to step down as feuding over his successors threatens to tear his ruling ZANU-PF apart. The veteran leader will mark the day with a public celebration on Saturday.Last years party was a massive feast with several elephants slaughtered and seven gigantic birthday cakes, one weighing 91 kilogrammes. On Sunday, state media lauded Mugabe for his leadership since independence from Britain in 1980, while the opposition urged him to consider stepping down. Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe. In its 16-page special birthday supplement, the Sunday Mail described Mugabe as a doyen of pan-Africanism.Thank You Bob, We now have a voice, since 1980, said the paper on its front cover. Long live comrade Mugabe read another message, adding: We pride ourselves in your visionary, bold, insightful and fearless leadership. But the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said Mugabe should think about whether his country, which is in the grips of an economic crisis, would not be better served by his bowing out.Robert Mugabe should take time to reflect and say isnt it time for me to pass on the baton, MDC spokesman Obert Gutu told AFP. Mugabe once quipped that he would rule until he turns 100.Despite his advanced age and recent speculation over his health, Mugabe has avoided naming a successor, prompting perennial infighting among rival factions in his ruling ZANU-PF party jostling for his post.Despite his age, he continues to give lengthy speeches in public, but his frailty was laid bare last year when he tripped and fell down steps at a televised ceremony. He also courted ridicule in September by reading a speech to parliament, apparently unaware that he had delivered the same address a month earlier.His government is accused of systematic human rights abuses and tipping the country into a severe crisis through a campaign of violent land seizures. Born on February 21, 1924, Mugabe trained as a teacher and taught in what was then Rhodesia and Ghana before returning home to join the guerrilla war against white minority rule. He became prime minister on Zimbabwes independence from Britain in 1980 and then president in 1987.
Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), has stressed the need for Nigerians to continue to be united irrespective of their differ...

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), has stressed the need for Nigerians to continue to be united irrespective of their differences.Speaking in Sokoto at the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Federal Government College (FGC), Sokoto, Gowon said: It is only by sustaining the past leaders initiatives on the need for unity of Nigerians that the nation will get the deserved development.Our past leaders and forefathers initiatives always hinged on living in peace and harmony among Nigerians, irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious differences.So, our generations youth should always emulate the examples given by those leaders that ensured the country achieved its Independence.He called on youths to always engage in developmental activities to move the nation forward.Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Bashir Garba, called on the youth and the leaders to emulate the legacies left behind by the nations founding fathers.
HACKENSACK -- An Orange woman used other peoples' identities to file fraudulent tax returns, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said.

The Oradell Police Department received several complaints of identity theft in April 2015, which they relayed to the prosecutor's office White Collar Crimes Unit. The victims' identities were used to file false tax returns using tax filing and return software.

Detectives identified the Internet Protocol addresses used by the alleged perpetrators by tracking the fraudulent returns through IRS documents. They learned multiple people were involved in the fraudulent activity, Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said.

Detectives also tracked the money received in the fraudulent returns. They identified Qyiidirah Williams, 23, as the recipient of one of the returns, Grewal said.

She opened two bank accounts in March 2015. They each received a fraudulent return on March 25, Grewal said.

One return was for $3,900.69 and was part of the detectives' initial investigation. The second was for $7,059.02 and used the identifying information of someone from Virginia, Grewal said.

Williams withdrew the money the same day, Grewal said. An investigation revealed that 10 fraudulently filed returns were en route to Williams' accounts, but only two were successfully deposited.

A warrant was issued for Williams' arrest on Feb. 12. She turned herself in to prosecutor's office detectives on Friday.

Williams is charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit computer-related theft and theft by deception. She was sent to Bergen County Jail on $50,000 bail with no option to post 10 percent in cash.

She's scheduled to appear Monday in Central Municipal Court.

Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
-- A 33-year-old man was charged Saturday with shooting his wife to death at their borough home after an apparent argument, authorities said.

Mario Flores was taken into custody when police stopped him in Alexandria, Virginia around 8 a.m., according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Police found his wife, Roxanne Flores, 35, dead in their bedroom around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the prosecutor's office said. Officers went to the Wright Avenue residence for a "well-being check," but it was unclear what prompted the call.

A police sergeant on patrol noticed a blue Nissan Armada, which detectives later learned belonged to Mario Flores, leave the couple's home about 40 minutes before officers were dispatched, according to the prosecutor's office.

Based on interviews with family members, detectives learned Flores dropped off his young daughter at a relative's house in Lindenwold around 1 a.m., authorities said.

"According to witness statements, Mario and Roxanne Flores were having marital problems and allegedly had an argument in which a handgun was involved," the prosecutor's office statement said.

Authorities did not say what led them to believe Flores was heading to Virginia. He faces a charge of first-degree murder in New Jersey and was held in Virginia ahead of an extradition hearing.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK - Police are searching for a group of men responsible for a violent carjacking in the city's South Ward late Saturday night.

Newark police spokesman Capt. Derek Glenn said the 67-year-old victim was sitting in his 2006 Cadillac CTS on the 100 block of Peshine Avenue when he was approached by one of the assailants.

The man attempted to strike up a conversation with the victim before being joined by three other men, who assaulted the victim before pulling him out of the car and taking off with it.

The victim was taken to University Hospital to be treated for unspecified injuries, and was released Sunday.

MORE: Essex County News

Both the assailants and the blue Cadillac, with a New Jersey license plate of B95-EMR, remain at large.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the Newark Police Department's Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (877) NWK-TIPS (877-695-8477) or (877) NWK-GUNS (877-695-4867).

Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find
Jeffrey Holland (Courtesy of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office)

NEWARK -- Long before investigators zeroed in on him as the chief suspect in three shooting deaths, Jeffrey Holland had already racked up a lengthy arrest record.

According to county documents, New Jersey police arrested Holland eight times prior to 2016. Three of those arrests involve allegations of sexual violence, records indicate. And only three ultimately resulted in a conviction.

In 2013, Holland pleaded guilty to separate charges of third degree resisting arrest and fourth degree assault of a law enforcement officer, court documents say. He was later sentenced to three years probation with credit for 364 days served in custody at the Essex County Correctional Facility.

Two weeks after the sentence was handed down, police arrested Holland on charges of criminal sexual contact, court documents say. He later pleaded to a lesser charge of harassment, receiving credit for nine days of time served in the county jail and a continuation of his probation.

Holland was still on probation earlier this month when homicide investigators arrested him in connection to killing three Newark residents, court documents indicate.

The county prosecutor's office has charged Holland with three counts of homicide in connection to the killings of Ashley Jones, 23, her boyfriend Jarrell Marshall, 28, and Tiniquah Rouse, 21.

All three victims were shot to death inside their homes over the course of one weekend, police have said.

At a press conference held announcing Holland's arrest, authorities acknowledged that domestic violence might be at the heart of the killings.

According to authorities, both Jones and Rouse had previous romantic relationships with Holland, and Jones and Marshall had recently begun dating.

Jones had an active restraining order against Holland at the time of her death, though how long it was in place remains unclear. Under state law, the orders are not public record.

Also unclear is whether Holland at any time violated the restraining orders. Both orders were active at the time of the killings, authorities have said.

Holland, who has pleaded not-guilty to the charges, remains in custody at the Essex Count Correctional Facility on $2.5 million bail.

Vernal Coleman can be reached at vcoleman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @vernalcoleman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK - Police say a man claims to have walked four miles to a local hospital after being shot near the city's downtown early Sunday morning.

Newark police spokesman Capt. Derek Glenn said the 24-year-old Irvington resident offered the story after arriving at Newark Beth Israel Hospital just before 4 a.m. with an apparent graze would to his ankle.

He claimed the shot was fired near the intersection of Broad Street and Route 280, and that he had made the lengthy trek on foot to be treated.

Glenn said detectives have begun an investigation, and are "in the process of attempting to verify the victim's story."

Anyone with information about this or any other crimes call the Department's 24-hour "Crime Stoppers" anonymous tip line at (877) NWK-TIPS (877-695-8477) or (877) NWK-GUNS (877-695-4867).

Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find
JERSEY CITY -- Conversations charged with the excitement of what the future could hold filled the air today at School 8 in Jersey City, where Heights residents and businesses gathered to discuss their wishes, plans and goals for Central Avenue.

"Most people are not happy with the status quo. We want it to improve, and we want to do that together as a community," said organizer David Diaz, District Manager for the Central Avenue Special Improvement District Management Corporation.

Scores of residents spent their Saturday afternoons in different breakout groups in the school's downstairs cafeteria. In wide-ranging conversations, they covered issues such as traffic, parking, parks, business development and education.

Photographs of different parts of Central Avenue lined the walls for the event, and one wall was devoted entirely to post-it notes of residents' wishes for the area.

Those included, among other things: More reliable public transportation; cleaner sidewalks; better sanitation; locals committed to shopping locally; a bigger supermarket; landlords of vacant stores renting out within a time limit; an ice cream parlor; a candy store; a marketplace for fresh fruits and vegetables on the northern side of Central Avenue; a Starbucks; a Popeyes; a track and field; and a roller skating rink.

Diaz said he was happy with event's turnout, saying "it's very reflective of different aspects of the community."

"We know Central Avenue has not reached its potential and...we hope (that by) coming together, we can set goals and strategies to help the Avenue be the Main Street that we want it to be for Jersey City," he said.

The event, which began at 2 p.m. and lasted until the evening, was made up of three consecutive sessions: 1) What's Already Good about Central Avenue; 2) Imagining Central Avenue in Spring 2017; and 3) Action and Next Steps.

The meeting was sponsored by the Central Avenue SID Management Corporation, the Jersey City Office of Innovation, the Washington Parks Association and the Riverview Neighborhood Association. Discussions were facilitated by Robyn Stratton-Berkessel, a "positivity strategist" who specializes in helping organizations and communities share ideas and empower each other.

Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
ACLU says 'Cajun John Wayne' said 'nothing' to 'make his community safer'
He served 43 years in solitary confinement, perhaps the longest in U.S. history, before a federal court freed him in 2016.
New Orleans police are looking for a 30-year-old man accused by authorities of breaking down the door of his ex-girlfriend's Mid-City home early Sunday morning (Feb. 21) and later damaging her car windshield.
While it was a balmy February evening according to a thermometer, for thousands of Canadians, and more than 300 people in Sudbury, Saturday, Feb. 20 was the Coldest Night of the Year.

While it was a balmy February evening according to a thermometer, for thousands of Canadians, and more than 300 people in Sudbury, Saturday, Feb. 20 was the Coldest Night of the Year.



It was the fourth consecutive night Greater Sudbury was part of the national event  across 92 Canadian cities and towns  meant to raise funds, and awareness, for initiatives that help the homeless and less fortunate.



Before the participants, all wearing symbolic blue toques, even to walk through the citys downtown core, the fundraiser had already exceeded expectations, and placed Sudbury 13th out of all participating communities for total funds raised.



Our goal was $50,000 and weve exceeded that already today, said Kevin Serviss, executive director of the Samaritan Centre.



The downtown centre  a multi-agency facility made up of the Elgin Street Mission, Blue Door Soup Kitchen and Corner Clinic  was the evenings beneficiary.



Serviss said the Coldest Night of the Year is the Samaritan Centres biggest fundraiser, and helps keep costs down for the 300 to 400 people who visit its member agencies every day for meals, doctors appointments, or even just a warm place to stay in the winter.



According to Laurentian University's project on Poverty, Homelessness and Migration in Northern Ontario, Greater Sudburys homeless population has more than doubled since 2009.

The study found 1,540 people in Greater Sudbury were either homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless during the period.



Around 30 per cent of those counted  455 people  were absolutely homeless, while the remaining 1,085 people lived in precarious situations and were at risk of becoming homeless.



Walk participant Jen Cawley Caruso said the event has struck a chord with the community because it touches on universal needs.



I think everyone can identify with not having a place to go, she said.


Former refugee shares his story

Sudburys Vic Venecek understands better than most what its like to be a refugee. When he graduated from college in his native Czechoslovakia the country had only recently fallen under Communist control.

Sudburys Vic Venecek left Czechoslovakia in 1950, and came to Canada as a refugee later that year. He shared his story at St. Anthonys Church in Gatchell Sunday. Photo by Jonathan Migneault.

Sudburys Vic Venecek understands better than most what its like to be a refugee.



When he graduated from college in his native Czechoslovakia the country had only recently fallen under Communist control.



The year was 1950, and like many other young men, Venecek was forced to do hard labour, digging ditches to install water pipes.



After six months of hard labour he was able to land a seasonal job at a small hotel in the mountains, near the border with West Germany.



Some of his co-workers showed him to reach the border, after a difficult trek up, and down, the mountains, while avoiding patrolling border guards.



But Venecek did not cross the border at that time, and after four months of work at the hotel, without a day off, he was able to find another job closer to his hometown.



It was back home that a couple approached him, and said they heard he had helped smuggle people across the border.



I was shocked, Venecek said.



He was not certain if the couple worked for the Communist Party, and intended to get him arrested, or wanted his help to cross the border.



It turned out they had two young children, and wanted to leave the country.



Because rumours were now circulating that Venecek knew how to safely cross the border, he could not take any chances, and decided to leave with the couple before the authorities discovered his secret.



After the difficult trek, made harder due to the two children, they reached the American-controlled zone of West Germany, and were eventually caught by German police.



Venecek and the family of four were brought to a nearby American Army base, and after three days of questioning  to ensure he was not a Communist spy  he was transported to a refugee camp outside the city of Nuremberg.



The camp hosted 5,000 refugees from across Europe.



Venecek slept on a straw mattress in a poorly maintained bunk house without any windows.



Refugees were able to apply to which countries they would emigrate to, if given a choice.



Canada needed young men to work as lumberjacks in remote regions, so Venecek added it to his list.



His application to immigrate to Canada was accepted, and he boarded a train to the German city of Bremen, where he got on a boat, and after a rough voyage, made it to Halifax.



From Halifax Venecek boarded another train to Kapuskasing, where he applied to work as a lumberjack for the Spruce Falls Company.



That lasted two months before he and some other Czechs quit, after eight of their co-workers had been injured on the job.



I didnt want to be number nine, Venecek said.



From Kapuskasing he went to Sudbury, where he applied to work for Inco every day, and was finally accepted for a job at the Copper Cliff smelter.



He later met his wife Peggy at an event at Christ the King Church, became a Canadian citizen, and had two daughters, born in 1962 and 1963.



Today Venecek also has four grandsons.



When asked about todays Syrian refugees he said he can sympathize, but added they have it easier, once they arrive in Canada, than he did.



Theyre getting everything, he said.



Venecek said he disagrees with the large influx of refugees Canada is accepting all at once, and said that should be spread out over a longer time period, not to strain the countrys resources.




Charleston, S.C., has been ranked the number one tourist destination in the nation for several years in a row, but the charms of the Lowcountry are endangered by climate change, according to local business owners who depend on tourism. The citys many visitors stroll along the harbor, where restaurants, boutiques and curio shops line historic streets, but these days, tourists are increasingly likely to encounter flood waters along with their sightseeing.

At the Palmetto Hammock, a gift shop in the market district, owner Sandy Bridges told Bloomberg Business that when rain falls during high tide, water often flows into her store.

She knows bigger floods are around the corner. The U.S. National Climate Assessment identified Charleston as one of the Eastern cities most at risk for sea-level rise. Thats why Bridges joined nearly 100 local businesses in using tape and decals to show customers where high tide will be after decades of climate change. Where Im standing right now, the water would be up to my chest, she said.

Bridges is just one of many business owners in harms way. Tourism is the biggest industry in a state where the official tourism slogan is Made for Vacation. Yet flooded streets and eroded coastlines are threatening this economic engine.

Failing to address climate change will intensify the threat, but none of the Republican candidates crisscrossing the Palmetto State this week ahead of the presidential primary has presented a plan for confronting climate change.

Donald Trump says, Im not a believer in climate change. Senator Ted Cruz held a congressional hearing to showcase climate deniers. And though his state of Florida is also imperiled by sea-level rise, Senator Marco Rubio recently joked: I dont have a plan to influence the weather.

While the candidates bury their heads in the sand, inland South Carolinians are also facing major climate threats. Experts say climate change will increase temperatures in the state, and children born today could experience an additional 50 days a year hotter than 95 degrees by the time they reach middle age. Warmer air increases smog and other dangerous pollution linked to asthma, heart attacks, and cancer.

More intense storms and sea-level rise will also pummel the state. Rain is already falling in more potent bursts  what local experts call rain bombs  and storm surges are growing.

The historic, devastating floods last October point to what lies ahead. After 20 inches of rain fell on communities south of Columbia, at least 11 dams failed across the state, more than 400,000 people were under a boil water advisory, and 16 people died.

Tens of thousands of people saw their homes flooded with several feet of water. Angela Williams from Columbia told CNN, We have lost everything. What I got on my body is what we have. Pretty much everybody down the hill there has lost everything our vehicles, our clothes, everything. More than 50,000 residents applied for disaster assistance for a price tag of $26.7 million. The total for all flood damage was expected to soar over $1 billion.

People across the state are working to ensure such losses dont become routine. South Carolina recently passed a law that will expand solar power  and save money and reduce carbon pollution in the process. Officials have been developing a robust and inclusive plan to meet national limits on carbon pollution from power plants  even as the attorney general joined a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan. Meanwhile, every municipality along the coast has passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling for oil and gas, both of which contribute to climate change and threaten the states popular beaches.

South Carolina residents support action. Eighty percent of Republican primary voters in the state want to prioritize renewable energy resources. Republican Congressman Mark Sanford said, Climate change is going to present real challenges for the Lowcountry, and the nation as a whole. And former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis is urging conservatives to address the climate threat.

None of the Republican contenders for the White House has supported this kind of action. South Carolina deserves leaders who will tackle climate change, strengthen the economy, and preserve vibrant coastal communities.
Brisbane made it two straight wins for the NRL sides in the World Club Series in commanding fashion, trouncing Wigan seven tries to two on Sunday morning (Australian time). Here are the key take-outs from their win.

Report: Ruthless Broncos dominate Wigan

Eden locks up wing spot

With injuries and departures in the Brisbane backline, Wayne Bennett will be handing someone an NRL debut on the wing come Round 1 and despite claims from Tom Opacic and Carlin Anderson, that spot has now surely been tied up by former Hull Kingston Rovers fullback Eden.

The 25-year-old had a busy night and was polished in both attack and defence. A couple of great reads helped shut down Wigan attacking plays and safe hands under a high bomb got the Broncos off the hook before either side had scored. He had one long line break in support of James Roberts to help set up a Corey Oates try then scored one of his own after receiving the ball from Anthony Milford off a scrum 10 metres out from his side's try-line. A match-high 223 metres underscored his contribution.

Nikorimas continue tour of torment

In the series opener, the Roosters were minus halfback Mitch Pearce, who is currently stood down, and were forced to call up rookie half Jayden Nikorima. The teenager brought calmness and quality that belied his tender years as he helped his side dominate St Helens. A day later, Jayden's older and slightly more seasoned brother was relied upon to fill the gap opened up by a suspension to Ben Hunt arising from the 2015 grand final  and boy did he deliver. A series of quality touches capped off by two tries proved he is right at home in the top grade as players named Nikorima have dominated in each of the opening two games. An honourable mention also to Milford, who was dominant in attack with his regular halves partner absent.

Gulf in class expanding

Wigan were expected to provide healthier competition than St Helens, who were comfortably disposed of by the Roosters 38-12 in the World Club Series opener but the Broncos won by an even bigger margin. The fact the Super League sides are already a couple of rounds into their current season should indicate an advantage in terms of match fitness and combinations while both NRL sides so far have been without their first choice halfbacks. There was a period Aussie teams struggled in the World Club Challenge but whether it's a case of the NRL sides taking it more seriously or a slipping of standards from the UK sides, the gulf in class seems as wide now as it ever has.

Old man Parker still has it

Brisbane's all-time greatest point-scorer may not play the full 80 too often these days but he can still guide the ball between the sticks when needed. Parker casually slotted six goals from as many attempts (Jordan Kahu nabbed the other, from in front right before half-time with Parker on the bench) against Wigan. Two of those were from right on the touchline, proving Parker still has the quality required from the kicking tee. Just over 100 metres, one offload and 25 tackles was an otherwise quiet return for the hard-working lock in a match where his side's backline ran riot.
In 1865, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, the third most quoted book in the English language, was published. What lies behind the extraordinary appeal of this book to generations of adults and children? How did a meticulous mathematician, who spent most of his life within the confines of a university, capture the world of childhood in such a captivating way? These questions will be explored through film and lecture at 10 a.m. Monday at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts, Munster. Free to the public. southshoreartsonline.org/calendar

Black History Month Lecture: 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'

Indiana University Northwest's Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs invites the campus and community to a discussion of the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often referred to as the "Black American National Anthem," from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium, located in the Savannah Center. Clark Atlanta University Professor Tim Askew will discuss the song, followed by a performance by the Sanctuary Choir Ensemble from St. Timothy Community Church in Gary. Seating is limited. Call (219) 980-6596 for reservations or email jacksoti@iun.edu.

'Crashing with Flamingos' by Jim Henry

Eric can do no wrong. Everything he touches seems to end up in the pink. One of his co-workers, Bury, is laid off from his job and locked out of his apartment on the same day. Eric comes to the rescue by offering his sofa-sleeper until Bury is back on his feet. Instead of being rescued, Bury is thrown into the middle of the implosive relationship between Eric and his neurotic, quirky, shut-in wife, Peg. What Eric and Peg dont know is that Bury is about to heap his own pile of baggage into this magnificent mess. Towle Theatre, Hammond, presents this world premier written by Valparaiso-based playwright, screenwriter and actor Jim Henry from Friday through March 13. towletheater.org

Duo Sequenza's 'All Latin American Tribute'

On Wednesday, flutist Debra Silvert and guitarist Paul Bowman will pay homage to the roots of flute and classical guitar duos with their All Latin American Tribute. Duo Sequenzas dynamic performances have received enthusiastic standing ovations from audiences throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Meet the musicians for cocktails and cupcakes at 7 p.m., with the performance at 7:30, at the historic Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso. memorialoperahouse.com

Visit the South Shore Arts Regional Arts Calendar for more information on current exhibits, concerts, plays and other arts events, visit SouthShoreArtsOnline.org. Tune in to Lakeshore Public Radio, 89.1 FM, for Eye on the Arts interviews with local artists and arts providers at 8:45 am. every Monday morning.
ORLANDO, Fla.  Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida is about to be invaded by Jedis and stormtroopers.

Officials at Walt Disney World Resort said Friday that the movie-themed park will have a stormtrooper processional and a "Star Wars" stage show starting in April.

The stormtroopers' march will take place at different times during the day. The stage show will feature actors playing "Star Wars" characters like Kylo Ren, Chewbacca and Darth Vader.

Starting in the summer, the park will end the day with fireworks and projection show called "Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular."

The shows are the latest "Star Wars" blitz to hit Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Last December, the park opened a courtyard filled with all things "Star Wars," a video game center and movie theater showing abridged versions of "Star Wars" movies.

Chevrolet to offer unique driving experience at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  Chevrolet is giving new-car buyers a chance to turn laps at famed Daytona International Speedway.

Chevrolet and the high-banked track announced the delivery experience Thursday, saying it will be available later this year through dealers on select orders. While details  like pricing  are still being finalized, customers who order the option can expect:

 A tour of Daytona International Speedway.

 An on-track driving experience.

 A keepsake to commemorate the experience.

 Authentication that the vehicle was delivered and driven at Daytona.

"We are determined to deliver exceptional service through our dealers and unique experiences that only Chevrolet can offer, like driving your first miles in your new vehicle at the famed Daytona International Speedway," said Alan Batey, president of General Motors North America and leader of Global Chevrolet.

Chevrolet already offers Corvette customers the option to have their new vehicle delivered at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The delivery option includes a private tour of the Bowling Green assembly plant and the museum. The owner then takes delivery of their new Corvette from the museum showroom, where their own car is on display.

The museum delivery option costs $990.
Hundreds of professional and amateur dancers will take the stage at the 23rd annual Indiana Challenge from Thursday through Sunday at the Radisson Hotel Star Plaza. The friendly competition will showcase some of the best ballroom dancing in the Midwest. The public is welcome to watch as dancers compete in various divisions and dance styles like the waltz, tango, rumba, swing, foxtrot and cha-cha. Tickets are available at the door; visit www.indianachallenge.com for a schedule of events.

Dillinger Museum offers ticket deal

The John Dillinger Museum will offer buy-one-get-one ticket prices until the end of February. The museum highlights the advancements made in crime-fighting technology during the the Depression Era crime sprees throughout the Midwest. The museum also will display soon the original and infamous wooden gun alongside the Tommy guns from Lake County and Porter County sheriff departments that were stolen during Dillinger's escape from Crown Point. Visit www.dillingermuseum.com for details.

Maple Syrup Time at Deep River County Park

Don't miss this year's Maple Syrup Time from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 12-13 and March 19-20 Enjoy outdoor activities during your visit and learn how the tapping of maple trees is done. You'll be able to visit with Voyageur-era volunteers as they make maple sugar over an open fire. This popular event takes place at Deep River County Park in Hobart at 9410 Old Lincoln Highway. Visit www.lakecountyparks.com for details.

Maple Sugar Time at Dunes National Lakeshore

Enjoy the early taste of spring at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore during Maple Sugar Time on March 5-6 and March 12-13. Rangers will lead tours of the sugaring operation at the historic Chellberg Farm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Chellberg Farm is lcoated on Mineral Springs Road between U.S. 20 and 12. Call (219) 395-1882 for details or visit www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit for additional events at the National Lakeshore.

Hunt & Gather Market coming up

Visit the Lake County Fairgrounds on March 4 and 5 for more than 150 antique and specialty vendors, music and gourmet food and sweets. You'll be sure to find unique treasures, art, jewelry, furniture and one-of-a-kind artisan goods. Friday's market is from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday's is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Fairgrounds are at 889 S. Court St. in Crown Point.
It's been nearly eight months since Ollie Hubbard's 16-year-old daughter was gunned down on the front porch of her Hammond home.

She tries to keep her alive as much as she can, but it still feels like she is living in a nightmare.

Police and family members have said Lauren Calvillo was an innocent bystander during the June 29 shooting.

"There's no words to describe the pain," Hubbard said. "It's constant torture. It's so many feelings  sorrow, loneliness, guilt."

Calvillo's homicide is one example of how an unexpected death can leave a family grappling with grief and unsure of how to cope.

Hubbard finds herself drawn daily to her daughter's grave. She said she doesn't believe her daughter is there, but Hubbard goes to clean the area and talk to her.

"It's something that I have to do for myself," Hubbard said. "I just feel close to her."

TALKING THROUGH GRIEF

Hubbard said she has relied heavily on close friends and family members during the past couple of months, which include her niece, Lisa Hubbard, who drove her home from the hospital the night Lauren died.

Hubbard also is working to raise awareness about violence in Northwest Indiana. She plans on working with a Hammond teacher to deter students from joining gangs. She passes out bright pink bracelets that read, "Stop the Violence for the Love of Lauren."

Richard Frankel, a professor of medicine and geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said its important for those dealing with grief to tell their story and explain how it makes them feel.

He said its therapeutic to talk about it rather than keeping it bottled up inside, which could lead to anger and depression. He recommends people seek a support group or an expert that deals with trauma.

Like Hubbard, Marvin Clinton said he hasn't sought out a professional to speak to, but he has formed relationships with other family members who unexpectedly lost a family member in a violent crime. Clinton is the boyfriend of Teaira Batey, one of six women found dead in 2014 inside vacant buildings in Gary.

Clinton said he still keeps in contact with workers from Manuel Memorial Funeral Home who organized Batey's services. Sometimes he will stop by for about 20 minutes to check in with them.

Though each experience will vary, Frankel said grief usually lasts for a year. A person should be concerned if after two months they cant get out of bed.

But it's normal if a person becomes emotional after hearing a story that resonates with how their family member died.

He said research also has shown that writing things down can be therapeutic. Frankel recommends writing a letter to the person who died explaining untold feelings or reinforcing the things the person did tell their loved one. In cases where there is a perpetrator, Frankel said writing a letter to the suspect can help.

Grief can even create physical symptoms, dubbed an anniversary reaction, that can't be explained by science, Frankel said. For example, if the person died of a heart attack, one year later a family member might develop chest pain that cant be explain by medicine.

Frankel said it also can be helpful for those dealing with grief to get involved in a group that helps other families, which then reinforces the idea that the person isn't alone in his or her experience.

Nora Ferrer created a nonprofit organization to bring awareness to violence plaguing Northwest Indiana after her brother, Alexander Martinez, was gunned down in 1998. Ferrer said she has sought guidance from her religion, and she has pushed police to keep the homicide case alive.

Still, she said the trauma of her brother's homicide has stayed with her 18 years after it happened.

Because you really dont heal, Ferrer said. You are still there. You are still on that night, no matter how many years have gone by.

SEEKING ANSWERS

Niki Fitusis is one of two people who work as victim witness advocates for the Lake County prosecutor's office. When a criminal case is filed, she sends the victim in the case a letter giving an overview of what to expect while the case is pending.

Fitusis is tasked with helping the deputy prosecuting attorneys build their case, but a lot of her job also includes answering questions from victims. She also keeps them informed about upcoming court hearings, assists in getting them to court and helps them find community resources.

Lake County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Barbara McConnell said sometimes victims or the families of victims seek out the advocates because they just want to talk to someone.

Fitusis isn't sure if families ever find closure after a case is prosecuted, but they do appear to be relieved when the case is resolved.

Lauren Calvillo's case hasn't yet reached the point of prosecution. No one has been charged in her homicide, though U.S. Attorney David Capp has said his office is working with local authorities to solve the case.

Hubbard said she has made it her life's mission to find justice for her daughter.

"I'm not giving up, never," she said. "Whoever did it, knows they did it. How do they live with it?"

Calvillo was killed when shots rang out in the 5500 block of Beall Street, less than 24 hours after Robert Vilella was shot to death on the same block.

Hubbard finds herself questioning why she didn't push her daughter more to come inside earlier on the day she was killed. She said her daughter never got into trouble and it was still daylight.

When shots rang out, Hubbard said Lauren helped usher in five children into the home. She collapsed inside and later died.

Even if someone is prosecuted for her daughter's homicide, she doesn't think closure will ever come for her until she herself dies.

Ferrer and her family have been waiting for closure for more than 18 years. About 10 years after Martinez was killed, Javier Oropesa was charged with murder, but he has never been arrested. Ferrer said there were rumors Oropesa frequently traveled to Mexico and Northwest Indiana. He could be living in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Her mother, Beatrice Martinez, for years couldn't swallow what happened to her son. Beatrice Martinez said she is waiting for the day she faces Oropesa in court and can ask why her son was killed.

Clinton said he, too, has questions about Batey's death.

"Teaira's situation, because it was so violent, it's something that is always in your head," Clinton said. "For me, I think about it a lot. Why it happened and what could we have done differently."

Darren Vann, of Gary, allegedly confessed to killing Batey and six other women. He faces charges in the strangling deaths of two women, Afrikka Hardy and Anith Jones, but he has not charged in the other deaths.

Clinton attends Vann's court hearings and updates some of the other women's family members. He knows the case could take years before it's resolved, but he plans to follow it until the end.

"I don't expect to get closure," Clinton said. "So I think my closure will more likely come when the system works itself through and there's justice for all seven women."
LANSING  Improvements to Lansings water main system will begin this spring and fall.

Village Engineer Jeff Pintar outlined the work last week at a presentation to the Village Board.

Pintar said there were 105 water main breaks during the harsh 2013 winter. There were 65 in 2014 and 54 last year.

A lot of us take for granted that when you turn the faucet on, water is going to come out. But its not magic, Pintar said. Theres a lot of work involved and with work comes maintenance.

The village has been setting aside some funds to do preventative maintenance on some of its water system. The new projects are expected to be on the agenda for the first board meeting in March.

The biggest problem is dead-end pipes. Pintar said the ideal water system is a perfect loop, allowing for consistent pressure.

A pair of projects are expected to go for bid soon with construction set for later this year. In Oakwood Estates, near 192nd Place and 193rd Street near Jayce Park, mains have broken frequently. Pintar said the likely culprit is a pair of dead-end mains. The plan is to connect those mains.

The second project is along Wentworth Avenue south of Interstate 94. When the expressway was improved, a crossing at Wentworth Avenue was removed and with it the water main was capped into a dead end.

Pintar proposed an east-west connection on 176th Street onto Wentworth Avenue.

Long-term projects include the water main along Arcadia Avenue simultaneously with road repairs from 185th Street to 186th Street. The funding for that was secured through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, but are held up in the states budget stalemate.

The fourth improvement is to pipes along Adams Street from Burnham Avenue to William Street and along William Street from Adams Street to 178th Street. The main in that area is only 4 inches in diameter and is 90 to 110 years old, Pintar said. The average life cycle of a water main is about 100 years in a perfect world, Pintar said.

Most modern water mains are at least 6 to 8 inches wide, improving water pressure. The last project likely will improve water service for Coolidge Elementary School.

Another concern, Village President Norm Abbott said, was repairing a street only to tear up the surface shortly after due to a water main break. So, some street repairs will be done in conjunction with water main repairs.

The board also approved buying new public works equipment. A backhoe and front loader will be purchased from CASE, which outbid John Deere and Caterpillar, Abbott said.

Lansing Public Works will keep its current equipment as both a backup and to use when the new equipment isnt available.
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Thousands of protesters packed Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza to rally in support of former NYPD officer Peter Liang.

28-year-old Liang was convicted on manslaughter and official-misconduct charges earlier this month in the shooting death of Akai Gurley.

Protestors say he is being used as a scapegoat, calling the conviction an injustice of the legal system.

The rally for Liang was met with opposition from another group of people carrying a Black Lives Matter sign.

They're defending the court process, saying Liang should be held responsible.

Protestors from both sides of the issue defended their stance.

"Why is it that the only guy taking the hit is a Chinese guy, it's not fair," said one Liang supporter. "We gotta fight for our rights."

"It's not fair, we should try and find justice for all the people," said another.

"You can't just kill somebody and not go to jail," said one Black Lives Matter protester. "That's not how it works, the fact that other white police officers didn't go to jail, you know then come out and march about that."

"We should be fighting for everybody to have accountability that includes white officers, Asian officers, black officers," said another.

The former cop was patrolling the Pink Houses in East New York in November of 20-14 when prosecutors say he recklessly fired his gun, killing the unarmed Gurley.

Liang testified his gun accidentally went off in the dark stairwell.

He faces up to 15 years in prison when he's sentenced in April.
Hillary Clinton held off a late surge from Bernie Sanders Saturday to win an unexpectedly close contest in the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses. Political reporter Bobby Cuza has the story.

"Thank you, Nevada! Thank you so much! Clinton said during her victory speech Saturday night.

It's a state Hillary Clinton was once expected to win handily, one whose diverse demographics were thought to favor her.

Instead, Saturdays Democratic caucuses proved a close contest, as Brooklyn native Sanders continued to capitalize on anger towards Wall Street and income inequality.

"Americans are right to be angry," Clinton said. "But were also hungry for real solutions."

The Associated Press declared Clinton the winner around 5:15 p.m. Saturday, about two hours after the caucuses began.



With nearly 90 percent of precincts reporting a little after 10 p.m., Clinton had 53 percent to Sanders's 47 percent. Clinton's lead was even narrower earlier Saturday.

Clinton won Nevada in 2008, but the former New York Senator was under pressure from Sanders, who has narrowed the gap in recent polls and had outspent Clinton in the state.

A win would have been a surprise and huge boost to Sanders's campaign.

In her speech, Clinton thanked Sanders, but also suggested that she offers better solutions, ticking off issues from immigration to criminal justice reform.

"The truth is, we aren't a single-issue country," Clinton said. "We need more than a plan for the big banks, the middle class needs a raise, and we need more jobs."

Clinton also specifically addressed young people, a demographic where Sanders has far outperformed her.

"And I want to say this to all the young people out there: I know what youre up against," Clinton said. "If you left college with a ton of loans, it's not enough just to make college more affordable; you need help right now with the debt you already have."

Sanders remained upbeat, noting that five weeks ago he trailed in Nevada by 25 points.

"We have come a very long way in nine months," he said. "It is clear to me  and I think most observers  that the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum."

Clinton may disagree. Now its on to South Carolina, the site of next Saturdays Democratic primary and the Super Tuesday states.

"I'm on my way to Texas. Bill is on his way to Colorado. The fight goes on!" Clinton said. "The future that we want is within our grasp! Thank you all! God bless you!"
Thousands rallied in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn on Saturday in support of the former NYPD police officer convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing Akai Gurley in 2014. Our Gene Apodaca has the story.

The signs and banners at Cadman Plaza on Saturday expressed exactly what the thousands of people there say they have been feeling for weeks: anger over what they call a horrible injustice.

Richard Liu said this was the first rally he's even been compelled to attend.

"It awakens the justice that we want for this society for this country, for this country, for this nation," Liu said.

The rally came just nine days after former NYPD officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct in the shooting death of Akai Gurley, who was unarmed, in a dark staircase at the Pink Houses in Brooklyn in 2014. The rookie officer said his gun accidentally went off.

"We're not just standing here to have basic respect!" City Council Member Mark Treyger of Brooklyn said at the rally. "We're standing here to make sure that justice is for all!"

Liang's mother, Fenny Liang, stood silent as elected officials and other community members called for action, encouraging people not to just speak out, but to register to vote and send a message in the ballot box.

"When we have the power, we put people in office who are going to stand up and fight for us!" said Phil Gim of the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.

While emotions ran high inside the park, a small but vocal counter rally gathered nearby, holding "Black Lives Matter" banners and chanting in defense of the court process.

"You can't just kill somebody and not go to jail," one protestor, Daniel Rodriguez, said at the counter rally. "The fact that other white police officers didn't go to jail  then come out and march about that."

Through his attorney, Peter Liang expressed words of condolences to the Gurley family, as well as acknowledging the massive turnout on his behalf.

"Obviously it's a very difficult time for him, but this support from the community certainly is helping to uplift his spirits," Liang's defense attorney Robert Brown said.

Liang's attorney is also collecting signatures, trying to get a petition to get the case re-tried.

Organizers were clear to tell the crowd that the rally wasn't just a rally for Peter Liang, but for Akai Gurley too, calling him the second victim in this case, and encouraging the crowd to remain peaceful as the court process plays out.
The suspense grew more agonizing in its final hours, when the family received a call on Sunday night from an Associated Press reporter who told her a body had washed up near Greenpoint in Brooklyn wearing black corduroy pants. That was what Mr. Gray had been wearing when he was last seen on Jan. 10. At that point, Ms. Russo had not yet heard from the police, a friend of the family said.

Spalding Gray's older brother, Rockwell Gray, said he had been holding out hope that his brother would be found alive until he talked with Ms. Russo early yesterday, before the medical examiner's findings were announced. ''She told me it seemed almost certain it was his body they had found,'' said Mr. Gray, an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Many knew that Spalding Gray, who spoke publicly of infidelity, depression and a sometimes pained conscience, had his fair share of emotional turmoil. But by the late 1990's, it seemed he had begun wanting to put that behind him. He had safely passed the age, 52, at which his mother had killed herself. He had told countless audiences of surviving near-drowning, ''psychic surgery,'' claustrophobic attacks and what he described as the inescapable letdown of real life. But as he eventually settled into a domestic bliss he had once resisted -- fatherhood, a home on Long Island, daily yoga -- darkness and cynicism had retreated, at least somewhat, from his performances.

While he was on vacation in Ireland in 2001, though, a devastating car accident fractured his skull and crushed his hip, sending Mr. Gray into a profound depression.

After his disappearance, an article in New York magazine chronicled Mr. Gray's despair after the accident and his ineffectual attempts to recover. He checked himself into a psychiatric hospital in June 2002, the article said. Back home, he sometimes left answering machine messages and notes saying he intended to kill himself. The police confirmed some of this account, saying that more than once, he had to be talked down from a bridge on Long Island.
Dr. Chelsea Adalen Troiano, a daughter of Laura E. Troiano and Dr. Frank P. Troiano of Indianapolis, was married Feb. 20 to Taylor Sean Donnell, the son of Melissa S. Donnell and Jeff S. Donnell, also of Indianapolis. Andrew E. Hasty, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated at the Eau Palm Beach Resort in Manalapan, Fla.

The couple met at Indiana University Bloomington, from which they graduated and from which the bride also received a medical degree.

Dr. Troiano, 29, is keeping her name She is a second-year resident in otolaryngology head and neck surgery at Boston Medical Center.

The brides father is a gastroenterologist in Indianapolis.

Mr. Donnell, also 29, is the senior director for brand strategy at Jebbit, a marketing technology company in Boston.
Weve been thinking about the mishmash of styles and sounds floating around Soho in the late 1980s. There was still a hangover from punk, but the New Romantic thing was happening and people were starting to go to raves, said Topshop Uniques creative director Kate Phelan backstage at todays show. The labels fall/winter 2016 collection explored, once again, British youth culture. This is not an army of replica girls, Phelan added. Its about having your own individual attitude.

In line with this free-spirited mood, the hairstylist Anthony Turner created an assortment of clubby birds-nest styles; of the 40 models that walked at the Tate Britain today, no two tresses were the same. The makeup artist Hannah Murray described the look as a club kid whos trying to recreate the 1960s, and pinned Karlheinz Weinbergers black-and-white Rebel Youth photographs to her mood board for inspiration. With Topshop kohl, Murray drew a winged shape along the top and bottom of the eye, which she filled in with a gel liner for a heavy-lidded feel to mimic Mod-era fake lashes. While the skin was kept raw and real, the brows were boyishly bushy, and the lips went one of two ways: a Thatcher-era magenta or a pearly 90s wash  both applied straight from the bullet.
One out of three Americans do not get enough sleep, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that sleep schedules varied by race, age and geography.

Over all, about 65 percent of Americans slept for at least seven hours each night, the threshold that the surveys authors used to define a healthy sleep routine.

Among the demographic groups that reported lower-than-average rates of adequate sleep were non-Hispanic blacks, with 54.2 percent reporting an average of seven hours or more a night, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (53.7 percent each), and American Indians and Native Alaskans (59.6 percent each).

The study, released on Thursday, was compiled from the responses of 444,306 people across the country, who were asked about their sleep routines as part of a 2014 survey.
At least seven people in the Kalamazoo, Mich., area were killed and several were critically injured Saturday night by a gunman who the police said randomly opened fire as he drove around the city and its suburbs.

Several anxious hours later, the police announced they had taken a suspect in custody and found weapons in his car.

We do have a very strong suspect in custody right now, Chief Jeff Hadley of the Kalamazoo County Department of Public Safety told WWMT-TV, the local CBS affiliate.

Shootings were reported at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, a Ford dealership and other locations, according to WOOD-TV, the local NBC affiliate.
Unlike in New Hampshire and Iowa, where domestic issues were most important to voters, terrorism was the top concern of voters in South Carolina. While Mr. Trump held voters trust in handling the economy by a ratio of more than 2 to 1, he and Mr. Cruz were nearly equally viewed as the best equipped to handle an international crisis. Despite Mr. Cruzs experience as a former Supreme Court clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, he and Mr. Trump were tied in voters minds as the best candidate to handle nominations to the nations highest court.

Mr. Cruz was backed by the very conservative, and by those who prefer a candidate who shares their religious beliefs and their values, yet he lost among white evangelicals to Mr. Trump. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio split the support of those who decided on a candidate in the last week.

Mr. Rubio enjoyed support from the most educated voters, those who valued experience in politics and those who prioritized electability in November. He also drew support from those who would allow illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and those who opposed banning Muslims. The endorsement of Mr. Rubio earlier in the week by Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina had little effect on voters  only about one-quarter said it was important.
First he mocked the similarities in their biographies, calling Senator Marco Rubio the Republican Obama. Now, in an ad called Sales Pitch, Senator Ted Cruz is hammering Mr. Rubio for serving up the same talking points as President Obamas.

After calling Mr. Rubio the Republican Obama at the end of an ad in Iowa, Mr. Cruz has spliced together clips of Mr. Obama and Mr. Rubio to make them sound like a skipping CD, repeating each others lines, during the legislative battle over a comprehensive immigration overhaul in 2013.

They still have to qualify for it, Mr. Rubio says, meaning 

Passing a background check, Mr. Obama says, seeming to finish the sentence. Passed a background check, Mr. Rubio echoes.
KAMPALA, Uganda  Yoweri Museveni, the longtime president of Uganda, cruised to victory on Saturday in a hotly contested election marred by irregularities, violent protests and the arrest of his principal opponent.

Mr. Museveni, who is entering his fourth decade in office, won the election with more than 60 percent of the vote, according to results released by the election commission. His closest rival, Kizza Besigye, an opposition leader who was arrested twice during the voting and was under house arrest at the time the results were announced, received 35 percent of the vote, according to the commission.

Mr. Besigyes party, the Forum for Democratic Change, contested the results as fraudulent.

The vote gives the 71-year-old Mr. Museveni, who has been in office since 1986, another five-year term, his last under current Ugandan law. After two days of violent protests, the streets here were mostly quiet as heavily armed security forces patrolled the capital in armored vehicles. The countrys entire security apparatus was on colorful and intimidating display  riot police dressed in blue, regular police in green, soldiers in fatigues and military police in red berets.

As night fell, civilians in one area threw rocks at the police along Kampala Road, the capitals main thoroughfare, and gunshots echoed.
As we get continued warming, its going to become more difficult to control mosquitoes, said Andrew Monaghan, who is studying the interaction of climate and health at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The warmer it is, the faster they can develop from egg to adult, and the faster they can incubate viruses.

Already, climate change is suspected  though not proved  to have been a factor in a string of disease outbreaks afflicting both people and animals. These include the spread of malaria into the highlands of eastern Africa, the rising incidence of Lyme disease in North America, and the spread of a serious livestock ailment called bluetongue into parts of Europe that were once too cold for it to thrive.

In interviews, experts noted that no epidemic was ever the result of a single variable.

Instead, epidemics always involve interactions among genes, ecology, climate and human behavior, presenting profound difficulties for scientists trying to tease apart the contributing factors. The complexity is enormous, said Walter J. Tabachnick, a professor with the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, a unit of the University of Florida in Vero Beach.

The epidemics of Zika and dengue are cases in point. The viruses are being transmitted largely by the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. That creature adapted long ago to live in human settlements, and developed a concomitant taste for human blood.
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan  The last of the Afghan forces have pulled out of the strategic district of Musa Qala in southern Helmand Province, officials said on Saturday, months after the Taliban overran most of the district and kept them holed up in desert outposts.

The retreat, which had many politicians here mystified, was the latest blow to a province that had been teetering for months. Now, the resurgent Taliban insurgents either control or are contesting 10 of its 14 districts, extending the fighting to Babaji, a suburb so close to the provincial capital that residents of the city could hear the clashes at night.

Col. Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, a spokesman for the Afghan Armys 215th Maiwand Corps in Helmand, said the military leadership had decided that it was more effective to pull out the remaining troops and reinforce bases elsewhere in the province.

We dont have troops in Musa Qala anymore, Colonel Zazai said.

Other officials said the decision was made to avoid further casualties to a reeling force because the army units were under severe pressure from the Taliban, making reinforcement and resupply difficult.
Aid workers said roofs had been blown off houses, power lines were down, roads were blocked by trees and some villages had been flooded by heavy rain.

At a hospital in the western district, patients were evacuated after a ward lost part of its roof, and at a hospital in the central district, an intensive care ward, operating room and maternity ward were flooded, Fijis national emergency operation center said on Sunday.

An elderly man died on Koro, an island to the east of Viti Levu, the main island, after a roof collapsed. Ewan Perrin, a spokesman for the prime minister, said that four other people had died but that the government would not release details until their next of kin had been notified.

Mr. Bainimarama said a curfew would remain in place until Monday morning to allow emergency workers to clear roads of fallen power lines and building debris. Most of the buildings in Suva, the countrys capital on the island of Viti Levu, appeared to have only minor damage.

A CARE Australia aid worker, Anna Cowley, said in a telephone interview from Suva that power outages had hampered aid efforts. There is still a power blackout across the main island, Viti Levu, which has stopped water pumps from working, Ms. Cowley said on Sunday, adding that patchy communications with outlying islands had made assessing the damage there difficult.
Politically, the groups long-term goal is ambitious in the extreme: It wants Hong Kong residents to be given a vote on the citys future  including the option of independence  after 2047, when Beijings promise of civil liberties and a high degree of autonomy for the former British colony is set to expire. Analysts dismiss that as a fantasy.

More broadly, Hong Kong Indigenous, along with similar groups like Civic Passion, champions what has become known as localism, a reaction to mainland Chinas growing influence here. Localists call for policies that favor Hong Kongers over mainland Chinese in areas like social benefits and school placement, and for defending Hong Kong traditions that they say are under threat. They have organized protests against shoppers from the mainland, and even against street performers who dance to songs in Mandarin Chinese, as opposed to Cantonese, the local dialect.

A Hong Kong tradition was a factor in the Mong Kok violence, which took place on the first night of the Lunar New Year holiday. In past years, the authorities had turned a blind eye to unlicensed street vendors who sold snacks like fish balls and stinky tofu to the holiday crowds. But this time, reports circulated that city inspectors were preventing Mong Kok vendors from selling their wares. (Officials later said that the inspectors had only been patrolling, and that no tickets had been issued.)

Using social media, Hong Kong Indigenous mobilized its followers to protect the vendors. Soon, some demonstrators were clashing with the police. At one point, an officer who was coming under attack fired live ammunition into the air  a shocking development in a city accustomed to peaceful protests. Before long, throngs of men in masks had set fires in the street and were hurling bricks at police officers, who struck back with batons and pepper spray and, in some cases, by throwing bricks themselves.
They are also concerned that the Russian governments recent moves are motivated by forces outside their control, such as a lack of a clear American strategy and Mr. Putins tense relationship with the United States.

Bilaterally, we have struggled to convince the Russians on certain issues because they increasingly see us only as part of this larger game with the United States, said one senior Afghan official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear his comments would further stoke the mistrust in Moscow.

The Kremlins recent moves are seen as a shift from the role Russia played during 14 years of NATO presence in Afghanistan  one of guarded cooperation marked by frequent contradictions.

Even as Moscow was alarmed by the presence of nearly 140,000 Western troops in its backyard, often deriding the mission as a failure, Mr. Putins government was happy to let the American-led coalition contain the common threats posed by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and by drugs, of which Afghanistan produced plenty that are trafficked and consumed in Russia.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

In a little more than a year since the end of the NATO combat mission in Afghanistan, the fighting here has intensified, shifting to the north along the 1,250-mile border with three Central Asian states Russia still considers as its underbelly. The Taliban briefly overran the city of Kunduz last fall.

The top American general here offered contradictory statements about the insurgent group. In a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee this month, the commander of United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said, Our country has made a decision that we are not at war with the Taliban. Just days later in Kabul, he said the Taliban were the enemy.
Facebooks bill was also less than the average personal income tax payment and the national insurance contributions that individual British employees pay, which amount to about $7,800 a year for someone making the median income of $40,000.

That is just one glaring example, Mr. Lewis and his fellow shopkeepers in Crickhowell said, of what amounts to multinational tax dodging on a gargantuan scale, leaving the little guy to pick up the tab. And their protest is one small case study of how economic populism is playing out around the world, rallying grass-roots support to challenge governments and corporate interests alike.

Mr. Lewis, who retired from the army as a major and fought in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, is working with his regiment of shopkeepers to stoke public indignation across Britain so that consumers, and ultimately shareholders, will pressure company executives to change the way they do business. He plans to use social media and doorstep protests to name and shame corporate chiefs and those who support them, right down to their tax accountants.
Every year in this country, he writes, families are evicted from their homes not by the tens of thousands or even the hundreds of thousands, but by the millions.

Evicted is a regal hybrid of ethnography and policy reporting. It follows the lives of eight families in Milwaukee, some black and some white, all several leagues below the poverty line. Mr. Desmond, a sociologist and a co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project at Harvard, lived among them in 2008 and 2009  first in the poor, white College Mobile Home Park, a dark hole of vanished ambitions and drug abuse (one woman is Heroin Susie, not to be confused with Office Susie); and then in a rooming house run by the landlords Sherrena and Quentin, who eventually introduced him to many of their black tenants in other properties. One of those units was Rubys, with the volcanic cockroach problem.

The result is an exhaustively researched, vividly realized and, above all, unignorable book  after Evicted, it will no longer be possible to have a serious discussion about poverty without having a serious discussion about housing. Like Jonathan Kozols Savage Inequalities, or Barbara Ehrenreichs Nickel and Dimed, or Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow, this sweeping, yearslong project makes us consider inequality and economic justice in ways we previously had not. Its sure to capture the attention of politicians. (Hillary, what are you reading this summer?) Through data and analysis and storytelling, it issues a call to arms without ever once raising its voice.

What makes Evicted so eye-opening and original is its emphasis. Most examinations of the poorest poor look at those in public housing, not those whove been brutally cast into the private rental market. Yet this is precisely where most of the impoverished must live. Sixty-seven percent of poor renting families received no federal assistance for housing at all in 2013  there simply werent enough vouchers or subsidized apartments to go around. The very people least capable of spending 70 to 80 percent of their incomes on rent are exactly the ones forced to do so.
When the nursing home called to inform Mrs. Barrows son of her death, he had to press for details. They said, There was more to it,  Mr. Barrow said.

For weeks Mr. Barrow knew nothing, until he came home from a sales trip to find his driveway filled with television news trucks. The Bristol County district attorney had just filed charges against the roommate.

That was not the way to seek justice for his mothers death, Mr. Barrow said. Its like charging a 2-year-old who happened to take a gun off a table and shoot a sibling, he said.

Ms. Lundquists lawyer, Carl S. Levin, said, We maintain her innocence.

Having been blocked from court, Mr. Barrow was forced to go to arbitration. The nursing home had to turn over files that included the details about Ms. Lundquists past behavior.

Mr. Barrow said he was optimistic but soon became disillusioned with the process. His legal team said they discovered that the arbitration firm running the hearing had previously handled more than 400 arbitrations for the law firm representing the nursing home company.

His lawyers David Hoey and Krzysztof Sobczak questioned whether the process could be objective when the arbitration firm had drawn so much business from one of the parties. The arbitrator ultimately ruled in the nursing homes favor but provided no explanation. His ruling consisted of a single check mark, indicating that Brandon Woods had not been negligent in its care of Mrs. Barrow.

But Mr. Barrow kept fighting. For him, the case has always been about the nursing home, not about Ms. Lundquist, who is now 104 and remains in a state hospital in Massachusetts. She is evaluated yearly to determine if she can stand trial, but given her age, that seems unlikely, a spokesman for the district attorney said.

I cant do anything for my mother, Mr. Barrow said, but I want people to realize that they have to investigate nursing homes. Everyone could end up there.
Shes a magic maker, too, Ms. Kloss continued, gesturing at the guests pouring into the Givenchy tattoo parlor, Repossi hook-a-ducks stand, and bumper cars (to explain the brand representation: Ms. Vodianovas partner is Antoine Arnault, whose family controls luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which owns Vuitton, Givenchy and so on). Look at what shes managed to create around her and for such an important cause. I dont know how she does it all, especially as a mother of soon-to-be-five children.

Five? Ms. Vodianova, who has three children with her ex-husband, Justin Portman, and a son with Mr. Arnault is, it turns out, pregnant again.

The merest suggestion of a bump could be seen under her scarlet sequined minishift as she made the rounds at the super-sized fair, which took place under a sea of electric-pink heart-shaped helium balloons and a troupe of scantily dressed aerial acrobats. Mr. Arnault remained close to her side throughout the night, except when he was spotted trying his luck at the Dom Perignon Champagne hoopla (another LVMH brand).

The truth is, there was no better location than London for the fair, said Ms. Vodianova, who held the first fair last year. It used to be my home, so I know better than anyone that it is a city that really knows how to really have fun. The more fun our guests have, the more fun we can bring to the lives of the children we are helping.
One evening last month, after the traditional cocktails and black-tie meal, the members of the Century Association gathered in the reading room of their Renaissance-style clubhouse on West 43rd Street and, with little fanfare, made a bit of literary history.

For the first time, the Century  New York Citys pre-eminent private club of arts and letters  elected a woman as its president. It had only taken 169 years.

The distinction belongs to Susan Morrison, the articles editor of The New Yorker magazine and the longtime overseer of its Talk of the Town and Shouts and Murmurs sections. She joins the ranks of past presidents like Elihu Root, Louis Auchincloss and William Cullen Bryant, whose name adorns the nearby park.

The quietude surrounding Ms. Morrisons ascendancy, which has not been previously reported, belies the complicated question of gender at the Century, an enclave that prides itself as a sanctum for worldly conversation about the arts.
Over decades, several truths have emerged about United Nations peacekeeping forces. They can do immense good by separating combatants and pacifying civilian areas. They are, on occasion, guilty of sexual violence and financial corruption in the societies they have been sent to help. And increasingly, the troops are drawn from less wealthy countries, rather than the rich nations that finance the operations.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has focused on improving the peacekeepers performance in the challenging combat environments of host states like Mali and South Sudan. President Obama has committed the United States to supporting roughly 40,000 additional soldiers and police from 50 donor countries.

But a major task remains. The training, combat experience and relatively high salaries the peacekeepers from developing nations get can equip them to affect politics at home when they return. The United Nations needs to study and clarify what influence  for ill or otherwise  returning troops exert. The question applies in many countries and has gone unanswered for too long.

The current environment  many conflicts at once  has created a sellers market for peacekeepers, and many less developed countries have responded by letting the United Nations in effect rent their soldiers. Compared with previous decades, the average peacekeeper now comes from a country that is not just poorer but also less democratic and institutionally underdeveloped. Between 1994 and 2014 the average gross domestic product per capita of states providing peacekeepers has declined by 64 percent. Four of the five largest contributions currently come from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Rwanda; their large militaries play an outsize role in domestic and regional politics, including violence against civilians.
The very definition of Euro-power is up for grabs: For the French, as they intervene in Africa and the Middle East, it is military and political. For the Germans, power is as much economic as it is political, with an eastward focus toward Russia and its neighbors.

Looking ahead, the most perilous clash may be over the flood of Muslim refugees and other migrants. Last year, Germany, acting solo, invited more than a million while France took in  reluctantly  a few thousand. France wants to shut the Continents borders, while Germany wants Turkey to help bring in more refugees  a clash not over conscience as much as competing economic imperatives. Germany requires more workers, since its native population is aging at a rate second only to Japans. France, by contrast, lives with enormous unemployment  and a birthrate among Europes highest.

France has also recognized that its greatest social challenge is to integrate millions of Muslim French citizens into its secular society  a crisis of identity for both. That type of tension is something Germans have not worried about nearly as much. As Joschka Fischer, a former foreign minister, wrote last year in Vanity Fair, Angela Merkel governs a Germany where the sun shines every day, the dream of any politician democratically elected.

Until a few weeks ago, that is. The horrific culture clash in Cologne on New Years Eve, between a mob of Arab immigrant men and groups of young German women whom they assaulted, was a wake-up moment for many Germans  a hint that they cant remain forever a self-confident island in a sea of increasingly insecure neighbors. Yet Ms. Merkel still clings to Germanys open door for immigrants, even though that stance now isolates her from her German constituents as well as the rest of Europe. It also prolongs Europes inability to find a unified approach to the problem, most recently last week in Brussels at a failed summit meeting on the subject.

Last fall, Ms. Merkels signature advice for Germans was Wir schaffen das  Well make it. But now she is missing an opportunity to listen more closely to her newly traumatized citizens and to the jittery rest of Europe and invite France to narrow the gulf between them. Surely, if they tried, these two partners could find some middle ground between ignoring a threat and refusing to help innocent victims.

But this has not been an auspicious time for such collaboration. Even though radical Islam, mass migrations, Russian revanchism and military interventions are challenges that no European state can meet alone, political sentiments across the Continent are all in the wrong direction. Frightened Europeans retreat into their sovereign little states, propelled by the popular right and xenophobia. In Hungary and Poland, those forces have taken power. By 2017, they may well do so in France, and Britons may have quit Europe altogether. That would leave no nation in a position to take the reins from France or Germany in leading Europes imperfect union.

So what comes next? Can we reasonably believe Europe will snap out of it? Will there be a Franco-German turnaround in shamed memory of the slaughter at Verdun 100 years ago? I dont think so.
On Feb. 12, Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of J.N.U.s student union, was arrested on sedition charges. Mr. Kumar, who is from an underprivileged family in a nominally privileged caste, had recently given a speech at an event organized by a group of other students to mark the third anniversary of the hanging of Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, who was found guilty of being involved in the 2001 terrorist attack on Indias Parliament. Afzal Gurus execution and the Supreme Court judgment upholding his death sentence are still the subject of intense debate.

A bruising, high-voltage clash soon played out in the gladiatorial arena of news television. Prominent B.J.P. members declared that the government would not tolerate any anti-national activities, accused the students of having links to terrorists and called for closing J.N.U. NewsX broadcast footage which it claimed featured Mr. Kumar shouting Long Live Pakistan! and other purportedly seditious slogans. A TimesNow anchor harangued Umar Khalid, one of the students who had organized the event, calling him a secessionist and unpatriotic.

ABP News has since proved that these clips were doctored. Some participants in the event had indeed shouted, As many Afzals will rise from homes as the number of Afzals you murder and asked for Bharat ki Barbaadi, the destruction of India. But it is unclear whether it was students who made these statements, or outsiders trying to cause trouble for them. And Mr. Kumar wasnt among them.

In his speech, Mr. Kumar had said, We are of this country and love the soil of India. We fight for those 80 percent of this countrys people who are poor. He had called for azaadi, freedom, picking up a slogan long popular among Kashmiri separatists and women demanding greater rights. And he had attacked the B.J.P., the partys student wing and the R.S.S. as traitors to the nation.

Mr. Kumar had also talked about the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a dalit student at Hyderabad University who killed himself last month after enduring weeks of pressure. The university had stopped paying his stipend and suspended him over a political dispute between a group of dalit students, including Mr. Vemula, and a prominent right-wing student leader.
In one of the more pleasant surprises of this presidential campaign, young Americans are voting in big numbers, contributing to some unexpected results so far.

This is the first presidential campaign in which people age 18 to 29 make up the same proportion of the electorate as do baby boomers  about one-third. This year, the youth turnout for both parties in the primaries so far is rivaling 2008, the year of Barack Obamas first campaign. On Saturday, young voters turned out in far greater numbers in the South Carolina Republican primary than they did in 2008 or 2012 in that state, according to a study by Tufts Universitys Circle center. Donald Trump won the primary, with 32.5 percent of the vote, but young voters were the only group he didnt carry. Marco Rubio came in second with 22.5 percent, closely followed by Ted Cruz, with 22.3 percent. Both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump drew bigger share of the youth vote than Mr. Rubio.

The youth votes biggest beneficiary by far is Bernie Sanders, who filled venues in Las Vegas with cheering young admirers last week, after winning more than 80 percent of this group in both Iowa and New Hampshire. On Saturday young people made up 18 percent of voters in Nevadas Democratic caucus, five percentage points more than in 2008. Mr. Sanders again drew more than eight in 10 of these voters. Mrs. Clinton won Nevada with 52.7 percent, besting Mr. Sanders by 5.5 percentage points. But young people were largely responsible for closing what just a month ago had been a more than 20-point lead for her.

Many find it odd that the 74-year-old Sanders would have this appeal. But John Della Volpe wasnt surprised. Surveying young voters in November, Mr. Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Harvard Institute of Politics, noted that support for Sanders among potential voters age 18 to 29 had rocketed from 1 percent to 41 percent in about six months. Asked what they valued most in a candidate, young voters said integrity, level-headedness, and authenticity, in that order. Political and business experience were far down the list.
Mr. ODriscolls voice trailed off. Im tired and grumpy because Ive had three of these conversations today and in every one you have the same discussion, he said.

At start-ups small and large, theres still not enough caution, said Jim Breyer, a venture capitalist at Breyer Capital, who was one of the earliest investors in Facebook. Mr. Breyer predicts that over the next two years, 90 percent of the privately held companies valued at more than $1 billion will see their valuations fall.

For now, start-up entrepreneurs are operating much as they did during the recent boom times. Data from Jobvite, a recruiting service used by start-ups, show no drop in hiring activity or salaries in the San Francisco Bay Area. Well-appointed offices that look like photo shoots for Design Within Reach and perks like free Uber rides and in-house meals remain common at the companies.

The narrative of start-up comeuppance is in the air, but we havent seen a statistically significant change in food budgets, said Arram Sabeti, the chief executive of ZeroCater, which serves meals to tech companies.

In fact, the food from tech companies that goes uneaten is piling up. Two years ago, we picked up 15 tons of food a week and now were picking up 17 tons a week, said Mary Risley, whose group Food Runners in San Francisco distributes leftover office food to the citys homeless residents. She attributes the increase largely to start-ups.

At Instart Logic in Palo Alto, Calif., the company recently hired a sales executive to help drive an expansion, using money from a $45 million funding round last month.

Ive been reading a lot about a slowdown and asking myself about what it means, but we just closed a substantial round of funding, said Mr. Mital, characterizing his recent financing as one of the easiest fund-raisings weve had.
The moment you step through the door, enchantment envelops you. Flocks of Mason jars hang suspended, glowing with amber light. Bare branches sprout from walls in the orchestra or reach scraggy arms across the ceiling, almost into the balcony. Thunder rumbles under birdsong.

This magical environment is the world of James Ortizs The Woodsman, which uses puppets and actors, chorus and a lone violin (played by Naomi Florin) to reimagine the corner of L. Frank Baums Oz where the Tin Man came to be. This is what happened before he rusted, before that perky girl from Kansas fell from the sky.

This largely wordless play with music (the score is by Edward W. Hardy) has run twice in the past two years at 59E59 Theaters, and has filled out a bit in its latest incarnation at New World Stages. Directed by Mr. Ortiz and Claire Karpen, it makes a little more room for laughter and isnt in such a mad rush to tell its tale.

This is a more assured production than the one I saw a year ago, and the encompassing visual lushness of its environment is new. But a fundamental stumble  more on that in a bit  still keeps it from fully blossoming to life.
KALAMAZOO, Mich.  The shootings came out of nowhere, one after the other, and with no apparent connection.

A woman was shot multiple times as she stood in the parking lot of her suburban townhouse complex here in Kalamazoo County. A few miles away, and a few hours later on Saturday night, a man and his teenage son were killed outside a balloon-lined car dealership near a strip of fast-food restaurants. Minutes after that, along an interstate highway just outside Kalamazoo, four women were shot to death, and a teenage girl was gravely injured, as they sat in their cars outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

The authorities said a single gunman, Jason B. Dalton, a driver for Uber, was responsible for the night of terror, and investigators were looking into reports that he was ferrying his passengers before the attacks began and perhaps even in between some of the shootings.

One customer said Mr. Dalton took him on a harrowing ride around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, less than two hours before the shootings. Another said Mr. Dalton agreed to provide her a ride late Saturday, after the attacks were over.
Trump Isnt Going to Stop Himself

Donald J. Trump came into South Carolina with momentum after a big win in New Hampshire  and he seemed to try his best to undercut himself. He attacked George W. Bush, a popular figure in the state, for his handling of terrorism and the Iraq war. He repeatedly picked fights with the well-liked Gov. Nikki R. Haley. He held forth on national television about his friendships with Howard Stern and Michael Jackson.

All that may have cost him some support: Exit polls showed late-deciding voters were more likely to back other candidates. But Mr. Trump still finished 10 percentage points ahead of his nearest rivals.

Republicans have been frustrated by Mr. Trumps seeming imperviousness to the usual rules of politics. But after he blundered and blustered his way to victory in South Carolina, it is clearer than ever: Nothing short of a broad onslaught is likely to derail him.

Rubios Generational Change Seeks Buyer



Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has long declined to go after Mr. Trump, and he did not shift into attack mode on Saturday. But he drew an implicit contrast with the man who has defined the Republican race with his heated language about immigration and Islamic terrorism.
Jeb Bush, who entered the race last summer with more money behind him than every other Republican candidate combined, ended his campaign on Saturday with just $2.9 million in the bank and a fourth-place finish in South Carolina, a state the Bush family once considered a political stronghold.

Much of the donor classs money was spent on a shootout among its favored candidates. Groups backing Mr. Bush, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Kasich and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey devoted almost three-quarters of the money they spent on negative advertising to attacking those other candidates rather than Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz, according to the commissions data. The outside group aligned with Mr. Bush, Right to Rise, spent an astonishing $34 million in January alone, with little impact on Mr. Bushs own fortunes.

The establishment G.O.P. is lying to itself. This election at its core is a rejection of their globalist economic agenda and failed immigration policies  and of rule by the donor class, said Laura Ingraham, the conservative talk-radio host and political activist. Millions want the party to go in a more populist direction.

That proposition will be tested in the coming weeks, as Republican donors begin to organize more strategically against Mr. Trump. Our Principles PAC, a group devoted to highlighting his past support for Democratic positions like universal health care, higher taxes and abortion rights, is now spending significantly to persuade Republicans that Mr. Trump is not a reliable conservative.
Any doubts that Donald J. Trump has had a huge (as he might say) influence on the Republican Party were dispelled this month when Senator Rob Portman came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

There is no more respected member of whats called the Republican establishment: Senator Portman, an Ohio lawmaker, is a confidant of the Bush family, a runner-up vice-presidential pick in 2012 and a former United States trade representative.

But Mr. Portman is up for re-election, and Mr. Trump has changed the dynamics of the trade debate. Mr. Portman voted last year to give President Obama fast-track negotiating authority on trade agreements, which was intended to pave the way for pushing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership through Congress. But this month he said he was opposed to the agreement.

Republicans used to be the protectionist party. They wrote the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which raised tariffs on imports. After World War II, when the United States emerged as a global superpower, both parties essentially embraced the nations role as a leader in the worlds economic recovery.
KAMPALA, Uganda  The United States called for the release of Ugandas chief opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who has been under house arrest since Friday, before President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of a presidential election marred by widespread irregularities.

Mr. Museveni won last weeks vote with more than 60 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission; Mr. Besigye had 35 percent.

We call for his immediate release and the restoration of access to all social media sites, the State Department said Saturday evening. Delays in the delivery of voting materials, reports of pre-checked ballots and vote buying and excessive use of force by police had undermined the vote, it said.

The Ugandan people deserved better.

Mr. Besigye was arrested Friday after the police stormed his partys headquarters. He was there tallying votes, which his party said included wins at polling sites in Ugandas north, in Kampala and in other areas of the country. The election ran smoothly around the countryside, according to electoral observers, but not in Kampala, the capital, where opposition parties get much of their support. Voting there started up to seven hours late because the ballot papers were not available.
BANGKOK  The protesters built what looked like medieval ramparts topped with sharpened wooden stakes in the heart of Bangkok. The military was preparing to sweep them out.

As the sun was setting, I spotted Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol, a renegade who had defected to the protesters, and asked him what he would do next.

His peoples army would not back down, he said. The military cannot get in here.

Then came a loud crack, the sound of a snipers bullet breaking the sound barrier. General Khattiya collapsed at my feet.

One blink earlier he was answering my questions. Now he was slumped on the ground, his vacant eyes still open, as blood spilled onto his camouflage uniform. The world around me went into slow motion as I watched the general being dragged away by his supporters.
MARYINKA, Ukraine  Though overshadowed by the war in Syria, fighting in eastern Ukraine has picked up sharply in recent weeks, residents along the front line, commanders and European monitors say.

The resumption of hostilities in Ukraine, with exchanges of machine gun and mortar fire across the front line up to levels not seen since last summer, suggests a willingness by Russia, which supports the rebels in eastern Ukraine, to sustain two conflicts at once. In late September, Russia began airstrikes in Syria on behalf of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

A cease-fire took hold here in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and the government on Sept. 1, which was apparently coordinated with Russias military deployment in Syria.

But that truce is now unraveling, and Maryinka has become one of the new hot spots.

A week ago, we had shelling every two to three days, and mostly at night, Lt. Col. Mikhailo M. Prokopiv, the commander of Ukrainian Army troops in this town, said in an interview on Sunday while touring the front line. Now, not a day goes by when we dont fight.
LONDON  Prime Minister David Cameron faced another jarring reminder of the countrys deep divisions over whether Britain should stay in the European Union on Sunday when Mayor Boris Johnson of London, a fellow Conservative and one of the partys most popular figures, announced that he would join the forces campaigning to exit the bloc.

Mr. Johnsons defection highlighted the scale of the challenge Mr. Cameron faces in overcoming his countrys entrenched ambivalence about its ties to the Continent before Britons vote in or out in a referendum set for June 23.

Mr. Cameron returned to London from Brussels this weekend with a deal he says protects Britains special status within the European Union and provides some disincentives for immigration from other European countries, the most recent flash point in the long-strained relationship with the 28-member bloc. But his deal is a far cry from the proper, full-on change in Britains relationship with the European Union that he promised only last year.

Mr. Cameron has called this vote the most important in Britons lifetimes. But as is always the case with referendums, voters can make their choice on grounds well removed from the arguments of the elites. In this case, the outcome could hinge much less on Mr. Camerons deal than on how voters feel about any number of things: the European Union, British nationalism, immigration, the migrant crisis, nostalgia, racism, sovereignty or simply anger at the Conservative Party.
JERUSALEM  Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Sunday an agreement with Russia for an imminent, if provisional, partial truce in Syria, saying it largely awaited a conversation between President Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin to work out final details.

Mr. Kerrys announcement came at the end of a day of meetings in Jordan. Just hours after he spoke, multiple suicide attacks claimed by the Islamic State ripped through the central city of Homs and a suburb of the capital, Damascus, killing more than 100 people and wounding dozens. One of the attacks was in an area of Homs where many Alawites, the sect of Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, live and work. It was the target last month of another bombing claimed by the Islamic State.

It was the second time in 10 days that Mr. Kerry had announced a cessation of hostilities that would go into effect in days  a phrase that was carefully chosen to avoid all of the connotations of a full cease-fire. The first occasion was in Munich in the early-morning hours of Feb. 12. He said at the time it would go into effect a week later, which would have been last Friday. The interim time, he said, would be used to work out the modalities of the cease-fire, with the Russians responsible for getting the forces of Iran and Mr. Assad on board, and the United States for getting the agreement of the various disputatious opposition groups.

That deadline passed with no changes on the ground, except for the beginnings of deliveries of relief aid to five besieged Syrian towns. State Department officials later said the deadline was more a target to keep momentum going rather than a hard deadline, but in the days leading up to it, Mr. Kerry spoke frequently with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The two men are supposed to be the co-chairmen of a task force to put in effect the cessation of hostilities.
Sex

Sex Male 51% of voters Donald J. Trump 36 % 36 Marco Rubio 22 % 22 Ted Cruz 22 % 22 John Kasich 7 % Jeb Bush 7 % Ben Carson 7 % Female 49% of voters Donald J. Trump 29 29 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 22 22 John Kasich 9 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 8

Race and ethnicity

Race and ethnicity White 96% of voters Donald J. Trump 33 33 Marco Rubio 22 22 Ted Cruz 22 22 John Kasich 8 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 7 Black 1% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Hispanic/Latino 1% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Asian 0% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Other 2% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 

Income

Income Under $30,000 10% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  $30,000 - $49,999 17% of voters Donald J. Trump 33 33 Marco Rubio 20 20 Ted Cruz 27 27 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 5 $50,000 - $99,999 37% of voters Donald J. Trump 34 34 Marco Rubio 19 19 Ted Cruz 26 26 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 6 Ben Carson 8 $100,000 - $199,999 26% of voters Donald J. Trump 28 28 Marco Rubio 28 28 Ted Cruz 17 17 John Kasich 12 12 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 7 $200,000 or more 10% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 

Urban, suburban, rural

Urban, suburban, rural City over 50,000 23% of voters Donald J. Trump 23 23 Marco Rubio 31 31 Ted Cruz 18 18 John Kasich 12 12 Jeb Bush 10 10 Ben Carson 7 Suburbs 48% of voters Donald J. Trump 36 36 Marco Rubio 18 18 Ted Cruz 26 26 John Kasich 5 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 7 Small city and rural 29% of voters Donald J. Trump 34 34 Marco Rubio 22 22 Ted Cruz 20 20 John Kasich 8 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 8

College degree

College degree College graduate 54% of voters Donald J. Trump 25 25 Marco Rubio 27 27 Ted Cruz 20 20 John Kasich 10 10 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 8 No college degree 46% of voters Donald J. Trump 41 41 Marco Rubio 17 17 Ted Cruz 25 25 John Kasich 4 Jeb Bush 6 Ben Carson 6

U.S. military service

U.S. military service Yes 17% of voters Donald J. Trump 35 35 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 21 21 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 4 No 83% of voters Donald J. Trump 31 31 Marco Rubio 21 21 Ted Cruz 24 24 John Kasich 9 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 7

Political philosophy

Political philosophy Very conservative 38% of voters Donald J. Trump 29 29 Marco Rubio 19 19 Ted Cruz 35 35 John Kasich 3 Jeb Bush 5 Ben Carson 8 Somewhat conservative 43% of voters Donald J. Trump 35 35 Marco Rubio 25 25 Ted Cruz 17 17 John Kasich 6 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 7 Moderate 17% of voters Donald J. Trump 34 34 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 7 John Kasich 21 21 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 5 Liberal 1% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 

How worried are you about the direction of the nation's economy?

How worried are you about the direction of the nation's economy? Very or somewhat worried 97% of voters Donald J. Trump 33 33 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 21 21 John Kasich 6 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 8 Not too or not at all worried 3% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 

Education and race

Education and race White college graduates 52% of voters Donald J. Trump 25 25 Marco Rubio 27 27 Ted Cruz 19 19 John Kasich 11 11 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 8 White non-college graduates 45% of voters Donald J. Trump 42 42 Marco Rubio 17 17 Ted Cruz 24 24 John Kasich 4 Jeb Bush 6 Ben Carson 6 Nonwhite college graduates 2% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Nonwhite non-college graduates 2% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 

Party affiliation

Party affiliation Democrat 2% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Republican 76% of voters Donald J. Trump 32 32 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 24 24 John Kasich 6 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 6 Independent or something else 22% of voters Donald J. Trump 33 33 Marco Rubio 19 19 Ted Cruz 17 17 John Kasich 13 13 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 10 10

White evangelical or white born-again Christians

White evangelical or white born-again Christians White evangelical or white born-again Christian 67% of voters Donald J. Trump 34 34 Marco Rubio 21 21 Ted Cruz 26 26 John Kasich 5 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 7 All others 33% of voters Donald J. Trump 29 29 Marco Rubio 22 22 Ted Cruz 17 17 John Kasich 16 16 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 5

Age

Age 17-44 27% of voters Donald J. Trump 26 26 Marco Rubio 25 25 Ted Cruz 26 26 John Kasich 8 Jeb Bush 4 Ben Carson 10 10 45 and over 73% of voters Donald J. Trump 35 35 Marco Rubio 22 22 Ted Cruz 21 21 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 6

How much does it matter that a candidate shares your religious beliefs?

How much does it matter that a candidate shares your religious beliefs? A great deal or somewhat 76% of voters Donald J. Trump 31 31 Marco Rubio 22 22 Ted Cruz 27 27 John Kasich 6 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 8 Not much or not at all 24% of voters Donald J. Trump 35 35 Marco Rubio 20 20 Ted Cruz 11 11 John Kasich 19 19 Jeb Bush 11 11 Ben Carson 3

Which candidate would best handle Supreme Court nominations?

Which candidate would best handle Supreme Court nominations? Jeb Bush 11% of voters Donald J. Trump 12 12 Marco Rubio 8 Ted Cruz 5 John Kasich 3 Jeb Bush 64 64 Ben Carson 7 Ted Cruz 28% of voters Donald J. Trump 8 Marco Rubio 8 Ted Cruz 75 75 John Kasich 1 Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 7 John Kasich 10% of voters Donald J. Trump 6 Marco Rubio 7 Ted Cruz 3 John Kasich 78 78 Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 5 Marco Rubio 19% of voters Donald J. Trump 6 Marco Rubio 86 86 Ted Cruz 1 John Kasich 1 Jeb Bush 1 Ben Carson 6 Donald J. Trump 28% of voters Donald J. Trump 94 94 Marco Rubio 1 Ted Cruz 1 John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 3

How would you rate the importance of Gov. Nikki R. Haley endorsing Marco Rubio?

How would you rate the importance of Gov. Nikki R. Haley endorsing Marco Rubio? Important 25% of voters Donald J. Trump 17 17 Marco Rubio 45 45 Ted Cruz 20 20 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 4 Not important 72% of voters Donald J. Trump 36 36 Marco Rubio 14 14 Ted Cruz 24 24 John Kasich 9 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 8

Would you like the next president to:

Would you like the next president to: Have experience in politics 47% of voters Donald J. Trump 4 Marco Rubio 38 38 Ted Cruz 29 29 John Kasich 11 11 Jeb Bush 14 14 Ben Carson 4 Be from outside the political establishment 48% of voters Donald J. Trump 63 63 Marco Rubio 9 Ted Cruz 13 13 John Kasich 3 Jeb Bush 2 Ben Carson 11 11

Candidate quality that matters most

Candidate quality that matters most Can win in November 15% of voters Donald J. Trump 21 21 Marco Rubio 47 47 Ted Cruz 17 17 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 6 Ben Carson 2 Shares my values 37% of voters Donald J. Trump 8 Marco Rubio 27 27 Ted Cruz 34 34 John Kasich 10 10 Jeb Bush 10 10 Ben Carson 11 11 Tells it like it is 16% of voters Donald J. Trump 78 78 Marco Rubio 3 Ted Cruz 8 John Kasich 4 Jeb Bush 4 Ben Carson 4 Can bring needed change 31% of voters Donald J. Trump 45 45 Marco Rubio 16 16 Ted Cruz 19 19 John Kasich 7 Jeb Bush 8 Ben Carson 6

Issue that matters most

Issue that matters most Immigration 10% of voters Donald J. Trump 51 51 Marco Rubio 11 11 Ted Cruz 25 25 John Kasich 3 Jeb Bush 3 Ben Carson 7 Economy/jobs 29% of voters Donald J. Trump 36 36 Marco Rubio 24 24 Ted Cruz 15 15 John Kasich 13 13 Jeb Bush 7 Ben Carson 6 Terrorism 32% of voters Donald J. Trump 31 31 Marco Rubio 23 23 Ted Cruz 25 25 John Kasich 5 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 7 Government spending 26% of voters Donald J. Trump 25 25 Marco Rubio 25 25 Ted Cruz 25 25 John Kasich 8 Jeb Bush 9 Ben Carson 8

Which candidate would best handle the economy?

Which candidate would best handle the economy? Jeb Bush 10% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Ted Cruz 18% of voters Donald J. Trump 2 Marco Rubio 2 Ted Cruz 88 88 John Kasich  Jeb Bush 1 Ben Carson 7 John Kasich 9% of voters Donald J. Trump 2 Marco Rubio 18 18 Ted Cruz 8 John Kasich 65 65 Jeb Bush 2 Ben Carson 5 Marco Rubio 14% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio 93 93 Ted Cruz 1 John Kasich 1 Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 5 Donald J. Trump 45% of voters Donald J. Trump 72 72 Marco Rubio 10 10 Ted Cruz 8 John Kasich 1 Jeb Bush 2 Ben Carson 7

Which candidate would best handle an international crisis?

Which candidate would best handle an international crisis? Jeb Bush 19% of voters Donald J. Trump 22 22 Marco Rubio 18 18 Ted Cruz 10 10 John Kasich 5 Jeb Bush 39 39 Ben Carson 6 Ted Cruz 23% of voters Donald J. Trump 7 Marco Rubio 8 Ted Cruz 73 73 John Kasich 2 Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 10 10 John Kasich 7% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Marco Rubio 20% of voters Donald J. Trump 9 Marco Rubio 79 79 Ted Cruz 3 John Kasich 2 Jeb Bush 2 Ben Carson 5 Donald J. Trump 27% of voters Donald J. Trump 91 91 Marco Rubio 1 Ted Cruz 3 John Kasich 1 Jeb Bush  Ben Carson 4

Which candidate ran the most unfair campaign?

Which candidate ran the most unfair campaign? Jeb Bush 8% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Ted Cruz 33% of voters Donald J. Trump 54 54 Marco Rubio 24 24 Ted Cruz 8 John Kasich 6 Jeb Bush 5 Ben Carson 4 John Kasich 3% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Marco Rubio 8% of voters Donald J. Trump  Marco Rubio  Ted Cruz  John Kasich  Jeb Bush  Ben Carson  Donald J. Trump 39% of voters Donald J. Trump 11 11 Marco Rubio 29 29 Ted Cruz 33 33 John Kasich 9 Jeb Bush 10 10 Ben Carson 8

What should happen to most illegal immigrants working in the U.S.?

What should happen to most illegal immigrants working in the U.S.? Offered a chance to apply for legal status 53% of voters Donald J. Trump 22 22 Marco Rubio 31 31 Ted Cruz 18 18 John Kasich 10 10 Jeb Bush 11 11 Ben Carson 9 Deported to the country they came from 44% of voters Donald J. Trump 47 47 Marco Rubio 15 15 Ted Cruz 24 24 John Kasich 2 Jeb Bush 5 Ben Carson 6

Temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the U.S.

Temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the U.S. Support 74% of voters Donald J. Trump 41 41 Marco Rubio 20 20 Ted Cruz 23 23 John Kasich 3 Jeb Bush 6 Ben Carson 7 Oppose 24% of voters Donald J. Trump 13 13 Marco Rubio 33 33 Ted Cruz 16 16 John Kasich 18 18 Jeb Bush 13 13 Ben Carson 8

Decided whom to support
Lee County voters will head to the polls March 1 for the first-ever SEC primary. With presidential, federal and local primary races on the ballot, county election officials expect record voter turnout.

Alabama voters will join 14 other states on Super Tuesday, including Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. Lee Countys 90,000 registered voters will have the opportunity to vote in primary elections for Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, Republican U.S. senator and representative, Democratic senator, Lee County district attorney, Public Service Commission president, and associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Delegates for each presidential candidate, who are responsible for voting for their candidate at the convention in July, will also be on the ballot.

Though they will appear on the ballot for the November general election, no county commissioner or school board members will appear on the primary ballot, as all are unopposed in their parties.

In past years, Alabamas primary elections have been after the fact, Lee County Probate Judge Bill English explained, so fewer people came to vote.

We voted in June. The nominees were selected in March, he said.

Lee County saw its highest voter turnout in a presidential primary in March 2008, with 32 percent of registered voters turning out to the polls. Voters returned to the polls in June to vote in state, local and federal primaries.

Officials are estimating 35 to 40 percent voter turnout for the March 1 primary. Based on historical numbers and past hot races on the ballot, English said he expects between 32,000 and 38,000 Lee County voters to come to the polls.

Were so early, were still very much in play, English said. Were going to see more people turn out. Its potentially the biggest primary weve ever had in the presidents cycle.

The judge added Lee Countys Super Tuesday will look more like past gubernatorial primaries, which historically have boasted twice the turnout of presidential primaries.

This is a primary; this is how the parties choose their nominees, English said. This is not electing someone into office.

Voters must declare their party on primary day, and sample ballots for each party will be posted at each precinct. Voters who vote in one primary cannot vote in the opposite primary and are not permitted to vote in the opposite runoff, per the crossover rule.

The primaries are like Alabama and Auburn football, English said. You want to pick the best players for your own team. If youre also allowed to pick the players on the other team, youre going to pick the worst players for the opposing team, he explained.

The March 1 ballot will also feature a statewide constitutional amendment to add circuit clerks and district attorneys to state retirement. Voters who do not wish to declare a party can opt to vote just on the amendment on a third ballot style.

We may see a dozen county-wide, English said.

Election officials also expect to see a spike in the number of registered voters between the March primary and the November general election. Opposite of gubernatorial primary years, presidential years see the most voters during the general election.

There are people who vote for president who wont show up again for four years, English said.
Warren Whitted worked as a conductor for Norfolk Southern based in Irondale beginning with his hire in October of 2010. He was seriously injured in a non-work-related incident in June of 2011 and took a leave of absence. A Norfolk Southern Work Status Report was signed by Whitteds physician releasing him to return to work as a conductor, without restrictions or accommodations, on Oct. 3, 2011.

Despite the full medical release, Norfolk stated that it would not allow him to return to work and would need additional medical information specifically regarding Whitteds orthopedic condition. Norfolk sent Whitted to a physical therapist that provided the requested information and agreed with the other doctors that Whitted was able to work. Norfolk then sent Whitted, in January 2012, to a field test where the physical therapist and Trainmaster observed him successfully perform the essential functions required of his job as a conductor.

In March of 2012, Norfolks medical department suggested Whitted have a Functional Capacity Evaluation at Lakeshore Rehabilitation Center. In April 2012, Lakeshore gave Whitted the results of this test, which stated that he had passed.

In July 2012, Whitted was sent to Norfolks national training facility to again have his ability to perform evaluated and he demonstrated that he could adequately perform the job duties. Even though he was cleared by his orthopedic doctor to work, and by the physical therapist who observed him perform a field test, and by the doctors who performed his Functional Capacity Evaluation, Norfolk continued to refuse to allow Whitted to work.

In July of 2012, the medical department of Norfolk sent Whitted a letter stating that he could not come back as a conductor because he had a traumatic brain injury, and was thereby unable to safely perform the essential functions of the job. When Whitted attempted to apply for other open jobs with Norfolk s vocational rehabilitation department, he was consistently rejected for multiple jobs because of the same reasons that Norfolk used to keep Whitted from working his job as a conductor. In October of 2012, Whitted applied for a vacant position as a diesel mechanic, but was not even granted an interview.

This week, a final judgment order was entered in favor of Whitted in his federal court ADA lawsuit against Norfolk Southern in the amount of $396,521.95. The jury had originally awarded $10.6 million, which was reduced based upon the $300,000 judgment cap in Title VII. The jury made specific verdict findings that, Warren Whitted was regarded by Norfolk Southern as disabled and they refused to reinstate and they took that action because it regarded Mr. Whitted as disabled and that he did not pose a direct threat to Norfolk Southern, himself, or other employees.

Common Sense Counsel: With the advent of the ADAAA and the expansion of the definition of a disability, an employers best chance to defeat a disability discrimination claim may require the employer to show that the plaintiff was not a qualified individual. This case provides a model for how not to raise the unqualified defense in defending an ADA claim.

Tommy Eden is a partner working out of the Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP offices in Opelika and West Point, Ga., and a member of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law. He serves on the board of directors for the East Alabama SHRM chapter. He can be contacted at teden@constangy.com or 334-246-2901.
Emily Sue Hendricks Callan was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas on July 13, 1925. She entered heaven's gates on February 17, 2016 at Arbor Springs Health and Rehab in Opelika, Al. She was united in marriage to Capt. A.W. (Bill) Callan on February 16, 1946 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He preceded her in death on March 30, 2015. They were married 69 loving years. Prior to moving to Auburn in December 2014 to be closer to their family, they resided in Rogers, Arkansas and were members of First United Methodist Church. During World War II, Emily was employed as a telephone operator in Fort Smith, Arkansas. After the war, she met her future husband who spent the majority of his career in the U.S. Navy. When her husband retired, he joined the Aviation Management Department, as Assistant Professor at Auburn University also serving as a Faculty Advisor for Alpha Eta Rho. This gave Bill and Emily the opportunity to work with many wonderful students with whom they stayed in contact with throughout the remainder of their lives. Emily was best known for her loving compassion for family members and friends, always wanting to help others in need. Emily is survived by four daughters, Kitty Callan of Pensacola, FL, Patricia Smith and Becky Large (Don) of Auburn, AL, Janis Vestal (David) of Gulfport, MS and eleven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Emily will be buried alongside her husband at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo, AL. Frederick-Dean Funeral Home is directing. www.FrederickDean.com Funerals & Cremations Since 1900
KAMPALA, Uganda  The United States called for the release of Ugandas opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who has been under house arrest since Friday, before President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of a presidential election marred by widespread irregularities.

Museveni won last weeks vote with 60.75 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission; Besigye had 35.37 percent.

We call for his immediate release and the restoration of access to all social media sites, the State Department said Saturday evening. Delays in the delivery of voting materials, reports of pre-checked ballots and vote buying and excessive use of force by police had undermined the vote, it said. The Ugandan people deserved better.

Besigye was arrested Friday after the police stormed his partys headquarters. He was there tallying votes, which his party said included wins at polling sites in Ugandas north, Kampala, and other areas of the country.

The election ran smoothly around the countryside, according to electoral observers, but not in Kampala, the capital city where opposition parties get much of their support. Voting there started up to seven hours late because the ballot papers were not available.

Besigye rejected the electoral commissions results.

On Sunday, access to social-networking sites remained blocked. Equally critical, mobile-money services  the equivalent of using a debit card  also remained blocked.

Both Besigye, as well as another candidate, Amama Mbabazi, the second-most popular challenger, and until recently the prime minister, remained under effective house arrest. The head of the Ugandan military, Gen. Katumba Wamala, was also said to be under state scrutiny, after results showed Museveni had not performed well at polls at army barracks. A Uganda army spokesman said soldiers are free to choose anyone they want.

Democracy is on trial, Besigye said on Twitter, through a virtual private network.

Everything seemed so different last weekend. In elegant dress and sharp suits, the countrys elite rubbed shoulders and cameras followed candidates on the red carpet, as Ugandans watched their president publicly debate politics for the first time. There were several sharp exchanges, but the historic moment was heralded as metamorphic.

Since then, Besigye has been arrested four times, and at least two people killed and more 20 injured in rioting enveloped in tear-gas, clubs, and military berets.

The state can do even more, Museveni said, in response to clampdowns on communication. People who think the state is something to joke, that is just a test. He also hinted he would be ready to work with Besigye and Mbabazi, if they returned to his governing party, a sign that mediation from foreign powers could become effective.

As night fell on Sunday, so did the veil on communications, and underneath lay the silenced remains of Thursdays anguish.

I wll never vote agn, tweeted one voter who wrote that Besigye had 1,256 votes compared with 628 votes for Museveni at his polling site when the results were tallied Thursday. But the commission had said Museveni scored 827 votes and Besigye 260.

One screenshot posted to Twitter of results suggested that Museveni had scored 760 votes, compared with just two votes for Besigye, at a polling station with only 437 registered voters.

A video posted online showed voters at one polling site seemingly voting on torn rips of school notebook paper.

Voice stolen thru ballot stuffing & cheating, tweeted Winnie Byanima, the wife of Besigye, a political force herself, and director of the charity Oxfam.
IDOMENI, Greece  Macedonia closed its border to Afghan migrants early Sunday, Greek police said, slowing the admission of refugees to a trickle and leaving a growing bottleneck of people stuck at their shared border.

A Macedonian police spokeswoman denied there was any new prohibition regarding Afghans, blaming the problem on Serbia, the next nation along the Balkans migration route into Western Europe.

By early afternoon, about 1,000 migrants were waiting at the Greek border camp in Idomeni  and at a gas station only 11 miles away, 80 buses with 4,000 more migrants were waiting to take them to the border.

Greek police said Macedonia refused to let Afghans through because Serbia made the same decision and officials feared the migrants would get stuck in Macedonia.

The authorities of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia informed us that, beginning at dawn Sunday, they no longer accept Afghan refugees because the same problem exists at their border with Serbia, Petros Tanos, spokesman for Greek polices Central Macedonia division, told The Associated Press.

Despite the reports, about 500 migrants of all nationalities made the trek on foot from the gas station to the border Sunday.

I can no longer wait, said 17-year-old Ali Nowroz, one of the trekkers from the Afghan city of Jaghori Zeba. We have spent three nights in the cold, we are hungry. They told me that the borders have been closed to us. However, when I started from Afghanistan I knew borders were open for us. I am going to the Idomeni border crossing to find out and ask why they have closed it.

Since dawn Sunday, only 150 refugees from Iraq and Syria were allowed into Macedonia, on top of 310 allowed in Saturday.

At the border Sunday, two Macedonian and two Czech policemen were thoroughly inspecting the documents of Iraqi and Syrian migrants and would only let them pass if they had passports or ID cards. Previously, Macedonian authorities had accepted Greek police documents attesting that an individual had been processed.

Me and my brother have been waiting for three days here but we cannot cross because we have no passports, said Hadi Dakhil, a 25-year-old from the Iraqi city of Shingal. The Turks confiscated them and, without them, the Macedonian authorities will not accept us.

EU countries have sought to cap the influx of refugees after more than one million people entered in 2015. Nations along the entry route have agreed to jointly control the flow of migrants through their territories.

Macedonian police spokeswoman Natalija Spirova Kordikj told the AP that her country had not closed its borders to Afghans, saying nine had been admitted Saturday and one came through after midnight. Kordikj said it was Serbia that had stopped admitting Afghans.

At a migrant collection center in Tabanovce, on the Macedonian side of its border with Serbia, 617 Afghan refugees are waiting to be allowed into Serbia, Kordikj said.

A Serbian official, in turn, said the decision to block refugees from Afghanistan was made by Austria and Slovenia. Serbian Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Sunday that everyone can move in accordance with the rules set by Austria and Slovenia.

Serbia does not decide who can pass through its territory without consulting the states up the migrant route, he said. (Our) borders are open, Serbia has not closed its borders with Macedonia or Bulgaria in any way.

At the Idomeni refugee camp, Greek police prevented Afghan migrants from crossing the border, and back at the gas station, they persuaded some to board buses back to Athens, 540 kilometers (335 miles) away.

A high-ranking Greek police officer who insisted on anonymity said police were trying to avoid a pileup of rejected refugees that could lead to violence.

So far, the Afghan refugees are peaceful but frustrated.

I have been in the camp for two days, waiting to cross and continue my journey to Germany, said Masoud Jahangirg, 19. They informed us today that borders are closed to us and I wonder why. I dont know what to do. I can only wait. But why accept only the Syrians and the Iraqis and not us?
The proposed overhaul of the Civic Center in downtown Santa Ana going before the Orange County Board of Supervisors for discussion Tuesday would create a single super block of government buildings, with two possible funding options.

New details outlined in a county staff report show the Civic Center Master Plan includes demolishing and replacing every building on the block where county offices for the Health Department, Public Defender, Clerk Recorder, Treasury-Tax Collector and Board of Supervisors now sit. It also proposes two competing funding mechanisms, including a bond issuance that would not require voter approval.

Tuesdays meeting is a study session, and the board isnt voting on the project yet.

The county announced last week its proposal to replace and renovate some of the aging downtown Santa Ana office buildings, with an estimated price tag of $150 million for the first phase. County officials say the project would save money in the long run, huddle affiliated services closer together, and improve the delivery of services, but offered few details at the time about which buildings might be replaced and how the county would pay for the construction.

That changed Friday, when the county posted a board presentation clarifying some of those mysteries  including showing that the majority of the proposed four-phase Master Plan would impact a single square block southwest of the intersection of Ross Street and Civic Center Drive. By the projects fourth phase, five buildings could be demolished and replaced with offices for the countys public health and administration services.

The Board has approved an initial plan to replace Building 16  a vacant, dilapidated structure at 601 N. Ross St.  which represents the major change in the projects first phase. The larger proposal is still conceptual.

Tuesdays presentation lists two methods to fund the nearly $150 million Building 16 replacement. Under one rent-to-own option, developer Griffin Structures would build the facility with its own money and lease the property to the county until the rent has paid for the cost of the building. Under a second option, the county would fund the project with public-lease revenue bonds, a type of tax-free debt that doesnt require voter approval.

The report and county officials havent said how much the total project would cost.

Since its announcement the Civic Center Master Plan has drawn criticism from some local leaders, who say the county should focus on helping or housing the estimated 500 homeless people who camp on the civic center grounds before it begins a long-term construction plan. Supervisors Shawn Nelson and Andrew Do, who helped formulate the master plan, said the county could work concurrently toward addressing both issues.

The Board of Supervisors meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at 333 W. Santa Ana Blvd. in Santa Ana.

Contact the writer: jgraham@ocregister.com or 714-796-7960
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia continues to ripple across the legal and political worlds. The courts eight members are expected to produce 4-4 deadlocks on several important cases. For that reason, Republicans want President Obama to hold off on nominating a replacement so that the next president, who could be a Republican, could do so.

Democrats seek a replacement now who, if confirmed, would be more likely to be an activist on the bench in the mold of confirmed Obama nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The court still is deciding important cases on abortion, gun rights, free speech and Obamacare.

But for Californians, probably the most important case is Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, in which the lead plaintiff is Orange County teacher Rebecca Friedrichs. She and the nine other teacher-plaintiffs contend the CTA and other public-employee unions should not force employees to pay union fees for collective bargaining. A defeat for the unions greatly would reduce their power in the states, such as California, where they are the dominant force in politics. (The case would not affect private-sector union members.)

Any preliminary court votes or drafts of opinions by Mr. Scalia now are void, Ilya Shapiro told us; hes a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. The Friedrichs case is the biggest loss from my perspective, he said. Other big cases either affirm correct lower court rulings 4-4 or Scalia wouldve been in dissent, anyway. But were unlikely to know till June, when the court hands down its final cases for the current term.

In Friedrichs case, the Supreme Court could decide to delay a decision until the next court term, after the next president offers a replacement for Mr. Scalia. But a 4-4 decision by June would let stand the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with the CTA.

However, even that wouldnt be the end of the case. On Wednesday the Center for Individual Rights, which is representing Ms. Friedrichs and the other teachers, released a statement that promised it would file a motion for rehearing by the full court if a 4-4 decision is handed down.

We have backed Ms. Friedrichs and hope the court puts off a decision until the voters have their say on what sort of president they want nominating new justices.
Antonin Scalia was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan on June 17, 1986, and confirmed 98-0 by the Senate three months later. That approval was unanimous because Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders hadnt yet arrived in the Senate  and because Joe Biden wore himself out fighting Reagans elevation of William Rehnquist to chief justice.

President Obama, the youngest of the four Democrats, was still a Chicago community organizer who hadnt enrolled in law school when Scalia was appointed to the court. Mrs. Clinton was in Little Rock, doing triple duty as a mom, corporate attorney and first lady of Arkansas. Bernie Sanders was the socialist mayor of Burlington, Vt., hosting a public-access TV program, Bernie Speaks with the Community.

Today, that quartet  the incumbent president and vice president and the two candidates vying for their partys 2016 presidential nomination  are the face of the Democratic Party. When it comes to the Supreme Court, however, they are two-faced. Perhaps a better way of putting it is that these Democrats have demonstrated that they have two standards when it comes to judicial appointments: one for themselves, another for Republicans.

For a senator, thats not unusual. Republicans have been known to practice situational ethics. For a senator who wants to be president, its a potential pitfall. In other words, if Senate Republicans apply the standards for Scalias replacement used by Sens. Obama, Biden, Clinton and Sanders, the Supreme Court is going to have only eight members for awhile.

The seeds of this impasse were planted in 1981, when President Reagan surprised his own staff when his first high-court vacancy arose weeks after his inauguration. During the 1980 campaign, hed promised to name a woman to one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration. Taking him at his word, Reagans legal affairs team included 12 women lawyers among the 20 prospective names on their list.

Reagan never considered the men, and Sandra Day OConnor was chosen and unanimously confirmed. The Senates most conservative Republicans ignored grousing from the National Right to Life Committee and the Moral Majority. (Jerry Falwell said all good Christians should view the appointment with concern.) OConnors Arizona homeboy, Barry Goldwater, growled, Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass. And that was the end of it.

Or maybe, it was the beginning of the mess we have today. When Warren Burger stepped down as chief justice in Reagans second term, Reagan proposed elevating Bill Rehnquist, another Arizonan, and the courts most conservative member, as chief while simultaneously naming the 50-year-old Scalia to the vacancy.

Obsessed then, as now, with identity politics, Democrats shied away from challenging the first Italian-American appointee in court history. But led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, they went after Rehnquist in a bruising confirmation process in which they stopped just short of tarring Rehnquist as a racist. Although the effort to derail Rehnquist was doomed  the man was already on the court  31 Democrats and two liberal Republicans voted against him. Except for a Southern Republican nominated by Herbert Hoover and defeated by two votes, it was the strongest opposition to a Supreme Court nominee in the 20th century.

This was the beginning of the tribal warfare over the court that erupted the following year when Ted Kennedy led the Democrats in a fierce campaign against Reagans third nominee, Robert Bork.

Within hours of the White House announcement, Kennedy issued a statement infamous for its intemperance. Robert Borks America, he said, is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the government.

Democrats ultimately defeated Bork and derailed Reagans replacement, Douglas Ginsburg, and Reagan finally settled on Anthony Kennedy. When he left office, the star of the Reagan Revolution had appointed two moderates and a conservative to the high court. Movement conservatives hoped a revolution would produce a more dramatic result, but bigger problems came under Reagans successor.

George H.W. Bush appointed two justices, David Souter and Clarence Thomas. Souter turned out to be liberal. The narrowly confirmed Thomas proved a reliable conservative vote, but the attacks on him were so nasty and personal that his reputation never fully recovered. Neither has the process.

In those years, Alan Simpson, a prominent Senate Judiciary Committee Republican, warned that the Democrats scorched-earth tactics would jade and gall us for years to come. The eventual upshot, he predicted, would be nominees such as Jerome P. Sturdley.

Sturdley was an imaginary lawyer who had written little that was thoughtful, challenging or provocative and who would reveal nothing about his true views on constitutional law. It can be argued that Souter, who actually hid his views, and Thomas, who claimed to have never discussed Roe v. Wade, were the first two Sturdleys. There have been others. Modern presidents dont try to get an Earl Warren or Louis Brandeis. Todays model is the young Ivy League ideologue with little practical experience whos been toiling on the appellate bench issuing blandly partisan opinions.

The last four appointees, two by George W. Bush and two by Barack Obama, fit this model: John Roberts and Samuel Alito; Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. All four were confirmed comfortably, but a pattern has emerged. In each of those cases, significant numbers of opposition party senators voted against the nominee just because they differed with them politically.

Among those who voted against Roberts and Alito were Obama and Clinton. They tried to filibuster Alito. Sanders wasnt in the Senate yet, but he was running for his current seat during the Alito confirmation fight, and he opposed the nomination. Joe Biden? He voted against Rehnquist, Bork, Thomas, Roberts and Alito  and said publicly he deeply regretted voting for Scalia.

Obamas comments were particularly tin-eared for a person who hoped to be making those appointments in the future.

Obamas press secretary last week issued tepid regrets for the attempted filibuster, but this is the very definition of seeking cheap grace. Recognizing that trap, Hillary Clinton didnt go there. Shes sticking by her opposition to Alito and Roberts, asserting in Thursdays MSNBC town hall that she didnt believe their judicial philosophy and approach was one that would be the best for the country.

Repeating a White House talking point, Clinton added that the process worked  and that both nominees were in the end confirmed. Thats very different, she added, from Republicans just announcing they dont want Obama to nominate anyone.

On one level, shes right. But by that logic, actually filling Scalias vacancy necessitates Obama nominating someone whose judicial philosophy and approach is one that a majority of Senate Republicans would deem best for the country. So a bar has been set: Call it the Clinton standard. Does anyone believe Obama will meet it?

Staff opinion columnist Carl M. Cannon also is Washington editor of RealClearPolitics.com.
NEW YORK  The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the controversy over Senator Ted Cruzs birth status could become a perfect legal and political storm.

If the Texas Republican were born to two Americans in Houston, his natural-born citizenship would be beyond debate. Conversely, if he were born to two non-Americans in Havana, his natural-born non-citizenship would be indisputable. But as someone born to an American mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Canada, Cruz  at least for some  occupies a gray area.

This ambiguity means that one could argue that Cruz is constitutionally unqualified to become president of the United States. And Democrats sure can argue. So, if Cruz secures the Republican nomination, dont be surprised if  soon after the GOP Convention  Democrats in every state file lawsuits to block Cruzs access to the general election ballots.

Even though the majority of lawyers who have studied the issue think Cruz is on solid legal ground, there are some cracks of uncertainty in that ground, says one attorney familiar with this matter. That sliver of doubt is enough to launch a lawsuit, regardless of the outcome.

Thus, Republican lawyers will have to spend time, money and mental energy in courtrooms from coast to coast to dismiss these suits. Even if most judges believe Cruz is natural-born, it takes only a couple of narrowly partisan or majestically open-minded judges to agree to hear such cases, take testimony, weigh both sides arguments and noodle the matter for days or weeks. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton (if she is on the Democrat ticket rather than in jail) could avoid defending Obamas wreckage while, instead, Americans watch Republicans extinguish legal fires.

The worst-case scenario sounds preposterous  but so was the 2000 Florida recount.

Democrats may prevail in some cases. Republicans in others. Each of these decisions then could be appealed to higher courts. Ultimately, some state supreme courts and federal appellate courts could rule for and against Cruz.

And who referees when high courts disagree? The U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court  the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions  has never directly ruled on the citizenship provision for presidential office holders, Steve Contorno of PolitiFact observed last March. And that means a note of uncertainty remains.

After Justice Scalias unexpected death, the Supreme Court now is split evenly between four Democrat-appointed justices and four Republican-nominated jurists. So, if conflicting circuit-court decisions reach the eight surviving justices, and they deadlock 4-4, their tie vote would leave each lower courts decision intact. Could we see the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rule that Cruz is eligible to run, while the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco disqualifies him? Absent the Supreme Courts guidance, imagine voters in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas seeing Cruzs name on ballots while voters in Arizona, California and Montana would not find his name at the polls.

If Democrats deployed such a full-court press, Cruzs message could get lost amid a flurry of court decisions, appeals, amicus briefs and the relentless shouts of law professors, retired judges and pundits.

Eventually, some voters might conclude, fairly or unfairly: I just cannot support that Canadian. That could be Cruzs margin of defeat.

Consistent Democrats might realize that it would be unseemly to bring such a lawsuit after mercilessly mocking GOP birthers for so many years, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach tells me. But consistency has never been the Democrats strong suit.

Even Cruzs critics would concede that he is exceptionally well-spoken and possesses a disciplined mind rife with intriguing ideas. Cruz also is blameless for his birth in Calgary, Alberta; his father worked there in the petroleum industry. However, Cruzs claim that he is a natural-born citizen might be even stronger if he had renounced his Canadian citizenship long before May 14, 2014  just 21 months ago.

Still, to create havoc with this issue, Democrats need not be right. They just need to sue. And they will.

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a media fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.
The corporate tax inversion saga goes on. There have been 13 episodes of them over the last 16 months, the biggest of which was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer merging with Irish drug firm Allergan. Its relocation to Ireland will save the company billions in taxes, allowing it to better serve its customers, shareholders and employees.

Over the past 10 years, more than 50 U.S. companies have pulled a similar expatriation move to save money on taxes, put themselves in a better competitive position and defend themselves from possible takeover attempts. More will surely follow suit.

Those who criticize these companies as corporate deserters or unpatriotic should look closer to home to grasp the real reason why inversions are occurring. More than 65 percent of Americas Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware even though an overwhelming majority are not operationally based there. There are more than 1.1 million corporations currently operating in Delaware, a state with only about about 935,000 residents. In 2014, almost 90 percent of U.S.-based Initial Public Offerings chose Delaware as their home.

This isnt mere coincidence. Delaware has made it a legislative priority to update the states corporate incorporation laws and maintain low corporate tax rates. The Delaware General Corporation Law, for example, is among the most flexible pieces of legislation for business creation in the country. And Delaware collects no out-of-state corporate taxes  business incorporation fees make up the states second largest source of revenue, so its easy to understand why Delaware places a premium on fostering a business-friendly environment.

Yet business leaders arent faulted for incorporating their businesses in Delaware instead of U.S. states with burdensome regulations and high corporate tax rates. For that matter, retirees arent faulted for moving to Florida to take advantage of its (tax) climate. But when these same motivations cause companies to go overseas, many are blinded to the very obvious reasons why they do so.

Other states are now following in Delawares footsteps. In 2014, Texas lured Toyota to move its North American headquarters from California to Plano with the Lone Star States favorable tax climate. In 2015, Mercedes-Benz USA pulled off a similar move from New Jersey to Georgia due to the Peach States lower tax rates. And just last month, Massachusetts saw General Electric move its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Boston to take advantage of more business-friendly regulations.

State policymakers seem to be getting the memo, but the federal government is not. Americas effective corporate tax rate hovers around 35 percent  the highest of all developed countries  while Ireland is embracing companies like Johnson Controls with a flat 12.5 percent rate. And U.S.-headquartered companies that do business overseas face double taxation, whereby they are taxed on their profits abroad and then again in the United States. This puts them at an unfair disadvantage with their foreign competitors who can invest their global profits in the U.S. without paying Americas taxes first.

This has prompted American companies to stash roughly $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid a double tax bill  which means this money isnt being invested at home.

Washington policymakers should look to Delawares General Corporation Law as a pro-business model that could incentivize companies to stay (and come) to the U.S. Forcing higher taxes and extra mandates on companies trying to compete in todays economy is anything but smart government policy  and it allows Ireland to play the role of Delaware in the global market.

To reverse this inversion trend, American corporate tax rates must be brought in line with international norms and double taxation must end. In other words, rather than reacting with their hearts, American policymakers must address the inversion problem with their heads.

America has long prided itself as the home of free enterprise. But the governments policies are holding the business community hostage  and overseas.

Alfredo Ortiz is president and CEO of Job Creators Network.
SAN FRANCISCO  Protesters are preparing to assemble in more than 30 cities to lash out at the FBI for obtaining a court order that requires Apple to make it easier to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a gunman in Decembers mass shootings in San Bernardino.

The protests organized by the Internet rights group Fight for the Future are scheduled to occur Tuesday outside Apple stores in the U.S., the U.K., Hong Kong and Germany.

The U.S. protests will be in cities scattered across more than 20 states, including in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, where protesters plan to express their discontent outside the FBIs headquarters.

The gatherings will come a week after the FBI went to court to force Apple to weaken the security built into most iPhones to help a terrorism investigation in San Bernardino. The FBI wants Apple to remove a feature that erases the information stored on an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to enter a password, preventing unauthorized users from accessing the device.

The iPhone that the FBI is trying to examine was used by Syed Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people in December.

Apple is fighting the court order issued in the case, arguing that the special software sought by the FBI could be used to break into millions of other iPhones. The FBI contends Apple is exaggerating the security risks of complying with the court order in a marketing ploy aimed at selling more iPhones.

Fight for the Future believes Apples concerns are warranted and is hoping the protests will persuade the Obama administration to take a stand against the way the FBI is trying to break into Farooks iPhone, said Evan Greer, the groups campaign director.

The White House so far has stood behind the FBI in its battle with Apple Inc.
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.  The U.S. Air Force said an unarmed Minuteman 3 missile has been launched from Californias central coast in the latest test of the intercontinental system.

The missile blasted off at 11:34 p.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles.

There was a slight delay due to some instruments downrange but it went within the launch window, said Carla Pampe, chief of civic outreach for Air Force Global Strike Command.

The Air Force said the missile carried a test re-entry vehicle that headed for a target area 4,200 miles away to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The Air Force routinely uses Vandenberg to test Minuteman missiles from bases around the country.

While ICBM launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base almost seem routine, each one requires a tremendous amount of effort and absolute attention to detail in order to ensure a safe and successful launch, Col. J. Christopher Moss, 30th Space Wing commander, said in a press release. This specific test will provide accuracy and reliability data that is essential to on-going and future modifications to the weapon system, which are key to improving the already impressive effectiveness of the Minuteman III force.

This test involved personnel from Vandenbergs 576th Flight Test Squadron and the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, and the 91st Missile Wing, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
LONDON  Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the most charismatic figures in British politics, threw his considerable influence behind the push for a British exit from the European Union on Sunday, instantly galvanizing the campaign and potentially tipping the country toward a vote to leave in a June referendum.

The decision to defy Prime Minister David Cameron, a fellow Conservative, represents a personal gamble and a major coup for the leave camp, which has been riven by bickering factions and has lacked a high-profile, broadly palatable advocate.

Although Johnson had long been coy about his intentions, the conventional political wisdom in Britain only days ago was that the mayor ultimately would take the safe bet and side with staying in. But the ever-unpredictable Johnson exploded that belief on Sunday afternoon when he walked out the front door of his gray-brick row house in north London, and announced he would call for Brits to cut ties with the EU

I dont think there is anything else I can do, he said. I will be advocating Vote Leave because I want a better deal for the people of this country, to save them money and take back control.

The mop-haired mayors announcement adds a new layer of meaning to a referendum already heavily laden with consequence. When Britons vote June 23, the ballot will ask simply whether the country should stay in the EU or go.

But also at stake will be the future of the 28-member bloc, the viability of the United Kingdom itself and Britains standing as Washingtons closest and most important ally.

Now, the keys to 10 Downing Street could be on the line, as well.

Johnson, 51, denied Sunday that his EU call had anything to do with his at times barely-concealed ambitions to hold the top job in British politics. In answer to reporters questions he insisted that Cameron has got to stay as prime minister even if the country chooses Brexit.

But if Johnson ends up leading the country out of Europe, persuading a majority of British voters to ignore the prime ministers passionate call for the country to stay in, there almost certainly will be intense pressure on Cameron to step down. And Johnson, having seized the populist moment, would be uniquely positioned to take his place.

Cameron once named Johnson as one of three possible successors after Cameron steps down, as planned, before the end of his second term in 2020; the other two have both backed the in campaign.

Johnson was the last remaining major British politician to reveal his stance on the EU vote, with all the others having declared their intentions Saturday  when Cameron officially announced the referendum date  or long ago. In keeping with Johnsons reputation for high-profile stunts and ego-enhancing maneuvers, he kept both sides guessing throughout Sunday  and forced both to plea for his backing.

Cameron took to the BBC on Sunday morning to ask that Johnson carefully consider the impact of his choice.

I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU Cameron told host Andrew Marr.

But perhaps anticipating that the mayor had already locked in his decision to side with leave camp, Cameron also took some digs at Johnson, musing about whether the mayor wanted to be linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway  prominent EU critics who inhabit, respectively, the far-right and far-left extremes of British politics.

Until Johnsons announcement, only relatively marginal political figures had taken up the cause of a Brexit. The choice to cut ties with Europe is more popular at the grass-roots of British politics than it is among elected officials. Recent opinion polls show that the in and out camps are effectively tied.

Thats a striking shift from the landscape only months ago, when a clear majority of Brits seemed to favor staying in the union that has defined the postwar political and economic order on the continent.

But Europes struggles with the refugee crisis, its persistent economic malaise and its long-standing pattern of dysfunction have all contributed to rising dissatisfaction among Brits  and a growing desire to sever a decades-long relationship.

The consequences of such a choice would be felt globally. Britain has long been an ambivalent member of the EU, deeply skeptical of political integration and refusing to go along with major initiatives such as the common currency and the passport-free Schengen zone.

But it is also one of the unions cornerstone members, with a seat at the U.N. Security Council, a nuclear arsenal and the worlds fifth largest economy. The countrys departure could cause the EU to crumble at a time when it is already inundated with crises and facing rising Euroskepticism continent-wide.

Britains EU partners have all pleaded for the country to stay, as has the United States. President Barack Obama has said that the EU and Britain are better off with the country inside the bloc. U.S. officials have suggested that British influence would be vastly diminished if the country chooses to get out, threatening the special relationship between the two nations.

The United Kingdom itself could be vulnerable to a breakup if the country votes to leave the union: Scotland is considerably more pro-EU than England, and Scottish leaders have said they will revive a call for independence should Britain opt to leave. A referendum on independence two years ago went down to a relatively narrow defeat.

Cameron has staked his legacy to settling both of Britains great existential questions  one country or two, part of Europe or not. In both cases, he has favored the status quo.

But now Johnson, whom critics regard as a craven opportunist, could disrupt those plans.

A recent poll by Ipsos Mori sheds light on why his endorsement of the out camp matters: A third of British voters said they would take Johnsons views into account when making up their minds on the EU (And 44 percent said the same about Cameron.)

A gifted communicator, Johnson has cultivated a bumbling, gaffe-prone public persona that has somehow worked to his advantage, making him relatable to voters outside the London political bubble and diverting attention from his thoroughly upper-crust English background. Less charming politicians might find themselves in a bit of trouble if they got stuck dangling from a zip-line during the Olympics or had flattened a 10-year-old boy during a rugby match in Japan. But Johnson has a unique way of disentangling himself from mishaps both large and small.

His eight-year tenure as mayor of London has received mixed reviews  aides say that he is often disengaged and distracted by his roles as an author, newspaper columnist and television personality  but that he is a colorful character who stands out from other identical politicians.

Still, hitching his wagon to the leave camp could be a big gamble. If Britain votes to stay in the EU, Cameron could revoke his offer to give Johnson a top Cabinet job when he steps down as mayor in May.

On Saturday, six of Camerons senior ministers came out in favor of Brexit, including his close friend, Justice Secretary Michael Gove.

But unlike Gove, a Euroskeptic of long-standing, Johnson has a complicated history of views on Europe that have at times appeared to sway with the political winds.

Tim Farron, leader of the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, took aim at that inconsistency on Sunday, saying, Boris has had more positions on Europe than the Kama Sutra.

In Johnsons column for the Daily Telegraph earlier this month, he seemed torn. He summed up the case for and against an exit like this:

Britain in the EU good, in so far as that means helping to shape the destiny of a troubled continent in uncertain times, while trading freely with our partners. Britain in the EU bad, in so far as it is a political project whose destiny of ever-closer union we dont accept and whose lust to regulate we cant stop.

He also made it clear that he wasnt bowled over by the reforms that Cameron was negotiating with Europe to boost British sovereignty. Are we talking bazooka or popgun? he asked.
MONROEVILLE, Ala.  The author of the America classic To Kill a Mockingbird was laid to rest Saturday, in a private ceremony attended by only the closest of friends and family, a reflection of how she had lived.

Harper Lee, who died Friday at age 89, was eulogized at a church in the small Alabama town of Monroeville, which the author used as a model for the imaginary town of Maycomb, the setting of Lees Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

A few dozen people who comprised Lees intimate circle gathered at the First United Methodist Church to hear a eulogy Saturday by her longtime friend and history professor, Wayne Flynt. Afterward, her casket was taken by silver hearse to an adjacent cemetery where her father, A.C. Lee and sister, Alice Lee, are buried.

Flynt, a longtime friend of Lee, said he delivered a eulogy that Lee specifically requested years ago. Entitled, Atticus inside ourselves, the eulogy was written by Flint for a speech that he gave in 2006 as a tribute to Lee when she won the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for racial justice.

Flynt said Lee liked the speech so much that she wanted him to give it as her eulogy.

I want you to say exactly that, Flynt quoted Lee as saying at the time. Not one thing more, and not one thing less.

If I deviated one degree, I would hear this great booming voice from heaven, and it wouldnt be God, Flynt said in an earlier interview.

Details of the service were fiercely guarded. Lee had wanted a quick and quiet funeral without pomp or fanfare, family members said.

We obeyed her wishes, said Jackie Stovall, Lees second cousin.

The town was appropriately somber a day after their native daughters death.

Ann Mote, owner of the Ol Curiosities & Book Shoppe in Monroeville, said she thinks the town will always be linked to Lee.

Jared Anton, of Hollywood, Fla., sat outside the old courthouse in Monroeville during part of planned vacation through the South that coincided with Lees death.

Anton said reading the book  in which attorney Atticus Finch defends a wrongly accused African-American man  was one reason he decided became a lawyer.

It had an impact on me when I was younger. I wanted to do the right thing, to stand up to people, to defend the innocent if you will, Anton said. It is the greatest American novel. Name one that really has had more of an impact on Americans than that book.

Mockingbirds chirped and frolicked among blooming camellia bushes outside the courthouse on a warm Alabama morning that teased the early arrival of spring.

The courthouse was where Lee as a child, like her creation Scout Finch, would peer down from the balcony as her father tried his cases in the courtroom. The southern town was home to childhood friends Truman Capote and Lee, giving rise to its self-given nickname of the literary capital of the South.

Shes a part of it and always will be, said Mote.

Tributes to Lees novel dot the town. The courthouse is a museum that pays homage to her creation. Theres the Mockingbird Inn on the edge of town and a statute of children reading, Mockingbird in the courthouse square.

Tickets for the citys annual Mockingbird play go on sale in a week for the citys annual To Kill A Mockingbird play, Mote said. A black mourning bow donned the top of the sign at the bookstore, where a stack of hardcopy Mockingbird books sat the counter along with a DVD of the movie.

The town this summer had a celebration for the release of Go Set a Watchman  Lees initial draft of the story that would become Mockingbird  even though many residents had ambivalent feelings about its release.

Lee was largely unseen in her hometown in recent years, as she first sought privacy and then was secluded at an assisted living home. Security guards would shoo away the inevitable mix of reporters, curious onlookers and old acquaintances who were not on her list of approved visitors.

You would see her around, but still we would honor her wishes of being a very private person. The impact from now forward, I think for the next few weeks well have an influx of people in here just looking around and at some point  like when anybody passes away  at some point it just returns back to normal, said Tim McKenzie, chairman of the museums board of directors who also acts in the play.

McKenzie said the best way fans can honor the authors memory is by applying the values in Mockingbird to the way they treat others.

That story, Im glad its in just about all the schools now because its a story that everybody needs to hear, he said. If you adhere to the values she put in that book, if everybody did, wed be living in a much better world.
NEW YORK  About 10,000 supporters of a former police officer convicted of fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell rallied in New York in one of several demonstrations held across the country Saturday to protest his conviction.

Peter Liang, who has said the shooting was an accident, was convicted of manslaughter this month in the death of Akai Gurley, who was fatally shot in 2014 inside a New York City public housing building.

Many of Liangs supporters say he is being scapegoated because of anger over other police shootings in New York and across the country and that he has been treated unfairly because he is Asian-American.

The protest in Brooklyn was one of more than 30 held around the U.S., organizers said. About 2,000 people marched in Philadelphia, and hundreds gathered at smaller rallies from Phoenix to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The events were organized by the Coalition of Justice for Liang, a national group formed to support the officer.

No scapegoat! No scapegoat! protesters in New York shouted as the crowd descended on Cadman Plaza, just outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. They carried signs declaring Liangs prosecution selective justice.

The 28-year-old Liang, who was fired immediately after a jury convicted him, faces up to 15 years in prison.

He testified that he fired his gun after being frightened by a noise. Prosecutors argued that Liangs actions were reckless and he shouldnt have had his gun out or the finger on the trigger. They also said he did nothing to help Gurley as he lay dying on the floor.

Were here today to let people know that Chinese-Americans count as well, said protester Don Lee, a candidate for New Yorks state Assembly from lower Manhattan.

Lee added, It is a tragedy that Akai Gurley was shot and killed.  But this tragedys been compounded by another tragedy, that Peter Liang, in an accident, is going to go to jail for up to 15 years.

A few dozen people held a counter-protest in New York on Saturday, held across the street from the larger protest as officers with plastic handcuffs and batons stood between them.

Soraya Soi Free participated in the counter-protest. She argued that Liang was clearly not a scapegoat because he was tried by a jury of his peers, and she did not approve of the protest supporting him.

This protest is definitely an insult to Akai Gurleys family, she said.

Liang was convicted Feb. 11 on manslaughter and official-misconduct charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.

Liangs attorney, Robert Brown, attended the Brooklyn rally and said the communitys support was very uplifting to Liang.

Brown said he is making motions to have the verdict set aside.

The shooting happened during a year of nationwide debate over police killings of black men. Activists have looked to Liangs trial as a counterweight to cases in which grand juries have declined to indict officers, including the cases of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Like Gurley, Brown and Garner were black and unarmed. Liang is Chinese-American.

Besides the protests in New York, Philadelphia and Michigan, organizers said rallies took place in dozens of other cities in the U.S. Saturday including Los Angeles and San Francisco.
GREENVILLE, S.C.  A photograph posted on a website by Ted Cruzs presidential campaign last week appeared to show his rival, Marco Rubio, shaking hands with the dreaded Democratic president, Barack Obama.

The picture, though, was a fake  a crude Photoshop image of Rubios head posted on another persons body.

This is how phony and how deceitful the Cruz campaign has become, Rubio adviser Todd Harris told reporters here, alleging that Cruz has created a culture of lies.

In the Republican presidential contest, 2016 has become the year of the liar.

Once considered the semantic equivalent of tossing a grenade, use of the word has become routine among Republicans vying for the presidential nomination and their staff members. Candidates accuse one another of lying. They defend themselves from accusations of untruths. During the last Republican debate, liar or some variant was used at least 20 times.

For a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies, Rubio said during the debate. He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lies about Planned Parenthood. He lies about marriage. Hes lying about all sorts of things.

The language this year, including the liar tag, seems notably coarser than in past election cycles. Hearing words once considered off-limits is no longer strange.

I certainly cant recall anything like what were hearing now, said Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Among the many rough words and phrases used by GOP candidates to describe their opponents this cycle are jackass and unstable. But liar seems to have the most staying power.

Its clearly a blow to the civility of the election discourse, said William Mayer, a professor of political science at Northeastern University.

Rarely a day goes by now that the word is not used. Frustrated by the tenor of the debate, the conservative Weekly Standard wrote that the candidates should try a new variation of Ronald Reagans famous 11th commandment that thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican.

The Republican presidential field could at least try to observe a twelfth commandment: Thou shalt avoid calling ones fellow Republican a liar, the magazine wrote.

For the most part, the epithet has been hurled against Cruz, who is in a heated race for second place here with Rubio and has faced repeated accusations of lying from both Donald Trump and Rubio.

He is a liar, Trump said of Cruz in a statement released Wednesday. Pointing at Cruz during the debate Trump said, You are the single biggest liar.

At a rally Friday in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Trump went after Cruz again.

This Ted Cruz, this is the biggest liar, he said. . . . Even Marco Rubio said hes a liar . . . This guy, Ted Cruz, is a liar.

Trump has also uncorked the word on former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Id like to call JEB a liar, but the truth is he has no clue & never revealed that he used Eminent Domain  when criticizing me! Trump wrote on Twitter.

Politicians calling one another a liar has happened in the past.

Prior to the current race, perhaps the most well-known use of the liar charge by a politician came in 2009, when Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., yelled you lie! at President Obama during the State of the Union address. Wilson was booed and formally rebuked by the House in a vote that fell largely along party lines; he refused to apologize.

Using the word once had far more dire consequences: a duel. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, in 1827 Henry Conway, who was running for reelection to Congress, called Robert Crittenden, the acting governor of the state, a liar in a published letter. The two men had a duel and Conway died from his wounds 11 days later.

When asked about use of the word liar, Cruz supporter and House member Steve King, R-Iowa, said: Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton fought a duel to the death over such allegations, and now we have them hurled out as if making that allegation somehow makes it true and makes it stick.

Mayer said calling someone a liar raises the stakes and implies something harsher than simple disagreement.

Im implying very different things about an alternative candidate if I say youre lying or I disagree with you or youre mistaken,  he said.

Richard D. Anderson Jr., a professor of political science at the University of California at Los Angeles who has studied political linguistics, said the tone has something to do with the dynamics of the race, including the publics distrust of career politicians.

The word liar, Anderson said, is evoking peoples anger and unhappiness with fellow politicians.

Rubio has long accused Cruz of distorting the truth, but the Florida Republicans campaign said the argument has only broken through this week as Rubio and Trump have focused on it. Trumps accusation at the debate that Cruz is a liar amplified the message before a broad audience like never before.

Hes lying  and I think its disturbing, Rubio told reporters this week before hopping on his campaign bus in Beaufort, S.C.

Rubio added: Just here in South Carolina this week, hes lied about my record on Planned Parenthood, hes lied about my position on marriage, hes lied about his own record on immigration, and so I think this is very disturbing when you have a candidate that now, on a regular basis, just makes things up. And especially in this era where everything is out there and everything is seen and instantly reacted to, you cant get away with that stuff.

Jason Miller, a spokesman for Cruz, said the word liar has become the only message from Trump or Rubio.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, R, when asked whether the pervasive use of the word would turn off voters, said people here know how to cut through the mud of this states rough-and-tumble campaigning.

When you come to South Carolina, its a blood sport, she said. I wear heels, its not for a fashion statement. Its because youve got to be prepared to kick at any time.

But some voters dont like it. When asked about the use of the word liar, Carrie Williford, 37, from Greer, S.C., who was attending a Cruz rally in Spartanburg, made an annoyed face.

The word is overused, she said. It sounds like fifth grade schoolyard type stuff.
My husband and I didnt know quite what to expect as a petite woman in neon green scrubs escorted us to a small tent.

Waiting at a folding table was a gray-haired plastic surgeon from Los Angeles in a white lab coat. Large headphones covered his ears, and he was snacking on nuts.

What is your condition? he asked without making eye contact. His pen was poised above a medical marijuana referral form.

I was about to experience firsthand a process the state is working to reform: how Californians get medical marijuana cards.

I didnt intend to test the system, which has remained largely unregulated in the 20 years since voters approved medical marijuana. But it was my first week on the job as the Registers first pot reporter, and I was intent on covering High Times magazines Cannabis Cup.

I knew going into the San Bernardino festival that a medicating area would be restricted to medical marijuana cardholders. Within minutes, however, we discovered that all 300 vendors showing off the latest cannabis industry products and even the food trucks were in that cordoned-off area. The rest of us were limited to attending a concert that wouldnt start for hours and a sparsely populated seminar room.

Then we noticed The Green Doctors, a Venice-based business that had set up a mobile clinic just inside the festival.

Out front was a sign suggesting ailments that might merit a medical marijuana referral. It included migraines, which Ive suffered from since high school, and insomnia, which my husband battles after 20 years in the nightlife industry.

We asked a clipboard-wielding man who was buzzing around the entrance how much it cost to get a card. He said $20 for the exam and $25 for the card.

We handed over our drivers licenses and each received a two-page form. It had some biographical questions. Then there was space to list health conditions weve had for six months that we felt might be helped by the use of cannabis.

Soon, we were at the table with the doctor. Within a minute, he had signed referrals for us both.

He didnt ask follow-up questions about our conditions. And the doctor didnt offer advice as to how we might treat those maladies, such as what type of cannabis would best ease my migraines or how much my husband should consume to help him sleep.

Broader concerns about the industrys vetting procedures inspired portions of Senate Bill 643, authored by Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg. The bill, one of three being rolled out as part of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, requires the state Medical Board to prioritize discipline of physicians who have repeatedly recommended excessive cannabis or cannabis without a good faith examination.

My husband and I didnt realize when we left the doctors table that our exam was over.

We were ushered to a second roped-off area in front of another tent. We expected more medical questions or maybe a physical check. We waited. Then we waited some more.

The crowd of mostly young men in the holding area was getting restless. The scent of marijuana and lure of music from the medicating area kept reminding those still on the outside what they were missing.

After nearly two hours, it was our turn to head into the second tent.

Lucy Khalil, general manager of The Green Doctors, was waiting with a white lab coat on. She told us it was $80 for a three-month referral or $160 for a year. She also encouraged us to splurge for a $25 photo ID card, assuring us it would be the best thing to show police if we were ever stopped.

We told her we had been quoted a price of $45 out front. She insisted we must have misunderstood the man with the clipboard due to his accent.

My husband decided it wasnt worth it and asked for his ID back. Khalil said fine, but it would still be $40 for the exam.

Dozens of online Yelp reviews and a Better Business Bureau complaint by people claiming to have been customers of the Venice Beach shop raised bait and switch concerns, claiming sidewalk hawkers quoted them a price of $40 that more than doubled before they had cards in hand.

Khalil later told me The Green Doctors has never engaged in misleading pricing or promotion practices.

McGuires bill, which took affect Jan. 1, includes a ban on deceptive advertising.

Khalil pointed out that her clinic has to pay to participate in events such as Cannabis Cup. She declined to share the cost or how much money The Green Doctors made during the five-day festival.

My husband and I had a choice. We could each be out $40 and two hours or spend another $40 and step into the heart of Cannabis Cup.

We forked over our debit card. Khalil handed us our drivers licenses, a list of potential cannabis side effects and certificates with gold foil seals. She quickly secured paper wristbands and set us free to enter the medicating area.

Inside, dispensaries were offering free bong hits and marijuana-infused gummy bears. I didnt partake, instead collecting quotes and story ideas.

A Santa Ana dispensary owner I spoke with later laughed when I told him how much we had paid. He showed me the website HelloMD, where a video chat with a doctor can get you a 12-month card for $49.

He also chuckled about the exam process, saying its essentially just a formality at this point. Whether California voters approve recreational marijuana use as expected in November isnt as big a deal as some suggest, he added. Its basically already legal.

Khalil noted that state law leaves referrals to a physicians discretion. This is just about a doctors opinion, she said.

And to be fair, patients share similar stories about how easy it is to get prescriptions for painkillers and other drugs that can be much more addictive.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or bstaggs@ocregister.com
ANAHEIM  Police shot and killed an armed man and failed to find a possible second suspect Saturday in Anaheim.

The shooting occurred after a suspected gunman was spotted by a police helicopter on the 2000 block of West Cris Avenue, about a mile from where shots were reported on the 900 block of South Roberts.

Police said the suspect was seen standing over a prone man who had been shot in the leg.

After the gunman fired at the police helicopter he was confronted by police on the ground.

According to Sgt. Daron Wyatt the man was shot and killed after he refused to cooperate. The gun was found at the scene.

Witnesses at the site where the first shots were reported said another suspect had fled into nearby apartments, according to police. A SWAT team search the are but did not find anyone.

Police believe the gunman and victim, who was transported to a hospital, had been involved in an initial dispute on Roberts. It is unclear how the arrived at West Cris Avenue.

More details are expected to be released on Sunday.
To retire comfortably in Orange County  or anywhere else in coastal Southern California  youll need a cool million dollars stashed away in your bank accounts, analysts say.

Dont have it? Youre not alone. The majority of Americans older than 55 have no retirement savings at all and, among those who do, half have less than $150,000, a recent study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found.

This stands in rather sharp contrast to those at the tippy-top of the food chain. We reported recently that the 100 largest CEO retirement funds among Fortune 500 companies were worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement savings of 50 million families, comprising 116 million Americans.

For that, thank tax code quirks available to CEOs, but not Average Joes, concluded an analysis by the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies.

So what can our leaders do to help us woefully unprepared laggards save for our dotage, which will likely be longer and more expensive than currently imagined?

A good bit, it turns out. The options range from dangling more saving-incentive carrots and/or sticks before employers and workers to facing the painful but inevitable revamp of Social Security, which still finances most Americans retirements.

One of the more ambitious and controversial approaches has been quietly brewing in California and more than two dozen other states: Creating new government-run retirement plans for millions of private workers.

Too many head into their supposed golden years with diminished incomes and little or no savings to pay for food, shelter, medical bills and other basics, said California Treasurer John Chiang, who champions the approach, in a recent speech on pension issues in Sacramento. With only Social Security to live on, they face the prospect of toiling until sick, incapacitated or dead.

Life expectancies are getting longer at the same time the cost of living is rising. If we do not find a way to help Californians start saving for their own retirement, they will become virtual wards of the state with taxpayers subsidizing their increasingly bleak existence.

States are taking the lead in a nationwide push for automatic IRAs, as theyre called, said Lenny Sanicola, an expert in benefits and total rewards at WorldatWork, a nonprofit human resources association.

We all want the same thing: We want people to save, Sanicola said. Because if they dont, theyll live 30 years into retirement and run out of money  or they wont retire at all.

MUCH EASIER TO SAVE

California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts are in various stages of creating publicly administered retirement systems for private-sector workers whose employers dont offer retirement-savings options.

Californias effort to form what would be a multibillion-dollar retirement system began in 2012. Critics quipped that California had done such an exemplary job managing its underfunded retirement systems for public workers, it made perfect sense to launch one for private employees, as well.

The Legislature pressed ahead with an exploratory California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program nonetheless.

The program would require private companies with five or more workers that dont already offer retirement plans to participate. Theyd start out automatically withholding 3 percent or 5 percent of each workers pay for safekeeping in a Secure Choice account. Withholding would increase 1 percent each year until 10 percent of pay is being saved. The account would be portable, following workers from job to job, and fees to run it would be low, about 1 percent.

Part-time or full-time workers would be included, unless they took formal steps to opt out.

About 6.8 million California workers lack access to retirement savings plans through their employers, and 70 percent to 90 percent would participate in Secure Choice, according to a privately funded feasibility study.

Demand for such a program is high, and it is financially viable and self-sustaining even under adverse conditions with poor investment returns and high opt-outs rates, concludes the study.

Pubic hearings will be held in Los Angeles on March 1 and in Oakland on March 3 to collect comment. The Secure Choice board is expected to formulate recommendations for the Legislature in March. Proponents hope legislation making Secure Choice the law of the land will follow.

That could happen this year, though it will take time to set up the system.

Its a very good thing  its a no-brainer, said Steve Sass, program director for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston Colleges Financial Security Project. It makes it much easier to save, and thats very important.

Ideally, an automatic IRA plan run by the government on behalf of private workers would be the federal governments domain, Sass said. The president has included such a plan in his budget, but its unlikely to survive a contentious Congress in a frenetic election year.

California Treasurer Chiang, who chairs the Secure Choice board and is mulling a run for governor, agrees. We cannot wait for a Congress that is unable or unwilling to defuse this ticking time bomb, said Chiang. It is critical that we pass Secure Choice. It would be the largest expansion of retirement coverage since Social Security was enacted in 1935.

The concept, however, is not universally embraced.

NO, REALLY, TRUST ME

The Orange County Business Council awarded Secure Choice a Squirrel in 2012, a title bestowed on legislation it considers distracting.

Noting the state has an unfunded pension liability of some $500 billion, it dryly observed: So, based on the strength of its fiscal management skills, the state would like to jump into the deep end of the red ink and develop a NEW pension system for the private sector. No, really, trust me, THIS time I know what I am doing.

Encouraging folks at every income level to invest in their future is a great thing, but, hello! Pot, meet kettle, the Business Council wrote. Since even the state cant manage to take their own advice, why should they force more expense and liability on the very businesses that are keeping them from the poor house?

The Business Council still feels the same way. Government doing private pensions is an unabashed SQUIRREL! said President Lucy Dunn.

Some experts caution that states should avoid setting up systems that could be construed as furnishing guaranteed payouts to private workers.

California is being careful in that regard, said Christina Elliott, acting executive director of Secure Choice. The legislation creating Secure Choice specifies that the state would have no liability for the payment of the benefits under the program.

Still, Realtor Ron Titus of Costa Mesa isnt comfortable. Not a good idea at all, he said. We have many plans for workers (and non-workers), including several IRA types. Legislators seem to think they need something new for political reasons. Just tweak them to make them simpler  the rules are so complicated that people procrastinate. They choose to keep all of their paycheck and promise to contribute one day, but dont. So, it isnt a plan problem, but a behavior problem.

Contact the writer: tsforza@ocregister.com
After a decisive victory of Donald Trump in the South Carolina Republican primary, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz both looked to cast themselves as the only candidate able to challenge the billionaire front-runner for the partys 2016 presidential nomination.

Rubio, who finished second in South Carolina, and Cruz, who came in at third just behind Rubio, noted that approximately 70 percent of Republicans dont support the former reality television show host, and said they could consolidate voters from that bloc, particularly now that Jeb Bush, the onetime front-runner and fundraising leader, has suspended his campaign.

As this race continues to narrow, I think itll be easier and easier for that 70 percent to coalesce, and so thats why I feel so good, Rubio, Floridas junior U.S. Senator, said on Fox News Sunday. I believe its literally down to three people who are running full-scale national campaigns.

Rubio, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, told reporters on his campaign jet that U.S. presidents need to grasp world issues from their first day in office  and suggested that would be a stretch for Trump. Its not about taking on Trump, but there are differences, and we are going to talk about them, particularly on foreign policy. Donald, now that the race has narrowed, needs to step up and outline his policy vision. And it cant be something that relies on experts he wont name.

The Floridian was set to start a packed day with a rally in Nashville, before heading to an event in Little Rock, Arkansas   both states among a dozen scheduled to hold their Republican primaries on the March 1, the make-or-break day known as Super Tuesday. He later heads to Summerlin, Nevada, and is slated to hold rallies in Reno, Elko and Douglas County on Monday.

For Rubio, the aggressive schedule and sharpened lines of attack could be a taste of what is to come in a race quickly moving beyond the retail politics of the first three nominating contests and shifting more to one in which advertising and organization  and the money to do those things  are the determining factors.

Trump has resisted efforts to end his outsider candidacy, and shucked off criticism about changing positions on certain issues. Hes won the last two nominating contests  New Hampshire and South Carolina  by significant margins. The exit by Bush, an establishment favorite whose family has been on the last five winning Republican presidential tickets, released many of the top Republican donors, advisers, and endorsers hed captured early ona coalition that has long sought to end Trumps momentum but that also competed for votes with other Trump alternatives.

Rubio received the support of key South Carolina officials, including the popular Governor Nikki Haley, even before Bush dropped out, but said he has yet to win a nominating contest or do better than Trumpa point on which Cruz, winner of the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1, pounced.

Were seeing people come together behind our campaign because we are the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and that can beat Donald Trump, Cruz, a Texas senator, said on CBSs Face the Nation.

Cruz and Rubio also attacked one another, with Rubio saying Cruz was very weak on national security and literally every day making up things. Cruz, who has said he is the only true conservative in the race, said Rubios efforts to pass doomed immigration reform would hamper his ability to take on Trump, who has taken a hard line on immigration, and said his competitor had been unwilling or afraid to attack Trump.

Donald devotes all of his time and energy, all of his money, to attacking me, Cruz said on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos. That demonstrates that Donald sees me as the only real threat to him.

Trump seemed to acknowledge the nature of the three- candidate race when he praised both men for their acumen, even while defending his use of the same attack on Rubio that hes used against Cruzthat he is ineligible to serve as president.

I think the lawyers have to determine that, said Trump, who retweeted an accusation that neither man could serve as president. Im not sure. I mean, let people make their own determination.

Both Rubio and Cruz were born as American citizens. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, to a U.S. mother and a Cuban-born father. Rubio was born in the Miami to Cuban refugee parents. Trump said he was concerned not so much with Marco.

There were wrinkles in the simple three-candidate narrative: Trump praised Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who came in last in South Carolina. Rubio, meanwhile, downplayed the candidacy of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has sought favor with some of the same establishment voters that Rubio and Bush have targeted.

Its clear that Kasich is going to focus entirely on Michigan, he said on Fox. Were going to continue to work everywhere.

Rubio also downplayed a report that Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and an establishment favorite, would be endorsing him. I would love to have his endorsement but theres nothing forthcoming today andor in the days to come as far as I know, Rubio said on ABC.

As of now, all six candidates will compete in the Nevada Republican caucus on Feb. 23.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battled over the meaning of the results of Saturdays Nevada caucuses, which Clinton won.

Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist who now must prove he can stop Clinton, sought to portray himself as the candidate of young people, the economically disaffected, and even some minority groups. Sanders said that he had won the Latino vote in Nevada, which he called a huge way forward for us. That assessment was based on entrance polling. Clinton said on the same program her campaign did not think those polls were particularly accurate.

A Clinton spokesman had tweeted Saturday night that In Nevadas Latino-majority precincts, Clinton won 207 delegates and Sanders won just 130. Proves entrance polls were wrong.

Clinton said she had work to do with independents, as well skeptical voters, saying an underlying question that maybe is really in the back of peoples minds, and that is, you know, is she in it for us or is she in it for herself?

The two face off next in South Carolina on Feb. 27, the first Southern nominating contest for the Democrats this year. The Democratic electorate there is heavily African-American, a group that Clinton won by a wide margin in Nevada and which Sanders said he hopes to win over with his message on criminal justice and the economy.

To contact the authors of this story: Ben Brody inWashington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net Terrence Dopp inTrenton at tdopp@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ros Krasny at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net
Justice Scalias death will leave a giant void in common sense.

The Supreme Court has not ruled in favor of the American public and the U.S. Constitution many times in the past few years. The justices put their hand on a Bible and swear to uphold the nations laws and the U.S. Constitution. Then after they take office, they lean toward a political partys agenda rather that the laws. Scalias commonsense approach often made the difference in favor of the way our Constitution was designed to work, rather than the Left vs. Right. This court in my opinion has gone off the deep end. Politics should not be allowed to intervene with the laws of the land.

The First and Second Amendments are under constant pressure because of political agendas. I mean, really, how many times have they debated over the words bear arms and still cant seem to get it right? This same political agenda has carried over to not only the district courts but also Californias own attorney general. The Fourth District Circuit Court of Appeals seems to be able to make a relatively reasonable decision, but the more liberal Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals, because of its liberalism, cant seem to decide on what to have for lunch. If the California Attorney General Kamala Harris cant find a law to move her agenda forward, she just makes one up. Perhaps the nations judges should be put on a ballot and the American people decide who gets elected rather than the president. If not, this system will be downfall of the U.S., as it was designed to be.

Mr. Scalias honesty and ethics will be dearly missed by the American people.

Byron Barbour

Mission Viejo

  

I completely disagree with Mondays editorial that indicated that Justice Antonin Scalia was a towering legal figure who will be missed.

While he may have made the right decision regarding the Second Amendment, on racial issues he wanted to return America to the Jim Crow era.

He presided over the Supreme Court decision to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965, something carefully crafted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to ensure full voter participation, particularly in the American South. This decision, which returned control over voting polls back to the states, was immediately followed by several southern states reintroducing a photo ID requirement in order to vote at the polls, an action meant to disenfranchise or dissuade minority voters who largely vote Democratic.

In a discussion of the upcoming matter concerning my alma mater University of Texas at Austins affirmative action admissions program, Scalia had the gall to state that African Americans might do better at lesser schools where the pressure is less. That sounds just like something George Wallace might have said.

No, Scalia had no appreciation of and actually abhorred all the civil rights advances our country has made over the last 65 or 70 years. He was a relic of a different era.

Hopefully the next justice will be just a little bit more progressive.

Kevin Fleming

Aliso Viejo

  

What a travesty and an insult not only to the family but the nation as well. Barely eulogized and placed at rest, the congressional jackals and vultures are out in force once again, fighting about his successor. How about a truce for at least awhile, while the nation mourns a good man and perhaps reflect on values we once held in the past  honor, respect, courage and dedication. We seem to have been losing those qualities at an alarming rate. Respect, above all his family, his position and the man, for what he stood for, even if you disagree with his views. It is a shameful display of partisan politics on both sides of the congressional aisles as well at the executive branch. They need to do some soul searching and perhaps go away for awhile. Antonin Scalia, God bless and God speed.

William Lewis

Irvine

  

God took home a good man. Solid Catholic. Excellent husband and father. A great Supreme Court justice. And even better American. Pray for his nine kids and wife, Maureen. And his beloved country.

He believed that America is a great country. If America ceases to be good, then this experiment in a place where life can be a right, resolute and precious, ends. That liberty can only exist if ones right to life and property is sacrosanct. And the pursuit of happiness, self-determination, initiative and generosity to others on ones own terms, will be a wisp, without the first two.

He believed the founders said what they meant and meant what they said in their original documents and about the opportunity for this covenant nation.

The republic endures as long as the Constitution isnt given life as a living malleable piece of parchment, for it will fail to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as rights not wishes.

Thank you for your service, Scalia. May the choir of angels come to greet thee. May you experience eternal life.

God bless America and God protect us from enemies numerous within and without.

Len Beckman

Anaheim

  

I hope that Justice Scalias passing opens the door to the reinstatement of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms that were destroyed by this courts disastrous and shameful Citizens United decision. Its time to give elections back to the people, so our public servants can be chosen by a majority of the people, not by a couple of guys in the top tenth of 1 percent.

Donna Heim

Huntington Beach
Justice Antonin Scalias greatest impact likely is his having brought conservative judicial activism to the Supreme Court. Prior to his arrival, since the mid-1930s, conservatives stressed judicial restraint and deference to the decisions of the elected branches of government. For example, Richard Nixon, in his campaign for president in 1968, emphasized his desire to appoint strict constructionists to the bench who would practice judicial restraint and end the activism of the Earl Warren court.

But Scalias brand of conservatism was quite different in that he was very willing to overturn laws and executive actions that he believed to be unconstitutional. One of his most important opinions was 2008s District of Columbia v. Heller, striking down a District of Columbia ordinance prohibiting private ownership and use of handguns. This was the first time in history that the court ever invalidated a law for violating the Second Amendment.

Likewise, Scalia was in the majority in many decisions striking down laws restricting campaign spending, most famously in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which invalidated a limits on corporate spending in federal election campaigns.

This conservative judicial activism also was evident in the many cases where Scalia was in the majority that struck down federal laws as exceeding the scope of Congress power. In 2013, the court, with Justice Scalia in the majority, invalidated key provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, the first time since the 19th century that the court invalidated a federal civil rights law.

With Scalia in the majority, the court declared unconstitutional a federal law prohibiting the possession of guns near schools, a federal law allowing victims of gender violence to sue in federal court and a federal law requiring state and local officials to do background checks before issuing permits for firearms.

The court sometimes would not go as far as Justice Scalia wanted in striking down government actions. Scalia, for instance, wanted the court to declare all affirmative action programs unconstitutional. Sometimes he was in the majority in invalidating these efforts, but sometimes he was in dissent, such as in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), where the court held that colleges and universities could use race as one factor in admissions decisions.

Scalia presented his judicial activism in the cloak of judicial modesty, claiming that he was just following the original understanding of the Constitution. This allowed him to deny that he was simply implementing his conservative ideology.

Scalia managed to find in the original understanding of the Constitution the right of corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in election campaigns, the ability of government to give unlimited aid to parochial schools, the authority of government to impose the death penalty, the rejection of all abortion rights and the denial of constitutional protection for gays and lesbians. There was a stunning similarity between Scalias view of the original understanding and recent Republican Party platforms.

To be sure, Scalia often professed the desire for deference to government decisions. In his dissent in the marriage equality case last June, Obergefell v. Hodges, Scalia emphatically said that the court should have left the matter to the political process. Likewise, he wanted the court to uphold all laws regulating abortions.

The lesson from this is that both conservatives and liberals sometimes want the court to strike down laws and other times want the court to defer to legislative and executive actions. The disagreement is not about deference or activism in general, but rather about when the court should get involved and what values it should advance.

Scalias legacy on the issues he cared most about will be determined by who succeeds him and who fills other court vacancies. Many of his triumphs, such as in striking down gun laws and campaign finance restrictions, could be overruled if a liberal takes his place. On the other hand, if a conservative fills Scalias seat and one other, his long-sought desire to end abortion rights and eradicate any wall separating church and state could come to fruition.

But, no matter who succeeds him, the era of conservative judicial restraint is almost surely over. Conservatives, like liberals, when they have the votes, will use judicial power to invalidate laws and executive actions that they believe to be unconstitutional, with little deference to the other branches or levels of government. For this, for better or worse, Justice Scalia deserves a great deal of the credit.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.
Socialism does not have the same stigma that it used to in the United States. In fact, it even seems to be in vogue, particularly among millennials. That is dangerous for the future of freedom and prosperity, but perhaps there is a sliver of hope for the young and impressionable members of society  and the rest of us who would fall victim to their dictates.

The chief standard-bearer for socialism right now is Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. A self-described democratic socialist  supposedly a softer form of socialism  Sen. Sanders notes that he does not want the government to nationalize entire industries, he merely wants a greater redistribution of wealth (unless you are talking about the health care industry or education; then he totally wants the government to take over complete control from the private sector).

Soft socialism is nonetheless a threat to liberty and economic growth, and would continue Americas decades-long slide toward the purer form of socialism. In the perfect socialist model, the state owns the means of production, but what lots of Americans have never wanted to confront is that the welfare state way of life, which Americans adopted in the 1930s, is a variation of socialism, writes Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation. Under the welfare state, the state owns the results of production  i.e., the income and wealth of people.

The allure of the promises of equality and free stuff is strong. A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll taken just before the Iowa caucuses found that more Iowa Democrats identified as socialist (43 percent) than capitalist (38 percent), compared to 62 percent capitalist and just 4 percent socialist for Republicans.

As much as Republicans hate to admit it, however, support for socialism is not limited to the Democratic Party. Recall, for example, that the $700 billion bank bailout in 2008 was signed by Republican President George W. Bush. And in 2003, Bush, aided by a Republican Congress, forced through the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the largest expansion of the welfare state since President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Perhaps not surprisingly, socialism is particularly popular among the young. A January YouGov poll revealed that 29 percent of respondents had a favorable view of socialism and 48 percent had an unfavorable view. But the numbers were almost reversed for those under 30, with 43 percent having a positive view of socialism and 26 percent having a negative view.

It is no coincidence that socialism is most popular with those who have the least knowledge of, or experience with, it. Seniors, after all, experienced the long-standing intellectual battle between capitalism and socialism played out in real life, Mike Flynn observes in a recent Breitbart.com column. They witnessed a post-war economic euphoria grind down into a socialist malaise, only to be reinvigorated by a global embrace of disruptive technology, deregulation and global trade.

The silver lining is that that faith in government benevolence and the morality of stealing what one person has honestly earned to give it to another for the greater good oftentimes crumbles once people grow up, get out into the real world and start earning a paycheck or create their own businesses, and the reality of government intrusion sets in. Things look different once they have to start paying the bills for all that free stuff. Those taxes and regulations become an impediment to pursuing their dreams and happiness, not the liberating gift they once had envisioned.

Whether socialism has brought about the total impoverishment and collapse of society in its purer forms, such as in the Soviet Union and North Korea, or the slower deterioration and massive indebtedness of the softer socialism of Greece and many Western European democracies, the difference is only a matter of degree. Let us re-embrace free-market capitalism and not join that woeful list.
ISTANBUL  Turkey is confronting what amounts to a strategic nightmare as bombs explode in its cities, its enemies encroach on its borders and its allies seemingly snub its demands.

As recently as four years ago, Turkey appeared poised to become one of the biggest winners of the Arab Spring, an ascendant power hailed by the West as a model and embraced by a region seeking new patrons and new forms of governance.

All that has evaporated in the wake of the failure of the Arab revolts, shifts in the geopolitical landscape and the trajectory of the Syrian war.

Russia, Turkeys oldest and nearest rival, is expanding its presence around Turkeys borders  in Syria to the south, in Crimea and Ukraine to the north, and in Armenia to the east. On Saturday, Russias Defense Ministry announced the deployment of a new batch of fighter jets and combat helicopters to an air base outside the Armenian capital, Yerevan, 25 miles from the Turkish border.

Blowback from the Syrian war in the form of a string of suicide bombings in Istanbul and Ankara, most recently on Wednesday, has brought fear to Turkish streets and dampened the vital tourist industry.

The collapse of a peace process with Turkeys Kurds has plunged the southeast of the country into war between Kurds and the Turkish military just as Syrian Kurds carve out their own proto-state in territories adjacent to Turkeys border.

The economy is in the doldrums, hit by fears of instability and by sanctions from Moscow targeting such goods and revenue sources including Turkish tomatoes and tourism in retaliation for the downing of a Russian plane in November.

Worries that the tensions could escalate further are spreading, both in Turkey and in the wider international community, prompting French President Franois Hollande to warn on Friday that There is a risk of war between Turkey and Russia.

Turkey is facing a multifaceted catastrophe, said Gokhan Bacik, professor of international relations at Ankaras Ipek University. This is a country that has often had problems in the past, but the scale of what is happening now is beyond Turkeys capacity for digestion.

A rift with the United States, Turkeys closest and most vital ally, over the status of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), has further exposed Turkeys vulnerability. A demand by President Recep Tayyep Erdogan that Washington choose between NATO ally Turkey and the YPG, its main Syrian ally in the fight against the Islamic State, was rebuffed by the State Department this month, despite Turkish allegations that the YPG had carried out the bombing in Ankara.

On Saturday, Turkey dug in, demanding unconditional support from the United States. The only thing we expect from our U.S. ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Ankara.

Turkey now stands completely isolated, trapped in a maze of quandaries that are partly of its own making, said Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Istanbuls Kadir Has University.

It has so alienated everyone it cannot convince anyone to do anything, he said. It is a country whose words no longer carry any weight. It bluffs but does not deliver. It cannot protect its vital interests, and it is at odds with everyone, including its allies.

For a country that was until very recently seen as a consequential regional power, these facts strike me as quite disastrous, he added.

Most immediately, Turkey is agonizing over the fast-changing dynamics along its southern border with Syria, where Russia is bombing, Kurds are advancing and the rebels it has supported against President Bashar Assad for the past five years are facing defeat.

Sending troops into Syria, as Ankara has hinted it might, would risk a confrontation with Russia that Turkey would almost certainly lose. The downing of a Russian plane in November was, in retrospect, a major miscalculation, analysts say, one that has hamstrung Turkeys ability to project its influence into Syria and prevented it from flying missions there even in support of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State.

Not to intervene would mean bowing to the inevitability of an autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Syria bordering Turkeys own restive Kurdish region, as well as the defeat of the rebels Turkey had hoped would topple Assad and project Turkish influence into the Arab world.

For now, Turkey has confined its response in Syria to artillery shelling against the advancing Kurdish forces and efforts to reinforce the rebels. A rebel fighter in the border town of Azaz, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, confirmed multiple reports that Turkey has facilitated the deployment of several hundred rebel fighters from the province of Idlib into Aleppo, via Turkish territory.

At the same time, Erdogan has sought, without success, to revive pressure on the United States to agree to long-standing Turkish proposals for the creation of a safe zone in northern Syria that would protect Syrian civilians who have sought refuge from the fighting along Turkeys border.

Most observers think direct Turkish intervention unlikely, at least for now. There is no public support for a war and no support for one within the Turkish armed forces. A group of more than 200 academics signed a petition last week urging Turkey not to go to war in Syria, and the military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval.

But that has not deterred Erdogan from continuing to threaten action, drawing supposed red lines and seemingly digging Turkish policymakers deeper into a hole from which there is no obvious escape. He recently said the fall of rebel-held Azaz to the advancing Kurds would be a red line and vowed that Turkey would not allow the creation of a refuge for militant Kurds in Syria.

Turkeys predicament is not entirely self-inflicted. Some of the broader global trends  such as Russias increasing assertiveness and the United States waning interest in the Middle East  could not readily have been foreseen when Turkey set about crafting its ambitious foreign policy earlier in the decade, analysts say.

But Erdogan appears to have misjudged the extent to which the shifting parameters have constrained Turkeys room to maneuver, according to Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center in Washington.

Erdogan has mismanaged foreign policy because of hubris, Barkey said. He was overconfident in 2010 that Turkey was the darling of the world, and that went to his head. There are setbacks that are not of his doing, but how he managed those setbacks are his doing.

At a time when Erdogan is also confronting unforeseen challenges to his domestic ambitions, notably his plans to amend Turkeys constitution to enhance his presidential powers, further Turkish missteps cannot be ruled out, said Bacik, the professor in Ankara.

Im not saying that Turkey has lost its mind and is poised for war, but the posture in Ankara is very strange and could lead to surprises, he said. Whats happening in Syria is a question of survival for Erdogan, so it is not possible to rule anything out.

For Turkey, he added, there is no good scenario from now on.

turkey



Keywords: Turkey, Syria, Kurds, YPG, U.S. Turkey
Is it wrong to falsely claim that you can get a better deal elsewhere during negotiations?

Is it OK to lie about having a lower bid from a competing contractor? Or is it fraud?

Thats one of the issues that emerged from a recently concluded lawsuit between the owner of two multimillion-dollar Newport Beach homes and his remodeling contractor.

The owner of the homes in gated Pelican Crest is Joe C. Wen, a paper business operator who also is building the 52,000-square-foot Villa de Formosa mansion in nearby Crystal Cove. When finished, Villa de Formosa will be the biggest house in Orange County.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled last month that Wens tactic of lying during negotiations was not legal, ordering him to pay his contractor almost $900,000 over the disputed remodeling jobs.

Wen purchased the homes involved in the lawsuit for $8 million and $9 million each in 2010 and 2011. He plans to move his family to Villa de Formosa when the house is done.

The contractor, Ahmad Tajik of Newport Beach, is seeking $6.7 million in punitive damages on top of the award granted last month.

Wen sued Tajik in 2012, accusing the contractor of failing to complete the remodeling job within the contracted amount, not paying subcontractors and shoddy workmanship.

Tajik countersued, claiming Wen failed to make timely payments and fraudulently induced him into a contract by falsely claiming he had $1 million bids for work elsewhere.

One issue in the tangled case is undisputed: Wen did not have a written $1 million bid from other contractors.

Superior Court Judge Richard Luesebrink sided with Tajik in part because of Wens own testimony.

Asked if its normal to tell a contractor he has bids for $1 million when he doesnt, Wen testified: I do that with my brothers. This is a business.

And you think its appropriate business practice to make a representation to somebody for which you have absolutely no basis? a lawyer asked.

Yes, Wen answered. Because thats done to me every single day. And I do that too. Its just business world. Its brutal out there. Its not against the law.

Tajiks attorney and Luesebrink disagreed about the tactics legality.

In his ruling, Luesebrink wrote that Wen violated the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Wens attorney, Wayne Kasai of Los Angeles, plans to appeal, saying the practice is a common business tactic, not fraud.

When youre negotiating price with someone, you dont owe that person a duty to (help him or her) get the best price, Kasai said.

Car buyers frequently tell dealers they can get a better price elsewhere, for example.

I think thats common, he said. Wen was using that language to try to negotiate the best price he can.

Chapman University law professor Lawrence Rosenthal said determining the legality of such tactics depends on the circumstances.

The definition of fraud, in short, is a material misrepresentation of a fact on which a reasonable person would rely, Rosenthal said.

It can be legal if the false claim isnt something a reasonable person would take seriously, he said.

For example, if a car dealer says hes never had complaints about a particular model when, in fact, there were a few minor complaints, most people wont take the claim literally.

In the context of negotiation, its like poker. Theres bluffing, Rosenthal said. It all depends on what the evidence shows.

Tajiks attorney, Bobby Samini of Newport Beach, argued in a trial brief that Wens tactic was part of an underhanded scheme whereby Mr. Wen would routinely short pay, delay payment or refused to pay (Tajik) for labor and materials.

Wen would rather cheat his own brother than lose money, Samini wrote. Wens reprehensible fraud, Samini wrote, caused (Tajik) to suffer catastrophic and life-changing economic hardships.

Luesenbrink concurred that the tactic didnt pass the smell test.

In a handwritten addition to his ruling, Luesenbrink wrote, Mr. Wen was not a credible witness.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com
During his days growing up in north Omaha, Jeff Collins admits he wasnt exactly college material.

The North High student was bright but uninterested, favorite activities including talking back, showing off, cutting up and skipping out.

Id just hang out in the halls, and I spent a lot of time at lunch, the 26-year-old said with a laugh. It was totally crazy.

What saved him, he said, was a program that pulls gifted underachievers out of Omaha high schools and immerses them in guided independent study and dual high school/college classes on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus.

The program ultimately helped Collins land not only a high school diploma but also a UNO bachelors degree and a job in the Omaha planning office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

With his recent success story, Collins became part of a positive new trend in Omahas black community: a steep rise in four-year college graduates.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the number of black residents in the metro area with at least a bachelors degree has spiked nearly 80 percent since 2000.

Today nearly one in five black adults in the metro area has at least a four-year college degree. In 2000, it was less than one in seven.

Among Americas metro areas with the largest black populations, only two have recently seen bigger growth in the rate of black college grads than Omaha.

Whats nice to see is the trend, which has been consistently going up, said David Drozd, a demographer in UNOs Center for Public Affairs Research. Its important because we know education is a pathway out of poverty and to higher-paying jobs.

The growth trend is largely mirrored on the states college campuses, with UNO, Bellevue University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in particular seeing sizable increases in black graduates. UNO, which enrolls more black undergraduates than any other four-year school in the state, now awards bachelors degrees to more than 100 black students a year, up from just over 60 during the early 2000s.

However, the picture for black student success is not completely rosy.

Black students in Nebraska are still less likely than whites to attend four-year colleges. At UNO, the black graduation rate is up only marginally since 2000, and the gap between white and black graduation rates has grown.

Conversely, UNL has seen a sharper increase in its black graduation rate and is narrowing its black-white gap. In fact, a recent national study found UNL over the past decade has reduced its graduation gap between whites and historically underrepresented minorities more than any other school in the country.

At UNO, recent concerns over lagging black graduation rates have prompted the launch of new programs aimed at early identification of struggling students and better connection of often-isolated black students to the campus and each other.

We are taking it very seriously, said Dan Shipp, UNOs vice chancellor for student affairs. I think we can do a lot better, and we have leadership on campus committed to doing it.

Leaders in higher education say all Nebraskans have a stake in continuing to close the states racial education gap. With the baby boom generation aging into retirement and the states population growing increasingly diverse, Nebraska needs kids from all races and backgrounds to succeed in school if its going to have the workforce needed to fuel future economic growth.

We are seeing things trend in the right direction, but theres still a long way to go, said Mike Baumgartner of Nebraskas Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education. It has to be a top priority for the state.

When it comes to raising achievement rates, there are few places its more critical than in north Omaha, which in recent years has been home to one of the most impoverished black communities in the nation.

The metro areas black poverty rate ranked as the 14th-worst among the nations 100 largest metro areas in census surveys between 2006 and 2010. More starkly, Omaha ranked fifth among those metro areas in the disparity between its black and white poverty rates.

Historically low rates of college success for blacks contributed to such numbers.

In 2000, 13.5 percent of Omaha-area blacks age 25 and over had at least a bachelors degree. That was less than half the 28.5 percent white rate in Omaha and nearly a percentage point below the U.S. black average.

But more recent data compiled and analyzed by UNOs Drozd shows considerable progress on that front.

Census surveys from 2010 to 2014 show the rate of black four-year grads shot up to 19.8 percent, and its trending still higher. Its also now slightly above the U.S. black average.

Among the 100 metro areas with the largest black populations, Omahas percentage of black college graduates now ranks 33rd, improved from 55th five years ago. More impressively, among those metro areas, only Savannah, Georgia, and Tallahassee, Florida, in that time have seen a bigger percentage-point rise in black grads than Omaha.

The growth in black grads also has narrowed the metro areas black-white education gap. In 2000 the white percentage of Omahans with college degrees was 2.1 times the black rate. Its 1.8 times higher now.

In sheer numbers, black college graduates living in Omaha have grown since 2000 from 4,300 to 7,700.

There also has been marked growth in the number of Hispanic college grads in Omaha in that time. Four-year grads are up from 2,200 to 4,800, though such grads still represent only about 12 percent of the Hispanic population 25 and above, a figure that hasnt changed much.

Willie Barney of the Empowerment Network, a north Omaha community development organization, had recently noted the spike in black education levels. He said it goes hand in hand with other positive trends, including falling unemployment and poverty rates, fewer high school dropouts and an increase in black-owned businesses.

Education is critical, he said. We still have issues to address with a sense of urgency. (But) there is a lot more focus on getting African-American kids to college and more programs and support available to assist students getting through college.

Research has long documented the barriers to college success faced by economically disadvantaged students.

They often arrive as freshmen less academically prepared. They can struggle financially, many working their way through school or being forced to drop to part time or drop out due to family financial crises. Often they represent the first generation in their family to attend college, leaving them few role models and little guidance on whats required to succeed.

When youre the first in your family to navigate the financial aid process and to sit in a college classroom, its a foreign land, said Joshua Williams, a 2011 UNO graduate who now serves as coordinator for inclusion and equity on campus.

UNO has long recognized the barriers faced by disadvantaged students, more than four decades ago launching the Goodrich scholarship program. Besides providing state-funded tuition assistance, Goodrich provides low-income students close interaction with faculty and fellow Goodrich students, instruction in study skills, tutoring and other support services designed to reduce isolation and boost chances of success.

Such efforts were significantly ramped up in 2008 when the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation launched the Thompson Scholars Learning Community on the NU campuses in Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney.

While offering scholarships for needy students and support services similar to the Goodrich program, the Thompson community is much larger. At UNO, Goodrich currently enrolls 277 students overall, 36 of them black; Thompson includes 84 black students and 923 in all.

Its a very conducive environment to be successful, said Chris Knight, a 2012 grad who was among the first black students in UNOs Thompson community.

Its likely no coincidence that UNO black graduates have particularly spiked in the years since Thompson came on line.

UNL has similarly seen black grads hit all-time highs. And in December, the school was cited in a study by Education Trust for narrowing the graduation rate gap for black, Hispanic and Native American students more than any school in the country.

Amy Goodburn, UNLs interim dean of enrollment, attributed the schools gains to a number of factors, including the schools general efforts to boost retention of all students, programs specifically supporting disadvantaged students and the Thompson community.

Its a game-changer for those students, Goodburn said of the Thompson program. Its a community that creates a sense of belonging.

However, while UNO has seen big gains in its black enrollment  up 30 percent over the last decade  and in its number of black graduates, its black graduation rates are only marginally higher than they were in the early 2000s. Thats even as white completion rates at the school have climbed markedly.

To be sure, metropolitan universities like UNO tend to have lower graduation rates than other types of schools. Such urban institutions have more open enrollment policies, higher numbers of students who work or go part time, and more transfers both in and out.

But while UNOs overall and white graduation rates exceed those of its peer metropolitan institutions, thats not true for black students. Just 22 percent of black full-time, first-time freshmen at UNO graduate within six years, compared with 30 percent for its peers.

UNO officials have taken note. Two years ago they decided they needed to better support the schools nearly 800 black undergraduates, the vast majority of whom are not part of the Goodrich or Thompson programs. Shipp traveled with black students and administrators to UCLA to look at a potential model program there.

In the end, UNO created a new position in its multicultural affairs office whose duties include looking for early warning signs that students are struggling. The school has also created the Brotherhood and Sisterhood, gender-specific organizations that seek to provide some of the same academic services and peer connections that students in those scholarship programs receive.

If I havent seen them in two or three weeks, I will go find them, said Taricka Fairgood, who facilitates the Sisterhood. They will not fall through the cracks on my watch.

Not all of the metro areas recent four-year black grads have been traditional students coming right out of high school. Many appear to be adult learners, including significant numbers earning degrees at Bellevue University.

State figures show Bellevue actually awards more bachelors degrees to black students than any college in Nebraska  more than 200 a year  though it appears almost two-thirds of those degrees are going to students living in other states, taking courses online. Still, it appears Bellevue ranks second only to UNO in producing local four-year grads.

Terrence Mackey, who returned to school at Bellevue two decades after dropping out at UNO, said he appreciated the credit Bellevue gave him for his real-life work at Boys Town and its accelerated degree program. He feels his degree is now helping him give back to his community in his work as an Omaha police gang specialist in north Omaha.

Recent UNO grads Collins and Knight say they also hope to serve as beacons for their community. Knight says he stresses education to kids while volunteering as a youth mentor for 100 Black Men of Omaha.

I tell them a lot of the things you may think are cool to do right now arent going to be that way, Knight said. The only thing that will last is your education.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com
ABVP Protest: Which flag Mantriji Smriti Irani can spot here? Tricolour or Saffron?

India

oi-Shreyas

Bengaluru, Feb 21: For the proud nationalists to hold heads high, the Union HRD (Human Resource Development) Ministry has passed an order to fly the National Flag on a 207-feet mast in all 46 central universities taking the definition of nationalism to a 'new height'.

However, here is a group of ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) protesters, who has been protesting since Feb 16 against the alleged 'Anti-National' activities perpetrated in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). The ABVP owe its allegiance to a political party, the BJP and the party which is now holding the helm of the county. The protests will continue for a whole this week as is informed by the office bearer of the ABVP.

The ABVP wing of Puttur (one of the RSS stronghold in the country) of Dakshina Kannada hailing from Vivekananda Law college run by the RSS affiliated management (Vivekananda Vidyavardhaka Sangha) held a protest on Feb 16. Interestingly the banner read they are protesting against the anti-national activities occurring in the JNU, while no members of the ABVP holding the Tricolour but only saffron flags of the ABVP.

While the Union Government is of the view that flying national fag will reaffirm national unity, integrity and nationalism in the central varsities, it has forgotten the fact that how many RSS affiliated colleges and schools in the country adhered to this idea of popular minister Smriti Irani after India became free nation.

The college, to which the protesting ABVP lads belong, has not adopted this policy of showcasing nationalism by flying the national flag in full mast since its inception. The collage has many sister concerns, like engineering college, graduation college and even schools.

In none of the places, the idea was implemented to display nationalism. The OneIndia contacted the district (Dakshina Kannada) convener of the ABVP to talk on the order on the national flag and why protesters are not holding Tricolour?

The district convener Yatish Shetty says the protest was organised by the ABVP and the flag of the ABVP is must to hold as it was directed by the state ABVP office bearers. When asked about does ABVP welcomes government's move, he said the ABVP is very much happy to see national flag flying high.

When asked why only in central universities, why not in all colleges including private institutions, he said, "since anti-national activities are being taken out only in central universities it is impending to do so."

For a question on why Vivekananda College was not hoisting the flag, he said after a pause the ABVP will sit and talk on this and decide whether to send a proposal to the institution in this connection. He also said the Delhi police has done a right thing by charging Kanhaiya with sedition and no anti-nationals can be tolerated.

When sought to know about JNU ABVP joint secretary's resignation episode, he said the ABVP is just trying to enter the campus which is still dominated by the left ideologists. The resignation was as a result of the relinquished ABVP office bearer has not lost temptation for the left ideology.

OneIndia News
Jat quota protesters block roads in Delhi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 21: The Jat quota stir today reached Delhi as agitating community members held demonstrations at various places, leading to severe disruption of traffic on several arterial roads.

There also were reports of damage to public property by the protesters, who blocked major state border entry points, including Sindhu border, Nangloi-Bahadurgarh Road, Karnal road, Tikari, Jharoda and Madhuban Chowk in southwest and outer Delhi, creating major traffic snarls which affected many areas in the city.

Police said the situation was being brought under control even as demonstrations were held at several places, including Nangloi, Madhuban Chowk, Narela, Najafgarh. "Several companies of Delhi Police have been deployed in Najafgarh and adjoining areas and we are trying to bring the situation under control," said DCP (south west) RA Sanjeev.

The protests led to diversion of traffic with several roads leading to neighbouring Haryana having been blocked by protesters, a senior police officer said. Heavy police deployment has been done for handling the demonstrators, he said.

There were also reports of some damage to public property, including buses, in some areas, police said. "All the major roads are severely affected with Madhuban Chowk having been blocked by the demonstrators," Additional DCP (Outer) Pankaj Kumar Singh said, adding, "The situation is under control so far."

Jats in neighbouring Haryana have been agitating for the past few days to press their demand for quotas in jobs and educational institutions.

The protests have been accompanied by violence with curfew having been imposed in many places and the army being called in to bring the situation under control. The protests have disrupted normal life in Haryana's Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar districts.

PTI
Jat stir: Haryana remains in grip of violence, toll rises to 10

India

oi-PTI

Chandigarh, Feb 21: Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day so far claiming 10 lives.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed big traffic jams in some parts.

Ten persons have been killed and about 150 injured during the ongoing Jat stir, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal said even as claimed that steps were being taken to restore water supply to Delhi and clear road and rail blockades.

"According to the information we have so far, in the entire state 10 people have been killed and about 150 injured," he said. As the situation turned volatile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed for calm.

"I appeal to all to maintain peace and ensure that there are no untoward incidents," he said.

The Home Minister met a delegation comprising Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh and Haryana Minister Abhimanyu rs to find a way to resolve the situation.

With violent protests by Jats escalating, Haryana Minister Anil Vij today made it clear that talks cannot be held with a "mob" and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

He said the agitation has become leaderless and "mobocracy" was prevailing. Road and rail traffic through Haryana destined for North India from Delhi side remained disrupted with bus and train services remaining suspended.

In the wake of shooting air fares airlines announced additional flights to Chandigarh and Amritsar today. Curfew was imposed in Kaithal city in the wake of ongoing Jat agitation after tension erupted in the town due to protests by Jats and tussle between Jats and non-Jats.

With this, now Kaithal has become ninth city where curfew has been clamped after Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana town of Sonipat district. While several roads have been blocked in Kaithal, protesting Jats have put up a tent in the middle of Hissar- Chandigarh national highway to express their anger for not being included in OBC category.

Markets, shops and commercial establishments remained shut in the wake of violent protest unleashed by agitating Jats.

The protesters are adamant on their main demand of OBC quota in government jobs and rejected Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's announcement of enhancement of the quota of reservation for Economically Backward Classes in the state from 10 to 20 per cent.

As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana, the Centre sent additional 1,700 paramilitary personnel to deal with the situation.

The NCMC, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, too assured Haryana government that there would be no delay in sending assistance, including central forces.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has asked airlines to operate additional flights from here to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jaipur to enable stranded people reach their destinations.

As part of this, all major domestic operators including Air India, Jet Airways and IndiGo will fly additional services from and to Delhi, an official statement said.

The agitation has hit rail services hard in the northern states, affecting around 1,000 trains with 736 trains cancelled and 105 diverted besides damage to rail property, causing a loss of over Rs 200 crore to the transporter.

People belonging to non-Jat community also took out a protest march in the city and raised slogans in favour of OBC leader and BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini who has been facing wrath of Jats for his alleged anti-Jat quota remarks.

Protestors vandalized a college owned by an MP and a hotel in Sonipat where a rice mill was also set on fire. A number of buses were torched at Tosham in Bhiwani district. BJP MP from Bhiwani Dharambir's house was also attacked and vandalized in Bhiwani.

The quota protests spread to Panchkula district, adjoining Chandigarh with agitating Jats blocking Zirakpur-Shimla highway. About 100-150 protesters also blocked the six lane Zirakpur-Parwanoo National Highway (the highway further leads to Shimla) which is the entry point to popular tourist destination like Shimla and Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh.

The protests have resulted in serpentine queues of vehicles stranded on both sides of the road. Week-end rush on Chandigarh-Shimla highway with a large number of people from Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab heading for Himachal Pradesh added to the pile up.

"Protesters have blocked old Panchkula road. We are trying to persuade them to lift the blockade," a Panchkula police official said.

The protestors also blocked National Highway at Rewari disrupting traffic. State roadways buses have been moved to safer place at Kurukshetra, a report said.

Due to blockade of rail and road network the supply of essential commodities, including petrol, milk and vegetables, has been disrupted to most of the cities. ATMs have also run out of cash at most places, reports said.

Passengers remain struck at a number of places due to abrupt termination of buses and trains at various places. A railway station was vandalized at Ganuar in Panipat district. The booking office and Station Master's room were damaged.

PTI
JNU: Who is Umar Khalid whose story has many hits and misses?

India

oi-Vicky

The Delhi police is on the look out for Umar Khalid, a student at the JNU on the allegation that he had organised the event to protest to hanging of Afzal Guru.

There is a lot of news especially on the social media doing the rounds about Khalid who is the son of Dr S Q R Ilyasi, who is a member of the All India Muslim Law Personal Board.

The Delhi police has issued a look out circular against Khalid. Delhi police officials say that he is the one who had asked for permission to host the event, but was denied.

We need to question him before we can conclude anything, Delhi police officials also told OneIndia. [JNU row: Look out circular and no fly order against 3 students]

Who is Umar Khalid?

When the name of Khalid started doing the rounds, it was alleged that there were 800 calls made from his cell phone. [JNU row: 800 phone calls relating to Afzal Guru event under scanner]

These calls were allegedly made to Pakistan and Bangladesh. However none in the Delhi police confirm this. When asked about it, they say they are investigating, but there is nothing to suggest that so many calls had been made. As we pointed out we are still investigating, the officer said.

Umar Khalid is a PhD student at the School of Social Sciences at the JNU. The police had said that he is a leader of the Democratic Student's Union at the JNU. His father Dr Ilyas however points out that Khalid was earlier associated with the DSU, but had resigned sometime back. [My son is not a traitor, says father of Umar Khalid, alleged organiser of Afzal Guru event]

Khalid hails from Maharashtra originally. However, the family had left the state 35 years back and shifted to Delhi. They stay at the Jamia Nagar today. Khalid who hails from a staunch Muslim has declared himself as an atheist.

He has raised several issues in the past as well which includes farmer and tribal related problems. He has also done field work at Jharkhand with the tribals.

The police say that he is the one who had applied for permission to hold the Afzal Guru event. The Delhi police say that the event took place despite permission being denied.

The police also say that according to JNU student leader Kanaihya Kumar, it was Khalid who had organised the programme. On the charges of anti national slogans being raised, the Delhi police is still ascertaining whether it actually happened.

There are 8 videos in circulation and each one has a different story to tell. While most of the videos are said to have been doctored, the police will seek the help of the forensic sciences laboratory to ascertain the same.

In addition to this some news channels started to air the news that Khalid had gone to Pakistan and was a sympathiser of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The channels had quoted some intelligence bureau officials.

However, both the Home Ministry as the IB have denied issuing any such news or alert. He does not have a passport, officials and his family members say. There is no confirmation of any link with terrorist organisations home ministry officials say.

Officials say that the Delhi police will need to question him before any of these facts are ascertained. His family is planning on moving the court seeking anticipatory bail.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 21, 2016, 9:09 [IST]
Rs 1,000 fine if found without wearing rear seat belt in Karnataka

'Kantara' impact: 'Daiva Narthakas' above 60 years of age to get Rs 2,000 monthly allowance

Late actor Puneeth Rajkumar to be conferred with 'Karnataka Ratna' award on Nov 1

Karnataka to strengthen ATS and up the number of prisons

News Flash: India's spiritualism is still intact: PM Modi

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bengaluru, Feb 21: PM Narendra Modi will visit Chhattisgarh, Odisha & West Bengal today.

Get all the latest national and international news updates of Sunday, Feb 21 here:

8.10 pm: All party meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ahead of budget session at 6 pm on Monday.

8.00 pm: Pampore Encounter UPDATE: 1 militant was killed, 3 Army &2 CRPF personnel lost their lives: CRPF PRO Bhavesh Kumar.

7.50 pm: A committee has been formed, our cabinet colleague Venkaiah Naidu is its president: Rajnath Singh,HM on Jat Reservation.

7.45 pm: Despite many attacks and oppressions through centuries, India's spiritualism is still intact: PM Modi in Kolkata

07.15 pm: We hope that the decisions taken by Centre today will also have some positive impact: PK Das, Haryana's Addl Chief Secy(Home).

07.10 pm: We hope that the decisions taken by Centre today will also have some positive impact: PK Das,Haryana's Additional Chief Secy(Home).

PM Modi arrives at Centenary Celebration of Gaudiya Mission & Math in Kolkata pic.twitter.com/TRpo0NgXyC  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

07.05 pm: I think there is a danger for me as well as for my children: Soni Sori, tribal activist who was attacked last night.

07.00 pm: One more person killed today, total death toll 12: PK Das, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of Haryana.

06.50 pm: Pampore Encounter UPDATE: One more army officer injured in ongoing encounter with terrorists in Pampore (J&K). Total 10 injured, 5 killed.

06.40 pm: We have rescued 10 Indians with the help of Nigerian Navy. We are trying to rescue 11th Indian and a Pakistani crew member from the pirates.

06.35 pm: Jat reservation bill will be brought in upcoming session: BJP.

06.30 pm: Tribal activist Soni Sori being brought to Delhi for treatment after attack on her last night.

06.25 pm: PM Modi arrives at Kolkata where he will attend inauguration of Centenary Celebration of Gaudiya Mission & Math.

06.20 pm: Boat capsizes in Pranhita River in Gadchiroli (Maharashtra). 22 rescued, 8-10 people still missing

06.03 pm: Ahmedabad Sultanpur Express and Porbandar Dehli Sarai Rohila Express scheduled to depart on Feb 23 cancelled on Jat Quota Stir.

06:00 pm: Boat capsizes in Pranhita River in Gadchiroli (Maharashtra). 22 rescued, 8-10 people still missing.

05.54 pm: Several train services on western railways scheduled to depart on Feb 22 and Feb 23 cancelled due to ongoing Jat agitation.

05.45 pm: National Highway-8 blocked by protesters in Rewari, Haryana Jat Reservation

05.40 pm:Committee headed by senior Union min.will be announced which will look into Jat Reservation issue in Centre, says Sanjeev Baliyan after meeting Rajnath.

05.30 pm: Reservation for Jat community in Haryana will be given in this Assembly session, says Sanjeev Baliyan, Union Minister.

05.25 pm: In case of Centre, a High power committee will be announced today which will be led by senior Union Minister, says Anil Jain Jat Reservation.

05.00 pm: Tourists stranded in Karnal (Haryana) due to protests in the state Jat Reservation.

04.45 pm: Haryana police flag march in Bahadurgarh (Haryana) Jat Reservation.

04.30 pm: NSA, Army Chief, Delhi Police Commissioner arrive to meet HM Rajnath Singh at his residence overJat Reservation in Delhi.

04.25 pm: Tribal activist Soni Sori to be shifted from Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) to Delhi.

04.24 pm: Jat and Khap leaders of Haryana and UP arrive to meet HM Rajnath Singh at his residence,meeting underway Jat and Khap leaders of Haryana and UP arrive to meet HM Rajnath Singh at his residence,meeting underway .

04.15 pm: Security forces deployed at Munak Canal unable to remove protesters. Forces retreating Jat Reservation.

04.00 pm: Protesters at Munak Canal on Delhi-Haryana border, a major source of water to Delhi Jat Reservation.

03.45 pm: Police baton charge agitators who blocked National highway in Faridabad (Haryana).

03.30 pm: Eminent citizens in a mail to PM office- We feel people who raised these slogans are no less dangerous than terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar.

03.25 pm: Fire at EDI building in Pampore (J&K) where encounter between terrorists & security forces is on.

03.05 pm: Defence Minister gives free hand to army in dealing with people involved in looting and violence in Haryana: MoD Sources

02.37 pm: PM Narendra Modi addressing farmers at a rally in Bargarh (Odisha).

02.25 pm: Pampore Encounter UPDATE: One more Paratrooper killed in ongoing encounter with terrorists in Pampore (J&K). Death toll 5

02.15 pm: Person attempts to throw paper bag at CM Siddaramaiah during function in Bengaluru claiming it to be an 'explosive'.

01.53 pm: Gunfight in Pampore continues. "We are trying to neutralize the militants", says CRPF PRO Bhavesh Kumar.

01.25 pm: 10 opposition MLAs including 8 from DMDK (one each from PMK and PT), resign from Tamil Nadu assembly, will join AIADMK on Feb 25, Thursday.

01.20 pm: PM Narendra Modi launches Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission in Chhattisgarh.

01.05 pm: Srinagar: Wreath laying ceremony of 10 Para Army Capt Pawan Kumar who lost his life in ongoing encounter in Pampore.

12.50 pm: There have been 10 causalities and around 150 got injured- YP Singhal, Haryana DGP on Jat reservation.

12.00 pm: 11 CRPF jawans got injured and 2 jawans lost their lives,2-4 terrorists believed to be there,encounter underway- Bhavesh Kumar, PRO

11.26 am: PK Sinha directed that top priority be given to water supply to Delhi,all measures should be taken so that there's no disruption.

10.59 am: Agitators block roads in Jind (Haryana).

10.47 am: There is private & public sector for economic progress. But the third & the important one that I am stressing on is personal sector, says PM Modi.

10.46 am: Our youth must have skills and must be job creators.Only talking about demographic dividend won't do, says PM Modi in Chhattisgarh.

10.31 am: Jat and Khap leaders of Haryana to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh today at 3 pm at latter's residence over.

10.30 am: Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda begins his indefinite hunger strike, for harmony in Haryana.

10.19 am: Basai Dhankot railway station ticket counter set on fire by Jat reservation protesters.

9.26 am: We are left with no water now, this morning's supply was the last one-Kapil Mishra,Delhi Minister.

9.25 am: Pampore Encounter UPDATE: One CRPF jawan killed in the ongoing encounter with terrorists in Pampore (J&K). Death toll reaches 5.

9.23 am: Delhi Government orders all private and Govt schools in Delhi to be closed tomorrow due to water crisis in the capital.

9.11 am: Destined to be in army as was born on Army day .Had already been in 2 successful ops earlier where 3 terrorists were killed, say Rajbir Singh.

9.10 am: I had one child.I gave him to the army, no father can be prouder, say Rajbir Singh (Father of Army captain who lost his life in Pampore encounter).

9.05 am: Beef is being openly served in Aligarh Muslim University, says City mayor Shakuntala Bharati.

8.58 am: Mayor & locals complained of the presence of 'beef' on noticeboard of AMU, investigation will be done, say Police.

8.56 am: Aligarh(UP): 'Beef' being allegedly present in Aligarh Muslim University Medical college menu sparks uproar.

8.32 am: Encounter between security forces and terrorists underway in Pampore (J&K.

8.19 am: Passengers face problems at New Delhi Railway Station due to train cancellation, even as jat quota stir continues.

8.05 am: 1000 trains affected, 700 trains of Northern Railways cancelled, says Neeraj Sharma (CPRO Northern Railways.

8.00 am: Army captain has been killed in the ongoing encounter with terrorists in J&K's Pampore, encounter still underway.

Encounter between security forces and terrorists underway in Pampore (J&K) (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/cMB38Vr5kt  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

7.45 am: Emergency meeting to take place at 8:30am on Delhi water situation at CM Arvind Kejriwal's residence. Dy CM,Water Min, CEO Jal Board & Secy NDMC to meet.

7.30 am: Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda to go on a hunger strike from 10 am at Jantar Mantar, for harmony in Haryana.

7.15 am: Jeb Bush drops out of White House race.

7.00 am: In C'garh, PM will lay foundation stone for houses to be built under PM Awas Yojana. In Odisha, PM will address a public meeting in Bargarh. PM will attend inauguration of Centenary Celebration of Gaudiya Mission & Math in WB.

OneIndia News
PMO asks Law Ministry to finalise MoP

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 21: The Prime Minister's Office has nudged the Law Ministry to finalise the new Memorandum of Procedure, a document which guides the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, so it can be handed over to the Chief Justice of India for a final decision.

In a letter to the Law Ministry on Wednesday, the PMO asked it to give final shape to the document after consulting the Attorney General. The Supreme Court had late last year asked the government to draft a fresh MoP in consultation with states and high courts.

Chief Justice of India and members of the collegium will take a final call on the draft memorandum of procedure which the government will hand over to the CJI in the coming days.

The earlier drafts were also prepared after consulting Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. The MoP is a roadmap on how a judge will be appointed. 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 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 left it to the Law Ministry to draft the MoP in consultation with CMs and chief justices of the 24 high courts.

However, despite reminders, only eight states, including Gujarat, Nagaland and Meghalaya have responded with their suggestions.

The government is unlikely to suggest bringing under the ambit of RTI the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts as it feels it would not be a practical idea.

PTI
Suresh Prabhu issues appeal to demonstrators not to block rail tracks

India

oi-PTI

Kolkata, Feb 21: In the backdrop of ongoing agitations in Haryana and Cooch Behar in West Bengal, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday, Feb 21 appealed to protesters to not block railway lines or harm railway properties as it causes inconvenience to the common people.

"We wanted to launch a project in Cooch Behar but couldn't do it due to the ongoing agitation there. So let me take this opportunity to tell all the demonstrators, who may have genuine grievance. They should not block the railway tracks for doing that," Prabhu said while addressing a program here.

"You can always have a right to demonstrate that's a democratic right, we respect that right. But we appeal to you that it is the common people of India who face most inconvenience," he added.

Pointing out that most of the people who travel by train have no other means of transportation, Prabhu said, "They (rail passengers) cannot fly because they don't have enough money, they even find bus travel more expensive than rail travel. "

Therefore I appeal to all my friends in West Bengal, Haryana, please don't block the railway traffic. Your grievances can be dealt with separately," Prabhu said.

Noting that Railways incurred losses due to these agitations, Prabhu said, "Because of the agitations in Haryana, Railways has lost a very precious property.Now we have to find that money as railways is under pressure to find the money. And if you burn it, forget additional facilities, the present infrastructure needs to be strengthened by piling more money. So please don't block railway tracks."

Rail services are severely hampered in Haryana with agitating Jats squatting on railway tracks at various places, leading to the cancellation of various trains. Prabhu today inaugurated the commencement of work for Sankrail-Satragachi Broad Gauge Link Line via Flyover, commencement of construction work of Underground Metro between Airport and Jessore Roads. He also introduced 14 additional metro services during peak hours.

Prabhu also talked about staggered office timing in order to take care of peak time traffic in a much better way.

PTI
Been waiting for a long time: Sonia Gandhi as Congress votes for non-Gandhi president

Why is Sonia Gandhi silent on JNU row: Niranjan Jyoti

India

oi-PTI

Mathura, Feb 20: Union minister Niranjan Jyoti has questioned the "silence" of Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the Jawaharlal Nehru University row.

"Why is she maintaining silence? Her silence reflects that there is some shortcoming," Jyoti told reporters, adding that it was shameful of Rahul Gandhi to take side of a group that was trying to "revolt".

The Union minister of State for food processing said "stern action" should be taken against those who shouted anti-national slogans in JNU.

"Some people are trying to divide the country. They have also raised questions on patriotism of RSS. The patriotism of Sangh is unquestionable," she said.

The minister also demanded a probe on functioning of madrasas and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

On being asked about the Jat agitation in Haryana, Jyoti said that it was the handiwork of the opposition.

PTI
Navalny facing fresh charges and up to 30 years in prison

Russia, US discuss Syrian peaceful settlement issues

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Moscow, Feb 21: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday discussed issues on Syrian peace process.

The two, over a phone call, discussed humanitarian aid issues and the planned cessation of hostilities in Syria, "with the exception of fighting against terrorist groups".

It was noted that progress was made on humanitarian aid delivery to besieged areas in Syria, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lavrov and Kerry also discussed current practical interaction between the two countries, both being co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group.

"It was confirmed that the establishment of mechanisms to implement tasks (in the Munich agreement reached last Friday) requires military coordination," Russian foreign ministry statement said.

Lavrov also stressed the importance of not allowing Turkey to violate Syria's territorial integrity, as Ankara continued "inadmissible and provocative" bombings against Syrian territories.

In another development, Russia on Saturday urged the US and other NATO countries to responsibly and carefully choose their targets in Syria.

The comment came as the Serbian foreign ministry earlier confirmed two employees of the Serbian embassy, kidnapped last November in Libya, were killed in the US airstrikes against terror outfit Islamic State (IS).

"This is far from the first time NATO airstrikes have killed innocent people," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, expressing deep condolences to the families of the victims.

"Of course, the US and its allies should be guided first and foremost by international law and act not unilaterally, with coordinated steps with all concerned parties in the international community."

The US-led coalition have been conducting airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria and other Middle East countries since 2014, while Russia started bombing terrorist targets in Syria from last September.

Russia has fallen into "war of words" with western countries on Syrian issues, accusing each other of causing civilian casualties and bombing targets other than terrorists'.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday claimed that Russian armed forces in Syria "helped Syrian government army and other participants in anti-terror efforts to defeat terrorists, saved civilians from violence, barbarism and tyranny".

"We have always sought to resolve any disputed issues solely through political and diplomatic means, we have repeatedly contributed to stabilizing the situation in different countries, helped resolve serious conflicts," Putin said.

Reiterating that fighting terrorists in Syria is protecting Russia's national interests, Putin said the Russian army must "always be ready to promptly and efficiently respond to any potential threat, to stop any provocation and aggressive actions".

IANS
US poll 2016: Expert calls Trump "classless clown" for not acknowledging Jeb Bush

International

oi-Shubham

Washington, Feb 21: Donald Trump, who won the Republican primary in South Carolina on Saturday to register back-to-back victories, drew flak for not acknowledging former Florida governor Jeb Bush who pulled out of the presidential election race after a poor show.

[Jeb Bush pulls out of White House race]

[Complete list of US presidential elections schedules/results]

[When Bernie Sanders's team tweeted in Hindi]

A former official of the Barack Obama Administration and a political commentator termed Trump as a "classless clown" for ignoring Bush in his victory speech during his he thanked his own family, among others. "Something is wrong in our country," the commentator said while speaking in a discussion programme on the South Carolina primary on CNN.

Trump's rivals, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both of whom were almost tied in the second spot, however, did not miss the chance to do what Trump didn't---praise Bush for his contribution to the country's politics.

Trump and Bush had an ugly clash over issues like Iraq War, the Bush family and the former's business links ahead of the South Carolina primary.

Oneindia News
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For the better part of the 20th century, over 5 million African-Americans left the southern U.S. to find a new life in Northeastern cities and the Western states. This large shift in population has been coined the "The Great Migration."

Many of our history books explain the cause of the Great Migration as rooted to African-Americans' seeking escape from southern segregationist laws and culture known as Jim Crow. African-Americans faced discrimination all throughout the United States, but discrimination alone did not lead to a migration en masse as it did from the South. Furthermore, African-Americans had well-established communities in the South, with deeply-rooted enclaves, much like the ones established in later years in Northeastern and Western cities. So, the question must be asked: "Why did so many African-Americans leave the South?

To answer this question, we must go back to the end of the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, the Southern economy was destroyed. Although many freed slaves left the South, millions remained because they knew no other life or had few skills outside of being a field laborer.

A new economic relationship evolved from slavery called sharecropping. Sharecropping established a new social and economic order between landowner and field laborer. The landowner let the laborers live on a parcel of land in exchange for working the crops grown on the land held by a landowner. The laborer and his family paid for their expenses (rent, food, etc.) out of their share of the yearly profits earned from the crops they harvested and sold.

In theory, the sharecropping system sounded fair, but in practice, sharecropping benefited the landowner more than the laborer. The tools, seed and any other materials for picking the crop by the laborer were purchased on credit extended by the landowner from a store that was also owned by the same landowner. Once the family sold their crops, their share of the profits disappeared by having to pay back the initial debt that was extended by the same landowner to the laborer. In many instances, the laborer never made enough money to pay off their debt. The cycle of perpetual debt kept the laborer and his family beholden to the landowner and tied to the land. Ultimately, a disruptive, technical force would bring an end to the sharecropping system.

At the end of the 19th century, the mechanical cotton picker was introduced into cotton production. It was initially pulled by a horse and could pick the same amount of cotton as 50 laborers. The mechanical cotton picker increased production and saved landowners thousands of dollars a year. (Page, Arthur W. (December 1910). "A Cotton-Harvester At Last: A Machine That Will Emancipate Cotton From Low-Grade Labor". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI: 13748--13760. Retrieved 2009-07-10.)



This photograph was taken during field operations on the Ohlendorf plantation near Osceola, Arkansas.

(Image by The Library of Congress) Details DMCA





In time, the invention of the combustible engine soon replaced the horse and the mechanical cotton picker became the tool of choice by cotton growers. The eschewing of the horse for the combustible engine increased productivity many times over, improving upon the level of production and eliminating the need for human labors to pick cotton. When America entered World War II, the demand for cotton increased and the use of the mechanical cotton picker grew more widespread in cotton production.

During World War II, increased demand for cotton pushed landowners to use more mechanical cotton pickers leading to the final demise of the sharecropping system. Because African-Americans no longer found work in the fields, many left for the southern industrial cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and Houston, Texas in search of work. But the draw of factory jobs in Northern cities, such as Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit and even westward to Los Angeles, drew more and more families into these cities, leading to the largest U.S. migration in our nation's history.

Over the past 30 years, there has been a steady stream of African-Americans returning to the South in search of better job opportunities and lower housing costs. Today, 57 percent of African-Americans live in the South; the highest percentage in a half century ("The Great Reverse Migration: African-Americans are abandoning the Northern cities that have failed them", September 30, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

As we have seen technological innovation lead to the African-Americans' departure from the South, in a twist of irony, it is a technological innovation that has drawn African-Americans back to their southern past. In this case, the evolution and standardization of air conditioning technology have been, by and large, the technical basis that continues to make the southern economy a more inviting place to live despite its hot and humid climate. As a result, more African-Americans continue to migrate back to the South.

While we must continue to appreciate the overcoming of the past, present and future social challenges that make up African-American history and the broader American story, ultimately, all history finds its foundation in technical innovations and the economy.

(Article changed on February 21, 2016 at 16:56)

(Article changed on February 21, 2016 at 16:58)

(Article changed on February 21, 2016 at 17:04)

(Article changed on February 21, 2016 at 22:48)
Reprinted from Counterpunch

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to think so. In fact, Erdogan is acting like Wednesday's explosion in the capital was a gift from God. You see, Erdogan and his fellow Islamists think that if they pin the blame for the bombing on luckless patsy, Salih Neccar, who has links to the Kurdish YPG, then they'll be able to convince Washington that the YPG is a terrorist organization. And if they can convince Washington that the YPG a terrorist organization, then Obama will have to break off relations with the YPG even though the Kurdish militia has been helping the US defeat ISIS in Syria. And if Obama breaks off relations with the YPG, then he'll have to depend more on good old Turkey for his footsoldiers, which is just hunky-dory with Erdogan provided that Washington meet his numerous demands, that is.

So, could a bomb blast in Ankara change the outcome of the five-year-long war in Syria?

It certainly could, if Obama is stupid enough to fall into Erdogan's trap. But so far that looks unlikely.

The problem with Erdogan's rationale is that the Obama administration is not convinced that the YPG is a terrorist organization. Nor are they certain that Neccar is guilty. More important, the US maintains a crucial alliance with the YPG in Syria which has helped them recapture strategic cities and territory from ISIS in the northern part of the country. The militia has provided the boots on the ground the US needs to prosecute its war in Syria. Naturally, they are not going to end a relationship like that without solid evidence that the charges are true.

And there are plenty of reasons to believe the charges aren't true. For example, the head of the Syrian PYD, Salih Muslim, has not only denied all responsibility for the Ankara bombing, but also stated that neither he nor any of his lieutenants have any idea who the perpetrator is. (The PYD is the political wing of the YPG)

"We have never heard of this person Salih Necar," said Muslim, after which he added, "These accusations are clearly related to Turkish attempts to intervene in Syria."

Of course, Muslim could be lying, but you have to ask yourself whether or not the bombing achieves its political objectives if the perpetrators deny responsibility? And the answer is "No, it doesn't." So why lie?

Here's more from the New York Times:

"...some analysts questioned the plausibility of (Erdogan's) accusation, since mounting such an attack would jeopardize the group's American support. "'These allegations are unfounded -- lies with no truth to them,' Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the group said via WhatsApp from Qamishli, Syria. "'We are not enemies of Turkey, and our goal is to fight Daesh inside the Syrian borders,' he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. 'We have no interest in being enemies with Turkey.' "'Sponsoring or being involved with car bombings in Turkish cities would break its alliance structure with the U.S. and Russia,' said Michael Stephens, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security. 'Neither of which the P.Y.D.-Y.P.G. wants. In short, the Y.P.G. have nothing to gain and everything to lose by being involved in this.'" ("Turkey Blames Kurdish Militia for Ankara Attack, Challenging U.S.," New York Times)

So who is responsible for Wednesday's terrorist attack?

While no one knows for sure, many people think the Turkish government itself might have been involved, which isn't too far fetched when you consider that this same administration was implicated in a similar incident in 2014 when the foreign minister (who is currently the Prime Minister) was caught on tape cooking up a false flag operation with the head of Turkish Intel to create a pretext for invading Syria. Sound familiar? (See here for more.)

The fact that the Erdogan administration has been involved in this type of skullduggery before suggests that they might have gone to the well one time too often... In any event, given what we know of their past, the members of the Turkish government should, at the very least, feature very prominently on any list of probable suspects. Add to that the fact that there's now tons of evidence showing that the government has been arming, training and funding terrorists in Syria, and the only conclusion a reasonable person can draw is that Turkey is governed by a thoroughly untrustworthy lot of fanatical miscreants whose spurious accusations should be taken with a very large grain of salt... Here's more from yesterday's Hurriyet:
Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kalls Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution takes a very holistic view of bottom-up thinking and action, from changes in our psychology to our systems of work, living and governance. As someone who's been working to make bottom-up economics a reality for over 30 years, this book reinforces the need for and potential of redirecting our priorities-- and resources--from the few at the top to the many at the bottom."



Anthony Flaccavento, author of Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up
Reprinted from Smirking Chimp

Bernie Sanders had a record number of supporters turn out to give him a 22 percent win over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primaries.

It was a big win in terms of voter support, but it didn't translate to a big win in terms of delegate support.

Despite the fact that Clinton suffered the second biggest defeat in New Hampshire's history, both candidates walked away from New Hampshire with 15 delegates.

Why?

Because in the Democratic Party, unpledged delegates, also known as "superdelegates," don't have to support the same candidate as the majority of voters.

In fact, the whole point of superdelegates is to give the party elite more control over the primary process.

That's not a conspiracy theory, that's what the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently told Jake Tapper.

That's right, the chair of the DNC said that unpledged "superdelegates" are meant to be a bulwark against grassroots movements in the Democratic Party.

Unpledged superdelegates have been a part of the Democratic Primary process ever since Ted Kennedy supporters challenged sitting President Jimmy Carter for the democratic nomination in 1980.

Democrats had started to feel like their primary process had become too chaotic, and that it was resulting in nominees that ended up losing in the general election.

So the party decided to make their primary process just a little less Democratic by cordoning off a percentage of the total available delegates as "unpledged delegates" who don't have to support the candidate that the majority of primary voters and caucus-goers choose.

It was a move in the wrong direction -- it wrested control away from voters and made the Democratic primaries fundamentally less democratic.

And the Democratic Party has only accelerated the process of handing the party over to the economic elites in our country ever since then.

Back in 1992, Al From and the Democratic Leadership Council fundamentally changed the Democratic party with a "bloodless coup" that put Bill Clinton in the White House and replaced the Democratic agenda of FDR, JFK and LBJ with the agendas of Wall Street and global corporations.

Since then, the party ranks have been filled with third-way corporate Democrats and lobbyists.
Reprinted from Alternet

A number of pending SCOTUS cases may have more progressive outcomes due to tie votes.





The death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia raises a number of questions: What will be Scalia's legacy? What will happen to the cases pending in the Supreme Court? Will President Obama successfully fill Scalia's seat on the high court? And how will Scalia's death affect the 2016 presidential election?

Scalia's Record on the Court

Scalia, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was a radical right-wing ideologue who called himself an "originalist," purporting to interpret the US Constitution the way its framers did. He eschewed the idea that the Constitution is a living document that keeps pace with the times. And when voting to allow capital punishment for crimes committed by juveniles, he rejected the Supreme Court's precedent that the Eighth Amendment's banning of cruel and unusual punishments should be interpreted in light of the "evolving standards of human decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."

Scalia favored unlimited corporate election spending and he wrote that the Second Amendment grants an individual the right to bear arms. He opposed reproductive rights, universal health care, same-sex marriage, affirmative action, voting rights, immigrants' rights, labor rights, LGBT rights and environmental protection. When questioned about his vote to anoint George W. Bush president in Bush v. Gore, Scalia barked, "Get over it."

During the oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, the affirmative action case pending in the high court, Scalia said he was not "impressed by the fact that the University of Texas may have fewer" Black students. He added, "Maybe it ought to have fewer. I don't think it stands to reason that it's a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many Blacks as possible."

Many of Scalia's opinions demonstrate how out of touch he was with ordinary people. Authoring an opinion that created the right of police officers to chase people without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, Scalia quoted Proverbs: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." He could not imagine why an innocent young person of color might run when he sees a police officer. And when voting to repeal Miranda rights, Scalia wrote in dissent, "Counsel's presence is not required to tell the suspect that he need not speak. The interrogators can do that." As if a police officer would be looking out for the rights of a suspect.

Scalia opposed televising Supreme Court arguments. He once sanctimoniously declared, "Law is a specialized field, fully comprehensible only to the expert."

The Pending Cases

Several cases to be decided this term have already been argued and the justices have likely voted on them. Opinions are being written. So what will happen now? Even if Obama were to nominate a replacement, he or she would not be confirmed before the current term ends in June.

Cases in which Scalia was assigned to author the majority opinion will probably be set for re-argument next term, which starts in October, hopefully with a new justice. If Scalia was part of a five-justice majority, the court will now be divided 4-4. In cases in which there is no majority, the lower court decision will be "affirmed by an equally divided court." It will create no binding Supreme Court precedent. Some cases may be decided on narrow procedural grounds in order to avoid equally divided rulings.

Nine of the 13 US Courts of Appeals have a majority of judges who were appointed by Democrats. Thus, many cases in which the court is evenly divided and the lower court decision stands will have liberal outcomes.

In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, it appeared that public sector unions would lose the right to collect mandatory dues from their members in order to fund collective bargaining. Now it appears the case will result in a tie, leaving the lower court decision in place. That means unions in California and 22 other states would retain their right to collect dues.

Evenwel v. Abbott is a voting rights case. The issue is who should be included when creating voting districts: all who reside in them or only eligible voters? A 4-4 tie would leave the lower court decision in place, which upheld the counting of everybody. People who are not eligible to vote include children, non-citizens, people formerly convicted of felonies and prisoners. With the exception of prisoners, most of these people deemed ineligible to vote live in urban areas that are largely Democratic. As a result, a tie in this case would also have a liberal outcome.

Zubik v. Burwell is a "religious liberty" challenge to a regulation under the Affordable Care Act that requires some employers to provide birth control to women workers if they don't sign a form opting out. The case will be argued next month and the lower courts are divided on the issue. A 4-4 tie would result in no decision. Most lower courts across the country have upheld the "contraceptive mandate."

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt is perhaps the biggest threat to Roe v. Wade to reach the Supreme Court. Texas imposed onerous restrictions on clinics that perform abortions. If there were a 4-4 tie, the lower court decision would stand, resulting in the closure of most clinics in Texas, but not elsewhere. Where a woman lives would determine whether she could obtain an abortion. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy might vote with the liberals to overturn the restrictions placed on women's health clinics. But even if Kennedy does not vote with the liberals, Scalia's absence still eliminates a broader risk that previously existed: If Scalia had participated in that decision, the court may well have allowed states to impose restrictions.
Thanks to every one of you who signed the We the People petition asking the President to appear on Real Time with Bill Maher. With more than 320,000 signatures, Bill has once again demonstrated he knows how to inspire and motivate his viewers!

Plenty of us around here watch Real Time because we admire Bill's passion for spreading the science on climate change, asking tough questions about money in politics, and trying to burst "the bubble" where some of our politicians -- and too many of our nation's critical political debates -- exist.

The President's communications team thinks strategically about scheduling presidential interviews, and we have made a concerted effort over the last couple of years to broaden the array of venues where the President appears -- from talking to young people about health care on "Between Two Ferns" and a post-State of the Union conversation with YouTube stars, to a CNN Town Hall on gun violence and an interview with Mic.com on the Iran deal. Consistent with this approach, we'll keep in mind Bill's open invitation for a presidential appearance and give it the respectful consideration that Bill and his large audience deserve.

Thanks again for raising your voices (we know Bill always raises his). We hope you'll continue to use the platform to call on the Administration to address the policies and priorities you care about.

-- The We the People Team

P.S. Before we forget, happy belated 60th birthday, Bill! You haven't lost a step, and the gray hair makes you look, dare we say it, presidential. We hope our card didn't get lost in the mail.
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MSU Extension of Midland County and cooperating parent educators sponsor the Parents Corner. Send submissions to Midland County MSU Extension Educator, Lisa Treiber, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland, MI 4864

Sweatshirt Art. Creative 360 offers an opportunity for children to paint their own sweatshirt! Creative 360 will provide the sweatshirt or you may bring your own. Be sure to tell the sweatshirt size when registering. All ages are welcome; youth under the age of 7 need to be accompanied by an adult. This event takes place from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27; participants must be registered by Feb. 23 on the Creative 360 website (www.becreative360.org) or call 837-1885. Cost for this activity is $20/$10 with your own sweatshirt cash/check; $23/$13 with your own sweatshirt debit/credit.

Fabric Pop Art Mixed Media. Kids ages 7-14 will use their own creativity to create one-of-a-kind, colorful pieces that show their personality. They will paint a 12 by 16 canvas board, then create a pattern, cut fabric pieces and affix them to the board. This class is a great chance for kids to play with color and pattern and also practice fine-tuning their cutting skills. Allise Nobel will lead this event from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 5 at Creative 360. Cost is $12 cash/check; $15 debit/credit plus $4 for materials. Register by March 2 at www.becreative360.org or call 837-1885.

Blessed Sacrament Preschool Open House. Blessed Sacrament Preschool offers classes for 3s, 4s and 5s half day or full day. Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 - 2017 school year. Call to set up a tour while class is in session, or come to the Open House from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8. Blessed Sacrament Preschool is located at 3109 Swede Avenue, Midland. Call 835-6777 ext. 241 for more information, or visit www.blessed-midland.org, click on the preschool icon.

8 Hour ServSafe Training. An 8 Hour ServSafe Food Protection manager Certification course will be held on March 24 in Midland County at the Michigan State University Extension office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This course helps prepare you for the ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification exam. Training covers a wide variety of concepts including: The Importance of Food Safety, Good Personal Hygiene, Time and Temperature Control, Preventing Cross-Contamination, Cleaning and Sanitizing, Safe Food Preparation, Receiving and Storing Food, Safe Methods of Thawing, Cooking, Cooling and Reheating and more. Anyone who serves in the lead role of a food establishment, concession, day care or other food service position should take this course. To learn more about registering visit events.anr.msu.edu/MidlandServSafeMar16/ or call 989-832-6643 for more information. Cost of the 8 hour course is $70 all participants must have the 6th edition ServSafe Managers Book which is available at the Midland County MSU Extension office for $72. (You must be registered for the class to purchase the book).

Searching for Animal Tracks and Signs. Winter often seems like a time when little is alive. However, animals may be livelier than you thinkyou may not see them, but you can find the tracks and other signs they leave behind. Chippewa Nature Center Interpretive Naturalist Jeanne Henderson will give an overview of some of the clues to look for as you walk outdoors at 2 p.m. Feb. 21. Dress warmly for this free program open for all ages (youth under 18 do need to be accompanied by an adult). CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI 48640.

Full Moon History Snowshoe Walk. Strap on a pair of snowshoes and join the Kyle Bagnall, Chippewa Nature Centers Manager of Historical Programs for a walk under the light of the full Snow Moon at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 22. Along the way you will hear tales of Midlands past as you hike to the Homestead Farm. At the farm, youll find a warm fire and oil lamps lit at the log cabin. If you need to borrow snowshoes, please call 989-631-0830 to reserve a pair or register online. Meet at the Visitor Center. If snow conditions are unfavorable, the hike will be cancelled. This event is free of charge and open to ages 9 and older (youth under 18 do need to be accompanied by an adult). CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI 48640.

Seasonal Sightings: Winter Wildlife. Each season is marked by changing wildlife and plant sightings. Venture out with Educator Victoria Zablocki on Feb. 27, for this drop-in, seasonal sightings hike to learn some of the common winter residents that call Chippewa Nature Center home. Come prepared to look for the distinct markings of common winter inhabitants including dark-eyed juncos, white-breasted nuthatches and eastern gray Squirrels. This event is free of charge and open to ages 5 and older (youth under 18 do need to be accompanied by an adult). CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland MI 48640.

How Do Birds Survive Winter? Birds have much more than warm downy feathers to ward off the cold temperatures and long nights of winter. Many species wintering in northern climates have a variety of adaptations enabling them to survive winter extremes, reduced food supplies, shorter days and competition. Interpretative Naturalist Jeanne Henderson will present this indoor program at 2 p.m. Feb. 28 and share some of these adaptations. Ages 9 and older are invited to attend this free program (youth under 18 do need to be accompanied by an adult). CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI 48640.
To the editor:

Thank you to Ralph Wirtz for writing a wonderful article on John Rapanos in Mondays Midland Daily News. I have known John for almost 59 years, since I bought my first house from him in a subdivision he and his brother Nick developed when John was only 21, and during this time had business transactions with John and a long-time personal friendship. I spent hours this weekend trying to write a memoir of John doing him justice but Ralph has covered just about all the important subjects, more elegantly and eloquently than I could.

Johns intellect in figuring out uses and potential of real estate and business opportunities was uncanny and he always knew what the possibilities were and what was fair. He was a risk taker, which meant things did not always work out, but when something did not work out as hoped, he extricated himself from the situation and, without missing a beat or complaining, always went on to the next project. There were many times when John and I were unavoidably in somewhat adversarial business positions, but no matter what I always felt I could trust John and he never let me down.

When John was about 24 or 25 he told me that he had decided that it was about time to get married, and that, thinking as always, he had made a list of what he wanted his wife to be like and made a systematic plan of how to meet that person. Somehow he never got to carry that plan out because he first met Judy, causing great excitement, and his devotion to Judy and their sons continued to be of prime importance the rest of his life  as his devotion to his parents had been when I first knew him.

John at one point decided that he had so many legal involvements that he should go to law school, so he applied to the University of Michigan Law School. The Admissions Office took the very unusual step of turning his application over to Professor Roy Steinheimer, a strong and definite personality, because John was negotiating the terms of admission, and there were a number of discussions. The Law School was very interested in John and finally Professor Steinheimer informed John that the Law School would admit him on the condition that he would give up his business involvements until he graduated. John reluctantly decided that he could not do that but he was gratified that the Law School believed in him enough to engage in a long and unusual admission discussion.

Knowing John has enriched my life beyond measure, and as much as I mourn his passing and miss him, I am everlastingly grateful for knowing him, the experiences I had with him, what I learned from him and how he enriched my life. John was an amazing experience and I would not have missed a minute of it.

BILL BARKER

Midland
The following list includes reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department.

Friday, Feb. 19

1:01 a.m.  A Jerome Township traffic stop resulted in the arrests of two men, ages 23 and 29, for marijuana possession, as well as an 18-year-old who was arrested on a warrant.

3:10 a.m.  A Detroit woman, 20, was arrested in Homer Township for driving on a suspended license.

Thursday, Feb. 18

12:29 p.m.  Police assisted probation agents in the 200 block of West Ellsworth Street.

12:49 p.m.  A Homer Township man, 61, reported he and his wife were victims of an IRS tax refund scam.

2:20 p.m.  A deputy assisted a health department worker while a property was posted as condemned.

2:31 p.m.  A $60 trash can was stolen from a Jerome Township home.

5:08 p.m.  Gasoline, valued at $24.96, was stolen from a Greendale Township gas station.

6:18 p.m.  A deputy was called to Edenville Township by a Beaverton man, 44, after an argument with a Sanford man, 24, stemming from a driving incident. Both men apologized for the incident, and no damage or injuries occurred.

8:20 p.m.  An Ingersoll Township mans chicken was killed by a dog.

9:14 p.m.  A motorist was arrested at Meadowbrook Drive and Hampden Court.

9:28 p.m.  A deputy was sent to a Homer Township address for a report of a 13-year-old girl who intentionally overdosed on prescription medications. She was taken to the emergency room.

9:44 p.m.  A man stole three bottles of beer, valued at $13.57, from a Midland Township store.

11:14 p.m.  Police made arrests for drug possession and driving without a valid license at Wheeler and Washington streets.




Homer Hardin was to recall: Carpenters were scarce those days, so were building materials. Settlers having business at the railroad, and men hauling cedar posts from the Dismal to sell at Cozad were depended upon to bring back lumber and other supplies on the return trip. These trips took three days, and were on no regular schedule. As a result, shortages of material would occur for some buildings under construction, and when this happened, the carpenters would help on jobs that did have lumber. Any man handy with a saw could get a job. Skilled workers earned $.25 an hour, helpers, $12 1/2 . Room and board was about three dollars a week, extra meals $.20 each. In the rear of each building lot would be sod chicken houses, pig pens, corn cribs, and most important of all, privies. These people planned to be self-sufficient by having their own meat, butter and eggs.





Ben and Edner Hardin and their young son, Homer, had come from Coal Run, Ohio to Plum Creek in early spring of 84. They hired a livery team and a driver who was accurate in his directions and departed to the South Loup in search of a new home. There were no roads or settlers to guide them, only a faint wagon trail. The Roten sheep ranch, about 24 miles out of Plum Creek, was at that time the only place water could be found for horses or people until the South Loup river was reached, twenty miles further on.





A. H. Needham helped Hardin secure a tree claim a mile south of the new town site. Adjoining this claim was a preemption (present Don Hardin place) that Hardin acquired by paying for the relinquishment of the man occupying it, a Mr. Case, possibly Solomon Case, the father of Andrew and Alex. The improvements were a sod house with two windows and two doors and a board roof covered with sod, a dug well, and a sod stable. Ten acres were already broken out. The deal was made and the Hardins moved in. One of the young Homers earliest recollections was the leaking roof in this house with his mother holding an umbrella over him and a precious sack of flour. (A daughter, Leora, was born in 1892.)





The family was no more than settled when Richard Allen offered Hardin two fine lots on a good location (present bank corner) if he would go into business. Construction began on a story and a half general store building. Hauling lumber from Cozad for the new store, Hardin would take a ten-gallon keg of water for himself and his horses, feed for the team and bedding and food for himself. He made many trips and on nights when he was expected home, his wife hung a lantern in the soddy window to guide him over the dim trail.





The store was enclosed by December 22, 1884, and the towns first Christmas program was held there. There was singing, speaking and music. Ben Hardin played the violin, with Mrs. Hardin accompanying him on the organ. At the playing of Home, Sweet Home many wept from the homesickness. In spite of ten inches of snow and a temperature of ten below, twenty-five  almost the entire population, attended; the families of Richard Allen, Ben Hardin, Stephen Leland, William Ray, and R. A. Probert. Without their famiklies were: John Owen, Morgan Parks, Dr. Joseph Murray, Joe and Dave Blum, Charlie Long and Charles Hughey. One not attending was carpenter Joe Tiday, who had arrived in town that very day. He would marry William Rays daughter, Dora.




BLOOMINGTON  Questions about how a lack of health care coverage will affect income taxes are at the top of the list of concerns that certified public accounts and tax professionals are hearing as the tax filing season picks up.

That is the area where we are seeing the most issues this year, said Teresa Ballenger of Liberty Tax Service, 1319 N. Veterans Parkway, Bloomington. We have had some who, at some point in the year, went more than two months without it, and they are going to have to pay a penalty.

The changes in healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act are a good reason to seek the help of a tax professional, rather than filing on your own, said Robert Klemm of Klemm Tax Services, 1400 Woodlawn Road, Lincoln.

If someone takes the energy and effort to study the laws and have relatively simple circumstances, they can save money by filing taxes on their own, he said. There are some exemptions for the healthcare coverage, for instance. But if they dont have an understanding of that, or how the child tax credits work, or how itemized deductions are figured, then they need to make an effort to understand the law or find someone who does.

There are only a couple new changes to income taxes this year. First, the filing deadline was pushed to April 18 because Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in Washington, D.C., falls this year on April 15. Second, the federal personal exemption has risen by $50, to $4,000 for most taxpayers.

But health care questions remain at the top of the list.

The fee for not having health insurance is calculated one of two ways, depending on the situation. Its either a percentage of the annual household income, or a set amount for each person in the household without health insurance.

If you were uninsured for more than three months, despite having access to affordable coverage, youll be required to pay whichever amount is higher.

For 2015, the penalty for no health insurance was $325 per person or 2 percent of the annual household income, whichever was higher. For 2016, the fee will be $695 or 2.5 percent of your income, whichever is higher.

The healthcare changes are progressing, said Chelsea Zeschke, president of American Tax & Accounting, 2206 E. Oakland Ave., Bloomington. People are getting hit with fines. Most of our clients have been pretty good with obtaining healthcare, but not everyone. Its still fairly new to most, but it is something we are dealing with consistently.

The Internal Revenue Service estimates more than 70 percent of taxpayers will receive federal refunds this year. The average federal income tax refund last year was $2,797.

Illinois Department of Revenue Director Connie Beard said those who file state returns before March 1 should receive their refunds two to three weeks after March 1. After March 1, the department expects to issue refunds two to three weeks after returns are submitted.

A refund isn't for everyone, however.
I tried hard not to gag while writing this column. No luck.

A few days ago I met John Nutter of North Canton, Ohio, an interesting young man with a 2-year-old. Somehow we became engaged in a conversation about babies and boogers. That's when he asked me if I had heard about the NoseFrida Snotsucker (no kidding). He said it was a real hit with moms and dads with small children who had stuffy noses.

Hmm, I thought. I'll be the judge of that. So I posted a question on my Facebook page to learn the truth. And I found a YouTube video that demonstrates how it works: http://bit.ly/23Jp1Aq.

Basically, one end of a tube goes near the child's nostril and the other end into the mouth of an adult who sucks out the snot. The Swedish-made device, which sells for about $15, has a filter that keeps the mucus from getting into the mouth of the inhaler.

Chrissy Lockhart Gashash: "I can attest that this is awesome!"

Me: "Did it take you a few seconds to get over the gross factor? I would have to imagine myself on a secluded, serene beach before I sucked in."

Gashash: "LOL. At the time, my infant daughter had a terrible cold and we were desperate to get rid of the boogers because the traditional [bulb] sucker just was not cutting it. You think it's going to be super gross, but seeing all the boogers instantly fill the chamber and your child's nose is completely clear ... is extremely gratifying."

Me: "Gag."

Gashash: "The funniest thing to me is people want to demo this online. They definitely are doing a public service for parents, but I draw the line at posting a video of myself sucking boogers. That's for my eyes only."

Chrissy's enthusiasm for the Snotsucker was repeated again and again on Facebook. But there were others who weren't fond of the invention.

Stacie Morrison: "Makes my dinner want to revisit."

Lois Heffernan: "Not on your life. Love ends at the tip of the nose."

I think she might be right. I offered my husband, Chris, $100 to use it on me.

"There is no amount of money that would make me do that," he said, more interested in watching a CSI rerun than assisting in my little investigation.

Cindy Kindig: "Gross. No way."

Sandi Vasko: "Oh yuck!"

Donna Stillo Aller: "I don't want to know what they do when the kids are constipated."

Me: "Gag."

Jaime Kirbawy admitted using the Snotsucker was strange at first.

"But," as she said, "desperate times call for desperate measures."

When we become parents, we do all sorts of things we couldn't have imagined doing pre-kid. That, of course, includes using things like the now wildly popular NoseFrida Snotsucker, which is a popular baby gift. After all, we want our children to feel better when they are ill.

John, who first told me about the Snotsucker, admitted that his daughter does not like when he or his wife use the device on her. But, once she is able to breathe, it melts his heart when she looks up at him and shyly says, "Thank you."

Me: "Aw."

Dude wipes

John also mentioned another product during our discussion that he was keen about.

"Have you ever heard of Dude Wipes?" Nutter asked, completely innocently.

The product was pitched successfully on ABC's "Shark Tank" last fall. The Dude Wipes' website describes the product this way:

"Whether it was some unexpected physical activity or the aftermath of the lunchtime burrito, we [guys] were destined to smell. So we set out to change history and the bathroom forever by creating the award-winning Dude Wipes. These flushable wipes are guaranteed to combat stank and put you back on your game wherever or whenever nature calls."
FARMER CITY  With a weekend of reflection after announcing his intention to resign as mayor of Farmer City, Mike Jenkins retracted his decision Sunday and said he will serve the remainder of his three-year term.

I have done a lot of reflecting, Jenkins told The Pantagraph. It is clear that as a community, we need a lot of healing. We need to work together for a better tomorrow.

The city is involved in a criminal investigation into the alleged mismanagement of tax increment financing money, which is property tax revenue set aside in a specific area for economic development.

On Friday, Jenkins announced his resignation on a Facebook page, but he did not hand in his resignation to the city clerk as required by law to begin the process of stepping down.

I had a change of mind, he said. Honestly, the support I received from the community this weekend was the difference. I am in the ministry and there was a lot of prayer this weekend.

"I reflected on it and it led me to a passage which says that your burden is heavy and mine is light, so lets exchange burdens. Over the past few months, there has been a lot of weight on me, and I felt as if it had been removed and I was refreshed.

I regret the initial post, he said. It exposed a weakness in me and sometimes pressure does take a toll.

Earlier this month, Jenkins announced he was cooperating with the Illinois State Police and the DeWitt County state attorneys office on an investigation into the possible exploitation of the TIF 1 district in Farmer City and indicated that TIF money may have been illegally dispensed.

A full audit of all TIF 1 district funds is now underway. One councilman, Willard McKinley, resigned, returned $14,608 in funds he had collected and later asked to return to his vacant seat.

Jenkins, who is in his fifth year as mayor, said he will honor the request and most likely will call for a special meeting in the coming weeks to return McKinley to the seat. The council is not scheduled to meet until March 21.

Also, safeguards are now in place to ensure there are no TIF issues in the future, he said.

This community has seen great momentum and improvement and distance from any good-old-boy system over the past six years and we all deserve a city free from any impropriety and distrust, he said.
NORMAL  Caroline S. Cox, 104, of Normal, passed away at 10:45 p.m. Feb. 4, 2016, at Heartland Healthcare in Normal.

A memorial service is planned for May 7 at Kibler-Brady-Ruestman Funeral Home, Bloomington. Specific information will follow later.

Caroline was born Caroline Ruth Schafer to Lewis Arthur Schafer and Marian Adele Hinchcliff Schafer on Sept. 15, 1911, in Marissa. She was delivered at home by her grandmother, Caroline McGowan Schafer. She had one younger sibling, Ilda Jean Schafer, born in 1914.

From a musical family on both sides, Caroline studied piano and, during high school in Mascoutah, where her father was superintendent of schools, she participated in plays and debate and became an excellent typist. She graduated in 1931 from McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill., where she studied English, was a champion debater, took part in and directed plays and was chosen May Queen in her senior year. She studied business courses at Southern Illinois University for a year and then went to teach at Kenney High School where, on her first day, she met John Kavanaugh Cox. Her memoir states that it was "love at first sight" and "the beginning of a 63-year love affair." At the end of their school year, they were married in Alton on June 23, 1933, and moved to Buffalo, where John served as superintendent of schools. Their children, Marian Elizabeth and John Lewis, were born in 1934 and 1936, respectively.

The family moved to Oak Park in 1944 when John began work with the Illinois Agricultural Association. They all became active in First Baptist Church, and Caroline was kept busy with the family. She was a superb seamstress, sewing beautiful clothes for herself and her children. She later became administrative assistant to the Oak Park superintendent of schools. She and John moved to Bloomington when the IAA moved from Chicago.

In Bloomington, Caroline joined the Woman's Club, a book club, and became a member of the JV Chapter of PEO.

They became members of First Baptist Church and, later, Second Presbyterian Church, where Caroline was a member of Sarah Circle. They always loved to dance and were among a group of friends who frequently went dancing at the Elks Club. When her younger sister passed away, she drove to Ohio for several years to help her children get ready for school and cooked for them. She also served as a volunteer at what is now Advocate BroMenn Medical Center.

Caroline is survived by her two children, five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, one nephew, four grandnieces and three grandnephews.

The family wishes to thank Drs. Abadeer and Sriratana; the wonderful nurses and staff of Advocate Hospice, especially Sarah Smith, Janet Killian and Linda Anderson; as well as the YWCA Home Care staff, especially Elizabeth Richardson, Barb Robinson and our special angel, Connie Morger. Thanks, too, to Joe Rabbitt from Kibler-Brady-Ruestman for his kind helpfulness.

Caroline was a warm, loving, wise and witty mother, grandmother, aunt and friend, beloved by friends and family alike. She will be sorely missed until we meet again.

Condolences and memories of Caroline may be left for the family at kiblerbradyruestman.com.
Let's understand something about the fight to fill the Supreme Court seat of Antonin ("Nino") Scalia. This is about nothing but raw power. Any appeal you hear to high principle is phony.

In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack Obama.

Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the president deference. Elections have consequences and Obama won re-election in 2012.

Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014  if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.

It's hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered Obama's serial constitutional depredations: His rewriting the immigration laws by executive order (stayed by the courts); his reordering the energy economy by regulation (stayed by the courts); his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate (by declaring it an executive agreement).

Minority Leader Harry Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to Obamacare.

On Tuesday, Obama loftily called upon Congress to rise above ideology and partisanship in approving his nominee. When asked how he could square that with his 2006 support of a filibuster to stop the appointment of Samuel Alito, Obama replied with a four-minute word salad signifying nothing.

As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing president to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?

Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from "anti-establishment" candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc.

What was the 2014 election about, they say? We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the "Washington cartel."

As it happens, under our Madisonian Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the president, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have.

But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The president proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McConnell cannot hold the line. And he must.

If McConnell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the "what did we get for 2014?" question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalia's seat and to the court's conservative majority.

But only for now. Blocking an Obama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McConnell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution.

In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial president in the White House. "I would not like to be replaced," he explained, "by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I've tried to do for 25 years."

Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McConnell do his thing. Then in November it's for us to win one for Nino.
We need a states attorney who will prosecute criminals and conduct the office within the law. Seth Uphoff has done that and has also done something else that the taxpayers should be appreciate. Seth has run the office in a conservative and responsible manner, saving us, the taxpayers, more than $250,000 in his first three years in office. He consistently comes in under budget. He also met the county boards goal for this fiscal year, based on the boards desire to reduce spending, which ultimately reduces the burden to us all.
Kanye West's crazy tweets have become viral. Many people are fascinated and perplexed by the superstar rapper's social media behavior.

Medical Daily spoke with Psychologist and San Diego State University professor Dr. Jean Twenge about the reasons behind the Kanye West Twitter rants. Twenge is also the author of "The Narcissism Epidemic" which tackles the traits of narcissistic people.

I'm practicing my Grammy Speech. I'm not going to the Grammys unless they promise me the Album of the Year!!!  KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

"We can compare the characteristics of narcissistic people to some of Kanye West's tweets," Twenge told Medical Daily. "Many of his tweets are classic examples of these characteristics."

Some of the narcissistic traits that Kanye West displays is his grandiosity, sense of entitlement, acting aggressively towards others and his difficulty to understand and be empathetic to other people. A feeling that the world would be a better place if you are its ruler is another sign of narcissism.

Mayo Clinic says that narcissistic people are perceived as conceited, overconfident, proud, boastful and pretentious. They also like being the center of attention, constantly talk about themselves and badly treat people they perceive to be inferiors.

I am the Jordan and Steph Curry of music, meaning I'm the best of 2 generations.  KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

I know I can make the world a better place... I have done the impossible ... I retook the throne of rap... I beat the fashion game...  KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

However, mental health journalist and counselor Kathleen Smith has an alternative opinion on the Kanye West Twitter rants. "I think it can be very tempting for people to make assumptions about someone's mental health based on their social media presence," Smith told Medical Daily.

"But the reality is that unless you're standing in front of them and observing and asking good questions, then it's really just a shot in the dark," Smith added. She also said that Kanye West might be intentionally trying to post crazy Tweets because he knows that these posts will be controversial and make him more famous.
Going out to millions of American homes each weekend, Saturday Night Live has such reach that academics say the show even has an impact on presidential races. 10% of respondents to a 2008 poll said SNL actually influenced their vote that year, with any on-the-fence viewers most likely to have been convinced to stump for Obama. The so-called SNL effect has been in play since the NBC comedys inception: according to experts, Gerald Fords 1976 defeat by Jimmy Carter was in part influenced by Chevy Chases bungling portrayal of Ford on the show.

Executive producer Lorne Michaels has insisted SNL is politically neutral, but history suggests its often been more liberal than not. Just look at some of its most memorably outrageous political caricatures: Will Ferrells idiotic George W. Bush, Tina Feys cuckoo Sarah Palin, Chases clumsy Ford (while Michaels says theres no bias, Chase has admitted he wanted Jimmy Carter to beat Ford in 76.) Look at how the show has mercilessly sent up the 2015/2016 GOP stock as a bunch of amateurs and crackpots. More importantly this election season, look at what the show has done for Bernie Sanders.

Larry David has so far played Bernie Sanders on SNL on three occasions, and through a largely uncritical collection of sketches, David and the Saturday Night Live team have no doubt aided the Sanders campaign. SNL writer-star Colin Jost admitted as much in a recent interview with Seth Meyers, when he described audience reaction to David playing Sanders on the show: I think hes helped Bernie. Larrys so likeablethat youre like, Oh yeah, Bernie Sanders, Ive always liked him. I liked him in Curb.

Certainly Davids castingwhich came about not because SNL nor NBC were looking to give Sanders a star boost, but simply because everyone involved agreed David had the perfect look for the parthasnt hurt Sanders image. Outside of SNL, Sanders had been the butt of jokes, about his age, about his appearance and manner, and about his politics. SNL has helped to normalize the senators image somewhat; skeptical voters told regularly by the press how obscure Sanders is have been reminded by SNL that they actually already respect one old, balding, Jewish curmudgeon from Brooklyn, New York.

Such is the uncanny similarity between David and Sanders that Davids portrayal brings the added bonus (for the Sanders campaign) of constantly insisting that what audiences love about David is what they also love about Sanders. Its an almost symbiotic form of casting, with David having transferred some of his own popularity over to Sanders ever since the Sanders character first showed up on SNL.

Even back in October, when Sanders was still way behind in the polls and considered unelectable by the media, Davids Sanders character was greeted by the audience like a rock star in the Dem debate skit. Meanwhile, Kate McKinnons Hillary Clinton got second billing, as Sandersthe real thing trailing Clinton by 20 points in national pollsgot the loudest cheers and the most air time. To anyone not in the know, SNL made it look like Sanders was the Democratic frontrunner, not Clinton. It couldnt have been any other way: in hiring Larry David, the SNL team were always going to have to make his character the most central. It just so happens that in the process they also gave prominence to a Democratic candidate that, at the time, was tied in the polls with someone that never even ran (that would be Joe Biden).

Its not just additional familiarity that Sanders has been lent by SNL. Sanders reputation is built upon his resolute hammering home of the facts, often at a high volume. And so, SNL created a parody that reflects that: Davids passionate, crotchety and frugal Sanders (I own one pair of underwear! Some of these billionaires, they got three, four pairs!). But theres nothing truly damaging or critical in this portrayal. If anything, heightening these characteristics serves to increase the real Sanders reputation as an economical, serious-minded politician that doesnt prioritize image over the issues.

McKinnons Clinton character, on the other hand, comes across much less sympathetically. SNL mocks Clintons super-prepared, at-times robotic politicking style. It has her down as image-obsessed and insecure over the prospect of losing another presidential bid, while showcasing her tendency to switch accents depending on whichever state shes in. Where Sanders remains, even in parody, stubbornly substantive and authentic, the Clinton character comes across as desperate. As the SNL team exaggerate Sanders and Clinton for comedic effect, they inadvertently help to promote one, while accentuating the perceived flaws of the other.

Davids Sanders character has caught on so well that David as Sanders recently got a five-minute sketch all to himself. Bern Your Enthusiasm, in which Larry David as Sanders endures a gaffe-filled and Curb-like day at the Iowa caucus, had racked up 2.5 million YouTube views in just three days (its now up to 3.2 million). This has been one of the biggest moments for the Sanders campaign to date. The official Bernie Sanders Twitter account even briefly changed its profile picture to one of David in the sketch. This was the Sanders campaign latching onto a popular pop culture event and understanding Larry David was acting as an endorsement, whether he meant to or not.

The most recent SNL aided Bernie Sanders in a number of ways. Bern Your Enthusiasm has already been chalked up as one of the great recent SNL sketches, its popularity lending more name recognition to the Sanders brand as it simultaneously humanizes the famously grouchy politician. In the sketch, Sanders is recast as a harmless Larry David-alike bumbler, alienating the five voters he needs to win Iowa through simple social awkwardness. (Crucially, the suggestion there is that the only one capable of hobbling Sanders campaign is not Clinton, but Sanders himself.)

Then there was the same episodes Steam Ship sketch, in which the real Sanders appeared alongside his comedy doppelganger in a knowing meta-cameo. This one played almost like a propaganda video for the Sanders campaign: a sinking steam ship destined for New York, with Sanders descendant Bernie Sanderswitzky (Were gonna change it when we get to America so it doesnt sound quite quite so Jewish) saving the passengers from Larry Davids rich one per center, suggesting they unite and work together to survive the ordeal. As comedy it was strained, as a guest appearance it was overly-fawning, but as promotion of the Sanders campaign it was another absolute win. Not only does the sketch spare Sanders a ribbing, but hes allowed to, unchallenged, lay out his key campaign message in metaphor.

Of course none of the recent presidential race material has likely been part of a deliberate effort by Saturday Night Live to promote Bernie Sanders, or give him preferential treatment (Hillary Clinton and The Donald also made personal appearances on the show recently, albeit less successfully). All the same, Davids portrayal as Bernie Sanders and Sanders own disarming SNL cameo have far from hindered the Sanders surge. Besides the free positive exposure, viewers/voters have also been shown that Sanders can poke fun at himself in a warm, contemporary, relatable way, a la current sitting president Barack Obama. Secondly, SNL has, through humor, comfortingly assured viewers/voters that its OK for a presidential candidate to be loud, eccentric, and a little bit to the left.

Not by design, SNL has helped to banish the idea that there is anything sinister or extreme about what some have tried so hard to paint as a dangerous communist; the show will have made it that bit harder for rivals to dehumanize Sanders in an effort to discredit him personally. The notion that Sanders, a politician that would be considered centrist in Europe, is a communist is absurd, but the idea of him as some lunatic leftist thinker has been floated all the same. It feels harder to do that now after SNL and Larry David have reshaped Sanders image as a lovable David-esque grumpus shouting at America to help itself.

The Bernie Sanders campaign has been enormously successful in growing support at the grassroots. Its how Sanders tied with Clinton in Iowa, how he beat her in New Hampshire, and its why the pair are now virtually tied in the national polls. Still, itd be interesting to discover what, if any part, Saturday Night Live has played in Sanders journey, as it has presidential candidates past. Certainly, its Larry Davids Bernie Sanders thats been the star of SNLs presidential race this season; one of the great shames of still-favorite Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 Democratic nomination would be to see him off our screens.



Brogan Morris is a UK-based freelance writer, as seen on the Guardian, Little White Lies, Flavorwire, the BFI, the New Humanist and more. Opinions range from ridiculous to passable. You can follow him on Twitter.
For a quick basic overview of the new Samsung Galaixy S7, the video from The Verge noted above covers some of new features like better water resistance, a new MicroSD Slot for added memory and new camera features. Noted below is a video on the new Samsung Gear 360 Camera accessory.

Of course a Samsung keynote wouldn't be a Samsung keynote without a jab at Apple somewhere and it popped up prominently this time when talking about their new camera features like shooting better photos is low light conditions. With the new Galaxy S7 they show a comparison shot and guess who won that contest?

Other Galaxy S7 highlights include new liquid cooled and a bigger battery. The other notable to mention is that Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg came on stage to pump up Oculus but more importantly, their partnership with Samsung with the Gear VR. Zuckerberg made it clear that VR is the Next Platform, especially for social media, as one of the graphics notes below. Zuckerberg pointed out why Samsung is the right company to partner with for VR headsets. Click on the image below to enlarge.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.


Jan and I and our friend the Zen priest Dosho Port were driving back to Long Beach from Fresno, when Dosho asked How did you avoid the draft during the Vietnam war? I hesitated. I always avoided that question.

For years it wasnt hard to redirect the conversation. Although that seemed to be changing. A year before this conversation when talking with the spouse of a UU minister colleague who asked about the war and the draft and how I had not been in the service, pressed, I just lied. It was the first time I was unable to finesse the question. And that conversation and that lie continued to haunt me.

And now, the question was raised again.

This time I just said, Actually, I didnt. I joined the Marines. I didnt feel relieved by saying it out loud, which I kind of, vaguely, anyway, hoped might be the case.

Still, my spiritual discipline for many years now has been integration, binging the disparate parts of my life together. And as I mature into that part of my life where I am also a spiritual director, it seems important to try and be transparent, at least as transparent as I can. I dont have a lot of secrets left, little that I am unwilling to share. This may be the biggest of those hanging on. At least in my heart.

I was in High School, if I recall correctly, the fifth High School Id attended as our family followed my fathers always changing dream of the next best thing. The war was raging. At home I felt trapped. Hormones raging, the isolation of our constant relocations, my fathers on and off troubles with the law, I could no longer stand staying at home.

And so I said to my family I wanted to go into the service. Today, I have no idea why it was the Marines. Probably they had the best ads on television. As I was only seventeen my father had to sign off. I wanted to enlist for the minimum two years, but my father and the recruiter tried to talk me into four. We settled on three.

And off I went to Marine boot camp. It was, how can I say, hell. After the testing, I was interviewed as a possible candidate for officer training. Of course as a High School drop out the route included new extended commitments extending on for years. I declined to pursue it. So, I was past surprised when the training was over that I was given a promotion to private first class.

Before I was to be sent off to specialist training a call was put out for a typist. Along with a couple of others, I put my hand up. I tested fastest, and was temporarily assigned to the front offices at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

As I cast my memory back some fifty years, I realize most of the details have faded into the mists. The short of it was I felt isolated and unsure of what to do in most any given situation. The constrictions of my upbringing left me with no social tools, and I was simply overwhelmed by it all. I went AWOL twice, and twice was sentenced to a month in the brig. The second time my family stepped in, in retrospect surprising as while I know they cared, they lived lives mostly controlled by others, with little self-direction. They hired a psychologist, and presenting my case for terminal immaturity, I somehow managed to win an honorable discharge. The whole thing soup to nuts lasted for thirteen months.

Exhausted and ashamed, I moved back home, and following how I dealt with my first learning of my father going to jail, once again retired to bed. This time I read the entirety of Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories. Half a century later, I remember them better than any of the details of my military experience.

I then got out of bed, dusted myself off, and found a job at Holmes Book Company in Oakland.

I was eighteen years old.

And my life continued.

Do I have a take away from that experience? Not a lot. Mostly it was an example of the constricted life I lived, with too few options. And, yes, terminal immaturity. Well, I guess not terminal. I lived. And I have grown. And, also, it tells of some amazing luck that sometimes is thrown our way in a mix of things too hard to name anything other than, well, luck. Who knows what would have happened if I were shipped off to the killing fields in Vietnam?

Instead, I was given a pass, allowed to pursue other things, which would soon lead me to a Buddhist monastery.
Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube made their entry in the media market, the PatnaDaily had already registered its presence in...
Patna: Christians in Patna on Friday participated in church mass and prayers to mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, also known as the Good Friday.

Led by Archbishop Father William D'Souza, services were held at various churches in the state capital, including the Padri ki Haveli, the St. Joseph's Cathedral, and the Kurji Church, from where hundreds of devotees took out a procession carrying a cross to depict the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

A play was also organized at the Kurji to highlight the life of the Lord. Later, services were held in the afternoon during which priests offered prayers wishing peace on earth and brotherhood among all.

Sending his best wishes to the Christian community in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attended the mass at the Padri Ki Haveli in Patna City.
Patna: Former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Pappu Yadav was briefly arrested on Saturday afternoon during his call for day-long bandh in protest against the rising crime in Bihar and the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student union President Kanhaiya Kumar.

Yadav, the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) leader and an MP from Madhepura, took out a motorcycle rally in the state capital where his supporters forced many shops to down their shutters and burnt tires at many places to make the bandh successful.

Overall, the response to the call for bandh was tepid across the state with most businesses operating normally. Reports of Yadav's supporters blocking the railroad tracks in different parts of the state were received though no major delay was reported from anywhere.

After being released by the Patna police, Yadav said that his party won't sit idle as crime rate skyrocket in Bihar and would launch his agitation in phases to highlight the failure of the Nitish-Lalu-Congress government in the state.

Yadav claimed Saturday bandh was a huge success and he measured the success by the number of people arrested across the state that he said were in excess of 10,000.

Accusing the Nitish government of giving shelters to criminals, the Madhepura MP, once a known criminal himself who spent a large portion of his political career in various prisons in the nation, said that the fact that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator and rape accused Raj Ballabh Yadav was yet to be arrested was a testament of criminals working hand in glove with the top Bihar leaders.

Yadav also demanded from the NDA government at the Center for the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar and all charges against him, including of sedition, dropped.
You are in the right place to find out about what is really going on behind the scenes in the patriot movement in America, including solutions from Oathkeepers, Anna Von Reitz, Constitutional Sheriffs, Richard Mack, and many more people who are leading the charge to restore America to freedom and peace. Please search on the right for over 7400 articles.

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Saudi Arabia Halts Military Aid To Lebanon For Siding With Iran

02/21/16

Source: RFE/RL

Saudi Arabia said it is halting $4 billion of deals to equip and support Lebanese security forces in retaliation for the small Mediterranean country siding with Iran in its spat with the Sunni kingdom.

The Lebanese premier said his government "deeply regretted" the Saudi decision, reported by the Saudi Press Agency, and said it goes against a history of good relations between the countries.

"We are keen on keeping the relations brotherly and friendly," said Prime Minister Tammam Salam's office.

One deal involves a four-year, $3 billion Saudi pledge to buy French arms for the Lebanese military. The other involves a $1 billion support deal for the Lebanese police.

The decision came after Lebanon declined to support Saudi resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers.

The Saudi news agency said the kingdom was offended by Lebanon's refusal to condemn the attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities in Iran after Riyadh executed a prominent Shi'ite cleric last month.

That was "regrettable and unjustified," and "inconsistent with the fraternal relations between the two countries," the Saudis said.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

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
Thousands of undocumented children living in Iran's Khorasan Razavi province

02/21/16

Source: Radio Zamaneh

Mohammad Ajami, director of Foreign Immigrants Affairs in Khorasan Razavi, has announced that the province is home to 20,000 undocumented children born of unregistered marriages between Iranian women and foreign nationals.



Photos: Underground School for Afghan Children in Kerman, Iran



The Ghanoon daily quoted Ajami on Friday February 19 saying 20,000 children born to 12,000 Khorasani mothers through illegal marriages with foreign nationals live in the province without ID cards.

He added that according to unofficial reports, all across the country there are half a million children living without ID cards, having been born of illegal marriages between Iranian women and foreign men.

Ghanoon reports that about 320,000 foreign nationals live in Khorasan and only 250,000 of them are documented.

Khorasan is home to the majority of Afghan immigrants living in Iran, and since 2006, Iranian women cannot legally marry Afghan men unless they manage to acquire an assortment of permits from various offices, including Iran's Foreign Immigrants Affairs office.

Documents are also needed from the foreign country indicating there are no objections against such a marriage.

To forego that procedure, the couples often get married through the temporary marriage offered by religious laws, which means their children cannot be documented and any disputes regarding the marriage cannot be dealt with by the courts.

Last September, Iranian Parliament voted down a bill to grant citizenship to children who have Iranian mothers and foreign-national fathers.





Photos: Afghan Immigrants' Camp in Torbat-e Jam, Iran
The HP Elite x3 is an interesting take on Windows 10a 5.96-inch phablet that turns into a laptop or desktop PC with the help of a few accessories.

There have been countless attempts at PCs you can carry in your pocket. Earlier concepts like the IBM Modular Computer, Motorola Atrix, and Asus PadFone X didn't really take the market by storm. Even though the latter is less than two years old, HP hopes to buck that decades-long trend with the Elite x3.

As a phablet, the Elite x3 works well. It runs a 2.15GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, a step up from the Snapdragon 808 in the Microsoft Lumia 950 ($359.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . The AMOLED screen is bright and clear, with 2,560-by-1,440 resolution and 492.1ppi; text is quite sharp, even at smaller font sizes. It's got reasonably loud, front-firing Bang and Olufsen stereo speakers, so you can watch Netflix in HD during downtime.

Plug the Elite x3 into a Desktop Dock to add DisplayPort, Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, and a single USB-C port to the setup. Using Microsoft's Continuum feature, content from your phone, including Microsoft Office apps, will display on a larger, connected display, and you can switch seamlessly between the phablet screen and your external screen.

The real unique accessory, however, is HP's Mobile Extender. It looks like a 12.5-inch laptop, and weighs about 2 pounds, but it uses the Elite x3 as its processor, storage, and networking. The keyboard and screen hinge feel solid, but the sample we saw wasn't ready for demo use. The Elite x3 will connect to the Mobile Extender wirelessly or via a USB-C cable, and once connected, the larger battery in the ersatz laptop can charge the one in the phablet.

This brings us to the elephant in the room. While the Elite x3 is running Windows 10, it's the Mobile version written for ARM processors. Therefore, to get truly desktop-class apps to work on the Elite x3, your business must be using an enterprise-class remote desktop service like HP Workspace. That is, you're actually running the Windows 7/8.1/10 desktop apps on a server in your corporate office, and the Elite x3 is acting like a thin (or Citrix-style) client. You'll usually find these tools in a Fortune 500-sized company, so this isn't necessarily a solution for the consumer, SMB, or SOHO customer.

The Elite x3 is enterprise security compliant, with biometrics, Bitlocker support, 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, TPM, and enterprise-class VPN. It's also dust- and water-resistant, and designed for MIL-STD 801G testing (which is pending certification). All of the usual wireless standards are supported, including Bluetooth 4.0 LE, 2G/3G/4G, LTE-A with dual SIMs, NFC, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

The HP Elite x3 shows promise for on-the-go access, but only if you work for a large company with the client-server infrastructure to support it. Otherwise, it's just a really nice phablet with an innovative accessory set.

Pricing was not announced, but the HP Elite x3 and its accessories are expected this summer.
BARCELONAStill dreaming of a modular phone? LG has almost created one.

The LG G5 looks little like the company's previous flagship smartphones, trading in removable plastic parts for an ingenious, snap-to-open metal design. Its snap-on accessories could make it a uniquely configurable phone, but it also remains small, sleek, and appealing.

We've been seeing proposals for "modular" phones for a while now. Back in 2009 there was the Modu, while ZTE showed off a concept "Eco-Mobius" modular phone in 2014. And of course there's Project Ara, Google's repeatedly delayed modular device, which is supposed to start testing in Puerto Rico sometime this year. (And yes, I know about the Handspring Visor, which wasn't primarily a phone.)

The LG G5 is real, though, and it pulls off the modular trick by making the bottom of the phone removable. This appears to have originally started as a way to get a removable battery into a unibody-esque metal device. Pull the bottom off; there's the battery. Then LG stuck a USB-C connection in there, and now it can offer new bottoms with new features. The first two are a camera grip with a dual-detent shutter button and 4000mAh extended battery, and a 32-bit DAC from Bang & Olufsen with its own headphone jack for super-high-quality audio.

To swap the modules, you press a button on the side, slide out the module, snap off the main battery, and snap the battery into a new module. It's pretty easy, once you get the hang of it.

This phone isn't fully modular. You can't replace the processor. But I don't see why you can't add another camera, for instance, or even an SSD. LG is opening up the spec for the G5's slot, spokesman Ken Hong said, so there will hopefully be third-party modules, too. (The company seems to be leaving an opening for third-party extended batteries, to start.)

A Sleek, Flagship Smartphone

Apart from the modular bit, the G5 is a slim and attractive smartphone, measuring 5.9 by 2.9 by 0.3 inches and weighing 5.6 ounces. That makes it narrower but slightly heavier than the LG G4 ($456.00 at Verizon)(Opens in a new window) , which will remain on sale.

The G5's 5.3-inch, 2,560-by-1,440 IPS LCD display is "always on," meaning that it shows time, date, and notification information all the time. LG uses a special selective backlight to light up just a little bit of the screen, saving battery (and emulating OLED screens' ability to just light up parts of themselves.) LG says the always-on display consumes less than 1 percent of battery per hour.

The power button/fingerprint scanner is still on the backthis is LG, after allbut the volume buttons have moved to the side to make the back sleeker. Above the power button, there's another surprise: dual cameras. One of them is a standard 16-megapixel unit, the other a wide-angle 8-megapixel unit with a 135-degree angle of view. You can switch between them in the camera app. The wide-angle camera definitely gives you a fish-eyed view of the world. There's also a slightly freaky camera mode that embeds the high-res, narrow-angle picture in the middle of the wide-angle picture, although the two don't quite match up.

The phone has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, plus a MicroSD card slot nestled next to the SIM card slot. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but LG has interfered with the OS more than ever. In the name of "simplicity," it axed Android's app drawer, delivering a single-level experience more like Apple and Huawei. Yes, you can install another launcher, but it would be nice for these folks to stop messing with Google's experience quite so much.

I couldn't benchmark the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, but LG said that the model we were using was early pre-production software and hardware anyway. The company says the phone will be coming out in April, but didn't give a price. We anticipate it'll cost slightly less than the Samsung Galaxy S7, and it will be on all four carriers nationwide.
BARCELONAFinally, we have discovered a real use for home robots. They will play with your cat.

LG's Rolling Bot, announced here at Mobile World Congress today, has a built-in laser pointer. Why do you want a laser pointer on a robot? Anyone with a cat knows.

The Rolling Bot is a sphere about the size of a volleyball. It has an 8-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi. Using a companion app on the LG G5or any Android smartphone, but most easily the LG G5you can use the robot for home monitoring, remote recording, or to shoot a little red light across your floor and watch your cat insanely chase it.

The robot also has a microphone and speaker, so you can roll it around to talk to family members, or spook your cat into thinking that somehow you are trapped inside a volleyball-sized sphere. The robot rolls like BB-8 ($165.98 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , so the camera stays upright.

That's pretty much all I know from LG's presentation. Clearly, I need to get more time with this robot, and possibly bring animals.

LG hasn't announced the price of the Rolling Bot, or whether it can be filled with catnip.

LG's VR Headset and 360 Camera

I can tell VR is going to be a big theme of this show. Alcatel has already announced its VR headset, and Samsung is setting up an entire VR theater outside Plaza Catalunya in central Barcelona.

LG joins the fray with a better VR headset than it had last year, and a new 360 camera.

The LG 360 VR connects to the G5and only the G5with a USB-C cable. It has adjustable lenses, so even though you can't wear it with glasses, I could adjust it so I could see pretty well. It'll play both 360-degree VR content and standard 2D movies; LG said it could be used "to watch your most personal movies" on an airplane, although I don't advise that.

The goggles are pretty slim and noticeably lighter than Samsung's Gear VR ($29.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) ; they don't require a strap over the top of your head. You can't move around, but you can swivel your head. You use your phone as a touch-screen control, or use OK and Back buttons on the goggles themselves. I watched a few VR movie scenes, and they were about the same quality as the Gear VRdecent, but not nearly as immersive as HTC Vive.

LG understands that VR requires content, so it's also now pitching the LG 360 Camonce again, probably as an accessory to the G5 rather than as a photographer's VR camera. The LG 360 Cam has two 13-megapixel lenses, which combine to make a 16-megapixel image. It will also record 2K video with 5.1 surround sound using three mics, although it doesn't have an external mic input.

The camera has 4GB of memory plus a MicroSD card slot, and it pairs with the G5or any Android phoneto upload videos to YouTube or Google Street View, or view them on a VR headset.

No pricing yet, but LG said both might be bundled with G5 phones, so they'll probably be pretty affordableor even seen as free.
BARCELONAHuawei has ascended very quickly to the top of the smartphone heap. Now it's come gunning for your laptop. The Matebook, introduced here at Mobile World Congress, is Huawei's first laptop, a $699, convertible Windows 10 Professional tablet with a classy case and some excellent accessories. I got some time with it here in Barcelona.

The Matebook is a slim, all-metal tablet, only 6.9mm thick and weighing 22 ounces. Its basic specs land it somewhere in the middle of the mob of Surfaces, Lenovos, and whatnot currently flinging 2-in-1s at us. The 12-inch, 2,160-by-1,440 IPS LCD screen is razor sharp, although it falls short of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4's 2,736-by-1,824 resolution. The 1.1GHz Intel Core m3 processor in the model I saw exceeds the low-end Surface Pro 4 model's speed, although it won't match more expensive laptops.

The Matebook will come in Intel Core m3, m5 and m7 configurations, with 4GB or 8GB of RAM and 128 to 512GB of SSD storage. Those will cost $699 to $1,599. There's no expandable storageor expandable anything, really. The keyboard costs $129, the dock $89, and the pen $59.

On the side, between the volume buttons, there's a fingerprint scanner. Huawei says it's super-fast and even recognizes the sides of fingers, which seems very important given how you'd grip it. There are dual stereo speakers on top.

The Matebook's strength is in the look of its accessories. Start with the keyboard: it's a wraparound fake leather case that still feels more like leather than plastic; it's warm, soft, and not sticky. It doesn't feel like it would attract lint or dirt. Open it up, and the case has big, white keys with 1.5mm of throw. It's comfortable on the lap, if a bit wobbly, but more stable than the Apple iPad Pro ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .

A separate, matching case contains a pressure-sensitive pen and a USB-C dock. The dock expands the laptop's single USB-C port to offer two USB 3 ports, a USB-C passthrough for charging, Ethernet, HDMI, and VGA. The stylus functions as a pen when it's close to the screen, but when you pull it away from the laptop it becomes a laser pointer and slideshow controller. Yes, that's a gimmick, but it's a very useful one.

The Wacom-based pen was extremely responsive when I tried it, with excellent pressure sensitivity. As it uses Wacom technology, it should work with Windows apps that support pressure sensitivity.

Huawei claims 10 hours of office work or 9 hours of video playback on one battery charge, and says the battery charges to max in two hours.

If only Huawei had included the keyboard in the base price, it would have a killer response to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Lenovo Miix. As it is, the dressed-up low-end model with keyboard and dock costs $917, which makes it about $100 less than a base model Surface Pro 4 with keyboard. That's still compelling, considering how good-looking this laptop/tablet is, and how the fake leather cover looks better than the Surface's Type Cover. We're looking forward to getting this one into the labs.
BARCELONABoom! While I liked HTC's smooth, slim HTC One A9 phone more than I thought I would, it was missing one of the design-focused phone-maker's signature features: front-facing speakers. Today at Mobile World Congress, HTC announced four new phonesone with front-facing speakers and the other three with a unique splatter-painted design.

I'm going to start with the lower-end ones, because they're more likely to come to the U.S. The HTC Desire 530, 630, and 825 are basic Android phones. The 530 has a low-end Snapdragon 210 processor, and the other two are running Snapdragon 400s. While the 530 and 630 have 5-inch 720p screens, the 825's 5.5-inch 720p screen is going to look rather grainy. The 530 has 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras, the 630 has 13-megapixel and 8-megapixel, and the 825 has 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel, oddly enough. Specs, specs, specs.

That last bit isn't a placeholder for specs. It's to highlight that specs aren't the point: it's the design. The polycarbonate Desire models are gray and white, with a "random" arrangement of paint splatters across the case, little dots looking like a field of stars. Each phone is unique, HTC says, created by essentially passing the phone cases under a sputtering paint sprayer as they pass along the assembly line. HTC had a bunch of them, and yes, they all had a different arrangement of dots. The idea is that instead of a phone with similar specs that looks like a generic black box, you'll pick something that's genuinely unique.

The models HTC announced here at MWC aren't U.S. units, but our carriers picked up a lot of last year's lower-end HTCs, with Desire 520s and 626es available widely through the U.S. I think these phones will be available to us at pretty affordable prices.

The HTC One X9 (below, left, next to Desire 530) will likely never come to the U.S., though. That's the Boomsound phone, an all-metal device in black, white, gold, and pink with dual front-facing speakers. It also has a Mediatek Helio X10 processor, Mediatek's attempt at competing with some of Qualcomm's higher-end designs. I'm not going to go into the further specs, because the model is festooned with signs that it's China-focused, most notably in supporting China's weird TD-SCDMA networks and none of our LTE bands.

All of the new phones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow with HTC's Sense overlay. I used to think Sense was heavy until companies like Huawei and now LG really messed with Android's UI by ripping out the app drawer; now, I think Sense is relatively conservative in terms of manufacturer skins.

Will these little guys get HTC anywhere? At an HTC press event, Graham Wheeler, HTC's Product and Service Director for EMEA, said that smartphones are the core of the company's business, "where we've honed our design and innovation skills." HTC makes quality products that carriers find to be reliable and easy to love, and their design skills are still a step beyond more popular rivals like Alcatel and ZTE. (It's in the fit and finish.)

But that hasn't helped HTC find profits in smartphones recently, as they're suffering from the tragedy of the middle: Android buyers are either choosing cheaper, good-enough alternatives (primarily from Alcatel and ZTE), going to much bigger brands with broader portfolios (LG and Samsung) or, occasionally, fixating on a boutique maker like OnePlus. HTC, like Motorola, isn't standing outeven though it makes excellent phones.

The new Desire phones will roll out globally this March. Expect them to show up on U.S. carriers in April or May, if they do.
BARCELONALenovo has jumped feet first into the tablet market, despite growing concerns that it's starting to become dangerously shallow. As growth slows for high-end and midrange tablets, Lenovo believes that family-oriented tablets, along with enterprise devices, can sustain growth.

As a result, today it revealed the kid-friendly Tab3 7 and Tab3 8, as well as the Tab3 10 Business (pictured) for enterprise customers. I spent some hands-on time with all three, along with the Lenovo Vibe K5 and K5 Plus smartphones that won't be sold in the U.S.

Lenovo Tab3 7

No one will mistake the Tab3 7 for a premium device. It's made of chunky plastic that comes in black, white, pink, and blue. There's a 7-inch 1,024-by-600 display, which isn't particularly sharp or bright; it seems to have decent color reproduction, though the screen seemed to wash out under direct light.

Still, it's the type of device you can hand to a kid without a second thought, since there isn't really much here to break. The Tab3 7 is IP52 splash-proof, so it should be able to handle wet fingers and drinks getting spilled on it without a problem. The power button and volume rocker are set on the top right, receding into the back rather than sitting on the edge. Aside from that, the Tab3 7 is essentially a plastic slab.

In terms of hardware, this is the standard entry-level setup: a 64-bit MediaTek processor clocked at 1.0GHz, with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot. You won't be topping any benchmarks, but the Tab3 7 should do fine to stream Netflix and play non-intensive games. The 3,450mAh battery should last up to 9 hours, according to Lenovo.

Lenovo Tab 3 8

The Lenovo Tab3 8 is a bit fancier in design and hardware, so it's a good middle ground if you're looking for a family tablet that has a bit more to offer. It's still made of polycarbonate, but it looks and feels a bit nicer, at the cost of durability. It doesn't have the water resistance like the Tab3 7 and only comes in black and white. As a trade-off, there's a nice bright 8-inch 1,280-by-800 display, which looks quite crisp in comparison to the Tab3 7. There are also dual-front facing speakers with Dolby Atmos sound.

The internals are slightly boosted. There's still a 64-bit MediaTek processor, but you can choose between 1GB and 2GB of RAM, with 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot (capable of up to 64GB). The Tab3 8 has a 4,290mAh battery capable of up to 8 hours of usage, according to Lenovo.

Lenovo Tab3 7 and 8 Shared Features

Both tablets share a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. There will be a cellular versions of each, with 4G LTE connectivity supporting LTE bands 1/3/7/8/20. Both run Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The two devices also have Multiuser and Kids Mode as key selling points. Tablets are now essentially an at-home device, functioning as an additional screen to be used among families. Multi-user and Kids Mode allows different profiles to be set up for adults and kids in the family. Multi-user lets the tablet adapt to you, by automatically loading the apps, audio settings, and display settings that suit your preferences. For kids, you can set restrictions for sites that can be visited, control continuous usage, and limit times when kids are able to log on.

Lenovo Tab3 10 Business

Think of the Tab3 10 as the opposite of the 7 and 8. If they're about family and fun, the Tab3 10 is all about work. It's intended for mobile enterprise use, featuring hardware encryption and preloaded Android for Work, which allows a dedicated business profile that can securely be managed by your company's IT manager without compromising your personal apps.

The build consists of rugged plastic, with an IP52 rating, IPX2 splash proofing, and IP5X dust proofing. It's a sturdy build that only comes in black. The back of the device features dual Dolby Atmos speakers. The front has a crisp 10.1-inch 1,920-by-1,200 display. Colors are rich and vivid, and the display gets bright with good viewing angles. There are also bells and whistles like dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, and LTE connectivity which can be handy for the working professional on the go.

Under the hood, the Tab3 10 is capable of greater multitasking and productivity than its smaller cousins. It boasts a quad-core 64-bit MediaTek processor clocked at 1.3GHz, with 2GB and 3GB RAM options. It comes with 32GB or 64GB internal storage options, along with a microSD card slot that can take up to 64GB. There is an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 1080p video and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera capable of 720p video. The 7,000mAh battery should provide 12 hours of usage, according to Lenovo.

Lenovo Vibe K5 and K5 Plus

Lenovo has tons of smartphones, but most of them never see the light of day in the U.S. The Vibe K5 and K5 Plus are no exception. Both are visually identical in terms of design. You're looking at two devices with attractive mixed aluminum and plastic builds, a set of capacitive buttons along the bottom of the display, and Dolby Atmos dual rear-facing speakers. Their backs are removable, with a replaceable battery, microSD card slot, and dual SIM capabilities.

Of the two devices, the K5 is more modest in terms of hardware. It has a 5-inch 1,280-by-720 display, a 64-bit Snapdragon 415 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, and an Adreno 405 GPU. It comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and can take a microSD card up to 32GB. The camera is of the decent midrange variety, with a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. There's a 2,750mAh replaceable battery, which is respectable for its size. The device comes running Android 5.1 Lollipop with a fair amount of bloat with pre-loaded apps like Asphalt 8, Skype, Twitter, I-Free eBook Store, UC Browser, Tap the Frog, and others.

The K5 Plus is an identical twin on the surface, but has beefier internals. There's a 5-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display, a 64-bit Snapdragon 616 processor with an Adreno 405 GPU, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot that can take up to 32GB. The device has the same camera, battery, and software as the K5.

Availability and Price

The Lenovo Vibe K5 and K5 Plus won't be launching in the U.S. Expect them to have availability in international markets at very affordable prices.

The Tab3 7, 8, and 10 Business will all be available in June at a variety of prices, depending on the configuration:

Tab3 Business: $199 for Wi-Fi, $249 for LTE version with 2GB of RAM, $299 for 3GB and LTE

Tab3 7: $129

Tab3 8: $99 for Wi-Fi, $149 for LTE

Overall, all three devices are priced very competitively and it will be interesting to see if Lenovo's family-friendly and enterprise tablets will pay off in a tablet market that has slowed considerably. We'll be getting all three devices in to test, so stay tuned for our full review.
Samsung is jumping into the connected car race with its new Samsung Connect Auto dongle.

It's not a service like Android Auto or CarPlay, which integrate with a dashboard display to basically recreate all of your smartphone's useful features on a larger screen. Instead, the Samsung Connect Auto is one of those dongles that plugs directly into your car's OBD-II portbut it does a bit more than just tell you what your car's check engine light means.

First, the Tizen-based Samsung Connect Auto will function as a Wi-Fi hotspot for anyone in your vehicle. Assuming you're not one of those people who gets carsick looking at your smartphone or tablet while a passenger in someone's car, you'll be able to connect to the dongle using your device's Wi-Fi connection. It, in turn, will connect to an LTE cellular networkAT&T at first, for the United Statesfor in-car data service. We don't yet know what the price of the dongle is, nor how much this feature might cost on a monthly basis, but we're guessing it'll be around $10 a month (based on how much similar hardware costs).

Beyond that, expect to see similar tracking services for your vehicle that you'd otherwise be able to get on other OBD-II dongles.

"Samsung also encourages safe driving behavior by using geo-fencing and driver rating algorithms. In the event of an accident, emergency alerts notify the driver's contacts and accident concierge services are provided. A 'Find My Car' app also helps in locating your car in real-time using LTE and GPS," reads Samsung's description(Opens in a new window).

Like other dongles, the Samsung Connect Auto will also be able to give you a bit more information about any errors or issues your car is trying to tell youlike the aforementioned "check engine" light example. If you have no idea why that's on, the Samsung Connect Auto can help decipher the specific error codes your car is coming up with. If you're lucky, you just forgot to put on your gas cap, or something similarly innocuous. If not, a trip to the mechanic might be in your future.

Samsung is reportedly looking to partner with a variety of auto manufacturers to get its dongle preinstalled in various cars, which could help push sales a little bit for potential buyers who are attracted to the concept of a "connected car." It's also working to partner with some insurance carriers. If you don't mind sharing data about how you drive with your carrier, you might be eligible for some insurance discounts based on your driving habits.

The Samsung Connect Auto is expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2016 in the U.S., and likely debut internationally by the year's third quarter.
BARCELONAThe future's made of virtual insanity. Sure, some of us have known this since the '90s. But Mark Zuckerberg all but declared 2016 to be the Year of VR in a surprise appearance on stage at Samsung's press conference here at Mobile World Congress, making it clear: VR will not be a flash in the pan like 3D.

If there's one big trend this year at MWC so far, it's VR. Samsung and LG now have dueling VR cameras: Samsung's is much higher resolution (at 30 megapixels) but LG's will probably be cheaper, maybe even bundled with a phone. HTC has a new version of its Vive room-filling VR unit, and an early adopter $799 price. At ZTE's press conference, it didn't announce a VR headset but made sure to sing their praises.

And VR grabs you by the gut, sometimes literally. At CES, I sampled VR porn, which starts fooling your brain into thinking things are happening in parts of your body that aren't covered by a VR set. (Yet.) Here at MWC, our Ajay Kumar hopped on Samsung's Gear VR rollercoaster(Opens in a new window), which is much more family-friendly, but equally intenseand equally displacing you from the space you're actually in.

Zuckerberg made a good pitch for virtual space, always tying it to real space. He's Facebook, after all, and Facebook, ultimately, is families.

"Pretty soon we're going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes...I think of my baby daughter, and I want to remember how she takes her first steps," he said. "I want to capture the whole scene...even if my parents and family aren't there, they can feel like they are."

Virtual reality will let friends always gather around the campfire, he said, or colleagues host business meetings between scattered partners anywhere on Earth.

"One day you're going to be able to put on a headset that will change the way you live, work and communicate," he said. "VR is going to be the most social platform."

Zuckerberg said Facebook has been "working to make Facebook the best platform for 360 videos," with more than 1 million people watching 360s every day on Facebook. The company has developed algorithms that can boost resolution by four times while cutting bandwidth usage to a quarter, by transmitting data about the area you're looking at rather than other parts of the scene.

And Facebook's not alone. Where Facebook, through Oculus, has aligned with Samsung, LG kept promoting its Google connections, talking up Google Street View and 360 videos on YouTube.

Useless, Twisting, All Our New Technology

But there's something much scarier about virtual reality than about even our smartphone-centric lifestyles.

Ultimately, we are still animals existing in physical space. Wireless Internet access has offloaded parts of our brains into the cloud. Maybe we don't always pay attention to the world around us when we're looking at our phones, but at least it can still impinge in from the edges. That's good and right, because we are animals and not code.

But VR takes us dangerously closer to being disembodied, which is a problem because we aren't. Sitting in the Samsung keynote, there was a point at which we were all a room of people in headsets sitting right next to each other, but infinitely far apart, each in our own virtual space. We were completely unaware of the things near us that could affect our physical bodies, which we still inhabited. (I just saw a photo(Opens in a new window) of Mark Zuckerberg walking right past a bank of people wearing headsets; none of them noticed.)

This could just be because I'm an old now, nostalgic for the ASCII-art Internet of my youth. But I don't want to be entirely detached from where my body is in reality. Can we sip from the fount of VR without losing ourselves entirely? We may have just a few years to figure this out.
Samsung Electronics wants to turn even old clunkers into smart cars by plugging dongles running the Tizen OS into their diagnostics ports.

The Samsung Connect Auto dongle contains an LTE modem, a Wi-Fi hotspot, a GPS receiver and a tiny computer running Tizen, and connects to a cars on-board diagnostic system via the OBD II port under their steering wheel. The company will show it at Mobile World Congress, which runs Monday through Thursday in Barcelona.

Samsung is touting the dongle as a way to improve driving behavior, increase fuel efficiency and keep passengers entertained. It provides a way to upgrade older or cheaper vehicles with the kind of connectivity found on newer, top-of-the-range vehicles.

The OBD II port is a handy place to plug in a dongle like this: In addition to providing information about the vehicles engine performance and fuel consumption it also supplies 12-volt power and, unlike the lighter socket usually used for powering in-car gadgets, is out of the way. The ports have been mandatory on new U.S. vehicles since 1996, while the European Union began introducing such obligations in 2000.

The Samsung Connect Auto will go on sale before the end of June in the U.S., with AT&T as its first wireless service provider, Samsung said.

This isnt the first OBD II-powered Wi-Fi hotspot for AT&T, though: Last September, it began selling the ZTE Mobley for $100, or free with a two-year service plan.

While ZTEs Mobley has only one function, providing Wi-Fi Internet access, Samsung sees its dongle as far more than just a cellular modem. It plans a collection of related products and services through partnerships with companies such as insurance giant Axa, car rental firm EuropCar, and Agero, developer of the Blink roadside assistance app.

Automobile manufacturers are noticeably absent from Samsungs initial list of partners and may be wary of encouraging drivers to plug unapproved devices into the OBD port. Ford, for example, warns on its website that aftermarket OBD-II wireless transceiver diagnostic devices may interfere with various vehicle systems.

There are plenty of such devices on the market, typically equipped with serial ports for connection to a PC or, in more modern ones, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections allowing smartphone apps to provide real-time reports on engine performance.

Samsungs ambitions for its dongle are a little broader. The applications it envisions for Samsung Connect Auto include usage-based insurance, fleet management, find my car functions and emergency alerts to a drivers contacts in case of accident.

The companys software development kit also provides geo-fencing and driver-rating algorithms for programmers to incorporate into their apps. Apps could also be used to generate automatic expense reports for business mileage, the company suggests.

Many of these services can already be delivered by stand-alone apps running on a smartphone carried in the car, but diagnostic information straight from the car could add another dimension.

Cloud-based monitoring of the OBD ports diagnostic messages will allow Samsung to go beyond the cars check engine warning light, providing a virtual mechanic service with recommended maintenance and repair options from a specialized network of partners.

Samsung is eyeing the automotive market for other possible applications of its technology: At Mobile World Congress it will also be demonstrating a concept parking prepayment service in partnership with enterprise software developer SAP and Spanish automobile manufacturer Seat.
A sign on the door of the Scottys Castle Visitor Center ticket office reads: Sold out for today.

But no tickets will be sold tomorrow  or for the next year and a half, for that matter  to take tours of the historic attraction at mysterious Death Valley National Park.

Thats because a freak desert storm, in five hours last October, dumped 3 inches of rain on a canyon where a Chicago millionaire built a dream house in the 1920s.

In the northern reach of the largest national park in the continental U.S., mud buried a courtyard and ground floors of two adjacent buildings. And a fist of raging water punched out a road that leads to the secluded retreat in Grapevine Canyon.

Crews have since scooped out the mud that buried the visitor-center floor and blew out its walls. They have returned the canyon creek to its natural channel. Electricians have restrung wires.

THE CENTENNIAL

But there is much more to do  $20 million worth of repairs in all, said Linda Slater, chief of interpretation at Death Valley.

Slater said Scottys Castle likely wont reopen until fall 2017.

Thats a year later than park officials first thought. Its disappointing. Especially given that the national park system is set to celebrate its 100th birthday this year.

I really wanted to get it open for next winter, Slater said. I wanted to have that done for the centennial. But sometimes nature wins, right?

SUMMER VS. WINTER

Summer is the busiest season at Death Valley. Foreign tourists flock to the park to experience the sizzling dry air at the spot where the world high-temperature record of 134 degrees was set a century ago.

But its largely drive-through. After a couple hours, tourists head for Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.

The winter visitors are the ones who come to camp and hike and immerse themselves in the valley, Slater said.

Theyre the ones who work in side trips to Scottys Castle, to admire its Spanish-Mediterranean architecture, tapestries, hand-wrought iron and custom furniture.

The castle complex wasnt the only casualty. The Oct. 18 flash floods shut 300 miles of roads. Some remained closed, so check before planning a trip to Death Valley.

CASTLE MISFORTUNE

The autumn flood dissuaded some tourists from going there. Visitation fell 9 percent year over year in November and December, according to a news release.

For 2015 overall, the nations 21st busiest park drew nearly 1.2 million visitors  an increase of 6 percent.

And, despite the castles misfortune, 2016 is off to a fast start.

With the fantastic flower bloom coming on, it feels like we are as busy as ever, Slater said. Our ranger programs are well attended, and campgrounds and hotels are busy.

Many are drawn to the mysterious salt flats at Badwater Basin, which at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest point in North America.

Other hot spots are Zabriskie Point and Artists Palette, where sunsets paint hills in changing hues. And the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are popular.

IT KIND OF GROWS ON YOU

Golden Canyon is by far the most popular hike, Slater said.

Thats where Carlsbad retiree Carl Claus was recently, setting up a tripod as sunset approached.

I come here at least once a year, Claus said. Its a great place to take pictures. It kind of grows on you.

Nearby, a couple inspected wildflowers, at the inauguration of what may be the best flower season in a decade.

And Tom Thowsen of Henderson, Nev., returned from an invigorating hike. He was disappointed to hear Scottys Castle is closed. Thats too bad, he said.

Thowsen said he has visited the castle several times, and is always struck by the story of someone building a self-sustaining residence in a remote, desolate region.

BEFORE ITS TIME

There were lots of stories floating around during the Roaring 20s, when the castle rose from a wind-sheltered canyon near the California-Nevada line against the backdrop of 8,953-foot Tin Mountain, which is frosted with snow in winter.

According to the National Park Service, flamboyant prospector and cowboy Walter Scott, who acquired the nickname Death Valley Scotty, told whomever would believe him that he constructed the castle with proceeds from a secret gold mine. In truth, Chicago millionaire businessman Albert Johnson  who would become Scotts friend  built the house for he and wife Bessie.

Water was piped to the Johnsons mansion from a spring 3 miles away. The falling water churned a Pelton wheel that charged a bank of batteries and provided electricity. There was even a solar water heater.

It was totally before its time, Slater said.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

At first, the house, which has a tower that looks like a castle turret, functioned as a quiet getaway. But in the 1930s, the Johnsons began entertaining tourists to bring in extra money.

When the Depression came, things got a little tough for everybody, Slater said.

After they died in the 40s, she said, a foundation the Johnsons set up operated the complex as a museum-hotel.

In 1970, the park service bought the site for $850,000 and brought it into then-Death Valley National Monument. It was made a national park in 1994.

More recently, the service changed out the shallow underground water line with modern pipe.

DESERT STORM

That pipe was ripped to pieces in October. The epic desert downpour snapped two dozen power poles as if they were matchsticks. Several sections of the road to Scottys Castle were demolished.

As for the visitor center, it was buried in muck 4 feet deep.

Mud also filled the basement of a two-story guest house called The Hacienda, which provided office space for park employees, and the swimming pool the Johnsons started building but never finished.

Fortunately, Slater said, the storm swept through at night  after employees finished giving tours and left for the day.

If the flood would have happened during the day, when it was active, people would have died, she said.

CASTLE SPARED

After the water subsided, rangers hiked in to see if there was anything left. Thank goodness the castle itself wasnt damaged, she said.

Some damage has been repaired. The mud is gone. Electricity has been restored to the site.

But power doesnt reach individual buildings yet, Slater said. So the clock tower that used to gong every half hour remains silent.

The water line still needs replacing. The road is in shambles.

So Scottys Castle wont reopen until fall 2017  or maybe a little sooner.

Once utilities and the road are restored, we will consider offering limited access such as special tours or having the grounds open on weekends, Slater said. Completing the rebuilding of interiors of the visitor center and park offices will take longer, and we need those support facilities to be able to offer a full tour schedule like we had in the past.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9699 or ddowney@pressenterprise.com
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Donald Trump claimed victory in South Carolinas Republican primary Saturday, deepening his hold on the GOP field as the contest moves into the South. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were in a race for second place.

Hillary Clinton pulled out a win in Nevadas Democratic caucuses, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Bernie Sanders and easing the rising anxiety of her supporters.

Trumps strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries. Underscoring the electorates frustration with Washington, he was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who were angry at the federal government, and a third of those who felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

The South Carolina results were also being watched closely for indications of who, if anyone, among the more mainstream candidates might emerge to challenge Trump.

Texas Cruz was banking on a well-regarded get-out-the-vote operation and 10,000 volunteers to pull out a strong finish in South Carolina as well as in the Southern states that follow.

But his failure to stop Trump in South Carolina could puncture that strategy. Still, the Texas senator will still have more than enough money to run a long campaign.

Floridas Rubio was hoping a top-tier finish in South Carolina could help establish him as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz. Many GOP leaders believe neither Trump nor Cruz could win in the general election.
A judge is expected to rule Monday, Feb. 22, whether there is enough evidence to hold a trial for three San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies accused of excessive force in the videotaped arrest of horse-theft suspect Francis Jared Pusok.

Prosectors and defense attorneys will present evidence and testimony at a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. in San Bernardino Superior Court for Michael Phelps, Nick Downey and Charles Foster. The deputies have pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault by a peace officer.

On April 9, 2015, Pusok fled from deputies who serving an unrelated search warrant at an Apple Valley home. The three-hour chase across the High Desert ended when Pusok fell off a horse than had been reported stolen.

A KNBC-4 news helicopter filmed the arrest, which included several minutes of 10 deputies hitting and kicking Pusok.

On the day the deputies entered their pleas, their attorneys said outside court that that their clients actions were justified, and that there was more to the circumstances than visible in the video.

District Attorney Mike Ramos said the seven other deputies were not charged because the audio evidence helped distinguish who violated the law. He said his office determined those seven were acting lawfully based on what they heard from other deputies.

The law grants peace officers wide latitude when it comes to using force to subdue a suspect, and it says their actions should be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on scene, and not based on hindsight.

The county paid Pusok $650,000 to settle any potential civil claims in his beating. The settlement was reached after only 12 days, considered light speed for a civil case, especially considering that Pusok had not even filed a claim when the deal was reached.

The county deducted $30,877.14 from the check for child support payments that Pusok had failed to make.

Pusok is facing charges in this case as well, including several felonies: evading a police officer, grand theft of livestock, cruelty to animals, grand theft auto, vandalism and knowingly receiving stolen property. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Pusok was arrested again later in 2015 after a man accused Pusok of punching him in the nose.

Pusok is due in court Feb. 29 for a hearing in both of his 2015 arrests.
People elected to the San Bernardino Community College District Board of Trustees may want to keep their bags packed.

District figures show that the board of trustees is approved for $175,000 worth of travel between August 2015 and October 2016. Thats many times over what most college districts spend on travel for their board members. At least two Southern California districts that are twice the size of San Bernardino spend less than $10,000 annually to send their trustees out of town.

While the overall spending on travel by the district is not nearly as disproportionate, figures show that San Bernardino outspent most other college districts in the Inland Empire and even districts more than double its size in Orange County.

That comparison is based on several years of data, the most recent being from fiscal 2014-2015.

The district is on pace to increase that spending.

Records from the current fiscal year show the district is spending 39 percent more this year than last, reaching a projected total of $950,000. Thats a jump of 135 percent over the past four years.

The expenditures might not be so notable if San Bernardino, by its own admission, wasnt paying its faculty and employees less than most other Southern California community colleges.

Board of Trustees chairman John Longville said he was surprised to learn San Bernardino was spending significantly more than its neighboring districts. The higher costs for trustees travel, he said, may be the result of recent turnovers on the board. New board members, he said, need to get up to speed on handling the issues and responsibilities of the job. Attending educational conferences and workshops is one way to do that.

Weve had an awful lot of turnover on our board, Longville said, speaking from Washington D.C., where he was attending the annual Community College National Legislative Summit. During your first term, youre going to go to these types of things.

Of the boards seven members, four have joined within the past four years. But other districts have newer trustees as well. In South Orange County, at least three of the districts seven trustees have less than two years of service. That district spent less than $3,000 on travel for its board.

Despite San Bernardinos disproportionate investment in sending administrators to educational and leadership oriented conferences, the district was found lacking in its most recent accreditation review. In January 2015, it was placed on warning status by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The district is finalizing its report on correcting deficiencies the commission identified in order to regain its full status.

Like most controlling boards, one of the San Bernardino trustees responsibilities is to oversee travel expenditures. Any out of state trips or those expected to cost $1,000 or more, require prior board approval.

Longville said he thinks the district can do better.

We should be able to find a way to cut those costs down, he said. We need to make it a higher priority.

In the Inland area, only Riverside Community College District spent more than San Bernardino on travel last year  $1.1 million compared to $686,000. But RCC is more than twice the size of San Bernardino. The three-campus district has 35,000 enrolled students. Enrollment at San Bernardinos two campuses is about 15,000.

And even though RCCs total 2015 travel expenses were more than San Bernardinos, it spent less on travel for its trustees. Riversides board charged the district $28,000 for the year, while San Bernardinos trustees racked up over $44,000. Part of the larger amount may be that San Bernardino has seven board members compared to RCCs five. Taking that into account, San Bernardino still spent 14 percent more that its larger neighbor.

Few other districts come close to either RCCs or San Bernardinos travel expenditures, however.

The North Orange County Community College District serves 59,000 students. In 2015, it spent $14,000 on travel for its board of trustees and $586,000 overall. Thats less than San Bernardinos district, which is just one-fourth the size.

Trustees at the 42,000-student South Orange County Community College District spent less than $3,000 that same year on travel.

Chancellor Bruce Baron said he didnt think the district was overspending.

Its very hard to make a comparison on travel and conferences, Baron said, because you just dont know the level of professional development (at other districts).

He also said some of the districts programs require a certain amount of travel.

We do what we need to do and what is important for our district, he said.

FIRST CLASS

Some employees, especially administrators, seem to travel in style, often buying airline tickets at first-class prices and staying in resort hotels that run close to, and occasionally over, $300 per night. District officials said it is standard practice for employees to stay at the hotel where their conference is being held.

District policy says reimbursement for employees who are traveling shall not exceed the lowest of air transportation to the same destination.

There appear to be numerous and regular violations of that policy.

In January, the district approved an expenditure of $1,300 for an administrator to fly to Chicago. A search of Internet travel sites found fares available for those dates at less than $400.

Within the past three years, that administrator has flown other places at top dollar, such as a $1,141 fare to New Orleans and a ticket to Philadelphia for $1,073.

When his family accompanied him to a conference in Orlando in 2014, he managed to find airfare for just $368. Inside-the-park receipts appear to show that the administrator also charged the district for meals on at least one day while visiting Disney World.

Baron said that expense didnt seem to fit with district policy.

My assumption would be if youre at a conference and have taken a vacation day, or are not attending the conference, that you are paying for your own meals, he said.

In September, the board approved $1,327 for a flight to Miami for an employee. She was part of a group that traveled to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. The district said its records show it eventually paid $542 on the airfare.

The group that traveled to Miami spent $296 per night for three nights at the four-star rated Fontainebleau resort. Rooms for more than $100 less were available within walking distance of the hotel.

Baron said he plans to look into the way in which the district arranges air travel for its employees to see if money can be saved.

I want to take a more in-depth look at airfares and look at ways we can standardize how air travel is booked throughout the district, he said. I think thats an excellent area for us to look at.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9595
A 45-year-old San Diego man died while hiking on Mount Baldy on Saturday, Feb. 20, the third hiker to suffer a fatal fall in that area this month.

And on Sunday afternoon, a woman was airlifted to a hospital after falling about 300 feet off the Cucamonga Peak trail.

February has been a treacherous month on San Gabriel Mountain trails. They were closed Feb. 7 in the wake of two deaths and numerous rescues of injured or scared hikers. Forest Service officials initially said they planned to seek an indefinite closure of the areas trails, but instead the trails were reopened Feb. 12.

Forest officials did not return calls last week or on Sunday seeking comment.

The hiker who died Saturday slipped from Devils Backbone Trail about 1 p.m. and was found approximately 1,000 feet down the mountainside, according to the San Bernardino County Coroners Office, which did not release the mans name.

He was pronounced dead after being taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.

On Sunday, the person who reported the womans fall said it occurred on the trail to Cucamonga Peak, about half a mile beyond Icehouse Saddle, said Capt. Gordon Greene of the Mount Baldy Fire Department.

Greene said he was told the woman fell about 300 feet before being stopped by a tree limb or branch. A helicopter from the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department handled the rescue, Greene said, and took her to a hospital. He did not know which one.

On Feb. 2, a man fell to his death while hiking the Devils Backbone Trail to Mount Baldy. Rescuers said 23-year-old Daniel Nguyen of Garden Grove fell when he reached out his hand to aid a friend who had slipped.

On Feb. 6, a dozen hikers  one who died, several who were injured and the rest frightened by the icy conditions  were airlifted from area trails. The man who died, Dong Xing Liu, 47, of Temple City, had been hiking with his wife in the Icehouse Saddle area south of Mount Baldy when both fell.

Ive been in this department 30 years, and I cant remember a day when we had so many rescues, Mount Baldy Fire Chief Graham Hendrickson said at the time.

The following day, many of the nearby trails were closed by the Angeles National Forest.

Those trails were reopened Feb. 12, although forest officials urged hikers to use caution. Two days later, a man hiking to the Mount Baldy summit fell in icy conditions and was injured.
Sure, right about now you miss that time away from your best friend, that soulmate you spend each morning and evening with.

The 91. For Inland commuters, she is the Real Mother Road (no offense to Route 66; we love her, too).

To help you deal with that separation anxiety during Coronageddon, we sought out films with Freeway or Highway in the title. The results were, well, nothing to get revved up about:



Freeway (1996): Reese Witherspoon, still in the promising newcomer category, doesnt want to go to a foster home, so she hits the road. She meets up with Kiefer Sutherland, who slowly reveals himself to be the (spoiler alert) I-5 Killer!

91 link: The 91 and the I-5 meet in Orange County. Peacefully.

Lost Highway (1997): Its post-Elephant Man David Lynch, so the plot matters very little. Suffice to say there is a jazz saxophonist, Robert Blake in creepy makeup, a huge leap in time, Bill Pullman, at least two versions of reality, Mink Stole, a murder, scary gangsters, unsettling music by the German band Rammstein  Youve already decided if this is for you, havent you?

91 link: It was filmed largely in Southern California. There is lots of footage of highways illuminated by headlights. It could be the 91 but likely not because there are no orange cones in sight.

Freeway Maniac (1989): A twisted killer slips onto the set of a B-movie in pursuit of the woman who put him behind bars.

91 link: None. The action, which clumsily tries to poke fun at the movie industry, stays stuck in park. Everyone involved should have headed for the 91.

Highway 301 (1950): The low-budget noir potboiler features a gang of thugs terrorizing Maryland and North Carolina. The tagline: They slash a crime-scar across the map of America!

91 link: None. Wrong coast. Similar stripes.

Highway (2001): Spun out of the grunge music scene, two young men race around trying to escape bloodthirsty gangsters. Featuring Jared Leto and Jake Gyllenhaal, neither of whom looks old enough to have a drivers license.

91 link: If you head out the 91 to the 57 to the 15, its kind of a loopy way to head for Las Vegas, where much of this movie takes place.

No Highway in the Sky (1951): An engineer (James Stewart) tries to prove that a new model of plane will be a deadly disaster. The good news: Its the first film on this list that isnt about a brutal murder of some sort. The bad news: Its got nothing to do with highways at all; its about airplane safety.

91 link: None. But from the 91 you can find your way to any number of airports.

Interstate 60 (2002): This movie starts out on a real road and ends up on a metaphysical road trip. A wacky, high-minded indie featuring familiar faces including James Marsden, Gary Oldman, Chris Cooper and Amy Smart.

91 link: None. The titular road is not the State Route 60 of your everyday Inland SoCal life, but a make-believe thoroughfare that exists on no map. Time for a Keanu-style woah.

We failed. Get us off this freeway. But if anyone out there knows a good movie with Freeway in the name  or at least one without thrill killers or gangsters  leave a comment.

USEFUL LINKS:

CORONAGEDDON Q&A: What you need to know about the 91 closure

SIGALERT: Check traffic conditions

91 SHUTDOWN: Our complete coverage
Breast cancer charity sets fundraiser

RIVERSIDE  A Health, Wellness & Beauty Expo will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. on April 17 at D&Ds Dance Center, 1445 Spruce Center. The expo is a fundraiser for The CARE Project, Inc., a local nonprofit that supports breast cancer patients undergoing and recovering from treatment.

The expo will feature Zumba and dancing, juice and smoothing tastings, healthy food samples, raffles and vendors selling health, beauty and wellness products.

Admission is $10. Tickets can be purchased at thecareprojectinc.org.

 Staff report

REDLANDS  The city of Redlands is holding a workshop entitled California Native Plants: Their Benefits and Role in Water Conservation from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Redlands City Council Chambers at 35 Cajon Street, Suite 2.

The speakers include Russell Ackerman, a sustainability analyst for the city of Santa Monica, Abby Harned from Three Sisters Farm and April Garbat, a landscape designer specializing in California native plants. Sherli Leonard, executive director of the Redlands Conservancy, Mandy Parkes from the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District and Todd Smith, a landscape contractor and horticulturalist, will be in attedance, as well.

Information: 909-798-7655 or tkevari@cityofredlands.org.

 Amy Zahn

LAKE ELSINORE  Local resident John M. Cortes has had a novel published. The Tender Years is about love in the twilight of life.

Information: dorrancepressroom.com.

 Staff report

MENIFEE  Poet Ron Salisbury will give a reading on Thursday, Feb. 25 at Mt. San Jacinto Colleges Menifee Valley campus. The free event is from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in Room 407 of the Humanities and Social Sciences Building. Salisbury is the author of a collection of poems, Miss Desert Inn.

The campus address is 28237 La Piedra Road.

 Staff report

Dr. Seuss Celebration Week coming to San Bernardino County libraries

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY  The San Bernardino County Library System is celebrating reading and Dr. Seuss.

Each of the systems 32 branches will host a themed storytime or event featuring popular Dr. Seuss stories between Saturday, Feb. 27 and March 5. The library also will be giving out a decorative book bag for every 20 items checked out, while supplies last.

Information: sbclib.org.

 Staff report

Send items for possible inclusion in Community Notes to community@pressenterprise.com.
Lou and Mary Ann Torres arrived almost three hours early for Cal State San Bernardinos 50th anniversary parade on Saturday, Feb. 20. They wanted their bright red 1937 Chevy Coupe to be near the head of the line.

Parked in the shade of a tree, Lou Torres, who retired in 2004 after 35 years as a carpenter in the campus physical plant, had time to reflect.

My whole life was here at the campus, he said. He worked through three school presidents and evacuated students during the 1980 Panorama Fire, which destroyed about 300 homes.

I feel like this is part of my home, he said.

It was a fitting sentiment for a day that kicked off a special weeklong homecoming celebration.

You only turn 50 once, said Tomas Morales, Cal State San Bernardino president. Homecoming allows us to build school spirit and a sense of community among current students, while encouraging alumni to come back and celebrate the impact of the school on their lives and communities.

Dia Poole, a 1990 Cal State graduate and president of the California State University Alumni Council, danced alongside students and rode in Saturdays homecoming parade in her fathers turquoise 1962 Cadillac sedan.

I feel like I owe it to the school, she said. Its an opportunity to share with the community the impact this campus has had on us as individuals, but also on the city (of San Bernardino).

Poole credits her Cal State education with preparing her for a career in public service as a legislative advocate, a position she recently retired from after 34 years.

Taking part in the 50th anniversary festivities was a huge honor for freshman Melanie Carrasco, who prepped and rode in a float for the Office of Housing and Residential Life.

It makes my year feel more special, and makes me feel more welcome, she said.

Part of that welcome might have come from the participating alumni. Its part of Morales goal to build a sense of community among current and former students and faculty and staff.

Bringing back alumni to events like this contributes to that (sense of home), he said.

Saturdays parade featured classic cars, electric carts decorated as floats, dancers in traditional Mexican dress and a marching band. It ended at the campuss Coussoulis Arena, where food, music, a car show and childrens activities followed.

For senior Kelcie Brown, a few months from graduating, homecoming feels especially exciting.

Its like a last hurrah to send me out of Cal State, said the polical science major. Its marking a new beginning.

Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com
Euphoria among some voters over the Donald Trump presidential campaign should come as no surprise to anyone closely familiar with California politics. We have been to this dance before. Think back to 2003, when an A-list action hero with no political experience parlayed his popularity and name recognition straight into Californias governorship.

Trumps 2016 presidential ascent is like deja vu for Californians or, as Kaleb Horton wrote for Vanity Fair, the bone-deep, overpowering sensation that I had felt this already, dreamed it maybe.

Donald Trump already happened in California, Horton wrote. I had been saying, Donald Trump is running for president with the same systematic lack of conviction with which I said Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for governor.

Many Californians undoubtedly feel the same sensation, while also acknowledging how the two candidacies are eerily similar. Looking back to Schwarzeneggers election, though, should serve as a stark reminder that the power of celebrity is incredibly impactful in influencing electoral outcomes.

In 2003, when a special election was held to recall the Golden States Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, Schwarzenegger made international headlines when he announced on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno that he would run to replace Davis. In so doing, he eventually became the front-runner in an incredibly crowded field featuring a motley pack of candidates.

There were 135 candidates on the ballot that year to replace Davis if he lost the recall election. Notable among the contenders were Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, Arianna Huffington, who two years later would found the Huffington Post, actor Gary Coleman, famous for his role as Arnold on the popular 1980s sitcom Diffrent Strokes, and two mainstream political candidates: Californias then-Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and state Sen. Tom McClintock (now a member of Congress).

Davis lost his job, and Schwarzenegger won it by a landslide  nearly 49 percent of votes cast  and voter turnout rose 11 percent from the prior gubernatorial campaign, a feat at least partially attributable to Schwarzeneggers mere presence on the ballot.

The 2016 GOP presidential field, while never boasting 135 candidates, nonetheless has certainly been crowded and colorful. Trumps star power has helped elevate him to being the front-runner  if not the presumptive GOP nominee. And voter turnout so far has increased from the 2012 primary campaign, as have the ratings for the multitude of televised debates.

186,874 Iowans participated in the Republican caucus, which blasted through its 2012 record of 121,354, reported Michael P. McDonald, an associate professor at the University of Florida, writing for the Huffington Post.

And, in New Hampshire, as NPR put it: The Republican record was shattered. The final tally for GOP ballots cast was 284,120 votes. That beats out the 2012 Republican primary tally of 248,475.

Idealists, myself included, would like to think that voters are more engaged and see the stakes this election as being particularly high, but to deny the bona fide impact celebrities have in garnering attention  even to politics  is naive. And celebrities are especially powerful with those voters who might not typically pay attention to politics.

The attention that Arnold attracted to the gubernatorial race was powerful, McClintock told me, recalling running against Schwarzenegger in 2003. It benefitted all of us running for governor. He also said that in this presidential race, having Trump involved has forced attention on all candidates. And thats a good thing.

In fact, Trump is ratings gold and has been for some time, according to Dave Berg, a producer for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno for nearly two decades. Berg, who booked and produced Trump for many of his Tonight Show appearances, told me that Trumps mere floating the idea of a presidential run generated a huge buzz each time he did it over the years, for both The Tonight Show and Trumps reality show, The Apprentice. It became his regular shtick.

More interestingly, though, Berg believes that Trump and Schwarzenegger originally teased their respective political announcements simply as publicity stunts. However, as public reaction became more supportive, and victory plausible, they actually took their candidacies more seriously.

Trumps campaign in many ways emulates Schwarzeneggers from 2003, appealing to voter discontent and projecting strength and leadership in a time of political chaos, the same strategy Schwarzenegger deployed when California was reeling from political scandals, including rolling electricity blackouts. Trumps Make America Great Again slogan strikes the same chord as Schwarzeneggers Lets Bring California Back. Both operate on the premise that things were once exceptional, and only one candidate can restore the prosperity of yesteryear.

Rhetoric and sloganeering are two of the most prominent similarities between the two Republicans, according to former Bustamante, lieutenant governor from 1999-2007 and Schwarzeneggers chief rival in the 2003 recall election. In the absence of demonstrated leadership, the voters will vote for someone who seems like a leader, he said. It is politics gone Hollywood, and it has proven effective.

Trump reminds me a great deal of Arnold, McClintock said. Arnold said all the right things. And made all the right promises. But he did not govern like he campaigned, McClintock said. He spoke like a conservative but governed very, very liberal.

But Schwarzenegger and Trump are not without glaring dissimilarities, too. Both of them are very skilled at using their celebrity to attract public and media attention, Dan Schnur, director of USCs Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, told the Los Angeles Times. The difference is Schwarzenegger used his celebrity to leverage interest in his policy agenda. Trump, on the other hand, uses outlandish policy statements to leverage interest in himself.

Bustamante made a similar distinction about Schwarzenegger and Trump when he told me, At least Arnold attempted to get into policy, noting that Schwarzenegger had the benefit of marrying into the Kennedy clan. And, as Bustamante views it, Schwarzeneggers rags-to-riches rise is a far more compelling political narrative than the personal story Trump has to share.

Much as Schwarzenegger did, Trump is benefiting greatly from his celebrity, discontent among many voters and perhaps, most importantly, a packed, colorful and disjointed slate of candidates. If the GOP primary field further narrows, as some polls show, Trump will have a harder time securing the Republican presidential nod. But the current political landscape sure feels like deja vu
The conflict between medical personnel at Brisbanes Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital and the Immigration Department regarding the case of Baby Asha has come to a head, with Queensland Health confirming the child will be released from the hospital in the next 24 hours.

And shes not on the first flight to Nauru.

#LadyCilento will discharge baby Asha to a community dwelling within the next 24 hours. Great care from a great hospital.  Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) February 21, 2016

Refugee advocates have already chalked the decision up as a massive win for protesters and medical staff involved with Baby Ashas case.

#babyasha is safe!Baby Asha will not be sent to #Nauru, Peter Dutton confirms. Mum and Bub to live in Brisbane Posted by Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) on Saturday, 20 February 2016

The announcement comes after Peter Dutton confirmed the one-year-old refugee will be placed in community detention with her family earlier today.

At a press conference, the Immigration Minister said the doctors who had previously refused to discharge the child over fears shed be taken back to detention on Nauru agreed to discharge her, under the condition of a local placement.

Immigration Minister @PeterDutton_MP has addressed media in #Brisbane regarding the Baby Asha case https://t.co/EJrJP5hk3M  ABC News (@abcnews) February 21, 2016

Compared to the abhorrent conditions reported in Australias offshore detention facilities, the Australian Human Rights Commission has previously championed this form of detention as more closely aligned with international human rights law and standards than models of indefinite closed immigration detention, while also providing for far more humane treatment of people seeking protection.

That doesnt mean shes set to avoid offshore detention forever, though. Not at all.

Dutton told reporters at some point, if people have matters finalised in Australia, they will be returning to Nauru, while also reiterating the governments approach to the matter by saying no special treatment would be exhibited in her case.

The news comes after protesters flooded the hospital site following rumours guards were preparing to remove the child. At the demonstrations peak, hundreds surrounded the hospitals exit points in an effort to bar her possible removal.

Dutton didnt finish his conference without taking aim at those same protesters, who he accused of misreporting the issue.

Im not sure if they are interested in the best interests of the child. I am, the minister said.

Theres no word on what this means for the other 267 asylum seekers currently on Australian shores, either. For now though, medical staff and protesters can take this one as a win.

Souce: ABC / SBS / The Guardian.

Photo: Ben Phillips / Twitter.
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After the Nevada caucus, the Bernie Sanders campaign announced that in the biggest rejection ever of the billionaire class, the campaign has passed 4 million small contributions.

According to the Sanders campaign:

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaign raised almost $21.3 million in January from small donors who contributed about $27 apiece on average, according to a report filed on Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. Through Jan. 31, Sanders had raised $94.8 million since the campaign was launched last April 30. Altogether, Sanders grassroots campaign to date has received more than 4 million contributions.

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said, Our campaign is a strong grassroots movement supported by middle-class Americans from working families, not billionaires trying to buy elections. This campaign is built for the long haul and is drawing millions of new people into the process.

The Sanders campaign has always had dual goals. Sanders wants to be the Democratic nominee, but he is also trying to launch a political revolution of millions of Americans to take back the country from the billionaires who are trying to purchase the federal government.

Sanders may not win the Democratic nomination, but his political revolution wont end with the primaries and caucuses. Sen. Sanders will take his fight back to the United Senate, but he wont be alone. Sanders has built a national progressive movement of millions.

Bernie Sanders will remain a threat to the billionaires for as long as he remains in public life. Sanders has raised nearly $100 million in nearly all small donations.

The fundraising numbers demonstrate that the American people are standing up. While the media is obsessed with the nomination horserace, the Sanders political revolution is alive and well.

With each $27 donation, the Sanders revolution is gaining steam. Dont look now, billionaires, Bernie Sanders and his millions of political revolutionaries are coming for you.
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There seems to be a misunderstanding when it comes to Roe vs. Wade. Right wing groups keep screaming about overturning Roe Vs. Wade so that abortion would end and that the murder of innocent babies in the womb of mothers can have a life, without worrying about dying. Its so bad that Representative Mary Lou Marzian (D) House District 34 of Louisville KY is trying to pass a law, in the spirit of the 14th Amendment limiting Viagra to men because, her state like many southern states are trying to ban abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wadeas are the Republican candidatesand possibly to the horror of the NRA. How so?

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), a law created under the Clinton Administration, which is an outgrowth of Roe vs. Wade explains the law regarding mentally ill patients and firearms. If a person is ordered by a judge to seek mental health treatment, the person is banned from purchasing a firearm. So, people like: John Hinckley, Jr and Mark David Chapman are banned for life from purchasing firearms. Yet, what of those who were not adjudicated? People who slipped through the cracks or those who are depressed and need medical treatment for mental illness and voluntarily seek treatment on their own free will?

They can purchase a firearm legally. As mentioned in the HIPAA law:

[V]ast majority of Americans with mental health conditions are not violent and that those with mental illness are in fact more likely to be victims than perpetrators. An individual who seeks help for mental health problems or receives mental health treatment is not automatically legally prohibited from having a firearm; nothing in this final rule changes that. HHS continues to support efforts by the Administration to dispel negative attitudes and misconceptions relating to mental illness and to encourage individuals to seek voluntary mental health treatment.

In other words, a person who is bipolar and schizophrenia can legally buy a firearm and are not banned because of HIPAA and yes, Roe v. Wade. By overturning Roe v. Wade and then HIPAA, records that are sealed because of the privacy act are no longer private and any anti-gun legislature can look into files, find out where a patient lives, and tell gun store owners that they are liable for any problems that say John Doe commits because he is mentally ill. Though only a small portion of mentally ill folks are violent as majority of them are victims, the fact that medical records can potentially be no longer private, 43.6 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States who are mentally ill and the stats on conservatives are not released because of Roe vs. Wade will be public and gun banning will be a reality.

A person can believe that abortion is wrong and end a law that protects women from having the procedure done. Such actions would also backfire and end the privacy of potential firearm owners. The law limiting a womans choice will also limit a person to purchase firearms because, after shooters like:

Adam Lanza

Seung-Hui Cho

Patrick Edward Purdy

Eric Harris

Dylan Klebold

Killed a bunch of innocent children, there was a call to ban firearms.

Many on the right said that these shooters were mentally ill even the Republican leadership called these people mentally ill, so by eliminating Roe Vs.. Wade, the 43.6 million people who are seeking treatment, will have their rights infringed upon because, the Republicans say these shooters were mentally ill.

By taking away the privacy afforded to folks who seek treatment on their own, there will be a major gun ban because the right wanted Roe vs. Wade overturned. Roe vs. Wade protects people rights of citizens to own a firearm and by getting rid of this right to privacy, you allow the government to take away something your cherishwhy? Because, you are deemed incapable of being mentally cognizant of owning and firing your gunRoe vs. Wade prevents this
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Soon after Hillary Clinton won the Nevada Democratic Caucus, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow had DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on to talk about the process. Maddow confronted Wasserman Schultz about the Superdelegate process, an issue that Maddow said Democrats are arguing about at cocktail parties across the country.

Video:

Wasserman Schultz explained that the media misreports the process as the Superdelegates are free to decide all the way up to July, There arent pledged delegates, i.e., superdelegates.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz continued, We do that so we can maximize the participation.

I am a superdelegate I get one vote at the convention, Wasserman Schultz continued, If you remember in 2008, there were superdelegates  who did change their minds.

Unpledged delegates can change their mind up until the convention, the DNC Chair reinforced.

I dont know how sustainable it is for Democrats to continue the Superdelegate process, Rachel Maddow countered, pointing out that it makes Democrats really mad.

The truth is that nobody likes the Superdelegate system but the DNC, and in 2008, President Obama spearheaded a move to change the Superdelegate system after he won the nomination, but the DNC rejected it in 2010.

Superdelegates have been a part of Democratic nominating process since 1984. They are about 30% of overall delegate total needed to win.

The Superdelegates usually flip to go with likely nominee. If Bernie Sanders was winning they would probably flip for him, as they did for Obama in 2008 after he was likely to be the nominee, when it looked like Clinton had amassed more Superdelegates.

The Superdelegates strive for party unity, which does what it was intended to do in terms of pushing viable candidates seen by the establishment as most likely to succeed.

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The abrupt collapse Friday of Brutger Equities' plans for a $63 million hotel project across Second Street from Saint Marys Hospital was a big deal. An array of forces came together to challenge the developer, the city's planning and zoning process, the Destination Medical Center bureaucracy, and eventually the City Council's competency, and developer Larry Brutger decided he'd had enough.

Here's my take on who won and who lost in the Holiday Inn debacle. There are many more losers than winners, but let's start with winners.

The biggest winner, at least for the moment, is the Imagine Kutzky neighborhood group, the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association , and the city's neighborhood associations generally. Imagine Kutzky and people allied with it, including Council Member Michael Wojcik and council candidate and businessman Sean Allen, raised concerns about almost every aspect of the project, including its Holiday Inn brand, which apparently was too declasse for some.

Whether Imagine Kutzky was reflecting neighborhood concerns or imagining them is hard to know, in part because the concerns weren't headline-grabbing. The project didn't involve demolition of a beloved landmark, major planning and zoning changes or whatever. There were concerns about its frontage on First Street, how well it fit with transit plans for the Second Street corridor, and of course tax-increment financing that would have been involved. But neighborhood activism about the project was in place before the TIF and Saint Marys tunnel angle emerged.

Neighborhood clout

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In any case, Kutzky Park activists helped put the brakes on the project. If delays in winning city and DMC EDA approval were the reason Brutger abandoned ship, Imagine Kutzky played an important part.

Neighborhood associations have become forces to reckon with in Rochester, which generally is a good thing. In this case, it's reasonable to wonder whether the two organizations in Kutzky Park, which were formerly aligned, accurately reflected neighborhood concerns.

That brings up another big winner: Politics. The Holiday Inn project got caught up in the gears of a much larger political debate involving City Council politics as well as concerns about DMC. Allen plans to challenge Council President Randy Staver this fall, and Wojcik, who's running for re-election, has made no secret of his wish for a new governing council majority, with two other seats up for grabs.

Both have commented extensively on their blogs and social media about this project and criticized just about every facet of it. Wojcik's postmortem comments on his blog were uncharacteristically muted, considering his past objections. He sounds almost wistful about "what could have been" if the project had gone ahead, though he says, "I think the public will be excited to see some of the other projects being proposed in this area."

He goes on to say that "I suspect the project would have passed the council with minor changes at most and a 7-0 vote. In the latest iteration the project was probably the nicest large non-Mayo project the city would have had in that area."

Share the blame

So what happened? Wojcik blames the project's demise on city zoning issues, poor city staff work and communication, "high land acquisition costs," "lack of public benefit to justify high subsidies," the Holiday Inn brand and Larry Brutger's personality.

On that last point, I can't remember a time when a developer's personal qualities, his outreach and engagement with people involved, have been so closely analyzed. Regarding the appropriateness of the Holiday Inn brand -- really? Are the other hotel brands within a few blocks either direction from that site any more prestigious? The "Holiday Inn brand" issue was absurd from the start.

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And regarding TIF financing, we'll see how that plays out and what the record shows for Wojcik and other council members regarding TIF and "choosing winners and losers."

Allen, in the Post-Bulletin story Saturday, was less wistful about the project's demise. He lays the blame on the developer and says, "This is not a huge loss for Rochester. We lost a $63 million project, but we're likely to gain a $90 million project that will be better."

We'll see how long it takes for that $90 million project to come along. As Staver says in the Post-Bulletin story Saturday, based on how this project went down, that property might remain a parking lot for a while. And in case you missed the political implications of the Holiday Inn matter, Allen lambasted Staver on his campaign blog over the weekend, saying Staver "shows his inability to lead our city through a difficult process."

A few other winners include hotel owners along Second Street, especially Tom Torgerson and TPI Hospitality, which owns three other hotels within a few blocks of Saint Marys. Torgerson wrote an open letter to the council last month that publicly hammered the project and its TIF request. That was a pivotal moment in the whole series of events that led to Brutger's announcement Friday.

Another winner might be the owner of the site, Oronoco businessman and Kahler executive Javon Bea, who presumably gets to keep some earnest money from Brutger, though one would assume he'd prefer to close the deal and move on.

Losers? There are many: The City Council, and Staver probably takes extra lumps because of the political atmosphere. City Administrator Steven Kvenvold and city staff get some blame for how it was handled, especially in the rushed presentation to the DMC EDA. The EDA, and by extension DMC, which is likely to come under more pressure to get moving or get out of the way so the city can march ahead on projects. Brutger, who lost some time and money here but presumably has other fish to fry.

And the biggest loser? The city, which just lost a $63 million investment  about 30 times the new investment that DMC ballyhooed Thursday at the Conley-Maass building  because it wasn't ready to do business.
Limb Lab opened its downtown Rochester location in 2014 with a modest staff of four to fill its unique 3,000-square-foot facility, which routinely draws curious looks on Broadway due to expansive windows that reveal manikins with prosthetic limbs.

Over the past 18 months, co-owner Brandon Sampson has quadrupled his staff, outfitted the basement space for offices, and helped amputees from 26 states during what's been a wildly successful beginning in what's been a niche medical field for decades. The Amputee Coalition of America says about one in 200 Americans require a prosthesis due to various ailments related to military service, injuries and sickness.

As the business's two-year anniversary draws near, Limb Lab may have just found its most compelling testimonial yet.

Arizona's Dan Metzdorf suffered life-threatening injuries in a roadside blast that killed three soldiers during a 2004 tour in Iraq. His right leg was amputated to stop the bleeding and save his life.

After being outfitted with an $50,000 prosthetic leg at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne Division refused to give up his childhood dream of serving in the military. He created a stir throughout the ranks after petitioning to return to active duty, garnering support from many high-ranking officers through a dedicated campaign. Still, it took three official requests before he was allowed to return to his unit, Bravo Company.

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That decision by the U.S. Army ultimately allowed Metzdorf to become the first above-the-knee amputee to stay on active duty, where he eventually joined the Golden Knights elite airborne unit.

A military legend

A 2004 article by the Fayetteville Observer detailing Metzdorf's return to duty prompted an outpouring of support from around the country. Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell described Metzdorf as "a one-man morale team" who insisted on rallying the injured troops from his hospital bed, openly hoping he'd pave the way for other amputees to continue their military service.

One teacher recalled an emotional address Metzdorf gave her class "as a way of bringing history to life." An anonymous mother detailed her experience of anxiously awaiting the sight of her son after a particularly deadly stint in Iraq where details were sparse.

As Metzdorf led the troops into the hangar on his prosthetic leg, the waiting families broke into impromptu applause at the very sight of him.

"Obviously they marched in a bit slower  and anxious families were just chomping at the bit to see our soldiers," the mother wrote. "However, when we all realized they were being led in by (Staff Sgt.) Metzdorf, we all broke out in cheers and applause. It is something I, nor my family, will ever forget.

"We are glad you never gave up and are so fortunate to have such a fine soldier protecting our country."

Retirement complications

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Though Metzdorf inspirational moments have made him a military legend, the narrative was much different when the freshly retired soldier sought out Limb Lab for assistance in 2015.

He successfully worked his way through a delayed bout of post-traumatic stress disorder in 2011, but found it especially difficult to find the requisite help for his prosthetic leg once removed from the military setting.

"I was a hard-charging, very fit soldier and then I retired," Metzdorf said. "I went from the highest activity level  doing 10-15 parachute jumps before 2 in the afternoon  to sitting on my back porch heckling golfers (in Arizona). Then weight gain comes in, atrophy, and all of that. Holy (cow), 30 pounds later and I'm freaking out."

The change in body composition hobbled Metzdorf, as his 4-inch nub of soft tissue became more sensitive to salt intake, beer drinking and his all-around diet. The complications led to back pain and, eventually, back surgery as it became difficult to move around on the prosthetic leg.

The 39-year-old amputee visited more than a dozen prosthetic shops in Arizona seeking relief, but was unable to find one creative enough to address his unique needs. The search expanded before Metzdorf eventually contacted Limb Lab co-founder Dennis Clark , whom he'd met years ago through the military.

That conversation led to an immediate visit to Rochester and near-instantaneous results, despite the initial feeling of being "the new monkey in the cage" while being examined by Limb Lab's team of prosthetists.

"I crutched in on a Sunday, and I was walking out on a new socket on Thursday," Metzdorf said last week, echoing his glowing letter of recommendation that was sent to Limb Lab in late 2015. "No one can do that. If you go to another lab, you're looking at two to three weeks minimum."

Mayo Clinic doctor Kenton Kaufman was among those consulted during Metzdorf's visit. He's conducting a Department of Defense-funded lab aimed at preventing falls for veterans with amputated limbs like Metzdorf.

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"Our goal is to have them learn how to use their prosthesis in a more effective manner, and hopefully increase their function and their quality of life," Kaufman said. "The soldiers salute the flag, they serve under the flag, their coffin is covered in a flag. The least we can do is salute them for what they do for us."

Unique approach

Limb Lab's lobby is an open air concept featuring wood and steel. Sampson said it's meant as a metaphorical nod to the merging of flesh and steel that's done at the facility. Framed pictures of former patients also adorn the wall, providing hope right as people enter the front door.

The massive street-facing windows allow the public an open view of the lab's workshops, which Sampson said is meant to "take the secrets out" of the process.

"It's not like most prosthetic labs," Metzdorf said. "It's really not. Most places  go behind the curtains to make it all happen. At Limb Lab, they make it all there right in front of you. That type of patient education is huge."

Sampson said that's intentional and borne out of a simple approach that revolves around listening to each customer in order to meet their individual needs. Each visit begins with a blank sheet of paper where the client to asked to list five goals and five frustrations with their prosthetic limb.

That's the first step that typically involves a 5-pronged approach of a prosthetist, therapist, physician, social worker and the personal care team.

"We go through that list line by line to give them suggestions," Sampson said. "Once we get down to that level, it sets the plan  and each step of the way we can evaluate if we're meeting their goals."

While the industry is experiencing exponential growth  Sampson said there's 100 percent placement rates for graduates of Orthotics and Prosthetics programs  Limb Lab is positioned differently by focusing on technology and care management that improve an amputee's function, health and quality of life, Sampson said.

That individualized model has secured Metzdorf's loyalty for years to come, even though he lives 1,800 miles away. While Sampson welcomes the praise, he said that's really the goal for everyone who walks through his doors.

"It's no longer enough to fill the pant leg for a lower extremity amputee," Sampson said. "We must give them the tools and training to achieve their highest level of activity, while being constantly aware of comfort and safety."
It is great sport to make fun of the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys and worse, but I think there might be some game for a candidate, especially one with initials DT, to suggest we borrow a page from the French in the war against Islamic terrorism.

Mark Lilla of Columbia University, one of the smarter liberals around whose writing I always try to take in, has a long essay in the current issue of the New York Review of Books (another pub we cover here at Power Line so that you dont have to) on the topic of France: Is There a Way Out? Lilla lists the numerous small-scale terror incidents over the last year in addition to the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan massacres. And also what the French are doing about it. The article is behind a subscriber paywall, but heres the part that makes our Patriot Act look like kindergarten stuff and gives the ACLU an embolism:

The Hollande government responded in kind [to public Islamist threats], immediately putting ten thousand troops on Parisian streets and declaring a state of emergency, giving the police extraordinary powers to conduct searches without warrants, detain suspects, and impose temporary house arrest. Speaking before a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate, the president then declared that France was at war with ISIS and would be stepping up its bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq, not withdrawing. Most controversially he called for binationals convicted of terrorist crimes to be stripped of French nationality, a proposal that runs up against current constitutional and European jurisprudence but has been Hollandes most popular move since being elected. (The government has subsequently removed any reference to binationals from the proposal.) According to a national poll taken a few days after the attacks, a large majority of the public would like to go even further by detaining all those who have been identified as potential terrorist threats by the police.

Just imagine the outrage if le Donald proposed these measures here. He could say were finally getting in step with Europe! Watch cosmopolitan liberal heads explode.

The same issue of the NYRB also has an article entitled Liberal, Harsh Denmark that is equally eye-opening. High Eakin reports that Denmark, Bernie Sanderss favorite country, has had enough with immigration and Euro-style multiculturalism:

When it comes to refugees, however, Denmark has long led the continent in its shift to the rightand in its growing domestic consensus that large-scale Muslim immigration is incompatible with European social democracy. To the visitor, the countrys resistance to immigrants from Africa and the Middle East can seem implacable. In last Junes Danish national electionmonths before the Syrian refugee crisis hit Europethe debate centered around whether the incumbent, center-left Social Democrats or their challengers, the center-right Liberal Party, were tougher on asylum-seekers. The main victor was the Danish Peoples Party, a populist, openly anti-immigration party, which drew 21 percent of the vote, its best performance ever. Its founder, Pia Kjrsgaard, for years known for suggesting that Muslims are at a lower stage of civilization, is now speaker of the Danish parliament. With the backing of the Danish Peoples Party, the center-right Liberals formed a minority government that has taken one of the hardest lines on refugees of any European nation. When I arrived in Copenhagen last August, the new government, under Liberal Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen, had just cut social benefits to refugees by 45 percent. There was talk among Danish politicians and in the Danish press of an invasion from the Middle Eastthough the influx at the time was occurring in the Greek islands, more than one thousand miles away. In early September, Denmark began taking out newspaper ads in Lebanon and Jordan warning would-be asylum-seekers not to come. And by November, the Danish government announced that it could no longer accept the modest share of one thousand refugees assigned to Denmark under an EU redistribution agreement, because Italy and Greece had lost control of their borders.

And such sentiment seems to be moving beyond just Denmark. Eakin also reports:

Nor is the backlash limited to the right. Since the New Years attacks by migrants against women in Cologne, conservative opponents of German Chancellor Angela Merkels refugee policy have been joined by feminists and members of the left, who have denounced the patriarchal traditions of the Arab man. Recent data on the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, who in January were polling at 28 percent of the popular vote, shows that the partys steady rise during Swedens decade of open-asylum policies has closely tracked a parallel decline in support for the center-left Social Democrats, the traditional force in Swedish politics. Confronted with such a populist surge, the Swedish government announced on January 27 that it plans to deport as many as 80,000 asylum-seekers.

But not all is worthy reading in the current issue of the NYRB. Theres a long review by Nicholas Lemann of two recent Reagan books (one of them the OReilly tripe) that contains multiple errors in nearly every paragraph. You really have to work hard to be consistently wrong in every paragraph, but Lemann is up to it. I doubt Ill have time the next couple days for the deserved fisking, so Ill just let this stand as a marker.
Holistic healthcare is becoming big business in healthcare.

holistic health machines

PR-Inside.com: 2016-02-21 17:12:02

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James Matthew1.888.870.5581

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The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Sunday responded to the immediate past Chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi, who said that the Senate acted beyond its constitutional powers in directing that the recent hike in electricity tariffs be rescinded.

The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who described Mr. Amadis statement as treacherous, shameful and saddening, called for the immediate probe of his tenure at the agency.

The ex-NERC boss had told PREMIUM TIMES in an exclusive interview that the Nigerian Senates recent directive for the suspension of the new electricity tariff regime in the country was illegal, unconstitutional and a direct encroachment on executive independence.

According to Mr. Amadi, apart from the Senate lacking the constitutional right to give such a directive, NERC, as presently constituted, was incompetent to suspend or rescind the tariff order issued by the former commissioners

Until a new Commission has been reconstituted to consider whether to review or totally suspend the order, nobody anywhere can validly review or suspend the current tariffs, Mr. Amadi had said.

He described as unwise Senates decision to instruct NERC to halt the tariffs, pointing out that apart from creating serious regulatory risks in the market, obeying the directive would erode NERCs independence as an industry regulator.

The order by the Senate for NERC to rescind the tariff is a direct infringement on the independence of the executive to initiate policies, in this case through NERC.

It is a subtle derogation of the powers of the executive. It offends the concept of separation of power. That is clearly against the law and unconstitutional, he explained.

But, in his statement in Abuja on Sunday, Mr. Wabba said Mr. Amadi was economical with the truth despite his legal knowledge of the role of the legislature.

Mr. Wabba pointed out that the duty of the legislature as defined by the Constitution, included legislation, oversight and investigation, adding that independence of the three arms of government in a liberal democracy was a coordinate one.

Even if the independence was absolute, the NLC president argued, such could not be in pursuance of criminality, fraud or injustice.

The Labour leader said he found it disgusting that Mr. Amadi could only remember the independence of the executive and not that of the judiciary, which gave a restraining order to NERC to suspend the tariffs implementation until the substantive case was determined.

What else do we expect from a Chairman who not only compromised the Commission, but surrendered willy nilly its functions to the successor-companies in the power sector for God-knows why, the NLC president said.

Mr. Wabba accused Mr. Amadi of instigating NERC not to obey the Senates directive, saying the NLC was calling on the relevant agencies to probe not just his tenure at NERC, but also the entire privatisation process.

He said the NLC was demanding NERCs immediate respect of the directive by the Senate.

We also demand that if any DISCO (distribution company) or GENCO. (Generation company) does not have the requisite capacity, it should honourably surrender its possessory and proprietary rights to government as was the case with the Yola Electricity Company. The Yola company was honourable enough and reasons adduced by it, genuine, Mr. Wabba said.

He warned that the NLC would not allow any person or agency take the people for a ride any more.

We will not fold our hands while a few individuals or companies or institutions further plunder and plunge this country into abyss, he warned.
The Peoples Democratic Party has won the Benue South rerun election, making its candidate, David Mark, return to the 8th Senate, from which the court ejected him a few months ago.

In Saturdays election, Mr. Mark, former President of the Nigerian Senate, (2007-2015), was declared winner amid protests by his challenger, who demanded that the election be declared inconclusive.

The former Senate President defeated his sole challenger, Daniel Onjeh, a 41-year old former students leader, who contested on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The rerun was conducted after the Appeal Court annuled the March 28, 2015 election of which Mr. Mark was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Declaring the results of the rerun at 5.51am on Sunday, the Senatorial Returning Officer, Ishaq Eneji, said Mr. Mark garnered 84,192 votes, leaving margin of 12,571 between him and Mr. Onjeh who scored 71,621 votes.

Having satisfied the requirement of the law, David Bournaventure is hereby declared winner, Mr. Eneji announced.

While 522, 713 were registered for the election, only 165, 093 were accredited, indicating voters apathy across the senatorial zone.

A further breakdown showed 159,557 was the number of total votes cast, of which 155,813 votes were held valid, while 3,744 were rejected as invalid.

According to the results declared by Mr. Eneji, out of the nine local government areas of which the district is composed, Mr. Mark secured victory in five local government areas: Ado, Agatu, Apa, Otukpo and Okpokwu.

Mr. Onjeh won in four, namely Ogbadigbo, his hometown, Ohimini, Obi and Oju LGAs.

Meanwhile, a total of 29,273 votes were cancelled, higher than the margin of win of 12,571 between Messrs Mark and Onjeh.

However, Mr. Eneji declared Mr. Mark winner despite protest by APC agent who asked that the election election be declared inconclusive.
The Honeywell Group has petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed, over alleged acts of judicial misconduct against Mohammed Yunusa, a judge of the Federal High Court.

In a petition addressed to the Nigerian Judicial Commission, the Honeywell Group accused Justice Yunusa of endorsing several abuses of court processes by a senior lawyer.

We respectfully submit that the various acts of Yunusa. J with respect to the dispute between Honeywell and Ecobank constitute unfair conduct which have had and are still having grave impact on our company and its operations, read the petition dated February 12th and also copied to the National Judicial Council and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association.

Indeed, our company with an asset base of N68 billion and annual revenue of about N55 billion with over 5,000 employees and several distributors has been subjected to unfair restrictions using the instrumentality of the court.

The petition came amidst claims that the judge received a N225,000 bribe from Rickey Tarfa, another senior lawyer who is currently facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Honeywell Group vs Ecobank

In 2012, Honeywell Group began discussions with Ecobank over the indebtedness of the formers three operating companies  Anchorage Leisures Limited, Siloam Global Services, and Honeywell Flour Mills Plc  to Oceanic Bank before it was acquired by the latter.

The negotiations between the two organizations resulted in an agreement of N3.5 billion to be paid to the bank by the Honeywell Group, a payment which was completed in January 2014, according to the petition.

But 11 months later, Ecobank allegedly reneged on the agreement and refused to issue letters of discharge to the Honeywell companies or update their accounts accordingly on the CBN CRMS portal.

As a result of Ecobanks refusal to fulfil its obligations, Honeywell petitioned the Bankers Committee Sub-committee on Ethics and Professionalism for its intervention for a speedy resolution of the matter, the Honeywell Group stated in the petition.

Following a thorough review of the petition and the positions canvassed by both Parties, a ruling was issued in favour of Honeywell to the effect that the agreement reached between Ecobank and Honeywell for the payment of N3.5 billion as full and final settlement of Honeywells indebtedness to Ecobank is valid and should be complied with.

Despite the decision of the Bankers Committee, Ecobank continued to refuse to fulfil its obligations and insisted that Honeywell was indebted to the Bank.

As a result of the banks alleged refusal, the Honeywell Group in August last year instituted a suit against Ecobank at the Federal High Court, Lagos, a matter still pending before Justice Mohammed Idris.

In September last year, Ecobank, through its counsel, Kunle Ogunba, filed an application before the judge challenging the jurisdiction of the court on the basis that the dispute ought to be decided at the State High Court since it was a contract issue, and not a banker/customer relationship.

One month later, according to the petition, Ecobank filed a winding up petition before Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on the same facts as the case before Justice Idris.

Surprisingly, the suit is in the same Federal High Court which Ecobank had challenged jurisdiction to hear the matter, the petition stated.

Along with the suit, Ecobank further filed a motion exparte seeking far reaching restraining orders against Honeywell Flour Mills Plc.

Tsoho. J. heard the exparte application and refused same because of the pending suit before Idris. J. as well as the fact that the documents attached to the motion showed that the alleged debt was in dispute.

Ecobank was thereafter directed to put Honeywell Flour Mills Plc on Notice.

The Yunusa connection

However, instead of putting Honeywell Flour Mills Plc on Notice as directed by Justice Tsoho, Ecobank filed another winding up petition before Justice Mohammed Yunusa in exactly repetitive terms as the one before Tsoho. J. Ecobank also exhibited the same documents as the ones in the matter before Tsoho. J. in which he had refused to grant the exparte order.

On 18th November, 2015, Justice Yunusa granted the exparte orders and adjourned the matter till 24th December, 2015.

The Honeywell Group stated it immediately filed an application for the discharge of the exparte order and dismissal of the suit before Justice Yunusa on two grounds  abuse of court process (in view of the suit before Justices Idris and Tsoho on the same facts and between the same parties), and the fact that exparte orders of injunction were granted by Justice Yunusa in a winding up petition in which the respondent was not allowed a hearing and for a sum that was being disputed.

On 4th of December, 2015, Yunusa. J directed that all other cases coming up on that day be adjourned such that when he eventually sat to read the ruling, the court room was almost empty.

Yunusa. J disallowed our application for the discharge of exparte orders made by him on the ground that the said exparte orders granted were in the nature of Mareva injunctions.

He further stated that he did not see any reason why the alleged Mareva injunctions should be discharged. He specifically held that he was exercising what he termed as Mareva jurisdiction.'

The petition stated that the judge, in the ruling, refused to comment on all the issues raised before him, including that of abuse of court process.

He also ruled that Honeywell was heavily indebted to Ecobank, adding that the former did not deny the indebtedness.

This we found incomprehensible as Yunusa. J had in his handwritten transcript of the proceedings recorded our counsel as submitting that there was no indebtedness and that the exparte orders granted by him had earlier been refused by Tsoho. J.

After his ruling, the petition said the judge announced that a copy would be made available for collection on the same day.

Unfortunately, however, despite repeated demands and subsequent filing of a motion for the release of the ruling, Yunusa. J refused to release the ruling until after a notice of appeal had been filed before the Court of Appeal on the 4th February, 2016 (60 days after the ruling was delivered on the 4th of December, 2015).

We are aware that Section 24(2)(a) of the Court of Appeal Act allows us only 14 days to file an interlocutory appeal. Though we filed a Notice of Appeal from notes taken by our counsel on 4th December, 2015, Yunusa. J refused to release the ruling and case file in order to enable us completely transmit the records of appeal and also fully exercise our constitutionally guaranteed right of appeal within the time allowed.

Order 6(b) of the Court of Appeal Practice Directions also mandates that records of appeal are transmitted within 7 days of filing a Notice of Appeal. In all of these, our rights were asphyxiated by Yunusa. Js conduct.

Indeed, on 27th January, 2016, when the appeal came up at the Court of Appeal, the ruling of Yunusa. J was yet to be released. We again remind your Lord Justice Sir, that we had earlier written a letter dated 11th December, 2015, to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court which was copied to your goodself and Yunusa. J amongst others complaining that he was yet to release his ruling but same did not make any impression on Yunusa. J.

The petition called for appropriate disciplinary actions against Justice Yunusa for his acts of misconduct.

Justice Yunusa could not be reached to comment for this story.
The Nigerian military said it has arrested two men for sneaking into a displaced persons camps in Borno State.

Suicide explosions by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in displaced persons camps in North-eastern Nigeria have caused the deaths of hundreds of people.

In one of such explosions on February 9, at the internally displaced persons camp in Dikwa, Borno State, 58 people were killed and 78 injured according to official figures. The military in a statement circulated by PRNigeria on Sunday said it is currently interrogating the two men.

Read the militarys statement below.

The Nigerian military has arrested two suspects, Audu Umar and Hassan Umar, for smuggling themselves among the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) brought from Pulka to Gwoza Camp in Borno State.

The male suspects, who gave their names as Audu Umar and Hassan Umar, are undergoing interrogation by the military and intelligence operatives.

Meanwhile the Nigerian military is yet to confirm the speculation of an arrest of Boko Haram kingpin, popularly known as Bashir Sarkin Yanka, which in Hausa means Bashir the King of Slaughter.

The spokesperson of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North-East, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said the military cannot confirm the arrest of Shekaus actor even as the military has sustained its counter-insurgency operations where some terrorists have been eliminated and others apprehended in the North-East.

Mr. Alonge said: As you are aware, the Nigerian military has succeeded in routing out terrorists from some of their hideouts in the North-East and in the process some were eliminated and others have been arrested. We cannot at the moment provide the identities of those in our custody or in other places until after we have conducted thorough investigations.

The local security volunteer group, known as Civilian JTF in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State claimed that it had arrested a notorious Boko Haram Kingpin, named Bashir who had been acting as Abubakar Shekau in some videos on the social media.

The arrested suspect was reported to have confessed to the Civilian JTF that he had acted as Boko Haram Leader, Shekau in some videos and was responsible for the death of his (Bashirs) mother, two sisters and brother apart from engaging in mass slaughter.
Worried by his countrys dwindling fortunes amidst the low price of crude, Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari is set to meet his Saudi and Qatari counterparts.

President Buhari will begin a week-long official visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar on February 22, his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr. Adesina said the President would first fly to Riyadh for talks on Tuesday with King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and senior officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Buhari will be accompanied on his visit by his petroleum minister, Ibe kachikwu, a former top executive of Exxon Mobil and current Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Achieving a greater stable price of crude oil will top the agenda of discussions, Mr. Adesina said, as OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries seek ways to get more money for exported crude.

Last week, officials of Saudi Arabia, OPECs largest oil producer, met with their counterparts from Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela where they agreed to freeze production at Januarys level if other oil producers agree.

Analysts have mentioned oversupply of crude as one of the reasons for the huge drop in crude oil prices to about $30 per barrel from over $100 last year.

Crude oil prices and market stability will also be on the front burner when President Buhari goes on to Doha on Saturday for talks on Sunday with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Mr. Adesina said.

The President is also scheduled to meet with leading Saudi and Qatari businessmen in Riyadh and Doha, and invite them to support his administrations efforts to revamp the Nigerian economy by taking advantage of the great investment opportunities currently available in Nigerias mining, agriculture, power supply, infrastructure, transportation, communications and other sectors.

The statement said Mr. Buharis other engagements in Saudi Arabia included meetings with heads of international financial organisations and multilateral associations.

It stated that before going on to Doha, the President would visit Medina and Makkah to pray for greater peace, prosperity and progress in the country.
A group of concerned Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stakeholders and elders has called on the new National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu-Sheriff, to resign.

The group, under the aegis of PDP Rescue Group led by Wilberforce Juta, who also contested for PDP chairmanship, made the call during a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr. Juta said that the party leaders were upset about Mr. Modu-Sheriffs appointment as PDP national chairman.

He said most PDP members did not see in Sheriff a model of impeccable integrity that the party badly needed to lead it at this critical moment.

We are upset by the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in appointing Ali Modu-Sheriff as national chairman.

We are convinced that this decision is against the will and wish of the generality of members.

We know for a fact the North-East Zonal wing, having been directed by the National Caucus of the party to forward nominees from the zone, did not nominate Modu-Sheriff for the position of national chairman.

Consequently, Modu-Sheriff should do the needful by stepping down honourably as it is evident that party members nationwide have overwhelmingly rejected him.

He said that the current leadership crisis in PDP was a challenge to every Nigerian.

He emphasised that having the PDP destroyed by acts of error of judgment as being witnessed now is denying Nigeria of a strong opposition party that is badly needed if Nigerias democracy is to be strengthened and all tendencies toward civilian dictatorship checked.

The crisis must challenge all party members to action to halt the party from further drift. The plan of PDP Rescue Group is to mobilise party members and leaders to help attain this noble goal.

It is, therefore, critical if the PDP must come back to national reckoning, that we remodel its leadership on the platform of honesty as required by the party manifesto.

He then urged all party organs to rise to the challenge by insisting on the removal of Mr. Modu-Sheriff.

Mr. Juta also urged the different organs, as well as past and present leaders to commence the search for persons with high integrity, strategic insight and fear of God Almighty to lead the party.

It is our considered view that we endeavour to elect only those with discernible traits, he said.

He called for early Congresses and National Convention of the party to elect new leaders as the term of the current leadership was due to end in March 2016.

He said under no guise should the tenure of the current leadership of the party be extended, if we must make the needed fresh beginning.

While answering questions, former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara, who is the Deputy Chairman of the group, said Mr. Modu-Sheriffs appointment was imposed on the party.

A former Deputy Governor of Sokoto Sate and Secretary of the group, Mukhtari Shagari, also called on Mr. Modu-Sheriff to resign.

Mr. Shagari added that leaders of the party could not sit down and allow the party to die.

Others at the briefing include John Odey, Kabiru Mohammed, Akilu Indabawa, Umar Ardo, Bashir Maidugu, Mohammed Kabir, Pogu Bitrus, Lancelot Anyanya, and Muyiwa Oladimeji.
Accreditation of voters and voting in Sundays Niger Republic Presidential election are going on peacefully in Kano centre, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

A correspondent monitoring the election reports that the simultaneous processes commenced around 8 a.m. with large turn-out of voters at the Niger Republic Consulate office, venue of the election.

Security was also very tight as both the Nigeria policemen and security operatives from Niger Republic were seen keeping vigil at the venue.

It was also observed that people coming into the venue were being thoroughly screened to ensure that only eligible voters were allowed into the venue.

Besides, there were adequate election materials at the two designated polling units.

A cross section of voters who spoke on the arrangements commended the Nigerian government for deploying adequate security personnel at the venue.

One of the voters, Abduollahi Amma, expressed satisfaction with the entire process, particularly the security arrangement.

I feel happy about the security arrangement, we feel as if we are at home, he said.

Another voter, Samadou Haruona-Amaduo, also expressed happiness about the entire security arrangement at the venue.

We are satisfied with the whole arrangement because peace is the major factor in any process, he said.

Voting has also commenced at the Sokoto centre.

Dozens of eligible voters were seen queuing up, waiting to be accredited by the officials of the Nigerien National Electoral Commission, CENI.

Several Nigerian security agencies were seen keeping vigil at the centre, while accreditation and voting were going on simultaneously.

President Mahamadou Issoufou is running for a second term with a promise to crush Islamist militants and develop the economy in one of the poorest countries in the world.

He faces 14 candidates including Seyni Oumaru, leader of an opposition coalition.

(NAN)
Over 7,600 Nigeriens are expected to vote for their preferred candidates from two Nigerian states, Kano and Sokoto, officials have said.

At the Kano centre, no fewer than 6,742 Nigerien eligible voters residing in Kano State are participating in the ongoing Niger Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Rabi Abdou-Dabo, the Consul-General in the Niger Republic Consulate in Kano, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Sunday.

She said that the voters were expected to vote for both presidential and National Assembly candidates.

According to her, the voting which commenced at about 8 a.m., will end at 7 p.m.

The Consul-General commended the government of Niger Republic for allowing its citizens in Diaspora to vote, which she said would give Nigeriens the opportunity to exercise their civic and constitutional responsibilities.

This is the first time since 1993 when our people in Diaspora are being given the opportunity to exercise their right as citizens of the country, she said.

She also commended the Nigerian government for deploying adequate security personnel at the venue of the election.

Our people are very happy with the security arrangement as they are feeling as if they are at home, she said.

She expressed happiness that the election was being conducted peacefully and without hitches.

At the Sokoto Centre, no fewer than 867 citizens of Niger Republic are expected to cast their votes in Sundays Presidential and Legislative elections.

A News Agency of Nigeria correspondent in Sokoto who visited the centre reports that Nigeriens resident in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states are casting their ballots at the Sokoto centre.

Fifteen presidential candidates, including the incumbent President, Muhammadou Issoufou of the PNDS Tarayya, are participating in the election.

Similarly, five political parties are participating in the legislative polls.

Boubacar Namanta, an official of the Nigerien National Electoral Commission (CENI), told journalists in Sokoto on Sunday that 679 of the registered voters had collected their voter cards.

However, any of the registered voters who was duly verified will be allowed to vote even if he or she has not collected voter card, Mr. Namata added.

The Chairman of the Nigeriens resident in Sokoto State, Muhammadou Hussain, expressed satisfaction with the adequate arrangements made by CENI.

He appealed to all Nigeriens to continue to be law abiding during and after the polls.

A supporter of the opposition Moden Lumana Africa Party (MLAP), Noura Ayuba, also commended the adequate arrangements made by the Nigerian security agencies.

A supporter of the ruling PNDS Tarayya Party, Adamou Baare, commended the peaceful conduct of the elections.

(NAN)
The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, says it will promote Nigerian broadcast industrys contents at the 22nd Edition of Cable, Broadcast and Satellite, CABSAT, conference scheduled for March 8 and 10 in Dubai.

The Deputy Director, Public Affairs of NBC, Maimuna Jimada, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.

Mrs. Jimada said that the commission had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Transatlantic Media Company, TMC, to maximise new opportunities in the broadcast media as the world adapt to digital content delivery.

According to her, NBC in furtherance of derived toward digital switch-over have come up with some initiatives to assist the industry, especially content producers and content providers in the country.

This year, NBC is partnering with the Transatlantic Media Company, as the sole agent of CABSAT in Nigeria, to come up with the Nigerian Pavilion sponsored by the commission; where all content producers from Nigeria will operate under that umbrella at CABSAT, which means that Nigeria will be represented at the conference.

Before this year, other countries have been going to CABSAT but Nigeria was not represented as a country, Mrs. Jimada said.

She, however, said that this time around there would be a Nigerian Pavilion sponsored by NBC where professionals in the broadcast industry would discuss business with broadcast professionals all over the world.

This will enable them to carry out their businesses which can be core production, buying and selling of contents.

Basically, it is a kind of contribution of NBC to the growth of the contents industry for broadcasters, particularly because of the ongoing switchover project, she said.

The deputy director said that the conference would help to project the inherent values of Africas culture and heritage at the world stage via our superb broadcast content.

She added that the events would also assist NBC fast track the migration from analogue to digital broadcast in 2017, which would create employment opportunities in the industry.

Mrs. Jimada expressed optimism that the Nigerian broadcast industry would gain exposure in the conference and expose content producers to produce quality contents that would meet international standards.

(NAN)
The Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, has pledged to work with Nigerian youth and other like minds to achieve a greater Nigeria.

The monarch said this on Saturday during his installation as Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State. The installation was part of a ceremony to mark the schools 45th convocation.

I want to challenge all my fellow youth to pursue their dreams vigorously and with God on your side, you will all attain all your goals, the monarch said.

If you do things in a forthright manner, your efforts will not go in vain for God himself will continually bless you.

I promise to support the youth, beginning from Nsukka here, in achieving their dream as well as to improve them to become a formidable force towards making Nigerian a great nation and I will not. fail in the discharge of my duties as the Chancellor.

President Muhammadu Buhari at the occasion congratulated the new Chancellor and expressed his confidence in the revered monarchs ability to bring his wealth of experience in human and resource management to bear at the university.

The President, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Anthony Anuka, wished the Ooni a successful tenure as Chancellor of the university.

Some Nigerians awarded honourary doctorate degrees at the event include the Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Achebe; former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie; Arthur Eze; and Justice Eze Ozobu.
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has called for the devaluation of the nations currency, the Naira, saying, With the gap between the official rate of N199 and open market rate of over N400 to one dollar, Naira has already been devalued. Therefore, President Muhammadu Buhari must stop deceiving himself and short-changing Nigerians, especially States and Local Councils in the country with his Forex Policy.

Governor Fayose, who said there was no time in the history of Nigeria that the gap between dollar official rate and open market rate was more than N200, pointed out that it made no economic sense for the Federal Government to be calculating the countrys revenue on the basis of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official rate of N199 to a dollar while States and Local Councils that are sharing the revenue with the Federal Government run their businesses at the open market rate of over N400 to one dollar, thereby causing business to be folding up by the day and prices of goods skyrocketing every day.

The Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the governor, Lere Olayinka, in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, quoted the governor as saying that apart from breeding corruption through round tripping or foreign exchange arbitrage, Nigerians are also being duped and middle class Nigerians, the main people that grows the countrys economy, are being decimated.

The governor said President Buhari was applying his 1984 failed economic policy in which prices of goods were fixed not minding the cost of supply, such that essential commodities like milk and sugar became scarce and Nigerians were made to line up in the sun to buy rationed commodities.

He urged the President to pay more attention to the ailing economy of the country instead of junketing around the world, wasting $1 million per foreign trip, saying; President Buhari has travelled to 24 countries in eight months, and will be spending 16 out of the 29 days in February outside the country, with over $500,000 being spent on estacode while the Presidential Air Fleet, which includes fuelling of the planes and allowances for crew members is said to be in the range of $500,000.

The Presidents entourage obviously collect their travel allowances in dollars on official rate of N199 and come back to Nigeria to change it at the open market rate of N400. That must be the reason they encourage the President to be junketing abroad when life is becoming unbearable for Nigerians.

The governor said, The situation is such that Nigeria gets say $2 billion revenue in a month, calculates the $2 billion revenue on the basis of the official CBN rate of N199 and share the revenue among the three tiers of government.

In elementary economics, the implication is that when revenue is calculated based on N199 to one dollar and the federal government will be declaring say revenue of N400 billion to be shared by the three tiers of government, the value of revenue that should have been shared will be over N800 billion at the open market rate of N400 to one dollar.

Meanwhile, the three tiers of government pay salaries to workers on the basis of N199 per dollar while the workers pay for goods and services which prices are determined by the open market rate of N400 to one dollar.

Also, Nigeria is now faced with a situation whereby funds are obtained from the official forex market (at lower rates) and diverted to other markets and sold at a higher rate by forex dealing banks and users, who make billions of naira profit just for doing almost nothing.

Therefore, the reality that we must all accept is that we must allow the forces of demand and supply to determine the value of our currency, not administrative fiat. Most importantly, the government does not have the reserves to keep the naira-dollar rate at its official level.

The Naira must therefore be devalued. Anything other than this will mean that we are deceiving ourselves with forced foreign exchange rates and it is my position that this regime of deceit must stop.
Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, has congratulated its candidate, David Mark, for winning the Benue South Senatorial rerun election.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, the PDP said Mr. Marks victory signalled the support it still enjoyed with Nigerians.

It is instructive to note that the PDP had won 70 percent of all the polls conducted since May 29, 2015, a development that underlines the fact of its deep roots and popularity as a brand, irrespective of the transitory setback of the 2015 general elections, the party said.

While the PDP congratulated Mr. Mark, the ruling All Progressives Congress has denied congratulating the former Senate President.

The APC said the twitter handle @APCNigeria, which congratulated Mr. Mark, was not an official one. The handle had been used to tweet APC messages in the past.

Mr. Mark, who has been in the Senate since democracy returned in 1999, was declared winner early Sunday morning amid protest by his main challenger, Daniel Onjeh of the APC, who demanded that the election be declared inconclusive.

The former senate president scored 84,192 votes, leaving a margin of 12,571 votes between him and Mr. Onjeh, who garnered 71,621 votes.

A total of 29,273 votes were cancelled.

After Mr. Mark was declared winner, Mr. Onjehs agent, Eloyi Ogbeh, protested, saying the number of cancelled votes (29,273) was higher than the margin of win (12,571).

In its statement by its National Secretary, Mala Buni, the APC said, The congratulatory message purportedly obtained from a twitter handle, @APCNigeria did not emanate from the party. The purported twitter message itself is not credited to any APC official.

The ruling party said only its National Chairman and the National Secretary officially speak for the party.
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has said the commission could still prosecute suspects even after they have returned stolen money to the treasury.

Mr. Magu had said in recent press interviews that the EFCC had recovered billions of naira, especially from its ongoing investigations into the $2.1billion arms money allegedly diverted by former NSA, Sambo Dasuki.

In his first detailed interview since his appointment in November, Mr. Magu told The Interview in its February edition, that what matters first and foremost is for everyone involved in the arms deal scam to return the money he or she may have collected. That does not preclude such suspect from facing prosecution.

He said this while answering a question on whether the EFCC would enter plea-bargaining with suspects or waive prosecution if stolen funds were returned.

The EFCC Chairman said the rat race for wealth among public office holders was one of the major reasons for rampant corruption in the country.

Political offices in Nigeria are too attractive, he said. This encourages a rat race of sorts. Also, the judiciary, which is the last resort, has allegedly been complicit, making civil servants who have been found guilty of corruption feel confident to poke the law in the face and go scot-free.

Mr. Magu said Nigerians should be outraged at the amount of money originally set aside for the war on Boko Haram, but which was diverted for personal use.

He said this was just one of the many cases of looted funds being investigated by the EFCC.

There should be a national outrage by now, Mr. Magu said. There is something wrong with our values. Corruption has been celebrated over the years.

The EFCC Chairman said allegations against the commission that its anti-corruption war was politically motivated was proof that corruption was already fighting back.

Mr. Magu also spoke on his first meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari; his efforts to clean up the commission; and whether or not he might break the one-term jinx that has plagued the chairmen of the commission since its founding in 2003.

A statement by the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Azu Ishiekwene, described the edition as, our gift to our growing community of readers beyond Valentine.

Also in this edition, the founder of Saharareporters, a leading online news platform, Omoyele Sowore, spoke about the odysseys of the platform in its one decade of existence this month. Mr. Sowore called out former President Olusegun Obasanjo for letting corruption ruin Nigeria, on his watch and reflected on his encounter with, Gbenga, son of the former president.

In another interview in the edition, Sam Adeyemi, pastor of the 20,000-strong Daystar Christian Centre, said, religion that does not change your thinking is useless, as he fielded questions on the church, politics and leadership.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, on Sunday said it has arrested a 27-year-old man, Musa Inuwa, for allegedly punching a 60-year-old man to death.

The Commandant of the corps in the state, Abdullahi Ibrahim, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

He said that the suspect was arrested at Jidari Polo bus stop area in the state capital.

The suspect was apprehended by the youth vigilance team known as civilian CTF who brought the accused to the NSCDC command on February 5 at about 9 p.m.

The victim, who suffered grievous bodily harm leading to his death, was said to have asked the suspect were he can locate a chemist to buy drugs.

Unknowingly to the victim, the suspect was already intoxicated on illicit substance and told the old man that he was disturbing him.

Before he could notice the suspect gave him a punch that made him fell forward and struck his head on the concrete pavement that rendered him unconscious.

The victim, who remained in a critical condition, was quickly rushed to Umaru Shehu Specialist Hospital that night but unfortunately passed away on February 6 as a result of massive brain trauma, Mr. Ibrahim said.

According to him, the case has been transferred to the Borno police command for further investigation and prosecution.

(NAN)
A former deputy speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Dogara Mato, has been defeated in the Lere West House of Assembly rerun election.

Mr. Mato, who is of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lost by over 7000 Votes to Bashir Gatari of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The rerun election was held on Saturday based on a ruling of the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal in January upheld the decision of the election tribunal which declared the election of Kabiru Doka of the APC as null and void for presenting fake certificates to the electoral body.

Declaring the result of the rerun in the early hours of Sunday in Lere, the Returning Officer, Abdulsalam Magaji said Mr. Gatari of the APC scored 17,672 votes while Mr. Mato of the PDP garnered 10,779 Votes to come second.

The returning officer also said the PDM candidate, Ahmed Muazu, got 328 votes while Jamilu Suleiman of the ACPN got 61 votes.

Speaking after the announcement, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Mohammed Sani, who also monitored the election, said he was satisfied with the conduct of the election.

He called on those who lost to accept the result and join hands with the winner to bring development to the local government.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State says a major restructuring of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, BCOS, is imminent for better service delivery.

This is contained in a statement signed by Yomi Layinka, the Special Adviser to the governor on Communications and Strategy, made available to journalists on Sunday in Ibadan.

It said that the governor, during an unscheduled visit to the station in Ibadan, told the management that the worn-out analogue broadcast equipment at the station would soon be replaced with state-of-the-art digital facilities.

Mr. Ajimobi, according to the statement, called for attitudinal change and paradigm shift among the workers, saying it was the only way his vision for the transformation of the BCOS could be realised.

The governor assured that no worker would be sacked, but made it clear that each worker would be moved to his or her area of core competence within the public service, the statement said.

Mr. Ajimobi, according to the statement, challenged the management and staff of the BCOS to redouble their efforts toward the performance of their primary role of educating, informing, entertaining the public.

It said the governor commended the workers for their support for his administration since 2011, urging them not to rest on their oars, realising the challenges ahead.

I am here to promote the effectiveness, proficiency and efficiency of workers, irrespective of the political party you have sympathy for.

I am a manager and I know there is need for attitudinal, structural and policy changes here.

In style, attitude and paradigm, there is need for change, because if you keep doing the same thing the same way, you will keep getting the same result, the statement quoted him as saying.

According to the statement, the governor said that the era of workers sauntering about is gone and there is no more room for playing politics and gossiping during official hours.

The statement said Mr. Ajimobi told the workers that his mission was not to witch-hunt anyone, but to encourage them to be more dedicated and committed to their duties.

(NAN)
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Jaipur, The IIHMR University, Jaipur has commenced its 2 day Rural Management Alumni Meet 2016 for the students of The IIHMR Universitys School of Rural Management from 20th February, 2016 to 21st February, 2016. The IIHMR Universitys School of Rural Management invited over 55 students to their campus of three batches. The event was graced by the faculty members such as Dr. SD Gupta, President, IIHMR University, Dr. Goutam Sadhu, Dean School of Rural Management, IIHMR University, Col (Dr.) Ashok Kaushik Dean Student Affairs and Dr. Alok Mathur, Associate Professor, were present on the dias.Dr. SD Gupta, President, IIHMR University said, I am overwhelmed to see our students back in their institution where they have spent their years to make a successful career. The alumni meet is the beginning of a new relationship between the institution and the students who have graduated and developed their careers. I am extremely impressed with their growth and their vivid experience that they have acquired post their graduation in a short time span. The students have evolved as personnels and I see them growing, articulating and this helps me to continue contributing to rural management as a programme at The IIHMR University. The MBA Rural Management has helped our students to directly be in touch with the grass root level which has initially evolved our students to what they are today. We at The IIHMR University believe in experiential learning which is a part of the course curriculum and has also helped our students to directly interact with the people and regions which needed development. We take pride in announcing that our students today are associated with organizations such as Save the Children, Reliance Foundation, HCL and many Government associations which have helped them to uplift the lives and the regions which needed contribution from skilled workforce that has been produced by The IIHMR University today.Dr. Goutam Sadhu, Dean School of Rural Management, IIHMR University, Jaipur said, We are delighted to reconnect and celebrate the sense of togetherness with our alumni. It has always been nostalgic for all of us to go back the memory lane and visit our school and college and live the same life just for a day. We strongly believe that reconnecting with your roots always proves to be a very beneficial experience for all of us as it helps us to reconnect with our friends or batch mates and share their experiences which help us revive ourselves and also learn from their practical experience.The IIHMR Universitys School of Rural Management on the occasion of The Rural Management Alumni Meet 2016 will see various activities such as canvas painting by alumni and the faculty, guest lectures, extra-curricular activities, experience sharing sessions, guest lectures, ramp walking and various interactive sessions over a span of two days i.e between 20th February,2016 to 21st February, 2016.The IIHMR University is a WHO Collaborating Center in the state of Rajasthan. The IIHMR University is a health research institute and offers MBA programmes under three schools of management. Under the School of Hospital and Health Management it provides MBA in Hospital and Health with 5 specializations (Hospital Management, Health Management, Human Resource Management, health Economics, Finance and Insurance and Procurement and Supply Chain Management) and Under the School of Pharmaceutical Management it offers MBA Pharmaceutical Management.
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Dr Arvinder Singh, CEO and CMD of Arth Diagnostics shared his experiences and research in the National alliance meet organised by Japanese company Horiba at Hyderabad. Early diagnosis is the key for proper treatment and management of the patients. There is a common saying that kill the monster while its little. So is the case with the diseases, because at initial stages the diseases are curable with little costs and morbidity.Dr. Singh explained that how new technology of the machine Yumizen can change the diagnostic landscape in cost effective yet precise and accurate way. The machine is able to detect the morbidity at very early stage by latest incorporation of technologies like Cytochemistry, flow cytometry and impedance. The machine provides six part analysis of the blood samples and give special alarms for cancer and infection cells. Yumizen is able to do wonders in the field of Haematology by providing various parameters of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The machine was evaluated before launch in India by Dr Singh and Dr Dharav at Udaipur and Mumbai Centre respectivelyDr Jai Hakhu, chairman of Horiba International Corporation and Dr. Rajeev Gautam the Managing Director Horiba expressed his views and facilitated the alliances. The National conference was attended by more than 150 persons from technical team and distribution chain.The new technology of Yumizen by Horiba was accepted by delight and was welcomed by open arms. In the record time of 45 minutes more than 80 machines were purchased to be installed across India.
For a while, Charlene Brown was a fixture in the Starbucks at Tropicana Casino and Resort.

Passers-by paid her no mind. As she says, she does not look homeless. With dark locks meticulously arranged in loose curls, nose buried in her laptop, she blended in.

Still, the day she was evicted from her home is fresh in her mind.

I was just tossing stuff down the stairs, like I gotta take this, I gotta take this, the 22-year-old said. I was just scared. Where was I gonna go?

Stories like Browns are the stories of young homelessness in South Jersey. People transition into adulthood camouflaged by their surroundings. They crash on couches and bounce between the homes of friends and relatives. They sleep in their cars or sometimes in abandoned buildings.

Many believe homelessness among Browns age group is growing in South Jersey, but no accurate data exist. Like Brown, the group is not easily identified, making the issue challenging to address and near impossible to solve.

But advocates are trying.

The problem

Experts say the extent of the problem is tough to gauge since homeless youths often dont show up in traditional counts.

The 2014 U.S. Housing and Urban Development-mandated Atlantic County Point in Time countcompleted on a single January night identified 61 homeless people between the ages of 18 and 24, one of whom was unsheltered.

That number is a far cry from what Brian Nelson, site director of Atlantic Citys Covenant House, sees.

Covenant House, a shelter for youths ages 18 to 21, has at least 250 young homeless adults per year living in the shelter, Nelson said. And the Atlantic Homeless Alliance said it has helped 539 people within that age group since it opened in January 2014.

Steve Berg, vice president of programs and policy for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said successful efforts to aid certain homeless groups, such as veterans, did well because of accurate and available data.

Covenant House operates as its own network, with job services, counseling, religious services, educational resources and medical treatment all offered in-house.

If we say go down the street for vocational services, or go six more blocks for health services, they are never going to make it, Nelson said, adding he sees more young people every year.

Covenant House has operated at capacity for the past few years, he said. Some residents sleep in the lounge until a bed becomes available. He said he knows of at least 30 other youths sleeping in abandoned areas not far from the Atlantic Avenue facility.

And it is more than just Atlantic County kids, many of which have been kicked out of their homes after the casinos closed  but it is kids from different points throughout the state, and they point to a larger issue that there are just not enough places for young people.

Brown bounced around before she came to Covenant House. She stayed in a partially furnished home in Camden with her cousin. There was no kitchen, and her cousins boyfriend and child lived there as well.

When they went to a nearby family members house to eat, Brown stayed behind, not wanting to impose.

I think I stayed there for maybe two weeks, she said. I guess I left because I was just getting fed up.

Brown hopped a bus from Camden and became a Covenant House resident last year, the day after her 21st birthday.

Pride is a driving force that keeps youths hidden. Brown said people typically wonder how someone like her could get to this point, jumping to conclusions such as drugs or a criminal record.

If I was to walk into a room of total strangers, if somebody was to ask, What do you picture when I say the word homeless, I am willing to bet that the answer they get is adults or sleeping in boxes, said Emma Holmes, 22, another Covenant House resident. You dont picture that I am homeless.

I had my whole life mapped out before this, added Tatyanna Abrams, 19.

Abrams mother killed herself, so Abrams moved in with an aunt when she was 11.

She entered the foster care system at 13 after what was later identified as post-traumatic stress disorder became too much for her aunt to handle. Abrams bounced between homes for a while.

She now sleeps in an abandoned home in the city. Abrams was banned from staying at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission. She spends her days traveling among three shelters in the city and the public library or a nearby Starbucks.

Abrams uses a donated tablet to keep in touch with family via Facebook. She said many relatives have gotten married or had children  events she was not involved in or sometimes not even told about.

The hardest part now is that it feels like my whole family left me behind, she said.

Possible

solutions

Berg, of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, could not give an example nationally of any city that is doing a good job of preventing homelessness among young adults as a whole.

Ideally, Berg pictures an organized state, community and even national push for an accurate census and a systematic approach.

Once that exists, people of that age group could be tracked and a programs effectiveness could be evaluated for each case, creating a coordinated effort, he said.

A program could be doing its job, but you are not ending homelessness because that one program cannot end homelessness. They are not doing anything wrong; there is just another job that needs to be done, Berg said.

In Atlantic County, aside from Covenant House, youths also seek assistance from the Atlantic City Rescue Mission and other shelters.

According to county officials, the homeless are evaluated and referred to different programs on a case-by-case basis.

Those with issues such as alcohol or drug addiction are sent to rehab facilities. Others, depending on circumstance, may be enrolled in public assistance programs or job and education programs.

But anyone older than 18 is treated as an adult.

There are few programs in Atlantic County specifically for young adults, said John McLernon, director of community relations and social services for the county. He often finds it challenging to get young homeless adults to accept help to address long-term issues.

Contact: 609-272-7093
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.




United Nations, Feb 17 : India has called for ensuring the safety of peacekeepers deployed in UN missions in a changed and more dangerous landscape and punishing those attacking them.

India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin Tuesday raised the issue of safety of troops deployed in UN operations and said that careful planning and consultations between the Security Council and the troop-contributing countries while formulating the mandates "will go a long way in promoting safety and security of our peacekeepers".

Speaking before the Special Committee for Peacekeeping Operations (PKO), he said India wanted to "strongly emphasise" that all the countries where peacekeepers are deployed "must ensure that in cases of attacks on the peacekeepers there is an effective process to prosecute, punish and penalise the perpetrators".

Atul Khare, the UN under-secretary general for field operations, also called for bringing those who kill peacekeepers to justice.

Akbaruddin reiterated the demand for the Council to consult troop-contributors, as required by the Charter, and also suggested broadening it. "All the member states have a stake in the peace process whether or not they contribute directly to these PKOs," he said. "In an inter-connected world, it is very easy for member states to be at the receiving end or at times suffer collateral damage if they are in the vicinity of areas which are unstable and prone to conflicts."

The landscape of peacekeeping operations has changed drastically and peacekeepers are facing new challenges like terrorism and intra-ethnic conflicts, Akbaruddin said.

He said India supported the recommendation made by a high level panel last year against the deploying peacekeepers in counter-terrorism operations. "However," he added, "we understand that these issues need to be viewed with flexibility in response to emerging challenges."

"As a country which has participated in 48 UN peacekeeping operations, we have contributed our share to the maintenance of international peace and security with high standards of professionalism that are troops are known for," he said. More than 180,000 Indian personnel have participated in UN peacekeeping operations so far and currently 7,798 are wearing the UN's blue helmet.

Protecting civilians in areas of conflict has emerged as one of the newer mandates of peacekeeping operations in an environment of massive disruptions of civilian life and refugee crises. Akbaruddin said that even before the adoption of the concept, "our troops have been the leadering peacekeepers protecting civilians".

In the 1960s in Congo, Capain Gurbachan Singh Salaria displayed "great courage" in protecting civilians and has been honored with a Param Vir Chakra, India's highest gallantry award, for making the supreme sacrifice, Akbaruddin recalled.

And last May, Indian peacekeepers in South Sudan protected internal refugees in Melut "against major odds", he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Krovvidi Dinakar was wounded at that time when the refugee camp Indian peacekeepers were protecting came under fire from a faction in the civil war there.

Recently, the UN has faced a crisis of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers. Akbaruddin said: "We have a zero tolerance policy on SEA cases and would like that there is zero tolerance on such issues across the UN too."

He added, India "is appalled by the recent cases of sexual exploitation and abuse which have surfaced in some of the UNPKOs. My delegation strongly condemns these unpardonable acts when the protector becomes the perpetrator."

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)
New Delhi, Feb 18 : Domestic air passenger traffic rose 23 percent in January to 76.55 lakh from 62.45 lakh registered during the same month of last year, official data showed on Thursday.

India's domestic air passenger traffic zoomed by 20.34 percent in 2015. Passenger traffic during the January-December 2015 stood at 811 lakh from 674 lakh passengers ferried during 2014.

The monthly passenger traffic data was furnished by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2016 were 76.55 lakh as against 62.45 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 22.58 percent," the ministry said in its monthly statistical analysis.

The data showed that low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor during the month under review at 92.1 percent.

The LCC was followed by budget carriers -- GoAir (84.9) and IndiGo (84.7).

For other airlines like Air Costa's passenger load factor during January stood at (84), Air Pegasus (83.8), Trujet (83.4), Jet Airways and JetLite (82.5) each, AirAsia India (81.9), Air India's domestic operations (81.7) and Vistara (74.8).

At the same time, data on the on-time performance showed Vistara leading the industry with 86.6 percent punctuality at four major airports of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

It was followed by Jet Airways and JetLite (75.4), IndiGo (75), SpiceJet (74.7), and Air India's domestic operations (65).

Meanwhile, Air Costa had the highest numbers of cancellations at 11.46 percent followed by Air Pegasus (10.83), Air India (1.91), Trujet (1.22), IndiGo (0.99), Vistara (0.59), GoAir (0.55), Jet Airways (0.52), SpiceJet (0.51), AirAsia India (0.50) and JetLite (0.23).

"The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of January 2016 has been 1.10 percent," the ministry noted.

According to the data, a total of 823 passenger related complaints were received during the month under review.

Air India's domestic operations had the highest complaints rate per 10,000 passengers in January.

Air India's share stood at (2.8), followed by Jet Airways and JetLite (1.3), GoAir and Air Costa (1.00) each, AirAsia India (0.9), Air Pegasus (0.8), SpiceJet and IndiGo (0.5) each, Trujet and Vistara (0.3) each.

LCC IndiGo achieved the highest market share in the month under review at 35.6 percent followed by Jet Airways (18.7), Air India (16), SpiceJet (13.2), GoAir (8.1) and JetLite (2.7 percent).

AirAsia India had a market penetration of 2.3 percent, Vistara (2.00), followed by Air Costa (0.8), Trujet (0.4) and Air Pegasus (0.3).
Rohtak/Chandigarh, Feb 20 : Army columns conducted flag marches at various places in violence-hit districts of Haryana on Saturday as security forces grappled with the tense situation in areas where the Jat agitation demanding reservations had turned violent.

Sources said that hundreds of Jat protesters continued their siege of some parts of Rohtak town on Saturday afternoon and were not willing to disperse despite warnings by the local authorities.

Curfew continued in Rohtak and Bhiwani towns on Saturday.

Reports of violence, torching of vehicles, and damaging government and railway property also came in on Saturday.

Despite the army being deployed, the situation in Haryana continued to remain tense.

Soldiers were air-dropped earlier on Saturday in violence-hit Rohtak town after the protesters blocked and dug up roads to prevent the entry of the military.

The agitation began as Jats are demanding reservation for the community in government jobs and educational institutions.

Looting and arson continued in the town through Friday night with unruly mobs targeting malls, shops and other buildings and many of them were set on fire.

Indian Air Force helicopters conducted several sorties to transport soldiers into some parts of Rohtak town.

"Around 20-30 troops were being brought into Rohtak town by choppers. They will be deployed in areas which are under siege of the Jat protesters," a senior officer told IANS.

Authorities in Rohtak asked people not to venture out of their houses as the army prepared for a flag march.

The army also staged a flag-march in Bhiwani town. Officials said that the situation was under control.

Reports said that National Highway No. 1 (NH-1) was blocked by protesters in Sonipat district, 50 km from Delhi. The Delhi-Ambala railway track remained blocked since Friday evening. Hundreds of passengers were stranded as railway authorities cancelled several trains on the route.

Nearly 550 trains were either cancelled or diverted since the agitation began a week ago.

On Friday, the agitation that started a week ago, got even worse and resulted in the death of three people and dozens, including security personnel, were injured.

The mob also attacked the office of the Rohtak range inspector general of police (IGP) and set the house of Finance Minister Abhimanyu on fire.

Jat leader Hawa Singh Sangwan said that the youth have taken over the agitation.

Authorities have also blocked internet and SMS services in the affected districts.

Haryana DGP Y.P. Singhal arrived in Rohtak town by helicopter to take stock of the situation.

He admitted that enough police deployment was not there when the agitation started earlier this week.
New Delhi, Feb 20 : The BJP on Saturday said it will issue a show-cause notice to its Kurukshetra Lok Sabha member Raj Kumar Saini for speaking against reservation for the Jat community, defying the diktat of the party's central leadership.

"The party has taken cognizance of remarks made by Saini and decided to issue him a show-cause notice," BJP general secretary Anil Jain, who is in charge of Haryana, said at a press conference.

"Saini was asked to refrain from making such statements but he defied the central leadership's diktat," Jain said at the press meet jointly addressed by union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sanjeev Balyan and Haryana minister O.P. Dhankar.

Saini had earlier opposed reservation for Jats, saying Jat leaders in the BJP were creating pressure on the chief minister over the quota issue.

He also said Jats had "grabbed" more than 50 percent of posts in the general category, and now they wanted a share in the rights of backward classes.

Birender Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, made it clear that the party supports reservation for the Jat community and accused the Congress for the present agitation.

"There should be reservation for Jats. We have been assured by our central leadership. They are also in favour of reservation," he said.

Jain added: "We are in support of Jat reservation and it should be given within the the provisions of the Constitution. This was the reason the party filed a review petition after the Supreme Court denied reservation to the Jat community."

Accusing the Congress, Jain said: "The Congress gave reservation to the Jat community keeping in mind the political scenario in the state and now we are facing the heat of their deeds."

The BJP leader also said there were some political parties behind the Jat community's agitation. "Very soon, it will be clear who are behind it," Jain said.

Balyan said the process of talks with Jat leaders has begun.

"Jat leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi will be meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday night," he said.
Damascus, Feb 21 : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready for cease-fire in Syria on condition that the "terrorists" don't exploit it.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, whose script was published by state news agency SANA, Assad said halting the military operations in Syria demands deterring the terrorists from exploiting it to enhance their positions.

He pointed out that countries, like Turkey, must stop sending more terrorists and arms as well as providing logistical support to the terrorists, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Of course... we have declared that we are ready (to respect a cessation of military operations) but the matter is not only about declaring it because the another party may declare the same thing. It's about what will be done on ground," he said.

"The matter is primarily related to a cessation of fire but there are other complementary, and more important factors, such as preventing the terrorists from exploiting the cessation of the military operations to enhance their positions... it's also related to preventing countries like Turkey from sending terrorists and arms into Syria," the president continued.

The remarks comes at times Russia and the US were pushing to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

In a telephone call Saturday, US. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the progress about the "modalities" for a cessation of violence in Syria.

Meanwhile, Assad hailed the Russian and Iranian role in supporting his administration as "essential" contribution to the advance of the Syrian army against the militant groups on key Syrian frontline.

Achieving a cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access to all besieged Syrian cities were the outcome of the talks between superpowers in Germany, Munich this month.

Those two factors are deemed important for starting a second round of talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition in a bid to help find a political end to the Syrian crisis.
Washington, Feb 21 : Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday snatched a key victory in Nevada Democratic caucuses days before the crucial "Super Tuesday" round on March 1, according to projections by major US TV networks.

With 79.2 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton led Bernie Sanders 52.1 percent to 47.8 percent, prompting almost all US major TV networks to project that Clinton won in Nevada.

The modest victory was crucial to Clinton after the former first lady suffered erosion of supports nationwide in the wake of a near tie in Iowa and a stinging 22-point loss in New Hampshire, reports Xinhua.
London, Feb 21 : British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Saturday that the referendum, in which British people will decide whether to leave the European Union (EU) will be held on June 23.

After briefing his cabinet on the agreement reached with European partners in Brussels on Friday night, Cameron confirmed that the official position of the United Kingdom government will be to defend remaining in "a reformed Europe".

Speaking at the Downing Street for over two hours following the cabinet meeting, the British prime minister pointed out that leaving the EU will "threaten our economic and national security".

"I do not love Brussels. I love Britain. I am the first to say there are many ways the EU needs to improve," Cameron said, explaining that "the task of reforming Europe does not end with yesterday's agreement", which gives the UK a "special status" in the EU.

In his speech that marks the beginning of the campaign ahead of the June referendum, the head of the British government said that his country is "safer" and "stronger" in a reformed Europe, warning that breaking ties with the continent would be "a leap in the dark".

Cameron will propose before the parliament on Monday to hold the referendum in the announced date.

"You will decide and whatever your decision I will do my best to deliver it," Cameron pledged.
New Delhi : Arnab Goswami of Times Now Television runs his show rather like an animal trainer in an old fashioned circus or an Al Capone-like gangster terrorising his minions, which is what the panelists palely peering out of those windows begin to look like, by the time Arnab is through with them.

It is in this galaxy that Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson, has been shining these past few days with incomparable light. Arnab runs a clip showing Kanhaiya Kumar and his friends, raising their hand and throwing their heads back. There are no words, only cacophony. Sambit Patra provides the missing slogans. "Afzal hum sharminda hain; tere qatil zinda hain." (Afzal Guru, we are embarrassed that your murderers roam free).

Flushed with success from Times Now where, with Arnab Goswami, he had helped viewership ratings skyrocket on the JNU issue, Patra turned up at the India Today Television, to test his luck. He will rue the day he accepted anchor Rahul Kanwal's invitation.

Shouting slogans in support of Afzal Guru is a powerful allegation against the JNU demonstrators. This has become particularly so for the millions who watch Arnab's show. This vast viewership is liable to swallow the allegation unhesitatingly simply because it does not have the background. This audience does not know that the anniversary of Afzal Guru's death has been observed all the three years since his hanging - religiously in Kashmir and in liberal enclaves like Jawaharlal Nehru University.

True, Afzal Guru's crime was heinous. He was supposed to have master-minded the December 13, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament, barely three months after the 9/11 attack in New York.

The Supreme Court judgement handing him the death sentence did not satisfy everybody. The Honourable Court admitted that the evidence was circumstantial, but went on to argue that the "collective conscience of society will be satisfied only if the death penalty is awarded to Afzal Guru." Critics found it unfortunate that a court of law decided to pander to its assumed notion of "collective conscience" rather than abide by points of law.

The hanging too was most mysterious. Without informing his family, Afzal was secretly hanged and buried in Tihar Jail. Since then there is a demand in Kashmir for his remains to be returned to the family. Is it an unfair demand?

In Kashmir, Afzal Guru is not a closed chapter because of the circumstances attending the disposal of the case. But buoyed by political power, this time the Sangh Parivar decided to push for charges of sedition against Afzal Guru's sympathisers.

This is part of a larger game spelt out in an article in The Pioneer published in June 2014 soon after Modi came to power. The author K.G. Suresh is a versatile journalist and a member of the Sangh Parivar think tank. He said: "Augean stables of that hallowed institution called JNU must be cleaned. They have over the years, become dens of secessionism, Maoism and terrorism."

Was it not Subramanian Swamy whose name was being mentioned as the possible vice chancellor? He showed his hand the other day when in the context of the current agitation he asked for the university to be shut down for four months. But for the time being, sedition charges on the leftist union leader would suffice.

For this line of action to succeed, choreography of the whole Afzal Guru show in JNU would have to be couched in clear cut anti-India rhetoric. In this, the Sangh Parivar goofed up in its coordination with the JNU authorities and the police. First, the vice chancellor permitted the show. But when the youth wing of the Parivar, ABVP, protested, the permission was withdrawn.

The university administration's indecisiveness became yet another nugget in what to me has been the finest piece of oratory since the days of Prakash Veer Shastri and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In his February 9 speech, Kanhaiya Kumar "left the audience spellbound" according to eye witnesses. It was imaginative of the Indian Express to have published an English translation of the speech under the title "Is this Sedition?"

By then sundry activists of the Sangh were on the move providing lethal voiceovers to clips showing Kanhaiya and his friends shouting inaudible slogans which were alleged to be anti-Indian. And this found an echo in a credulous Patra and less than sceptical Arnab.

"We shall avenge Afzal Guru's killers; we shall break up the country; Pakistan Zindabad and worse." We have Sambit Patra and Ravi Shankar Prasad's testimony that this was the anti-national fare dished out at the JNU gathering.

Secure in the conviction that he had won the propaganda war for the Sangh Parivar-ABVP, Sambit Patra sought to push his luck a little further with a different channel - India Today Television.

Rahul Kanwal's advantage is that he is a reporter as well as an anchor. First, with great craft, he lulled Patra into a sense of false security. How cleverly had Patra been channel-hopping armed with the video clip of Kanhaiya's supposedly anti-national sloganeering which has been dominating "some channels", Rahul said.

He then led Patra to an in-house computer whizkid who, quite expertly, separated the Kanhaiya clip of February 9, with crisp and clear sound quality from the doctored clip of February 11 where the sound has been deliberately muffled to warrant outside commentary - Patra's in this case.

Rahul's sifting of the grain from the chaff left Patra tongue-tied on live TV. He made cow eyes at Rahul; he looked like Surma Bhopali caught lying within Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra's earshot in Sholay.

Meanwhile, Kanhaiya has in his speech challenged the ABVP to debate him on nationalism. This is the crux of the matter. Here is a TRP spinner for the channels to pick up. Or at least the speech can be telecast so that the nation can distil the truth from the concoction the ABVP and the police have poured into the JNU cauldron.

(Saeed Naqvi is a senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
New Delhi : Much water has flowed under the Yamuna bridge -- dirty though -- since the February 9 "cultural" event inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)campus, against what the organisers called the "judicial killing" of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. That this snowballed into a major controversy is a reflection of the times we live in. With horror, one witnessed Kanhaiya Kumar, a student leader, getting arrested under the colonial-era sedition law, while the police are looking for other student organisers of the event where "anti-India" and "pro-Pakistan" slogans were allegedly raised.

At the same time, police showed supreme inaction when it came to booking lawyers who assaulted journalists and the arrested student leader, while he was being produced in court following his arrest.

A section of the media too indulged in manufacturing lies and spreading rumours, which may in turn have incited political goons to raise frenzy against students of this premier institution who were merely exercising their democratic right of dissent.

The mud-slinging by politicians and a malicious #ShutDown JNU campaign, that started even before the "cultural" event, appears to be gathering steam, pushed assiduously by social media trolls.

But is it feasible -- or desirable -- to shut down a historic institution like the JNU, perhaps the finest place for higher education in social sciences?

For an alumnus of JNU, the move to tarnishing an institution with everything that it is not is extremely sad. The fallout is such that even in Facebook News Feeds one sees posts favouring JNU's destruction, with some writers suggesting that stadiums be built in its place to encourage sports.

Tracking the #ShutDown JNU trail in Twitter shows the type of "nationalism" that is being promoted at the cost of this nation. Sample these:

Rahul MahajanVerified account @TheRahulMahajan Feb 15 #ShutDownJNU: JNU Campus should be declared as prison complex ASAP

Sir Ravindra Jadeja @SirJadeja Feb 10: Before JNU Becomes Jihadi Nurturing University #ShutDownJNU.

JAY @YesIamSaffron Feb 10: The same #JNU Goon who Had Protested RohitVemula Death got in Scuffle with Cops in support of Afzal #ShutDownJNU

The nation that is imagined in most of these tweets is clearly that of an India which is exclusive for only those who believe in a particular ideology.

Contrary to what the so-called nationalists -- many self-confessed NaMo fans -- preach, the university, through its long struggle, had created a space for India's diversity to flourish and opinions of various sections of the population to be discussed and debated without intimidation or fear of being humiliated.

Far from being a mouthpiece of the terrorists, JNU has become the voice of the marginalised, the oppressed and the outcasts. If the university has become a laboratory of anything, it is as a spearhead for social transformation. Yes, JNU is not only for those who can afford a higher education; it is an institution that enables the wretched of the earth to aspire.

And No. To get selected to JNU, you do not have to give a deliberate "Marxist twist" -- as commonly believed -- to your answers in the entrance examination. The topper in my class at the Centre for Political Studies (CPS) was openly rightist.

The teachers at the university do not grade you on the basis of the ideology you believe in. The current JNU Students Union has a member from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student wing of the RSS.

What JNU represents is hope. And I strongly believe that even with the might of the coercive apparatus of the state and support of the rumour mongering mills, it will be impossible to destroy what the university stands for -- change. And that's something you just cannot stop.

(Gokul Bhagabati passed out from JNU in 2007. He can be contacted at gokul.b@ians.in)
New Delhi, Feb 21 : Delhi is facing "a very serious water crisis" because of Jat protests in Haryana and water is to be strictly rationed in the city, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. Only a handful of VIPs and essential services will be exempt.

"Barring (the) president, prime minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals (and) fire brigade, water (is) to be equally rationed amongst all," Kejriwal told the media.

He said he too would be covered by the water restrictions that he warned could last at least one or two days even if the water supply was to resume on Sunday.

The Munak Canal in Haryana, which supplies water to large parts of Delhi, has been shut down after it was vandalized by a section of Jats demanding job reservations.

Kejriwal said he had spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

"I requested them to please send the army (to Munak canal). They may be trying.

"But even if the water supply is restored now, it will take 24 hours to reach the water treatment plants in Delhi."

He urged residents of Delhi to "please save water", saying they might have to depend on the stored water for one or two days at least.

He added that water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by water scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia added: "No water available now. Still no hope to get it."

Both Sisodia and Kejriwal said that if nothing was done immediately, "water supply in Delhi will face an unmanageable crisis".

"Delhi facing an unprecedented water crisis," Kejriwal added.

Aam Aadmi Party legislator and former Delhi minister Somnath Bharti added: "Receiving panic calls from residents (over) no water supply. Request (Rajnath Singh) to intervene and get Munak canal normalized."

Delhi's Water Minister Kapil Mishra had said earlier that seven water treatment plants had been shut in the city, and water supply would be hit, including in areas covered by the New Delhi Municipal Council, the civic body that covers the VIP heart of the capital.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : With a renewed government focus on three of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet initiatives -- Make in India, Digital India and Skill India, the tech industry, including the telecom sector, is closely watching what the upcoming national budget has in store for them.

Of particular interest is what exemptions Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposes to give the country's start-up eco-system, not just to the aspiring, first-time entrepreneurs, but also investors that fund them. Ease of doing business, however, remains the key concern across the tech spectrum.

"Tax exemption on direct and indirect taxes including (minimum alternative tax), where start-ups lose a big chunk of cashflows is the need of the hour. This will reduce compliance burden and reduce cash outflows," said B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, chairman, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

"The 2016-17 budget has to encourage them by waiving tax on capital gains and should also allow carrying forward of losses even if there is a change in ownership structure, if it is for capital infusion in the entity," he added.

"Government has started great initiatives like 'Make in India' and 'Startup India Initiative', the budget has to support at infrastructure and policy level to realise these dreams. Entrepreneurs should feel protected and supported on ground level to make actual difference," said Vipin Pathak, co-founder and CEO, Care24 (a healthcare services start-up).

Incentive schemes for electronic hardware manufacturing, research and development (R&D) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) creations remained top most concern for the stakeholders.

"R&D and IPR creation are critical factors for strengthening the manufacturing sector in the country," the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) said.

"In order to encourage more R&D in the sector, we propose to introduce five percent cess on user of telecom services (service providers) to create a corpus for supporting R&D for technology development in telecom sector," the association added.

"Incentive schemes to encourage manufacturing of LCD panels, FAB, and other products that make up electronic hardware eco-system. Lowering of minimum alternative tax and supportive policy measures to set up data centres, and measures to encourage digitization in small and medium enterprises," said Arun Singh, senior economist at Dun & Bradstreet India.

"IT sector has seen a tremendous growth in the last fiscal globally. The union budget 2016 must focus and encourage investment in the IT sector to make the government's plan of building smart and cities safer," Koichiro Koide, managing director, NEC India, said.
Kolkata, Feb 21 : The agitators in Haryana and West Bengal's Cooch Behar district should not block rail tracks and destroy railway property to highlight their grievances, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Sunday.

"I appeal to all my friends in West Bengal, in Haryana, in all the places, please do not block the traffic. Let the traffic flow. Your grievances can be dealt with separately," Prabhu said here while launching a number of rail projects in Bengal.

"Because of the grievances in Haryana, the railways have lost very precious property. We have to now find that money," he said.

Demonstrators in Haryana demanding reservations for the Jat community have reportedly set on fire the Budha Khera Railway Station in Jind district and the ticket counter of Basai Railway Station in Gurgaon.

The minister said the railways have been under stress arranging funds.

"If you burn it, forget providing additional facilities, the present infrastructure has to be re-strengthened by finding more money. Please do not block the roads and definitely not the railway tracks," he said.

The Jat has paralysed life in Haryana, cutting off the northern states from Delhi.

With trains to and from Delhi and other places being cancelled, buses not plying, all major highways passing through Haryana blocked by protestors at several places and railway tracks being blocked and uprooted, thousands of people suffered as they were stranded at different places.

Prabhu said he intended to launch a project which runs through Cooch Behar in Bengal but couldn't do so because of the indefinite 'rail roko' (blocking of railway) agitation launched on Saturday by the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples Association (GCPA).

"I appeal to all the demonstrators who have a genuine grievance: they should not block the railway tracks for doing that," Prabhu said.

"They have the right to demonstrate and that is a democratic right. We respect that right. We appeal to you because the common man is inconvenienced whenever there is a demonstration which results in stoppage of train services. The people who travel by train, most of them can't afford or don't have any other commuting options."

He unveiled the plaque for commencement of construction work of underground Metro between the NSC Bose International Airport and Jessore Road (Metro Rail), introduce 14 extra Metro services during peak hours from February 22, inaugurated the New Approach Road (by remote) from Belgachia road over bridge to Kolkata Terminal (Eastern Railway), commenced the work (by remote) for 14.50 km Sankrail-Santragachia New BG link line via Flyover from Down to UP side (S.E. Railway).
Chennai, Feb 21 : Allowing deduction of premium paid by individuals on insuring their properties and clarity on legal position on non-taxability of technical reserves form part of the wishlist of the non-life insurance industry, said a top official of the industry body.

With the foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance sector hiked to 49 percent and the sectoral regulator coming out with regulations in sync with the amended laws, the budget wishlist for the insurers has come down.

"In order to increase penetration of property insurance and to reduce the government's outgo towards compensation, the premium paid towards insuring them against natural perils should be tax deductible," R. Chandrasekaran, secretary general, General Insurance Counil of India, told IANS on Sunday.

He said very negligible percentage of the households take a policy to cover their movable and immovable properties against natural disasters.

"If the government allows deduction of insurance premium paid to by an insurance policy against natural perils, then there will be a spur in growth," Chandrasekaran said.

"While the government will see an increase in its revenue as the policies are subject to service tax, net-to-net the loss of tax revenue will be very negligible," he said.

"On the other hand, the wealth of the nation will get protected and the government can also save on compensation amount paid to victims who lose their properties to a natural disaster," he added.

The industry also expects the government to give legal clarity that technical reserves provided by the insurers as prescribed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) should be tax exempt.

"While the position is clear, in many cases due to interpretation issues the companies have to spend their time and efforts with taxmen to clarify. If a clear legal seal is given to the tax treatment of technical reserves, then it will be better," Chandrasekaran said.

On the other hand, the life insurance sector expects some enabling laws to provide impetus for growth.

According to Tarun Chugh, managing director and CEO of PNB MetLife India Insurance Company, the government should provide a separate limit for long term savings and pensions under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

While the government introduced an additional deduction of Rs.50,000 for contribution to National Pension Scheme in 2015-16, Chugh appeals for a separate sub-limit for insurance under Section 80C.

"The additional leeway in Section 80C will encourage people to buy additional life insurance to protect their family's financial future while getting tax benefit," he said.

Chugh also expects the government to fix the sum assured to five times of the first year premium to be eligible for tax deduction.

"Currently, to avail tax benefits for a life insurance policy under 10(10D), the Sum Assured or Life Cover has to be a minimum of 10 times of the First Year premium," he said.

He also expects better clarity on tax laws relating to computation of profits for insurers and the point of taxation for service tax.

According to Rakesh Nangia, managing partner, Nangia & Co, the tax structure of the National pension Scheme (NPS) should be reviewed.

"The current tax structure is Exempt-Exempt-Tax (on maturity the amount is taxed), which is at a sharp disadvantage to the other major retirement products such as Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Public Provident Fund (PPF)," Nangia told IANS.

"It is high time that the government removes the anomalies and inconsistencies in the taxation of the NPS and gives it the Exempt-Exempt-Exempt status in order to encourage retirement savings," he added.
Srinagar, Feb 21 : An army soldier, wounded in the ongoing gunfight between security forces and guerrillas in Pampore in Kashmir, died in hospital on Sunday, taking the death toll in the conflict to five, a police officer said.

Earlier on Sunday, an army Captain of the elite 10 Para Regiment died after he was shot while entering the building on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in which a group of heavily armed guerrillas are holed up.

Two paramilitary army troopers and a civilian were killed when guerrillas attacked a bus of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Saturday on the highway.

After attacking the bus, the guerrillas entered the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) complex situated close to the highway.

Around 120 civilians comprising staff and trainees of the Institute were evacuated safely on Saturday after the guerrillas entered the complex.

Two civilians were wounded on Sunday during protests in Kadlibal area of Pampore on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

Thirteen troopers of the CRPF have been injured in the gunfight which continued to rage in the area as the security forces tried to flush out the guerrillas -- believed to be three to five in number and belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : The Indian Army has asked the people of Haryana to extend their support "in giving a befitting farewell" to late Captain Pawan Kumar who was killed fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore town on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Pawan Kumar, from the Special Forces, belonged to Jind district in Haryana.

"He was an inspiring leader who in spite of being injured earlier in an anti-terrorist operation, went on to volunteer for more operations," an army spokesperson told IANS on Sunday.

The mortal remains of the officer will be flown to Jind town on Monday as road transportation has been disrupted by the ongoing Jat agitation in Haryana, the army said. The last rites with full military honours would be performed in his village.

"The army appeals to the people of Haryana to extend their full support in giving a befitting farewell to this brave son of their soil," the army spokesperson said.
Mumbai, Feb 21 : Filmmaker Hansal Mehta's reality drama "Aligarh" will be closing the 2016 Dallas/Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF) on Sunday. And the director is elated over his film, dwelling on the stigma around homosexuality, being screened on foreign shores.

"#Aligarh is the closing film late tonight (IST) at DFW South Asian Film Festival, Dallas. Show sold out. Excited," Mehta tweeted on Sunday.

With "Aligarh", Mehta has tried to unfold a chapter on gender issues in India on the silver screen. The film touches upon how homosexual people conceal their true selves for the sake of the society.

The film is based on the real life incident of doctor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job as a professor because of his sexual orientation. The film stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao.

The film was screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival and 59th BFI London Film Festival. It opened the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Set in a town in Uttar Pradesh from which the film takes its name, "Aligarh" will release in India on February 26.

DFW SAFF, which rolled off on February 19 with "Miss India America", screened some of cinematic gems like "I Say, Bhallaji" - short feature; "The Backward Class" - documentary, "Dhanak" - feature film and "Amma Y Appa" - documentary feature.

The opening night of the festival took place at Perot Museum in downtown Dallas. It is currently being held at Angelika Film Center in Plano.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Sunday embarked on a five-day official visit to Bangladesh.

An official statement said the visit, till February 25, is intended to take the existing defence cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries to the next level.

The areas of cooperation at present include exchange in military training courses, exchange of visits and joint sporting activities.

During his stay in Bangladesh, Air Chief Marshal Raha, who is also chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three service chiefs of the Bangladesh armed forces in Dhaka.

He will also call on the president and the prime minister of Bangladesh.

The Indian Air Force chief will visit the air bases in Jessore, Bashar and Chittagong, the National Defence College in Dhaka, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) in Mirpur and the Bangladesh Army headquarters.

During his visit to the Military Institute of Science and Technology, Air Chief Marshal Raha will present several training aids related to aircraft systems, as a goodwill gesture.
Srinagar, Feb 21 : PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said she would not hesitate to go against the tide if it suited the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

At a membership drive for the Peoples Democratic Party in Srinagar, Mehbooba Mufti said her father, late chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was not the one to follow the beaten track and would not hesitate to go against the tide if it was in people's interest.

She said she would do the same if the situation so demanded.

"You should understand why he (Sayeed) created the PDP. He never used to tread the easy path, but would create (new) ways, however difficult, and when he used to step on that road, he would not look back.

"He would never make a U-turn. He would never say something was right one day and then say it was wrong the next day," she said.

Mehbooba Mufti said she has been hearing since the last one-and-half months, since her father died, that the chief ministerial chair was her father's inheritance for her and she should take it.

"The inheritance of my father is not the chair. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's inheritance is so large than it cannot fit in the chair.

"His inheritance is courage, strength and the love for the people here which he always had in his heart. His inheritance is to tread those roads which nobody dared tread," she said.

The PDP president said gun was not a solution to the issues of Kashmir which can be addressed through dialogue.

She said she was happy that the BJP understood that there was no option other than what Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to say regarding dialogue with Pakistan.

"America is a big power, but it has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is Syria and Libya, are they not independent nations?

"But once the gun entered these countries, everything was lost. Gun does not benefit anyone.

"I can feel what parents must be going thorough whose sons were lost yesterday or any youth who takes to the gun and is killed in an encounter," she said.

Jammu and Kashmir was put under Governor's Rule after Sayeed passed away in New Delhi on January 7 after a brief illness.

The PDP and the BJP are still not close to any understanding on government formation in the state.
Mumbai, Feb 21 : Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, who is busy shooting for her Hollywood debut project "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" with action star Vin Diesel, says she is looking forward to meet her female co-star Nina Dobrev.

When Dobrev tweeted "Happy to be home.. Looking forward to starting XXX this week", Deepika also responded to it by writing "Can't wait to see you Nina! @ninadobrev @Deejaycar".

Deepika took off to Toronto, Canada, to shoot for the film earlier this month, and has been keeping her fans updated about her Hollywood sojourn through photographs and videos.

In fact, her rumoured boyfriend, actor Ranveer Singh also met her during his short trip to Toronto.

In some of images shared by Diesel, the actor is seen shirtless, showing off his tattoo-covered abs, while Deepika is wearing a bold black leather outfit which not just shows her washboard abs but also some temporary tattoos for a power-packed look.

The new film will follow Diesel's Xander Cage who returns to the National Security Agency after an eight-year absence.

In "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage", Samuel L. Jackson is back as Augustus Gibbons, with Ruby Rose, Jet Li, Conor McGregor and Tony Jaa joining the cast.

D.J. Caruso is taking the director's seat, and F. Scott Frazier has written the script. No official release date is set for the movie yet.
Mumbai, Feb 21 : Actress Sonam Kapoor is flooded with words of appreciation for her act in "Neerja" as Neerja Bhanot, who lost her life while saving others on a hijacked flight. Classmates of the late air hostess have also thanked the actress for bringing her back to life on the silver screen.

The actress was touched by a special message by Bhanot's classmates, and credited director Ram Madhvani for being the captain of the film.

Sonam took to Twitter to share an image of the tribute by one of Bhanot's classmates.

The message read: "Dear Sonam, I wonder if you will get to read this message. Your critics and colleagues will congratulate you for your performance as Neerja and I believe you will win awards and accolades in truck loads for this movie. But to us who were Neerja's classmates in school you did something much much more.

"You brought her back to life after nearly 30 years. She is now back amongst us again. And for that on behalf of the Batch 78 Bombay Scottish Aluminii, her friends and family, I thank you. Sanjit Shastri - batch of 78 Bombay".

To this, Sonam said: "Ram this is all you... Thank you for making me an honorary alumni... I humbly accept this beautiful tribute to #neerja by her pals of #bombayscottish class of '78 ... This has truly truly moved me."

"Neerja" tells the story of how Neerja lost her life while saving passengers from terrorists on board hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in September 1986.

And a special screening was organised for alumni of the Bombay Scottish School here on Friday. The film also stars Shabana Azmi and Shekhar Ravjiani.
Chennai, Feb 21 : A day after he said that his party wants him to be the "king" and not the "kingmaker" in Tamil Nadu, DMDK founder A.Vijaykant lost his position as the leader of opposition.

"Following the resignations of eight legislators belonging to DMDK, the party's strength in the assembly has come down to 20. Assembly Speaker P.Dhanapal has announced that as per rule 2, Vijaykant loses the status as the leader of the opposition," assembly secretary A.M.P.Jamaludeen said in a statement.

He said the speaker's decision came since there is no other party with a minimum of 24 legislators, no leader of a legislative party could be designated as the leader of the opposition.

Tamil Nadu assembly has a total of 234 law makers.

The eight DMDK law makers - C. Arun Pandian, M. Arun Subramanian, K. Pandiarajan, K. Tamil Azhagan, S. Michael Rayappan, R. Sundarrajan, T. Suresh Kumar and R. Santhi - were dissidents and have been supporting the ruling AIADMK party for a major portion of their tenure.

With elections round the corner and the last session of the 14th assembly concluding, the eight have resigned.

On Saturday addressing a massive rally at Kanchipuram district, around 70km from here, Vijaykant said his supporters want him to be the "king" and not the "kingmaker".

As party cadre said "king" to his question whether he should be a "king" or "kingmaker", Vijaykant said: "If I am the king, then you all will also be a king".

On Sunday, two law makers - PMK's Kalai Arasu and Puthiya Tamizhagam's A.Ramasamy - also resigned their posts.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 21 : An uncle of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was part of a delegation to Haryana as the chairman of a state-run animal husbandry corporation, is currently stranded in Karnal following the Jat quota-protest.

John Jacob Valakalli told IANS from Karnal that they had gone to attend a national dairy meeting at Karnal.

Around 30 officials representing Kerala's dairy industry could not come back as major roads were blocked, and they are now lodged at a hotel in Karnal.

"There were about 70 of us from Kerala representing various departments. Some of them managed to return to Delhi by road, while we are currently stranded at a hotel in Karnal.

"We were told to try to reach Chandigarh, but it was not possible as the roads are blocked," said 86-year-old Valakalli.

He said he has spoken with Kerala's Rural Development Minister K.C. Joseph and he has assured all help.

Chandy has also been informed of their situation, but he was yet to speak to him as the chief minister was travelling.

Valakalli said arrangements were being made for them to travel to Delhi.
Kolkata, Feb 21 : Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday got profuse praise from senior Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy for his "proactiveness" and for being less of a politician and more a man of work.

Roy expressed confidence that the minister will be able to "break through" the colonial mindset prevailing in the railways.

"I know he is a pro-active minister and he wants to carry the work forward. He is less political, and more a man of work. We see politics in everything. But the minister does not indulge in much politics, he is more concerned with his work.

"I hope he will rise above all politics and give a new direction to development and progress," Roy said at a programme organised by the railways where Prabhu was also present.

Thanking the minister for adopring measures to carry forward Trinamool Congress chief and former railway minister Mamata Banerjee's plans, Roy said: "We like his initiative. We know he is a proactive minister but I don't know whether the minister's proactiveness can trump the railways' bureaucracy."

Prabhu was in the city to unveil a slew of projects.

"The problem with the railways is that even if the minister doesn't want, rail workers somehow write that the work is not going forward for the public good. I believe the minister will try to break through the prevailing colonial mindset and structure," Roy said.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : Terming the water crisis in the national capital as "unprecedented", Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Sunday warned that the situation might worsen in the next few days if the supply from Haryana is not immediately restored.

He said the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had almost run out of water and advised people to use water judiciously.

"The present crisis is unprecedented. We are somehow trying to manage that all the people should at least get water for drinking," Mishra told reporters here.

He said that the DJB has introduced 14 new filling points for tankers that would become operational late in the night to ensure sufficient water supply on Monday.

"These new points would cater to 423 tankers that would be supplied to different areas in west Delhi early morning on Monday. The tankers would refill during the day and go to more areas. We have around 700 tankers in all that would be on duty on Monday," the minister said.

However, he requested people to use water carefully and mainly for drinking purposes as there was no certainty as to when the regular supply would be restored.

"The gates of Munak canal are still closed and there is no official word either from Haryana or the central government. Even if the gates are opened now, it will take at least 24 hours to normalise the water supply," he said.

"And in case the gates don't open by tomorrow (Monday), Delhi may face more trouble," he added.

Delhi has nine water treatment plants which together produce 820 million gallons per day (MGD) of potable water. Of these, only two - Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi - fed by water from Uttar Pradesh are operational. The current production is only 240 MGD. Delhi gets its bulk of water supply from Haryana.

Mishra also asked power discoms to ensure uninterrupted power supply at the tanker filling points, fearing that even small delay in the filling process would lead to a pile-up.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Sunday called on visiting Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and discussed ways to improve bilateral ties, sources said.

Advani met Oli at Rashtrapati Bhavan where he is staying as a state guest. The meeting lasted for about half an hour.

Earlier in the day, Oli visited the Tehri hydel project. He is scheduled to visit Gujarat and Maharashtra during his six-day visit that began on February 19.

India and Nepal are working on hydro power projects with combined capacity of 7,000 MW.
New Delhi, Feb 21 : Adivasi school teacher turned politician Soni Sori, who has suffered acid attack in Chhattisgarh, has been referred to Delhi's Apollo Hospital, hospital authorities said on Sunday.

"Sori has been referred to Apollo Hospital as she needs better medical care, which she is not getting in the hospital she has been admitted to now. However, she is yet to arrive," a senior medical authority of the hospital told IANS.

Sori was attacked while returning from Banjarin Ghati in Bastar on Saturday night. She is undergoing treatment at Gidam hospital in Jagdalpur.
Bhubaneswar, Feb 21 : The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Sunday decided to reiterate its demand for special category status to Odisha during the budget session of parliament beginning on Tuesday.

The party will also demand the pending assistance for drought and cyclone Phailin.

"The MPs have been asked to pursue the completion of timely repair and restoration of the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the concerned ministries, release of dues pending towards drought of 2015, cyclone Phailin of 2013, non-release of central share towards completion of five new medical colleges," Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik said after a meeting of the BJD parliamentary party.

He said modification of the existing rice and wheat allotment ratio to suit the needs of people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) would also be raised.

BJD MP from Bolangir Kalikesh Narayan Singhdeo said the party will demand a special package for Odisha.

"As Odisha has been historically neglected by the Centre, grant of special package and special category status would help the state overcome the inequality in its development," he said.

On the arrest of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges and alleged inaction by Delhi Police to refrain lawyers from attacking students inside a court premises, Singhdeo said: "The law will take its own course. But we strongly condemn Delhi Police for its inaction in the entire incident."

He said a proper inquiry can reveal the truth behind the JNU incident.

"We will participate in the debate on the issue in parliament," he said, adding that they would demand that the authorities act as per law over the JNU incident.
Cairo, Feb 21 : A Syrian man helped his 15-year-old son, who has been fighting among jihadists for a year, carry out a suicide attack in the Syrian city of Aleppo, and recorded a video for his son's 'martyrdom operation', the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has said.

The London-based NGO said the child -- nicknamed Abu Amarah al-Omari -- blew himself up with a car bomb at al-Sakhur area.

In the video, Abu Amarah explains that he fled along with his family to Qabasin town in the countryside of Aleppo which is controlled by the Islamic State.

He said he joined the radical organisation when he was 14, and his father registered him in a "martyrdom operation".

The tape, whose authenticity was yet to be verified, shows Abu Amarah on the Dabeq hill in the northern countryside of Aleppo speaking to an IS member.

The video also features Abu Amarah's father agreeing to his son's words, and helping him get in the car and saying he was the one who taught him how to drive.

Finally, the video shows the moment when the boy blows himself up in a complex in the countryside of Aleppo.

At least 350 of 1,800 children recruited by the IS in Syria in 2015 were killed, according to SOHR.

The NGO said 48 of whom were killed in suicide attacks by using explosive belts or car bombs.
Kolkata, Feb 21 : Twenty one Youth Congress activists were arrested here on Sunday as they gathered to stage a black flag demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi - on a brief visit to the city - in protest against the Jawaharlal Nehru University row.

"The activists had gathered on Strand Road close to the programme venue Netaji Indoor stadium. However, they were arrested before the prime minister's convoy passed the area," said a police officer.

The 21 arrested youth Congress workers were released after some time.

Modi had visited the city for a couple of hours in the evening to attend the inaugural function of the Sri Gaudiya Math & Mission's centenary celebration.
New Delhi, Feb 22 : Umar Khalid, one of the six students accused of raising anti-national slogans at the JNU on February 9, late on Sunday said he was "not a terrorist", adding the BJP government "needed an excuse to target the campus".

"My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist," Khalid, who fled the campus after the matter became serious, said, condemning the media trial that branded him a terrorist.

"The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us," Khalid said, addressing students in front of the admin bloc at the campus.

Khalid, along with four other accused, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga, Anirban Bhattacharya, returned back to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus late on Sunday.

"The media, all this while, presented a lot of things about me. The media trial, this propaganda... I know what my family is going through," he said.

He also refuted the media reports that he made 800 calls to 'Gulf or Kashmir' a few days before the program was organised.

JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges after some students organised a meet to mark the anniversaries of executions of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were raised at the gathering.
New home building in Scotland has increased by 15% in the last 12 months, a rise of 3,000 new properties compared with the previous year, official figures show.

However, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart has warned that a No Deal Brexit could have a damaging effect on future growth.

It is the sixth consecutive annual increase in the total housing supply, the highest annual figure since 2008/2009, and for the first time since 1980, local authority housing stock has also increased.

We want to ensure everyone has a warm affordable home and these figures show we are on target to reach delivering 50,000 affordable homes by 2021. However, I am deeply concerned that all our good work towards increasing Scotlands housing supply could be significantly undermined by a No Deal Brexit, said Stewart.

Private house builders are particularly vulnerable to the implications of Brexit. Construction material imports to the United Kingdom from European Union member states accounted for more than 60% of the total value of construction material imports to the United Kingdom in 2018, he pointed out.

In addition, more than 7,000 EU nationals were employed in the Scottish construction sector in 2017. A No Deal Brexit poses significant risks to builders supply chains and the construction workforce in Scotland. Housing is yet another example of the deep damage that could be done to Scotland by a No Deal Brexit, he added.
February brought great news to Romanian expats worldwide: first, the international calling rates to Romania dropped from 1.5 /min to 1.2/min for landlines and from 3.9 /min to 2.9 /min for mobiles in Romania. The new rates will allow them to call more often and talk more to their families and friends back home in Romania. Sharing love may be one of the topics, because Romanians will soon celebrate Dragobete, Romanian version of Valentines Day, on February 24.

In order to celebrate Dragobete day, SunaRomania.com invites its customers on their Facebook page to join a contest. Romanians say that one never forgets their first love, and thats why SunaRomania.com invites them to go back in time and remember their first love. Was it a kindergarten colleague they used to share their sandwich with? Or a school colleague they used to tease every day? The contest starts on February 22 and ends on Dragobete. The winner of the contest will receive $10 free Voice credit to call Romania.

The Voice Credit service SunaRomania.com offers is intuitive and easy to use. Calls can be placed:



From any landline, mobile or even payphone in the world, through local or toll free access numbers.

Through the app called KeepCalling, which is free to download.

From any PC with Internet connection, through the Web Call app available in customers accounts.

SunaRomania.coms mission is to bring Romanians closer together, no matter where they live. Another service the website offers, besides Voice Credit, is international mobile recharge, allowing customers to top up mobiles in Romania. Orange, Vodafone, and Telekom operators are available.

Customers can also use the Virtual Number service, a monthly subscription allowing all Romanian expats living abroad to feel closer to home and receive calls from Romania on their own phone for only $9.99/month.

So, SunaRomania.com offers its customers various services they can use to stay connected to all the great people they left back in Romania and whom they still miss: I found out about SunaRomania.com from a friend about 7-8 years ago and never used a single calling card to call home since! I rarely have any dropped calls or problems with the connection. Great experience all around. Plus, the fact that my parents can call me anytime on my cell and they pay only a local rate gives me and them great peace of mind that they can always reach me quickly in case of an emergency. [...] - SunaRomania.com customer, on Trustpilot.com.

About SunaRomania.com

SunaRomania.com is an interactive website designed by KeepCalling, a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in USA. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers and businesses, with a focus on customer satisfaction. KeepCalling has been listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. In 2015 the company registered a revenue increase of over 200% from 2011 to 2014.
In an effort to address the stigma of epilepsy and educate Veterans, their caregivers and the general public about living with epilepsy, the Epilepsy Centers of Excellence (ECoE), in partnership with the VHA Employee Education System, have developed a video series titled Veterans and Epilepsy: Basic Training. Each video in the series features a Veteran sharing his or her personal experiences and unique challenges balancing the medical, personal and social aspects associated with having recurring seizures. The goal of the video series is to promote public awareness of the impact of epilepsy in the lives of Veterans and to convey that these patients are able to live full, productive, successful lives.

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has been labeled the signature injury of the Global War on Terror. According to the Department of Defense, 333,169 U.S. military Servicemembers have been diagnosed with TBI since 2000, and the number is growing. In addition to symptoms such as memory problems, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), U.S. Servicemembers and Veterans with TBI are at greater risk for seizures and epilepsy. To meet the needs of these Veteran patients, VA created the ECoEs, located at 16 sites across the VA health care system and linked to from four regional centers. The ECoEs strive to ensure high-quality care to Veterans with epilepsy by providing clinical care, outreach, research, and education.

I think receiving a diagnosis of epilepsy is a very emotionally turbulent experience for most of my patients. It is true that they do get some relief from finally having an answer, but the word epilepsy has a great stigma attached to it explains Manu Hegde, MD, PhD, epilepsy specialist and neurologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

There is a culture of stoicism in the military, which prevents Veterans with epilepsy from reaching out to get more information about their epilepsy. Hopefully these videos will show Veterans and all individuals living with epilepsy they are not alone explains Stephanie Chen, epilepsy nurse practitioner with the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

The first video of the series, now available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/R5KIHBCNJhc), focuses on the diagnosis of epilepsy. Subsequent videos will be released every few months over the next year and include topics such as, epilepsy medications, social issues faced by individuals living with epilepsy, seizure first aid, and traumatic brain injury.

If you or someone you know is a Veteran with seizures interested in seeking services at one of the Epilepsy Centers of Excellence, please speak with your local primary care provider or neurologist. Your healthcare provider will be able to determine if you might benefit from the services provided by the ECoE and assist you with scheduling an appointment. For more information, please email ECoE(at)va(dot)gov or visit the VA epilepsy website at http://www.epilepsy.va.gov.
The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) will host Preventive Medicine 2016 (http://preventivemedicine2016.org), February 2427, for more than 700 medical professionals dedicated to disease prevention and public health. Organized around the theme The Power of Prevention, the meeting will feature lectures and discussions covering topics such as opioid abuse, diabetes prevention, the Flint water crisis, the Zika virus, emergency preparedness, and many more.

ACPMthe leading U.S.-based medical society of preventive medicine specialistswelcomes members of the media to attend sessions held ThursdaySaturday at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Va. Participation is free for all credentialed press; please visit the registration desk when arriving on-site. Key sessions for your consideration include:

Preventing Zika: Preventive Medicine and the Latest Emerging Disease (Thursday, 9:4510:30 a.m.)Speakers from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and AmeriCares will highlight basics of the Zika virus disease and discuss how preventive medicine specialists can highlight, for public health decision-makers, how Zika and it's rare complications make it different from other more endemic vector-borne viruses.

Development of the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (Thursday, 3:455:00 p.m.)Officials from the CDC will present a draft of the guideline designed for use by primary care providers, review the development process, and discuss how the recommendations can be used to address the epidemic of prescription opioid dependence and overdose in the U.S.

Preventing DiabetesMaking Clinic-to-Community Connections (Thursday, 5:156:30 p.m.)Stakeholders from the CDC, American Medical Association, Anthem Blue Cross, the YMCA, and Omada Health will discuss the challenges of enrolling the estimated 86 million adults with prediabetes in the U.S. in evidence-based lifestyle change programs, such as the National Diabetes Prevention Program.

The Flint Water Crisis (Friday, 8:009:00 a.m.)Mona Hanna-Attisha, Hurley Medical Center, will examine the factors that led to the contamination of drinking water in Flint, Mich., how the crisis could have been averted, and discuss potential individual and population health impacts.

Ebola Epidemic Response: Perspectives From Experience in Liberia (Friday, 12:001:00 p.m.)Representatives from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps will describe their recent deployment to Liberia in response to the Ebola crisis and discuss what the experience can teach us about domestic emergency preparedness.

Preventive Services Task Force Updates (Friday, 10:4511:45 a.m. / 12:001:00 p.m.)In separate sessions, representatives from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the CDC will describe how independently-developed clinical and community preventive service recommendations can be used to protect and improve the public's health, referencing recent updates for aspirin and statins use to prevent cardiovascular disease and screening protocols for autism, diabetes, and several types of cancer.

We are thrilled with the breadth of expertise that will gather for Preventive Medicine 2016, among both faculty and attendees, said Daniel S. Blumenthal, president of ACPM. As we face mounting challenges in public health, it is absolutely critical to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and be inspired by our colleagues to bring our very best to our work in preventive medicine.

Throughout the event, press may attend live sessions, follow social media conversations using the #PrevMed2016 tag, and access photos, updates, and key announcements through ACPMs media resources page. (http://www.acpm.org/?page=socialmedia&utm_source=news&utm_medium=release&utm_term=media&utm_content=social-media&utm_campaign=meeting)

ACPM will also host pre-conference activities early in the week for medical professionals to delve into issues critical to their professional practice and to the future of preventive medicine. These full-day activities for attendees include:

Building Community Health SymposiumLeaders representing a wide range of health, policy, and human resources sectors will convene on Tuesday to explore innovative new programs designed to encourage health and wellness at the community level. A keynote address by Robin Schepper, Senior Adviser of the Bipartisan Policy Center, will be supported by presentations from Robert W. Carr, Rick Brush, and Tevi Troy covering business, culture, and policy perspectives, respectively. Press may attend this event. (http://www.acpm.org/?page=HealthyCommunities&utm_source=news&utm_medium=release&utm_term=hcprogram&utm_content=title&utm_campaign=meeting)

Health Systems Transformation Learning InstituteWith support from the CDC, ACPM is piloting a full-day workshop on Wednesday for physicians to learn about systems-based approaches to improving patient and public health that are designed to increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare. Participants will learn about team-based care, shared decision making, alternative payment models, health information technology, and more. This workshop is only open to meeting attendees.

Advocacy DayPhysicians will meet with more than 250 congressional offices on Wednesday, advocating for federal support of the nations preventive medicine residency training programs. Participants, including representatives from the YMCA, also plan to promote the continuation of Medicare coverage of the National Diabetes Prevention Program and the expansion of the National Violent Death Reporting System. Important updates from this activity will be shared through ACPMs social media channels.

Preventive Medicine 2016 has been designed using a cross-cutting lens to explore new ways to address our broad prevention and health outcomes mandate, said Charlene Brown, USAID and ACPM Conference Planning Chair. We will shine a spotlight on innovative, evidence-based work to find more sustainable and efficient solutions to address current and future health challenges and disparities.

The American College of Preventive Medicine is a professional society providing leadership in research, professional education, development of public policy, and enhancement of standards of preventive medicine for and on behalf of our physician members. Uniquely trained in both clinical medicine and public health, preventive medicine specialists are equipped to understand and reduce the risks of disease, disability, and death in individuals and in population groups. (http://www.acpm.org/?utm_source=news&utm_medium=release&utm_term=home&utm_content=acpm&utm_campaign=meeting)
ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL  In 2011, Executive Order 13583 was signed to encourage a coordinated government-wide effort to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce.

For many U.S. Army Sustainment Command personnel, the order is not just another policy initiative, it is an opportunity.

Maj. Gen. Kevin O'Connell, ASC commanding general, recently signed the "Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan," a new ASC initiative designed to further the command's efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

"We cannot fulfill our mission without the thousands of civilian employees who come to work every day and make the innovations, the improvements and the breakthroughs the U.S. Army needs," he said in a memo to the workforce. "Simply put, we need diversity and inclusion to maintain our competitive edge, and to keep our nation stronger and safer."

Gayla Pacheco, ASC equal employment opportunity chief, said she hopes the initiative will spark a more open, inclusive conversation about diversity that will foster camaraderie and increase morale.

"We want there to be a collaboration of all these different voices, and then you will have a better product, and hopefully raise morale," she said.

Ms. Pacheco, a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, said diversity is defined broadly in the plan.

"A lot of people maybe don't understand what diversity is, and so they think that it's something that doesn't include them," Ms. Pacheco said. She added she believes everyone has something that makes them diverse and individually valuable.

Ms. Pacheco also said the plan will help spread information about resources and increase the transparency and visibility of personnel programs. For example, she said, a new parent would be able to reference the plan to find resources relevant to his or her interests. They could also learn about wellness programs and other ASC initiatives intended to take care of and improve the workforce.

Patty Perrigo, human resources director, said the plan might help to inform employees about current ASC staffing goals and priorities. Perrigo is also a member of the committee.

"It's an important committee," she said. "It is important to have a command that is diverse, but you also want everyone to feel welcomed and to want to stay. That inclusion piece of it is important. We want to keep the good people we have."

The plan states three primary goals:

1. Workforce diversity: Recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society.

2. Workplace inclusion: Cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and further retention.

3. Sustainability: Develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.

The plan calls for three goal-specific working groups with diverse members from among the junior and mid-level leaders at ASC headquarters. It also calls for a committee of senior leaders who include the commanding general; Col. Lance Koenig, chief of staff; and Kathryn Szymanski, head of legal counsel.

The plan further calls for ASC's subordinate units to develop their own diversity and inclusion strategies.

The working groups meet every two to three weeks. They also periodically brief the committee about their ideas and progress.

"One of the great things about the working groups is they encourage us to freely share our thoughts," said Elysa Groepper, financial management specialist. "Some of the people in the working groups are just more open about their opinions, and I think that leads to more discussion."

Ms. Groepper, who is the inclusion working group team leader, said the working groups meet separately but that they work together regularly.

"I am impressed about how well we have worked together in the working group," she said. "The working group is great because it's somewhat diverse, has people from different grade levels, and when you are in the working group setting, your grade level doesn't seem to matter as much."

Ms. Groepper said she has been particularly happy with how open the committee has been to the working groups' ideas.

"The committee has been really receptive to the working group's ideas," she said. "The committee is comprised of higher-graded people, so having them be so receptive has been excellent."

Ms. Groepper said she hopes their work has a positive impact.

"It's going well, I have a great team. All of our team members have excellent ideas, and opinions and thoughts," she said. "I hope the work we are doing will improve upon the command's working environment."
Justice Antonin Scalias unexpected death brought to public awareness a remarkable friendship that bridged opposing ideologies. It also set in motion a divisive political struggle with respect to the ideological balance of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lets start with the friendship. Justice Scalia, one most conservative justices in recent years, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the most liberal, became very close friends, notwithstanding their differences on legal matters. Justice Scalia, who had a delightful sense of humor, once observed with respect to Justice Ginsburg, Whats not to like? Except her views on the law, of course.

Justice Scalia, Justice Ginsburg and their families went on vacations together. On a trip to Europe, Justice Ginsburg went parasailing, leaving Justice Scalia to worry that she might float away. On a trip to India, they rode an elephant together. Justice Ginsburg, a firm believer in gender equality, explained that the reason that she was sitting behind Justice Scalia was to distribute the weight more evenly.

In this era of great polarization and bitter partisanship, it is refreshing to hear about two prominent people on different ends of the ideological spectrum having the ability to be close friends. That is a worthy example for a nation torn by dissension.

And indeed, the polarization and dissension that are tearing the fabric of our nation apart have intensified in the days that have passed since Justice Scalias untimely death.

President Obama has announced that he intends to make good on his constitutional responsibility to nominate a new Supreme Court justice to replace Justice Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced that he intends to block consideration of any appointment that President Obama might make, believing that filling the position should be left to the next president (who, he hopes, will be a Republican.)

How President Obama plays his cards will, in substantial measure, determine what the outcome of this controversy will be. In a thoughtful piece by Harry Enten entitled Obama Wont Be Able to Replace Scalia with a Justice as Liberal as Sotomayer that ran on Nate Silvers website FiveThirtyEight, Mr. Enten argues that President Obamas only chance of getting a nominee approved by the Republican-controlled Senate is to submit the name of a highly-qualified moderate. He is right about that.

Who might that person be? Three names stand out. Topping the list of many court observers is Sri Srinivasan, who is on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Nominated by President Obama in 2012, the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 97-0. Among those voting for him were Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Another name on the list of many court observers is Jane Kelly, who sits on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sen.Charles Grassley of Iowa, a Republican who now chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, actively supported her nomination. She was confirmed 96-0 in April 2013.

Another name that is mentioned is Merrick Garland, chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is viewed as a moderate.

Just as President Obama would overplay his hand by nominating a liberal comparable to Sonia Sotomayor, Senate Republicans would overplay their hand by blocking anyone President Obama might nominate. It could come back to haunt them.

If Hillary Clinton is elected president and Republicans lose control of the Senate (both of which are within the realm of the possible,) the stage would be set for the nomination of a liberal justice who would significantly alter the ideological balance of the Court.

But that is down the road (if indeed, the road leads in that direction.) For now, let us honor the memory of a distinguished justice who strongly defended the U.S. Constitution. And let us all be inspired by the deep and abiding friendship of Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg. Being able to be friends while disagreeing is a skill that we all ought to strive to develop.
Drew Chapman is the CD for Grant Broadcasters River 949 in South East Queensland.

Radio Todays Mark Hales chatted to Drew to find out his background. Where he got his break into radio and what happened to Drew with Fifi Box in New Zealand?

Ten Questions answered with Drew Chapman

As a bit of background, what stations have you worked at during your career and in what roles?

I started at Mix and Sea FM Sunshine Coast while in high school in 1996 doing work experience/casual shifts/crosses etc. In 1999 I got my first full time gig as MD and Drive Announcer at the brand new Sea FM Townsville.September 2000 I moved to Triple M Sydney to do network mid dawns, which led to becoming PD of weekends and floating across the station.

In January 2002, I moved up the road from 2MMM to 4MMM to take up role as breakfast anchor for the Homegrown breakfast show. This role later grew into becoming producer of the show. By 2005 I moved into a day shift and became APD for Triple M.

In 2007 it was back to 2MMM to anchor the Shebang for Breakfast with Marty and Fifi. In 2008 my role was Operations Manager/Mornings Announcer at 2MMM. Then in 2009 (because I hadnt been up and down the Pacific Highway enough!) I moved back into Workday announcer/APD at 4MMM. In late 2010, I became PD of Mix 106.3/104.7 in Canberra, where I spent the next 3 years. Since November 2013, I have been PD of River 949.

What got you into radio?

When I was 15, I used to LOVE listening to 92.7 Mix FM at night (when Mike Nicholls was doing the Hot 20) and I used to call up and request songs, win dodgy Kulcha CDs, and in my squeaky teenage voice I would do IDs over the phone.

I sent Mike a letter asking if I could do a station visit, he got straight back to me, and I was in there by the end of the week. Even though I was the quietest kid at school, I HAD to work in radio (mainly because I would no longer have to pay for Breaka milk). From here, I rode my bike 15 kms each way from Maroochydore to Nambour a few times per week just so I could spend as much time at the station as possible. Highlight during this period was winning Big Macs for my entire class thanks to Mix FM (all of a sudden I became very popular)

Any jobs before radio?

From the age of 12 to 17 I had a 600 house pamphlet run 3 times a week and I worked 2 afternoons a week at a Fruit and Veg market in Buderim on the Coast.

What is the best lesson youve learnt during your career?

Many lessons have been and continue to be learnt, but the one that springs to mind first is listen more than you talk. As tempting as it is to arrive at a station and change the world on the first day, I found that its very important to spend time listening to the station and to its people. These people have been at this station for longer than me, they know the station and can offer insights into the market. No 2 markets are the same, so one bag of tricks wont work everywhere.

Describe a day in the life of Drew Chapman?

My day starts at 5.30am by tuning into the breakfast show. Even though we meet every day post show, the first part of my day is spent making sure were across what we need to be across.

Before 9am, while monitoring, I do the workday formguide, all writing (Promos, imaging, etc), rosters/reports etc done, so i can focus on breakfast/jocks/tactics/music during the day.

I meet with breakfast after 9am for between 30 and 60 minutes, where the main focus is on whats coming up.

From there, every day differs with exec meetings, airchecks with the workday guys, sales meetings, product meetings, etc.

I work very closely with River MD (and former Radio Today editor) Mark Hales (we share an office, which Im pretty sure he doesnt enjoy as much as I do).

We spend a LOT of time on how we can make the station sound better every day.

Around 3 months of the year are spent on air (covering for holidays) and I jump on a weekend shift most weekends, as I think this is really important as part of the role.

Who are the radio people and radio stations you enjoy listening to away from work?

To be honest, I can only pick up one radio station where I live (which is the station I work at  the transmitter is about 2 kms from the house!)

When Im driving though, i spend time listening to most of the Brisbane stations, and streaming stations from overseas.

What is your most embarrassing radio moment?

Theres a few! Most from the early days, but there was one in 2007 when I was anchoring the Shebang in Sydney. We all went to Queenstown, New Zealand for a week. There was a lot of talk about going bungee jumping, which I was DESPERATE to avoid.

Fifi was also keen to avoid it, so I thought as long as Fifi didnt do it, I might get out of it. Then, that night Fifi decided to bungee jump in the dark, so I had no way out. The next day it happened. I was deadset on that platform for at least 30 minutes, freaking out and thinking about which rock I was going to smash my head on before we finally let go (It was a tandem jump with one of the shows producers)

Id never been so happy to get into that boat below, until I walked back up to the office, where all the staff members were laughing HYSTERICALLY at our video. I asked them what was so funny, so they went back to the start and played it again.

My first instinct when falling was to flap like a bird..WHY?? I dont know, but holy shit I looked stupid. When I was done flapping like a bird, the angle of the video looked like I was groping the producers chest, which I honestly wasnt! But geez did I cop some grief on the show for weeks after the jump.

Whats the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is working with like-minded people who also want River to sound the best it can, and make it different every day.

I love trying different things all the time, as I think a lot of stations have become too structured. Example  we did a Back to the Future day last year (To coincide with the date that they travelled to in the 2nd movie  October 21st 2015)

We discussed all sorts of options including sprinkling some songs from 1985 into the day. But why couldnt we go all out and make a MASSIVE day out of it? From 5am till 6pm, we only played songs from 1985, and we literally took our listeners back there with news, sport, and even traffic updates from 1985. Its great to have that kind of flexibility. The feedback from listeners was incredible.

(Complete this sentence). in 5 years from now I will be

In VegasI actually will be, because Im having my 40th birthday over there.

The future of radio is.

Its been happening for decades I know, but I believe the future of radio is LIVE and LOCAL. Theres only a handful of stations like ours left, one thing online radio wont be able to do is connect locally.

(bonus question) What do you like doing in your spare time?

I live on a 100 acre farm, so the spare time is generally taken up with using some kind of machinery. A mower, tractor, whipper snipper or a quad bike. My fun spare time hobby though is taking photos of storms. Ill drive hundreds of ks just trying to get photos of lightning (I often wonder why too)
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The Killid Group, February 17, 2016

By lalaqa-shirin

More than 60,000 people travel out of the country for medical treatment every year spending some 3 million USD.

At the inauguration of an emergency ward in Jamhoriat Hospital, Kabul, Minister of Public Health Ferozuddin Feroz admitted people were suspicious of the quality of health care available in the country. He said 70 percent of CT scans and MRIs in government and non-governmental facilities were unreliable.

A rough calculation of expenditure in the health sector reveals that the government pays barely 6 percent of the cost of peoples treatment. While 21 percent is from international aid, patients pay the remaining 73 percent.

There are all kinds of reasons why people go abroad for treatment. Take Shrullah from Nangarhar province who has taken his father for treatment to Pakistan. He says doctors had correctly diagnosed his fathers condition in Nangarhar but the medicines that were available in Afghanistan were not effective. Doctors told me the medicines imported by Afghanistan were of poor quality, and the same drug bought in Pakistan would make my father feel well, he says.

Dr Haidar Niazai at the pharmacy faculty in Kabul University says provinces on the border like Nangarhar are the worst affected by spurious drugs. Smuggling in expired medicines is rampant along the porous borders. Doctors in remote areas, where there are no checks, are involved in supplying patients with expired and poor quality medicines, according to Dr Niazai. They earn a lot of money because people dont know that the doctor cheated them and sealed poor quality medicines in plastic bags, he says.

He urges the government to set up a laboratory for drug testing. Minister Feroz has promised to make it a priority. In fact, the minister has promised to reform the health sector. He is strongly disapproving of foreign assistance for health care. The money goes mainly in paying the salaries of expatriate advisors, he avers.

He is also hoping to sign a memorandum of understanding with his Pakistani counterpart on the quality of drugs being exported to Afghanistan. There are an estimated 300 pharmaceuticals companies selling in Afghanistan.

A look at the situation in some provinces.

Khost

The district of Zazi Maidan in Khost province is on the border with Pakistan. While there are no complaints about the security situation, people suffer from lack of access to health facilities. There is only one small clinic, which cannot meet anything but basic needs, and patients have to be taken across the border to hospitals in Parschenar and Korma in Pakistan. People in the district complain there has been no improvement in health care in the last 14 years.

Padshamir, a tribal leader in the district, says the provincial government has not kept the promise to build a 50-bed hospital in the district. According to him, people who go to Pakistan face numerous problems. The local police bother us without any reason, he says. Any pretext is enough to harass us, and we are tired of the situation, he adds.

Akbar, a village headman in the district, says there isnt a single female doctor.

Paktia

Health centres are few and far between in the province. People told Killid reporter Esmail Larwai that there are not enough female community health workers. The province has only four female doctors and 40 midwives.

People in Ahmad Abad and Zurmat districts remember three cases of women dying in child birth because there were no mid-wives in health centres. They would have lived had there been midwives, says Gulab Khan from Zurmat district. He believes many midwives may be registered but they do not attend to their duties.

Meanwhile, Ahmadullah from Ahmad Abad district says female health workers are an absolute necessity in health centres.

Bamyan

Midwives are present at the time of delivery nearly everywhere in the province, says Killid reporter Mohammad Eshaq Akrami. Aziza Ahmadi, acting director in the womens affairs directorate says the districts of Saighan, Kahmard, Waras and Charborj of Yakawlang are covered. There are 99 health centers in Bamyan, one provincial hospital and three district hospitals. However, there are no female doctors attending many of the health centres.

Ghazni

Mohammad Aref Noori, Killid reporter, says people in the province have many complaints against doctors in public hospitals. Take Gulab Khan from Waghaz district. He says he took his ill brother to Ghazni provincial hospital but had to wait for more than one month for a surgery. Hasanullah from Qarabagh district says that his son was bitten by a rabid dog. When he rushed him to the government hospital, doctors kept him waiting for many hours and he was forced to go to a private hospital for anti-rabies treatment.

Hospital authorities in Ghazni and other districts reject these complaints and say the staff are doing their best under very trying circumstances.

Abdul Qader Akhundzada, formerly a lecturer in the medical faculty of Nangarhar University says there is a crisis in health care; there is a shortage of staff and equipment while accessibility is an issue in remote areas. People die of treatable illnesses like tuberculosis, asthma and pneumonia, he says. Polio has not been eradicated and stress is also a killer.
IWPR, February 21, 2016

By Ezatullah Niazi

Women in the eastern province of Nangarhar are increasingly falling victim to summary justice procedures, according to speakers at an IWPR-organised debate in provincial capital Jalalabad.

The event heard that tribal courts operating in the province, particularly in more remote areas, often meted out brutal punishments to vulnerable women, including stoning, mutilation, beating and forced marriage.



Woman being lashed in public in Ghor province for adultery. A local court passed the sentence in accordance with the Sharia law and the police took measures to safeguard the event. Woman being lashed in public in Ghor province for adultery. A local court passed the sentence in accordance with the Sharia law and the police took measures to safeguard the event.

Although substantial progress had been made in the field of womens rights since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, speakers warned that these achievements were now at risk.

Hashima Sharif, head of the womens rights section of the regional office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said that corruption in the provincial justice system meant that abuses routinely went unpunished.

She highlighted one case in which she said a woman from a village in Nangarhar had been sold into marriage with seven different men, giving birth to a child with each marriage. Eventually the woman, along with her seven children, was sent back to her first husband.

In another incident in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar, Sharif said, A woman was sentenced to hard labour, due to the crime of giving birth to five girls.

Abdul Mohammad, head of the human rights section of Nangarhar police, acknowledged that such mistreatment of women, including forced marriage, was a problem in the province.

Mohammad recalled an incident in which local police had to intervene after a man chained his wife up for six months to punish her.

He added, I can confirm that in the past, in some areas in Nangarhar, women were sold from one man to another up to four or five times. However, women are no longer sold in this way.

Mohammad also accepted that complaints of gender violence had risen, but argued that this was a reflection that women now had better access to justice and felt more confident about coming forward to the police.

Nangarhar appeal court judge Abdul Aziz Niazai said that it was a fundemantal lack of awareness of womens rights that led to the use of summary justice.

Every man that is ignorant of womens rights commits violence against women, he said.

This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.

Originally published on Feb. 13, 2016
realclearworld Newsletters: Europe Memo

It's not an urgent drama unfolding in Spain -- at least not one with enough theatrical immediacy to lead Continent-wide headlines amid the circus of crises daily parading before European eyes.

But while the process is slow in the quotidian, the weeks since Spain's election have confirmed that the country has left its former political landscape -- and neither its leaders nor its populace yet understand the nature of the ground on which they now stand. Spaniards in the post-Franco era had maintained decades of a bipolar political order, with the center-left Socialists, or PSOE, and the center-right Popular Party, or PP, alternating power in an arrangement that has overlain a veneer of stability on a country historically riven by dissembling forces.

That ended with Spain's election in December, as two insurgent parties, Podemos and Ciudadanos, joined the PSOE and PP at the top of voter preferences, with those four parties garnering between 13 percent and 28.7 percent of votes, and none of them having a clear path to government.

The drama is set to peak at the beginning of March, when deputies are supposed to vote on the investiture of the next prime minister. (Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez is currently trying to assemble a governing coalition.) This week, Europe Memo caught up with Sebastian Balfour, emeritus professor of contemporary Spanish studies at the London School of Economics, to check in on what's been going on with Spain -- and what it means for Europe at large.

RCW: What's remarkable right now is watching the two-level sparring match going on. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and PSOE leader Sanchez, the representatives of the mainstream parties, are struggling for supremacy, while at the same time trying to figure out how to deal with the increased influence of former political outsiders. Can PP and PSOE find a way to thread the needle and govern together?

Balfour: The elections of 20 December 2015 has spelt, for the time being, the end of the two-party system that dominated Spanish politics since the consolidation of its democracy. The central feature of this new landscape is the emergence of two new parties of the left and center-right, Podemos and Ciudadanos, which challenge the political culture of the established parties. In fact, it is the legitimacy of the political system which is under question after seven years of economic crisis, austerity, and unemployment, and the unravelling of the corruption and clientelism at its heart (in particular within the Popular Party). The contest turned out to be a four-horse race without a clear winner. The new parliamentary arithmetic represents a conundrum. On the basis of electoral programs and statements since the election, no party seems likely to be able to put together a coalition with an absolute majority of 176 seats and above, in a parliament of 350 seats, or even a minority government based on the abstention of other parties.

Following constitutional protocol, the King invited the PP, the party with the most votes, to attempt to form a government. Its leader Rajoy declined, presumably on the grounds that he had little chance of gaining support from other parties. The King then turned to the second most voted party, the PSOE, whose leader Sanchez is negotiating with other parties at this moment. Both PSOE and PP have categorically ruled out a joint coalition. But the numbers simply do not add up either for a left coalition of PSOE and Podemos or a center-left/center-right coalition of PSOE and Ciudadanos. A rainbow coalition of all three is unlikely given their radical policy differences. A key issue is the question of separatism. Podemos supports the right of Catalans and Basques to hold a referendum on independence, but neither PSOE nor Ciudadanos will countenance this policy, with the result that the regional nationalist vote has been sidelined, making the achievement of a majority coalition even more problematic. For its part, Ciudadanos is unlikely to want to be tainted by supporting a new, unreformed government of the PP.

RCW: What is Sanchez's clearest path toward a coalition? Is there one? Under what circumstances might PSOE open to Podemos? To the separatist parties?

Balfour: There is no clear path. It is more of a labyrinth. All bets are off. There might even be radical internal changes of personnel within the two main parties. Within the PP in particular, in an effort to present a new face. Sanchez has so far weathered dissensions within his party, but they continue to lurk. The least unlikely outcome is a minority government of PSOE and Ciudadanos with the abstention of either PP or Podemos after policy concessions made to one or the other, none of which are likely to involve the right of self-determination.

RCW: Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias is now demanding a key Cabinet post as part of any deal to join a coalition, which is an interesting change. What, to you, explains that aggressive stance, seeing as he'd previously insisted he would stay out of such a post?

Balfour: All four parties are keen to demonstrate statesmanship, a willingness to solve the conundrum (after Rajoy's initial passivity). Podemos' stance is probably driven by tactical considerations rather than any confidence Iglesias' offer will be accepted. Podemos' participation in a coalition government is likely to undermine its legitimacy over the long run.

RCW: How long is this going to take to shake out? What are the chances we're gonna see another round of elections? And if we do, what is your feel for how those will play out? Who wins, who loses?

Balfour: If PSOE is unable to cobble together a government, the King could continue to ask other parties to try. It is possible that the PP will accept another invitation to form a government. It would probably suit parties such as the PP and Podemos to have a new round of elections -- but not the PSOE, which would lose support. This is what the polls are suggesting. However, they are also suggesting that the results of new elections won't be substantially different from those of December 20, and that the same painful and uncertain process of bargaining would begin anew.

RCW: Are PP, PSOE, approaching a similar decline to the mainstream parties in Greece?

Balfour: I believe the decline of the PP and the PSOE is part of a much wider process of delegitimization of established parties throughout Europe. The difficulties faced by both conservative and social-democrat governments in dealing with the economic and social problems arising from the 2007-2008 crisis have encouraged the emergence or resurgence of parties of the populist left, but above all the populist right, in opposition to the dominant neoliberal orthodoxy. The difference in Spain is that PP controls the right, while Podemos is able to channel social and political grievances into a new and effective challenge to the status quo.

Read more on this:

New Players, Old Tensions Reconfigure Spain's Politics - Omar Encarnacion, World Politics Review

Spain's Own Game of Thrones - Miguel-Anxo Murado, Guardian

Europe's Political Center Cannot Hold - Geoffrey Wheatcroft, National Interest

Feedback

Questions, comments, contributions? Feel free to send us an email, or reach out on Twitter @joelweickgenant.

And be sure to check for all of the latest news and analysis on Europe at RealClearWorld.com.
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By David Benda of the Redding Record Searchlight

Uber has arrived in Redding.

At least four drivers have signed up to work for the transport service that has taken off in other parts of the country.

Angela Overstreet said a friend told her about Uber, that she had used it in San Francisco and it was "absolutely incredible." So Overstreet researched the company.

"When I realized it was here, I figured it would be a nice way to make a little extra cash, so I thought I am going to sign up," Overstreet said.

Uber is a ride service that is headquartered in San Francisco, but has a presence across the country. Riders tap the app on their smartphone and the driver comes to that location. The app tracks the distance of the ride and charges the fare to the customer's credit card. Uber does not accept cash.

Drivers notify Uber that they are available by signing on. So they can work their own schedule.

David Wylie is an Uber driver in Redding who also drives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is an administrator for a doctor. Wylie said he gets more Uber business in the Bay Area.

"I think people don't know it is here yet," Wylie said.

Overstreet, who works full time as an operations assistant for a contracting firm in Redding, agreed. But she does think the demand is there.

"You have a lot of people in Redding, who don't drive, that would drop five bucks to be taken a few miles down the road," Overstreet said.

Uber, though, has had its share of controversy.

The Associated Press reported last week that Uber agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle two lawsuits that state the company misled customers about its safety procedures and fees.

The lawsuits criticized Uber for charging a fee of up to $2.30 per trip for what it called industry-leading background checks on drivers signing up for the service.

Diana Symons, an Uber driver in Redding, said the company has an agreement with Jiffy Lube to inspect vehicles to deem them service-worthy. Drivers also can take their checklist and vehicle to a mechanic.

Symons said she initially had concerns about safety.

"What settled it for me is you have to sign up with the program, so Uber knows who you are and how to contact you," said Symons, a student at Bethel's School of Ministry. She said riders have to use a credit card, so those can be traced.

Uber doesn't do the kind of fingerprint checks that are required of taxi cabdrivers, said Greg Murphy, president of Redding Taxi Cab Leasing Inc., which operates Redding Yellow Cab. Murphy said he is the oldest cab company in Redding.

"It's hard for me to grasp that we are allowing a vehicle for hire, under the definition, to go out there and not comply with any of the city codes. It's just unfathomable for all of us," Murphy said.

Some U.S. cities have implemented rules for Uber and other ride-hailing companies, like Lyft.

Earlier this month, Burlington, Vermont, approved rules that require all transportation firms to conduct driver background checks through the city or an accredited third party, the Burlington Free Press reported. A vehicle-for-hire enforcement position also was created.

In California, Uber is regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. Cab companies fall under the jurisdiction of the city in which they do business.

Taxi cab companies doing business in Redding have their vehicles inspected by the city and the drivers are background checked and fingerprinted through the police department, said Teresa Rudolph, Redding's assistant city clerk.

"We don't regulate Uber vehicles like we do taxi cab companies'," Rudolph said.

Background checks and things like assuring the drivers are properly insured are a coordinated effort between the CPUC and Uber.

Uber drivers in Redding also don't need to have a business license, unless they gross more than $1,250 per quarter, at which point they would be considered an independent contractor and need a license, Rudolph said.

Murphy believes the time will come when he and other cab companies take their complaints to the city.

"I think that's inevitable," he said. "Competitors generally don't associate. ... I can't help but think since we are all pushed into the same boat, that we are not all going to be involved in definitely approaching the city."
SHARE Carson Nathaniel Cook Date of birth: June 29, 1983 Vitals: 5 feet, 11 inches; 155 pounds; brown hair, blue eyes Charge: Burglary Elizabeth Ann Gerber Date of birth: May 31, 1973 Vitals: 5 feet, 3 inches; 150 pounds; blond hair, blue eyes Charge: Revocation of probation Ronald Anthony Hood Date of birth: Sept. 26, 1962 Vitals: 5 feet, 11 inches; 175 pounds; brown hair, blue eyes Charge: Possession of ammunition Michael Patrick Guthrie Date of birth: April 30, 1959 Vitals: 5 feet, 9 inches; 185 pounds; brown hair, blue eyes Charge: Spousal abuse

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.

As of Friday, a total of 553 arrests have been made through the Most Wanted program since it began September 2013.

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.
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By Amber Sandhu of the Redding Record Searchlight

Kids Kingdom in Redding is getting a much-needed makeover, and plans already are in motion for its construction and fundraising efforts.

The playground, located in Enterprise Community Park, was built in 1992 with community support. But now more than 23 years later, the large timber playground is rotting and the structure is failing, said Kim Niemer, city community services director.

"It's time to come up with a replacement," she said.

The new plan is more than just a makeover to improve on the existing structures. By working with various stakeholders within the community, Niemer said the new playground will accommodate children with physical disabilities to allow for "inclusive play" and engage children physically and socially.

Niemer said the plan for such a playground has been on her mind for some time, and the city needs it.

"We're more aware that a growing percentage of the population is on the autism spectrum," she said.

She added that while most of the city playgrounds are compliant with the American Disabilities Act, they don't necessarily allow for "accessible play" for a child who uses a wheelchair.

Laura Larson, executive director of Far Northern Regional Center, which provides services to developmentally disabled adults of all ages, has served on the park's planning committee where she and members of her staff have provided their area of expertise on design and planning.

Larson said inclusion is the most important aspect of playtime for children whether they are disabled or able-bodied. "You don't want children to be left behind," she said.

And with the park prioritizing the physical, sensory, social, cognitive and communicative development of the child, Larson said more kids will be able to enjoy the park.

"It's a good thing for the community of Redding," she said. "The old park is aging and it needs to be addressed."

The city has already secured a grant worth $150,000, and additional costs for the park will be paid through fundraising with various partners.

Christina Fox, 30, a special-needs advocate and mother of a 6-year-old boy with autism, submitted her own plan to the city of an "all inclusive Kids Kingdom" to the city as well. Fox said she's seen other cities like San Francisco and Arcata build parks for children with disabilities, but so far Redding is still lacking.

Fox said she instead takes her son to smaller parks for play time since the larger parks don't have gates and lack play activities that address development.

"It needs to happen. Our children are begging for it," she said. "It's for the children, it's all positive and I hope the city will see it as something positive."
Ellis Goad of Redding feeds cats Thursday at the entrance to Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

SHARE Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight A woman walks along the Sacramento River Trail Tuesday near a cat feeding station near the Diestelhorst Bridge. A cat eats Friday at a feeding station at the entrance to Turtle Bay Exploration Park. Ellis Goad of Redding feeds cats Thursday at the entrance to Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Then as now, Ellis Goad has been in the eye of the contentious and emotional debate over feral cats.

For eight years, the 71-year-old retired microbiologist has been the protector of three cat colonies at and near Turtle Bay Exploration Park, much to the chagrin of bird lovers and conservationists.

They decry the loss of wildlife by feline predation. Goad said he's stopped arguing the point and instead calls their attention to the shrinking size of the colonies. Where once there were up to 200 cats at Turtle Bay, there are now 14. The last litter of kittens was born there eight years ago, the result of the trap-neuter-release approach he's been applying, he said.

"You have to follow the evidence or you are not doing the science," he said. "A lot of people want to exterminate the cats. You don't have to do that. That doesn't work anyway in a place like this. Nature will take care of that for you."

Nonetheless, cat and bird proponents alike will come to the table on Tuesday for an information meeting convened by Kim Niemer, Redding's community services director. Niemer has invited Haven Humane Society's chief executive officer Mark Storrey to talk to the group about how to properly feed and control the feral cat population.

The conversation was called after the Wintu Audubon Society protested Goad moving a feeding station to the Turtle Bay entrance. Goad asked permission for relocation after volunteers led by Randy Smith cleared out the brush at Riverfront Park. The new site now has a raised platform to prevent skunks from getting to the food.

Battle lines are drawn.

"A mountain lion is not cute (to a human). Neither is a cat if you are a chickadee or you're a thrush or you're any of several varieties of native birds looking at that," Smith said. The longtime leader of the community cleanups along the Sacramento River motioned to two gray cats hiding under dry blackberry bushes on a recent sunny afternoon near the Diestelhorst Bridge. "That's not a beautiful thing, that little sanctuary. That's horrible."

Goad, who did not become a cat owner until he was 48, estimates he has spent more than $67,000 of his money on gas, food and veterinary bills in the past eight years. He can't turn his back on the cats and argues that those he feeds peacefully coexist with birds and other small species.

"Look at the little birds hopping around in the branches," he said on Thursday, pointing to an area near the raised platform where six portly-looking cats are fed. "The cats pay no attention to the birds and the birds pay no attention to the cats."

Among guests at the meeting will be representatives of the Wintu Audubon Society and Turtle Bay and residents that parks maintenance staff has gotten to know because they are feeding cats on public lands.

Smith, a retired physician, plans to attend to voice his concerns about the growing number of feeding stations, trash  sometimes 50-pound cat food bags  and the waste he finds.

"These places are in Caldwell Park. They're in Lake Redding. They're on the riverfront. They're in Henderson Open Space. They're here," he said. "I have been to places where there are hundreds of cat food cans. When the cats are done, the cans are there forever. They're aluminum. Who's going to pick them up?"

The city has an ordinance to address the maintenance of cats and dogs in parks and open spaces, which Smith has been asking officials to enforce.

But its language is too vague to say it directly applies to cat feeding, City Attorney Barry DeWalt said. In his 13 years with the city, he has never seen the rule applied in either a criminal or administrative process, he said.

Smith expressed disappointment in what he said is the city's unwillingness to take decisive action.

Turtle Bay President and CEO Mike Warren wants to see trapping, fixing and releasing continue at the park. The animals don't have to be put down, and to date, the park has not had to pay anything, he said.

Warren is mindful of the environmental concerns being raised by conservationists like Smith. "But where I go is, what happens if we don't do anything and Ellis is not there and there is no one there to capture the cats and get them fixed?" he said. "This is a case of, 'Be careful what you ask for.'"

A year ago, Niemer held a meeting with Haven to discuss the number of cats living in parks as well as litter left behind.

Storrey was unavailable for comment Friday, but Niemer said from that meeting, the city decided to follow in Goad's footsteps by trapping and spaying the female cats.

"We have been really impressed with the results. The cat population has been reduced by half," she said, though she offered no numbers.

Haven has been working closely with a University of California, Davis expert on the feral cat management.

Similarly, Niemer has been reading a study paper from Michigan State University on public policy related to the issue. The sterilize-and-release approach has gained wider public approval as a humane way to lower the feral cat population.

In parts of the country it has led to a decrease in cat complaints, euthanasia and shelter operating costs, the reduction in the number of cats in the wild and control of rodents, the study said. But not everyone succeeds. The practice failed in a Florida park because it encouraged cat dumping.

In Redding, where there are vast open spaces, that's worrisome for songbird lovers.

Chad Scott, president of the Wintu Audubon Society, said members doing their walks see fewer birds wherever there are feeding stations, and just because Goad may be doing his part to control feral cat numbers, there's no way to guarantee everyone is doing the same citywide.

"Well-fed cats are able to produce a healthy litter. By feeding the cats, we are only enlarging and expanding the population," Scott said. "There are birds we expect to see on our walks, like the California quail that we don't see anywhere near those feeding stations."

In 2013, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic cats in the country killed a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals each year.

Smith thought it only right to fit cats with collars that have bells to warn songbirds and native mammals like chipmunks and squirrels. He suggested people who let their cats outdoors walk them with leashes.

During a visit last Tuesday to a segment of the Sacramento River Trail at Diestelhorst, he pointed to cat food left on three large tiles and two water bowls. He lamented the sight, saying it spoils what should be the main attractions, a restored riparian savanna and a pristine river.

Goad said the relocation of his feeding station has allowed him to educate the public on the importance of responsible pet ownership and cat spaying or neutering.

"You don't have to neuter the males if all the females are spayed. The males act as if they have been neutered because there is nothing for them to get all excited and crazy about. They've got food and there is no sex involved, so they behave themselves," he said. "If one gets territorial and causes a problem, we neuter him too."

Two years ago, he picked up an older black cat abandoned in the Turtle Bay parking lot.

About that same time, Goad began to take care of a colony of 18 cats at Caldwell Park. He took them to the vet and had them fixed. The area has it dangers. There are coyotes and busy streets. Today six cats are left. In a year or two, he projects, there will be none.

"I don't even recognize when people talk about different cat (breeds). That's not what I'm interested in either. I am not a cat lover in the sense that I don't read cat magazines and stuff like that," Goad said. "I read biological stuff. I want to know about animal population, diseases and things like that."

Warren sees common ground.

"They have two things in common. Both sides want to get the cat population as close to zero as possible and both don't want to see the animals killed or destroyed. The Audubon Society is concerned about birds and wildlife. Ellis is concerned about cats," Warren said. "But I don't think that either wants to see an animal hurt."

If you go

What: Information meeting on feral cats in public spaces

When: 4 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Redding City Halls community room (next to council chambers), 777 Cypress Ave.
This architectural computer rendering shows an aerial view looking northeast of the proposed Bethel Church complex along Highway 299 East in Redding.

SHARE This architectural computer rendering shows an aerial view looking southeast of the proposed Bethel Church complex along Highway 299 East in Redding. This architectural computer rendering shows the main plaza of the proposed Bethel Church complex along Highway 299 East in Redding.

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Bethel Church's proposal for a bigger worship center and school in northeast Redding will be the topic of a public hearing on Tuesday.

For nearby residents and state agencies, this is their chance to receive information about the 39.3-acre project at the northeast corner of Collyer Drive and Twin Tower Drive, and be heard by the Planning Commission as an environmental impact report gets underway.

"The biggest issue here is certainly traffic," Planning Manager Kent Manuel said. "This is going to bring change to the neighborhood no matter how you look at it."

The commission meets at 4 p.m. at Redding City Hall's council chambers, 777 Cypress Ave.

Designs presented by Bethel show the empty field being converted into a 171,708-square-foot campus with 1,851 parking spaces. It doubles the church capacity to 2,600 and has classroom space at the School of Supernatural Ministry to enroll up to 3,000 students. The church plans also include a child-care center, cafe, bookstore, maintenance areas and offices.

Among agencies expected to be present during the hearing are the California Department of Transportation and California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Charlie Harper, Bethel's project manager, did not return a call for comment on Friday.

Manuel said staff members have been looking at how increased traffic would impact the area. Twin Tower and Collyer will be widened. Twin Tower would have two northbound lanes and a southbound lane with left-turn pockets at Posey Lane and Collyer.

He talked about the project weighing whether to add traffic signals or roundabouts at Collyer and Hawley/Churn Creek Road and at College View Drive.

"All those signals would have to be coordinated for optimized traffic flow," Manuel said.

Traffic estimates indicate the campus would generate 1,513 weekday trips before peak evening hours and 1,606 on Sundays at noon.

The second-most talked about issue, given California's historic drought, is water. The Bethel campus will be in the Bella Vista Water District.

Taken as a whole, the church would represent an increase in demand for the district no matter how small the percentage may be. Because of restrictions, the district may not be able to bring in all the water.

"We will have to determine, how do we mitigate the potential impact?" Manuel said. "Those discussions have just begun."

Last year, Harper spoke of the project needing to add a 12-inch water line to meet water pressure standards in a fire. A booster pump will be on a main line on Old Oregon Trail to provide the added pressure for the church site as well as surrounding neighborhoods.

Harper also talked about creating a walking path around the campus to serve as a landscaping buffer as well as a sound wall. Those features are shown in art renderings.

The plan calls for 7.7 acres of landscaped areas, some which would include native and drought-resistant plants.

To capture stormwater runoff, the church would install detention pipes adjacent to Poison Oak Lane and add a 2.8-acre detention basin at the southwest corner.

The environmental review process will be managed by the city staff, who hired Kimley-Horn to prepare the EIR. Bethel is paying for the work.

The scoping period, which started Jan. 26, will conclude March 11. Tuesday's hearing is the second of two such meetings. The first was on Feb. 9. The draft EIR will be complete by July, and the final report will be issued either at the end of this year or early the following year, according to staff.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalias courtroom chair is draped in black to mark his death as part of a tradition that dates to the 19th century, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, at the Supreme Court in Washington. Scalia died Saturday at age 79. He joined the court in 1986 and was its longest-serving justice. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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By Alex Roarty, CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON  Republican and Democratic Senate campaigns have already clashed  fiercely  over when and how to confirm a new Supreme Court justice.

But those early rhetorical salvos are only the beginning of what will be a sustained effort to take advantage of the courts sudden opening, one that operatives from both parties say could reshape fundraising, turnout operations and targeted media to diehard partisans and swing voters alike. The blunt message from some of them: The terrain of the 2016 Senate election changed when Antonin Scalia died, and now its up to the party committees and their allied campaigns to recalibrate their strategy and tactics or be left behind.

This gives campaigns the opportunity to dust off some other arrows in their quiver that may not have been relevant before, said Matt Oczkowski, a GOP strategist who works at the behavioral-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. A sophisticated campaign is going to know what issues motivate their swing audience, or they should at this point, and they should leverage how this can motivate their base, not just a donation perspective but turnout perspective.

By Tuesday, the battle lines in most competitive Senate races had been drawn. With the exception of Sen. Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, all of the vulnerable Republican incumbents up for re-election in 2016  Sens. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire  had said they would not support the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice until a new president took office. (Kirk has still not announced his approach toward replacing Scalia.) Democrats pounced on the refusal, saying it was an abdication of duty to make such a decision before Obama even picked a nominee.

In the early going, both parties are confident they can sway the public to their side. But thats only the broader, macro-level argument each side, and each campaign, will make. Just as important, potentially, is the cornucopia of messages tied to the Supreme Court fight that will be delivered to smaller, targeted groups of voters.

Because a new Supreme Court justice could tip its ideological balance, any topic that has or could come before the court suddenly takes on new importance  a nearly unlimited supply of economic, national security, and social issues given the Supreme Courts broad purview. To some Democratic strategists, these kinds of issues  like abortion-rights  are ready-made for the large TV buys that are traditionally among the campaigns most important decisions.

But with ever more sophisticated models of the electorate, with a growing set of tools to reach those voters, campaign operatives say there is a vast opportunity to use single issues to cajole specific groups of voters. Some of the ways campaigns will take advantage seem obvious: Democrats could motivate single women, a key part of the partys coalition that traditionally votes at a low rate, to turn out on Election Day if they bombard them with warnings about the repeal of Roe v. Wade. The ads could appear on a variety of media, like online TV services or Twitter.

But strategists caution that other ways to motivate voters might not be so obvious  which is why many of the Senate campaigns, though a combination of polling and other analytics-driven tests, are racing to determine which issues in the new political landscape could offer them a key if unexpected advantage.

The folks with the more sophisticated campaigns are going to much better leverage this, said Oczkowski, who was the chief digital strategist of Scott Walkers presidential campaign. Sending out a blanket message to your email list is not going to be as effective as targeting voters individually or certain demographic groups. The campaigns that are quote-unquote spraying and praying are not going to be as effective.

As one Democratic strategist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, pondered, the list of issues to use  and where to use them  is nearly endless.

You can make it about immigration in Nevada, the strategist said, referencing the highly competitive open-seat battle between GOP Rep. Joe Heck and presumed Democratic nominee Catherine Cortez Masto. You can make it, heck, you can make it about anything. This is big.

Its not just votes they could win over, either  its dollars. Raising money for Senate campaigns amid a presidential race featuring two competitive primaries is difficult, but operatives are hopeful that a looming confirmation fight in 2017 can refocus attention on which party controls Congresss upper chamber.

It helps us when were talking about the Senate with donors, particularly, from a fundraising perspective, said one senior GOP strategist, granted anonymity to speak about party strategy. Everyone is focusing on the presidential shiny object, and this sort of brings the Senate back into the mix.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Senate races will still be overshadowed by their presidential counterpart in the general election, especially when so many Senate battlegrounds  like those in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida  double as key contests in the presidential race. And it will be no different this fall, when each of the partys presidential nominees  with vastly more resources at their disposal  target specific voter blocs over the Supreme Court in many of the same ways the Senate campaigns will.

But Republicans say they see an opportunity to use the Supreme Court case to keep conservatives activists on board with the campaigns of senators who have disappointed them on other issues. Its been a concern for some Republican campaigns: Toomey, for instance, drew the ire of conservatives in 2013 when he supported expanding gun-sale background checks. More recently, Ayotte has angered some home-state Republicans for her continued support of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and after forming an informal new group of Republican senators worried about climate change.

For Ayotte, her breaks from orthodoxy have led to rumblings that she could face a primary challenger or even have some conservatives refuse to back her in a general election. But Republicans are confident those threats will die down as control of the Supreme Court looms.

That allows some candidates to motivate their base even though they might differ on other issues, said Ryan Williams, a Republican operative and strategist on Ayottes campaign. They can go back to base voters and say, You may not agree with me on every issue, but Im going to vote for a strong judicial nominee who wont legislate from the bench. That will motive base voters because theres so much at stake.



2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Visit CQ Roll Call at www.rollcall.com

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The placement process at B-schools comes as close to psychological cannibalism as one is likely to witness.

Reading about the placement week at b-schools in the media, one gets the distinct impression that our budding managers routinely strike the zenith of financial glory, and are a hair's breadth away from entering the storied club of the rich and famous. If only!

The placement process at b-schools comes as close to psychological cannibalism as one is likely to witness.

At no other point during one's stay on campus is one made to feel so worthless, so desperate, so utterly out of depth as during the placement week.

And God help you if you happen to be one of those poor sods who don't get placed.

Say goodbye to friends, colleagues and self-esteem -- and pack your bags to slither away silently into the night.

My dramatic, but largely authentic lament originates in my flatmate Ravi's recounting of his experience with the placement process at his b-school.

He completed his MBA in 2010 with a major in finance.

The school is one of the many successful MBA institutes in Mumbai whose unique ecosystem ensures that otherwise average centres of learning are forced to buck up to meet the ever-burgeoning demand for managers in India's financial capital.

For Ravi, the placement season, which ran from late December to February, entailed endless misery.

In spite of being a good student and a consistent performer, he was unable to "convert" -- euphemism for clearing the group discussion/personal interview rounds -- any of the finance profiles he applied to.

So whether it was banks, NBFCs or insurance firms, Ravi sat through as many as 15 interviews and ended up being rejected by all of them.

This has nothing to do with Ravi's skill set or mind.

Several bright people undergo, without success, the unending rigmarole of that dreaded B-school beast called the placement interview.

There is no telling why one candidate is chosen over the other.

Since everything is squeezed into a week, for those unable to find something in the first few days, there is such a rush to attend interviews and land any job that candidates have no time to brush up on the companies they are about to face, let alone know about the profiles and salary details.

By the end of February, Ravi had had his fill of rejections and was seriously considering alternative career options.

Might he try consultancy, he wondered. Where was the harm?

Finance was not happening, and whatever companies would come later, they would not be worth the paper their names were printed on.

One such company was Jay Financials (name changed), an equity brokerage firm.

They were a new player and had little to show by way of credentials.

Ravi was forced by the placement committee to attend their pre-placement talk and then appear for the process.

The CEO, a lanky, poorly-dressed guy, asked Ravi a series of questions.

Ravi tried his best at "tanking" the interview, b-school jargon for deliberately spoiling one's chances.

No such luck.

The company still made him an offer.



Jay Financials were getting a top-tier B-school grad for Rs 6 lakh. What did they have to lose?

More absurdly, Ravi seriously considered taking up the offer for want of a better one.

Thankfully, another company, a consultancy, provided him a shot at redemption.

Housed in an old-style British bungalow in Parel, the company interviewed Ravi, along with seven of his batchmates.

During the interview, they told Ravi that if they took him they would offer him Rs 9 lakh with a performance bonus of Rs 1 lakh.

The bonus was Rs 1 lakh less than what they were offering others, since Ravi had no work experience prior to his MBA.

Ravi, still smarting under the offer from Jay Financials, was glad to be offered anything better than Rs 6 lakh.

On their way back to the college from Parel, the placement committee member who accompanied Ravi received a call on his mobile.

The consultancy had zeroed in on Ravi and decided to offer him Rs 9 lakh plus Rs 2 lakh as performance bonus, just as they had promised others.

Ravi was ecstatic. The stress and pain of the past few weeks dissipated.

He had seen "friends" turn indifferent and then nasty as they got placed and partied while he slogged through interview after interview.

His roomie at the B-school, also unfortunate at placements, was offered a role by Jay Financials.

In the absence of a better offer, he took it up.

Within a year he was given a dramatic increase of 60 per cent.

And within weeks of that, he applied to and was selected by a Japan-headquartered financial major.

Now he heads the commodities derivatives desk at their Mumbai office.

So, all's not lost.

Ravi himself, unsure of anything non-financial at one time, has taken well to consulting.

The Mumbai team is around 20 people, and along with teams in Gurgaon and Chennai, runs a business that is scaling up fast.

One lesson: Don't let the success of the placement week get to your head. It might not last. Conversely, don't let its failure browbeat you. That too is temporary.

Lead image used for representational purposes only. Image: Jayanta Shaw/Reuters
'The bad dream can turn into a ghoulish nightmare for the BJP if the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Patels in Gujarat, both BJP-ruled states, were to fish in troubled waters and relaunch their respective agitations for quotas in government jobs,' warns Rajeev Sharma.

IMAGE: Buses set on fire in Sonepat. Photograph: Rajesh Sood/PTI

The pro-reservation stir by Jats in Haryana is yet another albatross around the neck of the BJP which is ruling the affected state as well as the country.

Far from showing any signs of abatement the agitation has snowballed in the past four days. It sullies the Narendra Modi government's image internationally.

At a time when the Modi government is trying hard to woo international investors and projecting how India's graph in terms of ease of doing business has gone up internationally, the Jats agitation has sent an extremely negative message to global investors.

The bad dream can turn into a ghoulish nightmare for the BJP if the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Patels in Gujarat, both BJP-ruled states, were to fish in troubled waters and relaunch their respective agitations for quotas in government jobs.

Besides, there are many more disparate castes and communities across the country which have taken to the streets to push their similar demands in the past.

The ongoing stir by the Jats has come as a bolt from the blue for the Modi government which is preparing for the Parliament session to present the Economic Survey, the Rail Budget and the Union Budget. It diverts the government's focus from more serious and urgent issues of national importance.

While the JNU row is the BJP's own doing as the party could have and should have avoided wading into the controversy and eventually turning it into a running sore, the Jats' stir has been triggered by factors beyond the government and BJP's control.

The BJP can blame the Congress for the Jats' agitation and with some justification as it was around poll-eve when the Manmohan Singh government decided in March 2014 to include Jats in the OBC (Other Backward Classes) central list. The Congress lost national and state elections nonetheless.

The Supreme Court struck down the government notification in this regard in March 2015. The Modi government couldn't take a politically suicidal step by keeping quiet and therefore appealed against the quashing of the notification.

Five days ago, on February 16, the Supreme Court dismissed the government's plea too which triggered fresh agitation by the Jats in Haryana.

The way the Jats' agitation has gained further momentum with each passing day does not bode well for the government, more so because of the well known stance of the RSS, the BJP's ideologue, on the issue of job reservations.

It was not too long ago when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had made his famous remark against reservation just before the Bihar elections last year, a remark which contributed in a big way to the BJP's rout.

Bhagwat's remark may well prove to be Banquo's ghost and haunt the BJP for a long time.

An immediate threat to the Modi government is that the Jats have a sizeable presence in Haryana's contiguous areas like Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. This conflagration can spread to all these states. The Jats' agitation has already spread to the National Capital Region, including Delhi. Its further spread to states like Punjab, Rajasthan and UP will be catastrophic.

The Modi government's dilemma is that it cannot crush the Jats' agitation with an iron hand as in most of the affected areas the army has been deployed and the army cannot be shooting and killing its own citizens.

The flip side is that the agitators can't be treated with velvet gloves either. A soft approach will inevitably lead to further spread of the agitation, both area-wise and population-wise, which indeed has happened in the past couple of days.

The government is thus caught in a Catch-22 situation. But it has to act and act in double quick time to bottle the genie. Time is at a premium.

Rajeev Sharma is an independent journalist who tweets @Kishkindha
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists protest outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI

'The emphasis is on nationalism, which the party apparently feels will have greater resonance than one on religious identity which may have lost some of its appeal in recent years,' says Amulya Ganguli.

Just as the Bharatiya Janata Party today characterises its critics as anti-nationals, Indira Gandhi in the period before declaring the Emergency (1975 to 1977) used to ascribe all her difficulties to the ubiquitous 'foreign hand', which was known to hint at the Americans.

It was at that time that an MP of the pro-private sector Swatantra Party, Piloo Mody, entered Parliament with a placard saying 'I am a CIA agent' hung round his neck. When the Speaker asked him to remove it, he did so, saying, 'I am no longer a CIA agent.'

One doesn't know what the 'anti-nationals' of today will have to do to erase their stigma. Perhaps joining the BJP via a missed call on their mobiles or, where students are concerned, applying to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarti Parishad for membership is a way out.

But it is obvious that just as Indira Gandhi tried to exploit what she considered was the latent anti-Americanism in the Indian mind -- Sonia Gandhi apparently expressed the same view when opposing the India-US nuclear deal -- the BJP wants to play the patriotism card to serve its political purpose at a time when it is losing its sheen of 2014.

Since xenophobia has been a feature of the Sangh Parivar's weltanschuung (wold view) since the establishment of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh nine decades ago, there is nothing surprising about the BJP's latest ploy. Its nationalist card takes different forms at different times.

In the 1990s, it was associated with Hindu pride and demonisation of the Muslims. Even now, this outlook occasionally surfaces as when the maverick Subramanian Swamy called upon Muslims to hand over the two mosques at Kashi and Mathura -- the one at Ayodhya having already been demolished -- to the Hindus and keep the remaining 39,997 mosques for themselves.

At the moment, however, the BJP has kept the Hindu factor in the background and decided to divide the country between nationalists (presumably including those minorities who belong to this category despite being Muslims like A P J Abdul Kalam) and anti-nationalists.

The slogan at the moment is not 'garv se kaho hum Hindu hain' (With pride say we are Hindus), which used to be chanted in the days of the Ram Janambhoomi movement. Instead, the emphasis is on nationalism, which the party apparently feels will have greater resonance than one on religious identity which may have lost some of its appeal in recent years.

In any event, since the BJP's version of nationalism is pitted against the pro-Pakistani anti-nationalists, who observed the death anniversary of the terrorist, Afzal Guru, in New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and mourned the death of another terrorist, Yakub Memon, earlier at the Hyderabad central university, the anti-Muslim angle is there anyway.

The present division between nationalists and anti-nationalists recalls Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's categorisation of Indians between Ramzadon and haramzadon with the former representing the BJP's supporters and the derogatory term the rest of the population.

This is not the first time that such a neat cleavage has been witnessed in politics. A similar break-up between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat used to be the staple of Communism, as also the one between believers and infidels in the Islamic world.

The advantage of such schisms is that they provide an easy rallying cry for the faithful. The prerequisite of such tactics, however, is authoritarianism. They do not work in a democracy.

The BJP's difficulty, therefore, is that even if it can whip up deep anger among patriotic lawyers, as in the Patiala court, for instance, when Kanhaiya Kumar of the JNU was being presented, or make a party MLA declare that anyone saying 'Pakistan zindabad' should be killed, it is not easy to sustain the tension for long.

The reason is that FIRs will be filed against the perpetrators of even nationalist violence and explanations sought on television channels to questions such as who gave the BJP the right to be the judge of what is nationalism and what is not, as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has asked.

In addition, there will be queries about the paradox of the BJP targeting those students who are unhappy about Afzal Guru's hanging while negotiating for a share in governance with the Peoples Democratic Front in Kashmir which also believes that Afzal Guru's death was a miscarriage of justice.

Since all of this is unavoidable in a democracy, they can make a mockery of any signs of pretentiousness or falsehood, as in the case of Indira Gandhi's foreign hand, which became a joke after some time.

The scene has been made worse for the BJP by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's eagerness to rope in the 26/11 mastermind, Muhamed Saeed, as a patron of the JNU anti-nationalists. Like Indira Gandhi's fabled foreign hand, the role of this one, too, will be difficult to prove.

Amulya Ganguli is a commentator on current affairs.
Every criticism of the government does not necessarily mean you want to overturn or destabilise the government.



The word sedition has been contorted, distorted, stretched and moulded to fit a number of cases in the recent past -- 47 cases of sedition were filed in 2014 itself.

Senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal speaks to Nikita Puri on what the term means and its implications on freedom of speech in India.

Demonstrators shout slogans as they hold placards during a protest demanding the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, a Jawaharlal Nehru University student union leader accused of sedition. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters

The sedition law, most recently used to arrest Jawaharlal Nehru University student Kanhaiya Kumar, has colonial origins. What was the need for this law?

The law came about during the freedom movement when there was a lot of agitation against the British-led government which was ruling the country. It was basically used against freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and others -- all of them were tried under the sedition law because they were trying to overthrow the government.

What exactly is sedition and can the term be misinterpreted to suit those in power?



Section 124A or sedition has been spelt out by the Supreme Court in Balwant Singhs case (Balwant Singh and Another vs State Of Punjab, 1995). Supposing I give a speech, and I tell people that this government is illegitimate, it wont amount to sedition; something has to happen as a result of that. People have the right to criticise the government if they are not happy with the functioning of the government. Every criticism of the government does not necessarily mean you want to overturn or destabilise the government.



Sedition is a very serious matter. I dont like you cant amount to sedition, neither can I dont like the prime ministers face or I dont like the prime ministers policies.

One moment the police commissioner has concrete and clinching proof of sedition, which turns out to be a morphed video, then he flits between opposing bail and not opposing bail -- power shouldnt be in the hands of such people.

Senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal

The United Kingdom repealed its sedition law in 2009, the United States has struck down parts of it over time. Besides India, the countries that hold on to sedition include Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Senegal and Turkey. Is this law relevant in todays times?



They follow the West, unless it comes to retrograde laws. Then, they want to go with countries like Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. We should be looking up and not looking down. You want people to come and make in India, but you dont follow the good examples to do away with such retrograde laws? Every cartoonist who criticises the government should be guilty of sedition (in its current example); you, me, all of us should be guilty of sedition because we criticise the governments policies and actions. Its not relevant.



How can we differentiate between sedition and free speech?



Just speaking up is not sedition. There has to be something following that, and that something does not mean somebody beating up somebody else. It has to be something more serious than that. It means actual violence with the intention of trying to overthrow the government.



I have read in great detail what Kanhaiya Kumar said. I have seen the video, and I have read the English transcripts. My take on this is that we have to divert our attention and some action has to be taken against people who have circulated these morphed video because what they have done is sedition. Because what they have done has clearly resulted in violence.

We should highlight the fact these TV channels, which have completely gone wild showing a morphed video, they are the ones who have incited people. A serious note has to be taken about this and whoever is responsible for this kind of a mob frenzy, this kind of violence, they are guilty of sedition.

As sedition law moves along in Indian history, what should be the next step? Do you think this law should be done away with?



I am of the firm opinion that the sedition law has to be done away with. If we say something against the government, we are anti-national. If you criticise something, you are anti-national. There is no free speech, today we are in a state worse than Emergency, an undeclared emergency. We must do away with sedition now; this is one colonial law which must go. Its obnoxious and appalling that they use this law all the time.



Going forward, public opinion has to be generated irrespective of what nationalists say, irrespective of what hoodlums in our society, like certain lawyers, have to say. Every newspaper has at least one article on this every day and this has to be kept on. Thats the only way to go forward, to have debates on the issue and to make representations to the government. You cant take the law into your own hands.
Led by a group of ex-servicemen, thousands of people on Sunday hit the streets against anti-national activities in Jawaharlal Nehru University, a march that is believed to have been backed by Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who are under Opposition fire over the ongoing row at the premier university.

The rally from Raj Ghat to Jantar Mantar saw marchers fervently waving the tricolour and raising slogans like Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai with some of them saying that nothing is above nationalism.

Massive rally in Delhi led by ex-generals against incidents at JNU in Delhi. Tens of thousands joined spontaneously, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

BJP and RSS are understood to have mobilised crowd for the rally. Lakhs of citizens including families of former soldiers at #MarchForUnity proved that wed stand together for respect of motherland. JaiHind! BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted.

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also hit back at opposition parties over their charge that the Narendra Modi government was misusing the sedition law as he quoted official data to claim that maximum arrests under it were made in Bihar, where Janata Dal-United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance is in power and which has been ruled by Nitish Kumar for over 10 years.

Anti-India activities have long taken place on campuses but the BJP government will not tolerate it, he said, adding, Those who engage in it will find themselves behind bars.

Amid political wrangling over the issue, renowned thinker and academician Noam Chomsky questioned Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumars decision to allow police on its campus, saying it was apparently created and precipitated by the government and the university administration.

At the campus, teachers continued to take open-air classes on nationalism as part of the ongoing protest demanding release of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar who was arrested for allegedly raising anti-India slogans.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Monday a plea seeking contempt action against Kumar, former DU lecturer SAR Gilani and few others on the ground that they allegedly termed the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as judicial killing.

Kumar was arrested on February 12. While the students and teachers supporting him have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.

The organisers of the rally, billed as apolitical, had earlier denied any involvement of RSS or BJP in the rally although it was publicised and invites were sent out by office bearers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad among others.

Lets march and lets have a positive narrative. Bharat jodo (unite India) to counter the Bharat todo (break India) narrative, Major General (Retd) Dhruv C Katoch, one of the organisers, said.

Coming out in support of Kumar, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online.

I am not going to judge recent actions by the schools, by the students or by the government, but you know I watch it (incidents at JNU) with concern because I care about the people there, University of Chicagos Vice-President for Global Engagement Ian Solomon said.

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of the ongoing agitation in JNU over State action.

Eminent economist Jan Kregel has also sent an e-mail to the VC seeking his explanation over police action.

Meanwhile, actor Swara Bhaskar, a JNU alumuna, penned an open letter to the varsitys PhD student Umar Khalid, who is being searched in connection with the controversial event against Parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus execution.

No, you are not a terrorist Umar Khalid, you are a radical and an idiot with poor judgement of what to say where, but you do NOT deserve to be jailed, tortured or killed for that... Your family, Im sorry to tell you, is being harassed. Your parents and sisters are being threatened in diverse ways.... the Tanu Weds Manu star wrote.

Image: Ex-servicemen participate in a march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday against what they termed as anti-national activities in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI
Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary H Raja was at the centre of a controversy with remarks that Communist Party of India leader D Raja should ask communists to shoot and kill his daughter for taking part in anti-national protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

D Raja should demand that communists should shoot and kill his daughter for taking part in the JNU protest. To prove my love for this country, I would have done the same if my child was taking part in such anti-national protests, he said in Coimbatore on Saturday.

When contacted, D Raja on Sunday declined to comment on the BJP leaders remarks.

The BJP office bearer said if Communists love this country, how did they take part in an anti-national event.

He went on to say that all those who attended the events in JNU are anti-nationals, whether it is Rahul Gandhi or D Raja or Sitaram Yechury.

I will expose all anti-nationals. What is happening now in the country is a major ideological fight, to differentiate who is the nationalist and anti-nationalist, he said, adding, If you want to live in this country, you have to sing Vande Mataram, or leave the country.

He claimed that D Rajas daughter and Umar Khalid, who has been accused of organising the Afzal Guru event in JNU are good friends.

H Raja said Congress, Communists, atheists and jihadists were destroying the country and its nationalism.

H Raja had earlier been the news when he was booked by Tamil Nadu police in 2014 for his provocative speech against Dravidian leader Periyar besides targeting Muslim and Christian communities.

He had also drawn flak last year for stating that the safe return of Vaiko to his home cannot be ensured after the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Faced with cut in water supply from Haryana due to the Jat stir, the Delhi government announced closure of schools on Monday as part of water rationing in the city to deal with the crisis.

After a high-level emergency meeting, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said barring Rashtrapati Bhavan, offices and residences of the prime minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals and fire brigade, water will be rationed equally among others. He said his residence and office will also come under water rationing.

He said disruption in water supply to Delhi from Haryanas Munak canal due to the Jat agitation has severely affected the city and appealed to the people to conserve water as much as possible.

Barring President, PM, CJI, defence installations, hospis, fire brigades water to be equally rationed amongst all. Please save water. Schools closed tomorrow, Kejriwal said in a tweet.

The Delhi government had on Saturday night moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Centre to intervene and ensure water supply from Munak canal.

The chief minister said all the water treatment plants have been shut and even if Haryana releases water on Sunday it will take at least 24 hours more to restore the supply.

There is very little water as it is not coming from there (canal). All the water treatment plants are closed and whatever water is stored in reservoirs is being supplied through the tankers, he said.

There is an unprecedented crisis and the Delhi government is in constant touch with the Union home ministry and the Haryana authorities for resumption of water supply from the canal, Kejriwal said.

I had talked to the home minister and the CM of Haryana urging them to resume supply from the canal by sending army there. I hope they will be trying it, he said.

The water supply to Delhi was disrupted due to the Jat stir on February 19.

The emergency meeting chaired by Kejriwal was attended by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Water minister Kapil Mishra and officials of Delhi Jal Board and New Delhi Municipal Council.

Sisodia said that the schools will be closed on Monday and the examination and admission process will be postponed due to the water crisis.

It is feared that there will be no water tomorrow morning and the Delhi government has directed closure of all schools, including private ones tomorrow.

The ongoing examinations and admission process will be postponed. The situation will be assessed tomorrow and further decisions will be taken afterwards, Sisodia said.

Delhi Water minister Kapil Mishra said the city is facing a never before water crisis and appealed to the people to maintain calm. The gates of the canal are closed, he said.

Hello Dilli, not so very good morning. Canal Gates still closed. We have reached out to Haryana, central government and the Supreme Court. Hearing today. Keep calm, he said in a tweet.
A total of 16 bills, including the GST Bill, Lokpal (Amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill and the Anti-Hijacking Bill are pending in Parliament -- five in Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.

The Budget session of Parliament is set to start on a stormy note on Tuesday with issues like the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide and Pathankot terror strike set to dominate the proceedings despite efforts to broker peace between the opposition and the government.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with leaders of opposition parties on February 16, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will hold another all-party meeting on Monday to reach out to political rivals for smooth functioning of Parliament.

The same day, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will also hold consultations with leaders of all parties in the House.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee has been convened by party chief Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the session. The deliberations at the meeting is expected to set the tone for the Budget session.

At the Monday meeting, Congress will finalise its floor strategy for the session.

Chairing a meeting of leaders of all parties from Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari on Saturday reminded them time has come to assure the public that parliamentary democracy does work and is sensitive to the needs of the people.

The remarks come in the backdrop of the last two sessions being a virtual washout with the opposition and government locking horns over a number of issues including the key reform measure of Goods Services Tax Bill.

The government has already said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament or any other issue that the opposition wants to take up.

Naidu had also held a meeting of leaders of a number of opposition parties on February 4 where it was decided to have a full-length session and not to go for any curtailment of its duration despite assembly elections in five states.

The government has a heavy legislative agenda to push through in this session. A list of 74 items of business has been compiled by the ministry of parliamentary affairs on the basis of responses received from various ministries and departments which, according to sources, contain 62 legislative items and 12 financial items.

It was decided to give 26 items top priority as the ministries wanted them to be introduced and passed in the Budget session itself.

A total of 16 bills, including the GST Bill, Lokpal (Amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill and the Anti-Hijacking Bill are pending in Parliament -- five in Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.

The government will also push for the passage of a bill to replace the ordinance to amend the Enemy Property Act, which was promulgated on January 8.

An ordinance lapses 42 days/6 weeks from the day a session begins unless a bill to replace it is cleared by Parliament.

The ordinance amends the 47-year-old Enemy Property Act to allow custodians to continue to retain control over such properties.

The government is keen to push its legislative agenda in the Budget session, including the pending bills on GST and real estate, thwarted in the last two sessions, while the opposition is raring to target it on a host of issues, including the JNU row, Hyderabad Dalit scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide, imposition of Presidents Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, and terror attacks in Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

Raising questions over the process of the appointment of Vice Chancellors of JNU and DelhiUniversity, a number of opposition parties have come together against the government, accusing it of undermining the autonomy of the institutions.

Naidu had last month met Sonia Gandhi seeking cooperation for the early passage of the crucial GST and the real estate bills but the Congress said the government has offered nothing substantial on its three demands on the key tax reform.

The session will commence on February 23 and will focus largely on the financial business of the government. The General Budget will be presented on February 29.

The first part of the Budget session will end on March 16 and the second part will be convened from April 25 to May 13.

On February 16, the prime minister had reached out to the opposition by holding a meeting of leaders of major political parties.

In the first such exercise initiated by Modi against the backdrop of repeated stalling of Parliament sessions, he had sought their cooperation saying, I am not the prime minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party alone but the entire country.

The winter session had ended on December 23, leaving the Goods and Services Tax Bill and a number of other measures in limbo.

The governments legislative agenda had suffered a serious setback due to lack of support from the numerically stronger Congress-led opposition in Rajya Sabha.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks with Communist Party of Indias D Raja as they leave after an all-party meeting ahead of the budget session at Parliament House in New Delhi on Saturday. Photograph: Vijay Kumar Joshi/PTI
Coming out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiyas seditious speech.

Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the societys collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting, Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiyas speech.

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley say in a joint video, We challenge the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights.

Asserting if Kanhaiyas speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiyas speech.

Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill?

They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on

Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism, she says.

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of JawaharlalNehruUniversity students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.

Image: Demonstrators shout slogans as they hold placards and a T-shirt featuring Kanhaiya Kumar during a protest demanding the release of Kumar in New Delhi. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
A 104-year-old woman from a village in Chhattisgarhs Dhamtari district who sold her goats for constructing toilet at her home, on Sunday came in for special praise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said it is a big sign of changing India.

PM Modi lauds Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari in Chahattisgarh after she sold her goats to build a toilet. Photograph: PTI

Modi felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari for her efforts to make her village open defecation free, during the launch of Rurban Mission at Kurrubhat village in the states Naxal-hit Rajandgaon district.

Two development blocks -- Ambagarh Chowki and Chhuriya -- of Rajnandgaon were also declared open defecation free by the PM during the programme.

An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her. She sold off her goats to build toilet at home and also encouraged others from the village to build, Modi said.

Kunwar Bai had sold-off her 8-10 goats to build two toilets at her home.

Subsequently, she started showing other villagers the toilets at her home while informing them about its importance. Now every home in the village has toilets.

Calling it as a major change taking place at the roots of the country, Modi said, The country is changing. It seems when a woman at a remote village makes efforts to fulfil dream of clean India mission, she is an inspiration for everyone, especially youths.

I would like to tell media that you dont cover me but spread the story of this woman all over the country, the PM urged.

Modi also praised the residents of two Ambagarh Chowki and Chhuriya blocks for being open defecation free with toilets at all homes.

Even a prime minister has to think before enforcing taxes (on public), but people in these blocks without hesitation decided to slap fine on those who defecated in open which is a good initiative for the welfare of society, he said.

Making an area open defecation free is a biggest advantage and respect to our mother and sisters who have to go down to fields and forests (to relieve themselves). I bow my head in respect to them, Modi said.

We would make sure that each and every home of the country should have toilets by October 2019 under Clean India Mission, he added.

Modi also felicitated Phoolbasan Bai Yadav, a social worker for her efforts towards development of economically and socially backward women in the state. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2012 for her work.
Apothecary Salon & Spa ready to pamper locals at Burton Lane location

More than two years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives and careers of millions of Americans. Some folks took the opportunity to learn more about themselves.
The annual Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Expo, showcasing agribusiness and rural products and services, is Tuesday and Wednesday at the Taylor County Expo Center.

The event will feature more than 150 booths from 75 businesses and organizations.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. Admission is free.

The expo is held in conjunction with the Rolling Plains Cotton Growers annual meeting, scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Big Country Hall.

Highlights include the Town & Country Women's Fair from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Display Building and the honoring of brothers Waylan, Bob and David Jackson, owners of Jackson Brothers Feed & Seed, as Farm Family of the Year at the Salute to Agribusiness Luncheon on Wednesday. For luncheon ticket information, call the Abilene Chamber of Commerce at 677-7241.

Other events include a bird dog demonstration at 11 a.m. Tuesday and 2 p.m. Wednesday, the Craig Cameron horse clinic at 2 p.m. Tuesday and 11 a.m. Wednesday, and various seminars, some of which count for continuing education units for producers.
Thomas Metthe/Reporter-News Arcey Robledo boxes envelopes after theyve been printed on Wednesday at Conley Printing.

SHARE Photo courtesy Conley Printing James Conley (right) and his son, Dean (left), work in their garage in 1984. James Conley started the business out of his garage. Thomas Metthe/Reporter-News Joe Ray Garcia pulls printed cards off a printer at Conley Printing. Thomas Metthe/Reporter-News Bobby Hamlin cuts business cards on a die cutter on Wednesday at Conley Printing. James Conley (left) opened Conley Printing out of his garage in 1983. His son, Dean (right), joined the business with him a year later.

By Dan Carpenter

When James Conley opened his printing business in 1983, he was doing numbering and letter press for local printers out of his garage on South 38th Street. A year later, James' son, Dean, would join his father in the business and form a bond  and a business relationship  that continues today.

Over the nearly 33 years the "Conley boys" have been in business together, they've occupied space in four different locations in Abilene, culminating most recently in a move to what Dean Conley is calling the "final" location at 2401 Industrial Blvd. on the city's south side.

"Truth be told, we knew we had outgrown the building (at 902 S. Treadaway) in 2009," said Dean Conley. "When we had to move three boxes to get to one, we knew we had lost the benefit of efficiency. We were spending more time moving stuff than necessary."

Dean Conley said 2014 was an exceptionally good year for their business, so they decided to begin moving the business to the Industrial location. The Conleys had purchased the building, previously owned by Caldwell Products, in 2009, and used it primarily for storage.

"We 'bet the farm' that this (move) would work," said Dean Conley, who noted that the bill to renovate and make the Industrial location fully operational approached $1 million. "This move positions us to get to the next level."

The 16,000-square-foot facility houses both of Conley's operations  digital and traditional print. In addition to increased space, Dean Conley said the location in south Abilene, ease of walk-in traffic, and the fact that the building is easy to find, are all keys to their vision for the future.

"Effectively, we can double our business right here," he said. "We are on track to bring in equipment that Abilene has never seen, including a six-color press. This is a very expensive business to be in and stay in. You constantly have to reinvent and reinvest or you get left behind."

In addition to James and Dean, Conley Printing employs a staff of 13, including James' wife, Jean, and Dean's wife, Kellie. Dean Conley credits part of the success of the business to the longevity of his employees.

"We have one guy back there who has been with us for more than 20 years, and several of our employees have been with us for more than 10 years," he said. "The new location also gives us the potential for additional staff based on business volume."

Conley Printing offers a full line of printing services, from banners, business cards, and business forms, to tickets and trade show displays.

"From a simple brochure to a professional annual report and everything in between, we're your local print shop that's ready to get your next project completed on time and on budget," said Dean Conley. "We don't want to just be a printer; we want to be a partner, and we're always willing to take the extra time necessary to educate the customer to better serve themselves."

Dean Conley said he has never stopped enjoying being in business with his dad, who actually owns controlling interest in the company.

"Dad and I have a unique and special bond," he said. "I enjoy working with him, and I think he still enjoys working with me."

At age 73, James Conley is still active in the business, working on jobs in the shop, and regularly calling on clients. It is not all business for the Conleys though.

"God has blessed our company tremendously over the last 33 years," said Dean Conley. "My dad and I feel as though printing can be used as a ministry, and we sincerely hope that we have been as good for Abilene as Abilene has been for us over the years."
DEAR ABBY: How do I connect with my son? He is 4 and he prefers his father to me. I generally "get" to be the bad guy  the one who takes him to doctor appointments, gives icky meds, enforces bedtime and keeps order.

Dad doesn't even have to try to get affection. They are best buds. My son even asked me to go away so Dad would love him more. It stings. Aren't boys supposed to love their moms?

 Sad Mom In West Virginia

DEAR SAD MOM: Of course they are. Parenting responsibilities are supposed to be shared, and these days many men step forward and share those responsibilities. Your husband appears to think that being a "bud" is more fun than being a father. Making you the "bad mommy" while he is the "good guy" is unfair not only to you, but also to your son.

The two of you should have already formed a united front when it comes to discipline. If this is allowed to continue, your boy will play each of you against the other  if he isn't already  and your problems are only starting.

DEAR ABBY: I am a medical receptionist with a university medical group. It is common for people to approach my counter and "hover" next to the person I am helping, listening to the information I'm being given without any regard to it being private. When I ask them to stand back, they usually get upset with me.

I'm tired of people acting like it's me who's being rude. I could get in trouble by not speaking up because private medical information is supposed to be protected. Would you please inform your readers that standing and listening to people while they are being checked in for a medical appointment is not OK, and if they are asked to step away to not take it personally?

 Tired Of Asking

DEAR TIRED: I'll inform them, but I have another suggestion to offer: Discuss this problem with your office manager and ask if it would be prudent to post a sign asking patients not to stand within 3 feet of the reception desk when waiting to sign in. That way the onus won't be on you, everyone's privacy will be protected and no one will be offended.

DEAR ABBY: I'm 12. I love dancing and singing, but my mom has told me many times that I'm not good at it. It has lowered my self-confidence.

I'm now scared to sing or dance in public, although when I was younger, I would do it happily. What can I do to feel OK about my dancing and singing abilities?

 Entertainer In San Francisco

DEAR ENTERTAINER: Nobody starts out being a star. Talent needs to be developed and nourished before it can blossom. If you enjoy singing and dancing, continue to do it  if only for the joy it brings you  and stop worrying about approval from others, even your mother.
Home cooking, says fourth-generation Texas author Jessica Dupuy, 'is the language of our family.'

'Every weekend gathering or holiday get-together,' she recalls, 'revolved around one conversation: What are we eating, and who is bringing what?'

Dupuy is the author of a wonderful new full-color and reasonably-priced Texas cookbook, 'United Tastes of Texas: Authentic Recipes from All Corners of the Lone Star State' (Oxmoor House, $24.95 hardcover, under the auspices of Southern Living).

In the book's 272 pages, Dupuy includes about 140 Texas recipes, grouped by five major sections of the state  Central Texas, East Texas, Coastal Texas, South Texas and West Texas  with a section also devoted to what she calls 'Texas shindigs' or parties or special occasions.

The author also includes two-page profiles of 10 noted Texas chefs  Tim Byers (Dallas), Jack Gilmore (Austin), Jesse Griffiths (Austin), Melissa Guerra (San Antonio), Johnny Hernandez (San Antonio), Lou Lambert (Austin and Fort Worth), Tom Perini (Buffalo Gap), Stephan Pyles (Dallas), Chris Shepherd (Houston) and Andrew Wiseheart (Austin, originally from San Angelo).

The book focuses on the rich variety of Texas flavors prominent in the different parts of Texas, with short sidebars on Texas food trivia and lists of a half-dozen or so recommended restaurants or 'pit stops' in each region.

Here are a few of the recipes offered from the different regions:

Central Texas  potato salad, chicken corn chowder, smoked brisket, baby back ribs, cream cheese kolaches, beer bread, sheet cake.

East Texas  black-eyed peas, garlic mashed potatoes, meatloaf, rump roast, chicken-fried steak, chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, fried fish, hush puppies, banana pudding, pecan pie.

Coastal Texas  fish tacos, grilled redfish, shrimp Creole, jambalaya, shrimp and okra gumbo, tequila lime pie.

South Texas  guacamole, several different salsas, migas, chilaquiles, King Ranch chicken, enchiladas, puffy tacos, fajitas, pralines, flan, cinnamon ice cream.

West Texas  Texas caviar, huevos rancheros, frontier breakfast tacos, West Texas chili, Frito pie, Perini prime rib, Texas burgers, grilled rib-eyes, Mexican wedding cookies.

Throw in color photographs with most of these recipes, and you can work up a powerful hunger for Texas cooking just thumbing through the book.

'To understand Texas food,' Dupuy writes, 'is to understand its regional diversity.'

Certainly there are plenty of great flavors emanating from each section of the state and culminating in what we have come to appreciate as Texas cuisine.

Glenn Dromgoole, co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books, enjoys favorite dishes from all five regions of Texas. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
What has Gov. Abbott done about the six mass shootings on his watch?

As some urge Abbott to finally take action on guns, he says the issue is mental health. Texas lags in that area, too. Will there be accountability?
A former governor.

A retired three-star general.

Young Marines, and aging veterans.

Boy Scouts and babbling babies.

A grateful nation.

When Joe Weber called John Keith Wells a "real hero" Saturday, there was no reason to doubt the retired Marine general. Not in the eyes and hearts of those who spent an hour in Radford Auditorium on the McMurry campus to say goodbye to Wells, a hero of the battle of Iwo Jima.

Wells died six days after his 94th birthday. His funeral was held almost 71 years to the day the assault of the tiny Pacific island began. Launched Feb. 19, it lasted until March 26.

But just over one month  34 brutal days of close-combat fighting  did not make the man who was honored Saturday.

Son Wesley said the Wells kids knew little about the war. Their dad had served, they knew, and "there was this thing with the statue."

"He was just dad," Wesley said.

Yes, but in that duty a hero dad, one who figured out ways to build backpack frames from lightweight tubing of discarded lawn chairs for Scouts. Someone who was positive. And how could he not be, living the great American life he fought to preserve on Iwo Jima?

"Negative speech was not allowed," Wesley said.

Former Gov. Rick Perry noted Keith and wife Kathryn's support of Scouting, especially what they did without the public knowing. Son Wesley spoke about his dad, the adventurer, who organized canoe trips in this area and would take scouts on trips beyond the nation's borders, including a nine-day trek in Alaska when Wells was in his 60s. After the service, attendee Larry Sanders recounted an ocean trip off the Florida coast and a drive to Mexico in July 1991 to view a total eclipse of the sun. A driving trip made with no advance reservations.

A fearless leader still, Sanders said, shaking his head but smiling broadly at a memory  one of many  that Wells helped provide for youth now scattered about the nation.

"Mount up and move 'em out," Wesley said was one of his dad's sayings.

Still, to honor Wells required a return visit to a rocky island eight miles square. The Marines' victory there is regarded as one of the greatest military achievements, even by Marine high standards.

More than 6,800 Marines died and more than 19,000 were wounded. The Japanese, dug in and ordered not to relinquish the strategic island, lost more than 21,000 soldiers.

The photograph that later became a national monument in Arlington, Virginia  five Marines and a Navy corpsman planting a flag atop Mount Suribachi  is one of the greatest symbols of American determination. Even putting a flag atop the highest point of the island was an effort.

That was the second flag planting.

It was Wells' platoon that raised the first flag. When a larger flag was found, it was raised and photographer Joe Rosenthal captured a moment that no doubt has sent Marines and others into battle with inspiration.

Weber noted there were 22 Medals of Honor awarded to those who fought on Iwo Jima, the most for one engagement. He said a 23rd should've gone to 1st Lt. Wells, a "real hero" who was wounded on Day 2 and later awarded the Navy Cross, among other awards.

Weber said President Franklin Roosevelt, war-hardened by 1945, gasped when he was told of the price paid to win that island. The most expensive property ever purchased by this country, Weber said.

Saturday's ceremony might have been sobering but it was not somber.

Perry, ever the proud Aggie, double-checked with the Rev. Paul Matta, who officiated the service, to be sure it was reported that Wells had attended Texas A&M for two years. "Whoop!" was hollered here and there from the audience.

Perry and Weber both are A&M graduates and friends.

Perry said he has been chided "not being in the military"  he was Air Force  because he wasn't a Marine. His reply to that is there were no complaints when C-130 Hamilton Standards provided air support.

Another laugh came when Wesley recounted his favorite of his father's homestyle sayings: "I'll kiss a fat man's ass and give you 30 minutes to draw a crowd." Wesley said his dad otherwise kept colorful language "to a dull roar."

Matta, from the podium, sang several verses of "Amazing Grace" a cappella. And he whistled another.

After Matta spoke and sat down, Perry reached over Weber to clasp Matta's hand.

Without a state to run or a presidential campaign going, Perry came from his ranch near Austin to Abilene for one reason Saturday  to honor "a husband, father, Eagle Scout and certainly a U.S. Marine. He lived an extraordinary life. He was a great patriot ... with a soft heart."

Matta said John Keith Wells lived Psalm 23.

He walked "through the valley of the shadow of death," and survived.

He married, found a career as a geologist, raised a family and volunteered his time and resources.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

On Saturday, Wells was buried and, as Matta sees it, joined other Marines on duty in heaven.

"I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

The service closed quietly ... but not before all Marines attending were asked to stand.

"OORAH!" they shouted in unison. "Semper fi."

Former Gov Rick Perry tells Marines they have no greater honor than today to honor Keith Wells, USMC pic.twitter.com/tixS1yWiNq

 Greg Jaklewicz (@GregJaklewicz) February 20, 2016

Twitter: @GregJaklewicz
Nearing the end of her life, Beverly Tarpley was more concerned about a friend she was caring for than her own condition.

That focus on someone else, not herself, exemplified Tarpley's life, said Robert Monk, a retired McMurry University religion professor and one of three people officiating Saturday at Tarpley's funeral.

"Beverly looked outward," Monk said, "not inward."

That quality was one of many shared with several hundred people who gathered Saturday morning at Tarpley's home church, St. Paul United Methodist, for a celebration of life service. She died Feb. 14 at age 85.

Tarpley was Abilene's first woman attorney, moving here in June 1951 just after graduating as the only woman in her class at the University of Texas School of Law. She was 21 at the time, the minimum age for getting a law license.

In her lifetime, Tarpley added a number of "firsts" to her impressive resume, including being the first woman attorney from Texas and the youngest lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court in 1956. And she won.

But Saturday's celebration was more about the person that Beverly Tarpley was than her stellar legal career. Felicia Hopkins, pastor of St. Paul UMC, noted that it was significant that Tarpley had selected the familiar words of Ecclesiastes as one of the Scriptures to be read at her funeral.

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven," Chapter 3 begins. Tarpley understood the meaning of those words, Hopkins said. Life is fragile and fleeting.

Look back, look around, look up, Hopkins said, and the impact of Tarpley's life can be seenin the way she lived her daily life, in her generosity to her church and community, and in her faith. Remember especially, Hopkins urged, to look up.

"Beverly is not lost," Hopkins said. "We know exactly where she is  she's in heaven."

One of Tarpley's favorite pastimes was travel, nationally and internationally. Her late husband, Dick Tarpley, was editor of the Reporter-News from 1979 to 1985. They married in 1953 and, during their lifetime, the couple traveled extensively together on personal trips and to attend professional conferences.

But they did more than sightsee, Bill Libby, a McMurry University religion professor and retired pastor, reminded. Libby, one of the officiants Saturday, was an Army chaplain during the Vietnam War and, as a professor, has led students on archaeological digs to the Middle East. He and the Tarpleys often talked about places that they each had visited.

"We were seeing God's world together," Libby said, "seeing God's creation in a new way."

Tarpley loved travel so much that just a month before her death, family members accompanied her to Naples, Florida, for the 85th reunion of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Tarpley was appointed to the organization in 1985 and served as chair in 1992-93.

The current chair and a past chair of the NCBE attended Tarpley's funeral and talked about her contributions during a reception following the service for Tarpley's children, Beth Rathe of Coppell and Charles Tarpley of Abilene, and Rathe's husband, Brian, and three children, Erica Dixon, and Jack and Nick Rathe.

The fact that Tarpley, even in failing health, attended the NCBE reunion was significant because it emphasized the family aspect of the conference, said Jequita Napoli of Norman, Oklahoma, who was chair in 2001-02.

"Beverly was such a vital part of that family," Napoli said. "She will truly be missed."

Even people who knew Tarpley well might not realize how far-reaching her influence was, said Tom Bice of Fort Dodge, Iowa, current chair of the conference.

"She touched generations of lawyers," he said. "She was a national player."
When my family and I had to return to the United States because of illness, after spending almost 10 years in Spanish-speaking countries, I noticed something immediately. It was that so many Hispanics' and Latinos' names were almost always mispronounced.

This saddened me greatly, since our name pronounced correctly is like beautiful music to our ears. It is also part of our self-esteem and dignity as persons.

I began to explore a way to see if we could remedy the situation. The more names I read, the more Providence gave me insight to see that in Spanish there exists a pattern whereby names and places can be pronounced correctly and clearly, without needing to see accent marks or tildes, which seldom appear in English print. The other good news is that with little instruction, one can learn this method with no previous knowledge of Spanish.

Think of it! The fastest growing portion of our national population  our potential customers, clients, students, patients, co-workers and friends  now can have their names said correctly and with confidence/ This addresses them with respect and in a meaningful manner.

Do Hispanics really care if a non-Hispanic says their name right? When presentations of this method have been made before them, here is a sampling of their responses: From a middle school Hispanic principal: 'When can you come out to our school and share the method with our teachers?' From a Hispanic ESL teacher: 'This is exciting. It's what we've been waiting for.' A high school principal came forward immediately and exclaimed: 'Make this into an app, and you'll have lots of takers.'

There is absolutely no doubt that our Hispanic friends welcome greatly hearing their name said clearly and correctly. There are a large number of non-Hispanics who say, 'I wish I could speak Spanish.' It is ironic that almost invariably, when Hispanics hear their name pronounced properly, they respond with these words: 'Oh, you speak Spanish.'

Hispanics are often too kind and courteous to correct someone who mispronounces their name. However, if one asks, they often will say their name as their grandparents pronounce it. Our name is a part of who we are. To pronounce the name Juarez, 'Whah-REZ,' it would be like pronouncing his historical contemporary, Lincoln, 'Lin-KOHN.' Correctly, it is 'WHAH-rehs.' There is no zzz sound in Spanish. It is just as easy to say it correctly, to give the 'z' the 's' sound it deserves.

Finally the day of the app has arrived!

The 7,000-plus most common Spanish names in the telephone directories of New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Miami now have been recorded. Each name is carefully and slowly enunciated with their authentic pronunciation. Virtually anyone can now say these names correctly.

'Say Spanish Easily: Start with Names' has been born.

I am deeply indebted to a local student, computer science major Stephen R. Clark, of Fort Worth, for 'birthing' this 3-year-old project. Now the question remains with us  do we care enough to respect our friends of Spanish origin by learning to say their names correctly?

Julian C. Bridges is professor emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University.
The most striking aspect of Apple's message to customers Tuesday wasn't the rejection of U.S. authorities' demand that the company help them break the encryption of an iPhone owned by Syed Rizwan Farook, who was involved in last year's murders of 14 people in San Bernardino, California. It was Apple's admission that it has the technological capacity to help, despite previous statements to the contrary.

In other words, Apple is acknowledging that it isn't encryption that protects the personal data of its customers, but the company's stubborn insistence on keeping its software proprietary and its refusal to accept open source software. Hardly perfect protection.

In October, Apple filed a response to a New York court's order that asked about the feasibility of gaining access to private data on an encrypted iPhone. It repeated numerous previous statements from Apple executives:

'For devices running iOS 8 or higher, Apple would not have the technical ability to do what the government requests  take possession of a password protected device from the government and extract unencrypted user data from that device for the government.'

The FBI, clearly, wasn't satisfied with this answer. In the Farook case, presumably after trying all the other ways of getting at an iPhone user's data, it actually provided the judge with a technical description of what it wanted Apple to do. Here it is, cited in Judge Sheri Pym's order:

'Apple's reasonable technical assistance may include, but is not limited to: providing the FBI with a signed iPhone Software file, recovery bundle, or other Software Image File ('SIF') that can be loaded onto the SUBJECT DEVICE. The SIF will load and run from Random Access Memory and will not modify the iOS on the actual phone, the user data partition or system partition on the device's flash memory. The SIF will be coded by Apple with a unique identifier of the phone so that the SIF would only load and execute on the SUBJECT DEVICE. The SIF will be loaded via Device Firmware Upgrade ('DFU') mode, recovery mode, or other applicable mode available to the FBI.'

As Apple explained in less technical language in its message to customers, this amounts to designing a special version of the iOS operating system that could be loaded onto Farook's iPhone to give the FBI access to the data stored on it. The FBI and the court are not actually asking the company to decrypt the phone: They just want the custom iOS version to disable the feature that erases the data on the phone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to break the password. Disabling it would allow officials to just break the password by 'brute force,' bombarding the phone with tens of millions of possible character combinations.

Apple can no longer say that is not technically possible. Instead, in the message to customers, it talks about the absence of guarantees that the iOS version allowing for the unlimited input of passwords will be used only once. The iPhone-maker also accuses the government of asking it to hack its customers, though technically, the FBI intends to do the hacking itself.

Those who think encryption protects their personal data from the government  or, for that matter, from anyone determined enough to invest the effort in a brute force attack  are naive. Any encryption can be broken. Customer protection is entirely in the hands of the software companies that make household-name products, and they will pursue it only as long as that's in their business interests. For now, Apple is in its customers' corner. But I'm not sure it will stay there forever: Creating an iOS version with a back door is not its last line of defense.

If Farook had used a device with the Google-designed Android operating system, the FBI might not even be asking for court orders. Although user content is encrypted on Android devices, too, Android is open-source software. Theoretically, the government can produce its own version of the system that would make it possible to hack the encryption. By choosing a product from a company that is paranoid about patent protection, Apple customers have made their data somewhat safer  but still not completely safe.

If Apple argues that compliance with the court order is 'unreasonably burdensome,' it soon may be asked  and ordered  to produce the iOS source code so that the government may attempt to modify it independently.

Courts have ordered source code handovers in the past. One series of such cases involved Breathalyzer test software that defense lawyers in drunken-driving cases wished to inspect for errors.

For now, Apple's righteous fight for its customers is generating enough favorable publicity to eliminate the sour taste of the Error 53 'right to repair' scandal. At some point, however, the company might have to decide whether further resistance poses a danger for Apple's closed ecosystem. Then, privacy-minded iPhone owners may find themselves on their own.

Leonid Bershidsky, a Bloomberg View contributor, is a Berlin-based writer.
SHARE

Folklorists commonly acknowledge we assign significant meaning to things grouped by threes.

These threesomes may infer good, bad or indifference but for most, it's as easy as one, two, three to know the third time's a charm while going down for the third time certainly is not.

Some examples of things coming in threes are blind mice, little kittens, stooges, wise men, primary colors, disasters, deaths, and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As I look to this political season, I see numerous examples of things in threes.

This election cycle includes important choices to be made at the national, state and local levels and within each level you can continue to see threes.

At the presidential level, early opinion polls seemed to indicate three clear front-runners having a shot at the top job in the land  Clinton, Cruz or Trump. Additionally, each of these three candidates represent the possibility of electing a president for the first time in one of three different categories. First female president, first billionaire president and first Canadian president!

Locally, our politics have seen some interesting developments of late as well. The establishment has seen hard times while the anti-establishment tea party types have made three real gains. They currently hold two City Council seats and will soon add to that list the important position of Taylor County Republican chairman.

Like most tea party members, this trio of patriots vow to protect the Constitution, lower taxes and, as of late, fight for term limits. All are great values but I look forward to seeing them press to get term limits on the ballot soon. This will ensure fresh people and ideas can continually participate in our city's leadership. And I've heard they recommend council terms be limited to no more than (yes you guessed it) three!

However, the most exciting and important grouping of three this election year is right here in Abilene. We have candidates vying for three important offices  one in Washington and two in Austin. I'm sure some don't see the significance of this for Abilene, but I doubt there is another city our size in a state this big with the chance of having three homegrown candidates winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, state Senate and state House of Representatives.

As they say, all politics is local. Sure, we can get bogged down in political party differences on big hot button issues like same-sex marriage, immigration, health care, abortion and the second amendment, but those issues are so polarizing they are always destined to be decided by the Supreme Court anyway.

What really matters locally is what military base closes, who gets the new water reservoir, the new interstate highway from Mexico, the high-speed rail route, wind energy expansion, veterans benefits, senior issues, adequate school funding, state school support and many, many more.

For me, access to local representatives such as Michael Bob Starr, Susan King and Stan Lambert, who know your name, your employer, your school, your church, your city and the strengths and struggles of our part of the world is golden. This particular trio of candidates is extremely qualified and experienced in a variety of issues ranging from national security, business struggles, health care, educational challenges and the lost art of negotiation and cooperation needed to actually get things done for their constituents.

Our West Texas communities need to unite our support behind local candidates and when you enter the election booth, remember that good things come in groups of threes. One of those groups is the S-group: Starr, Susan and Stan.

Randy Pool lives in Abilene.
Mayor Norm Archibald last week encouraged Abilenians to 'circle the wagons,' regarding outlandish accusations made against congressional candidate Michael Bob Starr.

It would be more productive to send out the wagons ... to Washington, to bring the new generation bomber to Dyess Air Force Base.

Dyess is being considered as the site to house the Long Range Strike Bomber from Northrop Grumann Corp. Since 1985, Dyess has been home to the B-1B, a long-range bomber that has been used in the fight against terrorism.

The decision where to base the new bomber likely won't be made until 2017, and its arrival and operation would not come until after 2020. However, it's akin to paying for your son's and daughter's college education; you don't wait until they're seniors.

And Abilene leaders are not.

A group recently met in person with senior Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a strong defense advocate. The same group planned to meet personally the same day with Sen. Ted Cruz but the junior senator was not in his office but preparing for that night's presidential debate.

Brian Yates, the former Air Force officer who now is the Abilene Chamber of Commerce vice president over military affairs, said the group had a good meeting with Cruz's staff member who handles military affairs.

'He asked all the right questions and understood our position,' Yates told us.

Dyess certainly had a fan in former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Yates said Cruz and Cornyn have worked on legislation and military budgets that pertain to our B-1 and C-130 fleets.

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer said last week that Dyess would be the 'perfect home' for the new bomber. He, too, has been faithfully supportive of our air base.

Having Mac Thornberry, the longtime U.S. representative from adjoining District 13 as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is yet another ace in the Dyess deck.

Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) OK'd the Air Force plan to contract for a new bomber to update an aging fleet that still includes B-52s, Boeing's subsonic long-distance bomber that debuted in the 1950s.

Boeing and Lockheed are not happy, of course, with the selection of their competitor.

Plans are to initially build 21 bombers, then add more. The price of a supersonic B-1, from Rockwell, is about $320 million; in 2010 dollars, the cost of the new generation bomber will land somewhere around a half-billion per plane.

This is a big contract, and a big investment.

The question concerning Abilene and West Texas is where it will be based. Don't think there won't be a scramble for that opportunity. With the threat of another round of base closings always looming, adding the bomber to any base solidifies and expands it role. As Starr previously stated, how a base carries out its mission  readiness, excellence and flexibility  is greatly considered in keeping it open. Dyess scores well on those tests.

What would be good down the line is for our two senators to visit Dyess. While they know the mission, a visit makes news and strengthens the signal that Texas, not just West Texas, is on board with the bomber coming here. This is the kind of economic development that is talked about from the governor on down.

While Neugebauer has attended Dyess events on and off the base, we don't believe Cruz has come as senator. He'd be more than welcome.

Like soldiers on guard duty at forts back when Texas still was being settled, our watch on Dyess is never-ending.

However, instead of preparing to be on the defensive, this time we have the opportunity to go on the offensive.

A new long-range bomber should make its home on this range.
One Ukrainian soldier has been killed in clashes between Russia-backed separatists and government forces in the east of the country, Ukraine's military says.

Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on February 21 that the soldier had died in a sniper attack on the government-held town of Maryinka, a recent flashpoint located 20 kilometers southwest of Donetsk.

He said the situation along the front line was "insecure," accusing the rebels of violating a shaky truce agreement over the past 24 hours.

The United Nations says that more than 9,000 people have been killed and some 20,000 injured since Russia-backed separatists began fighting against Ukraine's new pro-Western leadership in 2014.

Based on reporting by AFP and Ukraineunderattack.org
Iraq's Environment Ministry says that radioactive material that was missing in the country has been found dumped near a gas station in the southern town of Zubair.

Spokesman Amir Ali told Reuters on February 21 that the "highly dangerous" material had not been damaged and there were no safety concerns that there has been a leak of radiation.

Reuters reported last week the material had disappeared in November from a storage facility belonging to U.S. oil-field-services company Weatherford near the southern city of Basra.

Iraqi officials told Reuters that they feared the radioactive materials in the device could be used as a dirty bomb or other weapon if acquired by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which occupies parts of Iraq.

Reuters reported that the device used in oil and gas development was stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer.

Based on reporting by Reuters
Bahrains interior minister says the Sunni-ruled kingdom has adopted measures to counter Iran's "interference."



These include forming a committee to monitor money transfers and donations to combat the "financing of terrorism" and imposing travel restrictions on citizens to "unsafe countries," Sheikh Rashid al-Khalifa told a meeting with clerics, lawmakers, and other dignitaries on February 21.



The official BNA news agency quoted Sheikh Rashid as saying the authorities will also confront any "attempts to politicize" Shiite religious rituals.



Bahrain's Shiite majority often uses the annual ceremony commemorating Ashura to call for political reforms such as transforming the kingdom into a constitutional monarchy.



Bahrain has previously announced the dismantling of "terror" cells whose members it said were trained by Iran and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hizballah.



Bahrain, home to the U.S. 5th Fleet, has been shaken by Shi'ite-led unrest since 2011.

Based on reporting by BNA and AFP
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has arrived in Tehran, days after his Iranian counterpart visited Russia.



Iranian television reported that Shoigu met with President Hassan Rohani on February 21, and was due to also hold talks with Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan during his trip to discuss the "situation in the region."



The visit comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a "provisional agreement" had been reached with Russia on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria.



Russia and Iran have both been strong backers of President Bashar al-Assad during the nearly five-year conflict.



Shoigu and Dehghan held talks in Moscow on February 16, during which the sides discussed the implementation of a January 2015 intergovernmental agreement on military cooperation, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.



Russia has a contract with Iran to deliver long-range S-300 air-defense missiles, and Tehran has said it plans to ink a deal with Moscow for the purchase of Su-30 fighter jets.

Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
Clashes between Iraqi tribesmen and the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Fallujah have reportedly halted after the militants detained dozens of residents.

Local official Issa Sayir estimated the number of detainees at about 60, while a lieutenant colonel and a tribal leader were quoted as saying the figure was more than 100.

"The clashes stopped because of the imbalance of power and fear that the detainees would be executed," Sayir said on February 21.

Fighting between the Sunni Arab tribesmen and IS militants in Fallujah began on February 19. There were reports of casualties on both sides.

Sayir said a military operation would be launched in the Fallujah area in the coming days, while the Iraqi Army was quoted as saying that reinforcements had arrived in the outskirts of the city, located 50 kilometers west of Baghdad.

Fallujah is one of the two major Iraqi cities controlled by the IS group, the other being Mosul.

Based on reporting by AFP and IraqiNews.com
Russia has been sending in thousands of recently mobilized troops to reinforce the defense of the southern region of Kherson, where Kyiv's forces have been making major advances in their offensive to retake territory occupied by Moscow, the Ukrainian military said, as fresh Russian strikes on civilian targets were reported on October 21.

"Up to 2,000 mobilized Russians arrived in the temporarily captured Kherson region to replenish losses and strengthen units on the contact line," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on October 21.

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.

"At the same time, the occupation authorities issued an order to prepare for the evacuation of the so-called banking institutions and Russian medical workers and teachers," the statement said.

Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces in Kherson back east across the Dnieper River that bisects the country. Russian soldiers on the western bank, where the city of Kherson is located, are reportedly close to being cut off from supply lines and reinforcements.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said on October 20 that Ukrainian forces mounted 15 attacks on Russian military strongholds in the Kherson region in what appears to be the start of a major push to liberate the region and the strategic city of Kherson.

Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said the Kremlin's forces repelled Ukrainian attempts to advance with tanks on the Kherson villages of Sukhanove, Nova Kamyanka, and Chervoniy Yar.

Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

The city of Kherson, with a prewar population of about 284,000, was one of the first urban areas captured by Russia when it invaded Ukraine, and it remains the largest city it holds. The city is an important objective for both sides because of its key industries and a major port on the Dnieper River.

Moscow-installed officials have urged residents to evacuate and allow the military to build fortifications. Officials said 15,000 residents of an expected 60,000 had been relocated from the city and surrounding areas as of October 20.

Kherson is one of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally seized following Kremlin-orchestrated referendums denounced as sham by Ukraine and the West.

Putin declared martial law in the Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions on October 19 in an attempt to assert Russian authority in the annexed areas as Moscow faced battlefield setbacks, a troubled troop mobilization, increasing criticism at home and abroad, and international sanctions.

In a video address to EU leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels on October 20, Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine suspects Russia has mined the dam and units of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, and if it were blown up, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, would be in danger of flooding.

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian workers have been thrown out of the facility, leaving Russians in control. He asserted that Russia "has already prepared everything to carry out this terrorist attack."

He called for an international observation mission and the return of Ukrainian personnel to ensure the mines are removed from the dam and its units.

Zelenskiy's comment came two days after Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of the Kherson region of Ukraine, announced an "organized, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the right bank of the Dnieper River to the left side.

Saldo accused Ukrainian forces of planning to destroy the dam and also warned of "an immediate danger of flooding."

The Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, encouraged people to cross over to the left bank of the Dnieper River and posted a video of a column of buses on Telegram.

Kyiv has denounced Moscow's move, calling it a "deportation" of Ukrainian civilians to Russia.

Over the past 10 days, Russia has also unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure using artillery, air strikes, and Iranian-made suicide drones that destroyed 40 percent of the country's energy grid and prompted Kyiv to introduce rolling electricity restrictions for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion eight months ago.

WATCH: Ukrainian forces first got their hands on FH70 155-millimeter howitzers courtesy of Italy in May and received training in Estonia. RFE/RL journalists met with a frontline FH70 crew and watched them in action against Russian forces.

Early on October 21, a series of blasts rocked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya, authorities said.

Missiles hit an industrial facility in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Separately, Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Sinegubov said five people had been wounded.

No further details were immediately available about the Zaporizhzhua blasts.

Zelenskiy told EU leaders that the Russian attacks against civilians and infrastructure are aimed in part at provoking a new wave of migration of Ukrainians to EU countries.

"Russian terror against our energy facilities is aimed at creating as many problems as possible with electricity and heat for Ukraine this fall and winter and for as many Ukrainians as possible to go to your countries," he said.

This should be "answered immediately," primarily by more air-defense systems sent to Ukraine, the president said, speaking by video conference from Kyiv.

"We must do everything possible to make it completely impossible for Russia to destroy our energy system with missiles and drones," Zelenskiy said in the virtual speech, calling on Ukraine's partners to provide systems "to create a truly reliable air shield."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and BBC
Syrian activists and pro-government media say more than 140 people have been killed in a series of explosions in government-held areas of Syria.

The February 21 attacks came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a "provisional agreement" had been reached with Russia on a partial truce in the Syrian conflict.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that at least 59 people, mainly civilians, were killed in a double car bombing in the central city of Homs.

The explosions hit the Al-Zahraa district, most of whose residents belong to President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.

Homs city is almost completely controlled by the Syrian government.

Hours later, at least three blasts targeted a Shiite suburb of Damascus.

State television reported at least 87 dead and some 200 wounded. The observatory put the death toll at more than 80.

The attacks hit the Sayyida Zeinab district, which is home to the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the Homs and Damascus blasts.

The observatory also said that at least 50 IS fighters had been killed in the past 24 hours in an advance by government troops, backed by Russian air strikes, east of the northern city of Aleppo.

Earlier, Kerry said he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

"We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry told a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on February 21.

Kerry said he and Lavrov hoped that U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be speaking in the coming days in order to complete the provisional agreement in principle.

He added that the two sides were "still filling out the details."

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov and Kerry had spoken about conditions for a cease-fire in Syria on the telephone.

It said discussions were on cease-fire conditions, which would exclude operations against organizations "recognized as terrorists by the UN Security Council."

Meanwhile in Tehran, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Iranian President Hassan Rohani.

The official IRNA news agency reported that Shoigu gave a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Rohani.

It also said the Russian minister presented an overview "of the situation regarding stability in the region and the process of negotiations for a cease-fire in Syria."

Russia and Iran have both been strong backers of President Assad during the nearly five-year conflict.

Major powers agreed in Munich on February 12 to work toward a cessation of hostilities in Syria and to expand delivery of humanitarian aid to people caught up in the conflict.

The Munich agreement between 18 countries supporting opposing sides in Syria's civil war had called for a truce to begin as early as February 19.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax
Ask almost anyone 60 years and older about polio, and inevitably you will stir up memories of seeing its victims lying encased in iron lungs that emitted deep, rhythmic, mechanical breaths every few seconds. Two of my high school teachers were confined to wheelchairs, victims of polio when they were young. One summer, public health officials closed the municipal swimming pool in my hometown, deeming it too risky for spreading the disease.

Many of us remember how the American public rallied and came together to fight polio: How school children contributed millions of dollars in dimes in what would be the first truly national fundraising campaign. How Hollywood celebrities such as Eddy Cantor, Bing Crosby, and Jack Benny took on the disease as their cause celebre.

Poliomyelitis has been around for thousands of years, but it was not recognized as a distinct disease until the late 18th century. A virus that spreads among people by fecal matter or saliva found in food or water, it leaves its victims fully or partially paralyzed  and sometimes dead. Severe breathing problems often accompany polio.

Medical scientists finally isolated and identified the virus in 1908, a time when doctors became increasingly concerned about major outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. The number of polio cases rose dramatically in the 20th century, reaching a peak in the years following World War II.

***

President Franklin Roosevelt, who was stricken with polio as an adult, became its most visible symbol, although he tried to hide its consequences from the public. On the other hand, because most of its victims were young, especially the very young, and the publicity polio generated, it became the most visible childhood disease of the century.

Polio reached epidemic levels in the early 1950s. In 1950 alone, more than 33,000 Americans, half of whom were age 10 or younger, contracted the disease. Wytheville in southwest Virginia gained national attention when polio struck it with a vengeance, resulting in nearly 200 cases.

The following year, the number of cases nationwide continued to rise, as did the public clamor for a solution. Americans then began to band together, much as they had during World War II. Government agencies on all levels joined forces with non-government organizations to combat the disease.

Volunteers by the millions offered their assistance. Medical scientists sprang into action when federal funding, along with corporate and private philanthropy, began to flow into research institutes, led by the March of Dimes.

Soon an intense rivalry developed between the two leading polio scientists  Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Both men were raised in Jewish immigrant neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey respectively. Both finished medical school preferring the challenges of medical research rather than the practice of medicine.

During World War II, Salk started work in virology, and in 1947 began studying polio at the University of Pittsburgh, where he concentrated on developing a vaccine against the disease. Because of the risks surrounding the use of live virus, killed virus vaccines delivered by injections would be safer and more effective.

Established researchers, however, rejected Salks idea and his methods. Leading the opposition was Sabin, who believed that an oral vaccine would destroy the virus in the intestines and prevent it from entering the blood stream.

The two rivals were unrelenting in their search for a magic bullet, but Salk introduced his vaccine first when he began field trials at an elementary school in McLean, Virginia, in April 1954. With these early experiments deemed a success, more than two million children received Salk vaccines by the end of the year. Within the next few years, millions more young people in the U.S. lined up for the vaccine, and the number of polio diagnoses plummeted.

In the meantime, Sabin first tested his oral vaccine in Europe in 1957. Delivered in sugar cubes, easily administered, and inexpensive, it became the standard vaccine around the world. Its use, however, was severely limited in the U.S. for several years after a federal advisory panel determined that it was still too risky.

Although Jonas Salk is credited with ending polio because his inoculation was the first to be administered to the public, Sabins vaccine actually was used on a greater worldwide scale and is the preferred preventative treatment for polio today.

***

Thanks to both vaccines, the U.S. was declared polio-free in 1979. Through the efforts of Rotary International, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, polio was reduced 99 percent globally by 1988.

The international effort to rid the world of polio was set back in 2011 when the CIA orchestrated a fake polio clinic in Pakistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Since then, polio workers in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been distrusted, and suicide bombers have murdered more than a dozen. Sadly, they are the only two countries on Earth where the disease continues to claim victims.

In the U.S., reminders of polio can be observed almost anywhere. John Hager, former lieutenant governor of Virginia, has been confined to a wheelchair since contracting the disease when he was in his early 30s. Like Franklin Roosevelt, he has refused to let polio prevent him from continuing an active and productive life.

Gordon Kerby of Richmond, who grew up in Waynesboro, has no memory of life without polio. He was only 2 and a half years old when he and his seven-month old brother were diagnosed. Kerby was confined to an iron lung for five years, but thanks to physicians and physical therapists at the Medical College of Virginia, he learned how to breathe on his own, to walk with braces on his legs, and eventually ride a bicycle.

Kerby went on to become a respected environmental engineer, get married, and become a competitive bicycle rider. In recent years, however, he has suffered from post-polio syndrome, a condition that brings back many of the diseases manifestations 30 and 40 years later. Unable to walk very far, he relies on a motorized scooter to get around.

The story of the fight against polio reveals a time in our history when Americans came together to conquer a terrible disease. The combination of millions of people giving their dimes, volunteering, and working in private-public partnerships to fight a common enemy led to a medical breakthrough that saved countless people from a crippling disease and possible death.

Unfortunately, national unity, even facing a dangerous common enemy, has been difficult to achieve and nearly impossible to sustain in todays fractious political and social environment. If the current concerns over the zika virus were to reach the same level as they did for polio, would we as a nation respond as rapidly and effectively as we did in the 1950s? I wonder.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
LYNDHURST  The cost of delaying maintenance in Shenandoah National Park is starting to add up. In a report released last week, park officials detailed that the number now stands at more than $90 million, thanks to years of cutbacks from the federal government. Those delays are also starting to have an impact on park facilities.

Deferred maintenance refers to maintenance that is necessary to keep our infrastructure in good shape, but has been put off for more than a year, said National Park Service spokesperson Sally Hurlbert. There are many deferred maintenance projects in the park.

All total in Virginia, the number runs even higher, to $816.3 million worth of deferred projects in the various parks. Shenandoah National Park has roads and overlooks in need of repair, along with visitor centers, trails, campgrounds, drinking water systems and wastewater treatment areas. The biggest need is to repair paved roads, at a cost of $56.1 million in Shenandoah. Repair of unpaved roads total a cost of $6.4 million, with issues in the water systems requiring a $6 million renovation.

Coming out of the recession, Congress has tried to address the backlog. This year, Congress gave the National Park Service an extra $90 million for non-transportation issues and an extra $28 million for transportation issues. Funds will continue to rise by $8 million per year for five years, until it reaches $300 million total per year in 2020.

Hurlbert gave examples of high-priority non-transportation and transportation projects the Shenandoah National Park hope to address this year.

[Non-transportation issues include] the repair and rehabilitation of the Mathews Arm Wastewater Treatment Plant, replacing structures on park trails and in campgrounds (such as picnic tables and fire rings), preserving the historic view shed along Skyline Drive and repairing and upgrading electrical systems in some of our facilities, she described.

The Shenandoah National Park holds $90 million of the $11.49 billion deferred maintenance across the National Park System from 2015.

The age of the Shenandoah National Park is the reason behind the backlog, Hurlbert said.

The park is [over] 80 years old and over the years we havent received all of the money necessary to pay for all our maintenance needs, the deferred maintenance has built up to a large amount, she explained. [Since] our facilities are getting older, there is an increased use of our facilities, and insufficient funding to keep up with the maintenance needs over the years have all contributed to the back-log.

Hurlbert and others at the park look to 2016 with a positive attitude thanks to the additional Congressional funds. She said there is also a way that citizens can help.

Citizens can help the park by advocating for us. There are several ways they can do that. One way would be to voice their concerns with their elected officials. Another way would be to consider donating money to our parks philanthropic partner, the Shenandoah National Park Trust. The trust provides funding to help us with some our deferred maintenance needs, Hurlbert explained. We truly appreciate the extra funding they provide to us.
A boom in the number of international students in the United States is bringing intellectual talent from all over the world to American universities. But some question whether the rush to bring in international students is attracting some bad actors.

The University of Virginia alone has seen its number of international students grow from about 1,750 to around 2,400 in the past decade. Thats a tiny fraction of the 1.4 million international students in the U.S. on student F visas; vocational training, or M visas; or cultural exchange J visas.

The majority of these students follow the law and study without running into any issues.

But critics, including David North of the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, say the system is too easily exploited by some.

Some people who have no job prospects in the U.S. may use the visa system to get their foot in the door, then stay past their welcome, he said. There is an entire support system in place that allows such people to get in. And even if they overstay, the federal government does little to track them, North said.

[Say] youre sitting in Mexico City and you want to come to the U.S. Youve got no relatives here, you dont have a job lined up that will get you a visa, North said.

One of the ways you do this is look around at a university that will issue an I-20, he continued, referring to the document issued by institutions certifying a persons status as an international student.

Once youre here and you dont run afoul of the police, youre home free.

North has extensively studied so-called visa mills, or fake institutions that exist solely to bring people to the United States. One such institution operated just two hours north of Charlottesville, in Annandale.

The University of Northern Virginia, which enrolled more than 1,200 students, was raided by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2011. The university was embroiled in a national investigation spanning several suspected visa mills around the country.

As it turns out, these institutions were charging students thousands of dollars each year for the chance to work legally in the United States. Two years after the raid, the University of Northern Virginia was shut down by the state. It moved to North Dakota and shut down shortly after.

The Student Exchange and Visitor Program, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is charged with monitoring universities that issue I-20 forms. Last year, SEVP began sending representatives to these institutions to help them keep in line with policy.
Jessie Ellen Baylor Cox, of Roanoke, Va., and widow of Samuel Wayt Cox, went to her Heavenly home (John 14:2) on Thursday, February 18, 2016.She was the daughter of David G. and Rebecca Lander Baylor. She was also predeceased by two brothers and two sisters.Jessie was born in Staunton, Va., on February 26, 1912. She was raised in Staunton and was a graduate of Robert E. Lee High School and Dunsmore Business College. She worked as cashier and bookkeeper at Virginia Gas Distribution Company for four years. She married Samuel Wayt Cox in 1939 and lived most of her life in Roanoke and Salem, Va. Jessie was very active in Child Evangelism Fellowship and conducted Bible Classes in homes. She also had an active part in the Wednesday Morning Bible Class which met in the Ghent Brethren Church for many years. Mrs. Roberta Renner, deceased, who was the teacher of the Wednesday Morning Bible Class, and Jessie were the closest of friends, Jessie also was the secretary and treasurer of the class and manager of the nursery. She was a charter member of Grace Church but in her latter years was not active because of hearing loss.Jessie is survived by several dear nephews, W.D. Baylor, Robert F. Driver, Eddie G. Taylor, and Thomas D. Taylor; as well as a dear niece of her late husband, Mrs. Mary Jane Farmer.Jessie's close friends are very appreciative of the excellent and constant care given to Jessie by the very competent nursing staff of South Roanoke Nursing Home for the last six years of her life.Graveside Service and Burial will be held at Evergreen Cemetery at 11 a.m. on Monday, February 22, 2016. Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be made at www.oakeys.com.
"A precious one is gone  A voice we loved is stilled  A place is vacant in our home which can never be filled  God saw the road was getting rough, the hills were hard to climb, He gently closed those loving eyes and whispered, peace be thine."Michelle Lynn Page, 41, was granted her wings and went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, February 2, 2016. She was born to the union of Edith and Len Page in Pasadena, California. She was the younger of two daughters. Michelle was preceded in death by her mother, Edith Page, and her nephew, Malcom Harris. Survivors include father, Len Page; sister, Myra Page; and nephew, Silas Harris.On October 2, 1983, Michelle confessed her faith in Jesus Christ, and was born into the family of God through the ministry of Bethel Baptist Church of Pasadena, where she was baptized by the Reverend F. S. Stevens, Pastor. In the summer of 2010, Michelle united with Friendship Baptist Church of Pasadena, Calif., under the pastorage of Senior Pastor Lucious W. Smith, where she served the Lord.Graduating from Blair High School in Pasadena, class of 1993, Michelle was one of the four students that was honored by the Mayors committee and pictured in the Pasadena Star News for beating adversity. She was also voted best smile for the year. Michelle attended Pasadena City College, where she got a certificate in child care. Later she found her love in cooking and took a few classes.Michelle made a lot of friends during her lifetime and was loved by many. She will truly be missed. Her nephew states "God is just picking flowers to make a beautiful bouquet."She leaves to cherish her memories a loving father, Len Page; sister, Myra Page, and nephew, Silas Harris; aunts and uncles, Mary Belcher, Pauline Irving, Margaret (Chester) Washington, Robert (Elizabeth) Saunders, George (Sandra) Saunders, Kathy Page, Wayne (Carolyn) Page, Glenn Page, Alice Reed, Sallie Page, Nancy (Wayne) Brown, Mary Webb and Geneva Pate, and a very special aunt, Kathleen Saunders of Roanoke, Va., and a host of cousins, family and friends.Services were held in Monrovia, CA and Michelle's interment will take place at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.
Barbara Elizabeth Bray Roth, 87, of Blacksburg, Va., departed this world on Monday, February 8, 2016. Beloved wife of Dr. David W.H. Roth, Jr. for 68 years, Mrs. Roth was born in Newark, N.J. to Edward Bray and Florence Forstler Bray, of Bloomfield, N.J. She was raised in Allentown, Pa., where she met Mr. Roth. Both, along with their respective families, were members of Grace Evangelical United Brethren Church at Sixth and Washington Streets. She attended Kutztown State University and later earned a B.A. in art education at Montclair State University.Mrs. Roth was a homemaker and a teacher of piano. Music filled her life. As a pianist, she could play almost anything by ear and seemed to know every song. She could always be found on a Sunday singing soprano in the choir, and could be depended upon as a volunteer to provide musical accompaniment at all sorts of functions, particularly at homes for the elderly. She and Dr. Roth were patrons of the arts, and enjoyed especially going to the opera in New York City. She had a special affinity for cats.Mrs. Roth is survived by her devoted husband, David and by their son, Richard A. Roth, both of Blacksburg, Va.; and by her sister, Mrs. Emma Jane Bray Mosser, of Whitehall, Pa. Also left to cherish her memory are her grandchildren, David E. Roth, Douglas A. Roth, and Liza L. Roth; as well as three great-granddaughters and two great-grandsons. If you wish to make a contribution in her memory, the family asks that you donate to Oxfam or to your local animal shelter or humane society.
Any speculation that the material was sold to the Islamic State to be used as a weapon was ended. Right now the question on everybodys mind is how did the radioactive material owned by Swiss inspections group SGS ended up 15km southwest of Basra in the southern town of Zubair. Investigations have already begun when the company first announced the material was stolen from a storage facility belonging to Weatherford back in November.

Jabbar al-Saidi, the chief of the security panel, explained the details surrounding the find: A passer-by found the radioactive device dumped in Zubair and immediately informed security forces which went with a special radiation prevention team and retrieved the device.. After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100 percent and there is absolutely no concern of radiation. After failing to take it out of the town, the perpetrators decided to dump it. After failing to take it out of the town, the perpetrators decided to dump it.
Japan will on Monday see preliminary February figures for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The manufacturing PMI score in January was 52.3, above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Japan also will see January numbers for supermarket sales; in December, sales were flat on year.

New Zealand will release credit card spending figures for January; in December, spending was down 0.8 percent on month and up 7.4 percent on year.

Finally, the in Thailand are closed on Monday for Makha Bucha Day, and will re-open on Tuesday.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
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
Pinoy in Rome: At the Door of the Jubilee Year of Mercy (III)

By ROBERT Z. CORTES

December 24, 2015

Day 4: Santa Maria della Strada in the Church of Il Gesu

As one might already have suspected, considering that the 4th day of the novena to the Immaculate Conception falls on the feast of St. Francis Xavier (one of my favorite saints for reasons you will probably discern soon) and the patron saint of a bishop very close to me, I made it a point to go to the Church of Il Gesu to say the Rosary and do my prayer before his relic.

I knew from experience that the Gesu is often dark. I had always thought it a pity to be in such a magnificent church, yet unable to appreciate such beauty. I was hoping against hope that there might be a bit more light when I went, but it was even darker than I remembered. And to my shock, there was actually a Mass in the side chapel of St. Francis, and I could hardly hear the priest talking. "What? Is this how they value this saint, second in only to their Founder in importance?" I must confess I had those scandalized thoughts as I next-to-groped my way through the dimly lit nave, looking for the chapel of the Madonna.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the side chapel to the right of the sanctuary had more light than the rest of the Church  it was the Chapel of Our Lady. But I was even more pleased to see that the image venerated there was the "Santa Maria dellaStrada" - a very familiar appellation to me, even if I'm not from The Ateneo, because my friends from that area had introduced me to the image. There were also very nice paintings (new, I think) around the small chapel depicting scenes of Our Lady's life. There was two seminarians(an African and a South American) trying to translate the Latin verses written under each painting. From the agonized looks on their faces and the desperate hand gestures of the African, I could see they didn't have much luck. I was tempted to help them out but I had to focus on the Rosary.

Now as I was about to finish my Rosary, something remarkable happened. The entire Church was suddenly lit up. It was fully lit up and there, for the first time I saw the full glory of Il Gesu. O-M-G - for it would be taking the Lord's name in vain if I spelled that out in full; yet really, that was all I could say. I had hoped Il Gesunow would be somehow brighter than my previous times there - but not this bright. Really, as many persons can attest, God doesn't do things by halves.

So for the first time, I saw how richly decorated was the statue of St. Ignatius. He is brocaded in jewels and venerated in an altar of rich lapiz lazuli and green marble. And while Pope Francis might be living very poorly, as did St. Ignatius, I don't think he'd object to this depiction of heavenly glory of his spiritual father and one of the Church's greatest saints.

Then there was the dome and the ceiling. When I spoke previously about Sant'Agnese's dome as the most magnificent yet I had seen, that was because I had not seen Il Gesu lit this way. And while I'm not about to take my wordsback, I must confess that Sant'Agnese's cupola now has a real contender. I also loved the main altar which showed the Holy Family.

But I now turn to the real object of my small pilgrimage, who is St. Francis Xavier. Il Gesu is not as fortunate as India which has the saint's incorrupt body.But it does have his arm, and I couldn't believe my fortune for having gone that close to see the "incorruption" for myself. But to explain that fortune I must go back to that Mass at the side chapel. That was actually a Spanish mass and was attended by some Basques, the people of St. Francis's region in Spain. Afterwards, they had their picture taken and seeing that one priest couldn't be in the picture since he had to take the picture, I told him in Spanish that I was willing to do it. My four semesters of Spanish in college is still quite useful.

So as a "prize" for my voluntary camera work, I was allowed to step right upto the relic. I was peacefully gazing at the arm when I heard some sort of sighing beside me: "Oh, the arm that blessed my people!" He was an Indian priest and was referring to the fact that this arm had baptized 300,000 Indians. I was friendly, of course, and asked if he was from Goa, where the saint's body now is, but no, he was from Kerala or some other place with a K. Anyway, I asked him to take this picture of me gazing at the relic, and he said, "K!" I wondered if had been texting with Filipinos, but I wasn't flippant enough to ask.

I spent the rest of the time praying before the relic and thinking about the saint's zeal for souls. I read that he had died when only 46 from exhaustion of all the apostolate he was happily doing. When I was done, I walked the vast expanse of the brightly lit Church still thinking and praying to get even a small part of this saint's zeal. As I reached the door, it opened and in came the reason for all the light: two cardinals - an Asian and an African - were about to celebrate a high mass on the great saint's feast day. On seeing that, I was secretly relieved that people here valued St. Francis after all  though I say that now in jest. The African cardinal looked at me and being no expert, I wasn't sure what to do. I simply nodded and smiled and he made a sign of blessing.

I was definitely pleased the cardinal did that, but now that I think of it I realize that his gesture was just a sign. It was a gesture that ought to remind me of all the wonderful things I had just experienced in that church. It was also a reminder of the gesture that had made St. Francis Xavier great - a reminder that I (and you) need to pass on all the blessings we receive to everyone we know if we want to be anywhere the glory of St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady, Santa Maria dellaStrada! Here's praying that they intercede for us to at least make the first step.
Chiz urges more schools to turn to renewable energy

By Office of Senator Chiz Escudero

January 7, 2016

PASAY CITY  Sen. Francis Chiz Escudero has urged more universities and colleges to follow the lead of Silliman University in Dumaguete City, which is on its way to becoming the first academic institution in the country to run completely on solar power.

Silliman recently signed an agreement with First Solar Orion Energy Solutions Inc. (FSO), one of the largest producers of solar power in the world, to install in the 62-hectare campus a 1.2-megawatt solar power generating capacity to supply the power needs of the university.

We commend Silliman University for this milestone and we also encourage other educational institutions to promote the use of renewable energy (RE) in order to show the world that we are faithful in our commitment to reduce carbon emissions in the country, said Escudero, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

The Silliman-FSO deal was signed on December 18, or five days after the Philippines pledged to stop global warming and signed the historic climate accord in Paris, along with nearly 200 nations.

We should be proud that even schools have the initiative to use renewable sources because we need collaborative effort to be able to achieve a sustainable energy system and to end this fossil fuel era, Escudero said.

Escudero had welcomed the Paris accord as an important milestone especially for countries that are most vulnerable to climate change impacts like the Philippines.

As Senate environment chief, Escudero also expressed his willingness to work with policymakers for the crafting and passage of new legislation that would help the country fulfill its climate change commitments.

The deal, agreed at the UN talks in Paris, lays the foundation for countries to work together in trying to limit the global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius, well below the level of 2 degrees Celsius that is likely to signal the worst effects of climate change.

The agreement also requires developed nations to continue to provide funding to help less developed countries cut their carbon emissions and adapt to the challenges posed by the changing climate.

In a statement, Silliman said its agreement with FSO further bolsters its environmental advocacy and walks its talk in reducing its carbon footprint as its share in helping achieve the countrys climate commitments.

Under the deal, the university will be the principal consumer and FSO will be the developer and supplier of the solar power.

The cost of the solar energy consumption will be 20 percent less per kilowatt hour than what they are currently paying Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative II.

At the same time, FSO pledges to provide free solar power to 240 poor families living around Silliman.

According to data from the Department of Energy (DOE), only 37 percent of power generated in 2014 was sourced from renewable energy sources while 63 percent was sourced from non-renewable sources of power.
PRO8 to undertake checkpoint operations regionwide to implement total gun ban

By RPCRD, Police Regional Office 8

January 9, 2016

CAMP KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte  PCSupt Jose Erwin T. Villacorte, the newly assumed Acting Regional Director of Police Regional Office 8 ensures the public that Police authorities will intensify its effort to undertake public safety activities to achieve a peaceful and orderly 2016 elections on May 2016.

The PNP, as one of the deputized agencies of the COMELEC, has already disseminated to all its units that the gun ban will start midnight January 9, 2016 until June 8, 2016.

In this connection, Police authorities throughout the Eastern Visayas will simultaneously establish COMELEC checkpoints to implement the total gun ban which will start midnight of January 9, 2016, in time for the start of election period for the May 2016 presidential and local polls.

PCSupt. Villacorte said, the propagation of loose firearms has been identified as one of the main causes of violence during election period.

"This is one of the dos' and don'ts that we are going to enforce during the election period which will start on January 10. All candidates cannot hire or bring bodyguards without gun ban exemption," Villacorte added.

Comelec Resolution No. 3328 provides for the poll body to prohibit during the election period the carrying and transporting of firearms or deadly weapons by any person.

He added that those qualified candidates are not allowed to hire private armed men, only professional security personnel.

Only members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) including blue guards and other security government agencies are allowed to carry firearms during work hours in its areas of responsibility.

The campaign period for national candidates (president, vice president, senator, and party-list groups) is set on February 9 to May 7, 2016 while for local candidates will be on March 25 to May 7, 2016.

According to COMELEC, the Certificates of Authority/Gun Ban Exemptions issued in previous National and Local Elections shall not be recognized anymore in this years Elections. Thus, all law enforcers and security personnel in the country are reminded to apply for the renewal of their Certificates of Authority/Gun Ban Exemptions.

Furthermore, all existing authority previously granted to security personnel or body guards are likewise revoked, except the regular security complement of the President, Vice President, Senators, Congressmen and Governors, all local Elective Officials (except Barangay Officials), Justices, Judges, Cabinet Secretaries, Chairman and Commissioners of the Commission on Elections, Chief of Staff of the AFP and AFP Major Service Commanders, Director Generals and Senior Officers of the PNP.

According to the Acting Regional Director, PNP will also continue its intensified conduct of checkpoint operations as one of the measures of implementing the gun ban. Thus, the public is advised not to carry their firearms as such act is prohibited under the pain of criminal and administrative sanctions. Also, the PNP further asks the public, especially the motorists, for their cooperation and patience during the checkpoints.

Likewise, PCSupt. Villacorte reminds all its personnel especially those manning checkpoints to always observe the Police Operational Procedure (POP) and to respect human rights.

The PNP, as one of the deputized agencies of the Commission on Elections plays a vital role in ensuring a peaceful, orderly and successful SK Elections.
FLORENCE, S.C.  As South Carolinians hit the ballot boxes to choose a potential Republican presidential nominee Saturday, some voters were torn between who would be the preferred Democrat to run against in November: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Some voters leaving their polling places said the Republican nominee has a better shot at beating Clinton because shes not well liked by Democrats or Republicans. Others said Sanders is more beatable because of his age and his willingness to move the country toward democratic socialism.

Right now theres a lot of sentiment that she (Hillary) cant be trusted, said David Cicirello, a Florence resident. The other night Scott Pelley asked her if she lied to voters, and she had trouble answering. I think people are picking up on that a lot. Bernie seems to be genuine where Hillary doesnt, and in the end I think thats going to matter.

Shaye Guffey, a Darlington native, said she'd rather see Clinton win the nomination, because even Democrats are reluctant to support her nomination.

"Probably Hillary because no one really likes her, Guffey said. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are saying anything good about her. I don't think a first lady should be able to run for president if her husband has already served as president. It's like the same thing all over again."

Myrna Garris, chairman of Dillon of the South Carolina GOP, said Clinton would make a better president, but Sanders is more appealing to new and first-time voters.

"I'm amazed at the number of people that are going toward Bernie, Garris said. A lot of them are, of course, the young generations. He's really taking off. Bernie does magnificently in his campaigning. Bernie would take us into socialism, I believe. Hillary will not. But there are still things that I don't trust about her."

Some said the socialist aspect of Sanders campaign is what will lose him the nomination.

I wouldnt think a socialist would have much of a chance against a Republican, said John Pugh, a retired Francis Marion University business professor. I think the Republicans have a good shot at beating either of them, but I think Sanders has less of a chance.

Mary Henry, a Florence resident, said shed rather see Hillary get the nomination, because shes the least likely of all candidates to get elected.

Shes a crook and everybody knows it, Henry said. I doubt shell even beat Bernie Sanders, and even if she does, shes going to lose to Trump or Cruz or whoever the Republicans choose.

Linda Hughes of Hemingway expressed a common sentiment.

I hope to God we get a good president, she said. Ive prayed, and I hope Im led to make the right choice.

Morning News reporters Shamira McCray and Deborah Swearingen and Weekly Observer Editor Dianne Poston-Owens contributed to this article.
Press Release

February 21, 2016 CHIZ SEES PASSAGE OF MAGNA CARTA OF STUDENTS

UNDER POE PRESIDENCY Independent vice-presidential candidate Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero is hopeful that the long-pending Magna Carta of Students will finally see the light of day under a government led by Sen. Grace Poe to stop irregular tuition hikes in private higher education institutions. Escudero said the passage of the bill on students' rights, which dates back to the 8th Congress, is timely with the current prohibitive cost of education in the country. "Panahon na upang isabatas natin ang Magna Carta of Students upang mapangalagaan ang mga karapatan ng mga estudyante lalo na sa hindi makatarungang pagtataas ng matrikula ng mga pribadong paaralan," said Escudero, who is the frontrunner in the vice-presidential race. Escudero has been supporting the passage of the measure since he was a congressman of Sorsogon, because it seeks, among others, to empower students to scrutinize fees imposed by schools. "Nakapaloob sa Magna Carta of Students ang karapatan ng mga estudyante na maging miyembro ng board of directors ng lahat ng eskwelahan, private man o public," Escudero explained. "Para sa gayon, kung may increase mang gagawin ang eskwelahan malalaman nila: 'Para saan ba 'to?,' 'Saan ba 'to pupunta?', 'at makatarungan ba 'yung pagtaas ng matrikula?'" The veteran lawmaker said without the measure, students and parents are being taken for a ride by school administrations that wantonly increase tuition sans consultation. "Ngayon, walang magawa ang pamahalaan sa mga increase na ito at ni hindi alam ng mga estudyante at mga magulang nila kung saan ba pupunta 'yung pera mula sa dagdag matrikula," he said. Escudero is a co-author of Senate Bill No. 308 or An Act Providing for a Magna Carta of Students filed by Sen. Cynthia Villar in 2013. "Sa mahabang panahon, hindi po ito ipinasa ng mga nagdaang administrasyon, na tila ba minamaliit nila ang kakayanan ng kabataan. Sa ilalim ng Gobyernong May Puso ni Senator Poe, tinitiyak kong matatapos na ang mga araw na nasa dilim ang ating mga estudyante pagdating sa pagpapasya tungkol sa pagtataas ng mga bayarin sa paaralan," he said. The proposed Magna Carta of Students seeks to ensure their freedom of access to education, right to organize and freedom of association, freedom of expression, academic rights, right to adequate academic facilities, right to student employment, right to consultation, information and participation in policy making, creation of student ethics committee, right to due process in disciplinary proceedings, and right to protection and privacy of official educational records. The Education Act of 1982, which was passed during the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, permitted private schools to determine their rate of tuition and other school fees or charges, subject to rules and regulations promulgated by then the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Section 9 of the bill filed by Villar, on the other hand, states that "no rule, regulation or policy that directly or indirectly affects the students' rights and welfare, including tuition fee increase, shall be implemented without prior consultations and information." Apart from the passage of the students' rights bill, Escudero is also pushing for a fully-subsidized tuition in state universities and colleges, full implementation of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education Act (UniFAST) and the digitization of education to improve Filipino students' global competitiveness.
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MESA, Ariz.  If you dont know who Sean Manaea is, manager Bob Melvin said Sunday, look for the hair.

The As top pitching prospect, in camp for the first time after coming from Kansas City in the Ben Zobrist deal, has whirls of curls  hair so big that it looks as if it might have its own gravity field. He had to go up a hat size this spring to accommodate it all.

I shaved it in May. I lost a bet, Manaea said Sunday morning before the pitchers and catchers took the field for the first time this spring. Im trying to grow it out as long as I can before I start going crazy.

Manaea, who is of Samoan heritage, called it his Samo-fro.

Perfect for the Oakland As, right-hander Sonny Gray said approvingly.

Manaea (pronounced man-EYE-uh) fits the bill for the As in many ways. First of all, he has sensational ability, going 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA with Double-A Midland last summer after coming from the Royals. Its not far-fetched that he could be in the rotation by late May.

He might have the best stuff Ive ever seen in person, Midland reliever Ryan Doolittle said.

He checks all the boxes to be a big-league starter, and a good one, Oakland general manager David Forst said, noting that Manaea might have been the top overall pick in the 2013 draft had it not been for a hip injury. As it was, Manaea was the 34th pick.

Second, as Gray suggested, he falls right in with the free-spirited, free-wheeling As tradition. Hes a big kid at heart: Manaea, 24, bought himself a Nerf gun for his birthday this month, and Midland manager Ryan Christenson smiled when remembering Manaeas playthings.

He went out and bought a Lego toy, put it together and put it in front of his locker for a couple of days. It kind of tells you how he likes to have fun, Christenson said. When he got traded over, he stepped into the clubhouse and within the first couple of days, he was the glue of the team. The guys gravitated toward him; hes got a magnetic personality.

Manaea, a 6-foot-5 left-hander with a fastball-slider-changeup repertoire, spent most of last year at Double-A Midland after the midsummer deal, but might be on a fast track for Oaklands rotation.

Hes overpowering, catcher Bruce Maxwell said. As big as he is and with the wide arm angle, it looks like its getting on you fast, and hes throwing mid-90s as it is. Explosive. Dominant. And the hair tells you everything you need to know: Hes relaxed. Goofy. A very fun guy to be around.

Josh Phegley caught Manaea on Sunday and said, With the size and stature, hes going to be intimidating. And the hair!

Phegley already had heard a lot about Manaea, because theyre both from Indiana. Id never seen him before  and at first glance, not anything Id imagined, Phegley said.

Not a lot of Samoans in Indiana? Not a surplus, Phegley said.

Manaea said the only other American Samoans he knew in Indiana growing up were his half-brother and his family. Manaeas father, Faaloloi, is from American Samoa and lived in Hawaii, but while in the Army he was stationed in Indiana and decided to stay. Hes the guy who gave up the sun and the beaches for Indiana, Manaea said with a laugh.

Manaea is himself a world traveler: After the Arizona Fall League, he and his girlfriend, Megan Stone, visited Manaeas brother, Dane, who is in the Navy and stationed in Spain. They also went to Paris, Amsterdam and Italy.

It was great, Manaea said. Great food. I think I put on 10 pounds in Italy.

Then theres the Lego; Manaea got it during an off-day on a trip to an aquarium. Bought it and built it, he said proudly. Lego City submarine. Everyone made fun of me, but Im kind of a big kid.

Hes a goofy kid, great attitude, very positive. And I love when he puts on a hat  it just sits there, Doolittle said. Hes one of those guys that any time I walk into a room and see him, its instant smile.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SusanSlusser
Hoping to create more general interest in virtual reality, Samsung on Sunday unveiled a virtual reality camera designed for average consumers to record events like family parties and vacations.

The South Korean electronics giant said it plans to start selling the Gear 360 around March 11, along with its next-generation flagship phones, the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, which were also introduced at the big Mobile World Congress telecommunications industry conference in Barcelona.

Little known companies like Sunnyvale startup LucidCam are trying to mass-produce a $400 consumer-oriented virtual reality camera that would go on sale this year, while the more famous GoPro has only produced a $15,000 rig aimed at professionals.

But Samsung is throwing its manufacturing and marketing muscle behind its entry, a device that is the size and shape of a racquetball and includes two cameras that each capture a 195-degree view.

And if there are more user-created virtual reality videos to watch on YouTube and Facebook, people might be less hesitant to spend $600 or more on virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, which is going on sale this year.

Until theres a ton of content, there isnt going to be a ton of virtual reality (videos) outside of gaming, said tech consultant and analyst Mike Vorhaus.

Affordable virtual reality cameras could tap into growing interest in the technology. A recent survey conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates showed that 56 percent of Americans are aware of virtual reality, with 24 percent saying they are very interested in an at-home virtual reality experience.

One major question is how much Samsung will charge for the Gear 360. In a recent interview, Tom Harding, Samsungs director of immersive products and virtual reality, said the company hasnt set the final price.

Samsung has already bet on the future of virtual reality with the Gear VR, a $100 headset that also requires a newer Galaxy mobile phone to view video.

The Gear 360 can transfer video wirelessly to the new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It will include software that automatically stitches the two camera shots together into one 360-degree video that can be viewed immediately on the phones alone or by using a Gear VR.

The Gear 360 also includes an SD memory card and a USB connector, which can both be used to transfer the video to a PC for further editing with the stitching software.

The camera is designed to be accessible to everyone, Harding said. You can just throw it in a bag, and you dont need to be tethered to anything.

The camera, which has about 150 minutes of battery life, is designed to be set on a tripod. Unlike standard cameras, which capture only one view at a time, 360-degree cameras can be stationed, for example, in the middle of a dining room table to capture everyone seated around a family dinner.

Watching a Gear 360 video is like jumping into someones mind to replay their memory of a specific moment, with the ability to turn the view around the room as if you are there in person.

We expect this to be used in a variety of different ways, Harding said. The ability to be able to capture a family moment or a day-to-day moment is really profound. Were looking forward to seeing what users do with the camera.

Samsung is also refreshing its Galaxy phone line in an attempt to catch Apples iPhone. A recent report from Parks Associates said Apple leads Samsung in the U.S. smartphone market, 40 percent to 31 percent. But Samsung is catching up, Harry Wang, Parks Associates director of health and mobile product research, said in a press release.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will bring back expandable memory storage, a feature favored by owners of earlier Galaxy phones but missing in recent models.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny
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Fitness trackers including the Fitbit Charge and Garmin Vivosmart do more than just record their wearers steps  they can also be used to surveil their movements.

The bands emit whats known as a MAC, for media access control address  a unique number included in packets of information that advertise the wearables presence over Bluetooth to smartphones and other devices.

Device manufacturers can make sure that these addresses change every so often to prevent tracking. But with the Charge and the Vivosmart, among other wearables, these IDs seem to stay the same, according to research from Canadian nonprofit Open Effect.

Whats happening is, I turn on my Android phone, I turn on my Bluetooth scanner, said Davi Ottenheimer, a security consultant who runs the San Francisco firm Flyingpenguin. And, already, in just a couple of minutes, Ive picked up one, three, five Bluetooth MAC addresses.

One just disappeared, so it just drove away.

Some retailers have reportedly collected this data using Wi-Fi technology. Governments have used these Bluetooth MAC addresses specifically to track traffic.

With some addresses changing so infrequently, researchers warn that companies could link specific wearables to customers based on, say, credit card swipes  allowing them to secretly assemble detailed dossiers on people.

And if police  or criminals  are able to associate one of those addresses with a particular person, its possible that an individuals whereabouts could be monitored or unearthed later.

You can imagine a scenario where you get arrested and law enforcement finds your fitness tracker and the MAC address, and subpoenas retailers for address data they collect, said Andrew Hilts, the executive director and research lead at Open Effect.

Then they could have all the history of where youve been.

This month, Open Effect published a study with the help of the University of Torontos Citizen Lab, outlining the dangers involving some of these devices.

They broadly evaluated the Apple Watch, the Basis Peak, the Fitbit Charge, the Garmin Vivosmart, the Jawbone Up 2, the Mio Fuse, the Withings Pulse O2 and Xiaomi Mi Band.

Apples protections

Garmin, in particular, was criticized for sloppily transmitting user data. Days after the Open Effect report was released, the company issued updates that shored up the transmission.

Only the Apple Watch properly protected users against tracking, Open Effect and Citizen Lab researchers said.

Apple switches its smartwatchs address every 10 minutes. It also reset every time the device is rebooted, researchers said.

Fitbit of San Francisco said it is interested in doing much of the same.

From an industry perspective, (Bluetooth low energy) privacy is a relatively new control, spokeswoman Heather Pierce said in an email. Fitbit is actively exploring how to incorporate (that) into future products.

She said, however, that its highly unlikely that a hacker could stumble across a particular device, know who it belongs to and track the devices movement.

Hilts said the research was meant mostly to raise awareness about potential privacy issues.

He points out that while some who use fitness trackers choose to advertise their movements by publicly logging their runs or bike rides using services like Strava, others do not.

Thats something they are doing consciously, and deliberately, Hilts said. Whereas we were interested in the MAC address issue which could be passively collecting (information) without the users knowledge.

Jeffrey Knockel, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab, elaborated: Your route along which you run in the morning, you might be fine sharing with people, but where you went later that evening, that might be something that youre not comfortable sharing.

Even the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, an organization that licenses the technology to manufacturers, acknowledged the potential risk.

In a page for developers outlining privacy and security measures, the organization said that third-party devices could use addresses to identify a user and track that person.

This can be protected by frequently changing private addresses so only the trusted parties could resolve them, the organization said.

San Francisco startup Jawbone said some of the risks outlined by Open Effect are overblown.

We do not believe the vulnerability described causes significant risk to our users, and we do not believe our users are at risk of having their location tracked over a long period of time, Jawbone public relations manager Mimi Huggins said in an email.

She added that the issue has never been raised with the companys customer care team.

Tracking is real

But the problem isnt one most customers would notice, said Ottenheimer, who has consulted with law enforcement agencies and businesses.

Ive been in some of the largest retailers in the world, and Ive seen the systems that are built by the police. Ive seen the documentation. Tracking is real, he said.

There are large databases of Bluetooth MAC addresses being used for precisely that reason, he said.

You can follow people all around a city.

Sean Sposito is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ssposito@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @seansposito
Cohoes native John F. Caldwell, who was a freelance cartoonist for publications ranging from The New Yorker to Mad magazine, died Sunday after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 69.

A graduate from Hudson Valley Community College who studied at the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, he was a cartographer at the state Department of Transportation before he moved on to being an advertising illustrator and freelance cartoonist.

He joked on his website about how drawing maps for the state was not the creative outlet he desired.

"Indeed, you might still find an occasional topographic map of New York showing roads that never existed bearing names like HEY, IT'S ME JOHNNY AVENUE and HOW BORING IS THIS BOULEVARD. There's even a IF I LIVED HERE THIS WOULD BE CALDWELL LANE just north of Rochester," Caldwell wrote in his online biography. "Realizing, under pressure from supervisors, that drawing maps was not the creative outlet he'd imagined it to be, Caldwell moved on to cartooning, an even more tenuous means of expression."

More Information Check out John F. Caldwell's website and collection of his cartoons here. See More Collapse

Caldwell's cartoons have appeared in The National Lampoon, Writer's Digest, Playboy, Barron's, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest and Harvard Business Review.

He had also said he was proud to be one of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" at Mad magazine.

Caldwell also wrote a book in the early 1990s called "Fax This Book," followed up by a collection called "Faxable Greeting Cards."

In an interview with the Times Union's Paul Grondahl in 1991, Caldwell talked about a "Gross" and "Beyond Gross" feature he was writing for Mad magazine that included pictures illustrating the following unpleasantries: "'Gross' is finding a hair on your plate. 'Beyond Gross' is flossing your teeth with it; 'Gross' is guys who don't trim their nose hairs. 'Beyond Gross' is guys who braid them."

"Those are even more sophomoric than what I'm used to," Caldwell chuckled at the time.

His one-panel cartoon, "Caldwell," was also distributed to about 60 newspapers, including The Times Union, from 1986 to 1989.

Caldwell continued to create and sell his cartoons thru December 2015 until the pancreatic cancer made him too weak to sit at his drawing table at his Ballston Lake home, according to his obituary. The artist is survived by his wife Diane, a daughter, grandson and many other relatives.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Gordon C. Emerick Funeral Home, 1550 Route 9 in Clifton Park.

lstanforth@timesunion.com  518-454-5697
The mountains-meet-sea ambiance of Cape Breton Island, with national park views out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is strikingly similar to our Chuckanut Mountain only with frequent moose sightings and minke and pilot whales rather than orcas.

The island in eastern Canada is also a Trump-free zone.

A Sydney, Nova Scotia,born radio DJ named Rob Calabrese has launched a website suggesting the island as a refuge for Americans should Donald Trump win their country's 2016 presidential election.

Atlantic Canada is perpetually in need of entrepreneurial newcomers. Calabrese's website pitches:

"Welcome. Hi Americans! Donald Trump may become the president of your country! If that happens, and you decide to get the hell out of there, might I suggest moving to Cape Breton Island."

The website has collected more than 10,000 hits. It redirects visitors to the island's tourist website run by Destination Cape Breton. The website is getting lots of traffic, a spokesperson emailed seattlepi.com

Of course, Canada has escape routes closer to home, such as British Columbia's Sunshine Coast and the lovely country around Courtnay and Comox on Vancouver Island. Expatriates might have to dodge one of the huge liquid natural gas terminals dreamed of by B.C. Premier Christie Clark.

Calabrese did not expect to have a hit on his hands. "I'm in disbelief: I wish everyone from Cape Breton could read (messages) because they really make you proud of living here," he told Canada's National Post.

The website takes several digs at The Donald.

Trump is not popular in Canada. Civic leaders in Vancouver and Toronto have sought to get his name removed from hotels under construction, in protest at Trump's pledge that he would bar Muslims from entering the United States.

"Muslim people can roam freely," he writes, "And the only 'walls' are holding up the roofs of our extremely affordable houses.

"This is not a joke. You belong here with us on Cape Breton Island, where health care is free, you know your neighbors and they look out for you, and nobody has a handgun."

Expatriates from liberal enclaves in the U.S. would feel politically at home. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swept all 28 House of Commons seats in Atlantic Canada when the Great White North voted last October.

Of course, Calabrese has received a bit of blowback. A grammar-challenged correspondent called "habsfanrocket" wrote on CTV.

"I would move to the States in a heartbeat if Trump were president. i am ashamed of Canada since they elected Trudeau! He and his father destroyed what was once the best country in the world.

"Now it's diluted to a point of no return. A well fare (sic) country that bend's (sic) over to all to accommodate everyone but Canadians."
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Gov. John Kasich signed legislation Sunday to strip government money from Planned Parenthood in Ohio, an expected move that came one day after the Republican presidential contenders weak performance in his partys South Carolina primary.

The expected action came despite calls for a veto by some Democrats and several newspaper editorials. Kasich had made it clear before the weekend primary he would sign the bill into law.

The legislation addresses the roughly $1.3 million in funding that Planned Parenthood receives through Ohios health department. The money, which is mostly federal, supports HIV testing, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and prevention of violence against women.

The legislation prohibits such funds from going to entities that perform or promote abortions, their affiliates and those that contract with an entity that performs abortions.

The bill doesnt name Planned Parenthood, but backers of the legislation have acknowledged the organization will be the most affected. They want the money to go to health centers and other providers that do not perform abortions.

Opponents say the measure puts politics ahead of peoples health care.

State and federal laws already prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

A Planned Parenthood leader in Ohio has emphasized the organizations doors would remain open, but its community health programs would be cut. The group says programs targeted in the bill helped Planned Parenthood in the last year to provide more than 47,000 STD tests and 3,600 HIV tests to Ohioans and serve nearly 2,800 new or expectant mothers.

Kasichs action betrays thousands of Ohioans who rely on the agencys work, said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Amelia Hayes.

Gov. Kasich should be ashamed for claiming he is invested in the fight against infant mortality while simultaneously defunding one of the best programs in the state for young mothers and their children, she said.

The measure follows an outcry among abortion opponents around the country after the release of secretly recorded videos by activists alleging that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue to researchers for a profit in violation of federal law.

Planned Parenthood has called the videos misleading and denied any wrongdoing.
FRANKLIN, Tenn.  Republicans Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz battled to emerge as the true Trump foe on Sunday while the billionaire businessman took a brief break from his braggadocio to say his drive for the GOP nomination isnt unstoppable  yet.

Fresh off a commanding victory in South Carolina, Donald Trump declined to say the nomination was his to lose. But he quickly went on to declare, Im really on my way. Soon enough, in a television interview, he was toting up the electoral math all the way through Election Day and concluding, Im going to win.

The candidates diverging flight plans demonstrated how the campaign spreads out and speeds up now. Nevadas GOP caucuses are Tuesday, and then a dozen states vote in the March 1 Super Tuesday bonanza.

Cruz headed for Nevada and Trump for Georgia. Rubio embarked on a Tennessee-Arkansas-Nevada trifecta.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton savored her weekend win in the Nevada caucuses as Bernie Sanders acknowledged that while his insurgent campaign has made strides, at the end of the day ... you need delegates. He looked past Saturdays Democratic primary in South Carolina to list Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Oklahoma as places where he has a good shot to do well.

Rubio and Cruz used the Sunday morning talk shows to spin rosy scenarios after returns in South Carolina put Trump way on top, with Rubio squeaking past Cruz for second. But with roughly 70 percent of Republicans in national polls declining to back Trump, Cruz and Rubio tried to cast themselves as the one candidate around whom what Rubio calls the alternative-to-Donald-Trump vote can coalesce.

Rubio also took an aggressive run at Trump, faulting him for a lack of specifics on policy.

If youre running for president of the United States, you cant just tell people youre going to make America great again, he said on CBS Face the Nation.

Cruz, for his part, stressed his conservative bona fides and said he was the lone strong conservative in this race who can win. We see conservatives continuing to unite behind our campaign, he told NBCs Meet the Press.

Rubio also suggested it was only a matter of time before John Kasich and Ben Carson folded like Jeb Bush did on Saturday. The sooner we can coalesce, the better were going to be as a party in general, Rubio said.

Not so fast, Kasich countered. Were getting big crowds everywhere we go, the Ohio governor insisted.
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SPARTANBURG, S.C.  Donald Trump tightened his grip on the mantle of Republican presidential front-runner Saturday as South Carolina voters seething about Washington and career politicians propelled the billionaire businessman to a comfortable primary win.

One of Trumps favorite targets, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, finally threw in the towel, suspending his campaign after a dismal finish. Thank you for the opportunity to run for the greatest office on the face of the Earth, an emotional Bush told his supporters.

Trump looked ahead to Nevada and then the 10 primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday as he tries to increase his delegate advantage. In a family-affair victory speech, Trump ticked off his policy promises, pledging to terminate President Obamas health care law and get Mexico to pay for a wall at the border.

Were going to start winning for our country because our country doesnt win anymore, said Trump, with his wife, Melania, and daughter Ivanka at his side.

Two freshman senators  Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida  were battling for second place, which would give them bragging rights but might not get them any delegates in the march to the nomination.

Terrorism and the direction of the economy were among the top issues for GOP voters, according to exit polls. The surveys also showed 4 in 10 voters angry about how Washington is working, and more than half saying they felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

I dont like politicians, said Jim Jaruszewicz, a 37-year-old radiology technician who voted for Trump. I dont trust politicians.

Trumps victory capped a week in which he called rivals liars, blamed House Speaker Paul Ryan for the GOPs loss in the 2012 presidential race, and even tangled with Pope Francis.

He was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who are angry at the federal government, and a third of those who feel betrayed. He did best with men, older voters, those without a college degree and veterans.

About three-quarters of Republican primary voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the United States. Nearly 4 in 10 of those voters backed Trump, while a third who oppose such a ban preferred Rubio.

Trump won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary  at least 38 of the 50  and has a chance to win them all.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates, Marco Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has four and Ben Carson has three.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

While the real estate magnate scored a decisive win in New Hampshire, his second-place finish in Iowa to Cruz illustrated gaps in his less-than-robust ground operation, and questions remain about the extent to which he can translate leads in preference polls and large rally crowds into votes.

Trumps win Saturday could answer some of those questions, adding momentum going into the collection of Southern states that will vote March 1.

The election followed days of hostility between the campaigns and their allies at events and in television ads, automatic calls and mailers.

Trump added to the drama, spending the week threatening to sue Cruz, accusing former President George W. Bush of lying and sparring with Pope Francis over immigration.

At his final election-eve rally Friday night in North Charleston, Trump told the widely discredited story of Gen. John Pershing, who was said to have halted Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting the rebels with bullets dipped in pigs blood.

The exit polling of voters was conducted for the Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research.
Video screenshot

Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is best known for its innovative surgery, such as implanting the first defibrillator in a human heart or being the first to separate twins who were joined at the head, will take on its most notable surgery yet. This year, the hospital will perform the first U.S. penis transplant on a former U.S. soldier who was wounded in the Afghanistan war.

Dr. Richard Redett, a plastic surgeon at Johns Hopkins, will perform the ground-breaking surgery. Redett plans to use a donated organ from a recently deceased man that will match the former soldier's age and skin tone.
SACRAMENTO  Californias new corrections chief is backing off a plan to lower standards for inmate firefighters, focusing instead on persuading county sheriffs to send more jail prisoners to the state program.

Scott Kernan, who took over last month as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said he expects California will have enough inmate firefighters for this years fire season despite a dwindling pool of candidates from state prisons.

The state is using more inmates with violent or serious criminal histories because recent laws have sent less serious offenders to county jails instead of state prisons, he said. Kernan hopes to use more of those local prisoners to fill the gap.

Hes dropping, at least for now, a proposal by former secretary Jeffrey Beard that would have let inmates participate if they have up to seven years to serve on their sentences, an increase from the current five-year limit. Kernan said an analysis showed that changing the limit wouldnt have produced a significant increase in qualified inmates.

Officials previously said they expected to ease the standard ahead of this years fire season, but controversy erupted in October after Beard sought to expand the number of inmates who could qualify despite having violent histories. Officials first denied, then acknowledged that they have long used inmates with violent pasts in the nations largest and oldest inmate firefighter program. Beard quickly withdrew his proposal.

Kernan defended the use of those inmates as vital to a program that last year provided nearly 1 of 5 state, federal and local firefighters battling major blazes.

About 40 percent of the roughly 3,700 inmate firefighters committed violent crimes including 59 manslaughters, more than 500 assaults or batteries, and more than 1,000 robberies, the department said in November.

Lowering standards could have added inmates with more incentive to misbehave or escape, Stanford Criminal Justice Center co-director Robert Weisberg said. But Kernan noted that inmates are reviewed to see if they are dangerous before they are sent to live in the unfenced fire camps or dispatched to fight fires without supervision from correctional officers.

If you dont change the rules of the prison, (the alternative) is to get them from county jails because thats where a lot of inmates have shifted now, Weisberg said.

Expanding inmates eligibility would have been a calculated risk, said UC Berkeley law Professor Frank Zimring, who has studied California prisons for more than 30 years. He warned that recruiting in jails may be tougher because many prisoners there have shorter sentences and may have active drug or mental health problems.

Weisberg and Zimring said they believe the program is worth the public safety risk.

Inmates must be physically fit and complete firefighting classes. Arsonists, kidnappers, sex offenders, gang affiliates and those serving life sentences for murder and other crimes are excluded.

Kernan said the state will have enough firefighters this year without changing its standards partly because the department has agreements with 12 county sheriffs, with four more in progress. They supply about 6 percent of the firefighters in the program, or 242 firefighters.
Jacom Stephens/Getty Image

A passenger who survived a roll-over, DUI crash in San Jose early Sunday was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver as he walked walked away from the wreck, California Highway Patrol officials said.

Around 3:45 a.m., a man behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle with six passengers inside lost control on Interstate 280 at Highway 87 and rolled the vehicle, said Officer Ross Lee, a CHP spokesman.
A Redwood City man, riding a bright-blue bicycle, was busted last week in a rampaging, burglary spree through Palo Alto, police said Sunday.

Brandon Yamagata, 30, was arrested Thursday evening after police said he ripped off a computer from a nursery, tried to burglarize a home, and prowled into the yard of another home where he ditched his haul.

The ruckus kicked off around 5 p.m. Thursday when Yamagata asked to use the bathroom at SummerWinds Nursery at 725 San Antonio Road, police said.

The business was closing, but the worker let the man use the restroom anyway. A few minutes later, police said the woman discovered Yamagata in an office stealing a computer.

When confronted, the man bolted with the computer and jumped onto a bright-blue bicycle, police said. By the time the cops got there, he was gone.

Police said Yamagata then made his way to a home on the 4100 block of Sutherland Drive, sneaked into the backyard and ditched the plundered machine.

But the homeowner spotted him and told the man to beat it before she called the police. The suspect, officers said, fled on a bright-blue bicycle.

Then around 7 p.m., a resident in a home on the 100 block of Greenmeadow Way called 911, saying a man broke in and was rifling through her bedroom.

She shouted at the burglar, who took off on a blue bicycle, Palo Alto police officials said. A quick-thinking neighbor, though, heard the commotion, ran outside and snapped a picture of the prowler.

At 8:30 p.m., police said they spotted the man, later identified as Yamagata, sitting at a bus stop on the 4200 block of El Camino Real. He was arrested without any trouble.

Police said they found the stolen computer, valued at $450, stashed in the backyard of the home on Sutherland Drive.

Yamagata was arrested on suspicion of felony residential burglary, felony commercial burglary, prowling and concealing evidence.

Yamagata was on bail for a pending charge of vehicle theft in Santa Clara County. He was booked back in the countys main jail.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
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Police K-9 Roscoe sniffed out a wanted South Bay mans homespun drug paraphernalia and illegal handgun during a DUI stop Saturday night in Vacaville, officials said Sunday.

Officers pulled over 37-year-old San Jose resident Chi Ung after he was reported to be swerving and nearly slammed into another car near Orange Drive and Interstate 80, Vacaville police said.

During the stop, officers discovered Ung had an outstanding felony warrant after he didnt show up for a court date on a burglary charge out of Napa County, officials said.

While police searched the vehicle, Roscoe sniffed out a blackened glass pipe and another dope-smoking device fashioned out of a baby-food jar and pen, police said. Officers said they also found a loaded, unregistered 9mm handgun in the car.

On top of the outstanding warrant, officers arrested Ung on suspicion of possession of a concealed firearm in a car, possession of a loaded firearm in a public place, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was booked in Solano County Jail where hes being held on $34,100 bail.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
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"Zika virus," one of the latest odd terms to become a U.S. household phrase seemingly overnight, comes with a lot of baggage.

Most frightening is the image of babies with smaller than normal heads -- a condition known as microcephaly -- which has been reported among some mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant.

Researchers are studying the possible link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In other words, the lack of scientifically proven fact leaves a lot of room for conspiracy theories and simple misinformation.

For example, one idea now widely regarded as a conspiracy theory is that Brazil's recent microcephaly increase is the result of a larvacide called pyriproxyfen being added to drinking water to kill mosquitoes.

George Takei, an actor famous for his role in the original Star Trek series and more recently a gay rights activist, shared the questionable pesticide theory on Facebook, according to ScienceBlogs.

Another apparently bogus theory holds that the recent Zika outbreak is due to the use of genetically modified mosquitoes in northeast Brazil to combat dengue fever.

Journalist Aura Bogado notes that much U.S. news coverage of the microcephaly epidemic uses almost inhuman terms -- "strange," "deformed," "shrunken heads" -- and describes a widely distributed illustration of babies' comparative head sizes as "phrenology-like."

"As literary scholar Sarah Schuetze points out, 'seeing these babies is the real threat of Zika.' Forget accommodating the challenges these children will face with additional first-world resources; our first concern is being exposed to the horror of images of them."

Because there is no vaccine or medication for Zika, the best prevention tip to date is to avoid mosquito bites, according to the CDC. Many other questions remain.
For more than five years now we've been flirting with but not committing long-term to officially dubbing our marine layer "Karl the fog," a name that's grown popular thanks to a Twitter handle of the same name.

For SFGATE, that indecision is a problem. We can't tell if the majority of San Franciscans find the name charming or aggravating. When fog references come up, we don't really know if the nickname is fair game.

It the past we've come to a consensus on our nicknames. San Franciscans got together and vetoed "Frisco" (with some help from Herb Caen). We know "San Fran" is out too. At the same time, nobody seems all that troubled by tourist bragging about visiting "The Rock" or the fact that the acronym "NOPA" is now used by more than just pushy real estate agents. But when we throw Karl's name out there on the SFGATE Facebook page, it's met with both outrage AND adoration.

The split was made clear last month when we obtained a tongue-in-cheek love letter from Karl expressing jealousy about San Francisco's fling with El Nino. Comments ranged from "Love you Karl" and "Looking beautiful as ever" to "Never, ever heard anyone call it that. (It's) obviously a twitter thing" and "I will spit on that persons shoe that ever refers to fog as Karl." So yeah, we're conflicted.

Karl did indeed start as a "Twitter thing." As SF Weekly found out in 2013, Karl's creator apparently named him after a character in to the 2003 film "Big Fish," which has no real tie to San Francisco. At the time of the that report, Karl had 17,000 followers on Twitter and was largely an inside joke.

But as of Friday, the 5-year-old account had 116,000 followers. Now there's a Facebook profile and an Instagram account with a following that puts most living people to shame. Even the local meteorologists are playing ball.

"Locals" are prone to knee-jerk rejection of all things new, but San Francisco also has a big appetite for humor, mixed with celebration of what's uniquely ours. Karl is exactly that.

So, here's the plan: we're going to let you decide if SFGATE should keep using the name Karl. Cast your vote below.

Content loading... Please enable javascript! Should San Francisco's fog be known as Karl? San Francisco's fog is often referred to as 'Karl the Fog' in some online circles. Should it be? Choose your answer below:

Yes, I always refer to the city's fog as "Karl"

No, it's a silly nickname.

Call it whatever you want, just don't call the city 'Frisco' Should San Francisco's fog be known as Karl?

If more than 75% of you weigh in saying you don't like Karl, SFGATE will attempt to blow him out of future posts. If not, we'll let him hang around. If more than 75% of you vote to keep it, we'll assume Karl has the cultural staying power we associate with his August visits to the outer Sunset.
On one side of the border, the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics spoke of the need for mercy and understanding for migrants forced to flee their own countries. On the other, the poll leader and most bombastic of the GOP presidential hopefuls, Donald Trump, calls them rapists and criminals, and threatens the mass deportation of those already here.

Ted Cruz, meanwhile, thunders about how his weak-kneed opponents favor amnesty  which most others call an earned pathway to legal residency.

On the final day of his journey through Mexico on Wednesday with a Mass in Juarez, Pope Francis came close to advocating the unattainable and impractical  an open border  but he also brought the suffering of migrants into relief. They are our brothers and sisters, who are being expelled by poverty and violence, drug trafficking and organized crime, he said.

More earnest refugee relief and comprehensive immigration reform  this last once embraced by another GOP candidate, Marco Rubio  would serve many of the needs the pope spoke of. Rubio, by the way, now runs from the reform he once championed.

Pope Francis trip retraced the routes many migrants take, starting in Chiapas, a southern state where many Central Americans begin their trek through Mexico to the United States. But along the way, the pope had worthy messages on other related topics. These include Mexicos implacable drug cartels, the violence and corruption they sow, and the lure they present for Mexican youth who believe they have few other job alternatives.

U.S. complicity helps make it so. This country provides the market on which the drug cartels depend and is also the source of the guns used to spill Mexican blood. But to listen to the rhetoric on immigration on this side of the border, these factors dont exist. In this regard, the popes message in Mexico had two targets.

But Mexico should have been listening intently anyway. Its official war on the cartels is real  kingpins are arrested and undone, drug seizures continue. And other kingpins step in to take their places, and the drugs originating in and flowing through Mexico seem relatively unabated. Meanwhile, a culture of corruption reaches the highest levels and ensures that too little of the bounty from being the 15th-largest economy in the world makes it way to Mexicans.

Even with the role the United States plays in all this, Mexico has not done nearly enough to take care of its part of the problem. Pope Francis reminded Mexico of this. We hope the message gets through  but on both sides of the border.
Hillary Clintons Nevada firewall survived  barely  as the former secretary of state held off Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday to win the first in the West presidential caucuses.

Clinton corralled 52 percent of the vote, powered by support from union workers and people of color, whom her backers have touted as key parts of her firewall that would insulate her campaign from being overrun by the senator from Vermont.

Americans are right to be angry, Clinton said in her victory speech in Las Vegas, echoing one of the key drivers of Sanders campaign, but were also hungry for real solutions.

The question now for Sanders is, if he cant win in Nevada, a state that more closely resembles Americas demographics than Iowa or New Hampshire, where can he pick up another victory? The next contest is Saturday in South Carolina, where Clinton leads by 24 points, according to an average of major polls by Real Clear Politics. Its a lead powered by wide support among the states many African American voters.

He certainly made it a race here, and you cant dispute the fact (his supporters are) pushing her to take positions she didnt think shed want to take, said David Damore, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and senior analyst with the Latino Decisions polling and consulting firm. But the next few states are going to be tough for him.

Heres what Nevadas results revealed:

Curb your Democratic enthusiasm: Nevada Democratic Party officials say 80,000 people participated Saturday, down from the record 120,000 voters who took part in 2008, Nevadas most recent contested Democratic caucus, when Clinton won the popular vote, but then-Sen. Barack Obama won more delegates.

Clinton still isnt reaching young people: Sanders was supported by 82 percent of voters younger than 30 and 62 percent of those younger than 44, according to CNN entrance polls. Still, Clinton continued to try to reach out to young people.

I know what youre up against, she said during her victory speech in Las Vegas. Its not enough to just make college affordable. You need help with the debt you have.

Sanders isnt reaching African American voters: Nevada was the first real test of whether Sanders, who represents a state that is 95 percent white, would be able to attract African American voters. He failed. Clinton won 76 percent of black voters in Nevada, compared with 22 percent for Sanders, according to entrance polls.

She picked up huge African American support, Damore said, that she didnt eight years ago, when she ran against Obama.

The road ahead doesnt appear Sanders-friendly : Eleven states, most in the South, will choose Democratic convention delegates on March 1. Sanders is not well known in many of those states and wont have much time to introduce himself. Plus, only two of those states will be holding caucuses, which lend themselves more to the high energy and grassroots organizing enthusiasm of the Sanders campaign.

Money may soon matter more: While Sanders campaign has stayed relatively even with Clinton in fundraising in recent months, he acknowledged in his Saturday concession speech the challenge ahead: We will be taking on a very powerful and well-funded super PAC that has raised a significant amount of money from Wall Street and special interests.

Of the $25 million that one of the super PACs supporting Clinton raised in the past six months of 2015, $15 million came from Wall Street sources. On Sunday, Clinton will be in the Bay Area for a fundraiser at the Atherton home of a tech entrepreneur, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, that will focus on women and tech as well as fundraisers in Piedmont and Menlo Park.

Whom did Latinos really support? While some entrance polls showed Sanders winning the Latino vote in Nevada, that could be misleading, Damore said. Most of Las Vegas heavily Latino east side supported Clinton, he said. And Clinton won Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and has the vast majority of the states voters.

Sanders may have lost, but his issues are winning: Polls showed that income inequality  the core theme of Sanders campaign  was the second most important issue among voters behind the economy.

Women return to Clinton: After losing the womens vote in New Hampshire, Clinton pulled 57 percent support among women, according to CNN entrance polls. She also won among moderates and among people whose main concern was picking a candidate who could win in November. Clinton also was backed by those making less than $23,000 a year and split among those getting less than $50,000.

Unions were neutral  or did they help Clinton? One of the states most powerful forces  the 57,000-member Culinary Workers Union, which is 56 percent Latino  did not endorse a candidate. In 2008, it backed Obama over Clinton. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, one of Nevadas most powerful politicians, didnt publicly pick sides, either. Reid did not want to be seen as tipping the scales in one direction and potentially turning off voters Democrats will need if they want to carry the swing state in November.

But Reid told the New York Times that he asked the head of the culinary workers parent union to make it easy for members to get the time off so they could caucus. Clinton won 54 percent of union workers, according to a CNN entrance poll.

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
BEIRUT  Bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs killed 129 people on Sunday, highlighting the threat posed by the extremists as the countrys warring factions fight for the northern city of Aleppo and world powers chase an elusive cease-fire.

The blasts came as Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional agreement has been reached on a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the next few days. But he acknowledged that its not finalized and all parties may not automatically comply.

A series of blasts ripped through the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of Damascus, killing at least 83 people and wounding more than 170, the official SANA news agency said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on local Syrian activists, said the blasts killed 62. SANA said the bombs went off near schools during the afternoon rush hour.

The neighborhood is home to one of Shiite Islams holiest shrines, which is heavily guarded by Lebanons Hezbollah movement and other Shiite militiamen from Iraq and elsewhere. Hezbollahs Al-Manar TV said the blasts were caused by a car bomb and two suicide bombers.

The bombings in the central city of Homs killed at least 46 people and wounded dozens, according to Syrias Foreign Ministry. The Observatory said 57 people, including 11 women, were killed by two car bombs set off in a mostly Alawite neighborhood. Syrian President Bashar Assad hails from the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Syrian TV footage from Homs showed streets filled with debris and mangled cars, and the charred body of a man being taken away on a stretcher. Footage from Sayyida Zeinab showing people running in narrow streets as others carried the wounded, including several children.

The Islamic State group claimed both attacks. The extremists are dug in on the outskirts of the two cities and have repeatedly targeted Shiites, who they view as apostates deserving of death.

The deadly blasts may strengthen the governments argument that it should press ahead with a major offensive in the north of the country, where troops backed by Russian air strikes are close to sealing off Aleppo, once Syrias largest city and commercial hub. Syrian insurgents, including Western-backed rebels, seized several neighborhoods in 2012.

The heavy fighting near Aleppo led to the collapse of peace talks earlier this month. World powers later agreed on a cessation of hostilities to begin within a week, but the deadline passed with no letup in the fighting.

Kerry has since reached out to his Russian counterpart, and during a visit to Jordan on Sunday said they had struck a provisional agreement and must now reach out to the opposing sides on the ground. Russia is a key ally of Assads government, while the U.S. backs some of the rebels fighting to overthrow him.

Assad meanwhile said his government was ready to take part in a truce as long as it is not used by militants to reinforce their positions.

We announced that were ready, Assad told Spains El Pais newspaper in remarks published Sunday. Its about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists.

Assads government refers to all the armed groups battling to overthrow him as terrorists. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are among the leading supporters of the insurgents.

Assad said the Aleppo operation is not about recapturing the city, but closing the roads between Turkey and between the terrorist groups.
LA PAZ, Bolivia  President Evo Morales bid to run for another term by amending the constitution appeared headed toward a slim electoral defeat Sunday, according to unofficial partial vote counts and early results.

Morales has governed for a decade. A yes vote in Sundays referendum would have let Bolivias first indigenous president seek a fourth term in 2019.

The vote couldnt have come at a worse time for Morales. Recently he has been stung by an influence-peddling scandal involving a former lover and a deadly incident of political violence.

Two unofficial quick counts by polling firms put the no vote slightly ahead. The Ipsos-Apoyo firm had it leading 52 percent to 48 percent. It counted ballots at one in 15 polling stations.

The official vote count was slow, particularly in rural areas where support for Morales is strongest. With 22 percent counted by late Sunday, the ballot question was being rejected by 67 percent.

Bolivias constitution, which was enacted in Morales initial term, permits presidents and vice presidents to serve two consecutive terms. Morales first term was deemed by the countrys constitutional court not to have counted, so the proposed change to allow a president to seek re-election twice would allow him to run again.

Pre-election polls said voters were evenly split on the change, while about 15 percent were undecided.

But the polls were done before the revelation by an opposition-aligned journalist that a former lover of Morales in 2013 was named sales manager of a Chinese company that has obtained nearly $500 million in mostly no-bid state contracts. Morales denied any impropriety and said he last saw the woman in 2007.

The case deepened doubts about the integrity of Morales governing Movement Toward Socialism, which has been buffeted by scandal.

My wish is for the greatest citizen participation possible and that this day be historic, Morales said after voting in Chapare, where he began his political career as a leader of coca growers union.

Adding to Morales woes were last weeks asphyxiation deaths of six municipal officials in El Alto, the teeming city adjacent to the capital of La Paz run since last year by an opposition mayor.

Pro-Morales forces were accused of setting the blaze that caused the deaths, sacking the building and burning documents that allegedly incriminated the previous mayor in payroll corruption.

Both developments threatened to eclipse Morales achievements in cutting poverty, spreading Bolivias natural resource wealth and empowering its indigenous majority during a decade in office. But Bolivias revenues from natural gas and minerals, making up three-fourths of its exports, were down 32 percent last year.
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CAIRO  A prominent columnist on Sunday delivered the harshest attack to date against Egypts president in the local media, saying that Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi presides over a theocracy that is no different from the Islamist-led government he overthrew in 2013.

In a front-page column in the al-Maqal daily, Ibrahim Eissa expressed outrage over a two-year prison sentence issued Saturday against author Ahmed Naji for publishing a sexually explicit excerpt of his novel that prosecutors said violated public modesty.

The sentence has angered Egyptian authors and artists, who say its a blatant encroachment on the freedom of expression and artistic creativity enshrined in Egypts new constitution. A statement signed by 13 rights groups and published Sunday called for Najis release.

El-Sissi maintains that Egypts judiciary is independent, an assertion disputed by rights activists, who say it is beholden to the executive branch.

As military chief, el-Sissi led the 2013 overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who was Egypts first freely elected president but proved deeply divisive. El-Sissi was elected the following year, and has enjoyed fawning coverage by state and private media, most of which is owned by influential businessmen.

But the unusually strong criticism by Eissa, a dean of the Egyptian media who supported the 2013 overthrow and has personally interviewed el-Sissi, indicates growing discontent.

Say what you will, Mr. President, and speak at your conferences ... as you wish, but the reality of your state is different, he wrote. Your state violates the constitution, harasses thinkers and creators and jails writers and authors.

Your state is a theocracy, Mr. President, while you are talking all the time of a modern, civilian state, he wrote. Your state and its agencies, just like those of your predecessor, hate intellectuals, thought and creativity and only like hypocrites, flatterers and composers of poems of support and flattery.

The growing criticism comes as the Egyptian government has struggled to deliver on promises to stabilize the economy after the years of unrest that followed the 2011 uprising, which ended President Hosni Mubaraks nearly three-decade reign.

The bombing of a Russian passenger jet last year dealt a major blow to the already suffering tourism industry, the local currency is weakening and foreign reserves are drying up. An Islamic insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula, which grew increasingly assertive after Morsis ouster, has carried out attacks across the country, adding to the sense of crisis.

El-Sissi has meanwhile overseen the harshest crackdown in decades, jailing thousands of Islamists and hundreds of secular activists. All unauthorized protests have been banned, and activists say the police have reverted to the brutality of the Mubarak years.

El-Sissi has said his ouster of Morsi saved Egypt from a theocracy and restored civilian, democratic rule. But Eissa called that claim into question.

Where is this civilian state? Where do you see it? he wrote.
BEIRUT  Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi resigned from the Cabinet Sunday, saying the militant Hezbollah group dominates the government and is harming Beiruts relations with Arab countries.

The resignation of Rifi, a longtime critic of the Shiite Hezbollah, comes two days after Saudi Arabia halted deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces. The move came after Lebanon failed to back the Sunni kingdom in its spat with Shiite powerhouse Iran, the leading backer of Hezbollah.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council endorsed the Saudi decision, raising concerns it could have repercussions for thousands of Lebanese living in Gulf countries.

Lebanon has a sectarian divide that reflects the wider regional split between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and has long been a battlefield for the regions proxy wars.

The Saudi decision came after Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil declined to support Saudi resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers. Bassil is the president of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, a key ally of Hezbollah.

He (Bassil) dared to offend the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the request of Hezbollah, Rifi said in a statement announcing his resignation. The practices of Hezbollahs statelet and its allies are not acceptable and staying in the government means approving them.

Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction to remain armed after the countrys 1976-1990 civil war and is widely seen as more powerful than the Lebanese military.

There is an armed party that is dominating the governments decisions, Rifi said. I call upon the government to at least apologize to the (Saudi) kingdom, its leadership and people.

Lebanon has had a national unity government since 2014, with members of different factions including Hezbollah and the Saudi-backed Future Movement headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Hariri returned to Lebanon earlier this month. He had spent much of the past five years outside the country after his government was brought down by Hezbollah and its allies in early 2011.

Current Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam is a strong ally of Saudi Arabia and has called on the kingdom to reconsider its decision.

Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Suleimans term ended in May 2014. The parliament has since failed to elect a new head of state because of a lack of quorum.

Rifi has also been campaigning against last months release of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Samaha was convicted by a Lebanese military court on charges of plotting bombings at the behest of Syria. He was sentenced in May to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Rifi tried unsuccessfully to refer the case to another judicial body, saying his attempts were blocked by Hezbollah. The armed Shiite movement has sent thousands of fighters to back Assad in the Syrian civil war.
BEIRUT  The main Syrian opposition group said Saturday it is ready in principle to implement a provisional truce, slamming Russia and the Syrian government after a deadline set for a temporary cessation of hostilities passed.

The Saudi-backed group, known as the High Negotiations Committee, said any potential truce would require the Syrian government to first lift blockades from rebel-held communities and release thousands of detainees.

The statement followed a meeting among opposition groups held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday to discuss the situation after the passing of a deadline set by world powers, including Russia and the U.S.

A Feb. 12 meeting in Munich of 18 nations supporting opposing sides in Syrias five-year civil war agreed to bring about a cessation of hostilities within a week to allow for peace talks to resume in Geneva. But the truce never took hold amid intense fighting, including a massive Russian-backed government offensive near the Turkish border.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that he cannot get the parties in the Syrian conflict back to the table by Feb. 25 as he had hoped.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday to discuss the progress made by two U.N. task forces meeting in Geneva to discuss humanitarian assistance and a cessation of hostilities, according to State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Although the details are not yet fully agreed upon, Kerry expressed his hope that a full cessation of hostilities could be achieved in the shortest time possible, Kirby said.

The High Negotiations Committee said any truce must include all parties to the conflict, notably Russia and Iran, key supporters of President Bashar Assads government. Russia has said that it would continue to strike at terrorists in Syria even during a cease-fire.

The deadline set in Munich for a cessation of hostilities has passed without response from Russia or the regime, who show disdain for the international community and disregard for the lives of Syrians, HNC spokesman Salem Al Meslet said in a statement.

He said Assad and Russia have spent yet another week annihilating defenseless Syrians and called on the international community to implement a new approach that holds them to account.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir meanwhile said he favors equipping Syrian rebels with surface-to-air missiles to change the balance of power on the ground.
KIEV, Ukraine  About 1,000 nationalists rallied Sunday in central Kiev to demand the ouster of the Ukrainian government, which came to power two years ago following months of protests.

The low turnout reflected public weariness with street protests, rather than support for the beleaguered government, which survived a no-confidence vote in parliament last week.

The demonstrators set up six tents on Independence Square, known as Maidan, and lit fires in trash bins to symbolize the fires that were kept burning to warm the protesters in the winter of 2014. They clashed with police when they stopped a truck delivering a stage for the evening rally, but no one was hurt.

Others came Sunday to Maidan to place flowers and light candles in memory of those who died during the protests that culminated with the then Russia-friendly president fleeing on Feb. 21, 2014. The day before, more than 50 people had died from sniper fire.

Although many Kiev residents are disappointed with the current government, few support another revolution. The country needs reforms and a better standard of living, but not new revolutions. Were tired of them, said businessman Andrei Pogonyailo.

In recent weeks, political tensions have risen and some respected reformers have resigned, citing disenchantment with the governments cronyism and entrenched corruption. President Petro Poroshenko last week urged Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a key figure of the 2014 protests, to resign along with his government. But Yatsenyuk survived a no-confidence vote.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his new French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, are due in Kiev on Monday to prod Ukraines squabbling politicians to push ahead with reforms.

After the 2014 ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and Russian-speaking separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions began protests that escalated into a war that has killed more than 9,000 people.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Irish culture was alive and proud at the 41st annual Hibernian Ball Saturday night at LiGreci's Staaten in West Brighton.

Ball attendees donning tuxedos, long evening gowns and traditional Irish kilts joyfully talked, danced and snacked on hors d'oeuvres while Band of Rogues played.

The ball, which is sponsored by the Richmond County Board Ancient Order of Hibernians, is the formal ceremony where the committee for the Richmond County Saint Patrick's Day Parade sashes the parade's Grand Marshal and Miss Hibernia.

Megan Crimmins, 22, of Eltingville is this year's Miss Hibernia.

Crimmins said she's honored to be Miss Hibernia; it's something she's wanted since she was a little girl.

Celebrating her heritage is something that's very important to her, as well as giving back to the community by raising money for charities and Staten Islanders who are in need -- both of which she will do more of in the coming year.

Lifelong Staten Islander Brian Nutley will be the 2016 Grand Marshal, walking alongside Crimmins in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The parade is dedicated to the late Monsignor James J. Dorney, a loved and iconic Irish American and native New Yorker who served Staten Island, in particular the Irish community, for over 30 years.
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Anthony DePrimo | deprimo@siadvance.com

AN UNFORGETTABLE LIVE COOKING SHOW

Julian Gaxholli, Staten Island's celebrity chef behind Beso, Bayou and Blue restaurants has concocted a few new dishes using Flagship brews, and he'll be giving a live cooking demonstration Sunday so everyone can learn to cook with the borough's "unforgettable" beer.

The demo includes a performance by America's Premier Jug Band the Wahoo Skiffle Crazies. It's all going down in the brewery's taproom at 40 Minthorne Street, Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. More information here.

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Bill Lyons

HISTORY TALK

"Revolutionary Staten Island" on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor is a history talk about the borough during the Revolutionary War. Join Museum Archivist Cara Dellatte and Professor Philip Papas, author of "That Ever Loyal Island" and "Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee" for the dynamic talk. Papas will discuss the importance of Staten Island to the British, Colonel Tye, the runaway slave who joined the British military on Staten Island and laid raids on Patriot-owned farms in the area, as well as the effort by the Patriots to thwart the British. Register online or call 718-727-1135. Walk-ins welcome. $15/Free for Members

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WATCH VINYL

The show "Vinyl" was filmed in part at our St. George Theatre, and includes a scene based off our David Johansen of the New York Dolls. It's on HBO, so if you're looking for a night in, you can still feel like you're having a raucous night out on the town.

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Lauren Steussy | lsteussy@siadvance.com

SUMMER YEARNINGS AND CONVERSIONS

I think we're all yearning for summer right about now. So, to the rescue (at least photographically) is photographer Connie J. Frisch-Cherniak and her new exhibit at the CPG gallery (814 Richmond Terr.) The exhibit will run from this weekend till March 20, open Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Here's Frisch-Cherniak's artist's statement:

The conversion of nature happens continually. Elements of light, clouds, water, rain and flight merge together and form our memories and experiences. Often we cannot distinguish where one element ends and the other begins. We yearn for the warmth, the past and the scenery of the summertime. We happen upon a scene from nature and it evokes feelings and yearnings of our past experiences, changing our thoughts and creating new memories. Our memories spur us to get through the cold, barren winter and make us yearn for the time of year we can be outdoors, playing, relaxing and slowing down. Our yearnings spur us to create new experiences; new memories and make the cold winter time pass quickly.

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

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A handful of Dutch colonists first settled in what is now Tompkinsville 375 years ago.

Back then, the area was called "The Watering Place," in reference to its fresh-water spring.

Fast-forward to the early 1800s: The neighborhood's Hannah and Minthorne streets date back to that time, named after two children of then-New York Gov. Daniel Tompkins, who developed Tompkinsville during this era.

Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Bird's-eye view

Bird's-eye view of Tompkinsville, Staten Island. (Courtesy of NYPL Digitial Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Public square

Public square, Arrietta Street, Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Arrietta Street was the name for the lower portion of Victory Boulevard -- then known as the Richmond Turnpike. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

The 'Turnpike'

The caption reads: Richmond Turnpike, Tompkinsville, Staten Island. The street was renamed Victory Boulevard after the allies' victory in World War I. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Rural road

St. Paul's Avenue in Tompkinsville, back in the day.(Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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RS,L*'

Workers in this 1903 photo are grading the dirt roadbed -- in prepartion for paving -- at what would become the intersection of Corson Avenue and Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville. The Richmond Turnpike was renamed Victory Boulevard after the First World War. (Staten Island Advance file photo)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Trolley tracks

Looks like this could be present-day Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville, with St. George in the background. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Mansard roofs

Madison Avenue, Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Cobblestone

Looking eastward, down the Turnpike, toward the park in Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of the Staten Island Museum)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Classy Tudor

Stork's Nest Restaurant in Tompkinsville. Notice the stork perched on the top of the building! (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Street scene

Old street scene, Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of the Staten Island Historical Society)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Dock company band

The American Dock Co. -- established 1872 -- operated three piers and 30 warehouses on the shore at the foot of Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville. Among its employees were these men, pictured in this 1919 photograph, who were members of the company's band. (Staten Island Advance file photo)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Historic hospital

S.R. Smith Infirmary -- aka "The Castle" -- on Castleton Avenue in Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of the Staten Island Museum)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Old ambulance

Circa 1920s photo of an ambulance for the old Staten Island University Hospital, then named the S.R. Smith Infirmary. (Staten Island Advance file photo)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Four turrets

This 1979 photo shows the S.R. Smith Infirmary at old Staten Island Hospital, in Tompkinsville, before it fell into disrepair. (Staten Island Advance file photo.)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Boarded up

The Smith Infirmary, a 19th-century castle-like structure beloved by preservationists, in 2005. (Staten Island Advance file photo)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

The 'Castle'

The old Staten Island University Hospital on Castleton Avenue in Tompkinsville sits abandoned on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, slated for demolition. (Staten Island Advance/ Bill Lyons)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Awaiting demolition

Preservationists rallied on Castleton Avenue in Tompkinsville on Nov. 21, 2010, in the continuing effort to save "The Castle," the iconic red-brick building with four towers built in 1889. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Farewell

Demolition of "The Castle" in progress on March 5, 2012. (Staten Island Advance/Irving Silverstein)

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This school on St. Paul's Avenue and the corner of Grant Street -- designated an official New York City landmark in 1996 -- was designed by famed architect Edward A. Sargent and constructed in 1897-98.

The brick building, with its soaring clock tower, "remains one of Staten Island's most distinctive late-19th century public structures," according to the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Landmark school

This school and its prominent clock tower still graces St. Paul's Avenue in Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Clock tower

This prominent clock tower in Tompkinsville is part of PS 65 on Grant Street and St. Paul's Avenue. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Main entrance

Entrance to PS 65 on St. Paul's Avenue, Tompkinsville. In 1996, the historic building was designated an official New York City landmark. Nov. 30, 2014. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Traffic

Tompkinsville Square, looking toward St. George. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Looking out to the bay

Looking out at the bay from Tompkinsville, Staten Island. (Courtesy of NYPL Digitial Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Central Avenue

Central Avenue, Tompkinsville. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

1880s row houses

Successful banker and broker Harry Lawrence Horton built a dozen attached brick homes on Westervelt Avenue in Tompkinsville -- also known as Horton's Row -- between 1880 and 1882. The surviving buildings were landmarked in 2009. (Courtesy of the Staten Island Historical Society)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Westervelt landmarks

The Horton's Row residences at 411, 413, 415 and 417 Westervelt Ave. -- built with eight others by banker and broker Harry Lawrence Horton around 1880 -- were designated official NYC landmarks in 2009. (Courtesy of Staten Island Historical Society)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Pier 6 fun

Young men dive off Pier 6 in Tompkinsville in this 1940 photo. With the onset of World War II, the pier was requisitioned by the United States Navy as a barracks and training center. Cromwell Center wasn't reopened to the public until January 1949, after the Navy had it refurbished for recreational usage. (Staten Island Advance file foto)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Kids at Cromwell

In this 1978 photograph, Matthew Harrell, left, and George Karsanow test their skill at shuffleboard on the first day of Cromwell Center's summer recreation program for youngsters ages 12 to 18. (Staten Island Advance /Robert Parson)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Waterfront, 1970

Tompkinsville waterfront: June 27. 1970. (Staten Island Advance file photo)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Swimming pools

Lyons Pools and bathhouse. (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections)

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This building complex on Swann Street served as a stable in the early 1900s for the borough's Bureau of Street Cleaning, the city Sanitation Department's predecessor, in an era when horse-drawn vehicles navigated neighborhoods in municipal service.

On Nov. 23, 1906, then-Staten Island Borough President George Cromwell posted a notice in The City Record, requesting "sealed bids or estimates for furnishing and delivering forage at Stable A on Swan Street, Tompkinsville."

Cromwell's request included 290,000 pounds of oats; 275,000 pounds of prime hay, and 50,000 pounds of straw, among other items for the stable's hard-working horses.

The borough president also solicited bids for labor and materials to shoe, monthly, the horses housed in Stable A, identified as 33 draught horses and nine "light driving horses."

Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Swann Street stable

The city Department of Sanitation property at 66 Swan Street, Tompkinsville, was a former municipal horse stable, dating back to the early 1900s. Sept. 3, 2014. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Swann Street stable

The city Department of Sanitation property at 66 Swan Street, Tompkinsville, was a former municipal horse stable, dating back to the early 1900s. Sept. 3, 2014. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)

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Virginia N. Sherry | sherry@siadvance.com

Stable details

Dormers on the city Department of Sanitation property at 66 Swan Street, Tompkinsville, a former municipal horse stable dating back to the early 1900s. Sept. 3, 2014. (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)
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AP photo

Leonardo DiCaprio's 13 greatest roles

Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar bait-to-Oscar win ratio is shocking: about 13 to zero, by my calculations. One of Hollywood's most beloved, bankable, credible stars is seemingly always a contender, but always either a snub or runner-up. That's likely about to change, considering he's practically a shoo-in to win best actor for "The Revenant" at the 2016 ceremony. And oddly enough, it's not even close to being his best performance. Here's how his role as a revenge-driven man stranded in the woods stacks up with his most notable films. - John Serba

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13. 'Romeo + Juliet' (1996)

Starring in a Baz Luhrmann picture risks being overshadowed by the filmmakers crazy-ambitious visual pursuits and myriad indulgent flourishes. I remember Leo definitely being in this movie, playing a Romeo opposite Claire Danes Juliet, and being pretty good, amidst the garish modern-day setting, where the Capulets and Montagues are Verona street gangs, warring to the sounds of mid-90s alt-rock. Leo would be slightly less lost in the art direction of his re-teaming with Luhrmann for 2013s The Great Gatsby, which is similarly gregarious in its visionary ambition, but not quite as notable for star or filmmaker.

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12. 'The Basketball Diaries' (1995)

Leos first top-billed role was playing poet Jim Carroll in this biopic. The performance is memorable for his intensity in portraying the mans crippling heroin addiction, and we walked away with scenes of his desperation seared into our minds.

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11. 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' (1993)

The high point of Leos pre-Titanic career was not Growing Pains, but rather this odd weepie of a drama in which he plays Johnny Depps mentally challenged brother. Hes good, and it marked his emergence as a film star. (I think its safe to say he fulfilled his potential, no?) The role  stereotypical Oscar bait for the time  netted him a shot at a supporting actor trophy. It was his first nomination and, of course, his first loss.

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10. 'Inception' (2010)

http://www.mlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/07/dreams_and_reality_commingle_i.html

Perhaps it goes without saying that the star of a Christopher Nolan movie  non-Batman division  is always Christopher Nolan. The director is a brilliant conceptualist, gifted manipulator of action sequences and noted crafter of exposition-heavy dialogue. So although Leo is the primary emotional plot anchor for this dreams-within-dreams adventure, Nolan is more interested in blowing our minds than giving his cast meaty characters. But you cant list high points in DiCaprios career without at least sticking it in there somewhere. It won four Oscars, all of the technical variety.

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9. 'Blood Diamond' (2006)

This complicated political thriller casts DiCaprio as a diamond smuggler in Sierra Leone paired up with Djimon Hounsous naive fisherman, and the result is a solid, if formulaic almost-epic movie, which could be said of most all of director Edward Zwicks work. How DiCaprio snagged a nomination for this film instead of The Departed  both were released in 2006  is beyond me. His Bahston accent is better than his South African one, for sure.

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8. 'Catch Me If You Can' (2002)

A number of roles within roles here, as Leo plays a serial con artist passing as an older man, a commercial airline pilot, a lawyer, a doctor and an experienced ladies' man. Context helps elevate the performance, too - the character is doggedly pursued by Tom Hanks' atrocious accent, whatever it is (Boston? Chicago? Noo Yawk?).

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7. 'The Revenant' (2015)

Yes, the performance is a lot of grunting and drooling and crawling and just generally being filthy and freezing out in the woods, but that doesn't mean DiCaprio's nonverbal performance isn't effective or memorable, or in tune with the point of the movie  to immerse us in the horrible beauty of nature, and align us with the singular, focused obsession of the character's desire for revenge. Is it silly that Oscar will probably, finally award Leo with glory for his seventh-best performance? Sure. But that's Oscar for you.

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6. 'Gangs of New York' (2002)

Leo's second-best Scorsese-subterfuge flick is this revenge drama set in the 19th-century New York City underground. Like "The Departed," he plays second-fiddle to a scene thief, in this case, Daniel Day-Lewis' Bill the Butcher, and is oft overlooked as a result, despite providing the movie's emotional core. "Gangs" is a significant epic, and is a bit bigger than just Leo, but it wouldn't be as good without him. The film earned 10 nominations, but oddly not for DiCaprio.

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5. 'Titanic' (1997)

Sure, James Camerons spectacle is the true star of the movie, but Leos chemistry with Kate Winslet is wonderful, even taking in consideration they nearly drowned in not just the freezing ocean waters, but all the cornball dialogue. This was his coming-out as an elite actor and A-lister, and established him as someone who could take command of the screen even amidst an onslaught of special effects and Celine Dion songs. It also marks his first disrespectful snubbing by Oscar  his lack of a nomination is considered one of the biggest snubs in history.

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4. 'Revolutionary Road' (2008)

This is the breakup after Leo and Kate's "Titanic" love story, the duo re-teaming 11 years later for this dark, busted-marriage drama. They share a couple tender moments, but for the most part, it's knock-down, drag-out verbal sparring, the barbed insults and cruel threats shattering the glass snow-globe encasing the superficial perfection of bucolic mid-century suburban life. Both stars give vicious, complicated performances; neither got an Oscar nod, and I'm still kinda miffed about it.

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3. 'Django Unchained' (2012)

An ascot tied beneath his crooked, tobacco-stained teeth, Leo paints the veneer of the Southern gentleman atop the sadism of a plantation and slave owner who stages brutal battles-to-the-death between African-American men. He's loathsome. And magnetic, wrapping a sub-Mason-Dixon-line accent around Quentin Tarantino's great mouthfuls of dialogue. The role falls somewhere between lead and supporting, so he got not even a nod from Oscar  an infuriating oversight.

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2. 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013)

Quaaludes  fistfuls of 'em  inspired Leo to give the most physically committed portrayal of a richie-rich Wall Streeter in cinema history. Scenes of sexual depravity, charismatic F-bombed red-faced speeches and grotesque egotistical gloating would be the most memorable moments in an average movie, but Martin Scorsese's film is far from normal. Thus, the infamous Quaalude overdose sequence, in which the star drags himself half-paralyzed to his soon-to-be-smashed-up Lamborghini and ends up literally pounding the ham out of Jonah Hill, the tone shifting from hysterically funny to desperate and sad. It's unforgettable. He lost the Oscar to Matthew McConaughey, which is only a mild travesty.

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1. 'The Departed' (2006)

Undercover cop movies are a dime a dozen, but none are as intense as Martin Scorseses Boston-set drama in which Leo infiltrates mob boss Jack Nicholsons gang. Such roles are tricky, being a character within a character, but DiCaprios performance  intensely psychological, morally conflicted, classical in its split-personality struggle  is exceptional, not just for the genre but for his own career. Nicholson owns all the entertaining flourishes, but more crucially, Leo is the films rock-solid dramatic foundation. He wasnt even nominated for an Oscar, which is a shame; for my dollar, his work here is a triumph.

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Donald Trump rolled to a win in South Carolina's Republican primary on Saturday as voters seething about Washington and politicians lifted the billionaire businessman to his second straight victory in the presidential race.



The two freshmen senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida -- were battling for second place, which would give them bragging rights but might not get them any delegates in the march to the nomination.

Trump won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary -- and he has a chance to take them all. Trump will win at least 38 of the 50 delegates at stake.



South Carolina Republicans award delegates for being the statewide winner as well as for winning individual congressional districts. More votes are needed in individual congressional districts to award the final 12 delegates.



The outcome could also have serious implications for more establishment-friendly candidates who are hoping for strong finishes to stave off questions about their viability.



Exit polls showed 4 in 10 voters angry about how Washington is working, and more than half saying they felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.



"I don't like politicians," said Jim Jaruszewicz, a 37-year-old radiology technician who voted for Trump. "I don't trust politicians."



The survey also found that three-quarters of voters supported a temporary ban on Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the country, one of Trump's policies.

Trump's supporters erupted into cheers as they learned their candidate had won the primary. Supporters gave each other high-fives and held Trump signs high above their heads as they celebrated. Some chanted "USA! USA!"



Hundreds of people were gathered in a ballroom at the Spartanburg Marriott for Trump's watch party, where they were snacking on cubed cheese and crudite, and sipping beers from plastic cups.



Trump was expected to deliver a victory speech later Saturday night.

Trump appeared confident as he's traveled the state this week, holding rallies and town halls that have drawn thousands.



"I actually think I know your state now better than you do. I have been all over the place for the last four days. I know every blade of grass I've flown over from here to there," he told a rally crowd in Sumter as he implored his supporters to get out and vote.



While the billionaire businessman scored a decisive win in New Hampshire, his second-place finish in Iowa to Cruz illustrated gaps in his less-than-robust ground operation, and questions remain about the extent to which he can translate leads in preference polls and large rally crowds into votes.



Trump's win could answer some of those questions, adding momentum going into the collection of Southern states that will vote March 1, giving him the chance to build an even bigger lead in the delegate count that will determine the nomination.



Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Cruz has 11 delegates, Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has 4 and Ben Carson has three.



It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

The election followed days of hostility between the campaigns and their allies at events and in television ads, automatic calls and mailers that have been flooding voters' mailboxes.



Trump added to the drama, spending the week threatening to sue Cruz, accusing former President George W. Bush of lying and sparring with Pope Francis over immigration.



At his final election-eve rally Friday night in North Charleston, Trump told the widely discredited story of Gen. John Pershing, who was said to have halted Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting the rebels with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.



The outcome will also have high stakes for Trump's rivals, who are hoping to halt his momentum and establish themselves as the best-positioned alternatives to his unorthodox candidacy. Cruz and Rubio were battling for second place.



Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's finish below the top three could raise serious new questions about his campaign and increase pressure on him to drop out. Bush has deep family ties in the state and campaigned alongside his mother, the former first lady, and his brother, former President George W. Bush.



The exit polling of voters was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research.
for rent

Every agreement between you and your landlord should be spelled out in writing in the lease for the apartment or house. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Whether your are renting an apartment or a house, it's important to have a lease that sets out, in clear language, the rights and responsibilities of both tenant and owner.

Here are eight things to know, from the New York State Consumer Protection Board in cooperation with the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal:

GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING:

LIST ALL PROPERTY DEFECTS:

GET THIS LANDLORD PROMISE:

UTILITIES AND OTHER SERVICES:

PRIVACY AND SECURITY:

SECURITY DEPOSIT DETAILS:

YOUR COPY OF THE LEASE MUST BE SIGNED AND DATED BY THE LANDLORD:

Click here to view a plain-language model lease.

"It can be used as a rental agreement for most housing in New York State that is not public housing or is not subject to rent control or rent stabilization," the Consumer Protection Board explains. "This model lease cannot be used in those other situations, since special rules apply to those dwellings."

WHAT ABOUT THE HEAT?

If the lease specifies that you will be responsible for the heating and cooling bills in the apartment or house, you have the right, before signing a lease, to receive a complete set of heating/cooling bills -- or a summary of them -- for the previous two years or the life of the structure, whichever is less.

Utilities and home heating oil or propane-gas dealers must provide copies of that information or a summary of them to the landlord within 10 days of the landlord's request. The permission of the previous tenant is not required.
2016 SkS Weekly Digest #8

Posted on 21 February 2016 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights... El Nino's Status... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... He Said What?... SkS in the News... SkS Spotlights... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... 97 Hours of Consensus...

SkS Highlights

Republicans' favorite climate chart has some serious problems by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%) attracted the highest number of comments of the the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Tracking the 2C Limit - January 2016 by Rob Honeycutt garnered the second highest number of comments. This climate scientist has tried really hard to get a date by Howard Lee generated the third highest.

El Nino's Status

Current climate event is still strong but it is too early to say whether it will be most powerful on record, says World Meteorological Organisation.

El Nino has passed peak strength but impacts will continue, UN warns by Adam Vaughan and John Vidal, The Guardian, Feb 18, 2016

Toon of the Week

Quote of the Week

President Obamas special envoy for climate change has warned Republican presidential hopefuls including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz that any attempt to scrap the Paris climate agreement would lead to a diplomatic black eye for the US.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Todd Stern also said that a recent supreme court decision to block Barack Obamas clean power plan would not affect US climate pledges, or plans to formally sign up to the Paris agreement later this year.

Republican candidates such as Trump or Cruz who query climate science on the presidential stump would in practice be very loathe to set off the storm that would follow any ditching of the Paris accord, Stern argued.

Paris as an agreement has such broad acceptance and support around the world from countries of every stripe and region and Paris itself was seen as such a landmark - hard-fought, hard-won - deal that for the US to turn around and say we are withdrawing from Paris would inevitably give the country a diplomatic black eye, he said.

When President Bush took the US out of Kyoto  which in retrospect was in fact a quite flawed document - he took lots and lots of diplomatic flak and that, I think, would pale in comparison to what would happen if a president took us out of Paris, which is seen as a strong viable structure that all countries have now bought into.

Donald Trump warned against scrapping Paris climate deal by Arthur Neslen, The Guardian, Feb 16, 2016

He Said What?

Back when he was a mere Reality TV star, Donald Trump published a less-than-140-character dissertation on climate change. The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. That tweet from Election Day, 2012, drew 40,000 retweets or likes.

Donald & Teds Excellent Climate Adventure by Peter Dykstra, The Daily Climate, Feb 20. 2016

SkS in the News

The US News & World Report article, Climate Change's Unseen Consensus by Sander van der Linden, Edward Maibach, Anthony Leiserowitz opens with:

In the history of science, there have been few instances in which almost all experts in a particular field were in complete agreement. Climate change is one of those instances. Nearly two decades of research has converged on the following fact: Over 97 percent of climate scientists have independently concluded that human-caused global warming is happening.

In his Bad Astronomy blog post, Climate Quickies: Scientists (Briefly) Discuss Climate Change Phil Plait states that SkS is his "go-to for most basic debunking."

SkS Spotlights

The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) is an independent scientific analysis produced by four research organisations tracking climate action and global efforts towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming below 2C, since 2009.

The CAT Consortium

Coming Soon on SkS

Fossil fuel funded think tank report poses as climate science (John Abraham)

(John Abraham) Uncertainty Handbook Translations (Baerbel)

(Baerbel) Global warming is happening 50 times faster than when Earth comes out of an ice age (Dana)

(Dana) US seafood species highly vulnerable to climate change, study says (Robert McSweeney)

(Robert McSweeney) How Exxon Overstates the Uncertainty in Climate Science (John H. Cushman Jr.)

(John H. Cushman Jr.) 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #9 (John Hartz)

(John Hartz) 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #9 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

97 Hours of Consensus: Donald Wuebbles

Donald Wuebbles' bio page and Quote source
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He described how he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and "non-Jewish" look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.
San Mateo, CA (94402)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 66F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 56F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
People who wring their hands about how social media is making us all nasty are dead wrong. The modern media environment doesn't make us nasty. It just takes the nastiness that was always there and projects it on a screen. When Stephen Fry, at the BAFTA awards, said of Costume Design gong-winner Jenny Beavan as she left the stage: "Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to the awards ceremony dressed like a bag lady!", there were always going to be people at home who would pause  popcorn en route to mouth  and say to their husband or wife or dog: "Well. What a rude prick." When comedian Lawrence Mooney got a lukewarm review for his Fringe Show, one assumes there were always going to be harsh words said in the Mooney lair. And fair enough: no-one likes to be told they are less funny than they are (I am biased here, as I find Mooney ridiculously hilarious). What social media does is supply the opportunity to take the sorts of things we used to mutter in the privacy of our own homes and broadcast them to their targets. Thereby allowing a bunch of unconnected people to bustle in and set up their little pup tents of outrage on one side or another.

Thereby creating a two-day scandal from something that really ought to have remained as a stray remark. Friends! Social media isn't making us meaner. It's just eroding the great and noble human tradition of bitching behind each other's backs. Have you ever had one of those moments where you're loudly castigating the driver in front of you for driving like a cloth-eared git, and then you realise it's actually your friend driving the car? That sense of quantifiable shame is the precise human gap between what we're prepared to say to people's faces, and what is best left unheard. Even the Bible deals with this phenomenon. Jesus predicted that his main man Peter would deny him three times (a prediction hotly contested at the time by the above-mentioned disciple). And Peter did deny Jesus three times. But not to his face; just to a couple of bystanders who asked if he was in any way associated with the totally doomed guy from Galilee. Don't know what you're talking about, said Peter, nonchalantly, three times. You see, Peter didn't count this as a betrayal. Not until the cock crowed and he twigged that he'd blown it.

There are two lessons from this parable. One: Don't betray the omniscient. They're already onto you. Two: Humans don't count victimless backstabbing as genuine betrayal. Backstabbing is our naturally-evolved pressure valve for human relationships; even the distant ones. Fuming in private  whether it be about your kid's maths teacher, your mother-in-law, Garry Lyon, anyone who has slept with Garry Lyon, or the flight attendant who told you to stow your tray table when you were ALREADY DOING IT  is a rewarding, therapeutic and harmless way to dispel angst.

Share it across the kitchen table, and it's gone. Share it on social media though, and it's on. Social media has taken that harmless little pressure valve and turned it into a giant, roiling cesspit of offence endlessly given and taken, and spun into weightless news items. Even hitherto normal news sites devote columns and columns to pointless Twitspats, as if they mean something. "David Bowie's Son Posts Cryptic Tweet After Lady Gaga Tribute To Late Father". "First Pictures Of Rihanna After War Of Words With Beyonce", and so on. "Who gives a f--- about Kanye West?" shrieks the venerable New York performance artist Penny Arcade in her current Adelaide Fringe show. "They have hijacked our attention and they are renting it back to us!"
Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler has savaged the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for what he says has been its intimidation of doctors who speak out about the plight of asylum seekers.

He has called for the establishment of a national statutory body, independent of government, to "investigate and report to Parliament on the health and welfare of asylum seekers and refugees".

Brian Owler has hit out at the Department of Immigration over the intimidation of doctors who speak out on the health and welfare of asylum seekers. Credit:Deborah Snow

He also wants the repeal of amendments to the Border Force Act, which dangle jail penalties over doctors and nurses who speak out about conditions inside the detention centres.

A Sydney meeting of about 350 AMA members and other health workers heard passionate speeches on Sunday morning from Professor Owler and three other prominent health professionals who had assessed children on Nauru, Christmas Island and at the Wickham Point immigration detention facility, near Darwin.
Federal MPs and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's wife Lucy could claim workers' compensation for the first time through a fund a lawyer says may have covered the injury Jamie Briggs sustained tackling Tony Abbott.

The Turnbull government is moving to establish a parliamentary injury compensation scheme for MPs who are injured or contract diseases due to their work as office holders. A bill  introduced into Parliament last week  says the scheme will cover things like medical treatment, inability to work, rehabilitation programs, death benefits and funeral expenses, and lost and damaged medical equipment.

Take a knee: From January 1 injuries to MPs may be eligible for compensation if a parliamentary scheme passes. Former cities minister Jamie Briggs, who sustained his injury after a friendly tackle on Tony Abbott last year won't qualify. Credit:Andrew Meares

Maurice Blackburn principal Rod Hodgson said that if passed, the scheme could cover injuries ministers sustained after hours at work-related functions. Such a scheme could "arguably" have covered the knee injury Mr Briggs sustained after tackling ousted prime minister Tony Abbott on the night of the leadership spill last year, he said.

Mr Hodgson cited a High Court case, which ruled a federal public servant was not entitled to compensation for an injury she incurred having sex while on a work trip because her employer had not "encouraged the activity that gave rise to the injury".
London: Having persuaded 27 fellow European Union leaders to do a deal to save Britain's EU membership, Prime Minister David Cameron faced an insurrection at home as his government emerged divided over whether to back a 'Brexit'.

In a rare Saturday morning cabinet meeting - the first since the Falklands War in 1982 - Mr Cameron attempted to rally his senior ministers to the cause of keeping Britain a part of the European Union when the country votes in June.

The meeting came hours after the Prime Minister signed a deal in Brussels with his EU counterparts that he said would dramatically improve British relations with the bloc. The agreement featured concessions in various areas, including currency protections and immigration. It came together only after two days of round-the-clock talks.

With a referendum campaign now under way in Britain, there were major defections from the government's senior ranks, reflecting bitter divisions in the Conservative Party over the country's EU membership. Polls show the British public is almost evenly split.
Ten people were treated for redback spider bites in Canberra over the past 12 months, during a year with higher than average rainfall and a summer heatwave.

An ACT Health spokeswoman said 48 people came to Canberra emergency departments with suspected spider bites, 10 of whom reported the bite coming from a redback.

Redback spiders were blamed for 10 spider bite cases in Canberra over the last 12 months. Credit:Kitty Hill

Bites from that species were the highest reported, with instances of wounds from other species being too low to individually specify.

Arachnologists warned of higher numbers of redbacks in the ACT back in November, with humidity, rainfall and heat contributing to helpful breeding conditions for the species.
Having a limited exposure to the global sharemarket rout that has erased 3 per cent of the average Australians' retirement savings since January 1 has positioned QSuper to be the top-performing super fund at the start of 2016.

QSuper's balanced option ranked as the top-performing growth fund in January, dipping just 0.1 per cent over the month, compared with a median monthly loss of 2.3 per cent among its "growth fund" peers, according to data provided to Fairfax Media by superannuation industry research house Chant West.

A preference for fixed interest helped QSuper record a flat January as sharemarket turmoil sent the average fund tumbling 2.3 per cent. Credit:Peter Braig

Growth funds are defined by Chant West as those with between 61 per cent and 80 per cent of capital invested in "growth" assets, such as shares and listed property trusts, and are the investment option most Australians have their compulsory retirement savings in.

At Friday's local close the benchmark S&P / ASX 200 Index was down 6.6 per cent in the calendar year to date, while in the United States the S&P 500 was down about 6.2 per cent.
The slowdown in China's economy isn't going to stop its state-owned and private companies investing in Australian assets, says Westpac's head of greater China Andrew Whitford, who is tipping a boom in foreign investment in agriculture and healthcare.

As investors fret over banks' exposure to emerging markets, Mr Whitford also signalled Westpac had not experienced any major deterioration in credit quality among its Chinese institutional clients.

Westpac's head of greater China, Andrew Whitford, says the country's outbound investment is accelerating. Credit:Jessica Hromas

China has risen to be one of Australia's biggest sources of overseas capital in recent years, with the federal government approving $27.7 billion in Chinese investments in 2013-14.

However as its economy slows, some fear this trend could go into reverse, affecting industries such as commercial property in particular. Last week, ANZ reported that its bad debts in Asia were increasing.
He would like the public to believe that all the people camped outside Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital since last Friday were simply wasting their time.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's claim that baby Asha was always going to be moved to community detention rather than sent to Nauru doesn't stack up.

At a press conference on Sunday called in response to the extended vigil, Mr Dutton said the hospital's doctors had finished treating Asha and "would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention".

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would like the public to believe protesters like Scotia Monkivitch were wasting their time at Lady Cilento Hospital. Credit:Cameron Atfield

"As I say that's what we've proposed all along but at some point if people have matters finalised in Australia then they will be returning to Nauru," he said.

When asked why this proposal hadn't been made clear previously, the Immigration Minister told journalists it had "been made very clear" and they'd been "hijacked" by advocates more interested in their own media profile than the baby's interests.

He said there were 83 asylum seekers, including women and children, living in the community after travelling to Australia for medical assistance and Asha and her family would add to that number.
Except neither the Bureau nor the Department knows the phone passcode, and trying too many times will destroy its contents. The FBI already has a copy of the phone's data from Apple's cloud storage, but there is a missing few weeks before the attacks. Had the password not been reset after the shootings while it was in government custody, it could have backed up again, and prevented the entire basis for the fight.

The shooters in last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, may have left key information on an iPhone, and the FBI wants it. Credit:AP

So now the FBI wants Apple to create software to break the iPhone's security, allowing agents to read the whole thing and according to the US government, only that one terrorist's phone. As Apple knows, that is baloney. What the FBI wants now does not equal what may be done later.

"The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that's simply not true," Apple said in a statement last week. "Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks  from restaurants and banks to stores and homes."

As we have seen many times before, authorities facing a problem in one investigation want a fix that may undermine the security and privacy of millions of innocent others. In working out why two people murdered 14 others, the US government is willing to risk the digital safety and privacy of a decent proportion of the world's mobile phone users.
Safe Schools hasn't been going long enough for a study which examines the impact of policies, strategies and actions on any group of people. The Safe Schools Coalition Australia has partnered with the WA Aids Council to deliver the program to schools in our state. The program is known as 'All Of Us' and is presented as an anti-bullying program to promote transgender awareness. Critics claim it is a gay lifestyle promotion program and a form of social engineering to further promote the LGBTI cause. Supporters argue homophobia and transphobia are rife in schools and this program is needed now. The Victorian State Labor government has mandated that it will be compulsory for all schools to join the Safe Schools Coalition program by 2019.

A Victorian mother-of-four recently withdrew her son after he took part in a lesson and came home thoroughly confused. Unlike Victoria, the program is new to WA and at this stage remains optional for schools to sign up to. However, some WA parents have already withdrawn children from traditional schools in WA and are home schooling instead, unhappy and concerned with what their children have experienced taking part in the lessons. Bullying has no place in schools, but there are already rigorous anti-bullying programs in place that are delivering effective outcomes. The Department of Education's Executive Director Statewide Services, Lindsay Hale, says that schools strive to provide safe learning environments for all students regardless of gender identity, race, religion or sexual orientation.

"Principals, in consultation with their school communities, are best placed to decide which programs will address the needs of their students, "said Mr Hale. But by the same token, a classroom of sniggering 11-year olds is not the place to start the journey of discussing LGBTI issues. While those students who identify as LGBTI should not be unfairly discriminated against or victimised, critics such as education expert Dr Kevin Donnelly suggest that "Safe Schools Coalition is more about advocacy than simply making schools safer places. Students are being subjected to a concerted and well-resourced campaign enforcing an LGBTI sexuality and gender agenda." The Safe Schools Coalition program may indeed be well intentioned by LGBTI supporters but it could have life-long ramifications on a child not emotionally mature enough to deal with this content. Gender identity issues in early adolescence do occur and this program may be useful for those children whose parents are too judgemental and not emotionally equipped to want to bring the topic up at home.

BUT, for the overwhelming majority of 11 year olds it will not apply and does not apply. 'All Of Us' claims to want to increase respect and inclusion of LGBTI and to achieve its goal will teach children that there is no such thing as 'normal' sexuality, and that there are many genders beyond 'male or female'. The program claims instead that gender is fluid or limitless. The phrase 'boys and girls' is not to be used because, according to the Safe Schools Coalition, using 'boys and girls' assumes that everyone is, or should be, heterosexual. Instead, the guide tells children to ask people if they prefer to be known as 'he', 'she', 'ze' or 'they'. 'Ze'? 'Ze'? That is completely ridiculous. What the hell is a 'ze?' Even my gay friends expressed dismay and surprise! Heterosexuality is NOT taught in schools.

The guide presents current LGBTI ideology as the only acceptable view of sexuality and gender, which at 11 years old simply leads to confusion. Even adults struggle at times with these concepts. Schools are always striving to create more inclusive school communities and parents trust their child's school to do this each and every day. Life is tough enough for principals and teachers, so they don't need yet another issue to deal with that they themselves may deem not necessary for their school. One of the 'All of Us' lessons encourages students to evaluate their school environment and advocate for change such as changing the curriculum, gender-neutral toilets and establishing groups such as Queer-Straight Alliance, LGBTI representative library books and using promotional material across the school such as banners, posters and stickers. That is all well and good.

But, in another lesson illustrating the importance of having a safe learning environment the program states that 'we respect other people's opinions even if they are different to our own.' However, the 'All of Us' material, along with other Safe Schools Coalition materials is ironically intolerant of WA's cultural and religious diversity. It fails to provide guidance as to how students are to respect those people who for cultural or religious reasons consider the LGBTI sexual activity unacceptable. Has anyone thought of the negative impact on children and their families if these discussions or topics are introduced to children in a group environment where a child may not be ready to receive this information? These topics should instead be addressed with children as and when a parent feels that they are ready to understand and process the information.

Sadly, if a parent does not ever feel comfortable discussing these issues with their child, then that is just one of those things. The fact is you will never get everyone on the same page when it comes to such delicate issues like these and that is just a part of life - always has been, always will be. Some critics have even claimed that the whole program fits the definition of bigotry because it does not tolerate any view that differs from the LGBTI ideology of sexuality and gender. The LGBTI lobby is an incredibly powerful minority, but do not for one moment think it is a homogenous one. There are many with the LGBTI community that are wary about the Safe Schools Coalition but are too nervous to voice their concerns for fear of reprisals. Apparently, at WA state schools which choose to sign up, the lessons will be delivered by teachers. In my view, this can also open up a can of worms. A gay teacher may deliver the information in a completely different way to someone who is deeply religious. And some teachers simply feel that they should not be delivering these lessons in the first place.

We all hear about how people want the family unit in our society strengthened and that parents know their children best - so let families decide how and when to do it. As a columnist, sticking one's head above the parapet is par for the course. However, what sticks in my mind this week is the complete fear expressed by many that I was so 'brave' to write a column on this because I would be attacked by the LGBTI lobbyists no matter what I wrote. So, to make sure there is no confusion. I want to see the current and future generations of Australians continue to embrace their fellow Australians and respect them for who they are. But as a parent in Australia, I will decide when it is the right time to talk to my children about LGBTI issues, NOT a school and NOT at age 11.
It was trumpeted as a key commitment, putting customer service at the heart of government. A red velvet curtain parted, and the first Service NSW shop was unveiled in 2013.

"There is no reason why people should not expect the same high level of service from government as they receive from their favourite retailer, airline or financial institution," said then premier Barry O'Farrell.

The Service NSW app was supposed to improve citizens' access to government, but no one is monitoring customer satisfaction.

How prophetic.

Because as the average bank, airline or disgruntled retail customer well knows, servicing customers increasingly means automated digital processing. On the other end of the smartphone app, no one can hear you scream.
Jeff Seeney, former Newman Government deputy premier and Member for Callide, had a thought bubble last week. Why not replace Warren Truss as the federal Member for Wide Bay?

His mind was no doubt exercised by the departures of Truss, McFarlane, Brough and Robert, leaving the prolix George Brandis, the obdurate Peter Dutton and youthful Wyatt Roy to bat for Queensland. And all Liberals.

Former Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney has been dumped from the LNP front bench. Credit:Renee Melides

Furthermore another Liberal, Gold Coast MP Steve Ciobo, was sprinkled with Malcolm's special pixie dust, succeeding Andrew Robb as Trade Minster. Robb, according to the farewell rhetoric, combined all the good qualities of Gandalf, Dumbledore and Obi Wan Kenobi. Never mind that the hard heads of the IMF and the Productivity Commission rated the trade deal gains as next to bugger all.

Moreover, for Jeff, things have been on the slide in Callide. Since the 2009 state election Seeney has lost over 12 per cent of his primary vote. In 2015 he garnered 46.5 per cent of the primary vote, down from 53.3 per cent in 2012, a slide of 6.6 per cent, notwithstanding that John Bjelke-Petersen for PUP scored 25.2 per cnt of the vote, and just short of the Katter Party vote of 26.6 per cent in 2012.
Kickstarter campaign opens doors of TANK steel water tower in Colorado

Look, nobody's saying the TANK was built by aliens. But the superlatives echoing 'round the empty steel water tower in a Colorado gravel pit have grown pretty cosmic.

The TANK in Colorado.

"It's the wellspring," says New York composer, sound artist and "sonic thinker" Bruce Odland, "the place to learn about sound and who you are."

It's "one of the world's coolest new venues", Laurie Anderson notes in a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to open the doors of the acoustic wonder as an International Centre For Sonic Arts.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have become embroiled in the stand-off over the fate of asylum-seeker child Baby Asha, currently in a Brisbane hospital, the head of the Australian Medical Association President Brian Owler says.

Addressing an AMA forum in Sydney on Sunday, Professor Owler said he had learned on Saturday night that the child's mother had been refused access to lawyers, suggesting that her transfer might be imminent.

"I was shocked. I made a number of calls. Bill Shorten did call Prime Minister Turnbull [on Saturday night] to seek reassurance that this would not happen," he said.

"Security guards entering a hospital to forcibly remove a patient would be unprecedented in this country. It is a line that cannot be crossed."
New Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said low income households would benefit greatly if they were allowed to opt out of making compulsory super contributions.

Mr Joyce said they would be better off using the extra money to buy their own homes, setting them up materially for when they start drawing on the pension.

As the Turnbull government struggles to take the lead on the tax debate, with just three months to go until the budget, it is reportedly being urged to consider a proposal to allow low income workers to opt out of compulsory super contributions so they can have a better standard of living before they retire.

The proposal would enable low income earners to take home the 9.5 per cent of their pay packets that currently goes into super.
Police are investigating whether a driver was highly intoxicated at the time he sped off from police and crashed into a power pole, leaving three women dead in western Sydney.

John Diing was driving a white Holden Commodore without his lights on when police tried to pull him over for a random breath test in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

After a pursuit lasting only a few seconds, the car careered off the road, crashed into a power pole and flipped onto its roof in Marayong.
Five people have been arrested in connection with an alleged online child exploitation ring operating out of Sydney, with police allegedly seizing photographs referring to sexual activity with an infant and with an animal.

The four men and one woman were arrested in Sydney's west and north-west following a covert online operation that was sparked by a tip-off from Queensland Police in June last year.

During their investigation, detectives from the NSW Sex Crimes Squad's Child Exploitation Unit allegedly uncovered a series of communications relating to child exploitation between alleged members of the group.

Police will allege in court that one of the men had planned a meeting with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with an infant.
Police are investigating a fight in Sydney's inner city that left two men injured early on Sunday morning.

While some men were questioned at the scene near Union Street, Pyrmont about 4.30am, a group of men ran away before being stopped by police at Murray Street.

Police have taken the details of that group, the two injured men and two others believed to have been involved in the brawl. It is not known exactly how many people in total were caught up in the incident.

Neither of the injured men received help from paramedics. It is not known if the men had been drinking or had visited the nearby Pyrmont Bridge Hotel or the Star Casino, both of which hold 24-hour liquor licenses.

Police are reviewing security footage from nearby businesses for more information.
The Property Council of Australia has warned Labor's election pledge to mandate extra car spaces in new developments would drive up the cost of housing in the Queensland capital.

Labor lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding last week announced his administration, if elected, would stick to a seven-point planning guarantee that would compel developers to strictly adhere to the City Plan.

Additional off-street car parks will be mandated in new unit developments if Labor wins the 2016 Brisbane City Council election. Credit:Michelle Smith

A central plank of that commitment was to increase on-site car parking requirements for new developments across the city.

PCA Queensland executive director Chris Mountford said that would have a huge impact on homebuyers' finances.
Work on a new $1.2 billion Brisbane light rail system between the University of Queensland and Newstead would begin within the first term of a Labor council administration, lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding pledged on Sunday.

However, the plan was almost entirely dependent on securing both state and federal funding for the project.

Labor lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding wants to reintroduce light rail to Brisbane's public transport network.

Mr Harding said the specifics of nine-kilometre route, including the number of stops, was a "matter for the experts" and would be decided following community consultation.

But he did say the plan would require another river crossing between Dutton Park and UQ and, possibly, a dedicated bridge in the CBD.
Land clearing has returned to Queensland in a big way. After we expressed concern that policy changes since 2012 would lead to a resurgence in clearing of native vegetation, this outcome was confirmed by government figures released late last year.

It is now clear that land clearing is accelerating in Queensland. The new data confirm that 296,000 hectares of bushland was cleared in 2013-14  three times as much as in 2008-09  mainly for conversion to pastures. These losses do not include the well-publicised clearing permitted by the government of nearly 900 square kilometres at two properties, Olive Vale and Strathmore, which commenced in 2015.

Land clearing rates in Queensland tripled since 2010. Credit:Bill Laurance

Alarmingly, the data show that clearing in catchments that drain onto the Great Barrier Reef increased dramatically, and constituted 35 per cent of total clearing across Queensland in 2013-14. The loss of native vegetation cover in such regions is one of the major drivers of the deteriorating water quality in the reefs lagoon, which threatens seagrass, coral reefs, and other marine ecosystems.

The increases in land clearing are across the board. They include losses of over 100,000 hectares of old-growth habitats, as well as the destruction of high-value regrowth  the advanced regeneration of endangered ecosystems.
"When I was a new parent I felt like I wouldn't be taken as seriously by clients if I let on that I had a little one at home and maybe doing the podcast was a way of owning that. Just saying, yes we do it all, or at least try to. This is a part of my life and it will be forever." Darren Rowse has started podcasting alongside running his Problogger business and blog. McCabe runs her own graphic design business while Clark co-owns furniture business Gratton with her husband. The pair say while they don't make any money from The New Normal, recording the podcast has "unquantifiable benefits". "For selfish reasons we've got a lot out of it, in terms of tips and you also feel like you're part of a community," Clark says.

McCabe says podcasts are the perfect medium for entrepreneurs with families who work for themselves from home. If you are running a business you can't talk about it with your employees. We try and share warts and all, but that might be the beer talking. Sean Callanan "That's why we call [The New Normal] the podcast for multi tasking parents because you can listen and do other things at the same time." Beers, Blokes and Businesses At the start of every Beers, Blokes and Businesses podcast hosts Sean Callanan, Jim Stewart and Steve Sammartino all review a beer together before moving on to the day's topic.

Conversation can touch on anything from Facebook advertising, to building a team and what Shane Warne's beer really tastes like. "If you are running a business you can't talk about it with your employees," Callanan says. "We try and share warts and all, but that might be the beer talking." Beers, Blokes and Businesses has been downloaded over 120,000 times and has benefited from the growing popularity of podcasting which Callanan attributes to a few factors. "Podcasting has been around for at least 10 years but it has only been the last two or three years where you don't have to worry about data," he says. "Apple putting in the podcasting app was a big win as it's just getting easier and easier for podcasters. Things like Serial [a true crime podcast with over 5 million downloads] have helped people understand what a podcast is." There is no advertising on Beers, Blokes and Businesses but Callanan says making money has never been the primary objective off the podcast.

"We get a lot of business from speaking opportunities that we get and referred business love from it," he says. Beers, Blokes and Businesses enables the trio to expose their personal brands to a wider audience and also to pick up tips themselves. "I've learned personally so much from doing the show, from what others bring to the podcast," Stewart says. "From tools to management techniques." Problogger Australia's most popular blogger, Darren Rowse, is another business owner jumping on the podcasting bandwagon.

Rowse presents the same sorts of tips, analysis and information he writes about on his Problogger blog. "I started a podcast because I started listening to them," Rowse says. "There are definitely pros and cons of doing them. The thing that made me resist podcasts is I thought people wouldn't spend that much time listening and it's quicker to read content, but there's something about podcasts that is much more personal." The Problogger podcast has been downloaded 740,000 times since Rowse started it in July last year. Rowse says while some of his blog readers have pushed back and said they prefer text "those embracing it are much more engaged than I get from the articles I have written". Rowse has run some advertising on the podcast but says the best way of monetising it so far has been by selling his own products such as ebooks.
Police have arrested a 23-year-old volunteer firefighter and charged him with deliberately lighting three fires around Donnybrook in December.

Police will allege the man lit two fires on December 22 and a third on December 28, according to Western Australia Police assistant state controller Fred Andrews.

A South West volunteer firefighter has been charged with arson. Credit:Darrian Traynor

"Police have been informed that the last fire was estimated to have had a significant financial impact on the community and emergency services," he said.

The arrest followed a joint investigation by South West Detectives and Donnybrook Police.
The Australian government warned on Sunday that terrorists may be planning attacks in and around the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia has been on high alert since a bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital in January, which was claimed by the Islamic State militant group. Malaysia had also arrested a suspected militant who confessed to be planning an attack in the country.

A security guard stands guard in front of Malaysia's iconic building, Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Credit:AP

"Terrorists may be planning attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur. Attacks could be indiscriminate and may target Western interests or locations frequented by Westerners," read a travel advisory post on the Australian government website.
Disaster officials in Fiji are set to deploy aerial surveillance to assess the damage left in Cyclone Winston's wake, amid fears entire villages were flattened by the category five storm.

Torrential rain, wind gusts of up to 325 km/h and waves up to 12 metres high battered the South Pacific nation on Saturday evening in what is thought to be the strongest severe tropical cyclone to ever hit the Southern Hemisphere.

At least five people have been killed and a nationwide curfew remains in place, as authorities begin the monumental task of assessing the extent of the damage and restoring power to parts of the country, which takes in more than 100 inhabited islands.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama confirmed the death toll, according to a report from the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation.
A pro-Kurdish protester launches firecrackers towards a Turkish police water cannon during clashes in Istanbul earlier this month. Turkey imposed curfews in mainly Kurdish towns and districts in December while its security forces battled militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Credit:AP "Turkey is facing a multifaceted catastrophe," said Gokhan Bacik, professor of international relations at Ankara's Ipek University. "This is a country that has often had problems in the past, but the scale of what is happening now is beyond Turkey's capacity for digestion." A rift with the United States, Turkey's closest and most vital ally, over the status of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG), has further exposed Turkey's vulnerability. A demand by Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan that Washington choose between its NATO ally and the YPG, its main Syrian ally in the fight against Islamic State, was rebuffed by the State Department this month, despite Turkish allegations that the YPG had carried out the bombing in Ankara. Soldiers carry the coffins of eight of the 28 victims of Wednesday's bomb attack in Ankara. Credit:AP On Saturday, Turkey dug in, demanding unconditional support from the United States. "The only thing we expect from our US ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Ankara.

Turkey now stands completely isolated, trapped in a maze of quandaries that are partly of its own making, said Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Istanbul's Kadir Has University. Coffins of the victims of the February 17 car bombing at Kocatepe Mosque. Credit:Getty Images "It has so alienated everyone it cannot convince anyone to do anything," he said. "It bluffs but does not deliver. It cannot protect its vital interests, and it is at odds with everyone, including its allies. "For a country that was until very recently seen as a consequential regional power, these facts strike me as quite disastrous," he added. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, right, and a family member of a victim attend funeral prayers for victims of Wednesday's explosion in Ankara. Credit:AP

Most immediately, Turkey is agonising over the fast-changing dynamics along its southern border with Syria, where Russia is bombing, Kurds are advancing and the rebels it has supported against President Bashar al-Assad for the past five years are facing defeat. Sending troops into Syria, as Ankara has hinted it might, would risk a confrontation with Russia that Turkey would almost certainly lose. The downing of a Russian plane in November was, in retrospect, a major miscalculation, analysts say, one that has hamstrung Turkey's ability to project its influence into Syria and prevented it from flying missions there even in support of the US-led coalition against IS. An imam recites funeral prayers for the victims of Wednesday's explosion in Ankara. Credit:AP Not to intervene would mean bowing to the inevitability of an autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Syria bordering Turkey's own restive Kurdish region, as well as the defeat of the rebels Turkey had hoped would topple Assad and project Turkish influence into the Arab world. For now, Turkey has confined its response in Syria to artillery shelling against the advancing Kurdish forces and efforts to reinforce the rebels. A rebel fighter in the border town of Azaz, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, confirmed multiple reports that Turkey has facilitated the deployment of several hundred rebel fighters from the province of Idlib into Aleppo, via Turkish territory.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lays carnations near the site of Wednesday's explosion. Credit:AP At the same time, Erdogan has sought, without success, to revive pressure on the US to agree to long-standing Turkish proposals for the creation of a safe zone in northern Syria that would protect Syrian civilians who have sought refuge from the fighting along Turkey's border. Most observers think direct Turkish intervention unlikely, at least for now. There is no public support for a war and no support for one within the Turkish armed forces. A group of more than 200 academics signed a petition last week urging Turkey not to go to war in Syria, and the military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without UN Security Council approval. But that has not deterred Erdogan from continuing to threaten action, drawing supposed red lines and seemingly digging Turkish policymakers deeper into a hole from which there is no obvious escape. He recently said the fall of rebel-held Azaz to the advancing Kurds would be a "red line" and vowed that Turkey would not allow the creation of a refuge for militant Kurds in Syria. Turkey's predicament is not entirely self-inflicted. Some of the broader global trends - such as Russia's increasing assertiveness and the United States' waning interest in the Middle East - could not readily have been foreseen when Turkey set about crafting its ambitious foreign policy earlier in the decade, analysts say.

But Erdogan appears to have misjudged the extent to which the shifting parameters have constrained Turkey's room to manoeuvre, according to Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Erdogan has mismanaged foreign policy because of hubris," Barkey said. "He was overconfident in 2010 that Turkey was the darling of the world, and that went to his head. There are setbacks that are not of his doing, but how he managed those setbacks are his doing." At a time when Erdogan is also confronting unforeseen challenges to his domestic ambitions, notably his plans to amend Turkey's constitution to enhance his presidential powers, further Turkish missteps cannot be ruled out, said Bacik. "I'm not saying that Turkey has lost its mind and is poised for war, but the posture in Ankara is very strange and could lead to surprises," he said. "What's happening in Syria is a question of survival for Erdogan, so it is not possible to rule anything out." "For Turkey," he added, "there is no good scenario from now on."
LAS VEGAS/COLUMBIA: Republican Donald Trump rolled to victory on Saturday in South Carolina and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton beat back a strong challenge from Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses.

The victories by Trump and Clinton solidified their positions as the front-runners to win their parties' respective presidential nominations ahead of the November 8 election.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush suffered a distant fourth place finish and announced he had suspended his campaign, ending his dream of becoming a third Bush president after his father and brother.

"The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision," an emotional Bush said in Columbia. He finished far out of the running in each of the first three states.
Relatives of escaped prisoner living in fear, pregnant daughter allegedly beaten by father.

FRENCH QUARTER:--- The gendarmes conducted a number of house searches in French Quarter on Friday when they were tipped off that escaped prisoner Kathron Fortune a.k.a. Cuchi was spotted in French Quarter.

The gendarmes also used their helicopter to conduct air surveillance to see if they would spot and capture the escaped prisoner who is considered to be armed and dangerous.

SMN News learned that Cuchi allegedly caught and beat his 14 year old daughter since he escaped because he understood that she is pregnant.

Besides that all persons relating to Cuchi are now hiding because of fear. Persons that contacted SMN News said that several of his family members and women that have child/children for him are also hiding fearing for their lives. Sources say that relatives of Cuchi are afraid of him because they are the ones that turned him in 2006 when he committed murder and was wanted by police. The sources say that someone they believe to be living in French Quarter is aiding and abetting the escaped prisoner because they know he is moving around in vehicles even though he is not driving those vehicles. The concerned persons are now issuing a call on the person or persons that are engaged in such activities to stop and to hand over the wanted man to police.

Cuchi was serving 21 years for the murder when he escaped last week when taken to a doctors clinic in Cay Hill. Since then both Dutch and French law enforcement officers have engaged in an island wide search for the prisoner that has been described as armed and dangerous.

SMN News contacted the Commandant of the Gendarmerie Sebastien Monzoni who confirmed that they conducted a huge search on Friday in the French Quarter area after they heard that Cuchi was spotted in French Quarter. Monzoni further stated that the gendarmes conducted a number of house searches. Asked if the information SMN News received about the 14 year old that was beaten, Monzoni said they too got the same information but could not confirm it because so far no official complaint was filed by anyone.

Monzoni also said the gendarmes also got information that his relatives are living in fear but that too he said he cannot confirm because none of his relatives filed an official complaint with the gendarmerie.

Monzoni said he strongly believes that the escaped prisoner is somewhere on the French side hiding out and therefore they will intensify the controls and searches.

He called on persons that have information on the whereabouts of the escaped prisoner to contact them immediately.
PHILIPSBURG---- The Central Committee will meet in an urgent session on February 23. The Minister of Justice will be present for the sitting of the House.

The Central Committee meeting has been set for Tuesday at 2.00pm in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelmina Straat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is the status of insurance coverage for Police Officers and their families and other related and affected issues.

This urgent meeting was called by the United Peoples (UP) party faction Members of Parliament (MP) Tamara Leonard, (MP) Franklin Meyers, and Independent (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 120, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the Internet www.pearlfmradio.com and via www.sxmparliament.org.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister William Marlin departs from PJIA en route to Brussels for the Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union (OCTA) Forum.

This year, St. Maarten will be represented in the OCTA Ministerial Conference and the OCT-EU Forum from February 23rd to the 26th in Brussels, at the Renaissance Brussels Hotel. The delegation will consist of Prime Minister William V. Marlin, Khalilah Peters (DBB), Olivia Lake (BAK), Marc Arnold (BAK) and Carol Voges (Cabinet GebMin).

Held on a yearly basis, the OCT-EU Ministerial Conference, the forum and trilateral meetings set the yearly agenda, which manages the relationship between the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) and the European Commission.

As of February 2015, St. Maarten has been the official Regional Authorizing Officer (RAO), for the OCTs. In this role, the RAO is end responsible for the successful programming and implementation of the Caribbean OCTs Caribbean Regional Program 2014-2020.

In order to achieve a successful programming, the RAO, must ensure inclusion from all OCTs and the EU. To ensure a successful programming process, regional workshops, conferences and meeting will be planned throughout 2016.

The first meeting, the Caribbean Regional Workshop and Steering Committee Meeting, will be held on the morning of February 23rd. While all OCTs are seated at the table, the aim of this meeting will be to advance the programming process and provide a platform for consultation regarding the regional program for the Caribbean OCTs.

Some of the expected outcomes of this meeting are: the finalization of the action plans for the Caribbean OCT regional program and the agreement on governance structure for the program including the size and number of projects to be executed

In the Caribbean Regional Program Trilateral Session, which will be held on the 24th, the selected topics of the 11th EDF Caribbean Regional Program will be further discussed. The Caribbean OCTs selected the topics Sustainable Energy (SE) and Marine Biodiversity (MBD) as the focal sectors for the regional program, during the regional conference which was held Regional British Virgin Islands BVI last year.

Although SE and MBD are usually seen as separate sectors, together they form the single sector for the Caribbean OCT regional program with the joint objective to build resilience to the effects of climate change and strive towards a low carbon economy.

The Caribbean OCTs recognize the critical role that SE plays in the development process, and the level of energy consumption is widely used as an indicator of economic activity. Recently, the environmental damage and climate impacts caused by the continued use of fossil fuels has come to the forefront. Developing SE and MBD policies, and mainstreaming them into other sectorial development plans and strategies (e.g., tourism, drinking water and wastewater management) is the way forward and it could make a regionally harmonized approach more effective.

The Ministerial Conference will be held on the 25th and the event closes with the OCTA-EU forum, which will be held on the 26th. During this forum, the new global agreement on climate change and the enhancing growth and investment opportunities in the OCTs will be discussed.
How an adventurous priest's bike ride claimed him on Western Ave.

Jan Klimczyk was pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Neighbors where he was hit on a bike say speeding traffic on Western Avenue is dangerous.
Oak Creek to host outdoor 2022 World Cup watch party

A partnership between Morans Pub in South Milwaukee and the city of Oak Creek will offer residents food, drinks, music and games on Nov. 25.
As 2018 wraps up, it's time to review some of the biggest space science stories of the year. From incredible exomoons to masterful missions to groovy gravitational waves, the last 12 months have been packed with science. Here are the top stories of the year.

Be sure to tell us your favorite science stories in the comments! [Related: The Greatest Spaceflight Moments of 2018!]

A Year of Missions

The year 2018 saw the beginning of some missions, and the end of others. Even a long-ago-launched spacecraft from the 1970s chimed in to make news!

The end of Kepler

An artist's illustration of NASA's Kepler space telescope, which is out of fuel. Kepler team members beamed a decommissioning "goodnight" command to the observatory on Nov. 15, 2018. (Image credit: NASA)

After almost a decade of hunting for planets around other stars, NASA's Kepler spacecraft was decommissioned on Nov. 15, after the legendary planet hunter finally ran out of fuel. Kepler made history by discovering thousands of exoplanets, dramatically increasing the number of known worlds circling other stars. By 2008, the year before Kepler's launch, scientists had confirmed the existence of 340 exoplanets, according to data from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia. Kepler has contributed another 2,328 worlds, with an additional 2425 candidates waiting to be confirmed.

The $700 million Kepler mission launched in March 2009, its goal to determine how common Earth-like planets are in our Milky Way galaxy. The spacecraft stared at more than 150,000 stars simultaneously, monitoring dips in their brightness that could be caused by the passage of a planet between Earth and a star. In 2013, the second of the spacecraft's four reaction wheels failed, ending the original mission and giving rise to a new mission known as K2, where it surveyed different parts of the sky.

The rise of TESS

An artist's depiction of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) at work (not shown to scale). (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

Even as Kepler faded, NASA began a new planet-hunting mission. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched into orbit around Earth on April 18 and began gathering science data on July 25. By September, it had already announced its first two planets, the start of a new bonanza. During its two years of observation, TESS will observe almost the entire sky, focusing on the 200,000 brightest stars. In that brief span, researchers estimate the telescope will find about 10,000 new exoplanets, including some the size of Earth.

InSight on Mars

Kris Bruvold, left, and Sandy Krasner react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)

This year brought milestones for a planet inside our solar system, too. NASA's InSight lander touched down safely on Mars on Nov. 26. Like TESS, InSight began its interplanetary journey in 2018. Its May 5 launch was the first-ever liftoff of an interplanetary mission from the U.S. West Coast. Two tiny cubesats launched with the spacecraft and trailed it to the Red Planet, providing near-real-time updates on the mission and becoming the first small satellites to leave Earth's immediate orbit. When it arrived at Mars, InSight touched down on the Elysium Planitia, a smooth flat plain. InSight is a lander, rather than a rover: It will remain stationary over its mission.

Over the next two Earth years, the lander will probe the composition and interior structure of the Red Planet in unprecedented detail. A heat probe will burrow up to 16 feet (5 meters) beneath the surface, while a trio of incredibly precise seismometers will monitor the planet for marsquakes, meteorite impacts and other activity. The instruments are still waiting to be deployed, and it will take another month to calibrate them for use on Mars. But 2018 saw the lander touch down safely, a crucial step in its investigation and one that not all Martian missions accomplish.

Hard times for Opportunity

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover took this self-portrait in March 2014, shortly after wind had cleaned accumulated dust off its solar panels. Opportunity has been silent since June 10, 2018, forced into a sort of hibernation by a powerful dust storm. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.)

NASA's longest-lived Mars rover, Opportunity, lost contact with Earth on June 10. A powerful globe-spanning dust storm hid the sun, causing the rover to retreat into a low-power mode. Not until Sept. 11 was the spacecraft able to receive enough light to have begun generating power. After listening daily for over a month after that, team members scaled back their efforts to hear signals for the rover. NASA will continue to passively listen for the rover until the end of January 2019.

Opportunity landed on Mars with its sister robot, Spirit, in 2004. The pair had a life expectancy of 90 Martian days, each about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, on the surface, with dust expected to slowly bury them. But Spirit lasted seven years, while Opportunity was approaching its 15th year when the storm hit. That makes the spacecraft the longest-lived Mars rover in history. In its 12th year, Opportunity had traveled a marathon-exceeding 26.5 miles (42.65 km), farther than any robot has traveled on the surface of another world.

Asteroid arrivals

NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this photo of the asteroid Bennu on Nov. 16, 2018, from a distance of 85 miles (136 kilometers). OSIRIS-REx arrived at the space rock on Dec. 3. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

Mars wasn't the only spot in space to receive visitors this year. NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which launched in September 2016, arrived at the asteroid Bennu in December. With a goal of helping scientists to improve their understanding of the solar system's history, OSIRIS-REx will eventually return a sample from Bennu back to Earth in 2023. But before it begins its return flight, the spacecraft will study the 1,640-foot-wide (500 meters) near Earth asteroid. Only a week after its arrival, researchers announced that OSIRIS-REx had found signs of hydrated minerals that suggest liquid water was once plentiful inside the asteroid's parent body.

The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander captured this photo of asteroid Ryugu during its descent toward the space rock on Oct. 2, 2018. MASCOTs shadow is visible at upper right. (Image credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR))

And another space agency got in on the asteroid-visiting fun: Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft touched down on the asteroid Ryugu in October, scooping up a sample that will also return to Earth. Hayabusa2 launched on Dec. 2, 2014. It arrived at Ryugu on June 27, 2018, and began a 1.5-year-- long survey of the asteroid. In September, the spacecraft dropped two tiny hopping robots that sent back pictures of the asteroid's surface, as well as a larger lander that briefly gathered measurements. In 2019, Hayabusa2 will descend to the asteroid's surface to retrieve a sample that will land in Australia in 2020.

Voyager 2 goes interstellar

An illustration shows the position of NASAs Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes. On Dec. 10, 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 had joined Voyager 1 in interstellar space. The two are now outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the sun that extends beyond the orbit of Pluto. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

In November 2018, NASA's Voyager 2 probe crossed the boundary into interstellar space. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft visited all four of the giant planets  Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune  and discovered 16 moons, as well as phenomena like Neptune's strangely shifting Great Dark Spot, the cracks in the ice shell of Jupiter's moon Europa and ring features at every giant world.

Unlike Voyager 1, which crossed the heliopause  the bubble of charged particles from the sun that influences the environment of the solar system  in 2012, Voyager 2 carries two onboard instruments that can track particles as they collide with the spacecraft. That means Voyager 2 will collect not just new data but a new type of data, NASA officials said.

Martian Science

With six orbiters, one-and-a-half rovers, and a lander, Mars received a lot of press in 2018. From lakes to organics to massive dust storms, the Red Planet had a way of keeping all eyes turned its way.

Organics and oxygen on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this self-portrait on Jan. 23, 2018, on the slopes of the towering Mount Sharp. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

This summer, researchers reported that NASA's Curiosity rover found a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Martian rocks. Researchers looked closely at samples of the first two Mount Sharp rocks Curiosity drilled in 2014 and 2015. They found several new organics, as well as a number of molecules that are probably fragments of much larger compounds rich in carbon. Although not evidence for life, it's possible that they came from ancient life or at least provided a source of food for tiny organisms of the past.

In a separate study published in October 2018, researchers reported that salty Martian water could contain enough oxygen to support life. Researchers modeled the oxygen-harboring potential of near-surface brines, calculating how much dissolved molecular oxygen they could contain at various points around the Martian planet. They found that the brines could hold enough oxygen to support aerobic microbial life pretty much all across the planet. While not a direct detection, the study raises interesting points about the potential habitability of Mars today.

Liquid water under Mars ice

An artist's depiction of Mars Express in orbit with the spacecraft's radar data on the left. The blue patch represents the team's evidence for subsurface liquid water. (Image credit: ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga, Media INAF)

In July, researchers announced the discovery of a large underground lake hidden beneath the planet's surface. The lake sits beneath a mile (1.6 km) of ice at the southern pole. Using an instrument on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express, which has orbited the Red Planet since 2003, researchers used radar pulses to study the planet's interior structure. The radar signals bounce back to the orbiter differently depending on the material they encounter. And beneath the southern pole, the radar signals found signs of a hidden lake.

According to the radar, the lake is no more than 12.5 miles (20 km) across. Researchers can't determine exactly how deep the lake is, but they confirmed it has a depth of at least 3 feet (1 meter). But don't hold out for fresh water: To remain liquid in the freezing temperatures beneath the ice, the lake would need to be quite salty, the researchers said.

Epic Martian dust storm

This series of simulated Mars rover Opportunity images shows how conditions have changed around the NASA rover as a huge dust storm has intensified (from left to right) throughout June 2018. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU)

For the first time in over a decade, a massive global dust storm wrapped itself around the planet Mars. The storm grew larger over a period of several weeks, and by June 20, NASA officials were classifying it as a global weather event.

Originally detected on May 30 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the storm grew to be larger than the last global dust storm, a 2007 gale that Opportunity survived. It's more similar to a dust storm spotted by the Viking 1 lander in 1977. The storm began to die down in July, and by the end of August, normal conditions were just around the corner.

Exploring the Universe

From distant stars to dark matter, gravitational waves to exomoons, 2018 has been a stellar year for astronomy beyond the solar system.

Dark matter and the universe's first stars

An artist's illustration of what the first stars in the universe may have looked like. (Image credit: N.R. Fuller, National Science Foundation)

The universe's first stars may have revealed a major clue about dark matter. In February, researchers reported that they had spotted the fingerprints of the universe's first stars. The signal was twice as intense as predicted, suggesting that either the hydrogen gas that filled the early universe was significantly colder than expected or background radiation levels were hotter than the radiation left over from the Big Bang. The chilling effect may have come from dark matter.

While ordinary matter has spent the 13.8 billion years heating up, dark matter has been cooling down. When particles of both collide, heat would naturally move from the warmer body to the colder one, causing the warmer body to cool ever so slightly. With nothing else to heat the gas in the early universe, it would quickly cool down as it interacted with dark matter. In today's universe, that effect would be drowned out by heat from stars and X-ray effects from objects like black holes.

The most distant star ever spotted

The most distant "normal" star ever found, nicknamed Icarus, was spotted 9 billion light-years from Earth because of a chance alignment with a foreground object. (Image credit: P. Kelly (University of California, Berkeley)/NASA/ESA)

In April, astronomers reported that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope had spotted the most distant ordinary star ever observed. (Stars that explode into supernovas can be seen from farther away.) Nicknamed Icarus, the star lies 9 billion light-years from Earth, so its light took 9 billion years to reach us. By comparison, the age of the universe is about 13.8 billion years.

Astronomers found the star through gravitational lensing. By using a massive object like a galaxy cluster to bend light, gravitational lensing serves as a magnifying glass to make dim objects appear much brighter from Earth's perspective. Usually an object can be magnified up to 50 times, but a rare alignment between Hubble and Icarus allowed the newfound star to be magnified more than 2,000 times.

LIGO spots 4 new gravitational wave signals

After exploding, stars can form two types of remnants: more massive black holes and less massive neutron stars. In this graphic, both types of remnants are displayed by mass, including individual objects detected alone and the ingredients and results of the each of the 11 gravitational-wave observations made to date. (Image credit: LIGO-Virgo / Frank Elavsky / Northwestern)

The U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its European counterpart Virgo unveiled four new detections of gravitational waves in December. The massive collisions are produced as pairs of black holes or neutron stars  both incredibly dense objects left behind after a star explodes  draw close to one another. As they dance, they cause gravitational waves to ripple outward until the objects eventually collide.

The new announcement marks the largest batch of gravitational-wave detections released at one time, bringing the total to 11 in only a handful of years. It includes an event that is both the most massive and the most distant collision to date. The quadruple discovery didn't come from new detections, as both LIGO and Virgo have been down for upgrades since August 2017. Instead, the signals were found as scientists looked back through detections made between Aug. 25, 2017, and Nov. 30, 2018.

A wealth of mysterious fast radio bursts

Dishes of the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder telescope, with the Milky Way overhead. (Image credit: Alex Cherney/CSIRO)

Intense emissions of radio light called fast radio bursts (FRBs) can pack as much energy as a century's worth of solar activity into brief, millisecond-long bursts. Their source remains a mystery. But in October, astronomers announced the detection of 20 previously undiscovered FRBs, including the closest one to Earth and the brightest one ever seen. That ups the total to just over 50, with the first detection coming in 2007.

Using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a network of 36 radio dishes in Western Australia, researchers turned up 20 new FRBs over a region of the sky about 1,000 times larger than the full moon. The new research suggests that FRBs are coming from the other side of the universe, rather than from our own galactic neighborhood.

The first exomoon?

An artist's illustration of the exoplanet Kepler-1625b with its hypothesized moon, which is thought to be about the size of Neptune. This candidate moon, and others like it, could host satellites of their own, researchers say. (Image credit: Dan Durda)

Moons are common in the solar system but have remained tantalizingly out of sight during the hunt for exoplanets. That may have changed this year. In October, astronomers announced the first evidence for an exomoon, a Neptune-size satellite orbiting the gas giant Kepler-1625b. While the observations don't constitute a definitive detection, they provide enough information to allow other astronomers to determine if a moon can be teased out.

The new results emerged from a focused exomoon hunt using data from Kepler. While studying exoplanets with relatively wide orbits  planets that take at least 30 Earth days to make an orbit the astronomers found odd deviations around 1625b, a planet roughly three times as massive as Jupiter orbiting a sun-like star. Although last year saw a leak of the results, this year the researchers were able to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, a rigorous part of the scientific method.

The summer's triple eclipse

A partial solar eclipse, as observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in February 2012. (Image credit: SDO/AIA/NASA)

Back on Earth, non-scientists were able to enjoy three eclipses over the course of a month. On July 13, a partial solar eclipse crossed the ocean between Australia and Antarctica. The best place to see the eclipse was on Antarctica's Peterson Bank, home to an emperor penguin colony. A total lunar eclipse on July 27, the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century. That eclipse lasted 1 hour and 43 minutes, only 4 minutes shorter than the longest possible such event calculated by astronomers. Observers in much of Africa, the Middle East, southern Asia and the Indian Ocean region caught an eyeful. The triple-header wrapped up with a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 11, visible to those living in northern Europe, a large portion of central and eastern Asia, and northern and eastern Canada.

While a solar or lunar eclipse usually follows its counterpart by two weeks, a triple play is not out of the question. During this summer's lunar eclipse, the moon passed just to the north of the middle of Earth's shadow, reaching the descending node of its orbit  the point where it crosses the ecliptic going from north to south  just 138 minutes after it becomes a full moon, resulting in a nearly central total eclipse. As a result, the pair of new moons before and after the full moon dance just close enough to the moon's opposite ascending node to allow the moon to partially eclipse the sun both times.

A new solar-system friend

Artist's concept of the newly discovered object 2018 VG18, nicknamed Farout, which researchers think is likely a pinkish dwarf planet. At 120 AU, the object is the farthest body ever found in the solar system. (Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science)

As 2018 came to a close, astronomers announced the newest known member of our planetary collection, a potential dwarf planet that is the most-distant body ever observed in the solar system. Nicknamed " Farout," the object's official designation is 2018 VG18. Farout orbits more than 100 times the distance from the Earth to the sun, taking more than a thousand years to take a single trip around our star. Preliminary research suggests it's a round, pinkish dwarf planet about 310 miles (500 km) across.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter@NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at@Spacedotcom,FacebookGoogle+. Originally published on Space.com.




The latest Madam Secretary episode saw Elizabeth dealing with Saudi Arabia, but the episode hit much closer to home when it turned out a terrorist attack on US soil was imminent.





About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Madam Secretary and Quantico. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder. All Reviews)

Recent Reviews by Daniel van der Veer

Bess basically has a lot of things to deal with in this episode. Her first problem starts when the episode opens in Moldova where two men in a truck are attacked and the driver is killed. We later learn that the truck was full of uranium, and that as been stolen. While no-one things it's really that important, Bess calls the International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau to investigate anyway. Walter Nowack from the ISN Bureau works with Jay to investigate the heist. They find out that the man in the truck who wasn't driving was actually the chief inspector of the power plant. He was taken by whoever attacked the truck. The US later finds the uranium and retrieve it in the middle of buy. The CIA lost a few men, but at least the uranium was safe. Jay is still worried about the uranium.Problem number 2 is Bess is hosting a conference for women in eduction and her guest speaker is Noura Al-Kitabi. Noura stood up to the government of Saudi Arabian and demanded equal education and the right to work. However, she was attacked with acid and Saudi Arabia is none too thrilled with her speaking at the event. Russell informs Bess that she can't be present at the event, because they want to keep Saudi Arabia pleased. There is an upcoming arms deal with the Saudis so Bess can't piss them off by showing up at the event. Bess is reluctant, but she does as Russell says. Henry and the kids will still be there though.A third problem is that two teen girls from Ohio ran away to join a terrorist group in Libya that is known as Hizb al-Shahid. The FBI Deputy Director of Counter-Terrorism Marguerite Sanchez comes to Bess' office and informs that the girls did not make it to Libya, but rather they were taken by the government of Saudi Arabai who claim the girls were plotting a terrorist attack against Saudia Arabia. Bess meets with Prince Asim of Saudi Arabia and believes that the Saudi citizens help fund Hizb al-Shahid. If the two American girls found out, the government is keeping them to ensure they won't tell that the country is funding terrorism. Asim agrees to let the girls go.However, things become much more clearer when it turns out all three problems are connected. The two American girls were supposed to blow themselves up at the house of Noura Al-Kitabi. Also, Hizb al-Shahid was the party that wanted to buy the uranium. Bess realizes the conference is in danger and has it shut down. Sadly, it's too late when an a girl runs in and detonates a suicide vest. Bess' family got out safely, but Henry went back to check on the wounded. He shouldn't have done that, since the bomb wasn't just an ordinary bomb, but rather a dirty bomb. The episode ends when men in hazmat suits arrive, with Henry realizing he has been exposed to an unhealthy dose of radiation.Wow, that was quite a bang at the end! I suspected that something bad would happen since this was the first of a two-parter and I believed the cases were connected. Sure, the show has had episodes before where Bess had to deal with two (or more) separate problems, but in this episode it seemed a bit too suspicious to have these three things going on all at the same time and not have some sort of connection between them. But that ending still got to me and there was a lot of tension throughout the episode. I don't think the show will really kill off Henry, but this might lead to a new arc for him. As always, I liked the moments with the family and the staff. Allison helping a bully is not something I would expect from her, but I know that teenagers can be unpredictable. Jay has a pure heart and I loved seeing him worry about the uranium. I also loved seeing his baby again, so cute!Since there have been no review of the previous two episodes, here are some short things to say about these episodes.This episode really put the spotlight on Nadine and Blake, and I loved that it did that! Of course the show is called Madam Secretary and I love Tea Leoni in the lead role, but it's always nice to get some focus on the supporting characters. I loved how Blake took the 2030 report so seriously and it was great meeting Nadine's son. Nadine and Blake at a bar at the end of the episode was a nice moment that concluded with them singing.Wow, this episode was painfully realistic. It was sad to say goodbye to Henry's father already, I would have liked to see him again. I loved meeting Henry's family, but we especially got a lot of insight into Maureen. Kate Burton did an amazing job of portraying a grief-stricken woman who blamed her brother for her father's death. It was painful to see her falling out against Henry, but it was inevitable. I am glad the funeral made things a bit better between them. Other than that, I loved seeing some interaction between Nadine and Russell and it was great that Nadine stood up to Russell.The story continues tonight in the all-new episode of Madam Secretary. Watch a promo for the episode below.
GREENWICH  The towns reputation as a suburban escape for opulent urbanites dates back a century. But the stables, barns and other outbuildings left in the wake of small family farms, dairies, equestrian enthusiasts and so-called gentleman farmers hint at a more modest upbringing.

Many of the historic structures have been fated for demolition in favor of the massive mansions the town is now famous for, but some Greenwich residents are giving the defunct structures new life as stunning  albeit quirky  homes, paying homage to the agricultural history of the town.

Two such properties will hit the market later this spring, listed by Robin Kencel and Lyn Stevens of The Stevens Kencel Group at Douglas Elliman. Both properties boast elements of the barns they once were as their owners embraced their place in Greenwichs storied history  unique floor plans, original barn doors and red paint included.

Although only two former barns will be on the market, there are several sprinkled throughout Greenwichs mid- and backcountry. People romanticize living in an old barn, Kencel said. They love the history the comes with it.

The first property, located at 10 Barnstable Lane, was once part of a 200-acre estate belonging to a Greenwich heiress who loaned the land to the U.S. Equestrian Team to build a practice facility. The owner, Fredericka Fry Del Guercio, was dubbed Greenwichs Cinderella for her rags-to-riches life story as an orphan who inherited her adoptive parents fortune.

When Roger Werner and his family purchased 10 Barnstable Lane over two decades ago, the building that had once been the stable for the teams horses had been partially transformed into a home, but a chicken coop remained where the master bedroom is today and the land was less manicured.

Its been fun, Werner said. We bought the property back in 1995 when it was a little more raw. It wasnt fully landscaped, it was a little wilder. ... It was an open meadow with the stable and one old barn building. The combination of the sunny open land and the history of the equestrian team was what intrigued me most. We decided to leave it as intact as possible, respecting the history, but update the inside to a more modern living space.

Werner and his family went to work on the property, transforming it into the modern 5,800-square-foot home it is today while maintaining the integrity of the original barn construction. Werner said they spent most of their first year remodeling the main house, and a few more developing and landscaping the rest of the 5 acres.

The U-shaped home still bears elements of its former life, including the original stable doors and a hay loft thats been turned into a modern play room. The focal point of the home, the dining room, was originally the trophy room for the equestrian team and was left almost entirely untouched. The tomb of a horse named Watchme is still present on the property next door, presumably dating from the time of the equestrian teams use of the land before it was parceled.

I wanted it ... to look pretty much as it had looked as a stable, but to make the minimal exterior changes that would make it more livable ... putting insulated doors in behind the stable doors and things like that, Werner said. I wanted to retain the feeling of the old stable that it was.

Dewart Estate

A second property featuring a transformed barn, located at 46 Dewart Road, will also come on the market through the Stevens Kencel group next month. Unlike the Barnstable property, the 260-year-old barn-turned-modern home wasnt always located there.

The property, now just more than 2 acres, was once part of the 56-acre Dewart Estate. Thomas Dewart, known for his reign as president and publisher of the long-defunct New York newspaper The Sun, lived in the stone manor that was the centerpiece of the property and still exists next door at 11 Dewart Road.

The land was later divided, and at some point in the early 1960s the barn was disassembled in the Banksville neighborhood of Greenwich and reassembled at what is now 46 Dewart Road.

Current owners Jean and Virginia Richard purchased the property at the end of 2012, though a dilapidated barn-turned-residential home in need of substantial TLC was the last thing the couple was looking for when they relocated to Greenwich from their trendy apartment in Paris.

The Richards spent almost three years renovating the unusual home, though they preserved elements alluding to its former life as a barn, including wide plank wood floors, hexagonal windows and even a red exterior. The work was done entirely with reclaimed barn material.

I call it my American castle, Jean Richard said. I wanted something authentic, with character. This place was in bad shape and most people would have torn it down. We inherited a beautiful history, but also 10 to 15 years of neglect.
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A half-dozen charter schools in the state, including two each in Bridgeport and Stamford, have more than the allowable percentage of noncertified teachers on staff, state officials said.

Under state law, no more than 30 percent of teachers at state-funded charter schools can be without a teaching permit or temporary shortage certificate.

A list released on Thursday, at the prompting of the Connecticut Education Association, shows that six of the 24 charter schools in the state have a larger percentage of noncertified staff.

One of the worst offenders, according to the state list, appears to be Capital Prep Harbor School in Bridgeport, where only three of 16 educators had teacher certification or a shortage permit as of Feb. 11.

Yusuf Salaam, a spokesman for the new charter school, said in an email that the state figure is wrong. He was asked how many teachers at the school lack certification, but did not immediately respond.

State officials said the numbers come from the schools, but could include errors.

More Information Where the charter School certified teachers are Of 24 charter schools in the state, six have a lower proportion of certified teachers than the law allows. The state allows no more than 30 percent of charter school educators to lack certification. Here are schools from our area, as of Feb. 11: Charter School # of educators # with certificate Achievement First Bridgeport 45 24 Capital Prep Harbor, Bridgeport 16 3 Great Oaks Charter, Bridgeport 14 11 Park City Prep, Bridgeport 23 22 Stamford Academy 17 10 Stamford Charter School for Excellence 12 5 The Bridge Academy, Bridgeport 21 21 Trailblazers Academy, Stamford 19 17 See More Collapse

Debating certifications value

Other schools over the limit for noncertified teachers, according to the state, include the Stamford Charter School for Excellence, Stamford Academy and three Achievement First schools, one in Bridgeport and two in New Haven.

At Achievement First Bridgeport, 21 of 45 teachers lack certification, according to the state.

Amanda Pinto, a spokeswoman for Achievement First, said the organization is working closely with the state to ensure compliance.

Like many others, we do not believe certification is the only indicator of excellence in teaching, Pinto said. We are proud of our extensive training, development and evaluation processes that help facilitate strong teaching and learning in our classrooms.

Pinto pointed to a U.S. News & World Report ranking in 2015 that put Achievement Firsts Amistad Academy in New Haven second overall, among high schools in Connecticut, statewide. That was with roughly 37 percent of Amistad Academys faculty without certification at the time of the review.

That said, we take certification seriously and are working closely with the state to ensure compliance across all of our schools, Pinto said. We have already made significant progress toward this goal.

In at least three charter schools in the state, including The Bridge Academy Charter School in Bridgeport, all teachers are certified.

But Wanda Simmons, who has a child at Capital Prep Harbor, said to her, a piece of paper does not mean a teacher is a good one.

It means you took some classes and exams and passed a test for certification. Period, Simmons said. I would rather have a (noncertified) educator who loves the art of teaching and loves and cares for my child and wants to educate, rather than a non-caring, state-certified educator who is retiring or collecting a pay check to teach my child. We can't get stuck on credentials.

Union concerns

The certification issue was raised by the CEA, states largest teachers union, which said it has been pressing since the fall to get certification numbers.

Mark Waxenberg, the executive director of the CEA, said the law governing charter school staffing does not carry penalties for noncompliance. Still, he said the violation should factor into whether charter schools win five-year renewals from the state.

The state needs to tell them to start complying, Waxenberg said.

The union leader said it may be understandable for a new charter school to have a hard time attracting qualified staff right off the bat, but Achievement First, he said, has been around for years.

We all recognize that high-quality teachers are the greatest asset in public education, CEA President Sheila Cohen added. Her union has long held the position that charter schools, though they are funded separately by the state, divert needed funds away from neighborhood public schools, a position charter school supporters vigorously deny.

The Connecticut Department of Education oversees teacher licensing in the state. Teachers are required to hold a bachelors degree, complete a teacher preparation program at an accredited school, pass subject-specific exams and have a successful student teaching experience, all to get an initial certificate valid for three years.

Abbe Smith, a spokeswoman for the department, said the issue is an important one, which the state is monitoring.

We expect schools to address certification challenges, Smith said. In addition to sending annual compliance reports to charter schools, the state considers educator certification as a factor during the charter renewal process and can call for a corrective action plan when necessary.

Smith said if a school does not make any effort to come into compliance and refuses to work toward that goal, the most severe penalty would be withholding of funds.
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STAMFORD  Think of downtown dwellings and high-rises come to mind.

But tucked between and below are the single-family houses that came first and somehow survived a city center that has  literally  grown up.

Take the little 1950 Cape Cod-style house sitting in the shadow of a 15-story condominium complex.

The 1,200-square-foot house on Hillandale Avenue is about the size of some of the condominiums in the One Strawberry Hill complex. In fact, several condos are larger than the three-bedroom, one-bathroom Cape.

Stella Horton and her husband bought the house in 1977, three years after the condo complex went up. The people who lived in the other 1950s Capes on Hillandale Avenue were friendly, Horton said, and the tower that stands sentry over her backyard was just another neighbor.

We were brought up believing neighbors are neighbors, said Horton, 85. One helps the other.

And thats the way it was.

At first her only beef with her high-rise neighbor was that in the 1970s the builder was supposed to plant decorative trees along the unattractive concrete wall of the parking garage. The garage sits under One Strawberry Hill and looms over Hortons backyard.

But the trees didnt happen.

Then there was a problem about two decades ago, just after her husband died, Horton said. Two pipes appeared in the parking-garage wall. During rainstorms, water gushed out.

They must have had a drainage problem in the garage, Horton said. But they shouldnt have sent the water into my backyard.

She called the Stamford health department, she said, and at first an inspector told her she would need a lawyer.

I told him I had photos of the water running out and I was going to bring them to the newspaper. He made a call and then the pipes were taken out, Horton said.

She thinks she has a similar situation now. She said it began after work was done at One Strawberry Hill two or three years ago.

When it rains, water fills up my yard and runs down my driveway in a stream. There are big puddles around the garbage cans and I cant get to them. You cant walk in the yard without sinking in mud.

The garage roof is edged in a small metal gutter that directs water away from the garage wall, which has openings along the top.

They put the metal there so water doesnt go into the garage, Horton said. Instead, it comes into my yard.

Over the last month she made a number of calls to City Hall. She reached Operations Director Ernie Orgera, who told her he would send an engineer to have a look, Horton said.

The engineer visited Tuesday, when it rained heavily. He walked around Hortons yard and the parking garage with the condo building manager.

Chief engineer Lou Casolo said the engineer found no violations.

We did not observe any drainage-related water coming from the 1 Strawberry Hill Ave. building, Casolo wrote in an email. It appears as if the topography of Ms. Hortons property is acting as a basin that retains water without a way out. This appears to be a matter between private property owners that may be best addressed in a meeting between Ms. Horton and her neighbors.

City property records list the owner of the high-rise as One Strawberry Hill Association Inc., which employs a property manager, Plaza Realty & Management Corp. The president, Michael Lombardo, said his company has been in Stamford a long time and often works with city engineers.

If there is something we need to do, we take care of it. In this case the city had free access to our building to look at whatever they needed to look at, and nothing was found, Lombardo said.

Horton is right that One Strawberry Hill was renovated two or three years ago.

The building was painted, new windows were put in and they fixed a problem with water infiltration into the garage, Lombardo said. There is no reason to believe that caused any issue. The city sent a professional to look at it and the professional told me there was no issue.

The problem has been given the attention it deserves, Lombardo said.

I think city has done its due diligence here. They didnt turn their back. I understand (Hortons) position. Its tough. But I cant fix something if I dont know what it is Im supposed to fix.

Horton said they make you feel like you dont know what you are talking about.

She has two questions, she said.

When they fixed things, what did they do to make it so water doesnt go back into their garage? And why, now, am I getting all this water? I may be old but Im not stupid.

And shes not alone.

Her next-door neighbor, Dr. Andrews Adade, said his office is in the basement of his home and when it rains his carpet gets soaked.

They put that flap on the garage behind me and now the water that drains from there soaks the soil between me and them, and goes into my basement, the pediatrician said.

Horton said she will get to the bottom of it, demonstrating what it takes for a 66-year-old, one-and-a-half story Cape to live among the downtown towers and survive a city known for plowing over its past.

They think they are going to wear me out, Horton said. But they arent.
It turns out, a plane built in the Jet City was the first to fly a U.S. president overseas.

Way back in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first sitting president to fly overseas, and he did it aboard a Boeing B-314 Clipper (nicknamed Dixie Clipper), according to Boeing.
PORT JEFFERSON, NY  Three people were rescued Sunday and one remained missing after a small plane crashed in Port Jefferson Harbor late Saturday night.

The Coast Guard suspended the search at at 10:20 a.m. Sunday after 18 hours of searching and covering more than 90 square miles of Long Island Sound. One of the survivors swam to shore and a Suffolk County Marine Delta rescue vessel rescued two of the other survivors, the Coast Guard said.

The three survivors were transported to the hospital for further evaluation. All are from New York City.

Officers from the Bridgeport Marine Patrol assisted in the search for the missing passenger. Port Jefferson is across the Sound from Bridgeport and a ferry makes regular trips between the two communities.

Although initial reports indicated the plane had taken off in Connecticut, Suffolk County police on Long Island said the plane took off from Fitchburg, Massachusetts and was returning to Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y. at the time of the incident.

Police said a student pilot, Austricio Ramirez, 25, was flying as the plane began experiencing difficulties and turned the controls over to the instructor pilot, Nelson Gomez, who landed the plane in the harbor at approximately 11:05 p.m.

All four occupants were able to exit the plane and get into the water and three men  Ramirez, Gomez, 36, and Wady Perez, 25  were rescued by Suffolk County Police officers and taken to a local hospital.

A fourth man, Gerson Salmon-Negron, 23, of Queens, remains missing, police said.

Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said an investigation into the crash of the Piper Pa28 aircraft has been launched.

The aircraft is still in the water, Holloway said early Sunday afternoon. Recovery efforts are underway.

A 45-foot Response Boat-Medium from Coast Guard Station Eatons Neck and an MH-60 Jayhawk Helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod were launched and immediately started searching for survivors in the Port Jefferson Harbor.

Other local agencies also launched assets to assist in the rescue of the passengers aboard the crashed plane, the Coast Guard said. Suffolk County Aviation Division located three people in the water wearing their life jackets and swimming to shore.
A teenage boy has been seriously injuried in a shooting in south-west London in the early hours of this morning.

Police were called to Stewart's Road, Battersea, just after 3am following reports of a shooting.

A Met Police spokesman said the boy, 16, was in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

However, no further details have been released about the incident.

The road was closed for several hours to allow police to investigate.

No arrests have been made.

Trident, Scotland Yard's unit to tackle gang crime, is investigating.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A murder investigation has been launched after a London teenager was stabbed to death in Southend.

Officers were called to Napier Avenue in a busy residential area of the Essex town at 2.15pm on Saturday, February 13 after a 19-year-old man from London was stabbed in the chest.

Police and paramedics rushed to the scene, at the junction with Queens Road, and the teenager was taken to hospital, where he died four days later, on Wednesday afternoon.

Detectives are appealing for anyone with information about the incident to come forward by calling 101 or by emailing scdappeals@essex.pnn.police.uk.

Alternatively Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Two men have been charged in connection with this investigation and are currently before the courts.
P olice are hunting a flip-flop wearing thug who head-butted a man for taking too long to use a cash point.

West Midlands Police have released CCTV images of the attacker, described as an Asian man in his 30s with a distinctive pointed nose, taken outside a post office in Birmingham.

The 34-year-old victim suffered a balck eye in the assault which took place in broad daylight near Birchfield Road post office in Aston at around 11.15am on January 4.

Security footage shows a man, wearing a navy blue Nike hooded top, light blue Adidas bottoms and flip-flops, driving off in a silver Nissan Qashqai.

Investigating officer, PC Leigh Harrison, said: This was a completely unprovoked attack. The victim was using the ATM for no longer than a couple of minutes but apparently that warranted being head-butted.

Anyone who reacts so irrationally, and so violently, needs catching so Id urge anyone who believes they recognise the man to contact me.

The man was wearing flip-flops, unusual given that it was the middle of winter, while the CCTV seems to show him having a prominent, angular nose.

Anyone who recognises the man, or knows anyone matching the description with access to a Nissan Qashqai, is asked to call police on 101
T he husband of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone has been charged with helping a drug trafficker.

Jay Rutland, who is son-in-law to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, is accused of committing the offence in 2010.

He was arrested and charged with assisting an offender for allegedly helping drug lord James Tarrant avoid capture.

Scotland Yard confirmed last night that Rutland, 34, of Kensington, west London, was arrested and charged Wednesday.

Tamara Ecclestone Makes Family Memories In Cannes

Tarrant was on the run for five years after fleeing the UK in 2009. He handed himself into police in the Netherlands in 2015.

He had been sentenced in his absence to 14 years jail in 2010.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said Rutland was bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on March 16.

Rutland and Ecclestone married in 2013 and have a young daughter.
A teenager has been rushed to hospital after he was stabbed in the chest in Wimbledon.

Police were called at 5pm today to the Broadway in Wimbledon town centre, and arrived to find a 15-year-old boy had been stabbed in the chest..

He was taken by ambulance to a south London hospital, and police are awaiting an update on the seriousness of his condition.

Several youths were apprehended by police after they attempted to flee the scene, close to Wimbledon bus station, and have been taken to various police stations across London.

Residents reported seeing a heavy police presence in the area, with the police helicopter overhead, several squad cars parked outside the bus station, and an area cordoned off with police tape.

Police cars up at down my road in Wimbledon and a helicopter circling - feel like I'm in a film!  Niamh Doherty (@union_niamh) February 21, 2016

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said cordons remain in place around the area and detectives from Merton CID are investigating.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: We were called at 5.01pm to reports of a stabbing close to the Broadway. We sent an ambulance crew, and a single responder in a car. We treated a boy for stab wounds and he has been taken as a priority to hospital.
A London woman who is suffering from a rare and debilitating medical condition is trying to raise 16,000 to undergo pioneering surgery in Germany.

Kate Way, from Sydenham, developed severe abdominal adhesions after undergoing emergency surgery to remove an ovarian cyst seven years ago.

Adhesions are bands of scar tissue that can form inside the body binding internal organs together, stopping them from working properly and causing severe pain.

Although doctors have tried to remove the adhesions, they have grown back more severely each time, and now the 38-year-old has been told by medics that they will not be able to treat her condition, and can only offer her medication to manage the pain.

A surgeon in Germany, who has been successful in treating similar cases, has agreed to remove Ms Way's adhesions using a specialist technique - however, she needs to find 16,000 to fund the treatment.

After setting up a GoFundMe page she has received almost 5,000 in donations, but still has a long way to go.

On her fundraising page, she wrote: "All of my organs are now stuck together as if a tube of glue has been poured inside and can no longer function properly.

"I can no longer digest food as my insides are permanently obstructed and am in pain all of the time.

"Every movement causes pain as my insides cannot move around properly."

Musician: Kate was a successful DJ before she became ill / Kate Way

Ms Way fears that without the treatment the adhesions could eventually wrap around her bowel and potentially kill her.

The former DJ, who had to give up a successful music career when she became ill, told the Standard that her biggest hope is to be able to return to work full time.

She also hopes that her fundraising campaign and website will help to raise awareness of a condition that many people know nothing about.

She told the Standard: "It's a really horrible situation and not enough people know about it.

"Nobody told me at the time that if I had surgery I could possibly get this condition.

"I've had five operations in the UK already to try and cut it out and take it away but each time they grow back worse than they were before.

"Surgeons won't operate because it's too dangerous, they send me to pain management and give me more morphine.

"I was always active and enthusiastic about my work and to be told there was nothing, that my life would be, being in bed every day, was horrible.

"I'm trying to raise awareness, I just think more people need to know about it."

Ms Way said that over time the adhesions will continue to get thicker and could eventually wrap around her bowel, causing obstructions and cutting off the blood supply.

She said she had made friends online with other sufferers, some of whom had died from bowel obstructions.

She told the Standard: "I can't have any kind of normal life, it would just be the biggest privilege to go to work every day.

"It would be the most amazing thing, and most people take it for granted.

"When friends online have died it really hit me, that could be me.

"The pain is completely unmanageable, and there's no hope of ever being able to get better.

"They can tie around your insides - the outlook is pretty bleak if I don't get the surgery done."

Dr Bruno Lorenzi, consultant surgeon with Medstars.co.uk, said: "Adhesions are quite common, so operations are done more and more with minimally invasive techniques.

"So many people have operations and the majority develop adhesions, but what has happened to Kate is not common, it's a rare type of adhesions.

"They're quite dense and strong, that's very difficult to manage, and affect a lot of her organs. This situation is a lot more uncommon.

"In the life of a surgeon you'd probably see a couple of patients like this.

"It can be very painful, very debilitating because it involves so many organs.

"She seems like a strong and positive lady who has had a very, very tough time, but she's trying to help other people with this condition, which is good."
P atients in a north London hospitals stretched A&E ward were told to go home and return in the morning unless they were at risk of dying.

An announcement over the tannoy in North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, told people who had already waited for hours to come back the next day unless they had a life-threatening illness, the Sunday People reported.

Hundreds of patients had arrived at the emergency department on Friday before the message was broadcast at about 11pm.

A witness said about a dozen patients were stuck on trolleys lining the walls of the ward, because all the cubicles were full.

Services axed: North Middlesex has faced extra pressure since Chase Farm Hospital (pictured) lost its A&Eunit

The announcement reportedly said: We would ask anyone who doesnt have a life-threatening illness to go home and come back in the morning.

A trust spokesman said it was an exceptionally busy Friday with the hospital seeing 450 cases.

He added: That included a number of major cases of resuscitation and blue-light ambulance cases.

We were under pressure and we were seeing waits of up to seven hours.

We did inform people to come back the next day if their cases weren't urgent.

The hospital has faced extra pressure since the closure of the A&E ward at nearby Chase Farm Hospital.
D avid Cameron has issued a last-ditch appeal to Boris Johnson not to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.

Mr Cameron said it would be a "wrong step" for Mr Johnson to link up with Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Respect's George Galloway in the "out" camp.

He made the comments on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 as London's mayor is set to end months of speculation over which side he will back.

"I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else, which is that we will be safer, we will be stronger, we will be better off inside the EU," the Prime Minister said.

"I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country.

'In' campaign: David Cameron on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday / Jeff Overs/BBC

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done."

Speculation that Mr Johnson is leaning towards the Leave campaign was heightened with the disclosure that he hosted a private dinner with Justice Secretary Michael Gove, just days before Mr Gove declared his support for the out campaign.

It raised the hopes of Leave campaigners that Mr Johnson will now provide the figurehead they have been looking for who can cut through to voters in a way that few other Westminster politicians can.

However Mr Cameron warned that while leaving the EU could create the impression that Britain was reclaiming its own sovereignty, in practice it would be an "illusion".

"If Britain were to leave the EU that might give you a feeling of sovereignty but you have got to ask yourself 'is it real?'," he said.

"Would you have the power to help businesses and make sure they weren't discriminated against in Europe? No you wouldn't. Would you have the power to insist that European countries share with us their border information so we know what terrorists and criminals are doing in Europe? No you wouldn't.

"If suddenly a ban was put on for some bogus health reasons on one of our industries, would you be able to insist that that ban was unpicked? No you wouldn't.

"You have an illusion of sovereignty but you don't have power, you don't have control, you can't get things done."

While Mr Cameron acknowledged that it was possible that Britain could have a trade deal with the EU if it left, he pointed to the example of Canada, which had been negotiating for seven years and still did not have full access to European markets.

"If we leave: seven years, potentially, of uncertainty, and at the end of that process you still can't be certain that our businesses will have full access to the market. So it could cost jobs, it could mean overseas businesses not investing in Britain. It would be a step into the dark," he said.

"The weakness of the Leave campaign is, I think, they forget that even if you leave the EU still exists, it is still on your doorstep."

At a time of great international uncertainty - with the threats of Russian expansionism and Islamic State terrorism - Mr Cameron said there was "strength in numbers".

"In the end this is a hard-headed calculation about what is best for Britain," he said.

"In a world where you have got Putin to the east and Isil-Daesh to the south, how do you stay strong? By sticking with your neighbouring countries, your partners and your friends."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
A British tourist is fighting for life in hospital after he was stabbed in the head during a street robbery in San Francisco.

The 44-year-old man was with his niece when they were attacked on Post Street, near Franklin Street, by a man and a woman on Friday evening.

Police said he was stabbed by a man as he attempted to hold on to his green messenger bag, which contained his passport, money, mobile phone and credit cards.

He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital with severe trauma and the injuries were confirmed as life threatening.

His 23-year-old niece was uninjured in the attack.

Police spokesman Albie Esparza told ABC7: "The female victim is visiting from Southern California and the male victim is visiting from the UK.

"Right now, the male victim is listed with life threatening injuries at the hospital."

The male suspect was described as a muscular black man who was about 5ft 10ins tall and wore a hooded sweatshirt.

While the woman is said to be black, 5ft 4ins, aged in her 20s and had dreadlocks or braids in a ponytail.

They escaped on foot and police are now appealing for information. Officers are also trawling through surveillance footage.

Police also hope a scarf left the scene may provide DNA information to trace the woman.

The Foreign Office has been approached for a comment.
A lock of John Lennons hair has sold for $35,000 (24,000) at auction.

Heritage Auctions in Dallas said the four-inch piece, which was snipped as the legendary Beatle prepared for a film role, was purchased by Paul Fraser, a British-based memorabilia collector.

The lock was kept and preserved by German hairdresser Klaus Baruck who trimmed Mr Lennons hair before he started filming for How I Won the War, a dark comedy released in 1967.

Mr Lennon portrayed Private Gripweed in the film about the misadventures of British troops led by an inept commander during the Second World War

Sold: The 4-inch lock was purchased by British-based memorabilia collector Paul Fraser / AP

In the lead up to the sale, Garry Shrum, director of music memorabilia at Heritage, said: This is the largest lock of John Lennons hair ever offered at auction.

It comes from a very important time in his career and the provenance is impeccable.

The hair was one of several Beatles-related items on auction.

A photograph of the band signed by all four members went for $42,500.

And a sealed copy of the band's "butcher" cover for the "Yesterday and Today" album went for $125,000.

In December 2007, another lock of Mr Lennons hair was sold for $48,000 (33,000) to an unknown bidder.
T he search for two climbers missing in the Scottish Highlands has been suspended for the rest of the weekend due to "increasingly hazardous weather" and a continuing risk of avalanches.

A 26-strong search team braved severe sub-zero temperatures, high winds, falling snow and limited visibility on Saturday in a bid to find Rachel Slater, 24, and Tim Newton, 27.

The couple, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, failed to return from an outing on Ben Nevis last weekend and treacherous conditions have hindered air and ground searches on Britain's highest peak in recent days.

Police confirmed there was no positive sightings resulting from Saturday's efforts and said searches have been suspended for Sunday.

Officers said they hope the conditions will improve on Monday or Tuesday.

High winds and driving snow led to the search being suspended on Friday but members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT) were able to resume their work on Saturday morning.

In a statement issued on Saturday night, Police Scotland said: "Twenty-six LMRT personnel and one search dog conducted searches of the Coire Na Ciste area including the foot of Number 5 Gully, under Carn Dearg Buttress, below Waterfall Gully and both Castle Gullies.

"Searches were also conducted at both Castle Gullies, from the CIC (Charles Inglis Clark) Hut, traversing from Curtain to Castle area, below the Castle and Castle Ridge.

"Observations were made of the North Face, from Carn Mor Dearg, along with the foot of Observatory Gully and Douglas Boulder area.

"The weather today was very poor with high winds, falling snow, limited visibility and a considerable risk of avalanches.

"Sadly, there were no positive sightings today and searches have been suspended for tomorrow due to increasingly hazardous weather and further risk of avalanches.

"Reviews continue to be ongoing and it is hoped that there will be an improvement to the conditions on Monday or Tuesday.

"Both Rachel and Tim's family continue to be appraised of these circumstances."

Police have asked anyone with information to contact them on 101.

Additional reporting by Press Association.
T wo young boys have died after a fire broke out at a house in Huddersfield.

Emergency services were called to an address in Alder Street just before 2.15pm on Saturday to reports of people trapped inside.

Firefighters removed two toddlers, aged two and three, but they were pronounced dead soon after.

According to the Huddersfield Examiner, the two boys were brothers and a woman and another child, believed to be six, managed to escape the house before rescuers arrived.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire but it is not believed to be suspicious.

The fire service said the house did not have a working smoke alarm, according to reports.

Labour councillor Amanda Pinnock, who was leafleting in the area on Saturday, said the community was in shock.

She said: "It's a tragedy. It's a very close-knit area in Fartown.

"Because of the area, everybody knows everybody.

"They will be shocked by what has happened. I feel like I am in shock."

She urged people to get a smoke alarm and to check them regularly.

"The fire service will come and fit them for free. It's crucial people get them."

Chris Kirby, group manager at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said firefighters had "tears in their eyes" after they battled to save the boys.

He told the Huddersfield Examiner: "Our crews worked very quickly to find the fire and extinguish it.

"They then performed rescues on the boys, who had suffered significant smoke inhalation."
J eb Bush will not follow his father and brother to the White House after he quit his campaign for the Republican nomination following a fourth place finish in the South Carolina primary.

The former Florida governor withdrew from the race after a disappointing result in which he finished behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Mr Trumps resounding win marked his second successive victory in the Republican primaries, which has put him in a strong position to secure the partys presidential nomination.

Speaking at his victory rally, he said: There's nothing easy about running for president.

"It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful - when you win it's beautiful."

Mr Rubio declared the Republican nomination was now a three-person race and hopes to capitalise on Mr Bushs withdrawal by securing support from mainstream Republicans.

Meanwhile, Mr Cruz said he was best positioned to challenge Mr Trump after his previous win over the billionaire businessman in Iowa.

Hillary Clinton is shaping up to be Mr Trumps opponent for the presidency after she secured a vital win for the Democratic nomination in Nevada.

The wife of Americas 42nd president Bill Clinton won by roughly five points over veteran Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to quell doubts over her race for the presidency.

At her victory rally in Las Vegas, she said: Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other.

"This one is for you."

The next stage of the race to the White House takes place on Tuesday when voting opens for a collection of Southern states.
S ix people have been murdered by a gunman on an apparently random shooting spree in Michigan.

Four people were killed outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a father and son were gunned down at a Kia car dealership in Kalamazoo, in south-west Michigan, on Saturday evening.

The four-hour rampage began at around 6pm when a woman was injured outside an apartment.

A 14-year-old girl, who was initially reported as dead, is gravely ill along with a woman after she was shot several times at the housing complex.

Arrested: Police have named Jason Dalton as a suspect / PA

Police said the suspect, who has been named as Jason Dalton, was arrested early on Sunday after a massive manhunt was launched.

Dalton remains in custody and was described as even tempered when he was arrested by officers.

A semi-automatic weapon was discovered in his dark coloured SUV, police added.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas said: We seem to be dealing with a worst-case scenario, someone driving around shooting.

These are random murders.

Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit.
The Panhandle No-Till Partnership Winter Conference will be held on February 23 and 24 at the Gering Civic Center. This annual event provides the opportunity to listen to experts in the field of soil health on a variety of topics

Speaking this year are Dr. Wayne Beck, Neonila Martyniuk, and Paul Jasa. Each will speak on management of soil and resources. Also speaking are Ray Ward of Ward Labs on soil testing, Lance Gunderson on understanding laboratory tests, Cody Creech on dryland crop research and Karla Jenkins on Field Peas and Livestock. Finishing up the conference will be Don Day Jr. from Cheyenne Wyoming discussing current and expected regional weather patterns.

Early registration ends February 12 and costs $75. Registrations received after that date will be $100. Registration includes lunch and breaks. Students need to pre-register and can attend for free. The conference begins at 8 a.m. each day.

To register, or for more information, please contact the Upper Niobrara White NRD at 308-432-6190 or visit the Panhandle No-Till Website at www.panhandlenotill.org. Credit cards are now accepted to register by calling 308-432-6190.
Panhandle sugar beet producers have several things to be thankful for as they move into an new year and a new era of processing at the Western Sugar Cooperative facilities in Fort Morgan, Colorado, and Scottsbluff.

Rodney Perry, WSC president and chief executive officer, reported on progress of the expansion projects when he met with area growers during the annual Nebraska Non-Stock Beet Growers Association meeting Tuesday afternoon. In an interview prior to the session, Perry said the harvest has brought really good news to growers, and the expansion projects will extend the good news well into the future.

He said the 2015 harvest went well, and pile storage this year has been an improvement over last years when fluctuating temperatures caused major problems with the quality of the beets.

We have a large crop of 3.7 million tons, and it has stored extremely well, Perry said, noting that processing is expected to be complete by late February in the northern area of the cooperative, and about March 12 in the southern end.

Perry also said sugar prices have improved some, with an average of about $32/hundredweight for bulk sugar, which is a large part of Westerns customer base.

Wed like it to be higher, but its getting better with reduced imports, he explained. Current imports are about 1.3 million tons, which, he said, is much better than when Mexicos imports brought it to about 2 million tons. A recent settlement with Mexico established tighter regulations. Quotas established with other countries are more constant, at about 1.4 million tons.

With the 2015 harvest and processing campaign winding down, the cooperative is looking forward to completing the expansion of facilities in Scottsbluff and at Fort Morgan.

Perry said the projects will increase long-term stability for the business, by doubling slicing capacity at Scottsbluff, and increasing capacity at Fort Morgan by 50 percent.

Were making sound investments that will reduce operating costs and reduce freight, Perry explained. Well still have storage and shipping at Torrington. A big advantage there is keeping the Union Pacific Railroad operating.

There is some good news for Torrington employees, as well. Perry said full maintenance will be done through the summer, and the plant will run for an unspecified amount of time for the 2016 sugar beet harvest. During early stages of the expansion, Western expected to cease operations at the end of the current campaign.

The people at Torrington have been fantastic, Perry said. We appreciate them more than they will ever know.

The expansion has a cost range of $75 to $90 million, and Perry said that remains the goal. Included will be a new beet handling operation on the front end at both locations. According to Perry, the new equipment will help expedite performance of the entire facilities.

Among the benefits will be more juice storage. This will enable the company to hold a sugar run at the end of the regular campaign, which will process the juice into sugar.

Well be able to reduce the campaign by several days, but process more beets, Perry said.
The Panhandle Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia will meet Sunday.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at the Plymouth Congregational Church, 743 Wintercreek Drive in Scottsbluff. Bob and Karen Schmer will present a picture program of their river tour of Germany. Refreshments will be served.
The meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the library Community Room. The group will be discussing The Color of Water: A Black Mans Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia.
The president of the local community college wrote at length against two proposes in the Unicameral which could result in some reduction in the taxes paid by our farmers and possibly some reduction in financial support for community colleges. With our national debt exceeding 19 trillion dollars (can anyone grasp what a trillion represents?), it behooves us to see what we might do to reduce an indebtedness and in Nebraska how we can reduce the inequitable tax burden on our farms. Locally, we should look for ways to reduce the burden in general, including the tax support for schools and community colleges.

Would it be reasonable to suggest that our local community college be content to recruit student athletes from our service area rather than from other states or even other countries? This type of recruitment would also reduce cost of housing and transportation costs related to the same. This type of recruitment and related costs used to be standard in most if not all colleges in Nebraska. Corporate, business and individual taxes are throttling our economy and our liberty and must change if we are to survive as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
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This is 40

On January 5th, I celebrated a milestone birthday  the big 4-0. If Im blessed to live to eighty, half my life is officially behind me which is deep when you sit down and think about it. So naturally Ive been doing a lot of meditating about what it means to enter this new decade of life

I didnt feel different when I turned thirty, but Im not gonna lie, forty feels different. You have finally reached that age that your ten-year old self considered old. You are undeniably an adult, and if youre not doing adult stuff, folks are gonna look at you sideways, lol. As they should. By forty, one is officially grown, and should start acting like it.

Turning forty may trigger a mid-life crisis for some, but Im pretty proud of where Im standing at this moment in time. I have a great job. I found the perfect partner to share my life with, and I married him. My life is filled with family I want as friends, and friends who feel like family. I own a home in one of the most beautiful cities in California, and besides my mortgage, I am debt-free. Ive written and published two books. I have the means and ability to travel often, and I do. For the most part, I no longer care what people think, and have cultivated a healthy sense of self-worth. My girlish figure is long gone, but Im at peace with my womanly curves, even if they take a bit more effort to maintain, lol. And thankfully, I still have my health and mobility. All in all, life has been good to me thus far, and Im excited to see what the next decade brings.



My best friend, Kelly, turned 40 a week after me, so in mid-January we headed to Jamaica (with our husbands) to celebrate. Cause thats the kinda stuff you do when youre grown and have your ish together. For eight, bliss-filled days we were in paradise. Pristine beaches. Warm, clear water. Beautiful people. Fueled by jerk chicken, Red Stripes, and fruity rum drinks, we explored the island at our own pace during an epic vacation that was equal parts relaxation and adventure. Hands down, one of my best birthdays ever.

Pro travel tip: Heading to a tropical island in the middle of winter is always a good idea. While folks in California were braving El Nino, and folks on the east coast were being buried in snow, we were enjoying 80 degree weather in shorts and tank tops, swimming in the ocean every day, fully immersed in island life. Yeah, mon. Our timing couldnt have been more perfect.



I wrote a series of travel blogs about our trip, in case anyone wants to read more about our adventures or plan their own trip to the islands. Enjoy!

Jamaica  Practical Matters

Montego Bay

Ocho Rios

Port Antonio

Photo Album
As many as 1,520 warnings about people wanted under European arrest warrants were issued in 2015 by Romania, with 1,329 having been taken over from abroad, Romania's General Police Inspectorate reports.

"About the international search via the SIS-SIRENE channel, 1,520 warnings were issued in 2015 about persons wanted under European arrest warrants issued by Romania. The actions conducted led to successful resolution of important cases as a result of the information exchanges between the SIRENE National Bureau of Romania and other countries. As far as the handovers and extraditions under European arrest warrants as well as transfers for the serving of sentences issued abroad are concerned, the Centre for International Police Collaboration in 2015 took over 1,329 persons from abroad, most of whom were internationally wanted," IGPR reported in a press statement on Sunday.Most of the extradited came from Italy (23.6 percent), Spain (16.63 percent), Germany (13.32 percent) and France (9.78 percent). On the other hand, 520 persons were handed over from Romania to other countries, most of them internationally wanted handed over to Germany (22.80 percent), Italy (16.49 percent) and France (14.91 percent)."Part of the actions against trans frontier crime in 2015, as a result of police cooperation via the SIRENE channel with the Centre for International Police Collaboration with the Romanian General Police Inspectorate, 11,918 positive results were recorded in Romania and 5,708 abroad. Romania's SIRENE National Office processed 128,884 messages," reads the IGPR statement. AGERPRES
Before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the United States last June, couples in 13 states still had to perform a complicated dance of filing separate tax returns, even if they had been legally married in another state.

This year will be the first time that those couples  and others who delayed marriage until the landmark court ruling  get to experience the joy of married, filing jointly.

But not everyone is so thrilled.

Joe Hollar, 43, of Florida, got married in March 2015 and is just now assessing his new tax situation. So far, it does not look so good.

I am really naive because I did not know it was so complicated, he said.

His biggest concern is how to find a common approach for tax preparation  Hollar uses an accountant and takes itemized deductions; his husband does his own taxes and takes the standard deduction.

Its not in his best interest to itemize, but I cant go any other way. Ill owe a fortune, Hollar said.

It is now easier to file your taxes  and cheaper

Taxes for same-sex couples used to be so tortuous that tax professionals developed specialties for navigating the process. Eve Davis, an enrolled agent in Portland, Ore., who operates In or Out Tax Service, even gave classes to other tax preparers.

In some early-adopter states such as Massachusetts, couples could file a joint state return but had to file separate federal returns. When federal rules changed in 2013, those living in states that still restricted same-sex marriage had to file separate state returns but could file a joint federal return.

Married couples then had to decide how to claim deductions such as child care or home mortgage interest.

Formerly, Davis had to charge LGBT couples accordingly, billing for each individual return. Now it is just one fee. But thats OK with me, she said.

It is also easier for same-sex couples to use automated software such as Intuit Inc.s TurboTax.

Theyre able to file one state and one federal, instead of multiple. It reduces tax prep time and cost, said Lisa Greene-Lewis, a CPA and tax expert with TurboTax.

Welcome to the marriage penalty

Carol Berger, a certified financial planner for Berger Wealth Management in Peachtree City, Ga., got married in July 2015, in celebration of the Supreme Court decision.

Running projections for her taxes this year with her wife has been an eye-opener.

The thing that surprises a lot of people is that they fall into a higher tax bracket, she said.

They will go from receiving a refund of several thousand dollars when they filed individually to owing money this year, filing jointly. Because Berger is an independent contractor, she did not adjust her quarterly estimated tax payments enough after the wedding to account for the change brought on by adding in her wifes income.

She is learning, though. Before Berger files this year, she plans on making contributions to a self-employed retirement account to lower her tax burden. She also already tripled her first quarterly payment for 2016.

Look-backs can be worth it

Since the tax process was so complicated in previous years, same-sex couples have a window of opportunity to amend past tax returns to recoup taxes they paid unfairly. One common reason for examining past returns is health benefits for a domestic partner that might have been taxed as income.

Davis has done about 20 of these tax reviews in Oregon for couples who went through the process. TurboTaxs Greene-Lewis said this is something that taxpayers can do on their own through their desktop product.

Hollar, in Florida, is not so sure he will delve into the process, however.

I have amended tax returns in my past, and it turns into future audits, he said.
ST. PETERS  The fire trucks, police cars and military vehicle dotting the parking lot offered the first indication that the Sunday service at the First Assembly Church of St. Peters might differ from the norm.

Indeed it did when the drivers of those vehicles took their seats in the sanctuary.

For the second year, the church dedicated a Sunday service to thank first responders and members of the American military for their work. Hundreds of people attended, including a few dozen police, paramedics, firefighters, military members in uniform and veterans.

The event started last year to thank first responders who saved John Smith, a teenager who survived a fall through ice on Lake Saint Louis on Jan. 19, 2015.

Paramedics and doctors performed CPR on Smith for 43 minutes before he regained a pulse. John, now 15, and his parents, who are members of First Assembly, attended Sundays service and credited first responders and God for Johns survival.

This years keynote speaker, Dave Roever, 69, a Navy veteran, told his own survival story of how he was nearly killed on a river patrol boat in Vietnam when a snipers bullet hit the grenade in his right hand. Roever was awarded a Purple Heart. He said he believes his faith helped him survive.

Its not Dave that did it, he said. Its Christ in me that made me do it.

Roever travels the world giving speeches on supporting the military and raising money for veterans causes through his foundation. But he said local police, firefighters and paramedics, however, deserve as much appreciation and support as those serving overseas.

Theyre fighting the war at home, he said.
BOGOTA, Colombia  Camilo Torres was more talented with the Eucharist than he was with a rifle. In his first firefight after joining Colombias National Liberation Army in the 1960s, the Roman Catholic priest turned leftist rebel was shot and killed.

On Feb. 15, the 50th anniversary of his death, some Colombians spoke out in his memory in the hopes that Torres journey from scion of an elite Bogota family to outspoken advocate for the poor can lead to an eventual reintegration of thousands of leftist rebels who may disarm under a government-brokered peace deal.

Torres remains have never been found. But last month, President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the removal and DNA testing of unmarked remains from a military cemetery in northern Colombia. The rebel priest was believed to have been secretly buried there by battlefield opponents who feared his final resting place would become a pilgrimage site.

Santos move was in response to a call by the Marxist-inspired rebel group known as the ELN for a Christian burial for Torres. Its leaders have said the gesture could lead the group to join the three-year-old peace talks taking place in Cuba with Colombias largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. After three years of plodding formal negotiations, March 23 has been set as a deadline for a deal.

Educated at the best schools in Bogota and Belgium, Torres turned his back on his elite upbringing to embrace Catholic liberation theology in vogue following the 1959 triumph of Fidel Castros revolution in Cuba.

Before joining the ELN in 1965, he traveled across Colombia filling plazas with supporters hoping to hear his speeches in support of workers. He was likened to mid-century firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitain, whose 1948 assassination triggered Colombias descent into decades of political violence.

The search for Torres remains recalls the 1997 discovery in Bolivia of the remains of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, who was killed 30 years earlier trying to spread revolution to South America.

But unlike Guevara, who has been lionized by the Cuban government, praise for Torres until recently was largely taboo and restricted to Colombias far left.

The ELN announced it would intensify military actions this month to commemorate Torres death. Last week, a rebel unit killed two police cadets in southern Colombia and carried out a half-dozen attacks and acts of vandalism on buses and energy infrastructure in several parts of the country.

Now the countrys high-ranking Catholic clergy, inspired by Pope Francis message in favor of the poor, and even Santos, who knew the priest in his youth, are suggesting that Colombians take a second look at his life.

But right-wing opponents of Santos peace effort still vilify Torres. Residents of the town where Torres was killed heckled Sen. Ivan Cepeda as part of a protest this month to block access to the site by a caravan of leftists who wanted to pay homage to the fallen priest.
It is really terribly confusing and exasperating that the City Council of Ferguson has in effect rejected the agreement that its representatives negotiated with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Having served as the chief negotiator for faculty at my college for eight years and several other organizations for six years, I understand how the process works. It is a mystery as to why the Ferguson City Council rejected the negotiated agreement with the DOJ. The negotiation team for the city had to have some idea as to whether the council would accept the agreement. Although the agreement would be costly to implement, it has a good chance of being successful and would address the concerns of those who agree that change in the city is necessary.

It was obvious that the DOJ would file a suit against the city. This was the case because after all those months of negotiation, they finally reached an agreement, and the negotiators agreed to it supposedly in good faith. Therefore, the DOJ had no choice but to file a lawsuit against the city as Attorney General Loretta Lynch stated. Otherwise an agreement with the opposing party would not have any meaning.

This agreement is not like a regular contract agreement between two parties in a work situation where rejection would not result in automatic legal action. If the city or any city were allowed to simply change an agreement upon its own without the consent of the DOJ, agreements would not have a definitive meaning.

As has been reported, some residents have suggested that the city reject the agreement and allow the Justice Department to sue because it would be cheaper, and a new Republican federal administration would probably overturn a negative decision against the city. This logic is flawed, because there is no certainty that the next president of the United States will be a Republican. Further, if this were the case, there is no guarantee that the future administration would change or would even be able to change a negative decision against the city. Under the circumstances, there is little chance that the city can win this suit.

Feelings have been expressed that it would be less expensive for the city if it allowed the DOJ to sue because the city would be otherwise bankrupted and would have to disband or dissolve. One major problem with this position is that to defend the suit could cost the city $8 million to $10 million. In spite of the fact that the estimated cost to the city is $2.7 million to $3.7 million the first year to implement the changes originally agreed to between the city and the DOJ.

One problem with this thinking is that if the city loses the suit which it is likely to do, it would have spent $8 million to $10 million to defend its position and would have to spend possibly $8 million to $10 million on top of this to implement the agreement for the first three years. Therefore, it is almost certain that it would be bankrupted and would almost certainly be forced to disband.

Is it really worth taking the chance of losing this suit? Is it in the best interest of the city to take a chance of almost being certain of losing and will almost be certain to have to disband as opposed to implementing the agreement and having a fairly good chance of survival?

Of course that is for the City Council to decide, but it seems that it would have be in the best interest of the city and its residents if they accepted the original agreement and worked to implement it.

Rance Thomas is professor emeritus of criminal justice/sociology at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey. He is president of North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice.
These are confusing times for airline passengers.

In recent weeks, the government has made two surprising policy changes: First, the Transportation Security Administration announced that screening with a full-body scanner would no longer be optional for some passengers, and then the Department of Homeland Security said that soon your state-issued drivers license might not be sufficient ID for you to pass through the airport screening area.

The result? Travelers are less certain about the airport screening experience than theyve been in years.

Despite scattered reports of travelers being required to pass through the TSAs scanners, the agency insists that theres only a small chance youll be screened by the controversial machines if you dont want to be. In other words, you can generally still opt out and receive what the agency refers to as an enhanced pat-down from an agent. And your state-issued ID will continue to work until 2018, and probably long after that, even if it doesnt comply with the new federal standards.

The full-body scanners represent the most high-profile public concern. Since the agency assigned to protect Americas transportation systems implemented its new no-opt-out policy Dec. 18, there have been a few media reports of agents insisting that passengers use the scanners.

A passenger with the TSAs PreCheck designation in Akron, Ohio, complained in a comment on a civil rights blog that shed been selected for a mandatory scanning. PreCheck is an expedited-screening program that costs $85 for a five-year membership and allows you to bypass the full-body scanners.

The agent handed me a laminated green sheet and told me I was randomly selected for additional screening and needed to go through the full-body screening machine, said Tara MacLaren, a marketing consultant who works for a Houston-based software company. When I tried to opt out, I was told that was no longer an option for those with TSA PreCheck.

MacLaren reports that she pushed back, telling the agents she was pregnant. Only then did the agents relent, allowing her to be screened with a metal detector.

I was not given any assurance that my pregnancy will be sufficient opt-out justification in the future, just told that the rules had changed and those with TSA PreCheck are not eligible for opting out, she said.

Ann Hobbs, a retired lawyer from Silver Spring, Md., also had a PreCheck notation on her boarding pass when she flew out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport in late December. Initially, she walked through a metal detector. I was then told to go through the full-body scanner, having been randomly selected, she says. This seemed rather odd to me. Why wouldnt the selection have been made before I went through the metal detector?

Hobbs says shes worried about the long-term health effects of the scanners, a technology that she believes has not been adequately tested. We are the guinea pigs, she says.

In another incident, a TSA agent in Seattle told a London-based privacy advocate named Sai that he would be required to go through the scanner. A lengthy argument, captured on video and uploaded to YouTube, ensued. Eventually, a manager overruled a supervisor, allowing Sai to undergo a pat-down instead.

The TSA refused to comment on the incidents. A representative said that generally, passengers undergoing screening will have the opportunity to decline being screened by a full-body scanner. However, some passengers will be required to undergo screening (with a scanner) if their boarding pass indicates that they have been selected for enhanced screening, said Bruce Anderson, a TSA spokesman.

It remains unclear how someone might be selected for mandatory full-body screening. When I flew from San Antonio to Orlando recently, an agent told me that only travelers in the Terrorist Screening Database, a registry of more than 1 million names, would be required to go through the machine. But other passengers are also being randomly sent through the scanners, notably air travelers with PreCheck privileges.

The random selection process can work both ways. In Orlando on a busy Monday, I witnessed an agent allowing four passengers at a time to skip the full-body scanners and get screened by a metal detector, an apparent effort to reduce wait times.

Passenger advocates dont like the scanners because they say they were deployed without giving the public a chance to comment, a process required by federal law. They claim the devices violate the Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. And they believe the scanners have not been adequately tested and may present health risks.

Adding to the uncertainty is the possibility that Congress could act soon to rein in the TSA. An influential coalition of civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, recently sent a letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking him to take immediate action to stop the scans. They demanded that the government suspend funding for full-body scanners until a public rulemaking process has been completed and that the TSA evaluate the cost, including lost time to passengers, of screening procedures using full-body scanners.

As if thats not enough, the DHS on Jan. 8 also announced the final implementation of the REAL ID Act. The law established minimum security standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as drivers licenses, and prohibited federal agencies from accepting for certain purposes drivers licenses and ID cards from states not meeting the acts minimum standards.

Soon, air travelers with a drivers license or ID card issued by a state that doesnt meet the requirements of the act will have to present an alternative form of identification, such as a passport, to board a domestic commercial flight.

Although the deadline isnt for another two years  Jan. 22, 2018, to be exact  travelers are nervous about their IDs not working. Only 23 states (including the District of Columbia and Maryland) are compliant or certified as making progress toward being compliant with the REAL ID Act. Another 27 states and territories (including Virginia) have been granted extensions. Six states and territories  Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington and American Samoa  are noncompliant and do not currently have extensions. You can find a full list of compliant states and territories on the DHS website (dhs.gov/real-id-enforcement-brief).

It gives the states that want to be compliant  and there are only a few that arent  time to either adopt or figure out an alternative before the deadline, says Jeffrey Price, author of Practical Aviation Security: Predicting and Preventing Future Threats.

The actual deadline for REAL ID wont come until at least Oct. 1, 2020, when every air traveler will need a REAL ID-compliant license or another acceptable form of identification for domestic air travel.

But that is by no means a hard deadline, according to author and consumer advocate Edward Hasbrouck. He says the ambiguous scanning rules and the national ID requirements amount to an overreach of the TSAs authority. The governments recent actions are not only baffling to air travelers, he says, but they also violate an American legal right to freedom of transit through the navigable airspace.

If the government tries to carry out its latest threats to harass, delay or prevent people without an ID it deems acceptable from flying, those actions are certain to be challenged in court and likely to be overturned as unconstitutional, Hasbrouck says.
Since the 1990s Pakistan has quietly and extensively changed how it creates and manages spies inside India. For decades Pakistan mainly relied on agents recruited and trained in Pakistan to pass as Indians. After their training, which often took years, was completed these agents were sent to India where they often spent many more years working their way into jobs where they could obtain useful information. The Pakistani agents also sought Indians willing to gather information, usually for a price. India is a poor country and many low level, and poorly paid, government employees were willing to sell information if the price was right.

Over the years India became more effective and detecting and arresting these spies as well as their Pakistani handlers. As a result Pakistan began switching from using agents inside India to recruiting and managing spies via the Internet. The highly trained Pakistani agents could remain safe in Pakistan and develop techniques to find and manage Indian spies via the Internet. India still catches these spies, but has come to discover that there are a lot more of them. Sin 2015 more than a dozen were arrested. This included four post office employees who were intercepting mail sent from one Indian base to another and looking for salable information. That was passed on to Pakistan, which paid well for this stuff. Often information was literally phoned in using hard-to-trace SIMS supplied by the Pakistanis.

Pakistan accepted the risk of these spies getting caught because the payoff was often considerable. For example in early 2015 Indian police arrested an employee (a cameraman) for the government defense research organization (DRDO) and accused him of spying for Pakistan. The suspect was accused of passing on information about missile research and tests and doing so for up to ten months. The suspect admitted that he had met with ISI (Pakistani intelligence) agents in India several times in 2014. Apparently this man was caught because Indian intelligence was monitoring ISI agents. Its unclear why the Indian man agreed to be a spy, although money appears to be the most likely motivator.

In addition to cash Pakistan has found that sex also works and is being used more frequently via the Internet. Thus in mid-2014 an Indian army warrant officer (Subedar) was arrested and charged with spying for Pakistan. The arrested man had been recruited in 2013 via Facebook by a woman who sent him software that he posted to his work server. This software enabled the Pakistanis to hack into the headquarters where the warrant officer worked. The Pakistani woman (or someone posing as a woman) convinced the warrant officer she was interested in him and asked him to help her with some work she was doing for the NGO she was employed by. The warrant officer fell for all this and enabled the Pakistanis to get a lot of information about the readiness and deployment of several Indian missile units. It is as yet unclear if the warrant officer knew he was being played or that he was really smitten by his new online girlfriend.

Such honey traps (using sex for recruiting or blackmailing people to spy) have been encountered in India for quite some time and were known to exist in antiquity. In 2011 an infantry lieutenant-colonel was prosecuted for spying for Pakistan. The officer was recruited in 2010 while in Bangladesh, where he was attending a course at a Bangladesh military school. The Pakistani ISI had a woman operative seduce the Indian officer, and the sexual activity was recorded on video. The officer was given a choice of the video being made public, or him becoming a Pakistani spy. The officer became a spy and was caught by Indian counterintelligence after a few months.

Honey traps are still less frequently encountered in South Asia and the most common method is still simply offering cash. An Indian army clerk was arrested earlier in 2014 for doing that. In early 2013 India police arrested four Indians and accused them of working for ISI and passing on information and documents for at least three years. That spy cell mainly operated near the Nepal border and cash was the main motivator.

Pakistan is constantly seeking Indian military personnel willing to spy for cash. Even most Indian Moslems have no love for Pakistan and thus ISI concentrates on the greed, need or blackmail approach to recruiting Indian agents. India does the same in Pakistan, but India, with six times the population of Pakistan, is a far larger target and has more secrets Pakistan wants.
Kenya and al Shabaab are involved in a public dispute about the Kenyan claim that their air force bombed an al Shabaab camp in southwest Somalia (Nadaris) on February 8th that killed the deputy head of al Shabaab (Mohammed Karatey), ten other al Shabaab commanders and about 40 of the new al Shabaab members that were graduating from a training course. Al Shabaab claims that Karatey is alive and that there was no attack. Neither side has offered proof of what happened (or didnt happen). Karatey is also head of intelligence for al Shabaab and organizer of terror attacks. He is believed responsible for several attacks in Kenya and Somalia that left hundreds of civilians and security personnel dead. The United States offers a $5 million reward for his capture or death.

In the last few weeks peacekeepers have been on the offensive throughout central and southern Somalia. At the same time several major al Shabaab attacks on army and peacekeeper camps failed. All this is in sharp contrast to January where there were several successful al Shabaab attacks. The peacekeepers said they and the Somali army would reorganize their deployments, improve their intelligence and develop new tactics. All this appears to have worked so far.

Meanwhile al Shabaab still has a lot of popular support. The majority of Somalis oppose Islamic terrorism but a significant minority (up to 20 percent) support or tolerate groups like al Shabaab. The main reason for the support is desperation for a solution to the poverty, corruption, factionalism and chaos that make Somalia such a dangerous place to live in. Al Shabaab is still attracting recruits and is still a dangerous factor in Somali life. Then again al Shabaab is part of the problems that bother most Somalis.

The most recent (2015) international study found Somalia one of the two (along with North Korea) most corrupt nations in the world. Corruption in this Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is measured on a 1 (most corrupt) to 100 (not corrupt) scale. The two most corrupt nations have a rating of 8 (North Korea and Somalia) and the least corrupt is 91 (Denmark). A look at this index each year adds an element of reality to official government pronouncements. African nations are the most corrupt, followed by Middle Eastern ones.

Pirate activity may be largely gone in Somalia but the pirates are still a threat , even if the pirates not based in Somalia . It was recently revealed that on January 27th Somali pirates operating out of an al Qaeda controlled town (al Mukalla) in southern Yemen attacked a large cargo ship but fled when armed security guards fired back, killing one of the pirates. Islamic terrorists based in Yemen have been known to work with Somali pirates before, usually for money. Providing sanctuary for the pirates in return for a cut of any ransom money was the usual deal. Because of the civil war in Yemen al Qaeda has gained control of much of the southeast Yemen coast. Pirate activity in Somalia has been declining since 2012 but it was always believed that some of the pirate gangs were waiting for the expensive anti-piracy measures (armed guard on large ships and the international anti-piracy patrol) to disappear.

February 18, 2016: In the southwest (Gedo, 320 kilometers from Mogadishu) a peacekeeper raid on an al Shabaab training camp left at least twenty Islamic terrorists dead. Among those killed was Maalim Sheriff, an expert bomb maker who was the main target of the raid. Several more al Shabaab men escaped, some of them wounded. Many weapons and much equipment was captured in the camp, including 16 assault rifles, bomb making materials and electronic gear (like GPS devices).

In Mogadishu soldiers and police conducted one of their periodic raids into neighborhoods where there has been al Shabaab activity and arrest and interrogate suspected al Shabaab supporters. This time the overnight raids led to the arrests of about 300 people. Some 90 percent of these suspects were released after questioning.

February 15, 2016: In Mogadishu a prominent politician (and former Defense Minister) was killed by a bomb planted under his car. Al Shabaab was suspected of being responsible as they have made several similar attacks in the last year.

February 14, 2016: In the south (Kismayo) al Shabaab fired several mortar shells at the port citys airport. None of the shells hit the airport and instead hit a residential area wounding three civilians. Al Shabaab believes that American UAVs are operating from the airport.

The government admitted that Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram had some members who were trained in Somalia by al Shabaab. It was not made clear if this was still going on. Probably not because Al Shabaab and Boko Haram have gone in different directions. Boko Haram has aligned itself with ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) while al Shabaab remains loyal to ISIL arch-enemy al Qaeda. Moreover in early 2015 defectors and captured al Shabaab members reported that that groups leaders were dismayed that other Islamic terror groups like ISIL in Syria and Boko Haram in Nigeria are crowding al Shabaab out of the media. Al Shabaab needs that media attention for fund raising and recruiting, both of which were (and still are) in decline for other reasons as well. Al Shabaab is seen as less attractive to Somali expatriates seeking to become Islamic terrorists. In part thats because al Shabaab made itself very unpopular inside Somalia because of how the mistreated civilians, many of whom had kin in the West. This unpopularity made it easier for the UN and AU to get a peacekeeping force in and build a new Somali Army and government.

February 11, 2016: A leader of the peacekeeper force in Somalia warned that al Shabaab was apparently planning to use captured peacekeeper uniforms to disguise their men for attacks on civilians in areas controlled by peacekeepers. This is intended to discredit the peacekeepers because some Somalis will believe the subsequent al Shabaab claims that the foreign peacekeepers are oppressing the Somali people.

February 7, 2016: In the south al Shabaab men entered the coastal town of Merka and chased away police and local militia. But the next day soldiers and peacekeepers came and drove the Islamic terrorists out. Small ports like Merka were once frequently used by al Shabaab for smuggling goods and people in and out of the country. During 2015 al Shabaab lost regular access to many of the small port towns it had long depended on. The attack on Merka was an attempt to see if they could regain that access and apparently they cannot.

February 4, 2016: In the northwest (Middle Shabelle region 120 kilometers north of Mogadishu) soldiers searching for al Shabaab raided an Islamic terrorist camp and after brief gun battle killed eight al Shabaab men and seized a large quantity of weapons and ammo. The area where this took place (near the town of Mahaday) has been under government control since 2014 but there are still small groups of al Shabaab men around who live off plunder.

February 2, 2016: In Mogadishu an airliner took off and while still climbing suffered an Islamic terrorist bomb explosion in the passenger cabin. The suicide bomber was sucked out the hole created in the fuselage but the aircraft was still intact and was able to safely return to land in Mogadishu. No one else on the aircraft was hurt. Al Shabaab later took credit for the attack and an investigation tracked down those at the airport who had got the bomb through security. Al Shabaab had meant to get their bomber on a Turkish airliner but that flight was cancelled and passengers were transferred to an aircraft from an Arab airline. Al Shabaab wanted to punish the Turks for supporting the Somali government and reopening their embassy in Mogadishu.

February 1, 2016: In northeast Kenya police detained three trucks carrying aid for Somali refugees in Somalia. The police were suspicious that the truck drivers were working for al Shabaab because aid trucks in this area had been seized by the Islamic terrorists recently. Officials from the foreign aid organization involved arrived and eventually persuaded police to let the trucks through. Al Shabaab did not seize any of these trucks.

January 31, 2016: Just across the border in Kenya (Lamu) five al Shabaab gunmen entered a village at dawn looking for Christians to kill. Three Kenyans were killed before the gunmen left. Attacks like this are nothing new in northeast Kenya, which has a mixed Christian-Moslem population. Al Shabaab considers any area where Moslems live as Islamic territory where non-Moslems should be converted, driven away or killed. Because of this attitude there is growing tension between Kenyan Christians and Somalis. About ten percent (4 million) of Kenyans, mostly along the coast, are Moslem and most of these are ethnic Somalis. There has always been some Islamic radical activity among Kenyan Moslems, but the police have been particularly attentive to it after Kenyan Moslems were found to be involved in terrorist operations in the 1990s.
Dirty Little Secrets

DLS for 2001 | DLS for 2002 | DLS for 2003

DLS for 2004 | DLS for 2005 | DLS for 2006

DLS for 2007 | DLS for 2008

Russia Lives The Lie

by James Dunnigan

February 20, 2016 The current UN sponsored Syrian peace talks have been delayed until February 25 th largely because Russia has been lying about why it is really in Syria and that lie is both obvious and a major factor in preventing the peace talks from starting. The problem is that Russia is concentrating most of its considerable firepower on rebel groups that are hurting the Syrian Assad government forces the most. By American count only about ten percent of Russian air strikes have been against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and those targets were usually hit to protect Assad forces. Russia justifies (to the UN and the world in general) its military presence in Syria because it is part of the effort to destroy the ISIL threat. While Russia does not hide its support for the Assad government (which the UN and most of the world accuse of war crimes and want gone) it insists that its presence in Syria is not primarily to keep the Assads in power. Yet thousands of Russian troops are working with the Assad forces, the Russian troops are all based in Assad controlled territory and the majority of rebels, who are not ISIL or the local al Qaeda franchise al Nusra, are the main targets of Russian firepower, Not surprisingly these rebels refuse to participate in peace talks as long as the UN allows Russia to get away with their lies. In the last week this Russian support has enabled Assad forces to cut rebels in Aleppo off from Turkey (a primary source if reinforcements and supplies). This is a major defeat for the rebels. UN officials believe they can work out the disputes between the rebels and the Russians in time to get the peace talks going by the end of the month but that remains to be seen because the Syrian rebels blame Russia for most of the current government success. As a result the rebels contribute to the failure of the UN peace talks by demanding a lot of pre-conditions aimed at the Russians. At the very least the rebels wanted the Russians to halt their Assad support while peace talks go on. The rebels are asking for other concessions, like release of captured leaders lifting of sieges of some pro-rebel civilian areas. Russia refuses to comply with these demands.




While the current Russian government appears to be maintaining its popularity by calling for the rebuilding of the pre-1991 Russian Empire, opinion surveys and migration patterns indicate a mixed attitude towards the old Russian Empire. The big problem is that half the people in the old empire were not Slavs although ethnic Russians were the majority among the half that was Slavic. The problem is that despite centuries of living in the same country (czarist Russia or the Soviet Union) all these different ethnic groups never developed much affection or tolerance for each other. Most ethnic Russians living in non-Slav parts of the Empire (especially Central Asia and the Caucasus) have returned to Russia since 1991. Most of those who stayed in non-Russian areas did so for economic reasons. That was also why non-Russians stayed in Russia, because what is now Russia is where the most economic opportunities always were. That wealthier and better educated population was a major reason Russia conquered all those other countries. But in the end (1991) the conquered, as is usually the case, never got used to the conquest and do not want the conquerors back.

Theres also the racism factor. For example about 40 percent of ethnic Russians thought other Slavs (like Ukrainians or Byelorussians) were capable of becoming Russians if they lived in Russia for a few years and switched their loyalty to Russia. But less than ten percent thought peoples from the Caucasus or Central Asia were capable of that. This xenophobia (fear of outsiders) is nothing new for Russia. For 70 years the communists sought to eliminate this trait but only managed to suppress it and delude themselves into thinking it was gone. This is a common pattern in communist countries and throughout East Europe. Xenophobia returned in the 1990s because of the collapse of the communist governments in 1989. It was worst in the Balkans, where civil war erupted as the communist police state collapsed and optimists hoped for a democratic Yugoslavia. While that that had long been a cherished goal in the region, it was not to be. Several years of vicious fighting between Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Albanians followed and was not halted until 1999. The Caucasus also erupted and unlike Yugoslavia, a NATO peacekeeping force was not available to fix things there. In the Caucasus the usual Russian application of carrot (bribes) and stick (violent suppression) did not work either. Eventually (1999) Russia had to reinvade parts of the Caucasus (especially Chechnya) to restore order.

Meanwhile, there has been a major ethnic shift in the Caucasus. Russians, and other people not native to the Caucasus, are still being driven out of the region by terrorism, corruption, and a bad attitude towards outsiders. Its been worst in Chechnya, where Russians comprised 25 percent of the population in 1989, but only 2 percent today. The decline has not been as great in the rest of the Caucasus but it has been massive, with more than half the Russians who were living in the Caucasus having left by 2011. Actually, this trend began in the 1950s, right after tyrant Josef Stalin died in 1953 and Russia began to trim the power of the secret police. The departure of ethnic Russians from the Caucasus simply accelerated after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In Central Asia about half the nearly ten million ethnic Russians living there in 1991 have left.

The recent Russian operation to take the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine had a bracing effect on the other countries that, until 1991, were part of the ancient Russian Empire. The Crimean operation was the second such land grab Russia had undertaken since 2008. The first was against tiny Georgia. Many of these former Russian subjects feel that the Russians are trying to get their empire back. Ask many Russians that question and most agree that it would be a nice thing. Some Russians are more outspoken and bluntly call for the empire to be reassembled no matter what.

In reaction to this the forlorn fourteen nations that were part of the Soviet Union until 1991, as well as many East European states that were subject to Russian control from the end of World War II to 1989 have become very nervous. Poland is particularly agitated because large parts of Poland were part of the Russian Empire for most of the 18th and 19th centuries. Same deal with Finland, which broke away after World War I and had to fight off a Russian invasion in 1940 and many threats since then to stay independent. That makes the forlorn fourteen the scared sixteen. All of these nations have noted what happened to Georgia and Ukraine with great trepidation and are responding in expected, and unexpected ways.

The fourteen former Russian imperial possessions that regained their independence are the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the five stans of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Poland, the Baltic States and Finland escaped from the empire after World War I but only Finland managed to stay free through World War II. The Baltic States were retaken during World War II and Poland remained nominally independent but was occupied by Russian troops (and took orders from Russia) until 1989.

Poland and the Baltic States managed to join NATO after the Cold War ended and are hoping that the mutual defense terms of the NATO alliance will dissuade Russia. Nevertheless all four, plus Finland, have increased their military readiness this year and are seeking assurances from the West that they will have help against Russia. Many Finns have called for Finland to join NATO, but a large minority has opposed this because of the fear it would anger the Russians. There was a similar division in Ukraine but now more Finns are thinking that NATO membership is preferable to trusting Russia to always behave. Even Sweden, never part of the Russian empire and successfully neutral since the early 19th century is thinking about joining NATO for protection from an increasingly aggressive Russia.

The stans of Central Asia have another option; China. The stans have been very receptive to Chinese diplomatic and economic cooperation. This bothers Russia, but not to the extent that threats are being made, as was the case with the former imperial provinces to the west. The stans also have a problem with never having been democracies. When the Russians conquered them in the 19th century, the local governments were monarchies or tribes. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, former Soviet officials held elections and manipulated the vote to get themselves elected "president for life." But many people in the Stans want clean government and democracy, as well as continued independence from Russia. China is no help with that because the Chinese prefer dictators.

In the Caucasus Georgia still seeks closer ties with the West. Armenia, because of disputes with Azerbaijan and long-term fear of Turkey remains a close ally of Russia. Azerbaijan maintains good relations with Russia mainly because Iran claims Azerbaijan as a lost province (stolen by Russia in the 19th century).

Russia is quite open about wanting to rebuild the old Tsarist Empire that the communists managed to lose in 1991 when the Soviet Union came apart and half the population of that empire went off and formed 14 new countries (or reconstituted old ones the Russians had conquered). Russia is proposing things like customs unions, military cooperation and rebuilding the old Soviet air defense system that used to defend everyone in the empire. Theres been some progress, but most of the 14 nations want nothing to do with Russia.

Meanwhile Russia has to face that fact that when the Soviet Union broke up half the population enthusiastically went to the 14 new countries and most of those people were quite pleased with the demise of the Soviet Union. Thus if you asked all citizens of the former Soviet Union what they thought of the breakup you would find about 70 percent with no regrets. Thats because the Soviet Union was basically the Russian Empire cobbled together by the old czarist monarchy over more than two centuries of conquest and expansion. Thus in the Soviet Union more than half the population felt like conquered people, not part of any union. The Soviet Union dissolved quickly in 1990-91 because over half the population really wanted it to happen and had wanted it for a long time. Moreover many ethnic Russians were tired of supporting a lot of the less affluent conquered people and were fed up with the economic failures of communism. The former Soviet Union citizens who regret the breakup tend to be older people who were disillusioned at how corruption and bad leadership made post-Soviet life less wonderful than was expected. The younger people are more realistic, never having lived as adults in the Soviet Union and intimately familiar with the fact that freedom isnt free and democracy is difficult. For younger Russians there are more economic opportunities than under communism. While Russia lost half its population when the Soviet Union broke up, it hung on to most of the valuable natural resources (like oil and natural gas). While the post-Soviet government was initially reluctant to increase state supplied pensions (which were low during the Soviet period because there was little to spend it on and the state supplied housing and some health care), the pensions did eventually go up. But not as much as the economy grew and the working Russians were obviously doing better than the pensioners who had grown up under communism. In Soviet times that meant there was little economic opportunity and most everyone was equally poor. The old-timers never got used to the post 1991 changes and most would prefer the communists to come back. That wont happen and as the generations that grew up under communism die off so will any desire to return to the bad (but familiar) old days. Nevertheless enough Russians favor rebuilding the empire to make the idea a popular talking point among major politicians and that may continue for decades.
www. [quote] What now of the Saudi/US pact? by Al Venter Three recent events are likely to have a significant effect on future relations between Washington and Riyadh. The first was a spate of attacks on USA nationals living in Saudi Arabia. That was followed by the final withdrawal of the last US serviceman from the Kingdom and finally, the news late September that Saudi Arabia has embarked on a strategic review that includes acquiring nuclear weapons. According to a Saudi spokesman, increased volatility in the Middle East, which includes the recent US invasion of Iraq and escalating unrest in Israel, have made a 'security reassessment' imperative. The fact that the Saudi government is prepared to contemplate the nuclear option is of profound significance to the West. David Albright, head of the Washington strategic think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security, said that he doubted whether the Saudis would try to build a nuclear bomb. Instead, he speculated that although Riyadh "might attempt to buy something nuclear... I do not seriously believe that anyone would sell it a nuclear weapon". What is clear is that Saudi/US relations are presently being subjected to intense scrutiny in the US media, much of it initiated by the 12 May bombings linked to Al-Qaeda dissidents. The present debate is centred on three fundamental issues: whether the Saudi government is doing all it can to counter terrorism, the extent of infiltration into elements of the Saudi hierarchy by Al-Qaeda and to what extent influential Saudi citizens were involved in the events of 11 September. This was revealed in classified sections of a congressional report on the terrorist attacks that was later leaked to the media. The claim has been made that some Saudi citizens - possibly Saudi intelligence agents - had links with some of the 11 September hijackers. That said, there have been watershed changes in Saudi security since a spate of Al-Qaeda-led attacks on expatriate and Saudi targets in and around Riyadh last May. US President George W Bush declared the event a wake-up call for the Saudi royal family. For his part, Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal explained that Al-Qaeda has made a bad tactical error. Instead of the revolutionary effect that it had planned for, he said that the movement has succeeded only "in angering and uniting Saudi Arabia in resisting and confronting the subversive work that they are doing". Interesting too is that much of this output is carefully couched within what both sides call the 'longtime strategic partnership' between Saudi Arabia and the USA, just as it was after the 1995 bombing of the US military mission in Riyadh and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. However, at least one US intelligence official has declared that while the noises coming from Riyadh sound good, "it is far from clear that the problems of the US/Saudi partnership are amenable to tactical adjustments". He pointed to US law-enforcement officials being refused access to any of the family of the 15 Saudi hijackers involved in the 11 September attacks, even though the Saudis offered limited help in obtaining DNA samples from family members of some of those involved. Washington has also conceded that, since May, the Saudis have broken up "six to eight" Al-Qaeda cells operating within the country, beginning with the shooting of Yousif Salih Fahad al-Ayeeri, the senior Al-Qaeda operative responsible for orchestrating the May attacks. Operating under the pseudonym of 'Swift Sword' he was gunned down in a Riyadh street as he tried to flee in his car. Shortly afterwards, security officials uncovered three large arms caches of 20 tonnes of explosives and military equipment. The haul included grenades, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades said to have been intended for another attack. More than 200 Al-Qaeda-linked 'dissidents' have since been arrested in a dragnet that also ensnared Ayeeri. According to Jamal Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor, now a senior adviser to the Saudi ambassador in London, the terrorists were clearly planning another big attack in the Kingdom. It has since been disclosed by Prince Nayef, Saudi interior minister, that Al-Qaeda had established a string of military training camps on Saudi Arabian soil. Consequently, his security forces had raided a number of farms and safe houses throughout the kingdom in which 20 terrorist 'suspects' and a dozen Saudi police officers were killed in the fighting. [/quote] Oh my word! This is not at all what we need right now. I sincerely hope they make the decision not to acquire nuclear weapons, but unfortunately I am sceptical of their goodwill on this matter or of the fact that the US will be able to persuade them not to choose that route.
South Africa is evaluating the operations of the UNs Intervention Brigade (IBDE) in terms of accomplishing the UN goal of peace enforcement. Over 1,000 South African soldiers serve in the special unit that is tasked with conducting offensive operations against rogue militias. South Africa also supplies the attack helicopter detachment and artillery support. Observers believe that because of the IBDE the operation against the M23 guerrilla group was largely successful. M23 tried to hold enclaves and the IBDE and Congolese Army forces attacked them. Despite the IBDE the However, the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), a radical Hutu militia, continues to exist and the Ugandan ADF rebels manage to keep fighters in the field. Peacekeepers and Congolese security forces have battered the FDLR and ADF, but these two militias have demonstrated the ability to filter away, hide for a while and then attack again. Is there something the IBDE can do to deliver the coup de grace? Diplomats and UN peacekeeping officials are wondering if these groups be destroyed before the November 2016 Congo elections. In November 2015 the UN Security Council made neutralizing (destroying) the FDLR and ADF priority goals. The Security Council also said FRPI (Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri) must be eliminated. The Ugandan Lords Resistance Army still has bands operating in Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR). If South Africa withdrew its forces IBDE would be crippled but even with South African troops IBDE still has a lot of work to do. (Austin Bay)

February 20, 2016: Ugandas political opposition is disputing the national election held on February 18. Current president Yoweri Museveni claimed victory with around 65 percent of the vote. The opposition is crying foul and fraud. Chief opposition leader and presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has been in and out of jail. International observers report that votes were bought -- and they point to Museveni supporters as the buyers. The U.S. government agreed that there were numerous irregularities in the vote. That can mean mismanagement, and many polling places did not receive timely delivery of ballots. But it is really diplo-speak for fraud and cheating. The United States scolded the Ugandan government for excessive use of force by police, blocking internet sites, blocking social media and undermining the election.

February 19, 2016: As Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni claimed victory in the presidential election, Ugandan security forces in the capital, Kampala, surrounded the political headquarters of the main opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change. They then arrested Kizza Besigye, the main opposition presidential candidate in the recent national election. Elsewhere in Kampala, police confronted protestors. In the central business and government district, police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesting crowds. In one instance police with automatic rifles fired warning shots to disperse demonstrators.

February 17, 2016: The UN has documented 411 incidents of human rights violations in the Congo that occurred in January 2016. This is up from 347 in December 2015. North Kivu province (eastern Congo) has the most human rights violations. The Congolese government is a major human rights violator. The UN report said that the Congolese Army, police and government authorities were responsible for two-thirds of the incidents.

February 16, 2016: Congo opposition parties continue to seek international help in forcing the government to conduct the national election in November 2016. The opposition characterized the election schedule released in January by the government (CENI, National Independent Electoral Commission) as being designed to fail. CENI claimed it will take more than 13 months to revise and confirm voter registrations lists. One opposition leader said that failure to conduct a fair and honest election on time will produce a national political crisis. The opposition also says the bureaucratic mismanagement of the election (pointing a finger at CENI) is just one part of president Kabilas glissement (sliding or slipping) strategy to delay elections. They contend that Kabila intends to seek a third term, which is unconstitutional. The constitution which limits a president to two terms.

February 13, 2016: A rebel militia in North Kivu province attacked a village near the town of Eringeti, killing six people and kidnaping 14. The attackers apparently belonged to the ADF and the rebel operation was planned and coordinated. For example a small rebel contingent attacked a nearby army camp while the larger force attacked the village.

February 8, 2016: In Burundi opposition group FRODEBU (Front for Democracy in Burundi) accused the African Union (AU) of abandoning the people of Burundi by failing to deploy a peacekeeping force. In response, senior AU officials said that was not the case and that the AU remains deeply involved in trying to resolve the turmoil in the country. That said, there will be no AU peacekeeping force in Burundi, at least for the immediate future. The AU wants to give dialogue and diplomacy another chance. The political trouble began when President Pierre Nkurunzizas April 2015 decision to seek a third term. He then changed the constitution and won an election.

February 6, 2016: Five people were killed in violent incidents in Burundis capital, Bujumbura. One of the attacks involved a grenade.

Citizen Front 2016, a Congo opposition political alliance said it will hold more public protests to demand President Joseph Kabila respect the constitution and not seek a third presidential term.

February 5, 2016: The UN apparently has a confidential report that concluded Rwanda has trained Burundian refugees for the purpose of deposing Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza. The report included information provided by Burundian rebel fighters who said they were trained at a camp in Rawanda. One of the leaked details includes where and when some of the rebels were recruited. Eighteen rebels said they were in the Mahama Refugee Center (eastern Rwandan). In May and June 2015 they were recruited to fight Nkuruniziza. They then received two months of military training by the Rwandan Army. Most of this involved the use of light infantry weapons. Rebels claimed that the Rwandans have trained four companies of rebels, each with about 100 fighters. In December 2015 the Burundi government accused Rwanda of supporting a rebel guerrilla group but Rwanda denied the allegation.

February 4, 2016: During January 2016 the Ugandan Lords Resistance Army (LRA) conducted 16 attacks in the Central African Republic (CAR). LRA fighters killed one civilian and kidnapped around 70 people. Most of the attacks occurred in the CARs jungle-covered south-eastern region.

February 2, 2016: The Burundi government claimed that the country is 99 percent safe and said that the country does not need an African Union peacekeeping force.

February 1, 2016: The Congo government confirmed that the Congolese Army offensive in South Kivus Masisi targeted the Mai Mai Nyatura. That operation began January 11.

Angola reported that in January the families of 40 former FLEC (Cabinda Enclave Liberation Front) rebel fighters are receiving national identification papers as part of Angolas social reintegration process. Altogether 236 people will receive their papers. The 40 former rebels had been in exile in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). The Angolan government relocated them in Cabindas Cacongo municipality.

January 31, 2016: Rwanda announced that it had arrested several people it suspects are operatives working on behalf of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). The arrests came after police attempted to arrest a Muslim cleric, Muhammad Mugemangango, who was allegedly trying to recruit Rwandans to fight with ISIL. Police shot Mugemangango when he tried to escape.
Wellesbourne Airfield

Councillor Alan Cockburn, deputy leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: We recognise the vital importance of superfast broadband for both residents and businesses. In an increasingly global world it is vital that our businesses can compete on a level playing field, and good communications infrastructure is essential to ensure the vitality and sustainability of our local economy. Its a relatively short time since this project started, and a lot has been achieved already. We appreciate that it is frustrating for those who are still waiting for faster broadband, but the team are rolling out the new fibre network just as fast as they can.

Colin Bannon, BTs regional director for the West Midlands, added: CSW Broadband is a huge engineering programme but the roll-out is going extremely well. This new phase will ensure even more communities in the most difficult to reach parts of the county are able to access faster fibre broadband.

CSW Broadband is a partnership between a number of local authorities (including Stratford District Council), BT and the Governments broadband delivery program.
Wellesbourne Airfield

The Trust will operate within the financial restrictions placed upon it and will do everything possible to avoid compulsory redundancies but they cannot be ruled out at this stage.

The ambulance service said that consultations are underway with trade union representative to explore all the options available.

At present it is not known how many workers may have to be made redundant.

In 2015/16 the West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust has been required to find 8.8million in savings and in 2016/17 it will need to save a further 11.7million.

Reacting to the announcement, Chanel Camelleri-Willis, UNISON West Midland regional organiser said: UNISON was shocked to learn of the proposed need to make compulsory redundancies at West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The Trust prides itself on being one of the best performing Ambulance Trusts in the country, so the news that the Trust needs to take such drastic cost saving steps was unexpected. Particularly in light of the fact that other Ambulance Trusts around the country are not in such a stable position as the West Midlands, and yet they are not resorting to take such action.

We are currently in consultation with the employer and are working very closely with them to try and negate the need for any job losses.

We have been informed that no frontline staff are at risk. However we have made clear to the employer that every member of staff at the Trust is contributing towards the excellent patient care that they are proud to deliver. Any job losses, from whatever function, will impact on patients that are dependent on the excellent services provided by West Midlands Ambulance Trust.
Marilyn Ho Experia Events Pte Ltd Director, Communications Tel: +65 6595 6130 Email: [email protected] Kevin Foo Hill+Knowlton Strategies Director Tel: +65 6390 3320 Mobile: +65 9099 9119 Email: [email protected]

SINGAPORE, Feb 21, 2016 - (ACN Newswire) - Singapore Airshow 2016 attracted over 80,000 visitors for the public day weekend on 20 to 21 February. Singaporeans and foreign visitors, young and old, thronged Changi Exhibition Centre (CEC) to catch a glimpse of their favourite aerial display performances and the latest commercial and military aircraft.A Breath-taking Show in the Sky Visitors to the Airshow soaked in the excitement of the breath-taking flying display performances including those by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) integrated aerial display team, comprising an F-15SG fighter jet and an AH-64D Apache attack helicopter. They performed 11 exciting manoeuvres, showcasing precision and coordination between two different aircraft types of different manoeuvrability and capabilities. Their mesmerising routine included the Vertical Punch, a new manoeuvre that was performed for the first time.The Black Eagles from the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF), known for their jaw-dropping stunts, were back to thrill the crowds with three additional manoeuvres added to their 2014 repertoire. Other adrenaline-fuelled flying displays included the France Air Force Dassault Rafale, the U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, F-16C/D Fighting Falcon and B-52 Stratofortress, and the Sukhoi Su-30MKM from the Royal Malaysian Air Force.All-round Experience for Fans of All Ages and InterestsIn addition, visitors had the opportunity to interact with the pilots from the RSAF, ROKAF, French Air Force and Royal Malaysian Air Force at the Meet-the-Pilots sessions. The Singapore Airshow mascots, Captain Leo and Captain Leonette, also made appearances at the show, mingling and taking pictures with visitors. Over at the Static Aircraft Display Area, visitors were able to get up close and personal with majestic commercial and military aircraft including a RSAF Black Knight F-16C in its familiar red and white paint scheme which incorporates the national symbols of the crescent moon and five stars. Other key highlights of the static aircraft display included two U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighters showcased together at the Singapore Airshow for the first time, and the Airbus A400M - a modern military transport plane using the latest fly-by-wire flight control system - which was also making its debut at the show. Luxury business jets from Bombardier, Embraer and Gulfstream, as well as other new aircraft and helicopter models such as the Airbus H145 and Bell 505, also appeared for the first time at the Singapore Airshow.Over the 6-day show from 16 - 21 February, Singapore Airshow 2016 welcomed over 130,000 trade and public day visitors. Trade attendance from 16 - 19 February saw a 7% increase compared to 2014 with 30% from overseas. This year?s Airshow also saw close to a 5% increase in VIP delegations from the last edition in 2014."We are pleased that the fifth edition of the Singapore Airshow has received such strong support from both trade and public visitors alike. We are constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve the curation of programmes and activities to provide a meaningful experience for all participants," said Mr Leck Chet Lam, Managing Director of Experia Events, organisers of Singapore Airshow. "We would like to thank our stakeholders, exhibitors, partners and visitors for their continued participation and support, and look forward to building on this year's show to make Singapore Airshow 2018 even more exciting."Singapore Airshow 2018 will be held from 6 to 11 February at Changi Exhibition Centre.About Singapore AirshowSingapore Airshow, a marketplace and networking powerhouse for the world's aviation community, is a must-attend event in the global aerospace and defence calendar. Organised and managed by Experia Events, the biennial event is also a platform for high-level conferences dedicated to leading players in the global aviation industry with the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit (SAALS) as well as co-located events - the A*STAR Aerospace Technology Leadership Forum and the Singapore Aerospace Technology and Engineering Conference (SATEC). For more information, visit www.singaporeairshow.com .About Experia Events Pte LtdExperia Events specialises in organising and managing exhibitions and conferences of strategic interest, fostering industry development and thought leadership. It has built a strong portfolio in aerospace and defence with the highly successful Singapore Airshow, Asia's largest and one of the most important aerospace and defence exhibitions in the world, and IMDEX Asia, the premier international maritime defence exhibition in Asia, and Rotorcraft Asia, the premier dedicated event for the global civil helicopter industry. Its expertise also extends to the government and lifestyle sectors, through key events such as the Singapore International Water Week and World Cities Summit. With a proven track record underscoring its aspirations to stage events that influence, Experia Events aims to diversify its range of strategic events globally. For more information, visit www.experiaevents.com .Contact:Copyright 2016 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Protesters against the Nauru detention centre hang from a bridge above a freeway in Melbourne, Australia, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy/AAP

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia is in talks with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, among six nations, to resettle asylum seekers detained in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island nation of Nauru, the Sydney Morning Herald said on Saturday.

The number of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia is small in comparison with those arriving in Europe, but border security is a hot-button political issue in Australia, which is scheduled to hold a national election later in the year.

Negotiations with the governments of the three Southeast Asian countries focus on potentially settling 1,459 detainees, many of whom arrived during previous administrations, the newspaper said.

Three other countries are also involved in preliminary stages of talks, it added, but did not identify them.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to confirm or deny the report.

However, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop cautioned that it was "early days" for the talks, as pressing local issues would influence the discussions.

"Some of them have domestic issues, like elections," Bishop said in a statement. The Philippines goes to the polls on May 9 to choose a new president and vice president, among other officials.

Australia's tough immigration policies provide that anyone intercepted while trying to reach the country by boat is sent for processing to camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. They are never eligible to be resettled in Australia.

Past Australian efforts to resettle asylum seekers elsewhere ran into hurdles.

Last October, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the country had "no capacity" to permanently relocate asylum seekers, adding that his government was "challenged to meet the needs of its own people right now".

Australia had offered $150 million spread over five years in exchange for permanent relocation of some refugees.

A deal struck with Cambodia was halted after only four asylum seekers were resettled.

In 2011, the Australian high court ruled invalid a deal with Malaysia, as it was not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees.

Australia has also received criticism from the United Nations and rights groups for its hardline policy.

Since 2012, people on boats trying to reach Australia have been turned back or taken to camps in Nauru, where there have been reports of assaults and systemic child abuse, or Papua New Guinea, where Canberra has set up processing centers.

(Writing by Peter Gosnell; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Supporters of incarcerated presidential candidate Hama Amadou arrive at a campaign rally in Niamey, Niger, February 19, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Penney

By Abdoulaye Massalaki

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger closed its land borders and ramped up security on Sunday for an election in which President Mahamadou Issoufou is running for a second term promising to crush Islamist militants and reduce the country's deep poverty.

Security forces patrolled cities and villages in case of unrest or militant attacks. Some voters said they had never experienced such a tense election.

Unidentified armed men attacked two electoral commission vehicles in a rural area about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital, according to security sources, but there were few other reports of trouble.

"Niger needs strong democratic institutions. I hope that the presidential and legislative elections will permit us to reinforce our institutions," Issoufou said when he cast his ballot at city hall in the capital Niamey.

He faces 14 candidates including Seyni Oumaru, leader of an opposition coalition. Critics say Issoufou has used political repression in the run-up to the vote, arresting opposition supporters and jailing opposition leader Hama Amadou over charges related to a baby-trafficking ring.

"These are not free and fair elections. We have one presidential candidate in prison who has not been able to campaign. ... The president has manipulated the electorate and used repression," said Amadou Saidou, a voter in Niamey.

The government says it respects the law and calls such criticisms politically motivated.

Voting ended at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) after a day of steady turnout in most areas but polls will reopen from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday in areas where voting could not take place on Sunday, the electoral commission said.

It gave no details but local media reported problems in Tahoua region in the northeast, Zinder in the east, Diffa in the southeast and Tillaberi in the west. The country has eight regions in total and results are not expected before Tuesday.

Opposition spokesman Ousseini Salatou said on a private television station, Tenere, that the election had been badly organized and he had witnessed cases of voting card fraud.

Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the U.N.'s Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates. The country ranks 114 out of 142 in the 2015 prosperity index run by the UK-based Legatum Institute.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in neighboring Nigeria, has staged a series of attacks in Niger in recent months, forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa.

But Niger prides itself on being peaceful relative to its neighbors Nigeria, Libya and Mali.

Issoufou, born in 1951, won an election in 2011, a year after a coup. Under election rules, a run-off will be held if no candidate secures an outright victory on Sunday.

His challengers include Amadou, 2011 second-place finisher Oumaru and ex-president Mahamane Ousmane. Around 5,200 candidates also vie for 171 legislative seats on Sunday.

(Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Chris Reese)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian transport ministry hopes that a Ukrainian ban on Russian trucks will end on Saturday and has made an offer to resolve a dispute over the issue, local agencies quoted the ministry as saying on Friday.

On Sunday, the Russian transport ministry barred Ukrainian trucks in response to Ukrainian activists blocking some Russian trucks from entering Ukraine

Diplomatic and trade ties between Russia and Ukraine have sharply deteriorated over Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and a pro-Russian separatist conflict.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Writing by Denis Pinchuk; Editing be Andrew Osborn)
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Three police officers were killed by unknown assailants in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad on Friday, police said on Saturday, in an incident that is being investigated as a possible attack by Islamic State.

The three attackers, who escaped the scene, dropped copies of a pamphlet addressed to security officials which said a regional chapter of the Middle East-based militant group claimed responsibility for "recent attacks on security forces," a senior police official said.

It warned police against "protecting the un-Islamic system" of democracy and urged them to quit their jobs or face violent consequences, according to a copy of the pamphlet seen by Reuters.

Police said they were investigating "various leads" into the attack.

"The role of Islamic State cannot be ruled out, though they don't have any known presence in Faisalabad," police chief Afzaal Kausar told Reuters.

He said similar attacks had taken place in Lahore and Islamabad during the past week, and police suspected the same group may be responsible.

Earlier this month, the government reasserted that there was "no organized presence" of Islamic State in Pakistan after an intelligence chief warned a parliamentary panel that the group was a threat, and was coordinating with militant groups in the country.

The entry of Islamic State into Pakistan would complicate the government's fight against indigenous Islamist militants fighting to overthrow it.

Late last year, a few breakaway factions of the Pakistani Taliban, which seeks to topple the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and set up a sharia state, declared allegiance to Islamic State and ordered militants across the region to join its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate.

But in January, the Pakistani Taliban released a statement rejecting Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's claim to be the global leader of all Muslims.

(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Krista Mahr; Editing by Digby Lidstone)
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is digging deep into its pockets again.

The business super-ministry is showing no signs of slowing down its spending spree after forking out about $200,000 for a "useless app".

And it plans to scrap the printed version of an important economic report, in favour of the app, which has barely any users.

The app also has few reviews that appear to have mostly been written by people who worked on the app and MBIE staff.

Parliamentary documents revealed the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) coughed up $198,067.30 to Alphero - an external provider - to develop the New Zealand Regions mobile app.

READ MORE:

* MBIE skips out on big Christmas party after $26k bill

* Business super-ministry spends $70k on big stone

* Ministry spends $140,000 on screen

* $560k bill for website overhaul

The app was launched to promote the Regional Economic Activity Report and was designed to provide easy to understand economic performance statistics to stakeholders and interested New Zealanders.

MBIE labour market trends senior analyst Ben Wallace said the app, which was launched in October, had been downloaded about 1600 times.

The documents show between October 15, 2015 and November 29, 2015, the app was downloaded 721 times from the iTunes store, and 357 times from the Google Play store.

Wallace said the app would regularly be updated with information and he expected people would use it more often each time new data was released, particularly Statistics New Zealand's regional GDP figures in March.

MBIE planned "inexpensive" social media campaigns around the time of key information releases, he said.

The Ministry intended to discontinue the printed Regional Economic Activity report once enough stakeholders started using it, which would save the annual printing cost, he said.

He said this was the same approach MBIE had taken with its Occupation Outlook app, which was now in its third year.

The region app would only require minor modifications, so much of the money spent was a one-off, to set it up, he said.

The app also has few reviews that appear to have mostly been written by people who worked on the app, and MBIE staff.

Alphero's principal consultant Craig Eades said the company developed the app and did a little bit of analytic work.

MBIE managed the app updates, which they did when new data became available. Only MBIE could provide user data, he said.

The company's director Caroline Dewe said the app was currently being updated.

In a written parliamentary answer to Labour MP David Clark, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, said as at November 29, MBIE had spent $1946.78 promoting the app.

Clark, Labour's economic development spokesperson, said no one in the real world would download an app to look at information they can find more easily on the internet.

"This is just expensive window dressing. Most apps cost just $1. This one has cost the taxpayer $200 for each download."

In a written answer to Green MP Julie Anne Genter, Joyce said there were also in-house costs associated with the app.

However, these could not be separately apportioned to the mobile app development, he said.

"It is expected the app will be used and re-issued over a number of years, with minor enhancements each year," he said.

In June 2015, MBIE came under fire after it emerged it had spent more than $67,000 on a new sign in front of its Stout St headquarters and $140,000 on a 3.5m curved screen in its reception.

MBIE's makeover also included $360,000 on furniture, $260,000 on a sundeck and hair straighteners in the female bathrooms.

In August last year, it was revealed the ministry spent $560,000 overhauling its new website.

The ministry also skipped out on a big Christmas party last year after it was revealed it spent $26,000 on the annual celebration in 2014.

Last week, it was revealed Joyce's New Zealand Trade and Enterprise agency spent $30,000 on pounamu pendants for staff.
Students arriving at Katherine Jermyn Hall on Boulcott St were just part of thecrowds flooding to the Capital in a bumper weekend.

A bumper weekend in Wellington has attracted thousands from across the country, and earned the city millions of dollars.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo was the main drawcard, but wasn't the only thing keeping Wellingtonians and visitors busy in the bustling city this weekend.

There was also a Wellington Wine Food and Craft Beer festival, the annual Cigna Round the Bays event, and an influx of young men and women moving into halls of residence ahead of the start of their first year of university.

MONIQUE FORD/FAIRFAX NZ The Edinburgh Tattoo was the cornerstone event for a bumper events weekend in Wellington.

The Wellington Wine Food and Craft Beer Festival took over Waitangi Park on Friday and Saturday, with about 4000 people sampling some of the finest food and beverages the region has to offer.

READ MORE:

* Recap: Cigna Round the Bays Wellington 2016

* Traffic gridlocked in Wellington after 2016 Round the Bays run

* Food, wine, sun and a little wind as festival pulls crowds to waterfront event

* Wellington turns on the weather for round the bays run

Festival manager Damien Hochberg said all the vendors were flat out on both days.

MONIQUE FORD/FAIRFAX NZ About 14,000 people took part in Cigna Round the Bays on Sunday.

"It was a really nice crowd, there were no problems."

Sunday saw thousands of people up at the crack of dawn to run around Wellington's waterfront in the Cigna Round the Bays event.

Event director Anna Carrington said the day ran perfectly, with all the races starting on time.

MONIQUE FORD/FAIRFAX NZ Crowds packed into Waitangi Park for the Wellington Wine, Food & Craft Beer Festival on Friday and Saturday.

The sun came out in time for runners and walkers to enjoy a festival at the finish line at Kilbirnie Park.

"Everyone was having a great time, if you were in the area you could feel a real sense of achievement from all walk of life."

The came out just in time for people to enjoy after the race.

The sunshine also impressed one Aucklander moving down to start university.

Charlotte Poizat said she was pleasantly surprised by the weather, and she'd decided to move to Wellington because she wanted a change.

Harriet O'Hara and Maria Knowles had moved over the hill from Masterton, and said while it wasn't far from home the city was still a little overwhelming.

Hospitality Association Wellington branch president Jeremy Smith said as a rule of thumb bars and eateries around the city could expect to double their earnings with so many people in town.

The Tattoo had attracted an older crowd, that preferred to eat out at nice restaurants and cafes, rather than head to Courtenay Place.

Smith said having that slightly older market in Wellington meant the retail sector got a good boost as well.

Scores of first-year students, and their parents, rushed into New World Metro in the CBD to stock up on staples for a move into Victoria University's Boulcott Hall around the corner.

Alcohol was the noticeable addition on the student shopping list, customer service assistant Shalin Kauschik said.

"There's a couple of them buying alcohol. Most are buying snacks and chips and those prepacked foods.

"It has been quite a lot busier than normal."

Wellington city councillor Jo Coughlan said it was fantastic having the Tattoo pull people into Wellington from across the country.

"It's critical for the city in terms of supporting hospitality and retail to be able to secure these events that bring people from all around the country."

Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency chief executive Chris Whelan agreed the economic benefit was important, but it went beyond that.

"The energy one feels in town, the atmosphere is electric, which is really good."

It was too soon to put a figure on how much had been injected into the capital's economy, but the Tattoo alone was expected to pull about $16m.

Executive chair of the New Zealand festival Kerry Prendergast said the Tattoo kicked off the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand Festival by drawing a record crowd to the capital.

On Saturday 84,500 tickets had been sold across four nights of performances.
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, about 1000 homeowners gathered in Christchurch's Cathedral Square in a show of solidarity.

Battle-weary residents voiced their anger against the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and private insurance companies in the largest post-quake protest of its kind.

Pictures of Prime Minister John Key, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee, Insurance Council of New Zealand chief executive Tim Grafton and EQC chief executive Ian Simpson were propped up on four white chairs at the back of the stage. Their absence was discussed by many.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ More than a thousand people attended a protest in Cathedral Sq to mark five years of unresolved earthquake insurance claims.

Monday would mark half a decade of unresolved or disputed insurance claims for hundreds of Canterbury homeowners.

READ MORE: * Petition for Royal Commission inquiry into shoddy repairs launched * EQC budgets $5m for court cases in 2015/16 * Some EQC complaints open for six months or more * Court asked to rule on EQC's repair standards

"We've had enough" was the simple message written across countless placards.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ Hundreds of people held placards expressing their frustration at a protest in Cathedral Sq.

Lyttelton band The Eastern sang about waiting "five years for nothing" before frontman Adam McGrath fired up the crowd.

"They are going to wait for the rest of the country to forgot and hope that we will walk away defeated.

"But we're not walking away," he said.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ The Cathedral Sq protest crowd, as seen from above.

Residents shouted about corruption, bullying and despicable behaviour and cheered loudly when speakers called for legislation setting a deadline for outstanding claims to be settled.

Labour MPs and several Christchurch City councillors were spotted in the crowd.

Brooklands red-zone resident Jan Burney helped organise the protest and said she was heartened by the turnout.

"We were called carpers and moaners by Gerry Brownlee. We are not carpers and moaners.

"This has taken too long and people's lives are on hold," she said.

Reverend Mike Coleman, the former spokesman for the Wider Earthquake Communities Action Network, described the recovery as the "biggest mess I've ever seen".

Coleman coined the phrase "Key-ism" and cited statements from Key and other "key earthquake players", including that nobody in Canterbury would be worse off after the quakes.

Insurance industry critic Sarah Miles, author of The Christchurch Fiasco, said thousands of Cantabrians had been affected by failed repairs, delayed settlements and cash settlements that fell short.

Edgeware homeowner Robina Dobbie broke into tears when asked how the last five years had made her feel.

"It's had a huge impact on my life . . . and it's awful to see how many more people this is happening to."

Dobbie's mother died three weeks after the September 2010 earthquake, and she had been fighting with EQC over the foundation damage to her home since, she said.

"I had been nursing [her mother] and I was run down and since then, this has been my life. It's lonely."

Dallington homeowner Fay Brorens said her claim was finally pushed over EQC's $100,000 damage cap late last year.

A review of her property assessed the damage at $188,000, up from $77,000, she said.

She was now waiting for the outcome of her insurer's inspection.

"I find it really stressful . . . I don't know what's going to happen."

Labour Canterbury spokeswoman Megan Woods said the recovery could not be called a success while homeowners' claims were unresolved.

"I was incredibly moved to read some of the words people wrote  tired, over it, frustrated."

Woods said people were angry but also wanted lessons to be learnt so delays did not happen after future natural disasters.

The protest group wanted legislation passed to fast-track settlement of all remaining claims and to impose penalties on EQC and insurers if they failed to meet the deadline.

It also wanted an external review of EQC.

In a statement, Grafton said insurance companies had settled 90 per cent of residential and commercial claims, worth $17 billion, despite the fact Canterbury's earthquakes were "one of the largest, most complex insurance events globally".

He said he understood "the frustration experienced by people who have suffered", but in many cases delays were beyond the control of insurers.

Reasons for delays included the need for geotech tests, the introduction of new building codes, and skill and material shortages.

"We believe for a future natural disaster that the Government should make changes so that all claims are lodged with your insurer who should have responsibility for assessing the claim.

"This would mean that the worst damaged houses would be identified by insurers early instead of receiving almost 1500 properties from EQC during 2015," Grafton said.
Margaret Neale is pulled from the rubble in City Mall after the February 11 earthquake struck in 2011.

A woman who experienced years of trauma and survivor guilt after her daughter died by her side in the February, 2011, Christchurch earthquake says she has finally found peace. Margaret Neale tells her remarkable story of recovery to Jonathan Carson.

Before Margaret Neale fainted, she heard the roar.



"It had a noise," she said of the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that rocked Christchurch last Sunday.



The sound was enough, a trigger.



READ MORE:

* From the midst of chaos, a friendship

* An open letter to New Zealand

* Christchurch Urban Search and Rescue responders look back

* Elderly earthquake evacuee ready to return to new home

* Childhood interrupted by February 2011 earthquake

* International perceptions of Christchurch more positive

* A photographer's recollection of February 22

* Six years, 14,000 quakes, and a new South Island

In the middle of The Palms Shopping Centre, at 1.13pm, she instinctively threw her arms around her 15-year-old granddaughter, Ella Neale, and lost consciousness.

John Kirk-Anderson Margaret Neale, front, with the men that rescued her from the ruins of the City Mall building following the February 22, 2011, Christchurch earthquake.

It was as though her mind and body were protecting her from reliving the terror of five years ago.

She fell to the floor and curled into the foetal position.

Neale says the earthquake on Valentine's Day transported her back to February 22, 2011.

MARION VAN DIJK Margaret Neale with her dog Mia, left and her daughter Melissa'a dog Herb outside St Paul's community church in Brightwater.

The day that she and her daughter Melissa Neale were crushed beneath rubble in Christchurch's City Mall.

The day that, in the darkness, she said goodbye to this life.

The day that she was rescued from the ruins but Melissa, buried next to her, was not.



She says when she threw her arms around Ella in The Palms last Sunday, she thought she was protecting Melissa.



"I would have thought it was Melissa," she says.



"I was comforting Melissa, but Melissa wasn't there."



As she lay unconscious on the floor, Neale says she saw a bright light and heard a voice. It told her that she was safe.



Someone else was also comforting her.



"Ella's bravery was unbelievable. She stroked my head and talked to me and never let go of my hand. I wouldn't have gotten through without her."



Neale became a devout Christian after struggling for 3 1/2 years with post-traumatic stress, anxiety and survivor guilt from the 2011 earthquake, and suffering a brain aneurysm and stroke in August, 2014.

Before Melissa's death she had never been to church but found herself asking god every day: "Why did you leave me and take my girl?"

On August 1, 2014, not long after leaving Christchurch, Neale had a brain aneurysm and stroke in her Nelson home and was airlifted to Wellington Hospital.

She says she died twice in the hospital and while she was in the balance between life and death she experienced "a person standing beside me full of light".

Neale believes this person was Jesus Christ and says Melissa was standing with him.

"It's pretty amazing. People think I'm nuts, but I'm not. I just absolutely have an amazing faith."

Since the near-death experience - her second in five years - Neale says she no longer feels any fear of earthquakes or anxiety.

"Wherever I went when I had a stroke, it's given me great peace," she says.

"I can't describe that feeling to you because every day you live in fear, you live in trauma, you live in grief and your heart is broken and you can't understand why you survived and everyone else passed. I felt there was something missing in me. I don't have that feeling now."

She says the 2011 earthquake "robbed me of the most wonderful, important, amazing woman of my life who I cherished" but five years on, with the help of her rescuers, doctors and faith, she is healing.

"I felt maybe that my soul had completely been destroyed and now I feel that if my soul leaves my body now on its next journey, it's not going to be a broken soul."

On Monday, her church in Brightwater will open for a special day of prayer for Melissa and the other 184 people who died in the 2011 earthquake.

"My heart and soul have been broken and I'm healing," she says. "But I need on that day, Monday, just to find peace."
Beer or jobs: which is more important? View(s):

Ever since the liberalisation of economic policies and transfer to an open-doors economy in 1977 from inward-looking policies, every successive regime has preached about the greatness of small and medium scale entrepreneurs, the need to nurture these orgnisations and make them grow.

These pronouncements however are, and has always been, just on paper. The plight of the SMEs remain as they were 30 years ago except for a few who rode against the tide and joined the league of the big, established companies.

Over the past three decades, governments have spoon-fed big business and capitalists  a few who are disguised as investors  seeking to grow the business, bring in foreign investment and create employment opportunities. With perks, benefits, tax breaks and what have you, foreign investment still continues to be a trickle and nowhere near the US$2 billion to $3 billion that a country with so much potential (even after the war) needs to attract.

Small businesses or SMEs as they are categorised are the backbone of any economy and account for 80 per cent or over of all businesses in Sri Lanka and across the world. SMEs have constantly complained of getting a raw deal from the authorities, and thats true. In the name of attracting foreign or local investments, big business backed by powerful chambers are able to campaign for and get most of their demands.

Just like Sri Lankan migrant workers who sweat it out in the Gulf and West Asian countries earning big bucks to boost foreign reserves but dont receive the same treatment given to other foreign exchange earning sectors like garments, tea or IT, SMEs are the engine of the economy while big business reaps the benefits.

A new breed of social entrepreneurs, which are not-for-profit organisations, also dont get the same attention though promises and assurances are given (again on paper or verbally). Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was spot on when he disclosed that 80 per cent of the countrys taxes are paid by the poor  meaning poorer segments of the society including small businesses and small entrepreneurs. Addressing a World Bank event in Colombo this week, he suggested a tax on wealth to overcome serious revenue problems that the government is facing.

Considering this and for many other reasons, the Government must take serious note of a plea by a group of small businesses urging that budget proposals which are dangerously close to crashing their businesses should either be revoked or amended.

The group of around 50 SMEs wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena, with a copy to the media, urging that clauses in the 2016 budget which stipulates a fee to wind up a company and a new exorbitant licensing fee, be removed It said the new annual levy of Rs. 60,000 and the voluntary winding up fee of Rs. 50,000 are likely to not only discourage but even compel small firms to go out of business. If these levies are enforced, people will have second thoughts as to forming of companies in the future and the viability of continuing their businesses, which may end up with severe blows to our Gross Domestic Production (GDP), imports and exports, and the national economy at large, the letter said.

Apart from this, it is unfair to levy a tax (or fee) on small companies, some family-owned or with a few share holders, if they are compelled through circumstances (not devious means) to wind up. Risk-taking is part of entrepreneurship and small business startups and must be encouraged by the authorities not frowned on by, for example, winding-up clauses. There is a separate liquidation process that takes care of liabilities and creditors. Winding up or closure is for many reasons; being unable to compete with bigger organisations, being unviable, unable to pay off a loan or for the simple fact (as pleaded in the appeal by SMEs) that big business (involved in the same sector) get all the concessions and tax breaks which are not available to SMEs.

This often happens when conglomerates or large organisations get into small business normally undertaken by SMEs which then creates an uneven playing field. An example of this was when the former Ceylinco conglomerate spread its wings to running food outlets (kades) several years back. How could a small entrepreneur (in todays context the Dimo Batta type entrepreneur) survive against this kind of competition?

SMEs dont even have a chamber to represent them, such is their plight even though they are heralded in parliament or political platforms as the economic saviours of the nation  just like the regular hosannas to migrant workers who get little from the authorities; talked about a lot with accolades flowing but hardly a mention in the news.

To add insult to injury, foreign-bound Sri Lankan domestic workers often face humiliation at the airport. At the entry to the airport lounge where passengers are checked in, special officers occasionally scrutinize passports of passengers who they believe are domestic workers to check for the compulsory insurance cover. Any passenger going abroad on work without insurance cover is sent back to the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau counter to complete that formality. Professionals going abroad on employment however are treated differently based on appearance, dress and being able to talk their way through any issue. The budget itself has seen many changes, alterations or amendments. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has come under severe pressure over proposals like higher vehicle taxes, annual licensing fees, vehicle emission fees, reduced tax car permit for public servants, among others which were eventually changed.

If the government chose to reduce the tax on imported beer to Rs 160 per litre from the original proposal of Rs. 190 per litre, isnt it only right then that the Government reconsider proposals that endanger small businesses and their dependents? Which is more important  a pint of beer or jobs? By using SMEs as a revenue tool, the Finance Ministry and the government is causing a grave injustice to a sector that has been touted for years as the backbone of the economy. It is imperative that the authorities not only seriously reconsider the pleas of small businesses to stop hitting them where it hurts most but ensure that economic policies and strategies provide tax breaks and concessions equally or even more than big business. As one of the biggest contributors to the economy and as socially-conscious taxpayers, they deserve a better deal from the authorities.
Compulsory board seats: CCC recommends it only as best practice By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a letter to the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs has pointed out the legal implications and the detrimental impact to the capital market pertaining to the proposal to allocate a board seat for any individual holding 10 per cent and over in a commercial bank or 15 per cent in a listed firm, Ministry officials said. The SEC sent us a letter recently on this and has said that theyll send a detailed report later. It says that this sort of a rule will have serious implications for publicly quoted companies, the official told the Business Times. He said for the moment, this proposal is on hold.

The Treasury had written to the SEC last month pertaining to the proposal, requesting them to implement it, according to a senior Treasury official. Currently theres no compulsion for those owning such percentages. This new proposal applies only to individual and not companies/entities. Meanwhile the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has recommended that this proposal be a best practice mechanism and that listed firms along with banks shouldnt be bound by law to accommodate shareholders as directors, CCC sources said. Analysts point out that such a proposal shouldnt be implemented in a hurry because as per current rules directors can be voted out at a companys Annual General Meeting.

They also say that its dangerous to allow such a move as a competitor for an example can acquire 15 per cent in a company and with a board seat be privy to sensitive information. For an example, Lalith Hapangama owner of Lalan Rubbers has 21 per cent in Dipped Products PLC. Both Lalan Rubbers and Dipped Products PLC are in the same rubber business. Also Dammika Perera, leading businessman has 31 per cent in Lanka Aluminum and no board seat, an analyst said. He said with such disparities and contentious issues, its best to reexamine this proposal.
From cash to ash  Five business lessons after Unilever fire View(s):

Its flames  shouted someone, and  yes  flames they were. That would have been a likely scenario that engulfed the multinational giant Unilever (factory) complex in Horana  Sri Lanka on Independence Day this year. As we wake up, not every morning do we hear about corporate fires, but now and again they remind us that for every business tragedy there is a first time and, a first victim. Often we debate among ourselves perhaps to pacify our fears and wish corporate fires are one in a million probability. Thus, we become contented and thereby dangerously complacent. Being in the million  we sit at ease  and one gloomy day suddenly get jolted out of our comfy-seats to realise that we are THAT ONE! If we care to pay attention, the Independence Day fire popped-up five business reminders for all of us engaged in commerce. Lets permit them to shed some light on our perspective.

Recap 1: Finally its bottom-line:

A few years back, a Sunday fire completely destroyed a Sri Lankan factory complex that was regarded as the number 1 quality producer to the world in their merchandise. Within just 45 minutes, the company was wiped out of the international market, and thus the fire deprived us the offshore revenue during its lengthy downtime. The associated losses such as competitor gain, loss of employment, colossal recovery cost, delivery crunch, revenue freeze and loss to the state treasury are few other negatives that resulted in. Contrary to the generic notion that fire is an applied science, this corporate fire essentially became commerce by way of crashing the company bottom-line to zero figures and impacting the group yield significantly.

Recap 2: Insurance isnt Charity:

Once, an enterprise that housed Rs. 5 billion worth delicate machinery in a single plant, had willfully undervalued the total worth in order to secure a lesser insurance premium. The management suddenly got the wisdom right, only after a neighbourhood fie that heated up the boardroom thinking. Insurance is a worthy safety net, yet they are also into business  thus not waiting for our claims to perform charity at their end. Thus, entering into properly devised agreements and zero deviation compliance becomes essential in securing clean compensation. The re-insurer perspective on our claim often decides the claim approval or rejection; thus compliance does matter. It is also vital that we remember that no insurance company can make a staff burn to death and come back to life, no matter how strong our claim is. Humans may be seen as capital in enterprise jargon, yet once its gone, it goes beyond recovery unlike the fiscal capital.

Recap 3: Fire is Macro and Micro too:

Some enterprises only macro-manage the fire risk with flashy policies, protocols, objectives all compiled in palm-thick manuals resting in glassed cabinets. Thats showcasing. Go down to the floor  ask a staff whats your action number 1 if you see flames right here NOW?  and they are clueless. Then some other companies only micro-manage the fire risk with a few fire appliances, little bit of staff education and perhaps a bit of practice for some frontline staff. Climb up to the board room and ask a top executive as to how exactly they lead a fire emergency in their complex  and many are clueless too. Both these isolated approaches have put enterprises in jeopardy in the past. Thus, it is best to device a concerted blend that fastens the strategy and application alike.

Recap 4: Emissions kill ambience:

Try to leave the Earth a better place than when you arrived, said novelist Sidney Sheldon many moons ago. In modern language we talk of green business, sustainability and renewability. Nonetheless, if an enterprise goes up in flames  it releases a colossal quantity of toxic emissions directly into the environment. Not many green-keen enterprises have visualised the atmospheric damage that a mismanaged fire can cause in less than one hour. Scarcely have we seen the green initiatives incorporate fire prevention into the ambience protective lineage.

Recap 5: Certificates do not fight fires:

Yes! Certificates do not fight fires. Its purpose is to train people with right competence and organisational allegiance. A little bit of bravery certainly helps but not without the first two. Supported by funds, staff and equipment at the right depth, we need to safeguard our enterprises from this ever-present, yet invincible threat. That is why responsible businesses propel a 7-point fire risk mitigation sequence below to keep the enterprise upright.

Study

Mitigation

Plan

Resources

Competence

Testing

Readiness

In entrepreneurship, we focus on the future, yet a fire leaping out of control can make our business a plain history. It is as simple and as painful as that!! If you do not invest in risk management, it does not matter what business you are in, its a risky business, says Gary Cohn  President of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Its not just the fiscal equity in the fire risk mitigation, but investing management time, energy and effort to safeguard human life at work and the businesses we have erected over the years. Either we deal with veiled reality  or reality is sure to deal with us out of the blue. We sometimes hear wise words. Are we prudently listening?

(The writer is a foremost enterprise risk management specialist and a corporate risk trainer who serves as the CEO of Strategic Risk Solutions. He can be reached on email on solutions@sltnet.lk)
Industry backs SriLankan Airlines move to retain European flights View(s):

SriLankan Airlines, looking for ways to cut huge losses and debt accumulated during the last regime, this week decided to continue flying to key European destinations, barring Rome, reversing earlier plans to discontinue or reduce these flights. The move drew welcome relief from all sections of the travel industry. Separately the airline, according to its main top official, was in serious discussions with lessors on how and whether it was possible to exit from a contract to purchase four Airbus 350s.

Ajit Dias, chairman of the national carrier, told the Business Times that the government has decided not to proceed with the purchase order. When asked whether this means the airline wont be buying the four aircraft, he said: It all depends on the negotiations our team is having with lessors since contracts have already been signed and to ascertain what needs to be done (to exit), he said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament last week that though a deposit has not been paid for any Airbus 350, any default means a penalty payment of US$12 million.

With reference to uncertainty over flights to the European sector, the airline had been considering pulling out of Europe barring the UK but had been under pressure from the tourism industry not to do so. Other than London, most European sectors were not bringing the required returns, other sources at the national airline said. According to this weeks, long-awaited decision, the airline is discontinuing flights to Rome from May but will continue flying to London, Paris and Frankfurt, the latter of which would have a fifth weekly flight added from July.

Mr. Dias said the new travel frequencies have been prepared with the existing fleet. We have not accounted for any new Airbus 350s (in this computation), he said. He denied reports that the airline was in discussions with others on a possible management contract, similar to the earlier one with Emirates but noted that the airline has been talking to other airlines on code sharing arrangements (to cover sectors that the airline doesnt fly to). We are delighted, said Hiran Cooray, President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) when asked to comment on the route changes.

This is a very positive move and shows the Government is listening to the industry. They have listened to our pleas. Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL) President Devindre Seneratne said they were pleased that Frankfurt has been consolidated with an extra flight too and Paris will continue to operate as usual. The French market has become one of the most important markets and grown to be one of the most wanted markets for Sri Lanka Tourism especially when Sri Lanka is considered one of the safer and better destinations to travel, he said.

Also welcoming the move, S. Paramanathan, Managing Director of Atlas Lanka Travels, said arrivals were rising even though its the off season and hence this was not the best time to reduce flights to Europe. According to the airlines 2014/15 annual report, in order to replace the wide-body fleet, in June 2013, the company entered into Purchase Agreements with Airbus for the purchase of six A330-300 and four A350-900 aircraft for delivery between 2014 to 2021 and also entered into lease agreements to take delivery of further three new A350-900 aircraft in 2016.
Renowned furniture manufacturer A T Cooray (Pvt) Ltd nears its 90th year View(s):

Renowned furniture manufacturer A T Cooray (Pvt) Ltd is nearing its 90th year in a journey that began when its founder A.T. Cooray who hailed from the southern parts of then Ceylon began trying his hand at carpentry. Explaining the background of the company as it enters a decade that would end with a century of serving the nation, the company said intricately designed home furniture soon became Mr. Coorays forte as he began to expand his workshop and hire other skilled artisans from the South.

Over the years that followed, A.T. Cooray furnishers became known not only for its distinct designs but also for the high-quality of each piece of furniture they turned out. As news spread throughout the country about the bespoke furniture, A.T. Cooray soon found himself spreading his wares to Colombo, Kandy and Kegalle with new showrooms being opened in 1946, the media release said.

Today, recognised as the preferred choice for office furniture by many of the blue-chip companies and large conglomerates operating in the island, A.T. Cooray says it is also fast becoming the go-to place for start-up ventures looking for value-for-money. The fact that the furnisher still operates out of one ultra-modern showroom in Colombo 3 is testimony to the emphasis they place on personalised service. Currently managed by the third generation of the Cooray family, the showroom invites customers to truly experience the office furniture of their choice before making that all important purchase.
SriLankan Airlines to scrap Rome sector while continuing other European flights View(s):

SriLankan Airlines said this week it will discontinue flights to Rome from May onwards but continue its other European sectors including increasing some frequencies. While Paris operations will continue with four weekly frequencies, a fifth Frankfurt frequency will be added from July 2016, which will continue during summer 2016, the national airline said in a media release. The decision put to rest fears from the tourism industry that the airline was planning to discontinue flights across Europe except for the UK owing to mounting losses. The industry had urged the airline to continue its European segments as new business was expected with Europeans looking for new destinations owing to the ISIS crisis in the Middle East.

The statement said that London will remain SriLankans main gateway to Europe. The national carrier is the only airline to operate non-stop flights between London and Colombo. In a comprehensive statement, SriLankan said that 2016 promises to be an interesting one for world aviation. Fuel prices are near historic lows and global demand remains strong. SriLankan Airlines, similar to international carriers the world over, has had to respond to this highly competitive market environment by re-evaluating its current operations and re-deploying capacity to more sustainable routes and destinations, the statement said.

The decision to discontinue flights to Rome was in order to increase capacity on more commercially viable routes. Nevertheless, with its strong network of codeshare partners, SriLankan will continue to provide onward connectivity to many European and North American destinations.

Making a significant capacity increase to the Middle East, SriLankan will start operating daily flights to Riyadh and six flights a week to Jeddah. The national carrier currently serves seven key hubs in the Middle East, i.e., Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah and Kuwait with a total of 42 flights a week.

The airline said that India has remained the number one tourism generating market for Sri Lanka in 2013, 2014 and 2015 while China has climbed up from its third slot to number two position in 2015. The Far East will remain an important market for SriLankan where the airline will continue to explore its potential for expansion, it said.
The IMF facility and fiscal sustainability critical for economic stability View(s):

The IMF facility that the government has requested is absolutely necessary to resolve the current balance of payments difficulties. It is however only a palliative, not a solution to the fundamental economic problems. The government must use this assistance to address the fundamental economic problems. It is especially necessary to reduce the fiscal deficit. Failing to take corrective measures towards fiscal consolidation could lead to a severe economic crisis.

The containment of the fiscal deficit is vital as the large fiscal deficits have been the cause of the large trade deficits and balance of payments difficulties, besides other adverse economic repercussions. Failure to contain the fiscal deficit this year and in the next few years would be an economic disaster. The country would face a more severe crisis than what Greece faced last year and its political consequences are too horrendous to predict.

Processing

The IMF has indicated that the granting of the loan will depend on their assessment of macroeconomic vulnerabilities, the nature and size of balance of payments needs and government policies to address those vulnerabilities. The government has no alternative but accept the vital IMF assistance and follow the prescribed good economic practices it recommends.

The processing of this loan will take some time. A technical mission to review recent developments and options for reducing the size of the 2016 budget deficit concluded in early February and a statement was issued on February 5th. Another negotiating mission is likely in late March or early April, that will discuss the fundamental issues in macroeconomic instability, advice the government on the needed remedial measures and place certain conditions to grant the loan.

Key factor

Governments agreement to pursue policies that would address the fundamental economic weaknesses and vulnerabilities will be a key factor in the granting of the loan. In the current economic predicament, the government has no option but accept these conditions with possibly some modifications to cope with political constraints. It is important that these conditions are complied with, not only for obtaining the IMF loan, but as they are imperative for resolving the countrys fundamental economic weaknesses and ensuring economic stability.

No room for complacency

This relief package must not lead the government to be complacent in the management of the public finances. It must be used as an opportunity to undertake far-reaching reforms that are needed to address the core problem of the large fiscal deficits that have been an underlying reason for the balance of payments difficulties. The trade deficit must be brought down to a manageable level and steps must be taken to bring down the foreign debt to less than 60 percent of GDP. These cannot be achieved in a single year. Yet, policies must be in the right direction.

Core weaknesses

The recent IMF statement pointed out that the fiscal deficit for 2015 is likely to be higher than the 6 per cent given in the 2016 budget speech. IMF staff estimates suggest the fiscal deficit could widen further.

The budget had targeted a deficit of 5.9 for 2016, which was disappointing. Amendments to the taxation and expenditure proposals of the budget are likely to result in a much higher fiscal deficit.

Based on the budget framework for 2016 the IMF expects the fiscal deficit to be much higher. The Treasury too sees a widening fiscal deficit. Therefore corrective measures are needed to curtail the budget deficit.

Fiscal management

The IMF facility would be given with advice to contain the fiscal deficit below 5 per cent this year and to bring it down progressively in the next four years. In fact this is likely to be a condition for giving the loan. No doubt there would be severe political opposition to this mainly on the grounds that the government has agreed to IMF conditions, the plain truth is that irrespective of IMF conditions, fiscal sustainability is essential for economic stability and in determining the external value of the currency. One of the reasons for the depreciation of the rupee has been the consequences of the large fiscal deficits.

Economic Policy Statement

An intriguing feature of recent economic policy formulation is that the Prime Ministers Economic Policy Statement articulated this position very clearly. He said the fiscal deficit should be brought down to 3.5 per cent by 2020 and the direct to indirect tax ratios altered from 20:80 percent to 40:60. This led to expectations that a more progressive taxation system that also collected higher revenue would be an essential feature of the budget a few days later. This was not to be.

Taxation

What is essential for fiscal consolidation is a tax system that yields revenue much higher than the current 13 per cent of GDP. While it is necessary to reduce regressive taxation of basic items to much lower amounts, indirect taxes that fall on affluent consumption should be imposed, in addition to higher rates of direct taxation on high incomes. The reform of the tax system and the much higher efficiency of the tax administration to reduce tax evasion are essential to reduce the fiscal deficit. The possibility of reducing expenditure is very limited and imprudent.

SOEs

It is also likely that the IMF would impose stringent conditions on reducing losses of state owned enterprises. These may include proposals for privatisation of some. While this would be desirable the implementation of such politically opposed reforms must be undertaken in a pragmatic manner. The IMF should be acquainted with the practicalities of some of its recommendations. Pragmatic strategies should be devised to manage politically sensitive reforms of state enterprises.

Conclusion

The IMF facility would provide a breathing space to bring down the fiscal deficit and reduce the balance of payments difficulties. The economy is in a very serious situation that requires firm actions and policy reforms. These reforms must be undertaken to avert a worsening of the financial and economic crisis. Fiscal policy and economic reforms should follow the Economic Policy Statement of the Prime Minister.
Danish pop, punk and soul band take s No. 1 spot View(s):

Lukas Graham the Danish pop, punk and soul band has taken the No: 1 spot on the UK singles chart with the song 7 Years.

The track is the bands debut UK release which took 105,000 combined sales to register the chart topping position. In total 7 Years has over 200,000 combined sales from two weeks of release and has been certified as Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Lukas Graham is the third act from Denmark to top the UK singles chart after Whigfield did it Saturday Night, in 1994 and Aqua with Turn Back The Clock in 1998. Lukas Graham Forghammer is the leader of the band with other members being Mark Falgren, Magnus Larsson and Kasper Dangaard.

The quartet has been together since 2011 and popular in Denmark since 2012. Where they scored five No: 1 songs. They soon got noticed in the rest of the Scandinavian region. 7 Years has taken Lukas Graham to new region with success.

The pop, soul track is written by the band leader with Stefan Forrest, Morten Ristorp and Morten Pilegaard. 7 Years is taken from the album Lukas Graham (Blue Album).

The sole song to get through to the UK top 10 is Secret Love Song by Little Mix featuring Jason Derulo. The r&b ballad had a very slow climb to the top 10 taking six week since it debuted at 66. The song is taken from the all girl groups third album Get Weird and is their eight UK top 10 hit song.

Barry Manilow who had fallen ill last week pulled himself to perform at the Clive Davis, pre- Grammy party on 14th February.

The 72 year veteran was hospitalised in the middle of his One Last Time, farewell tour in Texas on 8th February and then rushed back to hospital on 11th February owing to complications from emergency oral surgery. Davis has arranged for Carly Simon to replace the Mandy hitmaker when he made it to the party.

Max Martin, the Swedish song writer and producer has been named as the winner of the Polar Music Prize for 2016. The 44 year old who has penned hit songs for Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Adele, Katy Perry, Pink, Taylor Swift, the Weekend and several others will receive the award from Swedens King Carl Gustav in Stockholm on 16th June.

City officials in the town of Royal Oak, Michigan, US have voted to name a stretch of road after the late Glen Frey of the Eagles who died on 18th January. Frey was once a pupil in a school in the area.

The Rolling Stones were under a 24 hour guard during their concert tour of Argentina after one of the groups local workers was shot dead after a failed robbery on 11th February.

The incident took place after the Stones had finished their concert at the La Plata Stadium in Buenos Aires.

Ariana Grande has parted ways with her co- manager Scooter Braun after three years. She will however continue to work with her long time manger Stephanie Simon.

UK TOP 10 TW LW 1 6 7 Years  Lukas Graham

2 1 Pillowtalk  Zayn

3 2 Fast Car  Jonas Blue & Dakota

4 4 Work  Rihanna

5 3 Stitches  Shawn Mendes

6 5 Love Yourself  Justin Bieber

7 11 Secret Love Song  Little Mix ft: Jason Derulo

8 7 Sorry  Justin Bieber

9 8 All My Friends  Snakehips ft: Tinashe & Chance

10 9 History  One Direction
Inspiring others to take up an ancient martial art form By Dhananjani Silva View(s): View(s):

Young Nilmini Amarasinghe is a combination of talents  with a career in engineering on one hand, she has a thirst to discover the warrior in her.

This 26-year-old first took up Angampora at the age of 10 when she was introduced to an Angampora guru by her uncle. She stopped training after one year, to focus on her studies, but since then has decided to re-connect with her childhood passion.

This time Nilmini teamed up with her brother Ravi Madushanka, to follow Angampora training under Guru Piumal Edirisinghe, a Senior IT Engineer who serves as the current Managing Director of Sri Lanka Traditional Indigenous Martial Arts Association (STIMA)  a collaboration of gurus and students of Angampora.

To encourage youngsters such as Nilmini to follow Anampora training and thereby become stakeholders of sustaining this traditional art, the Light of Asia Foundation, an organisation that promotes spirituality, collaborated with STIMA to introduce a course in Angampora training.

Their mission is further supported by Somiruwan Ranaweera, an individual who has conducted a research thesis on martial arts who came on board to provide his inputs to the training course.

Speaking about her experience, Nilmini says the initial few days were a huge challenge. As she walked in to the Angampora class, she feared that she would not fit in with the rest of the students.

Being the only girl in the class, I felt awkwardunsure if I would be able to do thisscared that I will get beaten up, she says adding that guru Piumal recommended that she fight with her brother first and switch partners later on.

That helped me get over the fear. I did my best to defend myself. There were so many body aches and pains for a few days, (laughs) but once you get the hang of it, you feel very confident and it eventually made me want to fight back with equal stamina, she says.

Describing her learning process Nilmini says she started with footwork movements and gradually proceeded to condition the body and learn the techniques before she went into weapons training.

Nilmini who has gone past the basics into the weapons stage, is well aware that Angampora is a vast subject one can master only with years of experience. Nevertheless, she is determined to do so.

What she likes best about Angampora, is engaging in actual fighting and self-defence. She also considers it a privilege to learn something that has been a part of the local culture.

Learning Angampora helped her with her career goals too, she says adding that it helps her take up any challenge, at work.

Anyone taking up Angampora, despite peoples misconception about the risks involved, should take a few lessons to experience, first-hand, what it is like.

Society responds in many ways  some think it is brutal where as some look up to you and admire your courage. However, as a girl I take pride in the fact that I showed the world that females are not weak as men think we are, she says.

There are small girls who have come up to me during public performances to say that I have inspired them to learn this art. It makes me happy to know that I am motivating others, says Nilmini who had a public performances with the STIMA.

STIMA is made up of individuals from different fields: IT, medical, engineering, designing, banking etc, who work tirelessly to safeguard, preserve and promote Angampora at national and international level.

Angampora is an ancient form of traditional martial art passed down from the Yaksha tribe. However, it was Sage Pulasthi  the grandfather of King Ravana who in the medical profession used his knowledge and incorporated the aspect of fighting using pressure points, says guru Piumal.

He says Angampora is divided in to three categories  angam (bare hand fighting), illangam (fighting with weapons) and mayangam (black/white magic).

Angam is further divided into offensive/defensive techniques, wrestling, fighting nerve points and grips/locks while Illangam involves 21 weapons including a sword, long stick, dagger, belt sword and the battle axe, guru Piumal adds.

Under British rule the martial art form was considered a threat. Subsequently, it began to fade when the Angam madu (schools where Angampora was taught) were destroyed and gurus who practiced the art were killed.

Thereafter Angampora became a subject taught in secret, guru Piumal said. - Pix by Indika Handuwela

Interested in taking up Angampora? The classes are conducted at the Light of Asia Foundation Akuregoda Road, Battaramulla,on Saturday.The course is open to locals and foreigners, without any age restrictions.Students will be enrolled for training following a selection process. More details can be obtained via the foundation website www.lightofasiafoundation.com or 0779385200.
Allergies: The known and the little known culprits By Kumudini Hettiarachchi View(s): View(s):

Annasi, thakkali and isso are the first culprits that come to mind when focusing on allergies which are aplenty these days. No one imagines that there can be an allergic reaction to humble sarana, murunga (drumstick) and even thala (sesame).

This is the real picture, says Immunologist Prof. Neelika Malavige who runs the Allergy Clinic along with Immunologist Dr. Chandima Jeewandara both from the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

The Allergy Clinic is located within the Family Practice Centre to the rear of the university at Gangodawila, Nugegoda. A wide range of allergy tests are carried out for a small fee at the clinic.

With an allergy being a disorder caused by an abnormal immune reaction to a harmless substance, such substances or allergens could take different forms.

These allergens which bring forth a reaction in some adults and children are found in the air, food, drugs and animals, says Prof. Malavige and may not necessarily be the usual pineapple, tomato or prawn.

Pointing out that over the years, allergic reactions seem to be on the rise, Prof. Malavige, however hastens to add that this is a trend seen across the world.

Any allergic reaction can be mild or life-threatening, she says, citing the example of how a kadiya-sting can lead to a crisis. A child who was at play during the interval had felt the sting of a kadiya on a finger and flicked her hand which resulted in the insect falling onto her other hand, stinging her again. As the bell summoned the children to class, this little girl felt an itching all over her body. By the time she reached her classroom she was not only vomiting but also writhing with tummy pain.

These are life and death situations, stresses Prof. Malavige, explaining that the child was rushed to hospital and administered with an intramuscular adrenaline injection. The other option for people with severe or life-threatening allergies is to carry the epi-pen which they can inject themselves as soon as they get affected by an allergy and then go to hospital.

Picking up more insect allergies, she says these could include a reaction to mee messa (bee), bambara and debara as well as kaladuru and hath palla stings and occasionally even to mosquito bites.

The common respiratory diseases due to allergies include asthma and allergic rhinitis. Regrettably, Sri Lanka is right at the top when taking into account asthma-related deaths, she says.

Quoting studies conducted by her on the causes of these respiratory allergies, she says that the house dust-mite is liable in about 80% of asthma and allergic rhinitis patients.

An interesting finding is also that of the patients studied around 85% were allergic to the house dust-mite, around 47% to cockroaches and around 30% to indoor mould (puss).

Studies by Consultant Respiratory Physician Dr. Anoma Siribaddana of the Kandy Teaching Hospital, meanwhile, has found that some people are prone to respiratory allergies due to pollen from plants and weeds including monara kudumbiya found outdoors.

According to Prof. Malavige in homes, some steps may be taken to rid the environment of the dust-mite such as letting in sunlight and cleaning and wiping down surfaces with a damp cloth regularly. But in a country like ours these measures are not practical. They can also only control but not cure the allergy. However, immunotherapy, not available in Sri Lanka can cure allergies. It seems as if the time is right for the introduction of immunotherapy to the country.

Dealing with food allergies, she points out that they vary from country to country. Unlike in some other countries, nut allergies are not very common in Sri Lanka. Some of the commonest allergies that children here have are to cows milk, eggs, wheat and meats such as beef and pork.

Holding out hope, she says that children outgrow their allergies when they are about 6 or 7 years old or at puberty. The same does not hold true for adults, however, who sometimes develop allergic reactions to seafood and fish and more commonly meats such as beef and pork. Sesame (thala), sarana, murunga and wheat also cause major allergies in adults and last throughout their lives.

Of course, the other common food allergens are tomato, pineapple, mango, wood apple (divul) and banana, as also coconut and brinjal and cereal.

Sometimes these allergies develop suddenly against food these people have been eating all their life. Such allergies could also get aggravated with exertion or alcohol, she says, citing the case of an exercise-induced worsening of a wheat allergy.

Skin conditions connected to allergy

Certain skin conditions such as atopic eczema too could be due to an allergy, says Prof. Neelika Malavige, who adds that while it is not a serious condition there is much agony and suffering for the child. Prof. Malavige allays the fears of parents of children who have atopic eczema by answering some crucial queries. Incidentally, eczema is derived from the Greek word to boil.

n Atopic eczema (dermatitis) is a common inflammatory condition of the skin. Atopic covers a group of conditions which include asthma, eczema and hay-fever and is linked to allergies. It may run in families. n This non-infectious condition manifests itself as red, dry and itchy skin, which can leave in its wake weeping, blistering, crusting, scaling and thickening. Although it can affect the skin all over the body, joints at the elbows, knees and wrists and neck suffer the most. Severe itching could also result in scratches. According to Prof. Malavige studies in other countries indicate that the main allergen for atopic eczema is house dust mite, while cows milk and eggs could also cause this condition. However, it is important to determine what causes atopic eczema without depriving all the children who have this condition from consuming cows milk and eggs which are not only found in a large majority of food but are also necessary for growth, she says, adding that heat, which cannot be avoided in a tropical country like Sri Lanka, could also aggravate this skin issue. Even though atopic eczema cannot be cured, Prof. Malavige says that it can be controlled. The silver lining is that the condition gradually improves as the child grows older and in a large majority it gets cleared by the time they reach their teens.
Zika: Dont panic, says Lankan doc View(s):

Tiny it may be but it has become the bane of men, women and children as it fires virus-shots through its bite. Zika is the latest and is part of the arsenal of diseases this insect-vector, lets loose from time to time including dengue, chikungunya, West Nile virus and yellow fever. The Zika virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947.

Identified by distinct white stripes on its long black legs, this mosquito which usually takes bites of blood from humans during the day is Aedes aegypti and to a lesser degree Aedes albopictus, MediScene learns.

There is no need to panic as Zika is a mild disease and it has not been reported yet in Sri Lanka, says Consultant Medical Virologist Dr. Janaki Abeynayake of the Medical Research Institute (MRI), urging however that we should attempt to keep it away from our shores.

With the world becoming a global village and people crisscrossing from country to country, there is a possibility that travellers from the Zika-hit regions, primarily Venezuela, Brazil and Columbia in South America, Mexico and also the Caribbean could import the virus, as has happened in the Maldives, Thailand and China, says Dr. Abeynayake.

Stressing that only about 20% who get infected are symptomatic (show symptoms), she points out that it would manifest as just a fever which passes after a The incubation period (the development of the infection from the time of the entry of the virus through the mosquito-bite into the body and the appearance of symptoms) is about seven days, it is learnt. If the patient is symptomatic the virus could be in the blood for 10-14 days.

The signs and symptoms of Zika are:

Fever

A skin rash

Conjunctivitis (redness of the eyes)

Joint and muscle pain

Referring to disease-transmission, Dr. Abeynayake says that it is established that Zika is mosquito-borne. Speculation and suggestions that there could be transmission through sexual contact, blood transfusions and even saliva have not been confirmed yet. Nothing is proven in this regard.

There is no vaccine to prevent infection by Zika, while there is also no anti-viral medication to treat this illness. Therefore, doctors will deal with the symptoms, she says, adding that pain and fever relief and prevention of dehydration are important. Patients should also have adequate rest for a few days.

According to Dr. Abeynayake the MRI has molecular testing through real-time PCR to confirm whether someone has contracted Zika.

Pregnant mothers should avoid high-risk countries There are medical concerns that even though Zika is a mild disease, expectant mothers who get exposed to this virus at any time during their pregnancy could give birth to babies with abnormally small heads linked to under-developed brains (microcephaly). Studies are being conducted to assess the risk association between Zika and microcephaly, says Dr. Janaki Abeynayake, advising expectant mothers not to travel to high-risk areas in the world where Zika is rampaging. This is as the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the strengthening of surveillance and preventive measures against the Zika Virus disease which is strongly suspected to have a causal relation with clusters of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities. The WHO has declared the recent clusters of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities reported in the Americas region as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Usually microcephaly in the foetus follows the mother contracting a viral infection such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, varicella-zoster and herpes simplex, says Dr. Abeynayake, adding that Zika is also being associated with Guillain Barre (ascending paralysis) syndrome, although nothing is yet proven.
By last night, 7000 Indian and Lankan pilgrims on Kachchativu island By S. Rubatheesan View(s): View(s):

More than 7,000 devotees from India and Sri Lanka had gathered in Kachchativu by last night to attend the annual St. Anthonys mass to be held today.

The pilgrims had started arriving shortly after noon and more are expected this morning.

Around 300 priests and nuns were among the crowd.

Earlier in the day around 500 Lankan devotees who had set out for the feast from the Kurikattuwan jetty were stranded for hours in the scorching sun due to ongoing repairs to some of the boats that were to take them across.

According to the Navy the Jaffna District Secretariat had organised 15 boats to operate a passenger service to the island.

Navy spokesperson Captain Akram Alavi speaking to the Sunday Times around 2 p.m. said the Navy was attending to the matter urgently and those who were stuck at the jetty would be taken to the island shortly.

Officials said 3,800 Indian devotees had arrived in the island in 92 boats by Saturday afternoon.

Fr. Amirtha Swamy from Tamil Nadu told the Sunday Times that he had brought a party of around 70 to experience the spirituality and uniqueness of the event that saw pilgrims from both countries coming together.

The annual festival started last evening with the ceremonial hoisting of St. Anthonys flag by the clergy from both countries. The mass this morning was conducted by Jaffna Bishop Justin Bernard Gnanapragasam along with priests from Rameswaram, India.
ETCA will be signed, traitors cant sabotage deal with India, says PM View(s):

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday vowed to go ahead with the Indo-Lanka Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA). We will take this agreement forward. We have a majority in Parliament, the Prime Minister said during a tour of Hambantota.

He said those who opposed it were attempting to sabotage Government plans to give employment to one million Sri Lankan youths. Only traitors are against this. Dont you want the youth to have the one million jobs? We have a mandate from the people and we have to fulfil it. We wont allow those who are against this mandate to sabotage this, he said.

The Prime Minister said the Government was not reintroducing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that was under discussion by the previous government but an economic and technical cooperation agreement which would benefit the country.

This agreement will create jobs for our youth and will not affect those in the service sector of our country. Those who say such things want to undo Yahapalanaya. The people can decide in five years about these things when the next elections are held, he said.

The Prime Minister once again targeted the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), accusing it of attempting to stop the agreement by threatening to go on strike. A fake copy of an agreement has been put online by the GMOA. If the GMOA goes on strike it will be a strike against the people. The media must speak out on this. You cant be silent on these again. Are you going to allow the doctors to go on strike and kill people? he asked.

The Prime Minister said that on March 15, a massive demonstration would be held in Colombo in support of this agreement with India.
Facebook plot to kill MS, Ranil: Court orders arrest of suspect View(s):

Colombos Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya has ordered the arrest of a suspect who through his Facebook page allegedly called for the assassination of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The judge ordered the Immigration Controller to arrest and hand over the suspect to the CID after the Cyber Crimes Division of the CID told him that the suspects Facebook messages posed a serious threat to the President and the Prime Minister.

The account is maintained under the name of Sumal Lakmana. One of the messages posted has a voice clip calling any brave soldier to join hands with him to assassinate the President and the Prime Minister.

The CID claims that it was an attempt to incite the security forces personnel and therefore was a punishable offence under the Penal Code.

The suspect had left the country on June 13, 2013, according to records of the Immigration Department.
Indian fishermen poach in SL waters, and it is illegal. Period. From Kumar Chellappan in Chennai View(s): View(s):

It is time for Sri Lanka to stand up boldly and tell the world that fishermen from Tamil Nadu, the southern state of India, are poaching its precious marine wealth.

Every week, we come across news reports about J. Jayalalithaa, chief minister of TNadu writing letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) is harassing fishermen from her State, who fish in their traditional waters in the Palk Strait.

The other day, this writer happened to see a news item which has quoted Vijitha Herath, a Sri Lanka MP, as telling that the island nation loses $40 million every month due to illegal fishing (poaching) by Indian fishermen.

More than 50,000 families in the Northern District suffer silently because of this illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, Herath is reported to have said.

He has also said that this has become a multi-dimensional issue which is posing a threat to the national security of Sri Lanka.

Politicians in TNadu, irrespective of the parties to which they are attached, are unanimous in their attack on the island nation for the cruelty meted out to the poor fishermen, who they claim are ignorant about the existence of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between India and Sri Lanka.

Apart from the number of TNadu fishermen and boats seized by the SLN, the government of India knows very well that the SLN and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) are right, judicious and just.

The Government of India has told the Madras High Court which is hearing a petition against the former, alleging that no security was being provided to TNadu fishermen fishing in Palk Straits that, There has never been an occasion in which any incident of Indian fishermen being attacked by the SLN in Indian waters, have been reported to the Indian Coastguard (ICG), either by the fishermen under attack, or by any shore authority to whom they would have passed such message, said the Indian government affidavit filed in the Madras High Court.

The affidavit submitted by the Deputy Director General (Operations & Coastal Security), ICG, K.R. Nautiyal, to the Madras High Court, in a case related to a contempt petition filed by a Madurai based lawyer, states that the Indian fishermen not only poach in Sri Lankan territories, but are also engaged in smuggling contrabands including drugs, due to the developing relationship with their counterparts in Sri Lanka and better monetary returns from such practices.

It is a charge sheet against the TNadu fishermen who violate the IMBL with impunity and scant regards for international law. It may be noted that Nautiyals affidavit/ statement is the official stance of the Indian government, prepared by senior legal officers of the central government. It states that, at no point of time has the SLN trespassed into Indian waters or attacked any fishermen inside Indian territory.

Prior to the exchange of legal instruments of 1974 and 1976, the fishermen of both States carried out fishing on either side of the existing IMBL. These fishermen exploited the fisheries resources utlising only the traditional method.

However, the Indian fishermen, having found high commercial value shrimps and prawns in the Palk Bay area, also introduced trawling in the area.

Whereas, the Sri Lankan fishermen continued with their traditional method till the GoSL banned fishing at the peak of the civil war to prevent anti-State elements from masquerading as fishermen.

At the end of the civil war in 2009, these northern Sri Lankan fishermen restarted their traditional occupation of fishing. Further, due to environmental issues, all kinds of trawling was banned in the area, by the GoSL.

Meanwhile, the Indian fishermen engaged in trawling also started crossing the IMBL into Sri Lankan waters for a better catch, as the fisheries resources were depleting on the Indian side due to over exploitation by an ever increasing number of Indian trawlers.

Further, these Indian fishermen are also reported to be operating with higher Horse Power (HP) engines than 30 HP motors, as stipulated under the Sri Lankan fisheries regulations.

During their cross over into Sri Lankan waters, they have also reportedly damaged the fishing stakes and fishing nets of the Sri Lankan fishermen, due to the use of higher HP engines and larger boats, states the ICGs affidavit.

The affidavit further states that, in 2014 and 2015 (till March 31, 2015) 185 boats and 937 fishermen were apprehended by the SLN for poaching in Sri Lankas territorial waters despite SLN warnings.

According to data furnished by the ICG, 36,865 boats poached in Sri Lankan waters during the period January 2014 to March 2015.

The SLN has identified 1,474 boats from TNadu by their registration numbers. Interestingly, the ICG reveals that each and every seizure made by the SLN is instantly intimated to the Indian High Commission as well as the ICG.

Details of IMBL crossings by Indian fishermen, received at the Indian High Commission, Colombo, are regularly forwarded to the TNadu government to initiate punitive action. However, IMBL crossings by the Indian fishermen still continue, states the affidavit.

The affidavit also has details of Community Interaction Programmes held by the ICG at various fishing hamlets along the TNadu coast, to create awareness among the fishermen community about the sanctity of the IMBL and the significance of respecting the sovereignty of other nations.

I respectfully state that, as per the emphasis indicated by Coastguard Act 30 of 1978, section 14(1), the primary duty of the ICG, as an Armed Force of the Union, is to protect by such measures, as it thinks fit, the maritime and other national interests of India in the maritime zones of India.

And under Section 14(2), the ICG provides protection and assistance to fishermen while in distress, provided such information is timely passed with a view to initiate quick response and render necessary timely assistance.

It is, however, submitted that, though the ICG and Indian Naval Ships regularly patrol the Indian side of the Palk Bay, there has never been an occasion in which any incident of Indian fishermen being attacked by the SLN in Indian waters, have been reported to the ICG, either by the fishermen under attack or by any shore authority to whom they would have passed such message, despite the fact that most of the fishing boats in TNadu are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) and VHF Radio communication sets.

In addition, it is also pertinent to mention that the ICG, in liaison with Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, have distributed over 280 Distress Alert Transmitters (DAT) to fishermen of TNadu, which includes 126 and 90 for Indian fishing boats operating in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, respectively.

The ICG has widely published its Emergency number 1554 for any distress at sea among the fishing community, during the Community Interaction Programmes. This Emergency number can be contacted by the fishermen through their mobile phones from their vessels, provided there is mobile connectivity.

It is observed that despite providing DATS and the availability of VHF, no distress calls were intimated through DATS or via VHF.

All the distress reports were through information from relatives when the fishing vessels were overdue for their return. The affidavit has detailed the Search and Rescue operation coordinated by the ICG in the last two years as an appendix, the ICG affidavit goes on to state.

Another affidavit submitted by Deputy Secretary (Sri Lanka), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Prafullachandra Sharma, states that all averments made by the petitioner in his petition are incorrect, not based on any positive authenticated and proved facts, but based on media reports, assumptions and devoid of any legality.

A former Captain of the Indian Navy told this writer that the SLN would never attack any Indian fishermen in Indian waters. Both Navies share brotherly relations. Most of us were trained together and know each other personally. The SLN would never trespass into our territory.

Another important point to be noted is that the advisories issued to Indian fishermen by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), a Hyderabad based elite research laboratory under the Government of India.

Scientists of INCOIS have developed two state-of-the-art technologies with special focus on fishermen. With the real time state of the ocean data collected through buoys and Indian remote sensing satellites, they locate potential fishing zones (PFZ) in Indian territories and alert the fishermen.

The fishermen need not waste time searching for fish. Details like the exact location from where they could get a rich catch are intimated to the fishermen through village resources centres along the Indian coast.

The INCOIS in association with Chennai-based MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has yet another innovation to alert the fishermen when they approach the IMBL between India and Sri Lanka.

The GPS installed in the fishing boats and the hand phones carried by the fishermen give warning alarms when they approach the IMBL. The closer they get to the IMBL, the louder the alarm becomes.

But our ingenious fishermen switch off their mobiles as well as the GPS when they approach the IMBL! This was told by none other than a senior INCOIS scientist.

It is time the fishermen of TNadu learnt to respect international laws.

TNadu fishermen are bait for smuggling cartels It is an open secret in TNadu that the fishing boats/trawlers trespassing into Sri Lankan waters, belong to a group of powerful politicians and businessmen, and the fishermen, drawn from the districts of Ramanathapuram, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai and Kanyakumari, are mere pawns employed by them.Each trawler costs at least Indian Rs 6 million. The fishermen living in hamlets along the east coast belong to the poor sections of society. What is equally important is the number of gold/jewellery showrooms in Ramanathapuram district, owned by the major gold merchants in South India.One has to read this together with the high quantity gold smuggling taking place in the small stretch of sea between the two countries. There are frequent reports of gold seizures by the Revenue Intelligence Dept from the airports at Madurai, Tiruchi and Chennai from passengers arriving from Colombo and Singapore. When Dr Subramanian Swamy, noted economist and senior BJP leader, said the fishing boats seized by the SLN belonged to certain senior political leaders of the AIADMK and the DMK, all hell broke loose in TNadu. Though he did not name anybody, many politicians went on record to refute the charge made by Dr Swamy, who is also a former union minister for Law, Justice and Corporate affairs. Interestingly, many fishermen from TNadu, especially those hailing from the southern districts of Ramanathapuram and Kanyakumari, have been arrested by the Navies of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar for unauthorised fishing in their territorial waters. The International Fishermen Development Trust, a Kanyakumari-based organisation, claiming to represent fishermen community, always sends representations to the Union Government at New Delhi to intervene and save the lives of TNadu fishermen arrested by the Navies of these countries.
Kandys new traffic plan working but pylons must go By L.B. Senaratne View(s): View(s):

Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake criticised the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for being a stumbling block in resolving the severe traffic congestion that has become the bane of Kandy town.

He made the observation while addressing a conference called to explore ways to ease traffic flow in Kandy.

Mr. Ekanayake, who is also the Minister of Local Government whose office administers the Kandy Municipality as a local authority, claimed that the CEB had not taken action to reposition electricity supply posts that were obstructing the smooth flow of traffic.

Meanwhile, the Kandy Municipal Council, together with the citys police, have initiated a new traffic plan on a trial basis.

Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Gamini Dissanayake told the conference that if traffic is reduced in the centre of Kandy town the roads leading to and out of the town could become free of severe traffic congestion.

He said congestion normally experienced on Sirimavo Bandaranaike Mawatha (formerly Peradeniya Road) and Gopallawa Mawatha had disappeared after the traffic plan trial began on Tuesday.

Senior DIG Dissanayake pointed out in a video presentation, that the area in front of the Post Office which belongs to the Department of Railways should be cleared along with a row of shops on Boy Scouts Mawatha, and alternative space given to those who used those areas.

He also suggested that electricity supply line posts that are an obstacle to the free flow of traffic should be removed.

On the whole, he said that the trial run of the new plan had been a success and there had been no protests.

He further suggested that Sirimavo Bandaranaike Mawatha and Gopallwaa Mawatha should be adjusted for one-way traffic for three hours in the morning, before the opening of commercial establishments and three hours in the evening. He added three-wheeler parking spaces should receive attention.

Chief Minister Ekanayake said moving the electrical posts hindering the progress of traffic was the duty of the CEB and no charges should be levied from local authorities.

The proposed traffic plan, implemented on a trial run from Tuesday is as follows:

1. All traffic commencing from Goods Shed (Central) Bus Stand and proceeding towards Peradeniya should turn off at the junction of the Kandy Market and proceed along Keppetipola Mawatha up to the roundabout at Bogamabara and then along Gopallawa Mawatha.

2. Traffic from the Goods Shed Bus Stand will not be allowed to turn off at the railway station roundabout and travel on Gopallawa Mawatha.

3. All vehicles travelling from the Clock Tower Bus Stand en route to Colombo and Peradeniya should turn off from behind the market and proceed along Keppetipola Mawatha to the Boy Scouts Roundabout and proceed to Gopallawa Mawatha.

4. All vehicles coming from Hantana should take Baladaksha Mawatha and proceed to Kandy City or to Colombo.

5. All traffic coming down Hantana to Teldeniya and Talatu Oya should travel from Hantana Sisila to the right and proceed along Ehelepola Kumarihamy Mawatha.

6. All traffic coming into Kandy City to the Torrington Bus Stand should proceed along Sangharaja Mawatha and along Mosque Road and enter Dalada Veeidiya and turn off to Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe Mawatha.

Meanwhile on Friday, police were able to avert a major clash between two groups over the opening of the section of the Kandy-Mahiyangana Road that runs opposite the Maha Maluwa of the Sri Dalada Maligawa.
Palk Strait may end up as a dead sea By Anthony David Indian fishermen continue unabated poaching View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankan naval vessels regularly patrol the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) to keep the Indian fishermen away, but the exercise is turning out to be a cat and mouse game.

As soon as the navy boats turn away, the Indian boats return to poaching in the Sri Lankan territorial waters, a Navy officer explained.

As part of an unofficial agreement the Indian trawlers enter the Lankan waters on three days  Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays  thereby enabling the Sri Lanka fishermen to continue with their fishing in the rest of the week.

Last Monday, the Sunday Times investigators were able to witness the Indian boats streaming into Lankan waters late in the evening after they assembled just outside the IMBL earlier in the day.

The practice is regular. Sometimes there are more than 1,000 trawlers, an officer explained.

In most areas, the Navy deploys boats. But intruding fishermen find the gaps to penetrate and lay their nets. They turn back if they see the boats and if the Navy boats turn away they return, the officer added.

The Sri Lankan Navy currently only drives away the Indian trawlers or takes action to arrest them, but most of the men have been released on the advice of the Government.

The move to release the arrested fishermen on a regular basis has disturbed local fishermen. (See box story). This is while the local fishermen face stringent penalties under newly imposed regulations.Almost all Indian boats engage in bottom trawling which is prohibited in India.

One of the concerns for the Navy also has been that it has the responsibility of taking care of the detained boats.

Poaching and the destruction to the marine life have not been the only concern as the route is used for smuggling of narcotics also. Over the last year, nearly 9,000 kg of Kerala Ganja has been detected while more than 50 kg of gold being smuggled out of the Sri Lanka has been seized.

Three years ago, to conserve fisheries resources in the State, the Government of Tamil Nadu prohibited fishing by mechanised boats and trawlers along the entire east coast of Tamil Nadu.

The ban lasts for 45 days every year, from April 15 to May 29. It is meant to coincide with the breeding season and aims at conservation and regeneration of fisheries. No trawlers are allowed to venture out to sea during this time and no fuel is issued to the trawlers.

Ironically, the ban has not brought the desired result, a Sri Lanka Navy spokesman said. The sea bed, ravaged by excessive bottom trawling, has not picked up life during the last three years.

Further, due to dredging from the Sethusamudram canal project, the sea bottom in the Indian side of the Palk Bay has further deteriorated, he said.

This makes it doubly important to protect the marine life in Sri Lankan waters from Indian bottom trawling. Otherwise, our seas will also become a dead sea.

We were beaten up and given rice with worms to eat Lankan fisherman arrested on the Indian side speaks of his ordeal Anusha Anupama, 33, from Trincomalee was among the six Sri Lankan fishermen who have undergone harsh treatment after being arrested by Indian coast guards for allegedly poaching in their waters. They were arrested by the Indian coast guard after their multi-day trawler had strayed into Indian waters. Anupama told the Sunday Times about his experience being arrested. Soon after our arrest we were taken to their vessel and ordered to kneel on a heavy iron plate which had heated for the sun. We were beaten up by the coast guards and handcuffed. We were offered rice with dhal and were forced to pick out the worms off the plates of rice before we ate. There were more worms than rice.. When we wanted water we were given muddy water. I complained about this to a senior officer who intervened and provided us with bottled water. One day they ordered me to cut fish with my handcuffs on. I refused to do so and said if they removed the handcuffs I could cut the fish. We were eventually kept in a prison in Hyderabad for two andhalf months and were released only after they paid Rs.75,000 each while the skipper was find Rs.100,000. We did not receive any support from the government and had to manage our affairs on our own. Now we do not dare to stray into the waters of other countries as a vessel monitoring system is in effect and as soon as we reach international waters a warning appears and if we stray into the territorial waters of other countries the skippers licence is cancelled by the Fisheries Department which monitors the movement. But, in contrast Indian fishermen are seen poaching in our waters freely and when they are arrested they are provided with the best possible treatment and released a few weeks later. It was only recently that some of our fishermen overpowered a group of Indian fishermen after they were attacked and brought them ashore. They were handed over to the authorities, but were released subsequently though they had committed a criminal act. We urge the authorities to take action against the Indian fishermen who stray into our waters and destroy our fisheries resources.
Rape of Lankas seas worsens Indian fishermen now resorting to deadlier pair trawling, damaging even SLN craftBy Anthony David View(s): View(s):

As the Sri Lankan Government looks the other way, poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters in the Palk Strait has taken a serious turn with the use of pair trawling where two steel hull boats scrape the sea bottom.

Navy Commander Ravindra Wijegunaratne confirmed that the new method, now in operation, destroyed marine resources more rapidly. Earlier, the Indian fishermen had been using nets drawn only by a single trawler and that too within Sri Lankan territorial waters.

Last Monday, the Sunday Times saw how a large number of Tamil Nadu fishing boats were on the Sri Lankan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) carrying out bottom trawling. This was during a visit to the frontal areas in the sea with a Navy patrol.

Navy patrols are under strict orders not to fire at Tamil Nadu fishing boats. However, they have been rounding up some of the poachers and seizing their boats. A Navy official said more than 80 boats were now in Navy custody and more than 1,200 fishermen had been arrested during the past two years. They have been released at various stages on the orders of the Colombo Government.

Navy officials say that in addition to the severe damage caused to Sri Lankan marine resources, at least one of the Indian fishing craft had rammed a patrol boat. The Indian fishermen also manoeuvre their boats to entangle patrol craft in their nets.
D.R. rises to the occasion View(s):

Kebles biography also touches on D.R. Wijewardenes aversion to speaking in public and two occasions when he had no choice but to do so. Here are he speeches.

It is difficult to decide whether we in Ceylon fail to preserve of our distinguished mens letters or whether the white ants eat them all at the back of the family cupboard.

Perhaps the distinguished men never write any and the white ants go hungry. We have only been able to discover two letters written by D.R. Wijewardene and they both relate to a disagreement about a guest of his whom he had invited to the Officers Mess of the C.L.I. and they both belong to his subaltern days.

He was entirely in the right as his Colonels answer to his letters show, but the letters throw very little light either on the times, or on Wijewardenes character: they only show a sturdy and some what wrathful indifference on the part of a young subaltern, and trials of Colonels when two young officers disagree. (Please see box for for his resignation letter)

Wijewardene was extremely averse to making speeches which is a quality so rare, that when he was forced to make exceptions to it, his words have an interest which does not perhaps apply to all speeches.

On the 7th July 1930 he was sitting at the table of a formal dinner in London given to the delegates to the Imperial Press Conference. The honour of proposing the health of Lord Derby fell, as the newspapers report, to Mr. D.R. Wijewardene, Chairman of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

After assiduously avoiding speech-making for many years, he was now in for it, whether he would or not.

It is my privilege, he said, and pleasure, to propose the toast of the Right Hon. The Earl of Derby. If there is one word which is familiar to my countrymen in Ceylon as being typically English, it is the word Derby. (Laughter and cheers).

It is, perhaps, true that it is most closely associated with that important day in the English calendar, when the bad luck of the many, and the good luck of the few, is an annual experience which appears to be enjoyed with such gusto at Epsom. (More laughter).

Derby day is a great day in the English calendar, (Hear, hear). Lord Derby is a great name in the list of distinguished living Englishmen. (Loud cheers).

I associate his lordship with that event at Epsom, not only because of a similarity of name, but for another very definite and significant reason. A week or two ago, I witnessed the Derby for the first time in my life.

I realized that it was something more than a race; that it was in fact an occasion when the two great qualities of the British people, sportsmanship and good fellowship, find expression.

These two qualities have consistently adorned the personality of Lord Derby. (Cheers).

When I use the world sportsmanship, I do not merely refer to his Lordships success on the turf. I am thinking of something of far wider significance.

I refer to what your English have taught the world to understand by the world sportsmanship  humanity, sincerity, fair play and a consistent effacement of self in the services of ones fellows. In the light of that definition I ask you to drink to the health of a great sportsman, a great Englishman and a great administrator.

On 7th October, 1930, he was again sitting at a dinner table. This time it was the Annual Dinner of the Eastern Newspapers Society. As Managing Director of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., he was the chosen representative of the press of Ceylon at the Annual Dinner of the Society.

When the good health of the press in Ceylon had been duly proposed, Mr. Wijewardene laid down his napkin and got to his feet. Personally, he said, I hate public speaking, but, to a newspaper proprietor the privilege of being asked to reply to something complimentary to newspapers, is such a refreshing experience it seems too good to refuse. (Laughter).

As a representative of Ceylon I feel somewhat apprehensive as to the reception I may get. To judge from the publicity Ceylon has received in the English press of late, I think I may be regarded either as a politician of the most sinister kind or a germ carrier of plague and pestilence. (Laughter).

Some months ago I noticed that Ceylon had been described in an English paper as the Island of Seven Plagues. I cannot remember what these plagues were. I certainly do not intend to ask His Excellency, Sir Edward Stubbs, to prompt me, as he might possibly suggest that the Press of Ceylon was one of them. (Laughter).

But even Sir Edward will admit that there are worse plagues than the press. Even though the newspapers are occasionally known to cause local information in the body politic, they are an effective antidote to more devastating maladies of which public ignorance and prejudice, and the hardening of the heart and also of the head, in both democracies and bureaucracies, are not the least.

It is not unreasonable to believe that the nations of Europe at this moment would be suffering less from hot heads and cold feet, if there had been a free and mere responsible press in some of the countries involved in the International tangle. (Applause).

When we turn to the East we see vast committees emerging into the light of democratic ideals  a light at first dazzling, at times illusive, and often dangerously blinding to politicians, and to the people themselves, unless guided by a free, intelligent and responsible press.

To those who are associated with the press in Eastern countries, it is gratifying indeed to have the encouragement we have had tonight by the presence of so many distinguished guests.

Sir Thomas Catto, as an industrial leader closely in touch with public life, has so well reminded us that sound journalism is still an institution worth working for, particularly in the East, where public opinion, public welfare, as well as trade between individuals, and trade between country and country can be fostered to no small extent by the press. (Applause).

Why D.R. resigned from the Ceylon Light InfantryD.R. Wijewardene served as an officer in the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) as a young man and resigned his commission over a disagreement arising from an invitation he had issued to two Representatives of the Legislative Council to the Officers Mess. Published here is the resignation letter he wrote to the Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force. Rickman House,

Colpetty.

5th November 1917 The Commandant

Ceylon Volunteer Force Sir,

I have the honour to request you to lay before His Excellency the Governor for his acceptance my resignation of the Commission I hold in the Ceylon Light Infantry. I regret I am compelled to do so under the following circumstances. I have been on duty at the Echelon Barracks with the C.L.I. Detachment since 6th Ultimo. Friday the 2nd Instant being guest night at the C.L.I. Detachment Mess, I invited the Honble Dr. H.W. Fernando, and the Honble Mr. O.C. Tillekeratne, Singhalese Representatives in the Legislative Council as my guests. On Thursday at about 5 P.M. I received letter marked A from Capt. Galpin, the Assistant Adjutant C.L.I. requesting me to withdraw my invitation to the Honble Mr. Tillekeratne and sent reply marked B. A Perusal of the rules which I append, bear out the position I took up. It is obvious that except in the case of an invitation in the name of the Mess, no member other than the President has a right of veto. On receipt of my reply I was asked by Captain Galpin whether I meant to adhere to the terms of that letter. On my replying in the affirmative he sent me the letter marked C as coming from the Officer Commanding threatening to report me to higher authority if I brought the guest in question. This was delivered to me on Friday at 5.45 P.M. the date of the dinner. In the first place I would point out that Capt. Galpin was only a member of the Mess like myself and that his interference was unwarranted. In the second place the threat held out to me by the Officer Commanding without any call for explanation from me and without reference to the Officer Commanding the Detachment at Echelon Barracks Captain Ross of the Calcutta Scottish Volunteers showed at least a want of courtesy to his Officers and was I beg to submit unfair. The nett result of the above proceedings was that I was compelled to submit to the deep humiliation of cancelling my invitation at the last moment to a highly honoured and respected representative of the Singhalese. On Saturday morning I was called up by Captain Galpin to the Orderly room in Echelon Barracks and he censured me for the attitude I took up. Then I was ordered to report myself at Volunteer Head Quarters where I was severely reprimanded by the Officer Commanding. It will be seen that I have been made an instrument of offering a studied insult to an Honourable Member of the Legislative Council and I feel that it would not be consistent either with the respect I owe to my guest or with my own honour as an Officer and a gentleman if I acquiesce in that insult. I have therefore no alternative but to tender my resignation. I am, Sir

Your Obedient Servant,
He climbed every mountain for a university in the hills View(s):

Doyen of the Press in Sri Lanka and a pivotal figure in the movement to obtain Independence, D.R. Wijewardene whose 130th birth anniversary is commemorated on February 23, was one of the behind-the-scenes architects in the setting up of the countrys new university in Peradeniya. In this unpublished biography Life of Richard Wijewardene, educationist W.T. Keble traces DRs masterly campaign against those who wanted the University sited in Colombo and the battle waged and finally won.

In 1924, Rs. 3,000,000 from the Governments Surplus Balances were set aside to form a building and equipment fund for the proposed University of Ceylon.

Wijewardene held firm and decided views upon the subject of the University. Ceylon owes a good deal to Cambridge University, and among many others Wijewardene was a staunch son of Cambridge. When a University was under discussion he pictured Cambridge.

Universities fall roughly into two classes. There is an extremely democratic idea of a University which aims at furnishing degrees to as wide a circle of people, and of occupations, as possible: this idea prevails in the main in America and India.

The other idea of a University is to pick out the best intellects from the youth of a nation and to give them advanced training in all those branches of knowledge which a country requires for its professional men and scientists and industrialists: this idea of a University has generally governed the policy of universities in Europe. Wijewardene was a determined supporter of the latter idea.

The chief battle ground in Ceylon University politics raged round the question of the site. Should the University be built in Colombo or somewhere outside the Capital Wijewardene felt that if the University was built in Colombo it would not be possible to make it a residential University.

He was afraid that there would be great numbers of students living in cramped and poor conditions in the city, and gaining degrees, without getting the spirit of the University.

He dreaded lest a large number of students would obtain degrees, and then would find that there were not enough of the jobs for all of them of the kind to which they felt their degrees entitled them.

He therefore declared for a residential University outside Colombo and he used his papers to support his views. The first site that he advocated was that at Dumbara.

He left the newspaper side of this campaign to his editors who put a series of articles and editorials before the public to persuade them that there was no room in Colombo for a University worthy of Ceylon.

He himself used his energies in the political field. His first step was to forward to Government a memorandum supported by Dr. S.G. Paul, Dr. Andreas Nell, and himself, favouring the Dumbara site.

At that time the leading spirit of the part that was working to have the University moved out of Colombo was Mr. Justice Akbar. In June 1926 Sir Hugh Clifford, the Governor, appointed a University Site Committee to consider the question of a site for the University and to submit a report thereon.

Mr. M.T. Akbar was Chairman of this Committee. To him Wijewardene suggested the holding of a public meeting in support of the Kandyan site. Mr. Akbar was very willing to do so. But meanwhile Wijewardene commissioned Percival Deutrom to drop his managerial duties on the staff of the paper, and to travel round the country to collect support for the Kandyan site.

Deutrom visited Kandy, Kurunegala, Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Matara and Galle. He climbed remote estate roads in his car. He called upon doctors and proctors and businessmen in small towns.

It was his boast that he collected the signature of every man of importance in Ceylon, who was willing to sign his memorial in support of the Kandyan site.

When the meeting was held in the Public Hall, what is now (1952)the Empire Theatre, there was plenty of support for a change of site for the University from Colombo to Kandy.

Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike the Maha Mudaliyar, took the Chair, and Mr. Justice Akbar was the chief speaker in favour of the change of site.

For all this effort Wijewardene was mainly responsible. He was the organizer behind the scene, he met most of the expenses out of his own pocket.

His efforts were crowned with success when on 15th December, 1927, the Legislative Council rejected by a large majority a motion introduced by the late Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan seeking to earmark the site in Bullers Road, Colombo, for the proposed University. Those today who feel that the University is better placed outside Colombo than within the Capital, owe a great debt to D.R. Wijewardene.

But ultimate success in fixing the site of the University in Kandy was not won without a hard fight, and feelings on this question ran high.

It will be remembered by some people how some years later Sir James Peiris, who was the Vice President of the Council, and the senior, and perhaps the most respected politician of the day was so much moved by the debate upon the University site  he was a strong supporter of the Colombo faction  that he left the impartiality of the Vice-Presidential Chair, and took part in the debate on the side of the Colombo party and thereby brought upon his head very fierce criticism both from members of council and from the newspapers.

On March 9th, 1928, the Legislative Council voted on a motion moved by Mr. Akbar: That the proposed University shall be unitary and residential; that it shall be established in Kandy that the Government shall appoint a Commission to work out the details of the proposed University.

The three sections of the motion were voted separately. The first was carried by 38 to 5; the second by 23 votes to 18; and the third by 25 votes to 16. This ended the battle of the sites.

Wijewardene may fairly claim to have been the origin of the forces that finally won the contest for the Kandyan University site party. While Justice Akbar, and Mr. H.W. Perera, and Mr. D.B. Jayatilaka and Mr. D.S. Senanayake fought the Kandy site battle in Council, it was Wijewardenes efforts that first brought the Kandy site party into existence.

The next stage was the appointment of a University Commission in terms of the third section of Mr. Akbars motion. Sir Walter Buchanan, Riddell, Principal of Hertfort College, Oxford, was invited to be Chairman. Under his guidance the Commission issued a report in January 1929, and in November 1930 the Legislative Council passed the second reading of an Ordinance for the establishment, incorporation and regulation of a University in Ceylon.

But before the third reading could be taken up the Council was dissolved. When the State Council came into existence in 1931, it was hoped that the University scheme would be expedited. People had hoped much the same in 1911. Far from the work being expedited it was inordinately delayed, at times the whole project appeared in danger of being side tracked and forgotten.

The last phase of the struggle was entered into in 1938.

Once more the Daily News drew attention to the vital necessity of entrusting the work of planning the University buildings in Kandy to an expert.

The paper was first to advocate the selection of Professor L.P. Abercrombie for the purpose. But the Board of Ministers rejected the proposal. After persistent agitation in the paper the question was reconsidered and finally the task was entrusted to Professor Abercrombie and Mr. Clifford Holliday.

In the 23rd year of its life the Daily News welcomed with unalloyed pleasure the formal establishment of the University of Ceylon.

Wijewardene had always an affectionate corner for the Ceylon University in his heart, and he looked forward to the day when it would move into the hills. At the end of his life he made several generous gifts to the University.
It is every science students dream to be a small part of something big By Himal Kotelawala Meet the Sri Lankan scientist who helped detect Gravitational Waves View(s): View(s):

The scientific community and the world at large was taken by storm last week when an international team of scientists managed to detect gravitational waves, finally confirming renowned physicist Albert Einsteins century-old theory of General Relativity and opening up a brand new vista of the cosmos.

This team, known as the the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, includes some of the brightest minds on the planet, and one of them happens to be Sri Lankan.

LIGO member, astronomer, and postdoctoral researcher at the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, Dr. Nipuni Palliyaguru spoke of her contribution to this monumental discovery.

Dr. Nipuni Palliyaguru is part of the LIGO electromagnetic follow up team.

Having joined LIGO as part of her postdoctoral research, about six months ago, Dr. Palliyaguru became involved in a collaborative effort to pinpoint the elusive signal.

It is a collaboration that consists of many scientists from around the world who are working on different aspects of gravitational wave signals. I am part of the electromagnetic follow-up team of LIGO, she said.

As to how it works is, in her own words, The idea is, when a signal comes in, we send out alerts to partner telescope facilities all around the world.

Usually, LIGO cant pinpoint the exact location of the astrophysical system in the sky, because there are thousands of galaxies within the region. So it is important to do an electromagnetic follow-up in order to find out where the signal is coming from, and also to extract additional information about the gravitational wave sources.

According to Dr. Palliyaguru, team members take turns to be on-call, as these events are unpredictable and can occur anytime of the day. Special care is taken to ensure that there is no room for false alarms.

You have to carefully check for instrument status and for glitches in the data to make sure an event is real. Then we decide whether or not to alert the partner astronomers.

It is a lot of fun to be on shift, especially when a trigger comes in. Then, because Im also an astronomer, I got to do the actual follow-up observations for this event, she said.

A lot has been said about LIGOs detection and its significance, but as is often the case with popular science (pop-sci), there seems to be a lot of miscommunication surrounding it.

For example, a local TV news segment described it as a confirmation of the wave-like property of gravity, in a strictly Newtonian sense of the concept. As a scientist who was actually part of the project, Dr. Palliyaguru helps shed some light on this.

Sometimes you have to use analogies to make the information more accessible. We say gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime, kind of like ripples in a pond.

Gravitational waves basically distort the space so the time that light takes to travel between two points in space changes. This is the basic principle of any gravitational wave detector.

They are called waves because they actually follow the usual wave equation in physics, she said.

Going into further detail, Dr. Palliyaguru explained that light, as we know it, or more specifically electromagnetic radiation, is generated from accelerating charges (such as electrons). Gravitational radiation is generated from accelerating masses.

Even my waving hand can produce gravitational waves, but they are very very weak. To get detectable levels of gravitational waves, you need huge masses and for that you have to turn to the sky.

When she was a PhD student at West Virginia University, USA, Dr. Palliyaguru heard what she calls a very inspirational talk about efforts to detect gravitational waves using pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). It was then that it hit her: she was in this for life.

Ever since then, I knew this was what I wanted to work on, for the rest of my career. So I worked on PTAs for about five years for my PhD.

Then I got the offer to work with the Texas Tech group as a postdoc (post PhD research) on LIGO science. I was thrilled to get the opportunity to continue gravitational wave science with a sophisticated detector, she said.

A product of the Sri Lankan education system, Dr. Palliyaguru spoke about her days as a student in the island.

Before any of this, I was a physics major at the University of Colombo and a student at CMS Ladies College in Colombo even before that. So yes, I did go through the local system and had very inspiring physics teachers from a very early stage, she recalled.

The implications of LIGOs work are many and will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe. It is every science students dream to be even a small part of something so big.

Dr. Palliyaguru has some great advice for anyone looking to make that dream a reality:

Im still in the early stages of my scientific career, so Im not sure if I can say a whole lot, but I think perseverance and grit is what it takes.

Also, not letting opportunities go to waste. When bad things happen, you cry for a day, and the next day you wake up and pick up from where you left off, she said.

Courtesy roar.lk
Blessings of Navam Perahera: Prelate speaks out on elephant issues View(s):

A perahera is a blessed and sacred event. On a Navam Poya Day, the Lord Buddha appointed his two chief disciples. The Navam Perahera is held on this day to invoke blessings on the country for happiness, peace and success.

Many have forgotten the economic hardships we faced in the 1970s. Peraheras in Colombo were stopped. Artistes sold their musical instruments to tourists who took them away. It was in the aftermath of such a crisis that the then Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1979 took the initiative to start the Navam Perahera with the full backing of the then President J.R. Jayawardane. The then Youth Affairs Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took the full responsibility to conduct this and still continues to do so. People of all faiths and cultures joined in. For the purposes of crowd control and good order, seating arrangements were made for people to sit on tiers, chairs and benches. Instead of bamboo and arecanut trees for the occasion, thousands of new trees were planted.

Though the elephants were caparisoned in decorative attire, the mahouts were poorly dressed. So they were also given good attire for the occasion. Every year their families were provided with sewing machines, roofing sheets and other necessities. Some of those who looked after elephants were addicted to liquor and drugs. They were rehabilitated. Gold coins were presented to the families. Artistes were paid while other participants were given gifts and requirements for their families.

There was a time when the prisoners carried various banners and torches at the Perahera.

Terrorism prevailed then. Schoolchildren and even the elephants could not be brought to the Perahera. There were threats to artistes. But the Navam Perahera continued. When we were about to have the Navam Perahera one year, the Central Bank was bombed by terrorists. Part of the Perahera funds was given to those wounded by the blast  and the Perahera that year was held on a smaller scale. When the crowds for night decreased due to the terrorist crisis, we started day perahera also. Despite all these problems, the Navam Perahera continued. President Premadasa became a victim of the terrorists. He had his last Gam Udawa programme at Mihintale. We conducted a Navam Perahera from the town to Mihintale hill, gave alms to 1,500 monks, so that all that merit could go to him.

At one time, we had 167 elephants including 27 tuskers in the perahera. I am not sure how many elephants would take part in todays Navam Perahera. I am not sure whether we will have at least three elephants to carry the relic casket. I can see that some powerful groups which are spending dollars and talking about cruelty to animals are slowly winning. Some of these people who are talking about cruelty to animals are having horse and kangaroo meat at their meat stalls abroad. We dont sell elephant meat here in Sri Lanka. Some of the short-sighted officials in our Wildlife Department cannot live without the meat of Sambhur, deer and other rare animals. It is an offence to kill dolphins. But Dolphin flesh is used as the bait to catch fish as it is their favorite meal. What do the organisations involved in prevention of cruelty to animals say to this?

The experts who preach about being kind to animals go to observe whales down south. The vessel taking them are supplied with dolphin meat cooked according to a Japanese menu. Some People who preach against cruelty to animals are involved in this. Some so-called devotees going to Kataragama ask for Sambhur, deer and even crocodile meat. This is the behaviour of some people who talk about prevention of cruelty to animals. The ox and the bull appearing in our moonstones are on the brink of extinction. It will soon be a reality. Buffalo meat is banned by law. But it is freely available at butchers shops. Those days we had licensed abattoirs in Colombo. Today we dont find them in Colombo. But meat shops abound. From where do they get the beef? Where do they have the slaughter houses? On this Navam Poya day let us think about these issues. I am appealing to the Sinhalese, Buddhists, and Hindus. Please refrain from eating beef and mutton. Our lucky sign is the cock, the bird on our oil lantern. Let us refrain from even eating chicken.

It is time that we make use of the moonstone ox to lead our Navam Perahera. Let us all join hands to rescue this country from the NGOs. It is known that some who are talking about human rights have got together to influence our younger generation in the wrong ways by making use of Face book and other social media. Let us not be puppets. But rise and fight those who are misleading our younger generation into evils like drugs and pornography. Unless we do this we may not have a culture and a nation of our own.

During the time of Navam Perahera, let us realise our weaknesses, and overcome them them and make every effort to be good citizens, treating everyone with peace and magnanimity. Let us maintain good health. Let us cut down on non-essential food and drinks and refrain from alcohol and drugs. Let us build our own moral values to safeguard ourselves. Let us give up petty ideas and be magnanimous to those of other religions. If you have any ideas about protecting our younger generation, do write to us.

The Navam Maha Perahera will take place tonight and tomorrow night, starting at 7 p.m. It will be telecast live. I appeal to those who come for the Perahera to be disciplined and act in a spirit of devotion.

If you sacrifice one meal a month and donate the amount saved, we can conduct cultural events every month, in addition to the Navam Perahera. Those willing to contribute are invited to write to us. This is one way through which we can inspire younger generation to preserve and protect our culture and arts for the future. Let us have our weddings and funerals at a simpler level. Maintain peace with all, avoiding litigation. This way we can save time, money and prevent animosity.

Send your suggestions to Gangaramaya, 61, Sri Jinarathana Road, Colombo 02.
Reviving an image  Police reforms an absolute necessity View(s):

Policemen the world over are rightly assessed on how they act in the streets and it is the higher echelons in the Department who are held accountable for their performance and conduct. They are under intense fire in recent times for indiscipline, high handed or boorish behaviour, alleged involvement in politics and extra judicial activity. There is a need to change this for good. This is the view of many independent observers and the public in general. The government too is under tremendous pressure to improve the record of the police and punish those personnel responsible for heavy handed action, specially human rights violations.

Police is one public service that more than any other is under constant public scrutiny. Retired DIG Anton Jeyanathan who is now a member of the National Police Commission (NPC) in an article published in the Sunday Times 2 of February 7, 2016 states Senior Police officers should take the blame for any misbehaviour, omissions or commissions of their subordinate officers. Unfortunately in most of the accusations against the police no senior officer has been found fault with for not being accountable. There are several DIGs and senior DIGs who are deployed in the provinces. It is they who should be responsible for the performance of the police officers under their supervision as well as for their discipline.

The more important reason why misconduct thrives within the Police is that many supervisors had lost the moral fibre to assert themselves vis-a-vis misbehaving policemen. A substantial number of senior officers have so many skeletons to hide that they can hardly assert themselves to move swiftly against errant subordinates. It was not long ago that the District Court of Colombo ordered the IGP to pay Rs.50,000 as compensation to a railway commuter who was attacked inhumanely in the course of a protest at the Fort Railway station. For the few who have been found out, there are many others who have escaped action. This is not a case of an isolated policeman on the rampage. Many more are possibly hiding themselves for the present and will display their fangs when the dust settles down on the recent happenings. I do not wish to mention anything about the Embilipitiya incident as it is being considered by a law court.

Kid-glove handling of bad elements in the force has for long been the undoing of the police administration. There are two reasons for this. Departmental inquiries are a notoriously long-drawn out affair with inquiry officers rarely finding the time for a swift conclusion of the task assigned to them. The Police department should now think of establishing a separate wing of officers that will take care of departmental inquiries. Following the establishment of the NPC everyone imagined that law enforcement would improve. The Commission has not got off the ground as yet. It is still in its embryonic stage. There appear to be serious doubts about the effectiveness of the Commission. It is said that the NPC has no actual enforcement powers other than to recommend policy guidelines, promotions and transfers. In these circumstances no one should be surprised that power over the Police department will once again fall back on the political masters.

What is the role of the Police in this formidable task of promoting respect for law. The minimum that we can ask for is that Policemen should themselves not break the law or even remotely abet such activity. Senior Police officers in the hierarchy have the sacred duty of themselves adhering to the law and ensuring that they indoctrinate those whom they supervise in the basics of ethics that governs policing. Some may complain that no other professions are as heavily scrutinised as the Police or held to such a high standard, but when one understands the nature of the profession it creates greater expectations. Only a transformation in the attitudes of senior Police officers can bring about improvement. Many of them take the easier way out, ignoring complaints of misconduct so that they are popular with their subordinates. A few do not also have the moral stature to deal sternly because some of them are afraid that their skeletons are likely to roll out even if well justified action is taken against a cantankerous subordinate.

Article 5 of the United Nations Code of conduct for law enforcement officials states No law enforcement official may inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman treatment or punishment, nor any law enforcement invoke superior orders or exceptional circumstances such as a state of war, a threat to national security, internal political instability or any other public emergency as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

The declaration defines torture as follows: torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession punishing him for an act he has committed or intimidating him or other person.

Sri Lanka has given effect to the UN convention against torture and other cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment by Act No.22 of 1994. Those who torture any person or attempt to commit , aid and abet or conspire to commit such an act can be found guilty under this law which carries a prison sentence of seven years and a minimum fine of Rs. 10,000. As usual pious promises are made by the police top brass and instructions are ostensibly sent to stamp out such displays of brute power but the people know that behind this facade brutality goes on.

Those who are subjected to police torture are almost invariably come from the lower strata of society, who have no influential friends and relations on their side. If the very upholders of the law subvert and pollute the law, and if the authorities watch helplessly we could see more protests against the police which has become an almost daily occurrence now. We advocate a better deal for the policeman. For they work for long hours, in a stressful environment with little time for spending with their families. These cannot be dismissed as fanciful, nor can the factors driving such difficult working conditions be wished away. The way Police are organised in our country and the manner in which they are misused do not offer much hope that a turnaround is likely in the foreseeable future. However the frustration a Policeman feels does not excuse or justify in any way his barbaric treatment of people whom he come into contact with. When the very guardians desecrate the temple and violate the gods what hope can the average man have of fair treatment. There is an imminent need to correct the existing attitudes presently imbued in most police officers if the force is to be acceptable to the community at large.

Over three decades back the Sri Lanka Police was a force that boasted of an extremely professional and ethical corps of dedicated officers who adorned senior positions. Let us honestly face the truth. The contributory causes for the decline are primarily political pollution of the police which has inundated and over run the service. A careful diagnosis of the viruses that affect this institution must be done and the causes elucidated and remedied.

(The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police.)
Police were called to a Flaxmere Avenue address at 8.30pm last night. On their arrial they found two women in their 20s had received stab wounds. The alleged offender was still at the scene when police arrived.

Both females were taken to hospital and received treatment for their injuries. Police say both women are expected to be released today.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and they will be back at the property today to carry out a scene examination.

The male offender was taken into custody; he was also injured and is currently receiving treatment. Police are not seeking anyone else in relation to this incident.
TECT All Terrain Park users are rallying behind ranger Jarron McInnes sacked by the council on February 3, after he was allegedly assaulted at night by freedom campers at the park.

Jarron told a meeting of park users he was held down by two men while a third had a hand on his throat and was punching him.
Tropical Cyclone Winston appears to have caused major damage on the Northern Coast of Vitu Levu and sadly one person has now been confirmed dead, Murray says.

New Zealand stands ready to assist the people of Fiji as they deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Winston and we are in close contact with the Government of Fiji.

A New Zealand Defence Force Orion P3 has just departed Whenuapai to help the Fiji authorities carry out aerial surveillance and damage assessments.

In addition we have made an initial $50,000 available via our High Commission to ensure we can respond rapidly to urgent requests from the Fiji Government. We have also authorised the release of up to $170,000 worth of pre-positioned relief supplies, held by non-government partners such as Rotary and UNICEF in Fiji.

It is clear that further support will be required and we will be working with the local authorities over the coming days to determine how we can best assist, Murray says.

New Zealanders with concerns about friends and family in Fiji should attempt to make contact directly in the first instance (noting that communication lines may be down in parts of Northern Fiji).

If there are on-going concerns, please contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 04 439 8000 (if calling from within New Zealand) or +64 4 439-8000 (if calling from outside New Zealand).
Bloody good, says Bryan McKenzie. Thats because its drizzling, the dark is heavy and oppressive, its gone midnight and its miserable.

Itll keep the idiots at home.

Hes right. The citys deserted. Even the idiots have gone to bed.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients has awarded a total of $48,000 in tertiary study scholarships to six talented students who are aiming to make a positive difference in the primary industries sector.



Warwick Catto, Science Strategy manager at Ballance Agri-Nutrients, noted the strength of this years applicants, saying it was great to see so many high-calibre students intent on pursuing the range of career opportunities available in New Zealands primary industries sector.
International expert in dementia care, Professor Graham Stokes, believes more needs to be done to raise awareness and understanding of dementia  a disease that is set to double in the next 35 years.



In partnership with the Rotorua Lakes District Council, Bupa will host a talk with Graham on February 24, at the Council buildings.
Year-8 at school changed things for Danika Hotham. It was during Mr McDonalds class that she had an epiphany  a sudden and striking realisation of wanting to help the less fortunate.

We did a big project on poverty and I just remember him saying one day: A life spent dedicated to these sort of issues is a life not wastedor something along those lines, says Danika.
What do you do when you at the summit of Mount Maunganui and have it to yourself.

This is what photographer Amit Kamble pondered as he completed his 22nd run up Mount Maunganui as part of the Everest Challenge.
First of all, thanks for visiting Tasting Hawaii, my way of introducing you to the multi-ethnic cuisine found on these tropical Hawaiian islands.

I'm a retired chef living on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. It is small and rural, with a population of only 7,404 according to the 2010 US census. This island is tucked away between Oahu and Maui. It's special because the people living here are mostly Hawaiian. They love the old ways of aloha, where family comes first, helping your neighbor is important, and growth and tourism is not in their vocabulary.

In ancient times, it was the task of the men to prepare the food, and men and women ate meals separately. Hawaiians have always loved to cook, and so do I. No matter where you live, we all have one thing in common... FOOD. To me, sharing lives over a meal makes food what it was always meant to be, not just a nourisher, but a uniter of hearts.

After 35 years in the advertising business I thought... it's time to expand my horizons. I decided to make a big change and go back to school... cooking school. In January, 2003 I graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, California, with an Associate of Occupational Studies in Le Cordon Bleu, Culinary Arts Degree.

I love living and cooking, especially in Hawaii. I hope you find a recipe on this blog that will become a family favorite, and that you will learn a little about Tasting Hawaii and cooking with Aloha.

Chef James Temple
Andrea Moore, Vero Beach

Letter: What trick is Vero Beach Utilities is pulling with our electric bills?

Has no one else noticed the scam Vero Beach Utilities is pulling on us? I understand we had an "electric service fuel cost" added onto our bills. Fuel costs were very high and it was necessary to have the surcharge to cover costs and make profit.

However, that surcharge has been renamed "electric service-purchased power." It appears to be at the same outrageous rate as the previous fuel cost. Yet fuel is the cheapest it's been in a long time.

Why is this charge still appearing on our bills?

This power supplier must be taken over by Florida Power and Light, a company whose rates are monitored by Public Utilities Commission.
Evidence and crime scene photos used in the murder trials of David Gore and Fred Waterfield for multiple killings in Indian River County.

SHARE Evidence and crime scene photos used in the murder trials of David Gore and Fred Waterfield for multiple killings in Indian River County. Evidence and crime scene photos used in the murder trials of David Gore and Fred Waterfield for multiple killings in Indian River County. Evidence and crime scene photos used in the murder trials of David Gore and Fred Waterfield for multiple killings in Indian River County. Gore seen here. Evidence and crime scene photos used in the murder trials of David Gore and Fred Waterfield for multiple killings in Indian River County. Waterfield seen here.

By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY ? In July 1983, David Alan Gore and his cousin, Fred Waterfield, picked up Lynn Elliott, 17, and Regan Martin, 14, as the two Vero Beach girls were hitch-hiking to Wabasso Beach.

Gore, 29 at the time, was a former auxiliary deputy with the Indian River County Sheriff's Office on probation for armed trespassing. He and Waterfield, 30 at the time, also of Vero Beach, handcuffed Elliott and Martin and drove them to Gore's parents' house on Fifth Street Southwest on the outskirts of Vero Beach where they raped the girls.

Elliott was shot as she tried to escape.

A 15-year-old Vero Beach boy riding past the scene on his bicycle later testified he saw Gore chase down and shoot Elliott twice in the head. The boy made an anonymous 911 call to authorities, leading to Martin's rescue by police and the end to a reign of terror by the "Killing Cousins" that included the rape of seven women and murder of six.

In 1984, a Pinellas County jury found Gore guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and three counts of sexual battery in connection with Elliott's death and the abduction of Elliott and Martin.

Through interviews with Gore and Waterfield and a comprehensive investigation, authorities also uncovered evidence that Gore had killed six women between February 1981 and July 1983. Most were raped, some were tortured and some were dismembered and buried in hidden graves in citrus groves west of Vero Beach.

The discoveries led to Gore being convicted of murdering Barbara Ann Byer, Angelica LaVallee, Judy Kaye Daley, Hsiang Huang Ling and her daughter, Ying Hua Ling and sentenced to five consecutive life terms that were tacked on to his death sentence.

In 1989, a federal district judge overturned Gore's death sentence, ruling Gore should have been allowed to introduce evidence substantiating his claim he was drunk at the time of Elliott's murder and not in complete control of his actions.

But at a resentencing hearing in November 1992, the then-24 Martin testified that Gore had not been drunk ? he was not slurring his words, his eyes weren't bloodshot and she did not smell alcohol on his breath ? during her ordeal.

At the end of the hearing in Fort Pierce, a jury unanimously resentenced Gore to the electric chair. Since then, the state has switched to lethal injections as its method of execution. Gore, now 57,is on death row at the Union Correctional Facility in Raiford.

"I've seen a lot of murders over the years and prosecuted a lot of death penalties," State Attorney Bruce Colton said after the jury's verdict, "but I can't think of anyone that deserves the death penalty more than (Gore) does."

In July 1997 and March 1998, the Florida Supreme Court twice reaffirmed Gore's conviction and death sentence.

Waterfield was convicted of manslaughter in Elliott's death and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the cases of Byer and LaVallee, two of Gore's victims and is serving two life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution.

Waterfield, now 58, has filed numerous appeals to the manslaughter conviction in Elliott's death, claiming he left the house as soon as he, Gore, Elliott and Martin arrived there. In 1995, he filed a 1,300-page motion to dismiss the manslaughter conviction and sentence.

A motion filed in October 1998 claimed Gore had recanted his trial testimony implicating Waterfield in the murders of Elliott, Byer and LaVallee. Waterfield alleged Gore had implicated him because prosecutors threatened Gore with the death penalty in each of the half-dozen murders. Both the motions were denied.
STUART  A man at the Monterey Yacht & Country Club in Stuart on Saturday was transported to a hospital by rescue officials responding to an emergency call of a 'male in the water.'

Martin County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Christine Christofek said a man possibly in his 80s received lifesaving treatment by rescue personnel before he was transported by ground for medical treatment around 2:30 p.m.

'An elderly man in the community pool was exercising and then the next thing they knew he wasn't exercising, he was in the water,' she said. 'He had medical problems but I don't know what they are.'

Christofek said the unidentified man remained in critical condition Saturday evening.
Last year, Florida broke another tourism record for the fifth consecutive year, Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday. More than 105 million people came to the Sunshine State in 2015.

While the majority of those visitors came for our beaches, theme parks, spring training or balmy climate, a significant number came in search of Florida culture and history.

St. Lucie County tourism officials don't yet track specific numbers of cultural or heritage tourists, but past statewide studies indicate at visitors in this category tend to stay longer and spend more than regular tourists while they're here.

It's an important weekend for cultural tourism in the county.

On Saturday, the city of Fort Pierce officially unveiled the Highwaymen Trail, a 10-stop tribute to the group of black landscape painters who in the 1960s and 70s took to Florida's highways to peddle their art.

Also this weekend is an exhibit of vintage Highwaymen paintings at the A.E. Backus Museum that highlights Backus' artistic influence and generosity to the Highwaymen.

In addition, a small group of travel writers are in town. They were invited by county tourism staff to sample local culture in the form of both the Highwaymen and Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, who spent her final days in Fort Pierce.

The object behind this "familiarization tour," according to St. Lucie County Tourism and Venue Manager Charlotte Bireley, is to showcase the richness of our heritage and to inspire the writers to write glowingly about what they encountered here.

I spent part of Friday with the group taking part in a panel discussion on the importance of Hurston.

Naomi Tene Austin is a freelance writer from Atlanta who will chronicle her tour of Fort Pierce for Cuisine Noir, a food, wine and travel publication.

"It's a borderline tragedy" the city is not better recognized for its culture and art, especially Zora, Austin believes.

"Fort Pierce wasn't even on my radar, but you have so much here. Yesterday I stood in the room where Zora drew her last breath, I was in her little house where she wrote. Outside (of the area) people simply don't know (what's here)."

Austin said tours for outside writers are a good way to help spread the word and suggested using social media for more publicity. "It's not hard to get something to go viral," she said.

This is not the first "fam tour" to be held here, Bireley noted.

Last year, she hosted a tour of foreign travel writers from seven countries and one last summer that showcased the county's fishing attractions.

"Everyone I've brought here has written a story. It's so much more valuable than just placing an ad," Bireley said. "(Writers) are usually blown away by what we have to offer. There are so many people who aren't even aware of where St. Lucie County is, or that we even exist."

Libby Woodruff, grants coordinator for the city of Fort Pierce, also hopes the new Highwaymen trail will put the city on the map. Fort Pierce is partnering with St. Lucie County to celebrate the Highwaymen legacy through advertisements nationally and in Britain and Germany.

"We've been doing that for the past five years (mainly for ecotourism attractions)," Woodruff said, "and we saw a 16 percent increase in visitors last year (over 2014)."

The city recently took over the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail, originally established in 2004, and is refurbishing information panels about sites important during Hurston's three-year stay in the city.

Adrienne Moore, who worked in public relations for local public radio station WQCS for more than 30 years, often hosts informal tours for out-of-town visitors fascinated by Hurston.

Mostly, Moore said, it's word-of-mouth that brings visitors here, but she acknowledged the impact of some good press.

"Five years ago, Zora was the subject of a New York Times story, and we're still getting results from that," she said.

Moore noted how children in particular are amazed to meet people who knew Hurston personally.

"When they meet Hassie Russ (owner of Granny's Kitchen restaurant on Avenue D), or Marjorie Harrell (one of Hurston's students at Lincoln Park Academy), their faces shine. They learn so much more than in a book."

It's great to hear of such enthusiasm for our history and culture. The pity is that we are still one of Florida's best-kept secrets. Maybe those journalists can help put us on the map once and for all.
Flaunting a 5.5-inch Quad HD SuperAMOLED display, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is in between 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus both released in 2015.

As earlier disclosed by insiders, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a more flush back plate compared to its predecessor -- thanks to the rather flat 12.1 MegaPixel Dual Pixel camera module. This shooter features faster shutter speed, a larger f/1.7 aperture, and dual photodiode sensor resulting in noticeably improved low-light performance.

Galaxy S7 Edge comes with Samsung's new Edge Display software feature that lets you access more apps with just a swipe on the curved part of the screen.

Despite measuring only 7.7 millimeters at its thickest point, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - amazingly - has a non-removable 3,600 mAh battery, which is one of the biggest you'll find on a 5.5-inch phablet currently -- most of which only have 3,000 mAh packs or less.

5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S7, respectively. The curved-edge phablet measures 150.9 x 72.6 x 77 millimeters and weighs 157 grams while the regular flagship has dimensions of 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 millimeters and has a weight of 152 grams.

TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST) Name Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Type Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen) Price Category High-End (Flagship Level) Dimensions 150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7 mm Weight 157 grams Available Colors Black, White, Gold, Silver Operating System Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz Skin Display 5.5 inches (~76.1% screen-to-body ratio), Quad HD 1440 x 2560 pixels (~534 ppi pixel density), Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 5 capacitive toucscreen, Always On Display, 16M colors Processor, GPU, Chipset 64-Bit Octa Core Exynos 8890 Octa or Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 RAM 4 GB RAM Internal Storage 32 GB expandable via hybrid nanoSIM slot that doubles as microSD card slot supporting up to 200GB Camera Main: 12 MegaPixels, f/1.7 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus, Optical Image Stabilization, LED flash, 1/2.6' sensor size, 1 m pixel size, Touch Focus, Geo-tagging, Face detection, Auto HDR, Panorama

Front: 5 MegaPixels, f/1.7, Dual Video call, Auto HDR Video Capture Main: 2160p @ 30fps, 1080p @ 60fps, Optical Image Stabilization, Auto HDR

Front: 1080p @ 30 fps, Auto HDR, Dual Video Recording, Live Panorama Audio and Video Playback Video: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VC-1, WMV7, WMV8, Sorenson Spark, MP43, VP8,

HEVC, Full HD (1080p), UHD (depends on variant) Audio: MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB/WB, Vorbis, FLAC(*), WAV(*)

(*) Ultra High Quality Audio (~192KHz, 24 bit) support Ports microUSB v2.0, TV-out (via MHL 3.0 A/V link), 3.5 mm audio jack Connectivity, Sharing 4G LTE Cat9, 3G HSPA+, WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), HT80 MIMO(2x2) 620Mbps, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X, ANT+, NFC, S Beam, Samsung AllShare Play and Control, Samsung AllShare Cast (WiFi Display), Mirroring and Extension, Samsung AllShare Framework Sensors Accelerometer, RGB Light, Digital Compass, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer, Temperature, Humidity, Gesture, Heart Rate Monitor, Touch-Type Finger Scanner, UV GPS A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Network 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100, 4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (TBC) SIM Card Type Dual nanoSIM = nanoSIM 1 (LTE) + nanoSIM 2 (2G, Hybrid) Battery Non-Removable Li-Ion 3,600 mAh battery, Wireless Charging compatible, Fast battery charging: 83% in 30 minutes Uptime TBD Value-Added Features Flagship Release, IP68 Certified, Dual Pixel Camera Announcement Worldwide: February 22, 2016 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Availability Official: Philippines - March 11, 2016 Price Official SRP:

32GB - Php 39,990

(Accurate) Leaked Information Round-Up

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge reinforces the Korean Giant's leadership in crafting sleek devices with curved display panels

Galaxy S7 Edge flaunts a design identity that's largely the same as that of its predecessor

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge will initially be available in three colors, namely, Silver, Black, and Gold. And just like the regular Samsung Galaxy S7, this phablet is IP68 Certified Water and Dust Resistant, which means that it is protected against water ingress when submerged in 1.5 meters of liquid for up to 30 minutes.









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I mean, it's not like we haven't heard about the main selling points or seen in-the-flesh photos of the freshly unveiledweeks before its formal outing.Officially announced just a few hours ago via a landmark keynote at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain, which was video-streamed at a local Samsung event here in Ascott Hotel BGC, Taguig City, therepresents a clear upgrade from last year's flagship that came replete with a 5.1-inch curved edge display.Just like its sibling - the, some of the highlights of the larger S7 Edge include IP68 Water and Dust Resistant Certified construction, Gorilla Glass 5 scratch-resistant touchscreen, 12 MegaPixel Dual Pixel camera with faster autofocus and improved low light performance, 5 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, 3,000 mAh battery pack, 64-Bit Octa Core Exynos 8 Octa 8890 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and the TouchWiz-skinned Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. The two new top-of-the-line models have identical internal hardware, build, and design language -- but what makes them different is that Galaxy S7 Edge flaunts a bigger 5.5-inch QHD SuperAMOLED screen that gently curves down either sides.32GB Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Dual SIM version () will become available in our country starting onwith official suggested retail price ofwill likewise offer it as a bundled handset with high-end Smart Postpaid Plans.Here's how the 2016 curved edge phablet looks in the flesh:The Galaxy S7 Edge has Dual SIM Dual Standby capability via secondary nanoSIM slot that doubles as a microSD card memory expansion slot, which many users - including me - missed on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge from last year. It would have been nice if instead of the hybrid SIM slot, Samsung used a separate microSD card so there won't be any compromises -- but hey, I'll take this one.This year's model frankly simply looks like a larger version of the one it superseded -- having the same glass-metal-glass-sandwich construction. Nonetheless, the 2016 iteration's build is more air-tight as it is-- meaning it's protected against water ingress when submerged in 1.5 meters of liquid for up to 30 minutes. But again, I'm not recommending that you use this phone while swimming as electronics and water don't really mix well. Just think of it as an added protection against accidental spills and splashes.As of February 22, 2015, Samsung has announced just one Galaxy S7 Edge model that will be released in the Philippines on theand that's the 32GB Dual SIM version, which will go for. It will be out in four colors, namely, Gold, Black, White, and Silver.The 2016 follow to last year's well-receivedwill purportedly feature a far larger display, a bigger battery, and a microSD card expansion slot, which many Samsung fans missed on the 2015 flagship models.To be announced in the Philippines alongside the regulartonight - February 21, 2016 - at 11 o'clock,As shown in these leaked press photos, the. The back is still made of scratch-resistant glass, the mid-frame is CNC-prepared anodized aluminum, and the face features agiving the handset a 'tubular' look and feel in the hand.What's interesting, though, is that this year's Edge model is equipped with a larger 5.5-inch Quad HD display versus just 5.1 inches on the Galaxy S6 Edge, putting it dangerously close to the 5.7-inchin terms of screen real estate. Complementing the increase in display size is the larger 3,600 mAh battery pack; Here's to hoping that would translate to longer uptime as battery life remains to be the one of the biggest points for improvement of Samsung's flagship releases.As for the other features, Galaxy S7 Edge is expected to come with a more flush 12.1 MegaPixel camera module at the back - giving the phablet a back plate that can sit flat on the table - with improved low light performance (thanks to the larger f/1.7 aperture) and the world's first dual photodiode sensor (2PD) on a smartphone providing superfast autofocus, 'force touch' pressure sensitive touchscreen, 5 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, fingerprint scanner, and 4K video recording capability with Optical Image Stabilization.Under the hood, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - they say - will run its TouchWiz-flavored Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system with the powerhouse 64-Bit Exynos 8 Octa 8890 chipset or - in some territories - Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, have 4GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of ROM that users can easily beef up via the '' microSD card slot.In 2015, Galaxy S6 Edge was launched in our country along side the regular version on the 18th of April with price tag starting Php 41,990 for the 32GB version and Php 47,990 for the 64GB variant. Personally, I'm expecting the Galaxy S7 Edge to don an SRP within that range and to be launched locally within that same month or a few weeks earlier.
Samsung Galaxy S7 has the exact same screen size, display type, and resolution as its 2015 predecessor; That's 5.1-inch SuperAMOLED 1,440 x 2560 pixels resolution. This one, though, is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 versus Gorilla Glass 4 on the S6.





As shown in earlier leaked shots, the back panel of the Galaxy S7 is indeed flush -- thanks to the flatter camera module.





This is a 12.1 Dual Pixel camera with larger aperture, dual photodiode sensor, and bigger resulting pixels, which - simply put - delivers faster image focus and clearer, more crisp photos even in low light conditions.

Despite being as slim as the 2015 flagship, the new high-end Galaxy has a far bigger non-removable 3,000 mAh battery pack - versus 2,550 mAh on the SGS6 - which should result in extended uptime. We've yet to prove that via tests, though.

One of the biggest and most appreciated 'enhancements' implemented on the SGS7 is that it now has microSD card memory expansion support via the hybrid secondary nanoSIM slot, which users missed on the SGS6. There's obviously a compromise here, however, as the phone loses Dual SIM capability when microSD card is in place.

The 3.5mm Audio Jack, microUSB 2.0, microphone, and loud speaker are all still located at the rear of the device; Exactly like what's on the Galaxy S6.

Although Galaxy S7 looks almost the same as its the S6 and is crafted from largely the same materials, it's build is more 'air-tight'. The 2016 top-of-the-line model is IP68 Certified Water and Dust Resistant that means it is protected against the entry of liquid even when submerged in 1.5 meters of liquid for up to 30 minutes. Nonetheless, I still don't recommend that you use the phone while you're swimming; Just think of this feature as additional protection against accidental splashes and spills.

Frankly, I think Samsung Galaxy S7 is one of the best-looking smartphones ever released; Something that I can also say about the older Galaxy S6, which looks almost exactly like it.

I have to commend Samsung's efforts to constantly improve the imaging capabilities of their handsets via larger apertures and more powerful sensors. Even the A-Series has more than decent camera performance compared to competitors in the midrange price bracket.

Galaxy S7 is also great for users who love to take selfies -- like me. The 5 MegaPixel front cam performs well indoors and still has wide-angle lens - so you can include your friends in your shots - as well as Beauty Mode that instantly evens out skin tone and contours the face for selfies that you can immediately share on your social media accounts.

The combination of Samsung's new 64-Bit Octa Core Exynos 8890 processor (or even Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset), 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of ROM make the SGS7 one of the most powerful Android smartphones in the world today; A handset that delivers top-notch 3D gaming performance and multitasking experience. Perhaps, given its beastly specs, it is even the one to be beat this year when it comes to raw power.

TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST) Name Samsung Galaxy S7 Type Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen) Price Category High-End (Flagship Level) Dimensions 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm Weight 152 grams Available Colors Black, White, Gold, Silver Operating System Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz Skin Display 5.1 inches (~72.1% screen-to-body ratio), Quad HD 1440 x 2560 pixels (~577 ppi pixel density), Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 5 capacitive toucscreen, Always On Display, 16M colors Processor, GPU, Chipset 64-Bit Octa Core Exynos 8890 Octa or Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 RAM 4 GB RAM Internal Storage 32 GB expandable via hybrid nanoSIM slot that doubles as microSD card slot supporting up to 200GB Camera Main: 12 MegaPixels, f/1.7 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus, Optical Image Stabilization, LED flash, 1/2.6' sensor size, 1 m pixel size, Touch Focus, Geo-tagging, Face detection, Auto HDR, Panorama

Front: 5 MegaPixels, f/1.7, Dual Video call, Auto HDR Video Capture Main: 2160p @ 30fps, 1080p @ 60fps, Optical Image Stabilization, Auto HDR

Front: 1080p @ 30 fps, Auto HDR, Dual Video Recording, Live Panorama Audio and Video Playback Video: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VC-1, WMV7, WMV8, Sorenson Spark, MP43, VP8,

HEVC, Full HD (1080p), UHD (depends on variant) Audio: MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB/WB, Vorbis, FLAC(*), WAV(*)

(*) Ultra High Quality Audio (~192KHz, 24 bit) support Ports microUSB v2.0, TV-out (via MHL 3.0 A/V link), 3.5 mm audio jack Connectivity, Sharing 4G LTE Cat9, 3G HSPA+, WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), HT80 MIMO(2x2) 620Mbps, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X, ANT+, NFC, S Beam, Samsung AllShare Play and Control, Samsung AllShare Cast (WiFi Display), Mirroring and Extension, Samsung AllShare Framework Sensors Accelerometer, RGB Light, Digital Compass, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer, Temperature, Humidity, Gesture, Heart Rate Monitor, Touch-Type Finger Scanner, UV GPS A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Network 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100, 4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (TBC) SIM Card Type Dual nanoSIM = nanoSIM 1 (LTE) + nanoSIM 2 (2G, Hybrid) Battery Non-Removable Li-Ion 3,000 mAh battery, Wireless Charging compatible, Fast battery charging: 83% in 30 minutes Uptime TBD Value-Added Features Flagship Release, IP68 Certified, Dual Pixel Camera Announcement Worldwide: February 22, 2016 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Availability Official: Philippines - March 11, 2016 Price Official SRP:

32GB - Php 34,990

(Accurate) Leaked Information Round-up:

Insiders claim that the Galaxy S7 is IP68 Certified Water and Dust Resistant, which means that it is protected against water ingress when submerged in 1.5 meters of liquid for up to 30 minutes. However, I really wouldn't suggest that you use any smartphone underwater without a completely waterproof plastic sleeve.

Will that result in much-needed longer uptime?

Other notable features include the 5 MegaPixel front camera for selfies, fingerprint scanner for unlocking the phone and making supported password-free purchases, and pressure-sensitive 'force touch' screen that's more or less similar to that of Apple iPhone 6s.

Oh, and both models will support Samsung's Gear VR headset, if you're into that.









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2016 flagship modelhas just been officially announced by the Korean Giant through keynote presentations by the company representatives atcurrently being held in Barcelona, Spain.The landmark event was video-streamed live here in the Philippines for tech bloggers and members of the media at an intimate gathering here inat the Fort BGC, Taguig City starting at around 2 o'clock in the morning.Many of the phone's key features had been accurately predicted by 'insiders' over the past three months. Highlights include the IP68 Water and Dust Resistant Certified construction, 5.1-inch Quad HD SuperAMOLED display, Gorilla Glass 5 scratch-resistant touchscreen, 12 MegaPixel Dual Pixel camera, 5 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, 3,000 mAh battery pack, 64-Bit Octa Core Exynos 8 Octa 8890 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and the TouchWiz-skinned Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.32GB Samsung Galaxy S7 Dual SIM version (via hybrid nanoSIM suppoting microSD card memory expansion) will become available in the Philippines starting onwith official suggested retail price of. Smart Communications will likewise offer it as a bundled handset with Smart Postpaid Plans.Without further ado, here are actual unit photos of Samsung's top-of-the-line smartphone model this year:Again, Samsung Galaxy S7 will be up for purchase locally starting on the. As yet, Samsung Mobile has announced but one variant for our country, which is the Dual SIM version with 32GB of internal storage that will sell forLet's start with the handset's design. As you can see in these press photos, the 2016 refresh looks largely identical to its predecessor. Users will still get front and back scratch-resistant glass panels, rounded corners, anodized aluminum mid-frame, which makes the phone both durable and sleek, and the samedisplay.The main difference in terms of looks is that Samsung Galaxy S7's back panel can now sit flat on a table -- thanks to the flush camera module. According to insiders, this year's flagship will feature a thinnercamera module in lieu of the 16 MP shooter on the. At first, this may seem like a terrible downgrade, but then the new snapper will have a better f/1.7 aperture compared to f/1.9 on previous models - resulting in improved low light performance - as well as theon a mobile device providing superfast autofocus.Now, as for they technical specifications, the new Galaxy S7 is expected to run its TouchWiz-skinned Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system with the powerhouseor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 in some territories, to havefor ultra-smooth multitasking, andexpandable storage options.The S7 - they say - is also receiving a major battery size bump as it will have a a biggercompared to just 2,550 mAh on the Galaxy S6;Well, that remains to be seen.Tonight, Samsung Galaxy S7 will be announced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, which - interestingly - is far larger compared to Galaxy S6 Edge from last year that had the same screen size - albeit curved - as the regular version. This year's Edge flagship - according to various sources - will flaunt a 5.5-inch Quad HD SuperAMOLED display versus 5.2 inches on the 2016 model.Last year, the S6 Dual SIM was launched in the Philippines on the 18th ofwith official SRP of. There's a big chance that we'll also get the Duos version of the Galaxy S7 - in Black, Gold, and Silver - and that it will become available in our country within that same month, with similar price tag. I'm still hoping that S7 will be slightly more affordable -- but I'm not really holding my breath for it.
All eyes were on LG as the technology company took the stage at the Sant Jordi Club in Barcelona, Spain, hours before South Korean rival Samsung to unveil its flagship smartphone for 2016, the LG G5. We had a pretty good idea of what to expect thanks to a series of leaks and thankfully, LG didn't disappoint.

The LG G5 features a 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum display (2,560 x 1,440 / 554 PPI) that's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor and Adreno 530 graphics alongside a hearty 4GB of RAM - all packed inside a full-metal unibody design.

LG introduced an always-on display with its LG V10 smartphone. With the LG G5, they're taking it a step further by integrating the always-on function into the main display by selectively backlighting only a small part of the overall display. This affords the benefits of an always-on display without the need for a goofy secondary display; it consumes just 0.8 percent battery life per hour.

The LG G5 is offered with 32GB of local storage (expandable to up to 2TB via microSD card slot) and features a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter and a removable 2,800mAh battery. The primary rear camera captures images using a 78-degree lens and is flanked by a 135-degree wide-angle shooter which LG says is the widest available in any smartphone.

Connectivity-wise, the LG G5 features 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, an X12 LTE modem and has a USB Type-C connector. It'll ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, we're told.

As impressive as the LG G5 is on its own, what really makes the handset stand out is its modular design and ecosystem of peripherals.

The LG Friends, as they're collectively called, are modular components that deliver added functionality to the LG G5. The bottom section of the handset slides out, allowing you to quickly replace the battery and / or swap in an alternative module.

The CAM Plus module adds a camera grip as well as physical buttons for power, shutter, record and zoom, allowing you to shoot with one hand should you so desire. The CAM Plus also offers autofocus and exposure locks and includes a 1,200mAh battery of its own, booting the handset's total battery capacity to 4,000mAh on-the-fly.

The Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play is a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that was developed in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen. It supports 32-bit, 384Khz high-definition audio playback either as a module for the LG G5 or as a standalone DAC for use with any smartphone or PC.

To say it was a busy day for the South Korean technology company would certainly be an understatement as LG also showcased a series of non-modular accessories including the LG 360 VR headset, the LG 360 CAM, the LG Rolling Bot, the LG Tone Platinum Bluetooth headset and H3 by B&O PLAY earphones.

The LG G5 will be offered in silver, gold, pink and titan color schemes when it goes on sale globally early next month (AT&T has already committed to carrying it). No word yet on pricing.
Hard drive reliability review for 2015 By the end of 2015, the Backblaze datacenter had 56,224 spinning hard drives containing customer data. These hard drives reside in 1,249 Backblaze Storage Pods. By comparison 2015 began with 39,690 drives running in 882 Storage Pods. We added 65 Petabytes of storage in 2015 give or take a Petabyte or two. Not only was 2015 a year of growth, it was also a year of drive upgrades and replacements. Let's start with the current state of the hard drives in our datacenter as of the end of 2015 and then dig into the rest later on. Backblaze

Is D-Wave's quantum processor really 10 times faster than a normal computer? We have been following D-Wave's claims about its quantum hardware at Ars for a number of years. Over that time, my impression has oscillated between skepticism, strong skepticism, and mild enthusiasm. Back in November, D-Wave issued a press release that basically asked tech journalists to spray paint a finish line just behind their feet and break out a victory flag. It seemed a bit much. But now that D-Wave has declared victory, perhaps it's time to re-examine the skepticism. Ars Technica

How Google's web crawler bypasses paywalls Wall Street Journal fixed their "paste a headline into Google News" paywall trick. However, Google can still index the content. Digital publications allow discriminatory access for search engines by inspecting HTTP request headers. The two relevant headers are Referer and User-Agent. Referer identifies the address of the web page that linked to the resource. Previously, when you clicked a link through Google search, the Referer would say https://www.google.com/. This is no longer enough. Elaineou.com

The woman who aims to take Tor mainstream "Tor is essential," Shari Steele says over the phone. "Tor is so critically important. We can't afford to not have Tor." That's the kind of thing someone might say when all hell is about to break loose, but Steele sounds downright ecstatic. Over her career, she has taken on United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). She built the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) into an international powerhouse for protecting online rights. The Daily Dot

Original 1977 Star Wars 35mm print has been restored and released online A restored HD version of the original Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 35mm print has appeared online. While this isn't the first time that attempts have been made to restore Star Wars to its original theatrical version -- that's the one without the much-maligned CGI effects and edits of later "special" editions -- it is the first to have been based entirely on a single 35mm print of the film, rather than cut together from various sources. Ars Technica

555 timer teardown: inside the world's most popular IC If you've played around with electronic circuits, you probably know[1] the 555 timer integrated circuit, said to be the world's best-selling integrated circuit with billions sold. Designed by analog IC wizard Hans Camenzind in 1970, the 555 has been called one of the greatest chips of all time with whole books devoted to 555 timer circuits. Righto.com

Bulky cameras, meet the lens-less FlatCam Camera technology has improved dramatically in the past decades, but one thing about even the newest cameras has stayed constant: They all have lenses. Now, that's changing. Engineers in Texas are building a camera that can make a sharp image with no lens at all. NPR

The Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard review: An entry to Thunderbolt 3 At the initial phase of Intel's Skylake processor launch, a myriad of Z170 equipped motherboards were released to enable the platform. One of the prominent features of Z170 was the ability to support Thunderbolt 3 when the motherboard also used Intel's Alpine Ridge Controller and was certified. GIGABYTE had the initial exclusive on the controller, but has had to wait for TB3 enabled devices to hit the market. AnandTech

Enabling human-robot rescue teams Autonomous robots performing a joint task send each other continual updates: "I've passed through a door and am turning 90 degrees right." "After advancing 2 feet I've encountered a wall. I'm turning 90 degrees right." "After advancing 4 feet I've encountered a wall." And so on. Computers, of course, have no trouble filing this information away until they need it. But such a barrage of data would drive a human being crazy. MIT

The contrarian response to Apple's need for encryption On December 2, 2015, [Syed Rizwan Farook] and [Tashfeen Malik] opened fire at a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event, killing 14 and injuring 22. This was the third deadliest mass shooting in the United States in recent memory, and began a large investigation by local, state, and federal agencies. One piece of evidence recovered by the FBI was an iPhone 5C belonging to one of the shooters. Hackaday

Eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind Scientists at the University of Southampton have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years. Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing. University of Southampton

Robotic vacuums: a PC enthusiast's primer Owning a robot vacuum can be its own hobby in a number of ways. If you think that notion's a little far-fetched, remember that the site you're reading right now is dedicated to what many people consider to be just computers. A similar community has coalesced around the idea that Roombas, Neatos, and their ilk are more than just vacuums. The Tech Report

Analysis: 6 ways Street Fighter V tries to reinvent the franchise Capcom is at a crossroads with Street Fighter V. It could have chosen to build a game for the casual players that paid their bills on SF4; certainly Mortal Kombat X's breakaway success in 2015 implies that the market for legacy fighting game franchises with lots of single-player story-driven content is alive and kicking. Gamasutra

Inside Samsung 837: Samsung's first North American flagship Samsung 837, the Korean giant's first flagship retail space opens on Monday in New York City. Located at 837 Washington Street in the Meatpacking District, the 55,000 square-foot space isn't your typical retail store. In fact, it's not a store at all. Mashable

Where are they now 2016: Part two I thought it would be fun to go back and take another look at those developers I covered in the early days of Electron Dance. In six years, what has happened to them? In part two: Puppygames, Douglas Wilson and Michael Brough. Electron Dance (part one)
A rash of leaks have seemingly left little for Samsung to unveil at its Unpacked event just ahead of Mobile World Congress 2016. Nevertheless, we've embedded the live feed from the event above for those who couldn't make it out to Barcelona in person.

If you've got a virtual reality headset, you can also take the event in by grabbing the Unpacked 360 View app from the Oculus Store, Google Play or the App Store. From the looks of things, those attending the live event will also be participating in the virtual reality activities.

TechSpot has a team on the ground to bring you first-hand photos of the action as it unfolds so kick back and stick around!

Check out our coverage of the new Galaxy S7 and S7 edge by clicking here.
People suffering from inherited heart conditions may now be diagnosed early, allowing for immediate treatment to be initiated. Researchers have developed a groundbreaking test called the TruSight Cardio Sequencing Kit that can quickly detect all known genes associated with such diseases.

What Are Inherited Heart Conditions?

Inherited heart conditions can affect people of all ages and can be life threatening. Sometimes, people with these conditions die suddenly with no obvious cause. Many people would not even suspect that they have the disease until a family member dies unexpectedly and doctors point to a genetic cardiac disorder as the cause.

These conditions are most commonly caused by the abnormal genes inherited from parents. If one of the parents has a faulty gene that can lead to the development of a heart condition, there's a 50-50 chance that the child could inherit it. Some carriers may not manifest signs of having a heart condition, and often they are unaware that they may be passing the faulty gene on to their children, who may be the ones to develop symptoms.

There are 17 inherited heart conditions that include structural heart disease, long and short QT syndrome, aortic valve disease, familial atrial fibrillation, cardiomyopathies and Noonan syndrome.

The Blood Test

The genetic tests currently available can identify genes linked to inherited heart conditions, but only in small numbers. This limitation means the tests may fail at detecting gene mutations important in diagnosing inherited heart conditions.

The new blood test's gene sequencing technology allows it to simultaneously identify the 174 genes that lead to an increased risk of inherited heart conditions. With this test, doctors are able to identify abnormalities right away and begin treatment immediately to reduce the risk of death.

"As research advances and technology develops, we are identifying more and more genetic mutations that cause these conditions," Dr. Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, says in his comments on the study findings.

"In this rapidly evolving field of research the aim is to achieve ever greater diagnostic accuracy at ever-reducing cost," he adds.

100 Percent Accuracy

The researchers, led by Dr. James Ware of Imperial College London, assessed the accuracy of the test by using it on 348 participants at the National Heart Center in Singapore. Based on the assessment of the results, the researchers conclude that the test was able to identify all genetic mutations in the blood samples with 100 percent accuracy.

The doctors who analyzed the blood samples said that the new test is faster and more reliable than other tests used today. This will allow for immediate and cost-effective treatment of these conditions.

The study was published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Health officials have confirmed a norovirus outbreak involving over 100 students at the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan.

The earliest cases were reported Monday at the South and West Quad dorms, according to authorities from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The health department said Friday that tests have confirmed it was a case of norovirus with a yet-to-be-determined cause.

University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said that the affected students all ate at the South Quad cafeteria and exhibited symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal problems.

University officials have encouraged the sick students to stay isolated in their rooms to prevent the spread of the disease, and everyone in the school to perform handwashing frequently. Other health advice include avoiding the sharing of drinks, disinfecting surfaces and objects such as mobile phones and avoiding contact with those who may be ill.

Meanwhile, the university is conducting a relevant cleaning procedure in all of the dining halls as well as residential facilities.

Back in January, health officials in Seattle investigated a suspected norovirus outbreak at a Maggianos Little Italy restaurant that may have sickened nearly 50 at a private function.

Popular chain Chipotle was hounded by a multi-state E. coli outbreak starting November last year, when at least 53 people fell ill. A suspected norovirus outbreak also struck more than 140 Boston College students who had lunch at its Cleveland Circle branch.

Foodborne illnesses reach about 600 million cases and lead to 420,000 deaths annually worldwide. Based on those numbers, one in 10 people every year fall sick from what they have eaten or drank.

Norovirus is a rapid-spreading virus that can be obtained from food and drinks as well as contaminated things or surfaces. Americans contract the virus, which peaks from November to April, five times over their lifetime on average.

The so-called winter vomiting bug can strike in both children and adults and attacks the gastrointestinal lining, leading to stomach and intestinal inflammation.

Experts emphasize the importance of basic handwashing.

"One of the most important things you can do to avoid norovirus and other illnesses  is to wash your hands frequently with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds," reminds Dr. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one should also wash fresh produce like fruits and vegetables thoroughly before cooking, and make sure to fully cook raw food like oysters.

Photo: Vasenka Photography | Flickr

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A new study shows that human activity has been changing the planet way before the Industrial Revolution  particularly 1,000 years ago when human settlement permanently transformed the forests.

Researchers from MIT and University of Massachusetts tied a widespread, permanent forest lost in Madagascar a thousand years ago to human settlers who set the landscape on fire to pave the way for cattle grazing  not to climate change or any natural occurrence, as they earlier expected.

The slash and burn method to create pasture for cattle was discovered through analyzing two stalagmites from a Northwestern Madagascar cave.

In the study, the stalagmites calcium carbonate suddenly and totally changed in just a century, from carbon isotope ratios characteristic of shrubbery and trees to those that are more typical of grassland. But there was no corresponding change in oxygen isotopes, eliminating the possibility of natural drops in rainfall or a climate event as a reason for forest loss.

Both the speed at which this shift occurred and the fact that theres no real climate signal suggest human involvement, says study author and MIT assistant professor David McGee.

The team found proof of human settlement in Madagascar about 3,000 years ago and their shift to an agrarian lifestyle, bringing cattle to the island prior to a millennium ago.

Prior scientific analyses yielded evidence of abundant charcoal microparticles  one sign of fires  as well as spikes in levels of grass pollen, which indicates more extensive grasslands. This study provided the missing element of time and proved that man-made environmental impacts did not commence with the Industrial era or Europeans, McGee added.

The researchers seek to study and obtain more samples from Madagascar caves to further determine the extent and timing of human influence on the transformed landscape.

While climate change is no longer a suspect in the transformation of that time, there could be other factors at play, says Laurie Godfrey, study author and anthropology professor.

[W]e dont yet know whether similar shifts, also unrelated to natural aridification, occurred elsewhere on the island, and if so, when, exactly.

The findings were published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

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Parents often attribute teething for a cranky, drooling baby who does not eat and sleep. Findings of a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, however, show that high-grade fevers are not an indication of teething, but possibly a sign of another illness that parents and doctors should not ignore.

The study identified the common symptoms of teething such as swollen gums, crankiness and drooling, but researchers said that the symptoms should not last for more than three to five days.

Paul Casamassimo, from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and not part of the study, said that parents should consider it a red flag if a child has a very high fever, won't eat or drink for days and is experiencing a significant discomfort.

"Based on the current limited evidence, there are signs and symptoms during primary tooth eruption. Gingival irritation, irritability, and drooling were the most common," the researchers wrote in their study. "For body temperature analyses, it was possible to evaluate that eruption of primary teeth is associated with a rise in temperature, but it was not characterized as fever."

Minu George, from Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York said that parents are often confused about symptoms that are related to baby's teething or illness, but advised parents that it is likely a fever and not just mild temperature increase from teething if a baby's temperature reaches at least 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

George said that fevers are the body's way of responding to an infection, but parents need to be aware that it is likely related to an illness.

Rosie Roldan, from Nicklaus Children's Hospital, in Miami said that babies also tend to be bombarded by infections at the age when their teeth are erupting.

She said other symptoms that should not be attributed to teething include diarrhea that does not disappear quickly and sores and blisters around the mouth. Roldan said these symptoms warrant a call to the physician.

Experts said that using teething toy or cold rag may help babies with their discomfort. Infant pain relievers may also be used, but regular use may cause tooth decay and acetaminophen can cause liver disease in children.

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A judge ruled that the Federal Bureau of Investigation should disclose the full code it used when it hacked a child pornography site on the dark web.

The security service reportedly deployed a hacking tool that allowed it to gather and identify more than 1,000 IP addresses of the site's visitors across the globe.

In February 2015, the FBI seized child pornography site Playpen, which it described as the biggest remaining child pornography service providing site in the world. After the seize, the agency kept the site running for two weeks using its own servers. So far, the agency has charged around 137 people in the sting operation.

During the operation, the FBI learned that the Tor-based site had more than 215,000 registered users. They also learned that the site contained links to more than 23,000 sexually explicit videos and images involving children. All in all, they discovered around 9,000 files which were all given direct access from the federal agency.

One thing that gained the attention of civil liberty advocates is how the FBI used just a single warrant to infiltrate the computers of unidentified suspects from across the globe. Moreover, the defense pointed out that since the FBI allowed the dark web site to continue running for the reason of deploying its NIT (network investigative technique), the agency, in one way or another, became an instrument in the proliferation of child pornography.

In the past, FBI agents were not allowed to use web-based child pornographic images as a bait to catch visitors to the site. According to the Justice Department, the children depicted in the images eventually suffer from the harm brought by every visit to the site. Moreover, the FBI has no full control of anyone who intends to copy or recopy the images and have them circulated throughout the Internet.

FBI's hacking campaign reportedly affected computers from Chile, Greece and the United Kingdom.

A judge gave out a ruling in January that stated that the FBI did not commit an "outrageous conduct" during the child pornography sting operation.

Federal Public Defender Colin Fieman said the order requires that all the code components used by the FBI be disclosed. However, there was no mention on when the code should land on the hands of the case expert.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Thursday that it would start testing food products sold in the United States for residues of glyphosate.

Monsanto developed the herbicide glyphosate for U.S. crops and marketed it as Roundup in 1974. The chemical soon dominated the pesticide market, eventually becoming the most-used agricultural chemical worldwide.

How much of the pesticide gets into the food supply, however, has been difficult to determine largely because the regulatory community in the United States said this would be a waste of time and money given that the agrichemical industry already claimed to have proven the chemical as safe.

Monsanto said that trace amounts of the chemical in foods are not harmful and that glyphosate does not pose unreasonable risk to humans and the environment.

The World Health Organization (WHO), however, which conducted a review of more than 400 studies in 2015, rated glyphosate, along with malathion and diazinon, as "probably carcinogenic to humans" in March 2015.

The WHO based its classification on studies in Sweden, Canada and the United States showing that those who work with glyphosate-based herbicides have elevated risks for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, albeit another large U.S. study did not find such link.

With the prevalent use of the chemical and suspected problems linked to use of the weed killer, experts have called for regulators to reassess the chemical's toxicity and to make take the necessary steps to protect people from exposure to the chemical.

"Animal and epidemiology studies published in the last decade, however, point to the need for a fresh look at glyphosate toxicity," says a group of researchers led by John Peterson Myers from Carnegie Mellon University. "Regulatory estimates of tolerable daily intakes for glyphosate in the United States and European Union are based on outdated science."

Myers and colleagues' statement of concern over the use of glyphosate-based herbicides and the risks linked to exposure is published in the journal Environmental Health.

With FDA having developed streamlined methods to test the presence of the chemical in food, the agency is now preparing to measure glyphosate in corn, milk, eggs and soybeans, among other food products.

As for Monsanto, the company said that it is confident that its herbicide is safe.

"If FDA does move forward with residue testing in a scientifically rigorous manner, we are confident it will reaffirm the safe use of this vital tool used safely and effectively by farmers, landowners and homeowners around the world," says Monsanto spokeswoman Charla Lord.

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Canned food is touted by many to be superior to fresh produce because it's packed immediately, sealing in freshness. A woman in Utah certainly got a dose of freshness after finding a severed snake head in a can of green beans.

Troy Walker was with other women and young people in a Mormon church on Wednesday in Farmington, Utah, preparing a meal for the older folks in their congregation when she spotted something suspicious as she was taking out beans from a slow cooker.

"It looked pretty much like a burnt bean, and then as I got closer to lift it off the spoon, I saw eyes. That's when I just dropped it and screamed," she said.

According to Christi Smith, one of the women cooking with Walker, the head was clearly from a very small snake that had been cut up. After Walker's discovery, they threw out other pots of string beans cooking without looking inside.

Once the fuss died down (the kids really did want to see the snake head up close), Walker took the empty can of green beans and the snake head back to the grocery store where it was bought from. She also documented the discovery, taking a picture of the snake head and sending it to Western Family, the brand on the can.

Western Family, a food distribution company based in Oregon, was quick to respond, saying that it is taking the matter seriously, and has gotten in touch with its supplier to determine how the snake head found its way into the can of green beans and how many cans were produced from the same batch.

According to Sharon McFadden, Western Family's vice president for quality control, remaining shipments of cans from the same batch have been halted. They are also working to locate others that have already been distributed and taking them off of store shelves.

Walker is understandably traumatized by her discovery, too queasy to eat anything the next day, but she said she's not bad. She is hopeful, however, that no other snake parts have found their way into canned green beans.

With a family dinner set for the weekend, she did need to make it clear that green beans will not be served.

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Scientists have long theorized the differences between wild and hatchery-born salmons, but a new study offers genetic evidence that both groups of fish have various characteristics that set them apart from one another.

Furthermore, the speed of the hatchery-born salmon's adaptation is quite surprising. These species can evolve within one generation and change drastically from their wild counterparts.

Settling the Discussion

Working with specialists from Oregon's Fisheries and Wildlife department, a group of experts from Oregon State University specifically examined the steelhead trout salmon.

Researchers have discovered approximately 736 genetic differences between salmon raised in hatchery and salmon found in the wild. These changes in DNA were passed on to offspring.

The differences in reproduction and survival between species of wild salmon and hatchery-born salmon have long indicated the swift adaptation of the latter to its confined environments.

For instance, when hatchery-born salmon are released into the wild, they find it harder to reproduce compared to their native cousins.

"We observed that a large number of genes were involved in pathways related to wound healing, immunity, and metabolism," said study lead author Mark Christie. He said this matches the idea that earliest stages of salmon domestication may involve adaptation to conditions that are highly-crowded.

The team's findings finally settle the question of whether farm-raised salmon can be genetically different after just a single generation of domestication. Michael Blouin, another author of the study, believes so.

"What is important is that this work is a step towards trying to figure out which traits are under strong selection in the hatchery, and what hatchery conditions exacerbate that selection," said Blouin.

Saving Depleted Wildlife Population

Bouin, who is also an integrative biology professor in OSU's College of Science, explained that a fish hatchery is an artificial environment that causes strong natural selection pressures.

He said that clearly, a concrete box that hosts 50,000 fish crowded together and fed with pellet food is different than an open stream where fish can swim freely.

Within fish hatcheries, salmon are packed gill-to-gill. They are often contained by open nets, and so the environment can become a breeding ground for contamination and disease.

Most of the commercially-sold salmon are raised in fish hatcheries, and are thought to have higher contaminants than those caught in the wild.

Conservationists are worried that these conditions could cause the spread of disease among the already depleted population of wild salmon. Hatchery-born salmon suffer more from injuries and disease outbreaks.

But the new study provides insight on how to improve artificial fish farms so the salmon they produce are more similar to their cousins in the wild, and ultimately recover the dwindling population.

"Once we understand what traits of the fish are being favored in hatcheries, it may be possible to change the way hatchery fish are raised to reduce the selection pressures on them," said Bouin.

Since the genetic changes are rapid, it is clearly due to natural evolution. Scientists said it does not take multiple generations for the adaptations to take effect in the next generations of salmon.

The findings of the study are issued in the journal Nature Communications.

Photo: Oregon State University | Flickr

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While Apple and Google have been looking to enter the automobile technology industry by introducing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto into new cars, Samsung is looking in the opposite direction.

For Samsung's connected car initiative, named Samsung Connect Auto, the company will be focusing first on older cars.

"Through collaborations with valuable partners and experts across many industries, we are carrying out our vision of bringing IoT technology to people's everyday lives," says Injong Rhee, Samsung executive vice president and mobile communications head of research and development for software and services.

The device for Samsung Connect Auto is plugged into the onboard diagnostic port, which can be found beneath the steering wheel or in the footwell of the driver's seat in almost all car models that have been released over the past two decades. The little plastic box will then be able to monitor the operation of the vehicle and provide updates on its economic efficiency.

Samsung Connect Auto will not require a connection to a smartphone, instead utilizing its own 4G LTE data connection to be able to send the data and location of the vehicle to a cloud-based server.

Samsung Connect Auto will be issuing real-time alerts to users to help in the improvement of their driving behavior, including how to improve the fuel efficiency of their vehicle. The device will also provide users with a Wi-Fi connection to keep the vehicle's passengers online while traveling.

Security remains a major focus of the solution, as it utilizes Samsung's KNOX mobile security platform. With this security system in place, users will not have to worry about their vehicle suddenly becoming a viable target for hackers.

Samsung Connect Auto is powered by Samsung's own Tizen OS, with the device to be opened for developers to create additional services. The device also utilizes geo-fencing and algorithms for rating drivers, and in case an accident occurs, Samsung Connect Auto will be notifying predetermined contacts regarding the incident and will also call in accident concierge services.

The device also features a Find My Car app, which will allow drivers to easily locate their vehicle in crowded parking lots. Companies can also utilize Samsung Connect Auto to gather information regarding the vehicles in their fleet.

Samsung Connect Auto will be launched in the United States in the second quarter, with AT&T tapped as the first telecommunications company partner of the system.

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29-year-old Oregon hacker accessed nude images of hundreds of Hollywood stars pleads guilty as charged

An Oregon hacker has pleaded guilty to felony hacking charges for stealing nude photos of celebrities. Andrew Helton, 29, of Portland, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He would now be sentenced up to five years in prison when it is announced in June.

According the the police statement, Helton targeted Hollywood stars using social engineering. He used to send these stars emails purporting to be from Google and Apple and use the credentials gained through illicit means to access personal email/iCloud/Google Albums. According to the U.S. Department of justice, he was able to dupe hundreds of Hollywood stars into giving him their usernames and passwords.

The scheme, which lasted from March 2011 to May 2013, gave Helton access to 161 sexually explicit, nude and/or partially nude images of approximately 13 victims, some of whom were celebrities, said DOJ spokesman Thom Mrozek. We have no evidence that the photos were posted online nor do we have evidence that he was shopping them around to any tabloids, added Mrozek.

The case though similar to the Celebgate or Fappening which rocked Hollywood in September, 2014 differs in many respects. This case predates Fappening by almost a year and Helton did not leak the images he accessed unlike the Fappening hackers who accessed more than 600 accounts belonging to Hollywood stars. The Fappening hacker proceeded to leak the nude photos of stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Kaley Cuoco and many more on Internet.

In Heltons case, the Department of Justice is not naming the Hollywood stars he managed to hack. We dont give out names of victims, Mrozek said.

Apple had referred this case to FBI, like Celebgate, once it was reported. The thought of a stranger accessing your private communications for sport or monetary gain can be devastating, said David Bowdich, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. This insidious crime has distressed scores of average individuals, as well as celebrity victims. The FBI is committed to holding accountable those who illegally intrude upon the cyber landscape, and to educating consumers about strengthening passwords and employing two-factor authentication, among other safeguards.
MWC 2016 : LG G5 is best the company could come out with, and boy is it a looker

It is finally official; LG G5 has been announced and it features the best of what the company has to offer in terms of specifications and looks. LG G5 not only features a metal unibody, but it also has a removable battery and a microSD card slot (with a maximum capacity limit of 2TB). The battery capacity itself is a 2,800mAh cell, and while some might think that LG skipped on placing a larger cell, there are other factors to look at. Thanks to a more efficient chipset, a better user interface and updated operating system (Android Marshmallow 6.0), it is highly possible that users will be able to rake more battery life out of the smartphone.



Speaking of chipsets, LG G5 features a Snapdragon 820, which is running Qualcomms custom Kyro processor with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. Aside from that, the chipset also feature 4GB of RAM, and an Adreno 530 GPU, which will obviously give it an upper hand in the latest and taxing mobile games running on Android. Another perk of owning the handset is that LG G5 provides support for Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0, which will rapidly increase the battery from 0-80 percent in a time span of 35 minutes.



The screen size itself is 5.3 inch LCD with a resolution of 1440p. Another change brought to LGs high-end line-up is that this is the very first one to sport a USB-C port. The port will transfer data much quicker as compared to microUSB ports and will also be able to draw more power (as exhibited from Apples 12 inch MacBook). There is a 16MP rear camera sensor, and is supplemented with an 8MP shooter. LG G5 also has a 135 degrees wide angle lens, which will allow you to capture more detail as a result.

Pricing details have not been provided, but all the necessary hardware details have been posted below.

 Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Processor

 Display: 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440 / 554ppi)

 Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM / 32GB UFS ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)

 Camera: Rear Standard 16MP, Wide 8MP / Front 8MP

 Battery: 2,800mAh (removable)

 OS: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

 Size: 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7mm

 Weight: 159g

 Network: LTE / 3G / 2G

 Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / USB Type-C / NFC / Bluetooth 4.2

 Colors: Silver / Titan / Gold / Pink

https://youtu.be/anyW8UY9ELg
Utah state computer systems experiences 300 million hacking attacks a day due to NSA data center in the state

300,00,000 hacking attempts in a day! This is what the computer systems for the state of Utah are subjected with, at a rapid fire rate. All this due to a NSA data center situated in the state.

In 2010, my IT director was letting me know that the number of attacks we were averaging a day were between 25,000 to 80,000, said Keith Squires, Utah Commissioner of Public Safety. We had peaks in the past year or so that were over 300,000,000 a day.

According to the state officials, most of the attacks are done by botnets. Hacking programs set in motion by them sweep the states computer systems, searching for signs of weakness. Although other states were seeing increases, most were not seeing anything like we were, Squires said. We didnt realize it at first, but my opinion is in that same time, Utah was getting a lot of notoriety for the NSA facility that was being built here.

The massive, highly-secretive NSA Data Center in Bluffdale was not known to many but thanks to Snowden leaks, it was in limelight in June 2013. The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden fueled interest in the data center, and prompted questions about what exactly the NSA does at the sprawling facility.

Though the state officials concede that it may not be Utahs only big target for hackers. The dynamics of Utah have changed, said the State of Utahs Information Security Director told KUTV but did not want to appear on camera. The official chose to remain anonymous for fear of drawing hackers interest. He suspected advanced weapons systems at Hill Air Force Base, and more tech companies in Utah, could also be contributing to more hacking tries on the state systems.

Another channel, 2News asked a man who called himself a former punk hacker, now cyber security expert, if it makes sense for hackers to break into get into the state system to get to NSA, Hill, and tech firms.

Sure, because they know theyre doing business with the state all the time, said Neil Wyler, a former self proclaimed punk hacker and now security consultant large businesses and organizations, told 2News.

To illustrate, he used a hypothetical example of a business that hackers could not penetrate, but they knew employees of the company liked to eat at a pizza place down the street. So the hackers infiltrated the pizza business website, spread pizza coupons at the firm that was their real target  encouraging workers to download a corrupted pizza menu  only to allow the hackers to troll the real targets computers.

Squires on the other hand noted that the hackers seeking airport and NSA facility are wasting their time as the state and federal systems totally separate.

But that doesnt seem to have deterred the hackers from trying.
Small investors around the world will be able to watch Warren Buffett talk live via the internet when he addresses the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in April.

It will be the first time the meeting has been broadcast as it happens, giving Mr Buffetts army on acolytes the chance to hear his latest thinking on global markets and performance of Berkshire Hathaway, the giant company he controls.

Previously available only to the shareholders in attendance, the meetings have taken on legendary status and now stretch to an entire weekend. Nicknamed the Woodstock of capitalism, they are held in Mr Buffetts native Omaha. Last year's event included a giant picnic, live music and the Newspaper Tossing Challenge, where Mr Buffett, a former paperboy, invites challengers to throw their newspaper from a distance of 35 feet and land it closer to a doorstep than him.

Winners get a Dilly Bar, confectionery from Berkshire Hathaway-owned Dairy Queen.

As well as the shareholder meeting, including a Q&A session with 85-year-old Mr Buffett and Berkshire Hathaways 92-year-old vice-chairman Charlie Munger, events will be hosted by Berkshire's subsidiary companies. Around 40,000 people are expected to attend.
It is a difficult feat to create dresses with a structural grandeur akin to architectural icons by the likes of Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior spring to mind. But today the challenge has evolved: clothes that are architectural must be feminine and wearable, too.

Enter Josep Font, the Barcelona-born creative director of Spanish heritage brand Delpozo. Although it has been renowned in Spain as one of the countrys most accomplished womenswear houses since 1974, for the international market the label remains little known. Following the death of the brands founder Jesus del Pozo in 2011, it was bought by the Perfumes & Diseno Group. A successor was found in Font, who moved to Madrid to take the reins and steer the collection onto the catwalk during New York Fashion Week. From there, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Hilary Swank chose its sculptural, elegant dresses to wear, at the Cannes, Palm Springs and Hamptons film festivals respectively, and Delpozo earned its red-carpet stripes.
It's open Tory warfare in the Commons. David Cameron is throwing a string of barbs undermining Boris Johnson's apparent suggestion there could be a second referendum after a No vote. Every line is being met by a shake of the head by the London Mayor. Arms are firmly folded. Labour MPs - for once - are the ones hollering "more!" Extraordinary stuff in the Commons. Labour MPs cheer on Cameron and shout 'more, more' as he demolishes Boris Johnson. Strange times #Brexit  Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) February 22, 2016 As for Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary who also backed Brexit over the weekend, he is nowhere to be seen on the front bench. Mr Cameron finishes his statement with a clear barb at Boris: "I'm not standing for re-election. I have no other agenda..." Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent
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According to research conducted by Beefeater, 20 per cent of women said they would like to propose to their partner. Despite the fact that almost a third of women said they would be worried about their partner's reaction. However, more than half of men (59 per cent) would love their girlfriends to get down on one knee.
Over 1 in 4 French Gas Stations Out of at Least One Fuel: CNN
AP aims for sustainable double digit growth

Hyderabad, Feb 20 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will chair a two-day Collectors' Conference on February 22nd and 23rd in Vijayawada.



The main agenda of the conference is Performance Assessment 2015-16 and Action Plan 2016-17 towards achieving inclusive and sustainable double-digit growth. It will hold elaborate discussions on the quarterly results, progress achieved and decide on an action plan for the way forward.



The two-day Collectors' Conference will have six sessions. On the first day, budget, transparent governance, e-Pragati, Janmabhoomi, Farm Ponds (Panta Sanjivini), action plan for Kharif season 2016-17 topics will be discussed. Industrial growth, attracting investments, urban infrastructure development, expansion of the tourism sector, skill development and maximizing welfarefor the people will come up for discussion on the second day.



Sixth Edition of Collectors' Conference in 2 years



The Chief Minister conducted the first Collectors Conference on August 7th, 2014. The first session held a discussion on the government's vision to be amongst the top 3 states in India by 2022, be the best state in India by 2029 and be the most preferred destination by 2050. Each session of the Collectors' Conference focused on the government's vision towards development, reforms and an elaborate review on seven missions.



Day 1: 2016-17 Budget, Governance



The first day of the session will begin with a welcome address by Senior IAS A.C. Puneeta. Chief Secretary to Government S.P. Tucker will elaborate on 2015-16 growth and preparation for the 2016-17 budget. Later, Deputy Chief Minister Sri K.E. Krishna Murthy and Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu will deliver their addresses.



The Chief Minister will deliver a keynote address on 'Transforming Governance for Inclusive and Sustainable Double Digit Growth', setting the tone for the two-day collectors' conference.



Principal Secretary (Finance) Dr. P.V. Ramesh will speak on Budget 2016-17. Later, the Chief Secretary will talk about GSDP Growth Rate.



In the first session on Governance reforms for Transparency and Efficiency, topics slated for discussion are e-Pragati and Janmabhoomi grievances. Ravindran Devagunam, PEMANDU Director, from Malaysia will talk on Governance Lab.



Rural Infrastructure and Employment will be discussed during the post-lunch session. Officials will submit a report on performance and action plan for Rural Water Supply and CC Roads under MGNREGS, Borewells, Farm Ponds and Water Status and Management.



During the third session, the collectors' conference will discuss agricultural growth 2015-16 and create a plan for the 2016-17 Kharif season.



Day-2: Infrastructure, Investments, Skill Development, Welfare



On the second day of the Collectors' Conference, the district collectors and APIIC officials will present a report on industries, land consolidation, agribusiness and tourism. On urban infrastructure, the session will give ratings to 110 municipalities in the state. The officials will also discuss on developing 3 AMRUT and 12 mega cities, taking Vizag as a case study. Setting up of Infrastructure fund will also be taken up.



During the post-lunch session, an elaborate discussion will be held on skill development and welfare. The officials will review how details of skilled youth can be linked to industries and investments, thereby creating one million new jobs.



Under Social Empowerment Mission, reports on Health, Women Development and Child Welfare, SC-ST sub plan, Minority welfare and BC welfare will be presented to the Chief Minister. The concluding session will hold a review on Law and Order of the state. DGP J V Ramudu, DIGs, Commissioners of Police and Superintendents of Police will participate in the meeting.



In his efforts to put the state on a growth trajectory, the Chief Minister holds Collectors' Conferences regularly. The sessions are aimed towards sensitizing ministers, advisors, secretaries district collectors, heads of the Departments, officials and police personnel on the government's vision towards achieving inclusive growth and proceed with a distinct vision.









News Posted: 21 February, 2016








No dearth of funds for government hospitals: KCR

Hyderabad, Feb 20 (INN): Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday said that there was no dearth of funds to improve facilities in government hospitals. He assured that the State Government would release adequate funds to provide better healthcare to poor people.



The Chief Minister gave this assurance while addressing a review meeting at his camp office on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Health Minister Lakshma Reddy and other senior officials.



KCR said that the State Government would soon establish four new hospitals in the city of 1,000 bed capacity. He directed the officials to identify suitable locations for the proposed hospitals. He said these hospitals would be set up in Uppal, LB Nagar, Malkajgiri, Cantonment, Kukatpally, Qutbullahpur areas. He said that the King Koti hosptal would be upgraded int multi-specialty hospital. Smilarly, the present building of MGM Hospital in Warangal would be allocated for treatment of women and children. He said big towers would be constructed in the hospital premises.



The Chief Minister also informed that a university, medical college and hospital would be constructed in the existing premises of Warangal Central Jail. Likewise, the governments hospitals in Karimnagar, Khammam and Suryapet would be upgraded and new buildings will be constructed. He said all districts would have 4 MRI, CT Scan, Ultra Sound and Memography facilities. These facilities would be available at 40 places across the State.



KCR said additional payment would be made to the doctors working in rural areas. He also announced the waiver of condition of doctors residing near Primary Health Centre area. He said all facilities would be provided in government medical colleges.



The Chief Minister said that the Telangana Government would emulate the Tamil Nadu model in providing free medical facilities to poor people. He said a team, led by the Health Minister, would soon visit Tamil Nadu, to study their model. He said the emergency services 104 and 108 would be improved and they would be linked with highway patrolling vehicles.









News Posted: 21 February, 2016








Govt tarnished Telangana's image globally: Congress

Hyderabad, Feb 21 (INN): Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir slammed the TRS Government for tarnishing the image of Telangana at the global level.



In a media statement on Sunday, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS Government has completely wound up the NRI Cell which was established by him as the then minister for NRI Affairs during previous Congress regime. He said that the NRI Cell had ensured that participation of Telugus in almost all global events besides helping those working in foreign countries. He said that the TRS Government has stopped funding for the NRI Cell and brought its activities to almost nil. This has badly affected the image of new State at the global level.



Shabbir Ali said that the NRI Cell imparted training to youth, especially those hailing from north Telangana, in various skills through the National Academy of Construction. The trained youth had more employability and were preferred abroad, especially in Gulf countries. However, he said it was due to the negligent attitude of TRS Government that the youth were not getting any training before coming to foreign countries in search of jobs. Consequently, most of them are facing huge problems due to lack of skills.



The Congress leader said that the NRIs and workers from Telangana State were not getting any assistance from the State Government due to defunct NRI Cell. He said that the drought situation in Telangana has increased the number of Gulf aspirants. The children of drought-hit farmers are preparing to go to Gulf countries to help their parents. However, due to lack of training and assistance, they are unable to get proper job opportunities. He demanded that the State Government revive the NRI Cell and allocate sufficient funds. He also asked the State Government to revive training of Gulf aspirant youth across the State.









News Posted: 21 February, 2016








A 36-hour curfew was lifted early on Monday, allowing the Fijian military to ramp up efforts to reach the more remote parts of the archipelago of about 300 islands. Fiji remained without electricity in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that left at least 17 people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes. Credit:NZ Defence/AP "The Fijians are desperately trying to repair severed lines of communication, but they hold grave fears that the news waiting for them will be dire," said Raijeli Nicole, Pacific regional director of aid group Oxfam. "Given the intensity of the storm and the images we have seen so far, there are strong concerns that the death toll won't stop climbing today and that hundreds of people will have seen their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed." Damaged buildings at Nakama settlement in Fiji, after Cyclone Winston's landfall. Credit:NZ Defence/AP

Aerial footage of outlying islands taken by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and posted on the Fiji government's official website, showed whole villages flattened and flooded. Aid agencies were told at a meeting of Fiji's National Emergency Operations Centre on Monday of potential "catastrophic" damage to Koro Island, Fiji's seventh-largest island. Trees blow in the heavy wind ahead of Cyclone Winston's landfall. Credit:Getty Iamges "The aerial survey suggested the runway looks OK so they are going to land on this later this afternoon with emergency personal and some supplies," said Anna Cowley of CARE Australia. Fiji also reopened its main airport at Nadi.

Debris left by Cyclone Winston lies on the roads in Tamavua, Suva, Fiji. Credit:UNICEF Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has declared a 30-day state of emergency, with schools ordered to shut. "When we are able, we will provide timelines for the return of water and power," he said, adding that electricity supply to some areas had been deliberately cut to avert further damage. Tropical Cyclone Winston has been described as the worse storm to ever hit Fiji. Credit:Joli Businessman Jay Dayal, who lives near Rakiraki, on the north coast of Fiji's main island where the cyclone hit land, said the storm damage was extensive.

"I wouldn't be surprised if people are now starting to go without food," he said. "It looks like a different country; it doesn't look like Fiji." People queue in a supermarket in Suva ahead of Cyclone Winston's landfall. Credit:Alice Clements/UNICEF Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who offered to send a P-3 Orion aircraft to help in the relief effort, said about 1200 Australians were registered as being in Fiji, although there could be many more. The Australian and New Zealand government authorised the release of emergency aid supplies held in the Fijian capital of Suva, which escaped the brunt of the Category 5 storm. "These stores will ensure communities have access to safe drinking water and basic hygiene for those who have lost their houses or are displaced," Ms Bishop said in a statement.

She added that the high level of preparation by the Fijian government had helped keep the death toll low. Virgin Australia said it would resume flights on Monday, while Jetstar said it was still assessing the situation. Food and water supplies were a growing concern, even for areas such as Suva that did not suffer as much damage as the more remote regions. The Consumer Council of Fiji has urged traders not to sell food and other perishable items that have gone bad due to the effects of the cyclone. The Council's chief executive Premila Kumar said supermarkets and other food stores should destroy such items. Survivors spoke of the horror of the cyclone, while aid workers scrambled to help victims.
Vatican City: Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was valid for the guilty as well as for the innocent.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy Year, which ends in November.

"I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty," he told tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square.
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders behind bars has surged by almost 30, and they now make up nearly a quarter of the ACT's jail population in the past year  an increase Indigenous groups have described as "distressing".

Ninety of 413 detainees, or 22 per cent, at the Alexander Maconochie Centre identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander on January 1 this year, figures from the Justice and Community Safety directorate showed.

The Alexander Maconochie Centre, where 22 per cent of detainees were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander at January 1 this year. Credit:Jay Cronan

That was 29 more Indigenous detainees than the 61 recorded among the jail's 322 prisoners, or 19 per cent of the population, at the start of January 2015.

The figures had worsened by the start of this month, when 102 of the 414 people in detention  or one in four  were Indigenous.
Private health insurer nib said it is alert for acquisition opportunities as smaller health funds question their future following the $5.7 billion privatisation of Medibank Private.

Group managing director Mark Fitzgibbon said that the renewed assertiveness of Medibank, which recently announced a $100 million profit upgrade and is planning an advertising spree, has changed the local industry.

nib reported half-year earnings. Credit:Natalie Grono

"There is much more awareness of the competitive threat with the two behemoths, Medibank Private and Bupa. Smaller health insurers are worried about what the future looks likes and consolidation might be something worth revisiting," he said.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he had no particular takeover targets in sight, but he is alert to the possibility of a deal.
Foxtel is plotting to launch an Apple TV-style streaming device as it battles multiple new competitors led by Netflix.

The new service is expected to compete with Telstra TV, the service owned by Foxtel's 50 per cent shareholder Telstra. Foxtel's other shareholder is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

A good number of customers have taken Netflix in addition to Foxtel, chief executive Richard Freudenstein says. Credit:Peter Braig

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, in which he brushed off rumours that he could be leaving Foxtel, chief executive Richard Freudenstein refused to confirm any plans.

"We are going to make sure that we maximise all of our distribution platforms and it's really important we have a great user experience on them," he said.
There's a public meeting at Wollar, near Mudgee, this week at which US coal major Peabody will seek community support for an approval to extend its Wilpinjong coal mine.

No doubt a report by Peabody's "expert", Deloitte Access Economics, will be brandished about with elan. For the report finds the Wilpinjong expansion has net benefits of $745 million; something which may surprise Peabody's shareholders as their entire company is now worth $US38 million.

That's correct; a mere expansion of the marginal Wilpinjong, near Wollar, is worth 15 times more than the share market value of the US parent corporation.

This must mean one of two things; Deloitte is wrong, or markets are wrong (in which case, pin back the ears and dive into Peabody shares!).
A few months ago, I caught up for lunch with lawyer Judy Courtin, one of the staunchest advocates for the victims of the rape and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable others by, in particular, Catholic priests, and one of the people instrumental in the successful campaign to establish the royal commission into the response of churches and other institutions to these crimes. She did her PhD on the issue, was a guest of mine in 2012 in the advocacy column I have written for the past six years, The Zone, and is now representing victims at the commission.

In an eerie coincidence, when I returned from lunch to my desk, there was a joint email from the headmaster and chairman of the board of Ballarat and Queen's Anglican Grammar School, which I attended for the final five years of my secondary education.

The email read in part: "Ballarat Grammar is seeking to ascertain whether members of its community have experienced abuse at the school. Anyone who has suffered such abuse is encouraged to come forward, with the assurance that disclosures will be treated with confidentiality, and with the utmost sensitivityThis letter has not been prompted by any revelation at the royal commission, but by a desire to assist anyone who might be helped by the affirmation and support of the school."

It hit me like a physical blow. The image of the priest's genitals flooded my mind. I could also visualise the hideous, massive flakes of dandruff. I had suppressed the memory for more than 35 years. This is common.
There has been a moving vigil taking place outside the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane for the past 10 days. Night and day, individuals of all ages and professions were supporting the decision of hospital staff in their refusal to return baby "Asha" to the Nauru detention centre. This effort was vindicated on Sunday when Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed Asha would be released into community detention.

I abhor Australia's immigration laws and acknowledge that the public attention this saga has stimulated is a great positive. However, I am also concerned the demands of protesters have been short-sighted.

Asha suffered accidental hot water burns while on Nauru  burns that required transfer to a larger hospital as they were too severe to be managed on the island. Though staff had treated and medically cleared Asha, she was not ethically cleared for discharge due to a lack of a "suitable home environment".
The Australian prime ministership has seldom seemed more confounding. Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott confidently entered office only to be swiftly broken by it. Indeed, the past decade's tumult has highlighted paradoxes of the contemporary prime ministership: never has it loomed so omnipotent in the nation's life and yet been so brittle in the experience of incumbents.

Equally, while its vanquished holders embodied public disenchantment with politics, a resilient faith in the office's redemptive powers persists, as evinced by the buoyant reaction to Malcolm Turnbull's ascension.

What do we know about the development of the prime ministership? And what lesson does the story of its evolution into a position of national leadership offer for current leaders?

The architects of the constitution assumed that the prime ministership would be the preeminent office in the nation they were founding  one predicted it would be "the blue ribbon of the highest possible ambition". Yet fulfilling that promise was not a given in the first half-century after Federation. Prime-ministerial authority was hemmed in by constitutional constraints. Another fetter was the dearth of administrative support: the Commonwealth bureaucracy was modest in size and weak in policy generation. A prime minister's department was created in 1911 but for many years remained a small secretariat. Though incumbents were served by loyal private secretaries, ministerial offices were a distant innovation. Fractious political parties further frustrated prime-ministerial power.
From all accounts Prince has never been much for stage patter, but up close you realise he doesn't need it. It's all in the raising of one of those storied eyebrows, an impish tilt of the head, beckoning you to sing along louder, or play along as he acts out one side of a lovers' late night phone call.

One gripe is that the pacing of the show was all over the place. For instance a gorgeous, synth-assisted The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, third song in, was followed by two more ballads at exactly the same tempo.

But we were always told this show would be a reflection of whatever Prince was feeling at the time. After the elegiac Melbourne concerts following the death of his muse, Vanity, tonight we got a mostly joyous, life-affirming affair. How else to describe the mood after what must have been six encores, when Prince left 3000 of us singing the chorus of Free Yourself well after any hope that he'd come back on had passed.

As the man sang himself: "Nobody do it like Prince can do."

New Zealand, you are in for a treat.
But in a sign of the uncertainty over her fate, Mr Dutton confirmed that once the baby girl and her family's refugee claims were finalised, they would be sent back to Nauru, their home country or to a third country such as Cambodia.

The asylum seeker baby who inspired protesters to stage a hospital vigil to stop her from being sent back to Nauru has been released into community detention in Australia.

Earlier this month, doctors in Brisbane said they would refuse to release the one-year-old, known as Asha, to immigration authorities unless a "suitable home environment is identified", prompting protesters to camp outside the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital and block exits in support.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would like the public to believe protesters like Scotia Monkivitch were wasting their time at Lady Cilento Hospital. Credit:Cameron Atfield

But Mr Dutton told reporters on Sunday that Asha and her family were always going to be moved into community detention, accusing refugee advocates of "hijacking" the debate for their own purposes. When asked why this community plan had not been made clear a week ago, Mr Dutton said that "it has been made very clear", adding some activists were more interested in "their own media profile".

The young child and her parents had been flown from Nauru in January, after Asha suffered burns in an accident in the island's detention centre.

On Saturday, there was speculation that Asha was about to be sent back to Nauru, with the Human Rights Law Centre saying it had been "refused access" to its client, Asha's mother.
The asylum-seeker baby at the centre of an immigration storm has been discharged from a Brisbane hospital.

"She's in community detention," Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told the Nine Network on Monday.

"Obviously the support will be provided to the family and that's been the case for 83 other people including women and children that have come to Australia for medical assistance or the family members of somebody who has."
A Turnbull government plan to reform Senate voting would result in an extra 800,000 informal votes, a Labor analysis has warned.

An internal ALP document seen by Fairfax Media argues that if Senate voting rules are changed so that voters must number from one to six "above the line", there will be a rise in informal votes at the upcoming federal election.

The proposed change is supposed to prevent micro parties from "gaming the system" through preference deals, such as the one that saw Motoring Enthusiast Ricky Muir elected in 2013 with just 0.5 per cent of the vote in Victoria.

The Labor analysis, prepared by Senator Sam Dastyari, argues that if the reform is rushed through Parliament in time for the election due this year, the Australian Electoral Commission will "not have enough time or funding to educate the electorate about the biggest change to voting requirements in the Senate for more than 30 years".
Uber drivers, working illegally and hailing from some of Melbourne's areas of highest unemployment, shared in $20 million in 2015, according to a study by the ride-sharing company.

The popular service is still illegal to operate in Victoria but senior members of the Andrews government have conceded that it is inevitable the service will be regulated, it is just a matter of how.

Uber says it provides income and employment opportunities for those who cannot find work or are between jobs.

The Age understands a major point holding back regulation is how to compensate other players in the field, such as taxis and hire cars.

Many options are being discussed including compensation for taxis, with some advocating for relief beyond "hardship grants".
A Brisbane charity for homeless women and children has used social media and popular aspirations of weight loss and wellness to raise money for emergency housing.

The Lady Musgrave Trust hoped "to raise $300,000 for a new unit to accommodate 24 women and children [on average over] each year".

Homelessness

The unit would be located in or around Brisbane and would be either a one bedroom or studio dwelling suitable for a single woman and children aged approximately 9 or under.

Chief executive Karen Lyon Reid said homeless shelters were historically created for single men but in recent years there had been a "massive increase" in women seeking emergency accommodation.
A Dandenong Hospital psychiatric patient has been accused of killing a woman he knew in Melbourne's south-east.

Luke Sydney McLennan, 33, appeared in a brief out-of-sessions court hearing on Sunday night on one count of murder.

Homicide Detective Senior Constable Julio Salerno told the court that Mr McLennan had been a patient at Dandenong Hospital when police were notified of the woman's death.

Mr McLennan had called his step-father from the hospital and told him there was a woman's body in a home on Kays Avenue in Hallam, the officer told the court.

Police were then called and arrived at the house on Saturday evening, where they found the body of the 41-year-old Hallam woman, he said.
A chance meeting with a childhood friend may have led to unbearable heartache for Wishhasad Somawansa.

Mr Somawansa, 21, had not seen Sigaragh Baea in more than a decade until they ran into each other late last year.

Now, his mother is dead and his primary school best friend has been charged with her murder.

Mr Baea was invited to the Somawansas' Hoppers Crossing home for dinner in January, where Prasad Somawansa, 48, lavished him with hospitality.
A suspicious fire has ripped through $1 million worth of hay in a barn just north of Geelong.

The barn on Geelong-Ballan Road in Anakie was packed with 1500 hay bales, weighing about 6000 tonnes, when it caught fire about 8pm on Sunday.

Fire engulfed the hay shed about 8pm on Sunday. Credit:CFA

The blaze is expected to burn for at least a few more days, if not weeks, Country Fire Authority duty officer Geoff McGill said.
Amman: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before.

But he indicated there were still issues to be resolved and he did not expect any immediate change on the ground.

On Sunday, more than 140 people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in government-held areas of Homs and near the Syrian capital Damascus.
Washington: In the chaotic aftermath of the shootings in San Bernardino, California, in December, FBI investigators seeking to recover data from the iPhone of one of the shooters asked a technician in the California county to reset the phone's iCloud password.

That apparent fog-of-war error has foreclosed the possibility of an automatic backup by the phone to the Apple iCloud servers that might have turned up more clues to the origins of the terrorist attack that killed 14 people.

"The county and the FBI were working together cooperatively to obtain data, and at the point when it became clear the only way to accomplish the task at hand was to reset the iCloud password, the FBI asked the county to do so, and the county complied," said David Wert, a spokesman for San Bernardino County.

The Justice Department disclosed the misstep in a court filing on Friday, which is part of a larger, high-stakes battle over whether the government can use the courts to force Apple to create software to help it unlock a customer's iPhone - in this case, one used by Syed Rizwan Farook.
Nutson's Mega-Tweet Sized Auto News Factoids W/O February 15-21, 2016







By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

AUTO CENTRAL Chicago, February 14, 2016; Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you TACH's "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to digest mega-tweet sized nuggets. If you wish to know more just click on the link that will take you to the full story as published here on The Auto Channel.

If you are a car and driving fan like we all are here at The Auto Channel, you can easily wish to "catch up" on these stories as well put them in context with the past 20 year's 1,970,443 automotive news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news, video, audio, rants and raves. Just search The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive.

Hey Boston TV viewers, you can now enjoy The Auto Channel TV Network "Free and Clear" on WHDT Channel 3 in Boston and on your local cable systems. Just added Naples Florida, along with all South Florida auto fans who can continue to watch The Auto Channel TV Network on WHDT-TV Channel 9 in West Palm Beach as well as cable channel's 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami. WHDN launched its full schedule (including The Auto Channel)of broadcasting in the Naples-Fort Myers market on digital PSIP channel 9.1 channel. Enjoy and thanks for the positive feedback and ratings. See You Next Week, LN.

Automotive News February 15-21, 2016

*To Skip or not to skip, that is the question: The auto companies seem more and more done with fighting to make an impact at auto shows. Automotive News reports that now Mazda may skip the Paris show this fall. "Paris is a "huge" show, said Mazda Europe CEO Jeff Guyton, but it is difficult for Mazda to make an impact because it is dominated by Frances domestic automakers, Renault and PSA/Peugeot Citroen." Ford and Volvo already said they will not exhibit. A number of brands skipped the Detroit show this year.

* Are you a greenie?: A new study by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute examines how individuals can contribute to reductions of five man-made sources of greenhouse gas emissions, without substantial effort and time and little alteration to ones lifestyle, if any. These sectors include: industry, commercial, residential, agriculture and transportation. They conclude that driving a vehicle that gets better gas mileage is by far the best way for an individual to combat climate change.

* Have gas will travel: Gas stations may be facing a fight for the fuel tank. A new startup operating in Fort Worth, Texas, and Silicon Valley wants to bring the fuel to you, courtesy of an app. Its one of a few app-based fuel delivery companies looking to shake up the pump game. Booster Fuel will come to your business and fill up your car while you are at work.

* Fav Pick-ups: The 2016 Ford F-150 with 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine has been named overall winner of PickupTrucks.coms Texas Truck Showdown Max MPG fuel economy challenge. Ford F-150 beat out four competitors, including Chevrolet Silverado 1500 5.3-liter V8 and Ram 1500 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6, due to its combination of great gas mileage, capability and strong driving performance.

*Mini-Me Tesla: A kid-size Tesla is will hit the streets in May. Actually, the sidewalks. Radio Flyer is selling a child-size version of Tesla's luxury high-performance Model S sedan. For $500 the toy version with its 6 mph top speed is complete with electric motor, sound system and working headlights. Options are a $15 vanity plate and a $50 car cover.

* Toyota Call Back: In the U.S. Toyota is recalling 1.1 million RAV4 compact SUVs from the 2006 thru 2012 and RAV4 EVs from 2012 thru 2014 because the seat belts might fail in a crash.

* Gone but not forgotten thankfully: Saab and Saturn are still in the news. GM is recalling about 200,000 Saturn and Saab models in North America to replace Takata driver's side air bag inflators. The recall covers Saab 9-3 vehicles from the 2003 through 2011 model years, Saab 9-5 vehicles from the 2010 through 2011 model years, and Saturn Astra vehicles from the 2008 and 2009 model years.

* Big brother and big sister are watching and recording: The Detroit Free Press reports that a future filled with self-driving and connected vehicles lays just around the bend -- but it's riddled with a minefield of legal, hacking and financial risks. That was the verdict as lawyers, cybersecurity experts and software engineers gathered for the Connected Car Symposium in Detroit. Perhaps the most harrowing problem in this zoomy future of autonomous, software-packed vehicles may be protecting them from hackers. A fast-growing density of software guides these vehicles and collects data on everything from where we drive to what we eat.

* Ford Hates Pot: Ford Fusion could be the new hot ticket in pot-holed cities. Ford hopes a new feature on its Fusion Sport midsize sedan will help ease the pain of potholes. The new Fusion on sale this summer will come standard with a system that looks ahead for craters and then prevents the wheel from dropping to the bottom. Ford said the pothole mitigation technology will be a first in the midsize sedan category.

* Pot getting expensive:In related news, pothole damage cost U.S. drivers about $3 billion annually, according to a new study from AAA. U.S. drivers reported they paid an average of $300 for pothole-related vehicle damage.

*No more holes in Bowling Green: More than just Corvettes. As reported by ClassicCars.com, the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, has 14 muscle cars, hot rods and street rods on display as part of its American Muscle exhibit. The exhibit runs through March 25. The exhibit hall was designed to showcase a variety of exhibits that appeal to new audiences.

* Ya Hoo!: It's NASCAR 2016 time. The Daytona 500 is happening this weekend. Chase Elliott, the 20-year old rookie and successor to Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is on the pole. Elliott toured 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 45.845 seconds (196.314 mph), edging Matt Kenseth (196.036 mph) by .065 seconds for the top starting spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series opener.
By Danika Wright, University of Sydney

Negative gearing is set for its biggest change in decades. Once considered the sacred cow of federal government policies, both major parties are proposing changes ahead of this years federal election.

The Labor party has already unveiled its policy, which involves only allowing negative gearing on new houses and cutting the generous 50% capital gains tax concession to 25%.

The Government has not confirmed its stance and has attacked Labor policy, but has crucially left its options open.

Less than 12 months ago, even considering changes to negative gearing was considered unpopular at best with then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott reassuring voters that there would be no changes to negative gearing.

Now, while neither the Liberal government or Labor opposition are keen to abolish negative gearing entirely as the Greens and some economists (most notably Saul Eslake) have proposed, both sides of politics are claiming they will make the system fairer.

So what has prompted this change?

First, a quick refresher on negative gearing. Gearing is the use of debt (such as a mortgage) to increase the amount of money that may be invested. Negative gearing occurs when the cost of this debt (for example, the interest charged) exceeds the income from the investment (like the rent).

Why would anyone want to incur a loss? The most widely promoted reason is because this net loss may be deducted against the investors taxable income, lowering their overall tax bill. This is clearly going to benefit those investors with higher incomes more than those with lower incomes. And, the statistics show that those with more to gain are more likely to take advantage of it:

Proportion of tax filers with negatively geared investment properties by income band Better Tax, Tax Discussion Paper, Australian Government, March 2015

There is a second benefit from the property investors perspective  the treatment of capital gains. When a capital gain on the investment asset is realised (it is sold), the investor gets a 50% discount on the capital gains tax.

For many years now, investment properties have been the most popular investment asset after the owner-occupied home and superannuation. Like any other investment, including shares, borrowers may take on debt to facilitate the property purchase. The benefits from negative gearing, combined with the perception of housing as a safe asset class with steady capital appreciation has fuelled the flow of investor capital into the market.

But now, with growing public awareness of the operation of negative gearing, its cost through missed tax revenue, and increasing housing affordability concerns, even those benefiting from negative gearing are questioning whether it is appropriate.

Comparing the alternatives

The Coalition government has been reluctant to commit to any policy changes, instead hinting at capping the amount of negative gearing benefit that may be claimed. In a way, this is a reinvention of the 2011 Gillard government proposal to target just the wealthiest investors who own portfolios of investment properties. We might expect to hear more details from Treasurer Scott Morrison in his Wednesday Press Club address.

The Labor party, by contrast, has made the first solid move. In so doing they have made negative gearing a major election issue and will force the government into presenting a real policy proposal, likely as part of the 2016-17 Budget.

The Bill Shorten-Chris Bowen policy announced over the weekend has been in the works since April 2015. If implemented, negative gearing would apply as usual to properties purchased prior to July 2017. After this date, however, investors would only be able to claim negative gearing against newly constructed investment properties.

But will it work?

The Governments suggested approach would effectively create a progressive negative gearing. The tax rate increases (because the discount decreases) as income increases. While still lacking details, tackling the problem this way more reasonably considers the broad range of individuals who own investment properties, from teachers and nurses to the countrys most wealthy.

Labor argues that the asymmetry of its gearing policy between new and existing properties will divert investment to housing construction and boost the housing supply.

However, critics of the Labor proposal argue that it will trigger a rush of investors to the existing housing market prior to the July 2017 change, in turn reigniting a house price bubble.

Neither the opposition nor their critics are right and this is why:

To truly benefit from a negative gearing investment strategy, the property buyer would be hoping to win on the capital gains side. For that to occur, property prices need to keep rising, yet that is exactly what the policy is hoping to contain. Savvy investors will know this and take their savvy dollars elsewhere.

If you still believe there will be a boom in 12 months time, the better strategy would be buy now (well, technically, when or if Labor are successful at the election) in order to sell to some sucker then.

An even more critical flaw in the Labor proposal is the absence of strategy addressing when and where we will see this new housing supply.

Fundamentally, either approach makes housing a less attractive investment. In the short term investors will look to move their capital into other asset classes, primarily the stock market, which has been volatile.

It could take decades to see the broader implications of removing the incentive to invest in housing over other assets if existing property owners continue to benefit from grandfathering the current rules. Therein lies the flaw with arguing this policy change will also help to repair the federal budget (remembering the owner-occupier still makes their capital gains completely tax free).

Ultimately, the tide has turned politically on negative gearing. Whichever party sells their proposal best (alongside changes to superannuation and the GST) will be the election winner.

>> BACK TO THE NEWSLETTER: Click here to read other articles from this weeks newsletter

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
How to explain the powerful and in many respects unique religiosity encountered by Pope Francis on his trip to Mexico last week? Its roots are deep in history.

The conquistador Hernan Cortes explored and conquered Mexico in the early 16th century, but even before his death the Spanish state and the Catholic Church had taken dominion over the lands the conquistadors discovered, giving the Mexicans no choice but to embrace the faith. As the indigenous peoples converted, however, their churches took on a distinctive character.

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs capital, they assumed the role of a defeated people. More thoroughly than the tribes that had not previously formed part of their empire, they were immediately enslaved. Their first task was to clear the rubble of their destroyed capital and then, using the stones from their temples and pyramids, to build the churches and palaces of their new masters.

The architects were Spanish, but the craftsmen were Indian and their skills and tastes added to the ornateness of the stone carvings covering the new edifices. From the early sixteenth century, in fact, a new mestizo styleMexican Colonialwas born, combining the baroque and the Aztec, creating magnificent buildings that seemed to capture the deep melancholy of the conquered race.

In urban areas, the Indians resigned themselves to their fate, recognizing their defeat as the defeat of their gods and therefore gradually transferring their loyalty to the god of the Spaniards. Catholic missionaries in turn accepted a blending of Christianity with the religious traditions of the Indians. The concept of building churches on or near the sites of temples enabled the Indians to continue their pilgrimages. And by no small chance, it was close to the sanctuary of the goddess Tonantzin on the Hill of Tepeyac outside Mexico City that the dark Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to a humble Indian, Juan Diego, on December 12, 1531.

Religious syncretism thus took place easily: not only did the profusion of Catholic saints match the myriad pre-Hispanic gods, but both religions included much pomp and ceremony and sustained precepts of punishment and reward which made even the Inquisition understandable.

As the conquistadors struck out from Mexico City to tame the indigenous people, they spread death, not only through destruction and massacres but also through European diseases that took the lives of perhaps two-thirds of Mexicos Indians during the sixteenth century alone.

Missionaries followedfirst Franciscans and later Dominicans, Augustines and Jesuitsand in their effort to repair the damage caused by the conquistadors, they left a trail of churches, convents and schools in their path. Through the campaigning of one priest, Bartolome de Las Casas, the Council of the Indies freed all Indians from slavery in 1542.

The Indians were still regarded as minors who required spiritual education, but the new practice of placing them under the guardianship, or encomiendas, of landowners was also banned by Spain, which preferred that they depend directly on the Crown than on new fiefdoms. Some Indians successfully retreated into mountains, jungles and deserts to lands that the conquistadors had little interest in exploiting. But most could only withdraw into their souls: already, pride and tradition sought to live on behind a mask of subservience and formality.

Four centuries later, as Mexico underwent a series of revolutions and saw the rise of new caudillos, or dictators, many of the poor turned their anger against the Church identified with the rich and with their continued serfdom. And some of the strongmen who emerged launched relentless attacks on the clergy.

President Plutarco Elias Calles, in the 1920s and 1930s, was especially ruthless in his persecution of the Church. The traditional anticlericalism of the Mexican Liberal Party had been reinforced by the Churchs support for previous dictatorships. Still more crucial, the post-revolutionary regime viewed the Church as a permanent obstacle to consolidation of its power and modernization of the country.

The 1917 Constitution had nationalized churches, established that only Mexican nationals could be priests, banned religious processions and forbade clergy from appearing in public in cassocks, from voting or discussing politics, from owning property and from involvement in education. But it was only under Calles that these articles were strictly enforced.

When the government required additionally that all native-born priests be licensed in 1926, the Catholic hierarchy ordered a boycott of churches by the clergy. In the western states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Colima and Zacatecas, fanaticized peasants led by conservative priests then launched a guerrilla war to the cry of "Viva Cristo Rey!"Long live Christ the King!which gained them the name Cristeros. And in the name of Christ, they carried out murder, arson and sabotage.

The government promptly responded in kind, unleashing a fierce wave of persecution throughout the provinces. Cristeros were massacred and priests hanged, while in other regions masses were held in secret.

In the southeastern state of Tabasco, Governor Tomas Garrido Canabal organized bands of red shirts to attack priests and destroy churches. In Mexico City, it became fashionable to loot churches of their Colonial art. Even after 1929, when the dispute was formally settled and churches reopened, religious fanaticism and confrontations persisted. In 1932, the archbishop of Morelia was deported amid official warnings that renewed agitation would lead churches to be turned into schools and workshops for the benefit of the proletariat.

In 1935, there were still bloody clashes in Mexico City between Catholics and red shirts. In the late 1930s, a new ultraconservative religious movement called Sinarquismo emerged among the peasants of the Bajio region. But the traditional power of the Catholic hierarchy had been broken. The removal of the Church from politics consolidated the revolutionary leadership and centralized bureaucracy that had come to power a decade earlier.

Excerpted from Distant Neighbors by Alan Riding. Copyright  1984, 1989, 2000 by Alan Riding. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
When you picture the great outdoors, whether daydreaming or scrolling through your Instagram feed, odds are good you dont envision a very diverse population in those wide open spaces.

Thats a nice way of saying, you almost definitely dont picture black people out there.

Its a deep seated cultural issue, that when we think of the rugged outdoorsperson its generally a swarthy white guy. This isnt because youre white, or any other color, or racist. Well, maybe a little. But its also because of the tired stereotype that culturally, African Americans arent an outdoorsy bunch.

The data seems to back up the stereotype  a 2009 survey by the National Parks Service found that of all ethnic groups, African Americans were least likely to have visited one of our national parks in the preceding ten years. Thats a particularly soul-crushing stat when you consider that our nations very first park rangers were the Buffalo Soldiers, the all-black military battalions whod already risked their lives for a country that at times barely qualified them as humans. Yet these men were the ones who literally carved out the roads and trails in then-fledgling Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, then set about protecting both visitors and the land and wildlife as well. It was a mission made especially challenging in the face of that eras entrenched racism.

Numbers aside, for us to assume that there is a fundamental disconnect between the outdoors and African Americans is wrongheaded and dangerous idea.

And Rue Mapp is calling bullshit on it.

We actually do have a relationship with nature, she explained, her voice somehow sweet and fierce at the same time. We do have a desire to connect. Were doing a lot of activities in the outdoors, both alone and in groups. I like to get us out of the deficit viewpoint and really look at how people are engaging and celebrate it. Its not the why dont we, its the how do we do it.

Just who is this Rue Mapp, you ask? Shes an activist, writer, community organizer, member of the Outdoor Industry Associations board of directors, a California State Park Commissioner. Shes the winner, alongside President Bill Clinton, of the 2014 National Wildlife Federation Communication award, been anointed one of the most influential African Americans in the country by The Root 100, and, in 2015, was one of Family Circle magazines 20 Most Influential Moms. Shes also worked with First Lady Michelle Obama on her Lets Move program, and is a program officer for the Stewardship Councils Foundation for Youth Development. The list goes on. But, primarily, shes the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, where she oversees a specially trained volunteer leadership team whos focus is inspiring and celebrating African Americans connections to, and leadership in, nature.

Basically, Rue Mapp is a badass.

Shes managed not only to bring thousands of people to amazing outdoor experiences, in the process shes changing the way we approach conservation. You see, Mapp knows, and knew back when this all began, that the whole non-outdoorsy stereotype was nonsense. She knew it because of the connection she felt with nature, and because of the community she found when she was out there. She realized that what was needed was that someone had to be a beacon, provide a central point for meeting other like-minded nature lovers.

Drawing from her experience as a community organizer, Mapp started a blog, called Outdoor Afro, and took to social media.

The rest, like your perspective on that ignorant preconception about blacks and the outdoors, is history.

In 2009, when the economy tanked, I sat with a mentor and she asked me the question I think everybody should ask others or be asked, Mapp tells me via phone from her offices in Oakland, California. That is, what is it you want to do? If time and money were not an issue, what would you be doing?

Mapp realized she knew what she wanted. She wanted to make sure everyone in her community had the same opportunities she did to develop their passion for nature. Shed recently experienced a breakthrough moment on an Outward Bound trip mountaineering along the Pacific Crest Trail, which she described as an important lesson about what it meant to really trust your feet on the mountain.

I've been trusting my feet ever since, she admitted. And I wanted more people to have those opportunities to learn whatever the lesson they needed to learn. I knew nature had that potential, the platform to be a teacher.

Bridging her love of the outdoors with a long-standing love of technology, especially the ways it can be used to bring people together, Mapp started to make progress.

I just started this conversation about the things that I liked, Mapp claimed. Given that the algorithms were fairly flat back in 2009 on Facebook, I was able to reach people pretty rapidly right from my kitchen table.

And what she was saying spoke to them in a way others hadnt, or werent trying to.

People responded back to me, and they said, I love nature too." She paused for a moment, and you could sense her suddenly grow intense. And I noticed that we had a visual representation problem. African Americans specifically were not seeing themselves as part of the outdoor narratives. I realized all the people like me who felt they were the only ones, once together, we were quite numerous and influential.

Mapp began using her blog to showcase peoples photographs and stories of adventure in the outdoors, and other bloggers did the same, attempting as a group to change the cultural perspective around the lack of brown and black faces in the outdoors. Then they used their social media channels to spread the word as far and wide as they could.

We got the attention of some folks pretty high up in government and in the conservation world, Mapp said, still sounding just the tiniest bit awed. I was invited to go the White House in 2010, to be a part of President Obama's historic signing of the America's Great Outdoors initiative. That was a game changer. That's when I became visible and on people's radars, and began to build some really important collaborations that have served me today.

She knew this newfound visibility could be used to rally funding and other types of support from outdoor industry partners, and with these resources she could do much more to magnify the movement that was starting.

People naturally wanted to find out ways to get together, she explained. But she wanted to make sure she did it right. I was able to learn a lot from the interpretive community, and experiment with getting people outdoors. Really honing in on what was missing for people when they wanted to experience outdoor activity. What do they need to get on board, and how could they be sustainable and do it again and again without me?

After a year of research and in-the-field learning, Mapp launched the Outdoor Afro leadership team.

I just put a call out on social media asking if people wanted to join me in helping more people get outdoors and basically be mini-mes  use social media, blog about it, and really be a brand ambassador, she said proudly. About a baker's dozen said yes, they would do that. People I hadn't even met before. I on-boarded them all via a series of conference calls.

Half those original leaders are still with Outdoor Afro, and dozens more have joined, forming a diverse team.

I've got like human rights attorneys and artists, teachers, real estate agents, I mean people who are doing all kinds of shit, she said. But, they all have this fire in their belly to connect people to the outdoors. They're able to stream in their professional experiences, along with some super local street cred, to get people turned on about the outdoors.

Outdoor Afro operates in 30 states so far, including Alaska, and the response has not only been enthusiastic, it often seems there are no limits in sight to the non-profits expansion.

Well, except for that same cultural divide that has many of us thinking, black people arent outdoorsy. Or at least that divides looming big brother. The inherent racism still woven into the fabric of our society.

There's a huge issue among, especially young African American males, that they don't feel safe outside, she said gravely.

And she doesnt mean outside as in thirty miles down the Appalachian Trail.

No, what she means, as she said with as sigh, is Outside anywhere, much less away from places where theyre not familiar.

Undaunted, Mapp has approached these roadblocks with the same calculated aplomb she does everything, applying sheer force of will behind the gathered resources of Outdoor Afro and its allies to effect change and immerse people, literally, in a more positive environment.

After Ferguson, people took to the streets here in Oakland, her voice drops a bit, sadness tinging it momentarily. There was rioting going on, and everybody was in their feelings about it. It didn't matter where you were on the spectrum of agreement or disagreement. People were all feeling really complex things, and needed to have a forum to work it out. I was walking to my car and my office is in downtown Oakland, and I'm hearing the glass shattering, the cops overhead in their choppers, and I'm stuck because I've aged out of that form of protest, because I need to fucking go to work the next day. I got kids who need dinner tonight.

But Mapp knew that she couldnt just sit idly by, either. Thats not her style.

I was like, there's something I need to be doing right now. And the answer came to me so effortlessly after I posed that question, and that is... You do nature Rue. That's what you do.

So I went and called together some of our partners, and I said, we need a healing night. We need people to come together, and work some stuff out where there's not going to be any riot gear. And that's exactly what happened.

Accompanied by thirty people from around Oakland, Mapp headed into the forest at nearby Roberts Recreational Area.

We went down into that redwood bowl and did what African Americans do, she explained. And have always known how to do. That is, to lay down our burdens down by the river side.

And once she got everyone to that neutral location, something happened.

People were sharing, and not everybody agreed, and there were different races and organizations represented, and there was just... She paused thoughtfully before continuing. Relief. That we have a place where we could connect with each other, hear each other, and hear different opinions. Fancy that! We emerged out of that redwood bowl with some commitments that we would make to our families and our communities to promote more healing.

There have since been multiple healing hikes, as the mood of her community reels with the emotional flare-ups and stresses of turbulent headlines. As Mapp and her organization grow to fill the needs of African Americans not just in a nature-centric sense but in a spiritual one as well, she has found other ways to tie an outdoor acumen with cultural growth and healing.

We put together a whole swimming while black program to list out positive narratives around African American pools, she said. Because there has been a history of racial exclusion of African Americans from not just our parks and public lands, but our public pools.

Stating that African Americans drown at a rate three times higher than any other ethnic group, Mapp began negotiating with the YMCA to do something about it.

If you don't fucking know how to swim, youre gonna learn if you are an Outdoor Afro leader, she said bluntly. We want to disrupt that cycle of not having a skill that can save your life.

At its core, much of what she is doing, and on a less macro scale what is going on in our country, is about exclusion, and learning how to move past it. Thats the main reason you dont see African Americans as often at national parks, and thats the reason racism bubbles up through the social strata.

We didn't have the access, and we weren't able to go, Mapp explained. When you don't have that family history of going to Yosemite, of taking that annual trip to Yellowstone, we can't just say, okay now everybody go! That's why I thank people when they come to an Outdoor Afro event. I say, thank you for waking up, getting in your car, going someplace you've never been, to do something you've never done, with people you don't know. That's a huge gray area people have to jump through, and I thank people for trusting us with those experiences.

As Outdoor Afro grows, and hopefully our national identity and moral core do alongside it, Mapp greets her steady stream of successes with more and more goals. Her events to parks and forests and mountains have been booking out, with waiting lists. And now that she has 10 thousand people in her network, her plan for 2016 is to go out and get 100 thousand more connected to nature by years end, leveraging her partnerships with other organizations, the centennial celebrations for the national park system, and what she humbly and mysteriously describes as media amplification in the coming months but I later discover means her own TV show.

To clarify, I said leveraging, and thats not exactly right. Rue Mapp never leverages anyone, not really. She introduces people, dissolves boundaries, creates community. And communities, by nature and design, tend to work together.

Outdoor Afro has been able to get people to that place where they can feel confident, she said as we concluded our call. That they won't be ashamed, they won't be judged for doing it wrong, and that they'll be supported.

These are things that can be easier to accomplish in the wild, removed from the intense distractions and social structure of an urban environment. Nature is, and always has been, a great equalizer.

Plus, as Mapp wryly noted, The trees and birds don't know you're black.

Not that it should make any difference.

For more information and to get involved, go to www.outdoorafro.com
Theres a new church coming to Phoenix, Arizona.

According to its website, the pastor, Mark Driscoll, is a Jesus-following, mission-leading, church-serving, people-loving, Bible-preaching pastor...grateful to be a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody.

While he may wish he were less recognizable these days, compound adjective-loving Mark Driscoll could hardly be called a nobody. Though theres no mention of it on The Trinity Churchs shiny new website, Driscoll built and presided over Seattles controversial Mars Hill Church, and he is one of the most famous and disruptive figures in the history of the evangelical mega-church movement.

Driscoll and two other pastors started Mars Hill in 1996. Before long, Driscoll was drawing crowds with a unique brand of hipster conservatism. He was a 25-year-old charismatic preacher with a Sam Kinison yell and a collection of ironic Jesus is my homeboy T-shirts, who talked freely about sex but offered a socially and theologically conservative message that introduced Seattles young unchurched to a macho, vengeful God. (He once described Jesus as a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed.) The first services outside of the Driscoll living room were held in a music venueowned by church cofounder Lief Moiin a space aptly named the Paradox.

Do they call you pastor here...or dude? a Nightline correspondent asked in 2008.

Mars Hill was slated to become the biggest church in the country. In its heydey, it was welcoming more than 12,000 visitors every week to one of its 15 satellite campuses in five states and reporting $30 million in yearly revenue.

But as Driscolls star rose, he was dogged by allegations from church members and pastors as well as from outsidersof bullying and spiritual abuse, misogyny and homophobia, plagiarism, and misuse of church funds, just to name a few. In 2014, after being asked to submit to a reconciliation plan proposed by the church board he organized, Driscoll quit.

Now, barely a year later and 1,000 miles away, Driscoll is back. And though he may be fresh off an apology tour on the megachurch circuit and backed by a roster of celebrity pastors and online supporters, many of his original followersa dozen of whom spoke to The Daily Beast, not counting at least 100 others who have shared their stories onlineare still wondering if Pastor Mark will ever address the damage he allegedly wreaked on the people at Mars Hill or the church he left in ruins.

***

In his new bio, without naming any controversies specifically, Driscoll writes that he and his family faced the most challenging year of their lives.

Driscoll declined to be interviewed for this article, but in an email response, The Trinity Church directed us to his personal and church website. Our church plant is in the infancy stages and as more details come together we will let everyone know in our weekly church newsletter, Trinity wrote. Several follow-up requests seeking more information about the period between Driscolls resignation from Mars Hill and his new venture at The Trinity Church were not returned.

I dont know why hed hide [his history with Mars Hill], or think that he could, said Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania and perhaps the most prominent of a handful of fastidious religion bloggers who have documented the particulars of Driscolls troubles. Given that he built his brand on going public with things, being a celebrity, and marketing, I would think people would want to know what actually happened at Mars Hill before they welcomed a similar church in Phoenix.

There are a lot of loose ends.

So, as prospective parishioners might be wondering, just what did Driscoll do?

The first and easiest thing to digest, because the media so readily reported the juiciest bits, is the large groups of people whom Mark Driscoll has offended. Usually the aims of his ire were women or gay men. Sometimes, he hit both at once, like the time he suggested Ted Haggard's wife letting herself go might have had something to do with the rival evangelical pastors proclivity for male prostitutes and crystal meth.

The largest repository for his most offensive remarks comes from early 2001 in his churchs members-only forum, where he posted under the Braveheart pseudonym William Wallace II. In one particular thread, Driscoll rants (in part) that: We live in a pussified nation where men are raised by bitter penis envying burned feministed single mothers, homeosexuals are Damn freaks, and women, (unpoetically described as homes for a mans penis), will be ignored, because Driscoll [does] not answer to women.

These writings resurfaced some 14 years after Driscoll wrote them, and he has on several occasions apologized for his angry-young-prophet days, calling the posts plain wrong. But former congregants tell tales of a bullying Driscoll not so far in the distant past.

In 2003, former congregant Jennifer Roach had a disagreement with Mark over whether men and women could be friends. In response, Driscoll posted a letter to the forum addressed to her husband that read, You better shut your wife up, or Ill shut her up for you. What surprised Roach, she said, even more than her pastors anger, were the mini-Marksyoung men who took it further. I got direct emails telling me I was an adulterer and a whore, Roach told The Daily Beast. One said that I was just trying to take down a good man.

Hundreds of similar stories exist. A closed Facebook group of disaffected members has almost 500 members.

But personal stories of alleged mistreatment by Driscoll arent why Mars Hill imploded. As unbelievable as Driscolls statements could be, the more vicious the evangelical firebrand got, the more popular he became. Driven by a doctrine of manifest destiny and surrounded by struggling smaller churches happy to turn over their assets in order to join the Mars Hill brand, the controversial megachurch continued to grow.

The beginning of the end, according to most accounts, came after what may seem like an unremarkable event to outsiders. Driscoll wanted to change the churchs bylaws and organizational structure. As reported by The Stranger, by 2007, Driscoll claimed he had grown frustrated with the bureaucracy of running a multisite megachurch with his board of executive elders, whose approval was necessary for moves like hiring and firing pastors, spending tithes, and other day-to-day decisions involved in the business of organized religion.

So, according to former church members, Driscoll decided to circumvent the board he allegedly found so tiresome. He convinced a small team of executive elders to resignand filled the tops spots with loyalists who could rubber-stamp his decisions.

He had always made very clear that he was accountable to a board of elders, said Ron Wheeler, who attended Mars Hill briefly in the late 90s and worked alongside Driscoll, together starting the church-planting organization, Acts 29, that Mars Hill was later sacked from. He said that if at any point he needed to step down or change, he would submit to a democratic process. But on the sly, he had the bylaws rewritten, reconfigured the elders, and pushed out certain people.

In fact, a couple of elders balked, according to documents posted online by one of the ousted leaders, when Driscoll went to revise those bylaws in a way that would have put even more powerover thousands of people and millions in tithesinto his hands. When they made their concerns known, Driscoll had the pair fired.

Then, former church members say, he danced on their graves. After the firings, Driscoll took to the pulpit at a pastors conference and delivered the now infamous (in Mars Hill circles) Mars Hill bus speech. I am all about blessed subtraction. There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus and by Gods grace itll be a mountain by the time were done, he said.

When the two sacked elders refused to go quietly, Driscoll and the remaining elders submitted them both to ecclesiastical trials, and eventually found them to be in violation of the biblical qualifications of eldership and ordered that they and their families be shunned. At least 18 former elders have formally apologized for their role in the brutal inquisition. The harm permitted by our failure to protect you has had a devastating and lasting impact on you, your families, Mars Hill Church, and the watching world, they wrote in 2014.

In the summer of 2014after his online forum comments had become publicDriscoll posted a video responding to the newest public relations disaster in which he expressed frustration that a lot of the people we are dealing with in this season remain anonymousso we dont know how to reconcile or how to work things out with people because were not entirely sure who they are.

And though Driscoll claims in his new bio to have taken over a year off from local pastoral ministry to learn, repent, grow, heal, and meet with many people involved, one of the fired elders, Pastor Paul Petry, claims that neither he nor the many ex-Mars Hill members and elders whose lives were publically upended by Driscolls power grab have been contacted by Driscoll for any sort of reconciliation.

On his blog, Petry has documented in great detail his experience at Mars Hill. In his appeal to Driscolls firing of him, Petry wrote about a recurring daydream that Driscoll would show up and invite him for a beer to talk things over. It never happened.

Thats still exactly how I feel today, but the reality is Mark never showed up at my door, he never called, Petry told me. I still have the same address. I have the same phone number. I was never anonymous and neither were all the others.

While the firing of any dissenters allowed Driscoll the freedom to rule and spend as he saw fit, former members say it couldnt shield him from the fallout when questionable decisionsgreenlighted by a board of alleged yes menwere made public.

In 2014, Throckmorton, the religion blogger, claimed that the lions share of millions supposedly donated by members of Mars Hill to missions in Ethiopia and India through the churchs Global Fund actually went to feathering the churchs own Seattle nest and funding its relentless expansion. Driscoll never addressed these allegations but church leaders later apologized for any confusion without admitting any deliberate or intentional misuse of funds.

This came on the heels of other journalists reporting findings of plagiarism in Driscolls books (Mistakes were made, Driscoll admitted), and World Magazine reporting that Mars Hill Church had spent approximately $210,000 to buy Driscolls 2012 book, Real Marriage, its place on The New York Times and other best-sellers lists from a list-fixing company called Result Source. Due to the non-transparent nature of Mars Hills financial accounting, and a disjointed collection of Driscolls personal corporate entities which dont require public disclosure, just where the profits went for Real Marriagefor which the Driscolls had received a $400,000 publishers advanceisnt entirely clear. For his part, Driscoll has said he put 100 percent of the profits back into Mars Hill.

In August, Driscoll took a leave of absence from the church so that a group of Mars Hill elders could investigate a list of charges brought by 22 of his pastors. After two months of deliberation (and one prominent Christian author on the board quitting, and calling Mars Hill the most abusive, coercive ministry culture Ive ever been involved with), they found that Driscoll had been guilty of arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner. But, they said, this did not disqualify him from ministry.

They offered him a plan of restorationwhere he would step out of the pulpit and be in the elders care to restore and recoverbasically to get his act together, Throckmorton said.

Instead of submit to that plan, as Driscoll tearily explained in a 2015 interview with the Australian megachurch Hillsongs senior pastor Brian Houston, though it was not what we wanted, not what we had agreed to, not what we planned for, both he and his wife were told (audibly) by God to quit the church.

The Lord revealed to me that a trap has been set. Theres no way for us to return to leadership, Driscoll said. And so he offered his resignation. Two weeks later, Mars Hill announced it would shut its doors.

In the 16 months since he left, Driscoll has been busy. Hes traveled from Florida to Alaska, attending conferences and speaking at local churches. A week after his resignation, he took the stage to give his testimony at Gateway Conference, led by megachurch pastor Robert Morris (who now sits alongside megachurch pastor Jimmy Evans, and a media VP for a Christian marketing company, on the board of Driscolls new church). In December, around the time Driscolls reported one-years severance pay would have run out, he was registering his new church with the state of Arizona.

In the meantime, Mars Hill leadership has been managing the dissolution of somewhere near $30 million worth of assets, with little public accounting for who gets the spoils of the failed enterprise. And for almost a year, former members have been talking about filing a lawsuit to find out where just where all their donations went.

Driscolls new website lists more than two dozen church leaders who are praying for The Trinity Church. Among them is Mark DeMoss, owner of a Christian public relations firm who worked for Mars Hill in 2014 during the churchs many crises. DeMoss is not working for The Trinity Church, but said hes just trying to be a friend, and offered insight into what he says are Driscolls plans.

I think hes very realistic and he realizes that he might launch a church speaking to 100 people. I dont think hes under any big idea that hes going to open the doors and have a megachurch immediately. But, I think he has the potential to do that again.

Although DeMoss wouldnt name anyone in particular, he says Driscoll spent a considerable amount of time reaching out to people that he knew or thought he had offended or hurt in some way and did whatever he could do to right those relationships. Hes had some success with that, but there have been some people who were not receptive to a restored relationship.

I reached out to dozens of ex-Mars Hill members and elders to ask if Driscoll had contacted them to reconcile. Of the 11 who responded, all said they hadnt heard from him since his resignation, and they didnt know of anyone else among them who had.

In a video promoting his new church, Driscoll says hes met with around 50 pastors in the Phoenix area to have coffee, dinner, or go on double dates in preparation for The Trinity Churchs launch. Meanwhile, the hundreds from the husk of Mars Hill wait.

He never owned up to [what happened to the elders], Ron Wheeler told me. Whats telling is that theres not one of his former friends or ministry partners who support him, outside of his wife.

Had he submitted himself to the process he had put in place, it would have all gone much differently. As a brother in our faith, we would have loved him and walked beside him and supported him, Wheeler added. That was our hope, but instead he chose to bail. And now the concern is: Do we have an existing responsibility to the people of Phoenix?
On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein, notorious Iraqi strongman, triggered the first great international crisis of the post-Cold War era by invading Kuwait and declaring it Iraqs nineteenth province. With Kuwait in his back pocket and the fourth largest army in the world at his disposal, Saddam effectively controlled two-thirds of the earths oil reserves, and had every hope of establishing Iraq as the dominant power in the region.

As the Iraqi military build-up continued apace in Kuwait, fears of an invasion of Saudi Arabia mounted. On August 6, George Bush declared, This will not stand, this aggression of Kuwait, and he meant it. Quickly the American president obtained UN Security Council resolutions condemning the attack, imposing an embargo on Iraq, and seizing its foreign assets.

An extraordinarily diverse military coalition consisting of more than half a million American and 200,000 international troops, including those of key Arab states, was formed under the command of Gen. Stormin Norman Schwarzkopf, and deployed along the Kuwait-Saudi Arabian border over the course of the next several months. The coalitions initial mission, Operation Desert Shield, was to prevent an Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia while diplomats, Western and Arab alike, sought to persuade Saddam to withdraw his forces. Its second missionOperation Desert Stormwas to force Iraqs withdrawal by force of arms if diplomacy failed.
BEAUFORT, S.C.  On Boundary Street leading into the city, Sgt. Whites Diner is just past the lights at the intersection of Ribault Road across from Municipal Court and alongside a vacant Bail Bonds office. Hours before the polls opened and people voted in the Republican primary here there was a steady stream of customers for the pit cooked barbecue chicken and barbecued ribs and, it seemed, more interest in what might happen over the long haul leading to November than who would win Saturday.

My husbands disabled, a woman who gave her name as Ella Mae Jenkins said as she waited for her takeout order of ribs, and my boy is overseas now, again, for the fourth time.

Where? she was asked.

Cant say, she replied. Hes Air Force Special Ops and they do secret stuff so I aint sayin.

The woman behind the counter put Ms. Jenkinss order in a bag and Ella Mae walked to her car parked in a lot alongside a Piggly Wiggly market thats been out of business for some time. She spoke briefly about her husbands disability due to being badly wounded nearly 50 years ago at a place called Quang Tri City in a country then called South Vietnam.

Hes had a hard life, but the good Lord let him live, she said. Were thankful for that.

She said she had little interest in politics and paid hardly any attention to what the candidates were saying and that she would be happy when the campaign went to another state: Then I can watch my shows without seein all these fools on my TV.

Fools?

Yes, sir. Fools, she said, uttering the word with an explanation point in the air. Damn fools. They all talkin about killin these terrorists like its some kinda game. Aint no game. People die.

In the sky above, two F-18 Hornets cut through a low ribbon of haze heading to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort just up the road from Sgt Whites Diner. The noise and power of their engines filled the air but Ms. Jenkins never looked up because their appearance is part of daily life here, where the reality of Americas military, its cost and duties as well as its existence are the framework for so many proud families who are charged with paying the price for loose political rhetoric.

A few miles east, past the causeway above the Harbor River and down Malecon Drive, is the main gate at Marine Corps Recruit Depot East at Parris Island. Here the pine trees line much of the approach, some stretching 50 feet and higher and, then, on the Island there are fewer of them and the wind, warm now in mid-February, meets no obstacles as it whips through the day fluttering flags on the buildings that house the young who someday will be asked to fight for the dreams of the old who send them to war.

Here, in South Carolina, memory is part of the cement of a culture rooted in service to the country. And here on Parris Island with roads named for bloodshed and lives lost in places like Chosin, Guadalcanal, Bataan and Quang Tri, the cheap chatter of candidates talking tough is merely muffled noise when measured against the drills and preparation of those who could be sent to places where polls and political ambition are meaningless. Here, the dreams and desires of those on the ballot live in a universe totally estranged from the future of the men and women who might one day face a bullet.

Listening to some of the Republican candidates for president is like eavesdropping on men trying to earn their letter sweater with worthless phrases: carpet bombing, crushing ISIS, as if words alone will accomplish the mission and the lives of those sent into the fight are merely an anonymous squadron of props used to advance a political agenda. The world is on fire, a dangerous place, and too many seeking to lead appear to be clueless or ignorant of what is required to keep the country secure.

Charleston, South Carolina, is about a 90-minute drive northwest of Beaufort and Parris Island. It is an old city reborn with new charm and an influx of snowbirds from the North attracted by its ease, comfort and accessibility.

In the harbor, Fort Sumter is a constant reminder of the first shots fired in the Civil War. And the distant echoes and impact of that war can sometimes still be felt in the air all these years later.

The USS Yorktown is also here at Patriots Point Naval Museum here. It was commissioned in 1943, named after the Yorktown sunk by Japanese at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Today it is a museum and Friday night, hours before South Carolina voted, John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, came to talk to about 300 people who had gathered below deck.

Kasich is an interesting candidate. He knew his chances in a state dominated by evangelicals and anger were not great but he arrived with a smile on his face and a sound of contentment in his voice because it was not in him to feed the beast of those filled with rage and despairing of the future.

He stood on a stage with a huge American flag hanging behind him. He told the people hed been at a Town Hall rally earlier in the day and could sense the worry that many have about the direction of the country and the frustration and failure of politics in Washington.

I looked out in the crowd, looked at the faces in that room and I saw my family. Right there in the third row. Saw my family sitting there listening to me. Oh, they werent my family but I knew them. I know what worries them and I know what worries you but we live in the greatest country God ever created and were going to be even greater if we stop listening to all this doom and gloom were getting. Im here to tell you we can do this, but we have to do it together. Together. All of us. Together.

After he spoke, he was walking through the bowels of the boat on his way to another stop on the long trail and he was talking about those who served the country and those who will serve. He spoke about the families in Ohio who have lost a child, a husband, a brother in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I meet with them one on one, Kasich was saying. And I cry with them. Im not embarrassed to tell you I cry. I just wish wed pay more attention to what war costs and I wish more of us would talk about what it means to be Commander-in-Chief. That phrase is more than words. Its the ultimate responsibility of a president. Were cheating people by not talking enough about that role. Shame on us and shame on this process we have of electing a president the way were doing it now. Were better than this and people deserve more than what theyre getting from us. From all of us.

Then he climbed on board a bus, off to another stop in a campaign that is already draining for the candidates and the people anxious, worried, frustrated, and more than a bit fearful of the immediate future.
LONDON  Indulging the anal fixation thats been the bedrock of popular British humor for centuries, a tabloid here suggested that the worlds largest flying machine, viewed from a certain angle, resembled Kim Kardashians bum. Gallantly I protest: the lady is far more elegant.

The Airlander is more than 300 feet long, more than 50 feet longer than a Boeing 747. And it does appear to have buttocks, since it is like two airships that have been conjoined, side-by-sidea bulbous conjoined twinning if you will.

This, the latest resurrection of that persistent anachronism, the airship, will take flight in a few weeks from an airfield 40 miles north of London.

Airships have always had a special place in the human imagination. In various forms and sizes they represented the ultimate in dreams of flight long before human flight was actually commonplace. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, two of the most influential futurists in literature, seeded the skies with airships and early silent motion pictures did the same. Alongside these elegant behemoths, early airplanes were pictured as ineffectual gnats. Airships were big, and big was surely the future, a future beyond the ability of wings.

But these dreamers were unable to project the evolution of the airplane beyond its rudimentary form, the biplane, which was really only a powered version of a kite. The airship was, on the other hand, a relatively giant leap for lighter than air flight, from the 19th century gas-filled balloon that carried men in a basket below, and because it was able to carry a lot more people in comfortable gondolas beneath its belly, the more likely to usher in the age of mass air travel.

This was a classic misreading of technical portents. The cumbersome airship was always bound to be a dead end, a stunted limb in the evolutionary tree of aviation. For a brief time in World War I the German Graf Zeppelins played the role forecast for them by Wells as a terror weapon as they rained bombs down on London in the first aerial bombardment of civilians. Then they were recast as the future of transatlantic luxury traveluntil the Hindenburg was consumed in the flames of its own gas at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937.

Early in this century the Airlanders first imagined role was not for carrying people but for military use.

It was developed for the U.S. Army, who called it a Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle, LEMT, rather than, simply an airshipproving that it always pays to be alert to the militarys gift for obscuring reality with its own clunky semantics. And sure enough, when the program costs ballooned (pun intended) the military dropped it and it was sold back its designers and current operators, Hybrid Air Vehicles, for $310,000.

The new iteration of the Airlander is powered by four turbocharged diesel engines and will be able to stay airborne for five days. Since it doesnt need an airfield or airfield infrastructureit can land and takeoff from just a relatively small open spaceit is being promoted for its unique ability to carry equipment and freight packages too large for any cargo-carrying airplane (or helicopter) and deliver them directly to where they are needed. The market for a lifter like this is reckoned to be worth at least $50 billion over the next 20 years.

But, given that there is a lot of new technology in its construction and equipment, the Airlander still looks like an airship, moves like an airship and sounds like an airship. And airships have a habit of turning out be more a fantasy than a reality.

For example, the Armys idea was to deploy the LEMT for battlefield surveillance in Afghanistan, where the skies are clear for much of the summer. This failed to anticipate the arrival of drones that could not only provide intelligence but also act on that intelligence with lethal effect.

* * *

And here, with the military role, we come to the irresistible story of one Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe, an accomplished 19th century balloonist from New Hampshire, who may well have been inspired to take flight to escape the name chosen for him by his mother from a Scottish romance novel.

At the outbreak of the Civil War Lowe decided to persuade President Lincoln of the future utility of balloons in warfare. He had studied prevailing winds and chose to ride them from Cincinnati to Washington500 miles due east over the Allegheny Mountains and, ideally to a landing on the White House lawn.

Unfortunately the winds failed to oblige and deposited Lowe near Unionville in South Carolinaan epic flight of 650 miles in nine hours.

South Carolina was, of course, Confederate territory. The local cotton farmers who intercepted Lowe took him to be a Union spy, but Lowe told them he was just an innocent aeronaut who had been carried off course. Lowe (and his balloon) were released and sent on a coach to Kentucky, which had not seceded, and from there he finally made it to Washington.

In Washington Lowe staged a dramatic demonstration of the balloons usefulness for military surveillance by proving that from a balloon not only did he get a view of 50 miles in radius but that from the balloon he could transmit messages in Morse to the telegraph system.

With Confederate forces threatening Washington, this platform was clearly going to provide an indispensable military advantage.

Lincoln himself was so impressed that he called Lowe to the White House that evening and that is how the Union gained the Military Aeronautics Corps. In effect, Thaddeus Sobeiski Coulincourt Lowe was the pioneer of the dark art of aerial surveillance, of which spy satellites and drones are the modern spawn.

* * *

There is a ghost at the airfield where the Airlander is based, at Cardington in Bedfordshire called the R101.

In 1930 the R101 was, like the Airlander, the worlds largest flying aircraft. Measuring 731 feet long, it was an airship operated by the British Air Ministry. Early in October that year the R101 set out from Cardington on its first flightto India.

This was to be the showpiece of an ambitiously orchestrated commitment to two things: the official policy of building the worlds most powerful fleet of airshipsand the future role of those airships on the long-distance routes linking Britain to its Empire.

Both objectives perished instantly a few hours after takeoff. Slowed down by an engine failure that made an already notoriously flawed machine more difficult to control, the R101 ran into bad weather over the English Channel and limped across northern France at low speed, swinging from its course in high turbulence and eventually diving into a field. After a relatively gentle impact the hydrogen in its tanks ignited and the whole airship was destroyed in minutes by fire.

On board were Britains Air Minister, several other government officials, and most of the countrys airship designers. All 54 people on board died (compared to 35 on the Hindenburg), one of the greatest disasters of the airship era. It also destroyed the official British interest in persisting with airships.

The Hindenburg disaster seven years later did the same for the German commitment to airships, finally proving that hydrogen was too dangerous to use for the lighter than air principle of flight.

Of course, todays blimps and the Airlander use non-inflamable helium and the fire risk is minimal. But an obstinate limit on airship performance remainsthe weather. In many parts of the world, including North America and Europe airships, no matter how their virtues are touted, they will be grounded by bad weather. Their size and relative slowness leaves them vulnerable to strong winds and turbulence.

To be sure, there is something truly majestic and almost other-worldly about a large and glittering slow-moving object in the sky, almost like an imagined visitation by friendly aliens who have navigated from some distant galaxy and whose machine, morphed from a rocket to a balloon, now casts a long shadow as they purr almost silently over a city. No airplane can match it in its appeal or mystery. Nonetheless, we are looking at yet another dream from the past, not the future.
For nearly two millennia, Christians across the globe have practiced baptism. Despite their many differences of opinion, the centrality of baptism for membership in the Christian community is something that all modern Christians agree upon. They believe that at baptism their sins are forgiven, they die to their old lives and are reborn in Christ. But now a new book suggests that early Christians held very different beliefs about baptism than we do today.

In his book, The World s Oldest Church, Fordham Associate Professor Michael Peppard examines the iconography from the walls that adorned the earliest surviving Christian church, from Dura-Europos in Syria. Located above the Euphrates River in what is now ISIS territory, Dura Europos was a bustling metropolis in the ancient world. The church, one of three ancient religious buildings that have survived intact from the city (the others are a Jewish synagogue and a pagan Mithraeum), was originally the home of a wealthy third century Christian that had been converted into a house church: a building containing an assembly room and a baptistery.

The walls of the baptistery were adorned with biblically inspired artwork, including a depiction of a woman drawing water from a well. Traditionally, scholars have thought that the woman is meant to be the Samaritan woman who engages Jesus in conversation at a well in John 4.
Cindy King Boettcher, left, was the featured speaker at the Feb. 10 meeting of the Woman's Club of Bryan-College Station. Boettcher is a clinical professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. She has twice been the winner of The Association of Former Students University Distinguished Teaching Award as well as the 2013 recipient of the Bush Excellence Award for Faculty in International Teaching. She is the author of seven books. She was introduced to the group by Erin Kracht, right.
Love old or unusual movies but never know when they're on? Here are several I recommend:

Mr. Skeffington (1944): Bette Davis plays one her least sympathetic characters in this one. She marries Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) for the wrong reasons and treats him poorly. She then stumbles through her life as a shallow man-trap, not realizing she's cast off a man who truly loves her. She's even cold to her own daughter. This is a classic "comeuppance" melodrama, and it's fun to watch Davis get herself into more and more emotional trouble. Will she ever have a chance to grow up? Hmm

Turner Classic Movies, 4:45 a.m. Wednesday.

A Little Romance (1979): This utterly charming movie stars Diane Lane as Lauren, an American teenager studying in Paris. She meets -- and of course falls in love with -- a smart and tough French boy named Daniel (Thelonius Bernard). The two also fall in with an aging thief (Lawrence Olivier) who does everything he can to help the young lovers, including their scheme to kiss under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice to seal their love forever. The final scenes in Venice, accompanied by the gorgeous music of Vivaldi and Georges Delerue's Oscar-winning score, are pure magic.

Turner Classic Movies, 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Chi-Raq (2015). Spike Lee's latest is an audacious gamble: He adapts an ancient Greek play -- Lysistrata by Aristophanes -- to modern day, gun-ravaged Chicago. A dynamic Teyona Parris stars as the title character, a woman who's rapper boyfriend (Nick Cannon) is all ganged up. When he won't listen to her pleas for peace, she organizes a citywide sex strike. Kevin Willmott and Lee have a lot of fun adapting the play's verse format, and the performances are all splendid. There's a trio of supporting roles by Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack that really add to the texture and complexity of this energetic and daring movie.

Now available on Amazon Prime Video.

I Love You Phillip Morris (2010): No, not the tobacco company. This odd little film tells the story of gay con man Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) who starts out as a normal, straight-identifying cop. After a car accident, he decides to come out of the closet and (here's where it gets weird) become a con man so he can afford the new life he wants. This lands him in prison where he meets another inmate (the titular character, played by the always affecting Ewan McGregor). The story of their love and their prison escape attempts seem even more ridiculous when you consider the fact this is a true story.

Now streaming on Netflix.

Trivia Question #621: Only one of this week's movies was directed by someone who was an Oscar winning director. Which movie and which director?

Answer to Trivia Question #619: Radio host Howard Stern was instrumental and making actor George Takei cool again.

Ray Ivey is a writer and movie fan in Hollywood, California. He would love to hear from you at rayivey@ca.rr.com. You can visit his blog at www.starkravingray.com.
A local historian spoke to a packed house Saturday at the Brazos Valley African American Museum about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, touching on key events and stressing the importance of young people learning of the significance of what happened in the past.

Brenda White, local historian and member of the Diversity Programming Committee at the Texas A&M University Sterling C. Evans Library, took attendees on an auditory tour of major events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. She spoke about the Alabama cities of Selma, Birmingham and Montgomery -- as well as events that took place in Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas. She detailed not only accomplishments and struggles in the lives of figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., but recalled moments that highlighted the viciousness of racism at the time.

White spoke of Bloody Sunday, when marchers from Selma to Montgomery were attacked with tear gas and billy clubs; the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which killed four young girls, and the Birmingham Children Crusade of 1963, where hundreds of students marched to talk to the mayor and were arrested or attacked. White also made listeners aware of various national monuments and museums that stand to honor key events in the movement.

White said she has been speaking at the museum about black history since almost the original opening of the museum, and has not seen a crowd as large as Saturday's. Around 100 guests of varying ages and different ethnicities -- more than seats at the museum could accomadate -- came to hear her speak.

"I think the attendance was so big today because people care about the Civil Rights Movement," White said. "People want to know the history, because you're not taught black history in grade school."

A large congregation of visitors were part of an out-of-town group from Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Lyons. Members said their church's pastor had spoke of the speech and they drove to Bryan, bringing more than a dozen children with them.

"We want our kids to know about the Civil Rights Movement and about black history," said church member Linda Lauderdale.

Several church members said they were concerned their children were not receiving in-depth education about the Civil Rights Movement in public schools, and they wanted to take advantage of a black history museum in the area educating the public.

Jay Brakefield, a local radio DJ and manager for KEOS-FM, said he and his wife, Shirley, are longtime supporters of the museum. The couple, attending with friend Judy McCoy, said though they are white, they always enjoy coming to museum events and learn something each time.

"Black history isn't separate from American history," Brakefield said. "The histories can't be divided, they're all tangled up together. We learn black history so that we don't repeat the past... It's important for white folks to attend things like this and interact with black folks, to show solidarity and also to socialize."

White said she continues to research black history and share her findings, and will be speaking at more events like this in the future. Paralleling the thoughts of many in attendance, she noted it is important for the children who come to the museum and hear adults talk about black history to understand the significance of what has happened over time.

"To me, as a black parent, I want my kids to know that the world doesn't owe them anything, but we do owe our ancestors so much for their struggle," she said. "If it weren't for those people before us, I would be working at Texas A&M as a maid instead."
June 2, 1924 - February 8, 2016

Lucy Lane Sharp, 91, of Bryan, Texas, passed away Monday, February 8 with loving family members beside her.

Lucy was born in Valdosta, GA to Isaiah Tillman Lane and Clyde Cranford Lastinger Lane. It was in Georgia that she met the love of her life, Val Sharp, Jr., a U.S. Navy pilot stationed at Pensacola, FL. They married November 3, 1945 and the following October their daughter, Lane, was born while they were stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. Upon returning to Nacogdoches, Texas where Lucy had a noontime radio show for "ladies" and Val went to college, twins Valerie "Susie" and James Gregory were born.

Upon graduation from college, Val accepted a position with Sun Oil Company and the family enjoyed many adventures during the next 33 years. Lucy and Val made many life-long friends throughout their assignments in Beaumont, Venezuela, and Dallas, however, upon retirement, they eagerly returned to Val's birthplace, San Augustine, Texas where later they agreed they spent the happiest years of their lives.

Lucy, a homemaker, was active in each community the family lived in, but she found true joy and happiness in San Augustine. She was active in the DAR, the Historical Association, First United Methodist Church, The San Augustine Library Board and other civic organizations. However, spending time with "Poppy" was what she loved the most.

Lucy made dear friends wherever she lived. She especially cherished and maintained her friendships from the "old days" of the "B&S Club" in Plano to her newest friends, "The Sisters" at Watercrest in Bryan, Texas.

Lucy is survived by two daughters, Lane Mason of College Station, and Valerie "Susie" Stockholm and husband, Carl of Houston; three grandchildren, Chris Stockholm (who named her "Lady") and wife, Michelle of Tomball, Megan Trant and husband, Justin of College Station, and Mark Stockholm and wife, Lauren of Cypress; and five great-grandchildren, Savannah Stockholm, Stockton Trant, and Meredith, Christopher and Caroline Stockholm; two nephews, Bob Sharp and wife, Sue, of Bristol, VA and Charles Sharp and wife, Lisa, of San Augustine.

She was predeceased by her loving husband of 66 years, Val H. Sharp, Jr.; son, James Gregory Sharp; parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tillman Lane; brother, John Lane; and beloved cousin, John Beechwood Lastinger.

The family would like to express appreciation to the wonderful staff at "Lady's home," Watercrest, who took such care to make her feel loved and helped her adjust to home away from San Augustine; and, to her friends who became her second family. A very special thank you to Station #3 of the Bryan Fire Department, for their tremendous skill and compassion. And lastly, words are insufficient to express our gratitude to the dedicated nurses and staff at Hospice Brazos Valley, in particular Michelle and Pam.

Memorial services for Lucy Sharp will be held at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 220 Rock Prairie Rd., Monday, February 29 at 9:30 a.m.

Memorial gifts may be made to Hospice Brazos Valley or Covenant Presbyterian Church.
As I have found out myself, there is nothing media outlets like less than criticising other media publications or the 'profession' of journalism.

It's not really surprising. The credibility of a corporate media depends precisely on their not breaking ranks, and not highlighting the structural constraints a 'free press' operates under.

So one has to commend the Boston Globe for publishing this piece by Stephen Kinzer, a former foreign correspondent, warning that the media is not telling us the truth about what is going on in Syria. His account, well worth reading, begins:

"For three years, violent militants have run Aleppo. Their rule began with a wave of repression ... This month, people in Aleppo have finally seen glimmers of hope. The Syrian army and its allies have been pushing militants out of the city. Last week they reclaimed the main power plant. Regular electricity may soon be restored. The militants' hold on the city could be ending ...



"Americans are being told that the virtuous course in Syria is to fight the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian partners. We are supposed to hope that a righteous coalition of Americans, Turks, Saudis, Kurds, and the 'moderate opposition' will win.

"This is convoluted nonsense, but Americans cannot be blamed for believing it. We have almost no real information about the combatants, their goals, or their tactics. Much blame for this lies with our media."

Kinzer then goes on to describe why the media are failing - but those very structural constraints that govern our free media appear to limit the scope and depth of his analysis:

"Under intense financial pressure, most American newspapers, magazines, and broadcast networks have drastically reduced their corps of foreign correspondents. Much important news about the world now comes from reporters based in Washington. In that environment, access and credibility depend on acceptance of official paradigms.

"Reporters who cover Syria check with the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House, and think tank 'experts.' After a spin on that soiled carousel, they feel they have covered all sides of the story. This form of stenography produces the pabulum that passes for news about Syria."

So is there more to it?

Kinzer's explanation represents more of the 'cock-up, not conspiracy' justification for skewed reporting. If only there was more money, more space, more time, more reporters, he suggests, the media would not simply spew the government's official line.

Guardian journalist Nick Davies wrote a whole book, Flat Earth News, making much the same claim - what he called "churnalism". I reviewed it at length here. Journalists like this kind of argument because it shifts responsibility for their failure to report honestly on to faceless penny-pinchers in the accounting department.
The date, 2019, is a year after the reactors were originally due to be completed. The timetable has gradually slipped backwards. Last year the date for power to start being generated was put back to 2025, but this new date for pouring concrete makes 2030 more likely - if the reactors are built at all.

One insider with close contacts within EDF told The Ecologist: "The fact is that EDF is already in a precarious financial situation, with its share price half what it was a year ago, a falling credit rating, and massive liabilities for reactor upgrades and decommissioning.

"It has so far sunk 2 billion into Hinkley C and it simply cannot afford to write that sum off even if has already decided that this project is a total loss. So they have to pretend that it's a goer and that the 2 billion is a live investment that will, one day, produce a return to its shareholders."

In other words, a final investment decision to go head may, in fact, be no such thing. The company could just be planning to keep a few earth movers trundling about on the site, for years on end iof needs be, to give the appearance of activity while it seeks a graceful way out of the gigantic hole it has dug for itself.

The most likely long term plan, our source continued, is to try to sell the entire site on to its Chinese partner CGN after a few years. However CGN would then want to use a new reactor design, probably its own 'Hualong' model - which would then create additional long delays as no example has yet been built and it would have to undergo rigorous safety examination.

Record of delays, cost hikes and safety concerns



The new proposed start date of 2019 is significant for reasons the company dare not spell out. This is because there is no evidence yet that these so-called EPR (European Pressurised Reactor, no renamed 'Evolutionary Power Reactor') will operate effectively.

Four EPRs are under construction, but are years behind schedule, and costs have tripled. In Europe their earliest proposed start date is 2018 - so it looks as though EDF is being careful not to begin building another one until it can prove the design actually works.

The EPR, a so called 'third generation' design, is the largest nuclear plant in the world. They have a chequered history, even before any has actually produced a single watt of electricity. Construction of the first prototype began in 2005 at Olkiluoto in Finland: expected to be finished in 2009, it is still under construction.

The same is true of the second, at Flamanville in France, where construction began in 2007. It has also hit delays and cost over-runs of staggering proportions, and technical problems - in the form of a metallurgically flawed pressure reactor and lid - that could sink the project completely.

The vessel and lid contains too much carbon and is undergoing stress testing to see if it is safe. While the outcome of these tests remains unknown, a question mark hangs over the station's future. It too is due to start in 2018 but few believe it will do so.

The other two EPRs are being built at Taishan in China. Both should have been in operation by this year, but both also have undergone unspecified delays that are probably related to the same pressure vessel problems that have afflicted Flamanville.

These difficulties, plus the vast amount of remedial safety work required by the French safety regulators from EDF on its fleet of 58 ageing reactors in France itself, have put the company under severe financial strain. It needs to find 100 billion for repairs, and to improve safety following the Fukushima disaster in Japan, to keep the plants operating until 2030.

As a result of fears that the company might overstretch itself and jeopardise jobs in France the six trade union representatives on EDF's board have expressed opposition to the company going ahead with building reactors on British soil.

UK energy policy in tatters

This further postponement of a start date for the new reactors leaves the UK government with a gaping hole in its energy policy, despite it offering to pay double the existing price of electricity for the output from Hinkley Point, a subsidy that will continue for 35 years.

The Conservative government has been relying on nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels from 2025, when it plans to phase out all its coal stations. Some renewable energy subsidies have been scrapped to make way for new nuclear stations. As a result the UK is due to miss its EU renewable energy targets.

In all, the Conservative government wants ten new nuclear stations in the UK - four EPRs and the rest from Japan and the US. None of these now seems likely to be built before 2030, if at all.

Perhaps to divert attention from the postponement of the new reactors, EDF announced that it was going to extend the life of four of the nuclear power stations it already operates in Britain. It bought eight ageing stations of British design in 2009 for 12.5 billion.

Some were already due to close in 2018 but have had their lives extended. Now another four will be kept open to bridge the gap left by the failure to build the new stations at Hinkley Point. These are the Heysham 1 plant in northwest England and another at Hartlepool in the northeast, both of which had been due to be switched off in 2019 because of their advanced age. They will be allowed to keep producing electricity for another five years.

Two other reactors, Heysham 2 and Torness in Scotland, have been granted extensions of seven years to 2030. There is no reason - as long as the stations are deemed safe - why further life extensions should not be applied for, and granted.

Continuing to apply for life extensions for old nuclear stations also saves the company from technical bankruptcy. Once a station is closed its decommissioning costs become company liabilities. With the company's debts already high, it would not take many closures for EDF's liabilities to exceed its assets.

Paul Brown writes for Climate News Network.

Oliver Tickell edits The Ecologist.

Also on The Ecologist
MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Students in Carrie Lamars dance class at Henderson County High practice the steps to the Argentine tango Tuesday. The students will show what they have learned at the Henderson County Schools ArtsFest,

SHARE MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Henderson County High students Meredith Claybrook and Cole Buchanan practice the Argentine tango Tuesday in Carrie Lamars recreational dance class Tuesday. MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Henderson County High dance instructor Carrie Lamar (right) calls out instructions Tuesday to students in her recreational dance class as they learn the Argentine tango for an upcoming ArtsFest performance MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Henderson County High students feet work out the steps to the Argentine tango Tuesday during Carrie Lamars recreational dance class. MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Henderson County High students Sierra Evans and Dakota Bryant work on the steps to the Argentine Tango Tuesday in a recreational dance class. Members of the class plan on showing off their new dance moves at an upcoming performance at the Henderson County Schools ArtsFest

By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Dancing is walking to the beat of the music, there just happens to be a partner involved.

That's how Steve Casey sums up his favorite form of artistic expression.

For the past several years, Casey and his wife, Wendy, have helped Henderson County High School students express themselves through dance.

"It's just a good way to express yourself, and there's so many different ways to dance," sophomore Ellie Parker said. "There's so many different things you can do to show how you feel."

The Caseys help teach Latin dances to Carrie Lamar's recreational dance class at the school. This year, they've added extra lessons to help prepare the students to showcase the Argentine tango for an upcoming performance at the Henderson County Schools' ArtsFest  a platform for elementary, middle school and high school students to showcase their art work, dancing, theater and music. The event is 2- 6 p.m. Saturday. Lamar's class performs from 3:30-4 p.m.

There are eight couples who volunteered to dance the Argentine tango at ArtsFest.

"A lot of these are seniors, and they are taking off their jobs to come," Lamar said. "They're just a really good group of kids."

Stress reliever

Senior Molly Rigdon was one of the first to volunteer. She figured if someone didn't step up to the plate and volunteer, no one else would.

Dance has a soothing effect on her.

"I just think it relieves stress, and it keeps you calm, and it keeps your mood kind of sane," she said. "It doesn't bring stress. Some things you do bring stress, but I think this relieves stress and makes you feel good," Rigdon said.

Dancing is a hobby for senior Austin Hornback.

"I like to do it  I don't like everybody else to see me do it  but I do like to dance," he said. "It's fun."

For Hornback, the hardest part is not learning the dance moves but instead it is overcoming his reservations about dancing in front of others. Dancing with a partner and as part of a larger group has helped calm his nerves.

"It helps take some of the weight off you because you both have to cooperate together and make them look good," Hornback said. "You do it as a group, and you do it the traditional way, so usually you follow the moves, and you get the rhythm, and it starts to feel, like, amazing."

While the Argentine tango doesn't have a count per say  it's more of a feeling dance  the students are taught to move to the beat.

The instructors count off the beat, and students know a slow is two beats and quick is one. But it's more about feeling the rhythm of the music.

"I like the rhythm of it, and I like the Latin feel because I really like Latin music," said Parker.

The students are dancing to "Viluzysubi."

"It's a really neat little song," said Casey. "It's got a great little beat to it."

passion for dance

Learning under the Caseys has been great for students.

"They are wonderful teachers and they are very outgoing," sophomore Sierra Evans said.

Teaching dance is a passion for the Caseys.

"We love sharing dance with everybody," he said. "I think if the world danced more we would all be happier."

Dancing teaches respect and how to work together, he said.

In the Argentine tango the male and female roles can switch in the middle of a performance with the female taking the lead. Both partners have to know and trust each other for the dance to flow smoothly. Lamar's students are keeping it simple though sticking to more basic steps like the ocho  a figure eight  or the gaucho  a spin and flick.

When the girls perform the flick, it looks as if they are kicking the boys in between the legs.

The students began preparing for ArtsFest at the start of the second semester, but there have been a few hiccups along the way with scheduling practices as school has been canceled several times due to snow.

"The snow days have really thrown us off," Lamar said.

The Argentine tango is also a more ambitious dance than what students have attempted at ArtsFest in the past.

The dance moves still need a little polish, but Lamar is hopeful the students will have it down by Saturday.

"I'm a little nervous because with snow days and stuff it's been hard working through everything and getting everybody together everyday because some people don't come to school," said Rigdon. "If they don't, you're not all together, and it's not going to look right. So, it's been tough, but I think we're ready."
Jojo Whilden/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. shows Alison Brie (left) and Anders Holm in a scene from How to Be Single.

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Opening Here

"Deadpool": A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool. Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller. Rating: R (for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.)

"How to be Single": New York City is full of lonely hearts seeking the right match, and what Alice, Robin, Lucy, Meg, Tom and David all have in common is the need to learn how to be single in a world filled with ever-evolving definitions of love. Cast: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann. Rating: R (for sexual content and strong language throughout.)

"Zoolander 2": Derek and Hansel are modeling again when an opposing company attempts to take them out from the business. Cast: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz. Rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, a scene of exaggerated violence, and brief strong language.)

Still showing

"The 5th Wave": Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz Matthew Zuk, Gabriela Lopez. Rating: PG-13 (for violence and destruction, some sci-fi thematic elements, language and brief teen partying.)

"13 Hours  The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi": An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos. Cast: John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, James Badge Dale. Rating: R (for strong combat violence throughout, bloody images and language.)

"The Boy": An American nanny is shocked that her new English family's boy is actually a life-size doll. After violating a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive. Cast: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell. Rating: PG-13 (for violence and terror, and for some thematic material.)

"The Choice": Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events. Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Alexandra Daddario. Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content and some thematic issues.)

"Daddy's Home": A mild-mannered radio executive strives to become the best stepdad to his wife's two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids. Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini. Rating: PG-13.

"Dirty Grandpa": Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his grandfather, a perverted former Army general, to Florida for spring break. Cast: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron. Rating: R (for crude sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, and for language and drug use.

"Fifty Shades of Black": An inexperienced college student meets a wealthy businessman whose sexual practices put a strain on their relationship. Cast: Kali Hawk, Marlon Wayans, Jane Seymour. Rating: R (for strong crude sexual content including some graphic nudity and for language throughout.)

"The Finest Hours": The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952. Cast: Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger, Casey Affleck. Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of peril.)

"Hail, Caesar!": A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line. Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich. Rating: PG-13 (for some suggestive content and smoking.)

"Kung Fu Panda 3": Continuing his "legendary adventures of awesomeness," Po must face two hugely epic but different threats: one supernatural and the other a little closer to his home. Cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman. Rating: PG (for martial arts action and some mild rude humor.)

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies": Jane Austen's classic tale of the tangled relationships between lovers from different social classes in 19th century England is faced with a new challenge  an army of undead zombies. Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston. Rating: PG-13 (for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material.)

"The Revenant": The survival saga "The Revenant" is a loose adaptation of Michael Punke's 2002 novel about the frontiersman Hugh Glass. Some of the most ravishing filmmaking of the year, or any year, takes viewers down river rapids and into the kind of clashes  a mauling grizzly, an ambushing tribe  not rendered before with this kind of awe-inspiring, naturally lit virtuosity. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter. Rating: R (strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity.)

"Ride Along 2": As his wedding day approaches, Ben heads to Miami with his soon-to-be brother-in-law James to bring down a drug dealer who's supplying the dealers of Atlanta with product. Cast: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Tika Sumpter. Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of violence, sexual content, language and some drug material.)

"Star Wars  The Force Awakens": A continuation of the saga created by George Lucas and set 30 years after Star Wars: Episode VI  Return of the Jedi (1983). Cast: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. Rating: PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence.)
Donna B. Stinnett/The Gleaner Cyndee Burton, right, founder and director of the HIV/AIDS specialty clinic Matthew 25, shares a light moment one day recently with case workers Ronna Harris and Beverly Justice. From its start as a tiny clinic 20 years ago, Matthew 25 now employes 25 staff members and has a caseload of more than 500 patients.

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By Donna B. Stinnett

When registered nurse Cyndee Burton had a vision to set up an HIV/AIDS specialty clinic as a church parish nurse program at Zion United Church of Christ, she surely couldn't have imagined how it would look in 20 years.

But here we are, two decades later, with Burton's Matthew 25 clinic serving 25 counties in Kentucky  and 509 patients, including some in Southern Indiana and Illinois  as one of only four such clinics in the state.

Burton has won awards and grants and the assistance of 97 volunteers who do such things as drive patients to appointments at the growing clinic named for the New Testament scripture about serving your fellow man (including the sick.)

She moved from her tiny first clinic and became an independent nonprofit within five years of launch, then moved again to a sprawling building on Old Corydon Road  a former church building  where case managers have plenty of room to work with clients.

"It doesn't seem like 20 years," Burton said. "I get up in the morning and I'm still so excited about going to work. That's when I know I'm doing what I was called to do.

"And we've still got plenty of work to do," she added.

It didn't take long for her vision for the clinic to evolve.

"When I sit and think back, it formed to give people (with AIDS) a respectful and loving death," Burton said, remembering how in that era people were so scared by what they didn't know about the disease and even families members turned their backs on the ill and suffering.

But it was about that time that new drugs became available and everything changed.

"We had the opportunity to see people live and provide good care," Burton said.

She got things started by writing a grant  two, in fact  though she'd never, ever written a grant before.

"I had worked in critical care," Burton said. "I thought after that surely I could write a grant?"

She got them both.

"I can remember getting a call of congratulations and thinking 'now it's real,'" Burton recalls. "It was hard to leave the security of a hospital job."

She had made plans for space for her clinic, but when that plan fell apart, she called her recently retired dad, Max Turner, in Florida. "I was in tears asking him what I was going to do," Burton said.

But her dad, who had been a construction engineer, didn't flinch.

"He said 'Why don't I get in my motor home, drive up there and make you a clinic?' " she said, describing how in a matter of weeks her dad and a crew of volunteers at Zion UCC had the clinic up and running with a caseload of about 50 patients.

The years have gone by and the disease has changed, but there's one thing that hasn't.

"There's really something about this disease and poverty," Burton said, adding that the necessity of education, awareness and testing has never faltered.

But she's proud of the fact that she can put Matthew 25 up against any other HIV/AIDS clinic anywhere.

"People here get the same kind of care as they get in New York, Chicago or Washington, D.C.," she said.

She said the disease has changed because there's now an aging population with HIV, and those people have other health issues to manage that come with age. There are also more women with HIV.

"They bring such different problems," Burton said, noting that her clinic started seeing big shifts in demographics around 2010. "You have a whole family to think about. To deal with it, I just put my head down and started working. I think we've done a good job."

She said that it's been important to stay plugged into the community, to share their work and keep the dialogue out there.

She said she thinks that when you're a team player and work hard at the projects of others, she earns community respect and she becomes less "that nurse who took care of those people ..."

Last year, Matthew 25 was honored as the first Nonprofit of the Year by economic development agency Kyndle.

Before 1996, it was noted in remarks by presenter Chase Fulcher, patients here previously had to travel two to four hours to obtain care.

"Under (Cyndee Burton's) guidance this has grown into a model organization, " he said. "The other programs around the country are coming here to emulate what Henderson has done, what those volunteers have done."

Matthew 25 "is so much more than a medical care clinic for those with AIDS or the risk of contracting the virus, " Fulcher said. "It offers a testing program, social services, support, education, a prevention program as well as housing support and a food bank, " he said. "Through insight and innovation, it has continually grown the outreach of its services and financial security, making the future of it very bright."
Great River Christian hosting 25th anniversary open house on Saturday

Great River Christian School is hosting an open house event on Saturday to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
WILTON  While growing up on the island of Trinidad, Norwalker Donna Rogers-Jones and her brother Robert were discouraged from playing the percussion instrument known to Trinidadians as a steelpan.

The instrument, fashioned from one end of a 55-gallon oil drum, originated in the Laventille slum of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital city, and was considered coarse by the country's upwardly mobile classes.

"Any decent young lady was discouraged" from playing the steelpan, said Rogers-Jones, whose devout parents preferred she and Robert sing religious songs and play the organ, piano or guitar.

Often inaccurately called a "steel drum," the steelpan was invented in the 1930s by parade bands in Laventille who innovated as they strove to be as loud as possible and drown out the music of rival musicians.

The bands would compete for volume using metallic objects like tins, barrels and car parts, creating what Rogers-Jones said is today known as the "iron band" sound in Trinidad and Tobago.

The musicians Winston "Spree" Simon, Ellie Manette and Anthony Williams are credited with inventing and refining the steelpan as a melodic instrument, Rogers-Jones' brother Robert added.

Despite their musical upbringing, neither Donna nor Robert had much involvement with music upon relocating to the United States  not, that is, until Donna encountered Wilton Steel performing at Wilton Pizza, under the leadership of Wilton jazz percussionist Arthur Lipner, during one of the band's weekly summer gigs at the restaurant.

"I just wasn't expecting to see a steelpan in there!" Rogers-Jones said, adding that she was immediately moved to dance despite the immobility of the other spectators. "In Trinidad, whenever we hear music, especially pan music, we would groove. I simply could not remain seated."

Rogers-Jones decided "then and there" to join the band. "What made it better is that I am from Trinidad, and ... they were playing the steelpan, which is from Trinidad, and some of the songs were calypsos from Trinidad and Tobago."

Although she had never played steelpan before, Rogers-Jones picked up the instrument known as a "double second"  a set of two steelpans tuned to a tenor register  and soon enlisted Robert to play guitar.

Wilton Steel is the brainchild of local percussionist Arthur Lipner, a highly refined jazz musician who travels the world playing 70 to 80 gigs a year with various bands and has made a documentary, "Talking Sticks," about the marimba and vibrophone.

Six years ago, Lipner founded Wilton Steel as a "community band," with the idea that anyone can join.

"I'll let anyone in," Lipner said. "All ages, all levels of inexperience, and I just work with what people can do."

"If you can behave, and count to four, you're in the band," Lipner added with a laugh. "And if you can only do one of those, we'll still work with you!"

The result is a unique, spirited ensemble that has begun to attract national attention.

Recently, through the group's affiliation with band member Darla Shaw -- a local artist, educator, stand-up comedian and acclaimed "eccentric"  Wilton Steel was approached by a major television network to film an audition tape for one of its widely-watched talent show competitions. (She has requested that the name of the network be withheld.)

Shaw said that she was incredulous when she received a call at her office from network scouts who had seen filmmaker John Zaritsky's documentary about her and had found footage of her stand-up routine online.

"I said, 'If this is for real, you call me back in two hours,'" Shaw said. "I was ready to go home, because I figured it was a joke."

"I think it's because I'm a demographic," said Shaw, who is 78. "Everyone loves that I am old."

The wide-ranging diversity of Wilton Steel's band members may add to its appeal, Shaw said.

"We've got Hispanic, we've got Black, we have a girl in a wheelchair, we've got a lesbian couple; I mean, we've got everything," Shaw said. "We've got a 10-year-old girl now!"

After talking to Shaw about the many projects she is involved in, the network invited her and Wilton Steel to submit a 90-second audition reel. The group has spent the past several weeks learning an arrangement by Lipner of a well-known contemporary pop song.

"(The band) have been putting in so much extra time for this video. And it's 90 seconds!" Shaw said. "If they like us, they fly us all to Los Angeles. I mean, this whole thing is just so funny I can't believe it."
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a series of articles written by high school and college participants, who are covering the upcoming 30 Hour Famine hosted at St. Philip Church on February 27-28. Kim Devine is a Norwalk High School graduate and current freshman at The College of The Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

NORWALK -- In preparation for St. Philip's annual 30 Hour Famine, students from ages 11 to 18 spend months fundraising to join the fight against world hunger. When the anticipated weekend finally arrives, students unite Saturday morning to participate in a two-mile hunger walk, marking the beginning of the fast. Famine participants spend the next thirty hours coming together through activities and various service projects to benefit the local community. This year, the anticipation is nearly over -- the 13th 30 Hour Famine will take place Feb. 27 and 28 at St Philip's Church.

Last year, the Famine had 201 participants and raised over $50,000. The money raised benefits World Vision, which works to combat hunger by providing food, supplies, and education to families in developing countries, and local organizations such as the Open Door Shelter's Manna House in South Norwalk that provides approximately 60,000 meals a month for the community.

Although Famine participants are mostly from the high school and middle school ranks, the Famine draws college students and adults back to Norwalk each year to stay involved as volunteers.

Mike Surace has continued his involvement not only after high school but even after he graduated from the University of Connecticut. He participated in the second Famine and every one since -- now as a volunteer.

"I went back not only because it was for a great cause raising money and awareness, but also to help grow the program," Surace said. "When I attended, there were no more than 30 kids, and now there are over one hundred. It grows more every year."

Surace particularly enjoys returning to see his youth group friends, encouraging current students as they fast, and literally "lighting the way" to the church for the participants during the Saturday night vigil.

University of Connecticut junior Rob Ranieri had no idea when he started attending the Famine in sixth grade just how much of an effect it would have on his life.

"It was the annual event I always looked forward to," Ranieri said. "It's a chance to get away from social media, and bond with your friends and community for the common good."

After witnessing the impact of hunger firsthand in South Africa this past August, Ranieri chose to major in Resource Economics, which he described as "looking at agriculture to maximize the process and develop an area, specifically helping third world countries to produce more food."

"The Famine was an opportunity to do something humane and moral," Ranieri said. "You see so much negativity coming out in the news, but this was a good way to show the community how much you care."

Volunteer Teresa Falbo was so touched by the Famine that she encouraged her Eastern Connecticut college roommates to participate.

"The famine instilled an awareness and passion for saving lives," Falbo said. "I wanted to help expand the Famine to more than just Fairfield County.

The following year when Falbo and her roommates were unable to attend, they fasted at school and donated the money they would have spent on food that weekend.

Mike Pappa, a religion teacher at St. Joseph's high school, returns as a volunteer because he renders the Famine a spiritual experience one cannot easily leave behind.

"You connect with a social problem by going hungry, while doing something about it at the same time," Pappa said. "That combination will change your life for the better."

To learn more about the 30 Hour Famine and how you can participate, volunteer or donate, go to http://stphilipnorwalk.weebly.com/30-hour-famine.html.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post  Sun, February 21, 2016

The Fairmont Jakarta is offering a zingy take on Italy's zeppole 'donuts'



WORDS Kevindra P. Soemantri

In the 1970s, Western-style pastries were considered extravagant by diners in Jakarta'at least until the Sakura Anpan bakery on Jl. Sabang began a craze with its beautifully constructed fruit pies.



Jumping ahead a few years, local gastronomes were surprised when Union Brasserie introduced red velvet cake to their palates, leading to the cake's epidemic expansion in local restaurants.



There was, of course, also Dominique Ansel'Manhattan's so-called 'Prince of Pastries''renowned for creating the cronut and who inspired the Mandarin Cake Shop at the Mandarin Oriental hotel to introduce that fusion pastry to the city.



Now, those seeking a taste of la dolce vita should prepare themselves: The Sapori Deli at the Fairmont hotel is fixing to introduce the zeppola, the classic Italian donut/beignet, to the capital.



While zeppole are thought to have been popularized in Rome, early recipes can be found in the works of the famous Neapolitan gastronome Ippolito Cavalcanti in 1837, according to Ecompania.



The donuts are currently popular throughout southern Italy, such as in Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and even further south, in Malta.



In Italy, zeppole are typically served with a touch of powdered sugar or fresh cream, made of fried choux pastry, filled with pastry or chatilly cream and topped with candied or amarene sour cherries.



Their hollow centers can also be filled with almost anything.



In Naples, zeppole are typically baked or fried and can be savory, sometimes using kelp or anchovies as a filling; while Sicilian versions use flour, rice, orange honey or powdered sugar.



The sumptuous pastry is typically associated with Mardi Gras, which marks the approach of Easter in the Catholic faith, or with the feast days of saints, such as St. Joseph on March 19, which coincides with Italian Father's Day.



At the Sapori Deli, executive pastry chef Sapto and executive chef Andrew are for a limited time offering zeppole with a host of fillings, including strawberry shortcake, tiramisu, delectable Guanaja Balinese chocolate, hipster-friendly Nutella, vanilla bean, funky lemon soda pop, dulche de leche, black forest, matcha, Earl Grey tea and, yes, red velvet.



If you are a connoisseur of patisserie, you will find that a zeppola resembles a French religiuse, save that it is larger.



I found it a total pleasure to enjoy every single bite of the zeppole I sampled at the Fairmont recently.



The lemon soda pop version was uniquely entertaining: A duet of elegant pastry and tangy lemon that was beautifully (and deliciously) odd.





The delicate pastry cream was suddenly made alive by pop-rock candy hidden inside stream of cream that gently exploded when taking a bite.



Curiosity allured me to taste the black forest zeppola, which prompted a feeling of dAjA vu.



I was reminded of how more than four decades ago in the 1970s, Sari Deli at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel also became famous for introducing black forest cake to Jakarta'and there I was, at Sapori Deli, tempted to eat black forest in its newest form.



The black-forest zeppola had candied pitted cherries inside its creamy filling and a dark chocolate ganache on top. The tart sourness of the cherry combined with the mellow sweetness of the cream, while the ganache added a signature black forest flavor.



Ippolito Cavalcanti would be proud.

______________________________

MOVABLE FEASTS

RUTH'S CHRIS LANDS IN JAKARTA



Ruth's Chris Steak House just opened its first restaurant in Indonesia on Feb. 13. The international food chain is known for its New Orleans-style luxury dining menus'and most notably its USDA prime steaks.



The restaurant, Ruth's Chris' 10th in Asia, was opened on the ground floor of Somerset Apartments in South Jakarta.



Each steak at Ruth's Chris is cooked in a 982 degree oven using methods developed by founder Ruth Fertel 50 years ago. JPlus



INTRODUCING ROBO HOSPITALITY



Visit the newly-opened Rong Heng Seafood restaurant at the East Coast Seafood Center in Singapore, and you will be greeted by a robot in a red apron holding a tray.



Once you're seated, your food will be delivered by two other robots 'Lucy and Mary'dressed with scarves around their necks. Other robots will dance to hit songs like "Gangnam Style" by South Korean star Psy to entertain you during your visit.



The restaurant's owners are using robots designed in Japan and made in China to deal with human power shortage, a common problem faced by the food and beverage industry in Singapore. ANN/Straits Times



AKIRA WATANABE OPENS 'PASTA HOUSE' IN PLAZA INDONESIA



AWkitchen Pasta House recently opened on the second floor of Plaza Indonesia, two years after Akira Watanabe started serving his unique brand of Japanese-Italian food at Plaza Senayan.



The pasta house itself was originally founded in Tokyo by Watanabe and is named after him.



Some of the chain's notable dishes include 'Black Angus Beef Tataki with Soy Truffle Sauce' and 'Spaghettini in Garlic Oil with Spicy Cod Roe and Japanese Mushroom'.



Watanabe was on hand on Feb. 19 for the launch at Plaza Indonesia, as was the gamine actress Raline Shah. Chef Akira celebrated with a live cooking session that showed off his 20 years' of cooking experience. JPlus

________________________________

Sapori Deli



Fairmont Jakarta hotel

No., Jl. Asia Afrika No.8, Jakarta,

Zeppole week runs from Feb. 22 to 29

fairmont.com/jakarta
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post  Sun, February 21, 2016

Reading The Jakarta Post this week, I came upon a letter to the editor penned by a Westerner who has been in Indonesia for all of two years and who, of course, was ready with advice for the nation.



'Clean up this place! I have never seen such deplorable filth in the streets and everywhere,' the author wrote. 'Not only should trash collection be improved like the US did 40 years ago, but children should be taught to clean up trash and recycle.'



Coincidentally, our senior contributor Duncan Graham pondered similar questions of trash and tourism in an article he sent to us for our Wanderlust section (p10-11), albeit more productively.



Duncan, a longtime Malang resident, spoke to several Indonesians about how they're cleaning up their hometowns by inspiring, not badgering, others to do the same.



It's a thoughtful read from a talented writer made more timely as the city readies to implement its plastic bag fee program.



Please take a look and enjoy the weekend!



Chris Razukas

jplus@thejakartapost.com
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Linkedin Azis Anwar Fachrudin (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Sun, February 21, 2016

There has probably been no debate on homosexuality among Indonesians both as lively and divisive as today's, at least as that taking place on social media. For now, the debate mostly appeals to either science or religion (Islam, especially), though some arguments also concern human rights and democracy.



While the debate is filled with these confusing things, what is desperately needed is for Indonesian scientists to write or speak to a popular audience, of course with courage as they will face the risk of a negative, prejudiced backlash.



For this to happen, the government and educational institutions must provide a space for healthy, open discussion.



What has happened recently is some events for discussing the issue have been dismissed, rather than facilitated. How come common Indonesian people can understand homosexuality the way it should be understood while the means for spreading that understanding cannot be held publicly? As an Arabic proverb goes, an-nas a'da'u ma jahilu (people tend to have animosity toward that of which they are ignorant).



As for Islam, the source of resistance I'm more concerned with, many Indonesian Muslims simply and quite often ignorantly say 'homosexuality is haram'. I have been trying in vain to figure out what the classical Islamic law (more precisely, fiqh) actually says about homosexuality.



As far as the classical fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is concerned, there was no exact translation for the word 'homosexuality'. In fact, the notion of sexual orientation (not gender identity) was not an issue in the pre-modern fiqh; the word 'homosexuality' itself was only coined in the late 19th century.

_________________________________



The problem is that, in the mind of many Indonesian Muslims, homosexuality and sodomy are considered one and the same.



The modern Arabic term for homosexuality is al-jinsiyyah al-mithliyyah. The term used in classical fiqh is actually liwat (sodomy; derived from the word lut [Lot]). And, liwat refers to the act, not one's sexual orientation. There is a word that may refer to lesbianism, sihaq, but again this term refers to the act, not orientation, and, no less importantly, the definition of sihaq is vague in the classical fiqh.



This difference between the act and sexual orientation is a big deal as far as fiqh is concerned. First, the object of fiqh (i.e. to say whether something is compulsory, permissible, prohibited, etc.) is based on acts.



This is why, if Muslims say that homosexuality is haram, they should specify what they mean (the orientation, the desire, hugging, kissing, oral sex, anal sex, etc.), because what is clearly prohibited and deserving of punishment according to the classical fiqh (except the Hanafi and the Zahiri schools of thought) is anal sex ' laws concerning other matters are a later development, not explicitly supported by scriptural evidence, and thus a matter of later scholars' opinions. The language of the law must not be ambiguous.



Second, while sexual orientation is (maybe) natural, or beyond control, actions are optional; just like being heterosexual is natural while zina (adultery) is a choice. And liwat can be done by both homo and hetero; in other words, stipulations around liwat in the classical fiqh do not take sexual orientation into consideration.



The problem is that, in the mind of many Indonesian Muslims, homosexuality and sodomy are considered one and the same.



This is what we can say from the traditionalist perspective. I think this can be the beginning of the opening of a space for more advanced discussion on homosexuality in Indonesian Islam.



For further discussion, one may take into account the Muslim reformists who say that the story of Prophet Lot's people was actually not about homosexuals (again, no exact word for homosexuality in the Koran) but rather about rape (toward Lot's guests, who were God's angels).



Furthermore, Muslims should begin look more at the history, rather than 'orthodoxy', for a sophisticated understanding. In the medieval caliphate, Muslims conquered many lands. Some of the captives who later became slaves were boys. Some of the boys became ghilman (literally boys) serving along with the palace's harem. Some of the boys were called amrad ('pretty' boy, having no beard).



A few of the caliphate's elites (including a few caliphs themselves) were also reported to have desired men, particularly amrad. A few male palace poets wrote about their love of men. It was also reported that there were boy-markets that existed in several Islamic caliphate regions, particularly in Northwest Africa and South Asia, to service Muslim soldiers who had left their wives for a long time (see Jelena Cvorovic, Islamic Homosexuality, Antropologija 1, 2006).



These historical accounts, of course, do not necessarily mean that the 'normative Islam' approves homosexuality.



But at least they existed in the 'historical Islam' and as such they constitute a demanding question for further research, e.g. what did classical Muslim scholars said about these practices?

________________________________________



The writer is a graduate student at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Indonesia  Sun, February 21, 2016

Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al Azhar, who is considered to be one of the most moderate Sunni clerics in Egypt, touched down in Jakarta on Saturday for a visit to the country with the world's largest Muslim population.



During his visit, el-Tayeb is scheduled to meet with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo as well as top Muslim clerics and preachers, according to the press release. The Religious Affairs Ministry has confirmed the plan regarding his historic visit to Jakarta.



El-Tayeb will also attend a gathering of the World Association of Al Azhar Graduates and will be granted an honorary doctorate to recognize his scientific and religious roles in spreading the moderate values of Islam and denouncing violence and terrorism.



There are some 5,000 Indonesian citizens in Egypt, the majority of them students in Cairo and other cities. In its efforts to enhance educational ties with Egypt, Indonesia has donated four student dormitory buildings for students at Al Azhar University.



Last September, Jokowi and visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discussed efforts to advocate peaceful Islamic values, emphasizing the need to strengthen cooperation to counter extremism.



Jokowi has repeatedly underlined that a soft approach is essential to address the root causes of radicalism and that adopting a hard-line approach could be counterproductive in the country ' which is home to various Muslim groups. Jokowi recently also called on clerics and Muslim leaders across the country to help the government crack down on firebrand sermons by promoting preaching on peaceful Islam, in a move to prevent terrorism from gaining influence in the country.
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Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Batu, East Java  Sun, February 21, 2016

Munir Said Thalib's struggle to uncover rights violation cases, from the murder of labor activist Marsinah in 1994 to the disappearance of 24 students in Jakarta in the early reform period, is perpetuated at the Omah Munir museum in Batu, his hometown.



The museum, established on Dec. 8, 2013, aims to provide audiovisual information about the late Munir,

a distinguished rights activist, and his battle to uphold human rights in Indonesia.



Omah Munir recently developed a new learning module to educate the younger generation on rights. Bearing a picture of Munir on the cover, the module has been designed to further enrich the subject of Pancasila State Ideology and Civics Education (PPKn) for junior high school students.



This module went through a trial in August 2015 at four schools: East Java's State Junior High School (SMPN) 1 in Batu, Madrasah Tsanawiyah (Islamic junior high school) Surya Buana in Malang as well as SMPN 2 and 3 in Bogor, West Java.



'It's both absorbing and interesting,' said Kautsar L. Ramadan, 13, a student at Surya Buana, at the end of January. His schoolmate Yusuf Alimada, 14, said that had began to better understand human rights. 'I was once a bullying victim and a harasser myself,' he admitted.



Azfar Arfakh, who also discovered the module through Surya Buana, described the module learning method, combining each subject with an art, such as drama, as both fun and suitable. This format made it easier for Azfar to have discussions with his peers and teachers. 'I became aware of human rights as related to the status of citizens,' he said.



Miftakus Saadah, Surya Buana's civics teacher, regards the module as beneficial due to its active and creative content. 'After the trial, some adjustment should be made with regard to time allocation and substance improvement,' said Miftakus.



Although the module deals with relevant agencies and human rights in general, students have become more critical in nature and many questioned why Munir and other activists had been killed and also why corruption had remained widespread in the country.



Among the sensitive issues discussed by students is the topic of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBT). 'This issue is a hot topic of debate among teenage students,' noted Mitfakus, adding that they asked about LGBT rights.



Such matters are not contained in the module. 'As our school is Islamic based, we provide our students with an understanding of the issue from a religious perspective,' said Miftakus.



Fifin Endriana, Surya Buana's vice principal for curricular affairs, referred to LGBT's unclear links with the definition of human rights. 'This makes some students confused about how and where LGBT circles are able to exercise their rights,' she revealed.



Yet Fifin considered the module's discussion sessions to have been an appropriate medium for teachers to convey the substance under review because of the many critical questions that would normally be difficult to answer in the normal process of study.



The critical attitude of SMP students elicited a comment from Salma 'Fifi' Safitri, a volunteer at Omah Munir. 'The LGBT issue isn't just a matter of sexuality. In the concept of human rights, it's more about whether they should be mistreated while no crime or harm is done,' she said.



Fifi continued that LGBT people should not be isolated, discriminated against and subjected to violence. 'They reserve the rights to education and health like other citizens,' said the former executive director of Omah Munir.



But Fifi acknowledged this issue as input for Omah Munir, a suggestion to arrange a workshop to enhance the module's substance. The law graduate of Malang's Brawijaya University said the module had been created due to the assumption that human rights tended to be concerned with the murder or disappearance of activists.



Fifi emphasized that human rights had a broader sense as rights abuses can occur in various aspects of human life and from an early age. For example, the large number of children deprived of schooling and the many extramarital pregnancies among youth are rights violations.



'The human rights concept isn't a dogma to be learned by heart because basically it nurtures mutual appreciation,' said Fifi. The module was jointly compiled by several PPKn teachers, rights activists and children's book writers.



'Among the rights infringements students should be aware of are bullying within and outside of school and cribbing during examinations, which is seen as the seed of corruption,' she added, stressing the important role of the module to prevent students from becoming human rights victims or abusers.



Originally printed in 200 volumes, the module was launched after having progressed through a curriculum analysis, workshop and piloting at the four aforementioned SMPs. Rather than referencing legal provisions on human rights violations, the module concentrates on the fundamentals of human rights and contains a series of games.





'There are four fundamentals: introduction to human rights; human rights, Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution; human rights in Indonesia; and human rights around us,' explained Fifi.



By the end of 2015, 1,000 volumes had been printed and distributed to schools in nearly all regions across Indonesia. It applies a fun learning method, which is in line with the 2013 curriculum and is equipped with learning aids concerning human rights implementation in the world and tables of the kinds of human rights recognized by Indonesia.



The learning aids include the facial masks of Indonesian human rights activists such as, of course, Munir, Udin who was a Bernas daily journalist killed due to his reporting work and Marsinah, a worker murdered as a result of her fight for labor rights.



Fiti hopes this module may soon be integrated into school lessons, adding that students would subsequently understand human rights earlier.



Today, the civil and political freedom of citizens is protected by law. 'The problem is that law enforcement is yet to be properly carried out and thus rights violations keep occurring,' she emphasized.



Suciwati, Munir's widow, said that she would strive for the continued use of the module, after improving its content. 'There will certainly be further enhancement because many areas of human rights are yet to be understood by youth,' the chairwoman of Omah Munir's executive board said.



Besides receiving a positive response from those teachers who trialled the module in schools last year, according to Suciwati, during visits to Omah Munir, many teachers from outside of Java have shown an interest.



'Therefore, Omah Munir will strive to keep popularizing this module in the hope that, with speedy improvement, it can be promptly applied to the curriculum at various schools,' she said. The museum has also planned to coordinate with both Madrasah, Christian and Catholic schools for this purpose.



'At least their teachers can explain the link between the religious context of rights and rights as an inter-human concern,' added Suciwati, envisaging the module's further development for use by all students from primary school to senior high school levels.



' Photos by JP/Nedi Putra AW
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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 21, 2016

The city administration and the Jakarta Police are apparently taking it in turns to throw their weight around over red-light district Kalijodo, which stretches between the West Flood Canal and the Krendang River in North and West Jakarta.



While the administration is plotting to evict the district's residents, the Jakarta Police deployed 6,000 joint personnel on Saturday morning to raid cafAs and brothels in the 1.6-hectare area.



Police personnel decked out in their iconic 'Turn Back Crime' t-shirts combed the cafAs one by one, while officers equipped with antiriot devices guarded the area, including Jl.Tubagus Angke, which was closed off for the operation.



A police officer mounted on a pick-up truck claimed via megaphone that the officers were not there to evict residents or tear down buildings.



'This is not an eviction. We wish simply to search for alcohol, drugs and weapons, to make this area safe and peaceful,' announced the officer.



Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian led in person a raid on Kafe Intan, a cafA owned by Abdul Azis, who is said to be a local crime lord.



The place, however, was deserted. 'Many cafA owners and gang members had left the area,' Tito said as quoted by kompas.com.



With previous efforts to clear Kalijodo having failed, the city administration revived the eviction scheme following a crash that killed four people on Feb. 8. The driver was reportedly drunk, having consumed copious quantities of alcohol in Kalijodo beforehand.



Since the plan to clear the area was revived, many residents, including sex workers, have left the area, while others in possession of Jakarta IDs have registered for low-cost rental apartments (rusunawa).



Tito said that after the raids the police would deploy personnel to guard the area. 'We will install security posts [in front of Kafe Intan],' he said.



The police have also installed CCTC in four spots in the area in order to identify people coming and going from the neighborhood.



In raids on 66 cafes, the police confiscated enough contraband to fill four trucks. According to police data, the contraband comprised 9,900 bottles of alcohol, 166 packs of condoms and 33 types of weapon, including arrows, catapults, air rifles, hammers and crowbars.



Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Muhammad Iqbal said the police had also detained 17 people ' nine cafA owners, three drug users, two weapon owners and three sex workers.



'We have detained them for further questioning,' he said.



According to Emergency Law no 12/1951, the owners of sharp weapons will be sanctioned with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.



The city administration, for its part, has determined Feb. 29 as the day to evict the denizens of Kalijodo and tear down its buildings. The area will be converted into a park in accordance with its zoning as open green space.



Razman Arif Nasution, a lawyer representing Kalijodo residents, criticized the 'hasty' policy of the city administration, noting that the whole process from informing the residents and issuing eviction notices to execution had been crammed into less than a month, and that the administration had eschewed all dialogue with local residents.



Separately, Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat said the administration had taken into account the consequences of eviction on residents, and would provide better housing at rusunawa and skill training for the residents and sex workers, allowing them to adopt new professions.
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Linkedin Bill Barrow and Julie Pace (The Jakarta Post) Columbia, South Carolina  Sun, February 21, 2016

Donald Trump claimed a big victory in South Carolina's Republican primary Saturday, deepening his hold on the party's presidential field as the contest moved into the South. Out West, Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial win in Nevada's Democratic caucuses.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has done poorly in the first three early Republican contests, suspended his campaign.

The victories put Clinton and Trump in strong positions as the 2016 presidential election barreled toward the March 1 Super Tuesday contests, a delegate-rich voting bonanza.

"There's nothing easy about running for president," Trump said at his victory rally. "It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious. It's beautiful ' when you win it's beautiful."

Clinton's roughly 5-point win eased the rising anxieties of her backers, who feared a growing challenge from Bernie Sanders. At a raucous victory rally in Las Vegas, she lavished praise on her supporters and declared, "This one is for you."

Trump's strong showing in South Carolina marked his second straight victory in the Republican primaries and strengthened his unexpected claim on the party nomination. No Republican in recent times has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, a pair of freshman senators, were locked in a race for second place in South Carolina. Bush and other candidates lagged far behind.

"This country is ready for a new generation of conservative to lead this country into the 21st century," Rubio said of his strong finish, calling himself among the political children of former President Ronald Reagan.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order. That gave Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who put up a stiff challenge to Clinton in Nevada, and Trump openings over many more mainstream candidates.

In Nevada, Clinton won the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

She capitalized on a more diverse Democratic electorate who helped her rebound after a second-place finish to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton told her cheering supporters during a victory rally in Las Vegas. "This one is for you."

She said Americans are "right to be angry," but are also hungry for "real solutions."

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared his campaign has "the wind at our backs as we head toward Super Tuesday" ' the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

Clinton's victory could be vital in pushing back the Sanders challenge that has been tougher than almost anyone expected. Clinton narrowly won the leadoff caucuses in the Midwestern state of Iowa, but the Vermont senator had a runaway victory in the tiny northeastern state of New Hampshire.

Clinton now leads in delegates pledged to her at the Democratic Party's national convention in July, but only has a fraction of the number needed to secure the nomination. Clinton's win means she will pick up at least 18 of Nevada's 35 delegates. Trump also is accumulating a delegate lead among Republicans.

No candidate has shaken the establishment more than Trump. He spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former President George W. Bush of lying and even tangling with Pope Francis on immigration.

The Trump win drove Bush, once the front-runner, who was counting on his family's broad popularity in South Carolina, out of the race. Bush is the son and brother of former presidents.

Now, the Trump victory foreshadows a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1. Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which determines the nomination at the party's national convention in July.

Trump has run a campaign punctuated by outrageous statements, including a call to ban the entry of Muslims to the United States. At his last election rally Friday night he upped the ante in his remarks about them, repeating the widely discredited story of American Gen. John Pershing, who was said to have halted Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting the rebels with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.

Cruz, who has challenged Trump's conservative credentials, had banked on a well-regarded get-out-the-vote operation and 10,000 volunteers to help overtake Trump on Saturday, as well as in the Southern states that follow.

Rubio is viewed by the Republican party establishment as a credible alternative to Trump and Cruz, candidates some leaders believe are unelectable in November.

Rubio had scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and seemed to have rebounded after a dismal debate performance two weeks ago that contributed to a disappointing fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary.

Rubio's good showing is a big boost, for a young candidate who has gathered big support from mainstream Republicans.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers. (dan)
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Linkedin Endy M. Bayuni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 21, 2016

Jessica is guilty of the murder of her friend Mirna, or so the court of public opinion has ruled.



Long before the case has reached the court of law, even before police have completed their investigation into Jessica Kumala Wongso, the lone suspect in the murder of Mirna Salihin, the people have already held their trial and reached a verdict.



Without the aid of public prosecutors and justices, the people have already heard the testimony of experts sharing their views with the public in TV interviews and social media.



The people, acting as the justice in this court of public opinion, have heard enough to rule that it was Jessica who put the cyanide in the coffee that Mirna Salihin drank when the two friends, both 27 years old, met at a cafe in Jakarta on that fateful day in early January.



Jessica had her day in this court, repeatedly pleading her innocence before TV cameras. Her side of the story is, however, irrelevant. Instead, her body language and facial expression gave her away, according to expert witnesses. She's guilty.



Thanks to television and social media, the Jessica story has shifted from a murder case that police are investigating into a real-life drama story of two young Indonesian women, both foreign-educated and with a taste for the high life.



Edi Dermawan Salihin, the father of Mirna, campaigning to pin the murder on Jessica, shared text message exchanges between the two women to suggest that they were more than just friends.



Murder, love and sex make the perfect plot for a novel.



Three weeks into the drama, police nabbed Jessica at a hotel, where she had been hiding, not so much from the law as from journalists searching for more juicy details of her life.



The evidence police have is circumstantial at best. They have no evidence and no witnesses to show that Jessica had poisoned the coffee.



Police willingly share the meager evidence they have with the public as they carry out their investigation. Officers have appeared almost every day feeding the frenzied media with information, scant as it is, helping to keep this drama last as long as it can.



Motives? Who needs them, police insist. For good measure, they sent Jessica to a mental hospital for a few days. The court of public opinion quickly drew its own conclusions.



Jessica is the latest of many celebrated cases that have been tried in the courts of public opinion, where the people are the prosecutors, the judges and executioners all at once.



The media, and the government and the police at times, happily feed the information that the people need to hear to build their case and reach their verdict.



In January, the government and police launched a vicious public campaign against the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar), a cult movement seeking an alternative to modern urban life for its members, accusing them of all sorts of things, from blasphemy and spreading an ideology dangerous to national security to abduction.



The media lapped up these government statements, and public opinion went along with the government's insistence that Gafatar was dangerous, even more so than the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) movement blamed for the deadly attacks in Jakarta last month.



The rest of the Gafatar story stuck to the script now familiar in cases of attacks against minority groups: The public take over the case, hold their trial and reach a verdict. When possible, they execute too.



A mob of more than 5,000 people attacked a Gafatar community in West Kalimantan in January. Police evacuated the Gafatar members, mostly women, elderly people and children ' hardly threats to national security ' to safety before letting the mob vandalize and raze property.



Police later arrested the Gafatar leaders even though they had committed no crime. The real criminals, the mob and whoever had mobilized them, were untouched.



Gafatar's story follows similar earlier attacks against religious minorities like the Ahmadi and Shia communities, with government and religious leaders helping to drive public opinion against these groups.



The current antigay sentiments too can be traced to the government, including Vice President Jusuf Kalla and many Cabinet ministers, as they seek to purge the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from Indonesia.



If their statements are to be taken seriously, LGBTs are now banned from government university campuses, the civil service and TV and showbiz.



The people's tribunal is hijacking the courts of justice more and more, and often, with the government's prodding, tragically, with violent and even deadly consequences.



The court of public opinion hardly dispenses justice; verdicts are often in favor of those with bullying powers, including the government and the police. Social and traditional media are part of this people's court hearing process, often uncritically playing up the bully's positions simply because that's what the public want to hear.



This trend of people taking the law into their own hands reflects the low confidence they have in the legal system. Recurring reports of 'court mafia' selling justice have not helped.



Surely, the courts of law should rebuild their reputation as the last bastion of justice, as is vital to a functioning democracy. Without public faith in the court of justice, the nation, as we are witnessing today, is veering toward anarchy.

_______________________________



The writer is the editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin Hans David Tampubolon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 21, 2016

Walt Disney's latest animation Zootopia delivers adult-oriented narratives through an enchanting and well executed delivery that is, in its own unique way, suitable for people of all ages.



The film depicts a fantasy world in which animals, both prey and predators, live together in harmony. A school play at the beginning of the film tells us that things were a lot different thousands of years ago.



During that period, predators hunted prey and each faction did whatever it could to ensure its own survival. Eventually, both predators and prey came to the conclusion that it would be better for them to share the world together in peace.



The play introduces us to a young Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a bunny from the rural town of Bunnyburrow.



The ever-optimistic Hopps has a dream of becoming the first bunny cop and to serve in Zootopia, a modern megalopolis that host animals of all species. While Hopps has a firm belief in her dreams, her parents and friends are full of doubt, because there has never been a bunny cop before.



Despite the doubt from Hopps' peers, 15 years after performing in the play, she manages not only to graduate from the police academy but also top her class, and get assigned to Zootopia.



Upon Hopps' graduation, as the first ever bunny cop, she is given the honor of receiving a special medal from Zootopia's lion mayor, Leodore Lionheart (J.K. Simmons), and his assistant Dawn Bellwether (Jenny Slate), who is a sheep.



The Walt Disney Animation Studios do a great job in creating Zootopia, which is divided into several districts ' Sahara Square, Tundratown, Rainforest District and Little Rodentia. The glistening lights, modern infrastructure and well-dressed animals quickly captivate Hopps as she arrives.



Zootopia, however, also quickly disappoints the optimistic yet naAve Hopps. She learns that despite Zootopia's status as a megalopolis for all animals, discrimination and prejudice remain in force in society.



For example, despite the fact that Hopps is the top graduate of her class, the Zootopia police chief, Bogo (Idris Elba), does not trust her, and she is labeled a mere fluffy cute bunny by her colleagues. She is overlooked for serious police investigations, such as the case of 14 missing predators, and put to work as a parking meter officer.



During Hopps' work as a parking meter officer, she also learns more blatant facts about the prejudice and discrimination in Zootopian society. She sees an ice cream vendor refuse to serve a fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), drawing on prejudices that all foxes are manipulative and not to be trusted.





Hopps stands up for Nick's civil rights and manages to get him a popsicle. However, Hopps becomes even more disappointed after she finds out that Nick is indeed a small-time con artist. Despite Hopps' disappointment, she soon forms a friendship with Nick, whose cynical views on life and society teach the ever-optimistic bunny about the harsh nature of reality.



Together, Hopps and Nick then embark on a joint investigation to search for Mr Otterton, an otter and a predator who is also mysteriously missing along with the 14 previous predators. Their investigation leads them into the depths of Zootopia's underworld, including a near-fatal meeting with Mr Big (Maurice LaMarche), a rodent who is the leader of the megalopolis' most feared mafia family.



Hopps and Nick eventually manage to locate all the missing predators in a secret lab supervised by the mayor. Bogo and his police squad then arrest Leodore for kidnapping, but further investigation by Hopps and Nick into the case unravels a malicious scheme and political conspiracy that could sink the whole of Zootopia even deeper into peril.



Director Byron Howard and his two codirectors ' Rich Moore and Jared Bush ' marvelously manage to encase a myriad of complicated issues ' racism, prejudice, class warfare, equality, freedom, justice, dreams, broken hopes and even the idea of genocide ' in symbols that are easy to comprehend even for children.



It seems that it is not a coincidence that the two most powerful figures in Zootopia ' the lion mayor and the police chief, who is a buffalo ' represent the strongest of the two factions, predator and prey, respectively. This seems to represent the importance of checks and balances in a democratic society. The lion mayor is a carnivorous predator in charge of public policymaking while the police chief is a strong herbivore who guards civil rights to ensure all residents are safe and sound.



Despite the complicated issues and, at times, the bleak comment on society in Zootopia, the film is not a noir dystopian presentation. Instead, Howard and his team keep Zootopia as colorful and as entertaining as it can be, with occasional comical moments, without sacrificing the depth of the film's main message about society and its dynamics.





' Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

__________________________________

Zootopia



Running time: 108 minutes

Directed by: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Maurice LaMarche

Production company: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios
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Phuket DIY bicycle generator alternative energy project for a rainy day

Happy Habitat: For those of you whove followed this column, youll know how enthusiastic I am about alternative energy, particularly solar power, for which Ive highlighted in a number of previous editions just how cheap, easy and practical it can be in Phuket. If you missed those articles, search the Happy Habitat archive in thephuketnews.com Environment section.



By Steven Layne

Sunday 21 February 2016, 02:12PM

As abundant as the sun is in Phuket, one obvious challenge is that its not always shining on our side of the planet; even on a good day, youre lucky to get more than eight hours of direct sunlight. So the next obvious alternative energy solution that comes to mind is wind power  particularly if you live on a boat, on the coast, or high up on a hill  which has the advantage over solar in that you can generate electricity any time of day or night given that there is sufficient wind blowing.

But I live in the city, where there is not sufficient wind to justify buying or building a wind turbine.



This brings us to the next practical alternative energy solution, which Ive long wanted to experiment with, and only recently got around to it: a bicycle generator.

Like wind and hydro power, a bicycle generator utilizes simple 19th century technology: magnets spinning around coils (or vice versa) in constant revolutions, resulting in an electromagnetic charge, AKA electricity.

But instead of relying on the force of wind or water to create this force of revolutions, a bicycle generator utilizes human pedal power. In simple terms, its nothing more than a re-purposed bicycle with a motor, which are both found in abundance in Thailand.

Pilot Peddler

This project is essentially a special bicycle trainer, like those static bicycles found in workout gyms, but instead of requiring electricity to operate, one generates electricity during their workout, and thus can recover and store that energy for other uses, be it charging your multimedia devices, operating your computer or watching TV, for example. While it is possible to use the energy real time as you generate it (watch the tube while you work out, for example) its just as practical to store the energy by channeling it to charge a battery. Depending on the power of your motor/generator, you could theoretically generate enough electricity to watch TV and still have excess to store in a battery.

Motor-Generator

Motors are found in all types of electrical appliances  fans, drills, pumps, blenders and then some. Not to complicate things too much with technical specs here, I opted on using a DC (direct current) motor for my pilot. While you can use ordinary AC (alternating current) motors, such as the one in your typical house fan, this requires an additional step of rectifying and converting the energy generated into DC if you wish to store the electricity in a battery, for example.

For my pilot, I took apart a 15 Watt DC fan that I had lying around, disconnected the speed controls, and re-purposed the motor, removing the propeller from the shaft and replacing it with a belt drive pulley (designed for a washing machine motor), which would be driven by a rubber automotive drive belt. (After the initial pilot, I finally ordered a more powerful 24-volt 250W DC motor, which turned out to be much more efficient, though pending pulley tweaks)

Bicycle

The bicycle I used was a five-year-old Turbo bicycle that needed new wheel bearings anyway if it were to be street-worthy. So, I simply removed the back 26-inch Shimano gear equipped tyre and replaced it with a single gear, 20-inch rim without a tyre or innertube. I could have used the original 26-inch rim, however, the largest drive belt I could find in Phuket had a 26-inch circumference, and the tyre rim needs to be smaller than the drive belt so there is enough slack to drive the motor (See image).

Finally, you need to build a trainer stand to mount the bicycle and generator on. I simply bought some lumber, screws and braces, and made two, sturdy upright posts. Ideally, you should reinforce the posts so that it can comfortably support your weight. There is no one way to build this stand and if you have a bicycle trainer already, this can be re-purposed pretty easily. The idea is to simply mount the back tyres axle at least 20 centimetres from the ground so that you can pedal freely, and the back rim drives or spins the smaller pulley on the motor via the belt.

Regulation

One final component is a charge controller, or at minimal a blocking diode, to ensure that electricity can flow in only one direction, in this case from the generator to the battery, and not the other way around. I had an extra solar charge controller, with built in blocking diode lying around, which worked perfectly. Another purpose of the charge controller is to regulate the electricity to a constant charge (roughly 13-14 volts is needed to charge a 12 volt battery). Otherwise, you end up getting erratic and spiked charges which will easily damage your battery. Thats it really. Study the pictures and the video demonstration that Ill embed on the online version, and in the future, Ill look to follow up again on the performance and specs.

Materials List
Phuket Opinion: Of fear and prudence

PHUKET: Last Monday night saw the quiet passing of one of Phukets staunchest supporters, former German honorary consul Dirk Naumann, who succumbed to a long battle against cancer.

disasterstourismmilitarypoliceviolenceculture

By The Phuket News

Sunday 21 February 2016, 09:00AM

Police ramped up street-stop searches across the island last week following a vague order issued by the Governor's Office warning of a possible security 'situation'. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

During his 12 years as honorary consul, Mr Naumann, a former pharmaceutical executive who turned to dealing in art, built a firm reputation for talking straight, raising serious issues in Phuket with high-level officials.

Problems do not go away by ignoring them, and shooting the messenger is just as ineffective, as Mr Naumann often rightly pointed out  whether officials liked it or not.

In this, the leaked memo of the terror alert issued by the Governors Office last weekend begs the question of whether questioning the officials who leaked the memo is questionable in itself.

If the public is in danger, they have the right to know without delay.

Kudos to Phuket Provincial Police Chief Teerapol Thipjaroen for recognising the need to publicly validate whether or not the memo was genuine. However, providing the reason why the order to ramp up security was issued in the first place would have gone a long way to inspire confidence among the public.

Confidence is nothing more than faith, and faith is built on trust. And it is very difficult for anyone to trust any other person, organisation or institution unless there is transparency and the behaviour matches the words spoken.

That seems to be a big part in the lack of confidence expressed among dispirited readers in officials competently handling any major issue that rears its ugly head in Phuket. Pick any issue  traffic, crime, sea gypsy land, public projects, the list goes on  and the lack of transparency is apparent.

Perhaps a leaf should be taken from the school manual of Winai Suriyaprakan, Director of Plookpanya School, who issued a safety warning to parents on Tuesday over only posts on Facebook reporting an attempted child abduction in front of his school.

Mr Winai publicly admitted that the reports had not been confirmed and that the incident was being investigated, but still issued the alert just in case. And he had the guts to sign the order and send it out to parents himself. Praise to him.

If officials want to gain the trust  that is, confidence  of the public, perhaps openness, honesty and prudence like that of Mr Winai would be a good place to start.
South Asia caravan road trip from India to Thailand via Myanmar

Many will have noticed viral posts on the internet about the so-called India-Myanmar-Thailand overland highway opening up to road commuters this year. Few have already made the trip from Thailand to India, but only this year  this past few weeks to be precise  has the trip been completed by a caravan from India and concluding in Thailand.

Sunday 21 February 2016, 08:13AM

The group travel through the ancient city of Bagan in the Mandalay region of Myanmar.

Indeed, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) hailed the completion of the first privately organised motor caravan travelling from India to Myanmar and Thailand, which formally concluded on February 8.

The historic 2,500-kilometre journey, undertaken by a group of 20 Indian citizens, including one female driver, was organised by the New Delhi-based specialist road travel operator Adventure World, led by Sanjay Madan and Tushar Agarwal, who had done their pilot India to Thailand road trip in 2013.

And now, the successful completion of their 20-group caravan roadtrip sends a strong positive signal to the global travel and tourism industry that one of the last remaining sections of the Asian

Highway linking South Asia and the Asean countries is now ready for road travel.

Travelling in a fleet of four sturdy Toyota and Mitsubishi cars and one Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the group started in Imphal, capital of the Indian state of Manipur, on January 23, crossing into Myanmar via the Moreh-Tamu border crossing, and drove through Myanmar before entering Thailand at the Mae Sot border checkpoint.

They arrived in Bangkok on January 31 and were hosted to a welcome reception by TAT headed by Dr Walailak Noypayak, TATs Executive Director for Asean, South Asia and South Pacific Region.

After three days of rest and recreation in the Thai capital, some of the group members returned to Imphal also via road, but using a different itinerary in Myanmar. Others chose to fly back to India.

TATs Executive Director for Asean, South Asia and South Pacific Region Dr. Walailak Noypayak said, This historic trip marks the start of a new era for the travel and tourism industry in Asia and Asean. The long-awaited road linking India to Thailand will open up many unseen parts of Asia, put new destinations on the map, attract investment, create jobs and alleviate poverty.

It also proves the success of our long-standing strategy to position Thailand as a hub of travel, tourism and transport throughout the region.

Mr Sanjay Agarwal, Co-Founder of Adventure World, said he was proud that Indians had been at the forefront of this historic journey. He said that although some small parts of the road still need further improvement and the paperwork requirements both before the journey and at the border checkpoints can be fine-tuned, the journey proved that both the hardware and software were mostly in place for other road travel adventurers to follow suit.

The ground handling agents in Myanmar and Thailand were Bright View Travels and Exo Travel, respectively.

The caravan is the second one between Thailand and its Asean neighbours to be held in the first two months of 2016 alone. Between 7-16 January, 2016, Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. in collaboration with TAT organised the second Asean Friendship Caravan through Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand.

The 3,400-kilometre journey was designed to publicise the many cultural and heritage destinations of the four countries that are now becoming increasingly accessible by road.

Leading the trip and co-founder of Adventures Overland, Sanjay Madan remarked, The journey is not as easy as it sounds! Its challenging and expensive yet worth doing in ones lifetime!

After driving through more than 50 countries and six continents in the last three years, despite all these challenges I would still rate Myanmar as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I like to call it as Land of Happy Faces as opposed to the Land of Gold, he wrote on a trip report posted on the Global Travel Community website tripoto.com.

He went on to explain the procedures for returning to India from Bangkok.

You have two options. One, put your car on sea and ship back to any Indian port, or two, drive back via the same route.

TAT & Adventures Overland

TRIP TIPS & CHALLENGES

Suggested Route: Delhi - Imphal - Moreh - Kale - Bagan - Inle Lake - Yangon - Maesot - Tak - Bangkok

1. 200% Carnet Fees: To exit and re-enter in India one needs a Carnet. Carnet is a document which is like a passport for your car . You need to cough up 200% of your vehicles value (refundable security deposit) to obtain this piece of paper from the Automobile Association of India. Carnet is also accepted by Thailand customs as a valid document to enter their country if you are driving a foreign registered vehicle. It is advised not to approach Delhi AAUI for this as the group struggled for more than 6 months to retrieve the security refund). Adventures Overland took care of all the paperwork during India to Thailand trip from Jan 23 to Feb 8, 2016.

2. Local Guides: A local Burmese guide is mandatory to travel with the group who needs to be hired from the travel company approved by Ministry of Myanmar Tourism.

3. Lead Car: A lead car for the convoy is mandatory too as per the directions by Ministry of Myanmar Tourism. This is must even if you drive a single car. Poor sign boards and language problems make it a tough nut.

4. Paperwork & Permits: Apply for special overland permits and permissions through a local agent one month in advance to drive into Myanmar. Apply for a Temporary Import permit for the vehicles in Myanmar through a local agent as this country does not accept Carnet. You will also need to apply for a temporary drivers licence to drive in Myanmar, while an International Drivers Licence is required to drive in Thailand.

5. Visas: For Myanmar and Thailand, its advisable to obtain the necessary visas in advance if entering through a land border crossing.

6: Cash: Carry US$ while travelling inside Myanmar as you may not find many ATMs. In Thailand there are many ATMs and currency exchange services to obtain Thai baht.

7. Food: Carry emergency food supplies and your favourite snacks you dont want to miss during this trip. Bring many more useful things you would need for a long road trip, including your original vehicle papers, air pump, puncture kit and a first aid kit.




Did Jamie Smith say he wanted to raise taxes as governor?

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Four years into her role as minister at West Hill United Church, Rev. Gretta Vosper had a crisis of conscience.

In her sermons each Sunday, Vosper spoke openly about how she did not believe the Bible was the authoritative word of God for all time  a conviction shed held long before her ordination, and one that is not uncommon among United Church of Canada clergy.

Throughout the rest of the service each week, however, Vosper recited traditional prayers and hymns that perpetuated ideas she didnt believe in: that God was the ruler of the universe and that Jesus, his only son, died for our sins.

Oh God, in your mercy, hear our prayer ...

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory ...

Vosper used those words until one Sunday morning in 2001, when she could no longer tolerate the contradiction. Just because her own interpretation of the prayers was metaphorical, she realized, didnt mean the people in the pews knew that. And so in her sermon that day, Vosper came out to her congregation. She made it clear that she did not believe in the God called God  a supernatural being who intervenes in human affairs.

Its not that I dont have a definition of God that I can adhere to, Vosper, 57, explained recently. Its that I think we need to stop using that language.

Afterward, she prepared to be fired. But West Hill, a particularly progressive congregation, wanted her to stay. And so began the evolution of a small Scarborough church. Prayer turned into community sharing time. Hymns were rewritten. Talk of God and Jesus was replaced with talk of love, compassion and beauty.

Vospers unorthodox approach was welcomed, for many years, by leaders of the United Church of Canada, a historically inclusive and open-minded Protestant denomination founded in 1925, when Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists formed a union. It is a church that has always avoided setting boundaries or otherwise limiting the scope of acceptable beliefs.

In the past, top elected church leaders, known as moderators, have enthusiastically come to Vospers defence, whether they agree with her or not. No one questioned her in 2008 when she published her first book, With or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe, or a few years later when she published her second, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief.

I celebrate Gretta and others like her who cause us to think more deeply about the nature of our faith, Mardi Tindal told a Toronto newspaper in 2011, when she was moderator. What Gretta has done has ignited a fresh conversation and invigorated the discussion.

The tipping point came three years ago, when Vosper adopted a new label: atheist.

Not a non-theist, which is a person who doesnt think of God as a being, but an atheist, a word with varying interpretations but which many understand to mean a straight-up declaration that there is no God.

Vospers beliefs hadnt changed. People had been calling her an atheist for years, even though she considered herself a non-theist. But in 2013 she decided to embrace the term after she was moved by stories of Bangladeshi bloggers facing imprisonment and execution because they had been accused of not believing in God. It was a political move meant to strip the word of some of its power. But her motivations and the nuances of her beliefs didnt translate. All the public heard was the word atheist.

Thats when the questions became more pointed, said Rev. David Allen, executive secretary of Toronto Conference, a regional body of the United Church. What people kept saying is how can a minister who says she doesnt believe in God be a minister in the Christian church?

Things escalated in January 2015, when Vosper wrote an open letter to then moderator Rev. Gary Paterson in response to a prayer published on the United Church of Canada website for those killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks. She argued that the use of religious language was inappropriate because it reinforces a belief that motivated the killings: the existence of a supernatural God.

A few days later, a retired United Church minister in B.C. wrote a column calling for her resignation. Then in March, Andy Oudman, a talk radio host in London, Ont., devoted an entire call-in show to Vosper: Shes an atheist in a church pulpit, he said on air. Thats nonsensical. Isnt it?

Oudman called Vosper a fraud and questioned the credibility of a denomination that would allow a minister to preach whatever they feel like. Vosper heard about the show and phoned in. Oudman pounced. You are stealing the tradition of a noble religion and using it when you are preaching the exact opposite of what they believe, he shouted.

Characterizing her preaching as an abomination, Oudman ended the discussion.

He asked his next guest, Cheryl-Ann Stadelbauer-Sampa, executive secretary of London Conference, to explain why the church hadnt already booted Vosper out.

Whether or not Gretta Vosper is a minister is a decision that is made by a regional body called a conference, and Gretta Vosper is not in London Conference, which is the conference I serve, Stadelbauer-Sampa said.

In other words: I cant do anything about Gretta Vosper. Only Toronto can.

Weeks later, Toronto would.

A spiritual journey

Born Margaret Ann Vosper in 1958, the future minister grew up in a big old house across the street from Sydenham Street United Church in downtown Kingston, Ont. She was known as Margie for much of her life. Her father was an engineer; her mother was a nurse and, later, an early childhood educator. Vosper was the second of four children. When she started theological college she wrote Gretta on her name tag and has gone by that name ever since.

Vosper was part of a small slice of a young generation who grew up with the New Curriculum, a provocative educational text produced by the United Church that emphasized the importance of moral teachings over doctrinal beliefs, and challenged Christians to question whether parts of the Bible were historically true. Its release prompted the largest ever one-year drop in Sunday school enrolment.

My training in Sunday school was about God being love, not being an authoritarian figure, not being a judge, Vosper recalls. I didnt learn about heaven or hell. Jesus was an example who I could read stories about and try to live up to and the Bible was that collection of stories. The New Curriculum didnt survive, but it created a base upon which Vospers theological education would take place.

A headstrong teen, she skipped Grade 13 and left home for Mount Allison University in New Brunswick at age 17, where she studied literature, psychology and religion. Inspired by her mother, who worked at a nursery school for low-income children, she wanted to change the world.

Vosper considered pursuing ministry after her undergraduate degree, but wasnt certain it was right for her. Instead, she chose adventure, moving to the Northwest Territories with a friend. She met and married her first husband, Bill Ferguson, in Inuvik. They had a daughter, Hazel. Later, they moved to Winnipeg. When the marriage ended in 1986, Vosper returned to Kingston and started theological school as a single mom.

In theological college, Vosper says she was taught to engage God as a concept, not as a being, and to explore the Bible as a collection of human writings by human people with human foibles for human reasons. At times, the doctrinal stuff made her uneasy, but she says professors repeatedly assured her that her beliefs werent out of the ballpark. Vosper married a fellow student, Michael Kooiman, in 1990, and their son, Izaak, was born the following year.

Vosper spent two years working with a senior minister in a Kingston church, which quashed any uncertainty about the path shed chosen. The work of guiding and supporting a congregation inspired her. Her idealistic notions about changing the world were replaced with realistic motivations to influence people. The committee that interviewed her as part of the ordination process was comfortable with her views, which were more metaphorical than literal, she says. She and Kooiman moved to Toronto and became a clergy team at St. Matthews United on St. Clair Ave. W.

A few years later, West Hill United Church, a small but thriving congregation in Scarborough, began scouting for a new minister. We were looking for someone deemed to be progressive-thinking, said Randy Bowes, chair of the West Hill board. They found what they were looking for at St. Matthews. In a letter, the board introduced West Hill as a congregation that wanted to explore new roads in its spiritual journey. She joined them in 1997. Her marriage ended a few years later; she and Kooiman had grown apart theologically and as a couple, she says.

In 2008, controversy erupted within West Hill about the Lords Prayer, which some members felt no longer suitable for Sunday service. Amid mounting pressure, Vosper removed it. The churchs worship committee and board later upheld the decision, but many members disagreed. Over the next 18 months, West Hills attendance dropped from 125 to 40. The release of Vospers book With or Without God increased her profile and brought more attention to West Hill. The church has grown since 2010, with weekly attendance back to 90.

The last straw

A born agitator, Vosper has not held back in her efforts to force the United Church to have a tough conversation about modern interpretations of God. Her Twitter bio boasts, Irritating the church into the 21st century.

Still, she was genuinely shocked when Toronto Conference announced last May that it planned to review her fitness to be a minister.

Rev. David Allen said he wouldnt use the word embarrassment to describe the sudden motivation, in the weeks after the call-in show, to do something about Vosper. People were confused, he says, and so what we thought was that we need to bring some kind of clarity to the situation.

Ive had a lot of people getting in touch with me, both who support Gretta and those who are wondering why the church hasnt done something long ago on this one, he adds. What I keep saying is that the review is an opportunity for us to do the investigation and then to know at the end of it good reasons why she should be allowed to continue as a minister with the United Church, or have good reasons why she should not be.

The move was unprecedented. There wasnt even a procedure for carrying out a review. Toronto Conference had to ask Nora Sanders, general secretary of the United Church, to create one.

A United Church minister can only be reviewed for alleged ineffectiveness or insubordination.The Sanders decision, issued on May 5 last year, ties Vospers effectiveness to her suitability. A minister who is not suitable, Sanders ruled, cannot be effective. To assess suitability, Sanders wrote, the review committee may ask the minister to answer the ordination questions again, starting with: Do you believe in God?

Many see that question as uncomplicated, but not Vosper. The teaching in theological colleges, she argues, doesnt lead prospective ministers toward a literal interpretation of the ordination questions. It invites students to explore those concepts broadly and deeply, Vosper says. And very often, when people come out of the process of discovery, they no longer hold those as literal concepts.

When you answer the questions at ordination, Vosper says, you might not believe the concepts literally, but youve been given permission to answer affirmatively by a committee that guides you through the process. A review might not leave room for nuance.

Vosper has appealed Toronto Conferencesdecision to review her and the Sanders ruling on how the review should be conducted. If effectiveness is now tied to a ministers doctrinal beliefs rather than his or her relationship with a congregation, Vosper fears her colleagues could be at risk. The review process, she argues, redefines the nature of ministry in the United Church and reduces the diversity of beliefs that can be experienced across the church.

Toronto Conference has put the review on hold until a church committee decides whether it will hear Vospers appeal of the Sanders ruling.

Kevin Flatt, a history professor at Hamiltons Redeemer University College who has written a book about the United Church, said that as far as he is aware no one in the denomination has ever been disciplined for having liberal theological views.

Anecdotally my sense is there are a lot of ministers who maybe wouldnt say it as forcefully as Gretta would, but at the end of the day they dont really believe in anything resembling traditional Christianity.

There has been a slow but growing movement in the United Church toward downplaying Jesus and the Bible, and moving toward a more metaphorical interpretation of religious symbols and a greater emphasis on humanist, environmental and social justice causes. Some argue it will reinvent a struggling church with declining attendance. Others believe it will destroy it. Flatt said research supports the case for the more doctrinal, God-focused denominations outliving the Vosper-style ones.

In taking a stand on Vosper, the church is now seeking to answer a question that it has never asked before: Is there a line? And has Vosper crossed it?

In an open letter, Rev. John Shelby Spong, a retired American bishop in the Anglican Church and a leading voice in the progressive Christianity movement, criticized the United Church of Canada for trying to get rid of one of its most creative, future-oriented pastors and urged leaders to call your church back from its precipice.

Gretta has called herself an atheist minister, wrote Spong, a mentor to Vosper. While that language is startling to some, the Christian academy knows exactly what she is saying. To refer to oneself as an atheist does not mean that one is asserting that there is no God; it means that the theistic definition of God is no longer operative or believable.

Gretta and her flock

They call her Gretta. Not Reverend. Not Pastor Vosper. Just Gretta.

She doesnt cloak herself in robes or preach from a pulpit. She wears long skirts and ballet flats and walks among them, sharing the microphone with those who wish to offer prayers. They gather here each Sunday morning beneath a cascading rainbow of streamers that hang from the vaulted church ceiling, obscuring a large steel cross that is one of the few surviving religious symbols.

The debate swirling outside West Hill about what goes on inside West Hill frustrates and baffles church members. Critics have called their minister a bully, a provocateur, an ego-driven self-promoter, a heretic. West Hill attendees have a different view.

Gretta is one of the most courageous people I have ever met, says Anne Jackson, 61, who joined the congregation a decade ago. Shes full of humility and discloses her own personal faults. Shes very real and authentic and a seeker of truth.

They say she listens intently and anticipates need. She connects people who have common interests or goals. When she sends us out the door, she speaks to us in a way that says, look, you have the ability to make things better  go out and do it, says Babette Oliveira, 48, the church vocal director and a member for 15 years.

Some West Hill members were disturbed when Vosper began calling herself an atheist, but they understand her motivation and see that she is the same person she was before she began using the word.

She was trying to defuse the power of that word to hurt people, says Scott Kearns, West Hills musical director and Vospers husband of 12 years. And that is so Gretta, that sort of solidarity with people being treated unfairly, unfoundedly, being oppressed over a word, over a belief.

What most frustrates Randy Bowes, chair of the church board, is that Vosper isnt saying anything now that she hasnt been saying for more than a decade, with one exception: the word atheist. Bowes, 58, doesnt see that as a big deal. Vosper has made it clear  to the congregation, if not to the world  that she doesnt believe in a certain kind of God, but she isnt denying the existence of God altogether.

If this Sunday every single congregation in the United Church was to have a conversation with their minister and say, What do you mean by the word God? I wonder how many people would be surprised. A lot, he guesses.

The congregation is now in fight mode. With the United Church coming after Gretta, West Hills basically saying no, youre coming after West Hill, Bowes says. Because Gretta is a leader of West Hill, but she is a leader, not the only leader.

Vosper admits she could have continued to describe herself as a non-theist without compromising her beliefs, and maybe none of this would have happened. But she has no regrets. I still think it was the right thing to do. She argues the two words mean essentially the same thing, and says those who disagree are simply weary of the big-bad A-word.

She expects to learn in the coming weeks whether a United Church judicial committee will hear her appeal. If the committee refuses, Toronto Conference could immediately begin the review.

Some have accused Vosper of fighting to stay within the United Church to protect her income, though she keeps her pension whether she leaves the church or not. They argue she shouldnt be on the United Church payroll, even though her salary is paid by the congregation, not the United Church.

Vosper isnt worried about losing her job or income. She has options. She could teach. She could write more books. But she is worried that her denomination is drifting away from what she has always hoped it would become.

The United Church is the only denomination in the world that could declare the Bible is not the authoritative word of God for all time.And that needs to be said by a major recognized denomination in order to undermine every single statement that is made by any religious extremist group  that their document, whether its the Bible, the Quran or the Bhagavad Gita, is not a divinely authored piece from some supernatural source.

The United Church has been teaching this stuff in theological colleges for decades, she adds. So is it not time to say it publicly? A lot of people would breathe a sigh of relief. And it may set humanity on a different course.

She remains determined to fight, in large part because the future of a strong and thriving congregation is at stake. Now its not just about me, she says. Now its about me and my community.

Clergy who dont believe are a dime a dozen, she says. But congregations who let them actually be honest about that are extraordinary.

Revising the prayers

From Prayers of the People ...

Then:

Oh God, in your mercy, hear our prayer

To: Sharing Time ...

Now:

In this, our time of need, may love abound

From Prayers of the People 

Then:

For this, O Gracious One, we give you thanks

To Sharing Time 

Now:

In this abundant blessing, we share the joy

Prayers after reading 

Then:

Reader: This is the witness of Gods people. Response: Thanks be to God

Now:

Reader: Offered as wisdom for the journey. Response: May we walk in its light

From The Lords Prayer...

Then:

Our loving God, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses 

To Words of Commitment...

Now:

As I live every day, I want to be a channel for peace. May I bring love where there is hatred and healing where there is hurt; joy where there is sadness, and hope where there is fear 

Hymns

From How Great Art Thou Art 

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

By Carl G. Boberg

To Then Sings My Soul 

Then sings my soul in wonder, full and free,

amazed at all I hear and see!

Then sings my soul in wonder, full and free,

a sacred gift is life to me!

By Gretta Vosper and Scott Kearns (2007)

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For years, the glimmering glass blades found scattered across the island were seen as evidence of its former residents bloodshed. Their environment denuded and their livelihoods compromised by deforestation and overuse of the land, the people of Easter Island were driven to warfare, scholars said, and the once-thriving society that built the massive moai monoliths dwindled down to just a few hungry hundreds.

It represents such a classic case of people potentially using up resources and ending up in fighting and warfare, Carl Lipo, an archeologist at Binghamton University, in New York, told the BBC World Service.

So classic that researchers such as Jared Diamond (of Guns, Germs and Steel fame) held the island up as a cautionary tale for modern readers: the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources.

As the story goes, these descendants of a small group of intrepid Polynesian settlers who landed on the island somewhere between AD 700 and 1200 after canoeing more than 1,500 kilometres across the open Pacific were once a flourishing community of farmers. They built hundreds of moai statues, tremendous, hollow-eyed and imposing, that are still considered an engineering marvel. But their rapid growth and rapacious slash-and-burn agriculture devastated the landscape, Diamond and others argue.

The ecosystem collapsed, bringing the Easter Island society down with it. Clans went to war over the scant remaining food sources, and in some cases even resorted to cannibalism. The people whose engineering prowess was such that their ability to build and move their massive statues still defies historians best explanations had all but vanished. It was a sad case of what Diamond calls ecocide.

If mere thousands of Easter Islanders with just stone tools and their own muscle sufficed to destroy their environment and thereby destroyed their society, how can billions of people with metal tools and machine power now fail to do worse? he wrote in his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

It is a chilling narrative, but it may not be accurate, Lipo said. Hes the lead author of a new study in the archeological journal Antiquity arguing that the ubiquitous mataa blades often referenced in accounts of the islands collapse are not weapons after all  theyre just tools. And theyre further proof, Lipo argues, that were telling the wrong story about what happened on Easter Island.

Its not a morality tale about the perils of excess; its a saga about an inventive people who engineered their environment to make the most of scant resources, only to fall prey to disease and human avarice once European explorers arrived.

This is an argument that Lipo and his co-author, Terry Hunt, have been making for a while  almost since they began studying Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui, in 2000. In their book, The Statues That Walked, they say that stowaway rats that accompanied the original Polynesian settlers to the island were largely responsible for the rapid deforestation that happened there. But rather than collapse into desperation and discord, the residents of Easter Island found ways to cope.

No longer able to fish, since they lacked the lumber to build canoes, the islanders established a diet based on rat meat. Their soil degraded by the rapid ecological change, they burned trees and planted gardens of broken rock to enrich it; when the sea winds tumbled over the bits of stone, extra nutrients were released into the soil, boosting its productivity enough to sustain subsistence-level agriculture. Society on the island was diminished, perhaps, but it was not destroyed.

The mataa blades are the latest piece of evidence that Lipo and Hunt are presenting for their theory. These triangular slices of obsidian  a glittering-black volcanic rock  were originally thought to be spear points, according to a Binghamton University press release.

But when Lipo, Hunt and their colleagues conducted a quantitative analysis of more than 400 of the blades, they found that the pieces of glass would have made very poor weapons and bore little resemblance to other types of spears from similar civilizations.

European weapons or weapons found anywhere around the world when there are actually objects used for warfare  (are) very systematic in their shape. They have to do their job really well. Not doing well is risking death, Lipo said in the release.

The mataa, by contrast, varied widely in shape and size and werent engineered for fighting. Rather than being long and thin, fit for piercing bodies and slicing open organs, they were short and wide  more like a spade than a spear, he told the BBC.

Theres just no evidence to support that these were used in a systematic lethal fashion, Lipo said. They were wildly different than that and had really distributed kind of shapes that would be very poor weapons.

This seems to support the idea that the island didnt go through a period of infighting and ruin, he argues. In a society where warfare is rampant and violence may be the only means of survival, people surely would have learned to make better weapons than the ones that Lipo and Hunt found. Its more likely that the blades were used for ritual and cultivation purposes  tattooing, plant processing and so on  and were rarely turned on a fellow human.

So, if it wasnt internal conflict that killed the islands inhabitants, what is responsible? Disease that was introduced and slavery that brought people off the island, Lipo told the BBC.

The first recorded evidence of European contact with the islands people comes from 1722, when Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen visited the island for a week. He wrote that the population was somewhere in the thousands  a number that was likely an underestimate, since many inhabitants went into hiding after Roggeveen and his men shot and killed about a dozen of them. The interaction did not bode well for the people of the island, which Roggeveen himself described as exceedingly fruitful when he visited.

But a century and a half later, years of conflict, disease and slave raids by Europeans had taken their toll. Just 111 inhabitants remained on the island by the 1870s.

This theory has critics. Diamond wrote a rebuttal to Lipo and Hunts book in 2011, arguing that the researchers overestimated the effect of rats, cite a too-late date for initial Polynesian settlement of the island and ignored evidence of slash-and-burns destructive impact. In a letter to Current World Archaeology magazine, the Easter Island experts Paul Bahn and John Flenley also took issue with Lipo and Hunts claims. They point out that analysis of prehistoric skeletons showed evidence of lethal trauma, and there is a long oral tradition on the island of stories about a violent past.

But theres also a growing group of researchers who support the unorthodox claim. Mara Mulrooney, a Hawaiian anthropologist, published a study in 2013 arguing that nutrient levels in the soil across the island actually improved with deforestation. Rather than bringing about their ruin, the removal of their islands trees was a strategy to help the islands inhabitants survive.

They made the environment more productive from a food point of view, Mulrooney told NPR.

The reason archeologists had fixated on the ecocide argument for so long, she added, is that it fit with existing narratives about Easter Island that went all the way back to the 1700s.

Archeologists, instead of looking at the evidence itself, were taking the evidence and putting it into this existing framework that was really outdated, she said.

Christopher M. Stevenson of Virginia Commonwealth University complicated the issue with a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year. In it, he said that the island saw demographic changes prior to European contact, but they were shifts cased by altered weather patterns, not a starvation-induced crash. The rapid collapse came later, after European explorers brought smallpox, syphilis and slavery to the island.

Perhaps there is no one story about Easter Island, no narrative that fits neatly over one of the worlds most isolated and enigmatic places. And thats all right, Mulrooney told NPR. Thats how science is supposed to work.

Perhaps the story may change, perhaps the pendulum may swing back toward supporting a collapse, she said. But as of now, you know, I like to think that as scientists we trust what the data tell us.

Thats the beauty of archeology, is that its always changing.

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The Trudeau government is doing the right thing by backing off on a decision to order all Liberal members of Parliament to support whatever legislation it eventually puts forward on assisted suicide.

If ever there was an issue that calls for MPs to examine their consciences and vote according to their personal values, this is it. The Conservatives and New Democrats say they will not require their members to follow a party line on assisted suicide when it comes to a vote in the House of Commons later this year. The Liberals should do the same.

So far, though, the party leadership has sent conflicting messages. Dominique LeBlanc, the Liberal House leader, first declared that the party plans to whip the vote on doctor-assisted suicide because it involves Charter rights.

Then, late this week, he told the Globe and Mail that decision was premature. He said the leadership wont decide until a bill on the issue is drafted whether all Liberals in the Commons will have to toe the party line  whatever it turns out to be.

LeBlanc, of course, is quite right that the Supreme Court of Canada did invoke the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when it ruled last February in Carter v. Canada that existing laws against assisted suicide violate patients rights. The court declared that the ban should no longer apply to a competent adult person suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

But that doesnt settle the issue  far from it. It leaves a host of questions that Parliament must answer in order to implement the courts ruling.

Are psychological or mental conditions to be included? How and under what circumstances can people give consent? Must doctors take part, or can some refuse for reasons of personal conscience? Should minors have the same right to assisted dying? A parliamentary committee is mulling all this and is due to report next week. Then the government has until June to present a law.

By threatening to whip the vote on that bill, LeBlanc effectively pre-judged its conclusions and told most Liberal MPs not to bother thinking much about the issue. He simply declared that the Supreme Court has defined a right around the issue of assisted dying, and we will be always voting to uphold Charter rights.

LeBlanc was invoking Charter rights as a club to cut short debate even before the conclusion is known. This did a disservice to MPs, and runs counter to the spirit of the Liberal campaign platform, which promised to give Canadians a strong voice in the House of Commons by limiting the circumstances in which Liberal members of Parliament will be required to vote with Cabinet.

Of course, the same platform declared in the next breath that Liberal MPs must follow the party line in anything that involves confidence measures, the partys campaign promises or our shared values  including protections guaranteed by the Charter of Rights. But its entirely up to the party leadership whether or not it invokes that last condition on any particular issue.

Its a promising step for LeBlanc to at least delay a decision on whipping the vote until the government figures out exactly what solution it will present to Parliament on assisted dying. It would be even better if the government showed more confidence in its own backbench MPs and said now that it will permit a free vote. That would force the government to come up with a balanced bill that will earn support from a majority of MPs from all parties in the Commons and represent a real, earned consensus.

It would also be following the example of Quebecs National Assembly, which went through a very similar debate when it approved a right-to-die law. All parties allowed a free vote by their members, and theres general agreement that it helped to build wider understanding, if not blanket approval, for the provinces approach. The provinces majority Liberal government could have forced through a bill on its own, but wisely chose not to.

For the Trudeau government, whipping the vote in the Commons would be the easiest course, and would avoid potential awkwardness if there is significant dissent in Liberal ranks. But the government would be wiser to take the long view and allow MPs to follow their conscience on such a fundamental issue.

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Business / Local

by Staff reporter

GIANT sugar producer Tongaat Hulett has sacked thousands of contract workers barely two months after they embarked on a crippling month-long industrial action that disrupted local sugar supplies.Last year, Tongaat Hulett group CEO Mr Peter Staude warned that the company would be forced to cut jobs because of the El-Nino induced drought conditions.It became a double whammy for workers who are already smarting from salary deductions effected for the period they were on strike.Tongaat Hulett invoked provisions of Common Law allowing companies to dock salaries for days employees do not report for work.Sources familiar with the goings-on at the sugar producer told The Sunday Mail Business that more than 2 700 workers had been released at the company's Triangle Estates, while 1 600 contract workers were fired from Hippo Valley Estates."At Triangle there were 4 600 contract workers but they have since been reduced to 1 900 while at Hippo Valley Estates, there were 2 500 contract workers and the number has also been whittled down to 900."Permanent employees have also been forced to write statements indicating why they were absent during the days of the strike while massive deductions were made from workers' January salaries for all the days they did not report for work."So bad were the deductions that many workers took home about US$9 " said the source.Questions sent to Tongaat Hullett  Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates  corporate affairs and communications manager Ms Adelaide Chikunguru last Wednesday had not been answered by the time of going to print.Workers at the sugar estates down tools to force their employer to match their salaries with those of their peers at the company's Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland units, who are understood to be earning US$350 per month.Local employees earn US$180.The bulk of local employees, under the Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Industry Workers Union, heeded the strike call while those under the Sugar Production and Milling Industry Workers Union of Zimbabwe reported for work.The job action was viewed as illegal as workers failed to take their matter for arbitration after a deadlock in wage negotiations for April 2015 to March 2016.SPMWUZ, an affiliate of the United Food and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe, said it was worried about the job losses and also concerned that Tongaat was directing subscriptions for its 7 000 members to ZSMIWU.Ufawuz general secretary Mr Adoniah Mutero said Tongaat was "grossly interfering" with the activities of the trade union."Tongaat refused to deduct dues from all members of SPMWUZ who had renounced membership in ZISMIWU," said Mr Mutero.It is claimed that Tongaat is remitting union dues for 34 employees whom it says are known to have registered with SPMWUZ.Hippo Valley is not remitting anything; while Triangle is deducting dues from "exclusive" members of SPMWUZ despite the law allowing employees to join as many unions as they please.The entire SPMWUZ executive committee members' union dues are also being directed to ZISMIWU. The Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry wrote to Tongaat human resources director Mr Fred Nyangwe on January 18, 2016 urging him to effect the check-off system."It has come to our attention that (SPMWUZ) is experiencing problems with your organisation in effecting the check-off scheme for their members. In terms of section 52(1) (of the Labour Act), this registered union has a right to collect union dues and in terms of section 54(1) your organisation, as an employer of the union members, is obliged to collect union dues through check-off scheme and remit to the union."We expect that if there is required documentary proof of affiliation of members to a union, the employer should effect deduction(s) accordingly. We also believe that we both share the same aim of promoting industrial harmony, hence we request you to address this anomaly. Please note that this also applies to those who resign from other unions," said Labour Secretary Ms Grace Kanyayi.Mr Nyangwe referred questions to Ms Chikunguru, who claimed Tongaat was remitting union dues to SPMWUZ. After being told that they were only remitting dues for 34 employees, she requested questions in writing but again had not responded by the time of publication.
Entertainment / Celebrity

by Staff Reporter

Flirtatious Muvhango actress Phindile Gwala spent a few hours in police cells in the wee hours of last Saturday morning.That's because the sexy actress from Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, who plays Nonny in the SABC2 soapie, was nabbed by Joburg Metro Police officers for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.The Sowetan Sunday World reported that Sandton police spokesman Warrant Officer Moses Maphakela confirmed a case of drinking and driving was opened against the inviting Gwala, who was then arrested and detained at the police station."The charges were withdrawn at the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Monday morning," said Maphakela.But he would not say why the charges were withdrawn.According to a police statement seen by Sunday World, Gwala (30) was stopped minutes into the early hours of Saturday morning during a roadblock. She was then tested for alcohol.The roadblock was manned by members of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department on the corner of Rivonia and Kopje Roads in Morningside, Sandton.She was driving a blue Audi A5, according to the officer who administered her Breathalyser test before booking her."He explained to her the reasons for stopping her, and asked her to blow into the Breathalyser. The results came back at 0.38 mg/L, above the legal limit. She was then arrested," read the police statement in part.Gwala had not responded to queries at the time of going to press.
Entertainment / Music

by Mbongeni Msimanga

BULAWAYO'S rap "god" Cal_vin's performance was somewhat cut short at the recently held National Arts Merit Awards (Nama), which were held in Harare, raising speculation that he could have been sabotaged, following his recent beef with Junior Brown.Cal_vin was involved in a scuffle with his musical nemesis Junior Brown earlier in the day, while he was rehearsing for his set for the night.The scuffle was, however, broken off by security personnel. He said he wasn't interested in being involved in beefs and would rather focus on his music."I am over that beef now. I am thinking of progressive things now like working on my new album," he said.Cal_vin, affectionately known as Dat Luveve Boy and one the best rappers in the country, was about to perform his hit track Z'khuphani featuring South Africa's Cassper Nyovest before the music was abruptly cut.Cal_vin told Sunday Life, after his performance at the event that he was disappointed that he could not be given his expected time to perform on stage."I do not know what happened there but I was not given the expected time to perform on stage like the other artistes.Oh well, it happens. To be honest it was actually worth it. An opportunity is an opportunity and I cannot really have emotions on that. I still believe that God, one way or another spoke to me," he said.Cal_vin also posted on his Facebook page last week expressing his disappointment."They failed to bring back my music so we were forced to cut the set short. But I hope you somehow enjoyed it. I then asked them to give me another slot but I was never given the opportunity," read the post.Sources from the Nama organising committee confirmed the incident, saying that indeed they had not given Cal_vin another chance to perform on stage."It's sad that he was not given enough time to perform on stage and we are partly to blame as the organising team," said a source that declined to be named.However, other artistes such as American-based group The Huntertones had collaborations with Hope Masike, Tariro NeGitare and were also given individual performances.Hope Masike was accorded an opportunity to have an individual performance on stage.Award winning comedian, Doc Vikela was also given his fair share of time on stage and no doubt got the crowd chuckling with his jokes that left the crowd wanting more.
News / Africa

by Steaff Reporter

A teacher who was slapped with an eight year jail sentence and P4.5 million compensation for setting ablaze Botswana Defense Force (BDF) barracks at Area S camp in Francistown two years ago has filed an application for bail pending appeal against the conviction and sentence.The Voice reported that Bonno Ikanyeng, 33, a Guiding and Counseling teacher at Pandagala Junior Secondary School in Tutume is now seeking bail, pending appeal ruling which is expected to be delivered at the Francistown magistrates court on February 26.The educationist had pleaded not guilty to the single count of arson.However, she was convicted by Francistown senior magistrate Dumisani Basupi on overwhelming evidence by the prosecution.On Tuesday, Ikanyeng was back before the same magistrate seeking bail pending appeal.Through her lawyer, Kabelo Gaonyadiwe, Ikanyeng told the court that punishment she received is too harsh.According to her, the conviction she received is like double punishment since she is expected to compensate the government and the affected soldiers after spending eight years in prison.Gaonyadiwe told the court that the convict is likely to lose her employment as a teacher."How is she expected to compensate the government after losing her source of income which is teaching?" rhetorically enquired the lawyer.Gaonyadiwe confidently told the court that there is a high likelihood of the defense's appeal succeeding.The defense lawyer added that the process of the appeal is likely to take a long time bearing in mind that there is a backlog in the judiciary system.He said the delay will result in the convict serving a substantial part of her jail term.In opposing the application, Mompoloki Gaboiphiwe, prosecuting the matter said the evidence led by the state during trial against the convict is watertight and warranted her conviction without fail."There are no prospects of success in their appeal," opposed Gaboiphiwe.She said the convict became morbid jealousy after finding her husband, who was a soldier with BDF at the time, not at home.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, right, talks with Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., on Capitol Hill in Washington last week. . Next month, GOP House members in a crescent from Texas to North Carolina to Illinois face the first congressional primaries in this incumbent-bashing, anti-establishment year of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Most are expected to survive. But political operatives say a few are in contests worth watching for possible upsets, (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Pope Francis blesses hundreds of people gathered a few yards away on the U.S. side as he stands near the U.S.-Mexico border fence along the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday.. When politicians were confronted in recent years about how their policies fit their faith, the issue at hand was usually abortion and the targets were mostly Democrats. Flying back to Rome, the pontiff managed to put the Republicans on the defensive by rebuking Donald Trump on a different issue: immigration. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

Chief Daniel Mathiba's two sons and a third suspect accused of murder were this week granted bail despite objections from the state prosecutor who argued that the trio should remain behind bars since it was suspected ritual murder.The Voice reported that the two royals from Mathethe, Ofentse Phenyo Mathiba, 28, Tumisang Tshidiso Mathiba, 34 and Thato Shadrack Koosaletse, 23, appeared before Lobatse Chief Magistrate Dipate Mareledi on Monday for an urgent bail application following their detention on February 8.The three are facing one count of murder after they allegedly killed John Ngwenya, a Zimbabwean national who was herdboy in Mmarole lands on January 26.The other suspect Gindra Stegling did not appear before the court.In his argument, the accused lawyer, Lesedi Moahi of Moahi Attorneys said his clients had a right to be granted bail as one Bakgatla chief was once accused of a similar offence but was granted bail.Moahi further said the police had not verified the identity of the deceased and thus his clients should not be inconvenienced by the slow pace characterising the investigations.State attorney, Neo Kgothi however said the deceased was last seen on January 26 and the suspects were first persons found at the scene with the remains moved for about 600-700m away from the scene.He said Ngwenya was murdered and mutilated."Ritual murder is a sensitive case and since there are allegations that the person was murdered for rituals the suspects should remain in jail," he said.He told court that the deceased was tied to a pole and brutally assaulted with a claw hammer and sticks until he died."On February 4 police in Goodhope received an anonymous call with the caller alleging that the chief and his family were behind the disappearance of the man. I therefore plead with the court to further remand the accused as the case is complex," he said.That however did not convince the magistrate who went on to grant the suspects bail."Despite the charge, evidence should be produced and the suspects should be presumed innocent until proven guilty," said Dipate.
The debate over whether Canadian-born Ted Cruz is eligible to be president is moving from the campaign trail to the courtroom.

Lawsuits challenging the Texas Republicans eligibility for the ballot have been filed in recent weeks by residents in states including Illinois, New York and Alabama who argue he cant be president because hes not a natural-born citizen. Fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump also has threatened to sue over the issue.

Cruz and some legal experts say hes eligible because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born.

Lawrence Joyce, a pharmacist and lawyer from Poplar Grove, Illinois, said Friday he filed suit in Chicago because he wants to avoid what he called a potential nightmare scenario.

He said he fears if Cruz becomes the GOP nominee, Democrats will get him kicked off the ballot in some states or Cruz will be forced to drop out, and establishment Republicans will replace him with a more moderate candidate, such as Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.

Joyce said hes backing Ben Carson but is acting strictly on my own.

Cook County Judge Maureen Ward Kirby set a hearing on a motion to dismiss the suit filed by Cruzs lawyer for March 1  the first day Joyce said hed be able to get off work to return to court. By then, ballots for Illinois March 15 primary will be printed and early voting underway.

Asked about his eligibility during a CNN town hall this week, Cruz said by law hes been a U.S. citizen since the day he was born.

There will still be some that try to work political mischief on it, but as a legal matter, this is clear and straightforward, Cruz said.

The Indiana Election Commission on Friday rejected a challenge to whether Cruz may remain on the states May 3 primary ballot.

Cruz won a similar ballot challenge in New Hampshire in November.

(AP)
A 14-year-old Palestinian terrorist was arrested on Sunday in yet another attempted stabbing attack in the Kiryat Arba area. The attack occurred at Sdei Kalev near Banai Naim.

According to reports, the teen tried attacking a group of soldiers who were on patrol in the area. The terrorist was taken into custody.

A short statement by the IDF said The teenager has been arrested and was taken in for further questioning,

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Media Resource Group)
[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Once again, this time on Sunday morning 12 Adar I, another stabbing attack was averted Bchasdei Hashem.

Border police at Tapuach Junction in the Shomron detected a suspicious Arab female. They cautiously conducted a check on the suspect and learned she was concealing a knife, which she planned to use in a terror attack.

The 17-year-old terrorist was taken into custody unharmed. The commander of the troops at Tapuach Junction praised his men for their vigilance prevented another Palestinian terror attack.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Media Resource Group)
President Barack Obama has refused to send any suspected terrorists captured overseas to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. But if the U.S. starts seizing more militants in expanded military operations, where will they go, who will hold them and where will they be tried?

Those are questions that worry legal experts, lawmakers and others as U.S. special operations forces deploy in larger numbers to Iraq, Syria and, maybe soon, Libya, with the Islamic State group and affiliated organizations in their sights.

Throughout Obamas presidency, suspects have been killed in drone strikes or raids, or captured and interrogated, sometimes aboard Navy ships. After that, they are either prosecuted in U.S. courts and military commissions or handed over to other nations.

This policy has been enough, experts say  at least for now.

If youre going to be doing counterterrorism operations that bring in detainees, you have to think through what you are going to do with them, said Phillip Carter, former deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee policy. If the U.S. is going to conduct large-scale combat operations or large-scale special

Rebecca Ingber, an associate law professor at Boston University who follows the issue, warns that if the U.S. engaged in a full ground war in Syria, chances are there would need to be detention facilities of some kind in the vicinity.

Obama has not sent a single suspected terrorist to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many have been detained for years without being charged or tried  something the president says is a recruitment tool for militant extremists.

He is to report to Congress this month on how he wants to close Guantanamo and possibly transfer some of the remaining detainees to the United States. That report also is supposed to address the question of future detainees.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., believes that the absence of a long-term detention and interrogation facility for foreign terrorist suspects represents a major shortcoming in U.S. national security policy.

Republican candidates who want to succeed Obama are telling voters that they would keep Guantanamo open.

Law enforcement is about gathering evidence to take someone to trial, and convict them, said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Anti-terrorism is about finding out information to prevent a future attack so the same tactics do not apply.  But, heres the bigger problem with all this: Were not interrogating anybody right now.

Thats not true, said Frazier Thompson, director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. The tight-lipped team of interrogators from the FBI, Defense Department, the CIA and other intelligence agencies gleans intelligence from top suspected terrorists in the U.S. and overseas.

We were created to interrogate high-value terrorists and we are interrogating high-value terrorists, Thompson said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since it was established in 2009, that team has been deployed 34 times, Thompson said, adding that other government agencies conduct independent interrogations as well. We are designed to deploy on the highest-value terrorist. We are not going out to interrogate everybody, he said.

Thompson would not disclose details of the cases his team has worked or speculate on whether he expects more interrogation requests as the battle against IS heats up.

If there is a surge, Im ready to go. If theres not, Im still ready to go, Thompson said.

The U.S. has deployed about 200 new special operations forces to Iraq, and they are preparing to work with the Iraqis to begin going after IS fighters and commanders, killing or capturing them wherever we find them, along with other key targets, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said.

Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS, told Congress this month that in the final six months of 2015y, 90 senior to midlevel leaders were killed, including the IS leaders key deputies: Haji Mutazz, the top leader in Iraq, and Abu Sayyaf, the IS oil minister and financier.

Sayyaf was killed in a raid to rescue American hostage Kayla Mueller; his wife, known as Umm Sayyaf, was captured.

Her case illustrates how the Obama administration is prosecuting some terrorist suspects in federal courts or military commissions or leaving them in the custody of other nations.

Umm Sayyaf, a 25-year-old Iraqi, is being held in Iraq and facing prosecution by authorities there. She also was charged Feb. 9 in U.S. federal court with holding Mueller and contributing to her death in February 2015.

Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who investigated and supervised international terrorism cases, including the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen the 1990s, said sending suspected terrorists through the American criminal justice system works. He said the courts are more effective than military commissions used at Guantanamo that have been slow in trying detainees who violate the laws of war.

The current practice of investigating and prosecuting terror suspects has proved incredibly effective, Soufan said, noting that since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, only seven people have been tried and convicted under military commissions. During that same time period, hundreds of terrorists have been convicted in federal courts and almost all are still in jail.

But its hard to evaluate the effectiveness of the system.

The Justice Department declined to provide the number of foreign terrorist suspects who have been prosecuted or the number handed over to other countries, or their status. Lawmakers, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., have asked the Defense Department for the numbers.

Reports on how other countries handle the suspects are classified.

Raha Wala, senior counsel at Human Rights First, also is concerned about detention operations abroad.

The government needs to be more transparent to the American people  and to the world  about who it is transferring overseas, and what procedures are in place to make sure we are not transferring individuals into situations where human rights will be abused, he said.

(AP)
A prominent Saudi prince said Sunday that Muslim countries need to take the lead in fighting terrorism and that a recently announced Islamic counterterrorism alliance of 34 nations should have been created sooner.

Prince Turki al-Faisals comments come as the kingdom hosts an 18-day military exercise with 20 members of the new alliance, which includes Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan and neighboring Gulf states. Defense Ministers from the coalition of Muslim-majority countries are scheduled to hold their first meeting in Saudi Arabia sometime in March.

I consider this a leading and commendable step that should have happened sooner and thank God it has taken place, he told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Its no secret, unfortunately, that in our world today the majority of terrorism-related acts, its victims are Muslim, he said. Therefore, it is our responsibility as Muslim countries to play the primary role in fighting this disease that has impacted us all.

Notably absent from the coalition is the kingdoms regional rival Iran, as well as Syria and Iraq, which are battling to win back swaths of territory controlled by the Islamic State group.

Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran are fiercely divided on a host of issues and support opposite sides of the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Relations worsened after the execution of a popular Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia last month, which triggered protests in Iran and the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy and another diplomatic mission there. The two countries then severed diplomatic and trade ties.

Prince Turki said the ball is in the Iranian court when it comes to any hope of improving ties.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has expressed publicly that Irans interference in the affairs of Arab states is a situation that is unacceptable, he said.

The prince, who does not hold an official position in the government, is an influential and outspoken member of the Saudi royal family. He headed Saudi Arabias General Intelligence Directorate for more than two decades until Sept. 1, 2001, and held ambassador posts to the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland.

(AP)
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

A COLUMBIAN businessman, who is visiting South Africa, has been diagnosed with the Zika virus, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday."The confirmation of this particular case poses no risk to the South African population as the virus is not transmitted from human to human but through the Aedes aegypti mosquito and or possibly from mother to the foetus in pregnant women," Motsoaledi said."A case of sexual transmission was recently reported in the US but is still regarded as very rare."Daily Sun reported that the businessman was diagnosed by a private Johannesburg pathology laboratory. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases is performing a confirmation test.Motsoaledi's spokesperson Joe Maila said the businessman presented with fever and a rash about four days after he arrived in the country but he is now fully recovered."The infection was acquired in Columbia prior to his visit to Johannesburg for business. Columbia is experiencing a large outbreak of the Zika virus."He said the virus is present in the blood of a patient for a very short time  typically less than seven days.A person carrying the virus in their blood will have to be bitten by a correct subtype of an Aedes aegypti mosquito within this time for the virus to be transmitted to the next person through a bite from the same mosquito."The Aedes mosquito that transmit the Zika virus in South America also transmit dengue fever and yellow fever, but these viruses are not found in South Africa, indicating that the local Aedes mosquito does not contribute to the spread of the Zika virus," Maila said."Given the frequency of travel between South Africa and a number of countries currently experiencing outbreaks of the Zika virus, it is likely that other sporadic imported cases will be seen here in travellers as has been the experience in a number of countries."The World Health Organisation said the Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas and the region may see up to four million cases of the disease strongly suspected of causing birth defects.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri has said the Dande dam which is under construction will supply water to more than 1000 small holder farmers and communities in the drought prone Dande valley.She said the Dande dam project involves the construction of a 160 million cubic metres capacity earth fill dam on the Dande river in Guruve District of the Mashonaland Central Province. She said this project also incorporates the construction of a 7.3km tunnel to be drilled through the Mavhuradonha mountains."The project is intended to supply irrigation water to more than 1 000 small holder farmers and communities in the drought prone Dande Valley which lies below the Zambezi escarpment. The construction of the project started in 2000 and was funded through the African Development Bank (AfDB). Government took over the project in 2001 when the funding by the AfDB failed to materialize. Works briefly started before coming to a standstill due to financial challenges," she said."The Ministry wishes to advise that a number of water infrastructural projects have been suspended due to insufficient budgetary provisions. These include, Marovanyati, Bindura, Semwa, and Dande Dam and tunnel and Tuli Manyane dam among others."She said in fulfilling its mandate to develop, manage and deliver water to the people of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate has embarked on raising funds to complete these important water infrastructure projects through the involvement of private partners/investors."As part of these efforts, the Ministry held a Water Resources and Infrastructure Investment Conference on 24th and 25th June, 2015 at the Rainbow Towers Hotel. The Investment Conference was attended by many international and local investors who showed interest in partnering Government in the implementation of such dam projects like the Dande dam and tunnel," she said.
To all those affected by the discontinuation of the Winter Fuel payment. Apologies to recipients who live beyond Europe, or to whom it does not concern directly or indirectly.

From Brian Cave. Action needed, write to Iain Duncan-Smith in his snug centrally heated office surrounded by his mandarins also in their snug centrally heated offices who, in their 'infinite' wisdom believe we in France live in a 'hot' country and therefore won't miss the Winter Fuel Allowance!

It is suggested that you add YOUR ADDRESS, telephone numbers etc at the top - alter the date of sending, delete or totally change the paragraph in italics, then print it in colour and then put it in an envelope with the address of IDS and place a Euro Union rate stamp on it and post it.

OR you can write your own letter entirely (especially if you live outside France and Spain - Cyprus residents will need to compose something different - The support of residents elsewhere is most welcome) but make sure the map is included!

If it is too difficult to send by letter post then send it by email to ministers@dwp.gsi.gov.uk - and as the subject put - 'for the personal attention of Iain Duncan Smith'.

Otherwise to his personal parliamentary secretary at olivia.kybett@parliament.uk

A Freedom Of Information Request has been asked of the DWP concerning the objective for the suspension of the WFP and the argument put forward for achieving that objective in this manner. When a reply to this FoI is received it will be circulated.

Brian Cave

LETTER herewith.

Your name, address etc here.

Telephone: 00 xx (0)x xx xx xx xx

e-mail : xxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xx

For the personal attention of

The Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP

Department for Work & Pensions,

Caxton House,

Tothill Street,

London, SW1H 9NA

Grande Bretagne

xx February 2016

Since you took your decision to penalise British Expat Pensioners living in the so-called hot countries, I do not imagine you have allowed yourself a moments thought about the actual conditions we live with day-by-day. Below is a weather map forecasting the temperatures for the seven-day period currently being experienced.

You will see this map shows large parts of France, most of Spain, and parts of Portugal - three of your hot countries - being a great deal colder than the whole of the United Kingdom, and for that matter, all of Ireland and most of Italy as well.

You said you wanted to stop the obscene waste of taxpayers money of providing the Winter Fuel Payment for British Pensioners, and deliberately used the Daily Mail campaign against real Benefit Cheats, to paint us all in the same mould. Just in case you still harbour this illusion, here are a few facts.

(Replace this part in italics).

This is our fourteenth winter living in this part of France. We switched on our central heating for the first time on 23rd September 2015, and apart from five days, the heating has been needed every day since. 147 days when we needed to heat our home, during which time we have used 1,402 litres of oil, and half of our stock of wood. This has been a relatively mild winter compared to others we have experienced, but with daily temperatures rarely hitting double figures since Christmas, we expect to continue needing heat every day for the coming 106 days, at least.

We installed a completely new and well-insulated roof, and replaced all seventeen windows and three doors with double-glazed units, and so have taken every opportunity to protect ourselves. However, with outside temperatures regularly falling below the 8C threshold, which Public Health England consider poses an increased risk of death for elderly people, we have recognised what we needed to do to help ourselves.

We are acutely aware there are a number of British Pensioners, particularly widows living alone, who have really suffered as a result of your decision to pursue the so-called Temperature Test Policy. In the end, we have to ask, why in Gods name did you do it? The things you said; the words you used; bear absolutely no relation to the degree of suffering you have imposed on some who had done nothing to deserve such treatment. I really wish you would explain to me why it was you took the action you did, and why you used such ferocious language directed at we Expats.

The Winter Fuel Payment as a universal benefit is well past its use by date. It should be scrapped, and replaced with a benefit which provides substantial support for all British Pensioners who fall into fuel poverty, wherever they live, be it Bristol, Blarney, Basel, Bordeaux, Barcelona or Braga. We have to ask how many of your colleagues in the House of Commons on reaching the State Pension Age refuse this automatic benefit, which they most definitely do not need? For example, what will you do when you reach the SPA in three and a half years?

Signed 
Asda came in for a drubbing last week when it emerged its sales had fallen by almost 6 per cent over Christmas  its worst ever sales fall.

Now I cant make a silk purse of this sows ear, but I think the real significance of these figures and the better sales performance of its rivals is yet to be clear.

I will be reserving judgment until we see the profit effect on Asda of this sales slump  due, of course, to the fierce competition from the discounters like Aldi and Lidl.

Green in the black: By resisting discounting even further and eschewing the Black Friday madness, Asda has clearly decided not to chase sales at the expense of profits

The newcomers are more directly targeted at Asda customers than the other supermarkets  Asda has always placed itself as the shop for the price-conscious grocery buyer.

And in geographical terms Asda is also more exposed to the interlopers who have opened more stores where they can compete directly  particularly in the North.

That will change as Aldi and Lidl open more sites and clash in location with Tesco and Sainsbury.

But what is more important is whether chasing growth in the top line (sales) is more, or less, important than keeping an eye on the bottom line (profits.)

By resisting discounting even further and eschewing the Black Friday madness, Asda has clearly decided not to chase sales at the expense of profits. Chief executive Andy Clark said even in the face of falling profits he believed profits were stable.

Indeed figures released in the autumn showed Asda sales also falling, but profits holding up. Meanwhile, Tesco and Sainsbury both reported profit falls.

Discount choices: Tesco and Sainsburys have kept prices so low to stay competitive with Aldi and Lidl

In the old days all supermarket bosses had to do was sell more stuff and the profits looked after themselves. That is no longer true and that is why I am not yet convinced that in this bonfire of the supermarkets, which is seeing unprecedented challenges, Asda has got it entirely wrong.

There is another canard that needs to be dispatched in the world of retail and that is the continuous rumour of takeovers and mergers, both in stores and online, where a flurry of talk about a takeover of Ocado by Amazon has so far come to nothing.

The world of supermarket mergers makes even less sense and reflects that outdated belief that simply getting bigger is enough.

Aside from the fact that most possible merger combinations between supermarkets would prompt a competition probe, it is hard to see what value they could create.
Ms J.M. writes: In 1952, I married an American and went to live in Tennessee, where we subsequently had four children.

In 1964, my husband and I separated. I returned to Britain with the children, who had dual nationality, and in 1974 I took out British citizenship for them. My son David will be 60 next month.

Last year he was contacted by his bank, Barclays, which said the US Internal Revenue Service wanted details from all British banks of customers born in America. Barclays has sent forms saying he may be liable for US income tax, and if he wants to renounce American citizenship it will cost $2,000 (about 1,400).

We cannot understand how he can be liable for American taxes when he has never worked in the US and has a British passport.

Thumbs up: But Boris had to pay tax to the IRS in America like your son - and there is no easy way out

David is caught in a nasty trap, but I am afraid that everything you say is true and there is no easy way out. I am only surprised that your son was not conscripted into the American forces when he was 18, which did happen to others in his situation.

The American governments Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) became law in 2010. It was aimed at catching US citizens who stashed money away in offshore accounts to sidestep tax.

Since then though, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has cast its net worldwide, doing deals with more than 100 countries to get information.

In 2012, the British Government signed an agreement with Washington to exchange information. Washington definitely gets details of American citizens with British bank accounts and the British taxman is supposed to receive details of British citizens with American accounts, though it is not clear whether Washington has honoured this.

The agreement took effect in 2014, since when every British bank has had to search its records for customers born in the US. This has cost British banks more than 1 billion.

Officials at the IRS now have Davids name and address, details of his bank account, the balance in it, any interest earned, and even the amount he made from any sale of property if his bank can identify this.

You might think this is a minor problem caused by an obscure law. Amazingly, though, American officials hope to track down eight million US citizens living outside America  and almost 200,000 are believed to be in Britain.

One of those 200,000 is David. Another accidental American is the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who was born in New York to British parents. He left the US aged five, but just over a year ago the IRS caught up with him.

The American governments Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) became law in 2010. It was aimed at catching US citizens who stashed money away in offshore accounts to sidestep tax

Boris had sold his London home at a profit. In Britain, this was tax exempt, but American law made it taxable.

Because he did not want to be arrested when he visited the US, Boris was forced to stump up what he described as an outrageous sum in American taxes. The amount has never been revealed, but is said to be around 100,000.

The mayor is still a US citizen, entitled to passports from both the US and Britain  and entitled to run for the White House as well as No 10.

Robert Dockings, FATCA expert at international accountants Deloitte, told me: If you were born in the US, you are a US citizen and the Internal Revenue Service will expect you to file US tax returns. Whether or not you have a US passport or social security number makes no difference. Even if you have never worked in the US, FATCA still applies.

And he added: You need to file US tax returns to declare your worldwide income and gains, but you can claim credit for the UK tax you pay to avoid double taxation.

Registering your son as British in 1974 was fine under British law, but it did not involve renouncing his US citizenship.

When FATCA started to bite and the Americans went for this option, Washington boosted the renunciation fees enormously, but this might still be the best option unless David is happy to file American tax returns for his whole life.

Even this can be tricky since Washington does not allow nationals to give up citizenship unless they are already up to date with tax returns. Sometimes you just cannot win.

Barclaycard does have PPI liability

D.K. writes: My son had a credit card from Morgan Stanley and paid 16 a month for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). The card was taken over by Barclaycard but when he asked about a refund of PPI premiums, Barclays said as Morgan Stanley was American-owned it had no obligation to make a refund. Is this correct?

No, it is not so I asked Barclays to comment. Staff at Barclaycard quickly told me that they had no record of any enquiry from your son about a PPI refund, but they immediately treated my enquiry as a claim on his behalf.

Barclaycard does accept responsibility for PPI claims going back to the days of the old Morgan Stanley card and the company has now told me:

We have completed the investigation of Mr Ks case and can confirm we have upheld his claim. We are very sorry that this policy was mis-sold and are providing a full refund of 2,135.

Pay back unwanted loans now and you can close the door on this saga

Mrs K.A.D. writes: Last year I needed new doors for my home. When Zenith Staybrite came canvassing I paid for the front and back doors, but the representative asked me to pay separately for the patio door in instalments.

Then I noticed Zenith had taken money from my bank account for insurance. I cancelled that, but Barclays told me I would still be making payments for five years as the Zenith man had arranged a loan for me. I have said I will pay the amount borrowed in my name, but not the interest.

There are actually three loans in your name, all with Barclays Partner Finance, a credit wing of the bank, and you have been charged about 225 a month when what you really wanted was to pay Zenith up front, not on credit.

I contacted both Zenith and Barclays. You appear to have signed a credit agreement, thinking you were simply ordering your doors. Zenith quickly told me it would cancel this and refund interest, but it could not do this itself as your loan agreement was with Barclays. The bank has now told me that while it is confident the agreement is valid, it will waive the interest if you repay the loans within 30 days.

Do this now and the result will be what you wanted all along  a cash deal with no credit and no interest.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
Tight rein: Francis Brooke runs the fund

No manager can promise investors a sure bet, especially in such turbulent times.

But Francis Brooke, co-manager of Troy Income & Growth Trust, is doing his level best to ensure shareholders dont suffer too many bumps and bruises on the ride.

The investment trust, conservatively run by Brooke since August 2009, has not only defied stock market gravity over the past year, generating an overall return of 4 per cent while the FTSE All-Share Index has fallen 8 per cent.

But it has also grown its annual dividend every year since he took charge.

It is a record that has caught the eye of financial advisers looking to recommend resilient funds to clients.

Fund managers are not known for their love of investment trusts because historically they have not paid them the same commission as other funds.

But Gavin Haynes, managing director of Bristol-based adviser Whitechurch Securities, describes Troy Income & Growth as an excellent core holding and ideal for pension investors.

There is nothing magical about what Brooke does. The trust, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, is run as a conventional equity income fund, extracting a mix of income and capital return from a tight portfolio of 45 UK stocks.

Brooke has cut the annual management charge from 1.4 per cent when he joined to just over 1 per cent a year, and refuses to do anything too wild, such as borrowing money to increase exposure to equities, which investment trusts can do.

All the usual dividend-friendly companies are in the trusts portfolio  British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and a third cigarette maker, Reynolds American, as well as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, both giants of the pharmaceutical sector.

However, Brooke is cautious of focusing too much on dividends, saying: Although there needs to be an engine of dividend growth in the trust, the last thing we want to do is overbalance the portfolio towards income generation. If you do that as a fund manager, you start sacrificing capital return.

Overcoming odds: Troy has defied stock market gravity over the past year, generating an overall return of 4 per cent while the FTSE All-Share Index has fallen 8 per cent

The result is a yield at just above 3.4 per cent, modest compared with rival equity income trusts such as Merchants (managed by Allianz) and Shires Income (managed by Aberdeen), which have yields in excess of 6 per cent.

Brooke is content to quietly build on the trusts record of dividend growth. In the trusts previous financial year, it paid three quarterly dividends of 0.575p followed by a final dividend of 0.6p.

In the current financial year it has already paid a 0.6p quarterly dividend and has indicated that the next two payments will be at the same level.

The final dividend will be higher, setting the benchmark for the first three quarterly payments in the new financial year, starting in October.Brooke says: We like to give shareholders a clear idea of where we are heading on the dividend.

A sure bet: Willie Carson riding Troy, the famous Thoroughbred racehorse the trust is named after

In common with most income-friendly investment trusts, Troy Income & Growth has built a war chest to fund payouts for when the going is rough.

Recent dividend cuts from the likes of Rolls-Royce  its first in a quarter of a century  suggest difficult times lie around the corner. Brooke is unruffled, indicating that the trust has the equivalent of half a years annual dividend income in reserve to top up payouts to shareholders.

The trust is part of the 6.5billion of assets managed by Mayfair-based Troy Asset Management, set up in 2000 by Lord Weinstock two years before his death to look after his family fortune.
American doctors are known as being among the most highly paid in the world. With big homes, luxury lifestyles and large pay cheques, they are traditionally the envy of medics this side of the Atlantic.

Changes are afoot, however. President Obama is determined to drive down healthcare costs and this has had a ripple effect across the market. Insurers, who foot most Americans medical bills, are putting pressure on doctors, who in turn are looking for ways to trim costs.

Constellation Healthcare Technologies aims to profit from this. It helps doctors in the US process the bills they send patients more efficiently so they are paid promptly by insurers.

The firms share price is 148p and this should rise as the business grows and proves its mettle.

Cutting red tape: Constellation Healthcare Technologies helps doctors in the US process invoices

The company is based in Houston, Texas, but listed on Aim, primarily because Londons junior stock exchange provides a good home for small, fast-growing tech firms.

In the US, the medical billing market is huge  worth $37billion (26billion) a year. But the job of processing those bills has traditionally been done by thousands of small, local firms, catering for thousands of small, local medical practices.

Now, doctors are joining forces, grouping together into teams of 100 or more, in an attempt to run their practices more cost-effectively.

Insurance claims are also becoming more complex, regulation is increasing and the sheer number of patients is growing, making it harder for small billing firms to cope.

This is where Constellation comes in. The group was set up in 2013 by Paul Parmar, an Indian-born US entrepreneur, to buy up billing firms and make them more efficient.

He has had considerable success to date, but the best may be yet to come. The group is expected to deliver a 28 per cent increase in turnover to $69.7 million and a 60 per cent rise in profit to $15.6 million for 2015. This year turnover and profit are expected to almost double.

Processing medical bills is a dull, repetitive task, normally carried out in the US by workers on the minimum wage. Job satisfaction is low, about 15 per cent of submissions are rejected by insurers and staff turnover runs at 30 per cent a year.

Profits injection: Doctors are joining forces in an attempt to run their practices more cost-effectively

Parmar outsources these jobs to India, where the workforce is more motivated and the cost is even less. Staff turnover is low and the workers are well trained, meaning that rejection rates have halved.

Constellation also uses up-to-the-minute reporting processes, so doctors can see exactly who is paying what and when, which insurers are most reliable and which procedures are most rewarding.

When Constellation acquires a medical billing firm, the managers who interact with doctors and insurers are retained, while turnover of lower paid workers is so high they tend to leave of their own accord.

Doctors seem happy with the new service. Parmar expected 10 to 20 per cent to change billing provider when their local firm was taken over by Constellation. In fact, fewer than 2 per cent have done so.

So far, the group has just over 10,000 physicians on its books. Its aim is to reach 25,000 over the next few years and extend its services to supplying everything from disposable syringes and rubber gloves to software licences.

Parmar is a colourful character who was exceptionally successful in the run-up to the financial crisis, but was hit hard in 2009.

However, when Constellation joined Aim in 2014, he put $20 million of his own money into the firm and the board includes Sir Rodney Aldridge, who built outsourcing giant Capita Group into a FTSE 100 firm from nothing.

Midas verdict: Constellation operates in a growing market and Parmar is committed and ambitious. At 148p, the shares offer good value to the adventurous investor.
We round up the Sunday newspaper share tips. This week Midas looks at Constellation Healthcare, Questor looks at Centrica, and Inside the City spotlights Weir Group.

Mail on Sunday - Midas

American doctors are known as being among the most highly paid in the world. With big homes, luxury lifestyles and large pay cheques, they are traditionally the envy of medics this side of the Atlantic.

Changes are afoot, however. President Obama is determined to drive down healthcare costs and this has had a ripple effect across the market. Insurers, who foot most Americans medical bills, are putting pressure on doctors, who in turn are looking for ways to trim costs.

Constellation Healthcare Technologies aims to profit from this. It helps doctors in the US process the bills they send patients more efficiently so they are paid promptly by insurers.

Emergency care: Constellation Healthcare Technologies helps doctors in the US process the bills they send patients more efficiently so they are paid promptly by insurers; Midas thinks the shares offer good value

Insurance claims are also becoming more complex, regulation is increasing and the sheer number of patients is growing, making it harder for small billing firms to cope.

This is where Constellation comes in. The group was set up in 2013 by Paul Parmar, an Indian-born US entrepreneur, to buy up billing firms and make them more efficient.

He has had considerable success to date, but the best may be yet to come. The group is expected to deliver a 28 per cent increase in turnover to $69.7million and a 60 per cent rise in profit to $15.6million for 2015. This year turnover and profit are expected to almost double.

The firms share price is 148p and this should rise as the business grows and proves its mettle.

The company is based in Houston, Texas, but listed on Aim, primarily because Londons junior stock exchange provides a good home for small, fast-growing tech firms.

Midas verdict: Constellation operates in a growing market and Parmar is committed and ambitious. At 148p, the shares offer good value to the adventurous investor.

Sunday Telegraph - Questor

Centrica

Shares in FTSE 100-listed Centrica should be given the cold shoulder, according to Questor today.

The owner of British Gas, saw its shares jump more than 6 per cent last week as its annual results showed it is coping better than expected with fewer customers, lower household bills and much lower oil and gas prices, John Ficenec writes in the Sunday Telegraph.

But he said that investors should still be wary about buying the shares after the company took the axe to its dividend and issued a bleak outlook.

Questor noted that Centrica's annual dividend was last week cut by 11 per cent to 12p, and is down 30 per cent from the 17p the firm paid in 2013.

It pointed out that Centrica's shares trade on 12 times forecast earnings, but although that makes the firm look reasonably priced, falling income is a worry.

Bleak midwinter: Questor said that investors should avoid buying the Centrica shares after the company last week took the axe to its dividend and issued a bleak outlook

Questor recommended avoiding Centrica shares at 320p in May last year, and highlighted a threat to the dividend last November.

It said that due to increased political pressure to reduce household bills and, with the commodity downturn worsening, that avoid advice remains.

Sunday Times - Inside the City

Weir Group



With oil prices having collapsed, the day of reckoning is fast approaching for hard-pressed commodity companies as banks holding hundreds of billions of loans start cutting off the flow of cash, and pumps manufacturer Weir Group looks set to suffer as well, writes Danny Fortson in the Sunday Times today.

He pointed out that the oil business accounts for a quarter of Weir's profits, while most of the rest is made up from mining, which is in similar straits due to the collapse in coal, iron, copper and other commodities because of Chinas slowdown has forced the industry to slash spending plans.

Although Weir chief executive Keith Cochrane has cut deep into the company's cost base, analysts still expect the company to reveal a halving of 2015 profits to 250million, with another dip expected this year, Fortson added.

He noted that a big rival like Americas GE or Canadas SNC-Lavalin could call the bottom of the market and swoop in with a bid for Weir, but that is not a bet he would yet take, and recommended the stock as a sell.
BT will not be forced to sell its 5billion Openreach broadband division when Ofcom publishes a provisional report into its ownership this week, insiders say.

Instead it is likely that the media regulator, under new boss Sharon White, will call for greater separation between BT and Openreach, which owns the main system of cables that link homes to the internet.

White, a former Treasury mandarin, has previously said that maintaining the status quo is not an option.

Ofcom is likely to try to reach a voluntary agreement with BT, though it will have to consult BTs rivals, who have been vocal in their complaints about what they say are shortcomings in the service.

Accused: Rivals such as Sky have said that it has been failing their customers and want a competition inquiry

Rivals such as Sky must buy broadband capacity from Openreach and have accused Openreach of failing their customers.

They have called for a full-blown competition inquiry.

Ofcom is set to keep open the option of a formal separation and subsequent sale of Openreach if no other arrangement can be reached when it publishes its Strategic Review of Digital Communications report on Thursday.

The regulator is also expected to say that if it cannot reach a voluntary agreement with BT, it is prepared to call on the European Commission in Brussels to rule on the issue.

Ofcom said there were three main possibilities for Openreach: to strengthen the current system of semi-independence; to create legally separate entities with different shareholders; and to promote further competition by encouraging new market entries from rivals.
A fashion model posing in a gold spot drape blouse from rescued fashion site Atterly

Rescued fashion company Atterley has already signed up hundreds of independent stores as it forges a global network of fashion shops selling products on its website.

Scottish entrepreneur Mike Welch, who sold his tyre fitting business Blackcircles to Michelin for 50 million a year ago, acquired the intellectual property assets of Atterley from administrators KPMG following its collapse last month.

The site had previously received 2million in 2014 from investors which included former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy and Bob Willett, the former head of Best Buy International.

Leahy has become a serial investor in fast-growing digital businesses and he gave financial backing to Welchs Blackcircles business.

Administrators blamed failure to raise additional funding for Atterleys collapse. Welchs newly installed management team said it had already been hard at work to get the company back on its feet.

Atterley executive Nick Freer said: Weve been working hard to build the network, which now spans the UK, US, Europe and Asia and is already in the hundreds. Were confident we can grow that into thousands by the end of the year.

The vast majority of independent fashion boutiques realise they need to have a more effective online presence to increase sales in an ever competitive and multichannel marketplace.
Businesses stand to lose up to 200million in local tax rebates after the Government slipped through changes to the way company premises are charged, according to claimants advisers.

The changes, discovered after new Government guidance to valuers was leaked, could see 20,000 appeals against bills for business rates struck from the system at a single blow, according to campaigners.

Such a move would also ease the embarrassment of the Governments Valuation Office Agency which is struggling with a backlog of 280,000 outstanding appeals dating back as long as six years.

Shredded: The changes, discovered after new Government guidance to valuers was leaked, could see 20,000 appeals against bills for business rates struck from the system at a single blow

But John Webber, head of rating at property adviser Colliers, said the fiasco means normal procedures have been washed down the drain so firms up and down the country can be milked for more money.

He added: In a masterstroke, the VOA has been able to delete eight per cent of outstanding business rates appeals and extract business rates revenue for cash-strapped local councils.

Webber said property advisers had been alerted to the change by leaked documents from within the Valuation Office Agency. It showed that eight pages in the ratings manuals used by valuers had been changed without public warning.

It is the latest episode in the on-going business rates debacle which The Mail on Sunday has been investigating for four years.

The business rate is a property-based tax charged on firms. It has been repeatedly criticised for falling most heavily on businesses that rely most on property, such as high street shops.

The Government finally conceded last year that the rates system required an overhaul and announced a review, the results of which are expected as soon as next month.

But it caused outrage last week when it boasted that councils across England will receive a record-breaking 23.5billion from business rates, despite years of mounting criticism of the antiquated system.

Net gain: Internet firms like eBay need fewer buildings so have much lower rates bills

A two-year delay in a revaluation in 2015 has already saddled hundreds of thousands of firms with rapidly rising taxes on property that has in turn plummeted in value, along with business performance, in the aftermath of the economic crisis.

Webber said of the VOA: Morale is on the floor. There are sensible people in the VOA who feel like the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

The latest twist follows a Supreme Court decision last year involving leading accountancy group Mazars. The firm had offices on the second and sixth floors of a building and the court ruled the two floors should be regarded as separate properties for the purposes of business rates, significantly increasing the bill.

The new guidance to valuers revealed by the leaked documents makes clear that valuers should use this case as the model for other companies, overturning procedure that has been in place at the VOA for six decades.

Firms affected by the change will have their current appeals scrapped and will have to make new separate claims for each floor or area of their premises that will now be defined as separate sites.

The appeals process is also facing a deadline with the Valuation Office required by the Chancellor to log all outstanding appeals by the end of next month.

Unsuitable for the modern business world? The four biggest supermarkets are paying around 1.8billion a year in business rates, while Amazon pays business rates of about 10million

Webber said Colliers had written to the VOA asking them to deal with every existing appeal and split them into separate assessments. He said he would also re-lodge appeals on behalf of clients. This is a major change but with the cap in place, the clock is now ticking, said Webber.

It is understood that at least one large property firm is preparing a legal challenge to the Governments plan.

Business rates campaigner Paul Turner-Mitchell said: Businesses wont take this lying down and are quite prepared to challenge this all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The debacle comes ahead of a Select Committee hearing tomorrow for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) which is looking into business rates.

A spokesman for the DCLG said businesses had been given plenty of time to launch appeals, adding that the department was planning to speed up the process to help businesses.

The system has also come under fire from retailers and the CBI because it puts traditional stores at a disadvantage compared with digital rivals.

Confederation of British Industry Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn (pictured). The system has come under fire from retailers and the CBI because it puts traditional stores at a disadvantage compared with digital rivals

According to analysis by Turner-Mitchell, online auctioneer eBay pays less than 1million a year in rates and The Mail on Sunday has previously reported that Amazon pays business rates of about 10million.

Meanwhile, the four biggest supermarkets are paying about 1.8billion a year in business rates.

There is no suggestion that eBay or Amazon have done anything wrong. Ebay in particular relies on third-party suppliers to ship products so it owns very little office and warehouse space.

But critics point out that such disparities show how the rates system is unsuitable for the modern business world.
Sainsbury's hopes of grabbing Home Retail Group (HRG), owner of Argos, have been hit by a last-minute 1.4billion bid tabled by a South African stores conglomerate.

Steinhoff, which is 17 per cent owned by South African retail billionaire Christo Wiese, has approached HRG with a cash offer believed to be worth 175p a share  a total of 1.4billion  which is well above Sainsburys 160p mixture of cash and shares.

One source familiar with Wiese and Steinhoffs business strategy said: Argos is a hell of a challenge. But Christo is in that mode and if hes bidding cash for it, hes going to get it.

Well above: Steinhoff, which is 17 per cent owned by South African retail billionaire Christo Wiese, has approached Argos owner HRG with a cash offer believed to be worth 175p a share

Sainsburys has struggled to convince its shareholders to back the deal and now faces having to ask them to pay even more or walk away.

The supermarket giant has until Tuesday evening to formalise its offer but the deadline could be extended after Steinhoffs approach.

Sainsburys has argued that the deal is not imperative but will help accelerate its strategy.

Senior retail sources told The Mail on Sunday that Wiese was the driving force behind the attempt to buy HRG. Everyone knows hes on a roll, said one senior retail executive.

Steinhoff has a market value of 14billion compared with Sainsburys 5billion. This newspaper was the first to flag Wieses interest in UK acquisitions several years ago when it revealed that he had looked at Bhs and New Look, the fashion chain he eventually bought for about 780million last year.

Some retail analysts are concerned that buying HRG could be a distraction in the escalating price war with rivals such as Tesco. However, sentiment was beginning to swing Sainsburys way after several weeks of intense discussions with its major shareholders.

But another source said it was highly unlikely that Sainsburys will be able to dig deep enough to win a battle with the South Africans.
News / Local

by Letwin Mubonesi

A CHIKANGA woman who was being accused of infidelity by her husband last week escaped a three-month jail term after she was convicted of ill-treating her one- year- old baby.Manica Post reported that Rememberance Gondo appeared before Mutare magistrate, Langton Mukwengi, pleading guilty to contravening Section 57 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which outlaws the ill-treating of minor children.Representing the State was Fletcher Karombe.The court heard that on January 30, at Number 3606, Hobhouse 3, Gondo ill-treated her minor child by undressing and leaving him undressed. She later dumped him at her aunt's place of residence."The complainant's father, Kennedy Mukanganwa had a misunderstanding with Gondo over her infidelity. Mukanganwa packed his bags and moved out of their matrimonial house without the latter's knowledge."Mukanganwa went to stay with his brother, a move which did not go down well with Gondo who later followed him with the child. She went on to untie the child from her back and undressed him on the verandah. She packed the toddler's clothes in her handbag and told her aunt to find ways of upbringing him," said Mr Karombe.The aunt bought diapers for the baby and went on to make a police report leading to Gondo's arrest.Asked to explain why she had acted in that manner, Gondo told the court that she was overwhelmed with anger.Gondo said: "It hurts Your Worship, I was overwhelmed with anger because my husband just packed his clothes unceremoniously and left to stay with his brother without telling me yet he is the one who is responsible to fend for the family."Mukwengi sentenced her to three months imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that she should never commit a similar offence in the next two years."You have to desist from that bad behaviour because a child needs your care and love, so failure to do so you risk being incarcerated," said Mukwengi.
Sir Rocco Forte is the scion of the famous hotel dynasty, while Sir Roger Carr is a captain of industry and each hold differing views on Britain's place in the EU.

We asked them to put their cases.

Sir Rocco Forte: I operate in Europe so I really see what its like and how dreadful it is.'

OUT - Sir Rocco Forte, Chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels

David Camerons Battle for Britain was intended to show that the UK could win concessions from Europe and convince the sceptics they were better in than out.

Sir Rocco Forte has long been a believer in quitting the EU. So has his view shifted?

No, not at all  its strengthened, he says. It is a bit of a waste of time  what he was asking for in the first place wasnt very much. Hes always been for staying in and hes basically handled these negotiations on that basis.

And the swathes of blue chip bosses warning of the dangers of Brexit have not impressed Sir Rocco either.

At the end of the day all these FTSE companies say that theyre in favour of staying in  what they want is a single market. They dont really want all the other stuff that goes with Europe, but they say: If we have to have all that other stuff for the free market then its worth it.

But its a competitive advantage for them. They can deal with Brussels themselves  they have the teams on hand to go to Brussels and lobby and get a competitive advantage out of it. Its the smaller businesses that suffer from all the legislation that comes through from Brussels.

A few polls done on smaller businesses show theres a 50:50 situation, but a lot of private business leaders are against  Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB, for example, is a prominent outer.

Its a point well made. There are businesses of different sizes on both sides of the debate, but if there is a split, it is that FTSE 100 and other blue chips are inners while the private companies and entrepreneurs are slightly more likely to be outers.

And Sir Rocco, 71, cannot resist a little dig at big businesss record on European issues. Big businesses were also in favour of the euro  now everyone thinks its a bloody good job that we didnt go into it. But its not big businesses which are going to vote: its people who work in companies and so on.

Firm stance: 'I think wed be much better out'

For Sir Rocco, hotels have always been a family affair. He took over as chief of the hotel empire founded by his father Lord Forte.

After a famous hostile takeover, Sir Rocco lost the company. But he has since won back the right to use his own name and has established a new business, The Rocco Forte Collection. The group has ten luxury hotels across Europe. If anything, his experience of that is partly what makes him anti-EU.

I operate in Europe so I really see what its like and how dreadful it is. Europe doesnt want to reform  and even if it wants to, it is incapable of reform and therefore their uncompetitiveness will gradually impinge on us as well, he says. Its the high level of government interference in business and the bureaucracy of it all which is ten times worse in continental Europe than it is in the UK. I will be part of the debate as much as I have time.

So is there anything that Europe could offer, or Cameron could win, that might bring Sir Rocco over to the in-crowd? He ponders and has constructive suggestions.

I suppose if you said were sure of having control of our taxation policy, our social policy, protection of the City of London and some control over our borders, then yes, I might settle for that, he says.

Could he be wavering? Not at all  as he then continues: But then you have to think about our fishing communities which have been devastated by the common EU fishing policy; agriculture where the cost of produce in this country is much higher because Europe is a protected market. So there are millions of things, actually, that you dont want. So all in all I think wed be much better out.

And what about the dangers that the pro-EU campaigners cite? Everybody says, Oh, the uncertainty but nothings going to change immediately, he says. Its a question of how were going to trade with Europe [afterwards].

And perhaps surprisingly for a man whose toughest business moment was a hostile takeover orchestrated in the City, he is a firm defender of the Square Mile and the capital as a place to live. London is a centre of skills and knowledge and ability  theres no real alternative.

Sir Roger Carr: 'Our position in Europe is well-established: we have our own currency with more control over our economy, we preserve our sovereignty and are not part of the Schengen area'

IN - Sir Roger Carr, Chairman of defence giant BAE Systems

The phrase captain of industry might have been invented for Sir Roger Carr, chairman of defence giant BAE Systems, vice-chairman of the BBC Trust, former president of the CBI and former deputy chairman of the Bank of England.

When Carr speaks, the world of work listens  and hes for staying in.

There are, says Sir Roger in his typically brisk but considered way, four good reasons for staying in: Economic prosperity  the EU is our largest single export market. International security  it strengthens our position in an increasingly unstable world.

It gives our views greater weight on the global stage. And it provides attraction for investment, since membership of the EU reinforces our position as a natural bridgehead into European markets.

To opponents of the EU, Carrs views will be anathema, but he is used to arguing from an unpopular position. He argued that the public were better off long-term with a free market in energy when he was chairman of British Gas-owner Centrica, even while profits and bonuses soared along with energy bills.

And he sold the nations favourite confectioner Cadbury to US processed food giant Kraft in a hugely unpopular deal. He argued his head told him he must sell even while his heart begged to differ. He called for a change to corporate takeover rules afterwards.

So opponents of the EU will not be surprised to hear of Carrs sympathy with the Prime Ministers position of first engaging with other countries in the EU to argue for the best possible deal for Britain.

He says: What the PM is trying to do is to engage with other states for the benefit of all members whilst addressing some of the real concerns at home.

Pro-EU, but... 'the country should resist the gravitational pull of ever closer union'

He is demonstrating that the UK is a valuable agent of change in the EU, helping it to be more globally competitive. Without change and collective commitment to a progressive and more competitive Europe the model remains imperfect.

His views on whether EU membership results in a dangerous dilution of British democracy, as opponents believe, is equally nuanced.

Our position in Europe is well-established: we have our own currency with more control over our economy, we preserve our sovereignty and are not part of the Schengen area. So we have already secured fundamental distinctions which for all time the British have considered vitally important, he says.

The country should resist the gravitational pull of ever closer union  remaining constructively involved and principled, without wholesale engagement in all aspects of the EU.

Sir Roger knows a thing or two about negotiations. The Nottingham boy who started his career at Honeywell as a computer programmer made his name as a very successful corporate raider in the 1980s at Williams Holdings, where he bought underperforming businesses and turned them round, sometimes ruthlessly.

He says: What the PM is trying to do is get a result which is a once-and-for-all outcome. It should enable us all to make a firm decision and move forward with real enthusiasm rather than constantly looking for what might have been.

But one does not become chairman of many blue-chip companies without a streak of pragmatism, and Carr does not believe quitting the EU would be catastrophic.

I have never believed Brexit would mean the end of the UK economically  or staying in would be the path to perpetual prosperity, he says. But, his pragmatism does have a sting in its tail.

A vote to leave would potentially strengthen the chance of a second Scottish referendum. It would risk the ejection of our submarines from Scottish waters and as a result our position as a member of Nato and the UN Security Council, he says.
Mustafa Al-Bassam, arriving at Southwark Crown Court aged 18 accused of hacking websites for major organisations, including the CIA

Mustafa Al-Bassam was a 16-year-old schoolboy when he was arrested for his role in cybercrimes committed by LulzSec, a gang of hackers.

In 2011, it targeted the websites of the CIA in the US, the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the UK, Fox and Sony.

The groups actions caused serious financial damage. But it also shone a light in some dark corners of world politics and exposed the virtual weaknesses of big organisations.

Last autumn, a play at the Royal Court Theatre in London called Teh Internet Is Serious Business told their story.

Mustafa  from South London and previously known online as tFlow  was handed a 20-month suspended sentence at the age of 18, shortly before taking his A-levels, and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work.

He is now 20 and studying computer science at Kings College London.

After he gave a hacking demonstration at a recent conference on financial crime, The Mail on Sunday tracked him down so he could give his inside  and sometimes alarming  view of online security and provide advice on how we can protect our identity and finances.

Q. How did you gain your skills on the internet at such a young age?

A. I spent a lot of time on my computer as a child and taught myself how to program when I was about nine, using freely available online resources.

This might seem extraordinary, but it is a common story. Many people learn to program as a child, and it is going to become more common now that the UK is pushing for programming to be taught in secondary and primary schools.

Q. In your past life working on the other side of the law, did you consider yourself a black hat hacker, someone whose prime intent was to breach internet security? And would you describe yourself now as a white hat wearer?

A. I think the white hat versus black hat label is an unhelpful oversimplification of an activity that covers the entire range of human motivation. The ethics of hacking are not black or white, but more 256 shades of grey, just like any other activity in life.

[256 is the number of shades of grey that can be detected on a computer screen.]

White hats may be recruited to carry out activities normally described as black hat if it was performed by a citizen, such as hacking into computer systems to steal information.

So to that extent I simply prefer the term hacker.

Challenge: Security professionals who build cutting-edge security tools probably enjoy seeing their work being used in practice to change the world we live in

Q. Putting aside the moral issue for a moment, was it more interesting on the other side of the law?

A. Not necessarily. I think computer security is an interesting issue today that has wide-reaching social implications regardless of your role.

Security professionals who build cutting-edge security tools  such as the end-to-end encryption in the WhatsApp messaging service  probably enjoy seeing their work being used in practice to change the world we live in.

[End-to-end encryption ensures messages can only be read by the sender and recipient, and cannot be understood if intercepted. It can also be used for security in online payments.]

Q. What was your favourite activity with LulzSec, in terms of what you were able to demonstrate to the world?

A. The most interesting was defacing the website of Westboro Baptist Church  a controversial homophobic hate speech group in the US  during a live radio show.

Or my involvement with the Arab Spring in helping activists to secure themselves against surveillance from malicious servers set up by their governments oppressive regimes.

[The Tunisian government was spying on citizens use of social media to identify protesters.]

Attack: Mustafa enjoyed defacing the website of Westboro Baptist Church (pictured) during a live radio show

Q. What is your single best tip for people banking or shopping online?

A. Use a credit card or a separate bank account when shopping online.

With a credit card, you are not liable if an unauthorised charge is made on your card. So if your card information is stolen, the damage is limited.

Q. Are banks behind the times when it comes to cyber security?

A. The majority of UK banks dont even implement HTTPS encryption properly on their website, and show a poor understanding of how it is implemented in practice when I have tried to probe them about it.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO 'TFLOW' I am 20 years of age

I am a 3rd year Computer Science student at Kings College London

I like Tetris

I like writing code

I can solve the Rubiks cube in under 30 seconds

I got into a lot of trouble when I was 15-16 years of age

They certainly seem to be lagging behind in terms of modern standard security practices.

Furthermore, I think the entire credit/debit card system is fundamentally flawed.

If we were to rebuild the way we make online payments today, it seems outrageous that we would have a system where you have to give every website that you use full access to your bank account to withdraw whatever they want, whenever they want.

That is what you are technically doing when you give a website your card information.

[Banks say that although they dont have the HTTPS layer of security on their homepage, they do whenever a customer logs into online banking. A spokesman for the British Bankers Association says: Banks have strict security processes in place to prevent criminals stealing customers money. Secure servers  or HTTPS  are standard across the industry when it comes to logging in to use online banking.]

Q. What do the banks need to do to improve?

A. There are some things that banks are doing right, such as forcing two-factor authentication for online banking. [Where a customer must complete two actions to prove identity.]

But there are many modern standard security practices that are still not being followed by traditional institutions, but which start-ups are doing a much better job at implementing  such as having a procedure for security researchers to submit security flaws.

Stage fright: Teh Internet Is Serious Business play at the Royal Court last Autumn

Q. How can we better educate ourselves about hacking and online vulnerability?

A. I think educating people about safe computing is a similar problem to educating people about safe sex. It requires a cultural shift where it becomes a norm for people to have basic knowledge on what happens to their data.

There are many campaigns that aim to educate people on basic data security hygiene, such as Cyber Streetwise [a Government campaign to help consumers  visit cyberstreetwise.com].

Q. What is the future of cyber threats in the UK if we continue to be lazy about security?

A. I think we only have to look at the headlines to see the warnings.

With the rise of the Internet of Things and more devices being connected to the internet such as cars, planes and even guns, the consequences of bad security will become more drastic and life-threatening.

Q. Household bill providers want us to sign up and pay online, but can they then protect us?

A. Probably not considering the number of major customer record data breaches we are seeing every year. But whether or not you sign up online, your data will be stored in computerised form.

Trapped: With the rise of devices being connected to the internet such as cars, planes and even guns, the consequences of bad security will become more drastic and life-threatening

Q. How do you look after your own finances? Do you pay with credit cards and use anti-virus software on your computer?

A. I use a separate bank account for online payments but I do not use anti-virus software at all. In my view the effectiveness of anti-virus software is over-rated.

First, it is extremely trivial to create a virus that evades anti-virus software and secondly, only two per cent of company data breaches are caused by viruses. Furthermore, because it requires a high level of access to the system in order to work, anti-virus software has been shown to introduce new security vulnerabilities.
Scrapped: Toby's handwritten bill does not stand up to expert scrutiny

A Last Will & Testament kit by Lawpack in a local branch of WHSmith has a save 5 sales banner and is reduced to 20. How can I resist this bargain?

Opening the kit, the first impression is one of disappointment. A double-sided A4 sheet of paper rather than goatskin parchment is provided to record my dying wishes.

But the accompanying 64-page will kit guidance manual is straightforward  though a bit of a chore to read. It includes a few handy examples (half the guide was for those writing a will in England, Wales and Northern Ireland while the second section is for those in Scotland).

The main preparation is reflecting on a future without me. Married with two children it is a straightforward choice to leave all our assets to my wife and after she goes for everything to be split equally between our two children.

If our family situation had been more complicated  perhaps if one of us had children through a previous relationship  this DIY will would have proved inadequate.

It is necessary to talk about the will with my wife before filling out the forms so she can do a mirror copy  included in the pack  to reflect the same wishes if she dies first. There is also a section to put down executors who must apply for a grant of probate to sort out all my financial matters in the event of my death.

There is a section requiring the listing of guardians to look after the children if we both die. Once completed the will then has to be signed by two witnesses.

The will writing is straightforward  though it requires a few practice runs before the final will is written. The whole process takes less than an hour.
This year 500,000 small firms will have to comply with new legislation requiring them to provide workplace pensions for eligible employees.

From the start of this year, the rules apply to most businesses with 30 staff or fewer.

Some of the most common mistaken assumptions that business owners hold about auto-enrolment are as follows:

In the know: From the start of this year, the rules apply to most businesses with 30 staff or fewer

1. 'Postponement' means I don't have to do anything.

It is true that employers can postpone enrolling any member of staff for up to three months. You might have good reason for doing so, say if you use temporary staff who will be gone in three months.

Or you may require more time to align auto-enrolment with your existing payroll process.

However, you must write to affected staff six weeks before the date you would otherwise enrol them. And they can decide to opt into the pension nonetheless, so be prepared for this.

At the end of the period, if staff are still eligible (that is, if they are aged between 22 and state pension age and earn more than 10,000 a year), you must enrol them into the pension scheme straight away  you cant postpone any longer.

2. I can go to any pension provider to set up a scheme.

Not all pension providers welcome all employers. Some wont see smaller clients as profitable enough. But there are pension providers that will accept all firms, regardless of size.

Dont rush the choice  it will affect your business and staff for years to come. Ask how much the scheme will cost and how the provider will support you. Dont rely on assumptions.

3. If I miss my staging date, it will be too late.

There are providers that will accept firms that have missed their staging date. However, in addition to a fixed penalty of 400, employers can face fines of up to 500 a day.

So if you have missed your staging date (available at thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/staging-date) act fast to get back on track.

4. Minimum contributions are enough to provide a comfortable retirement.

Sadly, for most workers, auto-enrolment minimum contributions arent enough.

The Pensions Policy Institute suggests savers should put aside 11 to 14 per cent of earnings to have a chance of a comfortable retirement. At the moment, employers and employees must each contribute 1 per cent of qualifying earnings.

In April 2018 employers minimum contributions rise to 2 per cent with staff putting in 3 per cent. These rise to 3 and 5 per cent respectively by April 2019  a total of just 8 per cent.

5. Contributions are based on every pound of earnings.

In the 2015-16 tax year minimum contributions are based on earnings of 5,824 to 42,385. So the first 5,824 of earnings and any earnings over 42,385 dont count for auto-enrolment.
Leasing is soaring, with growth-hungry businesses securing billions more in the past year to fund expansion.

The use of leases by British businesses leapt 12 per cent in 2015 to its highest level in seven years, according to statistics from the Finance & Leasing Association.

Firms secured 29.1billion of leases last year for assets such as new vehicle fleets, IT systems and office equipment  up from 26billion the previous year and just below the 30.8billion secured in 2008, before the financial crisis took hold.

More cash in the bank: The Bank of Englands recent credit conditions survey suggests that loans to fund merger and acquisition deals have crowded out lending to small and medium-sized enterprises

Peter Alderson, head of small business finance provider LDF, said this was part of a trend for firms to turn to non-bank lending to grow.

He added: The Bank of Englands recent credit conditions survey suggests that loans to fund merger and acquisition deals have crowded out lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. This may support the migration of SMEs to leasing firms rather than banks for finance.

Flintshire-based LDF this month partnered with the British Business Bank as part of the latters new Enable funding programme, which aims to increase the supply of leasing and asset finance to small businesses.

However, a report from Judge Business Schools Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance last week suggested that growth of alternative finance was slowing.

The report, titled Pushing Boundaries, said it grew by 161 per cent in 2014 on 2013. But in 2015 the growth was half that amount  84 per cent  with 3.2billion of loans, investments and donations made.

The accountancy group PwC said the report confirmed strong growth in the sector, which it expects to continue, but it expects the number of funding platforms to fall, describing the current number of about 100 as unsustainable.

Growth: Some say that 2016 is set to be the year that peer-to-peer lending is propelled into the mainstream

It also noted that fraud and failure are cited by the industry as key concerns. It is working with funding platforms to review and test resilience to cyber threats.

Kevin Caley, chairman of peer-to-peer business lender ThinCats, was more upbeat, and said: 2015 was a stellar year of growth for the alternative finance market with business lending now making up 12 per cent of all loans to SMEs. 2016 is set to be the year that peer-to-peer lending is propelled into the mainstream when the Innovative Finance Isa launches in April, which will encourage new retail and institutional investment.

Ruth Chamberlain, UK manager of invoice finance provider Investly, which launched in Britain last month, said: Invoice finance in the peer-to-peer sector has been restricted by a lack of credible competition, and is a sleeping giant. Just 5,015 businesses used alternative finance invoice funding in 2015.
News / Local

by Collette Mukome

A Dangamvura man was seriously assaulted by the woman's husband after he was caught with the woman.Manica Post reported that Tendai Chiudzu was arraigned before the courts after he heavily assaulted Tendai Sibanda, whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife.He pleaded guilty to the charge and he was fined $90.Mutare senior magistrate, Mrs Sekai Chiundura presided over the matter, while Fletcher Karombe represented the State.He said on February 8, Chiudzu returned home from his workplace and upon arrival he saw Sibanda together with his wife in his house at House Number 5419, Area 3, Dangamvura.Sibanda was assisting Chiudzu's wife, Patience Mukonyerwa to repair a four-plate stove.Chiudzu assaulted Sibanda all over the body.Chiudzu said he committed the offence out of anger after seeing another man in his own house."I erred Your Worship. I could not control myself when I saw Sibanda pretending to repair my stove. I am the man of the house and I am capable of doing that. I don't know why my wife decided to call Sibanda whilst I was away."Chiundura fined him $90 of which failure to pay will attract 30 days imprisonment.Chiudzu was also charged for domestic violence after assaulting his wife, Patience Mukonyerwa.He pleaded not guilty and the matter was adjourned to February 25 for trial.
Sir,



I must say I am very disappointed with the Judiciary and the Law Society of the country. Actually, things in the Judiciary have not been well for a long time - long before Michael Ramodibedi (Makhulu Baas) became the Chief Justice (CJ) of the country.

I remember when Sikhatsi Dlamini and other Mbabane city councillors were fired by Mabili Dlamini, then Minister of Housing and Urban Development.



Justice Stanley Maphalala ordered their reinstatement but that judgment was not heeded; instead another judge was roped in to reverse Maphalalas decision. After that judge had done that, Sikhatsi and the other councillors filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.



When delivering his judgment, the then good judge, Makhulu Baas lambasted the second judge for reversing a decision of another judge in the same court. He rightfully said this was a despicable and shameful act indeed.

It is public knowledge that Makhulu Baas was a good judge before he disgraced himself as the Chief Justice of the country and was subsequently fired by King Mswati III for serious misbehaviour.

Indeed, Makhulu Baas had caused serious damage to the Judiciary.



When Titus Mlangeni was appointed judge, a lot of us hoped that as a former president of the Law Society, he was going to heal the image of the Judiciary.

I did not understand why the learned judge failed to address the point of why he was differing from Judge Stanley Maphalala, who had earlier allowed Sikhatsi to represent his client as an agent at the High Court.

In its preamble, the constitutional document makes it clear that the Constitution of the country reigns supreme in the event there is any law which conflicts with it - and that conflicting law would be deemed null and void.



Therefore, the Legal Practitioners Act is null and void, as far as allowing only attorneys to represent individuals in the government of the country because this undermines Section 84(1) of the Constitution, which clearly states that an individual has an inalienable right to freely choose any representative in this respect.



I am tempted to think that maybe the learned judge bought the argument brought by Nkosinathi Manzini, Secretary of the Law Society, who is reported to have said Section 84(1) only applied to politics, not professions, ostensibly because the section says any freely chosen representative is allowed to represent an individual in the government of the country.



In this respect, I am tempted to think that my learned friend appears to think the word government applies only to the Executive and Legislative arms of government because that is where political matters are discussed most of the time. Since politics are not allowed to cloud the Judiciary when delivering judgments, the Judiciary, therefore, is not part of the government of the country?



Any lawyer is expected to know that any government in the world has three arms and the Judiciary is the most important one because it ensures adherence to the rule of law, which is the lifeblood of any country.

Actually, the Judiciary is the government of the country because it brings order to the other arms of government and its citizens at large.



Therefore, when a judge in a court of law issues a judgment, that judge is practically governing the country with authority from the head of State because it is the head of State who appoints him or her into that position.

I am also surprised by Manzinis assertion that professions are not bound by Section 84(1) of the Constitution because he does not cite any clause in the Constitution that exempts professional bodies from this section.



I am also baffled by Judge Mlangenis comparison of the legal profession to the medical profession. Complete control over a case is a major determining factor in discerning why only qualified professionals are required in that area.

In the medical profession, for example, a doctor has complete control over a medical case and any negligence arising thereof, is wholly attributable to him or her.

In the legal profession, however, only judges and magistrates have complete control over court cases.



Attorneys and advocates have no control over any case they are handling.

Their mission is to provide information to the court so that a judge or magistrate should be able to decide a case from a balanced viewpoint.

In case a judge or a magistrate misdirects himself or herself, a higher court reverses that decision citing the name of that judge or magistrate; not any attorney or advocate who argued that case.

From the look of things, it is pertinent, therefore, to equate only the judges and magistrates to the same pedestal with medical practitioners.



I would like to conclude this article by stating that it is disturbing that the Judiciary problems seem to be far from over.

I fail to fathom how a junior judge can ignore a ruling of a senior judge in the same court.

The Constitution of the country continues to be disregarded by the courts, which still think that an independent Judiciary is the one which is independent from the Constitution of the country. This is very sad indeed.

I would like to urge Sikhatsi to report the Law Society to the Competition Commission which, I am sure will concur with him and me after analysing this case properly.



Given the state of the Judiciary and the arrogance displayed by the Law Society as discussed above, it has become apparent that someone must read the Riot Act - and this is no other than the Executive arm of government through the Ministry of Justice.

I strongly recommend that Minister of Justice Edgar Hillary appoint a Commission of Inquiry consisting of law experts to review the Judicature as a whole and come up with recommendations which will ensure bringing back justice to the courts; a basic commodity the people of Swaziland have missed for a very long time.



C. S. Matsebula

UNISWA












































































































News / Local

by Staff reporter

President Mugabe has provided Africa with "keen leadership" and the continent has much to learn from him, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has said.In an interview with The Sunday Mail ahead of President Mugabe's 92nd birthday, President Zuma spoke of his Zimbabwean counterpart as a "very astute" and "clear thinker".President Mugabe, who was Sadc Chair from August 2014 to August 2015 and African Union Chair from January 2015 to January 2016, turns 92 today.President Zuma said, "As Chair of both Sadc and the African Union, President Mugabe's tenure came at a difficult time when Africa was faced with a number of challenges."Among others, he led initiatives and processes aimed at regional peace and security as well as economic development and integration for the entire African continent."President Mugabe executed his responsibilities very well with dignity and honour. He proved himself to be an elder statesman and provided keen leadership at all times in both the AU and Sadc."His intervention to promote industrialisation within Sadc has been warmly welcomed by all of us as a step in the right direction."President Zuma said under President Mugabe's leadership, the AU Peace and Security Council focused on resolving crises in South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, the Sahel region and West Africa.He went on: "(President Mugabe's) vast knowledge, experience and involvement in politics in Africa and the world at large makes him resourceful."There is so much to learn from him and the leaders of his generation who stood up, risked their own lives, defeated colonialism and contributed to the liberation of the region and Africa."President Mugabe is like a walking encyclopaedia and historical archive for our region and continent. I have had a lot of memorable moments with him as current President of the Republic of South Africa . . ."Generally, some of the memorable moments occur when President Mugabe speaks in public. He is always able to articulate the position of the previously colonialised masses eloquently and with unmatched vigour."His term as African Union Chairperson has been one of the key milestones. He reminded the leadership of the continent and the African peoples what colonialism was all about and the legacy that we are working to reverse decades later  of inequality and poverty."It is easy to forget this, so his contribution has helped to remind us what Africa went through, what Africa has done to liberate herself and what else must be done to undo the damage."His final address as the Chairperson of the AU last month captured our views, that we mean business when we say the United Nations, especially the UN Security Council, must be representative of other regions, especially Africa. It was a very important intervention at this point in our history and it was well articulated, too."President Zuma said the two leaders "enjoyed a good working relationship since South Africa's liberation"."We regard him as an elder statesman in our region and continent who is always ready to provide guidance and leadership when called upon to do so."I can define my relationship with President Mugabe as being fraternal, brotherly, comradely and of extreme importance to both South Africa and Zimbabwe, the region and Africa as a whole."He said South Africa looked forward to hosting President Mugabe at Fort Hare, his alma mater, when the institution marks its centenary on May 20, 2016 describing the Zimbabwean leader's presence there as "quite an honour".
The casket of the late Reverend Fakudze (Inset) placed on the lowering equipment.

MANKAYANE  A red carpet was rolled out for the casket, which carried the body of famous evangelist, Reverend Kaiser Fakudze (83), who was buried yesterday at his home at Dladleni, Mankayane.



Fakudze died on Sunday, February 14, 2016 while undergoing treatment at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital in Manzini.

A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of State in ceremonial and formal occasions, and has, in recent decades, been extended to use by very important persons (VIP) and celebrities at formal events.



The about 10-metre red carpet was rolled out by pall-bearers from Dups Funeral Undertakers, who escorted the casket to the graveyard, a stones throw away from the deceased pastors home. Relatives and pastors carried the casket from the hearse to the grave. About 10 metres before reaching the grave, the carpet was rolled out and stretched towards the grave.



At least 3 500 people attended the funeral. This is arguably the biggest attendance in recent years.

Reverend Fakudze, the deceased senior Pastor of Metropolitan Evangelical Church, was given a dignified funeral by his family, church and other denominations. He established 35 churches in Swaziland and South Africa. His main church was based in the rural area of Ekhwezi near Lubulini in the Shiselweni region.



Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Princess Tsandzile, the Minister of Home Affairs said the issue of the red carpets was not under their portfolios.

The Foreign Affairs minister said Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini might probably have something to say about it. The DPM said red carpets were reserved for royalty in Swaziland.

He said they symbolised respect for the higher authorities of the country.



Thats why we jump over the red carpet rolled out for the King or Queen Mother. You dont just walk on that carpet, he said.

Superintendent Khulani Mamba, the Police Information and Communications Officer, referred enquiries to government.



Last November, the red carpet issue was a topical one as it was reported that organisers of the Swaziland Inter Municipal Games Association (SIGA) gala also rolled out a red carpet, which, they removed on police instruction. The gala was held at Royal Villas in Ezulwini.
MBABANE  While senior managers of the Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) are presently complaining about miscalculations of bonuses for 2015, workers, including the managers, were collectively paid E8 million in bonuses for 2014.



This was during the tenure of Sengiphile Simelane, the Managing Director (MD) who recently retired under controversial circumstances.



The parastatal, which enjoys monopoly status in power provision in Swaziland, has over 500 unionised workers, 17 senior managers and five general managers who form part of the executive which works closely with the managing director.

The number of members of the SEC staff association could not be established. They (staff association) are not members of the Swaziland Electricity Supply Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (SESMAWU).



Consequently, the E8 million-bonus payout is said to have inflated administration costs for the public company to E68 million in the last quarter of 2014. This is reflected in the latest printed report of the Public Enterprise Unit (PEU) for the last quarter from October 31, 2014 to December 31, 2014.



The issue of bonuses is currently a talking point at SEC following a complaint by senior managers about the executive managements decision to award them 10 per cent of their Total Cost to Company (TCTC). Instead, they want the public company to pay them 15 per cent of their TCTC. TCTC is a term for the total salary package of an employee.



It indicates the total amount of expenses an employer (organisation) is spending on an employee in a single year. In the three-month period (quarter) ending September 31, 2014, SEC had accumulated administrative costs amounting to E50 million but the bill went up in the last quarter of 2014, due to, among other items, the bonus payout of E8 million.



According to the PEU report, the administrative costs include, among others, the bonus payout, Value Added Tax (VAT) charges on SEC purchases, software licence fees, administration consultancy, training and welfare.

Meanwhile, Busangani Mkhaliphi, the Director of PEU, stated, in her report, that the company spent E50 million on administrative costs.

This shows a negative variance of E18 million. She said SECs profit decreased to E31.1 million in the quarter under review, compared to a profit of 41.5 million recorded in the previous quarter.

She said the decline in profits was due to a reduction in sales revenue, increase in administrative expenses and unpaid money from the Mozambique Transmission Company (MOTRACO).
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By Madina Toure

As Black History Month kicks off, a black history committee made up of Flushing residents is working on a number of initiatives, such as a more comprehensive African-American history curriculum in public schools, to help their community.

During a recent committee meeting the chairwoman, Flushing resident Carol Whiting, 72, said she is putting together a list of resources to present to Danielle Dimango, superintendent of School District 25, which she will then e-mail and fax out to all the schools in the district.

I think this is a good start, to get started for the youngsters in the classroom, Whiting said.

She is starting with District 25, which includes Whitestone, Flushing and Fresh Meadows, but hopes to expand to the rest of the city. The resource list will include student trips, landmarks, guest speakers, books, CDs and tapes.

She said that there a number of sites in Flushing where students can learn about black history.

Youve got the Lewis H. Latimer Museum, youve got the Quaker House, she said.

She plans to include a binder formulated by the Black History Commemorative Society, a Connecticut-based company that preserves and promotes black history.

The binder consists of a complete collection of more than 100 African Americans who have been honored in the past 70 years on U.S. postage stamps that are no longer sold at the post office and are becoming increasingly hard to find.

Another of the committees projects is working to reposition the portrait of African-American philanthropist Mary Ann Shaw, founder of the Flushing Library, in the library at 41-17 Main St.

The proposal is to have a smaller portrait in the Mary Ann Shaw childrens room and a larger one in the front.

We want try to make it larger and put it more toward the front of the library, she said.

The committee also has some partnerships underway. Whiting has been in touch with Katha Cato, executive director of the Queens World Film Festival, who said the organization has a group of young African-American filmmakers whom they are training and paying so they can further themselves in their profession.

The committee will have the opportunity to meet with actor and film director Mario Van Peebles, who will be at the festival.

I want to get involved with these young black filmmakers because I know that sounds exciting, she said. I mean, thats awesome.

Writer, producer and filmmaker Carl Clay, founder of Black Spectrum Theatre in Jamaica, is also a potential partner.

Other members of the committee include Dr. Evelyn Julmisse, coordinator of Queens Colleges Africana Studies Program, and Shirley Gilbert, president of the Northeast Queens Multicultural Democratic Club.

The committee will also be preparing a public service announcement for Queens Public Television as well as getting a tour of QPTs facility. QPT wants some of its programming incorporated into the public school system in conjunction with Whiting.

The city Department of Education said black history is integrated into DOE classrooms through the agencys K-12 Social Studies Scope and Sequence, which guides studies instruction in all DOE schools.

Black history is also incorporated into DOE classrooms through other instructional documents, support from DOE leadership and carefully selected texts and primary sources.

Any proposed instructional materials must be carefully reviewed and approved by our Instructional Materials Review Unit, the spokesman said in an e-mail.
By Bob Harris

For months City Hall has been pushing plans to expand affordable housing in spite of the fact that 90 percent of the community boards in New York City and all the borough boards have opposed them. The mayor says that he needs new zoning rules while civic groups of all kinds in all the boroughs oppose the massive 483 pages he pushed through the City Planning Commission and now wants the New York City Council to approve.

Civic leaders representing civic groups have sent letters and testified at community board hearings throughout the city against the new zoning proposals. Most groups, except the builders and real estate groups, oppose these proposals. Civic groups have spent decades fine-tuning the Zoning Resolution to protect the quality of life in localities from Lower Manhattan to the miles of homes stretching from Queens into Brooklyn. Thousands of civic leaders have attended hundreds of meetings over the decades to protect their neighborhoods.

People are fearful that increased density will ruin communities all over our city. People often talk about not changing the character of a neighborhood. This term is like the term quality of life. The people want to preserve the fine neighborhoods they now have. They know what they want, but city officials dont seem to want to listen. The proposals dont provide for enough parking in the new buildings to be built. People living in neighborhoods that will be changed feel that the new housing will not be affordable for them.

Some people believe that one proposal for the whole city does not take into account differences in communities. City officials say that if people live less than 10 blocks from some city transportation then they dont need a car or parking. Look at the freezing weather we just had. Other people feel that the city did not hold hearings when the plans were being written to get local input.

Areas in Manhattan like the East Village, Far West Village, South Village and University Place/Broadway Corridor all testified against the new zoning proposals because they dont want more density. The Queens Civic Congress, which represents approximately 100 civic groups in Queens, also sent letters and testified against the proposals. The big question is, How many City Council members will listen to their constituents and vote against these disastrous new zoning changes?

Experienced volunteer civic leaders are fearful of the illegal building which developers may do so they can make more money from these proposals. Current zoning and building regulations are constantly violated without consequences to the violators. The Department of Buildings has a bad habit of not gaining entrance into a building where a violation has been reported. If a building inspector tries to gain entrance three times and is refused, then the inspector writes resolved and closes the case. Knowledgeable civic leaders want the DOB to use the terms dropped or not pursued.

Then there is the problem that the Department of Finance just does not collect fines if they are imposed. Some people think the fines are just too small to make collecting them financially valuable. With all these problems, civic leaders contend that the new zoning rules will be violated at will and the quality of life will be lowered.

GOOD AND BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK: Charter schools are still in the news. While proponents say they are helping students, opponents say they exclude special-needs children, ESL students and disruptive students. Other opponents say that children who break a rule are suspended. A memo from one charter school had a list of Got to go students. Stories abound of children punished for the smallest infraction and children being yelled at so much that they vomit. Some parents are suing a charter school saying their children are not receiving the (costly) services they are supposed to receive. What is the truth?
By Dennis Safran

It can only be described as obscene that the New York City Council has voted itself a $36,000 pay raise, to nearly $150,000 a year, when the median household income in the city is just under $53,000 and the average cop makes about $60,000. Compounding the obscenity, the overwhelming vote came with exquisitely vile timing less than 24 hours after two police officers whod gotten 1 percent raises (to $55,000 and $57,000) were shot in a Bronx housing project.

The 32 percent hike is almost twice the 18 percent increase in the regional Consumer Price Index since the last Council pay raise in November 2006. And its $10,000 more than the already absurdly generous $26,000 raise, to $138,000, recommended by a legally mandated pay commission.

The Councils rationale for giving itself even more than the commission proposed? It also voted to bar members from receiving most outside income. But only four of the 51 Council members actually have outside income that would be subject to this ban. And the new restrictions applicable to them will not take effect until the next Council term begins in 2018, while the salary bonanza for them and everyone else is retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year.

Wait a minute. Isnt that illegal? Isnt there a prohibition on legislators raising their own pay during their current term in office, so that salary increases cant take effect until after the next legislative election? For Congress and the state Legislature, yes; its not just illegal, its unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution expressly bars senators and House members from trying to pull exactly what the New York City Council just pulled. And even the crooks in Albany are prohibited from trying it under a parallel provision of the state Constitution. But the state constitutional prohibition does not apply to local legislators, and theres no similar provision in the City Charter barring the Council from voting themselves a 32 percent pay hike that would be illegal for congressmen and state legislators.

You might think that this would be enough chutzpah for the Council members, but you would be wrong. Several were whining that they should have gotten even more! Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a member of the Councils Progressive Caucus who represents an upper Manhattan district where the median household income is less than $40,000 a year, wailed that our salaries should be $175,000; we have a right to make a living to support our families.

It is particularly striking to see this embrace of privilege, entitlement and greed on the part of New Yorks famously left-wing Council members, who style themselves as champions of the 99 percent.

I think theres a cultural explanation for this paradox that goes beyond mere hypocrisy. Even when progressive officeholders like Rodriguez represent poor and working class districts, once they are elected their frame of reference becomes the upper status professional elite that dominates liberal Democratic politics. On some level they come to really believe that they should make $150,000 or $175,000.

While these influences are not as strong on the GOP side of the aisle, Republicans can still be subject to them. As a former Republican City Council candidate, Im happy that the three GOP Council members opposed the billbut their opposition statement left a lot to be desired. They suggest that they would have voted for the only slightly less obscene $26,000 raise recommended by the pay commission. To his credit, Councilman Eric Ulrich had previously stated that he would vote against any pay raise.

The fact is that we all ran for the job knowing that it paid $112,000, which is already a lot more than the average New Yorker makes. And many of these ordinary New Yorkers work longer hours at far more difficult jobs than City Council members. For those who were elected to then vote themselves a big raise in the middle of their terms, whether $36,000 or $26,000, is repulsive, and the Republican caucus should have said so clearly.

Dennis Saffran,

Republican candidate for City Council from Northeast Queens in 2001 and 2013.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Heal Zimbabwe has said it notes with great concern the increasing political tensions, animosity, celebration of ethnic inspired and politically motivated hate speech by politicians in government.The organisation said of greater and more unsettling concern, are the efforts by the conflicting parties within the ruling party to either provoke or incite the country's security services for their own personal and selfish ends."We remind government of its constitutional obligation to strive for national unity, peace and stability and of the grave national consequences of hate speech. We appeal to them to desist from fanning divisions through ethnic inspired hate speech among citizens who are already burdened with a history of unresolved politically motivated violence and violations," the trust said."We urge the media, both public and private, to report responsibly and in the interest of national peace and tolerance of diversity of opinions. We remind all citizens, especially the media, of how, the experience of Rwanda reminds us so vividly, often and concretely how media can either build peace or contribute to incomprehensible atrocities."The organisation said to the citizens, who will ordinarily suffer from a further escalation of the hostilities, it urges calm and maintaining our age old tradition of community, peace and tolerance."We call upon institutions established in accordance with our constitution such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) to promote peace tolerance and respect for human rights to fulfil their constitutional mandate effectively and proactively," said the trust."We urge the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe to fulfil his constitutional duties of promoting unity and peace in the nation for the benefit and well being of all Zimbabweans and ensuring the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms and the rule of law.''The trust said the on-going fights within ZANU PF come at a time when Heal Zimbabwe has intensified its calls for government to effectively set up the NPRC, a commission with a constitutional mandate of facilitating dialogue among political parties, communities, organisations and other groups in order to prevent conflicts and disputes arising in the future."Heal Zimbabwe urges all political parties to celebrate the diversity of people and communities of Zimbabwe and acknowledge that Zimbabwe is for all who work and live in it," said the trust.
SHARE

Is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries dead?

Texas congressman Joe Barton, chairman emeritus of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, made that proclamation on Feb. 17 in an interview with CNN.

Barton is considered by many as a leading expert on energy issues, and he has served on the Energy and Commerce Committee about 30 years. Barton led the effort to lift the nation's oil export ban recently, and he said the ability of U.S. producers to export crude oil hurts OPEC even more.

Obviously, Barton doesn't think that OPEC will dissolve as an organization, but the days of OPEC setting the price of crude oil are gone.

Barton's comments came after representatives of the governments of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Kuwait and Qatar agreed to "freeze" their production in an effort to prevent any further increase in oil surplus, which would put more pressure on prices sliding even more.

"What we've done by repealing the export ban is put the U.S. producer in the driver's seat. Quite frankly, OPEC and Russia literally don't know what to do," he told CNN. "So we've killed OPEC. It's gone."

Saudi Arabia publicly stated in November 2014 that it was not going to reduce production because it was losing market share to U.S. oil production. Saudi Arabia's Ali al-Naimi said its strategy is to drive oil prices down until U.S. production declines and Saudi Arabia will regain its market share.

Oil production in the U.S. during the last 18 months has declined only 500,000 barrels per day out of total production of 9.3 million barrels per day (5 percent) and is still ahead of 2015 production levels.

The decline in price has been painful for U.S. oil producers. However, oil exporting countries rely on oil sales to fund their governments and to create jobs and economic wealth. Price staying low for an extended period of time causes political pressure to mount. OPEC countries feel the political and economic pain, too.

Barton pointed out that the U.S. is in a more powerful position today than it has been when OPEC tried to run domestic oil producers out of business previously. New technology developed in drilling and hydraulic fracturing allows for prolific production of oil and natural gas from plentiful shale formations in Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and throughout the U.S. The technology and oil and gas reserves will be here for a long time.

Barton said production could go as high as 15 million to 20 million barrels a day in coming years.

"Not only will the U.S. industry survive, it will flourish," he said. "The Saudis can't increase production like that. The Russians can't, the Chinese can't. Only the U.S. can."

Is OPEC dead? Probably not, but it is not the 800-pound gorilla everyone once feared, either.
Mexican artist Irving Herrera creates images of the indigenous women he has come to know. Herrera himself is from an indigenous family. His work is on display at Midwestern State Universitys Juanita Harvey Gallery.

SHARE Herrera often pairs the indigenous women in his prints with animals, which he said often represent the spirit of the person in the image. To create his prints, Herrera carves the images in wood before they are transferred onto a canvas. His works fly against the popular images of women in Mexico in television and film with blond hair and European features. He chooses, instead, to depict Oaxacas indigenous women. Contributed image Herrera says he loves portraits, which is reflected in his series of prints featuring portraits of the indigenous women of Oaxaca, Mexico, where hes from. Contributed image Irving Herrera is the son of professors. He traveled against the tide and became an artist. His work is on display in the Juanita Harvey Gallery in Midwestern State University's Fain Fine Arts Center. His mostly black and white prints celebrate the indigenous culture of Oaxaca, Mexico.

By Lana Sweeten-Shults of the Times Record News

Something ancient.

And mystical.

Something familial.

And familiar.

Those somethings whisper from the state of Oaxaca, 300 miles south of Mexico City, where the Mixteca people, once the major players in Mesoamerica, built a thriving civilization whose name means "cloud people" in the indigenous language of Nahuatl.

It is from here, in an earthly place below the clouds, that Mexican artist Irving Herrera draws his inspiration. His voice is firmly intertwined with that of Oaxaca, speaking with an intense sense of self.

Herrera, whose wood engravings are on display at Midwestern State University's Juanita Harvey Art Gallery, has strayed from the popular images of soap opera stars and blond television newscasters. Their European features dominate Mexican pop culture, but those images have little to do with him.

To Herrera, these European images are far and away from the Mexico he knows and the strong women in his life who have been the center of home and family.

Many of his works at MSU pay homage to the indigenous women of Oaxaca (the state's capital city touts the same name) and his rural hometown of Huajuapan de Leon, a rugged, mountainous town founded in 1542. He himself is of indigenous descent.

"The city of Oaxaca is divided into seven regions  Mixteca, the coast, central valleys, North Sierra, South Sierra, Papaloapan and the isthmus  all of them with their customs and traditions. My engravings try to express these traditions in images," Herrera said in his native Spanish in an email interview from Mexico.

MSU's Juanita Harvey Art Gallery is dappled with dazzling, intricate woodcut prints of indigenous women, their dark hair and dark eyes and prominent cheekbones emoting strength of presence.

"One theme that I really like is the portrait, in which I try to illustrate women who embody my (art's) context. The women of Oaxaca have indigenous traits that attract me, first because they are, in the end, women who I have been around all my life. But also, because in them, I am searching for the image of the common woman who works and supports their families."

Herrera often encircles the faces of these women with swirling, circular shapes that suggest horns or adorns them with twines that suggest vines or might evoke images of snakes or other forms of nature.

"Much of the adornment or dress is invented," the artist said. "I am actually looking to give my work baroque accents."

One of the defining qualities of these woodcut prints, dominated in blacks, whites and maybe one muted color of golds or pastels, are lines that swirl with movement throughout the women's skin  lines repeated in the animals Herrera pairs with them in these portraits, such as in a bird flying by.

The lines feel like topographical maps of the land or like muscle striations or even bones, which the artist also gravitates toward in his wood etchings.

Many of the women in his portraits are crowned by animal carcasses, such as a goat or a ram, with their towering horns. Through the animals, he plays with a dichotomy of the living, mixed with the dead, while everything is interconnected by nature.

"The animals are an iconography important in my work," Herrera said. "They represent the ties we have with nature. In Oaxaca, animals are part of shamanic rituals and also symbolize people's souls."

Herrera, with such mastery of woodblock prints, wasn't destined for art. He comes from a family of professors.

He found art on his own, studying with Shinzaburo Takeda, a Japanese painter and printmaker who moved to Mexico in the 1970s and became the dean of Oaxaca City's School of Visual Arts. He brought with him the Japanese tradition of woodblock printmaking. Herrera began his art career as a painter but his work evolved into the intricate woodblock prints Takeda espoused.

The artist is a leading name in a school of young Oaxacan artists that emerged in the 1980s whose work changed the face of art in that region.

They rose to prominence in a time of much civil unrest in Oaxaca that culminated in 2006 with a teacher uprising but soon evolved into a social movement.

Herrera and these other young artists created artworks that defined the uprising.

These days, Herrera is an artistic juggernaut who has twice won the Young Creative Artist grants from the state of Oaxaca to complete a series of portraits called "Senora Matanzas." He has exhibited his work around the world, including shows in Japan and an exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca. And although he has been offered jobs in other countries for extended stays, he prefers to stay in the place that is so tied to his work.

He told Alonso Aguilar Orihueta at the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca art gallery, "I have not accepted because I'm interested in being in Oaxaca. Perhaps there exists no major reason for it but an intuition, and I'll be here."

This is the last week to view Herrera's prints, which have been on display at MSU throughout February. They will be up through Friday.
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The past couple of weeks have had some exciting and interesting developments locally and nationally in the news that captured our attention.

Some of them affect us in a more personal way than others. But they could all change our world in some way.

The first and most exciting one is the opening of the new Emergency Department at United Regional Health Care System which my husband and I had the opportunity to tour with many others on Feb. 12. The official name is the Bridwell Center for Emergency Care. We will all probably still refer to it as the ER. There have been a lot of descriptions written and advertised about how this new center is a complete update in every way of the old ER. The statistics are astounding in pure numbers and process changes for patients coming to the ER for treatment. Also the number of patients visiting the ER has literally doubled from the 1999 ER project of 37,000 visits a year to the current level of 75,000 visits a year. The concept of the most efficient patient flow and treatment drives everything even more in this new facility.

But I wanted to convey the excitement and impact through the eyes of one of the amazing leaders of this department. Kim Stringfellow is the director of Emergency Services, a huge and crucial job. She has her master's in nursing and has been a nurse for 23 years. She has spent 22 years of that time at URHCS. So she has witnessed and been part of all of the changes that have occurred at the hospital in her career. Needless to say, there have been many improvements in that time period, especially the last ten years or so. Each improvement in facilities, patient care, medical personnel and administrative leadership has led to many enhancements and updates. Kim and other URHCS personnel had the opportunity in the development stage to visit other Emergency departments around the country. They took best ideas and practices and married them with the needs here with input from many sources local and otherwise.

Kim kept using phrases like the staff "beaming with pride," our "skills second to none" and the impact of "cultural change" to describe the evolution of URHCS. She knows that this growth could not be possible without the vast donor and community support.

In her remarks at the tour event Phyllis Cowling, CEO and president of United Regional said, "This is for Wichita Falls and the surrounding communities and this is a chance to enhance the work of the people inside the facility  our physicians, our nurses and other staff  with now a facility and equipment that really contributes to that expert emergency care."

Kim Stringfellow could not agree more. We all should be proud and thankful for this amazing facility and staff. But the image that sticks in my mind is the photo posted on Facebook of one of the new Level II trauma rooms. The ER staff has joined hands to pray for all of the patients that will be served in this area. It's not all about medicine and the staff understands that well.

A week that holds the beginning of early voting in Texas for local and presidential elections is crazy enough. Add in the death of a Supreme Court justice and the news and punditry goes into hyper speed. We have a couple of hotly contested races locally. That doesn't happen often here and is very positive for our community. The status quo, locally and nationally, needs to be shaken up sometime and this has sure been the year for it. The races for County Commissioner Precinct 1 and for Wichita County Tax Assessor-Collector are both high-profile elected offices that do impact all of us. I always commend anyone who steps forward to run for office. It is not easy to do and can be very stressful on the person and their families. Now we have to do our part and VOTE! Please don't ignore one of our most precious gifts as a citizen of these great United States.

Whether you agreed with Justice Antonin Scalia's decisions on the Supreme Court or not, his enormous presence and brilliance cannot be denied and will live on for many years. As the columnist, George Will recently wrote, "Scalia lived 27 years after the person who had nominated him left office, thereby extending the reach of Ronald Reagan's presidency and reminding voters of the long-lasting ripples that radiate from their presidential choices. A teacher, wrote Henry Adams, attains a kind of immortality because one never knows where a teacher's influence ends. Scalia, always a teacher, will live on in the law and the lives of unnumbered generations, who will write, teach and construe it." May he rest in peace.

I will end with one last word concerning elected officials. The Editorial Board got to visit with U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry this week while he was on a district visit to Wichita Falls. He took the time out of a very busy schedule to update the Board and take questions. Representative Thornberry is a rare and special congressman. He never forgets his roots; puts his family, country and God first in his priorities and as the chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives works tirelessly for our military men and women. We are very blessed to have him as our congressman.

Remember: be well, pray often and love one another.
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Troy

For the second time in six weeks, a problem has torn a hole into a city street.

And this time, it's a sinkhole on Campbell Avenue  the same thoroughfare shut down four years ago in the wake of damage from Tropical Storm Irene.

The ravaged asphalt lay at the top of a hill on the 100 block of Campbell Avenue in front of the Franklin Terrace Ballroom. Officials in the fiscally strapped city believed the sinkhole was the result of a sewer line that collapsed early Sunday in the eastbound lane of Campbell between Sherman and Donegal avenues.

The size of the sinkhole clearly expanded by early Sunday afternoon, but with the exception of orange construction fencing and temporary roadblocks around the crater there was nothing to prevent local residents  such as curious children  from potentially wandering around the sinkhole. No police, fire or other officials were in sight.

Detour signs told motorists to avoid the impacted section of the Campbell Avenue, yet some cars went through anyway. John Salka, a spokesman for the city, said workers would do a camera inspection of the line Monday morning to determine what fixes need to be done.

Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello, who drove to the site early Sunday afternoon, preferred the work to have started Sunday.

"Obviously, I'm not an engineer but it does seem to be more of an immediate emergency than I think is happening at present time," she told the Times Union.

The city is still dealing with the fallout of the Jan. 17 rupture to its 33-inch water main in Lansingburgh, which flooded parts of the city and endangered water service in Halfmoon and Waterford. On Wednesday, the City Council voted unanimously to grant preliminary approval to issue up to $3 million in bonds to pay for the installation of 36-inch main to avoid another massive main break. Final approval could come at the council's March 3 meeting.

In 2012, a section of Campbell Avenue was closed down because of damages caused by soil changes due to the lingering impacts of Tropical Storm Irene. At a City Council meeting in 2015, Public Utilities Superintendent Chris Wheland noted the past problems and its fiscal impact.

"If we have a catastrophic event like, for example, the Campbell Avenue collapse, we do not have the funds available," he said at the time.

On Sunday, Mantello said her understanding is that if the problem is simply the sewer pipe she hopes the problem can be quickly addressed within a few days.

"They'll fix the pipe, pave it over and it will reopen," she said. "But if it is something more dramatic than that then my immediate question is, what has transpired over a four-year-period? You can't say it's aging infrastructure because all of that was replaced four years ago."

Mantello said she planned to call city utility officials and first-year Mayor Patrick Madden to make sure the city was at least monitoring the sinkhole at the scene.

"I was surprised not to see at least a police car nearby the site," she said.

Madden did not return a Times Union call for comment. Wheland, reached by phone, said he could not comment and referred all questions to Salka, the city spokesman.

Reached just after 5 p.m.., Salka said city officials were checking on the site "back and forth" periodically.

Asked who was doing the checking, Salka said: "I don't know. I haven't talked to (the Department of Public Utilities) in a few hours. As far as I know that site was secure."

Inside the sinkhole lay a cone, which had been at the scene as a barrier. Initially, when asked how it could have gotten there, the spokesman said: "It could have been blown by the wind. It could have been bumped in by a reporter. I don't know. There's a lot of people that went down  reporters mainly  around that site."

Asked why no apparent effort was being made to ensure that no one, such as a child, could walk into the area and get hurt, the spokesman said he would check the status of the site and call back. A short time later he called back, saying that Troy police were periodically monitoring the site and the streets around the detoured road. The city was following standard operating procedure for work sites, he said.

As for the cone inside the sinkhole, Salka said: "That cone fell in the hole last night or very early this morning before the most recent securing of the site with the barrels and the netting and the tape."

Salka said he understood the city had to wait until Monday before doing the camera inspection of the site because the inspection company that would be used does not work on weekends. Asked if the inspection company could come in for an emergency, Salka said, "They're closed on Saturdays and Sundays. That's what I was told."

The spokesman said the sinkhole was not an emergency.

"Nothing was affected, no sewer services have been affected. No residents or businesses have lost sewer services," he said.

rgavin@timesunion.com  518-434-2403  @RobertGavinTU
Beirut

The main Syrian opposition group said Saturday it is ready "in principle" to implement a provisional truce, slamming Russia and the Syrian government after a deadline set for a temporary cessation of hostilities passed.

The Saudi-backed group, known as the High Negotiations Committee, said any potential truce would require the Syrian government to first lift blockades from rebel-held communities and release thousands of detainees.

The statement followed a meeting among opposition groups held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday to discuss the situation after the passing of a deadline set by world powers.

A Feb. 12 meeting in Munich of 18 nations supporting opposing sides in Syria's five-year civil war agreed to bring about a cessation of hostilities within a week to allow for peace talks to resume in Geneva. But the truce never took hold amid intense fighting, including a massive Russian-backed government offensive near the Turkish border.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Friday that he cannot "realistically" get the parties in the Syrian conflict back to the table by Feb. 25 as he had hoped.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday to discuss the progress made by two U.N. task forces meeting in Geneva this week to discuss humanitarian assistance and a cessation of hostilities, according to State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Although the details "are not yet fully agreed upon," Kerry expressed his hope that a full cessation of hostilities could be achieved in the shortest timeframe possible, Kirby said.

The HNC said any truce must include all parties to the conflict, notably Russia and Iran, key supporters of President Bashar Assad's government.

"The deadline set in Munich for a cessation of hostilities has passed without response from Russia or the regime, who show disdain for the international community and disregard for the lives of Syrians," said HNC spokesman Salem Al Meslet in a statement.
Belgrade, Serbia

Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Friday's U.S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday, questioning why the Americans did not appear to know that foreign captives were at the site.

A U.S. official said American forces had "no information indicating that their deaths were a result" of the airstrikes.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were killed in the American bombing. They were snatched in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of Sabratha.

"Apparently, the Americans were not aware that foreign citizens were being kept there," Vucic told reporters, adding: "But that will always remain an unknown fact to us."

American F-15E fighter-bombers on Friday struck an Islamic State group training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing at least 49 people, probably including an IS operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, U.S. and local officials said.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the U.S. is determined to stop IS from "gaining traction" in Libya.

"Our forces watched this training camp for weeks leading up to the operation, and at the time of the strike there were no indications of any civilians present," Cook said.

"While the circumstances of their deaths remain unclear, we, nevertheless, express our deepest condolences to the Serbian government and the families of those killed. We will share whatever information we can with the Serbian government," Cook said.

Serbian Foreign Minister Dacic said Serbia had known for a while the exact location where the Serb hostages were being held and had been working to get them back, adding that Libyan troops were considering an operation to free them.

"I believe we had been close to the solution for them to be freed. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the attack against ISIS in Libya, the two of them lost their lives," Dacic said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Mugabe's birthday deserves to be celebrated with the highest honour through peace and unity to emulate his exemplary leadership, Zanu-PF National Spokesperson Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo has said.The President turns 92 today and festivities to mark the 21st February Movement are billed for next Saturday in Masvingo.In a statement yesterday, Ambassador Khaya-Moyo said the 21st February Movement was a befitting tribute for the prominent role played by the iconic leader from the early days of nationalist politics in the 1950s to independence in 1980 and through to the present."Their (youths who founded the 21st February Movement) vision was not to celebrate just a birthday but to recognise the role the President had played in the liberation of Zimbabwe," said Ambassador Khaya-Moyo.He said this year's 21st February Movement celebrations should be held under the banner of peace and unity.His comments come in the wake of ugly infighting within Zanu-PF pitting rival factions whom the President on Friday ordered to cease and desist."The day must therefore be celebrated in unity and peace. (The President) has and continues to lead by example-indeed an icon and a living legend. We wish him many more happy returns," said Ambassador Khaya-Moyo.He said apart from the festivities associated with the 21st February Movement, the day also afforded people an opportunity to reflect on the President's remarkable attributes."The day is, therefore, not just for celebration for all youth across the country, but to reflect and appreciate President Robert Mugabe's attributes," said Ambassador Khaya Moyo"He is not only an icon but a visionary and a man of destiny. Besides being a pronounced educationist, he is a man of principle, purpose, fortitude, perseverance, handwork, courage, immaculateness and charisma."Ambassador Moyo said President Mugabe's consistency in fighting for true independence was unmatched."He (President Mugabe) had played a significant role in the leadership of nationalist parties, the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu) as Secretary for Information and Publicity," he said."When Zapu split in 1963 and the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was formed, he was elected the Secretary General."It was these two parties, Zapu and Zanu, which later on laid solid ground for an armed liberation struggle, since they had been banned in the then Rhodesia," he said.Ambassador Khaya-Moyo said President Mugabe and the late Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Nkomo had bravely led the Zanla and Zipra armed wings to fight a dogged settler regime.This year's 21st February Movement celebrations will be held at the Great Zimbabwe Monument with up to 50 000 people expected to attend.
Efforts are underway to have the priceless Derrynaflan hoard repatriated to its home in The Premier County for a time in 2015 to conincide with the 35th anniversary of its finding near Littleton.

Efforts are underway to have the priceless Derrynaflan hoard repatriated to its home in The Premier County for a time in 2015 to conincide with the 35th anniversary of its finding near Littleton.

Minister of State, Alan Kelly TD, has been working very closely with Hidden Tipperary and officials in The National Museum to make arrangements for the stay of the hoard, but there are serious security, insurance and logistical strategies to be put in place with venues such as The Source, County Museum and St Patricks College in Thurles being mentioned as possible locations.

The priceless treasure trove known as the Derrynaflan Hoard consists of one highly decorated ninth century silver chalice; a large eighth century paten and stand; an eighth century liturgical strainer; and an eighth to ninth century bronze basin. A stone slab, found on the site and now also in the National Museum, and much associated with the original location of this treasure & inscribed Or doan main Dubscull, (Translated; A prayer for the soul of Dubscuile,) is also being sought. Abbot Dubscuile mac Cinaeda, mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, is understood to have died around 962 AD & was the son of Cinaedh, and one of the eventual successors of St. Colum Cille (521 AD  597AD).

The monastery at Derrynaflan was originally founded by St. Rhuadhan of Lorrha in the sixth century. Derrynaflan was an important monastery in the eighth and ninth centuries and came under the patronage of the King-Bishops of Cashel. After the death of Feidlimid mac Crimthainn the King-Bishop of Cashel in 847, this monastery fell into decline and nothing of this early monasterys structure now remains, except some very faint outlines of the original enclosure and the ruined walls of a slightly later church.

There is growing excitement in the locality at the prospects of having the hoard back in its place of discovery and any such move would greatly boost the local tourism sector. The items would be available for viewing and despite the fact that the Derrynaflan Chalice is perhaps the greatest treasure find in the history of the county, few Tipperary people have actually seen it, apart from seeing photos.

The discovery was made on 17 February 1980 near Killenaule having lain in hiding for perhaps up to 800 years.The hoard was probably secreted during the turbulent 10th to 12th centuries, when Viking raids and dynastic turmoil created many occasions when valuables were hidden. The early and later 10th century is marked by a particular concentration of hoarding in Ireland.

Derrynaflan is a small island of dry land situated in a surrounding area of peat bogs, in the townland of Lurgoe, northest of Cashel. The monastery was an important foundation in the period preceding the Viking raids; the present modest ruins of a small Cistercian nave-and-chancel abbey church there, however, date from a later period.

The Derrynaflan Hoard was discovered by Michael Webb from Clonmel and his son, also Michael, while they were exploring the ancient monastic site of Derrynaflan with a metal detector. The discovery was initially kept secret for three weeks and led to the replacement of Irish laws of treasure trove by the law in the National Monuments (Amendment) Act, 1994, with a new Section 2 being included in the legislation.

Obviously security concerns remain the single biggest impediment to the visit of the Derrynalan hoard to Tipperary. We understand that North Tipperary County Council are looking at all possibilities in conjunction with The National Museum, while Minister Kelly, through the new tourism group Hidden Tipperary is pursuing the matter also. Cost of security though would be recouped by the charging of a small admission free to see the treasure trove of ancient Tipperary.
News / National

by Dumisani Nsingo

ZIMBABWE will from next month start implementing the Consignment Based Conformity Assessment (CBCA) programme that will bar the importation of sub-standard products into the country.Addressing captains of industries in Bulawayo on Friday during a CBCA programme awareness campaign workshop, the deputy director  Standards Development and Quality Assurance in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Mrs Bridget Dzimwasha said the programme was progressing well with Bureau Veritas starting to verify products' conformity in the country of export prior to shipment of the consignment into Zimbabwe from 1 March."This is one of the measures to curb the influx of sub-standard imported products that are flooding the markets and at the same time creating an uneven playing field to our local industries."Indeed the influx of sub-standard imported goods, which do not meet required standards, is negatively impacting on the competitiveness of our local industries," Mrs Dzimwasha said.She said CBCA would ensure that all listed imported products meet quality, safety, health and environmental standards in line with the World Trade Organisation agreements. Statutory Instrument 132 of 2015, which governs the operation of this programme, was gazetted on 18 December last year."As from 1st of March 2016, only fully compliant certificates of conformity will be required for the clearance of goods that depart the country of export on or after 1st of March 2016," Mrs Dzimwasha said.She said at the moment the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority in conjunction with the ministry officials, Standard Association of Zimbabwe and Bureau Veritas representatives were refining the enforcement modalities to bar non-conforming consignments from entry into the country at all ports of entry."Thus importers who will bring any consignments of products listed for inspection without a conformity certificate would be required to take corrective action which could include taking consignment back to the exporting country at his or her expense. Therefore, the ministry appeals to you all importers to abide by the requirements of the CBCA programme to avoid any financial losses."Let me emphasise that quality products have economic benefits. To the industry quality products results in cost savings as quality standards help to optimise operations. Customer satisfaction is enhanced and thus sales will be increased. Quality products enable a company to increase its productivity and competitive advantage, allowing it to have access to new markets and at the same time increase its market share," Mrs Dzimwasha said.She said the CBCA programme would also benefit the Government in terms of revenues, employment creation of locals and quality goods that meet quality, safety, health and environment standards.A French company Bureau Veritas was appointed in July last year to verify and assess conformity of goods coming into the country.The categories of goods regulated under the programme include those in food and agriculture, building and civil engineering and petroleum and fuels.In addition packaging material, electronic products, body care, automotive and transportation, clothing and textile and toys will also be inspected.
News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's marriage to Grace spelt doom for the country as the First Lady will never allow the 92-year-old leader to step down, former Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said last week.Gumbo told a Southern African Economic and Political Series (Sapes) Trust discussion that Mugabe's desire to rule until death was influenced by his young wife.Mugabe married Grace (50) in 1996 following the death of his first wife Sally due to a kidney ailment.In the past few years, Grace has been playing a prominent role in the fluid battle to succeed Zimbabwe's only leader since independence in 1980."Mugabe has consistently claimed the party would implode if he left, but the reality is that he wanted to develop a Gushungo dynasty," Gumbo said."He wants his relatives, including his wife, to take over. When he married Grace, some of us realised disaster had befallen the country because we knew she would not allow him to leave power."Gumbo is now interim spokesperson of the newly-formed Zimbabwe People First opposition outfit led by former vice-president Joice Mujuru.He was fired from the ruling party in 2014 after being accused of being part of a rebellion against Mugabe together with Mujuru.Gumbo said he wanted to apologise to Zimbabweans for his role in jettisoning Mugabe into the leadership of the liberation movement during the struggle."Our mistake was that we chose Mugabe against the advice given by [former Mozambican leader] Samora Machel," he said."I had stayed with him [Mugabe] at the then Salisbury Maximum Security Prison."I pretended to know Mugabe more than the others and I argued he was the right man for the job."I must apologise for this. We wrote letters that the guerrillas must support him and he was brilliant."But some were quite reluctant and the Mozambicans had already put him in jail. It was our biggest mistake."Gumbo said he had realised his mistake and sought to warn "fellow citizens" in a statement in 1980, "but nobody listened because a lot of us were consumed by the euphoria of independence"."I feel vindicated now. All that Mugabe wanted was nothing but power and we did not realise it," he said."In 1980, I said 'guys we are dealing with a monster and we will suffer' but nobody listened. Mugabe's guiding principle is amassing power."Speaking at the same occasion, People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Tendai Biti warned of a "physical confrontation and implosion" as the internal fights in Zanu-PF reach tipping point.He said a "Rwanda type social decay is too apparent"."A physical confrontation is inevitable and the vicious assault on war veterans is the beginning of the manifestation of the contradictory power fighting for the retention of the status quo. This is a by-product of exhausted nationalism," Biti said. "We have metaphors of hate and delegitimation."The former Finance minister said the succession battle in Zanu-PF was a manifestation of failure to transform by the ruling elite."The struggle for succession is not an individual struggle, but one of ensuring the continuation of the status quo," he said."It is a contestation between those of us who want to see organic democratisation and the old order - which is fighting to reproduce itself beyond its demographic limitations."We allowed a group of people to get their hands on the state and now they want to see the continuation of the state of corruption, looting and the state of eating."The archbishop of this group is Mugabe; he has guaranteed the emasculation of the state, its institutions and the citizens."But they know he is on his way out and this group is desperate for survival, at the same time finding a new deacon, a new headmaster, a new Pope," Biti added.The battle to succeed Mugabe took a new dimension on February 12 when Grace launched a scathing attack on Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, accusing him of plotting against her husband.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Eeven in death former army general Solomon Mujuru, the only man that could stand up to President Robert Mugabe seems to be giving the 92-year-old leader some sleepless nights - as his wife Joice is grabbing more and more supporters from the divided Zanu-PF.Although Mujuru died in 2011 - his wife Joice a former vice president - is defying Mugabe albeit as an outsider after she was unceremoniously dismissed from Zanu-PF in 2014.Now she is not only watching the comical political drama unfolding in Zanu-PF from the terraces but is building her own political outfit known as the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF).Analysts canvassed by the Daily News on Sunday said indeed the former VP, who was married to the late army general whose charred remains were found after a mysterious inferno, will certainly give Mugabe a good run for his money.Apart from the painful circumstances surrounding her husband's death, the analysts said Mujuru has links to most of the people in present Zanu-PF and this goes back to as far as the liberation war in which she emerged a heroine.ZPF's spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, another leading light in the liberation struggle told the Daily News on Sunday last week that there is a queue of Zanu-PF functionaries who are watching the clock ready to jump ship at the opportune time."There are lots of people. If you go to Zanu-PF headquarters, almost 75  85 percent of the people there are itching to join us. Imagine if the head office is populated with our people, what will happen when we launch. You will see an avalanche of them coming to join," Gumbo said.But Mujuru's critics say like other former Zanu-PF stalwarts who include Simba Makoni who dared cross the Rubicon - her star will wane and her political outfit will zoom into doom.But one unspoken fear in Zanu-PF is that she will certainly take some supporters especially considering the dishevelled state in which the ruling party is in.Analysts are agreed that Mujuru could indeed spring a surprise and achieve what the opposition has failed to do in decades."It is very good for multi-party democracy that Amai Joice Mujuru has registered her political party and one hopes that more purges from Zanu-PF will swell her numbers," political analyst Dewa Mavhinga said.He said that the coming in of the ZPF would assist to bring change in Zimbabwe."The MDC has struggled alone for a while now so the formation of another serious opposition should be welcome news that a strong grand coalition is possible that could usher in a new democratic era," he said.Another analyst, Maxwell Saungweme, said Mujuru's party had the potential to shake the political arena, being the "new thing in town".He said some of the opposition political parties like the MDC had been stalked by problems, which had resulted in the formation of splinter groups, a factor which he said was working against the party."So, all these factors will make the Mujuru outfit look attractive. It's a catch-22 situation as other opposition parties are weak and fragmented. So there are no genuine choices, no genuine alternatives," he said.He however, said Mujuru might forever be associated with Zanu-PF and that could work against her."She has been in the Zanu-PF top echelons for long and her ways of doing things are not going to be very different. An apple does not fall far away from the tree. We are likely to see the usual Zanu-PF reference to liberation struggle in her party," Saungweme said.For long, people have been waiting for Mujuru's party, an aspect which another South Africa-based analyst Taurai Mabhachi said would lure more supporters."She has a team of experienced persons politically and some of the very most educated and therefore enlightened to glean the demands of the 21st Century," Mabhachi said.He said that the multiplicity of political parties was healthy in a democratic society.He was however, also quick to note that the electorate might be sceptical of her party, due to the fact that she has been with Zanu-PF all her life.But Shakespeare Hamauswa, another political analyst said Mujuru enjoyed the support of the security sector, which would help boost her party ahead of any political party in Zimbabwe including Zanu-PF."her dismissal from Zanu-PF has brought a lot of sympathythe other condition is their capacity to attract a good calibre of politicians. Their only major weakness is that they have been part of Zanu-PF and are regarded as perpetrators of violence," Hamauswa said.He added that Mujuru's impact would also depend on her capacity to lure support in Matabeleland, Manicaland and Masvingo provinces and the drive to work with other opposition political parties.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Businessman Nigel Chanakira's Kingdom Bank Africa Limited (KBAL) assets are set to go under the hammer in Botswana, in a move described by analysts as a final nail to the entrepreneur's crumbling empire.KBAL, which had no resident depositors based in Botswana, was in May last year placed under liquidation due to insolvency after an audit uncovered an $18,7 million mismatch between assets and liabilities.The financial institution's liquidator, Max Marinelli, this week invited KBAL creditors and depositors to a second meeting to be held in Botswana on March 3, 2016 to approve the disposal of assets belonging to the company."In particular the building on Plot 115, unit 23, Kgale Mews, Gaborone, a motor vehicle and office equipment and furniture," he said.This comes after the bank's creditors declined to give the liquidator autonomous authority to sell the assets of the defunct offshore organisation.In a seven-hour long heated meeting in November last year, creditors refused to adopt resolutions that would have authorised Marinelli to execute the liquidation, beginning with the sale of the KBAL headquarters in Gaborone.According to the Company's Act, a liquidator is only empowered to execute his duties by a set of resolutions adopted from a full creditors' meeting.The KBAL creditors instead, proposed to form a steering committee that would work hand in glove with the liquidator and jointly approve the sale of any assets.Among some of KBAL assets to be liquidated include KBAL building in Kgale Mews, telecommunications equipment in Harare plus a $11 million loan book, whose recoverability is truncated by geographical challenges as well as Zimbabwe's depressed economic landscape.According to the balance sheet compiled by Marinelli in May 2015, KBAL had liabilities to the amount of $19,1 million.On the other side of the balance sheet, the bank owns assets worth a mere $2,4 million with the bulk of that money in the form of advances to customers amounting to $1,8 million.On the best-case scenario, Marinelli, however, estimated that the recovery rate can rise to 27 percent as the recoverability of the advances to customers and assets held offshore cannot be fully ascertained at present.Information at hand shows that KBAL's liquidity and solvency matters largely stem from a shareholder dispute at its parent company in Harare, which resulted in the offshore bank losing $17 million in near-cash financial instruments invested in the holding company, Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited (KFHL).KBAL was registered in Botswana in 2003 with KFHL, as its parent company and technical partner.KFHL would later enter into a partnership with Mauritius-based AfrAsia, but the business later ran into financial difficulties resulting in a separation between Chanakira and AfrAsia.The $17 million investment made by KBAL in KFHL could not be retrieved due to liquidity constraints in Zimbabwe, resulting in the shareholders agreeing to swap assets.Chanakira was thus bought out of KFHL through 100 percent ownership in KBAL as well as some telecommunications equipment owned by the banking group.The equipment which KBAL estimates to be worth $10 million has however been written down to zero value by the temporary managers or $1 million in the best-case recoverability scenario.The liquidators have also written down KBAL's loans and advances to customers worth $11,6 million to $1,7 million due to recoverability uncertainties.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe turned 92 today and elders from Zvimba have congratulated him, saying living that long can only be through the love and will of God.President Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924, and celebrations dubbed the '21st February Movement,' have since been marked since 1986 in honour of the liberation icon's values for both political and economic emancipation of Zimbabweans.While this year's event will be marked in Masvingo on 27 February, Zimbabweans could not wait to wish him well on his 92nd birthday today.Gogo Agatha Nyere, who is younger sister to President Mugabe's late mother, Mbuya Bona, vividly narrated how Mugabe grew from a young rural boy in Kutama to become a president.Gogo Cecillia Mupariwa Zindoga, a neighbour at Mugabe's rural home, says the whole Kutama neighbourhood feels blessed by the gift of long life bestowed on the president as he is a man of the people.An uncle to the president though younger, Mr Philemon Kutama, knows the beginnings of the road that led to a herd boy from Kutama rising up to lead Zimbabwe and Africa."It was during our boyhood that he developed an avid culture of reading. As the youngest of the herd boys of that time, I had to assume the duties of monitoring the movement of cattle as the elder, Robert [Mugabe], buried his face into books," he said.Mr Kutama added that Mugabe's rise from just a herd boy to become president was not an overnight thing but a difficult road punctuated with prison, suffering, hunger, tears and blood.President Mugabe's love for books did not end during his time as a boy as he went on to become a teacher before acquiring a degree from Fort Hare University in South Africa.He also taught in Ghana before returning home to enter politics.During his time in prison between 1964 and 1975, Mugabe also studied and acquired more university degrees.As he celebrates 92 years, the main message from those who have also known him for decades is that, such a long life cannot be due to the will of man but the love of God.
Opinion / Columnist

The unspoken story of the African National Council chapter closed on a clumsy note.It was like a divorce that was not announced publicly though confirmed in the bedroom.ZIPA also failed to be effective because of the differences in approach between ZAPU and ZANU militants. However, guerrilla operations never ceased even during the ANC.In the mid-70s, Zapu and Zanu were talking on a confident though cautious plane.In January 1975 before the death of Chitepo, some militant characters among Zanu's freedom fighters were reportedly killed at Chifombu between Mozambique and Zambia.It was understood that about 150 were summarily executed after what appeared to be a mutiny within the military arm of the party.It was intimated that some of them had begun secret talks with Rhodesian soldiers.The name "Nhari" came out at the centre of Zanu's troubles.Upon further enquiry, Nhari must have defected from Zapu just like Robson Manyika and Rex Nhongo. It might have been that Nhari found the Zanu operational style quite incompatible with what he had been accustomed to in Zapu and thus organised an internal putsch.The general conversations as well as accounts on Nhari so far dismissed him as a Rhodesian informer in Zanu.The Chitepo saga polarised Zanu's relations with the Zambian government and took off their attention from engaging fruitfully with Zapu.The investigations into the fate of Chitepo culminated in President Kaunda putting together a commission of inquiry which was made up of lawyers from Africa's independent states as well as OAU observers.It was a tense moment for Zanu.After the independence of Portuguese colonies in Africa, Zanu found an alternative haven in Mozambique and left Zambia when Frelimo took over in 1975.It all came to pass and the Chitepo baggage was no longer a matter of daily preoccupation in Zanu.On a related note, Zanu and Zapu had amassed some following as well military hardware in the countries that hosted them.Some of the Zimbabweans who enlisted for the armed struggle turned out to have been immigrants who worked in the Copperbelt and other sectors of Zambia's economy.At times, the Frontline States' governments came in with constructive as well as retrogressive contributions to Zimbabwe's inter-party struggles.It was against such a background that the Zimbabwe Peoples' Army (Zipa) came into the picture.On September 22, 1976, the deputy commissar of Zipa, who identified himself as Dzinashe Machingura, was interviewed by the Mozambique Information Agency and a transcript was published by the Liberation Support Movement Press, based in Canada.Asked what Zipa was all about, Machingura said: "The Zimbabwe Peoples' Army is a product of the voluntary merger of the military of former Zanu (Zanla) and the former Zapu (Zipra)."It was formed for the purpose of rescuing the Zimbabwe liberation struggle from a chaotic situation that had been created by the ANC leadership."It is an armed struggle, intensifying this armed struggle and carrying it to its logical conclusion and finally establishing a just socio-political order serving the interests of the people of Zimbabwe."Zipa came into being in September of 1975.Initially, the guerrillas took it upon themselves to communicate with the OAU Liberation Committee Executive Secretary, Hashim Ida Mbita.In November 1975, the discussions proceeded under the eyes of Col Mbita in Dar es Salaam and Zipa was formalised in January 1976 after the Mgagao Declaration and the continued efforts to expel Ndabaningi Sithole from Zanu.Sithole had been the founding president of Zanu and took centre stage at its first congress in May 1964 at Gwelo.Mozambique became the headquarters of Zipa. Even though the concept was similar to the JMC; Zipa was not a timely resurrection of the former.The arrest of Zanu's secretary of defence, Josiah Magama Tongogara, was the climax.Tongogara and his aides were interrogated by Zambian police on suspicions of having had a part in the Chitepo puzzle. Incidentally the Zambian witch hunt for Herbert Chitepo's assassins created a hierarchical vacuum within the party.In Zipa, the highest level of authority was an 18-member committee that had an equal composition from both Zanla and Zipra. Just below the 18 was a committee of 25.Zipa's overall commander was Rex Mututswa Nhongo (Zanla), and some of the committee's members were Machingura, Alfred Nikita Mangena (political commissar, Zipra), Webster Gawuya (director of political affairs, Zanla), Report Mphoko (Zipra), Godwin Munaynyi (Zipra), Obey Mudzingwa, Sotsha Ngwenya aka John Dube (Zipra), David Todhlana (Zanla), Elias Hondo, Parker Chipoyera, Tendai Peperere, Lovemore Rugora and Sipho Ncube.The reactions towards Zipa were varied.The question had always been what was the ideological and political character of Zipa? Machingura had applauded the fact that Zipa had a strategic role of transforming itself into a political movement.One of its departments was deliberately incorporated to work within the responsibilities of a commissariat.In that way, Zipa was like a serpent shedding off its skin from the shades of the Muzorewa-led ANC. Bishop Muzorewa expressed his contention with Zipa when he referred to it as "the Mbita High Command".The contradictions within Zipa would emanate from its real as well as imagined attributes. Most of Zipa's recruits had left Rhodesia during the 1975/76 detente period. The group was massive, with as much as 2 000 in one place at a given time.Presidents Samora Machel of Mozambique and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania appeared to have been excited about Zipa.Nyerere made some inference to the effect that Zipa was the "Third Force".Machel in particular had ascended to the echelons of Frelimo as a trained cadre after the death of Eduardo in Mondlane in 1969.In comparison to Frelimo, Zapu and Zanu had come from a very different gestation process altogether.Zanu and Zapu came into being before the guerrilla army mutated into an armed wing of a nationalist movement. In that order, the military was subservient to the political leadership in both parties. However, Frelimo appeared to have had a heavy military top supported by some civilian politicians.It was possible that Machel might have envisaged a similar outcome for Zimbabwe and tactfully facilitated the birth of Zipa.In the long run Zipa, might not have enjoyed the full backing as well as acknowledgement of the high ranking political watchdogs in both Zanu and Zapu.In as much as its official base was in Mozambique, Frelimo might have been given much room to interfere with the internal convulsions in Zipa if they so decided.When the Zipra element meant for Zipa was dispatched to Tanzania from Zambia, they were alerted about the dangers of deserting Zapu.An 800-strong detachment left for East Africa. Before the 800 went to Tanzania, they were addressed by Vote Moyo and Sam Madondo.The two emphasised that the strength of Zapu and ultimately Zipra depended on their loyalty and commitment to the cause of liberty.By design, Zipa was going to be independent of either Zanu or Zapu's mechanism of control.Towards the Geneva Conference, Machingura openly suggested that Zanu secretary-general Robert Mugabe was welcome to join Zipa as an individual.The code to be observed in Zipa disallowed slogans that were either for Zapu or Zanu. However, such rules were violated time and again.On a realistic note, Zipa without the Zanu-Zapu allegiance was like a man who built his house in sand. When the contradictory waves came and the winds of mayhem blew, it was swept away.It would be fair to argue that Zipa was founded on a borrowed model.What made the Zipa effort more problematic was that the tensions between Zanla and Zipra quickly degenerated. When Zipa had found its space at Mgagao and Morogoro, the differences in the modes of training, caused some discomfort.Whereas Zanla stuck to the Chinese-influenced outline, Zipra were confident in their approach which later took the name, "Guerrilla War Administration" (GWA).In May 1976, after some quarrelling, a fight broke out at one of the Zipa camps in Tanzania.As shooting continued into the dark hours of the evening, the Zipra element of Zipa made its way to a safe rendezvous at Iringa where the Zapu representative in Tanzania, Akim Ndhlovu, came to assist them.The bloody breakdown of Zipa saw the complete separation of Zanla and Zipra.There have been some inferences that the Gukurahundi factor of the mid-80s emanated from the confusion in Zipa.Among the Morogoro-based Zanla Commanders in Zipa were Contsantine Chiwenga (commissar), Perence Shiri and Ausgustine Chihuri (Stephen Chocha).Some of those from the Zipra component in Zipa were Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa, Phillip Valerio Sibanda (Annanias Gwenzi) and Sam Fakazi.After the Morogoro and Mgagao skirmishes, an investigation was instituted to determine the causes of what had transpired in May 1976.A team was sent to the sites in Tanzania under the direction of the OAU.During the tour of the camps, some human remains were discovered and a search for more bodies was ordered, only to be abandoned in August 1976.The cause of the fracas was blamed on food shortages and the failure to desist from the prohibited slogans.At the end of it all, Zipa was buried at Mgagao, Morogoro and Iringa in Tanzania.In the meantime, some high ranking Zipra personalities who had gone to the Zipa central facility in Mozambique were detained by Frelimo.One of them was Jevan Ben Maseko, who was also known as Enock Tshagangane.An exchange of prisoners was arranged when President Kaunda decided to set free the top Zanla decision-makers who had been held in Zambia after the murder of Herbert Chitepo.In that way, Zipa was laid to rest, but the scars were to remain for some time to come.Zipa's Mgagao Declaration was no longer a basis for an ambitious extra drive to bring progressive forces of Zimbabwe into one force against Ian Smith.After the collapse of Zipa, Morogo remained in the hands of Zipra.The secretary-general of Zanu, Robert Mugabe, was at loggerheads with the party's president Ndabaningi Sithole.Their contestation created a complicated landscape for Zipa.Sithole was finally expelled from Zanu. He became the Zanu version of Zapu's James Chikerema.Sithole also contested in the Internal Settlement elections that brought about Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in the late-70s. It was then that Sithole went and led a Zanu faction that came to be known as "Zanu Mwenje".-------------Tjenesani Ntungakwa is project advisor with Revolutionary Research Institute of Zimbabwe
Opinion / Columnist

RELIGION, seen by many as an oasis of tranquillity and hope, appears to be going bonkers with strange stuff happening in most faiths, particularly in Christianity and Islam.With followers being made to eat grass, drink petrol, swallow live snakes and frogs, worship in the nude; while others detonate suicide vests and fire rockets at non-believers, many people are asking: is this still religion?Functionalist sociologists see religion as "social cement" that moulds socially acceptable individuals, binds families and helps build societies.On the other hand, Marxists have described religion as an "opium of the masses", used to instil discipline and fear in populations so that they can be "willingly exploited".Given the various nerve-jangling reports emerging from various faiths, neutrals are tempted to go with the Marxian perspective on religion.Accomplished scholar of religion, Professor Ezra Chitando of the University of Zimbabwe highlights the push and pull factors influencing the wave of religious extremism today."What we need to underscore is that as analysts we appear to have been so drawn to extreme Islamist forms of self-destruction, forgetting that self-immolation has been an integral part of the history of religions, including with Jesus Christ who gave up his life."So he might not have been a suicide bomber (but) he is somebody who sacrificed his life for the good of others. In Hindu there is the Sati practice where the widow commits suicide when the husband dies. This  has since been banned."I remember in Buddhism the body is burnt but instead of the husband's body being burnt alone the wife is also burnt with it. So my argument is that we need to adopt a history of religions approach to see how personal sacrifice for religious goals has been a very systematic part of the history of religions. It's not unique, it's not a phenomenon that has started in the 1990s," Prof Chitando says.Closer to home, Zimbabwe is experiencing its own forms of religious extremism. Places of safety like churches have become dens of vice.Consider the case of RMG Independent End Time Messages leader Robert Martin Gumbura, who was convicted of raping church members. An institution which is supposed to mould believers into upright members of society turned into a cult where women were abused.In 2014 an apostolic sect led by Madzibaba Ishmael Mufani attacked police, journalists and members of Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe after being banned from operating for violating the country's laws and Christianity.They were accused of denying over 400 girls of school going age to access education and abusing church congregants.Prof Chitando poitns to this "hardened radicalism"."There are two levels of radicalism. The first is incipient when it's in its formative stages. The danger is it can grow. Having Vapostori beat up police is hardened radicalism. What is key is the existence of social, cultural and economic problems which can lead to religious radicalisation. Zimbabwe like other countries in the region is facing demographic challenges that youths are not employed."Looking globally where there are social, cultural , economic and political problems, there arise a religious ideaology which appeals and it becomes the mobilizing force," Prof Chitando says.He underscores the motivations and socio-economic and political factors influencing religious actions."We also need to pay attention to how religions have created what we call a system of reward and punishment. In all these religions there is the promise that the one who has performed the ultimate sacrifice will be duly rewarded."For example some of the beliefs are that one's sins no matter how gory they may have been will immediately be eliminated by that act of sacrifice," he adds.Referring to believers who are made to eat grass among other out of the ordinary acts, Prof Chitando said, "I would like to argue that if anyone shows such behavior then they are readily manipulable than others."Cases of worshippers being made to acquire anointed mantles among them pens and condoms dominated the local media last year.Online sources say that between 1981 and June 2015, over 4 600 suicide attacks in abuse of the Islamic faith occurred in over 40 countries, killing over 45 000 people.According to Prof Chitando, such actions go beyond religion."Religion has its own extreme fires but when you pour ideology and politics it inflames and that's why we have conflagrations in Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan and so forth."The push factors are that normally and predominantly people who enlist and sign up for these are people who feel basically they have nothing to lose. So when you create a society or environments where some people feel they have nothing to lose, the current situation is stifling socially, politically and economically then you are providing fertile ground for the emergence of suicide bombers."What's unique with this is the other types (of religious extremism) have been about the believer taking their own life without taking the lives of others with them"It is those who undertake spiritual suicide who are making a political statement, especially against what they feel is Western domination. So it's this focus on making a political statement which has fed this current wave."Either when we began we overrated this power of religion and underrated its potential for fire, or there are people who have discovered the quickest way of mobilising politically is around religious groups. But they would not be able to mobilise if the people they attract did not have causes."To combat religious extremism, Prof Chitando speaks of the need to create hope."The biggest investment in undermining religious violence is an investment in progress and development so that when young people know, for example, that I have passed my A-Levels I can go to university, I can get a job, I start a family, I'm stable."But if at the back of their minds (they think) I wasted my time, what's there for me? An idle mind is the devil's workshop. In this regard, it's not the devil but the manipulators' workshop. You throw in ideas and these young people blow themselves up."Concern has also been raised about the worrying trend of a fixation with the men of God and willingness to defend them at all times even when caught on the wrong side of the law. In there lies under and overtones of extremism said one contributor who preferred anonymity.On the hand while there has been an attempt to paint the face of the Muslim faith with terror, Muslims point out time and again that terror has nothing to do with their religion.Sheikh Yussuf Binali decries the inability to separate faith from fundamentalism and fanaticism."There is also an agenda by certain people who would want to tarnish the image of Islam by attributing such things to Islam. If you look at Islamic teaching there is nowhere where it condones violence."The issue here is going back to the orthodox teaching of any religion. Because we are looking at establishments whereby some are religions which have been established long back and they have remained practising their faith without being swayed by any materialism."So with Zimbabwe because of the growing aspect of the gospel of prosperity then there has been much love for materialism than the concept of worship in itself. Because religion is just a way of living by attaching yourself to God, nothing more."When one wants to become rich overnight obviously given that the person has been given such millions to go and do certain sinister things he can do because of money. So there is need to safe guard the orthodox teaching be it according to Jesus, be it any prophet so that people will follow faith without external influences coming in the sense of material gain," Sheikh Binali says.National Chair of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs of Zimbabwe Ishmail Duwa says fanatics have hijacked the religion for their own selfish and evil goals."If someone goes to America and misbehaves people should not say Zimbabweans are like that, no! It is that individual."It is the same here, God will send people to hell as individuals not in groups as Muslims, Hindu, Christians or Jews."Feedback: fatima.bulla@zimpapers.co.zw and Twitter @BullaFatima
Apple and Samsung have been slugging it out for the title of best smartphone for several years, and the Galaxy S7 has what it takes to take the title from Apple. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge both boast a breakthrough dual-pixel camerathat focuses superfast and offers excellent low-light performance. Plus, the new Samsungs have a water-resistant design that allows them to survive 30 minutes submerged. (You can't bob for your Apple phone  unless you want a paperweight.)

(Image credit: Samuel C. Rutherford / Tom's Guide)

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have unique strengths, including immersive Live Photos and a pressure-sensitive 3D Touch display. Apple also benefits from having an App Store that gets the hottest apps first and offering iCloud for keeping your photos and other files backed up and synced across multiple devices. But overall, Samsung takes the crown in this hard-fought battle. Here's why.

Design

The Galaxy S7and S7 Edge continue the glass-and-metal look of their predecessors, in contrast to the aluminum case that encloses Apple's iPhones. The backs of the S7 and S7 Edge feature curved glass, making the devices easy to hold.

(Image credit: Samuel C. Rutherford / Tom's Guide)

Both of the edges on the S7 Edge's screen are curved, allowing you to perform various functions with a swipe inward. Yes, the latest iPhones have a classically handsome aesthetic, but the Edge is the sexiest phone you can buy, period.

If you prefer a big-screen phone, it's no contest between the S7 Edge and iPhone 6s Plus. Samsung managed to cram the same-size 5.5-inch display as the iPhone has in a smaller and lighter body (5.53 ounces versus 6.77 ounces).

I could much more easily type with one hand on the S7 Edge than on the Plus. For its part, the iPhone 6s is smaller and weighs less than the Galaxy S7, but it also has a smaller, 4.7-inch screen, compared to 5.1 inches for the S7.

Only the S7 and S7 Edge have water-resistant designs, which allow them to survive 30 minutes underwater at up to 50 feet. You'll need a special case if you want your iPhone to survive a dip.

Winner: Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Samsung gives you bigger screens in a more compact and eye-catching design, plus water resistance.

Camera

We rated the iPhone 6s Plus as the best camera phone when we originally reviewed it, but the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge take the crown now, thanks to the dual-pixel sensor Samsung built into its phones.

This sensor, the first one like it to be included in a smartphone, lets the 12-megapixel rear camera autofocus on images faster and more accurately. In our own side-by-side tests, the S7 and S7 Edge locked on subjects three to four times faster than the iPhone did.

MORE: Why the Galaxy S7 is the New Camera Phone King

You'll see the biggest difference between the S7 and iPhone 6s when you start shooting in low light. Thanks to its wider aperture (f/1.9 for Samsung versus f/2.2 for Apple) and larger pixels (1.4 microns versus 1.22), the new Galaxy phones took brighter photos in several comparison shots.

(Image credit: Samuel C. Rutherford)

Take a look at our photo of the lion statues outside Capital Grille in New York City, which resulted in much brighter exposure and sharper details on the S7 compared to the iPhone 6s.

(Image credit: Cherlynn Low)

We saw similar results between the S7 Edge and iPhone 6s Plus, as a group of golden ornamental skulls at a New York bar looked brighter and more accurate in color on the Galaxy.

(Image credit: Cherlynn Low)

MORE: Which Phone Offers the Best Camera?



Inside, with low to medium light, we saw more-realistic colors from the iPhone 6s Plus. And photos taken in bright light and outdoors were comparable between the Apple and Samsung phones.

(Image credit: Cherlynn Low)

Last but not least, the 5-MP selfie-camera shots taken on the S7, S7 Edge, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus all look fairly sharp. But I give an edge to the Samsung because it has a wider-angle lens that lets in more of the background and potentially more of your peeps.

Winner: Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Samsung's camera is faster and is superior in low light.

Display

Both the S7 and S7 Edge sport Super AMOLED displays, which tend to offer richer (though oversaturated) colors, while the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus feature LCDs that put the focus on more-realistic hues.

(Image credit: Samuel C. Rutherford / Tom's Guide)

The Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch screen, compared to the 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6s. The S7 outpaces the iPhone in terms of resolution, at 2650 x 1440 pixels, versus just 1334 x 750 on the iPhone 6s. The S7 Edge also has a resolution advantage, at 2650 x 1440 versus 1920 x 1080 for the iPhone 6s Plus.

As expected, the S7 and S7 Edge screens display a wider range of colors, producing 196.6 and 189.2 percent of the sRGB spectrum, compared to 108.6 and 105.1 percent for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. On the other hand, the iPhones offer more-realistic colors, as their Delta-E error ratings (zero is best) were both under 0.5, compared to 3.5 for the Galaxy phones.

The brightness scores of the screens on the iPhone s6 and 6s Plus are in the same ballpark as the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge showings, as all four handsets hit between 487 and 510 nits.

MORE: Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge: What's the Best Carrier?

When I watched the Batman V Superman trailer, Ben Affleck's skin looked warmer and Wonder Woman's shield popped more on the S7 Edge's screen compared to on the iPhone 6s Plus. I could also make out more rubble surrounding Affleck's Bruce Wayne character, thanks to the slightly better contrast on the Samsung.

Winner: Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Those who prefer more true-to-life colors will like the iPhones, but the Galaxy devices win because of their higher resolution.

Special Features

The Galaxy S7 Edge's most notable special feature is its Edge display, which lets you access app shortcuts or your favorite people, and perform various tasks with a tap, such as taking a selfie or messaging a specific person.

(Image credit: Samuel C. Rutherford / Tom's Guide)

There's also a wider news ticker than on previous Galaxy Edge devices.

In addition to water resistance, both Samsung phones offer an always-on display, which allows you to look at the time, calendar and notifications without unlocking the devices. What's not so special about the software experience is the amount of carrier bloatware that's included, something you don't have to deal with on iPhones.

If you want to experience virtual reality, the Galaxy S7 works with the Gear VR, delivering immersive games and 360-degree videos right to your peepers.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have two strong special features of their own: Live Photos and 3D Touch. With Live Photos, the latest iPhones bring your pictures to life by recording a second of video and audio before and after the still shot. Facebook and Tumblr support Live Photos, as does Google Photos for backing up these files.

The 3D Touch feature has several uses, but the most straightforward one is the ability to press harder on a home screen icon to reveal various shortcuts, such as composing a new post on Instagram. There are also a number of games that support 3D Touch, adding a level of depth to game play; in Warhammer 30,000 Freeblade, for example, you press harder to activate secondary weapons.

Winner: iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. As much as we like the S7's ability to shrug off water and VR, Live Photos and 3D Touch both have more everyday appeal than do Samsung's special features.

Performance

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are among the most powerful phones you can buy. The new Galaxy phones have Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 CPU and 4GB of RAM, while the iPhones feature Apple's A9 chip and 2GB of RAM.

The S7 beat the latest iPhone on a couple of synthetic benchmarks. On Geekbench 3, which measures overall performance, the S7 and S7 Edge notched 5,448 and 5,330 on the multicore portion of the test, versus 4,385 for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

On 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, which measures graphics performance, the Galaxy S7 Edge scored 27,851, edging out the iPhone 6s Plus, which registered 27,295. The S7 scored an even higher 28,883, compared to 26,070 for the iPhone 6s.

To test everyday performance, we opened the same apps on the S7 Edge and iPhone 6s Plus and timed how long the apps took to fully load. Marvel's Contest of Champions took 7.6 seconds to load on the Galaxy, compared to just 4.16 seconds on the iPhone. The iPhone was also faster to load the Clash Royale game, taking 6.45 seconds versus 8.68 seconds on the S7 Edge.

Although the S7 Edge focuses faster, its camera loaded just slightly behind the iPhone 6s Plus, taking about 1.2 seconds compared to 1 second for Apple's device. Lastly, the iPhone was slightly faster when exiting most apps to the home screen.

Winner: Draw. While the Galaxy S7 beats the iPhone 6s on synthetic tests, the iPhone offers a snappier real-world performance.

Battery Life

Samsung has added beefier batteries to its new phones: The Galaxy S7 has a 3,000-mAh battery, while the S7 Edge runs on a 3,600-mAh battery.

The result is a sizeable endurance gap between the new Galaxy phones and the Apple devices. The Galaxy S7 lasted 8 hours and 43 minutes on the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over LTE at 150 nits of screen brightness. The iPhone 6s finished about 2 hours behind, at 6:46.

We saw a similar difference between the S7 Edge and the iPhone 6s Plus on the same test. The Galaxy lasted for a strong 10:09, compared to 8:16 for the bigger iPhone.

Winner: Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The new Samsungs both last longer than their iPhone foes.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge win this contest with a score of 5 to 2. They offer sexier designs than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus and are water-resistant, and they boast cameras that focus faster and perform generally better in low-light situations. While some people will prefer the more-realistic colors on the iPhone displays, the S7 and S7 Edge screens are sharper and offer more-saturated hues. Most importantly, the new Samsungs last significantly longer on a charge.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are easier to use and lack carrier bloatware, and they are more innovative, with features like 3D Touch and Live Photos. And while the S7 and S7 Edge offer better benchmark scores, the iPhones feel faster in everyday use. Overall, though, Samsung wins this face-off.
THE MOST BRILLIANT TKC TIPSTERS DIRECT US TO BETTER NEWS OUTLETS REPORTING ON FINANCIAL RISKS THREATENING BUYERS OF DEEPLY DISCOUNTED PROPERTY SOLD BY MUNICIPALITIES!!!

Money line: "For buyers lured by the dream of homeownership, these seller-financed transactions can become a money trap that ends with a quick eviction by the seller, who can flip the home again. Before the housing crisis, low-income buyers got too much of a house that they couldnt afford. Now, they are getting too little of a house that they cant afford to repair."

Theis meeting with increased skepticism around the urban core given the sight of so much worthless real estate offered to residents.Real talk . . . The property offered by City Hall isn't a deal at $1 and, in fact, represents a very real financial risk for buyers.To wit . . .Take a look at important investigation local media is unwilling to conduct . . .Again, even areveals dangerously distressed buildings that don't hold much potential for profit.Sadly, local media would rather tout the latest PR stunt from Mayor Sly than warn readers about the dangers facing locals who would dare buy into this scheme. Thankfully,have blessed on this Sunday morning with much needed info that provides a fact check for the benefit of Kansas City.Developing . . .
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Dubai contractor Arabtec reported a widening fourth-quarter net loss on Sunday that it blamed on tough market conditions.



The firm had also reported widening losses in the preceding four quarters that it attributed to increased costs.



Arabtec made a net loss of Dh360 million ($98.02 million) in the three months to December 31, Reuters calculated based on Arabtec's full-year earnings statement.



This compares with a loss of Dh94.4 million in the corresponding period of 2014.



An analyst at Sico Bahrain had forecast Arabtec would make a quarterly net loss of Dh123.6 million.



The company, whose largest shareholder is Abu Dhabi state-owned fund Aabar, has undergone major upheavals over the past two years, with the departure of its chairman and most senior management, while a much-touted $35.8 billion project to build one million homes in Egypt failed to be agreed.



Arabtec's 2015 net loss was Dh2.3 billion ($626 million), which compares with a 2014 profit of Dh215 million, according to a bourse statement that said last year's loss was a "consequence of the continuing difficult environment that the regional construction market is facing".



The company will seek to further cut costs in 2016, it added. - Reuters
Grohe, a leading manufacturer in sanitary fittings, has joined hands with Egypt-based Helwan University to launch its Grohe Design Series programme for the first time in the country.



The Grohe Design Series is a regional programme launched by the German group in 2012 to encourage, support, and reward successful creative works by young university students in the field of design.



The competition was designed to provide students with real world issues that engage and challenge them to maximise their individual talents and capabilities to succeed as young design professionals in and beyond their schooling, said a statement from Grohe.



In their common effort to support Egyptian rising talents in the design sector, the university's faculty of applied arts had teamed up with Grohe for a competition entitled Cultural Relevance of an International Brand in the Middle East where Helwan students were assigned to develop a home spa using the Grohe Grandera Warm Sunset range.



During the contest, the students could exchange ideas, design and develop a project with the help of experts from Grohe to generate progressive contemporary design ideas.



After weeks of interaction and discussion, the panel of judges selected three students for the big prize - a prestigious summer internship at various locations of Grohe, all expenses paid for as the grand prize.



The panel, headed by award-winning designer, Michael Seum, the vice-president at Grohe, declared the winners during the final ceremony which was attended by Simon G Shaya, the general manager and president of Grohe East Med (Middle East and Africa) and Lina Varytimidou, the regional director of public relations and head of Grohe Spa, university senior representatives and students.



Shaya said the programmes objective was to provide an opportunity for regional think-tanks of the future to stand out and benefit from the expertise of an International brand such as Grohe.



"We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Helwan University and we look forward to welcoming its students to our offices," stated Shaya.



Seum pointed out that young designers have a huge impact on shifting the design trends.



"In an increasingly dynamic world, uprising designers are often agents of change. I congratulate the young designers of Helwan University who were able to creatively balance different elements in their concepts with Grohe product ranges," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Qatars Gulf International Services (GIS), the leading service group, has announced that its subsidiary Gulf Drilling International (GDI) has signed a contract with Dolphin Energy for drilling rig services, a report said.



The work under this contract will be performed by the high spec jack-up rig Al Jassra and will consist of drilling three wells on the DOL 1 production platform located in offshore waters of Qatar, said a report in the Peninsula Qatar.



The contract was signed by Mubarak A Al Hajri, managing director and chief executive officer of GDI and Hassan Al Emadi, general manager, Dolphin Energy  Qatar, and the service will commence later this month.



Al Hajri said that GDI has concluded this significant contract with Dolphin Energy as it will broaden our clientele and business portfolio.



He noted that the contract will provide the company with an opportunity to demonstrate the highest levels of professional expertise while improving its overall rig utilisation.
Omani investors in collaboration with an Indian entrepreneur plan to set up the worlds biggest plant for Sebacic acid in the Duqm free zone, a report said.



The work on the state-of-the-art export-oriented project with a capital expenditure of $62.7 million had already kicked off last month, said the Times of Oman report.



Sebacic acid is used for making high performance engine oil and lubricants, adhesives, engine coolants, bio-degradable packaging, sub-sea pipe/cable coatings, aerospace polymers, anti-corrosion applications and bio-plastics, is manufactured from castor oil (vegetable oil), it added.



Sebacic Omans CEO Pradeepkumar B Nair said that the project has the capacity to produce 30,000 tonnes of Sebacic acid per annum.



He also added that they have started construction and it will take one-and-a-half years to complete the project.



He noted that this is the first project to manufacture Sebacic acid in the entire Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.



Nair added that the entire production will be exported to Europe, US, China and Japan.



The company has already acquired 40 hectares of land and an adjacent coastline of 640 metres, said the report.



He added that the tax-free incentives of the Oman government in Duqm and important port connectivity, were considered before locating the project.
Opinion / Columnist

In an interview with the State media, Dr Misheck Sibanda, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, opened a window into the working of the GNU."As Chair of Cabinet, he (President Mugabe) managed to steer the whole process, though people were antagonistic towards each other initially. . .It was his ability to manage contra-dictions. They (MDC formations) started respecting President Mugabe, the leader."They revered him; they saw him now  that fatherly figure, that he means well, he means beyond their narrow party ideology. He is for the nation. They realised they were possibly painting the President too negatively and that was not correct. They understood the man."Some (after losing the elections) said, If we are needed, even if it's a Zanu-PF Government, talk to the President. Possibly we can come and serve because we want to serve.' (They said they wanted roles) in any capacity. You could tell that it was because of how they had been handled. To me, it was amusing."Dr Sibanda may find the whole GNU episode "amusing" the millions of ordinary Zimbabwe-ans do not!The single most important task for GNU was to implement the democratic reforms listed in the 2008 GPA so that Zimbabwe's next elections will be free, fair and credible and not a re-peat of the 2008 elections marred by vote rigging and some of the worst wanton politically motivated violence the world has ever seen.How anyone can say President Mugabe "is for the nation" when he "declared war" on the people, as Tsvangirai rightly said at the time, to force them to vote for him."What was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot," President Mugabe de-clared. He was endorsing operation "Mavhotera papi!" (Whom did you vote for!) by Zanu PF thugs, war vets with the backing of the Police, CIO and Army that resulted in hundreds of thousands being beaten and/or raped and over 500 dead in three months. Some "fatherly fig-ure" indeed!President Mugabe bamboozled Tsvangirai and his MDC friends with gravy train lifestyles and, for Tsvangirai, a $4 million Highlands mansion; in return MDC leaders kicked the re-forms into the talk grass. At the end of the GNU not even one reform had been implemented and Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the elections and waltz back into power.President Mugabe thought after bamboozling MDC and rigging the July 2013 elections it go-ing to be plane sailing for him; events have proved him wrong. He has failed to get anyone, not even his "all weather" Chinese friends, to bankroll his $27 billion ZimAsset economic recovery plan. No one trusted him and his regime.By blatantly rigging the elections again in 2013 when he had just come out of the sin-bin GNU years for the wanton violence and vote rigging in 2008 Mugabe proved, if any proof was required, that he has no respect of the law. None! No one in their right mind would trust someone like that especially with their own money!Dr Sibanda went to great length in trying to assure the nation and the world at large the Presi-dent Mugabe, a frail 92 year old today and sickly, is fit."He is alert, he knows what is happening. All those things (that he is no longer fit) are myths because he works  I can tell you. Sometimes he goes beyond nine o'clock or 10 o'clock. He is amazing . . . He is fit; that I can tell you because we work with him," said Dr Sibanda.The truth is President Mugabe is not as fit as Dr Sibanda would like us to believe; he has been stumbling and falling in public. He is not well. But old age and ill health are not his only problems; his party is imploding, torn apart by the factional wars to find his successor.The most pressing problem for President Mugabe, however, has to be the worsening econom-ic meltdown. 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have taken their toll; the Zimbabwe economy in in terminal decline and without outside financial assistance will never recover. With ZimAsset dead in the water, President Mugabe has no plan B.President Mugabe can work all night if he wished and his wife has already threatened to push him to work in a wheelbarrow if necessary; that will change nothing. Zimbabwe's economic dangerous decline will continue until the country gets the much needed foreign financial as-sistances.Zimbabwe will get financial assistance on one condition  the country restores the rule of law and political legitimacy. We have no choice but to go back and implement ALL the 2008 GPA democratic reforms so we can finally have free, fair and credible elections and a legiti-mate government. There is no other way out!"People should write the truth about the man (President Mugabe) of his character. He is a unique character who has been bestowed to us by God," pleaded Dr Sibanda.History will judge President Mugabe as an incompetent (turned a prosperous nations into a basket-case failed state), corrupt (looting $2 billion per year from Marange whilst the nation starved) and murderous tyrant with a streak for rigging elections (have murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans). The good Lord bestowed on us all the discerning mind to pick right from wrong it is blasphemous to suggest that God approved the murderous path Mugabe has followed!
Omans Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) recently organised a gala dinner to highlight the competent capabilities of the Omani products to compete locally and internationally.



The event, titled 'Taste Omani', was held at Oman Tourism College and presented Omani cuisine made by Omani products and cooked by students from Oman Tourism College.



Delivering his speech at the event, Basim bin Ali Al Nassri, director General of Marketing and Media at PEIE emphasised that 'Taste Omani' Gala Dinner aims at highlighting the national objectives of Origin Oman Campaign.



"Through this event, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates focuses on food sector due to the fact that the authentic Omani kitchen has close links with the daily lives of citizens and residents in the Sultanate. Besides, the event aims at underscoring the high quality capabilities of the locally manufacturing products taking into account the growing demands on these products," he said.



Al Nassri added that throughout the years, PEIE represented by Origin Oman Campaign has undertaken a variety of value-adding initiatives to complement the effectiveness and success of the campaign.



He noted that these initiatives and other efforts, which are undertaken by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates in cooperation with competent authorities, have contributed in strengthening the presence of Omani products in domestic and foreign markets.



Al Nassri stressed that 'Taste Omani' Gala Dinner is an initiative of Origin Oman Campaign. "We have invited selected segments of the community, with the aspiration that these segments shall deliver the message of Origin Oman to their surrounding communities," he pointed out.



Badar Al Dhuhli of Oman Tourism College delivered a presentation highlighting the strategic objectives of the college towards the advancement of tourism and hospitality sector in the Sultanate.



He outlined the objectives, which comprise increasing learning pathways and develop new business opportunities; strengthening the OTC brand name through strategic links and marketing communications to enhance awareness of products offered; ensuring appropriate quality of human resources to achieve business objectives; improving the range of facilities and resources to achieve business objectives; improving student life and links with the community; and developing and embedding strong and robust internal systems for performance management & review.  TradeArabia News Service
Consultations on a preliminary deal between leading oil producers to freeze output should be concluded by March 1 after a group led by Russia and Saudi Arabia reached a common position this week in Doha, Russia's energy minister said.



In a television interview aired on Saturday, Alexander Novak also said that the agreement announced on Feb. 16 was weighty enough.



"Those countries which have openly supported this approach are producing around 75 per cent out of global (oil) export volumes. My point is that, in practice, this is enough to agree," Novak told the Vesti on Saturday program.



Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela said this week after talks in Doha that they were ready to freeze production at January levels if other producers do the same.



Iran welcomed the deal. But it stopped short of saying it would itself freeze production at January levels and its deputy oil minister said on Saturday it would increase production soon.



Novak said talks between Venezuela and Iran were still ongoing, and said consultations would also be held with non-Opec countries, including Mexico and Norway.



"I believe that they (Mexico and Norway) would take a constructive stance," he said.



If additional oil were not supplied to the market, then the global surplus of oil would fall by at least 1.3 million barrels per day, Novak added.



WITH OR WITHOUT IRAN?



Novak said Iran had taken a relatively constructive stance on the Doha deal but not yet said it was ready to sign up to the proposals.



Its Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted as saying on Saturday that Tehran aimed to increase oil production by 700,000 barrels per day in the near future.



Alexey Texler, Russia's first deputy energy minister, said earlier this week that even without Iran there would be an effect from the deal.



According to Texler, Russia is talking about freezing January production levels. January output was around 1.5 per cent higher than the annual average for 2015.



Novak also said it was "discussed with colleagues" that an oil price of $50 per barrel would suit consumers and exporters in the long term. He did not elaborate.



The minister believes that if the Doha agreement enters into force then Russia's market share would remain unchanged.  Reuters
Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Car Group said on Saturday it was recalling 59,000 cars after some owners experienced their engines stopping and restarting while they were driving.



"We have no information that this has led to any accidents," Volvo Car Group spokesman Stefan Elfstrom said.



Elfstrom said owners of 2016 model 60 and 70 series cars were being told to take their vehicles to dealers to get the software fault corrected.



Around 24,000 of the cars were sold in Sweden.



The Gothenburg-based company was bought by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. from Ford Motor Co.  Reuters
Gulf Air, Bahrain's national carrier, recently entered into a strategic business alliance with Faysal Bank Limited, one of the leading banks in Pakistan, in a move to further facilitate air travel for the bank's credit and debit card holders.



Faysal Bank Limited customers, when using the bank's credit and debit cards to book or purchase Gulf Air flight on the airline's official website and at Gulf Air sales offices, will now enjoy generous fare reductions on both the airline's premium Falcon Gold and Economy Class cabins.



Commenting on the agreement, Muhammad Saleem Motiwala, Gulf Air country manager Pakistan said: "We are committed to serving the Pakistan market, as we have done since our first entry in 1960, in a variety of ways. Accordingly, we are delighted to partner with Faysal Bank Limited, a leading financial institute in Pakistan. This alliance not only has huge potential for our organisation but shall also be of great benefit and convenience to travellers from Pakistan to the Middle East and beyond, travelling with Gulf Air. We look forward to embarking on this relationship and providing greater opportunities for our valued customers to experience our product and service offering."



On this occasion, Fouad Farrukh - Faysal Bank Limited Head of Retail Banking said: "This business alliance between two leading brands is the next step in Faysal Bank's long term plans to leverage its strengths for the benefits of our customers. We at Faysal Bank Limited will continue to strive to build loyalty by offering innovative products and benefits to further add value to the customer experience."



Catering to passenger demand from across the country, Gulf Air added two new destinations in Pakistan to its network with direct four weekly direct services to Multan from December 14 and three weekly direct services to Faisalabad from December 22. Taking the airline's total Pakistan destinations up to 7, Multan and Faisalabad have now supplemented Gulf Air 's service to five cities in Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, Peshawar and Sialkot. - TradeArabia News Service
Magnificent, a luxury lifestyle management service located in Mykonos, Greece, is looking to make its mark in the GCC by creating a one-stop, convenient and awe-inspiring experience to suit the demands of each individual.

As a result, the boutique firm has appointed Rawaj International as its PR representative in the Middle East.

Magnificent has distinguished itself as the master of creating superior customised experiences. The array of first-class services include exquisite villas, luxury cars, yachts, private jets and helicopters as well as specialised event management along with customised services.

We are pleased to have appointed Rawaj International as our PR representative in the Middle East and excited to bring our services to the GCC market. Our portfolio of services extends beyond limitations. I am confident that our superior quality, meticulous attention to detail, exceptional hospitality and years of experience will give the residents in the GCC region something to look forward to, said founder, Ioannis Kalesakis.

Rawaj International will provide strategic public relations and communications support across the GCC to Magnificent, giving residents of Dubai an exceptional outlet that takes their lavish holiday experience to new heights.

Magnificent reigns 15 years of experience in the realm of opulent hospitality experience and has earned an unrivalled reputation with a cache of exclusive guests, including royalty, A-list celebrities and other prominent personalities. Pioneers in presenting elite services of ultimate grandeur, the team creates an exclusive world of splendour and lifestyle in chic elegance. They have organised corporate and private events with Conde Nast, Armani, Dsquared, and Neil Barret to name a few.  TradeArabia News Service
Opinion / Interviews

I FIRST met President Robert Mugabe at the airport in Maputo, Mozambique when he had just been released from prison in 1974. He was with Mr Joshua Nkomo and they were on their way to Geneva where negotiations were taking place ahead of Lancaster House. I remember that a newspaper reporter was asking him who would lead Zanu as(image) there was the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole. He said the organisation, Zanu, would decide and that he was a cadre of the movement and would abide by any decision. He came across as a clear thinker and very astute. He gave a very good impression.I saw him a number of times in Mozambique in meetings after that, while I was still in exile and up until the dawn of our own freedom in 1994 and beyond.We have enjoyed a good working relationship since South Africa's liberation as well. We regard him as an elder statesman in our region and continent who is always ready to provide guidance and leadership when called upon to do so.I can define my relationship with President Mugabe as being fraternal, brotherly, comradely and of extreme importance to both South Africa and Zimbabwe, the region and Africa as a whole.Since I became the President of the Republic of South Africa, we have been hard at work to assist Zimbabwe overcome recent challenges. We appreciated the opportunity to participate as a sister country and neighbour.Defeating apartheidThe people of Zimbabwe and the people of South Africa share a long common brotherhood and sisterhood.Many Zimbabweans today can trace their origins to South Africa. Many people from Zimbabwe share bonds of common lineage with the people of South Africa. That is why in many parts of Zimbabwe we can find people with surnames like Zulu, Khumalo, Sithole and so on, which are also common surnames in South Africa.Between Zimbabwe and South Africa, we even share the same names for historic places like Bulawayo.Our history and struggles were both linked and intertwined as our people suffered from British colonialism.This year, the University of Fort Hare celebrates its 100th Anniversary as an institution that has produced leaders for both our countries, in Presidents Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe and many other heroes who studied there.We look forward to hosting President Mugabe for the Fort Hare centenary on May 20. It will be quite an honour.It is due to those historical ties that the people of Zimbabwe and the people of South Africa shared common goals when it related to their liberation struggles. You will remember that when the ANC was formed in 1912, it also had representatives from many countries within the Sadc region.Our people have worked together for many years in South African mines, where they also shared the bonds of struggle. When the ANC was banned and formed Umkhonto we Sizwe, one of its first major operations  the Wankie-Sipolilo Campaign of 1967, led by the Luthuli Detachment  was undertaken together with our comrades-in-arms from Zimbabwe; MK and Zipra who fought together side-by-side during that campaign.When Zimbabwe gained its Independence in 1980, it was a significant step forward in our struggle in South Africa, same as it was when Mozambique and Angola gained their independence in 1975.The victory for African majority rule in Zimbabwe was a huge boost for our struggle in South Africa as well as in Namibia.Zimbabwe's Independence inspired many of our people to join and to advance the struggle, and gave us hope that our own liberation was also imminent. The liberation of Zimbabwe also meant that the South African apartheid regime had to contend with one more hostile state at its borders. Many of our MK soldiers could now pass through Zimbabwe as a liberated zone, and carry out their underground activities.As the ANC and the people of South Africa, we greatly benefitted from the leadership provided by President Robert Mugabe and many other African Heads of State, including Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Samora Machel and Jose Eduardo dos Santos.Especially when President Mugabe was the leader of the Frontline States, he was instrumental in condemning apartheid and supported our calls for the isolation of the apartheid regime internationally. From the onset of her liberation in 1980, Zimbabwe joined other countries in the region, playing a critical role in the fight against apartheid.It was instrumental in the formation of the Frontline States (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana and Lesotho) and was a founding member of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference, which later evolved into the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).Zimbabwe holds a special place in the hearts of many South Africans. It is here that leaders of the African continent held an important meeting that adopted a blueprint document, the Harare Declaration, which outlined conditions for negotiations in South Africa, opened a path for true negotiations and ultimately led to free and fair elections in a democratic South Africa in 1994.One of our national heroes, Mr Joe Nzingo Gqabi, who was a representative of the ANC in Zimbabwe, was assassinated on Zimbabwean soil on July 31, 1981. He was given a State funeral by the Zimbabwean Government and reburied in our country in 2004 after our liberation.South Africa will be eternally grateful for the role that leaders and people of the Frontline States played in its liberation. When we discuss the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa and in our own two countries, it has been most remarkable.President Mugabe took a decision that Zimbabwe would support the struggle for liberation in South Africa and played a key role in the Frontline States. We really appreciate that. The Zimbabweans under his leadership always found ways to provide support.South Africa and Zimbabwe enjoy warm and cordial relations, based on mutual respect and cooperation for the benefit of our two countries. These bilateral relations were formalised in 1994 when South Africa achieved her liberation.Structured cooperation took place through the Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) which was established in 1995, and the Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security (JPCDS) established in 2005.We have over 35 memoranda of understanding and agreements that have been signed between the two countries, and a Bi-National Commission Agreement signed during President Mugabe's State visit to South Africa in April 2015 has elevated the relations to a Heads of State level.Zimbabwe is among South Africa's top trading partners on the continent and during 2015, South Africa's exports to Zimbabwe amounted to R25,6 billion while imports were recorded to be R4,3 billion.Sadc, AU ChairmanshipAs Chair of both Sadc and the African Union, President Mugabe's tenure came at a difficult time when Africa was faced with a number of challenges. Among others, he led initiatives and processes aimed at regional peace and security as well as economic development and integration for the entire African continent. President Mugabe executed his responsibilities very well with dignity and honour.He proved himself to be an elder statesman and provided keen leadership at all times in both the AU and Sadc.His intervention to promote industrialisation within Sadc has been warmly welcomed by all of us as a step in the right direction.Under the auspices of the AU Peace and Security Council, there has been focused involvement in South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, the Sahel region and West Africa; through a Multilateral Framework anchored on promoting the approach of working together with all stakeholders, and this is in line with South Africa's foreign policy principles.Regionally, in Sadc, political conflicts in Madagascar and Lesotho, although not armed conflicts, are also being managed through multilateral platforms such as the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.The multilateral approach can contribute to the ultimate resolution.(President Mugabe's) vast knowledge, experience and involvement in politics in Africa and the world at large makes him resourceful. There is so much to learn from him and the leaders of his generation who stood up, risked their own lives, defeated colonialism and contributed to the liberation of the region and Africa.President Mugabe is like a walking encyclopaedia and historical archive for our region and continent.I have had a lot of memorable moments with him as current President of the Republic of South Africa, but I have had even more meetings with him when I was Deputy President of the Republic.Generally, some of the memorable moments occur when President Mugabe speaks in public. He is always able to articulate the position of the previously colonialised masses eloquently and with unmatched vigour.His term as African Union Chairperson has been one of the key milestones. He reminded the leadership of the continent and the African peoples what colonialism was all about and the legacy that we are working to reverse decades later  of inequality and poverty.It is easy to forget this, so his contribution has helped to remind us what Africa went through, what Africa has done to liberate herself and what else must be done to undo the damage. His final address as the Chairperson of the AU last month captured our views, that we mean business when we say the United Nations, especially the UN Security Council, must be representative of other regions, especially Africa. It was a very important intervention at this point in our history and it was well articulated, too.n His Excellency Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, shared these views with our Harare Bureau via e-mail ahead of President Mugabe's 92nd birthday today.
Opinion / Interviews

Although water levels at Lake Kariba are historically at their lowest, it is false and misleading for anyone to suggest that it is drying, Kariba District Administrator Amigo Mhlanga told the Daily News on Sunday this week.In a wide ranging interview with our Assistant Editor Maxwell Sibanda (MS) carried in Kariba during the launch of the Zimbabwe Red Cross risk reduction scheme, Mhlanga (AM) said it was unfair for people who have never been to Kariba in recent times to make such claims which are not only lies but alarmist. He also refuted claims that the Chinese let out a lot of water during one of their operations at Kariba Dam.Mhlanga admitted however that the water levels were historically low and that for the first time there was load shedding in Kariba.Below are extracts from the interview:MS: Is Lake Kariba drying up?AM: No, not at all and we who live here and whose life revolve around the Zambezi River are surprised that people can stoop that low and lie that Lake Kariba and the dam are running dry.MS: So there is no need for Zimbabweans to panic?AM: People should stop lying; they should stop talking about what they haven't seen. Yes, the water levels are low but that does not mean people will "die". This river stretches up to Binga and people downstream have never raised concern that their source is running dry.MS: What percentages are we talking about?AM: It has decreased by 12 percent which is quite significant and such a drastic decline last happened in 1992 although off-hand I am not sure about the percentage drop then.MS: Was there any improvement to the water levels since you conducted traditional rituals as had been called for by local chiefs and elders?AM: Yes, to our surprise after the rituals we recorded a five percent increase in the water levels. We just did as the elders of this land instructed and this resulted in that increase - there were some significant changes.As I speak, the fishermen are reporting an increase in their catch - kapenta and bream - because of that slight water rise.MS: How is the Lake's low water levels affecting people living in Kariba?AM: The lake is the source of livelihood for all the people living in Kariba, be it drinking water, leisure boating and electricity for the whole nation. The fishermen have also been affected as they can no longer access other places using their boats. As a result there has been concentration of fishermen at areas with enough water. There is congestion and panic along the river banks as well.MS: When do you expect the dam to fill up again to normal levels?AM: The dam usually fills up in May, June up to July as the water comes from Angola.MS: Will we get to May with the water left in the dam?AM: I am not an expert, but yes we can go through to May because estimates were actually saying we can even go until October. But we will still have to continue with load shedding. We have to assess the situation and as we reach May, June, July we should be able to have a clearer picture.MS: There are concerns that too much dam water could have been released and that the Chinese had a hand in all this - how true is this?AM: We are also hearing from people that the Chinese had a hand but that is not true because no one ever released water from the dam. It wasn't opened at all - I am an official of the Zambezi River Authority and we are updated on any operations at the dam and no such thing ever happened.MS: How has been your working relationship with Zambians whom you share the dam with?AM: Very cordial, we are like brothers because the dam is one source shared by two nations so you cannot afford to be arrogant.MS: And there has been talk of repairs on the dam wall - have they commenced?AM: Officially we have not been told of any such work having started. If there is something like that we have not been told yet.MS: And how is the situation in terms of rains for agriculture?AM: There has been some improvement for the past two weeks although the situation is not good at all. There isn't much food in the fields because of the heat wave which hovered at around 40 (Degrees Celsius). Most of the crops wilted at germination stage and are a right-off.MS: What are some of the challenges that you face as a district?AM: Hunger is always upon us, the temperatures are too high, hence food supply is a necessity. The government is trying to alleviate the situation as they provide 85 tonnes of food for each ward each month.MS: Are the roads accessible?AM: That is our biggest challenge because the roads are very bad that we have resorted to using boats to transport food. Through other stakeholders like Pandenga Holdings -we have managed to ferry food by boats up to Chalala and from there we can easily distribute the food. A boat usually carries between 50 and 60 tonnes of food.
NOTE: Click any picture to enlarge.

Steady climb up from Marion Lake

This says it all - Whitey plays soccer a couple times a week; even he was winded at this altitude.

The Tetons!!

Heading toward Fox Creek Pass - Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area

The flower shop continues.

SPAM SPAM SPAM - hey it packs good and it goes nice on Pita bread with honey and mustard.

Left: Spearhead Peak (10,131 ft) and Pass Lake (9,250 ft) - not the freshest looking water - but it filtered well.

Again the flowers - just awesome.

Death Canyon

Last push up to Death Canyon Shelf - Near Fox Creek Pass - 9600 Feet

I am truly amazed at this canyon. Just incredible.

If you look down at the bottom of the canyon - you can see a trail by the tree line.

Spur trail to our campsite for the night.

We climbed up from Marion Lake to a flat plain that provided a terrific view of the area and our future course. In the very far distance we can finally see the Tetons rising even higher. It is strange hiking at such a high elevation. As I said - this hike at sea level, with our fitness level, would be a wonderful hike - the lack of oxygen made it exhausting.For a time we actually leave Teton National Park and enter the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area. Jedediah is a first name that is not very popular these days - I think we need a comeback of this name with all the young Millennials growing full beards - it screams of men with beards! Anyhow - we will return to the Teton National Park near Fox Creek Pass at 9600 feet - just as we start onto the Death Canyon Shelf.I want to point out some innovative technologies my fellow hikers are employing in the last two photos. Sugar is carrying the latest in solar cell charging technology (small black panel on red backpack). It charges up as you hike, then at night you transfer the charge to your cell phone, camera or iPod; really clever device. Whitey - standing in the flowers again - is sporting an age old technology that is also utilized at night and has been around since the 6th century, when the Romans utilized a chamber pot to hold...well, you know. Whitey's clever device is an empty,Glacier bottled water jug that is used in his tent so he does not need to leave the tent for a wee in the dark. I mentioned the Grizzlies before, yes? A great idea. It is called a Bear Pot rather than Bear Canister. Look for it at REI once Whitey can convince the investors on Shark Tank to fund his startup.Go here next - Teton Crest Trail - Part 8 or back to beginning - Teton Crest Trail - Part 1




Si vis pacem, para bellum [he who desires peace, prepare for war]  Vegetius

Si vis pacem, para bellum.





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.

.

..Abu Yehuda..21 February '16..Anyone older than about 30 remembers the balance of terror, or in academic terms, the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). This meant that the US and the Soviet Union each had enough deliverable nuclear weapons to utterly destroy the other, and systems in place to respond after an attack was launched but before it struck, or weapons that could survive a first strike (second-strike capability).MAD proponents reasoned that as long as both sides knew this, it would be illogical to attack first. And if neither side attacked first, then there would be no nuclear war.There were some interesting implications. For example, if one side had an effective antimissile system, then it might assume that it could survive an attack by the other side, and might be tempted to make a preemptive strike. Another paradox was the moral dilemma of the man with his finger on the button after it was determined that the other side had already launched its ICBMs. Should he retaliate? His country was already doomed, so why increase the suffering by destroying his enemy?Many things can destabilize a MAD standoff. I mentioned antimissile systems, but shelters for population and hardening of infrastructure could also have that effect. There are also political factors, as we shall see.Regardless of the logic or illogic of MAD, it seems to have worked for several decades, from the 1960s until after the breakup of the Soviet Union (its not clear if it still applies between the US and Russia or China).A form of MAD appears to be in place today between Israel and Iran/Hezbollah, although nuclear weapons are (as far as I know) not involved yet. Hezbollah has more than 100,000 short, medium and long-range missiles, and probably attack tunnels under the border. These weapons pose a serious threat to Israel. Israel, in turn, has the ability to completely destroy the infrastructure of Lebanon as well as to turn the southern part of the country  where most of Hezbollahs missiles are embedded in civilian neighborhoods  into a wasteland, using conventional weapons.The damage to both countries in the event of a full-scale exchange of fire would be great, although it would not approach the devastation that a nuclear war between the US and the USSR would have wrought. But the logic is similar in that mutual deterrence will be maintained as long as the expected damage would be unacceptable to both sides.Both sides are working to prevent the other side from unbalancing the equation. So Israel is deploying antimissile systems and (at least talking about) hardening infrastructure, while Hezbollah is trying to improve the accuracy of its missiles so that they will be a threat not only to civilians but to Israels airfields, command and control systems and critical infrastructure; and to obtain surface-to-air missiles, and other weapons. And then there are the political and psychological factors that can affect deterrence.This is where it gets devilishly complicated.Hezbollah is a non-state actor. It isnt clear to what extent it acts independently and to what extent it takes orders from Iran. Naturally, the Iranian regime doesnt care as much about the consequences of war to Lebanon as it would care about its own population and infrastructure. Put another way, Iran is willing to accept a lot more damage to Lebanon than the Lebanese themselves would  but nobody is asking them.This has a very important implication for Israels doctrine of deterrence. In order for it to be effective, Israel needs to hold Iran responsible for Hezbollahs behavior, and this must be conveyed to Iranian leaders unambiguously. In the event that Hezbollah launches missiles at Israel, of course the first priority for the IDF will be to destroy the launchers in South Lebanon. But at the same time, a massive retaliatory attack must be made against Iran. If this is not clear to the Iranian regime then the possibility of a first strike from Hezbollah is much greater.If Hezbollah attacks Israel, the US/UN/EU will certainly try to impose a cease-fire as quickly as possible. Since Hezbollahs launchers are embedded in civilian neighborhoods, there will be many casualties and great pressure on Israel. Iran and Hezbollah understand this well, which is why they put them there.Our position has to be that locating these weapons among noncombatants is a war crime, and that Hezbollah and Iran are responsible for the collateral damage. This is painful psychologically, but morally and legally we have the right to defend ourselves. Israel must not give in to American pressure (which could even include threats of intervention) until Hezbollahs teeth are pulled  and until retaliation against Iran is carried out.This would probably result in Iran retaliating in turn, and might lead to an open-ended conflict.What about a first (preemptive) strike against Hezbollah by Israel? Because of the unavoidable loss of life around the missile launchers and other Hezbollah installations, it would place us at an immediate diplomatic disadvantage. On the other hand, it might be possible to deter Iran from taking part. In this case the war would be contained to southern Lebanon. We would have the advantage of surprise, and probably the number of Israels civilian and military casualties would be much smaller.Another possible scenario is a preemptive strike against Iran, or cutting the head off the snake, as the former king of Saudi Arabia once put it. The problem is that this would probably be immediately followed by the launch of Hezbollah rockets. This makes it the worst option, with all the diplomatic problems of a preemptive attack and the military ones of letting Hezbollah strike first.We must take into account the fact that as a result of the nuclear deal, Irans offensive and defensive capabilities  as well as its diplomatic clout  will soon be greatly improved, making it more difficult for Israel to deter it from launching an attack via Hezbollah or by itself, and making any conflict with it more damaging for us. Doing nothing and depending on MAD thus works against us.Is MAD a reasonable alternative to war? Maybe, for a time. It worked for the US and the USSR. The Middle East is a lot more complicated, though. There are more actors and some of them are irrational. Are the Iranians irrational enough to attack Israel, via Hezbollah or even with a nuclear weapon, knowing that Israel has a well-developed second-strike capability? We cant be sure. What would Russia do?Can Hezbollah be disarmed without war? In a perfect world, that would have happened in 2006, as a consequence of a better UN Security Council resolution. We dont live in that kind of world.What Israel seems to be doing is depending on MAD for now and hoping for an opportunity to change the situation. One thing that is certain is that we must continue to build up both offensive and defensive capabilities against both Iran and Hezbollah, both for deterrence and for possible war.
Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 21

As the protest by the unemployed linemen entered the 49th day today, AAPs national organisational building head Durgesh Pathak met the protesters and extended his partys support to their struggle.

The Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had recently held a meeting with the state committee of the union to discuss their issues after which he had asked the Power Secretary to iron out any legal hurdle and address the issues being raised by the linemen.

However, the linemen are continuing with the struggle by staging a round-the-clock protest outside the head office of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

During his meeting with the unemployed linemen, Durgesh Pathak said during the nine years of misrule, the SAD-BJP government in the state had only made false promises to the people of Punjab.

He assured the protesting linemen that if the Aam Aadmi Party comes to power after the 2017 Assembly elections, the AAP government would hand over appointment letters to them within 30 days.

Primal Singh Khalsa, president of the Unemployed Linemen Union, said the union even handed over a memorandum to the AAP leader highlighting their issues.

He said even as there was no stay on the issuance of appointment letters to them, the management of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited had contested that there were certain legal hurdles in the appointments of the linemen as these had been challenged in the court.

The union had been claiming that the Punjab Government on August 27, 2010, had announced that 5,000 linemen would be recruited by the PSPCL. But after so many years, only 1,000 linemen were issued appointment letters by the government and the remaining linemen had been struggling since then.

Primal said the union would continue with their struggle till they were issued appointment letters by the power corp.
Also published in Israel Hayom , 19 February '16

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.

.

..The Ettinger Report..19 February '16..Common sense suggests that simplistic and erroneous assumptions produce simplistic and erroneous policies, as has been the case with all U.S. initiatives on the Palestinian issue. This is because the U.S. foreign policy establishment has been erroneously perceiving the Palestinian issue to be the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.Hence there was the initial U.S. opposition to the 1977 Israel-Egypt peace initiative and the attempt to inject the Palestinian issue into it on the eve of the 1979 signing ceremony; the 1987 U.S. recognition of the PLO, which rewarded and strengthened a role model of international terrorism; the passive U.S. role in the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace initiative; the U.S. endorsement of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat for the Nobel Peace Prize and the embrace of the self-destructive 1993 Oslo Accords; the failure to punish the Palestinian Authority for its hate-education and other systematic violations of the Oslo Accords; and the resounding failure of U.S. President Barack Obama's initiatives highlighting the Palestinian issue.Contrary to the U.S. foreign policy establishment's worldview, the 1948 Arab-Israeli war was not launched by Arab countries on behalf of Palestinian aspirations. The Arabs launched the war in order to advance their own -- not the Palestinians' -- interests through the occupation of the strategic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the Palestinians blame Arab leaders for what they term "the 1948 debacle."Moreover, the objective of the 1948 war was to prevent the establishment of an "infidel" Jewish entity on land that Muslims believe was divinely endowed to the "believers" (Waqf). Thus, during the October 1947 Pan-Arab Summit, then Arab League Secretary General Abdul Rahman Azzam stated: "The establishment of a Jewish state would lead to a war of extermination and momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades. ... This war will be distinguished by three serious matters: ... the shortest road to paradise  an opportunity for vast plunder  avenging the martyrdom of Palestinian Arabs."Jordan joined the 1948 war to expand its territory from the east bank of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean as a step toward dominating the Arab world. Egypt harbored similar ambitions and sought to foil Jordan's ambitious strategy. Egypt deployed some of its soldiers to the Jerusalem region to check the Jordanian military moves. Iraq aspired to control the 585-mile-long Iraq-Haifa oil pipeline, which extended from the oil fields in Kirkuk/Mosul through Jordan to the refineries in Haifa. Syria, for its part, considered the war an opportunity to conquer some southern sections of "Greater Syria."At the end of the 1948 war, Iraq occupied Samaria (the northern West Bank), but transferred it to Jordan, not to the Palestinians. Jordan occupied Judea (the southern West Bank) and in April 1950 annexed both areas (naming them the West Bank) to the Hashemite kingdom on the east bank of the Jordan River. The kingdom prohibited Palestinian activities and punished or expelled Palestinian activists. Egypt conquered the Gaza Strip and imposed a nightly curfew (which was terminated when Israel gained control of Gaza in 1967). Egypt prohibited Palestinian national activities and expelled Palestinian leaders. Syria occupied and annexed the al-Hama area in the Golan Heights.In 1948, the Arab League formed the "All Palestine Government" as a department within the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, and dissolved it in 1959.Independent of the Palestinian issue, the 1956 Sinai Campaign was triggered by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's megalomaniacal aspirations to rule the Arab world. Nasser concluded a major arms deal with Czechoslovakia and formed a joint Egypt-Syria-Jordan military command against his Arab rivals and Israel. He nationalized the British- and French-owned Suez Canal, supported the Algerian uprising against France, blockaded Israel's southern port of Eilat, and unleashed Gaza-based terrorism against Israel, aiming to occupy parts of the Negev in southern Israel.Irrespective of the Palestinian issue, the 1967 Six-Day War was launched by Israel in response to: Egypt's blockade of Eilat, the oil port of Israel; Egyptian deployment of troops in Sinai, in violation of the 1957 Sinai demilitarization agreement; the Egypt-Syria-Jordan Military Pact vowing Israel's destruction; the Syrian shelling of Israeli communities below the Golan Heights; and the Jordanian shelling of Jerusalem.Unrelated to the Palestinian issue, the 1967-1970 War of Attrition was conducted along the Suez Canal, as an extension of the 1967 war.Regardless of the Palestinian issue, and consistent with the goal to advance their national interests and eradicate the "infidel" Jewish state, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq initiated the 1973 Yom Kippur War.Arabs have systematically and traditionally provided a lot of rhetoric, but have supplied minimal financial resources and shed no blood for the Palestinians. The 1982 Lebanon War -- which pre-empted a massive PLO assault on northern Israel -- was the first war with no Arab military involvement. The war erupted on June 6, 1982, but the Arab League convened an emergency session only in September, after the PLO had already been expelled from Beirut. Moreover, the Arab oil-producing countries -- at a time when they controlled the oil market -- refused to flex any oil muscle on behalf of the PLO.Similarly, the 1987-1992 First Intifada and the 2000-2003 Second Intifada by Palestinians were not transformed into any Arab-Israeli war. There was no Arab military involvement. There was no financial walk, only talk. In fact, U.S. and West European financial aid to the Palestinians dramatically exceeded the Arab contribution.Israel's 2008, 2012 and 2014 wars against Gaza-based Palestinian terrorism were not top priorities for Arab leaders, most of whom blamed Hamas for the eruption of the 2014 war.Erroneous Western assumptions that the Arab-Israeli conflict was triggered by the Palestinian issue have led to erroneous policies. It's time for the "Palestine Firsters" to disengage from oversimplification and re-engage with the complex reality of the Middle East.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 21

The ongoing Jat stir turned ugly in Panchkula on Sunday when about 100 to 150 protesters blocked the old Panchkula light point road causing a traffic jam on the Zirakpur-Shimla highway for around five hours. Though commuters on the highway and interlinking roads had a harrowing time, the Panchkula police did not initiate any legal action against the agitators.

It all started at around 10 am when the protesters started marching from Jat Dharamshala, Sector 6, to the old Panchukla light point. On our way, we also blocked traffic for 10 minutes at Majri Chowk after which we marched ahead. We are not going to relent until our demand for reservation is met, said Azad Malik, who was leading the protest along with the other Jat leaders.

The protesters, mostly youths, reached the light junction at around 11 am and sat on the highway blocking traffic from both the sides. People and shopkeepers stood alongside the road to watch them. The blockade led to jams on all the interlinking roads and the roads leading to Morni, Barwala and Pinjore also lost connectivity. The police stopped the traffic coming from the Zirakpur, Chandigarh and Kalka side and wherever possible, the motorists were diverted.

This led to traffic jams and people had to wait for hours for the roads to clear. Being a national highway, a large number of commuters, both local and regional, were heading towards the Shimla or Kalka side. Several rounds of talks between Jat leaders and Panchkula Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mandip Brar, who was accompanied by other senior functionaries of the district administration, failed to break the deadlock. It was finally decided that the protesters would vacate the road at 4 pm.

Earlier, heated arguments were also witnessed between the police and the protesters. We were able to thin out a large number of protesters and gradually restore the flow of traffic. There were some agitators who had plans of arson, but we managed to ward that off, Brar told The Tribune.

DCP Anil Dhawan said, The leaders had told us that they were only taking out a march, but later on, they blocked the road. However, the traffic was cleared three to four times during the protest.
Chandigarh/Delhi, February 21

With prices for the one-hour Chandigarh-Delhi flight going beyond Rs 20,000, the civil aviation ministry on Sunday asked different airlines to operate more flights to Chandigarh, Amritsar and other destinations in northern states as thousands of people were stranded at various places with roads and railway tracks being blocked by violent Jat protesters.

The fare for Chandigarh-Delhi, which normally varies between Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000, was being quoted between Rs 20,000-Rs 60,000 by various airlines for direct and one-stop flights via other cities.



The additional flights are:



1. Air India (21.2.16): Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi flight



Departure timings: Delhi (1730 hrs) Chandigarh (1910 hrs) Amritsar (2035 hrs)



2. SpiceJet (21.2.16): (A) Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi flight



Departure timings: Delhi (1755) Jaipur (1915)



(B) Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi flight



Departure timings: Delhi (1740) Amritsar (1910)



(C) Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi flight



Departure timings: Delhi (2035) Chandigarh (2200)



3. Jet (21.2.16): Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi flight



Departure timings: Delhi (1325) Amritsar (1525)



4. Indigo (22.2.16):



(A) Delhi-Chandigarh flight



Departure time: Delhi (2125)



(B) Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi flight



Departure time: Delhi (2140)

The above-said Air India, Spice Jet and Jet flights are for today (February 21), while the Indigo flights are for tomorrow (February 22).

Meanwhile, a defence spokesperson said the Indian Air Force has opened the Satwari Airport in Jammu for civil aircraft at night to provide connectivity to people stranded due to violence and tension in Haryana.

Railway tracks, roads blocked

The Jat community's agitation in Haryana has led to obstruction of railway tracks and arterial roads. The agitators have blocked the national highway between Delhi and Chandigarh at Jhajjar, Panipat and Sonipat. They also blocked Panchkula -Shimla highway.

Trains and buses to and from Delhi and other places have been cancelled.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal urged Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajjapathi Raju to start additional flights from Delhi to Chandigarh and Amritsar.

During a telephonic conversation with the Union Civil Aviation Minister, the Chief Minister urged him to immediately start flights from national capital to Amritsar and Chandigarh to provide connectivity to the people of the state who were completely cut off from other parts of the country especially Delhi due to widespread violence and disturbances in Haryana following the issue of Jat reservation.

Badal said a huge section of the society, especially the students, had been adversely affected, who have to appear in several entrance tests for either seeking jobs or admissions in various educational institutions across the country. Most of such examination centres were only located in Delhi, the CM added.

North-Western Raliway cancels 103 trains

The North Western Railway announced cancellation of 103 trains and diverted 22 others on February 22 and 23 in view of the Jat agitation.

The passengers are advised to check their train schedule, its CPRO Tarun Jain said.

The trains between Ajmer-Kishanganj, Ajmer-Jammu, Ajmer-New Delhi, Ajmer-Hardwar, Udaipur-Delhi, Jaipur-Delhi double decker, Jaipur-Chandigarh, Jodhpur-Delhi Mandore Express, Jaislamer-Delhi, Sriganganagar-Delhi, Bhiwani-Panipat, Delhi-Bhatinda, Bikaner-Delhi, Lalgarh-Tinsukhiya, Howarah-Jaisalmer, Hisar Gorakhpur, Srigangangar-Ferozepur and Rohtak-Bhiwani trains were among cancelled (to and fro) on February 22 and 23, he said.

Twenty-two other trains will be diverted due to the agitation.  TNS/Agencies
Sunit Dhawan and Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, February 21

Owing to the failure of the state machinery in maintaining law and order situation yesterday despite the arrival of Army troops and imposition of curfew in the city, fear of communal flare-ups gave a sleepless night to residents.

Armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and other weapons, people belonging to the Jat and non-Jat communities on Saturday night were seen performing thikri pehra in their respective localities to foil any attempt of attack.

Residents, who were under threat of communal attacks last night, however, felt safer owing to night patrol by Army personnel.

The Army began a flag march on Sunday morning. Helicopters carrying Army men continued to make rounds over Rohtak today also.

Residents of Sector 3 and nearby areas said this morning, several youths were seen looting articles from the shops located inside Satyam Mall, which was ransacked and set afire by protesting youths yesterday.

Barring this and a couple of minor clashes, the situation was largely peaceful.

An uneasy calm prevailed in the city this morning, even as the youths agitating for the grant of reservation to the members of Jat community stayed put at the protest site near Gate No.2 of MDU here.

Nonetheless, rumours like drinking water at Sector 1 waterworks having being poisoned, massive assemblages of youths at different points and large-scale damage to life and property were getting spread like wildfire.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 21

A Bill for granting the OBC status to Jats will be introduced in the coming Budget session of the Haryana Assembly, BJP Haryana in-charge Anil Jain said today after a meeting between Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Jat leaders.

The government has set up a committee headed by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu to look into demand of Jats for reservation in Central government jobs. BJP vice-presidents Satpal Malik and Avinash Rai Khanna and Union ministers Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Balyan are the other members of the committee headed by Naidu.

Jat leaders who attended the meeting with Rajnath Singh said they have also been assured of action against BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini within a week for his anti-Jat utterances.

Besides Jain, Union Minister from Uttar Pradesh Sanjeev Baliyan, Subhash Barala and Haryana ministers Capt Abhimanyu and OP Dhankar were among those present in the meeting.

The khap leaders, in unison, ratified the decision taken during the meeting of their delegation with Rajnath Singh.

They said it was decided that the BJP will take action against party MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini immediately after the seven-day of notice served on him expires. A criminal case will be registered against him if the community so desires, the khap leaders claimed.

They claimed that a law to bring the Jat community under the OBC category at the Centre will be enacted in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament. In Haryana, reservation to Jats would be granted under the Special Other Backward Classes, they said, adding the law in the state will be enacted in the upcoming session of the Assembly.

The khap leaders also appealed to Jat protesters to call off the agitation.

Hooda observes fast at Jantar Mantar



Earlier, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda started his fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi for peace in the state. He asked the state government to find amicable solution to reservation issue without delay.

Hooda was joined by Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and CLP leader Kiran Chaudhary.

As violent protests by Jats continued, Haryana Minister Anil Vij earlier made it clear that talks cannot be held with a mob and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.
Shimla, February 21

Ex-servicemen have demanded that both HPCA and the BCCI should address the concern of families of the martyrs before hosting the India-Pakistan match in Dharamsala on March 19.

We want to stay away from politics but expect that the HPCA and the BCCI will keep in mind the sentiments of the families of the martyrs, says Brig Khushal Thakur (retd), Kargil war hero and state convener, Indian Ex-servicemen Movement.

The Honorary Commissioned Officers Welfare Association demanded that the HPCA and the government should take up the matter with the Centre to cancel the match. We are unhappy with the decision to hold the match, says Capt. Jagdish Verma (Retd), president of the association.  TNS
Srinagar, February 21

Three army men  two of them officers  and a militant were killed in an ongoing encounter in Pampore, 15 km from Srinagar, on Sunday as security forces continued to battle gunmen hiding in a government building.

The latest deaths  Captains Pawan Kumar and Tushar Mahajan and Om Prakash, a soldier  took the death toll in the shootout that began on Saturday evening to five.

Kumar, a young officer from Haryanas Jind, was injured when security forces tried to storm the building where the militants were hiding in the early hours of Sunday morning, an army official said.

Mahajan, who was also injured gravely in the gunbattle, was an officer from Udhampur.

All three belonged the armys elite Para unit.

A police officer said the gunmen were heavily armed, prolonging the operation. The buildings open structure also made it difficult for the security forces to advance, he said.

Two soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force and a civilian were killed on Saturday in the militant attack and the subsequent gunfight.

Nine soldiers were also wounded.

The militants had attacked a CRPF convoy and then ran into the Entrepreneurship Development Institute nearby to hide. The building had more than 100 people who were later taken to safety.  PTI
Chennai, February 21

Eight dissident DMDK MLAs today resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly and left party leader Vijaykant stripped of his status as Opposition leader in the House.

Speaker P Dhanapal, who accepted the resignations, declared that Vijayakant has lost his Opposition Leader status since the strength of his party in the Assembly has now come down to 20 from 28.

DMDK founder Vijayakant no longer meets the qualification to be recognised as the Opposition Leader under relevant Assembly rules, the Speakers Secretariat said in a release.

Further, with no other party having the 24 members stipulated for the same, nobody else can be recognised as Opposition Leader, the release said quoting the Speaker. DMK has 23 MLAs in the 234-member House.

The DMDK MLAs who tendered their resignation are C Arun Pandian, M Arun Subramanian, K Pandiarajan, K Tamil Azhagan, S Michael Rayappan, R Sundarrajan, T Suresh Kumar and R Santhi.

Actor-politician Vijayakant, who made his Assembly debut in 2006 as the then lone DMDK MLA, became Opposition Leader after the 2011 elections, when his party bagged 29 seats.

The partys senior leader and former Alandur MLA Panrutty S Ramachandran had resigned in 2014 before joining AIADMK, bringing down DMDKs strength to 28.

Though he had joined hands with the ruling AIADMK for the 2011 elections, Vijayakant had later walked out of the alliance after a spat with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the floor of the Assembly.

Addressing a rally at Kanchipuram district on Saturday, Vijaykant said his supporters want him to be the "king" and not the "kingmaker". "If I am the king, then you all will also be a king," he had said.

On Sunday, two lawmakers  PMKs Kalai Arasu and Puthiya Tamizhagam's A.Ramasamy  also quit their posts. The latest development comes as the state prepares for Assembly polls later this year. DMDK is being wooed by the DMK-Congress combine, BJP and the four-party bloc, Peoples Welfare Front (PWF), for striking an electoral pact.  Agencies
Dhaka, February 21

In the latest attack on religious minorities in Bangladesh, a Hindu head priest was today hacked to death by suspected armed Islamists at a temple in an area bordering India. Two devotees were also injured.

In a predawn attack, motorbike-borne unidentified assailants hurled stones at the house of 50-year-old Jajneswar Roy on the premises of the Santagourhiyo Temple in northern Panchagarh districts Debiganj Upazila.

They (assailants) first hurled stones at the temple prompting him (Roy) to step out. The assailants then attacked him and slit his throat, a devotee said.

Panchagarh police chief Giasuddin Ahmed, citing local people, said the head priest was preparing for the morning prayers when the attack took place.

The assailants injured two devotees as they fled the scene firing gunshots and hurling crude bombs to avoid being chased.

The injured included a neighbour who rushed to the spot to save the priest but was shot at, Ahmed said. At least nine persons, including two foreigners, have been killed in the past five months in systematic attacks on minorities and foreigners in the country.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 21

Arson and violence continued unabated in parts of Haryana on Sunday amidst hope from a positive meeting between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Jat leaders in New Delhi. The situation across the state, however, was yet to show signs of improvement with leaderless youth continuing to burn properties unchecked and blocking highways as well as minor roads.

A Bill for granting OBC status to Jats will be introduced in the coming Budget session of the Haryana Assembly, BJP Haryana in-charge Anil Jain said after a meeting between Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Jat leaders.

Jat leaders said that they had also been promised action against BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini within a week for his anti-Jat utterances.

An immediate halt to the agitation from the seemingly positive talks remained a moot question as a large number of youth without any coordinated leadership were marauding equally in cities and small towns, as well as highways and minor roads. However, road blocks in Palwal were removed after the talks.

There were a few major incidents of arson on Sunday also, including the burning of a police post at Kalanaur and a railway station. Popular dhabas along GT Road in Murthal were vandalised.

Yet another town, Kaithal, was brought under curfew on Sunday afternoon, as the death toll in the Jat reservation agitation mounted to at least 10, with four more people succumbing to injuries overnight.

Kaithal is the ninth Haryana town where curfew has been imposed, the others being Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonepat and Gohana town of Sonipat district.

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Road and rail traffic remained paralysed as essential supplies, including fuel, milk and vegetables, were severely hit. ATMs were also running out of cash, official sources said. Markets have remained shut in most towns.

The water supply to Delhi, disrupted since Friday night, has not yet been restored, creating a crisis in the National Capital.

Spiralling violence today claimed two more lives taking the overnight death toll to 12 as over 150 others have been injured so far, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home) PK Das said.

One death was reported in a firing incident from Akbarpur-Barota, near Munak canal in Sonepat, while another person died in a clash between two groups at Hansi, Das told reporters.

The Centre has sent additional 1,700 paramilitary personnel to deal with the situation.

With public transport in Haryana severely hit, the Civil Aviation Ministry has asked airlines to operate additional flights from Delhi to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jaipur to enable stranded people reach their destinations. There are reports of airlines massively jacking up ticket prices in view of the rush.

LIVE UPDATES: Violence/arson/disruptions

SONEPAT: Troops of the Rapid Action Force airdropped on the OP Jindal University campus grounds in 10 sorties.

KURUKSHETRA: MP Raj Kumar Saini appeals for peace and harmony in Haryana on his Facebook page.

KARNAL: Protesters block NH-1 near Kohand village.

KAITHAL: Several roads blocked in district. Tent erected in middle of Hisar-Ambala highway.

SONEPAT: College owned by an MP and a hotel vandalised in Sonepat; rice mill set on fire.

BHIWANI: Number of buses set ablaze at Tosham.

BHIWANI: BJP MP Dharambirs house vandalised.

CHANDIGARH: Zirakpur-Shimla highway blocked. Weekend rush to Shimla causes massive jam.

REWARI: Highway blocked, disrupting traffic.

PANIPAT: Railway station vandalised at Ganaur; booking office and Station Master's room damaged.

SONEPAT: Violence reported in Gohana, where a mob set on fire several shops, two buses and two motorcycles.

BHIWANI: Protesters late last night set on fire an ATM and burnt official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu.

BHIWANI: Police chowkis in Mundal and Kharak set on fire.

HISAR: Nine districts are under Army's control as 73 columns have been deployed across Haryana, said Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, Corps Commander of South Western Command.

ROHTAK: Unruly mob set police station, petrol pump, several shops and vehicles on fire at Kalanaur town

JHAJJAR: Chhotu Ram Dharmshala set on fire; Rao Tula Rams statue vandalised, Ahirs start gathering to protest the incident.

REWARI: Non-Jats burn effigies of Jat ministers Birender Singh, Capt Abhimanyu and OP Dhankar.

FARIDABAD: Clash between protesters and police on NH-2 near Ballabgarh; vehicles damaged, journalists beaten up by police.

GURGAON: City staring at water crisis; district administration appeal for judicious use, claiming just a day's reserve supply left.

GURGAON: A railway halt room at Basai Dhankot set on fire, police claim the room was set afire by a drunkard.

KARNAL: Several roads leading to city blocked by protesters, vehicles heading towards Delhi being diverted via Meerut road.

KARNAL: More than 20 foreign scientists and around 1,000 scientists and farmers from all over the country are stranded in city. They had come here to participate in 44th International Dairy Conference at NDRI.

ROHTAK: Traders and shopkeepers of Quila road market shift their valuable items to safer places.

Rohtak IG transferred

The state government on Saturday shifted IG of Rohtak Range Sirikant Jadhav without assigning any reason for the transfer.

The districts of Rohtak and Jhajjar, which have been badly affected by the stir, fall in Rohtak Range. The office of IG, Rohtak Range, was also vandalised by the protesters.

The Haryana government has appointed Sirikant Jadhav, IG of Rohtak Range as IG, State Crime Record Bureau, Madhuban, with immediate effect," an official communique said.

No officer has been appointed in place of Jadhav.

Violence on Saturday

Flag marches by the Army notwithstanding, arsonists had a field day on Saturday, looting and setting shops and business establishments on fire and blocking roads and rail tracks. Two persons were killed and 10, including policemen, were injured in a cross-fire between protesters and Army personnel in Jhajjar. The injured were admitted to the Civil Hospital.

An unruly mob went on the rampage setting the Jhajjar police station, BDO office, PWD rest house, Roadways buses and PROs jeep on fire. The mob threw stones at the residence of Haryana Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar.

Choppers drop troops

As the protesting Jats last night dug up roads to prevent the troops from entering Rohtak, the Army on Saturday used choppers to drop troops at the Rohtak Police Lines. Army sources said all main roads leading to Rohtak from Delhi, Hisar and Jaipur had been dug up. Despite a flag march in the city, the protesters, mostly students on a dharna in front of the MDU gates, refused to budge.

The civil authorities had on Friday requisitioned Army troops for nine violence-hit districts

Notice to Kurukshetra MP

A show-cause notice has been issued to Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has been issuing statements against reservation for the Jats. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has asked his MLAs to leave for their constituencies and speak with the protesters to end the impasse. The Chief Minister's CM's Barara rally, scheduled for Sunday, has been cancelled.

The Indian National Lok Dal has demanded Presidents rule, holding the BJP responsible for the chaos.

With PTI inputs
New Delhi, February 21

Wholesale prices of vegetables such as potato and cauliflower have gone up in Delhi NCR, while milk supplies have been hit by transport disruption due to Jat quota protests in Haryana.

The oil marketing firms have shut down petrol pumps in five worst-affected towns in Haryana.

Operations at Amul's milk plant in Rohtak remained suspended. It has a capacity of 5 lakh litres per day.

Kwality Ltd said it has stopped milk collection from its chilling centres in Sirsa and Fatehabad.

The milk demand is being met in Delhi-NCR by increased supplies from Uttar Pradesh, while that of vegetables is being fulfilled by neighbouring Rajasthan.

The wholesale prices of potato, cauliflower, carrot and green leafy vegetables has risen by Rs 100 per quintal at Azadpur mandi, Asia's largest wholesale market for fruits and vegetables.

Prices of potatoes and green leafy vegetables have risen by on average Rs 3-4 per kg.

Fuel pumps shut

"Fuel pumps in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Kaithal and Jind have been shut down because of violence and arson incidents taking place in these areas," an official told PTI today.

There are 2,370 petroleum pumps in Haryana.

Official said unruly mob had even attacked 4-5 fuel pumps in Panipat district and they had even vandalised the property.

"Protesters are targeting fuel pumps run by Haryana Agro and Haryana Tourism," official said, adding that they had even tried to set fuel pumps on fire.

As agitating Jats put up blockades at several places in Haryana, movement of trucks carrying fuel has been badly hit, leading to shortage of petrol and diesel in various parts of the state.

Similarly, the LPG supply has also been hit, he said.

Truck drivers are scared of taking fuel to destination as they feel their vehicles can be attacked," he added.

Haryana gets LPG from Panipat, Pyala and Gurgaon while petrol and diesel come from Bahadurgarh, Ambala, Panipat and Rewari, official said.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

Less than two months after the IAFs key airbase at Pathankot witnessed a terror attack, its commander has been moved out. Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, Air Officer Commanding 18 Wing, based at this border town in Punjab has been posted out to Air Headquarters, New Delhi.

Air Commodore Anuj Mishra, posted in Bengaluru, is taking over the command of the airbase. Air Headquarters has termed the posting as routine. Air Commodore Dhamoon had put in less than two years as the Pathankot base commander. While the average tenure is two to two-and-half-years, it can be increased or decreased depending on operational or administrative factors. A group of terrorists had broken into the Pathankot air force station on January 2, and were neutralised by armed forces and the National Security Guards after a three-day gun battle. There is still no clarity whether there were four or six terrorists or how the terrorists entered the air base.

The entire episode, including the probability of the terrorists having infiltrated from across the border, and the possible connivance of an insider, is being investigated by the National Investigative Agency.

Pak probe team may visit next month

Islamabad: A team of Pakistani investigators is likely to visit India next month for collecting evidence on the involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists in the Pathankot terror attack, a media report said. The teams visit is expected, a senior diplomat told teh daily.  PTI
London, February 21

The mortal remains of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose should be DNA-tested to conclusively prove that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, according to a UK-based website set up to catalogue the nationalist leader's last days.

The website called on the Indian government to approach the government of Japan regarding a DNA test of the remains of the freedom fighter which are believed to be preserved at Tokyo's Renkoji temple since September, 1945.

Bose is believed to have died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

"A DNA test could end the controversy over Bose's death once and for all," www.bosefiles.info said in a statement.

The website also released letters to show that as far back as September 5, 1995, Ashis Ray  Bose's grandnephew and the website's creator  had written to then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao suggesting a DNA test of Bose's remains.

The letter, declassified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month and posted among the National Archives' files under the heading of Netaji Papers, reveals Ray pleaded with Rao for a DNA test of the remains at Renkoji temple.

After that and following telephonic contacts with British and American DNA testing organisations, on September 21, 1995 Ray apprised then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

The next day, September 22, 1995, Ray received a written communication from K Sullivan of Britain's Forensic Science Service, which stated: "Further to our telephone conversations regarding the analysis of the putative remains of Subhas Chandra Bose, I am able to confirm that a blood sample from either a nephew or niece from his sister's side of the family would be a suitable control for DNA analysis purposes".

Ray forwarded this note to Professor Anita Pfaff, the Germany-based daughter and sole heir of Bose.

Thereafter, Ray sought out a son of one of Bose's sisters - the late Shanti Kumar Dutt - who was willing to fully cooperate regarding a DNA test, the website notes.

The letters to Mukherjee, from the British Forensic Science Service and Dutt have now been posted on the website.

Boses death has been a subject of great speculation in India. Although many, including the Indian establishment, agree he died on August 18, 1945 in a plane crash, many others refute it.  PTI
Lahore, February 21

Chief prosecutor in the 2006 Mumbai attack case has refused to attend the cases hearings after Pakistan government withdrew the security it had previously provided to him, the latest hurdle in a case for which the establishment has already been accused of deliberately delaying trial.

Pakistan government gave no reason for withdrawing protection offered to Chaudhry Azhar, also a special prosecutor for the Federal Investigation Agency.

"Yes, the government has withdrawn my security and I will not attend the Mumbai case hearings," Azhar said.

The lawyer claimed he had been threatened and cannot be involved in the case unless he was offered security protection.

Azhar became the chief prosecutor in the case in May 2013 after his predecessor, Chaudhry Zulfiqar, was murdered by two members of the banned Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Azhar said he had "brought the matter to the knowledge of the trial court which directed the Inspector General Police Islamabad to provide me the required security".

"I did not attend the last hearing because of this and will not attend the future ones till my security is fully restored," he said.

Prosecution lawyers had requested the trial court to ensure their safety as well as that of the cases witnesses after they were threatened by the Jamaat-ud-Dawah.

In the last hearing on February 17, Islamabads Anti-Terrorism Court  which is trying the case ordered the FIA to bring 24 Indian witnesses to the court for recording their statements. It also ordered back boats used by Ajmal Kasab  the only terrorist caught and hanged for the attack by India for thorough examination.

The boats have been impounded by India

Legal experts claim the courts orders were methods used to delay the trial, which has already dragged for six years.

Seven suspects  Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum  have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India's financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008.

Fifty-six-year old Lakhvi has been on bail since April 2015 and is currently at an undisclosed location in the country.  PTI
SYDNEY: Downed power lines and flooding are hampering relief efforts in Fiji after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the Pacific island nation, flattening remote villages and killing at least five people. Harsh winds and torrential rains tore up homes and cut power, water and communications links across the nation of about 900,000 people, although Suva, the capital, escaped the brunt after the storm changed direction at the last minute. reuters

Urdu in Pak schools aided political tensions: UNESCO ISLAMABAD: Warning that language can serve as a 'double-edged sword', the UNESCO said the continued use of Urdu in Pakistani schools has led to political tensions in the multi-ethnic country and recommended that children be taught in a language they understand. A policy paper issued by the UNESCO coinciding with the 'Mother Language Day' on Sunday referred the multi-ethnic societies in Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Guatemala and recommended ensuring that 'children are taught in a language they understand'. PTI

Will return to US with guarantee of fair trial: Snowden

MANCHESTER (US): Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden tells an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that he is willing to be extradited to the US if the federal government could guarantee he would get a fair trial. The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping programme and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years. AP
Juli Kraft is joining Catalyst Benefits Group as partner. Kraft brings 20 years of experience in employee benefits. Kraft grew up in Tulsa and started her insurance sales career in 1996 with local HMO carrier, Healthcare Oklahoma. In October 1998, she moved to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma with responsibility for new sales, working with employers of all sizes across the state of Oklahoma. In 2014, she won the Presidents Circle Award for Top Sales Executive in Oklahoma. Kraft has a degree in Marketing from Oklahoma State University. She is married and has two amazing children. She spends most of her free time going to her childrens sporting and school events. She is in her church, Kirk of the Hills, volunteering in the childrens ministry. Kraft currently is on the Board of the Oklahoma State Health Underwriters and is a member of the Tulsa Health Underwriters.
Cushing may be home to less than half of a percent of Oklahomas total population, but the city with just fewer than 8,000 residents is arguably more important to the energy industry than any other point in North America.

And if anything, the importance of the self-proclaimed Pipeline Crossroads of the World is only growing.

The Cushing Interchange, just south of the citys downtown along Linwood Avenue, is one of the largest crude-oil marketing hubs in the U.S.

Dotted with tanks that together could hold nearly 90 million barrels of crude oil, Cushing is the designated point of delivery for the commoditys New York Mercantile Exchanges futures contracts. Its also the price settlement point for the central United States oil benchmark, the light sweet crude West Texas Intermediate.

Cushings history has been intertwined with the oil business for more than a century, but during the past year the hub has set multiple new benchmarks as the country and the rest of the world deals with falling prices and an oversupply of oil.

Some companies are even building new storage facilities.

Growth spurt

In April 2015, Cushing stocks reached 62.2 million barrels, which at the time was the highest level in recorded history, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

According to Hillary Stevenson, oil market and business development analyst for energy market intelligence firm Genscape, that was the month that Cushing first reached a maximum storage level.

Stevenson says that Genscape considers operational capacity at the Cushing Interchange to be utilization of between 20 and 80 percent of available storage. In April, 78 percent of available storage was taken up.

Between April and the end of the year, (companies) were able to drain about 10 million barrels out of storage at Cushing, Stevenson said. Excess barrels moved to more available storage along the Texas Gulf Coast.

But during the final months of 2015, storage levels began to increase again, and during the week of Jan. 8 they reached a new high of roughly 64 million barrels.

During the week of Feb. 5,storage levels reached another new high of nearly 64.7 million barrels.

The most recent data available shows that during the week of Feb. 12, storage levels rose by another 36,000 barrels, hitting yet another high of 64.73 million.

Stevenson says that the rise can, in part, be attributed to tax codes. In order to optimize end-of-year taxes, it is better for companies to store barrels in Oklahoma than it is in Texas.

According to a 2013 study prepared by Headwaters Economics and the Oklahoma Policy Institute, the 2.12 percent local ad valorem taxes in Texas include oil and gas property.

In Oklahoma, theres no such annual charge on oil and gas. Because of that situation, in many cases it makes more sense for energy companies that have access to hubs in both states to keep their inventory in Oklahoma.

Some call it the Texas tax dodge.

Planning for the future

The oil futures market is also having a big impact on the increased levels.

Sandy Fielden, an analyst with RBN Energy, said that todays crude prices are quite low  oil was $29.72 per barrel at market close on Friday. But going out six months, or even two or three months, into the future, commodity prices are higher.

That provides an incentive to store crude; they call it a contango market, Fielden said. Rather than selling today for a very low price, you can put it in storage and use the futures market.

Although storage levels at Cushing have been hitting new highs, the percent of capacity utilized has eased slightly due to new construction. The record high set earlier this month represented about 75 percent utilization of the hubs available storage.

While were continuing to reach these highest levels, the capacity isnt hitting records because companies are taking on new tank storage projects, Stevenson said.

Approximately 5.5 million additional barrels of storage capacity became available during 2015, and Genscape is expecting capacity to grow by another 1.5 million this year.

Magellan Midstream

Operations in Cushing arent dominated by one particular company or pipeline. Rather, the roughly nine-mile area that makes up the citys interchange is a hub for many players, including Tulsa-based companies Magellan Midstream Partners LP, Rose Rock Midstream LP, Blueknight Energy Partners and NGL Energy Partners LP.

In terms of storage providers, Magellan has a larger presence at the hub than any other Tulsa-based company with 12 million in storage capacity across three locations at the Cushing hub.

Magellan has the third-largest presence in Cushing, behind only Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline L.P. and Canadian Enbridge Inc., each of which have capacities of around 20 million barrels.

Magellan also owns the longest refined-petroleum-products pipeline system in the country and has a business model based primarily on commodity transportation, storage and distribution.

The company was founded in 2003 when it broke off of another Tulsa-based energy heavyweight, Williams Cos. But it didnt have a presence in Cushing until 2010 when it acquired its Central and Shinn Pence facilities  which have 4.3 million and 3.4 million barrels of shell capacity, respectively  from BP Pipelines Inc.

In 2011, Magellan added another 4.25 million barrels of storage in Cushing.

All of the infrastructure here in Cushing has a tremendous importance to our states economy, said Bruce Heine, a spokesman for Magellan.

Growing levels of utilization at the hub can be attributed to the mid-continent network the interchange provides.

Connectivity is key, Heine said.

This is combined with factors unique to Oklahoma, like the cost of land, which Heine said is very reasonable compared to Houston, and the states business-friendly regulations.

By the end of the year, Magellans connectivity at Cushing will become even stronger with the completion of the Saddlehorn Pipeline. Magellan will be the operator of the 600-mile system, and Saddlehorn will have the capacity to move 190,000 barrels of crude per day from the DJ Basin in Colorado to Cushing.

Originally announced in the fall of 2014, the Saddlehorn is approximately 75 percent complete, said Keith Faucett, a senior project manager with Magellan. Construction of the pipeline has created around 3,500 indirect jobs, he said.

During a tour of Magellans Cushing facilities on Tuesday, Faucett remarked on the hubs rapid growth during recent years and emphasized the importance of the sites connections to the energy industry.

If you cant get your barrels physically to Cushing, youre at a disadvantage, Faucett said.

At 75 percent full, Stevenson said that Genscape considers Cushing to be operationally full with merchantable space extremely limited.

Although Heine didnt provide specifics for business during the past year, he said that demand for Magellans storage and transport services at the hub has been strong.

Demand for our services has been very robust, and weve been able to meet the needs of our customers, Heine said.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have taken the first step to stem the slide in oil prices. Theres just one problem: If they are successful  and thats a big if  the wildcatters of Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are waiting to pounce.

With 4,000 wells drilled and just waiting for better prices to be brought on stream, the so-called fracklog could act as a cap to any oil rally, industry executives, traders and OPEC officials said. Worse, a price recovery could effectively bail out dozens of shale companies now struggling with $30-a-barrel oil, allowing them to return to the capital market.

If you think about making a production cut as OPEC, prices rise and these producers can get oil online in 80 days, Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs head of Commodities Research, said on Bloomberg TV. It makes any type of price rally self-defeating.

The search for a grand bargain among oil producers shifted to the Iranian capital Wednesday as Venezuela and Qatar energy ministers started talks with Iran and Iraq to try to expand an agreement to freeze crude production in order to shore up prices.

The risk of meaningful output cuts for Saudi Arabia, Russia and others is that they backfire. Slowly but surely, low prices have been bringing the U.S. shale industry to its knees. Bankruptcies have mounted while company after company slashed spending, laid off roughnecks and idled drilling rigs. As many as 74 North American producers face significant difficulties in sustaining debt, according to credit rating firm Moodys Investors Service.

The drop in U.S. oil rigs to the lowest level since 2010 is starting to translate to the wellhead. In North Dakota, production from the prolific Bakken formation suffered its first year-on-year drop in a decade in September. In Texas, home of the Eagle Ford and Permian basins, output in November fell on an annual basis for the first time since 2010.

Saudi Arabia needs to be assured that U.S. shale wouldnt bounce back quickly, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Group in Washington and a former senior oil official at the White House.

With shale groups struggling, U.S. production is set to decline this year by 740,000 barrels a day to 8.69 million, according to the latest government forecast. A rebound in oil prices could alter that math.

Shale output will come back if oil prices rise to $50 a barrel, Ian Taylor, chief executive officer of Vitol Group, the worlds largest oil trader, said in an interview before the Saudi-Russia deal was announced. It looks clear that a lot of the oil thats probably going to be shut down in the next year or so because it is simply too low a price, some of it could come back, he said.

Once oil rises, shale companies can lock in prices, insulating themselves against any market weakness and attracting lenders. If the price of oil goes back up to $50, the banks will respond quickly, said Ed Hirs, an energy economics lecturer at the University of Houston and managing director of private drilling company Hillhouse Resources. Shale companies will buy a new round of hedges, and banks will not be calling their loans, he said.

So far, the prospect of a price rebound seems limited. U.S. oil futures fell back below $30 a barrel on Tuesday after the deal was announced on speculation that it wouldnt reduce the current glut. Futures were up $1.73, or 6 percent, to $30.77 a barrel at 11:02 a.m. Wednesday.

Some shale companies may not be inclined to dive back in. Bill Thomas, chief executive officer at EOG Resources Inc., the largest landholder in Texass Eagle Ford shale formation, told attendees at an industry conference in Houston last week that his company wont start boosting output the first time oil hits $60 a barrel.

Were going to make sure the market is in good shape, its balanced, and weve got a future, Thomas said. We dont want to ramp it up and drive the price of oil down again.

The cheapest and quickest way for shale companies to increase output would be to tap the fracklog. Almost 4,000 wells have been drilled but are still waiting to be hydraulically fractured so they can produce, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts William Foiles and Andrew Cosgrove. If the fracklog were reduced by just 170 wells a month, it could add 400,000 to 600,000 barrels a day, Cosgrove said.

It wouldnt be as quick as stepping on an accelerator, because companies have laid off so many roughnecks that it would take time to rebuild the work force in order to take on the projects, he said. Its not an immediate snap-back, but it is waiting in the wings, Cosgrove said.
Nearly 60,000 acres of land have burned since Thursday, when high winds and low humidity coupled to produce ideal fire conditions across the state, and some of those blazes still burned into the weekend.

The two largest of Oklahomas recent fires, located in Okfuskee and Okmulgee counties, merged Saturday, Oklahoma Forestry Services spokeswoman Michelle Finch-Walker said.

Since Thursday, those fires  called Pharoah and Nuyaka, respectively  had burned about 18,000 acres as of Saturday afternoon and threatened several homes, outbuildings and a large hog farm, according to a news release from the service.

By 6 p.m., preliminary estimates indicated that more than 20,000 acres had burned in the area near Dripping Springs Lake, Okmulgee County Emergency Director Timothy Craighton said in a news release.

Fire crews from the service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Okmulgee, Sunrise and Nuyaka used bulldozers, engines and aircraft to fight the fires. By Saturday evening, the fires had been reduced to hot spots. Crews fighting that blaze were spread out across both flat and open, and rugged and rocky terrain.

Teams surveyed the area by vehicle and reported eight residential structures  a mix of part-time or lake homes or abandoned homes  and six outbuildings had been destroyed. One full-time residential home was burned in the fires, according to Craighton.

Since Thursday, more than 30 large wildfires have been reported, according to a forestry service map. Most of the fires burned in the northeastern part of the state. The map didnt include smaller fires dealt with by local agencies.

Strong winds and hot temperatures on Saturday again created potential for large grass fires, though humidity was higher than on Thursday.

Thursday, all three were extreme and today we are getting a little help from humidity, but the strong winds and temperatures arent really in our favor, Oklahoma State Forester George Geissler said in a news release.

Across eastern Oklahoma, wind gusts ranged between about 20 to 30 mph, with temperatures in the 70s to 80s, according to Oklahoma Mesonet data.

Relative humidity ranged from high 40s to 70 in eastern Oklahoma, compared to Thursday when values dropped to 20 in some areas, according to Mesonet data.

Thursdays conditions helped ignite a grass fire near Sperry in the area of East 73rd Street North and North Iroquois Avenue. The same general area burned overnight from Thursday into Friday when crews from Tulsa and Turley got the fire under control.

Multiple fire departments responded to the area on Saturday, including Sperry, Turley, Tulsa and Rock fire departments.

By 6:30 p.m., firefighters had most of the flames extinguished. They were able to keep nearby homes safe and no one was injured, Sperry Fire Chief Sam Bradley said. Firefighters used a tactic of fighting fire with fire, creating a line to prevent the wildfire from spreading, he said.

About 7:30 p.m., flames spread to a house in the 6900 block of North Peoria Avenue. They were extinguished within minutes.

You cant have an uh-oh, he said.

Firefighters from the various departments had been battling the flames for at least 10 hours by Saturday evening. Bradley said firefighters would continue monitoring the flames for any pop-ups throughout the night.

The unseasonably warm temperatures didnt make the job any easier, Bradley said.

Tulsa was one degree shy of the record for Feb. 20. Saturdays high temperature was 82 degrees. The record of 83 degrees was set in 1981, meteorologist Robert Darby with the National Weather Service in Tulsa said.

A storm system was forecast to touch the northeastern edge of Oklahoma late Saturday, but rain shouldnt hit the Tulsa area until Monday night into Tuesday, he said.

The heaviest amounts should stay south of Tulsa. The front also will bring temperatures far lower than what the region experienced Saturday, Darby said.
State Rep. Jason Nelson is like a cowboy with a saddle sore. The horse hes on has rubbed a raw spot on him, but Nelson has to keep riding it to the end of the trail.

Nelsons horse, in this case, is school choice, and its taken a piece of his hide. A lot of educators and taxpayers think his ideas are, at best, misguided and, at worst, an attempt to dismantle public education.

And theyve let the Oklahoma City Republican know about it.

Not even the full-throated endorsement of Gov. Mary Fallin and the GOPs legislative leadership, as well as several other interested parties, has been enough to overcome the objections.

But that could change this year.

With school consolidation apparently near death, funding irretrievably in the dumper and the likes of No Child Left Behind and Common Core fading from public consciousness, the education battle lines in the Oklahoma Legislature are coalescing around school choice.

School choice. Education savings accounts. Vouchers. The three are roughly synonymous, although perhaps not precisely so.

School choice can mean anything from free transfer among schools within the same district to free access to the most experimental alternative education invented.

Education savings account advocates say ESAs are not vouchers but concede they are not really savings accounts, either. The difference, if there is one, is that vouchers spend public money specifically for children to attend private schools, while ESAs can be used for a wider variety of education services, including but not limited to private schools.

Nelsons House Bill 2949 needed the votes of Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, and Speaker Pro Tem Lee Denney, R-Cushing, to get out of the House Common Education Committee last week, and it is no sure thing in the full House.

HB 2949 is an education savings account bill. Fully funded by the state from money that would otherwise go to public schools, the accounts would be used by students who choose not to attend public school to pay for things such as private school tuition, home school curricula, tutoring and therapy.

The money could not be used to buy computers or other technology, and could only be spent by electronic transfer through approved vendors.

The amount deposited in the accounts would vary by student, depending on state per-pupil expenditures and the individuals grade, household income and education and developmental needs.

Nelson is also the House sponsor of Senate Bill 1263, by Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, which is similar to HB 2949.

Ive tried to draft a bill that protects the state, gives kids choices and protects public schools, Nelson said last week. People say this will take money away from public schools. The way Im looking at it, the sole function of education is not to fund an institution, its to educate students.

HB 2949 would allow current private school students and those eligible for public pre-kindergarten and kindergarten after the laws effective date  likely to be after the start of the next school year  to receive an amount equal to up to 90 percent of what the home public school would have received for that student.

Five percent would go to the Department of Education and the state treasurer for administrative costs, and the remainder would be redistributed to public schools through the state funding formula.

Opponents of the proposal say it would siphon off already scarce financial resources, often to the parents of students who would have attended private school anyway. This is important, because those students are not counted for the purposes of allocating state money.

In other words, while public schools would continue to receive a portion of the state funding attached to students who move from them to ESAs, students who never attend public schools  and in many cases wouldnt regardless of circumstances  would be eligible for subsidies that are a dead loss for state public school funding.

The potential impact could be quite large, but in practice Nelson thinks it will be much smaller than opponents say. He said most families who customarily send their children to private school would qualify for small enough subsidies that it wont be worth the time and effort involved.

In large part, this is because parents would be required to reapply annually for the ESA subsidy and to prove that their students are making satisfactory academic progress.

Also because of the accountability measures, Nelson said, he believes homeschoolers would shy away from the ESA program.

Nelson concedes his bill would have a negative impact on total funding for public schools, but maintains it would increase per-pupil expenditures because students leaving the system would not take the full proportional amount associated to them.

He acknowledges a potential leakage associated with students who receive subsidies without ever entering the public school system, but believes it would be manageable.

Fraud, he said, is unlikely to be any more prevalent than in the existing system.

For him, Nelson said, the important point is that not every public school can meet the needs of every student.

Its not a zero-sum game, he said. Our schools have the most diverse population ever to educate. We have to find a way to do that.
Night after night, state Sen. Josh Breechen of Coalgate has stayed up until midnight, answering impassioned emails and calls from parents worried about schools being consolidated.

Sen. John Ford of Bartlesville says more people are stopping him in Wal-Mart and at church and Rotary Club meetings to unload their viewpoints on the issue.

In Sand Springs, hundreds of parents attended a town-hall meeting in which Superintendent Lloyd Snow asked for help deciding which programs and services should be chopped if education funding cuts continue. To keep the mood light, he called it a menu of misery and included a skit in the presentation. But the conversation was bleak.

Across Oklahoma, an apparently growing number of parents, community leaders, educators and other residents are raising louder voices about what they view as a crisis in common education.

The outcry led to action on Thursday when Ford, a Republican and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, announced his committee would not hear any school-consolidation bills this session, including one he wrote. In a statement, he thanked the parents, teachers and school patrons whove taken the time to share their views and concerns with me, and with their own senators.

Consolidation is a hot issue in places where people are afraid their local school district would be merged with another. Consolidation bills this session have also targeted small schools and administrative staff. But emotions are running high over other school issues as well.

The overarching one is funding. With the tailspin in oil and gas prices and the revenue plunge, the prospect of additional cuts this and next fiscal years, and another revenue failure in January 2017, has grown. Teacher pay raises are in jeopardy. Hits to classrooms could be felt in the fall.

Amid the concerns, a House committee last Monday approved a bill to create education savings accounts, a voucher program that would let families divert state money to send their children to private schools. Parents and children, out of school for Presidents Day, packed the room for the vote.

Regardless of different views, there is a sense of impending, widespread loss.

Alex Public Schools Superintendent Jason James said he is getting more questions from residents about issues affecting his district, including how he will deal with budget cuts.

Last year, when I met people at the community center, they would ask whats going on at the Capitol, James said. Now I get a dozen phone calls or face-to-face conversations where people are asking about specific legislation, like whats an education savings account.

Meredith Exline, president of the Oklahoma Central Parent Legislative Action Committee, said parents are frustrated at the lack of traction they have seen from lawmakers in addressing key issues such as funding and too much testing. Exline has two children attending Edmond Public Schools.

She believes parents are more cognizant of what education cuts have done to districts this year since they are starting to affect more classrooms.

Instead of focusing on finances, Exline said, she is dismayed to see so much effort put into getting bills like education savings accounts out of committee.

I have not seen any movement to address the financial crisis we are facing, Exline said. It does not appear like its going to get better when you look at the oil and gas industry.

Education advocates and officials are urging people to get involved.

Earlier this month, Moore Public Schools Superintendent Robert Romines sent an email saying, MPS needs your help! regarding the bill to create education vouchers, an online news site reported. He directed recipients to a web page with facts about what could happen to Moore Schools if vouchers move forward in Oklahoma.

The online site, The Middle Ground, criticized Romines for using his official capacity to campaign against the program.

Romines said he reaches out to residents to get their opinions on education issues before speaking to lawmakers. He uses the feedback to discuss what people in his community believe.

John Cox, superintendent of Peggs Public School and president of the Organization of Rural Elementary Schools, said consolidation is the biggest issue driving parents to action. Small community schools feel threatened by the proposal, he said.

Legislators may be accustomed to hearing from teachers and administrators on issues, but when parents turn out in droves, the impact is amplified, he said.

Sometimes, it appears were just trying to save our job, Cox said. With parents, its saying, Were trying to protect our kids. 

Snow, the Sand Springs superintendent who held a town hall, said, Were just trying to prepare our people to be a part of the conversation, more than anything.

On the menu of possible cuts in his district: transportation, athletics, counseling and art. Plus, class sizes will likely go up.

We talked about the real pain and anguish that could happen in this district and will happen in all districts. Its just a matter of time, said Snow, who has been at Sand Springs Public Schools for 36 years.

I think part of the solution is parent power, he said.  Theyre reactive to the pain. When the pain is turned up, thats when theyre more likely to show up.

Snow said the last time he could recall droves of parents involved in school politics was in 2011, when the state approved the third-grade retention law. That law requires children to pass a reading test by the end of third grade. Parents packed school meetings, and the meetings had to be moved to an auditorium.

The greater involvement also could be due to the election year. Oklahomas ballot could have several issues, including a proposal to raise the sales tax to help fund education.

Sen. Ford cited feedback from constituents as one of the reasons he wont hear school consolidation bills this session. Its important to listen to residents to be an effective politician, he said.

At the end of the day, we are a reflection of our community, Ford said. If they like us, we get re-elected. If they dont, we dont come back.
CUSHING  About 4 p.m. Sept. 12, 2015, Anthony Fulwider was on the phone with his fiancee, Cathy Barber, to make sure she and another relative would drop by the Cimarron Correctional Facility the next day to visit.

Fulwider, Barber said, had about seven years left to serve for 2003 Oklahoma County convictions including robbery with a firearm and shooting with intent to kill, and he had just regained his visitation privileges in August.

Barber knew Fulwider had been a part of the United Aryan Brotherhood since about 2012  when he was still at Oklahoma State Penitentiary  but she said he was trying to leave the gang.

He was trying to get his GED, Barber told the Tulsa World in a recent interview. He told me that Thursday he signed up for a church drug rehab program. He was happy about it. He was ready to go.

But she said the Brotherhood wasnt pleased her fiance was looking for a way out, and she reported he felt threatened by the gang as well as the Irish Mob, which also had members at Cimarron.

At 4:39 p.m. Sept. 12, members of the Irish Mob and the Brotherhood began stabbing one another inside the privately run prison in Cushing. Barber said the incident, which officials havent called a riot, occurred on command from gang members at OSP in McAlester due to drug-related conflicts. Kyle Tiffee, Michael Mayden Jr. and Christopher Tignor died during the fight. Fulwider was hospitalized in critical condition and died at a nearby hospital.

The attack lasted only two minutes, but it is the deadliest single incident on record to occur in an Oklahoma prison. Three other inmates who were hospitalized with serious injuries survived.

An autopsy report provided to the Tulsa World revealed Tignor had methamphetamine in his system during the attack. Fulwider, whose name is sometimes spelled Fulwilder in court documents, was stabbed seven times in the left temple, torso and right forearm.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections, responsible for oversight on privately run prisons, has since confirmed the incident. A news release called it a disturbance related to a feud between the Brotherhood and the Mob. More than five months later, reports on the fight are not complete, and no charges have been filed. A prosecutor said none are expected soon.

We have to be able to prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas told the World via email. One of the problems with this type of investigation is that usually nobody will admit to seeing anything and no one will talk.

When asked about the progress of the investigation, DOC spokesman Alex Gerszewski said the prisons private operator is communicating with the department and the state Inspector Generals Office while inquiries continue.

Violence is pervasive

The September fatalities at Cimarron prompted the World to file an open records request for all 2015 incident reports from the prison, which reveal multiple large-scale gang-related stabbings; weapons galore; and arrests, including two staff members, for bringing drugs and other contraband into the facility for inmates.

Although Cimarron is a private facility under the management of Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, officials there are still required to report altercations to DOC staff. Natalie Cooper, a contract monitor assigned to Cimarron, said the prison does not necessarily have such incidents on a daily basis.

DOC policies state a contract monitor serves as a liaison between the agency and vendors involved in the care and custody of offenders, which includes inspections for compliance with the terms of the private prison contract. Cooper, one of seven monitors among DOC staff, previously worked in the same position for Lawton Correctional Facility.

When asked whether Cimarron officers report more incidents than other private facilities, she said that the agency has compared report statistics between prisons but found that theres not really a significant difference in those numbers.

She declined to comment specifically on pending incident investigations, but she said the facility is required to meet periodic deadlines when sending reports to the DOC.

A review of the incident reports indicates most major incidents in 2015, including a June 10 brawl that hospitalized 11 people, were between black and Native American gangs. The reports provided to the World are current up to Nov. 23, 2015.

On Feb. 25 last year, 10 black inmates began attacking one another in the dayroom of one of the pods, which resulted in the units lockdown and five men being treated for stab wounds. Correctional officers recovered from the area a 10-inch metal rod, which had been sharpened to a point.

Two days later, an officer noticed an inmate, who was a member of the Neighborhood Crips, had injuries consistent with being stabbed and remarked that it was apparent retaliation for the Feb. 25 fight. An investigation revealed four members of the Bloods gang were able to pop open their door by putting a broken toothbrush and rolled-up paper under the locking mechanism.

Surveillance footage showed all four men leaving the area where the Crips member was later found. Two pieces of sharpened metal, believed to be from lighting fixtures, were taken from one of the mens cells.

On March 18, eight Hispanic prisoners  including three with first-degree murder convictions  were involved in a stabbing in their pod. Officers used pepper spray to separate the men, most of whom were members of the Surenos gang. They found three weapons nearby, and a search of all Hispanic inmates cells turned up two cellphones, two chargers and a phone battery.

But the largest altercation before Septembers homicides took place on June 10, when 33 Native American and black inmates began stabbing, punching and kicking one another. The fight, which spanned four pods, began at 4:36 p.m. that day and wasnt under control until 5:15 p.m., records show.

A report on the incident indicates officers used a riot control grenade to stop the fight. Sixty-three homemade knives were seized. Eleven people were hospitalized with related injuries.

As of Friday, no charges have been filed against any of the 33 inmates named in the report. Thomas, the district attorney, said the DOC gave a report to an assistant district attorney in January but has not yet presented any probable cause affidavits requesting that charges be filed.

Inmates with ties to the Indian Brotherhood and Hoover Crips also got into a gang-related fight with two other inmates Sept. 28. An investigation revealed the Crips member said, Dont put us out there with them, referring to the Indian Brotherhood. A report said the other inmate told him he lived in the Native Americans pod, and the Crips member said, Oh, thats where them Indians we stabbed up are at. The Indian Brotherhood prospect said he began the attack because he felt he would also be stabbed.

Prison gangs have long history

Barber, Fulwiders fiance, told the World she noticed changes in Fulwiders attitude when he arrived at Cimarron in August 2014 and saw the gang activity there.

He said it was way more stressful, Barber said of his time there. He was concerned because he felt like he was being targeted by the United Aryan Brotherhood, as well (as the Irish Mob). He was trying to make changes in his life ... he would always tell me he regretted (joining the gang).

When asked about gang activity within the prison system, DOC Director of Communications Terri Watkins said its absolutely nothing new and has been an issue in Oklahoma for at least a century. Aryan Brotherhood and Irish Mob members in Oklahoma have been the subject of large-scale federal prosecution efforts in recent years for drug trafficking and racketeering while incarcerated.

I dont know that we have seen increased activity with anything in particular as it relates to security threat groups, Watkins said, referring to the corrections system term  STGs  for gangs. Are they monitored? Yes. Do we know theyre there? Yes. Do we keep track of them? Yes. We have people who are very good at tracking that, whether inside or outside.

CCA spokesman Jonathan Burns called STGs a serious, nationwide problem for both public and private prisons, and said CCA has full-time staff at each facility and its corporate office dedicated to managing such issues.

Our STG professionals receive specialized training and work closely with their public counterparts in government corrections systems and law enforcement agencies to identify STG members, investigate and prevent STG-related incidents, and ensure that individuals are held accountable for their behavior, he said.

Watkins said officers dealings with gangs is similar to local police departments. She denied an allegation from Fulwiders fiance indicating inmates with rival gang affiliations have been purposely housed together, saying affiliation is one of many factors taken into account when determining assignments.

What happens on the inside happens on the outside (of prison), and what happens on the outside happens on the inside, she said of gang members reach. (Prisons) are small cities. There are 24-7 operations. Its a small town inside of there.

Barber told the World that the week before the deaths of Fulwider and three other inmates, her fiance unsuccessfully lobbied to be moved to another unit and told her he felt something bad would happen. She called the September incident indicative of safety issues within Cimarron and claimed the facility did not do enough to keep them (the inmates) safe.

Gerszewski maintained that the DOCs Inspector Generals Office constantly monitors security threat groups and those who are involved, and that the office will make recommendations on when to transfer inmates to different units or facilities once determining an inmate is a STG member or associate.

Because of the work being done on this end, the IGs office is successfully curbing incidents before they occur, he said.

He also said contracts with private prisons require facilities to have certain staffing levels and limit the number of inmates assigned to them.

He also said the contracts provide the DOC with much needed bed space for a system that is at more than 120 percent capacity. Cooper, the contract monitor, said Cimarron is fully staffed on the security side but has a few vacancies in support staff.

The Oklahoma DOC is approximately 30 percent understaffed for correctional officers and we cant turn inmates away who are ready to come into our custody, Gerszewski said. We have to find a bed for them. Facilities have been converting day rooms, gyms and other parts of the prison to house inmates.

Burns said people who use incidents such as those in June and September as an argument against the use of private prisons either dont know us or are misinformed about what CCA does. He said that when there are challenges in facilities, CCA will work closely with our government partner to address them quickly and proactively.

Were able to provide this solution in a way that is very flexible for our (governmental) partners and provides a cost savings for Oklahoma taxpayers, Burns said.
The Tulsa World editorially called for honoring the legacy of late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ("An original," Feb. 16).

How ironic that the passing of Scalia, a strict constructionist in his judicial opinions, is the genesis of nearly monolithic violation of constitutional responsibility by Republican presidential candidates. Nearly all of them, plus Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, are thumbing their noses at the principles for which Scalia endorsed for 30 years.

Scalia was confirmed to the court in 1986 by a Democratic Senate. His confirmation was followed by those of Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas, also by Democratic Senates. The concept of refusing to have hearings on these nominees by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush was never raised by any Democratic senator.

Thirteen times in U.S. history a Supreme Court nominee was named and approved by the U.S. Senate during a presidential election year. The Constitution to which Ted Cruz and other Republicans so frequently affirm their allegiance gives them no cover for their current intransigence. The clause dealing with appointments of justices by the president is clear. A president is empowered to nominate at any time during his presidency.

What would have been the Republican response to Scalia's passing had it been a year ago? Would they have made the same obstructionist arguments? If so, it would have been that much more of a travesty of Scalia's devotion to the original intent of the Constitution's authors.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com.
Article 1 :

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2 :
US District Judge Lucy Koh on Monday has granted an Apple appeal seeking permanent injunction against selling 23 older model handsets and tablets in the US market. But the older models have already been largely wiped out from the market.

Those devices under ban in the US include the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, and Stratosphere. The most recent device on the list, the Galaxy S3, introduced in 2012, has been replaced by a series of Samsung flagship smart phone. Most of the devices on the banning list are no longer offered for selling in the US by Samsung.

The ruling puts an end to Apple efforts, beginning in 2011, seeking court move to strike down the import and sale of some devices in the US. Those specified models have been infringed to Apple's own patents in terms of design and operations of the handsets, reports Tech 2.

However, a trade group comprising of Google, Microsoft and other tech giants, have appealed to Supreme Court to reconsider a closely watched Apple patent decision. Appearing as a 'friend of the court' in support of Samsung, under the banner of Communications Industry Association, they have filed the appeal on Friday.

The association has earlier appealed to the Supreme Court to review a court decision that compels Samsung to count fines for $339 million to Apple over the infringement issue. Despite paying $548 million to Apple over pinch to zoom and design patents, Samsung is still reported to fight on various legal fronts including the Supreme Court, reports Fortune.

Apple's injunction verdict takes back to its winning a $119 billion jury verdict against Samsung in May, 2014. The jury has found Samsung guilty of infringing on several Apple patents -- one for quick links, one for slide-to-unlock and another for automatic word correction.

At that time, Apple has appealed to the court to impose this injunction alongside financial penalty. But Judge Koh has ruled out in August, 2014 that monetary damages are sufficient in the harm done to Apple. However, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has disagreed observing that Samsung should have been banned from using certain patented Apple features in its devices.

Judge Koh has finally pronounced the injunction order on Friday in light of the appeal verdict. The court has observed in its verdict that Apple will suffer irreparable harm if Samsung continues to use the infringed features, reports CNET quoting Judge Koh's filing.

Both Apple and Samsung haven't immediately responded to requests for comments. However the ruling may have wide-ranging effects on the patent landscape. This is due to the fact that the matter directly relates to devices like smart phone which have a complex variety of patents and features. Industry insiders suggest for resolving such matters in the negotiation table instead of imposing trade ban with the help of the court.

Samsung now faces court injunction on older Samsung handsets following Apple's appeal in this regard. Though the models are out of market since long, but the verdict has a potential impact on smart phone industry. Since smart phones frequently absorb rival competitors' features on payment, so industry insiders prefer table negotiations instead of court interventions.
Apple Inc, one of the biggest technology giants, is planning to increase investment in India. The company recently indicated that it is eyeing the second largest market in the world for long-term investment opportunities. This comes in the heels of the decining sales in the US and a slowdown in China.

According to Fast FT, a spokeperson of Apple Inc said the American tech giant has been investing in India lately to expand their operations and they were thrilled to have passionate customers and a vibrant developer community across the country. It was proved by the increasing investment into India last year.

Apple has launched its products earlier before it announced to ramp up investment in India. It also did a major ad campaign for the iPhone 6S in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Based on the information from Market Exclusive, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook suggested that Apple is considering India to be its next target of investment opportunities. In fact, it reportedly plans to open retail stores in the country. With iPhone 7's September release coming up, Apple believes it is strategically important and helpful in having stores globally in order to increase sales of its products.

According to the site, India used to serve as a help to sell unwanted and unsold products from the USA. However, these practices have changed and now, new products arrive to the Indian market only a few weeks after the USA.

Another reason is Apple Inc. has got the government permission. The compant sought the government's permission last month following the relaxation in FDI on the single brand in November last year.

Meanwhile, Apple sales in China has recently decreased. According to CEBC ,the sales of the company fell 3% from the fiscal third quarter to $5.78 billion in Greater China. This condition is barely predicted because China is the company's third largest market after the U.S. and Europe.

In the second quarter, the tech giant ranked No. 6 in China's smartphone market with a share of 6.5%. The slowdown in sales is apparently caused by the increasing competition from South Korean rival Samsung Electronics and Chinese manufacturers including Xiaomi and Huawei Technologies, whose products are way cheaper.

If Apple plays its cards right, investing in India might turn out surprisingly different than what it has experienced in China.
On-demand taxi app Gett has launched an added feature to its smartphone app - Gett Courier - in the UK. This delivery service will pick up a package and make the delivery within a designated zone in an hour's time.

The black-cab hailing service is hoping their huge corporate customer base will be the driving force behind the success as well as revenue generation of the new feature. As per Business Insider, Remo Gerber, MD for Western Europe at Gett and CEO of Gett UK, made his expectations very evident in his statement, "We're serving half of the Fortune 500, including law firms, consulting firms, and banks. If we start adding courier then it's significant."

The biggest advantage for the former COO of Groupon is that Gett can capitalize on the fact that its already-huge customer base will not have to download the app separately to use Gett Courier. The users who already have the Gett app on their smartphones with linked credit cards can use the same for the newly launched service.

The on-demand courier service promises to pick up the package within 20 mins of Smartphone taps and deliver the same within one hour. According to Daily News, the courier guy will charge a flat fee of 6 for delivering a 5kg parcel to anywhere within London's Zone 1. However, this fee will be slightly higher should the delivery address fall beyond the said zone.

This new addition is Gett's attempt to differentiate itself from competition like Addison Lee and Uber. However, Addison Lee has already introduced the same concept, and has 200 motorcycles, 200 vans, and 30 pushbikes running on the streets of London. But Gett claims it is the only "on-demand" black cab hailing service and has even gone ahead and used their "Knowledge" as a game changer. As Tech Crunch represents, Knowledge is a study of streets that black cab trainees undergo before they become full-fledged cab drivers. Gett claims that with such an intense study of London's tangle of streets, their brood of delivery boys and girls not only make excellent human route maps, they tend to reach their delivery destinations at one go.

While Garber did not reveal exactly how many Gett Courier vehicles were out on the streets, there are approximately 6000 Knowledge students vying for the position of delivery boy/girl. Gerber confirmed that the launch has gone well, with Gett users using the new service to deliver food, passport, laptops and other items across London. The company is reviewing some more options that it may introduce later as added services to accelerate growth amidst such stiff competition.
Space propulsion firm Accion Systems will start receiving orders for micro-propulsion systems. The space propulsion startup has commenced selling miniature electrospray ion engines

Accion Systems has designed micro-propulsion systems for CubeSats and other small satellites. Its electrospray ion engines generate thrust by accelerating charged particles at a very high speed.

Tech Crunch describes Accion's engine as a size of a small coin. It used 480 microscopic nozzles that make use of capillary action directing propellant out of the engine. Capillary action-enabled liquid flows into narrow spaces. It doesn't need any support of external force like gravity. Another example of capillary motion is a straw in a glass of water. When a straw is placed inside of glass, then water gets into straw and fills it upto the level of water in the glass.



Established in 2013, Accion Systems has closed the $2 million seed round. It has also received a $3 million contract from Department of Defense. Accion Systems has sold three units to the government and research partners. Accion Systems is making its ion engines available for commercial partners for the first time.

On the other hand, a Colorado company engaged in space transportation has decided to shut down. Escape Dynamics of Broomfield, Colorado, in 2015 recorded a technology achievement in space transportation. The company attributes the reason for winding up operations to high costs and risks association with future development, as reported by Space News.



MIT has developed ion engine and several years of development and testing gone into it. Dr Natalya Brikner, co-founder and CEO of Accion Systems, said the company performed first technology demonstration in space. On-orbit flight test has been adhered to the quality performance on the lines of test in the lab.

Brikner said: "Everyone needs propulsion. Even folks launching without propulsion today could save hundreds of millions of dollars if they could stay in orbit longer, phase their constellations more quickly or take advantage of cheaper and more frequent launches and then use propulsion to get to their desired altitude."

The space travel is also gaining momentum of late. The year 2015 witnessed much popularization of space travel. NASA's jet propulsion laboratory has released different themes for space travel for 2016, according to The Verge.



The micro thruster technology offers capability to small satellites owners. This support was not available until recent time. Propulsion enables satellites to correct their position within the orbit around the earth.

The small perturbing forces in space can slow down a satellite or change its position within its orbit. The possibility of this occurrence is much more for small satellites. The traces of the Earth's atmosphere are strong enough to deorbit small satellites and burn them up in the atmosphere within short span of time.

Proper propulsion supports these satellites and extends their lifetime from months to years in orbit. More time in orbit means satellite owners can get more mileage from it.
This is a snus I've been looking forward to for quite some time now, and the day is finally upon us. Conny Andersson's latest creation has been unleashed! Last year, I reviewed Mellgren's IPA Edition (Single Cut) , but Conny wasn't happy with that and commissioned a second batch. This batch comes in Single Cut and also in White Portion! Those of you who know me know that IPA is my favorite style of beer, so this snus is something that I have been more excited about than usual. Conny produced this snus at AG Snus and labeled it for Mellgren's Fine Tobacco in Sweden. This snus was inspired by an IPA that Conny is particularly fond of, Ballast Point Sculpin . However, for these reviews, I've been enjoying this snus with some IPAs that I enjoy - Goose IPA out of Chicago and Schlafly's Grapefruit IPA out of St. Louis.For those of you who have been wanting to try this, it's available online to the US via SnusCENTRAL.com and the EU via TopSnus.com . Mellgren's IPA snus is made of tobaccos from four different sources. Mata Norte from Brazil which contributes sweetness and chocolate tones. Theres also tobacco from Nueva Concepcion in Guatemala which contributes elements of chocolate, nut and fruitiness. Theres Amish tobacco from Lancaster which contributes leather and earthy tones. And lastly, theres tobacco from South Africa which is the backbone of the tobacco blend. It contributes more tobacco taste and a higher nicotine content.When you open the can, you'll notice the white portions are slightly larger than your average white portion. The portion material is very soft and comfortable in the lip. When I look for an IPA, there are three things I look for: a citrus flavor, preferably bitter or tropical, a taste of pine, and a strong taste of hops. I am pleased to say I noticed all those things in this snus.The aroma that comes through upon opening the can is a smell of hops, a slight herbal smell, a touch of citrus, and a slightly sweet floral presence. The taste is the stuff dreams are made of. Right off the bat you'll notice the taste of hops. That flavor is in the front and stays with you the whole time you have the snus in. I also notice a taste of citrus that is a mix of slightly bitter and slightly tropical. There's also a nice taste of pepper in the background, a little herbal character, and a light but slightly sweet floral presence. In addition to all that is a gentle presence of pine. I can't stress this enough, this snus is the perfect snus to pair with an IPA. Conny absolutely nailed this flavor. However, I would still use this snus even if I wasn't pairing it with a beer because I appreciate the flavors that an IPA offers.If you're a beer drinker, you absolutely have to try this snus out. It is delicious. However, even if you're not a beer drinker, I would still suggest giving it a go. The flavor is complex and something that even non-beer drinkers would enjoy. I give it two thumbs up and a raised glass!
Phoenix Real Estate has witnessed a huge bust followed by strong investor buying. According to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) reports, inventory of the real estate business has been slashed by 5.5% year-over-year, though managed 8.7% increase in year-over-year overall sales in 2015. Meanwhile, cash sales to frequent investors have been reduced to 27.4% over total sales.

More inventories and less investor buying have caused reduction in prices during 2014. But in 2015, prices have been increased by 5.3% through November with fall in inventory. This increase may be compared with 2.4%, which has been recorded during 2014. The increase has been accounted as double compared to that in 2014, reports Calculated Risk citing the Case-Shiller as the source.

The Phoenix market has been hit hard with the crash of housing industry. With recent increase in demand due to insufficient inventory, the real estate company expects an influx of multifamily developments in the area.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO have been invited by The House Energy and Commerce Committee (HECC) to appear before a subcommittee. The invitation has been made to testify his company's approach on refusing to help the law enforcers with unlocking iPhone encryption technology. The committee has also summoned James Comey, the FBI Director.

Apple has defied a court order this week to help FBI unlocking an iPhone used by San Bernardino terrorists killing 14 people last year. Both the invited will be asked to explain to Congress and American people the ongoing event and to way out for moving forward. The hearing will focus on issues related to privacy and national security, reports CNN Money citing the committee's letter as the source.

Both the requests are not legally binding and are made by committee chairman Fred Upton, subcommittee chairman Tim Murphy and other ranking members. However, Apple's refusal to comply with the court order has been defended by Tim Cook saying his company plans to challenge the judge's ruling, reports Re/Code.

The Justice Department has filed a motion in federal court backing up the FBI on Friday. The motion aims to seek court order to compel Apple unlocking the iPhone and the court responded accordingly. The department accuses Apple for defying court order 'out of concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy'. Cook has vowed to fight a court order from a Los Angeles judge to provide reasonable technical assistance to investigators, through an open letter addressed to customers. The investigators need access to the iPhone of Rizwan Farook, a shooter in the San Bernardino attack. Complying with the court order may pose a dangerous precedence undermining the security of iPhones, according to a report published in Reuters.

Twitter CEO has extended his support for Cook on Thursday while joining Amnesty International in applauding his stance. Meanwhile critics of Cook including Conservative pundit Ann Coulter refers Apple move as propaganda stance only. Customers have visited the Apple store in downtown San Francisco on Thursday and seemed unfazed by the controversy.

The committee has asked Cook and Comey to reply by February 24 while mentioning no set date for hearing. Apple spokesperson hasn't been available for comment on Cook's plan on Committee's invitation.

A Los Angeles court has ordered Apple to extend reasonable technical support for unlocking an iPhone allegedly used by a shooter of San Bernardino mass killing. Citing reasons for maintaining iPhone privacy, Apple CEO Tim Cook has vowed to challenge the court order. Meanwhile, HECC has invited Cook to discuss for finding a way to get Apple assistance in investigation on San Bernardino mass killing.
LEFT: Visitors enjoy the business lounge area at the Office Evolution location in Westlake Village.

SHARE ABOVE: Tom Warekois (right), the franchise owner of Office Evolution Westlake Village, talks with founder and CEO Mark Hemmeter (center) and Sharon Consoli while looking at one of the 24 fully furnished office spaces. In addition, the location has a boardroom, two conference rooms, a kitchen and a business lounge. JOSEPH A. GARCIA/THE STAR Tom Warekois (right), the franchise owner of Office Evolution Westlake Village, talks with Pete Alexander (center) and Fleming Jones (left) while taking them on a tour of the 24 fully furnished office spaces. PHOTOS BY JOSEPH A. GARCIA/THE STAR Carl Schroeder, of Thousand Oaks, looks into a boardroom that is for rent at the newest Office Evolution location in Westlake Village.

By Michele Willer-Allred

A new Westlake Village business called Office Evolution is offering an opportunity for business owners and other independent workers to discover co-working, a work style growing in popularity.

Unlike a typical office environment, co-working involves people who don't work for the same organization but work under the same roof and often build a sense of community through networking with each other.

Office Evolution is based in Denver, and the Westlake Village franchise across from the Shoppes at Westlake on Russell Ranch Road is owned by Tom Warekois, a Thousand Oaks resident with more than 30 years of corporate and small-business experience.

It is the first Office Evolution in Southern California, and members have access to all other locations across the U.S.

Office Evolution Westlake Village features 24 new, private and fully furnished executive offices ranging from 110 to 225 square feet, which will be occupied by each business.

The location also includes three conference rooms, a business lounge, a kitchen and a staffed front-office area where visitors and customers of each business are greeted during business hours by a receptionist.

According to the Freelancers Union, one in three Americans (about 42 million) is an independent worker.

By 2020, more than 40 percent of the American workforce, or 60 million people, will be freelancers, contractors and temporary workers, according to a study conducted by the software company Intuit.

In the next seven years, the number of small and personal businesses in the United States will increase by more than 7 million. There are 4,500 home-based businesses within 5 miles of Westlake Village, according to a study conducted by GeoStrategies, a market research company.

"A lot of those people are now feeling that their business is starting to move and they need something the next step up and the local coffeehouse is no longer working as a place to meet clients," Warekois said.

Chanda Losey, office manager for Office Evolution Westlake Village, said, "As your business grows, so should your office."

A standard feature at Office Evolution is its telephone management system, which can act as a personalized receptionist for each business.

The service receives calls, screens, announces and transfers based on specific instructions from the business owner.

There is also unlimited Wi-Fi and Ethernet Internet access, and domestic phone calls are unlimited.

The lowest-cost executive office suite at Office Evolution is $675 a month, which includes phone and mail service, along with 24/7 access to the office and other amenities.

Those who don't want a complete office can opt to purchase an office space for a day, get a mail plan that allows them to use the business address for business stationery and mail delivery, or rent a fully equipped conference or meeting room for as little as 15 minutes or for all week.

Jessie Danial, owner of Turf Installer LLC, is one of Office Evolution's first tenants.

He recently moved his business from Colorado to Southern California, and said he appreciated not having to search for an office space with high overhead that would take time to set up.

"When you come into here, it's like plug and play. You're ready to go. As soon as I came in, within an hour, I was up and running," said Danial, who uses the office to make sales presentations, train, and conduct interviews.

Danial said he's also looking forward to networking with other business owners at Office Evolution.

Office Evolution tenants at other locations have included attorneys, wealth managers, certified public accountants, insurance agents, medical-based professionals, Web-focused business entities and photographers.

Office Evolution Westlake Village held its grand opening in January and already has several members.

Warekois eventually hopes to have about 75 people conducting business in Office Evolution's virtual or on-site executive offices.

Warekois said an on-site business lounge area is conducive to building connections among its members.

"We designed the setting to be small, business-friendly and to create a culture where members within Office Evolution can interact and grow networks," he said.

"It will really be a sense of community."
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Headquarters for the Ventura Unified School District.

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By Claudia Boyd-Barrett

Teachers and other employees of the Ventura Unified School District are getting a 7 percent raise starting this month.

The Board of Education approved the salary increase in a 5-0 vote at its meeting Feb. 9. The raise is effective Feb. 1 and affects 1,466 employees, including teachers, nurses, counselors and classified staff.

Employees will also receive a one-time 2.75 percent bonus, and an increase of $1,260 each in district contributions to their medical, dental and vision benefits. The benefit increase covers the cost of hikes in employee health plan costs, which have long been fully covered by the district, said Chip Fraser, president of the Ventura Unified Educators Association.

Longtime board president John Walker said teachers have received minimal raises over the past few years, and officials felt the district could now afford more significant pay increases thanks to a boost in state funding.

"Over the last eight or nine years their raises have been almost nothing," Walker said. "So this time we felt that we were able to afford a little bit better raise  The state has a better economic climate right now and the state has provided us additional funds, and so we just feel that really the primary asset we have is our employees."

The increases will cost the district almost $10 million, according to Superintendent Michael Babb. Money for the raises will come from the district's general fund and from one-time state funding, he said in an email.

"The agreement allows us to increase compensation of teaching and support staff, our greatest resource in terms of effects on student learning and well-being," he wrote. "Committed to the staff, the district board offered what it was able while maintaining fiscal solvency this year and in the years ahead."

Employees received a 3 percent raise last year and a 2 percent raise in the 2013-14 school year, union president Fraser said. Before that, they went without a raise for at least five years and also had to take 13 furlough days. The employees no longer have furlough days, but they never recouped the compensation they lost during that time, which amounted to about $3,900 in salary losses over the five years, Fraser said.

The union president said teachers are under increasing job pressure because of paperwork and other demands and a lack of adequate support staff.

"Teachers for the longest time have been given more and more stuff to do and working with less and less help," he said. "We all feel pretty good we were able to negotiate this raise, we hope it's the beginning of things to come."

Board member Walker said the district has also used the extra state funds to invest in new technology, general maintenance and to try to reduce class sizes. Required pension costs have also eaten up some of the funds, he said.
Star File Photo Port Hueneme City Hall

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By Anne Kallas

Port Hueneme residents pay the highest water rates in Ventura County, according to figures Interim City Manager John Baker presented to the City Council at its meeting last week.

Baker's report came after Councilman Tom Figg and other council members expressed concern about the rates residents are paying.

"I think we can do a better job. We have the highest rates and the lowest incomes," Figg said.

However, Baker noted in his report that the amount of money charged by the city for water may be misleading.

"It could be that there are no capital programs to address either maintenance costs or future needs of the system," Baker wrote, adding that those considerations have been included in the Port Hueneme rates.

According to Baker's figures, monthly water rates total $94.62, based on a consumption rate of 1,500 cubic feet of water a month. In fact, he noted, the average use is closer to 500 cubic feet a month.

The next highest water rates are charged by Golden State Water Co. in Ojai, which has an average of $93.24 for 1,500 cubic feet of water.

Port Hueneme water rates skyrocketed in 2009 when the city stopped its practice of flat-rate billing, installing water meters throughout the city.

According to Port Hueneme Mayor Doug Breeze, the city is conducting a comprehensive study of its water rates.

Council members Breeze, Sylvia Munoz Schnopp and Jon Sharkey sit on the board of the Port Hueneme Water Agency, which also oversees water supplies to Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme and Channel Islands Beach Community Services District.

Figg and Councilman Jim Hensley were removed from the water agency board in early November after a series of confrontations between them and the three more senior members.

Figg, who has voiced his opposition to all city-sponsored recreation services in lieu of balancing the city's budget and providing relief for water charges, said he had a series of follow-up questions he planned to forward to Baker regarding specifics of the water plan.

Baker said he plans to follow last Tuesday's presentation with a report on water quality and other issues, including fire flow capabilities, which he indicated may be perilously low.

In other business, the council also heard a report from Interim Police Chief Robert Albertson. He noted that the city's police force stands at 22 sworn officers and 10 support staff members.

With a population of 22,247, Port Hueneme had 75 violent crimes in 2015, down from 89 violent crimes in 2014. Property crimes, which generally consist of thefts and burglaries, were up from 347 in 2014 to 453 in 2015, a 30 percent increase.

Albertson cautioned that in a small city like Port Hueneme, such numbers can be deceiving because it takes only small increases in crimes to make it appear as though there is a large trend.

"It can be only a few people who are responsible," he said, adding that decisions about staffing and police effectiveness need to be studied more in-depth than his year-end presentation.

In a 4-0 vote, the council approved the recruiting firm of Avery Associates to conduct a search for a permanent city manager to replace Cynthia Haas, who retired in December after two years. Schnopp was absent.
SHARE Star file photo Chief Rick Araiza (right) of the Santa Paula Fire Department is hoping to put together a volunteer code enforcement team to help catch violators.

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett

Lacking enough staff to tackle code enforcement violations such as illegal garage sales, trash-strewn yards and improperly parked cars, the cash-strapped city of Santa Paula is turning to volunteers.

Fire Chief Rick Araiza  who due to budget cuts also oversees the city's Building and Safety Department  is working with a local citizen's group to put together a volunteer code enforcement program.

The initiative, which the chief said emulates programs in some other California cities, would train citizen volunteers to identify code enforcement violations such as cars parked on lawns, unpermitted signage, people operating businesses under the guise of a "garage sale," and yards with overgrown vegetation or trash.

Volunteers would take photographs of the violations and report them to the Building and Safety Department, which would then be responsible for issuing warning letters and fines, Araiza said.

He said volunteers would only take photographs from public spaces and would not enter onto private property or engage with violators.

"We're not out there to be the Gestapo and it will only be eyesores in the neighborhood that they're going after," he said. "They're not going to be climbing over your neighbor's porch and looking over your fence. It's not going to be anything like that. It's all from the public access."

Before the economic downturn, Santa Paula had four code enforcement officers, Araiza said. Now the city has only one and that staff member is also responsible for permit inspections, he said.

"We're so understaffed as far as code compliance. We basically work on a complaint basis, so we're not actively out there looking for (violations) because we just don't have the time," the chief said. "If we can get volunteers that can get out there and take pictures for us, bring it back and say this is what I saw  we'll be able to start enforcing more code compliance without added manpower."

The idea of tapping volunteers to help with code enforcement came from Citizens for a Safer Santa Paula, a group of residents behind a failed 2014 sales tax measure to support public safety. The group has been pressing city officials to do more to fight crime, and has offered to help with those efforts.

Ronda McKaig, who leads the group, said the city's inability to crack down on blatant code violations is contributing to insecurity in the city and gives citizens the impression that authorities don't care if people break the rules.

"If people felt like we had pride in the city and the rules were enforced and the same rules were applied to everyone, we feel like that's something that's likely to create a safer environment as opposed to when things get rundown and ramshackle and then people think that's a great place to hang out and you have drug deals going down on corners," she said. "If we take care of our city, it's likely to instill a pride of ownership where people are more involved and its likelier to be a safer place."

Araiza said he is still working out the details of the program and does not yet have a way for volunteers to sign up. However, he said he hopes to get a citizen team trained and on the streets by the end of March.
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"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

 Newton's Third Law of Motion

Notice the Newtonian physics of America's Madisonian system. Barack Obama's Woodrow Wilsonian hostility to the separation of powers, expressed in his executive authoritarianism, is provoking equal and opposite reactions from the judicial and legislative branches.

The Supreme Court has inflicted on Obama a defeat accurately described as the court's most severe rebuke of a president since it rejected Harry Truman's claim that inherent presidential powers legitimated his seizure of the steel industry during the Korean War. The court has blocked Obama's Clean Power Plan, which rests on the rickety premise that the Clean Air Act somehow, in a way unsuspected for four decades, empowers the Environmental Protection Agency to annihilate the right of states to regulate power generation.

It is unprecedented for the Supreme Court to stop a regulatory regime before a lower court has ruled on its merits. This is condign punishment for the EPA's arrogance last year after the court held that it had no authority for a rule regulating fossil-fueled power plants in Michigan. The EPA snidely responded with a gloating statement that the court's decision came too late to prevent it from imposing almost $10 billion in costs under the illegal rule.

The legislative branch, too, is retaliating against executive overreach. Consider the lethal letter Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, sent to the Education Department concerning its Office of Civil Rights.

OCR has sent its own letters to, among other targets, colleges and universities, concerning, among other topics, sexual harassment and violence. These letters, Lankford notes in his, although purporting to offer mere "guidance," clearly are intended to intimidate schools with the implied threat of "inquiry, investigation, adverse finding, or rescission of federal funding." Furthermore, Lankford says, they fail to identify "precise governing statutory or regulatory language" that empowers OCR to micromanage institutions' disciplinary practices.

OCR is insisting on practices discordant with constitutional values. These practices include denying persons accused of sexual assault the right to confront accusers, and subjecting the accused to convictions based on a mere "preponderance of evidence" rather than "clear and convincing" evidence.

In an October 2014 letter to The Boston Globe, 28 Harvard Law School faculty members voiced "strong objections" to OCR's diktats: "As teachers responsible for educating our students about due process of law, the substantive law governing discrimination and violence, appropriate administrative decision-making, and the rule of law generally, we find the new sexual harassment policy inconsistent with many of the most basic principles we teach."

Accusing Harvard of "jettisoning balance and fairness in the rush to appease certain federal administration officials," the professors said: "Harvard has adopted procedures for deciding cases of alleged sexual misconduct which lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation." They cited "the absence of any adequate opportunity to discover the facts charged and to confront witnesses and present a defense at an adversary hearing." And: "The failure to ensure adequate representation for the accused." And: "The lodging of the functions of investigation, prosecution, fact-finding, and appellate review in one office, and the fact that the office is itself a Title IX compliance office rather than an entity that could be considered structurally impartial."

Sixteen University of Pennsylvania law professors have expressed similar concerns. As have two members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Last Wednesday, OCR, oblivious or indifferent to such learned reproaches, replied to Lankford, saying: Its "guidance" letters do not have the force of law  a distinction without a difference because the letters construe statutes and regulations that have such force. And: The "preponderance of evidence" evidentiary standard is proper because many schools already are using it.

Furthermore, OCR says it must initiate proceedings against an institution "in front of a neutral independent department hearing officer." So, the department monitors itself neutrally and independently. Lankford will soon use congressional hearings to acquaint OCR with how unpersuaded he is.

OCR and the EPA, representative tentacles of this lawless administration, are inadvertently serving constitutional values by arousing the resistance of rival branches. Madison's Newtonian system can still stymie Wilson.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.
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Re: your Feb. 18 editorial, Judge should have disclosed contributions:

I am a former president of the Ventura Bar Association who has known and appeared before Judge Henry J. Walsh for many years.

Judge Walsh is one of our very finest judges and a man of unquestioned integrity. Any inference that contributions to his re-election would influence his decision-making would be misplaced. To the contrary, the broad-based support he received from the local bar is a testament to his impeccable reputation for fairness.

David Shain,

Thousand Oaks


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The U.S. economy over the last 50 or so years has morphed into an entity tremendously dependent on ever-increasing indebtedness. Federal, state and local governments generally have survived by taking on more and more debt, as have many businesses and citizens.

However, the indebtedness is now pretty much maxed out. Neither governments, businesses nor citizens can handle much more, if any, new debt.

Without the capacity to increase its overall debt load, as is now nearly the case, the U.S. economy cannot grow. The resulting recession generally will reduce government, business and citizen ability to satisfy existing debt obligations.

Phase downs, cutbacks, bankruptcies, foreclosures and repossessions will increase, the economy will peter out, and wealthy creditors eventually will wind up owning most everything, free and clear.

The Fed is mostly responsible for what is about to happen. Rather than funding productivity to help all Americans, it mostly has funded debt to make great interest profits for wealthy shareholders. The banks, also in pursuit of great interest profits for shareholders, certainly have helped wreck the U.S. economy, especially by charging exorbitant interest on credit card debt.

Had the Fed served the American people rather than shareholders and strategically placed newly created money in the U.S. economy to increase productivity and job opportunity, then things would be OK. Had the federal government regulated U.S. banks properly, then things would be great.

The wealthy, for the sake of their own unworthy gain, have had their way, and most of the rest of us could, therefore, soon be all but economically dead.

Bruce Berckman,

Oak View
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OK Veterans Administration, it's time to get your act together. I've been on a pain medication for over five years as the result of my serving in Iraq in 2003. The past six months I have had to fight to get my medication on time and twice it was late.

I have talked with everyone at the Oxnard VA from operators to the manager of the Oxnard office as well as people from the VA in Los Angeles. I have even contacted Congresswoman Julia Brownley's office. Congresswoman Brownley's office has been involved for over three months and very supportive, yet I am about to do without my medication once again.

I have been supportive of the VA since I entered its system in 2004, when I arrived back home from Iraq, but this is a total failure. I can't be the only veteran on a pain medication, so if I am having this much trouble so, are all the other veterans.

This has to stop! Unless someone in the system is doing this to me on purpose, then the system is in meltdown. I served proudly for more than 21 years and served two activations after 9/11, including going to war in Iraq at age 53. I did my part, now it's time for the VA to do theirs.

One more fact to this is that I suffer from PTSD as a result of the Iraq War. It does not help me medically to fight every month as well as worry if the VA will get one medication to me on time. The VA owes all the veterans proper and prompt medical care and that includes me.

Joseph Berlin,

Ventura
Tony Stewart Racings drivers  Tracy Hines, Kraig Kinser, Levi Jones and Donny Schatz  will appear at the J.D. Byrider in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 5-7 p.m. J.D. Byrider is located at 3024 Fremont St. in Las Vegas.

All four TSR drivers will compete in the Las Vegas Super Sprint Classic at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The two-night program includes a complete USCA Sprint Car and Midget event on Wednesday, Feb. 25, and the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Bullring Bombers program on Thursday, Feb. 26.

The drivers will sign autographs and take photos with fans and J.D. Byrider customers during the visit. Local rock radio station KOMP-FM 92.3 will broadcast live from J.D. Byrider from 5-7 p.m. Fans will have the opportunity to win tickets to the Las Vegas Super Sprint Classic, the Sams Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race and the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Schatz, Kinser and Jones have tasted victory at LVMS half-mile dirt oval. Three-time WoO champion Schatz has five career wins at the track, including the series last visit to the facility in 2006. Jones won in Las Vegas 2008 and Kinser visited victory lane in 2005. Hines has three top-five finishes in five career starts in Las Vegas.

Tickets for the Las Vegas Sprint Classic, zMAX Pole Day, Sams Town 300 and Shelby 427 may be purchased by calling the LVMS ticket office at (702) 644-4444 or online at www.LVMS.com


The Mardi Gras celebration will culminate on Tuesday, Feb. 21, and Sugar Factory at Paris Las Vegas wants to join in on the fun by offering a sugary spin on the classic festival tradition of a King Cake. On Fat Tuesday, Sugar Factory will sell individual King Cupcakes, priced at $6, for one day only, in honor of the outrageously jovial holiday.

In keeping with the festive Mardi Gras King Cake custom, Sugar Factory will hide a small surprise in just one of the cupcakes offered that day. The guest who purchases the prized cupcake will receive a $100 Sugar Factory gift certificate. The winning guest must bring the hidden prize to a Sugar Factory Paris manager to redeem the certificate.

Sugar Factorys deliriously decadent cupcakes are house-made and baked fresh by Pastry Chef, Ana Funes. Chef Funes has been in the baking and sweets business since 2005, working in such fine establishments as Wolfgang Pucks Spago and the luxurious SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills after graduating from The Art Institute of Los Angeles.

As the Pastry Chef for Sugar Factory and Sugar Factory American Brasserie, Funes has the opportunity to roll up her sleeves and truly express her creativity. Some of her responsibilities include coming up with new and inventive confections, creating vibrant and impressive cakes for the eaterys frequent celebrity guests and overseeing every scrumptious cupcake, cookie, tart and pastry sold in the restaurant.
Photo : nasa.gov

The US space agency had already pushed back the launch by a day to Tuesday.

If technicians are able to finish their repairs as planned, Discovery and its six American astronauts will now launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 pm (1952 GMT) Wednesday, NASA test director Jeff Spaulding said.

The flight to the orbiting International Space Station is the fourth and final shuttle flight of the year, and the last scheduled for Discovery, the oldest in the three-shuttle fleet that is being retired in 2011.
Similarly to the previous days, the workers gathered in front of and around the factory, holding strong despite an earlier letter from the management threatening to fire everyone failing to resume work by Friday February 19. Since then the company has not yet issued any new notices.

The income of a worker at Nissey consists of a base wage of about VND4 million ($180) a month and allowances, such as housing and health hazard allowances, that total a little above VND1 million ($45) per personminus health insurance, social insurance, and unemployment insurance.

At the beginning of 2016 the government raised the minimum wage in each region. Nissey raised its base wage by VND200,000 ($9) then deducted the same amount from the allowance. Due to the changes in how the insurances are calculated since the beginning of 2016, workers ultimately saw a decrease in their incomes.

The general dissatisfaction at having their real wages reduced prompted workers to start the strike on February 15, the first work day after the Tet holiday.

The management of Nissey then agreed to an allowance of VND20,000 (90 US cent) for each year in employment to workers who have been working at the factory for more than one year. However, this type of allowance cannot exceed VND200,000 ($9) per month per worker. On February 18, the management announced that they would raise the total allowance by VND100,000 ($4.5) starting April 2016.

Effectively, workers with five or more years at the company earn as much as before the cut, while newer workers continue to lose out.

On the same day, the management issued a letter saying, If any worker refuses to resume work by February 19, the company will understand it as a will to terminate his/her contract of employment.

Deputy president of the Vietnam Lawyers Associations Ho Chi Minh City chapter Nguyen Van Hau said that Nissey violated the Labour Code and Governmental Decree 122 on the regional minimum wage when they unilaterally cut the allowances they undertook to provide in the employment contracts signed before the cut. This violation would result in an administrative fine of VND40-150 million ($180-670).

The charge daffaires of the industrial park have yet to offer a public answer.

Nissey workers also reported that the company refused to improve the quality of the food in the cafeteria, despite numerous complaints. Other complaints arose over timed bathroom breaks and sexual harassment of female workers by security guards.

The 100 per cent Japanese owned Nissey Vietnam operates in Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City. The company, which employs 3,000 workers, produces titanium eyewear, and parts for wrist watches, camcorders, fishing tools, as well as other precision mechanics products. In September 2010, dozens of Nissey workers were hospitalised due to food poisoning after eating lunch at the factory cafeteria.

Section 5 of Decree 122/2015/ND-CP on the regional minimum wage in 2016, dated November 15 last year stipulates that when companies comply to the new minimum wage requirements, they are not allowed to decrease allowances for overtime, working at night, and in hazardous working environments, etc., while other allowances and bonuses are paid according to the contract between employers and employees.
An inflatable green screen more than seven meters high and optical device to simulate shaking are just two of the innovations that make the work of moviemakers easier and render movie effects more convincing. The developers of both innovations were among the honorees at this year's Sci-Tech Awards, presented Feb. 13 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Academy is better known for its Oscars, which will be presented in Hollywood February 28.

Michael Kirilenko of Vancouver, Canada, is one of four key grips, or supervisory rigging technicians, who came to Beverly Hills to receive a technical achievement award for the inflatable green screen, which is widely used in the industry. It is easy to move and lets directors blend live action and animation.

Its first film was Godzilla, said Kirilenko. And from there, it did Tomorrowland. Right now, it's doing Planet of the Apes. It did X-Men. Avengers.

For visual effects artist Brian McLean, a science project at age 11 led to career in stop-motion animation, which uses tiny figurines shot with incremental changes to trick the eye into seeing motion.

It's basically the fact that your eye continues to see an object for a split second after that object disappears, McLean explained.

McLean was honored with colleague Martin Meunier for a 3-D printing process that creates tens of thousands of characters, replacing hand-sculpted figurines. The system is used in productions from Oregon-based LAICA studios, starting with its 2009 animated film Coraline.



Michael John Keesling received a technical achievement award for a device that simulates shaking, for example, of a moving car or a violent earthquake.

I was shown how it was normally done, he recalled, with an electric drill attached to the camera ...It would bump into the operator's eye.It would hurt the camera.And so I thought, well, what if you just shook the image?

Keeslings system, used in the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan and many movies since then, employs optical gel and a computer controller to achieve more realistic shaking.

Keesling says this Academy honor means a lot. This is kind of like my college degree, he said. I was self-taught.I barely made it through high school, so this is like, I did it. I made it.

Christoph Bregler and his colleague Ronald Mallet of the animation company Industrial Light & Magic were honored for a motion tracking system that transfers an actor's movements to an animated character.

Bregler says the system was welcomed by actors, who don't have to wear these motion capture pajamas any more, and directors and cinematographers, who don't have to calibrate, like, 16 cameras. Anywhere you are ... on a boat, or if you're on a bridge or anything, you just need one camera to shoot it, and we can capture every pixel  every little pimple, every little eye blink, hair, anything.

Jack Greasley was one of four honorees for MARI 3D software, whose name comes from the Swahili word for beautiful, maridadi.

The digital painting system was used in the 2009 fantasy Avatar and many films since then to increase their realism.

When you're making a movie with a space ship or a monster, somebody needs to go in there and paint all the prime surface detail, all the wrinkles, all the pores, all the scratches, the dirt, the blood, the dust, said Greasley. He says the visual effects artist goes in there with literally a digital paintbrush and pore by pore, wrinkle by wrinkle, paints that in.

For Hollywood actors, computer-generated effects make performances convincing, said Olivia Munn, who has a role in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. She cohosted this years Sci-Tech award ceremony with actor Jason Segel.

She is impressed with the engineers who work behind the scenes to create digital characters and effects that seem realistic. Theyve made it possible for actors to not look so silly when we're out there screaming at something or fighting something.

She says the film technology that helps make movie magic gets better every year.
The U.N. childrens fund calls the daily suffering endured by more than 500,000 Ukrainian children victimized by two years of conflict intolerable.

UNICEF finds children living in areas controlled by Russian-supported rebels in eastern Ukraine are being deprived of their most basic rights and needs.

The U.N. childrens fund considers the many children affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine as much more than just collateral damage. It says the deprivation and trauma experienced by those who are most affected - some 580,000 children living near the front line - will have life-long damaging consequences.

UNICEF representative in Ukraine Giovanna Barberis said these children were being deprived of their basic rights, including education, housing and the right to play. Speaking by telephone from the capital Kyiv, she said about 215,000 of the 1.6 million people displaced by the conflict could not return to the homes they were forced to flee.

Over 200,000so one in three are in need of psychosocial supportThese are children that have witnessed violence and fighting and that are really in need of immediate support," said Barberis.

Temperatures in the region are plummeting and Barberis said fuel shortages and high prices of coal were leaving children at risk of respiratory infections. She warned of an outbreak of diseases because of the lack of health services and a shortage of medicines.

Landmine threat

She said children were facing the imminent threat of stepping on landmines and other unexploded devices. She told VOA there was no proper system for tracking the number of children killed and maimed by these devices.

She said UNICEF was relying on what she terms "unrealistic figures" from the Ministry of Health.

Out of the 60 children that had been killed as a result of the conflict, around 40 were killed by mines because of jumping on any of these devices. But, again, I would not take it as a reliable figure, said Barberis.

In the early stages of the conflict, the government in Kyiv cut off social payments to people living in the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine. This has created great hardships for the population.

Barberis said the government has not resumed any benefit payments, but Russia was trying to mitigate the situation by providing some financial support
A public campaign on behalf of the baby daughter of a family of asylum-seekers has prompted Australia's immigration minister to allow the family to remain in the country instead of being sent back to a remote detention camp.

The 1-year-old child, known as Baby Asha, was brought to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane for medical treatment last month from a camp on the South Pacific island of Nauru, where she suffered accidental burns.

The hospital refused to release the child after her treatment until they were assured she would be placed in a safer environment.

News of Baby Asha's plight led to a social media campaign to keep the family from being returned to Nauru, and hundreds of protesters mounted a blockade to prevent the baby from being forcibly removed from the hospital.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton announced Sunday that Asha and her parents could remain in Brisbane under "community detention," a policy that allows asylum-seekers to move about freely in the community.

But Dutton warned the family could still be sent back to Nauru at any time, saying "it is an important message to send" to the detainees in Nauru that "there is a continuation of the governments policy.

Asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are sent to detention camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. They are blocked from being resettled in Australia, even if found to be refugees.

The family is among 267 asylum-seekers subject to being sent back to Nauru after the High Court rejected a legal challenge to the government's hardline refugee policy.

The group includes 37 babies born in Australia and 54 other children brought to Australia from the Nauru camp.

Canberra said its policy is aimed at preventing refugees from being killed during the dangerous ocean voyage. But human rights activists have criticized the policy, citing numerous allegations of abuse at the Nauru refugee camp, including sexual assaults of women.
Living Waters to Refresh The Saints. Ideas from the Bible that encourage, teach and offer direction for the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Jeb Bush on Saturday ended his bid to become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee after coming in fourth in South Carolina's primary.

Despite his pedigree  his brother and father each served as president  Bush's campaign failed to connect with Republican voters. He won a string of high-profile political endorsements and raised $100 million to fund his campaign, but he never was able to convert that into support at the polls.

In recent weeks, he enlisted his brother, former President George W. Bush, and his mother, Barbara Bush, to campaign for him but still recorded a disappointing result in Saturday's South Carolina primary, sealing his fate.

Addressing a crowd of supporters following the vote, he said, "The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision, so tonight I am suspending my campaign."

Bush, a former governor of Florida, said he was proud of the campaign he ran "to unify our country."

WATCH: Jeb Bush suspends his campaign
Suspected Islamist militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in northern Bangladesh Sunday.

Two others were injured as they came to his aid.

Police say the assailants, on motorbikes, attacked the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, 50, with a knife as he was organizing prayers at a temple in Pangachar district, near the border with India.

Authorities say two devotees were wounded in the attack including one who was shot as he tried to save the priest.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on Twitter.

However, Bangladesh denies that Islamic State has a presence in the country. Police say the attack was likely carried out by members of Jamaatul Mujahadeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned group blamed for last year's an attack on an Italian Catholic priest in the neighboring district of Dinajpur.

In recent months, Bangladesh has seen a wave of militant attacks on religious minorities including Shiites, Sufis, Christians and Ahmadis.
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were the big winners Saturday in the latest round of U.S. presidential primary voting.

It was a clear victory for Trump in South Carolina after a brutal primary campaign in which the top contenders traded charges of lying and political dirty tricks.

There is nothing easy about running for president, I can tell you. It is tough, its nasty, its mean, its vicious. Its beautiful. When you win its beautiful and we are going to start winning for our country," Trump said.

The billionaire businessman outpaced rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who effectively tied for second, as Rubio surged to a strong finish with help from Nikki Haley, South Carolinas popular governor.

'Message is pretty clear'

Tonight here in South Carolina the message is pretty clear. This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to guide us into the 21st century," Rubio said.

Cruz cast himself as the only true conservative left in the race.

You can go with Washington deal-makers or we can stand together with a proven, consistent constitutional conservative and bring back morning in America,' " he said.

Trailing well behind were John Kasich, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush, who decided it was time to drop out of the race.

"The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision. So tonight I am suspending my campaign," Bush said.

In the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Clinton held off a last-minute surge by rival Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders and won a narrow victory in the Nevada caucuses.

I am on my way to Texas, Bill is on his way to Colorado and the fight goes on! The future we want is in our grasp! Thank you all! God bless you! Clinton told supporters at her victory rally.

Democratic primary

The win could give Clinton a boost ahead of next weeks South Carolina primary where she is already favored.

But Sanders vowed to fight on. I believe that when Democrats assemble in Philadelphia in July at that convention, we are going to see the results of one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.

Contenders from both parties now prepare for the so-called Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses on March 1 when 13 states hold nominating contests with hundreds of delegates at stake.
Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump has emerged as the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination in the U.S. presidential race, but two U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, are both claiming they can overtake him when a large group of states votes over the next three weeks.

Trump, a political novice, convincingly won his second straight Republican primary election Saturday, collecting nearly a third of the vote in the Atlantic coastal state of South Carolina. Rubio, a Florida senator, edged Cruz, a Texas senator, for second place, with both getting about 22 percent of the vote.

Surveys show the flamboyant Trump, who has hurled insults at his opponents throughout the months-long campaign, with a sizeable lead over both Rubio and Cruz in the next state to vote, the U.S. gambling hub of Nevada. Republicans are holding party caucuses there on Tuesday.

Voting is set for 27 other states by March 15.

Trump told CNN Sunday that he expects to win the Republican nomination and face former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic contender, in November's national presidential election. He said that despite surveys showing him losing a hypothetical race against her, he would give Republicans a chance to win such key states as New York and Michigan that the party normally loses in presidential elections.

Clinton scored a big victory Saturday, winning the Nevada Democratic caucuses, by about a 53 to 47 percent margin over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.

The Nevada victory gave Clinton, who was the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, a much needed boost for her campaign after she narrowly edged Sanders in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month and he routed her in the New Hampshire primary.

Trump hailed his South Carolina victory as an incredible movement with incredible people.

Cruz, a conservative thorn in the side of the Washington establishment, told his supporters he is the only Trump opponent who has beaten him so far, in the Iowa caucuses three weeks ago.

But Rubio declared, This has become a three-person race and we will win the nomination.

The one-time 17-candidate Republican field has now dwindled to five - Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Ohio Governor John Kasich and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

WATCH: Big winners in Saturday U.S. presidential contests
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended the Central African Republic for successfully holding peaceful presidential elections.

Ban congratulated former prime minister Faustin-Archange Touadera on his victory and called on the leaders of the war-torn country to maintain a "constructive atmosphere."

Touadera, a former math professor, was declared the winner Saturday after sweeping to victory with more than 60 percent of the vote in last week's runoff.

The results of the first round of the parliamentary poll were not announced Saturday, but are expected soon.

The U.N. chief also called for the timely holding of the second round of legislative elections to complete the political transition process.

The U.N. has played a major role in seeking to restore peace in the CAR. Security in the country is still largely provided by 13,000 international peacekeepers, and the administration depends on subsidies from donors. The new president has pledged to rebuild the state, working closely with the international community.

It is hoped the elections will close a particularly turbulent chapter in the country's history.

VOA correspondent Nick Long in Bangui contributed to this report.
U.S. troops deployed to Cameroon to help fight the Boko Haram insurgency have donated school benches and educational material to Cameroonian schools.

Hundreds of teachers and school children gathered at the government primary school near the 301 Cameroon military air force base in the northern town of Garoua to receive school benches, chalk, exercise books, pens and pencils from U.S. troops assisting Cameroon in its fight against the Islamist insurgents.

Nana Mamoudou, whose three children attend the school, said he at first "did not know what the Americans were doing here. They were only staying in their military camp, but now that they have decided to help us with school benches, we know they have our interest at heart."

School needs

Cameroon Air Force Colonel Evina Bathalomie Marie said after the U.S. troops helped the community to build the school in Garoua, the Americans also provided some furniture.

"We have been struggling with parents to fix [build] the school. We have already done it. The problem we had was the problem of desks [school benches] and as American people have provided us with some desks [benches], we are very grateful," Marie said.

Last year, Cameroon announced it had closed at least 200 schools on its northern border with Nigeria, where frequent Boko Haram attacks occur.

Many students have sought education in safer areas in the central African nation's hinterlands, thereby stressing the infrastructure, as well as adding congestion at some of these schools.

A United Nations report published last December said the Boko Haram insurgency in Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and other countries has led to the destruction of schools and infrastructure and contributed to about 1 million children being deprived of an education.

Roberto Quiroz, public relations officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon, said U.S. troops came to to help Cameroon's efforts to eradicate terrorists as well as the well-being of the children.

"We have seen that Cameroon has taken a very brave stand with courage to fight Boko Haram and the United States is here to support that leadership, support that vision, to support those effort that is made by Cameroonians," he added.

US aid

U.S. troops have been helping Cameroon fight Boko Haram by providing intelligence, war equipment and training.

In March 2015, Cameroon launched an $8 million emergency plan to construct schools in safer localities away from volatile areas overrun by Boko Haram. The government said it still needed more support to cope with increasing school demands.

There are concerns that lack of education may fuel radicalism, especially now that Boko Haram is recruiting child suicide bombers.
Zambia President Edgar Lungu says he will nominate a female vice presidential running mate for his re-election bid in the August 11 general election.

Speaking to women's groups at a breakfast meeting in the capital, Lusaka, Lungu encouraged women to participate in the countrys governance, including in the upcoming general election.

Lungu said he will continue appointing women to positions of influence in his administration, taking a cue from deceased president Michael Sata.

Lungu, a former cabinet minister, was elected in a presidential by-election in the southern African nation after Sata died abroad where he had gone to seek medical treatment.

Ruling party members

Prominent members of the ruling Patriotic Front party have been lobbying and jostling to be chosen to partner with Lungu in the upcoming poll.

[Lungu] said if you are a man and you are thinking that you are going to be my running mate, you will not be, because my running mate is going to be a woman, said Frank Bwalya, deputy spokesman for the PF.

The president's pronouncement led local media reports and political commentators to speculate he would retain Vice President Inonge Wina as his running mate for the upcoming elections. Lungu made a surprise choice when he nominated Wina as his running mate, sidelining Guy Scott who was vice president under Sata.

Bwalya said Lungus supporters have nicknamed him a man who walks the talk, because of his work ethic toward keeping his promises to the people.

What he says is what he does, what he preaches is what he does.So since he preaches gender equality it is very clear that driven by that kind of consideration he thinks the right thing for us to do as PF is to adopt a woman as a running mate. In more or less the same he has picked a woman as vice president.What this means is that after 11 August 2016, we are going to have again a woman as vice president because automatically, the running mate is going to become the vice president, said Bwalya.

Opposition criticisms

But, opposition parties have criticized Lungus administration as incapable of resolving the economic challenges the country faces. They also said promises of job creation for the youth that Lungu made have yet to be met.

The critics cited what they called the high rate of unemployment among young people as proof the government hasnt delivered. Opponents of Lungu also accused him of inciting ethnic tensions and violence, accusations Bwalya rejects.

Lungu faces a stiff challenge from Hakainde Hichilema of the main opposition, the United Party for National Development, as well as Nevers Mumba, of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy.
Uganda's electoral commission has named incumbent President Yoweri Museveni the winner in Thursday's election, but the main opposition party is rejecting the results as fraudulent.

Mugisha Muntu, the chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, said election results announced at the national tally center in Kampala were "inconsistent" with results declared at polling stations.

Muntu told VOA Saturday that the party is compiling evidence to show Ugandans and poll observers that the election was rigged in favor of Museveni.

"One thing we can say for sure, which is nothing new to our party supporters, is that the elections have been fraudulent," Muntu said.

Uganda's electoral commission said Saturday that Museveni won the election with nearly 61 percent of the vote, more than enough to secure a first-round victory. It said his strongest challenger, FDC candidate Kizza Besigye, won 35 percent.

Besigye, who was arrested while trying to hold a news conference Friday, remains under house arrest.

Questioned fairness

The European Union's election observer mission released a statement just hours before the final vote tally was due, saying the ruling National Resistance Movement's domination of the political landscape "distorted the fairness of the campaign and state actors created an intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates" on election day and the days following.

Chief Observer Eduard Kukan praised Ugandan voters for their commitment to the electoral process.

Many voters waited in long lines Thursday for a chance to cast their ballots, and in parts of the capital, Kampala, and Wakiso district, the vote had to be continued into Friday to make up for delays in opening the polling stations.

But Kukan criticized the Electoral Commission for failing to effectively communicate steps that would have been needed to overcome "growing tensions caused by markedly delayed delivery of the voting material."

The observer mission had already noted in an earlier statement that "state actors," or representatives of the government, were mainly to blame for a "polarized discourse and intimidating atmosphere" prior to the election.

WATCH: Related video of election observers' comments

The news of Museveni's win pleased National Resistance Movement supporters, such as 58-year-old Sarah Opondo.

Im very, very happy, extremely happy because I like the president. I like his ways of doing things, of handling things, hes parental, hes so parental to us," Opondo said.

But her view was not shared by others, such as Richard Bulamu, who supported opposition candidate Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change party.

Im not really sure if the elections were free and fair. As a Ugandan, Im not happy with the process, but, you know, in a dictatorial country, thats what we are used to, you know  It shows the kind of country we are living in, we dont have democracy, we dont have freedom of speech, our social media was switched off yesterday," Bulamu said.

Uganda election criticisms

Earlier, the United States and a prominent human rights group criticized Uganda's election process, alleging undue pressure, and in some cases undue force, by security forces on opposition candidates and their supporters.

Maria Burnett, an Africa specialist for Human Rights Watch, said threats to Ugandans' human rights had been documented over the years, but in the days preceding the election, she said, "there was no hiding the brutality."

Burnett called on Ugandan security forces to respect peaceful protests and avoid excessive use of force in response to any confrontations.

Meanwhile, police spokesman Fred Enanga told The Associated Press that opposition leader Besigye had been put under house arrest to prevent further unrest after police used tear gas on his supporters outside opposition headquarters on Friday.

Police said Besigye was detained because he planned to announce election results, in violation of electoral laws.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced concern about the detention of Besigye, and urged President Museveni to rein in his security forces.

'Call into question'

Kerry spoke on the phone with Museveni Friday, saying the police actions "call into question Uganda's commitment to a transparent and credible election process free from intimidation," the State Department said in a statement.

Kerry also urged Museveni to end the shutdown of popular social media sites and money mobile services.

The head of Uganda's Communications Commission said the social media sites were blocked for security reasons.

Museveni told Kerry, "Democracy cannot open in anarchy, and everybody should behave according to the law," the Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor reported.
A war veteran claims that she was sexually abused by senior Zanu officials when they were fighting to liberate the then Rhodesia from colonial rule.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Studio 7, the war veteran who only wanted to be identified as Comrade Chasarira for fear of being victimized, said she is still traumatized by the abuse almost 36 years after Zimbabwe attained independence from British rule.

During the war we were forced to sleep (have sex) with big people, to sleep with old (senior Zanu) people against our own will and we were forced to do things (sexual activities) that we were not supposed to do but we were just looking at them (submissive) because we thought that that (was part of) the war.

Its only now that I am realizing that that was not war, that was something which was against my will.

Comrade Chasarira, who has now joined Zimbabwe People First led by former Vice President Joice Mujuru, said she has over the years been afraid to come up in the open in fear of being victimized by senior Zanu PF.

Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo was not reachable for comment.

She indicated that a large number of war veterans are disgruntled over the goings-on in President Robert Mugabes Zanu PF party, which she claims has not fulfilled almost all the promises of the liberation struggle.

She said war veterans are in different camps in the ruling party while some have even left for Mrs. Mujurus newly-formed Zimbabwe People First.

At the moment we are divided  Some are at (with) the G40 (Generation 40), some with Mnangagwa but as for me I am now with Mujuru.

Comrade Chasarira said she is now supporting Mrs. Mujuru because I wasted my time for nothing. Just think of it, I went to war at the age of 12 and I am now 57  (There is) nothing I have gained from the government  (Most of) my children are not working and myself I am not working.

We have rates to pay, we are staying in town and we need to eat. There is only one daughter who is working and is the one that is looking after the whole family but the mother is an ex-combatant.

Comrade Chasarira has over the years been getting a monthly pension of $175 per month and engaged in vending business to supplement her household income.

By the Grace of the Lord we are managing (eke out a living), she said.

Hundreds of former fighters of the 1970s liberation struggle get a monthly state pension. In the 1990s they were given lump sums of $50,000, a move some independent economists say led to the decline of the now defunct Zimbabwe dollar.

Some war veterans are currently engaged in a succession debate in Zanu PF, which led to skirmishes last Thursday between the police and ex-combatants, who had been mobilized by War Veterans Minister Christopher Mutsvangwa, to show solidarity for under fire Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said to be habouring presidential ambitions.

Mnangagwa leads a group calling itself Team Lacoste while the rival group, commonly known as Generation 40, is believed to be pushing First Lady Grace Mugabe to succeed her 92 year old husband.
General Burwell B.B. Bell III of Ooltewah had an accomplished active professional career that included experiencing at least two important aspects of American military history up close.



From 2006-08, he was the senior military commander for both the South Korean and U.S. military forces in South Korea. And about 25 years ago, he was the executive officer to the late General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander during the first Iraq/Gulf War.



During an interview while he was in Knoxville on Friday speaking to the Rotary Club of Bearden about the importance of America staying committed to keeping troops in South Korea, General Bell reflected on his time serving next to the man who some believe has been the most famous and praised American general to serve since the Vietnam War.



The UTC graduate called General Schwarzkopf a patriot, a tough war fighter, and a great military strategist and tactician. And personally, he remembered that the general was usually all business and intense, but could occasionally have fun.



To hear the brief-but-candid audio interview with General Bell regarding his memories of General Schwarzkopf, listen here.

jcshearer2@comcast.net
The Shia LaBeouf is present  in an elevator in the Oxford Union for 24 hours over this weekend. The performance was part of #ELEVATE, a project the actor set up with his collaborators Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner. Over the course of the piece, Shia discussed everything from Even Stevens to academia with his fellow elevator occupants. At one point, a fan asked if the actor could punch him in the face, as part of the his art project. Can you help me with the completion of my next piece by punching me in the face? he asks. Aww, man. You want me to punch you in the face? LaBeouf responds. Eventually, they agree on a compromise, as the actor and aspiring artist agrees to slap the other aspiring artist in the face. You can listen to the exchange above, which concludes with the sound of a slap, and not a punch, as advertised.

For a longer, more zen experience, watch all of Shias elevator travails below.
Buffalo Wild Wings, the sports bar at 4225 Franklin Ave., reportedly will relocate to Central Texas Marketplace.

Local restaurateur Sammy Citrano, who owns the building Buffalo Wild Wings occupies, said its lease expires Dec. 31. Operators have indicated the restaurant might pursue a new location, Citrano said.

A source who asked not to be named said the wing restaurant will relocate to a building it hopes to place between Bushs Chicken and Davids Bridal in the shopping center located at Interstate 35, Bagby Avenue and West Loop 340. The source does not serve as an official spokesperson for the chain.

The source said the new Buffalo Wild Wings will have a climate-controlled outdoor patio to accommodate up to 45 people.

We were going to move in June, but now it will be closer to November, according to the employee.

Citrano said he has not been told the details of the restaurants future plans, adding he will hire local real estate agent Bland Cromwell to market the building.

Fortune honors Mars

The Mars Chocolate North America plant at 1001 Texas Central Parkway in Waco recently was named one of Fortune magazines 15 Great Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production in the U.S. This is the second year the candy maker has landed on the list, which is prepared in conjunction with Great Place to Work Inc.

We placed No. 14 overall on this best of the best list as a result of 90 percent of our associates in the U.S. thinking Mars provides good challenges and working atmosphere, great rewards and great managers, and 96 percent feeling great pride in working for Mars, the company said in a statement.

The Waco plant produces about 75 percent of all Snickers products in North America, as well as Skittles and Starburst candies.

Mars has created 500 jobs in Waco, and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce regularly touts its presence when recruiting industry.

100 most overpaid CEOs

AsYouSow.org has compiled a list of what it believes are the 100 most overpaid CEOs of companies on the Standard & Poors 500 index.

Among those making the list was Brenton L. Saunders, CEO of Allergan, who recently toured the Allergan facility in Waco to discuss its 25th anniversary of doing business locally and making several eye care products for worldwide distribution, including Restasis.

He also mentioned that Allergan is looking to expand operations at one plant in North America, and Waco has made the short list.

His total annual compensation, according to the report, is $36.6 million.

He came in at No. 23 on the list, which was topped by David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, whose annual compensation stands at $156.1 million. Steve Ells and Monty Moran, CEOs of Chipotle Mexican Grill, which recently weathered a food-poisoning scare at several restaurants in the Northeast and closed every location across the country for one day to give employees food-preparation safety training, came in at No. 4. They make $57.1 million a year between them.

Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., hit No. 13, with a compensation package of $46.5 million. Others making the list include Steven H. Temaras, CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond, $19.1 million; Oracle Corp.s Safra A. Catz and Mark Hurd, $75.3 million; Marissa Mayer at Yahoo! Inc., $42.1 million; and Coca-Colas Muhtar Kent, $25.2 million.

Of the top 25 most overpaid CEOs, 11 made the list for the second year in a row. The rankings are based on a statistical analysis of company financial performance, as well as an index developed by As You Sow that considers more than 30 additional factors, according to a news release.

The analysis concluded that 17 CEOs made at least $20 million more than they would have had their compensation been aligned with performance.

Farm Bureau exec to retire

Vernie R. Glasson III, 69, executive director and chief operating officer of the Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau, has announced he will retire in July.

His departure marks the end of an era, as his Farm Bureau career spans 43 years. He served as a field representative, commodity specialist, lobbyist and senior manager of public affairs before becoming executive director in 1989.

Glasson told the board of directors, state Farm Bureau leaders and senior management that after 27 years at the helm, it is time for new staff leadership.

Texas Farm Bureau has grown to more than 518,000 member-families in 206 county Farm Bureaus.

Glasson has served with five presidents of the states largest farm organization and many other farm and ranch leaders who served on the state board of directors.

A successor to Vernie will be named by the board of directors, and a transition is planned prior to his departure in July, Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening said. We certainly will miss Vernie, but he leaves Farm Bureau in great shape.
Sexual misconduct allegations that led to sanctions against U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. have prompted calls for his impeachment and, more recently, requests for criminal investigations into assertions the judge failed to properly disclose his attorney-client relationship with a Waco lawyer with cases pending in the judges court.

Attorney Ty Clevenger, who filed the complaint against Smith in 2014 that resulted in a reprimand, last week asked the chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to refer a supplemental complaint to the FBI for criminal investigation.

Clevengers new complaint claims that Smith may have received free legal services from Waco attorney Greg White while White had cases pending in Smiths court.

Besides the federal complaint, Clevenger also filed a grievance with the State Bar of Texas against White, alleging he did not disclose his attorney-client relationship with the judge to litigants opposing him in civil suits pending in Smiths court.

Five years before filing the initial sexual misconduct complaint against Smith, Clevenger was sanctioned and fined $25,000 by Smith for filing what Smith said was a frivolous lawsuit in his court.

Smith declined comment through a court assistant on the new complaints, while White did not return several phone messages from the Tribune-Herald. Both have declined comment in the past, saying the grievance process is confidential.

But documents filed with the State Bar by Whites attorney, Ben Selman, shed new light on Smiths response to Clevengers initial federal complaint and Whites response to the State Bar complaint.

The documents show that while the former clerk who brought the sexual misconduct allegations forward said the frightening experience with the judge was unexpected, unwanted and left her shaken, Smith initially told council investigators in a response written by White that the woman showed a sexual interest in him and acted as the aggressor.

Judge Smith and Greg White basically tried to smear the victim, said Clevenger, who is formerly from Dallas and has since moved to New York. Judge Smith certainly knew that his story was a lie, but Greg White kept repeating it even after he knew it was false.

The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals formally reprimanded Smith in December, finding he made inappropriate and unwanted physical and nonphysical advances toward a female courthouse staff member in his court chambers in 1998.

Smith, 75, has been a federal judge since 1984 and is a former chief judge of the Western District of Texas.

The council also suspended Smith for one year from hearing any new criminal or civil cases filed after Dec. 3 and said his conduct was in contravention of existing standards of behavior for federal judges.

The Judicial Council also said Smith does not understand the gravity of such inappropriate behavior and the serious effect that it has on the operations of the courts.

The Judicial Council also finds that Judge Smith allowed false factual assertions to be made in response to the complaint, which, together with the lateness of his admissions, contributed greatly to the duration and cost of the investigation, the order, signed by 5th Circuit Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart, said.

While the council said Smiths actions do not warrant a recommendation of impeachment, Clevenger has appealed that decision to the Administrative Office of United Stated Courts in Washington, D.C., and is seeking impeachment.

Since reviewing Whites responses to the State Bar, Clevenger also now is calling for criminal investigations of White and Smith, alleging White represented the judge for free in Clevengers complaint and that the judge possibly failed to report that as a gift on judicial finance disclosure forms.

Smiths latest financial disclosure report available online was filed in 2014 for the year 2012.

A lot more questions

Whites response to the State Bar raises a lot more questions than it answers, Clevenger said. If he represented Judge Smith at no charge, that was an illegal gift. If Judge Smith gave him favorable rulings, it was a bribe.

In a letter dated Jan. 27 from White to Selman, his attorney, and submitted as an exhibit in Whites response to the State Bar, White said attorney John Palmer, a former Smith law clerk, called him and said the judge wanted to speak to him about Clevengers federal complaint.

White writes that the judge was concerned about the accusations being made public and asked White to file a motion to dismiss the complaint.

I must say that I was not sure whether I was writing as Judge Smiths lawyer, or whether I was ghost-writing for Judge Smith, White wrote in his memo to Selman. I am sure I had an attorney-client relationship, but unsure how formal my representation would be.

White prepared a draft and said the judge asked him to sign the motion as his attorney.

One statement in the motion to dismiss bears mention, Whites memo says. After talking to Judge Smith, I was under the impression that he believed that the young lady involved might have acted in a way to suggest her willingness to participate in a personal relationship  that she was the aggressor.

I wrote that in the motion to dismiss  characterizing it as Judge Smiths memory. His memory came from a lawyer-friend of Judge Smiths while Judge Smiths divorce was pending. During the divorce, there were apparently threats to make this womans complaint a public matter, Whites memo says.

The lawyer, whom White does not identify, suggested that they could respond to the threatened publicity by suggesting that the woman approached the judge romantically in an attempt to gain favorable treatment for her husband, who was part of a group considering litigation in Smiths court.

That suggestion to Judge Smith (from his lawyer-friend) stuck with him, and he suggested it to me, White wrote. After the motion to dismiss was filed, a more careful examination of the docket revealed the suggestion that the woman approached the judge in such a manner to help her husband was not true, since the lawsuit involving her husband was not filed until long after the incident in Smiths chambers.

During the council probe, the investigator told White that the investigator knew the woman was not the aggressor.

I acknowledged to the investigator that we had misstated that, and wished to correct it, Whites memo says.

Failure to disclose

In response to the charge that he and Smith failed to disclose their attorney-client privilege to opposing counsel in a case involving White, White acknowledged that an attorney from Florida who was unhappy with Smiths rulings in the case questioned White about his relationship with the judge.

White told him he was representing the judge, and the attorney immediately filed a motion to recuse Smith from the case, which Smith granted.

Frankly, I had assumed three things, Whites memo states. First, I thought my role was so limited that my representation made no difference to anyone. Second, I though that Tammy (Hooks, Smiths career law clerk) was calling people in my cases (to inform opposing parties of White and Smiths attorney-client relationship). Third, I knew that I was bound by confidentiality  both by rule, and by my clients instruction  not to volunteer that Judge Smith was the subject of a judicial conduct complaint or that I was his lawyer.

In his letter to the 5th Circuit seeking to supplement his complaint, Clevenger said it looks like Hooks has been designated to take the fall for the undisclosed attorney-client relationship.

In its reprimand of Smith, the 5th Circuit council found that the judge did not follow appropriate procedures regarding his recusal from the case involving White.

U.S Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan, told the Tribune-Herald in January that he thinks the judicial council did not go far enough in its rebuke of Smiths actions. He said he would explore procedures to impeach the judge by talking to U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, about those procedures.

At face value  I dont know all the details  but at face value it doesnt seem like the punishment fit the crime, Flores said last month. I do know that there was a judge in Galveston who was impeached for less, for a lesser offense, so it looks to me . . . one of the things that our judicial system is supposed to be is fair.

So if you have a certain kind of crime, you should have this kind of a punishment; more severe, harsher punishment. So there does seem to be a mismatch here. And so, I am going to look into it and see what we need to do, Flores said.

Andre Castro, Flores press secretary, said Friday that Flores is still gathering information and meeting with folks about it.
Some property owners in Marlin said they are open to seeing a tax rate increase, as long as the school district doesnt squander the money in its effort to keep the district open.

Voters could be asked to allow a tax rate hike next fall to pay for the teacher raises approved Tuesday by the Marlin Independent School District board of trustees. The board hopes the new salaries, which are higher than other districts in the area, will help recruit and retain high-quality teachers.

Each raise could be up to $15,000, which could cost the district an additional $750,000 annually.

Marlin Superintendent Michael Seabolt said the district could cover the cost of the salary increases from its $6 million fund balance, but to maintain the higher salaries indefinitely, the district would need to hike its maintenance and operation tax rate by 13 cents, from $1.04 per $100 of property valuation to $1.17.

The average home value in Marlin is about $38,000, Falls County Chief Appraiser Allen McKinley said. If voters approve a 13 cent tax rate hike, the average homeowner would see a $49.40 increase on the school tax, from $395.20 to $444.60.

If voters approve that rate, the district could receive a total of $700,000 in additional revenue, with $400,000 coming from the state and $300,000 coming from local revenue.

The debt service tax, collected along with the maintenance and operation tax, is 12 cents per $100 of property valuation, which adds about $45 to the average homeowners bill. The district has not proposed a change to the debt service rate.

Teacher turnover has hurt the districts efforts to turn around its struggling schools.

The state revoked Marlin ISDs accreditation in the fall after it failed state accountability standards for the fourth year in a row. The districts board of trustees will be replaced with a state-appointed board of managers if the district fails its preliminary standards, normally released in August. If it fails its final results, which are normally released in October, the district will be closed permanently at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

If the district closes, the state will choose one or more districts to take over educating Marlin students. The Marlin ISD tax rate would be replaced with the new districts rate.

Board President Roger Nutt said hes open to the superintendents plan, but he hasnt looked at any of the districts financial numbers yet and wants to see the districts revenue report before deciding how much to increase the tax rate.

Marlin ISD has never hosted a tax rate election, and its last school board election was in 2011.

Support for increase

Marlin resident Jay Butler said he would vote for a tax rate increase because he thinks the citys greatest challenge is the residents inability to work together.

Butler said hes tired of seeing Marlin languish in its depressed state and would be willing to step up and approve something good for the town.

If its going to benefit the school, Id vote for it, he said.

Multiple business owners declined comment because of a lack of information about the proposal, but Tom Lewis, owner of Print Source on Live Oak Street, said he was expecting the local governments to begin raising taxes.

Lewis said he would vote for a tax increase, if the money would truly go toward benefiting the school.

Its going to take a tax increase to make Marlin a livable place, Lewis said. Im OK with it as long as theyre spending the money wisely.
When it comes to war, some people serve in the spotlight on the battlefield, while others work quietly behind the scenes, doing the unsung tasks that allow others to shine because of the support provided.

Emil Sonny Fridel, 92, is such a man. And while he may not have served on the front lines, his work was vital enough to the U.S. and its allies that he received a commemorative medal from Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, The 50th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Fridel, a resident of West, had just turned 18 when he decided to join the U.S. Army in 1940  before the attack on Pearl Harbor thrust America into war. Born in Mart, he went to three different schools while growing up: Axtell, La Vega and Riesel, where he graduated at 16.

Fridel worked on the family farm for a year before enlisting in the service. Within a year, he was a personnel sergeant at Kelly Field in San Antonio.

By age 19, Fridel had received his commission as 2nd lieutenant in Cheyenne, Wyoming. More school followed in Baltimore, Maryland, followed by an assignment to the 876th Ordnance-Heavy Automotive Maintenance Co. at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He and his company went on maneuvers in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where Fridel was temporarily in charge of some 200 men. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant.

The 876th traveled by train to California, where it prepared for overseas deployment. He was 20 when he left port aboard the U.S.S. Hermitage, a former Italian luxury liner bound for the Persian Gulf. Before arriving, 867th made stops in New Zealand, Australia and India, where they boarded a British ship, the H.M.S. Varella, headed for Iran.

A whole new kind of hot

They arrived in May 1943. Based in the town of Andimeshk, Fridel was a shop officer with 20 civilians working for him. The biggest enemy Allied troops faced wasnt the Germans, it was the weather. It was hot  extremely hot. Air temperatures in the shade routinely ranged between 110 and 125 degrees.

It was pretty hot, Fridel said. I would take off all my clothes, put a sheet in a bucket of water, spread it over my cot and turn on the ceiling fan. It was pretty rough on the nurses, too.

While Iranians were hired to help in the shop to keep vehicles running, there were also thousands of Polish citizens in the area who had fled the German invasion. Traveling to Tehran occasionally on leave, Fridel met two women, an Army nurse and her mother, who was from the city of Lvov in southeastern Poland.

Coordinating suppy and demand

In September 1944, Fridel, was assigned to temporary duty in Khorramshahr where he served as a liaison

officer between the British and Russian military forces. He was charged with obtaining American supplies from the British (Reverse Land-Lease) and turning them over to the Russians. The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 authorized the transfer of war supplies, including food, services, machinery and much more, to other nations whose defense was critical to the U.S. war effort. Published reports put wartime estimates of the Lend-Lease Act

during World War II in excess of $40 billion.

Supplies would be delivered to Basrah, Iraq, and then turned over to the Russians. It was for these actions in recognition of your courage and personal contribution to the Allied support of Russia during her fight for freedom against Nazi Germany that Fridel was awarded his medal from Russia.

He spent about two years in Iran before he was assigned to Lyon, France, where he had a local company under his command. Among his duties, he taught the French to repair and drive American vehicles. He served there almost a year, including several months spent near Paris in 1945 training with other officers for the planned invasion of Japan.

The 876th was en route to South Pacific when the atomic bombs were deployed, bringing an end to the war. Fridel soon returned to the States and turned down an offer for a permanent commission because I met this lovely gal at a dance hall in West.

He and Pearl (Deiterman) Fridel were married for 64 years before she passed away in 2011. He remained in the Army Officers Reserve for several years, eventually retiring with the rank of captain.

Fridel attended Baylor University, earning a bachelors degree. He worked for General Tire as a supervisor, followed by 30 years at the U.S. Post Office in West. He retired as supervisor of postal operations.

Fridel felt it was his duty to serve and he would do it again, if necessary. It was something that had to be done. We were at war with Germany and Japan, he said. And theres no assurance we wont be in another (war) one of these years.

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.
It seems like ages since Chattanoogans got their first Mexican restaurants. It took forever to get our first one, but then the dam broke and they are now everywhere. For a long time there was a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant on the northeast corner of Market Street and 9th (now MLK), called "Mex Chili King." It only sold chili, and was only open at lunchtime. No tacos, burritos, nachos, or etc., which Taco Bell brought us years later. Mex Chili King's most interesting feature was the neon sign outside which showed a dark-skinned man wearing a big sombrero and eating a bowl of chili. The man's hand (including spoon) moved up and down to look like he was eating. When you entered and took a seat, no one rushed over with a bowl of chips; you only placed your order for chili and waited. (It was excellent chili, by the way - always served with the little oyster crackers).

My own first experience with authentic Mexican food, however, was in the little border town of Matamoros, in Old Mexico, across from Brownsville, Tex. The year was 1946 and my uncle had invited us down to his home in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He had left a clothing store business on Main Street to join in on a drive-in theater venture with his brother in law at the end of World War II. When the business was up and running, he invited my parents and me down for a visit. For an 11-year-old boy, the "Valley" was a magic place. Port Isabel with its old lighthouse was nearby on the Gulf of Mexico, Padre Island was off-shore (reached then only by small motor-launches), there were free movies to watch at his theater, and there was MEXICO! First stop we made in that exotic country was a restaurant with the not-so-exotic name of "The Drive-In"! That is a Gringo name, indeed, but it was compellingly Mexican inside, filled with authentic Mexican decor - the food was top-notch, the servers all smilingly gracious.

I had never met a Mexican-style corn chip at the time, and the first one I tried hooked me for life! That restaurant was more like European restaurants than the ones we have today. We were served a meal of many courses which included "cabrito" (baby goat), roasted to perfection, white-wing pheasant, and everything was served with a special "mole" (sauce) to bring out the best of the flavor. The meal took forever, but we enjoyed the cool interior as we ate. My mother, my aunt and I ordered lime-ade over shaved ice from the bar. I was totally smitten by the experience - and never forgot the taste of those corn chips which started the meal.

As we left the Lower Rio Grande Valley to return home, we stopped at a drug store for some reason and I found 5-cent packs of corn chips which I bought for all my friends back home. I had no idea such were packaged for sale, but knew for certain they had not yet reached the Gringo markets of Tennessee.

On future trips to the Valley I grew aware that there was also a goodly number of Mexican restaurants on the American side of the border which I also liked to frequent. Later, In my Air Force years while stationed in San Antonio, Tex., I found the "Mexican" part of town right away, where I enjoyed Mexican food every time I got to town. We would be warned in advance "not" to go into the Mexican districts, but I always went there first. (I even took in some of those Mexican films now considered "Classics", even though I understood but little of the language). I should maybe point out here that my "Minor" subject at the University had been Spanish, and I liked all thing "Spanish" or "Latino".

Twenty years after discovering the beauties of Mexican food we still had no Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga. My wife and I liked the Gulf Coast area around Biloxi, Mississippi. I had been stationed there at Keesler AFB for a long while, and was familiar with all the good places. So we would drive there on occasion, and on one such trip while stopped at a traffic light in Montgomery, Ala., I looked down the street to the east and saw, lo-and-behold, a sign reading "Mexican Restaurant"! There was no time to stop, but as we continued, I kept asking myself why Chattanooga could not have one of those!

Years passed again, and then suddenly we got a "fast food" place called "Taco Bell". Its popularity was so great that it paved the way for hundreds more such restaurants to be started by immigrants throughout the country. These all hit just as the first great wave of "Latinos" were getting a foothold in the U.S., meaning that there was plenty of "authentic" talent to operate them. This worked much like the "Greek" restaurants of an earlier day - where mom and pop would come to the U.S. and start a restaurant - then send money for other family to join them here - and then in a few years all the family would be driving Cadillacs.

(Chester Martin is a native Chattanoogan who is a talented painter as well as local historian. He and his wife, Pat, live in Brainerd. Mr. Martin can be reached at cymppm@comcast.net )
For those attending the Peoples Law School mounted annually by Baylor Law School a week ago, the day as a whole was surreal, even if the wealth of courses offered consumed only Saturday morning. Many of us spent the early hours learning about the uniqueness of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in an era when kings and popes ruled by divine right; the complexities of the Fourth and Ninth Amendments; and the beauty of laws that favor no religion over another and thus keep (or should keep) Christian extremism at bay as well as quelling any overwrought fears of Sharia law on the loose in America.

But shortly after we left the lectures and returned to our daily routines, we learned 79-year-old U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the fierce, sometimes undisciplined champion of rigorous adherence to the Constitution, had died in the rugged Big Bend country of far West Texas. Possibly because Scalia was an outsized personality, his death following such lectures left me feeling a sense of loss.

Maybe if I hadnt spent the morning listening to dynamic law professors such as Brian Serr and Jeremy Counseller pump up my blood about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Scalias death might not have resonated so strongly. Granted, in some ways, Scalia was like a crazy uncle, given to making politically incorrect, even wildly inappropriate comments, but his broader message about always seeking the Framers intent and taking them at their literal word remains a critical guidepost in America.

Yet I suspect even Scalia occasionally wondered about his own fidelity to his much-cherished originalism  the concept jurists not draw inferences from founding documents that the Framers never intended, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are static rather than living documents ideal for imaginative reinterpretation and judicial activism. Who in our age really knows how the Framers might have applied constitutional principles to once-unimaginable legal questions and societal dilemmas? In the end, its still an educated guess.

Even Scalia might have imagined a little beyond the Founders texts. His most famous Supreme Court opinion  District of Columbia v. Heller  makes a compelling case for broadening the Second Amendment by negating that pesky little modifying clause about militias. Some gun-rights enthusiasts, while happy with that part of the ruling, have never completely accepted Scalias other part  that gun rights are not absolute (anymore than any other right is) and that governments retain the power to regulate them.

As Serr noted in his constitutional law review at the Peoples Law School, many people also overlook the Ninth Amendment, which suggests that the Framers didnt think of everything in the founding documents and that the Bill of Rights shouldnt be construed as precluding other unenumerated rights retained by the people. And at some point, when push comes to shove, the high courts must decide if some particular right fits the Founders notion as legitimate. The most famous example cited is the right to privacy, though anything beyond this has spurred intense legal debate. And few jurists rely solely on the Ninth to justify one right or another.

Once the door is wide open for one unenumerated right, others will follow. You may rejoice in one, tremble at another. Using the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925 struck down a state law in Oregon outlawing private schools, which in turn cleared the way for home-schooling. In 1967, the Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law that forbade interracial marriage. From there its but a legal skip and a jump to last summers controversial Supreme Court ruling scuttling state laws banning same-sex marriage.

Indeed, as Serr noted in a lecture that stressed law, not religious dogma, if race can no longer be a reason to deny a civil marriage license, then a precedent of sorts is established to ensure gender cant be cited as a reason to deny it. Serr also noted that states, counties and cities are far more guilty of restricting individual rights and liberties than the federal government.

Hours later, fresh from broadening our grasp of constitutional law and inalienable rights, we discovered that Scalia had died on the far edge of Texas  and one more fragile link to the Framers was gone, leaving us to redouble our own efforts at sorting out our liberties. Ironically, the first constitutional question to loom now is what the great originalist would have advised on the protocol to replace him.
In his Feb. 10 column in the Tribune-Herald, Bill Hammond of the Texas Association of Business disparaged President Obamas Clean Power Plan and opposed current actions to combat anthropogenic climate change. Since accurate information is mandatory during this planetary emergency of climate change, it is important to point out the myths which riddle Mr. Hammonds column.

Myth 1: The science of climate change is anything but settled. This dangerous, ubiquitous meme promotes delay in addressing the problem. The truth: 97 percent of peer-reviewed climatology research, every legitimate scientific association on Earth, the pope and the 195 nations that signed the Paris Agreement in December accept the concept of manmade climate change. Even the U.S. Department of Defense observes that climate change poses immediate risks to the U.S. national security and has potential to exacerbate terrorism.

Myth 2: The U.S. Clean Power Plan results are so small they cannot be measured. In reality, the plan is designed to reduce greenhouse gases from electricity generation by 32 percent. This reduction is one-fourth of the requirement of the Paris Agreement and thus a strong beginning toward that goal. And the announcement of the plan convinced other nations that the United States is serious about combatting climate change.

Myth 3: We truthfully dont know whether all nations acting together can have a measurable impact on the climate. When the 195 nation signatories of the Paris Agreement reach their commitments for emission reductions, global temperature will increase from 2.7 to 4.0 degree C. This is an enormous improvement over uncontrolled emissions, which would result in greater than 6.0 degree temp increase, a level incompatible with human civilization. Each five years the nations will ratchet up emission limits with an ultimate goal of 1.5 degree temperature increase  a level which will prevent the worst ravages of climate change.

Myth 4: The United States will suffer economically, while developing nations like China and India continue to pollute. Using China and India as an excuse for the United States inaction is now utterly fraudulent. The 195 countries of the Paris Agreement signed a legally binding commitment to reach their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). Essentially every country on Earth has published a verifiable carbon emission limit and operates under similar timetables. China has begun a very ambitious plan to reach its emission limits by 2030, not beginning in 2030 as Mr. Hammond states. And China is a leader in renewable energy technology, with more installed wind and solar power than any country on Earth.

Myth 5: Americans will face lost jobs, lost income and huge utility bills. The Paris Agreement committed the world to a low-carbon economy, with jobs needed in energy efficiency retrofit, mass-transit services, smart-grid construction and wind, solar and biomass industries. A study by Robert Pollin of the University of Massachusetts reported that a $1 million investment in the green economy yields 17 jobs, while a $1 million investment in fossil fuels yields only five jobs.

Workers losing jobs in fossil-fuel industries will find new jobs in the green economy as we transition to renewables. The purchase cost of renewable energy is a complex issue, but in some markets renewable generation is now cheaper than coal or natural gas. For example, Austin Energy recently contracted with a solar farm at less than five cents per kilowatt-hour.

Myth 6: Solar and wind power will only become relevant when new battery technology is developed. The truth: Renewable energy is enormous and growing faster than fossil fuels. The following jurisdictions are powered by 100 percent renewable energy: Iceland; Bonaire; Lesotho; Aspen, Colorado; Burlington, Vermont; Greensburg, Kansas; Beaverton, Oregon; and Kodiak Island, Alaska. And solar thermal facilities exist which store electricity as heat for 24-hour power. There are more than 60 units around the world, including the 392-megawatt Ivanpah System in the Mojave Desert. And battery storage is actually available now, including the Powerwall system from Tesla for residential use.

Myth 7: We must be patient and let science and technology work at a careful reasonable pace to find energy solutions instead of crippling our economy In other words, Mr. Hammond wishes to delay implementation of our conversion to renewables so that oil companies can maximize profits. Unfortunately, we cannot delay since the planets carbon budget will be exceeded in about 16 years and we will experience crop failure, worsening starvation, migration, inter-nation conflict, submerging cities; and devastating storms.

Fortunately, we do have the technology now to convert fully to clean energy, documented by the Stanford Engineering Department at TheSolutionsProject.org. We must use this technology, along with conservation, to protect our childrens future. As for Mr. Hammonds concerns, there is no economy on a dead planet.

Alan Northcutt is a local physician and director of the Waco Friends of Peace/Climate.
Seven instances of publicly reported fraud have been committed by nonprofit executive directors within Waco charities the past eight years. This is a shocking statistic but serves as a reminder that fraud happens, even in our community.

Although rare, fraud is devastating to a nonprofits mission and can lead to mistrust and a loss of valuable services in the community. While some fraud is committed blatantly by people with ill intent, most fraud is committed by people who are well-intended but have lapses in judgment. Nonprofit board members must understand it is their job to be vigilant to this potential risk  no matter how much they admire and trust an executive director. It is negligent to assume it could never happen here.

As the executive director of Waco Foundation, I, along with our board of trustees, believe strongly in transparency and fraud prevention and we take several steps to help protect the foundation. For instance, despite the large size of Waco Foundations managed assets and budget, our board treasurer still maintains a tight oversight of executive expenses because this is an area where any nonprofit or for-profit organization is highly vulnerable. Our board chair always receives a copy of bank statements directly from the bank and is encouraged to ask questions about any unfamiliar expense.

Our entire board has access to all of our financial information and statements at any time. We also ensure all donations to the foundation go through multiple hands so there is a healthy checks and balances process. All of these activities are designed to ensure our board and staff are conditioned to this work, so that no matter who is in the executive director position in the future, transparency is part of our organizational culture.

While Waco Foundation has put these steps in place to help protect the financial health and stability of our organization, the foundation this year will undergo planning specifically to prevent fraud  not because fraud is suspected but at my behest in an effort to ensure the organization is always protected.

Waco Foundation invites the nonprofit community to join us in examining the nature of fraud and how boards can prevent it. I encourage all nonprofit board members to consider the steps their organizations already take to prevent fraud and what additional processes they can put in place for added protection.

To aid this effort, Waco Foundation is hosting national fraud prevention expert David Cotton. Mr. Cotton has extensive experience in fraud prevention and has served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards, the Institute of Internal Auditors Anti-Fraud Programs and Controls Task Force and the AICPA Anti-Fraud Task Force. He co-authored Managing the Business Risk of Fraud: A Practical Guide and Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention.

Waco Foundation strives to maximize the value of outside consultants, so we are engaging Mr. Cotton not only to work with Waco Foundations audit committee but to provide a community workshop about fraud prevention. Co-hosted by the Waco-McLennan County Bar Association, Central Texas Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants and Waco Foundation, this sold-out workshop will allow other nonprofit board members, staff and community professionals to benefit from Mr. Cottons invaluable experience.

As the community foundation for McLennan County, Waco Foundation is committed to strengthening nonprofits, and that includes providing support for fraud prevention. It is important for board members to remember traditional audits are not designed to detect fraud, and although fraud detection audits can be costly, they are occasionally necessary to verify fraud or ensure fraud is not taking place. As nonprofit board members begin thinking about this important topic and work to implement the proper steps to protect our valuable community organizations, Waco Foundation is here to help.

We understand every organization is unique and thus requires different strategies, policies and procedures that make sense for each individual nonprofit. The foundation is here to assist our local organizations by connecting them with the proper tools and resources to help protect them from the threat of fraud.

Fraud is not something we want to think about. We certainly do not want to imagine it could happen in our community, to a charity we know and trust. But the truth is, it can happen anywhere. However, with proper planning, fraud is something we can work to prevent. Waco Foundation is stepping up to make sure our organization is protected for future generations. We hope other nonprofits will commit to the same.

Ashley Allison is executive director of Waco Foundation, whose mission is to promote solutions to community challenges, strengthen local nonprofits, engage philanthropists and manage charitable assets to improve quality of life in McLennan County.
This month the U.S. Supreme Court did all Texans a favor: putting a temporary hold on the Environmental Protection Agencys sweeping new carbon regulation. With a final ruling not expected till at least 2017, any continued work by Texas agencies on implementation of the Obama administrations Clean Power Plan risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars  and its why they should halt work on it immediately.

First, some background. The EPAs carbon emissions rule would fundamentally restructure the nations power grid  and force every American to pay for it. It requires states to cut emissions from power plants by varying amounts. Texas is required to cuts emissions by 33 percent by 2030.

About the only way to accomplish such dramatic cuts would be to shut down affordable energy sources that Texans have already bought and paid for. Their replacements would largely come from wind and solar, which can be up to three times more expensive than traditional sources.

Those higher costs will be passed on to Texas families in the form of higher energy bills. Economists at NERA Economic Consulting estimate it will increase annual electricity rates by up to 21 percent between 2022 and at least 2033. That will amount to hundreds of dollars per year for families already living paycheck to paycheck  expenses they cannot afford.

Higher energy prices will hit employers, too, driving up the cost of doing business. Thats especially true for manufacturers, which require abundant energy usage. Combined with other new carbon regulations, the Heritage Foundation estimates this will cost up to 43,000 manufacturing jobs in Texas alone.

These crushing costs are part of the reason why 29 states  including Texas  filed a federal lawsuit against these regulations. The other is that it is an unprecedented federal overreach into states rights. This bipartisan coalition is backed by liberal Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe  President Obamas law school professor  who argues that it amounts to burning the Constitution.

This is where the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. In temporarily halting the regulation until this suit is resolved, the court ruled that moving forward with its implementation could irreparably harm the states, and that they have a likelihood of succeeding in federal court. This is an extremely rare move that speaks volumes about the regulations shaky legal ground.

So what does that mean for Texas? Testifying before Congress after the stay was issued, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy made it clear: Nothing is going to be implemented while the stay is in place. It is clearly on hold until it resolves itself through the courts.

In other words, there will likely be no further action on this regulation till at least 2017, which is the earliest the Supreme Court could make its final ruling. Even with Justice Scalias recent passing  which many EPA supporters say improves their chances before the Court  the future of the regulation remains in jeopardy.

Therefore, during that time, it makes no sense for Texas authorities  including air and environmental quality boards, public utility commissions and individual utilities  to proceed with implementation plans. Doing so risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars if the regulation is ultimately ruled illegal, which as the stay suggests is likely.

President Obama has spent his eight years in office passing regulations that push constitutional boundaries. Now the Supreme Court has put a check on his authority, with a more decisive ruling to come next year. Texas state officials should heed the high courts warning and move to minimize any loss to taxpayers between now and then.

Thomas J. Pyle is the president of the American Energy Alliance.
A 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg in East Chattanooga Sunday afternoon.

Police responded at 12:35 p.m. to the 2000 block of Ocoee Street on reports of shots fired. Shortly after the report, a male juvenile arrived at a local hospital suffering from a single non-life threatening gunshot wound.

Chattanooga Police arrived on scene within minutes of receiving the report of shots fired and located several parties in the area.

While police spoke with the individuals on Ocoee Street, the teen with the gunshot wound arrived at a local hospital.

Police confirmed the juvenile had been shot in the 2000 block of Ocoee Street.

Chattanooga Police Violent Crimes Investigators were notified and responded to the scene.

Two possible suspects were detained for questioning.
The terms of public service are the prerogative of the public. Fundamental among those terms; public servants are accountable to the public, and to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, at least for the eight measly hours a day that we have to "trust" them with the control over our power and our resources.
Article by Luigino Caliaro, photos by Luca Marin

On February 4th, following a thorough rebuild by owner Andrea Rossetto, a former Italian Army Cessna O-1E Bird Dog took off on her first post-restoration flight into the crisp winter skies over Montagnana airfield near Padova, in northeastern Italy. Save for a minor radio problem, the initial sortie was a complete success. Vintage military aircraft are rare on the Italian civil registry, but this effort is proof that with enough dedication, passion and perseverance, warbirds can indeed fly  even in a country where obsessive bureaucracy, absurd airport taxes, and high operating costs abound.

This Bird Dog rolled off Cessnas production line with the US military serial 61-2987. She became E.I.-20 after joining the Aviazione Leggera Esercito (Italian Army Aviation) in 1963 as part of a batch of 44 examples supplied under the US Governments MDAP (Mutual Defense Assistance Program). E.I.-20 served the army until 1992. The civilian market then came calling, with the Aeroclub dItalia purchasing E.I.-20, along with several other ex-Italian Army Bird Dogs, for use as glider tugs. Following rework by OMA in Foligno, E.I.-20 effectively became a Cessna Model 305C and took on the civil registration I-EIAI. The Aeroclub dItalia flew her at the Foligno Aero Club until a ground loop ended her career there in 2001. Her dusty remains lay at the airfield, seemingly forgotten until Andrea Rossetto rediscovered them in 2009. After a short talk with the Aero Clubs president, the Bird Dog changed ownership and suddenly had a much brighter future ahead of her. Rossetto overhauled every part of the aircraft, zero-timed the engine, and retrofitted her military features.

He chose to represent his Bird Dog as O-1G 51-11952 Mekong Mauler. This was the personal mount of Warrant Officer Rick Shoup when he flew with the 199th Reconnaissance Aviation Company Swamp Foxes from Vinh Long, South Viet Nam during 1967 and 1968. His Bird Dog was notorious for becoming the first to wear shark mouth warpaint in the Viet Nam theatre. Rick Shoup is still with us, and traveled to Montagnana in 2015 to see his aircraft again, writing a dedication inside her cockpit. The aircraft, now appropriately re-registered I-BDOG, will now undergo a ten-hour flight test regime before receiving her final permit to fly, and is expected to take part in the 2016 air show season. Andrea Rossetto is proud of his aircraft and what she represents. He recently told the author, May this plane serve as a special tribute to those brave pilots who served as Forward Air Controllers in Viet Nam, because their story has been for too much time untold.

About Andrea Rossetto:

Andrea Rossetto has a long association with military aviation, having graduated from the Aeronautical Institute in Forli, followed by an enlistment in the Italian Army with the paratrooper brigade FOLGORE, and later as an officer in the Italian Air Force. In 1997 he became an air traffic controller and served for about two years with 51 Stormo at Treviso-Istrana Air Base. At the end of 1999, he transferred to the Padova Area Control Center where he worked as Radar Air Traffic Controller and On Job Training Instructor. Since he was a child Andrea has had a passion for history, that led him to appreciate historic taildraggers and aircraft. In his spare time, he tows gliders from a Stinson L-5 or a Cessna O-1. In 2009 he finished the restoration of his Aermacchi MB-308, registered as I-NCOM. In 2013 he went with the same plane to the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget as a guest of Italian defense manufacturer Finmeccanica. Rossetto lives in Torreglia near Padova and is the president of the Historical Aircraft Group.

Article by Luigino Caliaro, photos by Luca Marin

WarbirdsNews wishes to thank Lugino Caliaro for the article and Luca Marin for the photos.
 Flash

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday during a phone conversation discussed issues on Syrian peace process.

The two discussed humanitarian aid issues and the planned cessation of hostilities in Syria, "with the exception of fighting against terrorist groups."

It was noted that progress was made on humanitarian aid delivery to besieged areas in Syria.

Lavrov and Kerry also discussed current practical interaction between the two countries, both being co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group.

"It was confirmed that the establishment of mechanisms to implement tasks (in the Munich agreement reached last Friday) requires military coordination," said an online statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Lavrov also stressed the importance of not allowing Turkey to violate Syria's territorial integrity, as Ankara continued "inadmissible and provocative" bombings against Syrian territories.

In another development, Russia on Saturday urged the U.S. and other NATO countries to responsibly and carefully choose their targets in Syria.

The comment came as the Serbian Foreign Ministry earlier confirmed two employees of the Serbian embassy, kidnapped last November in Libya, were killed in the U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS).

"This is far from the first time NATO airstrikes have killed innocent people," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, while expressing deep condolences to the families of the victims.

"Of course, the United States and its allies should be guided first and foremost by international law and act not unilaterally, with coordinated steps with all concerned parties in the international community."

The U.S.-led coalition have been conducting airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria and other Middle East countries since 2014, while Russia started bombing terrorist targets in Syria from last September.

Russia has fallen into "war of words" with western countries on Syrian issues, accusing each other of causing civilian casualties and bombing targets other than terrorists'.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday claimed that Russian armed forces in Syria "helped Syrian government army and other participants in anti-terror efforts to defeat terrorists, saved civilians from violence, barbarism and tyranny."

"We have always sought to resolve any disputed issues solely through political and diplomatic means, we have repeatedly contributed to stabilizing the situation in different countries, helped resolve serious conflicts," Putin said.

Reiterating that fighting terrorists in Syria is protecting Russia's national interests, Putin said the Russian army must "always be ready to promptly and efficiently respond to any potential threat, to stop any provocation and aggressive actions."
Major oil-producing nations agreed to wrap up talks on capping output by the start of March, according to Russia's Energy Ministry.

The nations are seeking to curb the recent flood of oil supply that has seen prices for the commodity halve over the past year.

Big oil nations are in talks over curbing supply Credit:Matthew Lloyd

"We agreed that all consultations should be completed by March 1," Russian energy Minister Alexander Novak told state TV on Saturday.

Countries publicly supporting the deal export about three-quarters of the world's crude oil, so it "would be a positive signal" for the market, Novak said.
I've seen it as a sign that I've made it, that I've moved up another notch.

Work it out for yourself using the $80,000+ tax bracket. Put to one side the Medicare levy. If you had been earning $79,000 and then got paid $81,000, the tax rate on the last few dollars you earned would climb from 32.5 to 37 per cent.

But that doesn't mean you would pay 37 per cent of your wage in tax, or anything like it. It would mean your total tax bill would climb from $17,222 to $17,917. As a proportion of your (higher) salary it would climb from 21.8 per cent to 22 per cent.

It would be barely noticeable, but it would give you bragging rights.

And the strange thing is it would happen whether or not you moved into a higher bracket. Imagine you had been earning $75,000 and then got $77,000. You wouldn't change brackets but your tax bill would climb from $15,922 to $16,572. As a proportion of your salary it would climb from 21.2 to 21.5 per cent. Tax rates go up as income climbs whether or not people change brackets. The phenomenon shouldn't even be called bracket creep.

It happens because the more we earn, the more the proportion of our salary in the tax-free zone shrinks. "Crossing the threshold" matters symbolically but not practically.
If the proverbial really hits the fan on a Collins Class submarine, the crew has three options to escape.

The best-case scenario, in which they stay dry, is an LR5 rescue submarine that can be flown anywhere in the world, dropped into the sea, and then locks onto the ailing mother boat.

In the worst instance, they can flood the forward section and effectively swim out.

In between, there is the option of using the escape hatch in the middle of the boat, donning MK11 full-body suits that fill with air, and shooting to the surface from depths of up to 180 metres.
 Flash

A woman in tears speaks to the press during a rally in support of New York City Police officer Peter Liang, at Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza Park, in New York, the United States, Feb. 20, 2016. Peter Liang, a New York City police officer of Chinese descent, was found guilty on Feb. 11 of manslaughter over the shooting of a black man, prompting concerns of discrimination. On Nov. 20, 2014, Liang, a 27-year-old with only a year and a half on the job, was patrolling with his partner in Brooklyn's East New York housing project when he was startled by a noise. In a stairway that prosecutors described as "pitch-dark," Liang drew his gun and fired. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit Akai Gurley on a lower level. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday in more than 30 American cities to support Peter Liang, a former New York police officer of Chinese descent, who was convicted for fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell in a public housing building.

In an effort to show solidarity, a large number of protesters, mostly Chinese Americans, joined demonstrations in cities around the nation from Washington D.C. and New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Many in the crowd maintained Liang was prosecuted because he is a minority, while white cops involved in fatal incidents against African-Americans were not.

At the Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, New York, 10,000-strong protestors from all over the metropolitan area converged with placards and banners in hands, chanting slogans like "tragedy, not crime," "equal justice for all" and "accident is not a felony."

The organizer of the New York protest -- the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights -- said that what actually happened was a tragic accident that claimed two victims, Peter Liang and African American Akai Gurley, but Liang was unfairly made a sacrifice to ease the ever-intensifying friction between the police force and the black communities all around the country.

A ricocheted bullet from Liang's service weapon accidentally killed Gurley, an unarmed civilian, when the former New York police officer was patrolling in a housing project in the borough of Brooklyn in late November in 2014.

Liang was found guilty of the killing of Gurley and convicted of second-degree manslaughter by a jury on Feb. 11.

The conviction has sparked an uproar within the Chinese-American community, not only in New York City but also many other major U.S. cities with substantial Chinese-American population.

In Washington D.C., hundreds of protesters on Saturday rallied around the Northeast Quadrant of the Washington Monument to support Liang. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco also saw similar protests.

Calling Liang's conviction "wrongful and selective prosecution," Yuanfan Sun, one of the volunteers who helped to organize the rally in the D.C. area, said the conviction was the latest case of making the ethnic minority American a scapegoat to pay for the police brutality that has troubled the American society for a long time.

"Liang is not a criminal. Sacrificing Liang is not the correct way to solve the systematic problems. Justice is not served by finding a scapegoat," said John Chen, president of the New York-based Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.

On Nov 20, 2014, Liang, a 27-year-old "rookie" officer with only a year and half on the job, was patrolling on the eighth floor of the Pink Houses with his partner, Shaun Landau, who was also new to the job. Liang had his gun drawn.

In the court hearing, Liang testified that in the pitch-dark stairway, he was startled by a noise. "And the gun just went off after I tensed up."

The bullet hit the wall before ricocheting and hitting Akai Gurley on a lower level, piercing his heart and liver. It was minutes later Liang came to know Gurley was struck and killed. "I was shocked. I was in disbelief that someone was actually hit," Liang recalled.

Liang is the first policeman from the New York Police Department to be convicted of homicide in the shooting of a civilian since 2005.

Many believe that the manslaughter conviction has been influenced by the enormous pressure on the country's law enforcement, as white police officers have often walked scot-free in similar incidents wherein innocent black civilians were killed, which have triggered massive protests and riots from African-American communities nationwide.

Outside of the Cadman Plaza Park, a dozen of "black lives matter" activists also held an opposing protest. They demanded "killer cops" be jailed, and called for stricter police accountability.

"In New York and all over this country, for a long time, we can point to many even worse instances of police abuse and police murder where the police have gotten off. But that does not make Peter Liang any more innocent," said protester Richard Kossally.

Still, supporters of Peter Liang believe that the death of Mr. Gurley was purely an accident. "There should be no conviction," said President of the New York Veteran Police Association Lou Telano. "We hope that the law enforcement realize that this was just a tragic incident, which doesn't warrant manslaughter, and doesn't warrant a crime. There's no intent."

"My feeling is, that (the guilty verdict of) Peter Liang is just pacifying certain political groups." Lou said.

Attorney Hugh H. Mo, who served as deputy police commissioner of New York and assistant district attorney in Manhattan, believes that the guilty conviction was affected by the current political climate.

"I think you have to examine Peter Liang's case in the context of wrong time, wrong place. Within the last year and half, or two years, there has been such a great number of police shootings of the innocent black man. That certainly created a whole issue of police accountability. As we all know after (Eric) Garner and (Michael) Brown, these cases that have galvanized African American community as well as the white community, many African American feel that police had to be held accountable."

Many others held a similar opinion. Chief Information Officer at Coalition of Asian American Don B. Lee said, "I believe that Peter Liang was convicted in the court of public opinion before he is even convicted in the court of law."

Liang and his partner was fired from the police department right after the conviction. His sentencing is set for April 14.

Although a guilty conviction by a jury is very difficult to overturn, supporters has voiced hope for leniency in Liang's sentencing.

"What happened on Nov. 20 was a tragedy for both families," Councilwoman Margaret Chin in Manhattan said in a statement. "I ask that Judge Chun give the many factors that made that tragedy happen due consideration in the sentencing of Peter Liang."

"I hope that District Attorney Thompson will say to the sentencing judges that Peter Liang did not intend to kill Akai Gurley to get things right. This is an accident, not a crime," said Don Lee.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
There is one four-letter word that politicians do not like to use.

Former treasurer Wayne Swan knows only too well what happens when it slips out.

The debate is all about speaking to voters' perceptions of themselves, because even voters earning a lot of money in comparison to the rest of the population do not like the word "rich".

Back in 2011 when he was revealing the budget Mr Swan suggested that couples earning $150,000 a year were not "rich" but were rich enough to no longer need government assistance in some areas.

"You raised the figure before  about $150,000 a year," Mr Swan said at the time.
A Chinese businessman who lost $NZ5 million ($4.6 million) in 82 minutes while gambling at Auckland's SkyCity casino has been accused of stealing $NZ129 million to fund his lavish lifestyle.

William Yan gambled $NZ300 million in the casino's VIP lounge between 2001 and 2013. The combined total of money gambled and won by the businessman over the period was $NZ563 million, reports the NZ Herald.

William Yan, who lost $5 million in 82 minutes while gambling at Auckland's SkyCity casino, has been accused of stealing $129 million to fund his lavish lifestyle. Credit:Channel Nine

The New Zealand citizen is now at the centre of a money-laundering investigation and, following the 2014 raid of his $NZ2.5 million Auckland apartment, has had $NZ40 million worth of assets seized by the authorities.

New Zealand police are working closely with Chinese police, who claim Mr Yan stole the money while working as chairman of a pharmaceutical company in 2000.
"I will be advocating Vote Leave .... because I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control," Mr Johnson said.

Speaking to a crowd of reporters on the steps of his London home, Mr Johnson said Prime Minister David Cameron had not achieved fundamental reform of the European Union.

London: The popular mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has confirmed he will campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in the run up to the June 23 referendum, ending intense speculation over the position of one of the most influential figures in British politics.

The confirmation came hours after Mr Cameron used an interview with the BBC to urge Mr Johnson not to join the campaign for a British exit.

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, is surrounded by photographers on Sunday as the UK waited to hear if he would support the 'out' campaign in the upcoming EU referendum. Credit:John Stillwell

Mr Cameron has declared his own intention to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU after clinching concessions from other member states that he said would give Britain a special status in the world's biggest trading bloc.

Mr Johnson said the decision to oppose Mr Cameron had been "agonisingly difficult" and praised the prime minister's renegotiation effort, but he said the reforms agreed in Brussels had fallen far short of meaningful change on issues like sovereignty.

"I don't see how, having worried about this issue for quite so long and having fulminated for quite so long about the lack of democracy in the EU, I can then pass up what I think will be the only chance any of us have in our lifetimes to put an alternative point of view," he said.
Austin, Texas: Mahua Choudhury, a university researcher whose specialty is pregnancy complications, is hoping to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa by focusing on the part that precedes the pregnancy.

Choudhury, of Texas A&M University, thinks she has come up with a "super-condom" - an idea that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation consider promising enough and realistic enough to fund out of a highly competitive grant program. If the condom works as Choudhury and her research team suspect, it will keep HIV, and quite possibly other sexually transmitted diseases, from being transmitted - even if it breaks.

Condoms are set for a revolution. Credit:Robert Banks

A bonus: The antioxidant that makes the condom work that way also enhances the sexual experience - a property Choudhury hopes will help to encourage the condom's use and counteract the stigma this kind of contraception carries in much of the developing world.
When the Chippewa Falls School Board failed to advance an ambitious building plan to voters in an April referendum, it did not mean any of the details contained in the recommendation were dead. Building a new school, closing old ones or making improvements to current buildings were key components of a proposal that emerged from a Facilities Study Committee.

But with few visible signs of public support for the committees recommendations  its pricetag of $167 million had more than a little to do with that  the School Board is going back to the drawing board and this time, sans committee, doing all of the work itself.

On Thursday night, the board unanimously approved a series of work sessions that will take it back to the basics, starting with a tour of all of the districts facilities the first week of March. Community information sessions are slated from March 28 to April 5, and three community surveys are scheduled throughout the process, which is designed to wrap up by August.

While the possibility exists that the board could arrive at the same destination as the facilities committee, it has become clear at recent board meetings that members have little appetite for revisiting the $167 million recommendation.While the possibility exists that the board could arrive at the same destination as the facilities committee, it has become clear at recent board meetings that members have little appetite for revisiting the $167 million recommendation.

We gathered a diverse group of stakeholders for our committee, and what we found out is what the community does not want to do, said board member Amy Mason, who does not expect the original proposal to resurface.

We cant go through this again and come out with the same answer, and not take the time to break out the wants and the needs, Pete Lehmann, a School Board member who also served on the facilities committee, said this past week. You dont want to go through the same experience again.

Learning curve

The School Board isnt throwing away the work of the facilities committee. Board members Lehmann, Staish Buchner and Melanie Sinclair-Schaller participated in its work, as did several district administrators, and say that time was valuable.

We learned a lot from the process, said Superintendent Heidi Taylor-Eliopoulos, who could not have predicted the plan the committee recommended. When we started I would have guessed 100 different outcomes.

Chad Trowbridge, the schools business manager, explained during a special meeting Tuesday night that in several areas one decision by the committee led to another because they were interconnected.

I think the real decision you have to make is, do you want to build a new high school or dont you? Because if not, I think your answers will be very different, he said.

Board member Pat Allen cautioned that it was important the group did not understate the effect on property taxes that goes with any referendum.

Whether its $25 a year or whatever, its going to be an additional tax burden and we have to take that seriously, she said.

Another common objection, Mason said, was the possibility of the new school being built in another location.

Many people that I spoke to did not like having (the new high school) in the southern corridor of our district, she said, noting they prefer the high schools current West Hill location.

Buchner sensed no support for the committee recommendation to house all grade 4-5 students in one building.

Theres also a group that says you want to close my school out at Stillson and then you expect me to pay the taxes (on a school elsewhere)? Why dont you bulldoze the thing and build a new school in that area, he said.

School Board President Jerry Smith said he fielded many questions that will need to be explained, including why the plan for a new high school was not substantially larger than the current one.

They are almost identical in size, and tell me what youve gained, he said. We have to talk about what were going to do to make (a new school) different, more functional, if we go that route.

Overcoming objections

The facilities committee consisted of a contingent of people affiliated with the school district and area residents, and that last component was a key to getting public involvement. That element is even more pronounced in Taylor-Eliopoulos proposal to the board.

We have a really involved workplan for the board, and we will gather community input in three different occasions, she said. That will lead us down the path thats right for the community.

Michelle Golden, the districts human resources director, said an initial survey could be done, but Lehmann does not see the need considering a public hearing was held last month.

They showed up and told us what they thought, he said. They spoke and we have a pretty good idea of what the expectation is right now.

However, Golden pointed out there was no opportunity for a dialogue with the public at that meeting  it was strictly to listen, and the information presented by the public was not always accurate.

For someone to say we have grown by 29 students in the last 15 years is totally inaccurate, she said, repeating one comment made during the public session. There were quite a number of things people listed that were inaccurate. They just didnt have the information that the committee did.

A community survey would include people besides the loudest voices, Golden said, and provide data that could be used by the board.

There are two or three items that we can just put to rest immediately, Sinclair-Schaller said. They dont understand how schools are financed, the constraints that were under with the state. If were serious about this, we need to start right now trying to quell some of those ideas that are just plain misinformation.

Smith was aware of another school district that set up a website and promptly answered the publics questions.

Someone has to man it, I know, but they created a dial-an-expert type of thing, so they got immediate feedback, he said. They told me that was very successful for them. I dont know if it would be for us.

Building improvements

A 2010 district-wide facilities study produced fairly similar results to what the 2015 report identified when it came to the buildings, said Randy Knowlton, director of building and grounds for the district.

On the mechanical and utility side, we have a lot of things that need to be upgraded in a timely manner. It doesnt need to be done overnight, but we have a number of things that need to be improved, he said.

Buchner agreed, saying he spoke with a custodian who expressed a desire to show area residents all of the structural things that are in need of repair.

Yeah, we need all that stuff. We dont necessarily need a new high school, but we need to fix things, he said.

No question this construction has been on the docket for the last 15 years, Smith said, and that troubles me.
Dear Editor, There has been an alarming uptick in murders over the past couple of months and as always there are voices giving causes and solutions and the political voices are nor least among them. One side seems content to let the other stew because this is not their "watch",but... Read more 
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, Feb. 15:



Weve always gone through periods when our democracy seems stuck. And when that happens, we have to find a new way of doing business. Were in one of those moments.  President Barack Obama, Springfield, Feb. 10, 2016.



When President Obama uttered those words in Illinois last week, urging bipartisan cooperation, he could not have guessed how relevant they would soon become  or how quickly they would be disregarded.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, alas, quickly sent partisans to their battle stations. Republicans vowed to block any nominee, arguing that the decision should not be made by a lame-duck president. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid retorted, Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senates most essential constitutional responsibilities.

The president has indicated he will submit a nomination. The question is: What kind? If Obama is sincere in his wish for a new spirit of compromise, he can demonstrate it, and perhaps inspire it, by looking for someone acceptable to reasonable people on either side of the aisle.

Senate Republicans dont hold all the cards here.

If they appear obstructionist, they could not only damage the GOP presidential nominee but torpedo some of the incumbent Republican senators facing re-election this year.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell has to wonder whether holding to a hard line on the court vacancy could mean losing the Senate.

Obama obviously is not going to win over the opposition party with a liberal dream candidate  the Democratic version of Scalia. If he is to have any hope of getting his nominee approved, the candidate will have to be a Democratic version of John Roberts or Anthony Kennedy  experienced, respected legal figures who, from their records, could not be counted as automatic votes for one side.

What Obama should be looking for is someone who sees the role of a justice much like Roberts outlined it in his confirmation hearings: Judges are like umpires. Umpires dont make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical.

They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Roberts and Kennedy, appointed by Republican presidents, have sometimes disappointed Republicans.

There is no shortage of candidates who would verify Obamas willingness to meet the other side halfway. One is Sri Srinivasan, who served in the Solicitor Generals Office under President George W. Bush and Obama and was confirmed for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by a unanimous vote of the Senate.

Another is Merrick Garland, chief judge of that court, who is considered a moderate.

Or the president could break the usual mold of candidates and choose someone from elective office  say Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a former prosecutor and member of the Judiciary Committee known for working with Republicans, or Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who calls himself a radical centrist.

Maybe the White House has in mind other prospects of this sort who would actually have a prayer of getting through the Senate. Republicans would be forced to choose between a comparative centrist now and a staunch liberal next year, if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is elected.

Obama could boast that rather than make a partisan selection to please his Democratic base, hes nominating someone who at times may surprise and even flummox him in the coming decades.

Just as Justices Roberts and Kennedy at times have surprised and flummoxed Republicans.

The alternative for Obama is to choose an unmistakable liberal for symbolic or ideological reasons. We realize suggesting that he do otherwise asks him to buck his political instincts. Many Democrats will be peeved if he doesnt choose someone in the mold of his earlier nominees now on the court, the usually reliable liberals Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Sure, Obamas submission of a doomed choice now could be used to tar the GOP as intransigent and rally the Democratic faithful on behalf of the partys presidential nominee.

By taking that route, though, Obama would not only assure a protracted vacancy on the court but drive a bigger wedge between the two parties on Capitol Hill.

If he wants to establish a new way of doing business, this is his chance.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Feb. 15, 2016 | MURRAY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 15, 2016 | 03:34 PM | MURRAY, KY

Murray State University's Animal Health Technology/Pre-veterinary Club and the Humane Society of Calloway County are hosting a Doggie Day Spa on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 9 am to 2 pm at the A. Carman Animal Health Center on College Farm Road directly across from Calloway County High School.



Proof of current rabies vaccination is required to participate for dogs which are old enough to have received the vaccine.



The Humane Society will microchip dogs for $10 each and Little Shop of Collars will make custom pet ID tags on site beginning at $4 each. A wide selection of collars, leashes and harnesses will also be for sale.



Murray State University animal health technology and pre-veterinary students will bathe a dog for $10, clean ears & trim nails for $8 or provide "the works," - bath, ear cleaning and nail trim - for $15.



If you've always wondered what breed mix your dog might be, the Humane Society will have canine DNA test kits for sale for $80. The cheek swab can be done that day, or the kit can be completed and mailed from home. Besides being fun to know what breeds make up your dog, the information can be valuable for your veterinarian in anticipating any health issues prevalent in certain breeds of dogs. A canine DNA test kit makes a unique gift for family and friends who have mixed breed dogs.



For more information, contact the Humane Society of Calloway County at 270-759-1884 or visit www.ForThePets.org.


By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 21, 2016 | 12:11 PM | HARDIN, KY

Four people were arrested Friday after police found an active meth lab inside a Marshall County home.

According to the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to Commerce Street in Hardin to serve an arrest warrant. While at the home, deputies reportedly found an active meth lab.

As a result of the ensuing investigation, 46-year-old James E. Warford of Hardin was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was also served a Marshall County Circuit bench warrant for failure to appear on previous drug charges and a Calloway Circuit warrant on a trafficking charge.

Also arrested were 35-year-old Kurtis L. Jacobson of Benton, 37-year-old Megan S. Watters of Farmington and 45-year-old Andrew Kelley of Hopkinsville. Jacobson was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Watters and Kelley were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine.



All four were lodged in the Marshall County Detention Center.
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By The Associated Press

Feb. 20, 2016 | COLUMBIA, SC; LAS VEGAS, NV

By The Associated Press Feb. 20, 2016 | 09:03 PM | COLUMBIA, SC; LAS VEGAS, NV

It's a significant Saturday in the 2016 presidential campaign as Republican voters in South Carolina and Democrats in Nevada had their say in the race, and it meant the end of one campaign:



Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, rebounding after a second-place finish to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.



The victory for the former secretary of state over the Vermont senator gives her two wins to one in the race for the Democratic nomination.



Clinton eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses before Sanders posted an overwhelming victory in New Hampshire's primary.



Surveys of caucus-goers taken as they entered caucus sites showed that older women turned out in force to support Clinton, pushing her to victory despite her continued struggles to attract young women.



The Democratic competition heads next to South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary next Saturday.



The Palmetto State's Republican primary went to Donald Trump, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire.



Florida Sen. Marco Rubio edged out Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by under 1,000 votes in a close race for second.



Exit polls taken in South Carolina found that about three-quarters of Republican voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States. That's one of Trump's signature proposals.



A majority of voters looking for an outsider candidate supported Trump, providing a boost to the first-time candidate for office.



Following the primary, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he is ending his bid for the White House. The teary-eyed son and brother of former Presidents said he's proud of the campaign he ran to unify the country and advocate conservative solutions.
Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
Wisconsin would be the first state to ban transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms assigned to the gender with which they identify if lawmakers approve a controversial bill that drew more than 100 people to the Capitol on Thursday.

The bill would require school boards to designate bathrooms and locker rooms by gender, require schools to make special accommodations for transgender students and others, and to require the state Department of Justice to defend school districts in lawsuits alleging the policy is discriminatory.

At a hearing on the bill sponsored by Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, Kremer and supporters said the legislation seeks to protect all students privacy and prevent uncomfortable situations.

The bill provides a dignified learning environment for all students, Kremer said.

Opponents said the bill would put the state in conflict with federal rules that say students cant be treated differently on the basis of gender and impede local control.

The bill, as introduced, will not only negate local efforts to fashion local solutions but will likely create new legal concerns for schools, said Dan Rossmiller, lobbyist for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

Joellen Kralik, a research analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said similar legislation was introduced this year in Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota Missouri, Nevada and Texas, but none were enacted.

Representatives of public schools said it overrides the decision-making abilities of local school boards, and would put schools in conflict with federal guidance.

The foremost of those is that it undoes the efforts local school districts have made to address accommodations for all students, said state Superintendent Tony Evers. In school districts across the state, a great deal of time has been spent building relationships with community members and understanding these complex issues from all sides. This bill disregards that important work.

Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, which describes its mission as promoting Judeo-Christian principles and values, said federal guidance that supports allowing transgender students to choose bathrooms forces the majority of children to forfeit their privacy rights.

Its a social experiment that borders on child exploitation, she said.

The hearing drew a number of transgender students, including some attending Madisons East High School, who argued the bill ignores the realities of a transgender students experience and could be problematic for students who are homosexual but not publicly.

A trans woman is a real woman and a trans man is a real man, said Aden Haley-Lock, a 14-year-old freshman at East who uses the schools gender-neutral bathroom.

Fed policy at issue

If passed, the policy could put the state at odds with a federal policy regarding student discrimination known as Title IX. In 2014, the Office of Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education said this law covered discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.

In June, the U.S. Department of Justice sided with a transgender student from Virginia who said his schools policy of requiring him to use alternative facilities instead of communal bathrooms violated his rights, and that he should be allowed to use the bathroom assigned to the gender he identified with as a matter of mental health.

Kremer said Thursday the Education Department has overplayed their hand in setting societal norms through Title IX. He said the departments policy would force students to shower next to their peers of other genders.

We dont want that. Thats not a societal norm, he said.

Joanne Lee, mother of Skylar Marcus Lee, a deceased transgender student from West High School, tearfully testified against the bill, saying forcing transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological gender could spur intense depression and thoughts of suicide.

The bill defines gender as being the physical condition of being male or female, as determined by an individuals chromosomes and identified at birth by that individuals anatomy, according to an analysis of the bill from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Revised bill

When he first drafted the bill earlier this fall, Kremer said safety fears could arise when female students entering a bathroom are followed by someone and they dont know if that person is a transgender student or someone up to no good.

Under an amended version bill, students may request special accommodations if they dont want to use bathrooms associated with their biological genders. Parents may also file a written complaint if they feel their students privacy is being violated because of transgender students use of a schools bathroom or locker room. A school district then has 30 days to investigate and attempt to resolve the complaint.

If the complaining parents are not satisfied with the school districts resolution, they may sue the district.

Kremer said the bills impetus came from a situation in the Kewaskum School District in which a student who was born female but identified as male was repeatedly using a school bathroom for boys.

Rep. Sondy Pope, D-Cross Plains, questioned how a students gender would be determined and how school districts would pay for building new unisex bathrooms.
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GOLDEN, B.C.  One man was killed and a second snowmobiler was in hospital late Saturday following an avalanche near Golden, B.C.

Golden-Field RCMP said two other men were uninjured when the avalanche struck the four riders in the Quartz Creek area west of the community.

Golden and District Search and Rescue flew into the area by helicopter after police were notified just after 12 p.m. MT that an emergency GPS beacon had been activated.

Police said a 30-year-old Calgary man died in the avalanche and a 40-year-old man from Winnipeg was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

The two other riders were also from Calgary. No names have been released.

The incident came a day after Avalanche Canada issued an avalanche warning as potentially deadly snow conditions develop on slopes across parts of eastern and southeastern British Columbia.

The warning was in effect through to Monday in the North and South Columbia regions, the Purcell Mountains and the Kootenay Boundary.

Recent new snow and wind have deposited up to a metre of new snow across these regions that overlays a weak layer, Avalanche Canada forecasting supervisor James Floyer said in the warning.

He said this layer has fail a number of times over the past few days, resulting in some close calls.

Our concern is that as the sun comes out this weekend, this weak layer will become more easily triggered. And with the amount of snow thats on top of it we could be seeing some very large and dangerous avalanches.

Glacier National Park has issued a similar warning for backcountry users in that region east of Revelstoke.

Saturdays avalanche follows another in B.C. almost a month ago in which five snowmobilers were killed.

The five victims, all men from Alberta ranging in age from their early 40s to early 60s, died Jan. 29 near McBride, B.C.
A Republican governor, Tommy Thompson, started Wisconsins BadgerCare health insurance for low-income families in 1999.

A Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, expanded the program in 2008.

The parties have disagreed on details over the years, but no aspect of the Medicaid program has been as explosive as a further expansion allowed this year through the federal Affordable Care Act.

Different opinions

Republican Gov. Scott Walker rejected the expansion. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke says she would accept it.

How much the Medicaid expansion or other health care issues will resonate with voters in November is hard to tell.

This is untested ground, said Jon Peacock, research director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. I cant recall an election where there have been such significant differences of opinion with regard to BadgerCare.

But the Medicaid expansion is technical, involving poverty levels, funding formulas and comparisons with private insurance that can easily make heads spin, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School poll.

Will it motivate voters? I think that hinges on whether the Burke campaign wants to focus on the issue and how convincing the governor can be, Franklin said. Its hard to reduce to a sentence or two, let alone a bumper sticker.

Will it matter to voters?

When state residents were asked this spring to name the most important issue facing the country, health care came in fourth in The Wisconsin Survey by St. Norbert College. The top three issues were economy and jobs, gridlock/polarization, and budget/deficit/debt.

When respondents picked the most important issue facing the state, health care fell to eighth, also trailing education, infrastructure, welfare issues and drug/alcohol abuse.

In March, 39 percent of registered voters in the Marquette poll said they had a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, while 50 percent had an unfavorable view.

But 60 percent of voters polled said they would keep the health reform law, signed in 2010 and implemented in stages since then. Just 36 percent said they would repeal it.

When asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who supports the law, 25 percent said more likely, 28 percent said less likely and 45 percent said it wouldnt make a difference.

Walker opposes the Affordable Care Act, saying it requires the majority of people in Wisconsin to pay more money for less health care. He opted against having the state set up the laws health insurance exchange, deferring to the federal government to run it. Wisconsin joined other states in a mostly unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the law.

Burke said she supports the laws goals and many of its provisions, such as banning denials of coverage for people with medical conditions and ending caps on benefits.

But she is concerned, she said, that we havent yet seen the cost savings we need.

The law shouldnt have prevented Medicare from negotiating bulk discounts on medications like the Veterans Administration does, for example, she said.

The Medicaid debate

The part of the law that comes most within a governors purview is the Medicaid expansion.

The law allows states to get federal funding to fully cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $26,321 for a family of three, through 2016. Later, the federal government will cover at least 90 percent of the costs, up from its usual share of 60 percent.

Walker said the federal support could fall through, putting state taxpayers at risk. He and the Republican-controlled Legislature decided to shift about 63,000 adults with incomes above the poverty level off BadgerCare, saying they could get private coverage on the exchange or from the marketplace. His plan has also allowed about 89,000 childless adults below the poverty level to gain Medicaid coverage, according to new figures last week.

Walkers goal is to move people from government dependence to true independence, not because weve kicked them out but because weve empowered them to take control of their own lives and destinies, Walker spokeswoman Alleigh Marre said.

Burke cited a Legislative Fiscal Bureau report that said accepting the Medicaid expansion would have saved Wisconsin $119 million through next year and covered nearly 85,000 more people.

Those are dollars that could have been used for a number of other priorities, such as education or economic development, she said.

In the Marquette poll in October, 36 percent of voters favored rejecting federal funds to expand Medicaid and 56 percent opposed that policy.

The Wisconsin Medical Society and the Wisconsin Hospital Association are among health care organizations that called for Walker to accept the full Medicaid expansion. They havent changed their position but are committed to making Walkers alternative plan work, the groups said.

A key factor in the alternative plans success is whether at least 90 percent of the 63,000 adults who lost BadgerCare have found affordable insurance on the exchange or through other means, as Walkers administration claimed.

Democrats have pressed the administration to release the figure, which the Department of Health Services has said it might do this month.

The data will be very important in assessing these policies, the hospital association said in a statement. We continue to be concerned, particularly about those at the lowest income levels ... and whether coverage is truly affordable for them and what the impact could be on hospital uncompensated care.

Another figure to watch: how many childless adults sign up for BadgerCare.

The total so far is above projections, which could make Walkers alternative plan more expensive than predicted, Peacock said.

Burke said such unexpected costs would reinforce her position that Wisconsin should accept the full Medicaid expansion.

Other health care issues

Another issue: whether Wisconsin will seek federal permission to charge premiums for more families on BadgerCare and make children ineligible longer if their parents miss payments, as outlined in the state budget, Peacock said.

Burke said charging reasonable premiums for some parents is reasonable, but penalizing children doesnt make sense. Walker, through Marre, didnt say if he would make the changes.

Rick Abrams, CEO of the Wisconsin Medical Society, urged whoever wins the governors race to increase or at least maintain Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors.

Weve got to make sure we have a stable environment, he said.

Burke said she wouldnt switch state employees from a competitive HMO model for health insurance to a self-insured model, a shift the Walker administration has been studying.

Burke said she would assemble stakeholders to address public health challenges in the state, such as obesity, smoking, binge drinking and a high black infant mortality rate.

Other health issues needing more attention are heroin abuse and access to health care in rural areas, she said.

Walker, through Marre, didnt address other health issues.
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While the rest of Canada talks and talks about reducing reliance on fossil fuels, one tiny northern town is leading the way in actually doing it.

Colville Lake, high in a corner of the Northwest Territories, has successfully tested a system of batteries and solar panels that should allow the community to run entirely on the suns energy  at least in the summer.

There is really no other community that I know of that is structured this way, said Myra Berrub, manager of energy services for the Northwest Territories Power Corp.

A worker adjusts one of the panels on a solar array installed in this tiny, remote northern community of Colville Lake, N.W.T., in this undated handout photo. Colville Lake expects to run entirely on the sun as summer returns - with batteries and a diesel generator as a backup. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Northwest Territories Power Corporation

Colville Lake, a Dene community of about 150, needed to replace its aging diesel generator. The corporation installed a new one, but supplemented it with batteries and an array of solar panels capable of generating 136 kilowatts.

When its dark, Colville Lake runs off diesel. The batteries save fuel by absorbing and storing any power in excess of demand, so the generator always runs at maximum efficiency.

As more light returns after the dark days of winter, the use of solar power will expand until it meets all the communitys needs.

The community now sees about eight hours of low-angle sunlight a day. By late May, sunlight is virtually 24-hour.

The sun is just starting to come back, said Berrub. Were just starting to generate solar right now. We do expect there will be periods when solar is running the town.

Its a small solar station, but Berrub said Colville Lake banking so heavily on it makes it unique.

There are other communities that have large solar arrays, but the uniqueness of this installation is that its a remote community. Its not on a grid, so you dont have the grid to help you smooth out any bumps.

The project is being carefully watched.

Power is a big issue across the North. Outside of Yukons hydroelectric development, most Canadian Arctic communities depend on giant diesel generators that get their expensive, high-carbon fuel delivered over ice roads and on barges.

A 2015 Senate committee concluded northern electricity systems are aging, underperforming and at capacity. Northern premiers regularly request federal funds to deal with the problem.

Some renewable sources are already functioning in the Arctic.

Biomass  also known as wood stoves  heats many homes. Wind turbines have been installed outside Whitehorse as well as in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Colville Lake may become a model, said Berrub.

If costs do come down in the future and net savings are there, it would certainly be something we would consider for other communities.

So far, solar power does cost more than diesel  mostly because of the expensive batteries, said Berrub. The $7.8-million system received a $1.3-million subsidy from the territorial government.

There are other benefits to moving away from diesel.

You dont have the exhaust and you dont have the noise. Itll be really exciting to have the community quiet without the diesels running.

 Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the Senate committee report was published in 2014.
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George Hutchinson Beckford seemed determined to avoid a career as a railway porter. In the end, though, he spent nearly 35 years with the CPR and became one of the citys most respected labour leaders of the 1940s and 50s.

Born in and raised in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Beckford apprenticed as a machinist before coming to Winnipeg in 1913. He quickly found his career options here were extremely limited, as the vast majority of black men worked as porters for one of the citys four main railways. For a small number of them, becoming an entrepreneur and opening a barbershop or restaurant was their way out. It was a path Beckford hoped to take.

The 24-year-olds first local job was as a porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway, but he lasted less than a year. By September 1914 he had obtained a chauffeurs licence, advertising himself in newspaper classified ads as Chauffeur (colored), experienced, seeks position, private or commercial.

Canadian Labour Congress Archives George Hutchinson Beckford

Beckford did get work as a private chauffeur and by 1916 was driving his own taxi.

In late 1917, his career was put on hold when he was drafted into military service with the 1st Depot Battalion (Manitoba Regiment). He arrived in Britain in April 1918, just months before the First World War ended, and the following year was sent to France with the Commonwealth War Graves Detachment. These men had the unenviable, but necessary, task of combing the former battlefields for the tens of thousands of corpses and other remains that had been buried in craters or makeshift graves and exhuming them for relocation to formal cemeteries.

The work was slow, dirty and physically demanding. Just a couple of months into it, Beckford developed a severe pain in his back. Fearing he may have contracted malaria, he was pulled from duty and sent to a military hospital, where he was diagnosed with spondylitis, an inflammation of the joints in the spine. A man with a bad back was of little use to the detachment, so he was promptly discharged.

Beckford arrived home in late August 1919. In need of a quick job to re-establish himself, he signed on as a porter with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. A few months later, he was a mechanic at an auto garage.

If Beckford was avoiding a career with the railway, he had good reason. Despite the stereotypical image of the smiling porter, the job was gruelling. They were expected to look after hundreds of travellers by making their beds, serving coffee, cleaning toilets and running errands. Their workdays were as long as the train journey they were part of, usually 72 to 100 hours. They were not assigned berths of their own but rather expected to catnap throughout the trip to get their rest.

During the First World War, things got worse for porters as trains were pressed into constant service to shuttle soldiers around the country. To free up able-bodied white men for the war effort, the railways decreed other passenger-car jobs, such as cooks and waiters, were to become coloured-only positions. This left most of the trains staff, except the engine crew, in the same predicament of earning very low pay and working long hours.

Winnipeg was a hub of railway activity and a meeting place for porters from points east, west and south. It might be no surprise, then, that this is where they tried to organize themselves to demand better working conditions.

In the spring of 1917, a small group of local porters led by John A. Robinson tried to organize porters with the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees (CBRE), but was refused because the union did not accept black members. Undeterred, they created an independent union called the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP), said to be the first black union in North America.

The biggest test for the new organization came during the Winnipeg General Strike. Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, and 99 of them walked off the job in May 1919. The railways began importing porters from the U.S. to take their place and, when they issued an ultimatum to the men to return to work or be fired, only 29 went back. Ads for permanent railway porters ran in the newspapers throughout the summer of 1919.

In 1920, Beckford again went back to the railway, this time as a porter with the CNR. He saved enough to purchase a Main Street cafe in 1926 he ran on the side, but the venture lasted only a couple of years. He ended up spending the rest of his working life as a CNR porter.

Beckford moved around a great deal, even after his marriage to Norean in the late 1920s. He lived at numerous rooming houses that catered to porters on streets such as Selkirk, Banning, Bannatyne and Elgin. One address that remained a constant during his career, though, was 795 Main St.

In 1922, the OSCP rented offices and a meeting hall on the upper floor. They were joined by the local branch of the American-based Universal Negro Improvement Association. By the end of the decade, the main floor of the building was home to a black pool hall called the Unity Pool Room, which also featured a lunch counter and barbershop. It became a hub for the citys black community for decades to come.

Beckford was involved in the OSCE, but it wasnt until the 1940s, when John A. Robinson was nearing retirement, that he came to the fore.

Though he was a machinist by background, Beckford was constantly educating himself, describing his personal pursuits as being a student of political history, economics, psychology and public speaking. This made him a popular and sought-after member of Winnipegs labour community.

Through the 1940s and 50s he held numerous executive positions, including chairman, with the OSCE, which by that time was called Division 130 of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees and represented porters and other passenger-car staff from Thunder Bay to Vancouver.

Owen Clark Collection Musician Olie Wagner and his Knights of Harlem outside the Unity Pool Room in 1940. Most members of the band, including Cecil Lewsey, Clarence Lewsey and Percy Haynes were also railway porters.

He was also elected to various executive positions within the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees itself, the union that once wouldnt let him join because of the colour of his skin.

In 1942, Beckford became the treasurer of the Winnipeg Labour Council, a position he held for a dozen years. Described as eloquent and hard-nosed when he had to be, the council chose him to attend numerous national conferences on their behalf. He was also their appointee to their Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba advisory committee and the provinces Minimum Wage Board.

A key theme Beckford stressed throughout his time with the Winnipeg Labour Council was improved education. As part of the Labour Education Association, a sort of speakers bureau, he gave talks at halls and the University of Manitoba campus about the Workers Compensation Act. He also pushed for better vocational training in the citys regular school system. This got him appointed to the Winnipeg School Divisions advisory committee on what would become Tec Voc High School.

Beckford ran unsuccessfully for city council twice under the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation banner in 1948 and 1949.

He presented a wide-ranging platform to electors, and one of its main planks would not sound out of place in 2016. He wanted the city to move away from its heavy reliance on residential property. To do this, he proposed taxing railway land and selling off City Hydro. He also wanted the city to pressure senior levels of government to share more of their income directly with its municipalities, where much of that wealth was created.

On March 31, 1954, Beckford retired from the CNR at the age of 65. He also stepped away from the Winnipeg Labour Council and his union positions.

At one of his final council meetings, he announced he was going to spend some of his spare time writing a book called People I Met, about his years on the rails. Sadly, it appears he did not get around to publishing it.

In retirement, the man who spent most of his adult life travelling finally settled down. He and Norean bought their first house on Notre Dame Avenue at Dagmar Street.

George Hutchingson Beckford died on Feb. 20, 1976 at the age of 86.

Christian Cassidy writes about local history on his blog, West End Dumplings.
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua  Fernando Cardenal, one of the priests who famously rebuffed a papal order to quit Nicaraguas leftist Sandinista government, died in Managua Saturday. He was 82 and long back in the good graces of the church.

The Jesuit was a practitioner of liberation theology, and he joined the Sandinista rebels after they toppled the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, first leading a widely praised literacy campaign and then serving as education minister.

The participation of priests such as Cardenal, his brother Ernesto and Miguel dEscoto in the leftist government irked Pope John Paul II, who publicly wagged his finger at Ernesto Cardenal during a papal visit to the country in 1983.

I cannot conceive of a God that would ask me to abandon my commitment to the people  Fernando Cardenal in a 1984 letter

A year later, they were among four suspended from the priesthood for refusing to leave their political posts. Ernesto Cardenal, perhaps Nicaraguas best-known poet, was culture minister and dEscoto was foreign minister.

In an open Letter to my Friends published in late 1984, Fernando Cardenal defended his decision in theological terms, saying, I believe before God that I would be committing a grave sin by abandoning a post committed to the poor.

I cannot conceive of a God that would ask me to abandon my commitment to the people, he said.

Fernando Cardenal left his cabinet post in 1990 and, like his brother, eventually broke with the main Sandinista Front led by Daniel Ortega.

In a step even more unusual than his suspension, he was reinstated to the Jesuit order in 1997 and until his death was heading the Nicaragua office of Fe and Alegra, a Jesuit program that brings schools to poor parts of Nicaragua and other countries.

The agency confirmed the death in a statement, praising his tireless struggle to defend the rights of the most vulnerable.

Local news media said the death resulted from complications following a surgery two weeks ago.

Pope John Paul II told Cardenal and other priests  including Cardenals brother Ernesto  to quit politics. When they refused, he suspended them from the priesthood in 1984.

 The Associated Press
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JERUSALEM  Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of Treblinka, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland where 875,000 people were systematically murdered, has died in Israel at the age of 93.

Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a revolt shortly before it was destroyed.

Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as perhaps the most vivid example of the so-called final solution, the Nazi plan to exterminate Europes Jews. Unlike at other camps, where some Jews were assigned to forced labour before being killed, nearly all Jews brought to Treblinka were immediately gassed to death.

ODED BALILTY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Samuel Willenberg displays a map of Treblinka at his house in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2010.

Only a select few  mostly young, strong men such as Willenberg, who was 20 at the time  were spared from immediate death and assigned to maintenance work instead at the camp, located northeast of Warsaw.

On Aug. 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the woods. Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed by Nazi troops in the surrounding minefields or captured by Polish villagers who returned them to Treblinka.

The world cannot forget Treblinka, Willenberg told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview.

He described how he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed-wire fence and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and non-Jewish look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.

After the war, Willenberg moved to Israel and became a surveyor for the Housing Ministry. Later in life, he took up sculpting to describe his experiences. His bronze statues depicted Jews standing on a train platform, a father removing his sons shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved and prisoners removing bodies.

I live two lives. One is here and now, and the other is what happened there, Willenberg said. It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always.

His two sisters were killed at Treblinka. He described his survival as chance, sheer chance.

The Nazis and their collaborators killed about six million Jews during the Holocaust. The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz  a prison camp in southern Poland where more than a million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labour.

It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always

His daughter said he died Friday. He is survived by a daughter and grandchildren.

 The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was remembered Saturday as a man of faith, family and the law in a funeral marked by church ritual and pageantry for the conservative jurist whose larger-than-life personality dominated the high court for nearly three decades.

A whos who of the nations political and legal elite was among more than 3,000 mourners at a funeral mass for Scalia at the largest Catholic church in the United States. Vice-President Joe Biden and 10 of the 11 living justices with whom Scalia served joined his wife of 55 years, their nine children and dozens of grandchildren on a balmy winter morning.

U.S. President Barack Obama did not attend Scalias funeral mass, despite some criticism from Republicans. The White House said the decision is a respectful arrangement given the presidents large security detail and Bidens personal relationship with Scalias family.

DOUG MILLS / NEW YORK TIMES (POOL) The Rev. Fr. Paul Scalia, son of Antonin Scalia, speaks during the mass.

Scalia was buried later Saturday in a private ceremony at an undisclosed location. He died unexpectedly last week at age 79 at a resort ranch in west Texas. He was the longest-serving among the current justices and the courts most outspoken conservative.

His death has set off a tumultuous political fight over a replacement and is affecting the presidential campaign.

The Rev. Paul Scalia, the justices son and a Catholic priest, presided over a traditional service that lasted more than 11/2 hours and dispensed with eulogies Scalia himself had said he did not like. Instead, his son spoke with reverence and humour about Scalia as a father and Catholic who saw no conflict between faith and the love of ones country.

Scalia regarded the founding of the United States as a blessing  a blessing quickly lost when faith is banned from the public square or when we refuse to bring it there, his son said. As a father, He loved us and sought to show that love and sought to share the blessing of the faith he treasured, he said.

Sure, he forgot our names at times or mixed them up, but there are nine of us, Paul Scalia said to laughter from the crowd at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Among the other participants in the mass was Justice Clarence Thomas, who also is Catholic. Thomas read a passage from the New Testaments Book of Romans.

Scalia was known as a champion of originalism  interpreting the Constitution according to the meaning understood when it was adopted. He famously sparred with liberals who view the constitution as a living document and frequently declared in public speeches his view that the Constitution is dead, dead, dead.

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The casket containing the body of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia leaves the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

His flag-draped casket was brought to the church from the Supreme Court, where more than 6,000 visitors, including Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, paid their respects Friday.

 The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON (AP)  A mysterious brain disorder can be confused with early Alzheimer's disease although it isn't robbing patients of their memories but of the words to talk about them.

It's called primary progressive aphasia, and researchers said Sunday they're finding better ways to diagnose the little-known syndrome. That will help people whose thoughts are lucid but who are verbally locked in to get the right kind of care.

"I'm using a speech device to talk to you," Robert Voogt of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said by playing a recording from a phone-sized assistive device at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "I have trouble speaking, but I can understand you."

Even many doctors know little about this rare kind of aphasia, abbreviated PPA, but raising awareness is key to improve care  and because a new study is underway to try to slow the disease by electrically stimulating the affected brain region.

PPA wasn't identified as a separate disorder until the 1980s, and while specialists estimate thousands of Americans may have it, there's no good count. Families may not even seek care because they assume a loved one's increasingly garbled attempts to communicate are because of age-related dementia, said Dr. Argye Elizabeth Hillis of Johns Hopkins University. Often, it's when those people reach neurologists who realize they aren't repeating questions or forgetting instructions that the diagnosis emerges.

"Nobody's talking to them, nobody's involving them. It's very sad," said Dr. Margaret Rogers of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Yet for many, "they can handle their own finances, they can drive, they can appreciate music. There's a lot that still works for them."

Speech and language are hugely complex. Just to speak requires activating 100 muscles between the lungs and lips to produce at least 14 distinct sounds per second, said Dr. Joseph Duffy of the Mayo Clinic.

Stroke or brain injury patients often have trouble making sounds or retrieving words. PPA occurs for a different reason, because the brain regions that control language become diseased and degenerate, resulting in communication difficulties that may mimic broader dementia.

Special MRI scans can tell the difference, Hillis said. They also can help identify whose aphasia will worsen faster, and who has a subtype that can morph to become Alzheimer's-like, where they eventually do lose memory and the ability to understand language.

Standard language therapy has patients match pictures to the correct word, to keep the wiring involved as active as possible. Now, Hillis' team is testing if a kind of brain stimulation that sends electrical signals through the skull can rev up the effects of that treatment.

In the first 19 patients tested, people did better retrieving the right words for about two months after receiving the electrical stimulation than when they received sham zaps with their regular therapy, Hillis reported Sunday. They were more able to name objects they hadn't practiced, and brain scans showed better connectivity in the affected region. But it will take far more study to prove if the treatment produces lasting effects, she cautioned.

Until there's better medical treatment, Voogt, the Virginia patient, illustrates how assistive communication devices can help patients' quality of life.

Now 66, Voogt was diagnosed 10 years ago, with a form of PPA that makes him unable to say words even though he can understand and type them via email, text or his assistive device. He owns a brain-injury rehabilitation center, and knew how to track down a specialist for diagnosis when he first had trouble retrieving words.

Sunday, Voogt patiently answered Hillis' questions by typing into a device called the MiniTalk, or calling up verbal phrases he'd pre-programmed into it. Asked to say "dog," Voogt forced out only a garble. But asked what cowboys ride, he typed horses and the device "said" the word.

His form of PPA also impacts grammar so that he has difficulty forming full sentences, Hillis said. Asked to write that's "it's a cold day in Washington," Voogt typed a minute or two and the device's recorder emitted "cold Washington D.C."

Voogt typed that he started relying on the device in 2012, but lives independently and travels internationally. But asked how difficult the loss of language is to live with, he typed out a pretty bad rating  70 percent.
BLACK RIVER FALLS  Language teachers Dana DeBoer and Gordon Thunder find joy in hearing their high school-age students speak Ho-Chunk.

The language of the Native American tribe has seen a steady decline in fluent speakers in recent years, but new and revived efforts to pass it on to future generations have begun and will be ongoing in the future.

(Hearing students speak Ho-Chunk) is great. Every day (Gordon) says to them that hearing them talk makes him so happy, said DeBoer, a teacher of Ho-Chunk with Gordon at Black River Falls High School. Its so exciting. Its like, Oh my gosh, we taught them this and now they can say it on their own. Its also like theyre your children and speaking their first words. Its just the best feeling.

The Nation has been working to make its efforts on preserving and fostering the Ho-Chunk language more visible in recent years, including this months launch of new classes that are meant to take the knowledge of those whove recently learned the language and bring them to willing learners in the community.

The Ho-Chunk Academy now is offering weekly classes in Black River Falls, Tomah and Wisconsin Dells at the same time the tribe is growing its partnership with UW-Marshfield/Wood County to provide college-level education and training to apprentices who will teach the language to a variety of age groups.

The tribe is believed to currently have 100 or fewer eminent  or first-language speakers  of its native language. Thats a number thats down from an about 300 a half decade ago.

I would say the Ho-Chunk language  we just need to continue to push it through. Its a team effort, said Samson Falcon, the Nations language apprentice program manager. Now the language division is starting to show (the community) this is what the language division is  were here for the people, for the communities. Were here to share the language, share the culture.

Its a team effort, and its not our language  its not the language divisions language. We are all in the efforts to get the language out to the people. Were coming together to talk about these issues and come up with solutions.

The Nation has a group of people who have graduated from the language apprenticeship program and now are able to start to assist with teaching the community classes, which are set during both work hours and evening times to give the most opportunities to those interested in taking them.

The work is crucial for preserving culture and the Ho-Chunk identity, said Angelica Greendeer, the Ho-Chunk Academys program manager.

Its scary  when youre Ho-Chunk  to know that your language is almost gone. Thats the last thing you want to happen (because) thats your identity, said Greendeer, 32. Its not just speaking the language. Its living the language. It really defines who we are and defines our identity as the Ho-Chunk people.

The Nation for several years has collaborated with school districts to offer language courses in high schools for teenage youth interested in learning. There currently are classes in BRF, Tomah and Wisconsin Dells, with the highest participation in Black River Falls  the area in which the tribes headquarters is located.

Black River Falls has three class levels that DeBoer and Thunder share duties teaching  work that involves educating students who are passionate about learning and speaking Ho-Chunk. Classes range from word learning to composition and speaking the language and expand on the sometimes basic words spoken in Ho-Chunk homes, like the word dad that is spelled jaaji.

A life goal for most people  and I can say for me personally  was to learn the Ho-Chunk language, DeBoer said. The majority of (students) are taking their responsibility to learn the language very seriously. They want to learn it, they want to speak it, they want to use it outside of the classroom. They want to use it at home with their families and their friends and because they know where we are with the state of our language.

The Nation also soon will receive results from its tribe-wide census launched last fall, and the data gathering will include information from respondents about their knowledge of the tribes language  another avenue for determining future education efforts, Falcon said.

In compiling that information, well probably get a better view of what the situation looks like with how many fluent speakers and first-language speakers we have, he said.

Were looking for community support because thats who were trying to reach out to.

Its not just speaking the language. Its living the language. It really defines who we are and defines our identity as the Ho-Chunk people. Angelica Greendeer, program manager for the Ho-Chunk Academy
We appreciate Minnesota Gov. Mark Daytons courage and persistence in calling out runoff from farm fields as a leading contributor to our states polluted waters. It is right for him to call on farmers to come up with solutions that will work for farmers. The Governors Water Summit on Feb. 27 is about bringing Minnesotans together to develop solutions to this problem. As farmers we have some ideas.

First, we must all acknowledge that clean water is necessary for life itself. Its our obligation to work for clean water and government has a critical and appropriate role in ensuring our water is not polluted. A large cause of farm runoff is the result of so much of farmland being without cover most of the year. Corn and soybeans are planted on 75 percent of Minnesota farmland and are green for only 110 days of the year. This creates a long brown season, in which there are no living plants protecting the lands surface, and no living roots feeding the soils biological life below. That leaves the land vulnerable to soil erosion and runoff for most of the year.

We can change this by getting more living cover on our farms. By using more cover crops and perennial crops in our farming systems we can have living cover on the land for most of the year. On a farm that has abundant green living cover on the land year round, water is stored in the soil and filtered through plant roots and living soil. More water stays on the farm and water that leaves the farm leaves clean.

Perennial crops include pasture for livestock. The market for grass-based meat and milk is strong and growing. Incorporating cover crops like winter rye, hairy vetch and tillage radish into row crops can increase profits by decreasing fertilizer inputs and sometimes increasing yields. And at the University of Minnesota the research through Forever Green is developing new cover and perennial crops and markets for these crops.

We know changing farming practices is hard and that federal farm policy often works against farmers using these practices. Current uses of cover crops is below 2 percent. We can do better. Thats why to move the ball forward we encourage Governor Dayton to set an ambitious goal for our state of 20 percent living cover on farmland by 2020.

Governor Dayton can direct the many state agencies working on water quality to develop a plan to achieve this 20 percent living cover goal. With strong direction from the Governor, these many state agencies (including the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Board of Soil and Water Resources, Department of Health) can put resources into getting this done, giving farmers the tools and incentives to be stewards. This is no small task but if we dont do this we cannot clean our water.
Jerome Christensons column on Wednesday on technology prompted me to respond. Ill say at the outset that unlike most of my human counterparts, I have not joined the digital age. To use one of Jeromes phrases, heck, Im what many might call a Luddite. In fact my older brother George called me that during a visit at Thanksgiving, a term I had never heard of before.

Unlike todays youth, who have access to devices in kindergarten, I grew up in school using books, pens, pencils and paper. And of course, crayons! My brothers both have computers, cellphones, etc. and use them extensively. And Ill grant you, there is a wealth of information on them.

My occasional trip into computers involves me going to the library and using theirs for websites like WinonaShares.org or another site equally simple to use. Otherwise I ask questions of the librarian. Thats what they are there for.

At home I still view my favorite shows on an old-fashioned TV, purchased in the 1970s from Winona Fire and Power. It still runs good. And unlike our old black and white TVour first TVbought in the late 1950s or early 1960s, when this current model takes its last breath, it will have to be treated as e-waste and disposed of properly. The former is TV residing in the Homer dump, where at the request of the dump operator we broke the picture tube with a rock prior to him driving over the TV with his bulldozer.

I talk on one of three landline phones, one of which has voicemail and an answering machine. And when it comes to reading, which I love doing, I cant see anything but holding in my lap and hands a book, not an e-reader. Whats the point? Heck on a sunny day I dont even need electricity to read by. Though if I want to, I can read at night with my clip-on light. Runs on batteries.

There was absolutely no surprise in Donald Trumps almost immediate retort to Pope Francis recent comments stating that building walls, not bridges was not Christian. That is par for the course with Trump. It was unimportant that Francis didnt even utter Trumps name. He pounced to condemn the observation as disgraceful.

Well, Donald, being disgraceful is something youre well versed in.

Trump may claim to be Christian, but it is wholly undetectable; not enough evidence to convict. His shameful campaign act, a blatant attempt to woo evangelical voters, is paper-thin. Here is a man who just a few months back attempted to cite Second Thessalonians on the campaign trail, yet whose vitriolic rhetoric doesnt in any way adhere to the teachings of the New Testament. For it was Paul who wrote that true faith produces the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The only fruits Ive observed from Trump are utter contempt for women, mockery of the disabled, advocacy of torture and open hostility to anyone not born on US soil, not to mention Muslims. How very Christ-like!

Voters turning a blind eye to this hypocrisy  now that truly is disgraceful!

Yet it isnt just the example of Jesus that Trump has trouble with. His endless talk of the wall with Mexico doesnt seem very Republican either. I may be wrong, but wasnt it Ronald Reagan, hero of the modern Republican Party, who nearly thirty years ago in Berlin famously said, Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!?

Following Jesus example is too much to expect from Donald. He cant even follow Reagans.

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Send us a letter about any issue you feel strongly about or think others should know about. We welcome letters of 350 words and may edit any exceeding that length.

Letters should include the authors name, address and daytime phone number. Those deemed maliciously harmful, hateful, libelous or racist will not be printed. Mail or deliver your letter to Editor, Winona Daily News, 902 E. Second St., Winona, MN 55987, or email to letters@winonadailynews.com.
There was absolutely no surprise in Donald Trumps almost immediate retort to Pope Francis recent comments stating that building walls, not bridges was not Christian. That is par for the course with Trump. It was unimportant that Francis didnt even utter Trumps name. He pounced to condemn the observation as disgraceful.

Well, Donald, being disgraceful is something youre well versed in.

Trump may claim to be Christian, but it is wholly undetectable; not enough evidence to convict. His shameful campaign act, a blatant attempt to woo evangelical voters, is paper-thin. Here is a man who just a few months back attempted to cite Second Thessalonians on the campaign trail, yet whose vitriolic rhetoric doesnt in any way adhere to the teachings of the New Testament. For it was Paul who wrote that true faith produces the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The only fruits Ive observed from Trump are utter contempt for women, mockery of the disabled, advocacy of torture and open hostility to anyone not born on US soil, not to mention Muslims. How very Christ-like!

Voters turning a blind eye to this hypocrisy  now that truly is disgraceful!

Yet it isnt just the example of Jesus that Trump has trouble with. His endless talk of the wall with Mexico doesnt seem very Republican either. I may be wrong, but wasnt it Ronald Reagan, hero of the modern Republican Party, who nearly thirty years ago in Berlin famously said, Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!?

Following Jesus example is too much to expect from Donald. He cant even follow Reagans.
Caroline Nosal would have lived at least one more day, had state leaders not repealed Wisconsins long-standing 48-hour waiting period on handgun sales last summer.

We know that because the man charged with killing the 24-year-old Stoughton woman legally purchased his firearm Feb. 1. And a day later, Feb. 2, Christopher OKroley fatally shot Nosal outside a grocery store on Madisons East Side, according to police.

Whats less clear is whether a 48-hour delay could have saved Nosals life by providing more time for the accused killer to rethink his senseless plan. OKroley told police he would have shot Nosal, whom he blamed for getting him fired from his job, the same day he brought the gun  except he realized he had never fired a gun and wanted to practice with it, police said.

That led some insensitive people to tell the victims parents, Jim and Jane Brady Nosal, that OKroley was so mad he would have waited for as long as required  more than 48 hours, if necessary  to shoot their daughter.

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

After all, OKroley seemed to be rethinking his actions shortly after his Feb. 3 arrest, which was about 48 hours later. He had fired twice at a police officer that afternoon. Later, he told police he was glad he hadnt hit the officer with those shots. And he started to say he was sorry.

Nosals parents believe a 48-hour delay for the handgun could have saved their daughter. They have pledged to work toward restoring what had been Wisconsins law for nearly four decades. Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republicans who run the Legislature repealed the reasonable two-day pause on handgun purchases last June.

I would like to take the hands of anybody who says guns didnt kill her and tell them to look into my eyes and then tell me that they were 100 percent sure that if there was a waiting period that Caroline still would be killed, Jane Brady Nosal told State Journal reporter Rob Schultz. There was a chance he could have been stopped. Somebody could have learned about his plot and done something to stop it.

Shes right. And thats why state leaders, with strong bipartisan support, adopted the 48-hour rule in the 1970s. Lawmakers back then cited lots of cases in which angry and emotional people committed murders shortly after purchasing handguns  sometimes within hours  only to regret their actions after calming down.

Supporters of quick access to handguns contend it gives women the ability to protect themselves against stalkers and domestic abusers. But evidence of unarmed women being attacked while waiting 48 hours for a handgun is scant. And theyd still have to learn to use a weapon and, to carry in public, get a permit.

Nosal had no interest in firearms, her mother said, and was ambushed while leaving work.

The repeal of the waiting period is convenient for rural residents who no longer have to drive two times to a gun shop to buy a handgun. But the minor nuisance of an extra drive must be weighed against real-life examples where people, including Nosal, have been killed.

Bringing back a 48-hour waiting period wont end Americas scourge of gun violence or cure mental illness, which a former girlfriend says OKroley struggled with. But it will force some potentially violent people to slow down and think about the consequences of their actions.

The chance to save lives is more compelling than the need for instant access to an easily hidden and deadly weapon.
Societal response required to address challenges facing the higher education sector

Protests have been hijacked by small groups that are using increasingly violent methods to show anger at what they call the systemic oppresion of black people.

The current student protests on campuses across our country are distinctly different from those that we saw last year. The protesting communities no longer represent the non-racial, multi-class alliance that united the entire student community and mobilized the support of multiple stakeholders in our society. Instead, the protest movements have been hijacked by small groups that are using increasingly violent methods of protest to convey their anger at what they call the systemic oppression of black people.

In recent weeks, we have seen art activations using offensive language to communicate forms of anger against systems; T-shirts and graffiti clearly demonstrating hate speech; malicious damage to property; and buses and artwork being burnt. The modus operandi of these groups has clearly changed from the broad and diverse movement that united across race, class, culture and gender lines, to one that is highly politicised, downright violent and even racist.

The demand of the students  that of access to quality, free higher education for those who cannot afford it  remains legitimate. However, the motives and the protest methods that are being used by the current student protestors are unlawful and transgress the Constitutional rights of others. Where once student leaders were inspiring hope and leadership, now they are inspiring fear and polarisation.

The tragedy of the situation is that universities are now forced to redirect scarce and valuable resources away from issues that really matter  scholarships, food and accommodation for needy students, and support for the academic project  to fund private security services in order to protect staff members, students and property. Universities are left with little choice  the costs of losing a life, of people being harmed, of malicious damage to property, and of losing the academic year are too ghastly to contemplate. However, what this means is that the poor are further impoverished through the actions of the very groups who are claiming to be fighting for their goodwill.

Our universities are a microcosm of our society and broadly reflect the tense political climate in the country, the racism that has gripped South Africans in recent months, all exacerbated in the lead up to local government elections this year.

But if we allow this to continue without challenging it, the free and safe space of our universities will be compromised, and our institutions will be irreparably harmed. If our universities are indeed destroyed, it will not impact on the wealthy  they can afford to send their offspring to universities abroad or fork out for private higher education that will no doubt fill the void. It is ultimately the poorest in our society and the middle classes who will miss out on obtaining a high-quality tertiary education. This will be truly tragic for we will simply reinforce the very inequalities that we hope to challenge, address and eradicate.

Given our context and the challenges that we face, the violence and racism that are encapsulated in the protests cannot be addressed through security measures only. Instead, we require a broader societal response to bring these challenges to heel. Three separate elements are required in this regard.

First, we need to hold to account protesting students and others who engage in unlawful behaviour for their actions. It is up to parents to call to account their sons and daughters when they engage in violent and disruptive activities. While it is understandable for a parent to encourage and support their activist son or daughter, it is unhelpful when that parent tacitly approves what is patently unacceptable and unlawful conduct, such as the burning of art, buses and vehicles and torching of an office.

It is also up to all of us as ordinary citizens, university management, academics, professional and administrative staff, and students to stand up to these small splinter movements who act #NotInOurName. We have to call out those amongst us who are resolute on effecting harm, causing division and polarising our communities. We also need to be bold enough to rise against those in our society, including academics and students, who are comfortable with flirting with violence and illicit action as justification to effect change in society. It is time for the private sector to better fund our students, to partner with government and universities so that we can collectively generate the high-level skills and knowledge we need to move our economy forward. It is time for noble leadership  a time for all political parties to put the future of the next generation before their own narrow and selfish agendas and to refrain from inciting violence to deliberately destabilise the higher education sector for short term political and electoral gain. It is time for our active civil society to uphold our democracy and to make their voices heard for the right reasons.

Second, we can only move forward if we have the courage and political will to hold each other accountable for any unlawful activity that has the potential to undermine or imperil our higher education system. There must be a clear understanding that there will be consequences for violence and other illegal activities. Peaceful protest is a Constitutional right, but what is often forgotten is that this right comes with responsibilities.

Finally, we have to develop long-term, affordable and sustainable solutions to the challenges that confront our higher education today, including that of transformation, affordable access and funding for universities. In this regard, while we welcome the Presidential Commissions investigation into the funding of the sector, our universities should work with all sectors of society, including students and academic and professional and administrative staff, to apply our collective expertise and experience to present solutions and alternative models to government for consideration.

Our higher education system is at a tipping point. There have been many concessions since October of last year. Government conceded a zero percent increase in fees for 2016 and underwrote it. Government also made additional billions of rands available for underfunded and unfunded NSFAS students and to clear their historic debt. In addition, universities made further concessions on the structuring of fee payments, upfront payments, insourcing and multiple other issues. These concessions have come at a huge cost to the universities. Yet we are continuously subjected to even more demands and protestors have suggested that they do not care whether universities are bankrupted or burnt. They hold that if there is no free education for all, there will be no education at all. This kind of irresponsible action is what could permanently destroy our universities. Are we collectively willing to allow this to happen?

Our country, our higher education system, our economy and our collective futures are at a precipice which only we can address. It is time for all of us to stand up and be counted among those who are prepared to protect our future and the rights and freedoms for which we fought so hard. Let us defend and safeguard our higher education system.

Professor Adam Habib is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University, and Dr Sizwe Mabizela is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Rhodes University. An edited version of this article appeared in the Sunday Times.
Sad woman (illustration)

By: Tanya Malhotra

Several women filed complaints with the police after being sexually assaulted by an elderly grocery store owner, police in the United Kingdom aid.

Powys police said that they have arrested 69-year-old Raymond Grenfell, who is married, after sexually assaulting at least four women in his grocery store.

Grenfell was charged with four counts of sexual assault. In court, Grenfell denied the allegations. The court was told that Grenfell sexually assaulted four 30-year-old women.

The grocery store owner grabbed the womens private parts and forcibly kissed them. He also asked them to strip naked for him.

One woman told the court that when she entered the grocery store, Grenfell approached her and touched her chest. He then said that he wants to take nude photos and make love to her.

Another woman said that Grenfell touched, kissed and made inappropriate comments to her at the store. He also asked her if she had a husband.

When he said she did not, he asked her to lift her shirt. He then forcefully touched her private parts.

Another woman told the court that when she was in the store, Grenfell told her to rub herself into him so he can feel her chest.

He then asked for a kiss. He forcibly kissed the woman and told her how beautiful she was.
Maria Peiner

By: Chan Yuan

A man was arrested on a charge of murder after setting his pregnant girlfriend on fire because he was not ready to be a father, police in Germany said.

Now, 20-year-old Eren Toben of Berlin, has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison after being found guilty of murder.

His friend, Daniel Mueller, 20, has also been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison for taking part in the murder. The woman who was identified as Maria Peiner, was 19 years old and 8 months pregnant when she was murdered.

According to the police investigation, the boyfriend lured Maria to a forest, where she was stabbed in the chest. While she was still conscious, the two friends poured gasoline on the woman and set her on fire.

A court was told that the boyfriend wanted to live as a free man and was not ready to be a father. The boyfriendas accomplice took pleasure in killing another human being.
Widow Maureen McCarthy Scalia, center, and other family members walk behind the casket as it is ushered out of the bascilica following the funeral Mass for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in Washington on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
E-cigarette users are known as vapers because they inhale and exhale the vapor produced by the devices. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
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Reuters- Six people have been killed and three others wounded in shootings in and around Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

Local media reported that multiple people were fatally shot at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township and the Seelye Kia dealership, in Kalamazoo, two of at least three shooting scenes that appeared to have no connection apart from the suspect.

"We seem to be dealing with a worst case scenario, someone driving around shooting," quoted Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas.
BEIRUT/MADRID - Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Saturday he was ready for a ceasefire, on condition "terrorists" did not use a lull in fighting to their advantage and that countries backing insurgents halted support for them.

His comments were made as the Syrian opposition said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus's allies including Russia would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide.

"We have said that we are ready to stop military operations, but the issue relates to more important factors ... such as preventing terrorists from using it to improve their positions," Assad told Spanish newspaper El Pais in an interview.

He also said any truce must ensure that "other countries, especially Turkey, are prevented from sending more terrorists and weapons, or any kind of logistical support".
There have been two reports in the Lebanese press over the past week - one completely false and the other partly true and recycled - about the fate of Israeli pilot-navigator Ron Arad.

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The first report included testimony from an ongoing trial in Lebanon of several people accused of collaborating with Israel. According to these testimonies, Ron Arad died in captivity in 1988, as a result of torture.

The second report, completely contradictory to the first, made headlines ahead of the anniversary of Imad Mughniyah's assassination and ties him to the locating of Arad's personal items - his parachute and weapon - as well as to forming and heading a Hezbollah investigative team in 2004 that sought to discover Arad's whereabouts.

Until Arad's body is returned to Israel, the mystery surrounding his death will not be completely resolved. The family has the right to claim that intelligence findings do not constitute 100 percent proof, and to demand the State of Israel to continue doing everything in its power to return Arad home. Be that as it may, Israel's intelligence community believes the Arad mystery has already been solved beyond a reasonable doubt, and that he is no longer alive - a belief shared by Halachic officials.

Ron Arad

There was a group of swindlers in Beirut that tried to fool the Israeli government in the past with their story of Arad's death as a result of torture. They received some sort of monetary remuneration for the information they provided, which very quickly turned out to be a fabrication meant to exploit Israeli sensitivity on the topic. It was no coincidence that the information provided by the group included internal contradictions and illogical details.

The report about Mughniyah's involvement, however, was more accurate: In 2004, he formed a team within Hezbollah to locate Arad. The objective was for Hezbollah to return Arad to Israel - while securing Israeli commitment to put the affair to rest quietly without pointing to Iranian involvement.

Until 2005, Mughniyah's team did indeed make several attempts to search for Arad, which appeared genuine to the German BND mediators: The team conducted digs across Lebanon using special geologic equipment provided by the Germans. Following those digs, they passed on bones to Israel. Hezbollah believed the chances the bones belonged to Arad were high - mostly because they were found where a Revolutionary Guard man who served in Lebanon in the 1990's said he believed Arad was buried. But DNA tests showed that the bones were not Arad's. When the Germans told Hezbollah this, they encountered strong protest by the organization, which was sure it delivered the right bones, and thought the Israelis were "playing games."

At the same time, several intelligence findings, which cannot be revealed here as they are highly classified, led the head of Israel's intelligence community to an unequivocal conclusion in 2005. The accumulation of different pieces of evidence gathered by a special IDF Intelligence investigative team has led the intelligence community to determine, once and for all, what became of the missing navigator.

The official and painful version the team has adopted was that Arad was kidnapped by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps al-Quds force from the home of the Shukur clan in the village Nabi Shith, where he was imprisoned by Mustafa Dirani, the commander of the "Believing Resistance," a small radical Shi'ite group.

According to the opinion of then-AMAN (IDF military Intelligence) chief, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, Arad was held in Lebanon and was moved to Iran in early 1990, where he was held in isolation and under a veil of secrecy. After Dirani was kidnapped by Israel four years later, the Iranians were worried he would incriminate them as being involved in the affair and decided to return Arad to Lebanon.

According to the IDF Intelligence team's findings, Arad died - as early as at the beginning of 1995 or as late as 1997 - probably from an illness. All of the experts that examined the material gathered by IDF Intelligence determined it was highly credible, and concurred with the assessment that Arad was no longer alive.

Farkash recommended to then-IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz and then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to declare Arad a fallen IDF soldier whose place of burial is unknown, but Sharon, who was worried about the public outcry that would break out and certainly from the Arad family's protest, preferred waiting for DNA proof.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot on Sunday in the wake of harsh criticism over comments he made about the rules of engagement

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In a meeting with high school students last week, Eisenkot was asked whether he thought it was time to update the IDF's rules of engagement. The IDF chief responded that he does not "want a soldier to empty a magazine on a girl with scissors," adding that the IDF does not act "according to slogans such as 'whoever comes to kill you, kill him first.'"

His comments were met with criticism from the right wing, led by Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich.

Eisenkot and Netanyahu (Photo: Amit Shabi)

"This is a pointless debate," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting. "What the chief of staff said is self-evident, and in any case, the IDF and the security forces operate in this manner. Everything that was said afterwards was said either out of misunderstanding or a desire to score political points."

Other government ministers and politicians also came in Eisenkot's defense on Sunday.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told Ynet: "I sleep well when I know he's the chief of staff."

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said that "We have an excellent IDF chief, he doesn't need my backing. The IDF chief is decent, strong, and runs the military courageously. I'm telling you - do not fear and do not be afraid. We're giving you our backing."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of Bayit Yehudi, said that "IDF soldiers are the most moral and most assertive in the fight against terror. The IDF chief merely repeated the rules of engagement and I back him on that - if there's no life threatening situation, fire shouldn't be used."

Eisenkot, right, and 17-year-old Yuval Pollack, who asked the IDF chief about the rules of engagement (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Construction Minister Yoav Galant said earlier Sunday that "It is the IDF chief's duty to determine the rules of engagement and explain them and I'm happy he's done so. When fighting against terror, especially the kind of terrorism we're experiencing now, soldiers must use the minimum required force rather than the possible maximum."

Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel said the IDF chief "clarified what we all know: The IDF is the most moral army and as such, (Eisenkot's) statements are entirely accurate."

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that "Unfortunately, the IDF chief's comments were blown out of proportion many times by the media that might prefer to find cracks, breaches or wrong things done by the security forces. I've made it clear that despite the impression given in the press, but not by the IDF chief, there was no actual incident in which a magazine was emptied out."

"I suggest that we wrap up this conversation and calm down," he added.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has already given his support to the IDF chief last week. "We've been fighting for our national home for many years. We need a skilled force to deal with our enemies, but we must maintain our values," Ya'alon said on Thursday.

Among Eisenkot's critics were Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) and Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich.

Katz wrote on his Facebook page that he "hopes the comments of the IDF, whom I appreciate and value, against the automatic fire against minors, were not wrongly interpreted (by soldiers) and led to hesitation and risking lives. Because sometimes the message is stronger than the words."
BEIRUT - At least 46 people were killed in twin car bomb blasts that hit Syria's Homs on Sunday in one of the deadliest such attacks in the city in five years of civil war, a monitoring group said, and state media confirmed the explosions.

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At least 100 others were wounded by the explosions in the city centre's Zahra district, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Footage from pro-Damascus television channels showed charred corpses buried among rubble, damage to shop fronts and debris littering a wide area. Many cars were on fire, sending out plumes of black smoke. Wounded people walked around dazed.

State television quoted the governor of Homs as saying at least 25 people had been killed.

Homs bombing

Sunday's attacks also came a day after government advances against Islamic State. There was no immediate claim from the group, however.

Homs bombing

A bomb attack in December which killed 32 people took place after a ceasefire deal that paved the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of the city, which was a centre of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said the attack was the second most deadly of its kind in Homs since 2011, and the deadliest for almost a year and a half.

Homs bombing

Violence rages on unabated across the country as world powers and the United Nations push to end the conflict, meeting in Geneva to try to broker a ceasefire.

Homs bombing

Peace talks were suspended almost immediately earlier this month as Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by Russian air strikes, intensified assaults against insurgents in Aleppo province.

The latest fighting in the north of the country has displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom headed for the Turkish border. The exodus added to more than 11 million already displaced by the conflict that has claimed 250,000 lives.
Israeli security forces stopped three terror attacks on Sunday morning. No Israeli troops were hurt in any of the incidents.

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Around 8:30am, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl arrived at the Tapuach Junction with a knife in her possession. She was stopped by troops stationed at the roadbloack.

In initial questioning, the girl admitted that she planned to commit an attack after watching inciting videos on social media. The Kutzra resident was arrested and taken for further questioning.

Palestinian boy arrested after trying to stab soldiers near Bani Naim.

Three hours later, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy from the village of Bani Naim, close to Hebron, tried to open the door of an army vehicle and stab one of the soldiers inside. The troops overpowered and handcuffed him without opening fire.

Several minutes later, another attacker tried to stab soldiers near the Tapuach Junction. He was shot and seriously wounded, and later succumbed to his wounds.

On Saturday night, a stabbing attack was thwarted near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem - the ninth attack there over the past three weeks.
Six members of Israel's Council for Higher Education resigned on Sunday morning in protest of the policies of Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who is also the council's chairman.

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The six are: Prof. Moshe Maor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who is the chairman of the council's subcommittee on Social Studies, Law, Business Management, and multidisciplinary programs in the Humanities and Social Studies; Prof. Judith Gal-Ezer from the Open University, who is the chairman of the higher committee for Recognition, Authorization and Licensing; Prof. Eli Zeldov of the Weizmann Institute of Science; Prof. Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija of Tel Aviv University, who is the chairman of the subcommittee on Education, Pedagogy, Humanities and Art; Prof. Chaya Kalcheim of the Hebrew University; Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron of Tel Aviv University, who was removed from her position as the deputy council chairman.

The six demanded in their letter of resignation to immediately disperse the current council and appoint a new one, whose members will be selected in a transparent process.

Education Minister Bennett (Photo: Liora Paz)

"The moves and steps taken have hurt the essence of the work of the Council for Higher Education, its independence and the nature of its activities," the six wrote. "These steps undermine the academic community's trust in the 12th Council for Higher Education."

Prof. Judith Gal-Ezer told Ynet that "The best interests of higher education were in our minds (when deciding to resign), and this is a move we've been deliberating on for quite a long time."

She said the main reason behind their decision to resign was the removal of Prof. Messer-Yaron from her position as the deputy chair. "It wasn't clear why she was removed from her position; we did not receive any clear or convincing messages from the minister (Bennett). She's a professor, a professional with vast knowledge of higher education, and did an excellent job. A doctor (Dr. Rivka Wadmany Shauman), rather than a professor, was appointed to replace her (Messer-Yaron). She (Dr. Wadmany Shauman) is a senior lecturer who is dependent on the Council for Higher Education's appointment committee for her own advancement, and so because of a conflict of interests, she cannot deal with the appointment of professors."

Gilad Arditi, the chairman of the National Students Union and a member of the Council, came out against the resignation. "In my opinion, the criticism misses the point, big time. The main problem in the Council for Higher Education, both now and in the past, is that it is trying to micro-manage the (academic) institutions and fails to realize its job is to run the system on the macro level. Many candidates are suitable for a macro-level type of role, even if they are not professors. We as students hope that the current shake up leads to a significant clarification of the council's place and role, so academic institutions can have independencein management, while the council challenges them on the general policy level."

After Bennett's decision to replace the deputy chair, rectors from all of the universities in Israel, as well as over 1,500 academics, signed a petition in protest of the move. According to the petitioners, Messer-Yaron's removal from the position and the appointment of Wadmany Shauman to replace her were done in a controversial manner.

Messer-Yaron, they said, "fulfilled her role with professionalism, and her replacement - which was recommended on by the minister and voted for by almost two-thirds of council members - is a senior lecturer but does not have a leading professional standing in her field, as is required of an academic leader."

The resignation will paralyze the council, as according to the law, the number of members at the Council for Higher Education can be no less than 19 members, and there are only 16 left.

The council said in response: "We extend our gratitude to the retiring members of the council for their contribution to higher education. The council continues its activity and other senior academics with a high standing in higher education will be appointed in their place in the coming days."
In less strange political times, the comments made by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot would not have caused any kind of storm. Such comments would not have even justified a headline in the newspaper. Eisenkot spoke to high school students who will soon enlist in the IDF. He described to them the characteristics of the "lone wolf intifada" and mentioned that there are situations in which "a 13-year-old girl is holding scissors or a knife. Even if what she did was very grave, I would not want a soldier to open fire and empty a magazine into her, but rather use the required force. Our soldiers are trained well enough to do this."

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What Eisenkot said accurately reflects the IDF's rules of engagement, common sense, and the IDF's values. Beyond that there's also a practical side: If we learned anything from this wave of terrorism, it's that every confrontation that ends in death doesn't increase deterrence - quite the opposite. It tempts more teens to arm themselves with a kitchen knife and become shahids (martyrs). Like moths to the flame, they are drawn to the Damascus Gate . They believe that there, surrounded by armed Border Policemen and TV cameras, they will get their heroic death. Why do them this favor?

Last week, two ministers gave their full backing to the IDF chief's comments: Moshe Ya'alon and Naftali Bennett. Beyond personal and political considerations, it appears the two are equipped with the ability to feel what the soldier stationed at the Gush Etzion Junction or the Qalandiya checkpoint feels: They were fighters themselves. They know how to tell the difference between being trigger-happy and being smart. I don't think they can imagine themselves opening fire at a girl who pulls out a pair of scissors, not before trying to stop her by other means.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (Photo: Yuval Chen)

Tzipi Hotovely, however, who chose not to serve in the IDF and instead did her national service with the Jewish Agency in Atlanta, would easily open fire at anything that moves. The same applies to the Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who served in the Adjutant Corps, but settled for only tweeting against the IDF chief.

The attack from the right-wing against the IDF chief derives of their inability to explain to their voters why the wave of violence continues. They're in power and they're facing a Catch-22: They have no targets to bomb, because no organization is behind the attacks; they have no settlements to build, as an "appropriate Zionist response," because the West Bank is filled with settlements. No one gets excited about another outpost, and no one takes comfort in another caravan.

If there's any chance to lower the flames, it requires political decisions. Primarily, Israel must dramatically increase the number of work permits; secondly, it must invest in the West Bank's economy and in the quality of life of the population there; thirdly, Israel must give this population hope for the future. But their voters would not like any of these moves.

So they need an enemy du jour, someone to bear the responsibility over the situation. They've already exhausted all of their options: Human rights organizations, Arab MKs, the European Union, the United Nations. Their list of targets is empty. Their attack against the IDF chief comes due to the lack of any other choice.

On Saturday, Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid came out in defense of the IDF and the chief of staff. This was a twisted and needless move. Lapid protested the fact that anyone dares criticize the IDF. He made a mess of things: The IDF is not holy, nor is it immune to criticism.

Herzog complained about the fact Netanyahu has yet to back the IDF chief ( he did on Sunday - ed.). Every day Herzog accuses Netanyahu of being a liar, of leading the country into a moral, diplomatic and security abyss, that he's incorrigible. If Netanyahu really is all of these things, if Herzog truly believes his own speeches, why does he expect Netanyahu to back Eisenkot?

Eisenkot doesn't need benefactors. His standing is strong. Those who need to hear clear statements are the soldiers and officers stationed at junctions. They might get confused. It's best for Netanyahu to turn to them and say: Don't listen to the nonsense of my politician friends. Listen to the IDF chief.
According to a Maan News Agency report, Palestinian President Mahmoud and US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Amman on Sunday.

Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a PA spokesperson, said that Abbas discussed recent developments with Kerry and emphasized the importance of finding a mechanism to hold an international peace conference along the lines of the P5+1 model.

Abu Rudeinah also said Kerry made clear that the US is exerting great efforts to make sure that the two-state solution remains a possibility.
Yadidya Marfi, who has been waiting for 15 years in a Livingston, Texas prison for the implementation of his death sentence.

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In October 2000, Marfi shot and killed a 79 year-old women, when he was high on cocaine. He then stole her car and used her credit card to buy cigarettes and alcohol. A year after later, at the age of 25, he was sentenced to death. His case has since been stuck in appeals courts and he still has not received a date for the implementation of his death sentence.

Marfi is being held in a cell for those on death row, which means his activity and movement are heavily limited. For example, he is forbidden from directly receiving visitors and can only meet them through a glass pane.

Yedidya Marfi and Rabbi Goldstein at Livingston, Texas prison

A few months ago, Rabbi David Goldstein, a Chabad Rabbi based in West Houston, and the Texas prisons rabbi, visited him. Rabbi Goldstein works with 60-120 Jewish prisoners in Texas prisons including some who merit the right to kosher food and weekly lessons.

Marfi told the rabbis about his difficult childhood and how he was abandoned by his Jewish parents and was instead raised by his grandparents. However, when his grandparents were no longer able to care for him, he was sent to a foster home.

He also told the rabbis that he never had a Bar Mitzvah and has been begging prison authorities for 15 years to allow him put on tefillin to no avail.

Rabbi Goldstein intervened on Marfis behalf with prison authorities for an exception and three months later, they decided to allow him to perform the religious ritual.

A short time later, Rabbi Goldstein came to the prison and handed the prison guards tefillin and a yarmulke, who then gave them to Marfi. Through the glass pane, he guided the Jewish prisoner through how to put on tefilin. In addition, he also brought wine and light refreshments in order to hold a small Bar Mitzvah celebration. The rabbi said that when Marfi put on tefillin and read the blessings, he became very excited. At the end of the ceremony, they raised glasses, said lchaim, took pictures through the glass.

This is the first time that Rabbi Goldstein has helped a prisoner perform a Bar Mitzvah, but he had once helped another prisoner put on tefillin. Douglas Feldman, a 55-year-old prisoner, was executed in 2013 by lethal injection because he committed homicide twice. But his final request before being executed was to put on tefillin.

The Chabad Rabbi has a long history in helping Jewish prisoners achieve their rights. My goal is to strengthen their souls, he told Ynet. It took me three months to do everything to arrange for Marfis Bar Mitzvah.

He added, When he saw that I brough him tefillin, he smiled. And believe me, no one on death row smiles. After the ceremony, Marfi asked the prison guards if he could keep the yarmulke, but they refused and yarmulke was taken from him.
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Many older men use testosterone supplements in the hopes that it will increase their stamina, boost their mood, and improve their sex lives. But a new study suggests that testosterone treatment provides only modest improvement in the sex lives, walking strength and mood for older men. Testosterone is the main male hormone.

The study was conducted to see if these popular supplements can help treat symptoms that may be blamed on aging. But the study was done using only testosterone gel on men 65 and older who had low testosterone levels and related symptoms and did not look at whether similar benefits would occur in younger men or test testosterone pills, patches, or injections. It is also not extensive enough to determine if long-term use of testosterone raises the risk of heart attacks and prostate cancer.

Dr. Peter Snyder, a University of Pennsylvania hormone specialist an author of the study, told the Associated Press that it would be premature to recommend testosterone supplements even for the type of men in the study. "Making a recommendation depends on knowing all the benefits versus risks. We still don't know everything we want to know."

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The study involved nearly 800 men aged 65 and older with low blood levels of testosterone. They were randomly assigned to use testosterone gel or a placebo for a year. They filled out questionnaires about their lives and took a six-minute walking test.

The men who used testosterone had a modest improvement in sex lives. They had slightly greater improvement in mood and walking strength than the placebo group, but no difference in energy levels between the two groups was seen.

About 20% of testosterone men said they had much improved sexual desire, and 30% reported a slight improvement, but almost half reported no change. Less than one-third of the placebo group reported any improvement in sexual desire.

On the walking test, those in the testosterone and placebo groups who started out with low scores showed similar improvements.

Testosterone supplements are widely advertised on television but are only approved for treating testosterone deficiencies caused by certain medical conditions. Still, they have become a multibillion-dollar industry.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Follow VSB '09 alum Paul Parisi as he starts his international financial career in Asia




Chandigarh/New Delhi: The Delhi government has ordered closure of schools and colleges on Monday as the state faces severe water crisis triggered by the ongoing Jat quota agitation in Haryana.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Sunday said, the capital was facing a very serious water crisis because of the Jat protests in Haryana and water was to be strictly rationed in the city.

The Munak canal in Haryana, which supplies water to many parts of Delhi, was shut down after it was vandalised by a section of Jats demanding quota in government jobs and educational institutions.

Kejriwal also spoke to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the need to restore water supply to Delhi at the earliest.

He said water would be supplied through tankers to areas in Delhi hit by scarcity.

Because of the water crisis, all schools in the national capital would be shut on Monday, he added.

Security forces had to face a tough time and fire tear-gas shells and resort to mild lathi charge to remove Jat protesters from the Munak canal in Haryana from where the water supply to Delhi was disrupted by the agitators on Saturday.

Sources said army and paramilitary personnel reached the place where the water supply equipment and machines were damaged by the protesters.

"The Haryana government is giving top priority to restore water supply to Delhi," Haryana Police chief YP Singhal said on Sunday.

He said paramilitary forces and irrigation department officials have reached the place where the water supply to the national capital was disrupted by the Jat agitators on Saturday and efforts were being made to restore the supply.
New Delhi: Former Haryana CM BS Hooda today began indefinite hunger strike, as an appeal to the protesting Jat community in Haryana to maintain law and order in the violence-hit state and call off the agitation.

"The agitation has taken such a turn not that it`s not going to benefit anyone. Some people have been killed and I offer my condolences, but the way the situation has escalated there has been severe loss to property as well," Hooda told the media here yesterday.

He also appealed to all the agitators to fight against the 'divisive forces' trying to create a gulf in the society."In a move to ensure calm and harmony returns in Haryana, I will be sitting on a hunger strike at 10 am tomorrow at Jantar Mantar," Hooda said.

Hooda had earlier blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state for protests by the Jat community demanding reservation in government jobs.

He said that the unrest in the state was due to the inciting statements made by the BJP leaders.

"During our government everyone was satisfied with the reservation. We never tinkered with the existing reservations, but at the same time we did not leave out any," Hooda said.

Earlier, a delegation of Jat leaders from Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi, met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday night, and said that they were waiting for the formation of a committee which would review the reservation demands of their community, which will decide their future course of action.

"We had four demands; compensation for those who have died, return of complain, the reservation should be implemented and we demand action on the officers who have ordered firing," a Jat leader told the media after the meeting.

"They have told us that they would be forming a committee by tomorrow which would review the reservation demand," he added.

When asked about their course of action, the Jat leaders said they await the committee formation in as assured by the government.

The Jats leaders appealed people of Haryana to maintain peace in the region, saying violence would not lead to solution in this regard.

"All the Khap Chowdhary`s are there with the people, so I would appeal to them that they must maintain peace," he added.

Meanwhile, violence due to the Jat reservation stir spread to more areas yesterday in Haryana.

Four people were killed in Army firing at Jhajjar taking the death toll due to the agitation to seven.
New Delhi: "I had one child and I gave him to the country." These were the words of father of Captain Pawan Kumar who laid down his life battling terrorists in Pampore area of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday morning.

"I had one child. I gave him to the Army, no father can be prouder. He was destined to be in the Army as was he born on Army Day. He had already been the part of two successful operations earlier where 3 terrorists were killed," said Capt Pawan Kumar's father Rajbir Singh.

"A captain of 10 para regiment was martyred when security forces entered the building on Sunday morning in which militants are holed up," a senior police official told IANS.

"Heavy firing exchanges are going on in the area and the Srinagar-Jammu highway has been closed for safety purposes."

A paramilitary central reserve police force (CRPF) spokesman has denied the media reports that three CRPF troopers were killed in the gunfight so far.

"We have lost two troopers. The rumour about the death of the third trooper is wrong," he said.

"The number of injured CRPF troopers has, however, risen to 13 after three more troopers got injured during the operation."

So far five people have been killed in the fierce encounter.
New Delhi: Five JNU students, including Umar Khalid, who have been charged with sedition, dramatically surfaced on university campus late last night, saying they did not do anything wrong but were "framed" using "doctored video".

While Delhi Police rushed a team to the campus on receiving information about them, the students maintained that "they will not surrender but police can come and arrest them".

The five students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash had gone missing from the campus since February 12 after JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case lodged in connection with an event held on the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

According to Ashutosh, former president of JNU students union and a PhD scholar at varsity's School of International studies, they "have come back with a view of supporting the enquiry.

The massive support we got from students and others from across the globe gave us the strength to return. I, Rama, Anirban and Anant were around but did not come in public due to atmosphere of mob lynching."

He, however, maintained that the four of them were not in touch with Umar Khalid and had spoken to him last on February 9, the day of the event.

Ashutosh said the students were in Delhi itself and that the decision to return on Sunday evening had been taken individually and not collectively.

"We didn't do anything wrong but were being framed using doctored video. We will not go anywhere now and will be part of the movement against the branding of university as anti-national," he said.

The five students also participated in a march, shouting slogans and demanding release of Kanhiaya and addressed a gathering of students at varsity's administrative block where the protests have been going on ever since the controversy erupted.

Khalid denied that he had any terrorist links, while Anirban maintained that it was the look-out notice issued by police which made him decide to come back.

"I am disturbed at the way I have been attacked and I am also angry at the comments posted against my sister on social media," Khalid said.

Police said the students have not surrendered and a team has been rushed to the varsity.

"We had received some information about their reported presence on campus. A police team was rushed to the varsity to enquire out after we received information that they were spotted on the campus. The team has right now been positioned outside JNU," a senior police official said.

"So far nobody has surrendered. The officials at Vasant Kunj North police station have been asked to wait for them to present themselves before the police and surrender. If they don't come till morning, police team will be sent tomorrow to arrest them. No crackdown can be conducted at this hour," he added.

When contacted the university officials, maintained that they had no information about their presence in the varsity's premises.

The varsity Vice Chancellor Jagdesh Kumar later said that the entry for police as well as media persons has been barred for now and a call in this regard will be taken later in the day.

Meanwhile, an emergent meeting of the left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) was also called at the campus to decide future strategy.
New Delhi: Umar Khalid, one of the six students accused of raising anti-national slogans at the JNU on February 9, late on Sunday said he was "not a terrorist", adding the BJP government "needed an excuse to target the campus".

"My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist," Khalid, who fled the campus after the matter became serious, said, condemning the media trial that branded him a terrorist.

"The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us," Khalid said, addressing students in front of the admin bloc at the campus.

Khalid, along with four other accused, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga, Anirban Bhattacharya, returned back to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus late on Sunday.

"The media, all this while, presented a lot of things about me. The media trial, this propaganda... I know what my family is going through," he said.

He also refuted the media reports that he made 800 calls to 'Gulf or Kashmir' a few days before the program was organised.

JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges after some students organised a meet to mark the anniversaries of executions of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were raised at the gathering.

Indo-Asian news service
Delhi: 'Kisiko reservation chahiye to kisiki ko azadi bhai, humein kutch nahin chahiye bhai, bas apni razai (Some want reservation, others want Independence but I do not want anything, except my blanket) - This was the last Facebook post by martyred Army officer Pawan Kumar.

Kumar left this world at the age of 23 fighting to protect his motherland, leaving his family, friends and the nation in tears.

He belonged to the Jat community and was a graduate of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The Army Captain died in the fierce gunfight with a group of terrorists holed up inside a government building on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Kumar belonged to the elite Para commando units and hailed from Haryana's Jind.

He sustained grievous injuries in militant firing as security forces tried to make their way into the building in the wee hours on Sunday, as per an Army official, media reports said.

Kumar succumbed to injuries later.

As per images on his public Facebook profile, it seems that Pawan liked Bullet motorcycles and jeeps, guns and cool logos.

Incidentally he was born on Army day on January 15, 1993.

(With Agency inputs)
Aligarh: A preliminary probe has found "no evidence" to suggest that cow meat was served at Aligarh Muslim University's college canteen as was claimed by some right wing groups, police said.

"A police team led by the Station House Officer, Civil Lines Police Station, visited Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College's canteen immediately after receiving complaints by some right wing organisations that beef by being served there.

"However, the team found no incriminating evidence whatsoever to suggest that any banned food item was being served in the canteen," Senior Superintendent of Police K Ravindra Gaur said.

The row broke out after ring wing activists alleged that 'beef biryani' was being served at the AMU Medical College canteen, an allegation promptly denied by the university.

BJP Mayor Shakuntala Bharti, along with party leaders and several right wing activists, held a demonstration outside the office of Senior Superintendent of Police, demanding registration of an FIR against the contractor of AMU medical college canteen for serving 'beef'.

An university spokesman clarified that it was a common practice in India and abroad to refer to buffalo meat also as beef.

In fact cow meat had been banned in this institution more than a century back by its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, keeping in view Hindu sensitivities on this matter, he said.

AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt Gen (Rtd) Zameer Uddin Shah, today said that he was "seriously concerned" over the entire episode and the fact the City Mayor had taken up this issue with the police.

"I wish to point out that there is no truth whatsoever in the entire allegation that cow meat is being served anywhere at the AMU campus. This is entirely an attempt to whip up communal tension on a very lame excuse," Shah said.

"We, at AMU, are deeply aware of the sentiments involved in such sensitive issues and there is no question of permitting anybody for violating the law on this matter," he said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declined to receive an honorary doctorate from Banaras Hindu University, citing his policy of not accepting such degrees, official sources said here today.

Modi will be visiting BHU on February 22 to attend its convocation during which the University had proposed to confer him with honorary Doctorate of Law.

BHU, in a statement, had said it proposed to confer Doctor of Laws (LLD) (honoris causa) on Modi in recognition of his "yeoman services as an innovator, reformer and an outstanding leader in public service and governance".

It had requested for his consent but the Prime Minister has said he will not accept the doctorate, the sources said.

This is not the first time that Modi has declined such a doctorate. In the run up to his US visit in 2014, a university in Louisiana had proposed to confer an honorary doctorate on the Prime Minister in recognition of his contribution towards social transformation, especially for empowering women and minorities in Gujarat, to which he did not agree.

Even as chief minister, he has declined several honorary doctorates from various universities.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for houses to be built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, at Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Sunday.

The Prime Minister will also launch the Shyama Prasad Mukherji National Rurban Mission at Kurubhat in Rajnandgaon District of Chhattisgarh.

"In Odisha will address a public meeting in Bargarh & in WB I will attend inauguration of Centenary Celebration of Gaudiya Mission & Math.Will launch Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission, which will equip our villages with best infra & make them centres of economic growth," the Prime Minister had earlier tweeted.

The Rurban Mission aims at development of rural growth clusters in all States and Union Territories, which would trigger overall development in the region.

These clusters would be developed by provisioning of economic activities, developing skills & local entrepreneurship and providing infrastructure amenities.

"In Chhattisgarh will lay foundation stone for houses to be built under PM Awas Yojana," Prime Minister Modi further tweeted.

Later in the day, he will address a public meeting at Bargarh in Odisha.

The Prime Minister will attend the inauguration of the Centenary Celebration of Gaudiya Mission and Math in Kolkata.
Raipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday touched the feet of a 104-year-old woman who sold her goats to construct toilet at her home in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh.

PM Modi, who was in Chhattisgarh to launch the ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban (rural-urban) Mission, felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari and then touched her feet to seek blessings.

"An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her. She sold off her goats to build toilet at home and also encouraged others from the village to build," Modi said.

Kunwar Bai had sold-off her 8-10 goats to build two toilets at her home.

Subsequently, she started showing other villagers the toilets at her home while informing them about its importance. Now every home in the village has toilets.

WATCH: Kurrubhat (C'garh)-PM Modi touches feet of 104-yr-old woman who sold her goats to build toilets,earlier todayhttps://t.co/8OA30NKfMH  ANI (@ANI_news) February 21, 2016

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Northern Railways has cancelled about 700 trains and over 100 trains have been delayed or diverted due to ongoing Jat reservation protests in Haryana .

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at New Delhi Railway Station .

Situation in Haryana continues to remain tense with escalated violence in several areas claiming eight lives so far and the state government deploying more forces with the help of Centre to bring back normalcy after the agitating Jat leaders rejected Chief Minister ML Khattars appeal for peace.

Refusing to call off the quota agitation, several Jat leaders demanded the Haryana government to promulgate an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category if it wanted peace and normalcy in the state.

The response came after CM Khattar released a statement saying that his government has "accepted" their demands, but did not elaborate.

The leaders also demanded that a compensation of Rs 50 lakh be given to the kin of the person killed in firing on Friday and a government job to one of his family members.

Meanwhile, hooligans set on fire government and private property and vehicles, blocking roads and highways, disrupting trains and uprooting tracks and indulging in looting on Saturday.

Curfew was imposed in Hisar, Sonipat and Jind towns after violence. Violence was also reported from Kaithal.

The death toll in the violence in past 36 hours has reached eight with over 100 people being injured. One person was killed when soldiers opened fire on an unruly mob in Jhajjar.
London: The mortal remains of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose should be DNA-tested to conclusively prove that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, according to a UK-based website set up to catalogue the nationalist leader's last days.

The website called on the Indian government to approach the government of Japan regarding a DNA test of the remains of the freedom fighter which are believed to be preserved at Tokyo's Renkoji temple since September, 1945.

Bose is believed to have died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

"A DNA test could end the controversy over Bose's death once and for all," www.Bosefiles.Info said in a statement.

The website also released letters to show that as far back as September 5, 1995, Ashis Ray ? Bose's grandnephew and the website's creator ? had written to then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao suggesting a DNA test of Bose's remains.

The letter, declassified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month and posted among the National Archives' files under the heading of Netaji Papers, reveals Ray pleaded with Rao for a DNA test of the remains at Renkoji temple.

After that and following telephonic contacts with British and American DNA testing organisations, on September 21, 1995 Ray apprised then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

The next day, September 22, 1995, Ray received a written communication from K Sullivan of Britain's Forensic Science Service, which stated: "Further to our telephone conversations regarding the analysis of the putative remains of Subhas Chandra Bose, I am able to confirm that a blood sample from either a nephew or niece from his sister's side of the family would be a suitable control for DNA analysis purposes".

Ray forwarded this note to Professor Anita Pfaff, the Germany-based daughter and sole heir of Bose.

Thereafter, Ray sought out a son of one of Bose's sisters - the late Shanti Kumar Dutt - who was willing to fully cooperate regarding a DNA test, the website notes.

The letters to Mukherjee, from the British Forensic Science Service and Dutt have now been posted on the website.
Rampur: Coming out in support of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan today said he did not utter anything which may be termed "anti-national".

"Versions of Kumar's speech that appeared in various telecasts did not show what the Union government has been saying," he said.

Speaking at a function at government's post graduate college Mr Khan accused Modi government of conspiring to saffronise JNU.

Wherever dissenting voice is raised, it is being crushed. This is the crux of anti-democratic intentions of the government, he added.

Supporting Shiv Sena's demand to demolish Taj Mahal, he said, "If it is demolished, we shall celebrate."

Earlier, he had said the money spent on building the Taj Mahal was unjustified and he would have led the mob had it decided to bring it down stating that Shah Jahan had no right to squander crores of public money in the memory of his wife.

He also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "You visited Pakistan hurriedly, what were the circumstances that compelled you to fly to Pakistan ignoring security protocol?"

At another PG Girls' College, Mr Khan alleged his phone is under surveillance 24 hours.
Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi late on Sunday, will pay a visit to the Ravidas temple in the wee hours on Monday.

PM Modi also tweeted this morning paid respect to the great saint and social reformer.

I bow to Guru Ravidas ji on his Jayanti. His thoughts & emphasis on social reform & equality transformed our society & enriched it greatly.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 22, 2016

On the occasion of Guru Ravidas Jayanti, the PM will spend some time at the temple and then proceed to address the Banaras Hindu University's centennial year convocation function.

After delivering the convocation address as the chief guest, the PM would fly back to Delhi the same day in the afternoon.

The BHU Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripthi had told media persons that the Prime Minister has declined to accept the varsity's proposal to be conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws during its convocation ceremony.

Interestingly, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also likely to visit the Ravidas temple later today.

Kejriwal would reach Varanasi at around 12:10 pm from Delhi and will head to the Ravidas temple where he will stay till 2:45 pm before returning to the national capital.

It would be the first visit of Kejriwal since he lost the Lok Sabha election to Modi from Varanasi constituency in 2014.

With PTI inputs
Beirut: Bomb attacks in Syria's central city of Homs and near a shrine outside Damascus killed at least 87 people on Sunday, as Washington pursued efforts for a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce, as violence intensified on the ground.

Double car bombings killed at least 57 people and wounded dozens in the Al-Zahraa district of Homs this morning, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Later at least 30 people were killed in a series of attacks, including a car bombing, near the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab south of the capital, state television and the monitor said.

The Homs attack was the worst in the city since twin bombings hit a school in October 2014, killing at least 55 people including 49 children.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted by attacks, including last month when a double bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 22 people.

State television footage from the scene showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past shops shorn of their fronts and mangled cars and minibuses.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an online statement that two its members had driven explosives-laden cars into crowds of residents.

The blasts outside Damascus saw a car bombing and two suicide attacks rip through the area of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, state television reported.

The Observatory gave a slightly higher death toll of 31 killed and said there were four attacks.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks but at the end of January IS claimed bombings that killed at least 70 people near the shrine, which contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is revered by Shiite Muslims.

World powers have been pushing for a halt in fighting in Syria that was meant to take effect by Friday, but have struggled to agree on how it should be implemented.

The latest bombings came as Kerry said he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and agreed on how to implement a ceasefire.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman.

"It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task," he added.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks.

Assad meanwhile told Spain's El Pais newspaper that he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but said it should not be exploited by "terrorists".
Benghazi: Five members of security forces loyal to the internationally recognised Libyan authorities and eight fighters from rival groups were killed today in clashes in Benghazi, the LANA news agency said.

They were killed a day after 14 members of the security forces died trying to retake a district in Libya's second city held by rival groups.

"Five soldiers were killed in an operation aimed at repelling terrorist groups in western Benghazi, as well as eight fighters belonging to these movements," said the agency which is close to the recognised authorities.

The oil-rich North African country has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognised government fled Tripoli after a militia alliance including Islamists overran the capital.

Citing a military source, LANA said that despite losing 19 men in two days, loyalist forces managed to seize Al-Marayseh port in western Benghazi and Al-Hawari hospital in the south.

"Orders were given to the soldiers to continue their advance and not to stop until they have successfully overcome the terrorist groups in Benghazi" in an operation dubbed "The Blood of Martyrs", the source said.

For a year and a half, Benghazi has seen bloody fighting between armed groups including IS and Ansar al-Sharia, which is close to Al-Qaeda, and forces loyal to the government.

LANA, citing a medical source, also said seven people were killed in Ajdabiya (190 kilometres, 120 miles southwest of Benghazi) in two days of fighting between loyalist forces and rival groups.

The country has been gripped by chaos and security problems since its 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with a multitude of armed factions battling for territory and control of its oil wealth.

The violence has allowed the jihadist Islamic State group to establish a foothold, and IS now controls the coastal city of Sirte and its surroundings.
Columbia: Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton earned a much-needed win over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses, US networks projected, while Donald Trump looked for a big win in the South Carolina Republican primary.

The two main US political parties parted ways for the third stage of the surprise-filled race for the White House, with the Democrats heading west and the Republicans campaigning in the south.

In Nevada, CNN, Fox News and NBC News called the contest for the former secretary of state. With roughly two-thirds of precincts reporting, Clinton was at 52.2 percent to 47.7 percent for Sanders.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win. Thank you," Clinton tweeted.

Voters meanwhile streamed to the polls in South Carolina, in what could be an important test of strength for the 69-year-old frontrunner Trump. Voting places were to close at 7:00 pm (local time).

In the desert state of Nevada, both Clinton and Sanders worked hard to reach out to the African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans who make up roughly half of the state's population.

Clinton, who won by a hair in Iowa but was crushed by Sanders in New Hampshire, was counting on a major Hispanic voter turnout, especially among Las Vegas hotel and casino employees.

Nevada has some three million residents, and the population is overwhelmingly concentrated in two large urban centers, Las Vegas and Reno.

The former top US diplomat needed a win in Nevada, a state once seen as a relatively easy victory for her -- but one where Sanders gathered steam after trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire on February 9.

Clinton won their first showdown in Iowa on February 1, but only by a razor-thin margin.

Since Wednesday, the 68-year-old Clinton has visited staff at casinos in Las Vegas, where workers "caucused" right on the famous Strip.

"I need your help this morning -- in the show room, 11 am," she told employees at Harrah's yesterday, less than an hour before caucus time. Sanders visited the same casino cafeteria about 20 minutes earlier.

Clinton says she is the natural ally of Latinos on immigration, and if elected she promises a quick path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

The former first lady and senator from New York has relentlessly attacked Sanders for voting against immigration reform in 2007.

Sanders counters that the measure gave little protection for foreign "guest workers," and that he voted for a 2013 immigration reform bill that died due to Republican opposition.
United Nations: President David Granger of Guyana has appealed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to resolve his country's dispute with Venezuela, which claims two-thirds of its land and a large area of oil-rich territorial waters.

Granger told reporters here on Friday that the process of settling the dispute on the basis of a treaty signed in Geneva in 1966 did not make headway because Venezuela has 'not been behaving properly' and was using dilatory tactics.

Therefore, under the terms of the treaty, it was now up to the UN secretary-general to resolve it, he said. But Venezuela has refused to accept the secretary-general`s intervention, he added.

Earlier in the day, Granger met Ban to update him about the border problem and request the secretary-general to take action under the terms of the treaty. After the meeting, Ban`s office said in a terse statement only that they discussed the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy and political developments in Guyana.

Guyana, a small 214,970 sq km Caribbean nation located towards the north-eastern end of South America, has a population of less than 750,000 -- of whom 43 percent are of Indian origin. Granger, a former brigadier who commanded the country`s defence forces and a journalist, was elected president last May succeeding Donald Ramotar, who lost the election.

Venezuela claimed vast areas of Guyana while it was a British colony in the 19th century. The dispute went to an international tribunal made up arbitrators from the United States, Britain and Russia. The tribunal gave most of the disputed land to Britain in 1899.

Caracas continued to lay claim to all of the Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River and, in 1966, Venezuela, the British government and the government of Guyana, which was on the verge of independence, signed a treaty in Geneva on resolving their disputes.

If the various steps outlined in the treaty for resolving the dispute failed or did not take off, it gave the UN secretary-general final say in setting up a mechanism to resolve it.

The disputed area is rich in minerals and tensions escalated last year after Exxon Mobil said it had discovered a huge oil deposit in the territorial waters off the coast of the territory that Venezuela claims.

Last summer Venezuela, which is in the throes of a dire economic crisis, increased tensions by holding military exercises across the border from Guyana.

Last September, the UN facilitated talks between Granger and Venezuela`s President Nicolas Maduro which failed to thaw relations between the two neighbours.

The dispute has not come any closer to a resolution because of the refusal of Venezuela, currently an elected member of the Security Council, to cooperate. On the other hand, Granger pointed out that in the 50 years since the Geneva Treaty was signed, Guyana has "cooperated in every instance".

Regional efforts to bring about a solution have failed. "There is no more juice to be squeezed out of the orange of regional efforts," Granger said.

"We will work with the United Nations to resolve the dispute in a manner agreeable to the peoples of both Venezuela and Guyana," he said.
Homs: A string of suicide bombings near a Shiite shrine outside Syria`s capital and in Homs claimed by jihadists killed at least 142 people Sunday, as Washington and Moscow worked to secure a ceasefire.

The Islamic State group said it was behind the carnage.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce in Syria`s brutal five-year conflict, only for the bloodshed to intensify on the ground.

Near Damascus, a car bombing followed by two consecutive suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and killed 83 people, Syria`s official news agency SANA reported.

SANA, quoting a police source, said 178 people, including children, were among the wounded. State television said the attacks came as pupils were leaving school in the area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a lower toll of 68 dead but said many wounded were in critical condition.

An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 metres (yards) from the revered Shiite shrine containing the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed.

At least 60 shops were damaged and cars reduced to mangled metal. A January attack in the same area -- also claimed by IS -- killed 70 people.

The Observatory also reported that two car bombs killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens in the pro-regime district of Al-Zahraa in the central city of Homs.

IS said online that two suicide bombers struck in Sayyida Zeinab and two others drove explosive-packed cars into crowds in Homs.

State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses.

Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syria`s ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted.World powers, which have been pushing for a halt in Syria`s nearly five-year war, had hoped to see a truce take effect on Friday but have struggled to agree on the terms.

On Sunday, Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at least three times to try to nail down a truce.

"We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman after one round of talks.

The Russian foreign ministry later said Lavrov and Kerry held two more telephone conversations and finalised the ceasefire terms to be submitted to their respective presidents.

World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for peace talks to resume.

The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, had been scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN`s Syria envoy has already acknowledged that that date is no longer realistic.

Key opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee said at the weekend it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, told Spain`s El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but that it should not be exploited by "terrorists".Moscow is a key architect of the proposed ceasefire, but has shown little sign so far that it plans to rein in the air campaign it began in September in support of Assad`s government.
Amman: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Saturday that a ceasefire be agreed as soon as possible in Syria, during a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"The Secretary expressed his hope that a full cessation of hostilities could be achieved in the shortest timeframe possible," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Kerry, who arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday night from London ahead of meeting King Abdullah II Sunday, again expressed his concern to Lavrov about Russian air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Secretary Kerry also restated his deep concern over the indiscriminate nature of continued bombing by Russian military aircraft and the lives being lost as a result," Kirby said.

"The United States continues to call for all sides to abide by international obligations to avoid civilian casualties, and that responsibility lies first and foremost with the Assad regime and its supporters," he added.

The two ministers discussed progress made by two UN task forces meeting in Geneva this week, one on humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns and the other on a "cessation in hostilities" that had been set to come into force on Friday, Kirby said.

On Saturday in London, Kerry said in a statement that a lot of work remained to be done before reaching a truce in Syria.

Russia meanwhile promised to continue to help Damascus to fight "terrorist" groups in Syria, while a key Syrian opposition group said it would support a truce only if regime supporters halted their fire.

Kerry and Lavrov are the main architects of the Munich agreement on February 11 and 12 according to which 17 countries and three organisations agreed on a proposed ceasefire for Friday.

The European Union, which is part of the Munich grouping, separately announced that Kerry and the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had spoken by phone Friday and Saturday about the crisis in Syria.

"They discussed the ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach a cessation of the hostilities and the positive progress of the task force for the humanitarian assistance, in which the European Union plays a key role, that has already managed to deliver aid to the population in parts of Syria," it said in a statement.

More than 260,000 people have been killed in the nearly five-year conflict, and half the country's population has been displaced.
Amman: US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged that a ceasefire be agreed as soon as possible in Syria, during a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"The Secretary expressed his hope that a full cessation of hostilities could be achieved in the shortest timeframe possible," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement yesterday.

Kerry, who arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman last night from London ahead of meeting King Abdullah II Sunday, again expressed his concern to Lavrov about Russian air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Secretary Kerry also restated his deep concern over the indiscriminate nature of continued bombing by Russian military aircraft and the lives being lost as a result," Kirby said.

"The United States continues to call for all sides to abide by international obligations to avoid civilian casualties, and that responsibility lies first and foremost with the Assad regime and its supporters," he added.

The two ministers discussed progress made by two UN task forces meeting in Geneva this week, one on humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns and the other on a "cessation in hostilities" that had been set to come into force on Friday, Kirby said.

On Saturday in London, Kerry said in a statement that a lot of work remained to be done before reaching a truce in Syria.

Russia meanwhile promised to continue to help Damascus to fight "terrorist" groups in Syria, while a key Syrian opposition group said it would support a truce only if regime supporters halted their fire.

Kerry and Lavrov are the main architects of the Munich agreement on February 11 and 12 according to which 17 countries and three organisations agreed on a proposed ceasefire for Friday.

The European Union, which is part of the Munich grouping, separately announced that Kerry and the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had spoken by phone Friday and Saturday about the crisis in Syria.

"They discussed the ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach a cessation of the hostilities and the positive progress of the task force for the humanitarian assistance, in which the European Union plays a key role, that has already managed to deliver aid to the population in parts of Syria," it said in a statement.

More than 260,000 people have been killed in the nearly five-year conflict, and half the country's population has been displaced.
Amman: US Secretary of State John Kerry has met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and discussed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the US State Department said.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have taken the lives of 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.

"The secretary continued to urge for calm and a decrease in violence, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman John Kirby said yesterday.

Kerry was in Jordan where he also met King Abdullah II, a key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State group, in the southern port of Aqaba.

A palace statement said the king stressed "the need for the international community and the United States first, to end the stalemate in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis and to move towards a two-state solution".

American diplomats said Kerry and Abdullah also discussed the Syrian conflict.

Kirby said Kerry had stressed to Abbas Washington's commitment to seeking a sustainable two-state solution "and to working with all parties to that end".

"He also reiterated our policy on the illegitimacy of Israeli settlements," Kirby said.

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

On Thursday, the Palestinians welcomed an initiative put forward by France for an international Middle East peace conference, a proposal which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed.
Niamey: Counting began in Niger`s presidential poll Sunday in an election that has seen incumbent Mahamadou Issoufou promise a first-round "knockout" blow to his opponents, who are already crying foul after a tense campaign.

A vast nation endowed with an abundance of uranium, gold, coal and oil but among the poorest on the planet, Niger is electing a head of state, as well as a new parliament, with Issoufou hoping for a second five-year term.

"Everything has gone well in an atmosphere of calm and serenity. There are some shortcomings but Ceni (the electoral commission) is taking measures to allow voters to exercise their right to vote," commission president Ibrahim Boube said, adding that voting in some areas had been pushed back to Monday after electoral material did not arrive in time.

A total of 7.5 million people were eligible to vote at 25,000 polling stations across the country on the edge of the Sahara desert, where security is a growing concern after attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, Mali and Libya.

The election results are expected within five days.

Security was tight with forces on patrol across the country, including the capital Niamey, where voting got off to a delayed start in many parts of the city due to the late delivery of ballot papers and other materials.

Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou said earlier Sunday that vote was going smoothly "especially in Diffa, where voting material arrived on time", referring to a border region that has been hit by frequent Boko Haram Islamist violence, and where some 200,000 displaced people were eligible to vote.

After voting in Niamey, Issoufou said "there will be only one winner, and that will be Niger", saying he hoped the election would reinforce the country`s democratic structures.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, the 63-year-old said he was "absolutely" confident of victory.

Issoufou said he had met his pledges on boosting growth and infrastructure, while shoring up security in the face of jihadist attacks.

Known as the "Zaki" or "lion" in Hausa, the majority language in Niger, the former mathematician and mining engineer faces 14 competitors, including an ex-president.

Should he fail to win a first-round victory, his rivals, who have accused him of planning to rig the result, have agreed to unite behind whoever scores highest amongst them for the second round.

Heading the opposition pack is 66-year-old Hama Amadou, who campaigned from behind bars after being arrested in November over his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal.

Amadou, a former premier and parliament speaker, heads the Nigerien Democratic Movement (NDM) whose members were tear-gassed by police in a protest earlier this month.

Among the other candidates are Seyni Oumarou, a runner-up in the 2011 presidential race, and Niger`s first-ever democratically-elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, 66.
Nablus: A Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and was shot dead, Israel's army said, the latest incident in a nearly five-month wave of violence.

The attack occurred at the Bitot Junction south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

"A Palestinian attacker attempted to stab an (Israeli) soldier at the Bitot Junction," the army said. "The force responded to the imminent danger, thwarting the attack and firing towards the assailant, resulting in his death."

Palestinian security sources spoke of gunfire targeting a Palestinian in the area.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have killed 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Many of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, while others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
New Delhi: Author Harper Lee , who led a mostly quiet life after the publication of her 1960 classic of American literature "To Kill a Mockingbird," was laid to rest on Saturday following a private memorial service at a church in her Alabama home town, her attorney said.

The service comes just one day after Lee`s attorney said she had died in her sleep on Friday at age 89 in her hometown of Monroeville.

The funeral service attended by Lee`s family and friends was held at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, with Auburn University professor emeritus Wayne Flynt delivering the eulogy, said Lee`s attorney, Tonja Carter.

The acclaimed author, who after her death drew praise on Friday from a wide range of public figures, including Oprah Winfrey and former President George W. Bush, was laid to rest at her family burial plot, alongside her father, mother and one sister, Alice, Carter said.

Lee had for years alternated between sharing a home with her sister, Alice Lee, in Monroeville and living in an apartment in New York.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1960 book "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Its unflinching examination of racial hatred in the South centered on lawyer Atticus Finch, the adored father of the young narrator Scout, who stood up to a white lynch mob and unsuccessfully defended a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.

In Lee`s second novel, "Go Set a Watchman" which was published last year and quickly became a bestseller, an older Atticus had racial views that left the grown-up Scout greatly disillusioned.

Lee reportedly wrote "Go Set a Watchman" before she authored "To Kill a Mockingbird."

For many years, Lee, a shy woman with an engaging Southern drawl who never married, lived quietly and privately, always turning down interview requests.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Marguerita Choy)


Damascus: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready for cease-fire in Syria on condition that the "terrorists" don`t exploit it.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, whose script was published by state news agency SANA, Assad said halting the military operations in Syria demands deterring the terrorists from exploiting it to enhance their positions.

He pointed out that countries, like Turkey, must stop sending more terrorists and arms as well as providing logistical support to the terrorists, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Of course... we have declared that we are ready (to respect a cessation of military operations) but the matter is not only about declaring it because the another party may declare the same thing. It`s about what will be done on ground," he said.

"The matter is primarily related to a cessation of fire but there are other complementary, and more important factors, such as preventing the terrorists from exploiting the cessation of the military operations to enhance their positions... it`s also related to preventing countries like Turkey from sending terrorists and arms into Syria," the president continued.

The remarks comes at times Russia and the US were pushing to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

In a telephone call Saturday, US. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the progress about the "modalities" for a cessation of violence in Syria.

Meanwhile, Assad hailed the Russian and Iranian role in supporting his administration as "essential" contribution to the advance of the Syrian army against the militant groups on key Syrian frontline.

Achieving a cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access to all besieged Syrian cities were the outcome of the talks between superpowers in Germany, Munich this month.

Those two factors are deemed important for starting a second round of talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition in a bid to help find a political end to the Syrian crisis
Moscow pledged Saturday to continue backing the Syrian government in its fight against "terrorism", dashing hopes for a ceasefire the opposition said it would only back if the regime and its supporters hold fire.

World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities to pave the way for renewed negotiations aimed at ending Syria`s war nearly five years after it began.

But the truce has proved elusive so far, while fighting has intensified on the ground in northern Syria as tensions simmer between Russia and opposition backer Turkey.

UN-led talks on the ceasefire scheduled for Saturday have been postponed indefinitely, raising fresh concerns the day after US and Russian officials failed to agree concrete details on how it would be implemented.

Efforts to find a political solution to Syria`s civil war collapsed earlier this month, and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said a plan to restart them on February 25 was no longer "realistically" possible.

Multiple groups are jostling for territory in northern Syria, with Russia pledging to keep up its air campaign supporting President Bashar al-Assad as the regime pressed its offensive around the Aleppo region.

Moscow on Saturday said it would continue "to provide assistance and help to the armed forces of Syria in their offensive actions against terrorists".

Russia also said it was "concerned at the growing tension at the Syrian-Turkish border," as Turkey continued shelling Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria it blames for a bomb attack in Ankara that killed dozens.

Assad also hit out at Turkey, telling Spanish daily El Pais he was "ready" for a ceasefire but only if "the terrorists" did not exploit it to improve their positions.

"It`s about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists," according to a transcript on the daily`s website.Speaking for Syria`s opposition, the head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) umbrella group said they would agree to a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire.

Riad Hijab said any ceasefire must be reached "with international mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting".

"There will not be a truce unless fighting stops simultaneously on the part of all the belligerents, sieges are lifted, humanitarian aid is delivered to those in need, and prisoners, particularly women and children, are released," Hijab said.

More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, with half the population displaced, including over four million overseas.

Fighting has become increasingly complex, with Turkey firing artillery rounds into northern Syria for the past week in a bid to stem the advances of a Kurdish-led coalition that has seized territory from rebels.

The UN Security Council on Friday rejected a Russian bid to halt Turkish military action in Syria and plans for foreign forces to intervene on the ground, a decision met with "regret" from Moscow.

Ankara fiercely opposes both the regime and the Kurds, who it fears want to unite several Kurdish-majority regions in north and northeast Syria to create their own territory on its border.

The People`s Protection Units (YPG) militia has led the joint Kurdish-Arab force that has swept through parts of Aleppo province in recent days, taking territory from Turkey-backed rebels.

Turkey has blamed the YPG and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) for an attack in the capital that killed 28 people days ago, although they both deny it and another Kurdish group has claimed the bombing.Meanwhile, Syrian regime forces have also advanced in Aleppo province, backed by Russian air strikes.

On Saturday, government troops seized 18 villages around the road east from Aleppo city towards the Islamic State group stronghold of Raqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The advances secure the regime`s grip on some 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the highway, which passes by the Kweyris military airport that government forces recaptured with Russian help in November.

The Syrian opposition and its backers accuse Moscow of focusing on moderate and Islamist rebels rather than jihadists such as IS.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday said a ceasefire needed to be agreed as quickly as possible in a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"Secretary Kerry also restated his deep concern over the indiscriminate nature of continued bombing by Russian military aircraft and the lives being lost as a result," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

bur-sah/cah/mtp
Moscow: Russia`s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Sunday started a previously unannounced visit to Tehran with the conflict in Syria high on his agenda, Iranian state media reported.

Shoigu met President Hassan Rouhani to deliver a "special message" from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the official IRNA news agency cited the presidency as saying.

The minister presented an overview "of the situation regarding stability in the region and the process of negotiations for a ceasefire in Syria", where both Moscow and Tehran back the regime, IRNA said.

Rouhani said: "Resolving the crisis in Syria can only be achieved through political negotiations and respect for the rights of the Syrian people who must ultimately decide their country`s future."

Shoigu also met his counterpart General Hossein Dehghan after the latter visited Moscow on Tuesday, when Shoigu said Russia and Iran were ready to step up their military cooperation.

Russia and Iran are both longtime allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad`s regime.

Moscow launched air strikes in support of Syria`s government on September 30.

Tehran supports Assad by sending "military advisers" and volunteers to fight alongside the Syrian army.

Russia has also authorised the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missile batteries to Iran.

According to Russian and Iranian media, Iran also wants to buy Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets from Russia.
New York: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump grabbed a big win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, while Democrat Hillary Clinton breathed life into her sluggish campaign with a victory over Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

The wins for the brash billionaire and the former secretary of state give the candidates a major boost heading into the next major phase of the White House race - Super Tuesday on March 1, when about a dozen states go to the polls.

In South Carolina, the 69-year-old Trump triumphed, capturing about a third of the votes, according to early counts, but all major networks projected he was the winner.

His supporters erupted in a roar when CNN called the contest in his favor -- his second win of the nominations race after New Hampshire and an important test of the strength of his bid to succeed President Barack Obama.

Hundreds of supporters at the Trump watch party in Spartanburg waved Trump signs and chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

A real battle was brewing for second place in the Palmetto State between two first-term senators, Ted Cruz -- who defeated Trump in Iowa -- and Marco Rubio.

In Nevada, Clinton claimed a major win. With about 85 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was at 52.5 percent to 47.4 percent for Sanders.

"This is your campaign, and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back," Clinton said in her victory speech at her Caesars Palace headquarters on the Las Vegas Strip.

"Americans are right to be angry. But we`re also hungry for real solutions."

Sanders congratulated Clinton, but also said he was proud of having significantly narrowed the gap.

"We have the wind at our back as we head toward Super Tuesday," the 74-year-old Sanders said, looking ahead to the major March 1 showdown, when about a fifth of the Democratic nominating delegates are up for grabs.

In South Carolina, Trump -- a onetime reality TV star who has upended the political landscape with his take-no-prisoners style and tough talk on everything from Muslims to Mexico -- showed he could compete for the long haul.

Lynn Derrick, a regional vice president for Oracle Corporation and a first-time primary voter, said he had cast his ballot for Trump.

"We just think we want to take a risk with Trump. We think he`s had success with everything he`s touched," Derrick told AFP at a high school in the state capital Columbia.

Trump and Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses, duked it out in the week leading up to Saturday`s primary, with the campaign growing increasingly nasty.

The results were not good news for former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who were resigned to the second tier of candidates.

In the desert state of Nevada, both Clinton and Sanders worked hard to reach out to African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans, who make up roughly half of the state`s population.
Kampala: Uganda`s President Yoweri Museveni won a fifth term on Saturday, extending his three-decade rule in a vote rejected as fraudulent by an opposition leader under house arrest and criticised by the international community.

The veteran 71-year-old won 60 percent of the vote in the sometimes chaotic elections, far ahead of the 35 percent garnered by detained opposition chief Kizza Besigye, whose house was surrounded by dozens of armed police in riot gear.

Large numbers of police and troops have been deployed on the streets of the capital Kampala, which appeared calm immediately after the widely expected victory for Museveni was declared.

Besigye slammed the results as a fraud, saying in a message to the international community: "Should you ratify the results of these sham elections, at least have the courage to admit that you do not care about democracy or human rights in Africa."

The US criticised "irregularities" in the vote, including accusations of vote buying and rigging, which a State Department spokesman said was "deeply inconsistent with international standards and expectations for any democratic process".

International observers also raised the red flag, warning that Uganda`s electoral commission lacked transparency and accusing the police of heavy-handed treatment of the opposition.

Local election officials appealed for calm, with Election Commission chief Badru Kiggundu calling on Ugandans to "be prepared to exhibit more tolerance".

"The outcome of an elections can either tear or build a country," he said shortly before declaring Museveni the winner. "We love this country and you Ugandans love your country."

Some 9.7 million Ugandans -- a turnout of around 63 percent -- voted for president and members of parliament, with 290 assembly seats contested by candidates from 29 political parties.

Although Museveni was re-elected, at least 19 of his ministers lost their parliamentary seats. Among them defence minister Crispus Kiyonga -- who is spearheading regional efforts to end the political crisis in Burundi -- and attorney general Fred Ruhindi.

Museveni`s National Resistance Movement (NRM) party issued a statement celebrating the win.

"The result confirmed that our opponents failed to offer any alternative," spokesman Mike Sebalu said.
Throughout latinamerica, many countries ban abortion under any circumstance, an historic artifact of the states' close relationship with the Catholic Church. This ban on abortion has always put women's lives at risk, but with the threat of Zika virus, the dire situation has turned urgent, and widespread.

Though the UN has called upon nations to allow women to choose whether to bear foetuses, the Catholic Church has remained merciless, with Pope Francis declaring abortion to be a human evil.

Women on the Web is a Canadian activist group that suppiies RU-486, a medically safe abortion drug, to women in territories where abortion is banned or restricted. They report that they've received more than 1,000 emails from women in latinamerica, begging for abortion drugs, terrified at the thought that they are bearing foetuses that will gestate into children with microcephaly and a life of severe disability.

The group says that the 1,000 emails represent the tiny fraction of affected women with access to the Internet and say that far more are living under threat but without any chance to speak out.

The scenario is reminiscent of "Are you for 86?" a classic Bruce Sterling story about RU-486 smugglers.

"I am [name redacted]," begins one email. "I contacted Zika 4 days ago. I just found out I'm about 6 weeks pregnant. Today. Today, I found out I'm pregnant. I have a son I love dearly. I love children. But I dont believe it is a wise decision to keep a baby who will suffer. I need an abortion. I don't know who to turn to. Please help me ASAP." Many of the pregnant women said they had tested positive for Zika but were unable to travel or obtain pills to get an abortion. "I contracted Zika and cannot leave the country!" wrote one woman who asked to be sent abortion pills. Another woman said she was able to get Misoprostol on the black market but was unsure how to take the abortifacient. Others said they were uncertain if they had contracted the virus. Some said they hadn't been tested, while a few said they simply didn't trust their doctor's diagnosis. "How do I know if I am infected?" wrote one woman who said she had come down with a flu five months earlier. "Can you please let me know what should I do? What kind of exam do I need to tell the doctor they should do to me?"



With abortion banned in Zika countries, women beg on web for abortion pills

[Michael E Miller/Washington Post/Tico Times]



(Image: Mifepristone)





(via Skepchick)
With the curtains down on the Q4 earnings season for the defense sector, one can easily conclude that the top line was in for a beating. Revenues of these companies seem to have been damaged with only a little over 33% coming in ahead of estimates. That said, the earnings beat ratio is more cheerful at 77.8%, showing that the sector has in the end held up pretty well this past quarter.



As for last week, the defense sector was full of new tailwinds comprising regulatory nods for potentially more foreign military sales and shareholder friendly moves from FLIR Systems FLIR and L-3 Communications LLL.



However, share prices continue to reflect tepid performances.



(Read Defense Stock Roundup for Feb 9, 2016 here.)



Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories



1. The two defense heavy weights, Boeing BA and Lockheed Martin LMT, lost their challenge to the Pentagons selection of Northrop Grumman NOC to manufacture Long Range Strike Bomber valued at about $80 billion. The Government Accountability Office or GAO denied the protest filed by the two U.S. defense contractors. The companies can still pursue the dispute in court.



This has given the green signal to Northrop Grumman to progress with engineering and development work after a three-month delay. Northrop had halted work on the LRS-B contract after the protest was filed with the GAO on Nov 6 over the Oct 27 award. This was the largest military aircraft contract award after Lockheed Martin won the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter more than a decade ago.



As per the Feb 16 Air Force statement, the source-selection team followed a deliberate, disciplined and impartial process to choose the LRS-B winner.



2. The Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced that the U.S. State Department has approved sales of 8 F-16 Block-52 aircraft and other equipment to Pakistan. The deal is worth $699 million.



The contract also includes increased performance engines, advanced radars, electronic warfare equipment, and spare and repair parts. The DSCA stated in its official notice that the proposed sale contributes to U.S. foreign policy objectives and national security goals by helping to improve the security of a strategic partner in South Asia. It is important to note that the U.S. sold $5.4 billion in defense equipment to Pakistan between the 2002 and 2014 period.



3. The U.S. Department of State has approved a potential arms sale, worth $154.9 million, to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement on Feb 11.



Saudi Arabia has requested for the upgrade of five MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) that are currently aboard four Royal Saudi Naval Forces ships and one Naval Forces School ship. The contract also includes spare and repair parts, along with technical support and personnel training.



The prime contractor for the proposed foreign military sale would be Raytheon Co.s RTN Missiles Systems division. Raytheon, the manufacturer of the Phalanx, said the upgrade enables Phalanx to be used against helicopters and high-speed surface craft.



4. FLIR Systems Inc. FLIR reported fourth-quarter 2015 earnings per share of 51 cents, which stood flat year over year. This was mainly because benefits from after-tax gain on sale of an investment of $12.7 million were offset by after-tax restructuring charges of $0.2 million and discrete tax charges of $7.4 million.



Earnings per share (excluding tax benefits) were 47 cents, which lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. A rise in cost of goods sold proved to be a headwind.



FLIR's order backlog for the coming 12 months was about $604 million as of Dec 31, 2015, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 10.4%.



Along with the earnings release, FLIR ushered in good news for its investors. The company has approved a quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents per share, reflecting an increase of 9% from the prior payment. The dividend will be paid on Mar 10, 2016, to shareholders of record as of Feb 19 (read more: FLIR Systems Lags Q4 Earnings, Issues Full-Year Guidance).



5. Another investor friendly move came from L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.. The company increased its quarterly dividend payment by 7.7%. The revised quarterly dividend payment will amount to 70 cents against the previous payout of 65 cents. The hike will bring the annualized payout to $2.80 per share from the previous payout of $2.60. This marked the 12th consecutive annual hike in dividend by the company, the last one being announced in Feb 2015 (read more: L-3 Communications Hikes Quarterly Dividend by 8%).



6. The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that it plans to purchase fewer F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, over the next five years, than it had originally planned. Importantly, the Pentagon was forced to cut approximately $4 billion from the F-35 program and other aircraft programs in fiscal 2017, and slash billions of dollars from other procurement accounts to meet the Congress budget deal (read more: Pentagon to Cut Purchase of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Jets).



Performance



The performance of the major defense stocks was dull, barring Rockwell Collins Inc. COL and Textron Inc. TXT, in the last five trading days. Boeing and Raytheon lost the most during the period.



In the last six months, performances were mixed in the defense sector with gains and losses balancing each other out. Textron was the biggest loser with over 24% depreciation, followed by Boeing.



The following table shows the price movement of the major defense players over the past five trading days and during the last six months.



Story continues

Company Last Week Last 6 months LMT -3.23% 0.06% BA -4.41% -21.19% GD -0.74% -12.61% RTN -4.41% 11.29% NOC -1.65% 6.73% COL 2.96% -4.42% TXT 2.53% -24.56% LLL -1.65% 1.21%



Whats Next in the Defense World?



Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins are scheduled to attend the 2016 Barclays Industrial Select Conference today.



Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics GD will attend the meet on Feb 18.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



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By Jeff Mason RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to pick an indisputably qualified nominee for the Supreme Court and chided Republicans who control the U.S. Senate for threatening to block him from filling the pivotal vacancy. Obama told senators he has a constitutional duty to nominate a new justice after Saturday's death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and reminded them of their constitutional obligation to "do their job" and vote to approve or reject his nominee. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the seat on the nation's highest court should remain vacant until Obama's successor takes office in January so voters can have a say on the selection when they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election. "I'm amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there," Obama said. "The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now," Obama, a former constitutional law professor, told a news conference at the close of a two-day meeting with leaders from Southeast Asia. In Washington, Scalia's chair in the court's ornate chamber was draped with black wool crepe in accordance with court tradition following a justice's death. The court said Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court building on Friday before his funeral Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Saturday. Obama's nominee could shift the balance of power on the court, which had five conservatives and four liberals before Scalia's death. The president said he understood the high stakes for Republican senators under pressure to vote against his pick for the lifetime appointment, who conceivably would be the deciding vote in cases where the court is split. 'VENOM AND RANCOR' Obama said the "venom and rancor in Washington" has led to the Senate routinely blocking his nominations for lower courts and other posts but said the Supreme Court is too important to get trapped in political gridlock. "It's the one court where we would expect elected officials to rise above day-to-day politics," he said. But Republicans have pointed out that Obama and members of his cabinet, who were then in the Senate, were not above trying to block the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Samuel Alito by then-President George W. Bush in 2006. "While he complained about filibusters today, he joined filibusters while in the Senate," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Asked about his record, Obama acknowledged Democrats have played politics with nominations, too, through what he described as "strategic decisions" that ultimately did not block the president's nominee. "But what is also true is Justice Alito is on the bench right now," Obama said. OBAMA'S STRATEGY Obama shed little light on whom he would choose or how the White House will try to finesse his choice through Congress. "We're going to find somebody who is an outstanding legal mind, somebody who cares deeply about our democracy and cares about rule of law," Obama said. "I'm going to present somebody who indisputably is qualified for the seat, and any fair-minded person, even somebody who disagrees with my politics, would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court," he added. Asked directly if that meant he would choose a moderate candidate, Obama said, "No." He said there was "more than enough time" for the Senate to hold hearings and vote on his nominee without the White House needing to resort to a procedure known as a recess appointment to get around the Senate when it is not in session. But he did not explicitly rule out a recess appointment. Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose panel weighs Supreme Court nominations, said on Tuesday he will wait until Obama names his pick to fill the vacancy before deciding whether to hold confirmation hearings. Grassley has offered mixed messages since Scalia's death on how the Senate should proceed on the vacancy, alternating hardline views on blocking any nominee with comments not ruling out hearings. "I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions" about confirmation hearings, Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. "In other words, take it a step at a time." (Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Richard Cowan, Ayesha Rascoe, Julia Edwards and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Will Dunham and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Steve Holland CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush are locked in a bare-knuckled fight for third place in a South Carolina primary vote on Saturday, afraid that anything less could blunt their White House hopes. With front-runner Donald Trump fighting to hold off U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and win his second straight early nominating contest, Rubio and Bush are battling to become the main anti-Trump alternative from among establishment Republicans seeking the party's nomination for the Nov. 8 election. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Friday showed Trump in the lead with support from 28 percent of likely Republican primary voters, followed by Cruz at 23 percent. Rubio led Bush narrowly, 15 percent to 13 percent. The Bush-Rubio competition is layered with home-state drama: Bush, 63, is the elder statesman of Florida politics having served as governor. Rubio, 44, is the upstart understudy, a first-term U.S. senator who served in Florida's legislature. Rubio supporters were offended by the millions of dollars in attack ads spent by Bush's Super PAC, Right to Rise, believing that the money would have been better spent attacking Trump rather than trying to undermine a like-minded Republican. "People are going to do whatever they think they need to do to win. But its notable they spent far more money attacking Marco than they have the front-runner Donald Trump," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant. The Bush team dismissed the complaints. "I dont think there's anything personal about it from Jebs side," said Jim Dyke, Bush's campaign chief in South Carolina. "Jeb for good reason feels like he's much more qualified to be president of the United States. That's what this is all about." ENDORSEMENTS FOR BOTH Bush has a key backer in South Carolina's Republican U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, but Rubio upped the ante by winning the support of popular Governor Nikki Haley. Her endorsement gave Rubio momentum at just the right time and the two have campaigned together around the state. Rubio is treading carefully around whether Bush should exit the race if he performs poorly in South Carolina, saying Bush has worked hard and "has a right to be in this race as long as he wants to be." "I mean, he's spent $50 million attacking me. If there are differences in policy well talk about it. What I've said about Governor Bush is he doesnt have any foreign policy experience, which is true. But I dont view that as an attack. I view that as a fact," Rubio told reporters on Wednesday. Bush has bristled at the charge, telling supporters he has visited 89 countries and seen his brother and father develop foreign policy as U.S. presidents. His team has made much of Rubio's having missed many hearings and votes as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Its hard for me to be lectured to by a gifted young guy who thinks going to committee hearings means you know something about the world," Bush said. Rubio forces had wanted to knock Bush out of the race in New Hampshire, the last nominating contest held on Feb. 9, but a bad Rubio debate performance and a strong campaign trail performance by Bush thwarted those hopes with Bush edging his rival for a fourth-place finish. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller)
Amnesty International has told Sky News that Russia is guilty of some the most "egregious" war crimes it has seen in decades.

The human rights organisation claims Moscow's warplanes have been deliberately targeting civilians and rescue workers in Syria over the last week.

Tirana Hassan, director of Amnesty's crisis response programme, said the attacks are ongoing - with strikes documented on schools, hospitals and civilian homes.

She claimed the bombing of civilian targets by Russian and Syrian forces was in itself a war crime, but warned there have been consistent reports of second bombardments which injure and kill humanitarian workers and civilians attempting to evacuate the wounded and the dead.

The Kremlin denies it has been hitting civilian areas and insists it is dropping bombs only on terrorist targets.

However, evidence obtained by Sky News suggests that this is not the case.

Footage filmed in Aleppo five days ago shows the graphic aftermath of what's claimed to be a Russian airstrike.

The video is harrowing. In it, the body of a five-month-old baby called Omar can be seen being pulled from the rubble.

His twin brother, sister and mother were also killed in the attack on a residential building in eastern Aleppo.

It is an area which is currently held by the moderate Free Syrian Army.

Rescue workers claim the assaults are happening every day, and that civilian areas are being hit by cluster and thermobaric bombs.

Russia's intervention to save its ally President Bashar al Assad may very well be decisive.

But the human consequences of what appears to be an indiscriminate bombing campaign are massive.

With the ceasefire non-existent, the refugee camps inside Syria and on Turkey's borders are growing every day.

More than half of Syria's population are now displaced - that's 11 million people forced from their homes by conflict.

And as conditions inside the camps are basic, many more people will soon start making the journey to Europe.
By Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) - When Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a deal designed to keep Britain in the European Union after two days of talks in Brussels, his relief was short-lived. Within hours of Friday's agreement, one of Cameron's closest allies, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, and five other ministers declared they would campaign against him in a June 23 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the bloc. It was the first blow in what could be a new "civil war" in Cameron's Conservative Party over Europe. Divisions over Britain's place in Europe contributed to the downfall of two of his predecessors, John Major and Margaret Thatcher. It is a war Cameron tried hard to avoid when he came to power in 2010. The following year he ordered his party in the strictest terms to vote down a bill suggesting a referendum on membership of the EU, saying it was the "wrong answer for Britain". But within two years, he had changed his mind, paving the way to a membership referendum, by declaring: "I believe in confronting this issue - shaping it, leading the debate. Not simply hoping a difficult situation will go away." Cameron, 49, now finds himself fighting a referendum which will determine Britain's future in world affairs and shape the future EU - Britain is the bloc's second-largest economy and one of its two main military powers. In a quirk of the British political system, the prime minister is in the unusual position of being more sure of the backing of the opposition Labour Party than of his own party. "He didn't want a referendum, he was bounced into doing it," said Douglas Carswell, a Conservative Party member until he defected to the euroskeptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2014. "He's been the actor in this production, he is not writing the script, or directing it, or producing it." As a euroskeptic, Carswell has an axe to grind, but his view that Cameron has almost slept walk into such a crucial referendum is shared by some of the prime minister's allies and supporters as well as other critics. "I think it's pretty clear ... there was no plan," said Jonathan Portes, principal research fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research who specializes in immigration issues. SUSPICION The deal reached on Friday followed weeks of negotiations across Europe in which Cameron tried to win better terms for Britain if it remains in the EU, hoping to win over skeptical voters including many in his own party. He said he had won his country a "special status" from the agreement, which excludes Britain from the founding goal of "ever closer union" and hands the government welfare curbs to try to tackle concerns over high levels of migration. A spokesman for Cameron said the prime minister had always focused on winning "the best deal for the British people" and denied the negotiations had been about "party management". But Cameron's path to the referendum shows he is clearly sensitive to the opinions in his party. He initially steered clear of discussing the EU with party euroskeptics after coming to power and avoided meetings with them and, to reduce their hold, portrayed them "as a crackpot minority banging on about Europe", one Conservative lawmaker said. Allies say Cameron knew he had to counter the threat of rebellion and took a calculated risk by calling a referendum he expects to win. But as the prime minister tried to ignore the issue, Britain's largely euroskeptic press kept the issue alive. Over decades Britain's press has fueled suspicion of a bloc praised by many Europeans for ensuring peace after World War Two, but derided in Britain for wanting to ban curved bananas and rename sausages. A natural, if not passionate, europhile, Cameron increasingly seemed out of step with many in his party as they opposed moves towards further integration in Europe and saw a referendum as the logical next step. In 2011, when Cameron ordered Conservative members of parliament to vote down a bill suggesting a membership referendum, about 80 rebelled. John Baron was one of them. Immediately afterwards, Baron said he and at least eight rallied more than 100 lawmakers to force Cameron to abandon his no-referendum policy and, after they wrote letters and lobbied fiercely, more than a year later he relented. He then made holding a referendum a central policy. Baron told Reuters that Cameron was "ultimately confronted with logic but also a realization that one, we weren't going to go away, and two, we were much more sizeable than the spin operation portrayed". Baron is keen to take credit for his role in forcing the prime minister into holding the referendum. But bullied into the vote, Cameron hastily had to come up with policy on the hoof, sources said. Portes, who as a civil servant helped negotiate Britain's opt-out from the Maastricht treaty which set up the euro currency in 1989-90, said Cameron's decision to focus on winning concessions over "in-work benefits" - social payments for low-paid workers - had underlined the lack of strategy. The focus on a specific, and otherwise little-known, element of Britain's welfare system maddened some EU officials, who saw it as a direct attack on the EU's fundamental principles and discriminatory. It almost derailed the negotiations. Pat McFadden, Labour's former Europe minister, says this was down to Cameron's poor understanding of the EU. "He doesn't always do his homework on a European level," McFadden told Reuters. Cameron aides say the prime minister has plenty of experience of EU affairs, visiting 20 member states for talks on the bloc since he was re-elected last year. Cameron was forced to focus on in-work benefits after concerns over immigration grew among voters over an influx of migrants from eastern European member states. His move was also partly meant to counter a growth in the popularity of UKIP. In 2014, he said he would "not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement I will get what Britain needs". But EU officials swiftly made clear they would not allow this, saying it would undermine one of the EU's founding principles. Struggling to find a way to include immigration in the renegotiation, Cameron's eye fell on a report by the Open Europe think tank which suggested that curbing the benefits to EU workers would reduce migration and would avoid troublesome change to the bloc's founding treaties. "And they just lifted it, without testing it, without doing any serious analysis at all, either legal or economic," said Portes. Open Europe's co-director, Stephen Booth, said that his study was quickly taken up by the government and advisers did not ask legal questions. Cameron's officials say the prime minister has formed policy in response to public concerns over high immigration. Although agreement was reached on Friday, the decision to include gestures for Britain on welfare reform still rankles in EU capitals. One diplomat involved in the talks said Britain's EU partners were "rather irritated ... that here we are dealing with some rather obscure issues... while we have ... major issues we should really be on instead of this". STUMBLES For euroskeptics, the curbs on in-work benefits and restrictions to payments to EU migrants with an annual income below a certain level for their children who remain abroad do not go far enough and accuse Cameron of buckling under pressure from the EU. "Britain banged the table and aggressively demanded the status quo," Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter. "The EU, after some mandatory faux-agonizing, agreed." "He's tinkering because he knows he cannot question one of the founding principles of the EU which is freedom of movement," said Baron. Baron said the result of the referendum would be close and "lance the boil" in the party for good. But others disagree, seeing little chance of 'the Europe issue' ever going away - something that may come to hurt Cameron whichever way Britain votes. "The European issue has split it from top to bottom, ever since we went in," said Jeffrey Archer, a former conservative lawmaker and an author. "It's a divisive issue and if we do come out, it will be divisive. If we do stay in, it will be divisive." (additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Janet McBride)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leaders of Nepal and India have overcome mutual misgivings, India's foreign secretary said on Saturday, after talks to ease tensions over Nepal's recently-adopted constitution. Prime Minister K.P. Oli visited New Delhi for talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after a months-long freeze in relations triggered by the grievances of plains dwellers in southern Nepal who have close historical ties to India. Nepal, which moved from absolute to constitutional monarchy in 1990, made changes to its constitution to ensure greater participation of the Madhesi community in parliament. But community leaders said the amendments failed to address their central fear that provincial borders would be redrawn in a way that would divide them. "Our prime minister appreciated the progress made towards consolidation of constitutional democracy in Nepal," Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar told a news briefing. A four-month border blockade by the Madhesis ended only after amendments to the constitution that sought to address their concerns about representation. India welcomed the amendments, paving the way for Oli's visit. "After decades of struggle, the framing and promulgation of Nepal's constitution is an important achievement," Modi told reporters after meeting Oli, adding its success would depend on consensus and dialogue. Modi and Oli inaugurated a power transmission line between India and Nepal and signed a framework agreement for reconstruction work in areas affected by last year's earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people. India had offered $1 billion in aid to Nepal, but reconstruction efforts have been slow to get started due in part to political turmoil and food and fuel shortages in the isolated state. (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Douglas Busvine/Ruth Pitchford)
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
Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - African leaders and bankers vowed at an economic summit in Egypt Saturday to push for trade and investments on the continent despite the growing threat of "terrorism" in the region.

More than 1,200 delegates including some heads of state were in talks to sign business agreements during the two-day summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, aimed at attracting private sector investment.

Organisers hope the "Africa 2016" conference can build on a 26-nation free trade pact signed last year to create a common market on half of the continent.

Analysts say that despite an economic growth rate of more than four percent, Africa still accounts for about only two percent of global trade.

The forum was aimed at "pushing forward trade and investment in our continent to strengthen Africa's place in the world economy", Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in opening remarks.

Sisi said the conference aims to present investment opportunities in Africa and "open a direct channel of communication and cooperation" between African businessmen and overseas investors.

Organisers are also seeking to turn the spotlight on Egypt's sluggish economy after years of political turmoil following the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

Heavily dependent on tourism, Egypt's economy was dealt a body blow when a Russian airliner broke up in mid-air last October 31, minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.

All 224 people on board, mostly Russian tourists, were killed when the aircraft blew up over the Sinai Peninsula. The jihadist Islamic State group said it brought down the jet with a bomb.

Egypt says it still has no evidence that a bomb downed the plane, although Moscow has acknowledged that a "terrorist attack" caused the disaster.

"Africa 2016 forum is expected to position Egypt as a gateway for foreign investments into African markets," Omar Ben Yedder, a member of the organising committee, told AFP.

Story continues

Those attending the summit organised by Egypt and the African Union include the presidents of Sudan, Nigeria, Togo, and Gabon, and dozens of African ministers and senior trade and investment officials.

- Security concerns -

African investors should spearhead growth in the continent, which can come from developing the region's infrastructure, some delegates said.

"When our own people invest then other investors get convinced," said Sindiso Ngwenya, head of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

He added that trade and investments within COMESA had surged from $837 million in 2007 to $12 billion currently.

Officials said a robust railway network could further propel growth.

"Rail will do to Africa what it did to agriculture in Asia and even in America. If you have power and rail, Africa will explode," Benedict Oramah, president of African Export-Import Bank, told AFP.

But rising terrorism and falling commodity prices pose challenges to growth.

"The new problem affecting investments is international terrorism... lot of resources that could be used for development are being diverted to address security issues," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said.

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is fighting a brutal insurgency launched by Boko Haram in 2009.

Boko Haram, which wants a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has killed some 17,000 people and forced more than 2.6 million others to flee their homes since the insurgency began.

Bankers say despite these challenges, the continent remains an investment destination.

"We plan to invest 12 billion dollars in the energy sector over the next five years... so that people in Africa can have universal access to electricity," Africa Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina told AFP.

The continent still has 645 million people without access to electricity, he said, and the only way to address the issue is to widen private sector participation in the energy sector.

Africa's economy is projected to grow by 4.4 percent this year and five percent in 2017 as against three percent growth expected in developed countries, he said.

"Africa is doing well despite the challenges it is facing," Adesina said.
Rome (AFP) - Italy was in mourning Saturday following the death of Umberto Eco, the literary and intellectual phenomenon who wrote "The Name of the Rose" and was cherished as one of his country's favourite sons.

Eco, who had been suffering from cancer, passed away at his Milan home late on Friday, his family told Italian media. He was 84.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo led tributes to the philosopher and semiotics lecturer who once famously described writing best-selling, heavyweight novels as "something I do at the weekends."

"He was an extraordinary example of a European intellectual," Renzi said. "He embodied both the unique intelligence of the past and a tireless capacity for anticipating the future."

Friends remembered a gentle man who enjoyed whisky and wordplay in equal measure and had a nice line in self-deprecating humour: in recent years he had taken to joking after receiving prizes: "From now on, it's the Nobel or nothing."

"He was rounded in the flesh and in the heart," said Jean-Noel Schifano who translated his books into French for over 30 years.

The Nobel never came but Eco was revered around the world, largely thanks to "The Name of the Rose", the blockbuster novel that became a hit film starring Sean Connery in the then-unlikely role of a medieval monk with the detective brilliance of Sherlock Holmes.

- Incredible energy -

Jean-Jacques Annaud, the Frenchman who directed the movie, recalled "an unforgettable personality" who combined immense erudition with an irrepressible joie de vivre.

"I remember one day hearing this wonderful flute solo, and it was Umberto playing Vivaldi. Then two minutes later we were in a little bistrot and he is stuffing down pasta and cheese. That was Umberto, just this crazy joyfulness," Annaud told AFP.

The director revealed that Eco had initially been very sceptical about the choice of former James Bond actor Connery for the lead role in the film.

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"But when he saw it he came to me and said 'Sean Connery was magnificent, bravo'," Annaud said.

Flags flew at half-mast in Alessandria, the town in the northern region of Piedmont where Eco was born on January 5, 1932.

He leaves a wife, Renate Ramge Eco, a German art teacher whom he married in 1962 and with whom he had a son and a daughter.

The young Umberto had a Roman Catholic upbringing, and was educated at one of the Salesian institution's schools.

His father was keen for him to read law, but instead he took up medieval philosophy and literature at the University of Turin.

In the late 1950s, he started to develop ideas on semiotics -- the study of signs, communicated either as spoken, written, scientific or artistic language.

He was appointed professor of semiotics at Bologna University in the 1970s and was to spend 40 years teaching at the ancient academic institution.

- Medieval mystery -

His move from academia to international fame came in 1980 with the success of "The Name of the Rose", which has since been translated into 43 languages and sold more than ten million copies.

A gothic murder mystery set in an Italian medieval monastery, it combines semiotics, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory.

It was adapted for the big screen by Annaud in 1986, with Connery as the detective monk William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as his young assistant, Adso of Melk.

Eco was also successful with "Foucault's Pendulum" (1988), about three employees at a minor publishing house who concoct a fictional conspiracy about a medieval Christian sect called the Knights Templar.

Other novels included "The Island of the Day Before" (1994), "Baudolino" (2000) and "The Prague Cemetery" (2010), which describes staging posts in the rise of modern anti-Semitism.

Among his dozens of essays, two in particular gained enduring popularity with their analysis of cultural standards.

They are "History of Beauty" (2004), and "On Ugliness" (2007) -- explorations on what we consider to be physically attractive or repellant, and why.

In an interview with British daily The Guardian last year, the bearded and bespectacled Eco said that his approach to writing was to seek to "change" the reader.

"I don't know what the reader expects," he said. "I think an author should write what the reader does not expect."

And he always refused to apologise for the complexity of his work. "People are tired of simple things, they want to be challenged," he said.
Kampala (AFP) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday celebrated extending his three decades in power with a walk with his beloved cows, dismissing opposition claims of poll rigging and criticism by the international community.

Uganda's veteran leader was declared the winner of the country's presidential election with 60 percent of the vote on Saturday, far ahead of the 35 percent won by detained opposition chief Kizza Besigye, whose house was surrounded by police in riot gear as the results were announced.

"The opposition are not leaders, they are just demagogues, liars, just talking, talking," the 71-year-old Museveni said Sunday in a speech broadcast from his home in western Uganda, his first comments since winning.

Besigye, who was arrested three times in the past week, and whose party headquarters were stormed on Friday by police firing tear gas, has slammed the results as a fraud and appealed to the international community not to recognise them.

In contrast with the images of Besigye's besieged home, pictures released by the government showed a relaxed Museveni walking with his long-horn cattle and chatting with their herders, wielding a stick and wearing his familiar wide-brimmed hat.

"Besigye cannot be allowed to disturb our peace," Museveni later told reporters, speaking from the garden of his rural home.

- 'Those Europeans are not serious'-

"I am very happy with Ugandans, they came out in big numbers and voted," Museveni added, warning against those who wished to cause violence through protests.

"We shall use both soft and hard means to guard the peace in Uganda... by soft means I mean talking to the youth, who these criminal politicians try to use," he said. "But also we can use non-lethal but tough methods, to deal with any trouble makers."

International observers raised concerns over the proceedings, saying that Uganda's electoral commission lacked transparency and accusing the police of heavy-handed treatment of the opposition.

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But Museveni dismissed the criticism. "I don't need lectures from anybody," he said. "Those Europeans are not serious."

While Museveni succeeded in extending his rule of the east African country, over a dozen influential ministers lost their parliamentary seats.

- Rigging claims 'rubbish' -

"Anybody who is trying to challenge the results of this election must not be serious," Museveni added. "If anyone was rigging, why did we not rig in Kampala? Why did we agree to lose where we can rig? That's rubbish."

Besigye has urged the world to ignore the results. "Should you ratify the results of these sham elections, at least have the courage to admit that you do not care about democracy or human rights in Africa," he said.

Ex-prime minister Amama Mbabazi, a former ruling party stalwart who trailed in distant third with just over one percent of the vote, also said the election was "fundamentally flawed."

Some 9.7 million Ugandans -- a turnout of around 63 percent -- voted for president and members of parliament, with 290 assembly seats contested by candidates from 29 political parties.

The election on Thursday was disrupted in Kampala by the late arrival of ballot boxes and papers and angry demonstrations by voters that the police quelled using tear gas.

At nearly 28,000 other polling centres voting passed off smoothly, but the ballot was extended for a second day in 36 places after delays that Commonwealth election observers called "inexcusable" and that "seriously detracted from the fairness and credibility of the result".

European Union election observers on Saturday said that voting was peaceful in the "vast majority" of the country, but voiced criticism over the "lack of transparency and independence" of the electoral commission.

The US criticised "irregularities" in the vote, including accusations of vote buying and rigging, which a State Department spokesman said was "deeply inconsistent with international standards and expectations for any democratic process".

Despite the controversy, several African leaders extended their congratulations.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta wished Museveni "every success as he serves his nation for another term", while Burundi's embattled President Pierre Nkurunziza praised the "well-deserved re-election."

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia -- where Ugandan troops are fighting the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab -- said it showed "the maturity of practising democracy in a peaceful manner."
By David Ingram and Dan Levine NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc will likely seek to invoke the United States' protections of free speech as one of its key legal arguments in trying to block an order to help unlock the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, lawyers with expertise in the subject said this week. The company on Thursday was granted three additional days by the court to file a response to the order. Apple will now have until Feb. 26 to send a reply, a person familiar with matter told Reuters. The tech giant and the Obama administration are on track for a major collision over computer security and encryption after a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles handed down an order on Tuesday requiring Apple to provide specific software and technical assistance to investigators. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation unprecedented. Other tech giants such as Facebook Inc , Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google have rallied to support Apple. Apple has retained two prominent, free-speech lawyers to do battle with the government, according to court papers: Theodore Olson, who won the political-speech case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, and Theodore Boutrous, who frequently represents media organizations. Government lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department have defended their request in court papers by citing various authorities, such as a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld an order compelling a telephone company to provide assistance with setting up a device to record telephone numbers. The high court said then that the All Writs Act, a law from 1789, authorized the order, and the scope of that ruling is expected to be a main target of Apple when it files a response in court by early next week. But Apple will likely also broaden its challenge to include the First Amendment's guarantee of speech rights, according to lawyers who are not involved in the dispute but who are following it. Compared with other countries, the United States has a strong guarantee of speech rights even for corporations, and at least one court has ruled that computer code is a form of speech, although that ruling was later voided. Apple could argue that being required to create and provide specific computer code amounts to unlawful compelled speech, said Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at Stanford University's Center for Internet and Society. The order against Apple is novel because it compels the company to create a new forensic tool to use, not just turn over information in Apple's possession, Pfefferkorn said. "I think there is a significant First Amendment concern," she said. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the possible free-speech questions on Thursday. A speech-rights argument from Apple, though, could be met with skepticism by the courts because computer code has become ubiquitous and underpins much of the U.S. economy. "That is an argument of enormous breadth," said Stuart Benjamin, a Duke University law professor who writes about the First Amendment. He said Apple would need to show that the computer code conveyed a "substantive message." In a case brought by a mathematician against U.S. export controls, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, found in 1999 that the source code behind encryption software is protected speech. The opinion was later withdrawn so the full court could rehear the case, but that rehearing was canceled and the appeal declared moot after the government revised its export controls. The FBI and prosecutors are seeking Apple's assistance to read the data on an iPhone 5C that had been used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shootings that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party. U.S. prosecutors were smart to pick the mass shooting as a test case for an encryption fight with tech companies, said Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor. That is because the shooting had a large emotional impact while also demonstrating the danger posed by armed militants, he said. In addition, the iPhone in dispute was owned not by Farook but by his employer, a local government, which has consented to the search of the iPhone. The federal magistrate who issued the order, Sheri Pym, is also a former federal prosecutor. "This is one of the worst set of facts possible for Apple. That's why the government picked this case," Froomkin said. Froomkin added, though, that the fight was enormously important for the company because of the possibility that a new forensic tool could be easily used on other phones and the damage that could be done to Apple's global brand if it cannot withstand government demands on privacy. "All these demands make their phones less attractive to users," he said. (Reporting by David Ingram and Alison Frankel in New York, Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Lisa Shumaker and Gopakumar Warrier)
Rioting and arson over demands for caste quotas has left 10 people dead in a north Indian state and seen thousands of troops deployed. Here are key questions about India's caste system: - Who is behind the violence? The Jat caste are the single biggest community in Haryana state bordering New Delhi, with nearly eight million members, and large communities also in neighbouring states. A traditionally rural group, many are farmers who have suffered in recent years from falling crop prices and drought. They are not the only group to launch such action. The relatively well-off Patel caste of traders and farmers staged violent protests last year in the western state of Gujarat. - What do they want? They want a quota of government jobs and university places reserved for Jats. Such quotas are given to India's many socially disadvantaged groups, including the lowest Dalit caste formerly known as "untouchables". Jats in Haryana are demanding they be officially included in "other backward classes". This would guarantee them sought-after jobs in the public service and places at colleges. - Why is the violence happening now? Jat leaders have been threatening for months to launch protests, but Haryana's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government seems to have been taken by surprise by the violence. The Haryana government agreed last year to grant 10 percent reservation to Jats, according to local media reports. But the High Court in July stayed that decision. Tension has been brewing ever since. Nationally, Jats have been fuming since the Supreme Court last year struck down the previous central government's decision to allot quotas to their caste. The court said the decision would exceed the legal maximum of 50 percent reserved quotas for public service jobs and college places. - Why does modern India even still have castes? The hierarchical system is seen by many as an ancient form of discrimination that has no place in modern India, whose economy has been growing rapidly. Caste restrictions, which stopped the "untouchable" Dalits and other lower groups from advancing, have eased dramatically over the years. Narendra Modi, the son of a tea-seller who rose to become prime minister, is proof of that. But discrimination against low castes is still rife in underdeveloped, uneducated and rural areas where more than half the population lives. - Why are caste quotas still important? Caste-based quotas are meant to provide equal opportunities for India's poorest and most marginalised groups. Nearly one in four Indians still lives on less than $1.25 a day. Public-sector jobs are highly sought after because they are seen as extremely secure. Thousands of people, including qualified professionals, regularly apply for even the most menial posts. With India's population set to overtake China's within a decade, the country faces major unemployment problems and competition for such posts will continue to be fierce. The system is the subject of frequent challenges, with the number of places allocated to disadvantaged groups changing from state to state. Politicians often promise to scale back the quota system, or to include a particular caste demanding inclusion, in order to win votes.
A string of suicide bombings near a Shiite shrine outside Syria's capital and in Homs claimed by jihadists killed more than 150 people, as Washington and Moscow worked to secure a ceasefire. The Islamic State group said it was behind the carnage. US Secretary of State John Kerry said a provisional deal had been reached on the terms of a truce in Syria's brutal five-year conflict, only for the bloodshed to intensify on the ground. Near Damascus, a car bombing followed by two consecutive suicide attacks ripped through the area of the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and killed 96 people according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria's official news agency SANA, quoting a police source, said 178 people, including children, were among the wounded. An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 metres (yards) from the revered Shiite shrine containing the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed. A January attack in the same area -- also claimed by IS -- killed 70 people. The Observatory also reported that two car bombs killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens in the pro-regime district of Al-Zahraa in the central city of Homs. IS said online that two suicide bombers struck in Sayyida Zeinab and two others drove explosive-packed cars into crowds in Homs. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura "strongly condemns" the attacks, his spokesperson said in a statement. State television footage from Homs showed emergency workers carrying a charred body on a stretcher past devastated shops and mangled cars and minibuses. Al-Zahraa -- whose residents are mostly from the same Alawite sect of Shia Islam as Syria's ruling clan -- has been regularly targeted. - 'Provisional' ceasefire deal - World powers, which have been pushing for a halt in Syria's nearly five-year war, had hoped to see a truce take effect on Friday but have struggled to agree on the terms. On Sunday, Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at least three times to try to nail down a truce. "We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said in Amman after one round of talks. The Russian foreign ministry later said Lavrov and Kerry held two more telephone conversations and finalised the ceasefire terms to be submitted to their respective presidents. World powers proposed the truce just over a week ago as part of a plan that also included expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave the way for peace talks to resume. The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, had been scheduled to resume on February 25, but the UN's Syria envoy has already acknowledged that date is no longer realistic. Key opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee said at the weekend it would agree a temporary truce only if regime backers halted fire. HNC chief Riad Hijab said any ceasefire must be reached "with international mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting". Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, told Spain's El Pais newspaper he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but that it should not be exploited by "terrorists". - Turkey defends shelling Kurds - Moscow is a key architect of the proposed ceasefire, but has shown little sign so far that it plans to rein in the air campaign it began in September in support of Assad's government. Regime forces backed by Russian strikes were advancing on Sunday east of Aleppo city against IS, consolidating their control over a stretch of highway from the city to the Kweyris military base. The Observatory said at least 50 IS fighters had been killed in clashes and Russian strikes since Saturday morning. Tensions have been rising between Moscow and opposition-backer Ankara, alarmed by both the regime's Russian-backed advances and a major operation by Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo province. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab partners have seized key territory from rebel forces in Aleppo province, prompting Turkey to shell their positions. Ankara considers the YPG to be an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. It fears the Kurdish advances are intended to link areas in north and northeast Syria to create a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone along the Syrian-Turkish border. On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his country's fight against the YPG as "legitimate defence" after international calls for Ankara to halt its military action in Syria.
France remembered the horror of the Battle of Verdun on Sunday, exactly 100 years on from the first shots fired in World War I's longest battle, which became a symbol of resistance and suffering. Gathering at dawn in the forest of Caures, near Verdun, around 300 people in WWI military uniform marched down the narrow lane where the fighting started on February 21, 1916. "It was here, 100 years ago, that the first shells fell," one man said to the sound of explosions. "Some 1,400 guns and mortars threw up almost a million shells. Nearly 400 guns were focused on the forest of Caures." The last veteran of Verdun died in 2008 so this year's commemorations have put the emphasis on educating the young, with thousands of French and German children attending the re-enactment. "Time has done its work. Today, Verdun is no longer a memory, it is history," said Thierry Hubscher, director of the Verdun Memorial, which has been renovated for the centenary. A strong point on the long frontline dividing the French and German armies, Verdun in northeastern France was the target of a German offensive whose aim -- according to commander-in-chief Erich von Falkenhayn -- was to "bleed France dry". The battle was waged over a tiny stretch of land and ended with neither side making any significant headway. Around 300,000 French and German soldiers died in the 10-month battle in which some 30 million shells are estimated to have been fired. With some three-quarters of France's soldiers having experienced the "hell of Verdun", the battle quickly embedded itself in the country's traumatised psyche, viewed by the French in much the same way as the British saw the Battle of Somme. "It's important to be here to honour those who lost their lives, but also to confirm the friendship of France and Germany at a moment when nationalism is growing," said French secretary of state for veterans Jean-Marc Todeschini, after a mass at the Douaumont memorial where the bones of 130,000 unidentified soldiers are kept. - 'They shall not pass' - French General Robert Nivelle's stirring phrase, "On ne passe pas" ("They shall not pass") came to symbolise the essence of national resistance and was appropriated by military leaders across the world in later years. For Germans, the soldier of Verdun, striving forward under heavy mortar fire became a mythical hero, praised in Nazi propaganda as the forerunner to the regime's own SS soldiers, said German historian Gerd Krumeich, who has co-written a new book about the battle with a French colleague, Antoine Prost. But behind that mythologising about courage and sacrifice lay horrific carnage. Such was the trauma of the battle that it took decades before the governments of France and Germany could contemplate joint commemorations. In 1966, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer hoped to commemorate the battle of Verdun alongside France's President Charles De Gaulle, but it was deemed too soon, said Prost. Germany had to wait until 1984 for an official invite, leading to the iconic image of Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand standing hand-in-hand at a memorial ceremony that came to symbolise the new era of peace in the heart of Europe. Such a moment did not come easily. It was just a few months since Germany had been left out of the 40th anniversary ceremony of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, said Prost. In all, the First World War killed some 10 million military men and left 20 million injured, many of them disfigured by explosives or poison gas, or reduced to human wrecks by what became known as "shell shock". Between 1914 and 1918, among the major belligerents, Germany lost 1.9 million troops, Russia 1.7 million, France 1.4 million, the Austro-Hungarian empire a million and Britain 760,000.
By Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) - When Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a deal designed to keep Britain in the European Union after two days of talks in Brussels, his relief was short-lived. Within hours of Friday's agreement, one of Cameron's closest allies, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, and five other ministers declared they would campaign against him in a June 23 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the bloc. It was the first blow in what could be a new "civil war" in Cameron's Conservative Party over Europe. Divisions over Britain's place in Europe contributed to the downfall of two of his predecessors, John Major and Margaret Thatcher. It is a war Cameron tried hard to avoid when he came to power in 2010. The following year he ordered his party in the strictest terms to vote down a bill suggesting a referendum on membership of the EU, saying it was the "wrong answer for Britain". But within two years, he had changed his mind, paving the way to a membership referendum, by declaring: "I believe in confronting this issue - shaping it, leading the debate. Not simply hoping a difficult situation will go away." Cameron, 49, now finds himself fighting a referendum which will determine Britain's future in world affairs and shape the future EU - Britain is the bloc's second-largest economy and one of its two main military powers. In a quirk of the British political system, the prime minister is in the unusual position of being more sure of the backing of the opposition Labour Party than of his own party. "He didn't want a referendum, he was bounced into doing it," said Douglas Carswell, a Conservative Party member until he defected to the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2014. "He's been the actor in this production, he is not writing the script, or directing it, or producing it." As a eurosceptic, Carswell has an axe to grind, but his view that Cameron has almost sleep walked into such a crucial referendum is shared by some of the prime minister's allies and supporters as well as other critics. "I think it's pretty clear ... there was no plan," said Jonathan Portes, principal research fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research who specialises in immigration issues. SUSPICION The deal reached on Friday followed weeks of negotiations across Europe in which Cameron tried to win better terms for Britain if it remains in the EU, hoping to win over sceptical voters including many in his own party. He said he had won his country a "special status" from the agreement, which excludes Britain from the founding goal of "ever closer union" and hands the government welfare curbs to try to tackle concerns over high levels of migration. A spokesman for Cameron said the prime minister had always focused on winning "the best deal for the British people" and denied the negotiations had been about "party management". But Cameron's path to the referendum shows he is clearly sensitive to the opinions in his party. He initially steered clear of discussing the EU with party eurosceptics after coming to power and avoided meetings with them and, to reduce their hold, portrayed them "as a crackpot minority banging on about Europe", one Conservative lawmaker said. Allies say Cameron knew he had to counter the threat of rebellion and took a calculated risk by calling a referendum he expects to win. But as the prime minister tried to ignore the issue, Britain's largely eurosceptic press kept the issue alive. Over decades Britain's press has fuelled suspicion of a bloc praised by many Europeans for ensuring peace after World War Two, but derided in Britain for wanting to ban curved bananas and rename sausages. A natural, if not passionate, europhile, Cameron increasingly seemed out of step with many in his party as they opposed moves towards further integration in Europe and saw a referendum as the logical next step. In 2011, when Cameron ordered Conservative members of parliament to vote down a bill suggesting a membership referendum, about 80 rebelled. John Baron was one of them. Immediately afterwards, Baron said he and at least eight rallied more than 100 lawmakers to force Cameron to abandon his no-referendum policy and, after they wrote letters and lobbied fiercely, more than a year later he relented. He then made holding a referendum a central policy. Baron told Reuters that Cameron was "ultimately confronted with logic but also a realisation that one, we weren't going to go away, and two, we were much more sizeable than the spin operation portrayed". Baron is keen to take credit for his role in forcing the prime minister into holding the referendum. But bullied into the vote, Cameron hastily had to come up with policy on the hoof, sources said. Portes, who as a civil servant helped negotiate Britain's opt-out from the Maastricht treaty which set up the euro currency, said Cameron's decision to focus on winning concessions over "in-work benefits" - social payments for low-paid workers - had underlined the lack of strategy. The focus on a specific, and otherwise little-known, element of Britain's welfare system maddened some EU officials, who saw it as a direct attack on the EU's fundamental principles and discriminatory. It almost derailed the negotiations. Pat McFadden, Labour's former Europe minister, says this was down to Cameron's poor understanding of the EU. "He doesn't always do his homework on a European level," McFadden told Reuters. Cameron aides say the prime minister has plenty of experience of EU affairs, visiting 20 member states for talks on the bloc since he was re-elected last year. Cameron was forced to focus on in-work benefits after concerns over immigration grew among voters over an influx of migrants from eastern European member states. His move was also partly meant to counter a growth in the popularity of UKIP. In 2014, he said he would "not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement I will get what Britain needs". But EU officials swiftly made clear they would not allow this, saying it would undermine one of the EU's founding principles. Struggling to find a way to include immigration in the renegotiation, Cameron's eye fell on a report by the Open Europe think tank which suggested that curbing the benefits to EU workers would reduce migration and would avoid troublesome change to the bloc's founding treaties. "And they just lifted it, without testing it, without doing any serious analysis at all, either legal or economic," said Portes. Open Europe's co-director, Stephen Booth, said that his study was quickly taken up by the government and advisers did not ask legal questions. Cameron's officials say the prime minister has formed policy in response to public concerns over high immigration. Although agreement was reached on Friday, the decision to include gestures for Britain on welfare reform still rankles in EU capitals. One diplomat involved in the talks said Britain's EU partners were "rather irritated ... that here we are dealing with some rather obscure issues... while we have ... major issues we should really be on instead of this". STUMBLES For eurosceptics, the curbs on in-work benefits and restrictions to payments to EU migrants with an annual income below a certain level for their children who remain abroad do not go far enough and accuse Cameron of buckling under pressure from the EU. "Britain banged the table and aggressively demanded the status quo," Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter. "The EU, after some mandatory faux-agonising, agreed." "He's tinkering because he knows he cannot question one of the founding principles of the EU which is freedom of movement," said Baron. Baron said the result of the referendum would be close and "lance the boil" in the party for good. But others disagree, seeing little chance of 'the Europe issue' ever going away - something that may come to hurt Cameron whichever way Britain votes. "The European issue has split it from top to bottom, ever since we went in," said Jeffrey Archer, a former conservative lawmaker and an author. "It's a divisive issue and if we do come out, it will be divisive. If we do stay in, it will be divisive." (additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Janet McBride)
Japan's Haru Nomura fired a closing seven-under par 65 to deny defending champion and world number one Lydia Ko and win the LPGA-sanctioned Australian Open at The Grange in Adelaide on Sunday. Nomura, 23, holed eight birdies in the final round having started the day in a three-way share of the lead at nine-under. The Japanese player closed the door on Ko's chances with a monster 15-metre birdie putt at the 17th when she was three shots ahead of the New Zealand ace. It allowed Nomura the luxury of her only bogey at the par-four 18th when she found the front-right sand trap and failed to get up and down. It was the 67th-ranked Nomura's first LPGA win after five seasons on the tour in America without drawing much attention. "There was no pressure," Nomura said. "Golf is the fight of my own. "It's not against someone else, even though someone else plays well. If I hit my goals, then I win." Nomura clinched victory with a run of three consecutive birdies at the 15th, 16th and 17th holes that the top-ranked Ko could not match. Ko finished alone in second place at 13-under par after finishing with a five-under par 67. "I played really well but Haru just played even better," Ko said. "By the roars I could hear, it seems like she was holing a lot of putts. When another player does that, it's really out of my hands." Australia's five-time Australian Open winner Karrie Webb was third at nine-under, having joined the lead early in the round with three birdies before faltering. Nomura had just 26 putts. "The putter... Wow... Unbelievable," she said. Nomura is the first Japanese winner of the tournament since 1974, when Chako Higuchi won at the Victoria course. American Danielle Kang and South Korean Jenny Shin had shared the overnight lead with Nomura but fell away on the final day. Kang's closing 73 saw her finish in a tie for fourth on eight-under 280, while Shin was joint ninth a stroke further back after a 74.
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Heavy clashes in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have left at least 14 people dead and 32 wounded, medical officials said on Saturday. Five years on from the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is plagued by instability, and Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to expand their presence. A spokesman for the military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government, Wanis Boukhamada, said fighting was mostly in the neighbourhood of Boatni. The army has been battling Islamist groups in the city for months. Two governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east, each backed by complex alliances of armed factions, are vying to for control of the country. On Friday, U.S. warplanes carried out an airstrike on a suspected militant camp in Sabratha in western Libya. At least 50 people were killed including two Serbian embassy staff abducted in Libya in November. Neighbouring Tunisia's Interior Ministry said on Saturday that five militants had been arrested in the southern city of Ben Guerdan who had trained in Sabratha and had planned to carry out attacks in Tunisia. U.S. officials said on Friday that one of those targeted in the attack was the Tunisian Noureddine Chouchane, blamed for two attacks targeting foreign tourists in Tunisia last year in which dozens were killed. More than 3,000 Tunisians have left their country to fight with Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq, but increasingly Tunisian officials say they see fighters returning to fight with Islamic State in Libya. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Libya and Tarek Amara in Tunis; Writing by Aidan Lewis and Patrick Markey; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in Syria. Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier this month. "We have reached a provisional agreement, in principle, on the terms of the cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry said. "It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task," Kerry told a press conference with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh. Hopes for ceasefire, which had been due to take hold on Friday, had floundered as fresh violence shook Syria last week. But Kerry was optimistic that it could still be implemented, noting that UN-backed aid deliveries had reached besieged Syrians last week. "We are in fact making progress even as a I stand here today. There is aid now getting through, the modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed," he said. "We are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been." Noting that a US-led coalition had carried out more than 10,000 air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Kerry said: "We are determined that we will win this fight." "The coalition is planning further actions even as we speak," he said, without providing details. Kerry highlighted coalition member Jordan's contribution, saying the country would receive $1.6 billion in US assistance "that will enhance border security, create economic growth and create jobs for Jordanian people." "As part of this assistance Jordan received $450 million in foreign military financing this year, making it the third-largest recipient in the world," Kerry said. He said a political transition in Syria was crucial in the fight against IS and reiterated US opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying in power. "At the end of the day, nothing will do more to make the fight against Daesh effective than to put in place a political transition that finds a government responsive to the desperate needs of the Syrian people," Kerry said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "And my friends that is a government that cannot possibly have Assad at its head.
Murder convict Sirul Azhar Umar, who is being held in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, and his application for asylum remain a touchy issue for the Australian government, The Australian reported. The daily said the Australian Border Force (ABF), tasked with providing the highest security for Sirul (pic) in Villawood, faced tough questions over how a convicted murderer sentenced to death in Malaysia could make politically charged statements while in detention in Australia. News portal Malaysiakini had published a series of videos by Sirul, in one of which he indicated his intention to reveal the names of those who purportedly attempted to bribe or coax him into implicating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaaribuu. ABF has denied that the videos were filmed in Villawood, but lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu said the videos were made during his detention in Australia. Its only logical the video was done sometime in early January because in it he refers to his lawyers press conference where they mentioned his protection visa, Americk was quoted as saying by The Australian. Sirul and former policeman Azilah Hadri were convicted of killing Altantuya and blowing up her body with military explosives in a jungle near Shah Alam 10 years ago. Azilah is being held on death row in prison. Diplomatic relations between Australia and Malaysia have improved following close co-operation after the Malaysia Airlines MH370 and MH17 tragedies, and the need to find moderate Islamic defence in the region against a growing threat of transnational terrorism. But Australia recently came under the spotlight over its policy on asylum seekers. In November last year, a boat carrying asylum seekers was towed away by the Australian Navy from its Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island, AFP reported. Christmas Island, which lies between the Australian mainland and Indonesia, houses an immigration detention facility. But the government no longer takes asylum seekers arriving by boat to the territory, sending them instead to the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. A week ago, an Australian hospital refused to return an asylum seeker's baby to detention in Nauru, as momentum built across the country against offshore Pacific camps for processing refugees. The hospital's move came as state governments, churches and activists stepped up their efforts to stop the return of some 267 refugees to Nauru following a High Court ruling.  February 21, 2016.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has identified the perpetrator of the Ankara bombing attack that killed 28 people as a member of the Syria Kurdish YPG militia working with insurgents from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Prime Minister Davutoglu said. In a live television speech, Davutoglu said the bombing showed that the Syrian Kurdish YPG is a terrorist organisation and that Turkey expects cooperation from its allies against the group. Washington, which has said the YPG is not a terrorist group, has backed the insurgents in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. "In light of information we have obtained, it has been clearly identified that this attack has been carried out by the members of terrorist organization inside Turkey together with a YPG member individual who has crossed from Syria," Davutoglu said. He also said nine people have been detained following the attack. (Reporting by Daren Butler, Ece Toksabay and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Dominic Evans)
By Ercan Gurses and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq. A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday. Davutoglu said the attack was clear evidence that the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia that has been supported by the United States in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, was a terrorist organisation and that Turkey, a NATO member, expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group. Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and which Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing. Turkey's armed forces also shelled YPG positions in northern Syria on Thursday, a security source said. Davutoglu said the artillery fire would continue and promised that those responsible for the Ankara attack would "pay the price". "Yesterday's attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organisation PKK. All necessary measures will be taken against them," Davutoglu said in a televised speech. President Tayyip Erdogan also said initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing and said that 14 people had been detained. The political arm of the YPG, denied involvement in the bombing, while a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was responsible. The attack was the latest in a series of bombings in the past year mostly blamed on Islamic State militants. Turkey is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighbouring Syria and is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast. The YPG militia, regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent force deeply linked to the PKK, has taken advantage in recent weeks of a major Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border. That has alarmed Turkey, which fears the advances will stoke Kurdish separatist ambitions at home. It has been bombarding YPG positions in an effort to stop them taking the town of Azaz, the last stronghold of Turkish-backed Syrian rebels north of Aleppo before the Turkish frontier. Hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered Syria from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, rebel sources said on Thursday. TENSIONS WITH WASHINGTON The co-leader of the YPG's political wing denied that the affiliated YPG perpetrated the Ankara bombing and said Turkey was using the attack to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria. "We are completely refuting that. ...Davutoglu is preparing for something else because they are shelling us as you know for the past week," Saleh Muslim told Reuters by telephone. Washington's support of the YPG - it views the group as a useful ally in the fight against Islamic State - has strained relations with Turkey. Both Erdogan and Davutoglu have called on the United States to cut ties with the insurgents. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washington was not in a position to either confirm or deny Turkey's charge the YPG was behind the attack. He also called on Turkey to stop shelling the YPG. Turkey has said its shelling of YPG positions is a response, within its rules of engagement, to hostile fire coming across the border into Turkey, something Saleh Muslim also denied. "I can assure you not even one bullet is fired by the YPG into Turkey ... They don't consider Turkey an enemy," he said. The co-leader of the PKK umbrella group, Cemil Bayik, was quoted by the Firat news agency as saying he did not know who was responsible for the Ankara bombing. But the attack, he said, could be an answer to "massacres in Kurdistan", referring to the Kurdish region spanning parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Turkey has been battling PKK militants in its own southeast, where a 2-1/2 year ceasefire collapsed last July and pitched the region into its worst bloodshed since the 1990s. Six soldiers were killed and one wounded on Thursday when a remote-controlled handmade bomb hit their vehicle, the military said. WARNING TO RUSSIA Davutoglu named the suicide bomber as Salih Necar, born in 1992 and from the Hasakah region of northern Syria, and said he was a member of the YPG. A senior security official said the alleged bomber had entered Turkey from Syria in July 2014, although he may have crossed the border illegally multiple times before that, and said he had had contact with the PKK and Syrian intelligence. Davutoglu also accused the Syrian government of a hand in the Ankara bombing and warned Russia, whose air strikes in northern Syria have helped the YPG to advance, against using the Kurdish militant group against Turkey. "I'd like to warn Russia, which is giving air support to the YPG in its advance on Azaz, not to use this terrorist group against the innocent people of Syria and Turkey," he said. "Russia condemned yesterday's attack, but it is not enough. All those who intend to use terrorist organisations as proxies should know that this game of terror will turn around like a boomerang and hit them first." Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told a teleconference with reporters that the Kremlin condemned the bombing "in the strongest possible terms". (Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Andrew Heavens and Andrew Hay)
The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out
Australia is set to allow an asylum seeker baby to remain in the country instead of being sent back to a Pacific detention camp while her status is decided.

One-year-old baby Asha and her Nepalese asylum-seeker parents were being held on the remote island of Nauru before she was brought to a Brisbane hospital for medical treatment last month.

Australia's High Court rejected a test case earlier in February that challenged the deportation of 267 refugee children and their families who had been brought to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment but the hospital looking after Asha refused to discharge her until a "suitable home environment is identified".

Asha and her parents faced being returned to a camp on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, about 1,800 miles north-east of Australia, which has been criticised for housing 500 people in harsh conditions.

After days of protests by pro-refugee groups, immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that Asha will instead be put in community detention, which allows people to live in Australia while their asylum applications are decided. This means they can usually move around freely but can still be deported at any time.

Mr Dutton said: "We are proposing that baby Asha will come from Lady Cilento and will go into community detention as have, as I say, 83 others who are living in the community who are in Australia for medical assistance."

He said the decision was not a result of the public outcry over Asha's situation.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor Premier of Queensland said Mr Dutton's decision was "too slow" and renewed her offer to house asylum seekers facing deportation in the state.

Australia's policy on asylum seekers has attracted criticism from many groups, including the country's church leaders who have also promised to give sanctuary to those seeking refuge in the country.

The policy sees everyone who arrives seeking asylum is detained and processed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Those found to be refugees will be resettled in PNG, Nauru or Cambodia.
PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic is ready to send around 100 soldiers to the eastern flank of NATO to help reinforce the Baltics and Poland and deter Russia, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said on Sunday. The move is in line with a NATO plan, announced on Feb. 10, to deter Russia from aggression by rapidly deploying air, naval and ground forces without resorting to Cold War-era military bases. "There is a talk of a platoon, roughly 100 people, who would take part in the alliance's contingent," Stropnicky said on Czech Television. "If the preparation of the (NATO) brigade goes according to plan, and I believe it will, then it is very likely in the second half (of this year)," he said. In an effort to deter Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO defence ministers will rely on a network of new alliance outposts, forces on rotation, warehoused equipment and regular war games, all backed by a rapid-reaction force. (Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Luciana Lopez and Steve Holland LAS VEGAS/CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will test his appeal with minority voters in Nevada on Saturday, looking to puncture rival Hillary Clinton's argument that he is a one-note candidate whose support is limited to mostly white states. After routing Clinton in New Hampshire and finishing a strong second in Iowa, states with nearly all-white populations, Nevada's Democratic caucuses give Sanders his first chance to prove he can win over black and Hispanic voters and compete nationally as the race moves to states with more diverse populations. Republicans in South Carolina also vote on Saturday in the state-by-state contest to pick nominees for the Nov. 8 election, with opinion polls showing front-runner Donald Trump trying to solidify his spot at the top of the pack and rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio fighting for a second-place finish. Behind them, Republican candidates Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Ben Carson could be vying in South Carolina to keep their campaigns alive before the presidential race rapidly picks up steam in March when dozens of states hold nominating contests. The long day of voting begins in South Carolina, where polls open for Republicans at 7 a.m. EST and close at 7 p.m. EST. Nevada's Democratic caucuses will begin at 2 p.m. EST, with results expected to begin rolling in a few hours later. Public opinion polling has been scarce in Nevada, where Latinos and African-Americans made up nearly one-third of the Democratic electorate in 2008 and are expected to account for more this time. A few recent surveys show a tight race, however. Clinton's campaign has argued she would assert control of the Democratic race once it moved to more diverse states with black and Hispanic populations who have traditionally backed Clinton and have been slow to warm to Sanders. But a Sanders win in Nevada would shatter that perception, fuelling new questions about Clinton's strength in a campaign that was once considered a cakewalk for her. It would also raise the stakes for the next contest, in South Carolina on Feb. 27. A Clinton win, however, would halt the momentum Sanders has generated from his 22-point defeat of Clinton in New Hampshire and position her to begin rolling up wins and delegates in South Carolina and on "Super Tuesday" on March 1. COURTING HISPANICS Both campaigns aggressively courted Hispanics in Nevada, bulking up Latino and bilingual staff members, locating offices in Hispanic neighbourhoods, launching bilingual phone banks and Spanish-language caucus training, and inviting Hispanic celebrities to help spread the word. "We have to build a culturally competent campaign," said Jorge Neri, Clinton's Nevada organising director. For Clinton, that cultural competence sometimes could be found in small details - like the fact that "house party" does not translate well in Spanish. The Clinton campaign used the word "cafecito" instead to describe a potluck type event where people gather and talk politics. The Clinton campaign also built a strong text message list, reflecting the fact many Latinos primarily or only access the Internet by their phones. The Sanders campaign also targeted Latinos. At a phone bank event on Wednesday, volunteers chatted in Spanish and English to persuade them to turn out for Sanders. Mexican-American actor and television personality Marco Antonio Regil made calls for Sanders. "Bernie, he gets me," he said, in-between phone conversations. "We have gone so much to the right that we need someone who brings us a little bit to the left." Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is a self-described democratic socialist who has criticized Clinton's ties to Wall Street and generated enthusiasm among young voters with his call for breaking up the big banks and reducing income inequality. Clinton has said Sanders's emphasis on an anti-Wall Street agenda made him a one-issue candidate, and has questioned whether his proposals are politically viable in a gridlocked Washington. On the Repubican side, front-runner Trump created some last-minute drama in South Carolina after Pope Francis said on Thursday his views on U.S. immigration were "not Christian." Trump initially called Francis "disgraceful," but later called him "a wonderful guy." The Vatican later clarified the pope's remarks, saying they were "in no way" a personal attack and were not an indication how to vote. Trump also called for a boycott of Apple Inc products until the tech company agreed to help the U.S. government unlock the cellphone of one of the killers in last year's San Bernadino, California, shooting. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez and Steve Holland; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Andrew Hay)
By Jane Wardell and Peter Gosnell SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia said on Sunday a baby girl facing repatriation to an offshore immigration detention camp would go to an onshore facility instead, easing tension that peaked in a blockade outside a hospital where she is a patient. Doctors at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane had refused to release the one-year-old girl after completion of her treatment for serious burns, adding to pressure on the government over its tough asylum seeker policy. The number of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia is small in comparison with those arriving in Europe, but border security is a hot-button political issue in Australia, which is scheduled to hold a national election later in the year. Federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the infant, known only as Baby Asha, would shortly be released into community detention, which allows free movement, in Brisbane. However, Dutton stressed that the family could still be returned to a camp on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) northeast of Australia, if they were not deemed to be genuine refugees. Asha was flown last month from the Nauru centre, which houses more than 500 people, to Brisbane for hospital treatment. The facility has been widely criticised for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. "The advice I've received is that the doctors from the hospital have said they would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention," Dutton told reporters. "But at some point, if people have (asylum claim) matters finalised in Australia, then they will be returning to Nauru - that's exactly the same treatment that we've applied equally." The High Court this month rejected a legal test case that challenged Australia's right to deport 267 refugee children and their families who had been brought to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment. Hundreds of Australians held an overnight vigil at the hospital, blocking exits and stopping cars in a bid to halt Asha's removal. The protest drew wide attention and support in Australia, with the Twitter hashtag #BabyAsha trending worldwide. "Together we did it!" tweeted Kon Karapanagiotidis, chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, after Dutton's announcement. Australia maintains a policy of sending asylum seekers who attempt to reach the country by boat to camps on Nauru or on Manus island in Papua New Guinea. They are not offered resettlement in Australia. The government says the policies are necessary to stop the drowning of asylum seekers as people smugglers use unseaworthy vessels to ship them from Indonesia to Australia. (Reporting by Jane Wardell; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Storyful

UK Conservative politician William Wragg told the House of Commons in London that he submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Liz Truss on Wednesday, October 19.Wragg also said that he intended to vote with the government to oppose a fracking ban, despite formerly being in favor of banning the practice, in order for his letter to remain valid.The BBC reported on Wednesday that Conservative MPs had been sent messages saying they must vote with the government and oppose the ban or risk being expelled from the parliamentary party.The fracking debate that follows has been made a confidence vote, Wragg told the House of Commons.Wragg explained that if he were to vote in favor of a fracking ban, he would no longer be a member of the Conservative Parliamentary Party.My letter lodged with my honorable friend, the member for Altrincham and Sale West [Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee], would fall, and I wish to maintain that letter with my honorable friend, Wragg said, referring to the letter of no confidence.Wragg is the vice-chair of the influental 1922 Committee group of Conservative MPs. Credit: Parliament TV via Storyful
By Patricia Zengerle and John Davison AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before. Meanwhile, violence continued to rage in Syria. Multiple bomb blasts in a southern district of Damascus killed at least 87 people on Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and twin car bombs killed at least 59 people in Homs, the monitoring group said. Russian air strikes launched in September against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have exacerbated suffering and destruction in Syria, where a five-year-old civil war has killed more than a quarter of a million people. Assad said on Saturday he was ready for a ceasefire on condition "terrorists" did not use a lull in fighting to their advantage and that countries backing the insurgents stopped supporting them. The Syrian opposition had earlier said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus's allies, including Russia, would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide. "We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry told a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. "The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed. In fact, we are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been," said Kerry, who was also to meet King Abdullah. He declined to go into detail about the unresolved issues, saying the two sides were "filling out the details" of the agreement. And he indicated issues remained to be resolved and he did not expect any immediate change on the ground. He repeated the U.S. position that Assad had to step down. "With Assad there, this war cannot and will not end," he said. Assad's fate has been one of the main points of difference between Washington and Russia, the Syrian leader's main international backer. Russia recently has begun to say Syrians should decide on whether Assad should stay or not, but it continues to support Damascus with air strikes. OBAMA AND PUTIN TO TALK Kerry said he had spoken to Lavrov on several occasions, including earlier on Sunday, and that he anticipated U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk in the coming days to complete the provisional agreement in principle. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov and Kerry had spoken by phone on Sunday about conditions for a ceasefire. It said the discussions were on conditions that would exclude operations against organisations "recognised as terrorist by U.N. Security Council". Those groups include Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Despite the provisional agreement, Kerry did not see an imminent change in fighting on the ground. "I do not believe that in the next few days, during which time we try to bring this into effect, there is somehow going to be a tipping point with respect to what is happening on the ground ... The opposition has made clear their determination to fight back," he said. The car bombs and suicide attacks on Sunday in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, where Syria's holiest Shi'ite shrine is located, were claimed by Islamic State. Suicide attacks last month in the same district, also claimed by Islamic State, killed 60 people. The car bombings on Sunday in Homs, in which at least 100 were also wounded, were among the deadliest in the city in five years of fighting, the Syrian Observatory said. Kerry said any deal would take a few days to come together, while the two sides consulted with other countries and the Syrian opposition. Russia had to speak to the Syrian government and Iran, and the United States had to speak to the Syrian opposition and its partners, Kerry said. Russia's RIA news agency said on Sunday that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had arrived in Tehran, quoting a source in the Russian Embassy in Iran. It did not give a reason for the visit. (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi, Kinda Makieh and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Richard Balmforth, Larry King)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinian assailants in separate incidents in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Friday, police and the military said, as a wave of heightened violence persisted into its fifth month. In Jerusalem, a Palestinian man stabbed two police officers outside the walled Old City before they opened fire and killed him, police said. A few hours later, in the West Bank, a Palestinian man tried to ram his car into a group of Israeli soldiers who then shot him dead, the military said. A third Palestinian man was killed by Israeli soldiers in a clash elsewhere in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said he was armed with an automatic weapon and fired on the troops during a riot. Since October, stabbings, shootings and car rammings by Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Israeli security forces have killed at least 167 Palestinians, 110 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests. The bloodshed has raised concern of wider escalation a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided. Briefing the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. envoy on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, said he was concerned the bloodshed may be entering "a new troubling phase". Mladenov called on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to provide "a political horizon to their people" and reject incitement by what he called radicals in their own camps. Tensions have been stoked by various factors including a dispute over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory. Palestinian leaders have said that with no breakthrough on the horizon, desperate youngsters see no future ahead. Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel's destruction. Security officials have also pointed to economic hardship and social media as playing a role in triggering attacks. Many Palestinian attackers have been teenagers. On Thursday two Palestinian 14-year-olds stabbed and killed an Israeli, who also had U.S. citizenship, in a supermarket in the West Bank before an armed civilian shot and wounded the teens. "This horrific incident again underscores the need for all sides to reject violence, and urgently take steps to restore calm, reduce tensions, and bring an immediate end to the violence," the U.S. State Department said. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Alison Williams)
(Reuters) - American Alexander Rossi said he lost his chance of racing for Manor in Formula One this season because Rio Haryanto's Indonesian backers had offered the team more money, but was hopeful the dream was not over. "I always knew going up against a country was going to be impossible," said the Californian who raced for the team in five grands prix last year. "We couldn't match some of what they were willing to do and sign and (Indonesia) really wanted him to be there so more power to them," he told racer.com in a story that was subsequently withdrawn from the website and replaced by a different version. Haryanto, who is backed primarily by Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina, was confirmed by the team on Thursday. The company's chief executive told reporters in Jakarta that Pertamina had contributed five million euros (3.8 million) towards securing the seat. Rossi told Reuters that, while he had felt 'kind of helpless' in the face of Indonesia's support for Haryanto, some of his other comments to Racer had been misconstrued. "At the end of 2015 I felt I was in a very strong position to be in one of the race seats in 2016 but obviously being a very attractive team with the Mercedes power, it was always going to be a challenge," he said. "I feel we did a very good job from our end to try to make it happen. But unfortunately the way the sport sometimes works, all the cards don't fall in your favour." Rossi said he was still in "very positive discussions" with Manor about the future and hoped to return to Formula One "as soon as possible." The team, who competed as Marussia last year and have the smallest budget in the sport, have always been open about their need for drivers to bring financial backing to secure the seat. They went into administration at the end of the 2014 season before emerging under new ownership, and money remains tight. Their other driver is Mercedes reserve Pascal Wehrlein, with the German manufacturer and reigning champions also providing the team's engines. "We are trying to keep my hat in the ring in Formula One and keep the relationships alive," said Rossi. "The relationship I have with Manor is very strong but...it's no secret I have to look at other disciplines and see what other opportunities exist out there." (The story was refiled with driver clarification) (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
By J.R. Wu and Damon Lin TAINAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Rescuers pulled out alive an eight-year-old girl and her aunt from the rubble of a Taiwan apartment block on Monday, more than 60 hours after it was toppled by a quake, as the mayor of the southern city of Tainan warned the death toll could exceed 100. The official death toll from the quake rose to 38, with more than 100 people missing. The girl, named as Lin Su-Chin, was conscious and had been taken to hospital, Taiwan television stations said. Her aunt, Chen Mei-jih, was rescued shortly after. The quake struck at about 4 a.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT Friday) at the beginning of the Lunar New Year holiday, with almost all the dead found in Tainan's toppled Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building. Rescue efforts are focussed on the wreckage of the 17-storey building, where more than 100 people are listed as missing and are suspected to be buried deep under the rubble. Earlier, Wang Ting-yu, a legislator who represents the area, told reporters that a woman, identified as Tsao Wei-ling, was found alive, lying under her dead husband. Their two-year-old son, who was also killed, was found nearby. Another survivor, a man named Li Tsung-tian, was pulled out later, with Taiwan television stations showing live images of the rescues. Several hours later, Li's girlfriend was found dead in the rubble. Tsao and Li were both being treated in hospital. Tainan Mayor William Lai said during a visit to a funeral home that rescue efforts had entered what he called the "third stage". "There are more fatalities than those pulled out (alive), and the number of fatalities will probably exceed 100," Lai told reporters. Rescuers continued to scramble over the twisted wreckage of the building as numbed family members stood around, waiting for news of missing relatives. Taiwan's government said in a statement 36 of the 38 dead were from the Wei-guan building, which was built in 1994. President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who won election last month, said there needed to be a "general sorting out" of old buildings to make sure they were able to cope with disasters like earthquakes. "There needs to be a continued strengthening of their ability to deal with disasters," she said. Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou, speaking to reporters at a Tainan hospital, said the government needed to be a better job in ensuring building quality. "In the near future, regarding building management, we will have some further improvements. We will definitely do this work well," Ma said. Reuters witnesses at the scene of the collapse saw large rectangular, commercial cans of cooking-oil packed inside wall cavities exposed by the damage, apparently having been used as building material. Chinese President Xi Jinping also conveyed condolences to the victims, state news agency Xinhua reported late on Sunday, and repeated Beijing's offer to provide help. China views self-ruled Taiwan as a wayward province, to be bought under its control by force if necessary. (Additional reporting by Faith Hung in TAIPEI and Megha Rajagopalan in BEIJING; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)
Published On Feb 21, 2016 11:32 AM By Sumit for Mahindra e2o

Mahindra Reva plans to launch its electric car, e2o, in London soon. The Indian carmaker is ready with the electric vehicle and expect the launch to happen early. The car has been on sale in India since March 2013 and since then has observed a moderate response. A premium variant of it was brought in August 2014.

Mr. Pravin Shah, president & chief executive (automotive) for Mahindra & Mahindra said that this is a great opportunity to contribute in Make in India campaign. Yes, absolutely! This is a great example under the governments Make-In-India initiative. We are ready with the product. We plan to launch the Mahindra e2O in many European markets in the next few months, starting with London very soon, he said to Autocar Professional in a statement. It is worth noting that Mahindra has been able to bag a deal with a multinational firm, BAE Systems, under which it will be manufacturing M777 Howitzer guns in India.

United Kingdom encourages use of electric cars and in order to achieve results, it offers support to automakers those who invest in such projects. We will get the support and incentives as enjoyed by the other EV makers in the UK. We plan to distribute the e2O on our own, added Mr. Shah.

However, Mr. Pawan Goenka, executive director of M&M, said that the major concern with the electric vehicles is the initial high cost associated with it. Although these cars turn out to be economical in long run, it becomes difficult to convince the consumer for such things. For us the biggest concern is that EVs continue to be expensive due to the high cost of batteries and other components. A breakthrough is required to bring down the overall costs of EVs, and we can be certain that this breakthrough will happen. The challenge is how to convince the consumer that EVs are good for them, not only from the environment viewpoint, but also from the aspect of financial prudence, he was quoted.

Also Read: Mahindra E-Verito Showcased at 2016 Auto Expo

Read More on : Mahindra e2o
Former high profile Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi was replaced over the weekend in a far-reaching government shake-up as the kingdom deals with the long-term fallout from low oil prices. Heinz-Peter Bader | Reuters

When the energy industry gathers in Houston Monday, the big topic will be whether oil prices are actually close to stabilizing after months of painful declines. The 35th annual IHS CERAWeek conference comes just as the world's largest oil producers  Saudi Arabia and Russia  are talking about ways to support oil prices through a production freeze. While a cap on output will not reduce the world's oil glut, the idea has certainly helped lift crude prices off their lows, but WTI crude was still trading below $30 on Friday afternoon, down near-4 percent. On Friday, Alexey Texler, Russia's first deputy energy minister, was quoted as saying that the world's excess oil supply could be halved if the freeze takes effect. Qatar and Venezuela joined Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia in the proposed agreement earlier this week.

The very individuals that could comment on this proposal will be attending the meeting: Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri. El-Badri speaks Monday afternoon, and Naimi speaks Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. CT.

This is a day of reckoning for oil companies and oil countries. Daniel Yergin Vice Chairman of IHS

The idea of a production freeze has many proponents, including Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS. "This is a day of reckoning for oil companies and oil countries, and they need to stabilize the market," Yergin said. Getting such a deal approved poses challenges since many producers would have to agree to cap production. But there is hope talks could lead to a policy change at the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in June. There has also been speculation members could seek an emergency meeting before then. "I think the market is beginning to stabilize and perceptions are changing," Yergin said. He noted that there are less negative prognosticators talking about oil prices sinking to $15 to $20 a barrel.

But there is a wild card for the market, and for any producers' deal: Iran. While Iran has said it supports a freeze, there's been no indication it is willing to impose one on its own production. It's in the process of ramping up production with sanctions against its nuclear program being lifted. The idea of more Iranian crude has weighed on the market as traders attempt to gauge just how much oil Iran can actually export. Iran also faces elections at the end of the month, and some analysts say it's unlikely it would agree to hold back on oil sales ahead of that.

At the same time, other forces are at work that will affect the future of the energy industry. "The market is trying to determine whether this is a new era of cooperation between Russia and OPEC," said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital. For that reason, industry experts are anxious to hear from the Saudi oil minister Naimi at the event since Saudi Arabia is the driver of OPEC's market-based pricing policy. In an effort to secure its global market share, Saudi Arabia was willing to accept much lower prices. "Hopefully he'll give us some clarity on what the Saudis' commitment is  freezing production or doing more to stabilize the market," Kilduff said, noting that market watchers wonder if this is just lip service or a game they are trying to play against Iran.

The question of price stability will be an important topic for the global energy industry officials, regulators and political leaders expected to attend IHS CERAWeek. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks Monday, as does Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray Caso. Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden is speaking Tuesday, as does Yilin Wang, chairman of China National Petroleum Corp. At this time last year, Mexico was playing up plans to bring in outside investment for its natural resource industry. "The challenge for Mexico is they launched this reform when the mentality was $100 a barrel, and that's not the reality so they've had to have a lot of adjustments. One of the big benefits they're getting is cheap gas from the United States which is helping them bring down electricity costs," Yergin said. Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, the new CEO of Pemex, the Mexican energy company, will also attend IHS CERAWeek. Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has been hit hard by a new round of spending reductions announced this week. Pemex had a roughly $10 billion third quarter loss, and it has been cutting costs and workers. Gonzalez Anaya was named CEO earlier this month to turn around the struggling company. He was a former deputy finance minister, and last serviced as director of the Mexican Social Security Institute.

According to Eurasia Group analysts, about $5.4 billion will be cut from Pemex which "will keep Pemex's finances strained and affect Pemex's ability to maintain investment plans." The analysts said Pemex will soon announce its new business plan, and it will try to prioritize the most productive projects and attract investment while cutting costs. The analysts, in an note, said the Mexican government would also be ready to inject capital into Pemex.

watch now

Industry cutbacks

Another big topic at the conference will be how the industry is scaling back, and the tactics it is using to get by on oil prices that have fallen further than most predicted. Last year, the industry was just coming to grips with the idea of lower prices for longer, and now it's been living it. Yergin said absent a deal among producers to curb production, the industry should have a very difficult first half, but a better second half. "This year is going to be very rough on the industry, very turbulent. We think that the decline in U.S. production is going to get more serious  another 600,000 to 800,000 barrels a day in this kind of price environment. The U.S. would decline that much by summer, and that starts to set the basis for a greater stabilization," Yergin said. The U.S. is the world's third-largest oil producer and its rapid arrival on the world scene over the past five years contributed to the roughly 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day in global oversupply. Globally, the industry has trimmed upstream oil and gas capital spending in 2015 by nearly 30 percent from the 2014 level, according to IHS CERA data. But North America saw an even steeper cut back, with spending falling 41 percent in 2015. For 2016, IHS CERA stated that several large North American upstream companies are cutting spending by 50 percent or more compared to 2015 levels. Companies are also moving beyond capital spending cuts. Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips will also participate in the IHS CERAWeek conference and his company, earlier this month, became the first large oil company to cut its dividend. Wall Street analysts expect other companies to follow with dividend cuts of their own. "I think we'll hear a lot of debate about how much capacity in the industry will be lost. Can you bring it back when you need it? There is a short-term question of protecting your balance sheet and being in survival mode. There is a question longer term about the resilience of the individual companies and the resilience of the industry. That's going to be on the minds of a lot of people," Yergin said.

Boosting efficiencies
Megan Callison Madz Negro Michelle Riechers Celia Williams Michael Olson

Concerto Aria Concert to Feature Student Soloists

Feb. 12, 2016

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. The Illinois Wesleyan Civic Orchestra (IWCO) will present the annual Henry Charles Memorial Concerto-Aria Concert Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St., Bloomington.

The concert will feature five students who were chosen as winners of the School of Musics Concerto-Aria competition. Each year music students are selected to perform solos after a competitive audition process. This years soloists are Megan Callison 16 (Aurora, Ill.), voice; Madz Negro 16 (New Berlin, Ill.), violin; Michael Olson 17 (Bloomington), tuba; Michelle Riechers 16 (Grant Park, Ill.), trumpet; and Celia Williams 17 (Homer, Ill.), voice.

For Williams, competing for a solo in the Concerto-Aria Concert was a goal she set for herself the first time she attended the concert as a first-year student at Illinois Wesleyan. I practiced numerous hours on this aria, both by myself and with my voice teacher, said Williams, a voice major. I felt absolute joy when I heard I was one of the students chosen to perform. I am so honored to be performing with such amazing musicians. Not just the other soloists, but also the IWCO and conductor Lev Ivanov.

The program includes Williams vocal selection, Una voce poco fa, from Rossinis The Barber of Seville; Negro performing the first movement of Khachaturians Violin Concerto; Ralph Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto in F minor, performed by Olson; Riechers presenting Haydns Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat Major; and Callison singing Air de Zima from Rameaus Les Indes galantes.

Olson also set the goal of performing solo at the Concerto-Aria Concert when he saw an upperclassman perform the same tuba concerto in 2011. When he learned he was selected as a soloist, Olson said he felt all of my hard work and dedication had finally paid off. After graduation from IWU he plans to pursue a graduate degree in tuba performance and play professionally in an orchestra.

The Illinois Wesleyan Civic Orchestra is conducted by Lev Ivanov, visiting assistant professor of music. The Feb. 26 program will also include Pentamerous Calamity, a composition written by Illinois Wesleyan student Jeremy Gruner 16 (Mahomet, Ill.); Sibelius Finlandia Op. 26; and Dvorks Slavonic Dances Op. 48, No. 8.

The Concerto-Aria Concert is named in memory of the late Henry Charles, a professor of voice at IWU for 42 years and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia national music fraternity. The concert is free and open to the public.
Washington, DC From 2011, the FDA has warned health professionals and the public that were not rare, and recommended the mesh be bumped up from moderate to high risk. Almost five years later, the agency has reclassified mesh products designed and marketed for transvaginal treatment of POP to Class III High Risk Devices, which means more stringent regulatory requirements for the manufacturers. From 2011, the FDA has warned health professionals and the public that transvaginal mesh was associated with serious complications thatand recommended the mesh be bumped up from moderate to high risk. Almostthe agency has reclassified mesh products designed and marketed for transvaginal treatment of POP to Class III High Risk Devices, which means more stringent regulatory requirements for the manufacturers.

July: The FDA states that complications caused by transvaginal mesh devices are not rare, citing a dramatic increase in the number of adverse events reported between 2008 and 2010. (In 2008, the agency said in a public health notification that "Although rare, these complications [with TVM to treat POP and SUI] can have serious consequences.) Here is the July 2011 FDA safety alert September: The FDA starts an advisory panel of pelvic surgeons to study and discuss transvaginal mesh products and recommend that the vaginal mesh be, requiring more tests. The FDA Advisory Obstetrics-Gynecology Devices Panel suggests that TVM implants be reclassified from moderate risk to high risk (Class III), which would mean that manufacturers would have to conduct studies based on human testing.The FDA orders 33 transvaginal mesh manufacturers to conduct 3-year post-market surveillance studies (522 studies) on the devices, to help the agency develop a better picture of the devices safety and effectiveness, focusing on stress urinary incontinence (SUI).Mesh manufacturers face more than 650 lawsuits claiming mesh injuries. Lawsuits are filed against Johnson & Johnson, American Medical Systems, and Boston Scientific, and are centralized in the Southern District of West Virginia.C.R. Bard is found negligent in its handling of TVM: it didnt properly test the products (Avaulta) before putting them on the market. Johnson & Johnsons Ethicon unit stops selling four lines of vaginal mesh devices and issues an Ethicon transvaginal mesh recall of its Gynecare line of TVM products, though the company maintains that the recall is not safety related.More than 8,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts. Three multidistrict litigations arising from transvaginal mesh cases are consolidated into one MDL.The FDA issues 95 study orders to a total of 34 manufacturers of urogynecologic surgical mesh for pelvic organ prolapse (POP); and 14 post-market study orders to seven manufacturers of mini-slings for SUI.Bellwether cases are resolved and settlements begin. Following a $2 million jury verdict against C.R. Bard, the company negotiates a settlement with an additional plaintiff.With more than 8,000 transvaginal mesh implant claims in process, the first trial begins. Plaintiff claims 18 surgeries to correct problems associated with Johnson & Johnsons transvaginal mesh product.The FDA proposes two orders for transvaginal mesh POP repair to address the risks involved. Once final, manufacturers will be required to provide clinical data in a premarket approval (PMA) application to support the safety and effectiveness of surgical mesh for transvaginal POP. If the orders are finalized and the mesh reclassified as a high-risk device, manufacturers will be required to submit a PMA (510k) applicationNovember: Seven major TVM manufacturers are involved in an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Federal lawsuits are filed against American Medical Systems, Ethicon, Boston Scientific, C.R. Bard, Coloplast, Cook Medical and Neomedic. According to the orders, the announced FDA actions only apply to mesh devices marketed for the transvaginal repair of POP. Surgical mesh devices for other indications, like SUI or abdominal repair of POP, are excluded.The jurys first verdict against C.R. Bard, the manufacturer of Avaulta TVM, awards plaintiff damages of $3.6 million rather than a settlement.Johnson & Johnsons Ethicon trial is underway in a West Virginia federal court. The trial combines 37 cases as part of an MDL of more than 23,000 cases. Almost 80,000 lawsuits have been consolidated in six MDLs against a number of mesh manufacturers. Besides J&J, they are all working on settlements.The FDA announces that it is increasing regulatory oversight of transvaginal mesh after receiving thousands of reports of injuries, including pelvic pain and bleeding, caused by the mesh devices.The agency reclassifies transvaginal mesh products to treat POPas Class III High Risk Devices. The FDA requires manufacturers to submit a PMA application to support the safety and effectiveness of surgical mesh for the transvaginal repair of POP.Some advocacy groups, such as Public Citizens Health Research Group, criticize the FDA for allowing transvaginal mesh on the market. Based on the timeline for the new orders, devices that advocates say are potentially harmful will be able to stay on the market until at least 2018 - almost 10 years after serious complications with transvaginal mesh were first reported.January: A jury awards one plaintiff $13.5 million in her transvaginal mesh lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and its Ethicon subsidiary. (A plaintiff in December 2015 is awarded $12.5 million in her lawsuit.)February: Johnson & Johnson settles between 2,000 to 3,000 TVM case of its 42,400 cases against the company with a $120 million settlement.Deadline for transvaginal mesh manufacturers to submit a PMA application for their devices.
- CBN kicks against the fleecing of banking customers by deposit banks

- Urges bank customers to forward complaints of excessive bank charges

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it mandated deposit money banks (DMBs) to refund N6.2 billion to customers they over charged as cost of transactions in 2015.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the directive by the apex bank was contained in a statement made available by the director, corporate communications, of the CBN Ibrahim Muazu, in Abuja on Saturday, February 20.

READ ALSO: FG denies padding 2016 budget

Therein the statement, CNB stated that banks were allowed to make charges for banking services but kicked against the fleecing of banking customers under any guise.

It noted that the reason for the establishment of a consumer protection department by the CBN in 2012 was to to provide a strong voice to banks customers and moderate the arbitrary charges.

The CBN has investigated over 6,000 complaints relating to unauthorised bank charges brought to its notice, following which banks have been compelled to refund N6.2 billion to affected customers in 2015 alone.

The CBN wishes to reiterate its resolve to continuously enforce the provision of the Revised Guide to Bank Charges and urges members of the public to report cases of infringement to enable it investigate and apply sanctions on any erring DMB, the apex bank stated.

READ ALSO: Why FG cant recover funds looted by ex-government officials

The CBN also urged bank customers to forward complaints of excessive bank charges to its consumer protection department.

Customers of banks in Nigeria have in recent times complained about several charges associated with banking activities.

The charges in no particular order are the maintenance fees which some banks are now charging monthly on current accounts, value added tax on virtually every charge against a customer, including that on SMS.

There are charges for transfers both online and over the counter, remote-on-us (charges incurred for using other banks ATM in withdrawing money more than three times in a month).

Source: Legit.ng
How did he sleep at night?

Thats probably the second most asked question about Bernie Madoff in the wake of his exposure, in 2008, as a master Ponzi scheme artist. (The most asked question surely would be: How exactly did he get away with it for so long?) Madoff, whos serving his 150-year sentence in federal prison for bilking billions of dollars from investors  a sizable swath of which were Jewish charitable organizations and the elderly  has been mostly mum on the subject of his conscience, although he did tell Politico in 2014: Theres nothing for me to change from. Its not like I ever considered myself a bad person. I made a horrible mistake and Im sorry.

Madoffs meager words of contrition seem positively self-flagellating when compared to the self-justifications of the financial villain at the center of Peter Steiners thriller, The Capitalist. St. John Larrimer is an investment banker modeled on Madoff who escapes into lavish exile in the French Antilles when his pyramid scheme collapses. Despite the fact that hes left a multitude of clients and friends in financial ruin, Larrimer reasons that his thievery serves a higher purpose:

In separating the gullible from their money, St. John believed that he played a crucial role in the capitalist system, performing a kind of radical surgery on the failing economy. . . . By exploiting weaknesses within the system, St. John helped it excise these weaknesses and make the necessary corrections, just as one might have a tumor excised from ones body so the body can rehabilitate itself and grow stronger.

[Fixers: A financial thriller with cameos by Hillary Clinton and Obama]

(courtesy of Peter Steiner)

In The Capitalist, Steiners recurring hero, retired CIA operative Louis Morgon, faces off against Larrimer. Though hes left the agency and moved to France, Morgon never relaxes for very long. In this fifth novel of the series, its Morgons companion, Pauline, who pulls him into the hunt for Larrimer when her brother, a money manager in New York, commits suicide after hes been ruined by Larrimers machinations. With the (sometimes unrequested) assistance of a Russian crime boss and Larrimers own personal assistant  both of whom invested with the fraudulent financier  Morgon jerry-rigs a lure to coax Larrimer out of hiding.

The greatest strength of The Capitalist lies in the ingenuity of its construction. The story opens in a sweatshop in Lahore, Pakistan, where a 16-year-old garment worker almost dies in a fire that kills some of her co-workers. In the chapters that follow, Steiner draws a sooty line of responsibility that stretches from the corrupt Pakistani fire inspector to the owner of the sweatshop to Larrimer, who wears some of those designer duds made at the factory. In turn, The Capitalist also does a splendid job of tracing the trickle-down effects of Larrimers reckless manipulation of financial instruments ; this time, its a chapter-by-chapter trail that reaches from the trading rooms of Wall Street to the safety-deposit boxes of secretaries to the mean streets of Moscow.

The novelsbest asset, however, is also the source of its biggest flaw. Steiner, known to many for his New Yorker cartoons, has a distinctive wide-focus mode of storytelling; here, it slows the books respiration rate down to that of a houseplant. Morgon doesnt fully enter into the action until almost halfway through the novel  and even then Steiner keeps dutifully checking on all the other far-flung characters whove been affected by the sweatshop fire or by Larrimers financial finagling or both. The result is a thriller thats technically accomplished and informed, but dull  even given the (belated) presence of the always clever and worldly wise Morgon. Late in the novel, he tells Pauline:

I wish the world were an orderly place. . . . I wish it were a place where those in power go after wrongdoers, bring them to justice and then restore what was stolen to its rightful owners. But it isnt.. . . The strong and the rich rule, and the billions  the poor and the vulnerable  get trampled underfoot.

Morgon knows better than to ask the question, How did he sleep at night? Hes been around long enough to know that for St. John Larrimer  as well as for his real-life counterpart, Bernie Madoff  the answer most certainly is: Like a baby.

Maureen Corrigan, who is the book critic for the NPR program, Fresh Air, teaches at Georgetown University.
On a muddy building site in September 1979, diplomats from two enemy nations engaged in that most hopeful of rituals: They laid a cornerstone.

The building destined to sprout from the stone was the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There must have been relief on both sides that construction was finally starting, for only when the U.S. Embassy was completed could the Soviets move into their embassy, set to rise on a hill just north of Georgetown.

Both countries were in desperate need of new digs. The Soviet mission was scattered across Washington, with the main building on 16th Street NW. The American Embassy was on a busy Moscow road that was thronged daily by thousands of passersby. U.S. diplomats would be moving to a quieter side street. They would be able to live there, too, rather than in various guarded compounds elsewhere in the city.

This is surely going to make our security easier, an American official told The Washington Post.

Answer Man suspects that if any Soviet officials read that line, they broke down and laughed so hard and long that their faces turned as red as borscht.

There was to be nothing easy about the two embassies.

Last week in this space, Answer Man recounted the history of the Mount Alto Veterans Hospital, which stood on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park from 1919 to 1965. When the new VA hospital opened on North Capitol Street, Mount Alto was surplus. A deal was struck with the Soviets: They could build their embassy at Mount Alto. We would build ours a few hundred feet from our old embassy.

[Scaling Glover Parks Mount Alto: From VA hospital to Russian Embassy]

Some Americans thought that the Russians got the better deal. Our embassy would be near the river, in a low-lying area. The Russians eight-story embassy would be on one of the highest spots in Washington.

The big problem is that we will not be able to keep track of what theyre doing on the roof, a security expert told The Post in 1974. Sure, the FBI could fly a helicopter over the embassy, but there would be nothing subtle about that. Added The Post: Such height is a distinct advantage for sending and receiving communications  partly because the signals have less interference, or clutter, to go through.

There was also the fear that the Soviets would be able to intercept U.S. communications. A laser beam focused on buildings at the Naval Observatory  formerly home to the U.S. chief of naval operations and soon to be the home of the vice president  might enable them to detect conversations.

Some neighbors were concerned about the effects of Russian electronic equipment on their health and their television reception.

But the deal went through. Construction on the U.S. Embassy finally started in 1979, with an anticipated completion date of 1983. Russians would build the exterior of the structure; Americans, the inside.

The timetable was optimistic. But work on the Moscow building was halted in 1985, after the United States announced that Soviet workers had filled it with so many listening devices that it was essentially an eight-story microphone. Speculation about where KGB officers would gather to listen to transmissions centered on an old Orthodox church across the street, which U.S. investigators dubbed Our Lady of Telemetry.

In 1987, the House voted to prohibit Soviet diplomats from moving into their Washington chancery until the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was made bug-proof. Some in Congress wanted to tear it down and start again. Instead, it was decided to remove the top two floors and build a secure, four-story top hat. Only U.S. materials and U.S. workers were to be used.

We learned our lesson the hard way the first time, said one U.S. official. This will be a strictly made-in-the-U.S.A. operation.

Soviet diplomats were allowed to move into their apartment building at the Mount Alto embassy site, but the chancery was not dedicated until 1994. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow wasnt occupied until 2000. By then, the Soviet Union wasnt even around anymore.

Next week: Meanwhile in Washington, the FBI digs a tunnel.

An architectural remnant

Its been 50 years since Mount Alto was torn down to make way for the Russian Embassy, but a bit remains. Its in the yard of a house at Van Ness Street and Nebraska Avenue NW. It was placed there in 1967 by Wiley Buchanan Jr., who served as President Dwight D. Eisenhowers chief of protocol. Buchanan had seen it amid the rubble when the hospital was demolished.

He just came home one day and said he was going to bring home that cupola, Buchanans widow, Ruth, told Answer Man in 2006. I said, What in the world are you going to do with it? He said, Im going to have it near the end of the property, by the swimming pool. 

Twitter: @johnkelly

Send your questions about the Washington area to answerman@washpost.com.

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Peyton Walton, 10, used her four-foot robot called PAVS to connect with her c lassroom while in New York City for radiation treatment for cancer. She is practicing with the robot in this photo. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Peyton Walton went to see the governor of Maryland recently and brought along her four-foot robot known as PAVS  Peytons Awesome Virtual Self. The 10-year-old, who is battling cancer, uses the rolling robot to connect with her Poolesville school when she cant be there.

Her family wants other children with illnesses to have the same chance at the latest technology. So they made a pitch to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who also is a cancer survivor.

They say they were encouraged by Hogans interest and that the governor and the fifth-grader hit it off.

The two of them just got each other, said Lynn Schaeber, Peytons mother, recalling that her daughter and the states top elected leader compared notes about their hair beginning to return after chemotherapy.

The meeting with Hogan last month came as school administrators across the region are paying closer attention to the possibilities that robots and other types of technology offer in terms of linking homebound students to their classrooms.

Just months before Peyton Walton was to start the fifth grade she was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. With the help of a robot, she is able to attend classes at Poolesville Elementary School in Maryland while she undergoes weeks of radiation in New York. (Ashleigh Joplin and Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post)

The idea was front and center Friday as assistant superintendents from across Maryland gathered for a monthly meeting that included a panel of speakers describing childrens experiences. Officials from two companies  Double Robotics and Cisco Systems  made presentations, as did Schaeber.

I think there were quite a few people there who were very excited about it, said Val Emrich, director of instructional technology for the Maryland State Department of Education, who suggested that school systems could create a lending library with such technology.

Peyton used her robot  which resembles a small Segway with a rolling base and an iPad at the top  to remotely attend classes last fall at Poolesville Elementary while she received radiation therapy in New York City. By connecting from afar, she could join in student discussions, talk to teachers, see friends and navigate her classroom.

[Peytons Awesome Virtual Self, a robot that allows girl with cancer to attend school]

The Maryland gathering came as Fairfax County school officials have taken steps in the same direction, with one robot in use since Jan. 4 at Colvin Run Elementary and another planned for a county high school in coming weeks.

Were very happy with it, said Kurt Mills, the Fairfax school systems program manager for out-of-school support, who said it has been good for the students and makes economic sense. The robot Fairfax purchased cost about $3,000, he said.

When a student has a long-term illness, teachers typically are sent to students homes to deliver instruction for some period of hours each week. Over time, its much less expensive than one-on-one instruction, Mills said.

Peytons mother Lynn Schaeber, right, said the 10-year-old and Gov. Larry Hogan just got each other. (Joe Andrucyk/Office of Governor Larry Hogan)

Schaeber is hoping to help make robots and other technology available to homebound children facing medical crises in every Maryland county. She said she knows of just one other Maryland child using a robot: a sixth-grader at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie.

Kelly Kolenda said her family heard about Peytons robot and within a week had one for her daughter Emily, a sixth-grader who has battled a neurological autoimmune disorder since 2012 and is in and out of the hospital.

When a child has missed this much time in school, just being there and getting to see her friends and her teacher and her classroom is the most important thing, Kolenda said. It connects her to the life shes been away from for so long.

Peytons family said the technology helped her stay on track to finish fifth grade on time, but that the social and emotional benefits were more important. This was a critical aspect to keeping her life looking forward, Schaeber said. It kept her being a regular kid.

When family members went to see Hogan, there were WiFi troubles that kept Peytons robot from working. But they showed Hogan a teleconferencing technology Peyton also has used to connect with her former school in Warren, N.J.

Hogan was receptive, Schaeber said.

The governor has fared well with his treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, announcing in November that his medical scans show no signs of cancer following 18 weeks of intensive chemotherapy.

[Gov. Hogans cancer is in remission, 30 days after he completed chemo]

Doug Mayer, a Hogan spokesman, said the governor enjoyed meeting with Peyton and seeing technology that would allow students with special needs and grave illnesses to participate more fully in schools.

The administration is actively exploring what can be done to expand such technology in the state, Mayer said.

As they spoke, Peyton removed the knit cap she almost always wears to show Hogan how her hair is beginning to grow back  something she rarely does, her mother said.

He was a very nice and understanding man, Peyton said, through her mother.

The visit with the governor came shortly before Peyton, who was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer over the summer, received her first clear CT scan after treatment. At school, one of her classmates told others the good news, her mother said.

Everyone stood up and cheered.
Loudoun County Administrator Tim Hemstreet followed the Board of Supervisors instructions and delivered a budget plan for the county government and school system for fiscal 2017 that would hold the property tax rate steady at $1.135 per $100 of assessed value.

But Hemstreet stopped short of recommending the $2.5 billion spending plan, which he presented Feb. 10, saying that it was not adequate to protect the current level of service in many areas.

Under the proposed budget, funding for Loudoun public schools would fall $31.4 million short of the school boards request, and there would be insufficient funding to open county facilities such as the new Sterling Library.

Instead, Hemstreet recommended that the board adopt a budget at a slightly higher tax rate of $1.14 per $100 of assessed value, which would enable the county to open the library and other new facilities, as well as maintain mandated or critical services, specifically those related to social safety net programs or public safety, he said.

The Board of Supervisors had directed Hemstreet to present a budget at the $1.135 rate, which would keep the average property tax bill level. However, Hemstreet cautioned the board that a proposed budget maintaining that rate would provide insufficient revenue.

The countys current economic situation limits the resources available under the boards guidance, Hemstreet said. Because of these limited resources, I was required to make difficult decisions about what could be included in the proposed budget.

Loudouns economy is languishing, in part because of the lingering effects of federal sequestration, Hemstreet said. Employment growth for Loudoun residents in 2014 was well below the national growth rate, and market appreciation of residential properties last year was essentially zero, he said.

Still, the countys population continues to surge. Over the next four years, it is projected to grow from 364,000 to 416,000, and school officials project an increase of about 2,900 students next year.

The school board asked for an increase of $58.3 million in local funding in fiscal 2017 to meet the demands of the growing student population and to open Madisons Trust Elementary School in Ashburn. The requested increase also included $9.7 million to raise the number of students in full-day kindergarten from 34 to 75 percent.

A tax rate of $1.15 would allow the county to reduce the gap in school system funding by $10.8 million, Hemstreet said. To give the board flexibility to raise taxes further, he advertised a tax rate of $1.17, which he said would fully fund his recommended budget for the county government, as well as the school boards budget request.

Vice Chair Ralph M. Buona (R-Ashburn) said that the budget process will be challenging, mainly because of the flat assessments.

Buona said that last year he and school board Chairman Eric Hornberger found common ground on recommendations that resulted in full funding of the school boards budget request.

Whether or not we get there this year remains to be seen, because . . . it would be a significant tax increase, Buona said.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said in an interview that decisions the board made in last years budget process, such as borrowing $11 million from the fund balance, created a wider budget gap this year.

That put us in a tougher position, when you think about the fact that $9 million will take care of full-day [kindergarten] this year, she said. Were in the hole for more than that already.

School funding is a problem every year, because the county has grown so quickly over the past many years, she added. In my opinion, if we build homes, the kids come, and were supposed to educate them.

Randall said that although schools receive most of the attention, the growing population also creates demands for other public services, including the fire and rescue department, law enforcement and roads.

Public hearings on the budget are scheduled for Thursday, Saturday and Feb. 29. The board will review the budget in a series of work sessions next month and is expected to adopt it in early April.

Barnes is a freelance writer.
BLOOD DONATIONS

BLOOD DRIVES Thursday 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Town of Leesburg, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg, 800-733-2767; Thursday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Fauquier Hospital, Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton, 540-316-3588; Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., Ashburn, 800-733-2767; March 1, 3-7 p.m., Rust Library, 380 Old Waterford Rd., Leesburg, 866-256-6372; March 4, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Loudoun Government Center, 1 Harrison St. Leesburg, 866-256-6372; March 5, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Leesburg Public Safety Center, 65 Plaza St. NE, Leesburg, 800-733-2767; March 10, 3-7 p.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., Ashburn, 866-256-6372; March 14, 2-7:30 p.m., Village at Leesburg, 1603 Village Market Blvd., Suite 100, Leesburg, 800-733-2767.

INOVA BLOOD DONOR CENTER Mondays noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fridays 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays noon-4 p.m. Dulles Town Center, 45745 Nokes Blvd., Sterling. 866-256-6372 or inova.org/donateblood.

FIRST AID

FIRST AID/ADULT, INFANT AND CHILD CPR/AED Fauquier Hospital Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Call for schedule. 540-316-3588. Registration required.

HEARING

DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER Technical assistance through the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and presentations to businesses, civic groups and schools. Third Tuesdays 2-5 p.m., Workplace, 205 Keith St., Warrenton. Call for an appointment, 800-648-6324; TDD, 540-373-5890. Free.

FREE HEARING TESTS Age 18 and older. Mondays-Thursdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. 703-858-7620. Registration required.

HEARING LOSS, TINNITUS AND MENIERES SYNDROME SUPPORT For all ages, including parents of children with hearing loss. First Fridays 2 p.m., Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2906.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING Age 18 and older, second Tuesdays 10 a.m., Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

HEARING LOSS OUTREACH Free referrals. Fourth Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Loudoun County Workforce Center, 102 Heritage Way, Leesburg; third Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Free appointments: 703-430-2906 or nvrcloudoun@aol.com.

MENTAL HEALTH

COUNSELING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVIVORS Provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice. 703-771-9020.

CRISISLINK Suicide and crisis intervention. The organization provides community education, has a volunteer crisis response team and offers CareRing, a daily telephone outreach program for the elderly and disabled. 703-527-6016, volunteer@crisislink.org or crisislink.org.

PIEDMONT CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS Serves Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties. Support group, education classes and events for people living with mental illness, plus their family members. First Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital, 500 Hospital Dr., Sycamore Room A, Warrenton. 571-426-8213.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS A support group, classes and programs for people living with mental illness and their family members. For information, go to naminorthernvirginia.org.

PREGNANCY, PARENTING

ADOPTIVE FAMILY PRESERVATION Adoptive families discuss common experiences; registration required. Third Tuesdays 12:30-2 p.m. Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd. 703-941-9008, Ext. 23, or email jmellerio@umfs.org.

BIRTHRIGHT OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Free pregnancy tests, baby clothing, transportation and support throughout pregnancy, 823 S. King St., Leesburg. 703-777-7272.

BOND BETWEEN US Nonprofit group offers support to birth parents when children have been placed for adoption. Fourth Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. Call for location. 703-771-7844.

BREAST-FEEDING SUPPORT Thursdays 9:30-10:30 a.m., Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

DAD SUPPORT New and expectant fathers share ideas. First Tuesdays 7 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. 703-858-6360.

FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE A group for separating or divorcing parents to share advice. Four-hour session weekly. Information : 703-391-8599 or fitsfoundation.org.

LA LECHE LEAGUE Mother-to-mother support and breast-feeding information. 10 a.m. second Wednesdays in Warrenton, 540-351-6103. Third Fridays 10:15-11:45 a.m., call for location, 703-444-7386. Fourth Mondays 10 a.m. Healthworks of Northern Virginia, 163 Fort Evans Rd., Leesburg, 703-728-9282; Second Fridays 10:15 a.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., 703-431-3852; Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Panera Bread, 43670 Greenway Corp. Dr., Ashburn, email lllashburn@gmail.com. Third Fridays 10:15 a.m., Christ the Redeemer Church, 46833 Harry F. Byrd. Hwy., Sterling, 540-338-4637.

LOUDOUN FATHERHOOD PROGRAM Fathers discuss the joys and challenges of being a parent. Meets every other Saturday for two hours for four months; sponsored by Northern Virginia Family Service. 571-748-2796. Free.

LOUDOUN NURTURING PARENTING PROGRAM Positive parenting techniques; parents and children attend together. Registration required. 703-771-3973, Ext. 27 or email nurturingprogram@lcsj.org . Free.

MOTHERNET/HEALTHY FAMILIES LOUDOUN Program links first-time parents with medical, social and educational resources to give children a socially and physically healthy start in life. Family support workers meet with participants in homes. English-Spanish translation provided. 703-444-4477, Ext. 217, or inmed.org .

NEW MOTHERS SUPPORT Wednesdays 9:30-11:30 a.m. Inova Loudoun Medical Pavilion, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg, main entrance. Babies welcome. 703-858-6360.

YOUNG PARENT SERVICES Support for teenage parents. Loudoun County Department of Family Social Services, 52 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg. Call for times. 703-771-5375.

ONLINE CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION PROGRAM Inova Loudoun Hospitals Web-based program uses animation, videos and interactive activities to guide users through the basics of childbirth, breast-feeding and caring for newborns. 703-858-6360. thebirthinginn.org/classes.

PARENTING ALONE GROUP For parents of school-age children who have lost a spouse or partner to cancer. Second Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-698-2536 or email jennifer.eckert@inova.org .

PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH SUPPORT Childbirth Solutions Resource Center, 8393 W. Main St., Marshall. 571-344-0438.

SENIORS

EXERCISE EQUIPMENT Weights, treadmills, bikes and a cardio-glide. Instruction provided. Age 55 and older. Weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

EYE CARE LensCrafters staff members will clean glasses and make minor repairs. Second Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2397. Free.

FITNESS FOR PEOPLE 55 AND OLDER Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 1-1:45 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400. $36, 12-visit card.

INOVA LOUDOUN MOBILE VAN Blood pressure checks. Second and fourth Tuesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling, 571-258-3280; first Wednesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

LAUGHING YOGA FOR SENIORS I mprove flexibility and balance. Thursdays 9:30-10 :30 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

LOUDOUN ADULT DAY CENTERS For seniors with physical limitations or memory loss, a safe and social environment, therapeutic activities, individualized care and respite for caregivers. Limited transportation. Sliding-scale fees. Weekdays in Leesburg, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 703-771-5334; Purcellville, 571-258-3402; and Ashburn-Sterling, 571-258-3232.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Senior Center at Cascades. First and third Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Sign up in the Leesburg Senior Center lobby. Second and fourth Thursdays 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Carver Center. First and third Mondays, 12:30-5 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 703-737-8741. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS: For people 55 and older who are learning Zumba for the first time, or those who prefer a lower-impact version. The fitness program combines Latin and international music with dance.Thursdays 11 a.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280. $12.

TAI CHI Stretching and strengthening movements. Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS Age 55 and older. Wear rubber-soled shoes and comfortable clothing; bring water and a towel. Tuesdays 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 p.m. Senior Center of Leesburg, 102 North St. NW, Leesburg. 703-737-8039. $24 per month.

SUPPORT GROUPS

AL-ANON SERVICE CENTER OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA A volunteer is available 24 hours with information for spouses, family members and friends of problem drinkers. 703-534-4357 or 877-339-8350. Mondays 8 p.m. Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 125 W. Washington St., Middleburg, 540-554-2747; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg, 877-339-8350; Fridays 8:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 6507 Main St., The Plains, 800-344-2666; Tuesdays 12:15 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, Route 29 N., 540-347-7448; Tuesdays 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 p.m. Warrenton Presbyterian Church, 91 Main St., 800-344-2666.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Various meeting times and locations in Loudoun County. 800-208-8649 or 703-876-6166. nvintergroup.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT For those who care for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Fourth Wednesdays 4-5:30 p.m. The Villa at Suffield Meadows, 6735 Suffield Lane, Warrenton. 540-316-3800.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Tuesdays 10-11 a.m. Spring Arbor Assisted Living, 237 Fairview St. NW, Leesburg. 540-338-6520.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVERS SUPPORT For those caring for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Second Mondays 7-8:30 p.m. Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-430-9229. galileeumc.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT Emotional, educational and social support for family members and friends of people with the disease. Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. Call 703-771-5407 or email lesley.katz@loudoun.gov.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Wednesdays 4 p.m. Leesburg Adult Day Center, 16501 Meadowview Ct., Leesburg. 703-771-5334.

TALK ABOUT CURING AUTISM A nonprofit organization educating and supporting families affected by autism. tacanow.org.

AUTOIMMUNE SUPPORT Last Thursdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. Jackson Building, 209 Gibson St., Leesburg. Email autoimmunesupport@hotmail.com .

BEREAVED PARENT SUPPORT One-on-one counseling is available. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT For those experiencing loss because of the death of a loved one. Age 18 and older. Third Mondays 1 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-957-1800.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT Fourth Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Tower, Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-0588.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those with new diagnoses or starting treatment. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those who have finished treatment, have had a recurrence or metastatic breast cancer. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857. Free.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT ASSISTANCE FUND Loudoun County residents who have received a diagnosis or have undergone treatment in the past 12 months are eligible to apply for financial assistance. Areas included are wigs, bras, puffs and prostheses, mammograms and medical bills, food and help with utilities, rent or mortgage, and transportation costs. The Pink Assistance Fund has been established by the Loudoun Breast Health Network. lbhn.org.

CANCER SUPPORT Oncology nurses, social workers and spiritual care providers offer education and support to patients, families and caregivers. Second Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

CANCER SUPPORT Life with Cancer, for patients, family members and friends. Second Thursdays 7 p.m. Ashburn Presbyterian Church, Room 202, 20962 Ashburn Rd. 703-729-2012. ashburnpresbyterian.org.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. 703-771-5407. alz.org/nca.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT AND RESOURCE GROUP Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.-noon (no meeting first Wednesdays), Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

CARING FOR AGING PARENTS Support group. Confidential. Fourth Wednesdays 7:30 p.m., Family Focus Counseling Service, 20-B John Marshall St., Warrenton. 540-349-4537.

CHADD PARENTS SUPPORT For parents of children with ADD/ADHD. Fourth Sundays 3 p.m. KinderCare, 44051 Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza. chadd.nova loudoun@gmail. com .

CHRONIC ILLNESS SUPPORT Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

COFFEE AND CONVERSATION: Support for those discouraged because of illness, bereavement, caregiving or a loved one in the military. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS For parents who have experienced the death of a child. First Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg. 540-882-9707.

CREATING AND CONNECTING Two-hour art therapy and relaxation workshop for cancer patients. Every other month, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-858-8850.

DEPRESSION BIPOLAR SUPPORT ALLIANCE OF WESTERN LOUDOUN Saturdays 3 p.m. Purcellville Library, 220 E. Main St., Carruthers Room. Call 703-431-7160 or email kathy@dbsanca.org.

DROP-IN GRIEF SUPPORT For those coping with a death. Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. St. Davids Episcopal Church, 43600 Russell Branch Pkwy., Ashburn. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-597-1781.

GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER YOUTH AND PARENT SUPPORT A group in partnership with Metro DC PFLAG. Fourth Sundays 4-6 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, 22135 Davis Dr., Sterling . 703-328-6518.

GRIEFSHARE Open to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Tue sdays from 7-8:30 p.m. Purcellville Baptist Church, 601 Yaxley Dr., Purcellville. Call 540-338-0918 or email caring@purbap.org. Workbook, $15.

GRIEFSHARE Nondenominational seminar and support group. Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m., and Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. Free.

GRIEF SUPPORT Sponsored by Hospice Support of Fauquier County. Individual counseling available. First and third Thursdays 3:30-5 p.m. Hospice Support Office, 42 N. Fifth St., Warrenton. Registration required. Call 540-347-5922 or email hospicesupport@verizon.net.

GRIEF SUPPORT Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

HOSPICE SUPPORT Free medical-equipment loan facility for Fauquier County residents. Especially needed are donations of wheelchairs, bedside commodes, rolling walkers, electric hospital beds, shower benches and chairs, adult diapers, lift chairs, Ensure and hospital bed mattresses. 540-347-5922.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL BETTER For women undergoing or emerging from cancer treatment. Every other month, 6:45 to 9 p.m. ,Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-776-2820. Free.

LOUDOUN CHADD SUPPORT Led by Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Leesburg Town Hall, lower-level conference room, 25 W. Market St. 703-669-2445.

LOUDOUN INTERGROUP OF OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS Fellowship and support. For locations and times, call 571-420-2012. oa.org.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Fourth Sundays 2-4 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Conference Room A and B, Leesburg. Go to natcaplyme.org or email loudounlymeadvocates@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, 6398 Lee Hwy. Access Road, Warrenton. 540-347-7265 or email lymeinfauquier@gmail.com. Free.

MADD LOUDOUN VICTIM SUPPORT For those who have been affected by drunken driving. Third Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. 210 Wirt St., Leesburg. 540-338-6491.

MAN-TO-MAN CANCER SUPPORT Sponsored by Loudoun Cancer Care Center, for prostate cancer patients and their families. Second Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Call 703-858-8857 or email karen.archer@inova.org.

MENOPAUSE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 6:30-9 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (second floor, Patient Education Room). 703-858-8060.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Saturdays 10:30 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-2826.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Last Sundays 2-4 p.m. Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Pl., Potomac Falls. 703-771-4256.

NAR-ANON FAMILY SUPPORT For those affected by loved ones with addiction. Meaningful Mondays, 7-8 p.m., Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-203-9792; Wisdom Wednesdays 7-8 p.m., St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 37730 St. Francis Ct., Purcellville, 703-606-7125; Serenity Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, 703-606-7125.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT Open to anyone with Parkinson's disease, family members and caregivers. First Tuesdays 1:30-3 p.m. Call for Ashburn location. 571-442-8851.

PET LOSS SUPPORT Saturday 10-11:30 a.m., Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. Susan Amato and Liz Shaw facilitating. 540-349-5814 .

POST-PARTUM SUPPORT Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Cornwall Campus, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. 703-909-9877. Email lamckeough@gmail.com. Registration required.

REACH TO RECOVERY Home visit program for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients. Temporary prostheses, exercise instruction and encouragement. 703-938-5550.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND INCEST SURVIVORS GROUP COUNSELING Services provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice and the Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter are free and confidential. 703-771-9020.

SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS EMPOWERMENT SUPPORT Sponsored by Sexual Assault Victims Volunteer Initiative. Child care available with 48-hours notice. Mondays; call for times and locations. 540-349-7720.

SPIRITUAL SUPPORT GROUP For cancer patients, family members and friends. Third Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8850.

STROKE SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS SUPPORT Second Wednesdays 11 a.m.-noon, Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second floor, Patient Education Room. 703-858-6667 or robyn.thomson@inova.org.

SUICIDE COUNSELING Third Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Leesburg Town Office, Conference Room 2, lower level, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg. 703-587-1618 or survivorsofsuicidelossleesburg@gmail.com.

WOMENS SUPPORT Sponsored by Services to Abused Families. Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Confidential location. 540-825-8876.

WIDOW AND WIDOWER SUPPORT Third Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

WOMENS CANCER SUPPORT Woman to Woman, first Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Registration required. 703-858-8850.

MISCELLANEOUS

BRAIN TRAUMA SURVIVORS BROWN BAG LUNCH For survivors and caregivers, first Tuesdays, noon-1:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second-floor Patient Education Room. Call 703-737-3150 or email jberg@braininjurysvcs.org. Free.

CHILD DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENINGS For ages 2-5. Children may not be kindergarten-age-eligible. Sponsored by the Loudoun County public schools Child Find Center. 571-252 - 2180.

CHOLESTEROL SCREENINGS Weekdays 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Fauquier Health LIFE Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Registration required. $35.

EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES Loudoun residents who are in need can receive a free three-day supply of groceries. Supplies are distributed Mondays through Saturdays by Loudoun Interfaith Relief. 703-777-5911. interfaithrelief.org.

FAUQUIER FREE WALK-IN MEDICAL CLINIC Patients must call Thursdays from 12:30 to 1 p.m. to register for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Patients are also seen by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fauquier and Rappahannock residents only. Bring proof of address for the first visit. Patients cannot have Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance. Information: 540-347-0394 Tuesdays or Thursdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

FAUQUIER HOSPITAL BISTRO SENIOR SUPPER CLUB Nutritious meals and fellowship for people 55 and older. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Bistro on the Hill, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $5.47.

GAMERS UNION FOR TEENS WITH ASPERGERS Youths 12 to 21 interact through gaming; their caregivers meet for networking. Second Tuesdays 6 p.m. Rust Library, 380 Old Waterford Rd., Leesburg. 703-777-0323. Free.

HEROES (Hometown Enabling Relationships, Opportunities and Empowerment through Support) is a program for military families. A trained volunteer provides support to military members and their families, from pre-deployment up to two years post-deployment. Assistance includes financial help, job placement, family care and mental health services. heroesca re.org or email caring@purbap.org .

INOVA LOUDOUN HOSPITAL MOBILE HEALTH SERVICES BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENINGS Tuesday 9 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling; Wednesdy 10 a.m.-noon, Lansdowne Woods, 19400 Leisure World Blvd., Leesburg; Thursday 10 a.m.-noon, Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville; Feb. 29, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Levis Hill House, 1000 W. Washington St., Middleburg. Information: 703-858-8818 or inova.org/mobilehealth. Free.

MASSAGE FOR COUPLES Friday 6-8 p.m. Fauquier Health Wellness Center, 419 Holiday Ct., Suite 200, Warrenton. 540-316-2640. $55 per couple. Registration required.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA ONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN Call for help in resolving complaints related to long-term-care facilities. 703-324-5861.

MOTOR SKILL SCREENINGS Birth to 21 months. First Thursdays, Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. Call for an appointment. 703-858-7620. Free.

ROAD TO RECOVERY, for cancer patients who need rides to appointments. 410-781-6909. Email jen.burdette@cancer.org. Free.

SEVEN LOAVES FOOD PANTRY Individuals and families can receive a three-day supply of food, distributed Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10 a.m.-noon. 540-687-3489 or sevenloavesmiddleburg.org.

TREE OF LIFE FOOD PANTRY Serving western Loudoun County. Food is delivered Wednesdays and Saturdays. 703-554-3595.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck

TO SUBMIT AN ITEM

Email: ldextra@washpost.com

Fax: 703-777-8437

Mail: Health Calendar, The Washington Post, 104 Dry Mill Rd. SW, Suite 101, Leesburg, Va. 20175

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

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Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar
Ferlazzo school public meeting is set for Thursday

A community meeting on name suggestions for the Ferlazzo elementary school has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Saunders Middle School, 13557 Spriggs Rd., Manassas.

Name suggestions may also be emailed to planning@pwcs.edu or mailed to the Office of Facilities Services School Naming Committee, P.O. Box 389, Manassas, Va. 20108-0389.

The committee will consider geographic or historical identifiers and names of people who have made local, state or national service contributions.

The school board is expected to choose a name March 2.

The school, 5710 Liberty Hill Ct., Woodbridge, is scheduled to open in September.

For information, call 703-791-7312.

Animal shelter advises owners to spay, neuter pets

February is National Prevent a Litter Month, and the Prince William County Animal Shelter encourages all pet owners to spay or neuter their cats and dogs.

According to the shelter, one female cat can produce an average of 12 kittens a year. National statistics show that only one in 12 of these cats will find a home.

The animal shelter, the Prince William Humane Society and the SPCA have resources for discounted spay/neuter services.

For information, visit pwcgov.

org.

Manassas surveys residents on recreation and culture

Manassas residents can take an online survey to assess priorities and use of parks, recreation and culture within the city.

The survey, which addresses types of programs, facilities and services residents want, is part of a larger effort to update the capital improvements plan.

A separate survey is being mailed to a random sampling of 3,000 to 3,500 Manassas households to make up a statistically valid sample.

The survey is online at

manassassurvey.org/open.

Military Service Academy Night will be March 10

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D) and Prince William County schools will host Military Service Academy Night on March 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Freedom High School, 15201 Neabsco Mills Rd., Woodbridge.

The event is for students interested in attending one of the service academies or applying for scholarships from the Reserve Officers Training Corps. The program will include presentations from academy liaison officers and ROTC representatives, and a detailed explanation of the congressional nomination process. Service academies and ROTC programs will have representatives available to address questions.

Online tool gives interactive look at the county budget

Prince William County recently launched an interactive budget application that people can use to see how government expenses, average tax bills, tax rates and revenues relate to each other.

The application allows users to adjust any of those values to learn how the proposed fiscal 2017 budget works, Prince William County spokesman Jason Grant said in a statement.

Weve developed this application so that citizens can better understand and participate in the budget process, Grant said. Its one thing to talk about how much revenue a penny on the tax rate generates, for example, or how much revenue is needed to fund specific programs. However, its much more useful to have those scenarios calculated so citizens can immediately see the impact and determine what direction they would recommend to the Board of County Supervisors when adopting a final budget.

Other budget tools are also available, including the Budget Questions and Answers application and the Capital Improvement Program Mapping application, which allows people to see the locations of proposed roads and parks and to learn about each project.

These tools, along with the Interactive Budget Application, are available at pwcgov.org/

budget.
Romechia Simms and her son, JiAire Lee, 3, two months before his death. (Courtesy of family)

A court-appointed forensic psychologist has concluded that the Maryland mother who was found in May pushing her dead toddler on a swing suffers from schizophrenia and was not criminally responsible in the childs death.

Romechia Simms, 25, was charged with manslaughter, first-degree child abuse and other charges associated with the death of her 3-year-old son, JiAire Lee. Simms was slowly pushing the boy on a swing in a La Plata, Md., park for 40 hours last May, including during the rain, when he died of hypothermia and dehydration.

Finding a defendant not criminally responsible is Marylands version of not guilty by reason of insanity. Such defendants are given mental health treatment as opposed to a prison term.

Simmss trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Charles County, but its unclear how the report could affect the case and whether the judge will declare Simms not criminally responsible or reject the findings and move forward with the proceedings.

In a 14-page report obtained by The Washington Post, psychologist Teresa Grant of the Maryland Office of Forensic Services wrote that although she found Simms competent to stand trial, Simmss mental disorder caused her to lack substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of her conduct or to conform her behavior to meet the requirements of the law.

Grant determined Simms is not a danger and should be allowed to remain in the community as opposed to housed in a mental institution.

[Simms charged in her sons death]

When contacted by The Post, Grant declined to comment on her findings. Prosecutor Tony Covington also declined to comment.

Simms was released from custody in December after her family posted bail, and she has been living with her mother, Vontasha Simms, and teenage brother in Waldorf, Md.

Vontasha Simms says that she hopes prosecutors agree with the court-appointed psychologists assessment. Her daughter continues to mourn JiAire, Simms said.

Now that this tragedy has happened, Romechia should not be the one to pay for it, Simms, 47, said. Life is never going to be normal again without JiAire. She can only try to pick up the pieces and continue on with her counseling, maybe for the rest of her life.

Romechia Simmss public defender, Michael Beach, said he hoped his client would not be institutionalized, which he says would be a big step back in her improvement since being released from jail.

We are doing everything we can to try to maintain her highly successful support network that she has got now that is really working well and keeping her healthy, Beach said.

Vontasha Simms says since her daughters release, Romechia has been reading, singing gospel songs and spending time with relatives. She said her daughter may go back to school or part-time work if her case ends without incarceration.

[Vontasha Simms fights for mental health reform after her grandsons death]

Its good for the public to have the opportunity to see that even when someone goes through that type of tragedy  and shes still suffering and going through counseling  that you are able to be productive, the mother said.

Romechia Simms graduated from high school in 2008. She attended Bowie State University for two years and majored in English with a concentration in secondary education. Simms aspired to become a teacher, according to the report, but dropped out of school when she became pregnant.

The report provided new details of the boys death. When police found Simms in the park pushing her son on the swing, she told the officers the boy was just sick and was having trouble breathing. The child was seated in the swing, his head tilted back and his mouth open. His arms and legs appeared stiff, and he was not moving.

According to the report, Simms told the psychologist that she began showing signs of mental illness in late 2014. At that time, Simms said she began having visions and thought people were knocking on her door. Simms said that in February 2015, while living in the District, she called D.C. police to report that people were trying to kill her. She said when police arrived, they laughed at her. Her mother then took her to MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center for evaluation, and she was discharged and ordered to follow up with a local psychiatrist.

In April, she was admitted into Southern Maryland Hospitals counseling service, Regenerations, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and prescribed medication. She told therapists there she believed people were trying to hurt her. She also admitted to smoking marijuana several times a week at the time, according to the report.

A month later, she was arrested at Wills Memorial Park.

At the time of JiAires death, he and Simms were staying with her mother at a La Plata motel.

After her arrest, Simms told police that two women removed her from the hotel and gave the two of them an unknown drug. She also told the officers that on the day she was in the park with her son, she had stopped taking her medication for a couple of days.

JiAires father, James Donnell Lee, had sought full custody of the toddler, but during a hearing less than two seeks before the boys death, he agreed to continue joint custody.
A truck driver was killed early Sunday morning when a tractor-trailer overturned on top of the guardrail on Route 50 in Annapolis, Md., authorities said.

Maryland State Police said George Marvel Fooks, 73, of Salisbury, Md., was traveling eastbound on Route 50 near Cape St. Claire Road when his 2014 Freightliner tractor-trailer rolled over at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday. Police said the tractor-trailer, which was carrying Cloverland Milk products, skidded about 300 feet before coming to a rest.

Police said it was unknown what caused Fooks to lose control, but they believe speed might have been a factor.

The crash resulted in a diesel fuel spill that had to be contained by personnel from the Maryland Department of the Environment, authorities said.

All lanes of eastbound Route 50 were closed following the crash, in addition to one lane of westbound Route 50. The entire highway was expected to reopen by noon, authorities said.
It had action and drama that most of them lack, yet it was essentially a theft like so many of the other crimes that occur each year in the Washington region. But it also seemed to have so much of what Hollywood would demand: a quick thinking victim and a desperate thief who walked into a store, and, according to police, broke his way out.

It occurred on Feb. 3, but the Prince Georges County police discussed it last week as part of their regular online posting called Wanted Wednesday. It indicated particular interest.

It was about 7 p.m. when a man came into a pawn shop in the Laurel area of the county. Once inside the shop in the 13000 block of Baltimore Avenue the man told a store employee that he would like to see a certain gold necklace.

But once the necklace was in his hand, the man headed for the door, according to the account given by police. The man began to run, they said.

However, a device had been installed at the store that employees could use in just such circumstances.

According to police, a store employee tried to lock the man inside the store, by operating the door remotely.

However, the thief showed what appeared to be a decided lack of willingness to the trapped inside the shop.

He was able to shatter a glass door  and make his escape, the police said.

That is why an account of the theft was posted last week as part of the police Wanted Wednesday bulletin.

The thief is wanted by police.

They asked anyone with information to call 301-937-0910. Another number is that of Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.
Metro trains have run red lights dozens of times since the beginning of 2012, according to federal officials, who said more needs to be done to reduce the dangerous trend. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Metro operator No. 012008 had been on the job for eight months when she hopped into the cab of the wrong train on July 4, hit the power and ran a red light on her way to pick up passengers headed for celebrations on the Mall.

Two months later, in September 2014, a Silver Line train operator with 11 years of experience rolled through a red signal and stopped just before a stretch of track that seconds earlier had an oncoming train.

This month , an operator ran a light near the Smithsonian Metro station and came to a stop only after realizing that his train was on a collision course with another train. He stopped 189 feet short of the second train, which was waiting at the platform, loaded with passengers.

There have been at least 47 red signal violations since the beginning of 2012, according to the Federal Transit Administration, which took responsibility for the safety of Metros rail system last year and cited the pervasiveness and seriousness of this problem, despite years of warnings and efforts to address it.

[Multiple human errors cited in low-speed close call]

To address the persistent problem of red light running, Metro added stickers in train cabs to remind operators of the rules. (Photo by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority )

The question is: Why? How can something so critical, and potentially dangerous, keep happening?

The answer, according to dozens of incident reports and the results of an outside investigation obtained through public records requests, has plenty of intricacies and contributing factors, and one unifying theme: Like most of us, Metrorail train operators sometimes tune out and get lost in their thoughts. The difference is that they are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people riding in 200-ton trains. Sometimes they sink into habit, move by instinct and fail to see whats right before their eyes, investigators found.

The repeated human errors, and their effect on safety, prompted Metro officials to hire a neuroscientist and an outside safety expert to try to tease out exactly what is causing the lapses. While the hazards of multitasking, such as using a cellphone while driving, are well known, researchers have found that simply thinking about something else is enough to be a real distraction.

A lot of times, people dont realize that when theyre tuning out  and it can be something as simple as mind wandering  people dont realize this actually puts them at risk, said Daniel Smilek, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

Smilek and partner Randall Jamieson, who run the Atticus Consulting Group, were hired by Metro to help translate the latest academic findings to the transit agencys real-world problem. We can show that basically whenever you mind wander, even in very simple tasks, your performance will deteriorate in those tasks, Smilek said.

The draft findings from their investigation point to numerous attention-related errors. Time after time, Metro operators took off from a platform or other stop without full conscious awareness of what they were doing, the consultants found. Operators, supervisors and managers also lack an understanding of how human attention works and under what circumstances it is likely to fail.

Similar challenges trouble Transportation Security Administration agents gazing at X-ray images and surgeons peering into incisions. But for Metro, which faces broader management and safety issues highlighted by its botched handling of a deadly smoke incident last year, the problem has raised concerns about whether other safety procedures are being followed.

The Washington Posts transportation reporter Dana Hedgpeth gives us the backstory to the much-maligned mass transit system. The bad news? The long waits in the tunnel arent going away anytime soon. The good news? Metro is faster than you thought. (Brad Horn/The Washington Post)

[Metro fans pulled smoke toward passengers on train at LEnfant]

The Tri-State Oversight Committee, a safety panel made up of officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District, has pressed Metro for years to tackle the problem aggressively, arguing that whatever it is about Metro that allows repeated red-light running could also lead to unsafe behavior elsewhere.

We would characterize all red signal violations as a hazardous circumstance, close call, or near miss, the oversight group said in a statement. Such patterns of noncompliance may indicate systemic issues regarding the culture of rule compliance and enforcement.

What one operator called a big rush-rush culture in the nations second-busiest subway proved to be a significant systemic cause in most cases of red-light running, the Atticus investigation concluded. The report also pointed to inadequate supervision of operators and controllers, leading to continued miscommunication.

Critical perceptual error

The causes are multifaceted, and even those at fault sometimes cannot believe what investigators found.

An operator who ran a red light between the Reagan National Airport and Crystal City Metro stations in August 2014 became extremely defensive when pressed on the circumstances, according to the report.

He insisted that he had not run the red light. He was certain he had the rail equivalent of a green light.

But a technical re-creation provided irrefutable evidence to the contrary, according to the consultants, who said they were worried about the operators ongoing refusal to acknowledge his responsibility  or reality.

So they walked him through it, framed more as a lesson than an inquisition.

The root cause? He made his train announcements, shut the doors, sat down and immediately pushed the accelerator without paying proper attention.

There also was a critical perceptual error.

Metro was single-tracking, meaning that trains going opposite directions must wait their turn. Based on experience, they found, the operator had the expectation that he would depart just after the opposing train arrived.

Which he did. Right through a red light.

He had no idea a second train was trailing the first, also headed his way. Additional safety systems kicked in, and he was instructed to pull back out of the way.

The consultants also cited a systemic cause.

It may have been prudent, they wrote, for the Rail Operations Control Center to share more information. It was a novel situation to be fleeting a pair of trains toward the airport, and the operator could have used that information.

One is not acceptable

Metro officials emphasize that they have a multilayered system to keep passengers safe, including technology designed to stop trains when humans fall short. And oversight officials say they have seen no examples of the automated technology failing in red-light incidents.

But the systems dont help in all situations.

In this months incident near Smithsonian, the train was moving in the reverse direction to avoid a problem ahead. The operator misheard an instruction from his controller about which station to go to. When the operator repeated the mangled instruction, the controller didnt catch the mistake, allowing the operator to head toward the wrong station. While headed there, he ran the red-light signal.

The safety system does not take over in such circumstances, officials said. But the operator, traveling at 10 mph, was able to stop in time.

Metros deputy general manager, Rob Troup, in an interview Feb. 11, hours before announcing his resignation, said behavioral concerns are universal. In recent years, Metro increased training and added placards in train cabs reminding operators that red means STOP YOUR TRAIN.

In every operating environment  whether it be aviation, freight railroads, transit railroads, class-one railroads, truck drivers, it doesnt matter  the human-error element is the hardest thing that you deal with, Troup said. Management, engineering, audits, rules and procedures all have a role in eliminating the incidents, he said.

Citing an exchange of information we have with other properties, Troup said that Metro has significantly fewer red-light violations than its peers, although he declined to name the other systems. Still, he said, its not acceptable to me. One is not acceptable to me.

The Federal Transit Administration said in a statement that such violations are not systematically reported to its transit database, making it difficult to compare different rail transit agencies.

Still, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has a problem, the FTA said.

Red signal violations are a serious safety concern and WMATAs trend line is going in the wrong direction. WMATA had more red signal overruns in 2015 than in either of the preceding two years, according to the statement.

Operating on autopilot

Back on July 4, 2014, things were particularly hectic at the Shady Grove rail yard in suburban Maryland, the consultants found.

An official responsible for guiding train operators through the vast yard was distracted by a disabled train and the gargantuan task of carrying tens of thousands of holiday revelers. It was also operator No. 012008s first time working there.

She was supposed to hop aboard a train on Track 15 but boarded one on Track 14 instead.

The operator twice radioed the operations official with the number of the signal in front of her, a basic safety step. But the official didnt notice that she was saying the wrong signal number, because she was on the wrong track, and didnt try to stop her.

The operator said later that she was just trusting the tower when she hit the accelerator. No one was hurt. The guiding official was disqualified from the job. The operator was retrained.

The consultants, hired for $19,800, reexamined and rewrote 11 of Metros investigative reports and found that officials rarely delved into crucial questions of mental readiness and sometimes reached the wrong conclusion.

In one case, Metro officials told an operator traveling for the first time in a District rail yard that you were not focused and paying attention to the safe operation of your train.

But the consultants said the new operator was actually so anxious about being on unfamiliar ground and so focused on finding the right place to stop that he was effectively psychologically blind to the red light.

Another operator was, in essence, too familiar with the station where she ran the light.

The more you do it, the more you relax from thinking, she told the Atticus investigators, who concluded that as time goes by, she is likely to rely on her habitual, routine past experiences  in other words operating on autopilot. 

For a Silver Line operator and 11-year veteran, her near miss came after a supervisor cut short her break and then spurred her further by saying she was due off platform a couple minutes ago, the consultants found.

[Read the report on the Silver Line near miss]

To address the big rush-rush culture, Metro recently tweaked its schedule to allow operators more time to do train walk-arounds and safety checks before their first run. Metro also set up a new system in which operators can hand off their train to a fresh colleague at the end of the line should an operator need relief.

After finding examples of stress and excitability among operators, Atticus also said operators need better training to handle such adverse mental states. Metro is considering that.

Minutes before her break was truncated, the Silver Line operator had another jolt. Her supervisor told her that she must submit an incident report in response to a complaint that had been levied against her by a fellow employee as a result of an altercation that day, the report said.

Just before she ran the light, she was worrying about being disciplined, she recalled, although she didnt think it caused her mistake. The consultants werent so sure. They said they have investigated numerous errors shortly after a worrisome or disturbing communication from a boss or relative.

When youre thinking about something other than the job at hand, Smilek said, some of your processing capacity is taken up, particularly when something affects you deeply. Like a bank account, a brains processing power has limits, he said. You cant allocate it to too many things, otherwise you just run out of money.
The Alexandria City Council, in an acrimonious six-hour hearing Saturday, refused to change the zoning that would allow the local housing authority to replace 15 antiquated but historic public housing units with 53 new units.

The council, forced by a citizens petition to approve the change with a supermajority vote, failed to get the six votes needed, thus rejecting the housing authoritys 11th-hour request to pass the rezoning and defer a vote on the project. A late effort to demonstrate that the council members support increasing affordable housing was met with derision by one member.

[In Alexandria, a choice of historic preservation or affordable housing]

While Mayor Allison Silberberg (D) said the decision should encourage the housing authority to try again in six months, its chief executive said it was uncertain if it would. We expended a considerable amount of money to develop these plans. We cant do that again, said Roy Priest, chief executive of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority. I dont want to leave the residents in those units for another year  I dont know now where we will put them.

The 74-year-old Ramsey Homes, built by the federal government to house African American defense workers during World War II, have long passed their use-by date. There is no air-conditioning nor are there dishwashers, the heating is inadequate, the units are not accessible to people in wheelchairs, and when one tenant does her laundry, the sink in the adjacent unit backs up, residents told the council.

But replacing the four mustard-colored concrete buildings with new units catering to moderate- and low-income residents would require a more dense development to be eligible for financing and low-income tax credits, ARHA officials said. Historic preservation advocates urged preservation of at least a portion of the project. Neighbors complained that the project removed too much open space.

Although long civic hearings are not unusual in the Alexandria council chambers, the anger that erupted from the elected officials on the dais was remarkable.

Furious that ARHA waited to ask for a deferment of its special-use permit until 4:30 p.m. Friday, council members questioned whether ARHA was trying to game the system by getting a rezoning without saying exactly what it would build on the site  or whether it would sell the property to a private developer.

ARHA officials insisted that they could not do that without the approval of both the city council and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has a say in the propertys disposition.

But years of acrimony between the two bodies spilled over, with members of both groups accusing the other of failure to share information and plans.

We gave very explicit instructions five months ago, and a lot of time has passed, said council member Paul Smedberg (D). This is utterly frustrating. . . . And if you care so much about residents, what about the maintenance of these units over time?

Council member John Taylor Chapman (D), who grew up in public housing, said that preservationists were not only trying to retain segregated and substandard housing but also asking families to continue to live there.

He also assailed the mayor for meeting with the city manager and the ARHA chief executive without informing council members, including those working on the issue. When Silberberg defended herself, calling the meeting a prerogative of the seat, Chapman said she missed his point.

Its not about you working with [ARHAs chief]. Its about you working with us  this is a jointly run government, Chapman said.

Your anger toward me in this situation, I say with all due respect, is misplaced, she said.

Vice Mayor Justin Wilson (D) derided Silberbergs effort to pass a limited approval of a change in the master plan, which she said would send a signal that the council supports affordable housing.

You are amending the allowable housing from 30 to 63 units here. Thats all youre doing, Wilson said.
THE DISTRICT

Two men slain intwo NE shootings

Two people were shot and killed Friday night in Northeast Washington, D.C. police said.

A man yet to be identified was found about 8:15 p.m. in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue, police said. About an hour and a half later, Dante Kinard, 21, of Northeast was found in the 1800 block of Benning Road, they said.

The fatal shootings, apparently unrelated, were the third and fourth in the city in three days.

 Katherine Shaver

and Martin Weil

MARYLAND

State files appeal on weapons ban ruling

Marylands attorney general has appealed a decision by a three-judge panel that sent the states ban on assault-style weapons back to a lower court for review.

Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) announced Friday that the state has asked the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond to hear the case.

Frosh is asking for the rehearing so that the full court weighs in on the constitutionality of Marylands ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

 Associated Press

In Annapolis, son arrested in killing

A 22-year-old Annapolis man was arrested early Saturday and charged with fatally stabbing his father, authorities said.

Leobardo Jolalpa-Ramirez, whose address was not released, was arrested after Annapolis police responded about 2:45 a.m. to a report of a stabbing in a home in the 300 block of Atwater Drive, authorities said. Officers found Jolalpa-Ramirezs father, Martin Jolalpa-Vazquez, 44, bleeding profusely, and he died of his injuries at Anne Arundel Medical Center, police said.

Jolalpa-Ramirez was arrested after he was found at Great Bay Avenue and Annapolis Walk Drive, police said. He was being held in jail without bond.

 Katherine Shaver

Gov. Hogan attends slain deputys funeral

Gov. Larry Hogan and others paid tribute to a slain Harford County sheriffs deputy who was laid to rest Saturday.

Services were held at Harford Community College for Deputy Mark Logsdon. He and Deputy Patrick Dailey were fatally shot Feb. 10 at a Panera Bread restaurant in Abingdon. The man who opened fire on the deputies, 68-year-old Brian Evans, was shot and killed.

Logsdon, 43, was a 16-year member of the Sheriffs Office and an Army veteran.

According to a pool report from Saturdays service, Hogan quoted a Bible verse extolling the man who lays down his life for his friends.

I stand here knowing no words can ease the hurt or help us understand such overwhelming heartbreak, Hogan said. I do know what we can do: ensure the legacy of Mark Logsdon and the memories of his tremendous sacrifice lives on in the hearts of each and every one of us.

Services for Dailey were held Wednesday.

 Associated Press

VIRGINIA

Mall closes for hours after bomb threat

The Spotsylvania Towne Centre mall was evacuated for several hours Saturday after a bomb threat was called in, according to the Spotsylvania County Sheriffs Office.

Sheriffs Capt. Jeff Pearce said the mall was quickly evacuated after the 1:30 p.m. threat when the malls management decided to err on the side of caution.

Nothing was found during a search conducted with bomb-sniffing dogs, and deputies will continue the investigation, Pearce said.

 Susan Svrluga
MISSOURI

4 re deaths now probed as homicides

The deaths of four people in a northwest Missouri fire are being investigated as possible homicides, but there are no suspects, authorities said Saturday.

The fire at a rural home in Platte County was reported just before midnight Friday. Sheriffs Capt. Erik Holland said the house was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.

Based on some of the preliminary investigation by the sheriffs office and the state fire marshal, we have determined that there are suspicious situations around the burning of the building and the deaths of the four individuals, Holland said Saturday.

Two women, a third adult and an infant died in the fire.

 Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Killing suspect dies in shootout with police

A dozen police officers shot at and killed a homicide suspect during a gun battle along Interstate 5 in Washington state Saturday morning, authorities said.

The man, in his 40s, had killed his girlfriend as she worked at a nursing facility in University Place near Tacoma at about 6:15 a.m., said Pierce County Sheriffs Detective Ed Troyer. Police soon spotted him and chased his vehicle southbound on I-5 as he fired at them.

At one point, pursuing officers forced his car to spin out near an exit. The man took cover behind his vehicle and engaged police in a shootout, officials said. Twelve officers from three agencies shot back, killing him. No officers were wounded, Lawler said.

 Associated Press

NEW YORK

2 officers shot; gunman hits cruiser

Two police officers were shot in a confrontation with a gunman who slammed his car into a police vehicle early Saturday, police said, in the second on-duty shooting of multiple officers in the nations biggest city this month.

Officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were in stable condition after the 3:30 a.m. encounter, which happened as multiple officers converged and fired at an armed driver who had pointed a gun at some of the officers, fled and then rammed a police car, Police Commissioner William Bratton said.

Police were investigating how many officers fired and the exact sequence of events, including whether police fired any of the shots that hit their colleagues.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Yurkiw and Reddin were alert and expected to recover.

The alleged gunman, Jamal Funes, 34, was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Bratton said.

 Associated Press
Buildings and trees are damaged after Cyclone Winston swept through the town of Ba on Fiji's Viti Levu Island, Feb. 21, 2016. (Stringer/via Reuters)

IRAQ

ISIS snipers try to pin down Fallujah

The Islamic State deployed snipers on rooftops in Fallujah on Saturday in an attempt to quell an insurrection by Sunni tribesmen, Iraqi officials said, a flare-up that appears to reflect a weakening grip on the city.

[Islamic State faces new trouble in Fallujah as Sunni tribesmen revolt]

The fighting, which began Thursday in the city about 45 miles west of Baghdad, is a small but rare show of force against the Islamic State, which has controlled Fallujah for more than two years. The Islamist groups hold on Anbar province has been weakened with Iraqi forces retaking the provincial capital of Ramadi, leaving Fallujah isolated and besieged.

Local officials say the insurrection should quickly lead to a reconsideration of military plans to take advantage of the unrest in Fallujah.

Some tribal fighters are pinned down by the snipers in the Jolan neighborhood, said Sheikh Majeed al-Juraisi, a tribal leader. Time is running out very quickly, and if there is no intervention by the government or the Americans, then there will be a massacre, he said.

 Loveday Morris

INDIA

Army tries to quell violent protests

Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in a northern Indian state, with at least four people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, officials said.

The violence raged for a second straight day, as protesters burned several railroad stations and attacked shops and vehicles in several towns in Haryana state, said police officer Y.P. Singhal.

Protesters also blocked highways linking New Delhi to key northern cities, he said, adding that authorities ordered police to fire without warning at those instigating violence.

The protesters are members of the lower-caste Jat agricultural community, who are demanding benefits both at the federal and state levels, including guaranteed government jobs or university spots. Talks Friday between community leaders and state government representatives failed to lead to an agreement.

 Associated Press

GREECE

Anti-austerity bill passes parliament

Greeces parliament on Saturday approved a bill providing health insurance to vulnerable citizens and offering municipality jobs for the unemployed as the left-led government tries to mitigate the impact of bailout austerity measures on the poor.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who made a U-turn on promises to end austerity and was forced to sign up to a new bailout last summer, was reelected in September on pledges to implement the EU/IMF prescribed reforms.

The package of social justice measures is meant to appease critics who say the reforms parliament was forced to adopt under Greeces third bailout program are too tough.

Thousands of Greeks took to the streets in February to protest a planned pension reform that increases social security contributions and phases out benefits for low-income pensioners.

 Reuters

Former prime minister wins Central African presidency: A former prime minister who placed second in the first round of balloting has won Central African Republics presidential runoff vote, the national election body announced Saturday. Faustin Archange Touadera, 58, inherits the enormous task of trying to restore order in a country where heavily armed rebel groups still control large swaths of territory.

Fiji residents assess damage in Pacific cyclones wake: Residents of Fiji were beginning to clean up and assess the damage after Tropical Cyclone Winston, packing 177 mph winds, tore through the Pacific island chain overnight. At least one person died, although aid workers said it would take at least a day to establish communications with some of the smaller islands that were directly in Cyclone Winstons path. There were widespread reports of damage, with many homes and crops destroyed.

Leftist priest who defied pope dies in Nicaragua: Fernando Cardenal, a priest who famously rebuffed an order by Pope John Paul II to quit Nicaraguas leftist government, has died in Managua. Cardenal was 82 and long back in the good graces of the church at the time of his death. The Jesuit was a practitioner of liberation theology who joined the Sandinista rebels after they toppled the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He led a widely praised literacy campaign and then served as education minister.

Last survivor of Nazis Treblinka death camp dies: Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of Treblinka, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland where 875,000 people were systematically murdered, has died in Israel at the age of 93. Willenberg took up sculpting to describe his experiences, creating statues depicting a father removing his sons shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved and prisoners removing bodies.

 From news services
TWELVE STATES that undertook investigations of Planned Parenthood found no wrongdoing. An additional eight states refused even to investigate, citing lack of credible evidence. A grand jury in Texas and a federal judge in California exonerated the organization after each conducted extensive reviews. Three congressional committees failed to turn up any improprieties. In short, the hidden-camera videos purporting to show illegal selling of fetal tissue show no such thing.

Despite all that, a Republican-led House panel is undeterred in conducting its own investigation, or, more accurately, witch hunt. Even more troubling than the considerable time and money that will be wasted is the potential damage to health care and medical research.

The coyly named Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has made sweeping requests (including three subpoenas) for documents and information from more than 30 agencies and organizations that provide abortions or are involved in fetal tissue research. Of particular concern is the panels demand for the names of doctors, medical students and researchers involved in performing abortions or conducting research with fetal tissue. Democrats on the panel decried the creation of such a database, which  without rules to protect it from public disclosure  risks individual privacy and safety without legitimate reason. How is the name of a graduate student who five years ago was an intern at a lab relevant to anything?

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of the House panel, has defended the investigation as necessary because of lingering questions raised by secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood personnel released last year by the equally misnamed Center for Medical Progress. Those videos, supposedly showing Planned Parenthood illegally selling aborted fetal organs for profit, have been discredited. A grand jury empaneled in Houston to investigate Planned Parenthood ended up indicting the activists who produced the videos and, after reviewing the evidence for two months, cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing. U.S. District Court Judge William H. Orrick reached the same conclusion, granting a preliminary injunction prohibiting release of illegally obtained recordings and materials in a decision that laid bare the fraud against Planned Parenthood. Also noted by the judge was the alarming increase in incidents of harassment and violence directed against abortion providers since the videos were released last July. Among them: four incidents of arson and the attack on a Colorado clinic by a gunman in which three people were killed.

Federal law permits medical use of fetal tissue. The handful of Planned Parenthood clinics in which patients are able to donate fetal tissue adhered to the law that allows reasonable payment for costs associated with donations, but they have stopped accepting any reimbursement because of the controversy. Congress, with approval from both sides of the aisle, legalized fetal tissue research in 1993 because of the potential for scientific advances in treating and curing illnesses.

Congress has the prerogative to change that law, if it wants to undermine the kind of medical research that has led to breakthroughs such as the polio vaccine. But it has no call to engage in a reckless investigation with the potential to cause a great deal of harm.
The Clinton political dynasty is still alive. The Bush dynasty has been routed. Their contrasting fates, to this point at least, tell us much about our two parties, the nature of this years presidential election, and the dueling legacies themselves.

The Republican and Democratic contests are very different, beginning with the fact that Hillary Clinton did not have to deal with Donald Trump, who targeted Jeb Bush with a viciousness rarely seen in contemporary politics. For months, the self-contained former Florida governor responded ineffectually to an opponent who flouted all the norms. This only made it easier for Trump to mock him as low energy and weak.

Bush was also entitled to a certain bitterness as he watched Marco Rubio, his ambitious and impatient protege, seize his natural base in the party: voters who loathe both Trump and Ted Cruz. Rubios definition of loyalty did not include yielding to his one-time mentor.

Bush finally found his voice toward the end of his campaign, and he often stood alone in denouncing Trumps brutal Islamophobia. He thereby bravely upheld the most estimable parts of his familys public service tradition. But his efforts came too late, and were, in any event, out of tune with so many in a party eager to respond to angry and exclusionary rhetoric.

Clinton now faces only one opponent, and Bernie Sanders, especially in contrast to the often thuggish behavior of Republican candidates toward each other, has been positively courtly. Building a durable progressive wing of the Democratic Party clearly matters more to him than scoring points off Clinton.

After placing fourth in the South Carolina Republican primary, former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) suspended his presidential campaign. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Still, Sanders has exposed real weaknesses in Clintons long-term position. The issues he has used against her  particularly her ties to Wall Street and her acceptance of large speaking fees from financial firms  are matters Republicans will surely bring up again should she secure the Democratic nomination.

In a party whose election victories are increasingly dependent on heavy turnout among younger voters (when they dont show up, the Democrats lose, as they did in 2010 and 2014), Sanders has overwhelmed Clinton among those under 45. He did it again in Nevadas caucuses on Saturday.

Clintons trust deficit is a cliche. But, like her weakness among the young, it remains part of her own ongoing legacy problem. According to the entrance poll reported by CNN, a quarter of Nevada caucus-goers listed honesty and trustworthiness as the most important qualities they were seeking in a candidate; they backed Sanders by about 6 to 1.

Clinton prevailed anyway and her Nevada victory dealt Sanders a serious blow. The states caucus system gave Sanderss energetic followers a real chance at victory. He fell short.

Endurance under trial is a defining characteristic of a Clinton brand that also has the benefit of being less established than the Bush trademark. The Clintons have been in the public consciousness since 1992. Bushes have been in presidential politics since 1980 and on the national stage since 1952, when Prescott Bush, Jebs grandfather, entered the U.S. Senate. If the Clintons arent exactly Facebook, neither are they General Motors or Studebaker.

And while frustration on the Democratic left with Bill Clintons pro-business policies has fed support for Sanders, the antipathy to both Bush presidencies on the Republican right runs far deeper. As Laura Ingraham, the conservative talk radio host, told The Post in 2015: The Bushes have always underestimated the depth of the bases dissatisfaction with their policies. Moreover, even some of Bushs natural allies among Republican professionals worried that public memories of the peaceful and prosperous Bill Clinton years were much fonder than those of a George W. Bush presidency characterized by an unpopular war and a financial meltdown.

These problems fed an ambivalence in the Bush circle about the legacy issue itself. Both the Bush and Clinton logos highlighted their first rather than last names. But the exclamation point in Jeb! paradoxically underscored his awareness of the lack of enthusiasm for another Bush presidency.

Jeb can console himself that his son George P. Bush , a Texas politician, is already in the family business, and that being scorned by fellow Republicans is part of the familys tradition. When Prescott Bush successfully sought reelection to the Senate in 1956, his biographer Mickey Herskowitz recounts, some in the party hoped hed lose because of his stands in favor of immigration and higher taxes.

I was amazed, Prescott Bush said, that they would take so small a view as that of a man who was trying to do his damnedest for the Republican Party.

Jeb can relate.

Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Following a tight race, former secretary Hillary Clinton defeated senator Bernie Sanders in Nevada. The Washington Posts reporter Abby Phillip breaks down why this victory was critical for Clinton and what this means for both candidates going into South Carolina. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

Following a tight race, former secretary Hillary Clinton defeated senator Bernie Sanders in Nevada. The Washington Posts reporter Abby Phillip breaks down why this victory was critical for Clinton and what this means for both candidates going into South Carolina. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

Hillary Clinton held off a powerful late challenge from rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevadas Democratic caucus vote Saturday, securing a narrow victory that helps the former secretary of state regain momentum after a crushing defeat in New Hampshire.

Nevada was the first state to test support among minority voters, who have long been expected to be in Clintons camp. As it turned out, preliminary entrance polls showed Latinos favoring Sanders, despite having voted for Clinton 2-to-1 when she ran in 2008. African American voters, meanwhile, appear to have overwhelmingly supported Clinton  a development that could bode extremely well for her given the run of Southern states with large black electorates voting in the coming weeks.

Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other, Clinton told supporters gathered at a Las Vegas hotel ballroom. Clinton congratulated Sanders on a close election, but she got in a few digs, too.

It cant just be about what were going to give to you; it has to be about what we are going to build together, she said in an unmistakable reference to Sanderss large and expensive plans for government-run health care, college and more.

Clintons campaign cast doubt on the strength of Sanderss support among Hispanics, pointing to majority-Latino precincts that she won.

Sanders used his concession speech to denounce the corrupt campaign finance system and the nations vast inequality between the top 1 percent of the economy and everyone else.

The wind is at our backs, Sanders said. We have the momentum. He predicted several victories in upcoming state primary contests and, ultimately, one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.

Saturdays results seemed to render that promise more difficult to achieve.

Sanders had steadily eroded Clintons double-digit lead in Nevada, the first state with a racially diverse population to cast primary votes this year. Slightly more than a quarter of the states population is Hispanic, and the state is also home to sizable African American and Native American populations.

A Sanders victory in Nevada would have suggested a reach far beyond his core base of white liberals  and rocked the premise that Clintons national lead was insurmountable. Instead, Clintons strong showing among African American voters in Nevada suggests that despite inroads among Hispanic voters, Sanders faces an even more difficult test in the next contest, in South Carolina next Saturday.

With most precincts reporting, Clinton was winning with 52 percent of the vote overall to Sanderss 48 percent. But according to preliminary entrance polls reported by CNN, she won among black Democrats by a whopping 76 percent to 22 percent. African Americans made up 13 percent of the electorate, according to the entrance poll, while 19 percent were Hispanic and 59 percent were white. Sanders held an eight-point edge among Hispanic voters, who accounted for roughly 1 in 5 caucus-goers, and the two candidates split white voters about evenly.

In the five NV precincts with the highest percentages of African American registrants, Clinton won all the delegates, 76-0, her spokesman, Brian Fallon, said in a tweet shortly after the results were known.

1 of 24 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looked like on the ground in Nevada for the Democratic caucuses View Photos Hillary Clinton held off a late challenge from rival Bernie Sanders in the Silver State. Caption Hillary Clinton held off a late challenge from rival Bernie Sanders in the Silver State. Feb. 20, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hugs her Nevada campaign director, Emmy Ruiz, while approaching the stage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to deliver a speech after winning the states Democratic caucuses. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Clinton has enjoyed a large lead among South Carolina African Americans, who in 2008 made up more than half the Democratic primary electorate.

And on March 1, when more delegates will be awarded in Super Tuesday voting than at any other time in the political calendar, black voters make up significant parts of the Democratic electorate in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas and Virginia. Sanders has a better chance of winning the other Super Tuesday states  Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont  which have relatively small black populations.

Sanders planned to campaign in South Carolina on Sunday, but he has scheduled events Monday in Massachusetts.

Were going to target the states where were strongest and compete for delegates everywhere, said Jeff Weaver, Sanderss campaign manager.

Clinton flew directly to Texas for a campaign rally later Saturday and will be in South Carolina in the coming week.

Clinton has now barely won two of the first three states to cast presidential selection votes, and she lost the other badly. Sanderss growing momentum in recent weeks has exposed flaws in Clintons candidacy and threatened her carefully constructed strategy that presented her as the presumed front-runner and heir to President Obamas legacy.

The Nevada vote, however, gives weight to the claim by Clinton allies that the wave of anti-establishment fervor carrying Sanders would slow in states with fewer white voters.

Sanders, who represents a state that is 95 percent white, has never in his four-decade political career had to court minority voters. His advisers said they were confident that his economic message would break through with younger and working-class voters  two constituencies he has connected with in other states  regardless of race.

Clinton supporters gathered for her victory party in a ballroom at Caesars Palace and erupted in cheers and chants of Hill-a-ry! Hill-a-ry! as results flashed on the televisions.

I told ya! said Michael Airington, 57, a Clinton supporter. She needed this. Now shes going to sweep South Carolina!

Airington attributed the closeness of the vote to younger Democrats who were too young to know much about Clintons work during her husbands presidency in the 1990s.

She needs to recalibrate with the millennials and let them know she was for everything Bernie is for before Bernie was, Airington said.

Indeed, voters younger than 30 preferred Sanders 82 percent to 14 percent, and those younger than 45 picked Sanders 62 percent to 35 percent, according to the CNN exit poll data.

Weaver said Sanderss now-proven ability to court Latinos should help his prospects going forward in states including Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and California. He also said that the loss in Nevada will not affect Sanderss plans to remain in the race through the Democratic National Convention.

Clintons first campaign trip to Nevada, weeks after she entered the race in April, was intended as an outreach primarily to Hispanics and chiefly around the issue of immigration. She met with young people protected from deportation by Obamas executive actions, and she pledged to seek a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Nevada led the nation in home foreclosures and was hit hard by bankruptcies during the Great Recession. Sanderss heavy focus on an economy rigged to benefit the wealthy and powerful interests had resonated in a state where many residents blamed Wall Street and large mortgage companies for their reversals.

In the closing days, his campaign aired a 30-second ad with foreclosure signs and aerial shots of decimated neighborhoods narrated by Erin Bilbray, the daughter of a former congressman, who relayed how her neighbors were hurt by the crisis.

Ive watched as the house across the street has sat empty for over six years, says Bilbray, a Democratic National Committee member and former Clinton supporter. Ive watched good friends have their homes foreclosed on. People are still really suffering, and theyre looking for somebody who is going to create bold change.

The senator from Vermont also repeatedly pointed to Clintons ties to big financial institutions, as he did again Saturday by noting that a super PAC supporting Clinton receives what he called Wall Street donations.

But in the days leading up to the caucus vote, immigration was the main point of argument between the two campaigns.

Clinton and her surrogates argued that Sanders was a latecomer to championing the rights of illegal immigrants. Clinton allies have made the same claim about Sanderss efforts to win over African Americans elsewhere.

He is a very strong candidate. He had a lot of committed supporters, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said Saturday. He is a real force, and he will continue to be a strong candidate, so we are grateful for this win, but we know we have 47 more states.

About 80,000 people showed up for the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, a significant drop-off, compared with 2008, the last time there was a competitive Democratic race, according to officials at the Nevada Democratic Party.
Donald Trump came in first in the South Carolina primary, but Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz celebrated in their speeches that night, too. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush took fourth place and ended his campaign. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump came in first in the South Carolina primary, but Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz celebrated in their speeches that night, too. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush took fourth place and ended his campaign. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

For months, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) have thrown sharp elbows, traded petty insults and compiled thick opposition research files on one another in anticipation of the moment they would find themselves in a knockout fight for a showdown with Donald Trump.

That moment has arrived.

In South Carolinas primary on Saturday, Rubio held a slight lead over Cruz in their tight battle for second place behind Trump after one of the nastiest weeks of their bitter rivalry. The two young Cuban American senators finished well ahead of Jeb Bush, who suspended his campaign after a disappointing showing, John Kasich and Ben Carson in this state, effectively paring the GOP presidential nominating contest down to a three-man race and raising the stakes in their one-on-one battle.

Rubio will now look to consolidate the mainstream wing of the Republican Party, which is already beginning to line up behind him and will likely continue to after Bushs departure from the race. His playbook against Cruz is a straightforward one: Cast his Texas colleague as dishonest and assail his record on national security as weak and contrast that with his sunnier new American century message.

After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win, said Rubio in a speech to supporters Saturday night.

In his speech, Rubio commended Bush and praised him for running a campaign based on ideas. Cruz lauded Bush for bringing honor and dignity to the race.

Cruz told a cheering crowd that the race for second place remains a toss-up.

Right now we are effectively tied for second place, but each time defying expectations, Cruz said. The screaming you hear now from across the Potomac is the Washington cartel in full terror that the conservative grass-roots are rising up.

Cruzs campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said the race is shifting to a national campaign with a top tier and lower tier. Its clear the top tier, theres three people. We call it three wide going into Talladega, Roe said.

Cruz told supporters he is the only candidate who can take on Trump. This is the only campaign that has beaten, and can beat, Donald Trump, said the senator, who edged Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

Cruz is aiming for a strong showing in a slate of Southern states on March 1. His anti-Rubio scheme: Present the Floridian as a centrist masquerading as a conservative on a range of issues, most notably immigration.

The Cruz-Rubio struggle will pitch quickly to Nevada, where Rubio and Cruz plan to campaign hard in the coming days ahead of Tuesdays caucuses.

1 of 28 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  On the ground at the South Carolina Republican primary View Photos Donald Trump prevailed over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner. Caption Donald Trump prevailed over Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner. Feb. 20, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks out to speak in Spartanburg, S.C., after winning the South Carolina GOP primary. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Here in South Carolina, where politics is known for being a bare-knuckle fight, the two senators exchanged insults and near-constant accusations.

Trumps victory became clear shortly after polls closed, meaning that much of the nights intrigue centered on the battle for second place. At Rubios watch party, supporters eagerly kept up with the results as they sipped beer and wine.

[In S.C., the GOP contest looks more and more like a three-man race]

At Cruzs party in a conference room at the state fairgrounds, fewer than two miles from where Rubios supporters gathered, backers sipped sweet tea and ate popcorn and cheddar cheese goldfish. No alcohol was served. Supporters wearing stickers that read Choose Cruz milled around, chatted and watched Fox news on two large screens in the front of the room, the audio feed cutting in and out with country music.

Rubio got a new lease on his campaign life in South Carolina after a humiliating fifth-place showing in New Hampshire. He adopted a strategy of opening himself up more to the media, collecting key endorsements from state officials and cautiously avoiding questions from voters in the closing days.

The Florida senator barnstormed the state during the final 48 hours of the race alongside Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a youthful and racially diverse coalition of politicians Haley likened to a Benetton commercial. Rubio mostly held rallies  not town halls where audience members are invited to ask questions.

He and his campaign accused Cruz and his team of not telling the truth on matters ranging from Cruzs talking points to a doctored photograph showing Rubio and President Obama shaking hands.

[Liar, liar, a charged word is now common in the GOP race]

Rubio also portrayed Cruz as weak on national security by virtue of his vote in support of a budget plan forwarded by libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Cruz countered by arguing that Rubio was trying to divert attention from his record, which the Texan has disparaged as insufficiently conservative. His campaign attacked Rubio for backing out of a conservative confab and argued that he supports amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Cruz tried to distinguish his view of the military from Rubios, arguing that Rubio would be too quick to jump into foreign adventures. Cruz attempted to link Rubio with the foreign policy of President Obama, citing the fact that Rubio voted to confirm John F. Kerry as secretary of state.

Cruz has spent his entire campaign assiduously courting evangelical Christians, and expected to do well among them here  at least 300 South Carolina pastors endorsed Cruz. But according to exit polls, Trump narrowly edged Cruz with evangelical Christians, a disappointing showing for a candidate who spent months coming to church services and meeting with pastors here.

The Cruz campaign attempted to replicate the ground game that propelled it to victory in Iowa earlier this month, relying on more than 15,000 volunteers who knocked on 100,000 doors in the state over the past three weeks and made 56,000 phone calls Friday, according to the campaign. A constellation of super PACs supporting the Texas Republican also deployed a robust door-knocking effort, fanning out across the Palmetto State.

Beyond Nevada, Cruz hopes to do well in the so-called SEC Primary a collection of Southern states that will vote on March 1.

Cruz has said the South could prove to be a firewall for his campaign, which has spent months pouring resources and time into the delegate-rich region. Cruz blitzed across the South twice last year, holding large, slickly-produced rallies that felt more like those in a general election.

Were going to have a big night on March 1, in an electoral map that favors us, said Roe, Cruzs campaign manager. And then after that were going to go and battle out in the winner-take-all states . . . and decide who the nominee is.

Roe insisted that the race is shifting toward a national one focused much less on rooting out individual voters and more on broad messaging to a wide swath of the electorate.

There were 79,000 people choosing between us and Trump in the last four days, Roe said. We were calling them. We know them. Now you dont do that on Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday becomes much more of a narrative-based campaign, much more of a national campaign.

Rubio does not have as obvious a batch of states where he is poised to perform as well, but he stands to gain the most of any candidate from Bushs exit from the campaign. Many in Bushs deep donor pool are expected to think seriously about supporting Rubio now.

Kasich has signaled that he plans to stick around, eyeing March contests in Midwestern states such as Michigan and his home state of Ohio. If he does, that would be a blow to Rubio.

Rubio strategists are trying to stay within shouting distance of Trump in the states leading up to March 15, when most states will begin to allocate their delegates on a winner-take-all basis. His aides believe a winnowed field will redirect more support to him than to either Trump or Cruz.

That shrinking started Saturday with Bushs exit. At Cruzs watch party, a cheer went up when Bush announced he was suspending his campaign. The same thing happened at Rubio headquarters.
Donald Trump prevailed over Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

Donald Trump prevailed over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

Donald Trump prevailed over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

After coursing through the first three intimate contests, the Republican presidential race is now accelerating to full throttle, becoming a truly national election that appears to favor celebrity front-runner Donald Trump against a bitterly divided field of opponents.

In a clear admission of Trumps dominant standing following decisive back-to-back primary victories, his top two rivals  Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio  are not even pretending they can best the billionaire mogul on March 1, or Super Tuesday, when 11 states hold primaries or caucuses.

Cruz hopes to win his home state of Texas, but otherwise he and Rubio, as well as John Kasich and Ben Carson, are charting strategies to accrue convention delegates by surgically targeting slivers of the states.

The Super Tuesday contests award delegates proportionally and cover wide swaths of the country, from Massachusetts to Virginia to Alabama to Colorado. Together with the Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio winner-take-all primaries on March 15, they could prove determinative in the nomination battle.

Cruz is eyeing Bible Belt states with disproportionately high numbers of white evangelical voters as well as caucus states where he thinks he can out-organize others. Rubio is hoping to run up his score with suburban and upwardly mobile, mainstream voters in metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis and Nashville.

Following the results of the South Carolina primary, Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Donald Trump appeared on Sunday morning talk shows where they continue to bash each other. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

There were signs of fresh momentum for Rubio on Sunday, as he addressed large crowds in Tennessee and Arkansas before touching down here in Las Vegas to campaign for Tuesdays Nevada GOP caucuses. With former Florida governor Jeb Bushs exit from the presidential race Saturday night, Rubio is looking to quickly absorb much of the former Florida governors network of major donors and establishment figures, such as Sen. Dean Heller (Nev.), who endorsed Rubio on Sunday.

I will bring this party together faster than anyone else, Rubio pledged at a crowded outdoor rally in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tenn., arguing that the shrinking field would play to his advantage.

[Trump wins South Carolina; Bush drops out of GOP race]

But the Cruz and Rubio playbooks are borne out of limitation and underscore how difficult it will be for all of the non-Trump candidates to navigate the wake of Trumps wins Saturday in South Carolina and 11 days earlier in New Hampshire.

Both freshman senators enter the next phase with doubts hovering over them: Is Cruzs base of evangelicals and self-described constitutional conservatives too narrow? Is Rubios demonstrated appeal across a range of demographics too shallow? And which states can either of them win?

Then there is Trump. Whether there is a ceiling to his support  and whether it would be too low for him to win a majority of Republican voters once only two candidates are left standing  remains a subject of intense debate.

That theory may not be tested as long as the GOP field remains fractured. Kasich, the Ohio governor, is vowing to soldier on into next month and sees the Michigan primary on March 8 as a possible win.

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), a Republican presidential candidate, speaks to supporters during a rally outside of Draft Picks Sports Bar Sunday in Pahrump, NV. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

By doing so, he effectively deprives Rubio of the opportunity to swiftly become the establishments consensus alternative to Trump.

Trump will win everything until its a two-person race  and hes going to win it by a lot, said Russ Schriefer, a veteran of past Republican presidential campaigns. Theres a real risk that we could wake up on March 2 and Trump would have won the most number of states and have received the most number of delegates.

That is exactly what Trump intends to do.

It gets so big, so fast, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said. Our strategy is to compete everywhere. Well take absolutely nothing for granted.

Boisterous crowds follow Trump everywhere, he added. We have a great luxury of having the person that everybody wants to see.

As he has been winning states, Trump has also been expanding his ring of advisers. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Sunday that he, and several other high-profile Republicans in New York and Washington, have started counseling Trump.

Weve been talking. Donald and me, Donald and a few other friends who know politics. He calls to check things out or Ill call him to say Donald, youre going too far or what you said was great or maybe change it a bit. Its nothing formal. Its kind of a running conversation, Giuliani said. There is candor and there is trust.

Trump confirmed the conversations with Giuliani.

The races rhythms are amplifying, which party operatives said favors a media sensation such as Trump, who can drive national headlines and will be able to hold splashy rallies in multiple states a day as he crisscrosses the country on his personal jet.

You cant pour coffee in a coffee shop anymore, GOP consultant Bruce Haynes said. Youre talking about 11 states, 30 to 40 media markets that require a significant amount of money to have any sort of presence. Walk and talk is over. Its fly and bye.

Having 11 contests on the same day will test the organizing abilities of the leading campaigns, including Trumps. Until now, his team has been able to focus on one state at a time, with Lewandowski decamping to the respective state for a week to orchestrate a late ground game. But that will not be so easy anymore.

[How GOP campaigns are strategizing for Super Tuesday delegate bonanza]

The Republican campaign moved Sunday to Nevada, though Tuesdays caucuses here are but a blip compared with Super Tuesday, when 595 delegates are up for grabs, awarded proportionally and in most cases by congressional district. To secure the nomination, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Kasich, for instance, is unlikely to win any March 1 state outright. But he hopes to come away with delegates by targeting more moderate voters in Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia with what his strategist, John Weaver, described as the Kasich brand of being uplifting and inclusive.

Kasich also plans a push in Tennessee, which Weaver said has a history of electing problem-solving, common-sense Republicans.

Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, has been organizing in the Deep South for months. But Armstrong Williams, one of Carsons closest friends and an informal adviser, said Sunday that Carson has a tough decision to make about whether to continue his campaign after a last-place finish in South Carolina.

The Cruz and Rubio campaigns and their allied super PACs do not expect to have enough money to replicate in the Super Tuesday states the saturation level of advertising and field organizing that propelled their candidacies in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

The pro-Rubio super PAC, Conservative Solutions PAC, announced a multi-state, multi-million dollar advertising effort beginning Tuesday, but officials refused to detail how much and in which TV markets.

Rubios campaign advisers similarly refused to discuss their Super Tuesday strategy because they did not want to reveal it to rival campaigns.

Both campaigns plan to deploy popular surrogates  people such as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for Rubio and Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson for Cruz  on the campaign trail.

[Carson confidant says struggling GOP candidate has a tough decision to make]

Kellyanne Conway, president of Keep the Promise I, one of the leading pro-Cruz super PACs, said her group plans to advertise in Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, with Alabama and Oklahoma also in the mix. The super PAC will air positive ads about Cruz, and its negative ads will focus more on Rubio than on Trump, Conway said. That includes new spots.

Weve got a series on Rubio that I would call chronic absenteeism  looking at how hes missed votes on Planned Parenthood funding, funding for the military, about how he got himself on a 9/11 committee and didnt attend, Conway said.

Cruz is prioritizing caucus states with arcane rules, such as Nevada  and, on March 1, Colorado and Minnesota  because he thinks his devoted network of hard-line activists and Christian conservatives will turn out in droves.

We have our supporters identified in March 1 states and need to communicate with them, Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said. Neighbor-to-neighbor is our governing philosophy. So as it goes national, that still remains our philosophy.

Arkansas has emerged as a key battleground. Rubio campaigned Sunday in Little Rock, and Cruz is targeting the state as well. Sarah Huckabee, who managed the presidential campaign of her father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, poured cold water on the suggestion that Cruz has the state wired.

I live in Arkansas and I havent seen this mass grass-roots effort for him, said Sarah Huckabee, who is neutral in the GOP race. Im not saying hes not more organized than others  he is  but what he has on the ground here is nothing like he had in Iowa.

Cruz wants to rally his supporters in his home state of Texas, where two public polls in January showed him leading Trump. If he tops 50 percent, he would get all 155 delegates.

But Trump is not ceding the state. Lewandowski said Trump plans to play in traditionally Democratic congressional districts in and around San Antonio and Houston.

I think were going to win Texas, Lewandowski said. Im going to try.

Costa reported from Columbia, S.C. Sean Sullivan in Franklin, Tenn., contributed to this report.
Jeb Bush, who sought to join his father and brother in winning the White House, suspended his campaign for the presidency Saturday night after a long year-long slide in the polls and a disappointing showing in the South Carolina primary.

Im proud of the campaign we won to unify our country, and to advocate conservative solutions. . . . But the people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, Bush said to a hotel ballroom full of staffers, donors and longtime friends, some of whom burst into tears. Tonight I am suspending my campaign.

No! someone shouted.

Yeah, he said before the room burst into applause.

I congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island.

Bush pointedly did not name any of his Republican rivals during his short speech but said, In this campaign, I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds.

Bushs decision followed a devastating loss in the Palmetto State, a state that handed both his father and brother crucial victories but that has shifted toward a much more strident form of Republicanism in the years since. Bush was also under intensifying pressure from party leaders to clear the field so they could coalesce around a challenger to Donald Trump.

The former Florida governors decision potentially frees tens of millions of dollars in financial support to other Republican presidential contenders. The most immediate beneficiary is expected to be Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has ties to several of Bushs top bundlers, many of whom have said that the senator is their second choice.

Bushs departure also removes the most high-profile contender from the GOPs establishment wing. While Bush has never lived or worked in Washington or held federal office, he was cast as a favorite of the party elite given his family lineage and close ties to many of the partys most generous backers and senior leaders.

Bushs decision ends a campaign that began with great confidence and anticipation. After almost a year of private deliberation with close aides, he first hinted at a presidential campaign shortly after Thanksgiving in 2014 and quickly built a team that included several aides from his two terms as Florida governor and other seasoned advisers.

The new Bush team trumpeted a shock and awe strategy that methodically amassed an unprecedented amount of money for his campaign and an allied super PAC. Bushs super PAC, Right to Rise USA, raised $118 million in 2015 to spend mostly on advertising attacking other GOP candidates. Right to Rise had spent at least $95.7 million backing him through Friday.

The advertising strategy forced former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to accelerate his decision-making about another candidacy this year. But it did not deter potential rivals  most notably Rubio, a one-time Bush protege who proved to be a more capable campaigner than his mentor.

1 of 19 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Candidates who have dropped out of the 2016 race so far, and why View Photos With the primary season in full swing, several have dropped out in recent days. Caption With the primary season in full swing, several have dropped out in recent days. John Kasich Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who ran as a sunny, center-right prince of light and hope but won only his home-state primary, bowed out of the presidential race on Wednesday with a reflective speech in Columbus. Read the story Kyle Grillot/For the Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Despite his commanding financial edge and early lead in polls, Bush was a technocrat in a world of noise. He obsessed over details of his exhaustive policy plans, but abhorred political stagecraft. He relished giving minutes-long answers to simple questions during intimate town hall meetings with voters but struggled to give succinct answers in televised debates watched by millions.

Bush began slipping in public opinion polls last spring. He slipped further after struggling over four days in May to answer questions about George W. Bushs decision to launch the Iraq war, an ordeal that exposed him as unable and unwilling to answer a broader question on the minds of many voters: Why should Americans elect another president named Bush?

During a May 11 interview on the Fox News Channel, Jeb Bush said that, like his brother, he would have authorized military action against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein even though government intelligence used at the time was later deemed deeply flawed. Opponents in both parties quickly pounced, saying they would not have authorized the war. Some also suggested that Jeb Bush did not fully appreciate lingering, widespread opposition to the war.

The interview prompted voters to press Bush to explain his answer. First, he said he had misunderstood the question. Then he denounced the publics focus on hypothetical questions. During an especially hostile exchange caught on camera after a rally in Reno, Nev., Bush sparred with a college student over whether George W. Bush or President Obama was responsible for the rise of the Islamic State terror group. A day later, amid intense growing scrutiny, Bush conceded that knowing what we know now, he would not have authorized war in Iraq.

Questions about his family lingered throughout the campaign, but Bush insisted several times that a presidential campaign cant be about the past; it cant be about my mom and dad, or my brother, who I love. It has to be about the ideas I believe in to move our country forward.

Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush friend, said last summer that Bushs lead had shrunk because media attention was too focused on Bushs family history and not on his record as Florida governor. Its about Bush, not Jeb, he said.

Once people learned more about his time as governor, Cardenas predicted, then it will become more about Jeb, not Bush.

In the end, though, Bush brought his family close to him. Former president George W. Bush joined his younger brother at a rally for him outside Charleston this past week, and his mother joined him on the trail for a final slog through South Carolina.

Bush also struggled to deal with Trump, who used television interviews, Twitter and campaign rallies to mock Bush in deeply personal terms. In a particularly stinging critique that stuck, Trump accused Bush  who lost 40 pounds before launching his bid and maintaining an aggressive campaign schedule  of being a low-energy candidate lacking the stamina and demeanor needed to defeat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Bush initially ignored Trumps attacks, making him seem unaware of the quickly changing dynamics of the Republican Party. His muted response to Trump raised questions about whether a candidate who last ran for political office in 2002 was capable of operating in the modern political environment.

The mockery and personal nature of the attacks had roots in the often-tense relationship between Trump and the Bushes that dated to the late 1980s, when George H.W. Bush briefly considered picking the businessman as his 1988 vice-presidential running mate.

Several times, Jeb Bush complained about the increasingly fast-paced, media-driven, hostile nature of American politics. After struggling through the first few televised debates, Bush admitted that he needed to embrace a new strategy contradictory to his patrician upbringing.

Ive had 62 years of life thats been jammed into my DNA that when somebody asks you a question, youre supposed to answer it, he told reporters after a campaign stop in Atlantic, Iowa, in November. He added that Im learning the new art of acknowledging the question, being respectful of the questioner, of course, and then answering whats on my mind.

Asked whether that was a change from his 1998 and 2002 campaigns for Florida governor, Bush said: Thats a change from 1953, when I was a baby.

Over the course of his campaign, Bush rejected the tactics of tea-party-backed lawmakers who had supported a shutdown of the federal government and opposed then-House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other leaders. He had been a strong supporter of educational reform adopted nationally, known as Common Core, and wrote a 300-page book outlining his views on comprehensive immigration reform  views that put him at odds with many Republicans.

Before launching the exploratory phase of his campaign, Bush said in December 2014 that the party nominee should be willing to lose the primary to win the general without violating your principles.

He vowed to campaign joyfully, saying that Republicans could only retake the White House if they reached out to voters who did not typically support conservatives. In the closing weeks of his campaign, he cast himself as a steady hand ready to be commander in chief.

If you want a politician to just bob and weave, then Im not your guy, he told supporters Friday night in Central.

You cant talk trash when youre running for president. . . . You cant focus-group things. You cant be a poll-driven politician who runs away when things get tough, he added in Spartanburg on Friday.

Bush knew this, he said, because Ive had a front-row seat watching history made by his father, George H.W. Bush, and his brother, George W. Bush.

Ultimately, Jeb Bushs quest to make presidential history failed.

As he departed the ballroom, Bush had tears in his eyes. On the rope line, he apologized to staffers and supporters but told one friend that they will now be able to have a beer together.

Sorry, brother, he told another.

Staffers and supporters stood stunned in the ballroom as he made the announcement, with only a handful aware of what he was about to say.

This is a cycle that is bigger than all of us, said Bushs senior adviser, Sally Bradshaw, as she hugged her staff and Bushs national finance chairman, Woody Johnson.

Bush sat watching returns with his wife, Columba, in a hotel suite with staff in an adjoining room, according to a senior adviser. His brothers Marvin and Neil were in the hotel also, but it was not immediately clear whether he phoned George H.W. Bush and brother George W. Bush.

As he departed, Bush was asked by a reporter when he knew it was over. This afternoon, this evening, he said before turning to leave.

Several aides said that early exit-poll returns immediately showed that he was trailing by an insurmountable margin.

Before he announced the end of his campaign, several close friends from the Miami area sent him words of support, knowing that the end might be near.

I pray for you to stay strong as youve been and you know how to be, wrote his friend, Jorge Arrizurieta, who was still urging him to stay in the race.
Bernie Sanders, his momentum slowed by a loss to Hillary Clinton in Nevada, faces two tests in the weeks ahead: parceling out his formidable resources to the states that offer his best targets, and boosting turnout in what has been a mediocre year for it.

His path to the Democratic nomination, already steep, has narrowed considerably now that Clinton has re-established herself as the all-but-prohibitive front-runner. To win the nomination, Sanders acknowledged Sunday that he will have to begin winning again, as he did when he trounced Clinton in New Hampshire.

Were studying that issue very closely, obviously, as to where we allocate our resources and allocate my time, Sanders said.

Although Sanders campaigned in South Carolina on Sunday, his prospects there are dim  as evidenced by the fact that he neglected to mention the Palmetto States contest as he ticked off a handful of upcoming states where he can win.

Nonetheless, the race will probably continue for a long time, as it did in 2008  with one factor reversed. This time, the African American vote is expected to be a big advantage for Clinton.

Clinton is a heavy favorite in South Carolina, the state where her defeat by Barack Obama marked a turning point in the Democratic primary eight years ago. Her support among African Americans, who make up more than half of the Democratic electorate there, gives her what appears in polls to be an insurmountable advantage.

Then the campaign moves into a trove of diverse, delegate-rich Southern states that are also considered favorable terrain for Clinton.

Sanders has the ability to remain in the race for the distance, thanks to his fundraising abilities  and to the Democrats system of allocating delegates proportionally rather than in a winner-take-all fashion.

In Nevada, for instance, Sanders lost to the former secretary of state by more than five percentage points but still came away with almost as many delegates as she did, taking 15 to her 19.

We are in this race to the convention, Sanders said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press. I think weve got some states coming down the pike that were going to do very, very well in. I think, you know, if you look at national polling, our support is growing.

[Contests in South Carolina, Nevada to test the appeal of the outsiders]

He listed five Super Tuesday states in which he said he has a good shot March 1: Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, gives a victory speech after winning the Democratic Nevada Caucus on Saturday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Colorado and Minnesota both choose their delegates in caucuses. The caucus system, which generally brings out only the most motivated activists, presumably makes them friendlier to a candidate such as Sanders, who has inspired a movement of liberal Democrats. But caucuses require a bigger investment of time, making it harder to draw out less committed voters, which could give Sanders a disadvantage. One line of thinking within the campaign, for instance, is that he would have won Nevada had it been a primary instead of a caucus.

In 2008, Obama caught Clintons presidential campaign off balance by running up its delegate totals in caucus states  a mistake that Clintons team has vowed it will not repeat. She has won the first two caucus states, Iowa and Nevada. And her Colorado and Minnesota operations have been up and running since last fall.

Sanders strategist Tad Devine, however, noted that his candidate received more votes than any of either party in the history of the New Hampshire primary  which he said proved that the senator could do well in an electoral setting like that state, where independents are allowed to cast ballots in the Democratic primary.

New England is friendly turf for Sanders, given its liberal leanings.

But ruby-red Oklahoma might seem a counterintuitive choice for Sanders. His campaign often notes that the state has become so heavily Republican that anyone who remains a Democrat is probably pretty liberal.

Devine said that Sanders will probably mount a strong primary challenge to Clinton in Kansas and Nebraska, both of them likely to go into the Republican column in November.

More recently, Sanders and his strategists have begun talking up their chances in Michigan, which holds its primary March 8. Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns last week began airing their first television ads.

We can have a big showdown in Michigan, Devine said. If we can beat her in Michigan, I think we can go into March 15 with a lot of momentum. On that date, five states vote.

One area where Sanders acknowledged he must do better is in voter turnout. The constituencies where he does best  especially young people  are notoriously difficult to draw to the polls.

And in the caucuses so far, overall numbers of Democratic voters showing up have been nowhere near the levels they were in 2008, the last time there was a contested nomination.

[How Sanders caught fire in Iowa and turned the Clinton coronation into a real race]

In Nevada, about 80,000 turned out for the caucuses, compared with nearly 118,000 in 2008, state Democratic Party officials estimated.

What Ive said over and over again, we will do well when young people, when working-class people come out, Sanders said in his NBC interview. We do not do well when the voter turnout is not large. We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout.

Another built-in advantage for Clinton as the establishment favorite are superdelegates  people who are given votes at the convention by virtue of their elected offices or positions in the party. There are more than 700 of them, and they account for nearly one-third of the number it takes to get the nomination.

The Clinton campaign has declined to say how many superdelegates it counts in its column. But the Associated Press reported last week that Clinton leads Sanders in superdelegates, 449 to 19.

Were sort of up against everybody, Devine acknowledged, but he added that it is a problem that can be cured only by beating Clinton in the primaries.

Until we prove hes the strongest candidate, thats not an argument were going to win, Devine said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that New Hampshire voter turnout was not down this year. In fact, Democratic turnout was lower than in 2008, the last election in which there was a contested primary.
Donald Trump cruised to a double-digit win over the Republican field on Saturday in South Carolina. It was his second straight easy win  coming 11 days after he swept the New Hampshire primary by nearly 20 points.

[Trump and Clinton cement their claims to front-runner status]

Those back-to-back victories coupled with Trumps second-place finish in Iowas caucuses  in which he took the second-most votes of any Republican candidate ever  affirm a simple yet still not fully grasped fact: Trump is the heavy favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee this fall.

Lets start with the delegate math through the first three votes. Trump won all 50 of South Carolinas delegates Saturday, bringing his total delegate count to 67. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is in second place with 11 delegates. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has 10. Of the 103 delegates allocated in the race to date, Trump has won 65 percent.

Now, look forward. On Tuesday, Nevada will hold its Republican caucuses. According to a CNN-ORC poll released Wednesday, Trump leads in the Silver State by 26 points  an edge likely to hold steady or even grow in the wake of his convincing South Carolina win.

Donald Trump won the Feb. 20 South Carolina GOP primary. Here's how. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Then comes the March 1 SEC primary, when Republican voters in 12 states, including seven Southern states, cast their ballots. And polling puts Trump first in most of them. If he sweeps these states, or comes close, he will have a massive delegate lead that even winner-take-all delegate-allocation states such as Ohio and Florida, both of which vote March 15, wont be able to erase.

Substitute any other Republican in the race into Trumps current position. There is a 100 percent chance that that person would be touted as the prohibitive favorite or the odds-on nominee. Imagine Rubio  with a third-place finish in Iowa, fifth-place finish in New Hampshire and second-place finish in South Carolina  with the same poll numbers as Trump in Nevada and beyond. The coronation would be on.

[Trump solidifies front-runner status, but who is his most dangerous rival?]

Why isnt Trump getting the credit and coverage he deserves? Because there is still a belief within the party establishment and the ranks of the media that he will somehow implode or that voters will wise up or get real  or something. The problem with that theory is that Trump has done lots and lots of things that (a) can be described as gaffes and (b) would have ended or severely compromised other campaigns. Yet none of it has touched him.

In fact, his willingness to say anything, no matter the underlying facts, seems to affirm to his supporters just how independent of the political system he really is.

One example: Trump spent the week before the South Carolina primary savaging George W. Bush and insisting that the 43rd president didnt keep the country safe because the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened on his watch. Not only is that sort of rhetoric verboten within the Republican Party, but it was widely considered especially noxious in a state where the Bush family remains very popular. Yet, of the 1 in 5 Republican voters in South Carolina who were either veterans or had a military veteran in their house, Trump crushed the competition.

Ask yourself: What could Trump possibly do or say that would somehow be seen as a large enough mistake to cost him large amounts of support?

Following the results of the South Carolina primary, Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Donald Trump appeared on Sunday morning talk shows where they continue to bash each other. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

Given the steadiness of his numbers, the idea that Trump will either derail himself or be derailed seems like the most wishful of thinking by establishment Republicans. Ditto the idea, which I hear nearly every day in Washington, that the establishment will figure out a way to stop Trump. Trust me: If the establishment could have stopped Trump, it would have done so a long time ago.

Even after former Florida governor Jeb Bush bowed out of the race after his disappointing South Carolina finish, the establishment vote remains split between Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. And even if Kasich gets out sometime soon  my guess is he wont  I remain unconvinced that the establishment vote, even when unified, is enough to beat Trump.

Wishful thinking is not the same thing as plausible strategy. And at this point, it appears that wishful thinking is what has been keeping Trump from getting the coverage he clearly deserves as the undisputed front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Front-runners can, and do, lose on occasion. Its possible that Trump  perhaps when or if the race narrows to a one-on-one contest with Rubio  loses.

But it is an undeniable fact that Trump has by far the easiest path to the Republican nomination from here on out  and he is likely to end March with a significant delegate edge over Cruz and Rubio.

Waiting and hoping for him to collapse is, to borrow a Trumpism, a losers game.
South Carolinas Republican primary often has had a truly clarifying effect on the partys presidential nomination race. Saturdays results appeared to fall short of fulfilling that role.

At a minimum, the outcome here solidified New York businessman Donald Trump as the front-runner for the nomination, with his two leading rivals now Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who were in a dogfight for second place.

In other important ways, however, the voters here kicked the contest on to the next round of states without resolving some of the most critical  and interrelated  questions that remain about the direction of the GOP race.

At the top of the list of questions is the degree to which Trump has a ceiling on his support that could eventually deny him the nomination, despite the fact that he has finished second, first and first in the first three contests of 2016. Trumps winning percentage was the lowest or second lowest recorded here over the past 10 presidential primaries.

Another is the issue of whether Cruz, who needed South Carolina to give him a substantial boost, can use his finish here as a springboard to victories in the southern states on March 1 that long have been the foundation of his victory plan. Related is whether he can only score well in states where the electorate includes an overwhelming percentage of evangelicals.

Donald Trump won the Feb. 20 South Carolina GOP primary. Here's how. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Finally, there is the biggest question, which is whether Rubio can isolate and then defeat Trump in an eventual one-on-one showdown for the nomination. Rubios finish here provided a lift to his candidacy after his disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire, but as long as the race remains a three-person contest, Rubios path is made more difficult.

Trumps victory continues the story of his remarkable candidacy, which has shaken up the Republican Party on the strength of his anti-immigration, anti-trade, anti-establishment message. Only once since 1980 has the winner of the Republican primary here not gone on to win the nomination. The exception was four years ago, when former House speaker Newt Gingrich carried the state.

Trumps victory came after a tumultuous week in which he first accused former president George W. Bush of lying about the existence of weapons of mass destruction as the pretext for invading Iraq and later landed in a verbal spat with Pope Francis, who had labeled Trumps views on immigration un-Christian.

How much that hurt him wasnt entirely clear from the exit polls. One imperfect measure is where late-deciding voters ended up. Trump had a margin of nearly 2 to 1 among the 60 percent of voters who said that they had made up their mind earlier than in the last few days of the primary. Among the other 40 percent, however, he ran third behind his two leading rivals.

As the campaign moves soon from a series of isolated contests in single states to primary days with multiple contests across a much wider terrain, Trump holds some key advantages.

The principal one is that the race will become ever more nationalized, favoring someone who has shown mastery for dominating media coverage at the expense of his rivals.

A second is that his coalition appears similar to that of past winners of the nomination, as he is doing better than the others among Republicans who call themselves somewhat conservative or moderate, rather than those who say they are very conservative.

A third is that against a divided opposition, Trump can continue to win primaries and caucuses with less than half the vote. That could become significantly more valuable starting on March 15, when states award delegates on some version of a winner-take-all basis.

Were Trump a traditional candidate, he would be seen as an even stronger front-runner. But because he continues to go against many of the tenets of modern conservatism, he remains suspect to many in the party.

Exit polls showed some potential cracks in Trumps facade. He scored overwhelmingly among voters looking for someone who tells it like it is and led the field among those who are looking for a candidate to bring change to Washington. But among those in South Carolina who said that they wanted a candidate who shares their values, just fewer than 1 in 10 backed Trump. And for those who put electability at the top of their list of priorities, Rubio was the clear winner, with Trump and Cruz well behind.

The faster the race narrows to two candidates, the greater the hope among the anti-Trump Republicans that they can stop him. But whether Cruz or Rubio could emerge to play that role was up in the air after Saturdays results.

Cruzs advisers long have argued that he is best positioned to be the alternative, and he has attempted to position himself as the most pure conservative in the field. South Carolinas electorate, wherein 8 in 10 voters called themselves conservative and more than 7 in 10 identified as evangelical Christians, seemed ideally suited to his candidacy.

Instead, he not only fell short of victory, he was in danger of ending up in third behind Rubio. Remarkably, the candidate who has done more to position himself as the candidate for evangelical Christians was narrowly losing the evangelical vote. A few weeks ago in Iowa, he beat Trump and Rubio among evangelicals, each by double digits.

Trumps appeal to working-class voters spilled into the competition for the vote of evangelicals. Among evangelicals without college degrees, Trump led Cruz in South Carolina by low double digits and led Rubio by better than 2 to 1. Among those with college degrees, the three candidates were closely bunched, with Rubio leading through much of the evening.

Cruz, like Trump, taps some of the same anger with the establishment among grass-roots Republicans. He would be helped if Ben Carson pulled out of the race, as they have potential overlap in their support base. Absent that, he must find a way to invigorate the coalition he envisioned when he set out his strategy to overtake Trump.

His advisers think that, if he can, the race will eventually winnow to Trump vs. Cruz. For Cruz, March 1 has been transformed from a day when he stamps himself as front-runner to a day he must use to make himself the principal alternative to the reality TV star.

Rubios strategy remains as it has been for some time  survival through early contests and supremacy late in the primary-caucus season. He had some major advantages in South Carolina, with endorsements from the rising generation of Republicans here in Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy.

Rubio also showed that his faltering performance in the New Hampshire debate was not a fatal misstep. He moved up in the final week of campaigning to take on Cruz for second.

The best news for Rubio is that former Florida governor Jeb Bushs disappointing finish brought a swift conclusion to a campaign that was knocked off stride by Trumps entry into the race and that never again found its footing. It was an ironic end that his candidacy foundered in a state that solidified his fathers front-running candidacy in 1988 and helped save his brothers candidacy in 2000.

Rubio needs voters in the establishment wing to coalesce as quickly as possible around his candidacy, and Bushs absence could accelerate that process. But for now, that is complicated by the persistence of Ohio Gov. John Kasich as an active candidate.

Having played down the importance of South Carolina to his campaign, Kasich will seek to survive for two more weeks, but he faces an extremely challenging road ahead. He carries a unique message in the GOP race, that of a pragmatic conservative who favors working with Democrats at a time when many Republicans favor confrontation.

Kasich has staked his future on the state of Michigan, whose primary does not take place until March 8. To survive until then, however, he will have to weather 16 earlier contests, with more than 750 delegates at stake. The more he finishes behind the three leaders across a swath of states before Michigan, the more difficult that will become.

Trump proved again that he is the dominant force in the GOP race, for now. But the outcome here foreshadows a ferocious struggle ahead, for the candidates and the party they seek to lead.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks out to speak in Spartanburg, S.C., after winning the South Carolina GOP primary.

Feb. 20, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks out to speak in Spartanburg, S.C., after winning the South Carolina GOP primary. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

Donald Trump prevailed over Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

Donald Trump prevailed over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

Donald Trump prevailed over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in South Carolina, sustaining his position as the Republican front-runner.

Donald Trump commandingly won the South Carolina primary on Saturday night, solidifying his position as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination while Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida narrowly edged Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for second, bolstering both candidates status as the two leading alternatives.

The voters also delivered a devastating verdict to former Florida governor Jeb Bush, scion of a political dynasty who announced he was suspending his campaign after dismal results here. Bush came in a distant fourth  not even eclipsing 10 percent  after he and his family made an impassioned last stand in South Carolina and his allied super PAC spent millions of dollars on advertising.

The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision, Bush told a Columbia ballroom of teary-eyed and stunned supporters.

[South Carolina primary election results]

Meanwhile, in Nevada, Hillary Clinton held off a powerful challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders in the states Democratic caucus vote, securing a narrow victory that helps the former secretary of state regain momentum after a crushing defeat in New Hampshire.

Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other, Clinton told supporters gathered at a Las Vegas hotel ballroom. Clinton congratulated Sanders on a close election.

[Clinton defeats Sanders in Nevada]

Bunched together about 10 points behind Trump in the South Carolina primary were Cruz and Rubio, both Cuban American first-term senators jockeying to emerge as the top rival to the billionaire mogul.

Cruz, a Texas maverick who has pitched his faith-infused candidacy as the most ideologically pure conservative, lost evangelical voters to Trump and failed overall to finish even a decisive second, revealing a potential vulnerability as the contest hurtles toward big March primaries across the South.

Rubio rebounded from his New Hampshire stumble to unite South Carolinas new-guard Republican leaders and rally mainstream voters. He moved immediately Saturday night to fuse the partys establishment forces behind his candidacy. This has become a three-person race, Rubio said, and we will win the nomination.

But the gulf in vote share between Rubio and Trump highlighted the possible limits of the senators uplifting message about generational change amid profound GOP unrest.

Trump overcame a tumultuous week in which he tangled with Pope Francis by tapping into the frustrations and economic anxieties of voters here with his red-hot rhetoric about combating terrorism and ending illegal immigration.

In his victory speech, Trump reveled in electoral validation for what he described as an incredible movement with incredible people.

When you win, its beautiful, and we are going to start winning for our country because our country doesnt win anymore, Trump said, vowing to continue his victories from coast to coast. He congratulated Rubio and Cruz for a really good job but did not address Bushs departure from the race.

Cruz asserted in his remarks to supporters Saturday night that his candidacy has put the Washington cartel in full terror. He said his was the only campaign that can defeat Trump.

If you are a conservative, this is where you belong because only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race, Cruz said.

The voters preferences on character traits brought the races emerging fault lines into sharp relief. Cruz won among voters who said their most important quality was shared values; Rubio won among those who prioritized electability; Trump won among those who most valued change or a candidate who tells it like it is, according to preliminary network exit poll data.

Trumps victory signaled a striking shift for the Republican Party. In a heavily military state, Trump disavowed the partys interventionist posture by condemning the 2003 Iraq invasion and accusing former president George W. Bush of lying about weapons of mass destruction there.

[For Cruz and Rubio, the moment has arrived: A three-man race with Trump]

Trumps South Carolina win, coupled with his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, set up the celebrity businessman as the favorite heading into Tuesdays Nevada caucuses and the 11 states holding Super Tuesday primaries or caucuses on March 1.

Since 1980, every Republican who has won both the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries has gone on to secure the nomination.

Still, Saturdays results indicate that the once-chaotic race could soon be reordered as a three-way contest, representing a fresh threat to Trumps dominance in the polls with pluralities but not outright majorities.

In his concession speech, Bush hinted at the fighting still to come.

I congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island on their success for a race that has been hard fought, just as the contest for the presidency should be, Bush said.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich did not replicate the magic of his second-place showing in New Hampshire and finished an anemic fifth in South Carolina. He vowed to soldier on with an optimistic message into the New England and Midwestern states coming up on the calendar.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose early momentum has been sapped, still nurtured enough of a grass-roots following here to round out the field in mid-single digits. He pledged to continue his campaign.

[Trump to supporters: Lets put this thing away]

South Carolinas electorate is representative of the Republican base, which has made the state a traditional harbinger of determining the eventual nominee. The states Republican voters are socially conservative, but there are deep pockets of business-friendly, establishment voters, especially in the fast-growing coastal areas.

Republicans here also have a record of rewarding pugnacity; Newt Gingrich carried South Carolina over Mitt Romney in 2012 after two electric, brawling debate performances.

Interest in the Republican primary was high and a record 735,000 people voted, roughly matching the record turnout rate set in 2000.

Roughly 8 in 10 voters considered themselves conservative, up from 68 percent who said the same in the GOP primary four years ago, and they gave substantial support to both Trump and Cruz, according to preliminary network exit poll results. Among those who said they were very conservative, Cruz lead Trump.

More than 7 in 10 voters considered themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, while roughly three-quarters of the primary electorate said they wanted a candidate who shares their religious beliefs, a significant increase from 2012, the data show.

In the Iowa caucuses, Cruzs victory was fueled by a double-

digit edge among evangelicals over Trump, but in South Carolina the two candidates had roughly the same share, according to the exit polls.

Asked which qualities were important, 37 percent of voters said they were seeking a candidate who shares their values, while

31 percent said they were looking for someone to bring change, according to the poll data.

The vast majority of Republican primary voters said they were at least dissatisfied with the federal government, the data show, and Trump won among those who said they were angry.

As in the earlier contests, Trump performed better here with men than with women. In an apparent effort to soften his image, he yielded the lectern during his victory speech to his wife, Melania, and then his elder daughter, Ivanka, who both gave glowing testimonials.

[Nearly $100 million in super PAC money couldnt save Jeb Bush]

For Bush, in contrast, South Carolina represented a swan song. Following a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire, which gave him hope of a comeback, Bush failed to generate widespread enthusiasm here in spite of efforts to revive Bush family nostalgia with high-profile visits by his former-president brother, as well as his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. While the former presidents rally drew an enthusiastic crowd, Jeb Bushs other events were far more muted.

Bushs uneasy presentations at town halls in the final days of the primary race reflected the anxiety within his orbit about the future of his candidacy.

A crippling moment came Wednesday when South Carolinas popular governor, Nikki Haley, endorsed Bushs one-time Florida protege, Rubio. She then barnstormed the state with Rubio as well as Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy for three days.

Sounding a triumphant note in his Saturday night speech to supporters, Rubio said: Ronald Reagan made us believe that it was morning in America again  and it was. Now, the children of the Reagan Revolution are ready to assume the mantle of leadership.

Scott Clement in Washington and Abby Phillip, John Wagner and Anne Gearan in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
 Afghan forces have pulled out of bases in Musa Qala, a strategic district of the southern province of Helmand, after months of heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents, officials said Saturday.

Helmand, a traditional heartland of the Taliban and one of the worlds biggest centers of opium production, has been threatened for months. The United States recently sent hundreds of soldiers to the province to bolster its defense. The Americans are there to assist and train Afghan forces but do not fight.

The commander of the Afghan armys 215th corps, Mohammad Moeen Faqir, said troops had been ordered to pull back from Roshan Tower, their main base in Musa Qala, as well as other checkpoints to reinforce Gereshk, straddling the main highway, which links Kabul with the south and west.

Their presence in the area did not mean anything, he said. We will use them in battle with enemies in other parts of Helmand province.

Fierce fighting has raged in Musa Qala and other parts of Helmand for months. The Taliban overran the district in August last year before they were driven back by Afghan forces backed by U.S. airstrikes.

British and U.S. troops fought hard to control Musa Qala between 2006 and 2008, but its loss could bring further losses elsewhere, including Sangin where government forces have been hanging on.

Now that the government has withdrawn its forces from this district, we will see Kajaki, Gereshk and Sangin collapsing very soon, said deputy provincial council member Abdul Majid Akhundzada.

The Taliban said in a statement it had captured armored personnel carriers, bulldozers and other equipment abandoned in Roshan Tower and nine other checkpoints.

The withdrawal prompted speculation among local officials that the government had reached an arrangement with the Taliban but Abdul Jabar Qahraman, presidential envoy for security affairs in Helmand, denied any such pact.

There wasnt any deal, he said. We learned that there was no need to continue the fight in that area.

No comment was immediately available from the Afghan Defense Ministry.

A spokesman for NATOs Resolute Support mission in Kabul said its aim remained to train, advise and assist, and referred questions on Afghan troop movements to the Defense Ministry.

U.S. officials estimate the Taliban dominates or threatens almost a third of the country and has control over at least four districts.
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A victim of the bombing in Sayyida Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, arrives at a hospital. (SANA/via AP)

The Islamic State asserted responsibility for bombings on Sunday that killed dozens of people in two Syrian government strongholds, casting a shadow over intensified diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire to the civil war.

At least three explosions struck a suburb south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, leaving at least 50 people dead near the Sayyida Zeinab shrine that is revered by Shiite Muslims, according to Syrian state television. The area is a high-profile target for extremist Sunni groups such as the Islamic State, which sees Shiites as apostates.

A bombing earlier in the day also targeted the city of Homs, killing at least 34 people, according to the areas governor, Talal al-Barazi. State-run media cited him as saying that two vehicles packed with explosives detonated inside the city, which has been struck by a recent string of militant attacks. A Russian-backed military offensive that began in September has helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces solidify full control over the city.

[Kerry announces provisional agreement for truce in Syria]

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, put the death toll near Damascus at more than 62 and as high 46 in Homs.

Media affiliated with the Islamic State said the group carried out both attacks. Last month, the group claimed responsibility for another bombing near Sayyida Zeinab that killed as many as 71 people.

Images posted on social media purported to show the aftermath of the two attacks, including charred vehicles and columns of smoke rising from scorched rubble.

The Islamic State appears to be shifting its tactics and targeting areas controlled by Assads government, raising speculation that it is responding to the loss of ground in both Syria and Iraq to U.S.-backed Arab and Kurdish opponents.

The group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed more than 50 Kurdish fighters in eastern Syria on Sunday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Those fighters were linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, a Turkey-based separatist group that has helped fellow Kurds exploit unrest to carve out an autonomous enclave in northern and eastern Syria.

[Turkeys increasingly desperate predicament poses real dangers]

The Islamic State has tried to capitalize on Syrias unrest by focusing on seizing territory from other non-state militants, including fellow Islamist extremists and anti-Assad fighters. But the recent escalation of attacks against Assads forces, some analysts say, could be seen as a way for the group to boost recruitment of militants who are Syrian nationals. Scores of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State have died in battle, with the group struggling to replenish their numbers, analysts say.

Syrians tend to be more interested in battling government forces than helping the Islamic State build its caliphate, which spans parts of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

[Trapped Syrian refugees are pawns in a wider war]

The bombings came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced apparent progress in diplomatic efforts to reach a truce to fighting that has dramatically intensified because of Russias five months of military intervention in the conflict.

Kerry, speaking from the Jordanian capital, Amman, announced that a provisional agreement to impose a reduction in hostilities had been reached with his Russian counterparts. Efforts to broker such a cease-fire have faltered since a tentative agreement to impose a truce was reached by world powers in Munich on Feb. 12.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Sunday that he and his Russian counterpart had reached a provisional agreement in principle for a temporary truce in the Syrian civil war and that it could start within days.

Kerry said he spoke Sunday morning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the second day in a row, adding that final details are to be ironed out in a phone call between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Among the unsettled issues are how a cease-fire would be enforced and how breaches would be resolved.

Kerry said he believes that a cessation of hostilities could begin in the coming days.

[Kerry arrives in Jordan to discuss Syrian civil war, battle with ISIS]

While he did not elaborate on the parameters of a cease-fire, the secretary said it will be up to Russia to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran to agree to the conditions and up to the United States to enlist the acquiescence of the major opposition groups and other members of a multinational group pushing peace talks. After that, he said, a temporary cease-fire could be implemented.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said hed be open to a cease-fire under certain conditions. (AP)

We are giving life to what was promised in Munich, Kerry told reporters in a short news conference in the Jordanian capital, referring to a Feb. 12 agreement for a cessation of hostilities within a week, a deadline that came and went Friday. We are filling out the details.

It is not clear whether either the Syrian government or the opposition will join a cease-fire. Both have expressed a willingness to take part, but they have set preconditions that may prove difficult to meet.

The opposition groups said this weekend that they would agree to a temporary truce if Russia, Iran and various militias stop attacking them. They also have demanded a halt to attacks on Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front, which the United Nations and the United States consider a terrorist group that should be excluded from any cease-fire.

Assad said in an interview published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that he is also open to a cease-fire as long as the terrorist opposition groups fighting to end his rule do not use a lull in fighting to gain advantage.

Kerry acknowledged that the warring sides face a difficult decision on whether to take part in a truce.

We are clear: If you dont choose to be part of it, then you are choosing to perhaps make yourself a target, he said. Theres a stark choice for everybody here.

It is also unclear whether Russia is prepared to stop air assaults that have supported Syrian government advances on rebel strongholds. The State Department has criticized the attacks as indiscriminate and the cause of many civilian casualties. Kerry said he had again urged Lavrov to have Russia halt its military campaign against opposition positions.

Does the bombing have an impact? Kerry asked rhetorically. Of course it does. This morning, Foreign Minister Lavrov and I talked about speeding up the process to try to reduce that as soon as possible.

But Kerry sounded a note of optimism that an end to the fighting is possible.

We are in fact making progress even as I stand here today, he said. We are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been.

Kerry also went to the Amman home of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to discuss tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. He has been working for months to curb the violence that ignited last fall amid false rumors about Israels intentions concerning a compound in Jerusalem that is revered by Jews and Muslims.

He then met in Aqaba with Jordans King Abdullah II. Kerrys office said other officials also attended the meeting, including Frank Lowenstein, the State Departments point man on Israeli-

Palestinian relations. It was not immediately clear who the other officials were.

Read more:

Opinion: John Kerrys desperate push on Syria

A mini world war rages in the fields of Aleppo

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
A protester launches firecrackers towards a Turkish police water cannon during clashes in Istanbul, between police and people protesting against security operations against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey on Feb. 14. (Cagdas Erdogan/AP)

Turkey is confronting what amounts to a strategic nightmare as bombs explode in its cities, its enemies encroach on its borders and its allies seemingly snub its demands.

As recently as four years ago, Turkey appeared poised to become one of the biggest winners of the Arab Spring, an ascendant power hailed by the West as a model and embraced by a region seeking new patrons and new forms of governance.

All that has evaporated since the failure of the Arab revolts, shifts in the geopolitical landscape and the trajectory of the Syrian war.

Russia, Turkeys oldest and nearest rival, is expanding its presence around Turkeys borders  in Syria to the south, in Crimea and Ukraine to the north, and in Armenia to the east. On Saturday, Russias Defense Ministry announced the deployment of a new batch of fighter jets and combat helicopters to an air base outside the Armenian capital, Yerevan, 25 miles from the Turkish border.

Blowback from the Syrian war in the form of a string of suicide bombings in Istanbul and Ankara, most recently on Wednesday, has brought fear to Turkish streets and dampened the vital tourist industry.

[Kerry arrives in Jordan to discuss Syrian civil war, battle with ISIS]

The collapse of a peace process with Turkeys Kurds has plunged the southeast of the country into war between Kurds and the Turkish military just as Syrian Kurds carve out their own proto-state in territories adjacent to Turkeys border.

The economy is in the doldrums, hit by fears of instability and by sanctions from Moscow targeting such goods and revenue sources as Turkish tomatoes and tourism in retaliation for the downing of a Russian plane in November.

Worries that the tensions could escalate further are spreading, both in Turkey and in the international community, prompting French President Francois Hollande to warn on Friday that there is a risk of war between Turkey and Russia.

Turkey is facing a multifaceted catastrophe, said Gokhan Bacik, professor of international relations at Ankaras Ipek University. This is a country that has often had problems in the past, but the scale of what is happening now is beyond Turkeys capacity for digestion.

A rift with the United States, Turkeys closest and most vital ally, over the status of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), has further exposed Turkeys vulnerability. A demand by President Recep Tayyep Erdogan that Washington choose between NATO ally Turkey and the YPG, its main Syrian ally in the fight against the Islamic State, was rebuffed by the State Department this month, despite Turkish allegations that the YPG had carried out the bombing in Ankara.

[The Middle Easts alphabet soup of Kurds, explained]

1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Picture home: Syrian refugees show sadness and hope View Photos At a camps in Turkey, kids draw what they remember about their homeland. Caption At a camps in Turkey, kids draw what they remember about their homeland. Rahaf Hasan, 10, who is living at Midyat refugee camp in Turkey, holds a drawing last month of her home in Syria. Conflict in that Middle Eastern country has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions out of their homes. Umit Bektas/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

On Saturday, Turkey dug in, demanding unconditional support from the United States. The only thing we expect from our U.S. ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Ankara.

Turkey now stands completely isolated, trapped in a maze of quandaries that are partly of its own making, said Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Istanbuls Kadir Has University.

It has so alienated everyone it cannot convince anyone to do anything, he said. It is a country whose words no longer carry any weight. It bluffs but does not deliver. It cannot protect its vital interests, and it is at odds with everyone, including its allies.

For a country that was until very recently seen as a consequential regional power, these facts strike me as quite disastrous, he added.

Most immediately, Turkey is agonizing over the fast-changing dynamics along its southern border with Syria, where Russia is bombing, Kurds are advancing and the rebels it has supported against President Bashar al-

Assad for the past five years are facing defeat.

[Trapped between airstrikes and locked gate, Syrian refugees are pawns in a wider war]

Sending troops into Syria, as Ankara has hinted it might, would risk a confrontation with Russia that Turkey would almost certainly lose. The downing of a Russian plane in November was, in retrospect, a major miscalculation, analysts say, one that has hamstrung Turkeys ability to project its influence into Syria and prevented it from flying missions there, even in support of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State.

Not to intervene would mean bowing to the inevitability of an autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Syria bordering Turkeys own restive Kurdish region, as well as the defeat of the rebels Turkey had hoped would topple Assad and project Turkish influence into the Arab world.

For now, Turkey has confined its response in Syria to artillery shelling against the advancing Kurdish forces and efforts to reinforce the rebels. A rebel fighter in the border town of Azaz, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, confirmed multiple reports that Turkey has facilitated the deployment of several hundred rebel fighters from the province of Idlib into Aleppo, via Turkish territory.

At the same time, Erdogan has sought, without success, to revive pressure on the United States to agree to long-standing Turkish proposals for the creation of a safe zone in northern Syria that would protect Syrian civilians who have sought refuge from the fighting along Turkeys border.

Most observers think direct Turkish intervention unlikely, at least for now. There is no public support for a war and no support for one within the Turkish armed forces. A group of more than 200 academics signed a petition last week urging Turkey not to go to war in Syria, and the military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval.

But that has not deterred Erdogan from continuing to threaten action, drawing supposed red lines and seemingly digging Turkish policymakers deeper into a hole from which there is no obvious escape. He recently said the fall of rebel-held Azaz to the advancing Kurds would be a red line and vowed that Turkey would not allow the creation of a refuge for militant Kurds in Syria.

[U.S. support for Syrian Kurds a big strategic mistake, Turkish envoy says]

Turkeys predicament is not entirely self-inflicted. Some of the broader global trends  such as Russias increasing assertiveness and the United States waning interest in the Middle East  could not readily have been foreseen when Turkey set about crafting its ambitious foreign policy earlier in the decade, analysts say.

But Erdogan appears to have misjudged the extent to which the shifting parameters have constrained Turkeys room to maneuver, according to Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center in Washington.

Erdogan has mismanaged foreign policy because of hubris, Barkey said. He was overconfident in 2010 that Turkey was the darling of the world, and that went to his head. There are setbacks that are not of his doing, but how he managed those setbacks are his doing.

When Erdogan is also confronting unforeseen challenges to his domestic ambitions, notably his plans to amend Turkeys constitution to enhance his presidential powers, further Turkish missteps cannot be ruled out, said Bacik, the professor in Ankara.

Im not saying that Turkey has lost its mind and is poised for war, but the posture in Ankara is very strange and could lead to surprises, he said. Whats happening in Syria is a question of survival for Erdogan, so it is not possible to rule anything out.

For Turkey, he added, there is no good scenario from now on.

Read more

U.S., Russia hold Syria cease-fire talks as deadline passes without action

Heres what you need to know about the Syria peace talks

Turkey accuses a Syrian Kurd of Ankara bombing and vows to retaliate
Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement arguing against the FBI's recent order to hack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c. See why he and Apple are refusing to do so. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement arguing against the FBI's recent order to hack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c. See why he and Apple are refusing to do so. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

In the chaotic aftermath of the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, FBI investigators seeking to recover data from the iPhone of one of the shooters asked a technician in the California county to reset the phones iCloud password.

But that action foreclosed the possibility of an automatic backup to the Apple iCloud servers that might have turned up more clues to the origins of the terrorist attack that killed 14 people.

The county and the FBI were working together cooperatively to obtain data, and at the point when it became clear the only way to accomplish the task at hand was to reset the iCloud password, the FBI asked the county to do so, and the county complied, David Wert, a spokesman for San Bernardino County, said in an email.

The Justice Department disclosed the apparent misstep in a court filing Friday, which is part of a larger, high-stakes battle over whether the government can use the courts to force Apple to create software to help it unlock a customers iPhone  in this case, one used by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook, a county health worker, and his wife were killed in a firefight with police hours after the Dec. 2 attack.

[Why Apple is in a historic fight with the government over one iPhone.]

Apple chief executive Tim Cook, shown here in a 2013 appearance before a Senate committee, has pledged to fight an order to help the federal government access data officials believe is stored on the iPhone linked to the San Bernardino terrorists. (Shawn Thew/EPA)

This was happening hours after the worst terror attack since 9/11, and there were still credible reports of a third shooter, said a federal law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. It was a very dynamic time, and the number one priority was figuring out what happened and if there were more attacks coming.

According to senior Apple executives, the FBIs first call to Apple for help came on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 2.46 a.m. With a subpoena, the bureau obtained subscriber data and other details. On Sunday, the FBI, with a warrant, obtained data from Farooks iPhone that had been backed up to iCloud. That backup contained information only through Oct. 19, six weeks before the attack.

The same Sunday, the FBI asked the county for help in retrieving data from the phone, Wert said in an interview. So the county said we could get to the information on the cloud if we changed the password or had Apple change the password, he said. The FBI asked us to do that, and we did.

It is not clear why the FBI needed to reset the password if it was able to obtain the backed-up data from Apple.

Nonetheless, by resetting the password, the county, which owned Farooks phone, and the FBI eliminated the possibility of seeing whether additional data beyond Oct. 19 might be recovered from the phone through the auto-backup feature, experts said.

The FBI in a court filing said Farook may have disabled the auto-backup. But, tech experts said, there might be other reasons the phone did not back up: It was not near a WiFi network it was familiar with, such as his home or workplace, or it was not turned on long enough to back up. With the password changed, it is impossible to know.

Even though it has been reported that the iCloud backups were disabled, there still is data that may have been recoverable, said security expert Dan Guido, chief executive of Trail of Bits. Depending on the phones settings, it might have synched notes, emails, address books  perhaps geolocation data  with the companys network.

The Justice Department is in high-stakes battle with Apple over whether the government can use the courts to force Apple to create software to help it unlock a customers iPhone. (Erik S. Lesser/EPA)

In a statement Saturday night, an FBI spokesperson said the bureaus goal was, and still is, to extract as much evidence as possible from the phone. Tests previously conducted by the FBI showed that direct data extraction from Apples mobile devices often yields more data than an iCloud backup, the spokesperson said.

Even if the password had not been changed and Apple could have turned on the auto-backup and loaded it to the cloud, there might be information on the phone that would not be accessible without Apples help, the spokesperson said.

The showdown between Apple and the government arises out of the FBIs inability to recover data from Farooks phone, especially for the weeks prior to the attack. The Justice Department on Tuesday got a federal judge to order Apple to build software to override an auto-wipe feature on the phone that deletes data after 10 failed tries to enter a password. The FBI could then try to crack the phones password by brute force, making many attempts without risking the wiping of the data.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the firm would challenge the order, warning that it would set a chilling precedent that could lead to more invasive requests for data. On Friday, the Justice Department fired back, charging that Apples stance was motivated by marketing concerns as it promotes itself as a protector of consumer privacy.
Dolores Huerta shows off her Presidential Medal of Freedom Award at a museum exhibit in Los Angeles in 2014. (Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP)

Actress America Ferrera and Latina civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, both of whom are endorsing Hillary Clinton, say that Bernie Sanders supporters shouted English only as Huerta was offering Spanish-language translations at a caucus site in Las Vegas Saturday.

But the Vermont senators supporters, including actresses Susan Sarandon and Gaby Hoffmann, say it didnt happen  at least not the way Huerta described it.

According to Ferrera and Huerta, some of the Latino caucus-goers who arrived at Harrahs Las Vegas Hotel and Casino did not speak English.





I offered to translate & Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced Si Se Puede! #ImwithHer #NVcaucus  Dolores Huerta (@DoloresHuerta) February 20, 2016



I offered to translate, Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, tweeted. Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced. Si Se Puede! #ImwithHer #NVcaucus.

But according to Sarandon and Hoffmann, it was the moderator who said English only after a neutral translator could not be found.





.@AmericaFerrera I was there. Nobody frm Bernies side said English only. Moderator did when no neutral translator was found@DoloresHuerta  Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) February 21, 2016

Link to the entire vid. The translation ask starts at 53:30 & mod says English Only at 55:18. NO CHANTING. https://t.co/3bxIs9eKJy  Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) February 21, 2016

@AmericaFerrera @DoloresHuerta I was there & NO ONE from Bernie camp shouted this - moderator did when neutral translator wasnt found!!  Gaby Hoffmann (@gabymhoffmann) February 21, 2016



Huerta and Ferrera did not immediately respond to requests from Yahoo News for comment.

Story continues

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Huerta said she offered to translate because the caucus is a kind of complicated procedure.

To deprive these voters at this crucial time of having a translation of what was going on  this is something they need to know whats taking place, she said. So the Bernie supporters would rather them not have any sort of translation rather than have someone like myself, who just happened to be a Hillary supporter, do the translation.

But according to Hoffmann, it was actually Clintons supporters who applauded when the moderator instructed English only.

Sarandon tweeted a link to a video of the incident.

NO CHANTING, she wrote.

Nonetheless, Huerta expressed her dismay with Sanders via her Twitter feed.





@BernieSanders Shame on your supporters for depriving Spanish speaking caucus goers of info they need for full participation! #NVcaucus  Dolores Huerta (@DoloresHuerta) February 20, 2016



Shame on your supporters for depriving Spanish speaking caucus goers of info they need for full participation! she wrote.

One Sanders supporter, though, told ThinkProgress that the crowd was shouting neutral, not no or English only.

As the senator has said, this campaign is about bringing people together not dividing them, Symone D. Sanders, Bernie Sanders national press secretary, wrote in an email to Yahoo News. We expect our supporters to be respectful of all people and dont condone anything otherwise.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  A South Carolina group dedicated to defense of the proudly Confederate South rallied at the State House here on

Saturday, showcasing a mixture of Confederate flags and signs supporting Donald Trump as the Republican presidential primary unfolded across the state.

The South Carolina Conservative Action Council said the event was held in observance of the anniversary of the burning of Columbia after Union soldiers invaded the city in February 1865. Along with marking the burning of Columbia, the rally promoted the groups recent endorsement of Trumps presidential campaign. Trump eventually won the South Carolina primary handily, creating an even bigger problem for the Republican establishment.

Several neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups have expressed support for Trump. His campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News asking whether it accepts the SCCACs endorsement and why such groups are drawn to Trump.

Donald Trump supporter John Maclean at a rally hosted by the South Carolina Conservative Action Council on Feb. 20, 2016. (Photo: Hunter Walker/Yahoo News)

South Carolina Conservative Action Council Chairman William Carter told Yahoo News his group decided to back Trump because of his conservative position on the border. Trump has called for a wall to be built on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Ive told a lot of people, if Donald Trump, if his four years in office, if he only is there four years, if he only closes the border  thats more than we could ask for, Carter said.

Carter also praised Trumps proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the country. He noted the SCCAC has fought against the resettlement of Syrian refugees in South Carolina. Carter described this as the importation of Muslims.

We like our country like it is, and we dont want it permanently changed by a bunch of people who have a lot of different opinions about things, and are really opposed to us in a lot of ways, Carter said.

Story continues

Last year, Trump expressed support for removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House. Carter explained why his group was still supporting Trump in spite of his opposition to the flag.



I think Trumps even made a few statements  not against the flag so much, but saying it ought to be put in a museum or something like that, so I mean, hes not supporting our issue on that anyway, Carter said. But our organization has two basic issues: one was the preservation of Southern heritage and the honorable heritage of our ancestors who fought to preserve their Constitutional rights as Americans  and the other was to close the border and defend the country from unlimited immigration.



The council touted its endorsement of Trump on the front page of its newspaper, The Conservative Action Report. Carter said he had given copies of the paper, which is dated February-March 2016, to Trumps campaign staff to make sure he sees it.

We want him to see that were working for him, Carter said.

Along with the endorsement of Trump, the papers front page features an article that asks in a headline, Is Barack Obama a Muslim?

Bob Davis and Thomas Weberburger at a rally hosted by the South Carolina Conservative Action Council on Feb. 20, 2016. (Photo: Hunter Walker/Yahoo News)



There were about 20 people at the rally. Carter and all of the other attendees who spoke to Yahoo News vehemently denied that their efforts to defend the Confederate flag and Southern heritage are racist. John Maclean, who was wearing a Trump campaign T-shirt and holding Trump bumper stickers, said his support for the flag was about heritage, not hate.

Everybody knows 150 years ago the South lost the war, but its our heritage thats being taken away, Maclean said. I think its deplorable what theyre trying to do to the old South  you cant change history.

Maclean also criticized those who characterize Trump as a racist because of his positions on Mexican and Muslim immigrants.

Hes a businessman. Hes not a politician.  Thats what I like about Donald Trump. Hes hired different nationalities.  Hes not a racist like the news media wants to call him, Maclean said.



At the event, Carter and other speakers also protested the law signed by Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley last July that called for the removal the Confederate flag from the State House grounds. Haley previously supported the presence of the flag, but she changed her mind after the shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2015, left nine people dead. Dylann Roof confessed to the shooting. A website linked to Roof indicated he attacked the church in the hopes of starting a race war, and showed multiple pictures of him posing with the flag.

Roof was also a major topic at the rally, with Carter and other speakers criticizing him as a drug-addled lunatic. One speaker suggested the shooting was an inside job by the federal government to stoke opposition to the Confederate flag.

Thomas Weberburger and Bob Davis stood together at the rally.

That young crazy person in Charleston  he wasnt one of us, Weberburger said of Roof.



No, he was not one of us, Davis agreed.



Davis said it was unfair to tie the Confederate flag to racism.

The American flag was the most used flag by the Klan. It is the flag, if you want to look at it, of racism. It is today, Davis said. Black people are slaves today, but its slaves to the Democratic party and the national government because they feed them.  The federal government is feeding them every day.



Yahoo News asked Davis and Weberburger whether they supported Trump based on the SCCAC endorsement. Davis said he actually voted for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the primary.

I think he would be a dictator, frankly  a good one, and good dictators are OK. But, hey, there are some bad ones out there in the world, and I would not trust him, Davis said of Trump. But I think he of all the people might do the most things that Id like to see done.



Weberburger said he voted for Trump to deliver a slap in the face of the other Republicans. However, he said he would probably vote third party in the general election as another slap at the Republicans. Weberburger was holding a number of Confederate flags. Also, he wore a yarmulke and fake beard, and carried a sign that said, HOLOCAUST 1865 NEVER FORGET. Weberburger told Yahoo News that he is a little bit Jewish by ancestry, though its not his religion. He explained that his outfit and sign was meant to make the point that the burning of Columbia was a holocaust.

It was a holocaust, and Jews are especially sensitive to that. I wish more would be, Weberburger said. Judah Benjamin was actually in the Cabinet of Jefferson Davis in the war between the states.



Benjamin, who was a Jew, served as the Confederacys attorney general, secretary of war, and secretary of state.

He was secretary of state, I believe, Weberburger said.



Davis piped in.

He was the money man, Benjamin was, I believe, Davis said.
(www.therealrubiorecord.com/)

In the run-up to Saturdays heated South Carolina primary battle, the campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz sent out controversial mailers attacking rival Sen. Marco Rubio by showing the Florida senators face morphing into that of President Obama.

The mailers rip Rubio over his record on trade and immigration, suggesting it is indistinguishable from that of Obamas. The Rubio-Obama Trade Pact, is the headline on the mailer.

But the provocative half Rubio-half Obama photo image drew a strong reaction on Twitter Saturday with some suggesting it was racially tinged. Okay, is it just me or did they darken the Rubio side, a la Time and O.J. Simpson? wrote one poster, in a reference to a famous 1994 Time magazine cover in which a mug shot of O.J. Simpson was darkened.

Others noted that the morphed image is reproduced on the same Cruz campaign website  www.therealrubiorecord.com  that also contained a Photoshopped image of a smiling Rubio shaking hands with Obama. (The image has since been removed.)





Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler said any suggestion that the mailer had a racial tinge was baloney and said such photos morphing two faces together were commonplace in political campaigns.

The image makes the point that if you like Barack Obamas trade policy, youll like Marco Rubios because they are same, said Tyler. That is all the image is meant to convey.

The mailer asserts that Rubio rallied for Obamas executive authority for the TPP trade deal and cast a deciding vote fast-tracking three highly secretive trade deals negotiated by Obama and encouraging corrupt, backroom deals.

Story continues

The Rubio campaign, sticking to the substance of the mailer, cried foul, noting that Cruz in the past has supported free trade.

Proving that he will say or do anything to win an election, Senator Cruz is actually attacking someone for holding the same position he held and making the exact same vote he did, said Rubio campaign spokesman Joe Pounder.

Senator Cruz is the only candidate in the race who authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Paul Ryan supporting Trade Promotion Authority. Senator Cruz cant lie enough to cover up this record.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  With his second decisive primary victory, Donald Trump is now the clear frontrunner for the Republican Partys presidential nomination.



The most pressing question now, after Trumps win in the South Carolina primary, is how long it will take for Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz to knock the other out and take Trump on directly.

The longer that Cruz and Rubio divide up the non-Trump vote, the more time the New York real estate developer will have to rack up delegates and win 50 percent of the primary electorate in popular vote totals.

A field that at its peak numbered 17 candidates has, to all intents and purposes, been winnowed down to three. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropped out of the race a few minutes before 9 p.m. Saturday, after finishing in single digits in the Palmetto State. Ohio Gov. John Kasich looks determined to stay in the race for some time, but is regarded by many political observers as a sideshow who is merely angling to gather delegates and use them for his own purposes at the convention. Meanwhile, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has proved an afterthought at the polls, although he has enough money to stay in for some time and insists that he has plans to.

The results Saturday night were another splash of cold water in the face of a Republican Party that had closed its eyes and desperately hoped for Trumps polling lead to evaporate, as it did in Iowa. Instead, the outlandish provocateur garnered his second commanding win in a row.

South Carolina, we will never forget you, Trump said in his victory speech in Spartanburg, S.C., Saturday night.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at his South Carolina primary night victory rally on Saturday in Spartanburg, S.C. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Slideshow: Winners and losers in S.C. and Nevada >>>

Now the GOP establishment looks fearfully forward to a new phase of the primary contest. It moves to Nevada in just three days, and then to a slate of a dozen states on March 1, 10 days from now. Of those March 1 states, seven are in the South or Midwest, and are likely to tilt strongly toward Trump.

Story continues

Trump, with 33 percent in South Carolina, cleared the 30 percent bar that many had pegged as a barometer for showing whether or not he had lost momentum over the last few days. Rubio and Cruz were locked in a dead heat for second place, at 22 percent each, before Rubio was projected as the second-place winner by less than two-tenths of one percentage point after midnight.

Trump won a majority of votes from veterans in this state, which has a strong military presence, despite the fact that he had explicitly blamed former President George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks in a debate one week ago. Trump argued in that debate that the Bush administration lied about whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Live blog: Recap Saturdays coverage as it happened

The South Carolina primary has been won by the eventual Republican nominee in every presidential primary since 1980, with the exception of the last one, in 2012, when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia was the victor. And Trumps method of winning the Palmetto State this week defied logic or historical comparison. Trump won this week despite coming out for [a] health care mandate, defending planned parenthood, blaming Bush for 9/11, standing by impeachment, wrote NBCs Chuck Todd on Twitter.

The big question for Trump is whether he can rise above 35 percent, his total support in New Hampshire, in any state. If he cannot, and Cruz and Rubio both stay in, interminably, then the Republicans could be headed for a contested convention. If he cannot, and either Cruz or Rubio knocks the other out, then whoever takes him on will be poised to defeat him, despite his early wins.

At least thats the theory of many Republican political consultants who have been watching the race.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz have soda and cookies at a primary night rally on Saturday in Columbia, S.C. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Trump disagrees that Cruz or Rubio voters wont turn to him if one of the candidates leaves the field. As people drop out, Im going to get a lot of votes also, Trump said in his victory speech.

Cruz has engaged in a withering back-and-forth with Trump over the past few weeks, while Rubio has largely avoided any engagement with the frontrunner. But Rubio may no longer have a choice whether to take on Trump directly. Trump signaled Saturday that he may soon put the Florida senator in his sights, tweeting that Rubio is very weak on illegal immigration.

In exit polls, Trump won big with voters who said they prefer a candidate who tells it like it is. Cruz won support from voters who look for a candidate who shares my values. Rubio won among voters who look for someone who can win in November.

At the Trump rally, aides backstage devoured public exit polls with glee, noting Trumps wins in demographic categories where his strength had been underestimated, including evangelicals and hard-core conservatives in upstate South Carolina. The aides said they believe it signals momentum for Trump heading into the March 1 states, where they once viewed Cruz as their biggest threat but now see him as increasingly neutralized.

If Cruz cant win South Carolina, where can he win? a Trump aide, who declined to be named, told Yahoo News.

But even as Trump aides were making a victory lap, there were subtle shifts in strategy in South Carolina that will continue into future contests. In the final days of the primary, Trump added events at smaller venues, and he began making more unannounced stops  including swings through small-town diners. On Friday, the candidate campaigned from early morning until nearly 10 p.m. at night  not unusual for most candidates, but unusual for Trump, who typically flies home to New York every night.

For Cruz, the results were a disappointment. He had owned second place in polls in the state until very recently, and hoped after winning Iowa to do well in New Hampshire  where he came in third  and then to prevail again in the heavily evangelical South Carolina. But Trump won evangelical voters here 32 percent to 27 percent for Cruz.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with his wife, Heidi, addresses supporters at his primary night rally at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

Cruz has outstanding organizations in many states that are set to vote on March 1 and beyond, and is extremely well-funded. But he must fight to keep the Republican electorate from concluding that the race should be narrowed to Rubio vs. Trump. Cruz will be helped by the fact that many conservative Christian voters in the March 1 primary states across the South will remain attracted to him. But he will have to fend off Rubios courtship of the slice of that voting bloc who will never vote for Trump.



Cruz, speaking last of all the candidates on Saturday night, argued that he is the only conservative remaining in the race, and that he is also the best hope for Republicans to defeat Trump.

Only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race, Cruz said. We are the only campaign that has beaten and can beat Donald Trump.

Looking ahead to March 1, Cruzs campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said his operation has been built for this day for the entire time. Roe said the so-called SEC primary is an electoral map that favors us.

And then, after that, were going to go and battle out in the winner-take-all states and decide who the nominee is. So, every piece of what weve been talking about has come together, Roe said.

Rubios campaign breathed a sigh of relief, given the candidates situation just a week ago, when the Florida senator appeared to be on the ropes after his disastrous debate performance on Feb. 6 in New Hampshire. The argument undergirding the candidacies of governors Bush, Kasich and New Jerseys Chris Christie  that a governor with executive experience was better prepared to be president than a senator  received a fresh hearing that week.

But a steady debate performance this past Saturday, an endorsement from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and strong campaigning helped Rubio recover and survive. He had once hoped for a win in this state, just as Cruz had, and would have been well-positioned here had he not stumbled in New Hampshire. Now he must gird himself for a long and brutal primary if he wants to win.

In an impressive election-night speech inside an industrial warehouse  just a few hundred yards from the Cruz event  Rubio acknowledged that he had arrived in South Carolina 10 days ago in search of a new beginning and a fresh start.

Many thought it was over, Rubio said. South Carolina will always be the place of new beginnings and fresh starts.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, with his wife, Columba, son Jeb Bush Jr., far left, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., makes his farewell speech Saturday night at his primary rally in Columbia, S.C. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

For Bush, the results Saturday night were a heavy blow, following a few days in which his candidacy went from hopeful to knocked-out. After over-performing in New Hampshire, Bush got a two-point bump right away. But his performance there came at an enormous cost, with data showing that his campaign and his super-PAC spent a total of $36 million in New Hampshire, as compared to just $3.7 million for Trump and only $580,000 for Cruz.

Then came the debate bloodbath on Feb. 13, a debate in which Cruz and Rubio ripped into one another and Bush tried to take on Trump, with some success. Trump looked intemperate and out of control and was booed repeatedly.

I believe Jeb Bush has emerged as the alternative to Donald Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on CBS News after the debate.

On Sunday and into Monday, there was the possibility that Jeb might be mounting a comeback, especially when it was announced that his older brother, George W. Bush, would come Monday to campaign for him.

The former president ridiculed and criticized Trump, but did not name him. George W. Bush described his brother as a man of deep and humble faith that reveals itself through good works, not loud words.

Strength is not empty rhetoric, it is not bluster, it is not theatrics, Bush said. Real strength comes from integrity and character.

But none of it made any difference.

Trump held an hourlong press conference Monday afternoon to draw attention away from the former presidents campaign stop, and assiduously avoided any direct and open confrontation with George W. Bush. With Trump avoiding escalation and focusing his rhetoric on Cruz, there was no real reason for W. to respond without risking more political capital than he was willing to. Bush advisers said the former president might very well have campaigned again if Trump had gone after him. Instead, Trump hid, and George W. Bush did not appear again.

Then, on Wednesday, press reports leaked in the morning that Haley would endorse Rubio. It was a gut punch for Bush, who, just the day before, had called winning her support the most meaningful endorsement in the state.

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio celebrates with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and greets supporters on Saturday at his primary night rally in Columbia, S.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Haley endorsed Rubio on Wednesday night and campaigned with him all day Thursday and Friday, along with African-American U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and 51-year old Rep. Trey Gowdy, offering the GOP a picture of what their national profile might look like if Rubio won the nomination and picked Haley as his running mate.

In his concession speech, Bush choked back tears as he spoke and thanked his family. Im proud of the campaign that weve run to unify our country, he said, but the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision.

I congratulate my competitors who are remaining on the island, Bush said with a slight chuckle.

South Carolina had been kind to the Bush family in the past. George H.W. Bush, Jebs father, won it in 1988 after losing Iowa to Sen. Bob Dole. George W. Bush won it in 2000 after losing to Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire.

But in 2016, a third Bushs presidential campaign came to an end in the Palmetto State.
Kim Kardashian West puts much of her life on public display  from her family to her wardrobe to her wedding  but what about her Armenian heritage? It turns out that the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star and professional famous person has been vocal about her Armenian background, and about raising awareness regarding Armenian history.

Back in April, Kardashian West penned an essay for Time magazine in which she reflected on her Armenian background and her late father, Robert Kardashian, who was an attorney. "When we grew up, all my father did was talk about our heritage," Kardashian West said. "It was such a big part of our life: We'd eat Armenian food, we would listen to stories  my dad was really outspoken about our history."

In the essay, Kardashian West discussed her family history  including her great-great-grandparents' move to the United States shortly before the Armenian genocide of 1915, during which 1.5 million Armenians living in the collapsing Ottoman Empire were killed. "Had they not escaped, we wouldn't be here," Kardashian West wrote in Time.

In April, Kardashian West, along with her sister Khloe and her husband Kanye West and daughter North, took a trip to Armenia to observe the centennial of the genocide, during which they met with Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, reported ABC News.

Kardashian West called for Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, saying, "It's time for Turkey to recognize it ... To not do so is an act of disrespect." She also called on President Barack Obama to specifically use the word genocide in describing the mass killings, something he has not yet done.

"The Kardashian family trip to Armenia has helped shine a global spotlight on Armenia and the Armenian genocide  sharing the historical facts and the need for justice for that crime with millions," Elizabeth Chouldjian, communications director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told ABC News in April. "The Kardashians have helped strike a powerful blow at Turkey's campaign of genocide denial."

Story continues

So will Kardashian West raise her children to share her pride in the family's Armenian heritage? Apparently she plans to do so.

"I'm half Armenian, but I grew up with a such a strong sense of my Armenian identity, and I want my daughter to have the same," Kardashian West wrote in Time. "My great-great-grandparents were so brave to move their whole family. I'll honor them by passing their memory down to my daughter."

Correction: Feb. 18, 2016

A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the number of people who were killed in the Armenian genocide. The number is 1.5 million.
FC Cincinnati Ends 2022 With Playoff Loss to Philadelphia Union in MLS Cup

Even with a loss to the conference's top seed, FC Cincinnati has plenty to be proud of.

By Allison Babka Oct 21, 2022

FC Cincinnati may have been eliminated from its MLS Cup playoff run, but it ends with the team's best season so far along with hope for the future. Cincinnati's pro soccer team came up short during the Eastern Conference semi-final round on Oct. 20, losing 1-0 on the road to the Philadelphia Union...
A protester launches firecrackers towards a Turkish police water cannon during clashes in Istanbul, between police and people protesting against security operations against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey on Feb. 14. (Cagdas Erdogan/AP)

Turkey is confronting what amounts to a strategic nightmare as bombs explode in its cities, its enemies encroach on its borders and its allies seemingly snub its demands.

As recently as four years ago, Turkey appeared poised to become one of the biggest winners of the Arab Spring, an ascendant power hailed by the West as a model and embraced by a region seeking new patrons and new forms of governance.

All that has evaporated since the failure of the Arab revolts, shifts in the geopolitical landscape and the trajectory of the Syrian war.

Russia, Turkeys oldest and nearest rival, is expanding its presence around Turkeys borders  in Syria to the south, in Crimea and Ukraine to the north, and in Armenia to the east. On Saturday, Russias Defense Ministry announced the deployment of a new batch of fighter jets and combat helicopters to an air base outside the Armenian capital, Yerevan, 25 miles from the Turkish border.

Blowback from the Syrian war in the form of a string of suicide bombings in Istanbul and Ankara, most recently on Wednesday, has brought fear to Turkish streets and dampened the vital tourist industry.

The collapse of a peace process with Turkeys Kurds has plunged the southeast of the country into war between Kurds and the Turkish military just as Syrian Kurds carve out their own proto-state in territories adjacent to Turkeys border.

The economy is in the doldrums, hit by fears of instability and by sanctions from Moscow targeting such goods and revenue sources as Turkish tomatoes and tourism in retaliation for the downing of a Russian plane in November.

Worries that the tensions could escalate further are spreading, both in Turkey and in the international community, prompting French President Francois Hollande to warn on Friday that there is a risk of war between Turkey and Russia.

Turkey is facing a multifaceted catastrophe, said Gokhan Bacik, professor of international relations at Ankaras Ipek University. This is a country that has often had problems in the past, but the scale of what is happening now is beyond Turkeys capacity for digestion.

A rift with the United States, Turkeys closest and most vital ally, over the status of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), has further exposed Turkeys vulnerability. A demand by President Recep Tayyep Erdogan that Washington choose between NATO ally Turkey and the YPG, its main Syrian ally in the fight against the Islamic State, was rebuffed by the State Department this month, despite Turkish allegations that the YPG had carried out the bombing in Ankara.

On Saturday, Turkey dug in, demanding unconditional support from the United States. The only thing we expect from our U.S. ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Ankara.

Turkey now stands completely isolated, trapped in a maze of quandaries that are partly of its own making, said Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Istanbuls Kadir Has University.

It has so alienated everyone it cannot convince anyone to do anything, he said. It is a country whose words no longer carry any weight. It bluffs but does not deliver. It cannot protect its vital interests, and it is at odds with everyone, including its allies.

For a country that was until very recently seen as a consequential regional power, these facts strike me as quite disastrous, he added.

Most immediately, Turkey is agonizing over the fast-changing dynamics along its southern border with Syria, where Russia is bombing, Kurds are advancing and the rebels it has supported against President Bashar al-

Assad for the past five years are facing defeat.

Sending troops into Syria, as Ankara has hinted it might, would risk a confrontation with Russia that Turkey would almost certainly lose. The downing of a Russian plane in November was, in retrospect, a major miscalculation, analysts say, one that has hamstrung Turkeys ability to project its influence into Syria and prevented it from flying missions there, even in support of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State.

Not to intervene would mean bowing to the inevitability of an autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Syria bordering Turkeys own restive Kurdish region, as well as the defeat of the rebels Turkey had hoped would topple Assad and project Turkish influence into the Arab world.

For now, Turkey has confined its response in Syria to artillery shelling against the advancing Kurdish forces and efforts to reinforce the rebels. A rebel fighter in the border town of Azaz, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, confirmed multiple reports that Turkey has facilitated the deployment of several hundred rebel fighters from the province of Idlib into Aleppo, via Turkish territory.

At the same time, Erdogan has sought, without success, to revive pressure on the United States to agree to long-standing Turkish proposals for the creation of a safe zone in northern Syria that would protect Syrian civilians who have sought refuge from the fighting along Turkeys border.

Most observers think direct Turkish intervention unlikely, at least for now. There is no public support for a war and no support for one within the Turkish armed forces. A group of more than 200 academics signed a petition this past week urging Turkey not to go to war in Syria, and the military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval.

But that has not deterred Erdogan from continuing to threaten action, drawing supposed red lines and seemingly digging Turkish policymakers deeper into a hole from which there is no obvious escape. He recently said the fall of rebel-held Azaz to the advancing Kurds would be a red line and vowed that Turkey would not allow the creation of a refuge for militant Kurds in Syria.

Turkeys predicament is not entirely self-inflicted. Some of the broader global trends  such as Russias increasing assertiveness and the United States waning interest in the Middle East  could not readily have been foreseen when Turkey set about crafting its ambitious foreign policy earlier in the decade, analysts say.

But Erdogan appears to have misjudged the extent to which the shifting parameters have constrained Turkeys room to maneuver, according to Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center in Washington.

Erdogan has mismanaged foreign policy because of hubris, Barkey said. He was overconfident in 2010 that Turkey was the darling of the world, and that went to his head. There are setbacks that are not of his doing, but how he managed those setbacks are his doing.

When Erdogan is also confronting unforeseen challenges to his domestic ambitions, notably his plans to amend Turkeys constitution to enhance his presidential powers, further Turkish missteps cannot be ruled out, said Bacik, the professor in Ankara.

Im not saying that Turkey has lost its mind and is poised for war, but the posture in Ankara is very strange and could lead to surprises, he said. Whats happening in Syria is a question of survival for Erdogan, so it is not possible to rule anything out.

For Turkey, he added, there is no good scenario from now on.




The all cricket action at once step and at a single Glance...
Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.  Eoin McNamee This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.  Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann OBrien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.  Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 The funniest book of the year.  Sunday Independent Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.  Liz Nugent Burkes exuberant prose takes centre stage  He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.  Totally Dublin A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.  Irish Times Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.  Sunday Times A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann OBrien  The Lammisters is very clever indeed.  The Guardian
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He has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media.





Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.





Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications.



A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.



He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.









Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's videocasts and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.
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California's Death Row

Californians face a watershed year as they prepare to decide whether to resume executions that stopped a decade ago or end them entirely.





While advocates jockey to put both choices before voters this fall, officials overseeing the 746 condemned inmates on the nation's largest death row are pushing ahead with plans to use a single lethal drug to meet legal requirements amid a nationwide shortage of execution drugs.





Supporters said at a public hearing on Friday that crime victims have waited too long for justice as the state dragged its heels in adopting a new method of execution.





"The family members of the victims are dying before the murderers," said Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys of Los Angeles County. "Meanwhile, ironically, the state of California moves ahead with an assisted suicide law that would allow doctors to prescribe the same drugs for suicide that death penalty opponents will call inhumane when used for executions."





Opponents said at the hearing that the state risks botching death sentences if it moves too quickly in making the change.





The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will consider nearly 2 dozen comments from the hearing and written comments from about 12,000 people as it develops its final regulations. Any changes would require a new round of public comments.





The state is proposing to let corrections officials choose from four types of powerful barbiturates to execute prisoners, depending on which drug is available.





The single injection would replace the series of three drugs used in 2006 to execute 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen for ordering a triple murder.





2 of the 4 drugs have never before been used in executions, and it's not clear whether the state has enough safeguards in place to obtain safe, effective drugs, said Ana Zamora, criminal justice policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.





"Some of these executions using drugs obtained from questionable sources have resulted in gruesome, botched executions" in other states, she warned.





The corrections department also failed to properly consider that ending executions entirely could save state and local governments $150 million a year, she said, referring to an estimate involving 1 of the pending ballot measures.





A recent Field Poll showed an almost even split among voters on the death penalty, with 48 % wanting to speed up the legal process leading to executions and 47 % seeking to replace executions with life sentences without the possibility of parole.





"This could be the year when it comes to a head in the public vote on a very interesting pair of initiatives," Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said. "I don't think anyone can forecast how it will turn out."





In 2012, voters rejected ending the death penalty by 4 % points, but DiCamillo said frustration with the seemingly endless delays and mounting expenses are driving more people to favor doing away with it entirely.





The proposed single-drug injection process is the latest attempt to resume executions after a federal judge halted executions in 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve execution procedures.





5 years later, a Marin County judge rejected the state's newly developed 3-drug lethal injection regulations.





8 states already have used a single drug for executions and there is no reason the courts shouldn't quickly approve California's new regulations once the procedure is adopted, said Michael Rushford, president of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.





The group sued to force California to adopt the method suggested by state and federal judges in ongoing cases, and Rushford predicted executions could resume this year if the rules are finalized soon.





Death penalty opponents said they will keep challenging the regulations.





The ACLU is suing to obtain at least 79,000 corrections department documents related to lethal injections that it says are needed to show if safeguards are in place to prevent the state from using backdoor ways to obtain execution drugs that manufacturers say were not intended for that purpose.





Department of corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the documents the department used to develop the proposed regulations are already available to the public. The department plans to create the drugs in its own or other compounding pharmacies.





Much of the testimony on Friday opposed the death penalty no matter how it is carried out.





"It is likely in the future that if we do the grisly, horrible thing of starting to execute people, that we will find out after someone has been executed that they were innocent," Sacramento attorney Norman Hile said.





He said he represents an innocent man who is awaiting execution on death row.





Source: Associated Press, Feb. 21, 2016




ONGC Tripura Asset is carrying out its drilling activities with three owned rigs under operation and well servicing operations through two work-over rigs.

Agartala: The board of state-run ONGC has approved an investment of Rs 5,050 crore in Tripura for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities to produce 5.1 mmscmd gas from the state's fields.

The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has announced to develop northeast region as a dominant hydrocarbon hub as part of its Hydrocarbon Vision 2030, the statement said."In line with this vision, ONGC management has put their first foot forward and approved additional investment of Rs 3,104 crore for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities to produce 5.1 mmscmd gas from Tripura fields,"the press release issued by Tripura Asset of ONGC said.

The board meeting held at New Delhi on February 11,had taken this decision."Earlier in 2008, ONGC board had approved for investment of Rs 1946 crore for the same and total approved investment in Tripura will be Rs 5,050 crore," the release said.

As a result of geological mapping and exploratory efforts,so far 11 gas fields are discovered by ONGC in Tripura and of these seven fields are on production.

ONGC Tripura Asset is carrying out its drilling activities with three owned rigs under operation and well servicing operations through two work-over rigs. An additional four to five hired rigs are expected to be under operation in this year which will step up the exploration activities, the statement said.
New Delhi: Hitting out at older carriers, top industrialist Ratan Tata on Sunday accused them of lobbying and using monopolistic pressures to retain preferential treatment under the controversial 5/20 rule that restricts overseas flying by new airlines.

However, reacting strongly to the charge, low-cost carrier SpiceJets chief Ajay Singh asked him to rather advise the two airlines associated with Tatas  Vistara and AirAsia India  to first serve India and then seek to fly international.

According to news agency reports, Mr Singh also alleged that the two carriers were apparently controlled by their foreign parents and said they had undertaken, while applying for the licence, to follow the 5/20 rule which they are opposing so vehemently now.

AirAsia India and Vistara  two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures  are presently ineligible to operate overseas under the 5/20 norm, which requires an Indian carrier to have minimum five years operational experience and at least 20 planes to operate international flights.

Terming as sad the lobbying of incumbent airlines for protection and preferential treatment, he tweeted that such moves were reminiscent of the monopolistic pressures by entities with vested interests who fear competition.

The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interest entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years, Mr. Tata said in a strong message posted on Twitter. These protectionist moves have held back progress in India compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas, he said in his message.

In the airline industry in India, it is sad to see the incumbent airlines lobbying for protection and preferential treatment for themselves against the new airlines ... they have been formed in full compliance with prevailing government policy and providing air transport to Indian citizens in line with the dream of a New India promoted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, he said.
New Delhi: Overseas investors have pulled out a massive Rs 4,600 crore from the Indian capital markets this month so far, primarily on account of continuous fall in crude oil prices and fears of a global slowdown.This has taken the total outflow to Rs 13,414 crore (USD1.97 billion) since the beginning of the year.

According to the data available with depositories, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) took out Rs 4,503 crore from equities during February 1-18 while they withdrew Rs 96 crore from debt market during the same period, leading to a net outflow of Rs 4,599 crore (USD 673 million).

Prior to that, FPIs pulled out a net Rs 13,381 crore from equities while they infused Rs 3,274 crore in debt in January. Capital inflow by FPIs is often referred to as hot money because of its unpredictability though it continues to remain one of the key drivers of the stock market."A major chunk of FPI money are sovereign wealth funds that belongs to wealthy nations.

The Middle East region is one the largest suppliers of crude and their revenues in crude were used by their sovereign wealth funds to invest in emerging markets globally," SAS Online.com Chief Operating Officer (COO) Siddhant Jain said."But, due to recent crash in crude oil prices, these wealth funds are now under pressure and are thereby redeeming their investment in emerging markets leading to these huge outflows.

This, coupled with the depreciating Indian Rupee and the concern over the health of the Chinese economy have spooked FPIs," he added. Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex has plunged by 1,161.54 points or 4.67 per cent during the first three weeks of the month.

In 2015, FPIs had brought in a net Rs 17,806 crore in equities and Rs 45,856 crore in bond markets.
Lloyds India will ensure that the market and the constituents are housed in one location for the conduct of reinsurance business.

New Delhi: Government is considering a proposal to permit 49 per cent FDI through automatic approval route in the insurance sector with a view to attracting more overseas inflows. Currently, FDI up to 26 per cent is permitted through automatic approval route. For FDI up to 49 per cent, the approval of Foreign Investment Promotion Board is required.

According to sources, the government could announce this decision in the forthcoming Budget as the move would help in improving ease of doing business also. "If IRDAI is looking at the proposal, RBI too is looking at and the management is in the hands of Indian then the government may do away with the FIPB approval route," they said.

At present, as many as 10 proposals, including that of ICICI Prudential Life, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Aviva Life Insurance, are pending at different stages of clearances.

There are 52 insurance companies operating in India, of which 24 are in the life insurance business and 28 in the general insurance. State-owned General Insurance Corporation (GIC), in addition, is the sole national reinsurer.

In order to deepen the re-insurance market, IRDAI permitted UK-based Lloyds to set up business in India. Lloyds India will ensure that the market and the constituents are housed in one location for the conduct of reinsurance business.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country more than doubled to about USD 4.5 billion in December. The major sectors that attracted foreign inflows include computer software and hardware, trading, services, automobile and telecommunications.India receives maximum FDI from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan.In 2014-15, foreign fund inflows grew 27 per cent to USD 30.93 billion as against USD 24.29 billion in 2013-14.
After Kamal Haasans Papanasam, which was the remake of Malayalam hit Drishyam, looks like it is Rajinikanths turn to repeat the act. The Superstar will be seen reprising Mammootty in the Tamil remake of last years Malayalam blockbuster Bhaskar the Rascal, which had Nayanthara as the female lead.

Directed by Siddique, the film was a huge hit and the director in a recent interview to a popular vernacular magazine has confirmed that he will be directing the remake of Bhaskar with Rajinikanth in the lead role. Siddique previously remade some of his hits in Tamil with the most prominent ones being Vijays Friends and Kaavalan.

BTR is the story of two different divorced single parents, falling in love and getting united in marital bliss with the help of their respective children. After Rajini completes his present projects namely Kabali and 2.O, the Superstar is expected to join Siddique in 2017 if all goes well. This should be something to look out for, indeed!
Investigation is on to find if preventing or delaying first use of marijuana might reduce the risk of developing alcohol use disorders (Representational image: PTI)

New York: Adults who use marijuana are five times more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder (AUD)-alcohol abuse or dependence - compared to those who do not use the drug, a new study has found.

Adults who already have an alcohol use disorder and use marijuana are more likely to see the problem persist, researchers said.

"Our results suggest that cannabis use appears to be associated with an increased vulnerability to developing an alcohol use disorder, even among those without any history of this," said Renee Goodwin, associate professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

"Marijuana use also appears to increase the likelihood that an existing alcohol use disorder will continue over time," Goodwin said.

The researchers analysed data from 27,461 adults enrolled in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions who first used marijuana at a time when they had no lifetime history of alcohol use disorders.

The population was assessed at two time points. Adults who had used marijuana at the first assessment and again over the following three years (23 per cent) were five times more likely to develop an alcohol use problem, compared with those who had not used marijuana (5 per cent).

Adult problem drinkers who did not use cannabis were significantly more likely to be in recovery from alcohol use disorders three years later.

"From a public health standpoint we recommend that further research be conducted to understand the pathways underlying these relationships as well as the degree to which various potentially vulnerable population subgroups - youth, for example - are at increased risk," noted Goodwin.

"If future research confirms these findings, investigating whether preventing or delaying first use of marijuana might reduce the risk of developing alcohol use disorders among some segments of the population may be worthwhile," Goodwin added.

The study was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
HASSAN: Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and son of Janata Dal (S) nominee for Halekote Zilla Panchayat seat, Bhavani Revanna, was accused of leading an attacking on a car belonging to a relative of Congress nominee Sunil at Halekote village on Friday night.

Mr Sunil told DC on Saturday that his uncle Mohan was parking his car at Halekote village around 9.30 pm when about 30-members came in cars and started attacking the car belonging to Mr Mohan. The attackers were allegedly led by Mr Prajwal Revanna.

At the time of the attack, Mr Mohan was not in the car but his driver was parking the vehicle when the group stormed in him. The driver ran for safety, he alleged. The windshield of the car was damaged following the attack.

Mr Sunil added that Mr Prajwal was overheard telling his supporters to smash Congress workers. The Congress nominee added that two more cars of his supporters also came under attack allegedly by JD (S) men in the vicinity.

Mr Mohan has lodged a complaint in Holenarsipur police station. Mr Prajwal Revanna, however, denied that he led the attacks on cars of supporters of the Congress nominee.

Four congress workers injured in clash

Four Congress workers were injured when they were attacked by JD(S) men with blades at a polling station at Santeshivara village in Hassan district on Saturday.

Official sources told Deccan Chronicle that a woman entered a polling booth to vote without carrying her voter ID. Booth agents of a party wanted to allow her to cast her vote while those of the other party objected to her voting without her voter ID card. This led to an altercation resulting in minor injuries to Congress workers.
The petition also claimed that police was "playing at the hands of some political parties under whom Delhi Police is working". (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: A petition filed in Delhi High Court on Saturday accused city police commissioner B S Bassi of "influencing" the probe in the sedition case against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and alleged that the police chief was "playing at the hands" of certain political parties.

The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on Monday, alleged that Bassi's statement to media that the police would not oppose Kanhaiya's bail plea, may influence fair and transparent investigation in the matter as well as court proceedings.

It also claimed that police was "playing at the hands of some political parties under whom Delhi Police is working" and said Bassi should be directed to clear his views on the statements given by him to the media on 16 and 17 February.

In his petition, city lawyer Satish Pandey claimed that the investigating officer cannot probe the case fairly in such a case when "undue influential pressure" is imposed by a high-ranking official like the police commissioner.

It also referred to Bassi's statement in which the police chief has said they were not giving a clean chit to Kanhaiya.

Seeking a direction to prohibit Bassi from influencing the probe, Pandey said the police should not be allowed to not oppose Kanhaiya's bail plea as other co-accused, who are on the run, may not be brought before the court if he gets bail.

"The charge of sedition and criminal conspiracy against the accused is not an individual offence but it is a public offence and every citizen of the nation are affected," he claimed.

Besides Bassi, Pandey has made Kanhaiya, the Centre and Delhi government as respondents.
BENGALURU: Has Chief Minister Siddaramaiah failed to adhere to the process of consultation as stipulated by the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, before proposing the name of Justice S.R. Nayak for the post of Lokayukta?

Former Advocate General and constitutional expert B.V. Acharaya told Deccan Chronicle that the Chief Minister has not held effective consultation with members of the panel before taking a decision to recommend the name of Justice Nayak to Governor Vajubhai Vala.

Acting Chief Justice S.K. Mukherjee did not attend the meeting on Friday, but recommend the name of Justice Vikramjit Sen.

Therefore, how could one arrive at a conclusion that Mr Siddaramaiah held effective consultation when he did not disclose Justice Nayaks name to Justice Mukherjee, he queried adding effective consultation means that each member in the committee must be informed about Justice Nayaks name and that name must be discussed elaborately.

If Justice Sens name cannot be considered by the committee, the reasons must be explained to all members. If the first name is rejected, the approved name (Justice Nayak) should be discussed effectively and Chief Minister should give the reason to the committee members.

In its verdict announced on January 11, 2013, the Supreme Court, which quashed the appointment of Upa Lokayukta Justice Chandrashekaraiah, clearly stated that the recommendation of the Chief Justice must be accepted, unless there are strong and cogent reasons for not doing so.The reasons would, naturally, have to be disclosed to the Chief Justice as a part of the process of consultation. It is also quite understandable that the Chief Justice would be the best person to assess the suitability of a person for appointment to such a position.

When the Chief Minister held a meeting of the consultative committee on Friday, acting Chief Justice S.K. Mukherjee suggested the name of former Supreme Court judge Vikramjit Sen, and so did Opposition leader in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar, Opposition leader in the Legislatitve Council K.S.Eshwarappa and Chairman of the Legislative Council D.H. Shankaramurthy. Mr Siddaramaiah, however, stuck to his choice and decided to recommend the name of Justice Nayak. Thus, the Chief Minister has ignored the apex court ruling in this instance.
The bus which was damaged when the cylinder burst (right) from a roadside shop on Saturday. (Photo: DC0

Coimbatore: A government bus was damaged and three of its passengers injured, when a gas cylinder burst from a roadside gas stove service shop in Coimbatore on Saturday.

The cylinder burst into flames when 44-year-old Mugrudheen who runs a gas stove service shop on Ukkadam-Karumbukadai road here, was repairing a gas stove and the gas started to leak after the regulator had developed a fault.

Even as the fire quickly spread, Mugrudheens efforts to separate the cylinder from the stove was of no avail, as he apparently forgot to turn off its regulator, police said.

The flames, which spread to the cylinder nozzle, turned intense, releasing the pressure outside. Seeing this Mugrudheen got panic and kicked the burning cylinder out of his shop, which came rolling outside like a huge ball of flame.

Even as people nearby ran helter-skelter and shopkeepers downed shutters, the fire triggered panic among the passing motorists as well, sources said.

A town bus, which was heading to Eddimadai from Gandhipuram, approaching the spot was hit by the cylinder shell that flew out and smashed the vehicles front glass panes, sources said.

Smattering glass pieces also hit three women passengers seated near the window, but they escaped with minor injuries.

Mugrudheen at once escaped from the spot leaving his shop open. Shopkeepers of Karumbukadai rescued the passengers and sent them to GH for first aid. Vehicular traffic on the road was blocked for 15 minutes.

Police on information rushed to the spot, cleared the traffic and also lodged a complaint against Mugrudheen. A search for the missing accused is on.
Bank had alleged that the board of directors had committed various offences (Photo credit: m.mcb.mu)

Hyderabad: The XII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Hyderabad on Saturday issued summons to the board of directors of Sujana Universal Industries Ltd including Union minister Y.S. Chowdary, who is now a non-executive director of the company, based on a complaint moved by the Mauritius Commercial Bank.

In its complaint, the bank had alleged that the board of directors had committed various offences under the Indian Penal Code, including fraudulently removing property.

The board of directors did so in order to prevent distribution among creditors despite the courts order to disclose the details of all its assets including details of all bank accounts.

The bank further alleged that this was done in an attempt to defeat the legitimate claims of the bank that is pursuing an execution of a United Kingdom High Court Order against Sujana Industries.

However, the bank submitted that company had stood as guarantor for the loan which has availed for Mauritius-based Hestia Holdings Ltd which is its subsidiary and the company has to repay Rs 106 crore to it.

The court ordered summons by directing the board of directors to appear before it on March 5.
Centre has asked the Haryana government to ensure that water supply to Delhi was not disrupted. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: With the agitation by the Jats in Haryana showing no signs of subsiding, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to meet the leaders from the community yet again on Sunday. The Jat and Khap leaders from Haryana will meet Rajnath at his residence at 3 pm.

Meanwhile, Centre asked the Haryana government to ensure that water supply to Delhi was not disrupted.

The Centre on Sunday asked the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government to ensure that the water supply to the national capital is not disrupted. Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha today again reviewed the situation in Haryana arising out of the Jat agitation.

Read: Jat quota stir: Situation remains tense in Haryana as toll touches 8

Sinha spoke to Chief Secretary, Haryana, in a video conference along with the concerned Central Government Ministries.

"Cabinet Secretary said that water supply to Delhi should be the top priority and all measures should be taken to ensure that no disruption in water supply takes place. He directed the authorities to take stringent action against those indulging in violence and other anti-social activities," Government of India spokesperson Frank Noronha said.

Protesters blocked highways as the army deployed more personnel to control the situation. (Photo: Twitter)

The agitating members of the Jat community have been demanding their inclusion in the OBC category and thereby reservation in government jobs.

After the meeting yesterday, the delegation had said that they were waiting for the formation of a committee which would review the reservation demands of their community.

"We had four demands; compensation for those who have died, return of complain, the reservation should be implemented and we demand action on the officers who have ordered firing," a Jat leader told the media after the meeting.

Read: Jat stir: Khattar accepts demands, asks protestors to end agitation

"They have told us that they would be forming a committee by tomorrow which would review the reservation demand," he added.

When asked about their course of action, the Jat leaders said they await the formation of the committee as assured by the government.

Read: Reservation row: Jat stir may singe Delhi too as Haryana remains on boil

The Jats leaders appealed to the people of Haryana to maintain peace in the region, saying violence would not lead to any solution.

Meanwhile, former Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda is on a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi, as an appeal to the protesting Jat community to maintain law and order and call off the agitation.
Buses were set on fire as the Jat agitation for reservation intensified in Sonipat. (Photo: PTI)

Chandigarh: At least eight people were killed and 78 others injured as situation today continued to remain tense in several parts of Haryana, which was hit by Jat quota stir after it turned violent even as security personnel staged flag marches in affected areas.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda began his indefinite hunger as he called for peace and harmony in the state.

Despite various political leaders including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing protesting Jats to maintain calm and peace, the incidents of violence and arson continued during the night in various parts of the state, crippling the normal life in worst affected places like Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar.

Read: Reservation row: Jat stir may singe Delhi too as Haryana remains on boil

Protesters last night set on fire an ATM of a bank and burnt official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu of Bhiwani district.

As violence and arson spread to several parts of Haryana state, the Haryana government has sought additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force and more columns of Army to be deployed in the state to control the ongoing agitation in the state.

As many as 15 companies of India Reserve Battalion and Haryana Armed Police, three companies of paramilitary forces and two columns of Army have already been deployed.

Read: Jat stir: Khattar accepts demands, asks protestors to end agitation

So far six persons have been killed in firing by security personnel to quell arson and firing" by the protesters while 154 First Information Reports have been registered.

As Haryana remained on the boil, curfew had been clamped in Rohtak, Bhiwani , Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat , Gohana towns of Sonipat district.

The road and rail traffic through Haryana and destined to neighboring states, including Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Chandigarh remained disrupted with authorities cancelling bus and train services on most routes in the wake of continuing blockade.

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 800 trains, and seven stations including in the state were set on fire by the agitators.

Jhajjar, Buddha Khera, Julana and Pillu Kheda were among the seven stations which were set afire.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday asked agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands", but did not elaborate. But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.

Read: More than 800 trains hit due to Jat stir

The Jat stir has severely hit the movement of more than 800 trains, and seven stations were set on fire by the agitators.

Jhajjar, Buddha Khera, Julana and Pillu Kheda were among the seven stations which were set afire.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India suspended operations at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar as component supplies have been hit by the agitation of Jats demanding job reservation.

Read: Jat quota stir turns violent, top BJP leaders in a huddle to discuss crisis

Appealing to protesters to end their stir, Khattar had yesterday asked the agitators to "return to their homes as the Government has accepted their demands".

But several Jat leaders refused to call off the pro-quota agitation unless the government promulgated an ordinance to include the community in the OBC category.

Read: Jat quota: Shoot-at-sight orders issued in Haryanas curfew-bound cities
Delhi/Rohtak: Ten persons have been killed and about 150 injured during the ongoing Jat stir, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal said Sunday even as he underlined that his priority was to restore water supply to Delhi and clear road and rail blockades.

"According to the information we have so far, in entire state 10 people have been killed and about 150 injured," he said.

Read: Jat stir: Ensure water supply to Delhi is not disrupted, Centre to Haryana govt

According to police sources, four persons injured yesterday in firing in Jhajjar succumbed to injuries last night, taking the death toll to 10.

The 10 killed belonged to Jhajjar, Rohtak and Kaithal districts.

Read: Jat stir: SC to hear petition moved by Delhi govt tomorrow

In the wake of continued violence by agitating Jats, additional 1,700 paramilitary troops have been sent to Haryana, taking the total number of central armed police personnel deployed in the troubled state to 5,000.

"We have sent 17 more companies of paramilitary personnel in addition to 33 companies sent in last three days," a senior Home Ministry official said.

A company of a paramilitary force comprises about 100 personnel.

Read: Jat stir: Khattar accepts demands, asks protestors to end agitation

The additional forces have been sent following a request by the Haryana government, which is grappling with the situation arising out of the violence following the Jat stir for quota in government jobs.

During a telephonic conversation with Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar on Friday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured all assistance to the state government to deal with the situation.

Read: Jat stir cripples rail services, over 1000 trains affected

National Crisis Management Committee, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, has also assured Haryana government that there would be no dearth or delay in sending any assistance, including central forces.

Incidents of violence and arson continued overnight in the state with the Jat protesters setting on fire an ATM and records of a cooperative bank in Bhiwani district even as the Army staged flag marches in tense areas. Six people have been killed in the violence.

Read: Jat quota protest reaches UP, security stepped up

Despite various leaders, including the Haryana Chief Minister, appealing to the Jats to maintain peace, there was no let up in the protests which have disrupted normal life in Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Hisar.
Delhi: Buckling under pressure from agitating Jats, BJP on Sunday announced that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session and a high-powered committee will be set up to examine the quota demand for the community in central jobs.



BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jail also appealed to the Jats who have been protesting in Haryana to call off their agitation, which has badly hit life in the region, and return to their homes as their demands have been met.



"A bill will be brought in the coming session of the Haryana Assembly for granting OBC status to the Jats in the state," Jain said after a Jat delegation had an hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Read: Jat stir: 2 more killed, toll climbs to 12, more than 150 injured

Haryana is ruled by a BJP government headed by M L Khattar.



Jain said a high-powered committee headed by a senior Union Minister will be set up today to look into the demand of reservation of jobs in central government for the Jats.



"The composition of the Committee will be announced by the BJP President (Amit Shah)," he said.



Those who attended the meeting with the Home Minister include Jat leaders from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi besides Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Haryana Minister Abhimanyu, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, former Deputy Chief of Army Lt Gen (Retd) Raj Kandyan etc.

Read: Jat stir: Ensure water supply to Delhi is not disrupted, Centre to Haryana govt

After the meeting with the Home Minister, Jat Sangharsh Samiti leader Jaipal Sing Sangwan said the discussion was very positive and he was confident that the community would accept the decisions.



"We appeal to everyone to call off the agitation," he said.



However, another leader of the Jat Sangharsh Samiti Rajesh Dahiya said a decision on calling off the agitation would be taken by the community later.

Haryana was on the edge on Sunday as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day so far claiming 10 lives.

Read: Jat stir: SC to hear petition moved by Delhi govt tomorrow

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed big traffic jams in some parts.

Ten persons have been killed and about 150 injured during the ongoing Jat stir, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal said even as claimed that steps were being taken to restore water supply to Delhi and clear road and rail blockades.



"According to the information we have so far, in the entire state 10 people have been killed and about 150 injured," he said.

Road and rail traffic through Haryana destined for North India from Delhi side remained disrupted with bus and train services remaining suspended. In the wake of shooting air fares airlines announced additional flights to Chandigarh and Amritsar today.

Read: Jat stir cripples rail services, over 1000 trains affected

Curfew was imposed in Kaithal city in the wake of ongoing Jat agitation after tension erupted in the town due to protests by Jats and tussle between Jats and non-Jats.

Members of the Jat community, under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union, block traffic demanding reservation, in Rajabpur village of Amroha district. (Photo: PTI)



With this, now Kaithal has become ninth city where curfew has been clamped after Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana town of Sonipat district.



While several roads have been blocked in Kaithal, protesting Jats have put up a tent in the middle of Hissar- Chandigarh national highway to express their anger for not being included in OBC category.



Markets, shops and commercial establishments remained shut in the wake of violent protest unleashed by agitating Jats.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress leaders are shooting off their mouths ahead of the Assembly elections sowing seeds of confusion among the ranks.

After UDF convener P. P. Thankachan said that Congress leaders who have been contesting elections for four times should not be given seats, KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran has warned the leaders against making public statements.

But some Congress leaders say privately that newcomers, Youth Congress and women leaders should be given more representation.

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told reporters that it was for the AICC to decide who would lead the party in the elections and who would contest. Mr Thankachan belongs to the I group and Mr Sudheeran sensed danger in his statement.

Leaders should abstain from making public statements which would affect the chances of the party in the elections, said Mr Sudheeran in a statement.

Mr. Thankachan later retracted his statement and said it was the responsibility of the high command to decide on the candidature list. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy along with Mr Sudheeran and Mr Chennithala are scheduled to hold talks with AICC leadership on Monday.

A prominent KPCC general secretary told DC that an outline of the seat-sharing between the Congress and the allies would be worked out during the first round of talks. But Congress leaders, especially the A faction, are worried over Mr Thankachans formula.

Those who have contested the polls the maximum number of times include ministers Aryadan Muhammed (8 times), K. C. Joseph (6) and K. Babu (5) of the A faction and Adoor Prakash (4) of the I faction; Therambil Ramakrishnan (6-I), Dominic Presentation (5-A), Speaker N. Sakthan (4-I) K. Achuthan (4- A), V. D. Satheeshan (3- I), T. N. Prathapan (3-A) and Varkala Kahar (3-A). Mr Aryadan and Mr Achuthan have announced that they are not keen to contest again, but the rest are hopeful of being in the fray again.
The man threw a 'packet' on to the stage which fell short of the chief minister Siddaramaiah. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Bengaluru: In a security scare, a man on Sunday hurled a packet, claiming it was a bomb, at a stage when Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Minister Ananth Kumar and former Chief Justice M N Venkatachaliah were present there.

A man seated on the balcony of Ravindra Kalakshetra auditorium here suddenly stood up as Siddaramaih started to speak and shouted, "What have you done to our community? Tell that first."

He then threw the "plastic packet" on to the stage which fell short of the chief minister and lay close to where Kumar and Venkatachaliah were seated, police said.

Security personnel present on stage soon cleared the packet and the man was whisked away from the auditorium by police even as he continued questioning the CM.

Police found chocolates in the plastic bag (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Police said the packet contained chocolate wrappers and the man was being questioned.

"According to preliminary information, the man has been identified as B S Prasad and works with the Forest Division of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike?(BBMP)," said Sandeep Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division) Bengaluru City.

Stating that police are in the process of collecting information about him from BBMP and also his family members, Patil added the man's responses to police questions were peculiar.

"He is saying that he wants to become Member of Rajya Sabha so he had come there. We are gathering information about him and his activities," Patil said.

Speaking to reporters after the function, Siddaramaiah denied that the incident was a security breach, saying "such incidents are common in a democracy."

"I don't know which caste he belongs to, whichever caste is depressed and oppressed we are working for them. Such things are common in a democracy. I have seen such things several times," Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister said he felt there might be someone who instigated the man as otherwise he did not see the need for him to behave in such a manner.

Asked whether it was a security breach, he said, "who will know when so many people have come here? What can be done if someone comes as a citizen? Such things are common in democracy or else how can it be democracy?"
Hyderabad: Talari Gangadhar, a Nizamabad native, on Saturday moved the SHRC, alleging that the death of his son T. Satyam was not due to an accident, but it was a preplanned murder by Armoor MLA A. Jeevan Reddy. However, the MLA rubbished the charges, saying the allegation was politically motivated. In his petition, Mr Gangadhar alleged that in spite of approaching the police that his son faced a threat from the MLA, no action was taken to safeguard his life.

The commission directed the DGP to submit a report by April 21. Satyam had contested from the Armoor Assembly constituency in the 2014 general elections and had later lodged a complaint with the Election Commission that Mr Jeevan Reddy did not furnish details of cases registered against him in his election affidavit. Since the EC did not act on his complaint, he filed a petition in the High Court which is pending.

According to Mr Gangadhar, after his poll victory, the MLA started harassing Satyam and managed to get the police pick him up and torture him for one full night. In December, Satyam filed a petition with the SHRC, seeking protection from the MLA, Armoor DSP A. Ram Reddy and one A. Suresh Reddy. Mr Gangadhar in his complaint, said on the day of his sons death in an accident on January 9, the MLA had said that he would offer Satyam as sacrifice to Ambedkar.

The same evening, Satyam was killed when a truck hit the bike he was riding. However, Mr Jeevan Reddy said, I am nowhere involved in the incident, I have said this many times over. Since the case is under investigation, I will not comment on it. Police said that the case was under investigation and all eyewitnesses are being examined. Armoor inspector is investigating the case and I am only the supervising officer. I am nowhere involved in the issue and the allegations are baseless, said DSP A. Ramreddy. The SHRC directed the TS DGP to submit a detailed report by April 21.
Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari with Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P.J. Kurien at an all-party meeting ahead of the Budget Session at Parliament House in Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Saturday closed ranks over the JNU row, but offered conditional support only for the passage of essential bills, as Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari held an all-party meeting aimed at ensuring its smooth functioning in the Budget Session, beginning next week.

The government conveyed to the Opposition that it is ready to discuss all issues. There are indications that the session could be stormy, with the Opposition set to corner the Modi government over various issues, including the JNU row, Pathankot airbase attack and the dalit scholars suicide in Hyderebad University.

The government is in minority in the Upper House, as a result of which many of its key bills, including the GST bill, remain pending.

Meanwhile, the Opposition agreed to the governments proposal that a bill which gives voting rights to people who became Indian citizens with effect from July 31 last following exchange of enclaves with Bangladesh, would be passed at the earliest. Assembly elections in West Bengal are due in the next two months.

The bill, Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to amend Section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, allow EC to hold limited delimitation exercise in West Bengal.

Mr Jaitley brought up the matter during the meeting and the parties agreed. Once passed, the bill will enable the EC to carry out limited delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal following the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi and 111 Indian enclaves in July last year.
BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the alleged multi-crore extortion and corruption rackets in the Lokayukta, has finally sought government permission to prosecute former Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao in the alleged scandal and for dereliction of duty among several other charges.

The SIT has sent a letter requesting government permission to the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (DP&AR), sources told this newspaper.

The letter, which was sent 10 days ago, is being examined by the DP&AR before they submit it to the Chief Secretary, the Chief Minister and finally the Governor, who is the ultimate authority to grant or deny permission to prosecute the former Lokayukta.

The DP&AR two days ago received the letter from the SIT seeking permission to prosecute former Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao. The letter is being examined for further procedure, said an official source. Though the letter is yet to be submitted to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his approval, he has been informed about the development.

It is too early and difficult to confirm whether the CM will grant his approval before it is sent to the Governor for his sanction to prosecute Justice Rao," the officer added.

The SIT has reportedly charged Justice Rao with abetting the alleged extortion and corruption rackets, which were reportedly run by his son Y. Ashwin, who is the prime accused in all the five First Information Reports (FIRs) and subsequent chargesheets that have been submitted by the SIT.

Though Justice Rao has been enlisted as a witness in three of the five cases, the SIT will chargesheet him after the government grants them sanction to do so. There is a provision in law that anyone, including a complainant, can be chargesheeted in a case even if his name does not appear in the FIR, provided the investigating team has sufficient prosecutable evidence against him," the officer added source on condition of anonymity.

The SIT sleuths had grilled the former Lokayukta in September last year at his residence in Hyderabad, while he was on leave, and had recorded his statement as a witness. Justice Rao had reportedly told the investigating officers that he had no personal knowledge of the racket that was allegedly operated by his son in connivance with the former joint commissioner and public relations officer, Lokayukta, Syed Riyaz, and other accused, including V. Bhaskar, Ashok Kumar, M.B. Sivarame Gowda and V. Shankare Gowda. The team has arrested 11 accused in the case so far.

The corruption scandal unfolded in May last year, when the then superintendent of police (city wing) Sonia Narang had sent a written complaint to the Lokayukta after Bengaluru urban Zilla Panchayat executive engineer M.N. Krishnamurthy complained to her about it. The SP had later registered the first FIR - 56/1158 in the special Lokayukta court.

The case was handed over to the SIT after Justice Rao wrote to the government that the probe should be handed to an external agency and not the Lokayukta police.
Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Coming out in support of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, students and teachers of several international universities, including those from University of California and Yale, are narrating his "seditious" speech in English and uploading their videos online.

Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, says in a video, "I have never been a student of JNU but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiya's seditious speech.

"Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for Universities are there for critical analysis of the society's collective conscience.

Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting," Newbigin says in the video quoting from Kanhaiya's speech.

Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley say in joint video, "We challenge the RSS's definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights."

Asserting if Kanhaiya's speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continues with her narration from the transcript of Kanhaiya's speech.

"Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill? "They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country.

They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism," she says.

Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

While the students and teachers supporting Kanhaiya have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26 minute speech rendered a day later.
The maida and flour used for making these noodles are date-expired and are unfit for human consumption. The gangs purchase them from shops at throw away prices.

Hyderabad: With Baba Ramdevs Patanjali noodles gaining popularity through massive advertisements crooks in Hyderabad are selling fake noodles carrying the Patanjali label. The duplicate products are being sold through some wholesale shops in Begum Bazaar and small provision shops.

An illegal noodle manufacturing unit in the Alwal area was raided by the Cyberabad Special Operation Team (SOT) on Saturday. This is the third fake noodles factory detected by the police so far.

A major part of the fake noodles has been cooked and sold by street fast food vendors across the city, police officials said.

The maida and flour used for making these noodles are date-expired and are unfit for human consumption. They are collecting date expired items from shop owners at throwaway prices and are manufacturing noodles with machines. The gangs do not possess any licence or certification from competent authorities, said SOT chief E. Ramachandra Reddy.

Senior officials said the offenders are trying to exploit the vacuum in the noodles market created by the Maggi controversy. They sell the duplicate product at much cheaper rates than Nestle and Pathanjali.

Since GHMC officials are inactive these gangs are having a free run. Duplicate noodles are being sold in the market since many months now. Many roadside fast food vendors are using these noodles deliberately, said a senior Cyderabad police official.

The fake noodles sold in the market are 15% to 20% per cent cheaper than the original ones. Police said that if a customer closely examines the packets of these noodles he or she can identify them by the crude way of packing and labelling.

After a raid at the manufacturing unit of Ritika Foods at Kanajiguda in Alwal, police seized around a 1,000 kg of noodles and raw materials used for making them from the suspects. The Hyderabad Commiss-ioners Task Force team raided an illegal manufacturing unit in Shareef Nagar in the third week of December and seized 700 kg of packed noodles and 1,500 kg of maida. Just a week after that raid the SOT of the Cyberabad police busted a unit at Rampally in Keesra and confiscated 800 kg noodles and a huge quantity of raw materials.
Hyderabad: Last week, the Cyberabad Special Operation Team (SOT) raided an adulterated coconut oil manufacturing unit at Miyapur. The unit had been mixing palm and mineral oil with coconut oil and refilling it in branded bottles. Tests have proved that mineral oil causes hair loss.

Two days ago the SOT raided an adulterated ghee manufacturing unit at Shamirpet and seized 3,000 litres of palm oil and 1,500 kg vanaspati.

The adulterators were mixing these things in pure ghee and packing it in containers carrying the names of well-known brands like Vijaya. Adulterated ghee affects the human digestion system and causes gastric problems.

Last year, the Cyberabad police raided several adulterated tomato and chilli sauce units in Pahadisharif. The culprits were using rotten chillies.

Lab tests found that the seized tomato ketchup had been prepared with decomposed potato, pulp of decomposed pumpkin, benzene, artificial porridge powder and chemicals to give red colour. These ingredients can affect health and the colour can cause cancer.

Several gangs in and around the city have been adulterating essential commodities like chilli powder, turmeric powder, edible oil and other commodities with harmful chemicals.

Professor P. Radha Rani of the resource management & consumer sciences department of the Home Science College told DC how commodities were being adulterated and of the adverse impact it had on human health. She said the department of resource management & consumer sciences had developed a kit, available at nominal cost, for testing commodities for adulteration.

Look out for deadly adulterants:

Here is how essential items are adulterated and how you can detect whether they are pure or contains harmful adulterants that can affect health.

Chilli powder is adulterated with sawdust, brick-powder and chemicals. Artificial colours lead to cancers. Sawdust and brick-powder impact the digestion system and the kidneys. One can test for adulteration by mixing a spoon of chilli powder in a glass of water. Original chilli powder will mix in the water while sawdust will float and brick powder will sink to the bottom of the container.

Turmeric powder is adulterated with rice-flour, sawdust and metnil yellow colour. Adulterated turmeric has the same impact on our bodies as adulterated chilli powder. The same method can be adopted for testing turmeric for adulteration.

Pepper is adulterated with papaya seeds. Mix a tablespoon of pepper in a glass of water. The pepper should settle in the bottom while the papaya seeds will not.

Coriander powder is also adulterated with sawdust. The method used in the case of chilli powder can be adopted to test for adulterants.

Tea powder Loose tea powder can be adulterated with sawdust. Adulterators mix artificial colour along with some flavours. With the help of the kit developed by the Home Science College, one can test tea powder for adulteration.

Coconut oil is being adulterated with palm oil and mineral oil. Mineral oil causes hair loss. To detect adulteration, keep the oil in the refrigerator. Pure coconut oil will solidify while mineral oil wont.

Vegetable oil is adulterated with cactus oil, palm oil and non-edible oils. Adulterated edible oil affects the human heart, stomach and digestion systems.

Sugar is adulterated with washing soda and chalk powder. This impacts the stomach. Mix a spoon of sugar in hydrochloric acid. If it is not pure, fumes will come out. Later, add water to the mixture and dip a red litmus paper. If the paper turns blue the sugar is adulterated. The colour of the paper wont change if the sugar is not adulterated.

Kit to detect adulterated commodities

The Home Science College in Saifabad has developed a kit to identify adulterated commodities.

Professor Dr P. Radha Rani of the Department of Resources Manag-ement & Consumer Sciences told DC that the kit comprised tools, test tubes and chemicals including hydrochloric acid, iodine, carbon tetrachloride, diethyl ether, furfural, nitric acid, magnet, filter papers, magnitude glass, red litmus paper and other tools. She said that anyone can test food items for adulterants using the kit.
Hundreds of people, including ex-servicemen, under the banner March for Unity to Save the Country, participate in a march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar on Sunday against alleged anti-national activities at JNU. (Photo: Biplab Banerjee)

New Delhi: As many as 890 security personnel in uniform along with 27 senior officers, including a deputy commissioner of police, failed to prevent assault on JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, students, teachers and journalists on February 17 at the Patiala House courts complex in the national capital.

The men in uniform, posted for security measures in the court complex, were not only from the Delhi police, but also from the CRPF and the ITBP.

Read: JNU row: Family fears for Kanhaiya's life, demand police protection

Mr Kumar was assaulted despite a posse of 40 police personnel, including 15 men in plainclothes, escorting him to ensure his safety in a cavalcade of six vehicles from the Vasant Kunj police station to the city court.

The details related to the deployment of security personnel at the court complex are part of a report prepared by the Delhi police.

Report silent on Kanhaiya injury

A copy of the report, accessed by this newspaper, has revealed there were as many as 275 personnel from the CRPF, including three assistant commandants and three inspectors; 70 personnel from the Indo-Tibet Border Police, including one assistant commandant and one inspector; 150 Delhi police personnel, including 15 inspectors and six assistant commissioners of police besides others in the court complex.

The report, prepared by New Delhi range joint commissioner of police Mukesh Kumar Meena, said during repeated assault attempts by groups of lawyers on the student union leader 10 policemen were also injured.

The report said that a group of lawyers, who had already assembled inside the court complex, tried to assault Mr Kumar from different sides.

The ring round team and policemen deployed on the route surrounded him from all sides and gave body protection and thwarted repeated atte-mpts to manhandle the accused. Lot of commotion followed, but he was escorted safely to the court room by the policemen despite some hiccups.

Strangely, the report has not given any details about the injuries which were received by Mr Kumar in the assault by lawyers.
Consumers are being asked to submit declaration forms at gas agencies as the Centre, in December 2015, decided to withdraw LPG subsidy for consumers with income of more than Rs 10 lakh per annum. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Oil marketing companies have started collecting annual income declaration forms from domestic LPG consumers.

Consumers are being asked to submit declaration forms at gas agencies as the Centre, in December 2015, decided to withdraw LPG subsidy for consumers with income of more than Rs 10 lakh per annum. However, it is yet to come into force with no guidelines issued to the gas agencies.

Consumers of BPCL, HPCL and IOC in Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh are receiving SMS for the last five days.

However, the declaration is voluntary till now. The SMS from the oil companies read: If your/spouse income is above Rs 10 lakh, LPG subsidy is not admissible as per government directive. If so, please submit a declaration to your distributor or at www.mylpg.in.

OMC officials said the annual income included that of the consumer and his/her spouse.

Firms have no plan to seek I-T data

State coordinator for OMCs Madhukar Ingole said, The income declaration form has been posted on OMCs website. Consumers have to take a print out, fill in the details and submit at gas agencies.

He added, We have been sending messages to consumers in TS and AP from February 16. Those having incomes of over Rs 10 lakh are not eligible for subsidy. Sending messages is one of the initiatives to implement the governments decision.

The OMCs will also send voice messages to consumers who book LPG refills through IVRS from March 1. He said consumers who had registered for the GiveItUp initiative to give up the subsidy voluntarily, need not make the income declaration even if their income was above Rs 10 lakh.

Under GiveItUp, consumers have the option to again avail the subsidy by opting out, but there is no going back once the income declaration is made. A consumer is entitled to 12 cylinders of 14.2 kg each a year at the subsidised rate.

When asked what action would be initiated against consumers who failed to give income declarations, Mr Ingole said, As of now it is not mandatory. There is no proposal to seek income details of consumers based on PAN and I-T returns. It all depends on how the Centre goes about it in the future.
Hyderabad: While the Telugu Desam wants to grow into a national party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the ruling party in Telangana, is trying its best to to confine it to Andhra Pradesh.

The TD recently appointed separate presidents for its AP and Telangana units, and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was designated national president of the party.

To expand its footprint, the TD decided to contest state and general elections in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other states. While this is so, the TRS is encroaching on the TDs turf in Telangana, which is a vital element in its national plans.

After Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam has a strong base only in Telangana; the party cadre has to be developed in other states.

In fact in the undivided state, the TD cadre was stronger in the Telangana region than in Seemandhra. region.

The TRS is trying to wipe the TD out of TS by admitting its MLAs and strong leaders. The TD has no MLC left in Telangana, all of them having been absorbed into the TRS.

Of the 15 TD MLAs elected in 2014, only five are with the party. Some of the remaining five may jump ship soon. The erosion resulted in the TD winning just one of the 150 seats in the recent GHMC elections.

With no base elsewhere, the Telugu Desam could soon be confined to AP as a regional party. Perhaps vexed with this, Mr Naidu has told Telangana TD leaders that he has no time and needs to focus on Andhra Pradesh issues.

But then, if Mr Naidu does not spare the time for the Telangana unit, there is no other leader who has the strength or the wherewithal to revive the party.
Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday that the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir will not take time if the people of the State are made stakeholders in peace process and she is convinced that she can "fulfill the dreams" of her late father and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

She said only time can tell" when asked by reporters if there was any forward movement in talks between her party and alliance partner BJP for government formation in the State. Ms. Mufti had had an one-on-one meeting with BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav here earlier this week.

Madhav, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance, had arrived here from Delhi in a chartered plane at 5 PM on Wednesday and straightway drove to Fairview, the official residence of Ms. Mufti, and after holding the meeting with her, flew back to the national capital late that night. Though both the alliance partners had tried to keep it a closely guarded secret, former Chief Minister and National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah, broke news on Twitter.com.

Mr. Mufti is likely to hold another round of talks with Mr. Madhav and also meet other senior BJP leaders in Delhi next week to discuss the government formation issue as she is flying to the national capital on Monday to attend the budget session of Parliament.

She said, "The Parliament session is starting on Feb 23. Im going to attend it. Ive asked questions. She, however, was not sure if the Opposition would allow Parliament to function smoothly. "There are issues like JNU, which is unfortunate, Haryana (Jat agitation), we don't know what will happen in Parliament," she said.

Earlier while speaking at a function here at which PDPs state-wide membership drive was launched, Ms. Mufti without mentioning BJP said that alighting with the saffron party was a sacrifice on part of her father and PDP patron Mr. Sayeed. Yes, it was sacrifice on part of my father but he would never make U-turns, she asserted adding My father never ran after power and chair. These things did not matter for him but he worked for people and for that he would never tread easy paths.

She said, Ive been listening for last one and a half months about government formation but I want to tell all of them that if the mission, vision and agenda of Mufti Sahib are taken forward, government formation will take no time. But amid encounters, killings it is not possible.  She added, If we feel, we can fulfill the dreams of Mufti Sahib then only it is worth it. If the situation continues as it is, then my inheritance (the people of the state) is enough for me."

Asking people not to lose hope, she said, My father symbolised hope and satisfaction. His legacy is not chief ministers chair but the people of J&K. She also said, Mufti Sahib did not care for power and when he was asked about his joining hands with BJP and the costs it had for PDP, he replied there will be no loss, another party may win next elections but I want to work for my people. 

She said, Our party has established clear political priorities and we would continue our struggle to seek resolution of the multiple problems faced by Jammu and Kashmir on political, economic, administrative and financial fronts. PDP, she asserted, set forth on an affirmative journey in 1999 under the leadership of Mr. Sayeed to change the course of Jammu and Kashmir for better.

She said the Pathankot terror attack seems to have proved a spanner in the renewed peace efforts with Pakistan but expressed the hope that New Delhi and Islamabad would continue to try to narrow differences as it was the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have and continue to suffer the most because of the hostility in the region.
Vijayawada: Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said here on Saturday that the ruling TD would take like-minded people into the party. Speaking to the media here, Naidu said such people would strengthen the party by taking up developmental programmes at village level.

Reacting to a question, the CM said if the YSRC has guts, it should move a No Confidence motion against his ministry in the state assembly.

Naidu said the Opposition had no right to criticise his family members and their businesses. He said his family was involved in the Heritage dairy business but they were alongside doing public service by helping the poor. His family members including himself have been announcing their assets every year, he said.

The CM said the Opp-osition YSRCs leader was involved in corruption. He was campaigning against the government through his newspaper, which was esta-blished with corrupted money and it was also under attachment. The government would seize the property after the attachment bill got the nod in Parliament.

The TD had announ-ced the same in its manifesto, Naidu said. Besides, the CM said, his governments main priority was to complete the irrigation projects on time. Already, the government had given wa-ter for one crore acres and it would supply wa-ter for an additional 40 lakh acres next year.

The state would get 100 TMC water from Godavari from next year for use of farmers. Naidu said the Congress had looted project funds without completing even a single project. He promised to complete the Pattiseema project by 2018.

During the day, the CM welcomed 40 Sarpanches from the YSRC in Guntur district, into the TD fold.
Meeting people at a party a couple of evenings ago, I was taken aback by a question one of them asked: Do you think its internal sabotage? I was surprised because I hadnt thought about the Jawaharlal Nehru University imbroglio in that way. But it certainly made me pause. Only for a moment though, because the idea is not only preposterous but it also gives credit for too much intelligence to one side.

The theory being propounded was this: Before the start of each parliamentary session, a controversy erupts, which has the political Opposition up in arms against the government. The net result is that the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sessions that follow get completely dominated by the latest agitation, and no business is transacted and no bills passed. Is it just a coincidence, the industrialist friend asked earnestly, that this happens every single time?

Who would want to sabotage the National Democratic Alliances development programme from inside? The only possible saboteur would be the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, but why would it when it seems to be having its way completely in running this government? If you look at the JNU controversy, the two main architects (sorry my architect friends, no insult intended), are home minister Rajnath Singh and minister for human resources development Smriti Irani.

Both are staunchly RSS, and both seem to have the full support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in what they do, and what they do not do. Given their performance in their jobs in the past year and a half, their bungling of the present crisis is entirely consistent with their capabilities.

If ever, our IIMs get down to introducing capsules on political management, the happenings at JNU would form an ideal How Not To segment. Lets recap the sequence of events at JNU. The Democratic Students Union (DSU) asked for permission to hold a pro-Afzal Guru cultural event. This was granted by the vice-chancellor. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (the BJPs student wing) objected. The V-C, showing complete lack of guts, then withdrew permission, and did so just a few minutes before the event was to be held. DSU then said, ok, we will move our meeting to the campus canteen.

There are two questions to ask here. Was the DSU right in asking for an event related to Afzal Guru? After all, he was hanged for the terrorist attack on Parliament, so wasnt the students union being unpatriotic? I am not sure about unpatriotic; however, one can certainly say the students were being insensitive and even provocative.

However, in the case of Afzal Guru, there is caveat: Many people believe he should not have been hanged. This includes the Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling party in Kashmir in a coalition with the BJP, which called Afzals hanging a travesty of justice. It follows, then, that if the DSU is guilty of being anti-national, so, by association, is the BJP.

Why has the Afzal Guru hanging agitated such a diverse group of people? It shouldnt, right-wing nationalists will tell you stridently (their usual conversational tone), because he had confessed. They conveniently omit to mention that the Supreme Court itself rejected this so-called confession.

The court said that the language and tenor of the confessional statement (suggest that) it was a tailor-made statement. In short, the court was saying that the confession was coerced. The Supreme Court also found lapses and violations of procedural safeguards in the evidence. Why, then, was Afzal Guru found guilty? Because of overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Would circumstantial evidence alone be enough to hang a person?

The answer would be a definite No in almost all cases. Therein lies the feeling of sympathy for Afzal Guru  he should have been jailed for life, not given capital punishment. Now tell me, is debate on this subject not a permissible one in any democracy? If students discuss a subject like this, is it not part of their education? I remember a famous Oxford University debate: the subject was My country, right or wrong. It was hotly debated, and widely reported, but no one said that one half of the debating team was anti-national.

Coming back to the JNU, the meeting continued at the campus canteen (also called the dhaba) and, not surprisingly, ABVP members barged in, resulting in slogan shouting from both sides. If you havent seen scenes like this in colleges, you havent been to a college. But what followed was not commonplace.

Some of the slogans that were now heard were unacceptable: Bharat ki Barbaadi, Pakistan Zindabad and other which were anti-India, pro-Afzal and pro-Pakistan. DSU office bearers insist that none of them were responsible, that a group of Kashmiri outsiders (none of them students) did all the shouting. Others believe that ABVP members were the provocateurs, deliberately shouting anti-India slogans to defame the DSU. Who is telling the truth? Surely, that should be the focus of any inquiry.

Where does Kanhaiya Kumar come in? The JNU Students Union (JNUSU) presidents speech, which resulted in him being charged with sedition, is now widely available online. In it, he has said things like: If anyone tries to challenge the Constitution, be it the Sanghis, we will not tolerate it We dont need certificate of patriotism from the RSS. We fight for 80 per cent of the poor population of this country. For us, this is nation worship We stand for equal rights. We stand for the right to live. Rohith Vemula (the dalit student who committed suicide in Hyderabad) had to lose his life to stand for these rights Most importantly,

Mr Kumars speech contained the sentence. JNUSU doesnt support any violence, any terrorist, and any anti-India activity, condemns slogans of Pakistan Zindabad! Now, where on earth is sedition there? If anything, Mr Kumars speech is intensely patriotic. Sensing this, a version said to be heavily doctored, is getting play on the Internet. Not just that, but the police is using it as evidence!

Mr Singh and his pliant Delhi commissioner of police B.S. Bassi should be asked why the police rushed into JNU in the first place, and why they arrested and charged

Mr Kumar with sedition. Why is the home minister of India quoting a clearly fake tweet from the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba as evidence against the students? Is our home minister so very gullible? Why is Ms Iranis response to all this to call a meeting of vice-chancellors and to ask them to hoist the national flag on their campuses?

There is no conspiracy here. Its pure incompetence, coupled with a limited, but dangerous mindset. If Mr Modi doesnt recognise it, lets tell him: All his ambitious plans for the country are being destroyed, and by his own people.
The violent agitation by Haryanas Jats to be classified as an OBC group to derive the benefits of reservations had threatened to snowball across northern India, affecting Delhi and its neighbouring states, but the Centres efforts to contain the situation appear to have worked somewhat, with a few blockades partially lifted late Sunday.

Earlier, the entire state had come to a near halt, and Delhi too faced the heat, given Haryanas geographical proximity to the national capital, and the fact that it gets a good part of its water supply downstream from Haryana.

The BJP government at the Centre, given that its partys government in Haryana was overwhelmed and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar didnt seem to be cutting much ice with the agitators, had to intervene and send out the signal that it would bring a bill in the state Assembly in this regard, and also set up a committee headed by a senior minister to examine the demand for quotas in Central government jobs.

This was not a day too soon, as the confrontation was armed, with the Army and paramilitary forces having to be called in. The rising death toll could have made matters much worse. Haryana is full of retired servicemen, and Jats supply a strong contingent to the Indian Army. A prolonged agitation could have had a wider impact than just on the Haryanas streets. There was the also risk of the agitation spreading to contiguous areas of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which have a strong Jat population.

The BJP made extravagant promises, including on Jat reservations, during the last Lok Sabha polls, and this was recoiling now. Jats are about a quarter of the population of Haryana, and are predominantly farmers. This gives them a lot of heft. Some elements in the Haryana BJP had been campaigning for some time that Jats shouldnt be given reservations. This was pointless needling.

The state government was hampered by the fact that it lacked any heavyweight Jat representation, and politically Jats may feel they were given short shrift. This perception needs to be addressed. Since Jats are largely a well-to-do community, it is hard to see how they can be put on the backward castes list.

The Supreme Court had earlier rejected the idea when the previous Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda had tried to create a special quota. On the existing criteria, it is difficult to bring Jats into the group entitling them to quota benefits in education and government jobs. Their case is not dissimilar from Marathas in Maharashtra, Kapus of Andhra Pradesh and Patels of Gujarat.

The time may have come to revisit eligibility rules for reservations so that an individuals economic condition is given significant weight in any calculation.
So now the big question is whether on June 23 the UK will vote to quit the European Union or not? Nothing is certain anymore, because British Prime Minister David Cameron has opted to stay within the EU, but with fresh terms and conditions, particularly regarding the benefits that new entrants from the EU right now receive automatically. He has suggested an emergency brake for benefits given to immigrants and that these benefits might be given according to the cost of living in the country of their origin.

However, not all his ministers are pleased with his formula, and some of them  including our very own Priti Patel, the diaspora champion  have joined the leave campaign. The other high profile minister of Asian origin, business secretary Sajid Javid, has preferred to stick with Mr Cameron.

This is now becoming a highly contentious issue, with political parties declaring their stance in advance. The Labour Party wants to stay with EU even though its leader Jeremy Corbyn had, once upon a time, long ago, declared that the UK should quit. He has since then changed his mind.

With the leaders of the two main parties advocating that UK (despite pressure from certain lobbies who predict that the UK will be overwhelmed by EU immigrants) should remain within the Union, the referendum might have already been won by the stay campaign. And the last poll showed that a majority agrees with the Prime Minister. But one never knows as pollsters have been spectacularly wrong in the recent past!

Most of us do not discuss mental health issues and, certainly, we rarely recognise that mental illness can afflict the very young. With families breaking up, and children spending more and more time in solitude with only computers for company, we do need to take cognisance of a burgeoning problem.

Quite bravely then, in her first online blog, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, has decided to take up an issue which can be considered slightly controversial. She said she would not hesitate to seek help for her children if they were to suffer from mental health issues.

She wrote: Like most parents today, William and I would not hesitate to seek help for our children if they needed it... We know there is no shame in a young child struggling with their emotions or suffering from a mental illness. Shortly after I got married, I started working with charities helping those affected by issues such as addiction, family breakdown and vulnerable children, she added.

It became clear to me that many children  even those younger than five  have to deal with complex problems without the emotional resilience, language or confidence to ask for help. Undoubtedly, this advocacy will encourage parents to interact more with their children, to coax them speak about their feelings, as she says she does. But critics wonder if this will also compel over-anxious parents to push kids into therapy for normal problems?

Besides, as both her children are still very young, and Princess Charlotte is barely a year old, these are brave words. Living as she does in a goldfish bowl, it is difficult to predict how a highly intrusive media would react to either of the children going into therapy  if they ever needed it. Could she actually talk about it then?

Nonetheless, it is important for the Duchess to create awareness, and that is what is what she is doing. Its about time we saw similar advocacy about these taboo issues, in India as well.

But in India, there is already a severe shortage of trained therapists - even for adults. Which is why so many of us end up going to astrologers and proponents of dubious spirituality  all informal therapists who give us mantras and precious stones to ward off worries! And most Asians have an inbuilt resistance towards children going in for therapy, anyway, since we consider that these issues belong to a decadent West! Do we need to rethink ?

Most of us would not know who Martha Brown was. But now there is palpable excitement among the literati, especially Thomas Hardy fans because a skull and some bones have been discovered near Dorchester prison, which could be hers. Executed in 1856, for killing her violent husband, she has been long considered the inspiration for the classic Tess of dUrbervilles.

Having watched the grisly hanging as a youth, among 4000 spectators, Hardy wrote, much later: I remember what a fine figure she showed against the sky as she hung in the misty rain, and how the tight black silk gown set off her shape as she wheeled half-round and back.

It was an experience that haunted him, and was later immortalised in his book.

Though as yet there is no confirmation that these bones could belong to the hapless Martha Brown, they were discovered during the fresh building works which have been started in the area.

Given the apparent ease with which identities can be unearthed through a combination of DNA and forensics (remember the unearthing of the remains of King Richard III in a Leicester car park? And his subsequent elaborate reburial?) there is huge interest in whether this is really Martha! And this fixation with getting down to the bare bones of literature and history can only be maddeningly British!
New Delhi: As Mobile World Congress (MWC) kicks off in Barcelona this weekend; it's almost time for all companies to showcase their mobile devices for 2016. And Sony is not behind as the Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation may unveil a wireless earbud at MWC press conference on Monday.

The wireless earbud called 'Smart Ear' is said to be similar to the Moto Hint, which promised a Bluetooth-enabled smart headsets, the Verge reported.

The 'Smart Ear' is expected to be more of a headset (for just one ear) rather than a stereo earbud replacement.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony's diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment and financial services.

The company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony is ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 50.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Android-based smartphones are one of the most commonly used devices in the entire world and even the likes of Apple find it difficult to stay ahead in the race. For starters, Android is the most use mobile OS in the world, and Google is incessantly working to keep on making the platform more efficient.

Apart from that, Android-based smartphone manufacturers are constantly developing their handsets to make the most of Android.

However, Android users still face a number of difficulties over the course of time due to some common errors.

On that note, here are some suggested tips that can help you significantly help your Android smartphone experiencefrom simple navigation to performance.

Scale down animations: All users prefer their smartphones to be lag-free and thats one area where Android devices really take a big hit. However, by following a set of simple steps, you can get rid of any unnecessary lag. In settings, go to about device and click on the build number option for seven times. This will unlock your developer option where you will find a slew of animation scaling options. You can turn down the animation scales to 0.5x in place of 10x. This will significantly boost your smartphones transition and navigation speed.

Delete unwanted apps: On most cases, smartphones tend to get infected with viruses as new unused apps start accumulating in your device. But you can easily avoid such problems by regularly monitoring and deleting unwanted apps. Keeping your home screen widget-free also helps in upping your smartphones performance.

Use OK Google: This is a very handy feature and can be used to search almost anything on your smartphone. This feature can significantly help you improve searching for any kind of content on the internet or on the device. The default settings only allow OK Google to work from the home screen, but you can just go to settings and change the preference to from any screen.

Turn on power-saving mode: If youve noticed, most smartphones come along with power-saving options and there are also numerous power-saving apps available on Play Store. The power-saving mode on your device is extremely useful when you are really low on charge and can save up to 50 per cent more battery in contrast to the normal mode.

Activate mobile data tracking: While most users might know about this simple Android feature, for the ones who dont know, this resourceful feature will seamlessly allow you to monitor how much data you are using. Moreover, this feature will automatically cut off mobile data when you are on the verge of exhausting your data pack.

Automatic photo backup: It feels horrible when you loose or break a device full of pictures only to find out that your photos were not automatically backed. Well, you can avoid this by utilising the nifty Google Photos app, which gives you 15Gb of free data storage space.

Save offline maps: A few months back, Google added another very useful feature to its mapsoffline storage. All you have to do is find the area on the map, which you want to save and tap on the search bar at the top of the screen. After the downloading is complete, you will have access to all the offline map data pertaining to that area including streets, points of interest, and navigation.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
The US-registered cargo aircraft, owned by the Western Global Airlines Company, had last Sunday been en route to South Africa but made an unscheduled stop-over in Harare where the grim discovery was made. (Representational Image)

Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe authorities on Saturday released a cargo plane hired by South Africa's central bank, six days after it was detained with a dead body in the landing gear and 67 tonnes of cash on board.

The US-registered cargo aircraft, owned by the Western Global Airlines Company, had last Sunday been en route to South Africa but made an unscheduled stop-over in Harare where the grim discovery was made.

"The body of the deceased and the cargo have been released to the crew after it was established that there is nothing suspicious," police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told journalists.

A pathologist report showed that the unidentified dead man had succumbed to a lack of oxygen due to the high altitude at which planes fly.

"From what the investigations have indicated there is a high probability that this was a stowaway," Charamba said.

The cargo plane, carrying 67 tonnes of cash in millions of rands for the South African Reserve Bank had departed from Liege, Belgium on February 11 and made a stop in Munich to pick up the shipment of cash.

It made another stop-over in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on the same day and went on to Abuja, Nigeria as well as Entebbe, Uganda on February 13, according to the police.

Charamba said Zimbabwe police had taken fingerprints from the body to be sent to Interpol for analysis.

"Nothing from international law obliges Zimbabwe to be responsible for the burial, cremation or any disposal of the body," she said.

South Africa's ambassador to Zimbabwe, Vusi Mavimbela, had told AFP earlier that the plane was hired from the Florida-based cargo carrier by the South African central bank to carry banknotes printed in Germany, but did not disclose the amount involved.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush announcing his end in the Republican race for the White House in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday, accompanied by with his wife, Columba, son Jeb Bush Jr. (left), and senator Lindsey Graham. (Photo:AP)

Columbia, South Carolina: Republican Jeb Bush ended his White House bid on Saturday after a disappointing finish in South Carolina, acknowledging his failure to harness the hopes of Republican voters angry at the political establishment.

The former Florida governor and political scion told supporters that he had tried to stay true to what he believes. Still, he was lagging far behind in the primary in South Carolina, where his well-organized campaign was outmatched by billionaire Donald Trump, and senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Im proud of the campaign that weve run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions, a visibly emotional Bush said. The presidency is bigger than any one person. Its certainly bigger than any one candidate.

I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant not the master, Bush said.

The son of George HW Bush and brother of George W Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fuelled them with fundraising. Working with an outside funding group that has supported his candidacy, Bush and allies raised more than $150 million by the end of 2015 far more than any of his Republican rivals.

However, Bushs presence in the race and fundraising potential wasnt enough to dissuade more than a dozen other Republicans from entering the race, including fellow Floridian, senator Marco Rubio.

Bushs failure to ignite was not simply a factor of the size of the Republican field. Bush, like others, was caught off-guard by the durable popularity of political outsiders particularly Trump.

The final stage of Bushs campaign became an all-out bout with the outspoken real estate mogul the two frequently referring to each other as a loser. Bush took shots at Trumps lack of experience while Trump attacked Bushs family legacy, particularly the unpopular Iraq war waged by his brother George W Bush.

Bush, meanwhile, offered himself as an experienced public executive and potential world statesman informed in part by his fathers and brothers wartime presidencies. But it wasnt a case strong enough to translate into votes.

There were other problems as well. The policy-oriented Bush was overshadowed in early debates by Trump and Rubio, which dramatically slowed his early autumn fundraising.

Bush went on to finish sixth in the Iowa caucuses, but barely squeezed ahead of Rubio in New Hampshire for a fourth place finish.

South Carolina was viewed as a last early voting state for Bush to make a mark.

Having previously kept his family at arms length, Bush brought all family ties to the forefront ahead of South Carolina. His father and brother both won the South Carolina primary when they were seeking the presidency, and he had set his hopes high there for a campaign revival.

Despite support for the Bush family among a segment of devoted South Carolina Republicans, Bush himself had a halting final week of campaigning. At a Wednesday town hall meeting in Summerville he was offered more advice than policy questions, the same day he learned South Carolina governor Nikki Haley had endorsed Rubio.

Still, Bush amassed crowds growing crowds in the primary campaigns final days.
Trump has run a campaign punctuated by outrageous statements, including a call to ban the entry of Muslims to the United States. (Photo: AP)

Columbia, South Carolina: New York billionaire Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican presidential primary election on Saturday, outdistancing senators Ted Cruz from Texas and Marco Rubio from Florida who were in a close race for second.

Among Democrats in the western state of Nevada, Hillary Clinton captured victory, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Bernie Sanders and potentially easing the anxiety of some of her supporters.

In the South Carolina race, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and other candidates were lagging well behind, according to early returns.

Clinton won the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

She capitalised on a more diverse Democratic electorate who helped her rebound after a second-place finish to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary.

Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other, Clinton told her cheering supporters during a victory rally in Las Vegas. This one is for you.

She said Americans are right to be angry, but are also hungry for real solutions.

Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared his campaign has the wind at our backs as we head toward Super Tuesday - the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

Clintons victory could be vital in holding off a challenge from Sanders that has been tougher than almost anyone expected. Clinton narrowly won the leadoff caucuses in the Midwestern state of Iowa, but the Vermont senator had a runaway victory in the tiny northeastern state of New Hampshire.

Clinton now leads in delegates pledged to her at the Democratic Partys national convention in July, but only has a fraction of the number needed to secure the nomination. Clintons win means she will pick up at least 18 of Nevadas 35 delegates.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

No candidate has shaken the establishment more than Trump. The billionaire businessman spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former president George W Bush of lying and even tangling with Pope Francis on immigration.

The Trump win rang alarm bells with Bush who was counting on his familys broad popularity in South Carolina to set up a good showing in coming southern state votes.

Instead, the Trump victory foreshadows a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1. Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which determines the nomination at the partys national convention in July.

Trump has run a campaign punctuated by outrageous statements, including a call to ban the entry of Muslims to the United States. At his last election rally Friday night he upped the ante in his remarks about them, repeating the widely discredited story of American General John Pershing, who was said to have halted Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting the rebels with bullets dipped in pigs blood.

Cruz, who has challenged Trumps conservative credentials, had banked on a well-regarded get-out-the-vote operation and 10,000 volunteers to help overtake Trump on Saturday, as well as in the Southern states that follow.

Rubio, the Florida senator, and Bush were fighting to establish themselves as credible alternatives to Trump and Cruz, candidates some Republican leaders believe are unelectable in November.

Bushs poor showing opens questions about his long-term viability. Rubios good showing is a big boost, who has gathered big support from mainstream Republicans who see Trump as unelectable in the nationwide contest.

Rubio had scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including governor Nikki Haley, and seemed to have rebounded after a dismal debate performance two weeks ago that contributed to a disappointing fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary..

Also in the mix was Ohio governor John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers.
Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syria's bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then. (Photo: AP)

Madrid, Spain: President Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Saturday.

Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syria's bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then.

And he said he was ready to implement a long-sought ceasefire, but only if the rebels and their international backers such as Turkey did not use it as a chance to gain ground.

"In 10 years, if I can save Syria as president but that doesn't mean I'm still going to be president in 10 years, I'm just talking about my vision of the 10 years," he said in an interview published on the newspaper's website.

"If Syria is safe and sound, and I'm the one who saved his country that's my job now, that's my duty.

"If the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they don't want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away."

World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities in Syria to pave the way for renewed peace negotiations, but the truce has faltered as fighting on the ground has intensified.

In an interview with AFP on February 12, before the deal was announced, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country.

Speaking to El Pais, he said he was "ready" for a ceasefire, but warned that it should not be exploited by "the terrorists" to improve their positions, using the regime's term for all rebel groups.

"It's about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists."

Syria's regime has been pressing an offensive in the northern Aleppo region backed by Russian air strikes and troops from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Assad said the support of his Russian and Iranian allies had been "essential" in the recent major advances made by regime forces.

"We definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways," he told El Pais.

Some backers helped "directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums," he told the daily.
Vatican City: Pope Francis on Sunday urged Catholic politicians in places, which still have the death penalty to suspend executions during his ongoing Holy Year of Mercy.

The specific request was made as part of a broader appeal for an international consensus on abolishing capital punishment, which did not refer to any particular territory or country.

But it could potentially embarrass Texas governor Greg Abott, a devout Roman Catholic who is a staunch defender of capital punishment in a state which has executed three of the seven prisoners put to death in the United States this year.

Three days after he described Donald Trump's immigration stance as un-Christian, the appeal puts the pontiff at odds once more with the Republican presidential hopeful.

Trump said in December he would seek to extend the use of capital punishment in the United States by making execution automatic for killers of police officers.

At his weekly audience at St Peter's, Francis said he was encouraged by signs that opposition to the death penalty is growing around the world.

"Modern society has the ability to punish crimes effectively without definitively taking away the possibility of redemption for those who commit them," he said.

"The commandment 'thou shalt not kill' is an absolute one and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.

"A criminal also has an inviolable right to life, (which is a) gift of God."

Francis has made mercy the dominant theme of the Church's ongoing Jubilee year and he urged governments which still authorise judicial killings to follow his lead.

"I appeal to the conscience of rulers so that we can reach an international consensus on the abolition of the death penalty," he said.

"And I suggest to those who are Catholic to make a courageous and exemplary gesture by ensuring that no condemned prisoners are executed during this Holy Year of Mercy."

Since most predominately Catholic countries around the world have already abolished or suspended judicial killings, the only place Francis's comments could have any significant bearing is in the United States.

Judges are able to authorise executions in 31 American states or on the request of the federal government.

In Texas, the governor cannot block executions but he can reject recommendations for death sentences to be commuted to life in prison and also has a discretionary power to order 30-day reprieves for condemned prisoners.
Earlier this week Erdogan vowed not to allow the creation oif a Kurdish stronghold in northern Syria, saying there was no question of stopping the artillery barrage. (Photo: AP)

Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his country's fight against Kurdish fighters in Syria as "legitimate defence", after international powers urged Ankara to rein in its cross-border bombardments.

Turkey has been shelling targets in northern Syria for the past week in a bid to stem the advances of a Kurdish-led coalition that has seized territory in the area.

Ankara blames Syrian Kurdish fighters for this week's suicide car bomb attack in the Turkish capital that killed 28 people and fears the creation of a Kurdish stronghold along its southern border.

"The situation we are currently facing is one of legitimate defence. No-one can deny or limit Turkey's legitimate right to defence in the face of terrorist attacks," Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul late on Saturday, according to the Dogan news agency.

Erdogan's remarks come after the United States, France and Russia all urged Turkey to scale back or halt its military action in Syria.

US President Barack Obama, in a phone call with Erdogan on Friday, urged the Ankara government and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to "show reciprocal restraint" in northern Syria.

French President Francois Hollande warned that Ankara's escalating involvement in the conflict was creating a risk of war between Turkey and Russia, which back different sides in Syria's increasingly complex civil war.

Ankara says the YPG is a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and is recognised as a terror group by the United States and EU.

Earlier this week Erdogan vowed not to allow the creation oif a Kurdish stronghold in northern Syria, saying there was no question of stopping the artillery barrage.

"To fight the threats which it faces, Turkey has the right to launch any kind of operation, in Syria and wherever else the terrorist organisations are located," Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader also again criticised the United States, without mentioning it by name, for its "lack of sincerity" about Turkey's worries over Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Washington supports the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia as the best fighting force on the ground against Islamic State (IS) jihadists. Turkey considers both to be terror groups linked to the PKK.

Some 21 suspects held over the Ankara attack were due to appear in court on Sunday, the pro-government Anatolia news agency reported.
London: The mortal remains of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose should be DNA-tested to conclusively prove that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, according to a UK-based website set up to catalogue the nationalist leader's last days.

The website called on the Indian government to approach the government of Japan regarding a DNA test of the remains of the freedom fighter which are believed to be preserved at Tokyo's Renkoji temple since September, 1945.

Bose is believed to have died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

"A DNA test could end the controversy over Bose's death once and for all," www.bosefiles.info said in a statement.

The website also released letters to show that as far back as September 5, 1995, Ashis Ray Bose's grandnephew and the website's creator had written to then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao suggesting a DNA test of Bose's remains.

The letter, declassified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month and posted among the National Archives' files under the heading of Netaji Papers, reveals Ray pleaded with Rao for a DNA test of the remains at Renkoji temple.

After that and following telephonic contacts with British and American DNA testing organisations, on September 21, 1995 Ray apprised then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

The next day, September 22, 1995, Ray received a written communication from K Sullivan of Britain's Forensic Science Service, which stated: "Further to our telephone conversations regarding the analysis of the putative remains of Subhash Chandra Bose, I am able to confirm that a blood sample from either a nephew or niece from his sister's side of the family would be a suitable control for DNA analysis purposes".

Ray forwarded this note to Professor Anita Pfaff, the Germany-based daughter and sole heir of Bose.

Thereafter, Ray sought out a son of one of Bose's sisters - the late Shanti Kumar Dutt - who was willing to fully cooperate regarding a DNA test, the website notes.

The letters to Mukherjee, from the British Forensic Science Service and Dutt have now been posted on the website.
The three Pakistani accused attacked two Indian workers at a parking lot, drove them away in their car and stole their cash and valuables, police said. (Representational Photo: Pixabay)

Dubai: Three Pakistanis have been charged by the police in the UAE with attacking and kidnapping two Indians before stealing their car and valuables in Dubai, according to a media report.

The three Pakistani accused attacked two Indian workers at a parking lot, drove them away in their car and stole their cash and valuables, police said.

Identified only with their initials as 27-year-old AJ, 31- year-old KM and 26-year-old AS, the accused allegedly attacked the victims, carjacked their vehicle and stole from them a chequebook, a camera, a gold chain and 1,600 Dirhams (nearly Rs 30,000) in July 2013, Gulf News reported.

Prosecutors charged the trio with kidnapping, carjacking, assault and theft under threat and use of physical violence. The accused also threatened to kill the victims if they called the police, it said.

KM and AS pleaded not guilty when they showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday while Jail wardens did not bring AJ to present him in courtroom, the report said.

"My friend JJ went to get a parking ticket... suddenly one of the suspects opened my door and beat me on my head. He ordered me to step out of the car and then pushed me into the backseat. In the meantime, JJ had arrived when another suspect also pushed him into the seat beside me," one of the victims AR said.

"One of them (AJ) drove my car away for around one km. The other suspect (KM) followed us on a motorcycle without any number-plate. They stopped in a residential area and kicked us out of the vehicle and drove away after taking our money and some valuables," he testified to prosecutors.
Syrian citizens gather at the scene where two bombs exploded in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa, in Homs province, Syria, on Sunday. (Photo:PTI)

Beirut: At least 76 people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday in car bomb attack in the central Syrian city of Homs and capital Damascus, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of those killed appeared to be civilians, adding that the toll could rise further because of the number of seriously wounded.

Syrian state television gave a toll of at least 25 dead, citing Homs provincial governor Talal Barazi.

It broadcast footage from the scene of the attack in the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, showing the air thick with dust and smoke rising from blazes started by the blasts.

Firefighters ran through debris strewn by the explosions as security forces and civilians tried to prise open the wreckage of one vehicle to retrieve a person inside.

The bombings appeared to have caused extensive damage, ripping the fronts off shops surrounding the site and mangling cars and minibuses.

The attacks were some of the deadliest to hit the city, which has been regularly targeted in blasts, including a devastating attack at a school in October 2014 that killed 48 children and four adults. In Al-Zahraa last month, at least 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing.

Reach of ISIS on twitter sees decline

The reach of ISIS on Twitter has dwindled due to suspensions by the microblogging site that have resulted in drastic reduction of followers for recruitment purposes or disseminating information, according to a new report.

The report titled The Islamic States Diminishing Returns on Twitter by the Programme on Extremism at the George Washington Universitys Centre for Cyber and Homeland Security.

Russia vows for more Syria raids

Moscow has pledged to continue backing the Syrian government in its fight against terrorism, dashing hopes for a ceasefire the opposition said it would only back if the regime and its supporters hold fire.

World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities to pave the way for renewed negotiations aimed at ending Syrias war nearly 5 years after it began.
Pakistan has arrested several suspects on the attack, the interior minister claimed (Photo: PTI)

Islamabad: India has asked Pakistan to inform it at least five days prior to a planned visit by Pakistani investigators to inspect the site of the Pathankot terror attack, interior minister said here on Sunday.

"They (Indian authorities) said that let us know at least five days ahead of the visit," Nisar Ali Khan told reporters as he said India has agreed to the proposal of sending a probe team to India over the January 2 attack on the key Air Force base in Pathankot.

The two sides were in touch over the visit of the special team to inspect the site of the attack, Khan said, adding that the Foreign Office has written to India about the idea of sending the team and India has already written back.

Khan did not give the time of the visit of the team but official sources said it could take place early March.

He also said that Pakistan has arrested several suspects and investigation was going on.

India had also given some phone numbers, which were included in the FIR and probe was going on based on the information, he added.

Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack that has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who was found guilty of involvement in the attack.

The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault.
Pete Moss said: I know enough to shoot down lies. Michael Brown was responsible for his own death, and black lives matter was founded on the lie, "Hands, don't shoot". You know I'm right because your previous post contains nothing in defense of blm, but only a juvenile taunt. Click to expand...

Apparently you don't. Michael Brown is not the only reason for the BLM movement. Sorry. The movement is there to bring awareness and attention to the fact that the law enforcement community all over this nation has treated black Americans differently than other Americans and has largely gotten away with the unjust treatment of these citizens because it was always something that was done with a wink and a nod and allowed to happen. Not all law enforcement engages in this, but when it does and it is shown on video and still there is no justice, then movements raise up and form and seek to bring justice where there has not been any.
Then it's possible that nothing else in the bible means what you think it means.



Or can you read what was in god's mind when he said those things so you know what he really meant?
A team of 18 people sponsored by Fairview Mennonite Church in Albany spent the first week of February working on several projects at Fuente de Agua Viva school in Palo Blanco, Dominican Republic.

The school, which started as a care center providing food, education and resources for children in the impoverished farming community near Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, was founded more than 15 years ago by former Albany resident Jan Burkey.

The teams main job was to build a foundation for new classrooms. The school, which in the past year changed from a half-day care center to a full-day Christian school, has more than 250 students.

Workers mixed concrete by hand and placed blocks for the foundation of the building that will house younger students. In the Dominican Republic younger students up through the first grade are required to be educated on the first floor. They hope to finish the project by the time school begins in the fall.

Other projects that the team worked on included constructing beds, plumbing and an aquaponics garden, organizing the schools library and working on crafts with the children.

A presentation on the trip, led by team leaders Dan and Dorie Roth of Lebanon, will be held at Fairview Mennonite Church, 35100 Goltra Road, at 6 p.m. tonight.
Lets understand something about the fight to fill the Supreme Court seat of Antonin (Nino) Scalia. This is about nothing but raw power. Any appeal you hear to high principle is phony  brazenly, embarrassingly so.

In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. (Except in extraordinary circumstances. None such arose. Surprise!) Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack Obama.

Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the President deference. Elections have consequences and Obama won re-election in 2012.

Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014  if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.

Its hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered Obamas serial constitutional depredations: his rewriting the immigration laws by executive order (stayed by the courts); his reordering the energy economy by regulation (stayed by the courts); his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate (by declaring it an executive agreement).

Minority Leader Harry Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to Obamacare.

On Tuesday, Obama loftily called upon Congress to rise above ideology and partisanship in approving his nominee. When asked how he could square that with his 2006 support of a filibuster to stop the appointment of Samuel Alito, Obama replied with a four-minute word salad signifying nothing. There is no answer. It was situational constitutional principle, i.e., transparent hypocrisy.

As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing President to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?

Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from anti-establishment candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc.

LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS His last wish

What was the 2014 election about, they say? We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the Washington cartel.

As it happens, under our Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the President, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have.

But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The President proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McConnell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here  a radical generation-long reversal of direction of the Supreme Court  are the highest this Senate will ever face.

If McConnell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the what did we get for 2014? question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalias seat and to the courts conservative majority.

But only for now. Blocking an Obama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McConnell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution.

In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial President in the White House. I would not like to be replaced, he explained, by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that Ive tried to do for 25 years.

Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McConnell do his thing. Then in November its for us to win one for Nino.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com
I don't know how it is with you, but for me the shocker of the week was this . Now, look at the photo. Who would be the man hanging on ...
The Clintons don't seem to get a simple point: Democratic primary voters hate when Democrats attack other Democrats. And now it isn't just Hillary's sleazy team of lobbyists, job-seekers and conservatives attacking Bernie, it's also Hillary herself. she uses the same basic debate tactics Cruz and Rubio use-- maybe she learned them when she was president of the Wellesley College Young Republicans. She slips in a quick attack on his character or his competence and then immediately says something like "but let'stalk about issues" and then throws out some policy issue that Bernie can't resist, leaving her sly, slimy personal attack hanging out there. It's how she lost to Obama in 2008.

Bill Curry, a former counselor to President Clinton, writing forTuesday, was amazed as I am that the Clintons don't understand the vicious, ugly negative attacks are losing her the election -- if not the primary, then surely the general. "How Clinton lost [in New Hampshire]," he wrote, "is as telling as the historic margin she lost by. Just as in 2008, she presented as a hawk to a party bone-weary of war. Now as then, her high-dollar, tone-deaf, leak-prone campaign telegraphed every punch. Her backers harp on her experience-- but experience only counts if you learn from it. Eight years later, Clinton makes the exact same mistakes. Still, party elites have bet the farm shell have it all sorted out by October. Dangerous wager."

She isnt learning from this race, either. Her response to New Hampshire has been to double-down on her strategy. How such a bright person could be such a slow learner is a mystery. Her worst moments prior to New Hampshire were her ham-handed attempts to take down Sanders. Chelsea distorted his healthcare plans, Bill ripped his character. Hillary accused him of an artful smear for suggesting, obviously, that banks give to super PACs to influence policy. She voiced concern over reports hed mingled with real live lobbyists at Democratic fundraisers. But to many voters the Clintons attacking Sanders integrity was like draft-avoider George W. Bush swift-boating Purple Heart-winner John Kerry-- except this time it backfired, and her whole family took the hit.





At this point she might have decided to curtail the personal attacks, but alas, no. In a public television debate two days after the primary, she waited till the last second to launch an attack, this time on Sanders alleged disloyalty to Obama. It seems this will be a principal theme going forward, so in case you missed, a sample:

Today Senator Sanders said President Obama failed the presidential leadership test. he has called him weak. He has called him a disappointment. He wrote a forward for a book that basically argued voters should have buyers remorse when it comes to President Obamas leadership and legacy it is the kind of criticism I expect from Republicans. Calling the president weak [Saying] several times he should have a primary opponent when he ran for re-election

Much of this is flat-out false; all is shorn of context and rife with what Politifact called half-truths. Bill Press wrote a book criticizing Obama, but Sanders didnt write the foreword (just a blurb that doesnt criticize Obama). He never called Obama weak or a disappointment, though he once said Obama showed weakness in budget negotiations. Talking to a radio host who wanted Obama primaried, Sanders said open debate was a good thing. But notice in the above quote how Clinton, the Mary Lou Retton of syntax, made it seem Sanders said all these things.





When Clinton at last holstered her weapon, moderators Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill, whod done yeomans work to that point, said there wasnt time for Sanders to answer her final fusillade, but that he could do so in his closing remarks. Off balance for the first time all night, he split the difference, which made for a weak finish to an otherwise strong performance. Too bad; he deserved a chance at a full rebuttal even if it meant shaving a minute or two off Antiques Roadshow.





...Clintons ad hominem attacks-- call it the politics of personal destruction-- poison the air around her. Just before New Hampshire, deservedly beloved feminist icon Gloria Steinem told Bill Maher that young women join Sanders campaign to meet guys. Steinem got taken to the Internet woodshed for making a lighthearted, self-deprecating joke, on a comedy show, no less, but only because the tone of Clintons campaign is so rancid. Clinton must see how her scorched-earth policy hurts her family, her friends and her campaign, but for her theres never any turning back.





In another reminder of 2008, Clinton has added race to the mix. On primary night on CNN, Clinton ally Michael Nutter slyly accused Sanders of subtle racism, terming his call for criminal justice reform mildly offensive because, Nutter falsely charged, Sanders never talks about other African-American issues. For some reason-- it cant be ratings-- CNN lets commentators with clear conflicts of interest mouth thinly veiled partisan message. This is worse. Nutter is no more offended than Hillary is concerned or Bill shocked to discover trolls on the Internet. They want us to think Bernie does what they do, but of course he doesnt.





...On Friday we learned that DNC chairwoman and Clinton lifer Debbie Wasserman Schultz ended Obamas ban on federal contractors donating to the party. (So much for loyalty to Obama.) On Wednesday we learned Clinton will get a majority of New Hampshire delegates despite losing in a landslide. Schultz told CNN the reason 700 unelected superdelegates get to vote at the convention is to spare grass-roots activists the burden of having to primary them. No matter how much money Schultz wrings from contractors or how many superdelegates Clinton piles up in states Sanders wins, it wont equal the price they pay for such cynicism.





To the extent Clinton gets away with it, she can thank a media nearly as out of touch as she is. Newspapers beat TV for analysis, but the gap narrows every year, and not because TV is getting better. Elite reporters reflect the elite consensus, which accounts for such recent Washington Post headlines as Democrats Would Be Insane to Nominate Sanders and Sanders Oddball Coalition Savors Its Victory.





...Neoliberalism appeals to the rich. Neoliberal Bill Clinton was the first Democratic presidential nominee to outspend a Republican. In 2008 Obama outspent John McCain 2-to-1, breaking a record set in 1972 by Richard Nixon. But neoliberalism is killing the middle class. Its why both parties rely on cultural issues to hold their bases. If you back abortion rights, same sex marriage and gun safety youre a Democrat. If not, youre a Republican. On economic issues its more complex. If you hate big banks and political corruption, you could be for Sanders or Trump. Its why Sanders talks so much about these things; theyre what the elections all about.





When Clinton isnt calling Sanders a traitor, she says she shares his goals. But she doesnt. Clinton was part of the neoliberal revolt that destroyed the Roosevelt coalition and she is as weve seen, a woman of markedly fixed views. She may be Obamas heir, but Sanders is FDRs. She campaigns as she does out of habit, and to hide the very real choice. The neoliberal experiment is over. Democrats, proud heirs to Franklin Roosevelt, are ready to come home.




DWT and make a case for Hillary Clinton. After Syracuse, New York congressional candidate Eric Kingson wrote a guest post last week explaining why he had endorsed Bernie , I decided to ask some of the progressive congressmen who we admire and respect to do a companion piece about why they had endorsed Hillary. I was stunned by the response. Virtually every Member I asked said something along the lines of "I'll pass; I'm sorry I endorsed her and I don't want to remind anyone." But yesterday-- right after Rep. Peter Welch announced he was endorsing Bernie and would be voting for him, as a super-delegate, at the convention, Matt Cartwright (D-PA), one of the smartest and most committed progressives in the House, sent me his ideas about why Hillary merits the support of progressives. Whether you agree with him of not, please consider contributing to his reelection campaign here ; it takes a lot of guts to come ontoand make a case for Hillary Clinton.









Why Progressives Should Support Hillary Clinton

-by Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-PA)













A lot of my friends stop me and ask why Im supporting Hillary Clinton for President. Im a self-identified progressive Democrat. In fact, I like to call myself a Roosevelt Democrat. And I agree with so much of what Senator Sanders says. So why the endorsement for Secretary Clinton in this presidential primary?





Three reasons. First, experience. Second, breadth and depth of knowledge. Third, electability in the general election.





First, I think Hillary is the candidate who has the experience to make a real difference for working families. She has a lifetime of experience fighting for children and families and getting results. She has fought to break down the barriers that hold people back, fighting for racial justice, LGBT rights, womens rights. Hillary Clinton really cares about making life better for everyday, ordinary Americans, and she has the experience to get the job done. Her service as a lawyer, as a U.S. Senator, as the U.S. Secretary of State, and yes, as First Lady, has exposed her to such a wide range of experiences that she is eminently qualified to lead our nation, and actually achieve goals that are core beliefs of Democrats all over this country.





Second, while Hillary cares deeply about the unacceptable income and wealth disparity that has come about in this country-- as deeply as Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, and any of the Democrats serving in Congress-- she is not a single-issue candidate. To be successful, Americas president has to be multifaceted and well-rounded. I have been with Hillary Clinton in the House Democratic Caucus when she has spoken passionately and with great depth of understanding about combatting climate change and protecting the environment. Her knowledge of the issues surrounding health care coverage is encyclopedic, and she is committed to continuing the work of President Obama in moving us closer to universal coverage.





Her facility with the complexities of world realpolitik is astonishing. Hillary Clinton is an American patriot whose towering intellect and tireless efforts have helped President Obama keep our nation out of war, restore our international reputation for fairness and justice, and start to bring rogue nations like Iran back into the civilized family of nations. In point of fact, there is one candidate on the debate stage who actually does have a good grasp on how to deal with ISIS and jihadist terrorism, and it is Secretary Clinton. She was right there in the war room when American forces got Osama bin Laden. She will be a capable and levelheaded Commander-in-Chief.





But third, and most important to me, is this question of electability.





Even before the death of Antonin Scalia, I felt that the most important issue in this presidential election was control of the Supreme Court. The death of Justice Scalia has now taken that issue from the theoretical into the starkly real. Democrats simply cannot take the chance of losing the White House. Citizens United will not overrule itself; a Democratically-selected Supreme Court will be required to save our democracy from the influence of unlimited money. The Court will be ruling on fundamental questions of voting rights, the rights of labor unions, racial minorities, those accused of crime, and anyone seeking fair access to justice in American courts. Also hanging in the balance are President Obamas executive orders on health care, climate change, and many other issues.





Unfortunately, the leaders of Republican Senate have already vowed to not fulfill their constitutional responsibilities, breaking with all precedent, and will likely fail to confirm President Obamas Supreme Court nomination no matter how qualified a person he puts forward. If Justice Scalias replacement is not selected by a Democratic president, our nation, its people, its democracy, and its environment will be in a very bad way, for a generation. The Democrat nominee for president must win.





Reasonable people may ask why I would assume that Sec. Clinton is more electable than Sen. Sanders. After all, in many of the polls, they perform about the same in head-to-head matchups against the leading GOP candidates. Indeed, some polls show Sen. Sanders doing better against the Republican field.





The answer is that no one has ever really attacked Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton has been the object of an incessant, unrelenting, 20-year fusillade of attacks from the right, including nightly derogation on FOX, repeated gratuitous Congressional investigations, and a cacophony of rabid radio talk-show diatribes, not to mention a seething, right-wing, on-line onslaught. She has survived. Her poll numbers have a generation of Republican scrutiny and attacks already priced-in. In the general election, watching right-wing attacks on her will be like viewing old re-runs.





On the other hand, Republicans have not yet begun to fight Senator Sanders. When their guns open up on him, they will not play fair. They will not treat him with kid gloves, as Hillary Clinton has done up to now. They will not describe him as a Democratic Socialist. They will say he is an out-and-out Bolshevik, planning to nationalize entire sectors of the economy, planning to collectivize the means of production, and planning to take away private property, including possibly your house.





Their material will be fresh and new. Operatives are already combing through a lifetime of Sanders remarks, votes and bills he has written. They are likely to find ample material to twist into support for their narrative that he is an American Trotsky.





They will do that because they know it will work. Socialists do not get elected president in this country, capitalists do. Republicans are holding their breath, hoping against hope to see Bernie Sanders become the Democratic nominee, because he reminds them of George McGovern, whom they successfully clobbered for being way, way too liberal. And McGovern was a Democrat, not a Socialist.





The money funding these attacks will be unbelievable. Remember, to start with, the Republicans are even more afraid of losing the Supreme Court than the Democrats are. But add to that what the principal Sanders message has been. It is axiomatic that since Sen. Sanderss main plan is to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, their antipathy for him in particular will be off the charts. If Mr. Sanders is the nominee, endless money from deep, deep pockets will be funding those attack ads.





With all that money, Republicans can afford to make captivating, imaginative, effective attacks, and to saturate every media market in every corner of the nation with them. With so much at stake in this election, it is certain that this would happen. Sen. Sanders has never faced this amount of scrutiny or disparagement. To think that this kind of withering assault would have little effect on the election is to take naivete to new levels.





I like Senator Sanderss ideas. I think he is adding a fullness to the American political discourse that few have managed to do before him. He is speaking truths out loud that people have been previously reluctant to utter. But Hillary is the better choice, because she is more experienced, more knowledgeable on a wider range of subjects, and more likely to win this autumns election-- one that the Democrats cannot afford to lose.
Reporting for the A.P. yesterday, before voters even got to the polls in Nevada. Ken Thomas and Emily Swanson reported devastating new for the Clinton Machine . They wrote that according to new polling "most Democrats consider income inequality a very important issue and half of them think tougher regulations of the financial markets imposed after the 2008 financial crisis did not go far enough" and that there is significant "support within the party for Sanders' fiery calls to increase regulations on Wall Street banks and address wide gaps between the nation's wealthy and poor." As exit polls for a much higher attended caucus than expected were being released-- only 20% of caucus goers described themselves as "moderate" and only 3% as conservative (Hillary's base-- the policy-centric explanations for Bernie's strong showing were coming into clearer view:

Ken Vogel and Isaac Arnsdorf at Politico this morning: "A staggering 70 percent of Sanders' campaigns money comes has come from donations of $200 or less, most of which are delivered online or in response to emails and text messages devised by a sophisticated digital operation that is breaking new ground in low-dollar fundraising. Just 1 percent of his donors have reached the $2,700 contribution limit, according to aanalysis of FEC filings, meaning that the campaign can continue turning to them for cash again and again. On the flip side, less than 17 percent of the $130 million Clinton has raised this cycle has come from small donors, while about half has come from maxed out donors. That puts Clinton, a longtime darling of the partys biggest donors, under pressure to expand her small-donor base, lest Sanders continue to outraise her, like he did in January." That pressure is turning into a vicious and ultimately destructive strategy to delegitimize Bernie and his progressive base , which will leave the primary victor unelectable in November.

In Nevada, turnout was not huge (12,000 voted out of 585,890 registered Democrats). Hillary won a narrow victory, 52.7% (19 delegates) to 47.2% (15 delegates)-- although, keep in mind that Nevada is the 5th most minority-heavy state in the country (48.5%)-- after California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas. Ilya Sheyman executive director of MoveOn: "A few weeks ago, skeptics rejected the idea that Bernie would even be competitive in Nevada. Yet today, he has won a substantial share of the states delegates, demonstrating that he can be competitive across the country. The skeptics were wrongBernies message is resonating across diverse communities and his campaign is gaining support everywhere it goes. The results in Nevada prove that we have a real race for the Democratic nomination."

Rubio, Cruz and Herr Trumpf have been smearing each other all week, all month, all year, and each of them insists the other two are shameless liars. And, for once, all three are telling the truth. So it would be a bonus to put up a truthful and trustworthy Democrat in November. Regardless how you feel about Hillary Clinton, honesty and trustworthiness are not among the traits she's most admired for. In fact, in yesterday's Nevada caucus, exit polls indicated that among people who valued those attributes-- and we're talking about a Democratic primary here, not about a survey of O'Reilly and Hannity viewers-- only 10% voted for Hillary. I guess if she gets the nomination, Wall Street, K Street and the Democratic Establishment-- the institutions propping up her wobbly campaign-- can hope that general election voters will say, "sure, she's a liar but Herr Trumpf (or Cruz or Rubio or Ryan) is worse." In fact, the lesser of two evils has long been the foundation of Democratic establishment electoral strategy. "Our hideous candidate-- for whatever office-- isn't as hideous as the Republicans' hideous candidate." Not an overwhelming endorsement. Last night's results in South Carolina, which netted Herr all 50 of the state's delegates that were up for grabs, winning both statewide and in each congressional district. Turnout was huge.

Democrats were even more likely to say that reducing poverty is very important for the next president (86 percent) than that reducing the gap between rich and poor is that important (77 percent). Among all Americans, 72 percent say cutting poverty is very important, while 57 percent say reducing the gap between rich and poor is.

Democrats were even more likely to say that reducing poverty is very important for the next president (86 percent) than that reducing the gap between rich and poor is that important (77 percent). Among all Americans, 72 percent say cutting poverty is very important, while 57 percent say reducing the gap between rich and poor is.

The poll found that reducing income inequality, a message championed by Sanders, resonates deeply with Democrats. More than three-quarters of them in the poll say reducing the gap between rich and poor is very or extremely important for the next president to address. And 8 in 10 Democrats, but just 3 in 10 Republicans, say the government has some responsibility to reduce those income differences.

The poll found that reducing income inequality, a message championed by Sanders, resonates deeply with Democrats. More than three-quarters of them in the poll say reducing the gap between rich and poor is very or extremely important for the next president to address. And 8 in 10 Democrats, but just 3 in 10 Republicans, say the government has some responsibility to reduce those income differences.

And it's not just the foul lobbyists-- detested by Democrats-- who are so desperate to get her into the White House (I wonder why). Wall Street banksters want her too. She's raised the second most money from the Financial Sector among people who have served in Congress-- $39,278,192 since 2000 when she ran for the Senate. The 3 closest GOP crooks notorious for taking big bribes from Wall Street are McCain ($38,101,487, a million dollars less than her, even though he's been taking their bribes since 1982!), John Boehner ($12,422,298, since 1990) and Mitchell McConnell ($11,453,701, since 1984).

Maybe part of the distrust Democrats feel for Hillary has to do with the ungodly sums she's taken from the most corrupt characters in public life. Of all the unscrupulous and contemptible politicians in U.S. history-- just think about that-- Hillary has taken more money from the lobbyists than anyone else -- ever. She's already scooped up $2,915,238. And her whole campaign is riddled with lobbyists. Her real firewall -- super-delegates-- includes actual lobbyists!





Friday, another crooked sleazy congressman, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, endorsed her. (For those counting, he's taken $509,365 from the lobbyists and $2,385,675 from the Financial Sector.) He sold his community out so long ago that he no longer even remembers who his community is. His objection to Bernie? "I do not believe there are any free lunches. And certainly there's not going to be any free education." Or is his head just all fogged up. Public education-- not Harvard, not Yale, not Wellesley... means schools like South Carolina State College, where he went to school, and the State University of New York, where I went to school, where tuition wasn't free but very close to it. His school started as a Land Grant College, which progressives fought for against dogged conservative opposition who said things like "there are no free lunches and certainly there's not going to be any free education." The Morrill Act, establishing land grant colleges, was passed in 1859 and vetoed by conservative shit-bag James Buchanan. Once the South-- which is where most of the opposition came, of course-- seceded, the bill passed again and Abraham Lincoln signed it in 1862. A second Morrill Act was proposed in 1890, requiring the former Confederate states to show that race was not an admissions criterion or to designate a separate land-grant college for blacks. They opted for the latter and Clyburn's alma mater came out of that decision.





Today South Carolina State College is known as South Carolina State University and the annual tuition and expenses come to $25,650 for in-state residents-- over $100,000 for a four year education. I would never have been able to go to college-- nor would Clyburn have-- under those circumstances. Maybe Congressman Clyburn should pay attention to what Bernie is saying about helping his constituents:













It was telling this week when a report came out by Wall Street pharmaceutical and health services analyst explaining to investors why the should support Hillary, not just over Bernie-- but over any of the reactionary Republicans. "Overall," he wrote, "we believe the best scenario for healthcare investors is a Democrat, presumably Hillary Clinton, winning the Presidency, as we anticipate the Republicans retaining control of Congress. In this scenario, in spite of Clintons numerous 'threats' to rein in drug prices, allowing the re-importation of drugs, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, we believe it is highly unlikely Clinton will be able to pass these initiatives through a Republican controlled Congress. Conversely, the Republicans efforts to repeal Healthcare Reform, would be thwarted by a Clinton veto as we do not anticipate the Republican obtaining the 2/3 votes to override a veto."





Yep... a vote for gridlock. Said Jilani pointed out that Clinton frequently boasts "about her record during the 1990s. 'I fought really hard,' she said at a Democratic town hall earlier this month. 'The insurance companies and the drug companies spent millions against me. I know what its like to go up against the status quo and special interests.' But now it appears theyre rooting for her."





Not just rooting either. The pharmaceutical industry has contributed more to her campaign, $1,139,798, than to anyone else, other than Jeb ($1,562,383). None of the other candidates have gotten any significant pharmaceutical money. Before I ask you to contribute to Bernie's campaign, let me share a piece of a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (June, 1816): "I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom... We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. [Otherwise] as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four... and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."
Panel discussion featuring Marilyn B. Young, Lloyd C. Gardner, Anthony Arnove and Jan Barry posted on Fora.tv . The event was sponsored by The New Press and International Affairs at The New School:
Officials from the U.S. Governments Millennium Challenge Corporation, the MCC, visited Cote dIvoire this month to congratulate the government on its eligibility to develop an MCC compact program.

In December 2015, the MCC Board of Directors selected Cote dIvoire as compact-eligible following several years of steady improvement by the Government of Cote dIvoire on the MCC scorecard of policy indicators, and a strong year-long partnership with MCC in developing an MCC threshold program, for which Cote dIvoire became eligible in December 2014.

Compacts are large, five-year investments that address a countrys greatest constraints to economic growth, and threshold programs are smaller-scale investments designed for countries that dont yet qualify for a compact. The work done by Cote dIvoire on threshold program development will provide a solid foundation for an innovative compact program.

On its most recent MCC scorecard, Cote dIvoire passed 13 out of 20 indicators, demonstrating remarkable improvement from passing only five indicators in 2013.

Since its selection for eligibility for a threshold program, the Government of Cote dIvoire has been a committed and collaborative partner. The government has remained highly engaged with indicator institutions, identifying reforms and providing data updates needed to improve its overall performance.

U.S. Ambassador Terence McCulley said: The MCC compact is a strong symbol of the Unites States partnership with Cote dIvoire as it moves towards its goal of becoming an emerging economy by 2020.

In its selection decision, MCCs Board also expressed its support for Cote dIvoire to explore potential regional investments with neighboring countries.

MCC recognizes that growth is more dependent than ever on economic integration. Countries can grow faster, create more jobs, and attract more investment when they are part of dynamic regional markets. The potential for a regional investment is great given the critical role Cote dIvoire plays in the West Africa region.

Cote dIvoires transition from developing a threshold program to developing a compact program is a testament to the countrys continued commitment to strong policy improvement and political stability, as evidenced by its recent presidential elections.
Colombia is one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world. As part of a plan to bring a just and lasting peace to Colombia in the wake of more than fifty years of violence, the United States is co-leading with Norway the Global Demining Initiative for Colombia. Landmines and unexploded ordnance have killed or injured more than 11,000 Colombians over the past 25 years.

Since 1993, the United States has invested more than $43 million in the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Colombia. Under the new initiative, the United States and Norway will expand support for Colombias demining efforts, and plan to provide an additional $33 million and $20 million respectively over the next three years toward humanitarian mine action and victims assistance.

Since 1993, the United States has invested more than $43 million in the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Colombia.

The United States and Norway are rallying the international community to support Colombias demining efforts. The initiative has become a truly global effort. Regional partners Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay have joined, along with the European Union, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The goal of the initiative is to support Colombias pursuit of its Mine-Ban Convention obligation to become mine free by 2021.

The United States continues to support Colombias efforts to negotiate a just and lasting peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Fifty-two years of conflict and violence have killed more than 220,000 people and forcibly displaced more than six million. Last month, the United States co-sponsored U.N. Security Council Resolution 2261, establishing a monitoring and verification mission to be put in place following the signing of peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC.

Colombians now have an historic opportunity to take important steps toward a future free from conflict, violence, and landmines.As the worlds leading provider of technical and financial assistance for the clearance of explosive remnants of war, the United States looks forward to working with its partners to help ensure that Colombians can walk in peace and security.
some thoughts mainly on Scottish politics
EL-Nadeem HQ in Downtown Cairo "Facebook"

Last Wednesday, E l-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of victims of torture was on the verge of being closed by the health ministry but its lawyer managed to postpone the execution of the ministry's order till the center knows what is really going on.The famous and important NGO issued a statement on the same day explaining what happened.It states that the closure decision was based on law No.453 for 1954 which does not involve clinics but rather restaurants and shops, yes restaurants and shopsPersonally, I believe what is going on is part of the crackdown against political activists and NGOs recently in Egypt and the turn is on the famous anti-torture NGO now.One of the reasons I think behind this decision to close down Nadeem center is its annual report about violations and torture centers in Egypt in 2015. According to that report, 700 torture cases were documented in detention n Egypt including 267 cases in the police stations and 241 cases in prisons.The report also added that 137 death cases were documented in detention whereas 81 deaths resulted due to health negligence.Interestingly and not surprisingly, the Mataria police station comes as the highest police station wit death rate due to torture in 2015 with 7 cases.The final fate of the Center will be determined on Monday.The center is going to challenge the administrative closure in front of the court as well.Currently, there is solidarity campaign going on with the center originally founded in 1989 whether inside Egypt or outside it. Several international Human rights organizations like Human rights Watch issued statements in solidarity with the well known and respected NGO. We will see what will happen on Monday isa.




Traffic jam in the streets of Bangkok from the skytrain station. The pool on the roof of our hotel We have decided to take it easy and just go straight to Bangkok. It would be great to see some more of Thailand, but our time is quickly running out. After much research, Greg found a reasonable hotel for a reasonable price. We had been originally thinking of staying in the old city, but we were told that we should really stay near a skytrain station if we want to get anywhere. They were right.



Apartments We arrived and took the bus and skytrain into town and found our hotel. It is very nice and we were lucky to find it. This week is Chinese New Year, and the city is packed with Chinese tourists. We went for lunch, but the place that the hotel had recommended was not so good. I asked them to bring me the same thing the man at the next table had, because it looked good. When it finally came, it wasn't even similar. She took so long to bring the food that the man was done his food, so I couldn't show her, and she just said that what she brought me was what he was eating. His had had tons of leafy green vegetables and a rich brown sauce. Mine was orange coloured and had a few green peppers Greg ordered something where the meat was inedible and the rest was kind of disgusting. I saw the same dish later in another restaurant and it looked much better there. This experience was a little frustrating for us, because we had kept hearing how good Thai food was. I am not sure how this restaurant stays open, or why the hotel staff would recommend it.

The canal area was our next stop. It is interesting because it is like a small village in the middle of the city. There are wooden houses and small streets. The canals did not look or smell very friendly though.



The Canal area has little streets with vendors - like a small village. Chinese Dragons for Chinese New Year - I wish we had been here for the parade! Little wooden houses in the Canal District





View of Bangkok from the rooftop restaurant Greg and I at the top of the world! View of Bangkok from another rooftop restaurant Greg wanted to take me to a nice restaurant, so we went to look at the menu at a couple of the rooftop restaurants. We estimated that it would be quite easy to spend about $400 on a meal there, and quite difficult to spend less than $200. I wasn't interested in spending that much on one meal. We did find a rooftop restaurant at the top of the Marriott Hotel that was lovely and we ate for about $70 - which included four mixed drinks and wagyu beef.

The next day we decided to see the Palace. We arrived along with 300,000 Chinese tourists. It was a very pretty palace and had an entire giant sculpture of Anchor Wat inside the grounds.



Lots of gold on this palace

For lunch, we decided to eat at the food court in the shopping mall. This food court brings in the best of the best street food stalls, so that you can eat street food in a sanitary environment. We had great meals - very tasty. I recommend going if you find yourself in Bangkok.





We had booked a two hour dinner river cruise for that evening. We were supposed to be picked up at the hotel at 6pm. After several phone calls to the tour operator, who assured us the driver was on his way, our driver finally arrived only about 45 minutes late. We had two more stops to get more people and we finally reached the port about 7:30pm. We stood around in the office for about 20 minutes, waiting with a group of other guests and then got issues stickers and tickets and went to the docks, and waited there for another 20 minutes. Finally the boat arrived at about 8:15pm and we got on. The boat was already filled with people and the food was picked over and most things were cold - like the rice and meat dishes. Greg started to get concerned, and thought that they had started. We ate our food, as we passed by the illuminated buildings of the old city. It took us about 20 minutes or so to eat, and then we went up on the top deck. We took a few photos, and Greg said that he thought the boat was heading back to port. I scoffed at this, because it was a two hour tour and we had only been out for half an hour. He was right. They had picked up the other people on time. We were getting a very short tour and cold food. In the end, the company refunded our money to us, so I have no complaints and would recommend them because they did try to fulfil their commitment and they did refund us. We did make friends with a French couple who were in the same boat as us. We went out for drinks after the cruise fiasco and had a great time.



going under a VERY low bridge on the "two-hour" cruise

Our last day was Saturday. Bangkok has the worlds largest market on Saturdays. It was really great and we stayed there all day, and probably only saw a tenth of it. Before we went back to the hotel, we decided to take a walk through the red light district. It wasnt that exciting. We didnt go inside any of the bars, even to see the ping pong shows that the guys on the street kept trying to convince us to go to. For me it is just a sad place of lost dreams. We did get a coupe of really good shawarma on the street though!





The world's biggest market Coffee shop at the market A little street side bar - we definitely need these in Toronto to replace the hot dog carts at night. Of course right beside the street bar, they sell women's undergarments, guns and sex toys... I'm sure this is not a good combination... just wrong in so many ways. Welcome to Bangkok.

At midnight my stomach started to rumble. Greg had already been trotting back and forth to the bathroom all day while we visited the market. I think Greg set a new record of trying out every bathroom in the market-place that day! My stomach didn't get better. By morning, I wasn't even sure how I was going to make it to the airport. I was feeling a tiny bit better as I gave Greg a final hug and got in my taxi. Our airports were on opposite ends of the city. Greg is flying to Hong Kong, and then back to Toronto, and I am flying to Mumbai. I always have to be different. Everybody else comes home from India with food poisoning, I will be arriving with it.





When I arrived at the airport, after a somewhat tense taxi ride, I found a nice spot beside a bathroom and sat down to wait for my flight to board.





You cant fly, the flight crew said. My stomach clenched again. You need to have a return flight, or a flight out of India already booked to enter India. Well good, I thought, at least they hadn't noticed how sick I was. I dont know where or on what day I will fly, I want to take a train out of India, no one said anything when I booked my visa or flight, my husbands flight has already left, the wifi is not strong enough here to let me book an exit ticket I started firing responses at her with a well acted state of panic. I didnt have to act out the sweating and shaking, the friendly Bangkok bacteria were helping me with that. They saw I was distressed and chatted amongst themselves. I looked as scared as I could, with the You cant leave this poor helpless woman alone in Bangkok look. Finally they looked at me. Do you have a credit card and cash, enough to buy an airline ticket if India denies you entry, you must show us. I showed them one of my credit cards and some of the US cash I was carrying. The nodded. You must sign a waiver. I nodded. If India denies you entry, our airline is not responsible for you. I nodded again, grasping at the paper and pen that they held. I snatched it up and could hear my stomach gurgle in a big bad way, I needed to sort this out soon, really soon. I glanced very briefly at the waiver we can abandon you, dont have any responsibility, No financial commitment whatever, signed. Do I have a minute to run to the bathroom before I board??!! I asked.
































































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.
ELKO  The hallways of Elko High School are normally quiet on Saturdays but the school was filled with caucus-goers this Saturday, the majority of whom eventually selected Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The latest available results showed Sanders with 56 percent and Hillary Clinton with 44 percent in Elko County, although Clinton won statewide.

The 2016 Nevada Democratic caucus kicked off at 11 a.m., with several caucusing locations in Elko County. Even though most people showed up to caucus with their candidate in mind, out-of-state volunteers were still there to represent their favorite candidates.

Im a Hillary supporter and I heard it might be close so I figured all the help I could give her would be appreciated, said Carolyn Mixon, who carpooled into Elko with other Hillary Clinton supporters from Oakland, California. She has worked for women and minorities her entire career and I really believe she can do a good job as president.

There was also no shortage of Sanders supporters as both candidates were well represented. Justin Nelson, who traveled from Utah to help guide caucus-goers to the appropriate caucusing areas around the school, said he wanted to show support of Sanders while being part of the election process in a swing state.

We helped canvass door to door yesterday and we organized the Sanders rally at the school gym as well, he said. Were here today to be observers and help people get registered and take part in the democratic process.

The democratic process was not always a smooth one, however. Several Spring Creek residents showed up to Elko High School by mistake and had to be redirected to their local caucusing place. Nelson said that explaining the procedures of caucusing was a challenge that day.

The dissemination of knowledge has been a little bit problematic, he said. So were just here to help correct that and make sure people understand how caucuses work and what the rules are.

Once they were able to find the right classroom to caucus in and they were, once again, reminded of the caucusing procedures it was time for each precinct to make a decision. Unlike the voting that will take place on election night, the ballots that were cast Saturday were not a secret to the others in the room.

Caucuser John Patrick Rice said that this part of the election process is a simplified version of the democratic process, with everyone publicly declaring which candidate they would prefer.

Essentially everybody kind of divides up like theyre picking sides for dodge ball, he said. Hillary supporters will go to one side of the room, Bernie supporters will go to the other side of the room and undecideds will go to a third part of the room. ... In my opinion its raw democracy. Its not secret. Its very public.

Before the delegates can be awarded to a candidate the undecided voters have to pick a side. If there are multiple undecided voters then each side will look to change the minds of at least a few caucusers. However, one precinct had only one undecided person for both sides to lobby for.

Peter Rissone was initially a Clinton supporter who began to question his choice after seeing the support that Sanders was receiving. Rissone, who said he was shocked that he was the only undecided voter in the classroom and felt somewhat awkward having both candidates pitched to him by others in the room, said both candidates were similar in their positions on the issues he thought were most important.

Sanders caught a tail wind and I was like, what am I missing here, he said. I understood the candidates to be very similar on a majority of the issues and the fact that Hillary was at all threatened started playing in the back of my mind.

Rissone also said that he both liked and had issues with part of Clintons and Sanders platforms and that made it much more difficult for him to chose

Before making his decision, Rissone stood in the middle of the room for close to 10 minutes as supporters of Sanders and Clinton tried to sell him on the leadership of both candidates. He didnt particularly care for the spotlight but said there is no shame in not having your mind made up by the time the caucus begins.

I think people maybe dont understand that you can come to a caucus and be a noncommittal sort, he said. You dont have to show up decided. Thats kind of the point of the caucus, its part of the process.

With most of the other caucus rooms in the school emptied out and most precincts decided, Rissone eventually went back to his originally choice of candidate and walked over to the Clinton side of the room before the final votes were tallied. The precinct was awarded to Sanders as he received two delegates while Clinton received one.

Rissone may not have been a big fan of the attention he was receiving in the room but he hopes that the discussion his dissension created helped people understand the issues better.

The discussion is important. At least we talked a little bit and I thought that was healthy. It probably makes us leave the room more united, he said. I didnt get stuff thrown at me when I made my decision and we agreed that were going to back the winner of what will probably be a prolonged campaign.
The Nevada State Education Association (NSEA), together with the National Education Association (NEA), are proud to have helped Hillary Clinton win the Nevada Democratic Caucus Saturday.

The NSEA and NEA ran an aggressive member outreach program that included direct mail, email, social media, phone banks, caucus trainings, and a tele-town hall meeting featuring senior Clinton advisor Ann O'Leary.

Teachers and education support professionals joined in the campaign, making calls and knocking on doors across the state of Nevada.

"Teachers and education support professionals across the state campaigned for Hillary Clinton because we know that she will be ready to fight for our students on day one," said Ruben Murillo, Jr. NSEA President and special education teacher from Clark County.

"We are looking forward to working closely with President Clinton on issues like education funding, support for English language learners, and our teacher shortage," said Murillo, Jr.
Welcome

Welcome to the online home of my writing. Here you will find my articles, reviews, stories, thoughts and opinion pieces. I hope you enjoy the read!



Ellis


Next month marks five years since the uprisings that plunged Syria into one of the bloodiest wars that can be remembered in the history of the Middle East. At least 260,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the United Nations. Five million have sought refuge abroad. Europe has taken in a million of them, in what is one of the worst humanitarian crises of the last century. Three thousand people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean in the past year.

Bashar al-Assad, who became president of the country following the death of his father in 2000, soon lost control of a good part of the country in the conflict, as large cities such as Homs and Aleppo fell into the hands of the rebel militias. He has recently managed to recover these opposition strongholds and his army has launched an offensive to cut off the rebels access and supply routes from Turkey, supported by Russian aerial bombardments, which have proved decisive since they began in September.

The Syrian president on Saturday received EL PAIS in a Damascus residence amid heavy security measures. He gives this interview at a time when he is now talking about retaking the entire country and winning the war, just four days before peace talks are due to be renewed in Geneva and with it not yet known whether a ceasefire announced by the United States and Russia on February 12 will have an effect after the deadline to implement it expired on Friday without success. He says that his next mission is to pursue Islamic State (ISIS) in the heart of its operations, in its self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa.

The embargo is not on the Syrian government, it is against the Syrian people

The Syrian president tells the refugees that they can return to the country without fear of reprisals and accuses the Islamist governments of Qatar and Turkey of having promoted the war in Syria  a stage on which, he admits, not only the interests of a state are being measured, but also those of an entire region, with Saudi Arabia and Iran as powers in the conflict.

Question. This week you have allowed humanitarian aid to go into seven besieged areas. Some claim there are at least 486,000 people living in those areas, some for even more than three years. Why did this happen so late in the conflict?

Answer. Actually, it hasnt happened recently; its been there since the beginning of the crisis. We never placed an embargo on any region in Syria. Theres a difference between an embargo and the army surrounding a certain area because of the militants, and thats natural in such a security case or military case. But the problem with those areas is that the militants themselves took the food and the basic needs of those people, the people there, and gave it to their militants or sold it to the people at very high prices. As a government, we never prevented any area from having assistance, including the areas under the control of ISIS, like Raqqa in the north thats been under their control, and before that the Al-Nusra Front [the local branch of Al Qaeda], for nearly three years now. Weve been sending them all the salaries for the retired people, all the salaries for the employees today, and we send them vaccines for the children.

Q. So, food and salaries even still go into Raqqa and other ISIS strongholds?

A. Exactly. So, if we send it to Raqqa, which is under the control of ISIS, because we think as a government that we are responsible for every Syrian person, how can we not do it in other areas? Thats not realistic, thats a contradiction. So, thats why I said its not recently; we never stopped allowing the assistance or food.

Q. It will continue to happen?

A. Exactly.

Q. A truce was announced by Russia and the United States. Is the Syrian government willing to respect the cessation of military operations in Syria?

In wars you always have civilians and innocent people who are going to pay the price

A. Definitely, and we announced that were ready, but its not only about announcing, because maybe the other party will announce the same. Its about what you are going to do on the ground. A ceasefire is about  if you want to say ceasefire, its not the correct word, because a ceasefire is between two armies or two countries  its better to say cessation of hostility, or, lets say, stopping the operations. Its about, first of all, stopping the fire, but its also about other complimentary and more important factors, preventing the terrorists from using the ceasefire or the cessation of hostility to improve their position. Its about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists. There is a United Nations resolution, or Security Council resolution, regarding this point thats not implemented. If we dont provide all these requirements for the ceasefire, it will be against the stability; its going to make more chaos in Syria, it may lead to a de facto division of the country. Thats why if we want to use the ceasefire, it is positive providing these factors.

Q. So, there will be still some fighting even though theres this ceasefire, at least against some of the armed groups?

A. Yes, of course, like ISIS, like Al-Nusra, and other organizations or terrorist groups that belong to Al Qaeda. Now, Syria and Russia have announced four names: Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam [Army of Islam] and Al-Nusra and ISIS.

Q. Your forces have surrounded Aleppo. Its one of the big strongholds of the opposition. When do you expect to fully regain control of that city?

A. Actually, we are in the middle of the city, so, yes, a large part of the city is under the control of the government, and most of the inhabitants of the other parts emigrated from the militants-controlled area to the government-controlled area, so its not about recapturing the city. Actually, its about closing the roads between Turkey and between the terrorist groups. That is the aim of the battles in Aleppo now, and we succeeded recently, we could close the main roads. Of course, its not a complete seal, lets say, between Aleppo and Turkey, but it makes the relation between Turkey and the terrorists much more difficult. Thats why Turkey has been shelling the Kurds recently, for that reason.

Q. What comes after Aleppo? Is the Syrian Army even willing to go into Raqqa, the so-called capital of ISIS?

A. In principle, we should go everywhere, but now we are fighting on more than 10 fronts in Syria. Recently, we advanced towards Raqqa, but were still far from it. So, as a principle, yes, we are moving to Raqqa and other areas, but the timing depends on the results of different battles now, so we cannot tell the timing exactly.

Bashar al-Assad during the interview in Damascus on Saturday. Presidencia da Siria

Q. Russia has started an aggressive campaign of aerial bombings here in key opposition strongholds. This has been a turning point in the conflict. Some claim that you have the upper hand now. Do you think you could have made it without foreign help?

A. Definitely the Russian and the Iranian support were essential for our army to make this advancement. To say that we couldnt have made it is a hypothetical question, because its an if, so nobody knows the real answer of the if. But we definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways, some of them directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums. Syria is a small country. We could fight, but in the end, theres unlimited support and recruitment for those terrorists. You definitely need international support. But, again, this is a hypothetical question I cannot answer.

Q. Regarding these Russian aerial bombings, are you concerned about civilian casualties? On Monday, there was a bombing in a hospital and 50 people were killed. The United States has claimed that the Russians caused it.

A. Some other officials in the United States said they dont know who did it, thats what they said later. These contradictory statements are common in the United States, but no one has any proof about who did it and how it happened. But regarding the casualties, of course this is a problem in every war. Of course I feel very sad for every innocent civilian who dies in our conflict, but this is war. Every war is bad, you dont have a good war, because you always have civilians, and you have innocent people who are going to pay the price.

Q. So, how do you explain to your people, to the Syrians, that there is a foreign army carrying out operations here that can cause civilian casualties?

A. No, no. We dont have any evidence that the Russians attacked any civilian targets. They are very precise in their targets and they always attack, every day, the bases or the targets of the terrorists. Actually, its the Americans who did this, who killed many civilians in the northeastern part of Syria, not the Russians. Not a single incident has happened regarding the civilians so far, because they dont attack in the cities; they attack mainly in the rural areas.

We expect Spain to convey our political point of view regarding our conflict to the EU

Q. Talking about foreign armies, how would you react if Turkey and Saudi Arabia follow through with their statements that they plan on sending troops here to allegedly fight the Islamic State?

A. As you said, allegedly. But if it happens, were going to deal with them like we deal with the terrorists. Were going to defend our country. This is aggression. They dont have any right to interfere, politically or militarily, in Syria. This is a breach of international law, and as Syrian citizens, the only option we have is to fight and defend.

Q. Turkey has started bombing from their territory into Syria.

A. Exactly, and before that bombing, Turkey was sending the terrorists, its the same, the same goal, the same effect, in different ways. So, Turkey has been involved in Syria since the very beginning.

Q. Saudi Arabia tried to unify the opposition in a conference in Riyadh. Some people linked to Al Qaeda were present in those meetings. Do you recognize any of the rebel groups as a legitimate party with whom you can negotiate in the whole opposition?

A. You mean the rebels who are fighting on the ground?

Q. Yes.

A. No. Legally and constitutionally, everyone who can hold machine guns against the people and against the government is a terrorist, in your country, in my country, in every country in the world. You cannot say they are legitimate. They could be legitimate when they give up their armaments and join the political process. This is the only way in every country to rebuild your country or to change whatever you want to change, whether the constitution or the laws or the government, everything, you can do it, but through political process, not through armaments.

Q. So, all those who are fighting, you deem them terrorists?

A. Unless they announce that they are ready to join the political process. Then we will not have any problem with them.

The refugees can come back without any action being taken against them by the government

Q. So those people who have been fighting, who take away their ideals or their intentions, if they lay down arms, can they come back?

A. Well give them amnesty, and that happened, it has happened during the last two years, and its accelerating recently. Many of them give up their arms and some of them have joined the Syrian Army now and they are fighting ISIS with the Syrian Army, and they get the support of the Syrian Army and the Russian airplanes.

Q. So if, as you just stated, those who have taken up arms against the government here are all terrorists, with whom are you exactly negotiating in Geneva?

A. Im talking about the recent Geneva, Geneva III, that failed. It was supposed to be a mixture of the people who are trained in Saudi Arabia, a mixture of terrorists and extremists or their supporters, and some of them Al Qaeda, and the other, lets say, independent or other opposition who live outside or inside Syria. So, we can negotiate with those Syrians, with those patriotic Syrians who are related to their country, but we cannot negotiate with the terrorists  thats why it failed.

Q. What about those opposition activist leaders who have been imprisoned since before the conflict in 2011?

A. All of them left prison a long time ago, and most of them are in the opposition.

Q. All of them?

A. All of them. We dont have any of them. Before 2010, all of them left. Including some of them who were terrorists, but they were sentenced for a few years, lets say five or whatever, and when the crisis started, they joined the terrorist groups again.

Q. You have proof of that?

A. Yeah, of course. One of them was the one who was killed, Zahran Alloush; he was imprisoned for several years, because he was Al Qaeda-affiliated. When the crisis started, he formed his own terrorist group, and this group is one of those four that I mentioned that we consider terrorist groups.

I dont care about being in power. For me, if the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be

Q. Some claim that there are 35,000 foreign jihadists. Four thousand came from Europe. The Spanish government has stated that there are some 300 who hold a Spanish passport. What will happen to these people if the Syrian Army captures them?

A. The Spanish?

Q. In general, the foreign jihadists.

A. First of all, we are dealing with them like any other terrorist. When you deal with them as terrorists on a legal basis, theres no distinguishing between the nationalities, but if you want to talk about, lets say, sending them to their countries, or extraditing them to their governments, it should be through relations between the institutions in the two countries.

Q. Regarding this, what do you think attracts so many foreigners into Syria right now?

A. Mainly the support theyve been sent. Its active, not passive, its actually active from the outside. Saudi Arabia is the main financier of those terrorists. They put them in airplanes, send them to Turkey, and through Turkey to Syria. The other attractive factor is the chaos; when you have chaos, this is very fertile soil for the terrorists. The third factor, the ideology, because they belong to Al Qaeda, this area, in our religious culture, in the Islamic culture, has a special place after Mecca and the other holy places and Jerusalem. They think that this is where they can come and create their own state. Of course, theyre going to expand later to other places, but the thought is that they can come and fight and die for God and for Islam. For them, this is jihad.

Q. Regarding what would happen if the Syrian government claimed control of all the territory. Would you start a political process? Would you be willing to go to elections again?

A. The natural thing, first of all, is to form a government, a national unity government where every political party can join if they have the will. This government should prepare for the new constitution, because if you want to talk about the future of Syria, because if you want to discuss with different parties how to solve the problem, the internal problem  now Im excluding the external support of terrorists  you need to discuss the constitution; you want to change it, you want to keep it, you want to change the whole political system, that depends on the constitution. Of course, the Syrian people should vote for that constitution. After the constitution, according to the new constitution, you should have early elections, I mean parliamentary elections. Some mention presidential elections. If the Syrian people or the different parties want to have elections, it will happen. Ultimately, solving the political aspect of the problem has nothing to do with my personal opinion.

If Turkey or Saudi Arabia send troops, were going to deal with them like we deal with the terrorists

Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

A. The most important thing is how I see my country, because Im part of my country. So, in 10 years, if I can save Syria as president  but that doesnt mean Im still going to be president in 10 years. Im just talking about my vision of the 10 years. If Syria is safe and sound, and Im the one who saved his country  thats my job now, thats my duty. So thats how I see myself regarding the position, Im talking about myself as a Syrian citizen.

Q. Would you still like to be in power in 10 years?

A. Thats not my aim. I dont care about being in power. For me, if the Syrian people want me to be in power, I will be. If they dont want me, I can do nothing, I mean, I cannot help my country, so I have to leave right away.

Q. Let me read from a United Nations Human Rights Council report that was published on February 3, and it said detainees held by the government were beaten to death or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture. They say war crimes have also been committed. What do you have to say to this?

A. Thats based on what the Qataris made about a year ago or more, when they forged a report made of unverified pictures of injured people and unverified sources and sent it to the United Nations, and this is part of the propaganda against Syria. Thats the problem with the West and propaganda; they use unverified information to accuse Syria and to blame it and then to take action against it.

Q. The whole world was shocked by the image of little Alan Kurdi, the Syrian refuge, three years old, who was washed ashore dead on a Turkish beach. How did you feel when you saw that?

A. This is one of the saddest parts of the Syrian conflict; to have people leaving their country for different reasons. But beside the feeling, the question for us as officials that has been asked by the Syrian people: what are we going to do? What action has been taken either to allow those refugees to come back to their country or not to leave at all? You have two reasons here. The first one that we have to deal with, of course, is the terrorism, because those terrorists not only threaten people, but those terrorists deprive the people of the basic needs of their lives. The second reason is the embargo that has been implemented on Syria by the West, mainly the United States, of course, that caused more difficulties for the people to live here, especially in the health sector. So, we need to deal with these reasons in order to prevent this tragedy from being dragged on for a long time.

Q. You mentioned that some of those refugees are running away from ISIS, but some of them also claim that they are running away from the government, or from the campaigns of the government in some areas in Syria.

A. I can give you the contradicting facts that you can see while you are in Syria: that the majority of the people who live in the area controlled by the terrorists have emigrated to the area under the control of the government. So, if they want to flee from the government, why do they come to the government? This is not real. But at the same time, whenever there is a battle, shooting, a fight between the government and the terrorists in a certain area, it is natural for the majority of the population to leave that area to go to another area, but that doesnt mean they escaped from the government. Some of the families who emigrated to the government-controlled areas are the families of the fighters themselves.

We have advanced towards Raqqa, but were still far from it

Q. Almost five million refugees have fled Syria according to international counts. One million have crossed into Europe. What guarantees do those people have that they can come back freely without fear of any reprisals?

A. No, of course they can come. It is their right to come back, unless somebody is a terrorist or killer. Some of them, and I think a good number of them, are government supporters who didnt leave because theyre afraid of the government, but, as I said, because of the standards of living that have deteriorated drastically during the last few years. So, of course they can come back without any action being taken against them by the government. We want people to come back to Syria.

Q. What can the Syrian government do to stop that flow of refugees that has caused so many people to drown in the Mediterranean Sea. What can be done?

A. As I said, it is not only about Syria, its about the rest of the world. First of all, Europe should lift the embargo on the Syrian people; they dont have an embargo on the Syrian government, it is against the Syrian people. Second, Turkey should stop sending terrorists to Syria. Third, as a government, we have to fight the terrorists, definitely, and we have to keep the living moving forward by any means in order to allow the Syrians to stay in their country. This is the only way that we could bring those people back or convince them to come back to their country. And Im sure the majority of them want to come back to Syria. But, as I said, in the end you need to have the basic or minimum requirements for living.

Q. When you came to power, you promised democratic reforms; those times came to be known as the Damascus Spring. Some people claim that if those reforms had come faster, a lot of lives would have been spared. Other people claim, mainly the opposition, and also the United States, that if you had stepped down, a lot of lives would have been saved. What do you have to say to that?

A. The question is: what is the relation between what you have mentioned and Qatar sending money and then sending armaments and supporting terrorists directly? What is the relation? What is the relation between that and the role of Turkey in supporting terrorists? What is the relation between that and the existence of ISIS and Al-Nusra coming to Syria? So, the link is not correct. If you want to change the president or the prime minister or any system in your country, in any other country, you only have the political process to move through. You cannot use armaments. It is not an excuse to have armaments to say that I want to change the system or I want democracy. Democracy wouldnt happen through armaments. And the experience of the United States in Iraq is still telling. The same in Yemen. President Saleh left because of the same allegations. What happened in Yemen? Is it better? That is not correct. There is no relation. We can achieve democracy through dialogue, but at the same time through the upgrading of the society towards the democracy, because democracy is not only the constitution or the president or laws and so on. These are tools or means to achieve it. But the real democracy, as a base, should be based on the society itself. How can we accept each other? This is a melting pot area; you have different ethnicities, different sects, different religions. How can they accept each other? When they accept each other, they can accept each other politically and this is where you can have real democracy. So, it is not about the president. They tried to personalize the problem just to show that it is a very simple problem: remove the president and everything will be fine. No one can accept it.

We can negotiate with the patriotic Syrians, but we cannot negotiate with the terrorists

Q. In these five years since the conflict started, do you think as you see the country now, with many heritage sites destroyed, a lot of lives lost, that you would have done anything differently?

A. In general, if we want to talk about the principles, from the very beginning we said that were going to fight terrorism and were going to make dialogue. We open dialogue with everyone except the terrorist groups. And we allowed the terrorists at the same time, we opened the door for them, if they want to lay down their armaments to go back to their normal life to be offered with full amnesty. So, thats the principle of the whole solution. Now, five years later, I cannot say that was proved to be wrong, and I do not think that we are going to change those principles. Implementing the policy is different sometimes, because it depends on different officials, different institutions, different people, individuals. Anyone could make mistakes, and that would happen. So, if you want to change something, if you can change those mistakes that have been made in different places, thats what I could have done, if I turn back the clock.

Q. So, from your perspective, from the very beginning you labeled those protests that were in Daraa and Damascus as terrorism, as infiltrated by foreign powers. How do you view those first demonstrations against the government?

A. At the very beginning, you had a mixture of demonstrators. First of all, Qatar paid those demonstrators in order to put them on Al Jazeera and then to convince the international public opinion that people are revolting against the president. The highest number of those were 140,000 demonstrators all over Syria, which is nothing, as a number, thats why we werent worried. So, they infiltrated them with militants to shoot at the police and to shoot at the demonstrators, so you have more revolts. When they failed, they moved to send the tools to support the terrorists. But do we have demonstrators who demonstrated honestly, who wanted change? Of course we have, of course, but not all of them, you cannot say all of them, and I cannot say all of them are terrorists.

Q. You visited Spain twice. Both Presidents Jose Maria Aznar and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited Syria while in office. How have the relations been with Spain ever since?

A. Spain is against any adventurist solution in Syria. This is something we appreciate. They didnt support any military action against Syria, they said thats going to make it more complicated. They didnt talk about deposing the president or interfering in our national affairs. They said everything should happen through a political solution or political process. This is very good. But at the same time, Spain is part of the EU, of the European Union. That makes Spain restrained by the decision of that union. We expect Spain to play that role, to convey the same message and its political point of view regarding our conflict to the EU.

Q. And in Latin America, where have you had the most support, do you feel?

A. Generally, and thats strange, and maybe sometimes unfortunately, that those countries very far away from Syria have a much more realistic vision about what is happening in Syria than the Europeans, who are much closer. We are considered the backyard of Europe. Im talking about the formal and official level, and about the popular level. They know much more, and they support Syria politically in every international forum, and they havent changed their position since the very beginning of the crisis.

Q. Brazil has one of the biggest Syrian communities abroad. How have relations been with the government of Brazil?

A. We have natural relations with them, we have natural relations with Argentina, with Venezuela, with Cuba, with all those Latin countries we have normal relations. It hasnt been affected by the crisis, and they understand more and more, and they support Syria more and more. This contradicts with the European position.
The MoU was signed by Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak and Minister for Communications and Information of Singapore Yaacob Ibrahim.



According to a statement by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia released on the same day, the signing of the document reflected the two countries commitment to coordinating with each other in information and communications, especially in broadcasting.

The MoU also aims to enhance bilateral cooperation in the field of information technology, particularly the use of computers and internet as a means of communication and for the dissemination of information.

Under the document, the two sides agreed to increase exchanges of radio and television programmes, mass media representatives, as well as information on policy and regulatory matters for the benefit of both countries, while also increasing collaboration in postal services.

Talking to the press after the signing ceremony, the Malaysian Minister that the signing of the MoU in information and communications was an historical event for both countries.

Sharing the same view, the Singaporean Minister affirmed that this was an important MoU because the field of information and communication is evolving very quickly./.